Disclaimer: I do not own Taimanin series.
The Vengeful Blade - 06
In the underground facility beneath Gosha Academy, Kotaro typed away on the keyboard.
The data showed on the monitor was following his instruction, readied to perform a simulation reimagined by his line of thoughts. One of Emily's drone connected to the computer and uploaded the rest of the images she'd scanned from the previous investigation.
"Automatons, positions and numbers. Kunais, shurikens, hidden pits, the threads...and...and..."
Kotaro read through the data one last time and made sure not to miss anything as he cross-examined the list. Good! He pressed the last key to finish the input, the computer compiled the data smoothly without giving anymore errors.
"All done." Nodding to himself, he spoke into the microphone from the Control Room. "Rinko-senpai, simulation will begin in ten seconds. Standing by."
[I'm in position.]
Rinko tapped on the earpiece while she stood on the far side of the Simulation Room.
The vast white space began to render the image of the forest where the mysterious intruder had managed to get through Kotaro's booby traps. Dense tree lines appeared and rose high. The grass grew, hovered over the scattered leaves and slime molds were clinging to the ancient trees' trunks. Poisonous bushes and rustling noises trailed along the narrowed path which leading straight to an opened area in front of Rinko. Her long hair began to flutter in the artificial evening breezes.
This was the night the intruder snuck into Gosha.
The advanced technology of the Holographic Display recreated each details and brought them to life, exactly as Kotaro needed.
By reconstructing the scene and having Rinko take the role of the intruder under the assumption that their choice of weapon was a katana like hers, Kotaro believed he could pin-point their mannerism in the way they'd infiltrated through the traps.
Multiple camera views already adjusted to get the necessary angles of the action, Kotaro briefly glanced at the time.
There was still an hour left before that gym session with Murasaki-sensei and Su. He'd better get as much information from this simulation as he could, he didn't want to...actually, he wouldn't dare to dismiss the training session over this mission, not after the shenanigan yesterday.
But...maybe. Just, maybe...
He could try to drag this out for a little bit.
...
...
Rinko just finished warmed up. She entered the basic Itto-Ryuu stance, holding the scabbard while the other hand carefully placed at the katana hilt.
[Begin!]
Rinko blinked into thin air and reappeared on the other side of the opened field. She'd used Void Art to teleport herself through the traps. Watching the action, Kotaro slipped a chuckle before speaking into the microphone.
[Senpai, we're reviewing the methods the intruder used to get through those traps, it's the sole purpose of this simulation. Let's start again.]
"Ehh." She made an awkward smile. "I made it look too easy to bypass his traps."
[Just to let you know, I didn't take Void Art into account when I was making those traps. It's obvious something like this would be easy for your Ninja Art.]
Rinko turned red with a jolt, her little mutter was heard through the earpieces. Kirara's complaint about the sensitivity of these things became even more valid today.
Cough!
She forced down the blush and returned to the previous position.
"Okay, Fuuma. I'm ready."
[Resetting, no usage of Void Art this time.]
His words made her wonder, she had been stacking a decent amount of energies for her Ninja Art to be ready at all time. Basically, Void Art had almost became a part of her mind and body, its convenient usage was a great advantage in combat when it came down to the distance between her and the opponents.
Kotaro's instruction was neither easy nor hard by any mean.
"It seems I have to put all my focus into this."
Getting into a state of total concentration while not relying on the voice of instinct was not something anyone could pull off cleanly. Even so, Rinko had found discipline in the way of the sword. She could do this without fail.
[By the way, Rinko-senpai.]
"Hm?"
[It's alright if you memorized the traps, just follow the intruder's footprints I marked on the ground.]
Among the grass and fallen leaves, the marks depicting the route the intruder took were visible in a bright blue color, a noticeable contrast to the green wood.
"Fuuma, are you sure this will turn out as planned?"
Rinko voiced her concern, she understood the way his traps worked after learning the details from him. However, by taking the elements of surprise out of the picture, the result might be different than the expectation.
[We won't know until we had tried out different scenarios. Begin!]
Rinko relaxed her body and walked into the opened area. Immediately as she made the first step within range, bamboo logs appeared to fire poison darts towards her. Rinko's sword stayed in the sheath as she used the its case to deflect the projectiles.
She took the next second and third steps. The area was stilled.
At the fourth step, the ambush continued as the next wave of poison darts fired off, stronger and quicker than the previous attempt. Rinko spun on her heels, steering her body around the shots. She successfully evaded the trap without breaking a sweat. The short silence afterward was a feint, the hidden dart appeared as expected. She caught it between the fingers and moved on.
A giant log dropped from above once she reached the seventh step, Rinko gripped the sword and split the thing in half. From this point onward, the footprints shifted to the left. The eleventh step at this direction triggered ambushes from the automaton puppets. Knowing the attack would come, Rinko effortlessly fenced off the assault, quick slashes cut through the vital spots on the automatons' bodies.
The threads hiding among the grass vibrated, by the time the kunais started launching from the shades, Rinko had already walked off to another spot. She did a light jump over the collapsed surface and parried the surprised trap buried at the bottom of the pit midair. The trap within a trap tactic had been disabled so easily, the way she moved was like water flowing gently downstream.
Rinko nearly made it to the end of the simulation, there was only a crossbow standing between her and the completion of this scenario. It shot the first arrow, she titled her head to the side and the crossbow missed its mark. The second arrow revealed after that, Rinko broke into a dash when the last obstacle fired off in her face.
Ishikiri Kanemitsu drawn and intercepted the arrow right at its pointy head, cutting the object in half. Rinko neutralized the trap after making a simple swing of her sword through the ranged weapon, letting it crash to the ground.
The basic scenario was completed.
"Once you understood the layout of these traps, getting past them is easy." Rinko sheathed her blade and did an arm swing stretch, looking confident. "How was it, Fuuma?"
[You completed the first scenario in under five minutes. Great job, Rinko-senpai!]
"Now, what's next?"
[Just a moment.] The sound of papers shuffling came from the earpiece. [Let's move on to the fifth scenario, the positions of those traps will be reversed. Left becomes right and vice-versa.]
While they were waiting for the lab result, Kotaro had notified her they would try out about twenty different scenarios with the sole use of her skills to come up with a clue about the intruder's mannerism. Starting from here, the foreknowledge of his traps served no more use to her, Rinko's swordsmanship would be put to the test.
Rinko smiled as excitement filled her body, she loved to polish her blade in the face of challenges.
"Alright, I'm ready!"
...
...
After the fifth scenario reached its completion, Rinko once again returned her sword to the scabbard and remained unscathed. The timing was still the same as the first scenario, albeit a thirty seconds delay.
Kotaro looked at the replayed footages and spent a moment to think of the next step.
[Rinko-senpai, let's go with the third scenario. The hidden pits will appear at random so watch your steps.]
"Okay!"
...
...
Third scenario - completed.
Rinko didn't struggle much. Though, she tried to avoid the craters and used an automaton's body as a shield during a group attack. She had anticipated the element of surprise buried deep in one of the hidden pits. When it happened, she chose to evade instead of parrying it off since her mind focused more on the automatons.
[We'll go with the eleventh scenario. The numbers of automatons will double.]
...
...
Eleventh scenario - completed.
There was a ten minutes gap compared to the previous attempts. Rinko had fenced off the kunais, the shurikens and countered the puppets' ambushes simultaneously using her swords and quick footwork. Her skin began to glow in the aftermath of all that actions.
[Do you need a break?]
"There's no need for that, I can still go on."
The Savage Hunter in her began to show, Rinko wasn't done pushing her skills to the limit. She wanted him to raise the difficulty in the next scenario.
...
...
Twelve scenario - completed.
Fifteenth scenario - completed.
Seventeenth scenario - completed.
Twentieth scenario - completed.
Rinko insisted on moving to the next scenario. He knew his popular senior was a diligent person and she wanted to help him find the intruder as quick as they could before anything bad could happen.
But Kotaro would disagree, he didn't want her to overwork herself over the constant simulated battles and booby traps. He tried to convince her to take a break.
[But do we have enough to figure out the identity of the intruder?] She asked him.
"Not sure." His respond.
[Then why stop now? I can keep going.]
Getting through her tenacity turned out to be the next challenge for him.
"I want you to take a short rest first. We'll continue in fifteen minutes."
[Ten minutes would be enough to recover my stamina.]
"You've been swinging your sword non-stop, Rinko-senpai." He firmly said. "We should be able to pick up something from the footages, eventually. Don't worry too much."
[...understood.]
"Okay, ending simulation."
The green forest returned to a vast white room, Rinko in her purple Taima bodysuit stood out in that broad space. He saw her letting out a sigh, she didn't seem content with the decision to stop the simulation halfway just to take a break. There were some scenarios left they hadn't covered, but this much display of her skills would be enough for him.
"Hang on, I'll come down with some drinks and towels."
[Ehh?!]
"...eh?"
Her cute gasped over the earpiece stopped him in his track.
"Rinko-senpai, what was that?"
[You said you're coming down here?!]
"Yes?"
[It's o-okay! I-I have my towel and drinks in the dressing room!] Rinko sounded nervous.
He should check on her.
"I'm coming down."
[No, Fuuma! I said it's okay!]
Kotaro didn't feel even a bit slightly convinced, the way she said those words in a raising tone only made him want to reach her faster.
The control center and the simulation room were just two doors and a staircase away from each other.
Kotaro didn't wait for the automatic door to fully open and slipped through the gap as soon as it moved, he hopped over the guardrail, skipped many steps down the stair and shoved himself past the last door. Ack! He felt stung in the legs, but he couldn't careless! He'd got to see her!
In the distance, Rinko was fidgeting around for some reason.
"W-Wait! Hold up right there!" Her hand shot up, telling him not to go any further. "I'm fine, really!"
Suspicious! That only caused him to worry more about her.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Simulation Room technology also came with a safety guideline and manuals. The realistic feelings it generated actually affected the body and mind of those who had been using it for too long. In a way, it could wrap the individual's perception, misleading the brain into believing the faked injuries to be real and causing the body to react negatively.
At this moment, something like that might have happened to Rinko.
"Were you hurt?!"
"T-That's not it!" She shook her head.
"Then what is it?"
Rinko flinched hard and leaned away as he stood in front of her. Her cheeks glowed a shade darker than her lip, the arms wrapped under her bosom and around herself.
"Why did you have to come down here anyway?!"
Kotaro didn't get why she was feeling agitated about it.
"I was going to discuss with you about the intruder's combat mannerism while we take a break."
"E-Eh, is that so?" She muttered. "You could have at least talked about it through the earphone."
Why though?
"Rinko-senpai, you're not making sense."
"Ugh?!" The remark startled her. "Fuuma, Y-You...!"
The strange resistance from her finally cracked, she turned around, showing the exposed back glittered with sweat.
Rinko's Taimanin suit hugged tightly to her figure and left out the rear, which stretched from her nape to the midpoint of the torso. The suit was designed in such a way that the flow of Taima particles could respond better to her close-combat style.
"I'm...drenched. Can't you see?" She admitted. "I didn't want you to come closer and...see me like this. D-Don't think anything weird, okay?"
Kotaro's thought went blank for a moment.
"That's it?"
"That's it?!" Rinko was shocked. "That's all you can say to me?"
"No injuries?"
"I said there's none!"
"I don't get it. Isn't sweating normal for people like us who often take part in high-risk tasks and heavy activities? Why do you feel bothered by it now of all the timing?"
"Fu-Fuuma, I'm being conscious about it because it's y...!"
She was about to say something in the spur of moment, but Rinko closed her trembling lips tightly before the final word could slip. She was blushing but he wanted to take that expression as her being exhausted from multiple simulated scenarios.
"Never mind! I'll take a break!"
Hurriedly, Rinko walked off, leaving a dumbfounded Kotaro behind in the empty white room.
After she was gone, he made an awkward sigh. Standing closer to his senior just now, he had felt the air scented with the gentle fragrance of jasmine tea. Rinko's aroma was just fine.
But...
"Senpai, you don't have to worry about it. You don't smell at all! Hahaha!" - As if he could straight up tell her that.
The footages were waiting for him to do a thorough review, it was about time he drags himself back to the Control Room.
Eighth scenario - reviewing.
Kotaro observed Rinko's movements as the clip replayed her feats.
Her advancement into the center of the area was stopped by two giant logs appearing at the same time. She decided to make a high jump to avoid the collision, only to be caught in surprise as the hiltless katana dropped from above her. Rinko managed to maneuver her body midair and dodged the blade by a hair's breadth.
As Kotaro adjusted the mechanism, some of the traps and the crossbow triggered early once Rinko arrived at the eleventh step. Even so, none of that would be enough to give her a disadvantage. Her blade continued to cut through the rushing waves of automatons and lethal weapons.
This was the potential of a young Taimanin-in-training who could stand on an equal footing with the Elites.
The door behind him opened as someone entered the Control Room, yet Kotaro couldn't avert his eye away from the monitor. There was a blooming beauty that carried a vicious strength in each swing of the blade. Like a rare piece of art, it stole everyone's gazes at first glance.
"Impressive." The person commented as they watched the footage over his shoulder.
Their voice was soft, familiar to his ears. This person was someone he knew, Kotaro agreed to their words without thinking much.
"It is. It's no wonder other trainees look up to Rinko-senpai so much."
"Well, she's one of our Aces. Give her some more time and she would be qualified to lead her own Taimanin squad."
"There's no doubt..." He blinked. "Wait, her own squad?!"
Kotaro turned to look at the person who revealed that shocking news. When he met with their fierce gaze, Kotaro was quick to forget about his surprise and instead squirmed in his seat.
It was Murasaki with her white Taima bodysuit inside a lab coat.
"Murasaki-sensei?!"
"What's with the shocking look?" She calmly said, the tone of her voice shifted back to a firm one.
The intense glint in her eyes indicated she wasn't here just to have a chat. His jaw dropped when he read the time on the computer screen, it had already been two hours since the Simulation with Rinko began.
"You've got guts, you slacker."
The corner of her lip curved up, Kotaro knew better not to interpret that expression as an actual smile. She wasn't smiling! Because he was late for her gym session! Just now, did she lower her voice just to get a shock out of him as a punishment?! What now?! What should he do to apologize?! Would it work if he made a dogeza right here on the floor?!
"The staff informed me you're using the Simulation Room to investigate the case so I stop by. This is for you."
The consequence didn't appear to be the focused topic of this conversation.
Murasaki passed him a folder, it contained the lab result from the confidential clues he'd collected in the forest west of Gosha. Two zip bags were returned, including a detailed analysis description for each item.
"The fragment is made of Hinoki tree, blended with natural pigments." Kotaro read the paper, he was right about it.
They discover another clue on the piece of wood. A separate layer found applied to one side of the object, concluded to be solidified oils which hardened through chemical reactions with oxygen.
"Drying oils?"
"It's aromatherapy. Fragrant essential oils are often used to relieve stress." Murasaki explained. "This also applies to wearing masks over an extended period."
The Hinoko Cypress material, natural pigments and essential oils for therapeutic purposes. By looking at these clues, Kotaro finally arrived at a conclusion. He deducted a kunai had struck the intruder's face and ripped off a portion of the mask, which was one of the clues obtained from the scene.
"There's no mistaking it, this wood fragment fell from a mask. The intruder was wearing one during the infiltration. They were caught off guard by one of the traps."
But which mask they were wearing? The most common types that made of these materials would be the demon face Hannya, angry Tengu and the resentful mask Jya. These masks were popular around Japan and some Taimanin groups also worn them to hide their identities on stealth missions.
"This is still a big stretch for us to identify the intruder. But for now, we can safely assume they're not from the Dark World since Aromatherapy is not a common practice in their cultures, Kiryuu's words."
Murasaki opened her opinion to Kotaro and they shared a look.
"Which Kiryuu?" He asked. "Kiryuu Sabato-san?"
"Do you really think his sister would care about this case? She will never bat an eye at anything that doesn't worth her attention."
Kotaro nodded at her words. That meant Kiryuu-san had personally analyzed the items and delivered it to Murasaki-sensei in a timely manner.
"I requested him." Murasaki disclosed. "Just so you would have some free times to spend for the re-evaluation match with Su. But this is how it...Turned. Out."
Kotaro shuddered as she stressed the few last words.
"Fufufu~." Again, she wasn't smiling. "You're so brave to think that I would be lenient just because you're still recovering."
Gulp!
If only he could turn the ventilation system to maximum output, there was so much miasmas flowing around his seat.
"I'll...m-make up for it!"
"Ohh? Really now?"
His left eye closed shut as Murasaki's hand reached to his face. Kotaro braced himself expecting a painful grip on the head.
Chop.
Much to his surprise and relief, a light knife-hand chop tapped his forehead.
"Return to our gym sessions after you finished this case. I expect you to make up for the time lost."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
He earned another light chop of her hand.
"Call me sensei, you brat."
…..
…..
"Based on Kiryuu-san's analysis, there's a high chance the intruder isn't a demon." Kotaro pondered. "What about Nomad's mercenary group, the Samurais? They're also wearing this type of masks, should we add them into the list of suspects?"
"Our field agents are keeping an eye on them as we speak. Currently, neither the Samurais nor Nomad are making suspicious movements, you can rule them out."
Kotaro swiped the pencil across the page of his notebook.
"So we just need to focus on the human side then."
"By the way. Fuuma, have you checked the surveillance cameras?"
"Yes, I've asked Amane to look through the records. She picked up nothing."
Placing a hand under her chin, Murasaki was considering various possibilities.
"This individual is quite skilled, huh. They're capable of perceiving the scale of our security measures and got past it without causing a disturbance. It doesn't seemed someone from the outside."
"Shiranui-san has the same suspicion. She thinks the intruder possesses high level skillsets equivalent to an Elite Taimanin."
"It's possible." She nodded. "What about their combat mannerism? Do we know their choice of weapon used?"
Kotaro quickly typed on the keyboard and the monitor displayed images captured by Emily's drone and some directly cut from the reviewed footages.
"I made a comparison. The slashed wounds found on the automatons' bodies are closely matched to the strikes Rinko-senpai made with Ishikiri Kanemitsu during the simulation. These are very clean, decisive and swift motions done through the proper usage of cutting techniques."
"A similar swordplay from another katana user." Murasaki concluded after hearing the details. "Hm. Guess that narrows down the list of suspects for us. I doubt any of the organizations outside Gosha would care enough to send out their agent to spy on us."
Gosha - The village true name stayed hidden from the world, only Section Three and the government were aware of its existence.
"Even if we had had joint operations with other factions such as the UFS, CU (Chinese Union) and EU (European Union) in the past, the name Gosha and its location remained confidential, undisclosed to all official records. Unless there're some valuable intel on our part, there's no need to send out someone to search and infiltrate Gosha in secret. Whenever they need to contact us in person, we can escort them here. Those organizations are sharing the Exchange Program with us, after all."
"There's very little need to...search into us." Kotaro glanced at the ground, in thoughts. "It's because they're fully aware the Taimanins are the most behind the curve."
Kotaro recalled a certain topic as the conversation gradually shifted. In term of technology development and potential growths in the generations of this era, the Taimanins were still lacking. This was the harsh truth Asagi had mentioned to him once in their exchanged notebook.
"Indeed, we are certainly lacking behind in this battle against evils." Murasaki bluntly said. Then, she patted Kotaro on the head. "But at this moment, we have the Task Force."
Murasaki rarely expressed her soft side to someone else other than Asagi. However, when the time was right, she would let it show to those in need of consolidation.
"There're still rooms for your growth, don't think too much about trying to keep up with the rest of the world."
The gentle strokes she made to his hair soothed the intrusive thoughts. Kotaro crossed out more names from the suspects list.
"Murasaki-sensei, do you think the intruder could be someone who used to be one of ours?" He brought up a possibility. "A Rogue?"
"Most likely. They managed to navigate the ancient forests to find Gosha, got through your traps and bypassed the security surveillances altogether. That can only be someone who knows the way of the Taimanins really well."
A Rogue Taimanin made the most sense for their case. Kotaro decided to align the scope of the investigation to that approach.
The second clue. The needle from the hidden anti-Taima arrow.
Before Kotaro started reading the analysis, Murasaki had a question for him first.
"Fuuma, do you know where Akiyama was on yesterday evening?"
"She was with me, we went to the shopping district to buy some stuff."
"I see."
Kotaro looked at Murasaki, whose expression looked like she was free from a sneaking suspicion.
"Sensei, what's wrong?"
"I wanted to confirm something before moving forward."
As Kotaro began to read the analysis, the Control Room door opened for Rinko to join them. She'd changed into her sportswear for the duration of the break.
"Murasaki-sensei." She greeted with a light bow of her head.
"Good timing, Akiyama. The lab result just came back."
Kotaro's line of sight continued to follow Kiryuu's analysis. After observing the needle under the microscope lenses, skin cells were detected. The DNA testing returned a positive match when compared with Gosha database.
"…..what the….?!"
The left eye slowly went wide.
Akiyama Rinko - 100% matched.
"The intruder shares your DNA." Murasaki calmly stated.
"Eh?"
That shocking reveal stunted the two young Taimanins.
….
….
….
….
….
When Kotaro and Rinko left the underground facility, it was already night time.
There had been a discussion filled with doubts and confusions, Rinko was the most affected.
The intruder was someone who carried the same genetic information as her, the result was a flawless match that left no room for a single minor difference. It was a bizarre fact that truly happened.
"Could it possibly…" She spoke up. "…..a clone of me?"
"….."
Kotaro went quiet, he had no answer to that. Even if he wanted to say no, there would be nothing he could use to debunk that theory. The Task Force had dealt with cases involving the clones of high-profiled Taimanins before this. It wouldn't be a surprise if some cloning research institutes were still out there, hidden in the dark.
Still…
Kotaro was thinking.
If they were truly Rinko's clone, what was the purpose of sending her to Gosha in secret? What was the goal? Was this from the same UFS group that sent Yukikaze (Cyborg) to find information about Momochi Toyo?
Or perhaps, they were trying to get the information about the Great Ashen Tree incident?
Kotaro scratched his head, grumbled. Asides from the intruder's identity, nothing concreted was on their hands yet. The more he questioned it, the harder to untangle these convoluted thoughts.
"….is it….truly a clone…..but when did they…..?"
Rinko looked like she was stuck in a deep trance and couldn't break out of it.
"Rinko-senpai."
He grabbed her hand, she didn't notice his touch until he gave her a squeeze.
"Hm? Eh?" She looked at their hands holding together with her jaw hanging. "EH?!"
The shade of red began to dominate her face. But what Kotaro wanted to do the most right now was to ease her worry.
"It's okay. We'll get to the bottom of this."
Seeing the determined look on his face, Rinko regained her composure.
"Where do you think we should start with all these information?"
"We'll trace possible routines the intruder took from the west forest to Gosha outskirt. I'll try to review the camera records with Amane again, there has to be something we can use to track them down."
Kotaro formed another plan.
"It's going to be lots of works. But now that we know who infiltrated Gosha, it's easy to establish securing perimeters."
Ring! Ring!
Abruptly, his phone rang. The caller ID showed Shiranui's name.
"Shiranui-san?"
[Fuuma-kun, it's about the paralyzed toxin you received from Yozora.] Her voice was light, yet it didn't conceal a sense of urgency. [Do you have the antidote with you?]
"Y-Yes, I always carry it in my belt."
[That's good. Is Rinko-chan also with you?]
He shared a look with her.
"She's right here."
[Well then, you two. I need you both at the Akiyama Estate. Make haste, someone's really in need of that antidote.]
[Ahhh~! My body! It's…...Umgghh~, so h-hot! I can't!]
Kotaro startled, he recognized the second voice from the speaker. It was Rinko-senpai's!
Wait a minute, it was indeed her voice. But it sounded so….so strangely sensual! He quickly turned to the Rinko next to him just to be sure he wasn't mistaken. She was blushing on the cheeks after hearing the sound. What a relief! He didn't mistake it after all!
[Yukikaze, take the other arm, help Mama support her up. Do it gently, her whole body's become sensitive due to the toxin.]
It seemed like Yukikaze was there with her mother too. Hold up! What was going on there?! Whose body was sensitive?!
"Shiranui-san? Shiranui-san?!"
The call ended. Kotaro had an inkling of what was happening at Rinko's house, the Akiyama Estate.
"Yozora-sensei's paralyzed toxin, the side effect is probably kicking in."
"What kind of side effect?" Rinko asked.
Kotaro didn't reply to her question and simply glanced away.
"Fuuma?"
"We better hurry up to your house!"
He walked ahead and flinched as he felt a weight pulling his arm back. Kotaro realized he totally let that gesture fly over his head once he picked up the call from Shiranui. He was still holding her hand and didn't let go. Rinko also didn't loosen her grasp on his.
An unvoiced agreement filled the air. The two decided to pick up the pace, the following silence between them wasn't that much awkward.
Neither intended to let go.
/