Well hello! Here's a new chapter of Azure Redi-fanfiction, for which I took inspiration from the Zodiac.P.I manga and from Wiktionary, the free dictionary about Japanese characters, which I do not own the rights to. I start planning the next chapter. See you in the next chapter.
Shizuka looked at the papers on the table in Shōnen Tantei-danie's club room.
"We got the assignment!" Ayumi entered the room with another girl.
"You're Nakahara Nana, right?" Shizuka asked after seeing a girl wearing the same Teitan uniform as Shizuka.
Nana had tanned skin, short, brown hair, blue eyes. She was 16 years old, a tall, and thin girl.
"Yes", Nana said. "I take piano lessons at the Katsura piano-school. Strange things have been happening there lately, and there are rumors that it's haunted".
"Or haunted?" Shizuka looked out the window, and it was snowing outside.
"What else has happened there?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"People have fallen on the stairs, and things have been misplaced", Nana said. "About a year ago, a staff member of that piano school committed suicide by hanging himself in a piano class of that piano-school".
"Really? What's Katsura's staff like?" Shizuka asked.
"Excellent", Nana said.
"Alright. We'll be there tomorrow. Tell the staff at the piano-school that we're coming to listen to your piano playing so no one doubts our reason for coming to the piano-school", Shizuka said.
"Okay", Nana said.
(On the next day)
"Morning, Nakahara-san. You brought your friends here as well. Good morning. I am Katsura Noriko, the owner of this school", A woman said as she came, and went to introduce the places to the guests. He was 40 years old. His skin was tanned, his eyes were brown like his short hair. He was tall, and thin. She was wearing a red blouse, a brown skirt, and brown high heels.
"Day. They came to hear me play the piano", Nana said.
"Yes. An acquaintance of mine can play the piano", Agasa said. He had come along because of Shizuka's persuasion. "I heard about the rumors about your piano-school, and the strange happenings at your piano- school. I would like to help you solve them. Could you tell me about them?"
"Well today has been quiet, but the piano in 2 classroom 2 is out of tune", Noriko said. "Usually we check that the pianos are working perfectly".
"Has something out of the ordinary happened here?" Shizuka asked.
"8 people have already fallen on the stairs. A piano player hanged himself about a year ago in 1 classroom... Again?!" Noriko shouted after seeing that the boards on one of the walls were arranged in the shape of the syllable シ(Shi).
"That must have happened before", Shizuka mused.
"This has been happening a lot lately", A 28-year-old woman said as she came to the scene. He was tall, and thin. He had fair skin, short black hair. He was wearing a green blouse, and black pants, and black shoes.
"Yumiko-san, would you join me in showing places to our guests?" Noriko asked.
"Okay", Yumiko said. "Satoshi-san is probably in 1 piano-class. He tends to play the piano every morning".
Yumiko said walking forward with the others, and stopped at the door of 1st piano class which was ajar. Yumiko pushed the door open.
Everyone saw the 29-year-old man lying on top of the baby with the blade of a knife embedded in his back, sitting partially on the piano chair. His skin was pale. The hair was blond, and short, and it was tied in a ponytail. He was wearing a white blouse, black pants, and black shoes. He was tall, and athletic.
A 27-year-old woman with blond hair was sitting on the floor of the room, shaking in shock. His skin was fair, and his eyes were brown. She was wearing a purple shirt, red skirt, and black shoes. He was tall, and thin:
"Mr. Satoshiiii!"
"Satoshi-san!" Yumiko ran over to Satoshi.
"Who is she?" Shizuka asked Nana.
"Mr. Satoshi, one of the teachers at this piano college", Nana said. "I didn't expect this".
Shizuka looked around the room:
"No signs of a break-in, so it doesn't seem to be a burglary where the burglar killed Mr. Satoshi, who would have seen the burglar come into this room to play the piano. The piano is positioned so that the player can see both doors of the room. So if someone enters this room, it can see for sure. The knife used as a murder weapon had hit Mr. Satoshi in the position where he was playing the piano. There is reason to suspect that the murderer was someone who could come in and stand near Mr. Satoshi. I don't believe this to be yokai's doings, because yokai control people, they don't do this kind of thing".
"Really handsome", Ayumi said looking at Satoshi. "Who would have wanted to do that to him?"
"Don't look at Mr. Satoshi like that! I can't stand the thought, of someone having a crush on Mr. Satoshi!" A woman sitting on the floor screamed.
"Don't be so selfish, Miyuki! Ookoba Satoshi is Yumiko-san's fiancé!" Noriko shouted.
"I know, but Mr. Satoshi supported me, when my brother died in a car-accident 3 years ago", Miyuki cried.
"It's okay, Mr. Satoshi is not my type. Sorry, but what's his birthday?" Shizuka asked.
"November 10th. Why did you ask?" Noriko asked.
"I'm not bragging, but I know the horoscopes quite well, so did he read something troubling in his scorpio horoscope lately, or did someone hold a grudge against him for something?" Shizuka asked.
"Well, it was said in his horoscope recently that a secret was clouding his mind", Yumiko said.
Like the others, Miyuki was surprised by what she heard.
"Satoshi's lovely flowers" Yumiko said as she saw the vase that had fallen on the table with the water from the flowers in it spilling onto the table and Yumiko took a tissue from her pocket.
"Sorry, but the crime scene shouldn't be messed up any more. Eno, make sure no one leaves this room and call the police. I dropped something in the lobby, and I'll get it", Shizuka walked over to the piano, and glanced at the sheet music on the base of the piano's music stand, and it title:
"Chopin?"
"Mr. Satoshi often taught Chopin. That's why me and some other piano students played Chopin a lot", Nana said.
Shizuka nodded, left the room, and went into the hall.
"O Anteres of the Scorpion, Star Spirit of Ookoba Satoshi! Answer your mistress! I summon you!" Shizuka held out the ring on her finger forward, and out of the ring appeared a little girl, the size of her palm, dancing flamenco while holding a rose in her mouth. It was wearing a purple-blue robe, and on its head was a headdress with a golden star. It was thin, and fair-skinned, and had long, blue hair, and blue eyes. It had brown shoes on its feet. In its hands were brown castanets.
"Ole!" Antares danced flamenco.
"Antares, could you help me?" Shizuka asked. "Ookoba Satoshi has been found stabbed. His scorpion- horoscope said that a secret has been weighing on his mind lately. Explaining it is a task that only you can do. He was born on November 10".
"A mission for me! You can trust me Shizu-chan!" Antares said creating a golden scepter in his hands with a light blue crystal ball at the top. "Guided by the birth stars and the movements of the sky, the servant of Sutāringus' bearer, Antaress, predicts the fate of Ookoba Satoshi yesterday morning. There is danger in morning routines. The feelings of love are twisted. The hidden truth of the day is revealed".
An image of the sun appeared in the crystal ball.
"Sun?" Shizuka asked.
"Those icicles have melted almost completely due to the heat of the sun", Katsura's staff member looked out of the lobby window at the icicles frozen on the edges of Katsura's exterior roof, from which water droplets fell onto the snow.
"Melted ice? Oh yeah! 1 piano class had a vase of flowers knocked over on the table. That, and aside from the blood stained piano keys, the room was clean. Satoshi reportedly had a habit of playing the piano early in the morning. So maybe someone who knew Satoshi could have committed the crime by standing near him, and stage the situation somehow. The sun can melt ice, so maybe the room I just mentioned had ice at one point that has now melted into water that was on the table in the room", Shizuka said.
"Now what, Shizu-chan?" Antares asked.
"Chopin was read on the sheet music that was on the piano near the victim. Nana-san told me recently that Mr. Satoshi often taught Chopin. So it can be assumed that his students played it a lot", Shizuka said.
Shizuka then saw the Group Photos of the piano school students on the lobby wall, where Yumiko was standing with Satoshi, Noriko, and a strange man who was holding his hand on Yumiko's shoulder with a friendly smile.
The man was brown-haired, 29 years old. His skin was pale. He was wearing a white blouse, black pants, and black shoes. He was tall, and athletic. His eyes were brown.
Shizuka looked at the name plate under the picture, which read the names of everyone in the picture. One of the names in question was Ayanokooji Hiroyuki.
"Antares, I think I came up with something", Shizuka said.
"What did you come up with?" Antares asked.
"The possible perpetrator, and the way he committed the crime", Shizuka said.
When the police arrived, they went straight upstairs, and Shizuka followed them, and went behind Agasa, and whispered something to Akasa:
"Akasa Hakase, I'm borrowing your voice now".
"There are no signs of a break-in on the window, so breaking into the room can be ruled out", Miwako said, writing things down in her notebook. "The victim is Ookoba Satoshi, a piano teacher at Katsura Piano College. The cause of death is probably a stabbing in the back, and there are no signs of a break-in in the room, so it can be assumed that the perpetrator is one of the people now in Katsura, who knew Satoshi well".
Agasa looked at Shizuka who activated her voice converter, but then started to move his lips as if he had spoken himself:
"Sorry to intrude on your conversation. I think I figured something out. Irene-kun, explore this room".
"Okay", Shizuka began to scan the room after walking out from behind Agase, then saw a rubber band stuck to the window, which she picked up with her handkerchief and gave to the police:
"That rubber band was stuck to the window".
Shizuka then walked back behind Agasa.
"Rubber band?" Miwako asked looking at the rubber band she was holding.
"There was a rubber band attached to that window that was used to commit the crime", Agasa pointed to the window that had the rubber band. "Sato-san, you're right about one thing. There are no signs of a break-in on the window or anywhere else in the room, so it doesn't seem to be a burglary where the burglar killed Mr. Satoshi, who would have seen the burglar, when he came into this room to play the piano. The piano is placed so , that the caller can see both doors of the room. So if someone comes into this room, the knife used as a murder weapon had hit Mr. Satoshi in the position where he was playing the piano. There is reason to suspect that the murderer was someone like that, who could come in, and stand near Mr. Satoshi without arousing suspicion. Yumiko-san is the perpetrator".
"How so? I was at home when Satoshi-san was murdered", Yumiko said.
"What if the murder was committed, when the perpetrator was not there?" Shizuka asked.
"What?" Yumiko asked.
"I was able to deduce the trick from your suspicious behavior", Shizuka said. "First, you tuned the piano string and that rubber band. You attached the ends of the rubber band to the mounting points of the board on the wall of this room, so that the rubber band was in line with the piano. Then you put a knife between the rubber band, and pulled it from the piano band to the corner of the room. After that, you pulled the end of the piano band up to the flower vase. What was essential to the success of the murder was that a piece of ice was needed for that. When Mr. Satoshi came as usual to play the piano, the sun shone in through the window of the room, and melted the ice of which I have just spoken. As a result, the piano tongue came loose, and the knife flew like an arrow hitting Mr. Satoshi. You temporarily hid the rubber that had flown to the floor as you ran up to Mr. Satoshi. Then you tried to wipe the table so that no one would see the suspiciously large amount of water that had been the piece of ice that I said earlier. You wanted no one to see it, the water near the tumbled vase. I assume you didn't love Mr. Satoshi, but Ayanokooji Hiroyuki, right? I saw his picture earlier in the lobby of this piano school, and in that picture he had his hand on your shoulder. Show that picture to others, Irene-kun".
"Yes, uncle", Shizuka said as she went to the hall to get the board in question, and showed it to the others pointing to Hiroyuki in the picture. "Perhaps Hiroyuki is the piano school staff member, who committed suicide at this piano-school, that Nana-san told us about earlier?"
"No...It wasn't suicide. Satoshi-san killed Hiroyuki-san!" Yumiko shouted surprising everyone. "Hiroyuki-san used to play Tear Prelude for me every morning. When I said I liked that song the most, Hiroyuki-san said he would play it for me every day".
"How can you say that about Mr. Satoshi, who was always so kind to others?!" Miyuki asked.
Slap! Yumiko slapped Miyuki on the cheek, knocking Miyuki to the floor, and Miyuki sat up looking at Yumiko in shock.
"Don't speak so highly of Satoshi-san, because you really don't know anything about him! If you knew what Satoshi-san was really like, you wouldn't defend him so much!" Yumiko yelled angrily.
"Miss Yumiko?" Miyuki asked in surprise.
"One day, Hiroyuki-san got into a car-accident after being hit by a car. He was going to a piano-competition important to his career as a pianist at the time. Hiroyuki-san injured his finger in the car-accident. And lost his chance to play the piano in that piano-competition. He fell into despair, and committed suicide in this piano class. Satoshi-san did his best to heal my broken heart. I started to believe that, I could forget about Hiroyuki-san. When I was coming to this piano class the conversation was like this:
"Satoshi-san, is that so?!"
"Yes...If he had hidden Hiroyuki's sheet music for the piano-competition, he might not have been in a hurry, and ended up under the car looking for them with his sheet music. He was becoming a pianist, he had Yumiko-san, and everything. I envied Hiroyuki, and I."
"Well, that's been and gone, Satoshi-san. The Yumiko-san you loved for a long time is now yours too. No one will know unless you tell".
"Did you hear that conversation, Yumiko-san?" Noriko asked in shock.
"Did Mr. Satoshi drive Hiroyuki-san to commit suicide by hiding Hiroyuki-san note haters meant for the piano- competition?!" Miyuki asked in disbelief.
"Yes! Satoshi-san practically killed Hiroyuki-san by hiding those sheet music-notes that Hiroyuki-san had intended for the piano-competition that Hiroyuki-san was participating in. As a result, I began to hate Satoshi-san. I mentally pressured him not to spread rumors that at the piano-college haunts, and then I will take revenge for Hiroyuki-san", Yumiko said.
"Revenge won't necessarily make things better. Every day, Mr. Satoshi decorated this room with buttercups. In the language of flowers, it means 'I love you'. Every morning, he played the teardrop prelude with those words in his mind, thinking of you, Yumiko-san", Nana said.
"Hiroyuki-san probably didn't want to turn you into a murderer. And if the knife had flown next to Mr. Satoshi, he probably would have confessed after realizing, who had set the trap for him", Shizuka said as she emerged from behind Agasa.
"Yes. Hiroyuki-san was not vindictive", Yumiko cried.
"I'll take Miyuki home", Noriko coaxed Miyuki, who was still sitting on the floor, out of the room.
"Case settled", Antares said, returning inside Shizuka's ring.
After the police handcuffed Yumiko, they took Yumiko out of the room, Shizuka left the piano-school with the others.
"Nana-san, what was Hiroyuki-san like?" Shizuka asked.
"Hiroyuki-san was positive", Nana said.