Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

Shuichi Akai has been very tired lately, a kind of exhaustion that goes deep into his bones.

As an FBI top investigator, he was used to a life of constant danger and living in the shadow of the Black Organization.

But recently, he has been having a very unpleasant time.

Although there was no deadly move targeting him personally, the number of murders happening around him was abnormally high.

Today it's a convenience store robbery and murder, tomorrow it's an apartment building fall, and the day after tomorrow it's a street fight resulting in death...

These cases seem unrelated to him, but the frequency and location of their occurrence are too coincidental.

It was as if an invisible hand was deliberately pushing him toward these scenes of death.

This inevitably made him extremely sensitive.

He investigated every victim and followed every clue, but ultimately found nothing.

Those cases were just ordinary criminal cases, unrelated to the Black Organization and Zheng Yi.

"This identity is no longer safe."

While he was filled with worry, his younger sister, Sera Masumi, was also very uneasy.

At that moment, Sera Masumi was sitting at another table in the cafe, and the ice water in front of her had melted halfway.

Her gaze was somewhat vacant, fixed on the gently smiling woman opposite her, her face filled with an indescribable strangeness.

Akemi Miyano gently stirred the slightly cooled black tea in front of her, gazing at her tenderly.

"Here, wipe it off."

"Thank you."

Sera Masumi picked up the handkerchief Akemi handed her and roughly wiped the sweat from her forehead.

She and the woman in front of her had actually "bumped into" each other many times before.

At first, she thought it was just a coincidence, but as the number of chance encounters increased, she realized that they were happening more and more frequently.

The other party always seemed to appear when she needed help, and Sera Masumi's vigilance grew stronger.

Finally, in a chance encounter, Sera Masumi made a move against Akemi.

She wanted to test this woman's background and find out what her true purpose was.

However, after taking action, Akemi revealed a shocking identity to her.

"I am your older sister."

Moreover, she also knew Zheng Yi.

During the phone call, Masakazu confirmed Akemi's identity and told Sera Masumi part of the truth.

Although Sera Masumi also held back from Masakazu, Masakazu knew Conan's identity and helped Conan conceal it for a long time.

Her mother was in the same situation as Conan, which gave her a natural sense of trust in Shoichi.

"Don't be nervous," Akemi said softly, reaching out to straighten Sera Masumi's slightly disheveled collar.

Sera Masumi instinctively wanted to dodge, but seeing the tenderness in Akemi's eyes, she forced herself to stay away.

She felt extremely uncomfortable.

Just then, the door to the coffee shop was pushed open.

Shoichi and Ai walked in.

When Sera Masumi saw Masakazu, she immediately stood up and waved.

Compared to this suddenly appearing "older sister," she was still closer to Zheng Yi.

"Cough cough."

Zheng Yi walked to the table, cleared his throat, and placed a thick stack of documents on the table.

"Take a look, this is all the information I've gathered," Zheng Yi said. "If you don't believe me, go back and ask your mother, and you'll find out if you have a sister."

Sera Masumi picked up the documents on the table and began to look through them carefully.

The information is very detailed, and all the details about the Akai family are accurate.

"I'll have to ask my mother when I get back." Sera Masumi closed the file.

Masato nodded and said to Sera Masumi, "If you've found out about your mother and want to reunite with her, just come find me. We'll live together now."

"what?"

Sera Masumi looked at Masakazu with surprise, then nodded.

Sera Masumi glanced at Akemi again, then turned her gaze to Masakazu and asked softly, "So, I should call you... brother-in-law?"

Upon hearing this, Ai's eyes widened, and she stared at Sera Masumi with disbelief.

Miyano Akemi looked at Sera Masumi, knowing that she had misunderstood something, but she didn't know whether to refute it or not.

After all, although the idea was wrong, there didn't seem to be any major problem with the way it was addressed.

"Don't yell like that," Ai shouted, her cheeks puffed up in dissatisfaction.

"What I call you is none of your business." Sera Masumi stretched out her finger and poked Ai's face.

“In terms of relationship, Zheng Yi is my brother-in-law, and you are Zheng Yi’s sister, so you should call me sister.”

Ai slapped Sera Masumi's hand away and pointed at the documents on the table, saying, "Didn't you see there's another person named Miyano Shiho on there?"

"Forehead."

Sera Masumi blinked, her gaze returning to the documents.

She asked softly, "So, you are..."

Ai snorted coldly, raised her chin, and nodded.

It is important to distinguish who is the older sister and who is the younger sister.

"You also took that kind of drug to shrink?" Sera Masumi nodded, feeling her worldview being shaken once again.

“That’s right,” Zheng Yi interjected. “Your family has really good genes; you can’t even die from poison.”

Sera Masumi's lips twitched; she wasn't sure if this counted as a compliment.

She looked at Ai curiously, then at Shoichi, and asked in a low voice, "Does Conan know your identity?"

"I don't know," Ai replied crisply.

Zheng Yi shrugged and said, "There's no need to tell Conan about this. Conan is someone who can't keep secrets; telling him will only increase the risk of being exposed."

Sera Masumi nodded in deep agreement, feeling that Masakazu's words made sense.

Conan's true identity is already known to so many people; he can't keep it a secret anymore.

His knowledge is too accurate, which is bad for everyone.

"Then I'll go back first."

After Sera Masumi left, the atmosphere in the coffee shop became somewhat dull for the three of them.

Ai stood up first and said, "Let's go too."

"it is good."

……

The incandescent light in the laboratory cast a cold glow on the metal tabletop.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of evaporating alcohol, mixed with the odor of some indescribable chemical reagent.

Ai carefully placed a test tube containing a light blue liquid into the incubator.

Zheng Yi leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, his eyes filled with curiosity.

"This is..."

“The complete antidote for APTX4869.” Ai turned around, holding another printed data report in her hand.

Her tone was as calm as if she were discussing the weather, but her slightly trembling fingertips betrayed the turmoil in her heart.

"After seventy-three formula improvements, all neurotoxin components were eliminated, while the active factors that reverse telomerase were retained."

She speaks very quickly, rattling off technical terms like a machine gun.

Zheng Yi was completely confused, and his brows furrowed into a deep frown.

I can't understand it at all.

He raised an eyebrow, a playful smirk playing on his lips. "Sounds very profound. So, you really figured it out?" Ai stopped what she was doing, looked up, and stared directly at Zheng Yi with her amber eyes.

There was a faint dark spot under her eye; she hadn't slept all night.

She was very excited at that moment.

"Experiments on mice show a success rate of 87.5%."

Her voice was soft, but every word was clear: "This is the highest guarantee I can give at the moment. The remaining variables depend on the differences in how the body metabolizes the drug."

“87.5%…” Zheng Yi repeated in a low voice, as if he was savoring the weight of this number.

He was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed: "So, there's still a one in eight chance that something will go wrong?"

"Science is never 100% absolute." Ai threw a thick experimental record book onto the table in front of him with a dull thud.

She looked at Zheng Yi strangely, her tone tinged with confusion.

"Why do you seem unhappy? Don't you want me to develop the antidote?"

“Of course not,” Zheng Yi immediately retorted, his gaze drifting elsewhere.

How could he have such a thought?
"I'm just thinking about practical matters." Zheng Yi picked up the notebook and flipped through it casually.

He couldn't understand the dense data and charts on it, but he could see the comparison charts circled in red.

A baby mouse grew bigger after taking the drug.

"Ai," Shoichi said in a low voice, sounding very worried, "if you turn back, Gin will definitely catch you. Then, it won't be easy for you to hide."

“I know,” Ai Haibara interrupted him.

"Once I return to my original form, Gin's bullets will arrive faster than ever before."

But do you want me to live my whole life with this face that isn't mine?

Ai looked at Masakazu.

It feels like you can protect me.

Now, besides Gin, who in the organization still cares about her?

She crossed her arms, raised her chin slightly, and said resolutely, "I don't want to be a child anymore."

Zheng Yi looked at her and said softly, "You can grow up slowly... When you grow up, Gin will get old and won't be able to hold you anymore."

This is the safest approach.

Ai glared at Zheng Yi, looking at him like he was an idiot: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Zheng Yi fell silent.

He looked at Ai, sighed, and knew he couldn't persuade her.

You are too stubborn.

“By the way,” Zheng Yi changed the subject.

"That drug that can shrink people? It's the improved version of APTX4869, the one with a lower mortality rate."

Ai glanced at him, as if she had expected him to ask this question.

She took a capsule from another drawer and placed it in her palm.

“This is it,” Ai explained. “However, it doesn’t actually shrink people reliably; it just has a high probability. The mortality rate has dropped to 70%, but the side effects are unknown.”

"Let me see." Zheng Yi took the capsule in his hand and examined it carefully under the light.

This is really good stuff.

He was already calculating in his mind how much to sell this thing for.

"Seventy percent, which rounds up to fifty percent."

"Tell me, how much should I sell this medicine to those rich people who want to turn back the clock?" Zheng Yi rubbed his chin, looking like he was obsessed with money.

Ai's lips twitched. "Is this something that can be rounded up or down? This is something that could kill someone."

"This is poison, you can't round it off," she coldly reminded him.

"Round it up or down, that's fifty percent." Zheng Yi said nonchalantly.

"There's a 50% chance of reversing aging, so it's a worthwhile deal."

Ai squinted, her eyes filled with warning: "So, you just don't harm ordinary people, is that it?"

Zheng Yi chuckled and put the capsule into his pocket: "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I'll only sell it to the right people."

Ai Haibara neither agreed nor disagreed with Shoichi's words, but advised him to be cautious, or to wait until she had studied it for a longer period of time before bringing it out to "harm people".

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Zheng Yi waved his hand dismissively.

“However, Ai,” Shoichi suddenly laughed, a laugh that carried a hint of roguishness and a touch of relief, “if you don’t turn back into a cat after eating it, but instead turn into a cat, I’ll buy you dried fish.”

"Boring." Ai turned her head away, but her ears turned slightly red.

"Alright, stop fooling around." Masakazu stopped smiling, looked at Ai, and his eyes became serious.

"Now that the antidote has been developed, let's arrange for trials as soon as possible. Who do you plan to test it on first?"

Ai turned around, her eyes becoming deep.

"Who do you think should be the first to try the drug?" she countered.

Zheng Yi frowned.

Since you've already asked this question, are there any other candidates?

But Shoichi just wouldn't mention Conan.

He looked at Ai and said, "Didn't you just recognize a relative?"

"She's turned into a child too, you can try it on her."

Ai's lips twitched slightly.

"Isn't this a bad idea?" Ai said.

They just confessed, and now they're using others as test subjects? It makes it seem like they're using their kinship for personal gain.

“Why not?” Zheng Yi said, “She’s so old, she definitely doesn’t want to be a child anymore, so she should be more eager than you to be, so it’s very appropriate for her to be young.”

"What if we get sick from eating it?" Ai asked.

“Then you’ll lose a relative,” Zheng Yi said.

Xiao Ai was speechless.

You speak so calmly. Is losing a relative such a normal thing?

"How about we use Conan instead?" Ai Haibara suggested.

As she spoke, she glanced at Zheng Yi's face and winked.

"Isn't Conan a bad idea?" Masakazu frowned and said, "What if he makes someone sick from eating it?"

Ai was stunned.

Zheng Yi's words sound familiar, like they just came out of my mouth.

Ai Haibara organized her thoughts and said, "Conan has eaten it many times. He has antibodies and it's not easy for him to be killed by it directly."

Masakazu looked at Ai and blinked.

"Is that right?"

Ai nodded.

“That’s it. You have to trust me. I’m a professional, and I never make mistakes,” Ai said.

"What if something really goes wrong with what you eat?"

"Don't worry if problems arise. I'll help him research new drugs and then solve his physical problems."

“Okay.” Zheng Yi nodded as well.

He looked at Ai and said, "Then let's discuss it with Conan. We need to respect his opinion and give him the decision-making power."

"Okay." Ai naturally had no objections.

Conan has been wanting to turn back into Shinichi Kudo for a long time, so he definitely won't refuse the request to test the drug. (End of Chapter)