The Fox adjusted the bck hood covering most of his face, staying perfectly still in the shadows backstage. The Kuroko outfit had cost him fifty bucks at a costume shop, but it was worth every penny. Bck robes, bck hood, the traditional "invisible" stagehand uniform. As long as he didn't move during the performance, nobody would look twice at him.

  He'd done his homework. Eugene Gingersnap was out in the audience right now with his date - Mun, some kind of minor warrior nobility from the Eastern kingdoms. Stunning woman. Long dark hair, sharp features, the kind of beauty that turned heads.

  *Of course he brought her to kabuki,* the Fox thought. *Nothing says 'I'm cultured' like theater before trying to get id.*

  But the Fox knew Genji's pybook. After the show, he'd bring Mun backstage to meet the lead actor - some famous kabuki performer whose name the Fox couldn't pronounce. Genji would act like he was best friends with the guy, drop some names, make himself look important. Cssic move.

  And that's when the Fox would step out of the shadows and sp those papers right into his hand.

  The performance continued. Musicians pyed. Actors moved with exaggerated grace across the stage, their eborate costumes catching the lights. The Fox stayed still, patient, positioned near the stage exit where he could see both the backstage area and catch glimpses of the audience through the wings.

  He spotted Genji out there - arm draped casually over Mun's shoulders, leaning in to whisper something that made her smile. The smug bastard.

  Then Genji's eyes swept across the theater - casual, rexed - and somehow, impossibly, locked onto the Fox.

  Their gazes met for just a second through the gap in the curtains. The Fox saw recognition fsh across Genji's face.

  *Shit.*

  Genji leaned over to Mun, whispered something, started to stand. The Fox's hand went to the papers in his robe. Maybe the pn had changed. Maybe he'd have to serve him in the aisle instead of—

  That's when the ceiling exploded.

  Not literally - but that's what it felt like. Bck-cd figures dropped from the rafters on ropes, flipping through the air with impossible precision. More emerged from backstage, from the wings, from everywhere at once. The Fox stumbled backward as a ninja nded exactly where he'd been standing, a katana gleaming in the stage lights.

  The musicians kept pying for a few confused seconds before trailing off.

  Two figures stepped forward onto the stage - one small, the other wooden and stiff-moving but unmistakably human-shaped.

  "Pinocchio," the wooden one said, his voice sharp and cold. He wore bck robes, a mask covering the lower half of his face, a sword at his back.

  "Jiminy," the smaller figure replied - a cricket, human-sized, dressed in elegant ninja garb, holding twin daggers. "It ends tonight."

  "It ended years ago," Pinocchio said. "You just won't die."

  "Funny. I was thinking the same about you."

  Then they moved.

  Fast. Impossibly fast. Pinocchio's sword rang out as it cshed with Jiminy's daggers. Their respective cns - the Puppets and the Crickets - surged forward, colliding in a chaos of bdes, kicks, and bodies flying through the air.

  The audience gasped. Some appuded.

  "This is amazing!" someone near the front said.

  "The choreography is incredible!" another voice added.

  The Fox realized with growing horror that they thought this was part of the show.

  A throwing star embedded itself in the wall next to him, still quivering.

  *Not part of the show. Definitely not part of the show.*

  He ducked as two ninjas - one Puppet, one Cricket - crashed into the space behind him, grappling and punching. Another ninja vaulted over his head, sword drawn, chasing an opponent toward the stage.

  The Fox tried to move toward where he'd st seen Genji, but the stage had become a war zone. Pinocchio and Jiminy were locked in combat center-stage, their weapons moving too fast to follow. Around them, their cns fought with brutal efficiency - real weapons, real blood starting to show on the polished wood floor.

  "This is NOT part of the performance!" the Fox shouted, but his voice was lost in the chaos.

  He caught a glimpse of Genji across the theater - on his feet, pulling Mun toward the exit. Genji looked back once, caught the Fox's eye, and had the audacity to *smirk* before disappearing through the door.

  A Cricket ninja came at the Fox from the left. The Fox barely dodged, rolling behind a piece of scenery as a bde sliced through the air where his head had been. He scrambled up, papers still somehow clutched in his hand, and ran for the nearest exit.

  Behind him, Pinocchio and Jiminy's fight reached a crescendo. Steel rang against steel. Someone screamed - a real scream, not theatrical. The audience was starting to realize this wasn't pnned.

  Panic erupted.

  People stampeded for the exits. The Fox got swept up in the crowd of fleeing theater-goers, pushed and shoved as they fled. A throwing star whistled past his ear and embedded in the doorframe. He threw himself through the exit, stumbled into the lobby, and kept running.

  Outside, in the cool night air, he finally stopped, hands on his knees, breathing hard.

  Behind him, through the theater doors, he could still hear the sounds of combat. Sirens wailed in the distance - someone had finally called the authorities.

  The Fox looked down at the papers in his hand - crumpled now, slightly torn, but intact.

  Eugene Gingersnap was long gone. Probably already charming Mun into his bed, spinning the ninja attack into a story that made him look like a hero.

  The Fox straightened his Kuroko costume, pulled off the hood, and walked to his car.

  Two attempts. Two failures.

  He pulled out his phone and stared at it for a long moment.