Another update! Thank goodness! –sighs-
First of all, I'd like to thank anyone who reviewed and is bothering to read my notes up here…
My life is so confusing right now. But I'll survive, as long as my pen still continues to perform its usual magic on blank sheets…
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.
And forgive me for any names you may find familiar again. I wrote some parts in a notebook, and, since I don't happen to carry around a copy of the entire list of Japanese names (that I have saved on my PC), I just wrote names I could remember. And they've stuck. Aagh.
Chapter 2: An Odd Will
After an hour or two of walking, Class Q finally reached a structure that looked like a cross between a mansion and a school building.
"Is this the music school?" asked Kinta.
"Well, this is the address, and we followed each of Mr. Dan's directions, so I guess it's safe to assume that we're here…" said Meg.
"This is some school," said Shizuko.
"Well, there are rooms for students, a big music room, and smaller practice rooms…aside from that, violinists here are supposed to be gifted," said Meg.
"Really now," said Ryuu.
"Well, let's go and see for ourselves," said Kyu excitedly. "No point in waiting out here for something to happen."
Kyu skipped ahead of them and went right for the front porch stairs, almost tripping over one step, missing the next one, and finally landing (with absolutely no grace) on the final stair.
The rest of Class Q, standing behind him, looked a bit embarrassed. (meaning: anime sweat drop)
"Heheheh." Kyu grinned sheepishly, then proceeded to knock on the door.
A young male, with dark hair and bright green eyes, opened the door a crack.
"Uh…hi?" said Kyu, slightly awkward.
The boy looked at him curiously. "Are you the detectives that DDS sent?"
"Yeah," said Kyu as the rest of his classmates stepped up to the door.
The boy opened the door wide, and they realized that he wasn't much older than they were, possibly close to Kinta's age.
"Come in. I'm Minoru. Uhm…I was the one who contacted the DDS about Fumika's death."
"You?" said Kinta, surprised.
"Yes…well, she was a close friend of mine, and I was just as shocked as anybody to hear about her death. I saw the state she was in," Minoru said, leading them down a few corridors.
"What made you contact the DDS?" asked Ryuu.
"I was sure that whatever caused her death didn't have anything to do with her playing the master's composition…I wanted to look into it myself, but since I wasn't sure where to start…so I called the DDS."
He looked at them again. "Uh, to tell you the truth, I didn't tell anyone here that I contacted you detectives for this case. Just tell them you're friends of mine."
"Why didn't you tell them that you didn't believe in the curse?" asked Kyu.
"Because they'd want a reason behind her death, which I don't even have…"
"It's probably for the best that they don't know who we really are," said Ryuu. "It can give us an advantage when we begin investigating."
"Yeah," said Shizuko.
Minoru took notice of her for the first time and saw the violin case strapped to her shoulder. "Are you a violinist?" he asked, slightly surprised.
"Yes, I am," replied Shizuko.
Minoru stared at her for a few seconds, then, as though realizing what he was doing, turned away and pointed to the door they were coming to. "That's the library. Ms. Minamoto, who's been taking care of the school for a while, says that the will is going to be read here. She's getting really impatient about it, really…"
"Why is that?" asked Meg.
"Well, for starters, the will could state the person who could be next to run this place…"
"But aren't some students here pretty young?" asked Kazuma.
"Well, if that's the case, Ms. Minamoto will have the student under her wing for a while, until the title of Maestro is passed on to them," replied Minoru.
"So is everyone here in the running for the inheritance of Maestro Maeda's violin?" asked Ryuu.
"Well, technically yes, it could be anybody. But the people in the top class are most highly favored. Even Fumika was in the running, up until her death, of course," said Minoru.
"So. If every student is in the running, then that includes you, right?" said Ryuu.
"Well, sure it does," Minoru said sheepishly. "I'm in the top class, even though I don't mean to brag or anything…"
"I see," said Shizuko.
Minoru pushed open the door and held it open for the rest of them. As Class Q entered, they were met with some strange looks. About six students were in the room, and so was a middle-aged woman.
Two out of the six students were poring over some books, and four were seated on a large leather couch.
The middle-aged woman was twiddling her thumbs, staring into space.
Minoru turned to Class Q and spoke to them in an under tone, while the other people hadn't noticed them yet. "All these students are in the top class. Some of them might seem a bit unfriendly, but, well…"
A girl with light brown hair, sitting on the couch, spoke up. "Minoru, who are all these people that you brought over?"
"Don't tell me," said a boy whose bleached hair was almost white, "You've gotten yourself an entourage?"
"Don't try to be funny, Satoshi," grinned a blond girl from the other side of the room, one of the students who was poring over a book.
"What? I wasn't trying to be funny, Yui," said Satoshi with a chuckle. "I already am. I don't need to try."
A girl with auburn hair sighed. "Now, aren't you being just a little conceited?"
"Come on, Kazumi, you know I don't really mean everything I say," said Satoshi, pretending to be hurt.
"Of course I know," muttered Kazumi incoherently. "You've told me so much stuff I wished were true…"
A boy with black hair, sitting next to Kazumi, looked at her with a mild expression. "I heard that. What did he tell you?"
Kazumi blushed a bit. "It's not important, Yamato..."
"What was that?" asked Satoshi in a slightly challenging voice.
"Nothing," said Kazumi in a clearer tone.
Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "You guys really get along, don't you?" he said with the faintest note of sarcasm in his voice.
The girl with light brown hair who spoke first grinned at him a little. "Hey, don't mind that. We do get along, usually…"
"Yeah. So anyway," said Satoshi, turning back to Minoru, "Who are these guys?"
Kyu, to everyone's embarrassment, immediately stepped forward, grinning widely. "Hi, I'm Kyu! We're just some friends of Minoru here, so…what was your name again?" He had his hand extended to Satoshi, who looked at him blankly.
Satoshi remembered his manners and shook Kyu's hand. "My name's Satoshi."
The light-haired brunette extended her hand as well. "I'm Ayame…"
Class Q had to sweatdrop as Kyu made his way among the students, who looked a bit surprised and blinked at his hyper attitude.
Meg sighed heavily. "There he goes again…"
"Well, it is what he does best after all," said Ryuu. "He gets to meet a lot of people that way…"
A male student caught Ryuu's eye, a broad-shouldered boy with a strange scar on his wrist. He was keeping himself isolated from everyone else, reading a book.
Or, at least, pretending to read. Ryuu noticed that he kept sneaking glances at the other students while feigning intense interest in the volume he was holding at an angle.
What is he up to? Ryuu wondered to himself.
Kinta, Kazuma and Shizuko lagged a bit behind the rest of the Q Class, unsure of what to do.
Suddenly a man entered the room. Although he was still quite young, a few streaks of gray were scattered among his dark brown strands. He knocked. "Excuse me?"
The middle-aged woman in the library, who had to Ms. Minamoto, said "Yes? Come in..."
The young man bowed. "I'm Mr. Sakata. I'm here to read out to you the will from Maestro Maeda…"
At these words, everyone in the room fell silent and focused their attention on the man.
Class Q looked at each other significantly and nodded.
When everyone had just about settled down, Mr. Sakata took out a piece of paper from his briefcase, and began reading.
"I, Maestro Maeda, being of sound mind and body…"
As he read on, several whispered conversations began among the students. Class Q put their heads together.
"Do you think the will is going to reveal who inherits the violin?" asked Kyu, whispering.
"Maybe. But there's a possibility that it won't be…" whispered Ryuu.
"Let's just keep listening," said Kazuma.
"…I have left the school temporarily in the hands of my close friend, Ms. Minamoto. For the time being, she is going to continue teaching all of you, my talented students. To my excellent class: Minoru, Fumika, Satoshi, Yamato, Kazumi, Ayame, Yui, Daisuke. I am grateful for having had the chance to witness your development from children to young adults…
…And now moving on to a more important matter. The inheritance of my violin. Most of you might think that it is just an ordinary thing, but it is not. I started my musical career on this violin. It has been with me all my life, and all those years have been etched on it. I have decided that whoever inherits it will gain it not as just an heirloom, but a symbol of authority and leadership in my school…"
Everyone in the room tensed, waiting to hear the words they all wanted to hear…Even Class Q waited with bated breath.
"…I will not reveal it here though."
"What?" hissed a random student to himself.
Class Q looked at each other.
I knew it, thought Kyu. I was almost positive that this wouldn't be resolved so quickly…
Mr. Sakata continued reading the will, regardless of the continuous whisperings that had broken out.
"The decision is much too important for me to reveal in such a simple manner. I have decided it about several months ago…nothing could have made me part from the decision I had made…to ensure this, I have made a second will. It must be found, within two weeks from the reading of this will. If the will is not found within that period, the authority in my school will be passed to Ms. Minamoto, and she shall take on the painful course of decision-making that I was in, to choose the best among my dear students. I acknowledge all your talents, and each one of you is unique in his or her own special way. You make us feel different emotions and affect us with your music…but there is only one violin to be inherited, and only one school to be run. Once again, two weeks, or the one who has the potential to be the best student may be lost forever."
Everyone left the library a little disappointed that day. The students were either heartbroken, annoyed, or just completely indifferent about the announcement that had been made, and the deadline that had been given.
A dark figure hung back among the students, thinking, Two weeks. Keep everyone away, and in two weeks, that violin will be mine…and so will this school.For Class Q, the two-week deadline only posed a greater challenge and an even bigger exertion on their part to finish this case.
Minoru led them down a corridor, saying, "I've made arrangements for all of you. There are a lot of rooms in this house, for students, mostly, but we've got some rooms for all of you."
They were each led into a different room, each very simply furnished, but comfortable.
Shizuko was the last to get to her room, and later that evening violin music could be heard in the corridor as she played her heart out.
The other violin students stayed in their rooms sulking. While some expressed sorrow through their violin music, other rooms remained strangely silent as they ranted in journals or something of the sort.
Little did anyone know that there was one among the population in the school who knew a secret…a secret that could very well change their lives forever…or destroy it completely.
Rants: hey, how did you find this chapter? Was it interesting? Nothing remotely terrible has happened…yet. Oh, the possibilities that could come when you're writing a mystery fic…
Oh, and once again, I hope you're not remotely shocked at some familiar names in this fic, you might have seen them lurking among some other anime. I'm sorry, even though I picked some out from a list of Japanese names; some names I used as "fill-ins" during the "formulating" stage of the fanfic seem to have stuck….
Okay, some bad news: I'm under punishment at the moment, so I won't be able to TOUCH the computer between Sunday to Thursday, the only free days I've got will be Friday and Saturday. I'm sorry, but I hope I'll still be able to update well enough….
Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW!