After a few minutes of discussion a plan was formed. Len, Miku, Luka, Gakupo, and Meiko would head out and try to learn who could have taken the Ninja and why. Rin, GUMI, and Kaito were going to have to either find a temporary living space or rent out an apartment for them to use as a base for the time being.
Kaito decided that living in an apartment would be a better idea because they'd have more privacy. Just one room was all they needed so they could put their stuff down and search. So when the other group left to get something to pick up on, he began to lead his own group out to the heart of the city to try and find some kind of hotel.
During the whole trip they had to hide repeatedly because of random pedestrians. Kaito had to hide the most because of his bright blue outfit and the fact that he didn't look like a normal person. GUMI and Rin were just a bit better off, but they had to make sure that they didn't draw attention to themselves in any way. He had to keep all of them together instead of letting them run off on their own in order to make sure a repeat of previous events didn't happen again.
The sun was slowly climbing down from the sky when Kaito and the others finally found a simple hotel that didn't seem too expensive. He led them all inside and were almost instantly face-to-face with an overly joyful receptionist. She didn't seem to recognize them, but was excited about her job.
"Welcome to the City Street Hotel! Do you wish to book a room?"
"Yes we would." Kaito told the receptionist. "Just one room for seven people, and we won't be staying very long. How much will it cost?"
"Let's see," The receptionist muttered while typing on her computer. "Seven people, one room, restroom passes, and cards for access in and out of the building. Your total will be three hundred."
Kaito was in shock for a few seconds at the price before opening up the purse he took from GUMI (who wanted to try paying herself) and began counting the coins. There was a little piece of paper inside that had the value of the coins written on it, and after about a minute or so they all had a room. After receiving a bubbly "Thank you for staying with us!" from the receptionist, he looked at the number on the key and read the room number out loud.
"Room three, we have room three. It's probably on the ground floor, and that will make our lives MUCH easier, considering how much stuff we're going to have to drag in and out."
Rin ran ahead to the room while Kaito and GUMI were left to drag everything. "Come on, you can't be THAT slow!" She called out.
"Well you aren't really helping us, so we can't get there as fast!" Kaito yelled back as he grabbed the edge of the cooler.
"You'll be fine!" Rin told them.
Kaito sighed before taking a backpack and holding the handle at the top on his arm. Once he and GUMI finished getting everything, they finally began to walk to their room. He could see Rin tapping her foot impatiently of the floor, and he asked her to grab the key from his hand and unlock the door.
Kaito felt Rin practically rip the key from his hand before running up, unlocking the door, and stepping inside with the door open enough for he and GUMI to get through. He let GUMI go inside first before following and dropping everything he was carrying in a corner. He looked around and noticed how small the room was. There were two queen-sized beds, a television surrounded by shelves full of books and video games, a small bedside table between the two beds, and a sofa along the edge of a wall.
"This place is tiny." Rin complained. "How the heck are we going to fit all of us in this room without killing each other?"
"I think we're going to have to move the furniture." GUMI told Rin. "If we move the beds to the wall and push everything as far back as possible, we can set up some sleeping bags. We'll have to make our own space though, but that shouldn't be a problem. We can either use the beds to store everything or let a few people sleep together in them, like you and Len for example. You're twins, I'm sure you've slept in the same bed before."
Kaito quickly agreed with GUMI. "That's a good idea. But we ARE going to have to find room for this stuff. How about we put it on the other bed?"
"That's a good idea." GUMI said. "We should have enough room for everyone by the time they get back from gathering information. But that means we're going to have to start moving things now. Rin, come help me out with the sofa."
Meanwhile, Miku, Meiko, Len, Gakupo, and Luka were walking down the streets, talking to as many people as possible about where the Ninja could have been taken to, and by whom. Everyone they talked to seemed to be clueless though.
"Sorry, but who are you again?"
"ARE YOU MY PUPPY?"
"I like, don't like know, and I also like, don't care. So like, go away."
"Mommy, what's a Ninja?"
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I DON'T HAVE MY HEARING AID ON!"
"You know who the Ninja are?! Please tell them to give me their autograph!"
"No I don't. There is a zero point twenty seven percent chance of you finding any person likely to help you in any way, shape, or from."
"I don't talk to strangers."
"Why should I know?"
"HI, HI, HI, HI, HI!"
"…"
"Maybe YOU took them! Stop trying to frame people!"
"This country has Ninjas? People these days are crazy enough already…"
There were plenty more people like that, but nothing helped them. Len in particular was annoyed at how many people asked him if he was the daughter of Luka and Gakupo, and those two were upset at the assumptions as well. But overall, nobody gave any ideas as to where to start looking.
That is, until they found one of the few police officers that were still around and trustworthy.
"Ah, you all are looking for the Ninja. Well, I have a few leads, but I don't see how useful they are. The surveillance footage shows security guards coming out of one of the broom closets, but they never went in there to start with. Plus the cage that trapped them seems to have been in place for decades, almost as if that concert was planned a long time ago. Some of the audience members that stuck around said that the workers who were corrupted always wore a strange patch on their shoulders that depicted a kitten. I've already tried to investigate everything else, but that's all I got. Sorry about that."
"No no, it's perfect! Thank you so much for the information!" Miku thanked the officer before telling everyone to follow her as she ran down the street. She watched where Kaito, Rin, and GUMI wandered off to before leaving to collect information, so she had a feeling of where they went.
After many minutes of running and bumping into people, Miku found the first hotel that looked like they could afford. It was a simple three-story building with not much parking space, but it looked like people have been taking care of it so nobody could get sick. She walked inside and was quickly greeted by a bubbly receptionist.
"Hello! Welcome to the City Street Hotel, do you want to book a room?"
"No, actually." Gakupo said to the receptionist. "We believe that our friend has already booked a room here for seven people."
"Is your friend the one with the blue hair?"
"Yes, that's the one."
"Then you're in luck! He, along with two other girls, are inside of room three right now. The room is already paid for, and I hope you enjoy your stay!"
Miku wasted no time it running down the hall to find the room they were staying in. She found that the door was unlocked and slightly closed so people would know not to go in without permission. She flung open the door and found that GUMI was trying to work with Rin to push furniture along a wall and Kaito was trying to set out sleeping bags.
"Hello!" Miku greeted as she walked into the room. "We found awesome information!"
Kaito almost froze in place once he heard Miku. 'They found a lead to where the Ninja could be? That's incredible!'
"The others are coming down the hall right now. I think it'd be better if they told you guys instead of me. I wasn't paying too much attention to the police officer."
Kaito stood up and waited for his friends while Miku inspected the room. GUMI and Rin were just about done with moving everything, the equipment they brought was neatly organized on one of the beds, and everything was set up and ready to go. He even put out food for them because none of them had eaten since the previous day.
Once everyone was inside of the room and the door was shut and locked, Kaito took out his laptop and started up a program so he could type out everything that they had gathered. He nodded to his friends when he was ready to get the information and Gakupo told him everything the officer did.
After a few minutes, Kaito had finished typing everything. It wasn't much, but now they at least had something to go on to start looking. He put it together with the information they already had and began organizing it.
'Let's see,' He thought as he began to move information around. 'The guards came out of a broom closet when they never went in before, the cage was set to spring years ago, the guards wore kitten patches on their shoulders, the leader was able to corrupt almost every single authority, they all managed to leave very quickly once they took Ninjago's greatest defense, and we have practically no idea where they could have taken the Ninja. At least we have ideas on where to start looking.'
"How about we look into the whole cat thing?" Meiko suggested. "I mean, bad guys don't normally wear images of cats, right? That's just weird and it sounds like a gang thing."
Kaito nodded before pulling up a search tool. He set the location of searching for Ninjago, and began to look at all sorts of kitten-related images. There were a bunch of stray cat posters, adoption images, and even random photos of cats flying through the air, but no badges. However he continued to search until he found a picture of one of the security guards that happened to be at the concert. He clicked on the picture and it took him to a website with a picture of a kitten at the top.
"I think I found something!" Kaito gleefully told the others. "It's a website that happens to have a picture of one of the security guards that was at the concert! One of the reasons I can tell is that there's a patch on both of his shoulders that matches the description, and his name is Bob. We've met Bob before."
Kaito let his friends crowd around him and the monitor to see for a bit before he pushed them away so he could continue searching. He clicked on the home page button for the site and read the little blurb that popped up.
'We are the Killers In The Terrain Eclipse Ninjago. KITTEN.' Kaito read. 'We are everywhere, and we control everything. We aim to take out the best defenses for the world and send it into darkness, that way only we can control sight. If you join now, then you will be free to see anything and everything when Ninjago plummets into eternal darkness. You will be a special person who has political power, money, fame, and everything you wish for.'
"Well, I can honestly say that after reading this," Kaito began. "The evil organization we're going up against has a clichéd goal and they're going to be easy to take down."