Nearly eight months had passed since the episode with Beryl and, so far, nothing had happened in the way of attacks. The day after they returned to Earth, the girls transformed into the Senshi for one last deed, though not to fight. It was time to put everything right again. They gathered at their tree house, and, once transformed, teleported directly to the Son house, where three of the Dragon Balls were being held. This time, they didn't make the same mistake that they had in the past. They didn’t just barge into the house, thinking that they would be able to take the Dragon Balls. At this point, the girls didn’t want to turn Goku against them for he would be a powerful ally to them in the future, since they couldn't tell him who they really were. Instead, they told him of the situation, that they had beaten Beryl and her kingdom during the early hours of the night, that it was now safe to bring everyone back. Upon hearing this, Goku had willingly gathered all the Dragon Balls in the house, including Usagi’s six star Ball, and accompanied the girls to Capsule Corp., where they would acquire the Dragon Ball radar. Although he knew the Senshi were for good, he wanted to make sure the job was done right.
Once the Dragon Balls had been collected, they summoned the Dragon and wished for everyone on Earth that had been killed by the Dark Kingdom to be brought back to life. For their second wish, they wished that everyone on Earth, excluding the Z fighters and the Senshi, have their memories wiped clean of the incidents, just like they had when Buu was finally defeated.
The Senshi felt the spirits of everyone returning to life, all except for one very important person and that was Hotaru’s mother, Akii. She had died in another dimension, one that really had no connection with this one other than that of people moving from one to the other. She would stay dead, in the remains of the Dark Kingdom.
The girls had gone to Hotaru’s, later that day, just as they had promised. Mamoru had already left. Her father hadn't gone to work, fearing that his daughter had once again gone into her little hole. She hadn't said anything, and continued to say virtually nothing for the next eight months. The girls hadn't told her about the Dragon Balls, how they didn't bring her back, but she figured that’s what had happened, which was why she pulled further away from the world. She continued to go to school, though not talking to anyone, not even her friends. She’d rather have just kept to herself while she did some heavy thinking. She had also given up learning how to fight. She had no will to anymore.
~*~*~
~*~ Eight Months Later ~*~
Usagi rolled over in her bed as her alarm screamed at her to get up. She gave a huge yawn as she rubbed her heavy eyes. Today was a big day for her. She would finally be going to back to a real school. For a good part of her sixth grade year, she had studied at home with her mother due to the destroying of her elementary. But now, it was September again and she would be going to a new school. Today, she would be starting her seventh year of schooling at Junior High.
She took one look at her clock, which read "7:00 A.M" and immediately dove her head under her pillows to block out the sound. Although it was a new school with a new environment, it was still school, nonetheless. She had enjoyed her time alone for the past three months of summer vacation. Usagi could hear the door to her room slowly opening and immediately knew who it was, her mother.
Chi-Chi walked to her daughter’s bed and chuckled. "Time to get up. School starts at Eight. You don’t want to be late for your first day, do you?" She walked to the clock on her daughters desk and turned off the alarm. She turned back to her daughter and noticed that she hadn't moved a muscle. "Son Usagi! Get your butt out of bed!"
Usagi groaned as she pulled her head out from under her pillow. She knew better than to disobey her mother when it came to school. "Yes, mom." Her hair was a mess of tangles and the fur on her tail was matted.
Chi-Chi smiled as she turned to leave. "Breakfast will be ready in a little while."
Usagi groggily swung her legs over the edge of her bed. "Ok." She waited until her mother was completely out of the room and let herself fall back over into her soft, warm bed.
Outside her daughter’s door, Chi-Chi grinned. She knew how kids worked. "And don’t let me catch you falling back to sleep!"
Usagi’s eyes bolted open as she jumped up from her bed. The first thing she focused on was the door to make sure her mother hadn't seen her lying in bed again. She rubbed her head with another yawn. Hopefully her first day at this school would be nothing like her first day at her last school. There would be kids at this school who had never been to her old school because four elementary schools fed this one. There would be people there who had never seen or met her before. Of course, these people would be older and more mature than before…hopefully.
From her closet, she pulled out one of her new school uniforms, which she had gotten only two weeks before. It was the of a different color than her old uniform that she had to wear. This one had a white shirt with a blue skirt.
~*~*~
Usagi dressed herself for school rather quickly. She didn't want to miss out on breakfast. Once she had finally gotten her hair under control, she made a quick dash for the kitchen, where she could already smell the sweet aroma of her mother’s cooking. "Mmm… mom that smells good." She commented as she turned the corner into the kitchen where she found her father already on his fifth plate. She gave him a playful frown and sat down next to him at the table. "I really hope you didn’t eat it all or else there’s gonna be trouble."
Goku returned the frown with a grin of his own. "You really think you can take me down?"
Usagi smiled as she began filling her own plate. "Maybe. Mom did." She grinned as she glanced at her father.
"Hey, hey. We don’t have to bring that up now." His fifth plate was gone, and now he was on his sixth.
Chi-Chi chuckled as sat on the end of the table with her own food. She was through serving her husband. If he wanted more, he would have to get it himself. "Oh come on, Goku. Have a little fun, I bet I could do it again."
Goku gave his wife a playful smirk. "Yeah right. I’d be ready for ya. You couldn’t even lay a single finger on me. I don’t even have to raise my power level to take you out."
Usagi giggled as she looked up to her mother, who apparently wasn’t going to say anything. She was too busy with her food. "Oooh. Are you just going to sit there and let him talk to you like that? As a proud woman, mom, I don’t think you should take that." She grinned at her father, who was already scooping himself his seventh plate of food.
This time, Goku filled his plate so tall that the food looked as if it were going to tip over. "Don’t you have some place you have to be, kiddo?" He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. Finally, his stomach would be satisfied. "Now this is what I call a meal!"
Usagi rolled her eyes at her father’s antics. Meals at her house were always the best. Her father was always so entertaining. "No more for you." She reached over him and grabbed the remaining food and placed it in front of her own plate. "I haven't even had seconds yet."
Chi-Chi looked up from her meal and at the clock. It read 7:40 A.M. "You should hurry up, Usagi. School’s going to start in twenty minutes. Do you remember the promise you made to your father and I?"
Usagi nodded with a sigh. "Yes."
Satisfied with her daughter’s answer, Chi-Chi smiled. "Good. You’re going to put an honest effort to get to school on time from now on. No more walking into class one minute before it starts."
Usagi nodded again as she filled her plate with her seconds, which would be her last. "I know mom. I told you I remembered."
"I'm just making sure."
"Come on. Give her a break, Chi-Chi. She knows." Goku finished his last bite of food and patted his stomach. "When’s lunch?"
Chi-Chi frowned as she looked up to her husband. "Can it. You’ve already had enough food for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner in one sitting. You can wait."
Goku sighed as he looked down to his giggling daughter. His face all of a sudden became serious. "How’s Hotaru doing? Has she gotten any better?"
Usagi took a sip of orange juice as she swallowed her food to answer. "Not really." She looked up to her father, who seemed to be ready to listen intently. "We went to her house a couple of days ago. She didn’t really seem to want to talk at all so Kaori turned us away. I haven't really been able to see her for a few weeks now. We just keep getting turned away."
Chi-Chi sighed as she stood up and began to clear off the table. "That poor thing. I wonder how it happened."
Goku; "Who knows. She was fine until the day after the Senshi beat Beryl."
"Speaking of the Senshi, I wonder what ever happened to them. We never see them around anymore."
Goku shook his head. "Not after Beryl was beaten, no." He looked back to his daughter. "Have you seen or heard from them?"
Usagi shook her head. Of course she was lying, but she had gotten quite good at hiding the important things from him. "Nope. Not a word." She looked at the clock. Thank goodness. It was already 7:45. She could escape this conversation before she slipped and said something. "Gotta go! Don’t wanna be late!"
Goku grinned. "You’ve only got about fifteen minutes. You're going to be late."
Usagi returned the grin as her hair and tail flared up in silver. "Not if I got like this!" She laughed aloud as she turned around and began leaving the room.
Goku smiled at his daughter. "Have fun… and don’t fight with any of the upperclassmen this time."
Remembering all the trouble that they had had in the past when Usagi first went to school, Chi-Chi slapped her husband on the back of the head. How could he be so inconsiderate? "Goku! That’s not funny!"
~*~*~
Usagi flew as fast as she could to her new school, which was almost right by Capsule Corp. She definitely didn’t want to be late for her first day of school. That wouldn’t be a good thing, especially since she was going to try her hardest to get on the good side of her teacher. That had always been a rough spot for her. Her teachers always seemed to have some reason to be on her case about. Except for Miss Haruna. But that was another story. Part of her wanted to go to school for the new experience, but another part wished it hadn't come yet. School only meant more work for her.
Now she was almost halfway to school with nearly ten minutes to spare. She was making great time, according to her, that is. She already knew where her class was since she had taken a tour of the place with her parents the day she went into register. Now it was just a matter of showing up. She didn’t even have to worry about finding her friends. They still had the same class as they had when they were in elementary school, luckily. After the destruction of the school, most of the students were held back a year. She and her friends had been lucky enough to be home-schooled so they could move onto the next year. They only knew of five other people from their class that had moved on.
Noticing that she only had about seven minutes left and being only a three fourths of the way there, Usagi upped her power level a bit, increasing her speed.
~*~*~
Meanwhile, at school, Rei, Minako, Makoto, and Ami all gathered together in their new classroom. It was much bigger than their old one, but it still felt like school. The room was filled with many kids whom they had never met nor did they wish to. They rather liked the security of their own group, especially now that their true identity had been revealed to them. They felt as if no one else should be let into their small group of friends.
Minutes ago, Ami had picked out her seat in the center front of the room. This would be her desk of choice to sit in for the rest of the year. Here, she could see the bored easily without being distracted by the rest of the students.
Minako had already placed her things at a desk in the back of the room. She didn’t much care for the front where the teacher stood. It left her too wide open for questioning. She much rather liked to sit in the back where she could drift off into her own little world without having to worry about the teacher noticing. She saved a place next to her for Usagi, who she knew would definitely have a fit if she couldn't sit in the back.
Makoto and Rei picked seats next to each other in the middle of the room, right where they liked it. They didn’t like to be in front, for the same reasons Minako didn’t, but they also didn’t like sitting in the back because, unlike Minako and Usagi, they wanted to learn something.
Usagi burst into the room about five minutes before school started. Before she even entered the building she lowered her power level so her hair would go back to its normal color. She looked around the bustling room, not recognizing a single face besides those of her friends, who were all huddled in a corner in the back of the room. It was like the first day of kindergarten all over again, minus the teasing. She held her bag in her hands as she slowly made her way to the corner of the room, noticing that not a single person was looking at her even though she waved her tail behind her legs to test them.
Ami was the first to notice Usagi and the first thing she did was shoot a glance up at the clock. She shook her head with a smirk. "You’re losing it already, Usagi. Didn’t you tell your mom you’d make an honest effort to get to school on time this year?"
Usagi smiled as she dropped her bag on the ground. "I did get here on time. I still have five minutes." She explained as she pointed up at the clock. "I’d never break a promise to my mom… anymore."
Rei rolled her eyes as she pulled away from the wall in which she was leaning against. "We’ll believe that when we see that."
Usagi sighed. "My friends have no faith in me." She grinned as she looked up. "So! How has everyone’s day gone so far?! Mine’s absolutely perfect! No one’s stared at me once since I got here, and no one here knows me!"
Minako glanced to her right. She noticed a dusty-blonde haired kid looking their way. Quickly turning away, she grabbed Usagi by the arm with a frown. "Well, there is one person, I think."
Usagi sighed once again as she lowered her head. When would people learn? She looked back up. She wouldn't let this person ruin her first day of Junior High. She was stronger, emotionally, now than she was before. "Who cares! I'm still gonna have a great day. I can feel it."
Just then, the door opened and the first teacher of the day made his way to the front desk, letting the students know that class would be starting. The girls quickly dispersed to their seats. Usagi followed Minako to their back of the room seats, while Ami made her way to the front.
As Ami was pulling out her things, she couldn’t help but notice the person sitting next to her, staring at her with empty. It was the same dusty-blonde haired kid who had been watching Usagi with curiosity, but she hadn't noticed him before. She smiled kindly at him as she set her binder on her desk and turned back to the teacher.
The young teacher, who looked to be in his mid twenties, stood in front of his desk and looked around to the room of students, who stared impatiently back at him. They looked like a room full of drones with their drooping eyes looking as if they were about to fall out of their sockets. "Good morning class. I am Mr. Sakaguchi and I will be your History teacher for the year." The room sounded out with groans. History was probably the worst subject to have first period since it had a tendency to put people to sleep and the students were already tired from having to wake up so early. "I know, I know. But I'm stuck with you too. Don’t think I'm getting the good end of the bargain."
Minako frowned as she leaned over to Usagi. "Who does this guy think he is?" Usagi shrugged as she set her head on the table.
Mr. Sakaguchi looked around the room at the gloomy students. "You guys need to wake up a bit. Why don’t you all try to get to know each other’s names a bit before we start. After all, you’re going to be stuck with each other for the next three years." He walked behind his desk and sat down in the chair, only to be faced with the bored faces of his students once again. "Come on. Get up and meet some new people. You can't all know each other."
The students all stared at each other in pure amazement that a teacher would ever allow them to do such a thing. But, slowly, the room began to liven up again with chatter as students started to introduce themselves to one another.
Just as Ami was getting up from her seat, she noticed that the boy on her right, the dusty-haired boy wasn’t moving or saying a word to anyone. He just sat there looking like a machine with no one to serve. He reminded her of herself when she was younger, before she had met her friends. During things like these she would always just sit there on her own with no one to talk to. No one really cared to talk to a bookworm like her. Thinking that this was the reason why he wasn’t moving, she decided to introduce herself to him. "Hi!" She chirped as she held out her hand to the boy. "I'm Mizuno Ami, what's your name?"
The boy turned his head up to her without a smile. He just stared blankly into her eyes. "Tatsuo."
Ami smiled. "No last name?"
The boy slowly shook his head. "No last name." He continued to stare at her as if he couldn’t move his head.
"Strange." She said as she pulled up her chair and sat next to him. She felt somewhat uncomfortable that he was staring at her in such a manner, as well as rude. "So, what elementary school are you from?" The closer she got to him, the stranger he looked at her and the more she began to feel that this kid was one strange cookie. He just kept staring at her like a drone, like he didn't know what else he was supposed to do. Ami had heard a lot of strange things about people in Junior High, but this was just ridiculous.
Tatsuo made no movement what-so-ever. He just sat there. "This is the first time I've gone to school."
Ami lifted a brow in surprise. "The first time? That’s odd. All kids are supposed to go to school before this. Are you sure it just wasn’t called something else? Like a secondary learning center or something?"
Tatsuo shook his head back and fourth in the most uniform style one could. "I'm sure." He made his first normal movement when he rested his elbow on his knee and his head in his palm. "So tell me, Mizuno Ami, what school are you from?"
Ami smiled. "You don’t have to be so formal. Call me Ami."
Tatsuo nodded. "I will, Ami."
"I'm from the school that was destroyed last year. My friends and I were educated at home, which is the only reason why we were able to advance."
A slight smile crossed the lips of the strange boy as he leaned forward. "Your school blew up?"
Ami nodded. "How could you not know? It was all over the news for a week." Remembering that they had used the Dragon Balls to erase the memories of Earth’s people, she used the false reason why it had blown up, the reason that the media had come up with. "There was a gas leak, but no one was hurt. The building was completely lost, though."
Tatsuo leaned even more forward. "Are you sure it was a gas leak, or was it really something else?"
Ami backed away a little. Now he was getting weird. He didn’t know, did he? How could he? His memory of the incident was wiped clean by the power of the Dragon Balls. "I wouldn’t know. I'm pretty sure it is that because that’s what was told over the news."
Tatsuo chuckled, his first sign of any emotion. "You can't trust anything the media puts out over the news these days. One should only take the word of a witness."
Ami gritted her teeth. There he went again, making accusations that pointed to her knowing something more than she should. What was up with this kid? "What are you getting at?"
Tatsuo frowned. "You were there when it happened right? I mean, you had to have been in class when it happened, right? Unless school was out."
Ami calmed down a bit as she bit her lower lip. Maybe she was jumping to too many conclusions. Of course he wouldn’t know her secret. "Yes. I was there when it happened. We were all evacuated already when it happened. You know, routine earthquake drills and all. At the first sign of a fire in the school and we were taken further away from the school. It wasn’t until most of us were gone when it actually exploded." Ami wasn’t sure if this was actually how people remembered it because of the Dragon Balls, but what did it matter? This kid seemed to be completely clueless. "So, where were you when all of this was happening?" It was her turn to ask the questions now. Her turn to make him feel uncomfortable.
Tatsuo leaned back in his chair with a wide smile. "Away."
Ami sighed. This kid was way too vague. "Away?"
Tatsuo nodded. "Away."
Ami sighed again as she banged her head against the table. ‘Why o’ why did I have to come over here and talk to him? He’s SO weird! This isn't even funny!’
Tatsuo stood up and looked around the classroom. He paid special attention to Usagi and the girls she was with. "Is that blonde haired girl with the pigtails your friend?"
Ami raised her head and nodded. "Yes, why?"
Tatsuo shrugged. "Just wondering." He looked back down at Ami and smiled. "So, Ami, why does she have a tail? I mean, is she deformed or something? Is that supposed to be a third leg growing out of her butt that never fully developed?"
Ami frowned as she stood up. How could this kid be like a zombie one minute and then a complete ass the next. "I don’t know! Why don’t you ask here yourself!?"
Tatsuo chuckled as he sat back down in his chair. "It was an honest question. I wasn’t trying to be mean or anything." A long silence followed his apology as he looked at the trees and birds just outside the window. "Ami?"
Ami frowned. She figured he was just going to make another rude comment about Usagi, or ask about her again, which she wasn’t about to tell. That was Usagi’s business, which she would never tell unless she was told to. "What?"
Tatsuo’s eyes glimmered with curiosity. "Tell me about this planet."
Ami flinched away, wary of his question. "What are you talking about? You’ve lived here your whole life and you don’t know anything about it?"
Tatsuo quickly looked around the room as if he had been caught in the middle of something, but soon found himself looking out the window again. "I never said I don’t know anything about it, I just want to know more. You seem like the kind of person to know a lot of stuff."
Ami fluttered her eyes and put her hands together. "You mean a dork?" She asked sweetly.
Tatsuo smiled, though not arrogantly or rudely. "If that’s what you call it."
Ami frowned as she set her hands on her waist and stood up. "You jerk!" She quickly turned to walk away. Dork was something she hadn't been called in a long time and it wasn’t something she was willing to listen to anymore. She had been called that her entire life, and wasn’t about to put up with it anymore.
Tatsuo was left, curious as to what had set the girl off so easily. "Wha’d I say?"
~*~*~
For the rest of the period, the students pretty much had free time. Their teacher hadn't been completely prepared for the day either. But, he promised them that the following day would be a work day, which was fine by the students. At least they wouldn’t have to do anything that day. But, the other periods of the day were filled with work. Ami had tried her best not to look at Tatsuo, even though it was hard not to since he sat next to her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him staring at her like a Zombie again. And at every break between periods he would always want to talk to her. She was beginning to think that sitting in the front wasn’t the best idea.
She was happy when lunch finally rolled around. It would be the only time of the day when she could get away from him since there was no recess in Junior High.
The first thing she did when the lunch bell rang was dart directly for the door and out of the room, leaving Tatsuo behind. Usagi and Minako in the back of the room were amazed. Ami was usually one of the last people out of the room for lunch, but here she was, one of the firsts. They exchanged looks with Rei and Makoto as they joined up into a group of four and simply shrugged. They figured Ami was exceptionally hungry that day.
The group of four vacated their classroom almost as fast as Ami had, except with more people to block their way at the door. By the time they left, however, Tatsuo was still sitting at his desk and staring at the board, though none of the girls noticed this.
Minako was the first to notice Ami standing WAY down the hall. "Ami! Whatcha doin down there?!"
Ami looked around, Tatsuo was no where in sight, but he hadn't come out yet. She needed time alone to talk to her friends without him. She needed to tell them about him, that she needed saving. Maybe she could switch seats with one of the other classmen. She refused to sit by someone who thought of her as a dork, as well as someone who was so strange as him. "Shh!" She scolded.
Usagi rolled her eyes as she began walking in the direction of the lunch room, her stomach growling loudly. This time, on her way to the eating area, she held no lunch bag. That was yet another perk of starting Junior High. She could now buy her lunch at school instead of take it from home. Her mother now trusted her with keeping a daily budget of Lunch money, now that she was becoming more responsible.
Makoto reached back and grabbed Usagi by the collar of her shirt. "Where do you think you're going?"
Usagi sighed. "I'm hungry." She whined. "I need food."
Makoto grinned. "We have to go together. The lunch room was the only place we didn't go during out tour, remember? We wanted to wait until today."
Usagi once again sighed of hunger. "Fine." She turned back around and hollered down the hall. "Come on! We’re hungry!"
Ami nodded as she ran down the hall as fast as she could, passing up her classroom on the way. "Well!" She shouted back to her friends, "Let's go!"