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Aino Minako and Her Amazingly Fabulous Search For A Boyfriend
A Minakofic
Authors: Moogle (moogle@fanforce.net)
Kate B (kateb@moonromance.com)
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Naoko Takeuchi created the world; we're just borrowing it for a while with a few added
characters of our own and giving it another plot. Please don't steal it, or sue us. ;_;
This fic is PG-13, as has been noted in at least five prior places. Most likely if you're
under 13 but intelligent enough to understand what is going on in this fic, you'll be fine.
Moreover, that probably means you can pull a fast one on your parents. We won't tell if you
don't.
Thanks to John Keane for his comment that gave me the idea to do something in this chapter
that I probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
***
Weary from what seemed like years of anguish witnessing schemes of a certain blonde
charge of his, the white cat stretched out on the bed of said blonde in the morning sun,
enjoying what little peace he could get while the opportunity presented itself.
He was beginning to think that perhaps he'd done something to anger the kami, and
that they were taking out their anger on him indirectly by making Minako act like she had
been over the past month or so.
How else could her determination be explained? One plan would be about normal
Minako, and that was exhausted by her mad dash around Tokyo that one day with the two dogs.
In itself that wasn't so bad, either. Especially considering she left Artemis on the
sidelines for that one, even if it wasn't her intention.
It was the rapid succession - more accurately, failure - of her next three mad
schemes - the club surfing, the TV appearance, the personal ad - that really made him feel
like his hair was going to turn gray. Except, of course, that he only had fur, and that
didn't turn gray, but the sentiment remained quite the same. Admittedly, the spot on TV's
Blind Date not working out wasn't really her fault, since the producers cut her off before
she could pick a boy to date. But nonetheless, when it piled on to Minako's previous
failures, it made her ensuing schemes even more mad than the previous ones.
Fortunately for his sanity, he'd been collaborating with Luna and the other Inner
Senshi within the past couple of weeks or so to get Minako a boyfriend without one of her
mad schemes being involved. Unfortunately for his sanity, that had to be kept a secret, so
Minako continued scheming, blissfully unaware of the conspiring that took place all around
her.
Speaking of his charge, he looked over from his spot on the bed and noticed that she
was stirring. The night before she had informed him that her next scheme would be revealed
in the morning, and he had to admit to himself that he dreaded it greatly.
Her sleep finished, Minako sat up, covering a yawn with her hand. "Mornin',
Artemis," she mumbled.
The white cat was about to reply when he found himself unceremoniously dumped onto
her floor. She had stood up, he saw, and flicked him off the blanket when she did. 'This
does not bode well,' he noted to himself, expecting the worst despite his being sure that
he could not even comprehend the worst possible scenario.
"Very funny," he retorted sarcastically. His eyes followed the blonde across the
room to her desk, where she was looking at a paper.
Tiredness quickly disappeared from her countenance and demeanor. Minako pulled the
sheet of paper off of the desk and displayed it proudly for Artemis. "See this, Artemis?
It's my guaranteed ticket to a boyfriend!"
Not the first time he'd heard that, of course. He hoped it would be the last, but
was well aware that it probably would not be.
The cat cringed as her voice lifted to what he had come to recognize as meaning
another mad scheme's birth. "Aino Minako is going to play Datamatch!" exclaimed the blonde
as she flashed the cat her trademarked V-sign pose.
Artemis looked from the paper, to Minako, back to the paper, then heaved a large
sigh.
"Oh, boy."
***
Mission V: Datamatch
***
Telltale signs of disaster were falling into place, Makoto knew. There was a look in
the eyes of her single blonde friend, a look that meant she was planning something. A spring
in her step that wasn't there before, a spring that meant it had to be something big. And as
she well knew, the bigger the plan, the worse it seemed to blow up in Minako's face.
"I think Minako-chan is planning a new boyfriend scheme," said Ami after she took a
bite of her lunch, making Makoto wonder if her friend was reading her mind.
It was lunch period for the four Inner Senshi who attended Juuban High School.
Usagi, Ami, and Makoto sat in their usual spot in the courtyard, minus a certain blonde who
was at one of the tables, busily pondering a sheet of paper. The blonde- and blue-haired
girls looked at her curiously, but the brunette just shook her head and turned a grin back
to her friends.
"It's Datamatch time of year," she pointed out to the others, "and you know what
that means to Minako."
Ami regarded Makoto with a look that suggested otherwise. "Data-what?"
"Oomph! I kow!" Usagi exclaimed cheerfully, not pausing to consider that her mouth
was full. She blushed and swallowed when her friends glared at her, then repeated, "Ooh! I
know! Datamatch is, um... oh, right! It's that thing where you answer all of those multiple
choice questions and then a week later it tells you who you have the most in common with!"
"That's right," Makoto began, but was immediately interrupted by Usagi, who was
apparently just taking a breath, not finishing a sentence.
"I was going to fill it out last year, except then I remembered that I already have
Mamo-chan, and I didn't want to get matched up with someone and have them start chasing
after me, and -"
A held-up hand halted Usagi's rambling. She again blushed as she realized that her
attempts at good manners were not going very well.
"Oh, I see. It sounds like it might be entertaining to fill one out, just to see who
comes up on the results form."
Usagi looked over at Makoto, who looked at Usagi. Both blinked simulataneously, then
turned their gaze to Ami.
"You feeling okay, Ami-chan?" The brunette took her hand and placed it on Ami's
forehead. It felt normal enough.
"What? Can't I have a little diversion every now and then?"
"Well... as long as nobody tries to steal my Mamo-chan, it's all okay by me!"
Backwards fell Ami and Makoto, as Usagi blinked innocently and looked at them
curiously. "What?"
"Nothing, Usagi-chan," Makoto said, exasperated.
As Ami sat back up, she looked over towards where her desperate single friend was
sitting earlier. The blonde was gone. For a moment she considered mentioning it to Usagi and
Makoto, until she thought about it. Out of sight, out of mind, the young woman decided, and
so it was.
***
For Minako, it was a time that deserved nothing but silence from her surroundings.
The most solemn of occasions, as it was one that would hopefully impact the future of her
life - at least, the future that wasn't already set in (fluid) stone. But she wasn't
thinking about Crystal Tokyo one way or another. Love was at stake, and there could be no
dawdling along the path!
Most would have probably considered her sequestering herself in the classroom of
Sasaki-sensei to be dawdling along that very path, but that was because they just didn't
understand. Others did not have the plight of the Ai no Senshi, of being single when they
were taken, of searching desperately for a boyfriend yet being thwarted at every turn. But
others certainly did not have the resolve of Aino Minako, and only she could pull off such
an amazingly fabulous search for a boyfriend!
Likely only she could be distracted so by her thoughts, as well. The Datamatch form
sat, untouched, on the desk she was seated at, while she stared off at the ceiling and
continued mentally giving the most motivating (and ironic) speech she could possibly give.
With a bemused look on her face, Sasaki Kimiko watched the most energetic and
eccentric member of her tenth year World History class be her eccentric self. It was the
second year in a row that the teacher had the blonde student; the class the year before was
one on Government. For the young teacher, Minako reminded her somewhat of herself, albeit a
bit more unusual.
The teacher was more than happy to allow Minako use of her classroom during lunch
hour to sit there and do nothing, and not entirely for the purpose of silently laughing at
the blonde. She already had a student coming for a detention, so it was not a big deal,
besides.
"I'm here, Sasaki-sensei," came an arrogant-sounding male voice from the doorway.
Following that voice into the room was a tall and fairly muscular young man, built
quite like an athlete.
"Sit down, Tama," the teacher replied calmly, her eyes following him as he walked in
and sat down next to the blonde. If ever polar opposites existed in the world, she knew, it
was these two students.
The voice of the entering student startled Minako out of her thinking. Not so much
that it was a voice, but that it was a voice she was fairly sure she'd heard before. And
looking at the boy who walked in, she was fairly sure that she'd seen him before, and
recently.
"Aino," Tama said with a nod of his head, teeth clenched.
Minako tried to think of something to say that at least resembled tact; however,
this effort failed miserably. "Bachelor Number One," she sneered.
"I thought that was you."
"You know what they say. Whatever can go wrong will go south for the winter!"
"Uh... I don't think they really say that..."
"Jerk."
"Bitch."
"Hmph!"
Sasaki-sensei realized belatedly that she should have seen this coming. It was too
bad she'd forgotten about the previous day's debacle on TV's Blind Date. 'Not even the wise
can see all ends,' she consoled to herself. 'In the meantime, this is pretty funny!'
The blonde was trying to pout as cutely as possible - she had her elbows crossed
over her chest, her head lifted up in a snooty way, and saying 'hmph' every time Tama tried
to speak.
Eventually the jock gave up, leaning back in his chair and staring intently at the
drawings and carvings on the old wooden desk.
What passed for Minako's sensibility when she was in her boyfriend-crazed moods
emerged on the surface after a couple of minutes of that silliness. It occurred to her
suddenly that Tama must have known who the other contestants were, and he could tell her
who Bachelor Number Three was! She was a genius!
Problem: Minako was presently pouting.
Problem: Minako was not presently on speaking terms with Tama.
Problem: Minako had no clue where to find the guy if Tama told his name.
Well, every plan had knots that needed to be ironed out. Fortunately two of those
could be solved quite quickly; by the time she had finished the thought she was done
pouting and considering things to say.
"What're you in for?" she asked after another few moments of pause.
A glare was her only response.
"I don't see why you're all pissy. It's not my fault you came across like an
asshole yesterday." A pause before she continued, "You could've at least tried to seem
sensitive, you know."
"Not like it mattered, that number Three, he was a charmer," Tama said in a
defeated tone. Nor could the blonde blame him for doing so, as he was quite correct in his
assessment.
She sighed, realizing that this line of questioning was pointless - and beyond that
it was cutting into her Datamatch time! "Look," she said softly, "I'm just going to cut to
the chase. Bachelor Number Three - who was he?"
"We had to sign a contract saying we wouldn't tell you if we ever met you," Tama
lied, for no real reason other than that he could.
"Urgh! I can't take this anymore! I'm leaving!" Minako screamed in his face before
picking up her Datamatch paper and stomping out of the room.
Tama looked up to find Sasaki-sensei giving him a dubious look. "Sheesh, I could've
told her it was Asai."
A grin played across Tama's face. "Oh, I know. But she didn't. Revenge is a dish
best served cold, and now me and Aino are even again, after what she did."
The teacher shrugged. "Whatever you say," was what she said out loud, but to herself
she decided, 'This should be good.'
Blissfully unaware of the conversation exchange that took place not five seconds
after her exit from the room, Minako made her way elsewhere and continued to try to figure
out her Datamatch form.
***
An athlete cut from a different cloth than Tama made his way down a street in Juuban
that was like many others in Tokyo, towards a house that looked like many others, to visit
with a woman who had no peer in the entirety of Tokyo. Though this fellow was not quite
aware of the unique nature of the woman, since part of what made her so unique was that she
could keep her omniscience concealed.
The woman, who went by Shoga to the few who got to know her well enough and asked
her name, happened to be sitting on her porch with her two seeing-eye dogs that very
afternoon.
"Hi, Grandma!" he called out as he approached the house.
The dogs, Maxwell and Rembrandt, barked their recognition of the frequent visitor.
Blind though she was, her face could still light up like anyone else's when she was
happy. A visit from her favorite (only) grandson was enough to do the trick. "Asai-kun!" she
crooned in her slightly tinny voice. "What brings you here this afternoon?"
"Well, Grandma, there's this thing at school, and I thought that the Bureau of
Romance In Asai's Life would want to advise me as to what to do," Asai noted with a
good-natured grin.
"That was very thoughtful of you, Asai-kun. Hopefully the Bureau can help!" the old
woman exclaimed, a look of mirth on her face. "What is it you need? Dancing advice?"
"No, Grandma, it's nothing like that. See, there's this thing called Datamatch..."
The young man, old woman, and the two dogs sauntered into the house to chat about,
among other things, Datamatch.
Right after the door closed, a certain blonde and her companion cat came waltzing
down that same street, towards a house that looked like many others, oblivious to the cruel
twist of fate that the blonde was apparently made victim to.
"I still don't see what good this Datamatch thing is going to be, Minako-chan," the
cat said to the blonde, his frustration apparent.
"How many times do I have to explain it to you, Artemis?" demanded Minako.
Wisely, Artemis opted not to point out that she had yet to explain it to him. It
could not be said that the cat lacked self-preservation instincts. 'Must be a side-effect
from hanging around Luna so long,' he thought.
She sighed in exasperation, then lectured him in a tone that suggested she was
completely bored. "Datamatch is where someone answers a variety of multiple choice questions
on different subjects, then gives it to the people running it. The results are analyzed and
you are given the names of the people who have the most answers the same as you! So I can't
go wrong with it, because the most compatible will be right there!"
"But what if the guy who is meant for you doesn't even fill one out?"
Apparently his self-preservation instincts weren't quite up to snuff after all.
Minako booted him into a nearby tree.
"Baka," she huffed over her shoulder as she walked off towards her house.
As it turned out, the smiting was quite convenient for Artemis. He could then sneak
off and scheme behind Minako's back under the guise of being annoyed with her for kicking
him into a tree.
Lacking a clue as usual, the blonde kept on to her house.
"Hi, dear!" her mom called out as she strolled through the front door.
In itself this was a most unusual event, especially considering that her mother was
almost never home when she got home from school and that she and her mother almost never
talked. It wasn't something she minded, as they were both very busy, but that just made this
occurrence even more strange.
"Hi, Mom... why are you home early?" She tried to mask the confusion she felt but
had no success.
"Oh. Well, after that man tried to hurt you the other day, I thought maybe you
wouldn't want to be home alone right after school," her mother replied as she regarded
Minako with a concerned look.
Naturally, this ranked towards the bottom of things that Minako wanted to have
happen. At best it would be annoying, she was sure, and at worst it would be a hindrance to
her amazingly fabulous search for a boyfriend.
Then again, she couldn't blow off her mom for caring after the incident with
Kenisho. "Thanks, Mom," she said sincerely. It was touching, after all, even if she was
fairly sure it would become annoying. She hoped that wouldn't happen right away.
"How was your day at school?"
So much for that. She promised herself right then and there that under no
circumstances would she give her mom more details than necessary.
"It was fine, Mom. I picked up a Datamatch form today and I'm going to fill it out
tonight!"
So much for that.
"Datamatch? What's that, Mina-dear?" her mother inquired in a sweet tone, the kind
that mothers use when they ask a question to which they already have an answer, but simply
ask it to see their child squirm.
One foot in the ground already, the blonde swore that there was no way she would
plant the other one there, too.
"It's just this thing where they match people up based on how they answer some
questions, Mom."
So much for that. Minako could feel a drop of sweat growing across the back of her
hair.
The process was one that could have repeated on endlessly, but the Aino matriarch
had learned all she needed to. "That's nice, dear," the woman said. "Just let me know if you
need any help."
A relief for Minako, who was expecting to get embarrassed far worse than she did.
Thankful for dodging the bullet, she nodded to her mom and bounded up the steps. Slipping
into her room, she sat down at her desk and finally started filling out the Datamatch form.
"My, I see that old woman hasn't lost her touch one bit," Minako's mother noted with
a chuckle to the pattern she was stitching.
***
The house that looked like many others in the middle of the street that looked like
many others was apparently a popular destination on that afternoon (which was also like many
others, at least to most people). Coming 'round the corner a few minutes after the previous
pedestrians were two girls, both very excited, although one showed it far less than the
other.
"Are you sure we should be doing this right now, Usagi-chan?" asked the taller of
the two girls.
"Of course we are, Mako-chan! You saw how weird Minako-chan was at school today,
didn't you?" replied Usagi.
"Well, yeah..."
"So, since we already have boyfriends, we have to do what we can to help find her a
boyfriend!"
Not surprisingly, the brunette couldn't quite follow her friend's train of illogic.
She also opted not to mention that if it weren't for the whole destined love thing,
Usagi-chan would probably also be on the 'boyfriendless' list.
"I guess so," she said, not convinced, but curious enough to go along anyway. "What
exactly are we going to do?"
"Uh... I kind of don't know yet."
WHAM! was the sound as Makoto tipped over and landed on somebody's lawn.
"But that's okay!" Usagi continued as though nothing had happened. "We'll just make
it up as we go along!"
A male voice spoke up from behind them, nearly causing the blonde to leap right out
of her skin, "I wouldn't recommend that."
Both of them whirled around to find the speaker, only to find nobody standing there.
"Down here, you two," the voice said.
Each sweatdropped when she looked down to find Artemis standing there with an
expression of annoyance on his almost-human cat features.
"I knew that," the girls said at the same time before looking at one another and
sweatdropping further.
"How did you know where we were?" Makoto inquired.
The look of annoyance seemed to get stronger. "You two were so loud, a deaf dog
could have followed you if he wanted to."
"Ooooooooops," the blonde managed with a demure giggle.
"Why don't you look at some of Asai's answers, then get Minako to fill out those
answers when you see her?" the cat suggested.
"Um, we weren't going to see Min-" Usagi began before an elbow planted in her rib
cut her off.
"That's a good idea, Artemis," Makoto decided. "Why don't you come with us to make
sure we do it right?"
With a sigh, the cat consented to join them. He'd hoped to find Luna with Usagi, but
that wasn't the case, and he knew it was likely that these two would mess up if he weren't
there with them...
Fortunately for the shreds of sanity that remained in Artemis' feline mind, Usagi
and Makoto remained quiet during the short trek from the street corner to the old woman's
house.
At Shoga's door, Makoto timidly reached out and knocked on the door in the classic
'shave and a hair cut, two bits' pattern.
"Coming!" they heard an elderly-sounding voice shout.
Although neither Usagi nor Makoto had met the old woman or been inside her house
before, they could picture in their minds what had to be chaos that they were hearing
through the door.
As the doorbell rang, they could hear two dogs begin barking rather loudly. It
sounded like they started running around the house, too, with somebody chasing them and
yelling (a male voice, so probably Asai). They winced as they heard a couple of things
shatter.
That's what it sounded like, anyway, because when the door opened to reveal a
grinning, diminutive woman. From what they could see of the house over her head, it looked
like absolutely nothing had happened.
"Hello! Can I help you today?" the old woman crowed happily.
"Um..." Makoto stammered.
Usagi drove over her like a Mack truck. "Hi!" she called out cheerfully. "I'm Usagi,
and this is Makoto. We're friends of Ami-chan's, and we just wanted to come by and meet the
old woman she talked about!"
The old woman responded with a knowing look. "Would you girls like to come in? I've
made some tea and cookies for my grandson, since he's over here and filling out his Data...
Datamatch? Yes, that's it. Do you girls know about Datamatch?"
"Yes, we know all about Datamatch. A friend of ours told us about it..." Makoto said
with a wink.
"We hear you know her! Minako-chan!" Usagi exclaimed.
So much for subtlety, Artemis thought.
The grandmother might not have been able to see Makoto's exasperated sigh, but it
was loud enough that it was a wonder Asai didn't pick it up in the next room over. On her
face, the grin widened. "Ah, yes, Minako-chan... she's a very popular person these days."
The irritation of wanting to speak yet not being able to was worse than it usually
was for the cat. Then again, that was likely because it was a very rare occasion when he got
to speak with a rational agent who did not think him incompetant merely because of how he
was born - namely, being male. And he didn't even want to meow his frustration at the girls;
he was well aware that this old woman was perceptive, and he didn't want to give her even
the slightest clue that "Arty" might be a cat.
"I hope you don't mind if we bring our cat in too," said Usagi.
Artemis wanted to claw out a chunk of the blonde's skin, but that probably still
wouldn't have gone over very well with Luna or anyone else for that matter, and he knew it
wouldn't have gotten his point across anyway.
"That's quite alright, Usagi-chan," the old woman informed her. She led them in to
the room where the young man was dutifully filling out something on a sheet of paper. Closer
inspection revealed it to be the Datamatch form.
A look of surprise crossed the young man's face as he noticed the two newcomers. He
was not entirely familiar with Usagi and Makoto, but he knew enough that the appearance of
the two girls at his grandmother's house was a strange occurrence. "Ah. Hello, Tsukino-san,
Kino-san," the stunned Asai offered.
With a shake of her head, a bounce of her odango, and a wave of her hand, the blonde
dismissed the unnecessary formality.
He shrugged, then looked at them curiously as he noticed the white cat on Usagi's
shoulder. "Um... forgive me for asking," he began, "but why do you have Minako-chan's cat on
your shoulder?"
As much as the three of them might have liked to be elated at Asai's use of the
-chan honorific to refer to Minako, they were all suddenly put on an awkward spot by him
recognizing that Artemis 'belonged' to her.
"Uh, we were, uh..." Usagi stammered, lamely.
"We're taking him for a walk, because we just came from Minako-chan's!" Makoto cut
in. "Yeah!"
The grandmother was glad they did the lying for her, because she hated to have to
resort to lies, although sometimes they were quite necessary. Minako-chan had a cat? The
girl hadn't mentioned that before. Curious...
"Oh," said Asai, and that was that.
Except for the poor male, who was without knowing it caught up in the currents of
something bigger than he'd been involved in since the time the Death Busters tried to
extract his heart crystal, everyone in the room was well aware that the girls really weren't
there for tea and cookies. But of course, for the sake of that male, the others had to keep
up the ruse.
While the old woman was fetching some more tea, Makoto picked up a pen from the
counter and started to move towards Asai, so she could read over his shoulder. She noticed
a glare directed her way from Artemis and realized that she probably wasn't being discreet
enough; to solve this she picked up a magazine that was also laying on the counter.
Unfortunately for the brunette, her skills in the cloak-and-dagger field were
lacking. The young man was aware of her presence the entire time as she tried to secretly
scribble down numbers that he was filling out.
Makoto was thinking to herself as she wrote each thing down. '12-C, 13-B, 14-D,
15-C... geez, these seem like what Minako-chan would answer...' Then she was startled by
someone clearing their throat.
Asai was looking at her, barely containing a smirk. "Can I help you?"
"No!" exclaimed the brunette, a bit hastily. "I was just, uh, reading this excellent
magazine, is all!"
"Well, enjoy," the volleyball player told her, his smirk no longer being contained.
"Bunnies are cute."
"Uh, yes... yes they are," she replied, confused.
It was after a moment's thought that Makoto realized she was holding a Playboy
magazine. She had the decency to blush as she hurriedly put it back on the counter and fled
to the other room.
While the undertones of that particular exchange flew over Usagi's head, at least
she did catch on and notice that pretending to read a magazine wasn't an effective method of
being secretive.
The blonde girl walked across the kitchen, slowly, with a pen in hand. She, too,
tried to scribble answers that Asai had on his form onto her palm. '21-D, 22-A, 23-B, 24-C',
she thought as she hurriedly scribed them onto her palm.
When the young man was convinced that Usagi too was watching him, he turned to find
her busy doing something else and got back to his work.
Usagi was washing her hands.
She couldn't see any of it happening, but though her vision had dulled over the
years, her imagination sure hadn't, and the picture she was getting made Shoga feel like she
was eighteen again. She hadn't had this much fun in years, no doubt about it! And beyond
that, she knew if Minako-chan was friends with people who were this much fun, that was even
more reason for her to set the girl up with her grandson. It was too bad he never brought
his friends over, they were probably funny, too.
"How are the tea and cookies, everyone?" she asked. Oh, how hard it was to hold back
the laughter!
"Just fine, Grandma, as always," Asai responded quickly, then took a bite out of a
cookie that he'd not yet touched to give the illusion that he'd been eating.
The girls mumbled their assents to that statement from where they were. No surprise,
Artemis sighed as he watched it all from his perch.
"Um... we have to go, uh, do our homework now!" the brunette proclaimed nervously
after a minute of awkward silence.
For once, Usagi seemed to catch on. "Yeah! Uh, sorry to have imposed!"
They moved towards the door quickly, and Shoga showed them the way out after
assuring them that it was no trouble whatsoever, and that they could come visit any time
they wanted.
"Weird girls, Grandma," Asai decided after they'd left. "I hope you're not trying to
set me up with anyone like that."
"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" Her sightless eyes sparkled with
innocence and she giggled much like a schoolgirl would have. "Now, what's next?"
"Number thirty, Grandma. 'At a party, you are most likely to be found here...'"
***
They were across the street before anyone spoke.
"It's a good thing you girls never treated one of our worse enemies like that,"
remarked Artemis in the most father-like tone he could muster.
For that tone he was rewarded by being dropped right off of his perch to the ground.
He landed on his feet.
Artemis chided himself. He should have known better. Perhaps all of this time spent
around the Senshi was dumbing down his senses...
"Hey, we didn't do that bad!" objected Makoto.
"Yeah!" added Usagi. "At least we got a few answers that Asai had!"
"What did you do after you got those answers, Usagi-chan?"
"Duh! Mako-chan and I left!"
Luckily for Artemis, he'd been let down from Usagi's shoulder, because otherwise the
flip he took straight for the pavement might have injured him. "What did you do before that,
Usagi-chan?" His eyebrow was twitching. Hell, both of them were. Maybe even his tail too,
for good measure.
To Usagi's credit, it finally hit her what Artemis meant. "Hehehehe... heheh...
hehe... heh... eh..."
"I've still got mine, you know," the brunette proclaimed defiantly.
The cat scoffed, "On your forehead, maybe."
A sweatdrop grew on Makoto's brow and she innocently scratched the back of her head.
"Right. I meant to do that, you know."
"Let's just get to Mina-chan's," Artemis suggested. He didn't add, 'before you make
me wish I wasn't intelligent.'
There was a cloud of defeat hanging over the girls' heads as they walked up the
sidewalk leading to Minako's house. But they weren't ready to give up just yet, not when
their goal had not been reached!
After the doorbell of the Aino household rang, they heard someone call out, "On my
way!" and walk across the floor towards the door.
It opened to reveal the Aino matriarch, who was as surprised to see the girls as
they were to see her. "What are you here for, girls?"
Makoto started talking right away so Usagi didn't get the chance, which was most
likely for the better. "We came to see how Minako-chan was doing with her Datamatch form."
"Oh!" A smile appeared on the mother's face. "Well, why didn't you say so right
away? Come on in! She's really excited about it, you know."
"We'd sort of gotten that impression... didn't we, Artemis?"
The cat meowed and walked over to Minako's mother, who cooed at him. "Oh, little
Artemis! That's where you've been! I was getting worried about you..." The woman picked
the cat up and started scratching behind his ears.
Well, Artemis thought, life could be a lot worse than this after all.
***
The sight that he found in Minako's room almost made him take back that thought.
It was like the place had transformed into a war zone, and the fact that the blonde had
dug up a vintage flak helmet and dressed herself in battle camouflage was only part of
it. Granted, a large part of it, but not all of it. There was also the paint she had smudged
on her face.
'Where *did* she get those camos?' Artemis wondered silently. They even had 'Aino'
on the name patch. He didn't think she'd had any veterans anywhere in the family, and he'd
never seen it before...
Moving along in his observations of the transformed room, there were a couple of
chairs stood up with a blanket draped over them, trying to mimic an old command post. From
somewhere she'd even found a flashlight that looked old, and a clipboard, and she'd been
sitting under there filling out the Datamatch form.
When Usagi, Makoto, and Artemis walked in, they stared at her as though she was
insane, and she stared right back at them as though they were insane for thinking that she
was insane.
"Hi, Mina-chan," Usagi said after the staring had gone on for long enough.
"We just came by to see how the Datamatch filling-out was going," the cat added
before more staring could ensue.
"I was just getting in the mood," Minako informed them, as though what she was doing
was the most natural thing in the world.
"Ah... have you started yet?" The young woman who moonlighted as Sailor Jupiter was
hesitant to ask the question - knowing Minako, the answer was as likely to be 'no' as
'yes'.
The blonde in the helmet flashed a V-sign at her friend. "Of course! I'm more than
half finished, you know!"
If the cat had hands, he'd have been wiping his brow in relief. Instead he settled
for letting out his breath.
"I'm glad to hear that," the cat said, and if he had ever meant anything more in
his entire existence, he wasn't sure what it was.
"Can we see your answers?" the future Queen inquired.
The other blonde glared at her friend as though Usagi had just asked her to cut
off her own right wrist.
"Uh..." Usagi stuttered under the glare. "We just wanted to, er, make sure you
didn't have any mistakes?"
Suddenly Minako was all smiles. "Okay!" she said in a sing-song voice and happily
forked over the paper-in-question.
As much as the cat was sure that he'd taught Minako over the past three years, as
much as he'd thought she had grown, the fear of how much of a disaster area that sheet
of paper might end up being made him close his eyes. He didn't open them until Makoto
whispered something to him and he realized they were shut.
Miraculously, except for the marks that his charge had made on the paper to show
her answers, the sheet was immaculate.
"Minako-chan, don't you think number fourteen should be 'D'?" Makoto was pretty
sure that's what the smudges on her hand said.
"I think it should be 'C', Mako-chan," Usagi informed her.
Artemis could see where this was going, and he wisely scrambled over to Minako's
bed and sat down to observe the brewing conflict from afar.
"No offense, Usagi-chan, but I don't think you'd know anything about number
fourteen."
"Oh yeah? Well, what would *you* know about number fourteen, Mako-chan?"
"Remember, Usagi-chan, I-"
Makoto was cut off by Minako clearing her throat, which was probably for the
better, as she was either going to reveal the plan or find herself throttling Usagi
fairly soon.
"Guys," said Minako calmly, "thanks for coming and all, but you're distracting
me too much, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Usagi and Makoto graciously accepted the unexpected bailout and headed on their
merry way.
"Artemis," said the blonde as she hunkered back down in her 'bunker', "I have
some really weird friends."
The cat was afraid that he'd start laughing if he started talking, but he
managed to say, "Yes, you do," before the laughter began.
Minako had already tuned him out anyway.
***
THE NEXT DAY
During the lunch periods at Juuban High School, a table was set up in the
hallway near the cafeteria for the students to turn in their Datamatch forms. The wall
behind it was adorned with a large sign reading "DATAMATCH" in several places, adorned
with a few of the cheesiest slogans that the people in charge of the program could
create with their collective creativity.
Manning the table on that particular day was Tsubasa, who, if asked, probably
could not say how he'd come to be involved with the Future Educators of Japan. And it
wasn't due to the exchange student from America, Sarah, either. That particular
American happened to be the other person at the table. Tsubasa certainly hadn't
manipulated things just to get to work with her, no sir.
It was a pretty slow day, with not many people swinging by to drop off their
forms of yet, so he found himself thinking back to how he'd never have met the girl
a few months ago if it hadn't been for a strange student named Minako...
***
As usual, Tsubasa was the first person of his English Speaking class who had
arrived and sat down in Brown-sensei's classroom. He didn't really know why it was
always like that, because he couldn't imagine why the other students would not want
to arrive early and maybe talk in English casually with Brown-sensei, who was a
really nice guy.
For lack of better things to do, he found himself staring at the doorway to
the classroom, waiting for the familiar yet unfriendly faces to walk in.
The first face to appear was one that was neither entirely familiar, nor
unfriendly. He recognized the girl as a student he'd seen around before - she played
a sport, was it softball? But she certainly wasn't in the class.
"Good morning to you, Aino-san," the sensei said as Minako walked in, rising to
greet her.
"Good morning, Brown-sensei!" the girl effervesced. It wasn't natural
to be that cheery, especially not early in the morning.
Brown-sensei looked to be reading over a paper in his hand. "Have you brought
my new student today?"
"Yeah!" She waved to someone he couldn't see, who must have been standing in
the hallway. "Come on in, Sarah-chan!"
If Tsubasa paid attention to looks - not that he did or anything - he'd have
probably thought the gaijin who walked in was a goddess of some sort. Not only was she
about ten centimeters shorter than him but she just appeared so plain, like she didn't
at all try to impress people.
He missed a significant look that passed between the blonde and the sensei, but
that didn't really matter.
"Why don't you go sit over there next to Tsubasa-kun?" he heard Brown-sensei
suggest.
The geek didn't have time to object, and besides, he didn't want to.
"Hello, I'm Tsubasa. Pleased to meet you," he said in his best English.
"What should I do with this, Tsubasa-kun?" the girl asked.
Wait a minute, she was supposed to greet him with the Vulcan salute, not
that...
***
"What should I do with this, Tsubasa-kun?" asked Sarah a second time.
Apparently someone had walked up to the table while he was zoned out.
To his shock he found that it was Minako.
"Please make sure it gets where it's supposed to go ok," the blonde
pleaded. "I'm really desperate."
That voice sounded familiar, he thought. And desperate? Hm...
"Bachelorette?" he asked in disbelief.
The surprised look on Minako's face probably looked something like the one
that was on his own face. "Bachelor Number Two? That's you?"
"Yeah. That was kinda fun, going on that show," Tsubasa said with a grin.
"Too bad you didn't get to pick Three; I could tell you were going to."
"Who was he? Can you tell me, please?"
"Sorry, I promised that I wouldn't tell." Well, that was technically true.
He'd promised himself just a few seconds ago when he realized just how much Asai and
Minako had in common.
Minako sighed and turned to leave.
"I'm sure you'll see him somewhere," he told her. She mumbled something and
walked off.
Tsubasa wanted to slap himself in the forehead, because Asai appeared at the
table not ten seconds after Minako had walked away.
The two exchanged pleasantries like they did whenever they saw one another,
then Tsubasa quickly informed Asai that he'd gotten word that the Bachelorette went
to Juuban. Asai could not have handed over his Datamatch form any quicker. The young
man who played volleyball seemed to skip down the hallway, in the exact opposite
direction that Minako had gone. Too bad it wasn't volleyball season.
"What was that about?" the gaijin asked him after it was all over.
He hoped she didn't notice the blush. "Eh... it's a long story."
***
ONE WEEK LATER
The table was in the same place in the same hallway, with the same sign
hanging behind it. Although the sign had suffered from some graffiti, as all signs do
in high schools - someone had written obscene phrases about the gaijin in a couple of
places, which Tsubasa dutifully scratched out.
Though, on this particular week, rather than getting forms from students, the
table staffers were collecting money and handing back results.
When Minako approached the table, bounced probably being a more accurate term for
what she did, only Sarah was seated there, although the blonde wasn't sure why she was
alone.
"Your name, please?" Sarah asked with a smile.
"Aino Minako at your service!" Minako called out so loud that everyone in the
hallway turned to look at her.
"Hm... Minako, Minako..." the exchange student rifled through form after form
within the box with the Datamatch results, checked twice, and thrice, even, but she
did not find Minako's form. "I don't see it in the box..."
The blonde mumbled, "Lost... just like my dreams of finding a boyfriend..."
Tears running down her cheeks, and holding back sobs, she ran off.
Tsubasa walked up to the table just then, wiping his hands on his pants to dry
them off after washing them in the bathroom. "What was that about?"
"I was looking for her form, but I couldn't find it," Sarah replied.
"What name did she give you?" Tsubasa asked. Knowing the blonde, she might even
somehow give the wrong name.
"Aino Minako. So I looked all through the box for Minako, but there are no
Minako sheets..."
If it hadn't happened to someone that he knew, Tsubasa would have laughed. "I
think you forgot that in Japan, people give their last names first, Sarah-chan."
"Oh, no..." This certainly negatively impacted the girl's mood, knowing that
she might have wrecked someone else's shot at romance.
The young man had fished Minako's sheet (from the 'A' section) out and was
looking at it. Not surprisingly, the number one match line said: KAYAMA ASAI 100.
Though it was a bit surprising that was the only match listed. "Hey, Sarah-chan, could
you pull out the sheet for Kayama Asai?"
She started looking in the 'A' section before he corrected her, and she fished
out Asai's sheet from the 'K' section. The number one match line said: AINO MINAKO 100.
And it was also the only match listed. He folded the sheet up and stuck it in his back
pocket.
"I've never seen that before," Sarah commented as she fidgeted with her dirty
blonde hair.
"Me, neither," was all Tsubasa could manage to say on that subject, mostly because
he was thinking about something else. "Uh, S-Sarah-chan?" he stammered, quietly, but loud
enough to get her attention. "Do y-you think y-you'd, uh, like to g-get t-together for
l-lunch some t-time and work on your Ja-Japanese, maybe?"
His companion's face lit up. "Why, Tsubasa-kun! Are you asking me out on a date?"
"Well, I, uh... er, that is... well, yes."
"I'd love to!" And she leaned over and gave the geek a hug.
Tsubasa wasn't exactly a believer in Fate. To paraphrase Han Solo, he'd seen a lot
of things, and none of them led him to believe that there was some all-powerful Fate
controlling everything. But this sure took the cake.
***
"I can't believe they lost your Datamatch results, Asai-kun," the old woman said,
her voice for once twinged with a bit of irritation.
"Neither can I, Grandma... it's just weird," said Asai. He didn't really want to
talk about it, so the young man just went and did his homework.
Shoga had Maxwell and Rembrandt lead her into the living room, where she sat down to
do some serious thinking. It had been a long time since she had almost directly put her hand
in on making a match and the effort did not succeed in short order. A very long time indeed.
Before it was just fun and games, but now the old woman was taking it personally. This was
war. Two months, she decided, was far long enough to have been goofing around. She'd work on
a plan to take the initiative, and by the kami that plan would work, or she wasn't blind!
***
If a week ago Minako's room had been a war zone, Artemis thought, then right now it
is a waterworks. Of course, that was entirely due to Minako and her latest overreaction to
her failure to find a valid boyfriend candidate. And really, he couldn't blame her, because
this time she hadn't even done anything Minako-like to mess it up. Sure, she'd been going a
bit crazy with the flak helmet and jacket, but it wasn't her fault the form got lost
somehow.
He had to admit that he felt bad for her, because although he relished his own
bachelor status (and still couldn't figure out how he and Luna were going to get together,
even having seen his daughter from the future) he knew that teenage human girls just
weren't like that. He even felt so bad that he was going to go to Shoga as soon as possible
and get something in motion.
As he heard Minako begin another round of sobbing, a thought suddenly occurred to
him.
For all of the insanity that Minako had been through in her search for a boyfriend,
it would pale in comparison next to what she would be like once she actually HAD a
boyfriend.
"Oh, boy."
***
This part really wrote itself from the bit where Usagi washes her hands onward. I wish that
would happen more often.
Moogle subscribes to a variant of the Alfred Hitchcock School of Self-Insertion. Did you see
the bit part he gave himself in this chapter?
Stay tuned for next time, when Shoga comes out from the shadows and starts working on her
devious plot, as Aino Minako and Her Amazingly Fabulous Search For A Boyfriend continues!
-End
Aino Minako and Her Amazingly Fabulous Search For A Boyfriend
A Minakofic
Authors: Moogle (moogle@fanforce.net)
Kate B (kateb@moonromance.com)
========
Naoko Takeuchi created the world; we're just borrowing it for a while with a few added
characters of our own and giving it another plot. Please don't steal it, or sue us. ;_;
This fic is PG-13, as has been noted in at least five prior places. Most likely if you're
under 13 but intelligent enough to understand what is going on in this fic, you'll be fine.
Moreover, that probably means you can pull a fast one on your parents. We won't tell if you
don't.
Thanks to John Keane for his comment that gave me the idea to do something in this chapter
that I probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
***
Weary from what seemed like years of anguish witnessing schemes of a certain blonde
charge of his, the white cat stretched out on the bed of said blonde in the morning sun,
enjoying what little peace he could get while the opportunity presented itself.
He was beginning to think that perhaps he'd done something to anger the kami, and
that they were taking out their anger on him indirectly by making Minako act like she had
been over the past month or so.
How else could her determination be explained? One plan would be about normal
Minako, and that was exhausted by her mad dash around Tokyo that one day with the two dogs.
In itself that wasn't so bad, either. Especially considering she left Artemis on the
sidelines for that one, even if it wasn't her intention.
It was the rapid succession - more accurately, failure - of her next three mad
schemes - the club surfing, the TV appearance, the personal ad - that really made him feel
like his hair was going to turn gray. Except, of course, that he only had fur, and that
didn't turn gray, but the sentiment remained quite the same. Admittedly, the spot on TV's
Blind Date not working out wasn't really her fault, since the producers cut her off before
she could pick a boy to date. But nonetheless, when it piled on to Minako's previous
failures, it made her ensuing schemes even more mad than the previous ones.
Fortunately for his sanity, he'd been collaborating with Luna and the other Inner
Senshi within the past couple of weeks or so to get Minako a boyfriend without one of her
mad schemes being involved. Unfortunately for his sanity, that had to be kept a secret, so
Minako continued scheming, blissfully unaware of the conspiring that took place all around
her.
Speaking of his charge, he looked over from his spot on the bed and noticed that she
was stirring. The night before she had informed him that her next scheme would be revealed
in the morning, and he had to admit to himself that he dreaded it greatly.
Her sleep finished, Minako sat up, covering a yawn with her hand. "Mornin',
Artemis," she mumbled.
The white cat was about to reply when he found himself unceremoniously dumped onto
her floor. She had stood up, he saw, and flicked him off the blanket when she did. 'This
does not bode well,' he noted to himself, expecting the worst despite his being sure that
he could not even comprehend the worst possible scenario.
"Very funny," he retorted sarcastically. His eyes followed the blonde across the
room to her desk, where she was looking at a paper.
Tiredness quickly disappeared from her countenance and demeanor. Minako pulled the
sheet of paper off of the desk and displayed it proudly for Artemis. "See this, Artemis?
It's my guaranteed ticket to a boyfriend!"
Not the first time he'd heard that, of course. He hoped it would be the last, but
was well aware that it probably would not be.
The cat cringed as her voice lifted to what he had come to recognize as meaning
another mad scheme's birth. "Aino Minako is going to play Datamatch!" exclaimed the blonde
as she flashed the cat her trademarked V-sign pose.
Artemis looked from the paper, to Minako, back to the paper, then heaved a large
sigh.
"Oh, boy."
***
Mission V: Datamatch
***
Telltale signs of disaster were falling into place, Makoto knew. There was a look in
the eyes of her single blonde friend, a look that meant she was planning something. A spring
in her step that wasn't there before, a spring that meant it had to be something big. And as
she well knew, the bigger the plan, the worse it seemed to blow up in Minako's face.
"I think Minako-chan is planning a new boyfriend scheme," said Ami after she took a
bite of her lunch, making Makoto wonder if her friend was reading her mind.
It was lunch period for the four Inner Senshi who attended Juuban High School.
Usagi, Ami, and Makoto sat in their usual spot in the courtyard, minus a certain blonde who
was at one of the tables, busily pondering a sheet of paper. The blonde- and blue-haired
girls looked at her curiously, but the brunette just shook her head and turned a grin back
to her friends.
"It's Datamatch time of year," she pointed out to the others, "and you know what
that means to Minako."
Ami regarded Makoto with a look that suggested otherwise. "Data-what?"
"Oomph! I kow!" Usagi exclaimed cheerfully, not pausing to consider that her mouth
was full. She blushed and swallowed when her friends glared at her, then repeated, "Ooh! I
know! Datamatch is, um... oh, right! It's that thing where you answer all of those multiple
choice questions and then a week later it tells you who you have the most in common with!"
"That's right," Makoto began, but was immediately interrupted by Usagi, who was
apparently just taking a breath, not finishing a sentence.
"I was going to fill it out last year, except then I remembered that I already have
Mamo-chan, and I didn't want to get matched up with someone and have them start chasing
after me, and -"
A held-up hand halted Usagi's rambling. She again blushed as she realized that her
attempts at good manners were not going very well.
"Oh, I see. It sounds like it might be entertaining to fill one out, just to see who
comes up on the results form."
Usagi looked over at Makoto, who looked at Usagi. Both blinked simulataneously, then
turned their gaze to Ami.
"You feeling okay, Ami-chan?" The brunette took her hand and placed it on Ami's
forehead. It felt normal enough.
"What? Can't I have a little diversion every now and then?"
"Well... as long as nobody tries to steal my Mamo-chan, it's all okay by me!"
Backwards fell Ami and Makoto, as Usagi blinked innocently and looked at them
curiously. "What?"
"Nothing, Usagi-chan," Makoto said, exasperated.
As Ami sat back up, she looked over towards where her desperate single friend was
sitting earlier. The blonde was gone. For a moment she considered mentioning it to Usagi and
Makoto, until she thought about it. Out of sight, out of mind, the young woman decided, and
so it was.
***
For Minako, it was a time that deserved nothing but silence from her surroundings.
The most solemn of occasions, as it was one that would hopefully impact the future of her
life - at least, the future that wasn't already set in (fluid) stone. But she wasn't
thinking about Crystal Tokyo one way or another. Love was at stake, and there could be no
dawdling along the path!
Most would have probably considered her sequestering herself in the classroom of
Sasaki-sensei to be dawdling along that very path, but that was because they just didn't
understand. Others did not have the plight of the Ai no Senshi, of being single when they
were taken, of searching desperately for a boyfriend yet being thwarted at every turn. But
others certainly did not have the resolve of Aino Minako, and only she could pull off such
an amazingly fabulous search for a boyfriend!
Likely only she could be distracted so by her thoughts, as well. The Datamatch form
sat, untouched, on the desk she was seated at, while she stared off at the ceiling and
continued mentally giving the most motivating (and ironic) speech she could possibly give.
With a bemused look on her face, Sasaki Kimiko watched the most energetic and
eccentric member of her tenth year World History class be her eccentric self. It was the
second year in a row that the teacher had the blonde student; the class the year before was
one on Government. For the young teacher, Minako reminded her somewhat of herself, albeit a
bit more unusual.
The teacher was more than happy to allow Minako use of her classroom during lunch
hour to sit there and do nothing, and not entirely for the purpose of silently laughing at
the blonde. She already had a student coming for a detention, so it was not a big deal,
besides.
"I'm here, Sasaki-sensei," came an arrogant-sounding male voice from the doorway.
Following that voice into the room was a tall and fairly muscular young man, built
quite like an athlete.
"Sit down, Tama," the teacher replied calmly, her eyes following him as he walked in
and sat down next to the blonde. If ever polar opposites existed in the world, she knew, it
was these two students.
The voice of the entering student startled Minako out of her thinking. Not so much
that it was a voice, but that it was a voice she was fairly sure she'd heard before. And
looking at the boy who walked in, she was fairly sure that she'd seen him before, and
recently.
"Aino," Tama said with a nod of his head, teeth clenched.
Minako tried to think of something to say that at least resembled tact; however,
this effort failed miserably. "Bachelor Number One," she sneered.
"I thought that was you."
"You know what they say. Whatever can go wrong will go south for the winter!"
"Uh... I don't think they really say that..."
"Jerk."
"Bitch."
"Hmph!"
Sasaki-sensei realized belatedly that she should have seen this coming. It was too
bad she'd forgotten about the previous day's debacle on TV's Blind Date. 'Not even the wise
can see all ends,' she consoled to herself. 'In the meantime, this is pretty funny!'
The blonde was trying to pout as cutely as possible - she had her elbows crossed
over her chest, her head lifted up in a snooty way, and saying 'hmph' every time Tama tried
to speak.
Eventually the jock gave up, leaning back in his chair and staring intently at the
drawings and carvings on the old wooden desk.
What passed for Minako's sensibility when she was in her boyfriend-crazed moods
emerged on the surface after a couple of minutes of that silliness. It occurred to her
suddenly that Tama must have known who the other contestants were, and he could tell her
who Bachelor Number Three was! She was a genius!
Problem: Minako was presently pouting.
Problem: Minako was not presently on speaking terms with Tama.
Problem: Minako had no clue where to find the guy if Tama told his name.
Well, every plan had knots that needed to be ironed out. Fortunately two of those
could be solved quite quickly; by the time she had finished the thought she was done
pouting and considering things to say.
"What're you in for?" she asked after another few moments of pause.
A glare was her only response.
"I don't see why you're all pissy. It's not my fault you came across like an
asshole yesterday." A pause before she continued, "You could've at least tried to seem
sensitive, you know."
"Not like it mattered, that number Three, he was a charmer," Tama said in a
defeated tone. Nor could the blonde blame him for doing so, as he was quite correct in his
assessment.
She sighed, realizing that this line of questioning was pointless - and beyond that
it was cutting into her Datamatch time! "Look," she said softly, "I'm just going to cut to
the chase. Bachelor Number Three - who was he?"
"We had to sign a contract saying we wouldn't tell you if we ever met you," Tama
lied, for no real reason other than that he could.
"Urgh! I can't take this anymore! I'm leaving!" Minako screamed in his face before
picking up her Datamatch paper and stomping out of the room.
Tama looked up to find Sasaki-sensei giving him a dubious look. "Sheesh, I could've
told her it was Asai."
A grin played across Tama's face. "Oh, I know. But she didn't. Revenge is a dish
best served cold, and now me and Aino are even again, after what she did."
The teacher shrugged. "Whatever you say," was what she said out loud, but to herself
she decided, 'This should be good.'
Blissfully unaware of the conversation exchange that took place not five seconds
after her exit from the room, Minako made her way elsewhere and continued to try to figure
out her Datamatch form.
***
An athlete cut from a different cloth than Tama made his way down a street in Juuban
that was like many others in Tokyo, towards a house that looked like many others, to visit
with a woman who had no peer in the entirety of Tokyo. Though this fellow was not quite
aware of the unique nature of the woman, since part of what made her so unique was that she
could keep her omniscience concealed.
The woman, who went by Shoga to the few who got to know her well enough and asked
her name, happened to be sitting on her porch with her two seeing-eye dogs that very
afternoon.
"Hi, Grandma!" he called out as he approached the house.
The dogs, Maxwell and Rembrandt, barked their recognition of the frequent visitor.
Blind though she was, her face could still light up like anyone else's when she was
happy. A visit from her favorite (only) grandson was enough to do the trick. "Asai-kun!" she
crooned in her slightly tinny voice. "What brings you here this afternoon?"
"Well, Grandma, there's this thing at school, and I thought that the Bureau of
Romance In Asai's Life would want to advise me as to what to do," Asai noted with a
good-natured grin.
"That was very thoughtful of you, Asai-kun. Hopefully the Bureau can help!" the old
woman exclaimed, a look of mirth on her face. "What is it you need? Dancing advice?"
"No, Grandma, it's nothing like that. See, there's this thing called Datamatch..."
The young man, old woman, and the two dogs sauntered into the house to chat about,
among other things, Datamatch.
Right after the door closed, a certain blonde and her companion cat came waltzing
down that same street, towards a house that looked like many others, oblivious to the cruel
twist of fate that the blonde was apparently made victim to.
"I still don't see what good this Datamatch thing is going to be, Minako-chan," the
cat said to the blonde, his frustration apparent.
"How many times do I have to explain it to you, Artemis?" demanded Minako.
Wisely, Artemis opted not to point out that she had yet to explain it to him. It
could not be said that the cat lacked self-preservation instincts. 'Must be a side-effect
from hanging around Luna so long,' he thought.
She sighed in exasperation, then lectured him in a tone that suggested she was
completely bored. "Datamatch is where someone answers a variety of multiple choice questions
on different subjects, then gives it to the people running it. The results are analyzed and
you are given the names of the people who have the most answers the same as you! So I can't
go wrong with it, because the most compatible will be right there!"
"But what if the guy who is meant for you doesn't even fill one out?"
Apparently his self-preservation instincts weren't quite up to snuff after all.
Minako booted him into a nearby tree.
"Baka," she huffed over her shoulder as she walked off towards her house.
As it turned out, the smiting was quite convenient for Artemis. He could then sneak
off and scheme behind Minako's back under the guise of being annoyed with her for kicking
him into a tree.
Lacking a clue as usual, the blonde kept on to her house.
"Hi, dear!" her mom called out as she strolled through the front door.
In itself this was a most unusual event, especially considering that her mother was
almost never home when she got home from school and that she and her mother almost never
talked. It wasn't something she minded, as they were both very busy, but that just made this
occurrence even more strange.
"Hi, Mom... why are you home early?" She tried to mask the confusion she felt but
had no success.
"Oh. Well, after that man tried to hurt you the other day, I thought maybe you
wouldn't want to be home alone right after school," her mother replied as she regarded
Minako with a concerned look.
Naturally, this ranked towards the bottom of things that Minako wanted to have
happen. At best it would be annoying, she was sure, and at worst it would be a hindrance to
her amazingly fabulous search for a boyfriend.
Then again, she couldn't blow off her mom for caring after the incident with
Kenisho. "Thanks, Mom," she said sincerely. It was touching, after all, even if she was
fairly sure it would become annoying. She hoped that wouldn't happen right away.
"How was your day at school?"
So much for that. She promised herself right then and there that under no
circumstances would she give her mom more details than necessary.
"It was fine, Mom. I picked up a Datamatch form today and I'm going to fill it out
tonight!"
So much for that.
"Datamatch? What's that, Mina-dear?" her mother inquired in a sweet tone, the kind
that mothers use when they ask a question to which they already have an answer, but simply
ask it to see their child squirm.
One foot in the ground already, the blonde swore that there was no way she would
plant the other one there, too.
"It's just this thing where they match people up based on how they answer some
questions, Mom."
So much for that. Minako could feel a drop of sweat growing across the back of her
hair.
The process was one that could have repeated on endlessly, but the Aino matriarch
had learned all she needed to. "That's nice, dear," the woman said. "Just let me know if you
need any help."
A relief for Minako, who was expecting to get embarrassed far worse than she did.
Thankful for dodging the bullet, she nodded to her mom and bounded up the steps. Slipping
into her room, she sat down at her desk and finally started filling out the Datamatch form.
"My, I see that old woman hasn't lost her touch one bit," Minako's mother noted with
a chuckle to the pattern she was stitching.
***
The house that looked like many others in the middle of the street that looked like
many others was apparently a popular destination on that afternoon (which was also like many
others, at least to most people). Coming 'round the corner a few minutes after the previous
pedestrians were two girls, both very excited, although one showed it far less than the
other.
"Are you sure we should be doing this right now, Usagi-chan?" asked the taller of
the two girls.
"Of course we are, Mako-chan! You saw how weird Minako-chan was at school today,
didn't you?" replied Usagi.
"Well, yeah..."
"So, since we already have boyfriends, we have to do what we can to help find her a
boyfriend!"
Not surprisingly, the brunette couldn't quite follow her friend's train of illogic.
She also opted not to mention that if it weren't for the whole destined love thing,
Usagi-chan would probably also be on the 'boyfriendless' list.
"I guess so," she said, not convinced, but curious enough to go along anyway. "What
exactly are we going to do?"
"Uh... I kind of don't know yet."
WHAM! was the sound as Makoto tipped over and landed on somebody's lawn.
"But that's okay!" Usagi continued as though nothing had happened. "We'll just make
it up as we go along!"
A male voice spoke up from behind them, nearly causing the blonde to leap right out
of her skin, "I wouldn't recommend that."
Both of them whirled around to find the speaker, only to find nobody standing there.
"Down here, you two," the voice said.
Each sweatdropped when she looked down to find Artemis standing there with an
expression of annoyance on his almost-human cat features.
"I knew that," the girls said at the same time before looking at one another and
sweatdropping further.
"How did you know where we were?" Makoto inquired.
The look of annoyance seemed to get stronger. "You two were so loud, a deaf dog
could have followed you if he wanted to."
"Ooooooooops," the blonde managed with a demure giggle.
"Why don't you look at some of Asai's answers, then get Minako to fill out those
answers when you see her?" the cat suggested.
"Um, we weren't going to see Min-" Usagi began before an elbow planted in her rib
cut her off.
"That's a good idea, Artemis," Makoto decided. "Why don't you come with us to make
sure we do it right?"
With a sigh, the cat consented to join them. He'd hoped to find Luna with Usagi, but
that wasn't the case, and he knew it was likely that these two would mess up if he weren't
there with them...
Fortunately for the shreds of sanity that remained in Artemis' feline mind, Usagi
and Makoto remained quiet during the short trek from the street corner to the old woman's
house.
At Shoga's door, Makoto timidly reached out and knocked on the door in the classic
'shave and a hair cut, two bits' pattern.
"Coming!" they heard an elderly-sounding voice shout.
Although neither Usagi nor Makoto had met the old woman or been inside her house
before, they could picture in their minds what had to be chaos that they were hearing
through the door.
As the doorbell rang, they could hear two dogs begin barking rather loudly. It
sounded like they started running around the house, too, with somebody chasing them and
yelling (a male voice, so probably Asai). They winced as they heard a couple of things
shatter.
That's what it sounded like, anyway, because when the door opened to reveal a
grinning, diminutive woman. From what they could see of the house over her head, it looked
like absolutely nothing had happened.
"Hello! Can I help you today?" the old woman crowed happily.
"Um..." Makoto stammered.
Usagi drove over her like a Mack truck. "Hi!" she called out cheerfully. "I'm Usagi,
and this is Makoto. We're friends of Ami-chan's, and we just wanted to come by and meet the
old woman she talked about!"
The old woman responded with a knowing look. "Would you girls like to come in? I've
made some tea and cookies for my grandson, since he's over here and filling out his Data...
Datamatch? Yes, that's it. Do you girls know about Datamatch?"
"Yes, we know all about Datamatch. A friend of ours told us about it..." Makoto said
with a wink.
"We hear you know her! Minako-chan!" Usagi exclaimed.
So much for subtlety, Artemis thought.
The grandmother might not have been able to see Makoto's exasperated sigh, but it
was loud enough that it was a wonder Asai didn't pick it up in the next room over. On her
face, the grin widened. "Ah, yes, Minako-chan... she's a very popular person these days."
The irritation of wanting to speak yet not being able to was worse than it usually
was for the cat. Then again, that was likely because it was a very rare occasion when he got
to speak with a rational agent who did not think him incompetant merely because of how he
was born - namely, being male. And he didn't even want to meow his frustration at the girls;
he was well aware that this old woman was perceptive, and he didn't want to give her even
the slightest clue that "Arty" might be a cat.
"I hope you don't mind if we bring our cat in too," said Usagi.
Artemis wanted to claw out a chunk of the blonde's skin, but that probably still
wouldn't have gone over very well with Luna or anyone else for that matter, and he knew it
wouldn't have gotten his point across anyway.
"That's quite alright, Usagi-chan," the old woman informed her. She led them in to
the room where the young man was dutifully filling out something on a sheet of paper. Closer
inspection revealed it to be the Datamatch form.
A look of surprise crossed the young man's face as he noticed the two newcomers. He
was not entirely familiar with Usagi and Makoto, but he knew enough that the appearance of
the two girls at his grandmother's house was a strange occurrence. "Ah. Hello, Tsukino-san,
Kino-san," the stunned Asai offered.
With a shake of her head, a bounce of her odango, and a wave of her hand, the blonde
dismissed the unnecessary formality.
He shrugged, then looked at them curiously as he noticed the white cat on Usagi's
shoulder. "Um... forgive me for asking," he began, "but why do you have Minako-chan's cat on
your shoulder?"
As much as the three of them might have liked to be elated at Asai's use of the
-chan honorific to refer to Minako, they were all suddenly put on an awkward spot by him
recognizing that Artemis 'belonged' to her.
"Uh, we were, uh..." Usagi stammered, lamely.
"We're taking him for a walk, because we just came from Minako-chan's!" Makoto cut
in. "Yeah!"
The grandmother was glad they did the lying for her, because she hated to have to
resort to lies, although sometimes they were quite necessary. Minako-chan had a cat? The
girl hadn't mentioned that before. Curious...
"Oh," said Asai, and that was that.
Except for the poor male, who was without knowing it caught up in the currents of
something bigger than he'd been involved in since the time the Death Busters tried to
extract his heart crystal, everyone in the room was well aware that the girls really weren't
there for tea and cookies. But of course, for the sake of that male, the others had to keep
up the ruse.
While the old woman was fetching some more tea, Makoto picked up a pen from the
counter and started to move towards Asai, so she could read over his shoulder. She noticed
a glare directed her way from Artemis and realized that she probably wasn't being discreet
enough; to solve this she picked up a magazine that was also laying on the counter.
Unfortunately for the brunette, her skills in the cloak-and-dagger field were
lacking. The young man was aware of her presence the entire time as she tried to secretly
scribble down numbers that he was filling out.
Makoto was thinking to herself as she wrote each thing down. '12-C, 13-B, 14-D,
15-C... geez, these seem like what Minako-chan would answer...' Then she was startled by
someone clearing their throat.
Asai was looking at her, barely containing a smirk. "Can I help you?"
"No!" exclaimed the brunette, a bit hastily. "I was just, uh, reading this excellent
magazine, is all!"
"Well, enjoy," the volleyball player told her, his smirk no longer being contained.
"Bunnies are cute."
"Uh, yes... yes they are," she replied, confused.
It was after a moment's thought that Makoto realized she was holding a Playboy
magazine. She had the decency to blush as she hurriedly put it back on the counter and fled
to the other room.
While the undertones of that particular exchange flew over Usagi's head, at least
she did catch on and notice that pretending to read a magazine wasn't an effective method of
being secretive.
The blonde girl walked across the kitchen, slowly, with a pen in hand. She, too,
tried to scribble answers that Asai had on his form onto her palm. '21-D, 22-A, 23-B, 24-C',
she thought as she hurriedly scribed them onto her palm.
When the young man was convinced that Usagi too was watching him, he turned to find
her busy doing something else and got back to his work.
Usagi was washing her hands.
She couldn't see any of it happening, but though her vision had dulled over the
years, her imagination sure hadn't, and the picture she was getting made Shoga feel like she
was eighteen again. She hadn't had this much fun in years, no doubt about it! And beyond
that, she knew if Minako-chan was friends with people who were this much fun, that was even
more reason for her to set the girl up with her grandson. It was too bad he never brought
his friends over, they were probably funny, too.
"How are the tea and cookies, everyone?" she asked. Oh, how hard it was to hold back
the laughter!
"Just fine, Grandma, as always," Asai responded quickly, then took a bite out of a
cookie that he'd not yet touched to give the illusion that he'd been eating.
The girls mumbled their assents to that statement from where they were. No surprise,
Artemis sighed as he watched it all from his perch.
"Um... we have to go, uh, do our homework now!" the brunette proclaimed nervously
after a minute of awkward silence.
For once, Usagi seemed to catch on. "Yeah! Uh, sorry to have imposed!"
They moved towards the door quickly, and Shoga showed them the way out after
assuring them that it was no trouble whatsoever, and that they could come visit any time
they wanted.
"Weird girls, Grandma," Asai decided after they'd left. "I hope you're not trying to
set me up with anyone like that."
"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" Her sightless eyes sparkled with
innocence and she giggled much like a schoolgirl would have. "Now, what's next?"
"Number thirty, Grandma. 'At a party, you are most likely to be found here...'"
***
They were across the street before anyone spoke.
"It's a good thing you girls never treated one of our worse enemies like that,"
remarked Artemis in the most father-like tone he could muster.
For that tone he was rewarded by being dropped right off of his perch to the ground.
He landed on his feet.
Artemis chided himself. He should have known better. Perhaps all of this time spent
around the Senshi was dumbing down his senses...
"Hey, we didn't do that bad!" objected Makoto.
"Yeah!" added Usagi. "At least we got a few answers that Asai had!"
"What did you do after you got those answers, Usagi-chan?"
"Duh! Mako-chan and I left!"
Luckily for Artemis, he'd been let down from Usagi's shoulder, because otherwise the
flip he took straight for the pavement might have injured him. "What did you do before that,
Usagi-chan?" His eyebrow was twitching. Hell, both of them were. Maybe even his tail too,
for good measure.
To Usagi's credit, it finally hit her what Artemis meant. "Hehehehe... heheh...
hehe... heh... eh..."
"I've still got mine, you know," the brunette proclaimed defiantly.
The cat scoffed, "On your forehead, maybe."
A sweatdrop grew on Makoto's brow and she innocently scratched the back of her head.
"Right. I meant to do that, you know."
"Let's just get to Mina-chan's," Artemis suggested. He didn't add, 'before you make
me wish I wasn't intelligent.'
There was a cloud of defeat hanging over the girls' heads as they walked up the
sidewalk leading to Minako's house. But they weren't ready to give up just yet, not when
their goal had not been reached!
After the doorbell of the Aino household rang, they heard someone call out, "On my
way!" and walk across the floor towards the door.
It opened to reveal the Aino matriarch, who was as surprised to see the girls as
they were to see her. "What are you here for, girls?"
Makoto started talking right away so Usagi didn't get the chance, which was most
likely for the better. "We came to see how Minako-chan was doing with her Datamatch form."
"Oh!" A smile appeared on the mother's face. "Well, why didn't you say so right
away? Come on in! She's really excited about it, you know."
"We'd sort of gotten that impression... didn't we, Artemis?"
The cat meowed and walked over to Minako's mother, who cooed at him. "Oh, little
Artemis! That's where you've been! I was getting worried about you..." The woman picked
the cat up and started scratching behind his ears.
Well, Artemis thought, life could be a lot worse than this after all.
***
The sight that he found in Minako's room almost made him take back that thought.
It was like the place had transformed into a war zone, and the fact that the blonde had
dug up a vintage flak helmet and dressed herself in battle camouflage was only part of
it. Granted, a large part of it, but not all of it. There was also the paint she had smudged
on her face.
'Where *did* she get those camos?' Artemis wondered silently. They even had 'Aino'
on the name patch. He didn't think she'd had any veterans anywhere in the family, and he'd
never seen it before...
Moving along in his observations of the transformed room, there were a couple of
chairs stood up with a blanket draped over them, trying to mimic an old command post. From
somewhere she'd even found a flashlight that looked old, and a clipboard, and she'd been
sitting under there filling out the Datamatch form.
When Usagi, Makoto, and Artemis walked in, they stared at her as though she was
insane, and she stared right back at them as though they were insane for thinking that she
was insane.
"Hi, Mina-chan," Usagi said after the staring had gone on for long enough.
"We just came by to see how the Datamatch filling-out was going," the cat added
before more staring could ensue.
"I was just getting in the mood," Minako informed them, as though what she was doing
was the most natural thing in the world.
"Ah... have you started yet?" The young woman who moonlighted as Sailor Jupiter was
hesitant to ask the question - knowing Minako, the answer was as likely to be 'no' as
'yes'.
The blonde in the helmet flashed a V-sign at her friend. "Of course! I'm more than
half finished, you know!"
If the cat had hands, he'd have been wiping his brow in relief. Instead he settled
for letting out his breath.
"I'm glad to hear that," the cat said, and if he had ever meant anything more in
his entire existence, he wasn't sure what it was.
"Can we see your answers?" the future Queen inquired.
The other blonde glared at her friend as though Usagi had just asked her to cut
off her own right wrist.
"Uh..." Usagi stuttered under the glare. "We just wanted to, er, make sure you
didn't have any mistakes?"
Suddenly Minako was all smiles. "Okay!" she said in a sing-song voice and happily
forked over the paper-in-question.
As much as the cat was sure that he'd taught Minako over the past three years, as
much as he'd thought she had grown, the fear of how much of a disaster area that sheet
of paper might end up being made him close his eyes. He didn't open them until Makoto
whispered something to him and he realized they were shut.
Miraculously, except for the marks that his charge had made on the paper to show
her answers, the sheet was immaculate.
"Minako-chan, don't you think number fourteen should be 'D'?" Makoto was pretty
sure that's what the smudges on her hand said.
"I think it should be 'C', Mako-chan," Usagi informed her.
Artemis could see where this was going, and he wisely scrambled over to Minako's
bed and sat down to observe the brewing conflict from afar.
"No offense, Usagi-chan, but I don't think you'd know anything about number
fourteen."
"Oh yeah? Well, what would *you* know about number fourteen, Mako-chan?"
"Remember, Usagi-chan, I-"
Makoto was cut off by Minako clearing her throat, which was probably for the
better, as she was either going to reveal the plan or find herself throttling Usagi
fairly soon.
"Guys," said Minako calmly, "thanks for coming and all, but you're distracting
me too much, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Usagi and Makoto graciously accepted the unexpected bailout and headed on their
merry way.
"Artemis," said the blonde as she hunkered back down in her 'bunker', "I have
some really weird friends."
The cat was afraid that he'd start laughing if he started talking, but he
managed to say, "Yes, you do," before the laughter began.
Minako had already tuned him out anyway.
***
THE NEXT DAY
During the lunch periods at Juuban High School, a table was set up in the
hallway near the cafeteria for the students to turn in their Datamatch forms. The wall
behind it was adorned with a large sign reading "DATAMATCH" in several places, adorned
with a few of the cheesiest slogans that the people in charge of the program could
create with their collective creativity.
Manning the table on that particular day was Tsubasa, who, if asked, probably
could not say how he'd come to be involved with the Future Educators of Japan. And it
wasn't due to the exchange student from America, Sarah, either. That particular
American happened to be the other person at the table. Tsubasa certainly hadn't
manipulated things just to get to work with her, no sir.
It was a pretty slow day, with not many people swinging by to drop off their
forms of yet, so he found himself thinking back to how he'd never have met the girl
a few months ago if it hadn't been for a strange student named Minako...
***
As usual, Tsubasa was the first person of his English Speaking class who had
arrived and sat down in Brown-sensei's classroom. He didn't really know why it was
always like that, because he couldn't imagine why the other students would not want
to arrive early and maybe talk in English casually with Brown-sensei, who was a
really nice guy.
For lack of better things to do, he found himself staring at the doorway to
the classroom, waiting for the familiar yet unfriendly faces to walk in.
The first face to appear was one that was neither entirely familiar, nor
unfriendly. He recognized the girl as a student he'd seen around before - she played
a sport, was it softball? But she certainly wasn't in the class.
"Good morning to you, Aino-san," the sensei said as Minako walked in, rising to
greet her.
"Good morning, Brown-sensei!" the girl effervesced. It wasn't natural
to be that cheery, especially not early in the morning.
Brown-sensei looked to be reading over a paper in his hand. "Have you brought
my new student today?"
"Yeah!" She waved to someone he couldn't see, who must have been standing in
the hallway. "Come on in, Sarah-chan!"
If Tsubasa paid attention to looks - not that he did or anything - he'd have
probably thought the gaijin who walked in was a goddess of some sort. Not only was she
about ten centimeters shorter than him but she just appeared so plain, like she didn't
at all try to impress people.
He missed a significant look that passed between the blonde and the sensei, but
that didn't really matter.
"Why don't you go sit over there next to Tsubasa-kun?" he heard Brown-sensei
suggest.
The geek didn't have time to object, and besides, he didn't want to.
"Hello, I'm Tsubasa. Pleased to meet you," he said in his best English.
"What should I do with this, Tsubasa-kun?" the girl asked.
Wait a minute, she was supposed to greet him with the Vulcan salute, not
that...
***
"What should I do with this, Tsubasa-kun?" asked Sarah a second time.
Apparently someone had walked up to the table while he was zoned out.
To his shock he found that it was Minako.
"Please make sure it gets where it's supposed to go ok," the blonde
pleaded. "I'm really desperate."
That voice sounded familiar, he thought. And desperate? Hm...
"Bachelorette?" he asked in disbelief.
The surprised look on Minako's face probably looked something like the one
that was on his own face. "Bachelor Number Two? That's you?"
"Yeah. That was kinda fun, going on that show," Tsubasa said with a grin.
"Too bad you didn't get to pick Three; I could tell you were going to."
"Who was he? Can you tell me, please?"
"Sorry, I promised that I wouldn't tell." Well, that was technically true.
He'd promised himself just a few seconds ago when he realized just how much Asai and
Minako had in common.
Minako sighed and turned to leave.
"I'm sure you'll see him somewhere," he told her. She mumbled something and
walked off.
Tsubasa wanted to slap himself in the forehead, because Asai appeared at the
table not ten seconds after Minako had walked away.
The two exchanged pleasantries like they did whenever they saw one another,
then Tsubasa quickly informed Asai that he'd gotten word that the Bachelorette went
to Juuban. Asai could not have handed over his Datamatch form any quicker. The young
man who played volleyball seemed to skip down the hallway, in the exact opposite
direction that Minako had gone. Too bad it wasn't volleyball season.
"What was that about?" the gaijin asked him after it was all over.
He hoped she didn't notice the blush. "Eh... it's a long story."
***
ONE WEEK LATER
The table was in the same place in the same hallway, with the same sign
hanging behind it. Although the sign had suffered from some graffiti, as all signs do
in high schools - someone had written obscene phrases about the gaijin in a couple of
places, which Tsubasa dutifully scratched out.
Though, on this particular week, rather than getting forms from students, the
table staffers were collecting money and handing back results.
When Minako approached the table, bounced probably being a more accurate term for
what she did, only Sarah was seated there, although the blonde wasn't sure why she was
alone.
"Your name, please?" Sarah asked with a smile.
"Aino Minako at your service!" Minako called out so loud that everyone in the
hallway turned to look at her.
"Hm... Minako, Minako..." the exchange student rifled through form after form
within the box with the Datamatch results, checked twice, and thrice, even, but she
did not find Minako's form. "I don't see it in the box..."
The blonde mumbled, "Lost... just like my dreams of finding a boyfriend..."
Tears running down her cheeks, and holding back sobs, she ran off.
Tsubasa walked up to the table just then, wiping his hands on his pants to dry
them off after washing them in the bathroom. "What was that about?"
"I was looking for her form, but I couldn't find it," Sarah replied.
"What name did she give you?" Tsubasa asked. Knowing the blonde, she might even
somehow give the wrong name.
"Aino Minako. So I looked all through the box for Minako, but there are no
Minako sheets..."
If it hadn't happened to someone that he knew, Tsubasa would have laughed. "I
think you forgot that in Japan, people give their last names first, Sarah-chan."
"Oh, no..." This certainly negatively impacted the girl's mood, knowing that
she might have wrecked someone else's shot at romance.
The young man had fished Minako's sheet (from the 'A' section) out and was
looking at it. Not surprisingly, the number one match line said: KAYAMA ASAI 100.
Though it was a bit surprising that was the only match listed. "Hey, Sarah-chan, could
you pull out the sheet for Kayama Asai?"
She started looking in the 'A' section before he corrected her, and she fished
out Asai's sheet from the 'K' section. The number one match line said: AINO MINAKO 100.
And it was also the only match listed. He folded the sheet up and stuck it in his back
pocket.
"I've never seen that before," Sarah commented as she fidgeted with her dirty
blonde hair.
"Me, neither," was all Tsubasa could manage to say on that subject, mostly because
he was thinking about something else. "Uh, S-Sarah-chan?" he stammered, quietly, but loud
enough to get her attention. "Do y-you think y-you'd, uh, like to g-get t-together for
l-lunch some t-time and work on your Ja-Japanese, maybe?"
His companion's face lit up. "Why, Tsubasa-kun! Are you asking me out on a date?"
"Well, I, uh... er, that is... well, yes."
"I'd love to!" And she leaned over and gave the geek a hug.
Tsubasa wasn't exactly a believer in Fate. To paraphrase Han Solo, he'd seen a lot
of things, and none of them led him to believe that there was some all-powerful Fate
controlling everything. But this sure took the cake.
***
"I can't believe they lost your Datamatch results, Asai-kun," the old woman said,
her voice for once twinged with a bit of irritation.
"Neither can I, Grandma... it's just weird," said Asai. He didn't really want to
talk about it, so the young man just went and did his homework.
Shoga had Maxwell and Rembrandt lead her into the living room, where she sat down to
do some serious thinking. It had been a long time since she had almost directly put her hand
in on making a match and the effort did not succeed in short order. A very long time indeed.
Before it was just fun and games, but now the old woman was taking it personally. This was
war. Two months, she decided, was far long enough to have been goofing around. She'd work on
a plan to take the initiative, and by the kami that plan would work, or she wasn't blind!
***
If a week ago Minako's room had been a war zone, Artemis thought, then right now it
is a waterworks. Of course, that was entirely due to Minako and her latest overreaction to
her failure to find a valid boyfriend candidate. And really, he couldn't blame her, because
this time she hadn't even done anything Minako-like to mess it up. Sure, she'd been going a
bit crazy with the flak helmet and jacket, but it wasn't her fault the form got lost
somehow.
He had to admit that he felt bad for her, because although he relished his own
bachelor status (and still couldn't figure out how he and Luna were going to get together,
even having seen his daughter from the future) he knew that teenage human girls just
weren't like that. He even felt so bad that he was going to go to Shoga as soon as possible
and get something in motion.
As he heard Minako begin another round of sobbing, a thought suddenly occurred to
him.
For all of the insanity that Minako had been through in her search for a boyfriend,
it would pale in comparison next to what she would be like once she actually HAD a
boyfriend.
"Oh, boy."
***
This part really wrote itself from the bit where Usagi washes her hands onward. I wish that
would happen more often.
Moogle subscribes to a variant of the Alfred Hitchcock School of Self-Insertion. Did you see
the bit part he gave himself in this chapter?
Stay tuned for next time, when Shoga comes out from the shadows and starts working on her
devious plot, as Aino Minako and Her Amazingly Fabulous Search For A Boyfriend continues!
-End