Hebijo's Clandestine Girls' Academy, Ninja Room, two weeks before Miyabi decided to leave Imu
"The name's Sôji! Nice to meet ya!"
"My name is Bashô, it's a pleasure to meet you."
The two new elite students introduce themselves. The first one in an energetic yet arrogant voice, the second in a calm and polite voice.
Sôji and Bashô, a pair of shinobi on par with the elites, now second-year students.
That was an obvious choice for Miyabi, who almost picked them up back when she formed the new Hebijo elite squad a few months ago.
That's the issue there…
Murasaki, Ryôna, and Ryôbi are carefully listening to their new teammates' introduction.
They didn't feel anything off with Bashô.
However, regarding Sôji, they feel something from her…
An intense rage, directly toward them.
Not to help that, Sôji is hiding her feelings behind a fake smile, so obviously fake it almost looks voluntary.
Suzune, who led the two there, also feels that and doesn't know the reason for Sôji's hostility.
Or rather, she doesn't really care. That's not her problem, but the squad leader's one.
"Nice to meet you… I guess…" Ryôbi says, confused.
"N-Nice to me-meet you…" Murasaki says, scared and hiding her face behind Bebetan.
And then…
"Nice to meet you!" Ryôna joyfully shouts out.
The masochist jumps in the direction of her new teammates, staring at them with curiosity.
"Bashô, you seem to be a kind girl! That's nice! Too bad you probably won't hurt me…" Ryôna says, starting happy, but ends sorrowful.
Suzune told them about Ryôna's unique behavior, but Bashô can't help being embarrassed toward Ryôna. But still, she manages to smile at her in return.
"T-Thank you…" She says in a shy voice.
Ryôna then focuses her attention on Sôji.
"AND YOU! You look mean! If you feel bad, don't even ask and just hit me as much as you want!" Ryôna yells before moaning by thinking about how kind of pain Sôji could inflict to her.
Sôji, of course, finds Ryôna's attitude off-putting, but is actually considering her proposal.
"Why not…" She says.
"YES! HURT ME, MASTER!" Ryôna excitedly screams.
Sôji clenches her fingers, then clenches her neck.
She has a creepy smirk on her face, enough to give Bahsô a cold sweet… And to hype Ryôna for what's coming.
However, Sôji stops smirking, then looks up as if she was thinking.
After mere seconds, Sôji looks Ryôna with an arrogant stare again before saying this:
"Ya know what? Screw you, you're not worthy of being hurt by me."
Ryôna squeals like a sad dog.
However, before she could beg for pain, Suzune stops her.
"Ryôna, stop this now, I still have something to tell you." Suzune orders in a serious tone of voice, even more serious than usual.
Ryôna stops and listens to her teacher, but she's not ready for what is coming…
"Miyabi chose you as the new leader of the Hebijo Elite Students Squad." Suzune explains.
Those words freeze the entire room.
A silence remains for ten long seconds before Ryôna finally breaks it.
"W-What?" She asks in shock.
"You heard me, this team is now under your command." Rin says in return.
"B-but, no… I can't, this is not a job for me!" Ryôna protests, beginning to panic.
"Ryôna, this is a final decision. It's not up to discussion." Suzune claims.
Ryôna goes quiet again, looking down with confusion.
Sôji is also about to protest, same as Ryôbi, but…
"Nobody is allowed to dispute that, in case I wasn't clear…" Suzune says without giving a single glance to her students.
Sôji and Ryôbi both stop before even starting to talk, which annoys them a lot.
"M-Master, can I at least know why Miyabi chose me, please?" Ryôna, a little calmer, politely asks.
Suzune gave her a quick look, and decided to tell the truth.
"To be honest, I'm not sure myself. She told me you'd make a good leader. She even said you'd be better at this than she was." Suzune explains.
This vague answer doesn't satisfy Ryôna. But she knows asking for more is most likely useless, so she just thanks her teacher.
The purple-haired teacher leaves the room right after it without looking back at her students.
One by one, the students leave to go about their own activities. Five minutes later, Ryôna and Murasaki are the only one left.
"Ryôna?" Murasaki asks.
Ryôna screams and jumps in fear.
"S-Sorry! I didn't intend to scare you…" Murasaki says.
"No, it's fine… I shouldn't be…" Ryôna starts, searching for the right words.
"Concerned?" Murasaki guesses.
"Yeah… I just, I mean, why me? I'm the worst possible choice for the leader…" Ryôna says, confused.
Murasaki is disturbed since she's never seen Ryôna acting like that.
However, she thinks she knows why Miyabi chose her.
"You are wrong, you will make an excellent leader." Murasaki claims, smiling cheerfully.
"Eh?" Ryôna reacts, even more confused.
"You are weird, yes, but you are perfectly able to bring people together. You care about your teammates and you believe in them." Murasaki explains.
Ryôna is surprised and not really convinced, but a part of her wants to believe in Murasaki's words.
"Okay, if you say so…" Ryôna says in an unconvinced tone of voice.
Murasaki giggles.
"Uh? What's wrong?" Ryôna asks.
"You just confirmed I'm right." Murasaki answers.
"I… I don't get it." Ryôna asks.
"You trust your comrades more than you trust yourself, which was good leaders do. I saw it in of of my favorite anime." Murasaki explains in a soft voice.
Ryôna remains still for a couple seconds and then giggles too.
"Eheheh. First, Miyabi made me the new leader and now you tease me! Today is surely a strange day…" Ryôna says in an embarrassed voice.
"That's for sure!" Murasaki says back.
The two girls take a deep breath and sigh.
"Thank you, Murasaki." Ryôna says in a soft voice.
"I haven't done anything that you should be thanking me for…" Murasaki says in return.
'You know, you'd make a good leader too!" Ryôna says sarcastically.
"M-Me?! No way!" Murasaki shyly answers.
Ryôna giggles before running out of the room.
A few seconds later, while she was still running and giggling, she slowly stops and lowers her head.
"..."
She takes a few moments to think about her new role in her team. Asking herself if she'll be able to make Sôji their friend, if Ryôbi will accept her as her leader, that kind of things.
The few girls passing by the elite student have the chance to look at a very rare event. A serious looking Ryôna.
Finally, the new leader rises her head and tells herself:
"I'll do my best."