Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Princess of the Moon ❯ Chapter 05 ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Notes - It's been a few weeks since I last posted a chapter for this
story, it took a little longer than normal due to a bit of writers block
(I started a couple of new ideas to get rid of it), and some of the
stuff I did with Jedite in this chapter. I am trying to show a more
workable version of the Dark Kingdom without redoing the entire thing
from scratch. I like to stick to the core ideas of characters, but don't
mind altering them to fit my needs either so long as they stay basically
the same.

Yes I have finally gotten my own web site up. It is just a basic one,
but good enough to hold four stories for free. ^^;

http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/

******* ***
Princess of the Moon
Chapter 05
By Cory D. Rose
(c)2001
**********

Sailor Pluto was irritated for once, now this wasn't all that
unusual for most, but for her it was a little strange. She had access to
the biggest and most intensive cheat sheet in all of creation and even
with it helping her she couldn't figure out what was going on. She stood
before the Time Gate and watched as it hummed away normally and ignored
her as she tired to make it show her what was wrong with the Time
Stream. This was a rare occurrence and tended to happen when there was
about to be a major change in the flow of time. In the last 10,000 years
she had seen this happen maybe 3 times. There was no way to stop them
and she knew that with every one that happened there was a chance that
her dream of Crystal Tokyo could be obliterated.

She despised the idea, but there was nothing she could do
without breaking her Oath, to the first Queen Serenity, from so long
ago. Pluto sighed and stepped back and did the only thing she could do
in this situation, she reached into sub space and pulled out a large
bottle of whisky and drank half of it. She'd had lots of practice over
the years, to bad the stuff barely affected her anymore. After putting
it back she sat down on a folding chair and looked at the gate again,
then she glared and it sweat dropped.

"Show me what is wrong."

The door opened silently to show her a scene she hadn't expected
and like any good history program was even in sound. She pulled a bowl
of popcorn out of subspace and made herself comfortable, wishing for the
thousandth time that she could remember to at least bring more than a
dammed folding chair for her to relax in. The door opened into a large
and very ugly hall that Pluto had only ever seen once before and smirked
as the images flowed. She pulled a bag of caramel popcorn out of
subspace and ate a handful and watched in interest.

"It couldn't have happened to a better guy." She commented. Now
if she could just get over this caramel popcorn addiction. ^^

**********

There were days that he hated his life, but there wasn't
anything he could do to make it better. He could crush his enemies, he
could take pleasure in cowing his minions if need be, but if he failed
at anything it was like all his accomplishments had been for nothing. Of
course he wasn't any better said a small part of his mind, but he
ignored it. Jedite sighed and nearly chocked himself to death as he
remembered where he was. Take a pit, fill it with a dark green slimy
water, maggots, leaches, and other like minded creatures and drop victim
in. Make sure it is deep enough so that they have to swim, but the level
of the liquid is about a foot from the top of the pit then cover it with
a bamboo or similar grate that is embedded into the floor.

Don't forget to take the victims clothes, got to get all that
liquid in places where it doesn't need to be after all. Jedite held
himself in place in the center of the grating, he would have been
against the side of the pit, but some enterprising fellow had put
thousands of needle sharp spikes all along the wall. It had seemed like
such a good and evil idea at the time too, Beryl had complemented him on
it and everything. Him and his big mouth, now if he could just keep from
swallowing to much of this stuff he might not be poisoned. Oh yeah, he
complained to himself, take ideas from the humans since they are as evil
as they are stupid.

He had been dropped in here by a cackling Zoicite on Beryl's
orders just three short days ago. Normal punishment in this manner was
ten to thirty day, after two hours he had really wanted out. So now
after three days he would have given up his first born child to get out
and take revenge against those Scouts, especially that red headed bitch.
She was going to pay for humiliating him like this, he was a General of
the Dark Kingdom and had broken and enslaved beings more powerful than
her for centuries!

Jedite growled and again tried to break the magically reinforced
bamboo, but had to give up after a few minutes. He reviewed his latest
plan and wondered where it had gone so wrong, but the only thing he
could come up with was allowing that red headed bitch on the boat. He
had even smiled at her and plotted her death as she walked up the stairs
from the dock to the main deck. Then there had been that blonde girl
with her, she had to be connected to her in someway, he would find out
even if he had do torture it out of the red head. Jedite screamed and
thrashed for several minutes, it made him feel better.

Things had been going so well until she showed up. He would send
out a weak Youma to distract the scouts while he personally sucked dry
entire buildings across town. Then she had shown up and caught him in
the middle of a plan, he had later learned that his distraction had
gathered more energy than he had. This in turn had Beryl on his ass
again and she ordered him to focus on killing the little school girls
instead of collecting energy, it should have taken a day or two at the
most to do them in and get things back to normal. Then he learned that
these Scouts, why in the hell were they so familiar to him, seemed to
have the luck of the gods on their sides. He set up traps that they
walked into with ease, then things seemed to blow up in his face as they
took down one Youma after another.

Even moving some of the operation to England had proven useless
when a Scout showed up there too. They were making the little bitch
famous too, he would have to put a stop to that when he had a chance.
They were like bugs that he just couldn't quite catch and it was driving
him mad, but it all boiled down to one thing. That red head was going to
get what was coming to her when he had the chance. He would crush her
spine and make her into a permanent sex doll or a mindless slave. To
just kill her was a waste of time when she could be put to servicing a
whole platoon of Youma or used as a battery to fuel a completely useless
machine. Jedite laughed evilly and thrashed around again for a few
minutes, he could feel something crawling up his inner thigh.

He heard foot steps and looked up as Kunzite and Zoicite stepped
up to the pit and smirked down at him. "Queen Beryl wants you cleaned up
and brought before her Jedite." Kunzite said.

"Do you think she meant washed down and naked?" Zoicite said.
"OHOHOHOHOHO!!!"

Jedite winced.

"Now Zoicite, get a hold of yourself, Jedite had been punished
for his stupidity long enough." He motioned and several Youma appeared
to open the grate and pulled a shivering Jedite out of the pit.

They dragged a limp Jedite down the hall and tossed him in a
small alcove, he groaned. A water Youma, one of Titus' lowers, held out
her hand and blasted Jedite for several minutes in a high powered wash
that left him black and blue from the chest down. All of his magical
defenses had been stripped from him when they placed him in the pit and
blocked off his powers, so he had no protection from the force of the
Youma's water cannon. Jedite recalled the beating he had received from
Nephrite when he returned and seethed, this wasn't as bad as that, but
they were all out to destroy each other and would take any advantage to
bring one of their enemies down. Jedite would endure and triumph from
this then make the others pay in spades, it was the way of this dark and
terrible world. You were either the one in charge or you were a slave,
there was no middle ground.

Now clean and dripping, Zoicite looked him over with a barely
concealed interest and tossed him a hand towel and told him to dry off.
A few minutes later he was tossed a uniform and he donned the thing like
a good friend. One of the few he could trust, but a blow to his back
from one of the guards reminded him that he had more humiliation to
come. He staggered under the blow and had to bit his tongue to keep from
crying out in pain as a bruise was added to his already much abused
skin.

"Come Jedite, it is time and Queen Beryl is waiting for you in
the main chamber." Kunzite said as he walked off with Zoicite holding
his arm and smirking at him.

If it wasn't for the fact that Kunzite could have blown him away
with a simple flick of his wrist, Jedite would have insulted him. "Let's
get this over with."

"You have failed completely Jedite, you managed to get Titus
killed and wasted more energy in this one operation than all the others
combined. I'd say you are on the verge of being destroyed, Jedite."
Zoicite giggled.

"I agree with Zoicite, you have failed when it should have never
even been a problem Jedite. Have you been doing it on purpose?" Kunzite
asked.

One of the main things Jedite hated about Kunzite was that on
top of him being one of the most powerful Generals, he was as arrogant
as they came. Only the red headed bitch seemed to be more arrogant,
Kunzite seemed to have this concept that if it needed to be done then
destroy everything in the path and build it back from the ground up as
you want it to be. It made things easier to do, but tended to make most
Youma fear him like the plague and very few ever stayed around to swear
their loyalties to Kunzite, or Zoicite for that matter. "Kunzite, those
little girls as you call them seem to have been designed to kill us and
our Youma and they have this luck that allows them to find just the
right way to do so, they are always in the right place at the right
time. Don't underestimate them just because of what they look like."

"Their young teenage girls Jedite, there is no way they could do
everything they have so far."

"Things were working along those lines at first, remember, then
that red head showed up and things went to hell." Jedite snapped. The
guard behind him decided that the prisoner was being too forward and
backhanded him across the skull, sending him into a wall.

"Thank you." Zoicite said with a smirk.

"Agreed." Kunzite said. "Jedite, you forget your place."

"I..." groan "...will get my revenge for this."

"I doubt that Jedite, the Queen is royally pissed with you."

The guard lifted Jedite off the floor like a sack of potatoes
and set him on his feet, Jedite stumbled forward a few steps before he
gained control again. He would make them all pay for this humiliation,
he swore under his breath. He wiped the blood from his lip as he glared
at all of them. They continued to walk along in silence for several
minutes and Jedite realized this was the first time in a couple of
centuries that any of them had been defeated like he had been. It
reminded him of that time Queen Beryl had gone on a rampage as she
purged all the suspected traitors from her ranks and killed over 30,000
of their Youma. Luckily it had only been Youma or Jedite suspected they
would have been killed too, instead it had the exact effect that Beryl
had been wanting in the first place. Unswerthing loyalty from all, no
matter how stupid the order or dangerous, they feared Beryl more than
anyone else in the Kingdom and would do it without question.

They entered the great hall and Jedite was surprised to see that
Beryl had opened it to the masses. There were thousands of Youma, Lower
and Higher versions all around them as they made their way down the only
path that lead right to Queen Beryl's throne. A garish one at that, made
from the skulls of the 30,000 dead Youma from so long ago, all of them
set in the black beryl stone of the main throne. Beryl herself sat on
this in her formal dress that seemed to have been painted on, her red
hair was a nightmare that was styled to induce fear in all that saw it.
She had white skin and fangs to match, her eyes were cruel and glinted
with evil and power as they studied him. In front of her was a crystal
ball pulsing with evil power directly linked to the imprisoned Matalia
who watched from all the eyes of the skull throne.

"I have brought the prisoner, Queen Beryl." Kunzite said as he
stepped forward.

"Excellent Kunzite. Bring the condemned forward!"

The guard stiff armed Jedite across the shoulder blades and
propelled him forward several steps. The booing and hissing of the crowd
told him that he was in serious trouble if even they were turning
against him. He looked up at Queen Beryl and cringed, hoping for a
merciful day seemed to be out of the question. "My Queen..."

"Explain yourself Jedite, why have you failed to accomplish such
a simple task?"

"Those Scouts are tougher than they look my..." A blast of dark
power fired out of the eyes of the throne and slammed into Jedite. He
screamed as he was thrown the length of the hall and slammed into a
wall.

"I don't want your excuses Jedite, I want all the life energy in
that city. Why have you failed?!!" Queen Beryl yelled.

"...THAT RED HEADED BITCH IS WHY!!" Jedite yelled as he crawled
to his feet.

Beryl's eyes narrowed. "That newest girl, the one you told us
about a few weeks ago, the one that had that silver crescent moon on her
head?"

Jedite coughed up some blood. "Yes!!"

"You know what she is Jedite, you told me yourself she wouldn't
be a problem so long as you took precautions. Were you lying to me?"

"No!! If she was like the rest from Serenity's family from so
long ago she would have been easy to deal with, but she is a Scout and a
trained fighter like the Queen's Elite Guard. Those have always been
hard to take down even when you take away their powers they have they
know how to use their own life force as a weapon."

"An Elite, one of those would be more than enough to free
Matalia Jedite, why didn't you mention this either?!"

"I didn't even know until this last attack, I saw her fighting
Titus and winning and scanned her a little deeper. I didn't know..."

"Silence!!" Beryl screamed. The guard grabbed and dragged him
back and threw him at the foot of Beryl's throne in a body slam. Some
dark power flowed out of the base and picked Jedite up by his neck and
lifted him off the floor. He struggled for a few seconds as his air is
cut off, clawing at the dark energy holding him. "Thank you for
reminding me about Titus, it seems you have also cost us one of our most
promising Youma as well Jedite. My patients is at an end with you. It
seems you fail at everything you do now a days and that isn't a smart
thing to do around here."

Jedite screamed as black electricity fried him, but it stopped
after a few seconds and he hung limply in the steel grip.

"You shall be given one more chance Jedite, because of your
excellent past efforts and unwavering loyalty."

The dark power let go and dropped Jedite to the floor, he gasped
for air and coughed for several seconds. "..."

"Kunzite, Zoicite!!"

"My Queen?" They chorused.

"Take Jedite to his room and release him from is inhibiters, but
put these on his writs as a reminder of his failure." Beryl gestured and
a pair of iron arm bands appeared in front of them."They are a magical
timer, once he leaves this base he will have one week to take the Scouts
down or they will activate and bring him before me once more."

"What will his punishment be for failure My Queen?" Nephrite
asked from his place in the crowd.

"...Permanent Crystal Imprisonment!"

There whole room gasps in horror and cringes, Jedite barely
manages to keep from fainting. "Great..." he gasps.

**********

She held up the slip of paper and frowned at it, if it had been
alive it would have been cringing or running away in fear. The girl that
had handed it to her didn't look all that pleased either and was getting
ready to run if she needed to. Nabiki lowered the paper and sighed and
looked around at the girl. "Is this all we came up with?"

"I'm afraid so, the name Saotome is common, but combined with
the name Ranma it gets a lot harder to connect. We couldn't find anyone
in that age group with the name Ranma Saotome, all we came up with was
the name Ranma Mazaki in Juban and that was a girl. Here's a picture of
her from the file."

Nabiki looked it over and thought the red head was quite good
looking, but she was looking for a boy, not a girl. Unless...Genma
Saotome was a liar and had a curse to, could that have been why Ranma
abandoned him? Because that old fart managed to curse him maybe? Could
it have been as a panda too? She doubted it, but getting Genma to talk
was like pulling teeth sometimes. It didn't help that he was eating
everything in the house either and her father expected them to just
allow him to freeload. She looked at the picture and blinked as an idea
occurred to her, if there was a spring of drowned panda could there be a
drowned girl spring too? It was a little gross in her opinion, but if
there was and Ranma fell in it, why did he run away like he did?

"What else do you have on this Ranma Mazaki?"

"She is an expert Martial Artist and is rumored to have magical
powers."

"Why?"

"She has been seen helping the Sailor Scouts in Juban on a
couple of occasions and was seen working out in the park a few weeks
back. She ran around the park several times and ran a number of
professional runners into the ground then spent a couple more hours
practicing martial arts, like the run was just a warm up."

"That's incredible, don't let Akane hear about that or she will
go ballistic to prove herself, again."

"We'll keep it covered up."

"Let's dig a little deeper into Mrs. Mazaki shall we. Even if
she isn't the one were looking for she could be very profitable if we
set up the right environment."

"Sure thing boss."

After she had left Nabiki looked the picture over again and
smiled as several more ideas came to her. She wondered if this was the
time she would be implementing a plan she had been considering for some
time now. She hated this school with her whole being and her younger
sister was large part of the problem. This Ranma Mazaki seemed like she
might be just what she was looking for. Nabiki shook herself and looked
up just as the class idiot approached and sighed, yay, another deal to
make.

"Nabiki Tendo, I would speak with you!"

"Hello Kuno-baby I have some pictures for you if you want some."
Nabiki said as she pulled some photos of her little sister out. There
were four of her practicing and the one that Kuno wanted, one of her in
the bathroom. He paid nearly anything to get these glamour shots and
Nabiki had to sell them to have enough money to keep her sister in
building supplies to break. Like boards and cinder blocks, she tended to
take her frustrations out on them instead of others, for which Nabiki
was grateful. Though her sister had no idea about the nudes that Kuno
had been buying lately.

"Excellent..." Kuno grabbed the pictures and slapped 20,000 yen
in Nabiki's hand. He started to drool over them and had this silly
little grin on his face the Nabiki loved to see, it meant he was being
perverted again. Then Kuno stopped and his eyes tripled in size and he
began to shake.

'This is new, he hasn't done that before.' Nabiki thought and
stepped around him to see which picture he was looking at. It was the
one of Ranma Mazaki that she had been looking at, she must have
accidentally handed it over with the others. She cursed herself for her
sloppiness, normally she didn't make mistakes like that. She grabbed it
out of his hands and smirked as he blinked as if he had lost something
precious. "Sorry about that Kuno-baby, she is someone I'm looking for, a
relative of mine. I gave her picture to you by mistake."

"Nay, the fates have chosen to shine down upon me this day, for
your mistake has been my gain. That vision of loveliness had bewitched
my heart and entrapped my soul eternal!" Kuno yelled and made a grab for
the photo.

Nabiki frowned and pulled it away before he could get his hands
on it. "No Kuno, this photo is not for sale just yet. I might have more
for you in the future, but for now she is off limits."

"She is a battle maiden of power and grace, it shines in her
eyes and grace and definition of her proud and noble body! I must have
that photo to add to my collection Nabiki Tendo, how much?"

"50,000 yen, see it's to expensive...." Nabiki blinked as said
amount appeared in her hand and Kuno walked off with the photo. She
couldn't even remember handing it over, but the money was a blessing in
disguise. Whoever that girl was, she was a money making potential made
flesh. Her looks could bring in millions of yen if things were played
right, she had find her and get her to pose for some more shots. Nabiki
pocketed the money, made some notations in her notebook files and spent
the rest of the lunch hour taking care of bets and information
gathering. She handed 10,000 yen to the girl that had brought her the
information on Ranma Mazaki, much to the girl's delight, and told her it
was a bonus for a job well done.

After school she collected her things and exiting the school
with a ton of ideas on her mind. She had plans to make and a train to
catch, Ranma Mazaki had just become her new project. A fate that most of
the student body of the school would have dreaded like a plague or
worse. The Ice Queen was the last thing anyone in their right mind
wanted to attract, her ideas and threats were thought out and
implemented with deadly accuracy. After looking around for several
seconds, she spots Akane just down the block, what is odd is that she is
talking to a rather well muscled girl. She is wearing green shirt and a
bandanna to hold her wild blonde hair in place.

The girl is taller than most girls, very petty in a natural sort
of way, and carrying a very large backpack. She is in a thread bare old
green shirt that has seen better days, a pair of black pants with the
lets wrapped in string, and has a tiger stripped bandanna on to keep her
wild blonde hair out of her eyes. The girl looks dangerous and mean,
like what one would find in a long time gang member or something. Nabiki
wanders over and listens to them as they talk, she gets the surprise of
her life when she does. Who would have thought she would get
confirmation of her theory so soon after she had even considered the
possibility?

"How did it happen?" Akane asked concerned. A rare thing for
Akane to be sure, considering her explosive temper tantrums of late.
Nabiki was always on her toes around her sister, she didn't want to be
on the receiving end of that Ki mallet again anytime soon. Though that
was what had prompted her to start selling those nudes of her.

"What's going on Akane?"

"Hi sis, I was just waiting here for you when this boy walks up
and starts to ask me something, I was about to pound him, when he is
splashed by that puddle there when one of the buses sped by. Then he
turned into this girl!"

"Really? How did that happen?"

"Um...well, I get lost easily and I wondered into this little
valley in China while chasing one of my enemies. I was dealing with
something when I tripped and fell into one of the springs and came out
like this, luckily it is reversible and I stay human. There were springs
there that turned people into animals like cats, bears, even pigs." The
girl/boy said.

"That sounds like a Jusenkyo curse to me." Nabiki commented.

"It is, how do you know of them?"

"Our family has an unwanted house guest that changes into a
panda..."

The girl growled and yelled. "A panda?!! If it is the same one,
it may be the one responsible for my curse!"

"I thought you tripped?"

"I did, but a panda tried to clock me over the head with a
wooden sign, while holding up other signs that said things like 'you are
perfect' and 'my wife won't kill me now that my son is no more'. It was
the signs more than anything that startled me and I tripped into the
spring as I was dodging and backing away, by the time I pulled myself
out the panda took one look at me and disappeared. I've been chasing it
ever since."

"Akane, this does sound like Genma doesn't it?"

"Yes it does."

"Genma...Saotome?" The girl snarled, her cute fangs glinting in
the sunlight.

"That would be him alright, why?"

"I'm trying to find his son so that I can kill him."

"You know Ranma Saotome?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, the coward ran out on a duel we had set up."

"Ran..." Akane snarled, she hated boys and this was all the
proof she needed.

"...Out?" Said Nabiki, she narrowed her eyes. Something wasn't
adding up here and she wanted to know why.

"Is this Genma staying with you?"

"Genma is the panda." Akane said.

"What?! Take me there, if he is the panda I want to make him
pay!"

"Excuse me, but what is your name any way?" Nabiki asked while
she ignored the glare Akane was giving her.

"Ryoga Hibiki."

"Well Ryoga, follow us back to the house. Come on Akane, Mr.
Saotome seems to have attracted a good number of guests lately."

"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked.

"Your not the first one to show up wanting a piece of Mr.
Saotome."

"Oh yeah, didn't that boy with the large spatula show up last
week and beat him into the ground?" Akane asked.

"Yep, and all those other girls and venders that had been
following him for some time now." Nabiki said.

"You see Ryoga, Genma has this habit that has our father
frothing mad. It seems he likes to sell his son to families for food and
engagements and stuff. Ranma will be lucky to get out of everything that
old man did to him."

Ryoga laughed. "That serves the jerk perfectly, ever since I met
him he has been the cause of all my problems."

Akane sighed and patted the transformed girl on the arm. "Well,
lets get back to the house and get you some hot water."

"Thanks Akane, I appreciate that."

Nabiki rolled her eyes when the two completely ignored her and
walked off together, well it should work out if she had any clue how
things worked. Akane did hate boys and this Ryoga was half girl. She
pulled Ranma Mazaki's file out of her book bag and flipped through it
again. She grinned when she found several other pictures clipped to the
inside, most of these were of her in gym or playing sports like any
athlete would. She spotted something in one photo that she hadn't
noticed before, she was wearing a school uniform, Juban High School if
she was remembering right. Flipping back a few pages she confirmed it
with the info gathered from one Umino Gurio, the information sponge from
Jubaan High. She grinned, it looked like she was going to be taking a
trip today, she wanted to meet this Ranma Mazaki if she could. The first
thing she would do if she was going to give up her family would be to
set up a false identity, but if it was Genma's son, why had he kept his
first name and why was he going as a girl?

Now what did those signs Ryoga mentioned mean? 'My wife won't
try to kill me now that my son is no more', what had Mr. Saotome meant
by that? To many questions and not enough answers to go around. Now this
was getting interesting, what would happened to them if Ranma had showed
up with Mr. Saotome? So far they had been dealing with a good number of
Mr. Saotome's past mistakes as they caught up with him and most of them
wanted to take things out on this Ranma as well. What kind of person was
this Ranma and...why was she standing around looking like an idiot in
the middle of the sidewalk?

Sheesh.

**********

Ami was confused about something's that had happened lately, it
was mystery she had been trying to solve for some weeks now. Her name
was Ranma Mazaki, their princess and leader (supposedly) according to
Luna. She was one of the oddest girls she had ever had the pleasure of
meeting and that was saying a lot since she was friends with Usagi. Ami
sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her mind elsewhere, she had been
working on her home work when she started to think about Ranma.

The girl was a mystery even now, she had turned down an
invitation to come to all the Scout meetings they'd held since they
found her. The one time Ami could remember her talking to them was when
they first met and that had been a little hostile. When the cruise had
happened and they had several hours to wait for the coast guard to show
up, Ami had tried to talk to the girl, but she had avoided talking to
them quite a bit by telling them she wasn't ready yet. Of all of them
Usagi knew the most, well maybe Luna but she wasn't talking and Ranma's
cat Ito was just a mysterious to them. Ever since Ito had shown up they
had been inseparable, but a lot more secretive and closed mouthed about
things.

The only conclusion Ami could figure out was that they were
hiding something from them. Something Ito and Luna knew about and
something Ranma was afraid of, either that or she just didn't trust them
enough. Usagi liked the girl, but had stated that she would get her
revenge on her for dumping a bucket of water on her to wake her up and a
number of other things she didn't want to talk about.

Ranma was friendly to all of them, but she kept a wall between
them to keep them from getting to close. If what she understood was
true, that she was indeed their princess, Ranma would have to let her
guard down and accept them all as her guards and friends. The one time
they had suggested that she allow them to bodyguard her Ranma had fell
over laughing. She was a fighter of incredible skill and power, even the
Mercury computer was a bit baffled about some of her abilities at times.
When she was transformed she was easy to read, but it was when she was
in 'civilian' mode that the little computer was baffled about things.
Ranma's energy readings seemed to waver depending on her mood, from a
barely detectible trace when she was happy or asleep, to incredibly
dangerous when she was angry.

Her powers were also showing signs of altering in some way that
Ami just couldn't understand yet. When they had first met Ranma she had
been generating a pure Silver Millennium power signature, but over the
past few weeks it had been changing mysterious ways and it was beginning
to worry her. It wasn't a Dark Kingdom power signature in any way, just
something different...and a bit unstable as well. That was the worst
part, the fluctuations with her moods, magic shouldn't work like that.
At least from the lessons she had read through in the little computer,
they said that the body worked like a focusing lens of sorts to channel
the magic. Emotions shouldn't have any reaction to the magic at all.

Another problem was Rei, she did not like the princess in any
way what so ever. They had been at odds from the beginning. Ranma had
shown up out of nowhere and did something to make her grandfather just
accept her right off the bat. Ami wasn't so surprised though because of
two reasons, Rei's grand father was always looking for good looking
girls to work at the shrine and there was something about the girl that
just made some people either like her or really hate her. One scan of
the girl had shown that she had this aura of magic around her that
affected her surroundings, what it did exactly was unknown, but is was
really powerful.

There was knock on her door and it opened up to reveal her
mother. "I wasn't sure if you were home or not."

"I was just thinking; how was work?"

"Pretty good, I got off early tonight because we have a guest
coming by."

"A guest?" Ami asked. They almost never had anyone come by the
apartment.

"An cousin of mine from way back, we used to go to school
together."

"Really, who is it?"

"Her name is Nodoka Saotome."

"I don't remember her."

"I haven't seen her in a very long time, nearly sixteen years if
I remember correctly. A couple of years before you were born."

"How long before she shows up?"

"About an hour so get cleaned up and ready."

"Alright mom." Ami said as her mother closed her door.

Ami had her communicator out a few seconds later and called
Usagi and Rei.

"Hi Ami, what's the problem?" Rei asked as she appeared in the
little screen, she looked a little irritated.

"I can't come over tonight like we planned, my mom just told me
where having a guest over tonight and I have to meet her."

"That's okay Ami, we can do it in a few days." Rei said.

The screen blinked and a Usagi appeared, she was wearing a scarf
around her head to cover up her nose. She seemed to be sneaking through
an alley or some place equally dark and looking at the communicator
covertly. "Good idea Ami, it gives me more time for my revenge. Tell me
how it goes later, gotta go." Usagi whispered and turned off the
communicator.

Rei appeared again, her eye twitching. "What is Odango up to?"

"I'm not sure, I think she is stalking Ranma to get even with
her for pouring that bucket of water on her the other day."

"...Ranma is here at the temple, she is currently in the bath
room taking a bath...oh great...gotta go Ami, I think I can hear Usagi
about to get in trouble." Rei said and turned off the communicator.

Closing the communicator Ami wondered why things had gotten so
weird ever since Ranma had shown up. It was so strange, before she had
gotten here all they had to do was fight off a few monsters and listen
to Usagi whine about it for a few hours and talk about boys. Now Usagi
was about to do something to Ranma to get revenge for a that bucket of
water, Rei seemed to actually dislike the girl for no good reason, and
now the both of them were working together to get the girl. Ami took a
few seconds to wonder what would happen, her curiosity was really peaked
over this, but knew she would have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Grabbing a towel off the pile on her dresser she made her way to
the bathroom to take her own bath and turned her thoughts to this Nodoka
Saotome person that was stopping by. Work almost always come first for
her mother and for her to actually take the time off from work to have a
dinner like this was exceedingly rare. Ami thought about it and couldn't
think of one time her mother had ever done something like this, it was
out of character for her. For a split second Ami was actually jealous of
the woman, her mother never took the time to do anything with her
anymore, the job always came first. She sighed and suppressed the alien
feeling as she always did, he mom worked at the hospital and that was a
responsibility that took precedence over family. She was proud of her
mom though, just tired of eating supper alone all the time, she would
just have to make the best of this situation.

Ami finished up and was just heading into the living room and
adjusting her dress, a long dark skirt, a white blouse, and a stylish
dark jacket, when she spotted her mom. She was dressed up in a pair of
jeans and a bright pull over as she dashed around the kitchen humming a
tune of some kind. Ami had to blink a few times, her mom was acting
weird and didn't seem to be able to carry a tune to save her life.

"Honey, could you set the table for the three of us?"

"Sure mom." Ami said and went to grab the good plates out of the
little hutch in the living room. She was just finishing up when the door
bell went off.

"Aghhhhh!! That's Her!!" Mrs. Mizuno screeched.

Ami backed up a few steps and started to edge away from her mom,
this was a little weird. "I'll get the door mom."

"Okay, go grab the door and I'll get the food set out."

Ami nodded and answered the door, there was a tall woman on the
other side. She was wearing a flowered kimono, had a bundled rod of
some kind strapped to her back, and was holding out a dish to her.
"Thank you, come in." Ami said and took the dish, it was jello mold of
some kind, with bits of banana floating in it. Yum. Taking a closer
look, Ami noticed she had dark red hair, almost brown, and blue eyes.
This Nodoka also looked a little sad, her smile didn't reach her eyes.
There was a haunted look in them instead, it made a shiver run through
Ami as she led the woman into the dinning room.

"Nodoka!" Her mom yelled and hugged the woman.

"Hellen!"

"How have you been No-chan, it has been years, I was caught
totally by surprise when you called me out of the blue like that."

"I had to talk to someone..."

"What happened?"

Nodoka sighed sadly and all but collapsed into a chair. "I lost
my son."

"Your son? The one you've spent the last ten years searching
for? The one your husband took on that training trip? Martial Arts,
wasn't it?"

"Yes, though I wish I had been able to stop my husband from
taking him. Now it seems I am never going to see him again."

"What happed?"

"I got this post card in the mail..." Nodoka said sadly.

"What did it say?"

"According to the post card they had recently crossed into the
deeper and more dangerous sections of China. They stumbled across this
place called the 'Pool of Sorrow' or something like that. The place was
cursed with some kind of ancient magic, I'm still searching through my
papers to find out if this place really exsists. From what the card says
it seems that my husband supposedly turns into a panda when he touches
cold water and back to normal with hot water. I've never heard about
anything like it in all my travels, but I have a feeling this the
truth."

"That...that's insane!" Hellen yelled. "Did Ranma or Genma send
that card?"

"Ranma did, his handwriting was so different from those letters
that Genma sent me..." Nodoka said with a snarl as she recalled her
husband and what she planned to do to him.

"What was the name of this place? Maybe we can help you find
more about it." Hellen said and looked at her daughter.

"Jusenkyo, but I don't think you will find much on it since it
is in such an isolated spot in the mountains of China." Nodoka said.

Ami wasn't so sure if that was the case, she did believe in
magic and the name Jusenkyo sounded familiar to her for some reason.
With the use of the Mercury computer she could look things up that most
internet search engines could never find. Ami looked up from her
thoughts and noticed that both women seemed to have forgotten she
existed, oh well at least the story was interesting. She noted down a
plan to look into Jusenkyo in the future just to see what this place was
and if it was truely magic of some kind. Ami started to pay attention to
the conversation again as Nodoka said something she had half expected.

"I know, but get this, my son said that Genma had knocked him
into a spring as well. This one turning him into a girl, a girl of all
things and he can't change back because it was one of the permanent
springs."

"So your son now thinks he is a girl?"

"According to the post card, yes, and it gets worse."

"How can it get worse, did something else happen to them?"

"You know what my husband did to my and our family." Nodoka said
her eyes glinting with hate.

"You'll get him No-chan, I know you will."

"I have some idea of where Genma is, but I wanted to talk to one
of my friends before I went looking for him. The bastared would actually
run forever if he could and he knows I'm on his furry tail."

"What are you gont to do to him?"

"I don't know, my honor demands that I gut him and mount his
head on the front gates, but since this isn't fuedal Japan anymore, I'm
not sure. I've had so many plans for when we finally settled things
between us that I just can't decide. Most of them end in his death or
permenent destruction."

Hellen shook her head, her friend has good reasons to hate Genma
like she did, she was worried that the man would actually be able to
stop her. She had been chasing him for years now, always a few steps
behind him. The old fool seemed to have the instincts of an exceptional
coward to be able to dodge his wife for this long. "No-chan you have
always been to quick to pull that blade of yours to solve your
problems."

"I know, but it Genma will not get away with what he has done."

"Maybe, but are you sure you're not letting your hatred get away
from you?."

Nodoka narrowed her eyes at her friend and reigned in her rage,
the anger that she was always struggling to control when her husband was
mentioned. "..."

"Well we just need to see what we can do to find your son, even
if he is now a girl for some reason, she should be pretty easy to find
if we hire the right people."

"I'm afraid I can't do even that."

Hellen blinked in surprise. "Why is that?"

"Genma, he did something to make sure I couldn't do that and
even with my wealth results from investigators and the police are few
and far between."

"Don't worry about that No-chan, I will help you out however you
need, this is your son were talking about here and your my friend."

"No, I can't impose on you like that, I will just search for him
by myself, like I have for years now."

"No-chan let me help..." Hellen protested.

"Excuse me?" Ami asked. "You haven't said what your son's name
is and I'm kind of curious."

"I haven't?" Nodoka said in surprise. "It's Ranma Saotome."

"Ranma?" Ami said, hiding her surprise at the name.

Nodoka and Hellen nodded and went back to talking while Ami
wandered off to think a little on what had been said. Could Nodoka's son
be their new reluctant Princess? They had the same first name and the
Ranma they knew was a major tomboy, she refused to wear dresses unless
forced or threatened, knew absolutely nothing about make up, was rude at
times, thoughtless, and had foot in the mouth disease. Just like every
other boy she had ever met in his age group, but if it was, why was she
running around with them like she was?

There were just to many questions to be asked and Ranma liked to
keep to herself as much as possible. She was going to have to push
things if she wanted answers to her questions, but it was quite possible
she was wrong in some way and could lose a friend if she pushed to hard.
No, Ranma was a Scout and quite possibly their Princess, she would
respond to a open question truthfully. It was one of the things Ami had
noticed about Ranma, she couldn't lie very well, she was to open and
very naive.

Then there was those readings she had gotten from Ranma over the
last few weeks, her powers were fluctuating wildly. Could that have
something to do with a boy that was changed by magic into a girl?
Perhaps the Silver Millennium magic was at odds with the curse magic or
maybe Ranma was a Princess only because of the curse magic's
transformation? To many variables for her to look up, she needed more
information to make a determination on the mystery. She would have tried
the Mercury computer, but she had found that there were sections in it
that were off limits to her or needed a code to access. Her answers may
have been in there, but if they were she should have a way to access
them since she was the one that supposedly programmed the thing in her
past life on the moon.

Ami shook her head, there was no other choice, she would have to
have a long talk with Ranma about her past whether she liked it or not.
She had to make sure they had the right girl for the job, to many lives
were at stake to make a mistake this early in the fight. Coming back
into the kitchen Ami firmed her decision that she wasn't going to
mention Ranma just now. There was to much of a chance she was wrong in
some way she hadn't considered just yet, only time would tell if she
right or wrong.

**********

She went over her list. Dressed in black ninja costume, check.
Handkerchief mask, check. Stole...er...browed her brothers super soaker
water gun complete with shoulder strap and cool targeting scope, check.
Usagi grinned and made her way out her window just after the sun went
down. She would get Ranma back for humiliating her like that, the bucket
of water, running through town in her pajamas. Grrr, being better built
than her too, she would pay. Usagi used all her skills to run from
shadow to shadow along the little used streets between her house and the
shrine, making sure no one saw her move.

Like a stealthy shadow Usagi moved with unerring grace and
economy of movement, alighting from shadow to shadow like a wraith in
the night. At a corner she peaked around to make sure no one was around
to see her and moved on down the block with silent grace. She had been
doing things like since she could remember, usually against her baka
brother, but that didn't matter in the least, Ranma was going to pay.
Just two more blocks and it would be time to go into battle. She stopped
at the edge of a street light and carefully made her way around it so
that she wasn't seen.

She was just two blocks from her goal when she made just the
tiniest of errors and nearly upset the entire plan. Usagi sidled up
against a metal fence and thought herself lucky that there were no
lights on in the house, then disaster hit...

"BARK BARK Grrr BARK!!" Barked the demon from hell. (Mexican
Hairless Chiwawa.)

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Usagi screamed and ran down
the street in a panic, tripped a little ways down and slammed into the
metal trashcans set just into the edge of an alley. Clutching her
bruised head, Usagi groaned and wondered just how many dogs were in this
part of town as dozens of the started to bark up a storm. "Ite!!"

With no grace or poise, Usagi rolled to her feet and ran away
from the scene and hoped no one had seen anything. Gasping for air, she
eventually reached the shadow filled stairs that lead up to the shrine
itself and site of her prey. Slinging the water gun off her back she
pulled a fedora out of subspace and placed it on her head, it was time
to hunt. With a twinkle in her eye she grinned and moved into the bushes
along side the steps and crept her way up to the top, slowly circling
around to the back of the shrine. Her prey's room was located along the
back if she remembered right.

At the edge of the woods around the shrine Usagi went ninja
again and started alighting from shadow to shadow once more. She was
crouched down beside one of the small sheds out back when her
communicator started beeping. Cursing silently, she hoped some monster
wasn't attacking again, she had made plans for tonight. She carefully
pulled it out and activated to listen in on Ami and Rei as they talked,
she grinned evilly as she heard that her prey was in the bathroom, and
the bathroom window was on the other side of the shrine from where she
was too. It was to perfect to believe.

Tapping a button on the communicator Usagi said. "Good idea Ami,
it gives me more time for my revenge. Tell me how it goes later, gotta
go."

She slithered forward, around the rock garden (tripped over it),
past another shed (bounced off it when she tripped over a rock) and
across the small koi pond (she fell in with a loud splash) and made her
way to the bathroom window and grinned when she saw that it was open to
let in the night air. This set up was just to perfect to believe, even
her brother hadn't ever been this stupid. Crouching under the window she
stood up and peaked inside...the bathroom was empty.

"Oh shit!" Usagi cursed and turned to leave.

A powerful flashlight illuminated Usagi as she turned, her eyes
widening in horror as she spotted Rei holding the light. Ranma, wrapped
in a towel appeared out of the darkness and smirked as she held up what
looked like a couple of water balloons. "Hi Usagi."

"You wouldn't..."

"Yep."

"Usagi I can't believe you would do this." Rei said, for once
looking smug at the cowering girl.

"Any last requests?"

"youcouldletmegowithoutharmingme?" Usagi squeaked.

Ranma just shook her head and let fly.

Splat!

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" The scream of despair filled the night
sky.

**********

The door to the Tsukino's house slammed open and Usagi stomped
in with snarl, slamming the door behind her. Her parents could only
stare in shock as their daughter stomped her way up the stairs. She was
covered from head to toe in some kind of green gel (Prell shampoo, Ranma
didn't have time to fill up regular balloons ^^), her ninja outfit had
been removed and replaced with a bunny outfit complete with ears, tail
and open midriff. Someone had used the green gel to do her blonde hair
up in some kind of Madam Frankenstein look alike contest.

"That was way cool!" Shingo yelled and jumped up and down in
glee.

"SNARL!!" Usagi snarled at Shingo as she finished going upstairs
and into the bathroom to clean up. 'Ranma and Rei were going to pay for
this even if it took her a hundred years to do it!' She thought.

Her parents were to shocked to do much but stare.

**********

An couple days later Nabiki was walking though Jubaan, Kuno's
money and taxi's were a godsend, as she headed towards the main entrance
to Jubaan High School. She was glad that things worked a little
different in Jubaan than in Nerima, it made it easier for her to get
things done. She spotted a geek that was doing business like she did at
Furinkan, only the little idiot seemed to just give the information away
and refused to use it to make money like she did. That was unfair, he
made plenty of money off his information, he just seemed to care more
about the consequences than she and her assistant's did. She waved at
him and he made his way over. There was another reason why she liked him
too, it was good for her wallet.

"Hello Miss. Tendo."

"So Umino, where did you get all that info on that girl?"

"She's a class mate of mine."

"I'd like to meet her if I can."

"She isn't here..."

"Why is that?"

"School got out about half an hour ago and she doesn't go to any
of the clubs around here. She hates being here and is off the grounds
almost the instant the bell rings."

"Your kidding, even I go to an accounting club once or twice a
week."

"She is a strange one, I would have expected her to be right at
home in Furinkan actually. She is a fighter and can be as rude as they
come and yet she can be the nicest person in the world if she wants to.
Most of the boys in the school want to date her and the girls are
violently jealous of her looks."

"Oh, do you know where I can find her?"

"Sure."

"Where?"

"What do you have in exchange?"

Nabiki smiled, Umino never wanted money, he wanted in
information or something that would sate his geek like cravings. She
grabbed her bag and pulled out a disk she had gotten in trade with one
of the odd Jubaan students that passed through Furinkan. "This is
supposed to be either a powerful virus or a kind of infiltration program
I came into position of, will it do?"

Umino drooled and nodded. "You can find Ranma at the Hikawa
Shrine a couple mile from here. She's been staying there for the last
few weeks, as far is I know she is homeless and has nowhere else to
stay."

Nabiki handed him the disk. "Thank you, the more I learn about
this girl the more convinced I become she is the one I'm looking for."

"Let me know if there is anything else you need Miss. Tendo, I'm
always willing to help out."

"Of course, the same goes for you Umino, just give me a call if
you need anything." Nabiki said as she pulled out a map of Jubaan and
located Hikawa Shrine. It was a bit of a maze, but nothing serious if
she stayed alert.

Four hours later Nabiki was cursing herself for getting lost and
dashed under an overhang outside an arcade just as the rain began to
come down. She was in Jubaan, the sun was going down and it was raining
worse than it did in Nerima at times. The winds buffeted her and almost
peeled her off the wall she was hiding again, thunder rolled over the
city and startled her. She wished the arcade was open for her to take
cover in, but it was closed up and locked down just like most of the
businesses along the street.

She hadn't expected to get lost like this and hadn't brought
alone an umbrella since it had been nice and sunny out when she arrived.
Maybe this hadn't been all that a good idea after all she though to
herself. Then heard something...odd...she turned her head and saw a
monster standing in the street looking at her like it was hungry. Nabiki
blinked and gulped, it was the ugliest thing she had ever seen in her
life. It stood about two meters high and was somewhat female in
appearance. It also seemed to be made out of some kind of tar like
substance and wearing a tutu of all things. She had to repress a giggle
as she stared at it, the thing was a florescent pink too.

"What do we have here, lunch?" The thing said.

"Not if I can help it." Nabiki muttered and tried to find the
best escape rout, she would take her chances with the storm.

"Be a good little victim and don't try anything heroic girlly,
you won't like what I will do to you then."

Nabiki blinked and took off, she wasn't going to fight this
thing. She had some fighting skill, but this was one of Jubaan's famous
Youma. She knew that only the Scouts could deal with these things with a
minimum of damage. She flew around the corner and spotted a small hill
in the distance, a temple, the perfect place to hide out from a Youma.
The were supernatural and shouldn't be able to enter the place. It was
perfect, except for one little thing, it was pretty far away and she was
on foot being chased by the ugly thing in a tutu.

Looking back she growled in anger as it seemed to be a Warner
Brothers reject or something, it was casually trotting behind her as she
ran. Keeping up with her easily, just like cartoon or something. What
had she done to have this happen, she kept out of trouble and made sure
all her bases were covered before she made her moves. Her enemies were
very few and none of them could create or call a thing like this, was
she just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

"Come on 'Lunch' don't be that way, I just want your energy, it
won't take long and you don't really need it anyway." The monster called
out to her.

"Baka!!"

Lightning flashed and the thunder rolled around them as Nabiki
ran and in the distance, at the top of the hill she could just make out
a bright flash of red light among the trees. Whatever it was, Nabiki
felt it was a good thing, she could feel in her stomach as she neared
the stairs to the temple. She spotted the sign that said it was the
'Hikawa Shrine' and rolled her eyes at her luck, like it mattered now.
She was gasping for air by now and cursing herself for getting so out of
shape. Taking the stairs two at a time she flew up them quickly and
recalled a few lessons from her youth from when her father had talked
about the amazing things one could do when one mastered their own bodies
to perfect the Art. Increased speed, stamina, strength, and power were
all staples of her family art and she realized she had given that up
after her mother's death. If she survived this she would take it up
again just so she could survive something like this the next time it
happened.

Reaching the top of the stairs was a challenge for her and she
had to stumble across the entrance way and marveled at the tall wooden
gateway that towered above her and the steps. She had no energy left and
hoped the tales of the temples being safe from monsters like this were
true. It reached the top a few seconds later and strolled under the
gateway as if nothing was affecting it and Nabiki knew she was in
trouble now, this place wasn't safe. It wasn't a refuge or...

The monster held out it's hand and Nabiki gasped as she felt her
energy being drawn from her body. She gasped for air and tried to crawl
away in fear, she whimpered in fear for the first time in years. Only
Akane had ever made her feel this way and that had been a long time ago
when she had been on the receiving end of her mallet. She gasped and
felt her arms give way and she fell over, then the most amazing thing
happened and had she the energy to do anything about it, she would have
cheered in relief. A pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her
and she was airborne.

Looking up weakly, Nabiki saw the strong features and red hair
of the girl she had been looking for. She was wearing a white Chinese
shirt and from what she could tell, did not have a bra on to control her
large breasts. Nabiki felt them flip in mid air and land so softly that
she barely noticed, in the back round she saw a red skirted Sailor Scout
launch a fire ball at the monster and blow it back off it's feet. Ranma
smiled at her and sat her down as gently as a feather.

"You stay here okay, I have to help out Mars."

"T-thank you..." Nabiki stuttered.

"No problem, I'll be back in a minute." Ranma said and patted
her on the shoulder, then stood up and changed...her smile vanished as
she turned around and dark blue aura of power exploded around her body
and made her clothing ruffle and shift around. Then she brought her
hands together and aura shifted from around her body and highlighted her
hands. "Mars, NOW!!"

The red skirted Scout fired off another fire ball and flipped to
the roof just as Ranma fired a blast of bright blue Ki out of her hands
and hit the monster. It exploded and blew the thing back several feet,
it nearly recovered, but Mars jumped off the roof and kicked the thing
in the chest, sending it down the stairs. Then two other Scouts
appeared, one blue and another in white. They landed on top of the
wooden gate to the temple, the one in white pulled off her Tiara and
held it as it started pulsing with power, then threw it like a frisbee.
Nabiki heard the monster scream from down below and knew it was dead,
she thanked whatever Kami had been listening to her when she made it
here.

The red headed girl relaxed and waved as the three Scouts leaped
off and vanished before she could get a good look at them. She turned
back to Nabiki and smiled, it lit up her whole face and Nabiki had to
use all her control to not break down in relief in front of her. Ever
the professional, she steeled herself and slowly stood up and looked her
rescuer over. She liked what she saw instantly, a perfect body and eyes
that were as expressive as they came, she could see the worry in Ranma's
eyes and it made Nabiki feel something she both dreaded and savored.

"Are you alright, that thing got some of your energy before I
could get to you, sorry about that."

"That's alright, I'm Nabiki Tendo."

"Ranma Mazaki."

They heard foot steps and a dark haired girl in Shinto garb
stepped out of the shrine and glared at Ranma. "Ranma, are you going to
invite her in or do I have to do it myself, the Scout's already took
care of that monster."

"Sorry Rei, I hadn't gotten around to it yet."

"Well move it, she needs to get some food in her stomach to
shake off whatever that thing did to her."

Ranma's stomach growled loudly, she blushed. "Um...Miss. Tendo
would you like to come in for supper?"

"Sure, I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yep."

"Might as well ask me whatever it is then."

"Are you Ranma Saotome?"

Ranma kept a straight face, but the sudden anger in her eyes was
a surprise to Nabiki. "Where did you hear that name?"

"From Genma Saotome when I was told that I might be engaged to
his son."

"What makes you think I would know him Miss. Tendo." Ranma asked
as they stepped inside and headed for the dinner table.

Rei knew some of Ranma's story and even though she was putting
up with the girl, she had found that she didn't like the girl very much,
but her grandfather seemed to like the her and she was a hard worker so
she would keep her mouth shut, for now. Just followed along behind them
and wondered where this would go, Ranma didn't talk about her life
previous to coming here and what she had heard was total crap. Who in
the world believed in sex changing curses anyway? Rei wanted proof
before she would accept that, unlike her grand father, and hoped things
would work out before this wild card became a danger to the Scouts.

"Ranma I watched that fight and could tell you were using
Anything Goes Martial Arts Style. Genma Saotome practices every morning
and I have watched him on a number of occasions, you use the same moves
and stances."

Ranma scowled. "Miss. Tendo, Genma used to be my father, but he
abandoned me in China after I received my curse."

"So you are Ranma Saotome, did you know about the promise that
our fathers made twenty or so years ago about uniting the two schools of
Anything Goes? Or the fact that he says you abandoned him?"

"No, but I'm not surprised either, pops never was one to let a
meal ticket go. He probably just promised that to get some free food or
something. After all I was engaged to several other girls by the idiot,
why would your family be any different?"

"Other Engagements?"

"Eight that I know of currently, pops was always hungry for one
reason or another."

"I didn't know all this, your father wants to find you so you
could fulfill the promise between our houses." Nabiki said and recalled
that the panda had just said he wanted to find his son since this was a
matter of family honor she had taken it upon herself to do the job.

"I gave up my family name Miss. Tendo, Ranma Saotome doesn't
exist anymore, pops killed 'him' in China when he tossed me in that
spring."

"Why don't you change back, it can't be that bad, at least your
still human."

Ranma let off a bitter laugh that startled both Nabiki and Rei.
"He didn't tell you did he, that figures, it was always his way to tell
stories to make himself out to be the one that could do no wrong. There
were a number of springs in that valley that were covered with wood and
blocked off with a fence. When pops jumped out of the panda spring, he
backhanded me at full strength and nearly broke my jaw. It sent me
flying into one of these blocked off springs and shattered the boards
like they didn't even exist, the spring was a permanent girl spring,
there is no way to change back. I was so mad that he had taken my
manhood away from me that I booted him clear out of the valley, it took
me a long time to calm down. Even then I found that after repeated
dowsing with hot water from the guide were useless, I can't change
back."

Nabiki nodded and filled that information away for future study
if she needed it. "You said Mr. Saotome abandoned you?"

"I traveled around for a few weeks while I contemplated Seppuku,
I eventually ruled that out and went back for the fool. He is my father
and I couldn't just leave him to suffer by himself so I back tracked and
found him in this Amazon village near Jusenkyo, in a cage, but when I
tried to talk to him he would just pull out these signs and ask who I
was, or why there was this funny sound in the air, just like he did when
he didn't want to talk to me before Jusenkyo. Eventually he got angry
and told me that his son was dead and that he didn't know who I was."

Nabiki and Rei were gasped, no wonder Ranma had given up her
family name. Genma had disowned him. "Just because you were no longer a
male?" Nabiki asked.

Ranma nodded and sipped some of the tea that Rei had laid out
before they came inside from the fight. "I tried to reason with him, but
he was adamant about it so I talked to the Amazons and made one last
deal to save my father. You see he had been tried and enslaved by them
for crimes like stealing and back talking to them. You see the Amazons
only respect women, when it come so men they take a obey or die
mentality, of the few men I saw in the village most were broken men who
couldn't think for themselves. Luckily I had been upgraded as they put
it and were willing to tolerate me. Pops thinks women are weak and
stupid and that they are useless, that they must always be protected in
one form or another. He was constantly putting them and their ways down
and he pissed off a good number of them in the short time he was there.
I had to challenge one of their best to a fight and just survive to make
sure they didn't kill him."

"What happened?" Nabiki asked.

"The fight was a brutal one, their toughest fighter was a girl
named Shampoo and she is a stubborn as I am. We started fighting at noon
and continued pounding each other for several hours, jumping all over
the village and launching Ki attacks at each other. Those were my
downfall though, she had several in her arsenal while I only had one and
that barely controllable even then. She had this punching technique that
allowed her to hit me hundreds of time in seconds, it worked on her
kicks too and she eventually took me down with them. Fortunately they
were impressed that I lasted as long as I did and they offered me a
position as an Amazon. I even know of a technique in my own school of
martial arts that can do the same thing, but hadn't had time to master
it at the time."

"An Amazon?"

"I turned them down though because I don't agree with some of
their laws, eventually they got me to agree to be an ally of the village
instead. After that I spent about four months in the village being
trained by the Elder War Masters. I later found out that the technique I
mentioned was actually one of theirs and if I had used it they would
have hunted me down and killed me to protect their secrets."

"Ranma, you've never mentioned any of this stuff to me before."
Rei nearly yelled.

"Rei, you have made it pretty obvious you don't like me for some
reason and I figured you didn't want to know. If you really wanted to
you could always ask your grandfather since I told him a few days after
I moved in here. Let's talk about something else, I don't want to think
about this anymore tonight." Ranma said suddenly, looking sad.

Nabiki sat back and wondered how much of that was true and
false, she felt sorry for Ranma now that she had met her and didn't want
to hurt her. She had been thinking that Ranma would be just like her
father, a freeloader, thief, and dishonorable slob. This was a totally
different person before, the girl's pain was obvious for all to see.
Then Nabiki thought of a question that had been running around her head
for most of the day.

"Ranma, my sister ran into a guy named Ryoga Hibiki this
afternoon..."

Ranma blinked in surprise at the question and had to think about
it for a second to even remember the guy. Then it came to her and she
grinned at the lost memories. "Ryoga, I haven't thought of him in years.
How's the moron doing anyway?"

"He's out to kill you.'

Ranma rolled her eyes and scratched the back of her head. "It's
not over the bread feud is it?"

"Bread feud?"

"Yeah, me and him used to fight to get the last piece of bread
during lunch time at our old junior high school, I'm better at aerial
stuff so I usually won. He didn't like that very much and challenged me
to a duel because of it."

"He said you ran away like a coward..."

Ranma scowled for a second then started to laugh. "Nope, I
waited for him for three days to show up, but eventually I had to go.
This was just before I went to China and pops decided that I had won
since Ryoga had never shown up." Ranma didn't mention that pops had
beaten him unconscious to make him leave the area, the girl's didn't
need to know that part.

"He's cursed, did you know that?" Nabiki said. She wondered what
Ranma would say.

"Cursed? What does he turn into?"

"A girl."

"A girl...Permanently?"

"Nope, he says it is reversible."

"Knowing him, he probably blames it on me too..."

"Wrong again Ranma, your father is the one that did it some
how."

"Oh..." Ranma smirked as an idea hit him. "I bet pops was trying
to use him to replace me for some stupid scheme or another..."

Nabiki gasped, that was what was wrong with what Ryoga had been
saying, that last piece of the puzzle, she slammed her head against the
table for not seeing it sooner, it was so obvious too! She slammed her
head down a few more times and sighed, the panda had lost his son and
had a deal to keep with her father. Solution, find a replacement and
trick or blackmail some poor schmuck into doing what you want. Ranma and
Rei grabbed her and made sure she didn't do that any more. "Sorry about
that, but I should have seen that right off the bat, I'm usually pretty
good at figuring these things out."

"Don't do that anymore Miss. Tendo, I don't want you to get hurt
anymore and I think you've had enough for today."

"Just call me Nabiki, okay?"

Ranma sighed in relief. "Thanks, because of the way I was raised
I don't have much of a social background. The Amazons helped with that
and a number of other areas that pop's had failed to teach me as we were
on the road, they had to go to some pretty extreme lengths to cure me of
my bad faults."

"That's okay Ranma, your a lot different than what I was
expecting."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I thought you would be just like your father."

"No way, I haven't been like the old man since he tried to teach
me the Neko-ken."

"Well, that is good to know. What is the Neko-ken?"

"Dig a pit, tie a young kid of five or so in fish sausage links,
and fill the pit with starving cats (shudder as she recalls the
training), and drop kid in pit. Make sure he doesn't have a way to
escape and wait. Repeat until kid masters the Neko-ken or dies. It
originally gave me a deadly fear of cats, luckily I was able to get over
that fear with the help of a friend a few weeks ago."

"That's insane!" Rei yelled. She didn't like Ranma all that
much, but what kind of could she have led to have been tortured this
much? Even she felt a little sympathy for the red head, no wonder she
was so strange.

Ranma shrugged. "Luckily some one helped me to find a way to
over come the Neko-ken and get over most of my fears. Though I do tend
to have flashbacks and some of the fear if I'm startled."

"Ranma, I had thought your father was an idiot, this goes into
child abuse and criminal conduct. He should be in jail for doing that to
you..."

"Pops is an idiot, but he has his moments, just like anybody
else Nabiki."

"He should be arrested Ranma..."

"He is my father, no mater what he may think about me, I am
still a student of Anything goes."

"Maybe, but he did disown you."

Ranma smiled and Nabiki blushed for some odd reason, it confused
her. "Yep, but he never said I was thrown out of the school."

"Are you going to come back to Nerima with me?"

"Why?"

"Maybe to talk to your father an see if he still wants to ignore
you? He did ask me to find you."

"I don't know..."

"Ranma, you should go, it will give you a chance to reconcile
with your father. My mother is dead and my father ignores me until he
needs me to so something, then he pops up to make me do it. You should
take whatever chance you have to make things better with your family."
Rei said. She had doubts about it, but maybe there was a chance for them
to reconcile or something, plus it would get her out of her shrine for a
few days.

"I don't know...I just wanted to stay away from the idiot..."

"Please Ranma?" Nabiki asked.

Even turned into a girl, Ranma just couldn't turn a girl down
when they turned a pair of large, sparking, pleading eyes on her with
out folding. Nabiki did this and Ranma crumpled like a leaf and sighed.
"Fine, but I can't promise anything."

"Great!" Rei said as she jumped up and ran for Ranma's room.
"I'll help you pack."

"What was that about?" Nabiki asked.

"Got me, she has been mad at me since the day I first arrived
here. I'd better tell Grandpa Hino that I'm going to be out of town for
a few days. I don't think this is a good idea Nabiki, but I am willing
to give it one more try before I cut off all my ties with the idiot. He
did raise me for sixteen years." Ranma said and stood up. "While I'm
getting ready to head out, do you want to use the shower while your hear
to clean up from that monster?"

"Thanks, I didn't want to just ask you about that."

"That's alright, I don't have much use for formalities and
stuff. Here, I'll show you the way."

After dropping the girl off in the bathroom and showing her were
the towels and cleaning stuff was Ranma headed back to her room. She
stepped in and walked over to the bed to sit down. Rei hadn't started
packing her things yet which surprised Ranma a bit, she had seemed
excited to get her out of the shrine. At the foot of the bed was
satisfied red cat, calmly buffing her claw and grinning evilly.

"I wonder what happened to Rei?" Ranma muttered.

"She stopped by a few minutes ago and tried to pack your things,
but I showed her the error of her ways." Ito said.

"Did she tell you that I'm going to be gone for a few days?"

"What?!" Ito screamed and started hissing, her red hair standing
on end. "You mean all that stuff she said was true? Your abandoning your
Royal court to go off to some town with out protection or anything?!"

Ranma gave the cat a half lidded look. "What do I need with a
body guard, cat?"

"You are the Princess of the Moon, that's what!" Ito yelled.

"Wake up cat, I ain't no princess of anything, I got roped into
this gig because of those damned springs and I refuse to believe that I
am some reincarnated princess from some fairy tail kingdom or another.
It sounds to much like a story line from some manga or anime."

"So you don't consider your self a Magical Girl?" Ito asked
snidely.

"Of course not, why do you ask that?"

"Only because of what a Magical Girl is, a young good looking
girl that has a magical item that gives her powers, a revealing costume,
and a cute and adorable side kick, that's what!"

"Um...so what, it doesn't have anything to do with me." Ranma
said as she crossed her arms and nodded, cutely. She refused to accept
this no matter what she had been told or had done otherwise.

Ito face faulted off the edge of the bed. "BAKA, those bracers
are the magical items, the costume makes you a magical girl, and I'm
your cute animal side kick!" Ito ranted.

"Cute side kick? Hah, more like a large red bull's-eye!"

Ito snarled and leapt at Ranma, who giggled nervously and
attached herself to the ceiling, again and stuck her tongue out at the
hissing cat as it jumped up and down in an attempt to get her with it's
claws. Outside the rooms window Luna was rolling on the ground laughing
her feline butt off at the sight. She had stopped by to talk to Ranma
about what she had done to Usagi a few days before, it hadn't been at
all nice. She would have been here that night to give Ranma a piece of
her mind, but she had been under Usagi's bed giggling for most of the
night.

**********

Ending Notes - Check out my new site at
http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/crose9/

This chapter has gone through several revisions in the past weeks to
help correct some of the mistakes I made in past chapters. As it goes on
I have found it increasingly hard to bring in much of the Nerima crew
except as small parts So I came up with this to settle some things.. I
also brought in Ranma's mother in this chapter, but she still has no
clue who or what may have happened to her son since she recieved the
post card. This will be dealt with slowly as I get closer to her first
appearance in the core story line, but I have some plans for her that
will alter her in strange ways.

Jedite had failed once to often and is now on the ropes with only one
more chance to live or die. How will he deal with this and what do the
other Generals think about his actions? They don't want to end up like
Jedite, but they want to have a chance to take on the Scouts as well,
how will this change things in the future? We'll just have to wait and
see...

Notes 2 -