Spoilers: Iori’s former career, the exchange in Volume 102, and the backstory explored in Volumes 104-105.
Sakakibara is an alias Muga Iori used during an undercover assignment. Hyoue Kuroda calls him by that name out of an old habit, and Iori asks him to stop because it brings back unpleasant memories. Their exchange exposes a former superior-and-subordinate connection in the Public Security Bureau beneath their present roles as police official and butler.
The striking part is how little they need to explain to each other. An old name and a familiar habit tell us that Kuroda knows a version of Iori that most people around Momiji Ooka never see.
What the Volume 102 conversation establishes
The encounter occurs in Momiji Ooka’s Sweet Trap, Files 1088-1090 in Volume 102, adapted as Episodes 1193-1194 (Japanese episodes 1135-1136). Iori checks his surroundings, and Kuroda recognizes the old behavior immediately.
The three quoted exchanges in this article are unofficial English translations.
Kuroda: “That habit of checking… You still haven’t lost it, Sakakibara?”
Iori: “You still call it that? Checking whether anyone is following you, I mean.”
They are not merely recognizing an old acquaintance. Kuroda knows both the habit and the operational name. Iori, in turn, understands the professional shorthand without needing it explained.
The conversation then makes the name’s significance explicit:
Iori: “Please stop calling me Sakakibara. Hearing the alias I used at an old undercover assignment brings back those days and depresses me.”
Kuroda: “Sorry. I suppose this is another habit of mine.”
This is the strongest evidence for what Sakakibara means. Iori identifies it as an undercover alias, rather than a real surname or casual nickname. Kuroda’s apology explains his use of it as a habit, not a deliberate attempt to expose Iori.
Their former hierarchy helps explain that familiarity. It does not supply every detail of their ranks, chain of command, or the operation in which Iori used the name. Calling Kuroda a former superior is narrower than claiming a complete organizational history from this short scene.
Why the old name unsettles Iori
For Kuroda, Sakakibara comes naturally enough to slip into conversation. For Iori, it reopens a period he would prefer not to revisit. The same name is a professional habit for one man and an unwelcome reminder for the other.
That difference gives the scene its human weight. Iori’s calm as Momiji’s butler does not mean his previous work left no mark on him. His request is direct, and the source of his discomfort remains only partly described.
Iori says those memories depress him, but the conversation leaves their source unexplained.
The shared language of old work
The terms roughly rendered as inspection and disinfection add to the Public Security Bureau context. Iori’s check for a tail is a practiced action, and Kuroda understands the habit from the inside. Conan also associates the terminology and behavior with that kind of work.
The words reveal a professional background rather than the solution to the immediate murder. An everyday gesture can serve two functions in the scene: it looks like caution, while the people who know its history recognize a trained routine.
The alias performs the same trick. One word briefly makes the courteous butler’s former identity visible.
What survives of their old relationship?
Iori can object to Kuroda’s wording, and Kuroda can apologize without the conversation becoming hostile. That ease suggests durable familiarity. Iori’s broader assessment of Kuroda also makes him seem like someone he still finds capable and dependable.
Trust is a reasonable reading of their manner, but the scene does not measure its limits. It shows a relationship that has survived Iori’s change of career, not an explicit promise that they now share every secret or assignment.
Kuroda also continues to recognize the operative beneath the butler. He knows the old name, notices the old checking habit, and can speak in the vocabulary of that earlier life. Iori has left the job, but he has not become unreadable to the person who knew him in it.
This makes the encounter feel lived-in. A large part of their shared history stays outside the conversation because neither man needs to tell it to the other.
How Iori’s later backstory changes the scene
The Reason He Became a Butler explores Iori’s former Public Security Bureau career and his encounter with Momiji. The story spans Files 1113-1115, from Volume 104 into Volume 105, and Episodes 1229-1230 (Japanese episodes 1171-1172).
The immediate mystery unfolds aboard a bullet train, but its value for this relationship is the view it gives of the world Iori left. His move into the Ooka household becomes part of his life story rather than an unexplained occupation attached to an unusually skilled man.
That context deepens the earlier request to stop using Sakakibara. Iori’s present role has a different focus: serving and protecting Momiji. His composure, attention to detail, and ability to assess danger can remain useful even though the purpose of his work has changed.
The connection with Kuroda briefly pulls the past into that present. It need not mean Iori’s life as a butler is false or temporary. A person can leave a profession while retaining both its skills and relationships formed within it.
Why the exchange echoes Kuroda and Amuro
Kuroda’s use of Sakakibara offers a possible way to understand his use of Bourbon for Tooru Amuro. Both names refer to covert roles rather than ordinary public identities.
Amuro is Rei Furuya of the Public Security Bureau, infiltrating the Black Organization as Bourbon. Hearing Kuroda use that codename can initially make him sound connected to the organization’s side. Beside the Sakakibara exchange, it can also be read as the habit of someone accustomed to handling operatives through their undercover names.
That is a persuasive parallel, not independent proof of every aspect of Kuroda’s position. We still need to distinguish what he says from a complete explanation of why he uses a particular name each time.
Kuroda and Iori also discuss Iori’s meeting with Amuro:
Kuroda: “I hear you met him.”
Iori: “Yes, the blond man. I also had business for my lady at a cafe called Poirot.”
Iori: “He seems to be carrying old ties with him, but I did not find him objectionable.”
This establishes the encounter at Café Poirot and Iori’s impression of the blond man. It does not establish that Iori and Amuro served together, worked the same operation, or even overlapped institutionally in a way the story has explained.
They belong to the same broad Public Security Bureau thread, but that connection should not turn into an invented personnel chart. The useful clues are the meeting, the assessment, and Kuroda’s familiarity with both men’s covert identities.
Does this mean Iori will return to Public Security work?
A future return is possible, not confirmed. The old skills and relationship give the story a way to bring Iori’s experience into another crisis. They do not promise that he will resume his former career or join a specific operation against Rum.
The established point is already interesting without that prediction. A police official and a butler have a shared professional past; an old habit makes it visible, and the butler asks for one part of it to stay in the past.
Sakakibara is therefore more than another alias to memorize. It marks the boundary Iori is trying to draw between who he once had to be and the role he has chosen now. Kuroda crosses that boundary almost casually, which is why a short, quiet exchange can feel heavier than a long explanation.
Further reading (contains spoilers): Muga Iori's Public Security past.
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