Chapter 44: Four-way meeting.
9:00 pm
The moon shone high over Tokyo, the Japanese capital, illuminating villa Vineyard with its rays: a white three-storey building surrounded by a lawn and with a swimming pool. Shinichi, Heiji and Chris were in the living room, located on the ground floor: the first walked back and forth, glancing nervously at the garden through French windows; the second was sitting on an armchair and reading a detective novel, taken from the villa's library; the third was watching TV, where a thriller film, Shield of straw, by Takashi Miike was airing.
"Why don't he come?" Kudo wondered impatiently.
"Maybe he changed his mind." His friend and colleague hypothesized.
"If so, he would have warned me, somehow."
At that moment the intercom rang. Shinichi put his hand to the receiver, thinking:
Hopefully it's him.
"Yup?"
"It's me."
"I who?"
"Like who? Saguru Hakuba!"
"Ah ... Wait, I'll open you up."
That said, he pressed the button that opened the side gate, then turned to his wife.
"Let's go and welcome him. You, Heiji, wait here. "
"Ok."
When they came out, they came across a boy with short blond hair and brown eyes, who wore a white short-sleeved shirt and black shorts.
"Shinichi .. We finally meet again."
"Yeah. How come so late?"
"I was ... having dinner with my wife, Akako."
"Ah understood."
The eastern detective winked at him.
"Never irritate your bride, right?" He asked.
"Yeah ... At best it would leave me fasting." Saguru admitted.
"Come on, follow us." The landlord invited him.
Back in the living room Shinichi made his guest sit on the sofa, while he and his wife sat next to him.
"So Kudo, how come you asked for my collaboration? It must be something big if you called Heiji too."
"In fact, the last time we cooperated was to catch Kaito Kid, a famous jewelry thief, aka your old friend Kaito Kuroba, who is now rotting behind bars." Hattori admitted.
"It's actually a pretty serious matter." Shinichi admitted.
"Then explain."
"Today Shiho Nishizumi, a big guy from MEXT, asked me to investigate the Black Sun, that European school of sensha-do."
"Because of those two girls, Yukari and Arisa?"
"Exact. She is convinced that Hilda is hiding something, and I believe it too."
"So you accepted her request?"
"Yes, and I need your help and Heiji's to solve the case."
"I'm in ... Where do we start?"
"I already have a plan in mind. One of us will have to infiltrate the BS to collect clues and information, the others will go to the hotel to interrogate Leila and Akito."
"But we are too well known to be able to get on board without being noticed. They also talked about our adventures abroad, you know? By the way, Shin, you also solved cases in London, New York and Ryadh, in Saudi Arabia."
"Yes, on that last occasion I foiled a plot against the royal family. But, fortunately for us, my wife is a disguise sorceress, she will be able to come on board in disguise."
"Disguised by whom?"
"Nobody can know, except me." Said the blonde.
"Agree. So are the three of us going to the hotel? "
"Yup. maybe we will get some useful information. "
"I hope so, although I have serious doubts about it."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's admit that Hilda knew about the abuses her students inflicted on their victims, or that she even ordered them. What if her parents were complicit?"
Shinichi thought about it.
"There is a serious possibility." He admitted.
"I would try anyway ... Maybe they will betray themselves in some way."
"Right, Hattori. There's no harm in trying."
9.15 pm
Miho was heading home, in the company of Saori.
"Miporin?"
"Tell me, Saori-san."
"Are you really determined to challenge the Schwarze Sonne?"
"Exact."
"I don't know if we can win this time ... Our opponents are strong and determined."
"The university team was too, and before that Kuromorimine, Pravda, Anzio and Saunders. Yet we won. "
"In the case of Pravda and Saunders, luck also played ..."
"I know. But believe me, we didn't only get to the final thanks to that. "
Saori snorted, then looked straight ahead.
"You know? I haven't had a decent sleep for some time. "
Miho looked at her bewildered.
"Why?"
"Because of nightmares ..."
"But you haven't touched the diamond."
"I relive the day when the friendship between me and Mako fell apart ... And even when Hana exposed us in front of everyone."
"What are you worried about? By now nobody talks about it anymore. Their anger has died out, or has been directed towards the Black Sun. "
"If only I had helped her grandmother instead of robbing her now Mako would still be with us."
"She's gone now, Saori ... There's no point in crying over a broken vase."
"True…"
The carrot –haired girl snorted, depressed.
"What about you, Miporin? Do you still have those terrible nightmares?"
"Fortunately not, but I assure you that until the day before yesterday they made me wake up screaming."
Since she had touched the black diamond, Miho had had a series of chilling nightmares: in one of these the girls of the team rabbit were burned alive by a Saunders tank, in another Anchovy was killed by her own companions and hung on the head down, completely naked, in another they were Anzu, Momo and Yuzu to burn alive in their tank, hit by a Kuromorimine panzer. Each time she woke up in the middle of the night, screaming and then looking around, panting and drenched in sweat. Fortunately, the nightmares had ceased.
"Saori-san ..."
"Tell me."
"Would you like to stop at my house for tonight?"
"In your house?"
The girl nodded.
"A little company will make me comfortable, given the challenge that awaits us."
"Agree…"
"I'm grateful to you." Miho said, smiling.
"Imagine, we are still friends and teammates."
