Post by sgamer82 on Oct 18, 2016 4:46:51 GMT
Part of My Post-Canon Conan series. Started, but not completed in time for, the 6-8k Writing Competition #5: Haunted. However, it's an idea I truly want to complete, so here we go.
Special thanks to Addy01 for helping with beta reading.
The Detective Boys visit their future middle school's cultural festival, but an attempted murder means they'll have to show their stuff before even taking entrance exams.
Special thanks to Addy01 for helping with beta reading.
The Detective Boys visit their future middle school's cultural festival, but an attempted murder means they'll have to show their stuff before even taking entrance exams.
Detective Conan
The Haunted House of Class 2-C
By
Sgamer82
"So, I've been thinking, we need to re-brand ourselves."
Three pairs of feet stopped waking and three pairs of eyes turned to look at Genta Kojima as he made this announcement. Two had a look of exasperation in them. The third has a raised eyebrow.
"Re-brand?" Ai asked. "As in our name?"
"Exactly," Genta said.
"But we've been the 'Detective Boys' since we were little," Ayumi replied.
"That's exactly why we need to change," Genta told her. "Do you want to start middle school next year using a name we came up with when we were six?"
The others looked thoughtful at that. Seeing his chance Genta kept going.
"The name hasn't really worked for years, anyway," Genta continued. "Conan's not a member anymore-"
"Hold on-" Ayumi snapped.
"Let me finish!" Genta raised his hands, palm up, as if to ward off Ayumi's sudden anger. "Yeah, okay, Conan's still one of us. But he's not a member of the Detective Boys. Not like he was when he actually was Conan."
That last sentence came out in the whisper they had all developed a habit of adopting when referring to Certain Events. Ayumi still looked unhappy at the comment, but nodded for Genta to continue.
"What I'm getting at is, without Conan, not only is there an even split between girls and boys," he gestured to Ayumi and Ai, then himself and Mitsuhiko, "but our leader is a girl herself." Genta's gesturing hand moved back to Ayumi.
"I don't get to say this very often, but Kojima has a point," Ai said after a moment.
"I have to admit," Mitsuhiko rubbed his chin, "An update to our name might be a good idea. It should reflect that we're more mature now than we used to be."
"Ahem."
"With the exception of Ai-san," Mitsuhiko added.
"Thank you."
"I dunno..." Ayumi said. "We've always been the Detective Boys. It doesn't feel right to change it just like that."
"Well I agree with Kojima," Ai directed a smirk towards Ayumi. "Besides, Ayumi, do you really want your conversation on some future date to include the phrase 'I'm the leader of the Detective Boys'?"
Ayumi suddenly blushed and began adjusting her glasses.
"That... is a very good point."
Three pairs of eyes rolled in unison at the sixth grade girl who had just begun to notice Boys that was their illustrious leader.
"All right," Ayumi eventually conceded. "Maybe you guys have a point. But let's not be hasty with this. If we're going to pick a new name for ourselves it needs to be something we can live with."
"It should still reflect where we came from as well as what we are now," Mitsuhiko nodded.
"It should be something unique, that not just anyone would come to with," Genta said.
"Finally, it should be something gender-neutral." Ayumi shot a glare in Ai's direction. "In case we ever recruit more members," Ai continued without missing a beat. "That way it won't matter if there's more of one or the other."
Ayumi's eyes narrowed at Ai as she tried to work out if that was really Ai's reason; then she sighed.
"In any case, let's think about ideas and we can talk about it later. Maybe even have a formal meeting about it. For now," Ayumi smiled, "we have other business."
Indeed they did, the four of them had a specific goal this chilly November Saturday. They resumed their walking for several more blocks before coming to their destination. There in front of them loomed what, on any other day, would be a school courtyard. Today it was dotted with stalls for food and games with signs promising even more inside.
The Detective Boys, new name pending, had reached the Beika Middle School Cultural Festival.
----------
Soon after arriving, the foursome were seated in a first year classroom doing a café, examining brochures made by the journalism club and making plans.
"The literature club has a neat sounding presentation going on in the library," Ayumi said as she took a sip of tea. "Mostly Japanese authors, so not a lot of Holmes."
"Good," Ai said. "I get more Holmes than I can take at home."
"I definitely want to see the science club room," Mitsuhiko said to the shock of nobody. "They're doing a general science fair to show off experiments."
"How about you, Genta-kun?" Ayumi asked.
"Hmm," Genta started at the brochure's schedule of events. "Nothing really catching my eye until the drama club show in a couple hours. I'll probably just look around until then."
"You're welcome to join us," Ayumi said. Ai nodded.
"Or me," Mitsuhiko offered.
Genta declined both offers and, once everyone was done, went off to explore. Mitsuhiko took his leave soon after, leaving the girls to find their way to the school library. It was a larger than their school's library, and scattered around were dioramas for various authors. The girls each homed in on authors they knew or genres they preferred.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were perusing the mystery section when they were approached.
"Excuse me, but are you Ayumi Yoshida-san?"
Ayumi turned to answer the person who spoke and immediately froze. In front of Ayumi was a boy. He wore the sweater vest and necktie and marked him a student of the school. The necktie shared the green color she had seen among the boys in the first year classroom's cafe. These details were noted by the part of Ayumi trained to keep up a level of rational thought in almost any situation. The rest of Ayumi, which consisted of twelve year-old girl, was too busy staring into the tall boy's dark brown eyes and blushing.
"Yes," Ayumi replied. "Yes I am."
Ayumi managed not to stutter, but was certain she heard her voice crack and raise an octave somewhere in that short response. The boy, now that he was actually face to face, began fidgeting in place.
"My... um... my name is Jouburou Tsuyoi" he said, offering a bow. "I'm a first year and member of the school's literature club."
"Nice to meet you, Jouburou-kun," Ayumi said, then mentally kicked herself and bowed. "I-I'm sorry. I should say Tsuyoi-senpai."
"Not at all- I mean, don't be. Sorry that is," Jouburou replied. "First name is perfectly fine."
Out of the corner of her eye, Ayumi noticed Ai grinning at the display before her.
She is going to give me so much grief over this... Ayumi's rational side thought.
"I'm Ayumi Yoshida, leader of the Detective Boys." Ayumi's face went somehow redder. "But you said my name so you know that already." Ayumi gestured to Ai. "This is my friend Ai Ku-"
"Ai Kudo, yes." Jouburou nodded eagerly. "Shinichi Kudo's little sister."
Ai gave Jouburou a courteous bow. Once upon a time, Ayumi knew, Ai would have felt odd being referred to as "Shinichi Kudo's little sister." However, those days when Ai felt awkward about her adoption into the Kudo family were long past. Plus, as Ai was fond of noting, it was technically more accurate than "younger sister."
"A fan of the Detective Boys?" Ai asked. She smirked. "Or just the girls among them?"
Ai's barb left Jouburou blushing furiously and assuring them he was eager to meet all of them, including Genta and Mitsuhiko. Ayumi threw a glare in Ai's direction, which had no effect. The conversation continued in a similar vein, Ayumi and Jouburou making flustered comments to one another while Ai did nothing to help. The conversation concluded with the girls taking their leave and a promise by Ayumi to consider joining the literature club next spring. Once clear of the library Ayumi's head and shoulders slumped.
"All right, how badly did I embarrass myself...?" Ayumi asked.
"I would say only about half as much as you think you did," Ai told her. Ayumi groaned. "Oh, relax. He was just as bad as you were."
"Really?" Ayumi asked.
"Oh, yes." Ai smirked. "The only one who probably didn't notice how awkward he acted was you. He said he was interested in all of us, but did you notice he mainly talked about when you and Onii-chan faced Kid together? Or that hotel murder you got credit for solving last year?"
"You're messing with me." Ayumi adjusted her glasses with both hands.
"A little," Ai admitted. "That doesn't change what I said being true. You'll realize that yourself eventually."
A buzz from Ai's pants pocket prompted her to stop and pull out her phone. Ayumi stopped and pulled her own phone out of her bag. It was a message from Genta to them and Mitsuhiko asking them to come to one of the second year classrooms. More accurately, it said "You guys gotta see the haunted house at 2-C!"
The girls looked at each other and shrugged. It wasn't as if they had anything else to do now that Ayumi had made a fool of herself at the library. They made their way to the school's second floor and found the classroom in question. The classroom doors were each adorned with a black curtain. Sitting outside one door was a pair of students wearing monster makeup who looked more frightened than frightening as they looked up at a stern looking old man in a fine suit.
"There have been no problems?" The man crossed his arms and looked down at the students with a wrinkled glare.
"No, Sensei," said a girl in the white robes and triangle headpiece meant to mark her as a ghost.
"She hasn't been here?" The way the man said "she" made it sound like he wanted to spit the word rather than say it.
"If... If you mean Chouno-sensei, she did..." The murder victim next to the ghost gulped. "She did make a trip through earlier."
"Very well, I'm going to do my inspection, now."
Without waiting for a reply the man strode past the curtain and into the classroom haunted house. The bloody murder victim and ghost both breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's their homeroom teacher," said a voice beside Ayumi and Ai. The girls turned and saw Genta had seen them and come up beside them while they watched the scene unfold.
"His name's Kaniguchi-sensei. He's apparently real strict," Genta told them. "You know the type."
"Fussy about every little detail, won't settle for anything less than perfection from his students?" Ayumi asked.
"The kind of teacher who would hate me," added Ai, who never got test scores above or below the eighties.
"And longs for the days boys wore buzzcuts and girls forgoed makeup, yeah." Genta nodded. "Where's Mitsuhiko?"
"Probably still with the other future scientists," said Ai the ex-scientist. "Thousand yen says he didn't even notice your message."
"No bet," Ayumi and Genta said together, grinning. All three of them knew Mitsuhiko would probably be absorbed with them for some time yet.
"Guess it's just the two of us, then," Genta said to Ayumi.
"There's three of us." Ayumi nodded her head toward Ai, who had found a bench to sit down on and had begun playing a game on her phone.
"We both know Kudo's not going through that curtain," Genta noted.
"He's right," Ai said without looking up. She offered Genta a thumbs up. "You are on a roll today, Kojima."
"You should still ask. There's such a thing as proper manners," Ayumi told them.
"The Kudos are not a family given to worrying overmuch about something as mundane as propriety," Ai replied. "After nearly five years in their care, any sense of it I ever had is long gone." Ai waved the hand not holding her phone. "I'll be fine. Go have fun."
"All right..." Ayumi said, conceding the point. Genta went into the haunted house, Ayumi right behind.
----------
The pair walked through the haunted house of 2-C. More black curtains has been used to create a winding path decorated with pictures of various youkai and western monsters mixed together. At least Ayumi had thought they were all pictures. Someone in this class was clearly either an artist, a very good costume designer, or both. Mixed in with the decorations were students in costumes. Between the darkness and the students' own determination to scare the pants off people, Ayumi could never quite determine which was which until someone moved.
So far, Ayumi had only just barely choked down a scream when what she thought was a painting of a western vampire raised his arms and hissed at her. Genta, having gone through at least once already, took it in stride but even he jumped a bit at the vampire.
"A bit more subdued than last time," Genta whispered.
"Seriously?" Ayumi asked. "I almost scream at the first corner and that was subdued?"
"Yeah," Genta confirmed. "My first time through he actually bent down like he was gonna take a bite outta me. Maybe they're just nicer to girls?"
"Or maybe th-YA-umph-" Ayumi clamped her mouth shut tight to stifle a shout as an oni "painting" raised its club at her. Breathing slightly faster, Ayumi continued. "Or maybe they had to tone it down because of their teacher."
"Probably," Genta said. "Still, the crying voice is new. Maybe the guy's not all bad if he let them add it."
Ayumi listened. There had been spooky sounds from the moment they had walked in. She only now noticed the one Genta referred to. It did indeed sound like crying. A girl's crying.
"I think there are words in there," Ayumi said. Genta cupped his hands over his ears and listened.
"I think you're right." Genta concentrated to try and make them out. "Sounds like a girl. 'I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry I can't do it, anymore.' Creepy."
He says it like he admires them, Ayumi thought. Then another sound penetrated Ayumi's thoughts.
"Genta-kun," Ayumi whispered. "Do you hear something else? Like a gurgling or choking sound?"
Genta, hands still over his ears, listened again.
"I do. Something's... off, I dunno what."
"I know what you mean," Ayumi said. "It's hard to tell it's there over the other sounds and stuff. You'd think they'd make it easier to notice."
Ayumi and Genta stopped in their tracks as instincts trained and honed since they were six years old began to kick in. With barely a glance at each other, they charged through the haunted house, paying no mind to the Bride of Frankenstein as she tried to claim Genta as hers.
They passed two corners and came to where the choking noise was loudest, but there was no one to be seen. Ayumi noticed the crying girl's voice was also louder. Ayumi was puzzled about where the sounds were coming from for only a moment better remembering the walls around them weren't actually walls. She grabbed the black curtain closest to where it seemed the sound was coming from and pulled.
"Hey, what're you-" a costumed student cried.
The student's cry was cut off as sunlight poured into the darkened room. Everyone averted their eyes until they adjusted. Before Ayumi's vision cleared she heard someone scream. When she could finally see, Ayumi gasped.
In front of her was a man hanging from a makeshift gallows, grasping desperately at the noose around his neck.
It was Kaniguchi, class 2-C's homeroom teacher.