Hanabi

Chapter 23: Unwanted guest

INFO:

Waraji – old sandals made of straw rope. They were common in the feudal era, and worn by samurai.

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Haruna picked up Tomoko’s backpack from the floor and decided to wear it herself now, still keeping an eye on that passed out guard. They had such a short time to get themselves back in the sewers, she just hoped that damn cat would be fast.

More than that, she also hoped that Tomoko wouldn’t find Akai in that gallery, as it would mean they’d have to say hello to two other guards. She was having an idea of something they could do about this one guard that saw them, but that would turn too complicated if they ended having to deal with three people spotting them in there.

Meanwhile, Tomoko crossed the hallway in fast steps and glued herself to the wall when reaching the gallery again. The shorter guard was already in the other big gallery, but still in sight, and the taller guard was in the middle of the room. Luckily, he didn’t seem to have seen the small yellow cat across the gallery.

Tomoko waited for him to turn his attention somewhere far from her direction, and when he did so she walked into the gallery and easily hid behind the now absolutely huge pieces. Her bright feline eyes scanned the place quickly.

She jumped from piece to piece, hiding around while roaming the gallery, and soon she realized there was a katana in the gallery, but only one. It lay over one of the spots by the walls, though it was severely damaged, it seemed to be there more as a piece of art than as an old historic weapon. Tomoko would sigh if she could.

She had just turned into that tiny pathetic cat for nothing.

Just as Haruna was starting to get a bit paranoid with worry, the yellow cat reappeared, walking fast and stopping on its tracks in front of the unconscious man on the floor.

- I have an idea. - Haruna murmured even before Tomoko could think of transforming, and the cat looked up at her intently. She figured the nekomata didn’t find anything. - For the guard not to cause us trouble.

Haruna just looked down for a moment, trying to elaborate the thought inside of her head before speaking up, but when she looked at the cat again she was already seeing a human Tomoko crouched there and trying to put on her mask again.

- What’s the genius idea?

- You’ll have to remove the ties and the gag, just leave him on the floor…

- Are you stupid? - Tomoko frowned at her after successfully adjusting the mask again - The guy is going to warn the others…

- Let me finish, ass-face. - Haruna cut her words, earning herself a glare - We won’t do this now, first we’ll go and look for Akai in the second floor, then after we find it we come back here, untie him, and you’ll scare the crap out of him.

- What?

- We wake him up and you turn into your true form, stupid. - Haruna rolled her eyes, and they both heard the urgent “what are you guys doing standing there?!” that Rina was practically shouting in their ears - Do you think anyone is going to believe anything he says if he mentions a giant monster cat?

“Do what I say and go through the door in the back of this room!”

- Oh, so he’s going to be “hallucinating” everything? - Tomoko smirked under the mask as she stood up and followed Haruna on the instructions that Rina was desperately screaming to them - Weird, you actually had a decent idea.