A/N: Fic of the month...as usual please vote if you haven't yet, also not my best work this chapter... I just couldn't come up with material for the chapter... on the bright side the Kyoto arc does have some twists and turns I have in mind...

Chapter 6: Solving the Mystery

Everyone was shocked at the dead body. Mikuru ended up fainting at the sight,

Rukia and Hinata both ran towards her.

Haruhi began to examine the body.

"It's still warm." She said.

Everyone realized that he said only just died if the body was still warm, but there were still some other things to worry about.

"Where's Negi and my sister?" asked Kyon.

"I'll look for them." Said Naruto.

"They should be in the game room." Said Itsuki.

"Make sure they don't come anywhere near here." Said Kyon.

Naruto nodded, knowing that it was better for young kids (even if one was a mage) not see the dead body.

Kyon looked right at Rukia who sighed.

She knew this conversation would happen.

They went to elsewhere in the hallway to talk.

"I don't know where his soul is." Said Rukia.

"Seriously?" asked Kyon.

"I'm sorry I can't help with it." Said Rukia.

"It's okay…" said Kyon.

Then he remembered something.

"It takes months for a soul to become a hollow." Said Rukia, "Don't worry about it."

"Seriously?" asked Kyon.

"Considering we do have to figure out who murdered him." said Rukia.

Kyon sighed.

They brought Mikuru to a bedroom, where Negi and Kyon's sister were brought to as well.

"Is something going on?" asked Negi.

"We'll explain later." Said Kyon.

He looked at Yuki.

"Don't open this door for anyone." Said Kyon.

Yuki nodded and shut the door.

"So what do we do now?" asked Naruto.

"we solve the crime of course." Said Haruhi.

"Seriously?" asked Naruto.

"We should look for Yutaka at least." Said Itsuki.

Everyone nodded and went to look around for him.

Even asking Ms. Mori who said that he left earlier.

And indeed the boat was missing. Also Mr. Arakawa refused anyone be let into the room again until police were able to arrive.

Also there was an incident where Yuki wouldn't let anyone back into the room until Kyon told her to let people into the room again.

No one was sure if it was her idea of a prank or not as it was hard to tell with her.

After this Haruhi took Kyon along to investigate outside despite the storm.

However during that time Naruto was getting anxious.

"We have to figure this out." Muttered Naruto.

"It's fine." Said Rukia, "Don't worry about it."

"Someone's dead here." Said Naruto.

"Calm down, please Naruto." Said Hinata.

"How can I calm down?" asked Naruto, "This place is not supposed to be like the hidden continent…"

"Naruto… it's fine really." Said Rukia.

"Unless something is going on and you're not telling me… then why should I believe it?" asked Naruto.

Both Rukia and Hinata avoided eye contact.

"Seriously!" yelled Naruto.

"Calm down Naruto… I'll explain what's going on. But you can't tell Haruhi." Said Itsuki.

Itsuki told him what was really going on.

"Seriously?" asked Naruto.

"I let Rukia and Hinata in because they would have found out right away." Said Itsuki.

"Seriously! You left me and Mikuru in the dark!" yelled Naruto, "I get Negi! And Yuki probably knew all along but that's not cool!"

"Well…" said Itsuki.

"Naruto… it's fine." Said Hinata.

"It doesn't feel fine…" muttered Naruto.

"I know, I know…" said Rukia, "But this is better than something like this actually happening."

"She's right." Said Itsuki.

Naruto blinked.

"Oh yeah… you don't think Haruhi would do something like that?" asked Naruto.

"Not consciously, but who knows about subconsciously." Said Rukia.

"You know how her powers work." Said Hinata.

"Yeah…" said Naruto.

"We can only do is a wait for them to come back from investigating the island." Said Rukia.

"Their still alive right?" asked Naruto.

Rukia gave him a look.

"Stupid question." Said Naruto.

Thankfully Haruhi and Kyon made it back. However Haruhi seemed to be sullen when she came while Kyon went to talk to Itsuki.

Turned out it was all fine.

Better than fine, because they had evenfall figured out that it was all staged provide a fun time for Haruhi.

Haruhi made a big show out of it while Yutaka never left (and considering there wasn't a murder it made sense he was hiding).

Mikuru was the only one confused by everything… though they did leave out Negi and Kyon's sister since well… they were intentionally kept in the dark.

And soon enough they were heading home, with Kyon talking to Itsuki about everything.

But then he remembered something else.

On the Ferry back, Kyon decided to talk to Rukia.

"So you were in on it" asked Kyon.

"Yeah." Said Rukia, "I had to be considering I would know he would be alive or not."

"Makes sense." Said Kyon.

"Itsuki also brought in Hinata since she would be able to do the same." Said Rukia.

"Wait… what?" asked Kyon.

"I don't know all the details but apparently she has a family Jutsu that gives her something like X-Ray vision." Said Rukia, "I didn't get all the details."

"Seriously?" asked Kyon.

"Yeah." Said Rukia, "We also told Naruto while you and Haruhi were out in the storm… but because he was probably going to do something."

"makes sense." Sighed Kyon.

Meanwhile Negi was looking out to the water.

"Hey is everything okay?" asked Haruhi, "It's not because we left you out of the murder mystery."

"No it's not that." Said Negi who knew why, sure he was their teacher but he was still a kid.

"Then what got you so down?" asked Haruhi.

"I'm just a little nervous about the next trip." sad Negi.

"It's just Kyoto." Said Haruhi.

Negi sighed… "I'll explain about it on the way there." He said.

He decided to talk where on the boat not wanting to tell Haruhi just yet why he was going to Kyoto.

After all if she knew about it she might subconsciously do something to effect the trip… and the trip was already pretty weird. Plus it didn't help that he had indented to go on his own originally.

Either way… soon they would be going to Kyoto, and it was not going to be easy trip for sure… especially since they didn't know what sort of threats they would be dealing with while there.

Next Time: The SOS Bridge go to Kyoto and stays with Negi's dad's friend. However something seems to be going with the mages around Kyoto. What is it? Find out next time!