girl help I can't sleep because I'm thinking about how Conan isn't growing up at all
like actually all the vaguely bittersweet "there's no antidote so Conan grows up with the detective boys" fics can't be true because if there's no antidote Conan Edogawa won't get to grow up. he will stay 7 forever and that's actually so much more terrifying
(same for all those "Haibara chose not to take the antidote", and that one OVA in which Shinichi hallucinated his life 10 years later as Conan the high schooler)
like yeah I know he'll end up getting his body back but. man now that I've remembered that the stakes are just that much higher (and tbh I think Haibara is right in hiding this from him as long as there's still hope for an antidote)
it also makes it incredibly more worrying that Shinichi's body is building resistance to the antidote and it's just a matter of time until he can't return to his old body at all, even temporarily. this is scary AS HELL
This chapter opens up with what I think is very underestimated, crucial information... the origin of Mary's suspicious APTX4869 side-effect coughs. We are now getting the vital context that these developed on her potentially because she was already having a cold (stuffed nose) when she got drugged by Vermouth in File 1149.
As many may know, I have had this long held suspicion ever since Mary's introduction that her role was gonna be the key to the antidote completion, which I have written thoroughly about here:
Do you think Sherry has already known how to make the final antidote ?? Or already made it, but refuse to tell kudo about it to keep him saf
In short, Mary's APTX4869 side-effect coughs, that suggest that she is in a special immune-system-active state (which has been the prerequisite for the prototype antidote to work), is gonna be requirements for the protoype antidote to reach permanent reverting effect to adult form. This new information from Masumi indicates that in order to acquire this special state that Mary is in, you need to be in the stages of having a cold before digesting APTX4869.
This immediately made me wonder, what would happen if an APTX4869 shrunkie in adult form digest APTX4869 drug again? If the shrunkies are now "immune" to the deadly effect and can only shrink by APTX4869, then maybe if Shinichi ever faces Rum in his original form during the Rum climax, he might not even need to fake his death in an elaborate planned way. if Rum attempts to re-drug Shinichi in order to test if Shinichi couldn't die by APTX4869 before, and If Rum then is chased away because of circumstances (allies coming to Shinichi's aid), then Shinichi might simply shrink back to Conan and once again fools Rum & the BO and pretends like Shinichi officially died.
To further add on this scenario, If Mary's unique state is what is necessary for shrunkies to revert permanently back to adult form with the prototype antidote, then maybe the way they can replicate her unqiue state is by disgesting APTX4869 in adult form while having a cold, like she did when she was drugged in Vauxhall bridge. Since having a cold is implied to be the prerequisite for the temporary antidote to work at all, if Shinichi faces Rum as an adult, he would already have a cold by then. So if the above scenario transpires where Rum re-drugs Shinichi, then maybe a reshrunken sick Shinichi will acquire Mary's coughs in the future, making him viable for reclaiming his body permanently. This could mean that once he finds out that he can revert back to his old self permanently (maybe after witnessing Mary reclaiming her body by the mere use of the temporary antidote), he might then decide to stay in the form of Conan intentionally because of the convinient cover after Shinichi's re-officiallized death (which would also be Gosho's way of keeping the status quo of Conan solving cases, the beating heart of show, alive).
Mary side-effects and APTX4869 future aside, regarding the journalist, his trackrecord is showing that he likes to bluff-blackmail people on things that he has signed agreements on with his editor not to dislose. I think when he remembered Masumi, he was acting like he only finds her familiar when he in fact already remembered her. The way he was ready to have a full-on private meeting is already showing that he knows/is in possession of perceived "damning" things about Masumi, so he is already gauging that he could blackmail Masumi if she recalls where she met him.
In other words, I think that back in File 1096, when he took the picture of Masumi and Mary in the crowd, his newspaper agency was approached by Vader and were made/paid to censor any footage & photos from that incident outside the hotel where Mary was. So this journalist assumed that Masumi & Mary were high-profile people whose whereabouts needed to be kept hidden. I therefore suspect that now after his death, the actress he had an affair with will explain to Masumi in the resolution that he told her he remembered Masumi and wanted to gauge if she came from money and if she was desperate enough to pay him not to release the photos (that he likely wasn't allowed to release anyway).
If Conan listens in on this, then he will know that someone powerful is behind the censorship that he suspected in File 1097 and that someone is making moves related to Mary (for the sake of the mislead, he will probably spin it as a potentially nefarious thing). In other words, this could be setting up the beginning stage of Conan learning about/meeting Vader, like if he happens to notice him around Mary in the future.
Another final thought that came to me was about the "repeated disguise" shtick regarding the minister candidate. I couldn't help but wonder if is this was a Wakita return foreshadowing.
This case is overall looking promising for both the short term and long term plot of DC, and I can't wait to see how the resolution unfolds.
A difference of perspective would suit you well, Haibara.
Alt w/out the kids under the cut:
(Mainly because I spent the effort drawing their full bodies, and I’d be remiss to not show it)
Anyways, I gotta stop drawing Shinichi every time. I just like his recognizable hairstyle, I guess. Regardless, I had a lot of fun drawing this one, despite how much trouble the kids gave me in regards to their poses :(
We’ve almost made it to the 350’s, so we’re getting there. Despite of the fact that I spoiled myself of certain things (by accident), I’m still caught off guard by certain events, like the clusterfuck that was episode 345.
I'm starting another collection where Haibara gives hints about the APTX/Silver Bullet research and her backstory.
First mention of the APTX victim list (File 179, Haibara's intro case/murder of the university professor Hirota Masami):
Also File 179: one lab mouse was de-aged. Sherry faked Shinichi's death in the APTX victim list. The Organization was using the unfinished prototype version of APTX to kill people against Sherry's will.
Also File 179: the intent of Sherry's research was something else than making a poison.
File 179: Sherry's research was carried out at a facility that the Organization swiftly burned down after Sherry's escape.
---
In File 189 (soccer stadium case), Haibara thinks about how the Organization has been working on this project for half a century, approximately 50 years.
In File 191, Haibara talks mysteriously about how those trying to fight against the flow of time will be "punished".
