Murder at Meiou High
by Mousse K
Name: Mousse K
Email Address: mousse@crosswinds.net
Web Site: www.crosswinds.net/~mousse/
Fic Category: Conflict (or wherever mystery fics belong)
Sorry about the formatting: It was originally a Word document. The original copy's on my site if any of you care to see it (it has footnotes for everything you probably won't understand).
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Standard disclaimer applies. Urameshi Yusuke, Kuwabara Kazuma, and Hiei were created and are trademarks of Yoshihiro Togashi and Jump Comics. Ginny Seta was created and therefore belongs to by Ginny S. Saitou Eiji is copyrighted Ó Ginny’s Friend 2000. Oh yes, and in case you’re wondering, Edanoshi Ryoma is my own creation. Please don’t use the last three without our permission, and please don’t sue if you own the rest.
Reader discretion is advised… not that there’s anything in here that needs it…
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A Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic by Mousse K, with help from Ginny S
Murder at Meiou High
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
12:01… 12:02… 12:03…
The digital clock in Yusuke’s new Chemistry class seemed to slow down with each passing minute. It was only two days after his sudden transfer from Sarayashiki to Meiou private high schools, and the dark cloak of boredom seemed to have already completely enveloped him.
He peered over his shoulder to Kuwabara, who had also transferred on good merits and improved marks, simultaneously scratching his head and his paper, desperately trying to comprehend the cryptic material. Kurama, on the other hand, seemed quite at ease in his front row seat, raising his hand every minute or so with a new, insightful thought or question. On the other side of the room, Hiei, who had incidentally enrolled under the last name Hatanaka, was busily tapping out random numbers on his calculator. He gave a quick glance/glare to his ex-girlfriend Ginny, who sat adjacent to Hiei, intently listening to the professor drone on about polymers.
Yusuke let out a soft sigh as he mentally shouted “Doesn’t anything interesting ever go on in here!?!”. The classroom’s electrical system responded to his wishes by shutting down, and hurling the entire wing into pitch darkness.
Thirty seconds of panic ensued in the completely light-deprived classroom, though a prompt instruction from the professor kept the fifteen students from leaving their desks. It took barely a moment for everyone to realize that the fire alarm had been tripped, however, as a cold chemical/water shower had immediately begun pouring upon the students’ hapless heads.
When the darkness and mist lifted, however, a new sight had already greeted the students’ panic-stricken faces. Urameshi Yusuke’s corpse lay on his desk, a bloody drafting knife in his spine, perpendicular to the crimson-stained ceramic surface of his workspace.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thirty minutes into his Physics class, Edanoshi Ryoma’s beeper began to emit a high pitched beep, attracting the attention of his classmates and severely irritated teacher. He was saved from a lengthy explanation, however, as a well-timed intercom call chimed in, informing the school that the local police was awaiting an “Edanaushy Ryouma” at the front gates. Ryoma ignored the few snickers and whispers that arose from his classmates, and proceeded to pick up his corrected test, glance at the 105/100 mark on its corner, toss it into the nearby recycling bin, and walk out of the door in one fluid motion.
“Well, at least I’m out of that waste of time,” he thought, as a middle aged man in uniform escorted the bushy-haired teenager from his prison-like school to the police cruiser.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ten minutes after the incident, the police had secured the circumference with yellow police tape and riot control officers ushering crowds away from the scene of the crime. Ryoma entered the room, only to get his shoes and khakis soaked. He had to take barely a step before he could get a good grasp of the situation. A bloody corpse lay on a desk in the center of the room, arms dangling off of either side, with a knife protruding from its back. A row of students stood by the back wall, behind an array of lab tables, each waiting their turn for questioning in the prep room next door.
“What’s that kid doing in our class?” Kuwabara whispered to Kurama..
“Not sure,” responded Kurama, as he brushed aside a wet lock of hair.
“Is he your distant cousin or something, Minamino san?” inquired a girl fixing her long braid of hair, “He does look a bit like you…”
Kurama gave the intruder a closer look. The boy did somewhat resemble him, with a familiar starburst pattern in his shoulder-length jet black hair, a lightly tanned round face, and tall stature. The group observed the boy as he trotted around the room, looking and touching the various objects that lay around. Not an officer was in sight to stop him from doing as he willed.
The long-haired girl put her hands on her hips and said to herself,
“Are they going to just let him mess up the room like that? I though the police took measures to make sure the crime scene isn’t disturbed!”
“Feh. Damned human police,” Hiei snorted in agreement.
Kurama interrupted before an argument broke out.
“Quiet Ginny-chan, Hiei, they might hear you. We don’t need to get in any more trouble than we already are in.”
Kuwabara angrily kicked a trash can, which brought on a shower of papers, electronics parts, and glass, as well as glares from the seven crime scene analysts in the room. He crossly returned to his position on the back wall, and leaned on the cinderblock construction of the room.
“Hmph, looks like this big goon is doing well enough a job as that idiot is up there,” commented Hiei.
Before a fight could break loose, however, the four caught sight of a man in a blue police uniform and trenchcoat, no more than twenty in age, who approached the black haired intruder.
“Edanoshi keibu !” shouted the man in trenchcoat.
His listener cringed and made a motion to plug both of his ears, as many of the members of the class widened their eyes in surprise.
“Keibu?!? That little shrimp’s part of the force?!?” yelled out a student, involuntarily.
“You needn’t shout that in my EAR!” retorted Ryoma, as he pulled a navy blue notebook and a mechanical pencil from his shirt pocket. After regaining his composure, he clicked the pencil a few times, and readied it on the notebook.
“Alright, Saitou keiji , situation report, please.”
Saitou Eiji, a handsome man with short black hair, cringed slightly at the thought of taking orders from a kid almost four years below him, reluctantly began reciting out of his own police notebook.
“The victim’s name is Urameshi Yusuke, 18 years old, second year student at Meiou High School. He’s newly transferred from Sarayashiki High, just moved in two days ago due to good marks and recommendation by his professors…” Saitou flipped a page in his notebook , and turned towards the fire sensor, under which an overturned garbage can and a week’s worth of waste lay.
“From the testimonies drawn so far, the victim’s death occurred after the fire alarm was tripped. The fire prevention system in this school shuts down all internal electrical systems except for an internal generator, which power the automatic sprinklers...”
Ryoma rudely interrupted the report, “Who deactivated the system?”
A response, nearly followed up by a fist to the face came from Saitou, “The teacher of this Chemistry class, Mrs. Tanaka. She’s being questioned now. So far, her testimony claims that there was no more than a minute of darkness before she reached the shutoff button outside of the room. Her claim is plausible, considering the distance to and obstacles in the path of the given shutoff.”
A second such interruption slipped through Ryoma’s lips, “Don’t tell me they,” he nudged his pen towards the row of students in the back, “were part of the ‘obstacle course’.”
The elder man didn’t react to the question. “Apparently, the teacher had ordered the students not to move from their seats. Although we can’t confirm that no one had moved, it has been noted that there were no traces of anyone nearing Urameshi’s desk. It is also noted that there were no fingerprints on the weapon used for the murder.”
Seeing that Saitou was finished with his lecture, Ryoma shooed him off to the makeshift-questioning booth next door. He calmly strolled out of the room, past the barricade of yellow police tape, down the stairs, and out the exit. After parking himself under the shade of a tree in the inner courtyard of the school, Ryoma drew a cigarette from the pocket of his sky blue cutter shirt, and slumped back onto the trunk of the sturdy plant.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The four could see the entire show from the window to their right sides. Hiei surprisingly was the first to open his mouth.
“Hn. Useless human police.”
Hiei’s right arm, still at his side, began to emit the dark flames of the Makai. The three could sense a hint of remorse and gloominess in Hiei’s usually strong and violent youki. The koorime’s customarily hard face was cringing softly, desperately holding back tears.
Next to him, a red-haired fox spirit was slowly adding to the liquid on the floor. Ginny did her best to comfort him, but Kurama’s tears did not slow. Yusuke had been their strong, supportive leader, their fellow classmate, and most of all, a good friend. Kurama attempted to speak, but a lump in his throat caught the words and only choked his shallow breathing.
Only one man in the entire length of the row showed no such emotion. Kuwabara Kazuma’s strong hand stopped gripped Hiei’s upper arm.
“Hiei, there’s little we can do now. Calm down. He won’t be gone for long.”
An expression of sudden surprise and confusion rose on his comrades’ faces. It took them a moment to adjust to Kuwabara’s sudden change of tone from whimsical stupidity to sincere seriousness. It took them several minutes longer to realize that Yusuke had already died twice before, and that it was simply a matter of time before he would make his return. He wasn’t human after all. Kurama brushed off his tears and cursed himself mentally for his incompetence.
The finale to the show came appropriately. Several men in uniform entered the lab room, and informed Kuwabara that it was his turn for questioning. He quickly took a glance at the surrounding room, and noticed that while the brief scene had taken place, the rest of their classmates had already been had their turn at questioning, and were waiting outside the room. Kuwabara quickly followed the men into the small glass door that separated the lab room and the prep room.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Taking one quick look around himself, Kuwabara noticed the slight modifications the police had made to the lab preparation room. Soundproof padding smothered every corner of the wall. Beakers and graduated cylinders were removed from the shelves, replaced by lie detectors and recording devices of all sorts. A single table sat solitarily in the center of the floor, the cold face of inspector Saitou awaiting him. The carrot-topped boy dragged the chair back, lay down, and placed his feet on the ceramic surface of the desk. Saitou, unswayed, pulled his notebook from beneath the desk, and began the session.
“Your name?”
“Kuwabara Kazuma.”
“Age?”
“18”
“Occupation?”
“What the hell do you think it is? …Student.”
“And your relations with the victim?”
“He’s a rival from my old school.”
“Old school?”
“Sarayashiki High.”
“Yes… Describe the crime scene, in your words…”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kuwabara Kazuma’s voice faded into the sounds of the rustling trees as Edanoshi keibu slowly pulled the earphones from his head. He slowly reached for the voice recorder in his side pants pocket, tapping the red button marked ‘stop’. Ryoma jumped to a standing position, both hands still in his khaki’s pockets, spat the unlit cigarette from his mouth and crushed it under his sneaker with an uncustomary crunch. A swift movement of the foot swept the remains of a pulverized signal amplifier under a bush.
Prepared to commence the ‘real’ investigation, Ryoma began his trip up the two flights of stairs to the second floor on which the crime scene was located. Upon reentry, Ryoma took a moment to refamiliarize himself with the location of the furniture. Desks and the teacher’s pedestal to the right. Ceramic lab tables to the left. Fume hood and door to the prep room directly next to the tables. Cabinets placed high across either wall, sandwiching the half-curtained glass panels, through which the furniture looked out upon the inner courtyard. He leant against the cinder block walls, and glanced upwards at the Styrofoam-tiled ceiling.
The detective neared victim’s desk. A white chalk trace-out of the body remained on the crimson-stained desk, chair, and floor, the head and lower back missing due to their positions when the scene was discovered. Ryoma edged closer to the site, taking care not to let blood seep into his sneakers.
“A direct hit to the heart. Judging from the size of the blood stain, I’d say the knife must have been lodged into his back about 3 or 4 centimeters,” said a voice from behind Ryoma.
“Yeah. I got the report from the analysts. The cutter had dug approximately 4 centimeters into the upper back, puncturing the left atrium of the heart. It was really well placed, too. Perpendicular to the spinal column…” Ryoma’s voice diminished slowly as he realized that the room was empty of people when he had entered. He turned back to see a tall scarlet-haired man in school uniform behind him, his chin in his right hand, and in a deep train of thought. His emerald eyes held a constant gaze towards a point placed kilometers beyond that of the desk.
Several seconds passed before the student snapped out of his trance. “Oh, sorry. I’m Minamino Shuichi. A good friend of Urameshi Yusuke,” he said with a slight smile. The duo’s attention turned back to the scene, “I don’t understand who would have done something like this.”
Ryoma turned to Shuichi.
“You have any idea on who may have done this?”
“I’m not sure. Not too many people in this class know him at all. To my knowledge, only four people from this class, including myself have any actual relationships with Yusuke.”
“Feh…The tall, muscular guy with the orange hair, the short one with the headband and the streak of silver through his hair, and the girl with the long braid of hair,” guessed Ryoma, with a conceited, yet disinterested tone. “You know them?”
“Yes,” responded Shuichi, calmly. It seemed that constantly being around Hiei and Kuwabara strengthened his immunity towards rudeness… Or maybe it was the fact that when he was a Youko, his attitude towards others was the same way…
“The tall orange haired man is Kuwabara Kazuma, a psychic. He’s Yusuke’s close friend, a former rival from Sarayashiki High School during what he now calls his ‘dark period’.”
“’Dark period’?”
“Both of them were delinquents until a few years ago. Kuwabara kun seemed to have this undying urge to beat Urameshi kun in a fistfight, and he at one point maintained a gang for that purpose. It… doesn’t seem to have happened… yet.”
“I see,” Ryoma responded as he scribbled into his notepad, “And that girl with the long hair?”
“Ginny Seta. She’s from an all-girls private school. She met us in an inter-school kendo meet. Seta san is the former girls’ team captain for Urasaki High. She’s unnaturally adept at the sport: first in the prefecture for the third year straight on the High School Level. Urameshi kun seemed interested in her… but their relationship didn’t get too far beyond the point of close friendship… The two have barely spoken to eachother after their recent fight, though. It seems that there was a slight… misunderstanding, where one party thought the other was two-timing, and the other didn’t even know they were dating.” Shuichi glanced back, to confirm that none of his friends were hearing the conversation. He began to wonder if he was speaking a bit too freely, but was immediately drawn out of that thought by another of Ryoma’s questions.
“And the short guy?”
“His name is Hiei Hatanaka,” replied Shuichi. His palms were sweating a bit, as he reminded himself that he would have to begin choosing his words wisely. Revealing the fact that he wasn’t quite human would cause lots of unnecessary complication. “He’s a friend I know from uh… Junior High. He’s not very social, but was fairly close with Urameshi kun.”
“Okay… Thanks. I’ll try to find them,” Ryoma said, as he stowed his notebook back into his breast pocket, and briskly walked out of the room. Shuichi remained motionless until his interrogator’s leave, and began breathing heavily when he did. It was uncomfortable enough that he had to talk about Hiei, much less to someone who didn’t even know what the Makai was. A lie detector could be tricked by youryoku, but a human wasn’t anywhere near as simple. Kurama, or Shuichi to everyone in this world, put his hand to his chest and let out a slight chuckle. Encounters like these were definitely not healthy.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Meanwhile, Kuwabara was in the small lot behind the school. Looking to make sure no one in the woods before him or the building behind him was looking, he leant up against the whitewashed wall of the school, pulling a small canteen from the inside of his uniform. Kuwabara hadn’t tasted alcohol in weeks, thanks to his matriculation to the high-standarded Meiou high school. He placed the open end of the bottle into his mouth, tilted slightly upwards, and poured an ounce of the beverage into his mouth when…
“The legal age for drinking is twenty, you know. I could arrest you on the spot,” a raven-haired man said, suddenly appearing from behind the corner of the school behind Kuwabara.
The orange haired student inadvertently spat his drink out. He slowly rotated his body to see Ryoma, a light halo of reflecting sunlight appearing in the starburst-pattern in his hair, a grin forming across his lips. Kuwabara felt like beating the young officer’s head into his shoulders, but he remembered what Ryoma had just said, and restrained himself to growling out a “What the hell do you want?”
Undeterred by Kuwabara’s rudeness (he’s fairly used to himself behaving similarly), he began his bit of questioning. “Tell me what happened today in class. You don’t, and I’ll have you taken to the precinct house for drinking underage.”
Reluctantly, Kuwabara began his version of the day’s happenings.
“Today was just like every other day here. Y’know, regular private school stuff. Chem class is in the morning, right before lunch. Today was a lecture day. Nothing special. Just note taking and head scratching…“ Kuwabara caught his last statement, and corrected accordingly, “…that is, for the other idiots. There’s nothing the great Kuwabara Kazuma can’t understand!”
Ryoma seemed unimpressed quite unimpressed.
”Uh huh. Keep going.”
“Well, in the middle of class, the fire bell rang, and the lights went out. Couldn’t see anything two centimeters in front of my face. The curtains were closed, and there’s only one window in the room. Everyone started yelling, but I could hear the teacher yelling for us to stay in our seats. I stood up, and I heard a few chairs moving, but I don’t remember hearing anything else except for maybe a soft whirring in the back of the room.”
“Soft whirring?”
”Yeah. Couldn’t tell what it was, though. Too busy trying to keep my ass dry.”
“Okay, I’ll check that. Where does everyone sit, anyway?”
“Don’t know too many people, but I’ll tell you the ones I know. Kur… er… Minamino Shuichi sits up front, in the first row. He’s right in front of the teacher. Urameshi sat in the seat diagonally right to his rear, and I sit two seats to his left, with my left side facing the wall. In the right side of the third row, Seta san sits, right next to Hiei… uh… Hatanaka.”
“Hatanaka sits right behind Urameshi’s seat,” he added.
“Alright. That’s good,” commented Ryoma as he slipped his hand into his pocket and swiftly excused himself from Kuwabara’s presence, bumping into him in the process.
Kuwabara scowled menacingly towards the direction of Ryoma’s egress, and leant back into his original position. He quickly put his hand back into his coat, where he had stowed his drink, and once again began to relieve himself, when his hand hit air where a bottle once was. The carrot topped student’s expression turned from a distinct show of disapproval to one of panic. It took a few seconds and rummaging through every pocket of his uniform to finally figure out what had happened.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ryoma closed the heavy metal doors of the school behind him, to muffle Kuwabara Kazuma’s estranged cries of impending revenge. He calmly strolled past a few officers in uniform, and into one of the bathrooms of the giant campus. He grinned slightly as he reached into the left sleeve of his shirt, pulling out a silver canteen, popping open its top. He then placed its open mouth into his, savoring the bittersweet taste of the strong drink as it entered his system. Hey, an occasional break from work couldn’t be too bad, could it?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Kendo captain Ginny Seta ran through the mostly empty hallways of Meiou High, in desperate search for a bathroom. “Nearly 100 classrooms, and barely any bathrooms!” she yelled to herself, before running past a conveniently placed restroom in the west wing of the complex. She back paced a few steps, dashed into a stall, and relieved herself.
Ginny took a few easy steps out of the stall to the sink, lathered her hands, and reached for a few wads of paper towel, when she noticed the stall next to hers slam open, and a figure stumble out onto the floor. Her first instinct was to scream, but when she discovered the figure’s identity through the mirror, she decided against it. She turned and greeted the high school student with a light grin. “Isn’t the legal drinking age 20?” she questioned with a playful tone. Ryoma grinned goofily, then hiccupped as he collapsed on the floor.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ryoma suddenly awoke with a start, when something cold and wet was splashed across his face. Through the film of spilt coke, he could barely distinguish the outline of Ginny, an apologetic expression on her face as she quickly wiped the stuff off his face. The detective looked around, taking a few moments to take in the familiar aroma and colors of the school clinic. A jolt of pain through his head forced Ryoma back into a supine position. His hands pressed against his temples in an effort to suppress the unbearable throbbing inside his brain.
“Relax. The less you fight it, the less it’ll hurt. You’re really lucky I found you. Besides the school nurse, the Kendo team’s captain is the only one who has the keys to this room.”
Ginny quietly shut the only door to the small room, and returned to a struggling Ryoma’s bedside.
“Your body seems to be reacting really well. It’s only been half an hour since I found you downstairs, and it seems you’re perfectly fine. Looks like you’ll be recovering in no ti….” The ‘nurse’ was cut off mid-sentence as her patient jerked his torso over the side of the metal-framed bed, and spat blood from his mouth. She rushed to his aid, and it took several minutes for him to stop coughing up somatic fluids. As soon as he was relaxed, he turned his head to Ginny.
“Give Saitou this,“ he said as he pulled his notebook from his breast pocket, “tell him to finish the investigation, will you?” Ryoma’s sarcastic attitude didn’t seem to be affected by his condition, “I need to get home so my parents don’t find my report card in the mail.” Ginny chuckled slightly at the comment, nodded, and slipped the notebook into her own pocket. As she turned to leave, Ryoma interrupted, “Oh yeah, and another thing. Don’t let him know I’m here. If he comes here and measures my BAC, I’m not gonna get out of this one without a mountain load of citations to fill out.” Ginny nodded again, and quietly slipped out into the empty hall.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Saitou keiji had just emerged from the interrogation room, when Ginny ran into him full force, knocking both to the floor, Ginny on top of Saitou. Ginny apologetically looked up at the inspector, blushing slightly at the awkward moment.
“You alright, miss?” he asked as his strong hand pulled Ginny back to her feet.
“Yes, I’m fine…” Her voice trailed off as she gazed into Saitou’s face. It had been the first time she had seen him so close, and his beautiful visage and muscular build were almost mesmerizing.
It nearly made her forget her original purpose here.
Broken from her trance, she yanked the notebook from her shirt, and offered it to Saitou. “Edanoshi keibu wanted me to give you this.”
Accepting the slightly worn book, he flipped through it, scanning through Ryoma’s investigation notes. With a warm smile, he turned to Ginny once again, thanking her in his deep baritone voice. With a quick salute, he excused himself from her presence, and ran two doors down into the tape-strewn chemistry lab.
Ginny stood in place for a minute before coming out of her trace for the second time, after which she walked aimlessly down the other fork of the hallway, completely forgetting about her ‘patient’ in the clinic.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Saitou flipped open Ryoma’s notebook, and reviewed Ryoma’s work. After leafing through five or so pages, he temporarily closed the book, and began scouring the room once again.
Inspector Saitou strolled to the rear of the room. Much of the water had been wiped from the floor, and the electricity had returned to the room. He flipped on the lights near the door, and continued to the prep room door. Past it was an almost-closed fume hood, with little more than a small puddle of extinguisher chemical inside, and underneath was an overturned trash can, and garbage.
Saitou took a step towards the hood, and heard the crunch of plastic. Quickly displacing his foot and picking up the object, he noticed it was a broken CD player. It appeared slightly burned, which was no surprise as it was quite apparent that the player had shorted out (and therefore thrown out).
He tossed the player to its place on the floor, as he walked down the small aisle in the back, past open cabinets and stacks of books. At the end of the aisle of tables and walls was the only window to the room, from which he could see a fuming Kuwabara Kazuma stomping around the courtyard. Turning away, he moved towards Urameshi Yusuke’s former desk. The water from the sprinklers had washed much of the blood away, and the chalk outline was now barely noticeable on the still moist desk.
Saitou looked upwards at the fire extinguisher system. A silver ventilation grate was placed directly over that desk, and another and two sprinklers also lay over other seats. A swift glace at Ryoma’s scratchy layered blueprint of the room revealed the other seats over which the system was placed to be that of Minamino Shuichi and Kuwabara Kazuma. Hatanaka Hiei’s desk was the one under the other vent.
The tall policeman took several steps to the professor’s podium, when a glint of light caught his eye. Saitou rushed over to Kuwabara’s desk, elevated himself on it, and placed his hand between the circular sprinkler nozzle and the Styrofoam-tiled ceiling. A light grin appeared on his face as the hand procured a long line of fishing wire, which had been tangled around the sprinkler’s thin shaft. Another flash of light caught his attention, and he repeated his actions, this time on the ventilation grate above Urameshi’s desk. He found a small bit of the same wiring as before, as well as a thin scratch mark, where metal had contacted the shaft opening.
As he silently hopped off the desk, Saitou flipped open his own notebook, to a page where he had listed where each of the class’ students had been after school the day before. Four of those students were in the building, according to the list. Minamino Shuichi was in his biology club until 5:00 in the greenhouse next door. Kuwabara Kazuma was at a baseball practice on the field outside from 3:00 to 6:00. Ginny Seta had a kendo meet from 3:15 to 5:30. Hatanaka Hiei was here until 4:00. A smile came across Saitou Eiji’s lips as he came to a quaint realization.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Ginny were being escorted out of the school with the rest of the students of their chemistry class, an hour late.
Kurama was discussing the aftermath of the incident with his friends, “Urameshi kun’s funeral has been planned for Monday of next week. School’s cancelled until then…”
He was suddenly interrupted the secretary’s booming voice over the loudspeaker. “Ginny Seta, Kuwabara Kazuma, Hatanaka Hiei, and Minamino Shuichi, please report to Chemistry Room 602. I repeat.” The entire gang took a quick look at each other, and immediately began a dash towards the room in which the murder had taken place.
Kuwabara yelled out over the sounds of footsteps, “What is it now!?! Why the hell do they want us there?!”
Kurama shouted a reply, “Keep your cool! We’ll find out when we get there!”
Indeed they did, for as soon as the four reached the room, they met face-to-face with inspector Saitou Eiji of the Tokyo police department and four escorts in riot gear.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” he began. “As you all know quite well, a murder has taken place in this very classroom…”
Kuwabara yelled in an angry interruption, “Yeah, one that you did nothing about! Why the hell did you call us in here, anyway?” Kurama and Hiei put scowls on both of their faces, visibly supporting Kuwabara’s opinion of the matter.
Saitou resumed his monologue, “…and though contrary to the opinions of some others,” he emphasized as he glared towards Kuwabara, “we may very well have solved this little mystery.”
“Cut the crap, bastard,” growled Hiei. “Tell us who the killer is.”
“I’ll tell you this much for now. The murderer is amongst you four.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Saitou nodded to his escorts, who moved to block off the only exit to the room. He then began his piece-by-piece explanation of the day’s happenings.
“First, allow me to explain exactly how Urameshi Yusuke was killed.” He proceeded to Yusuke’s desk, as the others followed. “Urameshi Yusuke was impaled through the heart with a drafting knife. The question is how the knife actually got there without anyone nearing the victim’s desk.”
“That’s right,” said Ginny, “Even if someone did throw the knife, how could they have accurately punctured his heart, much less thrown it with enough force to do it?”
The inspector answered the question with a sagacious expression. “You’re thinking in the wrong terms. No one had that knife in their hand for at least 12 hours.”
The four students’ faces showed extreme enpuzzlement. Kurama turned to Saitou, and began, “then how…”
“Simple. The knife fell from the ceiling.”
“What?!?” the students cried out in unison.
“You heard correctly,” continued the inspector, now standing on a chair, reaching for the vent above Urameshi’s desk. “The murderer had the knife concealed in this shaft, and when the designated time came, it fell through this grate, and into the victim’s back.” Saitou pulled the grate out, and turned its side towards the four. “See the thickness of the spacing between the plates? You could easily stick the blade through here, and still be invisible from viewers below.”
“But how did the killer get it to fall?” Inquired Kurama. “I don’t see anything up that shaft that shouldn’t be there.”
“Of course not. The evidence is wrapped around that sprinkler there, over Kuwabara Kazuma’s desk.” As he spoke, he unraveled the thin string from the ceiling. “You see, the murderer had tangled this string around this sprinkler, and into that shaft. On the other end of this line was the kinfe used to kill Urameshi Yusuke. Basically, it was set up so that when the fire alarm was activated and the sprinklers turned on, the knife would fall off of the fishing line, and into the hapless victim.”
Kuwabara took his turn at interrupting then, “Wait, how the hell did the killer turn on the fire alarm without getting out of his damn seat? And how did the knife fall into Urameshi’s back? From there, it’d just land on his desk!”
“Simple. Let me ask you a question. How would you respond if a fire broke out during class?”
Kuwabara answered with a tone of annoyance in his voice. “I’d get out of my desk.”
“And, how would you do that?”
The orange-haired student nearly broke out in a rage, but somehow kept his composure. “I’d push my chair backwards with my ass, lean forward, and stand up! How the hell else would you get out of these desks?”
Saitou’s attitude went from that of pretentious mockery to honest disappointment. “Idiot. You haven’t noticed yet?” replied Saitou coldly, to Kuwabara. “You just said it yourself.” Saitou waited a few moments as the foursome’s brains began functioning again. “That’s right. Urameshi tried to get out of his seat, and leaned forward. In this position, it’s impossible to see the knife regardless of whether there’s light or not, and with the restrictive construction of these desks, dodging the projectile would be impossible, even if he did see it coming down at him.” Saitou took a deep breath, replaced the grate, and began walking to the back of the room.
“…Now, about your other senseless question. The fire alarm was tripped by this.” He proceeded to the trash can, and pulled from it the CD player. “This CD player was rigged to short and produce enough heat so that the thermal sensor would detect it. The whirring noise that Edanoshi reported in his notes was this fume hood,” said Saitou as he pointed to the glass window in the wall.
Kuwabara’s facial expression showed that he now seemed to understand the setup. “So that’s why the hood was on. It would suck in the smoke from the fire, so that no one’d notice!”
Saitou turned to the group once more, moving towards the center of the congregation, hands in his pockets, “Exactly. There’s one thing I should do, however, before I continue.” With that, he swiftly removed his handcuffs from the inside of his trench coat, and slapped the steel rings on the wrists of Meiou High’s #1 student. “Minamino Shuichi. You are under arrest for the murder of Urameshi Yusuke.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ryoma ran up the stairwell three doors from the chemistry room, his sneakers creating a reverberating beat against the stone steps. His head felt good enough to rejoin the investigation with Saitou, and he looked forward to using his handcuffs for the first time. Upon reaching the heavy double doors leading to the science wing hallway, however, the simple, optimistic expression on his face slowly faded into that of total seriousness.
Three rooms down the long, empty corridor, an explosion blew a chemistry room door into the hall. Out of the now empty doorway emerged a slightly bruised Kurama, the disconnected rings of Saitou’s handcuffs still on his wrists, and vines covering his right arm. Ryoma simply watched as the red-haired man make a mad dash for the other stairwell. Kuwabara Kazuma, Ginny Seta, and Saitou Eiji tailed him in hot pursuit.
Seeing that he didn’t have the stamina to catch the group, Ryoma turned to the staircase he just ascended, and jumped over the handrail onto the lower floor. According to calculation, as he burst through the doorway from the stairwell, the group ran right past him. Saitou briefed his superior officer of the situation as they chased Kurama down yet another hallway.
“The bastard escaped the second Hatanaka came in through the door! Careful, Edanoshi. He took down all of the riot control officers and Hatanaka in the blink of an eye!”
By the time Saitou finished speaking, the group had cornered Kurama in a large, almost empty room, completely unfurnished and portions of the walls and ceiling covered by tarps. Kurama was facing the rest of the assembly face-to-face, in a combat stance. Kuwabara and Ginny desperately yelled out to their friend to not worsen the situation, while Saitou, expecting the worst, drew a small katana from the inside of his trench coat.
Without a word or warning, the growing on Kurama’s sleeve burst forward, and took an off-guard Kuwabara off his feet and out a window. Ginny picked up a thin metal pipe that was littering the floor, and used it to guard herself against the oncoming barrage of tentacles. Saitou leapt towards the plant controller, hacking away portions of the plant, and almost taking off Kurama’s right arm. Swiftly dodging the blow, Kurama used his free hand to conjure up a grass sword and engaged Saitou in a direct blade-to-blade melee.
A steady stream of slashes from both the detective and the student kept Ginny and Ryoma from nearing the two. Saitou’s katana eventually met Kurama’s shoulder, putting a shallow cut into his flesh. The red-haired student used the opening to his advantage by knocking Saitou into the rear wall with a quick strike from his tentacle plant. Saitou instantly dropped his weapon and grabbed the broken right arm that had impacted the steel beam particularly badly.
Grinning in an evil manner, Kurama turned towards the remaining two. Knowing that Ryoma would not be able to stand up against a drawn out close-range battle with Kurama, Saitou reached down to his belt to draw his revolver, when he found that it wasn’t there. He quickly looked over to Ryoma, who had somehow pick pocketed the gun from Saitou, and now had the barrel of it pointed directly at Kurama.
Ryoma unleashed the entire cylinder load of the gun in Kurama’s direction. A few stray bullets had hit the plaster covering behind him, concealing the scene in a smoky white cloud. Ginny used the moment to help splint Saitou’s shattered forearm, while Ryoma drew his still-to-be-used handcuffs, ready to take in the resistive Kurama. When he reached the settling dust cloud, however, Ryoma suddenly felt a sharp blade graze his abdomen. The young detective fell backwards, clutching the clean gash across his stomach. Kurama’s figure slowly appeared over the Ryoma, unscathed.
Smirking devilishly at a struggling Ryoma, Kurama summoned the branch of a tree from outside, and smashed the large glass window panel near Saitou. He then made a dash for the open window, easily dodging Ginny’s desperate lunge at him with her steel pipe. Kurama jumped to the windowsill, preparing to outrun the swarm of riot officers that had surrounded the building, when a metallic click caught his sharp ears. Before he could glance back to determine the precise source of the noise, bullets scraped through both of his arms, legs, and chest. Shocked by the complete surprise attack, Kurama looked back with wide eyes, to see Ryoma, still moving, Saitou’s empty revolver in hand. As Kurama spat blood and fell forward on his face, Ryoma tossed his handcuffs to Saitou with a bloody smile and made a quaint remark before he joined his victim on the floor.
”Use my transceiver to call an ambulance, Seta san… The chief’s not gonna like it if he hears I killed two people…”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Two weeks later, a policeman in casual clothing and three students in Meiou High School uniform approached Ryoma in the library. The bushy haired student didn’t even look up from his head-down position as the four sat down in front of him. Ryoma spoke out, nonetheless.
“How’s the suspect doing?”
Saitou shifted his position in his chair before answering.
“No sentence yet, his plea of insanity might tell you something.”
“…Which means you haven’t had a chance for interrogation just yet. Ah well…”
Ryoma finally put his book down and leant back on his chair.
“By the way, Kuwabara, how’re your injuries?”
“Okay, I guess,” The tall student unzipped his jacket and showed the shorter one the cast wrapped around his shoulder and chest, “Three broken ribs takes a while to heal.”
“And you, Seta san?”
Ginny put up her hands in a gesture signaling that she had emerged from the scene untouched. Surprisingly relieved, Ryoma just nodded a response. Ryoma suddenly turned back to his coworker.
“Oh yeah, Saitou. You never told me how you figured out who the actual murderer was. I’m pretty surprised you got it at all.”
Saitou quickly wiped off the smug look on his face. “It was simple process of elimination. The most obviously innocent is Kuwabara Kazuma. The trick used was incredibly elaborate, yet the evidence remained right over his desk. If he was the one who set up the contraption, he wouldn’t have missed such a simple flaw.”
The detective turned to Hiei.
“And Hatanaka is clearly out as well. Not only did he rouse suspicion by not appearing for interrogation, but he was also reported to be in the very room the day before. For someone who chose such an elaborate plan, his actions are completely illogical.”
Hiei let out a mere “hn”, and leant back on his chair. Saitou then turned to Ginny, and paused for a moment as they exchanged smiles. Ryoma, Kuwabara, and Hiei looked on with disinterest. Saitou eventually broke his gaze, and resumed his explanation.
“Now, this leaves Minamino and Seta san as suspects. The setup the suspect used leaves an easy-to-spot mark, which anyone can find if they look hard enough. So it’s logical to believe that the one who set it up would come back to the scene to retrieve the evidence as soon as possible.”
Ryoma, reassured that his partner was competent, let a smile appear on his face.
“Good. You figured out why my interrogation of Minamino was in the beginning of my notes.”
Kuwabara put in his bit, “It’s amazing, though. How was Ku… err… Minamino planning to get all of this past the police? Even if he could fool the police, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from being suspected.”
Ryoma turned in Kuwabara’s direction, and pulled a plastic bag containing a silver bottle and a folded piece of stationary out of his pocket.
Kuwabara made a swift grab for the bag, though Ryoma’s faster reflexes pulled it out of his reach in time. “Hey, you should be thanking me. I had your bottle checked for toxins. Turns out it tested positive for hydrocyanic acid. There was about 300mgs of it in there. Enough to kill two grown men if induced orally.”
“Hydro-what?” Kuwabara said, a puzzled expression on his face.
“To put it simply, if I hadn’t taken the canteen from you, you would have been dead in less than two seconds,” Ryoma continued. “This paper in here is a written confession of the murder’s doings, written and signed in your handwriting.”
Ginny’s face lit up with understanding. “Ah! I see it now! Minamino san was going to make it seem as if Kuwabara san had killed Yusuke and committed suicide to escape the police.” Ryoma nodded in response, and put the bag down next to him. The enthusiasm apparent on Ginny’s face quickly changed to one of concern. “Edanoshi san? Didn’t YOU take a drink from that bottle?”
Ryoma simply nodded, as everyone stared blankly at him as if they were looking at a ghost. “Not to worry. My body’s used to all kinds of injuries and whatnot. I’m pretty much immune to every household poisonous substance in the country.“
Saitou turned away from Ryoma to explain that he had been at Mushiyori city when Sensui’s men were there. As soon as Kuwabara and Hiei heard that, they made a motion to quickly back away from where Ryoma was sitting. Ryoma laughed at the two’s reactions. Ginny remained seated, though extremely puzzled.
“Relax. My territory abilities aren’t very powerful. It’s called ‘Trigger’. I can control any piece of machinery of a certain degree of complexity as long as it’s within 30 meters of my body.”
Reassured, the two slowly sat back down into their seats. The two remained uneasy, because of either the bad memories of the Sensui incident, or because of the live demonstration he had performed on Kurama. They didn’t need to worry for long, though, as the end-of-class bell rang, and Ryoma grabbed his books and filed out of the library with the rest of his classmates. “Saitou keiji,” he started as he walked through the doorway, “tell the chief that I’m taking a week’s worth of personal days off.” Satiou stood up to stop him, but quickly lost sight of the boy in the crowded halls of the school. Instead of continuing his pursuit, he walked back into the almost-empty library, and regrouped with Kuwabara, Hiei, and Ginny.
The four began to follow Saitou to the exit, but Hiei seemed to have noticed that something was amiss, and stopped the group. “Kuwabara. Your pants. Police guy. You too.” Noticing Hiei’s bit of warning, Saitou and Kuwabara stuck their hands inside their pants pockets, both finding that their pockets had been completely emptied.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ryoma casually strolled to his Calculus class, whistling softly as he stepped. He reached into shirt pocket, and checked to see if the two wallets and keys were still there. “One week should be enough for him to cool down,” he said to himself, as he shifted the weight of the textbooks in his hands. Ryoma let out a sigh. His attention turned away from his work life to his school life. he sat down in a cold, metal seat in his vacant math class. “30 days until summer vacation. It’s gonna be the longest month of my life…”
Fin (as long as I don’t make a series out of this)