A/N: Woo! This chapter is gonna be intense! So is the next one. O.O It'll be pretty suspenseful throughout the whole story, so be prepared for some cliff hangers people -.-; Thanks for the reviews and keep doing it! I am encouraged by all of my reader's support! -

Chapter 4: Hide-and-Go-Psycho!

"YUKI! LOOK OUT!" Shuichi used all his force to pull the man down by his neck onto the floor with him in one speedy attempt to save him from the deadly blade. Fortunately, the robber did miss and ended up getting his second weapon stuck in the floor. While he was trying to pull it out of the carpeted wooden floor, the two victims had enough time to stand up properly and retreat back to the hostages.

"Everyone, scatter!" The vocalist shouted to the baffled looking group of people, and immediately everyone began skittering this way and that. Just as long as they got out of the bad guy's view. It was a well thought idea of Shuichi's to split up and hide in different places. That way it would confuse the bandit and give him a harder time in managing the situation. Sooner or later, the police would show up, finding him without any hostages, and arrest him. Though it sounded like a good plan at the time, it wasn't flawless. There was a possibility that the intruder would find a person hidden somewhere, and that's all he'd need to get the money and the cop's undivided attention. The man in black could even tell everyone veiling themselves to come out, otherwise he'd kill the one guy he'd caught. Then they'd be back to the same case scenario Shuichi was trying to avoid. As he watched the people scurry to different spots, there were some hiding places that he did like, and some that made him think '…we're dead…'.

The single man hid inside a circular cloth's rack at the very back of the store, bunching the hanging garments all together so it would camouflage him more. A woman and her baby went into the winter department and concealed herself behind a rack of ski jackets and other poofy clothing against the wall (it was a good idea too, because she was pregnant with her second child and needed to cover up her big tummy). Two teenage girls hid together behind another check out counter at the back of the facility, pushing as far back under the desk as possible. A man and his girlfriend went into the boy's bathroom, no doubt staying in one of the stalls (hopefully they wouldn't get any ideas while they were there…). The old woman was having trouble finding a spot to reside, so Yuki helped her into a different circular cloth's rack. Now all that was left was to find a place for he and his lover to hide. Seeing as all the other good spots were taken, they quickly ran into the changing rooms for cover, and picked the stall at the very far end of the narrow corridor. After shutting the door and locking it, the novelist realized that this was one of the dumbest notions alive, since the robber had found out someone else was planning an ambush inside these tiny spaces. But once they heard a barely audible thump from the main room (for example, like the sound of a very sharp object being ripped from the floor), the two knew that they couldn't change their position now. All anyone could do, was wait for the police to arrive and pray that they wouldn't be found by the gunman in that amount of time.

"Damn it! I swear I'm gonna give those two fags hell once I find them…" He grumbled to himself. He wasn't shaky anymore from the shocking contact of a knee hitting his privates, so now he was poised and ready for anything else that would be thrown at him. Like a poacher searching for helpless antelope, the robber carefully crept toward the middle of the store, eyes examining each nook and cranny for a sign of movement. "Come out, come out wherever you are." He said in a singsong voice, mocking the actions of children in a game of hide-and-seek. Except now, if you were found, you'd get more than just being tagged "it".

Luckily, the people in the store (even Shuichi) knew better than to listen to the beckon of their seeker, so they remained quiet and as still as statues. But of course, there's always a little bird that seems to come and ruin the still life structure of the said monument, and use it as its personal sitting grounds and out house. That little "bird" struck one such unfortunate statue, causing a hiding hostage in the store to accidentally sneeze. The intruder instantly perked his senses up, trying to analyse where the give away sound had come from. After a moment or two, the gunman confirmed that the noise had emitted from the left side of the facility, where the winter clothing was. It seemed the dust and fibbers from the wool sweater in front of the woman's young son had tickled his nose, giving the bad guy a good hint of where they were.

The robber smirked. All he had to do was grab that person and demand the money when it got there tonight. He didn't need 10 hostages to get him what he wanted. And maybe he could have a little fun with some of the women among them before he got his reward. Hoping that the person he found would be a curvaceous babe, he reached out for the ski jackets and…

BAM!

"Ouch!" The man yelled and turned around to see what had hit him. On the ground lay a metal hanger, but no one was in sight to have thrown it. The robber strode over to the middle of the room again and darted his eyes around each corner of the store for any budging. None. So instead, the man began looking for the daring hostage, who volunteered to whack him with a cloth's hanger, by using what resources he had. Since the object seemed to be meant for holding girl's skirts, the intruder began searching for a rack that held those garments.

"Damn it Shuichi! Now he's going to find one of the people in the other racks. Why'd you have to throw a hanger at him!" Yuki whispered to him harshly after the boy had hurried back into the stall with Yuki.

"I couldn't just let that pregnant woman be found! Then it would be all over for us!" He stated in a whiny tone.

"Well, a store like this only has so many places to hide. The bastard's bound to find one of us sooner or later."

"Not unless the police get here first!" The singer grinned and held up a "V" sign with his fingers.

"IF they get here on time." Yuki corrected.

"They will! I mean, come on. The boys in blue are usually fast to get to a crisis like this right?"

"Yeah, but it's Saturday, baka. That means thousands of teens from all of Tokyo like yourself go out at night. Which always means huge traffic for the city streets." The blonde rubbed his head at the thought of cars clogging the roads and the police being stuck in the middle of it.

"Can't you just hope for the best, Yuki? You make it sound like we're really going to die or something." The boy crossed his arms, a bit irritated by his lover's lack of faith in the police.

"Well, what hope do you have left when you're forced to hide in a changing room from a crazed lunatic with an idiot like you!" He snapped.

Shuichi was hurt by that comment from his partner. Was is really all that bad to be with him in a situation like this? He'd think it'd be more comforting knowing that you have someone beside you when something this scary happens. To be honest, this was the most frightened he had ever been in his entire life, besides the times he thought Yuki was going to leave him. The pop star sat on the floor, not knowing what else he could do to make his lover feel happy, and rested his chin on his upright knees. Of course, when you're experiencing a real life horror movie, how could anyone be truly happy?

Yuki needed a cigarette… real bad. Now that he got his companion in a depressed relapse, his mood only worsened. But he figured that if he did decide to take a puff here, that the robber would smell the smoke and it would lead to their doom. There was a logical reason to believe that if they were found, the bandit would most likely end up killing them on the spot since they had a bad first encounter with each other.

Back in the main room, the bandit had spotted a circular rack where skirts and girl's tops were hung. He inched toward the clothes, readied his knife, and…

"Eek! A bug!" A teenage girl's voice whispered a little too loudly.

"Shh! He'll hear us!" There were two girls. The gunman recalled that when his victims were all in a big group, there were only two teenagers, both being girls. They seemed about sixteen or seventeen when he got a look at them. So, the man changed his course for the counter to retrieve his hostages. Why assume that there was a hot chick behind the circular rack when he already knew that there were two of them waiting for him behind the cashier box. Speaking of the cashier, where was he? Oh well… probably hiding like all the other mice in this place. Silently, the intruder sneaked up to the front of the counter, and…

"S-stop!" A trembling voice came from behind him. When the baddie saw who it was, his eyes widened. The mousy cashier?

"I… I won't let you hurt those girls!" He stated boldly, but with little bravery. The man had a metal hanger in his hands.

"Tch. You think that dinky little thing is going to tell me otherwise?" The robber chuckled cynically.

"W-well… I-I um…" The cashier was starting to doubt himself.

"And were you the one that threw one of those things at me?" His face became darker as he still felt the throbbing bump on his head.

"W-what! Me… I didn't…" He took a step backwards as the intruder took a step forwards, erecting the knife in his hands. The unnerved man dropped the hanger altogether from his fear and prepared for the worst, until…

CLOG

"Agh!" Another bump made itself present on the top of the bad guy's head. "What the fu-!" He didn't have a chance to curse when another object had hit him on his arm. "Hey! What kind of trick is this old man!" He yelled through the chaos of shoes being flung at him.

"M-me! I'm not doing anything!" He held up his hands. That's when the two noticed how all the people had exposed themselves from their hiding places and were chunking men's shoes at the bandit. Somehow, all of them had discovered the shoe section not too far away. It was a short crawl.

"Gyah! If you… ouch!… don't stop…oof!… throwing things at… ugh!… me. Then I swear I'll… erg!… kill you all!… OUCH!" He shouted through the bombardment of foot wear.

"I think we've got him!" A man yelled while he hurled a Nike sneaker at the guy.

"Keep at it, you guys!" The boyfriend encouraged the group. His lover hissed a silent 'yes!' when she gave a direct hit to the robber's face.

Yuki and Shuichi heard the commotion coming from the other room, stuck their heads out and saw how the people had taken power into their own hands.

"Yeah! Get'em! Beat him up! Woooo!" Shuichi became the hostage's own personal cheer leader while Yuki stood and watched the display of war before him. He had to admit that the opposing team was doing a very good job of holding the guy off. It only occurred to him after the third displacement of shoes were launched at their enemy, that the rack once full of men's sneakers and boots was almost empty except for a few slippers and sandals. Though the shoes did effect the man in black greatly, sadly, it wasn't enough to bring him down.

The last foot wear was thrown by the fragile old woman (who put up a pretty good fight for being, like… 80 something?), which was a pair of loafers.

"Now what? We ran out of shoes!" One of the teenage girl's cried.

For a split second, Yuki wondered why the heck two 16 year old valley girls like them would be doing in a men's clothes store, but quickly brushed the question aside once he saw the robber regaining his stance.

'Damn… the bastard didn't drop the knife…'

Wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth from a shoe that the girlfriend threw at him, the bandit rose his head to glare at the people around him. They were utterly defenceless now, and he planned to use that to his advantage. He quickly grabbed the closest person beside him, which was the cashier, and held the blade up to the man's neck.

"You bastards… all of you are going to PAY for your foolish attempts at getting rid of me. Now everyone get back to where you were before. And I don't mean your hiding places!" He added fiercely.

The hostages did what they were told, disappointed at their loss. Though the battle had been won, the war wasn't over.

"Darn it! I thought we had him!" Shuichi blurted out at their defeat.

"YOU! You two get over here! I'm gonna make sure your punishment is EXTRA painful!"

A/N: Uh oh! Double uh-oh's! XD They're in trouble now! I'm hungry O.O What will happen in the next chapter! . I shall update soon! - Thanks for the reviews! Keep at it please!