DOKAN 4/Dokan 04.iso/Webs/www.bahamut.com/ranma/fanfics/lod6.txt

Text File | 1998-06-05 | 24KB | 555 lines

Lines Of Destiny

A Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 Crossover

By Louis-Philippe Giroux
<[e-mail]>

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



Chapter 6 (version 5.0)



Meanwhile, Ranma and Akane were making their way back to the Hikawa Shrine,
unaware of the reception they were going to have. The people occupying said
shrine were busy staring at what was supposed to be a picture of the
orignal incarnation of Mamoru's sister, Akana, who had also happened to be
Sailor Terra in the days of the Moon Kingdom.

"You're right, Ami. Except for the hair, she *does* look like a female
version of Ranma," said Makoto.

Akana could have been Ranma's sister. She had the same basic looks, only
with a feminine cast. The only thing that was truly different was her hair,
which had a flaming red color. Also different was the hairstyle: instead of
Ranma's pigtail, Akana wore her hair loose. It flowed down a bit past her
shoulders, a river of red as bright as Tuxedo Kamen's roses.

Mamoru gulped loudly without being aware of it. The girls watched as he
slowly raised his hand and tried to touch the hologram, to no avail.

"It's her," he whispered in awe. "She's definitely the one I've been having
dreams about recently."

Usagi felt a brief pang of jealousy at the thought of Mamoru dreaming of
another woman, but quickly dismissed the idea when she realized he was
talking about his sister. She turned to face her guardian cat. "Luna, is
there some chance Ranma might be a Senshi?" she asked. The other girls all
started at the question.

The black cat looked uncomfortable. "I don't think so, Usagi. The Senshi
were and still are all female. I never imagined that one of them might be
reincarnated as a man."

"Besides, Usagi-chan, I don't think he'd look very good in a Sailor fuku,"
deadpanned Makoto.

The comment ellicited a round of snickers that helped alleviate the
atmosphere.

Rei turned to Sailor Mercury. "Ami, why didn't you ever come up with this
picture before?"

"Well, I've never exactly had any reason to look for it before," replied
the blue-clad Sailor. Her computer suddenly beeped. "There are people
approaching the shrine, Rei."

Rei's eyes widened slightly. "Turn back to normal, Ami. It's probably Ranma
and Akane coming back and," her eyes narrowed, "he owes me an explanation
for the train station incident."

"You don't need to go on the warpath, Rei, I doubt he lied in order to
spite you or anything. He doesn't know you're a Sailor Senshi, so he was
probably just concerned about how you'd react if you learned he'd fought a
monster," said Ami calmly.

Rei deflated a little. "Maybe you're right, but I still want to know if
he's as powerful as you described him to be, and if he is, I want to know
how he does it."

Ami smiled. "So do I."

And so, they all moved outside the shrine to wait for Ranma and Akane.



Ranma-chan and Akane were getting close to the Hikawa Shrine, so Ranma
quickly poured the hot water he had gotten at the cafe on himself. The
usual change soon followed.

"Aaahh! It's good to be a guy again," Ranma said with a smile.

True to form, it couldn't last. Ranma was almost in front of the gate when
a bicyclist whizzed by Ranma and splashed him with the contents of a puddle
left there by the previous rainfall.

Ranma-chan frowned, disgusted. "I hate my life," she said in a depressed
voice.

Akane groaned. "What are we going to do now? You used all the hot water!"

Ranma-chan thought about it for a second. "Well, you could just go in the
shrine and smuggle out a cup of hot water while I wait outside," she
suggested.

Akane nodded. "I guess it's as good a plan as any." She turned around and
crossed to the gate. She had not taken three steps inside the gate before
she was confronted with the sight of a party of six girls and a young man
looking for all the world like they were expecting someone. Her gaze was
momentarily drawn to the shortest of the group.

Akane stopped dead in her tracks and a sweatdrop found its way on to the
back of her head. "Ano.. am I... interrupting something?"

Rei suddenly realized they all looked like a bunch of starving vultures
ready to dive on someone. "Oh, I'm sorry Akane-san, I was just saying
goodbye to my friends when we heard people near the gates." Rei looked
around, but didn't see Ranma. "Isn't Ranma with you?" she asked.

"He'll... be along shortly," Akane said slowly. She took a long look at the
group of girls and her eyes widened in recognition when she finally
realized where she had seen them before. They were the same girls from the
train station! She also belatedly realized that the young man was the one
who had sat across from them in the train. *Great!* she thought sourly.
*They're the only ones who really saw the fight at the train station and
they happen to be friends with Rei?* She felt a small hope flare. *Maybe
they don't remember me!*

"Well, don't mind me," Akane said in a falsely cheerful tone. "I'll just go
inside."

Akane had barely gotten past the group before Rei spoke again.

"Akane-san, my friends tell me you and Ranma were involved in a monster
attack at the train station today. Is this true?" asked the priestess.

Akane stopped and cursed inwardly. *Damn! Looks like we won't be able to
sweep this one under the rug. Oh well...* With her back still turned, she
said: "Well, the attack was quickly over, so it didn't seem really
important. You looked like you had better things to worry about than fret
over a monster attack."

Rei narrowed her eyes. *She's treating the attack almost as if it were a
walk in the park! Very strange...* But before she could ask her next
question...



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



Rei was a nanosecond away from asking her next question to Akane when she
noticed a second person walking through the gates. It took her a few
seconds to realize exactly *who* had just walked through the gates. She
blinked, not trusting her eyes. Slowly, she turned towards the other girls
to see their reactions and realized they were reacting much the same way
she was.

"Akana?" Mamoru blurted out incredulously, not believing his eyes.

The comment was enough to break the staring contest. Ranma-chan was the
first to snap out of it. "I'm Akane's *cousin*; my name's Ranko," she said,
startlement replaced by confusion. "*She's* Akane," said the redhead,
pointing towards her 'cousin'.

The shortest girl in the group, shook her head. "He didn't say 'Akane'; he
said 'Akana'."

"Well, I'm neither Akane or Akana, so you must have the wrong person,"
Ranma-chan said, looking at Mamoru. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop
herself from staring at Mamoru as well. *He's the guy who was sitting with
us in the train, but ... why does he look so familiar?...* Suddenly, for a
brief moment, an image, like a long-forgotten memory flashed in her mind in
which the young man in front of her was clad in a black and silver armor.
She was about to put a name to him when the fluttering memory vanished as
fast as it had appeared. She quickly shook her head.

No one noticed Akane tiptoeing inside the shrine. *Might as well get the
hot water while Ranma's distracting them,* she thought.

"Are you okay, ah... Ranko-san?" asked Mamoru.

"Yeah, it's just that for a second there, you reminded me of someone,
that's all."

"Who?" asked Hotaru, with what Ranma-chan detected as a hint of eagerness
in her voice

"And just *who* are... " Ranma-chan trailed off, her eyes widening. She
never finished her statement. Suddenly,an expression of pure, utter,
undescribable, unadulterated horror appeared on her face. A powerless young
virgin faced with a legion of horny tentacled demons would not have looked
so horrified. The girls were already halfway reaching for their henshin
sticks when they turned around to look at the gruesome horror whose sight
alone had frozen "Ranko".

The only things they saw were Artemis and Luna, who had come out of the
shrine. They were currently imitating the girls, in the way that they were
gawking (as much as a cat can gawk) at Ranma-chan.

Everyone (minus Ranma-chan) blinked. They turned back to Ranko, not
understanding what had her so frightened.

"C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAAAATTTS!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, pointing at the two cats.

Everyone blinked once again. It was the last thing they did before Ranko
took off at supersonic speed through the front gate and down the street.

Before they could react to that particular twist of events, Akane came
barrelling down the shrine steps, a water-filled glass in her hands. "What?
Where?!" she said looking left and right. She then spotted the two Moon
cats and sighed audibly. "Great, just great..." she muttered.

Rei looked at Akane, puzzlement painted all over her face. "Akane, what
just happened here?" asked the bewildered priestess.

Akane thought about it for a second. *If those cats are pets, Rei might as
well know the truth. Ranma will forgive me.* She headed out towards the
gate, intent on catching up with Ranma-chan. At the last second, she turned
around. "Ranko had a training accident when she was young and, as a result,
she freaks out every time she sees a cat." She looked pensive for a second
and added: "Ranma doesn't like people to know, but he has the exact same
fear, so if you don't want him to freak out when he gets back, you might
want to take those cats elsewhere." Without adding another word, she turned
back and ran away after Ranma-chan.

By the time Rei and the others moved to the gate, Akane was already long
gone.

Luna and Artemis slowly came back to their senses. "Excuse me," Artemis
asked in a confused tone, "But can someone tell us what just happened here
and who was that girl who looked so much like Akana?"

Everyone started speaking at the same time.



Akane managed to catch up with Ranma-chan a couple of blocks from the
Hikawa shrine. The pigtailed martial artist was slowly banging her head
against a wall, embarassment chiseled on her features. Akane rolled her
eyes and approached the young woman.

"You won't be able to get rid of your phobia that way, Ranma," she said
with a small smile.

Ranma-chan stopped pounding her head and looked at Akane. "It's just so
embarassing! Do you even realize how foolish I'll look now? How am I going
to explain to a group of high school girls, one of them who's my cousin,
why I got freaked by a couple of cats?"

"I think you're overreacting to all of this, Ranma."

Ranma looked at her with a flat look. "You're not the one who runs for the
hills each time a cat crosses your path."

Akane sighed. "Just before I left to come after you, I told them about your
phobia, Ranma."

"You did *what*?"

"Look, Ranma," Akane said, her tone rising, "If those cats happen to be
Rei's pets, she needs to know about your phobia. Besides, the other girls
would've asked questions anyway, so I told them."

It was Ranma-chan's turn to sigh. "What exactly *did* you tell them?"

"I told them you and your male form had a training accident when you were
young and as a result, you developed a fear of cats."

"Why did you tell them I was afraid as a guy, too?" Ranma almost cried out.

Akane merely looked at Ranma, not saying a word.

"Right, right, I guess it couldn't be helped. They would've found out soon
enough, ne?" Ranma closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then opened
them up again and looked at the glass of water in Akane's hands. "Is that
hot water?" she asked.

"It's not boiling, but at least it's warm enough to change you back." She
smiled. "I guess that was the one good thing about all of this; it allowed
me to get the hot water while everyone was staring at you." Her smile faded
a little. "By the way, why *were* they staring at you like that? They were
acting as if they'd seen a ghost."

Ranma-chan took the water and poured it over her head. He shook his damp
head. "I'm not sure," he said. He thought for a couple of seconds. "Akane,
did you notice that the guy who was there was the same one as on the
train?"

Akane nodded. "And the other girls were the ones you pushed me towards at
the train station."

Ranma shook his head slowly. "I told you we shouldn't have tried to hide
the fight."

Akane opened her mouth to protest, but Ranma forestalled her protests. "Let
me finish first," he said. His wife settled back, looking a bit unhappy.
"Akane, did you notice anything strange about the guy from the train? Did
he remind you of anyone?" Ranma asked.

Akane blinked. "No... not really," she said slowly. "Why?"

Ranma looked introspective. "I can't help feeling I've seen him somewhere
before. Not like having seen him before in a street or something, but it's
like I remember him from a really long time ago... "

It was Akane's turn to shake her head. "Sorry, but he doesn't really remind
me of anyone. The only one who looks familiar to me is the little one with
the purple eyes." Ranma raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Ranma and Akane looked at each other for a few seconds then shrugged in
unison.

"Oh well, we'll sort it out later. Right now, I suppose we'd better head
back to the shrine and face the welcoming party," concluded Ranma with a
wry smile.

Akane smiled back and they headed once more towards the Hikawa Shrine, hand
in hand.



At the shrine, a healthy disussion was under way. Mamoru, the two Moon cats
and the girls were waiting for the return of Ranma, Akane and Ranko. Mamoru
was still a little shocked at having seen the girl from his dreams - his
long-lost sister - appear out of nowhere and leave just as quickly. The
other girls had just been plain frazzled by the "apparition". They had just
finished explaining what had happened to Luna and Artemis.

"So she said she was Akane's cousin?" asked Artemis.

The girls nodded. "That's what she said before she ran away," said Hotaru.

Mamoru suddenly spoke up. "I need to find her."

Everyone, especially Usagi, turned towards him.

"I need to find her," he repeated. "I'm positive she's the girl from my
dreams and before she took off, she mentioned I looked familiar."

"Mamoru," Luna said diplomatically. "You realize this might just be a freak
encounter?"

Mamoru stared at Luna with what could almost pass as hostility before
calming down. "Maybe," he said, "But I intend to find out."

Minako broke the awkward silence that followed, taking the opportunity to
change the subject. "I still don't really understand why she freaked out
like that when she saw Luna and Artemis," she wondered out loud. She turned
towards Ami. "Do you really think a training accident could've done that,
Ami?"

The resident genius took on a slightly lecturing tone. "Her case is very
unusual. I've heard of cases in which a patient who's been traumatized by
an animal, develops an irrational fear of that animal afterwards. However,
I've never heard of a case like hers. If her fear *is* due to a training
accident, the trauma must have been considerable in order for her to react
like that. The best thing is to ask her about it when she comes back."

"Do you really think Ranma has the same fear as her? He sure didn't look
afraid when he trashed the daimon at the train station today," said Usagi.

Ami shrugged slightly. "It's possible. We can ask him when he comes back.
In the meantime, I suggest Luna and Artemis go hide somewhere before Ranma
comes back, just to be sure."

The two cats reluctantly went to hide in a couple of bushes.

"Speak of the devil..." said Makoto.



Ranma (still male) and Akane walked in the gate and found the girls sitting
on the steps leading to the shrine. While most of them looked at him with
varying degrees of surprise, Ranma noticed that the young man looked
somewhat disappointed.

"Ranma, Akane!" said Rei. "Did you find Ranko?"

"She bowled me over when she was running away from here," said Ranma. "She
decided to go straight home instead of taking another chance with the
cats." He then started looking nervously around him. "You're sure they're
gone?"

"They're Minako and Usagi's pets," Rei said, indicating the two girls with
a nod of the head. "Don't worry, they're gone." Ranma heaved a sigh of
relief. Rei almost couldn't believe Ranma's reaction. "Would you mind
explaining why you and Ranko are so afraid of cats?"

Ranma looked at the group of girls before him. "Before I tell you, none of
this goes anywhere, understand?" He waited until everyone had nodded. Ranma
lowered his head and sighed. "You know about dad training me in martial
arts when I was very young, don't you?" Rei nodded. "Well, he trained
Ranko, too. When I was ten years old, dad decided Ranko and I were old
enough to learn a special kind of martial arts... the Neko-ken."

Ami made a mental note to look up anything she could find on this style,
while Makoto was shaking her head at the thought of anyone learning special
martial arts techniques at that age.

Ranma continued. "The Neko-ken was supposed to be an extremely powerful
style. To train us in it, dad wrapped us from head to toe in fish sausage
and dropped us in a pit full of starving cats. Needless to say, the cats
didn't ask before tearing the food off us."

Everyone (save Akane) gasped. "But... that's insane!" blurted out Ami.
"What were you possibly supposed to learn that way?"

Rei shook her head. "I can't believe Uncle Genma would do something like
that!"

Ranma looked hard at her. "Believe it, Rei! There aren't a lot of things my
father wouldn't have done to teach me martial arts."

Usagi interrupted. "It mustn't have been pleasant for you and Ranko, but at
least it only happened once."

Ranma slowly turned to look at her. "Who says he only did it once?"

Everyone gulped. Ranma continued. "When the first time didn't yield any
positive results, he covered us in fish sausage again and tossed us back in
the cat pit. And again, and again, and again... Eventually we snapped and
went insane," Ranma said emotionlessly.

By then, everyone was looking at Ranma with some degree of pity. Even Luna
and Artemis, hidden in the bushes, winced in sympathy.

"Still, you look sane enough to me," Minako said in a bright voice.

*Geez,* thought Usagi. *And I thought I was the one who was tactless...*

Before the other girls could tell Minako to shut up, Ranma smiled wryly.
"Fortunately for us, the insanity was only temporary. An old lady managed
to snap us out of it. It turns out that we were finally able to use the
legendary Neko-ken, but at the cost of our sanity. Since that day, whenever
Ranko or I see a cat, we freak out and we can't help it. It can become
quite dangerous if we're exposed to a cat for any length of time."

"What does that mean, exactly?" asked Ami.

"We end up accessing the Neko-ken. If that should ever happen, you'd better
pray Akane's nearby or run for your lives, because at that point, Akane is
the only one who can bring us out of it," Ranma said. *Well, there's also a
very good chance that being splashed with cold water might do it, but I'm
not about to tell them that.*

"You can't possibly be *that* dangerous, can you?" asked Minako with a
small, nervous smile.

Ranma merely looked at Minako and raised an eyebrow. "You were at the train
station this afternoon, ne? *You* decide how dangerous I could be if I were
several times faster and stronger with no control over what I did."

While Akane scowled at the mention of the train station incident, Minako
remembered what Ranma had done at the train station and wisely decided to
shut up. Rei, however, was not so easily deterred.

"Ranma, would you mind explaining how you trashed a monster at the train
station?" asked the young priestess.

"Why is this so important to you, Rei?" asked Ranma.

Rei was only stumped for a second. "Because you could've been hurt!" she
decided. She couldn't very well tell him she had a more... professional
interest in the matter, now, could she?

Ranma snorted. "Rei, I've been training in martial arts since the day I
could stand up without falling. I've faced a lot worse than that monster,
trust me." Ranma stopped when he saw Akane's expression turning red.

*Stupid macho bravado,* Rei thought. "Well next time, leave it to the
Sailor Senshi, okay? They're better equipped than you are to face these
monsters."

"You mean they're actually real? Anyway, people could have been hurt by
that monster and I didn't see those Sailor Senshi anywhere, so I took care
of it. Don't worry about me, Rei. I can take care of myself."

"What about the energy blast? I'm quite curious as to how you did that."
asked Ami.

Ranma decided enough was enough. "That was a Ki-blast," he said. "Now, If
you'll excuse me, Akane and I need to get some sleep if we're going to wake
up early for registration tomorrow." Akane and Ranma got up and went inside
the shrine.

*He can manipulate his Ki?* thought Rei, incredulously.

"Wait!" yelled Mamoru. Ranma and Akane stopped. "I'd like to speak to Ranko
again soon, if possible."

Ranma frowned almost imperceptibly. "Why?" he asked.

"She reminds me of... someone. I'd just like to talk to her, that's all."

Ranma thought about it for a couple of seconds. *Mmmhh, if I let him meet
'Ranko', I might be able to find out why he looks so familiar,* he thought.
"I'll let her know," he said out loud.

"Thank you," said Mamoru.

Akane was nearly inside the shrine when she turned around. "Excuse me, but
what's your name?" she asked Hotaru.

Hotaru's eyes widened slightly. "I'm Hotaru Tomoe, Akane-san," she said.

Akane narrowed her eyes slightly, examining Hotaru. "Have you ever been in
the Nerima area, Hotaru?"

Hotaru blinked. "No, why?"

Akane shook her head. "It's nothing, I guess. It's just that... I thought
I'd seen you somewhere before, that's all," she said ruefuelly.

She turned back around and went inside with Ranma before she could see
Hotaru staring at her, eyes wide open. *She remembers?...*

Just then, a yellow sportscar came close to the gate and stopped to reveal
Haruka. "Hotaru! It's time to go back home," she called out. She blinked
when she noticed everyone's expressions, from Rei's puzzlement, to Mamoru's
slightly anguished expression. Hotaru's features were in the process of
acquiring a nervous twitch. "What happened here?" she asked. "Hotaru, are
you all right?"

Hotaru snapped out of the daze she was in. Barely. "I'll tell you all about
it on the way home, Haruka-papa," she said numbly.

Haruka, seeing as she wasn't going to have any answers from the Inner
Senshi, who seemed to be ignoring her for some reason, shrugged and got
back into the car with Hotaru. "Michiru and I had an interesting evening
too," she said. "I'll tell you about it on the way."

Just before she closed the door, Haruka heard Minako and Usagi scream in
unison: "LOOK AT THE TIME! MY PARENTS ARE GONNA KILL ME!". Haruka shook her
head and closed the door.



Author's notes

"Henshin sticks" are more commonly referred in fanfics as "transformation
pens".

Thanks to everyone who sent typo corrections and everything!



End Chapter 6

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