Subaru Okiya

Subaru Okiya
Profile
Japanese name:	沖矢 昴 (Okiya Subaru)
Age:	27
Gender:	Male
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: Chapter 622 Anime: Episode 509
Appearances:	Subaru Okiya appearances
Keyhole number:	Volume 60
Actors
Japanese voice:	Ryotaro Okiayu

Subaru Okiya (沖矢 昴 ,Okiya Subaru) is an engineering student who currently resides in Shinichi Kudo's house next to Professor Agasa. It is strongly hinted that he is the Black Organization member Bourbon although another popular theory is that Okiya is Akai Shuuichi disguised after faking his death with Hondou Hidemi's help.

Background

Okiya is a graduate student attending Tokyo University to earn a doctorate degree in engineering. He originally lived at a boarding house, where the landlord's son nicknamed him "Red Man," after a firetruck, because he frequently saw him watering the plants. After the boarding house burned down in the Red, White, and Yellow Arson Case, Conan suggested he move into Shinichi's house, explaining to Agasa and Haibara that someone living in the house would help to hide his (Shinichi's) disappearance. When Haibara protested, Conan cheerfully responded that someone who loves Sherlock Holmes cannot be a bad person - much to Haibara's consternation. Nevertheless, Conan decided to keep from Subaru which persons - sepcifically Ran - were closely connected to Shinichi in order to offer him no future angle of attack.

In short order, Subaru has met Ran and Sonoko, as well as Jodie Starling and Shuichi Akai.

Plot overview

Red, white, and yellow arson case

After school, Conan receives a phone call from Jodie who tells him that the Black Organization has activated a new member codenamed Bourbon. Meanwhile, the Detective Boys receive a request from their classmate, Kaito Suigiura, to investigate the actions of a strange man at his father's apartment building which is close to Shinichi and Agasa's house The next day the Detective Boys find that the apartment has been burned down. Okiya Subaru first appeared as one of the suspects in this arson case. When Inspector Yuminaga introduces the detective boys to the suspects, Okiya gives Ai Haibara the chills which she only gets from those who have been in the Black Organization, although she isn't sure who is responsible at the time and the feeling of pressure unexpectedly disappears.

The revelation that Kaito Suigiura's diary describes a suspicious "yellow" tenant who had argued with the landlord the night the apartment was burnt down leads to the police to question the three suspects about their alibis at the time of the arson as well as their favorite color. Okiya Subaru's alibi was that he was driving alone that night long the verdant Teimuzu river to clear his head after submitting a paper to his professor. Although he likes the greenery of plants, Okiya declared that his favorite is black, "because it covers things inside me that I don't want known", although he hates the color for the same reason.

Conan and Okiya Subaru seem to hit it off when Okiya recognizes Conan quote a line from Sir AC Doyle's "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches". After Conan solves the case, Okiya asks to meet Professor Agasa. After introducing himself, Okiya asks Professor Agasa if he could stay for at his house until he finds another place to live, offering to help Agasa with his research in the spare time. Agasa consents, as long as Haibara also agrees, but Haibara strongly refuses. Conan chimes in offering Shinichi's house, saying that Shinichi has gone missing all of a sudden and Conan will tell Shinichi later that Okiya moved in. Conan overrules Haibara's concerns that the Org may find out through Okiya that Shinichi is still alive by simply saying that "A Holmes fan can't be a bad person!". Conan gives Okiya the key along with the request to "take care of the place while he [Shinichi] is gone" and Okiya agrees.

Conan and Agasa are quick to view Okiya as a resource, seen in the Rolls Royce explosion case where Agasa suggests calling Okiya to bring gasoline when his beetle runs out in a remote location, and later in the same case where Conan secretly asks for his help to set up a trap to trick the culprit into confessing.

Paper airplane case

Ran and Sonoko visit Shinichi's house to clean up unaware that Okiya is living there, and they confront him thinking he is a thief. Okiya fails to explain fast enough and winds up on the receiving end of Ran's karate kick. Conan calls Ran to explain that Okiya has been living in the house after the fire and warns her not to talk about Shinichi in front of him. After the two girls apologize, Okiya correctly deduces they had been to "Welcome Burger" earlier. Okiya makes a strong impression on Sonoko, while Ran thinks "he looks like someone" and she had met him before.

Sonoko then concocts a deduction battle between Okiya and Shinichi to see who can solve the mystery of the paper airplane first. Shinichi and Subaru prove to be equally skilled although neither know they are competing against one another. During the detective showdown, Okiya overhears Sonoko talking about Shinichi's deductions and asks this Shinichi is also the landlord of the house. Ran, thinking of Conan's warning not to talk about Shinichi to Okiya, interrupts Sonoko to say they are consulting one "Kinichi" and that the landlord Shinichi has no special deduction ability. Okiya easily sees through the lie and reveals he had looked around the house but found no personally identifying items. Sonoko and Ran leave to find another paper airplane and Okiya is left to ponder over the landlord.

The deduction battle continues with Okiya and Conan matching each others' deductions perfectly. With the case solved, Okiya suggests that he will leave calling the police up to Ran and Sonoko because they have police acquaintances, revealing he knows something of the backgrounds of the girls and their connections. When the pair leaves, Okiya celebrates the successful resolution of the case with a Sherlock Holmes story and a glass of bourbon.

Ikkaku rock

Okiya's next appearance occurs when he comes at the request of Professor Agasa to pick up the detective boys who had gone fishing. Haibara is again suspicious of him, but Conan brushes her feeling aside. Okiya stops Haibara from slipping and offers to cook the Detective boy's fish. When the detective boys stop at an island called Ikkaku Rock, Okiya Subaru takes a group photo. The gang stumble into onto a dead woman who appeared to have gotten lost and died on accident, but Okiya and Conan quickly recognize that she was deliberately abandoned to die. When Detective Sango Yokomizo tried to prevent the Detective Boys from questioning the suspects, Okiya stepped in, pointing out that sometimes a child's perspective can be the hint that unlocks the truth and, "Weren't there a number of cases that were solved as a result of some hint from these children?" revealing he knows about the Detective Boys' many prior successes. Indeed, with such a hint from Mitsuhiko and Haibara, Conan and Okiya simultaneously realize who the culprit is. After they took turns explaining the case, the culprit pulled out a knife and grabbed Yoshida Ayumi as a hostage. Conan didn't have any gadgets to help him. At that moment, Haibara felt a menacing aura from Okiya, and he slowly approached the criminal, saying he couldn't escape and even if he did, could he bear the pressure and loneliness of hiding in fear of someone uncovering his identity? The provoked criminal removed the knife from Ayumi's neck and lunged at Okiya. In one effortless movement, Okiya knocked the criminal's knife away and took Ayumi from his grasp. Despite his rescue, the malicious pressure Okiya emitted and his words left a strong impression on Haibara who is certain he is one of the Organization members.

A Dangerous Couple

Later, Haibara, who had gone with Professor Agasa on a trip because she did not want to be alone while Okiya was around, demanded that Conan find some excuse to kick Okiya out of Shinichi's house. She explained to Conan that she thinks Conan is keeping him around and using her as bait in order to spy on him. Conan replies that he thinks Okiya is a good man and as for using Haibara as bait, "I-Idiot, you think I would do that!?"

Communications Code

Okiya comes to rescue Conan and the detective boys who had been trapped by kidnappers in a building. Okiya thought they had encountered trouble when he noticed that no lights came on at Agasa's house after dark, and when he went over to inspect, the front door was unlocked, nobody was there, and two suspicious phone arrived. Okiya uses a spare pair of Conan's tracking glasses in order to find the detective boys, proving he knows about the function of Conan's tracking glasses and they lock onto the detective badges. Conan has never used the tracking glasses in front of Okiya before. Okiya KO's one of the kidnappers, but tells the detective boys that the robber fell down the stairs. When Haibara questions why he had been paying so much attention to Agasa's house, Okiya tells her he wanted to give them some extra curry he had made for lunch.

Identity

Okiya's allegiances, goals, and true identity -if he has one- have not been officially revealed.

Bourbon

As mentioned above, it is frequently hinted that he may be Black Organization member Bourbon. Okiya is intelligent and observant, much like Hidemi Hondou describes Bourbon. In both the Paper Airplane Case and the Department Store Bomber case he is shown to be exactly on par with Conan. Okiya is also shown to be drinking Maker's Mark brand bourbon after the Paper Plane Case.

During the Department Store Bomber Case, Okiya notices Scar Akai, but when Scar Akai turns to look in his direction, he has suddenly moved out of sight to the back of the crowd, hiding his face and smiling. He also smiles when he sees Chianti in the building across the street, aiming at the store entrance.

Ai has told Conan that Okiya definitely gives her the dreaded feeling she gets from the Black Organization, and she became certain he was with them during the Ikkaku Rock Case, where he gave a speech to the culprit about how impossible it is to ever truly escape anything, a speech she felt was intended for her When Ai asks why Conan would allow someone as suspicious as him live in the Kudo house, he jokingly answers "No one who likes Holmes can be bad", but his real reason appears to be to observe him for suspicious activity.

Ran also feels uneasy around him and thinks he looks familiar. At Shinichi's request, Ran goes out of her way to refrain from talking to Okiya about him during the Paper Airplane Case, although Okiya seems to realize anyway who the mystery loving classmate Ran is talking about is Shinichi.

Akai

Besides Bourbon, another popular theory is that Okiya is Shuichi Akai who had faked his death with Mizunashi Rena's help. Except for the hair and the glasses, Okiya and Akai look very similar and have similar builds. The glasses Okiya is wearing may be an incorrect prescription, forcing him to squint on purpose similar to what happened with Genta’s dad. Okiya is also left-handed like Akai Shuichi.

Conan appears to instantly trust Okiya Subaru, uncharacteristically ignoring Haibara's bad reaction to him. He also doesn't mind that Okiya is around Haibara, letting him stay at Shinichi's house next door and even suggesting to her to call him when Agasa's beetle broke down. The reason "A Holmes fan can't be a bad person!" Conan gives Haibara as to why he trusts Okiya makes no sense, since the Holmes Freak Murder case involved only Sherlock fans and the password to the APTX data was Sherringford, an indication someone in the Black Organization may be also be a Holmes fan.

Conan also seemed to know about Okiya’s address before ever meeting him. Ran also feels she recognizes Okiya from somewhere. Ran has met Akai three times prior to meeting Okiya.. Finally, Okiya Subaru is a pun on "Char Aznable", which is also the source of "Akai Shuichi" and his alias "Moroboshi Dai" as well.

The theory that Okiya is Akai requires that the Akai with the scar is a different character in disguise, possibly Bourbon, because both Subaru and scar Akai both appear in the same crowd at the same time.

Third Party

Some amount of fans have also been making third party theories; theories in which Subaru is neither Akai nor Bourbon, but someone else entirely. These theories include, but are not limited to, Okiya being: Interpol, CIA, or one of Akai's unknown connections (the same connections that allowed Akai to verify that Ethan Hondou was a CIA agent).

Personality

Okiya is generally shown to be quiet and reserved, often seeming unfazed by normally stressful situations, such as when Ran attacked him while he was brushing his teeth, believing he had broken into Shinichi's house. He often tends to behave in a friendly and modest manner, smiling and rubbing the back of his head whenever someone compliments him or says anything about him.

Okiya is left-handed and greatly admires the deductive power of Sherlock Holmes. He is also an excellent detective as he was able to solve several mysteries including the paper airplane case, the Ikkaku Rock case , and the 13 red shirts mystery. He is also shown to be calm in crisis situations and quite skilled at hand to hand combat, capable of knocking a knife out of someone's hand and easily KOing a kidnapper without so much as ruffling is clothing. Okiya also knows how to enable the tracking function of Conan's glasses and that they track the detective boy's badges despite the fact Conan has never used the glasses in front of Okiya.

Name origin

Okiya's name comes from Casval (sounds like Kyasubaru in Japanese) Rem Deikun, the real name of Mobile Suit Gundam character Char Aznable, whom Shuichi Akai is also named after.

Speculation

Okiya is likely to be Akai as in Volume 67: Chapter 704: Page 9, it is shown that when Agent Jodie was chasing Scar Akai, Okiya bumped into her making her lose sight of Scar Akai, delaying her and just stand there afterward as if he is concerned about her. Also in a few pages times when Vermouth comes along to talk to Gin, about Bourbon, they seem to have been advised not to shoot Scar Akai.

Another thing is on page 16, when Okiya is talking to Ran and Kogoro, Okiya said something about a pack of wolves losing their prey. This can be speculated to him, Okiya, that the Black Organisation is talking about. Akai himself used the same wolf metaphor, give or take a few details, to describe the Black Organisation in the Clash of Red and Black arc, backing the "Okiya is Akai" theory.

See also

• Characters