Wooo! I've FINALLY gotten another idea for a DDS fic! Surprised by my sudden return? After "Pluto Returns" I didn't really expect to be back in the fan fiction writing business for a while, but ANYWAY! I better get started before I lose my idea!

EDIT: February 7, 2006:

In reply to some recent reviewers, and some old ones from a long time ago, I really will have to admit that this story was a disappointment to me. it was my miserable attempt at a one-shot, but I've tried editing the story a little, mostly on the part of the murderer. I doubt that anyone of you would want to read it again, but I tried. This story was first made when I was in a big rush.

If you all don't mind, Shizuko is still in this story. Don't mind? Then here we go!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.

A Party to Die For

by Rhapsodizing Riyoko

The night had come. The moon's pale face hid behind wisps of cloud that hung low in the dark sky.

While lights in several homes and residences had gone out, indicating the peaceful slumber of its occupants, another part of the city was obviously not going to sleep for quite a while.

The clock ticked closer to midnight as deafening music blared in "The Purple Pear", a popular bar and nightclub.

Ryuu stared around the club suspiciously, walking through the crowd dancing on the floor.

Shizuko gave him a look from across the room, and he nodded.

Multicolored lights flashed on and off, fading into neon shades and fluorescent tints.

Kyu and Meg looked at each other from opposite sides of the disco.

Kinta was sitting at the bar, swirling a soda can in his hand and looking at his DDS classmates.

Ryuu was in the middle of the dance floor, not really moving, but not exactly standing still, either.

Several girls at a table were ogling him, their sighs barely audible over the cacophony of people dancing, laughing, and the blaring tones of the music playing.

Shizuko made her way towards him and asked, "Seen anything suspicious?"
Ryuu shook his head. "Nothing significant has happened. I don't like it."

"Neither do I," she replied, fiddling with the collar of her sleeveless button-down. Her fair skin and the white fabric of her blouse glowed pinkish purple in the black light that passed over them.

Ryuu adjusted the cuff of his long-sleeved black polo shirt. "Do you think the tip that DDS got was valid?"

Shizuko shrugged, and looked over at Meg and Kyu, who were "patrolling" the other parts of the place.

Earlier that morning, Principal Dan had called Class Q in for another case.

"There have been a number of mysterious murders that have been going on for the past few days," said Mr. Dan, after showing them various crime scene photos of male and female adults, each of which had been killed in different ways.

A woman in a photo seemed to have died of strangulation, judging from the way the camera zoomed in on several bruises on her neck.

A man looked as though he'd been hit numerous times, blood was pouring from his nose and several contusions on his cheekbone and jaw line confirmed this.

"The murderer doesn't seem to use the same method twice," Ryuu had remarked.

"We have a serial killer on our hands, Class Q," said Principal Dan, turning to them.

"These victims were found near places usually populated late at night. Nightclubs, bars, restaurants. The police are baffled, and tips they seem to get before the murders happen have proved useless. They arrive in the right place, at the right time, but a murder happens right under their noses and the killer gets away, leaving a dead body in his wake."

"They've turned to DDS for this, and now, Class Q, I want you to go and take on this case. The police have told us of another tip they got. The killer will be targeting this club called 'The Purple Pear' this evening. Keep your eyes open for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary."

"Kazuma, we've made arrangements for you to stay in the surveillance room where you can keep an eye on everything. The rest of you, you will go into the club undercover as partygoers. Find this killer before the night is done. Class Q, are you ready?"

Well, their job was just beginning.

Kyu began looking over the people in the bar. No one seemed suspicious at the moment. He sneaked a glance at Meg, who looked exceptionally good tonight. He watched with a grin as she turned down dances from several guys.

He saw as she noticed him watching her, and he grinned, trying to keep the atmosphere light. For some reason, she blushed a little and smiled back at him.

He turned his attention back to the dance floor, where Ryuu and Shizuko were crossing paths.

The lights suddenly went out, enveloping them all in darkness. The music, which had been blaring with a chewy bass, stopped with an unpleasant sort of squeak.

"What's the big idea!" someone yelled.

"Turn the lights back on!"

"What happened to the music?"

Ryuu grabbed for Shizuko's wrist before they became separated.

A strange noise was heard, and then, a scream.

Ryuu tightened his grip on her wrist.

The lights came back on.
A man in his twenties was lying facedown in the floor, blood blossoming from a wound in his back.

He was dead.

Ryuu and Shizuko stared at the corpse, which was illuminated in full detail by the harsh lights.

More people screamed and tried to rush out the door, but security stopped them.

Meg closed her eyes to shut out the scene, and Kyu could only gape at the body.

Kyu placed a hand on Meg's shoulder. "Let's go," he said. Meg nodded nervously, and they both ran to the dance floor where the commotion was happening.

Kinta got off the bar stool and joined his classmates.

He yelled, "All right, nobody moves, and nobody even think of getting out! There's been a murder here!"

"Who do you think you are!" asked a boy incredulously.

The five young detectives fished out their DDS notebooks.

"We're from DDS!" said Kyu.

A hush fell over the throng.

"A serial killer has been going around for the past few nights," Kyu began, putting away his DDS notebook. "DDS received a tip that this place would be the next target. Turns out the tip was right."

Ryuu was inspecting the dead body. He took his hands away from the victim's neck. "He's dead all right. The victim was stabbed. But the murder weapon is missing."

Shizuko stood in front of the crowd, taking a look at the people standing closest to the victim. She caught sight of something. Pointing at a girl, she asked, "What's that on your jacket?"

"My jacket?" the girl asked, looking down at herself.

There was a bright red stain on the fabric. It looked horribly like…

"Blood," said Shizuko.

"Oh ewww," said the girl.

"Do you mind taking off that jacket. I'll need it," said Shizuko.

"Sure, take it," said the girl, taking it off. "I don't want it anymore."

Shizuko motioned to Meg. "Does it look like a blood spatter to you? No, right?"

"No," replied Meg. "The stain looks more like the blood was wiped on it." She turned to the girl. "After the lights went out, I heard a scream. Was it you?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. I felt something tug at my clothes, so I thought there was a pervert or something…"

"So the killer used the girl's jacket to wipe the victim's blood off the knife. But why would he need to do that?"

"I'd guess that it was because he planned to put it away or hide it," said Ryuu thoughtfully. "Since the knife isn't here, I'd say that wiping the blood off would make it even easier to conceal the weapon somewhere."

"That'd incriminate everyone here," said Kyu. "I guess we have no choice…"

"All right," said Kinta. "Nobody leaves this bar until the killer is caught!"

Complaints began pouring in from all directions.

"I've got a curfew approaching!"

"This is crap! We don't have to stay here!"

"You're saying one of us killed this guy!"

"No fair! I didn't even do anything!"

"Everyone, please settle down," said Ryuu in a calm voice. "This is serious. A man has just been killed, and while we know that most of you had nothing to do with this, we'd like all of you to cooperate. The sooner that all of you assist us, the sooner you get out. Is that fine?"

A few grumbles were heard, but in the end, the crowd fell silent.

The DDS students looked at each other. Ryuu may have gotten the crowd to settle down, but it didn't change the fact that they had a time limit to beat. This case had to be solved…fast.

Kyu looked towards one of the video surveillance cameras in a corner of the room. "Maybe Kazuma can tell us something."

"Sorry, you guys, but when the lights went out, nothing showed up on the cameras," said Kazuma moments later in the surveillance room.

"You mean you don't have anything for us?" said Kyu disappointedly, slumping.

"Well, all I can say is that the lights and some of the electronics down there in the bar were tampered with. They were rigged to go off like that. I checked it out as soon as I saw everything go out."

"But what about the murder? Anything you can think of?" asked Meg.

"No, sorry, I can't get the tape to show the actual killing, but maybe there's another way to figure this out," said Kazuma, typing a bunch of characters into his laptop.

Several windows popped up on his computer, each one showing a different video.

"These are surveillance tapes from the places that the past killings occurred," explained Kazuma, continuing to type. A map of Tokyo appeared on his screen, this time. "As you can see, the different locations are situated quite a distance from each other. No one could possibly be at all three locations without an ulterior motive, so…"

"So all we have to do is to find someone who occurs at all three places," said Ryuu.

"Right," said Kazuma. "I've got the tapes from the day of the killings."

"How'd you get those?" asked Kinta, squinting even further at the videos running on the laptop.

"Miracle of technology!" said Kazuma proudly. "I'll just run one of my programs to scan for someone who appears in all the videos…"

The windows began flashing, zooming in on a man who seemed to be in his late twenties. Several other shots of the same man appeared in the other windows.

"There we go! He's in all the tapes!" said Kazuma triumphantly.

"I saw that man in the bar!" said Meg.

"We've got him," said Kinta.

"His name's Natsuo Kobayashi. He's been in and out of trouble with the law for a few years now. Mostly for minor offenses, but he was recently released some months ago," said Kazuma. "I just ran a search on him, he's a pretty bad guy."
Kazuma began typing again, and moments later, pulled up the guy's police record.

"His offenses were considered random acts of violence before. he's been getting off easy with police because he has a disorder of some sort. His last release, a few months ago, was on the grounds that he had been 'rehabilitated' and 'was ready to be part of the society', according to his psychiatrist.

"Another weird detail about him is that he's got this thing for glasswork. There used to be an exhibit of his in the local museum a few weeks ago. Sometime before his dealings with the law. I've got a feeling something happened sometime in between his arrests and his old life."

"Glasswork. That's a pretty weird hobby," said Kyu.

"Well, not really, according to this old news article on him, he was gifted at it and would have been, what, the Michaelangelo of glasswork if he hadn't gone insane..."

"He's insane?" asked Shizuko incredulously.

"Weeeell, there's no other explanation," said Kazuma embarrassedly.

"All things considered, he sounds like our man," said Kinta.

"Well, all my research points that way…."

"Kazuma, what was his last offense the last time he was arrested?" asked Ryuu.

"Acts of violence and some major anger management issues. At least that's what this article suggests. The news said that he began strangling a random clerk. Police had top come and restrain him. when they asked the clerk what he'd done to make Kobayashi mad, the clerk said that all he'd done was play some music on his little radio."

"Now that's really weird," said Kyu.

"I wonder if music has an effect on him," said Ryuu thoughtfully.

"A bad effect," said Shizuko.

"Well, whatever this guy's problem is, we've got to close in on him before he gets away again," said Kinta, running out of the room and motioning for Kyu, Meg, Ryuu and Shizuko to follow him.

"Last I saw, he was pretty close to the door," said Meg. "We have to stop him."

"Right!" said Kyu, Ryuu and Kinta.

They re-entered the club's dance floor and went straight for their suspect, who was standing in a corner, doing a very bad job of trying to look inconspicuous.

"Natsuo Kobayashi?" asked Kinta, stepping up to the guy.

"Who's asking?" the man replied, scowling.

"You're going to have to come with us. The person who has been going around murdering people, the serial killer…"—Kyu raised a finger dramatically—"…is you!"

The man swore under his breath. "Outta my way!" he yelled, pushing Kyu and Kinta hard before they could react.

The two teens fell over. Their susoect quickly made for the back of the club.

Ryuu and Shizuko immediately gave chase while Kinta and Kyu recovered.

"Kyu!" Meg cried. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Kyu.

"I'm going after him!" said Kinta, getting up.

Kyu grabbed his arm. "No, wait! I've got an idea."

"Why do they always run?" said Shizuko as she and Ryuu gained on the escapee.

Kobayashi burst into the kitchen, startling a couple of cooks out of their wits. As he tore through the place, he dumped a couple of things into his pursuers' path. Ryuu had to sidestep a couple of pans and jump over a pot of rice to maintain the distance between them and the criminal.

The felon kicked the back door of the kitchen open and ran out into the alleyway. He looked back to see if the two teens were still on his tail.

As he turned back to the path in front of him, the butt of a large metal garbage can connected with his face, knocking him into a nearby wall with stars winking in front of his eyes.

Kinta raised the trash bin over his head in victory. "Tooyama-style knockout! Kintarou Tooyama does it again!" he cried, doing a strange little wardance to whoop over his triumph.

"All right!" said Kyu behind him, joining Kinta in the victory dancing. They linked arms and jumped around, looking altogether ridiculous.

Ryuu and Shizuko stared at the childish display that Kinta and Kyu were performing. The tiniest hint of a smile played across Ryuu's lips, and Shizuko fought to keep a straight face as she tried not to laugh.

Meg, who had appeared behind the two comedians, burst into giggles.

Moments later, Kinta was dragging the half-conscious guy into the bar and dumped him roughly into a chair. "All right, talk," he said. "Where'd you stash the knife you used?"

An evil smile crossed their captive's face. It made Ryuu uneasy. What's he planning? He thought.

As the guy began laughing his head off, it confirmed all of Ryuu's worst suspicions.

"So! You need it, don't you?" said Kobayashi, with a sinister grin. "You accuse me of a serious charge, but now, you ask where I put the weapon?"

"Now, why would I tell you that?"

Kinta was about to lose his temper. "We caught you fair and square, so you'd better give us some answers, you miserable piece of—"

"True, true, but you can't prove this without the murder weapon you claim I used," answered Kobayashi with a maniacal laugh.

The DDS students froze. He was right. All the proof they had against this guy was that he had been at the past locations of the murders. There wasn't any concrete evidence of him being a killer.

Or worse, Ryuu thought, If this case is brought to court, DDS could be charged with slander, and in so doing, we'd disgrace the school's name! And with us being Class Q, this would be a very serious blow to DDS.

We've got to solve this case, Kyu thought. DDS won't be happy if they hear that we wrongfully accused someone of the murders. And we can't lose our Class Q status that easily. I'm not giving up!

"Well? What's wrong? You guys are DDS, aren't you?" the guy taunted. "Can't you figure this case out?"

Kinta grunted impatiently. "This isn't over," he muttered.

He motioned to a security guard. "Can you please search this man?"

Moments later, after several rustlings of cloth and clinks of fallen change on the floor, the guard shook his head. "I'm sorry sir. I couldn't find anything."

Kinta heaved a heavy sigh. "That's okay."

Kyu motioned to the others for a conference.

"What can we do? He seems to have made the knife vanish into thin air," said Meg.

"We have to find that knife he used. It's our best chance," said Ryuu.

"He can't have stashed it too far away from where he was standing," reasoned Shizuko.

"Right," said Kyu. "There has to be someplace nearby that was easily accessible, and he could stash it there in the commotion."

"Meg, do you remember anything about this guy before the lights went out? Did you notice him at all, and the stuff he had at the time?"

"Sure. I saw him at a table close to where the murder occurred. He had an empty glass in his hand, most likely he'd been drinking. At the table next to him was a full water pitcher. After I saw that, the lights went out."

"Where there any garbage cans nearby or waste bins where he could have dumped the knife?" asked Kyu.

"No, nothing."

"What about the girl with the bloodstained jacket?" asked Shizuko.

"She was only a short distance away. I guess he wiped the victim's blood off in a hurry."

"There's no way he could have gotten rid of that knife that fast," said Kinta, thinking for once. "He's got to have used some kind of trick."

"That's possible," said Kyu. "But still, I wonder, maybe when Ryuu and Shizuko ran after him, he dropped the knife on purpose somewhere in the kitchen. With the blood wiped off and gone, it wouldn't raise suspicion at all. Knives are found in kitchens all the time, and it's going to take a photographic memory like Meg's to notice a different knife among the rest."

"Yes, that's possible," said Ryuu, thinking. "He threw plenty of things in our path in an attempt to slow us down. We never would have noticed a knife if he dropped it there."

"Yeah, exactly," said Kyu. "But we have to let all the people in this club go, and keep the guy here. Handcuff him to a chair or something…"

"Got it," said Kinta, going off to tell the security guard.

Several minutes later, the bar was now empty, save for the five DDS students, the criminal, the guard, the bartender, and the cooks in the kitchen.

The tables hadn't been touched or cleaned, since the place was a crime scene. The pitcher and glass that Meg had remembered earlier with the killer were still sitting at the same table. A number of beer bottles, shot glasses, and thin-stemmed wineglasses stood aimlessly on several tables.

Kyu, Ryuu, Meg and Shizuko looked over the mess in the kitchen.

"He really made a mess of things," remarked Kyu as he stepped over some pots and pans filled with assorted spilled food.

Meg noticed a bucket filled with water. "That must be for washing," she said, pointing to it.

"Eew," said Shizuko from a corner.

Everyone else looked at her. Her hand was covered with some egg yolk and flour.

"Are you trying to turn yourself into a tempura?" Kyu teased as Shizuko made her way to the water bucket.

"Oh, ha, ha," said Shizuko sarcastically as she plunged her hand into the water. A strange expression came over her face as she felt something inside the bucket. "Huh? I thought this bucket contained only water," she said, pulling whatever it was out of the bucket.

She found herself holding a glass platter in her hands.

"Of course," said Ryuu. "Being clear, glass has a tendency to become invisible in water. You probably wouldn't notice it at first glance."

"Oh," said Shizuko, having gotten rid of the egg on her palm.

"Glass becomes invisible in water, huh?" said Kyu. "Man, wouldn't it be cool to be invisible? All the stuff you could do…"

"As long as you don't use invisibility to peek into the girl's locker room, it's fine," said Meg pointedly.

"Hey, that'd be a great idea! I—OW!"

A rather large frying pan had come crashing down onto his head, leaving a lump. "Idiot," said Meg in an annoyed tone.

Kyu suddenly fell silent.

Meg became worried. "Oh, Kyu," she said. "I'm sorry…"

"No, it's not that…it's it be…?" said Kyu, talking more to himself than to Meg.

Ryuu and Shizuko looked at Kyu expectantly. Whenever he was like this, an amazing deduction was sure to follow…

"THAT'S IT!" he cried, startling Meg. "I've got it!"

"What! You know where the weapon is!" said Meg in surprise.

"Yup!" said Kyu, grinning widely. He raised three fingers.

"There are three clues! The first is that Kazuma mentioned that he was into glasswork. The second is that the blood had to be wiped off on the girl's jacket. The third—is the glass pitcher that he was standing near."

"You mean—?" Meg began.

"Of course," said Ryuu. "The trick was so simple…"

"You're right!" said Shizuko. "I get it now…"

"Let's go!" cried Kyu, running right out of the kitchen.

"Kyu, wait!" said the three remaining teens, running after him.

They found Kyu confronting the murderer.

"That was a very clever trick you used, Mr. Kobayashi. But we figured it out in the end."

Shizuko went right for the clear glass pitcher at the table close to where their man had been sitting earlier.

"Be careful," said Meg. Shizuko nodded, dipping her gloved hand into the water. With a triumphant look, she brought her hand out of the pitcher…

…and held out a glass knife.

She set it down on the table.

Kobayashi's eyes contracted in shock.

"I'm sure that when this knife gets dry and the water in the pitcher gets analyzed, your fingerprints will be revealed and traces of the victim's blood will be in the water!" said Kyu.

"The police are on their way," said Kinta, flipping his cell phone closed. "And so is Mr. Dan."

Kyu continued to explain his deduction. "It seemed quick and clever, Mr. Kobayashi. All you had to do was make sure the lights went off at the right time. Our colleague Kazuma found evidence of tampering with the electronics in this place. When darkness fell, you stabbed the victim in the back, and wiped the blood off on someone else. Then you would slip the cleaned knife into the water where it would seem like it had vanished. You didn't expect to be caught so quickly, I bet. No one usually touches the pitchers and glasses or anything at a crime scene…

"But you would have been caught eventually. Professional forensic experts would have the authority to check every detail in this room. the knife would have been found, and the trace would have led to you anyway."

"Well, it was a good plan. Very well-thought out. It was a plan for murder. And murder…is a crime," said Ryuu.

The man kept his mouth shut.

"We heard about your disorder. Your past bouts with the law," Kyu continued. "But your life wasn't like that before, was it? You used to be a great artist with glass. That's what gave me the hint about using a glass knife to kill someone. It wouldn't be so hard for you to make one. I realized that the glass would become invisible in water when we saw it in the kitchen. You just wanted to hide the knife until everyone was released."

Kyu looked at the glass knife lying on the table. "The glass knife is remarkable. Something happened to you after that hobby, didn't it? You developed a kind of disorder—and that led to violent acts. By far, this has been the worst you've done. You have incredible talent, Mr. Kobayashi. It's just too bad that you used it for crime and for the pursuit of your own twisted amusement."

Moments later, police came to take the murderer away. After saluting the DDS students, Principal Dan himself came, looking very proud.

"Well done, Class Q. You've done it again."

"It was nothing, sir," said Kazuma, having come down from his post in the surveillance room.

"That was some pretty clever deducing," said Ms. Katagiri, who was assisting Mr. Dam.

"Well, Kyu here did most of the work," said Kinta, ruffling Kyu's spiky hair.

"Eheh…" said Kyu sheepishly.

Everyone laughed as Kyu tried to get away from Kinta's grip.

-:owari:-

Rants: Thank goodness this thing's been edited. I hated this story for being so incomplete and…well yeah, pathetic. if you take the time to read this over again, telle me what you think.

PLEASE REVIEW!