Blackout

I've decided to challenge myself and write a spy infiltration chapter. I apologize in advance if you find it pointless, illogical and/or boring.

   The school has weird rules when it comes to allowing visitors to visit the room of a student. Visitors from outside are forbidden no matter what, not even the student’s own family. Boys are allowed to go inside the room of another boy, and the same rules applies to girls. Girls are allowed to visit a boy’s room provided they received permission from the guards, but the boys are not allowed to visit a girl’s room under any circumstances. It may or may not have to do with the fact that this world is part of a harem anime where gender inequalities exist.

   I wonder how was Miyahara able to visit Takayama’s room. I take out my phone and call Miyahara.

   ‘Hey Kagenashi. What’s up?’ he asks me once he picks up his phone.

   ‘Sorry for calling you at this hour. I just want to know how you managed to go to Takayama’s room even though the rule forbids it.’

   ‘Are you trying to tease me again?’

   ‘No, I’m not. This is a legitimate question.’

   ‘Well, Shizuku and I decided to try our luck and ask one of the guards whether I could go to her room. If it failed, we’ll just change our plan and hang out at my room instead. The guard on duty actually allowed it.’

   ‘...Seriously? That’s all it took?’

   ‘Yup. That’s all it took. I hope that helped you.’

   ‘It didn’t really, but thanks anyway.’

   ‘Anytime.’

   Madoka made this my punishment, so I assume that she’s not going to make this easy for me. By contrast, I have a feeling that she’s going to make it more difficult that it already is. First, I tried calling Mashiro.

   ‘Mashiro was told by Madoka to refuse your plea for help. Mashiro is sorry, Akira.’ she told me when I tried to ask for her help.

   ‘That’s okay. I was kind of expecting her to do that anyway.’

   ‘Either way, good luck trying to get to her room.’

   ‘Thanks.’

   I didn’t bother to cal anyone else. Madoka probably took proper steps so that I can’t seek help anyway.

   Before I head back to the dorm, I open up an application Madoka installed for me. This app allows its user to look at the interior of a building after scanning it with the phone’s camera. I guess you could call it an X-Ray for buildings. You could even use it to scan underground facilities. Best of all, you could save the map of a place you scanned so that you don’t have to scan the same place for a second time. Madoka told me that she often uses the same app whenever she’s planning her route for infiltration missions. The app had been made by the Research Department, and Madoka trusts it greatly. I have literally no reason not to use it.

   Ever since the trip in Kyoto, I’ve been learning about the ways to infiltrate a place from Madoka. This app is one of the tips I got from her. I’ve always known that brute force isn’t the answer to everything, and having Yui kidnapped just reinforced this theory of mine. Sometimes, you have to be discreet and reach your objective while alerting as little people as possible.

   Here’s the layout of the dormitory of the Academy. Both genders live in a thirty storey tall building excluding the lobby. There’s the main entrance and a back door in case of fire. The boys get the first fifteen floors, while the girls get the remaining ones. The resident of the room is decided by the Rank of the student. The higher your Rank, the higher floor you get. For example, my room back when I was in C Rank is on the first floor. Now that I’m An A Rank, I live at the tenth floor. Needless to say, going up and down the floors are a huge pain when you live this high up. I can’t imagine what the girls have to go through every morning.

   Speaking of going up and down, there are a total of ten elevators located at the middle of the lobby. Each of the elevators could hold up to forty people. I’ve never been inside an elevator that has students with even a quarter of this number, so I could never understand the reasoning of making the elevators so spacious. I’m no elevator engineer, but I’m pretty sure that installing and maintaining large elevators are both cumbersome and dangerous. Anyway, I digress.

   The security here is tight, to say the least. Majority of the students live here, after all. Even though we’re supposed to protect ourselves, Principal Morifuji isn’t taking any chances. Security guards were employed to guard the place 24/7. They’re not just regular guards either. I heard that some of them are the alumni from the school, while all have received some sort of training in order to fight intruders who could use magic and/or possess Regalias and Pseudo Regalias. I also heard that their work schedules are decided impromptu so that any potential intruders cannot take advantage of it.

   Being a dorm for students and all, this place has no shortage of security cameras. The good news is that they’re not co-linked with a minigun just like those I saw at the entrance of the Research Department. The bad news is that they’re co-linked to something much worse: a turret that can fire laser beams. Rumor has it that the temperature of the lasers can reach up to 1,000 degrees.

   Throughout all those times I passed by the lobby and went to one of the elevator doors, I’ve counted at least twenty security cameras at the lobby, two on both sides of the elevator doors, and four inside each elevator. One suspicious move and I’ll get turned into Swiss Cheese.

   Incidentally, boys even aren’t allowed to press the buttons which lead to the floors where the girls are. If you accidentally pressed it, an alarm will sound for 10 seconds as a warning. If you don’t press the button again to undo it, the floor of the elevator will open up, and you’ll fall through the empty space. Rumor has it that it leads to the sewers. Some say it’s connected to the garbage dump. Either way, I don’t have any intention of finding out.

   For the next few minutes, I try to find a way to get to Madoka’s room without being caught.

   First of all, climbing from the outside isn’t going to work. According to our school manual, the walls of the dorm have been painted with a special paint that will make the surface ultra slippery, courtesy of Research Department. The bricks used to make the walls are made of special clay that could withstand even the toughest drills. In other words, I can’t rely on grappling hooks.

   Stairs are out of the question as well. I would have no way to run if I was detected, and I certainly don’t fancy going all the way up to the thirtieth floor where Madoka is, even if I got down at the fifteenth floor.

   The elevator isn’t usable for the before-mentioned reason. Technically, I could do something about the cameras and the alarm with a hacking app I got on my phone, but it would take too long. I’ve tried to hack into the system of a random shopping mall to mess with the elevator, and it took me almost an hour. Anyone could notice that the system is being hacked if one take that long. Madoka told me that you need lots of practice in order to hack like a total professional, and I believe her after doing it for ten times and still couldn’t shorten my time. Besides, being inside an elevator is too risky. I would be a sitting duck if the guards noticed me trying something and stop the elevator. Worse still, they can just open up the floor beneath me.

   That leaves the vent. According to this app, the vents installed around the building are big enough for humans to crawl through. All of them are connected and lead all the way up to the roof where all the gas are purified via a large purifier machine. I did a quick research on the machine. The interior is designed so that those who do maintenance can crawl in and out, provided the fan that’s spinning around between the pipe and the machine is switched off first. In order to deal with it, I have a hacking app installed in my phone that could temporarily turn it off long enough for me to crawl through.

   After I got out of the purifier, I have a few seconds to get to the entrance of the rooftop. I’m very glad that whoever that locked the door doesn’t rely on the classic padlock-and-chain where it would be extremely difficult to open from the other side. Instead, they chose to rely on number pads which open the door after the correct password has been pressed.

   Naturally, the rooftop has security cameras too. This is much easier to deal with by using the same hacking app I mentioned just now. All I have to do is hack the screens connected to them and replay past images over and over again long enough for me to open the door.

   The last part of my objective involves passing through the corridor until I reach Madoka’s room. I could monitor the movement of the patrolling guards and any students who might come out of their room with the app easily enough.

   Now that my plan has been formed, it’s time to execute it. Firs of all, I need to head back to my room. My kitchen has a vent too, after all.

   When I got back, all the girls have already went back to their respective room. Not even Kuromi is around. Well, let’s get this started.

   I lift up the chair that I originally placed in front of my PC and carry it all the way to the bottom of the vent. I then spent a good few minutes moving everything in my way including the exhaust fan with the help of several screwdrivers. Next, I climb inside the vent. Thankfully, my body size isn’t too big for me to go through.

   I don’t know how long it took, but all I did next was climb and climb and climb some more. It got somewhat difficult when the vent starts to go vertical. I need to be real careful or I might slip and fall. When I got tired, I positioned myself so that all my limbs are supporting me.

   I let out a huge sigh of relief when I see a spinning fan right in front of me. I’m finally at the rooftop.

   While being very careful, I take out my phone and activate the hacking app so that I can make the fan stop moving. I’ve done the hacking beforehand so that all I need to do right now is to press a single button. Sure enough, the fan did stop spinning. I waste no time in taking out a screwdriver and remove the fan so that I can crawl through. Once I’m inside the purifier, I made sure to put the fan back in its original position and deactivate the app so that it can start moving again. While resting my body, I move on to the next part of my plan.

   I open three windows on my phone. One to hack into their monitors, one to unlock the door to the entrance, and the last is to monitor any movements at the thirtieth floor. There isn’t any so far, but that might change any second.

   It took me quite a while to hack into the monitor. As I said, I have too little experiences in it. Once I’m in, I proceed to replace to image shown on the monitors with past images. This way, I would never be noticed by the guards who’re staring at the screens. They might smell a rat when they notice the date of the images, so it’s better that I’m quick about it.

   The moment it’s done, I get out from the purifier and make a beeline towards the entrance. I then slap my phone on top of the number pad so that it could start its job at hacking.

   Exactly five seconds later, the door opens up. I go through it and close it as lightly as I could. I check the screen of my phone one more time. Still no movement from anywhere. I waste no time in charging towards Madoka’s room. At the same time, I remember to remain light-footed so that I won’t cause a ruckus.

   There it is, Room 30-2 where Madoka is staying. Surprise, surprise, she opens the door even before I could knock on it. She’s wearing her lounge wear, and she smells kind of good. Maybe it’s because she just took a bath or something.

   ‘What are you doing at the girls’ floor, Akira?’ she has the nerve to ask me.

   ‘May I come in?’ I ask her grumpily.

   ‘Oh, I don’t know. We aren’t allowed to let boys inside our room, remember?’

   I was contemplating on leaving when she chuckles and steps aside so that I could go in. I walk by her, and she closes the door behind us.

   Her room is as big as Sakuya’s, but it is is half as empty. There’s a queen-sized bed, a study table made of plain materials with a laptop on it, a closet, some book shelves, a large flat screen television, a small kitchen, and a massage chair. I undo the hacking on the monitors, then I head towards the massage chair and sit down without asking for Madoka’s permission.

   She sits down on my lap horizontally. She watches me silently as I turn on the massage chair with the attached remote control.

   ‘...You get 80.’ she eventually says. ‘You plan was quite well thought out, but there was one major flaw.’

   ‘Which is?’ I prompt.

   ‘You made a mountain out of a mole hill. Even though the rules said otherwise, a boyfriend was always allowed to head to his girlfriend’s room. All they had to do was ask for permission, just how how a girl could visit a boy’s room. If you bothered to do the same, you didn’t have to go through all that.’

   I let out a regretful sigh.

   ‘I was wondering about the lack of inference on your part. So that’s why.’ I brood.

   ‘Even if you overdid it, you still tried your best. That’s all that matters.’ she smiles encouragingly at me. ‘Besides, you still managed to arrive here in one piece.’

   ‘Bah, cut the compliments. Like you said, I overthought it when you forbid Mashiro from helping me. I was keep on thinking that you’re going to make things difficult for me. That’s why I didn’t go for the easiest method.’

   ‘Next time you came up with multiple plans, it’s better to use the easiest one first. No need to use the more complicated ones if the easy one is good enough.’ she advises.

   ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

   ‘Now that you’re here, would you like to take a bath first?’

   ‘Yeah, a bath sounds nice.’

   She gets up from my lap.

   ‘Off you go then. The bath is already ready for you.’ she informs me.

   ‘Aren’t you going to take it with me?’

   She shows me a playful smile.

   ‘This is a punishment, remember? If I go in with you, it’ll be a reward time. Besides, I just took mine. No point taking another.’

   ‘Hold on, does that mean…’

   ‘Whoops. Maybe I should have drained the water. It would be bad if a certain pervert drinks it.’

   ‘I’m not going to drink it, okay?’

   ‘Sure, sure. But no one will know if you accidentally sips a drop or two.’ she says with a wink.

   ‘Seriously, where did you learn to seduce me like this?’

   ‘You of all people should know that I have a vast information network.’

   ‘Oh, right. Of course you do. Well, I’m off to the bath now.’

   ‘Have fun with my bath water.’

   Her bathroom is of a standard design just like mine. I guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t really care about the bathroom. As I’m soaking my tired body inside her bathtub, I try not to think about the water.

   Once I’m done with the bath, I dry my body with the towel I materialized out of thin air. I teleported out my lounge wear with the same method.

   I smell caramel when I got out. I look towards the kitchen and see a small popcorn-making machine right next to the stove. Madoka is watching the machine intently.

   ‘It’s almost done, so just wait for a while.’ she tells me without looking away.

   ‘Are we going to watch movies or something?’ I ask.

   ‘That’s right. We’re going to watch spy movies for the entire night. Needless to say, you have no right to refuse.’

   ‘Wasn’t planning to anyway.’

   Once the popcorn are done cooking, she serves them on a huge bowl. We then sits in front of the television. She turns it on with a remote control. Our spy movie marathon formally begins.

   The moves we watch are mainly J*mes B*nd movies. She has a lot of opinion on them.

   ‘Is it really necessary for him to pick up girls every time he’s doing a mission?’ she asks as the titular main character is flirting with the main heroine.

   ‘Maybe it’s easier to get intel out of them. Or, you know, they just want to show how he’s good at flirting.’ I suggest.

   ‘Why on earth would a spy ever needs to flirt? All he has to do is ask them some questions and disappears.’

   I shrug. ‘Maybe they prefer spies that socializes over those who just rush in and completes the mission.’

   Madoka shakes her head in disgust. Despite her complains, her eyes are still glued to the screen. In the end, we end up watching five films. It was morning when we were done. Mashiro dropped by so that Sogdrul could teleport me back to my room without me having to go through the hell again.