Dankichi Torage

* Anime
* Manga

**Dankichi Torage** (虎毛 団吉, *Torage Dankichi*) is a self-proclaimed ESP who often appears on the show Lie or Truth? ESP!!.

## Biography

### Live Broadcast Murder

In the latest episode of the show "Lie or Truth? ESP!!," Torage has to face off against neurosurgeon Mofu Usaki. The host Onoyako asks Torage what ESP he will show today, and Torage replies that he will control someone's brain using only writing. To demonstrate his ability, he picks a man from the audience who has to put on noise-cancelling headphones. Then, Torage shows him a card on which he has written a word, and the man does what is written on the card. Mofu objects to this "mockery of neurology" and questions whether the test subject was actually randomly chosen. She analyzes the man's movements and proves that he was the chosen test subject last time as well.

Torage says that this is only a false accusation. To show that he can truly control people using only writing, Torage writes "death" on a card. When he shows it to the test subject, he collapses instantaneously. Torage checks the man's pulse and declares him dead. Filming is then stopped and an ambulance called.

Later, when Totomaru Isshiki and Ron Kamonohashi arrive to investigate the scene, Torage is puzzled by Ron's strange antics. Ron introduces himself as Torage's "fair-weather fan" and asks how he killed the volunteer. Torage insists that it was his ESP that killed him; because of that, it will be impossible for modern science and laws to punish him for his crime. Ron then asks him for an autograph, and Torage writes his name with the thick tip of his marker in his notebook before he asks Toto and Ron why they are not punishing Mofu. After all, the volunteer only died because she did not want to acknowledge his ESP powers.

Torage later expresses his impatience over Toto's slow investigation, especially considering that he has no evidence to keep him at Donut Television.

Sometime afterward, Toto gathers Torage, Ron, Mofu, Shikada, and everyone else present at Donut Television to solve the case. He wants to re-enact the incident and requests Mofu to be his test subject. Toto himself would play Torage's part. He then asks Torage to give him the marker he used during the show, but when Torage refuses to hand it over, Mofu approaches him and stumbles over her own shoelaces. She knocks Torage down, takes the marker, and gives it to Totomaru. Mofu puts on the headphones, and they start the re-enactment. Totomaru writes down the same words as Torage, and Mofu jumps and runs on command. When he shows her the final word, she, to everyone's shock, collapses like the man did. Toto explains that he showed Mofu the "death" card upside down: To her, the card said "sleep," and upon reading it, she fell down to sleep. The dead man did the same, and when Torage went to check his pulse, he injected the poison into the back of his neck with a needle he hid in his marker. The man groaned while Mofu gave him the heart message because the poison was slow in starting to spread.

Torage insists once more that he has ESP powers before he admits that he is a liar and that he killed the man because he was his accomplice and threatened to reveal Torage's secrets if he did not give him 90% of his profits. Then, Ron pressures Torage to kill himself with the marker, and Totomaru gets stabbed with it when he tries to save Torage. Luckily, when Mofu collided with Torage to get the marker, she grabbed the wrong one, and Toto was only marked, not poisoned.

## Etymology

* The name "Dankichi" means "group" (団, *dan*) and "lucky, good" (吉, *kichi*).
* His surname "Torage" means "tiger hair" (虎毛).

## References

1. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 7, pages 4-16
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 7, pages 19-22
3. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 8, page 3
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 8, pages 7-25