After saying goodbye to Takagi-kun, Fujino went alone to a secluded corner. He looked around, and seeing no one nearby, he took out his classic three-piece set from his portable space: his assassin's cloak, bat shuriken, and bat grappling hook. After all, no matter how you look at it, trying to wait for the bank robber and extort money from them is something best kept hidden... This kind of thing is best handled by the Beika Batman. Fujino briefly thought about the plan... the action plan, then switched to his Beika Batman state. With a flash, he shot his grappling hook to the roof edge above and quickly climbed onto the train car roof.
On the other side.
Fantasizing about his bright future, Takagi-kun hurried to a phone booth in front of the subway station, excitedly planning to tell Officer Satou the news that he had deciphered the code. But just as he made the call and had barely spoken two sentences, Shiratori-keibu suddenly came over: "Takagi-kun, are you using the restroom?"
"Huh?" Takagi-kun quickly hung up the phone. "Well, about that, actually I have something I need to..."
"Hmm?" Shiratori-keibu frowned and eyed Takagi-kun suspiciously. "Your actions are very suspicious..."
"Ahem, honestly, what are you even talking about?" Takagi-kun quickly broke free with a frustrated expression and ran towards a nearby warehouse. "Gotta go now, I need to find a restroom!"
"Isn't the restroom over there?" Shiratori-keibu watched Takagi-kun run off, arms crossed. A thought crossed his mind... *Could this guy have actually cracked the code already? No way?* Shiratori-keibu shook his head, thinking he was overthinking things. *Given this guy Takagi's reasoning ability, it'd be weird if he could find the code.* And inside the phone booth nearby, a "Little Black" silently watched the direction Takagi-kun ran towards.
...
The warehouse area behind Shinagawa Station.
Takagi-kun ran quickly down the street, taking his phone out of his pocket at the same time and dialing Officer Satou's number. He hadn't told Shiratori-keibu the truth about this. Satou-san had said that the first person to solve the code would get one wish granted by her. If he told Shiratori-keibu about it, then obviously he would very likely beat him to it... Or even worse, Satou-san might grant *him* a wish. If that happened, he'd regret it forever!
"Hello, Takagi-kun, how are things on your end?" The call was quickly answered, and hearing Officer Satou's voice from the other end, Takagi-kun swallowed and forcefully calmed his breathing. "Actually, I've already..." However, just as he was concentrating on his phone, planning to tell Officer Satou about this, he completely failed to notice a "Little Black" slowly approaching from behind him. The "Little Black" was none other than Kano Shuuji, the bank robber from eighteen years ago, with messy graying short hair, wearing a blue shirt. At this moment, he was holding a large rock high in his hand, staring straight at the back of Takagi-kun's head with a fierce expression.
Kano Shuuji discovering Takagi-kun's plan to tip off Satou-san was purely an accident. Originally, he had planned to go to the phone booth to inquire about flights for the next morning. But who would have thought, he accidentally overheard this detective he had just met briefly talking about having identified a suspect... As the suspect himself, he quickly connected it to himself and immediately felt a sense of crisis. The crime he committed was eighteen years ago. Normally, the statute of limitations should be fifteen years, but in the past eighteen years, he had spent three years traveling abroad. This meant that his statute of limitations had actually *not* expired yet... According to his careful calculations, only by safely getting through tonight could he possibly completely cover this up, and then catch a plane early tomorrow morning to escape Japan. That way, even if the police wanted to bring him to justice, they wouldn't be able to easily arrest him and bring him back. But if his crime was discovered now, it meant he would be wanted by the police... Once he was wanted, he wouldn't even be able to escape Japan. He strongly suspected his old bones wouldn't survive prison.
Now, the only option was to kill to silence him! This wasn't the first time he had killed someone, but intentionally killing someone with his own hands still made him feel somewhat conflicted. However, he immediately thought, since he had already killed someone before, he might as well just go all out and abandon himself to despair, knowing things couldn't get worse. But he wasn't a complete demon. If the person was lucky enough not to be killed by the blow, then he would just tie him up. Anyway, after tomorrow, his crime would no longer be prosecutable. After tomorrow, he could escape abroad with a large sum of stolen money! Thinking this, a hint of ferocity appeared in his eyes, and a strange smile curled at the corner of his mouth, as if imagining beautiful beaches, beautiful women, and old ladies. He then tightened his grip on the large rock and mercilessly swung it down towards the back of Takagi-kun's head.
"Thud!" A heavy thud. However, the source of this heavy thud wasn't the back of Takagi-kun's head, but Kano Shuuji.
Just as Kano Shuuji was about to smash the large rock down on the back of Takagi-kun's head, Fujino, who had been hiding on a nearby rooftop, couldn't sit still. If he hadn't seen wrong just now, this old man named Kano Shuuji had easily picked up a solid rock that wasn't small at all, almost bigger than a large bowling ball, with his bare hands, and was mercilessly smashing it down on the back of Takagi-kun's head. He was once again given a small surprise by the Conan world; he had seen the so-called 'Conan fighting strength' again. But from this, he could also tell that this old man named Kano Shuuji was definitely a bad guy. *Smashing the back of someone's head with a huge rock like that, isn't he afraid of killing them?* Although Takagi-kun's skull is tough, he couldn't withstand a rock. Clearly, Kano Shuuji was aiming to kill Takagi-kun.
Fujino leaped down and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick, sending Kano Shuuji flying off to the side. With the strong effect of acceleration, the old man was kicked several meters away, his legs twitched, and he immediately passed out.
"Huh?" At that moment, Takagi Wataru was also attracted by the strange sound behind him. He turned around and saw someone in a white cloak with a black mask standing behind him: "Bei... Beika Batman?!" Takagi-kun stammered out the recognition, looking around. His eyes immediately landed on Kano Shuuji lying nearby... and the large rock next to him that had clearly just fallen to the ground? Immediately, he understood what had happened. *I was almost ambushed by a shady guy, and then saved by Beika Batman...* As a police officer, he didn't have any fear of Beika Batman. He just gave an embarrassed smile. "Thanks for earlier, really."
Fujino didn't reply, just silently walked towards Kano Shuuji and slowly started dragging him up.
"Takagi-kun! Takagi-kun!" Officer Satou's anxious voice came from the phone that had fallen beside Takagi-kun. "What's going on over there, answer me!"
"Nothing... It's a good thing Beika Batman was here just now, otherwise I would have... Never mind, I'll tell you later." Takagi-kun quickly tried to get back to the main topic again. "Actually, I've already..."
"Thud!" Suddenly, another heavy thud. Takagi-kun suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He turned his head and saw the Beika Batman he had just thanked, dragging an old man, give him a solid hand chop. His hand hadn't even left his shoulder yet. His other hand was still dragging the other old man.
Takagi-kun: "???"
Fujino: "..." *He didn't pass out? The grappling techniques described it like this. This strike should have definitely made him dizzy for ten minutes or more. But this... Maybe I was afraid of hurting him, so I used too little force...?* Fujino thought about it silently, speechless. He felt like he definitely used too little force. So he raised his hand again, putting more force into it, and chopped Takagi-kun's shoulder again.
"Ow, ow, ow..." Takagi-kun's mouth immediately twitched, and he yelled out. "What the heck are you trying to do...?"
Fujino: "..." *Seriously, why won't you pass out, kid? Can't you cooperate a little?* Staring at the complaining Takagi-kun in front of him, Fujino fell into deep thought again. His technique was definitely correct, and the force should have been sufficient. A normal person should have passed out in this situation... But what was wrong with this kid Takagi-kun? *Could it be his physique is amazing?* Thinking about it carefully, Fujino did seem to recall something. In his memory, Takagi-kun often encountered situations like this and always managed to get out of danger. Even if he hadn't stopped the old man from smashing the rock down, Takagi-kun would have only ended up with a bloody head, passed out for a while, and then woken up on his own... No wonder this old boy could hang around with those 'Death God Elementary Student' kids. Turns out he maxed out his physical defense.
"Sigh..." Fujino let out a low sigh. He then withdrew his hand and took a bat shuriken from his pocket. *Since physical methods won't make you sleep, I'll have to use something external...*
"Wait!" Takagi-kun stepped back, looking at the bat shuriken in Fujino's hand. "Hey, what the...?" Before he could finish, Fujino quickly darted forward and lightly pricked his shoulder. At this moment, Takagi-kun was completely bewildered. Just moments ago, this guy was supposed to have saved him, so why was he suddenly turning on him? Not only had he given him two hand chops, but he even pricked him... It didn't hurt, but what did it mean?
"Oh no... anesthetic..." But soon, Takagi-kun realized something was wrong. Because he could already feel a dizzy sensation coming from his head. Combining this with his memory, he quickly thought of the drug this guy had used to sedate Satou-san... *He put it on the shuriken?!* His thoughts became increasingly hazy. Takagi-kun looked at the white-cloaked figure of Fujino in confusion, his vision gradually darkening.
"See, wasn't that easier..." Fujino walked up and glanced at Takagi-kun. "Now I have to use another bat shuriken."
"Takagi-kun! Takagi-kun!" Officer Satou's anxious voice came from the phone that had fallen beside Takagi-kun. "What's going on over there, answer me!"
"Takagi-kun... Is this detective here?" Fujino picked up the phone. "Hmm, judging by your voice, you must be the police officer who tried to arrest me last time, right?"
"You are..." Officer Satou frowned, the voice recalling something in her mind. "Beika Batman!"
"Bingo!" Fujino said with a hint of playful teasing. "You got it right, Ms. Beika Fierce Lady."
Officer Satou: "..." *Beika... Fierce Lady? That guy... how does he still remember that nickname? This is never-ending, isn't it... Something a suspect said is going to stick with me for life... So, Beika Batman is still this... improper?* Frowning, she suppressed her frustration and asked over the phone, "What did you do to Takagi-kun? Don't tell me you..."
"Don't worry, he just got hit with the same stuff you got in your leg before. He's just temporarily asleep," Fujino said, looking down at Takagi-kun. "He should wake up again soon."
Officer Satou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she heard that. She was still quite worried that poor Takagi-kun might have been killed by this person. After all, this was someone even *she* couldn't defeat. *Yeah, maybe it's a woman.*
Thinking this, she asked in a serious tone, "Why exactly did you kill those people? Didn't you say before that while fighting violence with violence, the final judgment should still be ours?"
"Some things aren't something you police can handle. And even if they were caught, they wouldn't receive the legal punishment they deserve... Never mind, there's no point in telling you all this," Fujino said with a low, husky voice, sighing. "Oh right, Ms. Fierce Lady, I've found the culprit who killed your father before. He's right here with me now. I'm taking him for now..."
"The culprit who killed my father?!" Officer Satou was stunned for a moment. "What are you...?"
Before Officer Satou could ask, Fujino took off his mask and began to act out a scene.
Fujino (as himself): "Beika Batman!"
Beika Batman: "Looks like a troublesome character showed up... Never mind, I'm taking the person for now. In any case, he'll arrive at the Metropolitan Police Department entrance tomorrow morning. Make sure to check for him, and yes, he's alive."
Fujino (acting frustrated): "Damn it! That guy got away..."
"Fujino-kun?!" At that moment, Officer Satou finally reacted, shouting in surprise.
The switch between the two voices was very smooth, and Takagi-kun's phone wasn't advanced enough for perfect clarity, so Fujino felt somewhat confident in this kind of disguise.
Thinking for a moment, he put on a tone of someone curiously picking up the phone from the ground. "Is that Officer Satou?"
"That's right... Did you see Takagi-kun?"
"Officer Takagi-kun..." While hoisting the old man onto his shoulder, Fujino used his grappling hook to climb onto the roof. "He's right here next to me. Looks like he fell asleep."
"Just... asleep?"
"Yeah, he seems to be just asleep. What the heck is going on with him?" Fujino put the old man down on the roof, tied a rope around his mouth, and conveniently took out a smelly sock from the old man's shoe and stuffed it in his mouth. Not feeling reassured, he even took out a bat shuriken and pricked him again.
(End of Chapter)