Rise of the Phoenix
For a disclaimer please refer to chapter one.
Now with less mistakes thanks to Russell Irvine who took his own time to fix them and send it back to me, thanks much!
It was utterly stupid, no, it was completely insane. Why the hell did she listened to that green haired psycho of a woman. Why had she agree to this!? She was the premier martial artist of her generation, the best of the best and she was in a school uniform on the way to her new school. She was on the way to her new school in a freaking GIRL'S UNIFORM!
5 Days Ago...
It had only been two days since he left the Tendo Dojo and Nerima after being declared ronin by her so called parents. He refused to stay in the town either because as soon as the others found out the fiancées would declared open season on the pigtailed youth and he didn't want to see either of them after what they did at the failed wedding. He was beyond upset with them, in fact he was beyond pissed at them as they could have killed his mother... the same mother who was a part of making him a ronin.
It hurt to even think about the woman, despite all of the craziness and the woman's attitude, he always believed she loved him and would stand by him. Apparently he had been dead wrong – just like he'd been with just about everything in his life.
Walking along the street, his hands in his pockets, he cursed himself again for just leaving when his parents... his ex-parents kicked him out of the clan. He had left so quickly that he hadn't even bothered collecting any of the meager belongings, not that they would be helping his stomach at the moment as it let out a loud growl at the display of cakes, cookies and other confections in the window of a bakery as the sweet delicious smell wafted through the air around him.
"Sounds like you could use a bite young man." A woman said startling Ranma as he had been drooling over a very yummy looking four tier cake.
"Who are you?" Ranma asked staying on guard as he looked up and down at he woman and seeing so much power just rolling off of her. In fact her very stance and every movement showed how graceful she was, though without wasting any movement or energy. She had long dark green hair and the most piercing red eyes that seemed to looking straight into Ranma's very soul. Her business suit was very formal but very flattering on her beautiful figure. The strangest part about the woman though was the feeling that she was very familiar somehow.
"I'm the new counselor at the school here in Juuban, my name is Setsuna Meiou." Setsuna said with a small smile. "You can call me Setsuna. I was about to have some lunch, won't you join me? My treat even."
"I guess." Ranma said blushing a bit as his stomach growled even louder at the mention of a possible meal.
"Great, there is a great cafe this way. It has the best sandwiches you'll find in Juuban I can assure you." Setsuna said turning and walking off, not bothering to make sure the pigtailed boy was following or not.
The cafe was actually pretty nice and cozy, with many tables out on the sidewalk which is where the two decided to sit. The short walk though made Ranma even more curious in the woman and cautious at the same time. She walked with such grace and the way she moved screamed high level martial artist which Ranma didn't want to deal with, he didn't need any more crazy challenges at the moment.
"Hi Setsuna, who is your cute friend?" A girl in a waitress uniform asked as she handed the two at the table a menu a piece.
"My name is Ranma." Ranma said smiling a little at the girl while accepting his menu.
"I'll have my usual and while Ranma looks over a menu go ahead and bring him one of each sandwich here." Setsuna said waving to a section on the menu.
"Th-There's like ten different sandwiches here." The waitress said a little in shock as she looked at Ranma.
"I'm sure he can handle it and put the bill and tip on my tab." Setsuna said with a soft smile to which the waitress bowed and hurried off to turn in the order.
"You didn't have to order me so much." Ranma said though in his mind he was salivating over the thought of the promised food. He was starving and his stomach wouldn't let him forget the fact and he wasn't about to steal to fix that problem.
"Nonsense Ranma, I wanted to, but I would like to ask you a few questions." Setsuna said smiling as the waitress brought a tea set and cups for both Ranma and Setsuna interrupting the two before anything else could be said.
"It will be about ten minutes for everything to be made." The waitress said a little nervously.
"It's no problem, Ranma and I have some things that need to be discussed anyways." Setsuna said while smiling at the girl before she hurried to another table that was waving her over. After pouring each of them tea Setsuna took a small sip while watching the nervous boy over the rim of her cup. After setting it back down she asked, "So Ranma, do you go to school around here. I don't recall seeing you at Juuban before."
"No, I...I won't be going to school now." Ranma said while giving a sad sigh before a cold pitcher of water landed on the new red-haired girl's head. Hanging her head with an embarrassed sigh she mumbled, "Damn it."
"I am so, so sorry." The waitress said, trying to wipe the water off the redhead's face and hair with a towel before stopping as she realized something. "Hey, weren't you a boy a minute ago?"
"Of course not dear, you must be exhausted to have mistaken Ranma here for a boy." Setsuna said with a bit of a mischievous smile.
"O-Of course, silly me." The waitress laughed nervously after she finished cleaning up and bowing to the two in apology before heading back off.
"Care to tell me what happened there?" Setsuna asked with an arched eyebrow watching the redhead shift nervously beneath her gaze.
"I guess..." Ranma grumbled, obviously irritated over what happed besides being embarrassed over what happened. Over the next few minutes Ranma managed to give a brief summary of Jusenkyo and was shocked to see Setsuna not to shaken by it.
"So cold water changes you into a girl and warm water changes you back?" Setsuna asked as the redhead nodded. She was going to continue but stopped upon seeing the waitress pushing a cart out loaded with food.
"Oh wow this looks great!" The redhead exclaimed happily, a little drool at the corner of her mouth.
"You should try their dinner meals, they're to die for." Setsuna said with a smirk before thanking the Waitress.
"If you need anything else don't hesitate to call." The waitress said before hurrying off with the now empty cart, the table now loaded with sandwiches, salads and drinks since each entry on the section of the menu Setsuna had indicated earlier was a full meal.
"I can imagine it must be hard at school not to mention your life." Setsuna said softly as Ranma wasted no time digging into the spread of food before her.
"You have no idea." Ranma grumbled between bites of food amusing Setsuna even if she found it a tad bit repulsive. Her demeanor seemed to grow sadder as pain filled the redhead's eyes. "I don't really have to worry about it no more anyways."
"Any more Ranma, not no more." Setsuna corrected taking a bite of her own chicken salad sandwich. She loved how this little cafe put grapes in the stuff, just a small simple thing made it taste so much better than it normally would. Too bad it wasn't dinner time, she was sure the redhead would just die from trying their lasagna. "And why would you not have to worry about it anymore?"
"Because my family kicked me out." Ranma sighed, unsure why she should even tell this stranger but then again why not since she was paying for lunch.
"Why would they kick you out? You seem like a pretty nice young man to me." Setsuna said as she smiled mentally to herself noting her choice of words got Ranma to smile a bit. From her studies of the martial artist the teen hated being called a girl in any form but it was more caused by the fact that deep down Genma's training and words did more damage than most realized. Ranma hated himself and even though a part of the pigtailed youth really did fight some of the more dangerous fights for honor and to protect those he cared about there was a small part that he wouldn't admit to himself that hoped he would die during one of those fights. A part of the teen truly hated himself, or more exactly herself ,and it was all due to both Genma's preaching of how women are weak, Nodoka's seppuku contract and the claims that the boy turned girl was a perverted freak only added to his issues with the curse. Setsuna wanted to help the child and hoped she could but the offer she was planning might also be just as bad if taken the wrong way.
"Because my fiancée didn't want anything to do with me so I refused to marry her by force, which is basically what my pops wanted me to do." Ranma sighed, putting her sandwich down. She had finished half of the sandwiches but the turn the conversation had taken was bothering Ranma more than she would like to admit.
"So they kicked you out of your family? No offense Ranma but your family sounds like a bunch of whack jobs." Setsuna said shaking her head in disgust.
"Is that your professional opinion?" Ranma asked picking the sandwich back up and stuffing it in her mouth, after all she didn't know when she would get food like this again anytime soon.
"Yeah, I'd have to say it is." Setsuna said, "Everyone deserves a family, not to mention an education. What would you say if I offered to add you to my family's scrolls?"
"What? Why would you do that?" Ranma asked.
"Well, I honestly have no living family." Setsuna said truthfully, relieved that while she wasn't going to tell the redhead everything thought she was going to tell the truth. "I would like to have someone who could be the heir to my families martial arts and maybe someone to be friends with, family with."
"So you would teach me your family's art?" Ranma asked in shock, "Just like that?"
"Well, there is one condition." Setsuna said smirking a bit.
"Great, I just knew it was too good to be true." Ranma groused a little angrily.
"The only condition I have is that you go to school and try your best." Setsuna said with a large smile as Ranma's jaw dropped in slight shock.
"You're shitting me, you want to basically adopt me and teach me your style and all you want is for me to go to school in return?" Ranma asked trying to decide if this woman was on the level.
"And of course be family." Setsuna said with a friendly smile. Of course she was out of practice on that but she managed it. "Of course with your water based curse and how it finds you I do have a proposition..."
Present...
Ranma was happily up for taking the offer to join the Meiou clan but the suggestions the woman made the redhead still found insane, even if there was a bit of logic behind them. Setsuna provided two sets of identification for Ranma, one for her guy side and one for her girl side. Her girl side would attend school and learn everything while her guy side would be registered as home schooled. While at school Ranma would have to remain as a girl with only the teachers knowing the truth to keep trouble down. Setsuna wanted Ranma to get used to her girl side, to learn that it was a part of her and not something to hate or be ashamed of.
Thankfully the girl time ended at the end of the school day as the masquerade would end and as soon as she could get home and out of the damned skirt she would be a he again and could go hang out around town or just laze about the house. There was even a dojo he could practice in and where every morning Setsuna would practice with him and show him some moves and every time Ranma did good on an exam the woman promised to show Ranma something really special as a reward.
In fact Setsuna had already shown Ranma a technique as proof of her words, starting Ranma in its basics. It was a new ki attack, but the way Setsuna described it the energy also came from something called mana. The concept was new to Ranma as well as the news of the side effect of emotion based ki attacks. Using emotion as the base of any attack supposedly caused the user to slowly become more and more unstable the more they used it – something which scared the hell out of Ranma if it was true.
The green haired woman was a psycho but Ranma grudgingly had to admit she was a very talented psycho who so far showed more kindness and care for the ten than her own family ever seemed to show.
Earlier that morning with Usagi...
It was still dark outside as the sun was just starting to rise but Usagi sat at her vanity staring into the mirror. Thankfully her mother took Chibi-Usa to sleep with her while knocking Kenji down to the couch which meant the younger girl wasn't there when the blonde awoke due to nightmares. She may not exactly like the spore but a part of her loved the child like she did all children.
She was still sore from not only what that bastard did to her last night but what she did to herself when she got a chance to take a bath. She had scrubbed herself raw trying to get the dirty feeling to wash away, she would still probably be scrubbing if not for her mother having come in to check on her and making her stop.
Ikuko was upset that Usagi refused to go to a hospital but the blonde just wanted to forget what happened, something which was proving harder said than done. Her eyes alone were red and puffy from crying in her bed half of the night but the invisible injuries were much worse while her visible injuries had mostly healed due to the silver crystal that always seemed to heal her while asleep. The problem was she didn't have much sleep so she was still very sore and stiff. She wasn't too sure how to even go about explaining the healing to her mother if the older woman pushed the subject.
She still felt so dirty though and she didn't understand why the man had chosen her. She had been sitting in the same spot for lord knows how long just staring at the image in the mirror. She used to think that she was okay looking if not pretty but the way Mamoru had dumped her had made her seriously doubt she was pretty at all. Why else would Mamoru dump her after all? Okay, she admitted that she wasn't the smartest or bravest or best fighter around but unlike the other senshi she wasn't a fighter in her last life. The others had been trained to protect her while she was expected to be the leader and trained to be a Queen, a ruler.
Watching the others slowly recover instincts and abilities from their last lives always bothered Usagi. She would never openly admit but she was jealous of how easy they merged with their past selves while Usagi never seemed to unless in dire circumstances. She wanted to regain some of what she had been like during the Silver Millennium. She wanted to be smarter, more graceful and a person who was worth peoples love and friendship.
Rubbing her eyes as her mind wondered back to the previous night knowing that if she was like the Princess she was supposed to be then it would probably have never happened. She would have been too smart to let it happen.
"Damn it!" Usagi swore rubbing her face, "Why can't I stop thinking about it?"
Taking a moment to look at the clock she realized that she had plenty of time to get ready for school which her mother already said that she would call her out today. Usagi knew thought if she stayed her mother would probably harp on what happened and that was the last thing Usagi wanted, she wanted to forget it.
Maybe school would be a good idea. A small smile wanted to form at that thought as her mother would probably have a heart attack at hearing that the blonde actually wanted to go to school. If she went though maybe she could try and pay attention and get her mind off things and on the off chance actually learn something for once.
Ramblings...
I know Setsuna is out of character here but his will be a bit of an AU as she has some reasons behind her actions, namely wanting the happiness for her best friends daughter. As for her being a martial artist, well I'm sure she had to spend her time doing something so she will be a bit of a genius in several things but she will also be much more stable of a person and not so cold.
The others I will try to keep mostly in character but circumstances will drive them to act OOC at times. The biggest example of this will be the first chapter with the way the girls treated Usagi. This is a bit of an AU and the girls will be a bit more darker or edgier but that isn't the main reason for how they acted. They had a reason for it but it may be a bit clichéd.
They Ranma universe, well, Nodoka may have seemed a bit OOC but I have plans for her later. As for Genma, I chalk it up to his stupidity and tunnel-vision of joining the schools. I do have most of the story planned out but one big part I have been debating on is Nodoka and Ranma. I've talked to several people and have several suggestions but I am unsure about them. First, should Ranma's biological father be someone other than Genma? If so that is easy to work in with my plans for Nodoka. Second, if his father isn't Genma should it be someone from another source such as Tenchi, X-men or something else or should he be an original character? Lastly, should Genma just be his father and leave it at that?
I hope that everyone can give it a chance though and enjoy the story and any help on how to improve the story would be appreciated. Is more grammar okay? Any major misspelling with names or descriptions? Any glaring plot holes? Any suggestions or ideas that I could incorporate into the story to make it better? Please review and let me know.
Thanks swifteye30 for the suggestion of a pre-reader, it would be a great idea and if anyone is willing please let me know.
Also, I tried to reply to all my reviewers but I was having problems off and on so if you didn't get a reply I am truly sorry but I am truly grateful for them. Thank you all so much!
Revised Edition Released on March 29, 2010
