rev. 2 - major edits

Thanks to everyone who wrote me. I don't know what he hell I was thinking. Hope this version is more acceptable.

Introducing another Cliché.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun.
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Juuban part 5

****************

"Happosai" Ranma said flatly, hiding her surprise.

It was Happosai, all right. He stood there, just looking at her. His face was calm and almost serene. There was no hint of aggression in has stance, face or eyes. He looked like a half mummy, with his chest bandaged up as he was, but he seemed not to be that hurt.

This was not the Happosai, as she had ever seen him. He just stood at the foot of her futon, looking at her with eyes filled not with lust or malice, but with a peaceful, contemplative look. In there somewhere Ranma also saw seemed like a bit of hope.

"Ranma" Happosai stated again, not in his usual "sweeto" or "hotcha" voice, but voice that transferred calmness, peace and wisdom. The same emotions that was found in his eyes.

Ranma still standing in a ready, guarded stance and was willing to protect what had become her home and family. She felt if Happosai was here to her or any of her loved ones, she would make damn sure this time he would end up in the morgue again, and stay there.

However the air of peace coming from Happosai permeated the room, claiming Ranma somewhat.

Happosai stood across from Ranma and regarded her with benevolent eyes.

"It's okay, Ranma." Happosai said in the same voice he used. "I'm not here to hurt you or yours."

Ranma blinked, was this Happosai, or some evil no, better make that good twin? Ranma wasn't so sure.

"Ranma please." Happosai said, this time with a bit of pleading in it.

"Okay," Ranma finally said, "What this all about?"

"Not here. The roof, then follow me." was the reply.

Stepping through the open window onto the roof above the kitchen area, Happosai then jumped up and onto the roof of the building itself, Ranma quickly dressed and followed. Upon reaching the roof, Ranma notice that the light coming from the streetlights below were casting an orange-ish tint in the night sky. Happosai waited for her, then repeated.

"Follow me" then he took off across the rooftops, leaping and jumping as if he was never - well - never dead.

After a short while...

They finally stopped on top of a three story building surrounded by taller office buildings that were vacant for the weekend. The whole roof top of the building was bathed in the light of a large red sign mounted on the side of one its taller neighbors. The red light gave the whole scene a almost ghostly, surreal feel that for some reason put Ranma on edge.

Happosai stopped in the middle of the roof as Ranma alighted on it. Happosai then seated himself with legs crossed and hands resting on his knees. He then removed a pipe from somewhere from his bandages, and using a bit of ki, lit it. Happosai, who was watching Ranma standing by the edge of the roof motioned her over.

It was at that moment that Ranma realized that they were not alone.

Coming out of the shadows were five other people, two women and three men. They all looked to be about as old as Happosai but nowhere near as shriveled.

"So Ranma, we finally meet face-to-face" said a tall black man. "You don't know how long Happosai has waited for someone like you."

"Who in the hell are you and what is going on here?" Ranma retorted.

"I suppose you want an explanation." the black man replied as a statement.

"You could say that." Ranma replied, somewhat tartly, more so than she really wanted.

"Well then sit down, you might as well get comfortable. This may take awhile." Happosai then said. These were the first words he spoke since they left the restaurant.

Ranma was still wary of Happosai and wondering about what the others had to do with anything, but she sat all the same. The rest followed and clustered around Happosai facing Ranma.

Ranma felt like she was being judged. She was unknowingly right.

"You want an explanation, well here goes boy," Happosai said, then in a free wheeling way, " It all started about 50 years ago when I first started looking for a successor..."

*********************

The pseudo-cat staked out he park, it was late but that didn't bother it. It was preparing to take readings on the latest planned attack. The pervious attacks had yielded several good readings from what was now undoubtedly warriors from the Moon Kingdom. However the anomaly that appeared and then just as quickly disappeared two weeks ago has not resurfaced since. The council wanted all possible readings before the reconstruction force invaded.

It found a good vantage point on a low branch midway up a tree, and waited for the signal from the hyper-space uplink that the super trooper was on its way. The pseudo-cat knew that the timetable has been laid out for the reconstruction force. It was a matter of settling a few details.

It rested it head on its fore paws and waited.

********************

Later...

"A test!" Ranma raged, "You mean all the hell you put me through, endangering innocent people, molesting me, and crying over being a killer was a test?!"

"Of course, my boy. How else I'm I going to find a successor?" Happosai said sagely. The others sitting around didn't react one way or another to that statement.

Ranma was stunned for the last hour she sat and listen to the tale that Happosai spun. A tale that touched upon the 7000 year history of Anything Goes (she had know ideal that it went back so far), a man she had, or thought she had killed two weeks ago, was sitting, alive and well - make that not so well judging from the bandages, telling her that all the hell that she had endured under his hands was nothing more than a test.

The universe must be laughing right now.

"Ranma, you must understand, the Anything Goes is not just a martial arts, it is truly a warrior's art. Why, there are things that can be abused and used to subjugate whole countries, cause unrest, and kill countless innocents. That knowledge has to be protected and guarded against any evil that would use it for its own benefit." Happosai was a bit preachy toward the end there, but continued on That's also why I had to know that you were capable of killing. Any warrior who cannot kill when needed is useless in the end. All he'll do is surround himself with deadly enemies that he has spared, and in the end, would destroy him."

Ranma looked at Happosai with half lidded eyes, "You have used and abused the art for your benefit. You stolen from women all over Japan, why those girls from the park will probably have nightmares for years from what you did to them."

"Really? Like they are terrorized ........ now?" Happosai said while - something happened. Ranma ears were then filled with the sound of outraged women. Spinning around while getting in to a defensive stance, she notice a large group of women on the far side of the roof.

Ranma was puzzled, what were all these women doing up on a roof, in the business district and in the middle of the night? But, heeding the frantic screams of the women, Ranma leapt into action and what was the matter. Ranma found on closer inspection a fairly large group of women, that were screaming and swatting at... nothing.

"Ah... excuse me?" she ventured

The woman ignored her and continued their outrage.

"Ah... EXCUSE ME?" Ranma said, this time a little louder.

The group continued as they were, except that they started running around as if trying to evade something and started throwing their purses at the so far unseen assailant.

"HELLO?!" Ranma boomed.

She was still ignored.

"They can't hear you Ranma." Happosai said from behind Ranma.

Ranma turned on Happosai, "What did you do to them, ya old freak?!"

"Why nothing, nothing at all. Watch."

With that, there was - something, again. When she was about to give Happosai a piece of her mind and ask him what the hell was going on, was when she noticed that the women's screaming had stopped. When she turned, the woman were gone. That part of the roof was empty except for Happosai and Ranma.

Turning back to Happosai, "Wha...?"

"Oh, come now Ranma, for someone who has been in contact with someone like Cologne you can't guess?" Happosai said in a slightly sly tone.

Ranma blinked. Then blinked again before venturing, "Pressure points?"

"Give the boy a cigar!" Happosai announced jovially.

"You messed with my head, didn't you?" Ranma hotly said.

"Oh, just a little. Quite effective isn't it?"

"But, how? I don't think you even got close to me."

"I assure you I did, here's proof."

With that Happosai walked over to were Ranma was standing and place her bra gingerly on the ground before her. The bra she just put on before leaving to follow him. She didn't even notice.

"You little freak!" Ranma said angrily while snatching her bra and stuffing it in her front pocket, "What the hell you think you're doing?"

"What do you remember of me giving you the pressure points?" The question caught Ranma off guard.

"Huh?" was her only response she could think of.

"Tell me what you remember." Happosai stated.

"Well, you were standing there talking and... and... how... did you do that?" Ranma stumbled.

"Memory, my boy, memory. All that we are and all that we ever are going to be is the end result of all of our memories." Happosai explained, pausing to take a drag from his pipe he then continued, "Yes, I attacked you with certain pressure points and then removed the memory of the attack with other pressure points. Yes, I - "messed with your head" as you put it, but I have my reasons."

Ranma's stood there thinking of the implications, and it was unsettling.

"The women were implanted figments of your imagination. Happosai continued, Of course, everyone else at the park would have just seen me attack you unprovoked and your following actions would have been justified. So there is no legal worries there on your part."

During this Happosai lead Ranma back to the group and re-seated himself, Ranma did the same.

Ranma got her wits about her by then, and Ranma hotly retorted "And that makes it all right?! How about the people whose lives you put endangered with your Happodaikarin? What about them? I know they were real because I rescued them from your stupidity. What were you planning on doing? Hit some pressure point to make them become undead?" Ranma righteously retorted.

"We were there, ready to step in, throughout the whole thing just in case things got out of hand and to insure no innocents were injured during your test, and the Happodaikarin was mostly noise and smoke." Informed the tall black man who was now sitting on Happosai right.

Ranma stared at him and thought back to the fight at the park, then said, "I don't recall seeing you there, and you're pretty noticeable."

"As noticeable as this?" he asked as he smiled and faded from existence.

Ranma stood back up as if she were shot. Looking around she couldn't see or sense the strange, tall black man that was with Happosai. The others sat around and smiled at Ranma's dilemma. Ranma wondered if it was some kind of joke when a large hand rested on her shoulder.

"EEEK!" was her third most intelligent response as she jumped a good fifteen feet straight up, and back down.

"DON'T DO THAT!" she yelled at the offending party, then quieter, "Ah... how did you do that?"

"There are many secrets of Anything Goes that came be used for good or evil." the black man said evenly, "We must be careful in who we induct into our group, the candidates character must be without question."

"That is way the tests we give are so traumatic." said a one of the white hair women, "We must be sure how you would react in a real-life situation, if a person of questionable character were to gain access to the Library, then there is the possibility of truly terrible things happening."

"Say who are you people?" Ranma finally getting her wits about her.

Happosai stood, and in standing came up to the seated figures shoulders and announced grandly, "These, my boy, are the true masters of Anything Goes. They and myself would like to offer membership into our little group as an apprentice master."

"Yes, we've had our eyes on you for quite sometime, that is until you disappeared from Nerima, then after much searching, we tracked you here, tested you and then found you acceptable." this came from the other white haired women.

"If you accept then Happosai or one of us would turn up time to time to test your progress." the tall black man said, "you would have access to the Library and all its contents. Anything goes for masters such as ourselves is mostly a self taught, self paced kind of thing. As a master though, we would help you learn any difficult techniques you may run across and steer you to strengthen your weaknesses."

"What? No training trips?" Ranma responded.

"A true martial artist can learn anywhere." Happosai answered, "You been teaching yourself, practicing and improving around here just fine - why do you think training trips are still necessary?"

"Okay, what's this Library that all of you keep mentioning?"

"The Library" said the first Older women, "is the sum knowledge of Anything Goes dating back 7000 years to its founding. It is a legacy that all masters and apprentice masters have access to, to learn from, to develop new techniques or combinations of old ones."

"Where is this library? Don't I hafta go there?" Ranma asked.

The six people, no masters looked a ranma and smiled as one.

"No." the black man answered for the group, "It come's to you."

"Show her." one of white haired woman said while the other nodded.

Happosai at that point pulled a small gem from somewhere in his bandages. "Here is your key, I had it made for you in hopes you will accept. Let me use it now to give you a tour of the Library."

Tossing it at Ranma, Ranma reflexively caught it. "Now what?"

Happosai reached for is own gem and now held it in his hand, with the other he held it out to Ranma. "I'll take you there."

Ranma looked at the tiny gem in her hands, it was about the size of a small marble and impossible to tell what color it was because of the reddish tint the light of the sign was giving off. She shrugged her shoulders and reached for Happosai hand.

Things got weird.

When things got un-weird she found herself in a somewhat large room filled with scrolls, books, charts and clay tablets. A few long tables were placed around the room topped with more reading materials. In the corner a bed with an assortment of medical equipment was set up and appeared recently used. She looked around and quietly wondered how in the hell she got there.

"What do you think?" Happosai asked behind her.

Turning to the voice, Ranma asked, "Happosai, how did we get here?"

Happosai smiled, "This place exists in another reality, we can enter this space physically through the gems we create for that purpose. Think of it as a tear in space and time, the gems being a door that allows us to enter and leave here.

Ranma blinked at Happosai and then shrugged her shoulders. Something about space and time buzzed through the back of her head, but she brushed it aside.

"Ranma take a look around, skim some of the items here and tell me what you think."

Ranma did, and was amazed by what she saw. The library had covered every conceivable martial arts that she could imagine and a lot more she never dreamed existed. To say she was impressed would be an understatement. However one thing bothered her.

"Happosai with this much stuff, it would take years to just read it and weeks of practice on every subject to master it all."

"True, mastering it all is almost an impossibility. That is why there are several masters, each exploring different sections of the library. But as far as time here, time really has no meaning here - how long would you say we have been here?"

"About 45 minutes, maybe an hour."

"What would you say if I told you while here, only about 20 to 30 seconds has passed in the real world."

"That's all?"

"At the most. Time works on a different level here, don't ask me how, all I know while were here, hardly any time has passed. When I was "killed" my fellow masters brought me here to treat my injuries and to heal." Happosai said while indicating the bed in the corner surrounded with the medical equipment Ranma noticed earlier.

"How long were you here?"

"About nine days "real world" time."

"What does that work out to here?"

"About three years."

"It took you three years to heal up from a fight?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"Hell yes, I don't know how you did it, the other masters are just as baffled. But, it took me about three years to recover. As you can see" he gestured to his bandages, "I'm still healing up from it. Ranma you destroyed almost every major organs and for all practical purposes you did kill me. We had to use... special techniques to heal me."

"How did you survived to begin with?"

Happosai sighed, he felt they were getting way off track and wanted to bring Ranma around.

"Let's just say that is... a secret." in a way that was vaguely familiar to Ranma.

Ranma blinked at that and shrugged her shoulders. "How do we get out of here?"

"Take my hand."

She did and things got weird again.

When they got un-weird again she found herself in the red light illuminated rooftop with the shrived master and the other five masters.

"Whoa" was her only comment.

"Do you accept?" the tall black man asked.

"I don't know. I just want to get a few things straight in my mind first." the six masters facing Ranma nodded in their consent.

"First Happosai here stealing underwear and acting like a real prev for decades in the hope of drawing out a person who he hopes would be a worthy successor, ..."

The six nodded.

"... and then when finding one, he uses pressure points making me think that Happosai is attacking, terrorizing and abusing innocent people around him, ..."

The six nodded.

"... he pushes me until that I try to kill him or think I killed him, all to see if I could be a good warrior...

The six nodded.

"... and now after healing up for three years in a library that's outside this reality he wants me to join the ranks of the Anything Goes masters as an apprentice master."

The six nodded.

Ranma was in deep thought. After thinking for a long moment and studying the graveled roof she looked up at her hosts.

"Do you know how stupid that sounds?"

The six nodded, then froze and blinked audibly, then face faulted.

*****************
There was a large flash of light and a distortion of air that settled into the appearance of a whirlpool hanging sideways three feet above the ground. A large mass of a flesh color blob quickly oozed out of the vortex before it faded. The blob then reformed itself into an approximate shape of a human, meaning it had arms and legs, and waited for instructions from the pseudo-cat. It knew it was not expected to survive this and was willing to sacrifice itself in order to bring the Moon kingdom back like its long gone creators would have wanted. It felt no regrets. It detected the pseudo-cat and opened a channel up to it. The plan was simple, create a disturbance and wait for the old Moon Kingdom warriors to show up, then engage them in combat. The pseudo-cat will do the rest by recording and analyzing the battle.

With that it implemented the instructions.

*****************

When they were on their feet again Happosai jumped up and said,

It may seem stupid, but think: how many times has Gemna or Soun stood up to me? Hmmm? How many times has anyone, other that you gone out of their way to prevent me from doing my misdeeds? Hmmm? How many people would face off against me under circumstances that were insurmountable? Hmmm? Time after time I tested you, not just in your use of tactics on the battlefield but you moral character as well as well." Happosai was getting long winded.

"I don't get it, all this so you can judge my character?"

"Along with memory, character is what you are, boy. Take a look at the current "masters", Genma is always talking about honor and never having any and Soun, who pretends to be strong but has no strength of his own. Can you say either one of them have any moral character? I think not! Can you imagine what the those two idiots would do if they had full access to the Library of Anything Goes?"

Ranma thought for what seemed a long moment. Those two idiots would probably do something stupid - like sell everything for a bag of rice. Cheap rice at that.

I really don't know if I want to join your group Happosai, I don't approve of your methods, they seem unnecessarily dangerous and reckless. I'll have to think about it. She finally said.

"You dare say my methods are reckless when you're not any better?!"

"What do you mean?" Ranma said, silently adding "ya old coot" to the end of that to herself.

"You talk about how reckless the things I did to you in order to see if you were a suitable candidate, well I have news for you. You have been a danger and reckless to everyone around you every time you got into a fight with Ryoga, Taro-"

"Hey! I don't start them..." Ranma was cut off by him.

"But you do nothing to end them quick and painlessly to the people around you. How much property damage have you done to other people's buildings? Would you like it if someone you don't even know starts a fight and leaves you and the Yonai's homeless. Would it make you feel better if you knew the person involved could have ended it quickly but didn't and justified it by saying "it's not my fault" or I didn't start it?"

""B... but..."

"And another thing still, you let your enemies get away with things that would eventually lead to your death. Being merciful the first time is one thing, but how many times are you going to be merciful until someone - say like that Kuno boy gets lucky and kills you? Hmmmm? And in the meantime you and him are recklessly tearing up the ward fighting."

"I don't want to hurt..."

"You need to learn to deal with the people that would hurt you or your loved ones, whether it is on an intellectual or physical level, you need to decisively end the matter so you won't have to keep fighting the same battles over and over again, wasting your time and effort. As I said before, you keep sparing your enemies and surrounding yourself with them, and in the end, they would destroy you."

Ranma just stared at him.

I'll let you think, it's only fair enough. But I'll have to take your library access gem from you until you decide, and here, take this. Happosai said exchanging the gem in Ranma's hand for an short stick-like object.

indicating the rod in Ranma's hand, is a summoning rod, when you have decided, break it and one of us will come to see you.

No pressure?

Ranma, I've been searching and waiting for someone like you for about fifty years so I can retire, I can wait longer.

Ranma was impatient, she was tired and wanted to go to bed.

Every master is charged with finding his or her replacement before they are allowed to retire, Happosai explained, it is part of the vow we take before we are granted our title. I just didn't think it would take me so long.

If you tired of doing it, why not just quit? If you're old enough why not just retire? I mean what's stopping you? Ranma aske tiredly.

And break a vow? You know better than that, after all, look how you keep Ryoga's secret, all becaused you promised him you wouldn't say anything. You kept it even after he used your promise dishonorably against you.

Ranma open her eyes a little on that.

Oh, one other thing. Happosai continued.

What now? Ranma asked, in a somewhat subdued tone.

I noticed something was off with you when I was - messing with your head- you have something else going on in your head, and I assure you that this was not my doing.

A quiet moment.

Ranma finally asked.

It seems that you have some sort of memory block in place, darndest thing I've ever seen, too.

Memory block?

Yes, that's what I said, it's a unique one at that, too and very old. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems to be going away on its own.

Going away? Ranma seemed to have mastered short replies all the sudden.

Happosai rolled his eyes [kids] Yes, going away. You'll probably have a lot of unexplained and realistic dreams from those memories leaking through to your subconscious mind first, if you hadn't had them already.

Ranma stood reflecting on the possiblity of having hidden memories floating around her skull. It
might explain the wierd dreams she had been having, but memories of flying, dancing and blush other things? When would she have had the time to make these memories? She was broke out of her thoughts by the tall black man.

Do you know your way home from here? he asked.

Ranma blinked and looked around before answering, Yeah. I'm not that far, I can take a shortcut through the park.

Very well then, we hope to be hearing from you. he replied.

Ranma didn't answer as she turned and began her roof hopping home.

***************

Ranma was tree hopping through the park to get home as quickly as possible. She knew it was very late, she was tired and wanted to get back to bed. It was at that point she heard a disturbance not to far from where she was.

[Great, what else could happen tonight?]

She detoured and alighted on the top of a tree and watch in fascination as she saw four skimpily clad girls fighting one ugly... whatever. The tickling at the back of her mind increased, as if women in her head was screaming "You know these guys!" and was arguing with another voice that was male yelling back, "No we don't!" Ranma grew to hate these self debates, and she found herself doing a lot lately.

Ranma was watching the fight and wondering why they were yelling out their attacks. She use to do that until she figured that all it was doing was giving you enemy time and warning to prepare for your announced attack. She watched as the girls fought and dance about the ... the thing, whatever it was. The one with the weird hairstyle was doing a great job at dodging and not much at fighting. Ranma sighed, she would have to get involved [Well, so much for getting back to bed].

With that though Ranma leapt from the tree she was in a dashed into a darken corner of the park, not noticing a cat on a lower branch, who was so startled by Ranma's passing that it fell out of the tree and knocked itself out as it hit another branch on the way down.

***************

The battle had been going for a little while and the pseudo-cat was busy recording the events scanning in multi-channel for the maximum data retrieval. Suddenly an unexpected object passed into its field of vision, so close that it upset it from its perch. Falling from the branch the pseudo-cat wondered on the way down why it didn't set its scanners for a proximity alert. Then it hit something and knew no more...

The pseudo-cat would have a headache when it came to the next day.

***************

Ranma, in the shadows of a sizable tree, waited for the moment to strike. Ordinarily she used to leapt in the fray with little or no regard for stealth. This time, something in the back of her mind, the tickling, told her to approach cautiously. Then calling on her will, she charged up her ki lines and prepared an attack that would take the ... whatever down. Ranma kept her ki under control so it would not pass into the visible spectrum and focus on the distance between her hands and the thing as it was pounding one of the girls by lifting her by her leg and repeatedly hammering her into the ground.

[My god, it's going to kill her.] Ranma realized, and readjusted her shot being careful not to injured the girl being battered. [I'll have to take it down in one shot.]

With a brief flash of light, a ball of nearly pure ki raced from ranma's out stretched hands illuminating the ground beneath it as it travel to a point where it connected to the things torso. There was a small explosion as the chest cavity of the thing erupted outward away from the point in impact. It was a clean shot. The thing sank into the ground in a puddle of sludge-like mass.

Gross.

[Did I just kill again?]

[don't worry about it, trust me.]

[But...]

[trust me.]

******************

"Who did that?" Uranus demanded, helping a shaken Neptune onto her feet.

"I did." Ranma replied from the darkness while stepping out of the shadows in to the light of a park lantern. It was a dramatic effect that was ruin by her bra half hanging out of her front pocket.

"Who are you?" Uranus asked playing dumb for she knew who this was.

"I'm Ranma," the red head answered, "and who you all of you?" The tickling sensation in the back of her head went into overdrive, trying desperately to tell ranma something. Something else inside Ranma force it down. Ranma also noticed even though she was looking at the group of girls point blank she couldn't make out any details, they were as faceless as the people in her dreams were.

Her dreams...

"We four are the Sailor Scouts..."

Later...

Ranma thought Happosai was long winded. These Sailor Scouts take the cake.

"We know you're not Ranma" the one who introduced herself as Mars said.

"Whatta mean I'm not Ranma? I know who I am." Ranma retorted, not adding the "you jerk.' that she was thinking about.

"We know your not Ranma, Ranma is a boy, RANKO. So why don't you tell us what happened to the real Ranma." Mars shot back.

Ranma rubbed her temples, she knew Nabiki creating a school record for her girl side was a bad ideal. But it was the only way for her to compete on the Martial Arts Home Economics team. She idly wondered how much money Nabiki made off that competition. Ranma sighed, if she had know that getting involved in a fight would mean answering a bunch of questions she would not have bothered. With a deep breath Ranma began an much abbreviated tale of her life.

"... so you see, this body," Ranma concluded "is the result of a curse spring in China. I was born a boy."

"Riiight" Sailor Mars began as a retort but kept from saying anything more when Ranma finally remember her dream about Uranus and Neptune.

"You two!" Ranma said pointed and the two said scouts, "I know you. I dreamt about you." and then added in a whisper "and can Neptune spank hard." while absently rubbing a phantom pain on her backside where Neptune with her in her dream.

The whisper was quiet, but still just loud enough to be heard.

The results were predictable.

"Eww. Keep me out of your sick dreams." was Neptune's reply, but deep inside was intrigued.

""Listen," Ranma said crossing her arms under her breasts, " I didn't even know you existed until yesterday and I've been having weird dreams for last month and I can't help it if you show up in one. Okay?"

Uranus was distracted by the way Ranma's arms were crossed accentuating her bra-less state. Neptune's noticed this and her right eyebrow twitched. [If this Ranma keeps doing that, then I will spank her! Hmmm, on second thought I think that would be fun. A lot of fun.] that triggered a whole lot of naughty thoughts involving a certain redhead, she then shook her head to clear it and returned to the matter at hand.

"Well, if its a curse, I could try the Moon Healing Activation and see what that does." Sailor Moon thought aloud.

"Will it cure may curse?" Ranma said, but not quite as excitedly as you would expect. [Why should it be important?]

"I don't know, but we can try." Sailor Moon said merrily.

"NO! Don't!" came a loud female voice from behind Sailor Moon.

"EEEEEEEEK!" Sailor Moon screeched than turn on Pluto "Don'tdothatyouscaredtheheckouttame!Whydoyoualwaysdothat,can'tyoucomeinlikenormalpeopledo?"

Something in the way she talked reminded Ranma of someone, but for the life of her she couldn't figure put a finger on who.

"I am sorry but I can't let you undo over three years of work." Pluto stated to Moon, momentarily forgetting a certain someone was nearby, "Ranma must stay as she is."

"You mean her story is true?" Mars exclaimed.

Pluto nodded. Something clicked in Ranma, as the tickling in her head notched up a bit.

"Wait a minute. What did you mean about "three years of work"?" Ranma's suspicions were aroused along with the tickling in her mind that seem to be putting two-and-two together for her.

[Damn it!] Pluto berated herself [I was so concern about stopping Moon from healing Ranma I forgot she was here.]

Pluto sighed, trying to figure away out of her snafu. She decided that Ranma was probably far enough along to be told part of the truth. Hopefully she would except it, if not... well Pluto would probably be in a lot of pain.

"Ranma you are the reincarnated warrior Sailor Sun. We need you in a coming fight as Sailor Sun, which means you had to be female."

"You mean you were responsible for me getting my curse." Ranma said coldly, as anger slowly building inside her, the strange tickling adding more things up for her.

"Indirectly, yes" Pluto continued, "But that was mostly Genma's doing." Of course Pluto decided against telling Ranma all about the little extra pushing she did in Ranma's life to get her to end up in the "spring of the drown girl".

"You did this to me, didn't you?" Ranma asked in a dangerous tone, the tickling putting the pieces together making a picture that Ranma did not like.

"You are needed, your birth form would have made you useless to us."

"Useless? Useless?! You could have asked dammit! What the hell gave you the right to mess around in my life? Did you enjoy destroying me? Who in the hell do you think you are?" Ranma shouted, trying to control her anger - and slowly losing.

"I am Sailor Pluto guardian of the Gates of Time." Pluto stated in an even voice, "You are Sailor Sun, Senshi of the Nexus of Time and Space."

Several thoughts ran through Ranma's mind at that moment. First was she was happy as a girl and had decided to stay that way, but was it really her decision or one that she was lead to and forced into unknowingly. Manipulated that what was it. Manipulated. Ranma wondered if how she thought and felt was really her thoughts and feelings, or was everything nothing more than someone else's manipulations making her believe they were real? What would her life be like if she had a choice? A choice taken from her by the very person before her. Her life. Stolen. Stolen by her.

The picture was completed in Ranma's mind and she was definitely pissed.

"I'm not the Senshi of anything! You stole my life you... you... BITCH!"

Faster that any of the Scouts could see Ranma disappeared from where she was standing and with a loud crack Pluto sailed across thirty feet before being stopped by a tree. Pluto's Garnet Rod spun on its axis before falling to earth. Ranma now stood where Pluto was moments before with her arm outstretched hand in a fist. Ranma was breathing heavily from the emotion of the situation, not from the physical exertion. It took a moment for the other Scouts to register a fact:

Sailor Pluto just got clocked.

Ranma stood there still breathing heavily. She then turned to Sailor Moon just as Pluto was beginning to pick herself off the ground, rubbing her jaw.

"Cure me."

[Why?]

[because i want a choice.]

[What does...]

"No, please." Sailor Pluto, now on her feet, said as her jaw was starting to swell a bit.

"Look, I am not one of you." Ranma retorted loudly, Even if I was, I should have been given a choice.

"I assure you that you are, you are Sailor Sun. The last Senshi created." Her jaw hurting with each word.

"Look, if I can prove that I'm not this Sailor Sun will you at least promise to unlock my curse?"

[Why is this so important all the sudden?]

[because she stole your life - take it back.]

[But is it really that important if your happy?]

Ranma was broke from her self debate by Mars.

"Sounds reasonable."

"Okay," Pluto said, "As sailor Sun you don't need a henshin stick like the rest of us to transform, all you have to do is think about transforming and think about or speak your transformation phrase."

"My transformation phrase?" Ranma said just as the a dreamlike phrase floated from the tickling and through the forefront of her mind, she grasped it and held it.

"Yes" Pluto said, still rubbing her jaw - it was going to hurt in the morning. A lot. "You should know it instinctively, just think of it and it will come to you."

"This is as stupid as the meeting I just through with." sigh "Okay, if that is what it is going to take." Ranma took a deep breath and cleared her mind.

"Solar Crystal Activation, make up."

The five scouts where in shock, especially Sailor Pluto over what happened next.

Nothing.
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