Authors Note: First, sorry about the long wait. I've clearly underestimated how busy I'd be and it seems like I have no time to write lately. Second, I've been thinking about some of the reviews. I think there's been great support of the story, and even a few good criticisms. The problem is, I'm not a good enough writer to be able to change my style too much. I kind of write what I feel, and the more I read reviews, and a few of the other truly great writers of Ranma fanfiction, I'm kind of psyching myself out feeling like I can't really live up to people's expectations. I finally decided to just plow ahead, do the best I can, and not worry about it anymore. That means that I have to just accept that all I can do is the best I can do, and hopefully it's entertaining.
So, on I go, and hopefully this will be worth your time. I've finally convinced myself to just keep writing, and to not stress on not writing a good enough story anymore.
Thanks for your patience.
Ranma hated this visit, hated it more than any place else he had to go, even more than visiting his parents, when he could force himself to do so. It boiled down to this was the first place in his life that he could remember calling home, and due to Kasumi's touch, it was a beautiful place that was always a source of wonderful food, and Kasumi's warmth.
Now...now in the fading light at the end of the day, he once again viewed the unkempt place that long ago he called his home. It still had the Tendo Dojo sign out front, but weeds littered the once immaculate yard, and he could see the paint peeling from the wood in several places.
Kasumi reached over and took his hand in hers. He was stilled amazed at the warm comfortable feeling he got whenever he held her hand. Part of him said that it was because he had such a barren childhood, any attention would feel good, but he knew better. It was simply because he loved her so much, and when they made contact he felt even closer.
As they stood in front of the house, Kasumi could feel the slight tension in Ranma. Nobody else could spot it, but she could tell by his subtle change of posture. "Is it that bad Ranma?" she whispered as they walked to the door.
He stopped and turned to her to look in her deep brown eyes. "Yeah, it is. I always saw this place as your home more than your Dad's. It just hurts to see it like this. Heck, it even hurts to see them like this."
"I know, I know. All I can tell you is how much I appreciate you coming with me. I think it's something that we should do, and it would be much harder without you." She paused as she reached forward and opened the gate. As the gate opened, she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. "You spoil me you know."
"Yeah, yeah. Always was a sucker for girls. Ask anyone."
They pushed the gate open and went inside. He could tell that somebody had done some yard work, and the Koi pond didn't look too bad (he could see a few orange and white shapes moving in the murky water). They continued up the steps and slid open the patio door. Ranma actually expected worse. The furniture had been replaced since he had originally stayed here, but even now, it looked like it could use another upgrade. The couch cushions were worn, and the rug had noticeable worn spots. As they walked in, he got a quick glance at the kitchen and saw glimpses of blackened pans and a well patched kitchen counter.
"Hello? Anybody here?" called Kasumi.
Ranma mentally chanted to himself. Please be out...please be out...please be...
"Kasumi! You're here!" shouted a voice from upstairs. Ranma heard the sounds of Akane's footsteps as she came down the hall towards the stairs. She quickly descended the steps and he soon saw her head appear.
She was wearing a training outfit, and her hair was long like the last time he visited. She ran to give Kasumi a hug, and Ranma found it strange that for the first time he noticed some tell-tale wrinkles starting to appear around her eyes. I guess her temper is starting to show he thought. It had taken a while, but as the years progressed, he could start discerning true signs of age on his friends and family. The gray hair on his mother, Mr. Tendo's thinning hair, wrinkles starting to appear on the faces of Akane, Nabiki and even Ukyo. Oh, they weren't heavy signs, but even to see small signs was...strange. He continued to study Akane as she started making small talk with Kasumi, pointedly ignoring him. For all of her proclamations of being a Martial Artist, she really hadn't changed much in the years since he and Kasumi had returned. She still moved the same way, and from what he had heard from their "sources", she really hadn't progressed any either.
It wasn't just in Martial Arts that Akane hadn't progressed. In some ways, she was more frozen in time than Ranma and Kasumi were. Once the two of them had moved out, Akane had decided to try to run the Dojo herself. It didn't take long before her attitude and lack of patience starting scaring any potential students away. It was Kasumi's idea to have Nabiki find a steady stream of "students" who were subsidized (and eventually flat out hired), to take classes at the Tendo Dojo. It was enough to take care of Soun and Genma, and provide enough for Akane to lead a reasonable life. Initially, Ranma was against the idea, but he realized that it was the best way to keep the two fathers out of their hair, and give Akane some peace.
In the almost 20 years since they had broken up, Akane never did find a new fiancé. She seemed to not really need anybody, and lived in her own world. Not that it seemed that far off from Kuno's he thought to himself. She occasionally traveled and attended some Martial Arts conferences, although she had the (unconscious) sense to avoid entering matches against the other people attending, always insisting that they were perverts or cheaters, and that only if she came across a true Martial Artist would she consider a match.
Akane broke her hug with her sister and then turned to Ranma. He watched her features harden slightly before she spoke.
"Hello Ranma"
"Hey Akane. How's it been goin'?"
She shrugged. "Not bad. I've got a few new students this month."
"That's great."
They both stood there, looking at each other until Kasumi broke the silence. "Akane, could you tell Father I'm here?"
"Sure Kasumi, I'll be right back." Akane ran up the stairs. Evidently Soun was doing something upstairs today.
"Hey Kas-chan. I'll be in my regular spot."
She looked at him with a sad smile in her eyes. These visits were hard on her too. "Of course Ranma, I'll come get you when I'm ready to go."
"Thanks Kas-chan. Good luck, and come get me if it gets too bad...."
"It won't, but thank you anyways."
Ranma went out by the neglected pond, and with a quick bounce off the wall ended up on the roof of the Dojo. When they came to visit, he always waited for Kasumi up here. Sitting on the roof always was a relaxing, peaceful activity for him. He wasn't sure why he relaxed so much, and now, it at least prevented him from having to see the rundown Dojo. He stretched out on his back and waited for the stars to slowly come out. There weren't nearly as many as at their house in the hills, but he could still see a few.
Later, he heard some steps on the roof and saw that Kasumi had joined him. "So, how did it go? Anything new?"
She lay down next to him and joined him in staring at the sky. "No, nothing really. Akane brought up how I young I look again."
"Yeah, she's not going to let that rest. She's still just as competitive after all these years. Looking older than her older sister does not sit well, and it's just going to get worse."
They lay there in silence for several minutes, then Kasumi finally spoke again. "Ranma, I know I've told you before, but thank you for choosing me. If we hadn't been sent off together, I might be still living down there with Father and Akane." She rolled to her side to look in his eyes. "I still can't believe how blind my sister was, but I'm glad I'm the one that ended up with you."
Ranma finally rolled to his side as well, and said, "Nope, the pleasure is all mine. Never did deserve you. Still don't" He leaned forward and gave his wife a long tender kiss. After a moment the kiss broke and he added "I guess being with you all these years are the god's way of balancing all the bad luck I had when I was growing up."
She smiled, gave him one more quick kiss, and then they both stood up, and began roof hopping back home.
-**-
Haruka looked up for her motorcycle technical manual as Setsuna came into the room. The look on Setsuna's face did not bode well. "Any luck with the Time Gates?" she queried.
Setsuna furrowed her brows with consternation. "Unfortunately, no. I thought with us keeping Hotaru away from those kids, things would start clearing up, but so far things seem to be the same...or worse" she sighed. "All I can figure out is that some key event in the future is the pivotal moment for these timelines, and we still haven't managed to avoid it yet." Setsuna stopped in front of the window and looked out over the garden they had planted a few months ago.
Luna had been over visiting Setsuna talking about the Time Gate mystery. She noticed the sagging posture of Setsuna and knew how she felt. This thing with the Gates was really taking its toll on her. "Have you asked Rei about another reading?"
"Yes I did. We actually tried again two days ago, but we saw the same vision again." She paused and turned to look at Haruka. "I think it means we're on the right track, I just don't understand why things aren't changing. Oh sure, I realize that something could change in the future, but I know we aren't going to change our mind about Hotaru, so I don't really understand why we aren't seeing an affect of our actions."
"What if the people in the vision aren't those kids?"
"I've thought of that too. That part of the vision is very clear, so I'm sure we've identified them properly. The only real unknown is that we can't be sure the one girl is Hotaru. I mean it makes sense, it looks like her from the rear, but without seeing her face, it could be somebody else."
Now Hotaru was puzzled. "Well, if it could be somebody else, shouldn't we be looking for her?"
Setsuna shook her head. "If, and it is a pretty big if, it is somebody else, I'm not sure how to track them down. One thing that does concern me is that I've tried using the Time Gates to track back to when Hotaru visited those kids, and all I get is a kind of weird static when I try to look at those spatial-temporal coordinates. If I try to track everyone coming and going from that location, the Gates just show more and more static. Whoever those kids are, they don't show up in the Time Gates."
Haruka sat up on the couch. "Wait, how can they not show up?"
"I don't know." she admitted. "I've never seen anything like it. I've run every diagnostic on the system I can, and everything is working properly. Those kids just don't show up on the system. I think that's why they are slowly corrupting the time lines. Something about them prevents the Gates from working properly, and I'm guessing that when they get with Hotaru, it just makes things worse."
Before either could add anything else, Setsuna's communicator went off.
She quickly brought it to her ear. "Hello?.....Yes.....Yes.....we'll be right there". Setsuna pocketed the device and said to Haruka "Get Michiru and Hotaru, the Inners are fighting some Youma and need our help."
"I'm coming too" said Luna and moments later, the group teleported to the scene of the battle.
-**-
Makoto fired off another attack as they fought off a set of three Youma. All three were identical, seeming to be a mixture of human female and some type of lizard.
"Moon! Watch out for their tails" shouted Rei as one of the creatures slid over toward the princess. They had been battling the beasts for at least 15 minutes, and every time they managed to get a decent hit in, the youma would regenerate the arm, leg, tail, whatever.
Ami looked up from her computer and yelled "It's the lizard in them, it lets the grow anything back. You need to get a complete hit, or at least separate the head for it to count!"
"Have you looked at their necks!" countered Venus. "The darn things are armor …" She stopped as she jumped over a sweeping tail. "…plated! We need some serious firepower here!"
"Then that would be us." Said Setsuna as she and the outers appeared. Haruka and Michiru immediately let go with some of their serious firepower. "Hotaru, go shield the inners while we take care of these…things."
The tide quickly turned against the youma, one had already been turned to ashes, and the other two weren't far from joining the first. As the outers continued to throw their ranged attacks, the inners noted motion from the far left, where a very large youma appeared, flanked by six more of the lizard hybrids.
"Pluto! We've got company!" Luna yelled as the inners took to the battle again, Hotaru providing an occasional Silence Wall of protection as the smaller youma entered the fray. She had been staying on the sidelines, providing advice to the inners whenever she could. One extra set of eyes was certainly helping in this battle.
Usagi glanced over her shoulder to see what Luna meant. Her eyes widened in panic as she saw Michiru unmoving on the ground, and Haruka and Setsuna desperately trying to keep the large youma away from her still form.
"Mars! Let us handle these youma, you help Pluto!" Usagi yelled as she whipped her head around in time to see another tail whip by one of the youma.
"Moon, we're in serious trouble here!" said Makoto and she launched another attack. "These things are tougher than they look, and there are too many of them. Plus, I've seen several of the Outer's attacks just bounce off the big one!"
Usagi, took another glance around Michiru was still down, and the inners were running out of steam. Retreat started to look like the only option…
-**-
"Pop, I can't believe you! Once again we've been banned from a restaurant!" lamented Ranko as they began the trip home from dinner.
It had been two days since the visit to the Tendo Dojo, and Kasumi had decided that Ranma needed a bit of cheering up. Granted, because of their reputation, this was proving more and more difficult. They had been banned (politely) from all of the all-you-can-eat restaurants in their town, and even most neighboring ones. Fortunately, Kasumi had tracked down one they hadn't visited yet in the Juuban district. It was quite a way from their house, but once they got there, Ranma's spirits quickly perked up as he began to empty the rows of food at the buffet line.
"Hey, not my fault! I noticed everyone else seemed to eat a lot too." Quipped Ranma.
Ranko blushed slightly. It was true their lifestyle had them burn through a lot of calories, but she was still self conscious of her need to consume so much food in public. Usually she managed to hold back, but this place was good, and she just got caught up in the Saotome feeding frenzy.
"Don't sweat it Dad" Riku added. "We'll find another."
"Yeah, but pretty soon, we'll burn off all of the food just getting home. This was quite a trip" yelled Dai as they continued to roof hop home.
A flash of energy caught Ranma's eye first. He stopped, looking in the direction of the light.
"What is it Ranma?" asked his wife.
"Dunno. But it felt big…maybe we should go check it out." He turned to his kids "You guys up for a little after lunch exercise?"
Their smiles were all the answer he needed as they began to hop toward the scene of the battle.
Within moments, the Saotomes were perched on top of a building looking down at a park where the Senshi were battling the youma. They watched as the Senshi were trying to hold their own against the youma attacking them. Kasumi again tell by the look on her husband's face that something was wrong. "What is it?"
"It's them."
"Them?" she asked.
"The ones in my dreams…"
Kasumi was confused. She could feel the evil auras of the youma, and clearly the girls were fighting them, so she assumed the girls were one of the good guys.
"Pop? What do you want to do?" asked Ranko "They look like they are fading fast…"
"Let's kick butt first, and ask questions when we're done" he said as he cracked his knuckles. Let's go…" he yelled as he jumped off the roof into the battle, his family quickly following behind.
-**-
Setsuna was tired, sore, and starting to get concerned. She and Hotaru had been slowly losing the battle with the large youma, and she was trying to figure out how they could extract themselves from the fight to regroup. Haruka was wobbling on her feet, and she cringed as she saw the large youma whip it's tail around in an obvious killing blow. As she tried to dredge up enough energy for another Dead Scream, she was amazed to see a bolt of energy come from behind her and blast the youma back into a stand of trees bordering the park.
"Need some help? Asked a voice from behind her. She turned, and her blood ran cold as she saw the family in the fire reading standing near the downed Michiru.
-**-
After their Dad blasted the large youma, Dai and Riku decided to help the inners as Kasumi bent over Michiru. "Hey, wait for me!" yelled Ranko.
-**-
Usagi saw the flash of unfamiliar energy, and was amazed to see the large youma go down with the blast. It wasn't seriously hurt…yet…but whatever it was added some serious firepower to their conflict. When she had a moment, she glanced over to see three kids her age come charging into battle, where an older couple was with the Outers. She couldn't believe her ears as the red-haired girl yelled "Hey, wait for me!" like she was missing out on a party or something! "Wait, don't come…" was all she could get out when the lead boy let loose with some type of energy blast from his cupped hands, which slammed into the closest youma. Her jaw dropped further as the two behind him let loose with their own blasts, taking two more of the lizard-things out of the battle.
"Need a hand with these things?" The red-headed girl asked.
"Uh…sure!" stammered Usagi.
Rei on the other hand recognized the newcomers instantly. This was the family that had appeared in the fire reading with Hotaru! She looked at Setsuna and saw the shocked look on her face as well, and quickly made a decision based on her earlier discussions with Setsuna.
"Jupiter, Venus, take Hotaru and get to Pluto NOW!" she yelled. These people may be helping them now, but they weren't getting their hands on Hotaru no matter what. "Usagi, Mercury, let these guys handle the youma; we need to get to Pluto too."
The others weren't sure what was going on, but they had worked as a team long enough to recognize the surety in Rei's voice. They wordlessly followed her instructions, and soon the Senshi had gathered around Pluto and the outers, as they watched the newcomers battle the youma.
The kids quickly adjusted their tactics with the youma. The group had figured out that their initial attacks didn't work as planned, as the youma suffered no significant damage and just absorbed the life energy powering the blasts. The oldest male of the group yelled something about shifting their attacks, and their subsequent blasts seemed to have devastating effect on the youma. It seems that for all the problems the Senshi had, these…kids…had no problem at all with the creatures. They saw all three launch energy blasts from their outstretched hands and the last of the smaller youma turned to ash.
The older girl was finishing her work with Michiru, who was now coming around, her color looking much better.
"Thank you Mrs. Saotome!" said Hotaru, who had worked her way over to Michiru. She looked down at Michiru and said, "See Michiru-mama, isn't she as good a healer as I said she was?"
Michiru looked up unsteadily and finally realized who was helping them. "Thank you" she said to Kasumi. She turned to Hotaru and asked "is this the woman who helped you two weeks ago?".
"Um-hmm. She sure is! I told you she was the best."
Hotaru watched the exchange and was torn between wanting to hug the woman for helping Michiru, or to grab her and Hotaru and run like mad. She too had seen enough with Setsuna to know that these people should not get too close to Hotaru and thus ruin their plans for Crystal Tokyo.
-**-
Ranma and Kasumi were getting frustrated. Early on, Ranma had realized the physical contact with the creature resulted in an immediate leaching of his Ki. He was able to minimize it, but clearly the creature fed on life energy. Ranma immediately tried the shifted frequency Ki attack that Kasumi had created and it seemed the beast was unable to process the altered Ki. He had quickly instructed his kids to do the same.
After the quick yell to his children to use the altered Ki attack, they began pummeling the creatures with ranged attacks. The smaller youma were easily handled by Ranko, Dai and Riku. He and Kasumi on the other hand…. The altered Ki blasts hurt the darned thing, but not as much as they'd like, and the collateral property damage was adding up quickly. He needed to come up with something that will take the creature out quickly.
"Kasumi! I think we'll have to use hot and cold!" Ranma yelled to his wife.
Kasumi nodded, and a look of concentration passed over her face as she began to circle counterclockwise around the youma. Ranma started in the same direction, opposite Kasumi. He and Kasumi had come across this variation of the Hiro-shoten-hah in the Amazon archives. The original version required the opponent to generate hot Ki, while the attacker used the soul-of-ice. In this more difficult version, one attacker generated hot Ki, the other cold. This no longer required the target to generate any Ki at all. The only downside was the intense coordination needed to successfully execute this advanced attack.
-**-
Dai was the first to realize what his parents were doing, and going by the amount of Ki they were both generating, this was going to be very messy.
"Ranko! Riku! Get everybody out of here! Now!"
Ranko was at first confused, then saw what Dai was looking at and realized what was going to happen. She ran over to the Senshi and barked "We need to get out of here…NOW!"
-**-
The girls were confused, and failed to move. Riku and Dai picked up Michiru (much to her protests) and started dragging her away. Ranko looked at Pluto and said "Mom and Dad are going to let go a really big attack, if we stay here, we'll get hurt. We need to get a safe distance away."
While Pluto doubted the child really knew what she was talking about, she recognized a potential exit strategy and decided to do as requested. "Let's go!" she told Usagi and the Senshi followed the first three away from the scene.
When the two boys carrying Michiru stopped, Pluto turned around in time to see the man and woman both raise their arms as they shouted something. Her jaw literally dropped when she saw a highly focused tornado form between the two of them, surrounding the large youma. Both fighters then seemed to touch the ground and a huge spray of concrete was sent toward the twister where it was sucked into the vortex where the youma now twisted.
The winds were howling past them as Setsuna watched the Youma rise into the air, the chunks of rock and debris tearing into it as it rose. She managed to see the Youma fade to into the tornado as it turned to dust just as it was fading from view.
She turned to the three children and panted "What…the…….hell…..was…….that?!!".
The girl looked up and get just smiled. "Oh just something Mom and Pop picked up in China. They've improved on it quite a bit actually. Between the two of them, they no longer need the target to cooperate. Quite effective, don't you agree?"
The other Senshi were now standing up, looking at the leaves, papers and lightweight debris that was still falling out of the sky as the tornado wound down.
Setsuna realized now was a good time to break from the newcomers. "Would you excuse us for just a minute? We need to talk amongst ourselves? It'll only be for a few moments."
The three looked at each other, one shrugged his shoulders, and the girl said "Sure. We'll be over with Mom and Pop." She watched as they stood, and walked back to the center of the park where their parents were. Looks too young to be their parents she thought to herself.
Setsuna turned back to the group and said in a low voice. "We need to go. Now!"
"But why Pluto? The youma are gone" responded Usagi.
"Because these are the people Rei saw in her fire reading, right?" shot Haruka.
"Exactly. I'll explain later, let's go." With a flash, Setsuna teleported all of the them back to the temple.
-**-
"An interesting challenge, huh kids?" asked Ranma as his children walked up. He noticed a quick flash of light where the funny dressed girls had been, then saw that they were gone. "What? Was it something I said?"
Ranko gave her father a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"Seems like the girls we helped decided to leave even without saying 'Thank you'" as he nodded bgind his kids.
The three younger Saotomes turned around to see an empty alley where the Senshi used to be. "What?! They just left? We saved their butts!" exclaimed Dai.
"Yeah! What's with that? Why would they just take off" agreed Ranko. She glanced at Riku and saw that he had a long face. No doubt disappointed that his new friend took off like that. "Sorry Riku."
He gave at a sigh and answered "Ah, no problem". He turned around and surveyed the damage. "Wow Pop, you really did a number on this place."
Ranma looked around. Three badly dented cars, several broken windows, and the crater where he and Kasumi had launched their Breaking Point attacks to add shrapnel to the tornado. He rubbed the back of his head with his right hand and muttered "Yeah, I guess we did".
Riku was wandering around the edge of the battle area looking at the odds and ends of debris. He was over where the Senshi were originally doing battle when he saw a small black leg and tail sticking out of some branches and paper.
Oh man! Poor thing! He thought to himself as he stooped down to get a better look. Even though his father had brought his cat-phobia under control, he still wasn't a big fan of the animals. Riku on the other hand always wanted a cat, but his father never liked them enough to want one around all the time.
As he got closer, he could see the slight movement of its body. It's still alive! "Hey…Mom! Come here!"
Kasumi walked over to where her youngest child was looking at something. "What is it Riku?"
"I think this cat got hurt in the fight. Do you think…maybe…we could at least take it home until it gets better?"
"Oh my" said Kasumi as she knelt down next to her son. She could see the cat was breathing still. "Riku, you know we can't keep this, right?" she said quietly to him as she began to gently remove the covering debris.
Riku nodded. "Yeah, I know. But just for a little bit, until it gets better?"
She looked into his dark brown eyes. "Well….I guess you father wouldn't mind if we helped out a hurt animal. Be careful when you pick it up."
Riku gently lifted the unconscious cat. He held it in his arms, face up, and noticed the golden upturned crescent on its forehead.
-**-
Minako plopped down on one of the couches and was the first to ask Setsuna the question most of them had on their minds. "So, what was the big hurry in getting out of there? We didn't even get a chance to thank them. Seems to me to be pretty rude."
Setsuna addressed them all. "That is the family that Rei and I saw in her fire reading. They have something to do with the Time Gates malfunctioning, and I didn't want them to be around Hotaru any longer than necessary."
Now Makoto chimed in. "Yeah, well they didn't seem that bad to me. Seems to me they were fighting the same bad guys that we fight. If they're such a threat to the Time Gates, how come they helped us?"
The rest of the Inners, plus Hotaru, nodded in agreement.
Setsuna shook her head. "I wish I knew. I've never seen them on the Gates before, but now that we know where they are, we should be able to find out more about them. The main thing is that we've managed to keep Hotaru away from them, so hopefully the Crystal Tokyo outcomes should look better."
"I still think it was wrong just to run away" added Usagi. "We were in big trouble there, and without their help, we would have been in big trouble."
"Yeah, about that" stated Haruka. "Kind of convenient that these 'people', these somehow super-powered, non-magical people just happened to be there at the right time, and they were able to take out a super powered Youma that even we were having problems with."
Finally Michiru added "It's true. How could these people have not shown up on our magical scans before. Ami, during the fight did you pick up any magical signatures."
"No, I didn't. I did a quick scan of all five of them. The two oldest were literally off the scale for life energy, but there was only a small, erratic magical signature on the male. The kids were like the older female, huge life energy, no magical signature."
"Hmm…that is strange. So then, did we taking Hotaru with us make things any better at the Time Gates?"
Setsuna grabbed her staff. "Good question. I'll be right back." There was a brief flash, and she was gone.
The girls talked amongst themselves, with Minako doing most of the talking about how good the older one of the strangers looked, and why couldn't the two youngest be just a little bit older. Nobody noticed the absence of Luna.
Within a few minutes, Setsuna was back. Everyone could tell by the look on her face that things didn't go well.
Usagi could wait any longer "What happened? What's wrong?"
Setsuna was rattled, and it showed in her voice. "Whatever we did back there didn't make it better; it's now a lot worse."
-**-
The following day, Riku was sitting in the kitchen with his mother. Kasumi had been tending to the cat since they had got home last night. Ranma was thrilled to have it around, but he did actually feel bad for the animal and said that as long as it was kept out of the Dojo and his bedroom, it could stay until it was fully healed.
Kasumi sat down at the table where her son was sitting. They could both see the cat in a basket with blankets that they set up the night before. "Riku, have you ever seen this cat before?"
"No mom. Just found her laying there when I was walking around."
"Interesting…." Kasumi started, then just looked at the cat some more.
"What?"
"Well, granted I haven't seen too many cats before, but we did have one in our neighborhood when I was growing up."
"And…."
"Well, this one is just…different…"
"Different how?"
"Hmmm…well, for starters, her Ki, and yes the cat is a girl cat, doesn't look like a normal animal's. It reminds me more of human Ki than animal Ki, but it isn't really human Ki either." She explained.
"Is that bad?"
"No…not necessarily…just different. I'd like you to keep an eye out for anything unusual though when she wakes up. As near as I can tell, her front paw may have been broken. I've got it wrapped up and tried to apply some Amazon healing techniques they used on their livestock on her. I think the break is already healing, so just be careful with her."
Just then Ranma came into the kitchen. She got up on her tiptoes to give her wife a kiss on the check. "Morning Kasumi, so how's the furry little monster doing today?"
"Oh I think she's doing quite well. Going by your outfit, it looks like we are working on speed training today?"
"Yup, I figure I'll start with you, then work my way to Riku here. I've already given a heads up to Dai and Ranko that they're next on the list. You ready?"
Kasumi smiled, and it wasn't her 'isn't that nice' smile, it was the Saotome 'we'll see about that' smile. "Ready to show you who's quicker?"
Ranma smirked back at her. "Great, let's go. Riku, tell your brother and sister we'll be in the Dojo. Have Ranko come in next in about an hour."
"Sure thing Pop. Kick his butt Mom!"
Riku remained with the black cat as his parents left for their morning workout. He gently petted her soft fur as she slept on her side. After a few minutes, he saw the cats eyes open and her head popped up.
"Sh, sh" he whispered. "It's okay, you're in a safe place. Just take it easy."
The cat looked up at him, and then looked around the kitchen.
Where in the world am I now. She could sense her crescent moon wasn't covered, so she could speak if she wanted to, but she knew by experience that it was best to play the simple cat until she could quietly sneak out of the human's house. Last thing I remember, we were fighting the Youma, then those people came to help and… She whipped her head around to stare at the young boy who was still petting her. Oh my gosh! They've taken me prisoner! I've got to get out. She tried to stand, but found that her leg was bandaged, and when she tried to put her weight on the limb, it hurt too much to stand.
"Hey, hey. It's alright." Riku reassured her. "You need to rest. Mom healed the break, but it's gonna be sore for a couple of days. We won't hurt you."
The cat seemed to accept it wasn't going anywhere right now, and lay back down in the basket. Riku noted it seemed to look at him suspiciously.
"You can stay here as long as you want. I asked Pop and he said it was okay. Relax. We're going to put some flyers up in the park we found you in, and we'll take you back just as soon as you feel better."
The cat looked around once more, then seemed to relax in the basket. Hmmm. They don't seem to be a threat. I might as well keep an eye on things for a bit while I heal.
-**-
Usagi didn't notice Luna's absence until late the next day. Between the chaos of the battle, Setsuna's panicked behavior about the gates, and the fact that she slept until 11:00 the next morning, it wasn't until the afternoon hit that it occurred to her that she hadn't seen Luna in a bit.
Luna had been known to take off from time to time. Not for long, not much more than a day, but Usagi didn't panic when she finally noticed she hadn't seen her that day.
-**-
The next day, Kasumi had removed the bandage from the cat's leg and told Riku that it was okay for her to move around for a bit.
By this time, Luna had determined that this was some type of alternate heaven. The mother, Kasumi, had fed her the most delightful food Luna had ever had. Luna didn't know too much about her yet, but she simply oozed peace and tranquility, and the food she made! Maybe I'll stay a few more days, just to make sure I'm in good shape. Luna failed to notice the slight drool at the side of her mouth as she saw Kasumi enter the kitchen again.
Riku came into the kitchen. "Hi Mom. How's the kitty doing?"
"She seems to be quite well. Oh my! She looks like she's hungry again! Whoever owns her must not have fed her very well. Riku, give her this tuna."
"Sure Mom." He placed the plate near the black cat "Whoah! She is hungry! Man she could give Pop a run for the money."
If Luna could have blushed, she would have. There must be some drug in that woman's cooking! I can't control myself when I'm around her!
"Hey mom, can I take her outside for a bit, show her around?"
"Sure Riku, I think Ranko's about done with your father, and Dai should be next. Don't lose track of time and be late for your training."
"Don't worry Mom, I won't." He bent over and gently picked up the cat. "Come-on kitty, let's go outside for a bit, I'll show you around."
Luna allowed herself to be picked up and carried out of the kitchen. Good, now I'll see some more of this place. Instead of going into the house further, he opened the side door of the kitchen and took her outside.
It was a gorgeous day, and Luna marveled at the beautiful landscaping around the house. She could see the original house, with additions going off to either side. The grounds around the house were breathtaking!
"This is our yard Miss Kitty." Riku decided that just calling her 'cat' or 'kitty' wasn't very personable. "Mom and Pop really work on it a lot. Come on, I'll take you up to the lookout point." He walked up a gravel trail to a small hill that overlooked the valley below. To her left she could see the house, and behind it she made out some type of extremely large tree growing behind it.
Riku sat down on the bench with the cat on his lap. It was so beautiful that Luna just sat and stared at the surrounding scenery.
"I sure wish Pop liked cats more" he started. He reached over and started massaging the back of the cat's neck. "Don't think it would be quite as lonely if I had a cat for a pet. I love the feel of your fur." He said as he petted and massaged the back of her neck.
My god, that boy has great hands. She started to purr as she settled down in his lap.
For the next hour, Riku just sat and talked to the cat on his lap. He talked about everything. True, he talked to his mother and father, and even his sister and brother, but this was different. In all his years, he never had a truly objective observer, even if it was just a cat, to talk to. It was different. Pleasant.
While Luna was semi-catatonic due to the petting and massaging that she received from Riku, she also listened to him talk. She quickly determined that no matter what Setsuna said, these didn't seem like bad people. The boy she was with was just a regular boy. True, some of the things he off-handedly mentioned about training or his father (using female pronouns sometimes), didn't make a lot of sense yet, but she could tell this was a good person holding her. The more she talked, the more she relaxed, her worries quickly evaporating about being held by "hostile" forces.
"Oops! Almost time. Come on Miss Kitty. My time to train. I'll take you to the Dojo and then maybe Ranko or Dai can watch you while it's my turn."
They got up from the bench and travelled along a different path to the base of the extremely large tree growing a ways behind the house. The trail dipped down to a door that seemed to open into a chamber below the tree's massive root system. As they approached the tree, Luna could sense something odd about the tree, not bad, just different than she'd ever experienced before.
They proceeded inside to find Dai and Ranma stretching after their exercise. Ranma saw the cat in Riku's arms and his eyes squinted ever so slightly. "What's the cat here for?" he asked.
"Mom said she was good enough to get some fresh air? Do you mind?" Riku knew his dad didn't have any major problems with cats anymore, but he still wasn't a fan.
"No, she can stay as long as she stays still. Give her to your sister."
Luna was handed over to the oldest girl, and watched the youngest child train with his father. Now Luna had watched many, many battles of the Senshi, so she wasn't unfamiliar with rather impressive fights, but watching these two was a whole new experience. Both of them were in the air striking and counter-striking as much as they were on the ground. She could tell that despite the flurry of hard to follow moves, the father was clearly leading the student. She could make out a constant stream of comments, some compliments, and some advice, but all of them supportive.
The two stopped and approached the center of the floor.
"Okay Riku, let's see how your Ki training is coming along. Bring up your shield."
Luna watched closely as she could see a blue shield form in front of Riku. It wasn't magic, the father said it was Ki so it was some type of life energy.
"Looks good, I'm going to send a few attacks your way to see how well it holds up. I'll start out easy, and work my way up." Ranma stood with one foot in front of the other and cupped his hands. He started shooting balls of golden energy at his sun, whose shield deflected the orbs which bounced off the shield and struck the walls of the room, where they were immediately absorbed. Unfortunately one of the balls bounced directly toward the girl and her. It was too bad Luna hadn't seen Ranko and Dai practice, or she would have known that Ranko could bring up her own shield in plenty of time. Unfortunately she didn't, so everyone heard her shout "Look out!" before the attack harmlessly bounce off the shield in front of her.
Suddenly, all four of the Saotomes seemed quite interested in the little black cat.