Thanks for reviewing, D C JoKeR H S and desamontello12! I'm glad that I can still surprise you this late in the story!

To my readers: Please read and review! I'd like to hear your thoughts, and I appreciate any feedback. Warning: Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson will stop any flames with his water powers (sorry, I ran out of elemental anime characters who I knew).

Disclaimer: I do not own Detective School Q. Amagi Seimaru, Sato Fumiya, and Animax do.

For the first ten minutes, the ride home was silent, as everyone tried to figure out how Kyuu had been able to swim.

And how Kyuu was able to defeat such a dangerous opponent in the water. That, too.

But they were more preoccupied with the first thing.

All of them had realized that he had most likely picked it up during his time missing, However, they were curious about the specifics, and were now racking their brains trying to figure out how to broach the subject without reminding him about the torture he had gone through.

After a few minutes, Kyuu, who was in the passenger seat of the DDS vehicle (that was currently being driven by Ryuu), sighed with exasperation and twisted his upper body around to face Kinta, Kazuma, and Megu. "If you want to ask me about how I got my newfound swimming abilities so badly, just go ahead. I won't be upset."

Ryuu's lips twitched as the three DDS students visibly jumped, their eyes wide. How did Kyuu know what they had been thinking?

"D-did you just read our minds?!" Kinta blurted out in surprise. When his mind caught up to what he just said, he started to turn red, only to turn redder at everyone's snickers.

"No," Kyuu replied, his smirk now visible. "Given what just happened at the pool, it was obvious what you were thinking. And your thoughts were perfectly natural-you guys must have been pretty shocked when I came up with Sugase-san in tow. Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks for keeping me away from the pool while we were interrogating suspects, you guys."

This time, everyone blushed. Megu spoke up, "Sorry, Kyuu. We didn't mean to offend you-"

Kyuu waved her off. "It's fine. Like I said before, it was natural, since you didn't know I could swim."

"So," Kazuma piped up. "How did you learn how to swim? And defeat Sugase-san?"

Kyuu replied, after a moment of hesitation. "Well, do you guys remember how Pluto trained me for about a month after my first…torture session?" After receiving four nods, Kyuu continued. "Well, little by little, I was taught how to swim. At the same time, I was receiving lessons in underwater hand-to-hand combat. Eventually, they put me in a pool with an opponent I had never seen before, and I was told that if I didn't defeat him in underwater combat, something bad would happen."

"Something bad?" asked Ryuu, his eyes darting to Kyuu's in concern before they returned to the road.

Kyuu gave a short nod, a frown of regret on his lips. "During those first few days, I lost multiple times. However, soon I realized that when they said 'something bad,' they meant a few lashes with a whip for me. But the winners…I never saw them again…"

Kazuma and Ryuu's sharp intakes of breath as they realized what had happened to the unfortunate winners caught Kyuu's attention. "What?" he asked warily.

Kazuma explained about the local legend surrounding Kuzuryuu Takumi's house of horrors (A/N: read Chapter 2 if you don't remember it!). When he got to the part about the explorers turning up dead, or alive but missing their memories, Kyuu didn't look surprised-he just gave a resigned nod. "I suspected as much. After all, they were willing to kill their own members if any of them divulged Pluto's secrets to outsiders. They probably couldn't risk the winners telling everyone about what happened…"

Hoping to lighten the mood, Kinta asked, "But what about the people who were alive?"

Kinta's attempt worked, as Kyuu perked up. "Oh, I convinced Pluto that I could erase their memories of the house, and of Pluto as soon as they woke up from their unconscious states. I don't really like hypnotizing people, but if I can get them away from Pluto alive, I would gladly do it."

Everyone smiled as they hid their mixed emotions. They were happy that their friend had made it through his six months with Pluto with his values intact. However, they were still upset that he had to go through it at all…

Just then, Ryuu stiffened as a realization hit him, glancing at Kyuu again. "Do you think Pluto will come after you, since you escaped?"

The mood dampened almost immediately. Kyuu gave him a calculating look, although he quickly hid it behind a reassuring smile. "Well, I'm sure some others have escaped and still survive to this day. As long as I keep my face away from the press, I should be okay. Then again," he continued with a nonchalant tone, "I think that after that last torture session, Odin had left me to die, so I don't know if Pluto knows if I'm still even alive."

As the others exhaled breaths of relief, Ryuu had frozen, his knuckles white on the steering wheel as he stared ahead blankly. Does Kyuu know about my past with Pluto, and King Hades? Will I have to leave?

He then dismissed the thought, relaxing his grip. If Kyuu knew, he would have alerted DDS. Or at the very least, kicked me out of his and Renjo-san's house. He then turned his attention to the road and to the conversation going on behind him.

He didn't see Kyuu give him a sympathetic look before continuing exchanging words and jokes with the three DDS students in the back.

One case down, two to go!