Slight Hesitance
4
Disclaimer: I own neither Detective Conan nor Naruto.
Hinata nervously twiddled with her fingers as she walked alongside her new teacher, Kobayashi-sensei. Conan-kun had said that it would seem suspicious and weird if a seven year old girl like her doesn't go to school, so he took the liberty of enrolling her into his and Haibara-san's school, Teitan Elementary.
"Wait here for a moment, Hinata-chan," Kobayashi-sensei gently smiled.
"H-hai," Hinata nodded obediently, wringing her fingers together.
Sensei then entered the classroom of Class 1-B, "Ohayou, minna-san!"
"Ohayou, Kobayashi-sensei!" The class chorused.
"Today we have a new student joining us!" Kobayashi grinned, her hands on her hips.
The students burst into a chatter, whispering about the student, "I wonder if it's a boy or a girl," "I hope we don't get some boring kid," "I hope we can be friends!"
Kobayashi raised her hand, signalling for the class to silence. Once no sound was heard, she clapped her hands merrily, "Now! Shall I introduce her to you?"
"She! It's a she!"
"I hope she's cute!"
Hinata blushed, knocking on the door quietly, before she slowly opened it. She let her gaze wander around the room, a smile appearing on her face as she set her eyes onto Conan and Haibara.
Kobayashi took the young girl's hand, bringing her in front of the whole class, "Class, meet Hyuuga Hinata-chan, she will be learning with us starting today," She took a chalk and wrote the characters for Hinata's name on the board.
"Waa! Kawaii!"
Hinata played with her dress' hem, biting her lip nervously, "O-ohayou gozaimasu... M-minna-san," she bowed.
"Ne, Hinata-chan," Sensei started, "Why don't you sit next to Conan-kun?"
"H-hai, sensei."
Doing as Kobayashi-sensei said, she set her bag down on her table, picking out the appropriate materials for the current subject.
She was a bit nervous for her first day in elementary, since she hadn't gone to school since she was twelve.
At least Conan-kun and Haibara-san are here...
Hinata slung her backpack over her shoulder, following Conan-kun and Haibara-san, who were both talking to three children of the same age they were currently in.
"Ah! Isn't this the girl from earlier? Kawaii!" The girl with short brunette hair gushed upon noticing Hinata, grinning enthusiastically.
"What was her name again? Juuga Anata?" Thechubby boy questioned, squinting his eyes.
The boy with freckles frowned, shaking his head disapprovingly, "Iie, Genta-kun! Her name's Hyuuga Hinata!"
The girl giggled, "Mou, you're so forgetful, Genta-kun."
The chubby boy, identified as Genta, blushed, "I didn't forget! I just didn't remember!"
"Isn't that the same thing?" The two laughed at Genta.
"A-ano..." A small, sweet voice interrupted them, "M-my name's H-Hyuuga Hi-Hinata," Hinata bowed, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu..."
The girl with short brunette hair stepped in front of the white-eyed girl, "Yoshida Ayumi! You can call me Ayumi-chan, Hinata-chan!"
"Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko. Pleased to be your acquaintance, Hyuuga-san."
"The name's Kojima Genta," he grinned, "How ya' doin'?"
They turned to Conan and Haibara, who were both whispering to each other. "Conan-kun, Haibara-san! You should introduce yourselves to Hyuuga-san!" Mitsuhiko said.
"I-it's alright, Mitsuhiko-kun. I a-already know th-them..."
Ayumi ran to the two, "Waa! Honto, Conan-kun? Why didn't you guys introduce her sooner!"
Haibara rolled her eyes, "I just met her yesterday. Edogawa-kun met her two nights ago. I heard that her parents are a friend of Hakase's."
"Hakase should have told us then!"
"Don't go complain to me."
"Anyway," Conan said in a loud voice, "What do you guys want to do today?"
Genta gasped, "That's right! We should check if any cases have been sent to my shoe locker!"
"C-cases?" Hinata tilted her head curiously.
"Yeah! 'Cause we're the Detective Boys!" Genta grinned, "We get these cool cases and solve them for our client!"
"Ah..." Hinata thought it was kinda similar to the system for missions back home.
"Hurry up, guys!" Ayumi ran ahead, grinning as she did so.
Conan sighed, "Oi, oi. No need to hurry. It's not like it'll magically disappear."
The three enthusiastic kids of the Detective Boys held their breaths as Genta slowly opened the shoe locker's door.
Nothing.
"Aww!" They groaned, slumping their shoulders. Genta sluggishly took his outdoor shoes out.
"Ne, why don't we celebrate Hyuuga-san's joining of the Detective Boys?" Haibara suggested, hoping that they would stop whining.
"Yeah! Let's go to that new cafe that opened near Conan-kun's home!"
Ayumi grabbed Hinata's wrist running ahead of the others, "Last one there is a rotten egg!"
"No fair, you got a head start!"
"Come on, Haibara-san! We're gonna get left behind!"
"Oi!" Conan raised his voice in a feeble attempt to gain the children's attention. He sighed, his eyebrow twitching as he trudge toward the direction they had ran off to.
"Sugoi!" The real children gasped, looking around enthusiastically. They had just entered the new cafe, Altamont[1]. The whole place was decorated for the holiday. Every nook and cranny was filled with ornaments for Christmas. Fake snowflakes hung from the ceiling, each on varying in length of string, and in size. Beside the entrance was a Christmas tree that was decorated with ornaments, glitter littered around it.
Hinata gaped, amazed at the beautiful display, "I-it's so pretty..."
A woman, who looked to be in her mid-20s, welcomed them and led them to a table nearby.
They each took a menu and began contemplating on their orders. Genta was practically drooling at all the food listed, "I want everything!"
Mitsuhiko shook his head, "Genta-kun! We don't have enough money!"
"B-but... Look!" Genta tried to persuade him, showing him the pictures of each cake, cookie, cupcake, etc.
"Yes, I know they look quite delicious Genta-kun, but we should be considering our money first!"
"Ex-excuse me..." Hinata quietly interrupted, managing to catch the arguing boys' attention, "If Genta-kun really wa-wants everything... I c-could pay f-for the bill..."
Her father had always requested that she bring a large amount of money, 'just in case'. She didn't really have much use to that money, so she thought of spending for her new friends.
Genta blinked, before flailing his arms, "N-no no! You don't need to do that!" He also seemed to have a slight blush due to her kindness.
"If you're sure..." She smiled sweetly, her eyes crinkling.
Turning to her head to the right, she noticed that both Conan and Haibara were wearing uninterested looks.
"Ne, Cona—" Ayumi was interrupted when suddenly, a police car parked in front of the cafe, its sirens blaring.
Hinata immediately activated her byakugan, carefully masking her bulging veins with a genjutsu. Upon activating, she looked around with her byakugan, searching the entire cafe before her pearly white eyes stopped on what looked like a woman's body.
"Hinata-chan!" Blinking, she saw Conan waiting for her, outstretching his hand, "Come on! Let's go see what it is!"
They pushed through the crowd of people, both curious to what the fuss is about. Conan expected it to be another murder, as one always seem to happen around him.
Seeing Megure-keibu and Takagi-keiji, Conan knew his assumption was correct. Both men noticed him, Hinata, and his other friends, who finally made it out of the crowd, "Conan-kun!"
"What's going on?" Conan innocently asked.
Takagi took out his PNB[2], flipping through the pages before eventually stopping, "A woman by the name of Sumiko Fujioka was found dead insi—"
"Takagi!" Megure bellowed, his loud voice stopping the younger man from continuing, "That is not information that children should know."
"B-but, he always helps us on cases like this," he weakly tried to reason.
Conan slumped his shoulders in disappointment when Takagi was interrupted by Megure. Grrreeaattt. How was he going to know about the case? Well, he supposed that he could sneak around and see the crime scene himself.
Quietly, he sneaked pass Takagi and Megure, who were both still talking.
Once inside the restroom, he saw a few drops of blood near an open stall. He noticed that the restroom was notably hot. Was it already like this earlier?
He cautiously walked towards it, peering inside the open stall. Instantly, he paled at the sight. A young woman was lying down on the floor, on her side, next to the toilet. There was a large gash on her neck, where blood was still oozing. Next to her, mixed with blood, was a puddle of water. Her right hand laid limply on that puddle of mixed water/blood. Her lifeless, dilated pupils stared at the ceiling.
The weapon must be a sharp knife or something. But how come there is water mixed with the blood?
In the midst of thinking, he failed to notice the rest of the Detective Boys, who also sneaked past the two men, as they began eyeing the victim.
Megure-keibu probably ordered to have no one come in, and to have no one come out already. That means the culprit and the weapon could still be in this cafe.
Hinata inspected the woman from a distance, her still activated byakugan helping her with the inspection.
"Conan-kun."
Said boy swivelled his head in her direction upon hearing his name, "Nani?"
She walked towards the corpse, dropping down to her knees. Though she wasn't as good as Sakura when it came to being a medic, she learned quite a lot from both the pink-haired girl and her master.
"Th-the muscular tissues haven't become r-rigid yet. They are s-still capable of c-contraction. S-so, she must have d-died recently, before th-three hours ago."
Conan checked it himself before confirming with a nod, "Right."
"Wh-what are you kids doing here?"
Takagi tried to push them out of the crime scene before anything happens, "This isn't a place for playing games! You should go home right now!"
"Waa! But, Takagi-keiji!"
"Takagi!" Megure entered, "We just received word that the rigor mortis hasn't set yet, so she probably died under three hours ago. Go to the manager and go see the security tapes from within 4:38 PM, the time she was discovered, to 1:38 PM. Watch and see who were going in and out of this restroom."
"Hai!" Quickly, Takagi left to follow Megure's order.
"Now..." Megure faced the children, "You guys should let us police take care of this. It is our job after a—"
"Ne, keibu. Can you tell us a bit more about the woman? Like... Does she have any complications with anyone? Does she have a job?"
Megure sighed dejectedly, "Fine... From what our sources gathered, she had graduated from her university a few months ago with her boyfriend, who she found out was cheating on her several times already. She is currently unemployed, but we were told that she wanted to be a famous sculptor one day, particularly an ice sculptor."
"Is that so..." Conan bit his thumb's nail in deep thought.
"Megure-keibu!" Tagaki seemed to be back already, carrying a pile of tapes, "There were a lot of women coming in and out of this restroom, and I couldn't keep track of them all. I borrowed the tapes so that we could watch them and identify their identities later."
Hinata let her gaze wander to a nearby window, watching as snowflakes dropped from above. Small icicles, placed on the roof's edge, glistened slightly. Then, her eyes widened in realization.
She placed her hand on Conan's shoulder, shaking it slightly, "C-Conan-kun!"
Conan was shook off of his thoughts as she did so, "Nani?"
"Ice!"
"What do you mea—" Much like what Hinata did earlier, he widened his eyes. It wasn't long before his face melted into a smirk.
So that's how it is!
1: Altamont, the alias used by Sherlock Holmes in the story "His Last Bow".
2: A police notebook, pocket notebook or PNB is a notebook used by policeofficers to officially record details and incidents while on patrol.
A/N: Heheee! Sorry for the long wait, I just couldn't think of what to write! T.T Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think about it in the reviews. This is my first time plotting a 'murder', so I don't really know what to do ^^; There's still more to come, so please come back once in a while to check if I have updated(That'll be a looong time, though.).