Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Princess of the Moon ❯ Interlude 01 ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Notes - This an Interlude and is to be placed just after chapter 06 of
the series, as the first arc of this story moves into it's final scenes
I wanted to explain about some of Ranma's past. In this case her mother
and what she has been doing for the last ten years. It isn't what one
would expect and will completely alter how one looks at Nodoka Saotome.
I received permission from White Phoenix to borrow an idea of his for
this and have expanded upon the character quite a bit. As with all
things there is more to one's life than what most let others see. ^_^

Now on to the fun...

**********
Princess of the Moon
Chapter 06 - Interlude
By Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c)2002
**********

Time has always had a strange way of affecting people, sometimes
they people just sit there watching it go by with barely a care, or they
fight against it with ever once of strength they can muster, still
others use it to their advantage. When it came to those in the Saotome
family, it tended to take some of the odder paths, weather one was born
a Saotome or married into the family time tensed to make their
lives...interesting. Nodoka Saotome was no different, she had married
into the family and found to her amazement that when one had the name
Saotome they would always lead a strange existence.

She had been born into a strange family herself, a devil hunting
clan that were masters of the sword and led a pretty odd life for the
first sixteen years of her life. Day and night she was trained in the
ways of her can and instructed in the rules of hunting and killing
demons. Then on her sixteenth birthday she had been told that an
arranged marriage had been set up with a another family to gain their
martial arts school and knowledge for their own. As a dutiful daughter
she had meekly went along with it and was soon the wife of one Genma
Saotome, one of the more promising martial artists of his generation.
She remembered taking a little pride in that and rubbing her friends
noses in it every time she had a chance. Now a days she knew better and
wished she hadn't went around hurting people like that, after ten long
years of being alone and without a family she had learned some lessons
that would have broken anyone into a thousand pieces.

The first year of her marriage had been pretty normal as she got
to know her new husband and went about her 'wifely duties'. During this
time she was most often alone in the average sized Saotome home while
her husband was off with is friend and Master Hopposai training for one
thing or another. She had spent her days cleaning the house or working
out in the tiny dojo behind the house to perfect her sword skill, one of
the things Genma encouraged her in. This hadn't been all that bad and
she enjoyed the time alone to one degree or another, but eventually she
had grown bored, very bored. It took a little doing, but she managed to
get Genma's permission to go to finish school and go to collage since he
was always away from home anyway. He had agreed and even helped her find
the best place to do so, that was one of the few times in Nodoka's life
that she still held dear about Genma, even after everything else had
turned to dust.

It was a year later during her senior year that she had learned
that the wifely duties had produced an heir for them. Genma had been
ecstatic and lavished her with his praise and joy, impatiently waiting
for their child to be born. He hadn't left her side during the whole
pregnancy, being an over protective and caring husband. When little
Ranma was born she had proudly handed him over to her husband, they had
both been too happy for words. If she had known what the future held she
would have calmly beheaded him before they left the hospital, but she
didn't so she had to learn the hard way.

The first two years of Ranma's life were strange, even by her
reckoning, and Nodoka had been confused by Genma's strange ways. He was
always gone during this time, off with his friend or Hopposai doing one
thing or another while she was left to car for her son and raise him on
her own. Not that she minded, she loved him with all her heart. At the
same time she continued to go to collage and learn of the world and
expand her mind, her husband never even noticed since he was rarely home
anymore, she sometimes wondered if he even remembered what his son
looked like. Even when he was, for a short period of time, he spent more
time with his son than his wife, showing him how to stand correctly, how
to run and jump. He showed no interest in her anymore, as if she didn't
matter anymore and that angered her. As his wife she was supposed to
follow him without question since he was the man of the family, her
educated mind told her to shove the a**hole out a window and go out to
have a real life. She cursed the day she decided to be the dutiful wife
and follow his lead.

Things went from bad to worse as the next three years passed and
she continued to raise their son alone. By the time Ranma turned five
Genma had decided it was time to go away and train the boy in the family
Marital Arts and came up with the idea of the seppuku contract,
something Nodoka now knew to be a complete lie. She cared for Genma as
his wife, but the respect he had been granted on their wedding day had
long since turned to dust. His actions never included her in any way and
she did not like being thrown to the side like some kind of useless
brood mare.

She had loudly refused to let the man take her son and tossed
him out of the house and threatened to lop his head off if he tried it
while shredding his gi off his overweight butt for good measure. Her
sword skills were one of the few areas that her husband couldn't stand
against anymore. Being alone had allowed her ample time to train with
her all the sword masters in the clan, they disliked Genma as much as
she did because he had failed to train their daughter in his martial
arts school beyond a certain point. So when he pulled this she let loose
five years of anger and frustration on the man for even thinking he
could take her son away.

Nodoka should have known better, really, but even a caring heart
can be blind to the things they do not want to see, no matter how close
one is to the truth. She still wasn't sure what happened, even after all
this time, but when she had gotten up the next morning Ranma had been
gone and the contract was laid out on the table in his place. A quick
call to the police to get her son back had been ignored, her husband had
already taken care of that rout by telling the police some story about
her. As a woman her opinion did not hold as much respect as his did and
they simply filed the report and moved on with other cases.

To say she was angry was an understatement, by the end of that
day she had destroyed and shattered a good portion of the house, all the
dishes, and collapsed into a crying heap of depression. There was
nothing left of the dojo except bits and pieces of wood scattered all
over the grounds, she had accessed her devil hunting abilities for the
first time that day and leveled to the ground in a single blast of
hatred. Under that her anger still raged, and swore that she would get
her son back from that monster even if it took her a life time. Over the
next month she changed in ways that confused and delighted her friends,
they had always thought her to much of a doormat for Genma, to dutiful
for these modern times. Now she was doing things, growing up and
learning about the world so that she could search for her family. To do
that she needed money, so she needed a job, and so she needed an
education and that became her world for the next four years. She didn't
yet have the skills to track her husband, but she would once she
graduated, the Art wasn't the only thing in the world and Genma would
find that out the hard way.

While going to school she hired a private investigator to track
down her wayward husband, her divorce had been denied because Genma was
the only one who could grant the separation, but quickly found out that
they were nearly impossible to track down. They lived off the land and
moved to a new town ever few day or weeks. The longest they stayed in
one spot was when Ranma went to school and that had only been for a few
months of intensive learning before they were off again. During this
time Nodoka gained Masters Degree's in several fields as she ruthlessly
absorbed information from everything she could get her hands on.

It was during this time that she started to take trips around
Japan, to old temples, ancient sights, and forgotten places that her
husband had visited. There always seemed to be an ancient training
ground nearby or a long forgotten martial arts school, like her husband
she would stick around for a little while and learn some of what they
had and add it to her revenge. What she learned in those places is
unknown, even to most of her friends, but whatever it was she changed
again. This time becoming extremely calm and eccentric in words and
actions, she never seemed to sleep anymore either and just spent hours
on end either reading old books or practicing her newest hobbies, Magic
and weapons. Her family was a great help too as she increased her
knowledge of the family art, she spent day and night stifling for the
skill she needed for her revenge, and eventually she found it. She
became known as Nippon Nodoka and she was a growing star in the
Explorers Society, developing a reputation for being extremely smart and
dangerous. She specialized in geography, ancient languages, archeology,
and a dozen other subjects that would have even impressed Genma if he
had been around.

Graduation from collage gained her a job doing missions for the
Explorers Society that sent her all over the world to do odd jobs and
earned her 40% of all the collected money she brought back with her.
This included the odd artifact here and there that she wanted to study
or put to use while looking for her husband. She agreed and was soon
using this as a way to search for her still missing son, but they had
disappeared and the private investigator had given them up for a lost
cause by now. Her husband had covered his tracks well and it frustrated
Nodoka into heading down other paths in search of her son. She had come
so close to them numerous occasions, but Genma knew how to cover his
tracks better than the best thieves in the world. Even her magic wasn't
working for some reason, she could find the location of lost temples and
other oddities anywhere in the world, but finding her husband was nearly
impossible. It was enough to make her cry.

**********

The library in Jubaan was one of the best equipped in all of
Tokyo, there were only about five others that were bigger and better
equipped to do the job that needed to be done. Ever since Ranma had
returned from Nerima she had been depressed and unable to do much, her
father's rejection of her had hurt, no matter what she had said to
Nabiki at the time. She had spent ten years on the road with him, day
after day of hard training and he had thrown it away just because of a
stupid curse. Ito and Luna had tried to get her to cheer up, but Ranma
just wouldn't listen to them. Instead she had thrown herself into her
training to get her mind off the past and spent nearly seven hours a day
practicing and developing new moves.

In a desperate attempt to help Ranma, her Princess no matter
what the girl said otherwise, Ito had began looking into Ranma's past
and found something that might cheer her up. So they were at the library
in the middle of downtown Jubaan to find some news papers. Ito had
borrowed Mercury's computer and used it to search the internet for any
information on the Saotome family. What had come back was a mix of good
and bad things that took up nearly twenty gigs of space. There were
literally thousands of reports on Genma and Ranma Saotome that were
wanted for theft and other crimes that went back for over ten years. She
had found no less than fifteen warrants for Genma's arrest in ten
different countries, six of them had been just in Japan, several in
China, and the rest in India, America, and Russia.

She had to admit the man got around, looking into the warrants
led to her finding other things as well that made her shudder. Ranma had
been sold numerous times, to dozens of families and they had filed
missing person reports on him. A number of them mentioned marriage
proposals and the uniting of families. Then there had been the huge
amount of debt that Ranma had acquired while on the road, it seemed he
owed over a million yen to various restaurants and had been at it since
he was at least five years old. How a five year old could run out of a
place without paying was beyond her, but there it was. Ito had cross
referenced that one just out of curiosity and found that the Police had
just been filing them without looking at them. Genma was using Ranma's
name and running out on the bill.

Then she had stumbled across the good news, one Nodoka Saotome
and the reward she had out for any information that might lead to her
son or her husband. There was even a big explanation on her web site
that detailed what had happened ten years ago. Ito had been further
mystified to find out the kinds of degrees that Nodoka Saotome had
achieved over the years and that she traveled all over the world as a
professional Archeologist that specialized in magical and occult sites.
A quick check with the Mercury computer and she was able to find that
Nodoka had been in or around every spot in the world that her husband
and son had visited, sometimes within days after a report had been
filed.

Ranma had once explained about the Seppuku pledge and what it
meant, that was why she had never returned home before. How could a girl
be a man among men? From what Ito had seen on the internet his mother
didn't care about that and was actively looking for them. That was why
they were at the library, Ito knew that Ranma was stubborn enough to
refuse to go and see her mother so she needed to show Ranma the truth.
That was why they were at the Jubaan National Library to use one of
their computers for a little research and why Ito was in human form,
dressed like any teenager.

"Ito why are we here again, I've got practicing to do and I've
nearly mastered those moves."

"I want to show you something Ranma and since Ami is out of town
today we need a computer."

"This had better be good, I don't have time for useless stuff
like this."

"Oh hush up, you'll thank me for this."

"Yeah, yeah sure I will." Ranma complained.

Ito led the way to the computer labs and hoped her plan worked.
Ranma needed something to cheer her up and finding her mother was a good
start. She knew better than to try and surprise her on Ranma, she would
have to decide what to do for herself.

**********

Five Years ago...

She had a deep reddish brown hair that almost seemed to gleam as
she stood in the sunlight at the edge of the cliff and took in the
beauty of the waterfall in the distance. All around her the dense jungle
teemed with life and the law of nature. She was wearing an odd outfit
for a woman, a pair of rugged pants, weathered hiking boots, a loose
shirt and vest combo that matched her perfectly, on her head was a
fedora of all things (she really liked that movie they had made about
some of her exploits a few years back), and a small pack that held all
her supplies, tucked into this was a rather nasty looking sword that
looked like it had seen a lot of action over the years. Around her waist
was an equipment belt that held several pouched, a holstered gun on her
left thigh, and a machete on her right. She liked to live off the land
so she carried things with her that allowed for quick movement and fast
catches.

She was a Saotome, Nodoka Saotome and she had a mission to
accomplish this day, one that paid her bills and earned her money.
Looking over the map in her hand she determined where she was and walked
along the cliff for several minutes looking around for something, she
had been looking for nearly three hours now, but these things were not
easily found. Every now and then she would stop and stomp on a rock and
wait for several seconds before continuing on until she found another
potential rock to stomp on. About an hour later she followed the pattern
and nodded when she felt it drop down a few inches and a nearby tree
truck opened up like door, it was hollow inside. A closer look revealed
that someone had cut hand holds into the inside of the hollowed out
trunk, they went downward as far as she could see. Considering the
nearby cliff, she had a feeling that they went down for hundreds of
feet.

"That's far enough Nippon."

She turned around to see a rather scruffy looking man in a white
suit holding a gun at her, a 38 special if she recognized the design. He
was also completely bald and had a snake tattoo on his head that seemed
to coil around his head. It was rather gruesome looking the way the head
of the snake was poised right between his eyes. "Hello Snake, what are
you doing out here?"

"You know damned well why I'm here Nippon."

Nodoka tilted her head and smiled innocently at the man.
"Really, I did research into this site Snake, there isn't anything of
value here that your boss would want, is there?"

"You know as well I do what is down there."

"Oh please, do you mean that demon that was mentioned in those
Agratarian Glyphs I found in Tibet and the favors it is supposed to
grant to the one that can free it?"

Snake sweat dropped and blinked a few times, Nippon Nodoka was
rumored to be a little insane due to something that had happened to her
family several years ago. She was dangerous, very dangerous if one read
her wrong. "That and the scrolls, I'm here for both of them."

"I can't allow that Snake, the demon is to dangerous to let free
into this world. That is why it was confined in the first place. I'm
here to make sure it doesn't get free, ever."

"It can also grant one their greatest wish."

"Now you're just being stubborn, demons don't grant wishes like
that unless they can come out on top in someway and we both know you
don't have what it takes."

"It can't be helped Nippon, now step over to the edge of the
cliff or I'll shoot yah." Snake said and waved his gun in the
appropriate direction.

"You're making a mistake Snake." Nodoka said calmly.

"Yeah right!" Snake said and stepped over to ladder. "If you
make one move I'll plug you where you stand."

"Okay, okay, you talked me into it, I was only trying to help
you out, but if you're going to be stubborn about this you can go first.
Are you sure you wouldn't want some tea before you head down?" Nodoka
tried, producing a cup of steaming tea from nowhere and sipping it as
she watched him with innocent looking eyes.

"HAH!!" Snake barked out and placed his foot on the first rung
of the ladder. "You won't trick me like that, that power will be mine!"

"Well good luck then."

Holstering his gun, Snake knew Nippon Nodoka wouldn't harm him
no matter what the situation, so started to make his way down into the
pit below him. As soon as he was out of site, Nodoka walked over to the
stone she had stepped on and gave it a good stomp. It clicked and rose
back up, the door in the tree swung closed. She took a few minutes to
finish off her tea before she decided to head back to where she had
started out, Snake would be kept pretty busy now that he was descending
into the cliff side, he had no clue what this place was and had fallen
for that little diversion pretty easily. It had taken a little longer to
find that trap than she had thought, but the old priests that had
created the temple at the base of this cliff had been a little cruel to
outsiders, who knew that the hand holds vanished when the door was shut?
She figured Snake would meet up with the old priest before she could get
down there through the city entrances, but he really shouldn't have
pulled that gun on her, it was just plain rude.

Pulling out her machete she headed into the thick jungle,
cutting through the thick layer of plants as she moved. She thanked all
the Kami that were listening that she had learned how to channel her Ki
when she did, it allowed her to protect the machete's edge as she
worked. Just a little concentration and it had an edge sharp enough to
slice through trees and stone. According to her map she had about a mile
to go before she reached the first of the markers she was looking for,
one of the few trails that led into the lost city. The jungle was so
thick that she figured it would be the best rout in, she didn't want to
spend days hacking through dense jungle unless she really had to. This
area had once been full of people and even supported a rather large city
of several thousand. She wasn't sure what happened to them, but they had
left records behind that had been lost over the centuries. She had found
them, nearly intact because of a magical spell, deep under the temple at
the bottom of the cliff.

Nodoka grinned at her luck when she stumbled across the trail
that wove its way through the trees, even after all this time the jungle
hadn't been able to destroy all traces of the city, there were even a
good number of the original paving stones left. A brisk walk down the
trail led her to what she was looking for, the boundary marker of the
old city. It was a pair of stone statues that towered above her, carved
to look like a pair of dragons about ready to flame anyone that tried to
pass beneath them. According to the scrolls she had read, they were
magical and could actually breath fire on people that did not know the
proper magical codes.

Reaching into her pack she pulled out a scroll that she had
found in the temple along with all the other information, held it up,
and read the word written on the outside of the tie that kept it rolled
up "Acura!" and it flashed into nothingness. The spell activated and she
found her world changed, the moss and plant covered statues took on a
different look and she could see that the magic was still active as the
two statues observed her. She could feel the ancient weight of the
city's magic as well, it had altered over the years into something more
than just a guardian spell that animated the statues to kill those the
city did not want inside its walls.

The biggest surprise she had found was that this place was
protected in some way, it protected itself from being found. The only
reason she had come across the place was that she was researching
something else at the time and noticed some inconsistencies in the
satellite photographs, no two of them showed the same thing. Even then
she had found that this place would not be found by easy means, oh no,
it was a magical city from a long time ago and they were notorious for
being hard to reach and even harder to get into and return from. The
most famous example of this was the continent of Atlantis, it existed
and was still in use today by beings that were better left unsaid.

It was like some of the still functional magical places on
Earth, like Eden and The Retreat, once found the reasons that they were
still in use became obvious. Like Atlantis, this city was special, the
only difference was that this place wasn't being used anymore and the
magic was going to waste. It was kind of like a computer that was told
to do one thing and kept on doing it until it ran out of materials, no
matter what the consequences were. Her spell scroll was one of her more
helpful items, it allowed her to see and read magic in all its forms.
This city was covered in a thick growth of trees and plants that had
almost completely hidden it from the world, the magic did the rest. So
she figured she was probably one of the first visitors to show up here
in a long time.

She was lucky to have come across some information on places
like this a while back, so she had a pretty good idea how to get through
the gates without much trouble. Taking a different way into the city
wouldn't have been a good idea either, the magic had made sure that the
trees had grown in such away that getting through them would be
problematic at best. Even the local animals were magically recruited by
the city to make sure intruders didn't enter the city without going
through the main entrance like she was. Lucky for her this was only
along the main walls and not on the way she had used to get here, she
figured that the magic had weakened over the years.

~WHO ARE YOU?~ Came out of both Dragon Statues as their eyes lit
up.

"Nodoka Saotome, I'm an explorer and hunter." Nodoka said in
surprise, she hadn't expected the communication spells to still work
after all this time. Maybe she could talk her way though the gate, if
not she would take other steps.

~A THIEF~

"Never, I don't take things unless they have been abandoned."

~THE CITY IS OFF LIMITS TO OUTSIDERS~

"Why, the jungle has reclaimed a good portion of it, I just want
to study the people that used to live here and try to save some of the
things that are still here."

~THE CITY HAS BEEN DEAD SINCE THE GREAT WAR THAT DECIMATED THE
PLANET 10,000 YEARS AGO. THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO SAVE~

"The Silver Millennium War?"

~YES~

"Very little is left of that time, if your city is that old it
makes saving it from destruction even more imperative."

~I CAN NOT LET YOU INTO THE CITY~

"Why?"

~BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ON THE LIST~

Nodoka face faulted. "Of course I'm not on the list, it's been
centuries since anyone even lived in this city!"

~THE LENGTH OF TIME DOES NOT MATTER~

"How about if I give you a gift?"

~DONATIONS ARE ONE WAY TO GET INTO THE CITY, FOOD, MAGICAL
SPELLS, AND SPECIALTIES ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED~

"Then I have a Specialty for you, let me get it out of my pack."
Nodoka said and pulled a fist sized package out. It was wrapped in
yellow paper and covered in writing. "I hate to give this up, but if it
will get me into the city I don't mind all that much. It's just
expensive and hard to get more of."

~THE MORE EXPENSIVE THE BETTER~

"Right." Nodoka said and stepped up to the statues and placed
the item in a ready tray.

~YOU MAY GO IN AND HAVE A NICE DAY~

"Um...yeah, you too." Nodoka said.

Guardians nod. "Second temple on the right, you can't miss it."

Nodoka walks calmly on.

One Guardian turns to the other after they've waited for her to
pass beyond earshot. "Not much of a canidate. Not like the old days.
Nasty accent. Where'd she grow up, Earth?"

The other shrugs. "It's been ten thousand years since there's
been an applicant. She'll get the post for sure, nasty accent and all.
With no one there to interview she's the first body to show up."

"So what's the post?"

"Gotta fill from the top down. Head of household. Then she can
interview others to try and fill us back up to full staff. The
Princesses can always replace her if she doesn't work out. If the
princesses can be found, that is."

"I hope they get Maintenance Mages back up here. I've gotten
vines in my ears."

"First decent mage is here looking for a job in ten thousand
years and the first thing you'd worry about is your ears."

"Well what about you?"

"I've cracked my left paw, and my claws don't work right."

"Sigh."

"Got that right."

Both guardians fall silent.

"Still," the first one moans. "A good polish...."

"That'll be heaven. Now stick to your post."

"Don't tell me you don't want a new coat of paint."

"I'm cranky enough as it is. Don't make it worse. If we had a
full
staff today they'd be years getting to us. Now quit griping and keep
alert for youma."

Nodoka walked on and shook her head, that had been easier than
she thought it would be. Who would have thought the magical protection
of the city would still work after all this time? Oh well, it wasn't as
if she minded doing it the hard way, it just made the job more fun for
her if it went wrong and she was here for a purpose. There were secrets
to be found her that would help her on her quest for Genma, his
punishment would be long and painful. He would not get away with his
crimes and this place was just one of many places she had visited to
find different ways to accomplish this. The Foundation had also
requested that she look into this and see what she could find so it was
a win-win situation.

She walked deeper into the city until she topped a hill
overlooking a small valley filled with an even thicker jungle than what
she had been moving through. Further proof of the magic that was trying
to hide this place, she still wondered why the satellites could not
'see' any of the old Silver Millennium place still left on the planet.
She had never read or heard of a spell that could do what these city
wide ones did and getting past them was a pain in ass. She studied the
area a little closer and used the magic from the scroll, here and there
she could see portions of roofs and temples peaking out the thick
undergrowth of the jungle.

Because of the scroll spell she had cast earlier she could see
that several of the small buildings were still magically protected in
some way, the one she wanted to reach had to be the largest one or one
of the smaller ones to either side of it. The spell was also supposed to
make the city's magical defenses see her as a non threatening visitor,
but after all this time who knew if it still worked like it should have.
Pulling her blade again she chopped her way down into the valley and
made her way toward the large one in the center of the valley. It would
make a good place to start her search, it was always the large one in
the center after all. She was a little put off by the fact that the
thing seemed to rise nearly as high as some of the pyramids of Egypt and
was just as imposing in its size, Nodoka shrugged, she was here for a
reason and this wasn't going to stop her.

She continued to hack her way to the large temple and where she
thought the main entrance would be. That was one of the hardest things
to find on these old temples, the entrance was always in some odd place
or had some weird magical trigger to open. She hated shadow rock doors
the most, waiting for the sun to get into the right place at the right
time always tried her patience to no end. Since this was a Silver
Millennium city she figured those were the last thing she needed to deal
with, they usually had better imaginations than primitive dwarves or
humans. Her magical sight was making things a lot clearer as she moved
and she wasn't distracted by all the plants and trees that had nearly
over run the entire valley. Looking at the temple was like looking at a
thermograph, so it stood out in all it's glory, odd coloring not
withstanding.

Every few yards she would switch the blade to a different hand
and continue on, using one of her family's sword kata to hone her speed
and to practice while she cut her way there. Years of practice had made
her quite good at doing this too, though she rarely had a chance to use
her sword work skills on anything but plants and trees. With every swipe
of the blade she imagined that Genma was in front of her and she cut off
his limbs one at a time, an arm, a leg, the genitals, his inflated head,
and things like that kept her occupied and working at peak performance
for hours. Then she would start over again on the other hand, making
sure to do everything instinctively and perfectly since there was no
need to get sloppy.

Because of the size of the place, it took her two hours to chop
her way to the main staircase of the large temple. Even this was covered
in vines and would make hiking up the steps more hazards than expected.
She looked around a little more closely to see if there might have been
a better way to get up there and soon spotted a discolored stone that
was only noticeable because of the scroll spell. It was only about a
third of the way up the stairs and set into the side, just like a door.
As she thought, heading up the steps proved to be a pain and she had to
be careful, but soon reached the strange stone. Curiously it was only
about three foot by three foot and covered in odd glyphs and carvings
that were slightly familiar.

She frowned and looked the thing over a little more closely. "AH
HA!! I knew I had seen this somewhere before, but what are these doing
on the wrong continent? Oh well, it's not like it matters all that much,
but who would have thought the Babylonians would have crossed such a
large ocean to build this." Nodoka shrugged and noted it for future
reference and snap kicked the edge of the stone with her steel toed
boot. It moved inward several inches before grinding to a halt with just
enough room for her to crawl into it. She hated crawl entrances, they
were always full of dust and other kinds of nasties she didn't like to
deal with.

Reaching into sub space she pulled out a rather large flash
light and got down on her hands and knees to go inside. The inside of
the crawl space was surprisingly empty of dust, webs, and other kinds of
things she would have thought to find. It was almost disappointing
really, where was the adventure in this? She shrugged and continued on
for about fifty feet and found that the tunnel stopped at a hole with a
ladder that went up and down. She maneuvered herself to the edge and
pulled out her map and looked it over. She had found this little device
buried deep in the Amazon rain forest a couple years back and hadn't had
the heart to part with such a useful item. With a flick of her wrist the
parchment like paper snapped taunt and glowed.

The map of the region that had been on it vanished and the
layout of the temple slowly etched itself onto the paper. No matter
where she was it would read the area and give her a good idea of where
she was, there was even a 'you are here' symbol on the paper that moved
when she did, it was quite helpful. It had always amused her to that
some of her rivals thought that magic and such were such impossible
things, she was always stumbling over things like this and adding them
to her collection. As the map finished she was surprised to find that
there was at least two levels of chambers below the temple, both looked
to have been cut off from easy access by rather large walls of some
kind. This didn't bother her all that much since she had experience with
such thing like this.

A quick jaunt down the ladder let her reach the next level and
she found that there was sunlight reaching this underground level. A
quick search revealed a series of holes in the ceiling that reached
clear to the surface and let air and sunlight into the lower level, a
series of polished metal disks were on the walls and reflecting light
down into the lower parts of the level. Then there were three passages
leading off in random directions and after consulting her map she chose
one and she thanked the gods that they were high enough to let her walk
normally. She had found enough small crawl spaces in her time to wonder
it the Dwarves of legend still existed somewhere, or were out to get
her. According to the map the passage she had picked led to the same
chamber the other passages led to, except they were all maze like,
leading off in different directions and odd rooms long before they
reached the main room.

She would have to check them out on her way out just to see if
there was anything of value being hidden in any of the rooms, but she
was here for a reason and she had a pretty good feeling what she was
looking for was in the large room. The map was useful, but she
constantly wished the thing would tell her what was in the places it
told her about, but that was just a little to much to ask of the thing.
Even more curious was the complete lack of traps and such, what was to
keep people like her from just waltzing in and taking what they wanted?
She had completely forgot about the two guardians, the plant covered
temple that was nearly impossible to find, the magic she was detecting,
and that she was holding a cheat sheet of a sorts.

Eventually she reached a door, but stopped walking towards it
when she was ten feet away. The floor was covered in carvings, as were
the walls, the ceiling, and the door itself. To her it looked like
someone had gone crazy with a chisel and ruined a perfectly good stone
surface, but again she forgot to factor in that she had been doing this
for years and was just a bit jaded. Reaching into her pack she pulled
out a small rock she had been carrying around and tossed the thing in
the middle of the floor before hopping back nervously.

Nothing happened, no darts out of the walls, no pit trap, the
ceiling looked like it might have quivered, but that was just a trick of
the light. She sighed in disappointment, there weren't even any blades
to cut her feet off at the ankles, how disappointing really. Reaching
into subspace she pulled out a walking stick and tapped around the floor
to see if the rock had just rolled wrong, the complete lack of reaction
hurt her feelings. All this building know how and they couldn't even
build a decent trap? She checked the map and it showed nothing built
into the walls that might have been dangerous.

"I came all this way for this?" She grumbled under her breath.
The thing with the nice man Snake had given her some hope that this was
going to be interesting. Oh well, not all lost temples were dangerous.

The door, when she reached it was a work of beauty, a lot better

up close than what she had thought it was. It was over fifteen foot tall
and covered in cravings of leaves and plants so detailed that they
looked like they were about to rustle in the wind. How the thing had
gotten down here, nearly forty feet below ground was a pretty good
mystery, but not what she had come her for. Glancing at the map again
she wondered if she was to go back and take one of the other passages if
her trip here would be more worth while. Adrenalin junkies can be a bit
odd at times, really.

Examination of the door revealed a leaf that stood out from the
others, it also glowed with magic to her enhanced scenes. Maybe this
would be something of interest she thought as she pulled it off the wall
to look at it, as it came away it became a real leaf in her hand and
carvings all lit up with power. Except one spot, just big enough to
place the leaf in her hand, with a careless smile she tapped it into
place and magic flared with light. All around her the carvings turned
real and a passage way opened up in front of her, all she had to do was
step through the plants and continue on. She had always thought that
ancient magic users had an eye for beauty that modern artist just
lacked.

"Well that was neat, now what is on the other side." She mumbled
to herself and stepped through into a long rough stone corridor and
frowned. This room was empty too, what the hell was going on here? Sure
there were plants, but they only lasted for the first dozen yards or so
before they dwindled out. The corridor went on for as far as she could
see and there were torches ever ten feet or so. This was a little
different than what she had expected, never in her carrier had she
entered a temple or old ruin and find evidence that it was still being
used like this. Her magic senses were telling her that the torches were
real and not magical illusions.

She moved down the hall slowly, her hand on her sword and ready
to pull it at a moments noticed. Something didn't feel right about this
place and she couldn't place what it was, this was just plain weird.
This wasn't a simple exploration anymore, it was quickly becoming some
thing more dangerous. She clenched her hand that had the device strapped
to it and made sure the energy contained by the device was still active
and available. Her danger sense was trying to warn her of something but
she could see no obvious signs of an attack. Then she looked ahead and
saw that the tunnel was beginning to curve.

Checking the map proved worthless, it was completely blank and
showed nothing of use. She stashed it back in her pack and pulled her
sword out, this was getting a little scary, the torches were the worst
part. Who had put them there and kept them burning? She moved around the
curve and frowned as it revealed a strange sight, the entrance to a
larger room, it went in about ten feet and turned into a marble bared
prison that allowed her to see out into the larger room, but with no
way to enter it. The strangest part was that it looked like something
out of that Tomb Raider video game, the largest room looked like had
once been very well set up, but now there were signs of a fire and
toppled columns all over the place.

From her vantage point she could look down into the room and to
the floor about a hundred feet down. Other than a couple of spots, the
lower levels of the room were full of water. She couldn't figure out
where the light was coming from either, but the whole place was lit up
in some way. Then she noticed dozens of mirrored circles along the walls
giving off a a faint glow and she realized that they were bouncing light
around the room from some central source. Now how was she supposed to
get down there without causing any problems or alerting any potential
threats?

She wasn't sure, but she had just spotted something that made
her blood run cold. The entrance to a room with a door covered in spell
carvings. They were all over the door and the walls around it, even in
the floor at the base of the door. Something was being held in there and
it was very powerful, that many wards could keep a god imprisoned for
some years if they were done right. Imprisoned...she was either in or
near the temple at the base of the cliff. That must be the demon's
prison that she was going to look into later on. This wasn't good, if
she was caught here she would be killed by the priests, they did not
like women very much and had been barely civil the last time she talked
to them.

If this was the temple at the base of the cliff, how had she
ended up here and why wasn't her map working? She didn't know, but
sticking around her for to long was a bad idea in the extreme, so she
turned around and hiked back up the corridor until she got back to where
the plants started again. The lack of guards was weird, if an entrance
to the cave where the demon was held existed the priests would have
posted guards, but where were they? If they were here why hadn't they
stopped her from getting within seeing distance of the prison? Could
what she was looking for be hidden in some way?

She searched through the bushes for several minutes, carefully
moving through them until she found an opening hidden in the shadows of
a couple of trees that led off to the side of the main corridor. A quick
check of the map showed that it still wasn't working, so she decided
that it was useless on this side of that magic door. This hidden path
was in very bad condition, the stone was cracked and filled with dust
from ages of disuse and was completely dark. She grabbed a flashlight
out of her pack and lit the thing up. It only went in for about twenty
feed or so and ended at a door that looked like it was wedged into the
stone instead of mounted in any way.

It was about seven foot height and made of an ancient wood that
was riddled with termite holes and barely staying intact. Unfortunately
none of the holes were large enough for her to see through. She had a
feeling that whatever was beyond this door was important in someway, her
eyes narrowed and she lasted out at the door with a kick. Surprisingly
it held under the blow, though it did crack a bit. She shoulder slammed
the door a couple of times and squawked in surprise when it shattered
and she fell into the room. Unfortunately there wasn't a floor on the
other side and she found herself in free fall.

"Genma this all your fault!!" Nodoka yelled as she envisioned
her death on the stalagmites or hard rock below. A quick prayer flashed
trough her mind, but before she could even say it she landed back first
into water, deep water. Her surprise is almost total as she flips around
and orientates herself and spots her flashlight sinking below her and
kicks for the surface. he surfaces gasping for air and spots a small
beach a little ways off and makes her way to shore. This has been one
weird day for her, but she wasn't about to make it this far to just give
up yet. She staggered to her feet and noticed that she was in a large
natural cave. Stalagmites and stalactites were covering most of the
cave, but there was a small cleared path making it's way right down the
center of the cave with light at the end. Even stranger was how hot it
was in the cave, over a hundred at least and rising. Her clothes were
already well on their way to being dry.

Looking off to the side she spotted a pile of old torches, all
they needed was a bit of oil and she would be set. To bad she didn't
have any on her, so she decided to sacrifice a shirt and wrapped it
around the head and lit it with a lighter. As she moved deeper into the
cave she noted that it was becoming more and more notable that humans
had been her before as the passage way was cleared of obstructions. She
even rounded a small turn to spot several skeletons dressed in burnt
priest's robes wearing rusting armor and weopons. She was tempted to
take a closer look and see if there was anything she could salvage to
take back to the Foundation, but decided to see what else was down here
before doing that.

The heat was rising too, she had sweat dripping down her face
and ruining her clothes as she drew closer to the source of the light.
Then she stepped through the opening and gasped when she found herself
in a lava toob, about twenty feet from an open, bubbling vent of lava.
The heat was almost unbearable at this range, but she had learned a few
tricks over the years and wasn't about to let that stop her from
reaching her goal, not when she was this close. She looked up and
spotted what she was looking for about twenty feet up, suspended right
above the lava with chains was a stone throne with a skeleton sitting
on it dressed in robes and a crown, at its feet was a chest.

Nodoka smirked as she spotted it, the goal of her little quest,
it was just as she had imagined it and if it contained what she though
it did, then all this trouble will have been worth it. The Foundation
had found information on this place several months ago, but it was so
hard to reach and with the number of leaks they had among the higher
ups, that she was asked to take this one on so that the items in that
chest could be retrieved. She was one of three people on the planet that
knew about anything about the worlds true origins from the Silver
Millennium. This place had degraded over the centuries, but not to the
point that the magic used to create some of this stuff had failed. She
could feel the weaves of magic in the very air and knew that it was the
only thing holding back the Lava from turning this place into a death
trap.

Just touching the chest or even the suspended throne could very
well set off the trap and destroy everything just to keep it out of her
hands. Curiously a lot of the work in this cave looked to new to have
been in the Silver Millennium, it couldn't have been more than two or
three hundred years old. No where close to the ten thousand years or
more that this place should have looked. Her magic sight wasn't helping
either, everything in the toob glowed of magic, even the lava. She
clenched her fist and activated the device on her hand again and she
flared with light.

When it cleared everything about her had changed, her hair was
loose and hanging down in a loose braid. Her clothing had altered into a
white and red pant suit with a yin/yang symbol on the chest and she was
surrounded by a humming aura of power. Her back pack was gone, but her
sword had stayed, but altered itself into a nasty looking weapon. She
looked up at the throne and decided that she would take a chance,
getting to safety in this form would be a lot easier than her normal
form. It was stronger, faster, and more powerful than a normal human
form. She was called Nippon Nodoka the Devil Hunter for a reason and
this whole mountain reeked of Demonic taint now that she had
transformed.

That monster wasn't about to get out of this placed alive now
that she was in a position to take it out permanently. She crouched and
jumped right up to the throne and landed on the edge as carefully as she
could. A sigh escaped her when nothing happened, that meant this trap
wasn't going go off with her just standing on it. She stepped over to
the skeleton and looked it over and noted that it was in pretty good
condition for something that was supposed to be 10,000 years old.
Something about it was making her nervous and she had seen enough dead
bodies over the last few years to know she wasn't squeamish in anyway.

"Hiyah Babe!"

Nodoka spun around and hissed as she spotted someone she hadn't
ever wanted to see any time soon. Gendo Saotome, Genma's brother and one
of the reasons she had been prevented from finding her son time and
again. Gendo had government contacts that would do almost anything for
him for the right amount of money. "What are you doing here you
Bastard?!"

"That hurts you know." Gendo said with a smirk. "You are family
after all, you are supposed to share with all of us."

"Fuck off you asshole!"

"Temper control Nodoka-chan, you don't want me to make it so
that you can never get near your son again, so you?"

Nodoka growled and backed off, Genma's brother had all the
brains in the family and none of the skill. Gendo was a ruthless
businessman and someone that even she didn't want to deal with, he could
do things to make her life a living hell and get away with it. "I will
get him back no matter what you do Gendo."

Gendo smirked and tsked a few times. "Not until my brother is
finished training the boy to be the prefect weapon, dear sister-in-law."

"I will not let him get away with it, you hear me asshole."

"You're pushing things, sis." Gendo said with an evil smile.
"Here is a little present from me to you for your insolence No-chan."
His hand flared with red light and Nodoka gasped as she realized that he
was casting a spell.

"Since when have you been able to do magic?!!" She screamed.

Gendo's eyes lit up as his aura turned pure black. "Why for
years No-chan, for years, even Genma doesn't suspect that I can do this
stuff. All he cares about is training his son and he is so very
susceptible to my spells."

"Whatever you're doing it won't work!"

"I know, but it will slow you down and distract you."

Suddenly arms wrapped themselves around Nodoka and grabbed her
breasts and gave them a good squeeze. "WILL YOU LOOK AT THE HOOTERS ON
THIS ONE?!"

Nodoka screamed in shock and looked down to see the bony hands
and arms encircling her. She had just enough time to register that it
was the skeleton before she was thrown off the suspended throne by a
cackling undead skeleton before she hit the ground just outside the lava
pool. "Shit!"

"HOW'S ABOUT A KISS SWEET THING?!" It yelled.

Gendo was about twenty feet away rolling on the ground laughing
his head off. "Have No-chan, there are more on the way!" He yelled to
her as he gestured to the throne and the chest vanished in a puff of
smoke. Gendo smirked in victory and vanished in a flare of light, but
not before casting one more spell and laughing some more.

"No!!"

Several more skeletons poured out of the entrance she had
entered the toob from and looked around lecherously. For skeletons it
was quite an accomplishment too, they looked around and spotted her
being held by the other one and high fived each other.

"BOOGA BOOGA AGHHHHH!!!!"

"WOAH!!"

"I'M IN LOVE!"

"BABY GOT BACK!!"

"GET A LOAD OF THOSE TITTIES BOYS?!!"

"MMMMmmm...SO NICE!"

"HEY BOYS, LETS FIND OUT IF SHE HAD MORE BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE!!"

Gendo I'm going to kill you for doing this to me!" Nodoka yelled
and flared with bright red power and blew the one on top of her to dust.

The skeletons dog piled her before she could free her sword,
they were grabbing her in places that hadn't been touched in years. Her
eyesight went red with anger and she grabbed the one that had latched
itself to her back by its head and gave a yank. Unfortunately only the
head came off, its hand continued to explore around her shirt.
"YEEEHAAAA...GIDDY UP GIRLLY!!" The skull yelled from her hand and shook
around a little.

"I LIKE HER, SHE'S GOT LOTS OF SPIRIT FOR A HUMAN!"

"AND SHE'S PACKED IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES!!"

The floor crumbled around her feet and yet another one came out
and grabbed her ankles with a girlish giggle. It ripped her pants away
and dragged them through the floor before she could do anything about.
"That's it, you're all going to get it now!" Nodoka yelled.

"CHECK IT OUT, SHE'S NOT WEARING ANY..." One skeleton yelled
just as it was crushed to dust by Nodoka's foot.

"SHE'S OPEN AND READY, IT'S TIME FOR A SMORGASBORD BOYS."

"SHE'S HANGING OUT ALL OVER THE PLACE AND IT'S THE GREATEST
THING I'VE SEEN SINCE MARILYN MONROE!!"

"HOOCHA!!" Says one skeleton as it's eye sockets take on a look
of awe and lust.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Screams Nodoka as
she reaches for the skeleton and spend the next several minutes pounding
and crushing the perverted things into dust, but even that isn't enough.


"YOU CAN'T GET ALL OF US MISS TIGHT BUNS AND I WANT A TASTE OF
THE NECTAR OF THE GODS!!"

Nodoka goes berserk with rage and the rest of the skeletons are
no match for her in this state. She comes back to her senses a few
minutes later, standing amidst the destruction of all the bones, her
clothing had been completely ripped off her body. If it had been
possible the skeleton looking up from floor at her bare behind would
have been drooling, it was the greatest sight of it's unlife. Then light
flared around the woman and she was clothed in her hiking outfit again
and it sighed in disappointment, but it did it too loud and it's last
sight was the bottom of Nodoka's foot and anger filled eyes as she
crushed it.

Her aura was still flaring as the crushed the late arriving
skeletons and made her way out of the area, that bastard Gendo was going
to pay for this. He had embarrassed her for the last time and she wasn't
going to allow it anymore, it was time she wised up and started to take
certain precautions. Over the last few years he had prevented her from
obtaining certain things of magic, while at other times he never
bothered to show up. She wasn't sure what his goals were yet, but him
and Genma were working together for different reasons and keeping her
son from her. That was going to change, her tactics had to be changed if
she was going to continue to look for her son without Gendo stepping on
her toes every time she got to close.

She flared with light again and her Devil Hunter garb returned,
it looked like it had never even been ripped and shredded from her body.
At the small beach she looked up and spotted the spot where the door had
shattered on her about a hundred feet up. She used a typical triangle
jump to make her way up to the hole in a few seconds and landed on the
edge silently. She was tempted to go and kill that Demon, but her powers
were nearly used up after having to use them to kill the skeletons. The
transformation could only be maintained for so long before it ran out of
power. It was the only drawback to her being a Devil Hunter.

The thing was locked away anyway so she could always come back
later and take care of it and those priests had done such a good job of
holding it so far. A few more years wouldn't hurt and she could always
stop it if it did free itself she reasoned to herself as she made her
way out of the magical space and back into the temple maze and out into
the city. Because of Gendo this whole trip had been a complete waste of
time and money, now she had nothing to take back with her,
unless...stopped at the bottom of the tall stair case and smirked. She
had to justify this expedition to The Foundation, even if it was
something small. She knew just the thing and headed for one of the
smaller temples nearby. Things were beginning to look up after all, this
was a city after all and there was lots more to explore.

Gendo Saotome wasn't about to beat her this easy, she had spent
to many years doing this to let him get the upper hand now. Every site
she had explored that had anything to do with the Silver Millennium had
unearthed the most incredible things. The main temple had proven to be a
bust, so one of the smaller ones could hold something of use for her to
take back. It was the perfect plan and it couldn't fail her now that the
competition thought she was out of the way because of those perverted
skeletons.

At least they had been manly skeletons. ^_^

**********

Ranma was nearly hyperventilating when she finished reading all
the information on the internet site that her mom had set up, just to
find her son. She felt horrible now and hung her head, why had she sent
that stupid post card? Ranma knew the answer, it was that damned
contract that she had found, that's what. To think that her mother had
been looking for her all this time, Ranma wanted to smash something and
the panda came to mind. Ito had brought up the site and allowed her to
read the amazing thing for the last few hours and explained about the
massive accrued debt that had Genma had left for her if she was to ever
take up the Saotome name again.

This was the final piece of information Ranma needed, she had to
cut all ties to the Saotome family, anything that was even connected to
Genma Saotome. Ranma also considered contacting her mother, but she had
no idea how the woman would even react to her son turned daughter. She
was pretty well known in the Explorer's Society and looked to have spent
years chasing after her husband to get her son back. If only the curse
wasn't permanent, she would have gone back to her mother in an instant.
That wasn't the case though, he was a girl now and one with a
responsibility that she didn't really want, but had to do it anyway.

"Ranma?" Ito asked.

"If only I wasn't stuck like this Ito, I want to be a man again
more than anything else in the world."

"You're my Princess Ranma, I know you hate that name, but you
are and I will do all that I can to help you."

"She wants her son back, not this..." Ranma gestured to her
chest.

"She seems like a smart person Ranma, she might know how to help
you or someone that could."

"I have no way of even proving to her I'm her son Ito, I don't
remember anything of those first few years except a tone of voice and
some feelings."

"Things will work out Ranma."

"Right." Ranma said and got up to leave.

"What would you like to do now Ranma?"

"I need to think."

**********

The end of Princess of the Moon Interlude 01