"Mori-mori-mori-mori-mori-oh-cho radiooooo~!" The radio in the Higashikata household crackled to life with the morioh town radio morning show's familiar jingle as Tomoko stormed off to wake her son. "Good morning, Morioh. And what a good morning it is! The late summer heat is finally subsiding, the autumn trees are painting the landscape in brilliant reds and yellows, and your old friend Kai Harada has recovered from the flu-" a muffled sneeze broadcasts over the air. "Well, almost recovered, anyway, ahah. For the first song this morning, we have 'Cherry Lips' by the American band Garbage.* I know I'll have it stuck in my head all day..." A plucky synth riff faded in.

"Josuke!" Tomoko called, knocking on her son's door, "Josuke, you're going to be late. I'm not going to call you again!"

Josuke sat up in bed, eyes bleary and vaguely aware of the massive pool of slobber that had collected on his cheek. He'd been up late the previous night playing Pokemon Gold by the light of his reading lamp. Around 22:00 he'd pledged that he'd call it a night after the next gym, but quickly lost track of time. Before he knew it, it was past midnight. He got a red gyarados** out of it though, so that was cool. At least he had something to brag about to Okuyasu and Koichi.

The chorus of whatever song was playing on the radio blared as he attempted to get his hair into a perfect and cool pompadour. When Josuke finally wrangled his awesome hair into place, he joined his mom for breakfast and quickly wolfed down four sunny side up eggs and toast before leaving for school.

"Be safe!" Tomoko said as he left. "And tell Mr. Hoshida I said hi." she winked.

"Uh, sure thing," Josuke sighed. A grown woman trying to get her son to hook her up was pretty uncool. And anyway, why bother saying "stay safe?" This was Morioh. Since Kira was taken care of, the stream of stand users had all but petered out. Aside from a handful of angry stray animals and his gang, the town was basically stand-free.

Okuyasu was waiting outside his dilapidated house, as usual. When he caught sight of Josuke, he waved furiously and came jogging over. The guy was like a dog, always elated just to be there.

"Hey asshole!" Okuyasu said in his usual loud tone of voice as he clapped Josuke on the back.

"Hey shitbird!" Josuke shot back. "Oh fuck, I got something cool to show you. I was playing pokemon last night and uh," he pulled his gameboy out of his briefcase and powered it on, "I caught a bright red gyarados. I think it might be a glitch or something."

"No fucking way!" Okuyasu sounded like this was a greater shock to him than being shot in the neck by an arrow. "Where'd you get it? I'm still stuck on that cocksucker milta- WHOA THAT IS A BRIGHT RED GYARADOS"

"It's cool, right? She's totally replacing mantine. Way more badass." Josuke turned off the gameboy and stuffed it back in the briefcase. "Have you heard back from that shitheel Rohan about Deerhoof?"***

"Nah, I think it's still out there. Good thing you were there yesterday though. I've never seen a deer gore someone like that."

"Yeah me neither. Although, if I were in deerhoof's place I would've done the same." Josuke mused. He still couldn't believe that Kira's asshat dad had been just taking pot shots at wild animals all summer. What a weirdo.

"Yeah. Fuck Rohan."

"Fuck 'em."

"I still think he's kinda cool," Koichi said.

"Oh shit! Koichi! I didn't notice you come up!" Okuyasu said, his very being quivering in excitement at seeing a Friend.

"Hey Koichi, check this out! I caught a red gyarados last night, it's so fuckin cool" Josuke pulled his gameboy out of his bag again.

"Oh, aren't they? I named mine Asuka."

"You have one too? I thought it was a fluke!" Josuke was disappointed that his attempt to one-up his friends had been shot down.

"Oh yeah. It's scripted, everyone gets it." Koichi noticed Josuke's sudden melancholy and changed the subject. "A-anyway, I heard we have a new student in our class today."

"No shit? We're like halfway done with the trimester already, who's transferring now?" Josuke asked, puzzled.

"I dunno. Toshikazu said he saw some girl and her mom enrolling when he was in the front office the other day. Sounded like she was starting this week," Koichi explained.

"Is she hot?" Okuyasu wondered.

"I mean if she's transferring in the middle of the term, probably. I think that's a rule somewhere," Josuke said, with utmost confidence.

"It sounded like she was from S-City. City girls are usually pretty cute," Koichi said.

The three boys nodded in agreement. City girls were really hot.

They were a good five minutes late to class, as usual. Cool guys always were. Josuke had to lecture Okuyasu and Koichi about it a couple times, but now they had mastered a holding pattern around campus that allowed them to be fashionably late for class even if they arrived at school early. Honestly they probably put more effort into being exactly the right amount of tardy than anything else they did at school, but such was the delinquent life. Nobody said it was easy.

The new girl was across the classroom from Josuke, so he didn't get a good look at her as he took his seat. He could tell she was kinda tall and thin, with a general aura of awkwardness in her posture, but that was about it. She didn't really seem like his type, unfortunately- she'd have to be built more like the volleyball girls for that.

"Good morning, Higashitaka, Nishimura, Hirose," Mr. Hoshida grumbled, "You've saved up enough tardies for another detention, so I hope you didn't have any plans after school." he cleared his throat and consulted a memo briefly. "Uh, anyway, we have a new student starting with us today. Sakuraguchi? Could you come up and introduce yourself to the class?"

The new girl began to stand. Perplexed, Hoshida reread the memo. "You're Sakuraguchi?"

"Uhm. Yeah." She responded sheepishly. Her voice was sort of deep for a girl's, but very smooth.

"Sakuraguchi Ryouta?" he asked again.

"...Yes."

"Uh, well, I'm not sure what kind of prank this is," Hoshida ventured hesitantly, "but you're wearing the wrong uniform. School policy says that's a detention, I'm afraid."

"I understand," she said, the hurt evident in her voice.

"Anyway, come on up, I guess."

She walked up to the blackboard in front of the class and sighed heavily. "I'm Sakuraguchi Ryouta," she said, her voice quivering, "I hope we have a good year together. It's nice to meet you all." she bowed and hurried back to her seat. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

Josuke knew he had to do something to help her.

Notes:

* I know this song didn't come out until like 2002 but it's thematically appropriate, don't spam me!

** Named "Casiopea"

*** A very angry stag who'd been terrorizing locals at the park