T.A series Volume 7: Feathers of Fury

Chapter 10 - Tension in the Air

Takuma dashed forward and began to lift the heavy drapes. "Professor Shibuya? Are you awake?" he grunted.

Michio and Junko hurried across and helped him haul the curtains aside when they looked down on the body of Professor Shibuya Jirou, his anguished face was pale, his skin the colour of death. A trickle of blood ran down one cheek from a cut on his domed skull. Suddenly he stirred. His eyes blinked open and he groaned.

The children gasped in surprise and relief as Professor Shibuya regained consciousness. "Professor Shibuya! Are you okay?" Emiko asked, her voice filled with concern.

The professor blinked, trying to focus on the children hovering over him. "Wha... What happened?" he muttered, clearly disoriented.

"We found you unconscious under the curtains," Ranran explained gently, kneeling beside him. "Do you remember anything?"

Professor Shibuya winced as he touched the cut on his head. "I... I can't recall much."

"He is alive!" Shinichi turned to the group. "Can any of you find some water?" he asked urgently "He's still alive."

"I will do it!" Junko volunteered.

As Junko sprinted from the room, the other children lifted the wounded professor into his chair. His eyes gradually focused on them, his mouth sagged open, and he lifted a hand to his forehead. Emiko meanwhile dug in her pocket for tissues.

"What happened, Professor Shibuya?" Michio wanted to know.

The old man cast a dazed look around the room."I was working," he began. "Then I heard a sound, and then somebody hit me on the head."He pressed a tissue against the cut to stem the flow of blood.

"Did you see who attacked you?" Takuma asked, his eyes scanning the room for any signs of the culprit.

The professor shook his head quickly. "It all happened so quickly," he murmured nervously.

"Sir, are you aware that the other parts of your house had been ransacked?" Ranran questioned the elderly man.

"No, I've no idea," Jirou groaned.

"Do you have any idea why would somebody knock you out and search your house?" demanded Shinichi.

"I don't know."

"Maybe it was the same person who stole the eagle?"Ran wondered aloud.

"It wouldn't be possible," The old man shrugged and he sounded irritated."My eagle is stolen, why would they come back?" He tried to stand up but fell back into the chair.

Then Ranran remembered something.

Earlier when they were downstairs, although the state of the living room and the rest of them were dusty, they were no evidence of ransacking. "Professor, you have a rough suspicion as to who is likely to have done this to you, huh?" she demanded suspiciously,

"What are you talking about?!" He was wincing in pain.

"The living room and the other rooms below were untouched, yet, every single room upstairs was ransacked. That meant whoever this person knows you hid whatever they are searching up there, right?!" Ranran confronts him.

The professor glared at her "Stop pestering me with all these questions," he complained. Suddenly, a familiar voice boomed from the doorway.

"What are you children doing here?"

Everyone spun round to find Sergeant Genzo and two uniformed officers striding into the study. The sergeant's hair seemed sprinkled with even more grey than the last they'd seen him.