Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===5: A Brain at 15 Below===

Japanese castles were all about height.

A mound of dirt was built up and stone walls were built around that to create the foundation, barracks and an armory were built atop that, and the very top was built into a castle tower that would provide the solid defense the castle’s owner needed during wartime. Tall castles acted as a status symbol, but it was all based on the exceedingly simple logic that blades and bows had a harder time attacking you when you were high up in a tower.

On the other hand, Western castles were all about width.

Height was only needed for soldiers to launch arrows and throw rocks from atop the walls and for the towers that were used as lookout posts and holding cells. The castle’s owner would be seated behind several castle walls in the main tower’s hall facing the garden, but that was not necessarily the tallest point of the castle.

Some said this was due to the earlier inclusion of cannons in Western warfare, meaning the castle had to be surrounded by a fortress loaded up with cannons. Others said it was due to the greater available land in the West giving them more space on which to build their castles.

“(Okay, we’re about at the point where there’s no getting out of this if we’re caught! Minor thrills and tension are the perfect spice for a dangerous love!! Ahh, if only I could let Sensei feel the pounding of my heart right now!!)”

“(Ouka isn’t going to intentionally get us caught for a thrill, is she?)”

Ouka and Hoozuki’s comments were best ignored.

New Sapporo Castle had used some Western castle design, but its overall scale was very Japanese. The additional facilities like the barracks and food storage were spread out to the sides in a very Western way, but the main central castle itself was built upwards in the Japanese way. The current isolationist policies may have placed some restrictions on the castle designs.

“No point in just staring up at it,” said Sugiyado Souha while hiding his mouth below his scarf which included some special anti-facial-recognition designs.

To reiterate, the 900mm rapid fire-railguns required a massive amount of power and they could not allow that line to be cut off, so they would not use open power lines.

If they could find the entrance leading underground, they would have a direct route to the central castle.

“Sensei, where should we go first?”

“The server room.” He did not even need to think about it. “I’m curious about the tower at the top, but we need to start by checking the data on that classified server we can’t access from the outside. If the enemy is keeping us from it, there must be something there they don’t want us to see.”

No one asked how they would find that without a map of the place. Large computers like that needed to be kept cool to avoid overheating. Not many locations in a building could bear the weight of the computers and the cooling equipment while also providing enough power to run it all. Just like a library, they would avoid placing it on a higher floor.

That meant it might be inside the stone walls.

They had defeated a few of the attackers at Abashiri, but those had only been disposable pawns recruited on site and were unlikely to provide much information. The “real ninjas” that had led them were apparently found in the New Sapporo Domain and the classified server used by government workers was redirecting all requests so not even Elite Ninjas like Ouka could get in.

Who had killed that old man?

The castle’s server room would be the best way to find the answer. Even if the hardware had been destroyed, there had to still be some kind of hint left there.

They had left that conspicuous cross shuriken at the scene in an attempt to frame the old man’s grandson. In the same way, different ninja schools had different ways to overcoming the same problems.

“…”

Sugiyado gently stuck the tip of his air-pressure kunai out through the metal grating to use it like a mirror and check around outside. Only then did he gently push up the cover located above his head.

That was enough for him to feel the bomb he carried in his spine.

At 5kg, his back felt funny. At 10kg, it exploded with pain.

Even now, he could feel the gentle touch of the grim reaper’s invisible fingers on his back.

He found himself in a large, windowless room.

It was located within a stone wall, so the lack of windows was no surprise.

Computers the size of industrial refrigerators were lined up across the room like a library’s bookcases or an apartment complex’s buildings.

Ouka released a white breath from her small mouth and then spoke to him.

“None of it looks like it was destroyed, Sensei.”

“The chips or data inside might be a different story.”

Asagao’s short-skirt military uniform must not have been warm enough for this chilly room because a shiver ran through her body and she pressed against Sugiyado’s hip for warmth. Sugiyado, who had a down jacket for warmth, toyed with the scarf covering his mouth as he decided on a plan of action.

“We’ll have to start with this. If it has data on the ninjas, then we have what we wanted. If it doesn’t, we can guess at their identity based on how it was erased. But be on the lookout for decoy data. They’ve already planted false evidence once.”

That said, deception was a standard ninja tool, so there was no point in discussing whether it was right or wrong. Although anyone who broke a taboo would have to be prepared to accept their punishment if they were caught.

It was unknown how the outside requests were being redirected to a fake server, but that method would not work if they were directly accessing the hardware from within the castle. He checked the syncing device that connected the multiple computers and then he checked for a connection port. He hooked his phone up to that with a cable.

“Found it.”

“What does it say, Sensei?”

Asagao stood on her tippy-toes to look at the small screen and he tilted his phone so she could see.

“The Hole.”

“So we were right,” said Ouka with the sound of someone who had found confirmation of something unpleasant.

Modern ninjas were not divided into schools based on actual families like Iga or Koga. The schools had names like Harlot, Bandit, Assassin, Informer, etc. They were all people who had ''been left with no choice'' but to become ninjas to make a living for themselves or to fight. Ouka, Bara, Hoozuki, Asagao, and even Sugiyado Souha were no exception. If you wanted a respected family name you could be proud of, you were better off becoming a samurai.

The Hole was shorthand for the type of ninja that had started out as miners and other expert hole-diggers. They all had their own unique history, though. With some, their ancestor had lent their abilities to a daimyo or other important figure. With others, they had caused some sort of scandal and needed to go into hiding.

“Specifically, the Stonewalls. While they did work with dirt, their main job was constructing castles. But instead of the carpenters who work on the actual building, they would handle the preliminary phase that involved digging a moat, filling it with water, and building the stone walls needed for the foundation.”

“What weapons do you expect them to use?” asked Hoozuki.

“Probably something you would use to dig a tunnel,” he replied. “So mostly construction tools like pickaxes, shovels, and hammers. For projectiles, they might throw stones. And as a hidden surprise, we should expect some explosives. That shouldn’t work in a closed environment, but the technique to safely set off explosives inside a tunnel would give them even more precise control of explosions than a fireworks maker.”

Instead of modifying weapons like swords or spears into “a weapon customized from a weapon”, they would have started with cooking tools and the tools of their trade. After all, ninjas were not samurai. Their status was officially protected by the government now, but they had been unofficial saboteurs back in the day. They would have grabbed a kitchen knife, a saw, or whatever else was handy and customized it for easier use. Ninja tools like the kaginawa and kusarigama might look pretty out there by people who did not understand where they came from, but most of them actually had their origin in everyday items.

For example, the shuriken is the best known ninja tool, but before the standard stick shuriken and cross shuriken had been developed, ninjas had started with any number of other objects: kanzashi, tatami needles, star decorations, square clasps, gears, long nails, scissors, chisels, sword guards, etc. And since the original kunoichis had been sex workers, they would not be the ones wielding carpentry tools like nails or chisels. Shurikens were a last resort and leaving them behind would provide evidence that might just reveal what kind of ninja you were. It was possible to build a profile of an enemy and work out their identity based on the ninja tools they used.

The enemy here were hole-digging experts. Their techniques for infiltration, sabotage, disruption, and all other tasks would all start from there.

“Then they would probably be the perfect people to bring down a castle, Sensei,” said Ouka with a troubled look. “They can dig a tunnel into the castle grounds, pull out the foundation to bring down the castle walls, and even guide a bunch of polluted water into the moat for a biological attack. All they have to do is abuse the techniques they already have.”

Asagao asked a question as a follow-on to the twintail girl’s comment.

“But, Sensei, they were stationed here to protect the castle, weren’t they? They haven’t built up a bunch of labyrinthine defenses, so what actually happened here in the castle?”

“This isn’t limited to New Sapporo Castle. The Stonewalls are vulnerability advisors. They take a look at castles and fortresses from a tunnel-digging perspective and play the enemy in some training to give advice on how to improve the place’s defenses. You could call them inspectors that find their allies’ vulnerabilities and provide a report so security can be improved.”

Silver ponytail Hoozuki loudly clicked her tongue at that.

“That isn’t good, Sensei. It means the Stonewalls might have complete plans of New Sapporo Castle. In fact, they might as well have master keys to all the Shogunate’s crucial facilities across the archipelago.”

Their job was to determine the weaknesses in the country’s most important bases and help fill in those security holes, but what if they failed to report on ''all'' the holes they discovered? They would have free access to any missile base or underground shelter they wanted.

That explained how they had so easily accessed the Shogunate’s max security prison in Abashiri to safely take that old man’s life. They would have measured out for themselves exactly where they needed to dig a tunnel to get in.

“Any actual names or numbers?” cautiously asked Hoozuki the cool beauty. “And what about the grandson of that old man…Murakami Shouzou, was it? We still don’t know his name.”

“I found it all here, but it’s been blotted out so I can’t read it. There’s some separate security system in place.”

“Sensei, you can leave that to me. I’ll have that rude mosaic gone in no time.”

With a barbaric smile, Asagao held her phone out above Sugiyado’s phone. She must have accessed his with short-range wireless because it filled in the missing parts of the documents like some kind of AR. The randomized redaction signal was removed and the hidden text was revealed.

Just then, they heard a low rumbling.

This was different from when they had entered. The heavy main door to the room was opening.

“(Asagao, the data is on your phone, right? Then let’s withdraw for now.)”

“(Don’t be silly, Ouka. I couldn’t possibly copy over all the data from this entire server room. It’s larger than a library. The data is organized by an index, but it’s scattered all over these systems. Grabbing the data from just one of them won’t give us anything readable!)”

“(In other words, we have to stay here while the decryption completes? What should we do, Sensei?)”

Hoozuki the cool beauty pressed him to make a decision.

They could already hear approaching footsteps.

They had no idea who this was. This large space had more computers than a library had bookcases, so the odds were low whoever-this-was was headed to the exact machine they were plugged into. But the fact remained they had nowhere to hide. Simply walking down the central aisle would let you see if anyone was hiding behind the machines lined up like bookcases.

What would they do?

Would they run?

Would they stay?

Or would they eliminate this person?

“…”

Sugiyado Souha grabbed his down jacket and swung it out like a crescent moon.

And.

And.

And.