Ranma 1/2: WHY
SAILOR PLUTO HATES THE BET
A Ranma
crossover fanfic
by P.H. Wise
Episode 10: A Choice of Fates - True Colours, Part I
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Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuichi Naoko. Ranma belongs to Takahashi Rumiko. Evangelion belongs to Gainax. The Bet concept and the accompanying cast and background of Mimir's Well belong to Metroanime. Mimir's Well itself belongs to Mimir, who lives in Jotunheim under the roots of Yggdrasil. I don't own any of it, and I sincerely hope that my work of fanfiction has not offended any executives, lawyers, or guardians of the well of wisdom.
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"AKANE!" Ranma cried aloud, her voice full of dismay as the black rose petals left in the wake of Roseite and Akane's disappearance floated gently towards the ground. Ranma, Ukyou and Sailor Mars yet stood on the roof of Furinkan high school. The screams of madness from below had stopped, replaced now with senseless gibbering and fevered chanting.
Ranma, Ukyou, and Mars all exchanged glances.
"Well, now what do we do?" asked Ukyou.
Ranma clenched his fist. 'We have to go to Rose-whatzits hideout and rescue Akane! Who knows what kind of torture they're going to put her through!"
Mars raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly did you plan on doing that, dummkopf? Look for the flashing neon sign that says 'evil hideout?'"
"She has a point, Ranchan."
Mars smirked in a superior fashion. "We should head back to Central Dogma and check in with Luna and Artemis. They'll know what to do."
Ranma blinked, and Ukyou looked nonplussed. "Central dogma?" they asked in unison.
Sailor Mars nodded. "Central Dogma. We call it that because it pisses Artemis off. It's really called Central Control."
"I... see," said Ukyou, giving Mars a dubious glance.
"How 'bout we go see the old ghoul instead?" asked Ranma, though it wasn't really a question as much as a statement. "She's pretty smart, and I ain't in no mood to be visiting the talkin' cats."
"The old ghoul?" asked Ukyou.
Sailor Mars frowned, and as the other two leapt down from the roof, signaled Luna and Artemis on her communicator before doing likewise.
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In the nethermost caverns of the Dark Kingdom, beyond the fathoming of eyes that see, where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil minds lurk that are not bound by flesh, a figure appeared in a swirl of black rose-petals: Roseite, general of the Dark Kingdom, and bearing Tuxedo Mallet in her arms. She laughed madly as she strode forth into the throne-room.
"My queen!" she exclaimed, placing Tuxedo Mallet on the floor before Queen Beryl's crystal ball, "I have captured one of the allies of the Sailor Senshi!"
"Have you indeed?" smirked Queen Beryl. Yes, smirked. As in, 'communicated by means of smirking.' Somehow. ... don't ask. The dark queen of the equally Dark Kingdom rose to her full height as she looked down at the captive. For a long moment, she studied Tuxedo Mallet.
"Masaka," Queen Beryl breathed, scarcely able to believe her eyes.
"My Queen?" asked Roseite.
Beryl's smirk broke into a full-blown grin. "Do you have any idea who this is? Roseite, you have done VERY well. Give her a quick run through the evil spooky brainwashing machine and then have her sent to my quarters immediately! I will deal with her myself!" She turned and strode towards the doors to her quarters. "And don't delay!"
The courtiers exchanged nervous glances. When the Queen was in THIS kind of mood, it could mean only one thing: this was going to be ugly.
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Sunlight streamed through the clouds, pinpoint spots of daylight illuminating a few dozen areas as large as a city block at most, and scarcely more than a handbreadth at the smallest. These patches of mid-day drifted lazily across the ward of Nerima, casting isolated areas into full daylight for the few brief seconds before the gloom of the overcast sky settled in once more, and even more oppressive for its brief absence. One such patch of drifting mid-day glided gently over the Neko-Hanten as Ranma, shielding her eyes against the sudden stab of light, related the day's events to Cologne. Ukyou and Asuka stood close at hand, looking at the withered old troll with no small amount of distrust in their eyes.
"I see," said Cologne as Ranma's tale drew to a close. Her expression grew thoughtful. "So you've lost your fiancee, have you? This presents an interesting problem for you, daughter."
Both Ukyou and Asuka blanched at that. "DAUGHTER?" they asked as one.
Ranma raised an eyebrow, completely ignoring the reactions of her companions. "I don't see how there's a problem. You tell us where she is, we rescue her, and we get her back home in time to coo..." Ranma trailed off, a look of horror flashing onto her face for a split second. She swallowed nervously before continuing. "OK, seein' as how this is Akane's night to cook an' all, maybe we wait till AFTER dinner to rescue her."
The old woman thwacked Ranma upside the head with her staff.
"ITTE! What was that for?"
"That isn't the problem I was speaking of, daughter."
Ukyou shook her head incredulously, but said nothing.
Ranma frowned. "Well, what's the problem, then?"
"The problem is this," spake the withered troll as she produced a faded and crinkled map from the folds of her voluminous robes. She handed the map to Ranma, who took it looking slightly nonplused.
"Look it over, daughter, and tell me what you see," said Cologne.
Ranma glanced down at the map, taking a few moments to study it. When she was done with it, she handed it to Ukyou, who glanced at it before handing it to Asuka.
"It's a map of the mountains," said Ranma. "There's a hot-spring marked here," chimed in Asuka a moment later. The three girls exchanged glances and shrugged. Unseen by any of the others save Cologne, the two moon-cats arrived on the scene.
"The map," Cologne began, "divulges the location of a powerful magical artifact. The Kaisuifuu; the open-water kettle. A group of rowdy visitors will be here in a little while to retrieve this map and to take the Kaisuifuu back to China. Once there, they will most certainly not allow you to use it. If you want to use the Kaisuifuu, it must be now."
Ranma frowned. "What's the Open-Water Kettle do, and why would I want ta use it?"
Asuka also frowned, though hers was more of a 'sourpuss' frown, whereas Ranma's had been more along the lines of a thoughtful frown. "Who cares about some stupid open-water kettle? We have to save Akane!" she turned to Cologne. "You know where she is, old hag, and you'd better tell me!"
THWACK
"ITTE!" yelped Asuka.
"Respect your elders, child."
Shampoo, who had been listening silently from the kitchen up until then, laughed quietly. "You is too stupid lillim, make great-grandmother mad and you be sorry."
Asuka glared at Shampoo. Ranma missed whatever snappy comeback she may have made, however, as at that moment, Cologne began to speak again. As the pig-tailed girl was far more interested in hearing what the old crone had to say than in sarcastic remarks traded between red-headed senshi and purple-haired amazons, the specifics of Asuka's comeback will have to remain a mystery.
Cologne smiled mysteriously as she spoke. "The kaisuifuu, as I said, is a powerful magical artifact related to Jusenkyou curses. Just as the curses have the power to transform your body into an alien form, so does the kaisuifuu have the power to restore you to your true form. It is not a cure, but it can unlock a locked curse."
Luna and Artemis exchanged glances. Intense whispers were traded back and forth between the two for a few moments before they turned and padded quietly out of the restaurant.
"Who the hell cares about locked curses and true forms?" Asuka asked in an annoyed tone of voice. "What about Akane? We can't just leave her as the prisoner of the Dark Kingdom! Who KNOWS what kind of torture they're putting her through?"
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MEANWHILE, IN THE DARK KINGDOM
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"Come to me, Endymion," Beryl called from where she lounged slinkily in her silk-sheeted bed, clad only in black lingerie. "Take your rightful place at my side as my personal boy-toy."
Sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, Akane glared at Queen Beryl, clearly not amused by her attempts at seduction. "I'm not a boy, and I'm NOT INTERESTED!"
Beryl shrugged, stretching a bit more than was actually required by the gesture, and it would have done wonderful things to her chest if she hadn't been such an immensely unsexy creature.. "Fine. Come and be my personal girl-toy, then."
"I'm not a lesbian either!"
"Come now, Akane (if that's what you prefer to be called in this lifetime). Nine out of ten fanfic authors agree; you most certainly ARE a lesbian."
Akane blinked. When the statement had sunk in, she shrugged helplessly. "Well, who am I to disagree with such an enlightened mass of humanity? Let's get it on!"
Beryl smirked, and that was about all she had time to do before Akane had her locked in a passionate kiss, which quickly led to things that I am unable to describe in a fanfic that's only rated PG-13.
---------------
"They could be brainwashing her even as we speak," insisted Asuka, getting right up in Ranma's face as she went on. "Don't you care that your fiancee is probably being brutally tortured and corrupted into the service of evil?"
Ranma looked thoughtful. "Well, maybe she's not in MORTAL danger. We could probably afford to wait a few days before rescuin' her..."
Ukyou frowned at that. "Ranchan..."
Cologne cackled. "Decide quickly, daughter, while you yet have time to decide."
"And what the hell do you mean by 'daughter?'" Asuka demanded to know, now unable to restrain herself from voicing the question that had been on both her and Ukyou's mind since their arrival at the Cat Cafe. "How can you POSSIBLY be Ranma's mother when she's only sixteen, and you must be at LEAST two hundred yea..." she cut off abruptly as Cologne whacked her on the head with her staff. "ITTE!" she hissed, glaring daggers (so to speak) at the withered troll.
And then the withered old troll became Shampoo. There was no perceptible shift from one form to another – one moment she was a withered old mummy, the next, a bouncy purple-haired amazon.
"What the hell?" yelled Asuka. Ranma's eyes widened, and Ukyou stared in shock.
Shampoo frowned from where she was watching the goings on. "Shampoo hate when great-grandmother do that," she muttered as she retrieved a can of yebisu from the fridge. Once retrieved, the beer was promptly chugged.
A moment later, Cologne took on Asuka's form, and then Ukyou's, and then to the form of a red-headed, extremely formal middle-aged Japanese woman. And then she was Ranma. And then she was a withered old troll once more. "What is a body to one such as me, children?" she asked, poking each of them in turn with her staff. "A toy. A bit of dust and clay to shape however I will. It so happens that I'm FOND of this shape."
The three girls stared at Cologne, unable to believe what they had just seen, and for the first time in her life, Asuka found herself at a loss for words.
"What are you?" Ukyou asked, her expression a mixture of horror and wonder.
Cologne smiled. "I'm Ranma's mother."
---------------
"Are we agreed, then?" asked Artemis.
Luna nodded. "We can't let Ranma regain her male form."
Artemis blinked. "Were you even listening? No, we have to HELP Ranma regain her male form! Otherwise she'll hate us forever!"
Luna frowned. "What about the fact that when she regains her memories from the Silver Millenium, she'll expect and desire to be female?"
"What about the fact that as long as we're not welcome in Ranma's home, we can't enjoy Kasumi's cooking?"
Luna nodded thoughtfully. "I hadn't considered that..."
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Some time later, with her decision made, Ranma began the longest walk of her life, and alone. Well, the walk to China was longer, but part of that was spent swimming, so I don't really think it counts. Besides, it's a metaphor. If I tell you my heart is breaking, do you think I mean it literally? In any case, the walk home was hard for her. She knew that when she got home, she had to face the Tendos. She had to tell them that Akane had been kidnapped. And that she, Ranma Saotome, had failed to protect her fiancee.
It was with a heavy heart that she opened the gate to the Tendo home and strode across the leaf-speckled yard. Kasumi was the only one who noticed her arrival. "Welcome back, Ranma-kun!" she called cheerfully. Ranma winced.
"Kasumi..." Ranma began, and then trailed off.
"Nani?"
Ranma grimaced. Best to get it over with. "Could you call everyone down here? I gotta tell ya somethin."
"Oh my. Certainly, Ranma. I'll be right back."
A few minutes later, the whole of the Tendo household was gathered around the increasingly uncomfortable pig-tailed girl.
"Well, son," said Soun, "Kasumi tells me you have something to tell us?"
Ranma nodded. "Yeah..."
There was a long silence, and in the silence, tension stretched out like the edge of a knife.
"Spit it out, Saotome," said Nabiki.
"... Akane's been kidnapped by demons."
Another long silence hung heavily in the air, until...
"Again?" asked Kasumi.
Soun began sobbing. "Oh, my poor little girl! Kidnapped by demons! Stolen away before she even had a chance to live! Now the schools will never be joined!"
Genma made some remarks that would, no doubt, have been along the lines of 'I have failed, what did I do to deserve such an ungrateful son who allows his fiancee to be kidnapped by demons? Oh the shame,' had he not been a panda at the time. What actually came out was more along the lines of, "Growf. Grooooowrf. Growf growrf."
Ranma facefaulted. "Again?" he exclaimed. "Whaddya you mean, 'again?'"
Nabiki shrugged. "Happens all the time. She'll probably be back tomorrow. By the end of the week at the latest."
"What?"
Kasumi smiled. "You had us very worried there for a moment, Ranma-kun. For a moment I thought it was something serious." She glanced at Nabiki. "Do you remember the time she was kidnapped by Overfiend-chan?"
Nabiki smirked. "How could I forget? It took her nearly a month to get the ichor-stains off of mallet-sama. I didn't think there were perverted sex-demons stupid enough to go after a school-girl these days. My own little sister saving the world, heh." (1)
"WHAT?"
---- MEANWHILE ----
"Ah, ah, aaaah! Beryl-chan! Onegai! Ikitai! Ikitai yo!"
The Queen's laughter echoed out from her bed-chambers. So did the crack of a whip. Not for the first (and most certainly not for the last) time, the Dark Kingdom courtiers wished that the Queen would sound-proof her room.
Roseite, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered by the noise in the slightest. In a shimmer of Sakura petals, a dark-haired young man with a manic look in his eyes appeared at her side.
"And how goes the war today, my twisted sister?" asked Blue-Thunderite.
Roseite laughed. "OOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"
Everyone cringed.
"The war goes well, brother-dear. Even as we speak, the Queen is binding Endymion to our cause."
Blue-Thunderite nodded. "That would indeed explain why the vermin have migrated from the palace again. Verily, she does prefer the rose distilled. Still, it will be good to see Endymion again. Who is he in this life?"
Roseite smiled, though there was no kindness in it. "Why, Akane Tendo, brother-dear."
Blue-Thunderite's eyes widened. "Akane Tendo! So pure and tidy! And With such ferocity! Truely a tigress amongst kittens!" He went on, but Roseite tuned him out. When you planned to live in the Dark Kingdom for any period of time, it was a useful skill to have.
--------------------------------
The only noise was the wind as it whispered through the redwoods. Beams of light and shifting shadows undulated in time to the swaying branches. The smell of life filled the air, and growing thick upon the ground was ferns, sorrel, and red-speckled leaves of three. Silence lay heavily upon the forest; a living silence, and full of sound. In the distance, the shady brook sang the ancient song of water over stones.
A young girl suddenly gasped for breath. She inhaled in quick, frantic gulps, like one who, after having been held under water almost to the point of drowning, suddenly finds herself on the shore and gloriously alive and sobbing with relief. She opened her wild purple eyes and sat up. She had been lying in a bed of leaves at the base of a particularly large redwood tree, and they crackled when she changed position. At first, the world was a confused blur of unfamiliar sounds and colours. After a few moments, it resolved into something that she could make sense of. Glancing about, the dark-haired girl wondered aloud, "Where am I?"
A voice spoke out from close at hand, soft but very clear. "Everyone! She's awake!" The voice was followed by the sound of approaching footsteps. More than one set of footsteps, at that. After a few seconds of anxious waiting, the girl was relieved at the sight of three other girls, each of them a few years older than she was. The first had blue eyes, long blonde hair, and was wearing a simple sundress. The second was a brunette with green eyes, clad in a white blouse and blue skirt combo that looked like it had seen better days. The third had short blue hair, blue eyes, and was wearing an off-white shirt and a pair of blue shorts. Although she wasn't sure how exactly, the dark-haired girl knew that she was safe with these three.
"Where are we?" she asked.
The blue-haired girl was the one who responded. "We're not entirely certain. It bears some resemblance to pictures of the redwood forests on the west coast of the United States, but I..." The blonde girl interrupted her at this point. "What she means is that she has no idea where we are." The blue-haired girl shrugged and glanced upwards. The dark-haired girl followed her gaze. Her eyes widened. There were two moons in the sky, one white, the other so dark as to be barely perceptible against the black of space. Nemesis.
After several long moments of silence, the dark-haired girl spoke again. "Who are all of you? I feel like I know you..."
The brunette smiled, and though her stature was somewhat imposing, she had gentle eyes. "I'm Kino Makoto," she said. The blonde chimed in next, "Aino Minako!" "Mizuno Ami," said the blue-haired girl.
The dark-haired girl smiled. "I'm..." she paused suddenly as a violent flood of memories surged into her mind. "I'm..." (Saturn.) She shook her head, trying to clear it, and as she did so, she saw herself. Her life. Her... (Bringer of death.) Flickering at the edges of her peripheral vision, she thought she saw a terrible glaive with the doom of the world upon its edge. She saw herself, sad and alone. (Chinmoku no Messiah.) She saw her friends, the other Princesses of the solar system. She saw the distance they had to maintain from her because of their position and hers. (The soldier of ruin.) Beryl. The fall of the Moon Kingdom unfolded before her eyes. The seven shadows. Metallia. She saw her own death. (Death... Reborn... Revolution...) And her birth. Her father. Her second death. But... how...? She suddenly realized that the other three were looking at her with great concern. She waved away their concerns. "I'm Tomoe Hotaru."
The other three smiled. A gentle rain of redwood leaves descended from above, jarred loose by the sudden movement of some scurrying animal. A bird chirped in the distance.
Hotaru shook her head. "This can't be right. I remember..."
Ami's expression didn't change. Makoto flinched.
Minako nodded, her smile fading somewhat. "We all do," she said. "Twice, even."
"Why are we here?"
Minako shrugged. "Who knows? We were dead. Now we're alive. Maybe we've been given a second chance."
"Don't you mean third chance?" asked Ami.
"Whatever."
Hotaru's smile returned then, and at full force. She knew who these girls were now. Indeed, she now wondered how she could have failed to recognize them before. She glomped the lot of them, laughing aloud as she did so. "Jupiter! Mercury! Venus!"
Makoto gently ruffled Hotaru's hair. "Welcome back, Lady Saturn."
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--- At Sailor Pluto's home in Asgaard... ---
Shadows crawled across the room as the Thing Which Man Was Not Meant To Know and Meioh Setsuna rutted like ... actually, now that I think of it, I don't think there are words in the English language to describe such a thing. It's best not to think about it, I suppose. In any case, they were getting it on.
"OH, LHU-CHAN!" she cried. Cthulhu would have grinned if he'd had a mouth instead of a mass of writhing tentacles (no, not THAT kind of tentacle you pervert!) in the same approximate region. "Yes! Aaaah! AAAAAAH..."
And that was when Meioh Setsuna broke.
Cthulhu blinked. In his horribly misshapen arms, his lover's legs had fallen off. OOPS, thought the nightmarish creature, projecting its thoughts aloud. It looked closely at her hip sockets, and again, if it had had a mouth instead of a mass of writhing tentacles, it would have frowned. Cthulhu didn't remember goddesses having metallic skeletons (it'd eaten enough to know, after all). Or wires running through their hip sockets. Or mechanical joints. Or... wait a minute...
It came to 'It' in a flash of sudden, horrible realization: this was some kind of android that It been sleeping with. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS? it roared telepathically.
---FLASHBACK---
Setsuna stood at the door to her bedroom. She had just invited Cthulhu home for the first time, and she was drunk off her ass. Just as she was reaching for the door, she appeared before herself in a flash of light. Yes, you heard that correctly. Setsuna appeared before Setsuna in a flash of light. The other her was clad in a black business suit, white shirt, black tie, and wore a pair of rayban sunglasses. Despite the inherent impossibility of a business suit that flattered a woman's figure, somehow, this one managed to do just that.
She stared at herself for a long moment.
Yeah, she looked pretty good.
The moment passed. "Whatrrre youu doooing heeere?" she slurred drunkenly.
The other Setsuna - Future-Setsuna - smiled. "I'm going to prevent you from making the biggest mistake of your life," she said as she held up a curious silver pen. She pressed a small button on the back of the pen, and it emitted a brilliant flash of light.
Future-Setsuna's smile widened. "Alright Setsuna. I can't have you remembering this, as if you do, Cthulhu will read it in your mind. I was never here. You slept with Cthulhu, and continued to sleep with it for several weeks. When the time comes, your memory will return to you."
Past-Setsuna nodded lazily, her eyes unfocused, staring at nothing. Future-Setsuna nodded in a satisfied manner. She snapped her fingers, and in a flash, a third Setsuna appeared. Serial number 29341G, Model 33-S, designation: Setsuna. Future-Setsuna took hold of Past-Setsuna, and the two of them vanished. A sultry smile spread across the 33-S's face as she opened the door to the bedroom where Cthulhu was waiting, stepped within, and shut the door behind her.
--- END FLASHBACK ---
Cthulhu cast the sexaroid's broken body off of the bed as it rose up to its full, terrible height. SETSUNA, it roared, and the resonance of its telepathic call shook the building to its very foundations.
Meioh Setsuna, daughter of Chronos, stepped out of the shadows. "Party's over, Lhu-chan."
Cthulhu reared back, and then thrust its great misshapen arms forward towards her. They burst into a mass of writhing tentacles, each with the gripping strength of a giant anaconda.
Setsuna checked her watch.
On they flew, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. And yet, when they reached the place where she had stood, they met only the empty air. "Over here," she called, now from the opposite side of the room. Cthulhu whirled around, bellowing its rage. The walls began to crack, and plaster rained down from the ceiling.
"Three... two... one..."
And that was when the temporal portal opened. "Goodbye, Lhu-chan," said Setsuna.
A terrible blast of infernal flame poured out from the portal – a portal opened directly to the innards of a giant Sloar. The dying screams of hundreds of Shubs and Zhuuls came floating through the portal along with the blast of flame. The Great Cthulhu ROARED in pain as the devouring flame tore through its misshapen body. There was a tremendous crack like thunder. The portal closed, and as its light faded, it could be seen that no sign remained of the Great Cthulhu. The broken 33-S was gone, and the bed had vanished completely.
Setsuna smiled mysteriously as she left her apartment, shutting the door behind her.
Toltiir looked up. "Is it done?" he asked.
"It's done," she replied, "And now that It is no longer interfering in the time-line, we can get down to business..."
---------------
"Old Ghoul, gimme that map!" Ranma yelled as she burst into the Cat Cafe. The dinner rush was well under way, and though the place was insanely crowded, her voice still rang out clearly over the din.
Cologne pogoed out to meet her 'daughter,' leaving Shampoo and Mousse to handle the restaurant for a few minutes. "Hmm? I thought you had decided to rescue your fiancée."
"Yeah, well that was before I found out that her getting kidnapped by demons was a 'happens every week' kinda thing. Are you gonna give me the map or not?"
"My apologies, daughter, but the map is no longer in my possession. You recall the group of rowdy visitors that I mentioned?"
Ranma blinked. "Yeah, I remember somethin' about that."
Cologne gestured towards a position directly behind Ranma. "They're here."
Ranma turned around, and came face-to-breasts with a ... she looked up. Oh, right. Ok, face-to-face now, and with a drop-dead gorgeous platinum-blonde woman. A woman clad in vaguely ceremonial clothing that bore more than a slight resemblance to armor. A long, flowing, off-white cape, flowing hair, pointed ears, slitted, blood red eyes. But perhaps the most noticeable feature (especially as far as Ranma was concerned) was the damn well near palpable aura of power around her. Whoever this woman was, she RADIATED power in a way that made Ranma dizzy even thinking about it. She held the map in her left hand, and her eye was twitching with annoyance.
Face to face with Herb, 'Prince' of the Musk, Ranma said about the only thing she could have in that situation.
"Shit."
An expression of distaste crossed Herb's face as the two stood there, each taking the measure of the other.
That was one Mint spoke up. "She has boobies!" he cried, staring slack jawed at Ranma's chest.
Lime stepped into the restaurant from where he had been waiting outside. "Where? I want to see the boobies too!"
Dead silence fell over the crowded restaurant as every eye in the establishment turned towards Herb, her retainers, and Ranma.
Crickets chirped in the distance.
Herb's eye continued to twitch.
Heedless to his own danger, Mint went on, now speaking directly to Ranma-chan. "You're a woman-person, right, onee-chan? This is the first time I've ever interacted with a woman-person! You have very nice breasts. Can I feel them?"
Lime voiced his agreement: "Me too! He can't feel them unless I get to!"
Ranma's battle aura flickered into being as she turned her baleful, blood red gaze upon the two hormonally imbalanced males. "No," she replied, making no effort to conceal the outrage that she felt at such a suggestion, "You can NOT!" And at the word 'not,' a terrific gust of wind surged out from her, blasting the two beastmen into the far wall of the Neko-hanten.
Herb glanced at Ranma's forehead. Her eyes narrowed. "That sigil..." she whispered.
An expression of weary resignation settled over Cologne's features. Quickly, she pogoed out of the room. The crowd of diners wasted no time in making their own departure. This was Nerima, and despite the fact that most of them were also accomplished martial artists (even if their fighting styles were along the lines of martial arts origami), they had no desire to be in the way of these two if things continued in the direction that they seemed to be going.
"Alright, whoever you are," said Ranma, thoroughly annoyed with these 'unruly visitors.' "Hand over the map and I won't have ta hurt ya."
Herb's eyes narrowed further. "The map is mine by right. Stand aside, woman. I don't have time to waste on such worthless business."
That went over well. Yeah. "Kusoyaro!" Ranma yelled as he leaped to attack the Chinese princess. Herb caught the pig-tailed girl's fist in the palm of her hand. Ranma's eyes widened, both in surprise and in pain as Herb slowly began to crush her fist. Several loud, sickening pops echoed through the building. The pig-tailed girl's eyes flared as she projected her AT field outward. Within those undying red eyes, whirling arcane patterns seemed to form. Herb was hurled backwards as the peculiar barrier snapped into being around Ranma's body. The dragon-child's feet never left the ground, however, and in their wake, they left deep gouges in the floorboards. She came to a halt some ten feet distant from Ranma's glowing form, licked her lips, and smiled.
"Had enough?" Ranma asked, feeling smugly superior after that display of power (and trying to ignore the throbbing pain of her broken hand). "Give up the map, and I'll let ya go."
Herb held up her hand, palm facing towards Ranma. She spoke not a word. And no words were necessary, for the will was more than enough. An intense blast of pure ki lanced out from her outstretched hand. As it met Ranma's shield, the shield flared violently, sending off a spectacular shower of sparks. Ranma gritted her teeth as she poured her concentration into maintaining the barrier.
It wasn't enough.
The AT-field failed: the blast struck Ranma full in the face, and carried her some fifty feet backwards (and through the back wall of the nekohanten). Her smoking form came to rest in a pile of trashcans behind the restaurant.
Some time later, Ranma woke to the altogether unpleasant sensation of having her broken left hand repeatedly poked by an ancient staff.
"GYAAAA! THAT HURTS!" she yelled, clutching her hand protectively and sitting up as quickly as she could manage. Garbage was strewn across the ground, and she was in serious need of a bath. The source of the poking, of course, was Cologne, who was now looking down on her with an interested expression.
"That was very foolish, daughter."
Ranma grimaced as she sat up, using her unbroken hand to brush some bits of trash out of her hair. "Yeah, who asked you, old ghoul?"
And for once, Cologne DIDN'T bop him over the head. Instead, she smiled. "You haven't changed," she said fondly. "Still the same stubborn, foolhardy, headstrong girl I remember. Even after spending the first sixteen years of this life as a boy."
Ranma's eyes widened. This was the first time that Cologne had acknowledged HIM as anything other than 'daughter,' even if she did call her a headstrong girl first. Cologne took Ranma's broken hand between her own withered hands. The healing itch flooded through her hand, and she watched in disbelief as the fracture set itself and then was knit back together by some unseen force.
There was a long silence. Ranma stared at Cologne, and Cologne seemed content to let her stare. The pig-tailed girl opened her mouth several times as if to speak before shutting it again. Yet eventually, she could not stop herself from asking: "... Are you really my mother?"
Cologne smiled, and for an instant, she was a middle-aged, redheaded Japanese woman... but only for an instant. "I've had many names, daughter. Ask your father about a woman named Nodoka." At that, the kindly expression on her face melted away as if it had never been there, replaced once more by the calculated expression that Ranma was more used to. "Don't rely too heavily on your Sister's power, daughter. Learn to use your own."
And with that, the old troll turned and pogoed away, leaving Ranma there in the alley, sitting in a pile of overturned garbage, staring in open-mouthed wonder.
---------------
"Any luck yet, Ami-chan?"
Ami shook her head as she continued to watch the display of her mini-computer. She, Hotaru, Makoto and Minako were sitting by the shady brook that ran through the heart of the redwood forest, and she had been scanning for signs of civilization for nearly an hour now with no luck. No settlements within a hundred miles of their position. She had adjusted the search to expand the radius to include the whole of the world, but it wasn't looking good. Even if she found a settlement, at this point, it would be too far away to do them even the slightest bit of good.
Setting her mini-computer down on a nearby rock and leaving it to continue its scan, Ami took a mental stock of their situation. While the water in the brook was drinkable, they had no food and no shelter. The only other articles of clothing that they had access to was their sailor fukus. Although it was only hours since their initial awakening in these woods, their situation was not looking good. She shook her head. It was no good dwelling on THAT. 'Not when there are three MUCH more pleasant things to dwell on...' Ami blinked, her cheeks heating in an intense blush. Where had THAT thought come from?
Makoto sat down on a fallen log, some two feet distant from the edge of the brook. "So..." she said, "Anyone got any idea what's going on yet?"
After taking a moment to regain her composure, Ami turned towards the others. Once, she never would have imagined that she might have to lead the group. Now... she swallowed her nervousness and spoke. "I have a working hypothesis, but nothing concrete. Based on the strange fluctuations in space-time that the Mercury computer has picked up while searching for settlements, I believe that something's gone wrong with the time-gate. It would explain our overlapping, contradictory memories. And Pluto's intervention would also explain how we got here and why."
"Very astute, Mercury," came a voice from behind the four. There, standing some ten feet away, was Meioh Setsuna. How she had gotten there and when was anyone's guess.
"Setsuna-san!"
"Setsuna-mama!" cried Hotaru as she ran to embrace the green-haired woman.
Setsuna smiled and returned the embrace. "I'm very glad to see that you're well, Hotaru-chan," she said. Her smile faded as she went on, "but the happy reunion will have to wait. We are all in great danger. Through the interference of a malevolent outside entity, the timeline has become badly corrupted."
"Corrupted?" Ami asked, her curiosity plain to see. When Setsuna dropped the mysterious act and spoke plainly, it meant you were in serious trouble.
The time-guardian nodded. "What is, was, and will be has been changed, and a new timeline created in the place of the old."
"In this timeline, the four of you are dead, and long before you ever had the chance to become Senshi. I have corrected this, and restored you to the state that you should be in. This includes your memories. Don't be alarmed if you notice memories that seem to contradict each other. Both are true." She paused for breath. "Unfortunately, the new timeline is highly unstable. Without direct and drastic intervention, there is now a 99 chance of the universe being destroyed within the next month."
The three inner senshi gasped in horror, while Hotaru's expression was more along the lines of 'mildly put out.' After a moment, Hotaru's expression changed to genuine concern. "What about Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama? Why aren't they here with us?"
Minako nodded her agreement. "And what about Usagi-chan, Rei-chan, Chibi-Usa and Mamoru-kun?"
Setsuna sighed. "I don't know what happened to Usagi. So far, I have seen no sign of her at all. Chibi-Usa is dead, and even I cannot bring her back from paradox. The only way of returning her to life is to correct the timeline. The others... the others are alive, but ... changed, both mentally and physically. They may not remember any of you."
There was silence for a long moment as the four senshi digested this information. They exchanged glances, and it was Ami who finally spoke.
"What do you need us to do?"
---------------
Humming quietly to herself, Kasumi Tendo cleaned. It was hard work, this assignment, and she disliked being away from home for such an extended period of time. Especially when she knew that Keiichi was waiting for her... but he understood the importance of this mission. Skuld was a bit less understanding, but even she wouldn't disobey the direct order that she'd been given by Kami-sama not to visit her sister until the events had taken their course.
So she cleaned. And hummed. And radiated tranquility in a typically Kasumi-like manner. It would be time to start dinner soon, but she didn't need to worry about that just yet. With Akane's kidnapping, much of the stress had vanished from the life of the undercover Goddess. No more cooking attempts. No more need of divine intervention to keep her family alive. As much as she felt guilty for thinking so, the periodic kidnappings of the youngest Tendo daughter amounted more or less to vacations for her. No stress. No worrying. No...
Ranma came bounding in through the front door, the wind of her passage knocking over most of the furniture, and coating the entire room with a generous amount of dust.
Kasumi's eye ALMOST twitched.
Well...
Almost no stress.
---------------
"Yo oyaji!"
Genma looked up from the game of shogi that he had been playing. Soun took the opportunity to quickly rearrange the pieces on the board. His son-turned-daughter stood some short distance away. A handful of sakura petals drifted by on the wind, gently coming to a rest on the surface of the koi pond. As the slight ripples of their landing spread across the pond, Genma frowned. "What is it, boy?"
A doubtful look flashed across Ranma's face for a moment, and she remained silent a moment. Genma quickly grew impatient. "Spit it out, boy."
The pig-tailed girl's doubtful look vanished. "Do you know some lady named Nodoka?"
Well, wasn't that interesting. At the mere MENTION of the name, Genma's eyes widened in terror, and his skin turned positively WHITE. "Wh... where did you hear that name?"
"It don't matter. So do ya know her?"
He began to sweat. He glanced at Soun, but Soun was no help.
Ranma's eyes narrowed. "So you DO know her. Who's Nodoka, oyaji?"
"No...Nodoka is..." He looked frantically around, trying to find some way to distract the boy from this line of questioning. No dice. "Nodoka is your mother, boy. But don't let that fool you! If she were to see you as you are now...!"
Soun nodded his sage agreement, doing his best to appear wise and knowing. "Saotome speaks truly. Long has the dreaded Nodoka Saotome been shrouded in secrecy, but at last we divulge her TRUE horror! Legends speak of a terrible woman with hair like fire, striding across the land like a goddess with sword in hand. They say the only thing more terrible and pitiless than her gaze is the edge of her sword."
Ranma stood there a moment, totally nonplused. "What the HELL are you two talkin' about?"
Genma shook his head gravely. "Boy, you'll be happier not knowing. If she were to see you as you are now... oh it breaks a father's heart! To see my one and only son transformed into a weak and helpless girl! Condemned to commit seppuku should he ever encounter his mother!"
Ranma's eye began to twitch. "Helpless, am I..." she trailed off, her blood red eyes widening in a lock of shock. "Wait a minute, SEPPUKU?"
Genma nodded sagely. "You signed the contract with your own hand. You agreed that if you weren't a man amongst men when your training journey was over, you would commit seppuku."
-FLASHBACK-
"Ranma-kun!" Genma called, producing the seppuku contract. "You like finger painting, right?"
"Yes, daddy!"
"Good. Come finger-paint on this piece of paper."
"Haaaai!"
-END FLASHBACK-
"Where are you going, boy?"
Ranma didn't bother looking back as she rushed upstairs to pack his things. A few minutes later she was walking out the door, clad in a fresh set of clothes and with an enormous pack on her back. "Kasumi! I'm going on a training trip to reclaim my manhood. I'll rescue Akane if I see her."
"Hai, Ranma-kun!" came Kasumi's cheerful reply.
And with that, Ranma left the Tendo home behind her. She didn't get very far before she was met by Ukyou, Asuka, and the two mooncats.
Ukyou smiled, folding her arms as she leaned against a lamppost. "Did you really think we'd let you go without us, Ranchan?"
Ranma blinked in surprise. "You guys..."
Asuka smirked. "Cologne told us what happened at the Neko-hanten. So, do you even have the slightest idea of where to begin looking, wonder-girl?"
Ranma sweatdropped.
"That's what I thought. As it happens, Luna and Artemis can lead us to the Kaisuifu."
"You're kiddin', right?"
Ukyou shook her head. "No joke, Ranchan. They know where it is. And if we can get there before Herb and the others..."
Ranma's expression visibly brightened. "I can become a guy again, and I won't have to kick Herb's ass to do it!" The others rolled their eyes.
As the group began its journey, Luna and Artemis exchanged glances. Although they didn't speak anything aloud, both knew the thought that was passing through the mind of the other: 'Kaisuifu, at the resting place of Sailor01.'
END EPISODE 10
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Comments? Criticisms? Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know!
Let's keep it civil, please. Flames will be laughed at. MSTies will
also be laughed at, but in an entirely different manner than flames. EPISODE 10
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1 – I've always wondered about this. Hentai anime is full of evil perverted monsters, yes? Ranma is filled with mallet-wielding school-girls with the power to unerringly smash perverts into low earth orbit without even breaking a sweat. Therefore, tentacle demons perverts valid targets for mallet-sama completely and utterly doomed. Deep thoughts from P.H. Wise. ;P
Comments? Criticisms? Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! Let's keep it civil, please. Flames will be laughed at. MSTies will also be laughed at, but in an entirely different manner than flames. 8)