"Usagi! Usagi, where are you?"

     A sea of students crowded the gymnasium, most in panick and shock of what had just occured. Talking and cries were heard all over.

     "Usagi! Oh, goodness I can't find you!"

     Every student was in a state of shock. The moment earlier was one they had not expected would happen. Everyone did know of the nearby volcano's possible eruption as they were urged to be prepared for it, but when it actually happened, it's as if everything they were advised to do was forgotten.

     "Usagi! Usagi!" Miyako cried as she called out for her friend. One moment they were eating lunch together, then the next the two were separated by the panicked crowd as they were escaping to a safe place the moment the ground shook. She grabbed a hold of Usagi's hand to keep them together but to no avail.

     Miyako  was worried. Usagi can't possibly handle being alone now, not after the ground suddenly shook violently. It could very well be a traumatizing experience and she didn't want Usagi to handle this by herself, and she's the only one that's ever been there for her. Her eyes showed worry, tears slowly rolling down her cheek as she squeezed through the sea of students. She didn't know where she was heading, all she knew is that she had to be there for Usagi.

     "Hey!"

     "I'm sorry."

     "Watch it!"

     "I'm sorry."

     Miyako moved quickly through the crowd, sparing no time. Even when she would run into people, she didn't stop moving. That was until Miyako bumped into a tall figure.

     "Oh!" the woman exclaimed as she stepped forward to keep herself from falling down. Another student had bumped into her. She turned to see who it was, and there she saw an unusually disheveled Miyako. Some tears and a bit of makeup ran down her face. Her blonde ringlets drooped down, her uniform creased all over from squeezing through the tight area. This was an unusual sight, especially when it's Miyako, and instantly the woman was worried.

     "Gotokuji? What's wrong?" the woman asked out of concern as she turned towards Miyako.

     "M-miss Yamaguchi! I-I'm very very sorry," Miyako stammered as she realized that she had just bumped into her teacher, and not just any teacher, it was her mathematics teacher Miss Yamaguchi. She knew that this particular teacher had never really been fond of her because of her poor overall performance in her class. Miyako suddenly felt very insecure. She felt like she had just become more of a nuisance to the busy teacher than she was before. Miyako tried to look everywhere else but the teacher, and tears began falling once more. She felt like she was such a nuisance, a waste of time, a poor excuse for a student, she didn't deserve any of the attention she gets, and now because of her inattentiveness she can't even be there for her dear friend whom she lost in the commotion.

     "Gotokuji, please calm down, and tell me what's wrong," the teacher's soft and calm voice spoke as she placed a hand on the panicked student's shoulder. Miyako was startled, not expecting that calm reaction at all from the teacher. She struggled to keep more tears from spilling as she looked up towards the woman in front of her, but as soon as she saw the genuine worry in the woman's eyes, she felt a wave of calmness wash over her. She had not seen anyone besides her grandmother show such genuine worry for her.

     "I'm very sorry about this miss Yamaguchi, I must look very terrible," Miyako spoke trying to compose herself. She wiped her tears away with her hands then fixed her clothes. "I'm just very worried about my friend. We got separated during lunch, and I can't find her anywhere in this gym. I was supposed to keep her company, but now she could possibly be hurt somewhere because I was too careless."

     "Oh, Gotokuji, none of it is your fault, none of us expected this to happen," miss Yamaguchi comforted. She then pulled her hand away and got out her phone. "There's nothing to worry about, I'm here. Why don't you tell me your friend's name and maybe I can call someone up to know if she's okay."

     "Thank you very much, miss Yamaguchi!" Miyako's eyes glistened as tears welled up as she bowed down with gratitude. She felt so thankful that she felt like she could almost cry, but she tried her best not to make more of a fool of herself. She didn't like that about herself, how easily she was overwhelmed with emotions and cry because of it. She had always been teased and bullied for her strong emotions. She wanted to stand up to others, but when others see her as weak and too gentle, she would believe them and fall back. She looked up hoping to apologize once again as she realized that she must be a bother, but saw that the teacher she ran into was already on her phone probably speaking with another teacher.

     "Hello? Yeah, you're there in the alternate evacuation area right? I just called to check in on... Uhh..." the tall woman trailed off as she looked towards Miyako and gestured asking for her friend's name.

     "Oh! Uhm, Usagi Chisaka," Miyako whispered just loud enough for her teacher to hear.

     "Usagi Chisaka," miss Yamaguchi quickly repeated. "Yeah, she's one of our disabled students," she further described as she recognized which student that was. "Oh thank goodness. That's all, sorry for the bother. Thank you," and with a slight nod, she hung up and placed her phone back in her purse.

     "Miss? Is Usagi alright?" Miyako asked as she shuffled anxiously in place. The teacher flashed her student a comforting smile assuring that everything was fine.

     "Don't worry, Usagi's fine. She was immediately picked up by her family from the other safe area when the quake seized," the teacher explained. Miyako's face lit up knowing that her friend was alright and that she didn't have anything to worry about.

     "Thank you so much for the help Miss Yamaguchi," Miyako spoke as she bowed down once more. She stood up straight and wiped her face with her sleeve. After that the teacher and the student parted ways. Not long after, the loud murmurs in the gymnasium slowly died down as the PR system in the gym turned on with an announcement from the principal.

     "Dear Kitakaze Junior High students, we hereby inform that it is now safe to return to your homes. Any belongings left in the school will be sent to your homes once gathered. We advise you to please cover your mouths and nose, and to use your umbrellas to protect yourselves from the ashfall. Please go home immediately and staying out too long. Stay safe, students."

     And with that, students spilled out from the different safe areas around the school wanting to get home as soon as possible. But of course, Miyako didn't want to get home just yet. She felt so emotionally exhausted that she wanted to wind down a little and took a different route home. Her home wasn't that far away from her school, and the alternate route wouldn't really take much longer for her to get home. She chose to walk the particular route that takes her through the park because that was where she had a lot of good memories, hoping that a walk in the park would calm her.

     Miyako peeked from under her blue lace trimmed umbrella to see the normally blue sky enveloped by the gray ash as she walked the quiet street. The quietness would have made for quite a calming walk if the silence wasn't because of a certain volcano erupting. It was strange to her, barely any other people were in sight on her way, no other student wandering about, no children playing on the streets, she wasn't used to it. It also felt strange to her having to come home shortly after lunch as she would normally be finished with school around mid afternoon.

     The young blonde then saw the park in sight as she turned the corner. She smiled under the handkerchief she had been using to cover her mouth and nose the entire time and happily skipped forward. As she neared the park's gate she noticed a figure coming from the opposite direction about 15 meters away.

     "He seems familiar," she thought as she slightly squinted to have a better look at the familiar figure. She was sure she hadn't seen this particular person before, but something about his dirty blonde hair and striking blue eyes reminded her of a childhood friend of hers.

     "Oh, silly me, I shouldn't stare," Miyako said to herself as she realized that she had been staring at a complete stranger when he looked back at her. She closed her eyes and shook her head, her pigtails swinging slightly as she brought herself back into reality. She proceeded to take a step into the park when she caught a flash from the corner of her eye. Miyako stopped in her tracks and quickly turned to see what that was, and there she saw a very bright light shooting from the sky, threateningly close to where she was. Her blue eyes moved as she traced where the mysterious light might fall, widening as she realized that it would hit the young man who also seemed to be heading towards the park in a few moments. Without a second thought, Miyako ran down the street towards the familiar person. She felt very scared without a doubt, but she felt like she had to do something, like she had to at least try to keep someone safe.

     Everything in sight went brighter as she neared the young man, the bright light getting closer. Miyako saw the young man's face as she sprinted, a confused and cautious look plastered on his face. The closer she got the more familiar he seemed, then it suddenly clicked for her. An image of a childhood friend flashed in her mind and a name was silently whispered through her lips. "Takaaki..."

     "Takaaki!" she called out to the confused young man. The light was getting closer. She had no chance of saving him. She can't protect anyone. A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she realized that she couldn't do much else. Only half a meter between her and the young man, just when she had given up, a crack in the sidewalk caused her to trip. She yelped from surprise as she uncontrollably flew towards the stranger, unable to adjust her momentum. She extended her arms in front of herself and tightly closed her eyes.

     The young man was pushed and fell down to the ground flat on his back, a look of shock on his face as he saw the clumsy blonde girl fly over him, then a look of terror as he saw a white ray of light engulf her. His eyes widened as he heard loud sounds from her impact on the sidewalk. He was in a state of shock for a moment, then quickly realized that he had to check whether the blonde girl was alright. He pushed himself up and turned, quickly approaching the girl that skidded along the sidewalk. To his surprise she was already on her knees propping herself up.

     "M-miss? Are you alright?" the concerned blonde boy stuttered as he held out his had to help the girl back up. She looked up at him, his dark blue eyes met with her baby blue ones.

     "Takaaki?" Miyako spoke as she looked up at the boy holding his hand out to her, still slightly disoriented from what had just happened. A blush crept up on the boy's face and turned away as he rubbed the nape of his neck.

     "No," he chuckled awkwardly, "I'm Haruwashi. Th-thanks for-"

     "Good heavens! I'm so sorry!" Miyako shot back on her feet, her face quickly turning red from embarrassment. She quickly covered her burning face with her gloved hands. "I mistook you for someone else, I'm sorry," she apologized and bowed down in addition to her apology while also hiding her tomato red face. She was so embarrassed that she hadn't even realize her sudden change of clothes.

     "Well you did just save me from whatever that was, it's not a problem really," the young man said as he waved his palms in front. Miyako stood up stiffly with a very embarrassed look on her face. The young man, Haruwashi, wanted to say something but the strange blonde girl suddenly sprinted away into the park. He was then left there by himself, a blush still clearly visible on his face, as he looked to the direction she went.

     "Da- Professor!" a young boy called from the back of the van, calling the attention of professor Utonium who was driving.

     "What is it, Ken?" the professor asked as he turned on the windshield wipers to displace the ash collected on the windshield.

     "There are high energy levels in and heading to the New Townsville Park," Ken said as he analyzed what was showing on the monitors. "That's on the other side of town!" Ken exclaimed as he pulled up the GPS.

     "Not to worry," the professor replied as he shifted gears and continued to drive the van barely within the speed limit. Surely the mayor would understand that it's for a very urgent situation. Driving within the speed limit was the least of his worries, first he had to prevent the effects of this Chemical Z fiasco that they have created.

     Meanwhile, under a sakura tree in the New Townsville Campus was a certain red head had been sitting under a tree in the New Townsville Junior Highschool campus, her large red bow dancing with the wind. Momoko was sat down on the grass leaning back on the tree as she excitedly read her manga while eating a pack of heart shaped gummies. She should have been on her way home by now, they were dismissed early because of the volcano, after all. Instead, she was still in school sitting down on the ground, ash clinging to her uniform and her skin. She had her umbrella open but that wasn't really much help, she didn't mind, though. Her ears perked up as she heard a familiar voice approaching. Her eyes brightened as she tore away from her manga, very excited to see her biggest crush.

     There he was, Natsuki Urawa, the most popular kid in the whole of New Townsville High. He was talking on his phone without a care in the world, his light brown hair bouncing every step he took as he came closer to Momoko. His laughter was of an angel, his smile was so bright that it could blind, and blinded Momoko was, blinded by love.

     "So dreamy," Momoko thought as she looked oogly eyed at the approaching boy, you can practically see the hearts in her eyes by how lovestruck she was. The ash falling around them wasn't helping as it only made the tall boy look much cooler. She quickly stood up, dusted off her uniform, then fixed herself up. She waved at Natsuki and excitedly called out, "Hey, Natsuki!"

     Natsuki looked up from his phone and noticed that Momoko was there. His eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed as he looked at the bowhead. He grunted and began to approach the blushing girl as he hung up his phone. "So?"

     "S-so?" Momoko sheepishly replied. "Oh yeah! I'm sorry," she then apologized as she reached into her bag. She got out a brown folder and handed it over to the boy who was now in front of her, giggling as she did so thinking it made her look cute. To him, she just looked silly.

     "You finished everything?"  Natsuki asked raising his brow as he went through the contents of the folder.

     "Of course! Finishing my own assignments was a piece of cake, so I had a lot of time to do yours as well. I even wrote you some notes on the topic so that you can still study it by yourself when I finished my article for journalism," Momoko said then fidgeted for what she was about to say. "Or maybe we can make it a study date. That's what you promised," Momoko said as she shyly shuffled, twirling a lock of her ginger hair in her finger.

     "Pfft, what a meddler," Natsuki thought as he saw the study notes that she was talking about. He shivered in disgust as he thought about having a study date with Momoko and quickly thought of what to say. "I saw that you were scolded by the teacher in the hallway you know. I wouldn't want to be seen with a girl that throws herself into trouble all the time now, would I? Maybe next time," Natsuki said as he waved her off and proceeded to walk out of the school grounds.

     "O-okay, next time then," Momoko trailed off as she watched his figure walk off into the distance. She sighed a deep sigh, her brows upturned, giving her cotton candy pick eyes a saddened look. She crouched down to gather her things as she hummed to herself to try and cheer herself up, put on her backpack, and proceeded to head home as well.

     As she walked, she opened up a new bag of treats as she had apparently finished her pack of gummy bears. Momoko always had a very big sweet tooth, and having some sweet treats on her person at all times is a must for her to snack on. Momoko always was slightly bigger than the other girls, and her love for sugar certainly didn't help that. She wasn't overweight or anything, but add a kilogram more to her weight and she will be. She didn't mind that about herself though, she always had been pretty confident in herself, but that doesn't mean she doesn't envy naturally skinny people either, it just doesn't bother her as much as it does other people. She was just happy with herself just eating sweets, reading mang, and ogling over boys in her spare time.

     "Maybe that's why boys don't like me," Momoko thought to herself as she munched on her snack. "Nah, I'm beautiful," she told to herself with a smug tone. As she was about to turn the corner at an intersection, she yelped and quickly hid behind a lamp post.

     "Oh my gosh, is that the cute boy from the orphanage!" Momoko thought to herself as she cupped her cheeks. She peeked from behind the post to see if it was really who she thinks she was, being careful not to be seen.

     There sitting in front of the orphanage door was a boy around Momoko's age, his elbow rested on his knee and his head resting on his knuckle. His brown shoulder length hair was covered by a red cap matching his strange eyes. Momoko found his eyes very striking because they were a strange color; red. No, that's not because he's on drugs, at least she hopes not. His scleras were a normal white, but his irises were red. That's a very strange eye color, but then again, she does have bright pink eyes so how strange can it really be? Momoko sighed dreamily as she got lost in her thoughts. The boy seemingly heard that as he suddenly looked around, his previously bored and sleepy expression turned into alert. Momoko became startled and quickly hid back behind the lamp post.

     "Alright, Momoko, make yourself pretty and go make a good first impression," she quietly said to herself as she straightened herself. Whenever she would head home, she always passed by the old orphanage, and that's why she recognized the boy. This time was different though, because whenever she would pass by, he was always in his room, sometimes with his roommates. This was the first time she saw him outside, and it would probably be the first time he would see her too, so it pretty much is a first impression.

     Momoko hid in order to fix herself, her back turned towards the lamp post, facing the direction opposite of the orphanage. As she reached up to tidy her bow, she noticed three objects moving high across the sky. One was black, and the other two were white. She was curious as to what those were, deducing that they would land somewhere in the park, which was not too far from where she is. She bit her lip, contemplating on what she should do, Natsuki's words from earlier echoing in her head as she did so.

     "I wouldn't want to be seen with a girl that throws herself into trouble all the time now, would I?"

     As those words echoed in her head, she noticed a bright flash of blue coming from where one of the white rays landed.

     "I wouldn't want to be seen with a girl that throws herself into trouble all the time now, would I?"

     "I guess that's just what journalists tend to do," she said to herself and ran quickly towards the park. "This is going to make for a great scoop in the school paper."

     Momoko quickly made it to the park just as the blue light was beginning to die down. "There!" she said to herself as she saw where the blue flash came from. She ran quickly to see a figure laying down on the ground as the light died down. She squinted her eyes to see what that could possibly be, but as she did, she noticed the other white light getting very close. Her eyes widened and saw from the corner of her eye a woman calling out for her child, quickly realizing that the white light was going to hit the woman.

     "The innocent must be protected!" Momoko yelled out loud a quote from her favorite superhero Johnny Cosmo as she halted and turned, running towards the woman. She ran as fast as she could, probably running faster than she ever had.

     "Citizen! Look out!" Momoko yelled out as she extended her arms outwards, shielding the woman from the potentially dangerous light. "Ahh!" Momoko screamed out as she took on the full force of the light hitting her back. Momoko collapsed and fell down to her knees, her head facing down. The woman stood there wide eyed at the teen that just saved her, still in shock.

     "M-miss, are you alright?" the woman said as she kneeled down and held the red headed teen by the shoulder.

     "Huh? What happened?" Momoko asked as she looked up rubbing her head. She turned her head to where the blue glow was coming from, but the figure was now gone. She then looked up to the woman, and behind her she saw that the black light was going to fall down towards the forest beside the park.

     "Oh no! The black light!" she yelped in panick. Before getting hit by the light, she didn't exactly know what to make of the black and white lights. Obviously the black lights meant trouble, but after getting hit by the light it was like she could actually feel that it would cause something really bad, and she didn't like it.

     Shortly after the black light was lost in the canopy, blood curdling squeals and screams were heard. Surely that wasn't from something human. A certain feeling bubbled up inside of Momoko, and she felt the need to put an end to whatever that black light could have caused without regard for what could happen to her.

     "Please, get somewhere safe, lady, I have a bad feeling about this," Momoko warned as she glared towards where the light fell and quickly ran into the thick forest. The woman stood there frozen, wondering what was happening.

     "Mommy!" a kid called out. The woman turned to see a dark haired teenage girl approaching and carrying her son.

     "Oh, my baby!" the woman cried out as she ran towards the tall girl, bringing her son into her arms. "Thank you for bringing him to me," the mother thanked. She looked at the teenager and noticed something about her clothes; it was similar to what the ginger haired girl was wearing.

     "Nah, it's not a problem, really," the teenager said as she handed the kid his toy. She then turned around and proceeded to walk away, but was quickly stopped.

     "Wait!" the woman said halting the girl in green. "Your friend went into the forest, she said that it's not safe here."

     "Huh? Friend?" the girl said with confusion, turning her head slightly as she caught sight of the forest, a bad feeling suddenly coming over her. She glared towards the forest and turned to face its direction. She took a deep breath and said, "Alright then." And with that, a strong gust of wind was felt following a green streak of light heading straight to the forest. The woman just stood there in shock. One second the teenager was just standing right there, the next she was gone. That day had already been strange enough, she wanted to just get some rest right after this.

     "Woah!" the young boy yelled out in amazement. "Mommy, did you see that?"

     "Mommy's feeling faint, let's go home," the mother said as she massaged her forehead, feeling exhausted from everything she just witnessed. With that, the mother and son proceeded out of the park, but as they reached the road, a large cream colored van suddenly stopped right in front of them. The mother felt terrified, holding her son close to her fearing for the worst, when suddenly a small scientist in a lab coat stepped out of the van.

     "Excuse me, madam, but have you noticed anything strange right around this vicinity? Black or white rays of light, perhaps?" the little black haired scientist asked the woman.

     "Over there," the woman sighed as she pointed towards the forest with a tired expression on her face.

     "Thank you for your cooperation," the young scientist said as he stepped back into the van which quickly sped off.

     The woman remained silent and proceeded to walk home with her son quietly. She's had enough of all this strangeness in one day. Little did she know of the all battles that were to ensue from that day on.