Chapter 3:

Usagi believed the couple across from her to be really weird, and considering some of the things she had fought, that was saying something. The reason was that they were currently arguing about who could survive the most amount of trauma. She didn't really realize that they were speaking about past traumas and trying to outdo the other with what they have survived.

Ryoga rolled his eyes, "I can survive boulders being smashed into me repeatedly."

Ranma tsked, "I can survive being eaten by a dragon."

Usagi tilted her head to the side, "You two have a really weird relationship."

Ryoga raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

Usagi shook her head, "I have heard of couples competing against each other, but not about who can survive more pain."

Ranma and Ryoga looked at each other aghast and Ranma sputtered, "We aren't a couple. We're rivals."

Usagi just looked more confused, "But when you were outside you were holding hands, and Ryoga paid for your food."

Ryoga rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb at Ranma, "That is because she would try and scam the clerk for free food cause she is broke."

Ranma crossed her arms and pouted slightly, "I ain't broke, I have a couple yen."

Ryoga rolled his eyes, "That wouldn't even be enough to buy you a grain of rice."

Ranma glared at him, "Oh yeah, well where is all your money coming from?"

Ryoga grinned, "My dad's side of the family were some lesser nobles before the old system got taken out and my parents are famous Archeologists that make a lot of rare finds because our family curse."

Ranma's eye twitched, "You have been waiting to use that one, haven't you?"

Ryoga's smirk was her only answer, though Usagi picked up on something else, "Family curse?"

Ryoga and Ranma had partially forgotten she was there. Even though Ranma hadn't heard this story before, what she had done last night made it so it didn't come as a surprise to her. Ryoga motioned around himself, "My family picked up a curse at some point in the past that we would forever wander the Earth never knowing where we are, and it would be passed down to each successive generation."

Ranma snorted, "It had to have gotten worse with each generation to, cause he would end up on the other side of the Earth from where he started or on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He would walk there, if that helps you understand."

Usagi shook her head tears forming in the corner of her eyes, "You can't even see your family a lot, can you?"

Ryoga nodded, "I have gotten used to it, though thanks to this bumbling idiot (cue the indignant "Hey!") I think I am free of my curse."

Usagi tilted her head, "You can use healing magic?"

Ranma shook her head, "Nope, I don't think I even really healed him. I also know that what I used wasn't Magic, though as to what else it could be I have no clue."

Ryoga shook his head in exasperation, "Meaning that until Ranma can figure out what happened, we are stuck chasing cures for a curse that we share."

Usagi perked up a bit, it wasn't often she got to talk about magic with non-senshi, though she was being careful to not let anything slip, "You have another curse?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow, "You actually believe us about curses?"

Usagi shrugged, "Well… We got demons and magical girls around here, so…"

Ryoga nodded, "We have demons in Nerima as well, though they don't appear as often as they seem to in this part of the world." Ryoga smirked, unable to resist, "And we have our very own magical girl in the form of Ranma here."

He never saw the punch coming.

Ranma rubbed her knuckles after her and Usagi watched Ryoga sail out through the open door of the restaurant, "Hitting him is like hitting a brick wall."

Usagi's eyes bugged out, seeing that kind of strength and skill from a non-senshi was unheard of around here, "You're a magical girl?"

Ranma sighed as she got up out of habit to make sure Ryoga didn't wander off, "Nope, he was making fun of my curse. I actually got two of them, one that was used on me before I can remember that turned me into a boy, and one that I got a few years ago that allows me to turn from boy to girl and back again."

Usagi got up and looked out the door, "So he turns into a girl too?"

Ranma started walking toward the door, "Nope, he turns into a little black piglet."

Usagi almost felt like there could be no end to the surprises today, "So why are you here?"

Ryoga answered her from the doorway he was holding open, "We are seeing if we can't get our curses cured."

Usagi tilted her head to the side, "What makes you think anything here can cure them?" She was thinking on the inside that her healing powers might be able to cure their curses for them.

Ranma shrugged as she nimbly dodged Ryoga's half-hearted retaliation strike, "We got a tip from a classmate who deals with magic."

Usagi looked down at her watch, "AHHHH! I AM GONNA BE SO LATE!"

Ryoga and Ranma looked at her askance while she took off at a remarkably fast pace for a non-martial artist, "GOODBYE, GOODLUCK ON GETTING CURED."

Ranma shook her head and grinned at Ryoga as the blond whirlwind swept around the corner, "She's nice."

Ryoga glared at her, "You have a fiancée."

Ranma rolled her eyes, "I have several, and none of them could be described as being nice to me unless they want something. I also wasn't looking at her like that, we are old enough to go on to college, and she looks like she is barely in high-school. That ain't happening."

Ryoga shook his head, "How we going to go about finding the Senshi?"

Ranma shrugged, "I don't know… follow the screams?"

Ranma glared at Ryoga from behind their meager cover, "I wasn't being serious."

Ryoga looked at her askance, "Sure."

They had been walking around for about an hour when they started hearing screams and mad laughter. It took only a few moments to find the Senshi battling it out in a now abandoned park with some pink monstrosity that could only be some weirdo's idea of a demon. It was humanoid, but it had the tail of a scorpion, the lower half of a mutant deer, and the upper half was like some bizarre mixture of bat and eagle. It was firing rainbow colored beams of energy from the tip of its tail at them while crying something that sounded like, "Die foul creatures of light!"

Ranma watched the girls barely dodge another blast, "That thing's weird, even by Nerima standards."

Ryoga winced when the apparent leader of them almost got squashed by a fried tree, "I can feel their power from here. If they had a little more skill then any one of them on their own could dust that thing without breaking a sweat."

Ranma nodded, watching the leader strike a pose before letting off a big blast of magic that vaporized the demon, who seemed oddly paralyzed while watching it approach. The girls all sighed and grinned at each other, believing the fight to be over. Ranma made a hand gesture to Ryoga, he nodded with a grim face, and together they moved.

Usagi had been half-way to the Hikawa Shrine when she had gotten the call about the monster. The Inner Senshi had only been battling a minute by the time she got to the park where they were fighting. Her first sentence on seeing the creepy monstrosity was, "Ewww, gross." This had off course earned her a smack to the back of the head from Rei Hino, aka Sailor Mars.

The girls had to dodge multiple rainbow energy beams from the demon, in some of their cases only barely. They all let loose with some magical attacks, which generally only struck glancing blows. It was highly frustrating to Usagi who wished they could have more coordination. She winced, though, as she tripped because she could barely get her own limbs under control, much less the others' limbs.

Usagi stood back up and posed for her final attack, "MOON HEALING EXHALATION!"

They all sighed with relief when the demon was annihilated in that attack. Makoto cracked her neck and back, "It's been a while since you last used that attack, Moon."

Usagi shrugged, "It was the first one that popped into my head."

A strong feminine voice carried to them from the rustling bushes, "You gonna have to do better than that in a minute here."

A male voice spoke to the first voice, "You forgot a word, idiot."

The red-headed speaker walked into view of the off-guard Senshi, "Shut up, P-Chan."

They watched in astonishment as a boy wearing a yellow and black bandanna leaped into view hitting the girl over the head, growling out past little fangs, "Don't call me P-Chan."

The girl rubbed her head and glared at her companion, "Where is the fun in that?"

The boy growled again, "RANMA!"

Ranma smirked as she waved him off, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Mars stepped up to them first, "What do you want?"

Ranma held up her hands in mock-surrender, "Who us? We want to get our curses cured."

Mars sighed but kept her guard up as the others also, "We aren't exactly in the business of curing curses. I could direct you to a shrine that might be able to help you, though."

Ranma waved one of her hands dismissively, "I haven't gone to a shrine yet that was able to help, so no thanks."

Moon looked at the girl and boy who had bought her ice cream curiously, "What makes you think we can help you?"

Ryoga motioned at them, "My apologies, but an acquaintance of ours said that we had to defeat you in battle to cure our curses."

His words instantly caused all of their guards to go up, though you could probably say that it was too late, cause Ranma was in their midst in a moment, a punch that could shatter concrete rocketing towards Usagi's gut. Usagi wasn't able to dodge fast enough and got launched into a nearby tree. She stayed there for a moment before falling to the forest floor holding her stomach in pain. Mars saw red and launched a fire spell at Ranma, who ducked and spun into a chain attack launched by Venus. She grabbed the chain and used it to smash the orange sailor suited warrior into the red sailor suited warrior, knocking both of them off their feet.

Ryoga in the meantime rushed at Mercury in an attempt to get rid of the girl who could activate his weakness. He managed to hit the top of her head, knocking her out, before he got hit by a punch that left him seeing stars. He shook his head and turned to the girl who was only a couple inches shorter than himself. He launched at her, not expecting much after watching her take on the demon and was surprised when she Judo threw him over one shoulder into a nearby tree. He spun in the air and landed sideways on the tree feet first. Makoto would swear to seeing the muscles in the cute boy's legs bunch up like a coiled spring before he launched away from the tree, shattering a fair portion of the trunk. She barely blocked his fist and winced from the impact as she used her hold on his arm to smash him into the ground creating a crater. Her arm was numb, but she believed it to be worth it to take him out of the fight, until he proved that he wasn't by grabbing her leg and throwing her off to the side.

Makoto flipped into a slightly uncontrolled tumble in time to see a barrage of roses almost impale their two opponents. Tuxedo Mask had arrived and he was royally ticked off. He punched the red head in the gut, or he would have if she hadn't been as slippery as an eel and grabbed onto his cane staff and used it to pivot him into Makoto. Ranma had to dodge a combo attack from Mars and Venus in the form of a flaming chain that was seeking to wrap round her. Ryoga jumped and was about to hit the orange and red Senshi when he got sniped out of the air.

"DEAD SCREAM!" Pluto was ticked off, and the three outers around her had mirror images on their faces.

Ranma's smirk set everyone, who wasn't knocked out, off their guards, "Now it is getting interesting."