Ranma Half Moon chapter 32, Jupiter Rising, Makoto's Warrior Destiny part one.
Author's note: This episode is Sailor Moon episode 25, "Jupiter, the Brawny Girl in Love" told from Makoto's point of view.
Author's note: I now have a fiction press site for non-fanfiction stuff. If you want to check it out, do a search for "resop" at the "fictionpress" website. My story is called "A Dream of Roses". It is about a group of blossoming young girls who are giving it their all for an opportunity to shine brightly as professional wrestlers in Japan.
"Mio-chan!" Mio Kuroki sits in her bed. Cute things decorate her room. She speaks into her pink cell phone.
"Mio-san, I talked to the people at Idol Singer Monthly. They said that they could do an interview with Minako, but only if it was a joint interview. How do you fell about that?"
Dead silence.
"Mio-san, are you still there?"
Mio Kuroki drops the phone on her bed and stares ahead with glowing eyes.
...
Queen Beryl awakens Queen Metaria, who tells Queen Beryl to gather the Rainbow Crystals so that the Silver Crystal will appear.
Queen Metaria goes back to sleep.
...
Mio Kuroki wakes up.
"Mio-san! Mio-san! Are you there?"
"Manager, what's going on?"
"What happened to you? I was talking to you and then you stopped talking for three minutes."
"I don't know, it was like I was somewhere else."
"Are you okay?"
"Mio-chan is fine. What about the magazine?" Mio regains her sing-song voice.
"They said that they would interview Minako if it was a joint interview."
"Mio-chan is happy. The two stars of the Goldfish Warning Musical together."
"One other thing. Minako has to record first. She can use the Idol Singer Monthly studio."
Mio squeals. "Mio-chan so happy!"
"Well, if you're happy I'm happy."
"Thank you manager." Mio hangs up her cell phone. "Minako-chan, your fall is going to be so great. It's going to be so sad! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!"
...
Kino Makoto puts on her old school uniform. Juban Junior High School didn't have any girl's uniforms in my size, but I shouldn't stand out because it's not that rare for transfer students to wear their old uniform.
Makoto frowns. The one thing I hate more than anything else was standing out. Now, not only am I going to stand out because of my height, I am going to stand out because of my uniform.
Makoto steadies herself. She hears Akane's voice, giving her encouragement. I once secretly followed Akane to school and saw first hand Akane beating up nearly half of the boys in her High School in under a minute. If Akane can face adversity head on, then so can I.
Makoto puts on the rose earrings. I always enjoyed watching Rose of the Versailles when I was young, but now I am slightly uncomfortable with identifying myself with the lead character, Oscar. I want a more feminine self image for myself, and Oscar's father raised her as a guy! Still, the rose earrings come from Akane, so I will wear them proudly.
"All right, one foot in front of the other!"
...
Usagi, late as always, sprints to school. She whips around a corner and runs into three street toughs. One of them pretends that the collision has hurt his leg.
Makoto sees this from across the street. Oh, no! A fight on my first day? And it was that clumsy kid's fault. She was running recklessly. Still, there is something about those street punks that pisses me off. Trying to intimidate the blondie three on one?
It's time to stand up for what's right and make a difference!
Makoto puts one foot in front of the other until she is in position to interject herself into the scene.
"I saw everything. A small girl like that shouldn't have hurt you. Why are you hassling her?"
The punk who was hassling Usagi turns around. "What did you say?"
Another punk gets in Makoto's face. "Hey, you might be cute, but you're not getting away with sticking your nose in our business."
Makoto switches to battle mode. Her eyes narrow. But there were three of them, all larger than me. In a split second, she hears Akane's voice in her head. "All boys are at a disadvantage to pretty girls like us. They don't think we can fight and they think their size will intimidate us. They leave themselves wide open to leverage moves."
This punk, as predicted, is leaving his hand out in position. Using her speed, skill and strength, Makoto throws the punk by his wrist, using that joint's inflexibility as extra leverage. The punk lands face first.
The second punk comes at her wildly. "You bitch!"
Is this punk kidding me? The punk's clumsy attack misses Makoto by a mile, but Makoto's knee does not miss the punk's solar plexus, causing the punk's diaphragm to spasm, knocking the wind out of him.
Makoto stares a hole through the third punk, the only who was saying his leg was broken.
The third punk panics and then runs away, revealing that his leg was perfectly okay.
Makoto checks out Usagi. Not bad. Long legs and proportional chest and hips. Her face would be cute if she wasn't scared. She does have a strange hairstyle with those grommets. Makoto smiles. "You be careful now."
Makoto turns and walks off. I wonder if I look like a samurai hero from some of those movies.
Usagi blushes over this masculine gesture. Usagi also notices the rose earrings. Gee, with those rose earrings, she is like Tuxedo Kamen coming to my rescue.
Luna looks on in wonder.
...
Queen Beryl briefs Zoisite and Kunzite about the Rainbow Crystals.
Kunzite smiles. "Queen Beryl, I have memories of the old days about how the Moon Kingdom sealed away the seven great monsters with shards of the Silver Crystal. These seven monsters now live on earth as humans with no knowledge of being monsters. A rainbow crystal is within each of the seven humans."
"Excellent, Kunzite." Queen Beryl gives Zoisite back the dark crystal, this time reconfigured to search for the rainbow warriors as opposed to Jusenkyo shape shifters.
Zoisite concentrates holding the dark crystal. It now works like a charm and reveals to Zoisite the first target, an unfashionable looking guy with glasses and a baseball cap. I don't mind that his victim is a slob. I don't need to look elsewhere for beauty when I have Kunzite.
...
Mamoru gets ready for his first college class of the day. He reflects on a picture on his desk. It is a picture of him and four of his upperclassmen from the college. When I first got to college, my surly attitude got me into a lot of trouble, but these four stood up for me and adopted me as their mascot.
However, six months ago, around a two weeks before I bumped into that strange blonde girl, all four left school with no notice at all. It was like someone had snatched them off the face of the earth.
What could have happened?
Mamoru leaves for class. A ray of sunlight obscures the faces in the picture.
To Be Continued!