The auditorium

(chapter originally by williwall at writing.com)

Yukari just barely suppressed a gasp of shock as she saw rows upon rows of students, all of them facing in her direction (albeit not look up towards her spot near the ceiling). This was more than just a class, this looked like most of the school! What was everyone doing in the auditorium? Yukari was sure there wasn't an assembly scheduled for today, unless she had somehow forgotten. Then again, it wasn't unheard of to have surprise assemblies, especially considering the unique nature of Gekkoukan. Regardless, Yukari knew that she would have to be extremely careful here. One wrong move could give away her hiding spot, and with so many people she had to face on a daily basis sitting below her, well... that just couldn't be allowed to happen.

Scanning the crowd of students in an attempt to get an idea of just how awful the situation was, Yukari quickly caught sight of Minako, Junpei, and Aigis, the three of them sitting together and whispering to each other. While Yukari couldn't tell what they were talking about from this distance, she was able to piece together the clues when the three of them turned to Ms. Toriumi, Minako shrugging to the teacher in resigned defeat. Ms. Toriumi was probably wondering where Yukari was and had hoped her friends would know. This made Yukari's stomach sink even deeper; her disappearance had been noted, and now she'd either have people looking for her or she'd be labeled a truant. The first option was awful for obvious reasons, and the second would be bad when word reached Mitsuru. Still, this did mean one thing- Aigis hadn't told anybody about the incident on the roof. If she had, then they'd have likely been much more worried about the fact that they couldn't find her. Why Aigis had kept quiet was something Yukari couldn't answer, but that meant nothing to her at the moment.

Yukari knew that her first order of business was to get out of sight. To that end, she quickly spun around to try and go back into the maintenance hall, only to find the heavy metal door locked tight. The door was apparently one-way, probably to keep students from sneaking up to a restricted part of the roof while preventing maintenance workers from getting locked out of the building. This safety measure was of no comfort to Yukari, who now realized that she'd have to find a way to sneak past the packed auditorium in her current state of undress. The half-naked girl could feel her heart pounding in her chest like a jackhammer as she looked around, weighing her options.

On the other end of the catwalk, across the width of the auditorium, Yukari could make out what appeared to be another door. Of course, she couldn't tell if the door was locked unless she went over and tried it, and that was the scary part. The part of the catwalk that Yukari was currently standing on was mostly concealed from view by the stage curtains, but as it went across the stage and the curtains got higher, Yukari would be completely exposed to any student who thought to crane their head up during the assembly. It would only take one pair of eyes to quickly give away her position to the rest of the room, and then how was Yukari going to explain this?

The second option was, while admittedly risky, also potentially more stealthy. On the other side of the auditorium, down the length of the room, Yukari could see the light control room responsible for the stage spotlights. If she could get over there, she could exit through that room and theoretically bypass the entire auditorium, leaving her with an empty school to navigate. Of course, this would require crossing the room without the catwalk, instead having to carefully shimmy her way across the rafters. It would be less likely for anybody to look up into the rafters, but anyone happened to look up, Yukari would unwittingly give them a view that they would not soon forget.

As much as her options were essentially poison or drowning, Yukari still had to make a choice. Taking one last moment to weigh her options, Yukari began to move shortly after the assembly finally began. With a deep breath to steady herself, Yukari-