Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===3: The Four Girls – Again===

''“Sensei, Sensei.”

Those girls had always been following him around like baby chicks.

The modern ninja class was meant to be done over their phones with the materials shipped to them, so it was not designed for in-person contact. Nevertheless, they had worked out his location themselves and arrived uninvited.

“Heh heh. I finally outdid you, Sensei,” Ouka had said with a beaming smile. “A ninja needs to excel with information. Isn’t that what you taught me?”

She had apparently long since learned that he lived alone.

He could still remember it like it was yesterday.

And it had not just happened the one time. They had patiently supported him.

The hotpot they had made for him had been delicious. He had made sure to lecture them on not letting their personal lives interfere with their duties, but they had ended up laughing together, making rice soup out of it, and finishing off every last drop.

They were good kids.

Or he had thought they were. So why had they done this?”

“If I may be so bold.”

After he was led onto a black SUV, Shirazaya Guren cleared her throat and stopped Chirping. The special vehicle had thick bulletproofing and he imagined it was made so shining a laser on the windows was not enough to eavesdrop.

“We have concluded that you did nothing wrong. That is why we have asked for your assistance.”

“We were unable to acquire your records, but we have heard how fiercely you fought against those powerful knights and musketeers.”

“I didn’t do much. The only thing left to prove I fought at all are these scars on my body.”

“Officially speaking, yes.”

“Yes, but only officially speaking.”

Past glory was a double-edged sword.

Especially when you had three bolts in your spine and springs inserted in your legs to replace your ligaments.

A 5kg weight would make his spine feel funny and a 10kg weight would make it explode with pain. Plus, ordinary clothing with no bulletproofing or bladeproofing weighted about a kilo and a winter coat would add another kilo onto that. Frontline combat gear was out of the question.

He could hardly believe those kids had stuck around with an empty shell like him.

“Let’s get started. I want to know details.”

A modular nuclear reactor.

That was what Ouka and the others had supposedly stolen.

No matter which side they were on to begin with, that was too much to smile and ignore. He could not let them use the ridiculous power of a nuke as a bargaining chip no matter what their reasons were.

Shirazaya Suiren traced a finger along the edge of her right ear.

“As the name suggests, it is a nuclear reactor with its design simplified and size reduced to the extreme. It is contained in several linked containers that can be transported by freight train when separated.”

“Although it was not designed for domestic use. It was being researched as a form of infrastructure business to be shipped overseas from Dejima.”

The twins sat on either side of him in the back seat and they took turns providing the explanations. They could only be told apart by the white and red hair extensions next to their ears.

“Shrinking it down makes it easy to transport,” groaned the boy. “But that also makes it easier to steal, or it could be suspended from a plane or chopper and dropped on a target site.”

This had been developed under the fishy-looking title of a mobile nuclear reactor that could be set up anywhere on the planet. If they were lined up along a national border, they would likely function identically to a line of nuclear landmines. Plus, the country could claim it was a peaceful use of nuclear power, so if another country sent out a bomb squad in secret, that other country would be accused in an international conference of using their ninjas, tuxedos, or other special forces to commit infrastructure sabotage. It really was a convenient toy.

When Guren traced a finger along her throat, Sugiyado’s phone rang and it received mission relevant documents he had not asked for.

“Early this morning, the four ninjas under your instruction broke into the Resource Energy Agency’s nuclear physics lab located here in New Yokohama Domain and stole a single Hinata Type-1 Modular Nuclear Reactor. The lab was performing a final stress test in preparation for a demonstration in Southeast Asia, so all of the units were installed with fuel rods. That means they could detonate it at any time.”

“Why would they do that?”

“That is what we would like to know. The Elite Ninja spies you instructed already had status and honor, so why would they suddenly turn on the shogunate they are meant to serve?”

“No, not that.” Sugiyado corrected them while teasing the large scarf over his mouth. “They went to the trouble of breaking into a shogunate lab and then they only steal one of them? If they risked their lives on this, isn’t it human nature to want to steal as much as they could get their hands on?”

The twins exchanged a glance with the boy between them.

“Well…wouldn’t it be a simple issue of the weight limit? While they are simplified and small, these models are still only meant to be transported by freight train. Even with a specialized vehicle at their disposal, a group of just four would only be able to carry out so many.”

“If they got greedy and tried to take too many with them, they could have lost everything.”

They made a good point.

However…

“Then why did they break into a shogunate lab? Wouldn’t it be easier to head overseas where security is laxer and ‘borrow’ one of the reactors lined up on a national border?”

“Oh.”

“I won’t name names, but not every country has as many hang-ups about nuclear power as we do. Some leave rusted nuclear subs sunk at the bottom of a bay or power lighthouses with nuclear batteries and don’t bother to track what happens to them.”

That made him extremely curious why his students would break into the nuclear physics lab.

“Are you suggesting they are not that fixated on the modular nuclear reactor? They went to such lengths to obtain a bargaining chip as absurd as nuclear power, but that was no more than a smokescreen?”

“It worked, didn’t it? Thanks to that, no one knows what their true objective is.”

The SUV seemed to have reached its destination.

Sugiyado Souha stepped out into an underground parking garage somewhere, but he was not guided to the elevator or the stairs.

He was brought to the back of a giant tanker truck parked in the same garage.

And a glance down the maintenance hatch in the top showed the walls were covered in mission documents and it was filled with a fridge, a microwave, and sleeping bags for overnight work.

Within the faint smell of fancy Western sweets, Suiren toyed with her earlobe and whispered to him.

“Welcome to our home.”

There were no windows. The twins closed the hatch after climbing in with him, so he had no way of even guessing where they were headed. He could not even see the 1000m broadcast tower that could be seen from any part of the city. He could only tell they were moving thanks to the inertial forces affecting his body.

“Allow me to introduce myself again. I am Shirazaya Guren, a shogunate spy.”

“Likewise, I am Shirazaya Suiren. We are ranked as High Ninjas, but they say we could take an Elite Ninja’s head when we work together.”

They did not ask for a handshake.

Guren pointed at the wall of documents with her slender chin.

“I know this is sudden, but we would like to fill in the gaps in our information. You claimed earlier that the modular nuclear reactor is no more than a diversion. Would you care to elaborate?”

“It isn’t their style. They wouldn’t know what to do with nuclear power if they had it.”

Images of the four girls’ faces were displayed in the center of the document wall. The photos were probably the ones from the resumes they sent in to be registered as shogunate spies.

''“Listen.”'' Sugiyado Souha recalled a memory of a more pleasant time that was hard to think back on now. ''“I am going to teach you many things. Some of them will be ways to hurt and harm people, but if you always work toward a righteous goal, there is no fear of your knowledge and techniques getting the better of you. So do not laugh and do not feel shame as you carry in your heart a righteousness you can believe in. That will support you more than you could ever imagine.”

He could remember them cheerfully replying on the screen.

As if shaking free of something and readying himself to fight, he pointed at the photos on the wall one by one.

“Kuhou Ouka. Age 14. Specializes in direct combat. She can control fire, water, wind, earth, and all else with only Midnight Tempest, a bayonet-equipped vertically-stacked double-barrel hunting gun she made herself. That might not sound very ninja-like, but carrying that high firepower in case of emergencies helps reduce the psychological pressure on the other members.

“Hanasawa Bara. Age 18. Specializes in disguise, camouflage, and other recognition interference techniques. If a door can’t be opened from the outside, she will get inside and open it from there. On the combat front, she is the assassin type. She sows confusion, yet her single attack is extremely powerful. In a way, she is the most ninja-like ninja.

“Nantou Hoozuki. Age 16. She uses Countless Calamities, a transformable multitool of an off-road motorcycle, and those close to her call her a stunt master. Her job is to construct a route into wherever they need to go. She is also skilled at using ropes and ladders. Plus, she can fight. Be on your guard if you don’t want to be on the receiving end of a roundhouse kick from that bike of hers.

“Shizukuma Asagao. Age 11. She is an information gathering expert and she can sneak into enemy territory using the tears and cuteness of a child, but she is also growing into something akin to a hacker. The ninja world is a world of data. You can assume she is the one who gathered all the information needed for a pre-mission briefing. She has no direct combat ability, but she excels at breaking apart enemy groups by causing friendly fire and paranoia. If things seem to be going badly, you should come to a stop and make sure no outside factor is artificially influencing things.”

Of course, those were all fake names.

In fact, anyone who reached their level would have their family register entry and national ID number erased. That meant they had no way of proving their Japanese citizenship.

Each of them was worth their weight in gold and it was said four Elite Ninjas together could bring down a feudal lord holed up in their castle. To reiterate, modern ninja techniques were an extremely dangerous form of Strategic Martial Arts that had been developed anew on top of a foundation taken from existing arresting techniques and military martial arts based on judo, karate, kendo, etc. Even with his injury, Sugiyado could destroy a unit of tanks as long as it was in a limited environment. Ouka and the others were in their prime, so how far could they go while working together?

That was an impressive roster, but Suiren silently tilted her head while toying with her right ear.

“I notice none of them specializes in mass destruction. The closest one would be Ouka, the direct combat expert.”

“She wouldn’t do that. For better or for worse, her only firepower is Midnight Tempest, that hunting gun with a bayonet. If you look through her past records, you should see she never even tries to detonate a gas pipe or gas tank. Unpredictable fire sources mess with her calculations and she wants to avoid the possibility of harming her allies.”

“Then what are they trying to do?”

That question suggested the four girls had not sent any kind of demands. Although it was possible they had contacted some high official and it was being dealt with internally.

If they were going to negotiate, they would isolate the target.

They would demand the target did not let the police or the shogunate ninjas get close.

Sugiyado himself had taught them that.

“The city seems to be continuing as normal, but the theft of a modular nuclear reactor must have messed with some plans below the surface. Do you have a list of the effects?”

Shirazaya Guren’s alluring throat tensed as she pointed wordlessly toward the wall.

One scrap of paper toward the outer edge of the documents appeared to be what he wanted.

“The foreign VIPs scheduled to visit New Yokohama Domain have delayed their visit, a popular motor show was canceled, a new smartphone announcement was canceled, and various others.”

“A major bank, a stock exchange, an insurance company, a government library digital archive, and a cellphone data center have gone into lockdown, but I imagine they are afraid of a largescale EMP attack. The VIPs with delicate medical implants have been evacuated into shielded shelters deep underground.”

“…”

Sugiyado viewed the documents on the wall, approached them, and flicked one.

“This motor show was canceled at the last minute.”

“Yes, what about it?”

“But not all events were canceled. This wall wouldn’t have enough space to display it all if they were.” The boy thought for a moment. “Was this motor show canceled because it is backed by the shogunate’s Ministry of Transport and the people running the show were warned?”

“Keep going.”

“Canceling the show at the last minute will leave tens of thousands of people with nowhere to be. They went to the trouble of traveling all the way here, so they aren’t just going to head home. That means the other events will be more crowded. In the worst cases, the expected occupancy of the venue may be overrun two times over.”

“Are you saying that will inevitably leave the security understaffed?”

“And this might seem crude, but not everyone visiting a motor show is there to see the cars. A lot of them will be there for the companion girls.”

Suiren stopped teasing her right earlobe and rushed over to a laptop. She called up a list of the events being held in the next few days. She must have found it online.

Sugiyado viewed the screen over her shoulder and pointed at one entry in the list.

“That’s it. And it’s only 200m from the motor show venue.”

“An idol festival supported by the international airport? But with 100 groups participating, it looks like it will be a real mixed bag quality-wise.”

“That fits the demographic perfectly. Some self-proclaimed idols might even work as a companion girl for the time being. If you don’t need a ticket reserved in advance and last-minute entries are allowed, they’re probably getting a huge influx of people.”

It looked like Ouka’s group of kunoichis had broken into a shogunate lab and stolen a modular nuclear reactor in order to cancel the motor show and send tens of thousands of people to the idol festival at the international airport. With so many extra people flooding in at the last minute, security would be completely overwhelmed.

Shirazaya Guren gulped.

“But what do they hope to accomplish by sneaking into an idol festival?”

“Beats me. They’ve never been into idols before.” Sugiyado glared at the screen. “But have you forgotten? That festival is taking place at one of the airports that have been doing poorly against the country’s linear motor train network. Sneak in there and you can accomplish most anything.”