Detective Conan

The Haunted House of Class 2-C

Chapter Four

By

Sgamer82

"It turns out her and Tsuyoi-senpai's mutual love of drama wasn't just an act to get close. Because of that, I had an unexpected way in."

"Kudo? As in Yukiko Kudo? As in Yukiko Fujimine?!"

Ai blinked. She had gotten a similar reaction many times since joining the Kudo family. Just that day it had happened because of Shinichi. Much more common was someone excited to meet Yusaku Kudo's daughter; especially right after a book release. Having someone become star struck because of Yukiko was actually a new experience.

"Yes." Ai pulled up her phone's photo gallery and found a picture she and Yukiko had taken together during a trip last year.

"Oh, wow!" Yamagishi's eyes were wide as she stared at the photo. "It's really her!" Ai pulled her phone away as Yamagishi made a grab for it. The middle schooler had the good grace to look sheepish. "Sorry... it's just Fujimine-san is my favorite old-time actress. I love the movies from her era."

"It was weird to me, hearing Mama and her movies talked about that way. Then it occurred to me that she'd been retired longer than any student at this school has been alive."

"Would it be presumptuous to ask if you could get me an autograph?" Yamagishi asked politely.

Ai grinned.

"I'll do you one better," she told Yamagishi. "I can arrange for you to get to meet Mama."

"Really?!" Yamagishi squealed.

"Yes."

"And I will, so long as she doesn't turn out to be an attempted murderer."

"Mama loves meeting fans, and I know she'll be thrilled to meet a fan your age. But, if I may offer a word of advice..." Yamagishi nodded eagerly, them went white as Ai threw a glare her way. "If you value your immortal soul, do not call her an 'old-time actress' to her face."

Yamagishi nodded fearfully now. Ai dropped the glare.

"Now that's out of the way, Kojima and I were hoping to ask a few questions about Kaniguchi-sensei."

The moment the teacher's name left Ai's mouth, the other girl's expression soured.

"We'd heard you weren't a fan," Ai said before she could stop herself.

"That obvious?"

"Don't try playing poker anytime soon."

"Chouno-sensei keeps telling me to work on controlling my expressions."

"I don't think that's the issue." Ai grinned. "I know overcompensating when I see it. Long enough to become habit, but not long enough you've found your balance."

"How did you...?" Yamagishi looked interested now.

"You're not the only one who's had to reinvent herself?" Ai concluded that statement with a tone that almost made it a question. Yamagishi sat on a nearby chair.

"I didn't really like talking to people much. I spent most of my first year of middle school with no real friends."

"With the exception of Tsuyoi-senpai?"

"I wish!" Yamagishi declared. "All I could do was admire him from afar while Suzuhara-san made her move."

As she spoke, she pantomimed the cliche watching her beloved from behind a tree or corner.

"Suzuhara-san?"

"Naoko Suzuhara-san," Yamagishi clarified.

"She became his girlfriend?"

Yamagishi nodded and sighed theatrically.

"I wanted to hate her for it, but how could I when all she did was have more guts than me?" Her expression hardened suddenly. "Breaking up with him, though, that was another matter."

"How so?"

A fire entered her eyes.

"She broke his heart! Just up and broke it off with no warning! Hayate-kun was a wreck! Then we found out why and-"

Yamagishi stopped suddenly.

"Why did she break up with him, Senpai?" Ai asked.

Yamagishi suddenly looked nervous.

"He... she... that is..."

Ai waited. She raised a hand to stop Genta from asking his own question or try to hurry her along. She simply waited, said nothing, and let Yamagishi find her words at her own pace.

"Papa does the same thing to me all the time. Whenever I try it for myself I realize he has the patience of a saint..."

"Sensei broke them up," she said finally.

"Come again?" Ai asked.

"When you say 'Sensei broke them up'..." Genta urged.

"I mean exactly that," Yamagishi said. "Apparently their dating was 'interfering with her studies'"

Ai blinked as the girl did a serviceable impression of an older man and did finger quotes on the last few words.

"She was already top of the class!" Yamagishi went on. The words were spilling out now what she had started. She stood from her chair and began pacing frantically. "Her grades dropped maybe a few points, at worst! But that was more than Kaniguchi was going to tolerate! He got with her parents and they all pressured her to break it off with Hayate-kun."

Yamagishi clasped her hands as if in prayer.

"A few weeks after that, her grades apparently improved enough for her to go to some fancy school for the hoity toity. She transferred out and that was the last anyone saw of her."

"I felt exhausted just watching her emote. There was one more question that needed asking, but I was wary of asking. Doing so would destroy any goodwill I'd earned. That's when Kojima gave his parting shot and saved me the trouble."

"Did Tsuyoi-senpai know about Sensei breaking them up?" Genta asked. Yamagishi blinked several times. Then her gaze shifted to the side.

"Wh- Why do you ask?"

"Remember what I said about poker?" Ai said. The middle school girl's face turned red.

"Are you suggesting that Hayate-kun... that he... how could you even think-"

"We don't know Tsuyoi-senpai as well as you do," Ai said gently. "It's important we know as much as we can, even... no, especially if it can prove us wrong. You're worried that your answer will make Tsuyoi-senpai look guilty?" Yamagishi nodded. Ai gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "We know the difference between looking guilty and being guilty, but being able to tell depends on us knowing the truth." Ai braced herself. "Hanae-senpai, did he know?"

The girl looked at Ai and Genta, her eyes wide. Her gaze moved from grade school boy to grade school girl. Finally, her eyes rested on Ai.

"He knew," she said at last. "There were rumors almost immediately after the breakup. Hayate-kun confronted Sensei. The argument was so serious Hayate-kun was suspended over it. When he came back, he seemed depressed more than angry, but he was still definitely fuming about it all. There were no more heated arguments but Hayate-kun never spoke to Sensei unless spoken to, first. Even then, they were short answers. He was never outright disrespectful, but..."

"...There was little respect to be had," Ai finished.

"After that, Yamagishi-senpai had little else to say other than to swear up and down that Tsuyoi-senpai was innocent all over again," Ai Kudo concluded. "We weren't going to get anything else out of her."

"Sounds like you got plenty," Itagaki said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Takagi give him a grin.

All right, all right, Itagaki thought to himself. Credit where it's due...

"Do you think Yamagishi-san is a likely culprit?" Takagi asked. Kudo and Kojima both shook their heads.

"Being head over heels for Tsuyoi-senpai gives her a motive," Kojima said. "But..."

"Her ability to conceal her emotions once she gets started makes it unlikely," Kudo finished. "Were this a crime of passion, I'd place her on top of the list. Something premeditated, however?"

Kudo shook her head and glanced at Yoshida.

"That recording was planted to lure in Kaniguchi-sensei," Yoshida said. "She definitely could have made it, especially if she can do voices as well as you said."

"Also, how much of those emotional swerves could be just hiding her actual reactions?" Tsubaraya asked.

"Like a leaf in a forest?" Kojima asked. Tsubaraya nodded, and Kojima continued. "Possible, but I think Kudo has it right. She's a quiet person trying to be loud and overdoing it."

"Long enough to become habit, but not long enough that she's found her balance," Kudo said, repeating the words she had said to Yamagishi with an air of knowing what she was talking about.

"It could be both of them," Tsubaraya suggested. "He has the motive, she had the opportunity and they both had the means."

"But Hayate-senpai seemed afraid of the consequences of harming a teacher," Yoshida noted. "Maybe he didn't know what Yamagishi-senpai planned?"

"These are all good theories," Takagi said, butting into their bull session. "But before we go much further, I'd like to remind you we still have at least two more witness to speak to."

The children nodded.

"You said Kaniguchi-sensei was in the nurse's office?" Itagaki asked. Yoshida nodded.

"The ambulance is delayed, so he's being kept there under the nurse's care."

"The last we heard, he was awake, but refusing to speak to anyone," Tsubaraya said. Itagaki looked to his senior.

"How do you want to handle this?" he asked Takagi. She frowned.

"You see Kaniguchi," she said after a moment of thought. "I get the feeling he'll respond better to a man questioning him. I'll take the other one, Chouno."

"Detective Itagaki?"

Itagaki looked down to the Yoshida girl.

"May I come with you to interview Kaniguchi-sensei?"

"Why?" Itagaki asked.

"I'm concerned. The last I saw him, he'd nearly been hanged. Also, I had an idea. Well..." Yoshida looked away nervously and fiddled with her glasses. "A hunch, really. But right or wrong it might rule out a few theories..."

"I don't think that's-" Itagaki began, only to be interrupted by Kudo.

"I'll go, too," she said. "After everything I've heard, I want to see this man for myself."

"Now wait a mome-"

"I suppose that means I'll be with the boys interviewing Chouno-sensei," Takagi said. Tsubaraya and Kojima both nodded affirmatively.

"Why are you taking them-"

"Now that's been decided, let's get to it," Takagi said. She began to walk away with the two boys of the Detective Boys, only to be stopped when Itagaki finally got a full sentence out.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Itagaki asked weakly.

This was all just too irregular...