The urge to stay and help Lu-sensei find Cordelia is very strong. You're torn between asking that you be allowed to do so, and insisting that you'll do it regardless of what the adults want.
Then you glance at the brown-clad shinobi that Lu-sensei knocked out, while Ayame was tagging the other one with her personal brand of tranquilizer dart - two enemies that you never even knew were there, until the adults had already dealt with them, two assassins stealthy enough that, were you alone, either of them could have taken you down before you realized there was even a threat. And these were just the minions. You have every reason in the world - and several from beyond it - to believe that whoever commands these mooks will be considerably more dangerous than they are, and that those team leaders, field commanders, or what have you will in turn be overshadowed by the guy in charge. Probably that "Raidou" guy that makes Ayame turn cold and scary when she talks about him.
And your teacher is about to turn around and walk back into the thick of things, while guys like that are running around.
As much as you want to help Cordelia, you can't ignore the evidence of the last minute or so. If you go with Lu-sensei and it comes to a fight, odds are very, very good that you're not going to be very helpful to him at all - quite the contrary, in fact. By himself, Lu-sensei's only goal would be to get to Cordelia as quickly and as quietly as possible, and then keep her safe, and he'd be free to use any and all methods at his disposal in the process. If you're with him, though, your master will have to split his focus and energy to make sure that you're safe as well. Options that he'd have been free to use while on his own, or with only one young student to worry about, would no longer be safe to use - even if they might be the quickest, or indeed only way to settle certain problems. Far from being of assistance, your presence could very easily ruin everything; better, then, that you not be present.
Gained Tactics F
However, just because you're not going with Lu-sensei doesn't mean you can't help in other ways.
"Just a second, sir," you say, raising one hand and quickly casting a spell. You know Cordelia well enough by now that you can unfailingly find her location within a certain radius. Of course, getting that knowledge for yourself won't be helpful in this situation, so instead you modify the spell, sacrificing a certain amount of duration so that you can anchor the effect on someone else - in this case, Lu-sensei, who you reach out and tap. The old man blinks.
"What was tha- eh?" He stops and looks sharply over his shoulder. "Alexander, I can suddenly smell lavender, aloe, and" - your master pauses, sniffing - "I'm pretty sure that's strawberry. Please explain."
"It's a tracking spell, Lu-sensei. Just follow the, um, 'scent,' and it'll lead you right to Cordelia. And Briar, would you go with him?" Seeing the expression on the fairy's face, you quickly add, "To make sure Cordy's alright? And Kahlua and her sisters? Please?"
Briar glares at you for a long moment, but your entreaties seem to work. "Fine." Then she flutters down and pokes the end of your nose. "But I'm warning you right now, mister: Stay. Out. Of. Trouble. Or so help me, when this is all over, I will find Ambrose and have him turn you into a toad. You get me?"
Okay, maybe they didn't work all that well. "Yes'm."
You get a lot of strange looks from the adults, who are missing half of the conversation, while Kasumi giggles weakly and Altria merely sighs.
At the junction, Lu-sensei goes right and picks up speed, vanishing down a nearby stairwell with Briar right behind him, a cometary blur of light. The rest of your group turns left, heading for the open emergency door at the end of the hall.
The stadium's grounds are overflowing with people. Thousands of ticket-holders have left the building, many of them making for the adjacent parking garage, while others harangue the handful of security guards, are questioned by the increasingly-numerous police officers, or mill about aimlessly. A fire truck and several ambulances have arrived - one of the latter is just pulling in now, in fact - as have two vans that you're pretty sure were carrying TV reporters and their camera crews. There's also a growing crowd on the sidewalk beyond the grounds, pedestrians, patrons of the local businesses, and employees of the same all drawn out by the ruckus to see what's what.
Master Jo leads your group away from the main gate, to an out-of-the-way spot near one wall, half-hidden behind an outbuilding whose purpose you can't guess. With some assistance from the adults, you go over the wall, landing in a side-street that isn't narrow or dirty enough to really be called an alley. The next half an hour is tense but fairly dull, consisting of a fast-paced walk down entirely unfamiliar streets, which ultimately leads to a hole-in-the-wall secondhand store. The middle-aged man behind the desk takes in your arrival and appearance with no more than a blink, a wordless bow of respect, and a swift unlocking of the door beyond him, through which you are all ushered. The room on the other side looks like storage, and you don't stay long, moving up the staircase at the back to a second-story apartment. Here, you meet half a dozen more ninja in blue, who display an unmistakeable relief at the sight of Shiden, Ayame, and Kasumi.
While Shiden and Jo begin talking with the man who seems to be in charge of this group, one of the suboordinates ushers the rest of you to what appears to be their living room - windowless, with little in the way of furniture except for mats, cushions, and a couple of low tables. One of those has an entire home entertainment center set up on and around it, and two of the walls are taken up by bookcases. After speaking briefly with her daughter and "Little Sister," Ayame invites you and Altria to makes yourselves comfortable, then leaves with the guard.