Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===1: New Sapporo Domain===

White snow was falling, but the sky above was blue and the sun was shining bright.

“…”	

Sugiyado Souha pushed up his scarf a bit in the back seat of the off-road motorcycle called Countless Calamities. This slow-melting artificial snow was a type of environmental defensive policy. Its chill felt more like a mist shower than air conditioning when it hit his skin.

He wore a thin short-sleeved dress shirt over a black long-sleeved shirt plus baggy pants. And more to remain inconspicuous than to fight the cold, he wore a scarf around his neck and a soft down jacket.

Dressing heavily and carrying ample equipment was not always a plus for a ninja.

Especially in Sugiyado’s case since he had springs to replace the ligaments in his legs and bolts in his spine.

At 5kg, his back would feel funny. At 10kg, it would explode with pain.

That meant a single jacket could be a serious drain on his life. Carrying a lifeline or a first-aid kit would mean not carrying some other piece of equipment.



“The northernmost Wakkanai Domain has officially announced their intention to reinforce the Karafuto Route as a new Dejima. They hope to expand their role as a friendly economic contact point with the Cyrillic Empire and…”

“The Insightful Databank Thinktank has used their official social media account to indicate a problem with New Sapporo Domain’s power consumption, so Princess Karin, the Domain’s substitute ruler, has announced their intentions to spend more on renewable energy so that…”

“Hakodate Domain, the Hokkaido Area’s main contact point with Honshu, is concerned about a recent increase in petty crime by motorcycle travelers and they are considering increasing the lodging tax to drive down the number of tourists who…”



“Hoozuki.”

“Oh, sorry. If there’s a channel you want to watch, just say so, Sensei.”

Silver ponytail Hoozuki glanced into the back seat through the mirror while holding the off-road motorcycle’s handlebars and also lowering the volume of the 1seg TV app on the phone attached to the holder. Her ninja outfit was composed of a one-piece swimsuit, a number of synthetic belts, and wide-legged pants, so it looked a lot like a riding suit. The back was left wide open, so it was kind of embarrassing having to hold onto her from behind. Even though her entire body was covered by a thin, flesh-colored elastic material much like a figure skater.

“It would take less than an hour to get from one side of the Hokkaido Area to the other if we could only use their underground linear motor train.”

“That doesn’t do us any good when the entire train line was decommissioned in the name of defense. And don’t drive so fast, Hoozuki. We aren’t in that much of a hurry.”

The Hokkaido Area was currently divided into six domains.

The most urban of those was New Sapporo Domain. Unlike New Yokohama Domain where Sugiyado Souha had lived previously, it was surrounded by flat land in all directions and the primary roads were laid out on a grid by thorough urban planning. It had a population of 4.5 million. The central commerce and industry district covered a square of about 15km and farms too large to seem possible in Japan stretched out from there. Seeing it in person made it clear why this was the only place in the country to use airplanes to sow their crops’ seeds.

All of the Four Occupations could be found here: samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

And even if they did get a lot of snow here, it was not the worst part of Japan in that regard, so it was not enough to bury a home. Thus, they were slower to invest in snow melting pipes and food supply shelters when compared to the Sea of Japan side of Honshu.

That was also why they could afford to use that unnatural artificial snow.

While not on the level of barbed wire or trenches, deep snow functioned as an obstacle to the feet of soldiers and the wheels of trucks. By intentionally creating areas of sludge, they could slow an enemy’s advance without pouring much effort into it themselves.

On the news, they often discussed meeting with other countries over a meal or establishing appeasement policies, but the truth was that outside forces were constantly trying to get at this locked-down country’s cutting-edge technology.

Due to the presence of the Karafuto Route and the Nakhodka Route, New Sapporo Domain functioned as a fortress defending Honshu from an invasion by the Empire. It was thought the battle would be fought in the Hokkaido Area since it was one of the archipelago’s vastest areas of land, so a lot of large weapons had been deployed outside the capital, including the armored samurai who were an inseparable fusion of human and machine.

The underground linear motor train mentioned before had been decommissioned because it was thought a network of tunnels connecting different points on the island would defeat the purpose of a defensive line on the surface. The tunnels had been reported filled with concrete.

Conflict with the Empire that ruled the Cyrillic region of the world was in a lull, but there was still a possibility of clashing with Eastern Europe just like they were at odds with Western Europe, North America, and South America. Two massive “metal bridges” extended diagonally up from the center of the giant farm, pointing outwards, in order to protect the Chitose Defense Airport which functioned as an airbase and a civilian airport. Needless to say, those “bridges” were in fact strategic antiaircraft lasers that were thought capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.

Some would find them reassuring, others would lament the fact that they were necessary to sleep at night.

“Hm, hm, hm, hm, hm, hmm.”

The girl with her long silver hair in a ponytail hummed to herself while climbing down from the off-road motorcycle she had parked on the curb. One’s skintight ninja outfit was generally meant to be hidden, but hers looked so much like a riding suit that she blended in without wearing much of anything over it.

The down jacket boy gave her a curious look as he set foot on the ground behind her.

“What has you in such a good mood, Hoozuki?”

“Nothing really. It’s just been too long since we’ve done this. …You could call this a secret date we can’t afford to let anyone find out about, couldn’t you? That’s my idea of a fun time. It’s what the kunoichi life is all about!”

“?”

“Hm, hm, hmm☆”

At any rate, they had made it into Sapporo.

Sugiyado was playing this by ear. He had to solve whatever problems Murakami Shouzou had been facing and save the grandson that old man had been so worried about as he died.

Sugiyado patted his down jacket to confirm the presence of the special ninja tools he had hidden in the sleeves and back of his short-sleeved dress shirt. Those tools were air-pressure kunais that used nitrogen gas and the same concept as the tools that forced open crushed car doors. When the blade was opened up like a U-shaped tuning fork, they could even pry open a tank’s hatch. His equipment had been provided by his students.

“Sensei.”

Ouka and Asagao must have used a domestic flight because they had arrived earlier and were waving to the two new arrivals. Ouka was of course not wearing her cutting-edge ninja outfit in this crowd.

She was smiling over at him with chestnut twintails, a fluffy sweater, and a miniskirt (which she considered to be her killer outfit!!).

“We have prepared some hideouts and a full set of equipment in each. We set up four bases in total, so use whichever one is most convenient at any given time.”

“Four,” groaned Sugiyado, eliciting a laugh from Asagao, the bob cut girl in a white military uniform with baggy sleeves and a short skirt. (She apparently did not care that she was wearing her ninja outfit in public.)

“Don’t worry about which one you choose, Sensei. But if you never use one of the bases, the girl who set it up might just go cry in secret.”

That was not what he wanted to hear.

He recalled that standard practice with kunoichis was to always meet with them one-on-one when receiving a report on their spying duties. Because the possibility of jealousy-fueled conflict between the kunoichis was too high otherwise.

Ouka and Asagao began whispering to each other.

“(This is what I call paradise. A teacher and his student on a secret date in a romantic northern city? How can I not get excited about that? I hope we end up working together like this forever!)”

“(I know, Ouka. And his obligations here are entirely tied to that old man from the prison. Once he’s done with that, we’re free to start on our new harem life. With four of the Shogunate’s strongest kunoichis working at it, we’re bound to trap him in a sea of sex appeal this time.)”

He called out to those two to cut that extremely dangerous conversation short.

“Let’s review.”

He had gone to the effort of dismounting Hoozuki’s motorcycle. They already knew their destination, but it was important to share all basic information first. Think of it like syncing everyone’s clocks before a mission. It could not hurt to repeat yourself.

“Murakami Shouzou was probably a ninja who worked as a weapon craftsman within New Sapporo Domain. And someone wanted to eliminate him badly enough to attack Abashiri, the most secure prison in the country. They even used his own grandson’s shuriken to frame that relative for the crime.”

“We still haven’t managed to work out the identity of the ninjas you defeated, Sensei.” Ouka lightly waved her phone with a troubled look on her face. She must have had some kind of video saved on there. “They probably aren’t officially registered like we are. Calling them non-primary personnel sounds nice and all, but it looks more like local thugs were given government equipment and made to fight. That couldn’t have been meant to last long, so they were effectively made to be disposable.”

“Tch. And I bet the recruited soldiers had their fear stripped from them by showering them with praise about being the chosen few or the ultra elite or something,” spat out the black bob cut girl in a white military uniform.

That said, Abashiri was a max security special prison.

The average thug off the street could not break in without considerable help. Someone else must have led them in the attack. Everyone else had really just been meant as a smokescreen in case of a counterattack. Human lives had been spent like the chaff or flares used to divert missiles.

“What school?” asked Sugiyado.

“The Hole.”

Sugiyado had made the same judgment based on the collapsible shovel held by one of the assassins who attacked the old man.

Ouka gave a blunt response.

“Based on their equipment and muscle tone, they appear to be a school derived from miners. They excel at constructing infiltration routes by digging tunnels, using special ninja tools based off of shovels and pickaxes, and extreme close-quarters combat in closed and dark locations. They are probably also explosives specialists.”

That might sound reasonable enough when hearing it all rattled off at once like that, but “closed spaces” and “explosives” did not go together. Normally, combining the two would also kill the user with the blast, shockwave, and rapid pressure change. Forcibly making it work suggested these people preferred fairly acrobatic strategies.

They must have dug a tunnel to secretly enter the Abashiri special prison. That too was not something you could accomplish simply by handing the necessary tools to some thugs.

So he knew what they had to do next.

“We need to figure out who was leading them,” he said. “They must be near the top of the Shogunate hierarchy. They have to be at least on the level of a High Ninja, so they should be registered as such.”

Ninjas were intelligence agents and spies for the Shogunate, so they were public servants. Any ninja living in this city would have their information on the classified server of the castle at the center of New Sapporo Domain.

But…

“I couldn’t find anything. And I doubt any further searching will do much better. Ta ha ha.”

“…”

Ouka let out some bitter laughter, but she did continue.

Success and failure were simply things that had happened. Hesitating to report something or trying to lie about it to save face would break the thread of trust binding them.

“Instead of the data we want not existing on the classified server, it was more like the server we were accessing wasn’t really the one at the center of New Sapporo Castle.”

Asagao, their computer whiz, began hopping up and down as she provided further information.

“From what I could see through the screen, it did look just like New Sapporo Castle’s official databank, but it probably wasn’t. All the communication lines heading toward the center of the castle were diverted to the side along the way. The server sends and receives 10s of millions of requests every single day, but I doubt a single person is actually accessing the real one.”

In other words…

Silver ponytail Hoozuki stated their conclusion in an exasperated sort of way.

“The castle at the center of New Sapporo Domain has either been entirely isolated or occupied and it may have already been destroyed on the inside. And in a way that leaves no one the wiser in an age when countless cameras are constantly providing content for online videos and social media articles. This is a highly unusual situation.”

“Bara is off using her own methods to pursue the identity of whoever they had leading that attack, but the more sources we have, the better. And I’m also curious who our enemy is and what’s going on inside that castle.”

Sugiyado and the girls would normally have viewed these unknown ninjas as the force working to protect New Sapporo Domain. To reiterate, ninjas were a special sort of public servant. To claim that title, they had to be serving someone in that region. But that was also why they would not have needed to create a special route in if they were planning an armed uprising.

They would only have to turn 180 degrees around and aim their blade or gun toward the person they were meant to protect.

“Now, then.”

They had reviewed the basic information.

They all had an accurate understanding of it all. There were no discrepancies there.

Sugiyado Souha, the modern ninja who hid his silhouette with a down jacket and his lower face with a scarf, came to a stop and let out a gentle breath while looking up at a towering building.

“Let’s go see for ourselves what’s going on inside the actual castle.”