Chapter 21: Doesn't Seem That Scary After All
A few days later, inside a secret Organization research laboratory.
Miyano Shiho—or rather, Sherry—stood in front of the experimental equipment. Wearing rubber gloves, her icy blue eyes stared unblinkingly into the microscope's field of view, looking completely immersed in injecting test mice.
However, this state of total concentration was merely a front.
A prickly sense of discomfort behind her back made her throat tighten, making it almost impossible to maintain her composure.
She knew without even looking up where that overwhelming presence came from—slanted right behind the workstation, resting on the swivel chair she normally used to temporarily stack documents, but which was currently occupied by someone else.
The man known as "Caesar" in the Organization was lounging comfortably in the chair, one long leg casually propped up and the other crossed over his knee, looking as relaxed as if he were in his own living room.
He wasn't wearing his iconic blindfold today; instead, white bandages wrapped around his eyes, and he seemed to be staring at her with interest.
He didn't do a thing, nor did he make a sound, but just sitting there made him look like a wild beast temporarily hiding its claws in Shiho's eyes, constantly giving off an unignorable aura of danger.
The auburn-haired girl's back stayed stiff, and the tip of the syringe trembled slightly along with her.
It had been two weeks since her first encounter with Caesar. All in all, this was only the second time they had met.
She originally thought he wouldn't come to a boring place like a research lab and had secretly let out a sigh of relief. Yet when she least expected it, he showed up out of nowhere at the lab entrance, greeting her just like an old acquaintance.
"I have zero clue what this guy is thinking."
After another five minutes, Shiho finally reached her limit.
"Mr. Caesar, if you don't have any further instructions, could you please step out for a moment? With you here... I'm getting a bit distracted."
Keeping her sister's warnings firmly in mind, she wanted nothing more than to stay far away from him right now, carefully picking her words so as not to sound offensive.
Hearing this, the corners of Gojo Satoru's mouth curved up slightly.
He naturally had no interest in the research lab itself, but scaring a limited-edition little Sherry and watching her sulke helplessly was pretty entertaining. So, taking advantage of having nothing to do today, he dropped by on a whim to hang around and farm some presence and impression values.
Besides, he held top-level authority above almost all codenamed members, moving freely through any Organization facility, and this lab was no exception.
Gojo Satoru sat up slightly, propping his elbow on the armrest and resting his chin on his hand, speaking in an unpredictable tone: "Sherry, if you get distracted just by being watched, you can't really count as a qualified scientist, you know?"
Miyano Shiho: "..."
She felt super annoyed, but didn't dare talk back.
Gojo Satoru pretended not to see the girl's tightly pressed lips, casually picking up a lab report from the table and flipping through it like a magazine.
The slight rustle of paper made Shiho feel even more uncomfortable. She stole a glance from the corner of her eye, watching him stare at a line graph on a certain page for a few seconds before flipping to the data summary table on the next page, wondering what he could possibly make out of it.
Just putting on an act. He probably couldn't understand it anyway... right?
Yet in the very next second, that thought shattered completely.
"Page seven, Table 3, the column for 'Inhibition constant Ki of Compound A-7 on hepatic microsomal enzyme CYP3A4'..." Gojo Satoru's finger pointed accurately at a specific spot: "The calculated result you wrote here is 3.8 μM, but after plugging it into the equation and taking the liquid concentration ratio into account, the Ki value should be around 3.5 μM instead."
"3.5 μM?"
Shiho froze. Setting everything else aside, she quickly took the report and checked her raw logs and machine readings carefully.
"This..."
Caesar was right... the numbers were indeed off.
She had felt something was odd about the calculation earlier, but due to time constraints, she planned to check it thoroughly after finishing her current experiment, so she had temporarily written down the initial result.
For such a tiny error, unless someone was an expert in the field, it was impossible to spot the problem at a single glance.
She had thought Caesar was just a cold-blooded killer relying on raw power and status to act like a tyrant, never expecting him to have such a deep understanding of pharmacology.
Looks like the role he played in the Organization was definitely not as simple as she had imagined.
[Ding! Impression value from plot character Miyano Shiho increases by 500 points!]
"...Thank you for the correction, Mr. Caesar," Shiho said with mixed feelings. "I'm sorry, it was an oversight on my part. I'll recalculate this data right away."
Gojo Satoru had self-taught plenty of random knowledge back in America, dabbing in all kinds of subjects, and knew that minor calculation mistakes like this were totally normal.
He didn't want to leave little Sherry with the impression that he liked being harsh on others, so he spoke up to ease her mind: "It's just a small mistake, doesn't really affect the overall trend. No need to be nervous."
Shiho paused slightly.
She had prepared herself to receive cold remarks or even further questioning. After all, in a low-error-tolerance environment like the Organization, having a work mistake pointed out on the spot by a high-ranking member rarely came with a good attitude.
With the bandages covering his eyes, she couldn't see Caesar's expression, but... he really didn't seem to mind this little episode at all.
That nerve in her mind that had been constantly on guard against his every move, ready for danger at any second, loosened up just a tiny bit.
Was it an illusion? This man... didn't seem as scary as her sister thought.
"Buzz buzz..."
Right at that moment, the phone in the white-haired youth's pocket vibrated on cue, emitting a soft chime for a new message.
He reached out and pulled the phone out, his eyes sweeping across the lit screen.
It was an email from Tsuki. Beyond a few freshly taken photos, it attached a detailed location address and a short note.
"That guy Shuichi is finally starting his move, huh."
After reading the message, Gojo Satoru stood up from the chair, stuffing his phone back into his pocket: "You still have plenty of work to get through, right? I won't disturb you then."
Saying that, he tucked his hands into his pockets and turned toward the lab entrance.
The moment he passed by Miyano Shiho, a deep and clear voice sounded right beside her ear, carrying a thought-provoking warmth.
"Focus on your research, Sherry... I'm really looking forward to your results."
Sensing his approach, the alloy door slid open silently, closing quickly after Gojo Satoru left, separating the inside and outside into two different worlds once more.
Shiho watched his back disappear beyond the door, letting out a soft sigh of relief.