No world is just as simple as black and white, no matter how much people would like to simplify it as just that. People would usually say that they believe in just one thing or the other, but there is always a larger grey area in between the two extremes, and different people fall differently across this spectrum of beliefs. Not everyone, however, could express clearly where they stand on this matter, wherever in this spectrum they are, they do not know. This is true for a certain middle school student sitting quietly in her class in social studies, these thoughts continuing to linger in her mind.

     "The past is important, of course. Without knowing what people did in the past, we wouldn't know what we should do to move forward," she thought, her bright pink eyes squinting slightly, her forehead scrunched as she continued, "but then again, the problems of the past aren't the same as the current problems people deal with today, so what's even the point?"

     "Why does it always seem like different generations of people just can't get along? I don't get why different outlooks has to be a problem with people, it's like people are just looking for things to disagree over," she continued think to herself until she wondered, "Wait, why am I even thinking about this now?"

     The sound of chairs lightly sliding on the floor, and the simultaneous movement of her classmates around her standing up from their seats suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts. She stood up, and bowed along with the rest of the class, greeting their next teacher as he arrived and sat down on the desk. The red head looked at the chalk board, seeing the assignment written for the subject before.

     "Essay: In 1000 words, point out and explain the differences between the current generation, and the generations before in terms of beliefs, values, etc. to be passed on Monday."

     "Oh yeah," she softly said to herself as she read the assignment, realizing that it was the reason for her sudden deep thought. She sighed as she sat back down to her seat moving aside her long hair. She glanced out of the slightly open window to her left as she brushed a stray piece of her bright ginger hair away from her face, relaxing as she felt the light spring breeze.

     She looked far out in the distance, where there was a beautiful sight of a dormant volcano, white snow resting on it's peak met by the gray ashy smoke carried by the wind.

     "Hmm... What if... Nah, everything's going to be fine," she thought and lightly shook her head as she remembered from the news that Mount Akunomo has a chance to erupt soon. When the thought finally left her, she continued her little sight-seeing.

     To the west there was a busy city, the buildings towering high into the blue sky, to the east there was the park where she saw young children playing, their parents closely watching them from the benches. She looked and saw small birds chirping as they perched down on the branches of the blooming Sakura trees. She then looked down to the green grass of the school yard, where there were some of their school's basketball players sitting under the tree, probably on their water break. It was when one of the athletes caught her eye. He had chocolate brown hair, and charming hazel eyes. He was of decent build and was noticeably tall, he was in the basketball team after all. As if the boy knew that she was looking, he glanced up to her and gave her a smile, then went back to talking with his teammates. She then felt a light blush on her face, and felt the need to adjust her already neatly tied, large red bow she wears with her long ponytail.

     "Oh my Lord, is this it? Is this love at first sight?" she thought to herself. A smile from a boy she barely knew was all it took. Yet again she had gained another name in her list of her "true loves" as she sighed dreamily and rested her head on her palm, not noticing some of her classmates looking at her confused.

     "Miss Akatsutsumi," the teacher called, and no answer. He then cleared his throat.

     "Miss Akatsutsumi," he called once more, this time in a stricter tone. Still no answer. At this point he was getting very annoyed, his foot impatiently tapping on the floor. The class knew what this meant. It was only a matter of seconds before he snaps, and so they panicked on what they should do. The irritated teacher takes in a deep breath, ready to let his anger out when the student seated behind the red head aggressively poked her back, pushing the daydreamer forward and accidentally hitting her head on her table.

     "Momoko?!" the student gasped, not expecting what just happened with her classmate.

     "Ow," Momoko groaned as she sat back straight and rubbed her forehead. She glared at the student behind her, but then she noticed some of the other students snickering. She looked to the front and saw the teacher standing there with an angry expression and looking right at her. She blushed red from embarrassment realizing what just happened, and the next thing she knew, she was being scolded in the corridor right outside of the classroom.

     Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a ninth-grade student is happily walking down the hall of Kitakaze Girls' Junior Highschool on her way to the cafeteria.

     "Lunch time, lunch time, finally it's lunch time," she hummed as she walked, bobbing her head side to side, her blonde pair of pigtails styled into large ringlets on the sides of her head bouncing along with every move, her big blue eyes sparkling. Along the way, some students would occasionally greet and wave at her which she would return with a smile.

     "Hi, Miyako!" a girl greeted.

     "Hello!" Miyako smiled.

     "Miyako, hi there!" another girl exclaimed.

     "Good afternoon!" Miyako replied and nodded.

     As she continued on her way, another student was rushing through the crowd running opposite of her direction. The next thing she knew, she was falling down, eventually hitting the floor.

     "Oh my gosh! Miyako!" exclaimed the student who had just bumped into her.

     "Ow," the blonde groaned as she rubbed her behind. She then noticed a hand hoping to help her up, which she accepted. Miyako then looked up at the student who was continuously bowing and apolozing to her.

     "I'm really sorry, Miyako!" the girl repeated a few times, bowing down in respect each time. The girl then looked down and saw that the stack of papers she had been carrying was now scattered all over the floor. The girl then knelt down on the floor, frantically collecting the papers from the floor.

     "No, no, it's alright, really," Miyako kindly smiled. She looked down and saw on the floor what looked to be a bunch of test papers from a different class. "Oh my! Let me help you with that."

     "Thank you so much, Miyako, I really must get going," the girl said nervously and quickly ran off. Miyako just smiled and continued her way as if nothing had happened.

     Before long, she arrived at the cafeteria and charmingly twirled through the doorway making her way to the queue and buy some bread. Whenever she would enter a room, heads would turn. Some looking at her in awe, while others stared with spite and jealousy.

     "Look at her, little miss Perfect," a girl mockingly said as her friends snickered.

     "I bet she just enjoys how many people are willing to be fools for her," another spoke, "She should really get off that high horse of hers pretending she's better than everyone else."

     "Maybe she is beautiful, but she isn't exactly smart. She'll never make it into the real world, trust me, I've seen the numbers," Miyako recognized the voice as Kagami's, another one of classmates that she knows talks behind her back.

     Miyako heard it all. She felt a lump in her throat, tears nearly forming in her eyes. "That's not at all who I am, how could they say that about anyone?" Miyako thought. Though she felt like crying, she quickly blinked her tears away and kept her lips curved into a pretty convincing smile. She grabbed a croissant, a cup of chocolate pudding, and a juice box, then handed over some money to the cafeteria lady, who in turn handed over her change.

     "Thank you," Miyako quietly said as she slightly bowed to the lady and stepped out of the queue, looking for a vacant seat. That was when she heard a familiar voice calling her name. "Miss Miyako! Miss Miyako, over here!"

     Miyako turned and saw a brunette girl with her hair fixed into a short, slightly crooked ponytail, standing by her seat in an empty table and waving. Miyako then made her way towards the mostly vacant table.

     "Usagi, I told you to just call me Miyako, no need for formalities," Miyako chuckled as she approached the the girl.

     The girl took a while before answering, "Well, you are still my senior, it's called respect."

     Miyako sat down in front of her friend and chuckled once more. "Seriously, I'm almost going to graduate from junior high and you're still calling me that," she said as she took a bite from her croissant.

     "Hey... I noticed you don't look quite happy today... What's wrong?" Usagi asked as she rested her head down on the table while looking up at Miyako.

     "What do you mean? I'm completely fine, see?" Miyako said answered as she gestured at herself, then quickly changing the conversation. "How about you? How has your day been?"

     Usagi frowned, but quickly flashed a bright smile and said, "Well, today I tried to pet a cat, but the cat ran away, so I didn't really get to pet it. Oh! I also got a B on a quiz we did earlier, I was so happy!" She exclaimed, then continued, "I went here to the cafeteria, and this girl moved away when I asked to sit with her here, so now we've got this table all to ourselves."

     Miyako smiled sweetly as Usagi giggled, but in the back of Miyako's mind, she was worried for Usagi. Usagi had down syndrome, and when everyone else would stay away from her, Miyako was always there for her. Miyako was worried that when she graduates she would have less time to hang out with Usagi who would surely be quite lonely, granted she planned on enrolling in the school's senior highschool campus which was only across the street.

     "Oh yeah!" Usagi exclaimed with her finger pointing upwards as if she just remembered something, then continued, "Last night my mom was watching the news, and they warned again about the volcano. What do you think would happen with that?"

     "Hm? Oh, yeah I remember that too. I'm sure nothing bad would happen, the world can't be that cruel," Miyako said as she innocently smiled.

     Usagi looked at Miyako stunned, then she snickered, "And I thought I was naive."

     "Hey!" a boy who was standing by the soccer field with a ball in hand yelled as the Akunomo Girls' Soccer Team approached the field. "No sissies allowed here! Not unless you want to get shown up by a real soccer team," the boy smirked as a teammate of his gave him a high-five. A raven haired girl who wore an arm band with her jersey signifying her being the captain of the Girls' tem then walked past some of the other girls and stood in front of the boy, who was the captain of the boys' team. She then glared down at the other captain who was a few centimeters shorter.

     "You better get out of here then, sissy, this field's ours until 1," she told him, her green eyes narrowed as she glared.

     "Oof, she just called you a sissy," the boy behind the captain snickered.

     "Shut up," the captain said between his teeth as he elbowed the boy behind him who narrowly dodged. He then got out a piece of paper and held it near the face of the taller girl. "Read it and weep, our practice time got adjusted and called us in for this time slot. There's coach's signature and all."

     "Get that away from me, I'm not in a great mood today," the green eyed girl growled as she slapped away the boy's arm. "You probably just plagiarized that to get out of class. Now get out of our way."

     "What are you gonna do, tomboy? Do one of your lame karate slices? Or are you gonna whack me with tennis bat thing?" the boy mockingly said as he immitated her doing some of the other sports she did. "Ooh look at me, running around doing all these sports because nobody wants to be my boyfriend! Ah!"

     "Alright, let me at him!" the girl said as rolled up her sleeve as she charged towards the boy, desperately restrained by the other girls from the team.

     "Captain Matsubara!"

     "Captain calm down!"

     "Ah! I'm losing grip!"

     "He's not worth it! He's not worth it!"

     The girls exclaimed as they held on to their captain to keep her from pummeling the other team's captain. She looked completely enraged with her eyes burning with fury and nerves bulging from her head. Suddenly, a high pitched whistle was heard.

     "Looks like everyone's having fun," a deep male voice suddenly spoke, startling everyone. They all knew who it was and everyone suddenly stood up straight facing the man, including the girls' captain who was about to attack the other team.

     "Good afternoon, Coach Tatsuma!" everyone greeted and bowed.

     "Good afternoon, everyone," the coach bowed his head and gestured towards the field. "Please gather around on the field, I have important news."

     Both teams nodded, and they sat themselves on the grass. The coach cleared his throat then spoke, "You may be wondering why both teams are here at the same time. That's because, I, along with the other coaches in this school will be sent to another school by the time the boys' team is supposed to be scheduled to practice."

     "As you should know by now, everyone in New Townsville is warned to stay on guard because of Mount Akunomo's possible eruption. Because of that, the New Townsville Interschool Sports Fest, which is supposed to be only two days from now, might be cancelled, or at the very least postponed," the coach then further explained, "That is actually the reason why all the coaches will be away for today, to discuss what  we would do regarding the current situation."

     A girl from the team then raised her hand. The coach noticed and nodded at her to say what she's thinking. "Uhm, so will we still be practicing today?" the girl asked.

     "Nah, everyone can go back to class  now. Dismissed," the coach said as he gestured the students to go, swaying his hands down back and forth. Everyone stood and bowed to their coach before leaving the field.

     "Ugh," the raven haired captain groaned to herself as she left the field.

     "First I was late to class because my brother left some stupid research papers at home and had to bring it to him before school," she thought as she entered the school into a hall.

     "Then there was that math teacher that threatened to fail me on the test when I excused myself for a soccer practice that didn't happen," she continued as she walked in the girls' locker room fuming. Some girls looked at her weirdly, wondering why she's so worked up.

     "And now, the final games that I'll be representing this school in is postponed!" she then angrily banged on her locker door causing it to unlock. Of all the lockers, though the lockers were sturdy, hers obviously had a tougher time than others. Kaoru  got out her school uniform and proceeded to change into it. It consisted of a long-sleeved, collared blouse and a dark blue blazer, plus with an off-white bow for girls, but unlike the other girls who wore skirts, she wore slacks with her uniform. Kaoru stood up then aggressively straightened out her uniform.

     "Uh, Matsubara?" a girl from the team who had chin length brown hair spoke as she approached Kaoru who then turned around visibly irritated.

     "What?" Kaoru said harshly as she turned to look at the girl. The girl slightly flinched and stepped back.

     "N-nothing," she said as she fidgeted. She turned her head to look at their other teammates who gestured for her to go on. She took a deep breath then turned back to Kaoru and spoke,"We just noticed that you were pretty upset by the news about the sports fest. Since it will most probably be postponed the girls and I just planned on a little hang out on Friday instead and we just thought you might want to join us."

     "If it's anything like the last 'hang out', I'd rather just continue my practice at home," Kaoru said as she turned to her locker door to look at the mirror.

     "Oh, okay, see ya then!" the brunette waved then walked towards her friends. "I told you she wouldn't come!" she whispered to her friends as they walked out the door to return to their classrooms.

     "Well, what else should we expect from a tomboy? All she cares about is sports and nothing about having fun," a girl in the team said.

     "What, like checking out some cute boys?" another girl teased to which the other girls giggled.

     Kaoru, who was turned towards her locker, overhearing what they said and just rolled her eyes as she messily ruffled her short hair. All of a sudden, her mind went blank. She couldn't help but think that there was something about to happen. She had a bad feeling in her gut yet she doesn't know why. She looked down towards the floor confused.

     "Nah, it's probably nothing," she whispered to herself as she looked back up and proceeded to walk out of the locker room to return to her class. She walked up two flights of stairs, a heavy feeling lingering. Only a few steps away from her classroom, she saw the previous teacher leaving so she quickly hid behind the corner until he's gone. When she continued to walk towards her room, she stopped in her tracks and looked down to the floor once more, the bad feeling grew.

     "Oh, hey! Kaoru you're back!" a boy spoke as he slid the classroom door open and noticed his classmate in the hallway. He looked at Kaoru who then looked up with an unreadable expression. After a few seconds her eyes widened as she felt a very mild tremor beneath her.

     "Find cover, now!" she quickly instructed the boy who looked at her confused.

     "What? Hey, man, what's wrong?" he asked as Kaoru pushed him back into the classroom. Their classmates that were previously minding their own business suddenly took notice of their classmate stumbling into the classroom followed by Kaoru. All of a sudden, the ground started to shake much more violently as the sky went dim. The school alarm rang, and screams and panick was suddenly heard all throughout the campus. Kaoru and the other students gathered their things then proceeded to hide under their desks.

     The shaking continued for a few minutes until a very loud explosion was heard from the volcano's direction. Fearing the worst, some students wailed and panicked. Kaoru even felt very nervous, feeling her heart thumping on her chest though she kept a calm and fearless exterior. She looked towards the window, seeing some ash on the glass, but outside, the dim gray sky was slowly showing its blue hue once again.

     "Everyone, we need to calm down and wait for further instructions," the class president announced once everything was calm. As if on cue, the speakers suddenly turned on which  startled some nervous students.

     "Students and staff of Akunomo Private Junior High, we advise everyone to stay calm as we suspend later classes for today. Please align yourselves and proceed to exit the building in an orderly fashion. Please cover your nose and mouth and prepare your umbrellas to protect from ashfall as you head home. You are now dismissed. Stay safe, everyone," a pre-recorded voice spoke through the speakers.

     Murmurs filled the school, silent cries and sobs were also heard as the students exited the campus after the calamity. Students poured out of the buildings, one by one opening their umbrellas as they were advised. Everything looked gray as the ash rested on the ground, the umbrellas, and the windows. Kaoru looked down from the third story window as she waited for the crowd of students to thin out before going down.

      Falling into deep thought, Kaoru found it funny how everything was suddenly calm after what happened just a few moments earlier, and a that a few moments before that, she somehow knew something bad was about to go down. The bad feeling has since left her, but still an uncertain feeling lingered in her head. This time she was really confused. She didn't know whether this was a good or a bad feeling, but she feels something.

Once most of the students were gone, Kaoru snapped out of her thoughts. She got out a green scarf and tied it around her head to cover her nose and mouth. Kaoru glanced out the window once more, and there across the street she saw a little boy clutching a toy as he walked around looking like he's about to cry.

     "Why in the world is a kid still out in this situation?" she wondered, then scoffed, "Anyway, it's not my problem."

     She looked away as she put on a baseball cap, fixing it so that only her eyes can be seen, then proceeded to walk down the stairs. Once she reached the ground floor, she scoured her bag for her umbrella. She looked up for a moment as she reached the main doors when she saw a bright light from the corner of her eye. There was a bright light shooting down from the sky. Her eyes then immediately shot towards the little boy across the street, her heart pounding loudly against her chest. Without thinking she engaged every muscle in her body and quickly sprinted.

     "Kid! Look out!" Kaoru yelled as she saw the bright light getting much closer. The boy looked to her direction as she dived, pushing the boy away from getting hit by the potentially dangerous light causing the boy to fall down and skid  across the sidewalk.

     To Kaoru, everything seemed to be in slow motion. Everything was going fast, sure, but every moment was being ingrained in her memory frame by frame. Right in front of her was the little boy who looked shocked and terrified. She was in mid-air as the bright light slowly came from her right side, slowly engulfing her. She closed her eyes tightly as she prepared for a hard impact. Instead of feeling a solid force, however, she felt a powerful surge run through her body. It was an overwhelmingly unexplainable feeling. Her vision went completely white, then green. The force was so powerful that Kaoru was pushed on impact. She flew then skidded and rolled on the road, earning herself plenty of wounds.

     "Ugh," she groaned as she pushed herself off the ground as she noticed the green light slowly fading, "Well this day just keeps getting worse and worse."

     "Miss! You're bleeding!" the little boy exclaimed as he ran towards the tall teen. She looked down to the boy to see that he was pointing at her forearm.

     "I bleed every month, kid, this is nothing, see?" she shrugged as she held her arm up and touched her wound, except she didn't feel a wound on her skin. She was very confused, and so she looked at her arm to see that there was indeed blood, but when she wiped it off with her glove, her arm looked completely fine ignoring the dirt and ashes and all. It was like the wounds have already healed.

     Kaoru looked at the kid with an awkward smile, trying to hide her own confusion. Her eyes then suddenly widened as she realized something. She looked down at herself for a second time, holding her hands in front of her.

     "What the heck am I wearing?" she asked extremely confused as she looked at the unfamiliar outfit she suddenly had on. "Wait a minute, am I wearing a..."

     A strong gust of wind suddenly blew, a blush grew on Kaoru's face. She quickly crouched down as she screamed of anger, "I'm wearing a freaking skirt! A stupid ridiculous skirt! Gahh!"

     As she loudly ranted angry and confused about the clothes she had on, near the outskirts of the town was a young scientist frantically working on the computer. He let out a gasp, his eyes going bright as he succeeded in his work.

     "Yes! Dad! I mean- Professor!" he happily exclaimed as he jumped up from his chair, "I figured out how to track the Z rays!"

     "Great job, Ken!" a dark haired man wearing a lab coat applauded and quickly finished his lunch, "Let's get going then."

     With that, the pair loaded their equipment into their van and sped off from the lab, hoping to prevent whatever the mysterious Z rays might cause.