The dawn of the fourth day, Thursday, March 27th, found one Hakuba Saguru up early to prepare. First it was jogging, which had become a daily ritual without school to get in the way, then a shower, and finally breakfast with tea. Once the newspaper had been scoured, the detective checked all of his messages, called into the station, and prepped his paperwork for next week’s cases over more tea. 

He drove through Tokyo traffic to deliver the case files and stopped for a light lunch with his father, who couldn’t make it, then stopped by a bookshop before finally going to the grocer for some last minute items for the evening. The cook had already begun the roast hours beforehand, but he was going to make dessert himself, for which his fairly particular tastes required personal selection.

Three hours to go. The mansion was spotless, the dining room set, the wine selected and chilled, and the chocolate cake cooling. When Baaya asked what he was going through so much trouble for, he simply shrugged and offered a helpless, “Mum raised me to be a good host, Baaya. That’s all.”

Ten minutes to, Hakuba straightened his tie, looking himself over in the floor-length mirror on the inside of his closet door. He looked fine, of course. He always did. There was nothing to be nervous about; simply meeting a friend for dinner and drinks, something long overdue for classmates. Kuroba had been his only friend, really, and even then they hadn’t been particularly close…  Hakuba sighed, shut the closet door, and nearly tripped over one of his handful of moving boxes scattered about his bedroom floor. 

None of them were packed or sealed except one next to the book case; books were always the easiest to pack as they fit into boxes and stacked so neatly. Even then, he’d had to open and reseal it twice already to get at books he’d wanted to reread in his empty evenings. 

It wasn’t as if he knew where he was going yet, either. For all he knew, he was staying in Ekoda for the foreseeable future. The thought made him wince, but he brushed it off and left the room to begin the trek to the front of the house. He didn’t want to be mussed when his guest arrived, hopefully, right on time…