by WG_Writer » Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:03 pm
Here is the latest version of chapter 1, followed by 2 and 3. any C&C is welcome, but please be specific as to where it needs help at.
Ranma was written by Takahashi Rumiko and published as an anime by Kitty Films - Fuji TV and Viz Communications, Inc.
Sailor Moon was published as an anime by Toei Animation and Geneon Entertainment
They own their own characters and other such trademarks, only characters that I make are owned by me.
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Chapter 1 - That makes sense… Wait!
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Ukyo stretched as she stood outside her closed restaurant, she smiled happily at the bright sunny day. She had earned enough recently that she could take a vacation and that was something she fully intended on doing. Packing was done so she decided to take a walk; after all it would be a few weeks until she returned.
Briefly entering her establishment again before exiting with a bento in hand she headed for Nerima Prefecture Park. Ukyo wished she could bring Ranma with her for a picnic but he had been moody after the fight with Herb. Inwardly she frowned as she only found out through gossip as to why he was out of class at the time, but she then smiled and knew that anything which would cause tension between her rivals and him helped her chances.
It was because of this that she was glad she missed the affair; self delusion was the bane of martial arts. She knew her knee jerk reaction to him being locked would have only hurt her chances. She was by no means Nabiki, someone who manipulated people to get what she wanted. Ukyo wished for Ranma to want her, any victory otherwise was hollow.
After a short search she found a quiet spot in the park and under the shade of a large Sakura tree she started into her bento thinking back to the talk she and Akane had about her the visit to her mother’s grave. In some ways she was jealous. Akane had actually met her mother which was something neither she nor Ranma had done. But she knew losing someone so close was hard.
After she finished her Bento she looked at the time and sighed, deciding it was time to get back. She had a train to catch and it was better to be early than late. She had to smile, though; at least she knew Shampoo would be unable to pester Ranma while she was away. The bimbo was quite clear, despite her speech patterns, that she would be in China for the next month due to her laws.
Her trip back home was only briefly marred by thoughts of Kodachi. The nut case had been missing for the past month and there was not enough luck on the planet, in her opinion that she would give up her claim.
---
Meanwhile in Juuban a Senshi meeting was taking place in the Outer's home. Since there was no new enemy it was part of their regular get together to chat and update each other on what was happening in each other’s lives. Most of what some termed as the Inner Senshi were just enjoying their final year of high school, and still, unfortunately, suffering under the legendary, to them, ‘Sailor Senshi may not have a boyfriend, unless he is an enemy or about to be killed,’ curse.
It was only by luck that Mamoru survived to date, actually. There had been at least five major events since Galaxia where the universe seemed to be doing its best, and still failing, to kill him off. Hello Kitty still gave him nightmares from the second attempt.
Minako had seven boyfriends in the last five months who turned out to be Youma in disguise. She wasn't sure what pissed her off more, that they were leftovers from Beryl or that there were the only seven Youma. She guessed that since they were male Beryl kept them for other purposes.
Usagi was tending to Mamoru’s most recent bruise; he had been hit by a car, of all things. The worst of it was that he was on the roof of a five story building just inside Nerima at the time.
Makoto was having a rather animated discussion with Minako over her ‘book.’ Most girls would blush horribly if they found out their names and personal information were in a boy’s little black book. Such a discovery was then usually followed up by a cry of “Pervert”. These two were comparing their own books.
The Guardian of Time was sipping her tea and casually observing everything that went on around her. There was, after all, little need for her to do anything at the moment. There were no major threats coming, and nothing seemed to warrant her involvement. She listened in to the goings on around her when she heard Minako and Makoto talking about a cute guy Makoto had been apparently stalking, and at first she shrugged off what she heard with little interest.
Minako looked on in awe of the beef cake shot that Makoto had of the boy, “Oh, what a hunk. Is he single?”
Makoto sighed and shook her head, “Sadly, no. From what rumors tell, his father,” taking a moment to check her notes, “Genma Saotome engaged him to several girls.” Neither noticed Setsuna suddenly grinding her teeth.
The two continued their discussions the few known facts, such as why he was afraid of cats, all the while Setsuna was getting more and more irate.
Hotaru asked her, “Setsuna-mama, are you alright.” Unfortunately her ‘time guardian’ mother was unable to answer from the concentration required not to snap.
By this point Rei was unable to help over hearing, “Sounds like a jerk of a father, what kind of mother would let the father do that.” No response was forth coming but Hotaru noticed a tear roll down her Mother’s eye.
Minako had to ask, “What did you say his name was?”
Setsuna had resorted to the mantra of, ‘It’s not Ranma!’ repeatedly.
“Ranma.” Came the response from the Senshi of Jupiter, but before Minako could make a bad pun of the name there was a loud crack and everyone turned their heads to the time guardian.
Setsuna crushed the handle of the teacup that she was holding and said simply, “I’ll kill him.” With that she jumped backwards and transformed mid leap. Before touching down, she disappeared through a portal to the time gates.
When she vanished the Senshi panicked. It was totally out of character for their friend, the mistress of the gates of time, to act so emotionally and voice so much hate. Even Galaxia and the betrayal of Uranus and Neptune had no such effect. But now she had just scared them silly with that stunt. Then again what happened with Galaxia was a strategic move that simply failed, so although she found it annoying she shrugged it off.
Usagi began channeling her Serenity persona while she made a quick decision, “Makoto, where did you say he lived?”
No one blinked. She was manifesting that persona a lot lately, so Makoto was quick to respond her commanding voice, “In Nerima.”
“Let’s go.” She transformed and waited for the others to do so, as well. Then when everyone was ready they teleported without another word.
---
Ranma and Akane walked home in a comfortable silence. Akane was happy with the world. What Ranma didn't know was the reason she stopped being so violent recently was because she had finally sorted out her feelings for Ranma.
She loved the idiot, she could admit that, but it wasn’t the way her father hoped. She loved him like she loved Nabiki, or Kasumi. More of a brother-sister love than a married couple love. She then saw Ranma get splashed and growl about it, and thought to herself, 'make that sometimes sister-sister love.’ She giggled at that.
Ranma looked at Akane and tried to sound hurt, by now she was used to this kind of annoyance. Everyone around the area knew about the curse, except the Kuno siblings. Like his father, though, he did enjoy making others feel bad about their laughter by feigning being hurt worse than he was, “Oh poor me, my Fiancée giggles at my distress.” If only he were a better liar it wouldn’t have sounded so melodramatic, and wouldn’t have made Akane giggle more.
Akane finally stopped giggling and continued her trek home with Ranma. She wanted to tell Ranma how she felt, but was worried; what if she was wrong, what if it was true love and not the love of a sibling. She feared that if it was indeed more romantic type of love that she would push him away. Then she would be worse off. She would have gone from being unsure to being sure but too late.
Then there was family honor to be considered, her father and Ranma’s father both insisted that they marry and she wasn’t sure she wanted that. Unfortunately it was family honor that called for it so she had no choice.
Choice is what it boiled down to, she had no choice but to marry Ranma, her sisters made that clear, even the fathers put that responsibility on her. Nabiki proved that she wasn’t better for Ranma and made his life hell during that time she was engaged to him. Kasumi, well, nobody crossed Kasumi, ever. It just wasn’t done; she shivered at the thought of the last person who did. Kasumi was nice enough most of the time, but if you angered her she would make your life hell, and she would carry an air of innocence doing it.
Then there was her friend and rival Ukyo, as much as she wanted to just tell Ranma to go and marry Ukyo, she couldn’t do that either. Ranma would be hurt, she would damage her own honor, her family’s honor, and possibly Ranma’s, if he was of a mind to actually do it. Sure Ukyo would be happy, but what about herself.
Ranma was fence walking next to her now as they passed by the canal and Akane was annoyed at her. She mused it was more a matter of her father not doing his job in teaching her anything beyond enough to teach beginner classes, after all ‘she was a girl, and Ranma was the guy’. Her father was so old fashioned that he couldn’t even see when he was hurting her.
On a moment’s impulse, she kicked the fence and knocked Ranma into the canal, too bad she forgot she was up there.
“What did you that for ya uncute Tomboy?” Came the indignant, mezzo soprano response as Ranma-chan got back on top of the fence.
Akane blushed and replied, “Sorry Ranma, I forgot you were there.”
Ranma countered, “With your Gorilla like strength you have to be more careful.”
Akane yelled as the boy turned girl took off running, “Ranma! Get back here you jerk!” Sure, she mused, Ranma was a jerk, but that jerk was her friend too.
---
Pluto stood before the time gates, coaxing them to show her what she wanted to know. It was a hard thing to do, the time gates were not meant to do it. What it truthfully was, was a fixed point time space worm hole. It was like picking a point in spacetime and looking out; ironically it was intended as a safety mechanism to ensure you did not arrive in solid rock. And the tracking mechanism was intended for planetary trends, not individuals that moved around.
Another design aspect of the gates did not allow it to easily show, or lock on to, three types of people; chaos generators, members of the Plutonian royal family, and members of the Lunar royal family. The latter two were intentional during construction, mostly out of concern for the next generation, that the gates not be used for over parenting. The targeting software function would cause the gate to “look away” when looking directly at them.
Most chaos generators were just people who were low on morals, and easily corrupted. This was not usually a bad thing, as it led to enormous amusement at times and annoyance at other times. Genma useless, fat tub of lard Saotome was a large chaos generator, and not because of his ‘big bones.’
She peered through looking for Genma, and Ranma. She owed the tub of lard a Dead Scream up his useless, lying ass. To track the two of them, she had given them special watches. Since neither could be tracked by the gates, and she had a great need to track them, she put a 'here I am' enchantment on the watches so she could find them, but Genma pawned them off when she wasn’t looking.
She decided to try a different approach this time, she remembered a friend named Tendo with a dojo and went looking it. Quickly enough she had found it then found one Akane Tendo. She realized this was likely a fiancee and followed Akane home with the gates and Ranma by proxy. She saw them walking like friends, but they didn’t seem that close. She did overhear them talking about their engagement, and it reminded her about the pledge Genma left for her when they left.
When they left…
That stung her in ways she couldn’t count. It was due to some foreigner trying to create a time machine; he created a paradox that made the gates unstable for months. Because of that she was unable to even follow them from the point they left the house. She couldn’t even look back to that point now. She could travel there, but then that type of thing was akin to jumping off a train blindfolded, as the aiming function didn’t work at all, she would have been fatally hurt, more likely than not.
But now that she had him targeted she could roll back the time the gates were showing her. She had to be sneaky about it by not viewing him directly but she succeeded and when she saw his life first hand, to put it mildly, she was pissed.
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Pluto teleported onto the wall surrounding the Tendo compound, unseen by the inhabitants whose attention was taken by the usual fight at the table. She smirked evilly. She knew how all the characters in this little drama would act, having seen it play out several times in her viewing of the past. Genma knew about her job, there was no denying it to him, and Ranma would know soon enough. However if she wanted to keep her identity secret she couldn’t do it in uniform. So smiling she cast an illusion to make it look like she was a more generic magical girl.
She took a deep breath and screamed, “Saotome, prepare to die!!!” Then fired an ‘unannounced’ Dead Scream at Genma.
Genma smiled for a moment, it sounded like another lost fiancée had found his son, at least he hoped that was why he recognized that voice.
Ranma had jumped up into a ready stance, not his usual, ‘not a stance’ stance, but his ‘you interrupted my eating so I will kick your ass fast’ stance. He just registered the fact the energy blast was directed at his father and he came to a decision, ‘Screw this, she is after pops, not me. I’m not cleaning up another mess if I can help it.’
After the attack hit, Ranma sat down, which he was about to do anyway, though not quite as hard as he did after hearing her yell, “For what you did to our son, prepare to suffer eternally…”
Genma, after he recovered sufficiently, realized who had blasted him, got into a ready stance then immediately went into the 'Crouch of the White Tiger'. And everyone was shocked beyond words.
Then Genma started pleading, “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I thought I was just doing what was best for the boy.”
Nabiki is the first to recover and stated, “Figures, she fits right in with the family.”
Pluto approached the pair stopping in front of them. She looked at Genma with an intense glare that made him back off by several feet. Pluto then looked at Ranma softly and crouched to cupped her hand to his cheek and said, “I will explain later son. First I need to…talk, to your…other parent.”
Pluto stood and walked over to where Genma was now kneeling and glared at him again. “Genma, once I found you, I used my magic and saw everything.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “I thought long and hard about what I was going to do to you.” Actually this was a lie; she was making it up as she went along. She smirked, Nabiki recognized it as Ranma’s trademark, ‘I am so going to kick your ass’ smirk.
Pluto then spoke in an evilly charming voice, “I decided to do this in chronological order.” She pulled out a piece of paper Genma recognized. She saw the recognition in his eyes and dropped the smirk, “Well, I see that you recognize the seppuku pledge you made promising that you would return with Ranma as a man among men.”
This made everyone, even Kasumi, glare at Genma, although she hid it behind a cup of tea. Pluto’s smirk returned as she dismissed the time staff and rolled up the pledge, “I am going to return this piece of crap from where it came from, and I am not talking orally.”
---
Ranma chased his mother through Nerima. They were fast approaching the border to the next ward. It was all he could do to keep up, he would never mention it to another living soul, but, given his mother’s abilities, he doubted that, if he had to inherit her powers, that his whining would be too much more than he was required to maintain his self image.
As the trio ran, half roof hopping, half ground running, they passed the Senshi in their civilian forms. However, Pluto was so focused on beating her husband that she didn’t notice them, but they did see him transform into a Panda when splashed.
Ranma was close behind her, and she could hear him yelling for her to not kill his father. She knew she wouldn’t, he wasn’t worth it, she, however, mused, ‘Although I won’t kill him, I will Punish him, and damn it, I only got past Ukyo when he bolted, I still have the neko-ken and another 8 years of his stupidity to punish him for.’
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Usagi was just coming out of an ice cream parlor with the inners and Mamoru. Usagi had a large ice cream cone, and Mamoru was upset that he ended up covering everyone. Rei turned from her ice cream cone to the odangoed blonde, and said, “Great ice cream shop meatball head, but we still need to find Pluto. So where is she?”
Usagi answered without looking at Rei or her ice cream, “Um, she’s right there.” Everyone looked where she was looking and, sure enough, saw Pluto. Under her disguise but they recognized her anyway, it wasn’t that good an illusion.
She was chasing a fat guy in a faded martial arts outfit, and was firing Dead Screams at him randomly. They seemed low power, but the guy didn’t seem weak enough to be taken down by one. But that was when they saw a boy their age chasing her, he was yelling to his mother for her to not kill his father. Then it clicked, but before they could say anything they saw the man get splashed with water from a fire hydrant broken by a Dead Scream. They were shocked when the man turned into a panda and kept going, then Pluto passed through the stream unaffected, followed by the boy who turned into a girl, who adjusted her clothes and continued the chase.
A local girl saw the shock on the apparent ‘out of towners’ and asked, “You aren’t from around here are you?” With the dead looks she shrugged and walked off.
Usagi sniffed her ice cream and asked the others, “Did you all just see Pluto chasing a man, followed by a boy calling her his mother and begging her to not kill his father. Then the boy turned into a girl and the father into a panda?”
The others could only nod; after a moment Usagi recovered fully and ate her ice cream as fast as she could. She would have recovered faster and finished her rocky road quicker, but she was waiting for Rei to transform her clothing into something frilly and pink since that was more likely in her book.
---
Ranma was sitting in the shrine and was more than a little uncomfortable with the number of females around him. He just knew that one was a fiancée, he was too unlucky for him to not be engaged to one of them. Then there were the two cats, he was too shocked by his mother to go running screaming, yet. Besides, there were just two and they kept their distance. He could handle that.
Everyone was still getting settled, so before introductions got underway he wanted to ask a question that was bothering him since this mess started, “So…Mom…why pop?”
Although the question was asked disjointedly, Setsuna knew what he wanted to know. She only hoped that he would take it well, otherwise she might lose him again. She had prepared for this and decided to tell as much as she could, “It all started around seventeen years ago during a minor temporal event. It was nothing major; it just prevented temporal translocations for a brief period of ‘time’. The problem was that it left me slightly weakened, nothing that would be easily noticeable, but just enough for it to happen.”
As she was talking she noticed that she had everyone’s attention. She continued, “Since it was my first vacation in several hundred years, I decided to go get drunk. The place I chose was known for weird people and martial artists who frequented, so I did not feel totally out of place.”
Artemis was getting bored at this point and interrupted, “So you got drunk and slept with his father when you couldn’t think straight?”
Setsuna smacked her face with her hand, just as Luna smacked Artemis for his bluntness.
Ranma blinked for a moment and asked, “So I am the result of too much sake?”
Setsuna nodded but before she could say anything else Ranma interrupted, “Thank the Kami, I was worried that he won you over with his personality. You had me worried a moment.”
Everyone could only stare, then thinking about what they knew of his father they agreed, it was better to be the result of their mother getting plastered, rather than having their mother fall in love with Genma.
Setsuna hugged Ranma with teary eyes and almost fainted when Ranma asked the next question, “What about this seppuku pledge that you mentioned though?”
His mother released the hug and looked at him and answered, “Just one of your father’s ideas,” she snorted, “don’t worry about it.”
After a few more mother and son moments Setsuna decided it was time to introduce the sailor senshi, “Girls why don’t you introduce yourselves?”
Usagi was first, “Hi my name is Usagi, this is my boyfriend Mamoru,” she said clinging to said boyfriend’s arm, “I’m happy to meet you.”
Rei arched an eyebrow, not having done a fire reading yet, she was not comfortable with this unknown, “Rei, nice to meet you.”
“My name is Ami, it’s good to meet you.”
Makoto stepped up next, “I’m Makoto, I hope we can spar later. I hear you are very good.”
Minako smiled as she spoke, “Hello, Minako is my name and if you know anyone available I’m free.”
Everyone paused at that, and after several false starts he found a way to express the thought, “I am sorry but nobody I know would be available or able to survive the magical girl curse.”
The senshi of Venus pointed at Mercury, “See I knew it, there is a curse.”
Ranma’s mother spoke up because something was being left out, “Girls, he should be told everything, after all I doubt we can hide it now.”
Usagi nodded and pointed around starting with Rei, “Sailors Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen and I am Sailor Moon.”
The cursed boy looked at Mamoru and spoke up, “There has been something I have been meaning to ask you.”
“Ohh”
“Why such a corny speech and throwing roses?”
Cursing under his breath, “One time, it happened one blasted time, I had a broken leg and arm, and we were fighting in a rose garden.”
Ranma nodded, it was a reasonable answer to him.
Clearing her throat Setsuna interrupted, “As you heard your father mumbling my name, Setsuna, repeatedly as he begged, I should tell you I am also Sailor Pluto. And these,” She gestured to Michiru and Haruka, “are Michiru and Haruka also known as Sailors Neptune and Uranus.” Each nodded at their given name. “Finally,” She went to speak but was interrupted.
During the introductions Hotaru was deep in thought, something tickled at the back of her mind. Given the way she was reborn again she had access to a few choice silver Millennium memories that the others didn’t and a very good one came to mind. One that was of an arrangement to ensure a happy Saturn. “I’m Hotaru, also Sailor Saturn, and your fiancée.” She finished with an, ‘I’m so cute I could kill all life on this planet and you wouldn’t stop me,’ smile.
Haruka looked at her daughter and was the first to ask, “Run that by us again?”
Hotaru smiled and looked at her ‘papa’, “Back in the Silver Millennium my mama and Setsuna-mama made a pact with Queen Serenity to join the houses.” Although it came out confident, she was uncertain on her memories, but the key was sounding confident right?
Ranma looked up after smacking his head into the table, “Sake again, mom?”
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Author’s Note
Time period:
Sailor Moon – After Galaxia; Inners are 18, Haruka and Michiru are 19 and Hotaru is 17
The ages are implied in fic but are being noted here to head off questions
Ranma – Alternate universe. It takes place shortly after the Herb – Mt. Horai fight but obviously as Ukyo pointed out the Nodoka arc never occurred. Ranma is 17
Storm trooper effect works against good guys as well.
No matter how strong you are, there is always a teenager able to beat you without breaking a sweat.
A blind Paladin can only hear half truths
A deaf Paladin can only see half truths
Either way the Paladin is a berserker
