“How did you find us?”
The leader walked toward Hibiki with fury in his eyes. But Hibiki didn’t relent; he pulled out a small square device from his pocket.
“This is a transceiver. I know you broke Kotone’s phone so we couldn’t follow the GPS, but I guess you failed to find the bug I placed in her pen. Kotone’s Morse code was all I needed to find this place.”
Morse code… I think Kei said it’s a way to convert sounds to letters of the alphabet and send messages.
Ah! So that’s why Kotone was tapping her pen earlier… And how she knew Hibiki would come.
Good job, Hibiki!
“Huh, you don’t say. I guess they don’t call you the Middle School Detective for nothing.”
The men looked away from us and focused on Hibiki.
Looks like we’re safe, for the time being. Now we just need Hibiki and the police he brought along to— Wait a sec…
Huh? Whenever Hibiki comes barging into a scene, he always has police with him, which is why I expected this time, too.
So why’s he alone?
“So, how many police are with you?” The leader’s cautious expression slowly shifted into a grin. “Let me guess, twenty? I know you didn’t come here alone.”
“…………” Hibiki didn’t respond.
Wait, he didn’t actually come alone, did he? Why would he do that?!
The leader was back to his smug self. “They didn’t believe you, did they? That we kidnapped Kotone Hanasato right in front of you, just like how Red snatched the stolen paintings from you before. I bet the police have lost faith in you.”
Whaaaaaat?! It isn’t all Red’s fault that the police aren’t with Hibiki, is it?!
“I knew I wouldn’t need the police to capture the likes of you. That’s all.”
Though Hibiki’s tone remained unchanged, he had to be bluffing in these circumstances.
I mean, it’s one versus like five guys. At this rate, they’re gonna capture Hibiki too.
But Hibiki was still calm. “Besides… You don’t actually think I came here unprepared, do you?”
“What do you have up your sleeve?” the leader asked, and Hibiki activated something with his phone.
Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling!
The alarm sounded out of nowhere.
“What did you do?!”
At the same instant, water erupted from the ceiling above the stage and audience seats—it was the sprinkler system for a fire. The spray was going in every direction.
“Why you little—!”
The men all covered their faces, but the water was relentless. They were drenched within seconds. We, on the other hand, managed to slip over to a nook in the side stage, where we avoided getting wet.
“I made a few tweaks to the fire alarm system before coming in,” said Hibiki.
He stood in the entrance, completely dry, watching the men get soaked.
So you did come prepared. Nice job, Hibiki!
Then he pressed another button on his phone, and the water system settled down.
“Tsk! So we’re a little wet—what does that matter?! C’mon, boys! Get ’em!”
The men, dripping with rage as much as they were water, marched straight for Hibiki.
Hibiki, however, headed into the audience chairs, ready to meet them halfway.
Nice moves! That limits the number of people who can come at you at once.
“Argh!”
One of men let threw a punch at Hibiki, only to fall flat on the floor.
It didn’t look like Hibiki struck back just now… What just happened?
“Gragh!”
The men all began to fall over, one after another. Within an instant, he’d brought down five guys.
Wait, is Hibiki actually super strong?
“You… So that’s why you set off the sprinkler!” the leader howled in frustration.
“Too bad you didn’t figure it out sooner. Water conducts electricity, which helps this pack just enough punch.”
Ah! Hibiki has a stun gun of his own! So this was your plan all along!
“Circle ’im! He can’t take us all on at once!” the leader called, and the remaining men began to spread out. This time, they approached him together, instead of going one by one. I guessed about ten men were within the audience seats.
This looks bad… I don’t think he can take them on if he’s surrounded.
Should I pop out and help? But if I do anything too effective, he might figure out that I’m Red.
What else can I do…? There has to be a way I can help without revealing who I am…
“Gah!”
Hibiki zapped a guy who came from his left with a stun gun, then just barely managed to make it in time to zap the guy coming at him from his right.
Although he only needs to poke them with the stun gun, these guys all look like trained fighters. This might be hard for him to do alone.
Nevertheless, Hibiki smiled as he wiped the sweat from his cheek.