" Hey everybody!" Hiro shouted over the loud speaker. "Wasn't that last match spectacular!?"

He was met with cries of agreement from the audience.

" Welllll... it's time for the next fight! Here, we have the challengers!"

A little girl walked out to the center of the ring. She was holding her doll in her arms and had a passive look her face.

" The first fighter is the eight-year old 'Carrie' wannabe, Anita Raman! Isn't she great?"

Dai sighed heavily. " She's a little kid for crying-out loud. She doesn't stand a chance."

Only a kid, huh? Anita thought to herself. Once I'm done with this fight, I'll show her just what a "little kid" can do. She looked around at the audience. Look at these people, getting so excited over a fight. I never can understand it. Oh well. I'll give them something to get excited about.

"While we couldn't find an exorcist" Hiro's voice boomed through a wide radius, "We got the next best thing!!" He whispered to his companion, covering her face in a futile attempt. "Hey Dai, if this goes well, maybe we can script it for the next best horror movie!"

Dai groaned.

Rose looked at her opponent. "I know minors are allowed in the fighting arena," she arched an eyebrow "but this is ridiculous." Then she took her time to look closer to the girl, her face completely voided of emotion. A psychic shock flew through her. This was not going to be the usual match of brute, physical strength. The card she drew, The Moon, told her appearances were deceiving.

"The mind is a plaything of the body?" She quoted Bison questioningly. "This is certainly not the case here..."

The fighting bell rang, loud and clear.

(Hmmm), Anita thought as she started slowly walking towards Rose, (This isn't a normal fighter. I can feel the power from her mind. It's her strength.) Inwardly, she smiled in confidence. (Let's see how strong it really is.)

Anita stood still, closed her eyes, and began to think deeply.

(She suddenly stopped?) Rose thought to herself. (The Moon is notorious for these tricks, be careful.) Just as suddenly as that thought finished a coldness enveloped her. Not any normal one, but an electric sense characteristic of a supramundane attack. "I see what she's doing." She said to herself. Closing her eyes, Rose concentrated on his astral body to leave her normal one and meet her opponent in the astral plane.

Anita looked at her surroundings. She ended her gaze on Rose, who was in front of her.

(What happened? What is this?) She mentally asked Rose. (I should be in control of you now.) She stared at Rose, sizing up the energy she possessed. ( Hmm. You are strong, but you are nothing compared to the power I have. You don't have any idea what you're dealing with.)

" So I see," Rose said to herself, "she's one whose faculties have opened without any knowledge of how to control."

" The forces involved in here aren't so easy to control without training." She said to Anita. "Don't be foolish, get back to the physical plane."

Anita kept talking to rose with her mind. (I may not have the experience with such things as you, but I am stronger by far. I am not hampered by compassion like you. I do not think twice about unleashing my true power on others. Others have not realized this until it was too late. You, like them, will fall quickly.)

(I guess this tournament isn't as pointless as I thought it to be.) Anita thought to herself. (She's still human however, and humans are weak creatures.)

" 'Humans' as weak creatures?" Rose said to herself. " Is this a case of thinking they transcended humanity, or is she really inhuman?" She started talking to Anita; "Your first mistake was assuming that thought could be as secretive on the astral plane as they are on the physical plane."

Anita raised her hand and closed her eyes. (If thought is not hidden, then neither is my power.) Her energy crackled. (Feel it now.)

A purple beam of psychic energy shot out towards Rose. She easily sidestepped it. Anita shot out several more beams of energy, but Rose still dodged them without much difficulty. Anita was still placid and controlled. (Do you fear me, or are you mocking me?) She asked Rose as she powered up for a shot.

"She's relentless." Rose said to herself. She assumed a defensive stand.

Back in the world of the normal...

" WOW!" Hiro shouted over his mike, " Look at those two! They're so serious about this fight! Look at how intently they're sizing up one another! They're probably waiting for just the right moment to completely have it out! They're- They're-..."

" ...Just standing there." Dai said in a bored manner.

The rest of the crowd was feeling the same way. No one made a move or sound, except for the occasional burp, cough, or sneeze. Some people were wondering if they should get a snack while they waited, while others just decided to sleep right in their seats.

Anita and Rose stood in the middle of the arena, appearing to be looking into each other's eyes. No one could tell what was really going on out there.

Anita and Rose were still facing off in the psychic plane. (If you think you're going to play with me,) Anita said mentally to Rose, (you're dead wrong. Many have been before...)

Suddenly, two zombies materialized in front of her and advanced on Rose.

(Huh? How'd those get here?) She asked herself, puzzled. (Why are they helping me? Does this have something to do with the Darkstalkers?) She quickly regained herself. (Oh well, I hope they don't get this woman too messy...)

True to their nature, the zombie's attacks were slow, that Rose managed to dodge their swipes without ease. "Even for thought-forms, these are strong." She said to herself. A zombie she didn't see had snuck up behind her. It wrapped its dead arms around Rose and squeezed her. "Unf." The other zombie had come up in front of her and prepared to tear at her face with its hands. Rose teleported from behind them. Drawing an imaginary pentacle with her finger, she swung a dismissive arm, causing the thought forms to disapear.

Anita looked on silently. (Well, she's lucky, I'll give her that. Wait a second, what did she say about thought-forms?) Anita thought to herself. ( Would anything I think of come up here? That would explain the zombies.)

Anita had a perfect idea of something to trouble Rose. (This place is so different that it might work.) She stretched out her hand and, closed her eyes. Her body was glowing brightly with dark psychic energy. Her eyes shot open.

A ball of energy rose up from Anita's body and hung in the middle of the sky. It started shooting off little bolts of energy and began to grow bigger. It exploded in a bright light. When the light cleared, a huge vulture with long talons and a sharp, red-tipped beak hovered in the air.

" All of the pain and suffering that's happened to me, all of the people that have died because of me being with them, it's like a shadow has followed me everywhere and picked off the people I knew." Anita was talking clearly now. " It's picked at the carcass that was my life, like a vulture trying to make its meal die quicker. I was never able to get rid of it. Can you?"

The bird dived.

Rose prepared herself to counter this ferocious fowl's attacks. Such energy was created to put this thing into motion. This wasn't anything simply done without experience. Or was it...

It screeched terribly, reminiscent of the attacks she and Cheng used in the battle. Her opponent smiled, a bit disoriented at the creation of the thing, but still satisfied with her plan.

It dove once more, barely missing the psychic. But, without warning, it recovered from the miss and threw her to the ground with a mighty swing of it's wing

The gust of wind was terrible. And the attempts to soul spark the beast simply returned to her by a swipe. Normal attacks wouldn't hurt it, she needed to attack the source.

The very first thought that came to her was Anita's speech. She turned to her opponent, risking being open to an attack, and saw that tears were trickling down her cheek. So that's it

She stood defiantly to the beast. It screeched once more, and prepared to drop with all it's weight. this had better work.. She concentrated on the sadness, and let the bird dive straight...

Into her, disapearing in a flash of light.

Anita srceamed, and dropped to the ground. Rose saw that, upon returning to the arena, her opponent was also on the ground there.

Anita was lying in shock. Her eyes flickered a bit, only one quiet word escaped her mouth. "Why..?"

"It is true that you are powerful," Rose said to her fallen opponent, "but without knowledge your power is useless. Remember that in the future."

Anita's eyes wavered for a second, then closed. She layed still. The audience looked at the combanants in disbelief. The fight was already over?

"Would you look at that!" Hiro yelled over his mike. "That Rose is so powerful, she didn't even have to hit Anita to defeat her! What a great fighter!"

Dai sighed deeply. "I think all that this shows is how weak that kid is.She probably gave up so she wouldn't get hurt."

"In any case, the match is over! Rose is the winner! Let's get our wonderful staff of medics out there to pick up Anita, I don't think she going anywhere on her own!"