Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===4: Strategic Military Research Institute===

The ground and roofs were covered by more than meter of white snow.

This was supposedly out-of-season artificial snow, but the artificial had taken over the natural environment here. It must have had an effect similar to a mist shower because the area felt as cold as the inside of a giant refrigerated warehouse.

This was the Teine Workshop District of northern New Sapporo Domain.

Everything in the city of Sapporo was arranged like a go board, but this one area felt a lot more cluttered and complex. The inconvenience for transportation meant most ordinary traffic avoided the area, so the layout was in fact an intentional way of creating a deserted atmosphere. The place looked like a collection of mid and small-sized city workshops left behind by the times. Without any obvious landmarks like the clock tower, TV station, and New Sapporo Castle, few tourists ever visited. It felt like a place with a closed cycle of locals and only locals.

But all of that was camouflage.

This area buried in white snow had in fact been chosen by Princess Karin as a cutting-edge strategic military research institute that influenced the entire Hokkaido Area’s defensive plans.

Setting up obvious anti-personnel and anti-tank mines or coils of barbed wire would only rouse suspicions, but there were still a variety of traps in evidence. Broken bottles could be seen on the snow as makeshift caltrops, a peek into the back alleys showed kerosene tanks and propane tanks hooked up to wires and switches, and sheets covered in a thick layer of snow would send you tumbling to the ground if you took even a light step onto the rooftops.

It was all very effective without seeming conspicuous if an ordinary person happened to get injured by one.

By using everyday items, the presence of ninjas would not come to light even if the traps were discovered.

It was all very carefully set up that way, showing this was professional work.

That white land was currently being defending by…

(Taganuma Yukizasa.)

At 12, she was the youngest of the four kunoichis at the center of the Stonewalls. She was supposedly an expert at combat in cramped or dark areas thanks to her short height and short limbs.

Her ninja outfit was composed of full-body carbon nanotube chainmail with one piece of cloth around her chest and another around her hips.

Yes.

The girl with semi-long hair used a combination of logical combat and techniques that used her undeveloped body to create an opening.

Her ninja weapon was known as a Beak.

Synthetic rope was wrapped around the butt end of a mountain climbing ice axe to create something similar to a kusarigama. She could move in close and swing it down at her enemy or she could use the rope to swing the weapon around in an irregular fashion, catching at a target’s clothing and keeping them from escaping.

(And she could have it poisoned.)

Altering the type and concentration of poison, she could cause paralysis, pain, delirium, fainting, and even death. It was an exceedingly dangerous weapon that could strike like a scorpion or a spider.

But wait.

If Yukizasa was a kunoichi hidden in the shadows of history, how did Sugiyado know exactly what she looked like? They might have gotten a photo of her face from New Sapporo Castle’s server room, but that would not have told him that the young ninja with semi-long hair used a Beak or wore a chainmail ninja outfit.

The answer was simple.

“There, that’s a good girl. Just go limp and let the darkness take you.”

He snuck up on her from behind.

Sugiyado Souha placed the back of his elbow around the young girl’s slender neck and dragged her into a back alley before using his legs to restrain her torso and arms like a stag beetle’s mandibles.

His down jacket made a sound from the movement.

The girl’s butt had already fallen onto the unmelting snow and she was not recovering anytime soon. She might as well have fallen backwards while carrying a backpack heavier than she was.

He had used a stranglehold that applied pressure to her carotid artery rather than her windpipe.

That would knock someone out in a dozen seconds or so no matter how much they trained or what their lung capacity was.

“––––––”

There was no scream.

She could not escape the pressure, like she was being strangled by the shoulder strap of her own backpack.

She tried to reach a small hand toward a tripwire nearby – perhaps hoping the blast-resistance of her ninja outfit would save her – but she could not attempt a recovery with the explosive trap because his legs were pinning her arms in place.

She clenched her teeth in a desperate attempt to avoid foaming at the mouth and she finally went limp once her adorable eyes rolled back in her head. There was no dignity there. The irregular twitching of the 12-year-old’s young body was no more than convulsions, not conscious actions.

Silver ponytail Hoozuki approached with feet crunching through the white snow and she put an exasperated hand on her hip.

“Sensei, you’re a little too good at this. You’re looking an awful lot like a teacher who loves using corporal punishment.”

“Victory is a physical phenomenon, so don’t let your emotions influence it, Hoozuki. Besides, I would have been in trouble if I tried to attack her head on. I have to throw my air pressure kunais, so we fight best at completely different ranges.”

“Please don’t ruin our secret date by lecturing me.”

He removed his arm and legs from Yukizasa’s neck and torso and let her small body fall unceremoniously to the snow. After running his hands across the minimal curves of her body to check for her possessions, he pulled an ID card, communicator, and other usable items from her pocket and tossed them to Ouka.

Then he lined up her Stonewall ninja tools on the snow: a collapsible shovel, a powerful light used to dazzle an enemy’s eyes instead of as a light source, and the Beak made from an ice axe.

“…”

“Sensei?”

Ouka tilted her head in her ninja outfit while showing no concern for the tripwire nearby.

“There’s more,” he said with a sigh.

He was not done yet. The ninja instructor looked down at his defeated foe and stuck his index finger into her mouth while she lay limp but trembling on the snow.

He ran his finger along the inside of her cheeks, scratched at her back teeth with his nail, and finally tore away and pulled out a filling.

He smiled a little.

It was the look of a soldier after successfully defusing a mine.

“Capsaicin, huh?”

“That’s what’s in chili peppers, so it’s a fairly moral choice as far as ninja drugs go.”

Bara was keeping an eye on their surroundings with her projectiles at the ready and she was familiar with poisons because she would apply various chemicals to the needles of hardened candy she fired from her coilguns.

“It’s usually used to blind an opponent, but it can also be used to help rouse you. If you want to see if it’s taken effect, you can open one of her eyelids and shine a light in her eye.”

“Thanks.”

“Heh heh hehhh. You can always count on me to spice up a secret date☆ All that’s missing now is a romantic aphrodisiac.”

Simply put, the capsaicin filling was a means of forcibly rousing the girl after half a minute or so even if she was caught by surprise and knocked unconscious.

Once her opponent relaxed, assuming she had been neutralized, she could stab them in the back before the giddiness of victory had even worn off. Ninjas did not aim for an undefeated record. They would turn themselves into zombies if it would give them the win in the end.

“Neat, so is it like the Cicada Spray?” said theory-loving Asagao. “I’d heard other schools have something similar.”

“Huh? Cicada?” asked practical Hoozuki who could bring down an armored truck or attack helicopter using her Countless Calamities off-road motorcycle that she could transform into a shuriken launcher or wield as a giant axe similar to a circular saw.

The difference in knowledge there may have come from their difference in individual combat skill. In other words, Asagao was always searching for information because she lacked confidence.

In that case, Hoozuki was the one in trouble. A ninja obviously needed to know their enemy’s weaknesses, but they also needed to know their enemy’s strengths so they could use those to create an opening. Feeling doubt to the point of paranoia was a problem, but the opposite end of the spectrum was arrogance. They needed to strike a balance. Sugiyado made a mental note to give them a refresher on that topic once he had a chance.

Assuming you were, and would always be, the strongest was toxic.

Sugiyado himself had broken his legs and back and been forced to retire after repeatedly pushing himself more and more because he thought he could go “just a little further”.

At any rate, Asagao let out some visible breaths as she laughed in a way too wicked for someone of her age.

“At least it’s only similar. With the real one, if you have a few seconds before passing out, you relax all of your muscles to let everything out. Ammonia is an ingredient in smelling salts, you see.”

That explained the Cicada Spray name.

“I notice you didn’t specify what you’re letting out of where.” Sugiyado sounded impressed. “You’ve matured since I last saw you, Lady Asagao.”

“Sensei, teasing me by drawing attention to it doesn’t seem very nice.”

That was because she had gotten sidetracked on that bizarre topic for no good reason. Bara knew a lot about chemicals and she had only placed a hand on her cheek and sighed. A true lady would know the answer but refrain from giving it. Asagao tearfully scowled at him, so she needed to study up on etiquette a bit more.

Restraining the unconscious kunoichi was simple enough.

Most kunoichis wore ninja outfits made from thin but sturdy materials to help them against bigger or more numerous opponents, so no special ropes or handcuffs were necessary. Pinching the cloth together and tying it like that would “connect” their limbs, torso, and other movable parts, transforming their outfits into inescapable straightjackets.

“I have a question for you four. Is Yukizasa the seduction type?”

“Sensei, don’t you think her body needs to develop a lot more before she can do that?”

Bara crossed her arms to intentionally lift up her large chest inside her oiran-style ninja outfit. That provoked a reaction out of baggy-sleeved Asagao.

“I can charm you just as well as Bara, Sensei! Boobs aren’t anything. Mh, you don’t believe me, do you? I’ll be visiting you tonight, so I hope you’re ready!!”

“What do you think, Sensei?” asked Ouka.

“Probably not,” he replied.

He had only asked them to help him work through his unorganized thoughts.

He continued while making sure to avoid stepping on a handmade bear trap made by breaking apart a commercial lawnmower to expose the thick blades and then burying it in the artificial snow.

“She probably does use her exposed figure to distract her opponent’s thoughts in combat, but no more than that. A ninja who uses full-on seduction would change her tune once she was at a disadvantage, but she showed no sign of that even as she passed out.”

A ninja outfit designed for sex appeal would sometimes be given an intentional weakness to heat or a specific chemical so it could provide defense but also break away on command, but Yukizasa’s was made of purely defensive chainmail. That was probably meant to make up for her small size as the youngest of her group, but she could not escape it once it was used to bind her. And Sugiyado was not against using the methods available to him.

He had knocked her out in an alley entrance, but he chose an even more private location for the rest.

But thanks to his damaged spine, he could not drag even a small 12-year-old around. He got Bara and Hoozuki’s help to hide the small body behind a wooden box in the narrow alley and then placed a blue tarp over her. While making sure to avoid the tripwire connected to a kerosene tank, of course.

The snow was artificial, but the unconscious girl could still freeze to death left lying in it. And waking up would not help her there since she was bound with her own ninja outfit. But her ninja outfit was designed for use in this frigid northern land. As thin as it was, it would still have an insulated design that reflected IR back at herself to preserve her body heat. She would probably be fine left here.
Twintails Ouka tilted her head.

“Huh? Shouldn’t you hide her better than that?”

“She wasn’t some guard on the outskirts – she was the center of their security system. Once she stops reporting in, their alert level will go up no matter what we do, so they’ll start a search of the entire area. North New Sapporo Domain’s Teine Workshop District is their backyard, so they’ll find her no matter where we hide her, unless we chop up her corpse and bury the pieces.”

“…”

Ouka gave him an extremely harsh look that said “there are four of us and we could have that done in no time if you gave the order”, but her instructor had something else to say.

“Our presence here will be noticed no matter what, so the question is what we do then. We have everything we need: her ID card, communicator, and a set of Stonewall ninja tools. So let’s get going, Ouka. The rest of you too.”