Detective Conan
The Haunted House of Class 2-C
Chapter Three
By
Sgamer82
Hajime Itagaki walked through the halls of Beika Middle School alongside his partner, Miwako Takagi. Hajime was a recent transfer into the Homicide department. As such, there were things the other officers and detectives there took for granted that he had yet to acclimate to. One, or, to be more precise, four of those things were the Detective Boys. It struck Itagaki as highly irregular that the department would include elementary school children in their investigations. Then again, his partner got married and her husband took the desk job. So perhaps the department as a whole was irregular.
When he asked other officers about them, he'd learned that the children had an uncanny knack for being present whenever a murder or other crime occurred. Rather than fight the inevitable, the kids had been taken under the division's collective wing and had become a combination of unofficial mascots and protégés, adding the officers' experience to the knowledge they gained from mentors like Shinichi Kudo, Heiji Hattori, and Masumi Sera.
Itagaki and Takagi made their way through the crowds. He wished they could just flash their badges and make people step aside, but that was out of their hands. When Inspector Megure had contacted the school to confirm his detectives would have the school's cooperation, he was met with an administrator pleading with him to not make a scene during the festivities. Not wanting to start a panic either, Megure agreed and hand picked Takagi to investigate.
"There they are," Takagi said. She pointed out three children in the crowd. There were two boys, who Itagaki knew from photos and description to be Genta Kojima and Mitsuhiko Tsubaraya. They wore very serious expressions on their faces as they looked ahead. Next to them was a girl with brown hair who barely came up to Tsubaraya's shoulders. She seemed more amused than anything, going by the smirk on her face. Shinichi Kudo's sister. That left the other girl, Yoshida. Itagaki saw her further ahead, taking with a student. They were too far to overhear the conversation, but both she and the boy were noticeably blushing and not quite making eye contact.
Itagaki frowned. They had more important things to deal with than some preteen RomCom. Takagi, however, had an even bigger grin than the Kudo girl.
Probably finds this adorable, he thought. She quietly approached the other three, who had yet to notice them. She knelt down and spoke right into their ears.
"What are we looking at here?" she asked. The boys jumped in shock and turned to face her. If Kudo was surprised, she didn't show it. She didn't move from her spot nor change expression as she answered Takagi's question.
"I believe that what you are seeing, Detective Miwako, is Mitsuhiko-kun and Kojima working out how best to present their 'make Ayumi-chan cry and we'll make you suffer' speeches to poor Tsuyoi-senpai over there."
"Nah," Kojima replied. "We've had that worked out for ages."
"We realized fairly quickly we were going to need to have something ready," the skinnier boy, Tsubaraya, added.
"Smart move," Takagi noted. "Does that mean you've got one ready for Ai-chan's future boyfriends, too?"
The girl's smirk sunk into a frown at that remark. Tsubaraya blushed. Kojima, however, was the one grinning now.
"A-Ai-san hasn't really mentioned anything about... about that," Tsubaraya stammered. "So I didn't think we had to worry yet."
"And I never bothered because I trust Mitsuhiko completely."
"Genta-kun!" Tsubaraya spluttered, his face going completely red. The girl's face also turned red, even as she glared daggers at the boy who towered over her. Takagi was doing her level best not to laugh at the scene. Itagaki was less successful and couldn't help chuckling. That brought the childrens' attention on him.
"Ah, yes," Takagi said. She gestured to Itagaki. "This is Detective Hajime Itagaki, my new partner."
The kids' reactions to him were not at all what Itagaki had expected. The boys gave him wary looks and moved almost in unison to put themselves between him and Ai Kudo. As for Kudo herself, while she had kept her composure when Takagi had playfully surprised them, the moment she turned to look at Itagaki her eyes widened and her face paled. She moved closer to the boys and didn't speak. Instead, he heard her taking deep, measured breaths, as if to calm herself.
Itagaki had no idea what had sparked that response. He looked down at himself and saw nothing unusual. He wasn't especially imposing physically, neither taller nor more muscular than the average Japanese man. Given the autumn weather he wore his usual black overcoat. Then he remembered Takagi had insisted he take it off when they came inside and given him an odd look when he refused.
"Um... hello," Itagaki said awkwardly. "As Detective Takagi said, I'm her partner Itagaki."
He gave the kids a short bow. The boys gave an appropriately deeper bow of their own. The girl, looking calmer, nodded an acknowledgement then pointedly turned her back on him. Itagaki choked down his initial impulse to scold the girl for her disrespect toward an elder. The look Takagi gave him warned him not to push his luck.
"Miwako-san!" a girl's voice called. Itagaki turned and saw Ayumi Yoshida approaching them. Itagaki saw Yoshida's eyes glance toward him. She immediately took a conspicuous step to the side before she reached the others. Itagaki realized that sidestep just so happened to allow her to also position herself directly between Kudo and himself.
"Ayumi-chan, this is Detective Itagaki, my partner." Takagi gestured in Itagaki's direction. Yoshida turned to him and gave a courteous bow.
"Good afternoon, Detective Itagaki."
Well at least one of them knows their manners, Itagaki thought as he bowed in return.
"We've just arrived," Takagi told her. "Why don't you bring us up to speed."
Yoshida nodded and did just that. Itagaki listened as she described her and Kojima locating the victim on a gallows prop, the recording that led them to him in the first place, and the basic examination of the evidence they had found. He was surprised by how concise the grade schooler was. He was even more surprised that she'd apparently had the foresight to collect the music player in an evidence bag.
"I took some photos, as well," Tsubaraya added in once Yoshida had finished. He took out several photographs that looked like they had been taken on an old instant camera. He wondered at first why kids this young would even have such a thing before he remembered having heard it was a favored tactic of Masumi Sera. After handing them over the boy took out his phone.
"I took some with my phone's blacklight, as well, but nothing apparent showed up on it."
"That's fine," Takagi replied. "Thank you for your usual thoroughness, Mitsuhiko-kun."
"You have a blacklight in your phone?" Itagaki asked the boy.
"Doesn't everyone?" a voice asked from behind Kojima.
"Ai," Yoshida said in a tone Itagaki knew to be a warning. He had heard it from his older sister plenty of times growing up. Itagaki heard a huff from Kudo but before anyone could respond further, Kojima himself spoke.
"We also questioned a few people and worked out a list of suspects."
From behind Kojima, the Kudo girl handed a notepad over to Takagi. She looked it over, nodded, then handed it to Itagaki. He looked himself and saw that they had indeed narrowed the culprit down to three individuals.
"Hayate Tsuyoi, age fourteen," Itagaki read aloud. "Member of the drama club and organizer of the haunted house. Quarreled with the victim about being allowed to have it in the first place.
"Hanae Yamagishi, age thirteen, classmate of Tsuyoi..." Itagaki cleared his throat, "...and 'has it bad' for him." Kojima snorted. Yoshida and Tsubaraya had the decency to look embarrassed. "Also quarreled with the victim in Tsuyoi's defense through acts of disrespect threatening, but stopping short of, violence.
"Ritsuko Chouno-sensei, no age stated, advisor to the drama club. Observed to share a mutual dislike for the victim and rumored to hold a grudge for reasons unknown. Argued in Tsuyoi's defense regarding the haunted house and talked down Yamagishi before she could become violent."
"All three are confirmed being inside the haunted house classroom at the same time or just before Kaniguchi-sensei entered," Yoshida said. "Tsuyoi-senpai was dressed as a vampire. Genta-kun and I actually saw him, but we couldn't say for sure how long he'd been there."
"So no way to know if he tripped his trap and ran back," Takagi said.
"Yamagishi-senpai was a Bride of Frankenstein," Kojima continued. "Me and Ayumi saw her as we were rushing to see if something was wrong. So she was closest to sensei, but..." he shrugged.
"But all that means is she was closest to the victim when you found him. It doesn't guarantee that she had anything to do with it," Itagaki finished. Kojima nodded.
"Chouno-sensei came out soon after Ayumi and Kojima went in," a girl's voice from behind Kojima added. "They hadn't found Kaniguchi-sensei yet and, as a result, hadn't contacted me to start keeping track of who came in or out. I did see her leave right before then, but I confess I didn't make any special note of the time. I can say she didn't appear particularly flustered or worked up. Just gave the girls at the door a goodbye and left."
"You didn't see her do anything unusual?" Itagaki asked.
"The only other thing she did was make a phone call," the Kudo girl replied after a moment.
"How's the victim?" Takagi asked.
"Kaniguchi-sensei was taken to the nurse's office while an ambulance was called," Tsubaraya replied. "It hasn't arrived yet, but we've been checking with the nurse while we waited. He's awake, but refuses to speak to anyone. Given that, we thought it wise to wait for you to arrive to speak to him, at least, since he didn't seem likely to speak to us."
Itagaki nodded at the boy's response before something in the wording hit him.
"'At least'... does that mean there is someone you didn't wait to speak to?"
The Tsubaraya boy paled as he realized what he had just said.
"We spoke to Tsuyoi-senpai and Yamagishi-senpai already," Yoshida responded in her friend's place.
Itagaki was still processing that detail and trying to think of a response when Takagi spoke up.
"Care to explain that?" A sternness similar to what Yoshida had directed to Kudo entered Takagi's voice as she spoke. "There shouldn't be any reason for you to interview anybody before officers arrive."
"Normally that's true," Tsubaraya answered. "We had intended to wait until you arrived, then it occurred to Ai-san that at least two of our suspects were minors."
Takagi raised an eyebrow but made no move to interrupt the boy.
"Interviewing students as witnesses is one thing. Interviewing them as suspects is potentially a much thornier matter. There are laws about what you can ask them without a parent or guardian present. So we took it upon ourselves to do the interviewing first. We aren't police officers so that doesn't apply to us. Whether either of them are the culprit or not, you would get information you might need sooner than you might have otherwise."
"And in the event anything we did turned out grossly inappropriate," Itagaki heard Kudo say. "You're free to throw us to the wolves as dumb kids who overstepped our bounds without tainting any information you received."
"That... is highly irregular..." Itagaki muttered.
"It is," Takagi agreed. She took a step back and held all four children in her gaze. "I'm not ungrateful for what you've done, but I am not pleased by your trying to cheat the system this way. Our regulations exist for a reason and are not to be discarded just because they're inconvenient. Pull a stunt like this again and I'll throw you out from whatever case it happens to be at the time. Literally, if need be."
The kids flinched at the sudden turn of Takagi's voice.
"Yes, ma'am," four voices said in unison.
"Does that mean you don't want to know what we found out from it?" Itagaki heard the Kudo girl's voice say.
Takagi's eyes narrowed in her direction. Then they closed while Takagi drew in and breathed out a deep breath.
"Let's hear it," she conceded. The three children Itagaki could see clearly looked relieved as Kojima began telling them of their interview with the male student, Hayate Tsuyoi.
"The first suspect Kudo and I interviewed was Hayate Tsuyoi, drama club member and creator of the haunted house, and older brother of Ayumi-chan's would-be boyfriend..."
"Genta-kun!" Ayumi exclaimed, her face red.
He was a lean young man, with dark brown eyes and black hair. According to Ai, these were all traits he shared with his younger brother. The biggest difference at the moment, outside of an extra year's worth of growth spurt, was a weary, nervous expression on the older brother's face as he sat on a bench down the way from his classroom. He was also still in full vampire costume, black cape and all.
"If there weren't an attempted murder involved, a mopey vampire would've been kinda funny," Genta noted for his audience.
Genta stepped in front of Ai and took point.
"This had less to do with Kudo's typical response to people dressed in black and more to do with the fact that this was where I excelled."
"Tsuyoi-senpai?" Genta asked.
"That'sf me," Hayate replied. Then, he removed his fangs. "That's me. You're the one that saved Sensei."
Genta nodded.
"I'm Genta Kojima," Genta said, then gestured to Ai. "That's Ai Kudo. We wanted to ask a few questions."
"Okay, sure," Hayate said. Then looked past Genta. "Is your friend okay?"
Ai was several steps behind Genta, her arms crossed protectively in front of her, her face turned away. Genta bowed, raised his hand in a half apologetic gesture, and grinned.
"You'll have to forgive Ai-chan, she's a real scaredy cat about horror stuff. She couldn't even make herself cross the curtain."
Genta had spoken just a little too loudly to be a conspiratorial whisper. Obviously hearing them, Ai stepped closer to them just long enough to kick the back of Genta's leg.
"It wasn't a hard kick at all, but senpai didn't need to know that."
"See what I mean?" Genta exaggerated a wince.
Ai let out a loud "hmph" and turned her back to the boys. Tsuyoi chuckled. The little moment seemed to help. He appeared much more relaxed to Genta the next time he spoke.
"So, what did you want to know Kojima-kun?" he asked.
"What were you doing in the haunted house? Were you doing anything besides being a vampire?"
"Mostly just keeping anyone going too far, I suppose." Tsuyoi shrugged. "Had to keep my eyes and ears open for anything Kaniguchi-sensei could use as an excuse to shut us down."
"Would he have done that?"
"In a heartbeat, if he could get away with it," Tsuyoi sighed. "Of course now he's been attacked he's got that."
"Do you think it could have been one of your classmates?" Genta asked.
Tsuyoi shook his head quickly.
"Not a chance!" he said. "Nobody likes Sensei, it's true. But none of them would actually try to hurt him. Even if they wanted to, the consequences..."
Genta nodded as Tsuyoi trailed off.
"What about Yamagishi-senpai?" Genta asked. Tsuyoi blinked.
"Hanae-san? No way."
"We heard she's been pretty... outspoken," Genta said. "Speaking without caring about the consequences."
"This project is important to her," Tsuyoi said. "She's been offering her help to me from the start. Of course she'd be passionate about keeping it going."
"Did she ever suggest anything violent?" Genta asked.
"What? No!" Tsuyoi exclaimed. Genta said nothing. After a moment the older boy sighed.
"I... I heard a classmate say she wanted to hurt Sensei, so he'd be out of the way. She never said anything to suggest it around me, however."
Genta nodded.
"What about Chouno-sensei? She left the haunted house just before we found Kaniguchi-sensei, and I hear they don't get along."
"We chatted for a while," Tsuyoi replied. "She was checking up on us. She high tailed it when she heard Kaniguchi-sensei was coming."
"So the part about them not getting along..."
"No idea why, but it's true." The older boy nodded. "Nobody's sure why. In fact, I'm not even sure Kaniguchi-sensei knows."
"All right," Genta nodded. "Thanks for your help, Senpai. We really appreciate it, right?"
He directed that last word behind him, where Ai gave a thumbs up. Tsuyoi stifled another laugh. Genta turned to leave, then stopped.
"If I could ask just one more question?" he asked. Tsuyoi nodded and Genta continued. "I noticed you call Yamagishi-senpai by her first name. Are you two...?"
Genta held out his pinky finger and grinned. Tsuyoi's face turned completely red at Genta's implication and held his hands out in front of him.
"No no no no! It's nothing like that!" he stammered. "Really! She's just really into drama, so we just have that in common, that's all. We have very similar tastes in movies and theater, too. So of course we're close." Tsuyoi tilted his head. "Is your friend okay? She's pinching her nose like she has a headache."
"I'm pretty sure that's when Kudo wrote 'oblivious' on her notepad."
"It's nothing," Genta said quickly. "I think everything happening today's just getting to her."
Tsuyoi shrugged and went on.
"Really, it's not like that. I haven't even thought about..." Tsuyoi waved his own pinky finger aimlessly. "Since my girlfriend broke up with me last year."
Genta nodded somberly.
"Sorry I got the wrong idea." Genta bowed deeply to the older boy. "We'll get out of your way now. Thank you very much, Senpai."
With that, Genta and Ai left the boy in the vampire costume to his thoughts.
"He has motive," Takagi said, as much to herself as to the others. "But it didn't sound like there was much desire to act on it. He also had perhaps the least opportunity to attempt anything."
"Barring some kind of trick, at least," Tsubaraya said. "We've seen plenty of ways for someone to accomplish a murder without being physically present."
"That's true," Takagi agreed. Then she turned back to Kojima, who was currently quailing at a glare from Yoshida. "So that was Tsuyoi. What about the other student? The Yamagishi girl?"
"We actually got lucky on that one," Kojima said happily. He turned to Ai Kudo. "Kudo?"
