The following morning came by quickly. The sky was painted in a bright blue without a single cloud in sight. Haruna stood outside her front door, taking in the gentle breeze and the fresh spring air. This felt so much like the beautiful flower garden in her dreams… the fictional serenity and peace she so desired teased her again. Its tantalizing presence was followed by the sense of cruelty, even despair.

“I wish every day would be so happy like this… I wish my dreams weren’t just that. Dreams.”

Omo left her home, carrying her school bag with her. Along the way to Maguro High, she plucked occasional spring flowers from stray patches of grass, even placing one in her hair with a pleased smile.

“OOh! Omo!” She heard, noticing her two mentors emerging around the corner. Akane and Mirai were chatting, but stopped to acknowledge Haruna. “Ready for another day of training, Omo?” Mirai greeted her with a slap on the back.

“N-No–gagh! My flower!” Omo yelped, the sunflower falling out of her hair and hitting the ground. She stared at the flower for a few seconds, but then shrugged and started walking again.

“I’ve noticed you really like flowers,” Akane mentioned, “Do you have a garden?”

“No… my mom used to, but then she fell ill and the rest of us were too busy to keep it up. Even after she got better, she just gave up…”

“Gardening?” Mirai asked, “I can help!”

“You do gardening?” Akane asked.

“Huh? Yeaaaah! Don’t you see those rose bushes at the school?! My friend Miura got ill so she couldn’t keep up with her bush, so I kinda took over for her! Now I have the two biggest and reddest bushes in the whole school! HAHAAA!” Mirai puffed her chest out and proudly boasted.

“Ohhh… those bushes…” Haruna nervously smiled, looking away from the two and at her shoes.

“Eh? ‘Those bushes’? You look like you’re hidin’ something from Mirai!” Mirai frowned, “Did you do somethin–”

“I may have… taken two or three roses… on my way home one day. I hope you don’t mind.”

“EEEEHHHH!?” Mirai gasped, “Sooo THAT’S what happened to them… You know, I’d be a tad mad, but since you’re my friend I don’t care! Help yourself, Hananeko!”

“Hananeko?”

“Whaaat? ‘Hana’ means flower, and ‘Neko’ means cat! You love both, so it’s a fitting nickname in my book!”

“Hehehehe, ‘Hananeko’, that’s cute!” Akane giggled with a hand over her mouth, “I like it.”

“See?!” Mirai pointed, “It’s good! You CAN’T act like it doesn’t fit!”

“I… I guess so…! Hehehehe!” Haruna began to laugh too. Infact, the trio tossed the name around a few times and exchanged joyous laughs over it.

A few minutes later, the trio turned the next corner, and one of them started to become leery.

“Hey, am I not the only one that feels like we’re being followed?” Akane asked. Her question caused Mirai to stop and look behind her.

“No, I don’t see anything…”

“Uhhh… maybe you’re nervous about something, Akane?”

“No, it actually feels like someone is watching us…”

“I feel it too, Omo.” Mirai chimed in, “Someone’s watching us. I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

“Hopefully good…!” Haruna anxiously cried with growing weariness. “It doesn’t feel nice…”

“Just ignore it, we shouldn’t give it more attention.” Akane shook her head and kept walking forward. “If they had beef with us then they’d confront us.”

“I want to have beef with them, I’m hungry!” Mirai giggled, pulling out her lunchbox from her school bag.

“Hey hey! Wait until lunch!”

“This is my breakfast, what do you mean?!” Mirai exclaimed with a mouthful of peanut butter sandwich.

“Groossss!” Akane gagged, clenching her arms to her sides and taking a step away from Mirai. “You’ll get food all over my cleaned uniform!”

“Oh no!” Mirai sarcastically rolled her eyes, “anyways!”

Omo couldn’t help herself from laughing. “You two are so much like siblings!”

-_-

The group entered the school building where they were greeted by the rows of lockers on either side. Akane was the first to stop, Mirai and Haruna stopping shortly after. “Well, I guess this is where we part for the day!” Akane waved, “None of us share a class sooo… see you all after school?”

“Yeah! Wait, speaking of after school…” Mirai started, “Where are we training today?”

“The gym! I rented it out again, that’s why I didn’t want to buy everyone’s sushi the other day.”

“Really!? Didn’t you get a part-time job to afford it the last time?”

“Had some left over… I don’t blow my yen on sweets and popcorn on my first pay day.”.

“H-HEY! I- I TAKE OFFENSE TO THAT!” Mirai shouted with red cheeks, “I- I’m good with my money!”

“No you arrrennnn’t!” Akane teased, spinning around, pulling down her right eyelid, and sticking her tongue out, “bleeeeehhH!”

“Er-ERR WHY YOU–!!” Mirai returned fire, yelling “BLEEEH!!!!”

“Excuse me, is this a typical human gesture?” a female voice interrupts the two’s childish game by tapping Akane on the shoulder. When they all saw who it was, Haruna, Mirai, and Akane dropped their jaws. Standing there… in a full school uniform…

“WHAT THE FUCK–” Akane shouted! “NO NAME?!”

“Hello there! My name is Sekken Miyuki. It is a pleasure to meet you fellow classmates.” ‘No Name’, now apparently named ‘Miyuki Sekken’, greeted with a brief curtsy. “What are your names?”

“Sekken… Miyuki?” Mirai repeated. When the realization hit her, she erupted into stifled giggles. “Sekken…!?”

“Didn’t we introduce our names before…?” Akane added, “We met each other yesterday.”

“Is that so?” Miyuki tilted her head. “I don’t think I remember that…”

“....Huh?” The three paused yet again, gazing in blank stares. Mirai walked over to Miyuki, gently resting her arm on Sekken’s shoulder and chuckling.

“Oi oi, you can’t really have forgotten us! You gave us the scare yesterday when we thought you threw a dead body in New Tako’s Lagoon! Remember Jeffery?”

“Jeffery…” Miyuki rubbed her chin slowly as if she were in deep thought. “No, the name doesn’t strike me as familiar…”

“Is… is this the same person…?” Mirai gasped, taking three steps back, and examining Miyuki front and back.

“You… didn’t have a name yesterday, right?” Akane added while doing the same. The two were like detectives trying to piece together a puzzle. She had the hair, the face, the markings, the massive black winter coat over her school uniform, but she didn’t remember them?!

“I don’t think so, I came up with a name today when I heard they were a requirement for entry in this building.”

“O-okay, so this is ‘No name’...” Akane concluded, Mirai nodding in agreement.

“Sekken, do you remember me, Haruna Omo?” Haruna walked over to Miyuki.

“Uhhh… vaguely…”

Thus Haruna nodded to Akane and Mirai, signaling that she too was sure that this was ‘No name’, now named ‘Miyuki Sekken’.

“Miyuki Sekken is a cute name! How did you come up with it?” Haruna asked.

“Miyuki… it sounded like a familiar word to me, so I thought it worked!”

“And the Sekken part?”

“I… I found a box somewhere with it written on it and thought it sounded nice…”

There was a moment of awkward stares amongst the trio. Miyuki began to sweat a bit, folding her hands over each other. “Wh-what is it?”

“You… you do know that you named yourself… after a soap bar, right?” Akane asked.

“O-oh…. Is that so?” Miyuki meekly smiled.

“Yeah… Might as well call you ‘soapy’!” Mirai sung, “Soaaapy! Soaaaapy! Soaaapy Sekken!”

“Why not ‘Slippy’?” Akane suggested, “As a nickname, of course.”

“I like it!” Miyuki giggled, “But what is a ‘nickname’?”

“W-well… It's something friends or close relatives call each other for fun! Like, my mom calls me ‘Manaka’ because I used to be a bit of an attention hog in my Elementary years, like I was ‘in the middle of everything’.” Haruna explained, “It’s all for fun and games!”

“You? An attention hog?” Akane scoffed. “I can hardly believe it!”

“It happens to the best of us,” Mirai grinned, “It’s just a matter of embracing it!”

“Yeah, except you embrace it a bit too much,”

“Wait- guys,” Haruna interrupted before Mirai and Akane could go off on another tangent. “This entire time we’ve been talking and I don’t think we’ve asked the most important question: How did Miyuki Sekken get into Maguro High’s school building?”

“Oh… oh that is a good question!” Mirai nodded, “How!? I don’t think you were a student here already, were you?”

“Well… I walked through this field and found a door that was left open.”

“You… entered… through the locker room?! Did–” Akane suddenly connected the dots, curling a hand over her mouth and gagging. “Those clothes… Do… do I even need to ask where you got them?!”

“I found them! No one was in the room so I assumed it was discarded and free for claiming.”

“N-NOOOO! That’s someone else’s school uniform! They have to change clothes for PE!”

Haruna raised her voice and interrupted Akane, “Hey! She didn’t know that! Can’t you see she has a troubled memory? I’m sure we can sort this all out! Just… we’ll find another school uniform! Meanwhile, I can show Miyuki around the school. You can go to my classes with me, if you want?”

“Sure! I’d love to learn more about people and this ‘school’ thing…”

Thus the hours rolled by, and Miyuki adventured across the new building under the guidance of Haruna. Unlike living in the alleys and feasting off of canned beans and fish, this place felt much… ‘easier’, if that is the correct word. Serviced food in the middle of the day? A long stick with a giant hair brush to clean messes? A white powder to write on walls? She felt her brain expanding just by existing here!

To top it all off, she even learned a common ancient school-goer tradition where one borrows another’s bag. Though… she wasn’t sure when her classmate was going to return her book bag. They must really need it. When she talked to Haruna about it, she said that they were called ‘Bully’. Such a strange name for a kid…

After the day passed into the mid-afternoon, Omo escorted Sekken to the Boxing Gymnasium. There in the dimly lit room filled to the brim with heavy metal contraptions, stood Akane and Mirai each slipping on their colored gloves. While Akane opted for the typical full-covering gloves which were painted in a bright fire-truck red, Mirai’s gloves were cyan-colored slim, open-fingered mitts with padding primarily focused on the back of her hand and heel of her palm.

“Yahooo!” Mirai waved to the entering Haruna and Miyuki. “Welcome to the club! I hope you’re ready to have FUN!”

“She seems pretty enthusiastic…” Miyuki whispered to Haruna.

“She’s always like that… You’ll get used to it. I just hope you can keep up!” Haruna giggled.

“Right on time, that’s a first.” Akane smirked. “Today will be a fun day though, sooooo let’s get our warmups out of the way! Mirai?”

“Yeeeessssssiree!” Mirai leapt forward, then dropped to her hands and feet. “Pushups! If you dunno what those are then follow Mirai!”

The group did as they were told. Together they pushed their bodies to complete numerous rounds of pushups, situps, pullups, and more. The equipment here allowed them to maximize their potential and make the best of their bodies.

“Ngrrh… I… I can’t do it!” Miyuki Sekken rolled over onto her back, wiping sweat off of her pale forehead. “What is the purpose of these anyways?”

“How many pushups did you do?” Akane asked whilst still doing hers.

“Uhhh…” Sekken blinked, raising her hand and counting. “About… five?”

Omo stopped herself after completing her eighth. “It’s okay! No one is perfect at the start! Sometimes you gotta have a little push.”

“R-right..” Sekken nodded. With that in mind Sekken pushed through the rest of the workouts- er- rather just pitifully hung on.

More long minutes passed until the group of four met at the training ring. Akane took the lead, clearing her throat and projecting her voice. “So! Since yesterday, we’ve gained a new member in this little training group. Mirai Keikan, Miyuki Sekken, Haruna Omo, and me, Akane Zakuro. That makes… four people for the upcoming tournament?”

“One, two, three… four… Yep!” Sekken nodded, holding up four fingers.

“Great! So, I assume that Sekken doesn’t know anything about Boxing, right?”

“Nope! Is it a really hard exercise?”

Akane giggled, “Well… kinda, but also far from it. It’s a fighting style.”

“Fighting… style?”

“Basically…” Akane began… but then paused as if she were in deep thought. (“Wow… I never expected I’d have to actually explain what Boxing is. I… guess I kind of assumed everyone had an idea what it was, but Sekken really has no clue. How do I go about this… hmm… maybe a demonstration?”) Thus with her idea to explain it in the simplest of terms, Akane looked at Mirai. “Mirai? You’re up!”

“Really?! So soon?! Hehehehehehehehehhehe~” Mirai plastered a mischievous grin and danced onto the training ring. “Alright gang! Today’s lesson is very simple: Beat Mirai!”

“Beat… Mirai?” Haruna tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“Eh!? Isn’t it very clear?! You get to beat Mirai!”

“Beat you?! How are we going to do that?!” Haruna arose from her seat, (“I’ve never fought Mirai before… and after that bout against the thugs, she seems really scary to go up against.”)

Mirai began to softly giggle, which turned into a loud cackle. She threw two kicks, punches, and followed by a high roundhouse-kick. When her foot hit the ground, a loud THUD! rang through the gym that shook Miyuki to her feet.

“If we’re gonna fight in a tournament, then you lassies need to learn what a tournament is like! So, I made one of my own. A four-round tournament where your only opponent will be me, Mirai! I call it… ‘The Mirai Games’! Genius, ain’t it?” Mirai asked whilst puffing her chest out and grabbing her waist.

“Mirai isn’t like fighting anyone at the Boxing Club.” Akane added, “She’s very much a different animal you have to learn how to tame. If you can beat her, then you can beat anyone in that tournament.”

“A-Akane! Are you serious?! Mirai’s like– wait, how long has Mirai been training?”

“Eight years!” Mirai exclaimed.

“Eight years?! Akane’s been fighting for only two!-- right?”

“Yep!” Akane nodded, “Mirai’s had the most training out of everyone here, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win!”

“Yeah! It totally does!”

“That’s why we’re training…”

“Hrmmmmm…” Haruna grumbled. She cupped her hands over her face and gave a slow, tired sigh. “I can’t… I can’t do that…”

“Whaaat? Are you scared, Omo?!” Mirai teased. “Why don’t you go first?!-- actually, nevermind, why not…” Mirai pointed a finger at each member of the group, mouthing to herself ‘Eenie meenie minie moe’. Her finger landed on someone, then pointed to the stage. “Akane? You’re up!”

“Really?” Akane raised an eyebrow, stepping up to Mirai. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Uuhhhhh…” Mirai looked to the floor, beginning to whistle to herself. “Maaaaaybeee?”

“Tch, you’re such a kid!” Akane giggled, “You just wanted to settle our feud on Discord yesterday, didn’t you?”

All Mirai replied with was a childish laugh. “Besides, I don’t wanna wring the newbies out so soon!”

“Fine with me, that gives me the opportunity to play catch-up with our scores. I’m at, what? Thirteen wins? What about you?” Akane asked, slammed her fists together, then got into her fighting stance.

“I think it’s fifteen.” Mirai answered in kind and got into her own fighting stance. It was NOTHING like a boxing stance. Her legs spread out, one in the front and the other in the back, and raised her fists a little further from her chest compared to Akane. “Wanna give us the countdown, Omo?”

“Uhhhh… sure? Ready? Set…” Haruna briefly paused. “Go!”

Thus the match began, but there were no strikes straight-away. Akane and Mirai, instead, started to circle around each other.

“ORRAA!” Akane threw the first strike! She threw a powerful right-hook. But, her fist is pushed away by the side of Mirai’s arm, then parried with a punch into her gut.

Akane staggered back and grabbed the ropes behind her. She pushed herself forward and threw an uppercut aimed for Mirai’s chest. Until… her fist connected with Mirai’s own instead.

“Ouch! Your blows are as strong as ever, Akane!” Mirai grinned, pulling her fist back. Her body contorted, throwing a sweeping high-kick at Akane’s head, who narrowly evaded.

Akane backed up and watched Mirai with some anticipation. “That was a close one…”

“Hehee! Sucks to be a Boxer, doesn’t it?! Can’t use your feet, can you?” Mirai ran at Akane and threw two quick jabs, followed by spinning her body around and ramming a back-kick square into her opponent’s guard. “Here it comes…” Mirai grinned, spinning back around and holding her hand out. She thrusts it forward and contorting it to the side, “First technique: Whirlwind Palm!”

Akane was increasingly backed into a corner by the overwhelming number of attacks. When she heard the name of the coming attack, it was too late, for the palm strike already hit her in the jaw. It was Mirai’s primary technique, a pain amplifier caused by timing her strike so precisely that when she twists it upon contact, it causes a crippling burning sensation. The agonizing burn froze Akane for a second until she gathered her senses. When she did, her eyes narrowed.

“Alright, my turn.”

“If you insist!” Mirai chuckled, backing up. “Swing those punches, Red!”

Akane leapt forward and began to softly bounce side-to-side. A bright red blur slams into Mirai’s guard, followed by a punch aimed for her gut. Mirai’s knee hits the gut-punch, but what she failed to realize was that… this was all to draw her in. Akane spun her body around, carrying the momentum in a single uppercut that rammed Mirai’s guard wide-open!

“Sucks to be a Karate user, doesn’t it?! You get to use your legs!” Akane yelled before charging at Mirai. “ORRRAAAA!!!” She shouted, aiming a straight-shot punch for Mirai’s diaphragm…

Mirai’s eyes widened. Her arms spun in circles while trying to maintain her balance, but Akane wasn’t going to give her that chance! “Darnit! I have no choice then!” Mirai grumbled. She allowed herself to fall on the ground, at the same time grabbing Akane’s fist and pulling her forward. Now the weight and momentum behind Akane’s finishing blow instead forced her to fall onto the ground.

PWOOF!

Akane groaned under the pain of her jaw. She tried to grab the ground and pull herself up, but a force on her back resisted her movement.

“That’s sixteen!” Mirai giggled, sitting on Akane’s back.

“H-hey! I- I haven’t tapped out yet!” A crushing force sends Mirai rolling across the ground. Akane stood up on her feet, dusted her knees off, and rubbed her hand.

“Grrrg…” Mirai grumbled. Her hands pressed against the ground, and tried pulling herself onto her feet. “You hit me in the back!”

“You sat on my back! That’s what you get for not pinning me!”

“Bruh, at least I can do that within the rules of my martial art!”

“Then quit being a baby and do it!”

“I WILL!!! GRRAAAAAAGH!!!!” Mirai charged at Akane. There was something different about Mirai, though. Haruna picked up on this and turned to Miyuki.

“Is… is she glowing?”

“Huh? I don’t see it…”

“I could have sworn I saw her glow. The yellow lighting shouldn’t make her glow blue.”

Akane closed her fists and ducked to the side, dodging Mirai’s first punch. A straight jab rams for Mirai’s jawline… but Mirai herself ducked!

This turned into a struggle of blows between Akane and Mirai. Mirai threw many punches and kicks, but Akane ducked and weaved and retaliated with crushing blows herself which were also dodged. This struggle of attack and dodge ensued for ample amounts of seconds until-

CHING!

A breeze blew across the stage. Interrupting the two’s struggle was a sharp metal object that wedged itself into the training ring’s floor.

“WOAH– WHAT THE FUCK–” Akane stepped back, only for a force to ram into her side and knock her onto the floor.

“HEY! SOMEONE INTERRUPTED OUR FIGHT!” Mirai grimaced, “IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT THEN JUST SQUARE UP! LOOOOOSER!”

“Akane! Are you okay!?” Haruna asked as both her and Miyuki ran to the stage to check on her. Miyuki stumbled over to the metal object, pulling it out.

“Oh, I can’t read this…” Miyuki shook her head and handed it to Mirai. The metal object… Mirai seemed confused, even surprised at what it was.

“Is… is that a shuriken?! Do we have a motherFUDGING ninja at this school?!” Mirai exclaimed.

“A… a shuriken?!” Akane rubbed her head and pulled herself to her feet with the aid of Haruna. “There’s a sticky note attached to it too.”

“It simply says: ‘The Tournament is accepting thirty fighters, but zero spots are open for amateurs.’ ~ Nightshade.”

“Nightshade? What kind of edgy name is that?” Akane asked. She folded her arms and bit the side of her cheek, beginning to think a bit on this. “They almost impaled my good arm with that, so I’m sure they mean business.”

“Yeah… but… why doesn’t she want us to go to the tournament?” Haruna asked, “ Maybe she’s on our side! She wants to warn us of something!”

“Either that, or she is compelling us to go even more.” Akane added. “I don’t know.”

“Baaaagh! It’ll be fine!” Mirai, seemingly more excited, gleamed in a bright white smile. “I am sure we can handle it! We’re all a strong pair and we’re gonna train like heck for the coming days. I’m sure by the end, not even ‘Nightshade’ can be a threat to us with their fancy doo-dads!”

“I’m gonna be careful, and I’d suggest you all to do the same.” Akane stated while walking off of the stage. “I doubt this room is safe to train in, so I’m leaving. You can stay if you want, but I think we need to find out more about this ‘Nightshade’ before we think about training at Maguro High again. I don’t want… one of their ‘doo-dads’ killing one of us… whether it be on accident or on purpose.”

“Wait… it’s a weapon! She brought a weapon to school, this is something we should report to the school administration!” Haruna exclaimed, “You don’t have to worry, they can handle it!”

“--and put their lives in danger? I don’t think so.” Akane scoffed.

“Yeah! Honestly, I agree with Akane.” Mirai added. Thus, she too exited the ring and began to pack her things up, “Don’t worry! We’ll train elsewhere! Besides– Master Kanrin’s probably waitin’ for me.”

“OOooh, yeah… don’t wanna keep him waiting.” Akane giggled.

“Master… Kanrin…?” Miyuki asked.

“Her master, the one who trains her. That’s all I’ll say though.”

“Oooohhh…”

The group packed up their things and simultaneously exited the Boxing Gym. While this went on, each of the four had different thoughts in the back of their mind.

(“I’m not sure I know what a ‘ninja’ is, but it sounds really dangerous. Akane and Mirai seem to be taking this really seriously. I need to be careful…”) Miyuki thought.

(“A ninja? At SCHOOL?! And we can’t report it to the headmaster?! What do we do?! Oh god… what does she want!? Why doesn’t she want us to go to the tournament?! What… what does Damian have planned…”) Haruna thought.

(“Heheehehehheehehehe a Ninja! Talk about TOTALLY AWESOME! But, school ain’t the place to carry those kinds of weapons around, so she’s invading my space and endangering my fellow people. SO, this looks like a job for Mirai to handle!”) Mirai thought.

(“Nightshade? She’ll definitely be a problem and I doubt it’ll be a while before we see her again. So, we’ll have to train away from Maguro High. Thankfully, I have a few ideas.”) Akane thought.

With each holding their own opinions about this matter, they all were about to embark on this journey for strength in a different light. Where this path may take each of them was up to how strong they choose to forge their wills. But now a new mysterious force watched over them, and whether she was friendly or not they did not know.