Chapter 2, Prisoners

I was lying on something cold, that was my first observation as I slowly came to, the second was that it seemed like my body was on fire as I tried to move and stopped with a pain-filled groan. As my eyes fluttered open and I surveyed my surroundings, I immediately wished I hadn't woken yet, or even more left the house tonight. I was lying in a small unfurnished room with no windows, the only openings seemed to be a door with no sign of a handle on it, and an air grate near the door that let in a weak smell of cleaning chemicals. A small ceiling light was our only source of illumination. I now began to feel the ropes that bound my wrists behind my back, as well as on my ankles. It occurred to me as I tried to slacken the ropes around my wrists unsuccessfully that something was preventing me from opening my mouth. Tape, I thought with a silent curse. What was going on, and what was I doing here like this?

A small sound, the rustle of clothing on the floor, broke through my reverie, and I tried to turn my head, barely managing to do so because of the pain of moving stiff body parts. I could not stifle the surprised gasp that issued from my throat. I was not alone in my prison, as I saw the Kaito Kid bound in the same manner I was, but he still appeared to be out of it. He was still wearing his strange clothes, even the cape, but there was no sign of his top hat or the monocle.

It struck me, as I studied him, that I must have been the first person to actually see what the Kaito Kid looked like, without any of his usual disguises or trying to fool people. I didn't feel really elated as I knew I might have been in another situation, rather, I must say I felt somewhat humbled, almost in awe. I mean, here was the legendary thief that even Kudo couldn't catch, countless rumors had circulated around him for so many years, and he didn't look any older then me. I was about to try to roll over to him, and see what was going on, when I heard the voices approaching via the grate.

I rolled back over to where I had been, thankful that I had been lying away from the door and hoping that whoever it was keeping us prisoner here wouldn't notice that I had awakened. Maybe I could find out what exactly was going on. I barely had time to close my eyes before the door creaked open.

"-- and almost had what we needed if it hadn't been for these two stumbling into the plan." A person with a gruff voice led the way into the room, followed by someone that was clicking something in his hands, a small detached part of my mind observed as I tried to keep myself looking unconscious. "Are you sure we just can't kill them and be rid of them?"

His partner, still making the clicking noise that was starting to irritate me, walked closer to me, his shoes barely making a sound. I felt myself being grasped by the arm and rolled over slightly, had they discovered I was actually awake? I concentrated on relaxing my body, making it appear I hadn't woken yet, even though the movement hurt so much. I went through the mental skills my sensei had taught while beginning my kenjutsu classes to try to relax myself. But it seemed like eternity passed before the hand holding me let go, and I think stood up, for the clicking sound was above me now. At last he seemed to come to some conclusion, as he began to speak. "No, no, my friend, this could turn to our advantage. Do you realize who we have here?" The obvious silence following his question meant that his 'friend' had no clue. "This is the son of the police chief of Osaka. Maybe you don't see the opportunity this presents us, but think of the possibilities here. We could ransom him, or make his father do whatever we want." His calm voice surprised me, it was very pleasant, but in an oily kind of way. It was like if he was planning a party, only I was to be the guest of honor, so to speak.

The thoughts running in my head at this stopped suddenly with a chill as I heard his next words. "Plus it's well known in this organization that he has ties to that missing detective our compatriots in the East are searching for, he may have an idea as to the whereabouts of Kudo Shinichi." 'Oh gods', I thought, fear seizing me in an icy grip. I had a good idea as to who our captors were now, which frightened me more then anything I've ever heard of, and I'm typically not afraid of anything. I mean, look what they did to Kudo, and they were only trying to kill him.

"Maybe we ought to find out when he wakes up, huh?" Gruff voice asked, a hint of eagerness easily showing in his voice that made a shiver run up my back. "I could make him talk--"

"No, no," his partner interrupted. He seemed to enjoy saying that, but it was grating on my nerves. "There are other means at our disposal, there is no need to get violent." I barely suppressed the shudder as thoughts of truth serums, hypnosis and other methods ran rampant around my mind. It was a wonder that they hadn't noticed my reactions, but then I heard them talking over by where the Kaito Kid was tied up, as they were now discussing him.

"So what do we do about him?" I was really beginning to hate this guy, but of course I hadn't liked either of them in the first place. "Is he important too?"

"Well..." The other person's voice trailed off, as if he were debating what to do. My heart froze in place for a second, kill the Kaito Kid? True, it wasn't like I was friends with him, in fact, the only association we have is that he's a thief, I'm a detective, and I was trying to capture him. But something made me hope fervently that they wouldn't, at least not yet. Not before maybe there was a chance of us getting out of this alive. Besides, I could never feel good about anyone getting hurt, enemy or not. Kudo once told me, as we watched a girl being taken away who had tried to kill herself before he had discovered her back-up plans, of a person he had encountered that had considered himself too much like his enemies to live. Kudo didn't feel it was right that someone should kill themselves, to let them do it would be like killing them outright. I never could forget the look in his eyes as he said it, there was something painful, even haunted filling them. I never pressed him for details, it didn't look like he needed the reminder.

Thankfully the person who was in charge decided in my favor unknowingly. "I think we'll keep him alive for now, he may know something as well." I risked opening my eyes for a brief moment to catch a glimpse of the people holding us here. A smaller man was staring suspiciously at Kaito, obviously judging by his manner that he was the owner of the gruff voice, while a larger man knelt to touch Kaito's cape. Both were dressed in black, matching Kudo's descriptions, though were not the same people he had run into. "Interesting clothes..." he said thoughtfully, then shrugged. It seemed like there was some sort of requirement for the Organization to have a dopey-looking guy and a suave person partnered up, I couldn't help thinking with a silent laugh even in the situation I was in, maybe it equaled out somehow. I quickly closed my eyes again as they turned away from him. That part of my mind that was still filing things away for later observation noted that he was clicking what seemed to be a black lighter in his right hand, though why that was any importance, I had no idea. Just one of those 'anything is useful to know' things Kudo says sometimes, I think.

"I think the effects of the gas that knocked them out should last a few more hours at most, then we can decide what to do about young Hattori when the test results come in. Gather your sources together, and we'll-- " What he said next was obscured by the door closing, and the voices became indistinct as they walked away from our room.

I immediately rolled over to look at Kaito, basically so I could get up the nerve to convince my aching body to move over to him, but his eyes were open and looking back at me, apparently he'd been playing possum just like I had. I showed him my tied hands as much as I could, my arms were starting to protest being held in such an awkward position for so long. I was under the impression that he would roll over to me and I would work on untying him.

What happened next surprised me, even for someone like the Kaito Kid. He pushed himself up against the wall, closed his eyes in concentration, and brought his shoulder down heavily on the floor, effectively dislocating the joint. I winced unwillingly, then watched with stunned eyes as he twisted his arm to slacken the ropes around his wrists. Apparently he was doing this in a lot of pain, since anything dislocated hurts very much, as I found out some months ago when I was chasing a criminal and finally managed to tackle him, earning the before-mentioned dislocated shoulder. After some minutes, his ropes slipped loose and he pulled the arm out carefully, I could see the sweat beading on his forehead, though he wasn't making any sound. He opened his eyes, and saw me staring at him. He actually had the nerve to wink at me before he slammed his shoulder into the floor again to set the joint back in place. After some minutes of heavy breathing against the apparent pain, he sat up and ripped the tape off his mouth.

The tape on my own mouth preserved my dignity, otherwise my jaw would have hit the ground in shock, which wouldn't have been much. He coughed softly, then began to laugh. "What a conversation, eh Hattori? Looks like you're an important person after all. And me, 'not important'," he said, imitating the smaller man perfectly as he pulled out a small knife out of somewhere in his clothes to free his legs. He snorted at the thought and stood up to survey our prison. Looks like I was getting surprise after surprise today, because I hadn't believed Kudo when he told me about the Kaito Kid, one of his big talents besides escaping was to mimic any voice of any person. I wondered what else our little friend had up his sleeve.

Wait a minute, he was -- Hey! It suddenly dawned on me that he was making no move to free me! I tried to say something to bring his attention to me, but all that would come out was something resembling a snarl. It did its job, however as he turned startled eyes towards me. I wasn't buying it, being certain that my share of the dilemma had been on his mind all along. My hands tightened in their bonds as I knew that even with all of this happening, he was still playing with me. Well, nothing much I could do but get him to untie me. I raised my hands again, and glared at him. He walked towards me, and knelt by my head.

"You want me to untie you, huh?" I nodded my head fervently, and snarled at him, since nothing else could get around the tape. I could see now why Kudo was so hot to catch this guy, if things were different I would have hauled him in and thrown him in jail myself. Eventually reason set in, and I made myself relax, the ropes were starting to hurt because of me tensing in anger, and I did need his help to escape this. He had the small knife in his hand, and now it moved towards me, but stopped as he seemed to think of something.

"I wonder what would happen if I did free you. Though I know you'll be grateful, what is to stop you from attracting the nearest policeman's attention in order to apprehend me once we get out of this place?" He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully, "Maybe I should just leave you here..." and without warning, he snatched the tape off of my mouth.

I yelped, that had hurt! I was barely able to keep my voice down, I didn't want to catch the attention of our captors. I really wanted to swear at him, I was very tempted. But that wouldn't help me out of this, so I calmed myself down again, if I wasn't careful I could end up with a bad headache. "Listen, Kaito," I said, after several attempts to make my voice work. It was still somewhat weak though, I was hoping it would get better soon. "I won't, I promise, from the way it sounds, I don't think I'll be able to do much of anything with them on my trail, since they know who I am. You know these are the same group that's after Kudo too." He nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face, and I pressed on with more confidence. "Just help me get out of this mess, and I won't try anything." I gave him an honest look, I did have to tell him the truth. "But I do have to say the next time, I won't be able to be so lenient, you know who I'm basically surrounded by."

He studied me for a moment, then nodded once more and cut the ropes binding my hands and feet. I lay there for several minutes, letting my body relax itself after being in a cramped position for so long. Don't believe what you see in movies, a person can't just jump up and do normal movements, it does hurt as the body tries to resume circulation to places that have not moved for minutes or even hours.

That brought up another point, I had no clue how long we'd been kept in here. Once I felt I was able to when the 'pins and needles' reaction had settled down, I raised my arm to look at my watch. I blinked several times, then realized it was gone, there were only rough red lines on my wrists where the ropes had rubbed. I asked Kaito, who had gone back to checking the walls if he had seen it when he had cut me loose. He shook his head, glancing at me with a surprised look that I knew couldn't be fake. That led me to something else. I checked my pockets, everything was missing, from my wallet containing my ID and money to my little pocket knife that my father had presented me when I was younger. Even the little pouch Kazuha had given me for good luck was gone. A quick search around the room revealed nothing. I swore then, and Kaito turned his attention to me again. "They took everything I had," I said angrily. "They might try to use it against Father to show that they have me. Do you have anything other then that knife?" A sudden thought struck me as I sat up, "Where did you get that knife from, anyway?"

He smiled, and pulled on his coat, a small seam looked like it had spilt, but upon closer examination, it turned out to be a small pocket that had other kinds of tools in it. Seeing a watch in there, I asked him how long he thought we might have been here. He took it out, and counted with his fingers silently. Then he looked at me with an unusually sober look on his face, "I think we've been here for about fourteen hours, it's just after two o'clock in the afternoon." He turned back to the wall, and folded his arms, sighing.

I stared at him, feeling the blood drain out of my face. "Two -- two tomorrow??" I stuttered, not managing anything else. "Father's got to be going nuts, and so is Kazuha, if they aren't already. And school too..." I shook my head in dismay, then shrugged in acceptance, it's not like Kudo has had perfect attendance recently. But my father and mother? If I was lucky, they hadn't found out yet. If not, let's just say I'd be the focus of a citywide search, assuming we were even in Osaka anymore. Don't even consider what Kazuha's actions might be, I didn't want to think of what she may be doing. Maybe doing a house-to-house search, or something to the effect of that, knowing her.

I watched Kaito move around the room again, and got up, he didn't seem to be having any luck getting out of here. This was one time I didn't want him to fail to escape. "Any chance?" I asked, glancing around the room myself. As I had noticed before, the room was very empty, and had no openings except for the door and the small grate, which I had the feeling were the only ways we could get out. I took a closer look at the grate, it was about as high as my shoulders, and it only looked like the screen was on our side of the wall.

Kaito got out his knife again, "Looks like this and the door are the only ways out" he said thoughtfully, echoing my thoughts. But there is no way I can open the door, it's too thick. And I also have the feeling we do not want them to discover our progress." He dug the knife into one of the corners of the screen. "So this is the only option we have."

I nodded, that was my opinion too, and I tried to help him as much as I could without getting the knife stuck in my hands. After several minutes, the grate cover slipped off, and I laid it down carefully. Kaito already had his hands braced on the opening, and looked at me, "Now comes the hard part, you have to boost me up there so I can open the door for you."

"Hold on," I shook my head, not trusting him for a minute. "What if you just decide to leave me here? Let me, I'll open it, that way I can be sure--"

"--of getting stuck is more like it," Kaito snorted. "I'll do it, I'm thinner and more used to using these." He ignored my muttered "I imagine...", and reached up again. He turned one eye towards me, and winked at me again. "Trust me." There was nothing I could say back to him as I helped him up into the grate, and he disappeared.

I waited anxiously by the door, wondering a multitude of things. Was he actually going to let me out? Was one of our captors going to discover him? What would they do to me, if they decided to keep me and not ransom me after all? What were they doing in the museum anyway? What seemed like minutes passed, as my imagination started to grow and I was about to try to get into the grate myself, when the door finally opened to reveal Kaito wearing his usual grin. "Sorry about that, I kinda had to pick the lock that was on the door..." he said as he held up a somewhat rusted padlock. I just shook my head, trusting myself not to say anything. We put the grate screen back where it was, with the ropes that they'd used on us inside, so they would hopefully spend more time worrying about what happened then looking for us, though I wasn't feeling that lucky. Kaito locked the door to help aid our escape, and we were free, at least for the moment.

To be continued...