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Despite formulating the APTX 4869 antidote, Shiho had figured there would never actually be a reason for her abilities to ever be needed again.
That is, until Shinichi recommended her to the forensics and chemistry division of the Tokyo MP, and suddenly she was busy again.
However, she still feared going out in the open, especially since Vermouth and Menthe still harbored some distaste for her, so Shiho stated that the only way she'd accept the job is if they allowed her to work from home as much as possible.
Thankfully, it was possible for the chemistry aspect, and in regards to the forensics, they used video calls 80% of the time.
It was a pretty cushy job, and Shiho liked being able to use her gifts for good instead of whatever the Black Organization wanted from her.
And, as the youngest Kudo twins got older and began to develop proper interests, Kona had begun sticking close to Shiho's side.
He loved science of all types, especially chemistry, and when he learned that Shiho was a forensic scientist, he often joined her in her lab.
It was nice to have someone around who was happy to spectate and nerd out with her, and she soon got used to him being around.
One day, Shiho was working on preparing a new type of allergy medication, requested of her by a friend of her boss who worked in pharmaceuticals. While it wasn't quite what she was used to, it was busy work and she appreciated that.
However, this meant that she couldn't dedicate much time to watching Kona, so she let him wander around the lab and read some of her textbooks.
『Dear Haibara-san, please ensure there is at least one oral antihistamine and one nasal spray. Samples of both are due by this time next month.』
If I were a normal chemist, this would be a bit of an insane ask...
Shiho sighed, closing her email and turning back to her line of beakers and the notebook that she wrote her formulas in. It wasn't hard, and she had already been working on allergy and cold medication because of Kona and Shinichi, who both seemed to be prone to catching colds anyways, so it wasn't like there was much more she needed to do.
She opened her notebook and had just picked up her pen when she felt a gentle tug on her lab coat.
"Kona-kun?"
He stood beside her chair, hugging a black spiral notebook to his chest.
"Kona-kun? What is that?" She turned her chair around to face him, leaning forward a bit and extending her hand. Shiho knew that she let him wander around as he wanted, but she didn't actually know where he had ended up.
She glanced around the room and saw the filing cabinet in the corner of the lab. The bottom drawer was ajar, and she felt her blood run cold.
"This is the drug that turned Shin-nii little, isn't it?" Kona's arm shifted from around the book, showing the tag on the front said APTX 4869.
"W-what are you doing with that??" Shiho snatched the notebook away from him, quickly putting it in one of her desk drawers. "I told you that that filing cabinet was off limits!"
Kona looked down, then to the side.
"Because it's the poison, right?" Kona shook his head. "I was wondering about it since Kai-nii mentioned it, but I didn't know that you made it..."
Suddenly, Shiho felt her stomach drop.
She had made the older twins promise to never mention the origin of APTX 4869 if somehow the topic ever came up, purely because she didn't want this exact scenario to arise.
"I didn't make it specifically for Shinichi-" she began, feeling herself growing defensive. "It was something I was forced to work on, something passed down from my parents, and in the end they used it on people that they wanted to get rid of!
"And I had thought it was just a normal poison for a long time. I had even taken it to end my own life because of the situation with the Black Organization.
"Not to mention I worked to make an antidote specifically for Shinichi and others affected by it! So please-"
Please don't look at me like I'm a monster.
Kona reached out and gently held Shiho's hand. His expression was gentle and understanding.
"Shiho-nee," he said, gently rubbing the back of her hand. She'd noticed that he called her by her normal nickname, and not by the formal 'Miyano-sensei' that he often used while within the lab. "Kai-nii and Shin-nii like you a lot. And I like you a lot too!
"So, that means you're not a bad person!"
Shiho grasped his little hands with her own, feeling just a bit of the weight on her heart lift.
"You don't know the kind of person I was before you were born."
Kona simply shrugged.
"I don't have to know, because that's in the past. The only Shiho-nee that matters right now is the one I know!"
There was an innocence to children that often made it hard to feel negatively. Perhaps there was a part of Shiho that didn't actually believe she was worthy of forgiveness, but she was willing to ignore those feelings for now.
"Can you tell me more about it?" Kona asked, his eyes huge and sparkling. Normally that expression would cause her to give in, but for right now, she was resolute.
"Absolutely not."
"What? But I'm so curious!"
"Nothing good will come of me discussing it. And before you ask, I will not be making another one for you to use."
Kona pouted, looking down at his feet. Shiho gently ruffled his hair, standing up from her desk.
"How about we go get Ai-chan and have some lunch? We can go wherever you like."
At that, he perked up.
"Okay!!"
—
The next day, Shiho had flipped through the black notebook that Kona had pulled from the filing cabinet.
She didn’t actually want to recreate it or anything of the sort, but sometimes she looked back on these things in order to learn from her mistakes so to speak.
It was a strange feeling, a sort of painful nostalgia that made her want to curl up and cry. But she didn’t, because that was the past. It was behind her, and she never had to deal with it again.
“Hm, the delivery should be here soon.” She set the notebook down, standing and walked towards the front door. As she padded down the hall, Shiho noticed that it was a bit colder than it was this morning.
Shiho walked over to the thermostat, but saw that the AC was off.
How odd…
She rounded the corner and saw that the back door was open.
“...?”
Shiho went and shut the door. Agasa had been out in the backyard working on some solar panels that he had installed, so she wondered if he simply forgot to close the door before coming back inside.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Shiho pushed the strange feelings behind her and walked to the door, opening it to be greeted with the mailman.
“Haibara-san,” the mailman tilted his head to her, holding out a slip for her to sign. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been alright, just the same old things around here.” She signed her name and handed the clipboard back, taking the package.
“Well, you tell your husband I said hello!”
“H-husband?” She sputtered, hugging the package to her chest. “Agasa isn’t my husband.”
“Huh? Not the doctor, I meant the young-ish man who was at the window on the first floor. He was your husband, right? I read some rumors lately—”
Shiho froze.
“Well, whoever he was! Tell him I said hello!” The mailman turned to leave, before looking back at her. “And you shouldn’t leave your back door open! It’s not safe, even in a nice neighborhood like this!”
She whipped around, seeing that the door she had JUST closed as in fact open again. After locking the front door, she locked the back door as well and sprinted to her lab. Shiho slammed the door and locked it as well, noticing something was amiss in the lab.
Nothing seemed to be disturbed, but there was something missing, she realized
The black notebook with her notes on APTX 4869 was no longer where she had left it.