A/N Due to a problem with the Quickedit program, I have to use italics to indicate thoughts now.

Chapter 3 "School Day Frenzies"

"Are you sure this looks alright?"

"Stop worrying Cere-Cere, your bow's where it should be, although not where it needs to be; inside your mouth." Ves-Ves growled impatiently

Inside a luxurious white limousine, the princess of Crystal Tokyo and her quartet of guardians were beginning their first day of school in this new millennium. Each girl was now dressed in the new uniform of the Juban Jr. High School, the same school attended by most of their predecessors. Although most of the uniform remained unchanged, the outfit has been touched up to reflect the posh name of the school due to its history as the school attended by the reigning queen and her court. The shirt has the same sailor collar but the yellow lines on the collar and sleeves had been replaced by gold threads. Even the main body of the shirt, with its rich pink bow, has two separate bands of gold running down the front. The normally long skirt has been shortened a fraction and the accordion-like folds of the skirt was now two toned blue, one lighter, one darker, that rippled as the wearer walked.

Chibi Usa looked out the polarized window of the limo and saw her classmates congregating for their day of education. Several boys stepped out of a vehicle before hers and the princess made note of the differences from their 21st century counterpart. The boy's uniform hasn't changed all that much in form but it was now white, with a hint of ivory rather than the traditional black, and like the girls, had a gold line one the end of each sleeve. The five golden buttons tying the shirt together were imprinted with the crest of the school which it did not have when the queen was still attending. With all the imperial appearance and history about it, it's little wonder that Juban Jr. High was now a private school but one which somehow (mostly through the influence of the queen), still managed to retain its public school openness.

The sleek hovercraft limo came to a smooth stop just outside the old iron gate of the school and Chibi Usa took a deep breath as the driver came around to open the door for them. During the whole trip while the Quartet had been chattering away, their liege had been uncharacteristically quiet and to some, even seemed grim and reluctant. "Here goes..." she said with a dark tone in her voice which mystified the Quartet. But before any of them could ask, the limo door opened and a cheer deafened the girls' ears. Hearing the noise, the Amazones Quartet popped their heads out from the car and to their amazement and the princess' expected exasperation saw that the path from the gate to the entrance of the school were lined with cheering girls and boys.

"Who-who are all these people?!" Jun-Jun swallowed as she took in the size of the crowd.

Chibi Usa sighed resignedly "The school's welcoming committee"

"You gatta be kidding me!" Ves-Ves sweat dropped as the girls step out of the car and received a hundred stares making her cringe uncomfortably.

"Welcome back!" one boy cried, his blushing face flushed and giddy.

"Princess-sama!" shouted a girl who gave Chibi Usa the uncanny familiarity Minako greeted her favorite celebrity when she was her age.

"May I shake hands with you your majesty?" asked another equally enthusiastic girl.

The group passed through the crowd as Chibi Usa smiled politely if some what unwillingly at her fellow students and glanced at the Quartet, wordlessly telling them to hold on just a little longer.

When they finally reached the door the crowd followed them in. Finally a few teachers appeared and began to disperse the crowd. As Cere-Cere watched a middle age teacher spoke loudly to the crowd "All right, break it up! This is a school, not a concert."

At his words the students glanced at each other then began to dissolve. The tall man with his neatly trimmed mustache smiled at the princess "Welcome back Chiba-san, I'm glad you've come back to us. We had hoped that by keeping the day of your return confidential we would avoid such a crowd but you are awfully popular." The teacher winked.

The pink pig tailed girl smiled and bowed respectfully "Yes, and thank you sir" thankful that the teacher decided to address her like a normal student.

The man nodded approvingly when his eyes fell upon the Quartet "You fours must be the new students her majesty said would be attending classes with Chiba-san. I've already looked over your files and everything is in order. You may begin class today as said."

Cere-Cere bowed "Thank you sensei." The other Amazones followed suit before the teacher bid them good bye and walked down the hall to his classroom.

With that done the girls headed toward the shoe rack to put on their standard white shoes. While there Cere-Cere said "I can't believe the amount of attention given to us. But it's not like this every school day is it? It makes me feel uneasy to be stared at all the time." she said seriously when she noticed girls at the end of the lockers talking and staring in their direction.

Chibi Usa shrugged and tucked her shoes in her locker. "No, it's no like this every morning, people will get over it soon enough."

"Why? Is it because you're the princess?" Jun-Jun asked

"Yup, people think it's cool to be near a member of the royal family." Chibi Usa said candidly

"Or maybe it's because they've all fallen in love with a beautiful young lady. I've seen the look on some of the guys on our way here and I'm pretty sure they're head over heels for you." Ves-Ves winked playfully.

Blushing, Chibi Usa waved off Ves-Ves's joke "That can't be," she said absolutely "Besides I don't want anyone else..."

At that moment Chibi Usa realized she had said something she shouldn't have said as the Quartet slowly converged on her, each with curious eyes looking down at her.

"'Don't want anyone else'? Does that mean you already have a boyfriend-" At this time Chibi Usa had no other choice but to put her hand over Cere-Cere's mouth.

Several people turned to look as Cere-Cere struggled comically while Chibi Usa kept one hand on her mouth and sweat drops collected on the back of her head "Ahhaha, it's a wonderful day isn't it? The sun's out and shinning!" she laughed unconvincingly until the onlookers decided that maybe wherever their princess has been for the past months, it might have affected her brain and it was better to look away and mind their own business.

Finally alone again, Chibi Usa let out a deep sigh and took her hand off Cere-Cere's face which was starting to turn blue.

"Sorry Cere-Cere, but please don't say these things out loud! The last thing I want is the tabloids and the paparazzi following me!"

Palla-Palla looked innocently and whispered "Why is Small Lady-sama so worried? And why would any one's papa want to follow you?"

Chibi Usa felt another sweat drop forming at Palla-Palla's misunderstanding but she smiled and shook her head. "It's complicated Palla-Palla, let's just say it's not something everyone will understand even if they did know about it."

"Oh..." Palla-Palla said quietly, not really understanding what Chibi Usa meant while her sisters seemed to have caught onto something and passed a thoughtful look between them.

Changing topics now, Chibi Usa glancing down at her watch and said "We should go to class; we have to get there early if we want to sit down before the bell rings. Our class is really close though, we'll get there in no time-" she began to turn around the blind corner of the locker when someone suddenly stepped out in front of her and the two collided.

"Oh...what happened?" Chibi Usa asked groggily as Cere-Cere helped her up.

Looking out with one opened red eye she could see the person who was partially responsible for the sore pain in her bum was a girl wearing round glasses which was sitting crookedly on her nose from the accident. Her beige colored hair was braided in a simple pig tail reach just past her shoulders.

The girl moaned but when she saw who she had collided with, a look of panic washed over her face as it turned pale. She scrambled up, bowed a full 90 degrees then began to apologize even before Chibi Usa had a chance to get up.

"I'm-I'm so sorry your majesty...uh...I-I'm very sorry...I must be going now, I'm sorry!" with that she turned and ran out the room, nearly creating another collision with two bystanders.

"Well that was rude, running off like that!" Cere-Cere said gruffly, her hands still on Chibi Usa's arms.

"It's alright; I can tell she apologized sincerely. I just hope I didn't scare her too badly. By the look on her face I thought she was going to have a heart attack." The princess brushed off her skirt and looked to the Quartet "I just hope this doesn't end up in the tabloid tomorrow. My mother will laugh her head off of she sees the lurid headline 'Royal Princess Knocked onto Her Bums in Locker Room Accident'."

The Quartet laughed and continued on their way, unaware that the panicking girl from a moment ago was now looking at them with calm, unnervingly silent eyes.

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During their brisk walk to class, Ves-Ves decided to ask about the strange statement Chibi Usa gave before running into the girl with the glasses.

"I almost forgot, why did you say we have to get to class early if we want to sit down on time even though the classroom is only around the corner?" asked Ves-Ves

"That's because..." but before Chibi Usa could answer Ves-Ves, Jun-Jun opened the classroom door.

"WELCOME BACK PRINCESS-SAMA!!!"

A unanimous roar rattled Chibi Usa's brain when the door of her classroom opened. Winching from the noise, Chibi Usa sweat dropped to see a crowd with bouquets and out stretched hands. "There's another welcoming committee..." Chibi Usa finished. The heir to Crystal Tokyo smiled wearily as she accepted the flowers and handshakes. Even the Quartet was not spared this time. Word has gotten out that the four new students following the princess were the rumored new senshis. If anything the crowd was giving them more attention which was overwhelming for the Amazones.

While the whole class pushed and shoved, a particularly anxious boy was trying desperately to get close to the center of the crowd. His slicked back black hair and milk bottle glasses made one wonder if he was a direct descendent of Umino, Usagi's old schoolmate. He held a bouquet of beautiful red roses with a note sticking out on top as he jostled in the mass of humanity.

"Excuse me, Princess-sama! Oh, excuses me-" he struggled toward the center of the crowd but to no avail. He tried one more time, harder this time. But when it comes to pushing and shoving he was instead rippled back as the crowd knocked him unceremoniously out of the fold.

"Ah!" His head landed against the brim of a nearby desk and soon little birds were circling his head as the flowers he'd been holding lost a few of their bright petals in the crash.

"Is it just me or has no one heard the bell ring?" an angry steely voice cut through the noise of the crowd. Instantly the noise ceased. Chibi Usa turned in relief to see her homeroom teacher standing in the door way.

The female teacher, with her arms crossed across her chest and her straight blonde hair wrapped in a bun, flashing an authoritative look with her green eyes. "Apparently not, and I'm not surprised with the noise you were making."

"Yes Yamamoto-sensei" the crowd answered reluctantly.

"Good, now go to your seats. We have a lot to do today." Yamamoto said with the wickedly cheerful grin of a teacher before the boy with the thick glasses caught her eyes "Are you okay Ken Kinoshita? What are you doing sitting on the floor?"

The teacher asked as poor Ken rubbed his head, one hand clutching the slightly frayed roses he meekly answered back "Uh, nothing sensei, I-I'll be going to my seat now."

The teacher nodded and turned towards the podium. Ken glanced at Chibi Usa, smiling wistfully to herself in her seat before the four girls she came in with surrounded her desk and they began chattered happily with each other. All this time she never noticed him, Ken thought as he cheerlessly walked towards the back of the class where he sat.

Chibi Usa gave a relieved sigh as she climbed into her seat. She left the bouquets she has accepted on her desk and cringed when the pollen made her sneeze. How does he do it? she thought to herself, remembering the time when a certain white haired boy was a member of her class and had a band of swooning fan girls following him. He had always managed to remain polite and affable, even when Chibi Usa herself was about to explode from the school girl's unending attention. The thought of him brought a smile to her face and a rush of warmth to her hands, strained and tired from the many handshakes.

"God, I haven't seen anyone so enthusiastic since Palla-Palla got her new visual interactive toys from Mizuno-sensei last Friday!" Jun-Jun said dramatically, rudely snapping Chibi Usa out of her daydreams.

"They'll get over it soon. By then you'll probably miss the commotion because life can get pretty boring here." Chibi Usa advised, smiling ruefully at the comical haggard expression worn by the green haired Amazones.

"Yeah well, I'd rather be bored than get mobbed everyday. It's not 8 O'clock yet and I'm already getting a headache!" said Ves-Ves, her elbows on the table and her face cupped in her hands.

"May I have the new students walk up to the front of the class please," the teacher's voice made the Quartet look up. Palla-Palla looked to Chibi Usa, her thin brows turned together.

"Did Palla-Palla do something wrong? Why does the lady need us to face everyone?"

Chibi Usa shook her head, and patted the short girl's arm reassuringly "Don't worry, she just wants you to tell the class a little about yourself. Once you walk up there just introduce yourselves, it's that simple."

"Really?"

"Of course!" Chibi Usa winked "I'll be here supporting you all the way!"

Palla-Palla nodded and turned away, following her sisters who were waiting for her.

Ms. Yamamoto smiled at her new students as they made their way to the podium.

"Please tell us your name, age and some of the things you like." She said to Cere-Cere who was standing first in line.

Cere-Cere bowed respectfully to the teacher then to the class. Once she raised her head, she cleared her throat and spoke in a clear attractive voice "My name is Cere-Cere, I'm 14 years old and I love shopping and flowers. My hobby is enjoying beautiful things and I hope to get to know each of you." She gave the class an smart wink, causing some of the boys to blush.

Ves-Ves rolled her eyes as her sister stepped back and she took the stage as next in line. "I'm Ves-Ves, and I'm also 14. I like video games, and having fun." Ves-Ves said briskly with a rather bored tone, forgoing the more lengthy type of introduction favored by her pink haired sister.

"I'm Jun-Jun, 14 years old and I like sports and hope to join some of the sports teams here at school." She said with the confident smile of a tomboy.

After Jun-Jun finished, Palla-Palla immediately rushed up and waved at everyone in the class with a wholehearted smile. "Hi everyone! Palla-Palla is 13 and a half and she likes to play with her toys!" at this rather odd way of introduction the class stared at her, some laughed silently while others glanced uncertainly at his or her neighbor. "Palla-Palla really hopes to be friends with everyone and she will work extra hard to do well!" the blue haired Amazones grinned and her doll-like face lit up.

The teacher chuckled and nodded approvingly "Very good girls! Everyone, please welcome your new classmates with a round of applause!" the four girls bowed in unison amidst the ovation of the class. Once the clapping died down Ms. Yamamoto turned to the Quartet and said "there are four empty seats at the back of the class you may take; the first lesson will be Pre-Algebra so please have your book ready."

The Quartet left the podium and took their seats while the class followed their every move. This made Chibi Usa feel a bit nervous. She didn't want the class to ostracize the Quartet because they're new or because they are her senshis. The one thing she really missed about the 21st century was that no one knew she was a senshi and her peers treated her without the bias of loyalty and senshi-hood. But here everyone knew who she was and how different she was from everyone else. Chibi Usa sighed; she was missing the past more and more by the minute. She just hoped the Quartet will adapt to their new surroundings without too much difficulty.

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"That was fun wasn't it Small Lady-sama?" Palla-Palla asked cheerfully. It was now gym class and the girls were walking out from the girls locker-room towards the main gym where the class is to gather for their lesson. "Palla-Palla likes playing with clay, even though it gets all sticky and wet, Palla-Palla can make whatever she wants with it! Does Small Lady-sama like to play with clay too?"

Chibi Usa sweat dropped. Palla-Palla was referring to their last class, Arts and Crafts in which the teacher was introducing them to sculpturing with clay. Having never seen much less operate a clay crafting wheel before, Palla-Palla had stepped too hard on the paddle and had gotten clay splattered all over her, making it look like someone threw a chocolate cake on her face. But Palla-Palla's seemingly indomitable cheerfulness shone through and she laughed with the class while the other Quartet members looked away with sweat dropped hanging heavily on their heads. Once she got cleaned up Palla-Palla had become the adored little girl of the class and Chibi Usa was glad that at least one Amazones seemed to be doing well.

"Hey Chibi Usa, over here!" Ves-Ves called from across the school grounds.

"Coming!" Chibi Usa shouted back and with Palla-Palla ran across the concrete paved open-air walkway connecting the gym to the locker-room. The girls walked to the door of the gym to find the rest of class already there.

The gym teacher looked up and checked off his role call sheet, satisfied that everyone's present. "Today we'll be starting on a new unit. And that," he said as he pushed back the gym door to reveal uneven bars, balance beam, and a host of other equipment "would be gymnastics."

Instantly a wave of commotion went through the students.

"How come we have to learn gymnastics, that's for girls!" complained a bored looking boy.

"You may think gymnastics looks easy but it's a sport that demands great agility, balance, and grace." The teacher lectured "Today I'll allow you to try out each of the equipment but no horsing around; remember safety first, I don't want my students getting hurt." After that the teacher had an upper classman who had taken the course before to demonstrate the routines he wanted everyone to learn. After this he divided the class into groups that rotated from each piece of equipment to the next. The Quartet was split up into each of the groups and allowed to begin their rotation to the five stations.

While they stood in line waiting for their turn Ves-Ves began growing increasingly bored as she crouched on the ground waiting for her turn. This is no fun, none of these kids even know what they're doing! as she thought this, the girl that had been on the uneven bars before her fell off with a squeal onto the mat below her after only hanging on for a few seconds. As I was saying, amateurs. Yawning and stretching out her limbs, the red haired Amazones suddenly got an idea. Demurring for a moment, Ves-Ves turned her eyes to the teacher and was heartened to see the instructor leave the gym when another gym teacher came in and asked for his help with something. She smirked as she approached the uneven bars once the coast was clear.

She shook her head when the upper classman offered to boost her up. Instead she took a few steps back and to the class' surprise, ran towards the bars. Ves-Ves grasped the lower bar and pulled herself up to a handstand much to everyone's amazement. Coming off from her handstand she swung around a full 360 degrees and surprised the class even more by letting go of the bar and catching the higher bar. Ves-Ves swung around again and around a few times, switched hands in midair before doing an upside down handstand, receiving a wave of awe from her classmates. Letting gravity take her back down, Ves-Ves swung another 360 and dismounted. A flood of applause and whistles swelled Ves-Ves with pride as she grinned to the crowd and bowed.

"You're not the only one who could do that!" Cere-Cere said grumpily. She walked out to the freestyle gymnastics mat and picked up a ribbon that had been dropped there by someone who left to watch her sister. Swing the ribbon in a graceful arc; everyone turned their attention to Cere-Cere who seemed to will the ribbon to flow like water around her, manipulating it with a flick of her wrist. Suddenly she threw the ribbon into the air behind her and everyone's eyes followed it as if hypnotized. Cere-Cere sprinted forward, did a summersault and when her hand touched the mat, she launched herself into the air and caught the ribbon in the middle of a summersault, with it whirling in a circle around her once she landed.

A new round of cheers went through the crowd but the four Amazones Quartet were far from finished. "Don't forget me!" This time it was Jun-Jun who stepped up. She walked to the far end of the vault horse and took a deep breath. Everyone then watched as she ran full speed towards the horse, her arms reaching towards the sky as she flipped forward then launched herself into the air and spun two circles before landing with a perfect 10.

Before the class could finish their applause for the third Amazones sister, Palla-Palla's chirpy voice bounced into their ears. "Oh, Palla-Palla can do it too, see!" She cried and leaped onto the end of the balance beam. Walking a few confident strides, Palla-Palla did a backward summersault then in a playful manner she run part of the length of the beam and did a forward flip, with her feet coming off the beam. She landed back on the beam effortlessly, turned 180 degrees on one foot before dismounting successfully with a back flip.

The applause roared as each of the Quartet took a bow. Chibi Usa laughed as she clapped with the class. The Amazones Quartet were the acrobats of the Dead Moon Circus and she had seen them strut their stuff before when they were preparing the adult ceremony. The carefree style and confidence with which they performed made the princess forget about the hectic morning she had gone through. And while Chibi Usa was cheering on the Quartet, Ken hung in the background, thinking furiously to himself.

This is my chance; if those girls can do it then maybe I can do it too! He balanced his glasses and went up to the rings that hung the ceiling. Slowly everyone turned to watch him as he leaped a few times before finally getting his hands around the rings. With all his might Ken tried to pull himself up with his thin scrawny arms. Gritting his teeth, the students were shocked to see the class nerd slowly pulling himself up even though his arms were shaking like a leave.

Almost there! Ken encouraged himself as his head grudgingly passed by his elbows. Just then a dot of pink distracted his concentration. The eyes behind those thick glasses lit up and he thought dreamily about how impressed the princess would be by his performance right now. Just then Ken's arm muscles decided they've had enough. And before Ken could react he lost his grip on the rings and fell with a lumbering thud onto the mat, drawing an uproar of laughter from the whole class. Flushed a deep shade of red, Ken kept his face laying flat on the mat, not wanting to risk seeing Chibi Usa laughing at his foolish and clumsy attempt. He was rescued from future embarrassment when the gym teacher broke through the crowd and helped Ken to his feet.

While Ken tried to straighten the slightly bent frame of his glasses the teacher looked disapprovingly at him and said in a severe chiding tone "By the grace of the Queen, were you trying to break your neck Kinoshita?!" the class silenced upon hearing the palpable anger in their teacher's voice. "I leave for a second and I come back to see you on the rings in danger of falling! If you had broken something the school could get sued! That's why I've told you, all of you, not to try anything fancy but there you were trying to do something you can't and shouldn't be doing! You are excused from class for today, go wait in the locker-room. This better not happen again or else I'll have to have a talk with your parents!"

Ken sulked away, his head hanging down. This was not the way he had wanted to be noticed. Behind him, Chibi Usa cast a pitying look at the four eyed boy. Feeling a hand slap her back, she turned to see Jun-Jun grinning at her.

"That was a great performance you guys gave Jun-Jun!" she said, but then gave the green haired girl a mildly worried look "But I think you guys should be careful. You could've gotten in trouble with the teacher." she darted a glance at the teacher who didn't seem to know about the Quartet's performance.

"Sorry, but I can't watch Ves-Ves showoff and take all the glory." She scratched her head, not looking at Chibi Usa.

"And that poor guy with the glasses, I hope he's okay..." Chibi Usa glanced at the door Ken left through. Sighing heavily, Chibi Usa turned her attention back to her guardians and saw how the other students smiled and showed support through positive gestures towards the Quartet members despite being instructed by the teacher to get back into their groups. I guess that did help to improve their reputation; everyone seems to be warming up to them...that's good at least...

"Well" Chibi Usa said reluctantly "please try not to do that again, I don't want the teacher catching up with you guys and I don't wanna see you guys getting punished for something avoidable." she whispered

Flashing a smile and a thumbs-up, Jun-Jun nodded "Done; now let's get back to class; don't want to miss part of our all important day of education." she said jokingly.

"Oh joy..." Chibi Usa groaned sarcastically.

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"Math homework, science homework, history homework, language homework, and English homework..." Cere-Cere grumbled, counting off each assignment with her hand "I won't be able to finish all of these in a week! How can I possibly finish it all by tomorrow?"

The school's last bell was towing in the background. The crisp clean air of Crystal Tokyo vibrated with the voices of friends laughing together and bidding farewell to each other. Chibi Usa walked at the center of her group, her shadow and the shadow of the Quartet gliding across the ground as they strolled out of the gated school yard.

"Palla-Palla doesn't like homework! She wants time to play with her toys!" Palla-Palla said honestly as the discussion regarding the day's homework continued.

Chibi Usa smiled as they walked towards the limo waiting for them at the school gate "Don't worry, we can form a study group and do our work together. It makes homework less boring and we can help each other."

As they spoke Ken, with his bouquet of roses watched them as they went. He had been berating himself ever since that embarrassing moment in gym class. This wasn't his first failure since he had made plenty of other attempts before, all of them before Chibi Usa went to the 21st century. However none of his plan had ever succeeded and sometimes they've even back fired. Once when he tried to put a carefully written confession of love in Chibi Usa's shoe locker had placed the letter in the wrong locker and had gotten beaten up by the recipient, who happened to be the leader of the school's rich boy gang. Another time he had memorized the lines from the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet" and was planning to recite it to Chibi Usa when she came by the 2nd floor window on the day of her after school duty, but he instead got struck on the back of the head by the volleyball team who were practicing in the courtyard before she even noticed him. In all his attempts he has only received disappointment and often a sore head as a reward. Today was no different and what's worse, Ken had made himself look like a fool.

This was the last chance he had that day to correct his image. He could just imagine her bashful pink cheeks and her beautiful appreciating eyes when she learns that he has gone through so much for her. Ken thought he could hear the voice of little cherubs in his ear as he thought this; the thought absolutely made him feel light and happy.

"Huh? Ah! Wait-wait for me Princess-sama!" he shouted as he realized his day dreaming had allowed the girl of his dreams and her circle of friends to come to the door of their escort, just waiting to whisk her away out of his reach. Seeing this, Ken made a dramatic sprint for the car, the fastest he had ever ran in his life.

But he had forgotten about the side effect of running fast, and that was you don't tend to see what's coming at you from the side. In a burst of red rose petals a crash was heard. Several students watched as Ken lay dazed on the ground, another bunch of birdies circling his head. Slowly Ken straightened himself, his head swam and it felt like he was wearing a fish tank on his head. Finally his eyes focused enough for him to make out a girl with pink hair disappear inside a white car.

"NOOOOOoooooo!!!" Ken wailed inside as the people around him watched him intriguingly. His face, which was watching as the limo drove off, dipped towards the ground as a breeze of lonely air blew past him.

While Ken wallowed in misery he had forgotten about the person he had ran into, a girl wearing round glasses and sporting a plain pigtail. She got up awkwardly but wordlessly; picked up the bag she had dropped and walked away without even looking at who caused her to fall to the ground for the second time that day. Some students exchanged looks of worry and curiosity, and someone said that he saw her standing idly there by the school gate when she suddenly started walking but ran into Ken. She's probably in shock or else just the really quiet type, someone else explained; not many people would walk away from an accident like that. What no one noticed was that the eyes behind those round glasses were glassy and had been staring at the princess and the Amazones Quartet all along.

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The sun was beginning to set as Ken sulked home, his bouquet of once beautiful red roses now tattered, retaining only a few worn petals; the note blown away during the crash at school. The waning sun light even seemed to be mocking him. The blinding glare made his eyes hurt, adding to the already acidy sting in his teary eyes.

"Who am I kidding...a princess would never notice a guy like me...it's hopeless." Ken mumbled as he turned a corner "None of my plans had ever work out, it's like luck always work against me..." suddenly Ken stopped. This was the path he took everyday to get to school and go home. Unlike most of the students at his school who are children of the rich and famous, he came from a simple middle class family and has to walk rather than drive the hover vehicles commonly used by his peers. Both his parents are working in different parts of Japan in order to support him to go to school at Juuban Jr. High so he lived alone in Crystal Tokyo in a house his grandparents left for him. Despite having good grades and being relatively well off, the princess has been the light of his life ever since he first set eyes on her.

Now at the foot of a Shinto shrine, a shrine he has passed countless times before, Ken suddenly got the urge to change directions and turned onto the stone paved path. A sliver of hope rose in him Maybe buying a charm or something will help me change my luck Ken thought to himself. Dumping the crumbled roses in a trash bin which he had bought fresh this morning with nearly a week's worth of allowance, he went and purchased a slip of wish making paper and noted his wish. As he walked toward the shrine's sacred tree, a sudden gust of wind snatched the note from his hand.

"Oh no!" Ken cried as he franticly tried to catch the paper slip. But the wind tossed and turned it before finally letting it come to rest before an ancient building in the back of the shrine. Seeing this Ken sighed and said "There you are!" as he picked up the paper. But as he straightened his back he saw the dark wooden doors of the structure before him. An extremely worn ofuda charm was plastered over the door and from the degree of decay of the wood, Ken judge the place to be at least a few hundred years old. What attracted him though wasn't the building but rather the strange sensation he felt tingling his skin. The sensation made him feel a bit uneasy and he certainly didn't want one of the shrine's attendants yelling at him for trespassing.

Just as Ken decided it was time to finish his business here, a slight noise made him turn around. Ken looked around but saw no one around. But then he heard the noise again, like someone pushing lightly against a locked door. Ken gulped and looked to the old building just in time to see the door jerk. Nearly suffering a heart attack, Ken jumped, his teeth chattering from fright. As scared by the strangeness of the events before him, Ken had an intense curiosity. He reached out a shaking hand and tentatively touched the door which opened with a loud un-oiled creak. The smell of dust and centuries of undisturbed darkness flooded Ken's senses. Coughing from the dust, Ken managed to take a careful step into the unlit shrine.

"Is someone in here?" Ken asked apprehensively but no one answered him.

Still mystified by what he saw, Ken took a look around and saw through his thick glasses an old urn, sitting on the alter directly in front of him. The urn was sealed with two ofuda charms and bound with a cord of sacred rope made from rice stalk. From the amount of dust in the place it was apparent no body had been in there for ages.

Picking up the urn and examined it, Ken concluded "What's this thing for?"

"Shonen..." an eerie voice called out of nowhere.

"Eeekkk!!"

Ken panicked and in his panic dropped the urn he held, causing a cloud of gray smoke to raise from the shattered remains of the clay container. "Who-who's there?" Ken asked choppily.

The gruff voice answered back "You have an unfulfilled desire do you not Shonen?"

Ken blinked, now slumped and shivering on the ground "Huh?" he whispered weakly, still not able to find the source of the voice.

"I sense a deep desire within you, a desire to be someone great, someone people notice and admire. That is what you want is it not?"

"Y-yes, I-I want the princess to notice me...I just wish she would know I'm here. Then-then may be she'll like me..." Ken admitted hesitantly, not knowing who he was talking to.

"Ah, for the admiration of a princess then, yes, a real man must prove himself worthy in such a case. I am very much like you, Shonen. Very well then, I have decided, I shall lend you my skills and talent; let us fulfill our dreams together than!"

Outside a flock of birds suddenly took flight from their roost. A slight rumble could be heard coming from within the shrine before the doors a deep crisp voice said proudly "My time has come again! KaitouKun has been reborn!"

A/N Oi, this chapter was really hard to write for some reason. I'm traveling abroad again this year and it's never easy dragging your laptop along with you. The Quartet are acrobats so that's how they can pull off those moves I described. But as a person who doesn't do gymnastics I can only described them to the best of my abilities from watching the Olympics and the things I did in my junior high gymnastics unit. Anyways, hope you like this chapter and thanks for all the support you've given me through reviews and e-mails!