Despite Mitsuru's obligations to the school and SEES and other Shadow-related business, her position as heir to the Kirijo Group meant she occasionally had to see to developments within the company. Today saw Mitsuru in one of the company's numerous R&D laboratories after receiving a request to see experimental technology for approval. The heiress was in her usual Gekkoukan attire, as she had every intention of returning to school as soon as her business here was concluded. It simply wouldn't do to skip an entire school day if her business concluded before the end of classes.
"Ms. Kirijo, thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to stop by!" Hideki, the scientist that had submitted the request, said respectfully as he led her through the sterile white halls of the laboratory. "Trust me when I say you won't be disappointed!"
"I should hope not." Mitsuru replied as she slipped into her executive nature. "I'd be rather cross if my time was wasted."
Hideki blanched at Mitsuru's cold nature and words. He'd heard stories of the redhead's stern and commanding nature, but had yet to experience it for himself. The fact that this young woman could make a grown man twice her age suddenly feel like a nervous child was both awe-inspiring and irritating to the man. He was an accomplished scientist, one of the leaders of his field! And here he was being talked down to by a woman still in high school! Swallowing his pride, Hideki merely nodded in understanding as he and Mitsuru reached the first invention he intended to show her.
An unassuming black cube sat on a pedestal in an isolated room. Mitsuru raised a delicate eyebrow, clearly waiting for Hideki to explain just what she was supposed to be looking at. An awkward silence carried on before the scientist realized this, followed by his own stammering as he hurried to begin explaining.
"Ah, this is something special indeed! While it may look like a black box, what you see here is in fact a colony of nanomachines!" Hideki explained with a flourish. Mitsuru's expression shifted to one of keen interest, prompting Hideki to continue. "They're currently inert, but once activated will spread out into an invisible cloud and surround their subject. These little beauties do anything you can think of! They can actively clean your body and clothing, block signal transmissions and radiation, and even gather together and create a rudimentary force field for your personal protection! At least... they will once we work out the kinks in the hive AI."
"What do you mean by kinks?" Mitsuru asked, finally breaking her silence with the one question Hideki had hoped she wouldn't ask.
"Oh, nothing serious, Ms. Kirijo! The AI just... has trouble with understanding the gravity of her, er, its work. We have a theory that it might learn to take its job seriously if we give it a good trial subject. Normal people wouldn't cut it, but someone important might convince the AI of the importance of its job and get it to be less... playful." Hideki explained, trying his best to downplay the disastrous early trials that he and his team "forgot" to log and report.
"An important person might be capable of solving the issue?" Mitsuru asked. "Like, say, the future head of the company?"
Mitsuru's suggestion intrigued Hideki. Her suggestion wasn't wrong, technically speaking. But if something were to go wrong with the AI, it wouldn't just be an intern suffering the consequences, but his boss's daughter. His future boss...
But if it worked, the project's success would all but guarantee Hideki all the funding he could ask for in future endeavors!
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