Monday. Another painful week for students had begun. But in this world, that pain stretched on without end. Students could never graduate.
Still, today felt different. The students of Teitan High seemed to hear a gentle breeze whisper in their ears, telling them that someone special would be arriving. The whole campus carried a strange excitement. Jodie noticed it clearly. Everyone seemed unusually cheerful.
Jodie, an FBI agent undercover as an English teacher, couldn't help thinking this country really had no hope. The FBI, American police, were here conducting investigations in Japan. This wasn't the CIA—this was law enforcement. Police were supposed to operate under their own country's laws, and abroad they had no authority. Yet here she was.
"Miss Jodie, a new teacher will be arriving today. I'll introduce you later."
"Understood, Principal." Jodie, being American, was treated politely by everyone. Maybe the students' good mood was because of this new teacher? Either way, she didn't dislike the atmosphere.
Vroom—
A powerful engine roared. A blood-red concept sports car shot through the school gates like an arrow, drifting around the bend before spinning into a perfect ninety-degree slide straight into a parking space.
'What amazing driving!' Jodie thought. 'Could that be one of those legendary Akina mountain racers?'
Of course not. It was Ada Wong, arriving for work just as agreed. The car was hers, bought outright. Since she was on vacation, she'd prepared plenty of money and bought whatever she wanted. Over the weekend she had toured the world, shopping endlessly. The car hadn't gone through customs—she brought it into Japan herself.
Long, flawless legs stepped out first, then Ada stood up completely, locking eyes with Jodie.
'What a beautiful woman,' was Jodie's first thought. Her second was that this woman was dangerous, not simple at all. She didn't know why, but Ada's aura unsettled her.
"You must be the new teacher reporting in today?" Jodie asked, her Japanese heavily accented but understandable.
Ada nodded. "Ada Wong."
"Jodie Saintemillion, English teacher," Jodie replied. "Miss Ada, what will you be teaching?"
"I think chemistry." Liu A'dou had arranged everything, and Ada remembered chemistry was the cover. With her skills, she could handle teaching any subject. High school students were no challenge.
Unlike Jodie, who wore a neat business suit, Ada was clad in leather, her figure displayed to breathtaking effect. With a teacher like that, how could students focus on class?
Walking down the hall, Ada drew every gaze. Teachers were shocked too—none expected the new hire to look like this. Beautiful, fashionable, and clearly wealthy.
The impression Ada gave was that of a rich, stylish socialite, utterly at odds with the role of a schoolteacher. How could a woman like that possibly teach high school? No one could figure it out.
After meeting the principal, Jodie introduced Ada to the other second-year teachers in the faculty office, including the PE instructor.
"I'm the homeroom teacher for Class 2-B. I'll take you to meet your lovely students shortly."
"Thank you."
Meanwhile, the classroom buzzed like an uproar. That sports car's roar earlier had told every student Ada had arrived. Never before had they seen such a flashy teacher. Everyone was curious about what kind of person she really was.
"You think she's our new chemistry teacher?" students whispered.
Sonoko turned to Ran. "That kind of car? One of my relatives has been trying to get it for ages, but it's impossible to buy. There's no market. Who exactly is this teacher?"
"Sonoko, isn't that a little exaggerated?" Ran asked.
"Of course not."
Liu A'dou, on the other hand, saw nothing strange about Ada. They were on vacation. They could live however they wanted. Opportunities like this were rare. Aside from the high number of murder cases, Conan's world was actually quite safe. So why not just have fun?
While the class was buzzing with discussion, the homeroom teacher walked in with Ada.
The room fell silent. The students could hardly believe their eyes. Ada didn't look like a teacher at all—she looked like a celebrity. She was dazzling.
"Go ahead and introduce yourself."
Ada stepped forward, sweeping her gaze over the sea of young faces before finally landing on Liu A'dou. So this was his plan, huh? But why was he the student while she had to play the teacher? Did he think she was old? Ada silently swore she wouldn't let Liu A'dou win her so easily. "I'm Ada Wong, Chinese-American. Starting today, I'll be teaching chemistry. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me."
Liu A'dou shot her a look that clearly said, you know what I mean. Teacher-student romance was all about spice, ohoho. But he had no idea Ada had just raised the stakes. A'dou had dug his own pit and jumped right in.
The students could hardly contain their excitement. To have a teacher like this—it felt like a blessing too good to be true, especially for the boys. Ada's mature charm rolled off her in waves, making adolescent hearts bloom with infatuation.
In an instant, Liu A'dou found himself with dozens of "love rivals."
"So beautiful," Ran said with genuine admiration.
Sonoko, however, was eaten up with jealousy. Why did someone so stunning even exist? Still, her envy didn't last long. Soon she just felt inferior. She had tried curling her hair, but somehow the curls seemed to sap her luck, so today she'd gone back to straight hair. Though she was boy-crazy and loved handsome guys, if one actually approached her first, she usually didn't know how to handle it.
Like that time with Kyōgoku Makoto—when a handsome suspect tried chatting her up, she had immediately dragged Ran along. Conan's comment back then had been: "Impossible. There's no way something that good could happen to Sonoko." Clearly, Conan didn't think much of her. Sonoko herself often doubted her own looks, convinced she simply had no luck with men.
Ada's first class began after the homeroom teacher left. And to her surprise, she realized she didn't actually know what to do.
"Where did you leave off in the textbook?"
"Polymer synthesis," the students answered.
Ada flipped quickly through the pages on polymers, skimming the content. Easy. "Then today we'll study a few common organic methods of synthesizing polymers."
High school courses usually covered lab-scale polymer synthesis, but also touched on industrial methods since those could show up on exams.
Ada was more than familiar with this stuff. She rattled through the lecture smoothly. But the students weren't listening—they were too busy admiring Ada's figure from behind.
Liu A'dou hadn't just set himself up. He'd doomed a whole classroom of kids. The guilt was heavy.