The Sister
Part 4
Disclaimer: No character in this chapter of this fix is owned by me, I claim no ownership.
Please don't sue as you won't get much.
Ranma-chan sighed heavily as she stared down into her teacup. After her
landing in the fountain one of the park goers had offered to buy her a drink.
Ranma couldn't believe that she had accepted but here she was, starring down
into a teacup in a small coffee shop near the park.
Perhaps it was a sign of her growing depression that she accepted,
sometimes a little attention was better than none. Even the chance of a quiet
cup of tea with someone who wasn't trying to kill or marry her was a rare event.
Ranma nervously glanced at her companion, she had never known anyone with
green hair and red eyes, but perhaps that could be changed.
"Thanks for the tea, my name's Ranko." Ranma mentally kicked herself, she
had meant to say Ranma.
"It's no problem. My name's Setsuna." Setsuna grinned at the younger
girl. "Mind telling me how you came to be in the fountain?"
"That would be the fault of Akane." Rank began to slip into a dark mood.
"Who's Akane, and what happened?"
What followed was a rather frank retelling of Ranma's life story,
including the cures, fiancées, and major battles. Ranma found her self-
divulging details and events that she had kept secret from everyone else,
including Genma. By the time Ranma had finished telling her tale many hours had
passed and it had grown dark.
"Well, Ranko that's quite a story." If you looked very closely you could
see a tiny crack in Setsuna's visage.
"You don't believe me." Ranma hadn't expected to be believed but it was
nice just to talk to someone.
"I didn't say that did I? I just meant that that's a quite a story."
There was a small flash of something in Setsuna's eye. "Am I the first person
you've told it to?"
"You're the first person I've told the whole thing to." Ranma looked
outside and suddenly realized how much time had passed. "It's getting late, I
should be getting back."
Setsuna dug around in her purse for a moment before pulling out a card and
writing on the back.
"This is my card, if you'd like to talk some more please give me a call."
Ranma picked up the card and began to long walk back to the Tendo Dojo.
Setsuna watched the young martial artist leave and felt the first tear
trickle down her cheek. The trails young Ranko/Ranma had undergone should have
killed her long ago. The fact that they hadn't only proved one thing to Setsuna,
someone had been watching over the young martial artist.
Setsuna could feel another tear beginning to trickle down her features and
realized that she had to get home before she lost all of her self-control. She
grabbed her staff out of subspace and quickly vanished from the small
coffeehouse.
Hotaru was trying to concentrate on her schoolwork when the sounds of
someone crying filtered into her awareness. Crying did not often grace this
household, the inhabits were more prone to fits of vengeance than fits of
crying.
Having decided to offer what comfort she could Hotaru began to check the
other rooms in the house one by one, soon arriving at the last doorway she would
have expected to hear crying from. Carefully she opened the door leading to
Setsuna's private sanctum.
For what seemed like the first time in ages, Ranma-chan lay down on her
bed with a smile on her face. Her day might have started on a low note but
somehow finding someone who was willing to listen had made it seem bearable.
Ranma-chan pulled out the card given to her by Setsuna and studied it. The card
was printed on high-quality card stock and the ink appeared to have gold flecks
in it. None of that mattered to Ranma as much as the simple gesture the card
entailed.
Next Morning
SHNICK Haraku stumbled down the stairs, planning on giving who ever was
interrupting her sleep a piece of her mind, said piece of mind decided that it
didn't really want to be here when Haraku caught sight of her tormentor. Hotaru
was sitting at the dining table, grinning. Normally this would be a good thing
but there was something about the grin. There was also the fact that she was
currently running a whetstone over the business end of the Silence Glaive.
SHNICK
"Umm, Hotaru-chan are you taking up evil again?"
"No Haraku-papa, why do you ask?" Hotaru hadn't stopped.
"Umm, why are you sharpening the Silence Glaive?" Haraku nervously sat
down across from her somewhat adopted daughter.
"Ohh I think it's going to see some use soon, don't you think so Setsuna-
mama?" Haraku turned her head to see Setsuna coming out of the kitchen, a cup
of tea in her hand.
"Hotaru put the glaive away, it might be sometime before you can use it
in the way you want."
"Setsuna what's going on? Why is Hotaru sharpening the Silence Glaive?"
Setsuna's normally bland expression wavered for a moment.
"It's not a story I want to repeat twice, I've called Rei and there is
going to be a meeting later today."
It had taken a few hours but finally the entire team of short-skirted
warriors of a long dead kingdom had gathered together. Hotaru hadn't stopped
sharpening her Glaive and now it was appearing to be more of a nervous habit
than anything else. Still she was given a large amount of personal space in the
small room normally used for these gatherings, most of the assembled people
cared about Hotaru but there was something about a twelve year old girl
polishing a weapon of tremendous destruction while smiling.
"Hotaru-Chan do you think you could stop for a moment? We need to start."
Setsuna was the only person not giving Hotaru a four-foot breathing room; in
fact she was sitting right next to her.
"Sure Setsuna-momma." Hotaru quickly ran a finger down the edge of the
blade before storing her Glaive.
"Never could figure out where she got that." Luna mumbled under her
breath, unfortunately for her Hotaru happened to hear the remark.
"Onne-sama gave it to me." You could practically see the trains of
thought jumping tracks as everyone tried to digest that statement.
"What? You have a SISTER!?!" Setsuna was the only one not blown away by
the revelation, she knew where the Glaive had come from, and even agreed with
her sisters reasons.
FLASHBACK
Saturn was usually a dark, gloomy planet. It was too far away from the
Sun to receive much light and Saturn's atmosphere meant even what little light
reached the planet didn't make it to the surface.
This almost always left the inhabits of Saturn pale and depressed, lack of
vitamin B you understand. Today however there was one person with enough
happiness to engulf the entire planet. She was the princess of Saturn, its
guardian, and someone had remembered her birthday.
To most people this wouldn't be a big deal, but when your almost
universally feared and hated having someone not only remember your birthday but
actually celebrate it with you was a big deal. Most of the time the youngest
Senshi was alone, those times when she wasn't were almost as bad, when she was
alone she didn't have to see the fear in others eyes at her very presence. In
the entire solar system there were only two people who didn't fear her and
treated her like she was an actual human being. One was Queen Serenity and the
other was the younger warrior of Pluto, Ranko.
"Happy birthday Hotaru!" Ranko grinned at the often-morose young princess.
"Thanks Onne-sama!" Hotaru truly meant it from the bottom of her heart,
having people around on her birthday was something she missed when the mantle of
Sailor Saturn had descended on her.
"It's nothing. Here open the present I got you." Ranko placed a LARGE box
covered with shiny gift wrap on the table in front of the young girl, if you
stood them side by side the box would be larger than Hotaru. If it was possible
Hotaru's grin grew even bigger and brighter as she began to tear off the
wrapping.
End Flashback
The entire room had grown silent by end of Hotaru's recounting of how she
acquired the Silence Glaive
"A birthday present? The Silence Glaive was a birthday present? What
kind of person gives weapons of mass destruction as a birthday gift!?!" Rei was
wondering if finding this person was a good idea.
"My sister and if you anything about the history of the Silence Glaive
then you would be glad that Hotaru has it." Pluto's emotional mask was in the
shop for repair at the moment and they couldn't give Setsuna a loner.
"What history?" Micharu was somewhat worried, she had never liked the
Silence Glaive all that much.
"Only my sister knows the true history of the Glaive... speaking of my
sister, I have located her."
"You have? How is she?" The almost formulaic question drew a totally un-
formulaic answer. Tears began to stream down Setsuna's face, one had begun the
journey and many more were quickly behind it.
There were varying degrees of shock and horror as Setsuna releated the
story of her sister's current life. Several times various stomachs were emptied
as the legacy of Genma's teaching methods were reveled.
Certainly shock and horror were the expected reactions, but there were
others. You just had to look deeper or just know what to observe.
Take for instance Rei Hino, the Senshi of Mars and warrior of Fire. Said
fire was currently roiling about her hands as the flames were beckoned by her
unvoiced call.
Or perhaps we could look at Makoto Kino, Senshi of Jupiter and commander
of lightning, if you looked hard enough you could see the small sparks of
electricity arc around her body. Makoto was a martial artists and believed in
the unwritten code of those who studied the art, to her this was an atrocity.
These two examples paled in comparison to the effects the story had on
Usagi. There were no outward sign you could observe like Makoto or Rei, but her
eyes told the whole story. Her eyes, which were once lively and bright, had over the course of the re-telling of Ranma's life, become progressively colder and harder. Near the end of Setsuna's tale Usagi's eyes had become small flecks of blue diamonds and you could almost feel the crystal throbbing with power as it picked up on the emotions running through the room.
Somewhere in Nerima, Genma Satome was wondering why his danger sense was getting such a good work out. Maybe it was time for a personal training trip?
Elsewhere in Nerima, a young pigtailed martial artist was thinking about visiting a new friend next time Akane decided to be upset.
End Chapter 4
Authors Notes: I know it took a while but my current muse is on strike and I'm looking to replace it. Anyone have an extra hanging around?
On that note let me say that I require C&C just like the other authors, if you have any suggestions on scenes that you would like to see please let me know and I'll try to work them in.
