The Song of Fall, a New Senshi!
It had been a boring summer after the destruction of Mugen. There had been no word from Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, or Hotaru since the night of its destruction. Makoto was glad to be back at Crossroads Jr. High. She'd at least be with her friends.
There hadn't been any stirring of evil since the Witches 5 and the Death Busters. As much as she wanted to be a normal girl, she missed being a senshi and fighting evil.
As she waited for her two friends, Ami and Usagi, and for the bell to ring that signaled the start of class, she watched the many Crossroads students file into the school. There were also a few students in Mugen green and burgundy nervously entering the school. One girl with long bright green hair which, entirely clashed with her Mugen uniform, gave Makoto and uneasy stare and turned to whisper with her three friends.
Another group of ex-Mugen students moved up behind the group with the green-haired girl. One girl from the second group who had a large bun on the back of her head of brown hair that was almost orange gave the green-haired girl a friendly pat on the back , said some sort of greeting, and laughed nonchalantly. The green-haired girl forced a smile and replied in an equally forced friendly manner, then shooed the girl with the bun and her friends in Makoto's direction.
Seeing Makoto, the brown-haired girl gestured towards her three friends and walked purposefully over to Mako. "Hello!" She said cheerfully, "I'm Imahodo Kashi, and I'm new here. So are my friends. So I guess it's good for us to make new friends. What's your name?"
"Err... my name's Makoto Kino. Pleased to meet you. You're all from Mugen, right?" Makoto replied, slightly startled.
"Pleased to meet you too. I'm Hayaru Akari. Yea, we're from Mugen. I bet you could tell by the uniforms. I'm getting a Crossroads one right after school today." A shy girl with dark green hair slightly shorter than Minako's and an ovular bun on top of her head answered. She looked remarkably like a younger version of Setsuna. She was probably the most composed of the four Mugen girls.
"Nice to meet you too, Hayaru. You're going to fit right in. I don't have a Crossroads uniform, because they don't come big enough," Makoto answered cheerfully.
"Do you think I'll fit in too?" A strawberry-haired girl demanded. She was relatively short and had shiny, dark pink hair that hung down just past her shoulders. It seemed that she had a temper which dramatically contrasted her hair color.
"Err... well... I guess..." She stammered, but was cut short by Imahodo.
"Mokuhi! Over here!" Imahodo hollered across the school yard, not caring that she had caused people to stair at their group. A girl with long, strait, black hair that was the same length as Rei's looked up and grabbed the wrist of a studious looking blue-haired girl, then pulled her across the school yard to Makoto, Imahodo and her friends.
"Ami-chan! I see you have found a new friend," Mako Inquired, gesturing towards the black-haired Mugen girl.
"Yes this is Mokuhi Anrui. She's really nice, and likes a lot of the same things I do," Ami said cheerfully.
"Nice to meet you." Makoto nodded her head in a polite bow as a greeting to the newcomer.
"And, Mokuhi, I see you have made a new friend. Ami, is it? This is Makoto. She is also very kind," the last girl piped in cheerfully. She had strait, dark yellow hair that wasn't quite long enough to touch her shoulders.
Her blue eyes danced happily.
"Yes. I'm Ami Mizuno. And who might you be?" Ami replied.
"I'm Toukan Konsui," she answered simply, yet cheerfully.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Hyakka Sujou," the strawberry-haired girl added abruptly.
"Ami, this is Imahodo," Mokuhi gestured to the girl with the bun, then to the shy mini-Setsuna, "and this is Hayaru."
"A pleasure to meet the both of you," Ami said in her ever-friendly manner.
Makoto looked at her watch and sighed, "Usagi, she can never be on time can she?"
"Usagi? Is that another friend of yours?" Imahodo asked.
"Yes," Ami answered, "She's always late and doesn't get very good grades. She doesn't work all that hard in school."
The quintet of girls groaned.
"What? Usagi is our best friend," Ami inquired confused.
"She doesn't work hard at school!" Hyakka said frustrated.
"She's always late..." Imahodo repeated Ami's words.
"Which means she's never punctual..." Hayaru gathered.
"She worries about other things more than academics... most likely boys..." Toukan inferred.
"Which leads us to believe... she's a ditz," Mokuhi concluded the statement, as the other four girls nodded emphatically.
Makoto sighed. "You guys sure get a lot out of just one statement."
"So we're right?" Imahodo prodded anxiously.
"Sadly, yes... but Usagi is a very good friend of ours and very kind," Ami sighed a reply.
"Yes!" Imahodo bounced up and down excitedly, looking very immature for her age, "We got it again!"
Ima-chan can't be much better than Usagi. She is acting no better, Makoto thought, but kept it to herself. She looked at her watch again. "We really should get going. The bell is about to ring."
"'Kay!" Imahodo said cheerfully, and pulled out her schedule as she and the other six girls headed towards the
door.
They were all in their classes when the bell rang and Ami heard a familiar voice wail, "Wahhh!!!!!!! I'm late!!!!!!!!"
By the end of the day, Ami, Makoto, and Usagi were stunned to find out that the five girls they had met earlier that day were as excellent of students as they made themselves out to be and better. Imahodo gave Ami a run for her money in science, Toukan was just as good as Ami in Math, Hayaru was already teacher's favorite and top of the class in writing and spelling, Hyakka was an expert in geography, and Mokuhi was better at martial arts than Makoto. The five Mugen girls were horrified to find out that Usagi was even more of a ditz than they had gathered.
The seven girls cheerfully headed out of school, but Imahodo, Hayaru, Toukan, Hyakka, and Mokuhi made sure to keep someone between them and Usagi. The five Mugen girls had gotten five new Crossroads uniforms each. All but Imahodo had folded them neatly and placed them in their book bags, who had wadded them up and stuffed them into her satchel.
"You going to come to practice at my house today?" Mokuhi asked Imahodo.
"No thanks, Makoto already invited me to go to study group with her, so I'm taking up her offer. Though, definitely tomorrow, okay," Ima answered seriously.