Vermouth

“	A secret makes a woman woman.	„
	~ Vermouth's most famous quote.

Sharon Vineyard (in Japanese: シャロン・ヴィンヤード, Sharon Binyaado), also known by her alias "Chris Vineyard", (in Japanese: クリス・ヴィンヤード Kurisu Binyaado), and as her Black Organization name Vermouth (in Japanese: ベルモット Berumotto), is a major antagonist of the manga and anime series Detective Conan.

She was voiced by Mami Koyama and Youko Honna.

Background[]

Sharon's background is very mysterious. She was friends with Yukiko Kudo back when they were acting together. However, she was even then secretly a member of the Black Organization. It is unknown for exactly how long she has been a member of the Organization, but it is known that she had been secretly living two lives through the art of disguise; that of herself and her supposed daughter, Chris Vineyard. After staging Sharon Vineyard's death, she now lives as "Chris" and continues to serve the Black Organization. At one point, some 20 years ago, she killed the parents of a little girl who would become the FBI agent Jodie Starling, one of her most bitter enemies.

Sharon entered the storyline some time after Shiho Miyano/Sherry/Ai Haibara's mysterious flight from the Organization. Her main objective was to track down and eliminate the "traitor", and for that purpose she assumed the identity of doctor Tomoaki Araide. But although she managed to discover Shiho's reversion into a child, she did not succeed in killing her, as she met Conan Edogawa, who was able to discover and thwart her plans. She also encountered the FBI during this process.

Vermouth has great personal interest in Conan, constantly calling him "Silver Bullet". Since it has been revealed that she knows about Ai and Kudo's reversion to their child forms, she seems to know the shrinking effect the drug can have, but for reasons yet unrevealed she keeps this knowledge secret from the rest of the Organization.

Personality[]

At this point, Sharon seems very mysterious. She knows about Conan being Shinichi, as well as that Haibara is Sherry, yet she has kept this information a secret from the rest of the Organization. She is capable of being ruthless and cruel, being fully willing to kill and even mock others, but at the same time, unlike most other members of the Organization, she does seem to have limits in her ruthlessness, being apparently unwilling to kill children, as rather than just killing Jodie along with her father, Sharon told her to go away and spared a young witness of Kir's accident, Toji. It has even been frequently implied that Sharon does not actually approve with the Organization's plans and is willing to quit, but fears the consequences of doing so openly. She is frequently shown to hold hopes that Conan is the 'silver bullet' that will eventually stop the Organization. Another proof of her morality was how she is capable of having personal feelings for individuals who have earned a special place in her heart, such as Shinichi/Conan (as the son of her best friend) and Ran (who had inadvertently saved her life during her and Shinichi's adventures in New York) and refuses to harm them; even when she was ordered to do so, Sharon constantly manipulates events so that they will escape. Sharon's repeated depressive statements has also indicated a measure of self-loathing, which may or may not be attributed to her distaste for what the Organization is doing and how she is seemingly forced to commit amoral acts. She has shown particular hatred towards the Miyanos, stating that Haibara should blame their parents for her grudge and even stated she would not allow Haibara to live, although it doesn't trump her apparent care for Conan as she would not divulge the truth even after learning Ai had survived and the Black Organization ceased their efforts believing Shiho is dead.

Abilities[]

Disguise[]

Vermouth is able to mimic anyone's appearance and voice exactly with her disguise and acting skills even after observing them for only a short period of time. Vermouth frequently utilizes latex masks. Although she may have known how to disguise prior to meeting Toichi Kuroba, she studied disguise under him. Her disguise ability was first shown in The Mysterious Passenger where she dressed as a male waiter to tease Gin and Vodka.

Reconnaissance[]

Vermouth specializes in reconnaissance and infiltration, and has been shown to work very swiftly yet cautiously to rapidly acquire information. Her confidence and skill in disguise and imitation means she can execute bold plans that put her in very close contact with her targets and she can advance her plot even when they are suspicious of her. Without the aid of the other organization members, Vermouth successfully snuck into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters in order to steal the records of Kogoro Mouri's cases. She later returned them when presumably the surveillance would be even higher after the police noticed the files were missing. She then single-handedly staked out the FBI who were lured out into watching Kogoro Mouri and uncovered their numbers, addresses, and ways to contact them.

Stamina[]

Vermouth is quite strong and has developed a high pain tolerance. While she was disguised as a serial killer in New York City, Vermouth athletically vaults up from a dead hanging positioning over the railing of the stairwell to higher ground despite being shot in the side. She also shoots herself in the leg in order to avoid the effects of sleeping gas, and was able to limp to a phone booth on that shot leg, with several broken ribs caused by Akai, and with a deep scratch on her right shoulder when Jodie shot at her.

Shooting[]

As Vermouth pulled away in Jodie's car with broken ribs after her flak jacket absorbed a close range shotgun blast, she managed to aim a handgun backwards with her left hand using the side mirror while driving a car she wasn't used to and shoot Araide's car's gas tank standing 100 yards away, causing it to explode. Akai is impressed she managed that difficult shot with her battered body. Earlier however, she failed to draw fast enough to shoot Jodie or Akai; in the first case, the gun was shot out of her hand, in the second, Akai fired first.

Non-aging[]

For some reason, Vermouth does not appear to age. Her apparent age hasn’t changed since she murdered Jodie’s parents twenty years ago. Shuichi Akai proved that Vermouth was not wearing a mask when his shotgun fire grazed her face. Specifically, it hasn't been clarified if Vermouth hasn't aged over time or if she became younger all at once. It is also important to note that Vermouth's talent for disguise makes it difficult to figure out when Vermouth stopped aging nor deaged.

Speculation about non-aging[]

A popular theory on Vermouth's non-aging is that she used APTX 4869 to achieve her youthfulness, since this is the only known substance capable of producing such an effect. However, at present there are things that contradict such a notion. Vermouth would have faced near certain death if she had used APTX 4869. Before Vermouth discovered Haibara and Conan, the known members of the Black Organization (besides Sherry) only knew about APTX 4869's lethal effects, and it was considered deadly enough that Sherry's superiors employed it as an untraceable murder weapon. However, given that Vermouth has said depressing things over the course of the series, it is possible Vermouth took APTX 4869 hoping to commit suicide, but she de-aged instead, similar to Haibara's situation. Vermouth could have also gambled on taking APTX 4869 after she recognized the deaged Shiho and Shinichi and then discovered that APTX 4869 was the common connection between them and likely cause of their conditions. However, both the suicide scenario (if it occurred while Shiho was working on the drug) and the gambling scenario fail to explain why no one in the Black Organization has questioned why Vermouth has become younger, especially after Gin saw her true face following the Haunted Ship case, and then connected that with APTX 4869 use and Sherry's mysterious escape from the handcuffs and locked room.

It is possible that Atsushi and Elena Miyano had something to do with Vermouth's de-aging/non-aging (e.g. Vermouth was their guinea pig). This might explain the personal animosity Vermouth feels towards the Miyanos and why she calls their APTX experiment foolish. Vermouth's de-aging/non-aging may be a result of something other than APTX 4869 that has not been mentioned yet. The existence of something else would explain why none of the other members of the Black Organization question why Vermouth has deaged or is not aging, yet do not suspect that APTX 4869 can also cause this effect and thus are unaware of the possibility Shiho de-aged to escape.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Although not a turncoat yet, Vermouth was greatly despised by Chianti and Korn due to the fact that she left Calvados to die.
Vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Vermouth is a type of flavored fortified wine, which follows the pattern of wine based codenames for women in the Black Organization.
Vermouth's age is unknown because her history is largely unclear. We know she has lived as Chris who is 29, and as Sharon whose age is unknown. Her face when she killed Jodie's father 20 years was youthful, suggesting she is currently at least 40 years old as long as no deaging has occurred.
A popular theory on Vermouth's non-aging is that she used APTX 4869 to achieve her youthfulness since this is the only known substance capable of producing such an effect (Silver Bullet's effects are unknown at this point). However, at present there are things that contradict such a notion. Vermouth would have faced near certain death if she had used APTX 4869. Before Vermouth discovered Haibara and Conan, the known members of the Black Organization (besides Sherry) only knew about APTX 4869's lethal effects, and it was considered deadly enough that Sherry's superiors employed it as an untraceable murder weapon. However, given that Vermouth has said depressing things over the course of the series, it is possible Vermouth took APTX 4869 hoping to commit suicide, but she de-aged instead, similar to Haibara's situation. Vermouth could have also gambled on taking APTX 4869 after she recognized the deaged Shiho and Shinichi and then discovered that APTX 4869 was the common connection between them and likely cause of their conditions. However, both the suicide scenario (if it occurred while Shiho was working on the drug) and the gambling scenario fail to explain why no one in the Black Organization has questioned why Vermouth has become younger, especially after Gin saw her true face following the Haunted Ship case, and then connected that with APTX 4869 use and Sherry's mysterious escape from the handcuffs and locked room. It is possible that Atsushi and Elena Miyano had something to do with Vermouth's de-aging/non-aging (e.g. Vermouth was their guinea pig). This might explain the personal animosity Vermouth feels towards the Miyanos and why she calls their APTX experiment foolish.
Vermouth's de-aging/non-aging may be a result of a project older than Shiho's APTX 4869, like her parents' Silver Bullet, or something else even older than that. This would explain why none of the other members of the Black Organization suspect that APTX 4869 can also cause this effect and thus are unaware of the possibility Shiho de-aged to escape.

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