Author's Note: This is a response to Kaliaila and those who share his point of view. There is a sharp philosophical difference between Ranma killing Saffron and what Ryoga did in my story. Ranma's kill was because he was trying to save life, Ryoga's kill was because he was reckless with his power. Ryoga has shown relatively little self-restraint with his abilities like when he was willing to use the Bakusai Tenketsu on Ranma when he thought it would kill Ranma. I am not trying to vilify Ryoga, but the boy does have some serious personality problems that he has to pay for in this story. With that out of the way lets move on to the story.

Over in Nerima the Tendos and the Saotomes were sitting down to a normal breakfast. For this bizarre household that meant that Soun was reading his newspaper, Genma was currently a panda, Nabiki was doing an impression of the living dead as she waited for her coffee to finish brewing, Akane was in her jogging clothes, and Kasumi along with Nodoka were bringing in breakfast from the kitchen. Once Nodoka and Kasumi sat down at the table the two families started to eat like reasonable people. Genma didn't use his typical speed eating anymore because Ranma wasn't there for speed training and Akane had used her mallet on the elder Saotome a few times. Surprisingly, Genma responded to Pavlov Conditioning very quickly when it came to his comfort and the promise to unite the schools wasn't involved.

This serene scene came to an abrupt halt when Soun cried out, "Wah! One of our families' friend is a terrorist!" Naturally this statement caused everyone at the table to do a spit take and let out a loud cry of shock.

Since Soun couldn't tell anyone what he meant by that statement do to becoming a human fountain, Nabiki reached across the table and grabbed the newspaper out of her father's hands. Nabiki quickly found what Soun was talking about and she read aloud, "Juvenile criminal Ryoga Hibiki explodes bomb at a gym in Shinjuku. One man killed in explosion and several others injured in debris." Nabiki didn't bother to read the rest of the article out loud and started to skim it before putting the newspaper down on the table.

Akane was shocked when she heard what Nabiki had read. It just didn't seam possible to Akane that Ryoga would do such a horrible thing. In a soft whispered voice Akane said, "No. That can't be true. Ryoga wouldn't do something like that."

Nabiki glanced at Akane, sighed, and then said, "Your right Sis. Ryoga wouldn't do something like this. However, it's quite believable that he killed someone." After seeing the shocked looks that everyone at the table was sending her Nabiki shook her head and felt a headache coming on. She started to massage her forehead and said, "Look everyone. Ryoga always uses that exploding trick of his to create a doorway when he's lost. Obviously he was lost at this gym, used that technique of his, and someone died in the explosion. Actually, when you think about it you have to wonder why someone hasn't died yet from that boy constantly using the technique."

Kasumi then joined in the conversation. "But Nabiki, why are they saying that Ryoga used a bomb? Surely he can just show that trick of his and that will clear up that he didn't plant a bomb. It's so awful that the police have their facts mixed up. Poor Ryoga will have a black mark for the rest of his life for this incident."

Nabiki's left eyebrow rose as the middle Tendo sister said, "Kasumi, the police don't have their facts mixed up. They almost certainly know exactly what happened at that gym and are deliberately spreading this story about Ryoga using a bomb. As surprising as it might seem to you people, the majority of people in this world believe that all of your super martial arts techniques are a bunch of fantasy. Even if Ryoga demonstrated that trick of his on live TV most people would believe that it is just special effects. The police here in Nerima give you martial artists a lot of leeway since Kuno pays the bribes and you people don't hurt anyone outside of yourselves."

"Accidental or not, Ryoga killed someone so the police have to be involved. Since they have to explain just how the boy killed someone they must have concocted the bomb story. I have to admit that it's a very good cover story. If I didn't know all you crazy marital artists I would believe this story myself. At least we don't have to worry about repairing the walls every time Ryoga gets turned around in the house when he visits." With that said everyone else around the breakfast table became very solemn and depressed.

Meanwhile in Juuban Michiru and Haruka were just finishing breakfast when Setsuna teleported into the kitchen. The couple at the table turned to look at their mysterious friend and Michiru said, "Is something wrong Setsuna? Did something come up at the Time Gates?"

Setsuna quietly grabbed a cup of coffee and walked over to the table. Once she had sat down and taken a few sips of her coffee the warrior of time said, "Did you know that this whole situation with the Death Busters could have been over by now? However, my future self is stonewalling all of my attempts at finding where the Death Busters are and is refusing to tell me where the talismans are other then the fact that you two will never be able to find them. According to her it's mostly because of you two that she's refusing to give up the information needed to end this battle."

Just like Setsuna expected Haruka shouted out, "What do you mean it's our fault?! We've been looking for those talismans and trying to track down where the Death Busters operate from. We've done nothing that should cause you to hinder the defense of the planet." It just didn't make any sense to Haruka. She and Michiru had been doing their best to stop the Death Busters. If anyone was causing the future Setsuna to not hand over the information it should be the Inners, not them.

Once Haruka had a chance to complain Setsuna said, "That's the problem right there Haruka. You and Michiru are so busy looking for the talismans, even after I've told you that you'll never find them, that your neglected the two primary rules about being a Scout. Always obey the heir of the Moon and never allow harm to come to civilians. How many times have you two abandoned a fight once you found out that there wasn't a talisman in a person's crystal heart? How many times have you two rejected Sailor Moon's request to work together?"

Michiru winced slightly at Setsuna's words. The senshi of Neptune didn't really like some parts of how she and Haruka were acting, but that was how they had acted in the Silver Millennium. In an attempt to defend their actions Michiru said, "But Setsuna we've done everything as we used to do in the Silver Millennium. The Outers have a set of assigned tasks and we're carrying them out."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow and said in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Correct me if I'm wrong Michiru, but didn't the Silver Millennium end several thousand years ago? You see I distinctly remember this little incident with Beryl where all the Scouts except for me had to be reincarnated." After Setsuna said this she shifted to a more authoritative tone as she continued on talking. "Face the facts, you two are trying to go about things like we're still living in the Silver Millennium and the rules have changed. That's why the princess is personally involved in the fighting now even though she doesn't like to fight and she didn't fight in the Silver Millennium."

Haruka pouted and said, "And just what would you have us do Setsuna? Forget about the talismans and hang out with those childish Inners? Those kids don't even take their duties as Sailor Scouts seriously." Both Michiru and Haruka blinked their eyes when they saw Setsuna pull out a block of cheese and set it down in front of Haruka. After a few seconds Haruka caught what Setsuna was implying and said, "Ha, ha, ha Setsuna. Never knew you were a joker."

Naturally Setsuna just shrugged her shoulders and said, "There's a lot you don't know about me Haruka. Look you two, the honest truth is that the Inners are better Scouts then you are. They've been in more battles then you and they fought tougher enemies then you have. True they don't train with their powers like they should, but then neither do you two. You two might have stronger attacks then most of the Inners currently have, but when it comes to experience your newbies compared to them. As for the Talismans, don't forget about them but don't go looking for them. They're safe for the moment and will be retrieved once you two learn how to play by the new rules."

While Haruka was tapping her fingers on the table she said, "We're not little kids Setsuna and you're not our mother. You don't need tell us to play nice with the other kids on the playground."

Setsuna then replied, "Compared to me you two are little kids. Oh and speaking about playing nice with the other kids, it seems that there's a third party entering our fight with the Death Busters. I haven't been told much about this new person or group, but whatever you do don't attack them. So far all this group has done is help the Inners out and I've been told by my future self that attacking this third party is a bad idea. Whatever you do don't attack this unknown faction. This may be hard for you Haruka because this group seems to use robot looking minions to help fight against the daemons. I repeat, you must not attack these robots or whoever is backing them."

Michiru had been silently listening to her lover and her friend talk trying to think about what she should say. Now Michiru saw something she could constructively add to the conversation and said, "Alright Setsuna. If it is truly that important then we will leave this newcomer alone for now. I don't know if we can successfully merge with the Inners to form a single cohesive team. In fact it could be that we'll have to break such a large team down into more reasonable teams. But, I know that Haruka and I can try."

Ranma was sitting in his family room doing a little review for tomorrow's history test when Tweety flew in chirping like crazy. Looking up from his textbook a slightly frustrated Ranma said, "What's the matter Tweety?" Instantly Tweety turned its head around and started chirping towards the study room. There was a slightly blank look on Ranma's face as he said, "I don't understand Tweety. What could possibly be in that room that is so important?"

Normally Ranma was able to easily figure out what Tweety was trying to tell him, but this time the young magician was having trouble. There shouldn't be anything in that room that could be causing Tweety to panic in such a matter. After all, he had properly disposed of all the failed attempts to create his magical armor. While in the end Ranma had completed his armor, there had been a few small problems along the way. Besides, only an idiot would leave a giant pile of damaged magical artifacts just lying around.

Suddenly Ranma remembered a small project he had been working on the side while he had been concentrating on the armor. The project was a sensor that would allow him to detect large concentrations of magical energy. It was an attempt to help Ranma locate any hostile magical threats. As much as Ranma wanted to live a peaceful life he knew he had a duty to use his abilities to protect the ordinary people from others who were less responsible with their powers.

Almost immediately Ranma got to his feet and dashed into his study with Tweety trailing behind. Once Ranma was in his study the young man grabbed the foot tall pyramid shaped sensor and put it on the floor. It was obvious that the sensor had found something because the top third of the pyramid was blinking. After Ranma put the sensor on the floor he pressed a tiny button at the very top of the pyramid causing the blinking portion to open up.

Ranma immediately looked up at the ceiling and saw a map of Tokyo. More specifically, he was looking at a map of Juuban. While the sensor was a marvel of magical skill, especially considering the fact that Ranma was still only a beginner, he wasn't too happy with what the sensor told him. All it showed was that there were eight concentrations and four concentrations of chaos magic next to each other in a park. He had absolutely no idea who, what, or how strong those concentrations were. If he went over to investigate what was going on he'd partially be going in blind.

Although Ranma didn't want to admit it a part of him wanted to pretend that the sensor never picked up on anything. That part of Ranma was arguing that this wasn't his fight. Wasn't this why he had left Nerima that traitorous part of his mind whispered? As Ryoga showed trouble would still find him even though he was no longer Ranma Saotome. Why should he cause more problems for himself by chasing after trouble?

That aspect of Ranma's personality was quickly crushed by his more noble and reasonable side. He wasn't rushing off to fight; he was going to investigate the situation. If it became clear that he'd have to fight then he'd fight. Ranma wasn't willing to fight just out of some sense of duty. Chibiusa had mentioned that she had friends living in Juuban and one or more of her friends could be hurt by this situation. There was no way that Ranma was going risk his friend's happiness because he didn't want to go into a situation without knowing all the variables.

So in a resigned manner Ranma put his left hand on the small new watch he was wearing on his right wrist and pressed two small hidden buttons. As Ranma was pressing those two buttons he said, "Active mode for magical armor initialize. Clearance code: skinny dipping in Jusenkyo." When Ranma had created his armor he based his transformation item on a Sentai show he had just seen on the TV. Once his transformation was complete the young mage teleported himself over to Juuban.

Things were not going well for the Sailor Scouts at the moment. Ever since Michiru and Haruka had tentatively joined forces with the Inners last week the new Scout team had managed to take out two of the witches 5. There was still some tension between the two groups of Scouts mostly because of Haruka, but on the whole everyone was working well together. Outside of Scout business the Outers weren't best friends with the Inners though they did get along with the Inners better on that account too.

Apparently the Death Busters had realized how dangerous this new Scout team was and had taken steps to try and neutralize the Scouts. In a surprising show of brainpower the Death Busters had actually prepared a trap for the Scouts which the girls had naturally fallen for. Originally Viluy had wanted to use eight daemons so that she could have them fight the Scouts one on one thus overwhelming them. However, Professor Tomoe nixed that idea and only allowed Viluy to use four daemons for this task.

Still, from where Viluy stood watching the fight she really couldn't complain about only having four daemons. Her forces were slowly, but surely winning this battle. Even with the addition of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune the Scouts were in serious trouble. They were still using the same old tactics and were being beaten because of that. Classic case of if you use the same tricks over and over again your enemy will learn how to beat you. Well Viluy had learned and was sure that this time at least one, possibly all, of the Scouts would be dead.

Oh Viluy could practically taste her victory already. It would prove once and for all that she was the best witch out of the Witches 3. The unlamented Eudial and Mimete had been fools focusing solely on collecting the talismans. Anyone with any brains would have realized that the Scouts would somehow prevent the Death Busters from ever collecting the talismans as long as they were alive. Once the Scouts were dead, Viluy could collect the talismans at her leisure.

Chibiusa was seriously considering saying the hell with it and turning off her disguise pen. Getting chewed out by the rest of the Scouts and grounded for life by her mother was far preferable to being dead. Right now the Scouts only had 7 people capable of killing the enemy. Of those 7 people there were 4 light hitters, 2 medium hitters and 1 instant K.O. person. Sailor Chibi Moon didn't factor into this equation anywhere and was at most a minor annoyance to the daemons.

On the other hand, Neo Sailor Moon was another instant K.O. for the enemy like Sailor Moon. At the moment the daemons had the Scouts outgunned, but if Neo Sailor Moon appeared then the Scouts could effectively fight the daemons 1 on 1 in terms of firepower. With how things were now the Scouts' lack of team training, particularly movement and placement training, was going to end up costing the Scouts their lives. Chibiusa was really angry at herself for not noticing the Scouts' lack of training sooner. That battle a few weeks ago with the two daemons should have clued her in to the fact that these Sailor Scouts weren't nearly as trained as their 30th century counterparts. Why oh why did she have to pull a Usagi on something this important?

Just as Chibiusa was about to summon her disguise pen to deactivate it she noticed two of the enemy attacks heading strait for her. In this instant Chibiusa's legs seemed to be bolted where they were and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't will herself to move at all. Time seamed to slow down for Chibiusa as she watched the two attacks head towards her. Her life started to flash before the young princess's eyes as she remained paralyzed by terror.

Suddenly Chibiusa was roughly ripped from where she was standing just before the attacks reached her previous location. Due to shock, terror, and the constant rolling Chibiusa was under she didn't immediately realized that she had been saved. Once Chibiusa's brain managed to catch up to the present she looked up to see who had saved her life.

Instead of seeing the face of one of the Scouts or possibly Tuxedo Kamen, Chibiusa was staring a black metallic mask. Actually, the mask was part of a demonic and robotic looking helmet that had a large black horn, an extra large chin, and glowing red eyes. A part of Chibiusa was terrified by those eyes and the face of her savior which made her want to scream like the little girl she pretended to been. Paradoxically another part of her felt drawn to those eyes as if they were promising to protect her from all the terrible things that hid in the shadows. Chibiusa then started to notice more about her savior and she saw that this person was completely covered in streamline black armor with blood read highlights here and there. The only really strange thing about this armor were the two large projections, Chibiusa couldn't think of a better word to describe them since those things defiantly weren't horns, that came out of the shoulders and stopped just below the top of the person's head. Chibiusa turned to look back at her savior's face and she said in a nervous tone, "Who, who are you?"

With a bestial tone caused by the voice changer in the armor Ranma said, "You may call me the Black Prince." Ranma had chosen that name as an alias because of Sapphire's suggestion that he look to the various royalties and higher level nobilities for his hero name. Since Ranma didn't want to be immediately identified by his old friends in Nerima, he had looked to Europe for inspiration. For some reason Sapphire found Ranma's choice to be very fitting though he wouldn't share why with Ranma.

All of the Scouts and all of the daemons paused for a moment to look at Ranma. No one was quite sure whose side the Black Prince was on though the Scouts were starting to expect him to be on their side a little more rather then on the daemon's side. Everyone's eyes were glued as Ranma slowly got up and gently set Chibiusa on the ground. Then Ranma turned to face the daemons and said, "You. Do you have any respect for the people living in this city? Your complete disregard for civilians and your abuse of your powers earns you only one thing: death by my hands."

In terms of raw power Ranma in his armor fell somewhere between the Outers and Sailor Moon. However, in terms of combat capability Ranma was far stronger then the Scouts. It wasn't Ranma's martial arts training that made him better then the Scouts because his higher level of skill was matched with their experience in fighting using magical enhancement. Even though using chi to enhance your body and using magic to enhance your body had practically the same outcomes there were subtle differences that Ranma wasn't used to yet.

What really made Ranma so much more powerful in his combat capability compared to the Scouts' combat capability was how he regulated his power. If one were to look at the typical Scout's stats one would see relatively minor physical enhancements with comparatively huge increases in magical defense and magical attack. Ranma had allocated less power to his magical attack and defense while increasing the physical enhancement portions. Now Ranma's attacks still packed quite a wallop, but they now were somewhere between the Inners and the Outers in attack power rather then the Outers and Sailor Moon. Very simply it was age old argument of generalization verses specialization.

Ranma let out a bestial roar and called out, "Reaper Claws!" Naturally Ranma had added an entirely new twist to magical power-ups by creating a short range magical attack. The metal gloves of his armor became covered in a violent purple-black energy that took the form of foot long claws. As soon as the claws had formed on his hands Ranma charged at the nearest daemon and used his claws to ripe the daemon in half.

While the just killed daemon's body was disintegrating around him, Ranma turned to look at the other daemons and let loose a savage roar. Mentally Ranma had order the armor to amplify his voice to the maximum resulting an almost glass shattering roar. Once of the core tenets of the Saotome school of Anything Goes was to get into your opponent's head and make them lose their cool. Normally this was done by using insults to get the opponent so angry that they forgot everything about fighting. However, Ranma was again going for a different approach. He had designed the armor to evoke the idea of a demon in the enemy's mind. The bestial voice he had built into the armor and the selective minor fear aura were also created to chip away at the enemy's resolve.

Apparently Ranma's hunch on the psychological tactics was correct. The daemons that the Death Busters used may have been artificial creatures, but Ranma had been able to reach the core primal instinct that every living creature had. That instinct was telling the daemons loudly and clearly that Ranma was the top of the food chain and that it would be a good idea to get away. First the daemon farthest away from Ranma started to run and it was quickly followed by the other two daemons.

The Scouts quite surprised by everything that Ranma had done since he saved Chibiusa. Several of the Scouts, including Usagi and Haruka, had nearly wet themselves when Ranma had let out that roar. However, all of the Scouts had the presence of mind to attack the daemons as they fled from the battlefield. Now that they could line up their shots without been stopped in mid-sequence Sailor Moon, the Outers, and the rest of the Inners were able to take out the remaining daemon.

When Viluy saw that her last remaining daemon had been destroyed, she attempted to flee from the battlefield. Sadly for her the eyes on Ranma's armor weren't just for show and he was able to detect her movement. The Black Prince Armor's sensors quickly confirmed that Viluy was the one behind the daemons because of the residual 'minion identification' signature that the armor had recorded. Back in Nerima before Saffron Ranma probably would have let her go to fight another day.

However Ranma now knew that this was real and so he reluctantly charged after Viluy. This was war and even though Ranma didn't want to take another life tonight he knew that the people of Juuban would be safer if Viluy was permanently taken care of. As Ranma leapt onto the roof Viluy had been using as and observational post he thought about which point on the body would result in the least painful death. Very quickly Ranma closed the distance between the two of them and he drove his Reaper Claws into the back of Viluy's skull. She didn't even have the chance to scream before death took her.

Do to the fact that the Scouts couldn't jump as high as Ranma could it took them a little while to catch up with the boy. When the Scouts got to the roof they were surprised to see the Black Prince standing over Viluy's body praying for her soul's passage. The Scouts had never seen a scene like this before and frankly it shamed them; particularly Usagi and Rei. With all of the fights the Scouts had been in and all of the enemies that had died, none of the Scouts had ever said a single prayer for their departed enemies. Seeing someone in such a scary outfit showing such concern for the enemy just after said person killed the enemy really hit the Scouts between the eyes.

Chibiusa stepped away from the other Scouts and slowly approached Ranma. She just knew that the person in front of her just had to be the Nemesian Prince. The massive magical power that Chibiusa felt emanating from the Black Prince reminded her of Prince Demand and Saphir. Only a closely blood related relative could possibly have a magical signal that close to someone else. The future princess stretched out her hand and in a friendly voice she said, "Hello there and thank you for saving my life. My name is Sailor Chibi Moon. Would you like to be friends?"

Ranma looked at Chibiusa and he once again saw an older double of Sailor Chibi Moon for a split second. He then really noticed the shade of Chibiusa's hair and realized that his new friend was standing right in front of him. Since Ranma didn't want to blow his cover just yet he simply reached out and shook Chibiusa's hand. As they were shaking their hands Ranma said, "Being friends sounds like a good idea."

At this point Rei stepped forward and said, "Who are you? Also, what are your plans regarding the city?" Rei didn't want to antagonize their new helper, but she also wanted to know exactly what the Scouts could expect when dealing with the Black Prince.

While still holding Chibiusa's hand Ranma turned his head to look at Rei. He then calmly said, "As I said, my name is the Black Prince. I have no plans for this city other then to make sure that the other magic users that live here don't abuse their power. As long as you fight to protect the people of this city everything will be fine. However, if you start to abuse your powers and maliciously use them on the people living here then I will stop you." Given the fact that Ranma was still standing next to Viluy's body the Scouts were easily able to figure out that the Black Prince was willing to use lethal means to take out those he considered a danger to the public.

Since Chibiusa did not want her first meeting with the prince she was searching for to go sour she clapped her hands and said, "Then there won't be any problems between us. We're the Sailor Scouts and our purpose is to protect people against the paranormal enemies that keep on appearing here in Juuban." Chibiusa wasn't about to try to press the Black Prince for information about him. In her mind this meeting was just so that she could establish communications with the prince. She could tell him about Nemesis later once he got to know her better.

Ranma nodded his head and said, "I know. It was I who created the droid that saved your life Sailor Chibi Moon. Goodbye for now. I know our paths will cross again because evil never rests and is never defeated." With that said Ranma let go of Chibiusa's hand and started walking away from the Scouts. Just as Ranma reach the edge of the roof he created a teleportation vortex and calmly stepped through leaving the Scouts behind.