Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase02 (section)

===Part 5===

It was already evening by the time the two boys had reconfirmed their friendship and Ayato left the tower.

Night came early in the mountains. It would be fully dark out if he took much longer.

The cold hurt his ears.

Seeing his breath tempted him to buy a meat-filled steamed bun or a frankfurter from the butterfly delivery service, but it was nearly dinnertime. He decided to wait.

When he returned to the mobile home they were using for the night, Teleria was preparing dinner. Henrietta was maintaining her sorcery gun. Could she not just relax on the sofa without making sure she was also preparing for battle in some way?

Evening was turning to night.

However, the Academy Towers’ mountainous locale meant the sun set sooner than in a flat area. The mountains surrounding them hid the sun as it sank.

“Now, then.”

Ayato Criminaltrophy sighed. He detected a mouthwatering aroma coming from the kitchen of the boxy mobile home, but he had something he wanted to deal with before Teleria finished her cooking in her aproned newlywed wife mode.

He had been fortunate to get everything arranged with the Rocket Club in secret, but he wanted even more assurance. Smooth sailing wasn’t enough when dealing with that Student Council President.

So…

“Miss Henrietta.”

“What do you want, dangerous individual?”

He only called her name, but the straitlaced Striker responded with her voice pitched lower than when she spoke to anyone else. She placed her bolt-action carbine on the table, crossed her arms, and stared motionlessly at him. It was the same look she would give a suspected criminal.

He didn’t bother correcting her since that wasn’t entirely inaccurate, so he instead smiled and made a suggestion.

“Would you mind helping me with something?”

“Why me?”

“I could ask Miss Teleria or Miss Mamilis, but it will likely involve physical risk. You have been in your fair share of fights, so you seemed like the best candidate.”

His reasoning completely threw out the concept of ladies first, but Henrietta only snorted with her arms still crossed. It was a proud snort.

“''So I was the first to come to mind when you were in trouble?''”

“Precisely.”

“Very well. I won’t make my decision until I hear what it is you want, but I can at least give you some advice.”

When Mamilis snuck into the kitchen to bravely try and grab some food early and ended up arguing with Teleria, Ayato and Henrietta slipped out of the mobile home.

They walked across the twilit schoolyard and Ayato summed up what he needed.

“I need to reach the Student Council Office.”

“I am aware. That’s the entire reason we are searching around for a shortcut to the top floor of that tower.”

“That should be enough to reach the top floor, but that isn’t the end of it. How do we open the office’s locked door? That fortress was created by a Sorcery Hacker, so it is sure to have some defenses.”

“Mh.”

“Screw that up and we will be stuck in the hallway. And in the worst case, we could run into the Council and need to unlock it in the middle of a magical battle. Having to wait for a count of three in front of the door would be a failure, so I need to know as much as possible about the locking mechanism beforehand. Even the privileged Council is using Academy Towers facilities, so the designs and mechanisms will have been submitted to the school and stored somewhere that ordinary people could never find them.”

“Where exactly is that?”

“The Sorcery Library. Specifically in the closed stack archive in the very back.”

Henrietta’s spine straightened. A tremor may have run through her within her armor. A warrior’s tremor in anticipation of battle.

The Sorcery Hacker winked.

“That devilish place is piled high with physical sorcery grimoires and scrolls from a time ''before the proliferation of sorcery guns''. They are valuable research documents, but they also bring great risk. Miss Henrietta, are you interested in real demons? Not the broader category people usually refer to, but the actual species known as demons or devils? Rumor has it that room undergoes spatial distortions depending on the phase of the moon and the weather conditions.”

“Real demons?”

“On the other hand, maybe it’s not worth worrying about. I mean, we have already met and spoken with Demon Lord Nirvelphany who reins at the very top of all demons – for both the broader and narrower definitions of the word.”

“…”

“This is risky enough I did not want to get Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis involved.” He flicked the thick armor covering her chest. “The problem is the Sorcery Library is located near the center of the Academy Towers. Unlike before, you would stand out like a sore thumb dressed like this. We need to get in and out undetected, so as much as I hate asking this after already asking for your help, I would like for you to change before we start. You will need to wear an outfit more fitting of a wicked sorcery grimoire.”

“I see. You mean that blazer thing that Teleria wears? I don’t like losing the buffs of my armor, but what’s necessary is necessary.”

“Oh, no, no.” Ayato wagged his index finger. “We are interested in the closed stack archive where real demons lurk. That area is off limits even to ordinary students. I need to focus on unlocking it, so you can handle the viewing for me. Thus, you need to wear a specialized outfit more suitable for that old-fashioned sort of magic.”

“Fair enough. That pretty uniform would seem out of place in a demonic witch’s ceremony. I would expect something darker and gloomier.”

“Precisely. I will prepare the outfit for you. But listen, Miss Henrietta. We must not be detected, but we will not be sneaking from shadow to shadow. Viewing these grimoires is a fairly taboo thing even for the sorcery students here. They will subconsciously look the other way, so they should not notice who you are unless you do something extremely unusual.”

“Really?”

Their destination was on Floor 32 of the mana tower, meaning Ayato had access.

Schools felt very different at night. Henrietta had never experienced that before, so she would likely be taken aback by the unique darkness of a school at night.

Ayato Criminaltrophy was accustomed to the icy darkness, so he pointed his thumb back toward the slice of warmth found at the mobile home and prepared to challenge the pitch dark realm to which he belonged.

“I have just this one last job for you, Miss Henrietta. Let’s get this out of the way so we can wholeheartedly enjoy Miss Teleria’s delicious cooking.”



Night had already fallen. Preparations had taken more time than expected, but he had to accept that as a necessary delay.

The air around them felt stagnant.

The lights were kept dim to avoid harming the books. And these were mana lights that did not use fire.

The floor was covered in thin carpet. Reading desks were lined up with a forest of amber wooden bookcases further back. Floor 32 had no classrooms because the entire floor was taken up by the library, but this still felt too large. Maybe it was the dim lighting, but the forest of bookcases continued back far enough that the viewer imaged it continued until the horizon.

This was one of the few relatively lively places in the school’s otherwise dead night.

The tense atmosphere felt like an outward sign of the students’ fearful respect for the forbidden knowledge contained here.

But they also sought out this solemnly silent time so they could cram as much of that knowledge into their heads as they could. Needless to say, this breathless work was so they could qualify for an advanced occupation like alchemist or summoner.

Meanwhile…

“Dangerous individual,” groaned Henrietta Split Destrius.

A whispering stir surrounded her. Even an outsider like her could tell this was unusual for the silent Sorcery Library.

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v03_BW02.jpg|thumb]]

Every eye was focused on the straitlaced Striker.

The invisible pressure was too great for her, so she held her arms around herself and twisted her body, producing the creak of thick leather.

Yes.

Of black leather.

Sorcery Hacker Ayato Criminaltrophy chuckled.

“(This really does look perfect on you, Miss Henrietta. There is nothing quite like caped grim reaper bondage when engaged in a magical ceremony seeking knowledge beyond the bounds of good and evil.)”

“(You tricked me!! Everyone else here is wearing those blazer uniforms like all the other students!! I clearly don’t fit into this studious atmosphere!!!!!!)”

Henrietta finally started blushing and covering up with her hands while tears wet her eyes. The cape was tattered and did next to nothing to cover her up. In fact, trying to pull the holey fabric around herself resulted in something like the “bubble censor” used to make Media Summoner swimsuit photos look naked.

“(Like I said, you can handle the viewing for me.)”

“(You meant ''they'' would be viewing ''me''!?)”

Unfortunately for her, she had changed outside the library, so her armor was back in an unused classroom’s locker.

The grim reaper-style leather bondage was something Ayato had borrowed from the Drama Club’s costume room. So unlike Umihiko’s Linkage Plug, the distinctive large scythe she held was quite flimsy. Unlike a dress, the shiny leather costume’s size could be adjusted with the belt holes, so her large measurements had not prevented her from wearing it.

But only just barely.

It was digging tightly into her flesh here and there.

She gave off an extra-strong eroticism that shattered the solemn atmosphere created by the diligent students working in the library at night. It was like placing a bottle of highly artificial air freshener in the middle of an untouched snowy field. She had shrunk down so much he almost felt bad.

“(Wh-wh-wh-why would you do this!?)”

“(Because Miss Teleria would actually cry and Miss Mamilis is so pure she would probably go through with it without ever questioning it. A joke like this only really works with someone as tough as you, Miss Henrietta.)”

“(A-a joke!? That’s what you said, isn’t it!? Is that really the only reason you did this, dangerous individual!?)”

“Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”

A blatantly flustered voice reached them from the side. They looked over to see a blonde braid girl (presumably from the Library Committee that managed the entire Sorcery Library) rushing over to Henrietta with her face blushing bright and her eyes spinning.

In fact, this was the glasses girl who was a big Ayato fan.

“Um, wait. What is going on here? Are you filming something!?”

“What are you suggesting we are filming!?” protested Henrietta.

“Fweeet!! I-I can’t permit you to use our school to make your, uh, product seem even more immoral. Please come with me before the librarian shows up. I ''really will'' get mad too if you don’t!!”

The straitlaced Striker was completely taken aback when the girl blew a warning whistle at her.

It was unusual for abnormally strong Henrietta to be dragged away by the arm like that. She was the type to always obey the rules, so it may have come as a shock that she had broken them without realizing it. She was powerless now and it had nothing to do with her lack of armor.

Meanwhile, Ayato had completely vanished.

Technically, he had climbed over the checkout counter, faced the door in the back, and used his Linkage Plug sword to unlock it.

Doing that had required keeping the librarian, Library Committee member, and all the students using the library focused on something other than the checkout counter. The counter was right next to the library’s entrance, so there was almost always someone looking there. And not even the most skilled Sorcery Hacker could fool people’s eyes.

He only needed to buy himself about 10 multi-times<ref>Approximately 12 minutes 30 seconds.</ref> inside.

(Nothing gathers people’s attention faster than sex.)

Ayato smiled bitterly as he silently opened the door and slipped inside. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the musty smells of bare parchment and glue holding paper together. This place was so different from the lines of invisible mist mana or gemboards that could be used to create so many different sorcery phenomena.

He was inside the closed stack archive.

You normally had to ask a Library Committee member or the librarian for a document and have them retrieve it for you. This was an off-limits area that required a special library ID separate from the usual authorization needed in the already eccentric Academy Towers.

It was a small room compared to the entire library. Bookcases covered the walls of a space no larger than a classroom and a single thick wooden table sat in the center. Instead of a reading table, that was a work table for repairing damaged covers and loose pages. A few toolboxes and sewing machines could be seen below the table.

(Now, then.)

He wanted plans and specifications for the Student Council Office door and its lock. He could use as much as he could get, but he didn’t have high hopes. He was expecting to find bogus documents that only looked right at first glance.

However…

(Even false information can function as bait. The Council will note anyone investigating their room’s lock and add them to their enemy list. You don’t get their kind of power without being cautious.)

“Here we go.”

Ayato grinned when he saw a bookcase stuffed full of old, thick tomes. The books looked ordinary enough, but they had bookmark sensors in the gaps between their thick covers. Those would detect vibrations, tilting, and light, so if someone removed a book from that bookcase, set it on the able, and opened the cover, their face would be photographed and transmitted to the Student Council Office. The poor rebel would have no idea they had been duped by the decoy data and end up the only one with devastating information taken.

Sneaking into the closed stack archive without permission was a yellow card.

Grabbing a book containing information on the Student Council Office’s lock was a red card.

And what if they tried to hide that information instead of confessing to the Council?

That would be like a violent athlete refusing to obey the ref kicking them out of the game. The Council would never accept such a flagrant violation as a mere coincidence.

Instead of touching those, Ayato stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the spine of a book and hacked it for himself.

That book had an unofficial line back to the Student Council Office.

However, there were several thick barriers in the way and he couldn’t peer through a sorcery lens to view the inside of that secret room. Nor did he think he could break through those barriers.

He only needed to know ''which barriers were being used.

“The Water of Sulfur and the Wind of Mercury. No, that combination is bait. The real one is the Earth of Salt hidden in the duplicated portion.”

If you knew where to look, data could be acquired almost anywhere. Ayato pulled his Linkage Plug sword back out. He didn’t want to leave any sign of his presence and have his enemy alter their defenses.

The great size and complexity could obscure it, but sorcery security using the four elements was a lot like a crossword puzzle. If you could fill in the empty spaces, then anyone could break through. That was why people would randomize the password as much as they could or increase the difficulty of the puzzle by using fingerprints or eye scans that other people could not access. But none of that was an absolute guarantee.

The Water of Sulfur and the Wind of Mercury were incorrect.

The Earth of Salt was correct.

With that much of a hint, he wouldn’t have much trouble solving the puzzle. No matter how complex it was, he just had to go trough the process of filling in the crossword. And two security systems made by the same person would have similarities. This would be enough for him to deal with the Student Council Office door.

This had to be right.

At the very least, his logic had to be sound.

However, Ayato felt one nagging doubt about his logic here.

(He is better than me. He is probably the Static Continent’s greatest Sorcery Hacker. Would he really follow the standard logic like that?)

He heard a heavy thud and looked back to see something on the work table that hadn’t been there before.

A giant revolver shined with a dull silver light.

“…”

He had no more business in the closed stack archive.

He sheathed his Linkage Plug sword and faced the door, leaving the large sorcery gun behind.

He left the closed stack archive and climbed back over the checkout counter. The library’s exit was right next to him now, but a heavy sensation struck his shoulder before he could slip out.

He turned to find Henrietta with her face beet red.

The Striker was trying (in vain) to cover up her body and she had tears in her eyes.

“You were about to just leave me here, weren’t you!? You were going to abandon me while I’m dressed like this!!”

“Ah ha ha. For future reference, how did you manage to convince that Library Committee girl that your sexy outfit wasn’t anything inappropriate? If she used that fact that you are both girls to drag you into another room and performed a very detailed body search, she should have discovered you lack a student ID and are thus a very dangerous individual indeed.”

“~ ~ ~!!!??? I-I’m not stupid! I knew not to tell her the truth. You were using me as bait to search that other room, weren’t you? So I slipped away when the girl had stepped out for a moment. But let me be very clear about one thing: the next time she catches me, I am telling her everything!!”

“What a shame. I was really hoping to leave the library ahead of you, retrieve your armor from that locker, and hide it elsewhere. Then I could have hidden nearby and enjoyed watching a very sexy grim reaper wander around the school at night.”

“Will you not rest until I’m in tears!!!???”