Rum

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Rum
Profile
Japanese name:	ラム (Ramu)
Age:	unknown
Gender:	unknown
Occupation:	Black Organization second-in-command
Statistics
First appearance:	unknown
Appearances:	Chapters: 33 Chapters: 3 Episodes: 24 Movies: 2 Openings: 3 Openings: 1
Actors
Japanese voice:	unknown (movie 20)

Rum (ラム ,Ramu) is the second-in-command of the Black Organization and the second main antagonist in the entire manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.

Background

Judging from Subaru Okiya's descriptions, Rum appears to have high rank in the organization and is very close to the boss. Later on, Haibara remarks that Rum is second only to the boss of the Black Organization, suggesting that he/she is their second-in-command. While she had never met Rum herself, she had overheard other members of the BO give seemingly contradicting descriptions. Rum's identity, sex and mission are currently unknown.

Rum was involved with the death of Kohji Haneda, 17 years ago. Gin implies that it is an incident in which Rum had screwed up.

It has been heavily implied that Rum is one of these three main suspects: Kanenori Wakita, Rumi Wakasa, and Hyoue Kuroda. In the Black SDB+, Gosho Aoyama confirmed that Rum is one of the three.

In file 1017, Kuroda is on the phone with Bourbon, and adresses him by his code name. While this could be a misdirection, it does seem to show that he is, in fact, Rum.

Appearance

File:EP864-Rum.jpg

Three silhouettes with fake eyes.

Rum has a damaged eye which has been replaced with an artificial eye. It is unknown which eye was damaged.

Various Black Organization members have given conflicting accounts of his/her overall appearance and build. Some say Rum is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. The conflicting descriptions of Rum's appearance suggests that he/she doesn't present himself to others in a straightforward fashion.

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Gin	Rum	-
	Vermouth	Rum	Vermouth
	Hidemi Hondou	Rum	-
	Bourbon	Rum	Bourbon
60px	Curaçao	Rum	Curaçao

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Shuichi Akai	Rum	-
	Subaru Okiya	Rum	-
	Jodie Starling	Rum	-
	James Black	Rum	-

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Rum	-
	Shinichi Kudo	Rum	Kudo Shinichi
	Ai Haibara	Rum	-
	Yusaku Kudo	Rum	-

Plot overview

Scarlet Epilogue (Manga: 898, Anime: 783)

Shuichi Akai (as Subaru Okiya) calls Jodie Starling and Andre Camel to the Kudos' house. He informs them that the undercover CIA agent Hidemi Hondou reported to him that a new organization member is on the move. As she only sent three letters "RUM", Akai deduces that it was done in a hurry. He recalls having heard the code name a few times when he was still infiltrating the organization, and notes that the member seems to be really close to the boss. Akai also tells them to report this back to James Black, while emphasizing that their new threat is someone even more important than Gin.

Scriptwriter Murder Case (Manga: 906-908, Anime: 792-793)

Conan asks Haibara about Rum. She tells him that she never met Rum in person but has heard of the number two-ranked agent in the Organization. His/her characteristics differ depending on who is describing him/her. Some say he/she is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. Others believe that all of these are just descriptions of body substitutes Rum uses. Haibara also says there is one characteristic that is the same for all stories about Rum: one of his/her eyes is damaged and has been replaced with an artificial eye.

They then encounter a murder case where all three suspects happen to have characteristics like Rum's: Kuramichi Habanaka a 40 years old strong-built man, Ronpei Sakaba a 31 years old feminine-looking man, and Denji Shibakaru a 63 years old man.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: 843-844)

While not directly related to Rum's plot, this case showed how several different people could see the same person and describe them as completely different. The culprit in this case flees down the stairs past various people of different heights and past objects of different colors, which resulted in the Detective Boys giving contradicting eye witness accounts. To further liken the situation to Rum, Genta even claims that he saw the number two written on the culprits clothes. In addition this case had a secondary plot point involving mascara.

Kohji Haneda's Death Case (Manga: 950, Anime: 862)

Asaka's photo.

After Conan and Subaru solve the murder of Kunihisa Hiyama, they realize they can solve the dying message of Kohji's case. They decipher the meaning of the missing letters on the mirror of Kohji Haneda's room. Kohji's dying message from 17 years ago was "ASACA RUM", so Rum might be involved in his death and the death of Amanda Hughes, a big fan of Koji's, along with the disappearance of Asaka, her bodyguard.

Since the dying message was "P T O N", the answer to it must contain all of the missing letters of "U MASCARA"
PUT ON MASCARA - P T ON = U MASCARA
U MASCARA - ASACA (for Asaka) = U M R
Which can be rearranged to make RUM
making the answer "ASACA RUM"

Soul Detective Murder Case (Manga: 951-953, Anime: 863-864)

Conan decides that the missing bodyguard Asaka is most likely Rum.

After the case was over Masumi speaks to Mary and says that the only information that Gaito Hotta, the soul detective, had was that he believed Asaka to be a woman. He was going to pretend that he had summoned Kohji's spirit and have it say that a woman was going to kill him. According to Masumi, the culprit said that someone saw Asaka holding "that small mirror".

Conan considers that if Asaka is Rum, then perhaps what Haibara said about being feminine refers to looking girly on the outside but strong like a man on the inside. If Rum had been a bodyguard 17 years ago, then their age must be pretty high. Conan also ponders the possibility that Mary is Rum after having shrunken, being girly yet strong and older than she looks.

A song named ASACA (Manga: 954-957, Anime: 866-867)

Rokumichi Hado, a famous artist coming back from a seventeen year hiatus, announces a new song called "ASACA". Because of the spelling and the timing, Conan and Subaru go to the concert hall to investigate. There they encounter Bourbon and Vermouth in disguise as Azusa Enomoto who are trying to get in as well. Their presence suggests that the Black Organization decoded Kohji's dying message mirror and are investigating for the same reasons as Subaru and Conan. By the end of the case, both groups determine that the song being named "ASACA" is only a coincidence and not related to Rum or Kohji's murder.

Curse of the Nue (Manga: 958, Anime: 872)

Conan inwardly comments about Vermouth and Amuro's presence in the last case. He states that they must have been there because they know about the code "ASACA RUM" that was left by Kohji Haneda 17 years ago. When Azusa mentions that she had seen two strangers approach the detective agency, Conan immediately assumes that it might have been Gin and Vodka, but it turns out to be Heiji and Kazuha instead.

Burning Tent Murder Case (Manga: 987-989, Anime: 909-910)

Kuroda is shown looking at the Kohji Haneda case on his computer. He seems to make some kind of connection between the case and Rumi Wakasa. This story incidentally, also reveals that Rumi cannot see with her right eye, squarely making her a candidate for Rum's true identity.

The Field Trip to Kyoto (Manga: 1005, Anime: TBD)

In the end of the case, the three Rum suspects, Rumi Wakasa, Kanenori Wakita and Hyoue Kuroda are mentioned in the side notes. All three suspects appear in the same page, and seemingly focusing on Shinichi's involvement in the case.

Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: TBD)

Rum sends an email to Bourbon, asking him to gather information about Shinichi, telling him to hurry up stating that "Time is money".

Black Bunny's Club Case Case (Manga: 1011, Anime: TBD)

In the middle of the case, Rum sends another email to Bourbon, asking him to hurry up with the information about Shinichi.

Non-canon plot overview

The Darkest Nightmare (Movie: 20)

Rum doesn't appear in this movie directly:

• Haibara visualized his/her three silhouettes as in file 906, and his/her artificial eye.
• When she finally regained her lost memory, a Curaçao's flashback shows Rum speaking to Vermouth through a computer in an altered voice. Vermouth was about to execute Curaçao because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the Organization, but Rum's voice stopped her. He appointed Curaçao as his/her right-handed agent.
• Rum sends orders to Vermouth and Gin ordering them not to execute Bourbon and Kir because he/she received a new message, apparently from Curaçao, that they weren't NOCs.
• Rum also orders them to retrieve Curaçao to verify if the message is authentic or not.
• Vermouth has a conversation with him/her by the end titles, while she is in her car along with Kir. She lets Kir listen to what he/she has to say before hanging up.

Haibara visualized three silhouettes.

Rum's eyes against Haibara.

Rum and Curaçao.

Vermouth receives a Rum's call.

Relationships analysis

The Boss

The boss is his/her only direct superior.

Gin

It is unlikely that Rum and Gin has already worked together. Gin is the third-in-command in the Black Organization and the only supervisor in the general oversight division and he always directly supervising on things when it comes to confronting the organization's risks. Ignoring Gin of the case involving Rum 17 years ago means that it threats to Rum and not to the organization.

Curaçao

Curaçao is a member who works as Rum's right-hand agent but has only appeared in movie 20. In the past, because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the Organization, Vermouth was about to execute her, but Rum's voice stopped her. Rum then appointed her as her right-hand agent. Presently, Rum charges her to break into Tokyo police headquarters and accesses classified secret files on spies planted in the Black Organization by many intelligence agencies.

Suspects

Kuroda, Wakasa, and Wakita.

Hyoue Kuroda

Hints Hyoue Kuroda might be Rum

• He is either missing or has a prosthetic for his right eye.
• He took interest in the name Wakasa Rumi, which is similar to one anagram of Haneda Kohji's hint "U MASCARA", which is "ASACA RUM", and went so far as to spy on Wakasa.
• He seems to match both the old man and strong man descriptions.

Hints Hyoue Kuroda might not be Rum

• He met Haibara Ai, who said he should have recognized her as Sherry and taken action against her.
• He knows Bourbon works for the NPA, but has taken no action against him.
• With his beard, he may have a hard time presenting himself as the feminine man.

Rumi Wakasa

Hints Rumi Wakasa might be Rum

• She appears to be blind in her right eye.
• When she heard someone say he nearly had to get a prosthetic for his eye because someone hit him, she grew silently furious and clenched a shogi-shaped object in her back pocket.
• Her silent fury seemed to trigger Haibara's Black Organization sense. Haibara picked up the scent even though she was facing away from Wakasa.
• She can change the way she comes across to others in an instant, and thus might be able to pull off presenting herself differently at different times and match all 3 descriptions.
• She is quite cunning and has deduction skills that surpass Conan's, to the point she's had to drop hints to move him along in the cases they've been on together.
• She took an interest in reports of Shinichi Kudo's return and looked up his name on the APTX-4869 victims list, which only agents of the Black Organization should have access to.
• In one case, she knew a murder was going to occur and did nothing to stop it, despite her fighting abilities. Instead, she found it convenient. In another case, she seemed to egg the culprit on to stab Ayumi and even offered to help, though this could have been a calculated strategy to save Ayumi by taking control of the situation away from and distracting the culprit.
• She mentions her favorite alcoholic beverage is whiskey, which seems to hint at the existence of a Black Organization agent codenamed Whiskey who she is interested in.
• She keeps a shogi piece with her.
• She works as an assistant teacher at an elementary school and yet can afford to live alone in a fancy high-rise apartment in Tokyo, next door to a pro golfer who could be expected to afford to pay 100 million yen in damages.
• In the anime, her voice actress is Fumi Hirano, who was also the voice of Lum Invader, where Lum is pronounced the same as Rum in Japanese. (See trivia section.)

Hints Rumi Wakasa might not be Rum

• She appears to have either her original right eye or a realistic prosthetic which is not apparent to others.
• The descriptions of Rum were all of a man, but she is a woman.
• Her name "Wakasa Rumi" seems too obvious.
• Like Kuroda, she perhaps should have recognized Haibara as Sherry and acted against her.
• Despite the activation of her Black Organization sense, Haibara says she likes Wakasa.

Kanenori Wakita

Hints Kanenori Wakita might be Rum

• He wears a patch over his left eye which may conceal a prosthetic.
• It seems he may be able to fit all 3 descriptions of Rum.
• He appears to have an interest in Sleeping Kogoro, just like Gin.
• Rum in text messages has twice used the English phrase "Time is money," which can be translated into Japanese as 時は金なり, whose Romanization "Toki wa kane nari" is an anagram of "Wakita Kanenori".
• He took an interest in reports of Shinichi Kudo's return and even tried to visit his house.
• He can be deceptive.

Hints Kanenori Wakita might not be Rum

• He says his eye injury is only temporary and expects it to fully heal.
• His interest in Kogoro and Shinichi may merely stem from his stated interest in solving mysteries.
• He served Highball to a customer, which contains whiskey, thus hinting he may be a Black Organization agent codenamed Whiskey rather than Rum.
• He said the horse Pirate's Spirit is a weak horse. Pirate's spirit is also a type of rum. This hints he may not think very highly of Rum.

Character inspiration

Gosho Aoyama was inspired by the fictional character Colonel Sebastian Moran in the Sherlock Holmes' series to create the Black Organization second-in-command. He was the Professor Moriarty's right hand man and "the second most dangerous man in London".

Trivia

Lum Invader

• His/her enemy role in the series is just like the second-in-command of the alien boss of the evil organization Jocker in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.
• Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses or honeys, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation.
• Gosho Aoyama, as a crossover joke, has introduced a character named Lum Invader from another manga as the Black Organization member Rum. He also showed Lum in a panel in file 906.
• In a joke by the author, Rum/Lum has already appeared, taking that appearance at or before file 906. This is a reference to the cameo by Lum Invader in file 906.

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Rum (alcohol)