Kurosawa Hoshino certainly recognized the short-haired, bespectacled woman before him—after all, her face was remarkably similar to Sato Miwako's. She was Kobayashi Sumiko.
"Someone's here?" Hearing Kurosawa's words, everyone moved closer to the podium.
Kobayashi Sumiko hurriedly crawled out from under the desk, her face turning bright red as she looked at the large group of people in the classroom.
"Ah? It's the tigress!" Genta exclaimed, calling out the nickname they'd given Kobayashi.
"Eh? Officer Sato?" Ran and Sonoko asked in surprise.
Conan explained, "It's not Officer Sato. It's our new homeroom teacher, Ms. Kobayashi Sumiko. She just looks a bit like Officer Sato."
Sonoko looked her over a few more times and finally nodded. "It does seem like she only looks a bit like her."
Ran thought of what had happened to her and gave a silly, cute smile. "Wow, just like me and Aoko."
Haibara said calmly, "Ms. Kobayashi, why did you do all this?"
"I—I—" Kobayashi didn't seem like a homeroom teacher at all, but rather like a student caught daydreaming in class, extremely nervous.
Kurosawa walked to the desk and picked up a plush toy. "I think this is practice for the parent-teacher conference, right? These dolls are the students, and those plaster statues are the parents. Am I right, Ms. Kobayashi?"
Genta pouted. "Ms. Kobayashi, haven't you always disliked us? Why are you doing this kind of practice?"
"It's not like that." Kobayashi shook her head and said softly, "Actually, I don't dislike you at all. On the contrary, I like you very much. At my previous school, I taught students in my own way and never scolded them. But at one parent-teacher conference, I made a mess of things." She looked at Genta and continued with a wry smile, "There was a boy who was as fat as you, Genta, who made fun of me, his teacher, that day and got into a fight with the student next to him. Both of them ended up in the hospital. So ever since then, I've vowed that I would never let the same thing happen again at this school."
"Ms. Kobayashi, I'm not that kind of bad kid." Genta retorted indignantly.
Haibara asked, "So, Ms. Kobayashi, since you came to this school, have you started using strictness as a disguise?"
"Yes. I thought I could keep up the act. But as the parent-teacher conference gets closer, those bad memories from the past have resurfaced, so I've been secretly practicing here lately. Now everyone's afraid of me—they even call me a tigress. I guess I'm really not suited to be a teacher." By the end, Kobayashi's head was bowed low, not daring to look at the five children in front of her, or at Kurosawa and the other two.
"That's not how it is." Ayumi's clear voice echoed in the classroom. "I've known for a long time that Ms. Kobayashi is a very good teacher. I saw with my own eyes that after everyone went home, you would water the flowers in the classroom and change the water in the fish tank. Right?" After saying that, Ayumi looked at Conan and the others, her face full of innocent smiles.
Mitsuhiko replied, "Yes, teachers from other classes usually don't do things like that."
Genta chimed in, "Yeah, everyone's saying that Ms. Kobayashi even waters the flowers. That's really unusual."
Sonoko whispered, "These kids are surprisingly good tonight."
"They're quite impressive," Ran nodded.
Although Kurosawa often tricked these three kids, he knew they weren't bad—they just liked to cause trouble when they had nothing better to do.
"Thank you." The three children's comforting words were quite effective. The disappointed expression on Kobayashi's face finally disappeared, replaced by a faint smile.
Ayumi asked, "Ms. Kobayashi, do you know where the headmaster is?"
Kobayashi found the question strange but still answered, "It's so late. He should have gone home long ago."
Conan repeated the sentence, finally understanding. "Ms. Kobayashi, you mean the headmaster is at school today?"
"He's been at school the whole time." Seeing the children's strange expressions, Kobayashi herself became nervous. "Did something happen to the headmaster?"
"Ayumi said she hasn't seen the headmaster for three days—and even went to his house, but no one answered."
Kobayashi was completely bewildered. She pinched her thigh; the pain brought her back to reality, realizing she wasn't dreaming. She said with amusement, "You guys probably haven't encountered him. The headmaster has been at school for the past three days. I've seen him every day. He hasn't disappeared at all."
"So, actually, the headmaster has been hiding from Ayumi?" Haibara thought that might be the case.
Kurosawa smiled, glanced at the corridor outside the classroom, and said loudly, "Hey, headmaster, it's about time you came out. If you keep hiding, these kids might really call the police."
His words startled Ran and the others, who all looked toward the dark corridor outside the classroom.
After a few seconds, a sigh sounded outside. A figure wearing a hat slowly walked to the door, making himself clearly visible to everyone.
Ayumi's eyes widened, and she exclaimed in surprise, "It's the headmaster! He's really alright—that's great!"
"Mr. Murakami, it's been a long time," Ran and Sonoko greeted politely.
Murakami Shinichi adjusted his hat, sized up the two girls for a moment, and then exclaimed with realization, "Oh, it's Ran and Sonoko! I haven't seen you two in ages."
Kurosawa smiled and said, "Mr. Murakami, the figure Ran saw outside earlier must have been you, right?"
"It was me." Murakami said sheepishly. "I was just curious why a high school student would come to an elementary school—especially with an elementary school student—so I watched for a while. I didn't expect Ran to scream like that. It startled me. I thought something terrible had happened."
"Mr. Murakami, you're the one who scared me! Standing by the window late at night in an empty school." Ran complained.
"Haha, then we're even." Murakami laughed, his beard trembling.
After laughing, he looked at Kurosawa, an embarrassed expression on his face. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally spoke up. "Um, you're Kurosawa-kun, right? I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor?"
"Mr. Murakami, you don't mean to ask me to find you a wig, do you?"
Murakami reached up and touched his hat, almost thinking it had fallen off. "Huh? Kurosawa-kun, how did you know?"
Kurosawa didn't speak but raised an eyebrow at Ran and Sonoko.
This made the two girls guiltily look away.