Hiyori found the area he estimated to be underneath where he'd met that informant above, and that still left him with a number of rooms and limited time before someone saw through his disguise. Inhaling to steel his resolve, he began examining each closed door with his eyes for any reason for suspicion. Two caught his attention more than others, but both doors opened to empty, dark rooms full of miscellaneous things.
Midway through the exploration, he found one door with someone sitting outside it like a sentinel. Instantly it was more of interest than the rest. After looking behind him to check if anyone had followed, he again seized the opportunity to improvise and approached.
"What?" the person asked ahead of time, gruff but disinterested.
"It's time to switch guards for the girls," Hiyori told them, hoping their earlier staring blankly at the opposite wall had encouraged them to lose track of time.
"Oh, right..." They put their hand down on the chair and began to stand, but quickly snapped their attention to him properly. "Wait. Whoâ"
In a moment of panic, Hiyori seized them by the face and slammed their head back against the thick basement wall. They fell with an unpleasant amount of noise, but if no one was in earshot it was probably fine. Probably.
God he hoped he hadn't killed them.
Dropping down at their unmoving side, he briskly patted them down and took what seemed of use: a handgun and a sparse ring of keys. The gun felt foreign in his hand and he hadn't the slightest idea how to use it, but it felt better to have it than leave it. Into his waistband it went. Standing, he began trying keys on the door, feeling even more pressured by the chance of someone walking by and seeing one of their own collapsed on the floor. As if he had the strength to heft dead weight back up onto the chair!
Dexterity won out over frantic haste, and Hiyori swung the unlocked door open. Harsh light from the hallway joined CĂ©line's natural luminescence, and he leaned against the doorframe, hand at his chest.
"There you areâah, I'll help as soon as I can," he said, recognizing there was no time to waste feeling relieved. From a cursory glance it looked like Alecto was already partly out of her restraints at the point of his intrusion. "You're further along. I'll help you and then we'll both help her," he suggested, moving to assist Alecto first. "I'm so grateful you're both alive."
Not-so-distant shouting reached his ears, and he tried even harder to pick up the pace.
@revivalbeast â„ uwps002
