Attempted Assault
A figure greeted Tatsuya as he entered the robotics club's garage. She wore a black balloon-sleeve dress ending ten centimeters below the knee, adorned with a white frilled apron. White stockings and black loafers completed her outfit, topped with a frilled white brim hat—a picture-perfect maid.
"Welcome back," she said.
"(Quite the taste…) Tatsuya Shiba, Class 1-E," Tatsuya replied with a wry smile.
His face and voice authentication finally cleared the room's security.
"Coffee is being prepared," the figure announced, her tone slightly stilted.
Her movements were precise but faintly mechanical, noticeable only with close scrutiny. Her designation was "3H Type P94," nicknamed "Pixie" by the robotics club. While 3H models typically resembled women in their late twenties, this one was designed to appear like a late teenager to blend into the school environment.
As Tatsuya settled at the console desk and booted the terminal, a soft clink signaled a coffee cup being placed on the side table.
"Pixie, enter suspend mode," Tatsuya ordered, setting the coffee aside.
Even knowing she was a robot, having such a lifelike figure hovering behind him was unsettling.
"Understood," Pixie replied smoothly, her programmed phrases flawless. With a graceful bow, she sat by the entrance, back straight, motionless.
Tatsuya was running a magic sequence simulation. Standard procedure involved breaking down each step, canceling the sequence before activation, and observing recoil effects to verify the intended outcome. But Tatsuya, using his unique "sight," directly monitored the sequence's behavior in the information dimension. To an outsider, his method might seem like cheating, but Tatsuya wasn't one to care about such accusations.
Staring at the display with his physical eyes and the information dimension with his mind's eye, Tatsuya worked for an hour before a sudden unease hit him—a wave of drowsiness.
(Overdoing it?) he wondered.
A deep breath only intensified the sleepiness. He tried to stand for a break, but his limbs felt leaden, his body unresponsive. For someone with his training, controlling physical urges like sleep was second nature, especially without a disrupted schedule. Alarm bells rang in his mind. Before he could fully process the unnatural state, his self-restoration spell activated, reverting him to his pre-drowsy condition.
"Anomaly detected in the air conditioning system," Pixie announced. "Please use a mask."
She offered a simple gas mask. Impressed by her preparedness, Tatsuya donned it as she instructed him to close his eyes.
"Corneal contamination risk detected. I will guide you outside," Pixie said.
"Pixie, activate the forced ventilation system," Tatsuya countered. "To avoid secondary incidents during evacuation, I'll stay here. Switch to surveillance mode. Do not engage in exclusion actions to allow for rescue entry."
"Secondary incident avoidance deemed reasonable. Activating forced ventilation system," Pixie replied.
As she complied, Tatsuya thought, (Too convenient for its own good.)
He removed the mask, leaned back in his chair, and relaxed, ensuring he wouldn't startle whoever came to check on him.
The expected visitor arrived swiftly. Tatsuya, sitting still even after the gas cleared, sensed someone entering stealthily.
"Shiba, asleep?" a familiar upperclassman's voice asked, likely checking his state.
The timing of the entry was suspicious, marking the intruder as the culprit. Tatsuya feigned sleep to observe their actions.
Unaware of Tatsuya's watchful gaze or Pixie's surveillance mode recording, the intruder—focused on a demo unit rather than the locked terminal—struggled to extract startup sequence data using a hacking tool via a sub-monitor connector.
A sudden voice from the entrance startled the intruder, who flinched and spun around. Tatsuya decided his ruse was up.
"Sekimoto-san, what are you doing?" Kanon demanded.
"Chiyoda, why are you here!?" Sekimoto stammered.
"Why? I got an alert from the security system about an air conditioning anomaly. But why are you here, Sekimoto-san? And what's that in your hand?"
"Impossible… I disabled the alarm…" Sekimoto muttered.
"Disabled the alarm? What's that supposed to mean?" Kanon pressed, seizing on his slip.
When Sekimoto faltered, Kanon continued, "Silence in this situation is as good as a confession."
"Confession? To what crime?" Sekimoto retorted. "That's a harsh joke, Chiyoda."
"You tampered with the air conditioner to release sedative gas," Kanon said. "You're also caught red-handed as an industrial spy."
"That's outrageous!" Sekimoto protested. "I was just backing up data to prevent loss from an accident."
"Backing up with a hacking tool? That's absurd," Kanon scoffed. "Right, Shiba-kun?"
Kanon had seen through Tatsuya's act from the start.
"Impossible… the gas didn't work?" Sekimoto gasped.
"He's not the type to be taken down so easily," Kanon said.
"Lacking charm is true enough," Tatsuya quipped, rising with a wry smile, "but the rest is spot-on, Chairperson."
Kanon's tone shifted sharply. "Sekimoto Isao, remove your CAD and place it on the floor."
Her words were a formal demand for surrender. Sekimoto responded by activating a magic sequence.
"Chiyoda!" he shouted.
"You're trying too hard to look cool," Kanon said coolly.
Sekimoto's spell fizzled, and Kanon's vibration-based magic, channeled through the floor, knocked him unconscious.
Disciplinary committee members and club federation reinforcements arrived, escorting Sekimoto to the guidance office. Tatsuya remained silent and uninvolved throughout. After seeing Kanon and the others off, he addressed Pixie.
"End surveillance mode. Record all video and audio data from the command's start to now onto a memory cube, then erase the master file."
"Understood. Copying data to memory cube… Copy complete. Deleting master file," Pixie replied.
Though Tatsuya lacked master authority, the recorded footage was under his command, making him the file's owner. He used that authority to copy it to a memory cube and delete the original, keeping the evidence hidden even from Kanon.
Tucking the cube into his jacket pocket, Tatsuya ordered Pixie back to standby.
Talk about a mob worse than Mobzaki…
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