Chapter 20: Through Blood and Tears

Sorry it took me so long to update! No one was reviewing, and I had term papers and articles to write, so sorry! So the reason why I had so much trouble with this chapter is because, I honestly don't have much experience writing torture scenes, and especially find it hard to do with characters I like. So, in a random burst of inspiration and some mild research into medieval and pirate torturing, I finally wrote the chapter. I'm not entirely sure what'll happen next, but Conan will survive, I promise! Also, you'll notice a whip that Shiliew is using called the 'Nine-tail Cat', no it's not a rip-off from Naruto, it's the actual name of the weapon used to torture people back in the old days. Look it up, if you don't believe me. So anyways, enjoy the bloodiest chapter so far!

Disclaimer: I don't own Case Closed or One Piece

On Blackbeard's Ship

After struggling to open his eyes, Conan looked up and around himself. He was on a basic hammock with a thin blanket over himself, behind bars, and recognized the familiar movement of a ship rocking back and forth. He noted that his wound from Akainu had been freshly dressed, and he had bandages over his abdomen and parts of his legs. He was dressed in old raggy seat pants, and a t-shirt with an anchor on it. Luckily his glasses were in tack. Crap! His belt! He looked around for it frantically.

"Looking for this?" The detective shot up at the voice and saw a broad and tall woman, who had an appearance of Baga Yaga. She spun his belt around casually as he stared at it in dismay. "Your friend, Gin told us to get this away from you, or there'd be trouble for us."

Narrowing his eyes, Conan demanded. "Who are you?"

"Calm down, no need to be so hostile." She laughed. "I'm Catarina Devon, proud member of the Blackbeard crew."

"Where are you taking me? What is your captain planning?" Conan demanded.

"That's no way to thank a person who helped convince the captain dress your wounds. You got a nasty burn mark from Akainu, after all." To the boy's surprise, a sickly man on a sickly horse came out of the shadows. "I'm Doc. Q, this is my horse, Stronger. The crew's doctor."

"Well, shouldn't you thank us?" Catarina gave toothy grin.

Deciding that cooperation was his best option, he nodded his head. "Thank you oh-so-much for your kindness."

"That's better." She laughed. "Now then, we probably should get down to business, how captain?"

"Couldn't agree more." Blackbeard came down from above deck, and faced the detective-boy again. "Good to see you awake, Edogawa-kun. We thought you were dead after that explosion."

"Explosion…" Conan's eyes widened when the events came back to him. He ran up to the bars of the cage and grabbed them desperately. "How long was I out? Where are Law-san and the other?"

"The supernova and his crew got separated from us in consequence of the explosion; the poor boy probably thinks you're dead." Conan turned to his right and saw Jesus, Laffitte, and Augur standing off to the side casually. The sniper continued. "We do, on the other hand…have people you know."

A light came on in the cage across from Conan, he stared and his eyes grew wide with horror. There were Franky and Sentomaru, unconscious and hurt, as well as blue, chained up in shackles. As the detective observed, he realized that neither had been treated from the blast, and also noting the frost bite and burn marks on each of them. Franky's face had practically melted off. "Franky-san! Sentomaru-san!"

"Here's how it's going to work." Conan then noticed Shiliew smoking a cigar next to Franky. "We're going to ask questions, and you're going to answer them. For every question you get right or being truthful, we'll treat an injury of their's, starting with their frostbite."

"But I you answer us falsely for any reason." Conan turned to a large man with blue hair, and looked like a Viking almost. "We make their injuries worse. Me and Shiliew are known for our torture to say the least." Noting the boy didn't recognize him, he smirked. "I'm Avalo Pizzaro, first-mate of the Blackbeard crew."

"…They're not with me. What makes you think I'll cooperate with people who will most likely kill me anyways, for people I don't even know?" Conan managed to ask.

"Really? You don't care?" Shiliew to his cigar and smeared it into Franky's skin, causing his body to wince.

"STOP!" Conan yelled. "I get it! I'll cooperate, I swear!"

Smiling in satisfaction, the prison guard smirked. "Good. We understand each other. Now then…shall we begin?"

"What do you want to know?" Conan asked.

"Tell us where One Piece is, and we'll become your allies against the Black Organization!" Blackbeard declared.

"You're kidding right?" Conan couldn't believe what he just heard. "What the hell makes you think I'll believe you?"

"GHA!" Sentomaru suddenly shrieked from being zapped with a cattle prod. The mechanic was hyperventilating and looking around frantically. "What the hell's going on?"

"Sentomaru-san!" Conan yelled.

"Now, now…let's calm down." Shiliew smirked. "I think you still don't quite understand Edogawa-kun."

"You're our prisoner." Continued Catarina. "We control whether all of you live or die. Which means…we don't have to make any deals or assurances with you."

"So it's best if you just cooperate with us, little boy." Laffitte finished.

"Otherwise, your companions are going to get very hurt here." Avalo added.

"I don't know them." Conan said desperately.

"Doesn't matter." Van Augur said. "According to the Black Organization, your prime concern in any case is the civilians' well being. Neither of them are exactly citizens, however…if they were to die because of your shortcomings, that'd be the same thing, now wouldn't it?"

"…What if you just kill them even after I tell you?" The detective pointed out.

"That'd be no good for us." Conan turned to another member he hadn't seen before. There was disgusting man replicating a pink elephant seal to the left of his stall. "He he…I'm Vasco Shot."

"Franky-san here is one of the Strawhats and Sentomaru is too useful to the Navy for them to let him go. Even after you tell us everything, we'll still have use for all of them. Including you." Laffitte explained.

"What do you mean?" The boy asked.

"Well…we're essentially selling you off." Laffitte twirled his hat. "A bidding war between the Black Organization and the World Government. Whoever gives us the most money gets you."

"Clever." Conan twitched. Sighing, he knew that cooperation would be the best chance to increase their survival. "So…you wanted to know where One Piece was?"

"YES! Tell us where Roger hid his legendary treasure!" Blackbeard cheered.

Avalo and Shiliew positioned their cattle prods over Conan companions. Sentomaru looked too disoriented and scared to say anything, he just stared helplessly at the little boy who controlled his fate. Conan looked back at Sentomaru with resign, but answered anyways. "Through research and provided sources from the Navy, I established a basic profile of Roger-san and actually established where the treasure would most likely be hidden. Roger-san was a clever man, who was determined to keep the Pirates alive until the very end, and he obviously planned his successor to carry that responsibility as well. So the island of choice is actually very fitting."

"It's on Raftel right?" Jesus asked.

"No, it's on Sabaody." Conan looked up sharply at all of them. "It's under Mariejois, where the ancient kingdom is located."

"Ho! That makes sense!" Laffitte clapped his hands together. "Captain! It's in the one place where no one would think to look, and Roger committed the ultimate mockery of the World Government and Navy before he died! Isn't that great?"

"I don't know…" Jesus scratched his chin. "What do you think Shiliew?"

"Actually…they've never let us down there. It all makes sense now." The former prison guard smirked.

"Wow! Great deductions kid!" The wrestler cheered.

"So you're satisfied with your answer?" Conan asked carefully.

"Gwahahaha! Laffitte, set course for Sabaody!" Blackbeard cheered.

"Yes sir!" He saluted and headed off.

"Come men! Let's go have a drink!" Blackbeard was about to lead his men away, but was soon stop.

"WAIT!" Conan shouted, stopping the men. "I have questions for all of you. Now answer them as you promised."

"Oh yes, we did promise didn't we? How rude." Van Augur responded casually. "So, what are your questions?"

"First of all, how did the Black Organization first come into contact with this world to begin with?" That was the main question he had.

"Gwahahaha! We don't know the exact method either, we just know they used some of the research Vegapunk used." Sentomaru glared at Blackbeard for mentioning his master's work. "We just know they made contact with the Gorosei first, and the Gorosei dispensed orders from there."

"Who are the Gorosei exactly?" There were these people mentioned again. Now it was time to figure out who they were.

"You mean you don't know?" Blackbeard laughed. "They're the people who rule the world!"

"Excuse me?" Conan was sure he misunderstood.

"You heard our captain." Van Augur continued. "The Gorosei are a group of five elders that have supreme authority over the world, and work to preserve the order of the world by managing the three world powers." Conan's eyes widened, Tsuru mentioned that when he first got here. "Which as you know by now are the Navy, the Pirates, and the World Government. By keeping these three powers in check, the preserve the need and order for each side."

"What do you mean by preserving?" Conan asked carefully.

"You've done your research; you obviously have a pretty good idea of what the Gorosei has done in the past. They essentially tailor conflicts and executions to happen at specific points in time, so the world will continue needing the three powers." The sniper explained.

"T-That doesn't make sense! The pirates would never follow the World Government willingly! Let alone the Gorosei!" Conan exclaimed.

"That's because only the Shichibukai are truly aware of the true nature regarding the way the world is ruled." Van Augur replied. "They use the seven warlords as proxies to keep track of the pirates' movements. And as you suspected, no one but very top people in the Navy know this as well. Other than that, the only people off the top of my head that would know about this other than us, would be the Revolutionary army."

"The Revolutionary army?" Conan repeated confused. That's a new one.

"Oh? You haven't heard of them?" The sniper raised a brow in surprise. "They're a group of individuals who aren't pirates, but are still fighting against the World Government's supreme order. It is lead by Monkey D. Dragon, the world's most dangerous criminal."

"And they're not a superpower of the world?" Conan clarified.

"Nope, just a bunch of hooligans causing trouble." Laffitte smiled. "Did we clear things up?"

"This barely makes sense, how'd these people come into power?" Conan asked.

"No one knows." Jesus laughed. "All we know is that these old bastards are damned afraid of change. That's why they contacted the Black Organization."

"Explain." Conan narrowed his eyes.

"It was two years ago that Dr. VegaPunk proposed the theory of multiple universes existing, and that all of existence beyond our universe is full of life besides out own realm of reality. Of course, none of us believed it at first, but then he actually presented proof to us. Look, I'm sure you recognize what this, don't you?" Laffitte pulled out a cell phone, which the detective seemed shocked by. "This device, a cell phone, as you people call it, gave absolute proof to the World Government that other worlds existed, and it was just about breaking into them."

"Y-You bastards are actually planning to invade our world?" Conan was shocked. "E-Explain yourself! That still doesn't make sense! What does One Piece or anything of what you just said have to do with this?"

"Easy, easy…I'm getting to that." The dancer raised his hands in front of himself. "Dr. Vegapunk was ordered to setup a meeting between the Gorosei and his contacts from your world, who happened to be the Black Organization. I don't know the details of the conversation, but apparently, in exchange for sending you here, as well as disposing of you once you decipher One Piece's location, the Navy was to give them a supply of carefully selected logia-fruits, as well as military weapons made by Vegapunk himself."

"You can't be doing all this for a treasure that only supposedly exists." Conan glared.

"Ah. So you doubt the legend too, despite the extensive research you've done; well you're right. The World Government is getting more than just Roger's final wish- it's getting the formula that turned you into a boy, as well as several crates of modern machine guns that have yet to come about in this world. Fascinating isn't it?" The dancer smiled.

Conan clenched his fists. "What the hell makes you think I'm cooperating in any of this now?"

"GWAHAHA! That's the thing kid, when you divulged the location of One Piece, you gave away your only use to us. We can just get rid of you now. Oi Jesus! Get some rope and cement blocks!" Blackbeard smirked. Conan looked horrified and backed away.

"Wait captain." Shiliew spoke up for the first time in awhile. He lit a cigar, and was still standing behind the still unconscious Franky. Sentomaru had been lost some time ago. The former prison guard stared at their guest sadistically. "It's easily possible that he's hiding more from us, we don't want to leave any details do we? I request permission to interrogate him, sir."

"GWAHAHA! Do as you like, Shiliew! Let's give him some privacy men! I don't want this kid's blood all over me!" Blackbeard and his crew laughed as they left the room, leaving Shiliew, Conan, Franky, and Sentomaru.

"Saa…shall we begin?" Shiliew put on a sadistic smirk, and walked calmly over to a cabinet. Conan suddenly became very afraid for their situation; he may have given them false information, but they didn't know that! He just inadvertently made himself and his two fellow captives disposable. Shiliew then brought out three tools: a spiked metal collar with an adjustable screw, a shock collar (at least that's what it looked like), and a small but extremely sharp axe. Seeing the look of fear on the kid's face, and the anxiety of Sentomaru's the sadistic guard felt pleasure. "Don't worry, I'm going to start with them, you'll be last…Kudo-kun." He went into Sentomaru and Franky's cell and gripped Sentomaru's face, forcing him to look at him. "I've always wanted to do this Sentomaru, you and that damned doctor were going to make robots, that put good guards like me out of a job."

"Go to hell Shiliew!" The inventor spat in the guard's face. Shiliew smiled, and roughly rammed the spiked collar over Sentomaru's head and started tightening the bolts. He tightened it to the point where the inventor's thick neck was turning blue, and blood was starting burst out of the veins from the small pricks of the spine. Conan's eyes widened, his circulation to his brain was being cut off!

"Stop! You'll kill him!" Conan exclaimed, panicking.

"You're going to end up dead anyways kid, it's how you get there that counts." Shiliew then started whipping the poor man with a nine-tail cat (a whip with nine knots), leaving marks over his body. One of the tails, which had a metal hook, got caught on Sentormaru's earlobe, and with a smirk, Shiliew yanked viciously and it was torn clean off. Blood poured from Sentomaru's head as the ear hung limply from the bloody whip. The young detective had seen many things, but even he was about to throw up. He researched medieval and pirate torture techniques for fun occasionally, he imagined the hell the victim was put through, but he now understood the undeniable psychological horror in the back of their minds. The young detective was snapped out of it, when he moved onto Franky.

The cyborg man was still slightly unconscious, but through the sound of the whips Sentomaru got, he was slightly awoken. Conan cringed at Franky's appearance, his whole body was burned from the explosion on Karakuri, making him bald, and blackened like charcoal; the detective now noticed the smell of burning skin. He stole a glance back to Sentomaru, and his eyes widened with panic, the spikes were completely into his neck, slowly cutting off his circulation and air supply. He turned anxiously back to Franky, who had the damned shock collar placed on him. Shiliew then went behind the two men, and got something else out- two sponges attached to metal prongs. The young detective knew exactly what they were used for, but since Franky was a cyborg…it was going to be a slow, malfunctioning, death. "Don't do it! He didn't do anything! Please!" For once, the law was not on the detective's side, in a pirate's world, law didn't exist.

"Don't worry, Kudo-kun, you're next." He picked up a remote and pushed a button, blue flashes, indicating the volts of electricity shot through the shipwright. Franky was no fully awake, and was currently panicking about his situation. "Ah good, you're awake bloody Strawhat." He took a puff of his cigar. "A dog should always be with his collar." He shocked Franky before he could respond. "Now then…where do you think your captain is hiding?"

"Hell if I know, we were separated by the damned pacifista! Who are you? Let us go!" Franky demanded.

"Oh, I see, that's too bad then. You would've been useful to us, otherwise." He took another puff and got the sponges ready. "As for who I am, I am Shiliew, interrogator and information extraction expert of the Blackbeard Pirates, welcome to our crew." He put the sponges to Franky's chest, and that's when all hell broke loose for the once-blue haired man (he's bald now).

"AAAAUGH!" Franky screamed in pain, as the volts of electricity shot through his body, including the damned shock collar, that was now drawing blood. It lasted for an agonizing two minutes, until the shipwright finally passed out.

"Ah. He didn't last as long as I thought he would, shame." He smirked and turned to the terrified child. "Now then, you're next, Kudo-kun. It wouldn't be fair if you were the only one spared."

The next thing Conan knew, he was dragged out of his cell, and strapped down to a wooden table in the room. Panicking about it being a stretcher, he mildly realized when he realized it was just for restraint. Shiliew looked down at Conan, and waved the small axe in front of the detective casually. "I've got to say, I'm impressed, Kudo-kun. You've managed to escape the Navy, combine the revolutionaries and the Whitebeard pirates, and have even successfully managed to find out all this information about the world government. You're an impressive kid, but your life ends in this world…it ended when you went against justice in your world." He was about to bring the axe down, but he noted Conan's terrified look turned into furry.

"URUSAI!" Conan yelled, catching his tormentor off-guard. "Don't you dare call what the Navy is doing here is justice! Don't you dare call the Black Organization justice! The Navy, Tenryuubito, the Gorosei, the World Government, they can have all the power in the world, and it still wouldn't mean justice! Justice is about doing what's right, making things right for people everywhere; not a pathetic concept for people who have money and power to play with! Did I suffer for going against the Black Organization? Yes, without a doubt! But I didn't suffer for not following justice, I suffered for following justice! For protecting my friends, my loved ones, my life! I'll keep fighting no matter what world they send me to, no matter how they torture me!" Conan breathed harshly, and looked Shiliew straight in the eye. "The Black Organization will take over everything here, just like they're trying to in my world, the day their word, their law becomes justice, I'll turn into a criminal. Because I'd rather be put to death, than live in that kind of world. Don't ever compare the Black Organization to the good people I know, who'd sacrifice themselves for the actual meaning of justice in a heartbeat."

"You say some big words, detective." Shiliew pursed his lips and readied his axe. "Don't think I want kill you just because you said a pretty speech."

At this, Conan actually smirked. "Do your worst, because no matter how bad of a state I'm in at the end of the day, I'm still going to win. I'll win this fight, just like I've won the others. Bring it on, black dog!"

Shiliew snapped and brought the sharp axe down on Conan's shoulder and slid it through, making a huge gash in his arm. The ex-prison guard brought the axe down on Conan's left arm repeatedly, just making shallow indentations, not actually severing it. It'd be less painful, that way. After completely bloodying up Conan's left arm, he turned to his right arm. Dropping the axe, he looked around the room, and found a lead pipe. Smirking, he walked over to it and dipped it into a furnace; after it was red hot, he walked back over to the boy. Conan was barely able to stay conscious, but he knew what was coming when he saw the hot iron. Shiliew slowly, brought the iron down onto Conan's right arm, and then slid it across, making a huge burn scar. He did the same thing to Conan's legs, leaving black streaks across them. Frustrated, that the little detective was just flinching, not crying out, he hastily grabbed the nine-tail cat, and started whipping the boy's stomach. The shirt was torn in seconds, and the detective coughed up blood, wincing when he felt the impact on the coils. But suddenly, he felt something sharp grip part of abdomen. Crap! It was right above his pancreas! Shiliew pulled it back, the same way he did with Sentomaru, splitting the boy's stomach open slightly. Conan sputtered blood and finally lost consciousness.

Still unsatisfied, Shiliew raised the whip again, only to find Augur point his sniper at him. "That's enough for now, we can't have them die yet." After taking a few harsh breaths, Shiliew threw the whip on the ground and stormed past the marksman. Augur didn't say anything, but sighed at the mess of the prisoners in front of him. "Better get Doc. Q down here, before they die."

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