DOKAN 4/Dokan 04.iso/Webs/www.bahamut.com/ranma/fanfics/lod7.txt

Text File | 1998-06-05 | 84KB | 1,910 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 7 (version 3.5 - multiple typo corrections)



Haruka was driving back at a comfortable speed (at least for her) back to
the apartment she and Michiru shared with Hotaru and Setsuna. Watching out
of the corner of her eye, she noticed Hotaru had been strangely silent
since she'd picked her up at Rei's temple.

"Is there something wrong, Hotaru-chan?" she asked.

The question seemed to shake Hotaru out of whatever daze she was in.
"Haruka-papa, I... I think I might have found my brother," she said
hesitantly.

Haruka blinked. "Your... brother?" she asked slowly. "Hotaru-chan, you
don't *have* a brother!"

"Not in *this* life, but I had a brother in the days of the Silver
Millennium."

Haruka blinked again and tried to keep her eyes on the road. "Hotaru-chan,
would you mind explaining this to me a little more?"

Hotaru let out a small sigh. "Well, it all started when we went to greet
Mamoru at the train station..."



While Haruka and Hotaru were heading back, Michiru decided to try and find
out a little more about the mysterious redhead from the restaurant. Pulling
out the Aqua Mirror from its subspace pocket, she concentrated on
Ranma-chan's image. Mere seconds later, Ranma-chan appeared on the Mirror.

*Then* things started to get strange.

Ranma-chan's image started to waver and was suddenly replaced by Ranma's.
Michiru became puzzled, as she had never met Ranma before.

*Who is he?* Michiru wondered. *And what is his connection to Ranko, aside
from the fact that he looks very much like her, that is.*

All of a sudden the image switched back to Ranma-chan, but this time, a
smiling Mamoru appeared behind Ranma-chan, a hand on her right shoulder.
Michiru became even more perplexed.

"Mamoru-san?..." she wondered out loud. A memory started gnawing at her
from the back of her mind. Something about Ranko and Mamoru... No, not
Ranko... Akana?

Before Michiru could ponder this new development further, Mamoru's image
disappeared from the mirror and Ranma-chan was suddenly back-to-back with
Ranma. Two seconds later, the image slowly disappeared.

Michiru was surprised. *Something's interfering with the Mirror?* She
waited for a few seconds, but the mirror stubbornly refused to let her have
any more images. She sighed and looked up. It seemed it wasn't going to be
as easy as she had thought. Michiru then closed her eyes for a second.

If she hadn't, she might have seen the Mirror flickering for a fraction of
a second, showing a red-headed girl in Senshi garb...



Haruka and Hotaru had finally arrived at their apartment. They got out of
the car, Hotaru still talking about what had transpired earlier today.

"... we were expecting Ranma, but instead, this girl called Ranko arrived
with Akane."

Haruka looked up sharply at the name. "Did you say Ranko?" she asked.

Hotaru seemed a bit surprised by Haruka's sudden interest. She wanted to
tell Haruka about Akane, not Ranko. "Uh... yes, why?"

"Did she happen to have red hair?" pressed Haruka.

Hotaru's eyes widened. "How did you know?"

Haruka's eyes narrowed slightly. "If she's who I think she is, Michiru and
I met her in a small cafe this evening." She paused. "She has some...
interesting talents."

"Well, Ranma trashed a daimon at the train station and he *did* say that
they had both trained together, so it makes sense, doesn't it?" said
Hotaru.

Haruka gave a slight smile. "I'm going to want to meet this Ranma,
someday."

They entered the apartment, only to find Michiru sitting on a couch,
looking pensive.

Haruka immediately noticed this. "Michiru, is there something wrong?" she
asked in a slightly concerned voice.

Michiru looked up to Haruka. "The Mirror won't give me a straight answer,
Haruka," she said in a puzzled tone of voice.

Hotaru blinked. "What are you using the Mirror for?"

"We're investigating someone we met in a cafe earlier this evening," said
Michiru. "A girl who calls herself Ranko."

"You're using the Mirror to probe Ranko-san?" asked Hotaru.

It was Michiru's turn to blink. "Hotaru-chan, you know this 'Ranko'?"

"We met her today at the Hikawa Shrine, but only for a short while."

"What was she doing there?"

"Well, she came back with Akane-san and Mamoru thinks she's..."

"Akane? As in Saotome Akane?" interrupted Michiru.

"Yeah! She's Ranma-san's wife." Hotaru saw Michiru about to ask the
inevitable next question. "Before you ask, Ranma-san is Rei's cousin," she
said.

Haruka was watching all the by-play with increasing annoyance. "Time out!"
she said, sounding exasperated.

Michiru and Hotaru looked at her with raised eyebrows.

Haruka blushed faintly. "Sorry, Michiru, but maybe you should hear Hotaru's
story completely before starting with the questions. She knows more about
the situation than we do."

Michiru cracked a smile. "I forgive you," she said sweetly. She turned to
Hotaru. "Maybe you'll be able to explain what I saw in the Mirror."

"So you *did* see something," stated Haruka.

Michiru nodded to Haruka and Hotaru started repeating the events of the day
for the second time. She was eager to tell them about Akana.



Back at the Hikawa Shrine, Ami, Makoto, Mamoru and the cats had left
shortly after Usagi and Minako's sudden departure. They had promised each
other to look a little more into Ranma's situation later, since Ranma
didn't look too inclined to undergo a questioning session. Ranma and Akane
were getting ready to go to sleep when Rei knocked on their door. Ranma
opened the door and saw Rei standing there with a thoughtful expression.

"Is there a problem, Rei?" he asked.

Rei gave herself a small mental shake. "I just want to ask you one question
before you go to bed, Ranma."

Ranma almost raised an eyebrow, but shrugged instead. "Shoot," he said.

Rei's left eyebrow twitched and she smiled a little. "Odd choice of words,
Ranma," she said.

Ranma gave a questioning glance.

"You said you used a Ki-blast against a monster at the train station,
right?"

Ranma sighed and nodded.

"How exactly did you do that?"

Ranma said nothing and raised his right hand so that his palm faced
upwards. He concentrated and a baseball-size sphere of blue-white Ki formed
in Ranma's hand. "Like this, only much bigger," he said simply. He then
noticed Rei was gawking.

Rei couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had heard legends that the
best martial arts masters could use their Ki to do what Ranma was doing
with apparently little effort. Rei herself was no stranger to Ki. In fact,
she knew she used her Ki when she did fire readings and she had suspected
for a while that the Senshi's attacks were based on Ki as well, but when
she thought about the necessary skill for a non-Senshi to produce a
Ki-blast... If Ranma could summon a Ki sphere so easily, it meant he had an
extremely powerful spiritual strength.

Rei noticed Ranma's expression and realized she was gawking. Chiding
herself mentally, she quickly regained her composure and she looked at
Ranma. "May I?" she asked, pointing to the glowing ball.

Ranma blinked. "Ehh... sure..." he trailed off. He didn't exactly know what
Rei was planning to do, but he got ready to dissipate the Ki-sphere at a
moment's notice. He hoped she would hurry. Holding a Ki-sphere in place,
even a small one, was somewhat harder than shooting one away.

Rei put her right hand approximately an inch above the Ki-sphere and closed
her eyes. Her spiritual training allowed her to easily feel the power of
the sphere and through the sphere, Ranma's aura.

She fought back a shudder.

Rei was shocked to realize that Ranma was only now starting to strain in
maintaining the sphere. *How can he possibly manipulate his Ki so easily?
He formed that sphere as easily as Sailor Jupiter does her Sparkling Wide
Pressure attack.* Now she understood why he'd seemed so unconcerned about
the attack at the train station. "Incredible..." she whispered.

Ranma nearly blushed at Rei's compliment and dissipated the Ki-sphere.

Rei felt the sphere disappear and took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
She needed to think about this. "I'm very impressed, Ranma," she said
honestly. "I'll look forward to seeing what else you can do." With that,
she gave a small bow and left before Ranma could say anything. Ranma might
be a bit arrogant, but she knew talent when she saw it and she respected
talent.

Ranma looked at his hand and shrugged faintly. *Oh well...*

Akane, who had watched and heard the scene between the two cousins,
approached Ranma. "I hope she won't go babbling that all away."

"What if she does?" asked Ranma.

His wife sighed and took a deep breath. "Ranma, each time you show off your
abilities, someone hears about it, comes around, challenges you and usually
makes a mess out of our lives. We're married, Ranma. There aren't any other
suitors; Mousse, Shampoo and Cologne are back in China and we haven't heard
anything about Happosai since the first wedding attempt. Why can't you
leave it at that?" There was a noticeable tone of pleading in the last
sentence.

Ranma's features softened. "All right, Akane. I *promise* I'll try not to
do anything that could deliberately attract unwanted attention. "*But*, if
some monster shows up and tries to kill me like this afternoon, I make no
promises."

Akane sighed and smiled wearily. "I guess it's the best I can expect from
you, ne?" She turned around and looked the two futons, which were about two
feet apart. She looked back at Ranma and raised an eyebrow.

Ranma grinned. "How about a compromise..." he started.



Back at the apartment, Hotaru had just been put to sleep, but Haruka and
Michiru were deep in thought, digesting what Hotaru had told them and
correlating it with what they knew.

"Do you think Ranko *is* Mamoru's reincarnated sister?" asked Haruka after
a while.

"I think she might very well be. You heard Hotaru-chan describe
Mamoru-san's reaction. She told us that he said he's been having dreams
about his sister and then this person who looks exactly like her shows up.
Not only that, but whoever Ranko really is, she also has a very close link
to Ranma."

"You couldn't tell anything more from the Mirror?" asked Haruka.

"I'm afraid not," said Michiru. She had tried to summon more images of
Ranko and the young man, but all she could get were bare glimpses.
Something was interfering with the Mirror. Whatever it was, it had to be
very strong to counteract the Mirror and it centered only around Ranko and
the young man. Michiru then had an idea. She managed to do a decent sketch
of the face of the young man she had seen in the Mirror (not an extremely
hard feat for her). Hotaru had wasted no time in recognizing Ranma. This
had put a new spin on the puzzle that represented Ranko and Ranma.

"I still don't know what to make of Akane, though," said Haruka. "Hotaru
seems *very* convinced she's her reincarnated brother."

Michiru sighed. She remembered her quick conversation with Akane at the
cafe. "Well at least she seems like a nice enough person. Time will tell, I
guess. I just hope Hotaru won't accidentally say something important to
Akane."

"Hotaru has good judgment," said Haruka confidently. "Speaking of time, did
you hear anything about Setsuna?"

"Not as of yet, I'm afraid, but then, Setsuna often does things like this,
so I guess we should be used to it by now," Michiru said.

"Oh well, I guess we should at least tell Mamoru about Ranko, ne?" asked
Haruka.

"We can tell him tomorrow. Right now, I just want to go to sleep," said
Michiru with a yawn.

Haruka grinned. She scooped Michiru in her arms and took her in the
bedroom.



That night, Ranma and Akane had interesting, if disturbing, dreams.

Ranma's dreams were plagued by the mysterious girl from the previous
nights. He was standing on a dreamscape, the girl in front of him. Ranma
was growing increasingly annoyed with this dream, for no matter how close
he came to her face, he couldn't make out her features. Annoyed, he turned
back, only to be faced with a young man in black and silver armor, his face
shaded as well. Ranma looked on, puzzled, as the girl and the young man
walked towards one another. When they finally got within arms reach, the
girl jumped up and hugged the young man.

Tired of being ignored (he somehow knew that he was in the middle of a
dream), Ranma walked up to the couple. "Hey! Who *are* you people anyway?!"

Both figures suddenly turned and, while the image of the young man's face
barely cleared enough to allow a general outline of the facial traits, the
young woman's face cleared more than enough for Ranma to recognize it.
Then, a symbol flared on each of their foreheads, blinding him.

Ranma woke up immediately. The face of the girl he had just seen... He knew
it very well. After all, he'd seen it in mirrors more times than he had
ever wished. It was the face of his female side.

*What the hell was that???* he wondered. *That girl was my female side?
Ugh! I hope I'm not having fantasies about my female side. Maybe Akane's
right. Maybe I _am_ a pervert.* He shook his head. *And who the hell is the
other guy and why is he so familiar?*

Shaking his head a little, he turned his head towards Akane, who still
seemed to be fast asleep. Before going to sleep, Ranma had suggested a
compromise in sleeping arrangements: they put the two futons together, but
agreed no to do anything else until they were in their own apartment. Ranma
looked at Akane with a slightly troubled expression. *I hope she's not
having dreams that are as weird as mine.* He turned slightly to peer at the
small alarm clock they had brought with them and noticed he still had
several hours of sleep to go. Falling back onto his futon, Ranma tried to
clear his mind as much as possible before trying to fall back asleep.



Unfortunately, Akane she was having an equally strange dream of her own.
She found herself standing in front of the girl she had seen in a previous
dream. This time, the girl, whose features were slightly blurred, was
wearing an Silver Millennium-era dress (*How did I know that?* she briefly
wondered) and now seemed to be staring straight at Akane. Suddenly, the
girl smiled (though it was a bit hard to make out with the blurred
features) and walked towards Akane, who could now make out some kind of
glowing symbol on the girl's forehead, almost like a stylized "h".

Suddenly, it was as if a figure who had been standing in Akane's position
had decided to move forward. Startled, Akane took a step backwards and
looked at the figure who had quite literally stepped out of her. Although
she could only see him from behind at the moment, she could tell he was
approximately her height and he had a build that spoke of years of hard
work. He was wearing an odd uniform, almost like some guard's, mused Akane.
He also had a mean-looking war hammer strapped to the belt of his uniform.

When the girl and the young man were approximately six feet away from each
other, they ran forward and hugged each other.

It was then that Akane distractedly noticed she was holding her own hammer,
which she couldn't remember summoning. She was spared further puzzling
about her hammer when the young man turned towards her and took exactly the
same stance as Akane, hammer in hand. Akane got her first good look at the
young man and started. Except for the obvious musculature, the braided hair
and hardened face, the young man looked a lot like her.

"Who are you?" she asked. She absently noticed that there was no echo to
her voice.

The young man had exactly the same stance and expression as Akane, but did
not move.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" she asked, becoming annoyed. "Who are you!?"
she repeated

This time, while the young man was still mimicking Akane's facial
expression, he raised his right arm and pointed to Akane.

"You," he said, and Akane woke up.

Disoriented, she noticed that Ranma was sleeping besides her. *Geez, that
was a weird dream for sure...*, she thought. Unlike Ranma, though, she
didn't give it any more thought and quickly went back to sleep.



Meanwhile, Mamoru and Hotaru were having dreams of their own.

Mamoru was dreaming of Akana again. It was exactly like his previous
dreams, although he could now see Akana's image clearly and he now knew she
was his sister. He remembered bits and pieces of his life on Earth, how he
used to practice with his sister, meeting young Serenity...

Unlike Akane and Ranma, Mamoru didn't wake up.



Hotaru dreamt about her previous life in the Silver Millenium, how she used
to help her brother around the house until the fateful day when Saturn
chose her as its avatar. She remembered how people she knew shied away from
her, because of who she was, because of what she represented.

But above all, she remembered her brother, who had always found time to
speak with her, to listen to her plights and comfort her until the day he
disappeared without a trace. She remembered coming to the Moon after
Metallia's attack only to find their home destroyed.

Hotaru didn't wake up, but tears of mourning and despair did fall down her
cheeks.



The next morning, Ranma awoke to the irritating sound of a portable alarm
clock, dreams of the previous night forgotten. Ranma was vaguely surprised
that the small device had actually managed to wake him up, but he chalked
it up to the fact that he knew that he had too much of an important day
ahead of him to let himself sleep through it.

Nudging Akane, he whispered in her ear: "Wake up, otemba-chan."

The taunt had the desired effect. Akane opened one eye and looked at Ranma.
"What did you call me?" she said in a flat voice that was partly muffled by
the pillow that had taken residence in front of her mouth.

"Otemba-chan," he repeated with a grin.

Akane's only visible eyebrow twitched. *Two can play at that game,* she
thought. "That's what I thought I heard, baka-kun."

Ranma decided to take the bait. This might be fun. "Well, are you getting
up today or tomorrow, baka-sempai?" he teased.

Akane got up and looked at Ranma with a radiant smile. *Getting creative,
are you? You won't beat me that easily, Ranma,* she thought amusedly. "You
must have confused me with Tatewaki, baka-sama," she said, not losing her
smile for a second.

Ranma went red for a second, silently acknowledging Akane's hit. *And she
fights back! But can she beat _this_?* thought Ranma. "Well, why don't you
get ready for our morning practice, baka-megami-sama?"

Akane briefly considered hitting him through the roof, but decided it would
be impolite since they were guests in Rei's temple. Besides, they had just
gotten married. She still felt way too good to justify a pounding this
early in the morning. She settled by sniffing at him and looking the other
way. "Baka-megami-sama, eh? No fun for you tonight, mister!"

Ranma's eyes opened wide. Akane had her back turned to him and had a wide
grin plastered on her face. She listened to Ranma apologizing to her for
the two following minutes before she turned around and planted a kiss on
Ranma's lips before he could wonder what was going on.

When Akane stopped kissing him, Ranma decided that she was the one who had
won after all.



A few minutes later, Ranma and Akane were standing face-to-face in the
temple's yard, Akane clad in her traditional gi and Ranma wearing his
everyday black pants and red shirt.

"Remember your promise, Ranma! I want this to be real practice!" said
Akane.

Ranma waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Let's see what you can do, then."

Akane smiled and rushed Ranma *I _have_ learned a few things from you...*
she thought.

Rei had gotten up some time ago and was preparing a ritual in front of the
fire when she heard fighting sounds coming from the yard. She nearly used
her henshin stick out of reflex when she remembered that Ranma and Akane
had said that they'd be practicing in the yard. She glanced at a clock to
confirm the time and was surprised to see that it was unusually early for
martial art practice. Remembering the previous day's conversations about
Ranma's skill, she headed outside.

She was greeted by what shouldn't have been an unusual sight, but was. She
expected to see Ranma and Akane sparring the way Makoto did sometimes, but
she was instead treated to what could easily have passed as an acrobatics
show. Akane was a whirlwind of punches and kicks while Ranma was
practically dancing around the blows.

Akane was concentrating. So far, Ranma had been behaving exactly as she had
thought he would. Namely, he'd only been dodging her blows and hadn't
attacked. Time to let him see how unpredictable she had become. As she
completed a series of punches, instead of simply throwing a last punch, she
retrieved her mallet from its resting place and swung it at full speed
toward Ranma's face.

Meanwhile Ranma was becoming impressed with Akane. *She _has_ been
practicing! She's a lot better than the last time I sparred with her!*
Guiltily, he realized that he was to blame for that, for he had not tried
to initiate any kind of sparring session with her lately. Busy with his
thoughts, Ranma hadn't realized that he had kept standing about an inch
away from her strikes, not bothering to dodge to the side. That might be
why he didn't move in time when Akane's hammer suddenly made contact with
his face.

Rei watched in shock as Ranma was clocked with a hammer Akane had gotten
out of seemingly nowhere. Ranma, stunned, was thrown back several feet and
Akane wasted no time in continuing her offensive, minus hammer, this time.

At the very least, Akane's hammer strike managed to shake Ranma out of his
stupor, if only to daze him again. Ranma had to parry the next two blows
(he couldn't dodge too well) when he saw Akane wearing a wide grin while
punching him.

"Come on, Ranma! Fight me!" shouted Akane.

Ranma smirked and Akane quickly found herself moving on the defensive.
Ranma was pleasantly surprised to see that Akane had a relatively good
defense. Of course, even without the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, he could
still overwhelm her, but then, there were very few people against whom such
a move wouldn't be overkill.

Rei watched as Akane managed to slip a few attacks now and then, but still
found herself staying mainly on the defensive. Rei then realized that Ranma
had received a hammer strike (*_Where_ did she get that hammer?*) that
would have felled most people but had barely fazed him. She also realized
that Makoto, whom she considered to be a good martial artist, probably
wouldn't stand a chance against Ranma and would probably meet her match
with Akane, who appeared to be an excellent martial artist in her own
right, despite being forced on the defensive by Ranma's relentless attacks.

Rei decided to ask them a few questions. "Break!" she said. Ranma and Akane
both blinked at the unexpected command and turned around to see Rei in her
priestess robes looking at them.

"Is there a problem, Rei?" asked Ranma.

"Well, not exactly," said Rei. "I just wanted to know what kind of fighting
style that was. I don't think I've ever seen two people fighting like
that."

"That was the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu. I'm not surprised you didn't recognize
it. There aren't a lot of practitioners of that style around," said Ranma,
grinning.

"It looked like several other styles mixed together."

"It kind of is; practitioners of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu must always be
able to adapt to any fighting style."

Rei had a wry smile. "You mean like getting slugged by a hammer?"

Akane smirked and Ranma rubbed his cheek, where an imprint of the hammer
was still evident. "Yeah... kind of, I guess." He turned to Akane. "What
was the big deal with the hammer, anyway? You've never used it in practice
matches before."

Akane looked smug. "You just said that practitioners of the Musabetsu
Kakuto Ryuu must be ready to adapt to anything. A great martial arts master
like yourself should have seen it coming a mile away, especially after all
the times you fought with Mousse. Consider it a punishment for not taking
me seriously at the beginning."

"Mousse?" Rei said incredulously. "You fought against hair care products?"

"A Chinese Hidden Weapons expert. Reeeaaallly long story, Rei, trust me,"
said Ranma quickly. He changed the subject. "Thanks for stopping us anyway,
Rei. We really ought to have breakfast now if we want to get to
registration early today."

*Oh well,* thought Rei. *I can always wait a little longer before asking
him more questions.* She motioned towards the temple. "Help yourselves in
the kitchen. I still have a few things to do."

"Thanks, Rei," said Ranma.

Akane's eyes lit up. "Do you want me to fix something up for you, Ranma?"

Rei watched, puzzled, as Ranma became distinctly uncomfortable before her
eyes.

"Err... Akane, I don't think that'll be necessary," said Ranma, trying to
prevent another poisoning session. Akane's temper might have mellowed out
in recent months, but her cooking still left much to be desired.

Akane's smiled faded a little. "Why not? I wanted to cook breakfast!"

Ranma thought fast. She wasn't angry yet; he could still salvage this.
"Aahh.. Look at yourself, Akane! You're all sweaty! You need to take a bath
before we go to the university. I'll cook us up something while you go take
your bath."

"Oh, all right, then," replied Akane, not pursuing the subject.

*Thank you Kami-sama! She didn't object!* A part of his mind idly noticed
that instead of proclaiming that she would make his lunch, she'd asked him
about it first. How odd...

Ranma waited until Akane turned around and went inside the shrine before
releasing a deep sigh of relief.

"Is there something I should know, Ranma?" asked Rei, coming up behind him.

He turned around. "Rei, whatever you do, you shouldn't *ever* let Akane
cook a meal for you or for anyone you care for."

"Ranma, I may not know her like you do, but you sound a bit too harsh about
her cooking abilities."

"Rei, you don't understand! She *very* rarely happens to cook edible stuff.
Ask her family!" Rei had to strain a little to hear, but she heard Ranma
grumble: "I could swear that some of her meals came alive once..."

Rei looked at Ranma in the eyes with a
"Do-You-Really-Expect-Me-To-Believe-That?" look. "Ranma, stop exaggerating!
She's your wife for Kami-sama's sake! Don't you feel ashamed saying things
like that about her?"

Ranma shook his head. "Not when it doesn't change the fact that she can't
cook. Her cooking isn't quite so bad anymore, but that's only because I'm
the one she usually feeds it to. She might have gotten better, or maybe I'm
just slowly becoming immune to it. You'll just have to trust me on this
one, Rei."

Rei shook her head at Ranma's somewhat passionate speech and went back
inside the shrine, followed by Ranma.

"So when are you leaving for your registration at Mizuharo University?"
asked Rei when they were back inside.

"As soon as we've finished eating," replied Ranma. "Akane and I don't want
to be stuck waiting in line for hours to get our courses."

"I never got around to asking you this, but what *are* you going to study?"

"Well, I'm going to study physical education to become a certified sensei
since I'm the heir to the family's dojo and Akane chose to study acting,
though Nabiki and I keep telling her she'd be far more skilled at
chemistry."

"Why chemistry and who's Nabiki?"

"Remember what I said about her cooking?" Ranma ignored Rei's eyebrow
twitch. "As for Nabiki... she's one of Akane's sisters and a first rank
extortionist. Don't ever make a deal with her; your life will be much
easier that way, trust me."

Rei raised another eyebrow. "Is she *really* that bad?"

Ranma looked thoughtful for a moment. "Nah... She's usually much worse."

Rei looked at him with a strange expression, which bordered disbelief.
*What kind of life does he lead anyway?* Suddenly, she remembered
something. "Oh, Ranma, before I forget, my grandfather and Yuuichiro may
come back today, so don't be surprised if you see them. I'll leave them a
note to tell them you're here."

"No problem," said Ranma.



Barely half an hour later, Ranma and Akane had left the Hikawa Shrine and
were on their way to Mizuharo University. A few minutes after their
departure, Ami and Makoto stopped by the Shrine to check up on things with
Rei before she left for her own school.

"So, learn anything new, Rei?" asked Makoto.

Rei sighed. "Lots of things. I'll tell you all about it this afternoon."
She looked at Ami, then Makoto. "Wait a minute, if you're both here, then
who's going to pick up Usagi at her house?"

Makoto waved it aside. "Minako said she'd take care of it today."

Rei looked uncertain for a moment, then shrugged.

Aino Minako and Tsukino Usagi earned detention for being late to class that
day.



At Haruka and Michiru's apartment, Hotaru woke up first, only to find
Setsuna and Chibi-Usa in the kitchen.

"Setsuna-mama! Chibi-Usa-chan! You're back!" said Hotaru, hugging Setsuna
and Chibi-Usa in turn.

"Anything happen while I was away?" asked Setsuna, smiling.

Hotaru bravely resisted the overwhelming urge to face-fault. She turned to
Chibi-Usa. "How come you're not at Usagi's house?"

"I only arrived half an hour ago," Chibi-Usa answered. "I was on my way to
Mama's house, but I saw Puu on my way there so I decided to come here with
her instead." She looked at a clock on the wall. "But maybe I should be
going, now. I still need to use Luna-P to hypnotize Mama's parents again
and I also need to talk to Ami so she can hack the school records again."

"I'll sure be glad to see you again in school, Chibi-Usa," said Hotaru.
"It's pretty dull around without you."

Chibi-Usa went to the door and waved. "I'll see you in school then,
Hotaru-chan!"

"Do you want a lift, Small Lady?"

"Ah, no thanks. I'll walk," said Chibi-Usa. *Might as well enjoy freedom
from school while I still can,* she thought, a bit guiltily.

Chibi-Usa left before Hotaru remembered to tell her about what had happened
the day before.

*Everything is going as predicted,* thought Setsuna.

Ranma and Akane made it early enough to be among the first in line to get
their courses.

"I still say you should've taken a chemistry course instead of acting,
Akane," said Ranma distractedly, looking at his schedule.

Akane felt a little grumpy. She still didn't like it when Ranma and Nabiki
said she'd be good at chemistry. The last time she'd cooked, Nabiki had
told her something about being able to sell her discoveries to the army's
chemical warfare division for a hefty sum. She had come to grips a few
months ago that her cooking was not quite equal to Kasumi's when she had
accidentally tasted a very special dish she had made just for Ranma and had
spent the rest of the day sick as a result. Since that day, she had
considerably mellowed when Ranma made jabs about her cooking, since she
knew how painful it could sometimes be. Of course, Ranma had never known
that she had accidentally eaten her own cooking (she had told him she had
the flu), so her pride was still somewhat intact.

"Ranma," she said, her voice without conviction, "Don't make me hurt you.
The day's started out too fine for that."

Ranma blinked. He had been recently starting to learn just how far he could
push Akane without triggering her "hammer-happy" temper, but he'd been
surprised at the number of times Akane had left jabs about her cooking
abilities unchallenged. He wondered why. "Ano... So what do we do now?" he
asked.

"Well, there's the Nyuugaku-shiki soon and afterwards, we're free to wander
around," said Akane. "I'm going to take a look around to see if there are
any interesting clubs to join." *Maybe there's a cooking club I could join
to try and get better.*

Ranma smirked. He'd have to check out the sports clubs (not that he needed,
nor really wanted, to join one, but still...).

True to form, Ranma found it hard to stay completely awake and conscious
during the dean's welcoming speech and was more than grateful when he got a
chance to stretch his legs again. Ranma and Akane had lunch together and
decided that they would meet up later for dinner at Rei's shrine when they
would both have finished exploring the university's faculties. After all,
it made sense that they would cover much more ground that way.



It was late afternoon. Ranma had visited a couple of clubs and was walking
along one of the dorm buildings when he suddenly received a bucket full of
water on the head. Ranma-chan cursed under her breath and hoped no one had
seen her change. Almost snarling, she took off the bucket from atop her
head and looked for the origin of the wayward container. She quickly found
out as two girls leaned out of a window two floors above her.

"Oh geez, I'm sorry!" one of them yelled. "We were cleaning up inside when
the bucket fell out of our window. Are you hurt?"

*Only my pride...* thought Ranma-chan darkly. "No, I guess I'm all right,"
she yelled back and quickly tossed them the now empty-bucket back. After
heaving a sigh of relief when she made sure no one had noticed her change,
she quickly wrung her hair out and headed towards a bathroom to dry herself
up and get some hot water.

She was nearing a public stall when she heard a male voice behind her.
"Ranko-san? Is that you?"

Ranma-chan turned around and found herself face to face with the young man
who'd been at the temple the day before. Ranko decided to play it safe.
"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Chiba Mamoru. I was at the Hikawa Shrine
yesterday when you came by with Akane-san. You left... uhm... rather
quickly," he finished, a bit unsure of what to say about Ranko's abrupt
departure.

Ranma-chan turned a little red at the memory. "Ah, yes... well, sorry about
that," she mumbled. She pretended to look a bit surprised. "Say, Ranma told
me yesterday that you wanted to speak to me. Is this true?"

Mamoru looked relieved. "Yes, there are some things I'd like to talk to you
about."

"Such as?" she prodded. She didn't want to let him know just yet that *she*
wanted to ask *him* a few things too.

Mamoru looked at the people around them. "Well, it's a bit personal..."

Ranma-chan nodded. "All right. Could you at least let me dry myself off
first?"

Mamoru seemed to notice for the first time that she was somewhat damp.
"What happened?"

"Just a small accident," she replied, waving her hand dismissively. *And
maybe a fortunate one for once,* she added, mentally.



Over at Juuban High, classes had ended and Makoto and Ami were waiting for
Minako and Usagi to come out of the detention they had been inflicted with
this morning.

"I still don't understand how come Minako didn't arrive on time. Usagi, I
can understand; after all, she does it all the time, but Minako is usually
more on time." said Ami.

"I spoke to Minako at dinner time and she blamed it on the fact that
Artemis didn't wake her this morning," said Ami.

"Doesn't the girl have an alarm clock?" said Makoto, shaking her head.

"It wouldn't make a difference if she's as sound a sleeper as Usagi."

"Why those two rely more on their cats than on alarm clocks to wake up is
beyond me." Makoto looked around impatiently. "How much time before Minako
and Usagi finish their detentions?" she asked.

"It should be any time, now," said Ami, glancing at her watch.

Suddenly, they both heard shouts and screams coming from inside the school.
They went inside to check what was the problems when they saw several girls
coming out of the locker rooms, shrieking. Makoto grabbed one as she was
passing by, a distressed look on her face.

"Hey, what's going on?" she asked.

"There's a shriveled monster stealing underwear and groping us in there,"
the girl said shakily, pointing towards the locker room.

Makoto let the girl go and looked at Ami. "Is it another youma?" she asked
Ami in a low voice.

Ami shook her head. "I can't tell from here." She looked puzzled for a
moment. "Why would a youma steal underwear anyway?" she asked rhetorically.

"Why ask me?" said Makoto. "I don't..."

"Hotcha! SWEETO!"

Makoto didn't have the chance to finish her sentence as something rocketed
out of the locker room and attached itself on her chest. She looked down
and saw a small *something* happily squeezing away.

"Whoa! I never thought there'd be someone as well-built you here, sweetie!
Why don't you and I elope for a few nights of wild passion?" the creature
said.

Makoto went from Peaceful to Confused to Murderous Rage in the blink of an
eye. She tried to hit the thing on her chest (*How _dare_ it even suggests
eloping!?*), but the thing proved to be faster than her fists and it was
suddenly standing on the floor in front of her.

She finally got a first good look at it and was a bit surprised to see that
the thing (or youma, whichever), was in fact a small, shrunken old man with
barely a few tufts of hair on his head. It also had a very lecherous smile
on its face and was covered with various pieces of women's underwear.

"You PERVERT!" Makoto screamed and tried several times to kick Happosai
into next week, without much success.

The old man was nimbly dodging all of Makoto's kicks. "And you look like
you know martial arts, too?" he said. "This place is even better than
Nerima! "

Suddenly, several girls came out of the locker room, murder in their eyes.
Happosai decided a tactical withdrawal was in order for the moment. He
glomped a stunned Ami for a quick charge and left down the corridor.

"I'm gonna KILL that thing!" roared Makoto. She was about to run after the
"thing" when she noticed that Ami was standing as stiff as a stone. Anger
died down for a few moments. "Hey, Ami! Are you all right?" she asked.

Ami blinked, expressionless. "You want to kill that thing?" she asked
Makoto in a flat voice.

"I'm gonna ram a lightning bolt up its ass!" Makoto snarled.

Instead of blushing at the tall brunette's choice of words as she usually
would, Ami uncharacteristically replied: "Get in line." She then ran like a
rocket after the shrunken pervert.

This time, Makoto was the one who blinked. Ami was usually the most
harmless (temper-wise) member of the team. For her to react like that...
She mentally shrugged and ran after Ami. As Sailor Senshi, it was their
duty to eradicate threats to public safety, wasn't it?

The pervert would pay. Dearly.



Nearby, Ranma-chan and Mamoru were walking down a street.

"Say, how did you recognize me back at the university?" asked Ranma-chan.

Mamoru smiled a little. "Well, I didn't see you for a long time yesterday,
but one thing I did notice was your hair. Red hair like yours tends to
stand out in a crowd,"

Ranma-chan nodded absently. The more she was with Mamoru, the more she felt
she knew him from somewhere (little did she know the same thing was
happening to Mamoru). It was getting strange. "What were you doing at
Mizuharo university anyway?" she asked Mamoru.

"I study there, of course," he said with a smile.

Ranma became a bit more interested. "What do you study?"

"Journalism," replied Mamoru. "What about you, Ranko-san?"

"You can call me Ranko," said Ranma-chan. "As for what I was doing there...
I was accompanying Ranma and Akane to their registration today."

"What does Ranma study?"

"Physical Education, what else?" she said with a small grin.

They walked a little more in silence. Mamoru was trying to figure a way to
ask Ranko his questions without sounding like a loon. His musings were cut
short when Ranma-chan asked him a question first.

"So, what *did* you want to talk to me about?" asked Ranma-chan.

*Oh well, here I go,* he thought. "Actually, it was because you remind me
of someone. I could swear I had never seen you before yesterday and yet,
when I saw you, I couldn't help thinking I'd seen you a long time ago," he
said. *And why did _you_ seem startled to see me yesterday?* he also
wondered silently.

Ranma-chan thought about it for a moment and decided to be truthful. "This
is a strange coincidence. You also remind me of... someone, even though I
know I've never met you before. Ever since I saw you, I've been thinking
about you..." Ranma-chan trailed off when she realized how the last
sentence could be interpreted.

Mamoru was starting to sweat. This wasn't going the way he'd planned.

"No, no, wait... I didn't mean it like that!" Ranma-chan stuttered. "I'm
not in love with you or anything..." Mamoru sighed in relief. "It's just
that you look so familiar and I want to know why!" she finished forcefully.

*Should I tell her?* Mamoru wondered. Ranko said that he reminded her of
someone familiar. The odds of her being Akana reborn had risen
dramatically. As he looked around at his surroundings, he noticed they were
now walking in front of Juuban High School. He was still weighing the risks
of telling Ranko about his previous life when he heard sounds of enraged
shouting coming from the school. Mamoru froze for a moment and quickly
peered inside the school gate, wondering what all the commotion was all
about. For a moment, all he saw were angry girls running around, but he
soon noticed they were pursuing someone or something. As he tried to make
out what, he turned around and saw that Ranko was standing on top of a
wall, looking at the mayhem. He watched, a bit puzzled, as her expression
darkened. She then growled out a single word with disgust.

"Happosai."



When Ranma-chan had jumped on the wall, she noticed all the girls running
around. The scene was unfortunately all too familiar, as she had seen it
countless times at Furinkan and in Nerima in general. She quickly looked
ahead of the mob of angry girls and found what she hoped she wouldn't find.
She had hoped they had seen the last of Happosai back at the first wedding
attempt, where he had accidentally drunk the nannichuan water that had been
meant for him. Obviously, the ancient pervert had moved on to greener
pastures (so to speak). She growled his name in disgust and was about to go
pound him when she spotted out two figures jumping in front of him. She
blinked when she realized that the two girls somehow matched the pictures
of the magazine in the train.

She turned to Mamoru. "Are they the Sailor Senshi?" she asked quickly.

Mamoru, who seemed a bit put off by the fact that Ranko was standing on the
wall (the wall *was* around two meters high and there wasn't any way she
could have easily climbed it), replied: "Yes, they are. Or at least that's
two of them, anyway." He quickly scanned the crowd, but did not find any
trace of Sailor Moon or Sailor Venus. *Where are they?* he wondered. He
knew that at least Usagi was fine or he would have felt it.

"I hope they won't try to stop Happosai while wearing skirts like those,"
commented Ranma-chan, shaking her head.

"You know what that thing is?" asked Mamoru.

Ranma-chan sighed. "Unfortunately. His name is Happosai and he's a pervert
who glomps girls and steals women's underwear. He also happens to be a very
strong martial artist."

"What were you saying about the Senshi not being able to stop him? I'll
have you know they've beaten lots of monsters before," said Mamoru.

*My, my, a bit protective, aren't we?* thought Ranma-chan. "It's not that,"
she said out loud. "Remember what I said about him being a hentai? Happosai
will become even more nuts when he sees how they're dressed." As proof, she
pointed towards the confrontation.

Makoto and Ami had found a closet in which to transform on the way out and
had jumped out of a window to cut ahead of the mob of girls.

"Is it close?" asked Sailor Jupiter.

Sailor Mercury tapped her earring and her visor appeared. "It should be
coming soon."

As she predicted, the mob quickly became visible. Of course, when the girls
who made up the mob saw the two Sailor Senshi, everyone broke off pursuit
and moved away.

The two Senshi decided to forego the introductory speech and blast away.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

Happosai was nearly flash-frozen and electrocuted, but evaded in time.
Looking at the source of the disturbance, he nearly had a heart attack.
There were two young girls, clad in white body-hugging suits and *very*
short skirts. He was in heaven. A distant part of his mind noticed that
they seemed very angry at him for some reason, but he figured that it was
because he hadn't paid any attention to them. He immediately made a beeline
for them, regardless of the fact that one of the had just tried to hit him
with a lightning bolt and the other had tried to turn him into a popsicle.

Sailor Jupiter saw the little pervert heading their way and fired off
another Sparkling Wide Pressure attack, which came close, but missed and
blew a hole behind Happosai. Before she could get ready for another attack,
the pervert moved with a speed that made rifle bullets seem sluggish and he
was once again snuggling in her chest, even more vigorously than before.
Sailor Jupiter saw red. She put her hands about an inch away on each side
of the diminutive pervert's head. "Supreme..." she started. The metal rod
came out of her tiara. "... THUNDER!" she finished. The area was bathed in
a green glow.



A few moments before, Usagi and Minako had finally come out of detention
and quickly noticed that everyone seemed to be running outside. Usagi
spotted Umino barreling towards the exit, camera in hand. She managed to
grab a hold of him as he passed by her.

"Hey, Umino! What's going on?" asked Usagi.

"Didn't you know? Some kind of hentai creature raided the girls' locker
room and now, two of the Sailor Senshi are supposedly fighting it outside!"
said Umino, excited.

"Sailor Senshi!?" asked Usagi incredulously. She turned towards Minako and
in the process, loosed her hold on Umino, who promptly wiggled out and went
to watch the fight. "Come on, Minako-chan! We've got to go see what's going
on!"

Minako nodded and moments (and shoves) later, they had a prize view of the
fight. Usagi could only stare as Sailor Jupiter tried to vaporize the short
creature affixed to her chest with the Supreme Thunder. There was a bright
green flash, but to no avail. The creature had somehow flipped away at the
last possible moment and was now standing a few feet in front of Sailor
Jupiter. They were so captivated by the fight that neither noticed their
communicators beeping.

Minako grabbed Usagi by the arm. "Come on, Usagi!" she hissed in her ear.
"We've got to transform and help them out!"

Usagi's reply was lost as they saw a familiar red-headed girl do an
impossibly high leap and come down on the short creature, screaming a name:
"HAPPOSAI!!!"

"Ranko?" chorused Usagi and Minako, confused.



Ranma-chan decided that the two Sailor Senshi might need help against
Happosai. Apparently, they weren't aware that he became stronger after each
glomp. She jumped from her perch, screaming the pervert's name. She always
relished a chance to pound the pervert into jelly.

As she partly expected after yelling his name, Happosai saw her come down
and quickly leaped out of the way. Ranma-chan tried nailing him with a
Ki-powered punch on the way down, but he was too nimble. She did, however,
manage to make a sizable hole in the ground.



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



Ranma stood in front of Happosai, battle aura glowing brightly. "Happosai!"
she said in a loud voice. "Isn't it bad enough you have to raid Furinkan
all the time? Do you have to pick on girls who can't defend themselves,
now?"

"Hey!" cried out an indignant Sailor Jupiter. Ranma-chan ignored her.
Sailor Mercury was busy scanning Ranko with her visor.

"My darling Ranma-chan!" Happosai cried out in delight. "You've come all
this way to see me! How about you wear these for me?" he asked, pulling out
several pink, lacy bras.

Ranma-chan shook in disgust. "Shut up, you old fart! It's been a year since
we saw you and it'll be another year 'till you can make it out of the
hospital once I'm through with you!" she shouted. She cupped her hands and
aimed. "Mouko Takabisha!"

The ball of blue energy shot forward, but Happosai dodged and shot forward
for a quick glomp. To Ranma's utter surprise, he managed to get a good
squeeze before Ranma-chan punched him off, Amaguriken style.

Ranma-chan looked at Happosai. *What the hell has he been doing for the
last year? He's a lot faster than he was before! The way I've been training
for the last year, he shouldn't have been able to glomp me,* she thought.
Since the pervert could evade the Mouko Takabisha, Ranma rushed forward and
decided to take it up close and personal.

Soon, Ranma-chan and Happosai were a blur of movements, punches, kicks and
blocks flying faster than the eye could see. Eventually, Happosai jumped
over a leg sweep, but got nailed by the other leg and was kicked into one
of the outer walls. Digging himself out, Happosai didn't seem too hurt.

"I'm getting tired of this. I think you need a lesson from your master!" he
said, becoming serious.

Ranma-chan snorted. "You're not my master and I need a lesson from you
about as much as the world needs the plague!"

Suddenly, several Happo-daikarins came flying her way. She evaded them all,
but suddenly noticed that there was a substantial crowd around them. "Get
out of here!" she yelled. "Those things are bombs!"

As soon as the warning was issued, the courtyard started to empty out very
quickly, but the mini-bombs went off and soon, there was panic everywhere.

Usagi and Minako were among the less fortunate ones, as they had been
standing relatively close to one of the Happo-daikarins. However, all the
bomb did (aside from scaring them witless, of course) was knock them on the
ground.

When Ranma-chan saw all the people getting knocked out by Happosai's bombs,
she whirled on the little pervert. "What are you doing?!" she exploded.
"You can't involve bystanders in this! Don't you have any honor left?"

"You're the one who challenged me here, boy!" answered Happosai. "If
they're not martial artists, then they should get out of the way, ne?" he
cackled. He then threw several other Happo-daikarins at Ranma-chan. She
quickly tried to hit them all high up in the air, but she missed one and it
landed near the dazed Usagi and Minako.

Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury had been shaken by the first round of
bombs. When Sailor Jupiter saw the last Happo-daikirin landing near Usagi
and Minako, fear gripped her heart.

"NOOO!!!! Usagi, get up!" she yelled and started running at full speed
towards them at the same time as Mamoru became Tuxedo Kamen and he also
rushed towards Usagi. Usagi, dazed, looked around for the reason of Sailor
Jupiter's cry and saw another one of those bombs. She locked up in fear and
froze, looking at the Happo-daikarin near her. Minako was only starting to
get up.

Ranma-chan, however, was the closest to them and the fuse on the
Happo-daikarin was almost out. She shot a burning look at Happosai and ran
as fast as she could towards the two girls. To an untrained eye, it would
almost have seemed as if Ranma-chan suddenly blurred. She quickly picked up
Usagi and Minako (who barely had time for a muffled "What the...?!") and
jumped away, just as the Happo-daikarin exploded.

As Usagi and Minako were being carried away by Ranma-chan, they couldn't
help but stare at the bright sigil of Earth, a circle divided in four, that
was shining on Ranko's forehead.

Ranma-chan made a two point landing in front of Tuxedo Kamen. When she
looked at him, she somehow knew that she could trust the man in black (even
if he was wearing a tuxedo and top hat). She didn't question her instincts
for once. She quickly passed off Usagi and Minako to him and jumped back
towards Happosai.

"Usako," Tuxedo Kamen said, hugging her, "Are you all right?"

Usagi finally managed to find her wits and looked at Tuxedo Kamen. "I'm all
right, Tuxedo Kamen-sama," she said with a smile. Her smile then changed to
an unreadable expression. "Mamo-chan," she said in a hurried whisper, "I
saw it when she carried us away!"

"You saw what, Usako?" asked Tuxedo Kamen, now a bit confused.

"Her sigil!"

Tuxedo Kamen jerked. "Are you sure, Usako?"

"Yes I..." Usagi trailed off, eyes blinking at him.

Mamoru blinked. Usagi and Minako seemed to be staring at him for some
reason. "Is there something wrong?"

"Mamo-chan," Usagi said in a nearly strangled voice, while pointing at
Mamoru's forehead, "Your sigil... It's showing!"

"And it's the same as Ranko's," Minako said in wonder.

Tuxedo Kamen would have given a lot at that point to have a mirror.

As Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury reached their group, he looked back at
the confrontation between Happosai and Ranko.



Ranma, whose sigil had now faded again, looked at Happosai with disgust.
"Why did you attack bystanders, Happosai?"

"I didn't attack them; they were in the way," replied Happosai, simply.
"Besides, I've grown weary of your constant interference, Ranma. I can't
even glomp a girl in Tokyo without you showing up."

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Ranma-chan said in a voice laced with
venom.

Happosai smiled. "It's time I put you in your place and showed you who's
the real master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu."

"Yeah, right!" Ranma-chan snorted. "I haven't spent the last year like
pops, Happosai! I've gotten a lot better!"

Happosai smiled. "You're not the only one who trained, Ranma. How do you
think I managed to glomp you when I couldn't do that anymore a year ago?"
His smile became lecherous. "Beaches make wonderful training grounds, you
know..."

Ranma-chan fumed. So that's how he'd gotten so much better. She had to
pound the pervert into jelly or kick him into deep space; there was no
other choice. She rushed Happosai, who dodged. Ranma-chan broke through the
wall behind Happosai with her punch. Snarling, she rushed him again, but
Happosai sent her flying in another wall with his pipe. She broke through
said wall completely.

Tuxedo Kamen gasped. "I've got to help her!" He started to go, but was
surprisingly held back by Sailor Mercury. "Mercury," he said, "Let me go!"

Sailor Mercury shook her head. "There's no need to, Tuxedo Kamen," she
said, while looking through her visor.

"What do you mean?" said Tuxedo Kamen, worry slowly replaced with
confusion.

"She means *that*," answered Sailor Jupiter, pointing disbelievingly at the
wall where Ranko had been sent flying. Ranko was coming back out, none
worse for wear, except that she seemed to have lost the string that held
her pigtail in place. Her red hair was now flowing freely, cascading on her
back.

Everyone gaped at the uncharacteristic display of endurance. Tuxedo Kamen
was also gaping at Ranko's now complete resemblance to Akana in his dreams.
It was at that time that Sailor Mars decided to make an appearance.

"What's going on?" she asked, out of breath. "I was walking back to the
temple when I felt... something... evil around here, not quite like a
youma. I tried calling Usagi and Minako, but they didn't answer. I
transformed and ran here as fast as I could when I felt spiritual energy
being channeled around here."

Sailor Jupiter pointed at the redhead who was coming out of the debris and
at the shrunken pervert. "*They're* what's going on, Mars," she said
flatly. "I wouldn't advise trying to break them up."

Sailor Mars peered at the two combatants. She blinked. "Ano... Is that
Ranko?"

Everyone nodded.

"She looks even more like Akana without the pigtail," commented Sailor
Mars. Before any of the others could comment further on that particularly
accurate statement, Sailor Mars let out a hiss as she laid eyes on
Happosai.

Tuxedo Kamen, who was closest, looked at her, a bit startled. "Is there
something wrong, Mars?" he asked.

She pointed at Happosai. "If it isn't a demon, it's the next thing to it,"
she said, narrowing her eyes. "That's the source of the evil I felt." She
started readying an ofuda.



Ranma-chan came back out of the debris a little more composed. *Good thing
I don't need the Dragon Hair anymore...* she thought ruefully. She analyzed
what had just happened. *The pervert is staying calm; he doesn't want me to
use the Hiryu Shouten Ha on him,* she thought. *If I can't put him on fire,
I'll have to make him madder.*

"Mouko Takabisha!" The Ki-blast shot forward, but Happosai evaded it
easily.

"Is that the best you can do, Ranma?" taunted Happosai.

Ranma-chan was starting to get angry again. *I know he'll get mad if I hit
him with a Ki-blast, but the Mouko Takabisha is too slow. How can I make it
faster?* she thought frantically. Then an idea came to her. She smiled.

"You want to know what I can do, old fart?" she said. "How about this!
Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken / Mouko Takabisha combination technique!" She
held both hands opened, palms facing Happosai. "RENSHA-HAPPA-DAN!"

Ranma-chan's hands blurred and a large Ki sphere started to form where her
hands used to be. Suddenly, the sphere broke apart and a dozen smaller
spheres rocketed forward at incredible speed towards Happosai as Ranma-chan
lost her balance and fell backwards.

That loss of balance was the only thing that saved Happosai from
potentially grievous injuries, as only a few of the spheres made it to the
target. However, only a few spheres were necessary to hurt Happosai. The
old pervert was knocked back a dozen feet as the remaining spheres slammed
all around him, tearing the ground up.



Sailor Mars could only gape as she saw Ranko executing the technique. *How
did she do that?* she thought. That particular train of thought stopped
when Happosai landed at her feet. It was then that she realized that the
"demon" was in fact a bald, shrunken old man. It was the last thing she
thought about before said old man suddenly rose and glomped her with
inhuman speed.

"Thanks for helping an old man in his time of need, sweetie," Happosai
said, as he fondled Sailor Mars.

Said Sailor went into an holy fit of dark rage. She quickly took the ofuda
she had readied and slapped it on Happosai's shriveled head. "Rin, pyou,
tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!" she chanted as fast
as she could.

The result was not exactly what she expected. Instead of freezing up as
most youmas did, Happosai reacted as if he'd been strapped with a burning
iron on his head. She smiled despite the unusual result. This was much
better than paralysis! As the old hentai master ran around trying to get
the ward off his head, Sailor Mars smiled. "You think they're hot? How
about this!" She thought about using the Flame Sniper, but she decided it
would make way too much damage if she missed. Instead, she put her hands
together and concentrated. "Burning Mandala!" The fire rings sped towards
Happosai, who had just managed to get rid of the ofuda.

"How dare she..." he growled, and stopped when he saw a dozen rings of fire
heading towards him. He evaded most of them, but his clothing caught fire
in several places.



Ranma-chan had underestimated the difficulty of the Rensha-Happa-Dan. The
technique she had made up essentially required her to form tiny balls of Ki
and then fire them with the speed of the Amaguriken technique. What she
hadn't expected was the recoil, which had caused her to fall back. As she
got back up, she noticed that there was a new Sailor Senshi on the scene.
Ranma-chan watched, dismayed, as the ancient pervert got up and glomped
her.

What pleased her is when the Senshi in question strapped an ofuda on
Happosai's head. She hadn't expected any results, but she smiled when she
saw Happosai jumping around in pain. *Serves him right,*

she thought gleefully.

She was about to go punt Happosai into Low Earth Orbit (or severely maim
him, she wasn't sure), when she saw the new Senshi throw fire rings at
Happosai. She stared for a moment watching Happosai trying to put the fire
in his clothes out. *Fire?...* She blinked and ran as fast as she could
towards Happosai and started running in circles around him.

"Hey, Happosai!" she taunted, "How's it feel to be beaten by a girl?"
Happosai snarled at her and tried to put out his flaming clothes. *Good!
Between his temper and the leftover heat from those fire rings, he's
radiating enough heat,* she thought. Ranma-chan turned towards the
remaining girls (by now, most of the other spectators had left in fright).
"Get down!" she yelled. She glanced at Happosai, smiling as she felt the
air currents shaping up.

The other girls were puzzled. Why was Ranko running around the pervert
instead of pounding him and why did she want them to get down? It was
Sailor Mercury's gasp that made them start. "Masaka! The air currents!..."
she breathed, staring though her visor. "Get down! Quickly!" she yelled,
promptly following her own advice. The others needed no further urging and
they all dropped to the ground.

When Ranma-chan saw the girls flattening down, she turned to Happosai
"Here! Let me help you put that fire out!" She then stopped running and
threw an uppercut that came nowhere near Happosai. It never needed to as
Ranma-chan unleashed one of the most devastating moves in her arsenal.
"HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!"

Happosai felt the stirrings of despair as he finally realized what
Ranma-chan was doing. He tried to brace for it, but his clothes were still
on fire, so he had to let down his guard. The Rising Dragon Ascension
Defeat formed around Happosai and he was hurled into the sky by
cyclone-strength winds as the Ki dragon came out of Ranma. His last
conscious words were: "I'll get my revenge, Ranma! I promise you'll pay for
this!!" But by that time, Happosai was already several miles over the
horizon.



As the Hiryu Shouten Ha dissipated, Ranma-chan took a deep breath and
smiled. She'd probably managed to seriously injure the old pervert and she
had made up a new technique. *Today is a _good_ day to fight,* she thought
happily. She looked around and noticed there was a bit of property damage
(not nearly as much as at Furinkan, but still). She then noticed that the
Senshi and the two girls she had saved from the Happo-daikirin were getting
off the ground and staring at her in undisguised curiosity. She walked over
to the two girls.

"Are you two all right?" she asked.

Usagi and Minako, still a bit shell-shocked, nodded dumbly. Ranma-chan
looked a bit more closely at Usagi, then at Minako. It was then that she
realized for the first time who she had saved.

"Hey! Weren't you two the ones with the cats at the Hikawa Shrine
yesterday?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

Usagi and Minako started. Ranko had been at the Shrine for less than a
minute and she remembered them? And worse: did she remember the incident
with the cats?

"Uh... yes, that's us," said Minako weakly. She remembered Ranko's reaction
at Artemis and Luna yesterday and she desperately hoped Ranko wasn't angry
with her. After what she'd just done... Glancing at Usagi, Minako could
tell similar thoughts were running in her head as well.

Ranma-chan blinked, not understanding Minako's reaction. "Oh, don't worry
about the cats," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "It's not you
fault and you didn't know." She looked around. "Has anyone seen Mamoru?"
she asked. "Tall guy, black hair?" she specified. She never saw Tuxedo
Kamen twitch nervously.

"Umm, why are you looking for muffin?" ventured Usagi.

Ranko blinked. "Muffin?"

"Yeah!," Usagi said, perking up. "Mamo-chan's my muffin!" she exclaimed
triumphantly.

Tuxedo Kamen and the other Sailors present bigsweated.

*Mamoru's dating a High School student? He must be at least three years
older than her!* she thought. "Eh, yes... well... I was speaking to him
when all this mess started. Do you know where he went?"

Usagi started to sweat. She had never been good at lying and she knew she'd
put her foot in her mouth if she tried to lie to Ranko. "Well... I..."

Tuxedo Kamen came to her rescue, albeit in a different way that he usually
did. "I saw him directing the girls out of the school when the fighting
started. I don't know where he went after that."

"Kuso," Ranma-chan swore softly. "Great," she said in a louder voice. "Now
I have to find him again!"

In a rare moment of brilliance, Usagi started to form a plan. She had seen
Ranko's sigil. That and the fact that Mamoru's had glowed for the first
time as well definitely marked her as Sailor Terra. She needed to tell
Ranko about it, but she couldn't do it here. Luna and Artemis needed to
know about Ranko. She and Minako weren't in Senshi form; if she started to
talk about it here, unwanted ears were sure to overhear, especially since
there were still a small number of students who were now taking an interest
in their group.

"You won't have to look for him," she said in a bright voice. "He'll be at
the Hikawa Shrine in half an hour," she said, ignoring the puzzled stares
she was getting from everyone.

Ranma-chan thought about it. Akane likely wouldn't be back from university
for another two hours at least and she could easily grab a snack in half an
hour. She had worked up a small appetite because of this fight. "All
right," she said. "I'll be there. And don't bring any cats, okay?" And
then, before anyone could blink, she jumped over the wall and disappeared
through the streets.

Nobody gave pursuit, though. They were too busy looking questioningly at
Usagi. Seeing that the other students were coming her way (Umino was in the
group), she quickly hissed to the Senshi in uniform: "I'll explain later!
Just make sure to be at the Shrine in half an hour!"

She got dubious looks from most of them, especially from Sailor Mars, but
they all gave a short nod and quickly left before students asked them any
questions.

Usagi then turned towards Minako. "I hope I'm doing the right thing," she
said. She then turned to face Umino the Questioner.



Twenty-five minutes later, the Inner Senshi (in civilian garb) and Mamoru
were milling around in the main hall of the Hikawa Shrine, after having
shook off Umino (God was he hard to get rid of, sometimes). Luna and
Artemis had been picked up and debriefed along the way. Needless to say,
the Moon cats had been very vocal in their exclamations when the Senshi
related the afternoon's "adventure." Both cats had been shocked at the fact
that their respective charges had almost been severely injured in their
civilian forms and they showed disbelief at the level of power Ranko had
supposedly displayed against the old pervert.

Luna was unsure, especially about Usagi's plan to "spring the surprise on
Ranko", as it were. Or maybe it was the fact that Usagi had come with a
plausible plan in the first place that worried her. She couldn't be sure.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Usagi?" asked Luna yet again.

Usagi was starting become exasperated at her mentor's attitude. "Listen,
Luna! Me and Minako both saw her sigil, so I didn't imagine it. Unless she
can duplicate one, and as far as we know, it can't be done, then there's no
doubt that she's Sailor Terra! Now, all I need is her henshin stick, which
*you're* supposed to have, by the way, and we'll be set!"

"I still say Artemis and I should be here," insisted the black cat.

Makoto snorted. "And have a free repeat of what happened yesterday? I don't
think so, Luna. As risky as Usagi's plan sounds, we have no choice. We
don't need Ranko to go insane on us just now."

Luna grumbled a bit more, but eventually agreed. "All right. I'll give you
her henshin stick, but Artemis and I will be watching from a hidden place.
It's going to be very inconvenient if we can't talk to her." She
concentrated and did a backflip and a henshin stick appeared. Usagi eagerly
took it.

Meanwhile, Makoto's gaze wandered over to Ami, who was typing on her
computer. "So, what are *you* doing," asked the tallest Inner Senshi.

"I'm analyzing all the data I collected on Ranko during the battle,"
replied the shortest one. "Makoto, that girl is physically unbelievable..."
she trailed off, shaking her head.

"I know. I saw her, remember?"

Ami seemed pensive for a second. "Makoto, did you notice anything strange
during the battle?"

Makoto blinked. "Could you ask an easier question?"

"Well," Ami said, "Did you notice the fact that Ranko and the pervert
seemed to know each other?"

"I noticed."

"Isn't it also strange that the old pervert kept calling Ranko, Ranma and
'boy'? Not to mention her rather sloppy language."

Makoto shrugged. "Maybe she just talked that way because she was stressed,"
she said. Her eyebrows then knitted in thought. "As for the 'Ranma' and
'boy' remarks, I did notice, and so did the other girls. We can always ask
her when she comes back. I wouldn't be surprised if she told me the old
pervert was addled, too."

Makoto and Ami walked over to Usagi, who was showing Terra's henshin stick
to Minako.

"It's not as if she really needs one with the kind of power she already
has, anyway," commented Makoto.

"It's not just that," interjected Ami. "Our transformations also provide us
with a disguise field that prevents people from recognizing us. If Ranko is
going to go around killing monsters and perverts, she might as well do it
as Sailor Terra or she'll attract unwanted attention."

"Say, Ami," asked Makoto. "If she's that powerful in non-Senshi form,
what's going to happen when she powers up? I saw her fight in hand to hand
combat against the little pervert and she could probably beat us all
without using her energy blasts."

"Ki-blasts," corrected Rei.

"What's the difference?"

"You don't need to be a Senshi in order to be able to manipulate your Ki,"
explained Rei, "I use my Ki when I do fire readings and my ability the read
the fire does *not* come from being a Senshi. Ranko's just developped her
ability to an remarkable level, that's all." She paused. *Just like
Ranma...* she added silently. She looked around the Shrine. *Well, at least
Grandpa and Yuuichiro aren't here.* She was brought back into the
conversation by a question from Minako.

"What do you mean? Is it like telekinesis or something?" asked the blonde.

"No... The simplest explanation is that she uses her own lifeforce to
create the blasts," said Rei.

Ami looked at the readings she had taken from the fights and decided to do
a little comparison with their own powers. It *would* take a while to
compute, though.. "Makoto?" Ami asked, "In response to your earlier
question, I'm not sure what will be her power increase or if she will even
have one, as there are several possibilities. One factor is the nature of
her powers as a Senshi; Tuxedo Mask/Endymion has basic psychokinetic powers
and some sort of healing ability he found about when he kept Chibi-Usa
alive during the Pharaoh 90 confrontation. There's also the possibility
that she somehow managed to tap her powers without becoming a Senshi."

"Why are we worrying about that, anyway?" said Usagi. "All we need to know
is the she'll be a really powerful addition to the team!" she said
enthusiastically.

"How will Luna be able to wake her memories without freaking her out?"
wondered Minako.

"Leave that to me," said the young priestess. "I've worked on this with
Luna once and she taught me the basics of the Luna Mind Meld. I may not be
as good as her, but I'm sure I can do *something*."

"She's coming," warned Makoto, cutting off any further replies.



Everyone's heads snapped up and saw Ranko coming in the yard. Her hair was
bound again, but this time in a ponytail, not a braid. Minako was silently
swearing that she would eventually get the girl to wear it loose, like at
the battle. She looked much better without that horrid pigtail.

Rei was starting to get suspicious. Ranko and Ranma, two people with
similar names, who dressed exactly the same and who had roughly the same
fighting abilities. Quite a list of coincidences. *Too many coincidences,*
the raven-haired priestess thought. *There's something going on and I don't
know what it is.* Rei decided to ask the fire about it at sometime later.
She looked around and was suddenly disappointed that they hadn't thought of
inviting Hotaru. She apparently knew more about this than any of them.

As she walked up the stairs to the temple, Ranma-chan felt like she was
walking into a trap. She could almost feel the tension in the air. She
wondered why she was feeling so apprehensive; after all, she was only
coming here as a girl to clear up the mystery of her memories about Mamoru.

Suddenly, she jerked to a stop, if only for a moment. When she had thought
about Mamoru, she'd felt a fleeting... something. She didn't know why, but
she *knew* Mamoru was inside.

Inside the Shrine, Mamoru felt something and he looked around him in
confusion. He was sure someone was watching him.

When Ranma-chan finally made it inside the shrine, she was only
half-surprised to see all the people obviously waiting for her. *So that's
why I was nervous,* she thought. Scanning the group, she saw Mamoru, who
seemed very relieved to see her and all the other girls she had seen as a
guy. She would have to be careful.

"No need to look like that, girls," Ranma-chan began, trying to smooth her
entrance, "I just want to speak privately to Mamoru for a while."

Usagi looked as if she was going to say something, but Mamoru beat her to
it. "We can go in the courtyard, Ranko. We won't be bothered there," he
added, giving a meaningful glance to all the girls.

All the girls, including Usagi, nodded weakly. This hadn't been part of the
plan, but they'd have to roll with it.



As they walked outside the hall, Mamoru spoke up: "I'm sorry about the
reception in there. It's just that you intrigue them a *lot*, to say the
least."

Ranma-chan blinked. "Why?"

"Well, you did save the life of two of them this afternoon and the way you
handled that short pervert this afternoon speaks volumes for your skills in
martial arts. All the elements necessary for High School gossip, wouldn't
you say?"

Ranma-chan nodded. It made sense, to a point.

Watching her reaction, Mamoru smiled inwardly. The last thing he needed was
for her to feel apprehensive about the situation. He'd managed not to make
her too suspicious. "So now I guess you're wondering about the two of us,
right?" he hazarded.

"Yes," she said simply.

He decided to take a potshot. "Let me guess. You've recently had dreams and
I'm in them somehow," he said.

Ranma-chan stopped in her tracks and looked hard at Mamoru. "How did you
know that?" she asked.

"Because I've been having dreams of you as well in the last few days."

Ranma-chan decided not to panic just yet. She kept her tone level. "And
could you tell me *why* we've been dreaming about you if we've never seen
each other before?"

Mamoru was nervous. The hard part was coming. "In your dreams," he said,
"What was I wearing?"

Ranma-chan was surprised by the question. "You were wearing some kind of
black and silver armor," she said. She was surprised again when she saw him
nod.

*This clinches it,* he thought. "It appears that you were having dreams of
a previous life... sister."

Ranma-chan gaped at him. "Sister?.. I'm... I'm not your sister, Mamoru! I
can swear I'm an only child!"

Mamoru shook his head. "Not in this time. We were brother and sister in a
previous life."

Ranma-chan looked at him as if he'd grown two heads. *At least he didn't
say we were long lost lovers,* a distant part of her mind commented. The
worst part is that however much she wanted to deny it, a small voice in her
head insisted that he was telling the truth, that she was indeed his
sister. "How can you prove it?" she asked in a strangled voice. *Why am I
believing him?! I'm a guy! I can't be his sister!!!" she thought
desperately.

Mamoru took a deep breath. Without saying anything, he took out a red rose
and became Tuxedo Kamen. He saw Ranma-chan staring at him.

"You were *him*? The guy with the tux from the school?" she exclaimed.

"I'm afraid so, and it's not over..." Concentrating, he summoned his armor
and became Endymion. *Strange," he thought, *Usually, I can't do this
without Usagi as Princess Serenity.*

Ranma-chan took a step back. *Who _is_ this guy!?* she thought frantically.
Surprisingly, a name came to her lips before she could stop it. "Endymion?"
she said softly.

Endymion's eyes widened. "You remember? Endymion was my name in my previous
life!"

"How can you do that?!" Ranma-chan asked, getting a bit more under control.

"The same way we can do this," replied a voice from behind. Ranma-chan
whipped around and saw Usagi in front of the other girls. She saw each girl
raise an object in the air. She would never forget what came next.



"Moon Cosmic Power, Make-Up!" shouted Usagi.

"Mercury Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Ami.

"Venus Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Minako.

"Mars Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Rei.

"Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Makoto.



Ranma-chan could only stare as each girl, including his cousin Rei, was
successively bathed in a dazzling array of colors and patterns, ranging
from light, to water, to fire, to lightning. When the light show faded, he
saw that the girls were now wearing *short*, color-assorted sailor fukus
and they all had tiaras with gems that matched their fukus on their
foreheads. She blinked and automatically recognized Sailors Mercury,
Jupiter and Mars from the school this afternoon. She quickly deduced that
the others were the other members of the somewhat famous Sailor Senshi.

"Rei?" Ranma-chan blurted out. "You're a Sailor Senshi?"

Sailor Mars looked a bit apologetic. "It's Sailor Mars when I'm like this,
Ranko, and I'd like it if you didn't tell Ranma about this, please?"

Ranma-chan blinked. "But I'm... ah, nevermind... What does all of this have
to do with me?!" she asked.

"Actually, this!" said Sailor Moon, tossing Ranma-chan the henshin stick.

Ranma-chan easily caught the stick. It was a short black rod with a small
golden orb representing the Earth on top. It also had a strange symbol, a
circle with two perpendicular lines intersecting in the middle, that
Ranma-chan somehow knew stood for Earth. Ranma-chan turned it around it her
hand. *I've seen one of those things before, but where?* she thought.
"Ano... What am I supposed do with it?" asked Ranma-chan, confused.

"Raise it in the air and shout the first thing that comes to mind," said
Sailor Moon with a smile.

Ranma-chan was almost on autopilot. She raised it in the air and was about
to say the words that hadn't been said for over a millennia and a half when
she turned to Sailor Moon. "No," she said.

Sailor Moon blinked. "But... why? You're one of us!"

"Maybe," said Ranma-chan, "But I've had more than enough madness in my life
so far," she said, regaining control of the situation . "I don't need this.
I'm trying to live a quiet life."

Sailor Moon tried to think fast. Things weren't supposed to be like this.

Ranma-chan whirled on Endymion. "And you! I still haven't seen concrete
proof of what you're saying. That I'm your... your sister!"

Endymion concentrated. His sigil flared and so did Ranma-chan's in
response. Ranma-chan took a step backwards. "Do you see the sigil on my
forehead?" asked Endymion.

"Yeah, it's the same one as on the stick," replied Ranma-chan wearily.

"It's the same as the one you have on *your* forehead, too," he said,
handing Ranma-chan a mirror.

Ranma-chan took the mirror slowly. She knew she didn't have to because she
knew the sigil was going to be on her forehead.

"The sigil is the mark of the Royal Family of Earth. Most people in our
line were chosen to be warriors who would protect the Earth. Those people
include you and I, sister."

Ranma-chan momentarily forgot what she was doing and waved the henshin
stick defensively. "Even so, that was in another life!" she said in
protest. "You are *not* going to put me in a mini-skirt by getting me to
shout 'Terra Crystal Power, Make-Up!'..." Ranma-chan's eyes became the size
of baseballs when she realized her mistake.

*Chikuso!* was Ranma-chan's last thought before she was swallowed by
multicolored lights.



Author's notes:

<Phoenix hids behind a bunker to fend off the flames of people wanting his
head for stopping there.>

Who spotted the gratuitous Klingon and Wheel of Time references?

For those who don't remember the timeline I use, it's shortly after the
Pharaoh 90 storyline and the Kaguya Snow Queen incident (Sailor Moon Movie
S, IIRC), but there are a few modifications: since the Sailor Senshi are in
High School, everyone (save Rei), goes to Juuban High. Also, the Senshi
already possess their enhanced attacks (Aqua Rhapsody, Oak Evolution and
such).

Yes, I know, as a result, Ami should've said "Mercury Crystal Power" and
not "Mercury Star Power" in chapter 5, but that will have to pass. There is
no Black Moon Circus; there will be something else, instead. The reason for
this is that I have never seen the anime, so I don't want to do too much
damage (beyond what I've already done).

The bedroom scenes: I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will *NOT*
write a lemon bedroom scene for this fic, honeymoon or not. What you read
in this chapter was as hentai as it'll ever get.



Linguistic Notes:



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

Otemba: "Tomboy" in Japanese.

Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu: What is translated by Viz as the "Anything-Goes
Style"

Nyuugaku-shiki: An entrance ceremony at Japanese universities. (Thanks
Chris Rijk!)

Rensha-Happa-Dan: Rapid Fire Blasting Shot/ Rapid Fire Explosive Blast
Missile (Thanks Chris Rijk!)

Ofuda: a ward

The Dragon Hair: The Dragon's Hair is _another_ curse Ranma got in China
(by eating one accidentaly), which makes a young man's hair grow wildly,
but is a baldness cure for old men. To prevent the hair growth, Ranma
needed to braid his hair with another Dragon's Hair. Fortunately for Ranma,
the effect eventually wore off, so he didn't have to keep his hair tied
with the second Dragon's Hair - he just kept it for show. (Thanks Chris
Rijk!)

Side-note: I think I've succesfully mastered the art of text inflation. Do
you realize that what happened in this part had originally been planned for
part 2 or 3??? (Remember what I had said about being influenced by
Daigakusei No Ranma? That was for the university programs Ranma and Akane
chose.) Not to mention that if it hadn't been for my upcoming forced
hiatus, this would likely have become parts 7, 8, 9 *and* 10. This is the
only installment which will ever be this size. The others will be as they
have always been: around 18-20 Kb)

Lastly, I must warn people that I will unfortunately not be able to write
or communicate from May 19th to August 25th, 1997. In other words, for the
whole summer. (Stop screaming, will you? It's not the end of the world. I
don't like it either, but I have no choice.)

I'll be working a few thousand km outside my home and will be without a
computer for those three months. I'm one of those poor suckers who have to
slave during the summer if they want to have a financial chance for the
next school year. It goes without saying that my WWW page will not be
updated either. If you send me mail during that time, I *will* read it,
eventually (my server keeps the mail... It doesn't delete it after a
while), I just don't know when...

For the impatient ones, go to:
http://www.upc.qc.ca/~phoenix/lines/readme.html

Sorry, but it's life! Bummer, huh?

See ya in September!!!



End Chapter 7

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