Aida had to lug a total of 4 mattresses with her, so she would move much slower than Light. Waving to him, she told him to go first. She had been continuously monitoring the scan as well and noticed that a Reaper was headed towards Lucifer. "Bravo hide!" She heard a response of one tap over the radio, which indicated that he heard.
Before separating, they had created short names for each other. Originally, she would've just used the first letter of their names, but both started with L's, so she settled on English Military Codes instead. She was Alpha, Lucifer was Bravo, Light was Delta. They skipped over C for now because Charlie could easily be mistaken for someone's name.
They also settled on signals. One tap was a confirmation or yes, while a double tap was no. Sporadic taps meant a cry for help. While Aida and Lucifer understood Morse code, Light still wasn't familiar so they simplified it for the time being.
Holding her breath, she waited to make sure the Reaper walked past Lucifer without noticing him. It was hard being responsible for other people's lives and it made her very uncomfortable. The feeling of having companions was truly bittersweet. Seeing it walk further down without pause, she let out a deep breath, "Bravo clear!"
Lucifer's deep voice sounded in her ear, "Roger, over."
Aida began pulling her mattresses out as she slowly made her way to the door. She was left out in the open due to these larger items. She grumbled quietly to Xiao Ai, "Tch, if I wasn't in my weakened state, we wouldn't have to play hide and seek, I could just destroy them all and take what I want." She sounded exactly like a bandit.
"Eh~ but this is so much more fun Mama."
Patting her head, she responded placatingly, "Ok, ok, you're right. This is more fun."
Right then, she froze as she noticed one of the Reapers broke from its typical pattern and jumped from the 4th floor down to the 1st where she was at. Light had safely made it to the exit but she was still stuck in the main open area with nowhere to hide.
She stuffed Xiao Ai into a bag and built a fort using the mattresses, then went into her nothingness state. It looked a lot like a little kid playing house.
The idea was that most Reapers, with Little White being an exception, seemed to lack intelligence. So theoretically, the Reaper would not realize that mattresses in the mall's open area were odd and only attempt to fight them if they were visible.
Aida bated her breathing and tightened her grip on her knives as she watched the Reaper approach her position. It seemed to linger near her area for a while, sniffing around. She could hear it's sneakers squeak as it walked across the floor. There was no killing intent coming from it, so she figured that it didn't sense her presence.
Light, who was outside, had finished unloading the items he brought out. He was ready to go in for round 2 and asked over the radio, "Alpha, am I clear to go in?"
Hearing this, Aida double tapped her radio to signal no. Both Lucifer and Light heard this and knew that they should both stay in place and wait. Lucifer also went to shelter in place while waiting for further instructions. He would be walking around blind without Aida's guidance.
Waiting another 5 minutes, the Reaper finally moved on and hopped back up to another floor. Breathing a sigh of relief, she stayed in place and notified the two of them. "Delta, you are clear to go. Just sprint over to the store again and collect your items. Bravo, you are clear as well."
Coming out of her hiding spot, she continued to pull the mattresses towards the exit. She was pleasantly surprised to have avoided a fight with the Reaper merely by hiding behind some mattresses. Xiao Ai, who had been sitting quietly in the bag, popped out and attached herself to Aida's back. "Uuuu Mama, I don't like being stuffed in a bag."
Aida apologized to her and Xiao Ai quickly turned back to her cheerful self. They passed by Light as she walked towards the exit and Xiao Ai waved happily towards him. After some time, she finally made it to the exit and dropped off the items, quickly heading back in.
Pausing for a minute, a very obvious point dawned on her. This was a large shopping mall, it had multiple entrances. Why in the world was she restricting herself to one entrance?! This was a pretty silly oversight on her part. Hitting her head, she told Light to wait in the store for them while she waited for Lucifer to come out.
It would've been much smarter for them to use the external exits and windows to transport items now that the larger items had already been moved. She was also mildly surprised that Light with his strategic mind hadn't pointed out this obvious flaw to her, it was clear his blind faith in her was a little too blind.
Driving the car over, they met Light at the mattress store again and she unlocked the front door. Opening it, everyone got off the RV and helped transport items. Next, they moved on to the following store. After covering every store on the 1st floor, Aida went with Light and snuck up to the second floor, leaving Lucifer with the RV. He would be in charge of receiving the items.
They reached the first clothing store. Light began grabbing various clothes, boots and gear while Aida carefully carved a hole in the window. Grabbing a big basket, she threw all the items in and tied a rope around it, carefully lowering it down.