Whee! I'm actually keeping up with the whole an-update-per-four-days thing! YAY!!!
Ahem, anyways, review replies!
Katiesparks- Yes~ a mystery! XD
Yin7- Thanks!
Miyanoai- Thanks for the compliment!
Yolapeoples- Well, wait no more! For Chapter 5 is HERE!!!
Merialle- The plot…will be revealed in the following chapters. XD
Nataeiy1- I can't say much, but all I'm saying is that sadly, you're wrong. Sorry.
The Shang Kudarung- Well…by the fact that Shinichi had always lived under his father's wealth, he might very well be buying his three meals a day. Besides, if Ran's that good at cooking, what does Shinichi have to do when they're married? XD
Ziraulo- Actually, there's going to be more action in here than a regular kid is suppose to go through. But then again, what's regular with Shinichi?
NOTE- This is a special thanks to nataeiy1 and The Shang Kudarung, for these two had gone through the trouble of leaving a review for every chapter even though they read it after chapter 4 was updated. Thanks!
Tessa: Since Midori-chan is a bit sick, I've taken up this roll. We do not, by any means, own DC. If you doubt this, I will come after you with the biggest bazooka I have in my room here in Ruth's mind. And believe me, it's big.
Me: Yup, that's Tessa, my other muse. Still wondering if I made the right decision in letting her fill Midori-chan's roll. Now, I'll shut up and let you read.
Chapter 5
Later that night, Wataru sat at the table with his father. He couldn't stop thinking about the jade mouse. Just what the heck did those kanji mean?
"What's wrong, Wataru?" His father asked.
"Huh?"
"You've been staring at your favorite meal for the past five minutes. I believe that's enough to make me wonder."
"Oh…it's nothing." Wataru blushed. His father knows him so well. Then he thought about it. Shinichi-kun believed that we could do this on our own, and he didn't want any help from his otou-san, right?
He didn't say anything about my otou-san.
"Ne, Otou-san," Wataru started. "Do you know anything about 'the mouse is first' or something like that?"
His father tapped his chopsticks against his chin, thinking. "Hmmm…I'm not sure. I remember something about the Chinese, but that's all." Wataru sighed. Oh well, at least it's something to start out with.
"Why the sudden interest in mice?" His father asked. Wataru sweated as he quickly shook his head, "It's nothing, just curious, that's all."
The mouse quickly disappeared from his mind as his father asked The Question, "So, how's school?"
Wataru felt his mouth break into a smile, "It was awesome."
DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC
Shinichi tiptoed down the hall. Yuusaku had said that he'd be in his room. So, according to Shinichi's detection, there should be no one in the study right now.
As he opened the door to the study, he looked back out to make sure that there's nobody in the hall to see him. Then he closed the door. Leaning against the door, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his handy mini-flashlight.
Eto…I'm sure I put it somewhere around here… He thought as he looked around for his target. Then he grinned and pulled out the black bed sheet from under the sofa. Now, I just have to get to the door… He placed his flashlight in his mouth and walked back to the door, opening up the sheet as he went. Shinichi knelt in front of the door and began stuffing the sheet into the crack below the door. …there! Now Tou-san won't be able to see the light seeping through! Shinichi thought proudly as he reached up to the light switch and turned the light on.
In front of him were rows and rows of books. Shinichi looked up at the books for the nth time in his still-early life and marveled, for the nth time as well, at the wall of books that's in the study. It never ceased to amaze him just how many books the Kudou household holds.
Shaking away his stupor, Shinichi walked over to the encyclopedias section. He ran his finger over the binds of the Japanese Britannicas, looking for the hiragana he wanted. There's "ka"…and there's "ta"…so, right after that… His finger stopped at the volume that started with "na" and ended with "no". Taking it out, he flipped to the desired page.
"Natsu…namae…nii…Nippon…neko…" He murmured the words as he flipped past them. He then smiled when his word, "nezumi", came up before him. Then he gagged.
The paragraphs were almost entirely in kanji!
Even if he's smarter than most kids in his class, there's no way he would be able to read this all and understand it.
Shinichi thought fast. If he couldn't read this, then the only other person right now is…
No. Not going to Yuusaku. Never.
Shinichi sighed as he closed the encyclopedia and placed it back on the shelf.
"Shinichi?"
Shinichi jumped and the book, half way into its place, fell back out. He slowly turned around and came face to face with an amused Yuusaku at the door.
"T-Tou-san! What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to finish my manuscripts here, that's all." Yuusaku answered. Then he casted a suspicious look on his son. "What are you doing in the study so late? You do have school tomorrow, you know."
"Eh…betsuni…I was just looking for the book I needed for school!" Shinichi quickly thought of the excuse. Yuusaku continued to eye him suspiciously. His son could be telling the truth……that, or he had spent way too much time with his mother.
"Honto?" Yuusaku prodded. Shinichi nodded and grabbed the Britannica from the floor. "See? I've found it! I'm going back to bed now."
As he ran out of the study and down the hall with the heavy book under his arm, Shinichi sighed. Well, maybe I can ask Wataru-senpai to read this tomorrow.
Yuusaku watched his son disappear beyond the door. He knew that his son was lying to him. Frankly, he didn't think any Grade 1 teachers would want their students reading a kanji-filled encyclopedia.
DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC
The next day, Wataru sighed and sat down against the tree. Eating lunch here was always fun. And now that Kurosawa wasn't around to spoil it, Wataru is enjoying every moment of it.
He was about to put his second piece of meat into his mouth when he saw Shinichi running across the playground with a really heavy-looking book in his arms. "Shinichi-kun!"
The young boy stopped and swept his head from side to side to see the person that had called him. He smiled and ran over to Wataru when he saw him. "Wataru-senpai! I've been looking for you!"
"You have?" Wataru blinked. Shinichi panted for a few seconds before straightening up. "I need you to read this to me." He said as he opened the book to the page he had marked last night. Wataru stared at the page about mice and asked, "Shinichi-kun, where on earth did you get this?"
"From my house."
"You have a Britannica at your house?"
"We have the full set." Shinichi said proudly as Wataru stared at the book in disbelief. "Anyways, you have to read this. It might have some sort of clue to our mouse mystery."
Wataru scanned the paragraph and frowned.
Let's see… "A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. It is also a popular pet. Although mice may live up to two and a half years in the lab, the average mouse in the wild only lives about 4 months, primarily owning to heavy predation. Cats, wild dogs, foxes, birds of prey, snakes and even certain kinds of insects have been known to prey heavily upon mice. Nevertheless, because of its remarkable adaptability to almost any environment, and its ability to live commensally with humans, the mouse is regarded to be the second most successful mammalian genus living on earth today, after humans."…what?
"Ano…Shinichi-kun, I don't think we're going to find anything we need here." Wataru said as he finished one paragraph. Shinichi sighed. But he didn't want to give up. He didn't chance getting found out by Yuusaku and kill his back taking the Britannica to school for nothing.
"Let's go to the bookstore again after school." Shinichi said. When Wataru gave him a puzzled look, he added, "Maybe we can find more about the mouse there."
DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC
"This is beautiful."
Shinichi and Wataru heard as they walked into the bookstore. They looked at each other before ducking behind a shelf and peering around the corner.
"Do you know what it is, Iwamoto?"
"No, but I sure wish it was mine."
Haruzame was standing there with another man. The stranger was about Haruzame's age, and he was flipping the jade mouse they found yesterday over and over in his hands, examining every detail of it.
"Haruzame-san!" Shinichi suddenly popped up from their hiding place, nearly scaring Wataru to death. But he quickly pulled himself together and stood up along with Shinichi.
"Who is that man?" Shinichi asked as he pointed to the stranger. Haruzame smiled, "This is Iwamoto. He's an old friend of mine."
Wataru wondered away from the group and wondered to the shelf he found the mouse. Unbeknownst to him though, a creature was crouching just beyond the next shelf.
"Meeerow!"
"AAAH!" Wataru cried where the dark blue fur ball attacked him. This, of course, made him lose his balance and he staggered back, only to fall into the bookshelf behind him. As for what happened next, well, let's just say that it's a good thing that the shelf wasn't too high, and that the distance between each shelf wasn't too close.
"Wataru-senpai! Daijoubu ka?" Shinichi said as he ran up to his friend. Wataru sat up from the sea of books and rubbed his head. "Yeah, I guess I'm okay." Haruzame had followed the young boy, and he chuckled when he saw the scene. "Looks like you've met Ao-chan." The man pushed up his glasses before picking up the cat.
"Ho-honto ni gomenasai!" Wataru said when he saw the mess he had created. Haruzame just chuckled again. "Nah, it doesn't matter. Just help me clean the mess up." Then Wataru and Shinichi began picking up the books along with Haruzame, while Iwamoto just stood of to the side, watching.
Wataru sighed and pouted a little. Why do these things always happen to him?
Then he noticed something glinting in the light. Curious, he pulled it out.
"Hey, check it out! It's another jade statue!" Shinichi was immediately next to him. It was another statue, alright. Though this time, it's one of a dragon. "Does it have anything engraved on it?" Shinichi asked. Wataru turned it over. He frowned. "Well…I can read the 'five'…but I don't think I've ever seen this other kanji before."
"What are you saying? If it's a dragon and has a five like you said, it should be 'ryuu-go', right?"
"But that's just it. This kanji isn't 'ryuu'. It has much more strokes to it." Shinichi ran his hand trough his pocket and pulled out a notepad and a pencil. Then he copied the unknown kanji to a blank page. He frowned, too. "You're right. This kanji isn't 'ryuu'." The two boys continued to stare at their own copy of the kanji when a hand suddenly reached out and took the dragon out of Wataru's hand. "Aah…"
"Lemme see that." Iwamoto said. The man turned it over like he did with the mouse.
Wataru watched the man. He didn't really like him. Then he thought of something and turned to Shinichi. "You know, my father said something about the Chinese. Do you think there's any connection there?" Shinichi thought hard before shaking his head, "If there is, Tou-san never told me about it."
"Yuusaku-san tells you about these kinds of things on regular basis?"
"Yeah, why?" Shinichi asked, puzzled by Wataru's question. Wataru just looked at him weirdly. Then he sighed and shook his head. "I give up. What else does your family do that regular families don't?" When Shinichi just looked at him blankly, Wataru sighed again. "Never mind."
After they finished clearing up the books, Shinichi and Wataru were on their way home. "Hey, Wataru-senpai, why don't you come to my house tomorrow? We can do some more research."
"Sure."
"Hey! Maybe you can even come spend the night! I'm sure your tou-san won't disagree, right?"
Wataru pondered. They weren't doing anything tomorrow, and tomorrow's Friday, which, of course, is also the last day of school before spring break. "I'll ask Otou-san about it."
Well, spending a day with the Kudous won't be too un-normal, right?
To be continued…
Disclaimer 2: The paragragh about the mouse is taken from Wikipedia, give or take a few phrases. okay, more like take a lot of phrases. XD
It's done! This is the farthest I have ever ventured in all my chapter stories! Woohoo!
You know, just the next day of the day I posted chapter 4, I found out that I had gotten 12 reviews. Wow. That's like the most reviews I have ever gotten in such a short time! That just proves what most people are doing on Christmas Eve. XD
Although this is a little off topic (er…story), would the reader of this story please read my other stories? Please?
I love reviews. Don't flame though, or I'll sic Tessa on you. Believe me, not something you want.
~ruth~
Next up: Just what is that mysterious kanji? Truths will be revealed as Wataru and Shinichi take another step into this mystery. Oh, and there will be two surprise guests coming!