“Right. And the other three are safe?”
“You betcha! I heard you called Yukimura and President Shiori.”
“Yeah. I knew I couldn’t come out with Hibiki on the scene, after all.” Kei sounded a little bitter.
“True, true. You’ve spoken with him on the phone before, too. He already knows there are at least two of us—we don’t need him getting any more clues. One thing I’m curious about, though—how’d you figure out I was kidnapped?”
Hibiki was the only witness there, after all.
“The perpetrators called the Hanasato family to make their demands, which had the police rushing over to their house. Hibiki Shirasato was also in communication with the authorities. It didn’t take long to figure out.”
“Wait, so you’re spying on the Hanasato family?”
“Let’s just say I have a way of knowing when something’s up. I’m keeping tabs on the Fantasista case. Anyway, the problem was that you and Segami were kidnapped. Setting aside Segami, I was really worried when I found out they had you.”
“You were actually worried about me?!” Kei? Worried about me?
“Of course I was. I know how short your fuse is—the Asuka Kouzuki I know would’ve gone on a rampage against the kidnappers,” Kei said nonchalantly.
“Ah… Right… Well, that kinda sucks to hear. You don’t need to make me sound like some kind of beast that’ll wreak havoc without someone to mind her!”
“Am I wrong?”
Well… I mean, I have approached culprits as Asuka Kouzuki once or twice before.
“Okay, Asuka. What are you going to do next?” Kei asked me.
“That should be obvious! I’m gonna save Kotone and Hibiki. Why? Are you against it?”
“No. We’re Phantom Thief Red—we can’t let the bad guys get away,” Kei said with utmost confidence.
“I agree!” As soon as I said that, I wondered what was going on inside.
I hope they’re okay.
“Hibiki is holding his own thanks to the power outage, but there’s too many of them.”
Then I’d better hurry up and go help!
I’m gonna save ’em both!