Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A New Future 2 - First Blood ❯ Preparations ( Chapter 6 )

This is an alternate history (both the world in general and the Senshi in particular) continuation for both Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2, set in a world with no space exploration, personal computers, cell phones, or anything else requiring a transistor. The Y rating is for violence in later chapters.

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Naoko Takeuchi, or anything in the GURPS Ogre and GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol settings published by Steve Jackson Games. Everything else is mine.

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Ranma blearily opened her eyes at the sound of hammering on the apartment door — well, it seemed like hammering to the slightly groggy redhead.

Lying beside her in their bed, Akane groaned and glanced over at the clock on their bedstand. “Who on earth could be here at this time of the morning?” she growled as she swung her legs over and sat up. Especially since we stayed up so late last night making up for the school nights — it's a weekend, dammit!

Throwing on a robe, the black-haired girl staggered out to the front door and cracked it open to see who was in the hall, then opened it wide and stepped back for Chibi-Usa and Hotaru as Ranma appeared in the bedroom door. “All right, what are you two doing here so early?” Akane growled.

“Early?” Hotaru asked, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Well, it's early if ya didn't get ta sleep 'til after midnight,” Ranma said, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a pitcher of water.

“Midnight? Was there a good movie on?” Chibi-Usa asked innocently, then started laughing when Ranma and Akane blushed, to be joined a few moments later by a nonplused Hotaru.

Hastily, Akane asked, “So what are you doing here this early? The workout isn't supposed to start for three hours.”

“There's a movie matinee today at the local theater, and we thought if we got practice in early we could catch it,” Hotaru said as Chibi-Usa fought her laughter down to giggles.

Ranma made a face, and Hotaru quickly added. “It's not a romance this time, it's actually an American film called `Gettysburg', about one of the big battles of their civil war around a hundred and fifty years ago. I'm attending for a history class, and could use some company.”

“A battle, hmm?” a suddenly interested Ranma mused, then nodded. “Sure, why not? Let's get changed, me an' Akane can eat after the workout.”

The redhead headed back to the bedroom, and Akane gave their two friends a grateful look. “Thanks, guys, I've been trying to come up with ways to get Ranma out of the apartment without being obvious,” she whispered, and the other two members of the Three Musketeers smiled back as the three started back to join Ranma.

“Kind of figured after last weekend's lunch,” Chibi-Usa whispered back. “No problem, what are friends for?”

 

In the almost empty movie theater, Akane winced as the wooden armrest between her and Ranma creaked, and Hotaru, on Ranma's other side, glanced at her friend in concern. Ranma noticed neither, her face pale and her eyes glued to the short news reel playing before the movie, chronicling the latest fight between the Senshi and the Monsters of the Week.

Ranma tensed even more as Sailor Moon attempted her purifying attack against four of the hairless, flying nightmares, then was forced to drop and roll and smashed into the nearest building, her long braid flipping around her, as her targets dove through where she'd been standing, completely unaffected. Slowly, the fuku-clad young woman forced herself to sit up, blood streaking her hair from her collision with the wall, even as the things circled for another attack.

Then Sailor Pluto was there, standing before her princess, her Dead Scream racing to meet the attackers. Two of them were caught and blown aside to slam into the road with sickening finality. Another, Pluto caught with the Garnet Rod, knocking it off-course to smash head-first into the wall next to Sailor Moon, and the blonde scrambled backwards with a shriek as the corpse thudded to the concrete in front of her.

But that left the fourth, and Pluto staggered as it smashed into her, braking its dive at the last second to grasp her arm with the pairs of arms above and below its wings, as the massive stinger at the end of its tail stabbed through Pluto's armor and deep into her side. The tail seemed to pulse and Pluto screamed, then suddenly the flying abomination was torn away as Moon's kick caught it in the side and its wings opened to bring it to a hover a meter away — and there was a sound like a gunshot from Ranma's armrest snapping in half as lightning flashed in from off screen and caught the creature dead center. The thing shrieked as the lightning coruscated around it, then seemed to come apart as the lightning exploded in all directions, engulfing Pluto and knocking her back against Moon to bring the two down in a heap.

The scene shifted to show Moon and Mars helping a shaking Pluto to her feet, Jupiter standing in front of them, and then again to show one after another of the bizarre flyers exploding in mid-air before changing to pan across the aftermath of alien corpses and the blackened and cratered walls and street.

Hotaru leaned over to a now shaking Ranma and whispered, “You know everyone came out all right — we would have told you if anything serious had happened.”

“Serious!” Ranma managed to force out in a strangled whisper as Akane put an arm around her. “Big sis and Puu almost ...”

“They're fine,” Hotaru said again, laying her hand on top of Ranma's. “They just had to wait a bit before detransforming so they could heal.” When Ranma didn't say anything, she added, “They're really better than that now, usually — Moon was just having a bad day.” Giggling a little, “Moon was almost like when I first met her.”

Then the music started as the screen lit up with the feature film, and Hotaru broke off, giving Ranma's hand a comforting squeeze.

* * * * *

Setsuna smiled as she stepped into the Cat Café, the emerald-haired woman in her usual business suit glancing around the new, larger restaurant. The lunch business was booming, if mostly male, and considering the way the waitresses were dressed it was no surprise — mixing excellent food with serious eye candy was always a working formula.

“Welcome to the Cat —” the greeting cut off and the cute (and almost certainly lethal) greeter's eyes widened as she recognized the young-seeming woman before her from an earlier visit. She reflexively started to drop to a knee, but froze at Setsuna's wave of negation.

“Not in public,” Setsuna whispered, glancing around at the customers, and the teenager nodded discreetly, again standing completely upright. “Is Ku Lon working?” Setsuna asked, and the greeter shook her head.

“No, Lady Pluto, she will be handling the evening rush,” she said quietly and Setsuna nodded.

“Good, I need to speak with her.”

With a nod, the greeter said, “Certainly, please follow me,” and led Setsuna toward the door to the café's back rooms.

 

In a cozy private kitchen in the back, Elder Ku Lon and Setsuna relaxed around the table, Setsuna's shoulder's slumping slightly as the special blend of tea she sipped did its magic and muscles she hadn't even realized were taut as bowstrings slowly relaxed.

Ku Lon smiled slightly at the sight. “I think you need to stop in here a little more often,” she suggested, but Setsuna regretfully shook her head.

“Perhaps later, after the current enemy is driven back,” she said with a sigh. “But right now, too many visits might be seen as intruding on Ranma's bailiwick.”

Ku Lon looked thoughtful for a moment, then reluctantly nodded agreement. “So, if you aren't here to simply visit an old friend, why are you here?” she asked.

Setsuna thought for a moment, then asked, “Tell me, have you had much luck in figuring out a way to move your tribe to Japan?” Ku Lon's gaze sharpened and she shook her head, and Setsuna grinned. “Well, your problems are solved — the Emperor has agreed to have his people make the necessary arrangements and await Yasuko's word for the migration to begin.”

“Yasuko?” Ku Lon repeated, then when Setsuna nodded asked, “And you believe that Yasuko will accept her role and ask that the move be made?”

“Yes,” Setsuna said. “I give it as little as one week, as late as a month, but the odds of Ranma doing just that approach near certainty.”

Ku Lon broke out in a relieved smile she would have let no other living soul see. “That is very good news, indeed. I was afraid that Ranma would never accept it.”

At that, Setsuna's expression turned sober. “There's a good reason for Ranma to accept it — we will need your warriors, as many as you can spare, in our final battle with the current enemy.” Looking intently at her old friend, she added softly, “This will be as brutal a battle as any you have fought with the Musk or Saffron's people, Ku Lon, with the stakes considerably higher.”

Ku Lon's smile vanished, but after a moment she simply nodded. “I know you would not ask this if it were not necessary, my old friend. Will the princess be in that fight?” Setsuna nodded, and Ku Lon continued, “Then when you need us, the Joketsuzoku will be there.”

Setsuna gazed thoughtfully at her friend. “Ku Lon, you do understand that when your people move here they will not be able to maintain all of your ways. The Kisses, at least, will have to go. And while few of the men you meet will be the equals of your warriors in combat — though there are exceptions and not all of them Japanese, I'll have to introduce you to the American Marines while they're still here — the men you meet ... Japan may mostly have legal equality, but it's still sexist in some ways, for many people. Being accepted as equals is the most you will be able to expect from any man you would care to know.”

Ku Lon shrugged. “True enough, and what of it? Yes, we have maintained our ways for three thousand years, and they have worked well for us. But our history extends back to a time that predates those traditions, and the Elders — enough of them, anyway — haven't forgotten that those traditions are a means, not an end, to be modified when the means and end conflict.”

Then, straightening up, she said, “So, what do you need?”

Setsuna blew out her breath in relief. “Well, I'll need contact information for Amazons both here and in China that I can pass on to the Emperor, so that we can be ready to move as soon as Yasuko gives the word. The Emperor will also need a count of the number of people that will be arriving, so he can arrange your new home ahead of time....”

* * * * *

Ranma gasped as she twisted violently to one side and one of the things from the news reel flashed through the space she'd just vacated to smash into the building behind her with a sickening thump. She kicked a second away, then grabbed a third as it tried to grapple, bouncing back against the building as a palm smashed into its throat while the other hand caught the tail just above its stinger. As the thing convulsed, grabbing at its throat with its upper hands, she whirled, swinging it by its tail and its head smashed into a nearby lamp pole. Letting the corpse drop, Ranma stepped to the side, looking around the sky and seeing another two incoming, then `eeped' as she stumbled over another corpse and dropped to her knees. Desperately, the redhead threw herself to the side to try to avoid the incoming flyers, but they were adjusting their trajectory and there were another four behind them.

And then Akane was there, straddling Ranma's prone body, screaming a warcry as her claws vanished and her battle aura flared red, her old hammer materializing to smash both the first two aside with a single swing but it had pulled her off-balance and in her anger she'd ignored the four coming in behind and they smashed into her, bouncing her against the wall as the stingers stabbed in and the tails pulsed and the black-haired girl's ear-splitting shriek of pain cut off with terrifying suddenness....

And Ranma shot bolt-upright in her bed, screaming Akane's name. At the throat-ripping shriek Akane bolted out of her side of the bed that filled most of their room looking around wildly for the threat. Finding nothing, she turned back to her lover, only to find herself pinned to the wall by a desperately sobbing redhead. Instinctively, her arms came up around the smaller girl, and then their bedroom door slammed back as Nabiki rushed through, dressed only in the panties she usually slept in and gripping a baseball bat in one hand.

Nabiki quickly glanced around then focused on the pair. “I heard Ranma scream. Hell, I think the whole building heard Ranma scream. What happened?”

“A nightmare, I think,” Akane responded gently picking up the girl still clutching at her and sitting down on the bed with the redhead in her lap.

“That must have been one seriously bad dream,” Nabiki said, then sighed. “I'll be in the front room, join me when you get her calmed down.”

An hour later Akane quietly closed the bedroom door and walked out to join her sister. Nabiki looked up at her approach and smiled somewhat sleepily. “I don't know if you noticed, but the police stopped by,” she said. “Someone called in Ranma's scream and they wanted to make sure nobody'd been murdered. So, what was that scream all about? And where's Ranma?”

“Ranma's asleep,” Akane said as she slumped down at the table. “And I don't know what the scream was about. Obviously a nightmare of some sort, but you know Ranma — she wouldn't talk about it, just kept repeating my name and crying like a baby, and wouldn't let go of me until she cried herself to sleep. And that's where I'm headed right now; I don't think it would be a good idea for Ranma to wake up alone.”

Wearily, she pushed herself to back to her feet. Then as she started back toward the bedroom, she paused for a moment and turned back. “Uh, Nabiki ... a baseball bat?”

Nabiki shrugged, slightly embarrassed. “When I invited you and Ranma to room with me I expected the old Ranma chaos to follow — I have no idea why it hasn't — and I thought that maybe some of it might come around when Ranma wasn't here.” She grimaced at Akane's chuckle. “I know, I didn't expect Ranma to not go back to school and practically never leave the apartment. And yes, I'm not a martial artist. But I thought that maybe whoever came around might get careless, and I'd get in a lucky shot.”

Akane walked back over and bent down to give her older sister a hug. “I don't know if I ever said it before, but thanks for everything you've done for us. I don't know what we would have done without you,” she whispered.

Nabiki returned the hug for a moment, then pushed them apart. “You'd have done well enough,” she said somewhat huskily, “if for no other reason than Ms. Meioh and Usagi would have seen to it. But you're welcome.” The pageboy-haired girl watched her younger sister walk back to the bedroom, and as the door shut the warm smile she never let anyone see if she could help it appeared on her face for a brief moment before she sighed, got up and double-checked the lock on the door, then turned out the lights and headed for her own bedroom.

* * * * *

At the door to the apartment, Akane turned around. “Ranma, are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes, I'm sure!” Ranma almost shouted. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head slightly. “Look,” she said, “I know I had a bad night, but you aren't missin' school `cause of it. How'd that look as an excuse? `I'm sorry I missed class, but my lover had a bad dream' — I don't think that would go over too well. Besides, I'll be fine, now shoo! But first ...” She stepped forward and pulled Akane into a long kiss, leaving the taller girl slightly breathless when they broke apart. “I'll see you when you get back this afternoon with Usa and Hotaru.”

Akane sighed but reluctantly nodded. “All right, I'll see you then.” She picked up her school bag and left, and Ranma turned back to stare at the apartment's other occupant, still sitting at the table.

Nabiki just chuckled and shook her head at the unspoken challenge. “Relax,” she said. “If Akane couldn't convince you, I'm not even going to try. But ... you do have the phone number for the university and my schedule? They can chase me down if you need anything.”

Ranma rolled her eyes. “Yes, mother, I have the phone number, and the schedule's right by the phone.”

Nabiki laughed and stood up, grabbing her own book bag. “In that case I'll be on my way. Have fun,” she called over her shoulder as she left.

Ranma walked over to the window and looked down into the street, watching as Akane turned the corner toward the school, and a minute later Nabiki turned the other way and crossed the street, headed for the bus station. Sighing, Ranma turned away and headed for the mini-dojo.

An hour later, Ranma gave up — she hadn't been able to summon the claws once, every time she'd gotten close the image of Akane buried in abominations, tails pulsing, would rise in her mind yet again. Walking back out to the front room table, she plopped down and stared at the wall. Akane's gonna insist on bein' taught the Cat Claws, and I promised I'd clear her for combat when she's ready — but how do I know? There's no way that trainin' here'll get her ready — even if I was willin' ta insult her like I used to, she'll just ignore it like she has the few times I've goofed up. I never thought I'd want her ta get angry at me, but ...

Suddenly restless, Ranma got up and wandered over to the window again, looking down at the people walking by. Okay, I can't really get mad `cause she won't let herself get mad at me anymore, at least not enough ta even yell at me, but I still need somethin' for her ta get angry about, some way ta test her control, somethin' ...

Ranma stiffened as a sudden thought struck her. She whirled toward the apartment door and yanked it open, then forced herself to stop. Get a grip, Ranma, ya don't even know if he's there. Closing the door and turning back into the apartment, she walked over to the phone and dialed up a number she'd long since memorized but never used.

“Hi, Akari, it's Ranma ... yeah, I'm doin' fine, how `bout you? ... Good ta hear, from what I saw the last time I was there yer gonna need a new trophy case pretty quick. Listen, I haven't seen Ryoga since I left Nerima, did he get the letter me an' Akane sent ya ta give him? ... Great! Listen, I need ta talk to him, and I thought if he isn't droppin' in on me he might be seein' you, instead. Is he there? ... Oh, well, could ya have him call me the next time he drops by? But in the morning around now ... sure, thanks, that'll be a big help ... sure, you too, see ya later.”