Makoto trudged through the door to her home, kicking off her shoes as she did. She felt absolutely miserable after the long night she and the other Senshi had gone through. She collapsed onto her couch as she considered everything that had happened. The visit from Aunt Kasumi and Uncle Konatsu had been relatively short, but extremely pleasant. Unfortunately, shortly after her relatives had left, Makoto and the others discovered that Usagi was in trouble. “Tuxedo Kamen has been kidnapped and might be dead, Usagi’s the princess that we’ve been looking for, and Kunzite laughed off all of our attacks. The only good things that happened today were finding the Silver Crystal and the visit from my family. Today was definitely way up there on the ‘stink’ scale.”
Makoto sighed heavily and started to take off her clothes as she headed for the bathroom. She stopped when she felt a strange tingling sensation behind her. She turned around, grabbing her transformation wand from her pocket as she confronted the three figures that emerged from a strange portal. Its glow shifted from light to dark for a few moments before winking out of existence.
“What are you doing here?” Makoto growled as she dropped into a fighting stance. The preparation did no good as one of the figures moved faster than she believed was possible and tackled her. She started to fight back, trying to wrench herself out of her attacker’s grip when she suddenly realized that whoever was holding her was crying.
“My baby!” The figure wailed as Makoto felt her ribs groaning from the bear hug she was receiving.
Makoto’s vision started to cloud as her ability to breathe was removed. Her face began turning blue as she thumped her hands uselessly against the other’s sides. “Can’t… breathe… blacking… out…” Suddenly Makoto found herself able to breathe again as the figure released her. Makoto started to use her wand to transform until she finally got a good look at her attacker.
The person was a tall woman with a strong, athletic build, as Makoto’s ribs could prove. She was wearing a rather masculine looking outfit that looked like it was from the Renaissance period of Europe. She wore her long, chestnut brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that fell down to her waist. None of that is what caused her mind to freeze in shock. It was the woman’s face. Her features were almost identical to Makoto’s, though they were more mature, and her tear-filled eyes were a dark turquoise. Makoto felt her chest seize up as she recognized the face of the woman who had brought her into this world. “Mommy?” She hesitated for another moment before flinging herself back into the woman’s arms.
“Oh, Makoto-chan! I missed you so much!” Her mother picked her up in a much more controlled embrace this time, hugging her lovingly instead of desperately, like she did before.
A thousand questions ripped through Makoto’s mind. Where had she been, how did she get back, why? All of those questions were derailed as a gentle cough reminded her that there two other people who had come through the strange portal. One was a small girl who was hiding behind a young man. Makoto’s eyes shot open even wider had been as she recognized him too.
He was wearing an outfit that was solid black and also European-looking. His black hair looked unruly and was pulled back in a shoulder-length pigtail. He had deep, sapphire eyes and a cocky grin. “Daddy!” Makoto couldn’t bring herself to let go of her mother for fear that the woman might vanish. In a surprising display of strength, she dragged her mother over to her father and hugged them both tightly. “Daddy!!”
The man laughed as he hugged his long lost daughter. “Boy, you sure grew up.” The man eyed Makoto up and down a few times. “She definitely took after your side of the family, Ucchan.”
Ukyou nodded as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I noticed, Ranchan. I’d be willing to bet there are a few boys we’ll need to have a talk with.”
Makoto blushed fiercely. “MOM!” Her parents weren’t back five minutes and they were already embarrassing her, as was the obligation of all parents. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to recognize the young girl who was attached to Ranma’s leg and shuffling from foot to foot nervously. Makoto wracked her brain, but the only person she could think of to fit the situation didn’t look like the girl. Aunt Ranko was at least twenty years old and had red hair. The nervous girl appeared to be about twelve years old and had gorgeous red hair that was pulled back in a braided ponytail that fell to her waist. Ranko had eyes the same color as Ranma, but this girl’s eyes were a curious blue-green. She also had slight points on her ears.
“Who is she?” Makoto asked as she continued to hug both parents desperately.
Ranma pulled himself slightly away from Makoto and held his hand out to the girl. She nervously slipped her hand into Ranma’s. As she looked at Makoto warily, she was biting her thumbnail with chisel-like bucked teeth. “This is Siofra,” Ranma said, pronouncing the foreign name as ‘shee-fra’. “She’s your sister.”
Makoto froze up. “S-S-Sister?” She felt her legs growing weak and she managed to move over to the couch before falling down. “I have a sister?” Makoto held her head in her hands as she tried to get her thoughts to settle down. It was rapidly proving too much for her and she felt herself growing faint.
Luna jogged down the street towards Makoto’s house. Usagi was not sleeping well at all and Luna was at a loss as to what to do. The only Senshi she could think of that wouldn’t have a hard time explaining to her parents why she was talking to a cat late at night was Makoto. It didn’t help that Luna had sensed dark energy nearby, but she couldn’t locate it before it vanished.
As she got to the front door, she paused. Sniffing carefully she could just pick up the faintest traces of Dark Kingdom energy coming from inside the house. Luna felt panic welling up in her as she leapt onto a windowsill. Looking in she saw Makoto sitting on the sofa, crying as three people in dark clothing stood around her. Luna gasped in shock and hopped into the bushes. She quickly sent out an emergency call to the other Senshi.
Inside the house, Makoto rubbed her forehead as she motioned for her family to sit. “What happened to you? And please don’t tell me that you’re actually secret agents who’ve been on a deep cover assignment to save the world from intergalactic pirates.”
Ranma blinked in surprise. “Okay, we won’t tell you that.”
Makoto’s eyes shot wide. “You mean…”
Ukyou slapped Ranma on the back of the head. “Stop teasing her, Ranchan.” She turned to her older daughter. “No, we’re not secret agents or anything like that.”
“So what happened?”
“Well… we’re not sure exactly what happened on the plane. All we know is that it was crashing towards the ocean after something caused the engines to burst into flame. We saw the ocean heading right for us and then we woke up somewhere.”
Makoto felt her temper rise. “And it took you _eight years_ to come back? Or even call me? Or write?”
Ranma’s face showed how much pain her words caused and she instantly regretted them. “We… you probably won’t believe us, but we weren’t on Earth any more. Tell me, do you believe in magic?”
Makoto’s anger vanished like it had never existed. “What?” She remembered the portal they had come out of and her fears began to rise. “Yes.” ‘I kind of have to,’ she thought to herself.
“We… well, we ended up in another dimension or parallel world or something.”
Makoto gasped as her fears spiked. “The Dark Kingdom?!” Tears began to fill her eyes.
Outside, Luna couldn’t make out the conversation, but she could see that Makoto was surrounded. She did clearly hear Makoto cry out, “The Dark Kingdom?!” Luna hissed into her communicator, “Hurry! Makoto just confirmed that they’re from the Dark Kingdom and they have her surrounded! Hurry!”
Back inside, Ranma and Ukyou blinked and looked at each other. Ukyou shrugged and Ranma shook his head. They held a short whispered conversation while Ranma scratched the back of his head. A tug on his hand made Ranma look down at Siofra. “What is it, Gadget?”
Siofra blushed some at the pet name. She whispered quietly into Ranma’s ears as he leaned over. Realization dawned on Ranma as he turned back to Makoto. “Wait, is this place really nasty, lots of monsters running around, and a gay looking guy in a gray uniform with a blonde ponytail?”
“Zoisite?!”
Luna urged the Senshi on, “She just mentioned Zoisite!”
“Didn’t catch his name. Yeah, we accidentally stopped off there when we were trying to get home. We were only in that place for a few hours, and it wasn’t friendly.”
“Not friendly? Dad, you have a gift for understatement. The Dark Kingdom is trying to invade the Earth! Only the Sailor Senshi have been able to hold them off.”
“Really? I-“ Ranma’s voice trailed off as something in the corner of the room caught his eye. He got up quickly and put Siofra’s hand into Ukyou’s as he crossed the room to where the umbrella stood on its pedestal. “You kept it. Oh, Makoto… you kept it. Ryouga.” Ranma ran his hand over the umbrella.
“Ryouga? Is that the umbrella’s name?”
Ukyou and Ranma laughed. “No, Makoto-chan… it’s the name of my best friend and strongest rival… Hibiki Ryouga.” Ranma hefted the hundred pound weapon with one hand. Makoto was certain she saw him fighting back tears as he gave it a practiced twirl. “I miss him, Ucchan.”
Ukyou nodded in understanding as tears began to trickle down her face. “I know, Ranchan.”
Makoto looked back and forth between the two. “Mom? Dad? Who was Ryouga?”
Makoto saw a wide mixture of emotions cross both of her parents’ faces. “He… it’s a difficult story, sugar,” her mother tried to explain.
“Is it as difficult as the story about where you’ve been?” Makoto’s voice trembled a little.
“Actually… yes.” Ukyou lay her arm around Makoto’s shoulders. “Sugar, I want you to answer a question for me, and I need you to answer honestly. Now, you said you believe in magic, right?” After Makoto nodded slowly, she continued. “Well, that’s good. Do you believe that all magic is evil and should be despised?”
Makoto blinked. “No. Mom, where are you going with this?”
“Well…” Ukyou started to speak when she noticed a shadow fall over Ranma’s features and he scowled as he glanced towards the window.
“Makoto, you said the Dark Kingdom’s trying to invade the Earth?” When his daughter nodded, Ranma’s frown deepened. “They just made a move. Stay here, I’ll go handle it.” Ranma ran to the front door with the umbrella still in his hand. “Ucchan, keep her safe.”
“WAIT!!!” Makoto yelled, but her father was already out the door. Makoto turned to her mother, a terrified expression on her face. “He’ll be killed!”
Ukyou hugged her daughter closely. “Don’t worry, dear. He’s had a lot of people trying to kill him most of his life. He can handle whatever’s out there. And if he can’t, he’s not stupid enough to fight by himself.” ‘Arrogant and stubborn enough, but not stupid enough,’ she thought to herself.
Makoto’s hand slipped into her pocket and clenched her wand. She had just gotten her family back and she didn’t want to risk losing them again, but there was something in her mother’s voice that made her believe that her father actually could handle a youma attack.
Outside, Luna triggered the communicator again. “Careful, girls. One of them just left in a hurry. I think he sensed you coming.”
Minako’s voice came over the device. “There’s a youma attack going on here! We have to stop it! Is Makoto being attacked?”
“Not yet, but hurry. That youma could be a delaying action.” Luna began chewing on her claw tips in worry.
“We will. Under and out.”
Ranma broke to a halt at a rather strange sight. There were three youma, each one looking vaguely like female bodybuilders. Their skin varied from dark gray to brown and appeared to be made out of stone. They were currently smashing real estate. That wasn’t what was strange to him. What was strange was the fact that there were four young ladies in embarrassingly skimpy outfits running around and trying to fight the youma. The girls were attacking with elemental magic, varying from fire and water to some kind of light based beams, but the youma seemed fairly resistant to their efforts.
Ranma smirked to himself as he hefted the umbrella. “Well, Ryouga… time to fight the good fight again. I hope you’re here with me in spirit. In a way, it’s a good thing you’re not really here. Those girls would have you out like a light from blood loss.” Ranma closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated. His clothing dissolved, but was instantly replaced with a skintight suit of black material that covered everything from his neck down, except for his hands. Without further ado, Ranma ran into the fight.
Sailor Mars gasped for breath as she ducked away from a vicious swing from one of the youma. “I don’t think these are very weak, Mercury.”
Mercury nodded in response as she blanketed the area with a dense fog. “You would appear to be correct. Though their power levels are not apparently very high, they are strongly resistant to magic, rendering our attacks mostly useless.”
Sailor Moon landed next to the two girls. “Any ideas?” She wanted to hurry on to Makoto’s rescue, but she couldn’t just ignore the damage the youma were causing.
Minako offered a suggestion. “Well we could HOLY COW, WHO’S THE HUNK?!” The Senshi turned to where the fog was dissipating and saw one of the most perfect specimens of masculinity running into the fight. So caught up by their hormones, which suddenly kicked into overdrive, they didn’t shout out any warnings.
As it turned out, anything they said would have been pointless. The man ran straight towards one of the youma. As it swung for his head, the man in black slid under the attack and brought up, of all things, an umbrella. He slammed the end of it into the armpit of the youma. Whatever they may have expected to happen, the youma rising into the air some as its arm suddenly bent at a nasty angle shocked them. It howled in pain as the man twirled, following the strike through by bringing the umbrella around in an arc to crash into its chest. The youma went flying backwards and plowed into one of its companions.
The youma that remained standing turned to glare at the man. Ranma just smirked in response, tapping the umbrella against his shoulder. “I’ll let you leave in one piece if ya go now. Your choice. If you stick around, yer carp on the cutting board.”
The youma pointed its hand at the man and a lance of sharp stone cut through the air towards his head. In one swift movement the martial artist ducked, opened the umbrella, and sent it flying off to the side. The youma ignored it and sent a second lance at him. Ranma slipped off to one side of the attack with a smirk on his face. The youma howled in frustration moments before it found itself unable to make a sound as the umbrella completed its flight trajectory, arcing around so that it’s edge passed through where the youma’s neck was. As the man held up his hand to catch the weapon, the youma’s body turned to dust.
Ranma turned to give the remaining two youma his attention when he saw their bodies collapse into dust as well. One of the young ladies held up her hand and caught a glowing disc, which Ranma assumed was the weapon that had killed the youma. He smiled and waved at the girls. “Good job!”
Venus smiled dreamily. “He thinks I did a good job!”
“Hey, he was talking to me! I’m the one that dusted those youma!” Moon blurted out.
Ranma watched the two girls go back and forth and just shook his head. “Well, enjoy yourselves.” He started walking past them with the umbrella over one shoulder when Moon suddenly noticed it.
“Hey, that’s Mako-chan’s umbrella! Who are you and what are you doing with it?”
Ranma glanced at the umbrella for a moment and then at Sailor Moon. “My name’s Ranma. Mako-chan? Oh, you know my daughter, Makoto? Are you the Sailor Senshi?” A wide smile crossed his face. “That’s great! I’m glad to know she’s got some good, strong friends… even if they do dress like a pervert’s wet dream.”
The insult at the end of Ranma’s comment was completely ignored as the Senshi realized what he was saying. “You’re Makoto’s father? But you’re dead!”
Ranma laughed. “Nah, I got better. Well, I gotta go and do some things. Drop by sometime. Me and Ukyou would love to meet some of Makoto’s friends.” After waving casually at them, Ranma jumped to a roof top and hopped away.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Mars suddenly remembered something. “What did he mean, ‘a pervert’s wet dream’?!” The Senshi of Fire was not happy.
A few minutes later, Makoto was sitting in the living room and talking with her mother, telling her a little about her life. Of course she was leaving out the part about being a Senshi. She suddenly stopped talking, which caught her mother by surprise. “Is something wrong?”
Makoto had sensed her friends approach and could tell that they were in their Senshi guises. ‘I wonder what’s wrong. Luna didn’t call me about an attack. Oh no! Mom! If she sees the Sailor Senshi arriving at my front door, she’ll ask questions!’ “Oh, I think I heard my friends at the front door! Let me go get them!” Without waiting for a response, she got up and quickly moved to the door.
Four battle-ready Senshi were preparing to storm the house when suddenly the door flew open. Makoto hissed in a whisper, “What are you guys doing here like that? You’ll make people ask questions!”
The Senshi blinked. This was not what they were expecting at all. “Uh, Luna said you were under attack by the Dark Kingdom.”
Makoto blinked. “What? No, not at all! My parents showed up! They’re alive! Quick, change back and come on in! I want you to meet my mom and sister!”
After the girls changed into their civilian clothes, Luna followed them in. ‘What are those girls doing?!’ Luna was stunned. ‘Is it mind control or something?’ She crept carefully through the hall and peeked around a corner. A small groan escaped her as she saw the Senshi sitting down and chatting rather amiably with the tall woman in dark clothing. Apparently Makoto had just introduced all of her friends to the stranger. ‘Is she a youma or one of the Dark Generals? I don’t remember a female general. Curse my memory problems!’
Siofra suddenly tensed up, which caught Ukyou’s attention. “What is it, Gadget?” She leaned close as Siofra whispered something into her ear. When the girl was done, Ukyou nodded. “Makoto, dear… do you own a cat?”
“No, I don’t. Why?”
Ukyou held up her hand for a moment and spoke quietly to Siofra. The little girl took off the backpack she was wearing and opened it. Reaching inside, she seemed to be searching for something. After a moment she pulled out something that looked like a pair of aviator goggles. She slipped them on and the girls had to giggle for a moment because of how they made her look. Siofra looked around the room until her gaze settled on something in the hall.
Luna cursed as she made eye contact with one of the enemy. She felt hope rising in her as the one that spotted her seemed to pale in fear. ‘Maybe that means I can break the spell!’ Luna started creeping forward while making sure to keep eye contact with the girl. She cursed mentally when she saw the girl point at her. Luna coiled and leapt towards her with claws extended. She found her movement arrested in midair as she felt herself being grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
“Luna?!” Makoto blurted out in surprise.
Ukyou glanced over at her older daughter. “Luna, is it? I thought you said you didn’t have a cat.”
Usagi held up her hand. “She’s mine. She, uh… must have followed me here.”
Ukyou held Luna out to Usagi. “Well, please hold onto her and make sure she doesn’t get loose. I’m afraid that Siofra’s terrified of cats.” Ukyou sent a thankful prayer to the kami for the fact that Ranma wasn’t there right then.
Usagi had to struggle for a minute to keep a hold of Luna. She resorted to bopping the Moon Cat on the head in order to get her attention. “Behave!” Luna rubbed the top of her head and glared at Usagi, but settled down. Her eyes lit up hopefully when she saw Artemis peeking around the same corner she had been at. ‘He’ll save us!’ Her hopes shattered when Artemis simply walked in and hopped into Minako’s lap and curled up, looking for all intents and purposes like he was going to take a nap. Luna muttered a few choice curse words directed towards Artemis’s heritage.
Ukyou shook her head. “Another one? I take it that one’s yours?” She said to Minako.
The blonde nodded. “His name’s Artemis.”
Ukyou smirked. “Any more?”
Makoto laughed a little nervously. “Nope, that should be it.”
Usagi smiled brightly. “So, you’re Ukyou? You’re married to that absolute hunk, Ranma? You’re so lucky!”
Ukyou laughed. “You got that right. I take it you ran into the ‘man amongst men’?”
Minako and Usagi both nodded with dreamy looks on their faces. “That body! And he beat up a youma all by himself!”
Ukyou groaned as she rubbed her forehead. “Was he wearing a nice, tight black outfit that showed off his body in a really nice way?”
The two blonds nodded dreamily. Makoto raised an eyebrow at her mom. “He wasn’t wearing that when he left.”
“He probably changed on his way to the fight.”
“Oooookay. Uhm, mom? What was that bit about ‘man amongst men’?”
Ukyou blushed a little bit. “It’s a long story, but Ranma’s idiot of a father raised him with the intent of making him the manliest man that ever walked the Earth. He used to be rude, arrogant, prideful, and rash.” Ukyou paused dramatically. “I finally broke him out of the rude stage,” she finished with a smile.
“So where did dad go?”
“Knowing your father, he’s probably having a stern talk with whoever called the monster he beat up.”
The girls stared in shock and horror. “He’s WHAT?! He’ll be killed!”
Ukyou waved her hand in the air. “Not too likely. He might get beat up, put you wouldn’t believe what it takes to keep him down.”
Makoto clenched her fists, slightly disturbed by her mother’s apparent casual disregard for her father’s safety. “You don’t understand! The Senshi all together were only barely able to drive Kunzite off last time! Dad by himself is going to get killed! I just got you back, I don’t want to lose you again!!!” Makoto began to cry. She felt the warmth of Ukyou’s arms encircle her and pull her in close.
“All right dear, I’ll-“ Ukyou was cut off as the front door slammed opened, startling everyone. Usagi let go of Luna, who bolted into the kitchen and hid.
To everyone’s surprise, a bedraggled and somewhat moist redheaded woman, wearing the same black European clothes as Ranma, came stomping into the house and slammed the door shut behind her. Her clothes were smoking somewhat and torn in a number of places, and she was grumbling dire imprecations under her breath. She looked up in surprise as she noticed everyone. “Uh, hi!”
Makoto stared in fascination for a moment before pulling away from Ukyou and throwing a flying tackle at the redhead. “Aunt Ranko!!!” Ranko had only an instant to brace herself before the energetic girl slammed into her in a glomp that would make an Amazon jealous.
“Aunt Ranko?” The redhead said in confusion.
Usagi suddenly piped up. “I challenge you to an ice-cream eating contest!”
The red-haired woman blinked in surprise and looked down at Makoto with a small smile on her face. “What have you been telling your friends?”
Makoto had the decency to blush some. “Well, I told them how you always took me out for ice-cream and that you could out-eat any of them, even Usagi.” Makoto leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “She eats like a vacuum cleaner.”
Ranko nodded in understanding and looked at Usagi. “You’re on, but it’ll have to wait till later.” Usagi nodded happily and the redhead chuckled. She looked down at Makoto again. “Makoto-chan, did Kasumi ever tell you about me?”
Makoto blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Did she ever tell you about Jusenkyo?”
Makoto shook her head. “Who is that?”
The redhead sighed and looked over at Ukyou. “Would you go get a glass of hot water, Ucchan?”
Ukyou nodded and smiled as she stood up. “How’d it happen?”
Ranko growled. “SHE lives two doors down.”
To the confusion of the girls and cats, Ukyou just laughed and walked into the kitchen and there was the sound of running water.
Makoto noticed the rather damaged state of her aunt’s clothes. “What happened to you?”
Ranko shrugged and grumbled. “Misjudged an opponent, that’s all.” She looked over as Ukyou came out of the kitchen with a steaming glass of water. Ukyou looked at the girls as she stood next to the redhead. “Okay, now just don’t panic, girls.” With that, she dumped the water over Ranko’s head.
Before their startled eyes ‘Ranko’ grew a few inches taller and lost a lot of weight in her chest. Her hair shifted to black and they stared in amazement as ‘Ranko’ transformed into Ranma. He shook his hair and gave his pigtail a casual tug. Makoto made a strange noise as her eyes rolled up and she fainted. Before she could fall any distance at all, Ranma caught her and carefully placed her on the couch. Neither he nor Ukyou saw the girls quietly grip their transformation wands. ‘PROOF!’ Luna thought to herself from her vantage point in the shadows of the kitchen.
Ranma did notice the strangely male voice that asked, “What the $@(
“C-C-C-CAT!!!!” Ranma suddenly flung himself across the room and cowered in the corner. “KEEP IT AWAY!! KEEP IT AWAY!!!!!” Before anyone could move, Ranma literally vanished into thin air.
Ukyou groaned as everyone stared in complete shock. “I was hoping we could ease into this,” she said quietly. Turning towards the collected girls, she gave a formal bow. “Please allow me to explain.” She leaned down as Siofra tugged on her sleeve and whispered something into her ear. Ukyou nodded and the little girl bowed to everyone and ran out the front door.
Usagi gulped in some fear, but nodded. “He… was a she?”
Ukyou nodded as she rubbed her forehead. “It’s a curse he picked up about sixteen years ago. There’s a very bad place in China called Jusenkyo. If you fall into one of the cursed springs there, you take on the form of whatever originally drowned there. Ranma fell into the spring of drowned girl. Cold water turns him into a girl and hot water changes him back.”
“That must be confusing, but at the same time it’s kinda cool.”
Ukyou chuckled. “It caused Ranma no end of grief back when we were about your age, but he also gets a lot of use out of it, so he’s pretty much accepted it.”
Ami held up her hand. “Couldn’t he have just gone into the spring of drowned boy? Or is there not one?”
Ukyou nodded. “Well, the first time he was there, he just wasn’t thinking straight. Remember how I told you he was raised to be a ‘man amongst men’? Imagine how he felt now that half the time he was a she? He didn’t quite calm down about it for several years. And it may be a good thing that he didn’t use the pool. We know that at least some of the curses can mix, so you can imagine…”
The girls all shuddered at that thought. “Uhm, how did he disappear like that?” Usagi asked.
Ukyou grew a sweatdrop. “He’s real fast when it comes to getting away from cats.”
“Why is he so scared of them? And why is Siofra scared too? And where did she go?”
“She’s looking for her father. She’s pretty good at tracking him down when he runs off like that. As for the whys… I’m not going to go into the details of how because it’s just really not pretty. Let’s just say that Ranma’s father was a stupid moron who had no concept of safety when it comes to martial arts training. As for Siofra, that one’s even harder to explain, but cats just make her extremely uncomfortable.” Something occurred to Ukyou and she looked at the clock in the hall. “Uhm, girls… shouldn’t you be in bed? It’s one in the morning.” Ukyou’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Makoto. “And where were you at until midnight, young lady?”
The girls all sweatdropped as they stood up. “Uhm, you’re right. We should really be going. It was nice meeting you!” Usagi and the others bowed before making a hasty exit. Makoto wished she could do the same as her mother’s intense gaze bore into her.
“I was just hanging with my friends, that’s all.” ‘That’s not a lie,’ she told herself, ‘I was with my friends. I’ll just neglect to mention that we were fighting bad guys from another dimension.’
Ukyou raised an eyebrow, but there was enough truth in the statement to where she would let it slide. For now. “Bed, young lady.”
Makoto sighed. “Yes, mother.” She led the way to her bedroom. As she changed into her sleeping clothes, she kept glancing at her mother. ‘It’s so wonderful that they’re back, but there’s something a little wrong with the situation.’ When she had climbed into bed, her mother tucked her in. Makoto felt a warm feeling rush through her at the attention. “Mom, before that youma attack, you were asking me about magic. Why?”
Ukyou sighed softly. “Well, sugar, for one thing it was to prepare you for the fact that your ‘Aunt Ranko’ and your father are the same person. We always said that ‘she’ was your aunt when you were younger because we thought it would be too hard to explain to you and we wanted you to grow up nice and normal. The other was to try and explain where we’ve been. After the crash, your father and I ended up in a world where magic not only exists, but it’s pretty common as well. Everything from griffins to dragons exists there, as well as magic users.”
Makoto thought it over for a little. “Dad didn’t ‘run real fast’ when he left, did he? He teleported away. He’s a wizard.”
Ukyou smiled and ran her hand through Makoto’s hair. “You really are bright, aren’t you? He’s not exactly a wizard, but he has had magical training. It’s how we were finally able to come back here. It took Ranchan this long to finally learn the spell and get good enough at it to bring us here.” She tapped the tip of Makoto’s nose. “Now, no more questions tonight. You go to sleep and we’ll continue in the morning.” Ukyou started to get up, but Makoto’s hand shot out to grab hers.
“Don’t go, mom. Please.” She tried to fight them back, but Makoto felt tears forming in her eyes. “I’m terrified that if you leave and I go to sleep, you’ll disappear and it will all have been a dream. Could you please stay?”
Ukyou smiled softly as tears came to her eyes. She kicked off her boots and unslung the combat spatula from her back. Makoto’s eyes went wide as two bandoliers with a dozen smaller spatulas each hit the ground next to it, as well as a daikatana. Ukyou smirked as she noticed her daughter’s wide-eyed expression. “Jade is a bit dangerous sometimes.” She finally slid onto Makoto’s bed and wrapped her arms around the girl. Makoto lay her head in her mother’s lap and drifted off into the best sleep she’d had in years.