I'm in Detective Conan, and the system has assigned me a succubus.

Holding it in your hand is like grasping a handful of withered branches soaked by rain and dried by the scorching sun.

"Then she probably doesn't intend to forgive me. What about you, child? Will you forgive me?" Karasuma Renya squeezed Uesugi Tetsu's hand back a little tighter.

It was as if he was afraid that Uesugi Tetsuya would leave him at this last moment.

Uesugi Tetsu didn't know what Karasuma Renya was referring to.

But he still gripped the withered hand tightly, then thought for a moment and asked earnestly:

"What are you referring to? The Uesugi family, or me?"

Karasuma Renya was silent for a moment, seemingly considering how to respond, before answering again:

"Both. I have failed the Uesugi family and I have failed you. I am a sinful person. I owe too many people and too many things."

"What exactly happened to the Uesugi family back then?"

Uesugi Tetsu finally asked the question he had always wanted to ask.

He could have asked sooner, but he waited until now.

They waited until the very last moment of the instigator's life.

Perhaps Karasuma Renya had long anticipated this day.

He lay on the hospital bed, his cloudy eyes staring at the ceiling, lost in a long silence, wondering where he should begin.

"What do you think we are doing, child, defying the gods and defying the unstoppable flow of time?"

The old man spoke slowly.

Upon hearing this question, Tetsuya Uesugi fell silent.

He is indeed thinking about this issue seriously.

As a codenamed member of the organization's high-ranking members, he was different from Gin, who only knew how to kill and occasionally went fishing in the desolate mountains during breaks in missions.

Uesugi Tetsu usually thinks about a lot of things, and they are quite varied.

Whether it's the mysterious drugs that the organization has spent countless human and material resources to develop, or other cutting-edge scientific endeavors.

They all seem to point to one ultimate goal—

eternal life.

But Uesugi Tetsuya had also seen Vermouth say something like that with a sorrowful expression—

'We are both God and the devil.'

"Because we want to reverse the flow of time and bring the dead back to life!"

“Immortality…” Uesugi Tetsu thought for a moment, then added, “Or even further…resurrection?”

"To bring the dead back into this world."

Karasuma Renya listened quietly to what Uesugi Tetsu had to say.

A faint light suddenly appeared in his cloudy eyes: "Yes, child, you are very clever."

"I have spent my whole life defying the will of the gods and trying to reverse the flow of time, but not to gain immortality for myself."

“I have lived for far too long, so long that I am tired of this decaying body.”

"But I did all this just so that your mother, who is also my wife, the only person I have ever loved in my life—Uesugi Yui."

"To be able to open my eyes again, to be able to smile at me again, to be able to go to Kyoto to see the cherry blossoms in spring."

"She is the daughter of the Uesugi family, the most precious jewel in that family."

"And you, my child, you really look like your mother."

Uesugi Toru was unusually stunned by this unexpected answer...

One's own mother.

Karasuma Renya actually wanted to resurrect a person who had already died.

He originally thought that the old man's purpose in establishing the organization was to rule the world, or to achieve immortality and control everything forever.

In the end, it was all just to bring someone who was already dead back to life.

No, Old Deng, what you're doing is very similar to something I did with an old friend.

Does this mean I'll have to pilot Unit-01 to fight against the Angels in the future?

Don't let the organization suddenly transform into NERV, and you, old Deng, become the Commander-in-Chief.

Uesugi Tetsu almost blurted out, "You didn't build an underground base that's full of your mother's clones, did you?"

But he held back, yet he still asked another question:

"Wait a minute, let me ask first. Teacher, she's not a clone, is she? She wouldn't happen to be something you created to bring your mother back to life..., would she?"

If Karasuma Renya really did use Vermouth as a vessel or replica for some kind of experiment in order to revive Uesugi Yui.

Uesugi Tetsu would probably stand up right now and leave the room without looking back.

Karasuma Renya was clearly taken aback by Uesugi Tetsu's sudden wild idea.

He lay on the hospital bed, letting out intermittent, hoarse laughs. The old man laughed for a while before continuing:

"Che, you have quite the imagination, just like your mother."

"Back then, she would always ask me some strange questions, such as whether there are really rabbits on the moon, and whether I could buy Mount Fuji and plant it with sunflowers."

"That child, Vermouth, is not a clone."

"She is neither a child of the Uesugi family nor a child of the Karasuma family."

"She is the child your mother picked up many, many years ago."

When Uesugi Tetsu heard from Karasuma Renya that his biological mother's name was "Yui," he felt a little flustered.

I feel like this plot is way too familiar.

However, he soon realized that something was wrong.

If he really is the biological son of Karasuma Renya and Uesugi Yui, then Karasuma Renya would have been quite old when Uesugi Yui passed away.

However, his current age doesn't quite match that of Karasuma Renya, this ancient monster who has lived for who knows how long.

Karasuma Renya seemed to notice the confusion on Uesugi Tetsu's face.

He slowly shook his head, and the hand that Uesugi Tetsu was holding tightened slightly.

"There's no doubt, you are my and Wei's child."

"The blood flowing in your veins is undoubtedly that of me and hers."

"However, your birth was not simply a matter of being conceived in your mother's womb for ten months and then naturally being born."

"From the moment you were born, your existence is actually more about existing for the sake of being unique."

"You are the only hope I was able to create to prolong her life after I fell ill, after trying everything I could."

"As for why you later left the Karasuma family and went to the Uesugi family."

"That's because, after I found out, Wei secretly sent people to do it behind my back."

“She sent you away from the Karasuma family to her family, the Uesugi family, so that you could grow up as an ordinary child in a place far away from me.”

As Karasuma Renya finished speaking, he coughed violently, his thin body heaving uncontrollably.

The ventilator next to them also emitted a rapid and sharp alarm.

He raised his other hand and laboriously removed his oxygen mask, looking at Uesugi Tetsu with a pleading gaze.

"I want to be able to see you properly in the end, without having to look through this mask."

Uesugi Tetsuya was silent for a moment, then reached out to help him remove the mask and place it aside.

The old man's weak and withered face was finally exposed in the twilight-shrouded room.

His lips were chapped, his cheekbones were high, and his cloudy eyes, deep-set, were trying to focus on Uesugi Tetsuya's face.

He took a while to catch his breath before calming down and continuing.

"He contracted a strange illness."

"I searched for all the best doctors in the world and used all the resources and strength of the Karasuma family, but no one could tell me what the disease was."

"There is no way to save her using any of the existing scientific methods."

“I could only watch helplessly as she grew weaker day by day, as her hair fell out in clumps, as she lost the strength to even stand up, and finally died painfully in my arms.”

There were no tears in his cloudy eyes when he said these words.

Perhaps his body had become so depleted that it could no longer even produce tears.

But his voice was heavier than his tears.

"I'm not reconciled! I'm not reconciled to just watching Yui die!"

"Why? Why can a god so easily take her away from me?"

"Why can time so ruthlessly crush her piece by piece?"

"I don't agree!"

Uesugi Tetsu saw a kind of rage in this frail old man.

It was more of a fury at incompetence.

"So I used all my wealth, all my power, and everything that could be called 'power'."

"They helped Wei little by little to keep the flame of life from going out."

"And you, my child."

Karasuma Renya's gaze returned to Uesugi Tetsu's face.

He looked at Uesugi Tetsuya, as if he were looking through the contours of his face at the shadow left by his mother.

"You are indeed my and Wei's child, there is no doubt about that."

"However, given that Wei's body was already riddled with holes from the disease, she really couldn't bring you into this world through normal means."

"But I need a child."

"I need a child who shares my bloodline, not for carrying on the family line, not for inheriting the family business."

"It's for the future, so that we can replace the organs in Wei's body that have been destroyed by the disease, extend her life, and even help her regain her health and stand up and walk again."

"Just like that legendary Ship of Theseus, I replaced all the broken parts on her body with new ones."

"Her heart, her kidneys, her liver..."

"Replacing them all little by little with healthy and vibrant organs provided by you."

"It's all so that Wei can live a little longer."

"Even if it's just one more day, even if it's just one more hour."

Uesugi Tetsu saw a kind of madness in Karasuma Renya's face.

Judging from these contents alone, it is indeed insane.

He never imagined that he would be born in this way.

"And eventually, Yui found out about this, and she sent someone to secretly send you back to the place where she grew up, which is the Uesugi family."

“She said she wouldn’t allow me to use you as an organ bank, wouldn’t allow me to use you as a tool, and wouldn’t allow me to continue this plan after she dies.”

She said you are also her child, not something that can be disassembled and used as parts.

When Karasuma Renya finished speaking, he sighed softly, as if he felt regret.

Uesugi Tetsu didn't know what Karasuma Renya regretted.

"And Vermouth has been able to live on in this manner..."

"It's because she took what was originally a prototype drug, in order to test it on Yui—"

"APTX".

"Or rather, a silver bullet."

“Silver Bullet”.