Author's Note: I recently (just this weekend) discovered that Akemi's one-billion-yen bank heist was not only a lot different in the manga compared to the anime, but WAY earlier. So early, in fact, that that bank heist happened within the first 20 episodes of the anime. Granted, the end result was different, so maybe that Akemi Miyano with the alias Masami Hirota wasn't the SAME Akemi Miyano with the alias Masami Hirota that is also Shiho Miyano's sister? Nah. I decided there was no way there could be THAT many coincidental similarities and it had to be the very same Miyano Akemi that is Shiho's sister.

I wrote this with the assumption that the Akemi Miyano from episode 13 (14 for English dub) is Shiho's Akemi and used that assumption to interconnect with the future bank heist she'll pull off in the anime at episode 128. I realize she staked out that bank for a year, but I'll also work with the anime's "time seems to have stopped moving" logic and use that to my advantage. Having already been saved by Conan once already, this now gives her some time to eventually tell Shiho about "the four-eyed glasses brat" later. I'm surprised that I haven't found any fics that have already done this or wrote out a scene where Akemi works out the deal with Gin to let her and Shiho leave the Organization. Well, now I've written one.

Disclaimer: The characters and world belong to Gosho Aoyama-sama, and I am merely playing around with concepts and ideas.

Chapter 1: Promise Made

From the moment Akemi Miyano, under the alias Masami Hirota, allowed herself to be arrested for her part in the one-billion-yen robbery planned by Okita, she wondered how the Black Organization would respond to this. It was unthinkable that they didn't already know what had occurred and that she, the elder sister of one of their best scientists, was involved. Okita would probably be dead within twenty-four hours; there was no other alternative. The Organization did not like any unnecessary connections and his having found one of their members, low-ranking as she was, and recruited her was not something the Organization would tolerate.

But then where did that leave her? Okita was at fault for finding and recruiting her, but the Organization would also find her at fault for allowing the connection and not protecting the Organization's secrecy. It didn't even matter that Okita had no clue of the Organization's existence or her part in it; it was the principle of the thing. She offered nothing of use to the Organization in exchange for knowledge of its existence, and she only had even that much because her parents were scientists in the Organization. Worse still, this robbery arrest would be the second strike against her. First, she had been the means by which her boyfriend and undercover FBI Agent, Dai Moroboshi aka Shuichi Akai, had infiltrated the Organization, and now this.

Akemi felt her hands starting to shake and clasped them tightly in her lap, but she could hardly focus. She didn't even notice the dull pain in her left shoulder from the gunshot wound anymore. People didn't get second chances in the Organization. Much more valuable, higher-ranking people than her had been killed for less on their first chance. She suspected the only reason she had survived was because of Shiho's own high-ranking position in the Organization. But now she'd lost her unheard-of second chance and she didn't dare hope they'd give her a third. Like Okita, she would be killed off and the last loose end would be tied off.

The idea of being killed didn't scare her nearly as much as she felt it should. No, it was her little sister's fate that scared her. She would never see Shiho again and she couldn't even know that they would tell her the truth of why she died. Or even that she was dead.

She was startled from her thoughts by the voice of the officer driving the car. At first, she thought he was talking to her, but then she realized he had a phone next to his ear. "Yeah, I got her, no problem. The disguise held up well; none of the other cops even noticed a thing."

The dull throb of fear that had been steadily building within her every second spent in the car suddenly spiked through her heart and she quickly glanced around at her surroundings. She didn't know where she was, but it didn't look anywhere close to the Tokyo police headquarters.

"Yes, sir. We'll be arriving there in approximately ten minutes," the fake police officer said and hung up on the call.

"Who are you and where are you taking me?" Akemi demanded immediately, and she hated how much her voice trembled when she spoke.

"I am merely your designated driver tonight, Miss Akemi Miyano," he said curtly.

Akemi failed to completely stifle her sharp intake of breath. That was her real name, but she had been arrested as Masami Hirota. Her suspicions were correct. The Organization did know and they must have worked very quickly to be able to secure her before she ended up in police custody. It would be a lot of work to bail her out, or more likely kill her, in such a situation, and she wasn't worth that much effort. Judging by her driver's short answer to her questions, she wasn't likely to get any more information out of him, but it seemed likely that he wasn't high-ranking himself. He was just doing the grunt work of bringing her out of the eyes of the police under another's orders. She had a pretty good hunch who was issuing said orders. He seemed to have a personal interest in her family that she didn't care for…

It must have been only ten minutes later, though it felt longer, before the Organization driver stopped the car and Akemi saw that he had taken her to an old, decrepit-looking apartment complex closed for demolition. Well, at least it wasn't another set of warehouses. She only wondered if she would get to see who killed her or if she'd be sniped off as soon as she approached the building.

The driver didn't turn off the car, but turned around to face her. "Now that we have arrived, I am to relay a message. You are to go up the stairs to the second floor and enter Room 24. The door is unlocked."

"And you won't tell me who the message is from, I suppose?" she asked rhetorically.

The driver only gave her a nasty smirk in response. With a resigned sigh, she got out of the car and the fake officer left as soon as she did so. Either she really was going to die tonight or someone else would be taking her home, and she liked neither option, but there was no escaping her fate. She took the stairs up to the second floor and walked all the way to Room 24 as instructed. There was no name on the door plaque, but of course there wasn't. The building was abandoned after all. She placed her hand on the door handle and hesitated for a few seconds, trying to calm her breathing and not let on how scared she was. She hadn't even been this frightened when Okita had pulled the gun on her. But Okita wasn't the Organization and the man waiting for her behind this door, if she was right, made Okita look like an angel by comparison. Well, maybe not an angel exactly, but it was to that effect…

Unable to delay any further, she turned the door handle and stepped inside. Except for the narrow strip of moonlight shining past her from the door, there was no other light on within the dark interior. None, that is, except for the orange-red embers burning off the end of a cigarette.

"Close the door and lock it," a dark, masculine voice ordered from the direction of the fiery pinprick of light.

A shiver ran down her spine, but Akemi did as she was told, plunging the room into total darkness and sealing herself inside without any hope for escape. A match was struck and the small flame half-illuminated the sharp, angular face of the most dangerous man she knew. There was a candle within an open-top glass container on the kitchen table he was sitting at, and he reached over to light the wick. The flame caught and it illuminated the rest of the kitchen, including the presence of a second chair directly across from the man's own. There were still plenty of shadows though and the tiny candle did nothing to mitigate the ominous atmosphere.

"Welcome, Akemi Miyano," he said with a gesture to the only remaining chair. He seemed… amused somehow.

"Gin," Akemi said by way of greeting and, not seeing how she'd be able to tactfully refuse, sat on the very edge of the proffered chair. "I suppose I have you to thank for the timely rescue?"

"Oh? Is that what you would call it?" Gin asked, leaning back in the chair. "From what I heard, the mastermind of your stupid little robbery scheme was already unconscious by the time the police arrived and you were planning on turning yourself in for the crime, apparently without any plan or intention to escape. It hardly seems a 'rescue', as you put it, was even necessary to judge by your apathy over the situation."

Akemi swallowed hard. "Indeed. You sure know a lot about what happened at the scene given that it was not even half an hour ago."

The amusement died suddenly in his dark green eyes and he stood up quickly. He easily towered over her when they were both standing anyway, but now while she was sitting, he seemed impossibly tall. "And did you honestly believe that we would forget or forgive that you were the one who let that FBI scum into the Organization? We've been keeping very close tabs on you since your folly was revealed," he hissed.

Despite her situation and the uncertainty of her future, hot anger surged through her on her ex-boyfriend's behalf. "It's not like I was the one who decided to give him a codename," she snapped before she could stop herself.

Akemi immediately knew she had gone too far. Gin was a blur of movement and she suddenly found herself with his handgun pressed firmly into her forehead. She hadn't even seen him draw it. His lips twisted into a cruel smirk, his expression full of malice. "Those are dangerous words you speak, Akemi," he said in a menacing whisper, "With all the trouble you cause the Organization, one might think you had a death wish."

"If that's how you feel, then why haven't you killed me, yet?" she asked, her words a lot braver than she actually felt. "It's not like you to be so merciful, Gin."

His smirk widened into a predatory grin. "At first, we allowed you to live on the off-chance that your troublesome boyfriend might try and contact you again just in case his relationship with you had any validity, but it's been nearly two years since then and not a word." He chuckled darkly. "I suppose you were just a means to an end after all."

It wasn't true. She knew it wasn't true. Dai would not have told her to stop seeing him and would not have told her it was because he was an undercover FBI agent in the Organization if he hadn't loved her. His lack of contact was as much for his safety as it was hers, but to hear Gin so callously talk of their relationship and toss her feelings aside… it played on her worst fears and hurt all the same.

"I suppose I was…" she said sadly. The emotion was genuine even if not for the reason she allowed Gin to believe. "And what about now?"

A steely glint appeared in his green eyes and he pressed the gun even harder into her forehead, forcing her to shift further in her chair until she was pressed against the wooden back. "I haven't decided yet," Gin said at last. "I should kill you on principle, so that other foolish members don't think they can get away with throwing away their precious second chance in the Organization, but then I started thinking… what would Sherry be willing to give me in exchange for sparing her beloved older sister's life?"

"NO!" Akemi screamed in pure terror. "Please, I beg you, leave Shiho out of this; your quarrel is with me, not her!"

"Oh ho, now where was this concern for her when you were dating Shuichi Akai or when you allowed yourself to be hired for a one-billion-yen robbery and then captured by the police?" Gin asked with a mocking laugh.

"As if you even care about my sister! You're just worried about her exposure to me compromising the secrecy of the Organization!"

"Akemi, Akemi, Akemi… 'worried' would imply I waste time thinking about something so trivial, but I'm kinder than you think. As a favor to Sherry, I am willing to spare your life as long as she is willing to return another in exchange. Is that not acceptable?"

"No, it's not!" Akemi shouted and tried to stand up, but Gin's gun was still pressing sharply into her forehead and she was effectively pinned. "I'd rather die than live and let you use my sister however you please!"

"How sweet," he said sardonically. "I can easily arrange that and then you'll be able to protect her so much better from beyond the grave. I'm sure Sherry would happily agree with that logic."

Akemi forced herself to bite her lip and keep silent for a moment, breathing deeply. She was getting too riled up and Gin was intentionally provoking her by bringing Shiho into the conversation. What she couldn't figure out was why. Now that she was thinking straight, it was obvious that he had no intention of killing her tonight unless she did something really, really stupid to piss him off, or else he would have done so already. He was not the kind of man who toyed around with his prey before killing it. He was letting her live, but he wasn't letting her off the hook. It could be he really did want something from Shiho – he was completely obsessed with her for some reason – but she had a feeling he was just using Shiho as a threat against her. Granted, threats from Gin were nothing to scoff at and he would definitely make do on it, but what did he want from her that he was threatening Shiho in the first place?

"There you go, Akemi. Now you're using that brain of yours," Gin purred, his eyes narrowed dangerously like the predator he was.

He removed his gun from her forehead at last only to pin her wrists to the seat of the chair with his own large hands and lean down into her space so their faces were only mere inches apart. She fought not to gag on the cigarette smoke now in her face.

"You have screwed up twice now, Akemi. First with Shuichi Akai and now this bank heist. If you were anyone other than a daughter of the Miyanos, you wouldn't even be in the Organization, and only your connection as Sherry's sister has kept you alive as long as you have because of your mistakes."

"And you think I want to stay? As you say, I was born into the Organization and never had the chance to choose whether I wanted to join or not. If I'm such a burden and the Organization is only tolerating my life on Shiho's behalf, then why not let me go?"

Akemi was surprised, very surprised, that Gin said nothing, but merely gave her a skeptical look. Her words were downright treacherous and yet, he hardly reacted at all. The idea had come to her out of the blue, but now it had latched on and she couldn't let go of it. This might be it. She might be able to get out of all this madness.

"Despite being given two perfectly good reasons to do so, the Organization has not been willing to kill me, so wouldn't the only other recourse to get rid of someone be to let them leave? I'm so low in rank within the Organization, I hardly know anything. I only know it exists, its color, and a bit of a general idea what it does. I don't know any of the Organization's secrets or contacts, and of the codenamed members, I only know you, Vodka, Pisco, Bourbon, and my sister."

"That's rather a lot for someone who 'hardly knows anything'," Gin said slowly.

"Is it really though?" Akemi asked, her tone borderline impatient. "As much as I know you think otherwise, I'm not stupid. I know that if I were to blab any of the little I do know, the Organization would silence me and I have no wish to encourage that kind of scrutiny. I just want to be left alone to live a normal life. I'm not useful to the Organization, my existence is apparently a threat to its secrecy, and I don't have the ability or willingness to reveal any sensitive information anyway, so why keep me around?"

A triumphant smirk immediately spread across his thin face and Akemi had the distinct feeling that she'd walked right into a trap. She stayed stock still as he leaned in even closer, his long ash-blond hair brushing against her cheek and his breath blew hot across her ear. "We can make that happen if that's what you truly desire, but only if you cease any and all contact with Sherry from the very second we rid ourselves of you. Are you willing to forsake Sherry for your freedom from the Organization?"

She couldn't. She couldn't just abandon Shiho to these murderous black crows, to Gin… But she also couldn't make the same case for Shiho's freedom as her own.

"And what would it cost me to buy Shiho's freedom from the Organization?" she said at last in a quiet, but no less determined voice.

Gin pulled back and observed her face. His eyes were scrutinizing her as if he could see every thought running rampant through her head. She couldn't gage what he was thinking at all.

"To start, there must be monetary compensation. If Sherry is to leave, the Organization would be losing out on the products of her work and Sherry's work is not something that can be easily replicated by just anyone," Gin said at last with no vocal inflection to indicate his emotions.

She didn't need to hear the exact number to know it was going to be outrageously high. Still though… "How much?" she asked.

A slight smirk creased his lips. "Let's use your most recent mistake as the standard. A one-billion-yen bank heist. Only this time, you will be the mastermind orchestrating the events to ensure your success."

"One billion-?! But that's-!"

"-That's the monetary cost you must pay forward," Gin said coolly, his voice back down to a dangerous whisper. "Take it or leave it, but know this: if your heist fails, I will kill you personally, Sherry's sister or not."

The rest of Akemi's words died in her throat and she nodded once. "I understand," she said shortly and narrowed her eyes at him. "What else do you want?"

The dark chuckle that escaped him did nothing to calm the growing sense of unease in the pit of her stomach. He released one of her wrists and idly caught a long strand of her black hair near the collar of her shirt. "Something only a woman can provide."

"No," she said automatically, internally reeling with disgust. She had not slept with anyone since Dai and there was no way she about to start with this psychopathic murderer now.

"Then Sherry stays," Gin said simply.

"Isn't the money enough?" Akemi protested. "That's an obscene cost as it is, why even include such a stipulation? I was never under the impression you wanted me; aren't I too low-ranking, at-risk, and generally unimportant for your tastes?"

"You are, but Sherry isn't," Gin said.

"Sherry…?"

Finally, he stood up completely and she could breathe without inhaling smoke. He released both her remaining wrist and her hair, but he remained close. Gin walked in a circle around to behind the back of her chair and his hands landed heavily upon her shoulders. She gasped when his left hand squeezed painfully on her wounded left shoulder. "As her precious, protective older sister, you won't let me have Sherry, but if you intend to take her away forever, then my final demand is to have you in her stead until your heist, regardless of its outcome."

Akemi's eyes widened in horror and her mouth clamped shut. She understood now. Everything was becoming clear. Shiho. It all came back to Shiho. He didn't give a damn what happened to her as long as she didn't reveal the Organization's existence, but Shiho was another matter entirely. Gin wanted her sister and he was not willing to let her go easily. These conditions that he was laying out for her… The high overhead cost of one billion yen from a bank heist was designed as an impossible physical hurdle and allowing him to have her body was designed as an equally-impossible mental one. This would be her punishment for leaving the Organization. If she balked at one or both, then Gin would win and Shiho would be forced to stay in the Organization. Akemi was not supposed to succeed. But… but if she… did as he requested… on both counts…

She shrugged his hands off her shoulders with difficulty and stood up from the kitchen chair. She turned to face him, and though the candle being at her back cast her face in shadow, she felt Gin would still be able to make out her determined expression. "If I do this… if I successfully steal one billion yen in a bank heist and let you have my body at your leisure until then, will you promise to let Shiho and I leave the Organization?"

Gin crossed his arms in front of his chest and sneered snidely down at her. "If you can succeed, then I promise to let you leave," he said.

"Fine," Akemi said sharply and started removing her red jacket. "Then why don't you get started on me right now, so I can prove my sincerity in committing to this plan?"

She had just gotten one of her arms out of the jacket and was working on the other one when Gin's hands came up and caught her around both wrists, stopping her. She looked up at him confused, but he only smiled darkly down at her, shaking his head slightly. "Woman, while I fully intend to take you up on that, I will not do so here without any protection on hand. I will not risk you bearing my spawn since I doubt you're on birth control at the moment."

Akemi's face flushed deep red in mortification, but he didn't remark on it. He released her right wrist and put out the candle on the table with his fingers, completely submerging them in pitch black darkness once more. The cigarette was once more the only source of light in the whole room. Gin tugged sharply on her other wrist, the one attached to her injured shoulder, and she stumbled after him in the dark, almost running into his back when he stopped abruptly. Akemi had no idea how he was able to see where he was going or what he was doing; the light from the cigarette wasn't that strong. There was a click of the lock and moonlight suddenly spilled back into the apartment room once more. She barely had time to admire how much lighter it seemed compared to before she entered the apartment when he hauled on her injured arm once more, dragging her after him down the walkway and down the stairs. She was completely clueless about where he was taking her until she saw his Porsche parked under a shadowed overhang that she hadn't noticed before.

The dread and horror she had been fighting down ever since she had committed to this course of action started to rise up into her chest and it was literally taking every ounce of strength and every memory of Shiho she had to not try and break free from Gin's grasp and make a run for it. She didn't want this and she was certain Gin had absolutely no intention of trying to make this pleasant for her. In fact, he would probably be aiming for the opposite. He was going to rape her and she was going to let him do it in order to free her sister. This was her punishment for her mistakes and for trying to leave the Organization, but she would endure it. She had to. She had to for Shiho's sake.

They approached the driver's side door on the left side, but Gin didn't move to unlock it yet. Instead, he tugged her forward and she found herself spun around with her back against his car and pinned in place by his own large form. He forced her chin up to look at him and she trembled at what she saw there. His teeth were bared in an evil grin and his eyes were wide with manic delight. He twisted upward the arm he still hadn't released and she flinched from the building pain in her shoulder. Death would be a far kinder punishment than the one he had in store for her, yet she had no choice but to bear it.

"Just remember, Akemi," he whispered in her ear, quiet as death. "You asked for this, but I won't deny how much I'm looking forward to it. Let's see exactly how far you got with Shuichi Akai before he revealed his true colors."

Akemi's heartrate picked up even faster than it already was and her breathing grew shallower. Her throat was almost too dry with fear to speak, but somehow, she managed to get some of the words out. "Shiho… please don't tell…"

"Sherry will never hear from my lips just how low her esteemed sister has sunk as long as you keep your foolhardy plan to yourself," he promised.

With that, Akemi had only a brief moment's reprieve as Gin unlocked the car door and opened it. It was gone the next moment when he shoved her forward into the back seat and followed after her, closing and locking the door behind him.

No, I don't have it in me to write out the details of what happened to Akemi in either this chapter or the next one. It's bad enough just imagining it.