Thanks for reviewing, desamontello12, D C JoKeR H S, and Kaitou!

At the beginning of this story, I said that this story was going to be set in the anime-verse. The reason for that was because I've never read the manga.

desamontello12: I hadn't thought about it! It would be pretty cool to include a cameo on King Hades (which would be interesting, since in this story Kyuu hasn't said anything about his interactions, and Ryuu hasn't seen his grandfather in so long) but I have no idea what his personality is like, or what he even looks like, as you can see from my note above. Sorry! I suppose I could try, but I'm afraid I'll mess it up…

Kaitou: Thanks for letting me know! As you can see from my note above, I had no idea, since I haven't had the time to read the manga, which would be unavailable anyway because of where I live.

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.

The four male DDS students searched every inch of Toyoda-san's office for any clue to Megu's disappearance. The papers on the desk looked normal-Ryuu would bet that Megu had looked through the paper, and upon finishing the task, used her photographic memory to put them in the exact place she had found it. It was an unconscious habit of hers. One of many, in fact.

Kazuma mused out loud. "Megu wouldn't just disappear on her own without letting one of us know. So how did the kidnapper convince her to go with them?"

The other three nodded. All of them had agreed to refer to the kidnapper as such-anyone from Pluto or the police force could hear them, and the Class Q students would prefer to keep the fact that they knew about Pluto's existence to themselves.

Kinta frowned as a thought occurred to him. If anyone could be Pluto, did that mean his father…? He rejected the thought immediately. Despite their differences, it was clear that his father was a good man. And if he wasn't, why hadn't he taken the opportunity to take out the two brains of the team on the way to the morgue? He turned away from his mental debate, and looked back at Kazuma and Ryuu, who were now surrounding the table.

Ryuu had spoken up. "She wouldn't have gone away with a stranger. She's too smart for that. She must have been incapacitated somehow."

Kinta looked at Kyuu, who was standing at the door, his bangs casting a shadow over his eyes. He had been silent after outlining their plan for the day. The martial artist and Kazuma felt uneasy at the idea of talking to him-they had no idea what kind of emotions were running through his head right now. Ryuu might be able to hazard a guess, but he didn't seem willing to break Kyuu's silence…

"Maybe someone used the paperweight? I don't see any bloodstains, so she must have been hit with a blunt object," Kinta said out loud. He picked it up, and sprayed it with luminol. Turning off the light, he and the others stood back as it shined brightly. "Okay. It looks like she wasn't hit too hard-there's only a little bit of blood here. Huh? What's this shape?"

Ryuu's eyes widened at the sight. "Well, now we definitely know who was behind Megu's kidnapping."

Seeing no reason to continue this conversation in the dark, Kinta crossed the room and turned the lights back on, looking to Ryuu and Kazuma for their next move.

"Ne, Ryuu," said Kazuma. When the blue-haired boy turned to look at him, he continued. "Do you think Toyoda-san is a member of that organization, and he happened to walk in on Megu searching his room, so he decided to silence her? Or do you think he's being framed, since she disappeared from his room?"

"I don't know. Both are distinct possibilities, and without knowing Pluto's motive for kidnapping Megu, and for being involved this crime, I can't give you an answer."

Kazuma nodded. "What do you think, Kyuu?"

There was no response. The three boys turned to the doorway, but Kyuu was nowhere in sight.

"Where did Kyuu go?" Kinta yelped. How did he move so quickly, yet so soundlessly?

He and Kazuma watched as Ryuu closed his eyes in thought. After a long moment, he opened them. "I have a good idea of where he is. Why don't you and Kazuma analyze the evidence you collected? I'll talk to him."

The programmer and the martial artist looked at each other, and shrugged. They went off, and Ryuu crouched down to where he knew Kyuu was.

"What are you doing down there?" he asked the mystery otaku under the desk.

"I was thinking about Kinta's words about the paperweight when I realized something. Megu has really good hearing, so it would be difficult to sneak up behind her to knock her out. So how did the kidnapper incapacitate her?"

Ryuu nodded. "I was wondering about that myself. And? What did you find out?"

"Well, if you were used to background noise, you would notice if it disappeared, right? Everything would be silent."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but I don't see how…of course!"

Kyuu nodded. "Whenever we investigated in the past, Megu would leave the door to the crime scene open behind her-it's one of the habits she does unconsciously. If we open this door, we can hear the police officers talking. And if we close the door, the sound cuts off. If, say, a Pluto member did this, and placed the paperweight on the edge of the desk, Megu would jostle the desk in her haste to see what happened, causing the paperweight to fall and for her to get knocked out. After that, it would be easy for Pluto to kidnap her and leave that symbol behind."

Ryuu stared at his counterpart in amazement. As always, he was surprised at Kyuu's intuition, but one detail at the beginning caught his attention. "You paid attention to that habit?"

"Yeah," said Kyuu with a sad chuckle. "I noticed it ever since our first case. Pretty stupid of me not to see how much I love her, huh?"

As he looked at his best friend with sympathy and sadness, Ryuu thought, "Kyuu…we'll find her. And you'll get the chance to tell her how you feel."