Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume2 Chapter4 (section)

===7: Silently Creeping===

“Little Crow 1, nothing to report.”

“Understood. Thank you for your scheduled check in.”

“Little Crow 2, nothing to report.”

“Understood. Thank you for your scheduled check in.”

“Little Crow 3, nothing to report.”

“Understood. Thank you for your scheduled check in.”

For the ninjas patrolling the main ship, the scheduled check ins were basic but important routine work. These days, even the police performed their duties with a camera in their breast pocket (although that was actually meant to prevent corruption on the job), but relying on machines like that created unique loopholes and vulnerabilities. Reliability increased considerably if there was at least one layer of old-fashioned analog security in the mix. This was an important job separate from the ninjas searching the ship.

…But no method was perfect.

No one was going to notice that this one guard was being forced to make his check in with Sugiyado Souha standing behind and holding a blade against his throat.

“Thanks for the scheduled check in, Little Crow 3.”

“Damn…you.”

The Brown Bears man, Little Crow 3, groaned a curse, but Sugiyado paid it no heed. He kicked the back of the man’s right knee to make him kneel and then Murakami Michihiko hit him in the back of the head with his metal flute.

“I’m only going to ask once.”

Bara would use a variety of tricks to trap a prisoner and convince them to talk, but there were plenty of more effective methods when you needed the truth in a shorter timeframe.

“Where is a Brown Bear stronger than you? You can just give their name if that’s all you know.”

For example, a blow to the brainstem.

A truth serum might sound like a type of advanced technology, but it was really just a way of using drugs to muddle the mind until they lost all discernment. Everyone has said something they wouldn’t normally when sleepy or intoxicated. The degree was different, but the basic principle was the same.

A similar effect could be triggered by forcing someone to go long periods without sleep, grabbing and shaking the head, or driving them to the verge of unconsciousness with a blow to the heart or back of the head. There were any number of methods. Of course, the slightest error could lead to death or permanent brain damage, so these were techniques only the best of the best could pull off.

However.

Once the effect was in place…

“Rh…bh”

Whether people were for or against something, they would picture the target in their mind before labeling them. Only then would they decide whether to say it or not or whether to be honest or not. But if that labeling process was broken, they would simply say what came to mind.

“O-Oomurasaki. Little Crow 4.”

“Murakami.”

The young man struck the Brown Bear’s head again to actually knock him out this time.

Oniyuri laughed with her ninja outfit swaying around her.

“My, my. That has to be as bad for the body as an actual truth serum. He might never regain his sense of equilibrium, you know?”

“Hmph. We should just kill him.”

“What did I say, Princess Karin?”

Sugiyado had let Murakami Michihiko do it as a way of blowing off some steam and this was how Princess Karin thanked him? He knew he couldn’t let her do it.

“We are ninjas. If we want to terrify our fellow ninjas, we can’t just kill them. A top rate ninja isn’t going to fear an armored samurai and they’re nothing but destructive power.”

“…”

“Do you get it now? If we want to overwhelm the rest of the ninja world, we need to stand out in every part of our field. The results are what matters. Slaughtering them all like mincemeat is about the worst way of doing that. Anyone can do that with a big enough gun.”

With that said, Sugiyado snatched the boxy radio from the Brown Bear’s jacket.

“Little Crow 4 is next.”

“Have you noticed the metal badge embedded in the shoulder of their clothing? You can’t see it, but I think it provides their unit and rank when hit by an ultrasound echo,” quietly pointed out Oniyuri.

Princess Karin, who was listening in, looked more puzzled than Sugiyado.

Thanks to her “puppy”, she was more familiar with ultrasound than he was.

“Then how did you detect it? You would need special goggles to visualize the sound, wouldn’t you?”

“My hair. If you pass light and sound through a regular lattice structure, it can be broken down enough for human senses to detect. You should learn how to do it.”

Oniyuri lightly touched her hands to the black hair worn up on either side of her head. It looked a lot like she was adjusting a pair of headphones.

Inaudible ultrasound and shockwaves could still wear people down. Since she specialized in flames and explosions, the high and low frequency waves capable of hindering a target’s focus were like familiar toys to her.

“Murakami, Princess Karin, Oniyuri. From here on, we’re gathering intel and operating covertly. Do not give us away.”

The Raging Gale sky fortress was extraordinarily large, but that didn’t mean it had space to waste. The labyrinthine narrow passageways were built to fill the gaps between the necessary equipment and the structural beams and pillars.

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been possible to slip unnoticed past the ninjas on patrol.

But…

“Hmph.”

Sugiyado heard a rustling sound.

Princess Karin flipped around her junihitoe and swapped it around to bring a different design to the outermost layer. That was a form of variable camouflage. She was wearing so many layers that her clothing functioned as a portable closet. She could instantly select the optimal design for the current situation. Here, she became a large camouflage screen capable of covering Sugiyado and Oniyuri as well. They stayed by the wall of the narrow corridor as the patrolling Brown Bear turned the corner and walked past.

“(Oh, my. A hug from a pregnant woman is a rare experience. Do you think I could get some milk if I sucked these things in front of me?)”

“(Oniyuri, be quiet.)”

This was all meaningless if they simply slaughtered everyone.

They had to sneak around like shadows and swiftly defeat only the designated people without anyone noticing.

When Sugiyado spotted the back of who seemed to be their next target, he checked a few things from behind cover.

“She carries herself better than Little Crow 3.”

“The badge on her shoulder has a higher rank too.”

“That must be her. That’s Oomurasaki.”

From there, they simply repeated the process.

“Ugh!?”

“I’m only going to ask once. Who is a ninja stronger than you?”

They would get the name of an even better ninja, slip past all the security, and attack their next target.

Sugiyado Souha and Murakami Michihiko hurried out ahead.

There had to be thousands of Brown Bears in all, but only one of them stood at the top.

They would identify and eliminate that one.

Then they would vanish like they had never even been there. Because that was the ninja way. The message was simple: no matter how strong you are and no matter where you hide, we can take off your head at any time. We can lock onto anyone else who attempts this. If they didn’t take this that far, there would be no end to the conflict with the Brown Bears who wanted a place for their broken Lignum Vitae.

Ninjas were expert saboteurs.

If this battle was drawn out long enough, New Sapporo Domain and the entirety of Hokkaido Area would be worn down by it. So the Brown Bears needed to leave. And in a way that prevented any copycats.

“Sabotage is a means for a smaller force to defeat a larger one. It operates on fear and confusion. But that means a ninja’s illusions lose their power once their methods have been revealed and countermeasures have been developed. We will slay the Brown Bears here. By creating a poison that affects the entire organization.”

“Hey, Instructor,” gently interrupted Hidden One Oniyuri. “These surprise attacks are going to stop working soon.”

“True. Princess Karin, I want you to draw our target’s attention.”

It was Murakami Michihiko who gasped.

Princess Karin herself was simultaneously irritated and pleased with his overprotectiveness.

Sugiyado silenced the young man before he could say a word.

“I know, Murakami. You support her anyway you want. Or do you want to be the decoy while she supports you?”

“No. A support role is beyond her abilities. She doesn’t have the restraint. She would decide it would be faster if she did the main job herself and she would move out front.”

“How dare you, Murakami.”

“Oniyuri, you isolate the area so no sound escapes. You can use walls of air and temperature differences to prevent the soundwaves from propagating, or whatever method you like.”

And…

“That just grazed my neck, insolent fool! And after I deigned to act as a decoy at the request of a commoner like you. Do not forget that I am a princess carrying the blood of New Sapporo Domain’s lord!”

“Instructor, you need to do a better job of escorting the girls in your care. Just look at that cute dog-ear girl wagging her tail waiting for you. Are you really going to betray her expectations?”

“How dare you.”

“Our next target is Housenka. Mole 7.”

And…

And…

“Oh, dear. I may have overdone that one.”

“You damn monster woman. How is that Brown Bear even still alive after you hit her with that much firepower? I almost feel sorry for her. It would have been kinder to just kill her.”

“That’s enough, you two. Murakami, you need to break your bad habit of pretending you don’t exist when you would rather not be noticed. Our next target is Mermaid 1, Gekka Bijin. Be careful. We’re moving up a rank again.”

And…

And…

And…

“Are you the top of the Brown Bears, Kiritsuma Ootsumekusa?”

For the first time, they didn’t even attempt a surprise attack.

Partially because there was only so far they could get hiding their presence and sneaking up behind her, but this was also meant to be a benchmark. They needed to draw out the full power of this strongest kunoichi and break her fangs with no room for complaint. They needed to smash the Brown Bears’ morale by showing that not even their strongest member could win.

She stood at the highest point of the Raging Gale’s main ship. At the top of the tower containing all the many antennas, which was analogous to the bridge of a warship.

“Her?” Murakami Michihiko gulped with his metal flute at the ready. “That’s her?”

Ootsumekusa was around 16 or 17, making her about the same age as Sugiyado. Her long black hair was worn in a single long braid.

A solid mask with a dust filter covered the bottom half of her face, but it was not meant to hide her identity. She was a kunoichi – a ninja who used her beautiful face as a weapon. A standard ninja technique called the Sheltered Maiden hid a portion of the kunoichi’s face – the eyes, the mouth, etc. – to inspire the viewer’s imagination.

She wore a sleeveless Japanese-style shirt and skinny pants that showed off the curves of her butt and legs. That might look poorly suited for carrying hidden weapons and ninja tools, but that was only an optical illusion and there were plenty of hiding places, like below the collar or in her hair.

A metallic clinking sound came from her.

The ninja world demanded speed and silence above all else, so no one was going to wear metal armor. The sound came from her legs. Silver-shining jointed shafts surrounded her legs to support them.

The method was different from the springs implanted in Sugiyado’s legs in place of his ligaments, but the idea was the same. Those were meant to assist patients who could not walk on their own.

Why would she be wearing something like that?

What gap had she been trying to fill by adding those unnecessary artificial parts to her body? What had she been trying to accomplish?

“You went to a lot of trouble reaching me.”

The kunoichi named Kiritsuma Ootsumekusa slowly turned her head toward them and spoke with her voice slightly muffled by the mask. The mask may have been why her voice sounded huskier than her appearance would suggest.

“Our ''teacher'' can be selfish. But I’m sorry – I want to do whatever I can to assist her. Isn’t that what it means to adore someone?”

Her intense gaze wasn’t quite like Oniyuri’s when she had been controlled by her own psychic powers. This wasn’t someone enjoying the present because she had no future. This was someone who truly believed she could reach a twisted future. Ootsumekusa and the rest of the Brown Bears may have all been looking at the same thing but seeing something different.

Ootsumekusa had referred to her teacher as a “her”.

How did she view that broken metronome?

The instructor boy kept his eyes carefully on the enemy.

“It seems you’ve decided to defect.”

“As soon as you arrived on the Raging Gale. Our teacher’s safety comes first for us. And you have violated her sanctuary.”

The Brown Bears may have been able to protect the broken Lignum Vitae by remaining in the Hokkaido Area and establishing an indirect rule there. They could have captured Amamo, who looked just like the temporary Domain Lord, used her as a puppet, and killed the real Princess Karin.

The Brown Bears had been waiting to make that decision.

But Sugiyado’s group had tilted the scales too far in the other direction.

It was no longer viable for them to protect their beloved “teacher” by establishing an indirect rule of the Hokkaido Area.

So they had chosen to destroy everything and escape elsewhere.

To somewhere safe.

Sugiyado Souha let out a slow breath.

“Even if Lignum Vitae wishes to be destroyed?”

An odd scraping noise and orange sparks burst near Sugiyado Souha’s feet.

He didn’t even need to look down and check. He knew the composite armor meant to protect the especially important brains of the Raging Gale sky fortress had been split open.

It didn’t matter that they were more than 10m apart. She carried something capable of slicing right through Sugiyado’s group.

The sweet heat Kiritsuma Ootsumekusa gave off was joined by icy killer intent – creating a marbled mixture.

“I’m sorry. Our ''teacher'' is bad at making jokes. Please do not take her too seriously.”

A ninja’s ability to produce results greater than their physical body should allow did not come from mystical spells or carrying the blood of a monster in their veins.

They used the mood.

Thus, no one who lived in that world would be restrained by anything as simple as passion or malice.

Sugiyado sighed.

“I’m not interested in your beliefs. I’m here to keep a promise I made with a dead old man. This place is the last thing allowing you to continue harming New Sapporo Domain and the Hokkaido Area as a whole. Once I’m done here, I don’t care what you do.”

Princess Karin didn’t seem happy with that, but no one paid her any heed. And she wasn’t foolish enough to destroy the people and land her sick father left with her just to soothe her own emotions and pride. And the way he put that seemed to draw Ootsumekusa’s attention, just a little. Ninjas loved roundabout methods. It wasn’t a path suited for people who only read the surface text of an agreement and obeyed it as written.

Ootsumekusa considered it before responding.

“What are you asking me to do?”

“That’s simple,” immediately replied Sugiyado Souha. “Kiritsuma Ootsumekusa, leader of the Brown Bears, I am asking you to die. That will solve everything.”