(Rating: G)

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Episode 409: School Days 
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*** [title sequence] ***
 
	It could be said that two weeks after the fourth attack, Jennifer
Sakachi's life could be broken into several parts.
 
	First, there was Jen the person.  She was Eileen's lover, the young
woman who liked to dabble at gardening even though she wasn't very good at
it, the first and only historian of the Green Oaks Community Organization. 
She had a membership at the Nagano-2 Lawn Tennis and Swim Club, even if it
was rarely used.  This was the Jen most people never saw or even heard of,
the Jen who wore old beaten jeans and sweatshirts, who liked making her
lover blush with ribald suggestions and then following up on them in the
bedroom.  This was the Jen who never seemed like she had a care in the
world.
 
	Next there was Sakachi-sensei the teacher.  Even in this guise she
had two flavors: the high school pedagogue and the university professor.  In
both forms, she was prim and proper, rarely joking.  She had all the
pressure of looking no older than the students she had to teach, and of
being a newcomer to the art of teaching.  After all, she'd had her doctorate
for less than a decade, and that was a doctorate that she knew full well she
had earned in far less time than anyone else.  It wasn't as if she *hadn't*
earned it.  She knew she had one of the keenest minds there were, as far as
history went.  If it hadn't been for other extenuating factors she would
most likely be world-acclaimed for her abilities.  In any case, as a teacher
she was good, but not great.  She sometimes took longer than necessary to
return papers, had a reputation for being overly strict, and at least in
high school had a tendency to gloss over some of the more unpleasant events
of recent history.  This was the Jen that most people feared or hated.
 
	Then there was Sailor Orion, the sailor senshi.  Sailor Orion was a
curious blend.  One of the new senshi produced by Neo-Queen Serenity I's
'recruitment' program, she had first transformed in May of 3029.  Though
raising a few eyebrows having a relationship with another senshi, Sailor
America, she had been right there for many of the significant events of the
last decade.  On Hinansho she was viewed as a hero and veteran of the bitter
war of 3035, the planet's defender, the fierce soldier who, along with
Sailor America, watched over the colony world and protected it from all
evils.  This was the Jen that most people loved, the one they idolized. 

	There was another half to this as well.  It was the Sailor Orion who
hated and despised killing in any form, and consequently hated herself all
the more when she was forced to do so.  It was the Sailor Orion who had very
nearly gone insane after seeing first-hand the devastation of the war
against the Allies, and who had spent most of the voyage to Hinansho going
through therapy to keep from cracking.  It was the Sailor Orion who had
lived over a decade knowing that she had the ability to completely destroy
the ecosphere of a planet, having been there once to witness it.

	The true Jennifer Allison Sakachi was a meld of these three types,
with a sort of intangible quintessence thrown in besides.  That quintessence
explained why she liked the twentieth century band Soundgarden, why she
loved riding in fast cars but hated driving them, why a senshi made a good
history teacher or vice versa.
 
	On this late October afternoon, the main component of Jennifer
Allison Sakachi's psyche was that of the college professor, since she was
standing in a lecture hall at the University of Hinansho.  The subject of
today's lecture was the Formation Wars, as usual.  As she had done her
doctoral work on that period of history, she had rather logically been given
this freshman level course on the beginnings of the Crystal Millennium.  It
was her favorite part of her work at the university.

	She began writing on the vidboard again.  It wasn't a true
chalkboard like the ones at the high school, but one that took what she
wrote on a small digital pad and reproduced it on a larger scale on the
board.  It was possible to pre-plan an entire lecture and advance it frame
by frame, but she preferred to put a bit of spontaneity into her work.
 
	"This culminated in the Free Earth Movement," she said clearly,
writing the same words on the board in standard romanji.  Kanji was rarely
used since Serenity came to power; while it was still taught, only a few
people used it regularly.  She put the pad down for a moment and went to the
board; most of what she wanted them to take notes on was already there, and
now she intended to talk about it a bit.  "The Free Earth Movement only
lasted six years, and was largely isolated to Europe.  As it had a number of
indirect effects on Crystal Tokyo, though, we'll go into a few details.
 
	"The movement had two clear aims, along with a bunch of other ones
that weren't clear at all and which don't really matter in the long run. 
The first was, in the words of Martin Andes, 'for the Earth to be free from
all pollution.' Andes didn't just mean the standard definition of pollution:
air, water, ground, et cetera.  He included minorities, particularly those
of African and Amerind descent, the clergy, New Zealanders, and anyone whose
name began with the letter S."
 
	She smiled at the class, remembering her reaction to his views the
first time she read of them.  "He wasn't quite sane, you see; analyses of
his writings show that he was a deeply paranoid man." She paused, but only
one or two people laughed.  Inwardly she sighed; her jokes, such as they
were, almost always flew over the heads of her students.
 
	Folding her hands behind her back, she began to pace in front of the
class, her fingers playing with the pleats of her skirt.  Looking out of the
corner of her eyes, she saw the usual.  Four students diligently copied
every word she said, about eight more only wrote down the important things,
and the rest simply stared with varying degrees of interest, ranging from
total to none.  All in all, fairly typical.
 
	"In any case, we've established that he had some noble goals, but
others that can only be described as coming from the lunatic fringe.  That
leads to his second main tenet.  He was firmly against any sort of ruling
government: monarchy, republic, communism, anything.  He was especially
against the rumors he had heard about attempts at a new monarchy in Japan.
 
	"This was, of course, what would become Crystal Tokyo and the system
of government that has lasted to the present day.  At the time, the future
Neo-Queen Serenity knew nothing of Andes.  However, one of his fanatical
followers, Justin Bakker, took hold of these ideas and got the bright idea
of going to Japan and informing them of these evils.
 
	"Along the way, Bakker fell on hard times.  He hadn't been able to
get hold of a plane as he'd planned, and trying to walk across Asia was
turning out to be a bad idea.  Along the way he was captured by some
confederation or another, but that isn't important.  What *is* important is
that he so influenced the leaders of the confederation that when it was
taken by the Third Arab Republic three years later, those views were
absorbed and carried out with a vengeance.
 
	"The result of this was the Pakistan campaign of 2177, in which over
a million Pakistani were slaughtered for no other reason than being
Pakistani.  This, one of the last acts of the Revenge Campaign, was one of
three that pushed Serenity into action.  The other two, you'll remember, we
discussed during the last class period.
 
	"So, we have Serenity preparing to make her first real non-defensive
moves in the Formation Wars . . . and it seems we're just about out of
time." As usual, the two students napping at the back of the room snapped up
to attention at those words.  She hid a smirk; that kind of student could
always tell when it was time to leave.  "Any questions?" There were none, as
usual.  "Okay, then, remember to have chapter eight finished for next time. 
Oh, and don't forget there's an exam next week, be sure to come to my office
if you need any help."
 
	As she was putting her books and papers away, one of her female
students drew near to the desk.  "Um, Sakachi-sensei?"
 
	"Yes, Akagi-san?"  Jen looked up at the girl, slightly distracted. 
Akagi had long black hair that reminded her somewhat of Sailor Mars, and
blue eyes quite a bit like her own.  She also had a build that wa
simpressive, to say the least.
 
	"Um, I'm not quite sure I understand some of the material,
especially the Ayoucoub treaty . . . could you help me with it?"
 
	Jen looked at Akagi's face, then her body posture and eyes, all in
less than a second.  Inwardly she sighed.  They were so obvious when they
did this.  "Certainly," said Jen brightly.  "How about tomorrow at the
library?"
 
	"Actually, maybe you could come to my house?  I don't like walking
around at night, especially after what's gone on the last few weeks, 
and . . . ."
 
	Jen decided to end this rather sad attempt at seduction.  "I'm
sorry, Akagi-san, but I'm going to have to insist you meet me either at the
library, or at a group study session I'm having at the coffeehouse later
tonight.  I've gone to too many homes where the kid 'forgot' about a meeting
and was off playing basketball; I don't do that anymore."
 
	Akagi's face fell slightly, but the girl with black hair kept up a
smile.  "Oh, that's okay then.  I'll try to get some study partners before
the exam."
 
	"Okay," replied Jen, silently counting her blessings that this one
hadn't been persistent.  "If you need anything else, you know my number."
 
	"Yes," said Akagi.  She bowed and left quickly.  Jen sighed and
finished packing her briefcase.  There was still one more thing to deal with
today.
 
	The hallways were fairly crowded with students as she walked up the
two flights of stairs from the third floor of the humanities building where
her history class was taught, to the fifth floor where her office was
located.  She came to the door and tapped at the small panel in the door
frame to open it automatically.  It had a doorknob, but with one hand
holding her briefcase and the other holding a trio of books, it was a bit
too much for her to handle.  The lights popped on automatically as she
entered, tossing her case and books on a battered armchair and walking
around to sit at her terribly disorganized desk.
 
	It was a tiny office.  Actually, it was little more than an
oversized coat room that had been converted when she came to teach.  The
walls were slightly yellow, the carpet brown and aged far older than what
one would expect for a building that was relatively new, the desk an old
beaten secondhand model.
 
	Jen tried to look on the bright side.  She looked like a nineteen
year old, plain and simple.  Anything that gave her more respectability and
stature was a good thing in her book, and assuming the air of an old hand at
history didn't hurt.
 
	On the other hand, she had accomplished more by the time she was
twenty-one than some of the other faculty had done their entire lives, and
she figured she deserved some credit, credit some said was being given by
her even having the job in the first place.  Many in Crystal Tokyo had
claimed that she hadn't spent as much time on her thesis as would ordinarily
be proper for a graduate student.
 
	As for graduate students, one of them was waiting outside her door. 
"Ahem."
 
	Jen turned around; she had been in the middle of sitting down when
the call came from the entrance.  She saw a short, stout student, male, with
short black messy hair, dark eyes, and an expression that seemed to
perpetually ask where he was and what he was doing.  'Great,' said Jen to
herself, 'wonder boy is here.' She sighed.
 
	Kyosuke Yamazaki adjusted his glasses nervously.  "I was just behind
you when you, um, came up here, and, er, that is, if you don't mind . . . ."
 
	"Have a seat," invited Jen, taking her own seat and kicking her
shoeless feet on her desk, narrowly avoiding an empty teacup.  Nervously,
Kyosuke sat down on the very edge of the armchair, trying not to disturb the
books already there, and trying with a lesser degree of success not to take
advantage of the view that Jen was giving him.  The fact that it was Jen's
way of injecting humor into the situation by flustering him into a relaxed
pose never occurred to him, as it never would have occurred to anyone. 
"Now, how are things going?"
 
	"Not too good," he said slowly. 
 
	Jen frowned; it was almost always his response.  She reached under a
stack of papers and pulled out two manila folders.  "Last time we talked you
said you had pretty much wrapped up the attribution problem with Sir
Fleming's records.  Did that fall through?"
 
	"Um, yes . . .the library says I owe a fine for not returning the
indices on time, too."
 
	"You know," she said, "if you didn't put things off until the last 
minute, you wouldn't have these sorts of problems.  This isn't the 
first time I've told you this!" 
 
	"I know," he said, "but I never have enough time-" 
 
	"That's bull," she replied simply.  "Twenty-five hours in a day,
that's plenty of time.  Your problem is that you're not *using* your time!"
 
	"But-" 
 
	"No buts!  It seems like every day that I walk by the VR arcade at
the student center, you're in there playing your games!  You're a graduate
student, not some high school kid.  Take some responsibility!"
 
	She hated raising her voice, but she felt it was necessary. 
"Honestly, I don't know if you've put in a single real day of work since I
agreed to be your advisor!  That was a decision based on your grades and
your prior performance, but if I'd known you were going to be like this . .
. ." She trailed off.  Strictly speaking, she had barely known Kyosuke when she decided 
to advise him on his thesis.  Jen had just received a memo in her office one
day saying that a Kyosuke Yamazaki was planning a thesis defense based on
the first fifty years of Crystal Tokyo.  Particularly, he planned to look
into the effects on the few remaining Ainu who lived on the island of
Hokkaido.
 
	Jen, having done her doctoral work on the Formation Wars as a whole,
saw it as a golden opportunity to prove her worth.  Here was a young
student, only a half dozen years younger than she was, aiming for a time
period that immediately followed hers.  It seemed natural for her to advise
him.  Of course, gaining respect in the eyes of the rest of the faculty for
advising such a brilliant student to such a wonderfully solid and
thought-provoking thesis would just be a side effect.  She wouldn't use it
to get back at all the nay-sayers who said a sailor senshi with a bona fide
mental history couldn't make a good professor, oh no.

	She had found, however, that things weren't turning out nearly as
she had expected.  Her 'brilliant' student turned out to have a terrible
lazy streak, always ready with an apology and an excuse for why he didn't
have a request slip filled, why he was behind schedule with his outlines,
why he had missed a meeting.  He was, in short, a slacker, and she didn't
feel that any slacker deserved a doctorate.  She had worked harder than
almost anyone to get hers, juggling the punishing demands of a grad student
while serving as a sailor senshi, and in so doing earning her degree in a
fraction of the time it ordinarily took.  Anyone willing to have her as an
advisor should, in her opinion, be willing to put forth at least half that
much effort.
 
	Kyosuke was the type of fellow who expected to get something for
nothing, though.  A fundamental difference in their personalities, but Jen's
stubbornness wouldn't let her hand him over someone else.  She'd started it,
so she would finish it.  For his part, Kyosuke simply stared blankly at Jen
as she went on her near-rant.  Finally, he asked, "Is that all?" He looked
like he'd rather be watching a movie.
 
	"Is that all?" echoed Jen incredulously.  She looked mutely at her
erstwhile student.  An expression of disbelief, followed by sadness, then
disappointment, and then finally an impish smile that heralded a joke in
progress.  "Yes, yes I suppose that will be all for now.  By the way, I'd
like you to read a little something and take as much useful information as
you can from it.  It would be a good source of material."
 
	"Um, sure.  What is it?" 
 
	Jen stood, walked around the desk, and handed Kyosuke a rather thick
hardcover book.  He read the cover aloud.  "A Short History of the Formation
Wars, by Dr. Jennifer A. Sakachi, et al." He looked up.  "Isn't this your
thesis?"
 
	"Exactly.  What better place to start studying Crystal Tokyo than
with the war that started it?"
 
	"But this'll take weeks to read!" 
 
	Jen's eyes got a certain glint in them.  "You have until Friday. 
Get reading." She derived no little pleasure watching him almost bolt from
her office, but after a moment the thrill was gone.  HAving lost her
enthusiasm for an afternoon of grading, she decided to pack it up and go
home early.  It didn't take long at all; all her important things were in
her briefcase.  Walking out, she locked the door, left a note that she could
be contacted at home, and went to the elevator.  Then she stepped out of the
elevator, went back to her office, put on her forgotten shoes, and went back
to the elevator, breathing a brief sigh of relief at avoiding the rest of
the history department faculty.  She didn't know if she felt like putting up
with their comments today.  After a couple years, she was still the
'rookie,' as they called her, and their cruelty, whether intentional or not,
was not one of the highlights of her usual day.
 
	The ride down and to the parking lot was uneventful.  Along her walk
to the parking lot she passed a couple of her students and greeted them
warmly.  The campus was the sort that was always open.  Between the
buildings that surrounded the quad, there were frequent glimpses of
Nagano-2, whose three tallest buildings were to the southeast of the
university.  One could also see the tall, geologically-speaking new mountain
chain that had reminded the original settlers so much of their old home that
they had named the city in honor of it.
 
	If she cared to keep going for a few hundred more meters, she would
reach the dining hall and student center, and beyond it the dormitories. 
Or, if she wanted to turn the other way, she would reach the athletic fields
and gymnasium.  Her goal, however, was a small lot hidden from most of the
grounds by a steep hill.  The walk down the concrete steps was generally
treacherous in winter, but now it wasn't so bad.  Only a few leaves from the
trees that had begun to lose their foliage provided a slight hazard.
 
	She got into her green sports car and drove off towards home, taking
a slightly longer route to avoid traffic.  Her normal path was being
diverted for construction . . . recovery, actually.  This particular area
had been hit by an errant artillery shell during the first attack, and the
cleanup was not yet complete.
 
	"Computer," said Jen, speaking to the simple simulated intelligence
that lived in her car.  It cost a pretty penny, but a senshi's expense
account covered almost any cost imaginable.  "Connect me to Antares,
please."
 
	"Working . . . done."  Not only was the SI small, but it was quick. 
 
	"Hey, kiddo," came the light baritone. 
 
	"Hi there," she replied, settling back in her seat and wriggling her
shoulder blades into the cushion contentedly.  "Anything interesting happen
today?"
 
	"Nope," replied the AI, connected to her car using an encrypted
radio which linked her to Valhalla.  "Everything's been quiet, except for
someone flying a hang glider into restricted airspace.  Nice and peaceful."
 
	"Any messages?" 
 
	"Three hundred fifty-six." 
 
	"Any *important* messages?"  She made a right turn from the freeway
to a residential street and slowed down considerably.
 
	"Two.  One from the Undersecretary of Defense, asking for a meeting
tomorrow at 14:00.  I told him you weren't free, but he insisted."
 
	Jen sighed.  "I'll call him tonight.  That faculty meeting is too
important to miss."
 
	"You know he'll give his speech about 'the safety of the people of
Hinansho,'" said Antares in return, making Jen grin with his perfect
imitation of the blustering Defense undersecretary.
 
	"I don't care," said Jen lightly.  "Eileen can go, no need to have
both of us there."
 
	"He'll shout." 
 
	"Let him shout." 
 
	"I understand," said Antares, who was silent for the rest of the
trip, which didn't last long.  There were only a few gentle turns before she
reached 72 Akihabara Drive.  Eileen's red sports car wasn't there yet.  No
surprise: Jen was home early.  Indeed, as she got out of the car she caught
sight of two elementary school students walking by.  Apparently they
recognized her from one of the community organization meetings, since they
waved to her from across the street.  She waved back, smiling.  Sometimes
she thought that aside from Eileen, these were the only ones she protected
Hinansho for: the innocent ones.
 
	Walking to the door, she stooped and picked up the evening paper. 
She then stood for a bit, breathing in the air.  "Ack." She sneezed, bits of
dead leaves irritating her nose.  'Yet another reminder of autumn,' she
thought grimly, 'and that we'll have to get those leaves raked soon.'
 
	On a lark, she set her briefcase and books down on the front step
along with the paper, and walked around to the side of the house, opening
the gate of the natural wooden fence.  The backyard was a bit greener than
the front, but more cluttered too.  Strewn here and there were the planting
beds left over from Jen's previous attempts at gardening.  During her
counseling on the trip to Hinansho, she had worked a bit with hydroponics on
her doctor's orders, and she had hoped on arrival that her green thumb would
carry over.  It hadn't, and the dead vegetables and flowers attested to
that.  She was emphatically *not* a gardener.
 
	Her next-door neighbor was, however, which annoyed her to no end. 
 
	"Hey, Sakachi-san!" came a high pitched, nasal voice. 
 
	Jen grumbled; things just got better and better.  "Good afternoon,
Kurmochi-san." Doi Kurmochi was a bachelor man who was perhaps the most
annoying person she had ever met.  As far as she had been able to tell, he
had nothing better to do all day but putter around in his garden and pay
almost weekly visits to her doorstep.  Eventually she had managed to pin
down a pattern behind the timing of his visits, but once he noticed that she
and Eileen were always out when he came to the door he began to come at
random days and times.  Eileen had suggested that they both come to the door
one day in full senshi attire and tell him once and for all to leave them
alone, but Jen insisted on being open.  Thus, she had to stop and talk with
him, when a dozen other things called her attention.
 
	"How ya doin', Sakachi-san?  Getting a bit cold, isn't it?" 
 
	"Yes, yes it is," she replied, looking at a knothole in the fence. 
One of the oddest things about their conversations was that they rarely
actually saw each other.  The fence was high enough for Jen to see over, but
she rarely drew that close.  A short man, Doi couldn't hope to look over it. 
Much of the time Jen didn't even face him when she talked.
 
	"I hope you wore a jacket today?" 
 
	"No, a sweater was good enough."  'Last day for it, though,' she
thought.  Winter was definitely coming, and even now she wished she was
wearing her windbreaker.
 
	"You'll catch a cold!" 
 
	"I'll be all right."  Jen knelt and inspected a tuft of grass that
seemed greener than its surroundings.  Squirrels, probably, or a rabbit who
had managed to get under the fence.  Need to have that fixed.
 
	"I have an old jacket in my shed here, I could get it for-" 
 
	"That's okay, Kurmochi-san," Jen sighed, "I'll be going in for a
bit-"
 
	"May I-" 
 
	"-to get dinner ready and get caught up on some reading.  Bye!" 
 
	"Wait, there was one other thing I wanted to ask you!" 
 
	"What *is* it, Kurmochi-san?"  Jen had to keep from marching right
to the fence and giving him a piece of her mind.
 
	"Do you ever have nightmares?" he asked in a soft voice. 
 
	"Huh?" 
 
	"Just wondering.  I know being a senshi must be hard at times . . .
forgive me, I've never really brought up your job before or anything, I'll
be seeing you later.  Bye!" Finishing on his usual high and screeching note,
she heard him shuffle along through the fallen leaves of his yard and into
his house.
 
	She blinked twice, then shook her head.  Unbeknownst to her, a maple
leaf lodged in her hair, which would make an interesting surprise for Eileen
once she got home from work.  Alone with her thoughts, she went around to
the front of the house and walked inside.

	"Yes . . . yes I do." 

 
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