Mio Shirai
On February 20, 2009, Okuda made an appearance at a Team Makehen event, announcing that she had joined the independent group, as a member of which her independent bookings were handled by its founder Tomohiko Hashimoto. Okuda's jump to the group led to the dissolution of a working relationship between Sendai Girls' and Team Makehen; Io Shirai, Mio Shirai and Mika Mizunuma made regular appearances for Sendai Girls' in 2008, but were no longer booked by the promotion after the jump in 2009. Okuda collaborated with the "Ringstars" professional wrestling magazine to start a contest for its readers to come up with a new ring name for her. On April 25, Okuda wrestled her first match in ten months at a Team Makehen event, where she, now working under the ring name Basara, teamed with Mikado to defeat Bambi and Mio Shirai in a tag team match. However, just two months later, Team Makehen went inactive as president Tomohiko Hashimoto resigned from his position after being arrested on charges of blackmail. On July 18, Okuda suffered another concussion and canceled all of her scheduled appearances for the rest of the year. In December, Team Makehen was dissolved, making Basara a true freelancer.