Disclaimer: The Ronin Warriors do not belong to me. But new story lines and characters not part of the original do belong to me. I'd appreciate it if it'd stay that way. Thank you for your time. ^_^

The Clean Up Crew

Prologue: A Fresh Start

By: LittleUcchan

Dear Sage,

            Yeah yeah. I know what you're thinking. "Didn't I just talk to this idiot a while ago??" Well, if you're reading this then you must already be in America sitting in your dorm room, all set for college life and so on and so forth. If you're not (and I stress the "not") in America and are actually reading this on the plane…then I must congratulate you. You MUST be bored to have looked through your bag already and had found this letter. Sheesh!! And here I thought meditation for more than half a day would've surely kept you busy at LEAST until the plane touched down.

But alas, even if it sounds like it, I didn't write this letter to poke fun at you. If what I say IS true and you are on the plane, bored as hell, then I don't blame you. Too excited, ne?? I mean, can you believe that we've already graduated?! Man, what a rush!!

And I can't stress enough how happy I am for you. To be offered to study abroad. And in America no less. I bet you're gonna have lots of fun there!!! Geez Sage!! You get all the breaks AND the women!! How DO you do it?

I guess you can't have ALL the luck. Some of it must have rubbed off on the rest of us somewhere during the time we've lived together. I mean, look at Cye!! He's already got an internship with the marine biologists at the bay!! And what is this? Just his second year, right? Where does he get all of these connections? Must be because of his title. Everyone knows the Mouri family in Hagi. Not to mention that he must have a lot of close family friends there. Mouri-san and Sayoko must be really happy for him.

Well, Ryo is still trying to decide what school to go to. He's stuck on those same two universities. I still think he should attend Shinjuku instead of going to Kyoto. But it IS his decision and not mine. At least I'll have someone to keep me company if he stays in Tokyo. Since I'm stuck here for a while.

… I know you're laughing right now. Only I would oversleep on the day of the college entrance exams and end up NOT going to a college by April. But I guess it's for the best. After all, I still haven't picked the school I wanted to attend. Hell, I didn't even narrow down my "list" yet!! Fortunately, Mia agreed to help me out. Set me straight for once.

But Shinjuku University is a strong favorite of mine. I don't know. I guess I'm just not ready to study too far away from home. But what I do know is that I'll have a lot of connections at that school since Mia is a professor there. Now, if only I can decide on a major…

What am I talking about! I have to pass the exams first!! The next testing day is less than a month from now. But I'm not stressing so much over the exam. What's REALLY bothering me is if I'll be able to get into school by the second semester. With my luck, I'll probably be held back and go next year with Kento. You remembered the deal with him right? He'll be staying in Yokohama with his family for a while. I'd have to agree with him when he said that he'd been away from home for too long. Besides, he's like me.

Hasn't decided on a thing about college. Not anything definite anyway.

Well, just remember to keep in touch ok? It's gonna be hard with all of us going to college and choosing our own paths as adults. I must admit. I liked it better when we were still in high school. Everything was so…so simple back then. But then again, our lives were just filled with "complications" in our younger days. We'll always have those ties. The five of us. The Ronin Warriors. That's something that can't be broken, no matter what.

Well, I got to go now. Have fun in America!!!!

                                                         -Rowen-