#rum arc

This chapter opens up with what I think is very underestimated, crucial information... the origin of Mary's suspicious APTX4869 side-effect coughs. We are now getting the vital context that these developed on her potentially because she was already having a cold (stuffed nose) when she got drugged by Vermouth in File 1149.

As many may know, I have had this long held suspicion ever since Mary's introduction that her role was gonna be the key to the antidote completion, which I have written thoroughly about here:

In short, Mary's APTX4869 side-effect coughs, that suggest that she is in a special immune-system-active state (which has been the prerequisite for the prototype antidote to work), is gonna be requirements for the protoype antidote to reach permanent reverting effect to adult form. This new information from Masumi indicates that in order to acquire this special state that Mary is in, you need to be in the stages of having a cold before digesting APTX4869.

This immediately made me wonder, what would happen if an APTX4869 shrunkie in adult form digest APTX4869 drug again? If the shrunkies are now "immune" to the deadly effect and can only shrink by APTX4869, then maybe if Shinichi ever faces Rum in his original form during the Rum climax, he might not even need to fake his death in an elaborate planned way. if Rum attempts to re-drug Shinichi in order to test if Shinichi couldn't die by APTX4869 before, and If Rum then is chased away because of circumstances (allies coming to Shinichi's aid), then Shinichi might simply shrink back to Conan and once again fools Rum & the BO and pretends like Shinichi officially died.

To further add on this scenario, If Mary's unique state is what is necessary for shrunkies to revert permanently back to adult form with the prototype antidote, then maybe the way they can replicate her unqiue state is by disgesting APTX4869 in adult form while having a cold, like she did when she was drugged in Vauxhall bridge. Since having a cold is implied to be the prerequisite for the temporary antidote to work at all, if Shinichi faces Rum as an adult, he would already have a cold by then. So if the above scenario transpires where Rum re-drugs Shinichi, then maybe a reshrunken sick Shinichi will acquire Mary's coughs in the future, making him viable for reclaiming his body permanently. This could mean that once he finds out that he can revert back to his old self permanently (maybe after witnessing Mary reclaiming her body by the mere use of the temporary antidote), he might then decide to stay in the form of Conan intentionally because of the convinient cover after Shinichi's re-officiallized death (which would also be Gosho's way of keeping the status quo of Conan solving cases, the beating heart of show, alive).

Mary side-effects and APTX4869 future aside, regarding the journalist, his trackrecord is showing that he likes to bluff-blackmail people on things that he has signed agreements on with his editor not to dislose. I think when he remembered Masumi, he was acting like he only finds her familiar when he in fact already remembered her. The way he was ready to have a full-on private meeting is already showing that he knows/is in possession of perceived "damning" things about Masumi, so he is already gauging that he could blackmail Masumi if she recalls where she met him.

In other words, I think that back in File 1096, when he took the picture of Masumi and Mary in the crowd, his newspaper agency was approached by Vader and were made/paid to censor any footage & photos from that incident outside the hotel where Mary was. So this journalist assumed that Masumi & Mary were high-profile people whose whereabouts needed to be kept hidden. I therefore suspect that now after his death, the actress he had an affair with will explain to Masumi in the resolution that he told her he remembered Masumi and wanted to gauge if she came from money and if she was desperate enough to pay him not to release the photos (that he likely wasn't allowed to release anyway).

If Conan listens in on this, then he will know that someone powerful is behind the censorship that he suspected in File 1097 and that someone is making moves related to Mary (for the sake of the mislead, he will probably spin it as a potentially nefarious thing). In other words, this could be setting up the beginning stage of Conan learning about/meeting Vader, like if he happens to notice him around Mary in the future.

Another final thought that came to me was about the "repeated disguise" shtick regarding the minister candidate. I couldn't help but wonder if is this was a Wakita return foreshadowing.

Hello lovelies! This is my second part of my Wakasa Rumi Theory that will go over my thoughts about Haneda Koji's murder and his dying message.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Just for reference, I already covered the first three points in Part 1 and the ones in bold are the ones I'm covering in this post:

Why I think she's Asaca.

Her probable relationship to Haneda Koji.

How she became Amanda's bodyguard.

What might have happened on the day of Haneda Koji's murder.

How Haneda Koji's dying message directly refers to RUM as his killer.

Why Wakasa went on a hiatus for 17 years since the murder.

Reason behind Haibara liking Wakasa.

With that out of the way, happy reading 😁💛.

4. What might have happened on the day of Haneda Koji's murder.

So based on the blog that uploaded, we know that two people were killed in each of their own hotel rooms; Haneda Koji and Amanda Hughes (an investor who holds powerful connections to the FBI and CIA). While Haneda Koji showed bruises and signs of struggle against his assailant, the actual cause of his death was unclear, as well as with Amanda Hughes. (In reality, the cause of his death is because of APTX-4869 and the same can be assumed for Amanda). Both rooms were left in a total mess with crockery and glass broken as well as taps left running in the bathroom. Amanda was a huge fan of Haneda Koji and happened to visit him in his room the day of the murder before they were killed. Also on the same day, her bodyguard whom she called 'Asaca' disappeared and she is the main suspect of the murders. Interestingly, something else went missing from the crime scene which was Haneda Koji's Watchtower Bishop (a shogi piece he deemed as his lucky charm). His family is convinced he would never parted without the shogi piece and whoever has it must be the murderer.

All these accusations point to Wakasa because not only has she disappeared for 17 years and her identity is shrouded in mystery, but she also has the exact shogi piece that went missing from the crime scene...So, what exactly happened?

Based on the fact that only Haneda Koji's body was bruised, I'd say he put up a fight after witnessing Amanda's death. The likelihood that he used the taps in her bathroom to cut the mirror before fleeing to his room where he was then finished off is very possible. Why? The case similar to 17 years ago foreshadowed it.

I'm guessing when Amanda was murdered, Wakasa was probably out for whatever reason and upon her return, she saw Amanda's state. She then walked in and saw Haneda's body. The reason why I'm convinced she discovered their bodies and did not happen to be there when they died was her reaction in Chapter 1032 to blood and her obvious knowledge about how bodies do not necessarily smell until days later after their death. This could very well imply she lived through this before, which is why she is so knowledgeable of the topic. And smelling blood, reminded her of when she found Haneda dead in his room.

She then noticed the cut up mirror with one part of it looking like a shogi piece. As she picked it up, RUM returned to clean up and they ended up struggling in a fight before she managed to escape. The reason why I think Wakasa was in a physical fight with RUM was how triggered she seemed when she saw him leave the school after his delivery. The way she looked at him with such apprehension, it shows as if she were remembering their interaction before.

She would turn out to be RUM's mistake. He couldn't finish her off and not only did he leave a loose end, but she also ran away with a crucial part of Haneda Koji's dying message, leaving RUM unable to fully destroy the crime scene. Also RUM is clearly aware of its significance to Haneda Koji's dying message. Especially after he not-so-subtly mentioned it to Conan in Chapter 1057.

The final thing in relation to this part of the theory is Wakasa's flashback of Haneda Koji in the Collecting Edible Wild Plants Chapter. Why was she calling him a fool? It made a lot of sense when I found out the actual meaning of the proverb Haneda Koji said in her flashback.

The proverb he said is 'with a watchtower bishop there must be a brilliant move'. This proverb translates to the Bishop should stay at a distance while aiming at the opponent's camp rather than approaching them directly. Now that we know the actual meaning of the proverb, Wakasa's words make more sense. She guessed that he probably underestimated RUM and approached him rather than escaping him. Hence why Wakasa refers to him as a foolish person because in the end he got himself killed. Not because she thinks he's a fool and she managed to kill him. Again, a classic on Gosho's part to frame innocent characters as threatening and dangerous when the truth is she is just extremely upset over his death. Her collapse to the ground shows just how much Haneda meant to her. If anything, she probably like Rei, feels guilty she couldn't save him in time, which is why the memory of him is so triggering to her.

Phew, finally done with the fourth point 😂 There really was so much to unpack there. Anyways, I hope it made sense...

5. How Haneda Koji's dying message directly refers to RUM as his killer.

Now that it has been confirmed that RUM is Wakita, I'll be showing how Haneda Koji's dying message refers to "RUM", aka Carasuma's number 2.

The key to solving the message lies in the broken mirror and linking it to the shogi piece. Akai and Yusaku already solved the true meaning behind the broken mirror. The remaining pieces on the mirror had the letter PTON. These letters are not needed and the letters that do matter are the scattered ones from the original 'PUT ON MASCARA'. If we remove PTON we are left with U MASCARA which was then rearranged to CARASUMA. However, one letter in particular was cut out in the form of a shogi piece. If we write 'CARASUMA' with the shogi piece border around the letter U, it will seem as if it is hinting to another message within CARASUMA. That would form a word: UMA. UMA translates to Dragon Horse and is the promoted version of the Watchtower Bishop (the shogi piece held by Haneda Koji). (Promoted in shogi means to simply flip the original shogi piece to use its 'levelled-up' power...It's the same piece not two separate shogi pieces). Therefore, if we flip Haneda Koji's shogi piece, it will show UMA which is the more powerful form of the Watchtower bishop.

Anyways, what is the significance of UMA and how does it relate to anything? Well, Uma in shogi is the second strongest shogi piece. The strongest shogi piece is Dragon King (Ryū). Based on this we can assume this is the dying message. UMA of Carasuma (second strongest / number 2 aka RUM) of Carasuma killed me. This might seem too far-fetched but there was too much coincidence when I found out about Uma's strength as a shogi piece that it made sense to me to think that Haneda Koji's dying message points straight to RUM. However, I'm not sure how Haneda Koji figured out that RUM is Carasuma's number 2 in the first place. Maybe it was during his struggle against him before his death or maybe he overheard Amanda before her death talk about it, but so far this is what i came up with.

I hope you guys enjoyed this part of my theory. The final points will be addressed in Part 3 (linked here) so have fun 😁💛

(In cased you missed the first post, this is the link for Part 1)!

This is a horrible question to ask me because I’ve been known to guess approximately 0% of plot-related subjects on Conan, so what I’m about to say will most likely not be at all what ends up happening. 

First of all let me just say, for the record, that I have no fucking clue. Does anyone, at this point? Does Shinichi even know what the fuck is going on? Does Aoyama? 

We’ve got so many doors open that I even forget there’s doors to begin with. We still don’t know what the fuck even happened between the Kudos, Akai and Amuro. We suspect they came up with a plan because that’s what they do, but what is it? Will it work? When will we see it in action? Is it already taking place? When will I see my baby Yukiko Kudo again? 

We also still don’t know whatever happened to Kohji Haneda and that weird lady Amanda. Who killed them? Was Haneda really trying to write ASACA RUM or CARASUMA? Why is his name on the APTX victims list? Why doesn’t Haibara know more about this list? Why does Haibara keep withholding information? When will she finally know that her sister was having sex with their cousin??? WHEN WILL I EVER BE OVER THIS WHOLE AKAI-AKEMI DEBACLE???? 

The Organization front isn’t much clearer. Karasuma is the boss, sure, but isn’t he supposed to be dead? So who really is the boss? Why did the Miyanos agree to be a part of his organization if they knew it was sketchy? Is Gin still after Kogoro? Will Vermouth ever officially switch sides to Team Shinichi and help him out??? What the fuck happened to Rena Mizunashi is she ok?

Don’t even get me started on who the fuck Rum is. Why are all of the suspects both incredibly obviously Rum and yet evidently not? Why doesn’t Amuro fucking tell Conan more stuff?? 

So, with all of these questions still unanswered --and so many more that I probably forgot about-- here’s what I think/hope. I think, by process of elimination, my best guess is that the sushi guy Kanenori whatever the fuck his name is, is Rum. I say process of elimination because there’s no other way for me to possibly tell. I think Rumi has some relation to the Haneda case, is probably the one who started uploading the information on the internet, and is testing Shinichi to see if she can trust him to help close the case. I think Kuroda is too obvious a choice for Rum, so he must be Amuro’s PSB handler. He may have some connection to the Haneda case, like maybe he was charged with solving it or investigating it at one point, and that’s why he knows Rumi. And so therefore the weird rabbit-looking sushi person is Rum. Why? Not a fucking clue. I guess that’s just the way this is gonna roll. 

If Kanenori or whatever the fuck we have to call him honestly at this point I’ve lost track of names and codenames and aliases and HONESTLY WHY DOES AMURO NEED SO MANY FUCKING NAMES CHRIST, anyway if he ends up being Rum it’s gonna be very fucking interesting and shit’s gonna hit the fan very fast, because --assuming Shinichi hasn’t already figured it out or suspects him, a very bold assumption on my part, I must say-- he’s got immediate connection with Kogoro, Ran, and Conan, and pretty much knows that the person behind the Sleeping Kogoro act is our main boy. Which is making every alarm go off in my head, and probably in Shinichi’s, too. So if he really turns out to be the Boss’s number 2 and Shinichi isn’t ready, shit’s going to get WILD lemme tell ya. 

For the biggest time I thought Bourbon could’ve ended up giving Shinichi up to the Org just to be able to carry out his weird personal fucked up vendetta, but ever since Aoyama turned him into fanservice and made him Japan’s Lover (................) I’m guessing not. He’ll struggle with his face-off against Rum, who keeps digging for info on Shinichi, but something tells me that’s where the Kudo-Akai-Amuro plan comes in to tie things up nicely and keep our boi safe. 

The only thing I am sure of in the midst of all this haze of confusion that the Rum Arc has become, is that this is the beginning of the end. I’m not the only one to have noticed and certainly not the first one to say so, but Aoyama has been steadily delivering plot in nearly every file ever since the Kyoto Arc, and shit is starting to wrap up --albeit very slowly. I’m pretty sure that the Rum Arc climax is going to lead directly into the final confrontation with the Organization, and so what we’re playing here is the long game, the really long game that will ultimately lead to the end. Of course, that won’t be for another couple years, cause even at the rate Aoyama is delivering plot at currently, there’s still so many things to wrap up. But now all the players are ready, they’re in situation, they’re stepping up to the plate: Akai is alive and out in the open, the Kudos are back in Japan, Amuro is finally willing to cooperate, Shinichi is dating Ran and thus more motivated than ever to get his life back --and he’s got that spare antidote--,we know what happened to Mary and who she works for, and we know who we’re fighting against. Everything is starting to click into place for the showdown to start. All that’s left is to see who makes the first move. 

+ﾟ:｡ﾟ+ 『 episode 866 』+ﾟ:｡ﾟ+ 

First, where the everloving HELL did Kohji hear the name “Rum”? During the attack? Some time before then? Who said it (or wrote it)? How did it come up?

Mary

Mary’s dialogue about the demon in the dark is a red herring and there’s no way for her to be Rum. Rum’s in good standing with the Org. and being an APTX victim is instantly the mark of an enemy of the Org. It means an attempted murder victim or an attempt at suicide and needing to flee the Org.  (The Org. still doesn’t know about the shrinking effect, just Vermouth and a few defectors.)

She also doesn’t meet the “lacking an eye” description associated with Rum, having perfectly functional eyes, not even getting into the alcohol codename pattern...

Kohji’s family situation

Kohji is stated to be something ambiguous in relation to Shuukichi. According to the translators, the term Shuukichi uses means either brother-in-law or step-brother. However, we have a bit of a timeline that makes things a bit clearer. The case happened 17 years prior, when Kohji was 21 or so. Shuichi is currently 31 or 32, according to Aoyama. 17 years ago, he would have been 14 or 15. I mention this because a sibling-in-law is either your sibling’s spouse or the sibling of your spouse. This can’t be the case, because Shuichi and Shuukichi are too young to marry at that point and they haven’t married yet (though not for lack of trying on Shuukichi’s part). Kohji cannot be a brother-in-law to them. 

As for step-siblings, that gets a bit murky, since a step-sibling is the child from a previous relationship of one of the parents brought into the newer family. Kohji having another surname from the rest could imply that, though it would raise the question of if he was Tsutomu’s or Mary’s son alone. If the former, that would mean Kohji took on his mother’s surname. If the latter, he took his father’s surname. (Mary didn’t change her name when marrying, as shown in Shuukichi’s marriage forms.) 

As for the idea of him being adopted, I wouldn’t entirely rule it out just yet. Were he alive, he would be 38 at the time of the series. And, given the math I did on Mary’s likely age at the time of the incident (see below), she’d be 51-57 years old now, ignoring her current poisoning. She would have to have been 13-19 when Kohji was born. We do not know Tsutomu’s age, so he could be Tsutomu’s child brought over from a previous relationship. Or else Kohji was adopted when he was a bit older. Or Mary’s timeline stuff would be on the higher end of her possible ages, where she had Kohji at 18-19, Shuichi at 25 or so, and is 56 or 57 currently.

Someone else over on one of the forums commented at one point the theory that Tsutomu was Kohji’s body double and murdered, due to the prominent cheekbones. Aside from that making no sense timeline-wise, I think a more likely explanation is that Kohji is Tsutomu’s son. (Gosho draws families as having some similar traits, such as unique eye patterns or facial features.)

Regardless, I am curious of Kohji’s citizenship status, since that would help clear up some jurisdiction questions and could help narrow down which agency Tsutomu worked for. A murder in the US would fall under US jurisdiction, unless involving a non-US citizen, if I recall.

Wakasa

Wakasa’s unlikely to be Rum. Aside from how Rum fits the male alcohol codename pattern and the consistent description of him being a man, some of the details don’t quite add up. The Organization is incredibly careful about the appearance of the name Asaca, and her fake name is literally a few letters away from Kohji’s message- Asaka Rum. They would never, ever, EVER have the agent connected with that case do something like that. Especially not their second in command when his screw-up there is something from 17 years ago that they still go out of their way to hide and hunt down any possibility of Asaca.

The idea I’ve seen floating around, that Wakasa is Vermouth, is unlikely in my opinion. For Wakasa, the idea of prosthetics and intentionally blinding someone is very personal and makes her react incredibly badly, things likely connected to Kohji’s murder/Rum. Vermouth, meanwhile, is very flippant and mostly relaxed during the Asaca concert hall case, offering to help Amuro, and the reason for her showing up seems to be to make sure Conan and Ran are safe and that Amuro won’t target them in some way. (She is unaware of him being PSB and thinks he’s a loyal Org. member.)

On top of that, Wakasa’s clearly observing Kudo. Vermouth already knows that he’s a great detective and knows who he is and what happened to him. Wakasa seems, instead, intent on testing him and figuring out his skills. Vermouth also lacks the quick detective-like thinking that Wakasa appears to have.

Asaka

As for who is Asaka, I think both Mary and Wakasa are likely candidates:

1. Both are good at close-quarters fighting. However, their styles are a bit different. Mary fights normally, while Wakasa often feigns clumsiness and accidents to do what needs to be done, be it fighting or giving hints. 2. Both are linked to the case from 17 years ago with Kohji. Mary through a family relationship, Wakasa marking herself as such with her pseudonym. 3. One’s using a clear pseudonym and the other’s in near-total hiding.

Now here’s where things get murky...

Mary’s caution is more like Subaru’s assessment of Asaka- avoids being seen, disappearing without a trace, CAUTIOUS as hell.

(However, this comes across as a red herring for Mary to be seen as suspicious by the audience. Especially since Conan’s idea that Asaka is Rum is also a few chapters near that dialogue chronologically, if I recall.)

Wakasa, on the other hand, is a bit more mixed in terms of caution. Her pseudonym is clearly attention-getting when talking about the Org., yet she reacts like she didn’t want to be photographed or mentioned in the papers at all.

Their links to the case are different. In the case of Mary, she would have been either his step-mother, mother, or adoptive mother. In the case of Wakasa, Kuroda speculates either a girlfriend or sister, since the intentional pseudonyms make it unclear.

Mary is bored by the soul detective’s reasoning for Asaca being a woman- the use of a mirror. Makes sense, since anyone would find a mirror useful if they were looking behind them. However, with her likely background, she probably just knows this as a general thing, not necessarily her having been there.

The one picture we have of Asaka shows the person having dark, longer hair, which points more toward either Wakasa or Iori, not Mary.

Wakasa, assuming her age is correct, would have been about 20 during the time of the Kohji’s murder. Mary’s age is ambiguous, but given Gosho’s general trends, she would’ve had Shuichi at 20-25. Fourteen to fifteen years later (when Kohji’s murder occurred), she would be anywhere from 34-40. Depending on location/organization/etc., bodyguards must be at least 18-21, but many prefer bodyguards who are over 25.

If Mary is Asaka, that raises questions about what Tsutomu knew of the case beforehand (since it could easily be their child whom she failed to protect), what Mary knew of Rum, or if she knew the details of Kohji’s murder directly. Also, how would that conversation work out with them, since Amanda offered Kohji her bodyguard Asaka, only for it to be his mom/stepmom? (That’d be hilarious, I’ll admit.)

If Wakasa is Asaka, this raises questions about her use of such a pseudonym. It’s too blatantly an allusion to Asaca and Rum, while Asaca’s remained hidden so far, unless bringing up that case from the past made her come forward now to get some resolution?

What’s also interesting is that Wakita and Wakasa both start getting close to Kogoro and Conan so soon after the Soul Detective arc. This mirrors Mary’s warning that the Org. will come around once they hear the name Kohji Haneda drudged up.

However, I am not saying with certainty that either one could be Asaka. They could both just be very close to Kohji on a personal level and that could throw things off. We are also operating on incomplete information.

A final note, comparing and contrasting the two, Mary and Wakasa are different in their approaches when it comes to their contact with Conan. Mary is careful, has an intermediary (Masumi), and wants him to come to her. However, she later seems to shut down this idea due to his actions when dealing with her. She’s very slow to trust, that much is apparent.

Do you think Tsutomu will show up to protect Mary, now that Rum has found out she was shrunk by the drug? (Spoiler – File 1153)

@maitresain Hello, if the footage happens to leak and Vermouth sees this, how do you think she'll react? Will she make a move to correct her blunder and try to kill Mary once more? How will she deal with Masumi?

File 1153 Review

This chapter further confirmed what I've always been suspecting in terms of the direction of Rum arc, especially since the last case with the Wakita resolution,... that the Rum arc climax case is gonna spotlight Rum's APTX4869 investigation.

At the end of this chapter, Rum officially got confirmation to his APTX4869 side-effect suspicions (that were likely born from reviewing Sherry's experiments with mice). He learned that Mary Akai has shrunken, upon seeing her de-aged middle-schooler body in a news photo, and proclaimed his goals of figuring out the necessary conditions for achieving a de-aging effect from APTX4869.

The fact that Rum has been suspecting the possibility of human de-aging by the missing APTX4869 victims is further recontexualizing why Rum would be so keen on trying to test and figure out the truth behind Conan's odd/adult behavior in File 1144-1146. The thought did occur to me that Wakita could have been suspecting that Conan might be a de-aged adult when he rushed to see if Conan was speaking for Camel and was wondering if he was just a normal kid, so this confirmation of Rum's suspicions in File 1153 is further supporting that thought.

However, even if Rum suspected that Conan could be a de-aged adult, I highly doubt he has ever suspected that Conan could be Shinichi, nor that Shinichi has de-aged to the extent of becoming an elementary schooler. The reason for this is the fact that Shinichi appeared in the news as having solved the kyoto serial murder case (File 1005-1008). From Rum's point of view, there is no de-aging antidote because there is no living potential creator of such an antidote (Sherry), so the fact that Shinichi appeared as a teen would rather be grounds for Rum to suspect that Shinichi de-aged by less than 1 year, unlike Mary, due to different conditions being met by him. This could therefore be Shinichi's greatest benefit for eventually relying on his Conan cover for protection, whenever he has to fake his death in the future.

This plot progression is also a very promising development because it is the first time Mary's subplot properly intersects with the ongoing Rum plot (making all of her developments up to this point in Rum arc extremely relevant all along), and it will most likely spring Rum into action in the upcoming cases, and while it will become a challenge for Rum to find Mary, with enough force from his subordinates, similarly to how the BO discovered Kir's whereabouts when she was in a coma in a hospital (during Clash), they will eventually zero in on Mary, and potentially even push the MI6 to make a defensive move (just like the FBI back during Clash). As for whether I believe Tsutomu will show up to protect Mary, that highly depends on his current status. If he is in hiding/in disguise, then there is certainly a decent chance for him to make a very low-profile move, that we may not even realize is done by him, for Mary's sake. For example, if he is Vader's driver (the man who sett off the alarm in File 1096), then I could see him making some kind of disrupting move that foils the BO's plan to intercept her, seemingly as per Vader's orders (when it's in reality his own personal agenda as well). If he has amnesia or is dead however, then he won't obviously make a move by himself.

While that alone is hype and exciting, I think the more exciting potential from this is Rum's intensified interest and pursuit of Kudo Shinichi after this revelation. Now that Rum is aware of the de-aging effect and has established his upcoming investigation of how it is achieved, he is most likely gonna wanna test out APTX4869 again on Shinichi (who seemingly barely de-aged), even more so than Mary (who de-aged too much). While tracking down Mary is still gonna be a priority, both as a threat to eliminate and as a test subject to evaluate, Shinichi is probably gonna be his main person of interest when it comes to the APTX4869 investigation. I could therefore see Rum making moves to both locate Mary and draw out Shinichi from where he is hiding. This could therefore lead to an exciting major multi-frontal showdown between Rum (BO), Mary (MI6) and Shinichi (FBI/Team Shin-chan), which could then lead to the Rum vs Shinichi confrontation and APTX re-drugging developments that I speculated about in my review of File 1151:

For this reason alone, if Vermouth is, or will become, aware of Rum's APTX4869 de-aging knowledge after discovering the shrunken Mary photo leakage, I don't think it will be in Vermouth's interest to immediately eliminate Mary. Vermouth's priority is her treasures, Kudo Shinichi & Mouri Ran, so she would prefer that Rum gets distracted as much as possible from pursuing and investigating Kudo Shinichi in order to keep Shinichi safe. If Mary were to be eliminated by Vermouth, then Rum's only hope of investigating the APTX4869 side-effect is by going after Shinichi after all.

We got to see Conan's reaction to the Mary photo as well, which lead to Conan speculating about the existence of an active figure that has been the reason why the photos and footages of that Hotel alarm incident (File 1096) have been censored for so long.

Just as I predicted in my File 1151 review, Conan has started to sniff out the existence of the likely mysterious perpetrator behind the news censorship, "Vader" (respirator elder), who is most likely Haneda Yasuharu (The Akai-family-father friend who is covering for Mary and Masumi's hotel expenses).

Something else I also found to be very interesting was the fact that Ran got a chance to once again get a proper glimpse at shrunken Mary (second time since File 905). What's more, Ran recognized her resemblance with Masumi. I think this yet another underestimated development, since there is a strong potential for Ran figuring out the possibility of shrinking through her remembering her meeting with Masumi and adult Mary 10 years ago (File 972-974), which in turn would lead to her figuring out that Shinichi is Conan as well, as previously speculated:

Apart from these groundbreaking developments and potentials, I really thoroughly enjoyed this case and very much appreciated the return of the Mob, Deisan group, and their leader Busujima Kiriko, ever since her last appearance in Black Impact (File 500-504).

Hello MasterDetective! This is probably the 1st time in DC history that audience probably know more about BO activities than Conan. We know who Rum is disguising as, we know about his eye condition & abilities he used to have using those eye and have gotten hints on his objectives. We have more details on what exactly happened in that 17 year old cold case than Conan. How much of it has Conan figured about all of this according to you? Thanks !

File 1144-1146 Review

The latest case was extremely promising and it delivered what we have all been waiting for,... Rum arc plot progression.

This case started off with Conan pondering over his recent triggered memories of Itakura Suguru and him trying to trace back what triggered them (File 1144). Already there, we got to see him recalling Eri and Ran's words in association with it, which I speculated could have played a significant role to those triggers in my File 1141-1143 Review other than the obvious "cat's cry" subject that Itakura had once mentioned in his diary.

This was then followed by Haibara interrupting his thought process and us once again having another Maria appearance, just in time as we are getting main plot development signaled to us. Something interesting that was said by Conan was the fact that he referenced the passing of a significant amount of time in the story. He referenced the last Maria case (File 1110-1112) and that 1 month had already passed since then. This is interesting, as it has always been understood that the overall DC story timeline is not gonna surprass a year (in order for the status quo to be preserved), so if 12 months is as long as the story plays out in-universe, then it means we are so far 9+ months (75%) finished of the story time-wise, since we know from the Vauxhall bridge case (File 1048-1050) that Mary's shrinking/London case took place at least 2 months ago ("a few months ago") and Mary mentioned back then that Conan started appearing soon after Shinichi's disappearance 6 months ago (so a total of at least 8 months has passed).

The actual meat of this case however was the reunion of Andre Camel (with the newly made-up cover "Ando Rekiya") and Wakita Kanenori (Rum). Both immediately found each familiar through out this case, and it ultimately lead to the cliffhanger of Wakita recalling his encounter with Camel 2 years ago during Rye's testing and him starting to suspect if Ando is Camel.

In terms of what I expect the follow-up of this ending will be, I don't think there will be any major consequences from this for Camel. There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, it's too early for Camel to get fully/undoubtfully exposed, as this is literally his first case since he faked his death and it would break Gosho's pattern and set a completely new precedent for how quickly a major main plot setup case like the FBI serial murder (File 1061-1066), that established this status quo, would be undone. Secondly, the way this case ended on this sudden high-stake note without resolution is a classic Gosho misdirection build-up move that he does too frequently, which further suggest that there will be a twist in its continuation (that Rum gets convinced otherwise).

Now, as for how Rum's suspicions gets dispelled, I could see Conan's cover for Camel that he gave to Detective Boys coming back. When DB found him familar (File 1144), Conan introduced him with his alias and told them that he was in the recent Teitan alumni reunion (Akemi time capsule case, File 1070-1072).

If DB happens to return and reference this information about Ando to Wakita, it would be enough for Wakita, who was at the alumni reunion, to start talking himself out of the idea that Andre Camel somehow survived his fatal gunshot wounds that all of his subordinates witnessed, as he fell into deep water. All of this tension would then get averted, but perhaps with lingering queries in Rum about Ando (similar to Bourbon with Subaru in Betrayal case resolution, File 957).

A great prediction of how this cliffhanger potentially gets followed up was made by @Joey from Discord, where we could be leading into not only a flashback to Rye's exposure 2 years ago from Rum's POV, but also tie it together with something else that took place 2 years ago: Tequila's mission of ordering a software from Itakura Suguru.

I can immediately agree and see this great potential for a full flashback case here, where we see Camel's POV as he, Akai & FBI prepare their trap for Gin, and also where we see Rum's POV as he is managing Tequila's mission while planning Rye's loyalty test. This would then lead to the eventual Rye exposure, but also revelations of the behind-the-scenes that took place when Tequila's mission got transfered to Vermouth and the potential disputes/conflicts within the BO about that topic (especially if it relates to the hidden Boss). This flashback would then transition back to Wakita's reaction to Ando in the resolution chapter and resolve as mentioned before above.

This idea is extremely promising and it goes surprisingly well with everything that has been setup in this case, and it would continue the so-far-consistent Itakura software developments/hints that have been dropping since the previous case. Also, Gosho had teased in recent interviews that not only Camel, but also the FBI was gonna return soon (which would fit with if FBI appeared in the flashback case to 2 years ago). Gosho also revealed that the magazine cover for the issue that next case drops in will feature Rum, so all the more reason to have it center around his POV.

Something else that Gosho decided to happen was Rum getting his first glimpse at Haibara (Sherry), who was been completely shaken by the triggered BO sense since Wakita appeared (File 1144-1145).

Rum was immediately disarmed by that and seemed to just be at the brink of processing who he may have recognized before Conan came in and interrupted his thought process. This was a very close-call situation that could potentially bear fruit far into the future when Gosho intends to have Rum realize that APTX4869 had de-aged Sherry and Shinichi all along. Haibara was quick to dismiss Wakita ("sushi guy") as a threat once she was mislead to believe by DB that he was Conan's friend (File 1145). It did make me wonder if this was gonna carry any consequence, like for example Haibara daring to return with DB to where Wakita is and once again get triggered (but from afar) as Conan directly witnesses it (this time both of them affirms that Wakita has to be BO) or Wakita further interacting with DB (after they dispell his Camel suspicion) and asking them about missing Haibara in front of Conan.

Regardless, this leads me to the subject I have been meaning do discuss, and that's Conan's awareness and potential suspicions that he already has hidden at the moment about Wakita.

I have previously written my speculations on what Conan thinks about Wakita, and this case was essentially a goldmine of hints that confirmed my speculations that Conan has pretty much zero:ed in on Wakita as potentially being Rum.

The first hint we got was the aforementioned interruption of Wakita recognizing Haibara as Sherry (File 1145). Conan immediately interrupted him by asking him for a bandage in an unsuspecting manner, which was extremely convinient timing, suggesting it was intentional after having made note of Haibara's state at Wakita's presence. The second hint was how Conan explained off his usual smart observations to Takagi. Takagi immediately made note of the absence of crediting it to Kudo Shinichi, further highlighting Conan's off-routine behaviors, as if he is very suspicious of Wakita and intentionally being careful about mentioning the BO's recent investigational target, Kudo Shinichi (File 1145).

The last hint was how alert Conan was to Wakita's actions, as if he has been carefully observing his watchful eyes. After Wakita glared at Ando as Conan was conspiring with him, he later started noticing a slight off-sync in Ando's mouth movement with the voice and soon after realizing Conan's absence he had an lightning-suspicion that Conan could be relaying Ando's deduction directly and started rushing to where he located him, only to be presented by Conan's childish act of obliviously being interested in an ant line (File 1146). Conan's readiness to fool Wakita and beforehand relaying to Camel to take over the deduction if he stops talking is like the nail in the coffin to Conan's solid suspicion of Wakita being Rum undercover. While he doesn't know the intricate details about Rum (like past photographic memory through his snake-like eye, truly being Amanda's/Kohji's killer & "Time is money" petphrase), he has enough circumstantial evidence to make that connection (Wakita wearing an eyepatch, Asaka glaring at Wakita, Wakita's interest in a shogi piece & Wakita-Haibara's mutual reaction to each other). At the very least, he is definitely viewing him as an enemy from the BO.

Although Conan has fooled Wakita into thinking he is a normal smart kid (rather than an actual de-aged young adult), he is yet to realize how aware Wakita is of his true intelligence/competence, as further seen by how Wakita expected for Conan to be able to deduce things about the case by relaying indirect hints to him (File 1145).

Overall, this case was very good and had interesting tricks. It was refreshing to have Camel finish solving the case by deducing the rest by himself and be depicted as a competent agent intellectually (File 1146).

It was also nice to finally get a first canon glimpse at Ayumi's mother, who appeared in the background as Ayumi talked about her (File 1144). We'll have to wait and see when she gets a proper intro in the future.