Copernicus Experimental Zone.
Dangling from a massive metal cross, Conan stared down at Luo Shu with utter despair:
"So, why am I being hung up here?"
"For the experiment." Luo Shu kept his expression neutral.
But this only prompted more questions from the young boy:
"Previous experiments just involved blood samples or lying in CT-like machines, didn't they?"
"Why a cross this time? Am I supposed to be the suffering Jesus?"
Luo Shu hesitated before replying: "Well... would you like to try becoming Jesus?"
"Try my foot!!" Conan's teeth chattered with rage. "You're planning to dissect me, aren't you?"
Under Conan's resentful glare, Luo Shu calmly explained:
"Though the setup looks questionable, this testing device should be able to detect something useful."
Conan deadpanned with droopy eyes: "I strongly suspect the appearance doesn't matter at all. Any comfortable shape would work just fine."
Luo Shu looked troubled before admitting:
"You can actually drop the 'strongly suspect' part."
Conan: "..."
Seeing Conan fall silent, Luo Shu smiled.
Just then, Tabane Shinonono's voice echoed through the walls:
"Resonance test complete! Little Luo Shu, you can come out now!!"
Hearing this, Conan couldn't help asking:
"What about me?"
"Our test subject needs to lie still~"
Bound hand and foot to the metal cross, Conan cursed:
"But you haven't even given me anywhere to lie down!!"
Beep.
Suddenly, Conan felt weightless as his back pressed against the cross.
He seemed to have shifted from being tied to the cross to lying on it?
"Huh?"
While Conan looked bewildered, Luo Shu - barely hanging onto the cross to avoid falling - sighed:
"Could you warn us before changing gravity next time?"
"Oopsie, sorry~ Will remember next time."
Luo Shu sighed again, then pushed off the cross, using the recoil to leap towards the exit.
Executing a sliding exit, he emerged into the low-gravity corridor.
Ignoring Conan's distant shouts of "Take me with you!!", Luo Shu righted himself mid-air, grabbed the conveyor handrail, and floated towards the control centre.
Entering felt like stepping into a floral sea of women.
Lacus with her gentle girlfriend aura, mischievous Dr Tabane, cold-faced Ania, elegant kimono beauty Aya Tokoyogi, gothic lolita Natsuki Minamiya, sexy nun Nia Honjo, bubbly Serafall, and petite Kotoko Iwanaga.
Accustomed to being stared at by so many women, Luo Shu had grown comfortable with such attention - even welcoming multiple female presences.
"Any results?"
"The situation isn't optimistic." Lacus floated over to explain: "Through discussion, we've determined the Calamity Jade Seal has partially solidified within Mr Kudo's body."
"His constitution seems uniquely compatible with Abyss Artefacts. Despite being a Demigod Rank material, there are already signs of absorption.
"Hearing this, Luo Shu reached out to steady Lacus while helplessly remarking:
"I get what you mean. This kid's basically a Reaper Elementary School student now—wherever he goes, death follows. It's normal for this to happen."
"Otherwise, why would I remind you to use AI to monitor the staff at Copernicus?"
"It's precisely because I'm worried about murder cases popping up in the base after this kid shows up."
At that moment, Ania, holding a stack of documents with her long golden hair, calmly observed the data on the computer screen:
"Actually, there was already a homicide case at that base before."
"Apparently, the cafeteria auntie had a May-December romance with a Grade C researcher 20 years her junior. Then the guy secretly attended an SDS internal matchmaking event, which ended with the auntie accidentally killing him."
"Less than 10 minutes after the murder, this kid showed up in the cafeteria kitchen. According to him, he was returning his tray after eating."
After scanning the documents, Ania glanced at Aya Tokoyogi and asked:
"Does the mystic side have any techniques with similar effects?"
Aya Tokoyogi, the technical expert brought in by the custodian Natsuki Minamiya, was in a rare mood to respond:
"Similar cases would generally involve techniques related to fate interference."
"I've heard of a type of crow in hell called the Death-Announcing Raven that actively flies to locations where deaths occur to absorb the deathly Qi there."
"And if the Death-Announcing Raven goes too long without feeding, it will release a special fate-based ability, causing bizarre death phenomena among nearby living beings."
Hearing this, Luo Shu couldn't help but quip:
"So Conan's actually the reincarnation of one of those crows, and he's constantly starving?"
Aya Tokoyogi shot Luo Shu a glance, too lazy to explain that low-level beings weren't even qualified to discuss reincarnation—that was a privilege reserved for higher-level existences.
"The state this kid's exhibiting now is very close to the fate-interference power of a Death-Announcing Raven in extreme hunger. Moreover, based on my observations, his power seems to be gradually strengthening while mixed with the Concept of Calamity."
"This should be related to the fusion mentioned earlier."
Aya Tokoyogi was unusually intrigued. After all, humans like Conan, who could fuse with Demigod-level Abyss Materials and actually digest them, were quite special.
"I recall the Union has some so-called Demigods in similar situations."
"They fused with Demigod-level items and partially digested them, gaining Demigod abilities. After SDS established the sorcerer evaluation system, these individuals were internally referred to as Demigods by the Union."
"However, compared to Demigods born through orthodox means, these so-called Demigods are just slightly stronger Hero Rank individuals at best."
Surprised that Aya Tokoyogi was willing to share intel, Luo Shu asked:
"Are there many of these wild Demigods in the Union?"
"The numbers shouldn't be high. The French Union has at most two, and the British Union probably has three. But one of them is a little one I've been keeping an eye on—she recently came to Japan, though it seems she's gone missing now."
"Recently came to Japan? And you were watching her?" Luo Shu paused, then asked suspiciously, "Are you talking about Kuesu Jingūji?"
Aya Tokoyogi glanced at Luo Shu with some surprise.
Luo Shu instantly understood that look and immediately made a strange expression:
"So it really is her..."
Thinking of that white-haired gothic witch still busy cultivating Yggdrasil in the Warring States Abyss, Luo Shu couldn't really say anything more.
"So what should we do now to extract the Calamity Jade Seal from Conan's body?"
The reply came from Tabane Shinonono, who looked completely unconcerned:
"There's no solution for now, but there is one point that needs to be made clear."
Tabane Shinonono's smile turned playful as she said:
"We need to disrupt the fusion between little Conan and the Calamity Jade Seal."
"How do we disrupt it?" Luo Shu asked curiously.
At that moment, Nia Honjo snapped Raziel shut:
"It's simple. Just make him turn back into an adult a few more times."
Hearing this, Luo Shu suddenly looked enlightened:
"White liquor plus a cold?"
"So that's it!"
The girls looked utterly confused.
What did white liquor and a cold have to do with Conan turning back into an adult?
Kotoko Iwanaga voiced her confusion: "Normally, wouldn't we go after the organisation that developed this shrinking drug? Find the creator of that medicine?"
"The creator..."
Thinking of Ai Haibara, Luo Shu's expression became somewhat complicated:
"Seems like the drug's creator is actually under our supervision."