A Girl of Secrets

"Sorry, everyone, I've got to take this call," a girl of a petite figure quickly said with a slight smile. Her eye-catching, sparkly flip phone was clearly catching the attention of the people at the party, mainly because the cat charm attached to it almost became stuck in the chains of her cross-body bag. She bowed repeatedly as an apology, and rushed up the stairs to her room, right past the door in the back of the hallway.

Upon tapping on the "answer button," she was bracing herself for a new mission of sorts. She spoke in a lower voice. "Good evening. What is it today?"

"Good," a man with quite the deep voice replied. "We're going to need backup at Herald International University."

The girl laughed heartily. "I see. Is Uchino-senpai in a pinch again?"

"Quite," he replied. "He's still relatively new to the company, so don't be too hard on him. Yes, Ishigami?" He fell silent, waiting for a response.

After perhaps 10 seconds, the girl simply said, "I'll see what I can do." Before she could say anything else, she could hear her mother's footsteps approaching her room, so she suddenly hung up the phone. If her mother were to call for her, it would have been disastrous, wouldn't it? After all, Ishigami was not her real name.

With the help of an old friend, she was able to create the identity of Ishigami Hanabi, a newbie detective with the wits of... maybe the smartest man in the world. It was all an effort to bring justice to the people without drawing attention to the normal high school girl she wanted to be. A normal, shy girl free from the press and the pressure of what was expected of Ishigami Hanabi.

"Kanon!" her mother started to stomp her feet in anger at the girl's abrupt departure, which was seen as rude and unseemly. "Your aunt was about to greet you, did you know that?!"

"Ma'am, please calm yourself," a maid tried her best to keep her from screaming, reaching for the lady's shoulders.

Yet, she kept on scolding Kanon in such a manner. "You will not get away with embarrassing me in front of your father's family!"

At that moment, however, Kanon had already climbed out the window as Private Detective Ishigami.