"The same as you, my dear." Shinichi briefly wondered how she could walk on the padded floor with shoes this high without wobbling. She stopped in front of him, squatted down and put a finger under his chin, lifting his face and looked at him intently. "You really do look like you did ten years ago."

Her eyes focused on his right cheek that was probably still bright red from the slap he had received earlier. "Is this what you call training? Beating up a child?"

Shinichi's first instinct was to protest. He may temporarily be stuck in this body, but that didn't make him a real child and didn't want to be treated like one. Before he could get a single word out, Gin and the woman had both already stood up, sizing each other up. It seemed wiser to remain quiet, at least for now.

"He has to know how to defend himself. As a new member of the organisation he has to be prepared for anything, for example a surprise attack from someone." Gin sounded almost amused.

"How unusually kind of you. I didn't know you had it in you." Vermouth put a finger against her cheek and leaned her face to the side. "Nevertheless, preparing him for that seems a bit unnecessary. I mean, aren't you supposed to protect my godson from any harm?"

"Your godson?"

Shinichi was as surprised as Gin. His godmother was Sharon Vineyard and she had died a year ago. Vineyard. Of course. He finally recognized the woman in front of him. Chris Vineyard, actress and daughter of Sharon Vineyard. But it didn't make any sense for Chris to claim to be his godmother. Except - realisation dawned on him. It explained his father's lack of surprise when he had picked him up at the amusement park. Of course it wouldn't be too much of a shock to come upon his son in a shrunken state when he already knew that it was possible to rejuvenate someone.

"One could call it female intuition, but when I ran into Vodka on his own, I assumed you were up to no good and came looking for you. I have a reminder from Anokata for you. If anything were to happen to him, you'll pay the price."

"No!" Shinichi interrupted them. "I don't want to be coddled." He also didn't want to get beaten up while he was in a state where he couldn't properly defend himself, but it was preferable to the alternative. If word got around that he was under the personal protection of the boss and no one was allowed to harm him in any way, the other members of the organisation would never take him serious. He wanted to prove himself independent of his familial ties, to leave no doubt that he deserved a place in the organisation on his own merit. If it took some superficial wounds, so be it. In his eyes it was well worth it.

"After everything you haven't changed one bit, have you? You are still as stubborn as I remember you." Vermouth shrugged her shoulders. "Will you at least accompany me on a tour of the headquarters?"

Shinichi nodded. He was eager to finally learn more about the organisation; the structure, the different divisions, how many members it had, the equipment - basically everything. He had waited years for this moment. And it had the added bonus that he wouldn't be around Gin for a while. He would never admit it to anyone, but for now he would prefer to spend as little time as possible with him.

Apparently Gin had a different plan. "I'll join you."

"Why?" Shinichi and Vermouth said simultaneously.

"Didn't you just say it yourself? Protect him and if anything were to happen to him, you'll pay the price. I can't let him out of my sight if I am supposed to do my job properly." He would have seemed almost sincere, if Shinichi hadn't seen and heard enough about Gin to know that it was atypical for him. He was planning something.

Judging by Vermouth's expression she agreed with him, but neither she nor Shinichi could think of a good reason to deny his request.

"I always knew you liked to spend time with me." Vermouth winked at the blond and turned around. "Let's start in the garage."


After several hours they had finally made some progress in the laboratory. They were all standing around the table, starring at the mouse they had just witnessed shrinking right in front of their eyes.

"Unbelievable." Isamu was the first to speak. It broke them out of their stupor.

"We need to analyse its blood, quickly. " Shiho tried her best to keep her hands steady as she reached for the necessary equipment. This could be the deciding moment in their research. She was careful not to draw too much blood from the weakened animals and handed the sample to Sachiko.

Shiho took a step back and let her colleagues handle the rest. There wasn't enough work for 5 people and they had to wait for the results anyway. She walked to the corner of the laboratory, grabbed a glass of water and sat down in the chair where the shrunken child had sat earlier.

She was exhausted. She had barely gotten any sleep last night and it was already evening again, not to mention how mentally taxing the whole situation was. She hadn't expected to find a potential lead so fast. It made her anxious. How quickly would they be able to create the antidote?

She knew that she couldn't hinder the process intentionally. Her colleagues were all loyal to the organisation and would report her if her behaviour seemed suspicious. Besides, Gin was weirdly invested in their progress and he wouldn't let her drag it out.

Still, she had hoped that she would have more time. The conversation she had overheard in the morning was still fresh in her mind. As long as the antidote wasn't finished her sister was safe. But how much time would she have left afterwards? Months, weeks, days? Shiho didn't know and it scared her.

She had to find a way to warn Akemi so that she could flee. The question was - how was she supposed to accomplish that? The organisation never allowed the sisters to meet without supervision. They searched their bags, had other members follow them and all their communication was monitored.

How could she inform Akemi about the danger she was in without anyone noticing? While she thought over different possibilities her eyes scanned the room. The books in front of her caught her attention.

She took the one on the top and browsed through it, searching for inspiration. It wasn't her taste of literature, but the boy had been excited. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, a special edition. That was interesting. Hadn't he introduced himself as Conan? She doubted that this was a coincidence and it made the whole situation even weirder. Even the boy had mentioned to someone that he was a fan of the books, how had they gotten them to him this quickly? Why would someone put so much effort into it at all? Did they want to make his last days on earth as comfortable as possible or was there a different reason?

"Sachiko?" Shiho tried to sound as disinterested as possible. "Do we have a new library or where did you get these books from?"

The other woman barely looked up from her work. "Oh, that was Vermouth. I met her on the second floor and she told me to bring them to our guest. Though I have no idea how she knew about him."

Shiho was glad that she sat in the corner far away from everyone else. That way no one noticed how she flinched at the mention of the other woman. What was she doing here? And how was she involved in this? Shiho had no doubt left that she was missing something important. The boy, even before being shrunk, was no ordinary person.

An alarming thought crossed her mind that made her heart beat faster. Could he be related to the boss? Or another high ranking organisation member? That would explain why he wasn't scared of Gin. Because he knew that Gin wouldn't dare to touch him again. Again. No, that made her theory void. Gin had already tried to kill him with the poison. That is not something he, a loyal member of the organisation, would do. Unless it was unintentional, an accident.

She shook her head. It was an interesting mystery, however she had more pressing matters to deal with. Her sister's life was at stake and she still had to come up with a way to warn her discreetly. She continued to thumb through the book to appear busy, when two words caught her attention. Maybe she could work with that. Before she could devise a concrete plan, Isamu interrupted her. The blood tests were ready. She made a mental note of the page and put the book aside.

"Did you find anything?"

"Unfortunately not." Sachiko moved a bit to the side so Shiho could see the computer screen over her shoulder. „Its blood looks the same as the blood from the other mice. And I couldn't detect any trace of the poison in its system."

"That's a setback, but we are still in the beginning stages." Shiho walked over to the cage with the shrunken mouse and watched as the animal devoured its food. "I suggest we all take a well-needed break and continue our work tomorrow. We are all exhausted and in this state we wont be able to produce the quality of work we need to."

"Good idea," Isamu agreed and yawned right on cue. "When do we continue?"

Shiho glanced at the clock on the wall. "Tomorrow morning at 6." That should give them enough time to eat a proper meal and sleep a bit.

She quickly scribbled a message on a post-it, put it on the outside of the door and together they all walked over to the sleeping hall in the headquarters.


They met up at the agreed upon time.

Shiho was still tired. Despite her exhaustion it had taken her a few hours to finally fall asleep. Her mind had been too occupied, mulling over her different tasks. She only allowed herself to rest after she had finally come up with a promising plan.

When everyone had their lab coats on, Shiho shared her newest hypothesis with her team. "I think we were looking for traces of the poison in the wrong area. After all, the APTX4869 is a poison that is supposed to accelerate apoptosis. It destroys the cells of an organism, but leaves the nervous system and everything else as it was." She could see the comprehension on their faces.

"We need to examine the tissue, not the blood," Sachiko exclaimed.

Shiho nodded. "I believe we will be more successful with this approach. I have already informed Gin that we need to take additional samples from our human test subject. Until then we have to properly analyse the mouse's tissue."

With newfound motivation they began their work. They got as many different samples as they could without killing the animal. It turned out that they were on the right track as they found traces of the poison in its cells. While they were busy cataloguing the new information Gin dropped by with the boy.

She informed him about their progress and turned her attention towards the boy. She was glad to see that his head wasn't bandaged anymore. That meant that his head injury probably hadn't been too severe. It was also easier to bear his sight. He still looked small, but not so pitiful anymore.

She motioned for him to take a seat and got her utensils. Under Gin's watchful eyes she gathered different samples from the boy who endured the procedure without complaints. He only spoke when she started to put everything away.

"WIll it be enough?"

"Hopefully. We can't be sure because a lot of time has passed since you have taken the poison. It's possible that all traces of the apoptoxin have already dissolved." She removed her gloves and paused, unsure if she should voice her other concerns. In the end she decided to risk it, thinking that his reaction might be insightful. "Or maybe we are still looking at the wrong place. I wonder if samples from your organs could be more informative."

He shrugged his shoulders, seemingly undisturbed by the possibility. "I doubt you'll get permission to operate on me."

"Don't worry, it's not something I am capable of anyway. But speaking of permission - "

She turned towards Gin and took a deep breath. "I want to redeem the promise you gave me."

He had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of him. When she had addressed him, he had straightened himself up to his full height. "What do you mean?"

Shiho ignored the other people in the room and held his menacing gaze. "We made a deal. Once I have finished the apoptoxin, I get to finally see my sister again. I want to meet her now."