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PROBLEM: WATANABE ASUKA did not bother to spare a mere hour to unpack her belongings.

SOLUTION: Watanabe Asuka never unpacked before winter break in the first place. All she needed were a few changes of clothes and toiletries; she had duplicates of everything else important at home, like chargers and phones and whatever else.

Asuka dropped her few things off at her dormitory, and then off the Sublevel One she was. Lucky her, freshmen didn't get access to Sublevel Two or Three—which was so incredibly unfair, considering all the tales she'd heard from upperclassmen about them. While they had stories about being filled with textbooks and top-secret files, with walls of glass and limestone, Sublevel One was, simply put, very utilitarian. It was boring, with its concrete and stainless steel walls and hanging light fixtures that made you feel like you were in a murderer's basement, ready to get drawn and quartered. Extreme yuck.

Still, it was the coolest place Asuka had access to, so there she went.

Asuka retreated to the third door to the right after stepping out of the elevator, eyes squeezing shut as she'd still not gotten used to the retina scan allowing her access. The little puff of air from the scanner always left her eyes dry and tingly, and she blinked a few times, regaining the moisture before moving to unlock the door. It had a fingerprint lock on it, and she pressed her thumb against it, pausing to hear the whirls and twirls of the mechanism releasing.

It was dark inside the room, but not because the lights were off; rather, there weren't any, save for the glowing green strings at the perimeter of the ceiling and the computer screens themself. It didn't matter either way, as Asuka could navigate the giant, sprawling technology room with her eyes closed—she knew the place better than the back of her hand, and even slept there more often than not. She tiptoed around the steel cubicle walls, slipping comfortably into the section reserved for freshmen. Her setup hadn't been touched, as per usual. Asuka and other technology-specialized Aeji girls, like Kang Mina or Ji Dami, usually had reserved computers that everyone knew not to mess with unless they wanted a cat virus on their phone the very next morning.

Asuka took a seat in her chair, slipping on her headset and powering up the computers before her. Retrieving her phone from her pocket, she set it on the open charging stand beside the computer monitors. The screens glowed black as green text appeared, prompting her to log in.

She typed in where it prompted, inputting her school username and password. The screen flashed black before it was replaced with glowing text, appearing letter by letter.

WELCOME, STARGIRL.

The interface opened up, Aeji's personal search engine widening on the screen. Asuka pulled up Spotify and started up her playlist, humming to herself as she started her daily routine—checking her email, modifying her schedule, working on whatever extra-credit project she had planned for the day.

Her current extra-credit work wasn't exactly, well, extra-credit. It was more a plea for detention, really; trying to hack through the security measures of Sublevel Two and Three as a freshman was, by no means, an intelligent idea. Many students had tried it in the past, to disastrous ends—Asuka still shuddered at the horror stories the sophomore girls told her in vivid detail, eyes wide and serious but lips just barely concealing smiles that exposed their gleefulness at their underclassmen's terror. But Asuka was better than Kang Mina or Ji Dami. And she could do it, if she was given enough time.

She'd spent the winter break going over the specifics and getting the details just right. These pieces of code, these passwords for these firewalls, a quick switch in the student database to simply elevate her grade year twice.

Undoubtedly, Asuka would get caught. But maybe, just maybe, if the entire school was preoccupied with whatever was going on, then she might be able to sneak a look.

Her fingers hesitated above her keyboard. She glanced into the rearview mirror she had pasted by her desk wall. There wasn't anyone else in the technology room. Everyone was still unpacking or gossiping. In theory, if her code didn't find any weaknesses in the system fast enough, she could just leave it running for days until it did.

Asuka stretched out her fingers, closing up her tabs and pulling up the code file she'd written over the break. There was an opening to the administrative accounts in all of the Aeji computer systems—she just needed to find it, buried somewhere beneath all the files and data in the computer. Asuka started running the program, watching as text screens opened and closed, searching the computer for a way in.

Her screen flashed about fifteen minutes later, after rapid typing of passwords in firewalls and breaching security measures, the code halting to a stop as the staff log in prompter pulled up into her screen. Asuka sat up, fingers hovering over the keyboard. She ran through the list of staff members to use, but it only made sense for one—Mr. Kim, who'd left the school faculty over the break. He'd announced his retirement right before the end of the first quarter, and it was unlikely the school had removed his information just yet, when they still needed to retrieve the semester's grades and homework.

Now for the password.

This was probably the hardest part of the process. There were no pieces of code she could run; no data she could scrape off a computer—just the five guesses she got before she was shut out of the system. Asuka's fingers floated about the keypad, hesitant. She'd tracked him before the break, possible passwords jotted down from analyzing the keys his hands flew over when typing, and the things he wore and said and did.

He'd been aging, but still whip-smart, so something difficult but still memorable. It wouldn't be a long string of numbers, letters, and symbols—for an everyday log in, it was too much of a hassle. The hardest passwords to guess were phrases of random words spliced together, and they were easy enough to remember.

He'd pick something academic-related; not too far off from the topic. Mr. Kim had taught History and Culture Assimilation, so something like that. Asuka ran through everything of note about the teacher. He took his coffee dark, one sugar, in his best teacher mug that an alumni had given him. He had a fondness for tweed suits. His wife was part of the costume department in the KCIA.

Assimilation@eji! was her first option, and it provided nothing. The first word was Assimilation, no doubt about it, capitalized. Assimilationaej!mh1st provided no results either. Too many words and too random. His would be more simple. Asuka glanced down at her notebook paper. Second word is a two digit number. What number? Assimilation52aeji! might be likely; his birth year could be it. She tested it out. Nothing.

Two more options left. Assimilation, a two digit number. Not Aeji; assimilation was already his subject, he wouldn't put the school in. Something related but obscure, then. Personal.

She hesitated. Personal, related to the school. Asuka analyzed her list for the last time. Coffee, suits, wife. Nothing related to the job. Except...

The best teacher mug. Gifted to him by an alumni. His best student, known as Nemea, like the lion. (No, Asuka had no idea why Aeji girls were so obsessed with Greek-myth inspired code names; she'd picked someone cute but simple herself.) She'd graduated in 2021, two years prior.

Assimilation21Nemea!

Ding. She was in.

The screen widened, and Asuka's fingers hurried to open the administrative code, moving to the settings and finding the roster of freshmen listed. She opened up the source code of the system, pressing CNTRL-F and typing in her name to find herself quicker. Then all she needed to do was manually adjust her grade level... one, two, three. WATANABE ASUKA, year three.

Save. It was done.

Asuka shot up from her chair, hastily grabbing her things and nearly forgetting to shut off her computer as she scrambled for the exit.

It was nerve-wracking going deeper into the Sublevels. Asuka pressed the down button on the elevator, selecting Sublevel Three first—deepest level first, so if she got caught she'd at least be able to see the level that was the farthest, time-wise, away from her actually unlocking. Her thumbprint, pressed against the scanner, registered. Asuka had to suppress the urge to do a little dance in the elevator, hands trembling as the elevator plummeted downwards.

The elevator slowed to a stop. With a hiss and a clank, the doors opened to Sublevel Three.

The Sublevel seemed more or less abandoned when Asuka stepped out onto the floor. It was extremely... pale, to say the least; the walls really were made of limestone, cream white bricks polished and gleaming off any light that hit the surfaces. The floor was marble, and Asuka delighted in hearing her heeled mary janes click against it. Maybe the school-required shoes sucked, but if she could hear this sound every day, she'd consider wearing them outside of school hours.

The first opening of the Sublevel was what looked like a library. But as Asuka looked closer, she saw the books on the shelves were manila folders—thick and closed with rubber bands, lined up neatly and labeled with sets of numbers. Case files. Case files, out in the open, for any third-years to read. Oh God, was this unfair. Asuka dug in her pockets to pull out her phone, snapping a quick picture to show to her friends later.

She moved through the halls quickly, dodging this way and that whenever she heard any footsteps pass. She balanced her feet properly so she couldn't hear that uber-satisfying sound of her own footsteps, a skill all Aeji girls learned in their first CoveOps class. She took pictures of everything, then checked the time—it was getting closer to dinnertime, and she'd be noticed soon. The clock was ticking, Asuka might be dumb, but she wasn't stupid, and it was time to leave.

She hurried back towards the elevator, glancing down at her phone to check the time again when—bang. Asuka stumbled back, falling to the ground in one fluid movement. God, being tiny sucked sometimes, and she barely resisted the complaints ready to fall out of her lips when she realized.

Someone had run into her.

Someone had run into her, which meant—

Asuka's head shot up, and she was met with the towering figure of a boy.

He was—tall, certainly, at least a hundred and eighty centimeters, possibly a few more. His frame was broad, and from it hung a navy blazer, bluer than Aeji's black set and red tie. Dark, hooded eyes were covered by a fringe of floppy dark hair, and soft lips were pushed back into a grimace. Asuka gaped up at him. He glared down at her.

"Kenji!"

Asuka's head spun, turning as yet another boy ran to join the other. This one was shorter, but clearly older, all soft hair and eyes shining with a glare. "Kenji, we're not supposed to be down here. The headmaster wants us upstairs. How'd you even—"

"I ran into someone," Kenji was complaining, and then he was turning back towards Asuka. But Asuka was already gone. He and the other boy swiveled their heads towards her—she'd gotten up in a scramble, slipping around the boys to shove herself in the elevator. Her head spun, confusion reeling her mind—boys at Aeji? Principal? Headmaster—

But then Headmistress Moon's voice crackled through the speakers. "Eom Hyemi to the principal's office."

Oh, something was happening at Aeji indeed. 

WELCOME TO GIRLS, WATANABE ASUKA

EBBIE'S NOTES: and let's welcome the newest member of GIRLS, kyura! who we are completely and utterly unsurprised about receiving the slot, considering she was also the only person who applied for skyline. anyway tysm kyura for being my day 1 and posting ur form literally the day after it was published 🙏ilysm and i love asuka even more (JK). ik this chapter is a bittt scrambled buut i'm trying to do introductions fast so we can get into the real story !! also apologies for inaccurate portrayal of hacking