Ahhh! I'm one day behind schedule!!!!!!! No!!!!! DX
Ahem, I'm soooo sorry for the delay! It's just that, with new years and all I haven't been able to finish this chapter before yesterday. I'm soooo sorry!
Review replies!
The Shang Kudarung- WATA-CHIBI-PLUSHIE-CHAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!*glomps* Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you soooo much! Wata-chibi-plushie: Can't…breathe…
Takashi-neesan- Hey there! Thanks so much for reading! And thank you for your compliment on my grammar!
Merialle- I am trying very hard to keep up with my an-update-per-four-days policy. And you'll just have to read the chapter to find out who the surprise guests are.
Yin7- Yup, they're going to be good friends. Thanks for reading!
Katiesparks- I'm sorry to say this, but I'm more used to writing about non-main characters. I mean the MAJOR ones. I'm always afraid that I'd screw them up or something. I'm already taking a big step by writing about Shinichi. Don't want to venture into Heiji's or Kaito's mind before I'm ready yet. Who know what I'd find in there. Besides, what would Heiji be doing all the way in Tokyo, anyways? XD
Nataeiy1- No, no! I'm not saying it's bad or anything. You can guess all you want! Really! I don't mind! Besides, you can be a good helper in letting me know if I'm a good suspense writer or not. But then again, if your mind is like Shinichi's, then that's hardly necessary. XD
Yolapeoples- Well, I have the upper hand in this because I know Chinese. XD I'm sorry if you find things hard to follow, though. I'll try to make it understandable to people who know no Japanese or Chinese whatsoever.
Miyanoai- If he knocked over those shelves, I'll give him a million yen and tell him to go on a trip around the world. XD
Ziraulo- You'll know who the guests are as soon as you begin to read the chapter! And Tessa is my supposedly American cartoon muse, while Midori-chan is my anime/manga one. Midori-chan got sick a while ago, so Tessa's filling up the roll of the disclaimer.
Shinigami- That'll come along later. Thanks for reading, BTW!
Me: Hey Tessa! The Shang Kudarung said hi!
Tessa: Hey. Anyways, don't own DC. And Midori-chan, stop poking me in the ribs!!!
Midori: But I wanna do the disclaimeeeeer. Ah-CHOOO!
Chapter 6
The next day of school was like a blur. Wataru barely remembered what the teachers were saying. Oh well, it's most likely about things like what not to do and where not to go during spring break, or wishing everyone a happy rest of the following week.
Wataru was very happy when he heard the bell ring.
His father had immediately agreed to his little trip to Shinichi's house. His father was glad that Wataru was finally getting along with some friends. Of course, Wataru didn't let his father know that said friend was a head shorter than him and came from an extraordinary family.
Very extraordinary family.
Gathering the things on his desk, he stuffed them in his backpack and looked over the things he had brought for his night at Shinichi's house. Upon seeing that everything was in place, he happily closed the backpack and got out of the classroom.
Shinichi was waiting for him by the main gate, continuously kicking a soccer ball against the wall. "Shinichi-kun!" Wataru called and ran up to him. Shinichi stopped the ball at his feet and smiled up at the taller boy. "Hey, Wataru-senpai! It took you forever. Let's go!" He dribbled the soccer ball as he began to walk away. Wataru looked at him with interest, "You like soccer?"
"Yeah! It's the best sport in history!" Shinichi replied as he kicked the ball a few times before kicking it up and balancing it on his head. Wataru found himself again marveling at all the things Shinichi could do.
"Ne, what do you think that kanji is?" Shinichi suddenly asked. Wataru snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh, the kanji…I don't know. I flipped through that Elementary Dictionary that the school gave us, but I couldn't find it anywhere."
Shinichi frowned, letting the ball fall from his head and unto his knee. He began bouncing it. "It's weird. Why is there a kanji that we can't read? I mean, most kanjis were already taught in Grade 6, right?" Wataru nodded.
"Then why can't you find it?"
"Wakarana-"
Wataru's response was cut off by a yelp when someone bumped into him while they were turning around the corner. He fell back onto the ground and held his face, the part of his body that had received most of the impact.
"Ah! Gomenasai!" A voice said. Wataru opened one eye to look at the one that had run in to him. He froze.
"Daijoubu ka, boya? I'm so sorry. I wasn't really watching where I was going." In front of him stood a girl with short, dark hair. Unconsciously, Wataru read the tag on the girl's backpack. "…Middle School Grade 2 Class F…" The name was out of his line of vision.
"Heh…you're from Teitan Elementary, eh? I used to go there, too." The girl said. It took Wataru a while to realize that she could see the tag on his backpack, too. "That means I'm your senpai, ne?" The girl winked her huge violet eyes. Wataru blushed.
"What grade are you in?" The girl asked casually.
"S-six…" He stuttered, face turning redder by the second. The girl giggled, "You're so cute."
Three words, that's all it took. Wataru's eyes took shape of tiny dots, and he could feel his face turning beet red.
"Hola, Miwako!" Wataru was vaguely aware of a long-haired girl's words. "Come on! The bus is leaving!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming." The girl in front of him replied, and then she turned to him. "Really sorry about that, boya. Bye!" And with that, the girl left and hurried after the other girl onto the bus, protesting as they went, "Mou, Yumi, you really have no patience at all…"
Wataru, still on the ground, watched as the bus drove away.
"Yoo-hoo…earth to Wataru-senpai!"
"Huh?" Wataru blinked. He hadn't heard Shinichi call him. In fact, he had forgotten all about the short friend of his. Shinichi leaned into his face with a toothy smirk. "Wataru-senpai…you're blu-u-ushing!" He sang. Which, of course, made Wataru blush even more (if that's even possible) as he quickly shook his head, "Chi-chigau, it's not like that…"
But Shinichi was already bouncing down the street with the soccer ball in his hands, singing for the entire world to hear, "Wataru-senpai is in LO-O-O-OVE!!!!"
"Shi-Shinichi-kun!"
And a game of cat and mouse began.
DCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDCDC
When they finally settle down, they were already in front of Shinichi's house. Wataru took one look at it and gaped. "Th-that's your house?"
"Yup." Shinichi said proudly. "Now, you can close your mouth so that we can go in?" Wataru shook his head. Of course they lived in a mansion. With Yuusaku-san being who he is…it's not…it shouldn't be so surprising.
As he followed Shinichi into the house, he prepared himself for what he's about to see inside.
"Tadaima!" He and Shinichi chorused as they walked through the door. When no one responded them, Shinichi frowned. "Weird, Tou-san said he'd be home…" They left their shoes and the ball at the door and wandering into the house. When Shinichi got to the door of the study, a piece of paper could be seen taped to the frame. "Eh?" Shinichi ripped the paper from its place and read it with Wataru reading over his shoulder.
"Shinichi,
The editors are coming here. Going out to hide. There are some cookies in the fridge. Sorry I couldn't make it. Tell Wataru-kun I said hi.
Tou-san"
The boys stared at the paper for a few seconds before Shinichi's mouth broke into a smirk. "Well, at least that means he won't be trying to cook anything."
"Shinichi-kun…"
"Eh?"
"There's something on the other side…"
Frowning, Shinichi turned the paper over.
"PS- by the way, look up the Chinese Zodiac. That will help."
This time, Shinichi pouted, "He found out!" Then he raised an eyebrow. "What's Zodiac?" Wataru thought for a moment, "Well, I remember learning about it in history class. It's something about the Chinese having twelve animals for each year in order. And the first one was…" His eyes widened when it hit him, "…the mouse!"
Several minutes later, after Wataru was done gaping at the Wall of Books (it shall be forever capitalized like that in his mind) in the study, they were on the ground, looking at the Chinese Zodiac chart they found in one of the Britannicas.
"Okay, so in order, we have the mouse, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the ram, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig." Shinichi concluded as he copied the kanjis from the book into his notepad. "But, if the fifth really is the dragon, then why doesn't the kanji match?" He frowned as he compared the kanji "ryuu" to the one he had copied earlier from the jade statue.
"You know…" Wataru said, a hand to his chin, thinking.
"Nani?"
"…could it be that it's written in Chinese?" He took the kanji of the statue out of Shinichi's hand and looked at it. "My sensei told us that even though most of our kanjis came from China, we simplified some of them. Could it be that this kanji is actually the traditional way to write 'ryuu'?"
Shinichi frowned. Then he went to the Wall of Books and took out a Chinese-Japanese dictionary. Wataru fought the urge to ask just what books do they not have.
"It's a match!" Shinichi cried happily as he compared the copied kanji to the one in the dictionary.
"So, if we have the mouse and the dragon, this means there must be ten more, right?" Wataru concluded. "Do we have to search the entire bookstore for them?"
"Ia." Shinichi replied as he flipped to a new page in her notebook and began drawing a diagram of the bookstore. "Most of the shelves in the bookstore were arranged vertically. There are five in the back and four in the second row, counting from the back, with two each on the either side of the big square show-case in the middle." Shinichi said as he drew.
"But the four shorter ones that are in front of the counter were placed horizontally, with two each at both sides of an opening. There are also two longer shelves in front of the four horizontal shelves, placed horizontally as well. This…" Shinichi wrote a one on the most top left shelf. "…was where you found the mouse. And this…" Shinichi wrote a five on the shelf that's on the bottom left of the one-shelf. "…was the one you knocked over."
"Demo, Shinichi-kun, there are fifteen shelves in total. We only need twelve, right?" Wataru asked.
"Oi, we're not sure that it's one statue per shelf yet." Shinichi said with half-moon eyes. Then they looked intently at the diagram he had drawn. Wataru frowned. "This doesn't make any sense. If we assume that the statues were hidden in order, then the dragon should have been in the fifth shelf, which, depending on how you count it, is either the top right one or the one next to the one-shelf." Wataru pointed at the two afore mentioned shelves. "So, why is it in the one that's bottom right to the one-shelf?"
They two boys stared at the diagram for a few more minutes, each processing any possibility that they might have missed.
"…ne, Wataru-senpai?"
"Eh?"
"What time is it?"
"Eh…ah…" Wataru, a little thrown off by this off-topic question, quickly looked at his watch. "…it's…it's almost five thirty."
"Well…Tou-san usually buys dinner at seven thirty…which means we have two hours. Let's go to the book store again."
Wataru decided not to ask what he meant by "usually buys dinner".
To be continued…
Hah! It was Satou Miwako and Miyamoto Yumi! Give it up for the future policewomen! Woohoo!
Is it just me, or are my Author's Notes longer than before? XD
Yes, I decided to make it that Miwako and Yumi knew each other since middle school. And I'm guessing Yumi's age is somewhere between Wataru's and Miwako's, thus making her a seventh grader (middle school year one student).
Reviews are much loved!
~ruth~
Next up: They have found what the kanji stand for! Now, all they have to do is find the other statues! But what is this feeling? It's like someone's watching…