Hey, everyone! It seems that my pen is flowing with words, so I decided to squeeze in two chapters in on today's update. So please remember to read the previous chapter if this one doesn't make sense.

To my readers: Please read and review! I'd like to hear your thoughts, and I appreciate any feedback.

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

For his part, Kinta had heard Megu's squeal, but after seeing her blush when Kyuu and Ryuu looked at her, he decided that as her (and Kazuma's) honorary big brother, he didn't want to know. (Actually, he did. He decided to tease her about it later. What were big brothers for?)

He put on a closed eyed smile as he greeted the large, 39-year-old, black-haired guard, Kiski Shintaro. "Hello, Shintaro-san! My friends and I would like to ask you some questions."

The pacing guard came to a stop in front of Kinta. He asked with some confusion, "Why would a bunch of kids want to ask me some questions? What have the cops been reduced to nowadays?"

Kinta's eye twitched, and he held up his notebook. "Actually, we're from DDS."

The guard took a step back. Huh. So he had heard of the school. "Oh, sorry about that. What would you like to know?"

"Where were you when the shooting occurred?"

"I stepped out to have a smoke, so I was in the alleyway" he said, fiddling with a cigarette box in his breast pocket.

"Did anyone know you were there?"

"Yeah, I told the manager where I was going," he explained. "It's required whenever I take a break."

"One more thing−did you know the victim, Tatsuya Hayami?"

The man's shoulders stiffened for a millisecond before relaxing. "No, I can't say I do."

Pasting a pleasant smile on his lips, Kinta said, "Thank you for your time. Please hang around in case we have any questions."

Unbeknownst to the Shintaro-san, Kinta's sharp eyes had caught the body language. Hmm…why did he lie about that?

Meanwhile, Kazuma and Megu were talking to the 29-year-old brunette teller of medium height, Otsuka Fusae.

"So, Otsuka-san, you were here when the shooting occurred?" questioned Megu.

"Ah," she confirmed. "I was counting the money when the guy came in, with a face mask."

"Can anyone verify that?" Kazuma asked.

"Well, Shintaro-san was out on a cigarette break, and the manager was somewhere else, so I guess not," she replied easily.

"Can you tell us anything else about the masked robber?" Megu said, hoping to jog the teller's memory.

"Hmm…I guess not. But maybe the security video recorded something? Oh! That's right, I did notice something strange."

"What was it?" asked Kazuma, his curiosity growing.

"Before the shooting occurred, I tried to use the restroom, but the door was locked. When I looked for the key to it, I couldn't find it."

"Huh," said Megu. "That IS odd. Is there a reason it could have been locked?"

"None. Everything here at the bank-the restrooms, the security cameras-must be functional in order to provide security to our top clients."

"Hmm. We'll have to investigate that matter. What about the victim? Did you know him?" Kazuma glanced up from typing into his computer.

"Yes, Hayami-san, right? Boy, he was so annoying."

The two DDS students exchanged glances. "Annoying how?" Megu asked tentatively.

"Every time he came in, he kept flirting with me and bragging about his wealth and success earned as a doctor. He would say that I should just leave my job and marry him-that way, I wouldn't have to worry about money. He was pretty rude about it too-like he didn't believe women should earn their own money, and that they couldn't do as well as men in their careers."

"Ugh," Megu said with disgust.

"You said it, sister."

"Okay, we'll let you know if we have any more questions," said Kazuma. He was all for equal rights of women, but had no desire to hear how he and other males were sexist pigs. Desperately, he scanned the area for a distraction. Hmm…it seemed that Kyuu and Ryuu needed some help. Ryuu seemed to be exchanging words with the uncooperative manager, while Kyuu stood off to the side, massaging his head as if he could get rid of the annoyance that way.

Kazuma arrived just in time to hear Ryuu say, "If I hear you say, 'I can't give away company secrets one more time…"

Wow. The 41-year-old, glasses-wearing manager Kawazu Kiyoshi must really be testing the limits of the blue-haired boy's patience if he was resorting to threatening the man for answers. He decided to intervene before Ryuu decided to actually inflict bodily damage on the manager. (He didn't doubt that it could happen-Ryuu had that kind of atmosphere around him.) "What's going on here?" he asked after getting Kyuu's attention.

Kyuu's arms were crossed. "Kawazu-san here won't answer any of our questions, claiming that it was to protect company and client information."

"Hmm. Let me try," Kazuma said thoughtfully. Despite Kyuu's protests, he stepped right in between Ryuu and the manager, and looked up at the glasses-wearing man.

At the sight of the computer genius' face, the manager's stubborn frown turned into a pleasant smile. "Ah, Narusawa-san! How may I help you?"

Kyuu and Ryuu were shocked. After all this time, they just found out how to get the manager to talk? All that time was wasted for nothing…

"Hi, Kawazu-san! What I would like you to do is answer our questions. This is for a police investigation, and I would hate for your lack of cooperation to lead to, say, the loss of business dealings with the Narusawa family."

The manager's composure dropped, leaving him a stammering mess. "O-of course, Narusawa-san. I will help you and the police to the best of my ability!"

Between snickers at the manager's bad fortune, Kyuu managed to ask Ryuu, "Just how much money does Narusawa-san have?" The other boy was shaking with silent laughter, and merely shrugged in response.

Kazuma saw them shaking with laughter and rolled his eyes at their unprofessionalism (even if he himself was hiding a knowing smirk). "Now, Kawazu-san, where were you when the shooting occurred?"

"I was in my office, making a phone call with an important client. I heard the gunshot through the door, and after waiting a few minutes to make sure it was safe, emerged. By that time, the shooter was gone."

Ryuu had recovered from his bout of laughter, and asked, "Can your client verify that?"

"No," the manager shook his head. "He's the head of a very wealthy family, a very busy businessman in the middle of an important project. He would not appreciate the disruption."

Kyuu frowned. So there was no way to prove his alibi. He then cleared his throat, and decided to tackle the questioning from another angle. "Did you know the victim?"

"Yes. Tatsuya Hayami was a 35-year-old decently wealthy doctor. He was very proud, and somewhat of a flirt. He tended to linger by Otsuka's booth a little longer than necessary. However, it seemed that she wasn't enough to make him stay at this bank-he often talked about taking his money somewhere else"

"Was there a reason why anyone would kill him?" Ryuu asked.

"Well, the hospital he is employed at had some complaints about surgical procedures. Maybe it was something related?"

"That does seem like something worth researching," Kyuu mused. He turned to the other two. "Let's go and see what Kinta and Megu found out. It sounds like we still have some work to do before solving this case!"