Yukio woke up inside the Gessen Academy again, and looked around. He saw that he was in a classroom with the other Gessen classmates around him.

That's right. I have to stay here, huh...to prove my innocence...that means I won't be able to help the girls.

Yukio gritted his teeth, and gripped his shirt.

"I need to show the Shinobi world that I'm harmless as fast as possible." Yukio said to himself.

"That'll only depend on how you act from now on, boy." The ogre-masked Gessen student said.

Again with this girl, she keeps treating me like a child.

"I know that much at least." Yukio retorted.

"You were pretty good with a knife back there." Murakumo lifted her leg to reveal a bandage where Yukio slashed.

"But I didn't stand a chance against you." Yukio said, he looked down.

"I assume that you only recently got those 'curses'. That's what you call them, right?" Murakumo asked.

"Correct. When I use it too many times, my head starts aching." Yukio replied.

"So you just have to get used to it then." Murakumo said.

"I wish it was that easy..." Yukio replied.

Every power that I use...Timer, Soul Travel, even the new one I just acquired, they all left me with a headache. Even my restarts cause my head to hurt, but that could just be from the feeling of dying.

"Well anyway. Since the others are currently asleep, allow me to properly say this. I'm sorry!" The masked girl bowed her head.

"Huh? What are you sorry about?" Yukio asked.

"You saw my face, didn't you?" The masked girl's tone went quiet.

"Uh...yeah, why? Is that a bad thing?" Yukio was confused by her sudden change in tone.

"Can you just pretend you didn't see my face please?" Murakumo asked shyly.

"What? Why?" Yukio asked again. He was even more confused.

"Just...please forget you saw it." Murakumo said.

"Can you please tell me why?" Yukio repeated his question again.

The masked girl finally groaned in defeat. She took a deep breath, and shuddered when speaking.

"I-I don't like showing my face to people, nobody would want to see my face anyway." Murakumo admitted.

"What do you mean? I'd rather see a human face than an ogre's." Yukio replied.

"Heh, my face is more hideous than an ogre's. I know it is." Murakumo said.

Yukio tilted his head in confusion. "You're face looked normal to me. Nothing hideous about it."

"Y-You don't really mean that, you're just saying that to make me feel better." Murakumo shuddered again, her tone became flustered.

Has she not seen her face at all before? She probably thinks she has a bad scar or something on her face.

"It's not bad at all. Wait, let me get a mirror." Yukio looked around, but didn't see anything.

"Um...there are no mirrors here." Murakumo answered.

Yukio looked around, and saw the small pond area in the middle of the room. Yukio got up, grabbed Murakumo's arm, and dragged her to the pond.

"You're not hideous, and it's time for you to see that." Yukio tried to pull Murakumo's mask, but she smacked his hand away. "...Fine then, Timer."

Time stopped, and he grabbed Murakumo's mask off. He grabbed Murakumo from the back of her shirt, and time restarted again. Yukio pushed Murakumo's face close enough to the pond's surface that she could see her face.

"See, you're not hideous. You have a normal, pretty face." Yukio said, but it only made Murakumo hide her face with her hands.

"Don't you know what you look like?" Yukio said.

"Of course, I do. I'm ugly, and I know I am. Now, please give me my mask back?" Murakumo asked.

Yukio started to feel a little irritated. "Listen, you're not ugly!" Yukio brought Murakumo back up, and looked at her straight in her eyes.

"P-P-Please...c-can I have my m-mask b-back?" She shuddered a lot from the embarrassment.

Yukio let out an annoyed sigh, and gave her mask back. Murakumo put her mask back on, and looked at Yukio.

"Never do that again, please. It's for your own good." Murakumo said, and walked back to the classroom.

What is this girl's problem? She's a completely different person without her mask! What will it take for her to realize that her face is normal?!

Yukio sighed, then walked back to the room, the rest of the Gessen Elites had woken up.

Maybe...I could learn about the others too.

"Soul travel." Yukio said under his breath, and time stopped. Yukio's consciousness was ripped from his body.

He woke up in someone else's body, and immediately saw a coffin in front of it.

Already a death? I can't read who's coffin it is though.

Yukio looked around, and saw that he was at a funeral. A few people approached him.

"I'm sorry for your lost, your parents were admirable Shinobi." Every person said one by one.

So whoever's body I'm in, their parents died as Shinobi. All these sad people saying the same thing, I don't like this atmosphere...

He was then approached by an old man, he held his hand out to Yukio.

"Little girl, do you want to know how your parents died?" The man said.

"Yes." Yukio heard the voice coming from his body. It was too high pitched for him to figure out who's voice it was.

Whoever the body is, they must be a little girl now.

"If you wish to know, then I must turn you into a Shinobi. Do you still wish to know?" The old man said.

"Yes!" Yukio's body said louder this time.

"Hmm, good. I will name you...Yumi." The old man said.

Huh? Wait, so I'm in Yumi's body?! I guess this is Yumi's backstory. Now, who is this old man?

"Sir, may I ask a question?" The young Yumi said.

The man cleared his throat. "My name is Kurokage, and I'm the grandfather your mother refused to introduce you to." He said.

Yukio then witnessed a montage of Yumi's training, it went from strict Shinobi training, to general studies, to training again. However, Yumi and Kurokage weren't the only ones in the montage, there was another little girl that had their face clouded. The girl only appeared for what Yukio assumed was a year or two, then she disappeared.

Who's that? Was that another girl Kurokage adopted?

Yukik then saw the rest of the Gessen girl's backstory, one thing he noticed was that they were all the same event. A parent's funeral with everyone saying that 'they are sorry for their lost', then Kurokage would appear and offer to adopt the girls the exact same way he did with Yumi.

The only difference between the girls' backstory were the following: Yozakura was the oldest sibling in her family and cared for her siblings, but had to leave them behind after Kurokage adopted her. Murakumo had a best friend that kind of looked familiar to Yukio, but Murakumo had to leave her behind when she got adopted. Shiki was raised by wealthy Shinobi parents and was spoiled, which Yukio deeply empathized with. And Minori seemed too innocent for the backstory she had.

Yukio noticed that all five girls mentality towards Evil Shinobi was extremely negative. Kurokage told them that he dreamed to make the world a place rid of all evil. His dream became their dream as well. However, Yukio had mixed feelings about that dream.

No one is necessarily evil, everyone just has different opinions, and some are misguided because of that. For example, some might say that getting rid of all evil in the world is considered evil.

Yukio woke up back in his body, and stumbled in front of the Gessen students.

"Are you ok, Yukio?" Yumi asked.

"Uh...yeah, just a little exhausted." Yukio faked a smile.

I don't know what their reactions to my Soul Travel ability will be, so I'll keep quiet for now.

"Well then, good morning." Yumi greeted Yukio.

"Morning." Yukio greeted back. The other girls greeted him and he greeted them back as well.

"Based on the previous battle, you've shown that you handle ballistic knifes as your main weapon." Yumi said.

"I've never had a main weapon. I just use my resources." Yukio denied.

"Whatever you want, it doesn't change the fact that you work best with those weapons. Now whenever you enter combat, you can equip your ballistic knifes." Yumi confidently said.

Wait, how am I supposed to 'equip' ballistic knifes?!

"So I just need to have a pair of them with me at all times?" Yukio asked.

"Wait, Hanzo didn't teach you how to summon your weapons?" Yumi asked, she was taken aback from Yukio's question.

"No. I've seen the girls spawn their weapons out of thin air several times, but I've never learned it because I never decided on a weapon." Yukio responded.

"Well then, I guess that will be our first lesson." Yumi said.

Great, another training montage...

Yukio entered a short training montage of learning how to spawn his weapon.

"It's fine to always have basic Shinobi equipment. However, you shouldn't use them as your main weapon." Yumi explained.

"Thanks for the lesson." Yukio thanked Yumi for the lessons.

"Now that we've gotten basic knowledge out of the way, you need to start training with us now." Yumi said.

"And what does training here look like?" Yukio asked.

Yumi showed Yukio to the main room, where only two of the girls were training, the other two were chatting in the corner of the room.

"We are self-taught here at Gessen academy. While that may lead to some slackers, we all are still dedicated to being great Shinobi." Yumi explained.

"I see, it's quite different from Hanzo academy's training format. Hanzo is an instructional schooling, while this is more DIY schooling." Yukio tried to make sense of it for himself.

"You can put it that way." Yumi replied, and looked around the room. "Minori, Shiki, you should be training."

"Whoa, like, so sorry Yu-and-mi. Minnow was just telling me about this new game she had in mind." The blonde haired Shinobi replied.

"Aww man, but I wanna hang out with Shiki more." The brown pigtailed Shinobi sulked.

"Get back to work now." Yumi ordered, and both of the girls followed her orders.

Wow, I always thought that Yumi was the leader of this group, but this makes it seems like she's the teacher here.

"So what would you like me to do?" Yukio asked.

"Practice with one of the girls, you choose who you want to fight." Yumi replied.

Yukio was caught off guard by that response, and he looked at the other four girls.

Alright so I don't want to fight Murakumo again, I know I'll lose. That leaves Yozakura, Shiki, and Minori. I doubt I'll win against Yozakura with her huge gauntlets. So that just leaves Shiki and Minori. However...

"Hmm..." Yukio was lost in thought, as he tried to decide who he wants to spar with.

Yumi was waiting patiently for Yukio's answer. A few minutes passed until Yukio turned to Yumi with his answer.

"I challenge you, Yumi." Yukio said.

I know I don't stand a chance, but I want to learn about her, plus sparring with her can help me learn her fighting style.

Yumi was caught off guard with that response, she tilted her head to the side.

"Are you sure, Yukio? I sometimes go overboard, you could end up injured." Yumi warned.

"I want you to treat me like I'm a real Shinobi, so I want you to fight me head on." Yukio replied.

Yumi went silent, and nodded. "I understand, then let's spar here?"

"Huh?! In the main room? Won't we break something?" Yukio asked.

"My ice powers would ruin the flowers outside, I promise we won't break anything in here." Yumi said.

Yukio sighed. "Alright, if you say so."

Yumi spawned her Tessen fans, and created small ice shards that swirled around her. Yukio spawned two ballistic knifes and a belt full of knifes. He held the knives like daggers, and made a fighting pose.

"Yozakura, can you please be referee?" Yumi asked the short blue haired Shinobi.

"Of course." Yozakura replied.

"Ooo, Yu is going off against Yu-and-mi? I, like, have to watch this." Shiki said, and the other Gessen students watched the two of them.

"Alright, this match will be decided when either one side forfeits or the other can no longer fight. Ready, begin!" Yozakura shouted.

To be continued...