Yuuto and Shiyon hastily put on their underwear and pants before sprinting down the hall towards the girls' room.
As Yuuto ran behind Shiyon, he focused on Shiyon's reactions and demeanor.
Shiyon remained silent throughout the entire run, offering no plan, joke, or comment—just silence.
They reached the girls' room, and Shiyon kicked the door open without hesitation. The metal lock snapped and hit the ground with a loud crash.
'Locked door,' Yuuto observed.
"They're not here. Let's go. They must have left the room and headed for the exit. They can't be far," Shiyon said. But Yuuto had other plans. He pushed past Shiyon and stormed into the room.
"Go off in whatever direction you want," Yuuto called back while scanning the room. Shiyon stood still, closely watching Yuuto.
"Saku-chun. We don't have time to figure out what happened here. We need to find these girls or—"
"Have you ever seen a kidnapper so considerate that they locked the door after kidnapping someone?" Yuuto calmly interrupted.
Shiyon froze, realizing he had kicked the door open without checking if it was locked first.
'If it had been a traditional sliding fusuma door, it would've been harder to tell after kicking it open. Thank you, modern Japanese architects,' Yuuto thought as he surveyed the room.
The room was in chaos, futons scattered everywhere and cold wind blowing through the open window.
Yuuto immediately went to the window and looked down.
"No use, Saku-chun. This is the third floor. They couldn't have climbed up. There's no ladder this tall," Shiyon said.
Yuuto pulled his head back inside.
"We're wasting time..!!! They definitely ran to the main exit! It's a straight shot from here," Shiyon shouted.
He looked at the ceiling.
"...There's no A/C Unit," Yuuto observed.
"...Yeah, but it was pretty cold outside, so it wasn't thag bad. What does that have to do with anything, Saku-chun..!!? We need to leave, now!!" Shiyon replied, his anxiety surfacing while Yuuto remained calm.
"They came through the window and took them out through it. You'll waste your time going outside trying to chase them," Yuuto said, once more poking his head out the window, looking all around as if searching for something that wasn't there.
"Saku-chun... I'm not trying to beat you this time. This isn't about ego..!! My juniors have been kidnapped."
"This isn't some TV show or a game where we have to find clues to find out what happened like some make-believe detectives..!!! We need to go after them, now!!" Shiyon yelled.
"Then just do what you want and leave me alone. I don't need anyone around me," Yuuto said calmly.
Shiyon clenched his teeth.
"I was wrong about you. You value your own ego over everyone else's... How disgustingly weak. I've lost my interest in you." Shiyon said with disdain as he exited the room, looking back at Yuuto with disgust before sprinting away.
'Good riddance...' Yuuto thought, glancing back at the open door. He noticed the key to the girls' room lying on the floor, snapped in half beside the broken lock.
'A key on the inside. They locked the door from inside the room. It snapped just now due to Harvester's kick.'
He saw a crack in the wooden floor next to the lock.
[BACKGROUND MUSIC: Maga - Animality (Remix TikTok)]
'Hmph. Too easy. Might as well have left a note explaining it all,' he thought, imagining the attack.
The girls had returned from the onsen, their bodies still hot and steaming.
Since there was no A/C, they unlocked the window and opened it, letting the cool air from outside chill their bodies.
Naturally, they locked the door, as any girl would do upon entering a resort room and kept the key inside the lock.
They went to sleep, unaware of the kidnappers who entered through the unlocked window. One of the girls woke up as they entered, quickly heading to the door to unlock it...
...but was stopped by one of the kidnappers just after she unlocked the door. He tripped her.
From the size of the dent in the wooden floor, she probably hit her elbow.
'Chiyoko's elbow couldn't have made a dent like that. It had to have been that Sasquatch.'
'It was after she was restrained that the cuck noticed them. He likely woke up from the noise. He saw the door was open, looked inside, and ran to find us before he was spotted. That's when the kidnappers locked the door again.'
Yuuto clicked his tongue, recalling Shun's desperate plea when he found Shiyon and Yuuto in the onsen.
'...As much as I hate it, it was the right call. That wimp couldn't have done anything and just got himself killed or beaten up if he did anything on his own.' Yuuto thought with a sigh.
'Now the main question is how they got up to the third floor.'
Yuuto thought, moving to the window again and putting his head out as he looked down and to the sides.
'This is the third time I've checked. That harvester has a point. There's no 20-meter-long ladder... They would have needed a ramp or a special vehicle, and we would have heard it for sure.'
'This resort only has five floors... We're on the third floor. One fire exit. One entrance...'
Yuuto's eyes widened in realization, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.
'Sure, there's no 20-meter ladder that's not mechanized... But...'
He thought, looking up at the top of the building.
'...There IS a 10-meter long rope they could've used to rappel down.' He noticed a rope positioned just above the top of the window.
Just as he noticed the rope, it was cut off, almost falling directly onto Yuuto's face.
'The fire exit.' He thought, rushing out of the door of the girl's room and sprinting toward the fire exit.
'They went through all this trouble just to kidnap a few girls... It has to be them again,' Yuuto thought, his fists clenching tightly.
'Black Letter...'