I'm honestly not sure where I'd like to go with this one. I'd like
it to be sort of episodic, and I've got some ideas for various
episodes, but as far as the general direction... Normally I wouldn't
write something unless I knew where I was going with it, but this
just demanded to be written.
_ _
__ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __| (_)__ _ _ _ ___
/ _` | || / _` | '_/ _` | / _` | ' \(_-<
\__, |\_,_\__,_|_| \__,_|_\__,_|_||_/__/
|___/ a prelude
by jay f kominek
<jay.kominek@colorado.edu>
Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko. Ranma 1/2 is
the property of Takashi Rumiko. Some corporations probably have some
legal claim, too. I merely claim ownership of my humble plot. It
is not my intention to violate their copyrights, but instead to
entertain. I can only hope to do so half as well as they do. This
story is meant to be distributed for free. Please do not change it,
or stick your name on it.
Pre-readers, to whom I am grateful:
Lord Talon, Tigress, HPackrat
Comments and criticism are appreciated.
Blatant insults are not.
- - - - - - - -
Neo-Queen Serenity truly enjoyed the parks of her
Crystal Tokyo. There were only two things that could make them
even better. Her husband, King Endymion, and her daughter, Usagi,
the new Sailor Moon. While she knew that sending her daughter back
in time to be trained by herself was a good idea, and in fact, the
only thing she could do since she had already done it, it still
hurt to be separated. Lucky for her, both of those people were
with her today, enjoying the park.
Nerima Ward, even in Crystal Tokyo, was an odd place.
When Serenity had purged the world of evil, she'd really only purged
it of overt evils and such, not just plain weirdness or mean people.
Not only would it have made things fairly boring, but it would have
deprived people of free will.
So, on this fine afternoon, Queen Serenity and King Endymion
are sitting on a park bench in the notorious Nerima Ward watching
their daughter, Usagi feed the koi in the large pond. Sadly,
Usagi was unaccompanied, one of the few friends she'd had in the
past, Tomoe Hotaru (aka Sailor Saturn), was now quite a bit older
than her due to her time traveling. Sailor Pluto (she'd given up
calling her Puu before returning to her own time) was busy guarding
the Gates of Time, and even if she could come, probably wouldn't
have been a whole lot of fun in a park.
Thus was the scene when an ear splitting cry rent the air.
"SAOTOME RANMA! GET BACK HERE AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!"
* * *
Saotome Ranma wasn't in a terribly good mood this afternoon.
Akane had insisted on cooking him lunch. Shampoo had tried to bring
him some lunch, too. The combination of Akane's toxic cooking and
Shampoo's potions were making his stomach do a 720 inside of him,
in addition to the splitting headache. The last thing he needed was:
"SAOTOME RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!"
Ryouga has this horrible habit of picking the worst possible
times to try and kill Ranma. Beating Ryouga bloody only seemed to
encourage him, too.
"Aww man, Ryouga, do you really hafta try and kill me
right now? Akane has already tried once today and.."
"RANMA YOU IDIOT!"
Sadly, Ranma never learned, either. And so, with her
standard battle cry, Akane summoned her mallet and walloped Ranma
across town.
Hence, the chase began. Normally, Ryouga would get lost
about 2.718 seconds after stepping out the gate of the Tendou
residence. Fate, as usual, was conspiring against Ranma today,
and with its assistance, Ryouga managed to plot a direct course
for Ranma's estimated landing zone. It was as though fate was
guiding him. Somehow knowing that, for once, he was heading in
the right direction, Ryouga summoned his battle aura to increase
his speed. Ryouga wasn't about to let his one chance at getting
somewhere without getting lost slip away.
*There he is, about to come down in that pond!*
"SAOTOME RANMA! GET BACK HERE AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!"
* * *
*Splash!*
Usagi looked up, her pink hair shifting to frame her
face, just in time to get hit by the wave of water from the pond.
While she went to pull her wet hair out of her face, she watched
a red headed girl pop up out of the water.
"Whadid she have ta go and do that for?"
A young man with black hair had just come running up and
the girl had popped out of the water. Usagi's thought, *Maybe he's
her friend..* was quickly dispelled.
"I've got you at last Ranma! Prepare to die!"
By now, the girl, whose name was apparently Ranma (what an
odd name for a girl) leaped out of the water, and landed under a
tree near Serenity and Endymion.
Trying, vainly, to diffuse the situation, Ranma spoke up,
"Come on Ryouga, whats wrong now?"
The boy, whose name Usagi now knew to be Ryouga, didn't
appear particularly talkative and had charged after Ranma with an
inarticulate roar. Having gotten within a meter or two of Ranma,
Ryouga leaped with his fist forward aiming for Ranma and... Ranma
wasn't there. Usagi began to wonder where this red headed girl had
gone (and how she'd gotten there) when she realized that the Ryouga
boy's fist was going to impact with the tree.
With a loud cracking noise, and then the sound that results
from the pressure wave of an explosion, the tree ceased to exist
as such. The main trunk of the tree had been reduced to little
more than tooth picks, while the upper branches were in mid-air,
being carried off by the pressure wave.
*Tha.. thats not possible!*
Ryouga didn't seem the least bit surprised about the result
of his missed punch, nor had he been particularly phased by the
massive quantities of wood shards which must've hit him.
"Come on Ryouga.."
Ranma had appeared behind Ryouga, who was standing in the
midst of the tree's remains. In mid sentence, Ranma had to begin
dodging Ryouga's punches.
"..there are people around!"
Now glowing the green of depression resulting from not being
able to land a single punch, Ryouga shouted, "I don't care! I'm
going to get you!"
* * *
*Man, Ryouga is really mad today, I better try and keep
between him and those people on the bench.*
With a series of quick back-flips, Ranma interposed herself
between Ryouga and the now nonplused Serenity and Endymion.
"You won't escape me that easily, Ranma!"
And with that, the green flared even brighter and coalesced.
"SHISHI HOUKOU DAN!"
Reflexively, Ranma dived out of the path of the ki blast..
only to realize that the blast was going to hit the people on the
bench. *There isn't any way they could survive.. I have to stop
that blast..* Her own battle aura flaring about her, Ranma shouted.
"MOUKO TAKABISHA REVISED: RUNNING TIGER DEFENSE!"
Her ki shaped itself into a ball, and then launched itself
at the couple on the bench even faster than the Mouko Takabisha
usually flew. However, instead of impacting and smearing the poor
people into next week, it spread out, and became a barrier just
in time to deflect Ryouga's Shishi Houkou Dan. Turning back to
Ryouga, fairly angry that he'd endangered innocents, Ranma felt
the hairs on her neck stand up. It was like the feeling she got
when Happosai was nearby, except stronger, somehow more pure..
* * *
Serenity sat on the bench, her hand in Endymion's. Just a
few seconds ago, she had been thinking about how calm the park
was, when all of a sudden, a red headed girl landed in the pond.
Another boy had then run up, and proceeded to attack the girl, his
missed punch shattering a tree. Then the boy had summoned a ball
of green energy which he let fly at the girl, who dodged, leaving
the ball coming at Serenity and Endymion. Then the girl had shouted
something about tigers, and launched another ball of energy at them.
Endymion's reflexes had almost had time to make him twitch when the
second ball expanded into a mesh that surrounded them and deflected
the first green ball before dissolving.
Then, while she was still trying to absorb what had just
happened, she felt the now familiar tingle of evil in the air.
Looking around for the source, she saw the darkness and evil
coagulating slightly off the ground on the other side of the pond.
*No! A demon is trying to break through!*
Only shortly after realization struck did the demon actually
break through. In those few seconds, the boy and girl had continued
to fight at speeds which were beginning to blur, it hurt to try
and focus on their hands.
With one of the strangled and inarticulate screams that
demons are famous for, it charged across the pond, heading straight
for Serenity. For some unfathomable reason, demons liked to randomly
attack the Queen whenever given a chance. One supposed that they'd
be famous wherever they came from if they could manage to kill the
person who'd brought peace to the majority of the world.
* * *
Ryouga didn't seem interested in the feeling of evil which
was beginning to permeate the air, and launched another attack
at Ranma. Trading blows with Ryouga on a rather unequal basis
(Ranma couldn't take very many, so she dealt out the majority),
Ranma continued worry about the feeling of evil that was building up.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blackness of pure
evil on the other side of the pond. Breaking through almost as
soon as Ranma noticed it the demon was running through the pond,
looking for all the world as though it was coming straight for them.
Years of ingrained martial arts instincts immediately took hold
causing Ranma and Ryouga to leap away from each other, and the path
of the demon.
* * *
Usagi watched with a shocked and morbid interest as the ball
of energy as it flew towards her mother. She was quite aware there
wasn't anything she could hope to do. While in this time period the
Senshi didn't need elaborate transformation scenes, it still took
time to unleash their powers, and until she unleashed those powers,
she was just a normal human being (who could unleash magical powers).
Then this Ranma girl launched another ball of energy at her parents,
one that flew even faster. Instead of blowing away her parents,
the second ball expanded and tossed a mesh up that deflected the
first energy ball.
Still staring at the after image of the green energy's
collision with the blue energy, Usagi felt the presence of a demon.
Rapidly twirling around, she saw the inky blackness which signaled
a demon's impending arrival. This was something (she hoped) she
could deal with, so she released her hold on her powers and felt
the magic sweep through her, changing her and her appearance.
Momentarily distracted by the influx of power, Usagi (now
Sailor Moon) failed to notice the incoming boy, who landed on top
of her in his attempt to get away from the charging demon. It
didn't look like Sailor Moon was going to get a reputation for
grace anytime soon.
* * *
Ranma landed, safely out of the path of the demon, and
began to reevaluate the situation. Ryouga had just landed on top
of the pink haired girl, and was now fumbling around trying to get
off of her. The demon was now running towards the couple.. boy
were they weird. Who went to a park wearing their night gown
or a tuxedo? *I can't let that demon hurt them, but what to do?
That thing is probably way out of my class.. the only thing that'll
do lasting damage is the Hiryu Shoten Ha and I don't even know if
demons have ki..*
Finally deciding on a ki blast to try and divert the
demon's attention, Ranma figured she'd try that ki attack she'd
seen Herb use. She'd need all the power she could get.
A "HITO RYU-ZAN HA!" and away the ki blade flew, striking the
demon in its.. tentacle? Oh well. That certainly got its attention.
Slowing its prodigious bulk down so that it could turn around to
face its attacker took no small amount of effort on the part of the
demon. In that little bit of time, Ryouga had managed to extricate
himself from the pink haired girl. *That girl is Sailor Moon? Wow.
Maybe we'll have a chance after all..*
It seemed Ryouga was going to join the fray, since it was
coming at the demon in the semi-crouched position he used to be
able to easily reach the ground.
"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"
The world disappeared in a haze of dust and flying particles.
Ranma's hands quickly blurred into action grabbing or deflecting
the larger pieces, but it still wasn't fun to be anywhere near the
breaking point technique. *Damn, I hope the explosion didn't hurt
those people.*
As the dust settled, Ranma saw Ryouga in the air
directly over the demon, again glowing the green of depression
ki buildup. *Hmm, probably going to try blasting it from above,
I'll have to wait to close until he lets that loose.*
No sooner than Ranma settled on a course of action than was
he able to put it into motion. The sheer force of the Shishi Houkou
Dan had indented the ground around the demon's, er, feet-things?
*Time to introduce this demon to some Amazon techniques. 4000 years
of history has to be good for something..*
* * *
Usagi again took in the scene before her while reaching for
her tiara. The Ranma girl had thrown some sort of energy blade at
the demon, and then Ryouga had used some sort of explosion to launch
himself into the air and distract the demon. Pulling the tiara
down, she watched Ryouga send another energy blast at the demon,
shoving it a few inches into the ground (and probably giving it a
dreadful headache). As she cried out "MOON TIARA ACTION", she saw
Ranma close with the demon while reaching out.
The demon grabbed Ranma.
The tiara when flying.
Ranma's single punch landed.
The demon was launched into the air, in the direction
of the incoming tiara, dragging Ranma with it. The glowing disc
of tiara hit the demon, and sliced through the tentacle that'd
latched itself to Ranma.
It kept going.
Usagi watched while dread built up in her stomach. Ranma
had been drug into the path of her tiara.
The tiara sliced through Ranma's shirt like nothing. It
pretty much did the same thing to Ranma's arm, leaving her with a
horrible gash and most of her biceps severed.
Usagi turned a dreadful shade of white as she watch her
tiara cut through Ranma's arm and the blood begin to pour out.
The demon had recovered much quicker than Ranma was going to,
and was giving Ryouga the evil eye. Much faster than its previous
speed had indicated possible, a few tentacles had wrapped themselves
around Ryouga and were lifting him into the air. From the screams
this was getting out of Ryouga, they were probably crushing him.
Luckily, he didn't have to put up with it for long, as the demon
became quite intent on pounding a hole into the ground using
his head.
Afraid to try her tiara again, and certainly not about to
try anymore powerful attacks after what she'd done to Ranma, Usagi
came running in and gave the demon a good swift kick to the rear,
and followed by a couple of poorly executed punches. Her mother
wasn't exactly the best unarmed combat instructor.
Not particularly surprisingly, the demon whipped yet another
tentacle around, which connected solidly with Usagi's head sending
her flying into the pond.
* * *
Ranma was hurt. Bad. She knew it, too.
Her right arm was now useless, her biceps severed. She wasn't
even sure that the Queen's magic could heal a would like that, let
alone modern medicine. More immediately however, she was probably
going to bleed to death without some sort of treatment. Honor
didn't allow for retreat, though. Those people were still here.
Dammit why hadn't they left yet? They seemed dumb struck.
Well, no maiming is going to keep Ranma Saotome down in
the face of honor, luckily she'd perfected a single handed Mouko
Takabisha quite some time ago when faced with Ms Hinako.
Ryouga was getting beat pretty soundly, the hole in the
ground from Ryouga-hammer was now significantly larger than the one
the breaking point technique has created. Needing to distract the
demon from the likely unconscious Ryouga, Ranma summoned her ki,
forming it into a ball with her left hand. Deciding that she could
use every bit of surprise she could against this demon, she didn't
cry out the name of her attack, she merely let the ki burst forth
in a tight beam.
*That hole in its, er, shoulder should get its attention.
Whoa, good thing I was already moving, its faster than it looks!*
* * *
Serenity was still staring, nonplused, at the scene in
front of her. The two combatants had forgotten each other for
the moment, and were working on the demon. Faster than her eyes
could hope to see, they'd attacked and been repulsed, then her
daughter had joined the fray. A missed Moon tiara hit the young
girl and made a dreadful cut in her arm. Her shirt was taking on a
much deeper red from the amount of blood that was soaking into it.
The boy was now laying, unmoving, in a hole his body had been used
to pound down. She needed to do something, but since giving up
the mantle of Sailor Moon, none of her powers were really suited
to combating individual demons, she was simply too powerful.
And so she continued to watch the battle with an increasingly
morbid fascination.
* * *
Finally, Ranma could begin to feel the demon giving off
some sort of hot energy. It didn't seem to be ki, but maybe it
would be close enough for a Hiryu Shoten Ha to work. Now if she
could just manage to pull it off with her left arm. *I'll just have
to reverse the spiral. I think.*
* * *
Usagi lifted herself out of the water. It was amazing
how, if you hit water fast enough, it felt as hard as concrete.
Ranma was apparently sizing up the demon, which was doing the same,
merely vice versa. *If they could just succeed in stunning the
thing for a second..*
* * *
Calling forth the last bits of her ki, Ranma eyed the demon
and began the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Running around in a slowly tightening
circle, faster and faster, Ranma felt her body giving out. *If this
doesn't work, well, no point in thinking about that, I won't be
around to worry.*
With a final cry of "HIRYU SHOTEN HA!", Ranma let fly a punch
that never connected, instead, it lifted the demon into the air.
*Uh oh. That didn't work quite right.*
* * *
As Ranma began to run in circles, Usagi was pulling herself
out of the water. She'd seen enough attacks to recognize a finalish
attack when she saw one, and this looked like one. She could also
tell that Ranma wasn't in the best shape to pull off a final attack.
Pulling the Spiral Heart Moon Wand out of no-space where all the
Senshi stored their various toys, she readied herself to dispatch
this demon after Ranma's attack.
* * *
Finally realizing how she could help, Serenity mentally
summoned the Senshi to her location, with an addendum to bring
an ambulance. She saw the girl begin some sort of finalish looking
attack, and wondered if she'd be able to succeed. She also saw (and
felt) her daughter retrieve the Spiral Heart Moon Wand from no-space.
*Oh my.*
The poor girl's punch had missed and, er, wait. The demon
was being lifted off of the ground anyways. Amazing. *Uh oh,
the demon grabbed her.*
It had indeed. With two of its remaining tentacles, it had
grabbed Ranma by the (extended) left arm, and around her right leg,
dragging her into the ki hurricane right along with it.
* * *
Ranma felt herself being dragged into the hurricane she
had just created. *This is going to hurt.*
And it did. It hurt even more when the demon came down on
top of her only a short distance away, driving her into the ground.
The last thing she heard was a cry of "RAINBOW MOON HEART
ACHE!" and then she thought she died.
* * * * * * * *
"Can you do anything for them, Ami?"
Ami's response came in an unsure voice, "I don't know,
Serenity... Your magic fixed quite a bit, but really, they should've
been dead a long time ago. The girl lost enough blood that I'm
not sure why her tissue isn't already dead, most of the bones in
the boy's body had been reduced to a powdery gravel, and a few
of his organs weren't much better than oatmeal. The only people
who should be able to survive this kind of abuse are the Senshi,
and even then they'd be hospitalized for weeks."
"And then there is the evil magic. That demon must have been
oozing of evil. Its slowly working to kill them, like a poison.
Counteracting it could be nearly impossible, you'd need to pour
magic into it constantly to keep it from coming back."
* * * * * * * *
"Oh Luna, what am I going to do? Those two poor kids jumped
in the way of a demon probably trying to kill me and held it off
until Usagi could destroy it. Now they're going to die without
some sort of constant source of magic. Where could we get something
like that for them?"
Stretching out in thought, Luna ventured a suggestion. "Well,
if you weren't out of planets, you could make the girl a Senshi,
though it would be highly irregular for someone not of nobility
to be a Senshi. The boy could be made a planetary knight, but
that would place a small drain on the power supplied to one of the
existing Senshi. One of the larger planets might be able to handle
the drain, but still.."
"Why not just make them royal guards?" asked Artemis,
who had just joined them from a nap.
"Huh? Royal guards?"
Luna instantly supplied "Thats right! The royal family
can appoint guards, and they get magical power to help them do
their job."
"But I thought that was the Senshi's job?"
"No," Luna shook her head, "the Senshi are nobility in their
own right. While they were responsible for guarding the kingdom
from strong threats, they didn't normally handle mundane threats
to the family."
"So if I make them into royal guards, do they draw their
power from the Silver Crystal, too?"
Artemis, again spoke up, "Nope, the royal family's guards
traditionally draw their power from the Sun. They don't really get
magical attacks, either. Extra strength, endurance and stuff like
that, though. Sort of mini-Senshi."
Nodding with new found confidence, Serenity announced
"Thats what we'll do, then!"
* * * * * * * *
Serenity, Endymion and Usagi stood in a circle around
the sleeping and beaten forms of Ryouga and Ranma. Usagi's eyes
were noticeably drawn to the bandages covering Ranma's right arm.
In a circle beyond them was the rest of the Senshi, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. Luna, Artemis
and Diana were waiting in the corner.
Coughing to get her family's attention, Serenity began,
"We all have to be in agreement to make this work. Any doubts?"
Endymion and Usagi both shook their heads in the negative.
"Very well."
And so Neo-Queen Serenity lifted the Silver Crystal, summoned
forth its awesome power, and linked (Hibiki) Ryouga and (Saotome)
Ranma to both the royal family of Crystal Tokyo, and to the Sun,
which would become the source of their power.
Then it seemed as though the sun came out from behind the
clouds, even though they were indoors. However, the light was
coming from Ranma and Ryouga, they were glowing with the light of
the nuclear furnace that was the sun.
As quickly as it had begun, it ended.
One could almost hear Ryouga's bones knit, and the color
return to Ranma's skin. Their clothes had changed, too.
Both of them wore uniforms reminiscent of the Dark
Kingdom's generals (and Earth's old guardians). The trim was all
yellow, however. And on the left breast was a gem that glowed,
and contained the crescent moon logo of the Royal Family in it. And
instead of trousers, Ranma's uniform had a skirt of the same grey
fabric, yellow trim along its bottom edge, too.
As everyone gasped in surprise, something else flared into
existence. On the duo's foreheads, the standard Moon Kingdom crescent
appeared, with a solid circle suspended between its tips.
* * * * * * * *
"Oh dear." Kasumi hung up and turned to face her family
(and designated free loading bum).
"That was the Royal Hospital."
Everyone's jaw dropped except for Nabiki.
"And what did they want?"
"Well, it seems Ranma and Ryouga were hurt very bad trying
to protect the Royal family."
Genma simply began a hearty belly laugh as Akane's face sank.
"Ah, thats my boy. Probably some muggers got a bit big for
their britches! Hah! Hah!"
"No Mr Saotome, it seems that a demon attacked the Royal
Family in the Nerima park. Princess Usagi tried to help, but
accidently hit Ranma with one of her attacks."
Kasumi paused a moment while that sank in. "And both of them
were infected with some sort of evil magic that the Queen couldn't
get rid of.."
The shock of the news that Ranma was in danger had Akane
out the door instantly.
* * *
*Ranma? Hurt?!*
The thought flittered through Akane's mind over and over
as she ran at her top speed through Crystal Tokyo towards the
Royal Hospital.
Buildings flew past her, going slowly from the normal
architectural design used in old buildings to the new, crystalline
material that was popular, especially near the palace and the five
crystal points that denoted the edges of Crystal Tokyo.
After a few minutes, Akane approached the northeast crystal
point where the Royal Hospital was located. Another few seconds
and the doors to the Hospital were in sight.
Through the doors before she knew it, Akane ran towards
the front desk, oblivious to the crowd of people waiting in the
lobby. "Where is Ranma Saotome?" The nurse waiting at the desk
pointed behind Akane, causing her to turn.
Arrayed in front of her was the assembled nobility of Crystal
Tokyo. The Royal Family, and all the Senshi stood, watching her.
After a second, Akane snapped back to reality, and promptly
dropped to one knee. "Your Majesties!"
A voice she recognized as belonging to Princess Mercury
spoke, "Miss Akane Tendo?" Akane nodded as best she could with
her head already lowered. "Miss Tendo, please get up, thats
embarrassing."
In a fumbling and uncoordinated manner completely unbecoming
a martial artist, Akane rose to her feet and curtsied.
Queen Serenity spoke this time, "Miss Tendo, I imagine you
are here to visit young Ranma?"
"Ah," Akane stammered, "Yes, Your Majesty."
"Please, follow me. She is right this way." Queen Serenity
stretched out her hand and pointed down the hallway.
Akane moved quickly to follow her Queen, ending up following
three steps behind her. Noticing that the rest of the nobility
followed behind her, Akane felt sort of nervous, as though she were
imposing upon them.
For one dreadfully long minute, they walked in silence. Then
Queen Serenity turned her head ever so slightly and began addressing
Akane. "Miss Tendo, how long have you known Ranma?"
Akane thought back to the day her father had first called her
and her sisters in to announce their engagement to Ranma. Doing a bit
of quick math she came up with the figure. "2 years, Your Majesty."
"I see. I'm curious as to your relationship, is Ranma a
friend of yours?"
"Ah, no, Your Majesty. Ranma is my fiance."
Though Akane couldn't see it, Serenity's eyes got a bit
larger than normal. "Interesting." Princess Uranus was impressed,
and decided to encourage the young couple. "It is wonderful to see
two young women so open about their love in this day and age. Things
were so constrained before the founding of the Silver Millennium."
Eyes widening impossibly, Akane sputtered. "Two young women?"
"You and Miss Ranma."
Forgetting that she was in the company of royalty, Akane
doubled over in laughter and nearly fell to the floor. Quickly,
Queen Serenity stopped and turned to Akane. "Miss Tendo, what is
the matter?"
"Hah.. ha.. ah.. Oh.." Akane wheezed as she tried to catch
her breath. "The thought of Ranma being called 'miss'. I guess you
found him when he was a girl, right?"
A quizzical look crossed Queen Serenity's face before
practiced reflexes concealed it. As she turned to continue walking,
she requested, "Miss Tendo, maybe you would care to explain why
young Ranma is a 'he'?"
* * *
The nobility of the Silver Millennium had gotten quiet
once explanation had been given. They didn't like to think about
the fact that things like Jusenkyo still existed in this day and
age, everything was supposed to be perfect. Now Akane walked in
the midst of them, head hung, wondering just how big the hospital
was. It seemed like they had been walking for just short of forever.
Just as that thought crossed Akane's mind, Princess Pluto
sneezed. And, just as soon as she was done excusing herself, she
announced, "Your Majesty, I must take my leave of you to return to
the Gates of Time." A quick bow following Queen Serenity's nod,
and she was gone in a burst of light.
Akane couldn't help but stare. Watching Princess Pluto
vanish reinforced the fact that the nobility of Pluto lived for
aeons in their guardianship of the Gates of Time. "Ahem," Princess
Mercury cleared her throat, "Miss Tendo? Here we are.."
Forgetting her manners, Akane rushed into the room, kicking
up a breeze that fluttered the hair of the gathered nobility.
* * *
*Ugh.. Feels like pop sat on my head again.. in panda form..*
Beginning to take in her environment, Ranma found that she
was laying on a bed, in a room with a bland white ceiling.
And she was wearing a short skirt.
"AHHHHHHHH! What'm I doin wearing this?!"
"Ranma?"
She quickly looked around, and found Akane standing in
the doorway.
"Ranma, what are you doing wearing that?"
"I dunno, I was trying to figure that out, too."
"And why is Ryouga on that bed over there?"
Ranma's eyes glazed over as she stopped to think about the
last things she could remember before waking up.. wherever she was.
"We were fighting," she began, her voice distant, "and
a demon showed up, felt like Happosai at first.. then it got
Strong. Ryouga and I tried to fight it.. Sailor Moon tried to attack
it, but she missed."
Hesitantly lifting her left hand, Ranma felt her right
arm. "Her attack.. it hit me. It cut through most of my arm.. And
the demon pounded Ryouga into the ground.. he looked like one 'a
yer dolls, all limp.. Then I tried to use the Hiryu Shoten Ha on
it.. and I can't really remember anything after that.."
A footstep announced that someone was entering the room. Like
a shot, Ranma was off the bed and on her feet, eyeing the door like
a hawk.
Through the door came the woman in the night gown, the
man in the purple tuxedo, and.. Sailor Moon in a matching night
gown. *Hey.. if that is Sailor Moon, and she is wearing a night
gown like that woman, then that woman must be the Queen?! Wonder
who is waiting out in the hallway, seems like a lot of 'em..*
"Yer Majesty!" stammered Ranma.
"Do you know where you are, Ranma?"
"Uh, well, no, I guess not."
"This is the Royal Hospital. We brought you here after you
saved the King and I. We are very grateful that you saved us."
"Aw, don't mention it, woulda done it for anyone."
"That is all the more remarkable."
Ranma fidgeted, having nothing to say.
"Would you like the know why you are dressed like that?"
"Oh, yeah, right! What am I doing in a skirt?"
"Both you and young Ryouga," she waved at the still sleeping
form of Ryouga, "were poisoned by the demon's evil magic. Even the
Silver Crystal could not purge you of it. In fact, it still resides
in you, even now. All that keeps you alive is the magical energies
that are feeding into you now."
Ranma dumbly asked, "Magical energies?"
"We made you Guardians of the Royal Family."
"Guardians? Like bodyguards and stuff?"
"Something like that. We did so without your permission,
though, and in return for saving our lives, so you are not bound
to serve us. If anything, we owe you even more for placing such a
burden on you without your permission."
Ranma stared blankly at her Queen.
"I dunno.."
"You have all the time you desire. You may even change your
mind later, you owe us nothing, and we owe you our lives. Should
you take the job, we will probably come to owe you our lives many
times over. Now if only young Ryouga would wake up so that I could
explain things to him.."
Ranma smiled, "Thats easy."
"HEY PIG-BOY! WAKE UP!"
* * * * * * * *
Princess Mercury stood, staring at the wall.
For most people, this would be intensely boring.
For someone with the Mercury Computer and a device for
viewing the results of its scans, it is a perfect way to spend
boring minutes while your Queen meets with her latest saviors.
As she watched the outlined form of one Ryouga Hibiki bolt
upright, she listened to Princesses Uranus and Jupiter commiserate.
"It just isn't right," began Jupiter, "we've been protecting
her since the beginning, and now she is going to have two teenage
hot shots protect her."
"Indeed. Pluto said that the Royal Family's Guardians
of old hardly wielded any power, and were only useful in large
numbers. Even if these two are some sort of hot-shot fighters,
we should still be the ones defending our Queen."
Mercury ended up filtering out the rest of their
conversation, as it degenerated into disparaging remarks about
Ranma's hair style, Ryouga's fangs and anything else the two of
them could make up.
Instead, she focused on the information her computer was
feeding her about Ranma and Ryouga. If she hadn't already seen the
rate at which they could heal, she would've sworn that her computer
was broken. A few brief calculations confirmed her guess, between
the magic and their own natural healing rate, the two would show
no physical sign of having fought the demon by early the next morning.
The insidious dark magic was not as readily dispelled, though.
* * * * * * * *
Ranma slapped her forehead again.
"Ryouga! Hey, Ryouga! Did you hear what she said?"
Shaking him violently, Ranma managed to uproot his eyes
from their previous fixation, Princess Usagi.
"Eh? Yeah, sure. They're having a double coupon day at the
local market tomorrow."
Everyone except Queen Serenity face faulted. And even she
wanted to.
"No you moron, she said that she was offering you a position
as one of the Royal Family's Guardians."
Ryouga developed an intense look as he thought. Ranma was
sure she could feel gears grinding and frictional heat building up.
"So, this would mean that I'd spend a lot of time around
you and your family?"
Serenity nodded, "Yes, preferably you would reside at the
Palace, though, as I told Ranma, we owe you our lives, and so you
may request whatever arrangements you desire."
Eyes glancing briefly at Princess Usagi, Ryouga gave a
strong, firm nod, "I'll do it!"
Ranma studied Ryouga carefully before announcing, "I guess
if Ryouga can do it, I can, too."
"Wonderful," Serenity smiled, "we can begin to make
arrangements immediately."
- - - - - - - -