Chapter 12
Part 1
Minami managed to slip out of an outing with Ogura and Mizushima who were out on the town shopping for bags. She remained in the Tokiwadai garden, where she had a secret meeting in one of the ornate gazebos commonly found in the area.
She took a couple of steps and proudly brushed the hair off of her shoulder.
"So you girls knew about the pop-up event but just kept me in the dark?"
She was facing a stone gazebo with thick columns, which was fully occupied by a group of 3rd-year Tokiwadai students. She interrupted quite an elegant tea party happening among the fragrant roses.
She had been using her phone to help her with directions, but as she reached her destination, she slid it in her skirt's pocket.
A mature, gentle lady greeted her along with the others.
"Good day, Minami-san."
"We could not tell you earlier as we weren't sure if we were going to take action ourselves. Many of the details were kept secret until now."
"Besides, your proximity to Ogura-san is making it hard for us to share information in advance."
"We apologize."
Despite the formal tone they were talking in, they were close friends. While odd in the outside world, this was the most normal way of communicating in the high society of School Garden.
Minami sighed deeply and sat down with the rest of the ladies, joining their tea party despite having just eaten.
"It's fine, I suppose. We're getting close to the Exhibition Assembly anyways so we probably won't be having any more of those meetings."
"It's quite astonishing to think it's already been a month, huh."
"Time sure flies."
Yes. It had been exactly a month since Minami had witnessed the first suspicious activity of the Akiyama Clique. Ever since the System Scan incident, she had kept in touch with her friends from class 3-A and followed the newest developments of that mysterious faction.
She had even felt brave enough to initiate Ogura at one point, but besides her knowing about Inoue Kaoruko's scandal, she wasn't taking action against them, unlike the group of ladies sitting at the table right now.
Tea was already being poured into an empty porcelain cup as Minami looked around the circular gazebo.
"Arakawa-san, Ishikawa-san, Suzaki-san... We're missing Minako-san, aren't we?"
"This is actually what we're here to discuss today."
All of the ladies leaned forward, with their heads directly above the table to shorten the distance between them.
This was a secret meeting, after all.
"Tell me what's going on. I'm all ears."
A lady with voluminous, ash-brown locks spoke up without wasting any time.
"Let's start from the beginning. Here's the rundown: the Akiyama Clique is having a pop-up event in District 5 where they apparently give out a bunch of free gadgets. They've had many of those all over the city already, so no one was expecting anything special, but last minute they announced Akiyama-sama will be showing up in person and possibly making a little presentation."
Minami was taken by surprise.
She tilted her head in response.
"That's strange of them. They've been hiding all this time, but suddenly they decided that doing a last-minute press tour is a good idea?"
"They've been profiting from the mystery of their project, but now that the actual event is a couple of days away, they're increasing their reach by heavily advertising."
"Continuing, that appearance is certainly the highlight of the whole show. The rented out venue was expecting the usual crowd, but after that announcement, a giant crowd showed up, completely filling up the whole area and it's not looking like it will be diffusing any time soon. Take a look at that."
The brunette 3rd-year placed a small tablet in the middle of the table, so that everyone around could see.
Something resembling an online article was on the screen, with the standard layout of pictures posted horizontally, divided by walls of text. The logo of the site was visible in the top right corner.
"Tokiwadai's online newspaper is already on it, huh." Minami spoke under her breath.
The lady was scrolling down slowly. All the pictures posted in the article displayed the promotional booths of all the participants, as well as showed off the crowds from a birds-eye view. The newspaper club had all kinds of fancy equipment at their disposal, like drones, bending camera stands and even esper-manipulated devices - all just to take the perfect shot.
The article was flowing downwards like a waterfall made out of words and photos and at that moment Minami realized this was actually a thread, which was updating and growing in real-time. Meaning, the lower parts of the article were the most recent.
And as Arakawa Karen continued scrolling, an update from just a couple of minutes ago appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
"Here's the interesting part." The girl with ash-brown hair spoke. "Take a look."
Without a doubt, this was the real star of the show.
A photo taken from behind, amidst the dense crowd, with the camera positioned perfectly and shot in extremely high quality, despite the terrible conditions. What appeared in front of the group of four ladies was a candid shot of three people, wearing the exact same uniform they were wearing.
Two girls following a blonde-haired leader, with a flashy cross-body bag, seemingly entering the Akiyama Clique's dome.
"Shokuhou Misaki-sama and her two bodyguards."
"So she really did show up." Minami sighed in amazement. "Don't tell me she supports them, too."
Arakawa held up her index finger, then pointed it at the text under the initial candid photo.
"This should clear up any concerns."
Indeed, everything about the interaction that had occurred at the booth was written in detail, almost as if someone was spying in that dome construction and listening to every single word exchanged there.
Naturally, the Tokiwadai newspaper club had all sorts of espers with useful abilities for this kind of job, so getting their precious scoop was a lot easier, but it truly was astounding just how fast and efficient they acted.
Minami was reading the contents of the article out loud.
" 'Spotted! The Queen, Shokuhou Misaki-sama, at the Exhibition Assembly pop-up event! Shortly after arriving, miss S cuts in line of the Akiyama Clique booth and after a brief conversation LEAVES EMPTY-HANDED AND DISINTERESTED. The audience standing in line gasps as the #5 Level 5 exits in a hurry. Will this humiliating scratch on Akiyama Izumi's spotless reputation end the rollout of her promotional campaign?' How does this have 500 comments already? 560... Oh, 600."
And the numbers were steadily growing.
The 3rd-year lady scrolled down more and there was another wall of text.
" 'The confused onlookers quickly caught on that this VIP appearance was a complete embarrassment for the Akiyama Clique and some visitors left the line, chasing after the Queen instead. Her famed bodyguard, Hokaze Junko-san can be seen escorting miss S out of the venue amidst the raging crowd.' "
" 'Did the Queen of Tokiwadai purposefully ruin Akiyama-sama's highly-anticipated public appearance? #All_Eyes_On_The_Queen' "
"This is ridiculous."
The whole article had an overly-dramatic tone typical for the Tokiwadai newspaper, greatly enhancing the stakes of the situation and making it easier for the high-class readers to engage with the story. However, even by Tokiwadai's standards, this was actually big news.
This time, there was a story somewhat worth all the dramatics.
Yet the girls still haven't reached the point of it all.
Minami asked impatiently.
"So, what do we make of that?"
"Two things."
A pair of slender fingers appeared in front of her face.
"One, we have a confirmation that Shokuhou-sama is not on Akiyama Clique's side. Two, we're now sure she's neither here in School Garden, nor there at the event anymore. And that means..."
Another girl in the gazebo continued.
"...that we can safely start our plan."
This left Minami not only confused, but hungry for more.
"Can you finally tell me what we're doing?"
Words did not respond to her directly, but a certain action did.
The 3rd-year ladies exchanged a look and one of them reached into a purse laying nearby.
To Minami's complete amazement, an object so gorgeous it could cause anyone to gasp in delight, emerged from the handbag. It was a rather small jewellery box, which could pass as a precious antique straight out of the Rococo era, if not for the obviously modern logo on its back. Its entire surface was decorated with all sorts of meticulous gold details and embellishments.
The young lady placed it carefully on the gazebo's table and opened the box like a magical seashell.
And it turned out that the contents of the box were far more precious. A shine similar to a kaleidoscope exploded in the gazebo and showed up on every reflecting surface, creating an illuminating effect in this tiny, cramped space.
Minami wasn't even directly facing the object, but she could feel the blinding shine.
And then, each of the ladies reached inside the box, one by one.
Clink, clink, clink.
They were all holding tiny, identical trinkets between their thumbs and index fingers. The shine was obviously noticeable, but the objects themselves were so tiny, Minami had to squint to see what exactly they were.
And now she knew for sure.
"Earrings?"
Those were the most typical, classic pairs of earrings you could possibly find - gold studs with a white diamond in the middle. So while the design sure was basic, their price certainly was not, as we are talking about Tokiwadai students here.
Minami was still not sure what they had to do with anything, especially since wearing jewellery was prohibited by the school. Granted, they were in the most private area of Tokiwadai, the Rose Garden was pretty much safe from the prying eyes of the Dorm Mistress.
Still, if someone saw them...
And then, suddenly, Arakawa turned the box around to show its contents to Minami.
"Grab a pair for yourself, too, Minami-san."
This was strange.
The wavy-haired girl felt reluctant, but did as she was told.
She reached inside with her hand and picked up the last pair, leaving the box empty.
The silence was awkward, but certainly not natural. The girls were silent not because they simply didn't have anything to say, but because they couldn't talk at this moment. Minami caught on to the fact that speaking about their plan against Akiyama Izumi out in the open wasn't the best idea, even if they were in the Rose Garden where barely anyone could be seen even pass by. They were precautious.
Minami came to the conclusion that they were either waiting for something to happen or the information had something to do with the earrings.
Were they about to talk in jewellery-themed code? If so, Minami was completely uninitiated.
And then, all of the ladies around her began putting the earrings on. Arakawa was still giving Minami a tense look as she was working on getting the earring inside her earlobe properly.
The headband-wearing girl proceeded with the rest of the group.
She had no clue what was going on, but if this had something to do with the plan, she was forced to imitate the rest. Unless they were just pulling her leg, that is.
(My, I haven't worn earrings since the day I got my ears pierced. This Tokiwadai lifestyle really took a toll on me, huh.)
Despite not knowing why, she found the process of putting the earrings on quite nostalgic. She abided the strict dress code like no other, so moments where she could feel like a real girly girl were rare.
She wondered what Ogura Iori's reaction would be to seeing this, after all those months of Minami lecturing her about the Tokiwadai dress code. She probably would have called her a hypocrite.
But Minami was not wearing them because she felt like it, this was a necessary procedure.
And soon enough, she found out why.
(Hello? Does everyone hear me?)
Minami flinched immediately as she felt a voice reverberate directly inside her head like some sort of waking dream.
(I can tell you put on the earrings already. Does that mean we're ready to start?)
This felt weirder than having an EEG scan.
And, to her surprise, there were other voices that made themselves known. On top of that, they sounded strangely familiar.
(Hello, Minako-san.)
(Good day, Minako-san.)
(Is everything alright on your end?)
(Yes, I'm already at the designated spot. Has Minami-san joined you girls?)
(Yes, she's here with us.)
Nobody at the gazebo, or even in the entirety of the Rose Garden was making any sound, yet Minami could hear voices so loud and crisp as if they were directly in her ear.
It was now clear to her what was going on here.
At first, she thought the earrings were some sort of talking device straight out of a spy movie like a tiny, built-in walkie-talkie but it was something completely different. Those were no mere gadgets, but rather catalysts for someone manipulating them in a special way.
There was an esper power at play here.
Minami had to make her presence known to the internal voices and she closed one eye while an embarrassed expression painted her face.
(Honestly! You could at least warn me that we were going to talk telepathically. You know this always startles me...)
Somehow, talking back in this internal voice came naturally.
("My, I haven't worn earrings since the day I got my ears pierced. This Tokiwadai lifestyle really took a toll on me, huh." Who knew you could be this adorable, Minami-san? Ohohohohoho!)
A pompous, princess-y voice was mocking her.
This was truly the last person Minami wanted to look uncool in front of. Her whole face became red as she cursed herself and that spoiled ojou-sama on the other side.
(YOU COULD HEAR THAAAAT?!)
(Darling, the second you touch that earring, all of your internal thoughts are basically laid out in front of me. Ohohohohohohoho!)
(Kitayama Minako, trust me, you will rue the day!)
Of course it was that girl.
Minami agonized over not making the connection sooner.
Tokiwadai Middle School's strongest Telepath, Kitayama Minako from class 3-A. She was the heiress of Carriere, the biggest jewellery brand in the whole world. No wonder the name on that baroque-looking box felt so familiar.
She was using the earrings as some sort of catalyst for her Telepathy.
(Aw, Minami-san, is your cute little face all blushing? I wish I could see.)
(It's not. More importantly, explain to me what this whole plan is about.)
Arakawa Karen put on a serious expression as her voice could be heard through Telepathy.
(Alright, now that we're all connected, we can get Minami-san informed on everything.)
An explanation was heavily overdue, but the wavy-haired girl was ready to hear it all, while sipping on her tea.
(The goal of our investigations is uncovering the truth behind Akiyama Clique's suspicious activity and finding the answers to key questions. First, why did Inoue Kaoruko fake her ability at the System Scan and how does that correlate to their project? Second, what is the true goal of their project? And third, what is the real purpose of the power plant?)
(We came to the conclusion that those answers are only obtainable from people affiliated directly, as there are no official and unofficial records that could aid us in this. So we couldn't rely on the information found on the internet, nor anywhere, really. This is something that is kept so private and inaccessible, that no one besides the clique members knows anything.)
(Only the culprits themselves could help us in this, so we thought, why not ask them directly?)
This sounded more naive than hoping you could find designer items at a random, low-class thrift store.
There was no way that could work.
Were they serious?
But Minami did not interrupt.
(Getting info directly from them would guarantee all we learn is the pure, unfiltered truth, but then the real challenge is, the means to get there.)
(It would be nice if Akiyama just explained everything after getting ganged up on, but she doesn't seem like someone that would do that. Besides, isn't she a Level 4 Esper with quite the destructive ability? She'd blast us away if we took that approach with her.)
(And if we did that, we would have to deal with a whole clique anyway. We don't want a repeat of last year.)
(So exerting pressure is out of the picture. Therefore...)
(This is where we start... Operation Wiretapping!)
Minami gulped quietly.
(We've had this plan in mind for a very long time, but it requires Akiyama to be accessed in-person, so for the past month we could not do anything. Having the main target hidden all this time was a real pain and we couldn't even pinpoint her location, but would you look at that, she finally came out of her hiding for this very special occasion. She even announced it to the whole world, so isn't that just extra convenient for us? Our long-awaited plan can finally come to life.)
(The main key to this operation is Minako-san. You see, her ability to create telepathic links is amazing for long-distance communication like this, but it can also be helpful when trying to gather some info from people who wouldn't provide it willingly.)
Yes. This girl's ability was perfect for this kind of job.
A Level 4 Telepath of her caliber was hard to come by. She was the best in the whole school, but that's pretty much all that people knew. The intricacies and in-depth mechanisms of her ability were mostly unknown, which worked in her favor.
For one, the basis of her power lied in the process of creating the telepathic network - she couldn't just create one out of nowhere, like most telepaths; her ability actually required physical objects which she used as catalysts to her telepathy, attaching them to people and connecting them to the telepathic network. As long as an object was registered by her as a "transmitter", it was fully functional.
Once she was connected, she had access to the entirety of her target's brain. The act of "transmitting" wasn't just limited to voices either; she was capable of sharing emotions, visuals, smells, memories and knowledge. And that sharing ability went both ways, so mind-reading was also possible through this method.
She was quite odd in nature, thus her Personal Reality became skewed as well, because for some reason, the only objects that worked as transmitters were gems and metals.
In other words, pieces of jewellery.
Her personal attachment to jewellery as the heiress of Carriere must have had something to do with it, as well as her expensive tastes as a high-class girl.
In reality, she treated this ability as an excuse to buy more diamonds for herself and her friends.
(Minako-san is already there at the venue and Akiyama's public speech is supposed to happen in about 30 minutes. Here's how this is going to go: Minako-san will be standing in front row of the stage with traps set all over the area. When Akiyama comes on, she will discreetly make a telepathic connection with her through a hidden transmitter. Once that link is made, she will be able to read Akiyama's thoughts and share them directly with us through the network, which will hopefully give us all we need. And if we're lucky, we may be able to locate her power plant from that info.)
(Now, even if we find some incriminating evidence through the mind-reading, we won't be able to use it against her. After all, there still won't be any concrete proof that we could present to the teachers. It will just exist in our heads.)
(The goal of this operation is to confirm whether our suspicions were correct and if there's a point in further investigating the clique. If they really are indulging in something worth the teachers' attention, we'll move on to more rigorous tactics and get solid evidence that way. But for now, we're just going to have a peek inside her mind and see what she's scheming.)
(Also, after the link is made, Akiyama will be under the influence of Minako-san's ability for a good hour or so. This may come in handy if she decides to change locations after the event.)
(That pretty much explains it. Any questions?)
Minami was quite shocked after hearing all that.
The plan sounded simple and straight-forward, and if successful, would quite literally achieve every goal set by this group. The point of their long investigations into Akiyama Clique was, at the end of the day, just getting answers to all their questions.
Akiyama had been absent from the public eye for all this time, so they had been left with no way to progress their investigation. However, now that the Assembly was approaching, she came out of her hiding.
And the second that news had spread around, the 3rd-years had begun to act.
The perfect opportunity presented itself.
Still, Minami was concerned.
It sounded easy on paper, but it couldn't have been like that in actuality.
(Will this really work, though? Won't she feel that something is messing with her head? And how are you even going to access her?)
(Don't worry, Minami-san. I can make my ability as seamless as possible. I mean, you clearly didn't notice anything when my ability was already working on you.)
(We've actually considered other alternatives, but this is the least invasive one.)
Ishikawa Mei, sitting next to Minami, nodded her head.
(Akiyama is an Electromaster, so a regular hearing device would not go through her EM barrier unnoticed. And any other available telepath we've contacted doesn't have the discretion of Minako-san's ability.)
(I would say it's worth the risk. After all, we're not just looking to snoop on Akiyama. She won't be alone at that stage, right?)
Minami's eyebrows lifted slowly.
(You don't say...)
(Shouldn't Inoue Kaoruko be right by her side? We might be able to kill two birds with one stone.)
Now Minami was really interested.
Part 2
"Nagayama Power Station..."
That name escaped Shirai Kuroko's lips as she was staring at a computer screen.
She was occupying a Judgment office, somewhere in District 7.
The prestigious Tokiwadai uniform she was wearing might have looked jarring at an ordinary place like this, but Shirai did not mind that at all. She was classy, but in a different way than most Tokiwadai students. Dutiful would probably describe her better.
She was currently alone at the office, as her partner, Uiharu Kazari, had gone off somewhere to get lunch.
Having free time like this at the usually busy office meant she could do her own thing. Uiharu had tasked her with some paperwork, but Shirai decided to put that off for now.
There were some matters she had to take care of first.
The aspiring hero of justice conducted solo investigation while sitting in a cutesy office chair.
Now, the matter she was investigating was quite old. Had it already been a month since this whole thing started? Shirai was losing the sense of time. Multiple cases had been piling up since then and multiple battles had been fought, on a scale much larger than a simple back-alley brawl. Therefore, her mind had been distracted from it many times.
Shirai's job as a Judgment member was surprisingly serious.
And this case, while not seeming like a big deal, has been making her restless since she had looked in the Exhibition Assembly documents.
Normally, she would let it go after this long, but the fact that something fishy was still going on within the Tokiwadai Middle School doubled or even tripled the importance of this matter. How could a Tokiwadai student trigger her alarms this easily? Wasn't this the most prim and proper school in the whole world?
Shirai remembered the last time a Tokiwadai student decided to cause trouble and how big of an incident that ended up being. She would have had prevented that from happening had she known sooner.
That is precisely why Shirai was sitting there, taking the precious time out of her day, to get to the bottom of this. To get some insight on a certain individual.
Akiyama Izumi.
There was an event happening in the current moment, somewhere in District 5 and that girl was expected to show up there.
Shirai did not care about that, however. She knew she wouldn't learn anything important from official websites, conferences, interviews, articles. Anything with Akiyama Clique's stamp of approval was useless information.
Because the real meat of this case was hidden within the nooks and crannies of the records. Things that weren't supposed to see the light of day. Things that were enigmatic and vague. Things that regular people couldn't get access to from just surfing the web.
But Shirai was a Judgment member. A Judgment member from Tokiwadai, at that.
All the Assembly-related paperwork was laid out in front of her in a form of scanned pages.
She had to start from the very beginning.
"There it is." She spoke under her breath. " 'This year's Research Exhibition Assembly marks Akiyama Clique's first failure. The highly-anticipated AIM-charged SuperModule gets brushed off by critics and described as a primitive attempt at creating next-generation nuclear technology.' "
Shirai opened a tab of a different website, but there was an article relating to the same topic.
"And then, it says the company supporting them backed out of any future projects. Basically marking the end of the clique's reign. I'm assuming this is the seed of the problem."
A couple more tabs opened and Shirai was picking small bits of information from each of them. Everything regarding the clique's past was scattered around, almost purposefully, and it took some real effort to piece everything together.
But no matter how scattered the information was, once collected in one place, could aid in creating a quite cohesive timeline of all the events.
Shirai was now reading off of an archived thread from Tokiwadai Today.
" 'Our insider tells us that the Akiyama Clique is increasing in numbers. Apparently new major members have joined to help with the clique's new venture.' This was written in November, so just 2 months after the Assembly."
She was switching between serious-looking documents and amateur news articles written by students.
"This is quite a tight timeframe, isn't it?" She hummed with eyes stuck to the bright monitor. "In just 2 months she was back on her feet, but... secretly?"
There was a noticeable shift that had happened after the previous Assembly.
Shirai had no issue finding articles from 2 years ago, when the Clique had been apparently still in its renaissance, but all the information after the August of last year could only be found in some back-alley websites.
" 'Where is Akiyama Izumi? The star of Tokiwadai's energy-based research gone from the public eye after a commercially failed project.' " Shirai recited. "Yet the clique was still growing somehow."
This might have been just a switch of tactics. After all, a comeback from something like this would have heavy expectations attached to it.
There was pressure.
Therefore, going away for a while and focusing on reclaiming her reputation was an understandable idea.
Or was it?
Any useful data from this timeframe was scarce, but Shirai managed to scramble some things together.
" 'Heavy organizational changes within the Akiyama Clique. A newcomer, Inoue Kaoruko becomes the faction's right hand and all forces go towards the new project.' "
A sparkle appeared in her eye suddenly.
"This is it. The first mention of their new lab."
She looked at the scanned document in another tab and compared it with the article of a sketchy website.
" 'A new blind item: the Akiyama Clique settles in at a brand new location for their research. Details are currently unknown, but it's a power plant located somewhere in the southern part of the city.' Hmm, this does seem correct."
But that didn't change the fact that still barely anything added up.
So to sum things up...
"They have a major slump mid-August at the Exhibition Assembly, which is so bad, in fact, that their only partner company cuts ties with them. Then, the Akiyama Clique goes radio silent, however their numbers start rapidly growing out of nowhere. Then, there's the new location rented for their next research."
Shirai seemed to have run into a wall.
This was all the internet could help her with. Everything after that was completely useless information.
Not even the name of the power plant was available online.
But thankfully, she didn't need that. After all, Shirai was a Judgment member from Tokiwadai. The strictly confidential, and massively helpful, document filled by the Akiyama Clique was in her possession. This potential last (and biggest) piece of the puzzle could complete the picture and make things clear. But would the piece fit? Was there anything to it?
The document was in front of Shirai's face, displayed in a form of a scan.
"Nagayama Power Station."
Yes, this was the name of that top-secret place where the Akiyama Clique's new project was being developed. It was that name that set off Shirai's alarms at first because she was sure that place had been long abandoned. It was famously one of the oldest establishments in Academy City, probably dating back to the very beginnings of it. A power plant built in the middle of District 10 which at one point ended up being redundant when the new plan to build nuclear power stations in outer districts got realized.
Once newer technology got introduced to the city, older facilities would often become abandoned and run-down, instead of getting renovations and upgraded equipment to meet the current standards.
Nagayama Power Station was one of those unfortunate facilities. At least that's how Shirai remembered it.
It didn't take long before she started to look more into it.
And to her surprise...
She found a whole lot of nothing.
"What?!"
She scrolled and scrolled and scrolled, and scrolled some more.
And the only available information regarding this place was that it indeed existed.
No records regarding the past research conducted, no history of scientists that worked there, not even an official website for the company who owned it. Just a bunch of empty walls of text.
She even looked in the Judgment archive to see if the power station had ever been recorded in any of the documents.
But there was nothing.
A complete wipeout of all data.
...
That in and of itself was suspicious.
Of course, it was, but...
Shirai was left with nothing to go off of. Suspicions grew, but evidence was still nowhere to be found.
"Wh-What does that even mean...?"
Running into a wall twice was not something she expected.
Right when things started to go in the right direction, she found herself stuck again.
She let out a loud sigh.
"This is way beyond my own abilities."
She slumped in her chair and sulked for a while before coming to an obvious conclusion in her head.
"Uiharu could probably get all the info I need with some simple hacking."
But that short-haired, sailor uniform-wearing girl was out at the moment. Not like Shirai would want to involve her anyway.
So.
She had to work with what she had.
Shirai picked her head up from the desk and began to think.
What was it that she was trying to achieve here in the first place?
"Let's reevaluate the situation." She spoke soberly while holding her chin. "The fact that there's nothing on this facility confirms exactly what I thought. It is for sure abandoned. But all the stamps and signatures on Akiyama Clique's documentations are made by the company who owns the facility. There's a contradiction here."
The fact that the facility was abandoned wasn't openly stated or publicly known and the documentation filled by the Akiyama Clique seemed completely ordinary on surface level. Basically, no one could spot anything suspicious about this if they didn't try to dig deeper.
"There's only one explanation to this." Shirai uttered quietly. "They don't want the public to know about the research they're conducting, so instead of mass-producing dummy data into the internet, they simply hide themselves in the shadows. But even if you try to shed light on that shadow, no matter at what angle, it does not disappear."
This type of facility was truly the perfect hideout if you didn't want to get discovered. To those who thought it was abandoned, not having any info on it anywhere, wouldn't come off as unusual. And at the same time, the inactivity of the facility was not stated anywhere, so the Akiyama Clique could freely put it in the documentation without seeming suspicious, pretending like it was operating just fine. This was a win-win situation. A facility that is both incredibly well-hidden and does not raise suspicion, because everything about it is ambiguous enough.
This must have been a strategic pick. They chose this seemingly-abandoned-but-not-really power plant for a good reason.
But how did a facility without a disclosed status even make it through?
Shirai was already out of ideas.
She reached a point where there was only one way to find out the truth.
She hesitated for a while before reaching for the computer mouse once more.
Click, click, click.
You could not find any internal data of the facility, nor look into the history of it, however, Shirai knew its name and as long as satellites existed, no major facility could actually stay physically hidden.
"Here's the address..."
Shirai wasn't feeling enthusiastic despite having found, possibly, the most important clue. After all, that clue was only helpful if you were willing to do something dangerous.
The girl with chestnut-colored pigtails hesitated.
...
"It's risky..."
She held her chin while trying to reach a sober conclusion.
"Even as a Judgment member, I don't have the authority to inspect their facility. All of their paperwork is technically legitimate and they have the Board of Directors' stamp of approval. Barging in there would be considered a crime on my part."
Yet, it was so obvious that something fishy went on in that seemingly abandoned facility.
The decision was not easy to make.
And then.
Mid-thought, Shirai remembered something.
"That's right... The pop-up event."
She quickly reached for the computer mouse and opened a new tab. She searched for something that previously seemed irrelevant, but it surprisingly gave this helpless situation a different meaning.
Shirai opened a website which displayed Tokiwadai Middle School's logo in the corner.
She stopped at a certain part after scrolling down the page and her eyes widened.
"The Akiyama Clique will begin their presentation in 10 minutes."
Shirai basically catapulted those words out of her mouth.
The wording of that suggested all of the members were at the event, and considering this clique's inaccessible nature, having them all out of their base was a rare occurrence.
Shirai leaned backwards in her office chair and tightened the muscles on her face.
Now, all of a sudden, everything started to align.
If she was to do something risky, now was the perfect time. There was a pretty wide time window for her to act.
That mysterious facility stood vacant at this very moment.
Shirai had no solid foundation to act against them when it was just her and her suspicions alone. And barging into the facility of innocent researchers could get her in serious trouble.
But what if she could put them to the test?
What made her different from any other trespasser were two things. The Tokiwadai Middle School uniform and the green armband stuck to her shirt's sleeve.
If she used her authority and adjacency to the Akiyama Clique, as a Judgment member and as a Tokiwadai student, maybe there was a possibility she could get away with this.
Even if someone found her there, she was the least suspicious person.
There was no more time to think.
And Shirai had already made her decision.
She quickly turned off the computer and reached for her Judgment armband laying on the desk.
"Let's pay them a little visit, shall we?"
Part 3
Ogura Iori and Mizushima Sayuri left a fancy pancake shop somewhere in School Garden.
They were done with shopping for bags and were grabbing a snack to eat at one of the local parks. Both girls were holding adorable, ducky-themed pancake boxes.
Fancy shops like this one had a strong appeal to the demographic of School Garden thanks to their focus on aesthetics and the presentation of food. Making business in an exclusive spot like this one was hard when competition was so fierce and the number of customers was so limited. After all, we're talking about an enclave, around 2 km square, with only 5 schools, where everyone was basically fighting for the same customer. Ensuring the quality of the food was high meant a lot, yes, but the key to a successful business here were truly the aesthetics. Once the appropriate levels of cuteness were achieved, the food quality was on point and customers started to pile up, now real business was being made, because at that point the shop owners could freely add another two or three 0's to their prices, which made no difference to those high-class girls with black credit cards, but sure was a big financial boost for the shop owners. In short, the bigger the popularity, the higher the prices. This town was truly the only place in the world where you could get away with that.
The two young ladies strolled down a European-looking street with their overpriced pancakes.
"Too bad Minami-san had to leave for that meeting." Mizushima spoke in her sugary sweet voice.
"I know. She's always so busy and stays on top of everything. It's like she's allergic to having fun and relaxing."
"And the summer break is about to end soon..."
The two blonde girls arrived at an elegant park which looked more like an artificially made, French garden.
They sat down on one of the free benches built along an alley and began opening their meticulously packaged snacks.
"By the way, is Hisakawa-san also out doing something? I feel like I've barely seen her this past week."
Ogura gave her a troubled look.
"Ayako's busy with all the work for the Akiyama Clique. Their promotion for the event has been getting really intense recently."
Mizushima was stuffing a fluffy pancake into her mouth with a ducky-themed fork that looked like it costed a fortune.
"Ah, right. They're doing those pop-ups, huh. And I've heard you can get some freebies if you wait in line."
Ogura was about to respond after munching on a pancake, but then something caught her eye in the distance.
There was a group of girls from another school walking around the garden and chatting. Curiously, all of them held identical items, around the size of their palms.
"Yeah, those."
Speak of the devil.
The ladies were holding objects in their hands like take-out cups, but they were smaller and made out of metal.
Ogura did not have to look for a long time to realize what those things were. She could tell from just that little glimpse.
"Akiyama Clique's ChargeBots, huh. They're getting quite popular among students."
"Yes, I've been seeing lots of people with them just out and about on the streets."
"Apparently a single robot can power all of your electronic devices just by being close to them. You can walk around the city for hours without having to worry about your phone battery dying."
"And it helps that they're quite cute-looking. I've seen some people attaching them to keychains."
The heavy promotional cycle of the Akiyama Clique was seemingly working well.
Mizushima Sayuri wondered out loud.
"Should I get one for myself? I mean, the school curriculum requires so many electronic devices, it's sometimes hard to handle. It would be convenient if I could have them charged at all times."
Ogura looked at her puzzled.
"I'm surprised you haven't come across any of their booths, Mizushima-san. Ayako told me they're doing pop-ups in every district of Academy City. They're practically everywhere."
The honey-blonde girl seemed taken aback.
"E-Eh? In every district? That's quite the dedication..."
"Yeah, from District 1 to District 23. Pretty amazing, huh."
"I wonder why they're trying to extend their reach so far."
"Right? Hm..."
The two girls paused for a moment to think, while their faces were stuffed with fluffy pancakes.
They stared obliviously at the sky above them and hummed.
"Who knows...?"
Part 4
A young lady wearing Tokiwadai's summer uniform leaned against a modern-looking building. She was somewhere in District 5 of Academy City, while completely surrounded by a noisy crowd.
Several constructions were built around the area and the most impressive one stood at the end of the open air venue.
It was a stage built on a tall platform, with a simple microphone and amplifiers, which were currently being taken care of by the maintenance staff.
Something big, like a performance, was about to happen on that very stage.
The young lady was eyeing it while holding her earlobe.
She had long, dark hair styled in an intricate way. It wasn't necessarily curly, but also not wavy. It was shiny, but the structure of it was so sculpted and perfect, it seemed hard to the touch at first glance, as if she poured a can of hairspray on it. It looked like the hair of an expensive figurine.
The back of her head was adorned with a girly ribbon.
She was communicating with someone through the strange method of touching her earring. Weirdly enough, she could hear everything clearly, despite there being a crowd of a hundred people all around her.
(The stench of commoners is getting to my brain. I literally can't stand it.)
She whined internally, however this time she wasn't just talking to herself.
Other inner voices were responding to her.
(Is the crowd that surrounded Shokuhou-sama completely gone?)
(I think she went off somewhere so they left too, but there are still some Tokiwadai drones patrolling the area. Are they hoping she'll come back?)
(Wishful thinking. She made herself perfectly clear, didn't she?)
(I wonder how those Akiyama Clique girls are feeling right now.)
(Dealing with the massive line of angry people. I bet they don't have time to sulk right now.)
(More importantly, Minako-san. Are you sure you'll be able to scatter the gems without anyone noticing?)
(Wasn't it you who made them invisible, Ishikawa-san?)
(Yes, but I'm not sure if they'll stay invisible long enough.)
Kitayama Minako closed her eyes to think.
(All we need is for them to touch a single gem. After that, they're mine. It doesn't matter if suddenly all of them reappear and cause a scene. Who cares? Once the link is created, I have access to their brains.)
Her power had a unique property.
She could create a discreet telepathic link with practically anyone as long as they made physical contact with one of her catalysts, no matter if it was a conscious or a coincidental contact.
Her ability worked like pollination. Every single one of her catalysts was a tiny pollen, which once attached to another plant, extended her reach. The function of her telepathy was incredibly varied too, as she could not only transmit sounds, but also visuals, smells, emotions, knowledge, pretty much anything identifiable to a brain.
The combined efforts of two espers - a telepath and a camouflagist - gave her an opportunity to do the unthinkable.
Her job was to scatter a full sack of invisible gems she hid inside her skirt's pocket onto the stage, right before Akiyama Izumi and her clique were supposed to come on. Those would work as invisible mines, which once touched, would give Kitayama Minako free rein inside Akiyama Izumi's mind. Anything stored inside that head of hers could be directly sent to everyone through Telepathy like Bluetooth data. And, in turn, all the other girls would acquire all the answers they needed. Now, it sure was quite a gamble whether she would actually step on any of the gems, but because this was a project presentation, they were certain she would move around the stage a lot.
In worst-case scenario, Kitayama Minako was willing to throw one of her own earrings at Akiyama, just so she could create a link. But she secretly hoped that wouldn't be necessary.
...
This was the only plan that seemed doable. The girls had to come up with something to work around a major limitation of Kitayama Minako's ability.
However, requiring physical objects for it to work was truly its only downside. That and also the fact that there was a limited effective range to her ability, that is if you consider twice the entire area of Academy City a limitation.
So if that link was made, Akiyama would need to escape Academy City to severe it.
Practically an impossible task to achieve.
So...
(Once that hag steps on one of my precious mines, it is check-mate.)
...
finally after 150k words of world-building / character introduction / filler, it's time for the actual plot.
Minako, the Telepath girl, appeared in chapter 2 so a long long time ago but yes her involvement was foreshadowed.
actually let's do a quick recap of all the characters and abilities because I know a lot of ppl might not be fully caught up.
THE GIRLIES
✩ Ogura Iori - ? (Level 4)
✩ Mizushima Sayuri - Aerokinesis (Level 3)
✩ Minami Himeka - Electroencephalography (Level 3)
AKIYAMA CLIQUE
✩ Akiyama Izumi - electromaster? (Level 4)
✩ Inoue Kaoruko - telepathy? (Level 3)
MINAMI'S FRIENDS
✩ Kitayama Minako - Telepathy (Level 4)
✩ Ishikawa Mei - Camouflage (Level 4)
✩ Arakawa Karen - ? (Level 4)
✩ Suzaki Aimi - ? (Level 4)
(also on a side note the railgun manga & mental out manga are currently giving us so much tokiwadai lore I feel blessed like they literally did this for me I finally feel the motivation to write again eek)