Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Page 145

"Hey, have you heard? Our organization has a name now: the Winery."

"Ah, I know, I heard it was proposed by that rye cadre."

"Rye Executive? You mean that guy who seems to be dating Sherry-sama?"

"Yes, that sir is really making headlines lately!"

"That guy used to be really popular, always the one who overshadowed his teammates..."

"Haha, I've heard about it too. Apparently, five of the officers who teamed up with him for missions have died."

"Five? I thought there were four. When did another one die?"

"You mean the fourth one, right? That one didn't die, but I heard he disappeared after the mission. It's just that a few of the outer members are really gone."

"...One codename member dies every time a mission goes on. That's terrifying. Is it some kind of curse?"

"I think it might not just be a coincidence. Those cadres who sacrificed their lives may very well have been..."

"Shh! Watch your words, or you're going to lose your head!"

"If Mad Dog heard this, even the BOSS might not be able to protect you!"

"And who is the mad dog?"

"It's that Rye, because he acts so recklessly, everyone calls him Mad Dog now... It's said that when he goes crazy, he'll even charge straight at bullets. Sigh, I always feel terrified when I see him."

"...Since that person is so terrifying, isn't it a bit inappropriate to give him such a nickname?"

"Fool, of course we didn't give him that nickname. It was given to him by those who were killed by Lord Black Rye. He's killed at least several hundred people in the meantime. But judging from that guy's reaction, he doesn't seem to have any objection to the nickname..."

……

The memory abruptly ended.

Shiho Miyano let out a deep breath.

Most people believe that gossip and rumors are generally unreliable, but in reality, there's no smoke without fire, and behind every rumor lies crucial information.

...Leaving aside the outrageous rumor that he and the other person were dating, the important thing is that the other person lost five teammates in five consecutive missions.

There must be something fishy going on if there's no smoke without fire.

As for whether there's anything wrong with this rye, Shiho Miyano certainly doesn't believe it.

Especially considering the experience of the other party "protecting" him and his sister during their last meeting, regardless of whether the other party is an undercover agent or not, their loyalty to the organization is certainly not high. At the very least, they are the type who are not afraid of the organization.

Such a person is naturally capable as well—which explains why Gin seemed overly friendly and trusting towards him when they first met.

If she could get help from such a tool, then Miss Miyano believed that her chances of escaping the organization would undoubtedly increase significantly...

Unfortunately, it failed.

Just as the other party said, I was indeed too impatient and should have taken it one step at a time.

After all, how could someone with such strong abilities not notice something amiss when faced with such a sudden change?

Shiho Miyano sighed again. In her usual way, she would never have acted so rashly, but her unease was growing stronger and stronger. She had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.

...But what gives this guy the right to laugh at his own sister?

Shiho Miyano felt a surge of resentment. In this day and age, is being deeply affectionate considered a flaw?

...It seems that this is indeed the case for criminals.

After entering the elevator from the underground research institute, Sano couldn't help but look at his appearance in the reflection of the elevator door: "That's strange, I didn't even show my face. Does my appearance just look so...naive?"

Sano truly never expected that a genius like Shiho Miyano, who could outpace countless big names in the field of scientific research, would do something so foolish.

Is he a one-dimensional genius who can only do research but is not good at anything else?

...It doesn't seem like it. I guess I heard something.

Even so, one shouldn't treat oneself as a foolish tool or reserve officer; that would be too presumptuous.

If the genders were reversed, could Sano sue the other party for sexual harassment and claim compensation?

After a period of self-doubt and disdain for Shiho Miyano, Sano, along with several peripheral members of the research institute, boarded three black cars and headed to the destination where the drugs were to be delivered.

……

In a remote mountain outside Tokyo, Sano walked several kilometers after getting off the bus before finally reaching his destination.

It was a small Western-style house. After confirming with the outsiders in the house, Sano went into the basement.

This basement is much larger than the underground training ground that Sano was taken to by Gin, and it can even be compared with the Aoki Research Institute.

It has three floors, each about the size of a dozen football fields, with all kinds of rooms, laboratories, training fields, canteens, and more.

Just the number of peripheral members that Sano encountered after leaving the company is at least in the hundreds.

It wasn't until they arrived at an office similar to Shiho Miyano's that Sano met the person they were supposed to meet.

He was a middle-aged man, probably in his fifties, and his white lab coat clearly indicated he was a researcher.

"The medicine has arrived."

Sano greeted the man, but the man didn't look at Sano. He just gave a soft "hmm" and kept his gaze fixed on the back of the large glass window.

Sano looked over as well and saw a man who looked to be about thirty years old, tied to a chair and covered in various testing instruments.

Beside the man, two other people in white coats were busy taking various small medicine bottles and syringes from a trolley. After a series of operations, they gave the man an injection and kept recording the changes in the numbers on the instrument in their notebooks.

Sano knew what kind of medicine it was because it was one of the medicines he had sent this time.

This is a drug developed internally by the organization.

Its only function is to improve the physical condition of the person receiving the injection.

It's probably similar to the super soldier serum that Captain America was injected with?

Of course, there will definitely be differences; otherwise, the organization would have already had an average combat strength of Sano Special Attack Team members.

In addition to this, this drug also has various other side effects, and whether it is effective and how effective it is varies from person to person, making it an incomplete drug.

Therefore, this drug is currently only being used on peripheral members.

No, more strictly speaking, they are quasi-peripheral members.

As everyone knows... no, I should say that in Sano's organization, members are roughly divided into four levels from highest to lowest.

The only boss, a few high-ranking officers, then ordinary codename officers, and finally the peripheral members who are like ants.

...But for the people in the organization, they are just peripheral members, cadres, and then the BOSS.

The existence of senior cadres was like the name of the distillery's organization—nobody even had a concept of it.

Because of the task of promoting him to a senior executive, Sano had tried to get information out of Gin, both openly and subtly.

Although the other party didn't have this concept, Sano still managed to roughly figure out what it was.

What follows is truly well-known.

If you consider the distillery as a real factory, the BOSS is the absolute boss, and below him are three departments: the intelligence group, the action group, and the research group.

The peripheral members are like screw-tighteners, the cadres are supervisors—or you could say senior technicians, and above the cadres are the department heads and managers of the three departments.

The role of the research group goes without saying, and while the core of the intelligence group and the action group are different, they also have a lot of overlap.

For example, although intelligence personnel are mainly responsible for collecting intelligence, they are not exempt from using guns to kill people and participating in some operations.

For example, while operatives may primarily engage in murder and arson, they can also collect intelligence, or even participate in various frivolous tasks such as personnel recruitment and logistics transportation.

Currently, the only department head Sano knows of—no, the team leader—is Gin, who is in charge of the action team. Shiho Miyano might be considered part of the research team... but that's unlikely, since she's just a puppet.

However, Gin's words seemed to convey some other information.

It seems that, apart from the three group leaders, there are several special cadres in the organization whose status is not as high as the group leaders, but is higher than that of ordinary cadres.

I just don't know how many of these special cadres there are, or whether they are considered high-ranking cadres.

In any case, the safest way for Sano to be promoted to a senior executive right now is to work hard, wait for his performance to be good enough, and then slowly wait for a senior executive to retire or die unexpectedly...

Of course, Sano himself preferred to find an opportunity to eliminate a high-ranking officer and then take over the position.

It's fast and convenient.

At worst, we can just put in a little more effort to make it look like the other person died accidentally.

And the first choice, or rather the only choice, is Gin at the moment.

Speaking of which, it seems that Japan actually particularly admires the idea of ​​subordinates overthrowing their superiors...

Ahem, we've gone off-topic.

Sano calmed his restless heart. As far as the organization was concerned, he only knew of two ways to recruit talent: one was to join voluntarily, and the other was to be forced to join.

Yes, Sano claims to belong to the second category, but in reality, he belongs to the first.

At the same time, not all peripheral members are like Sano, who is called in for an interview. More often, they are forced to join because the organization just happens to be short of cannon fodder and the other side just happens to come along.

Although they are called cannon fodder, they still need to have the value of cannon fodder.

If, like Sano, they lack physical abilities and other skills such as firearms, then recruiting them would truly make them nothing more than cannon fodder in the real sense.

Aside from stopping bullets, it has no other use, and whether it can even stop bullets is another matter entirely.

Therefore, the organization began onboarding training for these prospective peripheral members, which could also be considered a lengthy interview process, while simultaneously addressing the organization's shortage of test subjects.

Kill two birds with one stone.

Just like the man in front of me.

Sano calmly looked into the glass, and the man inside looked back at him, his eyes bloodshot, filled with anger and fear—two completely opposite emotions mixed together.

Of course, not all potential members will experience this; only a few will. After all, the probability of being cultivated through drugs is extremely low, and even if successful, they generally don't live long, making it a true case of forcing growth.

If possible, organizations would naturally want to acquire a stable pool of cannon fodder for sustainable development.

If someone possesses outstanding... special talents like Sano, they might even be given special training in hopes of becoming a core member and obtaining a cadre codename.

...Although Sano doesn't believe he possesses the special talent that Gin and Amuro Tooru see.

Before leaving, Sano's gaze swept over the experimental report on the researcher's desk, and he also saw the man's name.

Numabuchi Kiichiro.

"Then I'll be going now."