It was a cold New York night. Rain drummed against the windows of Dr. Agasa's lab with a haunting regularity, sounding like a countdown to an unknown event. Conan sat before massive computer screens, analyzing an encrypted message he had received in Manhattan, while Agasa prepared coffee, trying to soothe the young detective's nerves.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. It wasn't a normal ring; it was weak and trembling, as if whoever stood behind the door was struggling to stay upright. Conan and Agasa exchanged a wary glance. Conan gripped his tranquilizer watch while Agasa cautiously approached the door and slowly pulled it open.
A small body collapsed inward. It was a girl with reddish-brown hair, wearing an oversized trench coat that swallowed her tiny frame, and her face was as pale as death.
"A girl? At this hour?" Agasa muttered as he tried to help her.
But Conan didn't move. The blood froze in his veins. That cold look in her eyes despite her exhaustion, that mysterious aura... he had felt this "pressure" before. It was the scent of death that lingered around members of the Black Syndicate.
The girl woke up minutes later. She looked around with an eerie calmness, then fixed her eyes on Conan. "Shinichi Kudo... or should I call you Conan Edogawa?"
The coffee cup slipped from Agasa's hand and shattered. Conan immediately aimed his watch at her, his voice turning as sharp as a blade: "Who are you? And how do you know that name? Did the Syndicate send you to finish me off?"
The girl offered a faint, bitter smile. "My code name in the Syndicate was Hera. But in this digital world we live in, I am just another ghost purged by the system. My real name is Neriza."
The Bitter Truth: The Maker of Death
"Hera?" Conan shouted. "You're the chemist who developed biological drugs for the Syndicate! You're the one who created that poison... APTX-4869!"
Conan lunged toward her, grabbing the collar of her coat, his eyes burning with rage. "Because of you, I lost my life! Because of you, I live in this small body and lie to Ran every day! How many lives have you snuffed out with those poisonous pills you programmed to kill without a trace?"
Neriza (Hera) did not resist. She let her tears fall silently as she stared at the floor. "Yes... I made it. I thought I was serving science; I thought the Syndicate would protect me and my sister. But I was delusional. They turned me into a monster in a lab coat."
Conan stopped shouting when he heard the word "sister." His intensity softened slightly, though suspicion still filled his heart.
"Why are you here? And why did you shrink?" Agasa asked in a gentle voice, trying to contain the situation.
Neriza looked at her small, trembling hands. "They killed my sister. They killed her in cold blood because she tried to escape their dark world. In that moment, I realized I was next. I had no escape but death, or so they thought. I took the drug I had created with my own hands; I wanted to commit suicide. But cruel luck, or perhaps a curse, made my body react the same way yours did, Kudo. I escaped through a trash chute in the lab and came looking for you... the only person who might understand what it means to be the living dead."
The Alliance of Necessity: Under One Roof
A long silence filled the lab, broken only by the hum of the computers' cooling fans. Conan fought an intense internal struggle. Part of him wanted to hand her over to the police, while another part saw her as a victim of the same enemy hunting him.
"I regret it..." Neriza whispered. "Every line of code I wrote, every chemical compound I mixed, haunts me in my dreams. I want to destroy them, Kudo. I want to take my mind back from them. I have encrypted data in my memory that no one in New York can crack except you and Dr. Agasa."
Agasa looked at Conan, then at the broken girl. "Shinichi... she's a child now, just like you. And the Syndicate won't stop until they find her. Her staying here is the only way we can learn how to create an antidote to return to our normal lives."
Conan sighed deeply and closed his tranquilizer watch. He walked to the window, looking out at the skyscrapers that hid the monsters of the Syndicate. "Fine. You'll stay here with Dr. Agasa. You'll take a new name... Hera. You'll look like an ordinary child, but in this lab, you'll be the mind that counters their poisons."
Agasa approached Neriza and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to our team, Hera. We will turn this lab into a fortress the Syndicate cannot penetrate."
Hera lifted her head, and for the first time, a spark of hope gleamed in her blue eyes. "Thank you, Doctor. Kudo... I will dedicate every cell in my shrunken body to creating the antidote. This is my only atonement for my sins."
Conan reached out his small hand toward her. "Don't call me Kudo in front of people. I'm Conan. From now on, we are partners in this digital hell until we bring down the Black Syndicate... together."
Agasa placed his hand over theirs, marking the birth of the "New York Triangle" alliance: the Detective, the Scientist, and the Fugitive Chemist. Outside, bolts of lightning illuminated the Manhattan sky, announcing that the real war had just begun.
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