Tokyo International Airport, morning
Today is sunny, perfect to travel.
Almost no wind, perfect to fly.
Which means nothing that could prevent someone from leaving this city.
And there is one girl happy to see that.
A Japanese teenager is about to leave Japan for an undetermined amount of time.
She's at the boarding gate, and a voice just asked the passengers of her flight to join the plane.
The girl still has ten minutes left, more than enough to board.
She's glad to even if her friends won't follow her this time.
"So, you finally leave…" Yumi tells Shiki while smiling.
"Seems so." Shiki says, smiling to her four friends facing her.
"If you don't call us back, I won't forgive you!" Minori says, pouting.
Everyone chuckles, including Minori, who was actually just playing it up.
"Yeah, don't worry!" Shiki says, smiling.
"Goodbye, Shiki. I hope your new school will be great." Yozakura says, waving her hand.
"Yoza, there's no way a place where I am isn't cool, dontcha think?" Shiki asks in a teasing voice.
"Sure…" Yozakura answers, not really convinced.
"Farewell, Shiki." Murakumo says in a gruff tone.
But then she takes off her mask, without fearing the stares of people around her.
"I'll send you my mangas." She says in a shrill yet determined voice.
"Thank you!" Shiki says joyfully.
"Goodbye Shiki, I wish you luck and happiness." Yumi says while cheerfully smiling.
However, Shiki doesn't really like Yumi's choice of words.
"Oh come on, don't say it like that! You make it sound like it's the last time we ever meet. Like, there's no way it is!" Shiki proudly exclaims.
Yumi giggles, but now, it's time for Shiki to leave.
"See ya, girls! I'll send y'all a post as soon as I land!" Shiki says while walking to the gate, waving her hand.
All her friends wave back in return. Minori even waves with both.
Shiki quickly disappears from the remaining Gessen students' view, who slowly lower their hands.
They still have something important to do, because Shiki isn't the only one to leave the elite squad today.
One hour later, Hanzô restaurant
"Thanks for the meal!" The four Gessen girls say.
Yesterday, both Yumi and Murakumo have graduated, which means they're now official shinobi.
But it also means they're not Gessen students anymore. They have to leave this afternoon.
So, they planned to eat with Yozakura and Minori for the last time before definitely quitting Gessen.
They chose Hanzo's place in order to tell him goodbye too, since he was their teacher at Gessen.
"So, where are you going, you two?" Minori asks.
"This afternoon, I will meet our superiors to be assigned to a shinobi squad." Yumi politely answers.
"Well, my father needs my services, so, I'll work for him for a while." Murakumo shyly answers.
"Oh, t'at's gr'at!'" Minori says, the food in her mouth making it a little difficult to understand.
"Minori, I told you hundreds of times not to speak while eating…" Yozakura says in a tired voice.
Yumi giggles a little, while Murakumo just smiles.
Two hours later, Tairô zaibatsu main office
As planned, Murakumo just arrived at her adoptive father's office.
The CEO was waiting for her, he probably has many plans for his private shinobi.
"Murakumo, I'd like to congratulate you for your graduation. I'm proud of you." Murakumo's father says in an extremely rare warming voice.
That shocks Murakumo, especially since it doesn't sound fake to her.
"Thank you, father." Murakumo says while bowing.
Murakumo's father nods and takes a stack of documents.
"Anyway, I have many assignments for you. Missions for our company, for some of our loyal customers…" He starts, but then stops and takes a look at his daughter.
"And of course, many tasks including pure shinobi business…" He says, obviously referring to Yôma hunting.
Murakumo's father takes a quick look at several others documents before putting all of them on his desk.
"You start tomorrow, at 7 am. You are dismissed for today." He says in a plain, matter-of-fact voice.
Murakumo bows, then responds:
"Thank you, have a nice day."
The masked girl then turns around and walks away in the door's direction. She then leaves the office.
Right after closing the door, Murakumo takes a huge breath.
She wasn't expected her father to give her the rest of the day off, but she's glad he did. She still has things to take care of in her new apartment.
Furthermore, that day was pretty exhausting for her. She needs to rest and to think for a bit.
15 minutes later, Murakumo's apartment
That is the place where Murakumo starts her new life as a shinobi.
The Tairô Zaibatsu offered her this place, close to the firm, a convenient choice.
It's not a luxury apartment, but not a miserable one, too. It's just a normal apartment, one room, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a shower room.
For a single person like Murakumo, it's perfect. She even has a large table to draw her manga, which was the only request she made.
But for now, Murakumo just lies on her bed, without her mask.
"..."
She's silent, it's not like she has anyone to talk with there.
The shinobi still can't believe she's done with Gessen for real.
Sure, she knew this day would come, but that just seems unreal for her.
Even if she got used to being separated from her friends.
At least, she was able to say goodbye to her friends and she still knows where to find two of them.
However, the real issue is she doesn't know what to do with herself.
She will work for her father, fulfill her shinobi duty.
But the most important thing to her is to do what's right, the reason to be of all of Kurokage's disciples.
Could she still be a good person by working for his father? She almost crushed people of the slum she grew up in just because he told her to.
Also, she was ready to give up her shinobi duty just to stay with a dead person.
The thing is, Murakumo has always needed someone to stop each time she lost herself.
So, will she be able to keep going on the right path all by herself?
Murakumo isn't sure, but she hopes she'll be.
She'd rather perish than turn into someone evil.
That is why she absolutely wants to always do the right thing.
No matter the cost.
Special thanks to NeoDingleBat for his proofreading