The Sherry Agenda (A Fan Fic)

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Fennec

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The Sherry Agenda (A Fan Fic)

Post by Fennec »

To me, writing is my passion. When I read or watch a series and really like it, I naturally think of ways to insert original characters who can become a part of the universe without overlapping or overshadowing the main characters. While reading Detective Conan, I began to do that once again. I tend to file away really good characters for other stories, but I realized that these characters have a story that is only really suited for the DC universe. As such, I decided to write it down and create some fan fiction. It's been a while since I did a fan fic for anything. Despite the title, the main characters of DC won't appear right away, though they will appear soon enough. Anyways, enjoy!
Prologue
~Nana~
Why?

Why did this happen?


There were the thoughts running through Natsumi Fujimine's mind as she stared at the dark sky in a dazed state, her body feeling like it was buried inside her high school uniform. Confusion, fear, disbelief and sadness swirled inside her as she lay there, a complex vortex of dark emotions, unseeing eyes focused on the bright whiteness of the moon. Just hours earlier, she'd been sitting in her room at her computer, the aromas of that night's dinner drifting to her room from down the hall along with the voices of her parents as they talked about regular stuff.

And now, somehow, she had turned into a little kid.

It didn't make sense. It seemed like some sort of horrible dream, or maybe an action movie. Mysterious people in black sneaking into a house and discreetly kill the occupants without making a sound. Running for your life through a forest, the only light the light of the moon. Taking a pill and turning into a kid... None of that should be real. It should only exist in movies and dreams, it shouldn't be real. None of it made sense. But it was real, it did happen, and she didn't know what to believe anymore. There was only one thing she was sure of: it had to be because of that disc.

Her father was an investigative journalist for a major newspaper in Tokyo. He felt more like a detective than a reporter, digging deep into society as he researched his stories. Whenever he was working on a story, he'd spend hours at the office on a daily basis, returning home late at night, or sometimes not even coming home at all. When she was younger, she'd resented him for not being around so much, always being too busy to take her to see a movie or get ice cream. As she grew older, though, she came to understand and appreciate his hard work. It would always pay off in the end when he'd publish a giant exposé, revealing some unscrupulous dealing within the financial world or some giant conspiracy that would rock the nation. Immediately after finishing a story, he'd always take two weeks off and take his family on a big vacation. He'd do his best to make up for all the lost time with them until his next assignment or lead came along. She loved her father and was proud of him.

That evening, he came home earlier than usual and gave her a CD with a request to crack the files inside. Natsumi had always had a way with computers, having a natural talent for programming and hacking—not that she'd ever break the law with it—and her father occasionally used his daughter's skills to his advantage. Sometimes he'd get information so secret, the discs would be locked down tightly, at which point he'd recruit her help. She never really asked about his story or what was on it, she'd just take it and crack it for him, and this time was no different. As soon as she got it, she went straight to work on her computer.

Immediately, she knew something was different with this one. Usually, the security measures would be somewhat simple and take an hour at most, but this time, it was much more intricate, more complex. The measures amazed her, and she knew she couldn't just leave it to the decryption and cracking programs she'd written. She had to do this one herself. Setting to work, she spent most of the evening on it, even asking her mother to wrap her food and put it in the fridge despite her stomach growling. Cracking into it was one of her greatest challenges yet, requiring all of her attention. She didn't know how long she spent before she finally got through, and when she did, she opened the files and looked at them, curious as to what required such heavy protection.

Instead of the pages of long, boring text she'd expected, she found a document with the label "The Sherry Agenda" in bold letter at the top. Directly below it was a picture of a woman, a head shot, with the name "Sherry" above it. Her face was distinctly Asian, but her hair was auburn and wavy—dyed, maybe?—and she had a serious expression. Below the picture was a brief profile.

Real Name: Shiho Miyano
Age: 18
Sex: Female
Affiliations: Research and Development
Status: Missing


Scrolling down, she found more pictures of people with similar profiles in neat rows of three, only they included a field with their relation to the woman at the top, under the heading "Known Associates". Included were her deceased sister, her sister's deceased lover, some other researchers, a foreign woman, a teenage girl, and a black picture labeled "Unknown Accomplice". All the fields for that one were filled with question marks except the one about the person's sex, which was male. Scrolling down further, she came to a stop at a trio of head-shots under the heading "Actively Searching Agents". There was another foreign woman—wasn't she an actress?—a man with a square jaw with dark sunglasses, and a silver-haired man with a black fedora. The last one in particular held her attention. Green eyes gazed at her, a strange, dangerous gleam in them, accented by a scar underneath the left eye. Above his picture was the name "Gin". Something about him sent chills down her spine, and after a moment she closed the file, not wanting to look at him any longer.

What is dad investigating this time? she wondered as she ejected the disc. Something about it felt dangerous, unsafe. Maybe it was just that last man's creepy look, but she felt a strong sense of foreboding about it. Natsumi wanted to ask her dad about it, but she was also afraid to do so. She put it back into the case and left it on her desk, not even wanting to touch it any more than necessary, and left her room, closing the door behind her. She didn't know that it would be the last time she'd see her room. She didn't know that she'd find her parents dead in the living room with a bunch of scary people standing over them. She didn't know that she'd be chased into the forest by her house and forced to swallow some weird pill.

Natsumi didn't know any of that when she left her room. There was no way she could know. Looking back, she didn't just close the door to her room, she was closing the door to her old life, too. Thinking of it that way probably would have made her cry if she wasn't in such a strong state of shock. It was hard to think or feel anything at the moment. Numbness was all she could feel, in her arms, her legs, her mind... She wanted the numbness to stay forever, because she didn't want to do anything, she didn't want to face the fact that she was now an orphan and a child again.

A child. That was the hardest part to believe. How could a perfectly healthy teenage girl suddenly turn into a little kid? It was physically impossible, wasn't it? How was it suddenly possible? What the heck was going on? It made her head spin even worse than it was before. She reached out her hand, a tiny black silhouette against the giant white moon. She'd always been small as a kid, but it was almost ridiculous how large her school uniform was compared to her body now. What age was she now, anyway? She wasn't sure she could tell even if she were to look in a mirror.

Sighing, she let her arm fall limp against the ground by her side and closed her eyes, willing everything to end there and then. Exhaustion overcame her, and her consciousness slipped into a dark nothingness mercifully devoid of thought.
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Prologue
~Hikari~
They're following me again.

That was the thought that suddenly struck Hikari Ishikawa's mind as she walked down the street, carrying a bag of groceries with one hand and hugging a new book to her chest with the other. Some people would talk about having a sixth sense, able to know if they were followed or someone was looking at them. Hers bordered on supernatural. The thought "I'm being followed" would abruptly push out everything else in her mind, taking immediate importance, but then she'd let it slide to the back of her mind and go back to whatever she'd been doing previously. For as long as she could remember, it would be triggered on a nearly daily basis whenever she left home. It had been a few days since the last time she'd been followed, so she'd figured someone might be waiting near her apartment that night. No one could follow or watch her without her knowing.

Well, almost no one, anyway, but that didn't matter anymore.

Hikari's grip on the bag tightened as she pushed that thought out of her mind and focused on more important matters, like the book. Having found herself low on food, she'd decided to get some dinner at a nearby cafe before buying some groceries. On her way, the owner of her favorite bookstore had called to her. A new shipment had arrived, including a new book by her favorite author, Yusaku Kudo. Since she was a regular customer at the store and had paid to have a copy reserved, the owner decided to just let her take it then, rather than wait until the next morning. As such, she'd spent dinner reading while carefully avoiding dripping food onto it. Yusaku Kudo's latest mystery was a departure from the Night Baron series, her favorite series, but she didn't mind as she loved his work in general.

Ah, there was her apartment building. It was a modest brick structure on the side of a somewhat busy street, with six rooms for rent inside. As she walked inside, the sensation of being watched vanished, her watcher's view cut by the door. Climbing the stairs, she paused at a door at the end of the hall and shifted the book to her other arm to get out her key and unlock it. Inside, she set the bag and book on the kitchen counter as she walked to the window, using her fingers to widen a space between the slats of her blinds and peer through them. Businesses surrounded the building, her favorite stores and cafes just a short walk away. She'd lived in this apartment for as long as she could remember, and she wondered if it had to do with the cafe across the street.

There. Sitting at an outdoor table was a young man taking a sip from his cup. Even though there was also a woman at another table, she knew it was him because he was wearing black. The people who watched her always wore black for some reason, supposedly to represent crows. Apparently they were part of some organization, and Hikari was on the very fringe of it, kept under near-constant surveillance. She didn't know how she'd ended up in it, or why they were willing to fill her bank account every month so she'd always have enough to pay for her money. What little she knew about it came from one of her watchers, a young woman who'd followed her a lot. That woman had been her favorite watcher, the only one she felt she could approach, though they had to keep their conversations secret.

Not that it mattered anymore. She was gone, too.

Hikari withdrew her fingers, letting the slats snap back to their original position, and went to unload the groceries. The book was calling to her, but it had to wait for the moment. She offered a quick prayer at the small shrine in the corner of the room before grabbing a clipboard and leaving. Her grandmother had been the former landlady of the apartment building until her death earlier that year. Hikari didn't know who owned it now, but she'd been asked over the phone to help collect the rent whenever someone was late with it. That morning she'd gotten another request to collect from one of the tenants, downstairs and she was determined to get it over with so she could go back to reading.

All of this was part of a routine she'd settled into over the past year: go shopping, read, collect rent, and dine out whenever it was time to get more groceries. She figured her routine was why their activity had dropped lately: she just didn't leave home anymore unless it was necessary. She didn't have anyone left to visit or spend time with. Not even her grandmother was around anymore. Her watchers were probably pretty bored of her by now, though they'd probably had a bit of trouble at first. In a way, she was a bit bored too, but this was her life now, and she couldn't really change it. It didn't bother her; she couldn't think of anything she'd rather do.

Well, except maybe die, of course, but she'd already learned that wasn't an option.

In any event, the cycle felt nice and safe, and as she descended the stairs, her thoughts drifted to the book. Even as she knocked and collected the rent, listening to some long-winded excuse for why it was late, she was trying to decipher the culprit's identity from the few clues given so far. Once the door was closed and the money was in hand, she turned and went back up the stairs to her own apartment. Locking the door behind her, she curled up on the old, lumpy couch with her book and began reading eagerly. Other than reading for several hours, it was a rather average night for her.

Click.

The sound was faint, barely audible, but in the silence it seemed amplified, and her head snapped upwards towards the door, instantly on high alert. Watching intently as the handle turned and the door opened silently, not creaking in the slightest, she found herself staring into a pair of blue eyes as a woman started to enter. Initially she looked surprised, but then she smirked and silently stepped inside, closing the door behind her and locking it once more. She was a foreign woman, with platinum blond hair and wearing a sleek black suit.

"You know, it's three in the morning," she commented casually. "You should be in bed."

"But it's still a good time to break into an apartment?" Hikari questioned, somewhat mystified. For one thing, there was a woman in black, part of the organization she was also apparently part of, standing in her apartment.

For another, it was Chris Vineyard, daughter of the famous American actress and master of disguise Sharon Vineyard.

At that moment, Hikari knew her average daily routine was probably gone forever.
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