First of all, I'd like to say…

I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING. I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRRYYYY.
I couldn't bring myself to write for quite a LONG while. FORGIIIIVEEE MEEEEE.

Here it is, Chapter 13. Oh please don't kill me yet…-sob-

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DETECTIVE SCHOOL Q.

On with the fanfic!

by the way, i'm concerned about the sweetness and other randomities between Ryuu and Shizuko in this chap. aaagh. this is what happens when you don't write for a few months. -dies-

Chapter 13: Embarrassment

Ryuu and Shizuko were both surprisingly quiet as they both stalked into the violin school's back hallway.

It wasn't that neither of them knew what to say—in fact, both of them were abuzz with thousands of questions. However, something in both of their vocal chords wouldn't let them say a word.

For Shizuko, it was embarrassment. It was taking hold of her vocal chords and strangling them, keeping her from saying anything. However, overpowering the embarrassment was a thought that had awakened in the back of her head, which had been pushed there in the panic of the sudden attack on her. The case once again resurfaced in her mind, and something about it was absolutely not right.

Seeing that Ryuu was not making an effort to shatter the silence, she remained quiet throughout the walk to her room.

As for Ryuu, he did not particularly care that Shizuko was not saying a word. Aside from the fact that he did not want to say something he might regret, he was also very much used to her erratic bouts of silence.

The bouts of silence didn't come very often, but when they did, it was usually very intense and focused. He'd first noticed it in Mr. Hongou's classes, when no matter how hard or deafeningly their instructor shouted, Shizuko would neither react nor say a word unless she would be called upon to recite.

It was the same with their cases. Once in a while there was this silence that would wrap itself like a cocoon around her, keeping even him from reading what was on her mind. She would stare almost blankly, focusing on a single object in front of her and she would never take her dark eyes off of it, as though determined to memorize every facet, every detail. The stare was, he had to admit, rather mesmerizing and fascinating to observe. It was a challenge for him and his deductive mind to figure out what was buzzing inside that stoic, unchanging façade.

The reason that her bouts of silence didn't come often was because she always, always, had something to say about anything that came before her. The comment would usually be sarcastic, admittedly. Or sometimes philosophical. Whenever there was a situation before their class, she would make a cynical—although amusing—quip about it as an attempt to make them all relax and take the job well. This was the thing she'd added into Class Q. He, for one, appreciated the intelligent remarks she would make—it was a nice change from Kyu's hyperactivity, although the gold-eyed teen had that same purpose.

He realized just then that he still knew nothing about her. He could read her habits sometimes, and he knew about how to deal with them, but he didn't know anything personal. Her constant wisecracks and clever remarks had covered up the need for information and his curiosity. Those little jibes had piled up and created a blockade he hadn't noticed, an unbreachable wall he hadn't seen until now. Things she preferred, things she disliked, things she feared…he tried to name them one by one, but nothing definite came into mind.

Not just yet, anyway. But he decided not to pry. Maybe those things would show up in time.

But as of now, the insurmountable barriers she'd placed between herself and Class Q were yet to be scaled, and he had doubts that he'd be able to get past those walls.

He'd been so engrossed in his thinking that he failed to note that they were at Shizuko's bedroom door. He was only aware of it when he heard a strangely familiar clinking.

Clinking..?

He looked down at the source of the noise, and found several silver bracelets on Shizuko's wrist. They jingled as she grudgingly turned the knob and stepped into her room.

He didn't know why he didn't notice before, but she wore them occasionally. Maybe he hadn't noticed her wear them this morning underneath the long-sleeved shirt.

As he entered the room, she tossed him a large fleece towel. He stared at it blankly for a second before realizing that he too was wet from their dip in the pool. She glanced at him wordlessly as she wrung the water out of her hair and clothes. He looked back at her curiously, not understanding.

For a moment she looked away, and then, she looked back up at him, and he realized what she was trying to say.

Thank you…

He nodded his understanding, and looked out her window to watch the late afternoon sun sink behind the horizon line.

They sat in silence, embarrassment looming over both of them.

Shizuko began pacing the floor restlessly. "This isn't over, though…"

Ryuu raised an eyebrow.

"I can't be mistaken, but I don't have indisputable proof either…"

"When Kyu and Meg arrive, maybe we can put the pieces together. Calm down."

She threw up her arms irritably. "Even if we prove it's him, it's only half the case that will be solved."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about this!"

Papers fluttered on the bed, some landing facedown, but Ryuu recognized them immediately.

"The Nine Circles of Hell…"

"Exactly."

Shizuko looked up at him. "Ryuu, I think it's the will."

He looked back at her, barely surprised. "What makes you assume that?"

"I can feel a pattern forming when I'm playing the piece. And something that the Maestro wanted so much to finish that he'd continue till his dying day? I think that's a big tip-off."

"It makes sense."

"But Ryuu, to get this all done, I'm going to need the rest of the piece," she said, getting up and making for the door.

Ryuu blocked the entryway. "Don't. I'll get them."

"Ryuuuuuuu," she said exasperatedly.

"Kinta's on his way to guard you. I'll be back in a few minutes."

And with that, the door slammed shut on his retreating figure.

"Dammit."

Sure enough, as Ryuu had said, Kinta entered the room. "So he's off on another crazy tangent, now, is he?"

"And not taking me along for the ride," muttered Shizuko.

"Well, that's natural for a guy like him. He's a little extreme when people are in danger."

Shizuko pouted, resting her chin in her palms. "I don't want to risk him too, even if he's not a violinist."

"He can take care of himself. He doesn't really look it, but there're a lot of defensive skills under that skinny frame of his."

Shizuko pouted even more, her lower lip jutting out so much that someone could have tripped over it. "Right."

Kinta ruffled Shizuko's hair with a big grin, messing it up completely and tangling a few locks. "Don't worry about the guy."

Moments later, Ryuu opened the door to Shizuko's room. "I've got it."

"Greeeaaaaat," Shizuko said sarcastically. "Please give them to me."

He handed them over, and Shizuko took a better look at the last four pages. She squinted at them however, and rummaged around in her desk for her glasses.

"You can't read them?" asked Kinta.

"Of course I can," she said. "I just need a clearer sight of these notes. There might be faint marks on the pages themselves."

"True," said Ryuu thoughtfully. "Unless he was able to completely memorize the way he created his code, he might have written the translation somewhere on the piece itself as a guide."

"Unless this is a copy of the finished piece after all the edits," said Shizuko suddenly, putting down the papers. She sighed. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all…"

"Of course it wasn't," said a grumpy voice from the doorway.

The three teenagers looked up at the sound of the voice. "Kazuma," said Ryuu, nodding at him in greeting.

The miniature genius crossed his arms. "If you wanted an expert in code breaking why didn't any of you consult me?" he asked irritably.

"I didn't think much about it till now," Shizuko said apologetically. "And this isn't just an ordinary code; this needs knowledge of music as well…"

"So let's get to work!" said Kazuma, clapping his hands for emphasis.

He immediately opened up his laptop and began typing away. "Give me the piece, I'll copy it over neatly on my computer."

Shizuko hesitated. A minute too long.

Kazuma grumbled and snatched the papers from her.

She looked at Kinta and Ryuu, who merely shrugged in reply.

Before Kazuma could finish setting up his computer, Kyu and Meg busted right through Shizuko's door. "Is it true?" asked Meg. "Shizuko's been attacked?"

"Yes, but I'm fine now," replied Shizuko. "What did you find down in the village?" she added.

Kyu turned to her. "Well, we found a flower shop there with a flower arrangment in the window that was similar to the one that Daisuke received. But guess what? According to thr florist, no one had sent an arrangement to Daisuke at all."

"But how's that possible?" asked Kinta. "Surely when someone sends a bunch of flowers to someone you'd make arrangements with the florist before you send it."

"That's right, and that includes the name and adress of the person you're sending it to, as well as who sent it," added Shizuko.

Kyu grinned. "But, we didn't say that there was no delivery to the violin school at all."

"Wait, wait, so what are you saying?" said Kinta, confused. "I thought you said there was no delivery for the guy."

"That's right, but it doesn't mean that there wasn't one in the school," supplied Meg.

"Ah!" exclaimed Shizuko. "So you mean to say that no one ordered the flowers for Daisuke, but there was one sent to this school that was poisoned later on and then set up in Daisuke's room to make it look like there was a delivery."

"Exactly," said Kyu.

"That's a good way to cover one's tracks, but then, whoever sent it or received it would be major suspects," said Ryuu. "So, who were the sender and the receiver?"

Kyu laughed. "Well, at first we thought it was a conspiracy, but then it turns out, the sender sent the flowers to himself in this school."

"Brilliant," said Shizuko. "It narrows the field to exactly one."

Ryuu smirked. "And we have our proof."

Kazuma looked up from Shizuko's desk. "When you're done with your chit-chat, you guys, I've finished setting up. Shizuko, you'll have to help on this one."

The dark-haired girl shrugged. "Okay…"

"So how do we start?" asked Kazuma, showing Shizuko the music sheets that had been transcribed on the computer screen.

"Well, there's a set of finger positions for every note," Shizuko began. "If you can manage to match up every single possible one, and do so for the rest of the piece, and then, 'play' it on the screen showing all the finger positions, maybe we'll see something."

Kazuma scanned in an image of a violin's fingerboard. "Take out your violin."

Shizuko unzipped her violin case and held the instrument under her chin as though she were playing.

The miniature programmer flashed an illustration of a musical scale on his screen. "Show me the finger positions for each note, and we're done."

The young violinist sighed heavily. "Fine, fine…"

And so it began, while the rest of Class Q watched tham work. Kyu and Meg merely shrugged at the businesslike partnership of the two, while Kinta placed his hands behind his head in a relaxed position. "Well, I guess we're not needed much in that area."

Kazuma got up as soon as Shizuko finished demonstrating the musical scale. "Okay, that's it."

"You've got it?" asked Shizuko in disbelief.

"Not yet, don't be impatient," said Kazuma almost snappishly. "This piece is long, it's going to take me almost one night to decode this."

"One night!" said Shizuko in surprise. "The killer could have taken out someone else by then!"

"Maybe not," Ryuu interjected. "He's got two bodies down for today, or, in his point of view, three," he continued, looking at Shizuko. "I say he won't try anything tonight."

Kyu nodded his agreement. "No killer would try to take out too many in one day, not unless he had nerves of steel. He wouldn't take it."

"Or maybe not," Kinta said thoughtfully. "Don't you think he'll be suspicious if he doesn't see that Shizuko's not dead and rotting in the pool?"

Shizuko twitched.

"That's true," said Kyu. "He'll know Shizuko's still alive and might go after her again."

"I'll stand guard for tonight," said Ryuu before Shizuko could say anything in protest (or rather, snap in annoyance).

The rest of the DDS students (except probably Shizuko) seemed fine with the idea, and left the room shrugging their shoulders indifferently.

Shizuko slammed herself in the bathroom to take a warm bath before going to bed, explaining it away by saying she wanted to avoid catching cold and such (although she was probably doing it to gain a little privacy).

She could hear Ryuu's footsteps near the locked door as she turned on the warm tap.

"You're not going to push me out of keeping watch over you like you did last time, right?" he asked through the door.

She shrugged as she lowered herself into the tub. "I don't have any option now, do I?"

Silence reigned again as Ryuu racked his brain to keep the conversation flowing. "Why didn't you want me to back then, anyway?"

Another shrug from behind the closed door. "I didn't want you to worry."

Moments later, a knock on Shizuko's bedroom door brought them both back to their senses.

"Ryuu, could you please get that?" she asked him.

He was already ahead of her, and opened the door to find Kinta in all his cocky, grinning glory.

"What is it?" the blue-haired genius asked, giving the older teen a look that obviously said, "don't-you-dare-say-anything-stupid".

"Relax, you little worrywart, Kyu just asked me to give you this." With that, the martial arts expert handed him a change of clothes.

Ryuu stared at the shirt and jeans that now settled rather haphazardly in his arms. "Thanks."

"Not a problem. You need it since you're still soaked from your heroics in the pool."

Ryuu attempted to give him a deadpanned stare, but he failed, and the older boy grinned. "See ya tomorrow," Kinta said, waving as he sauntered down the hall.

Ryuu shut the door behind him with a sigh. He had been almost sure that Kinta would be off on another crazy direction that would involve not only his own embarrassment but also Shizuko's. It was clear that whatever was on the other students' minds would probably be his doom.

Or at least his concept of the purest essence of utter mortification and discomfiture.

Why do they love trying to get on other people's nerves?

Rants: to all the people who have stayed with me and my stories thus far, I LOVE YOU ALL. –hugs everyone-

And I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting, for, how long, several months? I'm really sorry about that. I haven't found time to write even through summer vacation and school weekends. And now that I'm in college…uhm. Everything is really complicated. If "The Nine Circles of Hell" is ever finished, it MIGHT just be my last work. Of course, though, you will all be the first to know if my going through hell will leave me with my senses so that I can keep writing more cases for you guys.

PLEASE REVIEW!

I love you guys. Really, I do. –hugsquish-