Toru gave her one of his shirts. The size was large enough for the current Shiho to wear it like a floor-length dress.
After putting it on, Shiho looked at the bed she had just been lying on. The sheets and duvet were dirty, covered in dust and mud.
Seeing this, Toru said, "That bedding was new. It cost me 100,000 yen. Guess it's ruined now."
"I'll pay you back," Shiho said coldly.
Are you a man or not? Why are you so petty over something like this? she grumbled inwardly.
Toru grinned. "Do you have money right now?"
Shiho's body stiffened. She didn't want to talk to this guy anymore. She dragged her tired body to the chair in front of the desk and sat down.
Then she realized the chair was too low. At her current height, she couldn't even see the screen properly.
This damn child's body.
Toru brought her a higher stool in time and said, "Your condition is still really bad. Why don't you rest first?"
Shiho pressed down on her splitting headache, her voice hoarse. "Since your superior needs the data, we need to finish this quickly. Otherwise, he'll get suspicious."
Toru nodded inwardly.
Honestly, even if Shiho had asked to rest before finishing the data, he would've forced her to do it while she was still sick.
Just like she said, this couldn't be delayed. Any delay would raise suspicion.
Seeing her maintain calm logic and work efficiency despite her illness, Toru had to admit—this was an impressive woman.
He had always disliked emotional women. Shiho, the type of strong, research-driven woman, clearly wasn't the exception. She was rational enough.
Shiho connected the hard drive to the computer and entered the password.
Looking at the detailed drug development data and various experiment logs on the screen, she couldn't help but smile.
"Perfect. All the data's here. Now I can continue the research and even use it to develop an antidote."
If it had just made her body smaller, Shiho wouldn't have cared. At most, she'd live another ten years and still be a decent person.
But the fact that her body couldn't grow anymore was something she couldn't accept.
How could an adult bear to live as a child for the rest of their life? It was no different from having a terminal illness.
Even though she was dizzy, Shiho worked fast and began retrieving and sorting the data.
After a brief pause, she explained to Toru, "TX4869 was developed based on Silver Bullet, a drug my parents had worked on."
"I found their research among their belongings and continued the development. That's how I unintentionally created APTX4869."
"This drug is colorless and odorless. Once taken, it causes sudden death and leaves no trace, which is why it caught the Organization's attention."
"I'm certain the chemical compounds I added couldn't cause the body to shrink. The issue lies in Silver Bullet."
Shiho wasn't used to her smaller hands at first, but she quickly adapted, typing at her usual speed.
"...I'm deleting the Silver Bullet section now and leaving only the parts I developed myself."
"When I was at the research institute, besides APTX4869, I was also working on a legitimate anti-aging drug."
"All the data is real. Now I'll merge the two into an unconfirmed compound still in development."
"You can submit this version. Even if the CIA asks a pharmacology professor at Washington University to review it, they won't find any problems."
Watching Shiho operate the computer with her head slightly raised, a hint of pride on her face, Toru felt the urge to applaud her.
A true genius—someone like Shiho, who could develop drugs that could change society, whose creativity defied common logic.
It reminded Toru of the CIA's secret intelligence reports, which mentioned global experiments aimed at cultivating geniuses. These projects had the backing of various CIA-affiliated financial groups.
But without exception, all those experiments failed.
The children raised in those projects did show extraordinary memory and observational skills.
But even the best of them were nothing more than high-functioning tools to those in power.
What defined a real genius was creativity, and that couldn't be trained. In fact, over-specialization often suffocated it.
Those so-called genius-cultivation experiments were still ongoing worldwide, but most had shifted focus toward AI.
Because all the skills those "created geniuses" had could be easily surpassed by AI.
Just as Toru was deep in thought, Shiho hit the enter key.
She staggered off the chair, holding her head. "I've backed up the important data and faked the rest. You can submit these files to your superior."
"No, don't call it fake. That anti-aging research is real. If fully developed, it could be sold to the rich and bring in tens of billions of dollars."
Toru finally understood why the Black Organization had kept such tight control over Shiho.
Even without APTX4869, that one anti-aging drug project was enough for them to see her as a critical asset.
Especially since she was only eighteen, she had decades of research potential ahead of her. She was a gold mine.
Watching her struggle to climb back onto the bed, Toru looked at the cold porridge on the bedside table and asked, "Want me to warm it up? Or do you want me to feed you?"
"No need, I can eat by myself."
Shiho propped herself up, grabbed the plain porridge, and scarfed down a few mouthfuls.
After putting something in her stomach, she lay down weakly and said, "I need to rest. Don't bother me."
Seeing that she could eat, Toru nodded in relief.
Appetite meant recovery.
He walked to the computer and looked at the chemical equations and research papers on screen.
Yeah, he didn't understand a thing.
This was far outside Toru's expertise. Even though he had a cheat, he'd never put any skill points into research and development.
His skill points were limited and precious. As a CIA agent, survival came first. Drug research was the least of his priorities right now.
He packaged the data and sent it to Spencer, completing the mission.
Two days later, Spencer finally replied, praising his performance.
However, Spencer also expressed disappointment, saying that while the drug data was valuable, it didn't match what he was looking for.
He suspected the Black Organization was hiding something else and would continue investigating.
Toru sneered inwardly.
The reason Spencer waited two days to reply was because he had handed the data over to experts to verify its authenticity before responding.
He always said he trusted Toru, but clearly, that wasn't the case.
Toru would have to stay on guard. Even someone like Spencer might sell him out one day.
And lately, Spencer had been dropping hints—testing the waters for a terrifying mission.
A mission involving the assassination of a candidate for the President of the United States.
...
Shiho slowly opened her eyes in bed.
This was the third day since she had arrived at Toru's place.
After two days of rest, her fever had mostly gone down, but her body still felt weak. She had no strength to get up and could only stay in bed.
"You seem to be recovering well, which is great. I'll keep you company today, but I need to go back to school tomorrow."
"I just started college and already took three days off. Even if the professors don't say anything, I'm sure they're not happy."
Lying in bed, Shiho turned her head to look at Toru as he entered the room.
She had suggested he knock before entering.
But he insisted this was his house and he could go wherever he wanted, leaving her with no argument.
Watching him bring over another bowl of porridge, Shiho sighed.
Her appetite had returned after two days, and she was sick of eating plain porridge. She wanted something with actual flavor.
As if reading her mind, Toru smiled. "I added some sugar to today's porridge. It'll taste better than yesterday's."
"Just hang in there for two more days. Once you're fully recovered, you can eat whatever you want. No one will stop you."
Shiho had to admit, his observation skills were sharp. Definitely worthy of being a CIA agent.
She sat up in bed, leaned against the headboard, and held the blanket close.
She was still undressed. Even if her body had shrunk, her mind was still that of an adult, and she felt embarrassed.
After placing the porridge on the bedside table, Toru pulled over a chair and sat down.
Shiho couldn't help but ask, "Why are you still going to school?"
With his level of professional skill and status in the CIA, she didn't think school was necessary for him.
Especially since he held such a high-ranking position at a young age, it wasn't like he needed another career path.
She tilted her head, thinking. "Do you have some kind of mission at school?"
Toru smiled. "Don't overthink it. I'm just pursuing my lifelong dream."
"Lifelong dream?"
Shiho blinked. She remembered something from his speech as a freshman at Tokyo University. "...You don't seriously want to become Japan's Prime Minister, do you?"
"Why not?"
Shiho found that a little hard to believe. Was the U.S. not satisfied with its current control over Japan and trying to raise a new Prime Minister who'd follow their lead?
Even so, wouldn't it make more sense to pick someone from the current cabinet rather than grooming a 20-year-old college student?
Who knew how long it would take for Toru to reach that position.
Shaking her head, she stopped herself from thinking further. This had nothing to do with her. Whatever America and Japan wanted to do was none of her business.
"Let's talk about what you plan to do next."
Toru shifted the focus back to her.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. Right now, you have nowhere to go, and you don't exist on paper. No ID, no registration. You can only stay here with me."
Shiho frowned. Her tone turned cold. "You want me to continue developing drugs, right?"
She wasn't naive. She'd seen enough of the world to know Toru wasn't just sheltering her out of kindness.
If he were just a regular university student, she might think he was being charitable—or maybe just a little perverted and liked little girls.
But as a CIA agent, he wasn't someone she could treat like a normal college kid.
Toru didn't hide it. He knew there were some things he couldn't cover up. "That's right. I want you to keep working on the drug."
Seeing Shiho's displeasure, he added, "...But only the part of APTX4869 that causes the shrinking."
"I don't need the poison part. I'm guessing what you really object to is making poison, not doing drug research, right?"
Shiho stared at him, stunned. "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"You practically have it written on your face. Not hard to guess."
Seeing how calm and composed he was, Shiho clenched her teeth. "You're right. I do want to continue researching that part of APTX4869."
As a researcher, she was naturally drawn to such a unique and mysterious effect. Plus, it might even connect to the truth behind her parents' deaths.
Even without Toru, she would have kept researching.
"I need proper equipment. Even if I don't have a full lab setup, I still need some precision instruments."
Shiho immediately laid out her conditions.
Toru raised an eyebrow.
The kind of equipment she was talking about wasn't cheap. Some machines could cost millions, even tens of millions of dollars.
Even for him, it would be hard to come up with that kind of cash right now.
Being an official CIA agent gave him access to national-level resources, but it also tied his hands with bureaucracy and restrictions.
So it was tough to use fast money-making methods. Too risky.
But with his 3D human skin mask printer, he could switch identities and find ways to get cash.
"Alright. I'll figure out how to get the funds for the equipment, but it'll take time. This kind of money isn't easy to come by."
As for actually purchasing the equipment, that would be the easiest part. He had more than enough channels for that.
"Tens of millions of dollars..."
Toru muttered under his breath.
He even considered robbing a financial group, but the problem was laundering the money. His CIA channels couldn't be used for that.
Shiho snorted. "Besides APTX4869, I'll also work on other drugs. As long as I succeed with one, it'll pay you back ten or even a hundred times over."
Toru thought about it. She was right.
The anti-aging drug she developed already had a market size of tens of billions. This girl really was a walking cash machine.
As he relaxed a bit, Shiho also felt less tense.
She still didn't know much about Toru or his true nature, but at least now that she'd proven her value, she wouldn't be in danger, at least not in the short term.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)