Thanks for the reviews, desamontello12 and D C JoKeR HS!

desamontello12: And of course, it would be about his feelings, not about his detective work

DC JoKeR H S: We'll see about that! ;)

To my readers: Please read and review! I'd like to hear your thoughts about this story, and I appreciate any feedback you give (except flames).

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

Back at the crime scene

As Megu made her way to her assigned crime scene, she fumed, imaginary clouds of steam and sparks shooting off her head. How could Kyuu be so cold? She was just trying to be nice to him, but look where that got her! That baka!

Her anger was so immediate and obvious that Kazuma and Kinta had taken one look at her and promptly zoomed off to their respective crime scenes. They had seen the worst side of her temper in the past (especially Kinta, who had snuck into the women's bath with Kyuu during that case), and they would like to live a little longer, thank you very much.

But back to Megu. By now, she had reached Toyoda-san's cubicle and after stomping to her heart's content, she had calmed down and actually started to feel a little embarrassed over the mini-temper tantrum she had just thrown. However, the embarrassment was replaced by concentration. Just because she was upset didn't mean she could let it interfere with her job as a detective-in-training.

She looked over the office, and wondering where she should start first. However, before she could snap on her gloves, her cell phone started ringing. Pulling the device out and looking at the caller ID, she saw that it was Kazuma, and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Ryuu just called me from the coroner's office, and he said that they think he was killed with a poison, which they are still trying to narrow down. Since the poisoner wouldn't have time to leave the premises before the police arrived, the carrying container is most likely still here at the crime scene. He asked us to look for it."

"Okay. Thanks for the update."

Both DDS students hung up at the same time, and Megu continued where she left off. Slipping the gloves on, she started to sort through the desk, from top to bottom. There were multiple office supplies, such as a hole puncher, a stapler, a calculator, and a paperweight, all at the side of the desk. There were also a lot of papers to sort through, and Megu ended up learning and memorizing more about the company's financial statements and budgets than she really wanted to know.

She was just about to give up when she saw the dim light bouncing off something in the back of the bottom side drawer in the desk. Pulling it out, she saw that it was a piece of paper. A strange symbol was etched onto it. Something stirred in the back of her mind. Where had she seen it before?

As she sat back and sifted through her memories, she froze as if a lightning bolt had struck her. Of course! It was the slip of paper they had found prior to finding Kyuu!

As Megu was crouched down behind the desk, though, she suddenly realized how quiet it was. Which was strange, since she was pretty sure that she had left the door open behind her. Even if the workers in the office had left, she should have been able to hear the sounds of the police officers on the scene.

Unless…somebody came in shut the door behind her. And the police officers knew she was in there! So why…

Quickly, she made her way out from under the desk. However, she didn't notice that she had jostled the desk in her haste. She didn't see the paperweight, which was now hanging half off the desk, fall. One minute, she was staring at the dingy carpet, and the next thing she knew, everything had gone black.

Meanwhile, after passing Ryuu's message on to Megu and Kinta, Kazuma found himself in the meeting room, scouring every inch of it in hopes of finding some evidence. However, he wasn't having much luck.

Are all meeting rooms this clean?

He supposed it did make some sense. The meeting room was pretty bare, with a large table with accompanying chairs that would be enough to seat all of the department heads. Evidence-wise, all he would find would be fingerprints, and because so many people used it at different times of the day, that would be pointless to look for. The only other thing in the room was a phone, since any of the members of the meeting could have someone at the front desk asking to speak to them. He decided to check the phone records anyway. He had a feeling that it could be a big clue…

Speaking of big clues, he did find some shredded paper in the wastebasket. They looked like they came from the same documents, so he decided to bag it and solve that puzzle later as he moved on to Kawamata-san's office.

There, he found that the vice president's office was just as neat as the meeting room, if not more decorated. However, the decorations were just that-decorations. Her desk was neat and tidy, and nothing stood out to him. Abandoning the desk, he looked in the file cabinets and searched under the carpet and inside the bookcases, and still found nothing. Looking toward the door, though, he saw that Kawamata-san's coat was hanging on the door. Maybe…

Searching through the pockets, he stilled when he found what felt like a small box that could fit in his hand. He took the mysterious object out, and saw that it was a carrying case for contact lenses.

Huh. Why would Kawamata-san have contact lenses if she wore glasses?

Finding nothing else, he decided to look for his classmates so that they could meet up.

Kinta hung up after hearing the message Kazuma had passed on for Ryuu. It sounded like the blue-haired boy and Kyuu were handling things pretty well on their end. He was glad-he had felt guilty about not going, but he still wasn't sure exactly where he stood with his father. If they had been the ones left together, Kinta would bet that either they would start arguing or that they would just sit together in awkward silence. He wasn't sure which would have been worse, and he was thankful he didn't have to experience either choice just yet.

He forced himself to stop thinking about his family issues as he opened the door, stepped into the lobby, and started walking towards Akiyama-san's desk.

What? Contrary to his appearance, he did know when to be serious. He was a Class Q detective of DDS, after all.

Like Megu and Kazuma, he started searching through the receptionist's desk first. As he sorted through the post-it-notes, pens, and papers left in neat piles on the desk, he didn't find anything that really stood out. Actually, scratch that. He had found a notepad that was completely blank, while the others at least had something written in each one. However, this one seemed to have a page torn off, and after checking the wastebasket, he decided he would have to find another way to restore the note…

Other than that, there was nothing significant in the drawers. He would have to let Kazuma look at the phone and the computer, though, in case they yielded any clues.

The martial arts practitioner then turned his attention to the lobby. Other than a few lost-and-found items left behind-a book, a water bottle, an umbrella, and a newspaper-there didn't seem-

Wait. A bottle of water? The victim didn't seem to have any reason to consider suicide. And from what Ryuu had said, the victim had ingested it. Maybe it was mixed with the water in the bottle? Kina decided to bag it carefully, in case fingerprints could be found on the bottle.

Looking around the rest of the lobby, he didn't see anything else out of place. He started walking out of the door-he had to show Megu and Kazuma his findings. However, before he could do anything, the sound of rushed footsteps met his ears.

Kazuma burst in, and at his expression, Kinta's face darkened, all traces of humor vanishing. Pulse rushing, he asked, "What happened?"

"Megu is missing."