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A pharmaceutical research institute in the outskirts of Tokyo, operating under Kobayashi Pharmaceutical.
As one of Japan's largest pharmaceutical companies, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical had a legacy spanning over a hundred years.
Since receiving investment from the Karasuma Group in the 1950s, the company had developed rapidly, and many of Japan's most well-known medicines were connected to this conglomerate.
This particular research institute looked like an ordinary branch of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, but in truth, it was a secret base of the Black Organization in Japan, carrying out highly classified drug research.
At just eighteen years old, Miyano Shiho served as the Pharmaceutical Research Director of this institute.
On the surface, her future looked boundless. But only she knew the truth, her life had always been controlled like a puppet on strings, colorless and suffocating.
Inside her private office, Shiho sat in front of a computer. In addition to piles of research documents and drug formulas, her desk also held some fashion magazines, which looked completely out of place in the lab environment.
Her gaze drifted toward the corner of the room, where a surveillance camera was mounted.
Her entire life was under constant watch.
Today, Shiho was unusually idle. As she scrolled through online videos, she happened to click into a livestream covering Tokyo University's entrance ceremony.
Normally, she wouldn't care about something like this, but today, for some inexplicable reason, she kept watching.
The President's opening speech was dull and sleep-inducing. Just as she was wondering if she'd clicked the wrong stream, the freshman representative began speaking and finally caught her interest.
"An unfair world? Heh... this world is unfair. It's just that those freshmen in their ivory towers don't understand it yet, right?"
Though she was younger than most of those Tokyo University freshmen, Shiho's voice carried a calm maturity beyond her years.
Her eyes were cold, filled with cynicism, both toward society and her own fate.
If the students who had made it into Tokyo University were considered geniuses, then Shiho Miyano was a genius among geniuses.
Last year, she had already graduated from Columbia University, not as an undergraduate, but as a double PhD.
If the Organization hadn't intentionally suppressed the information, she would've been making headlines in America already.
Despite her young age, her intellect and talent surpassed ordinary standards. Though the Black Organization was a criminal group, it operated under a sophisticated system and placed heavy emphasis on talent development.
Shiho had been sent abroad to study from an early age, skipping grades year after year. She was admitted to a top-tier American university at thirteen, and by seventeen, she held two doctorate degrees.
Compared to normal people, she embodied the very unfairness of the world.
But Shiho didn't feel pride or joy—only bitterness.
She would rather have been a normal girl without extraordinary talent.
Because she had no freedom. Her fate was sealed the moment she was born.
She had once considered resisting, but the more she understood the Organization's reach and power, the more she realized how futile it would be. Over time, her thoughts of rebellion faded, giving way to resignation and numb obedience.
She hated the drug the Organization had her developing.
It was poison.
She didn't want to be a silent executioner.
But her family had been threatened. And she was just an ordinary girl, she feared death.
So in the end, her resistance existed only in her thoughts, while in action, she quietly continued the research.
Lately, however, her curiosity had been stirred. Because this poison was beginning to show strange effects.
"This drug is based on my parents' original research. If I dig deeper, I might uncover what they were working on back then for the Organization."
Investigating the truth behind her parents' deaths, searching for the traces they left behind, this was one of the few things Shiho still wanted to do.
Though she suspected the Organization had killed them, it was strange. As two of its core scientists, they shouldn't have been eliminated so easily.
Only by finding out what they were researching could she uncover the real reason behind their deaths.
Shiho closed the livestream window.
Whether it was the Tokyo University freshmen or that so-called freshman representative, she had nothing but mockery for them.
In her eyes, they were clueless, sheltered children. They had no understanding of this world's true darkness.
Yet at the same time, she envied them.
They had their youth. They had the right to enjoy their university days.
And she had nothing.
"Even my sister hasn't contacted me lately. The people in the Organization are vague whenever I ask. Please, sis... don't let anything happen to you."
A hint of anxiety flashed through Shiho's cold eyes.
Her sister was her last remaining warmth in this world, the only emotional anchor keeping her from completely collapsing.
(To be continued.)
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