Hanabi

Chapter 22: Instructions

Haruna and Tomoko faced the doors in that corridor, there was one to the far right signaled as a bathroom, another one across from them with no signs, and a white double door to the far left. None of them had any idea where those two doors could lead them.

“Go through the double door, you’ll pass by a service room. There is no one there now, so go while you can.”

Both women moved fast to their left, trying not to make any noise in that place while following Rina’s instructions. That was the exact type of corridor that would cause big echoes, and it was easy to make noises in that polished concrete floor.

They opened the double door and quickly entered the rather large service room, observing the piles of boxes against the walls and the metallic lockers around. There was also a staircase going up by one of the walls. Haruna was starting to regret this already. She didn’t have a nice feeling about doing that.

Thinking up the plan was one thing, actually breaking into the museum was another entirely different.

But right when she was about to suggest aborting the plan and taking a train to damned Osorezan, she thought of Mami again. She didn’t want to back out from something she told Mami that she was going to do, she couldn’t let her and Tomomi see her as a coward. More than that, she didn’t think Mami could afford waiting for such a long time just to put her hands on that katana, especially now that she was absolutely sure that blonde and Tomomi got themselves in some kind of trouble days before.

They would have so much to think about and figure out after getting Akai, she just couldn’t add up to that time. The longest they took to find a solution, the worse the situation could grow to be.

“There are no guards in the next room, but from there you have two different accesses to the galleries, and there are guards in the galleries.”

- Great, I love guards. - Tomoko murmured in sarcasm, and Haruna hit her on the ribs with her elbow, earning herself a glare.

- Shut up.

With that Haruna forced herself to walk over to the next room, opening the white door carefully and tucking her head inside first just to make sure. There really weren’t any guards in there, just a couple of what seemed to be office desks and chairs, documents and books all over the place over the tables and shelves on the walls.

She went inside, and noticed the floor was different from the polished concrete on the previous rooms. It was a brown granite floor now under her feet. They were really in museum premises now. Tomoko followed her into the room and they looked around nervously.

There was another closed door, a wooden one now, right across the room, and wooden double doors to their right. If they heard Rina right before, both those accesses would lead them to the museum galleries.

But which of them was the safest one?

“The door in front of you will lead to a long hallway that gives access to all the galleries. This hallway ends on the front entrance to the museum, so there is the risk of being seen by the outside guards as well as the gallery ones.”

Haruna almost growled. What did she want them to do after all?

“The door on your right will throw you right into the biggest gallery, and there is one guard roaming in there.”

- Great, guards anywhere we go. - Tomoko murmured again, and Haruna glared at her, making her frown - I just want Rina to guide us instead of explaining everything! We don’t have time!

- If you don’t shut up you’ll make things worse!

“Go to through the door on your right, now!”