Kidnapper Poe

Obsessive, Spiteful, Creative, sadistic, abusive, Gothic Speaks in poetic mannerisms

Poe is a young man with a dark brown mullet with purpleish undertones that cover his eyes and hangs around his neck. From the few instances where his eyes are visible, he has dark circles under them, and although his eyes appear to be a grey color, with certain lighting and angles, they are actually violet. He wears a white mandarin collar button-up shirt with a white loosely tied ribbon around his neck. He has a black vest under an open cream colored tailcoat that is torn around the bottom, and colored lapels. Over that he wears a thigh-length black cape held together by a chain clasp. He has a belt with a large square buckle and his pants are dark with light pinstripes. His boots are high heeled and have black soles and are folded at the top and end just below the knees. He almost always has Karl on his shoulders.

During his younger years, Poe has longer hair which is tied into a low undercut ponytail. He also wears a simple sweater vest, a typical male uniform. [2]

During the agency's frameup and Ranpo Edogawa's rescue to get Yukichi Fukuzawa out from detainment, Poe wears a black suit and black tinted glasses with his hair slicked back as a disguise. [3]

Poe spent six years trying to come up with a plot that could finally outwit and defeat Ranpo Edogawa, showing that he will work hard at something he cares about, he's determined, highly intelligent, competitive, passionate, a perfectionist, and introverted. He often talks too quietly for others to hear and he's very socially awkward and hates crowds and large social gatherings.

He's rather wealthy and sometimes reckless with his money and tends to have random outbursts of confidence and cockiness when he isn't comparing himself to Ranpo, even calling himself an "intellectual giant", introducing himself with a monologue of all his titles borderline bragging about them with a confident wink and a smirk.

He seems to have a capricious mood, first appearing confident and cold when confronting Ranpo, then suddenly depressed when Ranpo didn't know who he was. He later got very excited when he believed that he had beaten Ranpo, to the point of laughing uncontrollably. He gets jealous quite easily and often especially when it comes to Ranpo and his own pride and intelligence, which of course lead to that six year long plot of revenge. His angle was that of a Guild member obsessed with revenge through showing Ranpo his intricate murder mystery plot, though Ranpo soon acknowledges him and the time he took on making the six-year murder mystery plot causing him to idolize Ranpo striving to evolve his craft with the hope that one day he might exceed and finally defeat his rival, or at least catch up with Ranpo.

He still consistently tries to defeat and outsmart Ranpo to this day with new novels and manuscripts which so far has had no luck. Poe always comes to visit Ranpo at the Agency whenever he has a new challenge to offer. Although it seemingly has gotten less serious overtime with Poe saying that he wouldn't know what to do with himself if Ranpo were to truly die from one of his novels and they more so have grown to be trusted friends with one another. Other than Ranpo, however, he isn't known to have many friends. With the exception of his raccoon, Karl, who he considers his greatest and most trustworthy friend.

Poe's ability, Black Cat in the Rue Morgue (モルグ街がいの黒くろ猫ねこ, Morugu-gai no Kuroneko?), can transport readers into the setting of any mystery novel, specifically any murder mystery novel, other genres do not work with his ability and it must be one they are currently reading.

Poe is a detective from America who was "beaten" by Ranpo in an investigation competition six years prior to the events of the series. The defeat leads to him withdrawing himself from his personal connections and becoming extremely secluded and depressed. However, this defeat also inspired him to take back the life that he felt Ranpo had stolen from him. He then joined the Guild and came to Japan in order to challenge him directly.[2]

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Background Edgar and Ranpo first met several years before the actual story takes place, the two of them working on a murder case together. Ranpo solves it almost immediately, leaving Edgar in the dust as he vows to have revenge on Ranpo and surpass him. Because of that, Edgar soon joined the Guild in order to challenge Ranpo with his new writing capabilities.

Edgar sends Ranpo a letter inviting him to a challenge during the three-way struggle between the Armed Detective Agency, the Port Mafia, and the Guild. When Ranpo and Akiko Yosano arrived, Ranpo asked about Edgar, which saddened him because Ranpo had forgotten who he was. Edgar then showed Ranpo a new novel he had written, and if he and Yosano could solve the mystery behind the story, he would reveal the Guild's weaknesses. Ranpo was confused as to why he would let a smart detective like him to solve such a simple problem to get some intel about the Guild, but suddenly, Edgar used his ability to trap him and Yosano inside the book, confident that Ranpo won’t be able to solve it. However, when Ranpo does finally escape the book with Yosano, Edgar is shocked. Ranpo explains how he figured it out, and tells Edgar that he was the first detective that he really thought was almost on par with him, which makes Edgar excited.