QUANTUM LEAP

"The Delinquent"

"Theorizing that one can travel within one's own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator...and vanished! He awoke to find himself trapped in the past. Facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home."

It always ended as quickly as it started. A bright blinding flash of blue light, his body tingled and shook from the leap. Then everything soon faded as the disorientation set in, and Dr Sam Beckett's surroundings became clear. Some leaps in were surprising, and some were downright confusing. This leap in was downright terrifying, Sam could feel he hit something like a melon hard. He looked to see a wooden kendo stick in his hand .The impact was so hard he could see it was slightly cracked. Bits of hair and blood were peppered all over the kendo stick.

"Emiko-Senpai! Haiku!" Sam heard a shrill voice call out to him in Japanese

Sam looked down to see a long black haired asian girl dressed in a blue school girl uniform. She was knelt by a man in a business suit slumped face down, blood leaking from the back of his head. The school girl lifted his wallet and watched, she stood up with four other girls dressed the same way and also armed with kendo sticks and blackjacks. In a flash they all took off down the semi empty street.

"Emiko!Koko kara detekie!" She yelled as the sounds of police sirens grew closer. Somehow Sam understood the language clearly in his mind. It was a call for him to leave with the girl gang.

"Soko no anate!Yameru!"

Sam turned his head and saw four police officers dressed in light blue shirts running at him from down the street. It all became clear to Sam, he just helped rob a man.

"Oh boy!" he gasped

Instinct told Sam to run as fast as he can for now, he would hopefully see Al soon and help him figure where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. He at least knew he wasn't there to mug a man or else it would have been the shortest leap ever. Sam ran as fast as he could in an unknown city. From the street signs and buildings he could easily tell he wasn't in America. If anything his best guess was he was somewhere in Japan. Minutes seemed like hours as his lungs burned. He had long lost sight of the gang he was with , at this point all Sam could do was get away from the police. Turning down a dirty alley way he saw a 6 foot fence on his way to freedom. He jumped up on the fence and pulled himself over.

Getting To the top he swung his leg to leap down, only he quickly found out that climbing fences in long skirts is a recipe for a date with gravity. His foot snagged on the dress and he felt himself tumble to the concrete floor. He felt his face and knees slam to the ground . disorirented again Sam picked himself up and ducked into the nearest open shop he could find.

Sam walked to what seemed like an arcade with machines rolling around tiny ball bearings. Rows and rows of machines with men sitting at them paid attention to their game and nothing else.

"Hey! You can't be here! Shouldn't you be at school!" The middle-aged japanese man behind the counter yelled at sam. Even though the man spoke a forign language Sam could now understand him perfectly. Behind the man was a glass mirror that had kanji written all over it. Sam looked at the reflection in the mirror staring back at him. It was a rather tall Japanese girl with thick black hair tied in a high ponytail. She wore a dark blue long sleeve school uniform with a red tie around her sailor collar, the long blue skirt he tripped on was now scuffed and dirt. Sam could see he had a small bloody scuff under her cheek and her lip was slightly busted .

From behind Sam a door slid open from the middle of the pachinko arcade and from within the bright side Al emerged from the imaging chamber dressed in a shiny silver jacket over a yellow shirt with a black tie and hat. The door to the imaging chamber closed behind him as he stepped through.

"He's got a point Sam, School kids aren't allowed in these types of joints, it;s a shame you're not older you can make a killing from these pachinko games!"

'I ah….if I could use your bathroom please!" Sam asked meekly " You see I nearly got hit by a car and I have to clean myself up!"

"The man grunted " Ok, the bathroom is in the back and don't take long or I'll call the police!"

In moments Sam found his way to the bathroom, where he and Al could talk in private. He winced as he patted a wet paper towel on his shiners. Most of his leaps took place in America and it was rare but not uncommon for Sam to occasionally leap in another country.

"Al, I can speak Japanese? Sam asked

"Sam, your Swiss cheese memory apparently made you forget you can speak 7 languages including Japanese!"

"Al, when I leaped in I mugged a man!" Sam grunted in pain " It was me and four other school girls, we all split when the police came after us!"

"That's not good Sam,Japanese jails can be especially rough. I remember this one time on shore leave in Kyoto, there were these two Geisha ..."

"Al! Where am I and what am I supposed to do here!" Sam scolded as he cleaned the blood from his scuffed knees. Al put his cigar in his mouth and typed away on his handlink that looked like a mesh of gummy legos. Various beeps and whistles came from the handlink as he gathered info.

"Ok, according to Ziggy your name is Emiko Hinamorei, you're a 16 year old high school student in To-...Tofu?" Al snacked the side of the handlink as it squealed "Kofu, Yamanashi Japan. It's May 10th 1982 and you're kind of a troubled kid.

Sam turned off the faucet and looked up at Al "what do you mean troubled?

Al blew out a slow breath, "troubled as in she kinda broke Verbena's nose when she first woke up in the waiting room,we scrambled to find Yashida to translate for us " Al cleared his throat. "It's ok! Verbena's been wanting an excuse to get a nose job and she filled emiko with enough sedative to calm her down "

"Well Al what am I doing here and please tell me it doesn't involve mugging any more people!"

"Well that's the tricky part, Ziggy was in the middle of computations when Emiko went all 'Chuck Norris" in the waiting room. "Al recognized that look of dread and annoyance in Sam " Just relax, give Ziggy a couple of hours and stay out of trouble!"

A loud pounding came from the door, it was a familiar pound that Sam and Al knew all too well. Sam hesitantly opened the door as he was greeted by two policemen with strong stern looks on their faces.

"uh….Hi.' Sam said quietly " I can explain all this…"

The first officer grabbed sam forcefully by the shoulder and dragged him out of the bathroom. "Were you the one who attacked that man!"

Sam gulped and looked at his shoes , He had to make up something quick to keep him out of jail "No!, no You see officer, I was walking to school and I wasn't paying attention when I crossed the street. I got clipped by a car."

Al clinked on the com link " Sam! Apologize profusely and say you, you were in a rush to get to school,

"Please I'm sorry! I was running late and was rushing to school, that's why I didn't notice the car!"

"Sam, Bow your head a lot! "Al advised

Sam profusely bobbed his head up and down, not looking at the officers faces. The police officers looked at each other and shook their heads . The police looked at Sam suspiciously for what seemed like hours. Exchanging glances at each other, one finally spoke .

', What school do you go to?"

Sam looked to his side as Al typed away furiously " You go to Kofu Ichi High school and you're in the 11th grade!"

"Kofu Ichi high school sir!" Sam said quietly.

"Are you sure you;re not a Sukeban?" he asked

"A Sukeban, " Al read from the handlink ": That's a delinquent!, say no!"

"No!, no I swear" Sam promised

"Ok we'll drive you to school, but don't let us catch you in a place like this again!"

"Just head to the school Sam I'll be back in a bit!" Al said disappearing through the door of the imaging chamber as Sam was led away .

Sam walked awkwardly into his classroom, instead of being greeted by mocking looks, all of the students averted their gaze from him, When they did look at him it wasn't out of disgust, it was out of fear. .

"Hinomori!" The teacher barked " Because the principal told me of your accident,I won't punish you today!,maybe you should get up earlier so you're not rushing! Take your seat!"

Much of the school day went without incident, Sam noted for the early 80's Japan's educational system was far ahead than most of the world knew, even in the 11th grade the subjects were at a university level. Gradually Sam understood the kanji, he knew this as residual of the person's mind Sam leaped into was still around to help Sam adjust more to his surroundings.

Lunchtime came around as various students either stayed at their desks to eat or move to other places in the school. Sam ventured to the rooftop as it seemed a private enough place in case Al were to appear. Where the school was situated over the vast town he had leaped into. Sam gazed up at the clear blue sky where white puffy clouds painted the sky. It reminded him so much of home what little bits his swiss cheese memory would allow him. Same enjoyed these little bouts of peace he was afforded, little being the operating word as a commotion soon caught his attention.

He peered around one of the large generators to see four older boys harassing a smaller younger student. She was struggling to keep the boys from taking her bento box and her sketchbook.

"Please leave me alone!' She pleaded."Knock it off!"

"Ugly shrimp nit!" One of the boys yelled as they laughed and surrounded her. She dodged to protect her bento box only to leave her sketchbook wide open to be taken away.

"No! Give that back!" she cried, tears now beginning to form under her thick glasses.

One of the boys that took the book beganto flip through it, "Hey look at this! You must be the worst artist in the world! He laughed " don;t quit your day job!

The girl shrieked and lunged forward tripping over the foot of the boy behind her, she fell flat on the ground as her glasses fell from her face and her bento box spilled all over the rooftop. The four boys laughed and kicked her. As the boy who had her note book opened it in half and held it before her.

"You suck so bad at drawing I'll do you a favor and rip it up for you.."

The first year girl began to cry in desperation as she never experienced bullying this bad, never knew such cruelty could exist. Here she was about to see her drawings ripped apart.

Sam came from behind and gripped the boy by his left wrist. The body he was was as tall as the boys if not half an inch taller. Sam gripped the boy's wrist so hard and bent it at an extremely painful angle. So painful the boy dropped the notebook.

'Maybe you should all just leave her alone." Sam said in a cold and threatening tone. The boys' demeanor all changed from predator to prey. Immediately they all backed off and left the rooftop quickly. The first year girl sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She quickly passed by her box and scooped up her sketchbook.

Sam knelt by the girl " Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?" he checked her over for any scrapes or cuts .

``It's ok, I'm fine,'' she said . "I don't care as much about my lunch as my sketch book!"

Same helped the younger girl up. She was dressed in a different school uniform than Sam, in fact the dark blue School uniform was much different from the white short sleeve shirt with the light blue shade of the sailor collar and the blue and black plaid skirt.

"But what are you gonna do about lunch? You should at least eat something from the vending machines." Sam fretted over her.

"It's ok" she smiled, "I've taught myself to skip lunch and eat at home."

'You know you have an extra bento box in your bag sam" Al said out of nowhere.

'AL!" Sam yelped in surprised

"Al?" The girl asked

Sam thought quickly to cover up that he was talking to a hologram the girl couldn;t see " Uh I'll….think I can help out " He said as he opened his satchel to see two bento boxes.

"Ziggy says that Emiko learned to cook at an early age , Her mom left Emiko and her dad ten years ago and her dad is an office guy who works almost every day of the week. ``Al said, reading his handlink .

"I happen to make extra for lunch " Sam said "You can have one!"

The girl blushed "Oh no! I couldn't, I'll be fine!" Sam opened one of the boxes and placed it over her face, it was a delicious box of rice, steamed vegetables and pickled radish and cooked chicken.

Naoko quickly changed her mind "Well, I guess it would be rude to refuse such a generous offer…."

They sat on a nearby bench and ate lunch "this is so good ! did you make this?"

Sam ate a piece of the croquet with his chopsticks " I always make extra, you never know when you'll get hungry!"

"My name is Emiko Hinamorei" Sam introduced " What's yours?"

"Naoko, Naoko Takeuchi." She said "You're a recent transfer right?"

"She's right" Al said , "Emiko has a bit of a reputation for fighting and this is the third school she's been transferred to in two years! ,It also explains why you're in a different uniform now as they don't have one in your size yet"

"Thank you for sharing your lunch with me , it's really good!" Naoko smiled " A lot of people seemed to be afraid of you, but you're really nice!"

Sam remembered the strange looks of apprehension and fear he's seen all morning and barely anyone spoke to him. Kids would walk the other way to avoid sam " Well it's a long story, and I'm not very good at making friends. "

"I know the feeling "Naoko said looking down. " I don't have many people I could call a friend. "

'The wallflower" Al mused " I tell you Sam once you get past that awkwardness they can really open up…"

Sam shot Al an annoyed look, he did this whenever he was in a position that would expose him and couldn't say anything.

"When you get done with Miss Wallflower here Sam I have some info here you should know about!"

Sam nodded and put his box away " Look I got to go now, we should do lunch again!" Naoko smiled as she watched Sam grab his school bag and leave, Al pressed a button on the handlink and disappeared , he soon met Sam who ducked into the school bathroom. Sam checked to see the bathroom was completely empty and once again saw the image of Emiko in the reflection of the mirror, from behind him he saw Al emerge from the toilet stall.

'I've always liked Japanese toilets!" Al mused, the doors go all the way to the floor allowing for complete privacy!"

"Ok Al what did Ziggy find out?" sam asked

Al raised his eyebrows and tapped the beeping handlink " Turns out Emiko is a Sukeban, a juvenile delinquent. She has quite the rap sheet so far but it's petty crimes, fighting,vagrancy, shoplifting …..public nudity? Verbena says she just has anger issues, Ziggy thinks you're here to get her out of the gang she's in, Early 80's Japan there was a huge wave of juvenile delinquency.

"And how am I expected to do that?" Sam asked "From what you told me she's taken a swing at verbena! What can I do here that will stick when she leaps back?"

"That was just a bit of an overreaction Ziggy thinks, Verbena is actually working with Emiko, she may sound a bit funny with a busted nose but she's still our top psychiatrist"

"Ok, have Ziggy run scenarios in how we can help emiko and in the meantime I'll get her through her first few days at this new school,'' Sam said, opening up his book bag to clean out his empty bento box. He opened it to see no boxes or any of his books and material.

"Uh oh, " Sam paused. " I must have grabbed Naoko's bag by mistake!"

"Oh you mean the wallflower?" Al assumed " I can center on her so you can return it-" Al stopped as his handlink began to sputter and whine. He shook it and smacked it in annoyance " Uh Ziggy is having a bit of a conundrum right now…"

"Gooshie!" Al yelled up at the project's programmer " Whatever Ziggy is going through can you hurry it up and set it straight!"

Through Al's yelling Sam felt a strong compulsion to open the sketchbook that Naoko so desperately wanted to protect , and flipped through it to see beautiful drawings of girls and guys drawn in the manga style. The majority of the girls were dressed in a variant of the school uniform but they were drawn in a style that portrayed them like superheroes. Also in the pages were various drawings of rocket ships and celestial bodies.

"Al, check this out…" Sam called over to Al " This Naoko, she's really good at drawing!"

Al leaned over and saw the drawing that Sam flipped through, his brows raised in awe and amazement .

"You;re right Sam!Gotta say those short skirts and long legs are really very very nice!" He said in his usual lecherous tone. Sam quickly shut the book and gave an annoyed look at Al.

"All these girls can;t be much older than her!"

"For your information I happen to admire good art when I see it! " Al said indignantly. ``Regardless, let me give Gooshie a hand, In the meantime you;d better get back to class!" Al pressed a button on Ziggy and vanished.

Sam had no time to look for Naoko inthe big school to return her bag and get his back. With little options left he had to return to his class. He made it just as the bell rang. And once again a hush fell over the class as Sam entered. Bit of Emiko's memories that still remind Sam flashes of similar situations she faced when she was the outsider in the new school. She was constantly teased at a young age when her mother abandoned them and that's when her temper began to grow. It grew until one day in fifth grade she pounded a bloy bloodied after the boy made a comment about how pathetic her dad was and they deserved to lose their mom. Since that time the anger remained in emiko and she handled it in the worst ways possible. As she began to grow she grew taller than the girls and almost as tall as the boys another thing for her to be teased for. But emiko used that to protect herself by bullying others. To get to them before they got to her. It became clear to Sam why the students were wary of her, they feared her and that fear brought a wrong sense of respect for Emiko.

"Ok, I think I have an idea…." Sam mused , He reached his desk and before he sat down he quickly jumped around to face the class with his eyes opened wide and his arms in a spooky manner

"BOOOOOOGGGWWAHHHH!" Sam shouted, wagging his tongue like a silly monster.

Sam saw the surprise and shock looks of his classmates, some even the boys yelped out at the jump scare. It was only when they saw Sam laughing and laughing hard when they finally relaxed. Some even began to chuckle. Sam grinned that the idea of lightening the mood worked when he felt a piece of chalk clock him behind the head.

"HINAMOREI!" "The teacher scolded " Are you trying to get expelled again? Take your seat."

Sam nodded quietly and took his seat. was the typical stern japanese teacher, Sam looked at the writings on the chalkboard behind him to see he was in physics class, well to sam it was a basic physics class. A subject he could do in his sleep. ordered everyone to take out their textbooks and turn to chapter 6 . Sam took a deep breath and hoped that one of Naoko's books was this subject. Sadly she wasa first year student and not quite ready for Physics yet. Sam blew out a cool breath and pulled out a notebook and some pencils. He could at least take notes and make it look like he was learning something he already knew by heart.

"Miss Hinamori?" called Sam out " Where is your book?

"I , Uh , well you see I forgot it at home…"sam made up " I'm sorry I can take notes.

"Baka-ne" he called Sam stupid " You can take your notes but it will be a miracle for a failure like you to pass tomorrow's test…."

The way the teacher ran the class with an iron hand reminded Sam of his old high school teacher . Only made her look like a saint. The way he also taught Physics was particularly sloppy. He would stop and mumble during key moments of teaching the class. Most of the students struggled to keep up, Sam could tell they were trying to hide it .

"Ok!, it's time to see if what you've learned has stuck, "he said, writing several equations on the board " Masaki!"

'Yes!" The boy sat up tense and filled with fear

"Come up and solve the equation."

Sam watched as the boy nervously walked up and stared at the board like a deer in headlights, seemed to have a sick delight in seeing his students struggle, and when they got the equation wrong they got a serious scolding and were told to return to their seat in shame.

By the time the fourth student and girl named 'Sakura came up to the board to be tortured ,Sam saw her tremble and began to cry. Her soft hand shook as she struggled to finish the equation.

"I hope you don't have plans to go to college , not by the way you study…" said coldly.

Sam had had enough and cleared his throat loudly,It was more than enough to get 's attention. He walked over to Sam and stared at him through his cold dark eyes.

"miss Hinamorei" he mocked " Why do you try and solve the equation, let's all have a real laugh now!"

Sam stood up and smiled , he loved these moments of putting bullies in their place. He went to the board and looked it up and down.

"I can tell your clueless Miss Hinmorei"

"Actually it's you who seems to be clueless Sensei" Sam said, taking the eraser. He began to erase parts of the equations on the board. "You have the integers in all the wrong places,

He scribbled figures on the board " You have to set the problem up right and follow the formula, you're telling them to work the problem left to right , the right way is to work the equation from right to match the figures to the correct formula and everything falls into place!"

In under a moment Sam solved the complex equation, gasped as he began to turn red. He checked his teacher's notes and read every page to find any hole in sam's work. He would never admit it but Sam was more than right. He just displayed advanced physics to the class.

cursed under his breath and got right in Sam's face " You're just a delinquent! I don't know how but I know you cheated!"

"No Sensei," But when you;ve been to as many schools as I have been to you tend to learn the same things" Of course Sam could never tell anyone in this class that holds 7 PhDs

clenched his fists and as much as he wanted to punch Sam he retained control, He backed off " fine if you want to teach class, then teach class! I'll go have a smoke!"

He stormed out of the class leaving Sam to the stunned class. The silence in the room was so quiet you could hear their beating hearts. Finally sam spoke, "Ok, Let's take this step by step…"

Sam spent the next 20 minutes teaching the class the fundamentals of basic physics. Gradually the class that was once scared of him began to loosen up and even smile when they understood Sam's teachings.

"Emiko senpai,Do you really know Physics?" a boy name kenji asked

Sam rubbed his hand together "well yeah, wasn't completely wrong he just missed out a couple of small details, once you have all the right details to the different formulas Physics can be easy and fun. It opens the door to a lot of things in science ,Theoretical Physics, Classic Mechanisms, Relativity, quantum physics…"

"Like the theory of time travel?" A girl asked excitedly

Sam was surprised at the question, "Yes! Even time travel which that theory falls under Quantum Field Theory" He looked around the teacher's desk and found a small ball of twine. Taking a piece he showed it to the class. "Say this string represents your life, the beginning is your birth and the end is your death. "

He tied it in a loop "But say you tied the ends together and balled it up so that your days are touching, then you could leap back and forth to any point in your lifetime…"

"You couldn't resist explaining your theory of Quantum Leaping…."Al shook his head . "While you're at it, why don't don't you tell them about the Artemis project to Mars!"

Class ended and the class began to clean the classroom. At 's insistance he assigned Sam the duty of taking all the garbage on the school floor to be incinerated. Going up and down the four flights of stairs was a pain but it allowed Sam to talk to all privately.

"That was something else Sam showing that bully teacher up!, 'Al complemented .

"He was more occupied torturing his students than teaching them. '' Sam said putting the last bag of trash in. " What did ziggy come up with?

'Ah yes,' Al typed into the beeping handlink " Ziggy says you're here for Naoko, According to Ziggy in two days naoko suffers an injury that ruins her life."

Sam paused "what kind of injury Al?"

Al wrinkled his brow and scratched his head "Well we're not sure yet, Ziggy is communicating with the servers in Japan and they are very….curt" he said with a gong sound coming from the handling

A loud squeal came from the handlink as Al's demeanor changed

"Oh wonderful " said forlornly " Ziggy predicts there's a 78% chance that Emiko is beaten to death as her body is found at the bank of a river basin. "

"Emiko Senpai!" Naoko called out as she rushed to Sam , She was breathing heavily in a state between panic and relief. "Oh thank God I found you! I think you got my bag by accident!"

"Oh! Oh yeah! " Let's go to my locker and I can walk you home!"

The cicadas chirped in the evening sky as Sam walked Naoko home "it's weird "Nako said " I haven't walked home with friends since I was in the third grade!"

"I kinda know the feeling "Sam admitted " You know I hope you don't mind but I saw your drawings they are really very good!" Naoko turned a bright shade of red at that comment and stared at her shoes.

'I don't show my work to anyone!" "She said flustered

'Why not?, You could be an artist if you really wanted to!" Sam urged

Naoko shook her head " What if people don;t like it? I don't think I could handle that kind of rejection. Besides, my dad wants me to go to Pharmacology school."

Sam quickly opened up Naoko's bag and took her sketchbook out , he turned a page to one of the drawings of the girl's superheroes she drew. " Your drawings are amazing and how many female artists are there in Japan today?"

"Not very many,the manga world is mainly a man's world." She said dejectedly "but the girls I draw, I like to think they are the kind of friends I would love to have!

'Well promise me you'll at least think about it seriously!" sam begged

They reached Naoko's house as a black cat jumped from a tree in the yard and meowed happily as it circled around Naoko's feet "Luna! I'm home!" she cooed as she picked the cat up .

"This is my cat Luna!" naoko showed her off to Sam, Sam went to pet her but Luna was having none of it as she screeched and swiped at Sam leaping from naoko's arm's and running back into the yard

"That's odd, she;s never done that before!"

"Well I guess I have that effect on people!' Sam joked

Sam watched Naoko go inside " You sometimes have a harsh reaction to pus-"

"STOP IT AL!" Sam barked

'Cats…."Al retorted 'cats have never really liked you!"

"She has a steel shell around her Al" Sam noted " She has a lot of talent she just needs a lot in the confidence department"

"Well Ziggy ran a profile on Naoko, she's 14, her parents are Kenji and Ikkuko Takeuchi And she has a younger brother named Shingo. As you may have deduced she has a crushing shyness, but she loves manga and the space program ,some of her favorite astronauts are Neil Armstrong ,Buzz Aldrin, Yuri Gagarin and…..' Al,paused and he whacked the handling particularly hard and fast, then Sam saw Al's eyes soften a little "and an Apollo 8 astronaut named Albert Calavicci…."

Sam recognized when true acts of sincerity reached even al, "Hey Al.." he started to begin

Al looked up at the full moon "She's,a sweet kid Sam. Whatever happens to her we gotta stop it."

Sam made it to the large apartments that was emiko's home , it was five stories of apartments lined next to each other with various hangers filled with drying laundry hanging out the balconies. In his hands were two plastic sacks of groceries. He stopped off at a market and bought ingredients to make dinner for his father and himself. .

"Emiko!" Sam heard a voice call behind him , he turned to see the same four girls from this morning " We missed you at the underpass!" one of the delinquent girls said

"Don't tell us you actually went to school did you?" the shorter girls with bleached hair teased.

"Well I had to, The police got me and dropped me off!" Sam said as that response elicited some angry looks from the four girls

"You didn't rat on us did you?"

"No!No! I didn;t say a thing!" Sam shouted

The door to the imaging chamber opened behind the girls and Al stepped through the girl gang "Sam! This is the gang Emiko is trying to leave! "He tapped on the handlink " Their names are Meiko kizana, Eri Kana, Jun Tanaka, and Kei matsuda! They all have rap sheets for robbery , theft, assault and attempted murder!?Heck two of them don;t make out of the 80's alive!"

Meiko approached Sam and lowered her face mask, "Senpai,"She said in the most mocking of tones' ' Here, you forgot your cut of today's score " She stretched her hand out and in it was a wad of cash. "That man's wallet was loaded ! she smiled.

Sam gulped a little and carefully chose his next words " No, that's ok you can keep it, give my cut to the others."

'Really?" Kei,The smallest of the group with the bleached hair exclaimed, she reached for the money but was stopped by Meiko

"Stop!" She barked at the girl who was no older than 12. Meiko looked at Sam with suspicious eyes "what's wrong with you? You planned this , you had us distract the guy and you made the hit. You never turn down your cut! Are you sure you didn't talk to the cops!"

"I did not talk to the police!" Sam enunciated " I just want to go inside and make some dinner for my father and I and maybe think about some things ok!"

"Don't think too hard Emiko!, and don;t forget we gotta meet with Yuu tomorrow about the job on wednesday at OSA-P!"

Al quickly went to work inputting the information for Ziggy " I'm uploading what I can for Ziggy to figure out , sounds like it's a big heist Sam, I highly doubt it's a regular job for these girls…"

Emiko lit up a cigarette, something very illegal in Japan for a girl her age to do, but she didn't care about rules " Noon tomorrow ,Like you said "

Sam shook head "Noon's not good, let's make it 5."

All four girls grunted and gasped in shock "You said it was noon!" Meiko argued

"Sam remember you are the leader of this group, hold your ground!"

Sam dropped his bags and got right into Meiko's face , he took the cigarette from her mouth and flicked it away " Well I altered the plan, pray I don;t alter it anymore!" He said in a cold tone that was strictly from Emiko. He picked up his bags and started to walk away

"Hey Emiko!" Kei called out " who was that girl you were walking with today?, She looks like a weakling."

Sam turned his head slowly " She's no one, just some girl I saw on the train getting groped by a businessman. I took care of him. How do you think I got these groceries?" he smirked. "She just wanted me to walk her home and it was on the way.."

Sam walked away to his apartment as Al joined him " Those girl's make the Hell's Angels look like boy scouts"

"I didn;t mean to get as threatening as I did Al, something just came over me" Sam admitted

"No Sam, that wasn't you, that was a bit of emiko still left behind and is pushed back into your subconscious, You should see Emiko back at the waiting room now, she's reciting the four basic principles of Quantum Mechanics!"

Al's handlink began to beep quickly " Ah here we go Sam!Ziggy found out that OSA-P is a jewelry store in the north part of town. There's a break in two days from now but Ziggy doesn't have much beyond that for now. "

"Well we don't need a supercomputer to figure out these girls are looking to move up in the crime world." Sam said entering the apartment. It was a small one bedroom place with a small kitchen and dining room in the same area, in the middle of the living room was a short table with a tv set up in front of it. He looked into the single bedroom to see two futons in the same room.

"Looks like this tiny place is all a salaryman can afford…"Sam said softly "Al head back and find more about this OSA-P crime. I have a feeling these girls are capable of anything. " Al nodded and disappeared through the door of the imaging chamber.

Sam made dinner, he could tell this was something else of Emiko's that stayed behind. He ate and watched an action movie. And before bed he opened books that made a sound like they had never been opened before. He was able to complete all of Emiko's homework in about 30 minutes. It was rare but not uncommon for small bits of Sam's personality to remain with leapees when they returned, Sam hoped his want to learn would stay with Emiko. It was close to 11 and his father still hasn't returned from work. Sam wrapped up his dinner neatly on the stove and left a note for him as he went to sleep.

After a semi awkward breakfast with him in which Sam enjoyed coffee and had a chat with his dad about why he made him a healthy breakfast and how it's important to care for his heart by exercising and stopping smoking. Sam went off to school.

"Emiko Senpai!" He heard Naoko call from behind him. " I got up early this time hoping I could walk to school with you!" She was a lot happier than she was yesterday.

"I was curious if you plan on joining any school clubs?" Naoko asked Sam

Al appeared beside Sam and saw his confusion on the subject " There are a lot of school clubs in Japanese schools, There's tons! They put American school clubs to shame! "

"It's crossed my mind, I never joined any before but hey who knows? Maybe if there is a science club or physics?"

Naoko's eyes lit up. " I know there's an Astronomy club! I've been thinking about joining it, I think you would like it too…" She said shyly.

Al's handlink beeped and booped " Oh hey Sam turns out this school also has a Manga club as well!"

Sam grinned a little " Tell you what, I'll join the Astronomy club with you if you join the Manga club!, deal?"

Noako looked hesitant at first but gradually the idea began to sink in her head " Ok! I'll do it!" she smiled.

"Oh! I got you a thank you gift for yesterday, please accept it!" She pulled out a small white box and held it out with outstretched hands and head bowed

"Thank you!" He said taking the box and opening it inside were two beautiful pink rose earrings."They're beautiful! I'll put them on."

Sam clipped on the rose earrings , "Ahhh! Kawaii!" Naoko squealed. She took out a compact mirror and held it in front of Sam. Sam saw the face of Emiko wearing the rose earrings, they looked really nice on him and even matched well with the hair bolo with two green orbs Sam used to tie her hair up in a ponytail.

"Do you like astronomy much?" Naoko asked inquisitively

"Oh yeah sure! We've come a long way since Sputnik! "Sam mused, " the moon landing, The Space Shuttle, the Mars Rover…."

Sam accidently let slip an event from the future, " I uh mean one day we might send up craft like a huge RC car that will send back information and pictures from surface of Mars"

"Like when we visited the moon!" Naoko mused " I admire the men on the Apollo missions that landed on the moon but no one ever remembers the Apollo 8 mission. It was the first time a spacecraft orbited the moon, it was because of that mission they were able to even land on the moon!"

Sam looked to see naoko had Al's full eyes lit up as she recalled details of the mission " They took the first ever pictures of the earth and the surface of the moon, It was on Christmas eve and they all read from the book of Genesis "

"Which we got hell for later…." Al mumbled

But before that the craft lost power for a bit and couldn't communicate with Houston," Naoko said " It was Astronaut Albert calavicci that acted fast to restore the power and put the ship back on the correct trajectory!"

Al chuckled" HA! The kid's right, amazing what banging on the console a few times can do! "

"He saved the mission, and if it weren't for him they wouldn't have returned and we might never have gone back to the moon!, I hope to meet him one day…."

Sam looked at Al then back at Naoko, " Oh, im sure if he were here he would tell you how talented of a person you are and that you have a bright future ahead of you!"

They arrived to school and parted ways to each others class, Sam had just changed shoes at his locker when Al walked through the locker next to sam " sam, let's duck into a janitor's closet sam quickly found a janitor's closet down an empty hallway as al walked through the wall.

"Ok Al what did you find out?"

"Well Verbena got it out of Emiko that they were offered a job by Meiko's current fling to break into a jewelry store and steal whatever they can carry out. Problem is he is a member of the yakuza and the jewelry store belongs to a rival Yakuza clan."

Sam sighed at the gravity of the situation "That's like sending lambs to slaughter!'

"It is! Ziggy found news reports that the girls were never heard from again, and that when Emiko takes part in this robbery it's 100% she dies in the process and if she doesn't she gets beaten to death."

"And we still don;t know what happens to Naoko?'

Al smacked the handlink a few times and made it squeal " No, According to Ziggy she still suffer a life changing injury"

"Ok I have to think of something and something fast. " Sam spoke aloud " From what we know Emiko is the head of this gang , so what she says goes. If I can somehow convince her friends not to do this job and especially Meiko. We have to get her away from that guy she;s seeing. "

"I've got an Idea." Al said " get through this day I'm going to help verbena get information from Emiko!, if we get as much info as we can then we can formulate a strategy for tomorrow!"

"24 hours'' Sam said looking at his watch, "You do that and I'm going to ace this physics exam!"

Stallions ridge, New Mexico

July 20th 1999

"Why can I speak English more and more?" Emiko Hinamorei asked hugging herself around her body, even though it was a day it felt like weeks since she's been here. "She was in a blueish white room and she wore white skinsuit. She sat in the large comfy chair and stared back at the dark skinned woman who wore a bandage over her nose because she punched her the first few moments she woke up, and next to her was a man dressed in an outlandish green suit and vest with a silver tie .

"I'm sorry for everything I've done!, please can I go home?" She said her eyes watering

"No, no Emiko! You;re not being punished!" Verbena reassured " You;re only here temporarily and in a another day you'll be back home "

"Can I at least call my father?, I need to know he's ok. He's too busy to feed himself!"

"Emiko, I know it's hard to wrap your head around but like we've explained You're part of a secret time travel experiment and you've switched bodies with our project leader Beckett." Al explained " he's there to prevent something horrible from happening that you couldn't be able to prevent!

Emiko looked down at her feet as she was at least able to display for the first time the vulnerabilities and fears she was forced to hide. Even though she was confused and scared at first the people here were nothing but nice to her. The food here was decent, and they allowed her to watch the Yomiuri Giants game on a holographic tv.

"But we need your help to help Sam do that. " Al said " We need to know more about your friends and what they are like and how you get them to listen to you!"

Her demeanour changed " I knew it! You're police, you just want me to rat them out!"

"No! We aren't the Police! But we do know about OSA-P, and if you don't help us we can't help you and they will get hurt."

"We know you want to get out and we can help, but you don't want your friends to get hurt either too right?" Verbena stated.

Emiko stifled a sob and nodded her head.

It was 6 pm when Sam met his gang by the docks. He was hoping Al would arrive soon but for now he had to find a back to back out of the job and to talk the right way to his friends

Sam found them at the underpass by the city's leaned against the concrete tunnel and all smoked. By them were various weapons like baseball bats and kendo sticks.

'It's about time emiko! "Mieko scolded " I gotta meet Yuu in an hour! "

Al appeared next to Sam "Ok Sam we got what we need , tell them the job is off!"

"Let's get to the point, first off the job is off. We aren't robbing that jewelry store!" He announced .They all gave her a look of utter betrayal

"What is up with you Emiko!" Eri shouted " You were never like this before, what made you change!"

"Maybe I'm just tired of hurting others to get what I want, maybe it's time for all of us to get serious and think about another future because this life has no future!"

"Eri has a little sister named Hana Sam" Al read out " she's six and looks up to Eri and loves her!"

"What about Hana, Eri? Sam asked " You are her world, it would crush her if something happened to you, worse what if she follows your path?"

Hot tears began to fill Eri's eyes "Shut up you bitch! You have no right to say that!"

"Both of Jun's parents died in a plane crash a year ago, they were missionaries and now she lives with her grandmother and never was able to process her grief properly !" Al said

Eri grabbed Sam by the collar and began to shake him , Sam held her "and you Jun! I know both your parents died a year ago and that's unfair but hurting others won't bring them back! They raised you to be kind and loving , Show them you can change!

"DIE!"jun screamed as she raised her crowbar but stopped as she saw Sam's rose earrings, she stopped as she remembered how much her mother loved and always smelled of roses and in that brief instance she saw what she had hands trembled as she dropped the crobar and sank to her knees and in that moment all of her grief spilled out , She wailed and beat her first on the ground.

"And Kei is the newest member she just wanted to be accepted, she wasn't a delinquent to begin with!" Al pointed out

"Kei…"Sam saw she was paralyzed " Kei! Look at me!"

Kei finally locked eyes with Sam

"Kei, you aren't one one of us, and you never were, you have a good heart and you just wanted to belong, but right now take courage and help me help them!. "

Kei nodded and knelt to comfort the crying Jun, She held her and rocked her as Jun continued to break down.

"You fucking bitch!'" Meiko spat at emiko. " I can;t believe we ever listened to you! You got weak!, I'm taking over now! And I say we're still doing this!"

"I know about Yuu meiko" Sam said " I know he;s Yakuza, but what he didn't tell you is he's setting you and us up. The store he wants us to rob belongs to a rival gang, he's throwing us to the wolves and he knows they will kill us. Is he really worth throwing all our lives away. ?"

"Fuck you! Fuck all of you!" Meiko yelled as she ran away

"What now?" Kei asked " What do we do now?"

"I'm no longer you're Sukeban" Sam announced " but I'm still your friend! And you can change every day is a chance to be a better version of yourself!"

Sam got each of them up and hugged them. " Go home now.I'll be in touch!"

Sam watched as the former delinquents went home.

"Did I do it Al?" Sam whispered

Al typed into the handlink and it beeped and squeaked " Hm, Well it looks like you got something in motion, history is starting to change. You were able to reach Eri,Jun and Kei, Ziggy says they'll turn their life around but…."

"But…." Sam hissed

"But Ziggy says you still die tomorrow and Naoko now is killed as well!"

The next day.

"I don;t get it sam!, Ziggy has run thousands of scenarios and can't pinpoint how today happens! " Al grunted in frustration.

"Whatever happens today we have to be on our guard ." Sam said as he reached his locker in the hallways filled with students.

"Only thing I have left Sam is you go and get Naoko and take her away somewhere for the next day or so! If you and her aren't here for the heist then it blows over you!"

Sam heard all talk but stopped listening when he found an envelope stuffed in his locker , He pulled it out and opened it to find a note and a polaroid, the picture filled Sam with dread

"Al! Look at this!"

Al saw the picture. It was a pic of Naoko with her hands and legs tied up , from the contraction of her face she was crying and scared. A hand held a large knife under her neck , Sam read the note.

Emiko, I told you this job was going to get done

No matter what. You're going to help us and then you'll help us get back at Jun,Kei and Eri

if you don't want us to gut your

Little pet nerd, you'll get to Hattori bar

Down the street from OSA-P. Get there by noon

Or she dies.

Meiko

"Al center on Naoko right now! I'll meet you there!" Sam said, putting his regular shoes back on. Al vanished and appeared to where Naoko was being held. She was tied up in the empty bar. She was locked in a dark closet and her mouth was gagged

"Oh Naoko! Hang in there! Sam's coming and we're gonna save you just be strong!

Al walked through the door and saw Meiko talking with her boyfriend, a considerably older man. They were arguing.

"I don't know where Emiko got that story but that store does not belong to any Yakuza! , I would know!' Yuu argued

"I just had to know! "Meiko said " I know this is a huge score but I don't want to die at the same time! "

"The shop belongs to a couple from osaka!"" Yuu said " You said you would do this! If you don;t I know who will and that will cost me money that you'll pay me back! Yuu growled, grabbing her arm.

Mieko pulled her arm away " don't worry, emiko will come and I got a surprise for her" She looked at five new delinquent girls all waiting armed with various weapons.

Sam raced to the bar and Al was already in the street waiting for him. "Sam! Sam hurry! She's in there! I saw the Yakuza nozzle! He left but he said he will be back later!"

'Is she alone al?" same said almost out of breath

"Ha! No!, she found five new girls to help her!"

Sam entered the empty bar and saw Meiko with five other delinquent girls behind her. He also saw Naoko lying down on the floor on her stomach, her hands were tied and put over a cinder block, Meiko ripped off the duct tape from Naoko's mouth and let her wail and cry for a bit before she kicked her side hard.

"Naoko!" Sam called out but as he did two of the girls grabbed him from either side and held his arms.

'Meiko, I'm here now let her go!" Sam yelled

"No this is what's going to happen, you're going to help us rob this store tonight, but first I'm going to make you watch as I hurt your friend and I hurt her bad!" Meiko grabbed a sledgehammer off the floor.

One of the short haired masked girls took Naoko's sketch book and began tearing pages out and started to rip them up right in front of Naoko.

"NO! PLEASE! STOP! STOP!" naoko cried

"I need to teach you a lesson Emiko, what happens when you get weak! "Meiko said with pure venom " I'm going to make this little shrimp see her work get ripped up and then I'm going to crush her hands!"

"That's it Sam!" Al yelled " Ziggy got confused, Naoko's injury is she loses her hands and she never draws again!"

Sam looked down and knew what he had to do. " I was hoping it wouldn't come down to this, but you gave me no choice Meiko…."

"Oh i've seen this look before "Al said "if it means anything Sam it's still a girl on girl fight…."

With amazing speed and strength, Sam grabbed the collar of the girl to the of him and smashed his head against her nose, she let go and stumbled back allowing Sam to grab the other girl holding him and tossing her at the girl with Naoko's notebook.

Meiko raised the heavy sledgehammer over her head leaving her open for Sam to tackle her. They crashed into dusty tables behind them, Sam took advantage of Meiko's disorientation and he took her switchblade from her . the other two delinquent girls rushed at her sam spun kicked one of them and judo flipped the other, Sam then quickly cut the Naoko free from her tape restraints and stood her up

"Naoko! You gotta get out of here! Now! Go!" Sam shouted

"But what about you and my book!" She cried in desperation.

"Don't worry about me and you can draw more!, you're drawing comes from your heart, it always has! Now go!" Sam said shoving her to the door.

Naoko raced out of the dirty bar as Sam was struck from behind by a baseball bat, he crashed to the ground as he was surrounded by the gang of six , they all started to kick and beat Sam viciously .

"Sam! Get up Sam!" Al yelled " Ziggy says your chances of being killed now are rising!"

Sam endured every blow and every kick, of all the beatings he took this was fast becoming the worst and at the hands of japanese school girls. They only stopped to catch their breath.

"Pick her up…."Mieko ordered

Sam could barely stand up , the two girls held him up. He was bloodied and bruised. Blood leaked from his mouth and nose.

"You little monsters! He's had enough! Let him go!' Al shouted as he swung at her in futility. "Sam! Wake up and get out there!"

Meiko grabbed Sam by his head and lifted his head up " I'm taking over now, I'm the new Sukeban!, but first I'm gonna gut you and dump your body in the ravine!" Meiko took out her switchblade and flicked open the blade .

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" naoko shouted.

They looked and saw she returned with Eri,Jun and Kei. Naoko ran and ran and by sheer chance she ran into Emiko's friends. After telling them what was happening they raced with her back to the club to save Sam.

"Emiko is a good person who wants to change her ways and you want to torture her! We're not gonna let that happen! We fight for love and justice and in the name of the moon, we'll punish you!" Naoko shouted

The bar got very quiet as the long hair Eri looked at Naoko annoyed "what the hell that!? Have you ever been in a fight?"

"Uhh….no?" Naoko said sheepishly.

"Then how about you let us handle this and you go get the cops odongama!"Eri hissed

Naoko raced out as Eri, jun and Kei joined the standoff.

"It's not too late for you to get this score guys!" Meiko called out" What's it gonna be? Us or her?"

"Her." Jun said " A thousand times her!"

Meiko noticed the three all brought their favorite weapons, a kendo stick , a bat and a crowbar. They walked slowly to Meiko and her new gang. The two girls drop Sam to the ground .

'Sam! Naoko brought the calvary!" Al said , crawl to someplace safe and catch your breath cause it's still six against three!

Through battered and bloodied eyes Sam saw the delinquents start a war, Eri, Jun and Kei fought like hell, they made every blow count. Meiko crept back and allowed her new crew to fight first. It may have been three against five, but the three girls could have fought five hundred. Emiko had trained them well, as they all worked together as a team setting each foe up for a finishing blow , Emiko's crew knocked heads, cracked legs and broke ribs. The five girls may have gotten a few blows in but Eri,Jun and kei all hit where it mattered.

"You bitches!" Meiko cried " I'll kill you all!

Meiko grabbed the gun that was placed on the counter and pointed at the girls when Sam raced up and tackled Meiko to the ground. He broke her grip from the gun and tossed it aside and then punched Meiko hard knocking her out.

"Emiko!" they all called out picking her up

'Are you ok!" Eri said, taking her handkerchief and wiped the blood and sweat from her face.

"You look like shit Emiko!" Jun teased We were coming to try to talk Meiko out of robbing the jewelry store, when Naoko ran into us and told us what was happening, we rushed over."

"I'm a good guy, I'm ok…."Sam said , looking at his friends, " thank you everyone, you saved me.

"No emiko, you saved us!" kei smiled.

A loud warning beep came from Al's handlink "ah sam, The cops are coming . Sam nodded and turned to Eri

'Eri gave me that wallet and watch we lifted earlier.`` Sam asked as Eri handed it over, Sam then planted it on Meiko .

Al's handlink began to squeak excitedly " Oh good one sam! The police arrest Meiko and her gang for the mugging of the guy earlier and Meiko turns into a witness against Yuu and his gang!

Sam and the girls left out the back door before the police arrived. They met up with Naoko and went to the bridge over the lake, they watched as the sun started to set and ate popsicles. Al appeared by Sam and admired the sunset with them.

"I think you did it Sam, Kei was right when she said you saved them, Ziggy says Jun opens her own flower arranging shop, Eri and Naoko reunite a couple years later when they both work at a shinto shrine as Mikos , and Kei. Kei actually becomes an idol singer!"

'How about Emiko and Naoko?" sam asked quietly

Al read his handlink " lessee Ah! Emiko goes back to school and it looks like bits of you stay with her as she graduates with honors and becomes a therapist for troubled youth and Naoko, get this!"

Al smiled 'Naoko gets her chemistry degree but a year after she gets hired by Kodansha creating manga and creates a comic book called Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon that becomes a global phenomenon that gets millions of fans!

Naoko pulled out the one drawing that survived. sam saw it was of five girls dressed in the same short skirt sailor uniforms, they each had their own color and different hairstyles, The middle one was blonde with long pigtails tied in two round hair buns, there was even a character with brown hair tied in a high ponytail wearing rose earrings.

"This is cool Sam, she bases Sailor moon characters off the people she's met including you!, apparently the one in the green is you and she calls her Sailor Jupiter !"

"Sailor Jupiter?" Sam said.

Naoko blinked and looked at Sam "Sailor Jupiter?...Sailor Jupiter! Hey, I kinda like that!" she scribbled the name over the character she drew of Sam. Sam looked at her warm grin, the wallflower had now come out of her shell and with that Sam leaped.

The bright blue light filled Sam and he could feel himself leap, and as soon as it started it ended. When the light faded and the disorientation ended Sam was standing backstage ,he could hear a large crowd from the other side of the curtain, he could hear a loud muffled voice coming from a speaker as every so often the crowd would erupt in whoops and clapping. A woman in a Sailor Moon shirt wearing a radio and holding a clipboard went quickly to Sam and took him by the arm. "Ok get ready he's about to announce you!"

"ARE YOU READY SAN DIEGO COMIC CON! MAKING HER FIRST U.S APPEARANCE , I GIVE YOU NAOKO TAKEUCHI!"

Sam could feel a soft push in her back as he walked through the curtain and before a crowd of thousands of fans all cheering and screaming . The bright lights blinded Sam as he looked around and saw on either end of the stage were two huge video monitors . He looked to see an older, more mature version of the shy school girl he met in his last leap.

"i-I'm Naoko!" Sam said through gritted grin

The MC held a microphone before Sam " Welcome to America what do you have to say to your fans?"

Sam waved to the crowd "Ah….Shoten!"