Original Draft Chapter 2

"Oh you're up early," said a thuggish looking man. 

He was a large muscular man wearing a dark grey tank top, black jeans, and dark green cowboy boots. He had tattoos running down both his arms and had both his ears pierced. The sides and back of his head were shaved to the stubble, while the top of his hair was styled in a pompadour. He had a small mustache and was smoking a cigarette. 

"So, the hell're you hangin out with a cop?" the man asked calmly. 

"Mmm Mmmph mmmph," Madoka sobbingly moaned. 

"Gahahahaha! sounds like you're completely clueless," the man said with a devilish grin. 

Yuni groggily opened her eyes as her senses began to return. Her eyes shot wide open as she recognized the man in front of her. She struggled and realized that her wrists and ankles were bound. "You're Taijin Kanada!" Yuni proclaimed. 

"Oh, tantei chan's awake," Taijin cooed. "Guess you need glasses, considerin’ you didn’t see my Olympic speedrun from the driver’s seat to your ass!" Taijin gloated. 

"Oh, wanna add rape charges to your sentence?" Yuni boldly retorted. 

"Slow down bitch, I aven't done nothin’ sexual to your bodies nor plan to. Besides you aren't supposed to be here anyway," Taijin said. Taijin then turned to the three men behind him. "Oi! how long did they say they'd take to get here!? He yelled at the men. 

"Uh 10-15 minutes," one of the grunts said while looking at his phone. 

"Well, guess we'll head out for drinks, Oi Wagu! You guard the door from the outside and make sure no one except us and the client gets through," Taijin said as he handed a gun to one of the men. 

"Aren't you coming back!?" the man called Waguchi nervously asked. 

"We're meetin’ the client there to confirm some things. Then we'll mosey on back here with your beer in toe Wagu" Taiji said. 

Waguchi happily nodded and began walking towards the doors with his two buddies. 

"Where the hell do you think you're going!?" Yuni angrily shouted at Taijin. "I want to know exactly what's going on and Mmmp!" 

Before Yuni could finish, Taijin had slapped duct tape over her mouth. He then whipped out his phone and took a video of the girls. 

"Gotta show the client we've got the goods," Taijin smirked. 

"MMMM MMMph!" Yuni angrily moaned as she glared and struggled. 

"Well Sayonara tantei, who knows what they'll do to you," Taijin said as he put on his suit coat and walked towards the exit with his goons. He waved as the warehouse doors slammed shut behind him. 

Moonlight shown through the shattered window allowing the captured girls to see each other. "Shit! I really fucked up now," Yuni thought as she continued to struggle aimlessly. Her screams were muffled by the tape. This was the first time Yuni had ever been captured like this. Even though she had been a detective since graduating high school, she had never once been kidnapped nor captured despite having many close counters with death and facing a traumatic hardship. 

Tears began to well up in her eyes when Yuni heard Madoka's muffled voice and turned to look at her. To her shock, Madoka had a curious look on her face. 

"Mmm mmmmph? (daijobu?)," she asked Yuni. 

Yuni did not understand a word she was saying, but deduced by her expression she was asking her if she was alright. "Mmmph!? MMMMM MMmm MMMMph! (Alright!? We've been kidnaped by Yakuza, are going to be sold off to someone, and I still have no idea who the hell you are!)" Yuni screamed angrily. 

Before she could make another sound, Madoka suddenly freed her arms and began untying her legs. Yuni's expression turned to one of pure shock. 

"How did she break out so fast?" she thought. "Ita!" Madoka said as she peeled the tape off her mouth. "Well? You impressed with my great escape act?" Madoka huffed proudly. 

"Mmmp! mmmph!" (Hey! untie me!)" Yuni shouted angrily. 

"Wah! I'm sorry. I'm not used to being kidnapped alongside someone else," Madoka said nervously as she ripped the tape off Yuni's mouth and began to untie her bonds. 

"Choto mate, what do you mean by "not used to being kidnapped alongside someone else?" Yuni asked. 

"I'll explain later, first we got to climb out through that window," Madoka said. "Wait you can't be serious there's no way to..." Yuni stopped midsentence as she saw Madoka scaling the wall. "Huh!? Are you some kind of climbing freak? How did you get up there so quickly!? she thought as Madoka sat on the window still. 

"Heh, I've been locked up in so many abandoned warehouses that escaping from them is child's play" Madoka proclaimed while throwing down a rope. "No one's guarding this side so we can run around the back and escape. Oh, that rope looked old and worn, but it’s the only thing I saw lying around." 

Yuni now started to feel guilt. She had been utterly useless and careless, and now her lacking physical strength could hinder her and Madoka's escape. There was no telling how much time they had left before Taijin returned with his client. "I don't care if I'll be too sore to move tomorrow, body please surpass your limits. Yuni began to frantically climb. Before she knew it, she had reached the window and was sitting next to Madoka. 

"You go down first, I'll hold the rope," Madoka said. Yuni was still panting and looked wearily at the worn rope. "Daijobu, I'm sure it can still hold you for a little bit longer, besides there's bushes below so you'll be fine if the rope breaks," Madoka said. 

"What's wrong with this girl!?" Yuni thought as she covered her hands with her cardigan sleeves and slid down the rope. Somehow, she had made it out safely, though her heart was pounding out of her chest. 

Madoka then climbed down the wall before jumping into the bushes. "Perfect landing!" she cheered while striking a pose. Yuni gave her an angry glare. 

"Baka! What if that guard heard it? Never mind let’s run." When the two girls had gained some distance from the warehouse, Yuni began checking to make sure she still had her badge and phone. "Good, I have service time for a counter offensive." Yuni dialed police headquarters and informed them of the situation while continuing to run with Madoka. 

A few minutes later a patrol car arrived and picked the girls up. "Head *hah* *hah* back. I *hah* gotta *hah* arrest *hah* them," an out of breath Yuni said to the officer. 

"Reinforcements won't be here for another 10 minutes, it would be too reckless for me to go in alone," the officer said. "Besides, you look really shaken Detective Futagawa. Maybe its best to head back to the station so that you can catch your breath and calm down. Its unlike you to be this frantic," the officer said. Yuni sighed and closed her eyes. 

"Hey! WAKE UP!" 

Yuni awoke to Madoka's shouting. "Where am I!? she asked. 

"You're at the police station safe and sound," Madoka said happily. "They said you were just in a state of shock and that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you." 

"That's good, now care to tell me who you are and why you were so calm and collected during our kidnapping?" Yuni asked. 

Madoka sighed and began telling her story. "I'm the 2nd daughter of Gozaemon Ginkawa, the current head of the 3rd richest family in the world. Because my family is so rich, I've been kidnapped a lot from a young age. I was used as a bargaining chip by various groups and people for them to receive ransom money from my family. Sometimes they were successful, other times they were caught. Eventually, I got tired of feeling helpless and decided to learn how to escape. I mean if I'm going to keep getting kidnapped, might as well learn how to save myself. My body is very well suited for escaping and breaking out of restraints," she said as she bent her fingers back. 

"Hypermobility!?" Yuni deduced. 

"You got it!" Madoka affirmed. "I also took gymnastics and bouldering. Sadly, I'm not so great at martial arts or fighting in general despite my great physique." 

"You're also an idiot," Yuni added. 

"I'm not stupid!" Madoka pouted. "Eventually I began studying the escape acts of Harry Houdini and that's how I became a magician. I'm capable of busting out of nearly every escape magic trick in the book with ease," she boasted. "I've even got over 100,000 subscribers on my Ewetube channel!" she said while shamelessly showing off said channel to Yuni. 

Yuni looked at the thumbnails and scowled. "Of course, people are gonna click on your videos if you show off those massive melons in a skimpy outfit like that," she thought. 

"My frequent kidnappings are also the reason I don't have many friends or a proper assistant. It’s also the reason I mainly do my shows online, though I have done some live shows... and got kidnapped after every one of them ended. Now in addition to kidnappers, there are now two different bounties on my head. One for capturing me alive, and the other for killing me. The reward for killing me is drastically lower than the one for capturing me, but I have no idea who put them out. All my family's discovered is that there are two different bounties on my head, and they think they're by two different groups," Madoka finished her story. 

It was a lot for Yuni to digest. "I wonder if this is connected to the Illumous case. If it is then I must see this case to the end," she resolved in her mind. "Say Madoka, you wouldn't be opposed to me hanging out with you more, would you?" 

Madoka had a shocked look on her face. "Eh? but, you'd get kidnapped again if you hang out with me too much, they might even start targeting you..." 

"So, what!? I'm one of Japan's greatest young detectives. You think I can't figure out how to escape from some low-level thugs? "I've got brains, you've got brawns if we team up we can knock out the bastards that put those bounties on you. And hey, we could even learn from each other and become the most unstoppable duo on the planet!" Yuni proclaimed in the heat of the moment. 

Madoka tearfully smiled and extended her hand "Then that makes us friends!" 

"Yes friends," Yuni said shaking Madoka's hand. 

"You know we're kind of like melons, I'm a watermelon while you're a cantaloupe-GYAH!" Madoka had touched a nerve with Yuni. 

"Don't compare our breast sizes!" Yuni growled while groping one of Madoka's breasts. 

"You've got pretty big tits yourself!" Madoka retorted. 

"Oh yeah, you've been out for an hour, so you probably want to know what happened to those warehouse scrubs." 

Yuni suddenly released Madoka's breast and stared at her. "An hour!? what the hell happened while I was out. 

"Oh, the mad scientist guy said he had the Tai-chi guy in his lab," Madoka replied as she followed Yuni down the hallway. 

A white-haired middle-aged man in a lab coat suddenly approached them. "Ah, you feel better Detective Futagawa?" Yuni recognized him as the station's chief coroner. She then hypothesized Taijin had been killed. 

"I'll cut to the chase, all four of those goons are dead, however, they were found dead at the scene," the coroner explained. 

"You mean the warehouse?" asked Yuni. 

"Yeah, well at least where the warehouse used to be before it was blown to bits," the coroner shrugged. 

Yuni's face went pale. She then muttered to herself, "Why!? Why are those two involved in this mess!?"