I actually completely disagree with Kuroda being RUM, these are my thoughts on the whole RUM thing:
There are 3 suspects so far that have a chance of being RUM, they are:
1) Kansuke Yamato, although i doubt it since he doesn't have an artificial eye(though he may have been putting it in front of organization members), and since he is the first suspect I also doubt it,, besides, he saw Haibara, and unless 'RUM' doesn't know Shiho or knows her but is like vermouth and hides the fact that he knows she is Haibara from the organization(I doubt both cases) he should've already reported her a long time ago. Besides, he isn't that old, and the reason I think RUM is old is because I highly doubt someone who is young and thus hasn't been with the organization for long could make it to the second in command, unless he did something unbelievable, but I still highly doubt it.
2) Kiyonaga Matsumoto, although he injured his eye, and it might be artificial, i just can't see him being mistaken for feminine or old, however, it is also very likely that the characteristics of 'RUM' aren't what we think they are, but anyway he's 54 years old, I still think he's too young to be the 2nd in command.
3) Hyoue Kuroda who was just introduced in the latest chapter(913), he is 50 years old, his right eye is injured, and he is a well-built man, according to chapter 914, he was in a 10 year-long coma because of an accident and after it he looked like a completely different person. He is also clearly acting suspiciously, and he knows that Conan is the mastermind behind sleeping Kogoro. Some people say that Hyoue sounds like a female name, although even if that was true, one RUM's characteristics is a feminine man, not a woman, so I'm not so sure. The reason why most people think he is RUM is because his name is Kuroda, Kuro means black but to me, the more obvious it is, the less suspicious it is(we've already been trolled with Jodie and Okiya, not to mention the other characters in these arcs, and I honestly think it's way too early to decide who is RUM, I think the whole RUM arc might be as long as the Bourbon arc since it started in the same way, Kir warns the FBI about a new member, then about 20 chapters later someone with the characteristics of that member is introduced).
'RUM' might just be a new character we have never seen though. But I'm sure it's not Yamato, and it's also not Kuroda, and the obvious reason is because he reminds me of a certain character back in the Vermouth arc: Jodie, Jodie did a lot of suspicious things and seemed to know about how smart Conan is, so she was the most obvious choice for being Vermouth, however it was clearly not the case, so the same applies to this guy, he is not RUM(although to be fair, Kuroda looks way more evil than Jodie, you can tell by his eyes, but I think that RUM would still look more evil, since even Gin looks way more evil than Kuroda, anyway it's normal that he looks evil, since this is one of the suspect of being the 2nd in command we're talking about, he has to do things that are very suspicious, who knows, maybe he would know Conan is Shinichi, besides there are other things that make me doubt he is RUM such as his age, and the comma that he's been in, since it's hard to imagine the 2nd in command being in a 10-year long comma, since the BO would probably have some problems.), not to mention there is also something weird about him if he was RUM, he has a big burn mark that surrounds his artificial eye, which should be easily distinguishable, so it should've been one of the characteristics of RUM that were told of Haibara, it is also likely that members would also tell Haibara which eye is artificial, since it's clear from the burn mark. However, I'm pretty sure he is a plot-related character(and also, when I'm looking for a suspect of being a member of the BO, I try to see their actions and which ones are not explainable, and when it comes to Kuroda, his actions can be explained easily, it's simply that the Nagano police really know that Conan is the mastermind behind Sleeping Kogoro, so it's natural that he also knows, however, if a suspect of being RUM does something that can't be explained by normal ways, then he's most probable RUM), because so far, every single suspect of being a member of the BO who turned out not to be that member was later shown to be a plot related character, examples are: Jodie, Shuichi, James Black, Eisuke, Okiya(who is Shuichi) and Masumi, but the thing is, if he is plot-related, what would he be? Is he just someone from the police who is investigating about the BO? Or is he an MI6 agent who is working in the police while also investigating the BO? Anyway When it comes to RUM I still think that it can't be any of these 3, because in my opinion, RUM has to have been one of the original members of the BO, or the first member along side the boss and Vermouth, which is why he has to be at least 70, and non of these people are that old, besides, non of them really show the 3 characteristics of RUM, although for some reason, I think that RUM's characteristics are not what we think they are, maybe there is some sort of secret or trick behind them, like for example, it may be related to RUM's actions rather than appearance, like some members heard or saw RUM do something feminine, some others heard or saw him do something old people would do, and others heard or saw him do something only a strong man could do, or it might be related to the generations of the BO, like, the old members remember young RUM as a feminine man, the younger members remember him the middle aged RUM as a strong man, and the young members who joined not too long ago remember him as an old man, because unless RUM's characteristics are not physical, he can't be one of those 4, but anyway the reason I think RUM has to be one of the first members of the BO is because as I said in Yamato's case, I don't think any member can just become the 2nd in command unless they have been an original member, since I doubt the boss would trust anyone with that rank so it has to be someone old, so for now I'm voting for a new character.
As for RUM's personality, I think it would be like Gin and the boss, it's like Gin as in he would probably be suspicious of anything, and would take care of it immediately, and it's like the boss as in he would be extremely cautious, I think that while the boss would give an important order, RUM is the one to do the action, like for example, I noticed something, the fact that every time someone says it's an order from 'Anokata' to justify there acts, the other members wouldn't even say a word, which makes me think that maybe if someone opposes the boss, they would be killed, although it might just be because of their loyalty, but let's just say that they would be killed, I think that RUM is the one to execute them. I also think that RUM is probably a type of person that will give you one chance, and if you disobey him once, you'll be killed, for example, in an alternative path, instead of Akemi meeting Gin, she met RUM, when she told Gin that the organization should release her sister and then she'll tell them the whereabouts of the money, Gin said that they won't and that it's her last chance, while I think that RUM would've killed her immediately.
The most dangerous thing about RUM is that no one knows much about him, not even the organization members themselves since each one describes him differently, Haibara never even met him, the FBI and CIA never knew about him, which is weird considering he's the second in command.
I think RUM will be the one to discover that Kir and possibly also Bourbon are traitors, which would mean they would be killed.
But when it comes to RUM's objective, it's really hard to figure it out since this is the 2nd in command we're talking about, usually whenever a member is on the move, they are not even an executive member, but this time, it's the boss' right hand man, so what is his goal? well, after thinking about it, there can only be 3 objectives:
1) He is going after Kudo Shinichi, after all maybe the boss and Gin are starting to have doubts about Shinichi's death, so RUM's objective may be to gather information about it.
2) He is looking into the members of the organization to see if any one is an undercover spy for another group, and since RUM is probably the most loyal member, he can judge the others.
3) And this one is my favorite, he is looking for new members, and not just any new members, scientists and programmers, since when you think about it, it's unreasonable for the BO to stop their main goal, the only reason they weren't working on it is probably because the priority was Sherry's death, and now that she's dead to the BO, there is no way that the BO is just going to forget about the program and the drug, and since it is related to the BO's main goal, RUM is the most capable member of doing this objective. Although it could be all these 3 objectives together.
And btw I'm new to this forum
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Oh and as for RUM or Kuroda being Akai's father, it's doubtful, especially in Kuroda's case, but first, I'll talk about why RUM is not likely to be Akai's father, you see, Akai was infiltrating the organization for 3 years, if RUM is his father, then that means one of 2 things, the first of them is that he's also undercover, which no one wants, and the second one is that he's loyal and he just stayed silent about Akai being undercover, but you could say that he didn't know he was undercover or that he didn't even meet him, but anyway Akai's father is supposed to be dead and there is nothing to prove otherwise, his estimated time of death is probably 16-10 years ago, and it doesn't really make since if he faked it at that time, one would expect him to fake his death(if he did) when he joined the organization. As for Kuroda being his father, that is not possible, first of all the eye thing was only in one chapter and it didn't even resemble Akai's eyes much, then we all know that Akai and Sera got their eyes from their mother, not their father, so that pretty much cancels the whole thing, if anything Kuroda should look like Shukichi(since he's the middle brother) yet he doesn't.
