give it all to miss machima

Conan's pupils constricted sharply at those words, and he took a small step back. He stared in shock at Shiho Miyano before him, instinctively wanting to deny it:

"Haha, what...what are you saying? I just..."

"Don't be nervous. Although I used to be a member of the organization, I'm not here to investigate you, much less to arrest you, the miniature detective—Shinichi Kudo."

"...!!!?"

Chapter 132 The Birth of Ai Haibara (Part 2)

"you……!?"

Conan, whose identity had been completely exposed, suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

He swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure, but still couldn't help asking with some trepidation:

"Are you..."

“Sherry—that’s my code name in the organization. Judging from your expression… you should already know what I’m talking about—yes, the organization that gave you the drugs that made you shrink.”

Conan looked Shiho Miyano up and down again, his words stammering:

"But...you...how could you...you're only..."

“APTX4869—that’s the name of the drug that shrunk you…”

Shiho Miyano looked at her small hands and gave a bitter smile.

"It was personally developed and formulated by me. In extremely rare cases, aside from death, it can force the human body to regress to an infantile state... Just like you, I also took that drug."

"You... you also took that kind of drug!?"

Conan realized that... the person in front of him wasn't a little girl at all, but an adult at least as old as him... So...

"Why...why are you here!? How do you know who I am...?"

"Don't worry, apart from me, no one in the organization should know that you are Shinichi Kudo. As for why I know... do you remember that bombing?"

Conan paused for a moment, realizing that the other person was referring to the skyscraper bombing case that almost killed Ran, which was also the reason Ran met Makima and... wait!

He recalled for a moment.

"You're... that Shiho? Miyano Shiho... Miyano Akemi, really your older sister!?"

It was quite obvious that a hint of pain flashed across Shiho's face when Miyano Akemi's name was mentioned.

She nodded:

"It seems you've already guessed quite a bit... Yes, Miyano Akemi is my biological older sister, and it was I who asked her to confirm whether you are Shinichi Kudo, but she doesn't know that you are Shinichi Kudo. I only learned about the other effects of APTX4869 because of the lab rats in the experiment."

"Then she... your sister..."

"do not know."

Shiho shook her head.

“You should know about the attack on Machima, right? My sister… disappeared after that, and I don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

"Machima..."

Conan repeated the name, recalling that Ran seemed to have said something about her relationship with Shiho...

"Then she..."

"...dead."

"..."

Although Shiho Miyano's expression was incredibly calm when she said this, Conan could still sense her grief from her eyes.

After receiving so much information, Conan also felt a slight headache.

"...So...you were there that night too? What exactly happened? And why did you find your way here!?"

Shiho Miyano looked at Conan, whose expression remained tense and whose eyes were still full of wariness, and gave a bitter smile:

"I... escaped."

"Go in."

Two members of the organization pushed Shiho into the room.

This is her dormitory in the laboratory.

When she woke up, she was already in a car. The doctor sent by the organization, after briefly confirming that she was not in any immediate danger, sent someone to take her back here.

Of course, compared to when she was the head of this laboratory, she is now just a prisoner who can't even leave her room.

For the next few days, the organization did nothing but deliver water and food to her.

During these past few days, whenever Shiho Miyano closed her eyes, the image of Machima before her death would appear in her mind.

On several silent nights, Shiho Miyano longed to either cry or laugh out loud.

Everything has returned to the way it was before—he is firmly controlled by the organization, and his sister's fate is unknown...

But this time, no wicked guy will come to rescue her.

Machima is dead.

In a way, it's because of her...

Shiho Miyano still doesn't know what her feelings for Machima really are.

Does she love Machima?

That guy treated her in an incredibly cruel way, making her want to shoot him to death... Ironically, she was indeed shot to death in the end.

Does Machima love her?

Machima probably, seemingly, possibly did love her... even though her love was so twisted, in the end, all she wanted was to escape...

Now, no matter what, Shiho no longer has to worry about Machima and her love.

And so, I found myself alone again.

Now, the only thing keeping Shiho alive is news of her sister.

She was unaware of the situation outside, but she knew that Tamiya Ryoko had led her sister to break through the encirclement, and as long as they weren't captured by the organization afterward, her sister might still be alive...

Clinging to this last shred of faith, she persevered until someone from the organization came to find her.

She was visited by Vermouth, who asked Shiho to restart her drug research, but refused to let her know about her sister. Vermouth told her that she would not be allowed to contact or even meet her sister unless there was progress in the drug research.

Shiho then realized that either her sister was already dead—or if the organization had captured her, they would have used her to coerce her, instead of dragging it out like this.

Either the organization hasn't captured the older sister yet, and she and the remnants of Machima are likely on the run from the organization.

But the organization was clearly unwilling to wait any longer; they demanded that Shiho begin her research immediately… and this time, it was a human experiment that Shiho had previously refused to conduct.

“I didn’t want to participate in those kinds of experiments for the organization, not even if it meant death… So… I escaped—I pretended to agree to start the research, and took the opportunity to find APTX4869… Luckily, I didn’t die. My shrunken body allowed me to crawl through the pipes and escape that laboratory…”

Shiho Miyano calmly recounted her escape experience to Conan.

“Machima is dead… I dare not go to the original mansion, nor do I dare to contact the Special Investigations Division. I cannot contact either my sister or Tamiya Ryoko, and I do not even know if they are still alive… Finally, I thought of you.”

"……I?"

Shiho Miyano looked at Conan.

“You were one of the people who shrunk like me after taking the drug. Makima actually knew that Shinichi Kudo was still alive. After learning this from Ran that night, she wanted to get rid of you... but I stopped her. As for the organization, I changed your disappearance to a confirmed death... In other words, as long as you don't do anything reckless, you're safe... So, I think you can understand…”

Conan gritted his teeth, remembering his brush with death.

"So...you thought you could come here for refuge?! Understand? Are you kidding me? How could I possibly understand someone like you who develops drugs..."

"I don't want to make any excuses for my actions, but my sister Akemi, she genuinely considers you and Ran as friends... and now, this is the only possible connection I can find with my sister."

Shiho Miyano looked at Conan, who was stunned.

"I know you don't trust me... but if you think about it carefully, you'll understand that from now on, we're on the same side, Great Detective..."

Chapter 133 The Birth of Ai Haibara (Part 2)

It's impossible to let Shiho Miyano stay here any longer. Putting everything else aside, in Ran's view, Shiho has simply run away from home and refuses to go back. Since she can't contact Akemi, she'll definitely have to call the police in the end.

Therefore, after much hesitation, Conan took Shiho back to Professor Agasa's place for the time being. The method was simple: he asked the professor to use a voice changer to impersonate Akemi's voice to make a phone call, and then let Shiho go back. Conan could then use the excuse of taking her home and then stay at the professor's house under the pretext of asking for a place to stay.

The professor clearly wasn't very wary of Shiho and comforted Conan, saying that since there were drug researchers here, they might be able to reverse engineer the antidote.

"It's not that simple..."

Shiho regrettably shattered this idea.

"Drug development requires specialized equipment and materials, as well as a large number of experiments. Moreover, the original data is all in the laboratory, so it is almost impossible for me to produce any results on my own."

"Where is that laboratory?"

"You don't intend to investigate all by yourself, do you, great detective?"

Shiho Miyano gave Conan the look she gave an idiot.

"You need to understand that you're not dealing with some desperate criminal. You're dealing with a secret criminal organization with unfathomable power. They can send mercenaries into Tokyo to launch attacks without regard for consequences, and then cover it up afterwards. Do you think it would be difficult for them to kill you to silence you if you were discovered? The organization isn't as merciful as Machima."

Conan gritted her teeth, but she also noticed that the other person's expression was full of sorrow when Machima was mentioned.

But he couldn't help but ask:

“Machima… I only know that she holds an official position in the Special Investigations Section. Is she actually a member of the organization? And why is she in conflict with the organization?”

“She wasn’t at first, but… she joined the organization, or rather, she forced herself to cooperate with the organization.”

"Cooperation? For...that drug?"

"No, she just..."

Shiho Miyano's body trembled slightly as the image of Machima's mangled body and bright red blood resurfaced in her mind...

"Just a... bastard..."

Two days later.

In the dimly lit room, Tamiya Ryoko reported the latest situation of her subordinates' surveillance to the bastard someone had mentioned.

"Just as you predicted, Shiho Miyano is temporarily staying with that professor and has arranged a false identity to cover her tracks. She even enrolled in Beika Elementary School with Shinichi Kudo. Her current name is..."

"—Ai Haibara."

“…Yes.” Tamiya Ryoko raised an eyebrow. “You…have you perhaps already controlled a certain prophet?”

"No, no... This is a good development. Everything is back on track. It's good... I prefer the feeling of having things under my control to the point of the plot falling apart."

Machima smiled and nodded, while continuously twitching her succubus-like tail.

On the X-shaped restraint frame in front of her, a blonde, graceful figure was tightly bound. Blindfolds and earplugs blocked her senses. Because she could neither hear nor see anything, the only remaining sensation of touch was exceptionally intense. Every time Machima twisted or twitched slightly, the other person's body would tremble uncontrollably, emitting gasps and cries that made one's blood boil.

But Ryoko Tamiya seemed oblivious to what was happening before her, and asked with a blank expression:

"I still don't understand. How can you be so sure that she won't die after taking APTX4869 but will definitely shrink? According to experiments, the effect of this drug is completely unpredictable."

—Compared to Shiho's experiments using only mice, Makima's private experimental team has no moral bottom line. Death row inmates, homeless people, and illegal foreigners are now subjected to an extra procedure before being fed to the parasites—after all, the corpses that died from the drug don't contain any toxins, so it doesn't matter to the parasites, they just can't enjoy the pleasure of eating raw food.

It was precisely because of the large number of samples that Machima's experimental team was able to confirm that the drug was indeed completely unpredictable.

Oh, except for Tomie—because of Tomie's immortality, as long as you try enough times, you can always successfully shrink back to a child's state.

Even if Tomie shrinks, she will quickly grow back to her original girl form within a few days, given her recovery speed.

Therefore, aside from letting Machima try it out and experience the fun of the female version of Tomie, APTX4869 is almost useless.

To Ryoko Tamiya's confusion, Machima simply smiled and said:

"Because...she's one of the main characters. Only someone exceptionally special can take that kind of medicine and instead of dying, shrink..."

Hmm... It seems there's another "sister from outside the domain" in the future, Akai Mary? She's a genuine married woman, someone I can really work my magic on.

of course……

Machima looked at Vermouth, who was panting heavily in front of her.

The premise is that she didn't ruin herself by giving the other person stomach medicine.

“Alright…it seems you don’t intend to explain…However, things are alright with the organization; they haven’t dared to go any further. But what about Miyano Akemi? She’s terrified right now, on the verge of a breakdown.”

—Ever since Vermouth was captured by her and Makima's forces launched a full-scale counterattack, the Karasuma Group is now in a state of panic—they are unaware of Makima's situation, and don't even know if she is still alive.

However, another blow from the political, business, and military circles across Japan made them realize that regardless of whether Makima was still alive or not, the shadow empire she had built still possessed strong execution capabilities. Therefore, they had no choice but to halt their subsequent actions, comprehensively consolidate their forces, and try to wait for negotiations.

As for the Karasuma Group, we can leave them to their own devices and let them spend a few more days in fear.