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This is kinda random, but I want to say that my school did Willy Wonka for the school play and I noticed something. Mike T.V is an obsessive and arrogant know-it-all who gets shrunk because he did something stupid and ended up using something that hadn't been tested by humans... sounds familiar, no? If anyone gets the idea to write a parody cause of this go ahead, but please tell me! I just can't think of what the other characters would be. Other than Genta as Agustus of course. (P.S I was Agustus's mother it the play, it was awesome!)
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Takagi watched as Conan leaned back on his hands behind him. It looked like he finally got the last knot untied. Almost immediately the boy tore off the mask and duck tape, breathing a sigh of relief as he did so. After a second or two of reveling in his relative freedom, the young detective stood and walked to the bound man. He began to ungag him, taking the mask off quickly then slowly tugging on the tape.
"Are you okay, Takagi-keiji?" He asked as the tape was completely removed.
"I'm fine Conan-kun, what about you?" Takagi inquired, his eyes flitting over the child's whole body before settling on the hands the knife had come so close to. Takagi felt a felt a flash of irony and guilt. Conan the seven year-old after being thrown down the stairs and scared to death with a knife was asking about the well being of him, a cop. If it had been anyone other than Conan with him, Takagi knew things would be so much worse.
"I'm fine." The boy replied, climbing over the officer to get to the hands tied behind him.
"Are you sure?" Takagi wasn't going to let him get away with a thoughtless answer, he was genuinely concerned for the genius child. Takagi couldn't see Conan, but the fingers untying the ropes around his wrists stopped for a moment, and he could sense the boy's eyes in the back of his head. A moment later though the fingers continued and Conan spoke.
"It's okay, just a few bumps and bruises. Oji-san throws me all the time. Not usually that hard, but I'm used to it now. That knife was really scary though!" Takagi inwardly sighed as Conan's voice rose to what the tan officer dubbed the 'little boy' voice. Oh well, at least the answer had seemed genuine. One thing was still bothering him though.
"What happened to your cheek?" It looked terrible, the whole left side of his face was a huge yellow and green bruise.
"Hm?" Conan mumbled, then let out a sharp intake of air as though in pain. He couldn't see the boy, but the detective could picture him lightly fingering his face. "Oh, this. When we first got here he parked in a garage and went into the house alone, then later he came back and carried you in. I was alone in the car so I tried to untie myself. Needless to say I couldn't get it in time. He wasn't exactly happy."
"Is that why he threw you down the stairs too?"
"No, that was for struggling when he carried me from the garage to the house. Wow these knots are tight." Takagi winced as his arms were pulled back, the unnatural angle they were already at increased.
"Sorry," Conan mumbled, "I think I almost got it though... there!" The officer sighed in relief as the ropes fell from his hands. Rubbing his sore wrists he pushed himself into a sitting position. Conan was flexing his fingers gingerly, as though they were sore from untying the complex knots. Wincing slightly in sympathy, the officer folded his knees until his ankles were close enough for him to untie. The man's eyebrows rose as he saw the intricacy of the knot and he glanced at the oblivious Conan. Apparently that was one more aspect of the mystery of Conan Edogawa. Of course there could be a perfectly reasonable answer for his untying talent. Maybe he was a boy scout. Sure, that was it... yeah right.
Shaking his head, Takagi started working at the ties. Conan meanwhile hopped off of the bed and stared exploring the room, not that there was much. The only thing that one wouldn't notice at first glace was the small door in the real one. Just four or five inches tall and about a foot long, someone could send food or small items through it, but it provided little in way of escape. Especially because it was locked tight. There were also some cups on the sink, Takagi guessed that would be there source of water until Itoumo did whatever he was planning or they escaped. Finally he was able to untie the knots and he stood to join the child with his survey. Immediately his head erupted in pain and he rose a hand to it as he sat back down. For a moment he considered giving Itoumo access to his bank account to get him to buy some chloroform and save the cop from head trauma, but ultimately decided against it.
"Takagi-keiji, are you okay?" Conan asked and the officer looked at him blearily.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Just a headache from earlier. Speaking of which, what happened while I was out?"
"He didn't knock me out because he didn't think he could hit me again without causing some head damage but he made me close my eyes. I think I have a pretty good idea of where we are, not an exact address though. I'm pretty sure we're in a western style house near the big department store on Kosho Kaido. Before he made me close my eyes I saw we were on that road and he went consistently between 45 and 50 MPH. I knew would be the busiest place somewhere out of the way like this, so I listened until I heard a lot of noise. I had an idea where we were before that, but it helped to cement it. We stayed on the road for three more minutes, which would be about two and a half miles and turned left. There aren't many left turns on this road so I'm pretty sure the road is pretty accurate. The garage, the fact that it connected to the house, and the position of the basement are all most commonly seen in western style houses."
"I see." Suddenly Conan's eyes widened, and Takagi decided to say something before the pint-sized private-eye started talking about some phoney TV program or something. "We can't do much with that unless we find some way to communicate with someone. I don't suppose he forgot to grab you detective's badge." The boy was already shaking his head.
"He took everything but my glasses. I don't even think we'd get a signal in a room like this anyway. Itoumo-san did, but I think he was getting it from the security camera anyway. He's probably watching us right now."
"Maybe he can see us but he can't hear us. I know a little about this model," Takagi said, glad he could finally say something intelligent. The fact that he knew about it because he'd found the owner's manual on a seat on the bus the other day when he was bored meant nothing, nope nothing at all. "It's purely visual, but is has nearly perfect night vision. It also has a wide range and can probably show the entire room from that position. If he has the right TV it can even be in HD."
"Wow Takagi-keiji! You know a lot!" Takagi laughed embarrassed and rubbed his head. Nope, it meant nothing at all. "This guy really thought of everything didn't he?" Conan continued, in a slightly more serious tone. Takagi sobered as well.
"Yes, a real professional. He's been planning it too, or he was worried that something like this may happen."
"Or," Conan began in what Takagi would call full elevator mode, "He's not working alone. He's part of something bigger."
The elder detective nodded, he felt uneasy but confessed to Conan a theory he'd been holding for a long time, but had too little proof to actually tell anyone. For the past few months strange cases would happen; a serial killer, long gone and often even considered a completely cold case, with a strange MO would kill someone. Or at least someone would use their MO. They were rarely caught so no one knew if all of the murders were done by the originals. There was only one murder replicating any one serial killer, then it seemed as if they disappeared once again. It happened once, maybe twice a month. Not nearly often enough for many people to notice, in fact Takagi could have been the only one who had. Yet he knew if there was anyone else who would have noticed it would be Conan.
"Have you noticed that it seems as though a bunch of serial killers who were never caught are suddenly murdering again? Only one victim, then they disappear."
Conan nodded, his serious gaze showing Takagi that they had the same thoughts about the nearly unnoticed similarities in the crimes. Takagi, glad that his idea was supported by the brilliant mind, continued.
"I think they may be connected. A group replicating the crimes of people who got away. Perhaps honoring their memory or perhaps hoping that by recreating the scenes of killers not found they would be able to escape the law themselves when planning their own crimes. I think Itoumo-san is one of them."
That would also explain why the seemingly professional criminal had "panicked" and kidnapped them just because they came to question him. That had never sat right with the detective. In the car he'd doubted that his theory was true, the man's speech making it seem as nothing more than a normal kidnapping, but the man could have been bluffing in case the two escaped. That way they wouldn't know about the group, and he would be questioned as if he were acting alone. He seemed to be hiding his professionalism even less now that they were in the cage, as if he were so confident that they wouldn't be able to escape that he could tell them his whole plan and it wouldn't matter. Takagi was almost sure that this man was a member of his theorized group.
Conan stared back at him as serious as though he were signing Takagi's death warrant. Suddenly the man was very afraid of what was on the genius-child's mind. "Ne, Takagi-keiji," The boy began, somber eyes boring into the man. "Do you remember eight years ago, there was that serial killer who kidnapped police officers. They would go missing for a week, then suddenly appear on the police station roof. They were in their uniforms, handcuffed with there own handcuffs, shot through the head with their own guns, and branded with their badges right over the heart. He was never caught."
Takagi's heart went cold as he remembered the incident. He'd still been in training at the time, not yet an actual officer though he was certain that was what he wanted to be. He remembered how his drive to join the force had faltered and his family tried to make him choose a different career as the headlines were swarmed with the officer murders. He'd stuck with it though, and eventually the murders stopped, though no one knew why for the man was never caught. Throat too dry to actually say anything, the officer nodded slowly. Conan's hands bunched into fists as his gaze locked onto the floor. "And Little kids go missing all the time, and the culprits are never found. A lot of the time, neither are the kids."
"W- well they probably won't do anything to you before me." The officer offered weakly, without offering any explanation as to why that would be so. Probably because there wasn't any. One could call it a gut feeling, an officers intuition, hope and a need to comfort a child, whichever one worked. Neither of the two believed it was necessarily true, but Conan smiled up weakly.
"Yeah, you're probably right." The two lapsed into silence and Takagi surveyed the seemingly inescapable room. "So, we have a week."
Looking at the older man in surprise, Conan's face turned into a grin to rival Kid, light glaring from his glasses and hiding his eyes.
"More than enough time to figure something out."