**********
The Replacement
Chapter 02 - Tuxedo Mask2 or TM2
By C. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c)2001
**********
Usagi's mind was awhirl with questions as she landed on the roof and
left Ranma behind. She didn't know why but she trusted him more than she
did her own parents and she hadn't even known him an entire day yet. She
got her bearings and took off at run, jumping from roof top to roof
top as she centered in on the Scouts location with her special powers.
Luna had explained that all the Scouts had to do was focus on something
and if it was powerful enough, they could get a fix on it with their
minds. After several weeks of practice she had found that she find the
Scouts anywhere, whether transformed or not, but for some reason
couldn't find the enemy if her life depended on it. Luna was always
harping on her about it, saying that in Silver Millennium she was this
or that or whatever.
She was totally sick of it after three years of listening to her whine
and complain about it. Her friends were in trouble, she could sense it
now, a very strong aura of dark power was in the area and she could feel
their power fading as they fought it with everything they had. Usagi
hopped the final intersection and looked around the corner of the wall
she was beside. The monster was vaguely female and looked to have been a small dog at one point in time, she giggled silently. The stupid things
just got more and more stupid looking a time went on, oh well, time to
help her friends out. She ran around the corner and hopped up on a wall
and gave her speech, dodged an attack, and landed with a smirk beside
Mercury.
For the first time in her life she felt a little stupid for wasting her
time giving the speech, it irritated her to no end. "Mercury, Jupiter,
attack it from the sides while I do the front. Go!"
The girl's stared at her in shock for a second, shrugged and went about
flanking the monster while Eternal Sailor Moon spun her scepter. Mercury
fired off a 'Mercury Aqua Rhapsody' and Jupiter fired off a 'Jupiter Oak Evolution' just seconds before Moon let loose her blast 'Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss'. All three hit it causing a giant explosion that ripped the street apart.
They stood back and waited for the smoke and dust to clear to see if the
thing is dust or not, but a few seconds later a large shadow
shambles out and shakes itself. The white fur on it's sides is frozen
and fried, but it is undamaged where Moon blasted it and it grinned evilly
at them. It had been warned, but if this was all they had it was going to be
an easy win for his side. It opened it's mouth and 'barked' at them, it
was so loud that it shattered windows a block away and knocked the
Scouts off their feet. A foot long tongue lolled out in a dog like smile
and it panted at them.
Mars and Jupiter are the first back to their feet and they both start
lobbing attacks at it from all directions, but it dodges and barks right
at Mars. She is blasted off her feet and slammed into the wall hard
enough to make it crack, knocking her out. It ran forward as foot long
claws pop out of it's fingers, going in for the kill. Moon fired off her
attack again and blasts the thing off it's feet, it rolled for several
yards before standing back up. Jupiter fired again, putting everything
she had into it, but it dodged somehow and 'barks' at her. Like Mars she
is blasted off her feet, vaguely hearing glass shattering in the back
round, and knows instantly that she has broken several ribs.
"Mercury, why isn't my attack working?" Moon asks calmly.
Pulling out computer. "Um...I'm not sure, it seems to be doing damage
to the monster, but it just shrugs them off. Oh, here we go, you need to
alter the attack a little, it's trying to make that thing human like we
usually do, but this is a real monster and not some transformed human. Try
one of your old attacks."
"Okay, now lets see if this thing can handle a..." Moon say as she
turns to perform a 'Rainbow Moon Heart Ache' attack, and sees the
monster bark in their direction.
"BARK!!!"
Visions of what the thing did to Mars and Jupiter flash through Usagi's
mind as it lets loose and she gasped in shock as this time the sound
waves rip up the ground as it headed right towards her and Mercury. She
screamed in shock and barely noticed a gray and black blur, pick her up and leave
her stomach back on the ground. It is just seconds later that she feels
the weight to gravity again and opens her eyes, the world was spinning a bit and she blinked in surprise, looking around. She spotted
Mercury beside her and noticed that she is bright red and blushing as
brightly as she can, her eyes looking up at something.
Usagi looks and gasps as she sees Ranma holding the both of them in his
arms and that they are twirling through the air like some kind of
acrobat. The spin around to land on the small ledge of a lamp post over
looking the battle. "Are you two okay?" He asks, holding the girls in
his arms.
"..." Mercury says, blushing, she looks down at Ranma's hand where it
is grasping her left breast and freezes.
"Ranma, what are you doing here, I told you to go home!" Moon yells,
not noticing Mercury getting mad and flustered.
"Your my friend, I will not let you go off into a dangerous fight
without me as back up and from the looks of things you guys need it!"
Ranma snaps as he set the girls down on the pole behind him.
"Ranma..."
"PERVERT!!!" Mercury yells and punches Ranma right across the chin,
sending him flying off the pole and into the monster down below.
"Mercury?"
"He was coping a feel!" She yells, still blushing.
Eternal Sailor Moon blinked in confusion. "..."
That felt like being hit by Ryoga, Ranma thinks as he flew off the
pole and slammed into the monster knocking it back a few feet. He
flipped to his feet and takes in the battle field, noting where everyone
is. Off in the distance he can see another blonde headed Scout heading
this way and hopes she is stronger than the other girls. He twists
suddenly and dodges a claw swipe of the monster and smirks at it. "You
don't have even half the speed needed to hit me, dog breath."
"Growl! We'll see about that human!"
Ranma doesn't give him the chance, he had been watching the battle
since Usagi's first attack and knew this thing was very strong. Those
girl's blasts were strong enough to level buildings if they hit and this
thing was shrugging them off. He had the power to hurt it he was sure,
but didn't know if he could control it half as well as the Scouts, they
didn't need to know that though. He jumped forward and slammed the heel of his hand into the things jaw and shattering it with a loud crunch, from
there it got worse as he sped up and used his most powerful physical
attack on it at blinding speed. The Kachi Tenshin Amaguriken pummeled it from all sides as he kept it off balance, breaking bones and shattering
ribs as he went.
He jumped back and brought his arms forward as he burst out in a giant
blue aura. "Möko Takabisha Double Shot!" Ranma yelled and sent 4 large
balls of blazing energy(two from each hand) at the thing to put it out
of it's misery. They exploded with about the same amount of power as the
Scouts earlier attacks and shook the ground and sending a column of
smoke and dust into the sky. "Take that Lassie!"
"BARK!!" Came out of the destruction and slammed into Ranma, he
screamed as his aura was the only thing to save him from certain death.
As it was he was catapulted off his feet and plowed into the ground at
about mach 1, leaving a 30 foot long trench with him out cold at the far
end. Usagi screamed in horror as he worst nightmare came to pass, an
innocent hurt in their fight. She jumped off the pole and ran over to
Ranma to see how bad it was.
Mercury lowered her computer and grinned. "Weakness found." She said
and focused her powers a little differently than she usually did. This
would take a little skill and luck to pull off she thought, but she had
never had time to really practice doing this before. Her power flowed
around her hands and lit them up in a bright blue glow, she didn't even
notice as the temperature around her dropped over forty degrees in
seconds. She thrust her hands forward and yelled. "'Mercury Aqua
Rhapsody Pinpoint Attack!' A foot wide beam of super frozen energy fired
out of hands and struck the dog like thing in the middle of the back. It
blew the monster to pieces with a loud yelp pain.
Drained of everything she had, Mercury fell off the light pole, but
Venus caught her before she could injure herself. "That was great
Mercury, did you just learn how to do that?"
"Just had to focus my power a little differently, any of us can do it
if we need to." Mercury said just before she passed out.
About fifty feet away Usagi was kneeling by Ranma, tears trailing down
her face as she took in all of the boy's damage. It looked as if over
half of his bones had been crushed in the attack and several others
broken as he dug the trench. Even more amazing was the fact that he was
still alive, his aura was flickering around him and she could see it
actually speeding up his healing. It was even reforming the bones as she
watched, of course she didn't notice the Silver Crystal glowing as she
hugged her friend, she was crying to hard.
The crystal flashed and Usagi's world lurched, she fell on her face and
groaned when she impacted on a stone tile floor that was polished to
perfection. There was giggling behind her and she looked up to see Queen
Serenity sitting on her throne. "Welcome daughter, I see you are as good
at making entrances as you were back on the Moon Kingdom." Giggle.
"Humph!" Princess Serenity said and crossed her arms, looking away.
"I can only hold you here for only so long my daughter, there is something
you need to know."
"Go ahead, Mother."
"Every generation one is given a Soul Mate, Destiny demands this even
if you don't find out who it is. When I sent all of you forward it
messed up the cycle a little, but Destiny found a way around that by
following his rules. Your soul mate from my time was sent forward for
you, but destiny also provided you with one for your new life and that
boy is the one."
"WHAT!!?"
"Can't you feel it daughter? Soul mates affect each other on every
level imaginable, from the way one thinks to the way we see things and
this goes double for those you are linked with. When you met Endymion
you hated his guts, and yet you couldn't get him out of your mind no
matter how hard you tried. This Ranma is far stronger than Endymion ever
will be, he is a trained fighter and holds honor above all else."
"B-b-b-b-but what about Crystal Tokyo?" Princess Serenity yelled.
"It's still there, though it will change a little as will your outlook
on things, I think it is for the best really. Especially with how bad
Endymion has been treating you lately, he even went out of the country
the other day and left without saying goodbye to you."
"He what?" She said in a flat voice.
"He ditched you, as you say it."
"If Ranma is my Soul Mate, then it is too late to do anything about it,
he is dieing as we speak."
"You forget that time doesn't pass while we are in this place, we are
outside of time."
"How can I save him, I don't know how..." Sniffle.
"Don't cry, just do for him what I did for Endymion all those years ago
when you chose him to be your future husband."
Usagi's eyes blink and she is back with Ranma, memories of her lost
love filling her head, she gets some more of her memories back. Her
uniform flares as her princess dress forms and she bends over to
kiss Ranma on the forehead, just above the shiner that Mercury had given
him. There is a flare of power where they touch and solid piece of light
falls out of the Silver Crystal and into Ranma's chest. Ranma gasped for
air and groaned in pain as his injuries are completely healed as if they
had never been, he is just supremely tired.
"Usagi?"
"What?"
"You know what this means don't you?"
"Huh?"
"I've got another fiancée to deal with." Smirk.
"Another...you...you...you..."
"FIANCÉE!!!" Four Scouts yell out in unison from where they had been
spying on the two. Usagi screams and scrambled away in shock, gasping
for air. In the process she climbs over Ranma and trips, planting her
crotch right in his face. A thrill runs through her and she freaks,
"Eeep!!" scrambling away in shock. Ranma's eyes are bulging out of his
head from being so close to...to...'where are her panties?' he thinks
just before a little blood trickles out of his nose and he passes out,
with a little smile plastered to his face.
Usagi blushes a solid red, all the way down to her toes and hears all
the girls laughing at her even as she loses her princess transformation.
**********
"What did you do Meatball Head?!" Rei yelled in Usagi's ear.
"He was dieing, I needed to save him somehow."
"But what did you do? I've never seen you do anything like that before,
you gave him some of your power, just like that time you did the same
thing to save your boyfriend."
"Leave that idiot out of this Rei, I don't want to even think about him
right now."
"But Usagi, he is the one destined to be the King of Earth!" Makoto
pointed out. They were all at the Shrine, and had been yelling at each
other for over an hour now.
"That may be, but me and him are done, he has hurt me one time to many,
I won't take him back. If any of you want him, go ahead." Usagi snapped.
"What?!" They all yelled again.
"A few days ago he ran off to America according to my mother and I didn't even know he was going to be leaving this time. I've had enough and I won't put up with it anymore."
"But Usagi, who will you use to replace him, that boy you used the
Crystal to save? The one in the room next door?"
"I had a little talk with my mother about him and it seems that he is
my Soul mate for this lifetime. Me and Mamoru were soul mates, for my
last lifetime, but one can only cause so much pain before it become to
much to handle. As for Ranma, giggle, you guys already know him."
"What?!" They all yelled again, only louder and with enough wind to
make Usagi's hair flare out behind her.
"Usagi, I would remember a good looking guy like this, I mean he is a
total hunk." Minako said, Makoto nodding, she had been about to say
something similar.
"Isn't Ranma the name of that girl we met earlier today?" Ami asked,
noticing that this guy and Ranma were wearing the same clothing.
"Yep, their the same person." Usagi proclaims.
"Um...Usagi, one has a great body and the other is built better than
me." Makoto said, a little envious.
"He explained it to me earlier, he is under a curse he picked up in
China, he even demonstrated it for me. Cold water turns him into a girl
and hot water makes him a man again, we were talking about it when you
guys called us about that monster."
"What a load of crap!" Rei yelled. "Now what did you do to him?!"
"If you must know, I formed his soul into a Senshi Seed."
"A...what?" Ami gasped.
"With the idiot gone, we need a little help and I thought that Ranma
would be perfect, I trust him as much as I do you. A Senshi Seed is what
we need to become Scouts, I infused a part of the Crystal into him and
gave him some powers. What form they will take is still a mystery, it
all depends on how he sees things. He will be taking Tuxedo Masks place,
but his powers will be completely different as will his look. The Seed
will also allow him to transform into Mask, increasing his personal
powers hundred fold. The same as happens to us."
"If that is true Usagi, what about his girl side, if I am a to even
believe any of that?" Rei said."
"Got me, it's never happened before, he may be powerless, gain the same
abilities male or female, or end up in Fuku when transformed as a girl."
"Which planet did you connect her power to?"
"None yet, I just gave him the Seed, I'll decide on the planet later."
"Um...Usagi, no offence, but since when are you this focused. Usually
by now you have stolen all of Rei's manga and eaten all the food!"
Minako yelled, a little scared.
"Hmm...oh that..." Usagi grinned. "To be able to save Ranma, I had to
have some of my knowledge of Magic returned to me, I got a number
of my memories back from the Moon Kingdom."
"What?!" They all yelled again.
Usagi giggled and snatched some of the cookies off the plate in front
of Makoto, much to Minako's relief. She had been beginning to wonder
if this Ranma had done something to her friend. Though the mention of
Soul Mates had tickled some long forgotten memory of hers, she would
have to sit down and try and remember what it was later.
**********
Sailor Pluto was guarding the Gate of Time when she felt the wave of
change hit, all of reality wavered for several seconds. She was thrown
to the ground as the fabric of space and time was split asunder and
reformed into something new. Fear filled her eyes as she crawled to her
feet and looked around, but she could find no changes. She opened the
door and checked on Crystal Tokyo and gasped, dropping her staff at
the image that greeted her almost instantly.
**********
Pride was Ranma's biggest problem, it allowed him to force himself to
be the best there is, no matter what. He had just been defeated by a
stupid demon dog, it was humiliating to say the least. He could hear his
father yelling at him for not being good enough, for being weak like a
girl, a waste of time and a pathetic fighter to boot. Weak, like a girl,
yeah right. The Scouts in their stupid uniforms had been using more
power than he ever could and as each of them arrived at the fight they
had grown stronger and stronger. It briefly crossed his mind that they
may have won earlier if he hadn't interfered, but shrugged it off, Usagi had
been in danger and he had moved to help her.
He hadn't meant to grab Mercury like that, but he'd only had
milliseconds to act and he had grabbed them without thought. His life
sucked. Where had he picked up the curse where he was able to make women jump to all these silly conclusions that had no basis in reality? The
only one he remembered was his 'girl' curse, and now this was happening.
Ranma stood at the edge of a cliff that over looked a mountain surrounded
by fog, there seemed to be a large city within the fog because of the
large number of buildings that were just barely visible as they poked
out of the top edges of the heavy blanket of white.
How he had gotten here was a mystery, but he had a feeling he was
dreaming. Still he wasn't sure if that was true or what, he was far too
alert and the clammy feel of the air was a little spooky. He was also
feeling a little depressed, he had lost a fight he needed to win and he
was worried about Usagi. Why? He couldn't grasp that simple question, it
was more than what he usually felt for the other girls in his life, why
was she so different? He had known her for less than a day, and yet
there was something there that he couldn't identify. Some emotion that he
had never felt in his life and he didn't know what to do about it, so he tried
to ignore it and move on like he always did with things he didn't understand.
A ghostly image of Usagi appeared beside Ranma and he studied her, her strange hairdo, her innocent eyes, her aura, everything about her and
felt a stirring within him that only Akane had ever been able to bring
out in him, but this was much stronger. When he thought of Akane, all he
could remember was her hate filled eyes and that thrice cursed mallet
that seemed to just be ignored by his danger sense for some reason and
always caught him off guard. Even Akane's smile was hard for him to
picture anymore and that saddened him more than a little, how were they
supposed to get married if she didn't trust him with anything? He
wouldn't put up with an abusive marriage, never would he tolerate that.
Even Ukyo tended to strike with that giant spatula of hers for the strangest
reasons, he figured it was her paying him back for them abandoning her.
She may not have even realized that she was doing it or the pain it caused
him, Usagi had shown him noting but kindness in the time he had known her.
A second image of Usagi appeared, one of her as Eternal Sailor Moon and he wondered how and why such a caring girl was one of the most powerful magical girls on the planet. They were famous throughout Japan and had developed quite a reputation over the last couple of years, even he had heard about them. As ESM, Usagi was a totally different person in his eyes, she seemed more mature and obtained a fighting spirit that wasn't in her regular form. Her magic protected her from things that would have killed most, and she had attacks that could level entire city blocks. He could remember reading about this fight they had a year or so ago where they had leveled a ten story building, turning it into rubble in less than an hour. He sighed as he considered the other girls as well, they were all also far stronger than he was, and they were girls. They were, not, weak as he had been raised to believe by his old man and he had to wonder where he had ever come up with the idea that all girls were weak and useless.
Ranma's head hurt, if he was wrong about that, what else was he wrong
about? Could he trust anything his father had ever taught him? He didn't
want to think about it and barely noticed as the two images of Usagi
wavered and vanished to be replaced by his first sight of the girl. She
was curled up in a ball and crying, it was obvious to him that she was
in more pain than should have been possible. He hadn't seen it before,
just that she was crying, why had he missed it? She vanished as he took
a step forward, the air wavered around him and he found himself at the
edge of the cliff again, this time there was stone stair case heading
down into the valley below. They blended right into the rock and he knew
that they were invisible from almost any direction than the exact spot the
was now standing.
Definitely a dream he decided, like the visions of Usagi were not
enough evidence of that his mind said and kicked him for good measure.
He stepped onto the stairs and headed down, it took close to an hour
and he was just starting to feel tired as he stepped off the last step and looked deeper into the fog as it closed in around him like a thick soup that didn't want him there. Looking back at the stairs he wasn't to surprised to see that they were barely noticeable, they blended in perfectly with the background.
The fog on the floor of the valley was thick and obscured his vision to about twenty feet and he shivered from the drop in temperature, there was something wrong with this town. He could feel it in his bones, there was no sound except the wind and echo of his foot steps on the stone as he walked forward.
"If you must know, I formed his soul into a Senshi Seed." Echoed on the
wind and Ranma stopped.
"A...what?" Said a somewhat familiar voice.
"...nshi Seed is what...need to become Scouts, ...fused a part of the
Sil...Crystal into him and gave him some pow..."
Ranma looked around for the barely understood voices, but could find
nothing out of the ordinary. Then blinked and looked off in the distance
to spot something he had dismissed earlier, a single light that pierced
the fog. From above it would have been unnoticeable, but down here it
was just bright enough to see. He ran forward and hoped that it was sign
of life, for everything else seemed to be quiet and devoid of life. The
light grew stronger as he moved an soon the outline of a large square
building came into sight, the light shining from a window above the
door.
The building was made out of pure white marble and stood out from the
dark gray stone buildings around it. There were large stairs leading up
the front that ended at a walkway that lead to the large closed door.
Marble columns were placed every twenty feet or so all along the edge
and supported a massive looking roof of pale gold tiles. He stared at it
in awe and had to surpress a laugh as he wondered what his father would
do if he saw all that gold just laying there. Stepping upon the steps
caused two torches to flare up and light themselves, the door swung open
to reveal a super bright light that flared out and filled the valley and
made the fog disappear in a matter of seconds as he stood there shielding
his eyes from the sudden glare.
Ranma flipped off the step and landed in a combat crouch the
instant the light seemed let his eyes adjust and cursed his hesitation in the
face of danger, but when nothing came out except light he waited for it to
calm down to a tolerable level and jumped right up to the top of the steps.
His danger sense was going off wildly, but he couldn't place where it was
coming from so he inched his way towards the door. The interior of the
building was one large room with a polished stone floor. He could see the
ceiling reflecting off the polish. He entered and looked around, his danger
sense went off the scale and he began to sweat and he wondered what
was so dangerous about this place that this could even happen. He was
walking into something, but he had to see if there was someone here.
He felt it in his soul now and knew that this was the only place to get
his answers.
Torches at the far end of the hall lit up to reveal a large throne with
an equally massive man sitting upon it, he was bent over and had his
head resting on the palm of his hand as if he was bored. His eyes were
closed, but his chest was rising slowly and evenly enough to prove to
Ranma that this giant was alive. He was dressed in ancient battle armor
and there were even some blood stains on it that hadn't been cleaned off
in ages. Ranma took a closer look at the room and noticed that there was
millions of weapons hanging on the walls, slings, staves, swords,
everything imaginable, even guns and bombs of every type in existence.
They all looked brand knew and totally unused, and yet he could feel
that each of them had been used to kill thousands of times. He had no
idea how this was possible, just that it was true, it was one freaky
dream he decided.
"Since this is a dream, are we here to fight?" Ranma yelled.
The giant opened it's eyes and grinned at him. "If you want, I'm always
up for a fight and it had been centuries since I last had a visitor here
in my realm."
"Do you know why I am here?"
"Of course, do you?" The giant said in a mocking tone.
Grrrr. "I need to get back, one of my friends is in trouble."
The giant blinked and chuckled. "You really don't know what is going on
do you?"
"Huh? I just want to get back to help my friends."
"A noble ambition young mortal, but you don't need to worry about the
Scouts, they are safe, they defeated the dog soon after you were taken
out of the fight."
"I was not taken out...I retreated for few minutes." Ranma snapped.
"Oh really? Well I can tell you that you were nearly killed..." Ranma
winced. "...and that the Moon Princess brought you back to life in a very
interesting way indeed. It hasn't been used in over 10,000 years and
even then there were maybe two dozen that had undergone the process."
"What are you talking about and how do you know what is going on?!"
Ranma yelled, something about this guy annoyed him and he wasn't sure what it was.
"I am power incarnate mortal, I am the God Vulcan, the God of Smith and temporary God of War!! If it deals with weapon making I can see it and do what I want with it." Vulcan didn't want to explain just how he had been put in this position, it was too embarrassing to even think about.
"A-a-a-a-God?" Ranma gasped, he knew it was true and it explained the
power he was feeling. For a second he had to resist the urge to turn tail and run, but a portion of his mind told him that doing such a thing would have really bad repercussions.
"We live in people's dreams and souls now-a-days mortal, we are no longer allowed to go physically to the Earth Realm to do what we wish. The Moon Princess saved you by giving you a tiny piece of her soul fused with the power of the Silver Crystal, this brought you to my attention and I summoned you here so that we could talk face to face."
"What did she do to me exactly?"
"She gave you some magic power and infused it into your soul, this has given you some undefined magical abilities like the Scouts have and will allow you to fight along side them when you master the powers that you will wield in battle. I brought you here to finish what she started, I am the last God in the area to gain a Scout and I am offering you a chance to wield my power."
"Why me?"
"You are a fighter and the adaptability that I require in an avatar within the mortal realm."
"Let me get this straight, if I accept you will give me magical powers
and send me back home?"
"No, I will give you a piece of my power and send you home, this
includes a number of forgotten martial art attacks and Ki attacks that you haven't even dreamed of. It will also give you control of that transformation you do. Cold water will no longer be problem and with time you will be able to shift forms at will. It will just take concentration and practice."
"Will I have to be a girl at the time an'wear one of those, gag,
outfits that the others wear?"
"No, those outfits were created millennia ago and were created for a
specific purpose, it is long past time they were altered, but tradition
is hard to break. You can be my Scout in either form while wearing a more
modern armor that I have created, it will shift to fit you in male or female form and able to survive quite a bit of damage with little or no damage. It will also have the same magical fields that keep other from figuring out who you are when transformed."
A picture of Usagi about to be killed by that dog thing flashed through
Ranma's mind and he shivered in fear. He was being given a chance to
protect her, but the price was a little to much to believe. One is never
given anything for free, there is always a price down the line no matter how good the deal seems to be. His father's action were living proof of that little statement. "I don't know, this seems to be to good to be true and I know from experience, that is a bad thing."
"It's not that simple boy, this is just a beginning of a long journey
for you. The Princess is nearing the time when she reaches her full
power and will need a protector. The old one was the one that caused her
all that pain the other day, even I can't see into his mind to see why he is
trying to hurt the girl his soul has been bound with for over ten thousand years. I only know that he has broken that link in a way that can not be repaired or forgiven, you are being given a chance to take his place."
"He went by Tuxedo Mask." A glowing version of Tuxedo Mask appeared in front of Ranma and he gaped at it. Then he giggled and broke out in laughter that had him rolling on the floor, tears streaming down his
face.
"I-I'm sorry but I refuse if I have to look like that...snicker...hahahahah!"
"Boy, I told you I would give you something more up to date than this
ridiculous costume."
To Be Continued...
The Replacement
Chapter 02 - Tuxedo Mask2 or TM2
By C. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c)2001
**********
Usagi's mind was awhirl with questions as she landed on the roof and
left Ranma behind. She didn't know why but she trusted him more than she
did her own parents and she hadn't even known him an entire day yet. She
got her bearings and took off at run, jumping from roof top to roof
top as she centered in on the Scouts location with her special powers.
Luna had explained that all the Scouts had to do was focus on something
and if it was powerful enough, they could get a fix on it with their
minds. After several weeks of practice she had found that she find the
Scouts anywhere, whether transformed or not, but for some reason
couldn't find the enemy if her life depended on it. Luna was always
harping on her about it, saying that in Silver Millennium she was this
or that or whatever.
She was totally sick of it after three years of listening to her whine
and complain about it. Her friends were in trouble, she could sense it
now, a very strong aura of dark power was in the area and she could feel
their power fading as they fought it with everything they had. Usagi
hopped the final intersection and looked around the corner of the wall
she was beside. The monster was vaguely female and looked to have been a small dog at one point in time, she giggled silently. The stupid things
just got more and more stupid looking a time went on, oh well, time to
help her friends out. She ran around the corner and hopped up on a wall
and gave her speech, dodged an attack, and landed with a smirk beside
Mercury.
For the first time in her life she felt a little stupid for wasting her
time giving the speech, it irritated her to no end. "Mercury, Jupiter,
attack it from the sides while I do the front. Go!"
The girl's stared at her in shock for a second, shrugged and went about
flanking the monster while Eternal Sailor Moon spun her scepter. Mercury
fired off a 'Mercury Aqua Rhapsody' and Jupiter fired off a 'Jupiter Oak Evolution' just seconds before Moon let loose her blast 'Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss'. All three hit it causing a giant explosion that ripped the street apart.
They stood back and waited for the smoke and dust to clear to see if the
thing is dust or not, but a few seconds later a large shadow
shambles out and shakes itself. The white fur on it's sides is frozen
and fried, but it is undamaged where Moon blasted it and it grinned evilly
at them. It had been warned, but if this was all they had it was going to be
an easy win for his side. It opened it's mouth and 'barked' at them, it
was so loud that it shattered windows a block away and knocked the
Scouts off their feet. A foot long tongue lolled out in a dog like smile
and it panted at them.
Mars and Jupiter are the first back to their feet and they both start
lobbing attacks at it from all directions, but it dodges and barks right
at Mars. She is blasted off her feet and slammed into the wall hard
enough to make it crack, knocking her out. It ran forward as foot long
claws pop out of it's fingers, going in for the kill. Moon fired off her
attack again and blasts the thing off it's feet, it rolled for several
yards before standing back up. Jupiter fired again, putting everything
she had into it, but it dodged somehow and 'barks' at her. Like Mars she
is blasted off her feet, vaguely hearing glass shattering in the back
round, and knows instantly that she has broken several ribs.
"Mercury, why isn't my attack working?" Moon asks calmly.
Pulling out computer. "Um...I'm not sure, it seems to be doing damage
to the monster, but it just shrugs them off. Oh, here we go, you need to
alter the attack a little, it's trying to make that thing human like we
usually do, but this is a real monster and not some transformed human. Try
one of your old attacks."
"Okay, now lets see if this thing can handle a..." Moon say as she
turns to perform a 'Rainbow Moon Heart Ache' attack, and sees the
monster bark in their direction.
"BARK!!!"
Visions of what the thing did to Mars and Jupiter flash through Usagi's
mind as it lets loose and she gasped in shock as this time the sound
waves rip up the ground as it headed right towards her and Mercury. She
screamed in shock and barely noticed a gray and black blur, pick her up and leave
her stomach back on the ground. It is just seconds later that she feels
the weight to gravity again and opens her eyes, the world was spinning a bit and she blinked in surprise, looking around. She spotted
Mercury beside her and noticed that she is bright red and blushing as
brightly as she can, her eyes looking up at something.
Usagi looks and gasps as she sees Ranma holding the both of them in his
arms and that they are twirling through the air like some kind of
acrobat. The spin around to land on the small ledge of a lamp post over
looking the battle. "Are you two okay?" He asks, holding the girls in
his arms.
"..." Mercury says, blushing, she looks down at Ranma's hand where it
is grasping her left breast and freezes.
"Ranma, what are you doing here, I told you to go home!" Moon yells,
not noticing Mercury getting mad and flustered.
"Your my friend, I will not let you go off into a dangerous fight
without me as back up and from the looks of things you guys need it!"
Ranma snaps as he set the girls down on the pole behind him.
"Ranma..."
"PERVERT!!!" Mercury yells and punches Ranma right across the chin,
sending him flying off the pole and into the monster down below.
"Mercury?"
"He was coping a feel!" She yells, still blushing.
Eternal Sailor Moon blinked in confusion. "..."
That felt like being hit by Ryoga, Ranma thinks as he flew off the
pole and slammed into the monster knocking it back a few feet. He
flipped to his feet and takes in the battle field, noting where everyone
is. Off in the distance he can see another blonde headed Scout heading
this way and hopes she is stronger than the other girls. He twists
suddenly and dodges a claw swipe of the monster and smirks at it. "You
don't have even half the speed needed to hit me, dog breath."
"Growl! We'll see about that human!"
Ranma doesn't give him the chance, he had been watching the battle
since Usagi's first attack and knew this thing was very strong. Those
girl's blasts were strong enough to level buildings if they hit and this
thing was shrugging them off. He had the power to hurt it he was sure,
but didn't know if he could control it half as well as the Scouts, they
didn't need to know that though. He jumped forward and slammed the heel of his hand into the things jaw and shattering it with a loud crunch, from
there it got worse as he sped up and used his most powerful physical
attack on it at blinding speed. The Kachi Tenshin Amaguriken pummeled it from all sides as he kept it off balance, breaking bones and shattering
ribs as he went.
He jumped back and brought his arms forward as he burst out in a giant
blue aura. "Möko Takabisha Double Shot!" Ranma yelled and sent 4 large
balls of blazing energy(two from each hand) at the thing to put it out
of it's misery. They exploded with about the same amount of power as the
Scouts earlier attacks and shook the ground and sending a column of
smoke and dust into the sky. "Take that Lassie!"
"BARK!!" Came out of the destruction and slammed into Ranma, he
screamed as his aura was the only thing to save him from certain death.
As it was he was catapulted off his feet and plowed into the ground at
about mach 1, leaving a 30 foot long trench with him out cold at the far
end. Usagi screamed in horror as he worst nightmare came to pass, an
innocent hurt in their fight. She jumped off the pole and ran over to
Ranma to see how bad it was.
Mercury lowered her computer and grinned. "Weakness found." She said
and focused her powers a little differently than she usually did. This
would take a little skill and luck to pull off she thought, but she had
never had time to really practice doing this before. Her power flowed
around her hands and lit them up in a bright blue glow, she didn't even
notice as the temperature around her dropped over forty degrees in
seconds. She thrust her hands forward and yelled. "'Mercury Aqua
Rhapsody Pinpoint Attack!' A foot wide beam of super frozen energy fired
out of hands and struck the dog like thing in the middle of the back. It
blew the monster to pieces with a loud yelp pain.
Drained of everything she had, Mercury fell off the light pole, but
Venus caught her before she could injure herself. "That was great
Mercury, did you just learn how to do that?"
"Just had to focus my power a little differently, any of us can do it
if we need to." Mercury said just before she passed out.
About fifty feet away Usagi was kneeling by Ranma, tears trailing down
her face as she took in all of the boy's damage. It looked as if over
half of his bones had been crushed in the attack and several others
broken as he dug the trench. Even more amazing was the fact that he was
still alive, his aura was flickering around him and she could see it
actually speeding up his healing. It was even reforming the bones as she
watched, of course she didn't notice the Silver Crystal glowing as she
hugged her friend, she was crying to hard.
The crystal flashed and Usagi's world lurched, she fell on her face and
groaned when she impacted on a stone tile floor that was polished to
perfection. There was giggling behind her and she looked up to see Queen
Serenity sitting on her throne. "Welcome daughter, I see you are as good
at making entrances as you were back on the Moon Kingdom." Giggle.
"Humph!" Princess Serenity said and crossed her arms, looking away.
"I can only hold you here for only so long my daughter, there is something
you need to know."
"Go ahead, Mother."
"Every generation one is given a Soul Mate, Destiny demands this even
if you don't find out who it is. When I sent all of you forward it
messed up the cycle a little, but Destiny found a way around that by
following his rules. Your soul mate from my time was sent forward for
you, but destiny also provided you with one for your new life and that
boy is the one."
"WHAT!!?"
"Can't you feel it daughter? Soul mates affect each other on every
level imaginable, from the way one thinks to the way we see things and
this goes double for those you are linked with. When you met Endymion
you hated his guts, and yet you couldn't get him out of your mind no
matter how hard you tried. This Ranma is far stronger than Endymion ever
will be, he is a trained fighter and holds honor above all else."
"B-b-b-b-but what about Crystal Tokyo?" Princess Serenity yelled.
"It's still there, though it will change a little as will your outlook
on things, I think it is for the best really. Especially with how bad
Endymion has been treating you lately, he even went out of the country
the other day and left without saying goodbye to you."
"He what?" She said in a flat voice.
"He ditched you, as you say it."
"If Ranma is my Soul Mate, then it is too late to do anything about it,
he is dieing as we speak."
"You forget that time doesn't pass while we are in this place, we are
outside of time."
"How can I save him, I don't know how..." Sniffle.
"Don't cry, just do for him what I did for Endymion all those years ago
when you chose him to be your future husband."
Usagi's eyes blink and she is back with Ranma, memories of her lost
love filling her head, she gets some more of her memories back. Her
uniform flares as her princess dress forms and she bends over to
kiss Ranma on the forehead, just above the shiner that Mercury had given
him. There is a flare of power where they touch and solid piece of light
falls out of the Silver Crystal and into Ranma's chest. Ranma gasped for
air and groaned in pain as his injuries are completely healed as if they
had never been, he is just supremely tired.
"Usagi?"
"What?"
"You know what this means don't you?"
"Huh?"
"I've got another fiancée to deal with." Smirk.
"Another...you...you...you..."
"FIANCÉE!!!" Four Scouts yell out in unison from where they had been
spying on the two. Usagi screams and scrambled away in shock, gasping
for air. In the process she climbs over Ranma and trips, planting her
crotch right in his face. A thrill runs through her and she freaks,
"Eeep!!" scrambling away in shock. Ranma's eyes are bulging out of his
head from being so close to...to...'where are her panties?' he thinks
just before a little blood trickles out of his nose and he passes out,
with a little smile plastered to his face.
Usagi blushes a solid red, all the way down to her toes and hears all
the girls laughing at her even as she loses her princess transformation.
**********
"What did you do Meatball Head?!" Rei yelled in Usagi's ear.
"He was dieing, I needed to save him somehow."
"But what did you do? I've never seen you do anything like that before,
you gave him some of your power, just like that time you did the same
thing to save your boyfriend."
"Leave that idiot out of this Rei, I don't want to even think about him
right now."
"But Usagi, he is the one destined to be the King of Earth!" Makoto
pointed out. They were all at the Shrine, and had been yelling at each
other for over an hour now.
"That may be, but me and him are done, he has hurt me one time to many,
I won't take him back. If any of you want him, go ahead." Usagi snapped.
"What?!" They all yelled again.
"A few days ago he ran off to America according to my mother and I didn't even know he was going to be leaving this time. I've had enough and I won't put up with it anymore."
"But Usagi, who will you use to replace him, that boy you used the
Crystal to save? The one in the room next door?"
"I had a little talk with my mother about him and it seems that he is
my Soul mate for this lifetime. Me and Mamoru were soul mates, for my
last lifetime, but one can only cause so much pain before it become to
much to handle. As for Ranma, giggle, you guys already know him."
"What?!" They all yelled again, only louder and with enough wind to
make Usagi's hair flare out behind her.
"Usagi, I would remember a good looking guy like this, I mean he is a
total hunk." Minako said, Makoto nodding, she had been about to say
something similar.
"Isn't Ranma the name of that girl we met earlier today?" Ami asked,
noticing that this guy and Ranma were wearing the same clothing.
"Yep, their the same person." Usagi proclaims.
"Um...Usagi, one has a great body and the other is built better than
me." Makoto said, a little envious.
"He explained it to me earlier, he is under a curse he picked up in
China, he even demonstrated it for me. Cold water turns him into a girl
and hot water makes him a man again, we were talking about it when you
guys called us about that monster."
"What a load of crap!" Rei yelled. "Now what did you do to him?!"
"If you must know, I formed his soul into a Senshi Seed."
"A...what?" Ami gasped.
"With the idiot gone, we need a little help and I thought that Ranma
would be perfect, I trust him as much as I do you. A Senshi Seed is what
we need to become Scouts, I infused a part of the Crystal into him and
gave him some powers. What form they will take is still a mystery, it
all depends on how he sees things. He will be taking Tuxedo Masks place,
but his powers will be completely different as will his look. The Seed
will also allow him to transform into Mask, increasing his personal
powers hundred fold. The same as happens to us."
"If that is true Usagi, what about his girl side, if I am a to even
believe any of that?" Rei said."
"Got me, it's never happened before, he may be powerless, gain the same
abilities male or female, or end up in Fuku when transformed as a girl."
"Which planet did you connect her power to?"
"None yet, I just gave him the Seed, I'll decide on the planet later."
"Um...Usagi, no offence, but since when are you this focused. Usually
by now you have stolen all of Rei's manga and eaten all the food!"
Minako yelled, a little scared.
"Hmm...oh that..." Usagi grinned. "To be able to save Ranma, I had to
have some of my knowledge of Magic returned to me, I got a number
of my memories back from the Moon Kingdom."
"What?!" They all yelled again.
Usagi giggled and snatched some of the cookies off the plate in front
of Makoto, much to Minako's relief. She had been beginning to wonder
if this Ranma had done something to her friend. Though the mention of
Soul Mates had tickled some long forgotten memory of hers, she would
have to sit down and try and remember what it was later.
**********
Sailor Pluto was guarding the Gate of Time when she felt the wave of
change hit, all of reality wavered for several seconds. She was thrown
to the ground as the fabric of space and time was split asunder and
reformed into something new. Fear filled her eyes as she crawled to her
feet and looked around, but she could find no changes. She opened the
door and checked on Crystal Tokyo and gasped, dropping her staff at
the image that greeted her almost instantly.
**********
Pride was Ranma's biggest problem, it allowed him to force himself to
be the best there is, no matter what. He had just been defeated by a
stupid demon dog, it was humiliating to say the least. He could hear his
father yelling at him for not being good enough, for being weak like a
girl, a waste of time and a pathetic fighter to boot. Weak, like a girl,
yeah right. The Scouts in their stupid uniforms had been using more
power than he ever could and as each of them arrived at the fight they
had grown stronger and stronger. It briefly crossed his mind that they
may have won earlier if he hadn't interfered, but shrugged it off, Usagi had
been in danger and he had moved to help her.
He hadn't meant to grab Mercury like that, but he'd only had
milliseconds to act and he had grabbed them without thought. His life
sucked. Where had he picked up the curse where he was able to make women jump to all these silly conclusions that had no basis in reality? The
only one he remembered was his 'girl' curse, and now this was happening.
Ranma stood at the edge of a cliff that over looked a mountain surrounded
by fog, there seemed to be a large city within the fog because of the
large number of buildings that were just barely visible as they poked
out of the top edges of the heavy blanket of white.
How he had gotten here was a mystery, but he had a feeling he was
dreaming. Still he wasn't sure if that was true or what, he was far too
alert and the clammy feel of the air was a little spooky. He was also
feeling a little depressed, he had lost a fight he needed to win and he
was worried about Usagi. Why? He couldn't grasp that simple question, it
was more than what he usually felt for the other girls in his life, why
was she so different? He had known her for less than a day, and yet
there was something there that he couldn't identify. Some emotion that he
had never felt in his life and he didn't know what to do about it, so he tried
to ignore it and move on like he always did with things he didn't understand.
A ghostly image of Usagi appeared beside Ranma and he studied her, her strange hairdo, her innocent eyes, her aura, everything about her and
felt a stirring within him that only Akane had ever been able to bring
out in him, but this was much stronger. When he thought of Akane, all he
could remember was her hate filled eyes and that thrice cursed mallet
that seemed to just be ignored by his danger sense for some reason and
always caught him off guard. Even Akane's smile was hard for him to
picture anymore and that saddened him more than a little, how were they
supposed to get married if she didn't trust him with anything? He
wouldn't put up with an abusive marriage, never would he tolerate that.
Even Ukyo tended to strike with that giant spatula of hers for the strangest
reasons, he figured it was her paying him back for them abandoning her.
She may not have even realized that she was doing it or the pain it caused
him, Usagi had shown him noting but kindness in the time he had known her.
A second image of Usagi appeared, one of her as Eternal Sailor Moon and he wondered how and why such a caring girl was one of the most powerful magical girls on the planet. They were famous throughout Japan and had developed quite a reputation over the last couple of years, even he had heard about them. As ESM, Usagi was a totally different person in his eyes, she seemed more mature and obtained a fighting spirit that wasn't in her regular form. Her magic protected her from things that would have killed most, and she had attacks that could level entire city blocks. He could remember reading about this fight they had a year or so ago where they had leveled a ten story building, turning it into rubble in less than an hour. He sighed as he considered the other girls as well, they were all also far stronger than he was, and they were girls. They were, not, weak as he had been raised to believe by his old man and he had to wonder where he had ever come up with the idea that all girls were weak and useless.
Ranma's head hurt, if he was wrong about that, what else was he wrong
about? Could he trust anything his father had ever taught him? He didn't
want to think about it and barely noticed as the two images of Usagi
wavered and vanished to be replaced by his first sight of the girl. She
was curled up in a ball and crying, it was obvious to him that she was
in more pain than should have been possible. He hadn't seen it before,
just that she was crying, why had he missed it? She vanished as he took
a step forward, the air wavered around him and he found himself at the
edge of the cliff again, this time there was stone stair case heading
down into the valley below. They blended right into the rock and he knew
that they were invisible from almost any direction than the exact spot the
was now standing.
Definitely a dream he decided, like the visions of Usagi were not
enough evidence of that his mind said and kicked him for good measure.
He stepped onto the stairs and headed down, it took close to an hour
and he was just starting to feel tired as he stepped off the last step and looked deeper into the fog as it closed in around him like a thick soup that didn't want him there. Looking back at the stairs he wasn't to surprised to see that they were barely noticeable, they blended in perfectly with the background.
The fog on the floor of the valley was thick and obscured his vision to about twenty feet and he shivered from the drop in temperature, there was something wrong with this town. He could feel it in his bones, there was no sound except the wind and echo of his foot steps on the stone as he walked forward.
"If you must know, I formed his soul into a Senshi Seed." Echoed on the
wind and Ranma stopped.
"A...what?" Said a somewhat familiar voice.
"...nshi Seed is what...need to become Scouts, ...fused a part of the
Sil...Crystal into him and gave him some pow..."
Ranma looked around for the barely understood voices, but could find
nothing out of the ordinary. Then blinked and looked off in the distance
to spot something he had dismissed earlier, a single light that pierced
the fog. From above it would have been unnoticeable, but down here it
was just bright enough to see. He ran forward and hoped that it was sign
of life, for everything else seemed to be quiet and devoid of life. The
light grew stronger as he moved an soon the outline of a large square
building came into sight, the light shining from a window above the
door.
The building was made out of pure white marble and stood out from the
dark gray stone buildings around it. There were large stairs leading up
the front that ended at a walkway that lead to the large closed door.
Marble columns were placed every twenty feet or so all along the edge
and supported a massive looking roof of pale gold tiles. He stared at it
in awe and had to surpress a laugh as he wondered what his father would
do if he saw all that gold just laying there. Stepping upon the steps
caused two torches to flare up and light themselves, the door swung open
to reveal a super bright light that flared out and filled the valley and
made the fog disappear in a matter of seconds as he stood there shielding
his eyes from the sudden glare.
Ranma flipped off the step and landed in a combat crouch the
instant the light seemed let his eyes adjust and cursed his hesitation in the
face of danger, but when nothing came out except light he waited for it to
calm down to a tolerable level and jumped right up to the top of the steps.
His danger sense was going off wildly, but he couldn't place where it was
coming from so he inched his way towards the door. The interior of the
building was one large room with a polished stone floor. He could see the
ceiling reflecting off the polish. He entered and looked around, his danger
sense went off the scale and he began to sweat and he wondered what
was so dangerous about this place that this could even happen. He was
walking into something, but he had to see if there was someone here.
He felt it in his soul now and knew that this was the only place to get
his answers.
Torches at the far end of the hall lit up to reveal a large throne with
an equally massive man sitting upon it, he was bent over and had his
head resting on the palm of his hand as if he was bored. His eyes were
closed, but his chest was rising slowly and evenly enough to prove to
Ranma that this giant was alive. He was dressed in ancient battle armor
and there were even some blood stains on it that hadn't been cleaned off
in ages. Ranma took a closer look at the room and noticed that there was
millions of weapons hanging on the walls, slings, staves, swords,
everything imaginable, even guns and bombs of every type in existence.
They all looked brand knew and totally unused, and yet he could feel
that each of them had been used to kill thousands of times. He had no
idea how this was possible, just that it was true, it was one freaky
dream he decided.
"Since this is a dream, are we here to fight?" Ranma yelled.
The giant opened it's eyes and grinned at him. "If you want, I'm always
up for a fight and it had been centuries since I last had a visitor here
in my realm."
"Do you know why I am here?"
"Of course, do you?" The giant said in a mocking tone.
Grrrr. "I need to get back, one of my friends is in trouble."
The giant blinked and chuckled. "You really don't know what is going on
do you?"
"Huh? I just want to get back to help my friends."
"A noble ambition young mortal, but you don't need to worry about the
Scouts, they are safe, they defeated the dog soon after you were taken
out of the fight."
"I was not taken out...I retreated for few minutes." Ranma snapped.
"Oh really? Well I can tell you that you were nearly killed..." Ranma
winced. "...and that the Moon Princess brought you back to life in a very
interesting way indeed. It hasn't been used in over 10,000 years and
even then there were maybe two dozen that had undergone the process."
"What are you talking about and how do you know what is going on?!"
Ranma yelled, something about this guy annoyed him and he wasn't sure what it was.
"I am power incarnate mortal, I am the God Vulcan, the God of Smith and temporary God of War!! If it deals with weapon making I can see it and do what I want with it." Vulcan didn't want to explain just how he had been put in this position, it was too embarrassing to even think about.
"A-a-a-a-God?" Ranma gasped, he knew it was true and it explained the
power he was feeling. For a second he had to resist the urge to turn tail and run, but a portion of his mind told him that doing such a thing would have really bad repercussions.
"We live in people's dreams and souls now-a-days mortal, we are no longer allowed to go physically to the Earth Realm to do what we wish. The Moon Princess saved you by giving you a tiny piece of her soul fused with the power of the Silver Crystal, this brought you to my attention and I summoned you here so that we could talk face to face."
"What did she do to me exactly?"
"She gave you some magic power and infused it into your soul, this has given you some undefined magical abilities like the Scouts have and will allow you to fight along side them when you master the powers that you will wield in battle. I brought you here to finish what she started, I am the last God in the area to gain a Scout and I am offering you a chance to wield my power."
"Why me?"
"You are a fighter and the adaptability that I require in an avatar within the mortal realm."
"Let me get this straight, if I accept you will give me magical powers
and send me back home?"
"No, I will give you a piece of my power and send you home, this
includes a number of forgotten martial art attacks and Ki attacks that you haven't even dreamed of. It will also give you control of that transformation you do. Cold water will no longer be problem and with time you will be able to shift forms at will. It will just take concentration and practice."
"Will I have to be a girl at the time an'wear one of those, gag,
outfits that the others wear?"
"No, those outfits were created millennia ago and were created for a
specific purpose, it is long past time they were altered, but tradition
is hard to break. You can be my Scout in either form while wearing a more
modern armor that I have created, it will shift to fit you in male or female form and able to survive quite a bit of damage with little or no damage. It will also have the same magical fields that keep other from figuring out who you are when transformed."
A picture of Usagi about to be killed by that dog thing flashed through
Ranma's mind and he shivered in fear. He was being given a chance to
protect her, but the price was a little to much to believe. One is never
given anything for free, there is always a price down the line no matter how good the deal seems to be. His father's action were living proof of that little statement. "I don't know, this seems to be to good to be true and I know from experience, that is a bad thing."
"It's not that simple boy, this is just a beginning of a long journey
for you. The Princess is nearing the time when she reaches her full
power and will need a protector. The old one was the one that caused her
all that pain the other day, even I can't see into his mind to see why he is
trying to hurt the girl his soul has been bound with for over ten thousand years. I only know that he has broken that link in a way that can not be repaired or forgiven, you are being given a chance to take his place."
"He went by Tuxedo Mask." A glowing version of Tuxedo Mask appeared in front of Ranma and he gaped at it. Then he giggled and broke out in laughter that had him rolling on the floor, tears streaming down his
face.
"I-I'm sorry but I refuse if I have to look like that...snicker...hahahahah!"
"Boy, I told you I would give you something more up to date than this
ridiculous costume."
To Be Continued...
