Ke Xue: Shinichi and I are childhood friends.

Chapter 1141 Meeting with Achiha

The sky is bright.

Yuya's eyelids trembled slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. A ray of morning light shone into the room. He lifted the quilt and raised his upper body. When he looked up, he saw Toyama Kazuha and Hattori Shizuka still kneeling there.

Yuanshan Heye was hunched over, his forehead covered in sweat, and he was panting slightly, looking shaky and ready to collapse at any moment.

On the other hand, Hattori Shizuka still had her back straight and her hands placed steadily on her thighs.

Yuya was stunned. Could it be that these two had been practicing karuta there all night?

As if noticing that Yuya had woken up, Hattori Shizuka let out a breath and said to Toyama Kazuha:

"I didn't expect you to last this long, but let's stop here for now and take a break."

"I can still hold on!" Yuanshan Heye said gritting his teeth.

Hattori Shizuka shook her head and said without giving any reason for rejection: "Rest is also an important part of training."

As he said this, he took off the blanket from his body, stood up and covered Toyama and Ye's back with it, then turned and left the room.

Yuanshan Heye relaxed all of a sudden, but was instantly swept over by fatigue. He tried hard to open his eyes, but finally fell down staggeringly.

Mao Lilan had been awakened by the conversation between the two people. Seeing this, she rushed over to support the person. Then she thought of something and turned to ask Hattori Shizuka: "How is her training going?"

Hattori Shizuka paused for a moment and said without looking back, "Her progress is even faster than I thought. It will be no problem for her to make it to the top four, but to be honest, it will be very difficult for her to advance to the finals or even win the championship."

"However," Hattori Shizuka glanced back at the girl lying on Mao Lilan's lap who had fallen asleep, and said lightly, "The most important things in karuta competition are mental strength and concentration. She has both. If she can train without distractions until the end, this child still has a chance of winning."

After saying that, Hattori Shizuka left.

Is your mind free of distractions? After covering Toyama and Ye with the blanket, Mao Lilan couldn't help but take out the document box and look at the photo of Koheiji and Kokomoye inside. If she saw this photo, she would definitely be in a state of panic, right?

Forget it, let’s keep it a secret until the game is over.

Thinking of this, Mao Lilan carefully put the photo back and put away the ID box.

Toyama Kazuha couldn't help, so Yuya and Conan simply washed up, contacted Hattori Heiji, and met in a reception room.

As soon as they met, Yuya looked at Hattori Heiji with a strange expression: "You have the second to last button of your shirt buttoned wrong."

Hattori Heiji was stunned for a moment, looked down, and hurriedly buttoned his clothes again.

Youye lowered his half-moon eyes and said, "You bastard, I asked you to protect someone, but you didn't end up protecting them in bed, did you?"

Conan also looked at Hattori Heiji with an ambiguous look.

Hattori Heiji blushed and argued: "What nonsense are you talking about! I am..."

Briefly recount what happened last night.

Yuya looked at him strangely: "Just drank tea? Nothing else happened?"

Hattori Heiji was speechless: "No! Absolutely not! Don't talk nonsense!"

This guy, what is he thinking about every day?

Yuya spread his hands and said, "If there's nothing, then there's nothing. So, did you get any information?"

Hattori Heiji told the story about Nagoro Shikao.

Yuya pinched his chin and said, "It seems that we need to talk to President Achiba."

The three of them found Achiha Kensuke and entered his room after getting permission.

Achiha had just recovered from his symptoms and asked when he saw the three people, "What do you want from me?"

Yuya said straight to the point: "We came to you to find out about Nagoro Shikao."

Hearing the name, Achiha's pupils shrank suddenly, and a strange look flashed across his face, but he quickly calmed down and pointed at the sofa: "Sit down and talk."

He glanced at his watch again: "I'm about to leave for the club to deal with the subsequent competition matters, so let me make it short."

Yuya nodded. "Then I'll go straight to the point. President Achiba, we've heard something. The night before the scheduled duel between Nagoro and Lady Satsuki, they seemed to have had a private duel. He seemed to be planning to show off his strength in this private duel, then deliberately lose the next day's match, and ultimately have his own disciple join the Satsuki Society. Are you aware of this?"

"..." Achiha frowned and said slowly, "I'm sorry, I don't know. Even if he really had this plan, my wife and I have never met him. As for what happened in between, you should ask his disciples instead of asking me."

Hattori Heiji raised an eyebrow: "President Achiha, have you really never met Nagoro?"

Achiha's face was filled with dissatisfaction: "What do you mean by that?"

Yuya took out his phone and poked the screen a few times, then turned it around. "Thanks to the flourishing news industry in Japan, I was able to find Kyoto's report on that match from five years ago."

"Besides Nagoro, who didn't show up and subsequently disappeared, there's also a photo of you driving your wife to the competition venue."

Achibo glanced at the photo, a little confused: "So what?"

Yuya pointed at one of the photos and said, "You should remember that you have the habit of washing your car the day before the race to seek a good omen for your wife in the race, right?"

The dissatisfaction and doubt on Achiha's face faded, replaced by a hint of panic as his secret was revealed.

Yuya deliberately spoke slowly and not too fast, just to give Achiha enough time to react, and to show this reaction on his face.

"But, in this photo, your car isn't cleaned and is obviously dirty. Why?"

"Did you forget by chance, or did you already know that Nagoro would no longer be at the competition?"

This question is quite direct, almost questioning whether Achiha is related to the disappearance of Nagoro Shikao.

However, he did not show the usual resistance or rebuttal, but hesitated.

After a while, Achiha sighed deeply and said quietly, "I didn't expect you would investigate to this extent."

Yuya raised an eyebrow, "Looks like you're planning on telling us."

Achiha was obviously compromised. He said helplessly: "Yes, that night, Nagoro did come to challenge my wife to a private duel."

"We already know this, but why didn't he show up for the game the next day?"

Achiha's expression relaxed a bit, and he said slowly, "If you really want a reason... you just said that Nagoro was planning to show off his strength in a private duel, and then give up and lose the next day?"

Yuya nodded. According to Ooka Momiji, that was indeed the case.

"But," Achiha paused, "he lost that day, and it was a very ugly loss. He failed to prove his level at all."

"When I got home, I saw Nagoro's face livid as he rushed out of my house."