Page 85 of Pandion

It quickly became clear that a large portion of the faculty had run off with what they had to avoid having to share or otherwise deal with the mass of disgruntled students. It was deeply disloyal and shameful, but not entirely unexpected with so many of them experts hired from abroad.

Hase-sensei and Fujitani-sensei were still at the lab analysing data, but most of their respective teams had been disassembled and recruited to other tasks. It was commendable that they were still willing to help, but their cooperation probably relied on their love for the subject rather than any affinity towards either Harumine or Kagesawa.

As before, Harumine waited in the observation booth with Yajima, who trailed behind them like a dog because Kagesawa was yet to transfer him the money he’d been promised.

Kagesawa was busy redoing some of the diagnostics. He looked like he was in a considerably better mood and focusing on the task like a champ. It probably helped that he was no longer dampening the link while he worked. This provided Harumine an unobstructed window into what he was doing: namely, breezing through the second to last test at a speed much closer to average.

I could make riskier investments for quick returns, but that might leave us worse off.Evidently, he wasn’t as focused as Harumine had assumed.I’ll need to do some risk analysis. If I compromise anonymity, I could also squeeze something from sales. What did I have left… the two stacks from Emoto, S Pharmaceutical, T Financial Group…He finished the last test.

“These results make no sense. What did you do?” Hase-sensei interrupted Kagesawa’s inner monologue. “Why are we seeing this level of activation in 3A and 3B? It’s a simple tendril reach indicator, not a load test!”

“Oh, sorry, that might be my fault. I have something on my mind. Should I do them again?”

“No, this seems like a problem across the board. You’d have to retake everything.” The professor flicked through the results with a bleak expression. “Have you been using the link again? Why is it still developing rapidly?”

It’s probably because I’ve been using it.Kagesawa chuckled inwardly.

You’ve what?Harumine had to butt in.

Haven’t I been projecting to you all day? It hardly seems like it matters at this point.

Is it because you helped me yesterday?

“How bad is it?” Kagesawa leaned over the desk to see the professor’s screen.

“You’ve passed two more stages. This makes no sense. Some of this activity is too high to measure with what we’ve got here. If this is correct, we should be seeing more symptoms… probably.” Hase-sensei turned to Fujitani-sensei, who was busy trying to diagnose a possible issue with the equipment.

Don’t worry about it.Kagesawa glanced towards the one-way window. He did not seem worried. That in itself was suspicious and worrying.Really, it’s OK. I’m entertaining them because it was faster to access the system through this lab than my backdoor. Fujitani-sensei has higher credentials than Hase-sensei. I wonder if he’s aware of it.Kagesawa gave Harumine a little wave and a thumbs up.

“What’s he doing? Does he think it’s an amusement park ride?” Yajima seemed at the end of his tolerance.

OK, so the SEU is almost as screwed. They can’t access most of their funds because it was funnelled through the EA, but they have some private backers and property left to utilise. Can you tell Yajima I can see what he meant about the JufO ties.

“He says he can see what you meant about the JufO ties,” Harumine repeated. Yajima leapt from his seat to look closer.

“How is he doing it?!”

Did he perk up? I thought I heard something.Kagesawa was amused.

Clearly I missed something yesterday. When did the two of you get this chummy? And JufO? I’d like to know what the hell is going on.Harumine relayed the equivalent of stink eye through the link.

I’m accessing some private messages currently. Some scandalous correspondence going on between Fujitani-sensei and someone named Kurosaki Akio. Any idea who that is?

A former classmate but no one Harumine knew beyond the name.

Don’t you have better things to do?

“What’s he saying? How’s he doing it? Is he doing it right now?” Yajima was still nose pressed against the glass, practically drooling at Kagesawa’s perceived hacking prowess.

Is he mouth-breathing yet? I can almost imagine it.Kagesawa was barely stifling his laughter.Oh, what do we have here…His statement and the feeling Harumine was getting through the link made his hair rise.

What? What did you find?If someone from the SEU had ties to JufO, what else was there? A link to the AEM? What?

Someone didn’t finish their Advanced Linking Biology assignment on time.Kagesawa turned to look at the window and raised his brows.

“Shit.” Harumine let out an involuntary huff.

“What? What’s wrong?” Yajima jolted from the surprise.

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