Chapter 4: Performance
Kuroba Kaito played gleefully with the other children, comfortably aware of his father's watchful gaze upon him every few minutes, until the show was ready to start. When the lights dimmed and none other than the Fishy Magician had made his way on-stage with a wave and pretend-stumble, Kaito had been one of the first to sit himself on the floor directly in front of the little stage and laugh, eyes wide and smile already on his face. He was barely aware at that point of the eyes of his father, which came to rest on him twice as often now that the lights had been dimmed and visibility was more limited.
Several large glass containers were wheeled onto the stage and, one by one, the Fishy Magician would make fish of varying colors appear, ranging in size from tiny Minnows to two-foot-long Koi. At one point he put a single goldfish inside of a little round, glass bowl and proceeded to make it change color several times. Kaito was especially fond of the end of the show, by which point there was a giant glass fish tank the height of a person and at least two meters long on-stage with a number of colorful fish in varying sizes and breeds swimming busily about, their scales reflecting the stage lights and making them glow and cast their colors about the room. The back panel of the tank was a mirror, which gave the illusion of there being twice as many fish as there actually were, and the children were none the wiser, highly impressed and visually stunned.
As the performance came to an end, Toichi kept careful watch on not only Kaito, but all of the children. There were seventeen boys and girls between the ages of three and seven in attendance which needed to be protected, and though Toichi somewhat doubted that any children would go missing from here, a private and smaller gathering, he still kept his guard up, highly aware that there had, in fact, been two circumstances in the past in which a little boy and a little girl disappeared from private events.
Only a minute or so before the end of the performance, one of the servers who was working the party approached a little girl, who was sitting in the back corner of the gathered crowd of children near the front of the room. Toichi narrowed his eyes as the man leant down and whispered to the girl. The girl nodded and stood, following the man, who lead her towards the service hallway.
Toichi glanced one more time at his own boy before moving to follow the little girl and waiter, concerned for her safety. It was, after all, highly suspicious for a server (someone who was not known by those hosting the party) to be speaking with one of the children who fit the victim list a minute before the show ended and the lights would be turned back up, and to then lead her towards the service hallway, a place where typically only staff or the hosts would go and not the guests; especially not the children. A place where there would be less prying eyes...
Toichi quickened his pace a tad, wanting to close a bit of the distance between himself and the potentially at-risk girl.
Kaito didn't notice when his father left the room, eyes glistening under the reflected light from the fish.