Bullets Loaded

The next day, Sakura Airi and Ichinose Honami changed their approach.

At lunchtime, Ichinose Honami still showed up right on time at the door to Class D. But this time, she wasn't followed by any of her classmates from Class B. That subtle protective network had been completely withdrawn.

"Sakura, want to go get lunch together?"

Ichinose's smile was as bright as ever, as if the threatening phone call the night before had never happened. She walked in naturally, greeted a few Class D girls she knew who were sitting near Sakura Airi, then took Sakura by the wrist.

"S-sorry for the trouble..." Sakura Airi still kept her head down, but her body wasn't as stiff as before.

"Don't mention it!"

The two walked side by side toward the cafeteria. They didn't go out of their way to take a detour or look around nervously. They simply chatted like ordinary friends, wondering whether the cafeteria would have any new desserts that day.

After school, the same scene played out again. Ichinose walked Sakura back to the dormitory, and the two said goodbye at the elevator.

That was the new strategy Natsukawa Sosuke had proposed over the phone the night before: "heed the warning."

Since the stalker had threatened them not to investigate, they would stop all obvious investigative actions. This outward retreat would both lull the stalker into thinking his threat had worked and free Sakura Airi from the conspicuous attention of Class B's excessive protection.

Ichinose and Sakura Airi had resumed their calm routine in public. Natsukawa Sosuke's own operation, meanwhile, quietly began after school.

He didn't go to the library or return to the dormitory. Instead, carrying his schoolbag like any other student, he headed for Keyaki Mall.

There was just a little more in his bag than usual.

After ending his call with Sakura Airi the night before, Natsukawa Sosuke hadn't gone straight to bed. He knew this was no ordinary overzealous fan. It was time to bring out the big guns. Since the other person was getting his thrills by monitoring her both online and in real life, Natsukawa's job was to completely "unmask" him online.

He'd gone to the school's 24-hour convenience store and bought a few inconspicuous components: several 18650 batteries, a new high-speed SD card, and a black, square plastic case.

Back in his dorm room, he took out a small single-board computer (Raspberry Pi) that he'd previously used for programming practice and testing.

He flashed the system onto the SD card, installed a wireless network adapter, and fitted it together with a voltage booster connected to the 18650 batteries. Then he secured everything inside the black plastic case.

He'd modified the device into a portable network sniffer. It was compact, had long battery life, and could be operated remotely through his Personal Terminal without needing a laptop.

After that, just to be safe, he applied a privacy screen protector to his laptop. From an angle, the screen looked completely black; its contents were visible only when viewed straight on.

Only after making all the preparations did Natsukawa Sosuke close his computer.

Early that evening, at Keyaki Mall.

Natsukawa Sosuke didn't enter the electronics store. Instead, he sat down on a public bench a short distance away.

He'd chosen the spot with care. The foot traffic was moderate, and students came and went, so sitting there to rest, read, or use a phone looked perfectly normal. Most importantly, the bench received a stable signal from the public Wi-Fi the electronics store provided for students to test devices.

Natsukawa Sosuke sat in a relaxed pose and took his laptop from his backpack, setting it on his knees. Then he unzipped the bag and placed the black plastic project case by the opening to ensure it had a good signal.

To anyone passing by, he looked like an ordinary student taking a break on a bench and getting some work done on his computer.

Natsukawa opened his laptop. The privacy screen protector kept the display crystal clear to him, while making it appear black from the side.

He put on a single-ear Bluetooth headset. It looked as if he were listening to music, but in fact he connected to the black case and began the setup.

His fingers tapped lightly across the keyboard.

First, he connected to the target network: "Student_Test_Zone."

It was an unencrypted public network. For the electronics store clerk, using the store's Wi-Fi was an entirely ordinary habit.

Next, Natsukawa launched the tool he'd prepared.

The ARP spoofing program began to run.

In an instant, the data packets from every device in the area connected to "Student_Test_Zone" began passing through Natsukawa's little black box before reaching the router, then being silently forwarded on.

He'd become the middleman on the network.

Data began racing across his screen. He filtered out the junk traffic generated by students testing phones, mooching off the Wi-Fi, and the like. He set up a key filter to monitor only traffic headed to the server hosting Sakura Airi's blog.

Everything was ready. All that remained was to wait for the right moment.

After glancing inside the electronics store and confirming that the clerk was there, Natsukawa Sosuke took out his Personal Terminal and sent Sakura Airi a message.

"Sakura, open your blog and post a picture now. Anything will do. If you can't think of anything, post a photo of your dorm-room desk with the caption: 'I'm so tired today.'"

In the girls' dormitory, high up in the building.

Sakura Airi received Natsukawa's message. She was still a little nervous, but she chose to trust him completely. With trembling hands, she took a photo of her dorm-room desk, added the caption "I'm so tired today," and tapped Send.

She didn't know that the post was bait Natsukawa had laid out.

On the bench, Natsukawa Sosuke watched the screen calmly.

He waited for about a minute.

Inside the electronics store, the clerk was idly wiping down the counter. The phone in his pocket vibrated with a notification about a followed blog. As usual, he took out his phone, unlocked it, and tapped the familiar profile picture.

"Shizuku-chan... You're so cute today, too," he muttered, his face spreading into a greasy smile.

Natsukawa couldn't hear what he was saying, but the expression on his face still made him feel sick.

The instant the clerk opened the blog, the filtered data on Natsukawa's laptop jolted!

The target had appeared.

A clear stream of data was flowing from a specific IP address to Sakura Airi's blog server.

Natsukawa's fingers didn't pause for even a moment. He immediately began intercepting every data packet in the session.

Since the clerk was accessing a blog, and the outdated platform didn't even have HTTPS enabled across the entire site, all the communications—including the login credentials—were laid bare on Natsukawa's screen.

He didn't need the password.

All he needed was this: the Session Cookie.

It was a long string of letters and numbers. Natsukawa quickly copied it.

Those characters were the stalker's "electronic key" to the blog server. With that key, Natsukawa could log in to the stalker's account from anywhere, impersonating him.

At the same time, Natsukawa also copied the MAC address of the stalker's phone. That unique hardware address was like the phone's "fingerprint."

"Got you."

Natsukawa said it silently to himself. He immediately stopped the ARP spoofing and shut down the sniffing program.

The network instantly returned to normal.

Natsukawa Sosuke closed his laptop, put the little black box back in the depths of his backpack, and zipped it up.

He stood, took off the Bluetooth headset, and slipped it into his pocket.

From the moment he sat down to the moment he left, less than five minutes had passed.

Inside the electronics store, the clerk had just finished looking at Sakura's post. Satisfied, he casually browsed a few other pages. He vaguely felt that the network had lagged for a moment, but it soon returned to normal. He clicked his tongue and chalked it up to the usual fluctuations in the Wi-Fi.

He had no idea that, in those few brief seconds, someone had silently removed the mask he'd hidden in the shadows.