When The Cute Kunoichis Spied on Their Teacher's Secret

Volume 2, Chapter 2

1: The Stonewall Girls

It was already dusk.

However, the quiet of the late hour was obliterated by deafening sirens and the tremor of army boots marching in perfect unison.

The commotion had spread beyond just the castle. Trucks and large transport helicopters loaded with fully-equipped armored samurai had been deployed to set up two or even three layers of blockades.

The moat was always lit up once the sun set and the tourists outside of that aimed their phone cameras toward the vehicles and samurai, but they all tilted their heads once they did. Their screens were covered by secret preservation AR, special markers that said “Recording Not Allowed”. Mobile devices these days did not even come with a paper user’s manual, so most of them probably had no idea their phones did that.

Meanwhile…

“So you only managed to drag some filthy guy out of there? Really? That was honestly all you managed to accomplish???”

Hanasawa Bara spoke in a disinterested way from the driver’s seat of a food truck designed to cook crepes, just like you could find at any tourist destination in any part of the world. Needless to say, that was the mobile base she was using to pick up Sugiyado Souha and the others after they left the castle.

She had changed into her casual clothing to blend into her surrounding, but with her, that still meant a fancy red dress. She almost looked like a princess, but that worked well when combined with the mistaken assumption that she was a tourist destination vendor. In fact, with her sexy body and red ringlet curls, she would have looked more conspicuous in a plain track suit or jumpsuit.

She even shared that benefit with Shizukuma Asagao who wore her baggy-sleeved and short-skirt white military uniform in the passenger seat. When the two of them sat side by side, their clothing seemed to match.

The black bob cut girl let out an exasperated sigh.

“Stop lashing out because we all got to enjoy a secret date while you were stuck back at the base. That was an important job.”

“Hmph.”

When the younger girl in the passenger seat out-argued her, Bara could only puff her cheeks out like a child.

However, they remained within the blockade.

They were only just outside the illuminated moat, leaving them in the tourist area that was like a walking path and viewing platform in one. Lines of New Sapporo Domain armored trucks were roughly driving past just a few meters away even now. The castle’s soldiers and bodyguards were shouting angrily at the people that photography was banned. The enemy never expected their quarry to be right under their nose, but certain preparations were still needed when making a surprise attack like this.

When blessed with the opportunity to work in a group, you always needed to keep one of your people “outside” if at all possible.

Sugiyado Souha had driven that rule into their heads because he wanted to raise them into ninjas who could return from missions alive, not just act as artillery shells that only made one-way trips. But being stuck with that job was never fun. Just when you thought you could go on a mission with your beloved teacher and enjoy a secret date that would end the instant you were found, you had to stay behind. Having to wait all on your own until sunset felt like having part of your one and only adolescence sold off against your will. Bara really wanted to curse her own rock-paper-scissors luck.

“Anyway, drive slow and safe.”

“I know that.”

Speeding out of there would give them away immediately. Bara even kept the headlights on the gentle low beams for the benefit of the oncoming traffic. She drove the crepe food truck calmly and slowly away from the park in front of the moat.

“You got that data out from the depths of New Sapporo Castle, didn’t you? Did you get any details on those Stonewalls?”

Bara had performed her own interrogation while they were gone, but she had not found anything more than the group’s name.

“I was planning to reveal this once Sensei rejoined us, but whatever.”

Asagao attached her phone (which she had so thoroughly modified on the inside that it was close to being a cyber war weapon) to the food truck’s navigation system.

“The Stonewalls have around 300 combat members, but these are the main four. And Princess Karin is of course at the very top.”

“…”

Kairou Amamo.

Age: 16. Female.

An expert at terrain-effect attacks made using pure excavation techniques. Brings confusion to the entire battlefield with almost any type of terrain changes, including quicksand, marshes, pitfalls, falling rocks, landslides, and even volcanic activity and water vapor explosions. One of the few survivors of her attacks said “a dragon is hidden in the earth”.

Taganuma Yukizasa.

Age: 13. Female.

An expert at combat in enclosed and dark places. Shows the true value of her short height and limbs while fighting in complex indoor environments filled with countless obstacles. The way she persistently sticks with her target has earned her the nickname of Enemy Stalker.

Horisato Oume.

Age: 18. Female.

An expert at chemical reactions, including explosions. That includes the obvious like guns and explosives, but also includes the use of incomplete combustion to create smokescreens or poison gas. Her skills also give her a specialty in medicines and treating wounds.

And.

Shirahama Karin.

Age: 20. Female.

The princess of a domain who chose to master the “etiquette” of a ninja in order to survive in the Machiavellian world of politics. Has mastered every technique of the Stonewall school, but also possesses the strategic mindset needed to view the big picture of the outside world. A next-generation leader who can freely use the light and dark – the clean and the unclean.

(Not that we can trust the ages and photos given here.)

As an expert in disguises and flirtation, Hanasawa Bara told herself to not accept this data at face value.

Were all the others girls because that was more comfortable for Princess Karin at the top? No, she had apparently convinced that young Murakami man to join her forces, so maybe it was her subordinates who had decided to surround her with girls.

Bara was normally one of the ninjas who worked to preserve the public order, so she knew what conditions would be used to choose checkpoint locations at times like this. She accurately drove the crepe food truck around while making an exasperated comment.

“Quite the distinguished group.”

“Right?”

“I can’t believe that’s what you spent your secret date on. Sensei has to learn not to talk about other girls all the time.”

“Right!? Ouka is sulking pretty hard, so be on your guard around her.”

With the talk of terrain and explosives, that group sounded even more flashy than Bara’s group. This northern land was one of the few places in the country that was flat all the way to the horizon. Those skills were likely what they had honed to push back any large armies the Cyrillic Empire sent in. And in addition to the largescale attacks and high firepower, they had the assassin types who could use the confusion to pinpoint strike the enemy commander or armory. The knights would be preparing to tear into the enemy formation while the rooks and bishops were making a mess of the board, so you could not let your guard down.

Asagao gave a fearless smile in her white military uniform.

“The documents call them High Ninjas, but it’s possible they intentionally held back during their advancement exams so they wouldn’t stand out.”

“They seem to fight under completely different rules and on a completely different scale from us.”

“That just means we can’t let our guard down no matter what.”

And.

As we change focuses, the vehicle shook slightly.

There was no way to tell the time of day in the enclosed back of the truck. Sugiyado Souha and the Murakami youth were confronting each other in there. However, the young man had his iron flute and other weapons taken from him and he was tied to a chair.

Sugiyado’s eyes fell on a different weapon than the main iron flute.

It was a cross shuriken given a sharkskin surface.

(Old man.)

But letting his feelings show would accomplish nothing as a ninja. He hardened his heart so he could get down to business before the young man noticed.

Just to be safe, he had Ouka and Hoozuki with him here.

“(Boo. Why’d he have to invite another guy onto our secret date?)”

“(Don’t complain, Ouka. If you refuse to wait, you’ll never get your reward.)”

At 5kg, his back felt funny. At 10kg, it exploded with pain.

No matter how much of an advantage he seemed to have, he could not forget that. In shogi terms, Sugiyado Souha was like the lance. He might seem specialized for this field, but that illusion vanished as soon as his weakness was discovered. And he had no way of fighting back even if he noticed it had been discovered.

So if he had help, it was safest to accept it.

“If there’s something you want to talk about, then go ahead and talk.”

Sugiyado pulled a chair across from the young man and sat in it. Ouka and Hoozuki changed positions to lean on the back of that chair.

“But we have nothing we really want to talk about. To be honest, I’m not interested in some large conspiracy. I achieve my goal as long as you’re removed from all that danger. The simplest solution there would be to knock you out with an anesthetic and then dump you in some remote village no one’s ever heard of. If you don’t do anything, that’s what will happen. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Who are you? And those two aren’t your average girls.”

Ouka looked miffed the young man had singled out her and Hoozuki. It was true they were Elite Ninjas, but she must have felt like Sugiyado deserved that sort of praise too.

At any rate, the young man’s confusion was understandable. Everyone knew a captured ninja was not going to have a good time, so he must not have expected them to have a little chat like this.

The scarf boy relaxed his shoulders and spoke a certain name.

But not the young man’s.

“Murakami Shouzou.”

“Kh.”

“Do you see how I got involved in this now? Princess Karin wasn’t bluffing. She really did do it.”

For a while, the young man said nothing.

Sugiyado simply waited.

He could have told the young man that a professional ninja needed to suppress his emotions and remain coldly logical to survive, but he chose not to.

“I see.” The young man who had inherited the Murakami name eventually got some words out. “I see.”

“Let’s set aside our positions as professionals for a moment.” Sugiyado started again with his voice low. “I’m not working myself to the bone for the state or the Shogunate here. I’m a prisoner from Abashiri, just like that blunt but caring old man, so don’t think I’m some stickler for the rules. Let’s keep this short. If you waste my time, I’ll go with the ‘anesthetize you and dump you on the side of the road’ option.”

“…”

“Ouka, prepare the halothane tank and calculate out the right amount for a standard body weight of 68kg. And really, if we’re going to recommend retiring from this dangerous line of work and living a leisurely second life, we should probably gift him with some mild lasting effects.”

“Understood, Sensei. I’ll add 10 to the normal number. That should give him some chronic tingling in the limbs.”

“O-okay, okay!”

The young man must have thought there was nothing he could do while bound to the chair. And with enough of a lasting effect to take him out of the fight, he would forever lose his chance to rush in and solve the problem here in New Sapporo Domain. Or the problem related to his grandfather’s death. But his pride still had him sounding reluctant as he opened his mouth.

“I am Murakami Michihiko. I was sent from Edo as an external observer for the entire Hokkaido Area!”

“Observer?”

“Hokkaido isn’t the only place with one. Ever since the Doshusei Reform split the archipelago into 8 Areas, observers are occasionally sent in from the central government to keep an eye on things. The idea is to make sure none of the regional governments try to rebel using the very autonomy granted them by the Shogun.”

Hoozuki waved something in her hand. It looked like a silver flute, but it was actually the ninja weapon that young man trusted with his life.

That old man had said he created ninja weapons for his grandson and they were from the Song school, so that iron flute may have contained something of the old man in its design.

Sugiyado Souha made sure not to let his emotions show on his face as he spoke.

“So you are a step removed from the Stonewall hole-digging experts with deep roots in the Hokkaido Area.”

“You’d be wrong there,” said Murakami Michihiko with self-deprecation in his voice. “The Stonewalls were the contact point for my observer duties in the Hokkaido Area. They acted as an intermediary, so we did interact.”

His job was to arrive from outside and determine any deficiencies in the local system. That meant detecting this oddity in New Sapporo Domain was a major success for him, but the conversation in the castle’s server room suggested they had not been enemies to begin with.

He had likely planned to use Princess Karin’s support as a foothold while he began to investigate the rest of the Hokkaido Area. He never would have imagined that the safe zone he had discovered was in fact rotten to the core.

No.

Maybe it was more like he had stumbled across a truth he would have much rather remained ignorant of.

“It’s all about sharing,” said Michihiko while still bound to the chair. “All sorts of technology were introduced to fight back against the Cyrillic Empire, including the slow-melting artificial snow, the two strategic anti-air laser beam cannons, and the four large-caliber railguns at the princess’s New Sapporo Castle, but this land is simply too vast. That method of protecting the island costs too much. The Empire doesn’t even have to cross the ocean now. They can just sit back and wait for New Sapporo Domain to economically collapse and for the rest of the Hokkaido Area’s domains to follow suit.”

“…”

The truck must have made a turn at an intersection because they felt a powerful force from the right.

They were using this food truck because New Sapporo Domain and the rest of the Hokkaido Area were now “car cities”. Why was that? Because the underground linear motor train meant to connect the six domains had been shut down for defense reasons.

Or so it was said, but was that really true? Linear motor trains used electromagnets to move at speeds greater than 500km/h, so they of course required a massive amount of power. That lower-priority guzzler of power had been eliminated in a way that would not concern the people too much.

“Everything requires power, but there is only so much they can produce themselves and Honshu still refuses to allow the installation of an undersea power cable. Maybe they don’t want even more of the country’s nuclear power to be focused on Tsugaru Domain, but the prevailing rumor within the castle is that Honshu fears giving the north enough power to isolate themselves.”

So had opinions differed on how to secure the power they needed?

“That left only one option. Or so Domain Lord Hatsunaga believed,” said Michihiko. “The importation of core infrastructure. It isn’t that uncommon on the continent. It’s the same as having a neighboring country dispose of your trash or having two countries share water and sewer services when a major river runs through them both.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“Yes.” Michihiko’s ropes strained. “The Karafuto Route. You heard talk about the northern Wakkanai Domain expanding into a Dejima, right? The idea was to lay out an undersea power cable from there to gain the needed power.”

Instead of Sugiyado, it was twintailed Ouka who was leaning on the boy’s chair from behind who frowned at that. But Sugiyado was the one in charge of this interrogation, so she seemed reluctant to interrupt.

The young man let out a self-deprecating sigh.

“Yeah, it’s completely backwards, isn’t it? They would be relying on the Empire to power the equipment they need to protect themselves from the Empire. They would be helpless as soon as the Empire shut off the power, so they would essentially be presenting their Achilles’ heel to the enemy.”

“…”

Sugiyado thought for a bit.

This was all about deciding who to sell themselves off to: the Shogunate, the Cyrillic Empire, a corporation such as a power company, or an academic institution like a university. Whoever they asked to supply the power they needed would then hold the lifeline to the entire Hokkaido Area. That was a big enough deal to bring down the balance between the Four Occupations.

The Shogunate had refused, so who was their next best bet?

Had they arrived at that choice through the process of elimination, or had they intentionally steered toward the Shogunate’s enemy out of simple spite.

“But you said that was the Domain Lord’s idea, right? Do you mean the Princess ruling in his place sees things differently?”

“I imagine she poisoned him. I just hope she still has enough of a heart left that it was something nonfatal.”

Poisoning your own father even nonfatally did not sound like the act of someone “with a heart”.

They had not seen inside New Sapporo Castle’s tower, but had people’s sensibilities really grown so warped in there?

Murakami Michihiko continued with a bitter look on his face.

“I don’t know where she intends to get it, but Princess Karin apparently plans to acquire a massive amount of power from a different route. But energy is energy – it can be used for good or evil. We’re talking about a power source large enough to run the defense system covering the entire Hokkaido Area, so is there any way it can’t be used for the wrong things? As seen with nuclear power, energy can as easily bring peace as it can bring destruction.”

Ouka and Hoozuki’s eyes wandered a bit at the mention of nuclear power.

The incident they had once caused had begun with the theft of an ultra-small modular nuclear reactor being carried by a freight train.

But Sugiyado did not touch on their past wounds.

“That isn’t the crux of the issue, is it?”

“No. There is a hurdle beyond how the power is used. Even if this power source is perfectly safe and peaceful, they still have to prove that somehow. What if people mistakenly believe it could explode when used incorrectly? If people start to think they’re hiding a massive bomb, it could lead to war between the Hokkaido Area and the Empire, or even a civil war between the Hokkaido Area and Honshu.”

“I see,” said Sugiyado.

Princess Karin, leader of the Stonewalls, was also a risk here.

People were never free of their own minds.

The greatest risk of a revolution or uprising was when the thread of tension went slack. As soon as they were freed from having to figure out some way to fix their power problem, she might just reach for a fearsome switch.

She might not just use that power for defense.

What if she decided they could win if they went on the offensive and launched a needless attack on the Cyrillic Empire? Once the Empire had a justification for retaliation, they would be more than happy to attack. That could lead to a long, drawn-out war fought with overwhelming numbers.

And…

“Okay, I can see the flaw in the Lord and the Princess’s plans, but how were you planning to safely escape this situation?”

“I think the supposed threat of the Empire is overblown. Whenever he ran into trouble with the ordinary finances, Domain Lord Hatsunaga would work up some extra funding in the name of military expansion. He started talking up the threat of the Empire as no more than a way to get the funding he needed, but that eventually grew into an actual concrete fear that is now draining money from the entire Hokkaido Area.”

“…”

“I have no intention of supporting the Empire or taking them lightly. I am a Shogunate ninja tasked with protecting this nation, after all. But if we can accurately assess the threat, we should be able to better defend ourselves with less waste.”

Sugiyado doubted the young man was lying.

At the very least, the ninja named Murakami Michihiko believed that to be true and was willing to bet his life on it.

The young man said more while Sugiyado pondered the matter.

“I must stop Princess Karin’s project no matter what. I am willing to offer up my own life to do so! I won’t ask you to help me, but at least drop me off somewhere in New Sapporo Domain. I won’t cause you any trouble, so let me clean up this problem!!”

“Is that so?” said Sugiyado.

Silence fell for a while.

But the former Hidden One appeared to have already made up his mind.

The crepe food truck’s brakes squealed as it came to a stop. They must have been at some sort of destination.

Sugiyado rapped on the thin metal door and called outside.

“You heard him, Ekaterina. The rest is in your Imperial hands.”

Michihiko stared blankly at the boy.

He probably honestly had no idea what those words meant. But this was all very real. The metal door was roughly thrown open from the outside and fully-equipped soldiers with identities hidden by masks, helmets, and goggles stormed onto the truck.

The words they exchanged were not even in Japanese.

This entire place had suddenly started to feel awfully Cyrillic.

“What? Eh!? What’s going on here!?”

Sugiyado waved a hand dismissively and said one thing more.

“You can take him away if you want, but leave the chair and rope.”

Murakami Michihiko’s mouth was covered now and he was helplessly carried outside.

To reiterate, Sugiyado Souha’s objective was to fulfill his promise with that dead old man: take care of that kid. So why would he ever give “that kid” any freedom to act if he was only going to recklessly run into danger?

He would not let the young man die.

Even if the young man resented him for it.

“…”

The crepe food truck was empty now, but it creaked as someone new stepped inside.

She wore an imbalanced outfit of a thick coat worn over a sheer camisole. Her skin was far too white to be Asian and her ankle-length hair was a very light platinum blonde. She had a slim outline all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes, so she would have fit right in as a ballerina or figure skater. She seemed something like a rose scattering excessive sex appeal through the simple act of walking, but she was more mechanical and precise than that.

“(I can’t believe this is happening on our date.)”

“(Hold your tongue, Ouka. You’ll lose points.)”

Ouka and Hoozuki looked somewhat exasperated.

Simply walking around looking like that was a big deal given the archipelago’s current isolationist policies.

The blonde beauty giggled in a bewitching way.

“It has been too long, Comrade Souha.”

“I am aware that not even the Empire addresses people that way anymore, you know? Where did you swim in from this time? Through a snowmelt pipe? You don’t smell like a sewer, at least.”

“That intel is the Neva River Nymphs’ lifeline, so it is of course a secret. …Until you take a liking to the title of comrade, anyway.”

Simply put, Ekaterina’s Neva River Nymphs were a group of frogmen. Their actions in New Sapporo Domain went undetected because they wore highly-insulated suits and used caustic soda breath purification devices that would function for a maximum of 48 hours straight. That allowed them to move freely around large cities by hiding below the surface of a river or another body of water, including water pipes, sewers, snowmelt pipes, agricultural and industrial waterways, hot spring pipes, and more. They even claimed they could relax more in a rooftop water tank than in a café heated by a fireplace.

“We haven’t spoken directly since the sunken submarine incident, have we? I am glad we can finally repay you for what you did back then, comrade.”

“You didn’t owe me anything. International law says you should work to assist a sunken or beached ship even if it belongs to another country or group.”

“Everyone might know they should do that, but you were the only person the world who did do it.”

She giggled.

The lady had the sweet atmosphere of the female proprietor of a secret salon, but she did not carelessly invade the boy’s personal space. She was like a bouquet of flowers meant to match one’s outfit. She was intentionally dimming her light to avoid clashing with the sex appeal of the less mature kunoichis behind the boy.

Then again, she was also showing off how much she was holding back.

“That was a delicate region of ocean. Our HQ could not let it get out that we were transporting a treaty-violating weapon through that region, so they pretended not to pick up on our SOS and even jammed our signal while disguising it as interference from thunderclouds. If you hadn’t shown up, 103 Neva members would have perished in that chilly, cramped space. Including me, of course.”

Sugiyado softly sighed.

Murakami Michihiko had said New Sapporo Domain was suffering from the tensions they themselves had created out of fear brought on by the country’s isolationist policies. And to rid themselves of that unease, they were growing into “external threat junkies” who endlessly expanded their military. Sugiyado was pretty sure that was accurate.

At the same time, it was looking like the outside world was full of even more conspiracies and misdeeds than the people in the archipelago imagined.

But for now…

“Babysit him for us.”

“Understood. I won’t even ask what this about.”

“And if you can, I would like to learn what the Empire is doing right now. How pressing do they see the situation with Japan?”

“Why even ask me when you know any answer I give will be designed to benefit the Empire? Just so you know, I am a descendant of the maids who served the very nobles who feared for the country’s future and chose to serve Rasputin cakes laced with cyanide.” She sounded exasperated and shrugged. “There is nothing I can tell you, so you can make your own guesses based on the circumstantial evidence.”

(Well, if they really were preparing for a war on the level of lava bursting up from the earth, Ekaterina’s team wouldn’t still be here in New Sapporo Domain.)

He had guessed that much from the moment she responded to his message.

That meant the question at hand was what to do about Princess Karin, New Sapporo Domain, and the Stonewalls who were getting worked up over nothing.

“What are your immediate plans, Comrade Souha?” Ekaterina giggled in a way that slightly strengthened her sweet aura. “I take it things in the castle are not going well. But the Shogunate as a whole does not appear to be making a move to crush them, so do you maybe need someone to work behind the scenes here?”

“Ekaterina, I will decide what needs to be done here.”

“And I am offering you materiel or personnel if you need them. The Stonewalls have deep roots in New Sapporo Castle, which makes them problem, does it not? If you know what needs doing, then why not go ahead and do it?”

She had just said she would not ask what this was about, and now this.

Never underestimate the intelligence-gathering ability of spies who could hide in any body of water.

“I am not working for the Empire’s benefit here. And another thing, Ekaterina. When trying to get closer to someone, it’s best to let yourself appear more vulnerable.”

“Oh? So you aren’t the type to drown in motherly displays of acceptance?”

Whatever form it took, New Sapporo Domain had indeed managed to maintain a dangerous balance for this long. And just like every other country and group out there, the Cyrillic Empire was not the big bad wolf from a children’s book, but they were also not selfless saints. They would snatch up every opportunity that came along. Even if they did not use their trump card right away, you had to assume it was still there in their deck.

A severe power shortage could cause a blackout in the entire defense system.

If that led to revolution or uprising, another country could possibly use the chaos to attack, but that was an amateurish idea. The Empire was more likely to play the role of cooperative ally from beginning to end and then ask for something equivalent in exchange after the fact. And with a friendly smile on their face all the while.

In her combination of a thick coat and a form-fitting camisole, Ekaterina did not push the issue any further. That lady was an experienced negotiator, so she chose to take a step back here.

“When you have decided what to do, make sure to call the Neva River Nymphs. Whisper the magic word and we will surface from any body of water.”

“I might not be doing anything. Murakami Michihiko is safe now, so I might just decide to leave.”

“No, you will choose to act once you learn what is happening here. This is no different from that submarine. You are not one to weigh the pros and cons before acting, Comrade Souha. That selfless spirit of service is a lovely thing. You would fit in very well with us.”

“…”

“Also.” Just before leaving the crepe food truck, the bewitching woman spoke as if to a child left behind at an amusement park. “I really do want to repay you for your help. As does everyone up on the surface who heard our SOS signal from the submarine but were only allowed to bite their lips and jam it. I won’t deny we have our own plans at play here, but do not forget how I feel.”

That was all.

Once Ekaterina was gone, Sugiyado sighed.

He knew there would be no sign of those river nymphs no matter where you looked on the surface. They had dived underwater.

(Didn’t take her long to incorporate my advice about vulnerability. She always has been quick to follow people’s advice. Although that cute side of her is probably another act meant to draw people in.)

And.

That encounter seemed to have lowered the temperature within the food truck.

Specifically for Ouka and Hoozuki.

“Sensei.”

“First the Kingdom’s queen and now the Empire’s river nymph? You don’t have mistresses in every country around the world, do you?”

They could not hide their exasperation. It was often said you needed to watch out for jealousy and envy when kunoichis gathered, but since ninjas were supposed to use Machiavellianism as a weapon, they really needed to stop letting their own suspicions get the better of them.

The best medicine here would be to firmly deny it.

He had to put them at ease by showing he was confident in his denial. It was a basic but crucial tactic.

“Don’t be dumb, you two. I don’t have a single person you could call a mistress.”

But…

“So you’re saying you do have women all around the world; it’s just that you keep them just distant enough that you can’t call them mistresses?”

“Sensei, there’s such a thing as being too passionate about your work.”

Evidently, he had phrased his denial poorly.

Even on a pirate ship full of outlaws, it was supposedly best to avoid a mixed-gender crew if you wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble.

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.

3: Target

The following morning arrived.

You might think of ninjas as working in the shadows of the night, but they would operate in the light of day as well. They would act whenever necessary, they would get enough rest to ensure their top performance, and they would always make sure to remain inconspicuous.

However…

“What the hell? Who is this?”

Sugiyado lightly slapped his hand at something soft near his face.

“Ahn, that’s my butt, Sensei.”

“…”

“By the way, if you turn the other way, you’ll be burying your face in Hoozuki’s chest. Who, I might add, is currently borrowing one of your shirts.”

“Bara? And Hoozuki too?”

“There’s no real time limit for dealing with that old man’s case, is there? So why not take a bit of a detour for some pink and milky-white fun with us?”

“I trusted you to not be like this, but maybe I should rethink relying on you here.”

Four figures scrambled from his bed as quickly as they could manage. They all sat down in a row on the wooden flooring. Those students knew how to tell when Sugiyado Souha was willing to put up with some joking and when he was not.

Bara wore a negligee, Ouka wore pastel pajamas, and they all gave each other cautious looks.

“You disgusted him with the horribly cliché choice to use your chest.” (Bara)

“Using your butt seems worse to me. I mean, that’s your lower body.” (Hoozuki)

“The worst one was Ouka. She climbed headfirst under the covers and fell asleep with her face between his legs. And that was very much intentional on her part.” (Asagao)

“Hey, don’t act all pure yourself, Asagao. We all know why you’re wearing those over-the-top panda costume PJs.” (Ouka)

Nothing he said seemed to get through to them.

Technically speaking, they were his former students and were now independent Elite Ninjas. Responding to this oddity in New Sapporo Domain was the expected response for spies who served the Shogunate, so there was no real reason for them to do so under his command. In fact, they could earn a lot of points if they bound him and threw him back into Abashiri’s special prison (even if they were the ones who had broken him out in the first place).

He could not forget that this was not the expected situation. It only worked thanks to so much kindness on their part.

“Now, then.”

Letting that show would only make the kunoichis more self-conscious, so he casually kept it hidden while he too left the bed. He wanted to check on something before he took a shower.

A Fount of Knowledge, a complex device hooked up to various communication devices, sat on the living room’s glass table.

“Let’s see how much this has gathered.”

“Wait, Sensei! Let me use the Fount!”

Asagao hopped to her feet and followed after him. That seemed to restore the flow of time for the other girls because they began to move as well.

Staying focused at all times during an important mission would only lead to burnout. They needed to get a set amount of rest at set times, but anyone who had been up all night worrying about something would know that was much easier said than done. People tended to fall out of their usual rhythm and routine on important days or when not allowed a single mistake. And the effect was greatest when their own life or someone close to them’s life was on the line.

But it was also true that shutting your eyes and falling asleep would cause time to pass.

It was a waste to not use that time to accomplish something.

That was why Sugiyado had altered his phone’s settings to have the device automatically gather information while he was resting. It did not take all that much intelligence to use a crawler to gather data like you were pulling a drain plug in the vast ocean of the internet.

Extremely small Asagao licked her lips as she checked on the device.

“Mechanical data harvesting is fairly indiscriminate, so you end up with a lot. There’s a bit of a trick to filtering the results, so just leave that to me.”

“You make it sound complicated, but isn’t it similar to knowing the best search terms to narrow down the results on a search engine?” asked an exasperated Ouka, but Asagao did not seem remotely bothered.

They were most interested in the core of Princess Karin’s electrical infrastructure, but they were not going to find a specifications document just sitting out there on the open internet.

Still, there were other hints to be found.

The Stonewalls.

The central members of Amamo, Yukizasa, and Oume.

New Sapporo Domain’s classified server had been tampered with to hide those terms, so they held great meaning.

“Here we go.” Asagao seemed to be enjoying herself. “They’re doing a lot to hide their names, but they’ve transported a few cargo containers to different locations. This says they contain…electronic garbage like computers and phones.”

“So pure gold in another form?”

“If you know a little ‘alchemy’, you can get a fair bit from the circuit boards and semiconductors. Since they aren’t crossing the ocean, there’s no need to make payments over fiberoptic where the deal might be discovered.”

“Where are they sending the gold bars in trash form?”

Sugiyado reached over to touch the screen. Asagao twisted her body to complain, but he ignored that.

“The Teine Workshop District in New Sapporo Domain.”

“None of this is concrete.”

Bara was right.

And you could not take their skill in this field lightly. Places like this contained technology even more advanced than global corporations. Modern ninjas like them were pros at preventing the theft of technology by foreign states. They could not exactly do their job without knowing where that technology was found.

In fact, their ninja noses were telling them something here.

Had this been intentionally organized as a collection of small workshops instead of a single major corporation or laboratory so it would not stand out in the paperwork?

It would not be unusual for each individual workshop to be smaller than a convenience store or gas station, but they would cover a 5km square of land when all brought together. If they were all working together as a single large entity instead of competing for survival, then that would be a productive facility with incredible power.

“Is it like taking a skyscraper, cutting apart each division, and spreading those out along the ground, Sensei?”

They used slow-melting artificial snow as an environmental defense policy, two strategic antiaircraft lasers towered up on the outskirts, four 900mm rapid-fire railguns and a moat full of electrolyte liquid sensors protected the castle, and a since-abandoned linear motor train network could be found underground.

This frigid land had large areas of empty space, so the Shogunate’s usual defensive theories did not apply. But who had done R&D on all the equipment used to defend this northern land?

In the modern age, civilian satellite services could be used to search through even the most remote areas of the world, so building a secret base deep in the mountains was meaningless.

However…

“It’s all white, Sensei.”

As Ouka leaned up against him to peer at (Asagao’s) phone, he viewed the satellite and analyzed what he saw.

“That’s probably the artificial snow, but there sure is a lot of it even for the area around New Sapporo Domain. That much seems like it would be a strain on the building rooftops.”

The slow-melting artificial snow was used as an environmental defense.

The idea was for it to slow the advance of an Imperial army arriving from overseas, but that was all hypothetical. Hindering the people’s lives for that would entirely defeat the purpose. And yet there it all was. The thick layer of snow did more than color the image white. It also appeared to obstruct measurements made with infrared and microwave.

Sugiyado chose his words with careful attention to where he was steering the conversation.

“If they’re deploying so much of that ‘defense’, is that some kind of crucial location?”

It only looked like a working class area of plain workshops, but it was actually the same as a company town that controlled the finances of an entire giant automobile factory or semiconductor manufacturer.

“Whether she goes to the Shogunate, the Empire, a company, or a university, Princess Karin thinks relying on someone else for her power means handing them her Achilles heel. That means she will have her own technology division to keep that Achilles heel in her grasp.”

“Is that what this is?” asked Bara.

“It might not look it, but I bet that place has the strictest security. Probably about as difficult as sneaking into an international corporations’ HQ.”

A new electrical system was being set up to recover their defensive infrastructure.

It had to be the equivalent of more than 10 nuclear reactors.

The system used might or might not be dangerous, but Princess Karin and the Stonewalls had at the very least killed one person at Abashiri’s special prison, poisoned the domain lord, and stolen New Sapporo Domain’s authority. Things would not have progressed this far if their reasons were something anyone would accept if they simply explained them.

It would be well worth investigating this (giant strategic military research institute disguised as a) workshop district. Whatever Princess Karin was ultimately thinking, nipping this new electrical system in the bud would mean grasping the Achilles heel of the Stonewalls who had taken over New Sapporo Domain and held great influence over the entire Hokkaido Area.

“Let’s work out a concrete plan,” said Sugiyado. “We don’t have much time.”

“Checking back in time, there are a few facial recognition readings.” Asagao snatched back her phone. “The Stonewalls are hiding their faces to an extent, but they aren’t perfect. Now, I think they’re skilled enough to do a better job, but they get lazy because they know Princess Karin can cover for them.”

“Does that mean one of the other three are defending the shopping district?”

“They appear to be working on a rotation, Sensei. I can’t tell if there’s a schedule or if it’s randomized, but using the most straightforward pattern, I know who will probably be next.”

Perhaps because Asagao herself used her youth as a weapon, she did not hold back the cruel smile as she revealed this information.

“Taganuma Yukizasa. As the youngest, she uses her light weight and short limbs to specialize in combat in closed and dark spaces.”

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 motorcy