Chapter 4: What is this stranger doing in my house?


A month after Shinichi had shrunk, the sensors around the manor let him know that someone had infiltrated his house. The trespassers had entered at an inconspicuous time, making sure none of the neighbors were home. But Conan's keen observation skills had noticed a couple of cars discreetly stationed around the neighborhood for more than a week. In order to find out who they really were, he hatched a plan. Acting as if he and the professor had left the house, he hid inside the garage and Agasa-Hakase left with a dummy in his place. Thanks to the low visibility of the car, they assumed that the neighbor and the small child living with them had left.

He wasn't 100% certain whether they were in fact from the same organization. There was a chance they were just common thieves who had heard about the missing detective and came to ransack his place. But the listening devices inside the house confirmed his suspicion. His plan had worked, and the organization had taken his bait.

"We're done checking the house. It doesn't look like Kudo Shinichi has been back here in the last few days. There aren't any recent fingerprints or DNA evidence left around the house." One of the 3 men notified the woman dressed in a lab coat. She had just finished conducting her own investigation into the fate of the missing detective. She nodded her head in agreement and said that their work was done.

The house looked dirty and abandoned. There were also visible layers of dust indicating that no one had lived in it for a while. A body of the missing detective had not been discovered, but he had been quite infamous for his endeavors. Perhaps it was found by one of his prior adversaries seeking revenge for revealing their crime and getting them arrested. Or by a family member of one of them. Nevertheless, as far as their organization was concerned, there wasn't any evidence that Kudo Shinichi was still alive. She signed the document proclaiming him dead.


Shiho Miyano, codename Sherry, was a scientist working for the black organization. Her days were consumed by working tirelessly in the shadows, utilizing her exceptional intelligence and scientific knowledge to develop powerful drugs for their sake. And her nights were often filled with sleepless turmoil, fueled by endless cups of coffee and heaps of research papers to scour through. The other nights where she didn't have to stay up late, were somehow even worse. They served as a painful reminder that she would never have any chance of a normal life.

Under the watchful eyes of the organization she was forced to restart the Aptx-4869 experiment—previously worked on by her parents—creating a poison that would be undetectable by most forensic tests. If successful, the organization could assassinate many prominent figures around the world, and get away with it without issue.

She was currently in the house of one such victim of her experimental drug.

"I'll take one last look around and erase any signs that we were here. You men can wait in the car. I have a meeting with my sister after this." She told her lab assistants.

Once her entourage left, she had a moment to think—away from any prying eyes. She entered Shinichi's room and looked around the place.

"Hmm, I guess the rumors about your deduction skills were greatly exaggerated, Kudo Shinichi. Onee-chan must have been wrong to think you'd be the silver bullet if you were taken out by them so quickly instead." She tried to make herself feel better about the situation by being condescending towards the detective, but it did little to help.

Shiho tried to recall her previous meeting with her sister. A meeting which had taken place a few months ago. As precious as their meetings were, they were seldom held. After all, despite being sisters, there was a clear distinction in their importance within the organization. Shiho held a more significant role, granting her limited visits, and always being under the watchful eyes of the higher-ups. Akemi, on the other hand, had more freedom, but struggled to gain access to Shiho due to her lower rank. Though neither sister wanted to work for them, they didn't really have anyone to turn to either. Their parents had died when they were young, and they didn't know if they had any other family. The only people who essentially took them in were the people her parents had been forced to work for, as a means to continue their research.

She remembered how during that meeting, she came to learn about the one and only highschool detective, Kudo Shinichi. He had solved a case at the bank where Akemi worked and her sister was amazed by his investigative skills. She was practically gushing about him.

"You know, if you keep talking about another guy like that, you'll make your boyfriend jealous." Shiho had met Akemi's boyfriend - Moroboshi Dai. Another agent of the organization. She wasn't happy about her sister being in a relationship with one of them, but Akemi was happy with him. And that's all that mattered to Shiho. Of course, if he did anything to hurt her sister, she'd make him pay.

"Oh, hush! At least I have a boyfriend. I was thinking of introducing you to him!"

"You must be joking." Shiho replied with a deadpan.

"You have to meet someone, Shiho! You can't keep wasting away your days in the lab."

"Right. Spending endless hours in the lab is my hobby. Who needs human interaction or a social life when you're engrossed in your experiments. I'm doing it purely by choice, of course."

Akemi just stared back at her. She knew her little sister well to know she wouldn't cave easily but was also certain that she'd be interested once she got to know him.

"Alright, fine! I'll do my own research on him, but I'm not promising anything else!" Shiho soon relented, as she always did against her beloved elder sister.

After a few other discussions about the other events in their lifes, their meeting concluded. Later, she had looked up a few articles about that so-called Heisei Holmes, purely out of curiosity.

Initially, she deemed him to be just an arrogant teen with slightly more brains than the criminal investigators, but the more she read about his ability at solving crimes, the more she felt like he could be a ray of hope in her bleak and dreary life. While he may have been arrogant, he certainly didn't come across as being dumb. He seemed to know what he was doing and was quite good at it too.

Soon she had amassed a collection of pictures and articles, from newspapers and journals mentioning him. However, she assured herself that she wasn't delving into stalker territory. Her interest was purely professional, with no intention of invading his personal life or seeking a meeting in person. She knew they lived completely different lives. He was an embodiment of justice. Someone who could solve any case, no matter how complicated. And she was someone on the other side of the fence. Someone he'd probably bring to justice soon. They'd never be compatible.

This wasn't attraction in her mind, she had just hoped someone would bring this organization down and had placed her bets on him.

"How could you lose so easily, tantei-kun?" She voiced out her thoughts, not realizing that someone was listening in on her.

Part of her felt that Gin had somehow managed to find her object of fascination and decided to target the detective specifically. But that scrapbook was one of the few things she had managed to hide perfectly well in the midst of her research papers and other readings. No matter how smart Gin was, he wouldn't really bother sneaking into her laboratory and reading the 'Molecular Biology of the Cell'. No, his style was much more direct. If he felt there was a mole, he'd confront them directly, even resorting to physical means, if need be.

That was why—after the night of the mission in the amusement park—she was utterly shocked about the turnout. Gin had mentioned that a rat had snooped in on their deal and he had used her experimental poison to kill him. The rat being Kudo Shinichi.

She didn't show any emotions on her face in response to this information, but she certainly couldn't bear the thought of knowing that the person she had come to admire had died because of her. She did get angry though, saying that using an untested drug could have unforeseeable consequences.

"I don't know how I can apologize to you." She said out loud again.


Lost in her thoughts, she had failed to notice the arrival of a young child inside that room.

"Hey, hey, Onee-chan!" the child inquired, "are you a friend of Shinichi-niichan?"

The voice startled her and brought her out of her thoughts.

Shiho's eyes focused on the young boy in front of her. For a brief moment, she was shocked. The kid bore a striking resemblance to Kudo Shinichi. But there was no way the detective was still alive. Gin had given him the poison she had created, after all.

She swiftly composed herself, crafting a reply to the boy's inquiry. She thought of revealing that she wasn't that detective's friend but the one who had played a part in his death. However, she decided not to resort to her usual sarcasm when dealing with a little kid. So she came up with a lie instead.

"No, we hadn't met before, I was planning to hire him as a client."

"Oh! I see." The boy replied without losing the glint in his eyes.

"And you? Are you his younger brother?" She asked in exchange. Shiho had known that the detective was an only child but the fact that a kid had somehow managed to evade her and the other agents' eyes intrigued her.

"Ah, right! I forgot I'm supposed to introduce myself first! My name is Edogawa Conan! Shinichi-niichan is my cousin. I often visit him to ask for help with my homework! He plays games with me as well. I'd love to be a detective like him one day!" The boy named Conan shouted, almost as if that introduction was routine for him.

"Hmm, seems like a regular kid." Shiho thought. His answers were quite childish, and he didn't seem that bright to her either.

"But Edogawa Conan? Was the entirety of the Kudo family a bunch of mystery loving fanatics?" She thought.

"I see, My name is…" Shiho quickly made up a fake name.

"Miho. Yashino Miho."

"Nice to meet you Miho-neesan!" He greeted her with a bow.

"How did you get in the house? I didn't notice you coming in." Not fully convinced yet, she tried to find out more about this kid.

"Oh, Shinichi-niichan's house has another entrance. He gave me a spare key so I can hide whenever I'm in trouble with mommy and daddy!"

"Really? That's interesting."

Her initial senses must have been wrong. Kudo Shinichi didn't seem the sort of person who'd put a child at risk like this. From her observations, he was quite prideful and with his sense of justice there was no way he'd knowingly let a child get involved with someone who had poisoned him just to find out more information about them. So this boy probably was being honest about being his cousin.

Having come up with a satisfactory theory about the mysterious kid in front of her, Shiho decided to take her leave. It wouldn't do her any good to stay longer and keep interacting with an innocent child, lest the other men find him. Or worse, report it to Gin.

"Well, Kudo-kun doesn't seem to be at home right now." She tried to come up with a way to leave.

"Yeah, he had promised to play with me on weekends, but he hasn't been home for a while now. Maybe he picked up an important case and had to go to another city or even country to solve it." Conan's eyes sparkled. "How exciting, like a spy!"

"Ah, speaking of spies, I just remembered! I need to go record my favorite spy show!" He said with a worried look on his face.

"I will end up missing the show if I don't record it!" He gave her an excuse to leave the room as well. "My parents are taking me out for dinner at my favorite restaurant!"

"Hmm, yeah. Since the detective isn't here, there's no need for me to wait either."

"You, too. Run along now, and don't let those other men in the car notice you. They are a rather grumpy bunch." She warned the kid to stay away from them. She knew they wouldn't go easy on him even if he were a child.

"Hehe! Okay!" He responded with a sweet smile before giving her a hug.

Shiho just stood still for a few seconds, feeling slightly shocked at the affectionate gesture.

Conan left the house the same way he had secretly entered. And jumped on his skateboard.


"That was really risky, Shinichi! If she felt even the slightest bit of suspicion, you could've been in serious trouble." Agasa warned Conan as he entered the car parked a few miles away from the house.

"Don't worry, Hakase. I had been keeping an eye on her from the moment she entered my house and she didn't seem to give off the same vibes as those other men-in-black. Besides, I needed to get closer to take some direct pictures of her with these glasses. Acting as my own cousin was the best way to do it." He said, taking off his glasses and checking their clarity.

"So do you think that woman was Sherry?" Conan had told him the code names he had heard from Gin.

"I'm not 100% certain yet, but whoever she was, she's our first lead to those guys." Conan answered.

"And…Did you place the tracker on her?" The professor asked him, hoping he hadn't been too daring in his approach.

"Of course, did you expect anything less?" Conan, on the other hand, was quite meticulous about his plans. Being in a child's body granted him a lot of leeway in his interactions with others. And he had no qualms about exploiting it.

"Really, now! If she finds the tracker, she might realize who you really are!"

"No worries, Hakase. I've got a plan to take it out before she notices. She mentioned that she was going to meet her sister tonight. I'll take advantage of that information." He said, putting his glasses back on and switching them to the tracking mode.

"I was hoping the tracker would lead me to their hideout, but finding out just how many people are involved with them first might be more useful initially."

"If you say so." Agasa gave up on changing Shinichi's mind knowing that it was futile.

"Well then, let's go find out who she is really meeting!" They left for the rendezvous point, knowing that the other car had left.


A/N:

Yay! First real appearance of Shiho! I hope I didn't make her too OOC. I do want her to be similar to how she is as Haibara, but a part of me feels that she got worse after Akemi's death in the original series, which is totally understandable. I also changed the setting with her being more interested in him as a person than she was in the original as an experiment. Because, honestly, if ShinRan is a childhood love story, why shouldn't I write ShinShiho as a fated one instead?

Next Chapter is the continuation of his investigation into Shiho. Who is she really meeting? Well, we all can probably guess. The real question is, how can he use this information? As always, feel free to share your thoughts or ask if you have any questions!

Also, sorry for not responding to the previous questions, not sure why doesn't allow direct replies but I'll try to add them here:
Conan uses Agasa to provide his deductions multiple times in the original as well! But I guess I should explore this concept better to not make it feel too abstract.

As for the comment regarding chapter 1, yikes! was it that hard to read through it? Almost all of the initial events are things that happened in the original series with the Black Organization vs Shinichi and his allies, but maybe I should edit it to make it flow better? I'll wait for a few days before reading it again it to see if the things in my head are actually being communicated onto the writing.