Ami Mizuno surprised no one when she passed her exams and entered into
her final year of High School, along with the rest of her friends.
Although she failed to gain full marks in her overall score, no one could
say they were not proud of her tremendous effort, to be placed at 12th
of the National List after a six-month disappearing act, and returning
in late June to take her exams with only a month of preparation – they
had not even expected a placing on the National List. In her final
year, she continued to pursue her studies in her usual vigorous, if not
extreme, manner; naturally becoming the valedictorian and regaining the
top placing in the National List, in addition to entering the Winter Asian
Games during November and coming fourth in her event - losing the bronze
medal by 0.02 marks.
Senshi business had nearly completely ceased, only Rei’s sudden departure
to join her father’s election campaign had been cause for concern - other
than that, the senshi had hardly had use for their powers. At the
end of their High School years, they had celebrated as a complete group;
each finally able to realize their dreams. Makoto entered Home Economics
in the Tokyo University of Arts, Rei became a theology student, Minako
studied in the Tokyo University of Fine Arts for dramatic arts, Usagi studied
a general management degree, unable to decide where she would be heading,
whilst Ami became an undergraduate for medicine.
However, a gap had slowly formed between Ami and the rest of the group,
as Ami became less forthcoming with her friends since she had begun to
assume her duties as the future Someieichi-kou. It became increasingly
difficult for them to communicate freely since Ami had to plan, with her
mother, the tests that would begin for Minako and Makoto. Luckily,
their problem was repaired by the end of their High School life; as they
realized the importance of the spontaneity factor in their tests, and their
need for each other’s support.
August came and went as each of them prepared, in their own way, for their
lives as university students, and Ami prepared for the Winter Olympics
that would come in early December. This year’s Winter Asian Games
was her preparation, and she was determined to be able to stand on the
podium after the near miss last year, and if possible, she wanted to hold
the Winter Olympics medal in her hand - the one medal that had alluded
Asuka’s grasp due to his age. She also knew that her test was not
yet over, something in her mother’s way of speech and avoidance of the
subject told her that, her first year of university was not going to be
plain sailing…
One of the more obvious blimps in her life was Zoicite’s relentless pursuit
of their ‘destined fate of endless love dating from the Silver Millennium’
– sometimes she wondered if he was in love with her, her previous self,
or the idea of being in love with her. He seemed to always refer
to her in the past, he didn’t know her, in fact, he probably knew less
about her than the newspaper crews that had interviewed her for her studies
or skating… well, other than the senshi part. At first, she had run
away from him, fearing his intentions as one of the past generals of Beryl;
now, she was sure that he had changed, yet her fear towards him had not;
after all, could anyone seriously blame her for continual doubts about
someone who had tried to kill her? She had read somewhere that he
was entering university this year to earn a degree in media studies – which
meant that she would have to find ways to avoid that area of the campus
in order to avoid him since she was sure that he would not be giving up
anytime soon.
So, the first day of their university lives began in Tokyo University,
they all had classes at 11:00am - luckily for them, since they had to spend
forty-five minutes traveling on the bullet trains, thus they would have
to leave their homes an hour before class to be on time. They had
all smiled when they saw Usagi’s fortunate timetable, it was as though
the university knew that she would not survive in university with morning
classes. Ami, with the exception of Mondays, started her day at 9:00am,
and with the exception of Thursdays and Fridays, ended her days at 4:30pm,
with scattered breaks during the day. At 10:15am, Mamoru, with the
five girls in tow entered the university, each of the girls held their
timetable and a copy of the campus map in their hands as Mamoru dispensed
instructions on how to get to their class and where they would meet for
lunch…