Following the fall of the Silver Millennium, an important soul goes a little... astray. Fast forward to Nerima and Ranma Saotome is looking for a solution for the reoccurring magic issues in his life. The solution for some of them presents itself in a most curious form, a talking black cat with a golden crescent moon upon its forehead telling him that he's a Princess.
Silver Rimmed with Crimson [Ranma x Sailor Moon]
- Thread starter Grounders10
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Chapter One: Cat
Grounders10
Nine-Tailed Kitsune
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada, Mars
It always surprised Ranma how easy it was to find magical artifacts in Nerima. It was like there was some cosmic force that drew the strange and unexplainable to the ward. That, or someone was deliberately funneling all the weird stuff in the world into one place. The amount of dusty, disreputable, and possibly illegal artifact shops in the ward was good evidence for such an argument.
Shops like the one Ranma happened to stick his nose in on that particular day. Dusty, smokey, and cramped, with its cluttered shelves, pressed together so closely that even a single person had to shuffle at an angle rather than walk down the isles. God forbid there were two people going in opposite directions. Beside ordinary-seeming nick-nacks sat faintly glowing glass orbs while blank skulls whose teeth occasionally chattered sat between rows of mislabeled umbrellas and model ships. Racks of clothing from far and wide sat in the corners, though after the incident with the feather boa that Kodachi had bought Ranma would be hesitant to actually touch anything there.
The dusty, and rather tacky, crown jewel of the establishment was the counter at the far end of the store. Decorated in elaborate ofuda, and surrounded in a seeming wall of incense burners, the counter had all the pomp, ceremony, and style of an abandoned temple. There were times when Ranma thought it might be, but then one look at the old proprietor who was perennially sitting on a stool reading a black tome, sometimes it was red or blue, while he constantly sniffled and snorted from the incense bothering his allergies.
Ranma tried to not make a habit of visiting these sorts of stores. The proprietors were inevitably sleazy and poorly informed about the dangers of the material they handled, at least when it came time to sell it. Money talked far too easily. But he had been here before, and money wasn't the only thing that talked. Not to mention the old man here didn't come off as sleazy, just weird. And he had gotten better about the little 'not telling' issue after the last time.
Today he wasn't there to make a fuss or check for more… unusual items before they found their way into the hands of an idiot. This time, he was there to pick up something he'd asked for.
"Yo, Oshida!" he called, waving a hand above the shelves. He winced as his hand knocked against a tilting tower of teeth stuck together by no visible force. Like half the stock in these sorts of stores, it gave him the willies just looking at it.
"Careful you brat! That's a teething tower! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those from Trinidad?" The proprietor scowled at him, clucking his tongue as he pulled himself off his stool.
"I'd rather not know," he replied as he slipped out of the cramped aisle into the only marginally less cramped area in front of the counter. "It better not be something that'll come and bite me in the end." He glanced back at the teetering tower and shivered.
"It's more of a curiosity than anything," Oshida shrugged, "Like half the store I couldn't tell you what it actually does."
"And you bought it anyway?" he asked incredulously.
The old man shrugged. "It'll probably land in some goth brat's room. Stick a candle on it and you'll get some great ambiance," he said with a chuckle.
"... And probably summon a demon."
"You say that, like demon summoning happens all the time. Bah!" Oshida waved a hand in the air, "Now, you're here for those books I found? Yes?" He reached under the counter before Ranma could reply and with a grunt hefted a stack of three heavy books made from slats of bamboo and bound together with rings of bone and jade. To Ranma's relief he couldn't feel any strange aura coming from them.
He reached for the top one, then paused to raise an eyebrow at the old man. He grunted and waved at the book. Taking that as permission Ranma lifted the top book off the stack and set it down facing him. Carefully, he examined the front cover, a single large sheet of bamboo with yellowing paper stuck to the front. Large impeccably written calligraphy announced it as 'A Guide to Sealing Spirits Most Foul, Vol. 2'. He opened the first page carefully and examined the interior. Each set of slats had intricate calligraphy carved into the wood and dyed black with faded ink.
After reading the first page he repeated the process with the other two books, taking a moment to check further inside all three at random. They did seem legit, though their titles as volumes six and nine made him look up at the old man. "How many?"
"On hand? Ten."
He flipped volume nine to a page somewhere near the end. A yellowed sheet of paper depicting the proper signs to make for some spell or ritual he couldn't understand had been glued to the slats. "How much?"
The old man hummed and scratched his chin. "Let's see… they aren't originals, but they're about as close as you get these days. These were translated in the fifteenth century, so… Hrm… Where did I put the purchase order…" he disappeared beneath the counter again.
"We're talking about the second most copied set on demon sealing in Japan," Ranma said. Written centuries before the text was a staple of demon hunting literature. The original set had supposedly had twenty-three books, but losses over the centuries and revisions had reduced later editions to twenty.
"And a pain in the ass to acquire these days," the old man said as he squinted at the rumbled purchase order. Why he didn't have glasses he had no idea. "Hrm…. It'll cost you one hundred twenty thousand yen."
"For the set?" Ranma asked. It seemed a bit low for the set.
"Per book."
"Bullshit. The pages are peeling and the set isn't even complete. Eighty thousand a book," he countered. They weren't in the worst condition ever, but even eighty was fairly steep. That said, it was half the set.
"Not with this purchase price I won't," Oshida scoffed as he waved the receipt in his hands, "Ninety-nine."
"Eighty-five."
"Ninety-five."
"Ninety and you toss in that calligraphy set there," Ranma gestured to a shelf on the wall where, mostly uncursed, calligraphy sets were on display. The one he was pointing to had immaculate silver brushes. "Still can't sell it, right?"
The old man sneered, his face wrinkling like something foul had crawled up his nose. "No, and for good reason. Those brushes have killed people before."
"Didn't kill me when I used them," he replied, referring to a previous visit several months previous.
"... One hundred and ten and I'll throw in some additional supplies. You'll need a few odd things to use these," he said, tapping the books.
Ranma mulled it over. "I get to pick," he said. Oshida nodded.
"Deal."
It took another half an hour of bickering, but Ranma eventually left with a bag full of books over his shoulder along with more books and a few supplies tucked up his sleeves. He was looking forward to finally having a way to deal with demons and other spirits.
The tiled floor of the palace jumped, cracks forming with each sudden jerk. Plaster dust fell from the ceiling and the walls. More artillery fire. It may have been landing outside the shield, but tremors couldn't be guarded against with an energy barrier.
None of the soldiers on guard by the windows or moving through the halls paid the additional cracks and falling plaster any attention. Not after a week of being under siege. It was simply how things were right now and even Luna in her small Mau form had other things on her mind than worrying about cracks in the floor. It wasn't like they were about to break open and swallow her whole after all.
So ignoring the shaking world she padded her way through the corridors from her quarters, where she had managed to catch a few hours of desperately needed sleep, to the war room. It was a path that took her down into the extensive underground complex beneath the palace, through winding corridors of featureless white and grey walls interspersed by the occasional fortified checkpoint.
By all rights, she should have slept down in the bunker, but the tense atmosphere had made it impossible. With assurances of the shield's integrity, she had taken the risk and slept in her usual room. Being rested was more important.
The war room was in its now normal perpetual state of semi-chaos, which was only to be expected after a week of waging a losing war that no one had ever expected to fight. She quickly found Artemis and hopped up on the table beside him.
"Luna, awake at last. I was starting to think you'd sleep forever," he said with a smile, his own expression showing distinct signs of exhaustion.
She rolled her eyes. "How bad is it, Artemis?" she asked.
"Mars fell silent three hours ago," the white Mau replied. He rubbed a paw across his face. "Last reports indicated a complete loss of habitability." It said something horrible about the last week that she could just nod and take that news without so much as blinking.
"And that leaves… Us and…" Luna paused as she considered the number of planets, habitats, and extrasolar colonies that had gone silent over the last week.
"Just us… Just… Us…" Artemis said softly. The last six hours had clearly weighed upon him. She patted his back with her tail consolingly.
"Not quite." Both of them looked up at Queen Serenity as the regal Queen turned from examining the holographic surface of the moon laid out before them. "Pluto is still reporting, as are the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet and Colony Project Naiad."
"None of whom are in the inner system," Luna noted as she stepped forward to examine the map. The palace was in the center of a former crater that had been made habitable with extensive terraforming magic. Now the gardens were gone, the lakes had evaporated under the constant weapons fire, and even the atmosphere, always a little thinner than preferable, was fading. The lines had fallen back further through the city and if the orders she was seeing were accurate soon they would have just the palace, and that was already under assault.
"No, but Naiad has reported that they've managed to clear the outer system. The fifty-second will rendezvous with them soon. Pluto has informed us that she'll be initiating a complete lockdown of the gate system once they pass through," Queen Serenity's face was grim, her mouth set into a thin smile, "But with luck, there may be a way for some of our people to survive this disaster."
Left unsaid was the fact that none of those in the bunker were likely to be amongst the survivors.
Luna sat down and straightened her back as she held her head high and looked her Monarch and old friend in the eye. "What matter would you have me advise upon, Your Majesty?" The world may have ended, many worlds in point of order, but she would do her duty with pride.
Her Majesty slowly smiled fondly. "Less advice, my friends, more assistance. Let me walk you through it."
"Bleeeeeeeeep!" Luna shrieked in surprise and nearly fell off her concealed perch where she had been sleeping as a large garbage truck laid on the horn. Cursing under her breath she stretched as best she was able to do so on the small ledge. Even for a Mau it was quite cramped.
She licked a paw and took a moment to clean her face off as best she could. A bowl of clean water would have been to her preference, but needs must. Sleep cleaned off her face, she looked down at the messy alleyway. Her life had changed so much since those long ago days. Not that they felt all that long ago. Cryo-stasis had a way of distorting one's perceptions of time.
A car backfired around the corner. Once she shook her fur back to normal before sneezing at the smell. "Oh how I miss moonstone boats," she sighed, wrinkling her nose some more. Whose brilliant idea had it been to burn fuel to run vehicles? Magic was so much cleaner.
She stretched once more before jumping down to the fairly clean lid of the dumpster below. Set out behind a clothing boutique the dumpster was one of the few that didn't stink up the alleyway with any regularity, which was an important trait that she'd gotten more appreciative over the last few months.
"So where to look today?" she wondered as she paused to extend her senses through the magic of the world. After several months of looking she still hadn't had any luck following her Queen's orders. There was no sign of any Senshi or their magic or the Princess. The Queen had said that the spells would release her from stasis when the time came in the area where the Senshi should have been naturally congregating. Despite that, she had yet to lay eyes upon a single one of the wayward princesses. It had been months spent dodging cars, being chased by dogs, birds and children. No one to help her search a city equal to even the capital of Luna just before the war. She had barely managed to search a handful of blocks. Unless something changed she was going to spend the rest of her life searching fruitlessly.
Yellow eyes opened slowly as she withdrew from the weave of the world. Nothing once again, not that she expected anything. "So where to begin?" she mused. Perhaps one of the ships near the park to see if anyone would give her food, then pick up where she left off the day before by the school? Yes, that could work.
She hopped down off the dumpster and wandered out of the alleyway, dodging a trio of kids who were running for school. Judging by the clock in a nearby cafe they were already late. She tisked and shook her head. It was irresponsible of the parents to let them be so late.
There were a handful of cafes near the local park. Most of them simply shooed her away, but a couple let her poke around and beg food off the patrons. There was always one or two who felt pity for the 'kitty' poking around. It wasn't as good as the food she used to get, but she quite enjoyed the small treats that they would share with her. It made things simpler than having to forage or, gods forbid, hunting. She may have had claws, but she wasn't some kind of savage that enjoyed eating rats.
She was in luck that day, there was someone who recognized her already in line at the first cafe. Within a few minutes they had a small order of sushi that was set down waiting for her. The fish was delicious and she made sure to meow her thanks to the kind stranger before leaving. There were many things wrong with this world, but its people were generally a kind sort.
She was only a hundred feet down the sideway from the cafe when something minor but distinctive brushed the back of her senses. Despite the lack of magic being used in everyday life, she picked up little bursts of it from all over the place frequently. This though, this was different. This was familiar. Like a flash of silver in the distance it was there and gone, but she knew that magic. The royal family had such a distinctive form of it.
In a rush she ducked into an alleyway and found a corner to close her eyes in. "Please do it again," she prayed. A moment later another burst of silver light, just as weak and distant, popped against her senses. She grinned toothily. There was only one person it could be. "Princess," she grinned, "I know where you are."
Well, that wasn't quite accurate. A short burst like this told her nothing, but it did give her a direction. She opened her eyes and turned towards where she had felt them. It was north-west, and perhaps just close enough to not be outside the city. Maybe.
"Well it has been nice around here, but it seems I have a goal now," she said softly. Perhaps she could catch the train and jump a few stops closer. She would have to make sure to read the map but-
A low growl sent her leaping up the concrete wall directly ahead of her. Her claws dug into the small holes in the concrete, allowing her to heave herself up several meters in moments. She looked back over her shoulder to find a small white dog barking up at her. She rolled her eyes. "Oh honestly," she muttered before letting go and dropping with a loud 'hiss'.
The little dog yelped and bolted before she hit the ground. It vanished around the corner of a dumpster before she landed. She sniffed irritably in its direction before turning and leaving the alleyway. She had a long trip to take and no reason to delay.
"I'm on my way princess," she said under her breath.
It was several days, and numerous small pulses of silver power, that she arrived in Nerima. The City of Nerima was indistinguishable from the rest of Greater Tokyo without a map and proper knowledge of the roads. More skyscrapers, more tight packed houses, and more stores jammed into the smallest area possible. It was, in other words, just as much of a nightmare to search as Shinjuku was. But this time Luna had something she lacked in Shinjuku.
The Princess was using magic. Not much, not even a proper spell of any sort, but she could feel it there in the back of her mind. Small pulses of power that were slowly getting more coherent at a surprising rate over the last few days. Whoever the Princess had reincarnated as was clearly talented.
Wasting no more time, Luna set out into the streets of Nerima with her thoughts half turned towards the supernatural.
So it was that Luna discovered another issue she hadn't expected to find. Nerima was brimming with the supernatural. Shinjuku may as well have been a dead zone for magic as far as magical items or people were concerned. Nakano and Toshima were the same. All three had no magic to muddy the waters and distract from her goal. Nerima? Oh boy, Nerima.
Luna paused as she came across the third magic store in ten blocks. On the same street. She could feel the magic wafting off the store, much like the two before. Just by standing there it was possible to tell the presence of more than a few magical objects within the store. Actual ones. Weak, for the most part, but unshielded. Which was identical to the other two.
Shaking her head, Luna continued on. Clearly it was just an odd street.
The next street over had two more.
Then the one after had three.
By the time she reached the fourth street she was unsurprised to find a pair of magic trinket shops side by side with what looked to be an arguing pair of old men, the apparent store owners, shouting at each other outside the buildings. Something about a 'rogue pair of geta' and 'those damned umbrellas'.
With a sigh she walked past the two men and continued her search. She was having a hard time sensing the Princess through all of the local interference. It was a minor miracle that her power was strong enough to reach Shinjuku through the mess, but she was sure it was nearby.
She paused in a park and found a place to stop for the moment beneath a bench. The spring day was a bit on the warm side, an admittedly nice change from the short bout of winter she had experienced when she woke up, but still a bit warm. The view from the bench gave her a good view of the park. Children were running around the playground in the corner while parents watched. A food truck was pulled up at the curb serving ice cream. A trio of children were eagerly begging their parents for the frozen treats while a redhead in an orange shirt examined the menu.
Luna watched the short redhead with the pigtail for a moment. Red hair was unusual in Japan as far as she could tell. Black and brown seemed to be the dominant colours amongst the local population. It was rather boring compared to the Silver Millennium which had a much broader rainbow of colours. She hadn't even seen one person with green hair yet. Or purple.
Turning her attention away from the girl and the children she closed her eyes and laid her head down as she reached out for the Princess's presence once again. That silver energy that had drawn her to Nerima wasn't spiking at the moment, but that wasn't a surprise. If the girl was experimenting with her magic she was probably doing so in proper lessons and those wouldn't take up the entire day. No, what she was hoping for now was to feel the girl's presence. Now that she had started using magic she should have an aura of magic to her that others would lack.
She reached out into the world, sinking herself into the world as she sought what she expected to be a faint, if extant at all, existence. What she got was more than that. It was hardly the blazing beacon of power exuded by Queen Serenity or her court, but it was an aura that spoke of Royal Lunar Lineage. It was faint, but she could feel that silver breeze. By some stroke of luck she was close. She turned her head towards the breeze and opened her eyes.
Directly in her line of sight was the redhead from before. She was smiling at the young attendant and the two appeared to be having a conversation- No, she was flirting with him, outrageously at that. For a moment she held out hope that the silver breeze wasn't coming from the redhead, that it was in fact somewhere behind the ice cream truck. She waited as the girl continued to flirt, smiling and tossing her head while curling a strand of hair around her finger. She was the perfect picture of an air headed boy crazy flirt. After a few more minutes of the sickening display the boy, looking rather dazed, handed over a large triple scoop ice cream cone and waved as she left without paying.
The silver breeze moved with her.
Luna's heart sank. "On Serenity," she moaned, placing her head in her paws, "what kind of girl has your daughter become? To have such loose morals." She moans and massaged her forehead before looking up reluctantly. To her surprise the girl was gone, though she could still feel the silver breeze.
Panic shot through her and she bolted from under the bench in pursuit. Loose morals or not, she was not going to lose the Princess, or at least her best lead on the Princess, this soon!
Luck was not on her side. By the time she had reached the edge of the park the redhead was a block down the street, which in itself should have been impossible, and disappearing around another corner even as Luna herself was just turning the corner of the park. By the time she reached the corner the redhead was nowhere to be seen. Still, she had to be somewhere in the area. This was a local park, not a famous regional feature, which meant the girl was most likely a local.
With that in mind she started the arduous process of combing Nerima for the girl. This wasn't a small task since the city was home to over six hundred thousand people and nearly fifty square kilometers. All of it was drenched in magic and unusual amounts of life force. It seemed that quite a few locals had large amounts of life force and as she delved deeper into the district it was becoming apparent that the frequent magic trinket shops were only half the issue afflicting her senses.
Despite a few close calls with dogs, a particularly large parrot, and several bratty children, Luna eventually felt the vagaries of the silver breeze several hours later as the sun was beginning to go down. It was in a residential district with many multi-storey homes. All well maintained and seemingly solidly middle-class if not a bit higher.
She found the source of the silver breeze a short few minutes later as she was running along the concrete fences that divided the property lines. A large undivided property with a two-storey home and what appeared to be either a training hall or a shrine in the back. Her unfamiliarity with the local culture made telling the difference tricky.
Finding a comfortable spot on the fence she closed her eyes and focused. Yes, the source was the building, but she was having-
Brilliant silver light seared itself into her mind, sending her tumbling backwards off the fence with a yowl of surprise. She landed on her back in a bush, blinking up at the fence above. "Moonlight," she whispered. Without moving she delved back into her senses. The silver breeze had become pulsing waves of light that pressed at her senses, almost blinding in their intensity. Then, it was gone leaving only a stiff silver breeze behind.
A breeze that was stronger than it had been before.
Pulling herself free of the bush she climbed a nearby tree and hopped back onto the fence. She stared at the house. "It's her," she whispered, her doubts assuaged, at least as far as the girl's identity was concerned. She still had some serious doubts about her character, but magic told all. There was no way to fake having that magic.
"Now what?" she wondered as she sat there. Lights were on upstairs and she could see a few people moving around. No sign of the redhead, but she had spotted a blue-haired girl who was remarkably similar to Sailor Mercury in her face and hair, even if she was far too muscular to be that girl, going about studying in one of the upper windows.
She frowned. Had the Princess been a redhead back then? Despite herself she couldn't recall. Her memories felt fairly complete, but that critical detail, the Princess's appearance, had escaped her. She let out a low growl of frustration. Whatever the case, that was the princess.
She kept watch as the sun went down and a kind voice called everyone in the house to dinner. Taking the opportunity she circled the home she snuck through the slightly ajar front gate and managed to sneak around to the back garden via the flowerbeds. Taking up a post within the bushes she spied on the meal that was visible through the back door. She failed to catch sight of the princess, though she spotted what had to be the girl's mother. A beautiful auburn woman who was wearing one of those formal robes. She was talking to a black-haired boy who looked similar enough to be the brother of the redhead. He was waving an ofuda around to the irritation of several of those at the table. Despite their annoyance, the auburn woman seemed impressed by whatever the boy (her son perhaps?) was saying.
Luna settled down beneath the bush she had found and continued watching the household. This was an opportunity to see what sort of people her Princess' family were. Where was the girl anyway? She could feel her there, but… Strange, she seemed to be somewhere behind the boy. Perhaps in a kitchen or fixated on her studies? Hopefully she wasn't being abused, though she hadn't looked like it.
Or perhaps she was just grounded after that display in the park.
The meal finished up and the family split up throughout the house. Luna watched the family carefully, keeping an eye on as many members as once as she could. She still hadn't seen the redhead, though she could sense her.
She wasn't able to investigate by getting closer since the porch was occupied after dinner finished by the two older men. She watched them for a time, only to stare as the bald one distracted his companion so that he could rearrange the board. How the man didn't notice when he looked back was beyond her. Then, a few more minutes later, the long haired man pointed off into the distance and loudly commented on the 'flight of late-night sparrows'. Confused, she looked in the direction he pointed.
There wasn't anything there.
She turned back to the sight and blinked along with the bald one. The board had been rearranged again. The bald one stared at the board, which had just suffered a significant reversal of his fortunes, and frowned.
Five minutes later the board was rearranged again as Luna watched. By the fifth time it happened she had moved on to searching the house. Clearly the repeated actions were simply part of the game they were playing. A bit odd, but if you were that easily distracted she couldn't say you didn't deserve it.
A perch on a tree managed to get her sight of the upstairs again. The blue haired girl was back to studying while the possible brother seemed to be studying as well. No sign of the redhead however.
She an irritable growl she hopped onto the fence and started making her way around the building again. Peering into different windows she spotted the mother and a tall brunette cleaning things up in the kitchen. The brunette spotted her lurking at the window and after a moment of mutual staring shooed her away with a nervous look. Curious. Still, at least they seemed to think she was just a cat. She wasn't sure she should reveal herself without a proper investigation.
She continued her investigation of the home from the outside. The old men stayed on the porch playing their game, drinking alcohol, and talking about seemingly everything. The mother came and went from room to room without a particular pattern, clearly some form of household chores. The blue haired girl kept studying for a few hours before disappearing for a few and reappearing dressed for bed a little while later. Her light went out first.
Another girl was found, a second brunette with short hair who was working on a computer of some kind. She had managed to spot her a couple of times despite her best efforts. Worst of all, the girl just seemed to smirk, shake her head, and mutter something she couldn't hear through the glass window.
And yet, despite hours of work she couldn't find the redhead. She was there, she could feel it, and yet all it led to was the boy, which should have been impossible. Had something happened to her? Was this boy some kind of sorcerer who had laid claim to her powers in the last few hours? It was unlikely, but she couldn't rule it out. The darker arts that might allow such actions would normally balk in the presence of Lunar magic, but there was a first for everything.
The two men kept drinking as they continued playing throughout the evening. Eventually the possible brother finished up and disappeared with a change of clothing, probably to have a bath. Over the next half an hour the two older men disappeared towards their beds. They were shortly followed by the short haired brunette and the long haired one. Only the mother was left.
And still no sign of the likely princess. She was getting more than worried now, especially since the source of her power kept moving around. Something had happened.
"Well, this is why we were sent forward. Time to find her," Luna said to herself as she crept across the branch to the rooftop. From there she hopped down to the lower roof. That would give her access to the second floor windows, one of which, the boy's room, was open. She could get access to the house and investigate from there. So long as she was careful they would probably at worst assume she was a stray cat. As much as such a thing grated at her sensibilities, being mistaken for one of the local Mau-like beings was a blessing at times.
The roofing tiles were slick from the dew, her paws sliding a little as she navigated her way to the open window. She hopped up onto the window sill and paused as she got her feet onto the thin wood sill.
She stared.
There was a large black and white beast sleeping on a mat to one side of the room. A large, and thin, sheet was tossed over it. She could hear its breathing easily.
She continued staring.
Then the door to the room slid open and she slowly turned her head to face it. Standing silhouetted by the hallway light was the maybe Princess looking rather damp in a pair of shorts and a tank top. She stared at the girl.
The girl stared back, her eyes widening as she took a step back, then froze. A myriad of expressions crossed her face and Luna's eyes widened as she felt the magic in the girl surge as an ofuda was drawn from nowhere.
"Demon!" The girl hissed as that silver power surged down the ofuda, lighting up each character with glowing silver power that drove the shadows into the corners of the room.
Before Luna could protest, or really do anything, the girl leaped the width of the room with speed that boggled the mind and slapped the ofuda on her face. Right on her nose in fact. The silver power discharged through her. She shivered as she felt the familiar power roll through her. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind anymore. This was either the Princess or a long gone descendant of the family, though that was more unlikely.
They stood there for a moment as the silver aura of power faded and a confused expression appeared on the girl's face. "What?"
Luna turned her attention to the spirit charm on her nose. "This is quite good," she said quietly, the girl stiffened, wide-eyed and staring at her. "But I do believe this is for a demon, not a Mau." So perhaps she had loose morals, but at least she had good instincts. A shaky foundation was better than none.
After a long day of wandering around town, for once only minimally harassed by a few crazies, and a long evening spent studying his new books on spirit banishing, Ranma found lounging in the furo to be a nice relaxing experience. The spirit-banishing techniques were especially tiring, though that was as much the fault of the brushes he was using to write the proper ofuda as the magic practice. The brushes he had picked up at the magic shop forcefully utilized the wielder's Ki to enhance the magic channeling properties of the ink. Anyone without sufficient Ki could easily be killed trying to write with them. Him? Well, they were tiring but he was in no more danger using them than he was when practicing the Moko Takabisha. They were tiring, but he would recover in a few hours at most.
He held up a hand and channeled a shred of his magic. A silver glow formed around his fingers. He cut it out a moment later. Weeks of study and meditation had paid off. He could now wield magic, though he only knew a few tricks, all of them involving the ofuda. They were simple, but at least the next time an annoying spirit or demon came calling he'd be ready.
Speaking of ready, he'd been soaking for a while and his fingers were starting to prune. He groaned. As much as he'd prefer to stay, it was probably time to head for bed. Though, it was the beginning of spring break so it wasn't like he had to be in bed right that moment.
He sat there neck deep in the water thinking about it before sighing. And just because it was spring break didn't mean his pops wouldn't start training by hurling him out the window and into the pond. "Stupid old man," he complained before standing up. Dripping water he walked over to the door and left the bath. He paused, hand hovered over his towel.
He leaned down and growned. "Pops, wrong towel you idiot," he muttered as he recognized the white and black hairs. The dumbass had used the towel in panda form. "Ugh." He ignored it and went to the small closet beside the dryer where he pulled out a new towel. There were times when he wondered just how used to being a panda his pops had become. There had to be a limit to how much someone got used to being an animal. At least switching gender left him human.
He pulled on his boxers and a tank top before setting to work redoing his pigtail. With that done he stared at himself in the mirror for a moment. The last year and a half, had been a trial. From skating competitions to dueling a dragon-blooded prince atop a mountain and even a skirmish with the Yamata-no-Orochi, it certainly hadn't let up even once. The funny part was that looking at himself in the mirror after all this time he scarcely looked different than he had the day he showed up at the Tendou's home. Well, if you ignored the decrease in baby fat over the last six months.
Turning on the water he ran a hand under the cold stream as water as his form changed in an instant. His hair went red and her breasts swelled beneath her tank top between eye blinks. She leaned against the sink as she examined herself in the mirror. Blue eyes looked back from a face that had very recently become familiar, recognizable even.
She examined herself for a few minutes before running her hand under the hot water. He tilted his head and ran it under cold water. She stared back for a moment before repeating the gesture.
"Boy," she said.
"Girl," he said.
"Boy."
"Girl."
"Boy."
He paused the strange ritual and considered his reflection. "What am I doing?" he wondered before grinning and shaking his head. When had deciding the form he was going to sleep in become like selecting from two favorite sets of pajamas?
He shrugged and turned away. It was one of those things that had just happened over time. Little changes he had embraced over the last year.
Little changes that kept her from going completely mad from everything in his life.
He tossed his towel in the hamper and opened the door, walking out into the hall and bumped into his mother. Water splashed over him.
His mother was a beautiful middle-aged woman with much darker auburn hair and a habit of wearing a kimono at all times. She was a fairly reserved woman, though she had on more than a few occasions taken the opportunity to show that she did love her son. The issues came when Ranma wasn't her son.
"Oh dear, um…" Her mother blushed awkwardly as his form shifted to female before giving her an awkward smile. "It's a girl tonight then…?"
Ranma blinked up at her mother with a blank look. Was that a joke about her gender? "I- um… I guess so?" she replied equally awkwardly. They stood there staring for a moment.
It was stuff like this that made dealing with her mother… odd. She'd have used difficulty, but that wasn't right. Sure she usually gave Ranma odd looks when she was a girl, but she didn't make a fuss. Maybe there'd be a glass of steaming water suddenly set down next to her, or a comment about something she'd like him to do, but it was minor things.
And then she did stuff like this.
Ranma glanced down at her shirt. It was white, but thankfully was just damp rather than soaked. "I'm just going to go upstairs and head to bed," she said with an awkward smile at her mother as she slipped past her.
"I- of course, Ranma. Sleep well," her mother said just as awkwardly, giving her a hesitant smile.
She hurried down the hallway to the stairs and paused only to glance back. Her mother was giving a very odd expression that Ranma couldn't place. She had that expression a lot when she did things like accidentally soaking him with water. Whether it was a stray glass of water, or accidentally spraying him with the hose. It was odd things like that which made her question what went through her mother's head.
She sighed heavily as she started up the stairs. Her mother confused her. She just couldn't lay her finger on what made her mother tick as it were. Shaking it off she hurried towards her room. Her mother wouldn't make a fuss once she was in bed and asleep.
Maybe for once she would have a quiet night without ninja or spirits or perverted martial arts masters jumping her as she slept. Sure it didn't happen every day, or even most days, but it happened often enough that she wondered if there was a schedule of when martial artists would be able to challenge her.
Sliding open the door to her room she froze upon sighting the window. Silhouetted in the moonlight was the familiar black form of a cat. Unusually, she seemed to have a gold crescent moon on her forehead.
A shiver of fear flashed up and down her spine as she stepped back from the cat. Then her other senses, dulled by the sight of her least favorite creature on the planet, registered something peculiar. On both Ki and Magic the 'cat' in the window did not feel like a cat. Which was weird since cats felt like cats much like a human felt like a human or a dog, a dog. To look like something and not have the same feel to it wasn't just unusual, it was unheard of in her personal experience. Even the giant ghost cat that had tried to kidnap Shampoo, Akane, and herself at one point, had felt like a cat in all ways that mattered.
Even if it could talk.
This 'cat' felt nothing like a cat on any level beyond the visual and the dichotomy of the situation prodded forward a blurb of information from her recent studies. 'No demon or spirit can conceal its true nature completely, and despite their best efforts will never manage to truly disguise their ki or magic as that of another being.'
Thoughts, accelerated by fear, crashed together and jumbled up for a brief instance before spitting out a single thought. "Demon!" She hissed as her eyes narrowed. An ofuda was drawn from within her shirt, a simple stand-in for her normal sleeves. It at least made it easier to use the Mouse's so-called 'black magic'. It was nothing of the sort of course, being a simple ki exercise that distorted an internal space. Her own skill was enough to store a few items like ofuda.
The one she drew out was about as long as her forearm and had taken over an hour to create. Intended to make a demon freeze in place it was one of the most basic lessons she was learning.
Silver light flared down her hand as she lit the ofuda. It flowed easily, it always did when she was a girl. A brilliant spark within her igniting in ways it just didn't as a guy. Like the full moon, shining above the ocean it sent a glow up through her and into the ritualistically marked ofuda. Black ink exploded into silver light that sent the shadows skittering into the corners of the room.
Despite the fear clinging to her spine, she launched herself across the room as fast as she could move. It may have looked like a cat, but there was more to her fear than appearance and it failed all other categories.
She slapped the glowing ofuda onto its nose and the aura discharged with a quiet 'snap-hiss' that trembled in the silent room. It flowed over the cat-like entity, stirring its fur as it flashed down and dissipated into the wood the window sill. They stood there for a moment. Then the 'cat's' tail twitched.
She stared. How? Did she make the ofuda wrong? Was it the wrong ofuda?
The 'demon' was staring at the ofuda. "This is quite good," it said softly in a woman's voice, "But I do believe this is for a demon, not a Mau."
Mau? "A what?" she slowly withdrew the expended talisman and took a step back.
The Mau did something with its fangs that could be generously called a smile. Maybe. "A Mau. My apologies, I'm making you nervous. Seeing what appears to be a cat talking to you must be rather strange," she said with a shake of her head. Her ears wobbled comically with the motion.
She backed away and fumbled for another ofuda. The 'Mau' noticed her actions and sighed.
"I'm here to talk to you, not hurt you. I promise," she said, holding out a paw in what seemed like an attempt to appear reasonable.
Ranma paused with the second ofuda held between her fingers and glowing like the moon. "About?" she asked cautiously. Was this another thing caused by her father?
"About the silver magic you have," she said, gesturing to the lit up ofuda.
"... This isn't something to do with pops?" Ranma asked, her eyes flickering to the sleeping panda.
"No, it has nothing to do with your father," she said with another shake of her head, "This power is born from you and is more ancient than you realize. I can explain, if you'll hear me out?"
The panda let out a loud snort, causing both of them to glance its way. "... On the roof if you don't mind?" the 'Mau' asked nervously.
Ranma buried a snort. She'd rather not wake up her pops with this mess. "Fine," she said cautiously. The ofuda weren't working, but if a panda made it nervous then she could probably punt it over the horizon with little difficulty.
The black Mau hopped out of the window and she leaned out the window slowly to check for others. The roof was empty except the Mau and she couldn't see anything hanging out in the rafters of the roof above. The Mau stared at her, waiting for her to step out. For a moment she wondered if it was like a vampire. It had fangs, did it drink blood? Was it weakened by crossing the threshold of a building uninvited? She'd never heard of a Mau, but they were clearly real since she was now dealing with a talking cat that wasn't a cat, and damn it, just the Mau's gaze sent a worried shiver down her back.
After procrastinating checking for an ambush, Ranma reluctantly stepped out of the window and onto the roof. The air was fairly nice for a spring evening, but it was still only spring break and there was still a chill. At the same time the tiles were a bit slippery, but she'd fought people in the pouring rain on this roof and not fallen off so she was fine.
"Over this way, so we're away from the window," the Mau said as she walked along the roof to stop outside Nabiki's window. Ranma followed her slowly, her eyes darting for some form of ambush. There didn't seem to be anything at the moment. The black cat, who claimed to be a Mau, sat down with a strict precision and grace that seemed odd.
"I'm sorry for the scare," the Mau said as Ranma stopped some seven feet away. She remained standing.
"What do you want?" she asked sharply.
The Mau examined her for a moment, head tilted to the side as one ear twitched. "My name is Luna, I was one of the advisors to Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium. Based on the moon-"
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "The moon? Really?" Wasn't it supposed to be moon bunnies, not cats? Not that she was technically a cat, even if her appearance was enough to give Ranma the hibijibis.
"This was tens of thousands of years ago," Luna sighed, "I've spent the intervening time in stasis awaiting the time to… The Silver Millennium was cast down by a powerful entity known as Metallia who sought to feed upon the lives of everyone in the system before consuming the star itself."
"Consume the star?" Ranma looked up at the shining moon, appropriately a full moon that night, with a frown. Something had tried to eat the Earth and consume the star itself? Assuming the 'Mau' was telling the truth and not spinning tales, though admittedly most things stuck to stuff that was halfway believable. Not that that meant anything. Refuge in audacity only worked if you weren't cautious enough.
"Yes. Metallia is a demonic entity of immense power," Luna continued, "It managed to brainwash a significant number of people throughout the system. At the time of being placed into stasis, only Earth still had a natural biosphere and the Moon's artificial one was fading. By this point, only a Senshi might be able to survive upon the surface."
Ranma pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, back up a second. How does any of this have anything to do with me?" She demanded.
"I am getting there. Some context is necessary," Luna said, "The fall of Silver Millennium meant that its many great magics would be lost and with it any chance of truly stopping Metallia. Our defenses were overrun before we realized the true scope of the threat. On the first day, we lost our first option for permanently dealing with Metallia. We… never recovered from that first strike." The Mau stared down at the roof tiles. "In time the Queen realized that we had one final opportunity to stop Metallia from wiping humanity out entirely. She gave her life to wield the most powerful artifact of the Silver Millennium, the Ginzuishou, against the demon. The beast's army was destroyed or sealed away along with it, but that seal could never hold forever. The seal is failing, that's why I'm here speaking with you."
Luna pointed at her with one paw. "Its forces will be on the move soon looking to gather the resources required to break the seal fully and there is only one force that may be able to properly seal away the beast forevermore."
"And that is?" Ranma asked. Please don't be her. She didn't want to have a star-eating demon gunning for her.
"The Ginzuishou could seal it away again, but the true method of destroying it… It…" Luna's face was screwed up in concentration. She made a pained noise and rubbed her forehead. "I can't remember. Of all the things to forget because of stasis. Damn it." Her voice rose in pitch as she cursed, then stilled. She bowed. "I'm sorry, my language is inappropriate."
"That's what you're worried about. You're telling me that there's some world-eating demon coming, and you can even recall how to stop it?" Ranma snarked, "Are you sure you aren't having me on?" The withering look the Mau sent her way was quite impressive.
"I am certain. My memories aren't what they once were, but I recall enough," she said primly, sitting straight, "Our greatest defenders were the Sailor Senshi, unfortunately, the current generation had only just taken their posts. They were insufficient to handle the assault by Metallia. What I do recall is that the needed artifact was in the possession of one of them."
Luna let out an explosive sigh. "And this is where I bring things back to you," she said before Ranma could interrupt with more questions. "The Sailor Senshi were the greatest warriors, led by the Queen in her time, but eventually it was to be passed onto her daughter, Princess Serenity."
"Of the same name?" Ranma noted dryly.
"As is the habit of many royal families," Luna replied, "When Silver Millennium was falling the Queen decided to take a gamble. The magic knowledge of the Kingdom would be lost with its fall and there was no guarantee that it would be recovered by the time Metallia freed herself, so she gathered the souls of the fallen and sent them forward to the time when Metallia would begin to break free."
Something clicked for Ranma. "And you think I'm one of these… Senshi?" she asked incredulously. She did not need to add reincarnation to the list of things she needed to handle day to day.
"Your magic is what tells me who you are," Luna said seriously, "This close I can feel your potential, but that magic is carried by only one family. The silver light of the moon. You are-"
A sharp knock on the window interrupted the Mau and Ranma looked over to find an irritated Nabiki looking at her. The brunette waved a hand in the air as though demanding an explanation. Ranma gestured down at the Mau. Nabiki's eyes followed and she leaned further into the window to be able to look down. She stopped, stared, and then looked back at Ranma incredulously.
The window was ripped open a moment later. "Since when could you stand being around a cat, Saotome?" she hissed.
"Technically not a cat," Ranma replied as she tried, and failed, to ignore the shiver of fear that rolled down her spine.
"I'm technically an alien," Luna said, earning her a blank stare from Nabiki.
"And it talks, again," Nabiki deadpanned, "And an alien, seriously?" She stared at Ranma who shrugged. With a sigh she rested her forehead against the wood frame of the window. "Why does it never end? I can't sell this. No one believes in aliens, let alone alien cats," she muttered before looking at Ranma, "Just… take it away from my window, Saotome. Please? Some of us need our beauty sleep." She paused. "And please try to keep me out of… Aliens. I'd rather not wake up to find Akane's been abducted by an alien prince this time."
"... Here for me apparently," Ranma shrugged, "We'll move along."
"Thanks." Nabiki slammed the window shut firmly.
Luna looked particularly off-put by the middle-tendou's attitude. "How- Is being this blase about things normal for this city?" she asked.
"We've gotten used to weird over the last year," Rnama replied before waving for the Mau to move along.
Luna led the way away from the middle-tendou's window. They stopped at the corner of the roof, well away from any windows. Luna shook her head and took a seat. "Where was I?" she asked.
"You were about to explain why I'm important," Ranma said, waving for the Mau to get on with it. "Not that I'm buying this all too much so far."
Lunar nodded. "You're being far more cautious than I expected, but that's good," she said. "The magic you've been using is that of the moon. The Silver Light of the Royal Family. I can feel your potential as a Senshi, but your magic makes it clear to me that you are the Princess reborn."
"Princess? Me, a Princess?" Ranma snorted, then snickered as she covered her mouth. "You think I'm.. a Princess?" she couldn't help it, she started laughing, falling back on her butt with a barely restrained howl of laughter. She covered her mouth with both hands to try and keep it from slipping out.
"... Well that wasn't the reaction I was expecting," Luna grumbled loudly enough for her to hear.
After a few minutes of badly suppressed laughter, Ranma sat up with a broad, lopsided grin on her face. "You realize I was born a boy, right?" she asked. The Mau stared at her, then took two steps towards her. She scooted back a bit and the cat-lookalike paused. She sniffed.
"You don't smell like a boy, though there is the scent of one on your clothes," she said, sniffing again, "No, you smell like a girl, though I have questions about why a lady your age is going about wearing some boys clothes."
Ranma rolled her eyes as the Mau's judgemental tone. "Have you ever heard of Jusenkyo?" she asked.
"If it is a location, then no I haven't. It has been tens of thousands of years. My knowledge of Earth Geography is lacking at the moment," Luna said.
"I can see that," Ranma said with a shrug. If the Mau was telling the truth, then Jusenkyo was probably a more recent addition to the landscape. "Jusenkyo, the pools of sorrow, is a cursed valley full of springs used as a training ground for… Uninformed martial artists." She grimaced. "Anyone who knows the stories about it would go train elsewhere if they had any brains. Each spring has a curse on it from when something drowned. I fell in the Nannichuan, or the Spring of Drowned girl. I was born a boy, but when I get hit with cold water I turn into a girl and turn back with hot water."
The Mau stared at her intently. "I see… A strange and cursed place, though I have to wonder if some degree of magic or fate was in play for you to get the curse you did," she mused.
"Not going to ask for proof?" Ranma asked, rather bemused. Only Ukyo had taken the curse anywhere near as well, and the chef had spent the better part of four hours playing with the curse like it was a favorite doll.
Luna waved her off. "Something as simple to access as hot water makes your claims easy to verify. Can you call up your magic?" she asked.
Bemused, Ranma obliged, calling up the silver light into her hands. Luna stared at it intently before looking up at Ranma's face. "I can't say how things have played out this way," she said with a curious tone, "But I stand by my assessment. You are Sailor Moon, the reborn Princess of the Silver Millennium." The Mau kowtowed, pressing her forehead to the ceramic roof tiles. "I stand ready to serve and advise the Princess, or Prince; which you choose to take. Great forces gather to end the world, will you take up the mantle and try to stop them?"
Ranma stared at the cat, her mouth falling open slightly. This… "I wasn't expecting this tonight," she said. The Mau was completely serious, she could tell from her posture, and yet… She shut her mouth. "You're claiming a lot you know. I'm a guy, Heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, not a reincarnated moon Princess. You want me to believe that, I'll need proof."
"And I can offer proof," Luna backed up a few steps. Her tail twitched, a shimmer of light forming at the tip before she leapt up into a picture perfect backflip, leaving a glimmering spiral of sparkling light in her wake. Something appeared with a small shower of light at the center of the spiral and fell to the tiled roof with a clatter. Before it promptly started sliding off the roof. Luna jumped on the item and after a moment where she started sliding precariously towards the edge, Ranma reluctantly reached out and pulled the Mau back.
"Here," Luna said, pushing the item towards her. Wary, she reached out and picked it up. When nothing happened, and the not-cat didn't start glowing or chanting in latin or any other disturbing omen, she looked down at it.
The item appeared to be a gold broach. One side was plain, while the other included a half moon along the bottom half and a complicated five-pointed-star design with small etched circles going outward and growing larger. At the four points of the design were four coloured orbs. Starting from the top and going clockwise they were red, yellow, blue, and green.
"Jewelry?" Ranma asked. All the gold made it look a bit tacky, but the four orbs did seem to be real jewels.
"Only in part," Luna replied, "It's a magic focus to draw out the power of your Sailor Crystal."
"My what?" The hell was a Sailor Crystal?
"The source of your unique magic," Luna replied, "Artifacts like that brooch were created to allow Senshi to optimally draw out their power."
Ranma weighed the brooch in her hand. Source didn't tell her much about what a Sailor Crystal was, though was it the glowing source of her magic that she had noticed before? That barebones description made it possible at least. "And this proves it how?" she asked.
"The Sailor Senshi have a uniform," the Mau explained, "When activated, the brooch hides your current clothes and creates the uniform from your magic. The uniform includes a number of safety spells that do everything from obfuscating your identity, to reducing the impact of any magic or physical blows on your body."
"Uniform huh…" Ranma turned it over in her hand before holding it out to Luna who backed away.
"It's yours. It belongs to you. No one else will be able to make use of it," Luna said, "To activate it, say Moon Prism Power, Make Up."
"... make up?" she asked flatly. Make up, really?
Luna shrugged in a way that a cat shouldn't have been able to manage. "I'm aware of how the phrase sounds these days, but the term had a different meaning in the past. A literal translation would be henshin," she said, "But that wouldn't activate it."
"Ah," Ranma stared at the brooch. It sounded like the perfect set up for a prank. It had been a while since the science students had tried anything. Maybe this had something to do with them? Then again, it was a little girly for those nerdy nerds. In theory anyway.
"Ranma!" The redhead glanced over her shoulder to find her mother sticking her head out of the window looking worried.
"Coming!" she called as she stood up. She paused with the brooch in her hand. "I'm not just going to use this cause you say so," she said to Luna. The black cat nodded.
"Take your time. There is no immediate threat," the Mau replied. She turned and walked over to the edge of the roof. "I'll stay in the area. If you want to talk, step out onto the roof again and I'll come by. Or use the Brooch. I'll be able to sense your transformation if I'm nearby." With that the Mau jumped off the roof, leaving Ranma standing there.
She looked down at the brooch and slipped it into her folded pocket. She'd think about it in the morning. She turned around and walked back to the window.
"What were you doing out there, Ranma? It's late," her mother said, frowning at her.
Ranma shrugged. "There was a talking cat that seemed to think I'm a reincarnated moon princess," she said. At her mother's stare she just smiled awkwardly. "The weirdness never ends, does it?" With that she slipped past her mother and crawled beneath the covers of her futon, leaving her befuddled and confused looking mother looking out the window searching for the cat in question.
A/N: Hello~ Hiatus over~ Yeah~ Alas, The Taste of Peaches isn't quite done so here's something to tide everyone over. It should be out around the end of the month. Sorry it wasn't done, but it's been fighting me just a little bit. Still, progress is steady at the moment so look forward to it. For now, I hope you enjoy this different take on a classic crossover.... It is classic now, right? Should be long enough.
Gekkou: It's been twenty years, so yes, it's a Classic now.
Grounders10: o/ Remastered classics woooo~
Gekkou: Must I fix your Typos in the A/N's too?
Grounders10: *sticks tongue out* nyaaaaah.
Gekkou: *gently sucks Grounder's tongue into her mouth*
Grounders10: *Embarrassed Kitsune noises*
Gekkou: *wins*
Shops like the one Ranma happened to stick his nose in on that particular day. Dusty, smokey, and cramped, with its cluttered shelves, pressed together so closely that even a single person had to shuffle at an angle rather than walk down the isles. God forbid there were two people going in opposite directions. Beside ordinary-seeming nick-nacks sat faintly glowing glass orbs while blank skulls whose teeth occasionally chattered sat between rows of mislabeled umbrellas and model ships. Racks of clothing from far and wide sat in the corners, though after the incident with the feather boa that Kodachi had bought Ranma would be hesitant to actually touch anything there.
The dusty, and rather tacky, crown jewel of the establishment was the counter at the far end of the store. Decorated in elaborate ofuda, and surrounded in a seeming wall of incense burners, the counter had all the pomp, ceremony, and style of an abandoned temple. There were times when Ranma thought it might be, but then one look at the old proprietor who was perennially sitting on a stool reading a black tome, sometimes it was red or blue, while he constantly sniffled and snorted from the incense bothering his allergies.
Ranma tried to not make a habit of visiting these sorts of stores. The proprietors were inevitably sleazy and poorly informed about the dangers of the material they handled, at least when it came time to sell it. Money talked far too easily. But he had been here before, and money wasn't the only thing that talked. Not to mention the old man here didn't come off as sleazy, just weird. And he had gotten better about the little 'not telling' issue after the last time.
Today he wasn't there to make a fuss or check for more… unusual items before they found their way into the hands of an idiot. This time, he was there to pick up something he'd asked for.
"Yo, Oshida!" he called, waving a hand above the shelves. He winced as his hand knocked against a tilting tower of teeth stuck together by no visible force. Like half the stock in these sorts of stores, it gave him the willies just looking at it.
"Careful you brat! That's a teething tower! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get those from Trinidad?" The proprietor scowled at him, clucking his tongue as he pulled himself off his stool.
"I'd rather not know," he replied as he slipped out of the cramped aisle into the only marginally less cramped area in front of the counter. "It better not be something that'll come and bite me in the end." He glanced back at the teetering tower and shivered.
"It's more of a curiosity than anything," Oshida shrugged, "Like half the store I couldn't tell you what it actually does."
"And you bought it anyway?" he asked incredulously.
The old man shrugged. "It'll probably land in some goth brat's room. Stick a candle on it and you'll get some great ambiance," he said with a chuckle.
"... And probably summon a demon."
"You say that, like demon summoning happens all the time. Bah!" Oshida waved a hand in the air, "Now, you're here for those books I found? Yes?" He reached under the counter before Ranma could reply and with a grunt hefted a stack of three heavy books made from slats of bamboo and bound together with rings of bone and jade. To Ranma's relief he couldn't feel any strange aura coming from them.
He reached for the top one, then paused to raise an eyebrow at the old man. He grunted and waved at the book. Taking that as permission Ranma lifted the top book off the stack and set it down facing him. Carefully, he examined the front cover, a single large sheet of bamboo with yellowing paper stuck to the front. Large impeccably written calligraphy announced it as 'A Guide to Sealing Spirits Most Foul, Vol. 2'. He opened the first page carefully and examined the interior. Each set of slats had intricate calligraphy carved into the wood and dyed black with faded ink.
After reading the first page he repeated the process with the other two books, taking a moment to check further inside all three at random. They did seem legit, though their titles as volumes six and nine made him look up at the old man. "How many?"
"On hand? Ten."
He flipped volume nine to a page somewhere near the end. A yellowed sheet of paper depicting the proper signs to make for some spell or ritual he couldn't understand had been glued to the slats. "How much?"
The old man hummed and scratched his chin. "Let's see… they aren't originals, but they're about as close as you get these days. These were translated in the fifteenth century, so… Hrm… Where did I put the purchase order…" he disappeared beneath the counter again.
"We're talking about the second most copied set on demon sealing in Japan," Ranma said. Written centuries before the text was a staple of demon hunting literature. The original set had supposedly had twenty-three books, but losses over the centuries and revisions had reduced later editions to twenty.
"And a pain in the ass to acquire these days," the old man said as he squinted at the rumbled purchase order. Why he didn't have glasses he had no idea. "Hrm…. It'll cost you one hundred twenty thousand yen."
"For the set?" Ranma asked. It seemed a bit low for the set.
"Per book."
"Bullshit. The pages are peeling and the set isn't even complete. Eighty thousand a book," he countered. They weren't in the worst condition ever, but even eighty was fairly steep. That said, it was half the set.
"Not with this purchase price I won't," Oshida scoffed as he waved the receipt in his hands, "Ninety-nine."
"Eighty-five."
"Ninety-five."
"Ninety and you toss in that calligraphy set there," Ranma gestured to a shelf on the wall where, mostly uncursed, calligraphy sets were on display. The one he was pointing to had immaculate silver brushes. "Still can't sell it, right?"
The old man sneered, his face wrinkling like something foul had crawled up his nose. "No, and for good reason. Those brushes have killed people before."
"Didn't kill me when I used them," he replied, referring to a previous visit several months previous.
"... One hundred and ten and I'll throw in some additional supplies. You'll need a few odd things to use these," he said, tapping the books.
Ranma mulled it over. "I get to pick," he said. Oshida nodded.
"Deal."
It took another half an hour of bickering, but Ranma eventually left with a bag full of books over his shoulder along with more books and a few supplies tucked up his sleeves. He was looking forward to finally having a way to deal with demons and other spirits.
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A
Ranma ½ x Sailor Moon
Crossover
Silver Rimmed With Crimson
By: Grounders10
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Chapter One
Cat
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A
Ranma ½ x Sailor Moon
Crossover
Silver Rimmed With Crimson
By: Grounders10
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Chapter One
Cat
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The tiled floor of the palace jumped, cracks forming with each sudden jerk. Plaster dust fell from the ceiling and the walls. More artillery fire. It may have been landing outside the shield, but tremors couldn't be guarded against with an energy barrier.
None of the soldiers on guard by the windows or moving through the halls paid the additional cracks and falling plaster any attention. Not after a week of being under siege. It was simply how things were right now and even Luna in her small Mau form had other things on her mind than worrying about cracks in the floor. It wasn't like they were about to break open and swallow her whole after all.
So ignoring the shaking world she padded her way through the corridors from her quarters, where she had managed to catch a few hours of desperately needed sleep, to the war room. It was a path that took her down into the extensive underground complex beneath the palace, through winding corridors of featureless white and grey walls interspersed by the occasional fortified checkpoint.
By all rights, she should have slept down in the bunker, but the tense atmosphere had made it impossible. With assurances of the shield's integrity, she had taken the risk and slept in her usual room. Being rested was more important.
The war room was in its now normal perpetual state of semi-chaos, which was only to be expected after a week of waging a losing war that no one had ever expected to fight. She quickly found Artemis and hopped up on the table beside him.
"Luna, awake at last. I was starting to think you'd sleep forever," he said with a smile, his own expression showing distinct signs of exhaustion.
She rolled her eyes. "How bad is it, Artemis?" she asked.
"Mars fell silent three hours ago," the white Mau replied. He rubbed a paw across his face. "Last reports indicated a complete loss of habitability." It said something horrible about the last week that she could just nod and take that news without so much as blinking.
"And that leaves… Us and…" Luna paused as she considered the number of planets, habitats, and extrasolar colonies that had gone silent over the last week.
"Just us… Just… Us…" Artemis said softly. The last six hours had clearly weighed upon him. She patted his back with her tail consolingly.
"Not quite." Both of them looked up at Queen Serenity as the regal Queen turned from examining the holographic surface of the moon laid out before them. "Pluto is still reporting, as are the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet and Colony Project Naiad."
"None of whom are in the inner system," Luna noted as she stepped forward to examine the map. The palace was in the center of a former crater that had been made habitable with extensive terraforming magic. Now the gardens were gone, the lakes had evaporated under the constant weapons fire, and even the atmosphere, always a little thinner than preferable, was fading. The lines had fallen back further through the city and if the orders she was seeing were accurate soon they would have just the palace, and that was already under assault.
"No, but Naiad has reported that they've managed to clear the outer system. The fifty-second will rendezvous with them soon. Pluto has informed us that she'll be initiating a complete lockdown of the gate system once they pass through," Queen Serenity's face was grim, her mouth set into a thin smile, "But with luck, there may be a way for some of our people to survive this disaster."
Left unsaid was the fact that none of those in the bunker were likely to be amongst the survivors.
Luna sat down and straightened her back as she held her head high and looked her Monarch and old friend in the eye. "What matter would you have me advise upon, Your Majesty?" The world may have ended, many worlds in point of order, but she would do her duty with pride.
Her Majesty slowly smiled fondly. "Less advice, my friends, more assistance. Let me walk you through it."
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"Bleeeeeeeeep!" Luna shrieked in surprise and nearly fell off her concealed perch where she had been sleeping as a large garbage truck laid on the horn. Cursing under her breath she stretched as best she was able to do so on the small ledge. Even for a Mau it was quite cramped.
She licked a paw and took a moment to clean her face off as best she could. A bowl of clean water would have been to her preference, but needs must. Sleep cleaned off her face, she looked down at the messy alleyway. Her life had changed so much since those long ago days. Not that they felt all that long ago. Cryo-stasis had a way of distorting one's perceptions of time.
A car backfired around the corner. Once she shook her fur back to normal before sneezing at the smell. "Oh how I miss moonstone boats," she sighed, wrinkling her nose some more. Whose brilliant idea had it been to burn fuel to run vehicles? Magic was so much cleaner.
She stretched once more before jumping down to the fairly clean lid of the dumpster below. Set out behind a clothing boutique the dumpster was one of the few that didn't stink up the alleyway with any regularity, which was an important trait that she'd gotten more appreciative over the last few months.
"So where to look today?" she wondered as she paused to extend her senses through the magic of the world. After several months of looking she still hadn't had any luck following her Queen's orders. There was no sign of any Senshi or their magic or the Princess. The Queen had said that the spells would release her from stasis when the time came in the area where the Senshi should have been naturally congregating. Despite that, she had yet to lay eyes upon a single one of the wayward princesses. It had been months spent dodging cars, being chased by dogs, birds and children. No one to help her search a city equal to even the capital of Luna just before the war. She had barely managed to search a handful of blocks. Unless something changed she was going to spend the rest of her life searching fruitlessly.
Yellow eyes opened slowly as she withdrew from the weave of the world. Nothing once again, not that she expected anything. "So where to begin?" she mused. Perhaps one of the ships near the park to see if anyone would give her food, then pick up where she left off the day before by the school? Yes, that could work.
She hopped down off the dumpster and wandered out of the alleyway, dodging a trio of kids who were running for school. Judging by the clock in a nearby cafe they were already late. She tisked and shook her head. It was irresponsible of the parents to let them be so late.
There were a handful of cafes near the local park. Most of them simply shooed her away, but a couple let her poke around and beg food off the patrons. There was always one or two who felt pity for the 'kitty' poking around. It wasn't as good as the food she used to get, but she quite enjoyed the small treats that they would share with her. It made things simpler than having to forage or, gods forbid, hunting. She may have had claws, but she wasn't some kind of savage that enjoyed eating rats.
She was in luck that day, there was someone who recognized her already in line at the first cafe. Within a few minutes they had a small order of sushi that was set down waiting for her. The fish was delicious and she made sure to meow her thanks to the kind stranger before leaving. There were many things wrong with this world, but its people were generally a kind sort.
She was only a hundred feet down the sideway from the cafe when something minor but distinctive brushed the back of her senses. Despite the lack of magic being used in everyday life, she picked up little bursts of it from all over the place frequently. This though, this was different. This was familiar. Like a flash of silver in the distance it was there and gone, but she knew that magic. The royal family had such a distinctive form of it.
In a rush she ducked into an alleyway and found a corner to close her eyes in. "Please do it again," she prayed. A moment later another burst of silver light, just as weak and distant, popped against her senses. She grinned toothily. There was only one person it could be. "Princess," she grinned, "I know where you are."
Well, that wasn't quite accurate. A short burst like this told her nothing, but it did give her a direction. She opened her eyes and turned towards where she had felt them. It was north-west, and perhaps just close enough to not be outside the city. Maybe.
"Well it has been nice around here, but it seems I have a goal now," she said softly. Perhaps she could catch the train and jump a few stops closer. She would have to make sure to read the map but-
A low growl sent her leaping up the concrete wall directly ahead of her. Her claws dug into the small holes in the concrete, allowing her to heave herself up several meters in moments. She looked back over her shoulder to find a small white dog barking up at her. She rolled her eyes. "Oh honestly," she muttered before letting go and dropping with a loud 'hiss'.
The little dog yelped and bolted before she hit the ground. It vanished around the corner of a dumpster before she landed. She sniffed irritably in its direction before turning and leaving the alleyway. She had a long trip to take and no reason to delay.
"I'm on my way princess," she said under her breath.
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It was several days, and numerous small pulses of silver power, that she arrived in Nerima. The City of Nerima was indistinguishable from the rest of Greater Tokyo without a map and proper knowledge of the roads. More skyscrapers, more tight packed houses, and more stores jammed into the smallest area possible. It was, in other words, just as much of a nightmare to search as Shinjuku was. But this time Luna had something she lacked in Shinjuku.
The Princess was using magic. Not much, not even a proper spell of any sort, but she could feel it there in the back of her mind. Small pulses of power that were slowly getting more coherent at a surprising rate over the last few days. Whoever the Princess had reincarnated as was clearly talented.
Wasting no more time, Luna set out into the streets of Nerima with her thoughts half turned towards the supernatural.
So it was that Luna discovered another issue she hadn't expected to find. Nerima was brimming with the supernatural. Shinjuku may as well have been a dead zone for magic as far as magical items or people were concerned. Nakano and Toshima were the same. All three had no magic to muddy the waters and distract from her goal. Nerima? Oh boy, Nerima.
Luna paused as she came across the third magic store in ten blocks. On the same street. She could feel the magic wafting off the store, much like the two before. Just by standing there it was possible to tell the presence of more than a few magical objects within the store. Actual ones. Weak, for the most part, but unshielded. Which was identical to the other two.
Shaking her head, Luna continued on. Clearly it was just an odd street.
The next street over had two more.
Then the one after had three.
By the time she reached the fourth street she was unsurprised to find a pair of magic trinket shops side by side with what looked to be an arguing pair of old men, the apparent store owners, shouting at each other outside the buildings. Something about a 'rogue pair of geta' and 'those damned umbrellas'.
With a sigh she walked past the two men and continued her search. She was having a hard time sensing the Princess through all of the local interference. It was a minor miracle that her power was strong enough to reach Shinjuku through the mess, but she was sure it was nearby.
She paused in a park and found a place to stop for the moment beneath a bench. The spring day was a bit on the warm side, an admittedly nice change from the short bout of winter she had experienced when she woke up, but still a bit warm. The view from the bench gave her a good view of the park. Children were running around the playground in the corner while parents watched. A food truck was pulled up at the curb serving ice cream. A trio of children were eagerly begging their parents for the frozen treats while a redhead in an orange shirt examined the menu.
Luna watched the short redhead with the pigtail for a moment. Red hair was unusual in Japan as far as she could tell. Black and brown seemed to be the dominant colours amongst the local population. It was rather boring compared to the Silver Millennium which had a much broader rainbow of colours. She hadn't even seen one person with green hair yet. Or purple.
Turning her attention away from the girl and the children she closed her eyes and laid her head down as she reached out for the Princess's presence once again. That silver energy that had drawn her to Nerima wasn't spiking at the moment, but that wasn't a surprise. If the girl was experimenting with her magic she was probably doing so in proper lessons and those wouldn't take up the entire day. No, what she was hoping for now was to feel the girl's presence. Now that she had started using magic she should have an aura of magic to her that others would lack.
She reached out into the world, sinking herself into the world as she sought what she expected to be a faint, if extant at all, existence. What she got was more than that. It was hardly the blazing beacon of power exuded by Queen Serenity or her court, but it was an aura that spoke of Royal Lunar Lineage. It was faint, but she could feel that silver breeze. By some stroke of luck she was close. She turned her head towards the breeze and opened her eyes.
Directly in her line of sight was the redhead from before. She was smiling at the young attendant and the two appeared to be having a conversation- No, she was flirting with him, outrageously at that. For a moment she held out hope that the silver breeze wasn't coming from the redhead, that it was in fact somewhere behind the ice cream truck. She waited as the girl continued to flirt, smiling and tossing her head while curling a strand of hair around her finger. She was the perfect picture of an air headed boy crazy flirt. After a few more minutes of the sickening display the boy, looking rather dazed, handed over a large triple scoop ice cream cone and waved as she left without paying.
The silver breeze moved with her.
Luna's heart sank. "On Serenity," she moaned, placing her head in her paws, "what kind of girl has your daughter become? To have such loose morals." She moans and massaged her forehead before looking up reluctantly. To her surprise the girl was gone, though she could still feel the silver breeze.
Panic shot through her and she bolted from under the bench in pursuit. Loose morals or not, she was not going to lose the Princess, or at least her best lead on the Princess, this soon!
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Luck was not on her side. By the time she had reached the edge of the park the redhead was a block down the street, which in itself should have been impossible, and disappearing around another corner even as Luna herself was just turning the corner of the park. By the time she reached the corner the redhead was nowhere to be seen. Still, she had to be somewhere in the area. This was a local park, not a famous regional feature, which meant the girl was most likely a local.
With that in mind she started the arduous process of combing Nerima for the girl. This wasn't a small task since the city was home to over six hundred thousand people and nearly fifty square kilometers. All of it was drenched in magic and unusual amounts of life force. It seemed that quite a few locals had large amounts of life force and as she delved deeper into the district it was becoming apparent that the frequent magic trinket shops were only half the issue afflicting her senses.
Despite a few close calls with dogs, a particularly large parrot, and several bratty children, Luna eventually felt the vagaries of the silver breeze several hours later as the sun was beginning to go down. It was in a residential district with many multi-storey homes. All well maintained and seemingly solidly middle-class if not a bit higher.
She found the source of the silver breeze a short few minutes later as she was running along the concrete fences that divided the property lines. A large undivided property with a two-storey home and what appeared to be either a training hall or a shrine in the back. Her unfamiliarity with the local culture made telling the difference tricky.
Finding a comfortable spot on the fence she closed her eyes and focused. Yes, the source was the building, but she was having-
Brilliant silver light seared itself into her mind, sending her tumbling backwards off the fence with a yowl of surprise. She landed on her back in a bush, blinking up at the fence above. "Moonlight," she whispered. Without moving she delved back into her senses. The silver breeze had become pulsing waves of light that pressed at her senses, almost blinding in their intensity. Then, it was gone leaving only a stiff silver breeze behind.
A breeze that was stronger than it had been before.
Pulling herself free of the bush she climbed a nearby tree and hopped back onto the fence. She stared at the house. "It's her," she whispered, her doubts assuaged, at least as far as the girl's identity was concerned. She still had some serious doubts about her character, but magic told all. There was no way to fake having that magic.
"Now what?" she wondered as she sat there. Lights were on upstairs and she could see a few people moving around. No sign of the redhead, but she had spotted a blue-haired girl who was remarkably similar to Sailor Mercury in her face and hair, even if she was far too muscular to be that girl, going about studying in one of the upper windows.
She frowned. Had the Princess been a redhead back then? Despite herself she couldn't recall. Her memories felt fairly complete, but that critical detail, the Princess's appearance, had escaped her. She let out a low growl of frustration. Whatever the case, that was the princess.
She kept watch as the sun went down and a kind voice called everyone in the house to dinner. Taking the opportunity she circled the home she snuck through the slightly ajar front gate and managed to sneak around to the back garden via the flowerbeds. Taking up a post within the bushes she spied on the meal that was visible through the back door. She failed to catch sight of the princess, though she spotted what had to be the girl's mother. A beautiful auburn woman who was wearing one of those formal robes. She was talking to a black-haired boy who looked similar enough to be the brother of the redhead. He was waving an ofuda around to the irritation of several of those at the table. Despite their annoyance, the auburn woman seemed impressed by whatever the boy (her son perhaps?) was saying.
Luna settled down beneath the bush she had found and continued watching the household. This was an opportunity to see what sort of people her Princess' family were. Where was the girl anyway? She could feel her there, but… Strange, she seemed to be somewhere behind the boy. Perhaps in a kitchen or fixated on her studies? Hopefully she wasn't being abused, though she hadn't looked like it.
Or perhaps she was just grounded after that display in the park.
The meal finished up and the family split up throughout the house. Luna watched the family carefully, keeping an eye on as many members as once as she could. She still hadn't seen the redhead, though she could sense her.
She wasn't able to investigate by getting closer since the porch was occupied after dinner finished by the two older men. She watched them for a time, only to stare as the bald one distracted his companion so that he could rearrange the board. How the man didn't notice when he looked back was beyond her. Then, a few more minutes later, the long haired man pointed off into the distance and loudly commented on the 'flight of late-night sparrows'. Confused, she looked in the direction he pointed.
There wasn't anything there.
She turned back to the sight and blinked along with the bald one. The board had been rearranged again. The bald one stared at the board, which had just suffered a significant reversal of his fortunes, and frowned.
Five minutes later the board was rearranged again as Luna watched. By the fifth time it happened she had moved on to searching the house. Clearly the repeated actions were simply part of the game they were playing. A bit odd, but if you were that easily distracted she couldn't say you didn't deserve it.
A perch on a tree managed to get her sight of the upstairs again. The blue haired girl was back to studying while the possible brother seemed to be studying as well. No sign of the redhead however.
She an irritable growl she hopped onto the fence and started making her way around the building again. Peering into different windows she spotted the mother and a tall brunette cleaning things up in the kitchen. The brunette spotted her lurking at the window and after a moment of mutual staring shooed her away with a nervous look. Curious. Still, at least they seemed to think she was just a cat. She wasn't sure she should reveal herself without a proper investigation.
She continued her investigation of the home from the outside. The old men stayed on the porch playing their game, drinking alcohol, and talking about seemingly everything. The mother came and went from room to room without a particular pattern, clearly some form of household chores. The blue haired girl kept studying for a few hours before disappearing for a few and reappearing dressed for bed a little while later. Her light went out first.
Another girl was found, a second brunette with short hair who was working on a computer of some kind. She had managed to spot her a couple of times despite her best efforts. Worst of all, the girl just seemed to smirk, shake her head, and mutter something she couldn't hear through the glass window.
And yet, despite hours of work she couldn't find the redhead. She was there, she could feel it, and yet all it led to was the boy, which should have been impossible. Had something happened to her? Was this boy some kind of sorcerer who had laid claim to her powers in the last few hours? It was unlikely, but she couldn't rule it out. The darker arts that might allow such actions would normally balk in the presence of Lunar magic, but there was a first for everything.
The two men kept drinking as they continued playing throughout the evening. Eventually the possible brother finished up and disappeared with a change of clothing, probably to have a bath. Over the next half an hour the two older men disappeared towards their beds. They were shortly followed by the short haired brunette and the long haired one. Only the mother was left.
And still no sign of the likely princess. She was getting more than worried now, especially since the source of her power kept moving around. Something had happened.
"Well, this is why we were sent forward. Time to find her," Luna said to herself as she crept across the branch to the rooftop. From there she hopped down to the lower roof. That would give her access to the second floor windows, one of which, the boy's room, was open. She could get access to the house and investigate from there. So long as she was careful they would probably at worst assume she was a stray cat. As much as such a thing grated at her sensibilities, being mistaken for one of the local Mau-like beings was a blessing at times.
The roofing tiles were slick from the dew, her paws sliding a little as she navigated her way to the open window. She hopped up onto the window sill and paused as she got her feet onto the thin wood sill.
She stared.
There was a large black and white beast sleeping on a mat to one side of the room. A large, and thin, sheet was tossed over it. She could hear its breathing easily.
She continued staring.
Then the door to the room slid open and she slowly turned her head to face it. Standing silhouetted by the hallway light was the maybe Princess looking rather damp in a pair of shorts and a tank top. She stared at the girl.
The girl stared back, her eyes widening as she took a step back, then froze. A myriad of expressions crossed her face and Luna's eyes widened as she felt the magic in the girl surge as an ofuda was drawn from nowhere.
"Demon!" The girl hissed as that silver power surged down the ofuda, lighting up each character with glowing silver power that drove the shadows into the corners of the room.
Before Luna could protest, or really do anything, the girl leaped the width of the room with speed that boggled the mind and slapped the ofuda on her face. Right on her nose in fact. The silver power discharged through her. She shivered as she felt the familiar power roll through her. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind anymore. This was either the Princess or a long gone descendant of the family, though that was more unlikely.
They stood there for a moment as the silver aura of power faded and a confused expression appeared on the girl's face. "What?"
Luna turned her attention to the spirit charm on her nose. "This is quite good," she said quietly, the girl stiffened, wide-eyed and staring at her. "But I do believe this is for a demon, not a Mau." So perhaps she had loose morals, but at least she had good instincts. A shaky foundation was better than none.
-0-0-0-0-0-
After a long day of wandering around town, for once only minimally harassed by a few crazies, and a long evening spent studying his new books on spirit banishing, Ranma found lounging in the furo to be a nice relaxing experience. The spirit-banishing techniques were especially tiring, though that was as much the fault of the brushes he was using to write the proper ofuda as the magic practice. The brushes he had picked up at the magic shop forcefully utilized the wielder's Ki to enhance the magic channeling properties of the ink. Anyone without sufficient Ki could easily be killed trying to write with them. Him? Well, they were tiring but he was in no more danger using them than he was when practicing the Moko Takabisha. They were tiring, but he would recover in a few hours at most.
He held up a hand and channeled a shred of his magic. A silver glow formed around his fingers. He cut it out a moment later. Weeks of study and meditation had paid off. He could now wield magic, though he only knew a few tricks, all of them involving the ofuda. They were simple, but at least the next time an annoying spirit or demon came calling he'd be ready.
Speaking of ready, he'd been soaking for a while and his fingers were starting to prune. He groaned. As much as he'd prefer to stay, it was probably time to head for bed. Though, it was the beginning of spring break so it wasn't like he had to be in bed right that moment.
He sat there neck deep in the water thinking about it before sighing. And just because it was spring break didn't mean his pops wouldn't start training by hurling him out the window and into the pond. "Stupid old man," he complained before standing up. Dripping water he walked over to the door and left the bath. He paused, hand hovered over his towel.
He leaned down and growned. "Pops, wrong towel you idiot," he muttered as he recognized the white and black hairs. The dumbass had used the towel in panda form. "Ugh." He ignored it and went to the small closet beside the dryer where he pulled out a new towel. There were times when he wondered just how used to being a panda his pops had become. There had to be a limit to how much someone got used to being an animal. At least switching gender left him human.
He pulled on his boxers and a tank top before setting to work redoing his pigtail. With that done he stared at himself in the mirror for a moment. The last year and a half, had been a trial. From skating competitions to dueling a dragon-blooded prince atop a mountain and even a skirmish with the Yamata-no-Orochi, it certainly hadn't let up even once. The funny part was that looking at himself in the mirror after all this time he scarcely looked different than he had the day he showed up at the Tendou's home. Well, if you ignored the decrease in baby fat over the last six months.
Turning on the water he ran a hand under the cold stream as water as his form changed in an instant. His hair went red and her breasts swelled beneath her tank top between eye blinks. She leaned against the sink as she examined herself in the mirror. Blue eyes looked back from a face that had very recently become familiar, recognizable even.
She examined herself for a few minutes before running her hand under the hot water. He tilted his head and ran it under cold water. She stared back for a moment before repeating the gesture.
"Boy," she said.
"Girl," he said.
"Boy."
"Girl."
"Boy."
He paused the strange ritual and considered his reflection. "What am I doing?" he wondered before grinning and shaking his head. When had deciding the form he was going to sleep in become like selecting from two favorite sets of pajamas?
He shrugged and turned away. It was one of those things that had just happened over time. Little changes he had embraced over the last year.
Little changes that kept her from going completely mad from everything in his life.
He tossed his towel in the hamper and opened the door, walking out into the hall and bumped into his mother. Water splashed over him.
His mother was a beautiful middle-aged woman with much darker auburn hair and a habit of wearing a kimono at all times. She was a fairly reserved woman, though she had on more than a few occasions taken the opportunity to show that she did love her son. The issues came when Ranma wasn't her son.
"Oh dear, um…" Her mother blushed awkwardly as his form shifted to female before giving her an awkward smile. "It's a girl tonight then…?"
Ranma blinked up at her mother with a blank look. Was that a joke about her gender? "I- um… I guess so?" she replied equally awkwardly. They stood there staring for a moment.
It was stuff like this that made dealing with her mother… odd. She'd have used difficulty, but that wasn't right. Sure she usually gave Ranma odd looks when she was a girl, but she didn't make a fuss. Maybe there'd be a glass of steaming water suddenly set down next to her, or a comment about something she'd like him to do, but it was minor things.
And then she did stuff like this.
Ranma glanced down at her shirt. It was white, but thankfully was just damp rather than soaked. "I'm just going to go upstairs and head to bed," she said with an awkward smile at her mother as she slipped past her.
"I- of course, Ranma. Sleep well," her mother said just as awkwardly, giving her a hesitant smile.
She hurried down the hallway to the stairs and paused only to glance back. Her mother was giving a very odd expression that Ranma couldn't place. She had that expression a lot when she did things like accidentally soaking him with water. Whether it was a stray glass of water, or accidentally spraying him with the hose. It was odd things like that which made her question what went through her mother's head.
She sighed heavily as she started up the stairs. Her mother confused her. She just couldn't lay her finger on what made her mother tick as it were. Shaking it off she hurried towards her room. Her mother wouldn't make a fuss once she was in bed and asleep.
Maybe for once she would have a quiet night without ninja or spirits or perverted martial arts masters jumping her as she slept. Sure it didn't happen every day, or even most days, but it happened often enough that she wondered if there was a schedule of when martial artists would be able to challenge her.
Sliding open the door to her room she froze upon sighting the window. Silhouetted in the moonlight was the familiar black form of a cat. Unusually, she seemed to have a gold crescent moon on her forehead.
A shiver of fear flashed up and down her spine as she stepped back from the cat. Then her other senses, dulled by the sight of her least favorite creature on the planet, registered something peculiar. On both Ki and Magic the 'cat' in the window did not feel like a cat. Which was weird since cats felt like cats much like a human felt like a human or a dog, a dog. To look like something and not have the same feel to it wasn't just unusual, it was unheard of in her personal experience. Even the giant ghost cat that had tried to kidnap Shampoo, Akane, and herself at one point, had felt like a cat in all ways that mattered.
Even if it could talk.
This 'cat' felt nothing like a cat on any level beyond the visual and the dichotomy of the situation prodded forward a blurb of information from her recent studies. 'No demon or spirit can conceal its true nature completely, and despite their best efforts will never manage to truly disguise their ki or magic as that of another being.'
Thoughts, accelerated by fear, crashed together and jumbled up for a brief instance before spitting out a single thought. "Demon!" She hissed as her eyes narrowed. An ofuda was drawn from within her shirt, a simple stand-in for her normal sleeves. It at least made it easier to use the Mouse's so-called 'black magic'. It was nothing of the sort of course, being a simple ki exercise that distorted an internal space. Her own skill was enough to store a few items like ofuda.
The one she drew out was about as long as her forearm and had taken over an hour to create. Intended to make a demon freeze in place it was one of the most basic lessons she was learning.
Silver light flared down her hand as she lit the ofuda. It flowed easily, it always did when she was a girl. A brilliant spark within her igniting in ways it just didn't as a guy. Like the full moon, shining above the ocean it sent a glow up through her and into the ritualistically marked ofuda. Black ink exploded into silver light that sent the shadows skittering into the corners of the room.
Despite the fear clinging to her spine, she launched herself across the room as fast as she could move. It may have looked like a cat, but there was more to her fear than appearance and it failed all other categories.
She slapped the glowing ofuda onto its nose and the aura discharged with a quiet 'snap-hiss' that trembled in the silent room. It flowed over the cat-like entity, stirring its fur as it flashed down and dissipated into the wood the window sill. They stood there for a moment. Then the 'cat's' tail twitched.
She stared. How? Did she make the ofuda wrong? Was it the wrong ofuda?
The 'demon' was staring at the ofuda. "This is quite good," it said softly in a woman's voice, "But I do believe this is for a demon, not a Mau."
Mau? "A what?" she slowly withdrew the expended talisman and took a step back.
The Mau did something with its fangs that could be generously called a smile. Maybe. "A Mau. My apologies, I'm making you nervous. Seeing what appears to be a cat talking to you must be rather strange," she said with a shake of her head. Her ears wobbled comically with the motion.
She backed away and fumbled for another ofuda. The 'Mau' noticed her actions and sighed.
"I'm here to talk to you, not hurt you. I promise," she said, holding out a paw in what seemed like an attempt to appear reasonable.
Ranma paused with the second ofuda held between her fingers and glowing like the moon. "About?" she asked cautiously. Was this another thing caused by her father?
"About the silver magic you have," she said, gesturing to the lit up ofuda.
"... This isn't something to do with pops?" Ranma asked, her eyes flickering to the sleeping panda.
"No, it has nothing to do with your father," she said with another shake of her head, "This power is born from you and is more ancient than you realize. I can explain, if you'll hear me out?"
The panda let out a loud snort, causing both of them to glance its way. "... On the roof if you don't mind?" the 'Mau' asked nervously.
Ranma buried a snort. She'd rather not wake up her pops with this mess. "Fine," she said cautiously. The ofuda weren't working, but if a panda made it nervous then she could probably punt it over the horizon with little difficulty.
The black Mau hopped out of the window and she leaned out the window slowly to check for others. The roof was empty except the Mau and she couldn't see anything hanging out in the rafters of the roof above. The Mau stared at her, waiting for her to step out. For a moment she wondered if it was like a vampire. It had fangs, did it drink blood? Was it weakened by crossing the threshold of a building uninvited? She'd never heard of a Mau, but they were clearly real since she was now dealing with a talking cat that wasn't a cat, and damn it, just the Mau's gaze sent a worried shiver down her back.
After procrastinating checking for an ambush, Ranma reluctantly stepped out of the window and onto the roof. The air was fairly nice for a spring evening, but it was still only spring break and there was still a chill. At the same time the tiles were a bit slippery, but she'd fought people in the pouring rain on this roof and not fallen off so she was fine.
"Over this way, so we're away from the window," the Mau said as she walked along the roof to stop outside Nabiki's window. Ranma followed her slowly, her eyes darting for some form of ambush. There didn't seem to be anything at the moment. The black cat, who claimed to be a Mau, sat down with a strict precision and grace that seemed odd.
"I'm sorry for the scare," the Mau said as Ranma stopped some seven feet away. She remained standing.
"What do you want?" she asked sharply.
The Mau examined her for a moment, head tilted to the side as one ear twitched. "My name is Luna, I was one of the advisors to Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium. Based on the moon-"
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "The moon? Really?" Wasn't it supposed to be moon bunnies, not cats? Not that she was technically a cat, even if her appearance was enough to give Ranma the hibijibis.
"This was tens of thousands of years ago," Luna sighed, "I've spent the intervening time in stasis awaiting the time to… The Silver Millennium was cast down by a powerful entity known as Metallia who sought to feed upon the lives of everyone in the system before consuming the star itself."
"Consume the star?" Ranma looked up at the shining moon, appropriately a full moon that night, with a frown. Something had tried to eat the Earth and consume the star itself? Assuming the 'Mau' was telling the truth and not spinning tales, though admittedly most things stuck to stuff that was halfway believable. Not that that meant anything. Refuge in audacity only worked if you weren't cautious enough.
"Yes. Metallia is a demonic entity of immense power," Luna continued, "It managed to brainwash a significant number of people throughout the system. At the time of being placed into stasis, only Earth still had a natural biosphere and the Moon's artificial one was fading. By this point, only a Senshi might be able to survive upon the surface."
Ranma pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, back up a second. How does any of this have anything to do with me?" She demanded.
"I am getting there. Some context is necessary," Luna said, "The fall of Silver Millennium meant that its many great magics would be lost and with it any chance of truly stopping Metallia. Our defenses were overrun before we realized the true scope of the threat. On the first day, we lost our first option for permanently dealing with Metallia. We… never recovered from that first strike." The Mau stared down at the roof tiles. "In time the Queen realized that we had one final opportunity to stop Metallia from wiping humanity out entirely. She gave her life to wield the most powerful artifact of the Silver Millennium, the Ginzuishou, against the demon. The beast's army was destroyed or sealed away along with it, but that seal could never hold forever. The seal is failing, that's why I'm here speaking with you."
Luna pointed at her with one paw. "Its forces will be on the move soon looking to gather the resources required to break the seal fully and there is only one force that may be able to properly seal away the beast forevermore."
"And that is?" Ranma asked. Please don't be her. She didn't want to have a star-eating demon gunning for her.
"The Ginzuishou could seal it away again, but the true method of destroying it… It…" Luna's face was screwed up in concentration. She made a pained noise and rubbed her forehead. "I can't remember. Of all the things to forget because of stasis. Damn it." Her voice rose in pitch as she cursed, then stilled. She bowed. "I'm sorry, my language is inappropriate."
"That's what you're worried about. You're telling me that there's some world-eating demon coming, and you can even recall how to stop it?" Ranma snarked, "Are you sure you aren't having me on?" The withering look the Mau sent her way was quite impressive.
"I am certain. My memories aren't what they once were, but I recall enough," she said primly, sitting straight, "Our greatest defenders were the Sailor Senshi, unfortunately, the current generation had only just taken their posts. They were insufficient to handle the assault by Metallia. What I do recall is that the needed artifact was in the possession of one of them."
Luna let out an explosive sigh. "And this is where I bring things back to you," she said before Ranma could interrupt with more questions. "The Sailor Senshi were the greatest warriors, led by the Queen in her time, but eventually it was to be passed onto her daughter, Princess Serenity."
"Of the same name?" Ranma noted dryly.
"As is the habit of many royal families," Luna replied, "When Silver Millennium was falling the Queen decided to take a gamble. The magic knowledge of the Kingdom would be lost with its fall and there was no guarantee that it would be recovered by the time Metallia freed herself, so she gathered the souls of the fallen and sent them forward to the time when Metallia would begin to break free."
Something clicked for Ranma. "And you think I'm one of these… Senshi?" she asked incredulously. She did not need to add reincarnation to the list of things she needed to handle day to day.
"Your magic is what tells me who you are," Luna said seriously, "This close I can feel your potential, but that magic is carried by only one family. The silver light of the moon. You are-"
A sharp knock on the window interrupted the Mau and Ranma looked over to find an irritated Nabiki looking at her. The brunette waved a hand in the air as though demanding an explanation. Ranma gestured down at the Mau. Nabiki's eyes followed and she leaned further into the window to be able to look down. She stopped, stared, and then looked back at Ranma incredulously.
The window was ripped open a moment later. "Since when could you stand being around a cat, Saotome?" she hissed.
"Technically not a cat," Ranma replied as she tried, and failed, to ignore the shiver of fear that rolled down her spine.
"I'm technically an alien," Luna said, earning her a blank stare from Nabiki.
"And it talks, again," Nabiki deadpanned, "And an alien, seriously?" She stared at Ranma who shrugged. With a sigh she rested her forehead against the wood frame of the window. "Why does it never end? I can't sell this. No one believes in aliens, let alone alien cats," she muttered before looking at Ranma, "Just… take it away from my window, Saotome. Please? Some of us need our beauty sleep." She paused. "And please try to keep me out of… Aliens. I'd rather not wake up to find Akane's been abducted by an alien prince this time."
"... Here for me apparently," Ranma shrugged, "We'll move along."
"Thanks." Nabiki slammed the window shut firmly.
Luna looked particularly off-put by the middle-tendou's attitude. "How- Is being this blase about things normal for this city?" she asked.
"We've gotten used to weird over the last year," Rnama replied before waving for the Mau to move along.
Luna led the way away from the middle-tendou's window. They stopped at the corner of the roof, well away from any windows. Luna shook her head and took a seat. "Where was I?" she asked.
"You were about to explain why I'm important," Ranma said, waving for the Mau to get on with it. "Not that I'm buying this all too much so far."
Lunar nodded. "You're being far more cautious than I expected, but that's good," she said. "The magic you've been using is that of the moon. The Silver Light of the Royal Family. I can feel your potential as a Senshi, but your magic makes it clear to me that you are the Princess reborn."
"Princess? Me, a Princess?" Ranma snorted, then snickered as she covered her mouth. "You think I'm.. a Princess?" she couldn't help it, she started laughing, falling back on her butt with a barely restrained howl of laughter. She covered her mouth with both hands to try and keep it from slipping out.
"... Well that wasn't the reaction I was expecting," Luna grumbled loudly enough for her to hear.
After a few minutes of badly suppressed laughter, Ranma sat up with a broad, lopsided grin on her face. "You realize I was born a boy, right?" she asked. The Mau stared at her, then took two steps towards her. She scooted back a bit and the cat-lookalike paused. She sniffed.
"You don't smell like a boy, though there is the scent of one on your clothes," she said, sniffing again, "No, you smell like a girl, though I have questions about why a lady your age is going about wearing some boys clothes."
Ranma rolled her eyes as the Mau's judgemental tone. "Have you ever heard of Jusenkyo?" she asked.
"If it is a location, then no I haven't. It has been tens of thousands of years. My knowledge of Earth Geography is lacking at the moment," Luna said.
"I can see that," Ranma said with a shrug. If the Mau was telling the truth, then Jusenkyo was probably a more recent addition to the landscape. "Jusenkyo, the pools of sorrow, is a cursed valley full of springs used as a training ground for… Uninformed martial artists." She grimaced. "Anyone who knows the stories about it would go train elsewhere if they had any brains. Each spring has a curse on it from when something drowned. I fell in the Nannichuan, or the Spring of Drowned girl. I was born a boy, but when I get hit with cold water I turn into a girl and turn back with hot water."
The Mau stared at her intently. "I see… A strange and cursed place, though I have to wonder if some degree of magic or fate was in play for you to get the curse you did," she mused.
"Not going to ask for proof?" Ranma asked, rather bemused. Only Ukyo had taken the curse anywhere near as well, and the chef had spent the better part of four hours playing with the curse like it was a favorite doll.
Luna waved her off. "Something as simple to access as hot water makes your claims easy to verify. Can you call up your magic?" she asked.
Bemused, Ranma obliged, calling up the silver light into her hands. Luna stared at it intently before looking up at Ranma's face. "I can't say how things have played out this way," she said with a curious tone, "But I stand by my assessment. You are Sailor Moon, the reborn Princess of the Silver Millennium." The Mau kowtowed, pressing her forehead to the ceramic roof tiles. "I stand ready to serve and advise the Princess, or Prince; which you choose to take. Great forces gather to end the world, will you take up the mantle and try to stop them?"
Ranma stared at the cat, her mouth falling open slightly. This… "I wasn't expecting this tonight," she said. The Mau was completely serious, she could tell from her posture, and yet… She shut her mouth. "You're claiming a lot you know. I'm a guy, Heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, not a reincarnated moon Princess. You want me to believe that, I'll need proof."
"And I can offer proof," Luna backed up a few steps. Her tail twitched, a shimmer of light forming at the tip before she leapt up into a picture perfect backflip, leaving a glimmering spiral of sparkling light in her wake. Something appeared with a small shower of light at the center of the spiral and fell to the tiled roof with a clatter. Before it promptly started sliding off the roof. Luna jumped on the item and after a moment where she started sliding precariously towards the edge, Ranma reluctantly reached out and pulled the Mau back.
"Here," Luna said, pushing the item towards her. Wary, she reached out and picked it up. When nothing happened, and the not-cat didn't start glowing or chanting in latin or any other disturbing omen, she looked down at it.
The item appeared to be a gold broach. One side was plain, while the other included a half moon along the bottom half and a complicated five-pointed-star design with small etched circles going outward and growing larger. At the four points of the design were four coloured orbs. Starting from the top and going clockwise they were red, yellow, blue, and green.
"Jewelry?" Ranma asked. All the gold made it look a bit tacky, but the four orbs did seem to be real jewels.
"Only in part," Luna replied, "It's a magic focus to draw out the power of your Sailor Crystal."
"My what?" The hell was a Sailor Crystal?
"The source of your unique magic," Luna replied, "Artifacts like that brooch were created to allow Senshi to optimally draw out their power."
Ranma weighed the brooch in her hand. Source didn't tell her much about what a Sailor Crystal was, though was it the glowing source of her magic that she had noticed before? That barebones description made it possible at least. "And this proves it how?" she asked.
"The Sailor Senshi have a uniform," the Mau explained, "When activated, the brooch hides your current clothes and creates the uniform from your magic. The uniform includes a number of safety spells that do everything from obfuscating your identity, to reducing the impact of any magic or physical blows on your body."
"Uniform huh…" Ranma turned it over in her hand before holding it out to Luna who backed away.
"It's yours. It belongs to you. No one else will be able to make use of it," Luna said, "To activate it, say Moon Prism Power, Make Up."
"... make up?" she asked flatly. Make up, really?
Luna shrugged in a way that a cat shouldn't have been able to manage. "I'm aware of how the phrase sounds these days, but the term had a different meaning in the past. A literal translation would be henshin," she said, "But that wouldn't activate it."
"Ah," Ranma stared at the brooch. It sounded like the perfect set up for a prank. It had been a while since the science students had tried anything. Maybe this had something to do with them? Then again, it was a little girly for those nerdy nerds. In theory anyway.
"Ranma!" The redhead glanced over her shoulder to find her mother sticking her head out of the window looking worried.
"Coming!" she called as she stood up. She paused with the brooch in her hand. "I'm not just going to use this cause you say so," she said to Luna. The black cat nodded.
"Take your time. There is no immediate threat," the Mau replied. She turned and walked over to the edge of the roof. "I'll stay in the area. If you want to talk, step out onto the roof again and I'll come by. Or use the Brooch. I'll be able to sense your transformation if I'm nearby." With that the Mau jumped off the roof, leaving Ranma standing there.
She looked down at the brooch and slipped it into her folded pocket. She'd think about it in the morning. She turned around and walked back to the window.
"What were you doing out there, Ranma? It's late," her mother said, frowning at her.
Ranma shrugged. "There was a talking cat that seemed to think I'm a reincarnated moon princess," she said. At her mother's stare she just smiled awkwardly. "The weirdness never ends, does it?" With that she slipped past her mother and crawled beneath the covers of her futon, leaving her befuddled and confused looking mother looking out the window searching for the cat in question.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: Hello~ Hiatus over~ Yeah~ Alas, The Taste of Peaches isn't quite done so here's something to tide everyone over. It should be out around the end of the month. Sorry it wasn't done, but it's been fighting me just a little bit. Still, progress is steady at the moment so look forward to it. For now, I hope you enjoy this different take on a classic crossover.... It is classic now, right? Should be long enough.
Gekkou: It's been twenty years, so yes, it's a Classic now.
Grounders10: o/ Remastered classics woooo~
Gekkou: Must I fix your Typos in the A/N's too?
Grounders10: *sticks tongue out* nyaaaaah.
Gekkou: *gently sucks Grounder's tongue into her mouth*
Grounders10: *Embarrassed Kitsune noises*
Gekkou: *wins*
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You Have Returned! And I humbly accept you most gracious offering. Seriously though, glad to see you're back, this is a nice start to a new fic, looking forward to some more Peaches, and maybe you could release some more of Tangled Fates as well. Well, looking forward to what ever and when ever you update.
- Location
- Askew to the British Isles
A Ranma that is reasonable and not overly panicking or denying Luna's information, colour me intrigued. I interested to see how this goes. Plus how will Jusenkyo interacts with Silver Millennium magic. Will the other sailors be cannon or people from the NWC? If the first does Usagi still exist?
Given it is Ranma I wonder how long it will take to spiral out of control.
Given it is Ranma I wonder how long it will take to spiral out of control.
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Battleship_Fusou
(The Itty-Bitty Pretty Battleship Kitty)
- Location
- Surigao Strait
I am officially interested in seeing where this goes.
Avalon Aurora
Eldritch Horror
- Location
- Unspecified Quantum Location
I'm certainly interested in more of this, although I'd also like to see more of Dreaming of Faeries and The Crown of Neverwinter soon please. I'm also curious about the summary noting about a certain soul going 'astray' and what that means in the context of this story, other than Ranma being Princess Serenity's reincarnation (as in, _how_ the soul went 'astray' and such). Moar wordz plz?
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
I think we should highlight the most beautiful part of this cross, tuxedo mask has a good chance at being turned into a useless gag character whose princess wants nothing to do with him.
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy
Why do I get the feeling that the Dark Kingdom is afraid of the Happosai? And why do I also get the feeling that Tuxedo Mask is Ryouga?
- Location
- Askew to the British Isles
a better question is how did he hide that much money without it being found by his father or Nabiki?
Yay, a new Grounders10 fic! (because they are good)
Boo, a new Groudders10 fic. (because now his writing time is more spread out)
I remember reading another Ranma is Sailor Moon fic that dealt with the fear of cats by Ranma creating massive amounts of cognitive dissonance because cats can't talk so Luna clearly isn't a cat. When Nabiki questioned this obvious insanity he declared her to be obviously a squirrel and kept that delusion up for the rest of the fic.
Boo, a new Groudders10 fic. (because now his writing time is more spread out)
I remember reading another Ranma is Sailor Moon fic that dealt with the fear of cats by Ranma creating massive amounts of cognitive dissonance because cats can't talk so Luna clearly isn't a cat. When Nabiki questioned this obvious insanity he declared her to be obviously a squirrel and kept that delusion up for the rest of the fic.
I think I came across that fic but I can't remember the name of it for the life of me.
wingnut2292
<Verified Sugar Addict>
- Location
- Milwaukee Metro
Reasonable Ranma is Reasonable.
Watch, Ranma will be telling his meeting with Akane and Uyko and they'll try the henshin phrase... only for it to not work. Ranma tries it and then *que light and sound show*
Watch, Ranma will be telling his meeting with Akane and Uyko and they'll try the henshin phrase... only for it to not work. Ranma tries it and then *que light and sound show*
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Assuming he is, in fact, the Moon Princess.
It's too early to be sure of that. What we know is he's related to the House of the Moon. Or, more precisely—his girl side is. He has an easier time using the powers in that form.
The story is suggesting he's Sailor Moon, certainly, but there's all sorts of other ways he could get those genetics. For that matter, he could be a regular old descendant of some cadet branch instead of being a—
Whatever the hell the old witch-queen did to bind an incarnation of the cosmos into human form.
No, Usagi's not human. Did anyone think she was? Good on Serenity for calling her 'daughter', but I'm not sure how true that really is.
All nine of the senshi are incarnations of cosmic phenomena squeezed more or less subtly into a human-esque shape. We get to see the souls of several, and they have nothing in common with that of any regular sapient animal.
It's too early to be sure of that. What we know is he's related to the House of the Moon. Or, more precisely—his girl side is. He has an easier time using the powers in that form.
The story is suggesting he's Sailor Moon, certainly, but there's all sorts of other ways he could get those genetics. For that matter, he could be a regular old descendant of some cadet branch instead of being a—
Whatever the hell the old witch-queen did to bind an incarnation of the cosmos into human form.
No, Usagi's not human. Did anyone think she was? Good on Serenity for calling her 'daughter', but I'm not sure how true that really is.
All nine of the senshi are incarnations of cosmic phenomena squeezed more or less subtly into a human-esque shape. We get to see the souls of several, and they have nothing in common with that of any regular sapient animal.
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- Location
- United States
What happens to the Sailor Uniform if Ranma uses it while as a Male?
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
It clearly works as intended, and by that I mean the uniform is the same no matter the gender.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Luna fondly thought about Princess Serenity, a pure and innocent girl... except for that thing with Endymon... which started a war...
"Maybe a person more experienced with emotions will do better?"
Grounders10
Nine-Tailed Kitsune
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada, Mars
Ah, finally someone notices the comedy of it
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Hey, if the Sailor Senshi want to be people instead of genus loci or cosmic principles, more power to them, I say!
This is a beautiful story so far.