#and now it's entirely because of the way akai and rei interact with him

[dracrownian]

Nagano Snowy Mountains case has to be one of my favorites for Conan & Rei interaction. From Conan asking Rei if he knows who Rum is and Rei's non-answer -

to Rei giving him a hint anyway -

which Conan then proceeds to not think about ever again, probably...

And then to have Rei like. Protecting Conan from Rum by acting like they barely know each other.

This was before the actual Rum identity reveal, but it was super obvious (imo) from the moment you meet this guy that he's Rum, and that's all beside the point anyway. The point is that, whether Rei knows this guy is Rum or not (which I believe he does), he's protecting Conan. And I love that.

Rei obviously thinks highly of Conan and his intelligence, and mostly treats him as an equal when it comes to investigations (and even needles him occasionally when Conan does something obvious, such as the most recent chapters in Poirot), so to have this moment where Rei realizes Conan's intellect could get him in trouble and act accordingly just sticks out to me as such a good moment for their relationship.

(Another thing I love about this case, unrelated to Conan, is the fact that Kuroda definitely called Koumei to be like "hey if you recognize Rei, no you don't.")

Anyway I just think about this case a lot. And definitely not for the case itself. This is one of those where I figured out the culprit from the moment they appeared based entirely on vibes.