Shibuya, commercial street, afternoon
Mirai is shopping in a specialty store, more specifically the figure aisle.
The little shinobi's dream has become true. With her shinobi wage, she can finally afford some merchandise.
"Mine, mine… YOU'RE ALL MINE!" Mirai screams while picking several boxes, she's so happy she doesn't even notice that many other customers look at her with confusion.
The cat shinobi purchases seven figures, the total cost is 60000 yen.
It's expensive, but Mirai doesn't care about this kind of thing anymore.
Even though Yomi protested, Homura decided to give to each member of the squad a part of their communal wage, 100000 yen per person.
"Money is love, money is life!" Mirai says after she paid.
But this time, she realizes how noisy she is as well as the amount of people looking at her. She immediately go silent, embarrassed, and quickly leave the store.
A few minutes later
The eye-patched girl is joyfully walking in the street. Since she still has money left, she decides to take a break to buy some food.
And since beansprouts and wild grass belong to the past, she will gladly accept some decent food.
However, a sudden feeling is going to put a stop to her plan…
"Eh?" Mirai says, surprised.
Mirai just sensed shinobi presence.
"Shinobi… Two shinobi…" Mirai thinks, ready for an assault.
But Mirai quickly realizes something very unusual…
The two shinobi don't seem to be trying to hide their presence, and Mirai can't feel any killing instinct.
"Maybe it's just two shinobi passing there… No, they're coming closer!" Mirai thinks, alarmed.
The little shinobi isn't sure about what to do, but she's ready in case they suddenly attack her.
Then, Mirai notice she's actually familiar with those presences, and one moment later…
"Wait… It can't be…" Mirai thinks, too shocked to notice the two presences are now right behind her.
"Uh?!" Mirai screams in shock while turning back.
She guessed right about the identity of the shinobis…
One man and one woman, both in their forties.
"M-Mother? Father?" Mirai says, shaking.
It's been almost two years since she's seen them and they're probably the two people she wanted to avoid the most.
She betrayed them by joining the evil shinobis, so them finding her is everything but good, especially since they are high-ranking shinobis.
Even if Mirai is strong, each of her parent is probably as strong as her, perhaps even stronger.
So, there is no way she could defeat the two of them at the same time…
"We finally found you…" Her father says in an austere voice.
But Mirai refuses to just let them dispose of her, she's ready to fight until the end…
But she doesn't need to.
"Our daughter…" The man adds before taking Mirai in her arms, the woman quickly joins them.
What happened in Mirai's mind isn't something that can be described.
Too many emotions appearing and disappearing, sometimes only lasting half a thought.
Confusion, surprise, sorrow, joy, anger, fear…
After a mere seconds, Mirai takes a look at her parents, both hugging her with a smile and closed eyes.
"I… Don't understand…" Mirai says, confused.
The woman opens her eyes, and in a soft voice, tells her daughter:
"We saw you on the TV during the Peach Beach Splash… You can't even imagine how proud of you we were…"
Those words break something inside Mirai.
And consequently, she begins to cry too.
"Mom… Dad…" She says while sobbing.
A few hours later, Crimson Squad House
"So, what happened next?" Homura asks, curious.
When Mirai went home, her four friends were already there, and they immediately noticed something unusual happened to Mirai.
They immediately asked her, but they couldn't guess Mirai just met her parents, and in a good way.
"Well, we ate together… They also told me several times how sorry they were regarding how I've been treated and how indifferent they were… They even forgave me for joining the evil shinobi…" Mirai explains, trying to stay neutral.
By all her friends, even Hikage, perfectly sense how happy Mirai actually feels.
"Did you cry too?" Haruka asks in a teasing tone of voice.
Mirai immediately blushes by hearing Haruka's question.
"O-Of course not! As if I would cry while they bothered me during my shopping day!" Mirai yells before pouting.
None of her friend says anything in return, expect quiet giggles from Haruka and Yomi.
But they all think the same thing:
"She completely did…"
The girls keep discussing Mirai's parents, all of them just feel happy for the little shinobi and are even curious to know more about them. Mirai, like the other Hebijo students, wasn't really talkative regarding her past and her family.
However, there is one person there that already stopped listening and that is now lost in her mind.
That person is Haruka.
Hearing about Mirai reconnecting with her parents ended up making her wonder about her own family.
She knows her father is incarcerated, but her mother stopped sending her letters one year before the incident with Orochi. And Haruka didn't get any piece of news from her since then.
Is she dead? Did she rebuild her life? Did she join her ex-husband in prison?
Mirai's story made Haruka want to know what her mother is doing right now… Even if she did her best to just forget about her life before Hebijo.
"I guess It costs nothing…" Haruka thinks
One week later, south of Japan, hospital
The third empty corridor.
The only noise here is the thud of Haruka and the nurse's footsteps.
Haruka didn't consider how hard it would be to find her mother. When she called her former house, she was astonished to hear an unknown voice.
But she grew concerned when the same voice told her what happened to the woman who used to live there.
"Here we are, she's awake, you can enter…" The nurse says in a comforting voice while unlocking the door and slowly opening it.
"Thank you…" Haruka says in a monotone voice.
The girl goes inside the room. Like the nurse told her, her mother is awake.
She's wearing a simple patient's outfit, her hair are messy, her skin is wrinkly… Haruka barely recognizes her mother.
"Mother?" Haruka says.
The woman was sitting on a chair, looking through the window with empty eyes. She didn't even take a look at the door when the nurse opened it.
But then she hears Haruka voice, she starts to slowly turn her head to finally stare at her daughter.
The two women look in each others' eyes for a few seconds. Haruka isn't sure if her mother actually realized she's staring at her own daughter.
Haruka, tired of this situation, decides to come close to her mother, to the point where her breasts almost touch her mother's head.
The languid woman's eyes didn't leave the shinobi's face, but Haruka still doubts she recognized her.
Then, Haruka slowly takes her mother in with her right arm to give her a light hug.
At this moment, her mother's face stops being emotionless. Then, the woman starts to cry.
A few seconds later, Haruka takes her mother in both of her arms and sighs.
"My, my…" Haruka thinks.
Special thanks to NeoDinglaBat for his proofreading (he's writing a story involving the Zodiac squad, I suggest you to check it!).