Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny ❯ Chapter 3

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

A SMARTALECK PRODUCTIONS

Destiny

By arun

Chapter#03
Completed on 07/05/2001

This is a Ranma 1/2 - Sailor Moon crossover with certain aspects of
Ramayana.

Disclaimers:
Ranma and the cast members of Ranma 1/2 are owned by Rumiko
Takahashi and Shogukkan. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most brilliant
people to walk on the face of this earth. We the fans of the anime world
are forever indebted to her for giving us Ranma and co. Thank you Rumiko
Takahashi for bringing laughter back into our lives.

Sailor Moon and its characters are owned by Naoko Takeuchi, Toei
animation and KODANSHA.

I donot own the characters of both these shows, nor do I even
pretend to own them. This work of fiction is but a tribute to the above
anime shows.

Guys:
*....* indicate thoughts.
In the first and second chapters indicates Japanese and "..."
indicates Chinese. In all the other chapters the reciprocal is true.

************************************************************ ***********

It was well past eight PM in Tokyo when the cab Ranma and the
Amazons were traveling on stopped in front of a traditional Japanese
house. There is a large training hall by its side and a pond adorned its
front. The house and the garden that surrounded it looked well
maintained.

Ranma paid the cabby and opened the gates.

"Welcome to my humble abode Matriarch. It is a honour to have
you here." said Ranma. Shampoo did not know the truth about him and he
was having the time of his life playing the role of an obedient Amazon
male.

"Shampoo like it very much." announced Shampoo. It was true that
Shampoo loved the house. It was also true that she hated the city. She
had spent the whole of her life in the unpolluted atmosphere of the
village and her senses still hadnot adjusted to the smoke, over
population and congestion of the city.

"I agree with Shampoo, Ranma. The house looks homely."

"Thank you elder." said Ranma.

He opened the front door, ushered his guests in, and proceeded
to show them around of the house. Their little tour finished the two
Amazon women withdrew to their rooms to freshen up.

Cologne and Shampoo freshened up and came downstairs to find
Chinese cuisine waiting for them at the table. Ranma had taken the
liberty of ordering takeout food from one of the Chinese restaurants in
the area.

"Matriarch, I would be honored if you would dine with me in my
humble abode." said Ranma. The sentence was a formal greeting practiced
amongst the Amazons and Cologne smiled when she heard it. It proved to
her that though he had been away for long he was still very much an
Amazon at heart.

"Yes Ranma. I would be most honored to dine in your humble
abode." Again, the reply was formal and traditional. If he wanted to
adhere to formality, she would too.

"Thank you, elder. Please sit down and let me serve your meal."
said Ranma. He was now getting into the part of playing the humble host.

Cologne smiled once again. Ranma was testing her table manners
it seemed. If so she would play, no, become the part of the Amazonian
guest. She nodded and assented to his request.

Shampoo sat herself and watched the traditional exchanges that
took place between her great grandmother and their cute host. She had
sparred with him during their walk through the mountains and he was very
good. The way his muscles moved was poetry in motion and she had lost
several of their little sparring sessions while she was busy drooling
over him. He seemed to tolerate it, though her great grandmother had
been very strict in that regard.

"So, Ranma, what do you do for a living?" asked Cologne curious
as to how he spent his time. She was always bored in the village and she
wanted to know how he remained as cheerful as he was after having lived
two thousand years.

"I had applied for a job in one of the highschool here and my
application was accepted. I am going to start my work there as a
physical education coach day after tomorrow." replied Ranma temporarily
ceasing the very fast bowl to mouth express. Growing up under the
tutelage of Master Yuan Puyi had made him a very fast eater indeed.

Cologne nodded. Teaching children was a fine way to spend one's
time. Children were the hope for the future and it wouldn't do for them
to have anything less than quality education. Even in the village, all
children were compulsorily made to study the Chinese government's
equivalent of high school and then some more if they wanted too.
Knowledge is the most powerful weapon one could have and the village
elders would never neglect that part of the younger generation's
education. *Shampoo must have excellent knowledge of the outside world
if she is to be a matriarch.* Thought Cologne.

"I think that Shampoo must attend school here. It will raise her
awareness of the outside world." said Cologne. It would be a wonderful
opportunity for Shampoo to interact with children from the outside world
and remove some of her irritable traits.

Ranma paused briefly and nodded. "Yes, matriarch. I was also
thinking of enrolling her in the school I am going to work in."

"Excellent idea."

"But great grandmother, Shampoo no want to go to school." wailed
the young Amazon. She had thought that they had come to Japan to train.

Cologne glared at Shampoo. "You will go to school child. Your
Japanese is poor and you will need the knowledge this experience will
provide if you wish to become the matriarch one day. Remember what I had
taught you, strength alone doesn't win wars, knowledge does. In that
department you are sorely lacking and I aim to rectify that by any means
possible."

"Yes, great grandmother." Shampoo's face mirrored quite the
opposite of what her mouth said.

Ranma looked at Shampoo and laid down his chopsticks. He wanted
to try a different approach on her. "Shampoo..."

The purple haired Amazon looked up at him.

Now that he had her attention, he continued. "Shampoo, do you
have many friends in her village?" he asked.

Shampoo shook her head.

"Why don't you have friends in the village, Shampoo?"

"Because I am the village's best fighter and most of them are
either my rivals or are afraid of me." she replied. That was true. The
only one she could call her friend was that idiot Mousse, who was always
chasing her.

Ranma nodded. Children behaved like that all the time. "Now
Shampoo, Japanese culture is different from that of the Amazons. Here
people will not avoid you just because you can beat them to a pulp in a
fair fight. They will initially avoid you but that will change once they
realize that you are not that different from them. Therefore if you go
to school, work hard and be nice to people than they will become your
friends. So do you want to have friends or not?"

Shampoo's head bobbed up and down. She wanted, no, she _needed_
friends. Life was lonely without friends and friends brought joy and
happiness to one's life.

"Good. If you want to have lots of friends, you have got to go
to school because that is where you will meet a lot of children your
age." said Ranma.

A smile came to Shampoo's face. "I will go to school." she
proclaimed.

Ranma returned her smile. "You promise that you will work hard
and learn everything that you could if you go to school." He had to make
sure that she wouldnot spend all her time with her friends and learn
nothing at all.

"Yes."

"It's all right then. Now eat your ramen."

At the head of the table, Cologne broke into a chuckle. It
looked like Ranma had been teaching children for a long time.

************************************************************ ***********

Rei Hino AKA Sailor Mars, one of the sexy sailor senshi sat
infront of the holy fire meditating in the lotus position. She was
practicing fire readings this particular night and she had done three
fire readings so far that night. She had to wait half an hour before the
ki she had used during each reading was recharged. It had been over an
hour since she had done the last reading. She was even now concentrating
and replenishing her ki reserves for what she hoped would be the longest
fire reading she had ever done. This particular day had been in the
works for several months now and all through those months she had been
preparing herself for this reading.

The last three readings had been nothing but warm-up exercises
and now she was just about ready to begin the mother of all fire
readings.

"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen." she said and
using the words as the focus released the ki into the fire.

The fire grew with a whoosh and assumed a white color, which
symbolized the peace in her mind at that instant.

Within the fire, images began to float around. She saw a silver
millennium's creation. Queen Serenity's election as the monarch to the
throne of the Moon kingdom, which was still in its infancy. She
witnessed the peace and harmony that prevailed during those first few
years. Then the images blurred for just an instant and became clear
again.

This time she saw the through the queen's eyes the rape and
murder of her ancestor by some kind of six-handed monster. She felt the
queen's anguish and helplessness as well as her fear for her own life
and that of her people. She saw the plains and cities of Saturn burning.
The black clouds of smoke that arose from them reached the skies above
and darkened the landscape. She saw children being skinned alive. Their
cries for help falling on dead ears. She saw those very same six-handed
monsters eating the children's hearts after having wrenched it from
their struggling and screaming wrecks that were once bodies.

The image blurred again. When it became clear, she stood on the
icy mountains of Pluto. Her location offered excellent view of the city
below as it was ravaged and burnt to the ground by the six-handed
monsters.

The image blurred again. This time she saw through the eyes of
her queen. A part of her subconscious realized with a start that her
majesty was Queen Serenity the first. She saw a huge gathering of
magicians and mana in the plains of Mars. They were about to execute a
very powerful spell and she could feel and touch the raw energy in the
air.

Then she heard a shriek. Her mind told her that it was one of
those monster's that was trying to prevent the gathering of energy and
thus the execution of the spell. She felt despair before it gave way to
peace. Serene happiness came over her and then she felt the enormous
amount of energy coursing through her. Her mind heard the screams of
desperation as the monsters tried to escape their prison.

The image blurred again. This time it stopped at the end of the
Silver Millennium. She saw the last Queen Serenity send all of them into
the future after they had been killed and the Moon kingdom had fallen.
With the last of her energy spent her majesty collapsed and died after
she sealed away Queen Beryl.

The image blurred again. Now it stopped at the time when all the
reincarnated inner sailors had first become a team. It played the scenes
of their epic battles with the forces of Queen Beryl, the Black Moon
family and Pharaoh 90.

The image blurred and this time she saw Fuji Mountain. the view
was from the top and she was floating weightlessly in the air.

The image blurred again. She saw a darkness more powerful than
any they had ever faced spread itself across the world. At it's head she
saw a middle-aged man, laughing aloud as the darkness destroyed
everything in its path. The sailor's fight with him but they are no
match for him. Then there is a flash of light and a dragon of incredible
grace and beauty descended upon them all. The dragon fought with the man
and everywhere it stepped light followed. Finally, the dragon defeated
the man and light spread throughout the universe.

The sacred fire died out again.

Rei shivered in her meditating position. The clothes on her body
was smoking. She tried to stand up but her eyeballs rolled into her head
and she fell down with a thud on the shrine floor.

A few moments later grandfather Hino opened the door to the room
and ran in. He lifted up his very hot granddaughter and carried her to
the tub. Not even looking at his burned hands and thorax he laid her on
the tub turned the water on and poured all the ice cubes in the house.
Then he pressed several pressure points and fetched the emergency
medical kit. Pretty soon her body temperature had almost returned to
normal and she had a intravenous drip running.

********************************************************* **************

The next morning...

Rei woke up and moaned. She had one hell of a headache. She
shifted in her bed and noticed that there was nothing on her except for
the blanket over her. She scanned the room and recognized it as her own.
There were a couple of things that did not belong in her room. They were
her grandfather, who was snoring in the chair by her bedside and the
intravenous drip that hung by her bedside.

She tried to get up but found that she lacked the energy to do
so. She grunted at the effort, which woke up her grandfather.
Grandfather Hino woke up with a start. "It wasn't me, I swear." he
shouted. Then he looked around, got his bearings and looked sheepishly
at his granddaughter.

"Sorry for waking you up child." he said.

"What am I doing here?" she asked. Her hand automatically went
to her head. Her head felt like it had been run through a cheese grater
and then the whole process had been repeated all through the night.

Grandfather Hino put his aged hand on her shoulder and made her
lie down on the bed. He shh'd her and then fetched another intravenous
pack. He connected the lines and sat down by her side. His wrinkled
fingers caressed her cheek with love.

"Grandfather, what happened to me? Why am I here?" she asked.
Her voice was also failing her and her question became a whisper. Her
body simply lacked the energy to do anything.

"You executed a technique that is highly dangerous, yesterday
night. The technique is called the fire vision and its use is forbidden.
The technique draws ki from the user just like in the fire reading but
the user has no control over the process. Until the vision is finished
or the user dies the ki is drawn regardless of the user's well being.
More often than not, the user dies whenever the technique is invoked."
explained grandfather Hino and then paused.

Rei nodded. From what grandfather was telling her it seemed that
she had gotten herself into a situation she couldn't handle.

"You were very lucky yesterday. You used the technique for
nearly a minute. There aren't many that can last that long. It proved
nearly too much for your body. When I sensed what you were doing, I
rushed as fast as I could but the vision was over by then and you lay
there in a coma near death. Your ki was severely depleted and it still
is. It will take another week before you become normal again but until
then, you will be weak. You will be able to attend school from tomorrow,
I think!"

Rei nodded once more. That was pretty much all she could do at
the moment and even that sent waves of pain through her head.

"Grandfather..." she whispered.

"Yes, child." the oldman asked lovingly.

"Would you phone Ami and the others and ask them to come and
visit me in the evening?" asked Rei.

"I will do as you wish, child. Now, go to sleep. You need the
rest." he ordered lovingly.

Rei was only happy too comply and as soon as she closed her eyes
fatigue overcame her and she went happily to Morpheus's embrace.

********************************************************* **************

Shampoo woke up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep.
She yawned and stretched her legs. She looked at the clock and saw that
it was already six thirty in the morning.

*Great grandmother is going to kill me.* She thought as she
hurriedly took her bath and dressed herself for the usual morning spar
with her great grandmother.

Just then, she heard her great grandmother shout "Kacchu Tenshin
Amaguriken". Thinking that there was a thief in the house she clutched
her bonbori's and ran out of her room and out into the garden from where
the shout had come from. She reached it in a moment and the sight that
greeted her left her jaws touching the ground.

********************************************************** *************

Ranma had got up at four in the morning and together with his
great great granddaughter had run the usual thirty-mile sprint. When
they had returned to the house, they had warmed up for the sparring
match doing some muscle relaxing katas. At around six Cologne had
signaled that she was ready and they had taken their stances.

Without any preliminaries, Cologne had leapt into the attack.
She wanted to impress her great great grandfather and what better way to
do that than to take the fight to his camp. She would demonstrate her
prowess and skill in the art. Hopefully that would be enough to impress
him.

Ranma had been amused at her show of aggression and both had
spared for the better part of an hour when he sensed the slight increase
in ki flows. His experience had taught him that such an increase usually
came before a Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken. Sure enough Cologne shouted out
the technique and had jumped towards him. Over the years, Ranma had
realized that offense is often the best defense and accordingly he had
leapt towards her. Cologne had been caught off-guard. Kacchu Tenshin
Amaguriken was nigh impossible to counter when used by an experienced
fighter and the best way to counter an Amaguriken attack by such a
fighter was simply run away. Therefore, after years of using the
technique she had began to concentrate fully on the technique and holes
had appeared in her otherwise perfect guard.

This proved to be the Achilles heel in her attack. When Ranma
went on the offensive at the same time as herself, she was totally
unprepared for the attack. He simply used a paralyzing Shiastsu point
and while she tagged him a couple of dozen times in his thorax and
abdomen it was he who won the fight. Ranma's body flew towards the walls
at the force of the hits. He righted himself in mid-air and bounded of
the walls landing safely on his feet.

Cologne's paralyzed body was unable to counter her inertia and
she fell on her behind. All Ranma had to do was walk upto her and ask
for her surrender. Cologne complied and Ranma was about to release her
when they heard a thud behind them. Shampoo had seen her great
grandmother's defeat at the hands of their host and had promptly fainted
when the realization of what had happened hit her.

Ranma shook his head. "They sure don't make Amazons as they used
to." he announced and gave the matriarch his hand.

"What do you mean they don't make Amazon's as they used too?"
asked Cologne. She took hold of his hand and rose up from the ground.

"Well, Shampoo is obviously faint hearted." he replied pointing
his thumb at the young Amazon.

"She is not faint hearted. If my memory serves me correct
Shampoo's response was the same as the other's had, the last time you
defeated an Amazonian matriarch." replied Cologne.

Ranma's scratched his neck. "I suppose you are right. Anyway,
why don't you go and freshen yourself while I prepare breakfast."

Cologne shook her head. "No, my dear great great grandfather.
You must allow your humble great great granddaughter to pay her respects
to her great great grandfather by cooking your breakfast."

Ranma looked at the heavens. *Kid's these days.* "Impudent
child. Well, you have your wish. You can cook, can't you?" asked Ranma.
Through his two thousand years of wanderings, he had eaten his share of
bad and very bad food. He even believed that he had met the worst cook
in all of eternity in India. Her rice laid him in bed, close to death
for three days. In the end, it had been his superior constitution that
had saved his life. He had taken nearly three months to recover from
that one meal alone. The woman was a widow of course, her husband had
died soon after he had married her and her only son had died the first
time ever he had eaten his mother's home cooked meal.

************************************************************ ***********

Ranma, Cologne and Shampoo set out to enroll the purple haired
Amazon in Juuban high and Ranma rediscovered the reason for his hatred
of Japanese Bureaucracy. The paper pushers always annoyed him like hell.


They had to wait about an hour after they had filled all the
forms. He sat in the chair allotted to him fuming at the injustice of it
all. There he was, arguably the most powerful being on the planet and
the bureaucrats were treating him like just another commoner. It was
these kinds of situations that made him want to shout and let the world
know that he was an immortal.

Ranma tapped the armrest impatiently with his fingers. He could
hardly wait for the registration process to be over. Earlier in the day,
he had received a very important news from one of his associates about
his heritage and he wanted to visit his brother.

When they were finally done with the papers even the ever-
cheerful Shampoo was looking bored.

"Congratulations Shampoo you are now a student of Juuban high."
said Ranma.

"Shampoo so happy." said the Amazon and gave him one of the
famous Amazon 'crush them till you hear their ribs pop' hug. Ranma's
face turned an unhealthy shade of white and Shampoo released him
hurriedly from the hug. She didnot want their cute host to die on her.

Outside the school campus, Shampoo noticed that Ranma seemed to
be bothered by something. Several times he opened his mouth and only to
shut it. Finally he paused in his walk and scratched the back f his
neck. "Shampoo, will you go the house and stay there till I and the
matriarch get home. We have something important to attend to." *There I
said it. Let's just hope that she isn't too inquisitive about the
subject.*

Cologne raised an eyebrow but did not say anything. Shampoo
excused herself and ran off towards the house.

"Shampoo is quite a bundle of energy, Cologne." he said.

"Yes, she is. Ranma may I ask where are we going and why we are
going there?" questioned the matriarch.

"When I heard Ryuu's family name I was mildly surprised. I had
never again expected to meet someone from the clan Saotome. His father
also struck a chord in memory and I had asked one of my business
associates to make discreet inquiries. It turns out that Genma had lost
his first born in an unfortunate accident about a decade ago."

"And..."

"And the first born's name is Ranma Saotome, my birth name.
After a few more discreet inquiries my associate has ascertained that
Genma is infact my father. I..." He paused. "I cannot believe that I am
the son of that greedy moron."

"Are you going to tell your parents?" asked Cologne.

"Nah! I wouldn't do that even if my life depended on it."

Cologne raised an eyebrow. *Why would not anyone want to be with
his or her parents?*

"If you are thinking about why I do not want to introduce myself
to my parents, believe me there is an excellent reason. It seems that
Genma has more than a dozen arrest warrants in his name and hundreds of
petty debts throughout Japan and even some in China. I definitely do not
want to be associated with the likes of him or the woman who calls
herself his wife and yet turns a blind eye to his dishonorable
activities." explained Ranma.

"Then why are we going there, great great grandfather?" Cologne
snickered at the great grandfather bit. A old woman must have her share
of fun and what better way to go about it then to irritate Ranma. He was
quite forgiving and though he was annoyed at her continued insistence of
calling him by his title, he too enjoyed a good laugh or two.

"We are going there because I being an Amazon means that Ryuu is
also an Amazon. That boy has a lot of potential and I want to make him
realize it. Now stop your laughing and follow me child." said Ranma and
smiled at the child part. Revenge was always sweet unless it was you who
was caught in it.

Cologne frowned at the child part. It irritated her to hear him
refer to her as a child. He seemed to realize that and whenever she used
the 'Oh great great grandfather!' thing he would get back at her with
the 'Behave yourself, child' part.

************************************************************ ***********

"So this is Nerima?" asked Ranma to none in particular.

Cologne poggoed on her staff beside Ranma to the amazement of
several passerby's. Some even fainted at the sight of the wizened
matriarch when they saw her laugh. It definitely was not a sight for the
faint hearted.

The twosome walked around making inquiries about the Tendo dojo.
A Samaritan helped them on with his directions and soon they were
infront of the gates of the not so renowned Tendo school of Anything
Goes Martial arts.

Ranma and Cologne leapt over the wall and landed softly on the
grass. Ranma walked upto the door and knocked it.

************************************************************** *********

Kasumi hummed to herself as she prepared lunch for the family.
It is never easy to cook for a group of seven (Happousai seldom ate in
the house), which included two motor mouths by the name of Ryuuken and
Genma Saotome. The boy had taken after his father in his eating habits
and even his three-year stay in the Amazon village had done little to
change it.

Kasumi had always enjoyed cooking. It was fun to cook. Her love
for cooking didnot make the task of cooking for seven less tedious and
she hummed to herself for as they say music makes a long road short.

Her thoughts drifted to Ryuu once again and she shook her head.
Uncle Genma was obviously not the choice for the parent of the year
award and living with him had created its own problems in Ryuuken. The
boy did not show his love and affection towards his loved ones and his
social etiquette left much to be desired. He was not only one of the
best fighters she had seen in the nineteen years since her birth but
also the worst in terms of social etiquette.

The five would be rescuers had arrived the night before and
Genma had related the events that culminated in her sister's rescue. She
was thankful to Ranma Qin, whoever he maybe, for saving her sisters
life. Uncle Genma had tried more than once during the narration of the
story to portray himself as the hero. However, Ryuu had bonked him on
the head everytime he had tried and Genma sported a couple of bumps on
his head.

Kasumi ceased stirring the wok and listened to the sounds of the
house. It was quiet, which meant that Ryouga was lost somewhere inside
the house as usual, Akane must be in her room mad at someone or
something, Nabiki must be in her room discovering people's secrets to
blackmail them with, Ryuu must be in the dojo practicing his katas,
grandfather Happousai must be out on his er... rounds and her father and
uncle Genma must be out walking in the park.

She turned to the wok and was starting to stir the pork again
when there was a knock on the door. Though traditional Japanese foods
were often uncooked she preferred the food she ate dead and curried more
often than not. Humming to herself, Kasumi wiped her hands on the apron,
turned the knob of the burner down and went to receive the visitors. *I
wonder if its Nodoka auntie. It is so nice of her to visit us once in a
while.*

When she reached the door she straightened her gown and opened
the door. A handsome hunk(blush) stood at the door his right hand raised
to knock once more. Behind him stood what she guessed to be a statue of
some kind. She had never been able to figure out what works of modern
art represented and by the looks of it, it would remain so for a long
time to come. When the man saw her his eyes widened in shock. His hand
stopped as it were and he mumbled something about jasmine.

"Yes they are lovely flowers." she replied. *He must be a
horticulturist.*

The man simply stood there looking into her eyes with a gaze
that revealed his innermost thoughts and emotions.

"Um... Do you... want something Mr...?" stammered Kasumi. His
gaze was awakening long repressed feelings in her.

Ranma shook himself out of his stupor. "I am sorry miss. You
remind me of someone I once loved and lost. My name is Ranma Qin. The
matriarch of the Amazon village and I have come here looking for a boy
named Ryuuken Saotome. Is he here?"

"He is in the dojo Ranma-san." replied Kasumi. There was
something familiar about him. Her mind couldnot figure out what it was
but she felt so at ease around him.

"Thank you..."

"Kasumi, Kasumi Tendo." she replied. Her voice as sweet and
melodious as ever.

"Thank you, Kasumi-san. We will visit him there then." said
Ranma and bowed once to her. He tried to avert his face from hers as he
recovered from the bow but he couldnot. Her face, her sweet and gentle
ki reminded him so much of his long dead wife Xas Min that he wanted to
take her in his arms and never let go of her.

Ranma shook his head to clear it of the adulterous thoughts. For
two thousand years he had remained loyal to his wife and he wasn't about
to betray her now. He turned and headed towards the dojo with Cologne
behind him.

************************************************************* **********

Ryuuken Saotome, heir to the Saotome branch of Matsubeto Katuto
Ryuu, relaxed and focused on the kata he was about to perform. He had
created it during his second year in the Amazon village. His kata had so
impressed the matriarch that she had personally praised him, a rarity if
there ever was one in the village. The kata was an amalgam of the grace
of Tai Chi Chuan, the speed of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu and the efficiency
of Amazonian Wu Shu. His body moved with the grace of a deer as it
flexed and flowed to create a perfect orchestra of power and speed that
few could replicate.

Halfway through the kata he jumped into the air and hung there.
Air combat was a specialty of his families school of combat and he was
more skilled in it then even his father. Inspite of all of his skills in
the art Ryuu would be the first to admit to anyone that martial arts is
not easy. He had trained throughout his life to attain the level of
skill he had reached. There was still a long way to go before he could
be considered a master. He knew that the arts did not come very easily
to him. He grasped the basics fast but the focus that was so important
was forever lacking in him. As a result he had to train extra hard to
perfect each move that he had been taught.

Banishing these thoughts from his mind Ryuu bounded of the
ceiling unaware of his environment and landed on his feet. He finished
his kata and bowed to his imaginary audience.

An unknown pair of hands clapped behind him and he turned. Few
people were able to get that close to him without alerting him to their
presence and except for Happousai none were in Japan or so he thought.

Ryuu eyes widened as he was greeted with the sight of his mentor
and his newest friend applauding his effort. "What are you two doing
here?"

"I am here to accept your proposal. I will become your sensei."
said Ranma.

*That's strange. If Ranma is an Amazon than why is the matriarch
keeping mum. They don't do that in the village unless they are in the
presence of the head of the family or the someone older than themselves
or their sensei... Duh! What am I thinking, he isn't much older than
Kasumi.* "I thought you said that the Amazons will not teach me unless I
become a member of the tribe. I tell you now, I have no intention of
ever becoming a Amazon. So you can forget about trying to enlist me."
said Ryuu and folded his arms against his chest. He did not want to be
an Amazon and they certainly weren't going to force him into becoming
one.

Ranma smirked and shook his head. "We are not here offering what
we are in return for you becoming a member of the tribe." said Ranma.
*You already are an Amazon, little brother.*

"Then I guess it's okay then. When do we start?" asked Ryuu. The
question was directed at the matriarch. The matriarch had the final say
in all matters in the village.

"Hold on there, Ryuu, there is one condition that you must abide
by if you want to learn from me." said Ranma.

"Oh man! I thought that it was too good to be true. Let's hear
it. What string have you attached?"

"It's simple. The matriarch and I are unwilling to stay at this
house. Therefore if you want to learn from me you will stay at my house,
go to the school I tell you to attend and..." Ranma paused.

"And..."

"And you will get good grade's in school." finished Ranma.

"Huh! What has school got to do with this and isn't the
matriarch going to teach me also?" asked Ryuu. *What does school have to
do with martial arts? Isn't a C or a D enough at school?* Thought the
heir to the Saotome branch of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu.

"I will answer your two questions. First getting good grades at
school is important because learning gives you knowledge and knowledge
is power on the battlefield. Second, no, the matriarch isn't going to be
teaching you any techniques..."

Ryuu interrupted.

"Hey, I ain't got an empty head you know? I want the matriarch
to teach me the techniques she knows or I want no part of your
proposal." *What kind of fool do they think I am?* Fumed Ryuu. His
three-year stay in the village had taught him a couple of things about
Amazonian customs. One, the matriarch may be elected but she is the
dictator as far as anyone is concerned. Two, the matriarch knew
techniques that the rest of the tribe did not have access to.

Bonk!

"What did you hit me for?" shouted Ryuu indignantly rubbing the
sore spot on his head where the matriarch's staff had made contact with.

"Do not interrupt your elders when they are speaking to you,
boy." said Cologne in reply. She was peeved at the way Ryuu had
interrupted Ranma. Such behaviour was ill-fitting an Amazon warrior.

"Cologne you will stop it at this instant. Children are not
meant to be hit."

"Yes sensei." said Cologne and hung her head.

"He is your sensei." asked Ryuu picking his jaws of the floor.
No wonder Saffron was afraid of Ranma.

"Hai. I will be the sensei to both of you. Now do you agree with
the terms?" asked Ranma.

"You damn well bet I am." replied Ryuu.

Ranma sighed. The boy had a long way to go before he could be
called a master. You simply cannot become a master with your skill
alone. You have to have some semblance of social etiquette and all that.

"I won't allow it." shouted Genma from the entrance of the dojo.
Behind him stood lost boy, Akane, Soun, Nabiki (she had her camera with
her.), Kasumi, Genma and the grandmaster of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu, the
infamous panty-thief Happousai.

"And why do I need your permission?" asked Ranma. He knew that
Genma was Ryuu's and unfortunately his father. He had expected the
challenge from his father and had decided to take the initiative and
challenge the resident master of the school before he did. He planned to
show Ryuu his place in the grander scheme of things and he wanted to
show off a little too.

"I am Genma Saotome, father of Ryuuken Saotome, patriarch of the
Saotome clan and the master of the Saotome branch of Matsubeto Katuto
Ryuu. I will not let you take my son away from me even if I have to die
stopping you" replied Genma tersely. He had recognized the unspoken
challenge in Ranma's words.

Ranma just raised an eyebrow. "Please, is that speech supposed
intimidate me or something. If that was the purpose I can tell you that
your speech needs a lot of work on it." said Ranma and got into his
stance.

************************************************** *********************

Happousai stood at the corner of the dojo and watched Ranma
appraisingly. He was using one of his very own ki probes, the strongest
in his arsenal and yet he found his probing blocked. That spoke of great
skill on the part of the challenger and he was certain that Genma had
bitten of more than he could chew.

"Hello Happi." said the old woman by his heir's side.

Happousai's blood froze. He had never expected to see her again
after the little incident at the Amazon village nearly three hundred
years back. *Or was it more than three hundred years back?*
"Heheheheheh! Cologne, how are you doing?" he asked suddenly nervous.

Cologne smiled the smile of a predator that had cornered its
prey. "Nice to see you too, Happi." she said and tossed her hair behind
her back. It was supposed to be a 'come hither and make me yours' kind
of toss but at her age it looked like the dreaded 'come here and die
when you see me' toss. Naturally Happousai and the others cringed at her
action. Cologne hmphed. *These fools cannot recognize true beauty when
they see it!*

Happousai knew that he could take her on and beat her any day of
the week if he really wanted too but he could never hit a woman, atleast
not with an intent to kill or maim. He knew that though he could beat
Cologne his skills were not that great and he was not good enough to
enable him to do so without hurting or even killing her. That had been
the cause of his undoing during his attempted 'greatest heist' in
history. Back in those good old days when he was a hotshot young man
with almost legendary skills he did his little 'tours in the women's
lockers' as a hobby, a way to pass to time. One of his martial artist
friends (another pervert) had told him of the legendary beauty and skill
of Amazon women and their undergarments (they had those for special
occasions even then).

His curiosity piqued Happousai had went to the village but the
maidens had become a little too hostile towards his little raids (they
treasured their silky darlings). He had tried to evade them and when he
couldn't he had abandoned his silky darlings and had stolen their
village treasures. He wanted to get back at them for their unruly
behaviour towards him and what better way to do it then by hitting them
where it hurt the most. The Amazons had always been proud of their
treasures and stealing those treasures would be sweet revenge indeed or
so he had thought.

That fateful day, the Amazons had taken great offense at his act
of thievery er... revenge. They had called their first war council in
over a thousand years. Happousai had decided that even he couldnot stand
upto a tribe full of angry and exceptionally skilled warrior women and
had fled. Cologne had been one of the Amazons sent to track him down.
She had succeeded and failed at the same time. She did track him down
but she then had a rather passionate if short love affair with him.

During the course of their tryst, Cologne had discovered that
Happousai never hit women seriously. She had made good use of his
weakness and soon Happousai had run off into the sunset (anywhere was
better than being with her and all that.).

"Nice to see you, Cologne. Its been such a long time." he
replied.

Cologne smiled and hopped towards him. "Yes, it has been a long
time, hasn't it?" she said and again tossed her hair.

*The horror! Oh the horror!* Thought Happousai and tried to look
relaxed. *Good thing she's not after me anymore. I'll die of a heart
attack if she puckers up.*

************************************************************* **********

Meanwhile, the staring match between Genma and Ranma continued
on uninterrupted. In the middle of the staring contest, Ranma paid
attention to his granddaughters interaction with the two foot old
grandmaster of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu (Happousai was famous or rather
infamous amongst the martial arts community.). He observed their ki and
chuckled to himself. The two of them seemed to have had a rather
passionate love affair in the past.

It was Genma who finally backed down from the staring match
though he did not get out of his stance. Ranma simply bent his back leg
a little and shifted his weight to achieve perfect balance.

"Shall we?" he asked nonchalantly.

Genma nodded.

"Good, all of you clear out of the dojo. Genma, here and I are
going to have a nice man to man discussion." announced Ranma.

The others stepped out of the dojo and the two combatants eyed each
other warily. They bowed in respect to each other and Genma leapt into
the attack. From what he had seen at Phoenix mountain Ranma was a very
powerful fighter and the only chance he had of winning was by taking the
fight to Ranma's camp. He was wrong of course.

Genma's figure blurred as he moved at close to his top speed.
His fists probed Ranma's defenses for a second and found no holes that
could be utilized in it. His school of combat emphasized adaptability
and Genma adapted to Ranma's defense. Instead of searching for attacks
he began to throw high-speed punches at random. He hoped that Ranma
would be ill prepared for such an attack and he might get a few hits in
early in the fight. However, he did not know that Ranma was a master and
masters seldom concentrated their defenses on their weak points. Ranma
easily blocked or maneuvered our of his attacks. A minute passed and
Genma withdrew from the confrontation and assumed his stance a dozen
feet away from Ranma. He was sweating profusely while Ranma didnot even
look winded.

When the fight had started Ranma had assumed that Genma would be
a pushover but his opinion of his father had changed very quickly.
Though Genma's honor was despicable he definitely had skills in the
fighting department. The way his father had adapted very quickly to his
defense and the random attacks Genma had launched were a testament to
his skills. *He has some skills. Let's see if he is as adaptable in his
defense as in his offense.* With a 'kyahhh' that rang throughout he dojo
Ranma rushed Genma and pulled back his fist. Genma launched a kick to
Ranma's chin when he was within range. Ranma had other idea's and he
moved out of the way without slowing down. He brought his fist forward
at the same speed Genma had attacked him in a move that even an amateur
could have seen coming from miles away.

Genma's training under Happousai had honed his reflexes to a
great extent and this proved to be his undoing. Genma saw the fist
coming at his face and his reflexes took over. Eventhough his mind
screamed trap his reflexes paid no heed to it and both his hands sped
towards the incoming punch to block it.

By blocking the punch Genma took the bait and left his defenses
wide open. Ranma pulled back his punch at the last instant and came to a
stop. Within a microsecond he had pulled back his left leg and swung it
back. His calf muscles tensed and be brought the leg forward in a kick
aimed at Genma's solar plexus. Genma's years of experience shown through
as his body weaved slightly to get out of the way even before Ranma had
initiated the kick but he was too slow and the kick connected with a
resounding thump. Genma's body flew towards a supporting beam and
connected with it. The beam splintered under the force of the impact and
that section of the building came crashing down on Genma.

Dust flew everywhere and when it settled the rubble began to
shake. Genma emerged from the mess with a laceration here and there and
a cut upper lip. He wiped away the blood from his face and took a
stance. The kick had hurt like hell and he had momentarily slipped into
unconsciousness because of it.

Genma's brain informed him that there was no way that he could
win a fight against a fighter of Ranma's caliber. If the fight were
another petty one he would have given up and groveled for mercy but this
fight wasn't petty, at least not for him. His son treated him like a
piece of garbage and had no respect for him. This was his final chance
to go earn his son's respect and he was determined not to goof it up.
His resolve strengthened Genma did something that he had hoped he would
never do, he unlocked the second of the forbidden techniques in a
serious fight.

Ranma watched as his father stood up shakily and wiped the blood
of his face. Ranma knew that Genma knew that the fight was lost and he
had expected Genma to give up the fight like the coward he had been
throughout his life. However, Genma took a deep breath and took a stance
against him. His pride in his father increased still more when he saw
his father disappear from view.

Ranma was astonished when Genma disappeared from sight. He had
encountered such a technique once before some eight hundred years before
and the technique itself didnot surprise him. He was surprised at the
fact that his father could have perfected such a technique.

His thoughts drifted back to eight hundred years ado. He had
been in Japan for less than a decade when a ninja had sworn a blood feud
against him. Ranma had not wanted to kill the man and had left for the
forests. The ninja had followed him and had tried to assassinate him. He
had gotten mad and had attacked the ninja when the ninja used his trump
card. As a shadow fighter, the ninja knew that he had no chance of
beating Ranma in a fair one on one fight. His stamina and endurance
would simply fail him. Therefore he had opted for guerrilla tactics. He
used the cloaking technique to disappear from view and strike at Ranma
from beyond. For the next few days he had played a game of cat and mouse
with Ranma until in desperation Ranma had cornered him in a forest
clearing be a mountain. The ninja had used his cloaking technique to
maximum advantage and Ranma had been at the receiving end for the first
four and a half-hours of the battle. Then he had discovered the only
flaw in the technique and utilized it. After that the fight had lasted
just half a minute longer and Ranma had toasted the ninja alive with a
powerful ki attack.

Caught in his memories Ranma forgot about his father and paid
dearly for it. A swiveling kick to his head followed by a haymaker to
his head sent him flying towards the dojo wall. Ranma twisted in mid air
and bounded off the wooden wall. Cracks appeared where his feet had made
contact with the wooden boards. Ranma bounced of a beam and came at
Genma right arm extended palm first.

Genma was naturally surprised to see Ranma coming at him
eventhough he was invisible. His arms moved for a block but Ranma seemed
to sense it somehow. He brought his left arm and deflected the block in
a Tai Chi Chuan maneuver. Without slowing down Ranma brought his right
arm to bear at Genma's abdomen. The arm was inclined upwards and it made
contact with Genma's diaphragm. The shock wave from the blow traveled
back and forth several times inside Genma's ribcage before stopping.
During his time his heart stopped and his lungs deflated. Genma let out a
scream and became visible once more. He collapsed onto the floor and Ranma withdrew from him. Ranma's pride in his father grew even more as Genma
stood up by himself. He wobbled a little and coughed up some blood. With
determination etched all over his face Genma took a stance.

"You have lost the fight Saotome sensei. Give up now."

"Never!" *I will not fail my son this time around.*

"I will not offer quarter again." warned Genma.

"So be it."

"Hai." Ranma lowered his head. His anger and shame towards his
father had disappeared. Now there remained only pride and love.

Genma jumped into the air and threw a Moko Kaimon Ha at Ranma.
Ranma evaded easily and the attack exploded against another section of
the dojo and brought it down. Genma laded lightly on his toes and shot
up into the air and shouted "Kijin Raishu Dan!"

Ranma had felt the gathering of ki and had realized that Genma
that Genma was about to hit him with a ki projection attack. He slid out
of the way and landed behind Genma. He was about to move forward for the
final attack when he sensed a familiar flow of energy. Even before the
conscious part of his brain realized what was happening, the unconscious
part of his brain realized that Genma was about to fire a vacuum blade
at him. His instincts took over and pumped ki into his hands. He
withdrew his arm at hypersonic speed and a large crescent shaped ki
charged vacuum blade formed. Genma released his ki powered vacuum blade
at the same instant and the two blades sped towards each other. Two
thousand experience came to the fore and Ranma fired another ki charged
vacuum blade at Genma before he back flipped and bounded of the wooden
beams in the roof.

Genma dove out of the way as soon as he released his attack and
rolled away.

************************************************************ ***********

The fight was hardly normal. Happousai had never seen his
student so determined before and he realized that Genma wanted to gain
his sons respect. He had been very surprised when Genma had unlocked
both the Yamasenken and the Umisenken.

He had probed the challenger with one of his very own ki probes
when he had first issued the challenge. The probe was the best in his
arsenal and even Cologne, his nearest competitor in terms of skill had
never been able to block it. He was therefore surprised when the
challenger had blocked it quite easily. That block had made Happousai,
grandmaster of Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu realize that Genma was in deep
trouble.

The fact that Cologne herself was training under Ranma had made
him wary. If nothing Cologne was very proud and she would not learn
under others if they weren't a great deal more skilled than her. The
very fact that the Amazon matriarch had accepted Ranma as her sensei was
proof of the boys skills in the art. He had therefore carefully observed
Ranma's seemingly inefficient movements and had found them to be a lot
more efficient that his own. The boy moved with a grace that would have
laid a tiger to shame and he was quite skillful in concealing that grace
too.

When Genma had initiated the cloaking technique he had assumed
that Ranma would lose the fight. Ranma hadnot dodged the first strike
and he had smirked. He had revised his estimate of Ranma's prowess after
that attack. He had turned towards Cologne and she had looked shocked.
He was about to make fun of her new sensei when he had bounded of the
wall and attacked Genma.

Happousai knew from experience that Genma never screamed. He had
been proud of that fact. Through all those years of torture, er...
training he had never seen Genma scream out in pain. The boy would take
the punishment, er... training as a man and not even shed a drop of
tear. Therefore , it surprised him greatly when Genma had screamed in
agony. Genma's cloaking technique had failed and Genma had collapsed
onto the floor.

Genma had continued to amaze him by getting up after that attack
and assuming a stance. Ranma had popped the question but Genma had
refused. Then he had attacked Ranma with more of the forbidden
techniques and amazingly Ranma had countered them with his very own
technique. A technique that was considered a myth by the martial arts
community for over four hundred years.

Happousai's ki senses screamed run as soon as Ranma released his
counter attack. He dove for cover and glanced towards Cologne. She too,
was diving onto the ground. In mid-flight, he shouted a warning to the
others. "Hit the dirt!".

********************************************************** *************

The two blades of energy met and the vacuum blades canceled each other
out. However without its vacuum blade to contain the ki, Ranma's attack
expanded several fold and smashed against the dojo walls. The resulting
explosion shook the earth and reduced that section of the wall to dust.
The stress proved too much for the dojo and it collapsed under its own
weight.

The second ki charged vacuum blade sped towards the house and
easily sliced through the first wall. There was a moment of silence as
the blade disappeared from. Then there was a deafening boom and the
ground shook once more. A fireball rose up into the air and the roof of
the house flew apart, throwing debris high into the air. There followed
another moment of silence and then debris began to rain down from the
sky. Pieces of concrete, wood and whatnot rained down all over the
neighborhood.

When it was all over Ranma extricated himself from the ground
followed by the others in quick succession. Happousai got up and looked
at him with awe written all over his face. Soun was whimpering and
Kasumi had a forlorn look on her face. Thankfully Akane was knocked
unconscious and Ryouga was kneeling in front of the house with a dark
green aura radiating from him. Ryuu's eyes were wide with shock and
Nabiki looked like she could use a anti-depressant or something.

"I am so sorry."

********************************************************** *************

The fight had given her lots of photo opportunities and she had
been in heaven until the last thirty seconds. Having got the info about
Ranma from Ryuu through some wily manipulation she had gotten down to
business. The way the muscles in Ranma's body moved, his muscles
rippling with use would set all girls who saw him on fire. *I will be
rich when this is over.* She had thought.

Then Genma had gone ahead and used some dangerous attack and
Ranma had reacted in kind. The result, her family bankrupted in less
than a minute.

When Happousai had shouted "Hit the dirt." she had complied
without hesitation. The old man might be a pervert but he was damn fine
martial artist and if he shouted a warning you listened. She had barely
avoided getting caught in the first explosion and then there had been
silence. She had began thoughts of getting up and giving the two a piece
of her mind when there was another explosion behind her. The heat was
great but she did not get hit by debris and the like when they started
raining.

After the 'rain' had stopped she heard some scuffling. She took
that as a signal that everything was safe and rose.

Ranma, the man who had destroyed her life, stood examining the
scene with cold precision. *My families destroyed.* The realization
dawned to her. Years of sleaze gathered on friend and foe alike destroyed
by a simple brawl. For the first time since her mothers death Nabiki
shed tears.

"I am so sorry." she heard him say.

"You bastard." she shouted and threw herself at him.

************************************************************* **********

*Mother!*

*Mother, you are gone forever.*

Kasumi felt like crying. In fact she was crying. Her salty tears
flowed freely across her cheeks and dropped like little drops of rain
onto the ground below. *Mother, I have lost you.*

The eldest daughter of Soun Tendo had loved her mother very
much. Kimiko Tendo, formerly Kimiko Yamammoto had been the best mother
that anyone could have. She was kind, gentle, loving, and compassionate
and she loved her family. She had been everything that a daughter could hope
for in her mother. Naturally, Kasumi had been devastated when her mother
died at the young age of twenty-nine. Even worse she had seen her mother
suffer and wilt away under the ovarian cancer that hounded her to her
death.

Like anyother child Kasumi would have recovered from the loss if
only her father had been there to comfort her and give her love when she
needed it most. But Soun had not. She still hated her father for that.
He had abandoned his children when his wife had died. He had become a
burden when he should have been the pillar and had been the one
responsible for the path her family had taken. And yet she loved him.
She loved him as her father and gave him the respect that a father
deserves but she hated him all the same.

With none to guide them in their hour of need the family of Soun
Tendo had become a shadow of its former shelf. Kasumi knew that her
mother would not want the family to fall apart, whatever the
circumstances maybe. Therefore she had donned the mantle of her mother.
A position that she could never replace. Kasumi had not lost the sense
of loss, however and over time her child's mind had made the house her
mother. That was the reason she paid so much attention to it. To her it
was her mother and as such she loved and cared for it with all the love
and care one gave to a mother.

Now, the house lay in smoldering ruins and with it the
floodgates that had kept her grief under control for so long burst open.

************************************************************ ***********

Nabiki kept pounding away on Ranma's chest until Ryuu pulled her
away from him. She hugged Ryuu and wept into his chest.

"I am so sorry. I... My regret knows no bounds, Tendosan."

Nabiki pulled away from Ryuu and leveled her gaze at him.
"Bastard. You destroyed everything." she shouted.

Ranma did not look into her eyes.

"I am so sorry, Tendosan. I... I will do anything to atone for
what I had done."

"Atone... There is no atonement for you bastard."

"I will atone by building you a new home."

Nabiki calmed a little. If the house was rebuilt then all would
be well. The data she had lost would take sometime to regather but it
could be done.

Ranma heaved a breath of relief.

********************************************************** *************

Soun Tendo was aghast. He had lost his house and his children
were homeless. He was too deep in shock to even cry.

He surveyed the pile of rubble that had been his home and legacy
just two minutes ago. *It has become a pile of garbage, just like my
life.*

He knew that he had acted cowardly when his wife had died and it
was his actions that had almost destroyed the family. *Maybe its time I
started acting like one.*

He clutched his fists and put his arms around Kasumi. Kasumi
hugged him and cried into his chest. "Mother!" she kept saying again and
again.

"Shh! It's all right Kaschan. Papa's here." he soothed.

"She's dead daddy." Kasumi gasped between sobs.

"Yes, she's dead. But she lives in our hearts and can never die
as long as we don't forget her."

Kasumi's sobs decreased in intensity and pretty soon she stopped
crying all together. "Thank you daddy." said Kasumi as she wiped away
her tears.

Soun was about to reply when he heard Nabiki shout bastard. He
turned towards her and saw her confronting Ranma.

*I should have raised her well. Kimiko, I am sorry that I failed
you.* Thought Soun as he walked towards his second born and Ranma.

*********************************************************** ************

"You must also pay compensation for what you had done." said
Nabiki. The businesswoman in her had taken over as soon as Ranma had
said that he would rebuild the house.

Ranma nodded mutely.

"And you will have to pa..."

"That's enough Nabiki. Go and comfort your elder sister."
interrupted Soun in a commanding voice.

Nabiki turned towards him and spoke. "Don't interrupt me when I
am speaking daddy." she said with disdain.

*Where did I go wrong with you.* "You will not address me in
such a tone. Now do as I told you." replied Soun.

Nabiki glared but Soun did not buckle like he had so many times
in the past. Finally she shot a 'you will pay for this' glance at him
and went away.

"Accept my apologies for my daughter's behaviour Qinsan."

Ranma bowed in reply. "It is I who must beg your forgiveness
Tendosan. Please accept my humblest apologies."

"There is no need to apologize, Qinsan."

"Please call me Ranma."

"All right Ranma, there is no need to apologize. It was a honor
to witness your challenge to my dear friend Genma." replied the Tendo
patriarch.

"Nonetheless I must pay for the damage that I have done. I will
rebuild your home and dojo as a repayment, Tendosan."

"Thank you Ranma."

"Your family would need a place to stay in till your house is
rebuilt, wouldn't it Tendosan?"

The Tendo patriarch nodded.

"I would be most honored if you and your family would stay in my
house till then Tendosan."

"Thank you Ranma." With that Soun retreated to check on his
third daughter Akane.

Happousai approached Ranma and was about to introduce himself
when Ranma addressed him.

"Nice to meet you in person at last, grandmaster Happousai. You
too are welcome to stay at my house one condition. You have to stop
stealing ladies panties and groping them."

"But I need the ki they provide to survive." complained
Happousai.

Ranma laughed out aloud. "I am not as stupid as the others
grandmaster, Happousai. Don't tell me that a man as skilled as you needs
them. I can see from your ki that you have mastered three different ki
replenishing techniques in the course of your life."

"I..." stuttered Happousai. He had hoped that everyone would
overlook that little detail.

"Do you accept my proposition grandmaster?" asked Ranma.

Happousai nodded mutely. He could always return to his hobby
after the stay had ended.

"Fine then."

*********************************************************** ************

Setsuna was agitated. That was bad. The sailor of Pluto had one
of the coolest heads on the planet. For several days now she had been
denied access to time travel. That alone didnot bother her. The fact
that she, the guardian of time couldnot even view the future bothered
her. Try as she might the time-stream refused to bend to her magic and
show her the future. She could still view the past but she couldnot
travel back in time too. Something big was happening and for once sailor
Pluto didnot have any idea what it was.

The resurrected sailor Pluto was the same as the one who died
millennia ago when the Moon Kingdom fell. She had the same loyalty,
though it was now perverted and she had the same memories. Of all the
senshi only she was blessed with the memories and experiences of her
previous life. Perhaps it was her position as the guardian of time that
gave her memories of her past life. When she had first awakened in her
new body after millennia of slumber, her experiences in this life had
been locked away in a part of her subconscious and she had abandoned her
roots in this life. She had imprisoned herself by the time-gates to plot
the future for her queen.

On the first day of her new job she had noticed a ripple of very
small magnitude in the time-stream. Normally ripples didnot occur and if
they did then it normally meant that something was wrong in the space
time continuum. For example, her forbidden attack the dark dome enclose
had such an effect on the time continuum. The dark dome enclose created
a spiked ripple unlike the smooth one that she had observed. Setsuna had
realized that there were two possibilities; one - Sometime in the past
there had been a huge change in the time continuum and the change had
been of such magnitude that it had influenced the entire history of
mankind or two - The ripple was just a small quirk in the time-stream
and it would be best to leave it alone. Setsuna knew that the first
hypothesis was almost impossible and had therefore dismissed it
completely after some investigation.

She had discovered that the ripple had first appeared two
thousand years ago and it had remained constant all through those two
thousand years. This little bit of evidence had supported the second
hypothesis and she had stopped the investigation. She had more important
things, like planning the resurrection of the Moon Kingdom to attend to.

Her efforts had been highly successful and her plans for the
future and the present had went without a hitch for nearly three
decades. But events in the last seven days had endangered her plans for
the future. The ripple that she had so carelessly dismissed as a quirk
in the time-stream was now getting bigger and bigger by the minute. If
you took into account the very small nature of the ripple and its
microscopic growth its influence on the time-stream would be negligible.
However, that very small ripple was causing many other small ones to
form and all these ripples were coherent. Ordinarily Setsuna would have
dismissed the ripples as not worthy of further investigation. But all
these ripples small and coherent as they were headed for a
superimposition that would create a huge wave in the time-stream. A wave
in the time-stream was nothing to laugh about and a wave of this
magnitude would create a huge changes to the flow of time and the events
in real space. The future had also become murky and her access to her
future and past selves had been restricted by something that her mind
couldnot comprehend. The new ripples too continued to grow in strength
and if they were continued to grow it was very possible that they might
endanger the existence of the Silver Millennium in the future. Setsuna
as the guardian of time simply couldnot allow anything of that sort to
happen to the future that she had worked so hard for.

The guardians of time were arguably the most powerful sailors in
existence as they had it in their power to change time. The origins of
the sailors stretched several hundred years before the creation of the
Silver Millennium. Evil had run rampant across the planets of the solar
system and humans had been powerless against it. A few brave souls had
asked the Gods for help and the Gods did help humanity. They provided
the humans with weapons that would bond themselves to the souls of
worthy humans. The humans thus bonded would become phenomenal mana
manipulators and they would be essentially immortal. From such a time
emerged the guardians of the solar system, the sailor senshi. Until the
formation of the Moon Kingdom, the individual sailors served as the
protectors of their respective kingdoms. After the creation of the Moon
kingdom the sailors were made matriarchs of their planets except in the
case of Earth. The third planet from the sun had four native guardians
and therefore the power remained in the hands of the then ruling family.

Since Pluto was the farthest planet from the sun, the Gods saw
it fit to provide it with the most powerful guardian of all. A guardian
whose domain was the time-stream itself protected the planet. The
guardian of Pluto was also one of only three sailors whose powers could
be revoked once they were bestowed, the other two being the sailor of
the Moon and the sailor of Saturn. All three of them were very powerful
and the gods didnot want their power falling into the wrong hands.

The sailors of Pluto had to be ruthless and cold hearted unlike
the other sensei since they were frequently confronted with situations
in which the death of one or more innocents may mean life for the entire
population. As such the talisman for Pluto bonded with worthy humans who
had ruthless personalities. Thus sailors of Pluto had always been
similar to guns primed to explode. Setsuna Meiou knew that there had
been three separate sailors of time in the past who had taken their
mission a little too far. She had been an exemplary sailor of time
during her previous life but the uncertainty of the establishment of the
Moon kingdom once again on Earth had made her throw her records to the
dogs. Scarcely a day had passed since her powers had awakened in her new
body when she had made a vow to herself to make sure that the Silver
Millennium would come to pass. Since then the old Pluto had been locked
away and a new and lethal Pluto had emerged. In the first three years of
her life she had seen to it that thirty men and women whose descendants
would pose threat to the establishment of the long dead kingdom of the
Moon had been eradicated.

Setsuna knew that though she was the guardian of time, it was
not within her powers to tamper with it. The Gods would revoke her
powers if they judged that she was misusing her powers. They had
proclaimed when they had first created the talisman for the guardian of
time that the guardian should not tamper with the time-stream unless it
was absolutely necessary. Everyone had the right to choose their own
destiny unless the gods had something planned for them and the guardian
should not tamper with individual freedom. By messing up with the time-
stream she was taking their freedom and thus their destinies from their
hands. She counted herself lucky. Her zeal to see the Silver Millennium
had made her ignore this God proclaimed rule and eventhough she had been
responsible for the murder of innocents they had done nothing to stop
her. Now with the very establishment of the kingdom of the Moon
threatened by the ripple Setsuna decided to abandon all caution and
destroy the source of the ripple before the future she had worked so
hard for was destroyed. Gods and their rules be damned she would protect
her life's work. With these thoughts Setsuna began her stint as a
private eye searching for the person or thing that caused the ripple.

********************************************************** *************

The ritzy blonde who bore the name Usagi Tsuinko walked with her
friends Makoto, Minako and Ami along with her future daughter Chibi-usa
towards Rei's shrine. Along with the group were the cats Luna and
Artemis. Each of them had received a telephone call in the morning from
Rei's grandfather who told them that Rei was ill and wouldn't be able to
attend school that day. Usagi had been worried all day long as Rei did
not usually cut classes when she was ill. That meant the Rei illness
must be very serious indeed to warrant her rest. The five-some kept
silent as they walked towards their destination. The inner senshi were
the best of friends and it was this friendship that kept the group
together eventhough all of them had quite different personalities.

They reached the shrine and Rei's grandfather welcomed them into
the building. They immediately went into Rei's room to find her lying on
her bed reading a manga. Earlier in the evening grandfather Rei's
grandfather had decided that there was no more need for the intravenous
drips and had stopped them. Rei looked tired and weak but had gotten her
voice back. The headache that had tormented her in the morning had also
gone away and she had decided to pass her time by reading manga. When
they entered the room Rei put down the manga and smiled at them.

"Rei what's wrong with you?" asked Usagi as she sat down on the
bed by her friends side.

"I am all right, Usagi." replied Rei weakly. Her strength hadnot
returned completely.

The others kept silent waiting for her explanation.

"I tried to do a fire reading yesterday. Apparently I ended up
doing something else. My grandfather says that the technique that I
executed is called a fire vision. Anyway, the technique almost drained
me to death. If grandfather hadnot arrived and helped me when I fainted
he says I would have died."

The others filed away this piece of information.

"You are going to be okay now, aren't you?" asked Makoto. Like
the rest of the group she too was very concerned.

Rei nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"You can talk when you have grown strong." said Ami.

"Ami is right. You don't have to strain yourself now." said
Usagi.

"No, I must tell it to you now. While my ki was being drained
away by the technique I had a vision. It frightened me very much." said
Rei. She resisted Usagi's attempts to make her lie down and sat on the
bed clutching the blanket to her chest as she was still naked
underneath.

"You can tell us later, Rei. Now your rest is more important
than anything else." said Makoto.

"No, I will rest later. I have to tell you what I saw. I think
it is very important that I tell you." replied Rei. She was getting
angry at her friends mothering. Though their intentions were good she
did not need help from anyone.

"Let her tell what she saw and then we can make her take rest."
said Luna.

Ami realized that Rei would insist on telling them her vision and
reluctantly agreed with Luna's words and the others relented.

"Okay Rei, tell us what you saw in your vision." said Luna.

"The vision was very confusing as well as terrifying. I saw
things from the past as well as what I believe will be the future. Do
any of you remember anything about the creation of the Silver
Millennium?" she asked.

Even Luna shook her head at the question.

"I saw its creation in the dream. Evidently the planets in the
solar system was ruled by different empires. It was Queen Serenity the
first who united it under a single government. The rulers of each of the
planets unanimously elected her as the ruler of the Moon kingdom. I saw
the peace and happiness that prevailed over the land under her just
rule. Then I saw one of my ancestors. She was a Sailor of Mars just like
myself and I watched as a six-handed monster raped and skinned her
alive."

There were gasps all around.

"That's terrible Rei." said Usagi.

Rei nodded and continued. "Then my vision took me to Saturn,
Pluto and finally to Mars. On each of these planets the six-handed
monsters were running rampant and spreading death and destruction
everywhere. I saw children being eaten alive, rivers running red with
blood. On Mars I saw Queen Serenity the first give up her life to defeat
the monsters and send them to their prison.

"Then my vision made me experience our deaths at the hands of
Beryl and her army. I saw Queen Serenity send us into the future and
die.

"Finally, the vision made me see our unification and then I saw
a brief image of Fuji-san."

"Fuji-san, what is the connection between Fuji-san and your
vision?" asked Ami.

"I don't know Ami. Anyway, after that I saw a great darkness
spreading all over the Earth. The darkness was made of the army of the
six-handed monsters. At their head was a middle-aged man who laughed at
the deaths of all the people around him. We fought against his army but
they were too strong and we were being defeated. It was then that I saw
a dragon emerge from the sky." said Rei.

"A dragon?" asked Luna.

"Yes, a dragon emerged from the sky. It fought with the man and
won. It spread light everywhere it went."

"It seems that a new threat is about to make its appearance."
said Luna. "Artemis do you remember anyone of the enemies of the Silver
Millennium who had six-handed monsters at their disposal." asked Luna.

"I don't remember such an army." replied Artemis.

"Me too. Then we can safely assume that we have never fought
against this enemy before." concluded Luna.


******************************************************* ****************

Makoto, Ami and Minako walked slowly into the school campus all
around them students were filing into the main building. Ami was reading
some book and Minako and Makoto were discussing boys. They waited at the
entrance for Usagi to arrive with Mamoru.

"Do you see the way that cute boy smiled at me on the way here?"
asked Minako.

"Which cute boy? There were lots of those today." replied
Makoto.

"The boy with the kakoi look and a jersey on him."

"Oh! That one. I thought that he was looking at me."

"No, he was looking at me."

"No, me."

"Me."

"Ah! Who cares about him?" exclaimed Makoto.

"Huh!" Minako hadnot expected to win the argument so easily.

"I have got a better looking one. He reminds me so much of my
old boyfriend." replied Makoto. She was staring unabashedly at a young
man with a ponytail walking five new students to school.

"Wow! He is so handsome." said Minako a little too loudly. The
man turned towards them and smiled at them before walking away.

"He smiled at me." exclaimed Minako and swooned. Her mind was
already playing scenes of the knight in shining armor taking her in his
arms and ridding off into the sunset. The knight in shining armor
happened to be none other than the handsome young man who had just
smiled at her. She would become good friends with the new students.
*That maybe the easiest way to reach him and I will let destiny do
everything else, after all we are fated to be together.*

"No way. He smiled at me." replied Makoto. In her mind too, the
same romantic scene was playing itself over and over again.

Ami sighed. Those two were always chasing boys and fighting over
them.

A few minutes later Usagi arrived and both Minako and Makoto
wasted no time telling her of their new _boyfriend_. The group walked
into class and saw one of the new students and immediately introduced
themselves to him.

"Hai, my name is Minako Aino, Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino. We
would like to welcome you to our class." Minako as always took the first
step in the new friendship as she was the outgoing member of the three.

"Hai, nice to meet you all. My name is Ryuuken Saotome. My
friends call me Ryuu. You can call me Ryuu if you want to." Ryuu was in
heaven. Three cute girls were _interested_ in him.

Minako nodded.

"I will do that only if you call me Mina." replied Minako.

"You can call me Makochan."

"Just call me Ami." said Ami and returned to her book.

"I will do that." replied Ryuu. His three-year stint in the
village had increased his immunity to fainting at the sight of cute,
flirting girls considerably.

"So which school did you transfer from?" asked Ami closing her
book. She had learnt all she could from it.

"Ummm... Furinkan High in the Nerima ward."

"We have heard pretty strange rumours about that school. Are
they true?" asked Makoto.

"What exactly did you hear?" asked Ryuu.

"Well for starters the principal is supposed to be insane."

"That's true. Principal Kuno is obsessed with Hawaii and shaving
the students head."

"Then there are rumours about a martial artist girl who beats up
dozens of boys in the morning." said Ami.

Ryuu smiled. "I didn't think that Akane would be so popular and
all." he said and twirled his shoulder length hair.

"Does that mean that the rumours are true?" asked Ami.

"Who is Akane?" asked Minako.

"Akane is the girl who beats up those boys. Principal Kuno's
son, an insane kendoist named Kuno Tatewaki made an announcement last
year that anyone who wanted to date Akane must beat her in combat. All
the perverts in the school ambush her every morning to date with her."

"She must be a good martial artist then." said Makoto.

"Nah! Akane's a slowpoke tomboy. She is able to beat the boys
because they have no skill in fighting."

"You speak as though you have fought with her." said Makoto. She
was convinced that anyone who could beat-up that many boys must be
skillful.

"Yeah I have since I stayed in her house and all."

"You stayed in her house. Are you her relative or something?"

Ryuu shook his head. "Nothing of that sort actually. My father
is an old friend of Mr. Soun, that's Akane's dad. He and pops got the
idea to unite our two schools by marrying their children. So technically
I am her as well as her sisters fiancee as I haven't chosen her or any
of her sisters."

"Oh!" the three of them chorused. They were beginning to get a
headache.

"Not that I want to. Anyway, the first day we met I sparred with
her and she was pretty poor."

"You know the arts?" asked Makoto.

"Yeah I guess so. I am the heir to the Saotome branch of
Matsubeto Katuto Ryuu."

"Wow! You must be pretty good then." said Makoto in wonder.

"Yeah! I am the best." replied Ryuu.

"And a modest one too." giggled Minako.

Ryuu blushed.

The teacher arrived then and everyone became silent.

"Class we have a new student in our class. Mr. Ryuuken would you
please come forward and tell something about yourself." said the
teacher.

Ryuu stepped forward. "Hai, I am Ryuuken Saotome. I studied in
Furinkan high last year but transferred here since my sensei told me to.
Before that I traveled from place to place learning martial arts."

There where whispers around the room. Ryuu was well built for a
fifteen-year-old and looked cute. Almost all the girls had drool running
over their faces. Ryuu noticed their expressions but remained clueless.
He went to his seat and sat down. Every eye in the room followed him as
he walked. The teacher began the class and true to the promise that he
had made Ryuu concentrated on the lessons.

********************************************************* **************

Ranma entered the training hall. This was his first class and he
planned to make a good impression. The students stood in respect when he
entered the gymnastics hall and he bade them to sit. Scanning the class
he saw Ryuu sitting one of the girls who had commented at him. Ryuu was
smiling at him but he did not return the smile.

"Silence please. Good, I am your new Physical education coach.
My name is Ranma Qin and you will call me as sensei. Now, I want you to
stand up and tell me your name as well as answer any questions that I
may ask."

One by one the students did so.

When they were done Ranma addressed them again. "I have some
experience in karate and kempo among other styles and I will be your
martial arts club coach as well. This school has not won any
championships in the last six years in any martial arts tournament and I
plan to rectify that situation."

Ryuu snickered in the background.

"Did I say anything funny, Mr. Saotome?"

"No sir!" came the reply.

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Makochan here said that she could take you on and beat you up
sir."

"Is that so, Miss Kino?"

Makoto stood up. "Hai, sensei."

"Well then, care for a spar."

Makoto nodded and was about to step forward when Ryuu caught her
arms. She turned towards him and he shook his head.

"Is there any problem there Miss Kino?"

"No problem sensei." replied Makoto and Ryuu released her arm.

Makoto walked forward and stood on the mat.

"Take your stance, Miss Kino."

"Hai sensei." she replied and took her stance. She would show
him a thing or two about fighting.

Makoto rushed forward with a haymaker aimed at Ranma's face. The
blow could have given him a black eye if only he had been there. Instead
he tapped her from behind. Makoto blinked. She had not even seen him
move. Makoto turned to face him again.

"You shouldn't leave yourself open to attack, Miss Kino."

Makoto nodded and spun around to deliver a spin-kick to his
midsection. Ranma moved out of the way and Makoto fell down unable to
stop her spinning.

"You should watch your balance, Miss Kino."

Several boys snickered. They had never seen Makoto outmatched in
a fight. Makoto turned towards them and gave a 'you guys are so dead'
glare. Ranma took this opportunity to kick her legs from underneath her.

"You shouldn't let your attention wander, Miss Kino."

Makoto landed on her behind. She got up and rubbed her back.

"Does your back smart, Miss Kino?"

"Arghhh!" shouted Makoto. Her temper flared and she punched
Ranma with her fist putting all her strength behind it.

Ranma did not move this time. He simply brought his palms in
front and cushioned her blow. Then he moved inside her defenses and
raised his right hand for a claw strike. Makoto realized too late that
the new sensei was a psycho and closed her eyes. Seconds passed. Makoto
opened her right eye. Ranma smiled at her.

"You have got some potential Miss Kino. You would become a
better fighter if you do not lose your temper and concentrate on your
defense more."

Makoto nodded.

"Please take your seat, Miss Kino."

Makoto nodded dumbly and sat on the ground by her new friend.

"You are lucky, he went easy on you." said Ryuu.

"Easy?"

"Yes. He is the new sensei I am studying under. If he had went
all out you wouldnot have lasted two seconds."

"Huh!"

"He couldn't have been playing. You saw how fast he moved, I
have never seen anyone move that fast." said Ami.

"He was deliberately slowing himself down though he was moving
faster than my normal speed. Makoto, did you notice how tense his
muscles were?" asked Ryuu.

Makoto nodded. She had seen his body tense whenever she had
attacked. She had thought that he was afraid that she might hit her but
now that she thought about it she realized that he was actually slowing
himself down to her level. "How fast is he?" she asked.

"He is very fast. Today morning I attacked him with a Kacchu
Tenshin Amaguriken and he countered it with his natural speed and he was
telling a joke to Cologne at the same time."

"What is a Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken and Why would he speak with
a Cologne?" asked Makoto.

"Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken is a ki technique of the Joketsuzoku
Amazons. It enables the user to use the ki to move very fast. Cologne is
one of my former sensei's. She is also the matriarch of the Joketsuzoku
Amazons." explained Ryuu.

"I don't believe you. There is no such thing as a ki attack."
said Makoto.

Ryuu burst out laughing.

"Mr. Saotome, why are you laughing again?" asked Ranma.

"Makochan says that there are no such things as ki attacks
sensei."

"Is that so, Miss Kino?" asked Ranma.

Makoto banged her head against the wall and stood up. "Um...
Hai, sensei."

"Then how do you explain this." asked Ranma and produced a
sizable ki ball in his palms.

The students became wide eyed and Ranma made the ki ball
disappear. Ami began recording the data that she had gathered.

Makoto stuttered. "H... How di... di... did you do that?" she
asked.

"Its not hard Miss Kino. If you train hard at the arts then
eventually you too will be able to harness your body's ki. Now, do you
need any more proof?" asked Ranma.

Makoto shook her head and sat down. No wonder she had lost the
fight so easily. All the sensei's she had studied under had said that ki
attacks are just legends. Their new sensei must be a master of the art
if he could do that.

"Since that little discussion is finished, I want to tell you
all something. What I am about to say is particularly important for the
members of the martial arts club. I had asked the principal for
permission to train you all early in the morning and he had agreed. As
such all club members as well as those of you who want to train must
assemble here at six hundred hours every morning."

Several students groaned in the back.

Ranma smiled. "I can hear the approval from some of you in the
back. Those of you who just gave your approval in the back know that I
know your face. I will expect the three of you at five thirty hours in
the morning." said Ranma.

Since it was his first class Ranma told jokes and played some
games to know the students better, Finally when the bell rang he excused
the students and they began filing out. When all the students went out
Makoto, Ami, Minako, Usagi and Ryuu approached him.

"Yes, Miss Kino do you want something?" asked Ranma.

"Hai sensei."

"Then go ahead."

"I... We, that is, me, Usagi, Ami and Minako have a friend who
needs help..."

"Go on." said Ranma and put his pencil on the desk.

"She is a temple maiden and she recently performed a technique
called the fire vision an..."

Ranma started. "What kind of idiot would perform the fire
vision?"

"Err! She did not know that it was the fire vision. She did not
even know that such a technique existed. She thought she was doing a
powerful fire reading but she was wrong. As a result her body is very
low in ki. We were thinking whether you would be willing to help her."
said Makoto.

"In what way do you want me to help her?"

"Since you seem to be a master and we thought that you could
transfer some ki to Rei and..."

"Who told you that I can perform ki transfers? Ryuu did you tell
them?" asked Ranma.

"No sensei." replied Ryuu.

"We thought that you would know how to do that and..." replied
Makoto.

Ranma grinned and nodded. "I will do it. Meet me at the gates in
the evening and we will go to your friend's home."

"Hai sensei."

"Now run to your class if you don't want to stand in the hall."

"Hai sensei." chorused the five and ran.

************************************************************* **********

The school bell rang signaling the start of the lunch break. The
students rushed to the cafeteria to get some eats.

"Come on lets eat. I am famished." said Ryuu as he sat down
under a tree.

Usagi hadnot even sat down to eat when Ryuu had finished half of
his lunch. By the time the motor mouth in the sailor team had a few
mouthful Ryuu had finished.

"Burppppp! Excuse me." said Ryuu as he rubbed his tummy. The
girls looked at him in absolute wonder. None could eat that fast.

"Hey guys, over here." shouted Ryuu and waved his hands.

Akane and Ryouga came and sat down with them. Akane was pulling
Ryouga by a string she had attached to his neck.

"Guys, this is the famous Akane Tendo from Furinkan high and
this is her boyfriend Ryouga Hibiki. Akane, these are my classmates
Makoto Kino."

"Hai."

"Ami Mizuno."

"Hai."

"Usagi Tsuinko."

"Hai."

"And Minako Aino."

"Hai."

"Wow! I can't believe that I am actually sitting next to _the_
Akane Tendo." said Makoto.

Akane raised her eyebrows.

"Apparently, your everyday exploits with the lechers in the
school has made you famous throughout the city." explained Ryuu.

"Oh!" Akane fidgeted. She did not know whether to take it as a
compliment or to be offended by it.

"Hey Ryouga, how many times did you get lost today?" asked Ryuu.

Ryouga bared his fangs and growled. The sailors looked
bewildered.

Ryuu decided to fill them in. "Oh! I did not tell you, did I?
Ryouga here has the worst sense of direction in the whole world. Heck,
he can even get lost in a room with a single door."

"Oh!" said Ami. She did not believe him of course. *Noone would
be so directionally challenged, could they?*

"Ryuuuuuuuu!" shouted Ryouga and lunged towards his friend.
Ryouga punched at where Ryuu's face was but Ryuu simply evaded. The hand
met the tree trunk. There was a crack and the tree began to fall.
Luckily the tree did not fall over anyone and Ryuu breathed a sigh of
relief.

"Ryouga, you pig-headed moron. You could have hurt somebody."
shouted Ryuu.

"Ryouga stop picking on Ryuuchan." shouted Akane and hefted the
mallet from mallet space.

Bam! Bang!

Ryouga lay senseless, his head embedded in the ground.

The sailors looked on in shock. In their experience mortals
couldnot survive such hits.

Ryuu noticed the looks on their faces and all the other students
in the ground. "Don't worry, he will wake up soon." he said.

The girls did not look comforted.

"How can you say that? Noone can survive such a hit on the
head." muttered Usagi. She had just witnessed a murder. Her eyes were
brimming with tears.

Ryouga chose that time to moan and extricate himself from the
ground. He rubbed his head and picked up his bento box by some miracle
of nature (he did not get lost searching for it) and began to eat as
though nothing had happened.

Some of the students fainted, their hearts a little too weak to
handle the situation.

"How... How did you do that?" asked Ami. She was astounded to
say the least.

Ryouga scratched his head, looked blankly at her and asked in
all innocence. "Do what?"

The girls face faulted.

Ryuu whapped him on the head. "They are curious as to how you
survived the dreaded mallet strike, you moron."

"Oh that! I don't know. I have always been able to do that."
replied Ryouga, rubbing his forehead in deep thought. *Doesn't everyone
survive mallet strikes?*

Ryuu struck his head against the fallen tree trunk. It
splintered under the blow. The girls eyes widened at the display of
strength.

"Wadda moron? What he meant to say is he has been training in
martial arts all his life and his body is thus able to withstand
powerful blows."

"Oh!" said Ami. She still did not accept that their explanation.
A scan with her computer for possession would show whether they are
humans or not.

"I am hungry. Makochan, since you are eating your food, can I
have yours?" asked Ryuu.

Makoto handed it over to him.

Ryuu finished the second bento in record time and burped once
more.

"Your food was great, Makochan. Did you cook it?" asked Ryuu.

Makoto nodded.

"You are a great cook, Makochan, unlike some tomboy, we both
know." said Ryuu.

"Ryuu no baka." shouted Akane and once again the mallet appeared
in her hands. However, Ryuu did not stand there like a brick as Ryouga
did and Akane ran after him with her mallet raised to the skies above.

*********************************************************** ************

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. Ryuu and the
sailors walked to the front gate where Ranma, Akane and Ryouga were
waiting for them.

"Hey Ryouga, where is Nabiki?" asked Ryuu.

Ryouga just shuddered at the mention of the Tendo family
mercenary's name. Akane hit him in his chest and answered. "She said she
had a business meeting with her contacts and had to leave early."

Ryuu nodded. That sounded just like Nabiki. *She probably wanted
to shift her base of operations or something.*

"Akane, do you know the way home?" asked Ranma.

"Hai."

"Please see to it that Ryouga does not get lost on the way to the
house. I and Ryuu have a little business to attend to."

Akane nodded and tugged Ryouga behind her.

"I am coming with you sensei." asked Ryuu.

"Yes, you will learn from watching the transfer." replied Ranma.

"Hai sensei."

"Makoto will you lead the way?"

"Hai sensei."

Ranma followed the sailors as they walked towards the Shinto
shrine. All the way the girls kept pestering him with questions and Ryuu
with his loud mouth contributed a lot too.

Finally they reached the shrine.

"Here we are sensei." said Makoto.

They entered the shrine grounds and knocked on the door.
Presently, grandfather Hino opened the door and welcomed them.

"Grandfather Hino, this is our new physical training coach, Mr.
Ranma Qin and our new classmate, Ryuuken Saotome." introduced Minako.

"Its a pleasure meeting you sir." said Ranma and bowed in
respect to the old man.

The old priest bowed in acknowledgment.

"Grandfather Hino, Ranma sensei is a martial arts master. He is
here to help Rei." said Makoto.

"Oh!" Realization dawned to Fuchida Hino, grandfather of Rei
Hino. His years of experience had taught him that ki transfers couldnot
be done as martial artists use chi. Chi transfers caused more trouble
than the problems they solved. The recipient might even become
psychologically unstable. "I am afraid I cannot allow that child." *He
must be a novice in chi projection else he would have realized that chi
transfers are not feasible.*

"But Rei needs it." said Usagi. She looked as though she was
about to burst into tears. *Why is grandfather Hino saying no to us? We
only want to help Rei.*

Seeing his granddaughters best friend about to burst into tears
Fuchida decided to explain. "Usagichan you do not understand. You see
martial artists use their emotions to focus ki. Transfer of chi is very
dangerous and Rei maybe hurt by it."

"I am afraid Hinosan is correct." said Ranma.

Now, Fuchida Hino was perplexed. If the young man knew that chi
transfers were not feasible why had he come with the girls. His thoughts
were shared by everyone except Ryuu. Ryuu realized what Ranma was about
to do and a grin came to his face.

"As I said, chi transfers should never be done. However ki
transfers can be done and I am here to do it." said Ranma.

"You can directly access your ki. How did you manage it?" asked
grandfather Hino in wonder.

"Yes, Hinosan, I can directly access my ki. As to how I do it,
it is a secret of the Joketsuzoku Amazons and I can't tell you." replied
Ranma.

"Then please come this way Ranmasan." said grandfather Hino and
led the way to the Rei's bedroom. He could hardly wait to see the
technique in action.

********************************************************** *************

Rei lay in her bed reading a manga. She had felt weak and had
not attended school. She had been awake for most of the day and though
she was still weak she could now move about within the room. She had
bathed and dressed herself though her grandfather had insisted that he
wash her. She understood his concern for her health but her sense of
modesty had not allowed it and she had locked him out of her room. She
was a teenager and needed some privacy. Her grandfather had understood
her unwillingness and he had not bothered her for the last three hours.

She had been reading the mangas all day long and was bored
beyond measure. She couldnot wait for her friends to show up. Then they
could have their little girly chat and maybe she could ask Makoto or
someone to stay with her till late night.

The manga she was reading was one of her favorites. It had pink,
romance, cute men and most importantly more pink (all that a girl dreams
of). It was not one of those ecchi ones but it had loads and loads of
mushy scenes and stuff. Though it seemed that she was reading the manga
as she flipped the pages once in a while, she was actually dreaming
about her knight in shining armor when her grandfather knocked on the
door.

"Rei, your friends have come to see you!" said her grandfather
through the door. The voice was muffled by the door.

"Coming grandfather." she replied and opened the door.

"Rei, this is Mr. Ranma Qin and Ryuuken Saotome. They are from
Juuban high." introduced her grandfather.

Rei bowed to both of them and then shot a quizzical glance at
Usagi. The Moon princess did not notice it but her grandfather did.

"They are here to give you a ki transfer."

"Oh!"

"Hino san, would you please lie down on the bed so that I can
examine you." said Ranma.

Rei dutifully lay down on the bed. Ranma sat by her and she felt
a tingling in the back of her neck. A minute passed before he opened his
eyes.

"A beautiful granddaughter you have here Hinosan." said Ranma.

"Thank you sensei." replied grandfather Hino.

"You granddaughter is in excellent physical condition if you
take into account her chosen line of work. Her ki is also fairly strong
and she has great potential in the mana manipulation department. I could
also sense that her ki reserves are vastly diminished from the fire
vision."

Grandfather Rei nodded. He had known everything Ranma had said
except for his granddaughter's potential for mana manipulation.

Ranma turned towards Rei. "Young lady, I hope you learned your
lesson. Fire visions were banned less than fifty years after their
creation because only a handful survived of the hundreds who tried it."

"Hai sensei."

"Good. Now, that I have your promise that you won't try it again
intentionally, I can proceed with the treatment." said Ranma. He raised
his hand, extended his fingers and allowed more ki to flow through them.

Grandfather Hino's eyes widened in surprise. If someone had told
him that ki could be focused with such accuracy a day ago he would have
laughed at them.

"Hinosan," Ranma addressed Rei, "I am going to make sure that
you can never willingly or unwillingly drain yourself of ki to death.
inorder for me to do that I have to press a pressure point close to your
breasts. I will not if you want me to. Do I have your permission?" asked
Ranma.

Rei nodded. "Hai sensei."

Ranma acknowledged and pressed various pressure points all over
her body.

"It is done. Now try accessing your ki for a fire reading." said
Ranma.

Rei relaxed on her bed and focused on her medium. Then she tried
to draw her ki. She could sense the little amount of ki that flowed
inside her body but she couldnot draw even the tiniest amount of it.

"I can't draw my ki. I can feel it there, but I just can't draw
it." said Rei in astonishment.

Grandfather Rei looked at Ranma with utter wonder in his eyes. A
technique, which would prevent someone from accessing their ki even
temporarily, was thought to be impossible.

"How did you do it, sensei?" he asked in wonder. His respect for
Ranma was growing by the minute.

"Its a forbidden technique, Hinosan. I could have permanently
restricted Rei's access to her ki. However, she is going to become a
priestess and she would need access to her ki. She will never be able to
execute the fire vision or any of the twelve forbidden techniques in
Shinto though she has the potential to learn all of them. She will be
able to access her ki when her mind had reached its peace and not
before." said Ranma.

Grandfather Rei nodded. *This man is simply amazing. How did he
learn about the twelve forbidden techniques? Only a few priests have
even heard of them.*

Ranma again addressed Rei. "Hinosan, I am now going to transfer
some of my ki to you. Do I have the permission to do so?" asked Ranma.

Rei looked at her grandfather who signaled that it was all
right. Having got the approval of her grandfather she turned to Ranma.
"Hai sensei."

Ranma nodded and placed his palm over her forehead. His palm
began to glow white as the process began. A few seconds later the glow
faded and Ranma removed his hand.

"How do you fell now, Hinosan?" he asked.

Rei felt her strength and vitality returning to her. "I am
feeling fine sensei." she answered.

"Good." said Ranma and rose up. "Remember Hinosan, if you want
to practice a variation of a technique have your grandfather by your
side. The next time you might not be so lucky."

Rei nodded. She had learned her lesson.

"We will be going then." said Ranma as he stood up.

"Sensei, you have to stay here and have supper with us." said
grandfather Hino.

"I have to refuse, Hinosan. Its getting late and Ryuu here has
to get home and do his homework." said Ranma.

"Then please have some tea."

"If you insist." said Ranma.

"Would oolong tea be okay, sensei?"

"Yes, it would be perfect."

Ranma, Ryuu and grandfather Hino left the room and went
downstairs. The girls stayed behind to gossip.

********************************************************** *************

After half an hour of small talk Ranma and Ryuu took their leave
after bidding adieu.

"Sensei, how do you know so much about Shinto techniques?" asked
Ryuu. He was really curious about that topic.

Ranma put his finger on his lips and tapped it. He thought for a
while and a smile came to his face. "Now, that's a secret." he replied
in all innocence.

Ryuu face faulted. When he recovered he decided to ask Ranma
another question which was also bothering him.

"Sensei, during my three years in the village I saw the healers
and the fighters use Shiastsu for all kinds of purposes. Yet they never
combined ki with the technique. Yet today I saw you use ki while
pressing Rei's pressure points."

Ranma looked at him and smiled. "You are very observant Ryuu.
What I did cannot be done with Shiastsu? It is an extremely dangerous
and deadly style that is essentially a very advanced version of
Shiastsu." replied Ranma.

"Will you teach me that style?" asked Ryuu.

"Perhaps I would one day, when you are ready for the burden it will
place upon your shoulders. Till then heed my words. Do not ever try to
combine Shiastsu and ki without my supervision and do not practice on
animal or human alike. If you do so, they might die before you realize
what you had done." warned Ranma.

"Hai sensei."

"Do you have anymore questions?" asked Ranma.

"Hai sensei. You said you would teach me the ki projection
techniques. When will you start teaching them?"

Ranma laughed. "Ryuu, I mean to keep my promise. I will teach
you the technique when you had perfected your hand attacks and defenses.
I think that you will be able to reach a reasonable amount of perfection
in hand to hand combat in two or three years. Until then I will teach
only a single ki attack. I normally wouldn't do that but I need to
replace your ridiculous chi attack with something more efficient and
powerful." said Ranma.

"Hai sensei." What Ranma said made sense. You can't build a
skyscraper on mud. You have to prepare the ground for it and lay a good
foundation and that is what they were doing now.

"Now, we will play a little game. I want you to climb onto that
fence and somersault without losing your balance. While doing that, I
want you to juggle these three balls." said Ranma. He produced three
balls from inside his shirt and threw them at Ryuu. "Up you go." said
Ranma.

Ryuu obliged and was able to do the routine two times before he
fell down. Ranma shook his head. *This is going to take a longtime.*

"Sensei, do I have to do this?" asked Ryuu.

"Yes, Ryuu, you have to. I noticed in our morning fight that
though your attacks are pretty good you were not perfectly balanced. I
also noticed that there were certain errors and your body was not perfectly coordinated.
This game will rectify both of them." replied Ranma.

Ryuu nodded and repeated the exercise.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion a block from them and Ryuu
fell to the ground. Ranma signaled him to follow and ran towards the
site of the explosion.

******************************************************* ****************

Indra, general of Raja Chola, walked amongst the mortal
population of Juuban. He had requested that he be given the job of
eliminating the sailor senshi from the face of the earth. With him was
the best warrior in his clan, Surya.

They had traveled from the summit of Fuji mountain to the mortal
city called Tokyo with their cloak on the whole time. The cloak was
actually an advanced ki technique that projected its user in any shape
they wanted into the minds of the observers. The technique would have
been hard to detect even by the most experienced of the mortal fighters
and the mortals, weak as they had become over the ages had no chance of
finding them out.

Their journey had been unusually quiet, if you count the forty
monkeys that they had slaughtered, dismembered and ate on their way to
the city. Ashura's generally had an unquenchable thirst for destruction
and Indra was amongst the most destructive in the entire army. Though he
was a capable warrior he could not be compared to the other generals of
Raja Chola's army. Indra's clan mainly dealt with scouting and
reconnaissance. As such they were not the best fighters but their hiding
skills were above par. Indra had been given strict orders not to alert
the sensei of their presence before the attack and he had followed it to
the word. He had made sure that the monkey remains looked like they had
been scavenged and had not attacked any humans so far. He _would_ have
lots of fun on his way back to the mountain after he had destroyed the
sensei.

His senses could pick up their signatures. But even he, the best tracker
in the entire army couldnot hope to track the sensei with their God
created shields on. Therefore, he had decided to do some mischief once
he had arrived in their vicinity and wait for them to come to him.

His partner Surya had agreed with the plan and had given his go
ahead. Surya had more experience in search and destroy missions and
Indra was only too happy to follow his advice. Any messing up on his
part would mean their total obliteration at the hands of Raja Chola.

Now, they stood in front of a grocery store on either side of
the street. Indra turned towards Surya and gave the signal to proceed.
Surya immediately released the technique and his six-handed figure came
into view. Indra would de-cloak later after the sensei arrived to give
them the surprise of their lives.

Surya spotted a car screeching to a halt and summoned a fireball
(his body's manifestation of his ki) and threw it at the car. The driver
tried to maneuver out of the way but he could not react in time and the
ball of energy impacted against his windshield. With a bright flash of
light, flames and smoke the car exploded killing its driver instantly.

Surya then summoned another fireball and threw it at the grocery
store. The ball was three feet in diameter and it tore up the ground as
it sped towards it target. The ball burned through the glass in the
window, impacted on the farside of the store and exploded, killing all
inside it. The blast destroyed the entire building and sent scrapnels in
all directions. Glass, wood and metal tore flesh and rock alike. Surya
burst out laughing in glee. He hadnot had such fun in a long time.

When his laughter subsided he began to throw fireballs
indiscriminately in all directions.

****************************************************** *****************

Ranma ran towards the site of the explosion. His senses had
picked up the ki blast and his senses were in overdrive. He had not been
actively probing the area while talking with Ryuu because he had not
expected something of this sort to happen. Now, he could pick up two
very powerful and completely sadistic ki signatures. Both the things,
whatever they were, were ki reactors and were producing insanely huge
amounts of ki as well as tapping into the ki flows in the area.

Ryuu tried to rush past him as he rounded the corner but Ranma
would have none of it. He had already sensed five powerful mana
manipulators tapping into the mana in the area and with a little bit of
luck he wouldn't have to fight today. He grabbed Ryuu and pulled him
into an alley from which they could view the fight.

*********************************************************** ************

At the time gates Sailor Pluto stood her knuckles bare and her
teeth gritting against each other. Before her images of a pig-tailed man
floated on the time-stream. She had tracked down the cause of the
original ripple and had been astonished to find that it was a man, a man
who was over two thousand years old. She had seen his entire life in the
time-gate and had discovered all his secrets. When she had come across
the images of his fight with the god-king she had been astonished. Even
Serenitysama would have with unable to defeat the God with the powers
that she possessed. Surely such a power couldn't be benevolent. Though
she had not seen him plot 'evil things' her desperation and ruthlessness
got the better of her. The future as she had planned it was threatened
by this very man and she would be loathe to let him get away with
destroying everything that she had worked for.

She waved her arms and the images fluttered out of existence.
She then carved a rip in the time-stream and entered her room in real-
time. She changed back to her non-sailor form and walked into the hall.
Hotaru, Michiru and Haruka were playing a game of cards.

"May I have your attention? I have something important to say."
she quipped.

"Sure thing, Setsuna." said the green haired, sailor of Neptune
and put down her cards. She wasn't winning the game anyway.

Hotaru put away the cards and made herself comfortable on
Haruka's lap. Setsuna looked around the room dramatically and settled
her gaze upon her fellow outer sailors.

"I have discovered a new threat to the Moon kingdom." she
announced.

Haruka and Michiru looked at each other. For Setsuna to tell them of it
must mean that it was very powerful and very dangerous.

"I had spent the last three days at the time-gates. There is
something wrong with it. I couldnot speak with my past or present selves
nor travel back in time. Initially, I didnot know what was wrong with it
but then I found out the cause..."

"Its related to the threat, isn't it?" asked Haruka.

Setsuna didnot even bother to reply. They didnot have the time
to chat. Something had to be done and done fast. "As I was saying, this
threat has been lying low and waiting for over two thousand years and
its starting to reveal itself now. I think that the queen is in
immediate danger. It is more powerful than I alone can hope to deal
with. Therefore, I have come to ask all of you for your help."

Haruka nodded in assent. She would die before she let any harm
come to the queen. The other outers had similar expressions on their
face. "Let's save the queen then."

*********************************************************** ************

At the Shinto shrine Ami picked up the signal from the Ashura's
and alerted the others. They locked the door and transformed into their
alter egoes. Jumping across roof tops they arrived at the scene of the
attack to find a six-handed monster that fit Rei's description of the
enemy throwing balls of energy all over the street.

Moon spoke her introductory speech and posed. "For love and
justice, I am the pretty, sailor-suited fighter Sailor Moon! On behalf
of the Moon, I will punish you."

Surya looked at the direction from which the proclamation had
come from and when he saw the sailors he smiled. "Oh goody! Toys to play
with."

Ami didnot like the way this monster was reacting. The minions
of the other enemies they had faced till then would be either afraid or
annoyed whenever they arrived. This one seemed happy too see them and
the smile on its face reminded her of the smile predators give their
prey.

Surya examined the sailors and licked its lips. The appetizers
were over and now the main course was being served. "Finally some toys
to play with. Can I break your arms? I wonder how your virgin blood
tastes?"

"Shutup and die monster." replied Rei.

Surya stopped his speech. However, he didnot stop his
examination. "I will kill you last. You and your leader have more inner
strength than any of the others. I will torture you last and if you are
lucky I might even deflower you."

Rei's cheeks flushed red. *How dare that... that thing think
such thoughts about her?* "Die! Mars Fire Soul!" A stream of fire raced
towards the Ashura.

Surya smirked and produced two obsidian sickles from his back.
He dodged the blast and focused ki into the sickles. The blast hit an
abandoned car behind him and the car exploded. The smirk turned into a
lopsided grin. "Now all you die."

************************************************************ ***********

Author rants:

That's it for chapter three (smiles evilly). I have seen many
writers do this (end a chapter with a cliffhanger) and I wanted to give
them a dose of their medicine. For those of you who have never written a
fic what can I say... Ah yes! If I tell you what happens in the next
chapter I would have to kill ya. ^o^

Anyways it time for the customary prostration on the ground in
front of my pre-readers and all that.

Thank you guys very much. I couldn't have done it without you.
Jang
Philip Penty
Brain McCullough

Hints for you readers from the author:
Hint #1: Arun doesnot write to a schedule, he really has to spend a lot
of time with his psychiatrist.
Hint #2: (for those outstanding critics out there[;)])Call Arun anything
you want in your mail provided (though he won't) he has the right to
call you by these same names. Arun appreciates constructive negative
comments and he really loves the positive comments. Its the 'Go to hell
you mother F***ing Freak of nature' and such that he hates. Please send
me your negative comments though I would be most greatful if you would
tone down the I hate you part a little.
Hint #3: The truth is out there, hey, don't ask me where but is out
there since Fox 'spooky' Mulder says so.
Hint #4: There is no hint #4.
Hint #5: Read the author's rants section if there is one. It would clear
some of yer questions as well as create some totally unrelated ones.