Sailordigimentals02

"Wow, Bunny, did you see the new boy, marks? He even beat Ami!"

"I know Molly, and he's so cuuutttee!" squealed Serena, her blue eyes darting towards the front row where the boy was sitting. His straight indigo hair was longer than most boys would have worn it, cut cleanly across at his chin. He constantly had to brush stray strands out of his face.

"How old is he Molly?" asked Asumi, a short dumpy girl who sat directly behind Serena.

"I've heard he's only fourteen, but he's really advanced. His name is Ken. He looks a lot older than 14. Maybe it's because he's so tall.

"My friend Ami said that she has seen him at her cram school. The one that only admits kids with an IQ over 200. I bet they are in competition all the time."

"I go to that school to," interjected Melvin. "I heard that when the school board saw his school records they practically begged him to attend. I heard he doesn't even have to pay tuition to that school."

The girls spent several minutes swooning over the boy before Melvin was allowed to continue.

"Is it just me, or do we have a lot of new students all of a sudden?"

"Hhhmmm. You know, Melvin's right. There are a lot of new students who transferred here in the last week. There's that pretty new girl, Hikari."

They all turned to look at the girl. She was shorter than a lot of girls her age, but her hourglass figure compensated nicely for that. Her light brown, shoulder length hair was pulled back by matching pink berets. Her eyes were the same light brown eyes but they glittered with an inner light and she always seemed to be smiling or laughing about something, and still gave the impression of being a very serious person. She was currently bent over her math paper working studiously, apparently unaware that she was the object of their curiosity.

Melvin pulled out his notebook, arranged his glasses, and began flipping through the pages.

"Hm. I haven't heard much about her. Her full name is Hikari Yagami, she is fifteen. I don't know much more about her except that she has all the boys going crazy. Especially the other two new ones."

"What are their names again Mel?" Molly asked her boyfriend, eager to get in on all the gossip he had picked up.

"The older one is named Takeru Takaishi. He's fifteen too. He's blonde and kinda tall. He's real good at basketball.

"The other boy is named Daisuke Motimiya. He's fourteen, he's got this really wild brown hair that goes all over the place. He looks like he's never seen a hairbrush. He plays soccer really well, they said that he was team captain at his last school. He's not to good at studying though, I heard he is in a lower math class than this us, cuz he had trouble passing the exams for this class, an-"

"SERENA, MOLLY, MELVIN, ASUMI! Would you like to share your little secret with the rest of the class?" demanded a loud voice, right over their heads.

The four gossipers jumped and looked up, straight into the glaring eyes of Mrs, Haruna.

"Uh, Mrs. H. We were, uh, just comparing notes."

"Right Serena, like you've ever taken notes in you life. Why did I think it would be easier to teach High School?" she sighed wearily. "If I catch you gossiping again you will all have detention. Understood?"

"Yes Mrs. H." Serena replied droopily.

The redheaded teacher made her way up the aisle, stopping when she reached Ken Santouro's desk. The boy had stacked all his books neatly and placed his pencils back in his bag.

"Are you eager to leave my classroom, Santouro? You are supposed to be working on homework for the next half hour."

"I've already finished it Ma'am," he mumbled softly, blushing in embarrassment at being called to the attention of the entire class.

"Let me se it." Mrs. Haruka wearily took the paper, fully expecting to see another sloppy paper, hastily filled out so the student could move on to 'more important' things. Her green eyes widened as she examined the neatly written algebraic expressions.

"Oh my. They are all correct. I can see having you in my class will be a memorable experience," she glanced meaningfully at Serena and her friends. "And in your case, that's a compliment."

The boy blushed profusely as Serena sank lower in her chair.

Across the street at Crossroads Jr. High, lunch break was just starting. The sounds of children playing rocked the small playground.

Settled in one of the far corners was a red brick planter. It was ten foot by ten-roughly. Planted squarely in the center of it, surrounded by lush green grass, was a blooming sakura tree. Sitting under the tree, her legs folded under her Indian style, sat a young girl. She was thirteen, and just beginning to bloom into womanhood. Her figure was slightly more developed than most girls her age, her pink hair was pulled into pigtails with looped buns close to her head.

Climbing over the short brick wall was a short, slightly younger girl with light purple hair pulled into a single bun on the top of her head and covered with a cloth hair protector. The protector was a royal blue which matched her one piece dress.

"Hey Rini, have you seen the new boy yet?" Peaches asked as she sat down next to her friend.

"No, not yet." Normally Hotaru would have been with them, but she was not feeling well and had been sent to the nurses office.

"He's over there by the fence." Rini looked over and saw a young boy, about her age with short brown hair. He was carrying a kendo stick and appeared to be practicing some kendo moves.

"I wonder if he is going to eat anything."

"I don't know Rini. He's really serious, I think he's kinda creepy."

"I think we should try to be friends with him."

"Are you crazy?"

But Rini had already hopped off the raised brick wall and was half way across the schoolyard.

"Hi, my name is Rini. What's yours?"

She must have startled him, because he jumped raising his stick in a defensive position; he lowered it as his emerald eyes focused on her bright scarlet ones.

"Sorry about that. I've been a little jumpy since I moved here. My name is Iori Hida."

They were silent for a few seconds before Iori spoke, "Uh...I was about to eat lunch. Would you like to sit with me?"

"I'd love to!" Rini smiled brightly at him, earning a grim smile in return. They sat down with their backs to the chain length fence.

Rini reached into her backpack and pulled out the paper bag her lunch was in, as usual it was stamped all over with bunnies and stars. Bunny's mom had sealed it with a little rainbow sticker.

Iori opened his duffel bag and dug around for his lunch. He removed a small yellow stuffed animal from his bag to make room enough to pull his lunch out of the narrow opening. He set the toy down next to him and pulled out a small plastic dish with three compartments. He pulled the lid off of the dish revealing a sandwich, some chips, and a brownie sprinkled with almonds.

"That's a really cute toy, Iori, where did you get it?"

"I don't remember, I've had him since I was really little."

"He must be pretty special then, huh?"

"Yeah, he is."

"Meow, meow."

Iori looked in the direction of the sound. A small grey kitten had pushed itself under the chain link fence and was staring hungrily at his lunch.

"Hey there, kitty. You must be hungry. Would you like some tuna-fish?" He tore a piece of the sandwich off and held it out to the kitten. She came over and daintily took it from his hand. He noticed that she had a strange bald spot on her forehead, it almost looked like a crescent moon.

"Don't feed her too much. She could eat your whole lunch and still be hungry."

"Oh, is she your cat?"

"Uh huh. Her name is Diana."

Iori reached out to pet Diana; she curled her back under his hand, the way a cat will when it is pleased, and purred loudly.

Rini reached out to pick up her kitten, but Diana turned and walked out of her reach, her tail raised stiffly.

Iori laughed, his emerald eyes sparkling merrily.

"I think you hurt her feelings Rini. You shouldn't have said anything about the way she eats."

Rini gave him a startled glance then realized he was teasing her. He could not possibly know that Diana really had understood every word they had said.

"Hey kid, is that a stuffed animal?" a shadow suddenly loomed over them.

It was Justin, the biggest and meanest kid at Crossroads Jr. High. His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"We're in Jr. High now. Don't you think you should leave your toy at home, little boy?" Justin reached down and grabbed the toy roughly by a few tufts of hair on the top of its round body. "Things like this get flushed down the toilet in Jr. High."

"Put him down." Iori jumped to his feet reaching for his toy, which Justin was holding high over the shorter boy's head.

"Make me," he taunted.

Apparently that was just the provocation Iori needed. He whipped his kendo stick up through the air, catching Justin flat on the inside of his wrist. As the rod connected with a pressure point, Justin's hand popped open, releasing the toy which Iori caught expertly.

Justin clenched his smarting wrist to his chest, "Just wait you little rat. I'll get you. You'll be sorry."

With that warning the bully ran off. At the same moment the bell rang and the two hurriedly gathered their things. Iori stuffed his lunchbox back into his bag, and the two dashed back to the schoolhouse, Iori still carrying his toy.

"You'd better watch out," Rini warned, as they reached the door, panting between each word. "Justin has some pretty tough friends. He'll try to get back at you for beating him. And it won't be fair."

"Don't worry Rini. I have some tough friends too," he smiled reassuringly as he took off down the hall.

"Where are you going? Class is this way."

"I know, but I really got to go. Will you tell the teacher I will be there in just a minute."

"OK."

Iori slipped silently into the boys room. A quick check under the stalls ensured that he was alone. He looked down at the 'toy' in his arms.

"Are you alright Upamon?"

"Yes Cody, I'm alright. Rini is a nice girl. I wish you had fed me instead of that cat though."

"I couldn't feed you right in front of Rini. Stuffed animals don't eat."

"But we're supposed to be stuffed. How do we get stuffed if we don't eat?"

"Never mind, I saved you half of my lunch."

"Yeah." The creature bounced happily into the duffel bag glad that he would be able to feed his bottomless stomach.

"I better get back to class before I get in any more trouble. Try not to eat too loudly, the last thing I need is for someone to hear eating sounds coming from my bag in the middle of a test."

"Report, Massanich. How are our plans coming along?"

"Soon our new army will be ready to take over this world."

"How is that so? You only captured six of the great warriors you were sent for."

"Yes your majesty that is true. However, the other warriors will soon be within our grasp."

"For your sake I hope so. You are dismissed. Bring me the other warriors soon."

Massanich fled the room, grateful to get away from their great leader. In the throne room shadowy eyes studied the images of the great warriors on the wall. There were twelve warriors in all, but only the captured six showed on the wall, the places for the other warriors were blackened holes.

"Soon, you and your companions will be mine."