surface.
Huh?
Then she noticed it.
This case had essentially no gaps in the outside. Something like rubber packing was stuffed into various places, as if to make it waterproof. All of the gaps in it were shielded.
Wait…Is whatever is inside sensitive to light? Like photography film?…It must be something delicate. Oh, and there I went, slapping those men silly with it.
She thought for a moment, then came to a quick conclusion.
I suppose putting off opening it would be for the best. I will have a clairvoyant or mind-reading colleague check it first
, she decided as she scrutinized it, put off by its excessive shielding.
Suddenly, though, she spotted some kind of tape stuck to its side, as though it were keeping its cover on. It was the tag from before. It was printed elaborately and reminded her of paper money. There was probably an IC chip embedded in it somewhere, too.
The things written on it were the same as what Uiharu had shown her earlier. They wouldn’t be able to distinguish it without putting it through a machine, but at the very least, none of it seemed strange to her eyes.
What’s this marking…?
Shirai looked down the side of the luggage again. There was a marking engraved directly into the case, separate from the tag. It was a simple mark, with a few rectangular shapes overlapping inside a circle. She felt like she’d seen it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember exactly where.
She decided to stop thinking about it. “Best to ask others what I don’t understand, I suppose.” She took her cell phone out of her skirt pocket, then removed the super-thin scroll-looking part out of the small tube. She then used its camera to snap a picture of the entire carry-on luggage, the tag, and the marking, sending it all in a message to Uiharu with only the words
look at please
.
Sure enough, one hundred twenty seconds later, she got a response. Shirai hit the talk button before the second note in her ringtone could play.
“Shiraaai, it’s Uiharu. You finished your job, so I have a report for you and a demand for a prize.”
“I’ll accept the report but not your demand,” she answered smoothly, though inside she was astonished at Uiharu’s investigative prowess—she didn’t let it into her voice, though. She might have had access privileges to the city’s data banks, but her response time was insane.
“Demands are demands because you have to demand them! Well, anyway, I’ll give you my report first. That carry-on luggage is special, basically. It’s really airtight and blocks all kinds of cosmic rays. See how the surface is gleaming like that?”
Now that she mentions it
, thought Shirai, looking at the luggage’s surface. It was like it was waxed. It reflected light, showing Shirai’s own face.
“It looks like the really good stuff they use in astronaut suits and the outside of space shuttles. And obviously, given the technology used to make it, it was created in Academy City.”
“Wait, cosmic rays…What for?”
“Just how it sounds. You don’t need much in the way of protection from cosmic rays when you’re on Earth. Though I can’t say for sure, since the ozone layer has been doing badly lately.”
Which means…Outer space, so…Were they going to use this in some kind of EV work in space?
The unexpected development gave her alarm.
“Next is the tag. Oh, but before that…Shirai, I have a request. Can you change your phone to RWS mode and take another picture of the tag? There’s a red square on the right side of it. Focus on that.”
“What? RWS mode?”
“It’s the mode you put it in to read electronic data from IC chips and stuff! It’s standard issue on all Judgment cell phones. I put that expansion chip in your cell phone for you, remember?! You haven’t even read the manual, have you?!”
“I know basically how to use a cell phone, so I never felt like going through the minor things in the manual…”
“Ahh, jeez! Anyway, first, open the main
Huh?
Then she noticed it.
This case had essentially no gaps in the outside. Something like rubber packing was stuffed into various places, as if to make it waterproof. All of the gaps in it were shielded.
Wait…Is whatever is inside sensitive to light? Like photography film?…It must be something delicate. Oh, and there I went, slapping those men silly with it.
She thought for a moment, then came to a quick conclusion.
I suppose putting off opening it would be for the best. I will have a clairvoyant or mind-reading colleague check it first
, she decided as she scrutinized it, put off by its excessive shielding.
Suddenly, though, she spotted some kind of tape stuck to its side, as though it were keeping its cover on. It was the tag from before. It was printed elaborately and reminded her of paper money. There was probably an IC chip embedded in it somewhere, too.
The things written on it were the same as what Uiharu had shown her earlier. They wouldn’t be able to distinguish it without putting it through a machine, but at the very least, none of it seemed strange to her eyes.
What’s this marking…?
Shirai looked down the side of the luggage again. There was a marking engraved directly into the case, separate from the tag. It was a simple mark, with a few rectangular shapes overlapping inside a circle. She felt like she’d seen it somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember exactly where.
She decided to stop thinking about it. “Best to ask others what I don’t understand, I suppose.” She took her cell phone out of her skirt pocket, then removed the super-thin scroll-looking part out of the small tube. She then used its camera to snap a picture of the entire carry-on luggage, the tag, and the marking, sending it all in a message to Uiharu with only the words
look at please
.
Sure enough, one hundred twenty seconds later, she got a response. Shirai hit the talk button before the second note in her ringtone could play.
“Shiraaai, it’s Uiharu. You finished your job, so I have a report for you and a demand for a prize.”
“I’ll accept the report but not your demand,” she answered smoothly, though inside she was astonished at Uiharu’s investigative prowess—she didn’t let it into her voice, though. She might have had access privileges to the city’s data banks, but her response time was insane.
“Demands are demands because you have to demand them! Well, anyway, I’ll give you my report first. That carry-on luggage is special, basically. It’s really airtight and blocks all kinds of cosmic rays. See how the surface is gleaming like that?”
Now that she mentions it
, thought Shirai, looking at the luggage’s surface. It was like it was waxed. It reflected light, showing Shirai’s own face.
“It looks like the really good stuff they use in astronaut suits and the outside of space shuttles. And obviously, given the technology used to make it, it was created in Academy City.”
“Wait, cosmic rays…What for?”
“Just how it sounds. You don’t need much in the way of protection from cosmic rays when you’re on Earth. Though I can’t say for sure, since the ozone layer has been doing badly lately.”
Which means…Outer space, so…Were they going to use this in some kind of EV work in space?
The unexpected development gave her alarm.
“Next is the tag. Oh, but before that…Shirai, I have a request. Can you change your phone to RWS mode and take another picture of the tag? There’s a red square on the right side of it. Focus on that.”
“What? RWS mode?”
“It’s the mode you put it in to read electronic data from IC chips and stuff! It’s standard issue on all Judgment cell phones. I put that expansion chip in your cell phone for you, remember?! You haven’t even read the manual, have you?!”
“I know basically how to use a cell phone, so I never felt like going through the minor things in the manual…”
“Ahh, jeez! Anyway, first, open the main
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