Just Another Day

LALALALALA! The opera music sounded the end of the last class of the day at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. Students pored out of all the rooms, eager to get out of the place they had been trapped all day (except, of course, for lunch.) In the hallways, kids hurried to their lockers to beat the crowd or stood with their friends talking. Suidou Sumizome was a seventeen-year-old junior. His hair was black, short and curly and his skin was the color of amaretto. One of the groups of friends was standing around, getting ready to go outside, which took a while, because it was the middle of winter. Sumizome walked up to them.

"Yo Sumi! What up?" one of the other guys in the groups asked him.

"You guys going to play ball?" Sumi asked.

"Yup. Are you game? The weather might be too cold for you," taunted another guy.

"Nah man, I grew up here. You sure YOU can play?" The group walked out the door, still teasing each other.

Meanwhile, far away in the Room Behind the Waterfall, in the Jedi Temple, on the planet of Coruscant in the Snickers Galaxy, a plan was hatching between a few chibi senshi.

"Kairi-chan!" Sutaru whined, "what do you have against your hometown?"

"I don't want to go back, Suta!" Kairiku said firmly. And with that she left the room.

Suta turned to her companion, Chakra. "We have to get backup."

"Yup," Chakra agreed.

"Backup? For what? Is it a plan? I LOVE plans!" Chouko had just walked in and heard Suta's comment.

"We are trying to get Kairi-chan to take us on a tour of her hometown on Earth, but she will not. We need to convince her," Chakra explained.

Chouko hesitated for a second as she thought about how much Chakra was starting to sound like Nom, then gushed, "OOOO... I wanna help! Should I go find backup?"

"Sure," the other two agreed, and Chouko rushed out again.

Suta turned to Chakra. "Let's go see if we can even convince Ippin to bring us to Earth." Chakra nodded her agreement, and the two turned and left.

About fifteen standard minutes later, Chouko, with a group of chibis following her, ran into the common room. Unfortunately for her, she also ran straight into Nom. Chouko cringed, expected Nom to be VERY angry. Instead, Nom looked past Chouko at the crowd of chibis. "Hello Chouko, Asellus, Melesse, Lys, Renako, Auria. If you are going to my kitchen, you will be disappointed. I am not cooking anything now, and it is locked VERY securely."

"N-n-n-no," stammered Chouko, afraid of what Nom might do if angered. "We were just going to meet Suta and Chakra."

"What are you going to meet my daughter and Sutaru for?" Nom asked calmly.

Chouko was NOT about to further anger Nom by lying, so she spilled the whole story quickly. When she finished, she looked at Nom, expecting the final verdict on the situation. Nom just nodded and walked away, leaving all the chibis behind, staring after her and wondering if they had ever seen Nom in such a good mood.

"Hi Kalil. We're looking for Ippin. You don't happen to know where she is, do you?" Suta quickly asked.

"Sure. She went to help Priire with something on the Dreamer. They should be in the hangar bay."

"Thank you!" yelled Chakra as the two girls raced away. They both felt a little guilty about not staying with Kalil; he looked so forlorn, but they had to get on with their mission.

When the two chibis got to the hangar bay, they saw Priire and Ippin immediately, standing outside the Dreamer. Still in a hurry, they ran up to Ippin and explained the whole situation to her. It wasn't until after all was told that Chakra remembered about Priire and looked up into her face. Ippin, seeing a look that meant "uh-oh" on Chakra's face, also looked over at Priire. A slow smile had crept over the blonde pilot's face, and she looked like the perfect picture of trouble.

"Oh no. Now you've done it!" cried Ippin. "You told your story in front of Aster! Now she'll try and make me take her, and then she'll shoot people!"

"Calm down, Coru," Priire replied. "I won't shoot anyone." Of course, Priire's fingers were crossed behind her back when she made this statement.

"Well, now I guess I have to take you, since Aster probably won't leave me alone until I do," Ippin said, shooting a glare at her twin sister.

"Who? Me?" Priire tried her best innocent look.

"Thank you!" Suta cried, and they both ducked and ran as Ippin's time staff went hurtling towards Priire.

Later, when Chouko and her gang of chibis met up with Chakra and Suta in a small room off the Room Behind the Waterfall, they decided two things needed to be done and divided into groups. The first group would consist of Kairi-chan's closest friend and the most convincing chibis. This group's goal was to get Kairi-chan to agree to take them around her hometown. The second group, led by Chouko, was supposed to go find other Senshi who wanted to come to Earth with them. Of course, this had to be done without Kairiku's knowledge. The first group was Suta, Chakra, Asellus, and Lys. The second was Chouko, Melesse, Renako, and Auria. Both groups wished each other luck, then everyone filed out and the room was left empty.

Meanwhile, back on Kairiku's hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, etc., Sumi and his friends were in the middle of their basketball game. Insults mixed with the rare compliment flew across the court as friend challenged friend and enemy complimented enemy (as long as they were on the same team.) Everyone knew that nothing they said mattered. After the game, everything would be normal again. That was just how their worlds went. Finally, the game was over. Everyone split into separate directions. Everyone knew exactly where they were going, if not why. Sumi met up with his good friend, Greg. They were both going the same way, so they walked and talked together.

"They need to get some better music," announced Greg.

"Where? Rindge?" Sumi asked, pointing back at the ugly concrete building looming behind them.

"Yeah."

"Well, at least it's music."

"Depends on who you are. I don't call that music."

"Yeah, but it's a good insult to Paula."

"Oh yeah." The two laughed heartily over what their ex-principal would say about the high school. When they finished laughing, Greg asked, "You going home?"

"Yeah, I guess, got anywhere better to go?" Sumi would be happy to go anywhere but home. Home was the place that confused him most. Home was where he had to deal with the fact that he was half-black, half-Japanese. A mixed breed, some called it. Like a dog. He didn't like to think about it.

"Not really," came the reply from Greg. "Go hang in Harvard."

"Probably will."

"Aright. Look, I gotta split here, so see you some other time."

"Tomorrow?"

"I might not come. Boring day. Rather stay home."

"Aight. See you." Sumi sighed once Greg disappeared around the corner. He guessed he'd just go home.

Kairiku was walking around the gardens of the Room Behind the Waterfall, thinking over her friends' request to take them back to Cambridge. On one hand, she REALLY didn't want to go back there. Way too many bad memories. But on the other hand, it would make so many people happy...

"Hello Kairiku." Nom broke into Kairi-chan's thoughts.

"Hi Nom." Kairiku was surprised by the warrior's presence in the gardens. Usually at this hour she would be in the kitchen.

"You have been thinking about your friends' request for you to take them to your hometown, have you not?"

"Yes. How'd you know?"

"How I knew is not important. What is important is that you go."

"It is?"

"Yes, it is important. You will go." Nom had gotten a feeling about this, Kairiku could tell. When Nom got a feeling, you usually didn't argue. Now she had also given an order. Kairiku wouldn't risk arguing. Plus she had been leaning that way, anyway...

"Good," Nom said, seeing the look of defeat on Kairi-chan's face. "Remember, you WILL go." And with that, off walked Nom.

Once Nom had gotten safely away, Kairiku sat down and sighed. She hoped Nom was right about it being important. She didn't want to go and then find out she didn't have to. "I guess I better go tell them I'll go," she said to herself.

"Tell who you'll go where, Kairi-chan?" Yukiko, with her face curious but understanding at the same time, walked up.

Kairiku looked up at Yuki. Yuki looked so nice and understanding that she couldn't help spilling out the whole story, ending with how she guessed she would have to go.

"Oh, poor you." Yuki looked at her young friend with concern. "But think about it. It might be fun. You could get more manga, and all of the Earth stuff that we can't get here. Just think about it like it was a normal trip to Earth. Doesn't sound like fun?"

Kairi-chan liked this idea. "Yeah, it does, Yuki. Thanks!" She gave her friend a hug. "Will you come, though?"

"Of course!" was Yuki's reply. "I was just about to ask you if I could come!"

"Well, I guess we better get going," Kairi-chan said, smiling back at her comrade as she hurried toward the Room Behind the Waterfall to tell her friends. "Thanks again Yuki!" Yukiko just smiled after her.

"Well, I better go pack too," she said to no one at all.

Sumi walked into his house, looked around, saw no one, and headed into his room. Once into his room, he turned on his CD player, turned it up, and sat back on his bed. As strange as it seemed to other people, Sumi found his loud hip hop music very soothing. It had a steady beat, and it helped him think. Unfortunately, thinking was NOT what Sumi wanted to so right then. When he started thinking, it always ended up being about his mixed race. He hated it. At this moment he did not feel up to dealing with it. So he switched on his computer and went online. He quickly gave up on that plan, however, when he saw who else was online. People he DEFINITELY did not want to talk to.

With nothing else to do, Sumi reconsidered what Greg had suggested. Ah well, someone's always there, and I can at least do something, he thought. So he slipped back out of the house and headed back into Harvard Square.

The center, or one of the centers, of Harvard Square, a mall of sorts of stores called the Garage, was only a five minute walk from Sumi's house, so he headed there. There was a Japanese store there, and as much as he detested being mixed race, he liked the culture of both halves. So Sumi walked into Tokyo Kid, and lost himself looking at all the different Japanese paraphenalia.

Ippin surveyed the crowd that she was supposed to take to Earth. Let's see, she thought to herself, Zelly, Melesse, Chouko, Lys, Renako, Suta, Chakra, Yuki, Ben, Mara, Mori, Miyuki, Aster, and of course, Kairi-chan. Yup, all here. What she said out loud was, "Are we all ready to go?"

The group nodded. Ippin said, "Get ready. Okay, here we go..."

Then, before the rest of them could think, they landed in a deserted area outside of a large concrete building. "What's that, Kairi-chan?" asked Asellus, pointing up to the building behind them.

"That's the high school," answered Kairiku apprehensively.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Priire. "Let's get to where we're staying so we can go shopping. I want some more of those Earth weapons." The group had decided not to stay with Kairiku's foster parents in an effort to not cause her any more painful memories than coming back here had already caused her. They had approached Yoda with some help from Koumi, whom Yoda was known to favor, and he had given them enough Earth money to stay in what Kairiku said was a prestigious hotel, the Charles Hotel. At least it was in the center of Harvard Square, so Priire could get her weapons shopping done.

"Follow me," said Kairiku, who was still a little tense, but was relaxing at the amusing memory of Priire with that girl who had been mysteriously switched with Ippin for a little while, Liz, teaching the ex-mercenary about guns. The group paraded behind Kairiku, heading straight towards the Charles River and their hotel.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Geri laughed loudly. No one paid any attention, however. Everyone knew that Geri was crazy. Fun! she thought. She knew where some of the Senshi would be soon. Suddenly Geri turned and glared at the other Sith in the room. If she told them about this, they would take the opportunity to destroy the Senshi away from her. I'll do it by myself! All I need is... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

Sumi was finished reading the selection of his favorite Japanese manga, so he decided he could head home. He walked out of the Garage.

The Senshi were organizing who would go where. Mara headed off by herself, saying she had things to do. Kairiku said she'd rather stay and rest. Her friends instantly jumped in and said that they'd stay with her. No one was sure how to manage this until Yuki and Ben offered to stay and watch them. Ippin offered to go weapons shopping with Priire - "But only to keep you out of trouble," she warned her twin. Priire had a grin on her face that Ippin didn't like. She waved the Time Staff. "You know, this thing works here too!" Mori, Lys and Miyuki wanted to go shopping, and they asked Kairiku where they should go. Kairiku gave them directions to the Garage. The three of them walked away from the chaos that was the remaining Senshi.

Around five minutes later, Lys looked up. "You DO know where you're going, don't you Mori?"

"Well, sort of..." replied Mori, "Hey! Where'd Miyuki go?"

Miyuki had stopped to look at a picture in a store window, and when she looked up, her friends were gone. Uh oh, she thought to herself. I don't have the directions! She looked frantically around her.

At that moment, Sumi was walking towards home, through a busy area of Harvard Square, when he saw a girl with blue hair looking around. She looked kind of confused. Well, Sumi thought, it'll postpone going home. He walked up to the girl. "Excuse me, do you need help?"

Miyuki turned, startled, and then smiled at the guy who was looking down at her helpfully. There was something about him that drew her to him. She couldn't quite place it.... I HAVE to take him back to Kairiku, to see if she feels something strange about him, she thought quickly. What was the name of the hotel again? Oh yeah, the Charles! "Umm, yes," she replied to his question. "Do you know where the Charles Hotel is?"

"Yeah, do you think you can remember if I tell you the directions?"

Miyuki shook her head apologetically. "I'm not very good with directions. Sorry."

"That's okay. I can take you." Sumi smiled inwardly. More delays to his return home. "By the way, my name is Sumizome, or Sumi."

Miyuki took his outstretched hand. "I'm Miyuki. Thanks a lot for helping me."

"Sure, anytime."

Kairiku shivered. Something was wrong. "Yuki!" she called to her friend.

"Kairi-chan? Do you feel something wrong too?" Yuki asked, poking her head into Kairiku's room.

"Yes," replied Kairiku. "What do you think it is?"

"Feels like a Sith. We'd better be ready. I'm going to try and Force-contact Mara and see if she can get back here soon."

"Good. I'll try Ippin and see if she can drag Priire away from her weapons stores. The only ones I'm worried about are Mori, Miyuki and Lys."

"Yeah," Yuki frowned worriedly. "I can't contact them."

"Well, I'm sure they're okay."

"Yeah." Both Kairiku and Yuki added a silent 'I hope.'

Geri looked around at all the people. She knew exactly where to go. The Senshi were near. This is going to be fun!

"Come on, I think the hotel is this way!" Mori yelled to Lys. The two had decided to go back to the hotel to get help searching for Miyuki. Just then, they caught sight of their hotel.

"Hurry! I think something's wrong!" Lys told Mori.

As the two came up to the hotel, Yuki rushed out to greet them. " I'm so glad to see you two! The Sith are defiantly nearby. But wait, where's Miyuki?"

"That's why we were coming back! We lost her. We were hoping we could all go out and look for her, but if the Sith are nearby, what can we do?" Lys asked worriedly.

"Is that her coming?" Mori squinted, looking into the distance.

"That's it, up ahead," Sumi told Miyuki.

"I wonder why everyone's outside? This can't be good!" Miyuki said.

All the sudden, as Sumi's back was turned, Geri came running up. "HAHAHAHA!!! I will destroy you, Senshi!"

Ippin, Kairiku, Yuki, and Priire came running up. "Miyuki! The others are inside taking care of the little ones. Let's transform!"

"Yavin Force Power..."

"Gungan Force Power..."

"Hoth Force Power..."

"Asteroid Star Power..."

"Aquaris Force Power..."

"Make UP!"

The five girls were transformed into Sailor Senshi. Meanwhile, Sumi saw something in the ground. He picked it up. All of the sudden he knew exactly what to say. "Folor Ground Power, Make UP!" He looked at himself. He was in a grey suit, and in his hand was a black rose.

"Oh, not ANOTHER one!" Geri yelled.

"Ground Slam Attack!" shouted Sumi. The attack lifted Geri up, and then slammed her into the ground.

"You're no fun!" Geri cried, creating a portal and jumping into it.

Everyone transformed back down. "Sumi, you're a knight! That's so great!" yelled Miyuki.

"What's going on?" Sumi asked.

"We'll explain it all to you, if you come in with us," Yuki replied. They all headed inside.

Around a day later, when everything had been explained and everyone had done what he or she wanted to do, everyone was assembled to go back to the Snickers Galaxy. Sumi had decided to come with them. Miyuki was really connecting with him, plus he just really wanted to get out of the city, to leave behind all the confusion and anxiety.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Ippin asked.

"Hold on, is it okay if we wait fifteen minutes or so?" Sumi asked. "I've got something I need to do."

"Sure," Ippin told him.

Sumi headed back through Harvard Square. He had a sad, thoughtful look on his face.

"I'm going to follow him, to make sure he's okay," Miyuki told the group. They nodded.

Sumi headed for the high school. It was the weekend, so no one was there. He stood outside for a minute.

Miyuki came up to him. "Need to talk?"

"I'll just miss this place a lot. It's so different here. So different than anywhere else you'll ever go. I devoted three years of my life to this place, and the people in it. I know it so well. I know where everyone fits in. It's safe here, no matter what people think. If you know the place, it's safe. But this town is just like it. You never really know it until you've lived here. It's full of mysteries. Just when I thought I'd figured it all out, I'm gonna leave again."

"You know you don't have to come with us," Miyuki said softly.

"But I need to leave with you. That's my destiny. I would have to leave anyway. I'd have college in a year and a half. I'll just miss it." Sumi turned away, "Let's go."

"Alright. And don't worry, Sumi, you'll be able to visit whenever you want."

"I know."

Soon everyone was assembled again.

"Are we all ready to leave this time?" asked Ippin.

Everyone nodded.

"Good, let's go."

Sumi stood ready to begin a new life, wherever it would take him.