Part 8
Shirai Kuroko was surrounded by a cold interior filled with all sorts of strange machinery.
She was taking careful steps and checking her surroundings. The entire place was dark, devoid of sounds or any signs of life, but Shirai remained cautious.
Strangely, her presence in this unfamiliar facility did not disturb anything or anyone, nor did it feel like there were many obstacles, stopping her from walking around the place.
She was simply strolling down an empty hallway. Once in a while, she would check rooms that appeared on her way, by teleporting herself inside them and completely bypassing the electronic doors.
She could enter all of them, but she always ran into the same issue once inside.
Everything here was conducted via machines, therefore...
(What a pain. I can't do anything here.)
She was a Teleporter at Level 4 and while this ability sure came in handy more often than not, this time Shirai wished she was blessed with the power to manipulate electricity in any way.
With the ability of a certain Level 5, she could probably hack into all of the machines present here and get the information she needed. Even files containing experiment data were stored electronically through big computer panels, and those were naturally locked behind special security systems.
The ground level was practically useless to her, as it mostly contained labs, where she could only find electrical equipment. And she wasn't even sure if they had any connection to Akiyama Clique's projects.
The map of the building she had checked earlier suggested there was also an office space somewhere on the higher floors.
At least moving around this place was not a challenge for Shirai.
After focusing for a second, she teleported up a level and found herself in a similar-looking hallway.
She collected her thoughts after looking around.
(Strange... There are no anti-intruder alarms set and most of the lab units have no power. Are the rooms with restricted access their only form of security? Hmm.. those might just be leftovers from when the facility stood abandoned.)
Besides, Shirai's stroll down the rooms felt too peaceful.
This was especially weird considering how easily she had been able to enter.
(Looks like there's no staff working here other than the Akiyama Clique members. How are they managing this whole place by themselves?)
(No, more importantly... the guards basically let me into a completely empty building. Are they seriously not even considering that I could be suspicious?)
This could have been a trap, but Shirai doubted that the Akiyama Clique would set up such complex countermeasures inside their top secret hideout. Their main form of security was the secrecy of the place, so they would have no reason to invest in fancy anti-intruder systems inside the building itself. The security team hired for guarding the place was simply an after-thought, as they could be confident no one dangerous would even have a reason to show up here.
Shirai's presence here was a total anomaly, after all, and she was one of the only people who had access to Akiyama Clique's strictly confidential documents, as a Judgment member from Tokiwadai.
She held her chin while walking forward.
(Even though I'm lucky that there aren't complex security systems trying to fend me off, there still isn't a way for me to gain any evidence, unless their offices contain data stored in a more old-fashioned way...)
Shirai frowned.
(There are so many floors to check in this building, but I don't have a lot of time. And the guards outside will surely get suspicious if I take too long...I mean, I could just deal with them if they come after me, but I'd rather not leave any bodies behind. And at that point, I might even be in a worse situation.)
A certain thought appeared in Shirai's mind.
The Clique, whose hideout she was infiltrating, was full of high-level Espers, possessing abilities she was not even aware of. If she made an enemy out of them, she could have been in a much bigger trouble.
(I better get this done quickly before anything bad happens.)
And with that, she teleported to another floor.
Part 9
The event in District 5 was slowly coming to a close, as the presentation of the Akiyama Clique had finally concluded.
The stage at the very back of the venue was already being deconstructed by the maintenance staff and the crowds of students began dispersing around the square.
There was a group of men working on taking down the platform supported by metal beams.
Their chatting could be heard in the peaceful backstage area, where a group of Tokiwadai students had gathered.
"Hm? What is all this?"
"What are these little sparkly things doing here?"
"Woah, they're all over the stage. What a mess."
"Were they here before?"
"No clue. Maybe one of those Tokiwadai brats scattered them during the presentation."
"Why?"
"Dunno. I wasn't watching."
"Those rich girls are crazy, carrying all this expensive junk around the city."
"Hey, you think we could take some? Those look like they cost a fortune."
"Idiot! You wanna get fired?"
A certain girl was listening in on their conversation while entering the backstage area. She had icy white hair styled into a voluminous bob and calm, serene eyes.
She was quietly humming to herself while toying with a crystal earring in her hand.
(The Espers of Tokiwadai sure have some annoying abilities, huh.)
The small item in her hand was almost like a trophy she had earned for herself.
Her face was painted with satisfaction while looking down at the earring. She walked by a group of her colleagues before encountering a certain young lady with burgundy-colored pigtails.
She spoke to her immediately.
"Good work on the presentation, Inoue."
The girl had a mature, deep-sounding voice. It was hard to believe she was actually still a middle schooler.
The icy lady with porcelain skin gave her a gentle smile in response.
"Of course, Akiyama-sama. I'm glad we were able to carry everything out successfully."
The red-haired girl was stretching her arms with a quite tired expression.
"Me too. By the way, do we have any data on how many ChargeBots have been given out today?"
"Hisakawa-san and the other booth-runners have already provided us with the numbers. Thankfully we were able to empty the entire stock today. All 2,000 ChargeBots have been handed out."
"Perfect. Tell them to take down the booth and come here." She spoke elegantly. "Oh, and also."
She stopped the white-haired girl before she could walk away.
"Inoue, what was that earlier? During the presentation."
A moment of silence followed after that question.
The icy girl turned around and looked at her colleague with an oblivious stare.
"You suddenly giving me messages to use my ability in the middle of that speech kinda startled me. I figured someone in the audience must have been suspicious and that's why you wanted me to jam their devices, but what exactly happened?"
Inoue Kaoruko let out a quiet sigh and raised her hand slightly. There was a tiny crystal earring trapped behind her thumb and index finger.
"Another pest from Tokiwadai. She must have scattered those around the stage when we weren't looking. My goodness, they just keep coming after us, even though we're not bothering them at all."
"An earring? What would that be used for?"
Inoue shrugged her shoulders with a smile.
"My guess is some sort of weird Telepathy that uses objects as activation points. Touching one of these can give an esper full access to your brain and get your memories read like a book. And she even made them invisible somehow. Pretty dangerous, huh."
Akiyama crossed her arms.
"What? But you stopped that, right?"
"Of course. Although, I must admit, this time they got a little too close..." Inoue spoke with a slight smirk on her lips. "I wasn't expecting an ability like that to attack me, so it took me by surprise a bit."
The red-haired lady looked worried.
"Do you know the name of that girl? Any clique she's affiliated with?"
She received an amused scoff in response.
It was as if Inoue was not even taking the person in question seriously.
"A~ah, Kitayama Minako-san, I believe. This is the funny part, she doesn't actually belong to any clique. This entire spy mission of hers must have been an independently carried out plan. Pretty creative, huh?"
Akiyama was tapping her finger nervously, while crossing her arms.
"Yeah, but even if she's not a member of any clique, I doubt all of this preparation could have been done alone. I'm guessing she had accomplices that helped her."
"That's possible." Inoue hummed while putting a finger near her mouth. "But don't worry about that, Akiyama-sama. I already dealt with her, so she won't be coming after us anymore."
The red-haired girl stopped thinking for a moment and opened her eyes wide. She tilted her head while looking at Inoue.
" 'Dealt with her'?" She repeated with a surprised tone. "...What did you do?"
And then...
Akiyama watched as her colleague's lips started to form a sinister smile.
Inoue had a peaceful aura and natural elegance to her, but she could very easily turn that impression of herself upside down in a matter of seconds. Her energy was completely different now that she was asked that simple question.
There was a twisted spirit hiding behind the shell of a classy, young lady.
It was practically escaping through that wicked smile.
But she did not answer directly.
She remained completely silent.
While somewhat being able to guess, Akiyama was not sure what that response meant. Shegave Inoue a tense look and walked away slowly after a moment of silence, while a bad feeling started to grow inside of her.
She decided not to ask any more questions.
Part 10
"Hey, there's a girl passed out over there!"
"S-Someone, call the ambulance!"
Something was causing quite a scene on the opposite side of the road. Groups of passersby stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and flocked towards a certain spot with phones in their hands, creating a loud ruckus.
A circle of people had been formed around something laying on the ground.
It was a girl.
Her hair was black, long and voluminous, with a pink ribbon tied into it. She wore a beige sweater vest over a short-sleeved blouse and a grey skirt. That famous, prestigious uniform was easily recognizable to the people standing in the circle.
This Tokiwadai student lay completely lifeless in the middle of the street.
A truly shocking and scary scene to witness for anyone strolling down that sidewalk.
It was like witnessing a precious diamond necklace shattered into a million pieces and scattered all over the dirty ground. The sight of tarnished beauty was heartbreaking to anyone who could truly appreciate charm of purity lied in its fragility and weakness, yet you could not help but mourn its loss when it was defiled.
How did this girl's delicate skin and carefully sculpted hair deserve to be tainted with dirt, while she lay collapsed on the sidewalk like a dead bird? How was it fair?
This was truly an unsightly scene to behold.
Students of various schools were surrounding the body of this Tokiwadai girl, mysteriously passed out on the dirty asphalt.
"(Heatstroke...?)"
"(Hope it's nothing serious...)"
"(The ambulance should be here soon...)"
The nervous whispers combined, created a surprisingly loud hubbub.
...
Suddenly, a black, luxurious-looking limousine pulled up next to the sidewalk. There was no designated parking spot there, but the car had only stopped to quickly let its passengers hop out.
The fancy doors with tinted windows opened immediately and closed just as quickly. A loud, slamming noise could be heard accompanied by the sounds of multiple pairs of shoes stepping onto the asphalt hastily.
The crowd turned around towards the source of this unexpected sound, only to see more girls wearing that exact uniform running towards them.
More Tokiwadai students have shown up.
"MINAKO-SAN!"
Minami, Arakawa, Ishikawa and Suzaki cried out with desperation, while squeezing their way through the wall of completely took over those high-class girls of Tokiwadai, as they rushed towards the scene of the incident.
All of their bad suspicions became true at once.
And now they stood in front of the passed out girl, joining the circle of bystanders.
"..."
"..."
They froze completely.
With horrified eyes, they watched as their friend's body lay completely motionless on the ground.
Kitayama Minako had been knocked unconscious.
They were too late.
...
At this moment, it felt as if some twisted nightmare escaped into reality and tainted their world with darkness.
A simple plan to snoop on some schoolmates led into a complete never would have tried to do anything had they known it would leave consequences of this magnitude.
There was an immense amount of guilt attached to it.
Nevertheless, there was still something they could do before the ambulance would get here.
Though shivering with fear, Minami stepped to the front and kneeled next to the girl's body. With focused eyes and sweat running down her face, she reached her hand out and touched the girl's head.
Her ability was Electroencephalography. She could examine a person's condition through analyzing the electrical signals within the brain. If there had been some serious damage dealt to this girl, there would be a trace of that left behind in her bioelectricity.
And...
Minami's entire body shuddered after just a second of focusing.
She spoke immediately with absolute confidence.
"Her oscillations are really low-frequency, but the brain has been completely overloaded. There was a strong, seizure-like activity that made her fall unconscious."
The wavy-haired girl was so sure of it, there was no way to doubt her analysis.
All of the Tokiwadai ladies froze in shock.
"A s-seizure...?"
"How could that...?"
They stood in place, completely bewildered, but deep down, the answer was clear. Though shocking to hear, there was no mystery behind this incident whatsoever, and the information provided by Minami only cemented it.
They all had the same thing on their minds at this very moment.
The girls exchanged a glance.
...
Soon after, the area became illuminated by red and blue lights, while a loud ambulance siren resounded with an ominous echo.
Part 11
Shirai Kuroko entered a spacious room.
Finally, after wandering around the mazes of empty hallways and dark laboratories, she reached her destination.
She was on the fourth floor of the glass-covered building, inside what looked like a regular office.
(Thank god they also have a more traditional way of storing data.)
Shirai thought to herself after opening drawers full of various documents. Her ability was useless against the computer panels, so she could only gather information the old-fashioned way. She was snooping around the office and picking up anything that seemed remotely relevant to the Akiyama Clique.
She opened a massive cabinet, with stacks of documents filling up the shelves. And it did not take long before something caught her eye.
("Proof of Acquisition.")
She read the title at the front page and reached for the stack.
Flip, flip, flip.
Her eyes were scanning every page from left to right, looking for a certain name to show up.
But that never happened.
Instead...
("Nagayama Power Station. Acquired by SQUADRON on January 18th.")
She took a moment to read that all over again.
("Acquired by SQUADRON"... That's the name of the company that is supposed to own this place. They acquired it in January of this year? Then who was the previous owner? No... more importantly, why does the Akiyama Clique claim to have rented this place? There's no record of that in these documents, so...)
This could have simply been a business deal between the clique and the company, something like a mutual agreement that both parties could benefit from. But whatever the case was, parading around the city and spreading misinformation for no reason did not sound believable.
What would be the point of that?
Besides, a deal like this would need to be documented in the Proof of Acquisition.
Shirai pulled out her tiny, all-purpose device from her skirt's pocket to quickly check something.
She began tapping on the expandable screen with the document still in her hand.
And she smiled nervously in response to what had appeared in front of her eyes.
Now everything was as clear as day.
The first mentions of the company appeared in that same month, January of this year. And anything after that was scarce.
It was way too coincidental.
Shirai came to the obvious conclusion...
(This is a cover-up...!)
Yes, the company SQUADRON did not actually exist. It was a name created to simply protect the identity of whoever actually acquired this place.
She clicked her tongue and turned off the device.
(Can't say I didn't really expect that. So the acquisition of the facility and the supposed lease given to the Akiyama Clique seem to align... I'm starting to think they're actually the same thing.)
Which meant...
(They're probably in kahoots with whoever acquired this place. It was bought by some third-party ally and given to the Akiyama Clique to use for their project. This seems probable... Ugh, but the company name is just a decoy, so I can't even track it back to any potential lead.)
Yet, there was still something she could think of based on the clues in front of her.
Shirai held her chin.
(There's also the possibility that Akiyama herself could've set up the false company name... but I kind of doubt that. Being able to pull off such a massive-scale fraud that can pass through rigorous verification processes would require a lot more than just a group of rich girls. Sure, they have the money and the connections, but they would not be able to do that alone. Something like this requires external help. And a really high-profile one, at that.)
Every information given to the public was falsified.
Every name attached to the Akiyama Clique's brand-new project was a fake dummy.
It was now clearer than ever that whatever went on in this facility did not have the right to see the light of day. Something seriously worth covering up was happening within these walls.
Shirai gulped quietly.
There were two questions on her mind.
How could a fake company be possibly registered in all of the official records? And who could be powerful enough to even pull off something like this?
(Someone on the Board of Directors...? A high-profile scientist?)
She bit her lip.
(It really could be anyone.)
(But how...? And why...?)
She could find the answers to those questions if she continued to look around the place.
There were still many cabinets full of clues.
The chestnut-haired girl was checking them out.
(All I need is a solid lead. Something to point me in the right direction...)
Bit by bit, Shirai was chipping away at the multiple layers of protective covers set up by the Akiyama Clique and whoever else was affiliated with them.
Now, the goal was to find any documentation related to the project itself and getting a clue on where their actual lab was located.
Shirai had checked all of the units downstairs, but those were obviously abandoned. They were just leftovers from years ago with outdated technology and power completely shut off, so the Akiyama Clique's project had to have been moved to a different part of the facility.
Cabinets and drawers were opening rapidly, while Shirai was making quite a mess in the pristine office.
And finally...
(Found it!)
The document in her hands read "Development Data #77". It seemed like it had been randomly mixed up with the rest of the files, but as long as there were any clues regarding Akiyama Clique's project, that's all that she cared about.
No matter how cryptic and taken out of context, data was data.
Shirai opened it gently and skimmed through the irrelevant first couple of pages.
Now she reached the part with actual evidence. She flipped the pages some more, only to notice there was a certain pattern here.
This file contained documents with identical layouts; every page had a row of brackets filled with numbers and each of them started out with a certain keyword, probably relating to their respective experiments.
However, nothing in front of her was sounding particularly familiar. She could guess those "keywords" were just code names for the Akiyama Clique's projects, but maybe if she searched deeper and repeated them a couple times, something could ring a bell?
(Brainwave Resonance... Electromagnetic Tuning... Simulated Network... Particle Cutter... OmniCompressor...)
Other than those phrases, nothing else was written in actual text. The contents of the brackets were merely measurements relating to some scientific research, after all. But Shirai, being a Tokiwadai student and a high-level esper, could more or less tell what type of research those documents were about, based on the various formulas used and the specific units of measurement.
(Is this about some kind of brain enhancements?)
That was all she could really gather from this.
But this file was only one of many.
("Development Data #106"... Hmm, #261... Just how long did those experiments take them? I mean, I guess they did have a lot of time since January, but they must have been hard at work all this time.)
Another one of those documents seemed to have a different layout.
(A report...?)
Finally a text written in proper Japanese.
Shirai was ecstatic to finally have found something she could understand without prior knowledge, but taking a look at the contents of it quickly put out that fire inside of her.
Every word was being carefully analyzed by the girl's widened eyes.
And, in that moment, a droplet of sweat could be seen running down her cheek.
(What in the world is this...?)