Disclaimers 'n' crap: Haihai peeps! Wow, I haven't updated in forever. Well, I wasn't sure whether to put this on FictionPress or FanFic, but I decided to put it on FanFic just to be safe. There's only one character here that I don't own (Scott), but I think you'll enjoy this anyway. I wrote it for a Writing class assignment where we had to write a short mystery story. Appropriate, since we're reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Sherlock Holmes story. It takes place outside the Crystal Journeys canon (OMG) slightly, but no one'll notice except me. All the characters except for Scott and Griffin are minez0rz. You know the drill. Enjoy!

Patter patter patter patter

"BRIDGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" The half-excited, half-terrified 13-year-old Kazumi screeched to a halt in front of his approaching older sister. "You're not going to believe what happened this morning!" Bridget looked exasperated. For heaven's sake, she'd JUST gotten back to their group's run-down old base.

"What's going on?" she said.

"Duo's been murdered!" gasped Kazumi. Bridget raised an eyebrow.

"Murdered?"

"Yeah!" said Kazumi, pulling out a notebook "I've been trying to figure out who the killer is. I don't think the police took my idea seriously, though."

"I wonder why," said Bridget, under her breath. "Why don't we step in somewhere private and you can tell me what you've found out." She led Kazumi into a side room and shut the door. "Okay," she said "Shoot."

"Alright," said Kazumi, and cleared his throat. "Duo Davison. 20 years old. Found dead today at approximately 10:19 AM from multiple stabs to the chest with a sharp object confirmed later in an autopsy to be a knife. Surviving him are son, Kunoji Shakura, girlfriend and mother of son, Shinji Shakura, and father, Solo Davison."

"That sounded like a combination of a police report and a eulogy," said Bridget "Have you picked out any suspects?"

"A few people," said Kazumi, dipping out of his professional-sounding voice for a moment before resuming it again "Chosen because of their closeness with both the victim and the murder weapon. Said weapon being a knife. Suspect number one: Scott Barringer."

"Obviously," said Bridget "He always hated Duo for knocking up Shinji and, let's face it, it's not like the guy has a clean criminal record."

"Suspect number two," continued Kazumi "Shinji Shakura."

"…You're kidding, right?" said Bridget "The girl's got no motive to kill her own boyfriend. Especially when he's helping her raise a kid. Besides, what would she be doing with a knife?"

"Umm…" said Kazumi "…she likes to cook, right?" The sheepish grin didn't stay long. "Okay, moving on. Suspect number three: Griffin Johnson."

"What?" said Bridget "He and Duo were friends!"

"Yeah, but so were Caesar and Brutus, right?" said Kazumi "Besides, Griffin and Duo've had some kinda bitter blood between them lately. Actually…no, I shouldn't put it that way, but Griffin's been kinda torn in that conflict between Duo and his dad (who's Griffin's mentor so Griffin might take his side) which brings me to my last suspect: the father himself, Solo Davison."

"I can see why that would make sense," said Bridget "Duo and his dad have been at odds ever since Duo ran away from home to work on the streets. And then there's the obvious: Solo is a ninja. Silent killing is what they live for, right?" Kazumi beamed. He really felt he was doing this right. "But let me squash all your theories, little bro. First of all, Scott and Griffin couldn't have done it because they've been out of town for almost a week. Second, I know Shinji. There is no way in hell that's she'd have the guts to even think about killing anyone. Third, I don't think Solo even knows where our base is, and even if he did, he killed his son wrong. From what I understand, the classic ninja silent kill is to hang from the ceiling right behind your opponent and slit their throats. Multiple stabs to the chest? I doubt it." Kazumi was dumbfounded by now. "What did the autopsy calculate as Time of Death?" Kazumi reviewed his notes.

"About 8:49 AM," he said "Right around the time when nearly everyone's gone off to school and there'd usually be no one at the base except Duo, Shinji, and…" Kazumi froze. For once in his life, he prayed that he was horribly, awfully wrong.

"So, you've figured it out, have you?" said Bridget, sounded eerily foreboding "Yeah, I know that none of your suspects killed him, because I did." Kazumi suddenly didn't care if he was breathing anymore. "And now," said Bridget "I think you know too much."

She pulled a recently polished knife out of her back pocket.

The End

Afraid of girls, now? Mwahahaha. Yeah, in the regular Crystal Journeys, Bridget IS emotionally disturbed but never kills anyone. Also, Duo doesn't die. Since Griffin is someone I know in real life, I had to change his last name for privacy purposes.

…I REALLY need some motivation to write some more. I know some of you really miss my stuff.