It's a piece on Takagi, the most loved minor character from Detective Conan! I reckon that if there was an award for the Best Minor Character Ever, Takagi would get it. There's just something about him that makes him loveable...

Anyway, I wrote this fic because I wanted to explore what Takagi feels when he's working. Because of the clumsy, naive person he appears to be, he doesn't seem to fit with being a police officer, whereas at the same time he strangely does.

I do not own Detective Conan. If I did, Takagi Wataru would have a lot more screen time.

Freedom in the Career

Takagi rushed into the room, notepad in hand. He was in such a rush that he knocked into Ran as she was walking past. His pen slipped from his hand and clattered onto the wooden flooring.
"I'm sorry, Ran-chan!" Takagi exclaimed, blushing as he knelt down to snatch his pen up. As he stood, he saw Ran smile warmly at him; he smiled back, raising his hand up to scratch the behind of his ear. He hurriedly walked to the side of Inspector Meguire, who shook his head. This made Takagi blush an even deeper red as he flipped open his notepad, pen at the ready to write any important details that they found out from the interrogation.
The case they were investigating was quite a nasty one; a twenty-eight-year-old woman and a thirty-year-old man had both driven off a three hundred foot cliff into the sea after someone cut the brakes in their car. The victims had been newly-weds; it had already surfaced that a previous boyfriend of the woman had been infuriated at the news of the marriage. Of course, that made him the main suspect.
Takagi sighed quietly to himself. When was a case he had to look into not a nasty one? Dealing with all the gruesome murders and crimes on a daily basis: sometimes Takagi wondered why he had ever chosen to follow the detective career.
"So, what is your connection to the victims?" Inspector Meguire asked in a low voice, pointing to an old woman who appeared to be at least fifty. Well, that was according to Takagi, anyway. He was quite well known for being a poor judge in the Tokyo police department. Perhaps it wasn't just Takagi who wondered why he'd taken the job as a police officer.
As his mind wondered, he thought reluctantly about all of the colleagues who probably questioned his choice of career. Shiratori, definitely. Inspector Meguire gave signs that he did; Chiba seemed like a person who wouldn't really have these thoughts running through his head. Satou... Takagi didn't even want to know what she thought.
"Takagi? Are you writing any of this down?" Inspector Meguire suddenly snapped, making Takagi jump.
"Sorry! I will do!" Takagi exclaimed, ducking his head right next to his notepad; scribbling down anything that he remembered from the case. Meguire exhaled heavily, and continued with firing questions at people related to the victims.

* * * * *

Takagi flopped himself down onto the stiff sofa that occupied most of his tiny living room. As ever, his apartment was a complete tip; with paperwork from previous cases flung carelessly over the coffee table, and empty cups of coffee that had served as Takagi's energy when he was filling out the forms that always seemed to keep piling up. That latest case had once again been effortlessly solved by the famed 'Sleeping Kogorou'. Takagi couldn't help but gape admiringly as Kogorou had sat there, pointing out crucial evidence that the rest had so easily skipped.
His mind wandered over the case. Kogorou that found out that the thirty year-old man's parents hadn't been overjoyed by the woman their son had chosen to spend the rest of his life with. In fact, they had been infuriated, so infuriated that they had planned to cut the brakes to their son's wife's car before she travelled to her work. However, they had not known that their son had made plans to be dropped off by his wife to his own job, causing them both to lose their lives that dreary day.
All in all, not a happy ending to yet another baffling case. If only people could learn to just get along, Takagi thought to himself. He rifled through the paperwork situated on his coffee table, struggling to find the forms he needed to fill out.
He gave up quickly. Flinging the papers he'd collected in his hand onto the table, he fell back onto the sofa. Only then did he realise just how tired he was. Rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, his thoughts strayed for the third time that day.
All those forms, all the people affected... There was never any peace in the world of crime. However, that had to be expected. For the world to have balance there needed to be good people, and bad people. Then again, people who committed crimes would sometimes be a genuinely kind person, but who had been turned evil by the cold, demanding grip of revenge. Takagi shuddered ever so slightly.
Although the police were deemed good, were they really? They kept criminals from the rest of society; they gave no second chances. They condemned people to a fate inside a prison cell, and to Takagi that just didn't seem fair for some people deemed as criminals. He had never been all that religious, but he did think the concept of forgiveness was important.
That's when it hit Takagi. The answer had been there all along, weaving its way through all of his thoughts so obviously that he simply hadn't paid attention to it. Forgiveness. That's why people were sent to prison; why police like him were therefore seen as good people. He and his colleagues gave criminals the chance to forgive themselves for what they had done. And that's why Takagi had taken this career path. Although rocky at times, and certainly never easy, he knew that he had a big part to play in making criminals realise the wrong they'd committed. He also knew that he himself felt freedom in the job, as he was leading criminals into a better life.

* * * * *

Jolting upright from the sofa, Takagi straightened his tie and patted down the stray strands of hair. He hurriedly gathered random pieces of paper; stuffing them into his pocket as he grabbed a packet of crisps for breakfast. He ran out of the door, shutting it behind him but not locking it. Jumping down the stairs three at a time whilst fumbling around with his crisps earned him a few frowns from other residents going to work, but Takagi didn't notice. He threw himself into his car and took off the handbrake, reversing until he was on the road. He quickly weaved in and out of other commuters, grabbing a handful of crisps every so often and munching them down. After all, he needed to get to work, and he was late for the fourth time that week.
Even though he'd had a startling revelation last night that had brought faith back into him as a police officer, he knew some things would never change. He'd always be late, and he'd almost always bring the wrong bits of paper along with him to work.

So, there you have it. Takagi's such a noogieable character (I made a new word 8D). Hope you enjoyed reading, and review if you want to, as constructive critism and praise are both welcomed with open arms.