The door opened up, and some men wearing work uniforms came into the room. There were three of them, two of whom I was seeing for the first time now.
“Kotone Hanasato. You’re coming with us.”
The man who spoke was the same one who hit Hibiki and Kotone with the stun gun earlier. He must’ve been the leader. I guessed he was in his midthirties, and he was clearly very well-built, judging by the way he walked and carried himself. The same went for the two men behind him.
Kotone looked straight at the man as she got up from the floor.
“What about these two?”
“We only need you.”
“No! I can’t leave them alone here. You can take me where you want, but please, release these two.”
“Are you trying to bargain with the people who kidnapped you? You really are a Hanasato, aren’t you? I’m afraid I can’t do that, though. They saw our faces. We can’t let ’em go until it’s all over.”
The leader sounded very confident.
“What are you after? Money?” asked Kotone.
“Who knows? You sure don’t need to.”
“Whatever it is, your plan will fail. The Hanasato group is more than prepared for these sorts of things.”
“You say that, but it was awfully easy to kidnap you.”
The leader shrugged, and Kotone bit her lip. I could tell the men had no interest in hearing her out.
“If you do anything to hurt these two children, just remember that I will pay you back for it.” Kotone glared at the man.
“Simply do what we say, and the hostages will be fine, capiche? Our organization has rules for these sorts of things, too.”
Organization? So there’s more to this than just the kidnappers—there’s someone pulling the strings. Just like what happened on the SS Flower Song.
“Very well… Then please, hurry up and take me away.”
“You’re coming quietly? That was easier than I thought it’d be.”
“Don’t misunderstand… I will take the time it requires to persuade you,” Kotone said, staring straight at the man.
“Hmph.” He was as smug as ever.
Argh! I wish I could just beat him up! There’s only three of them, so I bet I could take ’em, but…I can’t. It would be too dangerous for Kotone and Minatsu.
Gah! This is so annoying!
Kotone looked back at us while she walked toward the men.
“I’m going to go now. You both will be safe, so don’t worry about anything.” Kotone tried to encourage us with a smile.
The men led her out of the room, and they shut the door behind them. I could hear their footsteps moving away, down the hallway.
“What’s going to happen to us…?” Minatsu whispered, as if she couldn’t hold it back any longer. Well, of course she was scared. This was a terrifying situation for a normal middle school student to be in.
“We’ll be fine, Minatsu. Kotone will negotiate with them to let us go.”
“How can you be so optimistic?! You have no idea what’s going to happen!”
As soon as she said this, she flicked her head up and glared right at me.
Slam!
We heard a fist being pounded against the door.
“Pipe down in there!” shouted a deep voice. Guess that guy was our guard.
Minatsu and I looked at each other in silence.
“Sorry…,” Minatsu finally whispered. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“It’s fine; don’t worry about it.”
It’s totally understandable to not be yourself. I mean, I probably would’ve rushed the guys earlier if I wasn’t secretly Red.
The question was: What could we do?
The man in charge said he wouldn’t let us out of here until it was all over, but who knew whether he’d actually do that. We’d already seen their faces.
And I couldn’t just change into my Red costume and go save Kotone because I was stuck here with Minatsu…
I’m gonna have to bust Minatsu out of here before I go help Kotone! Hibiki might be on the case, but I can’t let him do all the work.
“Minatsu… Let’s try to escape.”
“We can’t do that.” She shook her head. “It’s way too dangerous. We’re better off waiting for somebody to rescue us.”
I understood where she was coming from. Waiting for help was definitely the best option for a regular middle schooler.
But I’m not your regular middle schooler.
I whispered back to her. “It’ll be fine. The kidnappers are all focused on Kotone right now, so we should be able to slip right by.”
“And what about the guy guarding the door? And did you forget that we’re, you know, tied up?”
“Oh, I’ve already figured that out!” I said before rubbing the hands tied behind my back together, and before long—one of my hands was free.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ta-dah.”
I showed Minatsu the empty rope.
“H-how’d you do that?! It’s tied so tight for me…”
Shocked, Minatsu tried to do the same thing, but she could barely move her hands.
Yeah, there’s a trick to it. My dad taught it to me before, but I only just remembered it.
“What is with you, Kouzuki…?” Minatsu was getting more and more confused.
Uh, whoops.
The last thing I needed was for her to find me suspicious—Kei would kill me.
“Oh, um, you know. I like to go camping, and stuff. You learn a lot about ropes in the great outdoors.”
“Is that right…?”
Although she was still acting suspicious, she seemed to accept my explanation.
“So what if our hands are free?” she went on. “It doesn’t change the fact that there’s some guy outside the door watching us. Not to mention, the door is locked from the outside.”
I had to think about that one. This was supposed to be Kei’s job.
The easy thing to do would be to kick the door open and beat up whoever’s outside.
I mean, it sounds like there’s only one guy anyway.
“Hey, Kouzuki?”
“Oh, sorry. Lemme get your rope undone.”
“No, it’s not that. I think I have a good plan.”
“A plan for what?
“A plan to get us out of here.”
“Seriously? You sure?”
“It might be dangerous, but you’re right—anything is better than waiting here anxiously. And besides…”
Besides?
“That girl from before, Hanasato—she seemed genuinely more concerned about our safety than her. If we can help her out, I don’t mind doing something a little dangerous.”
“Minatsu…!”
“How can you smile like that in this situation?”
Oh, right.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Minatsu looked at the door. “Come closer and I’ll tell you.”
I scooched up next to Minatsu.
“So here’s what we’ll do…” She explained her plan to me.
“Wow! That might actually work.”
“Shh,” Minatsu said, and I covered my own mouth. “Not ‘might’—it needs to work, if we’re going to try it.”
For sure! We’ll break out of here, all on our own!