Chapter 10

Author's Notes

Skye Silverwing: Tux boy is there, and he definitely worked with the scouts to defeat Beryl. He just didn't get captured and turned into an enemy, so Beryl lost one of her best weapons against the scouts. They're a bit stronger than they were in Cannon, because they had to fight without Sailor Moon as a crutch. That said, they are still missing their most powerful resource in the ginzuisho, so yesthings were difficult. They were, however, less willing to die, knowing that they needed theri full strength to win. These scouts are more resourceful, and less inclined to follow their kitty advisors blindly.

"C'mon, Sere, wake up. Wake up!" Ranma shook her, tying to get a reaction.

Finally Serena rolled over. "just five more minutes, mom." she muttered into her pillow.

"Serena, wake up! Geez, Sere! Wake up!" Ranma leaned in close to her ear, as loud as he dared. Serena shot up in bed almost hitting her as Ranma moved back fast. And almost got a nosebleed when she saw the skimpy nightdress Serena was wearing. Serena got out of bed and begfan dressing. She was almost all the way out of her nightdress when she realized Ranma was still in her room.

"Hry, ranma let me get dressed?" she turnes to find Ranma staring, pushing her out the door, she said,"Sorry, I meant Ran-ko."

Two minutes later she joined Ranma and Akane in the hallway, and they made a quiet exit through thye second-story window, and followed Ranma's favorite travelling method, the roofs, to the park.

Landing in the park, Serena turned. "Here, Ranma, I have something for you." She opened the thermos she was holding, and poured the contents over him. "You're a better teacher as a guy. Plus, I think Kasumi's wrong. We'll need you at your strongest if there are more of those monsters. And I know it wigs you having to be a girl all the time."

"Thanks 're right, I hate being a girl. Why do you think Kasumi was so insistent on that? She acted like she thought I would actually fight better as a girl. My girl form still throws me off a lot. It would probably take half a year fighting only as a girl, Nerima-level fighting, to get anywhere near to top form, and I still wouldn't be nearly as strong."

"Kasumi gets weird ideas sometimes." Akane said quietly. "You know I never agreed Ranma should hide in his girl-form, but Kasumi was so forceful, and she's usually right, so I guess I didn't feel right about objecting."

"Ah, let's worry about Kasumi later. It's time to train! And I know just where to start. You girls need to become more aware of the world around you, develop some kind of danger sense, you know? Or some pathetic nothing will take you out sometime."

So from two by the nearest clock till about four thirty Ranma trained them. Basic katas, advanced, and all the time he was using various tricks and attacks to start giving them an awareness of danger around them.

"I'm beat. Between our day yesterday, that fight and now this extra practice, I'm ready to plotz. Maybe we shoud hit the hay so we stay aawake in class?" Serena turned pleading eyes on the others.

"Good plan."

"Oh no! I'm going to be sooo late!" Serena wailed running through the house. "Thanks for lunch Setsuna, I've got toast, gottarunbye!" She headed out the door, and turning into a high speed blur just past the house, she caught up with Ranma and Akane so that all three made their seats just before the bell.

When the teacher turned to the board she leaned over and whispered,"We have got to find a better schedule." They nodded.

"I can't believe that history teacher. Our second day back and he gives a test. Mean!"

"Yeah, I thiink he should have waited a couple more days. Hey, Sakura, where did Setsuna want us to take this?"

"Cherry Hill Temple. It sounds like a good place for meditation and chitraining, too. If we could get permission."

"Never hurts to ask. Hey, Ranko, did you ever notice how your fighting style works so well with chi?"

"What do you mean?"
"Most straight martial artists would have to be greybeards befoer they reached the point of manipulating v\chi. And you were doing it, well, badly,but still, you were doing it when I met you, and Akane was pretty much at the point where she would have been starting too. That's really unusual. It's the musabetsu kakuto I think. Something about your style helps you access and focus your chi."

"Which would be why we learned so fast. We're here."

They started up ther stairs to the temple, talking quietly. At the top they met an old man who looked a lot like the ferak. They jumped into stance, neding a long look before they relaxed, realizing it was, inv fact, not Happosai.

"We're supposed to deliver this to the temple." Akane held out the package. "Do you mind if we look around?"

"Have fun. Raye! Why don't you show these girls around?"

"Grampa, you know I have friends coming."

"It's alright. Honestly we just wanted to find a quiet placce to meditate."

"Well, I do have a few minutes. So why did you choose our temple?"

"My older sister had a package she wanted delivered here. I'm Akane."

Serena looked at Akane and slowly nodded."I'm Serena and this is Ranma. Do you have any hot water?"

"Just a second." Raye went out a door, and came back in with a steaming kettle. Ranma took it and poured it over herself, triggering the change, and turning him male.

"Ranma needs to learn all this as a guy. That's the main reason we need a special place to meditate." Serena starte to give Raye an abbreviated version of their story, while Raye poured hot and cold water over Ranma until he got tired of it, and asked her to stop, almost snapping. She didn't notice the arrival of Raye's friends, and continued to the end of their story "-we moved here with new identities and everything."

She turned around and noticed the newcomers. "Why didn't you TELL me?!"

Ranma looked at her. "Well, since you and Akane decided to trust Raye here, I figured we could trust them too."

Amy looked at them intently. "You were fighting in the park yesterday, with the Sailor Scouts. You helped beat the heart snatcher."

"Oh, you saw that. Well;" Akane broke off, staring in horror at the worst thing imaginable. Not one but two "C--c-c-cat!" the screm erupted from two throats as Akane turned her head to her companions.

"Quick! Get those cats out of here!"

It was too late.