Sailor Moon: Generation Gap Side Story 2: Enter the Dragon Gin'no Arimi yawned. She couldn't sleep overnight; she was just too anxious about going back to school. It was bad enough that she didn't sleep the night before her first day of class at Juuban. With the repairs that had to be done after those creatures attacked, Juuban had to be shut down for a few days. The school was going to reopen today, and again, Arimi couldn't sleep. She wished that she could, but it was something that always happened to her, and she couldn't see a way to avoid the sleepless nights. This year looked promising to Arimi. She had met a girl, Hikaru, who was very friendly and willing to show her around. They met by accident on the way to the first day of school. Arimi had been walking to school when one of her father's co-workers flagged her down. His car had broken down, and he knew that Arimi could find the problem. While Arimi was under the car, she heard a girl scream, then accuse her father's co-worker that he had run over her. Arimi scrambled out from underneath to show the girl that she was alright, and tried to tell her what happened. Her stutter made it almost impossible, but the girl listened patiently, then apologized. The girl introduced herself as Seishin'no Hikaru, and Arimi found her pretty, with long blond hair tied into two ponytails. Arimi looked at herself in the mirror. She held up a lock of her short silver hair, and let it drop. She was sixteen, and still looked boyish. Arimi let out a long sigh. 'Hikaru-chan is so lucky,' she thought. 'She's pretty, and she gets along so well with people. She can talk to them. I wish I could.' Arimi sighed, then continued to get ready for school. A quick breakfast later, she kissed her father goodbye, and left for class. -**- Seishin'no Hikaru dashed out of her house, a piece of toast in her mouth. She was late, again. Not for school this time; she was going to be late meeting the new girl, Arimi. Hikaru was surprised when she finally got a look at her. Despite looking too young for it, Arimi was wearing the Juuban High School uniform, not the junior high one. Hikaru was really surprised when she found out that she and Arimi were the same age. Arimi looked at least two years younger, and the poor girl was shy on top of that. Hikaru took pity immediately and helped Arimi out as much as possible. It was a bad start with the confusion with the driver, but things worked out afterwards, at least until the shadow things attacked. Hikaru was captured by one, held in its claws until Meiou-sensei showed up. Hikaru still wasn't sure what had happened. A woman calling herself Sailor Pluto showed up and gave Hikaru a magical pen that turned her in another Sailor Senshi, Sailor Corona. Pluto then left Corona to protect the school while she went sompleace else, returning just in time to finish off the last shadow. Before returning inside the school, Pluto had them transform back to their normal selves. Hikaru was surprised to find out that Pluto was really Meiou-sensei. Meiou-sensei was going to explain more, but the school was shut down and everyone was sent home. Arimi was shaken by the attack, so Hikaru helped her home. Hikaru wanted to talk to Meiou-sensei more about being a Sailor Senshi today. -**- Meiou Setsuna finished looking over her lesson plan. With Juuban High shutdown for the past two days, teachers were expected to get back on schedule quickly. Setsuna wasn't concerned about that. What she was worried about was finding the Crystal Princess before Muerte could. She had been sure that Seishin'no-chan was the Princess. Instead, Seishin'no-chan turned out to be Sailor Corona. Setsuna wanted to explain more, but the girl was more concerned about her friend, Gin'no-chan, than anything else. Students started filing into the classroom. Setsuna marked each one that entered on the attendance sheet. Nomura-kun. Fukushima-chan. -chan. Chiba-chan. Chiba-chan? The name was familiar to Setsuna, but she couldn't remember where. She looked at the name again. Chiba-chan. A clatter in the hallway interrupted her thoughts. Setsuna went out to the hall to investigate. "S-s-sorry, H-Hikaru-chan," Gin'no-chan apologized. "I-it w-was m-m-my f-fault. P-please f-forgive m-me." "No it's not, Arimi-chan," Seishin'no-chan said, rubbing her nose. "I should have been watching where I was going. I've done this before." "A-are you s-sure?" Seishin'no-chan smiled. "It's not your fault, Arimi-chan." Setsuna coughed to get the girls' attention. "Good morning," she said. "Meiou-sensei," Seishin'no-chan said, spinning around. "Good morning!" "S-s-sen-sensei," Gin'no-chan stammered. "G-g-good m-m-m-morning." "Is there a problem, girls?" "No, Sensei," Seishin'no-chan answered brightly. "I tripped, that's all." "Are you hurt?" "Not really, no." "Then you two should get to class." "Okay, Sensei!" Both girls dashed into the classroom. Setsuna followed at a more dignified pace. She returned to her desk and marked both Gin'no-chan and Seishin'no-chan as present. She stared at the class list. There was someone that was trying to place, but now Setsuna couldn't even remember which student it was. She shook her head. Her age was starting to catch up to her. The class went as smoothly as could be expected after the two day break. Some of the students had read ahead on their own, trying to get ahead of their classmates. Seishin'no-chan wasn't one of those, students, though. She stumbled through the text and the questions Setsuna asked. Gin'no-chan had, though. Her problem was that she couldn't answer the questions in front of the entire class. She stuttered and stammered so much that Setsuna finally asked her to sit back down. Gin'no-chan was obviously relieved to do so. Setsuna sighed inwardly, wondering how someone as timid as Gin'no-chan could have survived so long in the school system. -**- The break arrived none too soon for Hikaru. Despite Meiou-sensei's patience, Hikaru still was having problems with some of the concepts that were being taught. Hikaru couldn't understand why she had so many problems with school. She had managed to pass her entrance exams, somehow; but now, she wasn't sure just *how*. Maybe Arimi could help her, but Hikaru didn't want to impose. Arimi was a sweet girl, but it would be very easy to take advantage of her.