The best part of being a professional model, 18 decided, was that sometimes the agency would give her whatever it was she was modeling to keep. So far only a small few had let her take anything with her. A few swimsuits here and a handful of nice heels there had been enough to make her content. She had been contemplating the pros and cons of just stealing the beautiful jewelry that was the subject of today's shoot if they didn't allow her to keep it. But, fortunately for everyone else, they allowed her to keep them.
Walking down the hall toward her changing room, she shot a glance over at Nabiki who was currently having a heated conversation with someone she didn't recognize. It was probably something related to future work with this company, but she didn't really care all that much. She absentmindedly gave the younger girl a nod of acknowledgement as she disappeared into the changing room, stepping in front of the mirror to admire the intricate designs of the hoop earrings she was currently wearing.
Her beauty was important to 18. It was incredibly vain, she knew that. But it was one of the few things she allowed herself to hold onto from when she was Lazuli. Clothes were a luxury. Looking pretty was a frivolous, wasteful use of money. When your next meal wasn't secured, or you didn't have a roof over your head, using what little money they got on makeup, jewelry or clothes never made sense. Being able to have an extensive wardrobe was a status symbol for her, something that she had once considered a pipedream was now reality.
The woman in the mirror was drop dead gorgeous. She turned heads when she walked down the street. Making people look at her enviously or with desire made her feel powerful. Making people quake with fear over her strength appealed to the sadistic side of her, sure. But the ability to make someone swoon in lust or shake with jealousy, over something as simple as her looks? To be compared to the divine?
There was nothing more empowering for the girl who despised feeling weak and powerless.
Glancing up from her introspection at the sound of the door opening, 18 gave a courteous nod to her manager, who was dressed in a smart business suit while clutching a binder to her chest. Notably, her business suit had pants instead of a skirt. This was notable because the blatant sexism towards women was much worse on this planet, to the point that Nabiki was a bit of an anomaly. Women in business were apparently frowned upon by the older generations, which was just so barbaric to 18.
"You seem happy." 18 remarked as she turned to make eye contact. "Strong arm someone into a favorable position?"
Nabiki nodded happily, giving a toothy, almost predatory grin. "Something like that. I opted out of an option with our contract with this company, and in return we're getting much better rates whenever we work with them in the future."
More money was always a good thing as far as 18 was concerned. Pushing away from the mirror, she crossed the room to pack away the stuff in her purse, which she then deposited into the Hidden Weapons space that she had created with Ranma's instruction.
The Hidden Weapons space was frankly absurd. Gero had hundreds of documents theorizing about the creation of subspace pockets, all of which had been forcibly inserted into her head, but the old bastard had never cracked the code on it. Hell, he'd never even cracked the code on Capsule technology, which was just a step away from subspace pockets. The fact that this technique existed in this seemingly technologically backward world, when neither Gero or any of the Briefs family's geniuses could figure it out, was insane. It had legitimately baffled her the first time Ranma had casually pulled a fresh towel and a new change of clothes out of her pants pocket after ending up in the koi pond during a sparring session.
"Does it impact me at all?" 18 questioned as they exited the changing room, heading for the elevators.
"It shouldn't directly. It's the type of thing that if it comes up, it will impact everybody, not just you." Nabiki paused with a slightly more thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, I guess it would be correct of me to say that it will impact everyone else but you. Though it's hard for me to tell since I'm struggling to gauge just how strong you are compared to Ranma." She mused, slyly attempting to fish for information out of sheer habit more than anything.
18 frowned at that, flicking the younger girl on the forehead in annoyance. Much like Ranma, she detested that type of behavior, preferring to keep things straight and simple. "Stop that. If you want to know something, just ask me and I'll either tell you or I won't. Simple as that."
Yelping more out of surprise than actual pain, Nabiki shot a glare at 18 as they entered the elevator. Nabiki was a good judge of character, and had long noticed that was a trait the eldest Saotome child shared with Ranma. Neither liked mincing their words, and preferred it straight. And she normally did keep things straight with the older woman she was slowly considering a true friend. She had just slipped into that question out of sheer habit.
"So, 18." Nabiki tried again as they began their descent. "I know you're probably the strongest person in Nerima after seeing Kuno's sword shatter on you and all… But just how strong are you exactly?"
She had been waiting for Nabiki to just outright ask ever since the whole thing with the weak swordsman. 18 had long decided that while she wouldn't tell the girl outright, she would give her a slightly obscured version of the truth. Nabiki was a girl who hated not knowing things. Even if she didn't do all the information gathering and selling and had instead lived a normal life, she probably would have been a terrible gossip. The girl was just naturally nosy.
Frankly, she was impressed that the younger girl had the willpower to hold out on asking for as long as she had, considering it'd been days since that incident.
"I'm the strongest being on this planet." She answered after thinking about it for a brief moment. As much as she liked Nabiki, she wasn't certain the girl could handle the full truth. And as far as she could tell at least, she would be shocked to find many people on this planet that outdid her brother, so she didn't think it would be unfair to just say it like that. "Ranma, Cologne and Genma are probably better than me in terms of pure technique and technical skill. If you were to boost them up to my level, they'd probably beat me more often than not."
Nabiki quietly mulled that over, watching the red number fall as they approached the lobby. It was hard to wrap your head around the concept, yet she couldn't really fault it. Ranma had been a part of the destruction of two different mountains, his adventures literally changing the landscape and requiring maps to be redrawn. A month of observing Ranma get his ass kicked routinely by 18 made it hard to refute the point. A month of constant training against anyone else in Ranma's life would have seen him catapulting past them in skill level. But 18 just moved the goalpost even farther with every leap in skill Ranma made. She supposed it was entirely possible that she really was the strongest being on the planet.
"Well, Juuban offers a certain insurance to any contractors that travel into the district for work. It's part and parcel for their medical insurance for anyone who lives in the city, but a lot of outsiders tend to not believe in the existence of Youma."
"Youma?
"Demons kind of, but they're not traditional Oni's. They're… Constructs I guess? I don't really understand where they come from or why they were made, but they exist for the sole purpose of causing chaos and draining people of their life energy. Usually, it's the job of the Sailor Senshi to take care of them, as they're the protectors of this area. But as they can just kinda… Show up wherever, they can't always respond before people get hurt. Normally, outside contractors would take out insurance on a Youma attack, but I decided to take a calculated risk so we could get more money instead." Nabiki explained as the elevator slowed to a halt, letting them out as they walked toward the exit.
For all her bravado, if any Youma actually did show up, she was a little worried. Truth be told, she wasn't certain how any of the Martial Artists of Nerima would handle the Youma's in a fight. To her knowledge, the life-draining demons never made a move on Nerima for whatever reason. So her opting out of the Youma insurance was a genuine gamble. She was counting on 18's skills that she had observed to be enough to defeat them, or at the very least, escape them.
"The hell is a Sailor Senshi?"
"Magical girls."
Android 18 scoffed, shaking her head as if Nabiki told a joke, though the scoff disappeared when she glanced over at her. "You're serious?"
"Very. Is it really so farfetched? I mean, your little brother is a magical girl too in a sense."
The joke earned a snort of amusement out of 18. "Point. But really? Magical girls? Like those anime Kasumi likes to watch? With all the poses, silly speeches, transformations and embarrassing get ups?"
Nabiki snickered in response as they rounded the corner to exit the building. "The very same." She quipped, any more words she had dying in her throat as they passed through the double doors into the eerily quiet streets. At four in the afternoon, the city was usually still bustling with life and activity, the sounds of people and traffic should be making it difficult to hear anybody you weren't within touching distance of. And yet, there was none of that. No cars, no people walking and talking. None of the things that should be happening were. Nabiki felt the blood draining from her face as her eyes followed the trail of still bodies laying on the sidewalk to a sight that made her knees weak.
The thing with Youma's, is that they aren't created naturally. They do not have a uniform look, each Youma is completely unique to the next, depending on what material or object they were combined with. One could be made out of a vending machine, while another was made from tires. Or perhaps another could be made from a tree, or even a teddy bear. Youma took everyday objects and wore them as a twisted mockery of humanity, their grotesque and terrifying features meant to instill fear into their prey.
Because they were predators. And for Nabiki, who was a regular person? She was their prey.
Her eyes followed the trail of still bodies laid out on the sidewalk until they found a veritable hoard of Youma. Her breath caught in her throat, hoping against all odds that they weren't noticed. But there was no chance of that happening, Youma's were bloodhounds for life energy, so the moment they got close enough to see them, the horde had already begun to notice them. A scream of terror began to build in Nabiki's throat, she wasn't ready to die, she had so much to live for, so much to do, so many wrongs to right, so many people to prove wrong she didn't want to die she couldn't she was scared so scared it was scary why her why now why -
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those things are the Youma you're talking about?" 18 asked, her nonchalance washing over Nabiki like a bucket of ice water, allowing her to regain a bit of her composure. "Pretty grotesque looking. You said they feed on people?" The blonde asked as she reached up and began taking off her new earrings.
Nabiki could only give a small nod in response, jumping a little as the cold metal of the earrings were pressed into her hands. The air around Android 18 was palpable, even to her. She felt… Dangerous. Far more dangerous than the Youma. "Y-Yeah, they absorb energy from people to get stronger…" Nabiki trailed off, gulping as the sense of danger coming from her companion spiked, a sadistic, nearly feral grin forming on 18's face.
"So they're Ki vampires huh? Shouldn't be any issue." Android 18 spoke in an even cadence, not giving away the extreme distaste she was feeling for the creatures in front of her. They reminded her far too much of what Gero had turned himself into, a Ki draining monster without any shred of humanity. Pulling her hand up in the shape of a finger gun, as it radiated with the golden light of her Ki flaring into existence. Taking aim, she fired off the condensed beam of golden Ki, the sheer power kicking up a gust of wind as it barrelled down the road, piercing through the horde of Youma, each one touched by the beam exploding into golden dust. "Stay here and enjoy the show, okay?"
Without wasting another moment, the blonde burst into motion. Faster than anyone could track, she disappeared, blinking into existence in the face of a Youma. Gripping the sides of the head of the Youma that was once a phone booth, she viciously rammed her knee into its face, caving what was supposed to be its skull in with enough destructive force to cause the Youma to explode into dust. Silence settled on the street for a few seconds as she landed on the ground, dusting herself off as she casually looked around at the mass of demons around her. It amused her greatly to see the looks of shock on the faces of what were supposed to be monstrous beings.
The mob stood in stunned silence for a long few moments, before from the crowd, one particularly brave Youma that hadn't quite seen what had actually happened spoke up. "What are you all doing?! It's just one pesky girl, and she's not even a Senshi! Drain her of her life energy, so that the Dark Kingdom may rise again! Attack sisters!"
Flicking a strand of hair out of her face and tucking it behind an ear, she gave a lazy, yet contemptuous smirk that would've shocked Nabiki with how similar it was to Ranma's if she could see it. Not bothering to answer as a tide of bodies swarmed at her, she moved in that tight, highly efficient manner of hers, making use of her foundation in Anything Goes that had been getting refined with Ranma's help to guide the blows of her enemies to go where she wanted them to.
Her personal interpretation of Anything Goes was different from what the Saotome and Tendo versions currently were, so different that it was almost like a third branch of the school. The Tendo style was to dominate the ground, while the Saotome style was to control the air. Android 18's style was in fact far more reminiscent of Genma's original creation when it had been a nameless, unfinished style, before Happosai had convinced him that such a style was a poor fit for his body type and his temperament. Akane had once complained after a rigorous sparring session that fighting Ranma was like trying to fight a hyperactive grasshopper that just wouldn't sit still, but fighting 18 was more like fighting a specter. You would think you'd find an opening in her stance that was begging to be exploited, only to find that when you tried to strike that she was no longer there, while all your effort and energy put into the blow was wasted.
This simple dance of death began, with the various monsters gnashing their teeth as they attempted to grab the irritating blonde that was gliding around their outstretched limbs. She didn't respond with any attacks of her own just yet, content to ghost around the battlefield with her Ki senses open. Shockingly, she was unable to actually sense any of the Youma, which shouldn't have been possible given how weak they were. The only Ki she could sense was the Ki leaving the bodies of the ones she had killed, which she was able to vaguely track as it flowed back into the victim's bodies. She was overwhelmingly stronger than these beings, so concealing their Ki shouldn't be possible. The fact that she couldn't sense their Ki meant that Nabiki's information was indeed correct. These were constructs.
Something she was quite familiar with. Something she hated.
One thing 18 had noticed in this brief first contact was that the Youma were not used to fighting foes skilled in close combat. Only 2 of the main 9 Senshi had any appreciable hand to hand combat skills, and of those 2, neither could deal as much punishing damage with their bodies as this one woman was doing to them. Youma were used to chasing after targets that didn't fight back, and they were generally the ones vastly outnumbered by their opponents instead of the other way around.
In other words, they were in a terrible mismatch. They didn't know what to expect, and they didn't know how to coordinate their assaults.
Deciding she'd had enough of dancing around various mutated limbs and claws grasping at her, she resumed her assault. In a move that looked slow, but was far too fast for any of the Youma to react to, she lazily lashed out with a backhand, swatting at a Youma that had drills for hands. The twisting screech of metal snapping sung loudly as the Youma was launched down the road, tumbling until it crashed into a lamppost, its body turning to dust after a brief moment. 18 ducked under another blow, ghosting in to strike a Youma that seemed to be made of glass in the jaw, shattering it's skull and causing it to explode into dust.
In a burst of rapid movement, she disappeared from her somewhat vulnerable spot, only to reappear in the air between two Youma that she lashed out with a foot each. Catching them both in the head, the vast power difference was demonstrated once again as each was immediately dusted.
After sticking the landing, she wasted no time in leaning back at an angle that would make professional gymnasts weep with envy in order to dodge a tire that had been launched at her. Using her hands as a springboard, she used both feet to launch a mule kick into the chest of a shopping cart themed Youma, launching it to the sky. Disappearing once again, as several projectile based attacks were launched at her old position, she appeared above the currently airborne Youma with her fists clasped over her head in a double axe handle.
Slamming down with a vicious glee, she was pleased by the crash as the impact took out another large chunk of the Ki suckers. Gathering her Ki in a golden light over one hand, she almost subconsciously made note of the sight of 9 figures jumping across the rooftops towards her. Unable to ascertain at a glance if those people were friendly or not, she decided to apply the lesson Cell had taught her about overestimating her capabilities. "High-Pressure Energy Wave!" She called, unleashing her most devastating attack yet as a wide beam of Ki shot out of her hands. With a flick of her hand, the attack passed through the crowd of Youma, dusting dozens of them in one fell swoop, culling them to nearly a third of their original number.
She might have toyed with the Youma more if it weren't for the fact that two of those approaching nine actually had a decent Ki signature. It was shocking to find one person that had so much more power than Ranma, let alone two. And while they certainly weren't any threat to her, the fact that they existed and were so close to Nerima meant that 18 had fuel to tease her little brother with.
Regardless, the thought of sharing in the first fight she'd had since arriving here where she didn't need to worry all too much about holding back was irritating. So she'd end her fun here.
Sailor Pluto was not having a good day.
Being visited by your future self who had a knowing smirk and simply uttered a rather ominous 'Good luck' would ruin anyone's day. This had led to her frantically consulting the Time Gates, desperate to find out why her future self had been so cryptically smug, with that smirk on her face that said 'I know something you don't'.
The issue was that she couldn't find anything wrong. The girls had dealt with all of their own threats quite well, and were enjoying the peace before the Great Freeze that they rightfully earned. The other threats to Crystal Tokyo around the world were being dealt with by their respective protectors of peace, though it didn't hurt to double check.
The conflict with the mass murderer in magical Britain was going to reach a tipping point soon, but the odds were very heavily in young Harry Potter's favor after some interference and manipulation on her end. The demon's Shendu and Drago were both banished back to Hell at the hands of Jackie Chan and his crew. Kim Possible was doing good work in preventing any smaller time villains from escalating into much larger threats. The situation in Jump City with Trigon coming to Earth still warranted her monitoring of the situation, but she was certain that the Teen Titans could handle it without requiring her interference. Letting Kagome Higurashi use the Bone Eater Well to time travel to deal with the Shikon no Tama was not something she relished in doing, but had never found a better alternative to. And thankfully, Saffron had been dealt with well over a year ago.
The Saffron situation had, admittedly, been almost entirely luck. It was the one major instance around the world that could have had intense implications on the future of Crystal Tokyo that she could not for the life of her find a solution to easily. Saffron's descent into madness was comically bad timing wise. Every potential answer that had been available to her at the time when she had begun planning was already wrapped up in their own conflicts. She couldn't whisk them away to China to deal with Saffron without risking their own situation spiraling out of control. It had been a huge gamble on her part, one that had thankfully paid off. Relying on blind faith and good information was terrifying, but she simply couldn't find any other way.
But it all worked out somehow. She still couldn't really understand how it happened, but the fact of the matter was that China wasn't razed to the ground. So either her desperate gambit worked, or someone else had rolled along and taken care of it. And with the resolution of Saffron, there weren't any more enemies to deal with, nor potential world-ending threats that needed addressing. Any that were still going were already well on the way to being wrapped up.
Sure, there was still the occasional Youma appearance that kept the girls in shape, but nothing that required her to constantly monitor the timeline. Admittedly, she had gotten rather complacent, and in turn had allowed the girls to also get complacent. After 10,000 years of plotting, planning, calculating and scheming, she deserved a chance to take a break. And unlike herself, the rest of the girls were just that, young girls. They needed time to be young and carefree before the Great Freeze came.
But, before she could really descend into a panic over what her future self's cryptic message meant, her communicator had gone off, with a panicked Ami informing them all that an unprecedented mass of Youma's had appeared on the outskirts of Juuban.
Pluto was extremely tempted to brush off the call and let the others handle this so she could launch a full investigation into what her future self could have possibly have meant, but the logical part of her head won out. After all, there was surely some correlation between her future self visiting and the largest Youma outbreak they'd seen yet. Perhaps this was a final stand of the Dark Kingdom that had somehow gone unnoticed by the Time Gates?
So, opening a portal, she found that the other girls were already leaping across the rooftops at breakneck speeds. Nodding to her Princess, she fell in line, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Mercury suddenly cried out in shock, causing everyone to tense up as she kept her focus on the readings her visor was feeding her. "I-I think someone must be fighting them! The concentration of Negaverse energy just dropped sharply!"
"Isn't that a good thing? Maybe we have some new allies!" Venus attempted to raise the mood, which worked for about half the Senshi, until Mars spoke up.
"Or a new enemy." Mars frowned, shooting an accusatory look towards Pluto. "I thought you said we were done with major threats until the Great Freeze!"
"I would love to shoot down that idea, but I was visited by my future self today." Pluto responded grimly, careful not to let her confused nerves show. "All she said was good luck. I haven't had a chance to properly investigate yet."
Several Senshi blanched at that, but Moon shook them out of it before anyone could even begin to contemplate what the implications of such an ominous message were. "Look over there! There's a flying woman! I'm pretty sure she just looked at us before firing that beam!" She pointed out, giving the Senshi something tangible to focus on.
The girls stepped on the gas when the woman seemingly disappeared from sight one moment to the next. But when they got to the edge of the buildings over which the readings indicated there were Youma, they were shocked to find that there wasn't a single one!
"Uh… Mercury? Didn't you say there were over a hundred Youma here?" Sailor Moon asked, stilling as she took in the scene of destruction, gold dust and unconscious bodies. It was a scene they were somewhat accustomed to seeing, but the lack of any actual Youma was a bit jarring.
"I-I don't understand…" Mercury stammered, trying to make sense of what the readings were telling her. "They… They were all right here! But the Negaverse energy is all gone now! All the life energy that was harvested… It's flowing back to the original owners!" She exclaimed in shock. It was undoubtedly a good thing, but it was still very jarring to the reincarnated warriors of love and justice. Each had come expecting a big fight, but the fight was over before they could even arrive. "A-And there's some kind of third energy? It's like… It's a lot like life energy, but slightly different? But that can't be right…" The genius stammered, pulling out the Mercury Computer and beginning to type away furiously.
It was then that Jupiter spoke up. "Hey, isn't that the flying woman over there?" She called out, spotting the blonde who was currently standing in front of a brunette that was wearing a suit, talking about something while she seemed to be putting earrings on. The brunette certainly seemed a little shaken and harried, but otherwise seemed largely unharmed. In contrast, the blonde's body language didn't even begin to give away that they had just been flying and shooting energy beams. But they stood out on the silent street as they were the only two conscious people besides the just arrived Senshi, so they quickly drew the attention of the girls.
"Well… Maybe she is a good guy? If she was a bad guy, wouldn't she have attacked us, or ran away by now?" The normally quiet Saturn spoke up, glancing nervously around at the older Senshi.
"Or it's a trick. Mighty convenient for a battalion of Youma to appear, only for a new 'ally' to appear and take them all out before we could even arrive on the scene." The ever skeptic Uranus spoke up, earning a nod of agreement from Neptune.
Sailor Moon stayed quiet for a long few moments before speaking up again. "Well, we won't know for certain without talking to them!" She chirped brightly, abruptly leaping down to street level and bounding towards the mysterious woman before any of her Senshi could stop her.
The unease in Pluto's stomach continued to roil, as they all followed their Princess in exasperation. And as they got even closer, her feelings got even worse. It was vague, but she could swear she could recognize the mysterious blonde woman.
"... you were right to not take out insurance on those things. They're weak as hell." The blonde was speaking to the brunette in a monotone manner, casually talking about the fight with the brunette. The pair turned to face the Senshi as they landed on the street, with Sailor Moon gleefully and brightly giving a wave.
"Hello! I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me?" The ever chipper Princess greeted with a bright smile, earning an owlish look from Nabiki and Android 18.
"Each question directed to my client is going to be 5000 yen a piece." Nabiki wasted no time in demanding, stepping around 18 to stand in front, hoping that she appeared to be calmer than she actually was in reality.
18 rolled her eyes, not batting an eye as the rest of the girls leaped down from the roofs. "Ignore her. I'll answer whatever questions you have as long as they're reasonable." She stated, earning a look of betrayal from Nabiki.
"How could you? Think of all the yen we could make!" Nabiki chastised 18, unaware that her presence was setting alarm bells off in the head of one Sailor Pluto. Nabiki Tendo was someone that had great potential as both a force of good and a force of evil.
"Um… Well, are you good people? We saw you fighting what we assumed to be the Youma's we were coming after, and you must be pretty strong if you took care of them all by yourself! I'd really hate it if you ended up being our enemy." Moon questioned point blank, seeing no point in not being direct, and unknowingly scoring points in 18's book.
18 had an amused expression on her face, and she gave a light shrug to the magical girl. "I can't say I'm a particularly good person, but if you're asking if I'm your enemy, then the answer is no unless you give me a reason to be." She answered, despite Nabiki's continued protests.
"Come on 18, it's simple business. Don't answer questions for free!" She whined, though her expression showed that she wasn't nearly as upset about this as she was acting.
However, by naming the unknown blonde as 18, a jolt of recognition shot down Pluto's spine. And she was unable to stop the look of pure horror from crossing her face. The sounds of the conversation were drowned out by the pure panic racing through her head. How was she here? This was supposed to be impossible. This woman was so incredibly dangerous, she wasn't supposed to be here at all! Did this mean the other one was here as well? Which timeline did they come from? Were they going to massacre everyone?
Saturn noticed quite quickly the panic on her normally stoic pseudo-mother figure, something that greatly confused her. "Pluto? Are you okay?" She whispered quietly, tugging on the sleeve of Pluto's fuku in worry.
Glancing down at Saturn, she attempted to give her a reassuring smile, but failed greatly. When she looked up again, she couldn't help but recoil from the gaze leveled her way by the sharp, calculating eyes of Android 18. "Yes, Pluto… Are you okay?" She called, with a hint of an edge of threat to her tone. Though if that was imagined or not was unclear, as Pluto was thoroughly intimidated at this point.
The other girls all turned to look at her, expressions mixed between bewilderment, concern and confusion. The normally unflappable Sailor Pluto was clearly stressed out, but why?
Licking dry lips, Pluto considered what to do for a long few seconds. "... H-How… Y-You shouldn't be here… How are you here?" She questioned the Android after gathering her courage, giving away that she was previously aware of her existence.
18's eyes narrowed dangerously, unnerving the more combat experienced Senshi. "Well now… I don't believe that's best talked about in public now, is it?"
Pluto swallowed nervously. "Ah… Of course… If you wish to discuss this in private, you can follow me?" She allowed, tapping her staff on the ground and opening a portal, while each of the Senshi gawked at her. None of them had ever even seen the Time Gates, and yet here she was inviting a total stranger there? Just to speak to them in private?
Android 18 considered that portal for a moment. "Can you open those anywhere?" She asked, getting an affirmative nod in response before turning to look at Nabiki. "I want you to go home, Nabiki. Nothing should happen, but on the off chance it does, you don't need to be caught in the crossfire."
This raised everyone's hackles, the underlying threat plain to see. For Nabiki's part, she was just greatly confused, shooting looks between the Senshi and 18. On the one hand, her nosy nature was practically frothing at the mouth to get her hands on what was surely going to be an information gold mine. But on the other, she thought back to their earlier conversation. Maybe… Maybe it would be best to just ask 18 about this later.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again to give her friend a nod. Friendship and trust was a two way street. And she… She found herself valuing the friendship she formed with 18. Being bullheaded here would hurt that. "Fine, but if you're late for dinner, I'm not going to stop Genma from eating your portion." She jokingly threatened, smiling at the small chuckle 18 responded with.
"I hear you. You should hurry up and go, you're cutting it close if you want to catch the next train." She responded with a smile, earning a few owlish blinks as Nabiki checked her watch before nodding in agreement, hustling off.
Leaving the 10 of them alone. "I take it you know where I'm staying, correct?" 18 asked, not waiting for a response. "Open a portal behind Ranma. I want him here for this." She demanded, leaving no room for argument as she went ahead and stepped through the portal.
The other Senshi all stared at Pluto, greatly confused by the turn of events. "Well… Come on. You all might as well be here as well." Sailor Pluto sighed, taking a moment to gather her composure before stepping through the portal, the other 8 girls hot on her heels.
Sitting at the table and working on his homework, Ranma couldn't help but wonder why nobody ever came to bother him when he was desperately bored. His sister and Nabiki were off on a job, Akane was with Yuka and Sayuri, the old men were playing shogi, and Nodoka and Kasumi were in the kitchen working on dinner.
What he would give for someone to attack him right now…
Of course, despite thinking that, that doesn't mean he was at all prepared for a portal to open behind him, with an arm snaking out to grab him by the collar of his shirt and yank him through it.
A bewildered Soun and Genma blinked a few times at the spot Ranma had previously been occupying. Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, they turned, nodded sagely at each other, and returned to their game.
The boy could take care of himself. Probably.
Ranma grunted as he was pulled through the portal, landing gracelessly on his ass. "Hey what's the big idea?" He yelled, rubbing his butt as he took in his surroundings. Wherever he was, it was quite bizarre. If he wasn't mistaken, they were in a strange void, with a strange view of the stars that was disorienting from the boy who had only ever seen them while ground bound. Off in the distance there was a door of some kind that gave him the heebie jeebies. So instead, he focused on what was ahead of him. Which was a collection of magical girls he recognized as the Sailor Senshi, two of which were looking at him hungrily in a way he easily recognized from his more desperate suitors.
"Oh. I've had this nightmare before." He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Er… If any of you girls have had any dealings with Genma Saotome, please take it up with him and not me? I've got enough fiancee issues as it is."
Suddenly, he felt himself get lifted and set on his feet, while the comforting bored drawl of his sister sounded out from behind him. "Do I want to know what the hell you're talking about?" Android 18 asked, before shaking her head. "Never mind. I decided I don't want to know right now. We can talk about that later."
Ranma's nervous laughter died in his throat. Of all the ways for the fact that there was more to the fiance situation than he had shared to come to light… "O-Oh. Hey sis. Uh… Where are we?"
"This is the home of the Time Gates. Technically speaking, we are no longer on Earth." A tall, green haired woman spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. Interestingly, Ranma noted, she shot a fearful glance at 18.
"... Right. So… Why are we here?"
"To get answers." 18 answered coldly, startling Ranma just a little bit by how she was acting. "So you better start talking. Now."
Sailor Pluto gripped her staff tighter and gave a stiff nod. "Ah. Right. Well… Where to begin. Well… I am Sailor Pluto, acting Guardian of both Pluto and Earth."
This earned a startled noise from the other Senshi, but she didn't address it. There would be a lot of things she would be revealing, and if she stopped to explain every little thing, this would take ages. "It is here that I watch over Earth, and try to guide it to a prosperous future. Time does not flow linearly in this realm, so it's more viable than you might otherwise think. With the assistance of the Time Gates, I can view the past and the future, and make informed decisions about what is going to happen to Earth and its inhabitants, while trying to guide them towards a better future."
"One of the main ways I work is in the support of heroic people. I offer them guidance, and occasionally, training. And in return, they act as my agents to handle the various threats to the world that we the Senshi are either unprepared to deal with, or are too busy to deal with. My modus operandi is to work in the shadows, and it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that I am the Goddess of this world. I am a very low level deity mind you, but each of us Senshi were at one point minor divine beings."
The Senshi's were all extremely startled at that, with Ranma sharing in their confusion, while Android 18's face maintained its carefully sculpted mask of indifference. Ignoring the questions coming from the girls, Pluto kept her eyes glued fearfully on Android 18. "It is from here that I work. I guide heroes to defeat terrible villains. And I've done so for the last 10,000 years, since the fall of the Silver Millenium. Not every hero was successful, many times there have been failures on my end. But, lately my track record has been quite good. All the world-ending threats since the awakening of the reincarnated Senshi had been accounted for, and were on track to be handled by the individuals I've charged with handling them. Except one. Saffron."
With that, she turned her gaze off 18 for the first time, turning her attention to Ranma, who blinked in confusion. "Huh? But... I've never met you before. You didn't guide me in defeating Saffron at all!"
And Pluto simply nodded at that. "Indeed. I didn't guide you, because I couldn't."
"Well why not?!" Ranma responded hotly. As much as he liked to think he handled the Saffron fight easily, the truth of the matter was that it was very touch and go. There were several times during that fight where he had been fully prepared to perish. He would never have admitted it out loud, but having some help with the overgrown chicken would've been greatly appreciated.
"Because you aren't from this Earth." 18's cool voice washed over Ranma's heated anger. "Am I right?" She questioned, earning an expression of shock from Pluto and the other girls.
"That's… Correct. Yes. There are some rules that I have to abide by, and one of those is that I cannot interfere with the lives of people outside of my jurisdiction. If you had a mother or father that was native to this Earth, I could have given you guidance and aid."
"Wait, what do you mean you aren't from this Earth?" Mercury piped up, unable to contain herself.
"Exactly what it sounds like. This isn't the only universe out there Mercury. In fact, there are 12. And the Universe we belong to is called Universe 6. These two," Pluto paused, gesturing towards Ranma and 18. "Along with their parents, are from our twin Universe. Universe 7."
18 sighed, as she hated every time any theory of Gero's that had been stuffed in her head was proven to be true. "I was really hoping that wasn't the case. So how did we end up here?"
At this point, Pluto's body language became distinctly uncomfortable. "Ah… Well… Truthfully, I have no idea how you are here. As for Ranma, Genma and Nodoka… That's because I brought them here?"
18 lost control of her emotions. A stifling pressure exploded out of her, a pure white aura exploding into existence that made everyone's knee's buckle, barring Ranma, who was spared. Pink Ki blossomed to life on her fingers, ready to blast the damned woman who just admitted to ruining her life to smithereens. She was the one who took her parents away. She was the one who condemned her to a life of poverty and thievery. She was the one who set her on the path of being noticed by the bastard Gero. It was all her fault. She was the reason she was a monster. And so the monster of her creation would get her retribution. She would pay the price for daring to ruin her life. She was going to break this woman, leave her at the very edge of life and death, and then she would force her to watch as she-
18 felt strong arms wrap around her from behind, desperately holding tightly to her. "Sis! Calm down! Don't do something you're going to regret!" Ranma yelled, hugging her desperately from behind, muscles straining as he tried to prevent her from shooting a Ki blast at the girls. He could guess some of why she was reacting this way. And while he certainly understood, he wasn't going to just let 18 do something so incredibly rash in a fit of rage, no matter how much this Pluto woman might have deserved it.
For a long, horrified second, the Senshi thought they were all going to die. Just like this. But, with a great deal of visible struggle, 18 restrained herself. It was a slow thing, but the ominous pink glowing disappeared, and then the blindingly white aura seeped back inside of her. Taking a long, shaky breath in, 18 spoke again. "You can let go Ranma. I'm calm."
It took a few moments for the boy's muscles to relax, and he slowly quit hugging her so tightly. But to the surprise of them both, he did not release the hug completely, instead shifting it to a simple side hug. A show of emotional support that 18 couldn't even begin to express how much it meant to her.
Ranma would readily admit that he was a bit emotionally stunted, but he learned from their talk around the campfire that his sister needed a physical anchor when her emotions flared like this. She had been a lot more touchy ever since they had that talk, so he'd gradually gotten a little accustomed to shows of affection like this.
Taking a deep breath, and drawing strength from the support Ranma was giving her, she opened her eyes and returned to her usual state of cold impassivity. Which was greatly preferred for the Senshi than the show of angry power. "Explain yourself."
Shakily, the Senshi stood back up, now with a far more fearful look in their eyes. Clearing her throat in an attempt to regain some composure, Pluto began to do just that. "Ah… Well, you see. 20 years ago, I was trying to find someone capable of handling the Saffron situation, but there was simply nobody around that could that wasn't already preoccupied with something else. And no matter where I looked, I simply couldn't find anyone with enough potential to deal with the issue."
"I was lamenting that fact, while using the time gates to watch the going ons of your universe's Earth. You see, I can use the gates to view events on either Earth, though I can only use the gates to affect things on this Earth normally. I was watching a… Sped up version of events, when suddenly everything just went to shit on your Earth. Life was being wiped out, people were dying, and nobody could stop the two monsters from wiping out humanity. It was quite jarring to watch your world deteriorate as it went through an apocalypse, but suddenly, the timelines split."
She took a shaky breath. "You see, a genius mortal created a means of time travel. And she sent her son back to the past, hoping to fix everything. And the moment I realized that the time stream surrounding your Earth was unstable… I saw an opportunity. Normally, it would be impossible for me to interfere with another Universe using the Time Gates. But because a mortal of your own Universe messed with time first, I could use that opportunity to meddle with myself. Granted, this would still be a massive risk that would probably end with my erasure… But the Supreme Kai owed me a favor."
Pluto gave an awkward laugh. "And… Well, I cashed in that favor. There were some stipulations about what I could do, and I couldn't greatly change the trajectory of anyone's lives. In your original timeline, Genma and Nodoka didn't disappear like that. Instead, you would live as a normal family for a few more years. Genma would take 17 on a small training trip, during which he would stop at a bar to drink with an old friend. He would go on to brag loudly about how strong his son was, and how strong his next son would surely be as well, as his wife was pregnant with a second son. The whole time, he was completely unaware of the fact that Dr. Gero was there and had overheard him. The man was stewing in his desire for vengeance for the destruction of the Red Ribbon Army, and hearing Genma's boasts gave him an idea."
18's breath caught in her throat. She could see where this was going. "Fuck."
Pluto gave her a wan smile and a grim nod. "Indeed. Not even a year later, Gero made his move. His soldiers assaulted your town, killed Genma and Nodoka, and took the three of you in for his experiments. And he succeeded in doing that which he failed in this timeline."
"He erased our personalities." 18 murmured, knuckles creaking as she clenched her fist tight.
"Watching your youngest sibling and your parents' deaths drove you and 17 to the point of insanity. You weren't even teenagers yet after all. You had no way of coping. And from there, Gero was able to succeed in erasing you, turning you into a husk of a human being that he programmed to despise all life on Earth. The two monsters that were set on eradicating all life on Earth… Were you and your brother."
Ranma's hug on his sister tightened, giving her the physical grounding she needed. It didn't happen. Ranma was here, he was alive. Her parents were alive. She was a monster still, but she wasn't *that* monster.
"By taking away your parents, it forced you and 17 to mature more rapidly, while also delaying Gero finding you by almost a full decade. And by doing that, this universe gained a new, formidable warrior that would hopefully have the potential to stand up to Saffron. Which… I like to think it was a success."
Ranma grimaced. "Was there really not a better way?"
"No. At least, not one that was within my ability to interfere with. This was the best I could do." She sighed, rolling her neck and counting her lucky stars that she was alive right now. "As for how you got here 18… I'm afraid I don't actually know. For all intents and purposes, you shouldn't be here."
A silence descended for a brief period of time. "Could it have anything to do with Cell?" 18 asked, earning a confused look from Pluto.
"I… Do not recognize the name. Who is that?"
It was Android 18's turn to blink in surprise. "What? Cell… He was Gero's ultimate creation. He took the DNA of the universe's greatest fighters, and created Cell using them. Cell… He was chasing perfection. And his perfection involved absorbing 17 and I into him. It's… The last memory I have. He absorbed me, and then suddenly I was here on this Earth."
Pluto's perplexed look didn't go away with that explanation. "I… There was no such thing as a Cell in the timelines I viewed, granted, I didn't watch all of the timeline Universe 7's Earth is currently on. I stopped viewing when Gero took you and your brother, as I only needed to confirm that your overall destiny was unchanged by my interference." Sailor Pluto then pointed her staff - with the Garnet Orb at the end glowing - at the Time Gates. She then peered into the Orb, as if watching something nobody else could see.
A few minutes of tense, awkward silence followed, with nobody daring to say a word. But Pluto finally broke the silence. "Ah. That's…" She trailed off, considering her words carefully. "It would seem that there was a second usage of the time machine, about a year after the initial use that I did not detect. It would appear that this Cell is actually from even further into the future than the purple haired Saiyan. But he is dead now. So that doesn't explain why you're here and not in the afterlife."
18 looked extremely alarmed at that. "What?! Cell's dead?! How? He-He should have been unstoppable after absorbing me!" She questioned, to which Pluto could only give a shrug. "Would you like to watch? It'll take a while to view everything, but time doesn't move linearly here. So not much time will pass on Earth while we remain here."
This proposal earned an eager nod from everyone present. So with a bang of her staff on the ground, a projection shot out of the Garnet Orb, allowing all present to watch, beginning from the very moment 18's legs disappeared into the gaping maw of Cell's tail.
From there, they watched as Cell achieved perfection, and proceeded to toy with Vegeta and Trunks. To everyone's relief, the bug man seemed to spare the two Saiyans and all those watching, only to watch in horror as he announced the Cell Games. They watched the Cell Games, grimacing at Mr. Satan's theatrics, watched in awe of Goku's battle, gasped in horror when he gave Cell a strange bean that seemed to heal the monster and sent his young son into battle. 18 watched in horror at 16's attempted sacrifice, and cried out in shock as he was decapitated. Watching the Cell Jr's brutally beat up all the spectating Z Fighters was tough, but all of their hearts reached out when Cell crushed 16's head. They cheered when Gohan reached a new level of power, defeating the Cell Jr's swiftly before moving on to Cell. They watched with bated breath as the seemingly quiet, almost pacifistic boy turned into an arrogant warrior toying with his opponent. They recoiled in shock when Gohan kicked Cell so hard he regurgitated a male that looked a lot like Android 18, who they could only conclude was Android 17.
They watched in horror as Cell began to inflate, threatening to destroy the planet. Horror filled them as Goku sacrificed himself to save the planet. Thinking it was over, they were shocked when Cell returned, killing Trunks before anyone could react! They cried out in shock as Cell dominated the fight once more, threatening to destroy the very solar system, only to let out triumphant cheers of joy when they watched the battered Gohan fight back, overpowering Cell and disintegrating the vile creature.
They watched the battered and bruised fighters go to Kami's lookout, watching on in awe as they used the Dragonballs to revive the dead, and to the shock of 18, wished to turn the Androids back to regular people. When that proved to be impossible, and Krillin instead wished to have the bombs removed from their bodies, she couldn't help but feel a flush of emotion that she struggled to identify flare up, before being disgusted by the implication that she and her brother were dating.
The playback ended there, with Android 17 flying off in search of both 16 and 18.
"... But that doesn't explain how I ended up here?" 18 spoke up, that thought at the forefront of her mind.
Nobody had an answer for that. Silence descended on the crowd again, each with different thoughts about just what exactly they watched.
This time, it was Ranma that finally spoke up. "Hey uh… You said time flowed differently here, right?" He asked, earning a weary nod from Pluto. "Do you think we could train here?"
The question shocked everyone else present, but Ranma carried on. "I just… I already gotta long way to go to catch up to Sis here. And… I really don't wanna think about a guy like that showing up here. We'd be super screwed. I mean, Sis is the strongest person on this planet, right?" Pluto nodded in agreement. "And she couldn't stand up to that bastard even before he reached his strongest state. What if someone even stronger than him threatens this Earth? We'd be screwed!"
The light of understanding began to flicker in all those present. "But… If we train here, we can get a lot of training done without much time passing back on Earth!"
Author's Notes:
Well shit, I had seriously hoped to get this out in the middle of September, but - insert generic fanfic author excuse here - got in the way.
Really I just struggled to really sit down and write. There's no dramatic excuse. Everytime I actually successfully wrote something, I made decent progress, but there'd be like, a week or more between each attempt. But for whatever reason, while I only got like, 2000 words done in the last month, I smashed out the rest of this chapter in two days so idk what's up with that. Fight scenes, as always for me, are difficult to write due to lack of experience. But each time I do write one, I feel like I'm getting a little bit better at it. It helped that this wasn't a fight where 18 really needed to pull her punches, though I didn't really get to touch on her more sadistic fighting tendencies like I had originally planned on. Oh well.
As always, thanks so much for the love and support of this fic! October is certainly a massive month for both the Ranma and Dragonball Fandoms. The Ranma reboot began dropping episodes finally, while Sparking Zero and Dragonball Daima will be coming out in a matter of days at the time of writing this, and all of that will hopefully bring in new authors to both communities. I'll probably give both anime some time to release episodes so I can binge them, but I definitely plan on playing a lot of Sparking Zero on release. And as should come to no surprise, I plan on maining Android 18 on my team, along with probably some combination of Android 17, Tienshenhan, Trunks, Caulifla, Vegeta and Broly.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW, READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.
If you're wondering why Pluto would ever dare to bring something she considered a threat to the Time Gates, that would be because she feels that the only way to potentially stop 18 if she were to go wild was through the use of the gates. It's a risk, a stupid one, but she was incredibly intimidated by 18's mere presence.
I chose to gloss over what happens on Universe 7 during the Cell Saga, as the only major changes were noted in the fic. Namely, that 17 is the one that is thrown up when Gohan kicks Cell instead of 18. In this story, 17 was the one that was taken to Kami's lookout and had to search for her. But, for whatever reason, instead of her reviving like 17 did in the original timeline, 18 was instead sent to Universe 6!
I imagine I'm going to get at least one person commenting about this, so I'm going to cut you off before you can. Yes, I'm probably underselling the power scaling of Sailor Moon by a lot. Like a whole fucking lot. I get that Sailor Moon powerscaling is actually supposed to be universal, and she could probably only be matched by the Grand Zeno or the Grand Priest. But the truth of the matter is that my exposure to the series is limited to Ranma/Sailor Moon crossover fics and some inconclusive digging around on Sailor Moon wiki. So I will readily admit that I don't really understand the full scope of the Sailor Senshi's capabilities.
Usagi and Hotaru are both definitely planet buster level characters, I know that for a fact. But I don't really know how Usagi in particular scales up beyond that. So I made the decision to limit them to planet buster levels. We know for a fact that Vegeta during the Saiyan Saga has a power level of 18,000 and that he is a planet buster, and I personally established that for this fic, that you need a power level of 10,000 to be a planet buster class character. So, Usagi and Hotaru in this interpretation of their characters are going to be floating in the 10,000-50,000 range, with Usagi being closer to the top end while Hotaru is more in the mid to lower end.
Is this fair and accurate to the characters? I think so, but like I said I'm not well versed in Sailor Moon so it's likely I'm underselling them quite a lot. But, it's a moot point, as Usagi and Hotaru are not the reason for introducing this series into the story. I like to think I made it clear enough in what I wrote, but in case I didn't, the main reason I chose the Sailor Senshi is because two of them can fill a need that nobody in the Ranma canon could. Pluto will serve as a Kami/Dende figure with a connection to the upper echelon of gods and a training area that's akin to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, while Mercury will eventually fill a more Bulma type of role in the future.
Both of those figures I personally find to be absolutely critical to Dragon Ball canon, and while I could have spun it so that Nabiki could have filled the Bulma role, there was nobody besides perhaps Happosai and Cologne to fill the Kami/Dende role, which I had long ago decided wasn't in the cards for them. And truth be told, I don't think Nabiki is nearly techy enough to fill a Bulma role outside of AU's where Nabiki is a very different person from the start of Ranma canon. Nabiki certainly is a little techy, but it's more like hobbyist techy, where she wants high quality cameras and computer stuff for the sake of running her operations.
All that said, if people like the idea, I could see Hotaru joining Pluto and Mercury as a more frequently recurring character as I could easily see 18 developing a soft spot for her as a fellow survivor of human experimentation?
Also, I definitely don't feel like I nailed how the Sailor Moon characters act at all. So, sorry if they feel OOC.
Anyways. This was a big ass lore dump chapter. 18 now knows what happened with Cell and how she got here, Ranma witnesses the power levels 18 operates at and gets a chance to see his brother, and I got to establish that the setting for this fic is actually Universe 6! And in a twist of fate, it's actually Pluto's interference - that was only possible because she was piggybacking off the fact that Future Trunks' return to the past making it possible for her to muddle the timeline even more - that allowed the timelines to diverge so vastly.
I'm really excited, because now that it's revealed, I can really have some fun playing with the Universe 6 characters eventually. There's a lot of fun characters to play around with. Younger versions of characters with unexplored backstories are super interesting to work with, and now I have Cabba, Caulifa, Kale, Frost, Hit, Champa, Vados and the unnamed(?) Namekians to play around with. I love the idea of figuring out a way for Hit early in his career as an assassin to come after 18, or perhaps Ranma finding new sparring partners in the form of the Universe 6 Saiyans, while 18 can introduce the idea of Super Saiyan and its grades to them while providing a goal for all of them to strive for in terms of strength.
But that's all for the future. I haven't yet decided just how long this fic will be, so maybe it will happen before I find a natural stopping point for the fic? Or maybe it won't happen until a continuation fic? The Ranma cast isn't going to be cast aside no matter how excited I am by the prospect of introducing the Universe 6 cast. There's still people to meet and more lore bombs for me to drop that I think are super fun.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS ABOVE. READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.
Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I have a few final questions to leave you all with.
First, the most pressing issue, what sort of time dilation do you think is good for their training? The Hyperbolic Time Chamber at this point is 1 day = 1 year inside, with a limit of 2 uses, but that eventually is removed. I was thinking maybe something like, 1 day = 1 month? My thought behind that is that Ranma has a lot of training to do to catch up, and 18 won't really get too much benefit from their training in terms of power level until Ranma has made a sizable dent in the gap.
Secondly, a far more broad question, how do you think fics should handle the design changes to girl Ranma in the reboot? Her hair and eyes are now pink instead of the crimson red hair and blue irises that people are so used to. Should Ranma in this fic reflect that change? It is a magic curse after all, so I could just handwave the change and use it as a point of humor. I'm currently leaning towards leaving it unchanged for this fic, but plan on any future fics I write to use the new female Ranma design. But if enough people think it's a good idea to use the new design instead of the old, I could very easily be swayed to do so.
Let me know what you think.