Chapter 3

Shinichi's P.O.V

When Shinichi woke up, he felt a little groggy. He remembered checking on Ran in the bathroom and seeing the door slightly ajar. He didn't anticipate Imayoshi-san sneaking up on all of them and knocking them out. Shinichi took this time to look over himself and was relieved to find that there weren't any injuries he needed to worry about. On the other hand, his watch, glasses, shoes, belt, and suspenders were missing, which means he didn't have a chance in hell at fighting back. This was not good. Also, for some weird reason, his socks were missing too. He figured he must've been out at least a few hours, give or take a few depending on how much chloroform Imayoshi-san used on him. He also noticed that he was tied up and there was duct tape covering his mouth. The room in question was dimly lit with scattered light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and he knew he had to be in the basement, because there were stairs leading up to the door out of the room; plus there was a very narrow window on the opposite corner of the wall with the door. He saw a wall of pictures on the wall across from him. There were not only just pictures of him, but there were several pictures of other kids too. How long has this guy been doing this? He also noticed there were tools and such that had to do with knocking someone out effectively or objects that looked like they were good for torturing someone.

Shinichi really didn't want to find out what they were used for. There was also a table that had bottles of chemicals on them and after reading the few labels he could make out, he knew they were either anti-bacterial cleaners or poison. He looked up all of the sudden when he heard an explosion somewhere nearby. What was that? He wondered if it was the bridge. He jinxed himself earlier, great. He heard someone walking through what he was sure was the front door and then the footsteps continued until they got to the door that led into the basement. Shinichi braced himself as Imayoshi-san opened the door and stepped into the room. "Hello, Conan-kun." The creep greeted, smiling. Shinichi just glared at him. "You know, I wouldn't have done what I did to Detective Mouri and his daughter if you hadn't told them about yesterday." Shinichi could feel himself going pale.

"What did you do to them?" Or at least he tried to talk. It was difficult with that duct tape on his mouth. The creep chuckled.

"You want to do know what I did, right?" Shinichi nodded. "Oh, nothing much," He said as he walked down the stairs. "They should be waking up about now and have probably already contacted the police. But they won't be able to get to the house easily. I took care of the bridge." Shinichi knew that it was going to happen but he still felt a sense of doom take over him. "And now you're probably wondering, why? It's obvious isn't it? This is part of your punishment." Shinichi didn't like the sound of this and he definitely didn't like where it was going either. Shinichi braced himself as Imayoshi-san walked closer to him.

No One's P.O.V

Hattori and Kazuha were on their way to Gunma. Kazuha was worried about the whole situation and Hattori was too, but he didn't make it as obvious as Kazuha did. He went over the things Nee-chan had told Kazuha in his head. He couldn't understand why Kudo decided to wait until after they got to that Imayoshi guy's house. Why hadn't he said something as soon as he got to the detective agency the night before? Hattori was frustrated with the idiot, but he was worried about what that Imayoshi guy would do to him. Nee-chan had mentioned the creepy aura around the guy and Hattori knew he had to be some sick pervert. And that did not look good for Kudo. From the sounds of it, that Imayoshi guy had to have at least been following Kudo for more than a week. So that means there's a chance that guy knows about Kudo's weapons. That made Kudo's situation a whole lot worse in Hattori's mind. "Heiji, I'm so worried," Kazuha stated as they boarded the train.

"I am too, Kazuha," He said frowning as they took their seats quickly. Hattori hoped that they got there in time to be there for Kudo when he needed it.

Meanwhile, with Ran and Kogorou...

They all arrived at the bridge that led to the house and were shocked to find that it had been destroyed. "Damn it!" Kogorou said bringing his fist down on to the hood of his rental car. Yamamura didn't know what to think. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"Dad, what are we going to do?" Ran asked him looking upset.

"We're going to save him, I know we will." Kogorou didn't want to admit it out loud, but he cared a lot for the boy and he'd grown used to having the boy around. He also had a sneaking suspicion that the boy was hiding something from them, but he wasn't sure what it could be just yet. But now wasn't the right time to think about that. He told himself as he pulled Ran into a hug as Yamamura got off the phone five minutes later.

"I called to see how long it would take for them to get a helicopter here. They said it wouldn't be long, but they can't land the helicopter." The inspector informed them.

"That's fine; we just need a lift over to the other side." Kogorou said gruffly.

"W-Wait, you don't plan to go over there yourself do you? What if the suspect has a gun?" Yamamura asked wide-eyed.

"I don't care. No one messes with my family and gets away with it!" Ran smiled at this. So he thought of Conan-kun as family. She was glad to hear it. She thought of Conan-kun as family too.

"That's fine, but how are you going to get back over here?"

"Make sure that helicopter has a lot of gas, because all you have to do is leave it hovering over the house on that side, right?"

"Y-You're right," Kogorou still couldn't see how this guy became an inspector if he couldn't even figure that much out. "I'll call back and let them know." Kogorou walked over to where the bridge was and examined it.

"It looks like Imayoshi used explosives on the bridge." He said frowning.

"Yes sir, that's what was used," One of the forensics guys confirmed.

"Mouri-san, the helicopter will be here in an hour!" Yamamura announced after a few minutes on the phone. "I've told them to stock up on as much fuel as possible!"

"Good," Kogorou responded, hoping Conan-kun could hold out until then. "I'm going to try and contact Imayoshi-san and see if I can get some answers from him." He pulled out his phone and dialed the number Imayoshi-san had given him. There wasn't an answer after trying to contact him ten times. Kogorou was pissed at the fact that there wasn't anything for him to do right now until the helicopter gets here. There wasn't anything he could do to help find Conan-kun and that made him feel powerless and helpless. He didn't like that feeling at all. He wondered when that Hattori brat was going to get here and what that brat's thoughts were on this situation. Kogorou knew that the brat and Conan-kun were close. He hoped for everyone's sake and Conan-kun's that Conan-kun came out of this as unscathed as possible.

Shinichi's P.O.V

Shinichi was hurting a lot. Imayoshi-san decided to start out with beating him as the first part of his 'punishment'. Imayoshi-san left the room about five minutes ago. So Shinichi was using this time to get himself together. He wished there was someone with him. It always seemed to be better if you got kidnapped with someone else. That would mean that the both of you had a better chance at escaping, but no he was the only one that was kidnapped. This was starting to look bad for Shinichi. He shook his head. No, he needed to stop thinking like this. He couldn't give up. He heard the police sirens. They were coming for him. He knew it would take them awhile to achieve that, but they were right there and Shinichi couldn't give up just yet. He needed a plan. He checked the rope around his wrists and to his surprise, it was loose. That gave him a chance to get his things. Now he just needed to find them. He doubted Imayoshi-san would be dumb enough to actually put them down in the basement, so the creep must be hiding them somewhere else in the house.

Before Shinichi could think further about the situation, the door to the basement opened revealing Imayoshi-san standing there with a tray of food and water. "I bet you're hungry." Imayoshi-san said as he walked down the stairs, careful not to drop anything. "You don't have to worry; it's not poisoned or anything. I want you to live after all. I think those who murder children are horrible, horrible people." Shinichi rolled his eyes. What this guy was doing wasn't any better. "Now then, I'm going to take the duct tape off your mouth. So please don't say anything unpleasant or you won't get anything to eat." Shinichi wasn't sure he wanted to eat whatever it is Imayoshi-san ate, but he knew that if he didn't eat with the body he has now, he wouldn't have enough energy to escape when the time presented itself. Shinichi nearly flinched as Imayoshi-san removed the duct tape from his mouth very slowly. It was kind of irritating. "There, now open up." Shinichi reluctantly did as he was told and let the disgusting jerk feed him.

The food didn't taste horrible, but that didn't mean anything to Shinichi. He wanted to so badly spit in this guy's face, but he behaved himself. He needed to think of a way out of here. After the last bite, the creep gave him some water and soon he was gone again, but not before saying, "You'd better get as much rest as possible, Conan-kun. We're on a tight schedule. I'll be back in an hour." Shinichi wanted to gag at the things that Imayoshi-san would probably do to him later, but he needed to stop thinking about that. Thinking like that wasn't going to help him. He pulled his hands free and moved to work on his legs. He had no choice but to act quickly. He found some stuffed bags in one of the corners. He didn't bother looking in them and put them in the spot where he had been tied up. He found a sheet too, which is weird, but again, he stopped thinking about it and got back on task. He was going to put the sheet over the stuffed bags and tie the rope around it to make it seem like he was still tied up. It was dimly lit in here, so it would be hard to see unless you focused on it.

It would buy him enough time to get past the creep and shut the door and lock the creep in here. He'd probably have to barricade the door for safe measures. Shinichi looked around the room some more, but didn't find anything else that would help him fend off the creep. There were small instruments that looked painful if they were used on a person, but they wouldn't incapacitate someone twice his size. He did however take one of the scalpels there just in case. He had no idea what that creep was planning on doing with the scalpels, but Shinichi didn't plan on hanging around long enough to find out. Now all he had to do was wait out the hour.