Inquisitor Ligh Strumgard and Hope Esquire, or whatever her actual last na was, sat in his office as I knocked on the open door. Their very serious conversation halted as both looked up at .
Inquisitor Ligh stood, his silver-clad arms raising slightly. “Shquire! So glad you could make it.”
Not like I had much of a choice... “‘Course, Sir.”
Hope smiled politely at , the smile dragging sharply as her eyes seed to sag with bags. “Greetings.”
“Co along now, shquiresh, Vald awaits ush.” Ligh stretched out his arm, grabbing his silver long sword from its resting place against his desk and slinging it back into place. He pushed past and out into the hall, his silver armor reflecting the light blindingly into my eyes. I flinched back slightly, only to feel a hand on my shoulder.
”You get used to it.” Hope offered with a smile that seed as though it was ant to be reassuring. Instead, it ca across as oddly threatening? It was like she put too much effort into it.
"Which part?"
"Well... none of it?" Hope frowned. "Sorry, Damien is better at this kind of stuff."
Damien? Still, I didn't ask as we pushed out into the hall. Probably another Squire if I had to guess, but it wasn't that important. Hopefully, I could find a way out of this position soon? I really hope so, at least.
I followed the duo down the maze of halls inside of the Blue Crusade Little Yukoto Departnt. We passed by several rooms I’d never seen before, finally coming to a stop at a heavily armored and guarded door. Two Crusaders, Squires based on their half-silver armor, flanked the door ard with rifles. They cleared the way as Inquisitor Ligh walked between them.
Inside the room was about as I would expect. The entire place was fully armored up, looking as though it was more akin to a bank vault than anything. A tall man with dark mutton chops stood behind the counter. A Blue Crusade hat sat tightly pulled down almost to his eyes.
“Vald.” Strumgard icily called as we entered.
The man stoically nodded. “Ligh.”
“You got what I ashked for?”
Vald looked at and Hope before shrugging. He reached down below the counter, pulling out a bottle of-
The Inquisitor stepped in front of my view. By the ti I peeked around him, the bottle vanished. “Ah, no, not that one. The other thing?”
“Right.” Vald nodded, the dangly bits of his beard flapping. He stepped back into the armory proper, returning a few monts later with a box. He rooted around in it, tossing small devices to the side. Finally, he settled on one and slid it across the counter. “Don’t forget to sign for it.”
With that, the man left us alone as he went back into the armory with the box. Ligh Strumgard snatched the device, raising it up to his reflective mask. “Here it ish. The Back End Doorway. Or the BED. The techies whipped thish thing up a while ago, but I completely forgot about it till recently. Here.” He tossed the thing to .
I lunged forward, barely catching the device. It looked like one of those ancient phones back before touch screens. “Sir?”
”Shign.” Ligh passed a clipboard from the counter.
I took it, still looking up at him in confusion. I started to sign S- I caught myself and put down Zuku Ichima. “What is this?”
”Just plug it into a terminal or hold it near a phone for it to create a Crusade backdoor. Then one of the nerdsh down in the command center can look through the data and shend it to .”
Got it. Keep the thing far away from any of my stuff. “Is this legal?” I asked as the Inquisitor walked out the door without the slightest pause in his stride.
Hope laughed from beside , though her face told a different story. It was entirely drained of all life, hanging limply just like her broken arm. “To be young again.”
”What’s that supposed to an?” She turned away from , following after the Inquisitor. “Hey?” I called one last ti to no avail.
-- -- --
I returned back to my apartnt feeling incredibly uncomfortable with the BED in my pocket. As soon as I stepped in, I made sure the device was off and placed in my kitchenette, the furthest point from all of my stuff. I really didn’t need the thing sending my data to the Crusade. Not that I had anything super incriminating, I think. I hope.
I checked the ti, seeing I still had several hours till it was ti for bed. With more to do on my plate than I wanted, I set the recording of Principal Bously to triple ti and cranked it up to full blast.
With the sounds of devices beeping and the occasional heavy breathing of the principal as he worked on whatever it was principals worked on acting as background ‘music’, I got to work on so of the other projects I’d been planning for a while.
First and foremost, I took out my scouters. I set one aside to keep as a... trophy? Was that a fitting word for this? Regardless, it felt fitting. I didn’t want to forget where I ca from, especially as I worked to improve the model.
The others I disassembled for parts. From there, I made so minor adjustnts. It took quite a bit of effort, but I managed to write an extrely simple program to disable the gyro till I manually turned it on. This way would hopefully save battery over just running the gyro the whole ti. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of my Net skills, so I couldn’t do anything else in that regard.
I also put in the new batteries, cutting my stock down to three left as I made two new Scouters. With less space and weight from the battery, I could safely cut down how strong the gyro would need to be, so I also managed to shrink that part down.
'Course, with shrinking everything to size, I had to reprint the casing for my Scouters. I set it to print, but it would take a while-
“Sir?” Principle Bously asked, drawing my attention to the audio file. “Whatdoyouneed?”
I skipped back and slowed down the track back to normal. This was the first ti I heard anything from the guy of interest. Was he talking to soone higher up in Sentinel?
A phone rang, sothing I missed the first ti around. ”Sir?” Principle Bously asked, this ti at a much more understandable rate. He had that sa smarmy tone to his voice. Except worse. If it was an eight for , it was a ten for whoever the guy spoke to. “What do you need?”
A mont passed, and the mic failed to pick up the person on the other line. It was a thrown-together piece of tech after all, so it made sense. ‘Course it wouldn’t be able to pick up everything with clarity.
”Ah, my tests! They go well- no, they won’t interfere with our plans.” Another mont passed, during which the principal audibly gulped. “Yes, sir. Teenagers are already a susceptible sort. It makes it easier to prove my theories. Hopefully, I’ll soon be ready to move on-“
The principal went silent as a door opened. A lady, maybe his assistant, called out, “Principal Bously, the Trouse family is here again about their son.”
“Again?” The guy sighed. “Just stall for a while. I’m on an important phone call.”
”Of course, sir.” The door thunked as it shut.
”Sorry about that. I’ll be ready when The Circle calls for . If things go according to plan, with so great results too-“ The line beeped several tis, cutting him off as the other person hung up. Principal Bously sighed as the sound of shuffling clothes ca across. “Gah, I really need to get out soon... maybe no will be my way?”
I felt a chill go down my spine as he called ‘my’ na. After that, the principal left. Shortly following, the audio file cut off entirely.
I sat still for a mont, my hands paused mid-motion on my printer. It was certainly a lot packed into that interaction. Based on the way he spoke, it didn’t seem like it was so corporate executive Bously was brown-nosing. Who else would he call sir though?
And he ntioned The Circle. That was one of the two things Inquisitor Ligh asked to look into if I'm not mistaken. I cut up the audio file, separating the part from the rest of the boring bits. I didn’t imdiately send it to the Crusader though, instead just saved it to my phone.
It wasn’t worth the risk of the Inquisitor doing sothing now that he knew his target. Especially since it would likely screw up the investigation into Quora’s disappearance.
With that audio file down, I shifted over to Tristen’s and got back to work as it played at several tis its speed. Most of the file was conversations with considering he was around almost the entire ti he was in the range of my Deck.
By the ti I got through creating my newer and smaller models of Scouters, henceforth known as Scouter 2.0, the file played sothing interesting. I skipped back and put it down to normal speed.
”My band is here, I’ll be right back.” Tristen said in that narcissistic way of speaking unique to him. I rember the mont from the recording happened while he was showing us so of the other musicians in Sentinel Studios.
“We’ll w-wait here then.” My voice ca across as disgustingly sweet and innocent. Did I really sound like that?
The sound of clopping shoes played as Tristen left the room we were in at the ti and headed for another. “Rember: best behaviors.” He said, this ti his voice sounded oddly normal. The typical self-confident and overindulgent tone was nowhere to be found. Instead, he seed almost scheming?
A murmur ca from the background. It was too low to pick up with my mic.
”Of course it matters! If I can get with no, I’ll be able to secure us a seat at a duchy in Pyrus.” Tristen sighed. “Look, sugar daddy Sentinel doesn’t actually care about us. As soon as we graduate or leave his son, he’ll kick us to the curb. This is a good chance to get a more permanent backer! Don’t fuck it up for .”
He paused, listening to soone before speaking again. “I got this. Just trust in the process. I’ve got my usual look up around her. I just need to slowly lt it away to look vulnerable as if she were lting my prideful heart.”
A question ca from the back. It was impossible to hear clearly.
”We agreed not to talk about Marc. I dunno where he went, but he’s obviously left us. So what if he wouldn't approve.” Tristen said.
The rest of the track played out with Tristen arguing for a few minutes before I popped back in. From there, it was much the sa with very little of note occurring. It definitely wasn’t as jam-packed as Bously’s recording had been.
Really, there wasn’t much to say from Tristen’s recording. The only thing I could say for certain was he wasn’t as shallow as he acted. He sounded entirely different around his band than when around . Not that it mattered too much. A facade didn’t an he necessarily got rid of so people. It just ant I should be more careful around him.
Really, I needed to be more careful in general. The two people I bugged both ntioned targeting 'no', which was unsettling. There was no telling what other people around the school thought. Especially with a crim on the loose already making about a dozen students disappear.
I finished up my projects, tossing the remnant pieces to the side as I shut down my deck. Overall, so interesting conversations. I would definitely have to look deeper into all of this to get a better grasp of what was going on. It was still too early to say.
Unfortunately, it was getting pretty late. Before I went to bed, I tried one last ti to get a good design for my calling card. No dice. But I did get an idea I liked. My calling card would have a moon on it sowhere. Heck, it could even be a small model moon. It just needed to have a moon.
Calling cards were made by criminals for one of two reasons: to claim the cri or to mock law enforcent. Why not do both? Having a moon on it was just too good to pass on considering my na.
My eyes were drooping too much to continue though, so I set my sketchpad aside and headed for bed.
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