Disclaimer - I do not own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon
Notes - this fic deviates from Ranma 1/2 at Jusyenko and in the sailor moon timeline the inner senshi are in their first year of high school having defeat Galaxia over a year ago
Warning lots of impending flashbacks
Paladin
Chapter 1 and Prologue
A young woman with silver-red hair walked down the street in Juban Tokyo drawing stares because she had a pack on her back that had to have weighed several times what she did. Also she was about five foot ten inches tall and well built. She stopped in front of a modest house, looked at the number and thought this is it, Mom's house. Time to see if she was serious about the contract in pops backpack with that she walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
Just moments later a middle aged woman with dark red hair and wearing jeans and a t-shirt opened the door. The young woman looked at her and asked "Are you Nodoka Satome?"
The woman answered somewhat angrily, "Well I am Nodoka, but I am no longer a Satome, I divorced my husband years ago because he kidnapped my son and left a worthless piece of paper in his place. Why do you ask?"
The young woman smiled and said. "May I come in? My name is Ranko and I have news of your son Ranma."
Nodoka quickly ushered her in and moments later they were sitting at the table drinking tea. "You said you have news of my son?"
Ranko smiled sadly and began to explain. "Well about six months ago Ranma and his father arrived at the legendary training ground of Jusyenko. As far as they could see it was just a bunch of springs with bamboo poles sticking out of them. Moments after they arrived they were bouncing across the poles sparing with each other. It did not take long for Ranma to knock Genma into a pool. What Ranma did not expect was a panda wearing his fathers' glasses to spring up out of the pool and attack him. Taken by surprise Ranma was quickly knocked into a pool. However that is where the crux of his tale happened. You see, when he was knocked into the pool something happened that no one expected.
Flashback
Ranma flew through the air before sinking into the waters of the pool. As the waters closed around him he found himself in a featureless grey plain. As he looked around to see where he was he saw a silver haired young woman approaching. Moments later she was standing in front of him. "Who are you?" he asked her.
She replied, "I am Alara Ray the woman who drowned in this spring over 1500 years ago, and I am talking to you because only when someone pure of heart and whose soul is similar to mine falls in the pool can I be free. You are the first person in all the time I have been trapped here that can help me. Now before you start in with all that macho crap your father crammed into your head, listen to me. I have been losing myself, if you do not help me now I might just fade away and that scares me to no end. I can tell you that if you help me you will have control over the curse."
"Wait," Ranma said "What curse?"
"Just look at yourself" she replied.
Ranma did and was surprised to see that he was not a he any more instead he was a cute red haired girl. "What the hell is this?!" He asked in shock.
"This is the body you would you would have had if you were born female, given to you by Jusyenko. Jusyenko works like this, when splashed with cold water you turn into your cursed form and you would turn back into a guy with hot water. If you help me, then water would not affect the curse, it would be mentally activated. You have this option because of special curcumstances surrounding my death. Anyway let me tell you about my life before you decide." With that said they sat down and she proceeded to tell him her life story. Several hours later after swapping life stories, she said, "However to help me we have to merge, and that scares me almost as much as fading away because I do no know what will happen to us. I cannot tell you how much of the resulting person will be me and how much will be you."
At this point she was almost crying and Ranma who never could stand to see a girl cry and knew that if any girl deserved his help Alara did, held her close and told her consequences be dammed, he was not going to let her suffer here any longer. With that acceptance of her and the consequences of the merging they were enveloped in a white flash of light.
To Genma and the guide it had only been a few seconds since Ranma sank into the pool when suddenly the pool seemed to explode with light and a young woman with silver red hair appeared standing on the surface of the pool. Genma passed out from shock when he saw her walk across the water to the shore.
End Flashback
Ranko stopped her narration there and looked Nodoka in the eye, "I am the result of your son merging with Alara's spirit."
Nodoka looked at her in shock. "If that is true can you change back into my son to prove it?"
"I can change into male form and show you what your son looked like, but Ranma and Alara as they were are gone." With that Ranko's form wavered and became that of a handsome young man with black hair. Seeing this Nodoka passed out.
Several minutes later Nodoka woke up on her couch, and looked up at Ranko who had a look of concern on her face, "Are you all right?" at Nodoka's nod she continued, "When I came out of that pool I took off to get away from Genma so that I could have time to think. From the memories of the girl who drowned in that pool I knew that there was a tribe of Amazons nearby, so I went there.
Flashback
The young woman who had been Alara and Ranma knew that she had to get away from Genma so that she could reconcile two lives worth of memories. Remembering from Alara's life a tribe of Amazon's that lived nearby she headed to the village after searching Genma's pack and taking anything of note. As she hiked towards the village she thought of what she should be called. Despite the similarities in their souls the personalities of Ranma and Alara were diametrically opposing, it kinda amused her that the result was a well balanced individual. She decided for now that she would be known as Ranko in tribute to Ranma and Alara's sacrifice. She would think of a more suitable name later. She thought about her reception at the Amazon village and stopped for a moment to change into some armor of Alara's that was at the bottom of the pool. Shortly after that time she came into sight of the gates of the Amazon village much to the surprise of the guards because there had been no warning from sentries of anyone approaching.
One of the guards approached the silvery-red haired girl in strange armor and asked in mandarin, {Halt outsider, what business do you have here?}
Ranko replied in slightly accented mandarin, {I am of the Order of Adena. I seek sanctuary with the Amazons.}
The sentry remembered the Order from her history lessons and decided that an Elder needed to hear this, so she escorted Ranko to a hut in the village to wait for an Elder. A few minutes later Ranko was waiting in the hut thinking when the door and a very old woman perched on a staff came through the door. Noticing the robes that marked this woman as the Matriarch, Ranko quickly stood and bowed, saying, {Greetings, Honored Elder.}
At that Kuh Lon Matriarch of the Jokuzetsu nearly fell off of her staff. The bow that girl had performed was from the court of Atlantia and was that of one noble to another. Kuh Lon looked closer at the armor that the girl was wearing and sure enough it was for a warrior of the Order of Adena. Kuh Lon returned the bow and answered, {Greetings, it has been a long time since we have had the pleasure of meeting an Atlantian.}
Kuh Lon sat down and as she did so Ranko sat back down as well. Kuh Lon knew that this should be a good story, so she asked Ranko how an Atlantian came to be here at this time.
Ranko told Kuh Lon her whole story with a demonstration of Jusyenko. What shocked Kuh Lon the most is that the armor shifted with the transformation from girl to boy and back again. {What is the most frightening about the whole thing is that the merging of personalities was so total and complete that if I did not have two person's memories I would not realize that I was not always who I am now.} Ranko told Kuh Lon after her explanation. {Though my biggest problem will be living as a girl in this new world, the only social skills I have as a girl all revolve around the Atlantian court. And Alara never was very outgoing.}
Kuh Lon thought about the girl's story and smiled, this girl would make a great ally for the tribe. So Kuh Lon offered to let her stay for several months so she could adjust to her new life. Kuh Lon then escorted Ranko to her home where she would be staying while visiting the tribe. They were met at the door by a girl with lavender hair.
{Hello great grandmother who is this} the girl with lavender hair asked.
Kuh Lon responded, {Xian Pu, this is Ranko. Ranko I would like you to meet my great granddaughter Xian Pu.) The two girls looked at each other sizing the other up before moving into the house. Kuh Lon excused herself to go make dinner, and the two young women sat down and started talking.
Almost five months later Ranko was standing at the gates of the village saying her goodbyes to Xian Pu, who had turned out to be a wonderful friend. {I will come see you sometime Ranko.} Xian Pu said, holding back the tears.
Ranko replied, {I look forward to that, Xian Pu.} With that they hugged and Ranko donned her pack and headed out.
End Flashback
With that said Ranko looked into Nodoka's eyes and asked her, "I am not Ranma any more but I would still like to have you as my mom if you will have me."
Before Ranko could say anything else she was enveloped in a glomp to rival any Amazon glomp as Nodoka said through her tears, "I may have lost my son, but I would be proud to call you my daughter."
Several hours later Ranko had told Nodoka the rest of the story of Ranma's childhood, and they had made plans for Ranko to be adopted by Nodoka, they sat down for dinner. After dinner Ranko went out back to practice for a little while. When Nodoka looked out to check on her a little later she just stood in the door her mouth open in shock. Ranko danced around the back yard sparring with what looked like a person made entirely of water. As she looked closer she realized that many of the moves that Ranko was using against the water construct would be quite deadly if used against a person. What shocked her most was the armor that Ranko was wearing. It consisted of a blue green dragon scale full bodysuit, over the bodysuit was a segmented breastplate in a deep ocean blue, rounding out the armor were bracer's in a light sea foam blue with matching greaves. As she watched a small shield unfolded from Ranko's right bracer which she used to block a strike from the water construct. Almost twenty minutes later Ranko brought the sparring to a close by pulling a sword out of nowhere and quickly forcing the water construct back to the koi pond before beheading it causing it to fall apart the water rushing into the koi pond. After she stopped moving a glow covered Ranko's form and she was wearing her street clothes again.
Upon finishing her workout Ranko saw Nodoka standing in the doorway with a look of shock on her face. Seeing this Ranko led Nodoka back inside so that she could explain what was going on. Upon sitting down in the living room Ranko started in on her explanation. "Mother, Alara was a Paladin of Adena. Adena was the water goddess of the ancient civilization of Atlantia. You have probably heard of this civilizations early capitol, Atlantis. Since that girl is as much a part of me as Ranma is, I am by extension a Paladin of Adena. The armor belonged to the girl who drowned in that spring. It was designed by the techno-mages of Atlantia. As a paladin of Adena I have quite a bit of control over the element of water. Also unlike Ranma, I am a warrior. If I have to I will kill to save an innocent or to stop evil, but I will never kill unless it is completely unavoidable. Last but not least I have great healing powers as the human body is mostly water." Ranko went on to tell Nodoka Alara's life story.
Nodoka by this time had calmed down quite a bit. "Well, that was quite a lot to find out in one day. Why don't we both go to bed and tomorrow I can see about getting all the legalities taken care of and then get you enrolled in a local school." Nodoka said. Ranko nodded in agreement they got ready for bed. Before falling asleep Ranko thought to herself It is nice to have a mother again. Meanwhile Nodoka was thinking that it was nice to have her child back even if it was as a daughter.
Authors Notes:
More to come later. Please read and review, I may still polish this part more but it is mostly done. To those of you who think that I killed Ranma and replaced him with my own character, well I do admit that I need to include more Ranma traits, but over all Ranma now known as Ranko will be quite ooc. For an explanation as I implied Ranma and Alara's personalities are opposites Ranma is brash and headstrong while Alara while she was a Paladin all the experience she had in fighting was from her instructors, her position was mostly ceremonial as far as the fighting part of it was concerned. She was a very quiet and shy individual, so the resulting merged personality is somewhere in the middle. While Ranko uses a weapon where Ranma would not, Ranko will not fight like your typical knight like Alara was taught, Ranko's fighting will incorporate a lot of Anything Goes. Well, enough ranting, I cut it off here because I realized how rushed this thing was getting. I should have the next chapter of either this or one of my other stories by sometime in September. Mainly that long because I am moving and will be out of touch for a while.
Ghent Johanson