Ace stretched his arms towards the sky. Lectures weren't always so annoying, but sometimes his narcolepsy got the best of him and hearing a man speaking for two or more hours wasn't the best way to stay awake.

He yawned, trying to focus again on his friends' conversation.

"Uh-oh," Squardo commented. "Looks like someone has just been rejected."

Ace tilted his head on the side to look where Squardo was pointed to. In the parking lot of the University Building, the old trunk of the janitor, Oars, was covered with insulting words with red paint. Oars, knelling in front of his trunk, was cleaning it, his arms and his jacked covered in red.

One of the words said: Soulless = useless.

"Are you sure?" White Bay asked. "Rejecting him is something that would affect the life of the person who did it, not only Oars."

"Yeah, but… Maybe better alone for the rest of your life than with a man like Oars?" Squardo replied. "I mean; I don't blame her."

"There should be a big age gap if Oars found her now," Doma reflected. "Maybe she was scared. Or he was the one rejected her because she is too young."

"It's still Oars's fault. He should have forced her with him." Squardo shrugged.

Ace was the one who hadn't commented.

And he didn't. He passed his friends and reached Oars. He knelled next to him and took one of the still white shred on the ground.

"May I help?"

He didn't wait for an answer, but immersed the shred in the cold water of the bucket, before rubbing the car body.

"No, no!" Oars exclaimed. "I don't want you to be associate with me."

"Why not?" Ace replied, his eyes fixed on his work.

Oars arms widened, pointing to the dirty trunk. "I'm a Soulless. Garbage."

Ace shrugged. "Maybe, but one with a car that needs to be cleaned."

"May I help too?"

Both men lifted their head: Moda, with a light blush on her face and her hands hidden in her skirt, was in front of them.

"Sure." Ace smiled and throw her a shred. Moda rested her bag on the ground and got to work.

Oars was about to protest, but his eyes were already full of tears. He didn't even hide them, but he returned back rubbing the trunk as the tears crossed his cheeks. The three of them kept working in silent, only broke from time to time by Oars's sighs. But it was heartwarming for both Ace and Moda noticing the tears had stopped and a crocked smile had appeared on Oars's lips.

"It isn't your grandfather?" Moda asked suddenly.

A giant white Volkswagen parked in the worst way possible in the parking lot. Ace cursed under his breath: sure it was his grandpa. He decided to not pay him attention and kept rubbing the body car even if that part was already clean.

Both Moda and Oars looked at him perplex, but they didn't press. Their attention was only focused on the giant police officer in front of them.

"Let's go, Ace."

"I'm busy, don't you see?" Ace replied, without looking at him. Why greeting him, if Garp was the first one to be rude?

"Are you going to disobey to your grandfather?" Garp was shocked, as it wasn't something Ace did on daily basis, since Garp's requests are totally the opposite of Ace's desires. "Well, someone here needs a lesson."

"You can go," Moda said, gently. "We're almost done here, and I can stay a little more with Oars."

"Yes!" Oars chirped in. "Thank you so much for all you did for me today!"

Ace looked at both of them, annoyed they had given Garp a reason to take him, but then he realized they were only try to help him not having trouble. So he nodded.

"Okay. Let's meet tomorrow." Ace stood up and clean his hands on one of the unused shreds. "And Oars… Don't mind it so much," he added, nodded with his head at the trunk. He ignored totally the look Garp gave him and anticipated him in the car.

"You don't usually pick me up," Ace commented, as Garp left the parking lot. "What did I do today?"

"It's been almost two weeks since your birthday," Garp stated. "Why haven't you register for the Soulmate Matching yet?"

Ace snorted. "You know very well why."

Garp sighed. "We hadn't reason to believe your test would be different from anybody else."

"We hadn't reason to believe the contrary either," Ace replied. "Can really someone whose parents weren't Soulmates have the same results of others? I'm not like other people and you know it."

"Well, they don't."

"Oh, I'm a lot more relieved now." Ace emitted a small laugh. "They will find out as soon as they analyze my blood. Who do you think they'll do once they discover I'm Roger's son?"

"I don't know," Garp admitted. "But not register for the Soulmate Matching is against the law. If you show good will, the will to stay in the Soulmate System, they will ignore your father."

"You don't really believe it, do you?"

Garp didn't answer. "If you don't register within the three weeks after your birthday, they will force you to do it."

"I know."

Ace didn't plan to escape by the groom system of the Soulmates. He was just gained some time for himself, before faced his destiny. In the best case, he would have become like Oars, an outcast.

Garp looked tired and oldest than usual, and his big hands clenched the wheel. Ace figured Garp was just trying to protect him the best way he could, since he was a member of the Soulmate Agency himself.

"Okay. Bring me to the nearest Soulmate Agency Office."

"Glad you have some sense in that thick head of yours."

Garp was already drove towards the Soulmate Agency Office he worked on, so he parked in the spot reserved for him, but then nodded to Ace to go alone. He was going to protect him, but for now he would keep a low profile. Ace didn't mind. He didn't need a baby-sitter anyway.

He closed the car door and looked up at the glass building in front of him. All the Soulmate Agency Offices were similar: rectangular, with large window that still couldn't let anyone look inside, with at least ten floor. Funny enough, the visitors could access only a few of them, and Ace wondered how many secrets were holding in the others.

Ace entered by the main door and looked at the sign; the Soulmate Meeting Office was indicated above the center one of the three lift on the next, so Ace took it without asking at the front office. The lift had only two button, one for the second floor and one for the zero floor, so Ace pressed the first one.

He found himself in a waiting hall with some uncomfortable chair and a small table with a pile of magazines. At the opposite wall, a glass door with a plaque saying 'Soulmate Matching Registration'. Two people arrived before him, so Ace sat down and waited for his turn before entering the office.

"I'm here for the registration for the SM."

"That's our job, so you couldn't be here for something else." The girl sitting on the opposite side of the desk smiled, her voice happy.

Ace frowned: he wasn't there for laugh.

"Please hand me your ID," the girl continued.

Ace obeyed, then looked carefully as she inserted it in her machine, automatically registering his data on the system and verifying they were correct. She printed a bunch of cards, before gave back the ID to Ace.

"So, Mister Portgas, now I need you to fill these for me."

She lent them the papers: each one of them has a number with a bar code on the right up corner, and it was full of question, both open and multiple choice ones. Ace leafed through the pages. The questions began with ordinary things like occupation or medical history, but they got stranger and stranger. Ace was asked about his preference for everything, from food to colors, including sexual kinks.

"Did I have too?" Ace asked. "What has this to do with my Soulmate?"

"Yes, you have to," the girl answered, with an encouraging smile. "It is important for us to see how well a person matches with his Soulmate in every part of life."

"Oh, so you admit there could be two Soulmates that didn't match at all," Ace purred.

"Of course not." This time, she wasn't smiling, but it lasted only a second. "If it's your Soulmate, is the right person for you. Otherwise it wouldn't be a Soulmate, am I right?" She laughed a little. "Some relationships can be a little hard… but everyone is happy and the end."

Ace looked unimpressed.

"The SM let people find their Soulmates easier. We make people happy, isn't that great?"

Her eyes shining and Ace wondered if she was instructed to say it or if she actually believed all the bullshit she'd told him.

"Do you have a Soulmate?" he asked her.

And suddenly, her face became stone. "Private question are not allowed here while I'm working," she stated. "Of course, your file will be classified too. Only the people working here can access it. Now, please fill it." The she ignored him as she prepared the tools for the analysis.

Ace sighed and took a pen. He contemplated for a second the idea to lie about everything, but then he did only in some questions he felt too personal. Even if the file was classified, someone would have still read it and there was something Ace just didn't want anything to find out, as his relationship with his brothers. He'd like to protect them from everything would come at him.

Once he finished, the girl put all the papers in a folder with the same number and bar code assigned to him and placed it in a pile with the tag 'to archive'.

"Please, your hand."

Ace leaned it towards her. She grabbed his index finger and she rolled up to the point a small piece of paper. Ace felt a sting and, when the girl took back the paper, he noticed the bloodstain on it. She put it an envelope, then asked Ace to pass under his tongue a piece of cotton attached to a thin pole. It was then closed in a test tube that, as the envelope, has the same number and bar code of the papers.

Well, at least they pretended to care about privacy, since in none of the document there was Ace's name, but only something he could be connected with his ID. Funny they do something like that and, in the same time, they managed to ask something as private as if he was into scatting.

"Aaaand we're done," the girl smiled. "If you're lucky and your Soulmate is already in our database, you'll be informed within a week. Otherwise, I'm sorry but you have to wait until your Soulmate won't be sitting here like you in this moment."

Standing up, Ace hoped that time would be in a very long future.