10 The Wing search

Click, click, click. “Oda-san,” Kobayashi quickly greeted her. He stood, backing up from the computer. “It’s been a while.”

“Yes, indeed…” she nodded. She wore a nurse’s uniform and pushed a cart stacked with boxed and plastic wrapped medical equipment. “Are you here to see your mother? With friends? At school time? Is everything alright? What are you doing back here? Were you on that admin station?” Her eyebrow climbed up her forehead like a sidestepping caterpillar as she hammered each question with increasing pointedness.

“Ah, no no, everything is fine. Yes, I was coming to see her, for a… personal matter.” Even behind him, Ichiro could hear Kobayashi sweating as he tried to match the shrewd or just dangerously inquisitive nurse. “And I just thought… maybe she’d be here. I was just sitting for a moment before… uh…” he glanced down at the ID badge he had beside him, “…gave her this! Yes; I saw it on the table and thought maybe she forgot it, so I came to give it to her.”

“…And your friends?” nurse Oda followed up, glancing between Ichiro and Hikari with confusion that poorly masked suspicion.

“Moral support,” Hikari solemnly answered, somehow completely straight-faced. Ichiro would have at the very least snickered at that if it wasn’t for the seriousness of the situation.

“Hmm… Well, Hiroto,” Oda continued, focusing back on him, “you know she wouldn’t be able to enter without it, so that’s likely her spare. But if you came to see her, then your mother is likely with the other administrators at the central desk. Follow me, I’ll show you three there,” she offered, the gesture potentially damning if Kobayashi folded.

“Oh, no, that’s quite alright. We can—”

“I’m going that way myself, Hiroto. I insist,” she cut in, giving no room for argument as she started walking, looking at him expectantly. “And your friends, too, of course.”

Kobayashi gave the other two a wide-eyed, tight-lipped look of exasperation as he was compelled to follow her, and they him. The nurse’s thinly veiled command and authority did little to compel Ichiro but he had enough situational awareness to understand that they could not just ignore her without ramifications, likely immediate ones. Doctors and other staff passed by, glancing their way as they followed the nurse. He kept glancing around, Hikari and Kobayashi side by side in front of them.

Ding!

His attention was drawn to the sudden noise on their right as Oda walked past, a doctor joining her in the hallway, and he grabbed Kobayashi and Hikari by the back of their shirts and yanked them into the open elevator.

“Yamada! What are you doing!?” Kobayashi grunted at him as he rubbed his neck, getting the rougher tug of the pair. “We—”

“What floor!?” Ichiro hissed as he frantically hammered the ‘Close Door’ button, finally stopping as the machine doors obeyed before anyone could join them.

“Oh, fourth floor,” he answered as he clued into the getaway attempt. Ichiro nodded and hit the button, hoping no one joined them on their ascent.

“Whew, I thought that was your mother,” Hikari sighed with relief once they were in the clear.

“No no, just a family friend… who is probably not going to keep my appearance to herself.” Kobayashi grimaced, rubbing his forehead for a second. “I’ll deal with that later though. In the meantime—”

“Which room?” Ichiro cut in.

“Well, that’s the thing…”

“I thought you said you saw the room number?” Hikari asked.

He shook his head. “I almost did; only got the floor number. But I’m sure I know which wing he should be in. Pretty sure.”

“‘Pretty sure’? ‘Should be in’?” Ichiro repeated, incredulously. “So, what?… We just walk the halls, peeking into each room?”

“Of course not! They should have the names outside of each room. Unless it’s someone that shouldn’t be known… in which case you should look inside each room.”

“We’re so getting caught…” Ichiro muttered as the doors opened. He nervously glanced back and forth before stepping out into the busy hallway and moving aside for Kobayashi to lead the way to the proper wing.

Hikari instead took the lead. “If we hurry we should be able to cover the halls around here, right?”

Kobayashi slipped around her, steering them down a side hall to the correct wing. “Oda was already suspicious; disappearing on her has seriously cut down our time to look around. This way.” The double doors opened for him as he brought the troupe inside. “We can split up and cover more ground. Meet back here after you search your side. Yamada, you take the left. Hikari, the ri— Oof!” he grunted as Hikari suddenly threw her whole weight into him and Ichiro, managing to push them out of the hallway and into a supply closet. Kobayashi barely missed kicking a bucket while Ichiro grabbed a broom for support to avoid toppling over.

“Hikari, I'm going to assume you had a good reason for that,” Ichiro said as he righted himself and straighted his school jacket.

“Well, the good news,” she started as she quickly closed the door behind them while fumbling for the light, “is that I think I know where Liam is.” She finally felt the small switch on the wall and brought them back out of the darkness.

“Ok…” Kobayashi nodded. “And that would be…?”

“That's the bad news. Right at the end of the hall were two men in suits standing outside of the room. And I'm pretty sure I recognize one of them from the bureau.”

“Yeah,” Ichiro agreed, “that is bad news.”

“Ok, so we know where he is, probably, most likely.” Kobayashi grimaced, rubbing his forehead. “Just need to get to him through the guards.”

“You say that like it's easy,” Ichiro shot at him.

“I did not! Obviously it's going to be a problem!”

“Then how do we get past them in this place!?”

“How should I know!?”

“Will you both shut up!” Hikari suddenly snapped.

The two stiffened, slowly turning to her as she said that. “Sorry,” they both muttered.

Hikari just shook her head. There was no anger in her words, just a soft desperation. “Whatever issue you two have, can it just, please, wait?” She wiped sweat from her pale brow before cracking the door and peeking out. She quickly shut it and turned back to them. “There's not much time left and I have to get my sister out of that place. And I'll do it myself if I have to!”

“Hold on, Hikari. We'll help you,” Ichiro quickly said, pretty sure she would follow through with her claim, not just bluffing. “Ok, Kobayashi, what can you tell us?”

The other teenager pondered for a moment. “You said it was the room at the end of the hall?” He waited for Hikari to nod before continuing. “There should be a side hallway right on the other side, just to our right. We can double back, loop around, and get right to the corner, only two rooms away.”

“Ok,” Ichiro nodded, “that gets us close. Then just the last few steps past them. Anyone got an idea for that.”

Hikari grimaced and nodded, speaking up first. “Well… They want me, too. If they see me, I can probably get them both to leave their post, and then get away before they catch me.”

“No.” “Hell no!” came the two responses, Ichiro's a bit more enthusiastic before he continued. “Not an option; that's way too risky!” The closet was tight, and as they stayed, a glowing sense of claustrophobia grew around Ichiro. He shifted his stance, his hand still resting against the broom handle. “What else? Can we get through from another room?”

Kobayashi shook his head. “The rooms are all isolated. We can get into the room two doors beside it without being seen, but they don't even share private bathrooms. And it's the back wall of the hospital there; just flat brickwork.” They stood in silence for another moment. “What about the song of invisibility? Do you two know it.”

“I can't sing,” Hikari grumbled, exasperated.

“Did we even learn that one…” Ichiro asked before remembering it was from the beginning of the year. “Wait, doesn't that godsong require a string instrument?”

“I can play a recording,” Kobayashi offered.

“You know that almost never works,” Ichiro countered before actually shooting it down. “And in your genius thinking, did you forget that you would actually have to sing the song as you pass them?”

“Hmm… That would be a problem,” Kobayashi agreed.

“Yeah. And on top of that, it has to be me or Hikari in the room. Liam doesn't know you and might freak out if he sees a stranger? We don't know what condition he's in but one of us would be better.”

Kobayashi nodded. “Makes sense.”

Ichiro looked down at Hikari. She seemed to be sweating; the closet was growing warm with the three of them in it. “How to get one of us in there…” he mused, as if repeating the issue aloud would grant divine inspiration. He leaned a bit back, further against wall. His hand on the broom handle shifted and it slipped before he realized. “Shoot!” he softly exclaimed as he grasped for it before it knocked into one of the others or clattered on the ground. His arms hugged around it and he pulled it in, feeling it knock against his leg, and pressing against the ping pong ball he had forgotten was in his pocket.

“…Guys,” he hesitantly spoke up while setting the broom back in place, “I have a bad idea.”