Disclaimer : Ogasawara Sachiko and other characters from Mariasama ga Miteru belonged to Konno Oyuki. Shigeyochi Minago, Sobakkasu belonged to Shouta Kikuchi. I'm not making anything out of this other than an ass of myself, and some entertainment.
Note : I've never written a fanfic for anime/manga before, my usual stuffs were Babylon 5, Buffy:tVS. Japanese also isn't my forte... forgive any mistakes I've made, which I'm sure there's plenty. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Destined to Meet

Xavier

Ogasawara Sachiko, Rosa Chinensis en Bouton of Lillian School for Girls so hated places with crowds. And normally she wouldn't come to a place like this in a million years, if not because she needed to get that particular book that couldn't wait. The shopping mall was usually so crowded, especially on this Saturday afternoon, it looked as if everyone in the city decided to come and congregated here in this neighborhood just to walk around.

Sachiko felt her mood darken by the minutes as she sidestepped yet another couple that was too busy making eye at each other to look where they were going or who they were running down in the process. Quickened her steps, she wished to make her way up to the third floor bookstore as fast as she possibly could, which wasn't very fast at all.

The last time she was at the shopping mall was when she had a date with Yumi, her precious petite soeur, it was fun, then. Yumi had, inadvertently, acted as her shield that day, and she wasn't really aware of all these people around, it was as if there were just two of them. Sachiko always remembered that day with fond memory, too bad that they had yet to set for another date like that again.

A jolt from another shopper brought her out of her reverie, and Ogasawara Sachiko felt that unfamiliar need to say something, something that wasn't very polite and very unlady like words, but she reined in her temper and kept on moving.

A sight of the bookstore made her feel a little better that this venture into shopping mall was almost at an end. She regretted not taking up the offer of Matsui, her driver to pick up the book for her, or even to drive her to this place. She simply had him dropped her off at the station and made her way here by herself, something that her mother would not be too happy had she known.

But on occasions, Sachiko would like to do things by herself.

The calm atmosphere in the bookstore helped her mood a little. There were less people here, milling about looking at books and talked – if there was any – softly.

Sachiko looked around for a few minutes before picking up the book that she wanted, from the corner of her eye she saw a glimpse of someone that look very much like Yumi. Quickly she looked up, intending to see if it was, indeed, Yumi.

Fukuzawa Yumi was her petite soeur, all of which came about as an accident. Every year Lillian School for Girls would have a festival with the bon fire and shop set up by various classes and clubs, Yamayurikai also set up something of their own. Last festival the Yamayurikai had decided to put on a play for the school with the help of several clubs, and they also enlisted the help from all boy school near by. The Hanadera school's President agreed to be the Prince to her being Cinderella in the Play that they put on. All of the decisions for this were made while Sachiko wasn't present in the meeting.

She had fought them tooth and nail when she found out about it later on, of course her own Onee-sama stood firm and stated that a person that could not find a petite soeur of her own should not have a say in the meeting.

Incidentally, she had met Yumi that morning in front of Maria-sama while she was still not fully awake and stopped the girl to fix a scarf around her neck, something that she had never concerned herself with before. It was probably one of the best things she had done that day. Later, Yumi came looking for her, to ask for a permission to use the photograph taken by her classmate.

And found herself flat on her back with Sachiko right on top. Of course, she had taken the opportunity to make Yumi her petite soeur, even though she didn't even know her name then. It was a decision that she didn't even think about, at the time all she wanted was to get out of playing Cinderella. But it still came as a surprise that this first year rejected her offer.

Ogasawara Sachiko was also not accustomed to losing, so she made a bet.

But in the end, she get her Petite Soeur, and not from a bet, and it was the best decision. Yumi had been good to her, and at times she had been a pain, but the girl had put up with her like no one else.

Frowning in disappointment as she realized that it was just some other girl, assumingly from a different school, so she kept her eyes focused on the cash register, tending to let nothing distracting her anymore, she spent more than enough time in this place already, and she wanted nothing more than to just get back to the peace and quiet environment of her own home.

Ten minutes later Sachiko found herself outside trying to make her way through the crowd, yet again on the familiar street. Once she caught a sight of Jeans Shop she couldn't help but smiled at the memory of her first time in such a store. That very pair of Jeans were her favorite piece of clothing, and she wore them whenever she felt that she could, her father and grandfather had taken noticed of them and bought her several more pairs, they were considerably more expensive, and she liked them, just not as much as the pair that Yumi picked out for her.

The Rosa Chinensis en Bouton remembered the date with a soft smile, she had every intention them going out on a date again soon, they just didn't have the time to make it yet. Sachiko slowed a little in front of the store, considering going inside to maybe look for another pair of jeans.

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Saturday afternoon was just too nice for her to stay in and train, so Shigeyoshi skipped out. She had been training hard for months and a day like today she just want to walk around, get a few things and see people outside of the dojo. Not that she didn't like to train, she enjoyed it very much, and she loved Judo the training was a part of the sport. Most people thought of her as the one with the gift, but they never considered the fact that how much training had been instilled in her at a young age by her father, her grandmother, and several other Sensei's for her to get to where she was.

Shigeyoshi threw the duffle bag that contained her gi and some extra set of clothing over one shoulder and strolled along the street, looking at the shops on both sides, she had no intention of actually going into any of the store, but looking was –sometimes—fun, especially on a lazy Saturday afternoon like this.

Easily, Shigeyoshi Minako side stepped another kid running around without looking, her awareness was high, despite her appearance, and she could predict the directional to which these people would come at her, a good training if nothing else.

So, she was still practicing after all.

Now her grandmother couldn't smack her for skipping. Minako laughed to herself.

About half way down the street she was looking at the shoes shop on one side while trying to decide if needed another pair of sneakers, after all – she looked down at the very pair she was wearing – it was almost time for some new shoes.

At that moment of inattention she realized just a bit too late that someone was walking right into her.

"Wha.." Her training allowed her to slap out and kept from smacking her head on the hard concrete while absorbing all the weight.

And she was flat on her back with someone soft weight landed right on top of her.

Shigeyoshi lifted her head up to look at her attacker, and found a pair of wide gray eyes looking right back at her, and she noticed the how close their faces were. For a moment, they both were frozen in surprise. People were stopping and staring at them on the ground, but no one moved forward to help either of them up and off the street.

And quickly they sprung apart, once the position they were in sunk in good and proper.

"I'm sorry." The girl that had just flattened her apologized furiously while trying to help her up. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" Sachiko chastised herself for thinking about the body that was her cushion a few seconds ago, and how completely solid it felt.

Shigeyoshi took a good look at her while she brushed herself off, by her estimate this woman – girl really, was the same age as she was, although she dressed in a more refined manner and seemingly more dignified even though she had just gotten up from falling on top of someone in the middle of the street. And she was beautiful, gray eyes, long dark hair.

People around them moved on as they saw that nothing was happening.

Minako looked at the worried eye and gave a half smile.

"I'm ok," she brushed her hands together to find that her right palm was bleeding due to some scraping, so she tried to fish out her handkerchief from her pocket.

"Here," the other girl offered quickly and pulled out her white lace handkerchief. "Let me help you."

Minako accepted the offered help, as she inspected the wound.

"I am so sorry." The girl repeated again softly, wincing as she saw the blood.

"Don't worry about it," Minako laughed. "I've had worse in the dojo."

Sachiko looked at the girl she had landed on fully for the first time and it struck her at how pretty she was, even though she dressed nothing like a girl, or rather like the girls Rosa Chinensis en Bouton used to seeing.

This girl stood a little taller than her, dressing in dark blue hooded sweat-shirt, and cargo pants, her light color hair tied up in ponytail, leaving her face open, and beautiful, her eyes twinkled in good humor, but the hand she was holding was strong and rough.

"You'll need to clean that up, or it'll get infected."

Minako shrugged with a grin. "I guess I should." Then she seemed to remember something. "Oh, I'm Shigeyoshi Minako."

That brought a smile to the dark-hair girl's eyes, "Ogasawara Sachiko." She introduced herself politely. "Nice to meet you."

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Somehow they ended up at the fast food restaurant after Sachiko apologized profusely again, Minako simply said that she could join her for late lunch as an apology since she hated to eat by herself, an offer in which the girl agreed quickly.

So, now they were sitting across from each other in the corner booth, Shigeyoshi Minako was munching on her french-fries, her burger was in her hand. She had certainly noticed that the other girl seemed a bit awkward when they were ordering, like she didn't really know what to do, so she saved them both the trouble by took up the ordering and the paying, including carrying their food over to the chosen spot.

The place had probably already winded down after lunch crowd, and soon there would be the start of dinner rush, good thing that weren't earlier or later than this. It would've been even worse.

"How's your hand?"

"It's fine." Shigeyoshi shot her a grin, while holding up her palm for an inspection. They took advantage of the little sink area of the restaurant and washed out the dirt and blood, so now it just looked red and raw.

"I'm very sorry."

Ogasawara Sachiko was properly embarrassed, this was the second time she met someone new by crashing into them, and she hoped that it would not become a habit. She couldn't go around falling all over people, it would be a very unbecoming behavior of a lady.

"You wouldn't be the first to fall on me, so I'll say this again, I'm fine, stop apologizing."

Minako didn't know why she asked her for a late lunch, or why she even introduced herself, it wouldn't be out of the norm for her to just brushed it all off and walked away without a glance, but it was all splurge of the moment and then it just left her wondering. But she was never wrong about people and her first impression of them.

This meeting was like what happened months before, when she first saw Hinomoto Hajime.

She still remembered that day very well, it was really ended up to be a happy accident, because now she had made a life of one girl better.

Now if this accidental meeting going to end up like that, she didn't know, but she was willing to find out. All she had to do now was to start a conversation and end this silence.

"So…" Shigeyoshi started. "What do you do when you're not falling all over me on the street?"

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An hour later they both left the Fast food place.

Sachiko went to call for the driver to come pick her up, she offered her new friend a ride back home, but Minako declined, saying she had to do something else first.

So they went their separate ways, with each other's contact information in hand.

Shigeyoshi walked away contemplating the hour she spent with a total stranger, and felt that little thing in her stomach. At first she thought that maybe too much junk food just didn't agree with her, but then she knew it had nothing to do with the food, but everything to do with the beautiful stranger that kept her company.

She dismissed it easily enough, after all she wanted to pick up a new pair of sneakers and then she would have to make a run back home so her grandmother wouldn't be on her case again. Last thing she wanted to do was to be late for a later training session with a 6 th degree black belt that her grandma was, it always end up with extra long practice and wildly swinging cane.

So she went on with her planned activity and hopped on the bus to get home.

Later that night, after a particularly long practice she found herself laying on her back staring at the ceiling of her room, thinking about the beautiful stranger she had met. And the sensation of having that soft body on top of her, after that initial shock of being flattened on the ground, of course.

Shigeyoshi Minako realized with a pang that the little tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach was attraction, and she thought of the wide gray eyes looking at her, and she recalled the way long dark hair mingled with her lighter color.

"Oh, my god." She groaned, covering her face with both hand. She still felt the sting on the palm of her right hand.

The conversation held at the fast food joint came back to her. She had learned a lot of things about her newly acquaintance, the fact that she was a student at a prestigious Lillian School for Girls, and she was a member of the Student Council. Even the system of Soeur, which of course, Minako thought was strange, but then it was probably a good idea to keep some tradition going without making some iron rules or something.

In return, she told Sachiko about herself, about the school, the sport, and how much Judo was a large part of her life, even at home. And in conspiracy tone she told her of the skipped practice of the day. If she was hard pressed she would admit that she also showed off a little too. With each injury that was like a war trophy to her, she was proud of them and she said so to her new friend. Ogasawara Sachiko looked suitably impressed.

And even though she didn't realize it at the moment, she felt the little tingling through the entire conversation, and hung on every word that came out of those cherry red lips.

Now, what was she going to do about it?

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To Be Continued