Furuya Rei Analysis: Timeline (The Past)
If I'm going to try dissecting Rei, I figured the best place to start is to outline what we know about him, from the youngest version of Rei we see to the most recent, so that I can see how he's changed (or hasn't, if that's the case) over the years.
I'll be pulling from the main series manga and from Wild Police Story. As much as I'd like to include things from the movies (and even a couple of things from Zero's Tea Time), I'll be leaving those alone. I don't think they're necessary anyway. (Sorry, Ferris Wheel fight. You'll be missed.)
I'm also pretty much discounting anything Gosho has said in interviews or anywhere else. If it's not written into DetCo or WPS, then it doesn't count.
This post will cover child Rei up through Hiro's death, and then present day (from his first appearance onward in canon, to the best of my ability to piece things together) will be in the next posts. It would be way too long otherwise.
Other posts: Timeline: The Present: Bourbon Arc Timeline: The Present: Amuro Tooru Arc Timeline: The Present: Betrayal Arc Timeline: The Present: Post-Tea Party Arc
So let's start at what I'm pretty sure is the earliest point:
Befriending Hiro. Age 7/8ish, about 22 years ago.
We're actually not given a specific age for when these two met, but we do know that Hiro, age 22, says that his parents died 15 years ago. So he was 7 at the time.
(Wild Police Story chapter 10)
Presumably, it wouldn't have been long between then and when we moved in with relatives, so we can assume he was 7-8ish and Rei's the same age.
So I'm pretty sure this is the earliest instance we get of Rei, even though he looks exactly the same when he meets Elena later (but that's Gosho's fault because he doesn't know how to properly age people).
He's... kind of a brat. His heart's in the right place, and he's trying to make friends with the new kid who doesn't talk, but he's blunt about it. But, apparently, it works, because they've been inseparable ever since.
Then we get this memory of Koumei's:
(Detective Conan file 1021)
They're close enough now for Hiro to have started calling Rei by his nickname. Though I'm unclear where he got that nickname from, if Hiro wasn't the one to give it to him - maybe it was given by bullies who were trying to be cruel, and then Hiro decided it was a cool nickname and reclaimed it for him. But that's speculation, since it's never specified. We'll come back to the nickname much later in the timeline, though.
As for Rei himself, of course he doesn't say anything here, but he's expressive. He has a little bit of a pout going on (probably baby Rei's default expression, the cutest resting bitch face ever) and his arms thrown behind his head in a sort of casual pose, but the way he's side-eyeing and has that tiny little blush makes him seem interested, curious, but like he's trying to play it off.
As we'll find out in the next section, he was picked on a lot as a kid because he doesn't look Japanese enough, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. It seems like he's trying to protect his feelings by pretending like he doesn't care.
Meeting Elena (and Akemi). Age 10-11ish, 18-19 years ago.
Once again, we're not actually given an age for this. But we do know that Elena was pregnant with Shiho at that the time, and Shiho is currently 18 years old in canon. Elena says she's three months along at this point:
(Detective Conan file 1011)
If we assume her pregnancy was roughly normal, then Shiho would've been born about six months after this, putting this about 18.5 years ago, putting Rei at age 10.5. Ish. Not knowing specific birthdays does make this complicated, thanks Gosho.
Anyway, we don't technically know that this takes place after he meets Hiro (as Hiro doesn't appear in this flashback), but since Hiro says he moved in with relatives after his parents died, I can't imagine it was multiple years between their murder and then his moving to Tokyo and meeting Rei. So that's why I put the Hiro section first.
Moving on to the important stuff.
Akemi finds an injured Rei and drags him to the clinic, but this clearly isn't his first visit. It also isn't his last visit.
Rei is grumpy and wanted to handle things himself. Elena asks if he likes fighting, so we know he's been here before because he got in toa fight, and then Rei answers:
So we find out that Rei's being bullied for his hair. He's angry and he's crying.
Elena comforts him, and he's kind of in awe of her here. (Not in love, Gosho. I don't care what you say. He's a literal child and she's old enough to be his mother.)
After he's all patched up (Akemi even puts on a bandaid on him), we get this:
Elena says she won't treat him if he gets injured from fighting, but it's different if he's trying to reconcile with this bullies.
(Look, I don't love that mentality because it's not Rei's job to reconcile with the people that are picking on him, but it is what it is.)
Either way, we have Rei becoming really attached to Elena (but not so much Akemi or Atsushi; clearly he has his favorite that he remembers fondly).
Gosho please explain to me how a ten-year-old and a six-year-old look the same age.
Around this same time - but definitely after this visit, we have another visit between Rei and Elena, though this one is a much shorter flashback. They are not different points of the same scene because 1) Elena is confirmed moving away at this point; and 2) Rei is wearing different clothes.
(Detective Conan file 889)
She gently scolds him about fighting again and says she's going to a far away place. This is, presumably, the last time Rei saw her.
So let's move on.
Meeting Koumei. Middle/High School age, minimum 14ish years ago.
This one is going to take a lot more speculation about the exact timeframe (not that it really matters because it's very cleanly between child Rei and the next section, but I'm gonna do it anyway), so here we go.
Koumei says that he was in university when he met Rei, putting him roughly like, what 18-21 years old? (Rei and Hiro were 22 in the police academy and I have no reason to believe Koumei wouldn't be the same.) Rei is six years younger than him, putting him 12-15ish. I'm assuming the upper end of that range, because he looks quite different from the child Rei we saw before. I thought the uniform we see him and Hiro is in specifically a high school uniform, but upon researching, it's both middle and high school, so that doesn't narrow it down any further.
Anyway, here's what we get:
(Detective Conan file 1030)
Unrelated to Rei: the Morofushi bros both have such baby faces when they don't have facial hair. Adorable.
Again, we don't get much of Rei here. He's just very serious-looking, which he isn't usually around Hiro, and he's not showing that same curiosity he had as a small kid.
So by late middle school/early high school, Rei had already decided he wanted to be a police officer (which, we later find out, is to look for/find out what happened to Elena). At this point, I don't know if he knows yet that she's dead.
As for why his expression is the way it is, it's hard to say. Maybe he's matured, and as such, he thinks he has to be serious, especially around someone like Hiro's big brother, who I'm sure Hiro talks up a lot to Rei. Maybe he does know about Elena's death and is trying to process it. No information is given.
Moving on.
Police Academy. Age 22, 7 years ago.
For once we're actually given a definitive age to work with here, which makes sense, as it's an entire side-story. Given that, this section covers 12.5 chapters of WPS and then like 3 files in DetCo, so I'm obviously not going to be pulling everything. Only the things that seem particularly important. He makes three new friends which he also seems to learn things from.
So, there's Matsuda, who he doesn't get along with at first. They fight in the evenings because they're both troublemakers and they kind of hate each other's outlooks. Of course, after discovering each other's tragic backstories and saving Onizuka together, they're besties.
(Wild Police Story chapter 4)
Date, who sticks up for Rei, even though Rei doesn't ask for it. It seems like these two hit it off as friends pretty quickly; no tension like there was with Matsuda.
And Hagiwara, Matsuda's childhood friend. Interesting, Rei doesn't really get much one-on-one interaction with Hagi, that I could find. They likely bond over their love of the RX-7, but beyond that, I think they're friends, but not as close as Rei is the Date and Matsuda.
(Wild Police Story chapter 7)
Somewhere in the middle of their time at the Academy (specifically July 5 of that year), Rei and the guys meet Shinichi and Ran, and solve a "haunted house" case for the kids.
(Detective Conan file 1134)
(Detective Conan file 1136)
At least as of WPS era, Rei is decently good with kids (judging by how Shinichi reacts to him vs. Matsuda, Hagi and even Date, who he gets annoyed with at least once each - probably because they treat him like a kid, where Rei doesn't really. Hiro also doesn't get the annoyed expression from Shinichi, so there's that. But this isn't about Hiro.).
He also briefly meets Satou and Yumi on the guys' academy graduation day.
(Wild Police Story chapter 13)
Rei, proud of his country, his role (soon) in protecting it, and his accomplishments (as he should be, graduating top of the class, I believe; at the very least, it's mentioned early in WPS that he's top of the class, and he's the class rep for the graduation ceremony), tells Satou and Yumi and they should watch the ceremony if they're interested in becoming cops.
(I don't feel like I talked enough about the WPS stuff yet, but I think I'll make a post specifically for this era later when I get into actual character analysis, because I don't really have the space for it here.)
Shortly after graduation, Hagi and Matsuda join the bomb squad, and Hagi was killed.
I believe this is the only reaction of any sort (in confirmed canon) that we get about Hagi's death from Rei.
Let's move on.
Seeing Masumi (kind of). Age 25, 4 years ago.
Rei gets assigned to Public Security and goes undercover in the BO. Hiro does the same. At least once, they're assigned to work with Rye for a mission. Things take an interesting turn when Rye's little sister shows up at the train station looking for him.
(Detective Conan file 937)
They didn't directly interact - Rei spoke with Hiro only - but Masumi at least got enough of an impression to remember him years later, and same for Rei, who recognizes her on sight when they end up in the same place again.
Hiro and Matsuda die. Age 26, 3 years ago.
Technically we don't have a date for Hiro's death (canonically, or even in the movies; there has been one given on a piece of merch or something but I'm going to ignore that as it's not really relevant to this analysis anyway), but they happened in the same year. I'm putting Matsuda first because we don't have much from Rei on this one.
(Wild Police Story chapter 13)
Where Hagi's death was just a tragic situation that couldn't really be helped (since the time suddenly started with 6 seconds again), Matsuda chose to die to protect a bunch of other people, and Rei acknowledges that.
And then we have Hiro's death, which, without question, hit him the hardest of anyone he's lost.
Scotch's cover gets blown, and, in order to protect his mission and the people he cares about, he shoots himself. Rye takes "credit" for the kill, since he was there (trying to save Scotch) when it happened, convincing Bourbon of his blame.
(Detective Conan file 954)
I'm not sure if this was meant to be a voicemail or a text message, but this is how Rei found out his best friend is planning to commit suicide. Rei, of course, tries to go and save him, but he fails. He's too late (well, from his perspective, anyway).
(Detective Conan file 955)
As previously mentioned, Rye takes the credit/blame for the killing. Rei doesn't seem to be completely in control of his actions here, at least not the way an undercover operative should be. Not the way I would expect him to normally be around someone like Rye. The way Bourbon reacts to Scotch's death shouldn't be like that if Bourbon is not also a spy. (Luckily, it's just Rye who's there to see him, even though Bourbon doesn't know he's also a spy at the time.)
(Detective Conan file 956)
Rei doesn't know the exact circumstances that went down on that rooftop, he only assumes that Rye could've stopped Scotch from killing himself, and that he gave his own gun to Scotch. Therefore, as Rye said, the blame must be on him.
(The truth of the situation is that Hiro might have actually been able to be saved, but Rei's footsteps on the stairs distracted Rye and likely startled Hiro enough that he saw his opening and took the shot. Literally. But Rei doesn't know this. He might find it out later, but that's speculation on my part and it would fall under the next post anyway.)
So, since this post is long enough as is, and I've covered all of the flashback type things I can remember, I'll end this one here. Next up is the Present Day section of the timeline.
(And if there's something that should be included here that I've forgotten, please let me know. I tried to get everything.)
