Reading the question "Where did Fly Girls go?" acted as the grain of sand for this little pearl:

In the winter of 2404, Fly Girls creator "Hayate" began releasing a series of short stories answering the question a lot of fans had been asking since the original run of the manga of what had happened to the major characters after the Tournament ended. These stories took the form of "chapters" in a book commemorating the 50th anniversary (1995) of the "Second Great Tournament." Befitting her spot as the character voted "#1 Fan Favorite" on numerous polls over the length of the original manga run, Zero's story was the first published in December 2404:

Zero - The samurai faced mixed emotions as the Tournament came to an abrupt conclusion: Relief that the fighting had ended, depression that it ended as it had, and dread over what this meant for her and her classmates. The answer to the latter was swift in coming: The Academy was to be immediately shuttered, it's staff to be brought up on charges for their conduct during the Tournament, and any students found to have conducted themselves in less-than-honorable fashion similarly subjected to disciplinary action. It was this last point that led to an interesting dilemma: While ex-staff members looking to protect the reputation of the Headmaster suggested Zero stand in for the Academy's worst offender (Hayabusa) whose whereabouts were unknown* at the Tournament's end, the investigators from Columbia and Britannia felt her actions did not warrant such treatment. The compromise reached was still stinging to her pride and honor: She was to be stripped of her flight status permanently, likewise banned from ever participating in a future Tournament, and forced to surrender her medals and sidearm (In recognition of her honorable conduct, she was allowed to retain her katana).

In many ways, Zero felt that imprisonment would have been a far more pleasant fate than she faced living in her country post-Tournament. The economic strain the country had endured left it impoverished and decimated, a situation only exacerbated by the deep cultural shame felt by the whole of the nation. With no job or pension, Zero found herself forced to sell what few possessions she had, left with only with her katana, her treasured tea set, and a silk kimono that P-40 had gifted her when last they'd parted. As the country began to recover, she found herself working in a tea house, feeling her own shame only compounded as a samurai forced to work like a common servant. Yet it was while working here that she was approached by a fellow veteran of the Tournament, a young man from the support crews who'd idolized her and sought to court her. Initially rebuffed, he persisted in pursuing her and eventually won not only her heart but her hand in marriage. The healing process had begun and the new decade would only bring further joy.

By 1954, the administrators from Columbia and Britannia reached an agreement to allow the former Academy to be reopened, only now it was to be the "Self-Defense Force Academy." In desperate need for trained staff, the new Academy approached Zero with an offer: While she would remain barred from participation in future Tournaments, she would be returned to flight status as an instructor in the new Academy's fighter program, tasked with training the new girls being recruited from Columbia. Only her decades of training and discipline prevented Zero from hugging the recruiter as she enthusiastically accepted the offer. After knocking the rust off her wings and familiarization with the new jets flown by the Self Defense Force, Zero began building a reputation as a brutal if efficient taskmaster in the Academy's fighter program. This approach towards training was even visited upon her own daughters T-2 and F-1 when they entered the program in the 70s.

But all such things eventually come to an end and the collapse of Rodina Mat in 1991 led to downsizing that Zero's career fell victim to. In recognition of her service in the Second Great Tournament and her years as an instructor, she was given one of the largest send-offs in the Academy's history, including the return of the medals she'd been forced to surrender decades prior and a statue erected in her honor on the Academy grounds. Sadly in the fall of 1994 her husband of over four decades passed on, but she found support in her grief from her daughters, their husbands, and her grandchild F-2. So it is by 1995 that the elderly samurai finds herself spending her days on her family's estate in Kyoto, continuing to impart her wisdom (with no small amount of consternation) on the next generation even if today it is about how to properly conduct a traditional tea ceremony or cultivate bonsai trees. She also dons her favorite silk kimono and prepares two cups of her "awful" green tea once a year, as if waiting for a long-missing companion to finally join her.

*Hayabusa's exact fate is unknown after being shot down in China towards the Tournament's ending. Whenever she's asked what happened to the shark-toothed war criminal, "Hayate" only replies "She got what was coming to her."