Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume8 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

The blazing sun shined on the Missing Princess, a nearly 450m cruise ship with floats attached to long arms on either side. When viewed from above, the arms would look like three long and narrow sticks lined up in parallel. The extra buoyancy would increase the water resistance and reduce fuel efficiency and it required a unique design for the gangway to disembark, but they stabilized the ship’s balance. Even if a submerged torpedo or an anti-ship missile skimming just above the surface blew a giant hole in the hull, the floats would prevent the ship from sinking.

The ship had five levels for a total height of more than 30 meters.

The higher the center of gravity, the worse the ship’s balance and the greater the risk of capsizing or sinking. That would be why they had floats on either side to increase stability, but that would normally not be an option since a ship’s diesel engine cost more than 7 million yen a day to run. At this size, it probably could not use the Panama Canal, so it would have to take a large detour when circumnavigating the globe. But there was a trick to that. First of all, this was not a normal ship.

“That thing has a nuclear engine. And while I’m sure they need all the power they can get to support a cutting-edge VFX studio that will spend 30 billion yen on a single film, they’re pretty brazenly breaking the Three Non-Nuclear Principles here.”

It was frightening, but history had proven that – West or East – nuclear weapon states did not view nuclear power as a threat. Even though that was not something that should be left up to an individual country’s sensibilities.

The foreign Toy Dream Company had bought the entire regional administration for the international revived city, so the normal laws did not apply. At times like this, they almost seemed to be gloating.

…The Missing Princess itself was famous, so simple diagrams could be found in plenty of pamphlets and guidebooks. Lu Niang Lan had dug a bit deeper and found the CAD data used to design it, but that only got them so far. The “authorized personnel only” zones were blanked out, so they would have to investigate those for themselves.

Everyone knew of it, but no one knew anything about the deeper areas. The Missing Princess’s mystique was similar to that of important facilities like the White House.

Kyousuke performed a final check of their equipment and spoke to his little partner.

“C’mon, Olivia. Let’s get started.”

“Okay.”

After crouching down on the wharf and giving a glass pellet to a small sea anemone while pushing on the bottom of Kyousuke’s Repliglass Blood-Sign, the double blonde braid girl turned around. The Blood-Sign had apparently won the fight over the “bait”. Olivia immediately jumped toward Kyousuke and he retrieved the long stick from her. Phosphorous quickly coiled around and took the shape of a waitress’s tray.

Olivia was not dressed in her usual school swimsuit dress. She was wearing a skintight diving suit that showed off every curve of her juvenile bodylines.

“I’m a ninja, I’m a ninja. You’ve gotta be dressed like this for a stealth operation.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Okay, let’s destroy that weird video base and protect everyone in Kingdom F.”

Kyousuke was similarly dressed in all black and he sat on a vehicle that resembled a bike floating in the ocean. However, the entire thing was covered by a protective cover with a streamlined design that resembled a fighter jet’s canopy. Once Olivia had climbed in to sit in front of him, which meant in his arms, he pulled down the clear cover.

“This is a smuggling model that was designed for stealth, so it doesn’t have an air conditioner. Take frequent drinks from the water bottle I gave you to keep yourself hydrated.”

“I have cooling sheets on my armpits and inner thighs, so I’ll be fine. Uuh, in fact, I might be too cold…”

This might seem silly, but they would be exposed to the August sun in what amounted to a plastic greenhouse with no ventilation or cooling. And if they passed out in there, no one would come to rescue them.

Kyousuke felt bad keeping Olivia involved since the Queen execution incident, but he appreciated her skill at controlling Materials. In a different way than with Biondetta, he could work well with a partner who was familiar with how it all worked.

But the more someone carried with them, the greater the odds of losing them during the intense fighting.

He knew he had to cut his ties with her eventually.

“Hm? What is it, Onii-chan?”

“Nothing.”

Kyousuke and Olivia made their way out into the ocean in the kind of small submersible that was primarily used by Illegal to hand off valuable but illicit goods in the dark depths of the ocean. Even at the depth of a meter, being under the water meant a lot. The sun sparkling on the surface completely negated any security that relied on eyesight. It felt like the temperature had rapidly dropped, just like entering the shade of a tree.

And after traveling about 2 kilometers…

“Huh? Onii-chan, you’re turning off the engine?”

“Shh. When we pass by the escort ships, the flow of the tides is our friend.”

This kind of small submersible was used by the best of Illegal. Talk of stealth tended to focus on the EM used by radar, but diverting and absorbing the soundwaves of active sonar could also prevent detection.

But the same could not be said for passive sonar that simply gathered noises from the ocean. Avoiding any and all noise when sneaking in was the most basic of ideas that even a kindergartner would understand.

Luckily, the Missing Princess itself was a giant mass of noise thanks to its large form and the floats on the sides. Plus, the Cruise Fest was underway. The party event had loud music playing on the deck, a host was speaking into a microphone, and fireworks were going off. Once Kyousuke and Olivia made their way far enough inside the Missing Princess’s defenses, they had already won. The escort ships would have sampled the acoustic signature made by the Missing Princess’s propellers, but the other noises were too loud for that to be any use. They could restart the submersible’s engine and have it drowned out by the other noises.

They were also aided by the Missing Princess’s structure.

If they surfaced in the gap between the hull and one of the floats on the side, they could leave the submersible there without worrying about the escort ships spotting it.

The clear protective cover popped up and the August air actually felt cool. The hastily-prepared smuggling submersible was like a sauna inside. Kyousuke tied the submersible to the side of the float using a synthetic rope. Olivia asked a question while having trouble as the submersible rocked unsteadily.

“How do we get up on top? I’ve heard Japanese ninjas like toads. Do we attach suckers to our hands and feet and climb up the side???”

“I think you have the wrong idea about ninjas, westerner. Let’s do something simpler: humans can do just about anything with a rope.”

“Oh, I know about that! Japanese bondage is an art, isn’t it!?”

“…We’re busy now, but we need to have a talk later, Olivia.”

After tossing the rope straight up and tangling it around the ship’s railing, he climbed up while carrying the small girl on his back. It looked simple enough, but climbing a vertical rope was a dangerous technique that could kill even a professional soldier. There were plenty of simple but deadly mistakes that were not featured in movies. And you should not even think about climbing a curved slope that was steeper than vertical with no powered assistance unless you had participated in a special training program for mountain soldiers or an assault team.

On his back, Olivia placed her slender chin on his right shoulder, rubbed her cheek against his, and made an innocent comment.

“You’re like a spider… Is there not a Repliglass that can do this?”

“I’m sure there is, but we can’t carry around a bunch of tools that ''can only do one thing''.”

While carrying all their equipment and an entire person (albeit a child), Kyousuke took only 15 seconds to climb more than 10 meters. He had combat-level climbing skills rather than sports-level. His speed was impressive, but it was also necessary. With the burden it placed on your arms and legs, you only wanted to climb for a short period of time. Even on a wall, you would search out small footholds and indentations where you could rest in between climbs. Even if the wall was large and vast, it could be heard to search out a route that moved from one rest point to another. Meanwhile, the smooth ship’s hull had no footholds and sloped outward toward them. There was no hope of taking a rest there. If he could not finish the climb and cross the railing in less than a minute, he would have had to abandon the idea.

They climbed up onto the side deck on the far starboard side.

A straight passageway continued on and on like a school hallway. Kyousuke untangled the rope from the railing and retrieved it and then he lowered the waterproof zipper on his black diving suit.

He removed that to reveal his usual hoodie and track pants.

He was not all that sweaty for spending time in the plastic greenhouse of the submersible. That would be thanks to the cooling sheets placed on his major blood vessels at his armpit, neck, and elsewhere, but not sweating when you should was actually a sign of danger. He could not trust this too much.

He peeled off the cooling sheets from below his clothes.

“Olivia, put the diving suit in this bag. The cooling sheets too.”

“Okay.”

Olivia also began unzipping her skintight diving suit to reveal the short dress made from a school swimsuit and a floral pareo, but…

“Watata…hm? It’s caught on something?”

“It’s your swimsuit’s shoulder strap.”

The double blonde braid girl just about opened her swimsuit up from the neck in a tunnel shape that revealed everything below, so Kyousuke quickly stopped her.

Olivia did not seem to understand the danger, so she peeled the cooling sheets off of her soft inner thighs while he supported her.

“Onii-chan, where are we headed first?”

“Just remember the plan.”

That was all Kyousuke said as he reached for the round knob of one of the waterproof doors lining the wall like in a school hallway. He opened the steel door which had the gaps filled with a rubber seal and the two of them slipped inside.

It was a striking change of scenery.

They were reminded that the ship doubled as a VFX studio and a broadcast station.

It looked like a shiny Wall Street office seen in a foreign drama. There was a short gray carpet and white plastic walls. The rectangular panels lining the ceiling may have been LED lights.

Wearing little more than a swimsuit, Olivia pressed her legs together and held herself in her arms.

“Ohh, this can’t be good for my health… O-Onii-chan, it’s like a fridge in here…!”

“We need to eat a stamina-building meal today. Eat somen here and the summer heat would get to you.”

The overly-air-conditioned corridor was lined with numbered doors that had IC card readers for electronic locks. They looked like they led to corporate conference rooms, but this was where a normal cruise ship would have passenger cabins.

However, this was also a mass media facility.

“This door says Sean Bourdon and this one says Marilyn Javer! Th-those are movie stars…”

“These must be dressing rooms. They were originally just meant as a place to rest, but they’ve been expanded into something like a luxury hotel room.”

Kyousuke gave that blunt answer while they climbed the stairs. The ship was floating in the ocean, but the dressing rooms alone filled three floors up from the deck. There was enough space for more than 1300 actors. There was also an exit to a heliport on the roof for the popular actors that could not stay for long.

“Wow, wow…”

“Don’t forget that stopping the ridiculous war comes first. Besides, Olivia, you’re a princess, so you don’t need to feel nervous.”

“Hm? Hmm? I don’t follow, Onii-chan. Ah, someone’s coming!”

They passed by a large man in a navy blue guard uniform, but there was nothing suspicious about them now that they were onboard. That was why they had changed out of their diving suits which looked like full-body tights. Olivia cautiously hid behind Kyousuke’s back, but kids must have found the man intimidating all the time because he actually smiled gently and waved at her.

(Is he a normal Toy Dream employee? One problem here is that we can’t tell the normal people apart from the Illegal soldiers. I’ll have to make some guesses from how they carry themselves and any eye signals they make.)

They climbed another stairway to reach the third floor. The area had been full of blanks in the map they bought from Lu Niang Lan, but the number of columns, layout of lights, vents for the air conditioning and ducts, location of drains and faucets, communication cables, etc. all provided hints. They only had to work out the structure of the ship like restoring a corpse’s living appearance by adding clay to the skull.

“I guess this works,” said Kyousuke

“Works for what?”

They stopped in front of one dark gray door among many.

Of course, they would not have needed the submersible if they had made a reservation, but Kyousuke pulled a multi-tool from his hoodie’s pocket and easily opened the door’s electronic lock.

“Hm? How did you do that with normal tools, Onii-chan?”

“Just hurry inside.”

Kyousuke opened the door, urged Olivia in, and then slipped inside the cabin himself.

As soon as the small double blonde braid girl saw the large queen-sized bed, she dived onto it.

“Ohh. It’s bouncy. I’m bouncing. This bed is even better than the one in your room! Too bad Granny Aoi missed out on this.”

“You can’t really compare my cruiser with a luxury cruise ship. …But anyway.”

“Huh? ''Why are the bathroom’s walls made of glass?''”

…Similarly, the entire cabin made no attempt to hide its purpose: the large bed had two pillows, the bathroom was fully visible from outside, the wallpaper and carpet were pink, the lighting was indirect, and there were an awful lot of tissue boxes available.

This was commonly known as a leisure room.

Kyousuke did not want to think too much about how it was used.

“Lu-san said some large equipment had been brought in for the video production, so I was guessing they would have reduced the number of people onboard to avoid being overburdened. But it seems this is why there are so many empty rooms…”

Yes, the diagram they had was incomplete!

“Ehh? But this room looks kind of fun. Ah ha ha! Look, look, all the walls around the bath are mirrors! And there are so many shampoo bottles!!”

“Olivia, I seriously doubt those are shampoo or conditioner, so don’t pump any of it into your hand.”

“Nweh? What are these rubber egg things? They’re soft…but I don’t think you could scrub your body with them. Wait…there’s a hole on the bottom?”

“Olivia, put that down.”

Exasperated, Kyousuke used the previous multi-tool to stick a knife blade into the wallpaper seam. He slid the knife straight down that line and removed a portion of the wall like it was a large panel.

He selected the necessary cable from the bundle running vertically through the wall and connected it to the mobile device in his bag.

“Good, good. I’ve got the signal. …As I expected, it’s coming from below.”

After turning all the knobs and pressing all the panel buttons in the unnecessarily glass-covered bathroom, Olivia grabbed several of the mystery eggs and juggled them as she stuck her head out.

“Hey, Onii-chan, isn’t that the main cable connecting the online broadcast equipment to the broadcast tower on the roof? If you cut that, won’t it stop them from ''releasing the videos needed to start the war''?”

“I could, but they would just find another way to release them. I want to get into the studio where they’re producing the 2nd and 3rd episodes and destroy the System Atlantis computer being used to make the Blue Film videos. So Olivia.”

“Yes, yes. I have to change again, right?”

Olivia left the bathroom, dived onto the large bed, bounced, and rolled over toward him. There were a few large waterproof bags inside the main bag and Kyousuke pulled out one that contained clothing.

Once a summoner or vessel earned enough Awards, normal people would forget about them the instant they were out of sight.

But when moving through a limited space like this, there was always a risk of running across the same person and having their memories return. There would also be Illegal summoners and vessels here. When a purse-snatcher or mugger was fleeing through the streets, they would often turn a reversible jacket inside-out just after turning a corner to give themselves a different look and lose the police.

“Wait a second, Olivia. Why are you starting to change right here?”

“But, Onii-chan, it doesn’t matter where I do it in this room. The bathroom is surrounded by glass.”

“…”

“A-and if it’s you, I don’t mind if you watch…wahp!? Wait, what was that for, Onii-chan!?”

Olivia had a thin bedsheet thrown over her head like a Halloween ghost and Kyousuke quickly changed while she was struggling with it.

(The jumpsuit? No, not yet. The tuxedo would probably be best.)

He never wore anything like this in everyday life, but a tuxedo was a more informal version of dress clothing. It was only a replacement for a proper tailcoat. A bowtie tuxedo was actually even simpler than a school uniform’s blazer. By the time Olivia finally managed to get her head out from below Bedsheet Mountain, Kyousuke was already calmly putting on the black jacket.

“Ah! …I missed the best part. Onii-chan, are you a magical girl…?”

“If you have time for that nonsense, get to work. Here, keep that sheet around you like a ''teru teru bouzu'' and you can change without anyone seeing. Just like before swimming class.”

“Uuh. Why do I have to look so dumb while I change?”

Olivia puffed out her cheeks while looking like she was about to get her hair cut and she began rustling around below the sheet. The decorative collar and floral pareo fell to her feet one after another. The sheet was thin enough that her silhouette showed through in a rather risqué fashion.

Then the slender girl lifted up one foot to remove the swimsuit.

“(…Oh? I just had the best idea. If I pretend to trip and roll on out, I bet it would surprise Onii-chan. And I cling to him…)”

“Olivia.”

Sensing an ominous atmosphere, Kyousuke gave a warning, so Olivia pouted her small lips and let the dark blue swimsuit fall to her feet.

The double blonde braid girl pulled a light champagne-colored dress inside the sheet and rustled around inside some more.

“There, and…oh, really? I can’t get the zipper on the back…”

“Olivia, your body isn’t quite soft enough to be having trouble there.”

“This is none of your business.”

“Honestly, what do you normally do with a bra?”

“I said it’s none of your business!! Onii-chan, can you zip this up? The one on the back.”

She pulled the sheet up. She had already put on the light champagne-colored dress, but the back was not zipped up and it had nothing to support it. She used both hands to hold it to her flat chest and turned her white back toward him. The shape of her backbone and her shoulder blades were visible and her milky-white skin was tinged with pink.

“Uuh, hurry.”

“Is that any way to ask for a favor? I guess you really are a princess deep down.”

The zipper was as delicate as the silver chain of a necklace and Olivia’s back shuddered as she endured the ticklish sensation of it zipping up. She even squeezed her eyes shut and let out an odd voice.

“Nn…kh.”

“Olivia?”

“It’s nothing. (Your fingertip stroked up my spine, Onii-chan.) Cough, cough. Anyway, just get it over with.”

He finished zipping it up.

After making sure it was fastened, blushing Olivia fully removed the sheet. The skirt spread out below her knees using a pannier that worked much like an umbrella frame and she hopped up and down, perhaps to check on the fit of the chest which was decorated with fancy buttons.

“Good, good. I can jump around without it slipping or falling off. I’m ready to go!”

“Olivia, you changed from a swimsuit into a dress, but I didn’t see you grab any underwear. Make sure to put some panties on along with the gloves and stockings.”

“Tch. There goes my ‘trip over nothing’ plan…”

She reluctantly pulled some underwear out of the bag and put it on.

“It’s a shame we have to leave this room so soon. Oh, what’s this? It says ‘take one’. I should bring a souvenir back for Granny Aoi.”

She was like an old lady taking back the complimentary toothbrush or soap.

Kyousuke repacked the bare minimum of equipment in a small briefcase and left the large bag in the room. Having changed into dress clothes, Kyousuke and Olivia boldly reentered the ship corridor.

Because she was used to seeing them as a royal, Olivia did not even glance over at the maid pushing a cart full of cleaning supplies.

“Onii-chan, where are we going and how are we going to get there?”

“The signal itself was coming from below. The System Atlantis mainframe is probably in a windowless space at the very bottom of the ship below the waterline, but I just know we would run into a security gate if we took a direct route there. I don’t want to cause any trouble just yet, so let’s take a detour.”

“What kind of detour?”

“Let’s head up for now. The commercial area is full of restaurants and a mall, but they also make late night food for the staff. If we use the small elevator shaft for the food carts, we can reach the bottommost level without passing through the security gates.”

The commercial area was above the three stories of actor dressing rooms. After climbing more stairs, they found something like a fashionable shopping mall. Both sides of the long corridor were lined with jewelry stores, boutiques, and luxury restaurants, the area overhead was opened up into an atrium, and more small stores could be seen on the higher level. The signs suggested there was also a casino and gym. A clown in heavy makeup and a bunny girl were performing card tricks in the middle of the corridor to gather passersby’s attention.

“Oh, it’s Gozaru!”

Olivia gave an excited cry when she saw people dressed up as the Gozaru Samurai and a sheep surfer who was apparently popular in the southern hemisphere. This was a Toy Dream ship after all.

Including the dressing rooms, the entire structure was 5 stories above the deck. A normal designer would want to scream at the poor balance of the ship, but that was why it needed the floats attached to arms on either side.

Glittering light shined down from above the atrium.

It did not come from fluorescent or LED lights. It was sunlight after passing through a thick layer of water. Basically, there was a 200m pool on the roof and the bottom was made of reinforced glass.

Olivia gaped up at the strange visual of seeing young men and women swimming overhead in swimsuits.

“Wow… So this is the life of a Toy Dream star on the forefront of the global film industry. When you have that much money, you end up looking kind of silly.”

“Make sure you grow up to be a wonderful administrator with thrifty hobbies, Olivia. Kingdom F will thank you. …Hold on. Is that who I think it is?”

“What is it, Onii-chan?”

“No, it’s fine. Even if it is them, it shouldn’t cause any harm…I don’t think. But are they here for a job or for fun? Regardless, why have those useless twins changed into swimsuits?”

“Hm? Because it’s summer?”

They probably had no idea what they looked like here. Shiroyama Kyousuke stared grimly up at the black- and blonde-haired girls doing the breaststroke. They wore what was known as a halter-neck bikini which had the cloth wrap around the neck instead of using straps and they wore a pareo around the waist. The swimsuits were white and the pareos red, but was that to give them shrine maiden colors? Because the swimsuits were not very revealing, waitresses at a seaside restaurant might wear the same thing. That made it easy to forget these were swimsuits, so he felt like he was peeking up miniskirts of normal outfits.

Then Olivia lightly kicked his right shin.

“C’mon, Onii-chan. We have a job to do.”

“That’s…right. We were having a serious discussion here. So what came over me?”

However, this was not the time to get into an argument over the nature of the world.

“Let’s get down to business.”

“We’re using the food cart elevator shaft to reach the bottom level, right?”

“If every restaurant kitchen had a direct path, the ship would be full of holes, so it looks like they gather all the carts in one place and share the same elevator.”

“That’s for late night food, right? So it shouldn’t be in use while the sun is in the sky.”

“Normal room service runs all day long, so we need to make sure we aren’t crushed while moving through the shaft.”

“Oh, but this is such a wasted opportunity. I’m finally alone with you, so if only we could take our time window shopping.”

“Olivia, stay by my side.”

And just as they were saying that, Kyousuke sensed movement and breathing. A large group holding cellphones and mirrorless single lens cameras pushed in from an escalator to their side.

They were led by a tour guide who wore a tight skirt and waved a little flag. She used a megaphone that looked like a cross between a trumpet and a handgun to herd them around.

“Okay, we will now be taking a break while having a buffet-style get-together. You can join the party at any time, but you only have 10 minutes if you want to catch the greeting from Toy Dream President Michelange Toydream, so…”

They were quickly swallowed up by the crowd. Fighting against the current to reach the industrial elevator would only make them stand out.

They just barely failed to make it.

If Kyousuke had not needed to grab Olivia who was wandering around daydreaming, he could have escaped to the wall without being caught.

“Ah…ah ha ha. I guess we’ll just have to go with them. …Are you mad, Onii-chan?”

“…”

Kyousuke shut his eyes and breathed a heavy sigh before silently raising his index fingers on either side of his head. He was apparently upset enough to have horns growing from his head.

The tour group took the two of them to the very back of the ship.

There was a large space there. It had to be around 30m square. It was also made into an atrium to give it two floors’ worth of height. The walls and ceiling were unnaturally white. It looked extremely sterile, but not because it was a party hall. This was the cutting-edge of Toy Dream’s film VFX. Since the entire space was filled with a single color, it had to be the studio used to film the actors before everything else was added in.

The party hall was crammed full of people and Kyousuke frowned at the sensation below his feet.

It creaked.

(I see…)

“Ah, it’s an all-you-can-eat!!”

Olivia cried out excitedly and it was cute how she seemed to think it was called “all you can eat” instead of a buffet. A variety of foods was lined up along the wall and everyone was free to take what they wanted. Since Olivia wore the dress perfectly even at her age, Kyousuke had thought she would be used to fancy parties like this, but it may have been a rare experience when you were a kingdom’s princess. She would not be allowed to casually choose whatever food she wanted and pile it onto a plate herself without having a poison tester or anything like that.

Food was piled up in front of her like something from the Manchu Han Imperial Feast. That may have attracted a childish part of her because she forgot all about why they were here. She started panting with an imaginary puppy tail wagging full speed behind her.

“I want to do that! I want to do the all-you-can-eat! We’ve gotta do it to blend into the background, Onii-chan!”

“We can just follow the flow of people around the party hall and then leave.”

“Ehh? You don’t understand the maiden heart, Onii-chan.”

“I’m not a teenage girl, but I know this has nothing to do with being a maiden…”

To Kyousuke, this ship was a target of infiltration and a crime scene. Even if he seemed unbeatable, he wanted to avoid leaving any kind of trace behind, even teeth marks or some saliva.

However.

“Oh, my. Is that Kyousuke and Via over there?”

They heard a female voice as sweet as honey cooked down until it was burned to the bottom of the pot. It was not that loud, but it pierced through the chatter oddly well. It was a gentle but forceful voice.

And double braided Olivia’s face lit up when she heard it.

In a normal home or town, this would not be very remarkable, but given her position, she could not just ignore this.

“Huh? ''It’s my mom''.”

It was Kingdom F’s Queen Sinceria Highland.

Government Award 913, Noble Bride.

The unexpected appearance of this high-level vessel caused Kyousuke to press his fists against the sides of his head. With the index fingers sticking out a bit, of course.

A seemingly insignificant pebble was causing everything to derail.

He could not deny the sense that they were drifting further and further away from his plans.