(A/N) Hello! It's Ranima and yeahhh ... This, is my first fanfic ever, soo there ought to be some mistakes or jammy points (and so on), but 'll try to improve myself! At the moment, I own only three of the characters. Blaze Hawkes and Moritaka Rin and that Himura-kun ( I don't think he'll ever get a first name :P ) Wellp! Please, review of the pros and cons of this chapter! Thank you! :3
A short girl stood calmly at the airport. Fixing the hang she had from her red bag, she slightly leaned to her chubby, mid-forties mother. At first she had observed the surrounding people at the scene, but soon she looked away into the horizon.
The girl stared up the sky with her slightly heterochromatic brown eyes. She gazed to the golden sunset from the airports huge parking lot. The orange thick light caressed her bright red hair. Her pale skin had gotten a slight tan from the sun.
The flame-haired girl was a 17-year-old student, who just now moved to Japan with her small and busy family. She had moved to the country she had only thought about in her most ridiculous daydreams. She loved the food and culture the country had to offer and could already smell the slight smell of oden coming from a small shop when she had stepped out of the suffocating plane.
Her head was still in the clouds, but the heat was about to bring her down faster than the gravity. She still felt a bit too hot in her favourite white-laced blue top and her new brown shorts even though she had just changed from her gray hoodie and black college pants in the airport toilet.
Soon, the yellow airport-taxi rolled around and the father in his black business suit hurried his sleepy wife and daughter to sit inside the hot car. In no time, the family found themselves on the sturdy front door of their new western styled mansion. Nervously glancing at his expensive wristwatch, the father carried most of the luggage while his family only took their back- and handbags inside.
It was a normal sunny and warm morning of the latter days of May of school for most of the students of the Teitan High, but for Blaze Hawkes it was one of the most exciting moments ever. Or rather, one of the most horrible. She was still yet to decide, but when she noticed her classmates stared at her hair when she stepped into her new classroom she was starting to rapidly swing to the latter. Though she had even braided her long hair that morning, she still felt awkward of its bright flaming color.
"'Why does the uniform have to be blue? To bring out my hair even more?' she cursed to herself while standing there, in the front of the class.
Luckily, the color difference in her irises wasn't so obvious to notice from these distances. Blaze hated being the center of attention at times and this was one of those times.
" Okay now, class. This is the new transfer student ", started the old male-teacher and wrote her name on the board lazily.
" Yes, she is a foreigner ", a boy raised his hand near the windows, " no, you can't go to toilet, Himura-kun. You can sit next to Suzuki-kun, Hawkes-kun. Class starts now ", he said with the same monotonic, boring voice. Blaze searched the classroom for this 'Suzuki-kun' with her eyes. A girl with a short, brown and neatly combed hair waved to her in the middle of the class and pointed to the empty desk next to her.
'I bet, she's Suzuki.'
Blaze tried to listen to the teacher, but during the lesson she could feel everyone staring at her. Some with more or less friendly eyes. She felt very, very awkward and nervous.
When the lesson ended forty minutes later, Blaze had her desk surrounded with almost all of the girls of the class. All of those who were looking at her with those less friendly eyes. A few of them were touching her hair and the others bombarded her with questions, such as :
'Why did you color hair' and 'does it take long to comb such long hair' and more.. Blaze started to feel the incoming headache warningly pound in the back of her head.
" Hey girls, the next class is starting " one of the boys noted from the door and blocked the questions. Blaze sighed in relief.
' I owe that boy one', she thought gratefully when she escaped to the next subjects classroom.
' Well, sure today was a bit exhausting, but maybe tomorrow might be a bit better?' Blaze thought to herself trying to encourage herself, when the bell rang to start the time of her golden freedom. The morning had been so sunny and lovely and bright, but now it was all cloudy and cold. Just like her mood.
She packed her books into her bag with a sigh. Noticing from the corner of her eye someone walking next to her she turned her head.
"Hey Hawkes-san, where do you live? We could walk you home, since you just moved here, right? " a girl with a long, dark hair said with a smile. Suzuki and some other girl with a short, black and messy hair were standing behind her with a friendly smile too. The clouds in Blazes head swayed away quickly. Unfortunately they didn't do so outside.
" S-sure ", she said, still a bit unsure of how to answer. Blaze took her bag and joined the three to go home.
"Oh yeah, we haven't introduced ourselves properly now have we? " the one with the messy hair asked, when they were walking in the schools hallway.
" I'm Sera Masumi! Nice to meet ya!", she continued.
"She's also the best detective of our class now that Kudou's disappeared! " Suzuki said with a laugh. Blaze felt a bit tense and repeated the word :
" Disappeared?"
"Oh don't worry, he's just away for a while somewhere! Jeez, Sonoko, don't go saying such disturbing things!" the one with the long hair scolded. She then turned to Blaze and introduced the two of them.
"This is Suzuki Sonoko and I am Mouri Ran."
" Mouri? Then do you know the detective Sleeping Kogorou?" Blaze reacted to the name.
"Well, ye- ", Ran didn't have the time to end her sentence when Sonoko butted in.
"Actually that old pervert and drunkard is our Rans father!" Blaze gave a laugh to the description Sonoko gave of the renowned detective. There's no way the detective she admired would be like that, right?
"Is it true?" Blaze asked. She was awed, since she had always wanted to meet the great detective.
"True as I am! You might see him someday if you're lucky!" Masumi exclaimed with a laugh.
"Well, if it's on a crime scene, then I bet you aren't that lucky", Sonoko said and grinned when Ran hit her head.
"Well, then, where did you live again, Hawkes-san?" Ran asked her when they reached the old school gates.
"Just Blaze is fine, that's what I was called back in Britain", Blaze noted and continued, "let me see, no one will be home today, so mom told me to go to this person … " She dug her phone from her dark-blue school-bag. She opened her memo-app and read;
" My home is on the 5th Street of Beika, but this should be the address of my mothers pen-pal", she added and showed her phone.
"Yeah, we know where this is, don't we?" Ran said.
"I don't. It's a bit too far from my apartment", Masumi said, "I guess I'll be going straight home then", she continued.
"Okay, see you at school tomorrow", Sonoko waved and Ran added :
" Yeah, see you tomorrow, Sera-san!"
"Goodbye, Masumi-san", Blaze said politely and continued with the other two when Masumi continued to the opposite direction.
The girls chatted cheerfully on their way to the small apartment house near the Mouri Detective Agency. They talked about random things and to Blazes misfortune she still got bombarded with questions of the foreign lifestyle.
The sky was already starting to turn to the shades of orange through the cloudy layer when they knocked on the door of Blazes mothers friend. It was already the fifth time they had tried.
"Gee, why isn't anyone answering?" Sonoko complained with a childish tone, "it's not so late for her to go to sleep!"
"Hey, could you give this friend a call or anything? If you have that persons number?" Sonoko asked again aiming the question to Blaze.
"I need to go home soon too. I guess his starving",Ran added in and looked at the time from her phone
"Sorry, guys, for holding you up. Don't worry, I'll get a key from the office two floors down if she doesn't answer", Blaze said awkwardly.
"Sorry, Blaze-san, but I'm getting hungry. So I guess I'll be going home now", Sonoko told her good-byes and was soon joined by Ran.
Blaze sighed and read the memo again. She found a little mention of that the friends name. Moritaka Rin.
'A pretty normal name.'
She called the number her mother had left her, but it went to Rins voice-mail after a minute.
"Tch", Blaze muttered.
'It's going to be a pain getting in now.'
She dragged herself downstairs to the landlords apartment house. She knocked and when the old, wrinkly man in his pajamas opened the door she could smell the scent of tobacco from all over his home.
'Youck!'
She felt like she was interrogated forever after she had asked for the master-key. The clock was already past 6.30pm when she got back upstairs and with the help of the holy master-key, she could finally open the door to the pen-pals apartment.
It was already the time when the streets were already starting to cram up from the people going home from work.
"Hello? Uh... Moritaka-san? Moritaka Rin-san? Are you here? " Blaze called after she had locked the front door. She took off her shoes and stepped further into the tidy apartment.
"Moritaka-san? It's me Blaze. Blaze Hawkes", she tried again.
'I wonder if she's still at work.'
She walked through the apartment, but didn't open any doors since she didn't want to see anything she shouldn't so that Moritaka-san wouldn't get mad at her.
The apartment was clean and tidy though some spots were a bit messy. And ugly. She hated the dull colors of dirty red and moldy brown.
There were a lot of thick books and clothes left on the floor almost giving the house a new floor and in the kitchen sink there still were some dishes and leftovers. She had to refrain herself of throwing up when she checked inside the garbage bin.
The only door she opened, was the door to the balcony. She stood there for a minute enjoying the breeze. She couldn't see much of a scenery for she was surrounded by other tall buildings.
Blaze went to sit into the kitchen and even though she was really hungry, she couldn't eat anything because Moritaka-san might get angry. Or something. Just to be sure. It's not really fun to spend the night with a stranger who's mad at you.
So she chose the safer option; to go watch the TV.
She watched a few episodes of some boring soap-dramas, but after the third one ended, she was starting to get nervous. She glanced at the big old clock ticking loudly on the wall. It was already 7.40pm. Shouldn't the pen-pal be here already? Only my parents have work until nine or so pm.
She started to seriously feel the hunger. And the need to use the toilet.
She stood up from the ugly wine-red sofa ignoring the growls her hungry stomach sent her and began the mission of "Find the toilet ASAP".
She opened one door carefully, but it showed nothing but a utility room and a shower.
'So close, but I really want to use a real toilet.'
What was behind the next door she opened, was a bedroom with one thick mattress on the floor. Blaze supposed that Moritaka-san had put it there for her sometime earlier. Maybe yesterday or this morning? She closed the bedroom door and went to the next one.
She opened the beige door, expecting to see the holy and welcomed image of a toilet, but what she saw made her let out a high-pitched shocked scream. She saw the contents of the third room. She saw them too well.
Sure it was a normal office-room, with gray walls, a tall brown bookshelf filled with boxes (and more books), a desk and a computer on top of it. Some blue folders scattered here and there and nice rug on the floor. It was a nice, ordinary office room and almost everything fit together.
The only thing that didn't fit there was the hanged corpse in the middle of the very room hanging from the roof. The corpse of a person she had seen in a photo once before.
The corpse of Moritaka Rin.
(A/N) Well hello there. Did you like the chapter, my dear very few possible readers? :3 And sorry, it's really short :/
Oh, and the reason I'm referring to Sera with her given name Masumi, is because Blaze is a kind of a new character who doesn't really know how Ran and Sonoko refer to her. And since she calls Ran Ran and Sonoko's Sonoko, with all logic in her mind Sera Masumi is Masumi. I'll introduce the suspects in the next chapter and of course, our little chibi-detective has a small part in it. Look forward to it, review and thank you! And it might take a while since I need to edit it a bit... I'll try to be quick!
-Ranima-