Mary Sera

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Mary Sera
Profile
Japanese name:	メアリー 世良 (Mearī Sera)
Age:	Looks approximately middle school aged according to Conan Real age is approximately 50s
Gender:	Female
Relatives:	Tsutomu Akai (husband, deceased) Shuichi Akai (son) Shukichi Haneda (son) Masumi Sera (daughter)
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: File 875 Anime: Episode 756
Appearances:	Chapters: 36 Episodes: 24 Movies: 2 OVAs: 0 Specials: 0 Openings: 7 Closings: 1
Cases solved:	1
Keyhole number:	Volume 83
Actors
Japanese voice:	Atsuko Tanaka

Mary Sera (メアリー 世良 ,Mearī Sera) is a middle-school age girl with light hair who has been hiding in various hotels in Tokyo with Masumi Sera. Despite her appearance, she is actually a middle-aged woman; she is the wife of Tsutomu Akai, and the mother of Shuichi Akai, Shukichi Haneda, and Masumi Sera.

Background

Mary Sera is a British woman who was married to Tsutomu Akai . She gave birth to three children, Shuichi, Shukichi, and Masumi. For some unknown reason, something like APTX 4869 must have caused her body to shrink from that of a middle-aged woman to that of a middle-school child. The change occurred sometime in the past, 10 years prior to the current timeline.

Mary's full background is currently unknown. Her existence was revealed by Masumi to Conan through an image on her cell phone and the name "The little sister from outside the domain" (ryōiki-gai no imōto). Mary and Masumi currently live in a hotel, and when their position becomes known, they move to a new one. In a recent appearance they seem to be investigating the death of Kohji Haneda to fidn out more about Asaka, the missing bodyguard. Mary has also implied that Conan is no longer the same person that she and Masumi met 10 years ago, lending credit to both the idea that she is a shrunken individual and that they are aware that Conan is Shinichi.

Personality

Mary seems very mature and direct, especially when speaking to Masumi. She seems hesitant to trust others at the moment and is being extremely cautious about who knows about her. Currently because of her cautiousness, she and Masumi have been moving from one hotel to another to keep their location hidden.

She is proud of her British heritage.

Like her eldest son she also seems to be clumsy at recognizing the motives behind the feelings of others and how to interact positively with others. In dealing with her children, Mary seems to be strict and cold, treating her children more like coworkers than a family. Shukichi seemed to be more nurturing to Masumi than her mom. When Mary was 10 years younger, she came to physical blows with her eldest son, Shuichi, since he lied to her about his reasons to study in the USA and planned to join the FBI and investigate her husbands' incident. They both went as far as attacking each other's faces, leaving black eyes. She also thought Shuichi, who is a rather cold person as well, would make a good replacement father figure for Masumi and Shukichi. However, soon after she realized that Shuichi was driven by the same sense of curiosity as his father and he would go his own way. Her continued mistrust of Conan is another example of her general denseness at understanding others, since it is long past the point where she should be able to tell that Conan's motives and pursuit of justice are genuine.

But she does express joy at Shukichi's victory for becoming the seven-crowned Shogi master. It indicates that she does care for her children.

Appearance

Mary's two different eye patterns

Mary is a girl of middle school age (12-15) with light colored, curly, neck length hair. The child has eyes similar to those of Masumi Sera and Shuichi Akai. In her appearance in File 877, she was shown wearing a high-neck pleated top, hoodie jacket, and hat. Like all the other manga characters, the color of her eyes is supposed to be blue, as seen in the keyhole of manga volume 83.

In her varying appearances, Mary's eyes have been drawn slightly differently. In her original and current chapter appearances she seems to have an extra lash on the top of her eye, where as in the Pool case and Conan's comparison of her and Haibara's eyes in the Department store case she does not have that extra lash.

Mary's hiding skills

Skills

Mary seems to know about several types of wire taps. When she and Masumi find Conan's wire tap in their room, she says that she hasn't seen that type before. She also describes the components of it such as its battery life and performance. She spoke in a similar fashion about Conan's voice changer after she gets a chance to use it herself.

She has demonstrated the ability to hang from a balcony by a thin rope/wire and hug the wall like a ninja. Afterword she has the strength to vault back up on to the balcony, much like Vermouth did in the New York case.

10 years ago she already had the ability to fight well enough that she landed a "knife-hand strike" to her son Shuichi's face, who at the time had already been practicing Jeet Kune Do. In the present, even with her small body, she was able to take down a fully grown man by herself. Conan described the damage as "a copped blow to a vital spot, similar to the techniques used by the secret service".

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Mary	What Mary calls them
	Tsutomu Akai	-	Tsutomu-san Husband (Shujin) Ano hito (literally "that person", but the intended meaning is "husband")
	Shuichi Akai	Mom (Kāsan) Mother (Haha)	Shuichi
	Shukichi Haneda	Mom (Kāsan) Mom Mary (Mary-kāsan)	Shukichi
	Masumi Sera	Mama The little sister from outside the domain (ryōiki-gai no imōto)	Masumi
	Kohji Haneda	-	Kohji Haneda Kohji

Picture	Name	What they call Mary	What Mary calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Mary That girl (ano shōjo) The little sister from outside the domain (ryōiki-gai no imōto)	Edogawa Conan This boy (kono shōnen)
	Ran Mouri	That girl (ano ko)	-

Plot overview

Mary on Masumi's phone.

The Red Woman Murder Case (Manga: 875, Anime: 756)

Masumi asks Conan to find her cellphone by calling it with his. When he does he notices the call background screen is a child with eye bags similar to those of Shuichi Akai and Masumi Sera. He remarks that the girl looks similar to Masumi. Earlier in the case she only mentioned having two brothers; a mother; and a father, so Conan suspects Masumi was intentionally trying to show him the child for some reason.

Mary and Masumi

Romance Novelist Murder Case (Manga: 876-878, Anime: 759-760)

When Ran, Sonoko, and Conan visit Masumi's apartment, Mary is shown opening Masumi's door as Conan, Masumi, Sonoko, and Ran rush to investigate a crime. It is implied she was hiding in Masumi's bedroom while the other three were in the dining area because Masumi asks Conan not to enter her bedroom. Mary later goes downstairs to the scene of the crime where she is seen by Conan. At some point off screen Conan leaves behind a bug in Masumi's room. After the case is solved, Mary is shown examining Conan's bug along with Masumi. Mary comments on the quality of the performance of the bug itself and that she has never seen one like it. She says that it is still early to trust Conan, and asks Masumi to introduce her as "the little sister from outside the domain (領域外の妹 ,ryōiki-gai no imōto)", should Conan question her in the future.

Mary and Masumi in the bedroom.

Shogi Tournament (Manga: 899-902, Anime: 785-786)

Mary is interested in Shukichi's shogi match. When Masumi returns to the hotel room in the middle of the case while Mary is napping, she turns on the TV and sees the shogi match. Later after the case is solved, Masumi enters the room for a second time to see Mary turning off the TV. Presumably she saw the end of the match and was happy at Shukichi's victory, as was Subaru Okiya, whose identity was revealed in the case before this one, to be Shuichi.

Ran sees Masumi and Mary.

Poolside Case (Manga: 903-905, Anime: 787-788)

Mary is waiting for Conan to visit her and Masumi in their hotel room. She expresses her still-lingering concern of trusting Conan, even though she thinks he is bright enough. Mary does comment that if anything were to go wrong they would have to move hotels again. Her talk with him alone is put on hold, however, because Ran and Sonoko have invited themselves in accompanying Conan in order to enjoy the hotel's pool. As Conan, Ran, and Sonoko head back home after the case is solved, Ran turns around and sees Masumi talking to her. Ran gets the feeling that she has seen that child before.

Conan with the handkerchief.

A Killer in Ramen Ogura (Manga: 928-930, Anime: 827-828)

Masumi Sera is at Ramen Ogura with Conan, Sonoko and Ran. Katsumasa Ogura asks Masumi (mistakenly calling her "Mari") if she's going to take the same food to her apartment again. Conan implies that Masumi could be giving food to someone she's letting stay in her apartment, making a clear reference to Mary, but she jokes saying that it's for her secret boyfriend. At the end of the case it is revealed that Ogura had found a handkerchief that Masumi had left behind that said "Mary" on it in English. Ogura had confused the English name with the Japanese name "Mari". Conan believes that the handkerchief may be related to the child as well.

Conan makes a connection between Mary and Haibara due to some remaining makeup.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: 843-844)

Conan thinks about Mary, "the little sister from outside the domain looks a lot like Sera, no wait, more than that girl resembling Sera..." (領域外の妹と名乗る… 世良によく似た… いや…　あの子世良というより…‥ ). Conan also thinks to himself that the child's name is probably Mary. At the end of the case Haibara tried to wipe some of the makeup off of her face in the bathroom, but she missed some just below her left eye. The left over makeup made it look like she had the same eye bags as Shuichi, Masumi, and Mary. This causes Conan to make a connection between her and Mary.

Soul Detective Murder Case (Manga: 951-953, Anime: TBA)

"Mama?!"

Kogoro is put in contact with a Soul Detective who wishes to reveal some information about the Kohji Haneda case. When Conan and Kogoro go to meet with him at a hotel they find him dead and that Masumi and Mary have mysteriously moved in to the next hotel room. During the investigation Conan runs into Masumi's hotel room and checks the balcony. Mary has hidden herself by anchoring herself to the balcony and hiding by hugging the wall underneath it. Conan nearly discovers that she is hiding there by trying to take a picture over the edge, which startles her. Conan then drops his voice-changer on his way back inside. Mary picks it up, and later uses it in place of Conan to solve the case. When the culprit tried to flee, Mary was able to take him down single handed using skills comparable to that of the secret service. Masumi calls her "Mama". Once Conan had left, Mary and Masumi discuss what information the Soul Detective had, which was that before Kohji's death, Asaka was seen holding a hand mirror and thinks that it means that Asaka is a woman. Mary warns Masumi about Conan saying that "it is like encountering a demon in the darkness" (暗がりに鬼を繋ぐが如く), and that he is not the same boy they met 10 years ago. Conan goes home and theorizes that Mary could have been Asaka. Later Gin uses the same demon line that Mary used to refer to Kogoro.

A flashback to 10 years ago at the beach.

A Chance Meeting at the Beach (Manga: 972-974, Anime:TBA)

10 years ago at a beach somewhere in Japan, Shuichi reunited with his family after his 7 years in the US. Mary had an off-screen fight with him where they both managed to injure each other's eye. Through out the case Mary warns him to stop investigating the disappearance of his father. She also tells both Shuichi and Masumi not to do things that got them involved in the case, because there are people out there that are after them.

Non-Canon Plot Overview

Movie 18: Dimensional Sniper

Mary is only shown two times at dawn under her hotel bed's blankets.

Identity

At the time Mary was introduced, her relationship to Masumi Sera was unknown. Masumi testifies that she has two older brothers: Shuichi Akai and an unknown brother (later revealed to be Shukichi Haneda) living in Japan. She says her father is dead, and her mother lives overseas in America. Masumi says she doesn't have any more relatives close enough to depend on. Masumi only started claiming to have a "younger sister from outside the domain" after the unknown child coached her to use that cover story if Conan asked about her. She is currently being financially supported by a friend of her father's. If Masumi has told the truth, minus what she said about having a "younger sister from outside the domain", that leaves relatively few options for Mary's identity assuming the child is related by blood somehow to Masumi. In file 972, Mary is revealed to be the Akai family's mother.

Fan speculation

Mary is an adult shrunken by APTX 4869

Mary acts like an adult despite apparent middle-school age. When Masumi and Mary speak, the speech honorifics are not those appropriate for an elder Masumi talking to a younger girl. Instead, they appear to indicate the two are on equal levels, or even reverse with Mary expressing greater seniority. In addition, Mary's Voice actor in the anime, Atsuko Tanaka, has a deep and sultry voice which is often used to portray mature female characters

The secrecy surrounding Mary, as well as Masumi's attempts to get her to trust Conan, whom Masumi knows is a shrunken Shinichi, might be indications that Masumi is trying to get the child help about an APTX 4869 problem. Mary appears to be sickly and is often seen coughing. This could be a side effect of an earlier version of ATPX she may have ingested.

Hints that Mary is the Akai family mother

-Mary share a ressemblance to Shuichi Akai and Masumi Sera, the Akai family's mother also passed her looks into Shuichi and Sera.

-Mary is mature while talking to Masumi, always giving Masumi the instructions.

-Mary was happy when Shukichi (who later revealed to be the middle brother of the Akai Family) won his 7th Shogi title.

-Mary possesses a voice that of a middle aged woman.

-Mary seems to have some knowledge abut wiretaps, she also demonstrated the ability to a balcony by a thin rope/wire and hug the wall like a ninja. She was also able to take down a fully grown man by herself. Conan described the damage as "a copped blow to a vital spot, similar to the techniques used by the secret service. Something that a normal middle school girl wouldn't be able to do this.

-In File 953, Masumi calls Mary "Mama", hinting that she is her mother.

Mary is the sister of Elena Miyano

This very popular fan theory was born after Gosho hinted that two mother characters are sisters. After it was confirmed the sisters were not the previous most popular choice Yukiko Kudo and Chikage Kuroba, and that the Akai family mother was one member of the sister pair, fan suspicion fell squarely on Elena Miyano as the other mother. Gosho has given evasive answers when asked about Elena and the Akai family mother being related, which is his habit when a fan theory is correct but he can't admit to it.

Possible meaning of "Sister from outside the domain"

Many of the Akais have used phrases referring to "territory" or "domain". Okiya stopped Haibara from removing the scarf hiding his voice-changing choker with the phrase, "Beyond here is my area... and not your space", and once invited her to "step into his territory" when trying to shelter her from danger aboard a train. Sera similarly used the phrase to ward Ran from a crime scene by saying, "This is our territory". Mary's choice of words probably reflect shared Akai family phraseology. It is possible the phrase has a deeper meaning, rather than a simple excuse for Conan that inadvertently uses Akai-like lingo.

If "outside the domain" means outside her area or territory, then Mary might be referring to the fact that she is foreign and thus British. As for sister, it can't mean a real sister of Masumi, since Mary is the biological mother of the Akai family.

Gallery

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  Mary as she originally appeared in file 875

• 

  Mary in file 899

See also

• Akai family
• Tsutomu Akai
• Shuichi Akai
• Masumi Sera
• Shukichi Haneda