Chapter 37 Short Story: This Wasn't Meant To Happen

As I walked beside Mizuhara, I felt someone grab my arm from behind.

Here we go.

"Get off me!" I jerked my arm away as hard as I could.

Suddenly, I felt Ayato's hand on my shoulder. My body shook as he pulled me away from the assailant. Ah, what a nice feeling. I fell into his embrace as he held me away from the attacker.

The attacker continued to pursue me as planned. They pushed Ayato aside as he tried to protect me.

Come on Ayato, you can do better than that~

Ayato stood between me and the assailant. I peeked around to see if the other one was nearby, they should be getting here soon.

"What do you want?" Ayato asked him.

In the dimly-lit room, the assailant took a step back and reached into their pocket. It was a little weird, the others hadn't arrived yet. I assumed that he was trying to get some contact from the others. I watched as Ayato kicked the man to the ground; the attacker hit the ground pretty violently; hopefully, he was okay.

Good acting.

"...Fujiharu, sorry for being late."

The other assailant finally arrived.

I let myself get restrained and had a cloth placed over my mouth. In the darkness of the room, I hoped that Ayato would be distracted for a little longer.

The attacker dragged me a little bit before we were out of Ayato's sight. He then let go of me as the two of us began running through the aquarium. We needed to get to the designated area before Ayato sees us again.

A little while later, we arrived at the janitor's office.

"Do you have the key on you?" I asked.

"No, I think Abe has it."

"Ah, didn't you get it from him?"

"We were in a rush, I forgot..."

"Eh..."

"Keep a lookout, I'm going to pick the lock," he said.

I looked around the hallway to make sure they weren't nearby. A few seconds later, with his various tools, he managed to open the door.

The two of us rushed inside and locked the door behind us.

The source of this content is no/vel//bin[./]net'

"Tape me up now," I said.

"Alright."

He taped up my mouth and the two of us took a seat by the wall.

"I told Hashimoto to make it obvious where we are, we don't want a repeat of last time."

I nodded my head.

We almost got caught by the public last time because the boy couldn't find where I was hiding.

The two of us got comfortable as we waited for Ayato to arrive.

Come on Ayato~ you can do this, hehe.

Several minutes later, we heard the sound of loud footsteps outside. The man quickly grabbed my arms and pinned me to the ground, making the scene of a kidnapping. I looked up and waited for Ayato to step inside. After a few moments, the door unlocked and the three of them walked in.

For some reason, he didn't look very enthusiastic as he made his way over to me.

"I've got to admit, I'm surprised, Sara."

Huh?

What was this now?

Don't tell me...