YES, I'm going to try and post two chapters at once, because I love you all, plus I don't want a legion of people at my gate screaming for me to get on with my fics…
Plus I really miss making these things.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.
Chapter 7: A Deadly Performance
Class Q sat down in the music room that evening.
Apparently, not only was the music school well, a SCHOOL, it was also a bit of a theater, open at rare times for exclusive performances.
Along with Class Q in that room was Ms. Minamoto, Mr. Sakata (the lawyer who had read the will), and several other people who appeared to be publicists.
Due to the murder found earlier that day, however, the detective, now identified as Detective Yoshimura, stayed behind along with several police officers.
Kinta sighed heavily. "It'll be a weird thing if the murderer manages to slip through any of these guys."
"I know, but seeing as the killer has managed to stay at large so far, I think that the chances of another murder are high…" said Kazuma.
"Well, we have no choice now except to see what happens. We don't have much to go on," said Ryuu quietly.
"I wish we could figure this out soon…before another kill happens…" said Meg.
Kyu heaved a sigh as well. "I wish we could help more with the investigation…but we can't do that without revealing that we're DDS students…"
"Why can't we?" asked Shizuko.
"The goal is that we keep them from finding out as much as possible…" said Ryuu. "Revealing our identities would put us at risk as well even though we're not involved as much in the murders…"
"Shh, the performance is starting…" said Meg in a low tone.
The lights in the room dimmed.
Class Q, particularly Shizuko, leaned forward in their seats.
Minoru, Yui, Daisuke, Satoshi, Kazumi and Yamato sat in a small semicircle, with sheet music propped up int front of them.
Ms. Minamoto stepped forward, a conductor's baton in hand.
She raised the slender rod, and as she brought it down, the violinists began their performance.
Yui looked particularly focused on her piece; her brows were furrowed so deeply that they were in danger of becoming permanently knitted together.
The rest however, played through without much effort; or, perhaps, they were simply hiding their nerves.
After a few minutes of melodious tunes, everyone else slowed down except for Minoru, who played through a difficult solo. Shizuko watched with bated breath as he made the bow and strings meet harmoniously with every stroke.
Moments later, the entire violin class reclaimed the spotlight as they played together once again.
As they finished, Ms. Minamoto wiped a couple of beads of sweat on her forehead, then bowed along with the rest of the students.
Next came the solo performances.
Minoru, as predicted, Played "Flight of the Bumblebee", skillfully, as executed earlier in the performance.
Kazumi and Yamato performed a duet of sorts, playing the same piece. However, as a twist, they alternated between several parts of the piece. Making them seem almost completely coordinated and, most of all, in tune with one another.
It was as thought one of them knew precisely what the other was thinking, and performed to the other's expectations and pace.
Satoshi showed off his talents with a dramatic rendition of Beethoven's 5th symphony. Soon after, Yui entered with an exciting interpretation of one of Mozart's violin concertos.
Ryuu watched suspiciously, however when Daisuke stepped up to perform his piece.
Shizuko raised her eyes to the sheet music which the young violinist had in front of him. Sure enough, it was "The Nine Circles of Hell".
It looks like Minoru wasn't able to convince him after all, she thought, furrowing her brow.
Daisuke began playing.
Surprisingly, for someone who had not been heard practicing this piece, he played it quite effortlessly. Shizuko listened carefully, taking note of his form.
Meg tapped her on the shoulder. "Do you really think that this piece is cursed?"
"There's no proof," she whispered back.
Kinta leaned over to them. "Do you think that if it is cursed, Daisuke will die right after he plays it?"
"I hope not," said Kyu. "However, if he dies some time later, there's a much higher possibility that it was murder. And so are the other three."
"Shhh," said Kazuma. "It's not a time for conversation. Everyone's staring."
Slowly, the notes began ascending in pitch, raising the hairs at the back of Ryuu's neck. He shivered a little, recalling the Maestro from Hell case.
He took a deep breath and focused his attention to the performance. Daisuke was pressing on with the difficult piece. He observed how the violinist's brow wrinkled in concentration.
So far, nothing's happened. I think he's almost done, Ryuu thought to himself.
Sure enough, a few moments later, with the notes lowering in pitch, he ended the piece and bowed.
Everyone in the room clapped enthusiastically. Ms. Minamoto picked up a nearby microphone.
"Everyone, you have just witnessed the first public performance of 'The Nine Circles of Hell', a composition by the late Maestro Maeda himself. I believe that this is enough to show everyone that this piece most definitely is not cursed and that any controversial deaths involving this piece are mere coincidence and tragic accidents."
Kinta bristled. "She's just trying to veer publicity away from the deaths."
"That's obvious," said Kyu. "I think it's because she can't really have the piece published for other violinists to play if there's the fear of it being cursed…"
"Yeah, that's true…" said Meg.
"Let's take a look at how Daisuke's holding up. He's probably in his room," said Kazuma.
Class Q slipped out of the Music room and went to the students' dormitories.
They found Daisuke putting away his violin.
"Hey," said Kyu in greeting.
The young man looked up in surprise. "Hi."
"That was a great performance," complimented Meg cheerfully.
"Well, considering that I didn't have much practice at all, I expected it to be worse than usual," said Daisuke, snapping his violin case shut.
Shizuko cast about her gaze inside the room. She spotted a vase of roses at the table.
Pointing at them, she walked casually inside. "A fan sent these?"
"I don't know, honestly," said Daisuke sheepishly. "I found them in my room after the performance. There was no card, if that's what you're looking for," he added as he saw Shizuko going among the flowers.
"Oh," she said, disappointed.
Ms. Minamoto came to the door. "Daisuke, the press wants to have a word with you."
He looked a little embarrassed. "Can you please tell them to wait a bit? I've got to pull myself together for that…"
"They don't have long, but they're willing to wait for you," said the woman patiently. "But this might be your chance to make a mark in the world, so don't take too long."
She left, heels clicking against the floor.
Kyu scratched his head awkwardly. "I guess we'd better leave too. We'll just see you downstairs, then."
Daisuke nodded. "All right."
Some time later, as everyone waited impatiently in the music room, Class Q began to worry.
"It's been almost thirty minutes," said Kinta, looking at his watch. "He wouldn't make anyone wait that long."
"Maybe something's happened to him," said Kazuma.
"He was okay when we left," said Kyu.
"But in the span of thirty minutes, anything could happen," said Ryuu seriously. "I think it might be safe to say that something has occurred."
Shizuko ran a hand through her short hair. "Maybe we shouldn't have left him behind in his room."
"Guys, I think we'd better take a look," said Kyu.
Class Q ran up the stairs to Daisuke's room.
"Daisuke? Daisuke, are you in there?" Kyu said, knocking.
Shizuko tested the doorknob. It turned easily, allowing her to push the door open with a creak.
The scene that greeted them caused Meg to scream. The rest of them could only stare in alarm.
Daisuke was lying on the floor.
Ryuu strode quickly into the room and checked Daisuke's pulse.
"It's no use. He's gone."
Kyu's eyes widened with shock. "But the door was closed! No one was missing from downstairs," he said, turning to Meg. "Right?"
Meg nodded, her eyes still shut, blocking the view of the dead body.
As Kyu went over to reassure Meg, Shizuko stepped into the room gingerly. "What could have killed him?"
"I'm not sure," replied Ryuu. "Everything seems to be in order since the time we were in here. But look."
He pointed at Daisuke's hands. "There are puncture wounds."
He turned to Meg. "Meg, is there anything in this room that has moved since we were here? Anything he might have touched?"
"The violin case…the things at the table…and…The roses have moved too…" replied Meg nervously.
"The roses!" cried Kyu, Shizuko and Ryuu.
Shizuko reached for them, but Ryuu grabbed at her wrist. "No, don't," he said, jerking her hand away. "The thorns could have been poisoned…"
Shizuko looked at him, eyes wide. "But…who sent these?"
Ryuu let go of her wrist slowly, contemplating. "There's no card…and I don't think we can be able to identify who sent these without it…furthermore, we can't tell that someone might have had these sent and then placed it here by accident…"
"So you think that this could have all been just a mistake?" asked Kyu, stepping up.
"I'm not sure yet. But—"
"What's going on?" asked Yui, coming into the room. "We heard a scream and—AAAAHHHH!"
Her eyes fell on Daisuke's dead body.
"What's this racket—My GOD! Is he dead!" Minoru exclaimed, appearing at the doorway.
Detective Yoshimura fought his way through the small crowd that had gathered. "All right, what the heck is going on here?"
"There's been another murder," said Kyu quietly. "I think it's best if all the media people downstairs leave. I don't think this is the kind of publicity that the school needs…"
"I'll tell Ms. Minamoto," offered Minoru, hurrying away with Yui.
The DDS students were left behind in the room, staring down the detective.
"You kids are here again? I thought I told you not to interfere with police affairs!"
"With all due respect sir, we'd like to—" Shizuko began, but the detective, annoyed, came in and wrenched her up by the collar.
"Look, this is none of your business! I should already have you kids in custody for interfering with police—"
Something fell from underneath Shizuko's blouse and fell to the floor with a faint tinkling sound.
Her eyes darted to it immediately, widening in alarm.
Ryuu closed his eyes, sighing.
The detective looked down at what had fallen and picked it up.
The tiny DDS badge flashed under the light of the incandescent above them.
"D-D-DDS!" Detective Yoshimura sputtered in shock. He looked up at the six of them. "You're all from DDS?"
Class Q looked horribly embarrassed. "Yes…." said Kyu nervously.
Yoshimura pressed the badge into Shizuko's hand, making her wince in pain as the sharp edge of the pin pricked her palm. "I'm sorry for being rough on you kids—"
"Sir, we would very much appreciate it if you didn't divulge that we are DDS students. It would be a risk to us," said Ryuu, stepping forward.
"Y-yes, of course," said the detective, still in shock. "I'll leave you to your work…"
"One moment," said Ryuu. "The forensic analysts have to perform an autopsy on this body and find out the cause of death. We suspect that he was poisoned through the puncture wounds on his hands. Those roses need to be inspected of any poison, too."
"Y-yes," said Detective Yoshimura.
"Thank you,' said Ryuu curtly.
The detective fled the room hastily.
Kinta crossed his arms. "As usual, the great Ryuu Amakusa takes the situation in stride."
"He's a pretty cold one," said Kazuma.
Ryuu glanced at them, frowning slightly.
Kyu grinned widely. "Weeell, at least he won't stop us from doing our investigating."
"I just hope that he keeps his word and not tell anyone about our being students at DDS," said Meg with a sigh.
Shizuko pursed her lips as she slowly pulled at the DDS badge, which had gotten embedded in her palm. "He did NOT have to prick me with my DDS badge."
"Let me see it," said Ryuu. "It can't be that bad."
"It isn't. It just stings."
Shizuko winced again as Ryuu pulled the DDS pin out of her palm. She quickly slapped her handkerchief over the wound and balled her hand into a fist. "That should keep it from bleeding too much," she muttered. "Thanks, Ryuu."
"It's nothing."
Kinta rolled his eyes to heaven. "It is time to investigate, people."
"Meg, have you memorized the scene?" asked Kyu.
"Yes," Meg affirmed.
"Anyway, I don't think that there's much we can do here. Not until we get some information back from the police," said Ryuu, handing over Shizuko's slightly bloody badge.
"It just seems unfair to let the killer get away again," said Shizuko, frowning. "Daisuke played the Nine Circles of Hell and got killed. There HAS to be some kind of reason why it's only this piece."
"Do you think there's a hidden meaning?" asked Kyu.
"I don't know."
"It's possible that the killer's just making a big deal over the piece so that the real reason is kept hidden," said Kazuma.
"Well, whether it's the reason or not, I am not going to let this killer get away with 'cursing' a beautiful piece," Shizuko said, tightening her fist. "I'm going to do it."
"I am going to play The Nine Circles of Hell."
Rants: Whoa. It looks like this mystery is getting deeper by the second. Let's see whether Shizuko succeeds in proving a curse or not. XD
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