As soon as I entered the theater, I could hear shouting from far away.
It’s coming from the stage—that’s Kotone and Hibiki!
The lights were back on at this point. Kei said he didn’t do anything, which meant the kidnappers had fixed the lights.
“What’s the situation, Kei?” I asked as I ran down the hallway.
“I can’t tell the details. The security cameras are all off. I’ve managed to turn a few on, but I don’t have the full picture yet.”
Bummer… This building is going to be destroyed, so the security cameras must’ve been turned off.
“Instead, I managed to get my hands on a blueprint. I know how long your stride is, so I should be able to give you directions based on the number of steps.”
“You say that like it’s nothing, but I bet that’s super hard to calculate. I’m glad you’ve got a plan, though.”
“I always do. I want you to take a right in ten steps.”
Sure enough, there was a right turn ten steps down the hall from where I was. I followed the path straight for a while after.
“Okay, be careful. There should be someone watching the next left turn.”
I stopped at Kei’s warning and peeked past the corner, and there was indeed a man in a work uniform standing guard.
“We need to keep going without raising the alarm. Put him to sleep.”
“You got it.” I flicked a pellet filled with sleeping gas at the man.
“Ugh…” The man went down with a thud.
“Now, move forward a little and there should be a vent that leads to the space above the ceiling. I want you to take that space into the stage area.”
“The space behind the ceiling? You sure we have the time to go the long way? I’d much rather take them on directly!”
“There’s too many of them, so we’d be at a disadvantage in a head-on fight.”
Even if Hibiki did manage to take out a few of the kidnappers, there was just too many of them to begin with. Kei was right—the careful approach was probably better.
Following Kei’s directions, I passed through a vent into the space above the ceiling and headed for the stage.
After a decent amount of crawling, I eventually saw a light. There were steel beams sticking out over the stage, and under them was a walkway. I could also see the stage lights hanging under the walkway.
“You’re above the stage now, and they’re right below you. Don’t make a sound.”
It was definitely a tall order, and Kei said it like it was the obvious thing to do.
But…I’ll try!
I carefully lowered my leg onto the walkway, then grabbed one of the steel beams, trying not to make a sound before I lowered myself.
Whew… I did it.
I hid above the walkway as I listened in. I could hear voices coming from below.
“You should give up, kid. You’ve done good for being outnumbered.”
I peeked over the ledge and saw Kotone and Hibiki.
They had their backs to the wall, surrounded by the kidnappers with nowhere to go. Hibiki was covered in cuts and bruises, while Kotone stood in front of him to protect him.
“Kotone, I want you to run away while I hold them off,” Hibiki said.
“What are you talking about?! You know I’d never do that!”
Kotone shook her head, and Hibiki didn’t argue further. I guess he was expecting that response.
With determination in his eyes, Hibiki glared at the group of men.
I need to hurry up and save them!
I wanted to jump down and help as soon as I could.
“Calm down. Everything is ready on my end. Let’s do this.”
You got it!
I dropped a stack of papers I’d collected along the way back, which all fluttered down to the stage like a snowstorm.
“What the—?”
The men all looked up in confusion. I was hiding behind the walkway, so they couldn’t see me. Still, the falling papers had the men on edge. This was part one of Kei’s plan.
“This better work…”
I’d folded a note that I threw down together with the papers. All the paper was falling at once, but I’d tried to give the note a little extra momentum.
If Hibiki misses this, then the plan’s a bust…
“…………!”
Hibiki squinted and managed to pick out the paper in a heartbeat.
I think he saw it…
“Take this!”
Hibiki picked up a two-by-four and threw it at the men.
“Ack! So we’re gonna do this the hard way, eh?”