3-13: Written as Technology, Read as Crazy (2/4)
—What is this? It’s scary!
It was just like the worshipers of the evil god when they were performing their sacrificial rites with blood and madness.
Goosebumps broke out all over Shinichi’s arms as he wondered if the school was trying to mass produce mad scientists.
“Kyu Kyu Kyu…!”
That terrifying atmosphere made even ‘her’ cower on Shinichi’s shoulders.
“Kyu Kyu!”
“Don’t leave my side, ok? Otherwise, they might make an experiment out of you,” Myuhi said.
“Kyu Kyu!” ‘She’ cried.
Shinichi nodded as he quivered and watched the girl’s back from behind.
Contrast to him, Myuhi seemed to be enjoying herself, as she hummed and swayed her tail as she walked.A fox girl hummed as she walked amidst the agonizing cries of chaos created by the mad scientists of the academy. It was a surreal sight, to say the least.
When they finally arrived at their destination, it was a room in the deepest part of the highest floor of the building.
Atop the door was a room name plate that read: Technology Class Faculty.
“This is the faculty of the technology class.
A lot of technology class teachers tend to be here to accommodate students that need to be watched,” Myuhi said.
“…Really now?” Shinichi asked, incredulous.
Not a single teacher-looking person could be seen in the classrooms they passed.
Apparently, that was because the students were free to do as they pleased outside of class hours.
The door looked firm on the outside, but its interiors seemed to be roughly made. That sight gave Shinichi an odd feeling.
“Hmm?”
“Oh, Shironacchi’s the only one available today… Sensei, you there~?”
Shinichi felt like he heard something move, but Myuhi just went ahead and held her foster over the console to open the door.
As soon as the door opened, alarms rang within Shinichi’s mind.
“Hina, get down!!”
With no time to wait for her response, Shinichi forcefully pulled her away.
As soon as he did, something passed by the place where her head was moments ago, stopping only as it crashed into a wall.
The impact was so great that cracks could be seen on the wall despite how sturdy it was.
After the crash, that something fell on the ground, then it moved again.
“…What is that grasshopper thing?” Shinichi asked.
The thing that crashed just now had an uncanny resemblance to a grasshopper, but with its steel body that was 30 centimeters in length, it was clearly no living thing.
“T-That’s a kind of small drone. Normally, they’re used as sparring partners, but that speed just now… Ah, Icchi, tha-”
“Do that again, and I’ll hit you.”
“!?”
Still within Shinichi’s embrace, Myuhi gave a sort explanation when she suddenly remembered to thank Shinichi, but unfortunately, the latter wasn’t having it.
Shinichi knew that with her ears there was no way she didn’t hear that sound of something moving.
She was testing him.
Shinichi knew that but he still ended up saving her. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“Kyu!”
While they were talking, the grasshopper drone suddenly jumped.
It almost seemed as if it was aiming for them as it leaped off its hind-legs.
In response, the fox on Shinichi’s shoulders jumped, then while still in midair, it turned spectacularly and tail whipped the drone.
Drone and fox clashed in the air, but it was the robot that was easily sent flying.
The fox’s attack might have looked simple at one glance, but there was much power hidden behind it.
“Kyuu!”
As the drone was sent flying, ‘she’ ran after the drone to finish it off.
‘She’ jumped on it and laughed as she aimed her tail on the drone’s stomach.
A small streak of lighting flashed out of her tail, and in the next moment, high-tension current coursed through the drone, frying its circuits.
“Kyu kyu kyu!”
Proud of her achievements, she struck out her chest as she stood atop the charred grasshopper.
She hasn’t been able to use that lightning since coming to Earth, and apparently, its been stressing her.
Being able to use it after a long while was a breath of relief for the tenkorius.
“Just now… Was that the power of an amaryllis’ tail?” Myuhi asked.
“Yeah” Shinichi curtly replied.
Of course, ‘she’ wasn’t actually an amaryllis, but Shinichi wasn’t completely lying either.
The amaryllis fox had a special ability according to the number of tails it possessed.
In contrast, the tenkorius were born with 9 special abilities, which were managed by the number of its tails.
Although the two were different, they were very similar to each other, so it was easy to misrepresent them.
“What happened though?”
Shinichi entered the room warily. When he did, a room that did not a resemble a faculty greeted him.
The room was filled to the brim with machines, and even an amateur could tell that the devices lined up were high specced.
Unfortunately, there were some of them that were broken; most probably a result of the grasshopper drone going out of control.
Document-looking papers were also scattered on the ground, but there were plenty of papers stacked up dangerously high, so it was hard to tell how much of the mess was actually the grasshopper drone’s fault.
“…Looks like that thing was the only thing to go out of control. I don’t sense anything else moving,” Shinichi said.
“Uu… Huh? What about Shironacchi? Sensei!”
After confirming that nothing else was moving, Myuhi called out loudly for the teacher, but no reply came, so she checked under the desks to see if the person-in-question might have taken refuge there.
Meanwhile, Shinichi found some disassembled parts that looked like that grasshopper atop a workbench.
There were also other parts that probably belonged to a drone atop it.
To a person like him who didn’t know much of Garesto, the various mysterious parts littered around the room gave him a sense of malaise.
“Hmm… This is?”
Among the various things littered, Shinichi happened upon an empty hilt with a guard.
Tl Note: I’ll post another one tomorrow.