Fated Pasts, Chaotic Future
A Ranma ½ and Sailor Senshi crossover Fanfic
Written by: Konsaki
This Fanfic was inspired by and uses source material from 'Lines of Destiny', a dead Fanfic created by Louis-Philippe Giroux.
oOo
Ignorant of the happenings at the Hikawa Shrine, Kaioh Michiru sat in silence in the residence she shared with the other Outer Senshi. In her hands, the clear glass of the Deep Aqua Mirror reflected her own gaze back towards her as she marshaled her thoughts for the divining she was about to perform. While it didn't require as much concentration as Rei's fire readings, using the mirror did require a certain level which involved clearing her mind of random thoughts and focusing on the object, or person in this case, of her divination. Once she reached that required level of focus, picturing a clear image of the redhead earlier encountered at the café, Michiru was rewarded after a few seconds as Ranko's image showed in the glass though the vision in the mirror showed her with a mischievous grin unlike the one in her mind.
Light green eyes observed the mirror before them as Michiru scanned the Ranko's form, both to look for anything suspicious and to just appreciate the view. She might be completely devoted to Haruka but nothing stopped her from admiring the good looking woman when the opportunity came along; though she'd be the first to elbow her beloved if she saw her doing the same. Before she could completely trace the female form displayed before her, Michiru's brow quirked in confusion as Ranko's image faded out and another replace it; one of a black haired man in similar clothing who wore a confident smirk.
"Who is this", the green haired Senshi asked to herself, "and how is he connected to Ranko?" Even as she asked this, her mind registered a glaring similarity in the clothing and hairstyles both images had shown. "Maybe her brother", she murmured out in theory, scrunching her brow together in thought.
As with before, she was only able to get a few seconds before the mirror shifted images again; this series of events uncommon to her prior uses of the talisman. When the next divination cleared in the glass the woman had to pause and blink, unsure of if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Taking a second glance, she could see Ranko but it was the other addition which threw her for a loop as she let out a questioning, "Mamoru?" Reflected on the surface of the artifact, the redhead first shown in it was once more portrayed but this time Usagi's betrothed stood behind her with a hand on her shoulder. Both he and the young woman before him wore easy smiles as if they were completely comfortable with each other's presence and happy to have the other's company.
"What is going on here?" Michiru's voice showed her growing confusion which came from both the images shown and the way her artifact was currently acting. She got no farther before the image changed yet again in the mirror, this time showing Ranko and the unnamed black haired man standing back to back. With this view, the similarities of their clothing and hairstyle was unmistakable, answered nothing and created more questions for the woman viewing it. This time, though, the view changed quickly from the pair to a scene of numerous pools of water that had large bamboo rods sticking out of them. To Michiru, the scene looked peaceful enough and rather beautiful if one was looking at a photo or painting of it but solved nothing, like the images before it.
'What's going on? Is something interfering with the Deep Aqua Mirror?' Her unasked questions found no answers in the depths of her thoughts. Still, something about the view of Mamoru and Ranko itched in the back of her mind, like she should remember something but couldn't quite grasp it. Michiru's frustration at towards the confusing images and that feeling of knowing the answer but not being able to 'find' it was unable to gather any real hold over the young woman as her concentration was broke by the front door opening and voices killing off the over present silence. Hearing this, the green haired Senshi flicked her eyes over towards the entrance to the house and saw Haruka and their adopted daughter enter in mid conversation. Almost immediately though, something flashed in the very edge of her sight which drew her eyes back down towards the mirror, but when she gazed into it once more it was empty save for her own reflection.
Letting out a breath of frustration, Michiru turned her attention towards the two who had just walked in just in time to hear her lover growl out, "…missed it?!"
Hotaru sighed slightly before answering her 'father', "It was only one and really weak, too."
Looking down at the younger girl, Haruka frowned as she replied, "Still would have liked to take it down... It's been quiet recently and I could have used the practice."
"What's going on", Michiru cut in at that point, causing the two to look towards where she was seated.
"Oh... sorry, Michiru", the blonde started, scratching the back of her head, "Hotaru-chan and I were just talking about how the meet went with Mamoru and it seems there was a daimon attack at the station..."
"What?! Is everyone ok", the green haired teen asked in a surprised but concerned voice as she jerked her eyes towards her 'daughter'.
Giving a nod, the planet destroying girl replied, "Yes, Michiru-mama, everyone is fine. There was a fight but..."
The youngest of the three was about to say more but Haruka broke in, crossing her arms while saying, "...it was easy... At least you and the others had some action."
"Actually, Haruka-papa", the purple haired girl started to reply with a tinge of annoyance in her voice, "we didn't even get the chance to transform. Someone else fought it instead and defeated it before we could do anything."
At this, the blonde blinked and dropped her arms slightly, "Really?" Seeing the younger girl nod, Haruka looked thoughtful for a second before focusing her brow and settling into a serious face, "A daimon appears out of nowhere and someone just happens to be there..."
Hearing her paternal figure's voice fade out and recognizing the pose she had taken, Hotaru acted quickly, "There's no way Ranma could be a bad guy! "
Seeing her significant other thrown off her thought process by their daughter's exclamation, Michiru took the initiative by asking, "Hotaru-chan, how do you know that?" After a second, she added, "And how do you know their name is Ranma?"
"Well, Ranma is Rei's cousin... they were on the same train that Mamoru was on", she replied to her parents. "Rei said they would be showing up at the same time so we were trying to see if we could spot them... Guess we did."
"They", Michiru asked, noticing the use of the word.
"Yes, Ranma and his wife... They are staying with Rei for a little while."
"Wait, let's go back to the daimon fight. Ranma took it out? How", Haruka broke in before the conversation got too far off track for her tastes.
Giving a shrug, the youth answered the best she could, "Well... we don't know. All he said was he's a martial artist and something about 'Ki'. He said Rei would know what that was, but I think it has something to do with that big blast of energy he defeated the daimon with." While the two parental figures took a moment to digest this new information, Hotaru finally noticed the artifact sitting in her 'mother's' lap and asked, "Michiru-mama, why do you have the Deep Aqua Mirror out?"
Blinking at the change in topic, the Senshi of Neptune looked at the item in question momentarily before her upper faculties started operating once more. "Oh, I was using it to try and find some information on a person named Tendo Ranko, but I couldn't find out much about her and what I did find was just confusing", she replied to her charge before letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Why were you searching for Ranko-san?"
"How do you know this 'Ranko', Hotaru", Michiru asked suspicious of the situation that was growing but also eager to find out anything she could to offset the mirror's confusing images.
Shrugging slightly, the young teen replied easily, "We met her at the Hikawa shrine while waiting for Ranma to show up with his wife. She didn't stay long though..."
Scrunching her brow slightly, the green haired female continued her questioning with, "What was she doing there?"
"Well, she showed up with Akane-san and Mamoru thinks she..."
"Wait a second... Akane? As in Saotome Akane", Michiru interrupted, firing off another question and disrupting the younger Senshi.
"Yeah! She's Ranma-san's wife", came the quick reply from Hotaru.
Watching this byplay as one would watch a fast moving tennis match, Haruka was finally getting annoyed by the way the conversation was wandering all over the place, she just couldn't keep it all straight in her head. "Okay, hold it", she called out, cutting in and taking control of the reins. Seeing she had the other two's attention, along with a slightly scathing look from her lover, she continued by stating, "Sorry, but this is getting confusing..." Turning to her 'daughter' she said, "Let's start from the train station and go from there, okay?"
Seeing Michiru nod from her seated position on the couch, Hotaru nodded in acceptance and moved to seat herself nearby. "Well, it all started when everyone started getting off the train..."
oOo
Back at the Hikawa Shrine, things had finally quieted down for the evening. Ami, Makoto, Mamoru and the two felines had taken their leave shortly after their two blonde companions' departures, although they left at a far lesser speed than the two girls had. Before leaving the shrine grounds and heading their own separate ways though, they had all promised to look into Ranma's situation a little more at a later date, since the man in question didn't seem too inclined to answer any more questions at the moment.
As for Ranma and Akane themselves, they were in the room that had earlier been giving to them for their stay at the shrine. A bit of idle chatter, intermixed with mild banter, went between the newly married couple as they prepared for an early night. When someone started rapping on the door to their room they shared a look and, on unspoken agreement, Ranma opened it to find Rei on the other side with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Quirking his brow, the martial artist asked his cousin, "Something wrong, Rei?"
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she looked up at her elder cousin and said, "Oh, no. Everything fine... I was just hoping to ask you one question before you went to bed. I'd have waited till morning, but it'd probably keep me up thinking about it."
Shrugging a bit, Ranma replied offhandedly, "Okay, go ahead. What you want to know?"
"Well, before you said you used a ki-blast against a monster at the train station, right?" Seeing her cousin nod while letting out a small sigh, she moved into the question that he obviously knew she was going to ask, "How exactly did you do it? Manipulate your ki, I mean."
Ranma just looked at his cousin silently for a few moments, pondering the best and fastest way to go about answering. To Rei's surprise, the blue eyed man before her just raised a hand and a shining white aura arose around it before seeming to reach out and form into a sphere which hovered above his outstretched palm. "Like this, only bigger", he finally replied after the ball of ki hung there for a few seconds and he noticed his cousin staring in utter awe.
Rei couldn't believe what she was seeing before her; a legend brought to life in the form of a white globe with flecks of gold flittering inside. Being no stranger to ki, having to use it to perform her fire readings, her knowledge told her that only the best martial arts masters were able to use their ki like Ranma was doing before her... and the raven haired man seemed to perform the feat with very little effort on his part at that. Just the thought of that made her wonder about just how powerful his spiritual strength might be.
Eventually, she noticed that she was gawking at the sight before her and closed her mouth to swallow, hydrating her suddenly dry throat. Mentally chiding herself for her lack of composure, the priestess took a quick breath. With that, Rei gestured towards the illuminating globe and asked, "May I?"
Raising a brow, the martial artist gave an unsure reply of, "Uh… okay…" Really, he didn't know exactly what his cousin planned on doing, but Ranma figured he'd be able to absorb the sphere of ki at a moment's notice if required. Just after his affirmation, he saw Rei close her eyes and move a hand to hover over the sphere, just barely touching but not quite.
Once she felt the soft warmth wafting off the spiritual energy, Rei opened herself to it fully; flooding her senses with the feel of power radiating off the sphere and, through it, the unfiltered sensation of Ranma's aura. Feeling the confidence and power held within both, the miko had to keep herself from shuddering from what her senses were telling her.
'How is he able to do this so easily', Rei thought as she continued to examine the orb with her spiritual sight, 'If it wasn't for the fact that me and the girls fired off our attacks as easily as this, I'd think it would be inhuman, but still this is…' "Incredible…"
Hearing his cousin's compliment and unused to receiving such, Ranma couldn't help but blush as he absorbed his ki back, dissipating the sphere from his hand. Feeling that it was gone, Rei took a deep steadying breath as she opened her eyes. "I'm very impressed, Ranma", she noted in pure honesty. "I'm looking forward to seeing what else you can do. Thank you and good night", she finished with a slight bow, turning away and walking off to think about what she just learned about her cousin.
Quirking his brow once more, Ranma looked from the retreating miko to his empty palm and back before shrugging. 'Oh well…', he thought before lowering his arm and closing the door to the room given to him. As he turned around, he found his wife standing nearby, having watched the entire event. He noticed the slightly concerned look on Akane's face as she commented, "I hope she doesn't go telling everyone about that."
Looking at his wife curiously, Ranma asked, "And if she does?"
Akane just sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, "Ranma, each time you've shown off your abilities, someone hears about it and challenges you…"
"So", her husband replied with a shrug, "It keeps me in practice and I'm supposed to accept all challenges to the school, remember?"
"That's just it, Ranma", she replied in a slightly exasperated tone, "We aren't at the dojo any more. It isn't a challenge to the schoolnow; it would just be messing up our life." As she continued speaking, Akane softly placed a hand on her husband's arm, "We're married now… no more fiancées, no more suitors, no more amazons… We haven't even seen Happosai since the first wedding." Moving in to lean into his chest, she almost pleaded, "It's been peaceful… Why can't it stay that way?"
Taking a breath, the pig tailed man wrapped his arms around his love as his face softened, "Akane… I promise I'll try not to do anything to attract any unwanted attention." Bringing a hand to her chin, he raised it up for her to see his serious gaze, "But if another monster shows up or something else happens…"
"I know", she conceded, "If living with you all this time has taught me anything, it's that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do..." With a sigh, she softly pushed herself out of her husband's arms and turned to look at the two futons, which were still about two feet apart. "Now…", she started once more, looking from the mattresses to Ranma, "What do we do about this?"
Grinning roguishly, he started to reply back, "How about a compromise…"
oOo
Meanwhile at the Outer's residence, their long but informative discussion on Ranma, Ranko, Mamoru and the monster attack had wound down for the night. Hotaru had just been put to bed but Haruka and Michiru were deep in thought, digesting their daughter's exposition of the day's events. Eventually, the silence was broken by Haruka's slightly skeptical sounding voice asking, "So, about Ranko… Do you think she's Mamoru's reincarnated sister?"
After a moment of thought, her lover looked up and answered, "I think she might very well be." Twitching her eyes towards the stairs that led to the bedrooms, Michiru added, "You heard Hotaru-chan describe Mamaru's reaction. What would you think if you'd been having dreams of someone only to have them show up exactly like in your dreams… especially if it was your sister from your past life?"
"You know I never had any sisters. Just four older brothers", Haruka responded with a derisive snort as she brought up the memories she could remember of her past life.
Slapping her lover's arm simi-playfully, the green haired teen chided, "Yes, I know that, but what if you did have a sister that you couldn't remember and just suddenly did. That's what Mamoru's going through right now, love."
"Okay, I can understand that, but I'm worried about how Ranko seems to have a really close link to Ranma", Haruka voiced back. "Were you ever able to find anything more with the Mirror about either of them or that connection?"
Shaking her head, the Senshi of Neptune replied in the negative to her partner, "I'm afraid not. I could get flashes of them, but that's it, nothing of any real value. Truthfully, I think something's interfering with the Mirror but I don't have a clue what it might be." Silently, she thanked the kami that she was able to draw out the images she had previously seen, enabling Hotaru to immediately point out the male figure, that wasn't Mamoru, as Ranma. Still, all this information put a new spin on the puzzle that encompassed Ranko and Ranma.
"Alright… well, putting aside that for a moment", the blonde Senshi said, changing the subject since it was going to go nowhere, "What are your thoughts on Akane? Hotaru thinks she might be her reincarnated brother."
The aqua haired woman let out a sigh as she thought about her conversation with the woman in question, cut short by circumstance having to do with her own partner and a certain redheaded fighter. "Well, she seemed like a nice enough person… Time will tell, I guess." She shook her head slightly while adding, "I just hope Hotaru doesn't accidently say anything important to Akane."
Placing a hand over her lover's own clasped hands, Haruka confidently proclaimed, "Hotaru has good judgment and she knows how to keep things secret." After saying that, she gave Michiru's hands a gentle squeeze before releasing them and moving onto another topic of slightly similar nature, "Speaking of secrets… have you heard anything about Setsuna?"
"Not as of yet, I'm afraid", Michiru responded with a shake of her head before continuing with a tinge of rue in her voice, "but then, how often do we really know anything about her?"
Haruka chucked at the mild joke before saying, "So I guess we should be used to it by now, ne? Anyways, I guess we should at least tell Mamoru about Ranko when we next see him?"
Michiru answered with a nod, "Agreed. I think we should try and find him tomorrow if we can." After saying this, the young woman stretched her arms high above her head, giving her partner a planned eyeful, which Haruka took full leering advantage of, while saying, "Right now, though, I just want to go to bed."
With a roguish grin which would have made Ranma's look miniscule in comparison, Haruka quickly got up from the couch and scooped her lover up into her arms causing Michiru to give out a light, playful shriek. "Well, I guess that solves what we'll be doing before we fall asleep… Ne?"
oOo
Once more, Ranma's dreams were plagued by the mysterious girl from the prior nights, and standing in the fallow fields as was quickly becoming the normal dreamscape in them. This time, though, it almost felt more... real than the ones before, if that were possible for a dream to be, or at least that's what he figured as the pigtailed dreamer scuffed a foot into the soft soil beneath the grass and wildflowers. It was then that Ranma heard the ghostly laughter and unintelligible speech that drove him to jerk his body around and orient on the target of his current frustrations.
There, in the middle of a gathering of oddly colored flora knelt the girl, once more with her face obscured by the long hair and shadows that seemed to persist no matter how she held her head. Somehow, he knew she was smiling and enjoying herself, but that was deemed trivial as Ranma moved closer to try and get a better look at her shadowed face. Eventually, after trying multiple times to get close but unable to break that final distance, Ranma got fed up and turned away from the laughing female...
It was then he almost had his heart fly into his throat in shock as he turned face to shadow with a new entity, an armored male slightly taller than himself. Sensing the armed and armored man start to move forward, the martial artist instinctively dropped into a defensive stance that would reduce the range advantage the sword wearing man would have. A moment later, Ranma blinked in surprise as he saw the man had no hostile movements in his steps and then shivered unconsciously as the black and silver clad male phased right through him as if Ranma wasn't even standing there. It was at this moment that his sleeping mind broke the veil of disbelief and forced himself to realize that he was in actually in a lucid dream.
As he jerked his body around once more to follow the actions of the unnamed knight, the pigtailed dreamer saw said knight approach closer to the mysterious girl, who rose from the plants at her feet to turn towards the man. Then, as if on cue, they ran the last few meters towards each other only to envelope in a familiar hug.
Feeling ignored and left out in his own dream, Ranma walked towards the two embracing figures and demanded of them, "Hey! Who the hell are you two!?"
The raven haired fighter felt a pang of elation, along with an odd pang of fear, as both figures finally reacted to him as he saw them turn to face them. He saw the man put an arm around the shorter female's shoulder, as if to protect her and comfort her at the same time while the shadows which covered his face lessened to reveal slight outlines of his features. Ranma took mild note of this but his attention was immediately locked on something more important... vastly more important. The ever present shadows which had obscured the girls face for as long as Ranma had had her in his dreams had finally cleared away, leaving her instantly identifiable to the Neriman martial artist. It was at that very same moment of recognition that identical symbols flared to life on each of their foreheads, flashing so brightly it blinded him in pain...
Jerking upright, Ranma flashed his eyes open into the darkness as a few beads of sweat dripped down his brow and he breathed a deep breath to steady his nerves. Jerking his grey blue eyes around, he quickly realized he was back in the room he and Akane were sharing in the Hikawa Shrine. 'Just a dream...', the Saotome heir thought to himself as he wiped at the beads of sweat. Then he paused mid motion as he realized something... the girl in his dreams...
'That was my female side', he stated mentally even as he let out a low groan, 'What the hell is with that? Damn... Ok, so I'm dreaming about my girl side... nothing's happening so it's not perverted, right?' Almost unbidden, the last image of the two looking back at him in his dreamscape flashed once more in his mind. 'Oh, yeah... there was that guy this time but... why the hell does he seem so familiar?'
Not gaining any answers in the dead of night, Ranma gave his head a shake to clear it before looking over to the sleeping form of his new wife. Based off her breathing, Akane seemed to still be fast asleep even as she scooted over even more, almost moving from her futon to his. Smiling slightly, Ranma thought about how he had suggested they push them together and how Akane had agreed so far as they simply slept which he agreed to.
Letting out a sigh, Ranma reached over to tuck his wife's bluish-black hair behind an ear as he thought, 'I sure hope her dreams aren't as weird as mine.' Taking another breath, he broke the gaze he had towards the sleeping beauty and looked towards the traveler's alarm clock they had set up beforehand. 'Great, a few more hours until we have to get up. Maybe I can get some actual sleep this time', he groused out as he lay back down and settled back to sleep.
Unfortunately, the weaver of dreams deemed that night to work against the young fighter's wishes and graced Akane with a dream not that much unlike his own. In hers, however, she found herself in a blank world facing the young girl she had seen in her previous dreams. Her features were slightly clearer than last time, but still blurry enough that her sleep addled mind failed to make out any solid details other than she was wearing a semi-formal dress from the Silver Millennium.
For a split moment, Akane's subconscious halted as it noted that it knew the dress was from the Silver Millennium but didn't know exactly what the Silver Millennium was. Even with that pause, the dream seemed to continue on, drawing her attention back just as the girl looked directly towards her and smiled brightly. Then, as the youth stepped towards her, a symbol flared to life on her forehead, glowing steadily and looking like a stylized romanji 'h'.
Even as she was beginning to get weirded out by the dream events before her, someone seemed to step out of her body, almost as if they were sharing the same spot to begin with. Startled, Akane jerked a step back, gaining enough room from the two dream figures to see that the one who stepped out of her was a man around her height and had a body that spoke of years of hard work. He had his back turned, keeping his face from Akane's view, but she noticed the armor he wore held a strange violet hue and seemed like something a guard or soldier would wear. More noticeable, was the mean-looking warhammer he had strapped to his back, though it hung there without any noticeable straps to hang it. While she was noting these things, the two figures continued to move towards each other until they reached the other and embraced in a close hug.
It was only then that Akane noticed that she was wielding her own trusty mallet in her hands, as if gaining comfort by its weight pulling down in them. Her grip tightened reflexively as the pair released their quick but familiar embrace and the armored man turned around to look directly towards her while dropping into the same exact stance she held her weapon in. All this cursory information was just background noise to the feeling of familiarity that slammed into her skull as she gazed at the man's un-obscured face.
"Who are you", Akane asked out, absently noticing that there was no echo in the featureless expanse they occupied. When the hammer wielding man failed to move out of his stance and chose not to answer her question, Akane became annoyed, calling out once more, "Hey! I asked you a question! Who are you!?"
This time, the armored figure chose to respond, adopting an annoyed expression not unlike Akane's as he raised a hand from the shaft of his weapon to point at her. The one word he spoke seemed to rebound off unseen walls and echo loudly but clearly, "You."
oOo
Meanwhile, Mamoru held his own dreams about a fiery redhead as he slept in his apartment; although, unlike Ranma, he slept though them. Realizing them for what they were to him, memories of the past shared with his lost sister, he dreamt of better days in the Silver Millennium. From bits and pieces of his life on Earth like practicing with his sister all the way to meeting young Princess Serenity for the first time... the lost pieces of his past life fell into place.
Elsewhere, Hotaru was doing the same, however she had no lost pieces to put together in her dreams. She clearly saw her previous life as a princess of Saturn and how she used to play with her brother up until the fateful day when she was marked as the avatar of Silence. She clearly remembered the way everyone shunned her from then on from what she was and ignoringwho she was; all because of what she represented.
Above all, she remembered that her brother had never forsaken her and always found time to speak with her as a person instead of the destroyer of worlds that everyone thought she was. He would listen to her plights and triumphs while speaking to her of his own worries and hopes... until the day he disappeared without a trace. The sights that she witnessed on her return to Saturn after Metallia's attacks drove a spike of anguish through her soul as she observed the ruins that had once been the royal palace and the forge her brother used to spend so much time in. All of it now just ashes to be blown around in the dying winds...
While the dreams of times past weren't enough to wake the young Senshi of Saturn from her slumbers, tears still ran freely down her cheeks as she wept silently in her sleep...
oOo
Quickly reaching over, Ranma pawed around until he finally managed to silence the infernal alarm, but the damage was already done. Now he'd never finish the epic battle with the unnamed monk on that rickety rope bridge in the mountains. With a jaw popping yawn, he shrugged the dream away as he stretched his arms out and fully awoke to the morning.
With a final pop of his neck, the young husband looked over to see and hear Akane stirring on her side of the mats, though she wasn't that much on her side at all. With a grin, he reached over, placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze as he softly greeted, "Ohayo, my beautiful tomboy."
As if refusing to throw off the veil of slumber, the woman curled up a bit more but mumbled out something mostly unintelligible. The only thing Ranma understood in the jumbled words that came from his wife's lips was a softly said, "…baka…" When he heard this, the pigtailed martial artist let out a soft snort while shaking his head ruefully, all the while keeping his grin. "Alright then, tomboy… I guess I'll just have to practice without you", Ranma intoned while getting up from the futon.
Even as he rose from the floor, he could clearly hear the grumbling from his wife, which preceded her saying, "Okay, okay! I'm getting up, baka." It took her a moment before, mid stretch, she stopped and realized what her husband had said, "You mean you're really going to spar with me?"
Shrugging Ranma replied, "Sure… that's what I told you before, right?" The grin turned into a smirk as he added, "That is, if you can drag yourself out of bed before noon." Hearing her annoyed grumble from Akane behind him as he turned and started pulling on his pants, he was ready when a pillow sailed past his head as he burst into light laughter.
Akane had a satisfied smirk on her face when the laughter was killed instantly when she smugly claimed, "Alright, baka, no fun for you tonight!" Even as she turned away to put on her own cloths, and to shield the large grin on her face, she relished in hearing the stuttered apologies behind her. She let Ranma fret for a little bit as she finished before abruptly turning on him and laying one hell of lip lock on his surprised mouth. When she released him, she saw he still had a shocked look on his face and noticing that he still hadn't put on his shirt, Akane playfully asked, "So… are you going to get ready before noon?" She laughing playfully, she danced out the door fully dressed as her husband snagged his shirt and chased after her.
Moments later, they both were out in the open air of the shine's courtyard. The sun shown just over the horizon, but failing to crest the walls that lined the shrine, creating a brightening environment as the pair stretched out their muscles from the night's rest and prepared for the coming exertions. As they continued their preparations, Akane spoke out asking, "You remember your promise, right? I want a real spar with you, not you dancing around me!"
Nodding in response, he replied, "Yeah, yeah. I'll spar for you for real… if you can get one good hit in on me."
With an eye twitch, Akane growled out, "What was that?"
"If you can hit me, I'll fight back. If you can't, well…", he replied evenly, ending with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
Surprisingly, instead of getting angry like he expected her to, Ranma's wife seemed to get more focused as if anticipating that one good shot she was going to give him. Even his usual confident smirk failed to get a rise out of her as she looked at him and thought, 'Not this time, baka. I have learned a few things from watching you…" With a slightly manic smile, she flashed forward with a direct charge at her opponent, beginning the match…
oOo
Unlike the two newlyweds, Rei had woken up before the crack of dawn to perform her chores as a miko of the shrine. She was preparing the Great Fire for the day ahead when the sounds of fierce fighting broke out outside. Jerking her head towards one of the closed windows which the sounds were filtering through, she felt around for any dark presences but found nothing. Confused but on high alert, the traditionally clothed priestess ran outside to see what the commotion was as she felt the comforting feel of her henshin rod in the hidden pocket of her top.
When she reached the doorway leading outside to the courtyard, Rei skid to a halt, amazed at the display of martial skill shown before her and silently kicking herself for forgetting that Ranma had asked about practicing in the morning. In her own mind, when Ranma had asked her about it, she thought he would be performing kata or speed drills… not this flowing full contact combat that she saw before her.
Well, it would have been a full contact match, had one of the two combatants actually managed to hit the other. In fact, it seemed like a one sided fight, with Akane trying her damndest to strike her new husband as he danced around her offense, dodging or redirecting the blows as they came at breakneck speeds. 'Kami-sama…', Rei swore as she silently put her hand over the pocket which held her henshin stick, 'they're moving almost as fast as we can when we're powered up!'
Inside the fight, Akane was concentrating as much as she could on the movements of her husband. So far, Ranma seemed to be acting like she expected as he slipped around another of her punches. Throwing out another strike, she gauged that the time was right to try a combination she had been practicing just for this. Throwing a timed combination of hand strikes, kicks and seemingly desperate moves, she waited for the proper moment. When that moment came, Akane soaked in the refreshing look of Ranma's surprised face as she launched her planned mallet strike straight into his face.
Rei almost shrieked out in shock, seeing her cousin get smashed in the face with the blunt weapon and go flying across the open area to roll on the ground until he came to a stop. She was about to run over and see if he was ok when he unsteadily dragged himself to his feet, shaking his head as if to knock his brain back into proper positioning. Ranma barely had time to do this, though, as his wife continued her assault uninterrupted without her weapon.
Dodging entirely on instinct and muscle memory, he turned to engage Akane and saw the pleased smirk plastered on her face. Her smug voice entered his ears as she pressed her advantage, "Ha! Got you good, Ranma!"
Picking back up his rhythm, he wove around her strikes once more but there was an edge to his moves as if anticipating another unexpected attack. "Yeah, guess you did. You've been practicing, huh?"
"Damn right, I have", Akane responded proudly. "Now come on! Fight me!"
Her smug expression faded away almost instantly as Ranma flashed a smirk and the flow of the match changed in an instant. No longer was she on the offensive against a dodging pigtailed fighter; now she was the one rushing on the defensive as blows seemed to come in from all directions and angles.
As the fight shifted directions, Ranma evaluated his wife's abilities and was pleasantly surprised to find her defensive and countering skills had improved as well as her offensive. She was still being completely overpowered, even without him resorting to any special techniques or upping his attacks to the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken level, but Akane was still performing well and even firing off her own counter attacks every now and then.
Rei just watched the two of them dance to and fro in the courtyard, amazed at the spectacle until her mind wandered back to the scene of Akane's triumph. Knowing that she had discarded her weapon after the successful strike, the priestess looked around for it but failed to spot where it should have been. Thinking about it for a second, she had to ask herself, 'Where did she get it in the first place? Wasn't she unarmed the entire time before that?'
With that rolling around in her conscious thoughts, along with many more questions, Rei yelled out a clear, "Break!" Even thought the interruption was unexpected, the conditioning of the two fighters forced them apart mid skirmish as they jerked their vision around to identify the third party.
Realizing that it was his cousin who called out the command, Ranma raised a brow and asked, "There a problem, Rei?"
"No, not exactly", she replied as she walked forward, "I just wanted to know what styles you were using. I've never seen anything like it before now and it was just amazing."
"Ah", he replied with a nod and a grin before puffing out his chest slightly, "That was the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu and I'm not surprised you haven't seen it before since there aren't many people trained in it."
"That was just one style? It looked like several styles mixed together…", Rei asked back, slightly confused.
Scratching the side of his head lightly with a finger, Ranma took a moment before replying, "Well, that's pretty much it. Practitioners of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu take what works from other styles to shore up any weaknesses and doing that allows them to be able to adapt to any other fighting style."
Smiling wryly, she leaned to the side slightly as she asked, "So that includes getting slugged in the face by a hammer?"
Feeling his wife in a full face smirk beside him, he absently brought up a hand to rub at the still visible mark left from the earlier strike. "Yeah… kind of, I guess", he answered back before turning to his wife. "What's the big deal with that anyways? You never pulled that out before."
Akane just shrugged as she responded easily, "You just said we should be ready for anything." Leaning in slightly she added smugly, "Anyways, a great martial artist like yourself should have been able to see it halfway across Nerima, especially after fighting Mousse as many times as you have." Pulling back to cross her arms before her, she finished by saying, "Consider it punishment for not taking me seriously from the start."
Before Ranma could respond to his wife's verbal jabs, Rei's confused voice broke in, "Mousse? You fought hair care products?"
Ranma just let out a groan at this as he shook his head, "No… not that kind of mousse, this one's more of the Chinese Hidden Weapons expert variety." Seeing the miko's lost look, he waved a hand dismissively, "Really long story, Rei… trust me." Looking up at the rising sun, he continued by saying, "Anyways, we needed to finish up anyways if we want to make it to registration early."
Nodding hesitantly, the shrine priestess turned halfway away from the pair, "Well… help yourselves to the kitchen. I'll be in a little later, I still have chores to perform." '…and I can always ask you more later', she silently finished.
"Great, thanks Rei", Ranma replied as he started walking towards the indicated doorway. He stopped in his tracks as Akane spoke out though, saying, "Yes, thank you, Rei. I'll go make us breakfast and then we can head out."
Taking a breath and praying for luck, the pigtailed male turned back to look at his wife and formulated a quick plan of action. "Akane, I don't think you should make breakfast yet." Immediately, his internal threat level went from 'normal' to 'imminent danger of death' as Akane scowled and growled out, "What? You don't think I can make breakfast!?"
Quickly waving his hands before him to try and placate his hair trigger wife, he rapidly explained, "No, no, no! I didn't mean that, Akane! I'm just saying you might want to wash up first, I mean, you worked a lot harder than me, especially for that one good shot." Seeing that he hadn't gotten attacked yet by the short haired woman, he continued to press his case, "While you wash up, I'll set out everything so you don't have to and help out when you're done."
Seeing his wife mull over the offer, Ranma only fully relaxed when she took a breath and said, "Oh, all right…"
As Akane headed off to bathe, her raven haired husband gave a slight sigh of relief, giving thanks to whatever kami saved him at the moment. Rei, for her part, watched the interaction in confusion, "Ranma… is there something I should know?"
This time, Ranma let out a clearly audible sigh, as Akane was nowhere in hearing range, and answered his cousin's question, "Well… It's like this, Rei. Akane likes to get… creative when she cooks and it usually turns out really bad. She also doesn't pay attention and is just as likely to use salt as sugar."
"Oh, come on, you can't be serious", Rei responded, her ire rising at hearing her cousin bash his wife's cooking.
"Dead serious", Ranma deadpanned back. "Don't get me wrong, she's getting better but she still has… accidents in the kitchen and they're usually really bad. The last time it happened, everyone almost had to get their stomach pumped."
Giving Ranma a disbelieving glare, Rei said, "Okay, now I know you're pulling my leg."
"Look, just call her family if you don't believe me, but really, with someone watching out for her she does ok. It comes out a bit bland, but that's great compared to what she made before", he explained, finishing with a shrug.
Giving her cousin one last disbelieving look, Rei just shook her head and headed back into the shrine with Ranma in tow. Looking slightly over her shoulder, she asked, "So, when are you guys leaving to register at the university?"
"Right after breakfast", Ranma replied, "We don't want to be stuck in line for hours just to get our courses."
"Oh, speaking about that, I never asked you what you two were taking", his cousin noted.
"Well, I'm taking Phys Ed so I can get certified as a sensei. Kind of have to since I'm the heir to the family dojo and our style", the red shirted man said as they headed towards the kitchen. "Akane's going to do acting, though Nabiki thinks she should try her hand at chemistry."
Rei raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Why chemistry? And who's Nabiki?"
"Nabiki's one of Akane's sisters. Just a word of advice, don't deal with her if you don't have to. She's a bit of a loan shark and a hustler", he answered and advised his cousin. "As for the chemistry bit, you need to remember Akane's cooking problems. We think she might get better if she can learn to check what ingredients she's using before actually using them…" Giving a quick shrug, he added, "Either that, or she'll accidently create some alternative fuel or something."
Hearing that last bit, Rei punched Ranma in the arm, "Oh, come on! Quit joking around!" Shaking her head, she remembered something, "Oh, before I forget again, Grandfather and Yuuichiro are probably coming back today, so don't be surprised if they're here when you get back. I'll leave a note so they'll be expecting you."
"Nice. It will be good to see Grandpa again… it's been a while", he mused as he opened the fridge and started pulling out the ingredients for breakfast.
Half an hour later, and an uneventful breakfast, Ranma and Akane headed off to register for their classes, leaving Rei alone at the shrine as she prepared to head off to school herself. Just as she approached the main gate to the shrine, Ami and Makoto poked their heads through. "Hey guys! What's going on", Rei asked as she gave a quick wave to them.
"Oh, we just wanted to see if you learned anything new", Makoto explained as she and Ami waved back.
Giving a quick sigh, the catholic schoolgirl said, "Yeah, lots of things. I'll tell you all about it this afternoon." Blinking for a second and scrunching her brow, she asked, "Wait a minute… if you're both here, then who's going to pick up Usagi?"
Ami just smiled, "Minako said she'd take care of it today."
For a second, Rei looked like someone tried to tell her one plus one equaled eleven, but shook it off and shrugged. Really, it wasn't her problem since she didn't even attend the same school as the rest of the inner Senshi.
Needless to say, Usagi and Minako were both on bucket detail for being late to class that day…
oOo
As they walked away from the registration office, Ranma couldn't help but glance over at his wife's course list to see what classes she took. After going over it once, he chuckled slightly and jokingly asked, "You know Nabiki will still try to get you to take chemistry sometime while you're here, right? Don't you have to take a science class anyways to graduate?"
Turning her head towards her greatest annoyance along with greatest love, Akane growled out, "Ranma, don't make me hurt you, it's starting out a nice day so far." With the warning to her husband out of the way, she flicked her nose into the air as she added, "Besides, I'm taking biology to cover that, so there."
Letting out another chuckle, this time a slight nervousness tick, he looked around at the wandering students who meandered around them. Coughing into his hand, Ranma quickly changed the subject by saying, "So... what do we do now?"
After blinking at the question, the short haired woman looked through the paperwork they were given and found what she was looking for. Perusing through it, she called off, "Well, there's the welcoming ceremony soon, which we have to go to." She finished the last part with a glare to her husband, knowing he was going to complain about having to sit through it. "After that, though, we're free to do whatever." Looking through her papers once more, she ran across the list of active clubs in the university roster, "I think I'll go take a look around and see if there are any clubs that interest me." 'Specifically, what the cooking club is like', she thought to herself as she spotted that one on the list. "What about you?"
Smirking, Ranma started to spout off a list of sports related clubs in a seemingly never ending chain that lasted until the pair sat in their chairs for the welcoming ceremony and Akane elbowed him to him shut up. As Ranma expected, the ceremony bored him to an almost brain dead state, a taxing endeavor that was more of him trying to stay awake than listening to whoever it was that was welcoming them to the university. When the torture was finally over, they both relished the ability to stretch their legs out once more and headed off in search for lunch. After a quick meal on campus, Akane and Ranma split off to explore, knowing they'd want to check out areas that didn't interest the other.
It turned out to be, generally, an uneventful early afternoon for Ranma as he wandered around the campus. True to his word, he checked out the sports clubs for something to interest him, but just like a Furinkan, he just couldn't get excited about any of them as they held little to no challenge. Still, the pigtailed martial artist wandered around the environs not paying attention to much, having little else to do. Due to this, he was completely off guard when a bucket slammed down over his head, drenching the Neriman.
'Damn... why now', the new female Saotome cursed in her thoughts as she peeked out from under the bucket, hoping no one saw the transformation. Letting out a quick sigh at seeing no one nearby, the redhead pulled the metal container off her head completely in time to hear someone shout from above her, "Oh geez, I'm sorry! Are you ok?"
Looking up towards the voice, Ranma saw two girls leaning out of a window, cleaning supplies in hand. "Yeah, I'm fine", she yelled back up, if a bit darkly. "Why'd you have to drop it me though?"
"Look, I'm really sorry", the one who yelled first called down again, "We were cleaning the windows and accidently knocked it off." After a second of looking a little sheepish, she asked down to the soaked freshman, "Um... do you think we could have it back?"
"Fine, just be careful next time", the redhead demanded as she tossed the empty bucket to the two girls, surprising them into almost not catching it. Turning to walk away, Ranma started grumbling under her breath about having to find a bathroom to get hot water now. She was heading off to do just that when a somewhat familiar voice called out from behind her, "Ranko-san? Is that you?"
Coming to a stop, the part-time girl turned to come face to face with the young man she met last night at the shrine. Blinking slightly in surprise, she couldn't remember if she was introduced to him as a girl then and decided to play dumb to be on the safe side, "Uh... who are you?"
The man before her tapped himself of the forehead slightly before saying, "Oh, sorry. I'm Chiba Mamoru. We met last night at the Hikawa Shrine..." Mamoru cleared his throat slightly before adding, "...though you left rather quickly."
Realizing quickly what the taller man was talking about, Ranma could feel her face heat up as she lightly stammered out, "Ah... yeah... Sorry about that." Desperate to change the subject away from her embarrassing departure last night she quickly said, "Oh, yeah! Ranma said you wanted to speak with me about something. What's up?"
This time it was Mamoru's turn to blink for a moment before it clicked in his mind and he absently said, "I did ask him to tell you didn't I." Gaining a bit more focus he continued on, "Yes, there are a few things I'd like to talk to you about."
Picking up a relaxed stance next to a nearby light pole, Ranma said, "Okay, I've got some free time. What'd you want to talk about?" 'Cause I got some things I want to talk about too...'
The redhead blinked a bit when, instead of starting up a topic, the raven haired man looked around nervously at the surrounding meandering students. Looking a little bit nervous and embarrassed, he asked, "Ah, well... it's a little personal..."
Quirking her brow at this new information, she gave the man a once over with her misty blue eyes. Figuring she could take him if he tried anything, not that she felt he ever would for some reason, Ranma shrugged. "Sure", she said before gesturing down to her soaked clothing, "You mind if I at least dry off first?"
Finally noticing that the girl before him was dripping wet, from having the fact shoved in front of his nose, he blinked once more while dumbly asking, "Ah... what happened to you?"
"Oh, nothing much", she replied, waving a hand dismissively as she dryly added, "Just got in a fight with a bucket of water. Guess who won."
oOo
Meanwhile, at Juuban High, annoyed brunette and her friend were waiting just inside the main entrance of the building near the shoe boxes. One was obviously annoyed while the other just shook her head at the griping coming from her companion. "Really, I can't believe those two", Makoto said for the umpteenth time that day.
"When I spoke to her at lunch, she blamed it on Artemis for not waking her up on time", Ami supplied even as she continued typing into her mini-computer.
"Doesn't that girl have an alarm clock or something", the taller brown haired girl questioned, very well knowing the answer as she leaned against the nearby wall.
"Would it make a difference if she did", Ami asked back as she looked up momentarily with a raised eyebrow, "You know she's as sound a sleeper as Usagi."
"Okay, fine, but why do those two rely more on the cats than their alarms to wake them up? It makes no sense...", Makoto asked in exasperation before around once more. "So, how much longer until those two are done with clean up?"
Taking a quick glance at her watch, the shorter of the two answered with, "They should be done any time now."
"Great! I can't wait to get out of..." Anything else Makoto was about to say was drowned out by a cacophony of shrieks originating from farther inside the school causing her to jerk upright, as did Ami. With a silent glance at each other, they ran around the corner to see a stampede of girls flee the locker room, some in less than full dress. As one ran close to the pair, Makoto reached out to snag her arm while demanding, "Hey! What's going on?!"
"There's a perverted monster stealing our underwear and groping us in there", she cried back with a shiver before breaking loose and continuing her flight of the scene.
Narrowing her eyes, the brunette powerhouse looked towards Ami and asked, "Is there a youma or daimon in there?"
Even as the question was being asked, the dark haired girl was typing away furiously at the keys of her Mercury computer. With a slight frown, she replied, "I can't get a good reading... but there's something in there." Scrunching her brow, she wondered out loud, "Why would a youma bother with stealing underwear though?"
Looking at the shorter Senshi incredulously, the brunette asked back, "Why ask me? I don't..." For the second time, in so few minutes, the Jovian girl was interrupted before she could finish by a loud cry, though this time it was that of two specific words that wracked her brain, "Hotcha! Sweeto!"
Makoto never knew what hit her just after that as the owner of the voice rocketed forward to latch onto her developed chest and give it a loving grope or three. Shocked into a minor stupor, she could only look down to see a shrunken wrinkled... thing covered in female underwear attached to her bosom, as it continued to explore it. After a moment, the thing attatched to her happily commented, "Whoa! Never expected there'd be a girl as stacked as you around this joint, sweetie!" Wiggling what might have been eyebrows, it asked, "Why don't you an' me elope for a few nights of wild passion? What d'you say?"
At that, it took less than a second for Makoto to go from 'Shocked', straight through 'Outraged' and wind up smack-dab at 'Murderous Rage' as she lashed out at the perverted monster. "How dare you, you freak", she screamed out as the thing released her assets to dodge her fist.
"Sweeto! You even know some martial arts, too", the thing happily cried out as it danced around the enraged girl's strikes, "This place is even better than Nerima!" Just after yelling this, both it and the girl trying to strike it down jerked their attention to the door of the locker room as it burst open, disgorging several girls with murder in their eyes and the tools to accomplish it in their hands; ranging from mops to hockey stick to even the occasional mallet. Outnumbered and having lost the element of surprise, the perverted gnome chose to flee; quickly followed by the girls screaming for its death or at least a severe beating. Of course, it got a quick grope up Ami's skirt as it passed, just to make sure she wasn't feeling left out.
"I'm going to kill that thing", Makoto roared out to the empty hallway as she smashed a fist into her palm. She was about to run out to do just that until she noticed Ami standing stock rigid still beside her. With concern filling her voice she asked, "Hey, Ami, are you ok?!"
With the mention of her name, the dark blue haired girl blinked and turned her head towards her taller companion. Her face was expressionless as she numbly asked, "You want to kill that thing?"
Almost immediately, Makoto snarled out, "I'm going to ram a lightning bolt up its ass!"
Instead of balking at the vulgarity used like she normally would, Ami's face went from expressionless to cold hard steel as she told the taller Senshi, "Then get in line!" Then, without any more delay, she shot down the hallway to chase after the bouncing pervert leaving Makoto to blink in surprise before following what usually was the calmest member of the team. As Sailor Senshi, it was their duty to prevent threats to the public... this time; they were going to stop the threat by extreme annihilation!
oOo
"So, how did you recognize me back there", Ranma asked as she and Mamoru wandered aimlessly down the street.
Smiling slightly, the taller of the two replied with a little chuckle, "Well, there aren't that many redheads around here and it sort of stood out when I saw you last night."
Shaking her head slightly, causing her pigtail to sway behind her, she wryly agreed with his statement. "Okay, so that answers that, but what were you doing at Mizuharo University anyways", she continued with as they made their way. Oddly, she couldn't help but relax around Mamoru, as if she had known him for a while instead of just meeting him yesterday.
"I'm a student there, of course. I'm majoring in Journalism", he replied with a smile. "What about you, Ranko-san?"
Waving a hand dismissively, she told him, "Just call me Ranko. Anyways, I'm just accompanying Akane and Ranma while they register today."
"Ah", the short haired man responded before inquiring, "So, what is Ranma's major?"
Smirking, the redhead replied, "Phys Ed, what else?" Hearing that, Mamoru couldn't help but chuckle at that, knowing what he saw of Ranma yesterday. It just seemed to fit perfectly.
Still, with that line of conversation ended, the pair descended into silence as they continued walking. Mamoru was furiously trying to think of a way to start up the topics he really wanted to talk about without it sounding wrong. His musings were cut short when Ranma finally called his hand by asking, "So... what exactly did you want to talk me about?"
'Well... it's now or never', he thought as he psyched himself up, "Actually, it's the fact that you remind me of someone. I swear, I've never seen you before yesterday but when I saw you... I couldn't help but think that I'd seen you a long time ago..." '...and then there's the fact that you seemed startled at seeing me, too!'
Without knowing it, the two had stopped along a nearby wall along the sidewalk as Ranma thought about what Mamoru had said for a moment. Figuring she had nothing to lose in being forthright with him, she chose to tell him the truth as she said, "Well, this is weird, cause you remind me of... someone, too. I know I've never seen you before, but ever since I saw you, I've been thinking of you..."
Even as Ranma's voice trailed off as she realized just how her words sounded, Mamoru found himself breaking out in a nervous sweat. After a moment, the redhead stepped back and waved her hands before her, "No, no, wait! I didn't mean it like that! I'm not in love with you or anything..." Taking a quick breath, her demeanor changed to a slightly more aggressive one as she demanded, "It's just that you look damn familiar and I want to know why!"
As Ranma testily waited for an answer; Mamoru mulled over whether to tell her or not. Truthfully, telling her that she might be his long lost sister from another life would make him out to be crazy, which he wasn't. Still, the odds of her being Akana reborn had risen drastically as he observed her mannerisms during their short conversation. He was still trying to decide whether or not to tell her when the decision was taken from him by the sounds of nearby screams of outrage and panic.
Snapping his awareness back to the real world, he looked around and cursed under his breath as he found himself just outside Juuban High. Then something slapped him across the face, he didn't see Ranko anywhere. Already looking on the same elevation as himself, he looked up and was surprised to find her atop the three meter tall wall that surrounded the high school which the screams were originating from. As he watched from below, he could make out the girl's expression darkening as she growled out a single word with so much disgust it was almost tangible:
"Happosai."
oOo
Even before her feet touched down on the top of the wall, Ranma could see the pandemonium clear as day on the field below as girls ran around in a panic. The scene was all too familiar to the Neriman, as she had seen it countless times during her time at Furinkan and the surrounding area in Nerima. Quickly spotting the expected lynch mob amidst the chaos, the redhead looked to the fleeing target as it bounced around merrily.
Even as she growled out his name unconsciously, she thought about all the times the perverted grandmaster of her style had made her life and other's a living nightmare. Really, she had hoped she had seen the last of him at the disaster of a first wedding she and Akane had, but it seemed the freak had moved on to greener pastures, so to speak. She was about to jump down and confront the wrinkled gnome when two figures that somehow matched the photos from the magazine she read on the train jumped in before her. Eyeing the pair, she called down to Mamoru, "Are those the Sailor Senshi?"
Mamoru, who had moved a few meters over to the main gate, looked in to see what Ranko was talking about. Still wondering how exactly the redhead had gotten up the three meter tall wall, he replied over the background noise, "Yes, they are or at least two of them, anyways!" Even as he called that out, he scanned the crowd for Moon or Venus, wondering, 'Where are they?' At least he knew Usagi was alright, feeling nothing through their empathic link.
His search was quickly interrupted by the girl he knew as Ranko when she called down once more, stating, "I hope they don't plan on stopping Happosai dressed in those short skirts." Looking up, he saw the girl shake her head in disappointment, which confused the man even more. Suddenly, it wormed its way into his mind that she kept calling that thing by a name. "Hey, do you know what that thing is?!"
Letting out a heavy sigh, Ranma responded back sullenly, "Unfortunately... 'Its' name is Happosai and he happens to be a perverted martial arts master from survives by leeching energy from girls by groping and stealing their underwear..."
"So he's human, then", Mamoru called up in confusion only to get a nod in reply, "So why are you worried about the Senshi? They've defeated numerous monsters that are surely more powerful than him."
Looking down at the man with a raised brow, she thought about how defensive he sounded but shrugged it off as unimportant. "Remember what I said about him leeching energy from girls? Well... those two are dressed like a wet dream come to life to him..." Snorting, she pointed to the encounter in question and added, "He'll go nuts when he finally gets over the shock..."
oOo
On the floor where the action was taking place the two Senshi rushed in with promises of pain in their eyes as they landed before the fleeing perverted master. As Mercury predicted, as soon as the two identifiable super heroines were noticed, the chaotic scramble around them seemed to be warded off as everyone gave the two Senshi and their target a wide birth. Happosai was in shock at the vision of beauty before him; two heavenly angels in short skirts and high heels... and better yet, they came to him instead of the other way around. So lost in his drooling stupor, the elderly martial artist almost failed to notice that the Senshi before him had decided to forego the usual introductory speech they usually gave, not that he had any prior experience with the Senshi before this anyways.
Still, the fact that the two call out their magical attacks with venom dripping from their voices gave Happosai just enough time to dodge out of the way, keeping him from getting electrocuted and flash froze at the same time. Cackling madly, the grandmaster's perverted little mind took two plus two and came up with seven when he deemed that the reason they were attacking him was because they felt left out since he hadn't given them any Happy loving. With a cry of "Sweeto", he flung himself towards the taller of the two and her twin orbs as his target.
Sailor Jupiter saw the little pervert heading her way and fired off another blast of lightning, which came close, but only managed to blow a chunk out of the ground behind the flying gnome. She tried to ready a second shot at it, but before she could build up the magic required to shoot off the blast, he was already moving at a speed that made her greased lightning seem slow. The next thing she knew, Happosai was latched onto her chest once more, snuggling in even more vigorously than before. Having had more than enough of the freak the first time, and not even wanting its attention then, a film of rage covered her eyes as she raised her hands to either side of his wrinkled old head. "Supreme...", she started out, powering up and trying to overcharge the attack if she could.
At that moment, Happosai paused in his loving attention to the female mounds beneath him. There wasn't much that would cause the old pervert to do that, but the weird feeling he was getting in his hair was apparently one of them. In reality, he had only felt this feeling once before in his long life and it had been when he was accidently shut into the dryer with his silky darlings at a foreign laundry mat. Then it hit him of what the feeling exactly was... static fluffiness.
"... Thunder!"
As Jupiter finished, the area was bathed in a blinding flash of an electrical storm centered on that one spot and shook the surrounding area with an enormous thunderclap.
oOo
Just moments prior to the blast that shook the area, Usagi and Minako skipped the last bits of the cleaning detail to investigate the commotion outside. Just as they reached the exit leading out to the front courtyard, Usagi saw Umino barreling towards it with camera in hand. Reaching out and halting his forward motion, the reincarnated moon princess questioned, "Umino! What's going on!?"
"You mean you don't know", he asked back in disbelief, "Some hentai monster raided the girl's locker and the Senshi are fighting it outside right now!"
"Senshi", Usagi cried out in surprise, as she looked towards her blonde cohort and absently releasing Umino who ran outside, "Come on, Minako! We've got to see what's going on!"
Nodding in agreement, Minako rushed through the doors with her princess, finding the a mass of students encircling an area as they watched the goings on. With a few pushes, shoves and well placed elbow jabs, the two girls made their way to the inside of the man made ring just in time to see Jupiter try and turn the hentai monster into a pile of electrified ash. When the flash cleared from everyone's eyes, however, it was clear that the attack had either failed as the creature jumped away just in the nick of time and was standing a few meters away from the human lightning cannon.
So captivated by the happenings of the fight, neither one noticed their communicators beeping on their person. Still keeping some of her wits about her though, Minako grabbed a hold of her liege's arm while saying, "Usagi, we need to go transform and help them!"
Whatever Usagi's reply might have been was lost as they both watched a familiar redheaded girl fall from an impossibly high leap to descend on the short creature while screaming out, "HAPPOSAI!"
Dumbfounded by what they just witnessed both blondes could only chorus a shaken, "Ranko?"
Surprised himself by the unexpected turn in the action, the perverted master barely escaped yet another attack on his health. The only reason he did so, was his body reacting on centuries of honed experience dealing with screaming women, as he leaped to the side just in time to see Ranma's fist plunge through where his body had been only a second before and continue on to create a small crater in the hard packed dirt. Even as his feet touched down in his new position, Ranma was drawing herself up to her full height and glowering at the shrunken freak, growling out loudly, "Happosai! It's bad enough you did this at Furinkan, I won't let you do this to girls who can't defend themselves!"
Behind the redhead, Jupiter had regained her focus after Ranma's quick display and reacted to her comment with an indignant, "Hey!", which the redhead ignored. Beside the tall Jovian Senshi, Mercury had her visor and computer out, scanning the redhead and the enemy known now as Happosai in greater detail.
Opening and closing his small hands in anticipation, which was clearly shown on his ancient face, the little man called out in delight, "My darling Ranma-chan! You came all this way to see me? It's been so long..." Pulling out a set of black lingerie, he added, "Here, take these as a gift!"
Narrowing her eyes in anger, her response was scathing, "Shut it, you old freak! Ya ain't going to do this again 'cause I'm sending ya to the hospital for a long time!" Before he could say anything in response, Ranma's arms flashed forward as she cried out, "Moko Takabisha!" When a orb of shining golden energy shot out with the redhead's voice, five sets of eyes widened as they related the attack to one they had seen just yesterday.
The ki blast missed its mark, however, as the shrunken master of martial arts leapt forward and underneath the globe just before it dug into the dirt just past where he had originally been, kicking up a small cloud of dust and debris. Before the younger fighter could react, Happosai had closed the distance between the two and copped a quick feel of her ample assets before she was able to slash out with a back fist, driving him back once more. Narrowing her eyes, Ranma had to wonder, 'Did the freak get faster since last time? How the hell'd he do it?' Figuring it was pointless to ask, Ranma let out a quick battle cry and leapt forward to keep the slight initiative she created.
Soon, everyone watching was given a short display of two martial arts masters duking it out; their limbs barely visible and what could be seen was only blurs as kicks, punches, counters and blocks were thrown at top speed. Eventually, it came to a quick end as Happosai hopped over an extended leg but got caught by the other one in a flash spin roundhouse; getting flung over the human ring of observers and into the concrete wall that surrounded the schoolyard. Everyone but Ranma gawked when the resulting ruble started to shift and a dirty, but mostly unharmed, gnome stepped out of it.
Seeing the look of seriousness etched across the elder's face, Ranma set herself into a defensive stance even as he declared, "I'm getting tired of this, Ranma. I think you need a lesson in respect from your master!"
Snorting derisively, she called back through the gap in the crowd, "Yeah, right! You ain't my master and I need that lesson from you like the world needs another plague!"
Rather than respond to the insult, the master of Ranma's father chose to flicker his hand into his gi top. Moments later, the air between the two fighters was occupied by lit Happi-Daikarins, causing the recipient to fling herself to the side in an effort not to get hit. It was only after she was in mid air that Ranma realized the two of them weren't alone in the fight and were surrounded by noncombatants. Worried eyes twisted around as she watched the trajectory of the ki charged explosives, yelling, "Get out of here! They're gonna explode!"
In retrospect, it seemed that the word 'explode' was just the right keyword to knock the observing crowd out of their funk, unlike the lightning bolts and ki blast thrown out before. Just after the word got called, a collective panicked shriek escaped the people surrounding the fight as they scrambled to get away from the newly perceived danger. None of them got very far before the fuses finished burning out and cooked off the gunpowder inside, shaking everyone up with the resulting explosions but doing relatively little harm. The worse off were Usagi and Minako as they were jolted down to the ground by the shockwaves, having been the unlucky ones so close to the landing point of the bomblets.
Jerking her fury filled eyes to lock onto the shrunken martial arts master, Ranma yelled out, "What the hell are you doing?! There are innocents nearby and you almost hit them! Do you have any honor left, you bastard!?"
Jabbing a finger towards the furious pseudo-female, Happosai called back, "Oh, get over it! Those were weak and I wasn't aiming at them; I was aiming at you!" Crossing his arms, he quickly added in self justification, "Besides, if you had stayed still and taken your punishment like you were supposed to, this wouldn't have happened!" As he finished his last word, his hands flared out once more, throwing more of the ki charged firecrackers into the air. This time, though, Ranma could feel the greater ki charge than the one's prior had.
Adapting to the situation and knowing the fleeing innocents were still too close for Ranma to just dodge them, she started flashing out her limbs to bat the explosives high into the air where they would explode harmlessly. Unlike last time, though, not only were the bombs more powerful, they were more numerous than before and Ranma was only able to knock most of them into the sky. The few that got past her efforts landed well too close to the still downed blondes as they tried to gather their wits from the prior explosions.
Even as Jupiter saw the paper covered spheres land, she was screaming out in panic as she sprinted towards them, "Noooo! Usagi, get up!" It was at the same time, that Mamoru pulled a red rose out from inside his blazer and transformed into his tux clad alter-ego as he performed his own efforts to reach his beloved. As for Usagi herself, she was just able to shake off the shellshock when she heard Jupiter's voice cry out but her eyes failed to leave the explosives as they landed and rolled right up to her feet; locking her limbs in fright.
"Kuso!" The curse escaped Ranma's lips even as she bolted towards the vulnerable blondes. Knowing there wasn't much time left, as the fuses ate away at the last bit showing, she flashed a scathing glare towards Happosai before she seemed to blur from existence. The next spot where she became clear once more was when she seemed to materialize before the two shocked girls before she gathered them up in her arms and pushed off with her ki charged legs once more.
Explosions boomed into existence just on the tail of the fleeing redhead and her two charges. Usagi and Minako could clearly see the hot fireballs behind them, but were instead captivated by a much more important sight as they beheld the glowing sigil that brightly flared on Ranma's forehead; one of a full circle quartered by horizontal and vertical lines. So entranced by the sight, they never noticed that they were once more on terra firma and being handed off to Tuxedo Kamen, whom she felt she could trust for some reason beyond her.
Placing his hands on her shoulders, the black and white clad male asked in concern, "Usako, are you alright?!"
Blinking a few times, the odango haired girl shook herself sentient and answered, "I'm alright..." Usagi then locked with the masked man's eyes and said, "Mamo-chan, I saw it! I really saw it!"
Looking more than a bit confused, he asked back, "You saw what, Usako?" When his love replied back with an energetic, "Her sigil", he blinked in surprise before questioning it, "Are you sure?"
"Yes", the blonde answered back, a little put off, "It looked just like the one Ami showed us. Ask, Minako, she saw it too!"
With his eyes widening in realization of what this fact meant, the transformed Mamoru never even noticed Jupiter and Mercury run up to check on their princess. He was too involved with watching the ongoing fight between Happosai and the girl who had just been confirmed to be his newly rediscovered sister.
oOo
By the time Ranma had reengaged Happosai, the sigil had faded away once more. Throwing a lightning fast combination towards the perverted master, she growled out, "Why'd you attack them, freak?!"
"I didn't attack them; you dodged my attack, whelp! Anyways, I've grown tired of your interference, Ranma. I can't even share my affection with the fine girls of Tokyo without you showing up and getting in the way", he countered back, both physically and verbally.
"And that's supposed to be a bad thing", Ranma mocked as she hopped over a low kick and threw out her own palm strike.
Smirking malevolently, Happosai pondered, "I think it's time I taught you your place and who's the real master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu."
"Yeah, right", the redhead snorted out in response, "I've gotten better over the past year, unlike Oyaji."
"Is that so", the smaller of the two wondered out loud as he quickly reached in to goose her left breast, "So why was I able to get a good feel without you blocking it unlike back then?" Smiling with her growl of disgust, he wiggled his fingers suggestively as he said, "Beaches make wonderful training grounds, you know..."
With Happosai's last sentence, Ranma developed a very pronounced eye twitch as she thought about how he would have 'trained' at the beach. A very feminine screech of rage escaped the redheaded martial artist as she declared, "That's it, you little freak! I'm gonna give you a world of pain!" Lashing out with a strong right, she blurred through where her target was a moment before, embedding her fist into the wall behind him before jerking it out of the crumbling rubble. Never one to give up, Ranma dashed forward once more, only this time instead of dodging the attack, the elder fighter pulled out his pipe and flung the girl through the air towards the border wall on the other side of the schoolyard. With the added momentum from a flick of his wrist, he managed to get Ranma to completely blow through the wall, causing it to crumble and pile up on top of her.
Seeing this in action, Tuxedo Kamen yelled out in distress as he prepared to run in an assist his sister. He had barely willed a rose into his waiting and cocked hand when Mercury grabbed his arm and called to him, "Tuxedo Kamen, wait!"
"Let go, Mercury! I have to save her", he urgently told her as he tugged his arm loose. He halted his movements though, when she yelled at him, "She's okay!" Scrunching his brow, he looked at the resident genius of the Senshi in confusion, "What?!"
"She means that", Jupiter replied in her stead, jerking him around by the shoulder while pointing out towards the shifting ruble. Climbing out of the dust and the debris, Ranma coughed and spit out a glob of muddy gunk from her mouth. As she shook her head quickly, dirt fell from her loose and wild hair before falling to rest down her back. 'Great', she mentally groused with a sigh, 'must have lost the string in that stuff... at least I don't need it anymore.'
The tuxedo clad hero barely kept his feet, fighting the urge to fall to his knees, as the girl before him now completely looked like the visions of his sister that had plagued his dreams. It was during the slight break in the action that Sailor Mars finally made her way towards the encounter, coming to a stop near the rest of the Senshi team. "What's going on!? I felt something from the shrine and got here as fast as I could", she asked out to her team.
"That's what's going on here, Mars", Jupiter responded, pointing at the two combatants that were preparing to go at it once more. "They've been going at it for a while now and she's doing a better job than we could", she admitted with a pang of annoyance at her own shortcomings.
Blinking at the uncharacteristic words coming from the team brawler, Mars looked out and blinked again when she saw who was fighting. "Uh... isn't that Ranko", she asked, not sure of what she saw. Seeing the nods in the corner of her vision, she continued by commenting, "Wow, she looks just like Akana without the pigtail."
"That's because she is Akana! Usagi and I saw her sigil", Minako blurted out in response.
Shocked with that revelation, Mars looked towards the blonde about to say something else, but was cut off as her senses felt the buildup of energy on the nearby battlefield. Hissing loudly, she locked onto the shrunken master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu and declared, "If that isn't a demon, it's too close for comfort!" Pointing at it, she added, "That has to be what I felt at the shrine!"
oOo
Back on the field, Ranma had just finished throwing out another ki blast to make an opening, which Happosai dodged easily from the distance involved. It was only a short skirmish between the two before the redhead was once more thrown back to roll along the dirt for a second before regaining her feet. 'Kuso', Ranma cursed in her mind, 'I can slow him down if I can just get a good shot on him, but he's too freaking fast to get that hit in!'
Even as she looked into the smirking pervert's face and growled, her mind was analyzing the moves she knew for something that might work and give her the edge she needed to put Happosai down for at least a while. While she was unconsciously performing this feat, the source of her ire taunted at her, "Well, Ranma, is that the best you can do?"
"You want to know what I can do, old freak", she yelled back with venom over the short distance as her brain finished its formulation on a plan of action, "How about you dodge this?" Thrusting her arms forward, a large orb of ki flashed into existence before her right before her arms started blurring, "Moko Takabisha Revised: Kensha Happa Dan!"
Happosai just eyed his pupil's child oddly up until his eyes shot wide when he realized why exactly the large ki sphere was wavering. 'He's disrupting the thing with the Amaguriken', he thought just as it exploded into a swarm of miniature ki orbs... which were all flying in his direction at a high rate of speed. "Kuso", the elderly hentai cursed out as he flung his aged body out of the way, twisting in mid air to avoid most of the attack, but not all as several orbs exploded in ki flares on his small body. The only thing saving him from taking even more damage from the innovative attack was the fact that Ranma wasn't expecting the harsh backlash which threw her backwards and spoiled her aim.
Even still, the hurt and aged Happosai found himself flying through the air to tumble along the ground before finally sliding to a stop. When he finally flipped himself over onto his back, a vision of loveliness awaited him as he found himself looking up the skirt of the nubile Sailor Mars. Mars was warned only by a quick, "Hotcha", before the little pervert leapt from the ground and straight to her undefended bosom, as she was still shocked from seeing Ranko's display of ki skill. Feeling the added weight on her chest, she realized the shrunken thing was really an old perverted man as he said, "Thanks for helping out an old man in his time of need, hot stuff!"
Gaining a face that only an outraged woman can acquire, she pulled out a ward from her subspace pocket and slapped it onto the pervert's forehead while firing off a quick chant, "Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen! Akuryoo Taisan!" The result of her efforts wasn't exactly what she was expecting, but none the less, it was very satisfying as Mars saw Happosai leap from her chest to run around in circles, all the while screaming in pain. Instead of banishing the evil spirits that she thought had possessed the hentai, it felt to him like someone had jammed a red hot poker straight into his brain. Smirking at her success, Mars felt she should add insult to injury and fired off a quick, "Burning Mandala!"
Ranma was just picking herself up off the ground and shaking her head clear from the backlash when the wave of fire hit the aged hentai. Blinking at the sight, a grin formed on her lips as she mentally gave a whoop of joy. Not wanting to waste a moment, she sped at the burning pervert, starting the spiral which she had used on him once before in their history of battles. Happosai was too involved with successfully pulling off the burning seal and trying to put out the flames to notice until he heard Ranma's voice break through his funk when she warned everyone to, "Watch out!"
By the time he realized what was going on, he knew it was too late to do anything about it, as she called out to him, "Hope you have a crappy flight, old letch. And don't come back!" Caught between trying to put out the flames and getting caught in the expected attack, or grounding himself while getting burned, Happosai cursed. That curse went unheard as it was overshadowed by Ranma finishing the technique with by firing off an uppercut into empty air and calling out, "Hiryuu Shoten Ha!"
The Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen all blinked as the girl apparently missed the burning pervert. A moment later, they were forced to brace themselves as a torrent of circular winds sprang up around Happosai and Ranma in a miniature tornado. It only lasted a few seconds, but before it ended the diminutive martial arts master was shot out the top of the vortex like a tumbling cannonball well past their line of sight into the horizon. Almost an instant later, the vunnel of dust and debris cleared as the winds died down, reveling a dirty, but still in one piece, redhead.
oOo
As the winds died around her, Ranma couldn't help but smiling. 'Beat the freak one more time and made a new technique...', she mentally counted before nodding, 'Yeah, definitely a good fight!' Brushing the dust off her shirt and pants, she tallied up the property damage from the fight and winced slightly, 'Well, it's not as bad as back in Nerima...' It was while she was looking around that she noticed the two blondes standing by the tux clad man and the Sailor Senshi. Walking over to the group, she asked, "Hey, are you two okay?"
Seeing them nod numbly, Ranma figured they were both still shell shocked from the explosives Happosai almost hit them with... twice. She was about to turn towards the tuxedo wearing man but something registered in her mind, causing her to peer closely at the two through narrowed eyes, "Hey... Weren't you two at the Hikawa Shrine last night?"
Hearing that caused Usagi to startle a bit, wondering how much of an impression she gave in the few minutes they saw each other at the shrine. Then it hit her that the girl before her probably remembered because of Luna and Artemis more than anything, "Oh, um... yes, that's us." Fighting with herself over what she should say next, she said on instinct, "Um... sorry about Luna and Artemis... we didn't know..."
This caused the redhead to blink for a second before she waved it off, "Aw, don't worry about it. You didn't know, so it ain't your fault." Looking around a bit, she inquired, "Hey, any of you guys seen Mamoru? You know, tall guy, black hair?" Due to her search, she never saw Tuxedo Kamen flinch behind her.
"Umm... why are you looking for Mamo-chan", Usagi reflexively asked.
Raising an eyebrow, Ranma repeated, "Mamo-chan?"
"Yeah", Usagi replied happily, "Mamo-chan's my boyfriend!" Hearing this, the rest of the Senshi and the transformed Mamoru himself all let out a mental groan at the actions of their liege.
Still keeping her brow quirked, Ranma thought, 'Mamoru's dating a high school student? He's got to be at least four years older than her!' Out loud, though, she tried to regain her footing, "Uh...well, alright then... Anyways, I was talking to him before this mess started. You know where he went?"
Feeling the need to jump in and save everyone a lot of trouble, Tuxedo Kamen responded, "I saw him directing some of the fleeing students to safety when the fight started. After that..."
"Damn", Ranma cursed in response under her breath. Letting out a sigh, she continued louder, "Great, now I've got to find him again!"
In a rare moment of brilliance, Usagi quickly formed a plan and chimed in, "You won't have to look for him, Ranko-san. I'll have him meet you at the Hikawa shrine in half an hour."
Blinking at her good fortune, Ranma asked, "You'll do that?" Seeing the blonde nod her head while smiling, the redhead thought about how Akane would be busy for a few hours still before flashing a smile back while saying, "That's great! Tell him I'll be there!" Just as she was turning away, though, Ranma thought about something an added a little jokingly, "Heh, just make sure there aren't any cats this time..." Without waiting for a reply, the martial artist did an amazing standing leap over the nearby perimeter wall and was gone from sight.
Almost immediately after Ranko was gone and everyone got over her style of exit, Usagi was bombarded by questioning looks and was about to be flooded with verbal inquires until they noticed students silently sticking their heads out from behind cover to see if the coast was clear. Realizing that she and Minako were still in their civilian forms, she hissed out, "Look, I'll explain later, just get over to the shrine before she does!"
With one last round of dubious looks, the hero and heroines vacated the recent battlegrounds to do just that. Watching them make their way along the roofs until they were out of sight, Usagi sighed and turned to Minako and said, "I hope I'm doing the right thing..."
Minako never got to answer as the pair were deluged by questions from Umino and the surrounding students for having interacted with the famed Sailor Senshi...
oOo
It was only a little later that all the Inner Senshi and Mamoru were standing around at the Hikawa Shrine awaiting the arrival of Ranko. Luna and Artemis were also in attendance and both were being very vocal about their charges' adventure at the school earlier. The fact that both of them had been nearly injured while still in their civilian forms almost made the two moon cats shed their fur off right then and there when they found out. When the Senshi told them how Ranko had arrived and fought off this 'Happosai', they were understandably disbelieving, but with everyone, including Mamoru, in agreement, they couldn't discount the tale.
Still, when Luna heard about her princess' plan to 'spring the news' on the newly rediscovered Senshi of Terra, she felt unsure about the validity of the plan. Of course, she couldn't write off the fact that her feelings might just be the fact that it was Usagi who thought it up in the first place that had her fearful of enacting it. Choosing to be cautious just in case, the black feline asked yet again, "Usagi, are you sure you want to do this?"
Sighing in exasperation, the blond princess frowned down at her advisor, "Listen, Luna. Minako and I both saw the sigil. That means, unless she can fake one, Ranko is Sailor Terra. Now, we all we need is her henshin rod, which you're supposed to give us, and then we're all set!"
Looking at her charge indignantly, Luna muttered, "I still say Artemis and I should talk to her first."
Minako snorted before commenting, "Right, we really need her to run for the mountains like yesterday." Crossing her arms before her and looking slightly smug, while ignoring the sighs around her, she continued by saying, "As risky as Usagi's plan sounds, it's the only choice we have. You heard Akane, we don't need her going insane while we try and awaken her."
Grumbling a bit under her breath, the cat surrendered eventually, "All right. I'll give you her henshin rod, but Artemis and I will be hidden nearby to watch." Sighing, she looked over to her white furred co-advisor and muttered, "It's going to be inconvenient if we can't talk to her..." Seeing the male feline give her a 'nothing we can do about it' shrug, she sighed once more before performing the back flip which would summon the rod.
When the rod appeared, Usagi eagerly snatched it out of the air before it could rattle to the floor. Meanwhile, Makoto was looking over Ami's shoulder to view the screen on the computer she held. "What are you doing", she asked.
"I'm analyzing the data I collected during that battle between Ranko and Happosai", she explained as she tapped a few commands into the small device. Raising a brow, she asked out to no one in particular, "Did you know that at one point, she threw over a hundred punches in less than five seconds?"
Hearing this, the others gathered around blinked in surprise and disbelief. "That can't be real... you're computer has to be broken or something", Rei denied, not believing Ranko could perform that feat even as she saw the use of ki right before her just earlier. Yes, ki could do some amazing things, in theory, but punching that fast just isn't physically possible... wasn't it?
"I've already run multiple diagnostics and every one of them says the Mercury Computer is fine. I have to believe what it's telling me, Rei", Ami returned as she showed her a screen of all green boxes which Rei could barely make out amongst the other clutter. Pulling back the device, the resident genius asked, "Anyways, did any of you notice anything wield?"
Snorting, Makoto crossed her arms under her chest, "I saw a lot of 'weird' things today. Want to narrow it down a little, Ami?"
Looking up from her display to blink at the taller Senshi, she said, "Well, did you notice the fact that Ranko and this Happosai knew each other."
"Yeah, we all know that", the brunette responded, no knowing where the Senshi of ice was going with this.
"What about the fact that he kept calling her 'Ranma' instead of Ranko", she asked with a raised brow. "That's not to mention her rather sloppy language."
Quirking her own brow while giving off a shrug, Makoto answered back, "Maybe she just talks that way when under stress... I don't know." Thinking about the first point, she brought a finger to her lips and tapped it there a couple times before continuing, "As for the name thing, I do remember him calling her Ranma, but maybe it's just because she's a tomboy. I mean, she dresses sort of like Ranma does and the old fool was defiantly off his rocker, so..." She let her reasoning trail off as they both moved over towards Usagi and Minako.
While Usagi was holding up Terra's henshin rod to the Senshi of love, the second blonde was asking her, "...but does she really need a power boost? She seemed enough already."
"It isn't just a power boost", Ami cut in on the conversation in progress, "There's also the disguise field that comes with the transformation magic. If Ranko is going to go around fighting with us, she really needs to do it as Sailor Terra or else people might figure out who we are through her. Not to mention the amount of unwanted attention she would receive from the public and media."
"But still", Minako continued on her original thread, "if she's this powerful now, what is she going to be like after she transforms? We all saw her fight in against the little pervert and right now, she could probably wipe the floor with any of us, even if we powered up." Shaking her head, she added, "And that's not counting that shiny ball of butt punching and tornado thing she has."
Groaning loudly, Makoto had to cut in and correct her cohort, "That's 'butt kicking' not 'butt punching', Minako."
"Those were ki techniques", Rei's voice broke out for the first time, causing everyone to look at where she sat on the steps.
"Okay, but they're still going to be stronger when she transforms, right", Minako asked, a little confused.
Ami typed into her computer while giving a detailed answer, "Not exactly, Minako. When we transform, all our powers use mana, so are magical in nature. Those ki techniques Ranko used are spiritual in nature, from the readings I gathered. If that's the case, she might be able to use them more often due to the magical healing, but they won't be stronger in power." Figuring she would answer the question before it was asked, she added, "As for what mana based powers she might have, I don't know. Endymion has some psychokinetic powers along with some healing ability, which we witnessed when he healed Chibi-Usa, but if his sister might have anything like that, I couldn't tell you."
Hearing Ami talking about his powers while in his Endymion form, Mamoru felt an itch in the back of his mind as another repressed memory came to the fore. After it filtered through his mind, he frowned as he was reminded of something called a 'psy-tech' but other than the name and what it could be just based off the name, he had no idea. Really, it was becoming quite annoying for the college student, but his musings were cut short as another feeling broke through, like someone was watching him. As he looked around for the unseen observer, Usagi's voice confidently declared, "We don't need to know what powers she has as long as she's a helpful addition to the team!"
Trying not to destroy her friend's confidence, Minako asked, "But how will Luna awaken her memories if she can't go near her?"
"You can leave that to me", Rei informed them, standing up and brushing off her miko garb, "Luna has already shown me how to perform the Luna Mind Meld. Since it's basically hypnotism and being a priestess has taught me many things in the way of trances, I think I can pull it off."
Rei's demeanor lacked the sure confidence of her words unfortunately, but any further conversation was broken off when Ami's computer chimed out and she declared, "She's here."
Everyone looked over in time to see the gate creak open at the base of the steps, admitting a familiar redhead into the shrine. Almost immediately, Ranma looked up to see the gathered girls and Mamoru, the cats having hidden themselves away at the warning. As she started up the stairs, Ranma looked over each of the girls warily before stopping on Mamoru, feeling a strong feeling of... something. She didn't know why, but she knew, even before she had entered the gates to the shrine, that he was already inside.
After a moment of looking towards the taller man, Ranko relaxed and chuckled with slight nervousness as she addressed the gathered girls, "Okay, no need to look like that, girls. I just need to speak privately with Mamoru for a bit."
Usagi looked like she wanted to say something, but before she could Mamoru stepped forward and gestured towards the shrine proper, "We can go to the inner courtyard, Ranko. We shouldn't be bothered there." He finished speaking with a quick meaningful glance at all the gathered Senshi. Seeing this, they all nodded meekly, including Usagi who was chewing on her bottom lip. This wasn't a part of her plan, but it was too late now...
oOo
As the pair walked through the entrance chamber towards the inner courtyard, Mamoru spoke up to his companion, saying, "Sorry about the reception out there. They're just interested in you a lot, to say the least."
Raising a brow, Ranma asked back, "Oh? And why's that?"
Chuckling a bit, he replied with, "Well, you did save the life of two of them just an hour ago and the way you handled that pervert speaks wonders about your skills as a martial artist. All the elements for High School gossip, don't you think?"
Mamoru watched the effects of a little ego stroking along with plausible sounding reasons do their magic on his un-awakened sister as she nodded in response. Seeing she wasn't too suspicious at the moment, he decided to open up the conversation, "So, now I guess you're wondering about the two of us, right?"
"Pretty much", Ranma said in response.
"Let me guess", the raven haired man said, taking a quick breath, "You've been having weird dreams recently and I'm in them somehow."
Stopping just before exiting the building into the courtyard, Ranma turned and looked Mamoru in the face with a piercing gaze while crossing her arms before her, "And how did you know that?"
Exhaling slightly, he responded with, "Because I've been having the same dreams."
Closing her eyes and placing the fingers of one hand to her forehead, Ranma took a breath to keep her calm. 'No need to panic yet! Keep your cool, Ranma', she said in her mind before asking in a level tone, "You mind telling me why we've been dreaming about each other, especially since we've never met before yesterday?"
Nervously pulling at the collar of the blue shirt under his blazer, Mamoru failed to answer and instead asked another question, "In your dreams... what am I wearing?"
Dropping her hand and looking at the man with narrow eyes, she debated answering, but eventually said, "You're wearing some kind of armor. It's black and silver..." Her voice trailed off as she saw him start nodding as if it all made sense now. "What?"
Taking a deep breath, Mamoru looked her straight in the eye and said, "I know this is going to sound crazy... but it appears we've been having dreams of a past life... sister." As he said this, he waited for what kind of reaction the redhead before him might give, though he really wasn't expecting her to give a deep sigh, close her eyes and place a hand on her forehead while muttering, "I really don't need this..."
Opening her blue eyes to look into his own set of blue, she confidently declared, "Look... Mamoru, I can't be your sister... I mean, I'm an only child, for one..."
Her words trailed off as she saw him shake his head before saying, "Not in this life. We were brother and sister in the one before this."
Again, Ranma let out a groan as she let her head drop. 'At least he didn't say we were past lovers...', she admitted, though she didn't know how much better this was at the moment. Then, blinking for a second, she raised her gaze back up and asked, "Wait... How do you know that? I mean, where's the proof?" Inwardly, she was wanting to tell him, 'I can't be your sister cause I'm a guy. I might have gotten used to being a girl some of the time, but I'm still a guy!'
Sighing in resignation, Mamoru nodded silently as he pulled out a red rose from inside his blazer and silently willed himself into his Tuxedo Mask guise. Ranma's eyes went wide as she saw the transformation, pointing a finger at him and saying in disbelief, "You're him. You're that guy from the school..."
Nodding solemnly, he affirmed, "I'm afraid so, but there's more..." With a greater amount of effort, Mamoru concentrated and summoned his armor, becoming Endymion. Letting out a breath, he looked over to his sister as she gapped at him for a second before questioningly whispering, "Endymion?"
It was Endymion's turn to flash his eyes wide as he looked into Ranma's eyes and asked, "You remember?" Seeing her still confused and shocked expression, he explained, "Endymion was my name in our previous life."
Giving herself a shake and regaining some measure of control, she asked him, "How... How can you do that?"
"The same way we can do this", a third voice broke in from behind her, causing Ranma to jerk around to find Usagi and the others standing on the other side of the entrance room. Before the redhead could react, all five raised a rod of some type into the air and called out a phrase before a burst of light flashed around them and the Sailor Senshi were standing in their place.
Looking from one to the next, Ranma finally made it to the end where she asked in surprise, "Rei? You're a Sailor Senshi?!"
Flushing a bit while looking apologetic, Ranma's cousin responded by saying, "It's Sailor Mars when I'm like this, Ranko." Looking around out of reflex, she requested, "Please don't tell Ranma about this..."
Blinking for a second, Ranma almost revealed himself but caught herself mid word, "But I'm... ah... What does all this have to do with me?!"As if to answer the question, Sailor Moon tossed something to her and called her to catch it, which she did. When she looked at what was thrown to her, she found a rod that was similar to the ones used by the five Senshi before her to... transform... Realizing this, a bad feeling started to form in the bottom of Ranma's gut. "What do you expect me to do with this thing", she asked, hoping she wasn't right.
Sailor Moon affirmed her guess when she said, "Just raise it up and say the first thing that comes to mind."
For some reason, be it the feel of the rod in her hand, the recent fight or something in the blonde super heroine's voice, Ranma's body unconsciously followed along, raising the rod into the air above her. Her mouth opened up, vocal cords ready to say words she didn't know she knew; when her conscious mind regained control of the situation. "No", she finally said, lowering her arm back down.
Expecting an entirely different set of events to happen, it took a moment for Sailor Moon to realize what was really going on. When she finally did, she asked in confusion, "But why not? You're one of us!"
"Maybe", Ranma admitted with a shrug, "But I've had enough trouble in my life and I don't need this on top of it." Shaking her head, she added, "I don't need this." While Moon was franticly trying to think of a way to fix things, the redhead turned violently around to jab a finger at Endymion's chest plate, "And you! You still don't have any proof that I'm your sister."
"You've had dreams of the past", the armored figure protested, "We both have! You know it's true!"
"Bullshit", she loudly rejected his reasoning while poking him once more, "Dreams don't mean shit!"
Getting incited by the redhead's reaction and rejection, Endymion chose a different tactic, "What about the rod? You were about to use it just a moment ago. If you weren't my sister then you wouldn't have a clue of how to use it!"
"Uh, hello, tin-can man", Ranma replied, getting more than a little annoyed while waving a hand at the Senshi observing the fight between siblings, "I just saw all five of them do it. Wasn't that hard to notice with the flashing lights and all." Shaking her head once more, she declared confidently, "Look, I ain't your sister, alright."
Moon could only watch the back and forth match, along with the rest of the girls. She almost stepped in between the two until Mars put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. Now, she could only watch as her beloved raised his voice and continue on. "The only way you could prove that is if the rod didn't work for you", he stated before crossing his arms and adopting a smug look, "but you won't try it because you're too scared to."
Endymion knew he had her when Ranma's eye developed a pronounced twitch just before she yelled in his face, "Scared? Scared!? I ain't scared of nothing! I'll prove I'm not your freaking sister!" With that, she thrust the rod in her hands up into the air and yelled out, "Terra Star Power... Henshin!"
Just after she yelled that out, Endymion could see her eyes flare wide as she realized what she had done and before the multicolored lights enveloped her for the first time in this lifetime, he clearly heard her whisper, "Chikuso!"
End of Chapter 7
oOo
A/N -
- Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu: What is translated by Viz as the "Anything-Goes Style" could also be interpreted as "School of Indiscriminate Grappling"
- Rensha-Happa-Dan: Rapid Fire Blasting Bullet/ Rapid Fire Explosive Blast Missile
- Happo Daikarin: Small round fireworks which Happosai fills with ki before lighting and throwing at his target. Sometimes a large firework, but not seen in this fight scene.
