57 Chapter 56: Showdown

While Sato is having a temporary standoff with the Gin Clone, Conan is catching up to the escaping trio of agents. Being in earshot, he shouts at Tequila. ''Prevent them from escaping!''

Hearing his masters command Tequila instantly tackles Rum. Seeing his double agent get into a fistfight with the hooded figure, Conan focuses on Vermouth. Having seen the woman, allowing herself to get essentially raped in front of a large audience and knowing of her special relationship with Renya Karasuma, he simply can't allow her to escape. Driven forward by the deep-seated desire to catch up to her, Conan doesn't consciously realize, that every third step or so, he is pushed forward by an invisible force. As he is essentially using an uncontrolled version of force sprint, Conan sees his target lowering a lifeboat into the water.

Catching up to Vermouth, he jumps her from behind, but she sidesteps him, preventing him from using his brainwashing power on her.

Seeing a small boy jump her, Sharon asks Conan. ''What do you want, boy?'

Smirking Conan prepares to force jumps again, while saying. ''I am here for you my dear Vermouth. As far as I can tell Karasuma and the organization are both mistreating you...'' Having gathered his power into his feet, Coman once again tries to jump Vermouth, but once again she is able to sidestep him. ''... So why not join me. Despite what you did to did to Erin, I am willing to take you in.''

Hesitation flicker over Vermouth's face for a second before she says. ''I am Renya's nobody else's!''

Using her hesitating state to his advantage, Conan force jumps a third time, this time he successfully gets a grip on the woman. The moment his hand makes contact with her skin, he instantly invades her mind.

While Conan is turning Vermouth into being his, Sato is facing to the gene-manipulated Gin clone. Now wearing his heavy armor to Sato at least her enemy looks far less impressive now than when he was naked.

Looking at him she asks the muscle mountain of a person. ''So are we doing this or what?''

''...'' Saying nothing except grunting, the Gin knockoff instantly starts attacking her with large uncontrolled swings. Avoiding his swings, Sato ducks underneath his defenses and strikes at the man's knee. Hearing the crunching sound of bones breaking, the giant doesn't even flinch for a second and hugs Sato.

Lifting her off the floor, he tries to break her back but seeing her unflinching face, he opts for a head bump. Slamming their heads against each other it is the Gin clone in the end that starts bleeding, not Sato.

While Sato is fighting with the Gin alone and seemingly getting the upper hand thanks to her abilities, Ran and Sonoko is freeing the caged woman. As they do, an unexpected helper joins them.

''Hey can I help?'' Asks Heiji Ran.

''Yes, you can free as many women as you can. I guess this party is now over.'' Tells Ran him while fiddling with a cage.

One has to say that backstage is somehow worse and better than expected. Worse, because most women are not in cages, but awkwardly bound to objects. Better, because none of the women shows signs of at least physical abuse.

Spotting the cage containing his Kazuha as well as Yoko, Heiji instantly rushes to it. Breaking open the padlock with a fire extinguisher he got from a wall, he instantly embraces his childhood friend. While he does, Sonoko finds her mother and sister cuddling together in the corner of a separate cage. Contrary to every other caged woman, these two are neither fearful nor angry, but horny. Wide-eyed Sonoko finds her mother and sister rub against each other like horny rabbits, while embracing each other feverishly.

''Stop it you two will you!'' Shouts Sonoko embarrassed by their lewd faces and naughty actions.

''Let them finish what they started...'' Tells Ran her friend before saying. ''... Let's start searching for Yukiko.''

Having opened most cages and unbound all woman, Sonoko and Ran find one last cage a corner, near an exit. Getting closer, both Ran and Sonoko instantly smell the unmistakable flavor of death. Looking inside, they find a naked, still beautiful Yukiko Kudo, her mouth agape, her eyes open wide from shock and her throat sliced open.

Shocked both Ran and Sonoko are shocked by the brutal death of a beautiful woman. Averting their eyes, Ran says. ''Who did this?''

Before anybody can say anything to that, Sato comes flying backstage. After her initial streak of small victories, she and the Gin clone ended up in a stalemate.

Despite her skin being bulletproof, her organs are still human and are easily messed up by enough force. As the fight escalated more and more the theater venue simply wasn't enough. Now with Sato being thrown backstage, their battlefield had grown significantly.

While Yukiko's dead body has been found end Satos fight escalated, Conan is invading Vermouths mind, slowly turning her into his. As he invades her mind details about the organization inner workings and Karasuma get revealed to him, that are neither mentioned nor hinted at in the manga.

The most interesting information among what he is able to extract out of the woman are information about the origin of the APTX drug, as it appears that the first APTX drug was created in Palantinsk during the cold war under the supervision of one Renya Karasuma.

Having turned Vermouth from fierce enemy to gentle ally, Conan suddenly hears a gunshot. Remembering that Ran and Sonoko should have killed any and all gun-wielding enemies, Conan lets go of a still dazed Vermouth to follow. The gunshot sound.

Running back the way he originally ran down, to catch up to Vermouth, he finds a dead Tequila, a bullet wound dead center in his forehead.

''Shit!'' Conan curses while averting his eyes from death. Turning around, he finds his lovers and friends come out looking at him with dark faces, especially Ran and Sonoko look particularly gloomy.

As silents descents, Conan suddenly hears a motor howling. Looking back and over the railing, he is able to find Rums hooded figure on a speed boat, when suddenly another gunshot rings out.

Turning around once more, everybody is able to spot its source, as Jodie Sterling is standing on the bridge, holding a sniper rifle and shooting at Rums speed boat. As her first shot had hit the boat's motor, the engine instantly came to a halt stopping the boat. Seeing Rum desperately struggle to restart the engine, Conan sees Sterling reloading her rifle.

As she does, Conan gets a very bad promotion, as the woman once again aims at Rum.

Before he can stop the FBI agent the bullet has already left the rifle and is on its deadly path. Following the trajectory of the bullet, Conan can see the hooded figure on the boat suddenly collapse. A moment of silence sets in.

''Is it over?'' Conan hears Kazuha ask Heiji.

Nodding the young men tells her. ''I guess that's...''

His statement is instantly cut short, as explosions underneath deck rumble through the ship all of a sudden. Before anybody can react, the hole Cruiseliner is engulfed in explosions and flames, Conan, his lovers, and friends included. In under two second, everybody on the ship is dead.

As Ran feels the flames wash over her body a sick sense of security sets in, as her secondary ability kicks in. Before the young woman knows what is going on time begins to rewind right in front of her eyes. The flames start to retreat, the deadly bullet from Sterling come flying back into the gun. As Ran witnesses all this, time starts to pick up speed and she gets dragged back inside the now not exploding ship.

Before she can stop what is going on, she sits back inside the not destroyed theater right beside Conan and Ran. Looking up ahead and onto the stage, Ran hears Shiratori announce the end of the auction.

''And the winner of this bid for 750 million is and the new owner of these supreme foreign beauties is Mr. Grey!...''