Ren managed to dump the props in some corner and crouch by some curtains to avoid the chaotic rush. As they moved the final props and people the lights finally dimmed and the students began their performance. Though the audience was empty.
'Maybe it's a rehearsal? But this seems like a lot for a rehearsal though… And where did Kokichi go? And, where's Shino?'
As the performance went on someone dramatically came on to the stage, their presence enough to draw Ren's attention over. They were wearing some old-fashioned traditional kimono. The fan from earlier was now in their possession and they fluttered it about with an impressive form. When he spoke his gestures matched his inflection, his voice striking and poignant and shouted clearly across the stage, resonating through the entire auditorium.
Ren was briefly immersed into the play due to this, finally taken away when another student was put into the spotlight without half as much presence.
'Who is that student? He can really put on a performance, felt like I was watching a movie. No, I can't get distracted by this. Is it possible, Shino is a part of the performance?'
As he scoured the faces of the performers, something happened. Someone carrying some important item across the stage towards the main actors, suddenly tripped.
Instantly, the performance of the leading actor dropped and their face went dead cold. The student who tripped began to tremble.
"F-Forgive me, I should have watched where I was going…"
The student violently flicked the fan out with a curt but expressive disappointed sigh. "Remove him."
The previous actors who had gone still moved on command and dragged the poor weeping student off.
The student sighed and flicked his fan again. "We'll do the take again. Reset the scene."
Ren watched the proceeds with a worrisome frown. 'I guess he got kicked out of the play. So this is an audition…? Wait, doesn't that mean… Shino is here for that? But then that would mean he's going to leave the club and join this one instead! Is that what he actually meant by ending things?!'
Ren waved a dismissive hand. 'As if. There's no way he'd do that. Not when he's the Club leader!'
The scene changed and moved into a forest. It was then he spotted Kokichi. Somehow, he ended up inside the costume of a tree. He noticed the only reason why he wasn't yelling was because his mouth had been duct taped shut, conveniently in a brown color much like the shade of the tree costume.
Ren covered his mouth suppressing a laugh. Kokichi looked over and his eyes looked both incredibly pissed off and begging for help. Ren waved his hands and smirked. 'Ha, doesn't concern me, right?'
CRASH!!
Suddenly a loud sound came from down and Ren rushed off. Hiding behind a curtain he looked into the stage. For some reason everyone turned to the leading actor instead.
He silently pointed the fan out. "Capture those that oppose our endeavors. Let us not be distracted."
Ren hid further back and watched several students scurry off backstage past him to investigate the noise. Ren hopped up and ran after, attempting to push through as they all stood around a broken light.
The previous directing student that had dragged Kokichi off stepped forward, face obscured as he adjusted his glasses. "Clean this up find the culprit before the next scene change."
The students scattered in their search. Ren quickly hid himself in the racks of clothing. He slipped away and climbed a ladder in the back wall, heading up to the old wooden scaffolding. Easily he crept past the students working, since they were all completely absorbed into running the play.
'I better get out of here before I'm blamed. 'There should definitely be a ladder down to the other side near the exit…'
"You did that on purpose! You can't honestly think he's going to help you?"
Ren had crept to a more isolated corner when he heard the sound of a voice, quietly yet loudly arguing over, and he down looked over to the darkness behind several large crates, and tp the two figures hiding within. Ruota had a tight grip on Shino's wrist and Shino was angrily and defiantly avoiding looking away from him.
"What do you think? You can't hold me back forever." Shino firmly stated.
'Shino? How do I get his attention without alerting the other students…' Ren looked around searching for something to use.
"But what about all the help I've been giving you? What about the omegas you've been helping?"
"I'm not so attached to helping them that I'll keep humiliating myself like this. You don't own me, Ruota."
"You…! I, won't let you disband your club."
Over by the now cleaned broken glass the timing student tapped their watch and loudly hissed. "It's four minutes until the scene change!"
Ren looked down, it didn't look like Shino or Ruota heard the search. Seeing that the searching students were getting close to their hiding spots, he began to think fast. He picked up an old sack filled with what he guessed was sand.
'They're too distracted arguing! If I drop this down they'll realize they're about to be caught and leave!'
Ren heaved… and couldn't get the heavy sack over the railing. He lifted with his full arms then with all of his back, but even when trying to slide it off the side rail, he couldn't get it over the edge.
'Stupid weak body…!'
Ren let go of the sack and collapsed, falling down on the floor in despair. Somehow for that effort his arms were aching.
'Has all my weight lifting been for nothing? I should have known I was doomed to remain trapped in this frail piece of garbage for a body…'
A light was shone on Ruota and Shino, making Ruota shield his face.
"We found them! It's…!"
The leading student pushed past the students with the flashlight. He stiffened.
"It's a student council member?!"
Ruota tsked and the other students began to shrink away. Ruota turned back to Shino.
"You were saying? You can't escape me unless you go running into their arms to be punished. Are you so brazen?"
Shino didn't say anything, but he wasn't looking at Ruota. Ren managed to pull himself up too peek through the railing.
Then the directing student stepped forward, quivering shoulders racking their posture like a self-induced earthquake.
"I-It's you, Hayashi-s-senpai? P-Please, we're in the middle of our c-club activities. Please take this to our club leader's office."
Ruota barely glanced at him. "You mean your "rehearsal" right?" he asked with quotation hand gestures.
"Don't be rude," Shino said, turning away from Ruota. "Please, just leave."
"So you can be punished by that power-crazy conceited narcissist? Not on my watch." Ruota countered back.
"Somehow, hearing you say that with no self-awareness makes me feel a lot better."
"You should feel awful actually."
"Are you even listening to me!?" The directing student grumbled. "Didn't you hear me? Our club leader punishes vandals and trespassers!"
Ruota leaned down at him with an intimidating raise of his brow. "Who? Oh. Right, the stringy noodle," He put a hand on his chin and leaned down. "How about you tell him to find a bowl of udon to jump into instead. As well, tell him he's in a rather precarious situation with letting outside forces control his club's curriculum in the first place, so he should stay out of my affairs. Or, he can find himself the leader of no club at all."
The directing student gawked. "You… what?! You can't just-!"
"Yes, I can. I'm the one in control of where the clubs get their funding. You keep bothering me you can see plenty of that for the remainder of the term." Ruota coldly stated, his sharp glare cutting through them enough to make them stagger back.
"You truly respect no one but yourself." Shino stated more than asked. "you'll be this blatant with your coercion now?" He grumbled lower, his head lowering to a grim expression in turn.
Ruota turned to him almost looking surprised. "Blatant? I was hardly subtle. You think better of me than I think of myself."
"I don't think so. You see people as pawns, living puppets with strings to pull, and your own betas like dogs with bells to summon them whenever you please."
"You have me right. And so? You found them useful." Ruota replied back.
The directing student thrashed their hands out in anger. "A-Al-Alright! ENOUGH! We don't have time for your couple bickering: we have a rehearsal to do and you're fighting right in the middle of it! Now one of you will wait quietly for it to be over! I can't have you BOTH here, one troublemaker is bad enough!"
"How… How about three!?"
It was then Ren called out. If what he heard was true, then he could help Shino. Or maybe he was helping Ruota, he wasn't sure. But he was definitely helping by jumping down!
Ren steeled his focus and climbed himself over the railing, then began trying to climb down.
He slipped and lost his grip almost immediately. Ren got a flashback to the last time he fell from someplace high, and who caught him then.
This time it was Ruota that caught him. But Rem hadn't a moment to process it before Ruota immediately dropped him to the floor.
"Your pets have followed you, Nishida. Unsurprisingly."
Shino rushed to knelt down and helped Ren up. "What are you doing here?"
Ruota yawned into his hand. "Yes, the more the merrier. Now that he's going to get in trouble with you, will you reconsider? With you caring about him so much."
"I'm not leaving," Shino remained firmly put, keeping his eyes on Ren as he said. "Akira-kun, please go too."
"Two minutes left!!" The timing student yelled urgently.
The directing student cried with more anger than ever, stomping a foot down. "Stop stop! You can't all be responsible! He'll punish me too if he finds out I let three troublemakers mess up the rehearsal! One of you needs to take the blame and the other two need to leave!"
Tension rose, and no one was willing to stand down. Ruota crossed his arms and waited. Ren squeezed his eyes shut then raised his hand. Shino moved to push it back down. "Don't. You didn't even do anything."
"One minute…!!"
"After everything I've given you." Ruota spoke up again, colder than before.
"You can have them all back," Shino answered back just as coldly. "They didn't mean anything to you. That's the difference between a gift and a bribe, you insufferable prick."
Ruota then slightly grinned, wide and elusively demeaning. "Hmn. I like you with a little more bite. Do keep it up."
Shino turned back to Ren. "Akira-kun… get out of here before you're sucked into this. Please."
Ren shook his head. "I won't do it. I snuck in here too, in order to help YOU!"
"To help… me? But, I'm disbanding the club." Shino said, seeming surprised.
"30 seconds!!!" The timing student yelled. Ruota glared down at him. "Shut up with that. Let him come here and try to deal with me."
The directing student bit on his nails. "Y-You can't be serious, he'll kill us all then…!"
Ren nodded to Shino. "I know, but I just want to understand, why?! I even brought Kokichi to help before he got dragged on stage!"
"Kokichi's…?" Shino paused. Then he raised his head.
"It's almost the end of the hour."
Ruota glanced down at him, his eyes briefly wide. "What…?"
Ren blinked with confusion. What was that supposed to mean?
Shino explained. "Hirota-senpai's alarm on his phone. To prevent him from suffocating being in that closet I set an alarm on his phone he can't shut off without my help. He never, ever, puts it on silent."
The students looked amongst themselves uncertainly, but the directing student shooed them off urgently. "What are you doing? Get him off stage! T-The middle tree with the duct tape!!"
The group of students jumped out of their skin and rushed off back towards the stage. That left only the timing student with the clock. He tapped on it looking mean. "Now, don't think you can use this to try to get out of trouble! You try or do anything-"
Ruota grabbed an absurdly long hat and pulled it over both student's heads and spun them around for good measure until they fell to the floor.
He looked at his hands and attempted to wipe off the dust as Shino grabbed Ren's wrist and pulled him away.
"Come on, head to the exit while I try to help-"
"Shino-kun… are you really going to disband the club?" Ren slowly asked.
Shino froze.
"Right, about that… I have to. It's nothing to do with you, and I'm sorry it's coming so suddenly."
"But…" Ren began to say, but before he could a massive commotion was heard from the stage. Quickly they both ran over. What they saw was a disaster.
Through the curtain they watched Kokichi be dragged away, kicking his feet under the tree trunk and shouting profanities, his alarm blaring off like a siren as he flailed around excessively, enough to smack one of the other trees and they all toppled each other down like dominos. The leading actor snapped their fan shut hard and quick like the jaws of a snapping turtle as he watched this all unfold.
The directing student from before was in a dogeza before them, apologizing repeatedly and profusely.
"I had no clue this interloper was here! I'll drag them off right away! The performance can continue right away!!"
"No. That's enough. You've disgraced this performance enough." The leading actor said, effortlessly waving his fan out and calling a menagerie of the students over. They grabbed their arms and dragged him away as well.
Once he was gone the leading student then sighed, dropping the fan with a roll of his eyes before lowering his head. "Ugh. Move to the intermission. Would anyone like to get me a soda?"
As everyone exited off the stage Shino backed up and sighed.
"Well that's not good… And we can't leave him knowing this wasn't his fault. You really should leave, Akira-kun. The person they're referring to will not go easy on you even for something as minor as this. At the very least, I might be able to-"
Ren shook his head. "No way! I'm going to help you whether you like it or not! Plus it's my fault this happened so I should help!"
Shino stopped. Then he nodded. "Then… Akira-kun, may I ask for your help? I'm sorry I had to drag you into this mess but I need a second hand…"
Ruota came to lean over his shoulder. "So when he refuses to leave you open your arms. Surely you've become more reasonable, so you mean him as a third hand, correct?"
"I mean for you to leave." Shino replied, aloofly not looking his way.
"I guess not. A shame, because I intend to do the opposite." Ruota crooned down to him.
Ren looked up to Ruota and glared. "Leave him alone, will you? This is all your fault isn't it? Why he's disbanding the club!"
Ruota's face dropped back to a chill. "Me? I'm the only reason he still has his club. If anything he's lost his mind because of you. It's like you're a biohazard that causes insanity. Wouldn't a few like to handle and dispose of you…"
Shino grabbed Ren's hand and pulled him away from Ruota. "First rule of helping me. Ignore the stalker. He becomes more useful the more you deprive him of attention. We can lose him in the tunnels."
"Tunnels?" Ren asked.
Shino nods. "In order to help Kokichi, we can't get around the normal way. Come this way."