Tsubaki sat within a sealed pod flying through space, leaning back with her eyes closed as she recounted her mission. She had taken this trial dozens of times already, each time ending in failure.
This was the mission that had been set up together with Cici after reviewing the records of the ninja clan’s Trial of Shadows. In order to complete it, Tsubaki had to reach her destination, obtain a secured piece of cargo, and get out. However, the mission would immediately be a failure if anyone from the ship identified her.
If she took on a disguise, and managed to confuse the crew of the ship into thinking that she was another crew member, then the mission could continue. However, if she was not in a disguise and was caught, the simulation would immediately end. Likewise, if she was recorded on a camera, the mission would end as soon as someone took note of her on that camera footage, meaning that she had to hurry to the security office to disable the cameras.
For this mission, she did not have access to any of her divine powers, nor her special abilities from the real world. She had her ability to use both ki and mana, and thus create chakra, and she had a selection of tools that a ninja would be given to complete a similar mission.
These tools included a security scrambler with three uses before needing a recharge, a digital master key, and a holographic facemask. Because this was a strictly noncombat mission, she was not allowed to have even one weapon, and killing any member of the crew was another condition for failure.
Thankfully, the pod that she was in had its own cloaking feature, allowing it to pull up next to the airlock of the target vessel without being detected. However… getting from her pod to the airlock would require the use of one charge from the security scrambler. This meant that she only had two uses in reality. Even worse, she might need to use one charge in order to disable the cameras in the security office itself.
There was practically no room for error in this trial, which she was used to. However, she was used to being able to solve these trials with either patience or violence. Here, patience would lead to a random patrol spotting her, and violence was an instant disqualification.
There was a humm from the pod as it pulled to a stop, the light jolt of inertia snapping Tsubaki out of her thoughts. She had studied the layout of the ship on the flight over, as its layout changed every time she began the simulation. With a low sigh, she pressed the button to open the pod, jumping out and into the vacuum of space.
Her suit was designed to provide her with ten minutes of breathable atmosphere, even in a complete void, so she had to work fast. Reaching down to one of the pouches on her belt, she pulled out a small rod with a button at the tip and three blinking lights. She brought herself to the airlock door and pressed the button, the lights within the airlock flickering for a few seconds.
With the security of the airlock compromised, she was able to force it to depressurize and allow her entry, granting her access to the rest of the ship. Once the airlock was pressurized again, she closed her eyes, straining her ears to listen. Tsubaki could hear distant footsteps, but they sounded as if they were heading in the opposite direction from her.
With a quick hand gesture, she cast a basic invisibility technique on herself with chakra, opening the airlock door and entering the ship. Step one, I need to find a face to use. She thought to herself, carefully walking in the direction of the footsteps that she had heard before.
Theoretically, she could use her invisibility technique to reach the security office. However, if she did so and someone was present, they would notice her working. Ideally, she would find a security officer, and use their face to gain access to the office, having the other officers present leave as she took over. This was the only method she had found to consistently get into the security office alone.
The problem was that she was not provided with intelligence on who had what role. All that she was given was the layout of the ship, and the location of the precious cargo. Part of her was curious to see how Lena would tackle this mission without her divine abilities.
Using the ninja’s basic footwork technique, Tsubaki quickly closed the distance with the redheaded human male that was walking down the hall. Holding her breath, she passed by him, activating the features of her holographic mask to scan his appearance, and then allowed him to walk by.
That didn’t look like a security uniform, and he wasn’t armed. Should I keep looking? Tsubaki thought to herself as she made her way through the halls, ensuring that her stealth power was never deactivated. It seemed as if this ship had a rather small crew, or that it was a resting period, given that she only encountered two other individuals along the way to the security office.
One of these individuals appeared to be a maintenance worker, while the other was a member of the command staff, going by their uniforms. Tsubaki scanned both of their faces, stopping in front of the security office’s door.
With a quick look to either side to ensure that there was nobody else in the hallway, she deactivated her invisibility, having already assumed the form and voice of the command officer. She opened the door with her master key, and stepped through while maintaining a stern expression.
Inside, there was a dark-skinned ursa who seemed to be eating a sandwich, watching the monitors. At the sound of the door opening, he looked over, blinking in surprise. “Officer Barnes?” He asked, glancing at the monitor again, where Tsubaki could see the owner of her current face still walking down the hallway.
Tsubaki simply let out a sigh, the world freezing around her. “I believe that is considered a failure.” Cici’s voice spoke up, and Tsubaki nodded her head. “Would you like me to reduce the difficulty of the next simulation?”
Immediately, Tsubaki refused that question. “No. The difficulty level has already been reduced to the extreme, to compensate for my lack of recent technique training. To reduce the difficulty any further would negate the purpose of the trial.”
Cici hesitated at that, before speaking up again. “I see. I do not mean to belittle your achievements. However, your current strategy relies significantly on luck, whether it is acquiring a proper identity or hoping for favorable circumstances in the offices. If you can’t reliably recreate the process, would you consider that a successful trial?”
Tsubaki froze at that, stunned by Cici’s reasoning. She had to admit, Cici was right. At the current moment, she was just trying to prove that she could complete the trial under the proper circumstances. However, would she be satisfied with that, if she just kept trying again and again until the variables just happened to line up for her? Obviously not.
“What would you suggest, then?” She asked, causing Cici to pause again.
“According to Hermes, Lena has just returned to Olympus. My advice would be to allow her to run this mission, while you oversee it as a spectator. Although you are unfamiliar with the more recently developed techniques of the ninjas, watching Lena in action will give you insight into their operations.”
Tsubaki was surprised again, hearing that Lena had returned. How long had she spent in this trial, for Lena to have already completed her mission? It was easy to believe that she had simply lost track of time, as she often did in these trials. “Very well… call her in and tell her that I have asked her to complete this trial for ‘training purposes’. However, please keep my presence here a secret. I don’t want Lena to be aware that I am watching her live, as that may alter how she performs.”
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“Very well.”
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It didn’t take long for Cici to get in contact with Lena, who happily agreed to go through the test. When she heard about the parameters, she briefly laughed, shaking her head. “Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem. Just give me a few minutes to adjust to the new body.” She said with a confident smile.
Cici nodded her head, stepping aside and allowing Lena to enter one of the pods in the room. Per Tsubaki’s request, the pod which contained her was being kept in another room, and Tsubaki would be undetectable to Lena once she entered the simulation.
Lena hummed to herself as she climbed into the pod, soon finding herself in the cramped, black vessel that Tsubaki had previously experienced. In front of her face, a screen displayed the layout of the target ship, which Lena quickly memorized. She didn’t bother asking for more information, simply flexing her shoulders and joints to acclimate herself to her physical form.
Soon, the pod pulled up next to the airlock, as it had done for Tsubaki. However, rather than using the security scrambler to get inside, Lena took a deep breath and left all three of her tools in the pod. She climbed out onto the ship, her figure fading from view while she clung to the outer hull.
Tsubaki watched in confusion, seeing how Lena didn’t go for the airlock, but rather towards a large antenna jutting up from the hull. Lena looked it over, crouching down to the base and using a quick burst of ki to forcibly shift its direction. Immediately afterwards, she pulled herself back up and went to the airlock, her breath still held.
Her cloaked pod couldn’t be seen at the moment, and Tsubaki only understood her goal when the airlock opened on its own, a fully suited maintenance worker emerging with a toolkit. Lena slipped by him under the cover of invisibility, entering the airlock and waiting for it to repressurize.
Once it had done so, she finally exhaled, rolling her shoulders again and channeling her ki through her body. Her bone structure changed, skin seeming to roll as she grew in height. Tsubaki hadn’t used this form of shapeshifting in her own mission because she knew just how painful the transformation process was, and believed that there had to be more appropriate ways to get what she wanted.
Soon, Lena’s body was a perfect copy of the maintenance worker that she had just passed, though she maintained her invisibility. She used her chakra next to alter her uniform, matching the appearance of the worker’s attire.
Once he returned from fixing the damage that she caused to the external dish, she waited at the side of the airlock patiently, stepping out behind him. Tsubaki was confused why she was following him so closely at first, before realizing that her footsteps were perfectly timed with his own, and she had been adjusting her breathing to match his.
Lena followed him like this for several minutes, waiting until he had returned his equipment before turning to walk off in a different direction. At the same time, Tsubaki caught how her hand slipped through the air next to the worker, a faint flicker of chakra coming from her fingertips.
Lena walked calmly towards the security office now, undoing her invisibility and walking as if it were completely natural. When another crew member passed, she gave him a polite nod.
Once at the office, she held her hand in front of the door, producing an electronic key that she had swiped from the maintenance worker, the door opening immediately. “Yo, Eric.” The security officer inside spoke up, eating the same sandwich that Tsubaki had walked in on him eating before. It seemed as if Cici had perfectly matched the circumstances to Tsubaki’s last attempts.
“Hey.” Lena chuckled, mimicking the worker’s voice. “I just wanted to check to make sure that the signal’s okay now? Looks like the antenna got misaligned from a bit of space debris, so I did my best to correct it.”
“That so?” The officer asked, turning to operate a nearby computer. As he did, invisible threads of chakra spread out behind Lena’s back, rapidly typing on the now-abandoned console controlling the cameras. “Ah, yeah. Looks like there was a shield fluctuation just before the captain sent you out. Guess that must have slipped under the radar. Either way, it looks like you did the job.”
By the time that the man turned around again, Lena had finished her work, nodding her head. “Got it. In that case, I better get back. Don’t want to keep you-know-who waiting.” She said with a knowing smirk, causing the officer to laugh.
“Yeah, yeah, you get going, man.” He said, and Lena turned to walk out of the office. Her next stop was the maintenance locker where the worker had previously deposited his tools, opening the locker and setting his electronic key inside, as if it had simply been misplaced. Only then did she once again activate her invisibility, returning to her original body.
Lena prowled through the halls as if in the middle of a field trip, her footsteps providing no noise even as she skipped along. Once she made it to the cargo bay, she started counting down in her head, before walking towards the door. Right on time, the door opened, closing seconds later.
She set a timed command for the cameras and door controls? Tsubaki asked herself in amazement. Tsubaki herself wasn’t familiar with the command systems used by modern ships, as she had spent a substantial amount of time in the Admin Room, but Lena operated it as if it were second nature.
It’s a bit more than that. Cici’s voice interrupted her thoughts. The systems on these ships don’t match those of any current model. I wanted to ensure that this was not a deciding point for her. Rather, it would seem that she understood the controls by looking at the console, and studying how both the security officer and maintenance worker interacted with the machines.
Tsubaki blinked at that, watching Lena grab a small package from the back corner of the cargo bay, shoving it into her inventory. She walked back out, the door opening and closing again to let her through. Additionally, the airlock opened as soon as she approached it, having timed everything according to the layout of the ship she had seen on the way over.
Once outside the airlock again, she climbed back into her pod, directing it to begin its return journey. I have… many questions. Tsubaki thought to both herself and Cici. She knew from experience how tricky it was to get through all of the various stages of the mission, and yet Lena did it as if she were simply running an errand.
In the back of her mind, Tsubaki began to break everything down, step by step. She abandoned her tools because she saw them as unnecessary, or perhaps an obstacle. In order to get in without leaving any trace, she lured out a maintenance worker. However, wouldn’t it be easiest to get into the security office as one of the security personnel?
After she thought up to that point, Tsubaki’s eyes widened slightly. Maintenance workers are allowed anywhere, because they need to be able to repair anything that breaks. Additionally, they aren’t as closely monitored, because everyone perceives them as having a less prestigious role. As long as she didn’t directly act suspicious, nobody would realize that there was anything wrong.
But then, when talking to the officer, how did she know that there was someone waiting for them to return? I don’t think that they mentioned anything like that previously. Or, did she keep it purposely vague in order for her words to apply to any number of possible contexts, allowing the officer to fill in the blanks themselves?
Once she started to boil everything down to its base components, she could understand how Lena had made her decisions. Out of everything that she had seen, there were only two feats that Tsubaki did not think that she could perfectly replicate. The first of these feats was being able to steal the electronic keycard from the maintenance worker’s inventory without being detected in some way.
Tsubaki was sure that she could do it with enough practice, but her current standards were not enough to guarantee success. The other feat was immediately understanding the controls for the security console. This was why Tsubaki had always done her best to ensure that she was in the office alone, because she would need time to adjust to the controls. However, Lena had understood them with a simple glance, and tricked the security officer into showing her more.
Although Tsubaki didn’t want to admit it, she had to acknowledge that Lena was indeed a top-notch ninja, far surpassing her when it came to undercover activities. Though… this only sparked a competitive fire within her. Cici, please let Lena know that the footage from her test will be reviewed later, and start the simulation back up for me.
Tsubaki had never been one to leave a trial unfinished.