Chapter 65

SUB.13 With a soft groan, Maria Kumokawa woke up. After hearing an account of events from Shuri Oumi, she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Do you know him or something?” asked Oumi. “He’s the guy I’m after, Kagun Kihara. But this isn’t worth letting my pride be wounded. I know he’s here, and that’s more than I could say before. The eyewitness reports were correct.” “I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but we should get moving. That bazooka girl is still alive. She may come back to finish us off.” “Yes… But before that.” Kumokawa got to her feet and dusted off her gaudy maid outfit. She twisted and turned, looking over every part of herself for some reason, but Oumi didn’t see any dirt on her or anything like that. “What are you doing?” she asked. “Making sure there aren’t any bugs or transmitters on me. Who knows what could have happened while I was out cold. If Kagun Kihara knows where we are or what we’re saying, he’ll be able to run away as long as he needs to, even if we’re physically close.” “I don’t see any chips on your clothes or anything.” “It might be too small for the naked eye to see. He could have used a nanodevice—those can get in between the fibers of your clothes.” Kumokawa swore to herself. “I won’t be able to say for sure like this. I’ll have to strip down and put everything through a high-heat hair dryer. That should be enough to destroy the circuitry of any invisible devices.” “Well, if it’s a bug or a transmitter, couldn’t we examine the electronic waves in the immediate area? If there’s a difference, you could even spot it with a radio.” “Do you know how an ant who’s found a big meal tells its friends where it is so they can form a line to go there?” asked Kumokawa offhandedly. “Pheromones. A scent. Information can be carried on things other than EM waves. If it’s a chemical substance, it wouldn’t even need to use electronic circuits. After all, plenty of people in Academy City can control electricity or magnetism or what have you. Obviously, people have been developing machines to get around all that.” “What would happen to a chemical substance if you heated it with a hair dryer?” “The data pheromone’s organizational structure would break down. It’s kind of like what would happen if you exposed fresh paint to a hair dryer. The paint itself would still be there, but the coloration would be totally different than if it had dried naturally—it would be warped. The data inside would break apart. It’s strong against the cold, though.” With that, they left the control room and walked down the hallway, checking several doors as they went. After finding an employee locker room, they also found a hair dryer—just what they were after. Kumokawa wasted no time shedding her gaudy maid outfit and spreading it out on the floor. Getting down on her hands and knees, she began to blast her clothes with the hair dryer. As she did, she rubbed her inner thighs together—while the room was heated, even she must have felt cold wearing only her underwear. “…These are made of chemical fibers, so I’m just worried they’ll end up rough as a vinyl bag.” “How long will it take to do this?” “If I’m thorough, somewhere from ten to twenty minutes. What about your clothes?” “There won’t be any problems on my end,” said Oumi casually. “Ninjas have always dealt with chemicals for combat and espionage. There are reagents for telling them apart. If a section of my clothes were tampered with, the right reagent would make it show up as a different color.” “Like a better version of a white lab coat?” “Basically, yeah. If some sort of micro-sized device were really on your clothes like you say, it would probably be destroyed just from exposure to the weak acids we use for the reagents.” They continued to chat, and eventually Kumokawa finished blasting her maid outfit with the hair dryer. She then tried to put the clothes back on, but… “Ow, it’s hot! That’s as scorching as a bath someone turned way up as a prank!” “I have no way of converting that statement into actual numbers.” “The Ichihanaran Festival—Academy City’s culture festival, that is—is very stimulating. Damn it, it’s even hotter since I’ve been chilling in my underwear the whole time!” Tears came to her eyes, and her voice rose to nearly a shout as she managed to grit her teeth and get the gaudy maid outfit back on.