A lone kunoichi was carefully crawling around in the air duct of the base wondering just how something like this was able to exist without anyone at all outside here knowing about it.
The existence of a base such as this should most certainly draw some attention to it even if it is in a remote area like it was. After all, she was from a ninja village herself where they taught her from childhood how to be stealthy and remain out of sight. However, even their village was known to those outside of it as that is how they got the mission after all. It was not like the only way to get news was by other ninjas that acted only as mail carriers for them. People sent them missions directly and they were other means of finding them.
This place however for what they seem to be doing to be hidden like this was well beyond what she would have ever expected possible. Having accepted this mission to save the daughter of a wealthy Arabian man. Her bodyguard came to their village looking to hire her especially and seem very intent on doing so(even offering them twice the amount of the original cost just for her to take it personally).
The name of the female ninja going through this was Ibuki. A very skilled and capable kunoichi who could have been even better in some people's eyes if she did not wishes to be just a normal girl. While her desire did not affect her skills and ability to carry out the mission yet some questioned her.
However, her guardian of sorts/ninja master Enjoy kept those people in check though allowing her to be herself. She was grateful for even if at the same time if ever skipped or missed training she was supposed to have he would come down on her with make work and assignments like no one else business.
The air duct Ibuki was currently in did have vents that allow her to see down into the base that she was sneaking around. From what she saw she was really starting to wonder just what was this girl thinking trying to take on some group like this as she was. That girl was merely asking for trouble to come to smack her upside the head and was kind of foolish to think a single bodyguard could protect her against a group this well organized.
'Anyway the quicker I could get through with this mission the faster I can get back home. Then we can inform others of this place and group that doing this as well Ibuki thought glad that no one noticed her up here.
As Ibuki was crawling around she was having this sinking feeling that there was not going to be a simple rescue mission that she told back when she accepted the mission. After all, she looked and noticed that there were girls near her age walking around with lifeless expressions and eyes devoid of all life walking around here. While some people looked sorry for them in one area yet in another they did not even really seem to acknowledge them as people even. She was having trouble seeing them as people in the robotic way the ones that she had seen respond to others and their surroundings.
After wandering around for a short time more and just when she was about turn around and get out of there. This place was not somewhere she did not want to be caught inside of by herself at all. However, just as she was thinking about doing this she heard some voices that as well as something within herself that pushed her to keep going with the mission. The bodyguard that hired her to find their client left with not only a picture of what she looked like but even some audio so Ibuki could also tell what her target sounded like as well. From the sound of things, they were not good as her fears from before about them were growing almost as if she was already too late to perform a rescue at all.
Waiting for the right moment to drop down into the room looking around beforehand to make sure that she was not featured on any cameras or something else that could alert them to her presence there. Ibuki's fears about what happened here were realized when she stood before the one that had formerly been Pullum. Circling Raks she hear those that just left refer to her as she could tell that it was probably pointless to do anything with her. The claws this place had dug into her mind were far too deep and possibly they might never be removed. After all, she had overheard things like the complete erasing of her previous persona, and that was what she had heard. It was not anything more than a shadow no it was more like Raks was merely acting like Pullum. There were even trigger words that could turn this reproduction version of Pullum on and off as if she was a light switch.
Seeing that her initial mission had failed as she was sent here to find Pullum yet the one standing before her was not that girl. Pullum in some sense no longer existed in this world as Raks was all that remain here. The 'Pullum' that did still exist was not truly real anymore but merely a very realistic copy but in the end a copy of the original.
Judging that bringing Raks along would be too much of a risk and dead weight in her escape from here to return to her village to inform her master of what happened. Ibuki decided to just leave her here and take her so that maybe so the day it might be possible to have some kind of comprise or just make it so that Raks was able to be human. These things never cross Ibuki's mind at all.
Though as she was going she realized that she was alone here as the air duct she had dropped down from was too far up to jump back into without alerting someone's attention so she would just have to sneak out here by trying to hide in plain sight. She was a ninja and being able to hide was supposed to be a specialty of her kind. It was as she was leaving that she finally realized that she was not alone with Raks in this room as she seem to acknowledge Saru's and Juni's existence for the first time since dropping down into this room.
Luckily for Ibuki, the two did not seem to do anything in response to her being here at all. They just stood there still as statues not moving a single inch. She was having trouble believing these two girls were even alive as it was like they completely erased their presence causing them to just blend into the background of this room like they were not even there at all. Waving a hand in front of their faces even moving their arms up seems to have no effect as no motion to move or she even noticed their chest was moving at all. The only way she learned they were even breathing was when she held a finger under their nose and felt air they were exhaling and inhaling at an almost undetectable level. Making her think these two must be the more advanced models and was glad for whatever reason they were not responding to her.
It was then that Ibuki noticed that a single kunai had somehow fallen onto the ground. The moment her eyes met the fallen kunai that when she just all of suddenly blacked out on the spot.