Lines Of Destiny
A Sailor Moon / Ranma 1/2 Crossover
By Louis-Philippe Giroux

Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi. Please don't sue me.

Chapter 6

    While Ranma and Akane made their way back to the Hikawa Shrine, they were largely unaware of the reception they were going to receive. The people occupying said shrine were busy staring at what was supposed to be a picture of the orignal incarnation of Mamoru's sister, Akana, who had also happened to be Sailor Terra in the days of the Moon Kingdom.
    "You're right, Ami. Except for the red hair, she does look like a female version of Ranma," said Makoto.
    Akana could have been Ranma's sister. She had the same basic looks, only with a feminine cast. The only thing that was truly different was her hair, which had a flaming red color. Also different was the hairstyle: instead of Ranma's pigtail, Akana wore her hair loose. It flowed down past her shoulders, a river of red as bright as Tuxedo Kamen's roses.
    Mamoru gulped loudly without being aware of it. The girls watched as he slowly raised his hand and tried to touch the hologram, to no avail.
    "It's her," he whispered in awe. "She's definitely the one I've been having dreams about recently."
    Usagi felt a brief pang of jealousy at the thought of Mamoru dreaming of another woman, but quickly dismissed the idea when she realized he was talking about his sister. She turned to face her guardian cat. "Luna, is there some chance Ranma might be a Senshi?" she asked. The other girls all started at the question.
    The black cat looked uncomfortable. "I don't think so, Usagi. The Senshi were and still are all female. I never imagined that one of them might be reincarnated as a man."
    "Besides, Usagi-chan, I don't think he'd look very good in a Sailor fuku," deadpanned Makoto.
    The comment elicited a round of snickers that helped alleviate the atmosphere.
    Rei turned to Ami. "Why didn't you ever come up with this picture before?"
    "Well, I've never exactly had any reason to look for it before," replied Ami defensively. Her computer suddenly beeped. "There are people approaching the shrine, Rei."
    Rei's eyes widened slightly. "It's probably Ranma and Akane coming back," her eyes narrowed, "and he owes me an explanation for the train station incident."
    "You don't need to go on the warpath, Rei, I doubt he lied in order to spite you or anything. He doesn't know you're a Sailor Senshi, so he was probably just concerned about how you'd react if you learned he'd fought a monster," said Ami calmly.
    Rei deflated a little. "Maybe you're right, but I still want to know if he's as powerful as you described him to be, and if he is, I want to know how he does it."
    Ami smiled. "So do I."
    And so, they all moved outside the shrine to wait for Ranma and Akane.

    Ranma and Akane were getting close to the Hikawa Shrine, so Ranma quickly poured the hot water she had gotten at the cafe on himself. The usual change soon followed.
    "Aaahh! It's good to be a guy again," the now male Ranma said with a smile.
    True to form, it couldn't last. Ranma was almost in front of the gate when a bicyclist whizzed by Ranma and splashed him with the contents of a puddle left there by the previous rainfall.
    Ranma frowned, disgusted. "I hate my life," she said in a depressed voice.
    Akane groaned. "What are we going to do now? You used all the hot water!"
    Ranma thought about it for a second. "Well, you could just go in the shrine and smuggle out a cup of hot water while I wait outside," she suggested.
    Akane nodded. "I guess it's as good a plan as any." She turned around and crossed to the gate. She had not taken three steps onto the grounds before she was confronted with the sight of a party of six girls and a young man looking for all the world like they were expecting someone. Her gaze was momentarily drawn to the shortest of the group.
    Akane stopped dead in her tracks and a sweat drop found its way on to the back of her head. "Ano.. am I... interrupting something?"
    Rei suddenly realized they all looked like a bunch of starving vultures ready to dive on someone. "Oh, I'm sorry, Akane-san, I was just saying goodbye to my friends when we heard people near the gates." Rei looked around, but didn't see Ranma. "Isn't Ranma with you?" she asked.
    "He'll... be along shortly," Akane said slowly. She took a long look at the group of girls and her eyes widened in recognition when she finally realized where she had seen them before. They were the same girls from the train station! She also belatedly realized that the young man was the one who had sat across from them in the train. *Great!* she thought sourly. *They're the only ones who really saw the fight at the train station and they happen to be friends with Rei?* She felt a small hope flare. *Maybe they don't remember me!*
    "Well, don't mind me," Akane said in a falsely cheerful tone. "I'll just go inside."
    Akane had barely gotten past the group before Rei spoke again.
    "Akane-san, my friends tell me you and Ranma were involved in a monster attack at the train station today. Is this true?" asked the priestess.
    Akane stopped and cursed inwardly. *Damn! Looks like we won't be able to sweep this one under the rug. Oh well...* With her back still turned, she said: "Well, the attack was quickly over, so it didn't seem really important. You looked like you had better things to worry about than fret over a monster attack."
    Rei narrowed her eyes. *She's treating the attack almost as if it were a walk in the park! Very strange...* But before she could ask her next question...

    Ranma was standing outside the gate. When she heard Akane being greeted, she winced. *It sounds like there are a lot of people there. I hope Akane can get the hot water anyway.* She winced even more when she heard Rei question Akane. "I knew we shouldn't have tried to keep the fight secret," she muttered in a low voice. She then decided to go bail out Akane and stepped inside the gates, intent on diverting the attention away from Akane. "Hey, Akane, is everything all right?..." She got no further when she noticed the stares she was getting.

    Rei was a nanosecond away from asking her next question to Akane when she noticed a second person walking through the gates. It took her a few seconds to realize exactly who had just walked through the gates. She blinked, not trusting her eyes. Slowly, she turned towards the other girls to see their reactions and realized they were reacting much the same way she was.
    "Akana?" Mamoru blurted out incredulously, not believing his eyes.
    The comment was enough to break the staring contest. Ranma was the first to snap out of it. "I'm Akane's cousin; my name's Ranko," she said, startlement replaced by confusion. "She's Akane," said the redhead, pointing towards her 'cousin'.
    The shortest girl in the group, shook her head. "He didn't say 'Akane'; he said 'Akana'."
    "Well, I'm neither Akane or Akana, so you must have the wrong person," Ranma said, looking at Mamoru. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop herself from staring at Mamoru as well. *He's the guy who was sitting with us in the train, but ... why does he look so familiar?...* Suddenly, for a brief moment, an image, like a long-forgotten memory flashed in her mind in which the young man in front of her was clad in a black and silver armor. She was about to put a name to him when the fluttering memory vanished as fast as it had appeared. She quickly shook her head.
    No one noticed Akane tiptoeing inside the shrine. *Might as well get the hot water while Ranma's distracting them,* she thought.
    "Are you okay, ah... Ranko-san?" asked Mamoru.
    "Yeah, it's just that for a second there, you reminded me of someone, that's all."
    "Who?" asked Hotaru, with what Ranma detected as a hint of eagerness in her voice.
    "And just who are... " Ranma trailed off, her eyes widening. She never finished her statement. Suddenly, an expression of pure, utter, indescribable, unadulterated horror appeared on her face. A powerless young virgin faced with a legion of horny tentacled demons would not have looked so horrified. The girls were already halfway reaching for their henshin rods when they turned around to look at the gruesome horror whose sight alone had frozen "Ranko".
    The only things they saw were Artemis and Luna, who had come out of the shrine. They were currently imitating the girls, in the way that they were gawking (as much as a cat can gawk) at Ranma.
    Everyone (minus Ranma) blinked. They turned back to Ranko, not understanding what had her so frightened.
    "C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAAAATTTS!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, pointing at the two cats.
    Everyone blinked once again. It was the last thing they did before Ranko took off at supersonic speed through the front gate and down the street.
    Before they could react to that particular twist of events, Akane came barreling down the shrine steps, a water-filled glass in her hands. "What? Where?!" she said looking left and right. She then spotted the two Moon cats and sighed audibly. "Great, just great..." she muttered.
    Rei looked at Akane, puzzlement painted all over her face. "Akane, what just happened here?" asked the bewildered priestess.
    Akane thought about it for a second. *If those cats are pets, Rei might as well know the truth. Ranma will forgive me.* She headed out towards the gate, intent on catching up with Ranma. At the last second, she turned around. "Ranko had a training accident when she was young and, as a result, she developed a pathological fear of cats." She looked pensive for a second and added: "Ranma doesn't like people to know, but he has the exact same fear, so if you don't want him to freak out when he gets back, you might want to take those cats elsewhere." Without adding another word, she turned back and ran away after Ranma.
    By the time Rei and the others moved to the gate, Akane was already long gone.
    Luna and Artemis slowly came back to their senses. "Excuse me," Artemis asked in a confused tone, "But can someone tell us what just happened here and who was that girl who looked so much like Akana?"
    Everyone started speaking at the same time.

    Akane managed to catch up with Ranma a couple of blocks from the Hikawa shrine. The pigtailed martial artist was slowly banging her head against a wall, embarrassment chiseled on her features. Akane rolled her eyes and approached the young woman.
    "You won't be able to get rid of your phobia that way, Ranma," she said with a small smile.
    Ranma stopped pounding her head and looked at Akane. "It's just so embarrassing! Do you even realize how foolish I'll look now? How am I going to explain to a group of high school girls, one of them who's my own cousin, why I got freaked by a couple of cats?"
    "I think you're overreacting to all of this, Ranma."
    Ranma looked at her with a flat look. "You're not the one who runs for the hills each time a cat crosses your path."
    Akane sighed. "Just before I left to come after you, I told them about your phobia, Ranma."
    "You did what?"
    "Look, Ranma," Akane said, her tone rising, "If those cats happen to be Rei's pets, she needs to know about your phobia. Besides, the other girls would've asked questions anyway, so I told them."
    It was Ranma's turn to sigh. "What exactly did you tell them?"
    "I told them you and your male form had a training accident when you were young and as a result, you developed a fear of cats."
    "Why did you tell them I was afraid as a guy, too?" Ranma almost cried out.
    Akane merely looked at Ranma, not saying a word.
    "Right, right, I guess it couldn't be helped. They would've found out soon enough, ne?" Ranma closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then opened them up again and looked at the glass of water in Akane's hands. "Is that hot water?" she asked.
    "It's not boiling, but at least it's warm enough to change you back." She smiled. "I guess that was the one good thing about all of this; it allowed me to get the hot water while everyone was staring at you." Her smile faded a little. "By the way, why *were* they staring at you like that? They were acting as if they'd seen a ghost."
    Ranma took the water and poured it over her head. The now male martial artist shook his damp head. "I'm not sure," he said. He thought for a couple of seconds. "Akane, did you notice that the guy who was there was the same one as on the train?"
    Akane nodded. "And the other girls were the ones you pushed me towards at the train station."
    Ranma shook his head slowly. "I told you we shouldn't have tried to hide the fight."
    Akane opened her mouth to protest, but Ranma forestalled her protests. "Let me finish first," he said. His wife settled back, looking a bit unhappy. "Akane, did you notice anything strange about the guy from the train? Did he remind you of anyone?" Ranma asked.
    Akane blinked. "No... not really," she said slowly. "Why?"
    Ranma looked introspective. "I can't help feeling I've seen him somewhere before. Not like having seen him before in a street or something, but it's like I remember him from a really long time ago..."
    It was Akane's turn to shake her head. "Sorry, but he doesn't really remind me of anyone. The only one who looks familiar to me is the little girl with the purple eyes." Ranma raised an eyebrow questioningly, but said nothing.
    Ranma and Akane looked at each other for a few seconds then shrugged in unison.
    "Oh well, we'll sort it out later. Right now, I suppose we'd better head back to the shrine and face the welcoming party," concluded Ranma with a wry smile.
    Akane smiled back and they headed once more towards the Hikawa Shrine, hand in hand.

    At the shrine, a healthy discussion was under way. Mamoru, the two Moon cats and the girls were waiting for the return of Ranma, Akane and Ranko. Mamoru was still a little shocked at having seen the girl from his dreams - his long-lost sister - appear out of nowhere and leave just as quickly. The other girls had just been plain frazzled by the "apparition". Luna and Artemis listened attentatively as the others finished explaining what had happened.
    "So she said she was Akane's cousin?" asked Artemis.
    The girls nodded. "That's what she said before she ran away," said Rei.
    Mamoru suddenly spoke up. "I need to find her."
    Everyone, especially Usagi, turned towards him.
    "I need to find her," Mamoru repeated. "She's my sister and she's alive! Before she took off, she mentioned I looked familiar." He looked at Hotaru. "I thought you said she couldn't be alive in this time."
    Hotaru now looked very uncomfortable. "I don't know how this can be, Mamoru-san..."
    "Mamoru," Luna said diplomatically, trying to take the attention off Hotaru. "You realize this might just be a freak encounter?"
    Mamoru stared at Luna with what could almost pass as hostility before calming down. "Maybe," he said tightly, "but I intend to find out."
    Minako broke the awkward silence that followed, taking the opportunity to change the subject. "I still don't really understand why she freaked out like that when she saw Luna and Artemis," she wondered out loud. She turned towards Ami. "Do you really think a training accident could've done that, Ami?"
    The resident genius took on a slightly lecturing tone. "Her case is very unusual. I've heard of cases in which a patient who's been traumatized by an animal develops an irrational fear of that animal afterwards. However, I've never heard of a case like hers. If her fear *is* due to a training accident, the trauma must have been considerable in order for her to react like that. The best thing is to ask her about it when she comes back."
    "Do you really think Ranma has the same fear as her? He sure didn't look afraid when he trashed the daimon at the train station today," said Usagi.
    Ami shrugged slightly. "It's possible his fear is limited only to cats. We can ask him when he comes back. In the meantime, I suggest Luna and Artemis go hide somewhere before Ranma comes back, just to be sure."
    The two cats reluctantly went to hide in a couple of bushes.
    "Speak of the devil..." said Makoto.

    Ranma and Akane walked in the gate and found the girls sitting on the steps leading to the shrine. While most of them looked at him with varying degrees of surprise, Ranma noticed that the young man looked somewhat disappointed.
    "Ranma, Akane," said Rei. "Did you find Ranko?"
    "She bowled me over when she was running away from here," said Ranma. "She decided to go straight home instead of taking another chance with the cats." He then started looking nervously around him. "You're sure they're gone?"
    "They're Minako and Usagi's pets," Rei said, indicating the two girls , who smiled sheepishly. "Don't worry, they're gone." Ranma heaved a sigh of relief. Rei almost couldn't believe Ranma's reaction. "Would you mind explaining why you and Ranko are so afraid of cats?"
    Ranma looked at the group of girls before him. "Before I tell you, none of this goes anywhere, understand?" He waited until everyone had nodded. Ranma lowered his head and sighed. "You know about how Pop trained me in martial arts when I was very young, don't you?" Rei nodded. "Well, he trained Ranko, too. When I was seven years old, oyaji decided Ranko and I were old enough to learn a special kind of martial arts... the Neko-ken."
    Ami made a mental note to look up anything she could find on this style, while Makoto was shaking her head at the thought of anyone learning special martial arts techniques at that age.
    Ranma continued. "The Neko-ken was supposed to be an extremely powerful style. To train us in it, Pop wrapped us from head to toe in fish sausage and dropped us in a pit full of starving cats. Needless to say, the cats didn't ask before tearing the food off us."
    Everyone (save Akane) gasped. "But... that's insane," blurted out Ami. "What were you possibly supposed to learn that way?"
    Rei shook her head. "I can't believe uncle Genma would do something like that!"
    Ranma looked hard at her. "Believe it, Rei! There aren't a lot of things my father wouldn't have done to teach me martial arts."
    Usagi interrupted. "It mustn't have been pleasant for you and Ranko, but at least it only happened once."
    Ranma slowly turned to look at her. "Who says he only did it once?"
    Everyone gulped. Ranma continued. "When the first time didn't yield any positive results, he covered us in fish sausage again and tossed us back in the cat pit. And again, and again, and again... Eventually we snapped and went insane," Ranma said emotionlessly.
    By then, everyone was looking at Ranma with some degree of pity. Even Luna and Artemis, hidden in the bushes, winced in sympathy.
    "Still, you look sane enough to me," Minako said in a bright voice.
    *Geez,* thought Usagi. *And I thought I was the one who was tactless...*
    Before the other girls could tell Minako to shut up, Ranma smiled wryly. "Fortunately for us, the insanity was only temporary. An old lady managed to snap us out of it. It turns out that we were finally able to use the legendary Neko-ken, but at the cost of our sanity. Since that day, whenever Ranko or I see a cat, we freak out and we can't help it. It can become quite dangerous if we're exposed to a cat for any length of time."
    "What does that mean, exactly?" asked Ami.
    "We end up using the Neko-ken. If that should ever happen, you'd better pray Akane's nearby or run for your lives, because at that point, Akane is the only one who can bring us out of it," Ranma said. *Well, there's also a very good chance that triggering the curse might do it, but I'm not about to tell them that.*
    "You can't possibly be that dangerous, can you?" asked Minako with a small, nervous smile.
    Ranma merely looked at Minako and raised an eyebrow. "You were at the train station this afternoon, ne? You decide how dangerous I could be if I were several times faster and stronger with no control over what I did."
    While Akane scowled at the mention of the train station incident, Minako remembered what Ranma had done there and wisely decided to shut up. Rei, however, was not so easily deterred.
    "Ranma, speaking of the train station, would you mind explaining how you trashed a monster there this afternoon?" asked the young priestess.
    "Why is this so important to you, Rei?" asked Ranma tiredly.
    Rei was only stumped for a second. "Because you could've been hurt!" she stated seriously. She couldn't very well tell him she had a more... professional interest in the matter, now, could she?
    Ranma snorted. "Rei, I've been training in martial arts since the day I could stand up without falling. I've faced a lot worse than that monster, trust me." Ranma stopped when he saw Akane's expression turning red.
    *Stupid macho bravado,* Rei thought. "Well next time, leave it to the Sailor Senshi, okay? They're better equipped than you are to face these monsters."
    "You mean they're actually real? Anyway, people could have been hurt by that monster and I didn't see those Sailor Senshi anywhere, so I took care of it. Don't worry about me, Rei. I can take care of myself."
    "What about the energy blast? I'm quite curious as to how you did that." asked Ami.
    Ranma decided he had enough. Answering one or two questions was one thing, but he wasn't going to stand around and be interrogated by a bunch of high-school girls. "That was a chi-blast," he said. "Rei knows what that is. Now, if you'll excuse me, Akane and I need to get some sleep if we're going to wake up early for registration tomorrow." Akane and Ranma got up and went inside the shrine.
    *He can manipulate his chi?* thought Rei, incredulously.
    "Wait!" yelled Mamoru. Ranma and Akane stopped. "I'd like to speak to Ranko again soon, if possible."
    Ranma frowned almost imperceptibly. "Why?" he asked.
    "She reminds me of... someone. I'd just like to talk to her, that's all."
    Ranma thought about it for a couple of seconds. *Mmmhh, if I let him meet 'Ranko', I might be able to find out why he looks so familiar,* he thought. "I'll let her know," he said out loud.
    "Arigato," said Mamoru.
    Akane was nearly inside the shrine when she turned around. "Excuse me, but what's your name?" she asked Hotaru.
    Hotaru's eyes widened slightly. "My name's Hotaru Tomoe, Akane-san," she said.
    Akane narrowed her eyes slightly, examining Hotaru. "Have you ever been in the Nerima area, Hotaru?"
    Hotaru blinked. "I don't think so, why?"
    Akane shook her head. "It's nothing, I guess. It's just that... I thought I'd seen you somewhere before, that's all," she said ruefully.
    She turned back around and went inside with Ranma before she could see Hotaru staring at her, eyes wide open. *She remembers?...*
    Just then, a yellow sportscar came close to the gate and stopped to reveal Haruka. "Hotaru-chan! It's time to go back home," she called out. She blinked when she noticed everyone's expressions, from Rei's puzzlement, to Mamoru's slightly anguished expression. Hotaru's features were in the process of acquiring a nervous twitch. "What happened here?" she asked. "Hotaru-chan, are you all right?"
    Hotaru snapped out of the daze she was in. Barely. "I'll tell you all about it on the way home, Haruka-papa," she said numbly.
    Haruka, seeing as she wasn't going to have any answers from the Inner Senshi, who seemed to be ignoring her for some reason, shrugged and got back into the car with Hotaru. "Michiru and I had an interesting evening too," she said. "I'll tell you about it on the way."
    Just before she closed the door, Haruka heard Minako and Usagi scream in unison: "LOOK AT THE TIME! MY PARENTS ARE GONNA KILL ME!". Haruka shook her head and closed the door.
    *Some things just never change...* thought Haruka.

Chapter 7

    Haruka was driving back at a comfortable speed (at least for her) to the apartment she and Michiru shared with Hotaru and Setsuna. Watching out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hotaru had been strangely silent since she'd picked her up at Rei's temple.
    "Is there something wrong, Hotaru-chan?" she asked.
    The question seemed to shake Hotaru out of whatever daze she was in. "Haruka-papa, I... I think I might have found my brother," she said hesitantly.
    Haruka blinked. "Your... brother?" she asked slowly. "Hotaru-chan, you don't have a brother!"
    "Not in this life, but I had one in the days of the Silver Millennium."
    Haruka blinked again and tried to keep her eyes on the road. "Hotaru-chan, would you mind explaining this to me a little more?"
    Hotaru let out a small sigh. "Well, it all started when we went to greet Mamoru-san at the train station..."

    While Haruka and Hotaru were heading back, Michiru decided to try and find out a little more about the mysterious redhead from the restaurant. Pulling out the Aqua Mirror from its subspace pocket, she concentrated on Ranma's image. Mere seconds later, the female Ranma appeared in the Mirror.
    Then things started to get strange.
    Ranma's image started to waver and was suddenly replaced by the male Ranma's. Michiru became puzzled, as she had never met Ranma's male form before.
    *Who is he?* Michiru wondered. *And what is his connection to Ranko, aside from the fact that he looks very much like her, that is.*
    All of a sudden the image switched back to female Ranma, but this time, a smiling Mamoru appeared behind Ranma, a hand on her right shoulder. Michiru became even more perplexed.
    "Mamoru-san?..." she wondered out loud. A memory started gnawing at her from the back of her mind. Something about Ranko and Mamoru... No, not 'Ranko'...
    Before Michiru could ponder this new development further, Mamoru's image disappeared from the Mirror and male Ranma was suddenly back-to-back with female Ranma. Two seconds later, the image slowly disappeared.
    Michiru was surprised. *Something's interfering with the Mirror?* She waited for a few seconds, but all the Mirror gave her was the image of a valley filled with springs that had bamboo poles sticking out of them. She sighed and looked up. It seemed it wasn't going to be as easy as she had thought. Michiru then closed her eyes for a second.
    If she hadn't, she might have seen the Mirror flickering for a fraction of a second, showing a red-headed girl in Senshi garb...

    Haruka and Hotaru had finally arrived at their apartment. They got out of the car, Hotaru still talking about what had transpired earlier today.
    "... we were expecting Ranma, but instead, this girl called Ranko arrived with Akane."
    Haruka looked up sharply at the name. "Did you say Ranko?" she asked.
    Hotaru seemed a bit surprised by Haruka's sudden interest. She wanted to tell Haruka about Akane, not Ranko. "Uh... yes, why?"
    "Did she happen to have red hair?" pressed Haruka.
    Hotaru's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
    Haruka's eyes narrowed in response. "If she's who I think she is, Michiru and I met her in a small cafe this evening." She paused. "She has some... interesting talents."
    "Well, Ranma trashed a daimon at the train station and he *did* say that they had both trained together, so it makes sense, doesn't it?" said Hotaru.
    Haruka gave a slight smile. "I'm going to want to meet this Ranma, someday."
    They entered the apartment, only to find Michiru sitting on a couch, looking pensive.
    Haruka immediately noticed this. "Michiru, is there something wrong?" she asked in a slightly concerned voice.
    Michiru looked up to Haruka. "The Mirror won't give me a straight answer, Haruka," she said in a puzzled tone of voice.
    Hotaru blinked. "What are you using the Mirror for?"
    "We're investigating someone we met in a cafe earlier this evening," said Michiru. "A girl who calls herself Ranko."
    "You're using the Mirror to probe Ranko-san?" asked Hotaru.
    It was Michiru's turn to blink. "Hotaru-chan, you know this 'Ranko'?"
    "We met her today at the Hikawa Shrine, but only for a short while."
    "What was she doing there?"
    "Well, she came back with Akane-san and Mamoru thinks she's..."
    "Akane? As in Akane Saotome?" interrupted Michiru.
    "Yeah! She's Ranma-san's wife." Hotaru saw Michiru about to ask the inevitable next question. "Before you ask, Ranma-san is Rei's cousin," she added, stopping Michiru in her tracks.
    Haruka was watching all the byplay with increasing annoyance. "Time out!" she said, sounding exasperated.
    Michiru raised an eyebrow and Hotaru looked at her with a questioning look.
    Haruka blushed faintly. "Sorry, Michiru, but maybe you should hear Hotaru's story completely before starting with the questions. She knows more about the situation than we do."
    Michiru cracked a smile. "I forgive you," she said sweetly. She turned to Hotaru. "Maybe you'll be able to explain what I saw in the Mirror."
    "So you *did* see something," stated Haruka.
    Michiru nodded to Haruka and Hotaru started repeating the events of the day for the second time. She was eager to tell them about Akana.

    Back at the Hikawa Shrine, Ami, Makoto, Mamoru and the cats had left shortly after Usagi and Minako's sudden departure. They had promised each other to look a little more into Ranma's situation later, since Ranma didn't look too inclined to undergo a questioning session. Ranma and Akane were getting ready to go to sleep when Rei knocked on their door. Ranma opened the door and saw Rei standing there with a thoughtful expression.
    "Is there a problem, Rei?" he asked.
    Rei gave herself a small mental shake. "I just want to ask you one question before you go to bed, Ranma."
    Ranma almost raised an eyebrow, but shrugged instead. "Go ahead."
    "You said you used a chi-blast against a monster at the train station, right?"
    Ranma sighed and nodded.
    "How exactly did you do that?"
    Ranma said nothing and raised his right hand so that his palm faced upwards. He concentrated and a baseball-size sphere of blue-white chi formed in Ranma's hand. "Like this, only much bigger," he said simply. He then noticed Rei was gawking.
    Rei couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had heard legends that the best martial arts masters could use their chi to do what Ranma was doing with apparently little effort. Rei herself was no stranger to chi. In fact, she knew she used her chi when she did fire readings, but when she thought about the necessary skill to produce a chi-*blast*... If Ranma could summon a chi sphere so easily, it meant he had an extremely powerful spiritual strength.
    Rei noticed Ranma's expression and realized she was gawking. Chiding herself mentally, she quickly regained her composure and she looked at Ranma. "May I?" she asked, pointing to the glowing ball.
    Ranma blinked. "Ehh... sure..." he trailed off. He didn't exactly know what Rei was planning to do, but he got ready to dissipate the chi-sphere at a moment's notice.
    Rei put her right hand approximately an inch above the chi-sphere and closed her eyes. Her spiritual training allowed her to easily feel the power of the sphere and through the sphere, Ranma's aura.
    She fought back a shudder.
    Rei was shocked to realize that Ranma was not straining very much in maintaining the sphere. *How can he possibly manipulate his chi so easily? He formed that sphere as easily as Sailor Jupiter does her Sparkling Vital Pressure attack.* Now she understood why he'd seemed so unconcerned about the attack at the train station. "Incredible..." she whispered.
    Ranma nearly blushed at Rei's compliment and dissipated the chi-sphere.
    Feeling the sphere disappear, Rei took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She needed to think about this. "I'm very impressed, Ranma," she said honestly. "I'll look forward to seeing what else you can do." With that, she gave a small bow and left before Ranma could say anything. Ranma might be a bit arrogant, but she knew talent when she saw it and she respected talent.
    Ranma looked at his hand and shrugged faintly. *Oh well...*
    Akane, who had watched and heard the scene between the two cousins, approached Ranma. "I hope she won't go babbling that all away."
    "What if she does?" asked Ranma.
    His wife sighed and took a deep breath. "Ranma, each time you show off your abilities, someone hears about it, comes around, challenges you and usually makes a mess out of our lives. We're married, Ranma. There aren't any other suitors; Mousse, Shampoo and Cologne are back in China and we haven't heard anything about Happosai since the first wedding attempt. Why can't you leave it at that?" There was a noticeable tone of pleading in the last sentence.
    Ranma's features softened. "All right, Akane. I promise I'll try not to do anything that could deliberately attract unwanted attention. But, if some monster shows up and tries to kill me like this afternoon, I make no promises."
    Akane sighed and smiled wearily. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Ranma. If living with you for all this time has taught me something, it's that sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do." She turned around and looked the two futons, which were about two feet apart. She looked back at Ranma and raised an eyebrow.
    Ranma grinned. "How about a compromise..." he began.

    Back at the apartment, Hotaru had just been put to bed, but Haruka and Michiru were deep in thought, digesting what Hotaru had told them and correlating it with what they knew.
    "Do you think Ranko is Mamoru's reincarnated sister?" asked Haruka after a while.
    "I think she might very well be. You heard Hotaru-chan describe Mamoru-san's reaction. She told us that he said he's been having dreams about his sister and then this person who looks exactly like her shows up. Not only that, but whoever Ranko really is, she also has a very close link to Ranma."
    "You couldn't tell anything more from the Mirror?" asked Haruka.
    "I'm afraid not," said Michiru. She had tried to summon more images of Ranko and the young man, but all she could get were bare glimpses. Something was interfering with the Mirror. Whatever it was, it had to be very strong to counteract the Mirror and it centered only around Ranko and the young man. Michiru had then had an idea. She managed to do a decent sketch of the face of the young man she had seen in the Mirror (not an extremely hard feat for her). Hotaru had wasted no time in recognizing Ranma. This had put a new spin on the puzzle that represented Ranko and Ranma.
    "I still don't know what to make of Akane, though," said Haruka. "Hotaru seems *very* convinced she's her reincarnated brother."
    Michiru sighed. She remembered her quick conversation with Akane at the cafe. "Well at least she seems like a nice enough person. Time will tell, I guess. I just hope Hotaru won't accidentally say something important to Akane."
    "Hotaru has good judgment," said Haruka confidently. "Speaking of time, did you hear anything about Setsuna?"
    "Not as of yet, I'm afraid, but then, Setsuna often does things like this, so I guess we should be used to it by now," Michiru said.
    "Oh well, I guess we should at least tell Mamoru about Ranko, ne?" asked Haruka.
    "We can tell him tomorrow. Right now, I just want to go to sleep," said Michiru with a yawn.
    Haruka grinned. She scooped Michiru in her arms and took her into their bedroom.

    That night, Ranma and Akane had interesting, if disturbing, dreams.
    Ranma's dreams were plagued by the mysterious girl from the previous nights. He was standing on a dreamscape, the girl in front of him. Ranma was growing increasingly annoyed with this dream, for no matter how close he came to her face, he couldn't make out her features. Annoyed, he turned back, only to be faced with a young man in black and silver armor, his face shaded as well. Ranma looked on, puzzled, as the girl and the young man walked towards one another. When they finally got within arms reach, the girl jumped up and hugged the young man.
    Tired of being ignored (he somehow knew that he was in the middle of a dream), Ranma walked up to the couple. "Hey! Who are you people anyway?!"
    Both figures suddenly turned and, while the image of the young man's face barely cleared enough to allow a general outline of his facial traits, the young woman's face cleared more than was necessary for Ranma to recognize it. Then, a symbol flared on each of their foreheads, blinding him.
    Ranma woke up immediately. The face of the girl he had just seen... He knew it very well. After all, he'd seen it in mirrors more times than he had ever wished. It was the face of his female side.
*What the hell was that???* he wondered. *That girl was my female side? Ugh! I hope I'm not having fantasies about my female side. If I am, Akane was right all along. Maybe I am a pervert.* He shook his head. *And who the hell is the other guy and why is he so familiar?*
    Shaking his head a little, he turned his head towards Akane, who still seemed to be fast asleep. Before going to sleep, Ranma had suggested a compromise in sleeping arrangements: they put the two futons together, but agreed not to do anything else until they were in their own apartment. Ranma looked at Akane with a slightly troubled expression. *I hope her dreams aren't as weird as mine.* He turned slightly to peer at the small alarm clock they had brought with them and happily noticed that he could still sleep for a few hours. Falling back onto his futon, Ranma tried to clear his mind as much as possible before trying to fall back asleep.

Unfortunately, Akane was having an equally strange dream of her own. She found herself standing in front of the girl she had seen in a previous dream. This time, the girl, whose features were slightly blurred, was wearing a Silver Millennium-era dress (*How did I know that?* she briefly wondered) and now seemed to be staring straight at Akane. Suddenly, the girl smiled (though it was a bit hard to make out with the blurred features) and walked towards Akane, who could now make out some kind of glowing symbol on the girl's forehead, almost like a stylized "h".
    Suddenly, it was as if a figure who had been standing in Akane's position had decided to move forward. Startled, Akane took a step backwards and looked at the figure who had quite literally stepped out of her. Although she could only see him from behind at the moment, she could tell he was approximately her height and he had a build that spoke of years of hard work. He was wearing an odd armor and cape, almost like some guard's, mused Akane. He also had what looked like a mean-looking war hammer strapped to the back of his uniform.
    When the girl and the young man were approximately six feet away from each other, they ran forward and hugged one another.
    It was then that Akane distractedly noticed she was holding her own hammer, which she couldn't remember summoning. She was spared further puzzling about her hammer when the young man turned towards her and took exactly the same stance as Akane, his own hammer in hand. Akane got her first good look at the young man and started. Except for the obvious musculature, the braided hair and hardened face, the young man looked a lot like her.
    "Who are you?" she asked. She absently noticed that there was no echo to her voice.
    The young man had exactly the same stance and expression as Akane, but did not move.
    "Hey! I asked you a question!" she asked, becoming annoyed. "Who are you!?"
    This time, while the young man was still mimicking Akane's facial expression, he raised his right arm and pointed to Akane.
    "You," he said, and Akane woke up.
    Disoriented, she noticed that Ranma was sleeping beside her. *Geez, that was a weird dream for sure...*, she thought. Unlike Ranma, though, she didn't give it any more thought and quickly went back to sleep.

    Meanwhile, Mamoru and Hotaru were having dreams of their own.
    Mamoru was dreaming of Akana again. It was exactly like his previous dreams, although he could now see Akana's image clearly and he now knew she was his sister. He remembered bits and pieces of his life on Earth, how he used to practice with his sister, meeting young Serenity...
    Unlike Akane and Ranma, Mamoru didn't wake up.

    Hotaru dreamt about her previous life in the Silver Millennium, how she used to play with her brother around the palace until the fateful day when Saturn marked her as his avatar. She remembered how people she knew shied away from her, because of who she was, because of what she represented.
    But above all, she remembered her brother, who had always found time to speak with her, to listen to her plights and comfort her until the day he disappeared without a trace. She remembered coming to Saturn after Metallia's attack only to find the Royal Palace destroyed, the forge where her brother used to spend so much time nothing but a stack of ashes.
    While the dream itself wasn't enough to awaken Hotaru, her cheeks were wet from tears of mourning and despair.

    The next morning, Ranma awoke to the irritating sound of a portable alarm clock, dreams of the previous night forgotten. Ranma was vaguely surprised that the small device had actually managed to wake him up, but he chalked it up to the fact that he knew that he had too much of an important day ahead of him to let himself sleep through it.
    Nudging Akane, he whispered in her ear: "Wake up, otemba-chan."
    The taunt had the desired effect. Akane opened one eye and looked at Ranma. "What did you call me?" she said in a flat voice that was partly muffled by the pillow that had taken residence in front of her mouth.
    "Otemba-chan," he repeated with a grin.
    Akane's only visible eyebrow twitched. *Two can play at that game,* she thought. "That's what I thought I heard, baka-kun."
    Ranma decided to take the bait. This might be fun. "Well, are you getting up today or tomorrow, baka-sempai?" he teased.
    Akane got up and looked at Ranma with a radiant smile. *Getting creative, are you? You won't beat me that easily, Ranma,* she thought amusedly. "You must have confused me with Tatewaki, baka-sama," she said, not losing her smile for a second.
Ranma went red for a second, silently acknowledging Akane's hit. *And she fights back! But can she beat this?* thought Ranma. "Well, why don't you get ready for our morning practice, baka-megami-sama?"
    Akane briefly considered hitting him through the roof, but decided it would be impolite since they were guests in Rei's temple. Besides, they had just gotten married. She still felt way too good to justify a pounding this early in the morning. She settled by sniffing at him and looking the other way. "Baka-megami-sama, eh? No fun for you tonight, mister!"
    Ranma's eyes opened wide. Akane had her back turned to him, so he couldn't see the wide grin plastered on her face. She proceeded to listen to him apologizing to her for the next two minutes before she turned around and planted a kiss on his lips before he could even wonder what was going on.
    And when Akane had finished, Ranma realised that maybe she was the one who had won after all.

    A few minutes later, Ranma and Akane were standing face-to-face in the temple's yard, Akane clad in her traditional gi and Ranma wearing his everyday black pants and red shirt.
    "Remember your promise, Ranma! I want this to be real practice!" said Akane.
    Ranma waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Let's see what you can do, then."
    Akane smiled and rushed Ranma. *I have learned a few things from you...* she thought.
    Rei had gotten up some time ago and was preparing a ritual in front of the fire when she heard fighting sounds coming from the yard. She nearly used her henshin rod out of reflex when she remembered that Ranma and Akane had said that they'd be practicing in the yard. She glanced at a clock to confirm the time and was surprised to see that it was unusually early for martial art practice. Remembering the previous day's conversations about Ranma's skill, she headed outside.
    She was greeted by what shouldn't have been an unusual sight, but was. She expected to see Ranma and Akane sparring the way Makoto did sometimes, but she was instead treated to what could easily have passed as an acrobatics show. Akane was a whirlwind of punches and kicks while Ranma was practically dancing around the blows.
    Akane was concentrating. So far, Ranma had been behaving exactly as she had thought he would. Namely, he'd only been dodging her blows and hadn't attacked. Time to let him see how unpredictable she had become. As she completed a series of punches, instead of simply throwing a last punch, she retrieved her mallet from its resting place and swung it at full speed toward Ranma's face.
    Meanwhile Ranma was becoming impressed with Akane. *She has been practicing! She's a lot better than the last time I sparred with her!* Guiltily, he realized that he was to blame for that, for he had not tried to initiate any kind of sparring session with her lately. Busy with his thoughts, Ranma hadn't realized that he had kept standing about an inch away from her strikes, not bothering to dodge to the side. That might be why he didn't move in time when Akane's hammer suddenly made contact with his face.
    Rei watched in shock as Ranma was clocked with a hammer Akane had gotten out of seemingly nowhere. Ranma, stunned, was thrown back several feet and Akane wasted no time in continuing her offensive, minus hammer this time.
    At the very least, Akane's hammer strike had managed to shake Ranma out of his stupor, if only to daze him again. Ranma had to parry the next two blows (he couldn't dodge too well) when he saw Akane wearing a wide grin while punching him.
    "Come on, Ranma! Fight me!" shouted Akane.
    Ranma smirked and Akane quickly found herself moving on the defensive. Ranma was pleasantly surprised to see that Akane's defense had improved dramatically over the two years he had known her. Of course, even without the speed granted by the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken technique, he could still overwhelm her, but then, few were the people against whom such a move wouldn't be overkill.
    Rei watched as Akane managed to slip a few attacks now and then, but still found herself staying mainly on the defensive. Rei then realized that Ranma had received a hammer strike (*Where did she get that hammer?*) that would have felled most people but had barely fazed him. She also realized that Makoto, whom she considered to be a good martial artist, probably wouldn't stand a chance against Ranma and would probably meet more than her match with Akane, who appeared to be an excellent martial artist in her own right, despite being forced on the defensive by Ranma's relentless attacks.
    Rei, becoming very curious, decided to ask them a few questions. "Break!" she said. Ranma and Akane both blinked at the unexpected command and turned around to see Rei in her priestess robes looking at them.
    "Is there a problem, Rei?" asked Ranma.
    "Well, not exactly," said Rei. "I just wanted to know what kind of fighting style that was. I don't think I've ever seen two people fighting like that."
    "That was the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu. I'm not surprised you didn't recognize it. There aren't a lot of practitioners of that style around," said Ranma, grinning.
    "It looked like several other styles mixed together."
    "It kinda is; practitioners of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu must always be able to adapt to any fighting style."
    Rei had a wry smile. "You mean like getting slugged by a hammer?"
    Akane smirked and Ranma rubbed his cheek, where an imprint of the hammer was still evident. "Yeah... kind of, I guess." He turned to Akane. "What was the big deal with the hammer, anyway? You've never used it in practice matches before."
    Akane looked smug. "You just said that practitioners of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu must be ready to adapt to anything. A great martial arts master like yourself should have seen it coming a mile away, especially after all the times you fought with Mousse. Consider it a punishment for not taking me seriously at the beginning."
    "Mousse?" Rei said incredulously. "You fought against hair care products?"
    "Not a hair care product; a Chinese Hidden Weapons expert. Reeeaaallly long story, Rei, trust me," said Ranma quickly. He changed the subject. "Thanks for stopping us anyway, Rei. We really ought to have breakfast now if we want to get to registration early today."
    *Oh well,* thought Rei. *I can always wait a little longer before asking him more questions.* She motioned towards the temple. "Help yourselves in the kitchen. I still have a few things to do."
    "Thanks, Rei," said Ranma.
    Akane's eyes lit up. "Do you want me to fix something up for you, Ranma?"
    Rei watched, puzzled, as Ranma became distinctly uncomfortable before her eyes.
    "Err... Akane, I don't think that'll be necessary," said Ranma, trying to prevent another poisoning session. Akane's temper might have mellowed out in recent months, but her cooking still left much to be desired.
    Akane's smiled faded a little. "Why not? I wanted to cook breakfast!"
    Ranma thought fast. She wasn't angry yet; he could still salvage this. "Aahh.. Look at yourself, Akane! You're all sweaty! You need to take a wash up before we go to the university. I'll cook us up something while you go take your bath."
    "Oh, all right, then," replied Akane, not pursuing the subject.
    *Domo arigatou Kami-sama! She didn't object!* A part of his mind idly noticed that instead of proclaiming that she would make his breakfast, she'd asked him about it first. How odd...
    Ranma waited until Akane turned around and went inside the shrine before releasing a deep sigh of relief.
    "Is there something I should know, Ranma?" asked Rei, coming up behind him.
    He turned around. "Rei, whatever you do, you shouldn't *ever* let Akane cook a meal for you or for anyone you care for."
    "Ranma, I may not know her like you do, but you sound a bit too harsh about her cooking abilities."
    "Rei, you don't understand! She very rarely happens to cook edible stuff, except maybe curry at best. Ask her family!" Rei had to strain a little to hear, but she heard Ranma grumble: "I could swear some of her meals came alive once..."
    Rei gave Ranma a "Do-You-Really-Expect-Me-To-Believe-That?" look. "Ranma, stop exaggerating! She's your wife for Kami-sama's sake! Don't you feel ashamed saying things like that about her?"
    Ranma shook his head. "Not when it doesn't change the fact that she can't cook. Her cooking isn't quite so bad anymore, but that's only because I'm the one she usually feeds it to. She might have gotten better, or maybe I'm just slowly becoming immune to it. You'll just have to trust me on this one, Rei."
    Rei shook her head at Ranma's somewhat passionate speech and went back inside the shrine, followed by Ranma.
    "So when are you leaving for your registration at Mizuharo University?" she asked when they were back inside.
    "As soon as we've finished eating," replied Ranma. "Akane and I don't want to be stuck waiting in line for hours to get our courses."
    "I never got around to asking you this, but what are you going to study?"
    "Well, I'm going to study physical education to become a certified sensei since I'm the heir to the family's dojo and Akane chose to study acting, though Nabiki and I keep telling her she'd be far more skilled at chemistry."
    "Why chemistry and who's Nabiki?"
    "Remember what I said about her cooking?" Ranma ignored Rei's eyebrow twitch. "As for Nabiki... she's one of Akane's sisters and a first rank extortionist. Don't ever make a deal with her; your life will be much easier that way, trust me."
    Rei raised another eyebrow. "Is she really that bad?"
    Ranma looked thoughtful for a moment. "Nah... She's usually much worse."
    Rei looked at him with a strange expression, which bordered disbelief. *What kind of life has he led anyway?* Suddenly, she remembered something. "Oh, Ranma, before I forget, grandfather and Yuuichiro may come back today, so don't be surprised if you see them. I'll leave them a note to tell them you're here."
    "No problem," said Ranma. "It'll be nice to see grandpa again."

    Barely half an hour later, Ranma and Akane had left the Hikawa Shrine and were on their way to Mizuharo University. A few minutes after their departure, Ami and Makoto stopped by the shrine to check up on things with Rei before she left for her own school.
    "So, learn anything new, Rei-chan?" asked Makoto.
    Rei sighed. "Lots of things. I'll tell you all about it this afternoon." She looked at Ami, then Makoto. "Wait a minute, if you're both here, then who's going to pick up Usagi at her house?"
    "Minako said she'd take care of it today," said Ami.
    Rei looked uncertain for a moment, then shrugged.
    Minako Aino and Usagi Tsukino earned detention for being late to class that day.

    Ranma and Akane made it early enough to be among the first in line to get their courses.
    "I still say you should've taken a chemistry course instead of acting, Akane," said Ranma distractedly, looking at his schedule.
    Akane felt a little grumpy. She still didn't like it when Ranma and Nabiki said she'd be good at chemistry. The last time she'd cooked, Nabiki had told her something about being able to sell her discoveries to the army's chemical warfare division for a hefty sum. She had come to grips a few months ago that her cooking was not quite equal to Kasumi's when she had accidentally tasted a very special dish she had made just for Ranma and had spent the rest of the day sick as a result. Since that day, she had considerably mellowed when Ranma made jabs about her cooking, since she knew how painful it could sometimes be. Of course, Ranma had never known that she had accidentally eaten her own cooking (she had told him she had the flu), so her pride was still somewhat intact.
    "Ranma," she said, her voice without conviction, "Don't make me hurt you. The day's started out too fine for that."
    Ranma blinked. He had been recently starting to learn just how far he could push Akane without triggering her "hammer-happy" temper, but he'd been surprised at the number of times Akane had left jabs about her cooking abilities unchallenged. He wondered why. "Ano... So what do we do now?" he asked.
    "Well, there's the welcoming ceremony soon and afterwards, we're free to wander around," said Akane. "I'm going to take a look around to see if there are any interesting clubs to join." *Maybe there's a cooking club I could join to try and get better.*
    Ranma smirked. He'd have to check out the sports clubs (not that he needed, nor really wanted, to join one, but they were probably the only things that would interest him).
    True to form, Ranma found it hard to stay completely awake and conscious during the dean's welcoming speech and was more than grateful when he got a chance to stretch his legs again. Ranma and Akane had lunch together and decided that they would meet up later for dinner at Rei's shrine when they had both finished exploring the university's faculties. After all, it made sense that they would cover much more ground that way.

It was late afternoon. Ranma had visited a couple of clubs and was walking along one of the dorm buildings when he suddenly received a bucket full of water on the head. The now female Ranma cursed under her breath and hoped no one had seen her change. Almost snarling, she took off the bucket from atop her head and looked for the origin of the wayward container. She quickly found out as two girls leaned out of a window two floors above her.
    "Oh geez, I'm sorry!" one of them yelled. "We were cleaning up inside when the bucket fell out of our window. Are you hurt?"
    *Only my pride...* thought Ranma darkly. "No, I guess I'm all right," she yelled back and quickly tossed them the now empty bucket back. After heaving a sigh of relief when she made sure no one had noticed her change, she quickly wrung her hair out and headed towards a bathroom to dry herself up and get some hot water.
    She was nearing a public stall when she heard a familiar voice behind her. "Ranko-san? Is that you?"
    Ranma turned around and found herself face to face with the young man who'd been at the temple the day before. She decided to play it safe. "Who are you?" she asked.
    "Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Mamoru Chiba. I was at the Hikawa Shrine yesterday when you came by with Akane-san. You left... uhm... rather quickly," he finished, a bit unsure of what to say about Ranko's abrupt departure.
    Ranma turned a little red at the memory. "Ah, yes... well, sorry about that," she mumbled. She pretended to look a bit surprised. "Say, Ranma told me yesterday that you wanted to speak to me. Is this true?"
    Mamoru looked relieved. "Yes, there are some things I'd like to talk to you about."
    "Such as?" she prodded. She didn't want to let him know just yet that she wanted to ask him a few things too.
    Mamoru looked at the people around them. "Well, it's a bit personal..."
    Ranma nodded. "All right. Could you at least let me dry myself off first?"
    Mamoru seemed to notice for the first time that she was somewhat damp. "What happened?"
    "Just a small accident," she replied, waving her hand dismissively. *And maybe a fortunate one for once,* she added, mentally.

    Over at Juuban High, classes had ended and Makoto and Ami were waiting for Minako and Usagi to come out of the detention they had been inflicted with this morning.
    "I still don't understand why you agreed to let Minako wake Usagi up," said Makoto, shaking her head in disappointment.
    "I spoke to Minako at lunchtime and she blamed it on the fact that Artemis didn't wake her this morning," said Ami.
    "Doesn't the girl have an alarm clock?" said Makoto, shaking her head.
    "It wouldn't make a difference if she's as sound a sleeper as Usagi."
    "Why those two rely more on their cats than on alarm clocks to wake them up is beyond me." Makoto looked around impatiently. "How much time before those two finish their detentions?" she asked.
    "It should be any time, now," said Ami, glancing at her watch.
    Suddenly, they both heard shouts and screams coming from inside the school. They went inside to check what the problem was and watched as several girls coming out of the locker room, shrieking. Makoto grabbed one as she was passing by, a distressed look on her face.
    "Hey, what's going on?" she asked.
    "There's a shriveled monster stealing underwear and groping us in there," the girl said shakily, pointing towards the locker room.
    Makoto let the girl go and looked at Ami. "Is it another youma?" she asked Ami in a low voice.
    Ami shook her head. "I can't tell from here." She looked puzzled for a moment. "Why would a youma steal underwear anyway?" she asked rhetorically.
    "Why ask me?" said Makoto. "I don't..."
    "Hotcha! SWEETO!"
    Makoto didn't have the chance to finish her sentence as something rocketed out of the locker room and latched itself onto her chest. She looked down and saw a small something happily squeezing away.
    "Whoa! I never thought there'd be someone as well-built as you here, sweetie! Why don't you and I elope for a few nights of wild passion?" the creature suggested.
    Makoto went from Peaceful to Confused to Murderous Rage in the blink of an eye. She tried to hit the thing on her chest (*How dare it even think about eloping!?*), but it proved to be faster than her fists. However, Makoto's failed attempt seemed to have the desired effect, as the creature dropped to the floor, landing on its feet, in front of her.
    She finally got her first good look at it and was a bit surprised to see that the thing (or youma, whichever), was in fact a small, shrunken old man with barely a few tufts of hair on his head. It also had a very lecherous smile on its face and was covered with various pieces of women's underwear.
    "You PERVERT!" Makoto screamed and tried several times to kick Happosai into next week, without much success.
    The old man was nimbly dodging all of Makoto's kicks. "And you look like you know martial arts, too!" he exclaimed. "This place is even better than Nerima!"
    Suddenly, several girls came out of the locker room, murder in their eyes and carrying various implements, such as purses, chairs, locker doors, hockey sticks and, yes, the occasional mallet. Happosai decided a tactical withdrawal was in order for the moment. He glomped a stunned Ami for a quick charge and left down the corridor.
    "I'm gonna KILL that thing!" roared Makoto. She was about to run after the diminutive hentai when she noticed that Ami was standing as stiff as a stone. Anger died down for a few moments. "Hey, Ami! Are you all right?" she asked, concerned.
    Ami blinked, expressionless. "You want to kill that thing?" she asked Makoto in a flat voice.
    "I'm gonna ram a lightning bolt up its ass!" Makoto snarled.
    Instead of blushing at the tall brunette's choice of words as she usually would, Ami uncharacteristically replied: "Get in line." She then ran like a rocket after the shrunken pervert.
    This time, Makoto was the one who blinked. Ami was usually the most harmless (temper-wise) member of the team. For her to react like that... She mentally shrugged and ran after Ami. As Sailor Senshi, it was their duty to eradicate threats to public safety, wasn't it?
    The pervert would pay. Dearly.

    Nearby, Ranma and Mamoru were aimlessly walking down a street.
    "Say, how did you recognize me back at the university?" she said.
    Mamoru smiled a little. "Well, I didn't see you for a long time yesterday, but one thing I did notice was your hair. Red hair like yours tends to stand out in a crowd,"
    Ranma nodded absently. The more she was with Mamoru, the more she felt she knew him from somewhere (but little did she know the same thing was happening to Mamoru). It was getting strange. "What were you doing at Mizuharo university anyway?" she asked Mamoru.
    "I study there, of course," he said with a smile.
    Ranma became a bit more interested. "What do you study?"
    "Journalism," replied Mamoru. "What about you, Ranko-san?"
    "You can call me Ranko," said Ranma. "As for what I was doing there... I was accompanying Ranma and Akane to their registration today."
    "What does Ranma study?"
    "Physical Education, what else?" she said with a small grin.
    They walked a little more in silence. Mamoru was trying to figure a way to ask Ranko his questions without sounding like a loon. His musings were cut short when Ranma asked him a question first.
    "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Ranma.
    *Oh well, here I go,* he thought. "Actually, it was because you remind me of someone. I could swear I had never seen you before yesterday and yet, when I saw you, I couldn't help thinking I'd seen you a long time ago," he said. *And why did you seem startled to see me yesterday?* he also wondered silently.
    Ranma thought about it for a moment and decided to be truthful. "This is a strange coincidence. You also remind me of... someone, even though I know I've never met you before. Ever since I saw you, I've been thinking about you..." Ranma trailed off when she realized how the last sentence could be interpreted.
    Mamoru was starting to sweat. This wasn't going the way he'd planned.
    "No, no, wait... I didn't mean it like that!" Ranma stuttered. "I'm not in love with you or anything..." Mamoru sighed in relief. "It's just that you look so familiar and I want to know why!" she finished forcefully.
    *Should I tell her?* Mamoru wondered. Ranko said that he reminded her of someone familiar. The odds of her being Akana reborn had risen dramatically. As he looked around at his surroundings, he blinked and noticed they were now walking in front of Juuban High School. He was still weighing the risks of telling Ranko about his previous life when he heard sounds of enraged shouting coming from the school. Mamoru froze for a moment and quickly peered inside the school gate, wondering what all the commotion was all about. For a moment, all he saw were angry girls running around, but he soon noticed they were pursuing someone or something. As he tried to make out what, he turned around and saw that Ranko was standing on top of a wall, looking at the mayhem. He watched, a bit puzzled, as her expression darkened. She then growled out a single word with disgust.
"Happosai."

    When Ranma had jumped on top of the wall, she noticed all the girls running around. The scene was unfortunately all too familiar, as she had seen it countless times at Furinkan and in Nerima in general. She quickly looked ahead of the mob of angry girls and found what she hoped she wouldn't find. She had hoped they had seen the last of Happosai back at the first wedding attempt, where he had accidentally drunk the Nannichuan water that had been meant for her. Obviously, the ancient pervert had moved on to greener pastures (so to speak). She growled his name and was about to go pound him when she spotted out two figures jumping in front of him. She blinked when she realized that the two girls somehow matched the pictures of the magazine in the train.
    She turned to Mamoru. "Are they the Sailor Senshi?" she asked quickly.
    Mamoru, who seemed a bit put off by the fact that Ranko was standing on the wall (the wall was around two meters high and there wasn't any way she could have easily climbed it), replied: "Yes, they are. Or at least that's two of them, anyway." He quickly scanned the crowd, but did not find any trace of Sailor Moon or Sailor Venus. *Where are they?* he wondered. He knew that at least Usagi was fine or he would have felt it.
    "I hope they won't try to stop Happosai while wearing skirts like those," commented Ranma, shaking her head.
    "You know what that thing is?" asked Mamoru.
    Ranma sighed. "Unfortunately. 'Its' name is Happosai and he's a hentai who glomps girls and steals women's underwear. He also happens to be a very strong martial artist."
    "What were you saying about the Senshi not being able to stop him? I'll have you know they've beaten lots of monsters before," said Mamoru defensively.
    *My, my, a bit protective, aren't we?* thought Ranma. "It's not that," she said out loud. "Remember what I said about him being a hentai? Happosai will become even more nuts when he sees how they're dressed." As proof, she pointed towards the confrontation.
    
    Makoto and Ami had found a closet in which to transform on the way out and had jumped through an open window on the first floor to cut ahead of the mob of girls.
    "Is it close?" asked Sailor Jupiter.
    Sailor Mercury tapped her earring and her visor appeared. "It should be coming soon."
    As she predicted, the mob quickly became visible. Of course, when the girls who made up the mob saw the two Sailor Senshi, everyone broke off pursuit and moved away.
    The two Senshi decided to forego the introductory speech and blast away.
    "Sparkling Vital Pressure!"
    "Shining Aqua Illusion!"
    Happosai was nearly flash-frozen and electrocuted, but evaded in time. Looking at the source of the disturbance, he nearly had a heart attack. There were two young girls, clad in white body-hugging suits and very short skirts. He was in heaven. A distant part of his mind noticed that they seemed very angry at him for some reason, but he figured that it was because he hadn't paid any attention to them. He immediately made a beeline for them, regardless of the fact that one of the had just tried to hit him with a lightning bolt and the other had tried to turn him into a popsicle.
    Sailor Jupiter saw the little pervert heading their way and fired off another Sparkling Vital Pressure attack, which came close, but missed and blew a hole in the ground behind Happosai. Before she could get ready for another attack, the pervert moved with a speed that made rifle bullets seem sluggish and he was once again snuggling in her chest, even more vigorously than before. Sailor Jupiter saw red. She put her hands about an inch away on each side of the diminutive pervert's head. "Supreme..." she started. The metal rod came out of her tiara and started crackling with power.
    At that precise moment, Happosai felt something happening to his hair. Something that had only happened once when he'd been accidentally trapped in a dryer along with a few of his silky darlings. Static fluffiness. His eyes widened.
    "... THUNDER!" Sailor Jupiter finished. The area was bathed in a green glow.

    A few moments before, Usagi and Minako had finally come out of detention and quickly noticed that everyone seemed to be running outside. Usagi spotted Umino barreling towards the exit, camera in hand. She managed to grab a hold of him as he passed by her.
    "Hey, Umino! What's going on?" asked Usagi.
    "Didn't you know? Some kind of hentai creature raided the girls' locker room and now, two of the Sailor Senshi are supposedly fighting it outside!" said Umino, excited.
    "Sailor Senshi!?" asked Usagi incredulously. She turned towards Minako and in the process, loosened her hold on Umino, who promptly wiggled out and went to watch the fight. "Come on, Minako-chan! We've got to go see what's going on!"
    Minako nodded and several moments and shoves later, they had a prize view of the fight. Usagi could only stare as Sailor Jupiter tried to vaporize the short creature latched onto her chest with the Supreme Thunder. There was a bright green flash, but when the light cleared, it was immediately apparent that the attack had been to no avail. The creature had somehow jumped away at the last possible moment and was now standing a few feet in front of Sailor Jupiter. They were so captivated by the fight that neither noticed their communicators beeping.
    Minako grabbed Usagi by the arm. "Come on, Usagi!" she hissed in her ear. "We've got to transform and help them out!"
    Usagi's reply was lost as they saw a familiar red-headed girl do an impossibly high leap and descend down on the short creature, screaming a name: "HAPPOSAI!!!"
    "Ranko?" chorused Usagi and Minako, confused.

    Ranma decided that the two Sailor Senshi might need help against Happosai. Apparently, they weren't aware that he became stronger after each glomp. She jumped from her perch, screaming the pervert's name. She always relished a chance to pound the pervert into jelly.
    As she partly expected after yelling his name, Happosai saw her come down and quickly leaped out of the way. Ranma tried nailing him with a chi-powered punch as she passed, but he was too nimble. She did, however, manage to make a sizable hole in the ground.

    Happosai was surprised, to say the least. The tall girl had apparently called upon a thunder bolt and had nearly electrocuted him. Only his advanced martial arts reflexes had saved him from that one. He was about to try glomping the second one when he heard a familiar voice crying out his name. He turned around and saw someone he never expected to see in this part of Tokyo. He quickly moved aside, evading a punch that resulted in a small crater.

    Ranma stood in front of Happosai, battle aura glowing brightly. "Happosai!" she said in a loud voice. "Isn't it bad enough you had to raid Furinkan all the time? Do you have to pick on girls who can't defend themselves, now?"
    "Hey!" cried out an indignant Sailor Jupiter, but Ranma ignored her. Sailor Mercury was busy scanning the redhead with her computer and visor.
    "My darling Ranma!" Happosai cried out in delight. "You've come all this way to see me! How about you wear these for me?" he asked, pulling out several pink, lacy bras.
    Ranma shuddered in disgust. "Shut up, you perverted old fart! It's been a year since we saw you and it'll be another year 'till you can make it out of the hospital once I'm through with you!" she shouted. She cupped her hands and aimed. "Mouko Takabisha!"
    The ball of blue energy shot forward, but Happosai dodged and shot forward for a quick glomp. To Ranma's utter surprise, he managed to get a good squeeze before Ranma punched him off, Amaguriken style.
    Ranma looked at Happosai. *What the hell has he been doing for the last year? He's a lot faster than he was before! Even with the effects of the pressure point in my battle with Cologne, he shouldn't have been able to glomp me.* Since the pervert could evade the Mouko Takabisha, Ranma rushed forward and decided to take it up close and personal.
    Soon, Ranma and Happosai were a blur of movements, punches, kicks and blocks flying faster than the eye could see. Eventually, Happosai jumped over a leg sweep, but got nailed by the other leg and was kicked into one of the outer walls. However, it was a surprise to most of those watching, that after digging himself out, Happosai didn't seem too damaged.
    "I'm getting tired of this," he said, becoming serious. "I think you need a lesson from your master!"
    Ranma snorted. "You're not my master and I need a lesson from you about as much as the world needs the Black Plague!"
    Suddenly, several Happo-daikarins came flying her way. She evaded them all, but suddenly realized that there was a substantial crowd around them. "Get out of here!" she yelled. "Those things are bombs!"
As soon as the warning was issued, the courtyard started to empty out very quickly, but the mini-bombs went off and soon, there was panic everywhere.
    Usagi and Minako were among the less fortunate ones, as they had been standing relatively close to one of the Happo-daikarins. However, all the bomb did (aside from scaring them witless, of course) was knock them on the ground.
    When Ranma saw all the people getting knocked to the ground by Happosai's bombs, she whirled on the little pervert. "What are you doing?!" she exploded. "You can't involve bystanders in this! Don't you have any honor left?"
    "Those are weak Happo-daikarins and besides, I wasn't aiming at them; I was aiming at you!" answered Happosai. "If you hadn't dodged and stood still instead, this wouldn't have happened!" He then threw several other Happo-daikarins at Ranma. She quickly tried to send them all high up in the air, but she missed one and it landed near the dazed Usagi and Minako.
    Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury had been shaken by the first round of bombs. When Sailor Jupiter saw the last Happo-daikirin landing near Usagi and Minako, fear gripped her heart.
    "NOOO!!!! Usagi, get up!" she yelled and started running at full speed towards them at the same time as Mamoru became Tuxedo Kamen and he also rushed towards Usagi. Usagi, dazed, looked around for the reason of Sailor Jupiter's cry and saw another one of those bombs. She locked up in fear and froze, looking at the Happo-daikarin near her. Minako was only starting to get up.
    Ranma, however, was the closest to them and the fuse on the Happo-daikarin was almost out. She shot a burning look at Happosai and ran as fast as she could towards the two girls. To the untrained eye, it would almost have seemed as if Ranma suddenly blurred. She quickly picked up Usagi and Minako (who barely had time for a muffled "What the...?!") and jumped away, just as the Happo-daikarin exploded.
    As Usagi and Minako were being carried away by Ranma, they couldn't help but stare at the bright sigil of Earth, a circle divided in four, that was shining on Ranko's forehead.
    Ranma made a two point landing in front of Tuxedo Kamen. When she looked at him, she somehow knew that she could trust the man in black (even if he was wearing a tuxedo and top hat). She didn't question her instincts for once. She quickly passed off Usagi and Minako to him and jumped back towards Happosai.
    "Usako," Tuxedo Kamen said, hugging her, "Are you all right?"
    Usagi finally managed to find her wits and looked at Tuxedo Kamen. "I'm all right, Tuxedo Kamen-sama," she said with a smile. Her smile then changed to an unreadable expression. "Mamo-chan," she said in a hurried whisper, "I saw it when she carried us away!"
    "You saw what, Usako?" asked Tuxedo Kamen, now a bit confused.
    "Her sigil!"
    Tuxedo Kamen jerked. "Are you sure, Usako?"
    "Yes I..." Usagi trailed off, eyes blinking at him.
    Mamoru blinked. Usagi and Minako seemed to be staring at him for some reason. "Is there something wrong?"
    "Mamo-chan," Usagi said in a strangled voice, while pointing at Mamoru's forehead, "Your sigil... It's showing!"
    "And it's the same as Ranko's," Minako said in wonder.
    Tuxedo Kamen would have given a lot at that point to have a mirror.
    As Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury reached their group, he looked back at the confrontation between Happosai and Ranko.

    Ranma, whose sigil had now faded again, looked at Happosai with disgust. "Why did you attack bystanders, Happosai?"
    "I didn't attack them; you dodged my Happo-daikarins," replied Happosai, simply. "Besides, I've grown weary of your constant interference, Ranma. I can't even glomp a girl in Tokyo without you showing up."
    "Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Ranma said in a voice laced with venom.
    Happosai smiled. "It's time I put you in your place and showed you who's the real master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu."
    "Yeah, right!" Ranma snorted. "I haven't wasted the last year like oyaji, Happosai! I've gotten a lot better!"
    Happosai smiled. "You're not the only one who trained, Ranma. How do you think I managed to glomp you when I couldn't do that anymore a year ago?" His smile became lecherous. "Beaches make wonderful training grounds, you know..."
    Ranma fumed. So that's how he'd gotten so much better. She had to pound the pervert into jelly or kick him into deep space; there was no other choice. She rushed Happosai, who dodged. Ranma broke through the wall behind Happosai with her punch. Snarling, she rushed him again, but Happosai sent her flying in another wall with his pipe. She broke through that wall completely.
    Tuxedo Kamen gasped. "I've got to help her!" He started to go, but was surprisingly held back by Sailor Mercury. "Mercury," he said, "Let me go!"
    Sailor Mercury shook her head. "There's no need to, Tuxedo Kamen," she said, while looking through her visor.
    "What do you mean?" said Tuxedo Kamen, worry slowly replaced with confusion.
    "She means that," answered Sailor Jupiter, pointing unbelievingly at the wall where Ranko had been sent flying. Ranko was coming back out, none the worse for wear, except that she seemed to have lost the string that held her pigtail in place. Her red hair was now flowing freely, cascading down her back.
    Everyone gaped at the uncharacteristic display of endurance. Tuxedo Kamen was also gaping at Ranko's now complete resemblance to Akana in his dreams. It was at that time that Sailor Mars decided to make an appearance.
    "What's going on?" she asked between breaths. "I was walking back to the temple when I felt... something... evil around here, not quite like a youma. I tried calling Usagi and Minako, but they didn't answer. I transformed and ran here as fast as I could when I felt spiritual energy being channeled around here."
    Sailor Jupiter pointed at the redhead who was coming out of the debris and at the shrunken pervert. "They're what's going on, Mars," she said flatly. "I wouldn't advise trying to break them up."
    Sailor Mars peered at the two combatants. She blinked. "Ano... Is that Ranko?"
    Everyone nodded.
    "She looks even more like Akana without the pigtail," remarked Sailor Mars. Before any of the others could comment further on that particularly accurate statement, Sailor Mars let out a hiss as she laid eyes on Happosai.
    Tuxedo Kamen, who was closest, looked at her, a bit startled. "Is there something wrong, Mars?" he asked.
    She pointed at Happosai. "If that isn't a demon, it's the next thing to it," she said, narrowing her eyes. "That's the source of the evil I felt." She started readying an ofuda.

    Ranma came back out of the debris a little more composed. *Good thing I don't need the Dragon Hair anymore...* she thought grimly. She analyzed what had just happened. *The pervert is staying calm; he doesn't want me to use the Hiryu Shouten Ha on him,* she thought. *If I can't put him on fire, I'll have to make him madder.*
    "Mouko Takabisha!" The chi-blast shot forward, but Happosai evaded it easily.
    "Is that the best you can do, Ranma?" taunted Happosai.
    She answered with a cry of "Kijin Raishuu Dan!", but Happosai evaded the vacuum blast as well. When she realized what she was doing, she berated herself. *Cool it, Ranma! He's not worth using the Forbidden Techniques on.* She thought about her situation. *I know he'll get mad if I hit him with a chi-blast, but the Mouko Takabisha is too slow. How can I make it faster?* Then an idea came to her. She smiled.
    "You want to know what I can do, old fart?" she said. "How about this! Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken and Mouko Takabisha combination technique!" She held both hands opened, palms facing Happosai. "RENSHA-HAPPA-DAN!"
    Ranma cupped her hands and summoned a chi sphere. Instead of just shooting it away like the Mouko Takabisha, though, her hands blurred and the sphere started to waver. Suddenly, the sphere broke apart and a dozen smaller spheres rocketed forward at incredible speed towards Happosai as Ranma lost her balance and fell backwards.
    That loss of balance was the only thing that saved Happosai from potentially grievous injuries, as only a few of the spheres made it to the target. However, only a few spheres were necessary to hurt Happosai. The old pervert was knocked back a dozen feet as the remaining spheres slammed all around him, tearing the ground up.

    Sailor Mars could only gape as she saw Ranko executing the technique. *How did she do that?* she thought. That particular train of thought stopped when Happosai landed at her feet. It was then that she realized that the "demon" was in fact a bald, shrunken old man. It was the last thing she thought about before said old man suddenly rose and glomped her with inhuman speed.
    "Thanks for helping an old man in his time of need, sweetie," Happosai said, as he fondled Sailor Mars.
    Said Sailor went into an holy fit of dark rage. She quickly took the ofuda she had readied and slapped it on Happosai's shriveled head. "Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!" she chanted as fast as she could.
    The result was not exactly what she expected. Instead of freezing up as most youmas did, Happosai reacted as if he'd been strapped with a burning iron on his head. She smiled despite the unusual result. This was much better than paralysis! As the old hentai master ran around trying to get the ward off his head, Sailor Mars smirked. "You think they're hot? How about this!" She clasped her hands together and concentrated. "Burning Mandala!" The fire rings sped towards Happosai, who had just managed to get rid of the ofuda.
"How dare she..." he growled, and stopped when he saw a dozen rings of fire heading towards him. He evaded most of them, but his clothing caught fire in several places.

    Ranma had underestimated the difficulty of the Rensha-Happa-Dan. The technique she had made up essentially required her to form a big sphere of chi, like the Mouko Takabisha and then disrupting it with the speed of the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken, forming a veritable storm of smaller chi spheres. What she hadn't expected was the slight recoil and the strain involved, which had caused her to fall down. As she got back up, she noticed that there was a new Sailor Senshi on the scene. Ranma watched, dismayed, as the ancient pervert got up and glomped her.
    She was pleased when she saw the Senshi in question strap an a piece of paper on Happosai's head. She hadn't expected any results, but she smiled when she saw Happosai jumping around in pain. *Serves him right,* she thought gleefully.
    She was about to go punt Happosai into Low Earth Orbit (or severely maim him; she wasn't sure), when she saw the new Senshi throw fire rings at Happosai. She stared for a moment watching Happosai trying to put the fire in his clothes out. *Fire?...* She blinked and ran as fast as she could towards Happosai and started running in circles around him.
    "Hey, Happosai," she taunted, "How's it feel to be beaten by a girl?" Happosai snarled at her and tried to put out his flaming clothes. *Good! Between his temper and the fire on his clothes, he's radiating enough heat,* she thought. Ranma turned towards the remaining girls (by now, most of the other spectators had left in fright). "Get down!" she yelled. She glanced at Happosai, smiling as she felt the air currents shaping up.
    The other girls were puzzled. Why was Ranko running around the pervert instead of pounding him and why did she want them to get down? It was Sailor Mercury's gasp that made them start. "Masaka! The air currents!..." she breathed, staring though her visor. "Get down! Quickly!" she yelled, promptly following her own advice. The others needed no further urging and they all dropped to the ground.
    When Ranma saw the girls flattening down, she turned to Happosai "Here! Let me help you put that fire out!" She then stopped running and threw an uppercut that came nowhere near Happosai. It never needed to as Ranma unleashed one of the most devastating moves in her arsenal. "HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!"
    Happosai felt the stirrings of despair as he finally realized what Ranma was doing. He tried to brace for it, but his clothes were still on fire, so he had to let down his guard. The Rising Dragon Ascension Defeat formed around Happosai and he was hurled into the sky by cyclone-strength winds as the chi dragon blasted out of Ranma. His last conscious words were: "I'll get my revenge, Ranma! I promise you'll pay for this!!" But by that time, Happosai was already several miles over the horizon.

As the Hiryu Shouten Ha dissipated, Ranma took a deep breath and smiled. She'd probably managed to seriously injure the old pervert and she had made up a new technique. *Today is a good day to fight,* she thought happily. She looked around and noticed there was a bit of property damage (not nearly as much as at Furinkan, but still). She then noticed that the Senshi and the two girls she had saved from the Happo-daikirin were getting up off the ground and gawking at her in undisguised amazement. She walked over to the two girls.
    "Are you two all right?" she asked.
    Usagi and Minako, still a bit shell-shocked, nodded dumbly. Ranma looked a bit more closely at Usagi, then at Minako. It was then that she realized for the first time who she had saved.
    "Hey! Weren't you two the ones with the cats at the Hikawa Shrine yesterday?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
    Usagi and Minako started. Ranko had been at the Shrine for less than a minute and she remembered them? And worse: did she remember the incident with the cats?
    "Uh... yes, that's us," said Minako weakly. She remembered Ranko's reaction at Artemis and Luna yesterday and she desperately hoped Ranko wasn't angry with her. After what she'd just done... Glancing at Usagi, Minako could tell similar thoughts were running in her head as well.
    Ranma blinked, not understanding Minako's reaction. "Oh, don't worry about the cats," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "It's not your fault and you didn't know." She looked around. "Has anyone seen Mamoru?" she asked. "Tall guy, black hair?" she specified. She never saw Tuxedo Kamen twitch nervously.
    "Umm, why are you looking for Muffin?" ventured Usagi.
    Ranko blinked. "Muffin?"
    "Yeah!," Usagi said, perking up. "Mamo-chan's my Muffin!" she exclaimed triumphantly.
    Tuxedo Kamen and the other Senshi present bigsweated.
    *Mamoru's dating a high school student? He must be at least three or four years older than her!* she thought. "Eh, yes... well... I was speaking to him when all this mess started. Do you know where he went?"
    Usagi started to sweat. She had never been good at lying and she knew she'd put her foot in her mouth if she tried to lie to Ranko. "Well... I..."
    Tuxedo Kamen came to her rescue, albeit in a different way that he usually did. "I saw him directing the girls out of the school when the fighting started. I don't know where he went after that."
    "Kuso," Ranma swore softly. "Great," she said in a louder voice. "Now I have to find him again!"
    In a rare moment of brilliance, Usagi started to form a plan. She had seen Ranko's sigil. That and the fact that Mamoru's had glowed for the first time as well definitely marked her as Sailor Terra. She needed to tell Ranko about it, but she couldn't do it here. Luna and Artemis needed to know about Ranko. She and Minako weren't in Senshi form; if she started to talk about it here, unwanted ears were sure to overhear, especially since there were still a small number of students who were now taking an interest in their group.
    "You won't have to look for him," she said in a bright voice. "He'll be at the Hikawa Shrine in half an hour," she continued, ignoring the puzzled looks she was getting from everyone.
    Ranma thought about it. Akane likely wouldn't be back from university anytime soon and she could easily go grab a snack in half an hour. She had worked up a small appetite because of this fight. "All right," she said. "I'll be there. And don't bring any cats, okay?" And then, before anyone could blink, she jumped over the wall and disappeared through the streets.
    Nobody gave pursuit, though. They were too busy looking questioningly at Usagi. Seeing that the other students were coming her way (Umino was in the group), she quickly hissed to the Senshi in uniform: "I'll explain later! Just make sure to be at the Shrine in half an hour!"
    She got dubious looks from most of them, especially from Sailor Mars, but they all gave a short nod and quickly left before students asked them any questions.
    Usagi then turned towards Minako. "I hope I'm doing the right thing," she said. She then turned to face Umino the Questioner.

    Twenty-five minutes later, the Inner Senshi (in civilian garb) and Mamoru were milling around in the main hall of the Hikawa Shrine, after having shaken off Umino (it had taken Naru's accidental intervention to get rid of him). Luna and Artemis had been picked up and briefed along the way. Needless to say, the Moon cats had been very vocal in their exclamations when the Senshi related the afternoon's "adventure". Both cats had been shocked at the fact that their respective charges had almost been severely injured in their civilian forms and they had shown disbelief at the level of power Ranko had supposedly displayed against the old pervert.
    Luna was unsure, especially about Usagi's plan to "spring the surprise on Ranko", as it were. Or maybe it was the fact that Usagi had come with a plausible plan in the first place that worried her; she couldn't be sure. "Are you sure you want to do this, Usagi?" asked Luna yet again.
    Usagi was starting become exasperated at her feline mentor's attitude. "Listen, Luna! Minako and I both saw her sigil, so I didn't imagine it. Unless she can duplicate one, and as far as we know, it can't be done, then there's no doubt that she's Sailor Terra! Now, all we need is her henshin rod, which you're supposed to have, by the way, and we'll be set!"
    "I still say Artemis and I should talk to her," insisted the black cat.
    Makoto snorted. "And have a free repeat of what happened yesterday? I don't think so, Luna. As risky as Usagi's plan sounds, we have no choice. We don't need Ranko to go insane on us just now."
    Luna grumbled a bit more, but eventually agreed. "All right. I'll give you her henshin rod, but Artemis and I will be watching from a hidden place. It's going to be very inconvenient if we can't talk to her." She concentrated and did a backflip and a henshin rod appeared. Usagi eagerly took it.
    Meanwhile, Makoto's gaze wandered over to Ami, who was typing on her computer. "What are you doing?" asked the tallest Inner Senshi.
    "I'm analyzing all the data I collected on Ranko during the battle," replied the shortest one. "Makoto, these readings are unbelievable..." she trailed off, shaking her head.
    "I know. I saw her, remember?" She then heard Ami mutter something incredulously.
    "Ami-chan, what's wrong?" asked Usagi.
    "I have some trouble believing what my computer tells me. According to it, when the old pervert and her were going hand to hand this afternoon, she threw 273 punches in three seconds at one point," said Ami in a disbelieving tone.
    All the others stared at her incredulously.
    Ami seemed pensive for a moment. "Makoto, did you notice anything strange during the battle?"
    Makoto blinked. "I saw a lot of weird things this afternoon. Which ones are you referring to?"
    "Well," Ami said, "Did you notice the fact that Ranko and the dwarf seemed to know each other?"
    "I noticed."
    "Isn't it also strange that he kept calling Ranko, Ranma and 'boy'? Not to mention Ranko's rather sloppy language."
    Makoto shrugged. "Maybe she just talked that way because she was stressed," she countered. Her eyebrows then knitted in thought. "As for the 'Ranma' and 'boy' remarks, I did notice, and so did the other girls. Maybe it just means that she's just a tomboy. We can always ask her when she comes back. I wouldn't be surprised if she told me the old pervert was addled, too."
    Makoto and Ami walked over to Usagi, who was showing Terra's henshin rod to Minako.
    "It's not as if she really needs one with the kind of power she already has, anyway," commented Makoto.
    "It isn't just that," interjected Ami. "Our transformations also provide us with a disguise field that prevents people from recognizing us. If Ranko is going to go around killing monsters and perverts, she might as well do it as Sailor Terra or she'll attract unwanted attention."
    "Say, Ami," asked Makoto. "If she's that powerful in non-Senshi form, what's going to happen when she powers up? I saw her fight in hand to hand combat against the little pervert and she could probably wipe the floor with us all without using her energy blasts."
    "Chi-blasts," corrected Rei.
    "What's the difference?"
    "You don't need to be a Senshi in order to be able to manipulate your chi," explained Rei, "I use my chi when I do fire readings and my ability the read the fire does not come from being a Senshi. Ranko's just developed her ability to an remarkable level, that's all." She paused. *Just like Ranma...* she added silently. She looked around the Shrine. *Well, at least Grandpa and Yuuichiro aren't here yet.* She was brought back into the conversation by a question from Minako.
    "What do you mean? Is it like telekinesis or something?" asked the blonde.
    "Not quite... The simplest explanation is that she uses her own spiritual strength to create the blasts," said Rei.
    "If we don't use chi, then what do we use?" asked Minako.
    Ami answered for Rei. "Mana. We draw our power from each of our respective planets. Our Senshi forms act as conduits of sorts for Mana." She looked at the readings she had taken from the fights and decided to do a little comparison with their own powers. It would take a while to compute, though.
    "Makoto?" Ami asked, "In response to your earlier question, I'm not sure what will be her power increase or if she will even have one, as there are several possibilities. One factor is the nature of her powers as a Senshi; Tuxedo Mask and Endymion have basic psychokinetic powers and some sort of healing ability Mamoru found about when he kept Chibi-Usa alive during the Pharaoh 90 confrontation. We don't know if her powers are anything like his."
    At the mention of his psychokinetic powers, something started stirring within Mamoru's subconscious. A forgotten memory... a Psi-Tech? Mamoru blinked. *What in the world is a Psi-Tech?* he thought, puzzled.
    "Why are we worrying about that, anyway?" said Usagi. "All we need to know is the she'll be a really powerful addition to the team!" she said enthusiastically.
    "How will Luna be able to wake her memories without freaking her out?" wondered Minako.
    "Leave that to me," said the young priestess. "I worked on this with Luna once and she taught me the basics of the Luna Mind Meld. The technique is unusually simple; it's like hypnotism, really. I'm not sure if I have it right, but I'm sure I can do something."
    "She's coming," warned Makoto, cutting off any further replies.

    Everyone looked up just in time to see Ranko entering the outer courtyard. Her hair was bound again, but this time in a ponytail, not a braid. Minako was silently swearing that she would eventually get the girl to wear it loose, like at the battle. She looked much better without that horrid pigtail.
    Rei was getting even more suspicious. Ranko and Ranma, two people with similar names, who dressed exactly the same and who had roughly the same fighting abilities. Quite a list of coincidences. *Too many coincidences,* the raven-haired priestess thought. *There's something going on and I don't know what it is.* Rei decided to ask the Great Fire about it at sometime later. She looked around and was suddenly disappointed that they hadn't thought of inviting Hotaru. She probably knew more about this than any of them.

    As she walked up the stairs to the temple, Ranma felt like she was walking into a trap. She could almost feel the tension in the air. She wondered why she was feeling so apprehensive; after all, she was only coming here as a girl to clear up the mystery of her memories about Mamoru.
    Suddenly, she jerked to a stop, if only for a moment. When she had thought about Mamoru, she'd felt a fleeting... something. She didn't know why, but she knew Mamoru was inside.
    Inside the Shrine, Mamoru felt something and he looked around him in confusion. He was sure someone was watching him.
    When Ranma finally made it inside the shrine, she was only half-surprised to see all the people obviously waiting for her. *So that's why I was nervous,* she thought. Scanning the group, she saw Mamoru, who seemed very relieved to see her, and all the other girls she had seen as a guy. She would have to be careful.
    "No need to look like that, girls," Ranma began, trying to smooth her entrance. "I just want to speak privately to Mamoru for a while."
    Usagi looked as if she was going to say something, but Mamoru beat her to it. "We can go in the courtyard, Ranko. We won't be bothered there," he added, giving a meaningful glance to all the girls.
    All the girls, including Usagi, nodded weakly. This hadn't been part of the plan, but they'd have to roll with it.

    As they walked outside the hall, Mamoru spoke up: "I'm sorry about the reception in there. It's just that you intrigue them a lot, to say the least."
    Ranma blinked. "Why?"
    "Well, you did save the life of two of them this afternoon and the way you handled that short pervert this afternoon speaks volumes for your skills in martial arts. All the elements necessary for high school gossip, wouldn't you say?"
    Ranma nodded. It made sense, to a point.
    Watching her reaction, Mamoru smiled inwardly. The last thing he needed was for her to feel apprehensive about the situation. He'd managed not to make her too suspicious. "So now I guess you're wondering about the two of us, right?" he ventured.
    "Yes," she said simply.
    "Let me guess," he said, taking a deep breath. "You've recently had dreams and I'm in them somehow," he hazarded.
    Ranma stopped in her tracks and looked hard at Mamoru. "How did you know that?" she asked.
    "Because I've been having dreams of you as well in the last few days."
    Ranma decided not to panic just yet. She kept her tone level. "And could you tell me why we've been dreaming about each other if we've never met before?"
    Mamoru was nervous. The hard part was coming. "In your dreams," he said, "What was I wearing?"
    Ranma was surprised by the question. "You were wearing some kind of black and silver armor," she said. She was surprised again when she saw him nod.
    *This clinches it,* he thought. "It appears that you were having dreams of a previous life... sister."
    Ranma gaped at him. "Sister?.. I'm... I'm not your sister, Mamoru! I can swear I'm an only child!"
    Mamoru shook his head. "Not in this time. We were brother and sister in a previous life."
    Ranma looked at him as if he'd grown two heads. *At least he didn't say we were long lost lovers,* a distant part of her mind commented. The worst part is that however much she wanted to deny it, a small voice in her head insisted that he was telling the truth, that she was indeed his sister. "How can you prove it?" she asked in a strangled voice. *Why am I believing him?! I'm a guy! I can't be his sister!!!" she thought desperately.
    Mamoru took a deep breath. Without saying anything, he took out a red rose and became Tuxedo Kamen. He saw Ranma staring at him.
    "You were him? The guy with the tux from the school?" she exclaimed.
    "I'm afraid so, and there's more..." Concentrating, he summoned his armor and became Endymion. *Strange,* he thought, *Usually, I can't do this without Usagi as Princess Serenity.*
    Ranma took a step back. *Who is this guy!?* she thought frantically. Surprisingly, a name came to her lips before she could stop it. "Endymion?" she said softly.
    Endymion's eyes widened. "You remember? Endymion was my name in my previous life!"
    "How can you do that?!" Ranma asked, getting a bit more under control.
    "The same way we can do this," replied a voice from behind. Ranma whipped around and saw Usagi in front of the other girls. She saw each girl raise an object in the air. She would never forget what came next.
"Moon Cosmic Power, Make-Up!" shouted Usagi. "Mercury Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Ami. "Venus Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Minako. "Mars Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Rei. "Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Makoto.

    Ranma could only stare as each girl, including his cousin, was successively bathed in a dazzling array of colors and patterns, ranging from light, to water, to fire, to lightning. When the light show faded, he saw that the girls were now wearing short, color-assorted sailor fukus and they all had tiaras with gems that matched their fukus on their foreheads. She blinked and automatically recognized Sailors Mercury, Jupiter and Mars from the school this afternoon. She quickly deduced that the others were the other members of the somewhat famous Sailor Senshi.
    "Rei?" Ranma blurted out, surprised. "You're a Sailor Senshi?"
    Sailor Mars looked a bit apologetic. "It's Sailor Mars when I'm like this, Ranko, and I'd like it if you didn't tell Ranma about this, please?"
    Ranma blinked. "But I'm... ah, nevermind... What does all of this have to do with me?!" she asked.
    "Actually, this!" said Sailor Moon, tossing Ranma the henshin rod.
    Ranma easily caught the object. It was a short, deep blue colored rod with a small golden orb representing the Earth on top. It also had a strange symbol on top, a circle with two perpendicular lines intersecting in the middle, that Ranma somehow knew stood for Earth. Ranma turned it around it her hand. *I've seen one of those things before, but where?* she thought. "Ano... What am I supposed do with it?" asked Ranma, confused.
    "Raise it in the air and shout the first thing that comes to mind," said Sailor Moon with a smile.
    Ranma was almost on autopilot. She raised it into the air and was about to say the words that hadn't been said for over a millennia and a half when she stopped. "No," she said, turning to face Sailor Moon.

    Sailor Moon blinked. "But... why? You're one of us!"
    "Maybe," said Ranma, "But I've had more than enough madness in my life so far," she said, regaining control of the situation . "I don't need this. I'm trying to live a quiet life."
    Sailor Moon tried to think fast. Things weren't supposed to be like this.
    Ranma whirled on Endymion. "And you! I still haven't seen concrete proof of what you're saying. That I'm your... your sister!"
    Endymion concentrated. His sigil flared and so did Ranma's in response. Ranma took a step backwards. "Do you see the sigil on my forehead?" asked Endymion.
    "Yeah, it's the same one as on the rod," replied Ranma wearily.
    "It's the same as the one you have on your forehead, too," he said, handing Ranma a mirror.
    Ranma took the mirror slowly, not even wondering where he'd gotten it. She knew she didn't have to because she knew the sigil was going to be on her forehead.
    "The sigil is the mark of the Royal Family of Earth. Some people in our line were chosen to be warriors who would protect the Earth. Those people include you and I, sister."
    Ranma momentarily forgot what she was doing and waved the henshin rod defensively. "Even so, that was in another life!" she said in protest. "You are not going to put me in a mini-skirt by getting me to shout 'Terra Star Power, Make-Up!'..." Ranma's eyes became the size of baseballs when she realized what she had just said.
    *Chikuso!* was Ranma's last thought before she was swallowed by multicolored lights.

Author's notes:

Baka compound terms borrowed from Narrabundah 1/2 by Ratbat with her permission

Otemba: "Tomboy" in Japanese.
Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu: What is translated by Viz as the "Anything-Goes Style"
Rensha-Happa-Dan: Rapid Fire Blasting Bullet/ Rapid Fire Explosive Blast Missile (Thanks Chris Rijk!)
Ofuda: a ward The Dragon Hair: The Dragon's Hair is another curse Ranma got in China (by eating one accidentally), which is a baldness cure for old men, but makes a young man's hair grow wildly. To prevent the hair growth, Ranma needed to braid his hair with another Dragon's Hair. Fortunately for Ranma, the effect eventually wore off, so he didn't have to keep his hair tied with the second Dragon's Hair - he just kept it for show. (Thanks Chris Rijk!)

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