Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections of Ruin ❯ Adjusting ( Chapter 2 )

A six year old Ranma Saotome cowered next to the entrance to the pit where he knew the cats were waiting for him. Covered in horrible scratches and bleeding badly, the boy looked up at his father. “Please, daddy!” he begged. “I can't learn it! Please don't put me back in there!”

 

Genma looked down at his son with a face that may as well have been carved from stone, determined that Ranma learn this martial arts technique. Secretly, he was beginning to suspect that the price of learning it might be too high. It tore at his heart to subject his son to this torture. Yet he was determined that Ranma become the greatest martial artist of all time, and if that meant a little pain for the boy, so be it.

 

Genma gathered Ranma up into his arms, and for a moment, Ranma thought that he had earned a reprieve with his pleas. Then he lifted up the covered top of the pit and tossed Ranma down into it.

 

Down he fell. Down, into the pit. Down to the very bottom. Ranma had learned how to fall almost before he'd learned to walk: he rolled easily to his feet, uninjured by the fall, but the fall wasn't what he was afraid of.

 

Yes, afraid of. He, Ranma Saotome, was afraid. Terrified. All around him, he heard the mewling of starving cats. Some of them were dead, killed by the others for food. Two or three were fighting. But most were staring at him, their eyes glowing in the fitful light that filtered down through the pit's covering.

 

The sound of a hundred starving cats yowling hungrily at once filled the pit, and terror overcame Ranma's conscious mind. The boy wet himself, and passed out.

 

Yet the cats did not pounce on him this time. This time, something was wrong.

 

The shadows parted, and the cats began clawing frantically at the walls of the pit, struggling to get away from what was coming, but to no avail; darkness seemed to solidify into a vaguely feline humanoid shape, and the cats shrank away from it, hissing madly.

 

The creature gained substance, and had Ranma not already been passed out, the sight of its eyes peering into his would have broken him. Sheer, concentrated, supernatural evil filled the pit, and one by one, the cats began to die.

 

The demon looked upon Ranma's unconscious form, and it smiled wickedly. “The offering is accepted. I mark you as my own, Ranma Saotome,” it said, its voice rumbling through the pit. “From now until the end of time, united we shall be. One spirit. One soul. Mine forever.”

 

It reached out with a horrible clawed finger and marked the boy's forehead with a bloody rune. Power gathered around it in witness of the act; in witness of the binding of the boy's soul to the demon. The beast's power began to flow through the mark and into Ranma's body.

 

Then Ranma's eyes opened; his eyes were glowing, filling the covered pit with purple light.

 

The demon looked at him in surprise. “What?” it asked. This had never happened before. What was this power? It felt... familiar, somehow.

 

Then the bloody rune that the demon had carved into Ranma's forehead shattered. The wound was healed instantly, and the rune was replaced by an altogether different sigil. The six year old Ranma bared his teeth, and the mark of Saturn shone brightly upon his brow.

 

For the first time since the fall of the Silver Millennium, the ancient demon felt fear.

 

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Reflections of Ruin

by P.H. Wise

A Ranma/Sailor Moon/Cthulhu Mythos Crossover Fukufic

 

Chapter 2 - Adjusting

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailor Moon. Please don't sue me. I'm not doing this for profit.

 

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Ranma awoke to another unfamiliar ceiling, and for a moment, she did not know where she was. Knowledge returned as her wakefulness increased, but she did not rise immediately. She stared up at the cat-print wallpaper, trying to recall the dream-memory she had awoken from. But it was gone. Faded. Like a poem you promise yourself you're going to write later. She stared up at the cat-print wallpaper, shuddered faintly, and sat up.

 

She was in a child's room. The dresser was full of clothes that would fit a five-year-old, and a host of vaguely familiar toys were neatly tucked away in a nearby lidless toy box. Here lay the relics of a time she could barely remember, carefully preserved since the day she and her father had left on their training trip.

 

She opened a drawer in the dresser next to the bed and pulled out an art pad. A graceful but unfamiliar hand had written on the front, “Ranma's art.” She flipped it open; it was full of finger paintings, each little more than splatters of water-colours on the page, each carefully preserved here.

 

Ranma shook her head, recognizing this place now. Despite the damage her friends had done to this place the last time they were here, it was all back exactly the way it had been, now. Exactly the way she remembered it.

 

FLASH

 

“Hi mom,” Ranma said hopefully, her eyes fixed upon his mother.

 

Nodoka Saotome bowed formally. “Ranma,” she said. “Welcome home.”

 

FLASH

 

Ranma replaced the art pat in the drawer, stood up, and shook her head. If she was going to stay here, some changes were going to have to be made.

 

Ranma's musing was rudely interrupted by the protestations of her stomach. She had not eaten since the yesterday at the Tendo's, and her stomach was ill pleased with such a fast. She took a few minutes to do the standard morning ritual - washing herself (though she didn't soak in the furo), brushing her teeth, putting on deodorant, brushing her hair, and then throwing on her standard Chinese silk clothing - before heading downstairs to investigate the smell of breakfast. As she passed the door to her parents' room, she heard Genma's snores coming from within.

 

Ranma walked into the kitchen and discovered to her delight that her mother had prepared a Japanese style breakfast. Steamed rice, miso soup, nato, and tamagoyaki were all laid out before her, and after a happy, “Good morning, mom!” she sat down and ate with gusto.

 

“Ranma,” Nodoka said as her neo-daughter finished her breakfast, “We need to discuss a few things.

 

Ranma nodded. They cleaned up the breakfast mess together, making sure to leave a helping for Genma for when he woke up, and then went out into the living room and sat down on the tatami mats.

 

“My son,” Nodoka said, “I have some concerns about the quality of education you have been receiving at Furinkan High.”

 

Ranma blinked. 'What brought this on?' she wondered. After a moment, she rolled her eyes. “Ain't no educating going on at Furinkan, mom.”

 

Nodoka smiled very faintly. “No, I suppose not. Regardless, your test scores have not been very impressive. At the end of your first year at Furinkan, you know only what you should have known before you began your first year of high school.”

 

Ranma didn't see the problem. “So? What good is book learnin' to a martial artist? I don't need ta know that sort of thing to run a dojo.”

 

Nodoka raised an eyebrow. “Ignorance is not very manly, my son,” she said ominously, “And if you are to be able to run your own dojo some day, you will need to know how to run a dojo.”

 

Ranma blinked. “What, you mean there's more to it than just teaching students?”

 

Nodoka nodded. “Far more. You will be running a business, Ranma. For that, you need knowledge.”

 

“But pops said...” Ranma trailed off at Nodoka's cold look.

 

“I have called in a number of favors that were owed me, my son, and arranged to have you transferred to Mugen Gakuen: Infinity Academy, here in the Minato ward, to repeat your first year of high school.”

 

“But mom...!”

 

“But nothing. No manly son of mine will be an ignorant louse.”

 

Ranma sighed. “Yes, mom.”

 

“It will be difficult. Mugen Gakuen is one of the best schools in Tokyo. But if you apply yourself, you will succeed there. Unless you think you're not up to the challenge?” she arched a delicate eyebrow as she looked at her son-turned-daughter.

 

Her pride pricked, Ranma clenched her fist. “Ain't no challenge that Ranma Saotome can't beat.”

 

Nodoka nodded, a faint smile gracing her lips. “Good. Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

 

Ranma blinked, then scratched the back of his head. “Well, uh, my room...”

 

“Yes?”

 

“It needs some changin', ya know? It's a kid's room, and I ain't a kid anymore.”

 

Nodoka's faint smile bloomed into full wistfulness. “No,” she said. “No, you aren't. You've become a beautiful young woman, my son.” She rose to her feet. “Come. Your room requires redecorating, and unless I am gravely mistaken, you are in need of a new wardrobe.”

 

Ranma nodded. “OK, but I'm gonna say this right now: no dresses, no skirts, nothin' frilly, and nothin' girly.”

 

"Make no mistake, young woman. No matter what form you wear, you are, and always will be, my manly son.”

 

Ranma smiled. “Thanks, mom.”

 

They went out.

 

All things considered, the shopping trip wasn't so bad. Ranma had never had much love of shopping, but it did give her the opportunity to get a good look at the layout of the Azabu-Juuban district. Built on a marshy area of foothills south of central Tokyo, it was one of the most prominent upscale residential districts in Tokyo. And now, at the end of summer, it was beautiful, though uncomfortably warm. People were everywhere, and the streets were lined with trees. After they'd bought some supplies for the redecoration of her room, Ranma and her mother ended up stopping in at a clothing shop across the street from the Crown Game Center.

 

Most of what Nodoka bought for Ranma was shirts and pants. She managed to find several different versions of his normal Chinese clothes, a number of different kinds of slacks, some khaki pants, sweat pants, three pairs of jeans, two different pairs of tennis shoes, and a pair of dressier shoes, plus four different male style kimonos. Although it made Ranma uncomfortable, they also purchased a number of different pairs of female undergarments (in addition to several pairs of boxers), though thankfully, none of it was particularly frilly. Then, at last, they were ready to buy her school uniform.

 

Nodoka approached the young female clerk behind the cash register. She was cute, and blonde, though her hair colour was not natural. There weren't many native Japanese girls with natural blonde hair.

 

“Can I help you?” the girl asked. Her nametag read `Kikuko.'

 

Nodoka gestured to Ranma, and the pigtailed girl stepped forward. “Yeah. I was wond'rin' if ya had the Mugen Gakuen school uniform here,” Ranma said.

 

Kikuko looked Ranma up and down. “We don't carry it normally, but I'd be happy to order it for you, provided you can show proof that you are attending the school.”

 

Nodoka produced Ranma's letter of acceptance from the Infinity Academy, and Kikuko nodded.

 

“All right then. Let's take your measurements,” Kikuko said, and called another worker over to man the cash register before leading the Saotomes back to the tailoring station. Quickly she produced a measuring tape and went to work.

 

“Now, there are a number of accessories that the school has authorized for its female uniforms,” Kikuko said as she wrote down the measurements she had taken. “If you want, I can show you some of the options available...”

 

Nodoka cut her off. “My son will be wearing the male uniform, miss.”

 

Kikuko raised an eyebrow and looked at Ranma for a long moment. “Your son?” she asked. Ranma was clearly a girl. And with her dark red hair, blue eyes, and killer figure, she was a knockout, too. It seemed like a shame to put that body into the male uniform variant.

 

Nodoka nodded firmly. “My son may be a woman, but she is no less my son. Now, the male uniform, if you please.”

 

Kikuko shrugged. “Whatever you say,” she said, produced the catalogue, and turned it to the page displaying the male uniforms.

 

Ranma smiled faintly.

 

All told, Nodoka had dropped the equivalent of over a thousand U.S. dollars on Ranma's wardrobe in one outing, and though Ranma was greatly amazed, Nodoka was well off, and for her it was no great expense. And while some of Ranma's new wardrobe duplicated her old wardrobe, the difference was, the new wardrobe actually fit her female body. Feeling inordinately pleased with herself for having avoided all things `frilly,' Ranma walked home, with her mother by her side.

 

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Somewhere beneath Tokyo, a laboratory was filled to the brim with the knowledge of That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know. Great vats full of some unidentifiable substance gave off an angry green glow, and it was cold. Upon a desk nearby lay a copy of `The Monsters and their Kynde.' Next to it lay an alchemical tome of Albertus Magnus and other similar works, none so dangerous as the Monsters and their Kynde, but all things that should not fall into unclean hands.

 

And in that dark hidden laboratory, a shadow-veiled scientist turned to his red-headed assistant, who had just walked in. “Kaolinite-kun,” he said, “Has there been any progress in locating her?”

 

The red-headed woman - Kaolinite - shook her head. “No Professor. In ten years, there has been no sign of Mistress 9.” She paused, giving the Professor a considering look. “Have you considered the possibility that she might not have survived that night?”

 

The Professor shook his head. “She's resourceful. It wouldn't be like her at all to die so easily. No, she's out there. We just have to keep looking.” He smiled widely, and his glasses gleamed in the dim light of the lab. “The Daimons should be helpful there. She will be drawn to their power.”

 

Kaolinite nodded. “Is the next Daimon egg ready?” she asked.

 

The Professor grinned far too widely for a human face. “It's ready. Do you have a target?”

 

“Hai. I've recently spotted a young man wholly devoted to the maintenance of the best cars in the world. The purity of his desire could be enough to hide a Talisman within.”

 

“Good.” The Professor gestured, and the Daimon egg floated out of a nearby vat and into Kaolinite's hands.

 

“Good hunting, Kaolinite-kun.”

 

Kaolinite bowed, and then vanished, leaving her lab coat behind.

 

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It was night, and the stars were barely visible above the Tokyo sky. Ranma grimaced as she roof-hopped across Juuban. Whatever else you said about it, one thing she still missed about the road was seeing the stars. Tomorrow was Tuesday, and would be her first day of school at Mugen Gakuen, but tonight, tonight she was trying to get a feel for the powers she had been granted in the fight against Saffron. The ground sped away beneath her as she leaped from building to building, caught up in an intricate kata that took her halfway across the town and back.

 

Not bad. Without calling up That Outfit, her speed, toughness, and strength had only been minimally enhanced. She was stronger, faster, and tougher, but it wasn't as much as she had feared. Ranma had never been a fan of unearned powerups.

 

Still, she needed to see exactly what she could do once she called out the full power of what she had become. It was dark, and no one was watching, so she figured it was safe enough. With a moment of concentration, a dark purple glow surrounded Ranma - transforming her. As the light faded away, Sailor Saturn hefted the Silence Glaive and glanced about briefly before continuing on her way.

 

It was much, much easier to leap from building to building now - almost effortless. She continued roof-hopping, jumping farther and faster, reveling in the sheer physical power that her transformation afforded her. Then she accidentally sliced off a satellite dish with the Silence Glaive.

 

It hit the roof of the building she had been practicing on with a loud clang, and Saturn cringed. “Oops,” she said, flushing red with embarrassment. She glanced around quickly, and then, satisfied that nobody had heard that, prepared to continue on her way.

 

A man's scream of horror cut through the night like a knife.

 

Saturn rushed to the edge of the building and looked down just in time to see a female monster that looked like it had been built out of a... car? What the hell? Who would make a monster out of a car? Even as she wondered at that, the monster went tearing off into a nearby (dry) canal, with two blonde girls in uniforms similar to her own in close pursuit. Curious, she leaped after them, easily keeping pace.

 

After a few minutes, the monster burst out of the canal and into the city streets, only to skid to a stop as something struck it.

 

Saturn found a perch on the roof of a nearby building and stared down at the confrontation that was developing between the two girls and the monster.

 

Senshi.

 

They were Senshi.

 

She didn't know what that meant, but it felt important.

 

“The pure heart of a guy who goes after a dream..." one girl began. The other jumped in. "We won't give it to evil! For love and justice, I am the pretty soldier Sailor Moon. In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

 

Saturn let out a pained groan and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Did she really just say that?” she asked aloud, cringing internally at the sheer awfulness of such a line.

 

The monster and the girls began to fight, sending blasts of energy back and forth. Well, the girls were sending blasts of energy. The monster was shooting... tires.

 

Saturn felt a headache coming on. If it wasn't angry princes with deadly chopsticks, it was female monsters who shot tires. Why couldn't she ever get away from this sort of thing?

 

Still, the tires did seem to be pretty effective, based on the property damage they were inflicting.

 

So caught up was she in watching the fight that she didn't realize someone had come up behind her until he spoke, his voice quiet but very clear.

 

“Are you going to help them?”

 

She turned.

 

A man in a stylish tuxedo with a top hat, cane, cape, and a white mask was standing on the roof some twenty feet away from her. He looked weird, but she was in no position to judge. After all, he didn't seem particularly weirder than most of the freaks in Nerima that she was used to dealing with, and from his stance, he looked like he might be a decent fighter.

 

Saturn hefted the Silence Glaive and dropped into a defensive stance. “I'm thinkin' about it,” she said.

 

The man smiled. “That's good. They can use all the allies they can get.” He looked down on the scene, and Saturn relaxed her stance and followed his gaze.

 

“Hold it right there!” A voice cried out on the street below, and both the girls and the monster turned to look, surprised that someone had interrupted their fight.

 

Two new Sailor Senshi stood almost back to back, facing the monster and the two girls. "Invited by a new age,” the first one said, “I am Sailor Uranus, appearing magnificently."

 

"Also invited by a new age, I am Sailor Neptune, appearing elegantly."

 

Saturn pinched the bridge of her nose again. “These guys really gotta work on their lines.”

 

Below them, Sailor Moon finally killed the monster, even as Uranus and Neptune announced that some sort of crystal that the monster had been carrying was not a Talisman.

 

The masked man smiled faintly. “It appears that today, our help is not needed.” He looked at her thoughtfully. “I am Tuxedo Kamen. You are?”

 

Saturn smirked. “Just leaving, actually,” she said, and then darted to the far edge of the roof and leaped off the far edge of the building.

 

Tuxedo Kamen rushed to the building's edge and looked down, but Sailor Saturn was already gone.

 

Ranma waited until she was five or six blocks away before dropping her transformation. She grimaced. While the power of that other form was undeniable, it was waaaaay too girly for her tastes.

 

Huh.

 

So there were others like her. Other... Senshi. Sailor Moon. Sailor Uranus. Sailor Neptune. And she... she was... “Saturn,” she said aloud. She wasn't sure where the name came from, but it felt right. Yeah, the fact that there were others like her definitely bore some thinking about.

 

She hopped down from the roof and onto the street with a thoughtful expression on her face. Maybe she should try to make contact with them, if she ran into them again. They were fighting monsters, after all, and they looked like they could use all the help they could get. It was, after all, a martial artist's duty to defend the weak. Maybe...

 

But that was something for another day's worries.

 

Yet as she walked into her mother's house, she couldn't help but wonder what that Tuxedo Kamen guy was telling them about her.

 

Probably nothing good, knowing her luck.

 

END CHAPTER 2