In a park of Osaka, night
Miyabi and her group just received a message from their master Suzune, whom they asked for advice, but her response isn't really helpful.
"Change of plan, you must eliminate Hamato, no matter the cost."
It's been several minutes since Miyabi has read this message with a high voice, but no dare saying anything and they all look demoralized, even Ryouna.
"Eliminate Hamato… How funny, how do we do that? They know about us and they're way stronger than we are…"
Ryoubi says, she feels abandoned by her school.
"They could at least send us renforcement…"
Murasaki says in a low voice.
"Eh? You're that unconfident about our strength?!"
Imu yells at her two comrades, but they don't react at all.
"Imu… They're right…"
Miyabi claims, defeatist.
"M-Miyabi?"
Imu asks, shocked.
"It's painful to admit, but Ryoubi is right, if we just go on our way, we won't be able to do anything… But we cannot just involve the other Hebijo students into it, it'd just end as a total war, and even there, we aren't sure to win…"
Miyabi explains, frustrated.
Her friends are quiet again, even more demoralized.
"Maybe we should just… give up?"
Murasaki suggests.
"You're crazy? Our shinobi carrier would immediately end, and our lives too by the way…"
Imu claims, but she doesn't blame her little sister this time, because she also thought about it, like her friends.
Except Miybai, who takes a deep breath, and makes a decision.
"There's still another option…"
Miyabi says, boosting her teammates' morale a little bit to the passage.
"If we attack them all by ourselves, we'd have to deal with the four senior elites, who are way stronger than us. Then, there are the other shinobi students, and some of them are as strong as we are. And finally, there are also the Homura junior elites, who are a little stronger…"
Miyabi explains, Imu is astonished to hear her admitting Homura's group is stronger.
"See like that, we stand no chance, but…"
Miyabi continues, hesitating a little before completing.
"If we manage to convince Homura's group to fight alongside us, we'd still be disadvantaged, but we'd at least stand a chance."
Miyabi completes, but she's doubting about her own plan, which needs to convince Homura and her friends to betray their new employer.
"Is that your idea for real? How are we supposed to convince them? By politely asking them?"
Ryoubi asks sarcastically.
"HAVE YOU A BETTER IDEA?!"
Miyabu yells, the stress finally makes her snap.
"No… And that's the problem…"
Ryoubi, a little shocked, answers.
"So, let's go…"
Miyabi orders before walking in the direction of Hachi Academy.
Shinobi Room of the senior elite.
Yû was alone with her dogs, until an unexpected presence came, and she's very annoyed now.
"Oh, excuse-me beauty, I'm looking for Arisa, have you seen her?"
Haruka, who just went to the room, seductively asks.
"No…"
Yû answers in an annoyed voice while looking at Haruka with threatening eyes.
"Oh, too bad, goodbye!"
Haruka says before closing the door, sweating a little.
The scientist wanted to see Arisa to thank her for saving her, but she has no idea where she is and Yû doesn't seem to be helpful.
Haruka sighs and leaves, a little bothered by the unfriendly behavior of Yû.
Hachi Academy dojo
The Yoseikan Budo lesson is over, it was just a complementary lesson the shinobi students didn't have to be in.
But Mirai chose to stay, she's the only one of her group who made that decision, even if Homura disagreed.
"Thanks Mirai for your advice!"
A girl who practiced with Mirai tells her before going.
"You're welcome, feel free to ask me if you wanna practice!"
She responds by smiling.
Mirai is so happy she's even humming, without realizing she wasn't alone yet.
"Hi Mirai!"
A joyful voice says, Yuuma's one.
"Oh, good evening Yuuma."
Mirai answers in a polite way, which Yuuma doesn't seem to like.
"Oh, come one… You can say "hi"! You'll soon be an official comrade!"
Yuuma enthusiastically claims, which makes Mirai a little confused.
"Um… Okay, but we haven't decided if we will stay or not already…"
Mirai answers by blushing a little.
"Eh, don't try to make me think you may not stay, I see you're completely in love with our place, miss is very popular by the way…"
Yuuma claims by insisting on the last words.
Mirai is embarrassed, but Yuuma is right, she really enjoys her journey there and wants to stay, but the decision doesn't only belong to her.
"That's true, but first I have to talk with my friends to be sure they want to stay too, I think they do, but who knows…"
Mirai says, not very confident.
Yuuma looks like she dislikes this decision, and she doesn't have her usual happy smile anymore.
"Mirai, if you want to stay, you stay, you don't have to live for your friend. You can't know if they'll always be there for you after all…"
Yuumi coldly says, which surprises Mirai for a second.
But Mirai quickly realizes what Yuuma just said and of course, she doesn't like it at all, she thinks there's no way her friends wouldn't be there for her.
But before she could argue, Yuuma speaks again.
"By the way, the deadline for your choice is in two days, Arisa is at her office, first underground. You should see her to ask her for the registration documents."
Yuuma says in a formal way before turning back.
"Eh? Well, okay…"
Mirai reacts, she's already forgotten her anger.
Yuuma is leaving, but she suddenly stops before saying something else to Mirai.
"Also, Arisa's office is… creepy, but you have nothing to fear, don't worry."
She explains before definitely leaving, Mirai is now alone and confused.
But she quickly decides to listen to Yuuma and is now walking to the stairs, towards the first underground.
A few minutes later
Mirai is now in front of the senior elites' leader's office, in other words, Arisa's one.
She feels a presence in this office, she knows she's here, and Arisa very likely noticed her presence too.
But Mirai is still hesitating to enter, Yuuma says she won't be endangered and Arisa did save Haruka, she's still scary and Mirai would rather have some blood in her veins.
But the little shinobi acts bravely and knocks on the door.
Knock Knock
And only a single second later, she hers a voice telling her to enter.
Mirai listens to it, she opens the door and goes into the office.
And she's now facing a confusing scene.
Tens of completely full blood bags are fixed on the walls, probably what Yuuma was talking about.
Mirai can't help screaming a little, but a familiar voice makes her come back to Earth.
"Mirai?"
Mirai looks at the direction of the voice, which comes from the desk, where Arisa is sitting.
"I… Um… Good evening…"
Mirai says, worried.
"Good evening, have you come to give your blood?"
Arisa asks by looking at Mirai with insistence.
"N-NO! I'm here… I've come for the registration document, please…"
Mirai answers.
"What a pity… But alright, I have several of them somewhere."
Arisa says in a surprisingly caring way, and while she's looking inside her drawers, she asks something to Mirai.
"Anyway, why were you staying in front of the door without doing anything?"
Which astonishes Mirai, who still quickly answers.
"I… I was wondering why the leader's office was so far from the Ninja Room…"
Mirai says, unconfident.
Arisa looks at her with surprise, then, she kindly smiles at her.
"That is a good question you have, I should ask the master… Ah! Found it!"
Arisa screams by picking five documents.
Mirai comes closer, and takes the documents with her two hands while bowing quickly.
"Alright, fill them and bring them to me, it shouldn't be too long."
Arisa claims before standing up and looking at the blood bags on the walls closer, bags Mirai forgot.
The little shinobi remains frozen, scared, but also curious.
'Is something wrong, cuties?"
Arisa asks by smiling.
"Well…"
Mirai is hesitating, she still fears her blood could end in one of those walls.
"What is… all that blood?"
She asks, trying not to look too afraid.
"Oh? What a little curious girl… This is the blood I collected on enemy shinobi… But a few also come from some students of the school who were bold enough to challenge me… No need to say they all regretted their decision…"
Arisa claims while looking at Mirai with interested eyes.
"W-Why blood?"
Mirai asks, uncomfortable, but less scared.
"Come one, the answer is obvious… To give them to hospitals."
Arisa answers, surprising Mirai a lot.
"I-I see, it's nice of you…"
Mirai says by shyly smiling.
"OH? Thank you very much…"
Arisa answers by cheerfully smiling.
Mirai feels better, she feared Arisa could be a kind of vampire.
But Arisa looks concerned, even frustrated.
"Well… I would like to give those blood bags, but Japanese hospitals are… paying too much attention to the source than the ones from my country…"
Arisa explains, sighing once those words are said.
"Your country?"
Mirai highlight, she knows most of the students here come from Europe, including Arisa, but she doesn't know where exactly.
"Moldavia, not a very wealthy country…"
Arisa responds, her face is pretty sad now.
Mirai has never seen Arisa like that, she's used to seeing her smirking.
"Why have you started to ste… brutally take blood? No! I mean…"
Mirai loses her words, she doesn't want to make Arisa angry.
Buy she doesn't look bothered at all, she even has a sad smile.
"Do you really want to know my dear? Alright…"
Arisa says before returning to her desk to sit down, under the curious look of Mirai.
"I come from a pretty poor family, we could live and we had a roof over our heads, but unfortunately not many else…"
Arisa starts, that context reminds Mirai of Yomi.
"But, we were committed to each other, and my dear father was working very hard to allow us a decent life, know that I will eternally thank him for this."
Mirai tells herself she wishes she had a father like him.
"But one day, he fell seriously ill, a blood disease not very kind, but a blood donation was enough to save him so, even if we weren't rich, he would survive… that's what I naively thought…"
Arisa says in a frustrated voice.
"What… What happened?"
Mirai asks, curious.
Arisa doesn't immediately answer, and her face is turning into a very enraged one.
"Not many people gave their blood… Among the thousands and thousands of people compatible in my country, only a few made a donation. When it wasn't the collection that were lacking, the donors were… My father was one of the unlucky, or rather the poors, who couldn't receive anything… he didn't survive…"
Arisa explains in an angry voice she fails to hide.
Arisa's story makes Mirai sorrowful, but also sacred by the hatred on Arisa's face.
"I couldn't accept that, so, I saved up money to purchase books about blood and how to collect them, then I've started to collect all by myself in order to be sure no one could lose an important person in the same way I had… And I can tell you I didn't really care about my "donors" opinions, even if I didn't kill them…"
Arisa claims, her sadistic smile is back.
"As I told you sooner, dearling, the hospitals in my country weren't really caring about the source, they gladly accepted my blood bags, especially since they were free… And one day, when I was 17, I collected the blood of a young man from a pretty wealthy family… Who didn't really appreciate my generosity…"
Arisa says by chuckling in a sinister way.
"They even sent an evil shinobi to take care of me, of course, even if I knew how to defend myself, I wasn't a match for him… But he was… impressed by my determination, enough to offer me to join the evil shinobi instead of being killed… Of course, I couldn't refuse such a kind proposal…"
Arisa says, concluding her story.
Mirai feels bad for Arisa, and understands why she's so… special.
"I see… Thanks for trusting me, Arisa, have a nice evening."
Mirai says by smiling at Arisa before walking in the direction of the door.
Mirai's doubts about Arisa are gone, she's sure Arisa is a good person. Furthermore, since Arisa told her about her past, that means she trusts her, so Mirai doesn't want to disappoint her.
"You're welcome, I can't wait to collect your blood, by the way."
Arisa joyfully says, which makes Mirai shivering, and leaving faster.