Major spoilers for Bourbon’s identity, the Mystery Train and Scarlet stories, and Black Iron Submarine.
Vermouth and Bourbon work together on Black Organization missions, but their cooperation rests on useful skills and dangerous secrets. The stories discussed here do not establish them as spouses, lovers, or relatives. Their most important private connection is the secret Bourbon holds about Vermouth and the boss.
Bourbon has a secret of his own: he is Public Security officer Rei Furuya, also known as Tooru Amuro. Working beside Vermouth does not mean he shares her allegiance, and knowing her weakness does not make his own position safe.
Why do Vermouth and Bourbon work so well together?
Vermouth can approach a target under another person’s face and voice. Bourbon gathers information through observation, conversation, and deduction. Their abilities complement one another: she can create access, and he can make use of what that access reveals.
This is particularly effective when a mission takes them into ordinary public life. Neither needs to announce the Organization’s presence to become involved in someone else’s affairs.
Yet competence is not trust. Vermouth has private attachments, including her exceptional treatment of Conan and Ran. Rei’s undercover mission places him fundamentally at odds with the organization he appears to serve.
Their shared operations therefore have two levels. On the surface, two capable members are carrying out a task. Underneath, each may be withholding information or pursuing an objective the other does not fully understand.
That is what makes their easy conversation unsettling. They can cooperate smoothly without giving each other the reassurance that usually comes with a partnership.
The secret Bourbon uses against Vermouth
After the Scarlet events surrounding Shuichi Akai’s apparent death, Bourbon seeks Vermouth’s cooperation again. To press his case, he refers to a secret that very few people know.
Bourbon says that he is one of the few people who knows her secret, that the Organization would be surprised, and then begins to say that she is “the boss’s…” before stopping. (unofficial translation)
Two details matter. First, he describes himself as one of a few people who know; he does not claim to be the only one. Second, his unfinished reference ties the secret to the boss without supplying the relationship that would complete the sentence.
Vermouth’s reaction shows its importance. She points a gun at him, while Bourbon indicates that he has arranged for the information to come out if something happens to him. Killing the person who knows the secret would not necessarily contain it.
The balance of the scene is striking: Vermouth holds the weapon, but Bourbon holds information that limits what she can safely do with it. His composure depends on that safeguard, rather than on the two trusting each other.
What is Vermouth’s connection to the boss?
The exchange deliberately leaves that unanswered. A daughter, wife, mother, or another kind of relationship might be proposed as a theory, but none is established merely by completing Bourbon’s unfinished sentence.
The boss’s special treatment of Vermouth and the mystery of her apparently unchanging appearance make the question larger. They do not identify the missing relationship on their own.
How Bourbon learned the secret is another gap. His own investigation, information obtained through Public Security, or something encountered during a mission are possible explanations, not revealed answers.
The scene gives us a firm fact—Bourbon possesses highly sensitive information—and two open questions: what exactly it is, and how he obtained it. Keeping those apart preserves the threat of the exchange without turning a theory into a family tree.
Does Vermouth know he is a Public Security officer?
Vermouth knows Amuro’s public face and his Bourbon codename. The encounters covered here do not establish that she also knows he is Rei Furuya, infiltrating the Organization for Public Security.
She may recognize that he keeps things from her. That is different from identifying his agency, his real name, and the purpose of his infiltration. A suspicious colleague does not automatically become an exposed undercover officer.
This possible imbalance gives their relationship an edge: Bourbon can openly allude to her secret, while his own may remain beyond her reach. It would be unsafe for him to assume that this advantage will last.
Akai’s apparent death shows how much Bourbon withholds
Bourbon investigates doubts about Akai’s death without simply reporting every conclusion and intention to the Organization. Evidence involving Rikumichi Kusuda and the events at Raiha Pass brings him closer to the deception.
He uses Vermouth’s abilities during that investigation, but needing her cooperation does not mean sharing his full reasoning. The Scarlet events demonstrate how a joint operation can contain several different information gaps.
Rei’s history with Hiromitsu Morofushi, the undercover officer known as Scotch, helps explain why Akai matters so much to him personally. Hiromitsu was Rei’s childhood friend and police academy classmate. His death during infiltration leaves a loss and a grievance that cannot be understood simply as loyalty to the Organization.
The Betrayal’s Stage develops that history. It explains the man behind Bourbon’s role; it does not demonstrate that Vermouth has learned everything the audience knows about him.
Is there evidence for romance or a family connection?
Their conversations can be intimate in tone, but their decisions are rooted in missions, concealed motives, and pressure. Neither frequent contact nor flirtatious speech establishes a romantic or sexual relationship.
Similar coloring and speculation about age are no stronger as evidence of kinship. Vermouth’s performance as both Sharon and Chris Vineyard complicates ordinary assumptions about her biography, but it does not connect her to Rei’s family. Associations drawn from the performers’ lives would not establish a relationship between the characters either.
Two major elements in Tooru Amuro and Rei Furuya’s emotional background are Elena Miyano, whom he knew in childhood, and the country he now works to protect.
Elena treated Rei kindly when he was a child. A first-love-like attachment is a possible reading of that memory, rather than proof of an adult relationship. The memory matters because it connects his guarded present to a much earlier experience of kindness.
His devotion to Japan receives a memorable expression in the separate movie Zero the Enforcer. That emphasis on his mission helps explain his priorities, but a movie line cannot rule out every possibility of romance in his life.
For Vermouth and Bourbon specifically, the demonstrated relationship is more revealing than the romantic speculation. They know how to appear relaxed while keeping pressure on each other’s vulnerabilities.
Key stories to read or watch
| Story | Japanese / international episodes | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Detectives’ Nocturne | 671–674 / 723–726 | Develops the uncertainty over Bourbon’s identity and his Organization connections. |
| The Jet-Black Mystery Train | 701–704 / 753–756 | Shows Bourbon and Vermouth pursuing Sherry through a shared operation with differing intentions. |
| The Scarlet series | 779–783 / 832–836 | Explores the Akai investigation, Bourbon’s concealed role, and his bargaining power over Vermouth. |
| The Betrayal’s Stage | 866–867 / 921–922 | Explains Scotch’s death and the personal history behind Rei’s hostility toward Akai. |
| Black Iron Submarine | Movie 26 | Shows their infiltration skills together in a separate theatrical story. |
The Mystery Train is especially useful for distinguishing cooperation from identical goals. Both pursue Sherry, but Bourbon’s intention to capture her and Vermouth’s determination to eliminate her are not interchangeable.
In Black Iron Submarine, their involvement at Pacific Buoy again makes their abilities as infiltrators convincing. Vermouth’s separate choices and Rei’s hidden allegiance complicate the operation. Those movie events do not resolve the manga’s unanswered secret about Vermouth and the boss.
Their most dangerous connection is still information
Vermouth and Bourbon do not need a confirmed romance or family tie to have a consequential relationship. One knows something that could threaten the other’s position; the other works beside him without necessarily knowing why he joined the Organization.
The tension comes from how easily cooperation could turn into exposure. Their smooth teamwork is real, but the security that usually comes with it is missing.
The largest unresolved questions are the exact nature of Vermouth’s connection to the boss and whether she will ever identify Bourbon’s Public Security role. If either secret becomes public, the pair could be forced into a new alliance or open conflict.
Further reading (contains spoilers): Gin and Vermouth's relationship.
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