Tokyo Wingman King

Originally, I wanted to use the power of Komaba and Takishima to obtain the hidden script through today's information gathering, so as to end KKIS's farce ahead of schedule.

But this farce was ultimately created by the Five Photographers, and the level of the performers was not as bad as Asama had imagined.

Therefore, when Asama found the third designated sealed computer, the investigation was forced to stop.

boom--

As the power distribution box in the corner of the office made a tripping sound, all the desktop computers went black, the laptops lost internet access, and the files on the computers stopped uploading.

The sound of the circuit breaker tripping was heard in more than one room, and judging from the range of the echo, the power outage should be school-wide.

Accident?
Asama silently pulled out the USB drive, walked out of the office, and looked around.

After the power outage, the already poorly lit medieval college-style office building appeared even more gloomy.

Several more groups of people arrived at the office building to search the offices. The commands coming from their walkie-talkies belonged to Yamagata Ariaki. It seemed that the information security officer maintained smooth communication with Yamagata Ariaki, or rather, the student council.

Through the pointed arched windows of the corridor, Asama saw the campus police officers putting the two unfortunate guys from the monitoring room into an ambulance, while Yamagata Ariaki, who had just finished directing the security personnel, was standing downstairs, calling out to the two campus police officers and asking them something.

Seemingly sensing Asama's gaze, Yamagata Ariaki keenly looked up at the office building.

The fraternity president's gaze did not successfully meet Asama's.

He stared at it for a few seconds with his head tilted back, then looked away, picked up the walkie-talkie and said a few words before chatting with Anna King Scott and others beside him.

The third floor is not far from the ground.

If Asama concentrates, he can hear their conversation even through the glass.

"Chief, security has checked the broadcast room and found nothing unusual. Does this mean that the fake broadcast recording we just heard came from the monitoring room?"

"Aren't there more than just these two places that can access the campus broadcasting system?"

“Since an attack occurred in the monitoring room, that audio was most likely played from the monitoring room’s equipment,” Yamagata replied.

"Who did it?"

"Maybe it's someone from [FAB]. They were about to lose the match, so they pulled this stunt to make it easier for them to tell the Chief of Staff to reschedule?"

"It's not impossible. That recording was clearly meant to sow discord. They don't want to admit defeat, but they also don't want Principal Matsueda to be on our side?"

“Then why not broadcast it when there are more people at school?” Anna objected to the guess of Kadokura and the others.

"Perhaps it's a rehearsal?"

Yamagata shook his head and said, "You don't need to guess. The intruders are probably just trying to create a smokescreen to distract us and buy time to escape."

He then briefly explained the matters and assigned several of his staff members to various entrances and exits of the school to assist the on-site police in their search.

Anna King Scott asked, "Was the power outage just now also caused by the intruders?"

Yamagata glanced at his phone and said, "No. Today, hackers broke into the school network. It's probably the same group that attacked the school network in the past two weeks. They must have an inside man, which is why the security personnel had to activate the protection system."

"An inside man? Were the people who attacked the security guards and those who hacked into the network in cahoots?"

"I don't know about that. We just received news that the principal's office, the academic affairs office, and the finance office were also burglarized not long ago. This group of people obviously came prepared."

"Could it have been done by the Kujo family?"

"Have you heard about the competition between the young lady of the Kujo family and the young lady of the Konoe family?"

"Huh? Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

"Guess why that young lady went to Japan instead of returning to her home country?"

"Is this a convenient tactic of feigning one move while secretly advancing another? Perhaps these people were sent by her?"

Anna Kim Scott's eyes never left Yamagata Ariaki's face as she spoke, she added,

"I'm actually quite curious as to what the young lady of the Kujo family wants to get from KKIS."

"Anna, you're getting better and better at using idioms. As for Alice Kujo, I think she just wanted to use the reasons of poor school management and embezzlement of public funds to get the Sakon family to make a statement, but the Sakon family thwarted her intentions."

On the other hand, the balance among the five families has been disrupted this year by the Konoe family, especially with the influence of the new generation, and the Kujo family has been almost forgotten by most people. If the Kujo family's strategy of "returning to the Asia-Pacific" is true, then they will inevitably have to face the Konoe family, their biggest rival.

So, it wasn't that Kujo Alice wanted to go to Eiwa in Japan, but rather that the entire Kujo family wanted her to go. Everyone wanted to test the mettle of the Kujo family's heir.

Compared to Konoe Chiyo, who has won over 20 national first-place awards, our princess, who returned to the country in a low-key manner, has only her surname as her sole source of pride. If she cannot defeat Konoe Chiyo, then there is no basis for discussing her ability to compete with the Five Imperial Tutors, Konoe Shizumi.

For some reason, when Yamagata Ariaki mentioned the illegitimate son of the Konoe family, Kim Anna's mind flashed with the world-weary and bored face of Kondo Shinichiro, or rather, Kujo Shizuichiro.

She also agreed with Kujo Shizuichiro's statement that Yamagata Ariaki not only had extremely keen intuition, but also a political sense that far surpassed that of his peers.

Rumor has it that at least half of the people in the Eiwa of the East are henchmen of Konoe Shizumizu. So, how many of these people are better than Yamagata Ariaki?
"Anna?"

Kim Anna was brought back to her senses by Yamagata Ariaki, and then asked,

"You mean, Alice Kujo, who visited the family of a KKIS dropout, didn't focus her attention on KKIS?"

“It’s not just her, it’s the entire Kujo family.”

"Then why have I seen people who came to KKIS to investigate and gather information, bearing the Kujo family label, being exposed over the past two years? Could it be that KKIS is hiding some secrets we don't know about, and they came to KKIS precisely for these secrets?"

"Heh, there might be secrets. But KKIS, this little temple, has never been truly taken seriously by the Kujo family."

Did you know that in all the years since KKIS was founded, only a handful of members from the Kujo branch family have actually attended? Graduating from this school doesn't mean you're branded with the Kujo family; it means you're branded with the Sakon branch of the Kujo family.

To the Kujo family, the Sakon family was nothing more than an obedient dog.

Therefore, the Kujo family didn't need to put too much effort into the bones their dog had hidden—these were bones that the Kujo family had thrown over there in the first place.

The school, or rather Principal Sakon, had everyone on guard not because of the Kujo family, but because of the other dogs they kept.

"The dog you're referring to includes Shinichiro Kondo? Isn't he one of those people from the Ikeda branch of the Kujo family?"

Yamagata Ariaki gave Kim Anna a serious look and smiled.

"Him? If I were to tell you, he really is here to teach, and he's even here by imperial decree. Do you believe me?"

Knowing Shinichiro Kondo's "true" identity, Kim Anna wore a playful expression.
"That's what he told you? In my experience, you're not the kind of person who's so easily trusting, are you?"

"I feel like Anna, the distance between you and Kondo has unilaterally narrowed quite a bit." "That sounds strange. Are you jealous?"

Anna Kim Scott took the initiative and laughed.

"There is a little bit, especially in your match with Sui Sui. I heard her say that you deliberately lost."

"That was just her modesty; a loss is a loss. As for why I'm paying attention to Kondo, well, Ryuzoji is in his class too, and I've specifically investigated him. But you, you wouldn't happen to have some kind of shady deal with this Kondo, would you?"

"you guess."

Asama heard every word of the conversation between the two downstairs.

This power outage was orchestrated by that sly cybersecurity officer, whose purpose was to prevent Asama from successfully obtaining the data.

Does this indirectly suggest that there is indeed an important secret hidden in those three computers that couldn't be fixed?

It's estimated that the school's UPS backup power won't be back on for a while, so there won't be a chance to search the remaining offices today.

Then let's take those three computer cases first?
Let's talk about it later. Stealth isn't working on the computer cases right now, and carrying around three computer cases would be too conspicuous.

Asama made up his mind to go to the dormitory building to avoid trouble first.

Asama's habit of closing doors behind him caused him trouble; the bearing under the office door seemed to have malfunctioned, emitting a sharp squeaking sound. The sound wasn't loud, but it still sounded rather jarring in the empty corridor.

A flurry of hurried footsteps rushed from upstairs to the stairwell to Asama's left, and a group of people burst into Asama's office, which he had just closed.

The last person to appear, wearing an armband, took out a cigarette outside the door and asked...
"What about people?"

Asama extinguished the flame that shot up from the lighter the moment the captain lit his cigarette.

"Report, Captain! There's no one in the office. All the laptops are on, and six computer cases are still warm, so they must have been on before the power outage. Someone must have been here before."

"Nonsense, with such a loud noise, what else could it be but a ghost? Search again, the windowsill, the closet. In such a short time, it's impossible for them all to have escaped. Maybe they're using a feint to hide."

"Reporting, Captain, there's no one here."

The captain remained silent upon hearing this, then took out his lighter again. He tried to light it, but the flame seemed to be enveloped by a gust of wind, extinguishing itself as soon as it appeared. Unconvinced, he tried three more times, still without success. He slammed the lighter to the ground, angrily shouting, "Damn it! Always failing me! What use are you?!"

The team members all shrank their necks and asked, "Shall we search again?"

"No need! This is Team One, this is Team One, calling Team Two. The intruder just left the second-year Special Operations office on the third floor. Please help guard the exit of the office building. We will begin a thorough search from bottom to top."

A team member picked up the lighter and handed it to the captain, asking,
"Captain, do you think the intruder might be that Blood Demon?"

The captain slapped a teammate on the head and yelled.

"What nonsense are you spouting! Why didn't you guess that the intruder could turn invisible?! If you don't need your brain, then stop using it!"

Another team member squeezed to the doorway and laughed.
"This guy probably watches too many horror movies. In my opinion, it's the same as the blood pool last week, just another prank by those students. Didn't more than 40 students who don't live on campus inexplicably show up at school today? If you really want to catch the intruders, you should gather them together and question them one by one."

The others looked at the teammate who made the suggestion with eyes that looked at an idiot; they all agreed that this person was even less intelligent than the previous one.

"You should be thanking your lucky stars if they don't cause you any trouble."

"If you really dare to offend them, especially the people who came today, I guarantee you'll be living in a horror movie every day."

"Stop talking nonsense and start searching!"

At the captain's command, the eight security guards split into two groups and began a new round of search.

The captain, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, put one hand on his hip and lit the lighter again, but as expected, the flame went out.

"This damn place is really creepy. If it weren't for—uh—"

The security captain collapsed to the ground.

Asama picked up the walkie-talkie and spoke in the voice of the captain of the first security team.

"Target spotted fleeing toward the teaching building. Team 1, cease search and assemble at Gate 1 of the teaching building."

Because of the power outage, most of the boarding students did not want to stay at KKIS any longer, and those who wanted to go out clashed with the [KID] student council members at the gate.

Asama, who had thoroughly outmaneuvered all four security teams in the teaching building, also took advantage of the chaos and escalated the conflict.

After confirming that most people would be going to the hospital, Asama proceeded to the dormitory building as planned.

In any case, the power outage will not affect the physical investigation.

The preliminary investigation was forced to stop, which was actually part of Asama's plan.

He had already implanted the Trojan program designed by Komaba into the previous 30 computers. During the process from the power outage to the restoration of power, the authentication system, cloud security service system, and network attack response system would all experience varying degrees of delay during the restart. In this brief gap, the program that Komaba had spent the whole night writing had enough time to take advantage of the situation.

According to Komaba's estimate, no matter how skilled the information security officer is, or how quickly he can crack Trojans and patch vulnerabilities, it would only take three to five large-scale power outages for Komaba to thoroughly understand all the weaknesses of KKIS's protection system.

Asama had no doubt about the claims of [Emperor and Silver Wolf], who claimed to have been strengthened by the version update.

Komaba's convenient and powerful technology always makes people unconsciously want to rely on it.

Asama thumped his forehead.

I asked Komaba and the others for help last night, and even though I was bothering them, they reacted like it was New Year's. When I asked to borrow some props, they just gave them away without hesitation.

Yes, the counterintuitive "Franklin effect" has struck again—the more someone likes to bother others, the more likely they are to bother others.

Because of this temporary assignment, Komaba stayed up all night yesterday, and this morning, while reviewing intelligence, he mysteriously asked Asama if the next stop after KKIS would be the Pentagon. Although Asama is now practically a special investigator jointly appointed by the five regents, he has no intention of going to the United States to work for them.

Asama still hasn't figured out how to properly and calmly get rid of the harassment from the Five Regents while maintaining friendships with Shinazugawa, Ichijo, and Nijo.

Making deals with the heads of the Five Regents is certainly a good way to make quick money or gain fame, and these things will determine whether he will have the ability to support and nurture more powerful acts of goodwill in the future. However, he is unsure what poison is hidden in the bait offered by the Five Regents. At least in the case of KKIS, his handling of the situation has been very passive.

The so-called idealism of "eating the sugar coating of the sugar-coated bullet and returning the bullet" is just an empty shell of realism, just like the theory of American political scientist Mearsheimer. Inside, it is as naive as a child's daydream.

It's really unpleasant to have so many skills but end up as a pawn, even though most of those skills weren't my own, but were given to me by the Great God.

The real priority is to figure out KKIS's secrets and settle accounts with the old man Konoe as soon as possible.

Asama took a breath in a secluded spot, then stood in front of the dormitory, whose doors were locked due to the power outage, pondering whether he should break the glass and go in.

He took a few steps back, saw the sky slide in the dormitory building, and decided he should just be Spider-Man after all. (End of Chapter)