Sailor Moon and Ranma ½ don’t belong to me! But I DID hint to their real owners that I’d really like to have the rights to them for my birthday. *grin*

"Ami, have you found anything new?" The four remaining senshi were holding a meeting at the Shinto temple as they had almost every day since they heard that their former leader had vanished. The young priestess looked down sadly as her blue-hared friend shook her head.

"You shouldn’t have been so harsh on her, Rei," Minako said, grumbling. "She wouldn’t have run off if it weren’t for you."

"Hey, common! I was always hard on her! She was used to it! If it hadn’t been for Makoto switching sides for once in our lives, Usagi would still be around!"

It was to this argument that Mamoru walked into the temple to. It had become routine for the Moonless fighters over the past few weeks to spend their afternoons this way. He slid open the door and walked in, sitting down. Only Ami seemed to notice his arrival and managed a small smile in his direction before turning back to her computer.

Usagi’s disappearance had been discovered the day after she had been late to the fight. Her mother had called all of Usa’s friends early in the morning, worried when she didn’t find her daughter in bed as normal. It wasn’t much longer when they found all of her money was gone, as well as some of her clothes and a backpack.

They contacted Mamoru that afternoon, hoping he knew something. Despite the fact that the two were no longer a couple, they knew that there was still some sort of link between the two of them. What they found, unfortunately, was not positive.

"I felt her transform, and I made my way to where I felt she was. When I got there, I found she was just standing in her room. It had already been nearly fifteen minutes between when she transformed and when I got there. I was busy with some things I couldn’t get away from," he had said, seeming slightly uncomfortable for a moment. "Just as I went to ask what was going on, she left in a rush. I followed, got to the fight once everything had ended, and when I saw you guys had things under control, I went home. I didn’t notice it until this morning, but sometime last night, the link between Usa and myself was broken somehow."

The girls knew what had detained Mamoru. They never let Usagi know they knew, but Mamoru seemed to have already moved on after the brake-up. But it was too late now. For a short time, Rei and Makoto had thought that perhaps his new girlfriend had something to do with their princess running away, but Minako only had to remind them how they had behaved towards Moon that night to reverse that idea.

The police labeled it as a standard run-away situation, and didn’t put much effort into the case, despite the Tsukino’s begging for them to search everywhere for their daughter. They put her name and a picture on the runaway database and left it at that. Unless someone came forward with some information that might cause the police to believe it was not a run-away, there would be no active search. And the girls knew they could never come forward. They believed she ran away as well, and if they tried to convince the police otherwise, they ran the risk of revealing their identities.

The purpose of the meeting that day was to decide if they should take another path. They were now only waiting for Luna and Artemis to arrive, while everyone except for Mamoru and Ami participated in the shouting argument.

"Girls! Please!" The female feline’s voice cut through Rei’s words as the two cats jumped through the window. "We’ll never get anywhere if you keep arguing like that!" Rei and Minako stopped reluctantly, still glaring at eachother, while Makoto just sighed and sat down next to Ami.

"Well Luna?" The question came after several moments of uncomfortable silence. Mako was watching the dark cat, hoping for a plan of action to find their old leader as an answer to her question. It was not Luna who replied though, but Artemis.

"We can’t all of our time looking for Usagi. I think we saw proof the other night that we seem to have a new enemy. We need to focus on that. Usagi can take care of herself, and when we feel it is safe to continue, we will search for her. But Luna and I have decided that we can’t afford to be distracted right now." As he finished, the white cat noticed the silently sobbing Luna sitting next to him. As he waited for a response from the girls, he nuzzled against the black cat. Luna looked up at him, trying to blink away her tears, but failing horribly.

"I can’t believe she’s gone. She could have at least told me," she whispered so that only Artemis could hear. With her words, she began to cry all over again, only slowing when she felt Artemis licking her face affectionately. She managed to smile weakly through her tears as they listened to the girls reluctantly agree.

********************

Over a year had passed since Usagi had moved in with Cologne and her great-granddaughter, Shampoo. She had found living with the Amazons to be very difficult, but she could confidently say that she had greatly improved both physically and mentally. Cologne hadn’t allowed for any slacking on the Japanese blonde’s part and worked her just as much as she did her great-granddaughter. Though she was nowhere near Shampoo’s level of experience, she was able to fight quite well now. Cologne had also helped her in her studies. Though in the beginning, Cologne had been needed to translate for the Amazon-in-training, she had refused to after about a week. Usagi was forced to learn Chinese very quickly. The village elder also taught Usa much of what she knew about math, history, science, and farming. The last was important because Usagi had to help Shampoo and the others in the fields.

Almost the entire first month Usagi had been in the village, the only thing that kept her from leaving was not knowing where else she could go. Cologne knew of her predicament, though Usagi never told her exactly how she got into it. After a short time though, Usagi began to grow used to the work she had to do. Nights that she fell exhausted into bed became fewer and fewer, and she more often spent the evenings with the other women, talking and having fun.

Cologne made sure that the few men of the village left her young ward alone. This was helped greatly as most of them were afraid of the old woman. There was only one that continued to show his lack of fear, and he was only interested in Shampoo. Cologne was not worried about that though, as Shampoo was well able to take care of herself.

The two girls became fast friends, even before they could understand eachother. They both rolled their eyes when Cologne went off on some story of her childhood, they spared together (though Usagi only won if Shampoo let her), and they worked together. It was mostly through Shampoo that Usagi got to know everyone in the village.

It was during that year’s fighting competition that everything changed.

********************

It was being held later then usual, but the feast that was the reward was still just as large and delicious looking. Usagi didn’t enter. She knew that if she were to enter, she would only be able to hold out against some of the younger girls, and as she was in the middle of her fifteenth year of life, she was not about to fight five and six year old kids. Shampoo, though, was one of the most popular contestants. Being last year’s winner, she was expected to do her best to hold onto her title.

Usagi and Cologne watched along with the rest of the crowd as the final fight was being fought. A loud cheer rose as Shampoo quickly defeated her opponent. Everyone went to congratulate the still champion. It was then that they noticed the strangers, a man and a young girl. They would have been dismissed as merely a couple of passers-by, because with them was the Jusenkyo guide. But they were eating the winner’s feast!

Usagi started chuckling at the sight. They were eating much like she used to (and still did sometimes). Cologne placed a wrinkled hand on her shoulder, silencing her, as Shampoo moved forward to confront the two visitors.

"She must challenge them now," Cologne said to Usagi’s questioning glance. "You have not been with us long enough to understand all of our laws and traditions, but it must be done. Whatever the outcome, I’m afraid it will not be pretty," Cologne said, frowning as she watched the Jusenkyo guide translate Shampoo’s challenge.

Usagi’s eyes widened as she heard the translation. They were Japanese! She wanted to go and talk with them, but Cologne’s restraining hand stopped her. As they watched along with the other villagers, the strange girl went with Shampoo to the raised bar that was fought on. Silence descended upon the audience as the young redheaded stranger stood confidently on the bar.

It was over in minutes and, much to the shock of the villagers, it was not Shampoo who was the victor. The young girl leaped to the ground and Usagi tried to push forward to hear what was being said. By the time she had a clear view, she saw Shampoo lean forward and kiss the cheek of the girl. Usagi looked back confused at Cologne, but the elder was not needed to explain.

"We must leave! Now!" came the accented Japanese from the guide. The other two looked at him, confused. "You have been given the ‘Kiss of Death!’ Must leave! Please, must leave now!" At that, he proceeded to pull the two confused strangers out of the village quickly.

Usagi frowned, watching them. It was then she noticed Shampoo’s gaze. She had a solemn, determined look as her eyes followed the strangers. Then, without warning, she turned and walked back towards their home.

"I am afraid Shampoo will be leaving us, Rabbit," Cologne said, hopping forward from the top of her walking stick and calling Usagi by her nickname.

"But why? What is the ‘Kiss of Death?’" Usagi asked, turning to face the old wrinkled woman.

"Amazon law states that if one of us is defeated in combat by a non-Amazon, we must kill the other woman to regain our honor. The Kiss of Death is like a warning. Shampoo must follow our young martial artist now until she may regain what she has lost.

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That’s it for chapter three! I’m working on three fics now, so posts of this story might be even further apart, but I won’t stop until I finish it!

~Jade Nova

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