Isn't it very scientific to use the Death Note to kill people?

The car was quiet, with only the low hum of the engine and the patter of raindrops hitting the roof. Lin Jiashu was focused on driving, his profile impossibly handsome in the dim light of the dashboard.

Ai Haibara sat in the passenger seat, her small body almost sunk into the large seat. She turned her head to look out the window, her long brown bangs hanging down, obscuring her expression along with her mask.

—In the small backpack she brought out, there was a box containing the temporary antidote for APTX4869.

Do you want to change back?

This thought, like a vine, raged around her heart, suffocating her.

She would transform back into Shiho Miyano, no longer the little girl he could bend down and ruffle his hair, but a mature woman who could stand beside him and share his heavy secrets. Perhaps... perhaps then, the way he looked at her would be different? Perhaps he would understand that what she wanted was never to be protected like a child?

For the entire day, Ai Haibara thought about nothing but this matter.

She was unconsciously worried and anxious.

The risks of reverting to her original form were simply too great. First, there was the risk of developing resistance to the antidote after taking the medication again; second, there was the danger of her identity being exposed… More importantly, she was afraid. Afraid that even if she turned back into Shiho Miyano, he would still just gently pat her head, say, “Stop fooling around, Ai,” and then push her away again, continuing to walk alone into the deeper darkness.

She secretly glanced up at the man in the driver's seat.

Hayashi Yoshiki was looking straight ahead with a calm expression, but Ai Haibara seemed to see a subtle, almost imperceptible, burden on his profile.

The light and shadow of the streetlights flashed across his face, flickering on and off. This was a man who carried the weight of the abyss, yet he always showed her his most tender side.

The girl's heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, both sour and tender.

That impulse

The urge to swallow the antidote and break the status quo deflated like a punctured balloon the moment he saw his profile.

Forget it.

She silently clenched her hands, placing them flat against her chest, close to her pounding heart.

At least now... I can stay by his side. At least I can watch over him and make sure he's alright. At least... his tenderness is genuinely directed towards the identity of "Ai Haibara".

The car slowly drove into the underground parking garage of Mihana Second Apartment. After it came to a stop, the engine was turned off, and the car instantly fell into a relative silence.

"arrive."

Lin Jiashu unbuckled his seatbelt, his voice as gentle as ever.

He turned to the side and instinctively reached out to help Ai Haibara unbuckle her seatbelt.

The moment he approached, Ai Haibara keenly caught a faint yet unusually abrupt scent—a sweet and unfamiliar women's perfume, lingering subtly around the collar of his suit.

That breath, like a cold needle, pierced Ai Haibara's nostrils unexpectedly, and also plunged deep into her heart, which had just calmed down. A bitter taste and a sense of grievance, like spilled ink, instantly spread through her chest, more turbulent and harder to suppress than before.

She abruptly turned her head, avoiding his outstretched hand, her movement so swift it carried a sharpness she herself was unaware of.

Its small body tensed up as a result, like a young animal with all its spikes raised.

Lin Jiashu's hand froze in mid-air, pausing slightly.

"what happened?"

He guessed the reason, but his expression remained unchanged; he simply smiled and asked, "Are you still not feeling well?"

Instead of withdrawing his hand, Lin Jiashu gently ruffled the top of her brown hair.

That familiar, comforting touch, intertwined with the pungent scent of his perfume, created an incredibly jarring feeling that tore at Ai Haibara's heart.

In the end, she just hugged the backpack in her arms tighter, buried her face in it, and squeezed out a single word in a muffled, heavily nasal voice:

"……Um."

Chapter 26: Shiho Miyano

The rain was pattering outside the apartment balcony.

The rain has been falling since it started.

The low hum of the air conditioner could be heard from the living room. Lin Jiashu, who had already taken a shower, changed into comfortable loungewear, her body carrying the faint scent of evening primrose shower gel.

Ai Haibara's small figure emerged from the bathroom.

Her freshly washed, brown hair hung down, water droplets dripping from the ends and spreading into dark polka dots on the shoulders of her light-colored cotton pajamas.

She was wearing the children's pajamas that Akemi Miyano had bought for her. Although her bright face looked a little wan, she was still very cute...

"I can't find a hairdryer."

"Then dry it off a bit more...you still have a cold."

Lin Jiashu immediately got up from the sofa.

He found a dry towel, casually rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, and then walked up to Ai Haibara, wrapped the towel around her wet hair, and gently pressed and absorbed the moisture.

His movements were very gentle.

"I can do it myself."

Ai Haibara's expression was somewhat unnatural.

So taking a bath is indeed a relaxing thing; at least Ai Haibara felt much calmer after taking a bath.

Lin Jiashu did not respond.

He dried the water droplets from Ai Haibara's hair, then found a hair dryer and plugged it in.

"Come here."

He smiled and gestured.

So Ai Haibara walked over.

Lin Jiashu gestured for her to sit on the sofa, while he, worried, leaned against it. He pressed the switch, and the hairdryer emitted a low, humming sound—

His long, slender fingers ran through her damp, cool hair, the movements practiced and gentle.

The warm air avoided her scalp and neck perfectly, only brushing precisely over the strands of hair that needed drying.

His fingertips would sometimes massage her scalp with just the right amount of pressure, creating a soothing and comforting sensation. At other times, he would patiently and meticulously smooth out her tangled hair ends.

The scent of his perfume had long since dissipated by now.

but,

His overly practiced gentleness at this moment was all the more noticeable.

Is it because you often do this for others?

For Yoko Okino, for those who left their perfume on him today, or rather, for all sorts of other "women"...

These thoughts flashed through her mind, but no other color appeared in Ai Haibara's blue eyes.

"I never imagined you'd be so good at this kind of thing."

She suddenly spoke, her voice mostly drowned out by the noise of the hairdryer, but it was enough for him to hear clearly.

The hairdryer hummed without stopping, and his movements as he combed her hair didn't falter. Hayashi Yoshiki merely smiled faintly, but Ai Haibara, with her back to him, didn't see it.

"My learning ability is indeed quite good."

He ultimately just said it casually.

Ai Haibara shut her mouth and stopped speaking, silently feeling the heat of the wind and the temperature of his fingertips.

Lin Jiashu did not suppress his smile.

Whether it was the perfume he smelled earlier or the skill with which he was blow-drying his hair, he wouldn't be so careless as to forget to conceal these things.

It's just unnecessary for Ai Haibara, who already knows her secret.

A moment later,

Ai Haibara's hair was completely dry, falling loosely and softly. Yoshiki Hayashi turned off the hairdryer, and a sudden silence enveloped the two of them.

He patted her shoulder gently, his tone casual: "Okay, take a rest first. Can we use the laptop for anything we need to do later?"

"OK."

Lin Jiashu put away the hair dryer and returned it to its original place.

When he returned, he poured two glasses of warm water and placed them on the coffee table, then went to get his spare laptop that he kept at home.

The girl with the cold obediently drank the water.

Soon after, she returned with her small backpack and the computer that Lin Jiashu had prepared for her: "I'm going to my room to work first."

"Okay, call me if you need anything."

"understood."

Ai Haibara didn't look at him, like a cat that became even more silent after being stroked, and walked into the guest room.

The door closed gently.

Lin Jiashu's smile slowly faded. He glanced at the closed door, then checked the air conditioner and adjusted it to a comfortable temperature before picking up the remote and turning on the TV.

Before long, the calm, silent voice of the evening news anchor filled the space, becoming a perfect background sound.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Only a dim bedside lamp was on in the guest room.

Ai Haibara placed her backpack next to the desk, sat down at the desk, and opened her laptop.

The cold white light from the screen shone on her expressionless face.

After inserting the USB drive and exporting the experimental data, she opened several complex molecular simulation interfaces, letting the obscure data streams and charts scroll across the screen, assuming an immersive research posture.

However, her gaze was unfocused and scattered.

There is definitely a problem with the experimental data.

She didn't lie about Professor Agasa's computer breaking down.

However, the matter was not as urgent as she claimed.

The faint sound of the television news could be heard from the living room; it sounded like a weather forecaster explaining the probability of precipitation tomorrow. The man, just outside the wall, calmly watched the news, seemingly unaffected by Ai Haibara's arrival.

Ai Haibara reached for her backpack.

She gripped the small, hard medicine box inside tightly, the cold plastic shell digging into her palm—it wasn't time to take cold medicine yet, and right now she was only thinking about another kind of medication.

Let's change back.

The thought, like a lurking beast, silently gnawed at her heart once again.

To become Shiho Miyano again. Even if only for one night. To break free from the constraints of this child's body, no longer the child he skillfully cared for and dismissed with a few comforting words. At least... to be able to breathe the same air as an equal, adult woman.

Her heart pounded heavily, with a suffocating pain. Ai Haibara had had enough of this gentle distance, enough of the unfamiliar scent emanating from him, and even more enough of having to suppress her jealousy and act like a child throwing a tantrum.

An unimportant international news report was playing on the outside, followed by an abrupt ringing of his cell phone, which he immediately picked up and answered... Perhaps he was walking to the balcony and talking to someone on the phone, Ai Haibara didn't know. She only felt a cold anxiety and a burning impulse pulling at her chest amidst the sound of rain outside the window.

No.

She didn't want things to stay like this forever.

The girl's fingertips trembled slightly from the force, and her eyes became resolute in the reflection of the cold light from the screen.

Ai Haibara took out a medicine box directly from her schoolbag, opened the lid, and without hesitation, picked up the capsule and put it into her mouth.

His throat bobbed slightly.

The cold capsule slid down my esophagus like a stone thrown into a deep well, carrying with it all the determination of a desperate gamble, and plunged into darkness.

She let go of his hand, and the empty medicine box rolled silently onto the carpet.

In those few seconds before she took action, the world seemed to be drawn into a vacuum, with only the frantic pounding of her heart in her ears. Anxiety and a kind of exhausting calm swept over her at the same time.

Before the drug took effect, she bit her lower lip hard, held her breath, stared intently at the door with her blue eyes, and activated all her senses to detect any unusual movement in the living room.

The news broadcast on television remained steady.

But soon,

Her stomach suddenly clenched, followed by a searing pain that seemed to burn through her internal organs, which then spread wildly along her nerves to every part of her body at an alarming speed!

"Well--!"

A short, suppressed groan, which she still couldn't completely swallow, escaped from her clenched teeth.

Ai Haibara suddenly bent over, her arms tightly gripping her abdomen, which was suddenly cramping and throbbing with pain. Fine beads of cold sweat instantly appeared on her forehead.

The bones seemed to be brutally pulled, crushed, and reassembled by an invisible force, and even the muscle fibers were like overstretched strings, breaking and regenerating wildly one by one.