Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===2: Kunoichi Nest ===

“Heh heh. I knew you would go with mine, Sensei. Welcome to Hanasawa Bara’s love nest!!”

The crepe food truck finally arrived at a proper residence. Sapporo was set up like a go board and Bara had secured a location in the especially messy-looking shopping district of Susukino. That had always been the Hokkaido Area’s leading location for bars and the sex industry, but it had become even more nightless after a major IR move – specifically, establishing a connection with a publicly-run casino. But that was hardly surprising when it was essentially receiving the domain’s seal of approval.

“Eh heh heh, heh heh heh heh heh heh. I missed out on the secret date, but I’m the one who gets to take him home and share his bed!!”

The place had a living room, a VR-equipped home theater system, a simple training room, two indoor baths, and an open-air bath on the balcony that drew water in from a natural hot spring. It also had three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bar counter.

Ouka awkwardly looked around a room large enough to play tennis in.

“What is this place? A hotel? A luxury apartment???”

“It’s an extended stay residential hotel. Maybe those differences are too much for the commonfolk to understand. Just think of it as a villa with a rental contract.”

It was best not to ask how exactly she had managed to get a room like this while keeping her identity secret. Sugiyado only hoped it was something as simple as solving a problem (of her creation) to earn the gratitude of the place’s manager.

Silver ponytail Hoozuki put a hand on her hip and breathed a gentle sigh.

“I guess we can give Bara the bed tonight since we did have her stay behind during our secret date.”

“Sensei, how about a bath? You aren’t in prison anymore, so you can stretch your legs and relax. It isn’t often you can enjoy a natural hot spring as nice as this in a big city.”

He looked over to confirm there were actually two dressing rooms – one for the men’s bath and one for the women’s bath.

“I’ll take you up on that offer.” He sighed. “We can discuss our next move after that.”

“Got it, Sensei.”

A change of clothes was already waiting for him in the dressing room. A full set of his usual clothes plus a bathrobe were neatly folded.

He stripped off his clothes, grabbed a towel, and opened the door to the bath. He found himself on the balcony, so this was apparently an open-air bath. There was not much of a view since it was surrounded by a fence made from bamboo tied together with rope, but it still felt weird to hear the hustle and bustle of the shopping district down below.

He heard some noise from beyond the partition dividing the men’s and women’s baths.

Hoozuki’s voice called over to him.

“I have to know, Sensei. What are you going to do now?”

He washed his sweat away before soaking up to the shoulders in the somewhat whitish bathwater.

He doubted this would do anything for the bolts in his spine or the springs replacing the ligaments in his legs, but he could still feel his body relaxing.

Then he answered Hoozuki’s question.

“To put it simply, I’m going to fulfill my promise to that old man.”

''Take care of that kid.

That was all he had promised to Murakami Shouzou, the old man who had saved his life. Michihiko, the man’s grandson, might not want this, but there would be no threat to his life as long as he was in the care of Ekaterina and the others from the Empire. The young man would be free to choose a new life somewhere on Honshu after being given a falsified identity or to leave the country entirely and make a name for himself on the continent.

In that sense, Sugiyado could consider his objective complete at this point.

However…

“Ouka, can you tell me how the Shogunate as a whole will respond to this incident in New Sapporo Domain?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

Ouka’s voice sounded very well-mannered even through the bamboo partition, so she clearly still saw herself as his student.

She also sounded somewhat excited.

“They will probably choose to wait and see how this plays out. It would be concerning if Domain Lord Hatsunaga really has been poisoned by his daughter Princess Karin so she can take his authority for herself, but there is no hard evidence of that at this point. It also is not clear what exactly Princess Karin has done to solve the Hokkaido Area’s power woes. Edo probably considers it too soon to send in a special inspector and freeze New Sapporo Domain’s authority.”

“…”

“And I must remind you that once a ninja, always a ninja. Even if Murakami Michihiko can be perfectly hidden with a new identity created by the Empire, I expect he will be back in New Sapporo Domain sooner or later if the problem here is not resolved. I do not know what connection you have with the Empire, but are they really prepared to continue protecting him indefinitely? Looking after someone long-term costs far more than just saving them the one time.”

A sigh could be heard in the steamy air.

But not from Ouka. It came from Sugiyado as he listened to her.

“Which means I can’t just leave. Not until it wouldn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

That opinion had already been lurking in a corner of his mind.

The Shogunate did not seem aware how serious this was, but Princess Karin now had authority over New Sapporo Domain and might have solved the energy problem, strengthening their previously unstable defensive line. What if the tension about her position went slack? Whether it led her to burn out or act rashly, it would still shake her. What if she got it in her head that she could attack and win instead of just defending? The coming conflict might not remain in the north. There was a chance this could lead to the Cyrillic Empire pushing in toward the entire archipelago. Of course, it could also lead to the Shogunate needlessly invading Karafuto or Vladivostok after the blood rushed to their head.

And.

More than any of that.

Even without Murakami Michihiko’s involvement, if Sugiyado were to back out now, the ones ordered to investigate and resolve the problems in New Sapporo Domain would be Ouka, Bara, Hoozuki, and Asagao. If he called it quits and that led to his students losing their lives, the regret and self-loathing would probably lead him to commit seppuku.

He could not back down now.

He had to prepare himself to deal with this.

“Fine. I guess I’ll see this through to the end.”

“Heh heh heh.”

That ticklish laughter seemed to come from Asagao.

“?”

“I knew you would say that, Sensei. Wah ha ha ha ha ha!!”

Things were taking a disconcerting turn.

Most notably, something suddenly parted down the middle like the curtains over a window or the doors to a giant airport storehouse.

What did?

What else but the bamboo partition separating the men’s and women’s baths?

(Are you kidding me!?)

“What are you doing!?”

He immediately backed away in the whitish water, but there was nothing he could do at this point.

“My, my,” said Bara who had set up this stage herself. “This is a ninja hideout, Sensei. And what kind of ninja mansion doesn’t have trap doors and secret contraptions?”

(Stop trying to pass this off as normal!)

However, a true ninja would not lose his cool at a time like this.

The time had come for Sugiyado Souha to maintain a blank expression no matter what.

“You were the one that taught us that a ninja should throw out all assumptions while in enemy territory, so why would you assume that curtains saying ‘men’s bath’ and ‘women’s bath’ meant the actual bath was divided in two?”

Ouka sounded like she was bragging, but she was also ducking down so far into the bath that it covered not just her shoulders but her chin as well. The red of her nose suggested this had turned out to be a lot more embarrassing than in her imagination.

Simply put, this had originally been just the one bath, but they had forcibly split it in two to catch him off guard. All so they could wait until he had moved far enough into the bath for them to surround him.

Four girls in only towels splashed toward him. They were not even wearing the flesh-colored skintight suits of their ninja outfits.

Asagao happily got to the point at hand.

“All we did was confirm that you never do change, Sensei. Heh heh heh. Yes, I knew you would never abandon the people here. And now it’s time to reward you for that!!”

He was only more confused now, but the other girls seemed to understand. Ouka and Bara refused to look him in the eye, but in a bashful way.

At any rate.

If they were going to do this, they could not hold back. They were a former Hidden One and four Elite Ninja kunoichis, but the Stonewalls led by Princess Karin had at least taken control of this entire domain. They could mobilize an army to eliminate just five people, so they could not let their guard down.

They had no time to spare.

A former Hidden One would not be flustered just from his students surrounding him in nothing but towels. He asked a question while keeping as cool an expression as possible.

“Asagao, I want your opinion since you’re the expert.”

“Why aren’t you blushing!? L-look, I just removed my towel below the water. There’s nothing covering me up anymore!!”

“What is the power situation in New Sapporo Domain…no, across the entire Hokkaido Area?”

“Do I need to dive underwater?”

Asagao was soaking up to her shoulders and she made a fearsome threat to the area between his legs before finally giving in and answering him.

“Boo. Looking back at the records for the past 5 years, they’ve had a lot of spontaneous power outages. They all have reasonable explanations like an accident at a transformer substation, a lightning strike, or whatever, but I think there’s a different reason. Especially since the outages are especially frequent during midsummer and midwinter. Based on the number of ordinary households with air conditioning, they seem to be short around 7 million kilowatts.”

Her mental estimation made sexy Bara frown and cross her arms. Some of the whitish water gathered in the cleavage of her large chest.

“That number doesn’t mean much to me.”

“They’re short about what three pressurized water reactor power plants would provide. To be clear, that’s the number of power plants, not the number of reactors.”

The words rattled off by the youngest girl caused Ouka, who was well on her way to mastering the ninja art of water escape, exchanged a look with Cool Beauty Hoozuki.

That meant more than 10 nuclear reactors.

If Princess Karin had appropriated all of that power for herself, what in the world was she using it for? And since handling that much power incorrectly could lead to a major explosion, couldn’t it be weaponized?

That was a level of “debt” that could not be made up just by covering a large field with solar panels or windmills.

“Commercial nuclear reactors require large quantities of coolant water at all times,” continued Asagao, “Assuming they aren’t being used in outer space, the normal method is to desalinate seawater and use that, so nuclear power plants aren’t well suited for large spaces of land like the Hokkaido Area. And sure enough, the area uses a lot of less-efficient thermal power generation. They’re trying to improve that with MHD generators, but it isn’t anywhere near enough. I can see why they’re short on power.”

Whatever the case, they would figure it out in due time.

While soaking in the whitish water, Sugiyado Souha decided they had to start by investigating how Princess Karin was making up for the insufficient power and what danger that method posed. After all, this was the equivalent of three nuclear power plants all at once. It was best not to speculate, but even if whatever-it-was had been built for peaceful purposes, he was pretty sure someone would be able to abuse it.

“…”

He would figure this out.

Before Princess Karin relaxed and carelessly made a devastating choice.