Well, here I am again. I shouldn't do this one so quickly
because my editor has part seven of this and part two of
"Sister Earth" to edit already, but I am really bored. (Sorry,
Ni! Please forgive me for all the work!) Anyway, I've been
planning this part for quite some time. *grins evilly* Hope
you like this so far.


Soulmate
Part Eight


__________________________________________________________

    Sailor Mars was secretly a pretty normal teenage girl.
She went to school, listened to music, and did everything a
normal girl who wasn't half Martian would do. Take away her
powers and there was nothing special about her.
    But she wasn't thinking about that right now. She was
thinking about all the adoring people in front of her,
begging for her autograph. The tournament was supposed to
begin at four o'clock. It was now five, and the crowds had
been there since noon. Everyone wanted a chance to see the
(up until now) hard-to-find Senshi.
    Contestants would fight Ami first, then Minako. It
wasn't likely that anyone would get past them, but if they
did they would then fight Makoto, followed by Rei, then
Mamoru, but no one would get that far. The Senshi would
win, then all the money would go towards the founding of
Crystal Tokyo. The best part was that the losing contestants
would feel no shame after the fight, because their names
would be announced only if someone won all five rounds,
and no one would win.
    A girl with purple hair pushed to the front of the crowd.
    "You a senshi, yes?" she asked with a Chinese accent.
    "If you want an autograph, you have to get in the back
of the line."
    "I no want autograph, I want fight to start. Friend
is in tournament. You wasting Shampoo's time. Do autographs
later, yes? Is good?"
    "I agree," said Ami quietly. "We'll start now. We
don't want the contestants going home."
    The girl smiled. "Good. Shampoo sorry for you all.
You will have shame today. Friend will win today. Ciao."
The girl left with a small wave.
    "Weird," Makoto muttered, then smiled at the next
person in line. "Sorry, but we have to start the fight
now. Come back later."
    The Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen went to their side of the
fighting mat and sat in the order they were fighting in.
Rei surveyed the contestants. There were a hundred. Most
were boys, but about five were girls. The match would end
if any contestant won, and no more would fight after that,
but no one would win. Too bad they still had to fight all
one hundred of them.
    "This is going to be too easy," Tuxedo Kamen said from
beside her. "I almost feel bad for all the people, but then
again, how else are we gonna get the money?"
    "Yeah," she muttered, heart fluttering like it did
every time he spoke to her. He'd broken up with her, but
she still loved him. Oddly, they still acted like friends
despite the tensions that should have been there. She loved
him, and he couldn't keep a steady relationship due to
childhood traumas. She could deal with that.
    The contestants were watching the Senshi with excitement,
all ready for the privilege of fighting with Tokyo's
protectors. All but one that is. Number twenty-six was a
small girl with good muscle build (although not too much)
and blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail. She eyed the
Senshi coldly, then crossed her arms, and looked away.
    Minako noticed her, too. "What's her problem?" she
asked, leaning over to Makoto.
    "Probably thinks she can beat us."
    The Senshi of Love gave a small laugh and sank back
in her seat.
    The tournament began easily. Ami took out most of the
contestants, although two, a guy who kept calling himself
"Blue Thunder" and a girl who referred to herself as "The
Black Rose" got past her and almost beat Minako. The guy
went to contestant number twenty-six and begged for
forgiveness from his shame of losing. She tried to deal
with him for a few minutes before a guy with a pigtail
wearing Chinese clothes came from the audience and
literally kicked "Blue Thunder" from the arena.
    Thirty minutes after the tournament started, it was
Twenty-six's turn.
    "I wanna see what she can do," Makoto said, smiling as
she cracked her knuckles.
    "Next is number twenty-six," the announcer announced.
Several hoots and hollers came from a section of the
audience that all seemed to be wearing the same school
uniform. "She's representing the Saotome School of Anything
Goes Martial Arts. Her charity is funding for proper signs
and fences at the training grounds of Jusenkyo Falls."
    Ami stood and went into the ring. The girl, unlike
all the other contestants, bowed, but kept her eyes on
her opponent. The signal for the fight to begin sounded.
Ami flew out of the rink and the girl landed from her
leap kick smiling before anyone could barely blink. The
crowd made sounds of surprise, and the ones who weren't
already cheering for her began to take her side.
    Minako went in. Once again the signal sounded and the
girl bowed. Minako flew out of the rink after a spinning
kick from the girl. The crowd began to murmur even more.
She'd taken two senshi out with only one kick apiece.
Makoto went in happily, wanting the challenge. She
immediately kicked at the girl who laughed, dodged, and
punched her square in the jaw. The Senshi of Jupiter
fell out of the ring.
    Rei didn't like what was going on. Her eyes narrowed
in anger as she took her fighting stance. Somehow, the
girl could tell she was angry and grinned.
    Rei was out of the ring before she'd known what had
happened. Funny thing was, the girl hadn't hurt her or
the other girls very badly at all. Mamoru came in last.
The girl barely waited for the signal before she struck
and he was on the ground.
    The crowd grew silent. Someone had won. A girl had
beaten the Sailor Senshi.
    The announcer joined her on the platform, but seemed
speechless. The boy with the pigtail in the Chinese garbs
crawled into the ring and grabbed the girl around the waist.
    "I knew you could do it," the Senshi heard him say
happily. "That looked really easy."
    "It was," she answered, her eyes losing all of their
hardness.
    The announcer finally found his voice. "What is your
name, miss?"
    She looked straight at the Senshi, and her words
almost made Rei faint. "Tsukino Usagi."
    "Do you have a comment after winning that battle?"
    "Yes. If they're what's been protecting the Earth
for so long, I'm amazed that we're still here."
    Some people chuckled. "And who's this young man
here?" the announcer asked.
    "This is Ranma Saotome. He's the one who trained
me. He's also my boyfriend."
    It seemed as if every girl in the audience sighed
in disappointment, and it was definite the guys did.
    "Boyfriend?" Mamoru said in a hoarse voice that
was barely above a whisper.
    The money was given to Usagi, who hadn't looked
at the senshi since she said her name. The crowd left
quickly. No one wanted the autographs of people who'd
been beaten. The ones who already had autographs threw
them away. More people joined Usagi and Ranma on the
stage including "Blue Thunder" who gushed over Usagi,
then was knocked away by an annoyed Ranma. The senshi
wanted to talk to their former leader, but couldn't
get through. They left in misery.
__________________________________________________________

    Two weeks after the tournament the Senshi were still
in Nermia, where the contest had been held due to the
abundance of martial artists. They were there for one
reason: to find Usagi. So far they hadn't had any luck.
They searched everywhere, but could not find the "Saotome
School of Martial Arts," and anyone they asked hadn't
heard of it. Usagi wasn't listed in the phone book, and
there was no Saotome in there either.
    "Okay, so maybe the name of her dojo was made up?"
Makoto asked.
    "Why would they do that?" Mamoru challenged. After
seeing Usagi, he'd vowed to find her and make her his
again.
    Makoto shrugged. "My guess is, the guy's an orphan.
He teaches Usa how to fight, then they make up some phony
school so no one would know they're minors on their own."
    "So then we go check the orphanages..." Ami said,
beginning to tap on the computer. "I still can't find
her energy, so it looks like our only way."
    "Wait, guys!" Minkao wailed. "Can't we stop for
lunch? We've been running around all day, and I'm
starving."
    The others reluctantly agreed and they went into the
first restaurant they found.
    "Cat...cafe?" Mamoru asked suspiciously. "We sure
we wanna eat here?"
    "I don't care if they serve fried horse dung," Rei
said crossly. "My feet hurt. Let's try it so we can at
least sit down."
    They'd spent two weeks looking for a clue to Usagi's
whereabouts, two
very long weeks. And now, by merely stepping into a
restaurant, they found their clue.
    A very big clue.
    All five of them stopped dead in their tracks.
Sitting right in front of them in a booth was Ranma
Saotome. They couldn't stop Mamoru. He surged forward
and grabbed the younger man by the collar of his shirt.
    "Hey! What 'id I do to you?!" Ranma protested.
"You wanna fight?"
    "Where's Usagi?" Mamoru asked in a voice that
could freeze hell.
    "Why do you want her?" The slightly amused look
in Ranma's eyes vanished.
    Suddenly a wooden sword hit Mamoru on the hand
and he let go with a loud "Ouch!"
    "What are you doing questioning this fool for
me? I did not ask for your help! Ranma, where is
the glorious Usagi? I have decided 'tis she who I
shall swear my love."
    "Lay off, Kuno, you idiot. She ain't interested
in you." Ranma crossed his arms, but remained seated.
    "What's going on here?" came Usagi's voice.
    "Ah, Usa-chan, you are popular today, yes?"
came another voice. Standing behind the group was
Usagi and the girl with purple hair. "No fighting
in restaurant, peoples!"
    "Ah! Fair Usagi! I have brought you great news?"
    "You're moving to Yemen?" she asked hopefully.
    "Why would that be good news? Then I would not
be able to be near you."
    "Silly me," Usagi said sarcastically. "Look,
Kuno, you gotta stop doing this. I'm with Ranma."
    "This user of women hath bewitched you, 'tis
all. I shall free you from his spell!"
    "User of... Kuno, did your mom drop you on your
head when you were young?"
    "He has Akane Tendo and the pigtailed girl as
well as you!"
    "Correction: Akane is with Ryoga and they are
very happy by the way. You know him? Wears a bandanna
and gets lost a lot? And the pigtailed girl... Kuno,
you gotta know, poor you, I can't believe she kept
it a secret for so long... but the pigtailed girl
isn't interested in guys."
    Ranma snorted and began to laugh like he'd heard
the funniest thing ever.
    "But..."
    "I'm sorry. Next time you choose loves, pick ones
who aren't taken or who like boys."
    "He be back," Shampoo mumbled, annoyed.
    "Yeah, but at least I have peace for now."
    "You should just beat the crap out of him," Ranma
said darkly. Usagi laughed.
    "But that doesn't work either!"
    "Is too many stupid people in the world," Shampoo
said. "I take off to eat with you, is good?"
    "Yeah, sure." Ranma moved over, the Senshi
completely forgotten, to allow the girls to scoot in
next to him. Shampoo really wasn't so bad when she
wasn't trying to kill or marry him.
    "Ahem," Rei said rudely, crossing her arms.
    "You need drink water?" Shampoo asked. "I on break,
but great grandmother can help you."
    "We want to talk to Usagi please," Ami said quietly.
    "Well? What do you want?" Usagi raised her eyebrows.
    "We can't talk here!" Makoto hissed.
    "I'm sorta about to have lunch. Come back later."
    "But you might not be here!"
    "Too bad," Ranma said gruffly, not liking them
for some reason.
    "We'll wait until you're done, Odango," Rei said,
sitting down.
    Usagi froze.
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To be continued