"How can some work their whole lives for something and never get it, while others get their dreams so quickly?" Memori sighed and slowly let her body sink deeper into the hot tub. She let the hot water envelope her small body and relax her aching muscles. Her body was still sore from all the fighting she had done, and her head still felt a bit woozy from where she had hit it only a week ago. The Heavenly Tournament had been a gruelling match, even putting aside the fact that Hell's Protectors had tried a hostile take over of the Heavens! This is what you get when you get involved in the Heavenly Tournament, a tournament designed to decide the next God. However, it wasn't fought by the God candidates, oh no, it was fought by junior high school students with a few special powers given to them by - who else - the God candidates. Memori had only met her candidate once, as had the others on her team. This was odd, since people on Ueki's team mostly knew their candidates very well. Then again, Ueki and his team had only JUST got their powers in the last few months. Memori and the others had theirs since childhood, they had gotten their powers when they were still quite young. Memori got the feeling the God candidates for Team Marilyn may not have been as interested in becoming Gods as they were in helping orphans. It made Memori feel a little better in the aftermath. She slowly rubbed her forehead and held back the tears when she remembered her defeat. How could she lose to a young girl with NO combat training? Certainly, the girl in question, Mori, had gotten lucky. As well, Memori wasn't exactly trained to deal with mind-manipulation powers, but still... a loss is a loss. If Memori had only knocked out that girl out quickly, she would have gotten her team 10 points! 10 points would have been enough to win by a landslide. Instead, Mori had used her powers (and to be honest, good old ingenuity) to force Memori to knock herself out head first on a stone wall. Memori made a mental note - Never trust any girl with glasses who has mind powers. She will cause you head trauma. Memori didn"t feel bad for herself though. After all ? most of the others had been knocked out too. And she didn't even hate Mori, the young girl was nice, once you got to know her. In fact the whole other team was pretty ok. Very wet behind the ears, but cute in an innocent, naïve sort of way. And naïve or not, they won. She didn't even rue the loss of all their powers that much. The teams who lost twice, lost their powers. Marilyn's Team barely lost to Team Ueki, but Marilyn had conceded their match to their next opponent, saying she refused to sacrifice anyone to win a silly contest. Memori had a feeling it was also because she was sick of fighting now. No doubt, losing their powers certainly added to the bad taste of the loss, but it wasn?t this that stung the most. No, what she felt the worst about ? was failing Marilyn ? again. This had been the team's big chance to get a major win for Marilyn. A chance to make Marilyn's dream come true. Just being able to see Marilyn smile and laugh again would have been a reward enough for the rest of the team...but it was not to be. First Baron, then Pudding, then Matthew and finally her... they had all fallen. They had failed to go the distance. They had failed to win for Marilyn, and to make her smile. Of course, Marilyn had been defeated too - or had she? The whole story was so jumbled up. Some said that the leader of the other team, Ueki, had done a flying kick to her head, sending her flying into a building and knocking her out cold. Some said the two fighters had hit one another with all their energy and only Ueki was able to stand back up. Ueki, a young boy with a crop of green hair and eyes that always seemed angry (or bored) at something, said that was all a load of crap. He had only said that Marilyn's memories had defeated her. Her past had finally come back to haunt her and no one could defeat their past...no one. That was confusing to hear - and Ueki had refused to elaborate further to anyone - including his own team members. However, seeing that Marilyn had no physical wounds on her body, Memori knew that something in what Ueki was saying was true. No, Marilyn's injuries were all mental. When Memori and the other three had rushed to check on their leader, she had begun to cry, saying she had wasted their lives for the last ten years. That had been the worst - Marilyn, the one who had given them all a purpose and the will to go on; the one who had helped them get off the ground when they were all orphans; the one who had helped them to become the mighty force they were today; the one who always shared everything she had claiming that SHE had failed THEM. A memory came to her mind? of them still living on the streets, running for cover from bombs. They must have been, what - 8 years old at the time? And little Memori hadn't eaten for days. Noticing the hungry look on the child's face, Marilyn had taken out a small piece of bread and broke it in half. Memori had taken her half and hungrily wolfed it down. Now Memori was sure it had probably been stale oat bread which little Marilyn had probably scavenged a week before, however,at that time it had seemed like a feast. However, as yummy as it had been, Memori was still starving, and that small piece had just made her hungrier. Suddenly the young Marilyn broke her piece in half again, and offered one piece of Memori. The young Memori looked back at the blonde girl, tears in her eyes. She had just smiled warmly, sunlight glistening off of her soft blue eyes. "Go ahead, you need it." (Click picture for full-sized picture) As she remembered this, Memori began to shake all over. Her body was wracked with sobs as all the details came back. That had been so much like Marilyn, no matter how much she gave to her and the others, she was always willing to give something more. That loving look in her eyes - the way the stars shone brighter whenever she herself smiled. No matter how much she had done for her friends, she always had another piece of her heart to give to them. So, how could Marilyn ever dream of apologizing to them? When they were the ones who owe her everything and yet failed? It wasn't right...it wasn't fair. Seven years ago, after the war had finally ended, Marilyn's father had managed to get a business going. He made an impressive and brave stand in the new post-war society - despite the loss of all his own dear friends in the war. His businesses not only did well, they soon made him rich...very rich. It seemed business was all the father had left, he had no wife, no comrades. He only had his business and his daughter. So he put his back into making enough money that his only child would never want for money. Yet, it hadn't been money Marilyn ever wanted or ever would want. Much of the public would think otherwise, since Marilyn had this peculiar habit of dressing up in elegant gowns of the most exquisite designs. However, this was all mere posturing. Marilyn was just as comfortable in combat fatigues as she was in silk dresses. Marilyn had known hunger and pain. More importantly, she had known loss. Her father's comrades had been her surrogate uncles - it had taken years of personal struggle for her to come to grips with the pain of their deaths. In short - Marilyn was anything but a pampered little Princess. When Marilyn's father became wealthy, Matthew had suggested to Baron, Pudding and herself that they all quietly leave the scene and find their own way in the world. Marilyn had pulled all of them onto their feet when they were just little orphan children - she had taught them to fight and find food, she had shown them how to survive and how to never give in. Now that they were teens and well trained, they could find a way by themselves - and they could let Marilyn and her father live the life that their Princess truly deserved. Marilyn, of course, had discovered the plans, used her tracking skills to find them all, beat the hell out of Matthew, and dragged all four of them to her father's new mansion would become their new home from now on - and Marilyn wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. No matter how much she had given, she still had another half of bread to share with them. Memori sighed and slowly pulled her sore body out of the tub. She got up and slowly towelled off. Then she wrapped a towel around her short brown hair, gently pulled her combat fatigues on over herself again and left the bath area. - To be Continued -