Friday morning, barely past dawn, a group of people had already staked out positions around the Starfall building, waiting to ambush Yuta.
"Do you really think waiting down here is going to work?"
"It should. The guy has to come to work eventually."
"But we camped out here last time too and still didn't catch him."
"I think our strategy is flawed. Even if we're going to come looking for him, we shouldn't have announced it online. We should have come secretly and grabbed him quietly."
"Yeah, he probably saw the posts, got scared, and decided not to come in. If that's the case, we're all standing here for nothing."
"Well, we're already here. No point overthinking it."
"Exactly. Just wait it out. There's no way we can't catch him."
The group murmured among themselves.
A short distance away, Hajime Kagami watched them with a look of disdain. "Amateurs. You'll never catch that bastard like that. This calls for a professional approach."
He had arrived early too, but he had no intention of staking the place out. His plan was to walk straight into Starfall.
And how exactly was he going to get inside?
Simple. He was going in as a delivery man.
He was not actually a courier, but he had gotten his hands on a delivery uniform.
The package was real too.
A small box of razor blades, with "Yuta Shido" clearly written as the recipient.
Step one was finding Yuta Shido. Step two was figuring out how to knock him out and drag him away.
Getting him out of the Starfall office might be tricky, but Hajime was strong and knew some fighting techniques. It was not impossible.
And even if he could not grab him right away, he could play the long game. The important thing was confirming Yuta's location first.
Time ticked by, and people started showing up for work.
Just as Hajime expected, the group camped outside Starfall never found Yuta. Either their intel on what he looked like was wrong, or he simply had not come to work, or maybe he had never gone home the night before.
None of that mattered to Hajime.
He waited until a little past nine, then picked up the box and headed upstairs.
The entrance had a security badge system, but that was not a problem. He announced he was making a delivery, and someone came out.
It was not Yuta. It was a petite young woman with a youthful face that made her look like she had just graduated high school.
Hajime frowned. "Sorry, this package has a special requirement. It has to be signed for by the recipient in person."
"Huh?"
Rika looked confused.
"Is Mr. Shido not here?" Hajime probed.
"The president didn't come in today. He probably won't be in for the next several days either," Rika answered.
"Won't be in?" Now it was Hajime's turn to be baffled.
After a moment, he asked, "Do you know where he is right now? I can deliver it to him directly."
Rika did not think much of it. "Let me call and ask."
"Sure, thank you," Hajime said politely.
"No trouble at all."
Rika pulled out her phone and called Yuta right there on the spot.
The call connected, but after just a few words, the line went dead.
Rika turned back to Hajime with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. The president says if it requires his personal signature, then he doesn't want the package. You can return it to the sender or toss it wherever."
"No, no, that won't do."
Hajime was not going to accept that. "This is my job. I can't just... if you just tell me where he is, I'll deliver it myself."
"I can't tell you, and honestly I don't even know where he is. Asking me won't help." Rika looked genuinely helpless.
Hajime: "???"
'She did not know? For real? She works here. How can she not know?'
Before Hajime could process this, Rika suddenly said, "Oh, I need to get back to work. Handle it however you want."
She turned around, went back inside, and the Starfall door shut tight behind her.
Hajime: ...
He was furious.
He had gone through the trouble of getting a delivery uniform, put on the whole act, waited for hours, and all he got was nothing?
Was that bastard really this careful?
Hajime tossed the box of razor blades aside and stormed off.
But after a few steps, something clicked.
"That bastard is definitely going dark again."
"I have to find him!"
"I am not running laps naked and upside-down."
He hurried away, found a spot to change out of the uniform, then headed to a nearby internet cafe. He got on a computer and posted online.
"Breaking news. Yuta Shido is not at Starfall. He probably won't be there for the next several days either. And get this, even his own employees don't know where he is. I don't need to spell out what this means, right? If he didn't have a guilty conscience, there'd be no reason to hide. So the next episode is definitely going to be brutal."
"Does anyone know where that bastard is? If you do, speak up. I'll pay ten thousand yen for a confirmed sighting."
The post blew up almost instantly.
Replies poured in.
"What? That bastard isn't at Starfall? No wonder we couldn't find him after staking the place out all morning."
"Damn it! He really is going after Ushio."
"Wait, aren't you that guy who said he'd run naked laps upside-down?"
"That bastard planned this all along! We have to find him and force him to change the script!"
"Ten thousand is too low. At least a hundred thousand."
"I'll put up a hundred thousand. Seriously. I already wanted to have a chat with him after what happened to Nagisa. Now Ushio is next? I cannot let this stand."
"Posting online isn't going to cut it. I've already hired a private investigator. There's no way we can't find him."
A private investigator?
Not bad. Leave it to the internet to go all in.
But was that not a bit much?
Hajime wanted to find Yuta as badly as anyone, but he had never considered hiring a PI. It was not just about the money. There was no need to escalate things that far.
After all, Yuta was not actually a criminal...
Wait.
That bastard had just killed Nagisa, and now he was about to torture Ushio. If that was not criminal behavior, what was?
He deserved it.
Hiring a PI was perfectly justified.
Nothing excessive about it at all.
Far from trying to stop anyone, Hajime went online and rallied the troops. "There are six days until the next episode airs. We absolutely have to find that Shido! Whether Ushio makes it through safely depends on all of us!"
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