Episode 1114: The Holed-Up Sensation
Scenario: On a Friday afternoon, everything seemed to progress just as an ordinary Friday would; however, among a certain street, things had become exceedingly intense and imminent: all pedestrians were startled and ceased their movements as a result, gaping their mouths with utter astonishments afterwards. Obviously, all of their focus was completely taken away by a young man - Yuichi Beppu. He abruptly showed up with a gun in his hand, urging all of the pedestrians, in his perspective, obstacles, to drive away as he advanced in the middle of that street. All of the people went into panic hysterically and fled at their maximum velocity. The guy shouted. He glanced over the street. Immediately, he saw another pedestrian who was stunned but did not realise the severeness of the situation. The guy grabbed her by the neck. He escorted her fiercely into a nearby residence at random, which also happened to be an empty one with the door lock unlocked, and in turn kidnapped her rapidly without any negligence.
 |
| Kidnapper wearing a "X" mask. |
Beppu closed the door to that residence. He darted through the staircases perceptively. He swiftly managed to open the huge window to the veranda of the second floor... The police had arrived... All media agencies liaised with each other, recording this dramatic scenario happening on this not-so-peaceful Friday afternoon. Beppu claimed himself as "Culprit X" and would kidnap the girl he had just grabbed randomly from the street. He chortled defiantly like a maniac.
The size of this commotion had increased significantly in terms of its affectiveness and attractiveness. Kogoro and Conan saw this incident broadcast on the TV and arrived there to do some watchout; staff from Nichiuri TV were deployed with helicopters to observe the situation; Inspector Megure, along with the personnel from Tokyo Police Division 1, were on standby and served as the contact person with the kidnapper Neppu. The kinapper Beppu had taken quite violent action on the veranda - he was threatening the Tokyo Police regarding the hostage, saying that if he got incensed, he would end the life of that girl effortlessly. This made Inspector Megure rather anxious; he emphasised to Beppu that he ought not to harm the hostage.
 |
| Inspector Megure communicating with Beppu using a speaker. |
On the other hand, Beppu had given out some terms he wanted to fulfil in order to keep the hostage safe: firstly, a gold player named Yumura Nichiuri must hit ten home runs during the game tonight; secondly, the manufacturer of the "Yaiba Chocoloate" must increment the number of cards that come in each chololate package from one to one hundred. Having these statements declared, everyone was petrified in a confounded manner, as this is definitely not what they would expect a kidnapper to say.
 |
| Beppu's faint disdain in a playful manner. |
"This is ridiculous," Takagi remarked. Beppu smirked grandly in triumph. At this instance, a middle-aged man turned up; he is named Shosuke Kusatsu. He told Megure that the house where the kidnaper holed up himself along with the hostage was originally his house, yet he moved away some days ago. Hence, the house was on its way of being demolished. Beppu overheard their conversation and cackled even more. He took the hostage with him inside and closed the window door to the veranda malevolently. Just as Kogoro and Megure were at a loss for dealing with the kidnapper, they heard a sharp and rowdy noise - it was patently the sound of a gun being fired. Pow! Pow! Immaculately two shots. All pedestrians were appaled. Inspector Megure began to scream, "What did you do, Culprit X?" But no response came from the building. Therefore, the police decided to break into the house forcibly...
... as they arrived in at the second floor of the building, they were all astounded by what they had seen in front of them - two restful dead bodies lying neatly over the tatami mat, out of breath and with no sign of vitality. How come both of them get killed?
 |
| There is a suicide note tossed nearby Beppu's body and recorded: "It was supposed to be a joke, but then it blew up." |
By checking the licences in their belongings, the police quickly identified the identities of the two victims but also discovered a shocking truth: the addresses on both licences were the same! What did that imply? They were living together, simply. Knowing this information, Conan surmised that they were most likely just executing an act in the public, one of the would be pretending to be the hostage, and the other one, evidently, would be acting the kidnapper role. This may also match with the suicide note remained at the crime scene: a joke after all.
 |
| The crime scene. |
An acquaintance of the vitcims, Tsutomu Kinugawa, thus visited the building at this moment. He claimed that he only knew this after seeing the news air on the TV. He then disclosed some useful clues to the police:
- Few days ago, Beppu told him that "something" astonishing would happen during the weekend (might be referring to this Friday afternoon)
- In Kingawa's conjecture, Beppu had most likely made a bet with someone else
- Beppu also had recounted a joke pertaining to "making a fortune by carrying out a ludicrous joke"
Based on these information, Takagi speculated that Beppu intended to implement a "funny" joke towards the public (can tell by looking at those non-sense terms he offered) by faking an abduction with his wife; by doing this, he could force the golf game and in turn, alter the resolution of the scores. This aided him in winning the bet he made; however, he quickly realised that he overcommitted too much, leading to the situation becoming fairly austere. Not withstanding the huge pressure, the two of them committing suicide seemed to be the only way to play this farce off.
The police's deduction did seem somewhat justifiable and consistent with the clues left in the crime scene. Nonetheless, Conan was not convinced at all. He instigated Kogoro to extend the investiagtion further.
