Chapter 4 - Predicament & Endangerment

Shinichi squinted his eyes. This would most definitely be the worst headache he ever had. What kind of idiot runs around with such a big stack of books anyway?!

"Shinichi? Are you okay? Shinichi?! Don't faint..." Ran still called out to him; Shinichi could also feel her slightly shaking his side.

He opened his eyes again. His vision was a bit blurry, but it got better already. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I won't faint, I promise." Shinichi assured Ran.

"Oh god, Kudo-kun, I'm so, so, so sorry, I cannot say enough how terribly sorry I am!" The student who carried the books said over and over again. Now Shinichi recognized the voice and even through his blurry vision, he had a pretty good idea who it was. The guy had recently transferred to their school, a fellow called Eisuke Hondou. Shinichi should've known that it was him; shortly after he arrived here, he already made a name for himself as the clumsiest student ever.

"Hondou-kun, please...just stop talking, okay? That would help a lot..." Shinichi growled, still holding his head.

"Yes, Hondou, that would be a really good idea." Their teacher added, making Eisuke cover his mouth with both of his hands. "Now, Kudo, let's try standing up, okay?"

Shinichi nodded slowly, so Ran and their teacher helped him get up from the floor and made him stood upright. He tried to walk over to a wall, so he could lean against it; however, as soon as he moved, his legs felt weak, so he almost fell over. Luckily for Shinichi, Ran caught him in time and helped him keep his balance. "Are you sure you are alright, Shinichi?" Ran worriedly asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine...it's just that I can't really see straight and I feel a bit dizzy..." Shinichi mumbled.

Their teacher clicked his tongue. "It's no good, head injuries like this can be very dangerous, so it's best to visit the infirmary now. The school nurse will know what to do."

"I-I-I can take him to the infirmary, Sensei!" Eisuke exclaimed. "I wanna help!"

"You helped enough already!" Their teacher hissed. "Make yourself useful and pick up all of the books that you dropped. Mouri, you'll be able to get him to the infirmary, yes?"

Ran nodded. "Yes, Sensei!" Carefully, Shinichi and Ran left the classroom, while Eisuke crawled around the ground picking up books. Shinichi recovered a bit on their way to the infirmary, he was able to walk a lot steadier now, but he still felt dizzy. Opening the door to the infirmary, they noticed that Doctor Araide wasn't there today. That happened a lot recently, starting shortly after Shinichi solved the case surrounding the death of Doctor Araide's father (also known as the case where Shinichi thought that Ran and Araide had some romantic interest in each other, when in reality Ran just wanted to borrow a sweater to knit an identical one for Shinichi - he kept that alternative case title to himself though), the school had to hire an additional nurse. Kurara-sensei was a good nurse, at least judging from what Ran heard from other girls, but her looks were questionable. She almost looked like a stereotypical nurse from an eroge manga and was an even bigger drooling subject among most of the boys than Jodie-sensei.

"Kudo-kun, Mouri-chan!" Kurara-sensei greeted the two. "I hope you aren't both sick?"

"No, Sensei, it's about Shinichi. He got struck on the head with a heavy book and now he's dizzy and has a headache." Ran hastily explained. "Out math teacher told me to take him here, because he couldn't really walk straight yet."

"That got better already, but you forgot the blurry vision." Shinichi added.

"Nevertheless, you should lie down first, Kudo-kun. Let's get him on the bed over there, Mouri-chan." Kurara-sensei instructed. After Shinichi was resting on said bed, the nurse began her examination.

"Araide-sensei isn't here again? That's like...the third day in row, right?" Ran wondered.

"Yes, that sounds about right." Kurara-sensei replied. "Doctor Araide needs time for himself apparently. My money is on the death of his father having a bigger impact on him than everybody thought. He's been acting like a stranger recently...I guess everybody mourns differently. Anyway, Kudo-kun got struck in head with a book you say? So he was assaulted?"

"No, no, it was an unfortunate accident." Ran explained. "You see, Eisuke-kun came into the classroom with a large stack of books..."

"Eisuke-kun?" Kurara-sensei interjected. "Eisuke Aizawa or Eisuke Hondou?"

"What...? Uhm, it was Eisuke Hondou..." Ran replied.

"I see. No further explanations necessary." Kurara-sensei said with a sigh. "That boy...first he got himself sent here all the time and now other students as well...only a few months at this school and already a bigger medical record than many other students in all of their time here..." She finished examining Shinichi and grabbed some pills from a cabinet. "Alright, Kudo-kun, you don't have a concussion or any other severe head trauma. You should be fine with a bit of rest and maybe you should take it a bit easy the next few days. Here, some pills against the headache, that will make the initial resting a bit more bearable."

Kurara-sensei handed Shinichi the pills and a glass of water, so he could swallow them more easily. After he did so, Shinichi could already feel the pain lessening, although he was sure that it was simply the initial placebo effect. Whether or not he was right with that didn't interest him now though, since less of his headache was good. "What now? Should I head home?" He asked.

"Hmm..." Kurara-sensei wrote something down on a clipboard. "Yes, eventually. I don't think you should participate in classes anymore today...but heading home now is a bit too early with your condition. Tell you what, you rest here until the next two lessons are over and then you should be fine to head home. Mouri-chan, would you be so kind to bring his school bag here after the next two lessons?"

Ran nodded. "Sure, I can do that!"

"Good, that's good." Kurara-sensei. "You can go back to class now, Mouri-chan, there is nothing more for you to do. Your boyfriend needs some rest now." The nurse added a wink that made Ran blush.

"S-sure..." Ran said and gently stroked Shinichi's hand once. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah...later..." Shinichi replied slowly. He felt good and was already beginning to doze. He still heard Ran closing the door behind her when she left and was asleep.

Shinichi opened his eyes. He felt that he had a fever in addition to the headache. Also, he wasn't in the infirmary anymore, it was the bedroom of a mansion and Ran was sitting at his side. When she noticed that he had woken up, Ran smiled at him. "Shinichi, really...running over a burning bridge like that...how irresponsible..." She kindly chided him.

He tried to return the smile. "I do what I can..." He said, noticing his throat was really dry. "But listen, Ran...the guy who organized this meeting...he was found dead..."

Ran nodded. "I know..."

"You do...we have to get away from here..." Shinichi started, but she didn't let him finish.

"We...or rather you...you have bigger problems right now..." Ran explained.

"Wha...no, I think a murdered host and a secluded villa in the snowy mountains are our biggest problems right now..." Shinichi said and tried to stand up, but he was unable to. Both of his feet were tied to the bed with restraints. "What the hell...?!"

Ran came closer to the bed now. "Shinichi, listen to me! You need to wake up! Right now!"

"What...?" Shinichi narrowed his eyes. "Wake up...? What do you mean...?" As he said that, he felt his right arm being tied up with restraints as well, but it wasn't Ran who was doing that, no, there was no person there who tied him. It was like a ghost was moving his body. "I don't understand..."

"Shinichi, wake up!" Ran repeated, as he felt his other arm being tied up. She took a deep breath. "WAKE UP!"

Shinichi threw his eyes open. His headache was almost completely gone, but that didn't interest him right. He stared on the rather exposed chest of Kurara-sensei, which she almost shoved into his face as she arched over him. Following her body upwards, he saw her putting on restraints on his left hand. He tried to pull his arm away, but it was already too late.

"Kudo-kun, Kudo-kun...you recovered pretty fast..." Kurara-sensei said. She brought herself into a proper position again, standing beside the bed in the infirmary. Shinichi tried to get out of the restraints, but his efforts didn't appear to be fruitful at all. "Don't bother. You won't get out of these, no one did."

"Sensei..." Shinichi muttered. "What is the meaning of this? Why did you tie me up?!"

Kurara clicked her tongue. "Tsk, tsk...one question at a time, Kudo-kun." She climbed on the bed, spreading her legs slightly to be able to sit on her knees, hovering over his legs. "There is a reason for this, don't worry. It's not a medical condition though..."

"What...? What are you talking about?" Shinichi insisted, trying to wiggle off the restrains on his arms, but it had no effect at all. Kurara lowered her upper body toward his and took off his tie and started to unbutton his shirt. "Wh-what are you doing?!"

Kurara smiled. "I'm going to have myself some fun. Hold still, it won't hurt." She opened the last button and exposed his chest as much as it was possible with his blazer still on. Kurara went over his abdomen with her hands, sliding them all the way up to his throat. Shinichi shivered and stirred, as her hands were very cold. The fact that he was pinned down by her and tied up with restraints didn't make him any more comfortable. "Nicely toned body. It shows that you play soccer."

"I quit the team when I graduated from middle school." Shinichi growled.

"Really? That's too bad, you'd have an even better body now if you didn't quit. No matter, this will do nicely." Kurara lowered herself further and went over his body again, this time with her tongue. She started at his belly button and slid it all the way up to his nipples, in a straight line and leaving a trail of saliva behind. Shinichi tossed and shook his body again, what she was doing felt really gross. "You taste...wonderful..." She concluded after taking his tongue off his chest.

"Help! Anybody, I need help!" Shinichi screamed. He panicked a bit and saw no other way.

Ran looked up from her math book, taking a look around the class. Weird, she could've sworn she heard somebody call for help, someone familiar, but no one else seemed to react in any way.

Sonoko nudged her in the side. "Hey, Ran, is something the matter?" She whispered to not attract the attention of their math teacher. "You're looking around like something's wrong."

"Did you just hear somebody call for help?" Ran inquired, also whispering.

"No, I didn't..." A smug grin formed on Sonoko's lips. "Are you sure it wasn't your subconscious imaging the poor, sick Shinichi-kun calling for your aid with a despair only his girlfriend could ease?"

"S-shut up..." Ran whispered with a slight smile of her own and a blush, before she went back to reading in her book.

"Your attempts are futile, Kudo-kun..." Kurara shook her head. "In this part of the school building, nobody will hear your screams for help at this time of the day, I'm deeply sorry. But I am no amateur."

Shinichi narrowed his eyes at her. "No amateur, huh...? You said earlier that no one got out of these restraints...this isn't first time you're doing something like this, is it?" He asked, switching to detective mode.

"Really smart, I have to admit...no, this isn't the first time, as a matter of fact, I have already developed a solid routine at this point." Kurara curled up another smile. "Although nobody else woke up so early from the sleep pills I gave you."

"Sleep pills...? I see..." Shinichi focused on the school nurse again. "What exactly are you doing though...tying students just for fun...?"

Now she let out a giggle. "No...tying up boys is just the first step. You and me, both of us are in for some exquisite...amusement." Kurara grabbed his belt with both of her hands, slightly sliding her fingertips into his pants.

"You don't mean..."

"Yes." Her eyes lit up. "Exactly that. You should be happy, many boys spend their entire time thinking about doing naughty things while being tied up, but almost all of them never act on such fantasies. You however, will experience it while being fully awake the whole time. That's a first for me since I started here, I have to admit that much. There's a first time for everything I guess."

Shinichi's eyes widened. "So you're drugging students who are here alone and then you amuse yourself with them? That's a crime! Why would you do such a thing?! And if you have a routine, why has nobody called the police on you?"

She chuckled again. "If you're creating a file about this, Meitantei-san, then you can write...wish fulfillment when it comes to my motive. I just really, really like this. I'm sorry if you can't understand that. Nobody called the police, because these poor boys, virgins or not, don't know what to do. Usually, they wake up in the middle of it, still dizzy from the sleeping pills, unable to move, but yet still, they feel so much pleasure, much more than ever felt before and when it is over, the have this doe-eyed look on their faces, they are scared and hurting. Then I comfort them, tell them that they are special and then they go back to their classes. The method works, they all love me and resent other women. That's why nobody called the police."

"No..." Shinichi mumbled. He thought to the boys acting strange, flinching away from female teachers and some from their mothers. "No, they don't love you! You traumatize them, they cannot stand other women, because their touch reminds them of you, reminds them of you hurting them, emotionally and probably even physically!" Shinichi hissed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk...", Kurara shook her head, "...call it what you want; I'd say it's up for interpretation."

"Up for interpretation? Sounds like your making up an excuse for yourself." Shinichi through his gritted teeth. "Wait...if you're telling me your method now...what are going to do with me then?"

She shrugged. "Dunno...maybe I'll knock you out after our little amusement and then later claim that it was all a dream. Testimony against testimony, that won't get far..."

'No, that won't work. These restraints are so tight, they'll leave marks on my wrists and ankles...' Shinichi thought to himself, but thinking about the aftermath wasn't helping him now. He wasn't ready to let her so called amusement just happen to him. Not like this and not when he really wanted...Ran...

"Enough talk." Kurara declared. "Time to get down to business." She said and started to work on his belt.

Shinichi shook his entire body, but it was useless. The restraints were tight and she effectively pinned him, so Shinichi resorted to the only thing he could do. "Help, anybody, help!"

Kurara shook her head again. "Told you, it won't work..."

"Ran, help me! Ran!"