Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½, Sailor Moon or anyone from the Marvel universe.
"Dialogue"
[Thoughts]
Ranma casually strode through the streets of Juuban, it was one or two hours before sundown and the streets were almost empty. It was Sunday and all shops were closed, giving people no real reason to spend their time in the middle of the district.
"Hey you, give me your money!" yelled a man
[Now who is stupid enough to try to rob me?] thought Ranma surprised, he also wondered why he couldn't sense anyone. He turned his head to the direction the voice came from and saw nothing, only an alleyway a few meters ahead of him.
"O-okay, just leave me alone!" said a frightened sounding female voice
[Oh! Someone else is being robbed! I can't let something this happen... ... And I still have to work out some frustrations from my argument with Akane.]thinking this, Ranma cracked his knuckles and quickly walked towards the alley where the crime was taking place.
Hotaru Tomoe knew that something bad would happen to her today, she knew that she didn't have the luck to finally make a friend without having her day screwed up royally. She was just going home from the park where she met this nice girl Chibi-Usa, then she was dragged into this alley where she was being robbed while being threatened with a rather big knife, then probably raped and then killed.
The girl sighed, [Maybe it's for the better... my life isn't that great anyway. My father is weird, his assistant is quite frankly a bitch and school can just be called pure torture. Not to mention that due to my health my free time activities aren't that varied.]
"Here you have it!" said Hotaru and threw her purse to the man's feet
"Now, now... It's not very honorable to rob a lady in the middle of the day." said a new voice, "... ... Okay... It's not honorable to rob anyone, no matter what time it is."
[Only one... I was hoping for a whole group of punks and this one is pathetic too. I mean how far can someone sink to steal from a teenager? They don't have that much money, if any.]
"What do you want, boy?" asked the thug, threatening now Ranma with his weapon
"Oh please, you want to attack me with a 'kitchen knife'?!" said Ranma with a disbelieving tone, "Show at least some style! Where did you get that thing anyway? Stole it from your mother?"
The man growled and dashed at Ranma, intending to stab him to death. The child of Nodoka wasn't bothered by this at all and simply grabbed the blade with two fingers. The thief's eyes widened as he tried to free his knife from the boy's hold but no matter how much he pulled the blade didn't budge.
[This guy is really persistent but it's no fun... let's end this...]
With a quick flick of his wrist Ranma yanked the knife out of the thug's hand and threw it towards the wall. A sweatdrop formed on the back of his head as the knife was imbedded to the hilt into the wall.
[I really hope that no one was leaning against the other side of it...]
The thug was shaking like a leaf, since he thought one of those youma things was in front of him. Ranma turned his head back towards the man, who at the first eye contact ran like all demons of hell were after him.
"MOMMY!!! HELP ME!!!"
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, dismissing it. He had seen weirder stuff happen around him. Now for the first time he really looked at the victim. She was one or two years younger than him, had short black hair and the most beautiful purple eyes. The girl was wearing a black, long-sleeved dress, the skirt was almost reaching her knees. On her head she had a strawhat.
"Hey, you okay?" asked Ranma
Hotaru looked at her savior in awe, [Am I going insane or did that guy just throw a knife through a stone wall?]
She didn't seem to care about the thug anymore, she concentrated on the boy who saved her. He was wearing a red Chinese shirt and black kung-fu pants. On his feet were a pair of slippers and around his waist a purple sash was bound. He had stunning blue-grey eyes and what surprised her the most, long white hair bound in a pigtail reaching down his back.
[He doesn't seem to be old enough to already have white hair... but it does look kind of sexy on him] she blushed as she thought that, [Did I just really think that?]
Hey, you okay?" questioned the boy as he walked to her, on the way he picked her purse back up.
[Did he just say something?] went through the girl's brain, "Huh?"
"I asked if you're okay."
"Oh! Of course I'm okay! That guy didn't hu... cough rt... cough cough me..." that was when the world went dark before her eyes and she went unconscious.
Ranma caught the girl before she could hit the ground and lifted her 'damsel in distress' style.
"Hmmm... Now what?" said Ranma to himself, "...I bring her to mom's house, there she can rest."
He jumped onto the rooftop of the house he threw the knife at and began to hop into the direction of his mother's house. Fifteen minutes passed and Ranma reached his destination, the girl giving no sign of waking up soon. Since his hands were occupied at the moment he carefully kicked against the front door of the house. It was a two story building like the Tendo home only a little bit larger.
After some moments the door was opened by a beautiful woman, "Hello, what can I... Ranma!!"
"Hi, mom!"
"What brings you..." then her eyes fell upon the girl her son was holding, "...here and who is this girl?"
"She was almost robbed, I prevented that and after the thug ran away she just collapsed."
"Oh, what a poor girl. Bring her in, you can take her to my room and lay her into the bed."
Ranma complied and entered the house, quickly he walked upstairs and into the bedroom of his mother, followed all the while by Nodoka.
"Come down when you are finished, son. You can also bring your backpack into your room" said Nodoka and walked to the door, "I'm going to prepare tea."
After the young girl was placed in the bed and Ranma disposed his pack he was going downstairs again. He went to the living room and sat down on the couch, a while later Nodoka entered the room with two cups of steaming hot tea. She sat down next to her son, giving him his cup and started talking,
"So, what brings you to Juuban?" asked Nodoka curiously and then sipping on her tea
"What do you mean?"
"If you were just visiting you wouldn't have brought your backpack with you." stated Nodoka, "Are you going on a training trip?"
"No, Akane broke the engagement and I'm not living at the dojo anymore."
"She did what?" asked Genma's wife with raised eyebrows
"You heard right, I wanted to give her a last chance but then we started arguing again and she broke the engagement. I've had it with her attitude." answered Ranma with a low growl
"Where is your father then?"
"You don't really think that something like someone breaking the engagement would bring him to give up?"
Nodoka thought for a moment about this and then shook her head, "You're right, sorry."
"Errr... you seem to take this pretty lightly."
"I watched Akane and you for some time now and I know that you two are too different to really get along well."
Ranma blinked at this, "Really? Then what about the failed wedding? You helped pops and Mr. Tendo."
"I thought something might have changed between you two during your adventure in China."
"Oh... So what now? I can't stay here. Oyaji won't give up until I married a Tendo."
"You could live with your older sister, she's only a few years older than you and she has her own house."
"I have a sister?!?" asked Ranma shocked, that was the first time he heard about this
"Yes, her name is..."
"H-hello?" said a new voice
Both Saotomes looked into the direction of the voice and saw the girl leaning against the doorway. Nodoka placed her cup on the table and quickly rushed to the teenager and helped her to the couch.
"Sit down, dear." said Nodoka concerned, "You should still rest."
The girl did as she was said and sat down next to Ranma, "Why am I here?"
Ranma decided to answer, "Did you forget already? You were almost robbed and then you went passed out."
Hotaru eyed the the boy and after some seconds her eyes widened in recognition, "You saved me, didn't you?"
"Yes, that was me. My name is Ranma Saotome and this is my mother. I brought you here after you fainted."
"Thank you for helping me, I'm Hotaru Tomoe." responded the girl and stood up, "But I must go home now. I bet that my father is really worried by now."
"I agree with you Hotaru-chan." said Nodoka, "My son will come with you, though. It's already getting dark outside and as you noticed today it's not all that safe outside."
Ranma stood up too and put his cup on the table next to his mother's, "Are you ready or do you want to rest a little bit longer?"
"I'm okay, but where's my hat? It wasn't in the room I was in."
"Err... I think it fell of your head when I was carrying you... Sorry!"
"... Oh... well, it doesn't matter, it wasn't my hat to begin with." replied Hotaru, [I want to see Kaolinite's face when I tell her that I 'borrowed' her hat and lost it.]
"I think we can go now. Or do you still need something else?" asked Ranma as he moved towards the exit
"No, we can go." responded the girl and followed him
"Bye, mom! See you later!"
"Goodbye Mrs. Saotome!"
And so the two teens left the house and walked down the street. Nodoka was looking after them, "They sure look cute together... I can just think of how my grandchildren will look like!"
Some minutes later...
"So... why do you have white hair?"
"Eh?" asked Ranma intelligently
"Well, you're not the first person I saw with this hair color but it's still weird." replied Hotaru
Ranma grabbed his pigtail and brought it before his eyes, after a few seconds he let go of it and answered, "I have no idea, I was born like this... I guess."
"Really? My father has white hair too."
"Is he that old already?"
"Wha... No! I'm not sure but I bet he's younger than your mother."
"Oh..." responded Ranma and continued after a moment, "Do you have any hobbies?"
"Hobbies? Well... I'm collecting lamps..."
"Lamps? Okay... that is weird."
"Y-you really think that is weird?" questioned Hotaru, [If he thinks that collecting lamps is weird what will he think of my healing powers...]
"Nah... not really, I've seen stranger stuff."
"What exactly?"
"Well, there was the time I was in this Amazon village in China, or the time when I saw and fought the Orochi of Ryugenzawa. There was also..."
Ten minutes later...
"You're kidding, aren't you?" said Hotaru disbelievingly, [If that's true then my healing powers aren't that weird at all.]
"No, everything I told you was true." replied Ranma sincerely
"Good." responded Hotaru while letting out a sigh
"Huh?"
"I have a weird power too and most people at school fear me because of it..."
"What kind of power?" asked Ranma, [Maybe she's like me?]
"I can heal wounds."
"Really?" said Ranma impressed, "Prove it."
"What?"
"I said prove it."
"Well, do you have any wounds?"
Ranma hung his head, "No..."
"Then I can't prove it."
After a short while Ranma's head snapped back up, "I have an idea!"
"What is it?"
"You'll see!" this said, Ranma focused a small amount of ki into his fingernails and dragged them across his left arm. A moment later, a little bit blood flowed out of five cuts.
"Are you insane?!" screamed Hotaru as she saw the wound
"What? You said you can heal."
"I can but that is still no excuse to hurt yourself like that!"
"Okay, okay... I won't do it again. Could you heal me now?"
"Of course! Hold your arm out."
Ranma did that and Hotaru held her hands over the wounds, after a moment a soft purple glow was radiating from her hands and the cuts started to close rapidly. A few seconds later nothing indicated that there ever was an injury.
"Cool!" said Ranma as looked his arm over, "Can you do that again?"
"Don't you dare to hurt yourself like that again!"
"I'm joking! No need to throw a fit."
"I hope you're just joking."
"And because of this the kids at school are scared of you?" asked Ranma with a raised eyebrow
Hotaru nodded, "Yeah, they bully me around too..."
"And what do your teachers and parents think about this?"
"My teachers don't seem to notice it and I never told my father about it."
"What about your mother?"
"She died a few years ago during an explosion in my father's lab. He and I were the only ones who survived it..."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that..."
"No need to apologize." said Hotaru with a shrug
They walked a few minutes silently again when Ranma started talking, "I have weird powers too, Hotaru."
"Really?! What are they?" asked Hotaru excitedly, [Finally someone who is like me?]
"Yeah, I have complete control over magnetism."
"Errr... what is it good for?" asked Hotaru curiously, "Okay, you can move metal but..."
"That's not the only use of it, water can be influenced too."
"Yeah, water is so much better..."
"Well, I don't get wet in the rain anymore..."
"Which is quite helpful with your curse!" realized Hotaru
"Yup, there is also iron and water in blood." stated Ranma and waited for her to make the connection
"... ... Does that mean you can control the blood in someone's body?"
"Yes." replied Ranma, "It was quite a shock when I found that out for the first time too. I thought my father had a heart attack."
"How strong are your powers?" asked Hotaru, [His powers seem to be cooler than they sound to be.]
Ranma looked around to see if there were other people on the street and he had luck, at the moment there was no one else on the sidewalk and the streets were empty. Well, almost... there were some parking cars and that was exactly what Ranma was looking for.
"You see that car there, Hotaru?" asked Ranma pointing to a small red Toyota
"Yes, what about it?"
"Just look at it."
Ranma concentrated and his outstretched hand began to glow a dark purple. Hotaru's eyes widened when she saw that the car started to float in the air. Ranma raised his arm further and the car flew higher too. Slowly Ranma brought the car back down and his hand stopped glowing.
"See?"
"Wow, that was so cool!"
"Yeah, it was. But I had to train for it too. At first I had problems with grasping too much power but over time it got easier."
"Hmmm... You think that my healing powers could get stronger too if I practice with them?"
"Most probably, but you have to test it."
"I think I will."
"You want me to cut myself again?" questioned Ranma seriously
"NO!"
"Okay..." replied Ranma, [It's not my fault that it looks so cool when the wounds close up and the blood flows back in...]
"I think we should continue walking, Ranma. I don't think it's pretty far from here."
"Okay, lets walk!"
Soon enough they reached Hotaru's house. Before they walked to the entrance the girl started to talk, "Ummm... Ranma?"
"Yes, Hotaru?" asked Ranma as he looked down to the girl
"Could we meet again?" Hotaru blushed a little as she said it
"Sure, why do you ask?"
"Well... I don't have many friends... To say the truth today in the park I made my first one."
"Of course I'll be your friend!" replied Ranma and then added as an after thought, "I don't have many of them either..."
"You really mean it?! Thanks!"
"No need to thank me, I'm just as happy as you are to have a new friend." said the young Saotome, "I'll be going now, I still have to discuss some things with my mother."
"Could you bring me at least to the door?" asked Hotaru and then she added, "I think my father would like to thank you when he hears that you saved me."
"Okay, okay... I'm coming with you."
Hotaru then grabbed Ranma's hand and pulled him towards the entrance of the house. She ringed the doorbell and both started waiting for someone to open it. After almost a minute the door opened and, to Hotaru's surprise, her father stood there and not his assistant Kaolinite.
"Hotaru!! You're safe!" exclaimed the white-haired professor
"Of course I'm safe papa." replied the girl a little bit embarrassed at her father's behavior
"That's good to know." said the man relieved but then he eyed Ranma, "And who are you, young man?"
Before Ranma could answer Hortaru spoke, "I was almost robbed today but he scared that thug away! He also helped me when I had a seizure!"
"Really?!" exclaimed the professor almost shocked and turned to Ranma, "You have my deepest gratitude for helping my daughter!"
"No need to thank me, I would have done it for everyone who was in trouble." responded Ranma, "So, since everything is said and done, I'll go now."
"Wait, wait...." said Dr. Tomoe, "You haven't even told me your name yet!"
"Oh... I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts." answered the boy proudly, [And Master of Magnetism, but he doesn't need to know that.]
"A martial artist? Please come in and eat with us, dinner has been already prepared."
"Thanks for the invitation but I can't accept, I still have things to do." replied Ranma
"But I insist! Now come in, Hotaru would like it too." said the man, [Maybe he has one of the talisman... I feel a strange power within him...]
"Please, Ranma." said Hotaru cutely
[Wow... she has the act down...] thought Ranma, "Okay... but can I use your phone?"
"Of course you can! Hotaru, please lead our guest to the telephone and then to the dining room, I have to tell Kaolinite to bring more dishes."
"Sorry for all this, but my father wouldn't have stopped till you said yes..."
"Don't worry, I didn't have anything to eat since breakfast..." to strenghten his point, his stomach started to grumble
"Oh..." answered Hotaru dumbly, "Well, then come in."
Ten minutes later...
Everyone was now sitting at the dining table, Hotaru and Ranma next to each other, with Kaolinite on the the other side and Dr. Tomoe sat at the head of the table. The son of Nodoka felt like Happosai was crawling all over his body since that red-haired woman entered the room. For him she just felt wrong, like Cologne in a string tanga without anything else on... or like Akane's food when she tried something out of a french recipe book.
"Ranma, are you sick?" asked Hotaru concerned
"No, why do you ask?" replied Ranma with a raised eyebrow
"Your face is almost as white as your hair, that's why."
"It's nothing, I have that sometimes..." [...But not often at only the presence of a person...]
"Okay... still be careful."
"I will."
A few moments passed in silence again then the owner of the house started to talk, "So Ranma... how is school?"
"School?" stated Ranma and then thought a bit about it, "Weird... at least till last Friday."
"Why is that?" asked the man curiosly
"I was going to Furinkan Highschool, tomorrow I will sign up in a new school here in Juuban."
"Furinkan?" winced the professor, "Poor boy..."
"You know about it?" replied Ranma surprised
"I met the pricipal on a convention for teachers... I still don't understand how he could get such a job..."
"You're a teacher?" questioned Ranma again surprised, "I thought you were the kind of professor who did experiments all day long for big companies."
"I'm not really a teacher, I'm the owner and principal of the Mugen Academy here in Juuban."
"You 'own' a school? ...You wouldn't let me enter there, would you?" asked Ranma sarcastically, [Sounds like an elite school for geniuses...]
"If you can pass the entrance exams of course you could become a student there." answered the man, "Just come sometimes this week to my office and you can try."
Kaolinite was silent during the whole meal. As they all were finished, the woman put the empty dishes on a tray that lay on the unused part of the table and was about to bring it back to the kitchen, Ranma intervened though and at tried to be polite,
"Here, let me help you."
The redhead looked at him with her usual cold stare, "No."
This said she took the tray and walked out of the room and Ranma stared at the door she used for some moments, "...Well, that could have gone better..."
"Sorry about that, but she is a little bit cold at times." said Dr. Tomoe
[A little cold...? She put my Soul of Ice to shame and he said a little...] thought Ranma and then said, "Yeah I noticed that... ... I'll have to go now though. Thanks for the meal."
"Of course! Please let me lead you to the exit."
Hotaru and her father left the room now and were closely followed by Ranma. As they reached the frontdoor they exchanged 'goodbyes', while Hotaru gave Ranma a small peck on his cheek.
"I'll see you soon, Hotaru!"
"Yeah, goodbye!" replied the girl
"I hope to see you again, young man."
The two Tomoes got back into the house again and closed the door. As Ranma started to walk away he could have sworn someone that someone was watching him, so he turned his head around to Kaolinite looking at him from a window.
[Let's scare her a little...! I want to see another expression on her face except cold indifference.] thought Ranma evilly
He put his best imitation of one of Happosai's evil smiles on his face and let his magnetic powers center in his eyes, making them glow and crackle with purple energy. As the woman saw this, she quickly let go of the curtain she held to the side and effectivly blocked her from Ranma's view.
Inside of the house...
"What was this?" asked the red-haired woman surprised, "Is he one of us?"
Kaolinite walked out of the room she was in, she had to talk to the professor. He had to hear about this... maybe they had a new foe... or a new ally.
Back to Ranma...
"Awww... I had something else planned too to scare her more..." murmured Ranma a little disappointed, "Oh well... let's try that new technique I thought about..."
Ranma quickly jumped onto a house on the other side of the street and concentrated his powers around himself, changing his magnetic field to oppose the one from earth. This had the effect that he slowly started to raise into the air, a moment later he stopped and stayed afloat on one spot.
"Now which direction to mom's house...?" he thought a few moments and turned slightly to the south, "I think it's that way..."
Again he played a little with the magnetic field around him to bring his body parallel to the ground, next he tried to propel himself forward... it even worked but a little too good, he found himself moving at a speed of about fifteen miles per second. Five or six seconds later he got enough nerve to stop, he turned around trying to find out where he was... when he looked down he started to curse in every language he knew (which wasn't much by the way). Directly under him was the Tendo dojo.
"God damn it...! Now I have to fly back again... at least from here I know which way to take..."
He turned this time towards the right direction and used less energy then before to fly. This time he only moved at two miles per second which was still pretty fast but not so much that he couldn't see where he was. In under a minute he was only one or two houses away from his destination, Ranma decided that this was close enough and landed on the sidewalk slowly walking to the right house.
Five minutes later...
Ranma was again sitting next to his mother on the couch in the living room, he told her a little about the dinner before and now he wanted to continue their discussion from before,
"Y-you said I have a sister?"
"Yes, you do. Genma wasn't my first husband... I had a divorce and he got custody of her, since he could provide for her better than I could."
"Oh... still, why did I never hear of this... She is your daughter, why did she never visit you? I would have remembered something like that."
"She did visit before you were born, but her father got a job offer in another country and they had to leave. They still called sometimes and wrote postcards."
"What's her name?" asked Ranma curiously, [I can't believe it... I have a sister!]
"Her name is Haruka Tenou."