Chapter Text
The phone in the Kudo house rang, and Yuusaku went to go answer it. It was Shiratori.
"Ah, Kudo-sensei?" the curly-haired officer questioned.
"Yes?" Yuusaku answered.
"Five more bodies have been found, all the Genbu warriors excluding Hatsui."
"Kuso," the author cursed.
"Also, I think you may want to turn the TV on to the news," Shiratori said.
"Why?" asked Yuusaku.
"There's a fire at Teitan High," Shiratori replied quietly. "And it hasn't been confirmed yet, but there were reports of gunfire."
The reincarnated horn seishi quickly reached a conclusion. It wasn't good. "The fire must have been started to smoke everyone out of the building, then they would be picked off." The unspoken targets hung in the air nonetheless.
"Oi! Suboshi!" Hattori called from upstairs.
Yuusaku quickly hung up and then ascended to the second floor. "What?"
"Ya might wanna come see this." Heiji and Chuei were watching a report on the television, their faces grim. Yuusaku inhaled sharply at the image on-screen of the school, firefighters doing their best to douse the flames that currently were burning fiercely.
This is not good, the author thought.
It was right before lunch, and Mitsuhiko was the first to notice a bright glow, which was followed quickly by the sound of sirens. He got Ayumi and Genta's attention by poking them when the teacher wasn't looking. He needn't have bothered with Ai and Shinichi though, because at nearly the same time both their heads shot up, expressions panicked for a moment before they were carefully schooled blank. The three shared a glance, and Mitsuhiko tried to give a reassuring smile, even though he felt in the pit of his stomach some dark emotion he was sure he was better off not knowing about.
The fire was on pretty much all the news channels and the occupants of the Kudo house switched between them, checking for updates. Roughly half an hour after Yuusaku had first gotten the call from Shiratori, the doorbell rang.
Yuusaku closed his eyes and focused on sensing the chi of the person at the doorbell, only to find there were three people, two of them familiar.
"Miaka and Suzuki-san are here," Yuusaku told Hattori and Chuei, then hurried down to the door. Opening it, he blinked in surprise at the Blonde woman with glasses and the two children who looked very… familiar…
Oh no. Ushering them inside, Kudo shut the door, and then turned to the blonde woman. "And you would be?" he asked.
"Are you Yuusaku Kudo?" she inquired.
"Of course he's that baka Kudo-kun's father," Sonoko piped up, her childish soprano indignant. "Can't you see the family relationship?"
"I think you mean 'familial resemblance'," Ran interjected, flashing the adults an apologetic smile. "Sorry Jodie-sensei, Kudo-ojiisan. Subaru," she turned to Jodie, "this is Suboshi."
"Oi Suboshi! Don' jus' run off like that without sayin' anythin'! Who's at the… door?" Hattori's rant trailed off as he took in Ran and Sonoko. "Oh, crap, you guys too?" he exclaimed. Then he noticed Jodie. "An' what's yer teacher here fer? Aren't you with the FBI?" he added sotto voce.
"Tasuki-san-" Chuei stopped, eyes widening as he saw the people downstairs. "Oh no, not you two too!"
"Cool Kid? What're you doing here?" Jodie asked, confused, just as Ran realized why the guys were kind of freaking out.
"Ah, no! Jodie-sensei – Subaru's celestial power allows her to control the age of a person's body," Ran explained.
The guys' eyes took on a certain gleam. "Really?" Yuusaku inquired. The girls sweatdropped at the calculating expressions on the men's faces.
"In any case, shut the door!" Hattori said. As Ran and Sonoko went off with Chuei to go get some water, Jodie turned to the Detective of the West and the author.
"Would either of you like to explain what's going on now?"