#we only know amuro tooru and okiya subaru

[aobawilliams]

Summary:

Yusaku always knew where the target was.

And Kogoro always knew how to aim and take the shot.

Only 'Okiya Subaru', whom Kogoro is now sure is someone undercover, is surprised between the three of them.

"What," he snarks as he puts the smoking rifle down "Don't undercover agents do their background checks thoroughly?"

Really. 'Amuro Tooru' was much more thorough than this guy is.

He hears Yusaku let out an amused chuckle through the intercom in his ear.

I wish you would write a fic where…

dfbdfsb that's so cool!!

I'd totally read that fic.

Anyway if I were to give context. I can totally imagine Kogoro finds out about the Conan/Shinichi situation, and decides that it's no children business (because he's a kid, even more literally now, and no you dumb teenager you can't argue because I'm an adult and you're the same age as Ran who is still my baby), phones Yusaku because what the fuck dude, who's letting this child run into criminal syndicate business?? and Yusaku is like "you know what, that's fair" and so we got a full team-up of adults taking care of the Org business. (Maybe it happens fairly early in canon, the timeline would have to be re-worked.)

Or maybe he phones Yusaku because he was gonna scream at him to take care of his fucking child and Yusaku is just like "we are taking care of this :)" and Kogoro just goes "good just send me the time and place".

Yusaku and Kogoro as the Detective/Strong-arm team, Yukiko and Eri on intel gathering. Just the Parent Squad. When the owner of Poirot café learns about it he gets involved too because Amuro is like the son he never had (he's on support/food duty/place for meet-ups). Mary Sera sees the group of Competent Adult and is like "um maybe I can join them." I can't think of any other now but you get the gist.

Kogoro agrees to let the NOC in the loop but they're on thin fucking ice because they're still young.

[alternatefandom]

The Three Faces of Furuya Rei, or: what moral philosophy does Furuya Rei subscribe to?

Furuya Rei is a fascinating character that can be difficult to understand. This is complicated by the fact that he presents three very different faces to us. Our very first impression of him was as the kindly waiter and detective, Amuro Tooru; next we are shown the antagonist, Bourbon, and last, we discover the driving force behind them: the undercover agent, Furuya Rei. These three personas act in a very different way, especially Bourbon, making Rei’s true motives and morality somewhat opaque to us. In this meta I will analyze Rei’s actions and motives in order to discern the true school of morality that he believes in.

There are three major theories of morality; virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology. However, in this meta I will be brush on ethical egoism as well. Let us first talk about the relevant theories.

Virtue Ethics is first and foremost concerned with character. Here, we judge right and wrong based on whether or not it is virtuous. A person’s action reflects on their character; a virtuous person will do virtuous actions, and vice versa. Therefore, virtue ethics defines virtuous actions as the right action.

Utilitarianism, on the other hand, defines right and wrong based on the consequence of the action. It is concerned with outcomes; in utilitarianism, the end justifies the means. As long as the action results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people, it is right.

Lastly, Deontology defines right and wrong based on what the duty of the subject is. It is concerned with motives; as long as the person was trying to fulfill their duty, then it is right according to deontology. What the duty itself is, of course, subject to argument.

Now out of these three moral theories, which one does Furuya Rei follow?

To analyze this, I will be including materials from the Zero the Enforcer movie as well. This is because in my opinion, we don't actually get much insight into Rei's motives in the manga; we are told what he wants, but we’re not really told why, at least not enough to explain how he justifies his actions for himself. Now let’s get to the analysis itself.

First things first, I think we can safely say that Furuya Rei doesn’t subscribe to virtue ethics. In his debut as Amuro Tooru, in the private eye case, we see him allow Banba, a murder suspect, to destroy exonerating evidence. We also see him create a wrong deduction that almost damned an innocent man. With what we know of his deductive capabilities, as well as the fact that he had all pieces of the evidence and knowledge required to solve the case from the beginning, it is highly implied that he deliberately risked Banba’s freedom just to test Kogoro. Hardly the actions of a virtuous man. It should be noted, however, that in this case, Rei had still maintained control of the situation, thereby allowing him to keep the worst-case scenario from happening; as a PSB member, he would still be capable of exonerating Banba later.

I deliberately did not mention the Detectives’ Nocturne case, the Mystery Train case, as well as the Elementary Teacher Assault case, as I don’t believe that the evidence presented in these cases can conclusively point to Rei’s true intentions. There are always possible alternative interpretations that makes his actions possibly virtuous. However, I will mention the Zero the Enforcer movie. This movie clearly lays out that Rei is definitely not a nice person, and doesn’t mind that other people knows that about him. He deliberately framed Kogoro as a terrorism suspect; fabricated evidence, bugged Conan’s phone, and was generally manipulative. Thus, from the evidence, we can conclusively say that neither manga!Rei nor movie!Rei follow the school of Virtue Ethics.

The second school of ethics we will analyze is utilitarianism. In utilitarianism, the end justifies the means. For Furuya Rei, ‘the end’ would probably be the downfall of the Black Organization, or, taking it further, the safety of Japan and its citizens. I have seen some people take the point of view that Rei had wanted to kill Sherry in the Mystery Train, so that she wouldn’t produce more works that could be used to harm innocents; if this is true, then he would definitely be an utilitarian. However, I’ve argued before that Rei had not intended to kill Shiho and instead had wanted to spirit her to safety, as she is a valuable lead into Elena Miyano’s whereabouts. Therefore, the Mystery Train case should not be taken as evidence that Rei is an utilitarian. 

As there is no evidence that Rei is an utilitarian, one way or another, one could argue that we could take Rei’s willingness to do morally-questionable things as evidence that he thinks it will lead to a better outcome for everyone, if not for one notable case: Akai Shuuichi.

In my opinion, utilitarianism is a very rational and cold moral philosophy; it is a moral school perfectly suited to geniuses, masterminds, and detectives like Rei. However, when it comes to Akai Shuuichi, we see Rei display zero reason. There is no obvious rationale why taking Akai out of the game would result in a better outcome for all, and Rei doesn’t even attempt to explain it; nonetheless, he continues to hunt Akai without any sense of guilt, which implies that he thinks hunting Akai is the correct course of action (note that I don’t necessarily think that Rei wants to kill Akai, despite what he said--more on that later). This implies that Furuya Rei does not necessarily believe in utilitarianism. 

This brings us to the last major ethical theory: Deontology. Deontology is concerned with duty; it takes motive into account more than the actions itself. And Rei has so kindly told us which duty he has dedicated himself to in the Elementary School Assault case.

That’s correct; he’s dedicated himself to his lovely, lovely Japan. Conan said it best:

“I was sure that since he said that to the FBI investigators... those beliefs!”

It becomes even clearer if you look at the Zero the Enforcer movie. There, Rei clearly states what he thought of his job to Kazami.

In other words, our job isn’t always nice or even legal, but we have to finish it because it’s our duty.

If we take the point of view that Rei subscribes to deontology, a lot of his action becomes immediately explainable. He cuts contact with his old friends all to make sure they were safe, but he risks returning Hiromitsu’s cellphone to his older brother because he feels that it’s his duty as Hiromitsu’s friend. Arguably, he hunts Akai Shuuichi out of duty to his fallen friend, and yes, to his country. Akai, after all, was not only involved in Scotch’s death; he’s also operating illegally in Rei’s territory. This would explain why Rei brings PSB agents instead BO agents into the Scarlet Showdown; if Rei intended to kill Akai one way or another, bringing BO agents is definitely the way to do it. This is because bringing PSB means Akai would fall into PSB custody, and there Rei cannot do whatever he likes with Akai; he must answer to his superiors in the PSB. I believe that despite what Akai said, here Rei had only intended to arrest Akai.

So why, then, did he say that he wished to kill Akai, right in front of Okiya Subaru’s face? This brings us to my last theory: it’s because to figure out how to act, Rei aligns each of his three faces to a different moral theory.

Amuro Tooru, quite obviously, follows virtue ethics. He is polite, kind, always helpful, always cheerful. He does not do morally questionable things; he is an upstanding member of society.

Furuya Rei, as we’ve discussed, is a deontologist.  He is dutiful to his friends and country but now he has no friends left so really it’s just his country. His ‘lover’ is Japan itself, and he is willing to do anything--anything--to keep her safe.

And Bourbon? Bourbon would probably loosely follow ethical egoism. It is out of the question for Rei to create an absolutely amoral persona for Bourbon--it would unnecessarily conflict with his deontologist morality. However, to fit in the Black Organization, he needs to create someone who would do terrible things without needing to justify it with ‘duty’ or ‘the greater good’. Someone who wouldn’t just do anything that’s asked of him too, so Rei could reasonably rein Bourbon in. Rei would probably style Bourbon as someone who looks out for his own interests, and only his own, whatever that may be.

And so when Rei wants to hunt down Shuuichi Akai, Bourbon would say that it’s because in his interest to do so--because he bears a grudge against Akai, perhaps, and as an organization member, murdering Akai is the only way to resolve it. Bourbon would investigate Okiya Subaru and corner him, but Rei wouldn’t bring the Organization into their confrontation. Bourbon would threaten Okiya Subaru with death--but Rei wouldn’t pull Okiya’s collar down and condemn him right then and there. Because at the end of the day, the one holding the wheels is Rei, not Bourbon, and whatever he may say, Furuya Rei is a dutiful police officer, and he believes in justice.