Her stomach continued to clench on her as she sat numb waiting upon waiting for any news about Shinichi.

The digital clock on her father's desk glared a bright green colour as it displayed another hour had gone by. It was now 4:00 am, as per the said clock, and Ran couldn't bring herself to sleep at all, more like too worried to do so.

When she got a call yesterday from Shinichi's mother and had been asked if she had seen him by a worried Youkiko, she had immediately tracked down his phone, or at least tried finding a signal.

She had called the police that instant, but they were unable to find anything.

As if he had vanished.

Hot tears threatened to roll down her cheeks at the idea that now he was with 'The Most Wanted', She stubbornly shoved the thought again back from where it came, surpassing a shudder.

She sat there, on the couch of the office, just silent, staring at nothing in particular.

She was violently startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder; had nearly punched the person who owned it if she hadn't heard her name and recognized the voice.

"Ran, go upstairs and have some rest." Her father's serious face came from behind her again, "You can't stay here."

"I can't sleep, with the idea that he may…" Her voice trailed off, unable to continue that line of thought.

"If any news comes I will wake you up, go have some rest, you won't be able to help him if you don't have the energy to do so if he was ever found or heard of."

He was right.

Slowly getting up from where she had been sitting on the couch, she made her way up the stairs, her legs slightly wobbling from having stayed in one position for so long.

Shinichi… Be safe… Please be safe!

Murata went down the basement of the cabin they had planned everything in and followed the sounds of distress to a certain room down the hallway, there wasn't any beauty in the room he opened, but he still felt a grin spreading from ear to ear on his face.

Here, his client was having the boy completely under her mercy; he was given no rest since he had come here, and he silently watched as Ayaka ingested another drug into his bloodstream. The boy was shivering from the strain and the dropping temperature of the room.

"Pretty enjoyable, don't you think?" The slim voice of his client came, his grin widened and threatened to split his face into half.

"Why wouldn't I agree with you, gorgeous?" he replied, flirting all the while. It earned him a chuckle. "But didn't you mention something about alarming you if it was four in the morning?"

"Wait! Did time fly that fast?! I'm not even finished!!" Ayaka exclaimed, turning towards him with a childish pout that didn't quite fit her age.

"I'm sorry, precious lady. Time doesn't care whether we enjoy something or not; it just keeps moving on. It doesn't stop for anyone," he said, playing it off as a gentleman. "If you would feel better if I took over from here and went along with your plans, then please allow me to do so."

She immediately beamed at him, waved at him with a bright thank-you, and then exited the room.

He then looked back at the kid strapped in the middle of the room, and the smile on his face turned creepier.

"Alright, let's see what we can do with you…" He whispered actually to no one in particular, and he certainly didn't care if the boy detective heard him.

He slowly undid the straps and, with ease but almost frighteningly, lifted the boy and dropped him at the corner farthest from the door. He took off the hospital gown from over the kid before replacing it with a white oversized shirt. Hospital gowns put him off. The boy just stared, shocked and tired, through the entire process.

He then took out a small pocket knife – not even three inches tall – and a gas lighter, and held the knife over the flame of the lighter, letting the blade turn a hot shade of red on the edges.

"I think I know now what I will do with you." He said as he looked dead in those blue intelligent yet worn out blue eyes.

He kneeled down to the boy's eye level and swung it in front of the kid's face, who was already frightened, before strapping the brat's arm.

He heard a scream.

He knew he was going to enjoy it.

She still couldn't sleep, no matter what she did. She had given up at some point; two or three hours had passed, even though she hadn't gotten out of bed. Now, she was staring at her phone, his smile glowing brightly on the screen, while her own tears streamed down her face onto the pillow below.

What was happening to him right now?

Is he still alive?

Is he hurt?

Is he just involved in something about a murder he passed by but for some reason couldn't call anyone?

Or is he with…?

Her mind just didn't stop giving her these ideas, her tears streamed more at them.

The door to her room opened, she got up really quickly, which earned her a bang in the head from staring at a screen in the darkness for so long, she expected to see her father with any news -more like hoped to- but saw her mother instead.

She wiped her tears off of her face, feeling bad to have her mother see her like that, and tried to smile; however, it was a restrained smile, and it earned her a worried look from her mother. She wiped her head to the side, refusing to let her mother see any more.

Movement erupted from her side as her mother sat next to her and pulled her into a motherly hug.

"Ran, you have to stay strong for him; he needs your strength too, and you know how strong he is, don't you?"

She nodded, somehow calming down from her mother's tone. She stayed there for some time, until her father came into the room. His face was serious, and he was panting from apparently running up the stairs; he didn't need to say anything for her to understand, as she could read him very well by now.

They found him.

She rushed to him along with the following Eri, she didn't get a chance to get words through as he quickly spoke, "'The most wanted' called Yousako and gave him a code to where he would find the detective brat, he just cracked it and we are going to the location right now."

She didn't need instructions and had her jacket on in a split second, another one in her arms that belonged to her father, knowing Shinichi might need it.

And they took off.

It felt cold, for a long time, nothing but a numbing coldness that mercilessly continued to spread through his already worn out body, the feeling was like one day in hell.

He actually preferred this man to Ayaka, but he didn't exactly enjoy it at all.

He was finally given some rest when the man left him to go and grab himself a drink, leaving the door open, but it wasn't like he could move, let alone run away.

First, there was his left arm, which he could no longer feel due to the merciless stabbing with that hot knife – at least the stabs weren't that deep, since it was just a pocket knife, but the ache was still there. There were also several cuts covering him from head to toe, not to mention the large one on his side. And don't forget his back, which was a mixture of blue, black, and crimson due to being flogged a few – albeit painful – times.

There was also the throbbing in his right shoulder from Murata -as the man called himself- popping it in and out of place, his torturer had also broken his left leg completely. The square-faced man had given him a small doze of Ridocaine that had thankfully caused temporary leg paralysis, he couldn't feel the discomfort in his legs anymore. But he wouldn't be able to run if he wanted to.

His panting grew harsher and harsher as he felt the ability to breathe slowly draining away due to the massive blood loss; his vision was fuzzy, and the clock opposite him kept changing time with every blink of his eyes.

One moment he was alone, and the next Murata was back.

The man held a bucket full of water in one hand, the other occupied with an electric cell, and whatever blood was left in him drained from his face as he stared.

"Time's up, kid." His torturer said playfully before the ice-cold water spilt on him, and as the man threw the activated cell at him, Shinichi screamed with all that was left in him of power.

And the world disappeared from his eyes.

Her father's car seemed to be the first to arrive at the location; she took this as a sign of some sort, which was odd in itself.

'Weren't the others ahead of us? Where is everyone?' She looked around again to confirm that her sight wasn't playing tricks on her, then sent a look to her father, she knew he understood what she was thinking the moment his eyes narrowed in suspect at the wooden cabin that was the pre-mentioned location.

The cabin looked more abandoned than anything else if you didn't notice the freshly swept path leading up to the door and the car parked behind it.

"It's better if we stay in the car for now, we should wait for the rest of our party."

She merely nodded at her mother's suggestion, but her mind was in an entirely different dimension.

What if Shinichi was there?

What if he was dying? Or if someone over there was hurting him?

The questions rang through her head mercilessly, taking no break, like a hamster running a circle in her brain, except that it would not and could not go anywhere.

What if he were dead over there? Is that why they couldn't hear anything? Or had he been left for death to claim him?

Ran was tired of the questions, the only way to stop all this madness was to check everything for herself, and if anyone was there, she would beat them up into a-a-

She was just grasping the handle of the door and readying herself to storm out when movement caught her eye, freezing her in place.

It was a muscular, square-faced man around her father's age; he seemed to be pulling something toward the car, which appeared to be a large chest at the end.

He was putting it in the car's trunk when her father spoke up, "There's blood on that chest."

It was a single statement, really. But Ran saw red in front of her. And she was out of the car in no time, racing towards the guy.

She readied herself to give him a very well-aimed kick only to be caught in the act and have her target dodge her with ease.

When his eyes locked on hers, she saw recognition in them before he gave her a bemused smirk.

"Oh, my! The brat certainly seems to have a good taste in girls."

She knew her next punch wasn't something she had thought through, but the sense of delight that reached her upon making contact with her face was indescribable.

Yet when she went to give him a kick to top it off, he caught her foot and pulled her to give her a punch that she had barely avoided. In a swift move, she managed to get her leg out of his grasp and jumped away from him a mild distance.

Then she looked at how the man raced towards the chest, opening it. She raced towards him in slow motion, dread filling her, but she knew she was too late.

He was now grabbing a heavily injured teen by his hair, a blood-stained pocket knife dangerously on the oh-so-familiar teen, and her hair stood on an end at the sight.

"Shinichi…" She managed to whisper.

To Be Continued In Final Part…