Chaotic Waters Act 1, Chapter 10: Shadowy Voices and Old Friends.

When Mayu stumbled out of the bedroom early the next morning, it looked like she'd slept just as much as Michiru had, that is to say not all. Her raven black hair was a mess as she blearily looked around, blinking in surprise at seeing, not a teenage girl, but a teenage boy on the couch reading a book. "You're not Kaioh-san." She muttered.

"Technically I am." Takeo said, a spark of amusement flashing in his eyes. If only this girl knew just how true that statement was.

"No, Kaioh-san's a hot girl with nice boobs."

"...what?"

"What?" Mayu blinked tiredly before her eyes widened, the blood draining from her face as she realized what she had just said. "Shit!"

"Uugghhh." Mayu groaned with her head in her hands.

"It really isn't that bad."

"Uuuuggghhhhh!"

"I mean you were only giving her a compliment."

"I can't believe I said that, and to her brother too!"

"It's all right, she won't hear about it from me." The boy said with an amused grin."Granted, that's because "she" is right in front of you, but you don't need to know that."

"Oh kami-sama I told my crush's brother his sister had nice boobs."

"How can you have a crush on her, didn't you just meet a few days ago?"

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen her?!"

"I try not to think about her in that way." He replied with a deadpan stare. It was true, even in Nerima he'd never been...interested in his own body in that way. Neither of his forms did anything for him, he'd never even...well that wasn't important. "Either way, I'm not going to tell her." He stood up, stretching his arms above his head like he had done the night before. "Eggs okay?"

The Raven haired girl looked at her crush's brother oddly, somehow that stretch had seemed almost...feminine somehow. She wasn't a stranger to feminine guys or masculine women, she'd dated a few of the latter after all and seen the former a few times at the queer group she met up with once a month, but he seemed... different from them. If anything he gave off the same vibes as-

"-You okay in there?"

"Huh?"

Takeo chuckled, giving the girl a slight smile. "I asked if you were okay in there, you looked like you were lost in your head there for a second."

"Oh...sorry, I kind of was I guess." Wait, what had she been thinking about?"Something he did...? Oh well, if it's important, I'll remember later."She thought with a shrug. "You were saying something before I spaced out?"

"I asked if eggs are okay, Michi'd get pissed if I didn't offer." He said, making up a nickname for his other identity on the spot.

Mayu nodded, her face flushing when her stomach let out a small grumble of complaint. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her." She muttered, looking away from her crush's brother. "Did she leave for her job already or something?"

"Nah, she just went for her morning run. She always goes out at about this time." He lied, making a note to himself that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea."Need to stay in shape somehow until I can find somewhere to practice."He walked over to the stove and turned on one of the burners with a flick of the wrist, pulling out some ingredients from the fridge. "I only got in as she was leaving, but she let me know the situation with you, about you spending the night I mean."

"Is she always so...stubborn about helping people?"

"...I suppose that's a good way to put it." He replied after a moment, cracking a few eggs into a bowl. "Me and Michi...we had a rough childhood to say the least." He added a splash of milk along with some seasonings and herbs, mixing it up with some chopsticks. "We ended up learning quickly that walking alone at night wasn't the best idea." Granted in his situation it had more to do with walking in thewoodsalone at night. "We didn't get hurt, but we learned our lesson." He finished, adding a bit of butter into a pan.

"Huh, that actually explains some things." Mayu muttered, her nose twitching as the smell of melted butter hit her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well...did you know that her fiancé was abusing her?"

"Right...she did say you two talked about something like that last night." This again, when was this girl going to realize that Akane hadn't been abusing her, like that could ever happen. She poured the egg mix into the pan, keeping a close eye on it as she stirred. "Michi's fiancé was a lot of things. Rude, judgmental, and angry all the damn time sure, but abusive? I dunno."

"You know he hit her right?"

She nodded, flipping the eggs with almost mechanical precision. "Sure, saw it happen a couple times." Experienced it was more accurate. "But I also know that...Aki, had a lot of problems of his own." He said, dishing up the eggs onto two small plates. "I'm not excusing what he did, he shouldn't have hit her to be sure, but therewereother factors."

"Like what?!" Was this guy seriously defending the guy who was abusing his sister?!

"Well..." She began, balancing the plates on one arm while she pulled out two pairs of chopsticks from a drawer. "To start with you'd need to understand a bit about his situation I guess." She handed her classmate a plate and some chopsticks, sitting on the other end of the couch. "Aki's the youngest of three boys and of them, the only one who is interested in taking up the family business." That was kind of true, if you considered a dojo that no-one went to a business. "So there's a lot of pressure on him there, on top of that there's a bunch of girls who keep trying to force him to go on dates with them despite him saying no." Also kind of true, shehadseen some girls in the Hentai Horde. "So he has this idea stuck in his head that all girls are perverts, especially sis."

"Wait, why her in particular? Kaioh-san is like, the least perverted high school girl I've seen, she avoids looking at anyone in the changing room, doesn't join in on any raunchy conversations, nothing!"

"Well yeah, but you're seeing her now." She explained, rubbing the back of her head before taking a bite of egg. "Our dad basically raised her as a boy, she didn't have any idea how to act around other girls, or have so much as a drop of feminine modesty. Hell she still doesn't, she's just better at faking it now than she was then." He frowned, looking at the eggs in disappointment."Knew I should have added some red pepper flakes to this."

"You're joking."

"Nope, she's totally clueless about that sort of thing, can't tell you how many times she'd walk around the house in nothing but a pair of boxers." She laughed, shaking her head. "Honestly if you had seen her back then you would have thought shewasa guy...which looking back at it might have been part of the problem."

"What do you mean?" Mayu asked, desperately trying not to think about the mental image her crush's brother was giving her.

"Aki isn't the most...masculine looking guy, there was one time he got suckered into wearing a dress thanks to one of his brothers and everyone thought he was really a girl." It had actually been a suit, but peoplehadthought Akane was a guy for a week afterwards, even the girls who had shared a locker room with her, which honestly just went to show you how crazy the people in Nerima were. "On top of that he never showed any interest in girls because they kept hounding him and well...certain rumors got started. Mix in a teenage girl who acted more like a guy than he did and..." She trailed off.

"And you get a recipe for disaster." The Raven haired girl muttered. "And I'm guessing, Kaioh-san tried to help and it backfired?"

"Repeatedly." Takeo confirmed, taking another bite of her food. "There was a lot going on and Michi was trying to keep things from getting worse, and if the end result was that Aki vented his frustration on her as opposed to someone else...well she was okay with that."

"What about you?" Mayu asked, glaring at the teenage boy. "If you knew what was going on, why didn't you put a stop to it?"

"I didn't. Michi and I...we weren't close back then." Takeo said after a minute, pushing her eggs around the plate. "Truth is, I can honestly say I hated her." She sighed, setting the plate on the coffee table and tilted her head up to look at the ceiling like it held all of the answers. When was it that she'd realized that she didn't hate the curse anymore? Was it after the first time she'd gotten locked, or maybe it was after Saffron? She supposed it didn't matter, the end result was the same. "By the time I realized what a colossal idiot I was being, things had gotten...bad all around. So I did what I could and got us both out of there, hell we can only stay here in this apartment thanks to someone owing me a favor..."

"Wait...are you two runaways?"

"Nah, we have our mom's permission." She lied, standing up and grabbing the plate she had set down, taking it to the sink after swallowing the last bite. She tried not to shiver, if her mom knew she was attending school as a girl...well she'd get a real close look at the family katana to say the least. "There were conditions of course, like we have to keep our grades up, but for the most part we're on our own."

"Right, and I'm the Queen of America."Something wasn't right, neither of the siblings had so much as bat an eyelash at the sister's abuse and yet things had "gotten bad"? What had these two been through that an abusive relationship wasn't considered bad, no, considered something completely normal? Her face turned pale as she remembered what her classmate had said the day before. Their parents had pushed her crush to apologize, even knowing she wasn't to blame...like it was the expected outcome! Just how much abuse had these two endured? "I see...well at least you two got out of there." She said after a moment.

"You really do think sis was abused...don't you?" The boy asked with his back to the Raven haired girl.

"Not just her."Mayu thought, giving the brother a concerned look. "Yeah...I really do." She said softly before taking her first bite of eggs.

-Mamoru Chiba's Apartment-

"So what was it you wanted to talk about that you didn't want the others to hear?" Rei asked as she sat on the desk chair across from Mamoru's bed.

"It's about that new senshi, there's...something weird about her. When we told her what the spirit possessing her nearly did to me, for I moment I could have sworn that I saw something behind her."

"You too?"

"Yes...at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me-." He started, sitting down on the bed with a frown. "-I couldn't make out any details, the thing just looked like a shadow to me."

"I thought I was just seeing things, none of the others reacted to it...but if you saw it too then..." The shrine maiden trailed off, crossing her arms in thought.

"What was it we saw?"

"Exactly...maybe I should look into it, perhaps the Sacred Fire will grant me some insight on what that was."

"I'll consult the Shitennou, they may have some kind of idea as well."

"New Senshi, spirits, shadowy beings...I'm afraid they might be the precursor to something worse." Rei murmured, looking at her hands.

"A new enemy you think?"

"Maybe...Usagi won't like that."

"She never was one for fighting, even in the old days." The reincarnated Terran Prince said with a chuckle. "Hard to believe she was a fencing champion back then."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, she could even beat some of my guards, but when it came to actual fighting..." He shrugged. "Well you know how she is." The two chuckled as they thought about their crybaby of a princess. "So when are you going to tell her about your feelings for her?" Mamoru asked suddenly, smirking as the shrine maiden sputtered in denial.

"My feeling-I don't have feelings for the bun head!" She practically shouted, her face flush with embarrassment.

"Oh please, anyone with eyes can see that you do. Ami, Minako, and Makoto all have bets going on when you'll confess.

"What?!" The girl shrieked. "They all-Ami too?!"

"Yup, Minako has hers set for Christmas in a couple years, Makoto's is on Valentine's Day next year and Ami's is that you'll do it on your deathbed."

The shrine maiden stared at the prince incredulously before groaning and covering her eyes. "Ami's lack of faith in me is astounding." She grumbled, giving up on denying it. "I'm surprised she even placed a bet to begin with."

"Oh she wasn't going to get involved, but the other two insisted, they came up with the idea during the last senshi game night after you and Usagi went outside for some air."

"Of course that's when it happened." She muttered, shaking her head. "At least you aren't involved."

Mamoru snickered and grinned at the shrine maiden. "Oh I absolutely am involved, who do you think they got to hold onto the money?" He watched as the senshi of fire groaned and covered her face, before falling backwards onto the bed and holding his stomach, laughing loudly.

-Michiru's Apartment-

"Thank you, that was good." Mayu said after finishing up her food and handing Takeo her plate.

"You're welcome." The cursed girl took the plate and rinsed it off, setting both it and her own into the nearly empty dishwasher before shutting it without bothering to turn it on. She'd run it when it was a bit more full, otherwise it was a kind of a waste of soap. "Like I said, sis'd be pissed if I let you leave without giving you some food first."

"Speaking of, where is she?" Mayu wondered, giving the door a quizzical look. "I'd of thought she'd be back by now if she just left for a run."

Takeo was lucky that the class president was looking at the door, she completely missed the cursed girl stiffening at the question that, in hindsight, was obvious. "She probably decided to do some errands, pick up some things for the apartment, that sort of thing." She hastily offered."Seriously, that was obviously gonna be a problem, get it together girl!"She thought before freezing, dread surging throughout her body."Did I just...think of myself as a girl?"She wondered, her throat becoming tight with fear."Have...have I been thinking of myself as a girl this entire time? How...how long have I been doing that,whywould I do that? I'm a guy!"

"You're becoming more and more like a weak little girl by the minute, where's that pride, that arrogance of yours?"

"My...pride?"

"Your pride as a man. Did you throw it away along with your courage? Was spilling the blood of that overgrown chicken really such a horrible thing? Did it turn you into a coward who needs protecting like some child?"

"I'm no coward-

"-and yet you have not thrown so much as a single punch at anyone, not even your own father, or the pig. Not the duck, or the ghoul, not even the old pervert! You've just let them attack you over and over and over without so much as a single act of retribution, if that is not cowardice I don't know what is."

"That's..."

"Are you just going to allow them to control your every action, your very life without drawing any recompense? How truly weak and feeble of you."

"I..."

The feeling of a hand on her-HIS shoulder jerked him from his thoughts, his lungs screaming for air even as the feeling of hands squeezing his throat tightly slowly faded away. A feeling he had not even noticed until now. He swayed on his feet before collapsing onto the floor, Mayu shouting in alarm while he coughed and gasped for air.

"What...what was that?"He wondered, coughing once more and waving off the raven haired girl.

"Shit, are you okay? Do we need to get you to a hospital?!"

"I'm, I'm fine." He wheezed, rubbing his sore throat. It felt like Ryoga had tried to squeeze the life out of him!"What is going on with me?"

-Nerima, Saotome Residence-

Nodoka Saotome was an interesting woman full of contradictions, to say the least. She hated perverts with a passion, yet was okay with her own son acting in perverted ways. She loved her son dearly, yet was more than willing to separate his head from his shoulders should he act in any way she deemed to be unmanly. She took her duties as a wife seriously, yet seemed to care little about her husband's safety. Her most heartfelt desire had been to reconnect with her child after all these years and yet...for not one moment did she even consider telling her child that she had known who they were from the beginning. Oh yes, she had known who "Ranko" had been from the start, how could she not when her son's female form looked so much like she had in her youth? Why hadn't she revealed her insight? Why had she just allowed her son to act like a young woman? Why had she herself played along with the scheme? Had she been so desperate for a connection to her child that she had willingly pretended to be an "aunt" to her own child?

"Oh Ranma...did we make a mistake? DidImake a mistake? Is that why you ran away from everyone?" She wondered as she looked over the few letters her husband had sent her over the years Ranma and him had been away. After three days she had started to suspect that her son had left for good and now, after two weeks, she was certain of it. Her son wasn't coming back.

Her husband was no help either, as usual. The man was content to spend his days playing shogi and drinking sake with the Tendo patriarch, he didn't even seem the slightest bit concerned that their child had gone missing. He hadn't even come into their home once since the two had left on their training journey. Neither of them had for that matter.

"Then again...it's not as though Ranma's room is the same. I had to remove much of the decorations from it after finding out about that foul Neko-ken training Genma put him through."She growled, her eyes gaining a steely glint as she thought about the folder she had bought from the middle Tendo sister, the one detailing as much information about her son that the teenager had been able to acquire. She had since paid the girl a hardy sum to keep the majority of that information private. She'd even drew up a formal non-disclosure contract with the teen, with her father's permission, one with rather harsh penalties should the teenager go against it. "Still...what should I do? Should I support Ranma in whatever plan he's enacted, or discipline him and bring him back...and do I have the right to make such a decision?"

-Michiru's Apartment-

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mayu asked, holding out her hand for Takeo to take. "I could call my parents and have them take you to the hospital, it really isn't an issue."

"I think I'll be fine Sasaki-san." Takeo replied, taking the raven haired girl's hand and using it to pull himself to his feet. "Really, I'd rather not bother your mom and dad."

"can I at least get you a glass of cold water or-"

"-No!" Takeo said, cutting her off with a wide look. Even something as small as that could put his secret at risk, Jusenkyō had made more of a habit of putting him in awkward situations. He did NOT need her to know about his curse, or that everything he had told Mayu was a half truth at best. Or even worse, that he, a guy, was attending high school as a girl. There was absolutelyno waythat was going to end well. "No...really I'll be fine. Sasaki-san." He rubbed the back of his head, laughing awkwardly.

"If you're sure..."

"I am Sasaki-san. I promise I'll let sis know about what happened. Trust me, she'll keep an eye on me."

"Alright...speaking of your sister, there's something I'd like to ask, if that's okay?" She seemed hesitant, like she wasn't sure if she wanted the answer or not.

Takeo blinked in surprise before nodding, wondering what his classmate could possible need to ask about his other form.

"Answer me honestly...your sister taking off before I woke up and staying away for so long...it's not because of me is it?"

"Ah...that." Takeo rubbed the back of his head, looking to the side. How was he going to answer this...maybe he could use another half truth? "It's not because of you...sis probably hasn't even realized that she should have waited until you got up." Or rather he hadn't realized it was going to be a problem for "Michiru" not to be there in the morning. "She's not really good with...people, to be honest she never really had very many friends so she's clueless when it comes to a lot of things. I'll be sure to let her know she should apologize to you when she gets back."

"T-that's not necessary!"

"Nah, trust me it's the only way for sis to get it through her thick head."

-Haruka's Apartment-

"So whenareyou going to reveal yourself to the others?" Melinoe grumbled, sipping from a bottle of beer as she sat on the racer's couch.

"I'm not even sure if I should, be kind of pointless to get close to them if we're just going to be sent off to the Gates again. Also, it's not even noon, the hell are you drinking for?"

"You try getting yelled at in the divine tongue for four hours and see how you deal without a drink. Really, I singonesong before it's been made and father acts like I'm going to destroy time itself any time I drink, like I didn't learn my lesson the last time." Truth be told she'd made a habit of sealing herself in her apartment and displacing it in time before she started drinking anything hard, less of a headache that way. Her favorite trick was shifting the apartment's time just slightly out of sync so as to make it impossible for her to leave until she sobered up. That still didn't stop her father from scolding her for even taking the risk of messing up the timeline again, really the old god needed to get a life sometimes.

"No thank you." The blonde snickered. "I have no desire to have my brain turned to mush."

"Pretty accurate description of what would happen if someone without divine blood heard it." The Plutonian mused, taking another swig of her drink. She paused, seeing the corner of a face-down picture frame on the carpeted floor next to her foot, and reached down to pick it up. The frame had been almost completely hidden under the couch, it was just luck that she had seen it really. "What's this?" She asked, turning it over to look at the photo. Almost immediately, the Guardian of Pluto laughed, seeing a young Haruka with their arm around a young girl, both of them grinning widely while covered in mud.

"What's what?" The Senshi of wind asked before getting a fond look in her eyes at the sight of the framed photo. "Oh, that." She held out her hand, accepting the photo from Melinoe with a soft smile. "I thought I lost this, I haven't seen it since I moved in." She stroked the picture with her thumb, nostalgia filling her as the old memories flowed into her mind.

"I take it you were a charmer even then." The green haired woman smirked, taking a long swig from her drink, completely missing her friend's expression becoming subdued.

"Maybe..."

Melinoe paused, slowly lowering her beer. "...you okay?" She asked.

"Not really...the girl in this picture-" She started gesturing to the frame in her hand. "-she was my best friend when I was a kid, hell she was the first person I told about feeling like a boy sometimes."

"Oh? How'd that go?"

The blonde racer grinned, setting the photo on a small table. "It went fine, she accepted it without a problem, didn't even hesitate for a second."

"Sounds like a good friend." Melinoe said with a small smile.

"She really was." Haruka sighed, not taking her eyes off of the photo.

"Was?"

"My family moved, only three days after the photo was taken. I haven't seen her since."

"Ah." The ancient woman exclaimed, taking another drink from her bottle. "Sorry to hear that."

"It's fine, you didn't know."

"...If you've kept it around this long, she must have meant a lot to you." Melinoe said, looking at the girl in the photo with an interested expression. "What was her name?"

"Ruka-chan!

"Her name was Kasumi." Haruka said, smiling at the memory of his old friend. "And she means the world to me, even now."

-(Solar Snippet 1)-

Michiru curled up into a ball, almost purring in pleasure even as she panted breathlessly. "That was...that was..."

She heard a giggle from above her before her wife laid next to her, cupping her cheek with her palm. "Good?" She offered with a soft smile. It used to bother her, seeing her partner curl up as if to protect herself every time the two had sex, but she'd gotten used to it, it was just a reflex the the senshi of the sea had, it didn't mean she didn't trust her lover, just that she found it comfortable whenever she felt vulnerable.

"Mmmm." Michiru murmured with a nod, leaning into her wife's touch. "Better."

"And to think I used to have daydreams about beingunderyou." Mayu said with a grin, kissing the teal haired girl on her forehead before lightly tugging on the leather collar wrapped around the girl's neck. "Turns out the big, bad martial artist likes being on the bottom, who would have guessed?"

"Not one single person." The formerly cursed girl muttered, her cheeks turning pink.

"No, I'm pretty sure Haruka, Rei, Mamoru, Kasumi, Ukyo-"

"Mayu."

"-Konatsu, Saffron, Herb, the Starlights, that girl at the bakery, those tourists from America-"

"I get it Mayu."

"-Cthulu, Lucifer, Galaxia, Mistress 9, Dr, Tofu-" The raven haired girl was cut off as Michiru kissed her full on the lips, a lovingly annoyed look in her eyes. "Really? Interrupting me again?" Mayu asked playfully, hooking her finger under the leather collar her wife wore and pulling her closer. "That's what got you into trouble earlier babygirl, seems I'll need to teach you another lesson..."

The former class president was about to do just that when, to both women's surprise, a flash of sky blue light blinded them both and a tall blonde woman fell on top of them both. All three women groaned before two of them glared at the blonde in affectionate annoyance.

"...am I interrupting something?" Haruka asked nervously, looking between her two wives. She gulped and started to slowly back away from the twin glares only for the senshi of the sea to snag her wrist in an iron grip.

"And just where do you think *you're going?" Michiru purred, gently, but firmly pulling the blonde closer, smirking as Mayu clicked a matching collar to her own on Haruka's neck.

"Mercy?"

"Sorry, fresh out." Mayu growled staring at the blonde hungrily, hooking her finger into the ring of the senshi of wind's new accessory. "Mi-chan, would you be a dear and get the crop for me? It seems as though Haruka is in a more dire need of a lesson in manners than you are."

"Only if I can watch."