I KNOW THIS PART IS LONG, BUT PLEASE READ THIS A/N BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH THE STORY:

First of all, sorry about not updating for the last two weeks! The first week, I had final exams, and this past week, I was looking at the past few chapters, and I realized that they didn't make sense. Also, I was reading the English version of the manga on KissAnime (shoutout to D C Joker H S for telling me about it!) Anyway, with this new chapter, I updated the past few chapters! Basically, I changed it so that the victim died by unknowingly ingesting poison (most likely strychnine), and Kinta found a bottle of water in the lobby instead of an umbrella, and Kazuma found a carrying container for contact lenses in Kawamata-san's coat instead of a glasses case with embroidery needles. I did rewrites on as far back as Chapter 31, so start there if you would like to review the case!

To make up for this hiatus, I will be updating more frequently, so I will probably finish the story by the end of this month

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

NOTE: KissAnime only showed like two or three appearance from King Hades, so I decided that if he appears in my story, it will be as a cameo-I feel like I don't have enough information to write about him. And before you ask, D C JoKeR H S, I tried accessing the Live Action episodes in English, but I couldn't.

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 subject of Kyuu and Ryuu's conversation sat, her back to the wall. Megu had been awake for some time now, and was starting to gain her bearings. And it wouldn't do any good to panic, so she started making a list of the discoveries she had made so far.

1. She could still feel the small capsule she had found in Toyoda-san's room within the small evidence bag, all tucked neatly against her body. Mentally, she sighed jn relief, thankful that her impulsive action turned out to be justified. Before she left her place from under Toyoda-san's desk, she had shoved the package into a hidden makeshift pocket on the inside of her jacket, in case something was wrong. She had been planning to fix it for some time, but hadn't gotten around to it. Today, however, it worked to her advantage.

2. She had been kidnapped by someone, for some unknown reason. Considering that she had been kidnapped after searching a suspect's room, she could only infer that it was because she had stumbled upon something that the criminal didn't want found. If so, she must have found the correct container for the poison. However, as a good detective, she shouldn't assume that Toyoda-san was the criminal-it could have been planted in Toyoda-san's room, after all. As for her captor, that part was still a blank.

3. Despite the foggy state of heft memory earlier, it was working well now. Apparently, during her "transportation" to her current cell, she had woken up a few times before slipping back to unconsciousness. With some mental planning, she figured that she could make her way out of that place. However, she didn't know if she would be able to make it back to DDS-she didn't even know where she was.

With those three conclusions on her mind, Megu decided that she had to escape. Looking around the dark room, her eyes caught the shine of metal. However, it seemed to be rather dull-perhaps rust had corroded some of it? Scooting her way over to the metal, she saw that there were a few short nails, probably left over from the construction of the place. While they were small, they were better than nothing at all, and Meg heaved a sigh as she started sawing away at the cloth binding her hands.

Meanwhile, Kazuma and Kinta were analyzing the evidence they had collected. They had sent the water bottle and the carrying case to the labs at DDS to be analyzed for poison and fingerprints.

Kinta looked at the notepad closely. The first page had been torn out, but he could still see impressions of Akiyama-san's handwriting on the second page.

Looking around, the martial arts practitioner found a pencil and shaded the first page on the notepad. When he was done, he was impressed-Akiyama-san had written hard enough that he could easily make out some of the words. He knew that it must have taken some force to make such deep impressions. , especially the names of the victim's father and the victim. He raised an eyebrow. Did Akiyama-san have some sort of grudge against her boss and his father?

Making a mental note to look ask Kazuma about it later, Kinta grabbed the pile of shredded paper that Kazuma had found in wastebasket of the meeting room, so that he could piece each document back together. Mentally, he groaned in frustration at his task, but it had to be done if they wanted to solve the case. Besides, Kazuma seemed to be pretty busy.

The computer genius was typing away on his laptop, drumming his fingertips on the keyboard as he waited for the phone records for the meeting room to pop up on the monitor. He sat up as his screen filled with a ton of data. Hmmm…it seemed that Kawamata-san had been on the phone for ten minutes, longer than what would have constituted a business conversation without having to leave the room. Could she have had an accomplice? It wouldn't be hard to leave her office door unlocked. Her partner could have taken the contact lens case and emptied its contents into Enoki-san's water bottle without him noticing…

He was brought out of his musings when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. Pulling it out, he noted that it was the number for the DDS labs.

The buzzing of the phone had caught Kinta's attention as well, and he paused his puzzle solving task out of curiosity. However, Kazuma's expression and one-word responses gave nothing away, and Kinta pounced on Kazuma as soon as he hung up.

"Who was that?"

"The lab. They called to confirm that Enoki-san's cause of death was strychnine poisoning, and trace amounts of it was found it the water left in the bottle you found. But, remember how we figured that the criminal must have stored the poison somewhere before it got into the bottle, since strychnine acts quickly and Enoki-san would have died earlier if the poison had been in the water bottle before?"

"…Yes. What about it?"

"There was no trace of poison in the contact lens case."

"Eh? But we didn't find anything else that would have been small enough to escape attention!"

"Ah. But what if Megu did?"

"…! So you think Pluto kidnapped her so that that evidence doesn't come in to light?"

"Well, I think we should let Kyuu and Ryuu know, either way. As soon as you finish that puzzle, that is."

"You could help, you know!"

Megu panted from the sheer effort of removing her bindings and gag. She had worked as fast as she could, in case her captors came into the room. However, they didn't, and she wondered what was taking them so long. Did they underestimate how long her head injury would incapacitate her? Then again, it was true that serious head wounds were capable of causing comas, and from the way her head was throbbing, it was most definitely a serious head wound…

As she regained her breath, she searched for the longest and thinnest nail. While it wasn't the best lock picking tool, it would have to do. The lock on the door to her cell was double-sided, meaning that it could be opened from the inside. It had been a while since Hongou-sensei had taught them about picking locks ("Only to be used for emergencies!"), but she remembered that lesson clearly.

After a few tries, she heard the lock click, and she swung the door open quietly, thankful that it didn't creak, since it was made of metal. Then, to buy herself some time by making it look like she was still inside, she locked the door from the outside, ears open for anyone coming down the hallway.

When she was done, she looked around, noting that the layout was similar to the house in which they had found Kyuu, and started to go on the route that she had planned in her head as she was severing the cloth bindings. She made it for about a third of the way before she heard footsteps making their way towards her. Quickly, she ducked into what appeared to be a small closet, and slowed her breathing down. Her ears picked up on a woman muttering. While most of the words were frustratingly unintelligible, she could hear her say something like "King Hades".

Where had Megu heard the name before? Ah, that's right! When she was in the Tokyo Development Center, they tested some of her memorization skills by having her look at different languages and cultures around the world. King Hades was the Greek god of death. The Romans worshipped the same gods, although they were named differently. And the Roman name for Hades was…

Pluto!

Did that mean Pluto was behind her kidnapping? But why? Were they behind the poisoning case? And the man from before had mentioned a "Prince Ryuu"...

After the woman's footsteps echoed away, Megu continued on her path, being even more cautious than before. She erased her suspicions of Ryuu from her mind, resolving to talk to him about it once she escaped.

As she neared the entrance, she started having close calls as she walked into hallways or rooms, which had people in them. Since she had gone barefoot, she was able to sneak away before they noticed that she was there. However, in the few instances when she was noticed, she quickly incapacitated her opponents (using her body or nearby objects) and rendered them unconscious.

On one of the unconscious bodies, she found a map, with her current address circled. It seemed that the man needed directions to get to this facility. As she got to what was clearly the front door (with windows on either side of the door showing the natural world outside), she set off towards the second nearest bus stop, despite it being miles away. If she had gone to the nearest one, she would have been found by her captors immediately.

However, in her haste to get out, the DDS detective didn't seem to realize that there were security cameras hidden in the ceiling panels, tracking her movements ever since she had left her room.

In a dark room, with dozens of monitors, a white-haired man chuckled darkly. "So this is one of the students of Morihiko Dan with whom Ryuu has become acquainted, huh?"

"Ah. What should we do?"

King Hades turned, the two scars under his eye standing out in the light from the screens. "Let her escape. I am confident that our client will not give us away. And I believe that Ryuu understands my message perfectly."

"And what was that message, sir?"

"He can run, but he can never escape from his destiny as my successor. I will make sure he comes back, no matter what it takes."