Act 2, Chapter 7 - Old Friends, New Memories (Part 1)

School District 7, Academy City

August 12, 2026

8:33 A.M.

Sunrise had already come, and it didn't take long for a portal to open up in an alleyway within Academy City's School District 7, where Maaya emerges from the other side and sheathes her katana. Then, Kinuho appears alongside all ten girls that have been trapped in stasis for nearly a decade. Soon after, Articho was the last one to appear before the portal finally closed behind them.

Suddenly, he was tackled by a yellow blur from behind.

"The hell?!" He exclaims, completely caught off guard.

"HAAA!" A cute voice spoke out with excitement. "Gotcha, papa!"

Luckily for them, time had literally slowed as everyone else didn't notice Febrie.

"Febrie?" He questions his eldest daughter. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back with your mama and siblings?"

"Actually, I was on my way to Arisa's penthouse where I get to stay with you since mama's got remedial classes to take." The 7 year old answers. "So where did you, Kinuho, and Maaya go to?"

"It's a long story." He sheepishly grins beneath his helmet. "I was just about to contact Ryouko about our findings before you surprise attacked me."

"Sorry." She dropped her head in regret.

"No, don't be." He chuckles. "I'm glad to see you, too. It's just that you kinda caught me at a bad time is all."

"Oh, okay." His blonde daughter giggles. "So… who're your new friends?"

"That's hard to explain." He sighs. "And yet..."

"What?" She innocently questions further, tilting her head curiously.

"Nevermind." He shakes his head. "Why don't you go on ahead at the penthouse? Freezing time is more of Arisa's thing, and I rather not have these new girls see you. Then again, you might've given me a good idea."

"So what do I do, papa?" She asks.

Her father's only answer is a finger in front of his helmet's bluish black-tinted visor, telling her to shush. Understanding what he's planning, Febrie nods with a grin and happily leaves him as she makes her way to her stepmother Arisa's penthouse. Moments later, time starts moving normally again.

"Whoa." Hanamaru gasps in awe at the city buildings. "It's the future, zura!"

"Uh, what's she doing?" Articho questions in confusion.

"Yeah, I kinda left out the part where Hanamaru is tech illiterate sometimes." Chika scratches the back of her head sheepishly.

"I can see that." He deadpans. "Remind me to tell you about Ren Hazuki some other time."

"Ren Hazuki?" Riko asks. "I'm not familiar with that name."

"Again, some other time." The Pathfinder repeats. "Right now, we need to get you all off the streets. A lot has changed since you've been gone, so everyone needs to get caught up on the current state of the world."

"Not to mention that it's already sunrise." Kinuho adds.

"Why don't we alll have breakfast?" Maaya suggests. "From the looks of it, you must be tired and hungry."

Their stomachs growled - though Hanamaru's was the loudest - and all ten blushed in embarrassment.

"That's a yes." Kinuho giggles.

"Alright, the place shouldn't be too far from here." The Pathfinder says, taking the lead in walking. "Since not everyone's awake yet, I don't suppose the three of us need to remove our armor right now."

"Hold on a minute." Maaya stops her husband.

"What is it?" He questions.

"I think this should be a good time to get these girls to trust us." She points out. "They have been out of the loop for awhile after all."

"I suppose so." He sighs. "Trust is hard to come by these days."

"Exactly!" She agreed.

"What do you prefer we do then?" He asks.

"Show them our faces, for starters." She shrugs. "And properly introduce ourselves. None of that cryptic stuff from earlier."

"Cryptic?"

"You know what I'm talking about." She deadpans.

"Point taken." He frowns. "Don't let it go to your head."

"Duly noted." The Shinobi princess nods, before her, Kinuho and Articho turn towards the 10 girls. "I believe that the three of us have failed to introduce ourselves."

"You think?" Riko snorts.

"Do you want us to earn your trust or not?" Articho questions in annoyance, slightly raising his voice. "We could leave all of you here and be taken into Anti-Skill custody for illegally entering the city if you like."

This completely shocked the young girls after hearing this information.

"Word of advice: Do NOT anger him." Kinuho advised. "Just saying."

"In other words, you need us." He clarifies. "Without our help, you won't last so much an hour here. Choose your next words carefully. Because there are no second thoughts after this."

"Hmmm…" Chika thought about it, before looking towards her friends. "Can you give us a moment?"

Chika and her friends all then huddled together, discussing what they should do.

"Are you completely out of your damn mind, Chika?!" Leah hissed. "I don't think trusting them is the best idea, even if they've offered to trust us in return."

"But they seem like nice people, Leah." Ruby cutely admits. "Especially the one with the katana."

"That is true." Her older sister Dia agrees, but remains optimistic.

"Plus, I don't think we have much of a choice." Chika added, expressing a depressed face as she looks down at her feet. "It's been almost ten years, and the world as we know it has moved on without us."

"Not to mention our families, sì." Mari points out. "Being gone for that long could mean that we've been declared dead."

"Even if we reunite with our families and try to go back living our regular lives like nothing's happened, there's a matter of concern regarding our current ages." Kanan argues, with her head down and arms crossed. "I'm sure you guys can put two and two together."

"Kanan does have a point." Yō agrees.

"Yeah." Riko sighs. "Can you imagine people hounding us with questions about how we're not in our twenties if they learn that we're still alive?"

"W-Well, I suppose." Yoshiko stutters before posing into her persona. "As the fallen angel Yohane, it takes a great amount of concentration to make use of my powers without large crowds overwhelming me."

"I thought you were no longer a fallen angel." Hanamaru deadpans. "Make up your mind already, zura."

"Quiet, Zuramaru!" Her childhood friend snaps at her for ruining the moment.

"Well, that's odd." Riko frowns.

"Not you too, Lili!" The overly dramatic girl in black whines.

"It's Riko!" The bergundy haired girl exclaims.

Back over to the Saiyans, they were raising their eyebrows inside their helmets.

"What am I looking at here?" Articho blankly questions.

"No clue." Kinuho and Maaya sweatdrop.

"Yeah, figured as much." He grunts.

Eventually, their new friends all looked at the trio, having made their decision.

"Alright." Chika sighs before giving the trio a serious nod. "After careful consideration, we'll do it your way."

"You're making the right decision." Articho nods back. "We'll get you all sorted out in good time."

"Says the guy who threatened us a few minutes ago." Leah quietly muttered.

"You say something?" He asks, having heard her say that.

"Nothing at all." She scoffs.

"I didn't think so." The Pathfinder smugly grins. "So now I believe that you should know who we are."

On cue, Kinuho was the first one to step up. Her helmet opens up and retracts, revealing her short but wavy hair that has light chestnut color to it. Her face is very beautiful and sports sky blue eyes.

"My name is Kinuho Wannai." She greets them with a kindred smile. "It's so nice to meet you, girls."

"Wannai?" The Mari gasped.

"You know who she is, Mari?" Kanan asks her childhood friend.

"Sì." She nods. "I recognize the name. "They're one of the most powerful and influential families on Earth, descending from their French ancestors before immigrating to the Big Apple in the U.S. They're famous for their well-known craftsmanship in the fashion industry and have expanded in several other countries, including Japan."

"Wow." Her friends said in unison.

"That's amazing." Chika smiled.

"It sure is." The chestnut haired girl nods.

Next up was Maaya, who then retracts her own helmet to reveal her long indigo hair and a face as beautiful as Kinuho's, sporting eyes that match her hair color as well. However, her face is a hundred percent Japanese since Kinuho's more Caucasian due to originally being from the U.S. and of French descent.

"Maaya Awatsuki." She happily greets.

"Both of you have very beautiful names, zura." Hanamaru admitted. "Especially you, Awatsuki. I love you sword by the way."

"Oh, thank you." The Shinobi princess bows. "It's custom made."

"Courtesy of yours truly." Articho shrugs while keeping his arms crossed. "Well, sorta. I just took the concept and brought it to life."

"Huh. So we have a blacksmith among us." Dia crossed her own arms. "Who would've guessed?"

"Don't fucking sass me." He deadpans.

"Or what?"

"Oh, there are several things I could list here." He counts his fingers before forming a shit-eating grin beneath his helmet. "But the one I wanna do... is this."

He then lunges his free hands towards Dia's chest and shoves her hard enough that her literal astral form was pushed out of her own body. Time has slowed down once more, as everyone else were slow to react while the eldest Kurosawa sibling's body has yet to hit the ground.

Her eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.

"Oh my God, I'm dead!" She shrieked in horror.

"You're not dead." He blankly corrects her, leaning to the side. "You've just been separated from your physical form."

"My... what?" She questions, looking around in confusion to her surroundings. "Wait a second, why's everything in slow motion?"

"Simple." He begins to answer. "We're literally moving at the speed of light. Hence why time has slowed down all of a sudden."

"Seriously?!" The girl sputter in disbelief.

Before she could dig deep into it, Articho uses his right hand to telekinetically pull her back inside her body and time has resumed to normalcy. Again. Dia gasps and quickly stops herself from falling on the concrete like a scale that requires balance in all things. Mostly, that is.

"Hey! He's gotten fresh with Dia's boobs!" Yō accuses aloud, much to Dia's embarrassment.

"It's not like that!" Dia blushes furiously, trying to clear up the misunderstanding. "Didn't you see what happened?"

"See what exactly?" Riko raised an eyebrow, confused.

"He's done it again." Kinuho and Maaya giggled in their heads.

"This is no laughing matter!" Dia yells, completely annoyed as her friends started laughing at her drama.

"It kinda is." Kanan stifled her laughter.

"That's our Dia alright." Mari shrugs with a funny smile.

"Why are we laughing?!" Yō asks her best friend, laughing.

"I don't know, but who cares?" Chika laughs. "Dia sure knows how to lift our spirits up with her usual comedy routine!"

Ruby even joined in as well in a cute and endearing way.

"Oh, not you too." Dia groaned.

Unfortunately, there's no way she can be mad at her younger sister for long. She does love her that way after all.

"All right, I believe that is enough jokes for now." Articho announced, getting everyone's attention. "I should begin introducing myself. For real, this time."

The young girls got themselves ready for the big reveal.

"Here we go." They - except Kinuho and Maaya - gulped nervously.

Articho's helmet hissed as it opens up before retracting from his head completely, revealing his face. He sports onyx black eyes and short jet black hair styled to be spiky, courtesy of his Saiyan lineage.

"You can call me Articho." He says with a serious expression.

However, the reactions he was given were not what he was expecting.

"Whaaaa." Yō gasped in shock.

"No way." Dia's eyes widened. "You can't be."

"You look like you've seen a ghost." He raises an eyebrow.

"I'm confused." Leah interrupts. "You guys know this man?"

"You could say that." Her best friend Ruby answered.

"Have we met?" The Pathfinder asks, confused as well.

"What do you mean?" Chika asks back. "We're your friends. And you haven't even aged the last time we saw you."

"Sorry." He shakes his head. "Chika, is it? You mistake me for someone else."

Hearing this caused the orange haired girl's eyes to widen in disbelief. Their 'old friend' sees them as nothing but strangers in his eyes. Like they're talking to a different person. Ruby's eyes begin to water up from this.

How could he not remember them?

Suddenly, Articho feels immense pain coursing through his head. He grits his teeth as he holds the side of his head, images flashing in his mind. One image is himself kissing Yō through a dare. On the lips, surprisingly, which resulted in him getting slapped across the face. And another image pulling a harmless prank on Hanamaru, Ruby, Chika, and Riko.

"Articho?!" His wives exclaimed.

"I'm fine." He lies, assuring them that he's unharmed. "Just feeling a comeback from the headache that Rancor gave me."

They knew better, but decided to play along for now.

"A couple of painkillers can help with that." Kinuho suggests.

"I'll keep that in mind once we've reached the safehouse." The Pathfinder nods. "Let's move out."

It was a rather short walk, as the Saiyan trio led the group of girls - who, except Leah, seemingly claimed to have known Articho - to a tall building. Closely resembling a luxurious hotel.

"It looks more like a hotel to me." Dia points out. "And you said that it's been renovated into an apartment complex in recent years, right? So I'm guessing the penthouse at the top is the safehouse then."

"Yes." Articho nods as they look at the building in front of them. "A... close friend of mine is the owner of it. Though, she rarely lives up there anymore."

"How so?" Yoshiko questions.

"Between her studies and street performances, she's been spending these last few years trying to get into college." He sighs. "She originally wanted to pursue a career as a professional idol like that of Ai Hoshino, but changed her mind soon after her debut ended in disaster."

"Disaster?" Chika questions. "Why? What happened?"

"Look it up yourself." He rolls his eyes. "I'm not gonna waste my breath explaining it to you."

"Aww." She puffs her cheeks cutely.

"Last I heard, Ai Hoshino recently debuted as a founding member of B-Komachi." Riko recalls. "Just before we were out for a while, of course."

"Ai's dead." He bluntly says, shocking them once more. "Murdered by some crazed fan in her own apartment. She was barely twenty when it happened."

"I don't know what to say." The bergundy haired girl utters in disbelief.

The Pathfinder didn't comment any further on the subject and went inside the apartment building. It would seem that they have a lot to talk about, as this was just the beginning for Chika and her friends.