BWDC:SDDK Chapter 28: I Got Downstairs and Heard Nagamitsu Hideomi Beating Ren Ichimonji!
Tap, tap, tap.
After seeing Nagamitsu Hideomi appearing on the downstairs balcony with a knife in his mouth, and then Ren Ichimonji directly flipping over the railing to jump down and engage in a passionate confrontation, the minds of Mouri Kogoro and the others practically exploded.
Beings of god-like eccentricity appeared frequently in Beika Town, but witnessing someone reach this level of "godliness" was truly a rare sight!
Mouri Kogoro and the group raced downstairs. However, the door to the room below was locked from the inside and wouldn't budge. After twisting the handle fruitlessly for several moments, the old butler finally remembered there were spare keys in the storage room and rushed off to get them.
Mouri Kogoro pounded on the door, shouting:
"Dammit, why is the door locked from the inside?! Mr. Mitsuaki, the butler has gone for the keys, hang in there!"
"Hold on for thirty more seconds, and we'll be in to save you!"
Just as he finished shouting, a series of miserable screams echoed from inside the room, followed by heavy, dull thudding sounds.
Hearing this, Mouri Kogoro's face paled in shock.
As a practitioner of Judo and a former elite officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, he knew exactly what those sounds meant. Someone was being beaten, and the assailant was being incredibly brutal!
He pressed his ear against the door, listening intently to the movement inside.
Hattori Heiji, who arrived a step late, asked urgently:
"Uncle Mouri, what's the deal? What's happening?"
He knew Ren Ichimonji—the "reinforcement brought in by the reinforcements"—was tough, but he hadn't imagined he'd be this reckless.
To jump down blindly and face a knife-wielding criminal... surely he hadn't been stabbed to death immediately, had he?
The famous fighter Gaolang once said, "There is a high wall between being unarmed and being armed." While there were certainly martial arts masters who could scale that wall, that mysterious coffee shop guy definitely wasn't one of them!
Conan also looked up at Uncle Mouri with tension, waiting for the professional's assessment.
Mouri Kogoro's expression grew increasingly grim as he spoke:
"It's bad, very serious! The moment I got down here, I heard Nagamitsu Hideomi beating Ren Ichimonji!"
"From the sound of it, Hideomi is being vicious. He might actually beat Ren Ichimonji to death!"
As if to confirm Mouri Kogoro's words, a heavy thud suddenly vibrated through the locked door!
Even Conan, who knew the details of the East Tokyo Bank branch robbery, couldn't help but feel a wave of self-reproach after hearing that sound and Mouri's analysis.
He had long known Ren Ichimonji was mentally unstable; why did he bring him along?
If Ren Ichimonji were killed by Nagamitsu Hideomi because of this, Conan felt he might live with the guilt for the rest of his life!
"Dammit, why is this door so sturdy?"
Hattori Heiji gritted his teeth and delivered a hard kick, but the locked door remained as motionless as if it were frozen in space.
Only then did he remember that his father had been supervising the replacement of the security doors this afternoon.
...Honestly, talk about getting in the way at the worst possible time!
"Ah! Help! Someone, anyone, save me!!!"
A shrill, wretched scream pierced through the locked door.
The hearts of everyone in the hallway grew heavy.
However, Conan's somber mood suddenly shifted.
Possessing perfect pitch, he felt that the timbre of the voice was slightly off...
It didn't sound like Ren Ichimonji. It sounded like the voice of Nagamitsu Mitsuaki, who had been calling for help earlier.
Thud!
Nagamitsu Mitsuaki was sent flying against the wall by a heavy, powerful kick.
He felt as though his entire body was falling apart; every inch of him radiated piercing pain. He had been able to scream just a moment ago, but now he didn't even have the strength left to cry out.
Ren Ichimonji, however, had no intention of showing Mitsuaki any mercy.
He grabbed the rope Mitsuaki had prepared for himself—God knows for what purpose—and with a sudden flick, entangled Mitsuaki's body and yanked him back.
Mitsuaki screamed repeatedly, powerless to resist.
Ren Ichimonji grabbed Mitsuaki by the collar and asked coldly:
"What is your purpose?"
Mitsuaki's face was twisted in pain.
But thinking that if he could just stall until the people outside opened the door he would be saved, he swallowed the words that were at the tip of his tongue. He found a rare moment of bravado and spat:
"You're the one who killed Nagamitsu Hideomi, and now you want to kill me too, and you're asking my purpose?"
"I'm telling you, if you don't stop now, you're finished once the others get in!"
Hearing this, Ren Ichimonji's eyes narrowed slightly, casting a look of disapproval.
He whispered:
"Very well."
...Very well?
A flicker of confusion appeared in Mitsuaki's eyes.
In the next instant, he felt a colossal force act upon his body. His entire perspective shifted rapidly toward the window, and it wasn't until everything before him began to plummet that he suddenly realized:
—This lunatic calling himself Batman actually intended to kill him!
"No! I'll talk! I'll talk!!!"
Mitsuaki screamed as he watched the sharp fence below getting closer and closer.
But, just as his body was about to be skewered by the spikes, he came to a sudden halt a few centimeters above the fence.
It was the rope.
The rope Ren Ichimonji had used to bind Mitsuaki's body had been knotted at some point. Thus, while Mitsuaki's situation seemed one step away from death, it was actually entirely within Ren Ichimonji's calculations.
The Dark Knight of Beika Town gripped the rope and spoke again:
"Speak."
Ren Ichimonji's gaze fell upon Mitsuaki.
"My time and patience are both very limited."
"And the hand I'm using to hold this rope is starting to feel a bit sore... Do you want me to let go right now?"
Mitsuaki's face contorted, and he finally blurted out:
"...I—my purpose was to disguise myself as Nagamitsu Hideomi and kill Nagamitsu Dozan!"
"That old man is hogging the Chairman's position and won't let go! I want to be Chairman too! I want to be rich too!"
"Every man for himself, or the heavens will strike him down! What did I do wrong?!"
At that moment, the rope was violently pulled back.
The force was so immense that Mitsuaki's body formed a perfect parabola in the air.
Then, before he hit the ground, Ren Ichimonji delivered a kick to Mitsuaki's body.
Instantly, Mitsuaki was sent flying like a soccer ball, crashing directly into the room's door. The impact was so great the door itself was torn off its hinges, flying out and slamming into the hallway wall before Mitsuaki slid slowly to the floor.
But Mitsuaki's eyes suddenly lit up.
What Batman! You idiot, this is my escape route!
He immediately prepared to call for help from the bystanders, planning to play the victim and frame his attacker.
However, the moment he opened his mouth...
A sharp knife tore through the air, flying out of the room and thudding deeply into the wall right next to Mitsuaki's head.
Mitsuaki instantly went silent.
He looked into the pitch-black room with pure terror.
The others followed his gaze.
Tap, tap, tap.
The footsteps drew closer and closer.
Then, they saw a person.
A person hidden in the darkness, appearing incredibly dangerous.
—That person wasn't wearing a uniform, nor did he have any bat-related symbols.
But no matter who it was, the moment they saw him, their first instinct was to utter that single word:
Batman!
They had never seen another soul whose aura fit the identity of Batman so perfectly!
End of Chapter
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