September 4th, Tuesday.
It was a bright and sunny day, yet yellow police tape had been stretched across the entrance to Teitan High School's chemistry lab.
That alone announced to the entire school that a case had occurred on campus. The students had only just returned from break a few days ago and were already bored out of their minds. The moment they learned a fellow student had died, discussions immediately exploded across social media platforms.
And naturally, the most talked-about topic was, who exactly had killed Hideyo Kawai?
Since it still wasn't normal working hours yet, Ritsu headed straight to the crime scene from home.
Riding his motorcycle all the way to Teitan High School, he removed his helmet and tugged at the tie on his chest. The oppressive aura radiating from him made it obvious.
He was in a terrible mood today.
It couldn't be helped. Ritsu had only managed to sleep for twenty minutes before being woken up by a phone call.
As a result, he especially hated today's murderer. Ideally, the culprit would at least be clever enough that he couldn't catch them.
Taking large strides toward the chemistry lab on the second floor of the science building, he ducked under the police tape and immediately spotted a familiar figure.
Ritsu wasn't surprised in the slightest. After all, the crime scene was at Teitan High School. If that person didn't show up, that would be strange.
Like a dog catching the scent of its owner, Shinichi instantly turned toward the doorway. His eyes lit up as he grinned.
"Sensei, you're here."
'Sensei?'
Several forensic officers currently examining the scene looked confused. Since when had Inspector Onizawa taken on a high school student as his apprentice?
"Found anything yet?"
Ritsu wore a cold expression completely devoid of his usual gentle smile, making the forensic officers somewhat afraid to even give their report.
Seeing them frozen in place, he couldn't be bothered to repeat himself a second time. Instead, he personally began examining the female student slumped over the lab table. Judging from the white foam at the corners of her mouth, poisoning was the most likely cause.
The entire room reeked strongly of alcohol. Several empty shochu bottles sat on the lab table, and at a glance the scene looked exactly like a case of acute alcohol poisoning. Even the victim's condition matched that conclusion fairly well.
But Ritsu never liked jumping to conclusions that quickly.
After putting on a pair of white gloves, he crooked a finger at Shinichi, signaling him to come examine the body.
Finally able to inspect a corpse up close, Shinichi looked visibly excited. Taking the gloves handed over by a forensic officer, he immediately got to work while reporting his observations.
"The victim's body has already developed livor mortis, and the coloration appears normal."
He pried open the victim's eyelids and examined the state of the corneas before continuing,
"The corneas have already become semi-transparent, and the body stiffness is pretty severe. I estimate the time of death was probably around twelve hours ago."
Ritsu suddenly felt that inviting Shinichi to act as his assistant would make things a lot easier. Judging from his enthusiasm toward investigations, he was honestly more useful than the bunch from forensics and the perpetually absent coroner.
"Yeah, the time of death can basically be confirmed at around 8 PM last night."
After surveying the scene, Ritsu didn't immediately state his own conclusion. Instead, he asked,
"So, have you figured out the cause of death?"
Shinichi frowned at the empty shochu bottles on the table as well as the sleeping pills scattered everywhere.
"Sensei, while I still haven't figured out the exact cause of death, I'm certain it wasn't acute alcohol poisoning. And it also has nothing to do with the sleeping pills. I counted them, the amount here is exactly one full bottle."
"Neither of those are the cause. Your analysis is correct." Ritsu picked up one of the sleeping pills and sneered.
"This murderer tried to act smart by staging the scene like this, but forgot about the number of pills. They could've at least taken a few away to make it look convincing. Honestly stupid."
Shinichi sensed that Ritsu's mood was particularly bad today. After blinking twice, he suddenly remembered something he'd seen on the school forum. Leaning closer, he said,
"Sensei, I think the stuff on the forum might help us identify suspects."
"Oh? Let me see."
Ritsu took Shinichi's phone and saw a trending thread on Teitan High School's online forum.
The title read,
#Anyone brave enough to discuss the case that just happened? There's anonymous posting anyway!#
'Tch. High school students these days were seriously nosy.'
[Anonymous A: Everyone already knows that Kawai Hideyo from Class 2-A died in the chemistry lab, right? Who do you think killed her? Anyone brave enough to discuss it? ()]
[Anonymous B: Probably someone from her class. Otherwise why would anyone randomly kill her?]
[Anonymous C: Didn't Kawai have an upperclassman boyfriend? I think his name was Nakamura Shunpei from the soccer club. Don't you think that's suspicious? In TV dramas these murder cases are always crimes of passion.]
[Anonymous A: Hahahaha, crime of passion, makes sense! Nakamura's suspicion level increased by 20%! (▽*)]
Ritsu couldn't help frowning.
He really disliked the tone of these students' comments. Reading them made him deeply uncomfortable, especially the thread starter's posts.
Still, the Nakamura Shunpei they mentioned was worth paying attention to. From the way the crime had been carried out, the perpetrator appeared fairly young, making the likelihood of them being a student quite high.
[Anonymous D: Maybe it was suicide? Like failing the start-of-term exams or something.]
[Anonymous E: No way. Didn't you hear all the police sirens?]
[Anonymous F: Police showing up doesn't automatically mean murder. Why are you all so eager for the school to have a killer? If they don't solve the case, wouldn't that be terrifying? I don't want to attend school with a murderer.]
[Anonymous G: I've got some juicy gossip too. Ahem, I'm actually from Class 2-A. I often saw Kawai bullying a boy in our class. Making him run errands to buy bread from the school store, forcing him to copy homework for her, stuff like that. I even saw her shove a classmate into the boys' bathroom before. Totally awful. I remember senior Nakamura was there too, he's Kawai's boyfriend.]
[Anonymous C: Seriously? Nakamura looked pretty handsome too. Never thought he'd be involved in that kind of thing. Gross. (`皿´)]
[Anonymous A: What's the bullied guy's name? Feels like he should be added to the suspect list.]
[Anonymous H: I know! I'm in Class A too. His name is Masanobu Ueda.]
'Masanobu Ueda... Another suspect?'
Ritsu pursed his lips and patiently continued scrolling. He suddenly had the urge to use hacking techniques to uncover the real identities of these anonymous students.
[Anonymous I: You guys have been talking forever but haven't mentioned the important part, Class A people, don't tell me you forgot about Takahashi-san, who committed suicide during vacation? Maybe Takahashi-san's ghost came back for revenge!]
[Anonymous J: Why did this suddenly become supernatural? But if we're talking ghosts, I have to join in. (o▽)o]
[Anonymous F: Huh? There's another dead person now? Who's Takahashi? What does she have to do with Kawai? ゛('◇')?]
[Anonymous G: I know! Kawai used to bully Takahashi Saki all the time too. I heard she even cornered her in the bathroom and filmed inappropriate videos.]
[Anonymous A: No way? That's way too horrible. Suddenly I feel like the killer who murdered Kawai... might actually be delivering justice? Kind of impressive, honestly. (ω)]
Died during vacation...
Ghost revenge...
Takahashi Saki?
Having caught those keywords, Ritsu began forming a vague hypothesis.
Today was only the fourth day since school started. Acting so quickly after classes resumed probably meant the culprit was connected to this girl named Takahashi Saki.
Ritsu pulled out his phone, about to call Hayasaka, before remembering she was off today. He immediately hung up and dialed Takagi instead.
The call connected almost instantly and the voice sounded very close by.
He hung up immediately and walked outside the lab, spotting a confused-looking Takagi staring at his phone.
"Takagi, come here for a second."
"Inspector, I was actually just looking for you. I visited Hideyo Kawai's house earlier. Her family said she told them she'd be staying over at a friend's place."
"A sleepover? At whose house?"
"Akitani Yuri. She's in the same class as the victim."
Silently memorizing the name, Ritsu continued,
"Go investigate a female student who committed suicide during vacation. Her name is Takahashi Saki. If possible, check her house for things like a diary."
"Understood! I'll go right away!"
After sending Takagi off, Ritsu lowered his head and continued reading Shinichi's phone. But after seeing the remaining comments, his expression turned strange.
[Anonymous K: Hey, did anyone see the lead police officer? The white-haired guy with glasses? Oh my god he's so handsome! Totally my type!]
[Anonymous C: Wait wait wait?! What did I miss? Where's the handsome guy?!]
[Anonymous B: This thread's atmosphere changed so fast. Why are we suddenly talking about hot guys? Did a handsome cop show up? I hope class ends soon so I can go look too.]
[Anonymous I: He's even a motorcycle cop. That face is wasted on being a police officer. >_<~~]
[Anonymous L: I! SAW! HIM! TOO! He's seriously insanely handsome, especially when he took off his motorcycle helmet and adjusted his tie. My brain already wrote a 10,000-word dirty fanfic about it.]
[Anonymous M: Dirty fanfic? Could you write one with me as the heroine? I'll pay!]
[Anonymous K: Shameless +1]
[Anonymous C: So the real question is, anyone want to group up and go watch the hot police officer after class?]
[Anonymous B: Count me in!]
[Anonymous N: Me too +1!]
[Anonymous K: Me too +2!]
"…"
The corner of Ritsu's mouth twitched slightly.
Turning toward Shinichi, who wore the exact same speechless expression, he smiled pleasantly and asked,
"Kudo, who's responsible for your school forum?"
'Crap.'
That smile was terrifying.
Shinichi laughed awkwardly. "I think it was set up by students? Probably the upperclassmen from the computer club."
"Oh, I see."
Inwardly, Shinichi silently made a gesture of mourning.
'Onizawa-sensei was probably about to go after the school forum itself.'
Still, he honestly agreed that the forum needed cleaning up. Thanks to the protection provided by the anonymous system... there were plenty of terrible posts on there.
Ritsu didn't rush to cause destruction just yet. Solving the case and leaving as soon as possible remained the top priority.
Stoicly, he began directing the officers. "Other than the two current suspects, nobody else is allowed near the second floor of the science building."
"Anyone who approaches will be written up by the school for interfering with a police investigation."
"Yes, sir!"
----
[Case not found in Conan +1]