Rum

Rum (ラム Ramu) is a member of the Black Organization in Detective Conan.

Background
Judging from Shuichi Akai/Subaru Okiya's descriptions, Rum appears to have high rank in the organization and is very close to the Boss. Later on, Ai Haibara remarks that Rum is second only to the Boss of the Black Organization, suggesting that he is their second-in-command. Rum's identity, gender and mission are currently unknown.

Appearance
Rum has a damaged eye which has been replaced with an artificial eye. It is unknown which eye was damaged. So far, characters with damaged eyes have been shown to either have a scar over the eye (e.g. Kansuke Yamato) or wear sunglasses (e.g. Hyoue Kuroda and Gozu) where one lens is drawn tinted so the damaged eye is not visible. The anime treatment of the "false eye and glasses"-type characters shows their false pupils not contracting or enlarging like their working eye. However, there is no guarantee that Rum will follow either of these character models.

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

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 characteristics differ depending on who is describing him. Some say he is a strongly-built man, some say he looks feminine, and some say he 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 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.

The Darkest Nightmare
Rum is going to appear in movie 20.

Gender
So far, all the Black Organization codenames for men are liquors while women's codenames are wine or wine-based cocktails. Rum should be a man if this pattern holds.

Hyoue Kuroda
Hyoue Kuroda is a middle-aged strong-built man. His right eye was injured and replaced with an artificial one. Chief of the first division of Nagano Police, his favorite drink is black tea. He was first introduced at the end of File 913.

In File 925, Haibara said to Conan that she hadn't felt the Black Organization "aura" from Kuroda. She had only gripped Conan's shoulder because Hyoue's face and expression were really scary. In fact, she implied Kuroda couldn't be Rum as he saw her and should have noticed she resembles Shiho Miyano. If he were Rum, he would've broken into Professor Agasa's house, yet this didn't happen.

' Kansuke Yamato'
Kansuke Yamato is a strong young man, but limps like an old man because he uses a cane to compensate for an injured left leg. Kansuke has long hair pulled back into a ponytail which could be considered feminine if he let it down. Kansuke's left eye is also damaged, but he does not use an artificial eye. Gosho disclaimed Kansuke Yamato from being Rum in an animal crossing hint.

Taka'aki Morofushi
Taka'aki Morofushi is a young man with a feminine physique. So far, there's been no indication he has a prosthetic eye.

Shukichi Haneda
Shukichi Haneda is a young man with no indication of a prosthetic eye. He has seen both Conan and Ai twice, giving him an easy opportunity to find Sherry and report it to the Organization.

Kiyonaga Matsumoto
Kiyonaga Matsumoto is a middle-aged strongly-built man whose left eye has a scar over it.

Three descriptions for one person
Various members of the Black Organization all disagree about Rum's overall appearance. For this to be the case, Rum must not present himself to others straightforwardly. There are several possibilities why this could be:
 * Rum can disguise himself well.
 * Fairly straightforward as far as explanations go, Rum could appear to different agents with different faces and builds leading to confusion. Since he is the number two of the Black Organization and likely close to the boss, he has a need for security and secrecy and is probably also multi-talented like most other codenamed agents.


 * He has features of all three types leading to different conclusions.
 * Rum might have features of all three types of builds so that each witness comes to a different conclusion about his appearance depending on what they personally emphasize. As an example, Kansuke Yamato is a strongly built man, uses a cane like an old man, and his ponytail could give someone the impression he is feminine. If Kansuke tended to only appear to others in shadowed environments, then it's possible he could be mistaken for an old man or even a woman when viewed in profile.
 * The confusion may not stem solely from appearance. In Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 4, Takagi had three different witnesses give conflicting accounts of the same robber because they each saw different things depending on their vantage points and personal prejudices. Kobayashi-sensei's Love was another case with a similar theme. Similarly, members of the Black Organization with different backgrounds might come to different conclusions depending on the context they encounter Rum in.
 * If members of the Black Organization only interact with Rum by video-phone conversation, they might come to different conclusions about his appearance depending on how he speaks. If Rum uses old style Japanese like an elderly person might, has a deep voice like that of a well built man, but is excessively polite and uses pronouns like watashi (私 ?), then three different conclusions of his overall appearance can result.


 * The codename Rum is shared by more than one person.
 * Also self explanatory, but requires each Rum persona to have a fake eye - a pretty unlikely coincidence if each of their eyes was lost in a separate accident.


 * Rum uses body doubles.
 * Rum using body doubles with different builds was suggested by Haibara to explain why different Black Organization agents had different impressions. It does not explain the fake eye common between them, unless these doubles were required to wear one.

Contradictions about the fake eye
It is particularly odd that the Black Organization members are unanimous about Rum having a fake eye while disagreeing about obvious appearance facts that are typically the first to be noticed. Prosthetic eyes are usually subtle, as shown in the picture on the right, and can be easily mistaken for some other type of ocular problem such as lazy eye. That implies there is some distinct reason why everyone agrees that Rum has a prosthetic eye while disagreeing about other obvious facts. There are several possibilities why this might be:
 * The prosthetic eye Rum uses when talking to other members of the Black Organization is very obviously fake
 * While such an obvious fake eye would be detrimental in public because it would draw attention, Rum may prefer using a non-subtle prosthetic when in the presence of the rest of the Black Organization. For instance, Rum could use an obvious fake for the purposes of intimidation or to draw attention away from the rest of him so that he is not well remembered. Rum could also use a mechanical gadget in place of his eye that augments his vision.


 * Rum's prosthetic eye is a rumor everyone knows.
 * One possible reason everyone agrees about Rum's fake eye is because it is an oft-circulated fact that he has one. Perhaps there is some tale about how he lost it that gets passed from member to member. In this case, it wouldn't even matter if Rum actually had a fake eye so long as everyone was inclined to say that he did.

Appellations
Black Organization=
 * -|Law enforcement=
 * -|Others=

Animal Crossing hints
In two promotional messages sent out through the video game Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS sometime around or slightly before September 3rd 2014, Gosho said:
 * "Actually, Rum has already appeared lol"
 * Please note that Gosho, as a crossover joke, has introduced a character named Lum Invader from another manga as the Black Organization member Rum. Gosho also showed Lum in a panel in file 906 and referenced the earlier gag in the concurrent Sherry's soliloquy. Gosho may have been intending to mislead fans with this animal crossing by exploiting the ambiguity between Rum and Lum.

Taking these hints at face value, Rum has appeared at or before File 906.
 * "Kan-chan is not Rum ^^"

Trivia

 * 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.
 * In the hand-drawn poster by Gosho Aoyama for The Darkest Nightmare, Conan is riding a black horse on fire, that represents nightmare. The title of the movie confirmed the horse is Rum.