After taking her seat, Haibara Ai placed her schoolbag on the table and pulled out a magazine, casually flipping through its pages.
Shimizu Koji glanced at the cover—the latest weekly issue on women's fashion trends. He was certain of one thing: Dr. Agasa's house had never stocked magazines like this before.
Not long after, Dr. Agasa walked over with a tray, setting down a steaming cup of tea in front of each of them before taking a seat across from Conan.
A brief silence settled over the room. Conan felt his scalp tingle uneasily.
Part of him hoped Haibara really was what she claimed to be—but at the same time, it felt unreliable, like he was being toyed with.
After all, Shimizu Koji, Dr. Agasa, and this Haibara Ai clearly knew one another.
What Conan had momentarily forgotten was that his identity as Kudo Shinichi was something only the professor knew. All things considered, his thoughts were in complete disarray.
Rustle.
Under everyone's gaze, Haibara calmly flipped a page, utterly unconcerned.
As she did, she finally spoke, her voice light.
"Well? Don't you have anything you want to ask?"
In truth, Dr. Agasa didn't have much to ask. Shimizu Koji, meanwhile, was mentally replaying the day he'd found Haibara, carefully revisiting the details.
His thoughts were entirely focused—purely analytical.
If Haibara knew what he was thinking about, she probably wouldn't look this calm.
"You… who exactly are you?" Conan asked. "And why did you appear at the professor's house?"
"My identity—I already explained that on the way here," Haibara replied. "As for why I was here… he picked me up."
"He?"
Haibara didn't specify who she meant. After a brief moment of confusion, Conan assumed she was referring to Dr. Agasa.
He soon realized he was wrong.
"You might not know this," Haibara continued, "but the Organization sent investigators to your house twice."
"Among everyone who took that drug, you were the only one whose death could not be confirmed."
Conan's eyes trembled. Haibara didn't look up, simply continuing in an even tone.
"As the drug's inventor, I naturally went along.
Your house was covered in dust—like no one had lived there for a long time. The first time, we found nothing.
The second time, it was the same. Even I had begun to believe you were dead. But then I noticed something… off about the wardrobe."
Shimizu Koji took a sip of his tea, listening carefully. Conan's fear-stricken expression amused him—it was rare to see.
"Do you know why?" Haibara asked.
"Because the clothes you wore as a child—clothes that had definitely still been there a month ago—were all gone."
"When we were developing the drug, we conducted many animal experiments. At one point, the drug caused mice to physically shrink."
"So it wasn't difficult for a hypothesis to form—Kudo Shinichi had most likely turned into a child."
Conan's short-sleeved shirt was already soaked through with cold sweat. He'd never imagined that, from her perspective, his transformation had been so obvious.
His heart pounded, his hands shook. Lowering his head, Conan no longer dared to face what was coming next.
"Then… does that mean the Organization already knows I've shrunk?"
"Heh. You should thank me," Haibara said coolly. "In your file, I wrote confirmed deceased."
She didn't continue the way Conan expected. Shimizu Koji watched her closely—she spoke as if this were nothing more than an everyday matter.
But by now, he was fully prepared to assume the worst.
Sure enough, just as Conan let out a breath of relief, Haibara flipped another page of her magazine and casually added:
"Of course, if the Organization later discovers that the file was altered by me—a traitor—they may start suspecting you again."
"A… traitor?" Conan echoed weakly, like a broken record.
"Because I was dissatisfied with the Organization using a drug still in testing for human experiments," she said. "But the main reason was my sister."
"She was killed. By the Organization."
"May I ask," Shimizu Koji interjected suddenly, "what your sister's name was?"
His interruption surprised both Haibara and Conan.
Haibara's gaze shifted briefly, passing over Shimizu Koji's expressionless face.
"Miyano Akemi."
Her tone didn't change. Her mind simply drifted to a report she'd seen recently:
'Ten-Billion-Yen Robber Hirota Masami Still at Large'
To be honest, when she first saw the headline, she'd clung to a faint hope—but deep down, she knew her sister couldn't possibly still be alive.
Dr. Agasa, puzzled, thought to himself: How did Koji and Shinichi even meet?
Come to think of it, it did seem connected to the Organization. After Ms. Akemi's death, Shinichi had specifically lent his house to Koji for temporary use.
When Conan heard the name Miyano Akemi, the guess that had just formed in his mind immediately vanished.
Still shaken, he sent Shimizu Koji what could only be described as a consoling look.
But unlike Conan—who only knew the name Hirota Masami—Shimizu Koji's emotions were no longer steady. Even so, nothing showed on his face.
When Conan looked over, Shimizu Koji simply shook his head.
Meanwhile, Haibara snapped out of her brief distraction and continued.
"After I resisted cooperating with further research, the Organization imprisoned me.
At that point, I was as good as dead. Since I was going to be killed anyway, I swallowed the APTX4869 I had hidden on me."
"By sheer luck, the drug I'd intended to use to kill myself produced an unexpected result—my body shrank completely. Naturally, the handcuffs fell off."
"After escaping through the garbage chute, I had nowhere to go. The only person I could think of was Kudo Shinichi. You were my only option."
"I thought that since we were now in the same situation, you would be able to understand what had happened to me."
Conan had managed to hold himself together—until now.
"What kind of joke is this?!" he shouted. "Someone like you, who invented a murder drug—!"
His near-roar caused Haibara to freeze. For the first time, her eyes left the magazine.
Before she could turn toward the furious Conan, a large hand gently rested on her small shoulder.
"Don't mind him," Shimizu Koji said calmly. "He's not thinking straight right now."
Dr. Agasa hurriedly stepped in as well, trying to calm Conan down.
Under normal circumstances, as long as Conan was clear-headed, he would've easily inferred from her story that Haibara had likely been coerced—or had other unavoidable reasons—for developing the drug.
But as Shimizu Koji said, he was blinded by rage.
Haibara glanced at Conan, who was being held back by Dr. Agasa, then turned to Shimizu Koji.
Without a word, she quietly brushed his hand off her shoulder.