Fire can burn, shape and cleanse the world, but for Hino Rei, its heat also provides insight into the lives of those who seek her out. When a certain golden-haired girl approaches to hear her fortune, what will Rei discover?
My Love's Flame
A Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon Crossover
by Ryan Erik
Chapter Eleven
When the first notes of the bamboo flute sweetly flitted on the wind, the children sitting on the gravel in front of the miko and her grandfather grew quiet, their attention drawn to the old priest's enchanting melody. He played each note with a subtle delicacy, allowing each to naturally soak into the air before picking up the tune.
Rei listened for the melody to build, waited for each haunting note to play, as they followed quicker each time. Her grandfather never delivered the same tuneful performance twice, sometimes dipping low and haunting, slowing in rhythm until it almost came to an end. Other times, it would be as steady as a march, and then pick up speed until his small, wrinkled hands appeared to blur against the polished bamboo of his shakuhachi flute.
After playing for a minute, he slowed the melody, and started the melody of the song of Tanabata, the star festival. Rei waited and then began to sing loudly and clearly, projecting her voice across the whole courtyard.
"Sasa no ha sara sara (Bamboo leaves are rustling, rustling),
nokiba ni yureru (Swaying close to the roof's edge)."
After singing the second line, the children in front of her began to sing along, softly at first. Their voices grew with confidence as they closed out the first stanza.
"Ohoshi-sama kira kira (Oh, how the stars are twinkling, twinkling),
kin gin sunago (Gold and silver grains of sand)."
Rei smiled and danced in front of the children, pantomiming the acts in the rest of the song, pretending to write wishes, and covering her eyes to look up to the sky.
"Go shiki no tanzaku (Five wishes),
watashi ga kaita (I have written).
Ohoshi-sama kira kira (The stars are twinkling),
sora kara miteru (And watching from the sky)."
After the first time through, her grandfather began to loop the song, and they sang it again. This time even some of the adults had begun to sing along, and all of the children copied her pantomime. By the end, all of the children were laughing and clapping. They were rapidly chatting with each other, and then began demanding an encore.
"More!" the children exclaimed ecstatically. Some called out for other seasonal songs, but most just wanted more singing in general.
"Sing C'est la vie!" one blond boy's voice called out. His request changed the others to do the same, until all of the kids were cheering for her to sing C'est la vie, the featured single off her idol, Aino Minako's new album.
The request for pop songs was not unexpected, but Rei's face flushed because this was the first time they'd asked for a song she truly loved singing. On a typical day, she had no reservations about singing a pop song, but singing an Aino Minako song was difficult without an arrangement behind. This would take her well out of her comfort zone, and with others watching, it was added embarrassment.
She tried to decline, but the children didn't relent, continuing to call for her to sing it. Waving her hands out to signal her intention to surrender to their demands, Rei quieted them. "I will sing this one, but this will be the only request I take today."
The miko walked to the center in front of the shrine and cleared her throat, and then began. The first two verses she sang with the rhythm slower than the recorded single, but kept the cutesy inflections with each word, attempting to express it on her face as well.
"Doushiyou mo nai shoudou ni tsukiugokasarete ima (Stirred by impulses that there's nothing I can do),
Watashi no sore wa hajimatta kimi wo motomeru omoi (That has begun for me now, feelings searching for you).
Yotei chouwa no shousetsu ya eiga ga tsumaranai you ni (Just like predictable movies and books are boring),
Jinsee mo sukoshi zure tara omoshiroi no kamoshirenai (When life is a little bit off, it might be more fun)."
After completing the opening, she entered the chorus by elevating her pitch, emphasizing the song name in each verse with her crystal clear enunciation.
"Atsui kimochi wa C'est la vie (This warm feeling is C'est la vie),
Watashi ga watashi de iru kagiri (As long as I am me),
C'est la vie anata wo aishitsuzuketai (C'est la vie, I want to keep on being in love with you),
Me no mae ni aru kono shunkan ga ikiru basho (Running through the place where this moment lives),
Kakenukete (Right in front of me)."
After that stanza, she began to notice other people joining the kids in the front, including a few local women whom she saw regularly, and a junior high student with a baseball cap. She continued, her voice steady as she moved to the second half of the song.
"Hito wa naze ichido dake shika ikiru chansu ga nai no (Why is it that people have but one chance to live life)?
Toki wa naze ichibyou sae mo tachidomaranai no darou (Why does time not stand still even for one second?)"
For a moment, Ranma's face appeared in her mind. When she blinked the next moment, the image was gone and she was staring out at the faces of the children, but she still felt him present, as if he had been there the whole time. Her cheeks felt warm when the confusing feelings coursed through her, but she continued the song, unfettered by her feelings. She closed her eyes as she went into the next stanza.
"Omoigakenai dokoka ga ne (Just like an unexpected someplace),
Kutsuzure wo okosu mitai ni (Causes sores from the shoes on my feet),
Tokidoki wa mune no dokoka ga setsunaku nattari suru kedo (From time to time someplace in my heart feels pain)."
Completing the last verse, she repeated the chorus twice more, no longer paying attention to anything outside of her own head. Singing clarified things in her mind, removing all of her doubts and fears. It didn't usually cause images of boys to pop up, but she hadn't been close to any, except for Ukyo. As she sang the last verses of the song, she opened her eyes.
"Me no mae ni aru kono shunkan ga ikiru basho (Running through the place where this moment lives),
Kakenukete (Right in front of me),
Kakenukete (Right in front of me)."
The little crowd in front of her began clapping and cheering moments after she finished singing. She smiled as she bowed before them. The children demanded an encore, calling out the names of other pop songs, but Rei bowed her head.
"Sorry, all, that's all for now," she apologized, allowing her grandfather to start playing his flute in her stead. For many the sound of a traditional flute was haunting, but it made her feel tranquil. She turned and walked to the shrine, passing two old women who had attended an earlier ritual that her grandfather had performed.
As she slid the door open to the inner shrine, a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Rei jumped at the sudden contact.
"Sorry," the voice of the girl who had stopped her said.
Rei turned to look at the junior high school girl in the baseball cap, which was angled low, obscuring most of her face. This close, Rei noticed the girl wore the uniform of Juuban Municipal Junior High School. Though Rei had never seen her before, she looked familiar enough that the girl probably came her often. Despite that, Rei didn't have a clue what her name was.
"Yes?" Rei asked of the girl, who pulled back a step. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, and sorry," the girl apologized, adjusting her cap with her right hand. "I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to ask you a question before you left."
"No problem," Rei told her with a half-smile. "What did you want to know?"
"Are you a fortune teller? I was told someone here reads fortunes."
Rei nodded, pointing inward. "Yes, but I'm not a palm reader, or a card reader." Inside the center of the shrine, a fire pit had been installed before her time. However, no flames burned there yet, so it looked like a hole in the middle of the shrine. "I practice pyromancy."
"Pi-Ro-Ma-Shi?" the girl asked, confusion plain on her face. "What's that?"
"Come in and I'll show you," Rei told her. She walked to the fire pit in the center of the shrine. She turned on the gas, and then reached for matches that she kept nearby. After sparking a light, she dropped it in, causing the flames to light up. "It's the art of seeing the future in fire."
"I've never heard of that," the girl told her. "How does it work?"
"Take a seat right there," Rei told the girl, pointing at a pillow she had placed in front of the fire pit. Once the girl took a seat, she walked around to the other side and sat opposite her. "You ask questions, and I try to see an answer. Simple enough?"
"Will I see anything?" the girl asked. From her voice, Rei could tell she believed, which would help her read the girl better. There was nothing more useless than trying to figure out someone who only wanted to disprove fortune tellers.
"No," Rei told her. "At least, no one I've read has ever seen anything. I can't say it's not possible."
"Okay, I'm ready," the girl told her. "Do I just ask you something?"
"Not yet," Rei said, taking in a deep breath. "First I need to know a little about you." She crossed her legs and planted her hands face up in her lap. She stared at the girl's face lit by the flames of the fire. Her eyes were wide with wonder.
Rei smiled at the girl. "Just tell me about yourself. Your name, details about your life, anything like that. It helps me connect with you during the reading."
"I suppose that makes sense," the girl told Rei, copying her sitting pose. "Let's see. I'm thirteen. My birthday is the twenty-second of October, and I'm a Libra. My blood type is B-negative."
Yet you didn't say your name, Rei thought wryly. There are people ashamed of going to see a fortune teller, and they usually don't give their names.
Rei closed her eyes and began chanting, shutting out all thoughts but the girl. Even if the flames themselves did not help her with the reading, the light crackling sound they produced with the warmth helped her to focus her thoughts on the girl, to draw inspiration from her.
She's looking for something, or someone, Rei thought, realizing the sincerity of the girl's need. People hiding their identities rarely came for entertainment. She would be of the type that was out of other options.
"You're too close," Rei said, focusing on the girl's intensity. "Until you back off, you won't find what you're looking for."
The girl jerked back and put a hand to her mouth, her eyes as wide as they could open. "You saw something?"
"Not yet," Rei admitted, putting both of her hands up to the fire. "You are seeking something, and you've come to me hoping I can help you?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically, loosing a lock of straw-colored hair from her cap, spilling down upon her shoulders. The detail stuck in Rei's mind as she stared at the girl, her eyes gleaming in the firelight. Before she had copied Rei's move to hold her palms upward, but now that her guard was down, she held her hands together tightly in front of her.
An image began to form in Rei's head as she stared at the girl over the fire, which had risen an inch since she had turned it on, covering up the girl's chin. Rei ignored the discrepancy and concentrated on the visage in her mind as the warmth of the flames flushed her face.
It's like trying to recognize someone far away, Rei thought as she squinted her eyes. Four indistinct figures stood behind a woman who held out her arms to block their faces. She wore a gown of gold, her hair a match, lit by the intense flames in the center of the pit. Is the fire actually showing me this?
"Is there something you have to hide from me that would prevent me from finding the four people you are looking for?" Rei asked of the girl after the image in the flames died away.
The girl gasped. "How could you have known that? That I was looking for four people?"
"I don't know," Rei told her truthfully. She inhaled deeply, trying to focus her thoughts. "Please tell me more. If you really want my help, you will have to share something with me that I can use as a focus."
"Yellow is my favorite color," the girl began, but Rei cut her off.
Rei watched the girl closely as she told her what she needed. "No, you have to tell me something deeper. Confess a love, or someone you hate. Tell me something you haven't told anyone before, or something you promised you would not tell me."
"I don't know what I can tell you," the girl said, her eyes downcast.
I need to get her to open up, Rei thought, pondering a solution. I need her to tell me more, or I won't get any further.
"Alright, then focus on something that causes you to feel a lot of emotion, like love or sadness. If it's not going to be something you tell me, then it has to be something I can see."
"Okay," the teen told her, closing her eyes. She was silent a moment, her brows angled in concentration. "Alright, I have something."
The flames rose to forehead height as Rei focused on the girl, and she was only able to make out the girl's silhouette behind the fire. Rei broke her concentration and looked down at the knob that controlled the gas, finding it in the same spot she always left it when she performed the ritual. She looked up again and inhaled sharply in surprise. The blue silhouette of a woman leaned over a cliff, holding the hand of another silhouetted figure who dangled below her.
Rei stared at the blue silhouettes in awe of the image, something not imagined in her head.
"Is everything okay?" the girl asked.
The image began to vanish, prompting Rei to say, "Don't lose your focus. Keep that last image in your head."
"Okay," she replied quieter than before. "How long do I have to think about him?"
The silhouetted figures reappeared stronger this time, larger as well, filling most of the flames. The woman held a man's hand, his only lifeline. Rei watched in fascination as the man slowly began to disintegrate until her hand clasped shut. From the flames, a piece of paper popped out and landed in Rei's lap.
"Ace?" Rei asked in absolute surprise as an Ace of Hearts playing card landed in her lap.
"No!" the girl in the baseball cap stood up suddenly. "How did you know his name?! You couldn't know that!"
Rei looked up, startled by the girl's breaking of her concentration. The girl had tears in her eyes, and was no longer wearing her cap. Her shiny, yet messy blond hair was waist length. The flames died back down to a normal level, catching the attention of both girls. Upon looking back down in her lap, the card was gone.
"This is getting creepy," the girl said, plopping back down.
"This has never happened before," Rei admitted, her eyes wide since the last few minutes. "You said Ace was his name? The boy who vanished in your hands?"
The girl's mouth dropped open in shock. "You saw all of that in your fire?"
Rei nodded, but realized that the situation was getting out of hand. Despite the revelation that her pyromancy was actually beginning to work, it was also causing her customer real distress.
"This is so creepy," the girl told her, but she didn't sound scared. She wiped her eyes with the bow around her neck. "You saw what I was picturing in my mind."
Rei opened her mouth to apologize, but realized how useless that would be. The girl came for a real fortune telling, and she got an authentic experience. Despite now suddenly being the real deal, Rei rather preferred her people reading. It was a lot less startling.
Images had never actually appeared for the people who asked questions before the flames of the Hikawa Shrine in the past, as far as Rei knew, but there hadn't been a fire reader since her great-grandmother, her grandfather's mother. Most people wanted guidance that she could provide, or wanted to be awed by some mystical insight. Rei had keenly provided answers that people wanted to hear to move on with their lives with confidence. She had never promised them anything, but most people just need reassurance that they were on the right path, or wanted confirmation that they were on the wrong one.
The girl in front of her was serious for her age, and seemed to be nothing but secrets.
"Do you want to keep going?" Rei asked of the girl, knowing she would say yes, but half-hoping she would say no.
"Absolutely," the girl said, her voice hushed as she adjusted her position. "This is the closest I've come to finding my friends since..." The girl stopped talking for a moment, staring away from Rei. "It's been a long time."
"Alright," Rei said solemnly, inhaling deeply. "I'll begin again, but please don't talk unless I ask a question, okay?"
"Okay!" the girl replied enthusiastically. "I'll be as quiet as a mouse."
"Close your eyes and concentrate on the things I tell you to," Rei told her, crossing her legs underneath her as she rested her palms face up in her lap. "If you find your mind wandering, remember the heat of the fire. It will guide you in the right direction."
The girl nodded, shifting slightly closer to the flames.
Rei chanted the words of the fire reading ritual again, shutting down all idle thoughts. Just as she finished, the fire rose slightly again, and she felt something this time, a subtle shift in the air, as if someone had joined them.
"Picture yourself wearing a golden gown with golden bows in your hair," Rei said with as soothing a voice as she could manage, looking over the flames at the girl, whose face was taut with concentration. "Where do you picture yourself?"
"On the balcony of my room," the girl answered with a dreamy voice.
"What do you see?" Rei asked.
"My home planet." The words mystified Rei, but the girl's hypnotic state seemed to be influencing her answers.
"Are you alone?"
"No," she responded, only half-sure of her answer. "I think someone is behind me."
The fire flared up again, the heat of the flames rising as they both sat at either end of it. From her seated position, Rei fell back, catching herself on her elbows, and yet she could not take her eyes off the flames. Another burst of energy flowed over her and she closed her eyes to protect them from the heat. A girl with flaxen hair stood on a balcony, her golden gown shining brightly in the light of the sun, a dozen times larger than she had ever seen in Earth's sky. The girl in the image was the same as the girl on the other side of the flames, yet she seemed an entirely different person, maybe older, and a picture of youth and peerless beauty. Rei would have gasped at her loveliness had she been able.
A man stepped onto the balcony with the golden princess, his body concealed in armor an inch thick. His black hair was longer, tied back in a pigtail, and his blue eyes looked haunted from a hundred battles, and his face was older and scarred, but he was unmistakably Saotome Ranma. Rei did gasp upon seeing him, causing not only the vision to end, but the flames to die back down to a normal level. As if released from a spell, Rei fell to her back, her head hitting the wooden floor of the shrine softly.
"Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something?" a male voice asked from the door.
Both she and the girl looked at Ranma, who stood at the threshold of the shrine.
He must have interfered with the signals she was giving off, Rei reasoned, glaring at the boy.
"If you have to ask—" Rei began, but was immediately cut off.
"You're here!" the girl said, standing so quickly that Rei didn't actually see her do it.
For his sake, Ranma did what he always would when embarrassed, putting his right hand behind his head. "Guess I am."
"Ranma," Rei began, her voice rising an octave in her annoyance. "You're interrupting our session. What did you need?"
"Sorry," he said, looking down at his feet. "Gramps said you'd probably be done."
"It's okay," the blond girl told him, reaching down to gather her cap. "I'm roasted enough for one day. How long were we in here?"
Ranma shrugged, sliding the shrine's door open wide to reveal the sun more than three-quarters set in the sky. "It's already dinner time. I just came to get you."
Staring at the sky in shock, Rei's jaw dropped open. "That's not possible."
Ranma took a few steps into the shrine, stopping in front of the girl, who Rei could tell was staring at him openly.
"Hey, I know you," Ranma announced to the girl loudly.
The girl took a panicked step back, almost directly into the fire. Her heel caught on the edge of the fire pit, but she lost her balance. For Rei, everything after the girl's step back occurred in slow motion, from the moment her heel connected with the edge of the pit, to when her back arched as she fell back into the fire.
However, it wasn't the fall that was as surprising as Ranma's reaction to it. Rei had seen him move quickly before, but somehow at the very moment she began to fall, he kicked his right leg forward in response, shifting forward before he even seemed to realize what he was doing. The look of pure determination on his face mirrored his stunningly quick movement to her side, where he caught her in his arms, and then leaped over the fire.
He held the girl in his arms a moment longer as she adjusted her arms over his shoulders for balance. The two of them looked like a picture, except for one surprisingly large detail.
"Are you okay?" the boy asked the blond girl in his arms.
"I've never been better," she whispered, just loud enough for Rei to hear.
"Ranma, not to ruin this painting-worthy moment, but you're on fire."
Ranma, whose pants leg was on fire, set the girl down quickly and immediately did the least heroic-looking thing she could imagine him do – stop, drop and roll. Although his clothes were no longer aflame, Rei had to laugh at that.
"Always stopped by fire," the girl said wistfully, checking herself for clothing burns as well.
"Sure, laugh it up, Rei," Ranma said, right before he performed a kip-up to his feet, going from prone position to squatting in one move. He bent over and examined his legs. "Burned my stupid pants, but it didn't quite get me."
Rei sighed, reaching over to turn off the gas, extinguishing the flame in the fire pit.
"I'm sorry," the blond girl said, bowing her head in apology. "I will buy you a new uniform."
"Nah," Ranma said, waving his hand at her. "I'm sure Rei can help me patch it up."
A light blush began to rise on Rei's cheeks. The thought of repairing his pants was surprisingly embarrassing, despite the fact that she had actually washed his clothes previously. Cleaning week-old clothing from the back of a martial artist is just disgusting, rather than embarrassing.
"I see," the girl said, turning to look back at Rei. "Would it be okay if I came back for another reading some time, Rei-san?"
Blinking at the usage of her name so familiarly already, Rei thought about it for a moment. Although that experience was really creepy, I think I need to see more. She then nodded to the girl.
"Yatta!" the girl said, hopping in excitement. "I better go before my mentor gets worried about me. When should I come back?"
"Thursday," Rei told her, walking around to Ranma's side. She looked up at him, and he smiled down at her, causing her stomach to feel all wobbly inside. Stupid boys.
"I'll be here after school, then!" the girl told the two of them. "Ranma-san, will you be here, too?"
"Su—" Ranma began, but Rei elbowed him.
"He'll be busy with a project, but I'll see if we talk to him afterward, maybe."
Ranma glared down at her, rubbing his ribs where she'd jabbed him.
"Alright, see you both in two days!" The girl then skipped out of the shrine as if she had found what she'd been looking for.
Such a weird girl, she thought, feeling strangely possessive of Ranma in that girl's presence. Maybe she was just looking for a boyfriend or something.
"What was with the elbow?" Ranma asked once the girl had disappeared.
"I need to see her alone," Rei told him, patting his arm in a nonverbal apology. She then thought back to the reason why he'd arrived in the first place. "So, who made dinner anyway?"
"Ucchan," Ranma answered with a grin as they walked out of the shrine. "He made a whole bunch of food. I didn't even know he could cook anything other than okonomiyaki."
From dire enemies to being cooked for, Rei thought, snorting in laughter. Only Ranma could pull that off.
"What's funny?" Ranma asked pulling the shrine door shut behind them.
"You," she replied, sticking her tongue out at him.
"Oh yeah?" he retorted, sticking his own back out at her. "At least I'm not blind."
The comment took her aback, as it was not in his usual repertoire. Blind? What was that supposed to mean? She asked him that very question.
"You totally didn't recognize that girl you post all over your walls," Ranma told her as they walked together over the gravel path around the front of the shrine.
"Huh?" Rei uttered, completely not getting the reference. "What are you talking about? The girl I splash all over my walls?" The only person I have more than one poster of is Aino Minako, but that girl wasn't her.
"That pop singer who you forced me to listen to when I was out with the head bump." Ranma then took the time to leap up onto the bench along the path to the garden. Somehow he didn't overturn it as he balanced on the back of it.
"I'll admit, she has similar characteristics to Aino Minako, the idol," Rei acknowledged. "However, they only have similar attributes. She just looked totally different, though."
"I never forget a face," Ranma told her seriously, even though he looked absolutely ridiculous balancing on the bench. "That was so her. I don't even idolize the chick, and I recognized her."
Rei cupped her chin as they made their way back to the dormitory. The girl didn't give her name and wore a disguise. Her uniform was new as if she hadn't worn one in a while. She had the same hair as Aino Minako. But I would have recognized her immediately if it was her!
"If it wasn't for her stupid c-cat," Ranma commented after he jumped off the bench and landed beside her. "Damn thing chased me clear across the temple."
Rei's head swiveled to stare at him, remembering his allergy. Things were beginning to click into place in her head, as if she had unraveled a mystery. "Cat, you say?" He shivered when she mentioned the animal.
"Yeah, hideous thing. All white with a stupid little mark on its head. Thing has beady eyes and probably eats babies."
Rei completely ignored his rant, thinking back to what she knew about Aino Minako. The idol was the same age as Rei, and came from Juuban originally. She recently finished a tour around Japan, and hadn't been seen by the press for a few days. She has been pictured with a particular white cat...suddenly as if a veil had been lifted from her brain, the girl's image in her head looked identical to her idol.
"OH MY GOD!" Rei shouted, startling Ranma, who fell into the bushes beside her. "I READ AINO MINAKO'S FORTUNE!"
Ranma picked himself out of the bushes and began to dust himself off. "Is it really that exciting?"
Rei took him by the shoulders and looked directly into his eyes. "Yes!"
Notes: This chapter took a long time to plot, write, revise, revise again, and then completely rewrite the second half, and then finish. I've been unsure of how to approach this part for a long time and barely got through it. Now time to figure when to introduce the remaining supporting characters, and decide on who some of them will be. One character is joining the cast due to a reader review and follow up PMs in conversation, so don't think your opinions don't count.
What's coming up? Ranma has a surprise at school tomorrow. Rei and Ukyo get closer. Later, Minako comes back and shakes things up. Later still, Ranma makes (another) new friend, and a new enemy, or is it a frenemy? Sailor V arrives on seen. Let the cameos begin! There was already one cameo both in this and the last chapter by a super minor character Sailor Moon character. Expect some more minor characters making unnamed cameo appearances, because why not?
Until next time!