Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sound Hearts ❯ Chapter 2

[ A - All Readers ]

Author's Notes

Okay, here it is, I hope you people like it as much as chapter 1!

Anyway, I just wanted to point out, before we got started that
there have been several versions of this story posted. The first two
aren't important, it only corrected the massive amounts of spelling
errors and significantly improved the wrapping and changed the Senshi
names to the Japanese version.

The third one, however, did have one change in the story: the
door to Crown Arcade was changed into a sliding automatic door. I had
been re-watching some episodes of Sailormoon S and noticed that so I
went and changed it. It also got perfect wrapping. (Thanks VGAP!)

It isn't really important, but I just wanted to point it out
anyway. If you really want to read a few extra line changes, then you
can just do a search for the word 'Crown', and that should take you
right to it. The next part where it is mentioned is where Ryoga throws
Ranma out the door; and that's about it, I think. Anyway, that's it!
Now go, read, and enjoy!


KaosQu
kaosqu@hotmail.com


Sound Hearts
A Ranma 1/2/Sailormoon S crossover fanfiction
By KaosQu

Chapter 2


"Geez, how long does it take ta make three lousy lunches?"

Hotaru smiled and turned slightly to her left to regard Ranma.
The pig-tailed martial artist sitting next to her was currently
sighing, his hands propped behind his head and his face a perfect
picture of boredom. "I believe it does take awhile to make what we
ordered; it is a lot."

Ranma flinched slightly at that last comment and his bored
expression disappeared, replaced with a tense look. "Er... yeah..."

Hotaru almost burst out in a fit of giggles as she watched
Ranma's face. She could just guess what he was thinking of right then.
"Don't worry Ranma, I don't mind spending the money."

Hotaru shifted her gaze across the table, to where Ryoga was sit-
ting, an almost comical look of guilt painted across his face. "You
too, Ryoga. You're both my friends, I don't mind at all."

Ranma just stared at Hotaru nervously, wondering for not the
first time, if Hotaru was a mind-reader. The thought of that would have
scared him if this were anybody other than Hotaru, and perhaps Ukyo. He
knew that Hotaru wouldn't try to abuse something like that, and he and
Ukyo had been best friends... As such, he was only very nervous,
despite the part of his mind yelling at him that he was being stupid.

"Um, that's nice Hotaru, but I'll pay next time," Ryoga replied,
his guilt starting to fade away as he made the offer.

"That's really nice of you, Ryoga." Hotaru said, favoring Ryoga
with a sweet smile brimming with cuteness.

Ryoga almost choked. "Ahh... No problem..."

Ranma glared at Ryoga, who didn't notice. "I wanna pay next
time!" he argued, his mouth working faster than his brain. His quickly
face paled and he slowly turned to look at Ryoga as he realized what he
just said.

Ryoga smirked smugly at Ranma. "Why, that's really kind of you
Ranma, of course you can pay," the Lost Boy agreed with a nod of his head,
making sure only a hint of sarcasm was detectable in his voice.

Hotaru giggled, realizing what her two friends were up to. Both
of the present martial artists slowly turned to face the giggling girl,
their previous feelings temporarily forgotten. They were used to this,
having discovered that their good friend Hotaru had a weird tendency
to start giggling at the strangest times.

Taking a moment to compose herself, Hotaru then smiled at Ranma,
relaxing him a little. "That's perfect, you two can both pay."

Ryoga scowled and Ranma silently sent prayers of thanks to any
deity who may have been listening.


Ranma and Ryoga stuffed food into their mouths, as Hotaru chewed
on her noodles, watching the two human vacuum-cleaners devour the food.
No matter how many times she saw it, it never failed to fascinate her
how quickly Ranma or Ryoga ate. She supposed it was because of the
stark contrast between how her friends ate and how she ate. While she
ate abnormally little and a somewhat slowly, Ranma and Ryoga sucked up
enough food to feed five healthy men like there was no tomorrow.

Taking a pause from eating his lunch, Ranma turned over to look
at Hotaru. "Ynmu mnoud nmeat nmooh."

Hotaru couldn't help but giggle. "Ranma, don't talk with your
mouth full!"

Ryoga burst out laughing, sending a few pieces of chewed-up food
flying onto Ranma's face. This led to further laughter from Ryoga,
which in turn led to more food ending up on Ranma's face.

Swallowing his food Ranma calmly picked up a nearby napkin and
wiped the food off, ignoring the twin waves of laughter and giggling
assaulting his ears. Then, slowly, he turned to Ryoga.

"Just what the hell's the big idea ya idiot?!" Ranma demanded
angrily.

"Hahahahaha!"

"Why you..." Ranma drew back a clenched fist, ready to knock
Ryoga into next week.

Hotaru's giggles immediately ceased as she noticed what Ranma was
about to do. "Ranma, stop!" Hotaru pleaded, grabbing the clenched fist
and pulling it back down.

Ranma calmed down a little when he felt Hotaru pull his fist
down. If he wanted, he knew he could have lifted a clinging Hotaru up
with that one hand alone, but he knew Hotaru probably had a reason, so
he allowed her to pull his hand down and looked at her, slightly
annoyed. "Hey, what's the big idea Hotaru?"

"There's no need to hit him, Ranma," Hotaru answered, her eyes
pleading with him to listen to her.

Ranma glanced over at Ryoga, who was busy laughing his head off.
"And why the heck not?"

Hotaru shot Ryoga a stern look. "Stop it Ryoga!"

The effects were immediate, as Ryoga ceased his laughing and
coughed, looking slightly embarrassed. "Um, yeah."

Ranma lost some of his annoyance and relaxed a little, but wasn't
going to give up just yet. "Well, he should keep his food in mouth!"

"Calm down Ranma!" Hotaru pleaded. "Didn't you spit milk in his
face during breakfast today?"

Ranma twitched a little as he took in that piece of news. Now
that he thought about it, he did indeed remember something like that
happening. He also realized that Ryoga had shown remarkable restraint
by not trying to hit or even just yell at him.

"I guess..." Ranma said, trailing off, starting to feel a little
guilty. Then he tensed again, as his instinctive urge to not take
responsibility for anything he didn't have to kicked in. "But he
shouldn't have laughed at me!" Ranma stubbornly threw in. No way was he
going to let Ryoga off that easily!

Hotaru sighed. "Let's just forget it all, okay Ranma?"

"I dunno..." Ranma answered, glaring at Ryoga.

Ryoga glared right back, starting to get angry. Here he hadn't
said a lousy word when Ranma had gotten milk on his face and now the
bastard was getting all touchy over this little thing!

"Please, you two? For me?" Hotaru looked in turn at each of the
two martial artists with a pleading face, her eyes shimmering hopefully.

"Uhh..." Ranma twitched as he was bombarded by cuteness rays.
"I... guess..." he found himself saying, before he even realized it.
And when he did, Hotaru's grateful smile made it all worth it.

Hotaru then looked back at Ryoga again. "Ryoga?"

"Er... If Ranma does, I guess I can..." the Lost Boy mumbled out.
"That's great!" Hotaru beamed, smiling broadly.

Ranma twitched again as the waves of cuteness bombarded him with
renewed strength. Attempting to stop the assault, he jumped to his feet
and spun around, feeling the strange emotions rampaging through him
subsiding as he lost sight of Hotaru. Then he realized that there was
still a sticky substance on his face.

"Yeesh... I'm gonna go to the bathroom," he said as he felt
Hotaru turning to face his back questioningly. "You just eat more
Hotaru." And with that, Ranma headed off towards the back of the
restaurant, where he thought he had seen the bathroom earlier. The
sooner he got this mess cleaned off his face the sooner he could face
Hotaru with his usual cockiness.

Hotaru watched silently as Ranma's form disappeared into the
bathroom and then turned back around, feeling a little lonely now that
her friend was gone. Then she brightened a bit. There was still Ryoga.
Smiling to herself, Hotaru looked up at the Lost Boy, who had resumed
eating, although at a slower pace.

"So Ryoga," Hotaru began, stopping a moment to relish how wonder-
ful it was to have friends.

Learning from Ranma's mistake, Ryoga swallowed his food before
replying. Thankfully, Hotaru had seemingly stopped with the bombardment
of cute rays, and he could talk with her much more easily. "Yes Hotaru?"

Hotaru quickly ran through her mind for a second, searching for a
good conversational topic. She smiled as she found one. "I'm just cur-
ious about your family, Ryoga." She was indeed. Her family life was ra-
ther lacking, and she was curious as to what kind of relationship other
people had with their families. She already knew a little about Ranma's,
but she didn't know much about Ryoga's.

"Er, what do you want to know about?" Ryoga asked cautiously. The
last person to have mentioned his family had been sent to the hospital
after he had made the mistake of insulting the Lost Boy's parents. Of
course, he would NOT hit Hotaru, but... He just couldn't help but feel
a little defensive.

Hotaru shrugged. "Anything." As Ryoga didn't say anything, she
continued on. "Tell me about your father."

Ryoga's face immediately took on a look of pride at the mention
of his father. "My father's the strongest man in the world," he said in
a tone that left no room for argument. Not that Hotaru would argue;
she'd already seen how strong Ryoga and would've been ready to believe
that the Lost Boy himself was the strongest man in the world. If he
thought his father was stronger, she could easily believe that too.

"So he's stronger than you?" Hotaru asked, fascinated. Although
she didn't doubt that Ryoga's father was indeed stronger than him, it
was still incredible.

Ryoga nodded, a proud smirk on his face. "He can pull a
telephone pole right out of the ground."

Hotaru stared, starting to doubt just a bit. Pull a telephone
pole out of the ground? That was... Hotaru shook her head. She
shouldn't be doubting her friends. "But why would he do that?"

"Well, you see," Ryoga began, starting to get into the spirit of
the conversation. "There was this stupid gang trying to..."

Hotaru listened intently, occasionally eating a little as Ryoga
told his tale of how his father had single-handedly taken out an entire
armed gang. She hoped Ranma finished soon. It would be nice to have him
join in the conversation.


Ranma splashed the cold water on his face one last time before
turning the faucet back off. Grabbing a paper towel from the nearby
dispenser, he then wiped his face dry. he thought as he crumpled up the wet paper and
expertly tossed into a trash bin. It was, of course, the farthest one
from him, just to keep his hand-eye coordination sharp.

Turning back around, he found suddenly found himself faced with
his reflection. Startled, he instinctively dropped into a defensive
stance. Almost immediately after, he realized it was just his reflection
and straightened back up rolling his eyes at his stupidity. Ryoga must
have rubbed off a bit on him.

Staring at his reflection a little longer, Ranma suddenly
grinned. His doppelganger grinned back. He stared at the reflection
silently for a moment longer, still grinning, amusement twinkling in
his eyes. Ranma thought to
himself, his grin fading away into a slight smirk.

Ranma continued staring at his reflection a little longer, as if
engaged in a staring contest. Then, he abruptly chuckled. A merry,
amused chuckle that felt almost as natural as martial arts to him.
Ranma wondered, shaking his head, still chuckling
softly.

First, he had left for the restroom just to so he could clean up
his face, and now he was noticing his looks. When did he change? Before
he came to Juuban, it hadn't been unusual for him to be walking in his
own filth, mud over his face for days at a time. Was he getting to used
to having a bath available and being clean? Was he getting... soft?

The young martial artist rubbed his chin thoughtfully, dwelling
on that thought for a moment. He knew he was getting better at the Art;
he may not have been training as much lately, but his little sparring
matches probably more than compensated for that. But was he getting too
used to the easy life? Was he becoming reliant on the luxuries of
modern technology? What if he got so used to it that he couldn't
survive without it?! What if technology suddenly failed or something
and he was so dependant on it that he died without it?!

Ranma blanched and smacked himself on the head. He was worrying
too much, everything would be fine. Paranoia was Ryoga's department. He
was fine; the availability of toilets and the like were just icing on a
cake of friendship. He could survive back on he road. Not that he
wanted to; not without-

Ranma shook his head clear of his thoughts as he realized he had
been in the bathroom for a little longer than usual. Reassured that he
was doing alright, Ranma was ready to deal with angry Ryoga's, cute
Hotaru's and crazy fathers. Grinning one more time at his doppelganger,
Ranma turned around and quickly left the bathroom.


"Wow," Hotaru breathed out in awe. To think, that one of her
first friend's father actually rammed a speeding car off course.

"He saved five kids doing that," Ryoga said solemnly, although
the air of pride was still strong around him.

"You're lucky to have such a nice father," Hotaru said after a
moment of silence, her voice sad and nostalgic as memories of her
father from before flashed through her mind.

"I suppose..." Ryoga said almost quietly, the pride diminishing,
replaced by his own air sadness as he was forced to remember how his
father constantly grew more and more distant as the years passed, his
directional problem growing steadily worse with each day Ryoga came
closer to manhood. He knew his father didn't want to, but it couldn't
be helped. But his mother...

Hotaru snapped out of her own thoughts, as she recognized the
familiar look growing on Ryoga's face. She knew it well indeed. Before
Ranma and Ryoga entered her life, and after the explosion, she had seen
it nearly every single day of her life; every time she ever looked in a
mirror.

"What's wrong Ryoga?" Hotaru asked gently, her words soft and
filled with concern that someone could have such a melancholy look
about them. She HAD a reason, but Ryoga? She knew he usually was an
angry and almost depressed young man, from what she had seen of his
interaction with Ranma; but what did it have to do in relation with his
father? He had seemed so full of pride and love when he talked about
the man.

"It's nothing..." Ryoga muttered, forcing a grin to his face and
shoving aside thoughts of his father. There was no need to burden a
sweet girl like Hotaru with his problems. She already had enough pro-
blems of her own from what Ranma had told him.

"Oh..." Hotaru said a looking down at her food a little sadly,
not at all fooled by the false grin. She had seen enough like those
from Kaolinite. She wanted to pursue the topic, but didn't want to pry.
From her experience, prying led to name-calling and tears. As a result,
the young girl never pressed into a matter someone didn't want them
too. Even with Ranma, she had never really tried to press him to tell
her about himself. And so, still used to her cruel and cold classmates,
Hotaru let the subject drop.

Looking back up at Ryoga, she instead tried to give him a comfor-
ting smile, and was relieved as she noticed some of the false grin
being replaced by a genuine smile, albeit a sad one.

Staring at Ryoga a little longer, Hotaru marveled at how differ-
ent Ryoga was from his usual angry or annoyed countenance. Actually,
Hotaru had always known that there had always been some hint of sadness
behind the Lost Boy's proud appearance.

But this... Hotaru could swear that she had never seen her friend
this sad before. Even smiling, he was so sad... Maybe Ranma could...
No. Hotaru almost giggled as she crushed that though. If anything,
Ranma would be make Ryoga more angry. Hotaru doubted anything Ranma did
would help Ryoga, even if the two 'friends' had been, strangely, a lot
more polite to each other on the trip to the restaurant. Actually,
Ryoga had just taken some of Ranma's comments less personally, settling
for a verbal war rather than an all-out fight.

Hotaru blinked as a thought hit her. She had said it herself:
Ranma would make Ryoga more angry, not depressed. Maybe... Hotaru shook
her head, glancing back up at Ryoga as he resumed his eating, assuming
the conversation had ended. Maybe being angry would have bee better
than being depressed for Ryoga, but she didn't want either of the two
getting hurt. Especially after that last incident.

The young girl shuddered, remembering how scared she had felt,
the terror rushing throughout her as she saw the truck barreling
towards Ranma. She supposed she should have know that Ranma would have
somehow found away to survive what would have almost certainly killed a
lesser man. Ranma would have survived even if she hadn't healed him.
But still... She didn't want to have Ranma endangered just because of
this. Sparring was okay, but that kind of fighting... Someone would get
hurt; someone had gotten hurt. And speaking of the fight, why exactly
were the two fighting?

"Ryoga?" Hotaru called gently, getting Lost Boy's attention and
causing him to halt his eating, which had been gradually picking up
speed as his depression started to fade away.

Taking a moment to swallow, so as not to repeat Ranma's stupid
mistake, Ryoga looked up at Hotaru, his depression still slightly evid-
ent to the trained eye, but having greatly diminished. "What is it,
Hotaru?"

Ignoring the sadness in Ryoga's eyes and her desire to ask what
was wrong and help, Hotaru asked, "What were you and Ranma fighting
about earlier?"

Ryoga flinched as he was reminded of that incident, a little more
sadness creeping into his eyes. Then, it all abruptly disappeared, like
replaced with a slight blush and a look of comical embarrassment.
Hotaru might have laughed under other circumstances, but she was instead
confused.

"Ryoga?" She asked slowly, not sure what was going on and notic-
ing the discoloration of Ryoga's cheeks.

"I, um... That is..." was Ryoga's flustered reply. How was he
supposed to say that he tried to 'kill' Ranma because Minako thought
Hotaru was his girlfriend? How was he supposed admit that he was in the
wrong THAT time? Ryoga repeated to himself, steadily building up his
confidence as Hotaru watched, patient for an answer. Ryoga opened his
mouth, ready to say something along the lines of: "It was all a big
misunderstanding, no hard feelings?" Of course, a certain pig-tailed
martial artist would just happen to choose that moment to interrupt the
conversation.

"I know why Ryoga was tryin' ta turn me inta road-kill," came the
familiar voice that sent Hotaru whirling around, almost jumping up to
her feet to embrace her best friend.

Catching herself, Hotaru forced herself to remain seated,
slightly embarrassed that she had acted so childish. Ranma had only
been gone a few minutes! She had managed to get through school days
without seeing him outside her mind and still be able to greet him
properly; she could do it again. "Ranma, you're back!"

Ranma turned to Hotaru, regarding her oddly for a moment. "I was
only gone for few minutes," he pointed out cautiously.

Hotaru blushed and stared down at her hands, her embarrassment
returning at her friend's words.

Ranma, quickly noticed Hotaru's cheeks changing slightly red and
realized that his friend was embarrassed about something, though he had
no idea what. That just wouldn't do! Well, the only way to make her
feel better was to direct attention to someone else. Which meant he had
another reason to go back to doing what he had been about to do.
Namely, humiliating Ryoga. He had let Ryoga have his fun saying, all
those stuff about him and Hotaru. Well, it was time to pay back.

Ranma gave a familiar cocky smirk; one that caught Hotaru's
breath and, at the same time, drove fear into Ryoga's heart. "Ryoga was
tryin' 'kill' me 'cause he thought it was my fault Minako left." Ranma
paused, allowing his words to sink in. "He has a cru-"

Ranma's words were promptly cut off by Ryoga lunging at him and
clasping a strong hand over the young martial artist's mouth and apply-
ing a firm head-lock at the same time.

"Heh heh heh..." Ryoga chuckled weakly at Hotaru. "Just ignore
Ranma, it was all a big-"

Ranma sent a swift and strong elbow into his captor's gut,
drawing a grunt from Ryoga's fanged-mouth. Feeling Ryoga's hold on him
weaken, he reacted immediately and grabbed the Lost Boy's left arm,
slipping down to free his head and shoulder-threw the him into the
ground.

Placing a foot on Ryoga's throat and applying pressure, he turned
back to Hotaru, who was watching in shock, a hand over her mouth.

"Y-you shouldn't fight... here..." Hotaru said softly, fearful of
Ranma somehow getting hurt again.

"Ah, don't worry 'bout it," Ranma replied with a cocky smirk.
"Anyway, like I was say-" Ranma was once again cut off, this time Ryoga
grabbed pulled his other foot out from under him, causing him to fall
down flat on his butt.

"Hey, that hurt!" Ranma shouted angrily as he flipped back to his
feet, by now drawing the attention of the rest of the patrons of the
restaurant.

"Ranma, you better keep that mouth of yours shut..." Ryoga
growled back as he too got to his feet.

Ranma's annoyed expression quickly melted away, replaced with a
familiar, mocking look. "Aw, what's the matter Ryoga? It ain't like
Hotaru's gonna laugh atcha for bein' stupid or nuthin'," Ranma taunted,
giving Ryoga an amused smirk.

"That's not the point!" Ryoga shouted in... annoyance.
angry...> the Lost Boy told himself as he dropped into an offensive
stance.

"Ranma, Ryoga, please!" came Hotaru's concerned voice. "I'm not
going to laugh at you, you don't have to fight!" Ranma spared Hotaru a
glance, his smirk softening for a moment as he looked at her pleading
and concerned expression.

Then, as his brain registered her words, his smirked reappeared
with renewed vigor. "See Ryoga, there she ain't gonna laugh atcha!
Anyway," Ranma relaxed a little. If Hotaru wasn't going to laugh, Ryoga
wouldn't be too embarrassed, right? Then he wouldn't mind, right? After
all, she was a large part of why he himself had been embarrassed when
Ryoga had started with his 'Ranma loves Hotaru' speeches. "Ryoga's got
a-"

"Shut up Ranma!" Ryoga yelled out, drowning out Ranma's voice and
sending several of the restaurant's more cowardly patrons running.

"He's got a cru-"

"Shut up!" Ryoga shouted, shooting forward and ramming into
Ranma.

Falling back and rolling with the hit, Ranma grabbed Ryoga and,
using the momentum, sent him flying over him and thudding against a
wall. Rolling back to his feet, Ranma made a show of dusting himself
off and sighed, shaking his head. "C'mon Ryoga, no way are ya gonna
beat me, I'm the best!" Why was Ryoga still being so stubborn? Hotaru
wasn't going to laugh at him, and they didn't even know who all these
other people were, so what was the problem? Sure, he would laugh at the
guy, nut Ryoga should have been used to that by now.

"Just shut up, Ranma!" Ryoga shot back, starting to get a frus-
trated. Not angry, frustrated. Nothing he tried had succeeded in making
Ranma keep his mouth shut; in fact, it had all been turned around and
used against him! .

"Stop it you two!" Hotaru shouted desperately, causing Ranma to
bite off his reply to Ryoga and turn around and look at her. "I-I don't
want you to be hurt again..." she whispered, her purple eyes shimmering
as tears formed, not yet falling. Before, she had let Ranma and Ryoga
fight, confident that the two would be alright; but after last time...
She couldn't bear the thought of losing either of her friends. She
would die to heal them if she had to, but what if... What if she was
too late, or too weak, or couldn't, or any number of horrible things
that could go wrong?

"I-I..." Ranma faltered, Hotaru's pleading look and unshed tears
causing him to falter in his determination to get back at Ryoga. How
could he deny Hotaru, his best friend?

"You don't have to tell me..." The young girl whispered, almost
unheard even by Ranma and Ryoga's sharp ears. "I just want you to be
alright..."

Ranma stared at Hotaru in awe; even when she so sad, she was
so... beautiful... An image of Hotaru smiling at him, flashed through
his mind.

And Ranma smiled back.

"Sure Hotaru..." Seeing her smile back at him, so full of happi-
ness and joy, right before him and not in his mind's eye, suddenly made
it all worth it. He would have let himself get hit by a truck everyday
just so he could see her smile like that again.

And then, with a shuddering blast, he realized something: he did
see it everyday. Everyday he had spent with her, he saw that smile;
with a price no greater than just a moment of his time, to be taken and
returned, packed with the joy of a lifetime. Walking back to the table,
his spirit uplifted and any thoughts about payback or revenge vanishing
into nothingness, Ranma made the wonderful discovery that it was great
to be alive.

Behind him, Ryoga sighed in relief.


Not too long ago...


Determination written on her face and hope filling her heart,
Minako Aino walked back towards Crown Arcade. She would get Ryoga.
After all, he had passed out just because of her, right? He must like
her more than Hotaru! She couldn't just give up just because he was
taken, she never had before, except... except...

Minako faltered, tears starting to come to her eyes as she sud-
denly remembered what she didn't want to remember. She had forgiven
Katrina for stealing, no... winning Allan, but... It still hurt, if
only... only a... little... to think about it.

Leaning against a wall, Minako took a minute to compose herself,
her thoughts a chaotic swirl of images as she tried to compose herself.
Slowly, she managed to force herself to stand up straight. What would
Ryoga think if he saw her like this now? Taking a deep, cleansing
breath, Minako forced a smile. It was all in the past now, she had to
move on; and Ryoga was the perfect one to do it with!

Her smile, turning genuine, Minako resumed her walk back to Crown
Arcade. Hopefully, Ryoga was still there; oh, he'd better be there!
Maybe he had dumped Hotaru and was looking for her? Or better yet,
maybe she had heard wrong and he and Hotaru weren't even together!
Minako shook her head, sighing tiredly. With her current luck with
boys? "Yeah right?" the blond girl whispered to herself.

Suddenly, Minako's head snapped up, an alert look about her and
her hand ready to pull out her Transformation pen. Had someone just
shouted something? Glancing around, she came to the conclusion that
nobody else had noticed anything, what with the way they were all either
chatting away with one another or looking so bored it was pathetic.
Maybe her Senshi powers enchanced her hearing slightly or something?
She would have to ask Luna about that. But meanwhile, there was that-

*Beep* *Beep*

Minako snapped out of her thoughts as she heard the familiar soft
beep sounding from her communicator. Glancing around to make sure no
one was looking, the young girl, as inconspicuously as possible,
slipped into a conveniently-placed alley and pulled the communicator
out of her skirt pocket.

Staring at the ornate cover of the 'watch' for a moment, Minako
hoped that this wasn't some kind of demon attack. Things had been slow
in the rampaging monster department lately; but for all she knew, some
crazy mad scientist with plans to destroy the world could have shown up
during the short time she had spent with Ryoga.

Minako sighed; it would certainly be her luck. Unconsciously
holding her breath, Minako flipped up the cover and was greeted with
the worried face of Ami. "What's up Ami, is there an attack or
something?"

"Oh, no, there hasn't been an attack for weeks now," Ami replied
shaking her head to emphasize the point.

Minako let out the breath she hadn't even realized she had been
holding. Smiling slightly, she looked back at the communicator. "So
what's the problem then, Ami?" Wait... This was probably about...

"You didn't show up to study today and we were worried about
you," the aqua-haired girl replied. "What happened, is something
wrong?"

"Wrong? Of course not! Everything's fine!" Minako exclaimed with
as much cheerfulness as she could muster. "Well, if that's it, I'll
just be going now." Chances of that actually happening were slim, and
Minako knew it. One of the others, probably Usagi, would show up right
about... now.

"Minako!" the blond-haired girl cried cheerfully as she shoved
her face in front of Ami's, blocking out the blue-haired girl's
slightly embarrassed features with her own eager and excited one.
"Minako, where were you! You're supposed to be studying!" The meatball-
headed girl tried forced a stern expression on her face. It was so
comical, that Minako almost burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Listen Usagi, I've really got-" Minako paused for a moment,
raising her head and glancing around. She was sure she had just hear
something. Not seeing the source of the noise anywhere, the blond-
haired girl looked back down at her communicator. "I've gotta go-"

"What's wrong? Is a monster attacking?!" Usagi asked worriedly,
cutting off Minako's sentence.

"No, I-"

"Don't worry, we'll be right there!"

"Usagi, stop-"

"C'mon guys, Minako's in trouble!"

"STOP IT!" Minako shouted at her communicator in frustration.

"M-Minako..." the meatball-headed girl whispered, tears starting
to shimmer in her eyes.

Minako mentally kicked herself for being so stupid. It could be
so easy to forget, sometimes, how sensitive Usagi could be. Quickly
glancing around and finding that nobody, apparently, had heard her,
Minako gave thanks for the small miracle.

"I'm sorry Usagi, I didn't mean to shout at you," Minako apolo-
gized.

"O-okay," Usagi sniffed.

"There's no monster attack either." At least she didn't think
there was one. At least there had better not be one. Right now, she
just wanted to find Ryoga.

Usagi's change was instantaneous as she changed once again into
the almost annoyingly cheerful and enthusiastic meatball-head she knew
and loved. "So why didn't you come to Rei's today?" Usagi asked
cheerfully. "I came and so should you!" Usagi continued, looking a
little miffed.

"Well-"

"You were chasing after a boy weren't you?!" Usagi gasped.

"Um-"

"How could you?!" Usagi demanded, her face an expression of
shock. "You found a cute boy and didn't tell your own best friends?!"

Minako groaned. This was what she had really been afraid of.
Having Ryoga taken was already bad enough; she didn't need anymore
competition. Usagi already had someone and wouldn't be too much of a
problem, even if she would forget it for a moment. And Ami would be
okay; but Rei and Makoto...

Suddenly, the screen before her was filled with Makoto's excited
face as she pushed Usagi to the side and took her place in front of
the Mercury computer. "Who is he, what does he look like?"

Before Minako could even open her mouth, Usagi again appeared,
pushing Makoto off to the side. "Where are you Minako, we'll come over
right away!"

"There's no need-"

"Ami, how do we find out where Minako is?" Usagi asked as she
looked down at what Minako knew was the Mercury computer.

"Usagi, be careful," Ami chided nervously as she appeared
besides her friend, trying to gently pull her small hand-held computer
away from her dear but very clumsy friend and accident-prone friend.

"Oh c'mon Ami!" Usagi pleaded, pulling the computer back to her.

"Usagi you idiot, let go of Ami's computer! You're probably going
to break it!" came Rei's exasperated and annoyed voice.

"Aw c'mon, just let her find where Minako is," Makoto's voice
argued. "It'll only take a moment, right?"

"Guys," Ami tried to reason as she attempted to pull her computer
back to her. "The Mercury computer is- No Usagi, stop!" Ami's face
twisted in shock and fear as Usagi started to randomly press things on
her computer.

"It has to be one of-" Usagi's voice was abruptly cut off and her
determined face vanished into darkness. Minako stared dumbly at the
blank screen for a few moments, surprised and yet not surprised at what
her dear but utterly clueless friend had just done.

Another few moments passed and Minako shook her head clear. What-
ever Usagi had done, it had effectively gotten the others off her back.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Minako smiled, shut her
communicator close and pocketed it. Walking slowly back towards Crown
Arcade, Minako suddenly felt confident that nothing would go wrong.
After all, fate had gotten her dear but very competitive friends off
her back, right?


Genma pushed his thin glasses back up the bridge of his nose
again as he continued to walk along the streets of Juuban. Once again,
he smiled broadly, remembering the morning fight with his son. Genma
could barely contain his excitement and had to bite his tongue to keep
from bursting out in a good, hearty laugh. His son had manifested an
aura!

It had taken two whole fights meant to anger the boy, and cost
him his bandanna, but it didn't matter; once again, Ranma had managed to
surprise him. The boy had managed to take the first step into serious
Ki manipulation in almost a single day!

Why, it had taken him almost an entire week with elaborate,
step-by-step... training... from the... Master to get that far! Who else but one of his own flesh and
blood could be so great a martial artist? Ahh... Truly, he had done a
fine job of training the Ranma. Who could doubt that he was a man-
amongst-men?

Now all he had to do was toughen up the boy and teach him the...
Saotome Forbidden Techniques. Then he would be ready for the REAL
training. Or maybe he should just skip the techniques altogether...

But first, he needed some supplies. Raising a child to be a man-
amongst-men was hungry work after all...


Minako stared at the scene before her. The sidewalk across the
street was cracked and pitted with holes. A wall had been reduced to
rubble and she could see scraps of debris scattered around the middle of
the street.

All-in-all, it wasn't so bad compared to some of the damage
caused during fights between the Sailor Senshi and the various evil
monsters that showed up in Juuban. The only difference were the people
either staring dumbly at the space Minako was currently standing on, or
walking away muttering "witch" or something like that. But she had not
been here and, as far as she knew, neither had her friends. And the
Senshi were definitely not witches!

Sighing, Minako decided that it would prudent to investigate. She
really wanted to find Ryoga, but whatever had happened here, it might be
important.

Walking up to an elderly-looking man, she reached out and shook
him gently by the shoulders. "Excuse me, but do you know what happened
here?"

"A-angel..." was the confused reply.

"Angel?" Minako wondered aloud. Had one of her friends been here
after all? But they had never caused this kind of reaction before; at
least, not to her knowledge...

"S-she..." The old man continued, as if Minako's words were a
cue to say something.

"She?" A girl had caused this mess? Minako shuddered, hoping
this wasn't another villain with plans to conquer the world.

"B-boy..."

A boy too? Could it been another Ann and Ail or something? "What
did they do?" Minako decided to ask. The man just stared blankly at
her, in a state of shock. Minako sighed. Whatever had happened, it must
have been really something to cause this kind of reaction.

Turning away from the man, Minako walked up to a young,
attractive girl. Not as attractive as her, of course, but still pretty.
"Excuse me, do you know what happened here?"

"W-what?" the woman stuttered, shaking her head as if to she had
just woken up from some strange dream.

"Do you know what happened here?" Minako repeated patiently. The
woman was in some kind of shock, and needed to be dealt with gently.

"A b-boy, fighting," the woman replied almost drunkenly before
she started to stumble away, a hand massaging her head.

Minako sighed in frustration and glanced around to see if there
was someone who looked they weren't in shock. She wasn't going to get
anywhere anytime soon at the rate she was going.

A few seconds later, Minako sighed again. There wasn't a soul in
sight who looked like they could help her. And the rest were starting
to slowly stumble away.

Sighing one last time, Minako decide to just give up. She could
tell Ami or the cats later; they'd know what to do. Minako suddenly
brightened as she remembered what had brought her here in the first
place. She could talk to her friends about this later. Besides, there
was the matter of how to win over a certain cute young man to think
about.

Taking a moment to smooth out her skirt, Minako then walked
towards the door of the Crown Arcade. Who knows? Maybe Ryoga would
even know what had happened out there. Taking a deep breath, Minako
took a step forward. Pushing the glass doors open she stepped in.

"Ryoga, I'm back!" she called out cheerfully. She was greeted by
a few strange stares and the high-pitched beeping and loud explosions
of arcade machines. Minako ignored the odd looks given in her direction
and slowly, almost fearfully walked towards where she had left Ryoga.

With each step that didn't bring her into Ryoga's waiting arms,
Minako started to worry more and more. Stopping by an arcade machine,
Minako toke a deep breath and hoped Ryoga was still there. Then, she
stepped around the machine. 10 feet away, she was greeted with the sad
site of the very empty seat of an F-1 Racing arcade machine.


"Alright, whaddya guys wanna do now?" Ranma asked as he and his
two friends walked down one of the streets of Juuban.

Ryoga shrugged. He knew what he wanted to do, but had no idea of
how to go about accomplishing it. "I don't know."

"Ooookay... What about you Hotaru?" Ranma tried, as Ryoga didn't
have an idea. At least he hadn't tried to 'kill' him yet. Not that he
minded one, but Hotaru seemed to still be a little scared from what he
had observed from that last fight. So if keeping out of a fight with
Ryoga would make her happy, then that was what he was going to do.

"I... don't know," Hotaru replied, giggling a little.

"Ooookay..." Ranma said slowly, rolling his eyes. "So nobody has
an idea?" Two heads nodded in reply.

"Then that means I get to decide!" Ranma exclaimed, smirking.

Hotaru smiled, and Ryoga snorted at Ranma. "So what do you want
us to do, go steal bread?"

"Ah, shut up, man. How many times do I gotta tell you? I don't
steal bread!" The young martial artist added silently.
Things had been tough on the road, and sometimes, he and his father had
to 'acquire goods without money' to get by. Still, that didn't mean he
appreciated being called a thief by anybody. Especially since he was
an EX-thief, really.

To Ranma's surprise however, Ryoga just chuckled in return. "So
where are you taking us oh great leader?"

"Uh..." was Ranma's reply. A combination of Ryoga's odd reply
to his denials and his own lack of an idea on their next destination
caused Ranma to stop and think. "I dunno."

Hotaru's giggles were sweet and beautiful. Ryoga's laughs, on
the other hand, was just plain annoying.

"Aw shut up already Ryoga," Ranma said in exasperation.

Ryoga didn't.

"Ya know, we COULD still be eatin' back at that restaurant if it
weren't for you!" Ranma decided to point out. He had had enough of
being laughed at; it was time to turn the attention to Ryoga.

Ryoga's laughter died out, along with Hotaru's giggles. "What
are you babbling about now, Ranma?"

"They kicked us out!" Ranma answer with a roll of his eyes.
And what did Ryoga mean by 'babbling?'. Ryoga was the one who babbled,
what with his constant, "This is your fault!"s and the like.

"And why is that my fault?!" Ryoga demanded, almost ready to
bash his rival's skull in.

"You-"

"You two were making a big scene," Hotaru pointed out, inter-
rupting her feuding friends. She knew they wouldn't do anything to her,
but would probably fight it out with each other until one of them was
out cold. She felt a little guilty for manipulating her friends like
that, but she didn't want them to get hurt.

"Me?" Ranma asked indignantly. "I was just trying to tell you
that Ryoga-"

"Shut up!" Ryoga growled, his umbrella pulled out and swinging
at Ranma's head as he realized what Ranma was about to say.

Without even blinking, Ranma ducked down slightly, letting
Ryoga's umbrella whiz past his head. "Hey, watch it man, you might hit
Hotaru!" Ranma yelled as he straightened back up, favoring Ryoga with
an angry glare.

"The only one who'll be hurt is you," Ryoga replied. Like he would ever hurt Hotaru; the idea itself was simply
ridiculous.

"Ha, me? You couldn't beat me on your best day!" Ranma snorted
arrogantly. Then, slowly, and as inconspicuously as possible, he sped
up a little; moving away from Hotaru.

"Don't start getting cocky just because you beat me a few
times," Ryoga growled back matching pace with the red-shirted martial
artist and ready to swing his umbrella at Ranma's head again. Maybe
that would shut him up.

"Actually, I beat you..." Ranma looked down and quickly counted
on his fingers. "about 20 times."

"You were just lucky!"

"20 times?" Ranma asked, an eyebrow raised in amusement. He
shifted a little of his weight to his left foot in preparation for an
attack. He was far away enough from Hotaru now that any opening attacks
wouldn't hit her. And after that, he would have been long gone from the
immediate area.

"Ranma, Ryoga, it doesn't matter!" Hotaru exclaimed in exasper-
ation. Ryoga was starting to get angry and Ranma had THAT look. The one
he wore when anticipating something interesting. And Hotaru could only
think of one thing that could have done that right then: A fight. And
she wanted to put a stop to the whole thing before it got out of hand.

Ranma's reaction did manage to surprise her however.

"Eh? Whaddya mean?" Ranma asked, confused.

"Um, what DO you mean, Hotaru?" Ryoga also wondered, scratching
the back of his head, his... irritation having quickly drained away
after Hotaru had interrupted his little disagreement with Ranma.

"I..." Hotaru trailed off, getting a little embarrassed. Maybe she
should have thought things through a little more before she interrupted
the two; but she couldn't risk waiting and having another accident.

"I mean, we're martial artists, we fight," Ranma continued as
Hotaru hadn't answered their question.

"To win," Ryoga added.

"What I mean is..." Hotaru's trailed off, thinking as fast as she
could.

Ranma and Ryoga yawned and resumed walking, waiting for an
answer from the trailing Hotaru.

"You got an answer yet?" Ranma teased after several more moments
passed and Hotaru still hadn't said anything.

Hotaru blushed in embarrassment.

"Look, she's blushing!" Ranma pointed, out, an amused smirk on
his face as tried to keep from chuckling.

Hotaru's blush deepened as Ryoga started chuckling and she
turned away, trying to ignore her two friends who were currently doing
a fine job of flustering her. "Oh, stop it you two!" she pouted,
although Ranma and Ryoga couldn't see.

The chuckle turned into a laugh, Ranma even joining in. Blushing
even deeper, Hotaru buried her face in her hands, trying to tune out
the laughter and failing miserably. She supposed she should have been
used to people laughing at her, but this was different. When the kids
at school, laugh at her, it was mocking and cruel; it hurt. This...
This was full of amusement and friendliness that brought a warm feeling
of acceptance to her heart, even as it brought crimson to her cheeks.

"Oh, leave me alone!"

If anything, the laughter grew louder, and Hotaru couldn't help,
despite her awkward situation, but smile just a little.

"No," Ranma simply said in reply. Suddenly, inspiration hit him.
A merry light dancing across his eyes as he quickly scooped up Hotaru
in his arms.

"Follow me Ryoga!" were his last words to the Lost Boy before he
jumped onto a nearby fence, and then, bending his legs and steeling his
grip on a nervous Hotaru clinging to his chest, he jumped again.


"Y'know," The broad, burly truck driver said to his slightly
shorter companion. "I think I might've hit somethin' on the way over
here."

The shorter man stared at the large, almost foot-long dent on the
front of his friends truck and nodded in agreement. "Least we know you
didn't kill no one."

The other man nodded. "Yup. Ain't nuthin' human coulda dent my
baby."

"Yup."

"Yup."

A moment of silence passed as the two truck drivers stared at
the damage inflicted on the truck.

"Y'now, this's gonna come outta yer paycheck."

"Yup."
On the top of that very same dented truck, meanwhile, a bald,
bespectacled man wearing a dirty white Gi slowly crawled over towards
the back of the large automobile. His name: Genma Saotome. He was on a
mission, and there didn't seem to be anyone in Juuban willing to engage
their daughter to a boy they'd never seen before.

"Don't worry boy," Genma whispered to no one in particular. "Your
old man will get us something to eat..."

Slowly, applying all his skills as a martial artist to the task
of keeping quite, Genma crawled towards the back. He didn't know how
long the driver would wait here before moving on again, but he hoped it
would be a veeeery long time. He had already had to wait an unbearably
long time for the other men to unload part of the cargo for the local
market or whatever.

He needed as much time as possible to be able to pull off this job
effectively. If he hurried, he might give away his position, and that
would lead to a fight. And fighting while holding boxes of food in his
arms could be rather tricky...

Finally, however, Genma made it to the back. Making a mental note
to land a little closer to the back the next time he jumped on top of a
moving delivery truck, Genma extended an arm over the edge of the truck
and tried to feel for a door.

The aging bald artist smile. It was open. And the driver was
still talking with that other man back in the front. It was perfect,
he would be in and out before anyone even noticed, and no one would be
able to identify him because no one would even see him.

Almost chuckling, Genma grabbed the edge of the truck and flipped
down and into it's interior, landing on his feet without making even
the slightest sound. Ki manipulation could be useful for so much more
than simply fighting.

Ahhh... The site the greeted Genma was almost as beautiful as his
own dear wife. Stacked neatly together all the way to the back of the
truck, were scores of boxes of Instant Ramen: travelling food of the
Gods themselves.

Walking quietly forward, Genma smiled broadly. With a the exper-
ience of years of service under the dearly departed Master, Genma bent
down and picked up three boxes of ramen, stacked ontop of each other.
Placing the boxes on top of another three, Genma then picked up all
six. Oh, if only he could take all of the truck's contents.

Actually, between him
and the boy, they could probably finish the entire six boxes in a few
days, but that was if they let their appetite get the better of them.
He had drilled discipline Ranma and they WOULD stretch these supplies
out for as long as possible. And if they didn't, well... he'd just have
to get some more.

Genma suddenly gave a tired sigh. How low he had sunk... But the
path of a true martial artist was fraught with peril, and with the
training he had in store for Ranma, that would be even more so. The
least he could do was make sure he and his son had enough to eat.

"Well, I'd better git goin' now, I'll see ya later."

Genma froze, a hint of panic starting to appear. He had taken
too long! With only seconds to spare, Genma, as quietly as possible,
put down the boxes in his hand and made a jump towards the back of the
truck, landing softly on a few boxes of ramen, crushing it slightly.
This was the only way, unless he wanted to jump outside and try to race
after moving truck. Besides, the risk of being seen was too high.

Ignoring the badly out of tune whistling nearing him, Genma
pulled a box of noodles up and tossed it to the side. Finding another
one under it, he pulled reached down and pulled it out, tossing it to
the side as well. Then he did the same to another, forced to bend down
even more to reach it. One last one, and Genma could finally see the
floor of the truck.

Hopping in, the bald martial artist tried to make himself as
small as possible and discovered that his head still stuck above his
little hiding hole. With lightning speed, Genma's hands shot out and
grabbed several nearby boxes of ramen, pulling them in front of his
face, just as the driver appeared.

The burly driver reached the back of the truck and made a quick
scan of the state of his cargo. "Those guys sure made a mess," he
noted, shaking his head sadly as he noticed the stack of six boxes and
about 6 or so boxes in the back scattered around on their sides and in
general disarray.

Sighing, he stepped into the truck. Reaching up, he grabbed the
door and pulled it down a little. After it was far enough down that he
could reach it from the ground, he jumped back out. With one last tug,
the door slammed shut, the metallic sound of metal meeting metal
echoing throughout the interior of the truck.

"Well, I'd better git goin', or I'll be late," the man said to
himself before he turned around and headed back to the front.

Inside, Genma Saotome, Master of the Saotome School of Anything
Goes School of Martial Arts, sighed as he pushed against the boxes of
noodles surrounding him in an attempt to make room and get comfortable.
He hoped he wasn't going to have to stay too long.


"Minako!" a familiar voice called out.

Hearing the familiar voice, Minako raised her head from the
counter it had been slumped on. She knew it wasn't Ryoga, but who was
she to be picky?

"You look a little depressed Minako, something wrong?"

Minako smiled, not totally forced, as she looked up at the hand-
some owner of Crown Arcade. she
mentally added. "Hello Motoki, I'm okay, really."

Motoki frowned slightly. Minako was one of his regular customers,
along with Usagi. He had grown to know them and their friends really
well, and could definitely tell when one of them was feeling down.

"Minako, I know something's bothering you," Motoki said gently.

"Well, yes, something is wrong," Minako admitted after a moment.
At least until she could catch up with Ryoga that was...

Motoki nodded. "You looked really depressed when you left here
earlier; did it have something to do with that boy who was here?"
Chances were, it did. Actually, it almost certainly did have something
to do with the bandanna-clad young man who had been at his arcade a
while earlier.

Minako raised an eyebrow. "You were here?"

"I do work here..." Motoki said slowly. He knew better, but
Minako could seem rather... ditzy... at times.

"Oh, right..." Minako said, giggling weakly.

"Anyway, what's the problem?" Motoki asked, ignoring the
incident.

"Oh." Minako gave an almost depressed sigh. "It's just that I
was hoping Ryoga was here."

"Ryoga?" Motoki asked. "The boy you were with, right?"

Minako nodded. "I was hoping he hadn't left." If only she had
been a little faster... With a start, Minako suddenly realized
something, just as she finished her sentence: Motoki worked here!

"Motoki!" Minako exclaimed.

Motoki looked at Minako oddly. It looked like she just had one
heck of a mood swing. A few seconds before, she had almost radiated
depression, a tired look with a familiar hint of determination on her
face. "W-what is it?"

"You know where Ryoga went, right?" Minako asked, her face filled
with hope.

"Not exactly..." Motoki replied. He hated to have to disappoint
her like that, but...

"Oh..." Minako said simply, her face taking on a downcast look.

"I'm sorry..."

Minako sighed and straightened up, forcing a smile on her face.
"It's alright, I'll find him." Indeed she would. No matter how big
Juuban was, she'd find Ryoga again. She'd transform into Sailor Venus
just so she could do it faster if she had too. There would be no rest
for her until she saw Ryoga again!

"Maybe it would help if I told you what happened after you left?"
Motoki suggested hopefully. Well, maybe it wouldn't, but it at least
would be an interesting story.

Minako lost some of her false cheer and nodded at Motoki. "Sure,
go ahead."

"Well," Motoki began. "He seemed really upset after you left."

Minako inwardly cheered. Then, as she recalled what had
happened, she became a little despondent again. How could she be so
stupid as to leave? Especially if Ryoga had missed her! What was she
thinking?!

"It looked like he blamed that other boy." Heh, looked like
indeed. Ryoga had looked like he had been ready to tear of the other
kid's head. And judging from the sounds of the fight outside, he may
have very well tried.

"You mean Ranma?" Minako asked as she was reminded of the
handsome pig-tailed young man. He was... almost as cute as Ryoga. Not
a bad catch actually...

"Is that his name?" Motoki asked. He had heard several names
spoken by the strange trio, but couldn't have been to sure as to who
was who. Well, actually, he was pretty sure, but he really shouldn't
go around assuming too much. That was one important lesson he had
learned during his stay in Juuban...

Minako nodded, slightly impatient. "Well, what happened?" the
blond-haired girl asked eagerly.

"Well, the other girl-"

"Hotaru," Minako cut in, slightly irritated. That rather
perceptive girl was what was keeping her from Ryoga. After all, Ryoga
had said she was his girlfriend...

Motoki noted the familiar look of jealousy in Minako's eyes and
inconspicuously backed away a little. "Um, yes. Hotaru tried to calm
him down, I think."

"Calm him down?" Minako wondered.

"Er... I think I told you that he was upset when you left."
Motoki said, once again regarding his blond-haired friend oddly.

Minako gave a weak smile. "Oh, sorry..." Inside, she cheered as
she was once again told that Ryoga had missed her. Ryoga missed her!
And once again, she realized sadly that she had left.

"Anyway," Motoki said, getting back to the topic at hand.
"Ranma said something, and Ryoga must have been really angry, because
he threw him out the door!"

"Threw him out the door?" Minako asked incredulously.

Motoki nodded, as he recalled the incident. "I was lucky the door
was open, or he might have broken it.

Minako's eyes narrowed and she rubbed her
chin thoughtfully as she realized something. The door was automatic,
so it should have opened up if Ryoga had thrown Ranma out. So what did
he mean by he was lucky?

"Was the door broken?" Minako wondered aloud.

Motoki shook his head, realizing what Minako was getting at. "No,
what I mean is that he wasn't close enough for the door to detect him."

Minako's eyes widened. Wasn't close enough? The door's sensor
could detect movement up to about 5 feet. That meant Ryoga must have
about 6 feet or so away to have been able to throw Ranma outside without
activating the automatic door! That wasn't too inconceivable, actually,
but still, most of the guys at her school probably weren't even half as
strong at that. And the ones that were, were real jerks.

"Wow, Ryoga's really strong isn't he?" Minako said out loud.

Motoki nodded in agreement, a bit of the awe coming back to him
as he remembered what had happened. Ryoga had just picked up Ranma as
easily as if he had a rock, and threw him out the door almost 40 feet!

"So what happened next?" Minako asked eagerly, her depression
starting to fade away.

"Then Ryoga and Hotaru both ran outside," Motoki answered.

"Do you know which way they went?" Minako asked hopefully.

Motoki shook his head. "Sorry Minako, all I know is that I heard
some fighting out there afterwards."

"Oh," Minako said simply, her hopes crashing down. She sighed.

"Well, that's all I know, sorry I couldn't help you more." Motoki
said, stepping forward and placing a hand comfortingly on Minako's
shoulders.

Minako forced up a small smile. "That's okay Motoki." Minako swore to herself, a hand clenched in determination.
No way was she going to lose Ryoga! She would search Juuban all over
without rest if she had to, but she'd find him.

Motoki quickly withdrew his hand and backed away as he recognized
the familiar gleam of determination in Minako's eyes. Things could get
messy if what she wanted somehow involved him or his store.

"I'll find you Ryoga!!" Minako's shout rang throughout the entire
arcade, masking even the sounds of the machines themselves. People
looked up from their business at the blond-girl stomping away from the
counter, fist clenched, a hard look on her face, and double-checked to
make sure they weren't in her path.


Genma squirmed around and sighed in frustration for the what was,
by his estimate, the 50th time. It hadn't been all that long since
he had gotten trapped inside the truck, actually. It was just that the
place was so cramped!

Confined in his small space by walls of cardboard, Genma silently
swore he would try to lose some weight before he ever tried to pull
another stunt like this.

A minute later, he quickly forgot about his little decision.

Genma
thought darkly. He had just decided that for all his troubles, he
should receive a very large, extra portion of the food he was...
getting.

Genma sighed, for the 51st time. Just when was that stupid driver
going to stop?! Maybe he should just break out. It would certainly save
time... Sure, the truck was made of very hard metal and his hand would
probably hurt like hell if he tried to hit it, but...

Genma quickly discarded that idea... and started seriously
considering resorting to the Forbidden Techniques to break out of his
dark prison.


Feeling herself shoot into the air, Hotaru gave a startled, almost
fearful "Eeep!" and tried to press herself further into Ranma's chest,
eyes tightly shut.

As she felt the air rushing by her head and rustling the hem of
her dark skirt, a storm of emotions and sensations rushed through her.

She was startled at the suddenness of everything; one moment, she
was feeling more embarrassed then she ever had in her life, the next,
she was shooting in what she definitely knew was upwards in the arms of
her best friend.

She was happy that Ranma had chosen to share with her whatever
this was. Happy that he was holding her. Happy that he cared so much
about her. Full of joy that she was with him at all.

She was a scared because she was going through what she knew was
dangerous. It almost seemed that everything her friends did was
dangerous in some way, small or otherwise. They could even turn a
simple visit to an arcade into an all-out fight...

And yet at the same time, she felt safer than she ever had before.
Rushing into the unknown, her life possibly in jeopardy she knew in her
heart that she would be alright. Nestled in his arms and clinging to
his chest, she knew Ranma would make sure that no ill would befall
her.

And most of all, she was exhilarated. Abruptly rushing into the
unknown, cradled safely in her protector and friend's arms all had a
sort of... excitement and appeal to it.

All too soon, it was over.

"Whew, I made it," she heard her friend say. Feeling herself
placed onto the ground, she slowly opened her eyes and reluctantly
released her iron hold on the pig-tailed martial artist.

"Man, jumping on a roof carrying someone's a lot harder than I
thought," the young martial artist commented, wiping imaginary sweat
from his brow. "I wonder if Ryoga made it?"

"R-rooftop?" Hotaru asked aloud, blinking in confusion. She
knew she had gone up, but she had assumed she had landed back on the
ground.

Hotaru watched as her best friend turned towards her and gave
that infuriatingly cocky smirk that she loved so much. "Yup, take a
look around. Or better yet, look behind ya."

Nodding dumbly, Hotaru turned around. She was met with empty air
and a building across the street from her. Funny thing was, she was
looking at the top of the building. Slowly, understanding yet still not
believing what she knew was true, she looked down. And realized that
she was standing at the edge of what suddenly seemed like a very tall,
two-story building.


Ryoga stared curiously as Ranma's airborne form flew through the
sky and landed onto a nearby roof. He had jumped onto a roof? Well, if
Ranma could do it, so could he!

Hopping easily onto a fence, Ryoga then jumped again. Applying
some of his meager knowledge about mid-air combat, the fanged-youth
shifted his weight and hunched his back slightly, attempting to maximize
the distance of his jump as much as possible. He had to admit, though,
air maneuvering was his rival's specialty, not his.

Unfortunately, Ryoga suddenly found that he had more important
things to worry about; like how he was going to make it to the roof!

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!"

Maybe Ryoga had miscalculated the distance between fence and roof.
It could have been that he hadn't used enough force, or that he had
incorrectly emulated Ranma's air maneuvers. Or maybe Ranma was somehow
trying to torment him. Or, perhaps, it had just been plain ol' bad luck.

But whatever the reason, Ryoga had just made the discovery that
he was going to land short. No big deal, really; he could survive a
two-story drop no problem. The only thing that would be injured would
be his pride. No way was he going to just sit by and let Ranma out-jump
him while actually carrying someone!!

And so, while simultaneously yelling his lungs out, Ryoga Hibiki
shot out with both an arm and grabbed for the edge of the roof before
him.



And he made it, of course, his hand grabbing onto the stone edge
of the roof with and iron-grip. A grip so strong and desperate that it
sent cracks spreading across his hand- hold and beyond.

"Heh, I made it," Ryoga said proudly to himself, even smirking a
little. He had... well, not beat Ranma, but he had... well, not exactly
matched him... but... he made it!

That was when the section of roof Ryoga's hand was so strongly
clenched on decided to crumble away into all-so-many pieces.


"W-we're on... a rooftop?" Hotaru asked shakily, backing away
from the edge of the roof. She wasn't afraid of heights, and she knew
that Ranma would catch her if she slipped or anything, but, well...
there was no need to tempt fate.

"Yup, pretty cool, huh?" Ranma asked, his proud smirk still
spread across his face.

Turning around and catching site of Ranma's smile, Hotaru felt
herself relax, reassured that Ranma would keep her safe. Just like her
Poppa had...

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!!"

Anything Hotaru had been about to say was cut off by the loud,
familiar scream.

"What the..." was Ranma's muttered reply as he turned around to
face the direction of the shout. That sounded like...

"Ryoga!" Hotaru exclaimed, a hand reflexively reaching up and
covering her mouth as she caught site of her other, bandanna-clad
friend dangling from the roof of a nearby building.

"Ryoga?" Ranma said, more annoyed than anything. Walking over
to the other side of the roof, he stared over at his... rival. Hadn't
he told the idiot to follow him?!

"W-what's Ryoga doing over there?" Hotaru asked quietly, her
voice laced with concern.

Lifting a hand up to rub his chin, Ranma pondered the question.
What the heck was Ryoga doing way over there? He had said, "Follow
me." So what was... Oh. The answer had been so simple, that Ranma had
missed it.

An amused smirk forming on his face, he turned back towards
Hotaru, shaking his head and chuckling lightly.

Hotaru stared at Ranma oddly, wondering what he was laughing
about. "W-what is it?"

"Ryoga's just gotten lost again," he replied. "Nuthin' to worry-"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Jumping slightly at the sudden scream, Ranma gave an open-
mouthed Hotaru a sheepish look and turned back around in time to see
Ryoga impact the ground, a small crater forming around his prone body.
A shower of dust and debris rained down around the bandanna-clad
martial artist a second later, obscuring him from view.

Ranma's eyes narrowed and his brows wrinkled suddenly as he
felt something: a brief flash of... power. Like some sort of... energy
had been released when Ryoga had hit the ground.

Shaking his head, Ranma decided that it didn't matter. He
couldn't feel anything anymore, and he had no idea how to try to look
for things like that. His father had been strangely-mouthed on the
subject of Ki, the only form of energy he really knew of that a
ridiculously-strong martial artist like Ryoga could probably release
like that.

It was weird, really, that the old man mention an actually
interesting subject like that and then just say, 'You already use it,
subconsciously. Now enough talk, it's time to fight!' Although Ranma
hadn't learned anything about Ki in the following 'sparring' session,
but the following beating did teach him to not let essentially
irrelevant things to distract him from more important things.

"Looks like he didn't make it," Ranma pointed out, pushing his
irrelevant thoughts aside and focusing on the more enjoyable task of
talking to his friend.

Hotaru nodded mutely. He hadn't made it, but what Ryoga had
done was still amazing nonetheless. And Ranma actually did make it;
while carrying her!

But, in a way, she wasn't really surprised. She had already come
to the conclusion, many days back, that Ranma was special. Even if all
the almost awe-inspiring fights that he had with Ryoga hadn't told her
that Ranma was someone different, she would have already know, deep in
herself, that her friend was somehow special.

Maybe it was because he could jump buildings; or because he
hadn't been afraid of her, but she had known that Ranma, and even
Ryoga, were important, somehow. That they could and would, like the
Senshi, make a difference; change the way people looked at things. Or
something. But they were special; she knew and believed that with all
her heart.

"Well, I'd better go get the idiot before he goes walkin' off a
cliff or something."

Hotaru shook out of her reverie and looked back at Ranma. The
pig-tailed martial artist was currently shaking his head, an exas-
perated yet amused look on his face.

"Wait right here, I'll be right back," Ranma said, smiling
quickly at Hotaru before walking back a few steps and bending down,
preparing to launch himself from the roof.

Despite her fascination in what Ranma was doing, Hotaru managed
to shake that off and call out, "Wait!"

Turning back to his friend, Ranma gave Hotaru a confused look.
"What?" he asked simply.

Hotaru winced at the curt reply and stared down at her feet,
suddenly ashamed that she had interrupted Ranma. "I-I'm sorry,
nevermind," she mumbled. She just hoped that Ranma wasn't mad at her.
She should have just stayed quite...

Ranma became even more confused at Hotaru's words. Sorry? For
what? "C'mon, what is it?"

"I-It's nothing," Hotaru replied softly "I-I'm sorry for bother-
ing you..."

"Bothering me?" Ranma asked, now even more confused. Now why
would she think that? Hotaru never bothered him; it was always fun
to hang around with her.

Hotaru nodded taking a shy step away from Ranma. "I-I'm sorry,
please don't be mad at me," she pleaded.

Ranma almost choked. This again?! She thought he was mad at her
again? Man, he must have the biggest mouth in the world; constantly
making his best friend think he was mad at her without even knowing it.
"H-Hey, I ain't mad atcha."

Hotaru looked back up at Ranma. "Y-you're not?" she asked hope-
fully.

"'Course not," Ranma replied, trying his best to smile reas-
suringly at his friend. "Man, you gotta stop thinkin' I'm mad atcha."

"R-Right," Hotaru agreed shakily, suddenly very embarrassed.
Here she had just gone through telling herself Ranma was special, and
then the net thing she did, she treated him like all those other kids
at school and thought he was mad at her.

"Now what were you askin' about earlier" Ranma asked, trying
to carefully steer the subject away from his supposedly being angry
at her.

"I-It's nothing..." Hotaru replied, still staring at her feet
nervously.

Ranma gave a frustrated sigh. No mater how absolutely cute his
friend looked right now, he had to get an answer and get to Ryoga now.
Besides if she was sad, then the price was too high. "C'mon, just tell
me. I ain't going nowhere till you tell me."

Hotaru slowly looked back up at Ranma. "W-well..."

Ranma waited impatiently. He'd love to spend time with Hotaru,
but he couldn't just let Ryoga run off either.

"I just wanted to go with you..." Hotaru finished.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she was quickly and without
fanfare scooped into Ranma's arms and soaring through the air with him
once again.

Coughing out all the dust he had inhaled upon impact with the
ground, Ryoga slowly got back up to his feet. The fall had hurt a lot
less than he expected. Maybe it was because he had managed to land on
his side rather than his back. Or perhaps his fights with Ranma were
starting to pay off physically. Well, whatever the reason, he still
hadn't made the jump.

Sighing in frustration(and then coughing a moment later)at the
thought that Ranma had beaten him yet again, Ryoga slowly stumbled away
from the crater he had created. Best to be out of the area before he was
forced to pay for the mess. Besides, sitting around in the middle of a
swirling cloud of dust wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.

"*Cough* *cough* Dammit! *Cough* How do I get out of here?!"
Ryoga demanded, squinting to prevent any dust particles from reaching
his eyes.

"Yo Ryoga!"

Ryoga thought darkly to himself.
"Ranma?" the Lost Boy called out.

"And Hotaru!" another familiar voice shouted back in answer.

Ryoga thought to himself. So Ranma had Hotaru with
him too. Well, that didn't change the facts any. "Ranma, this is all
your fault!!" Ryoga shouted angrily.

"Me?! How the heck is it my fault you can't even jump onto a
building?!" was Ranma's frustrated reply.

"Just shut up and tell me where the exit is!!" Ryoga shouted
back, a coughing fit immediately following his words.

"No! First tell me why it's my fault!!"

Ryoga grit his teeth, tensing as he prepared his words.
"Alright! So it's not your fault!" There. He had said it. Practically
apologized to the annoying thief.

"That's what I thought!"

"Just shut up and tell me how to get out!" Ryoga shouted back
angrily.

"Hahahahaha! What's the matter, Ryoga got lost?"

"Shut up!"

"Alright," Ranma said, his laughter starting to die out.
"Just hang on, I'll go getcha."

Ryoga snorted indignantly and crossed his arms. To think, he
actually needed Ranma's help. But he had to admit, his sense of
direction wasn't exactly great, and he really wanted to find Minako.
And doing that involved staying within the general vicinity of Juuban.

A second later, he started coughing, snorting apparently being
a good way to result in the breathing in of many, many dust particles.


"W-wait for me!" Hotaru called out, hurrying after Ranma as he
started to head into the dust cloud.

Stopping, Ranma turned around, regarding Hotaru curiously.
"You wanna come?"

"Of course!" Hotaru replied firmly.

"Well, if ya want to..." Ranma said with a shrug of his shoul-
ders. He would've thought that Hotaru would've rather wanted to stay
out of the dirt, but... Well, he supposed he shouldn't have been too
surprised. HE would have wanted to go with Hotaru if the situation had
somehow been reversed... He had to keep reminding himself that Hotaru
was different from the few other girls he had met; Healing powers and
all aside.

Smiling gratefully, Hotaru ran up to Ranma's side. "Okay, let's
go!" Full of enthusiasm, she wrapped herself onto one of Ranma's arms
and waited, patient and eager.

"Er... yeah, I guess..." was Ranma's hesitant reply. They were
just going to unselfishly rescue Ryoga from a cloud of dust; but the
way she said it, she made it all seem like some sort of grand
adventure. Well, if that lead to Hotaru holding onto him like that, he
really didn't mind at all.

"Come on Ranma, lets go." Hotaru said, tugging at Ranma's arm
and snapping the boy back to reality.

Giving his friend a sheepish look, Ranma nodded and walked
towards the cloud of dust.


Minako blazed through the streets of Juuban, swinging her head
to and fro, trying to find Ryoga. she wondered.
She had been searching for a whole five minutes now, and there still
wasn't any sign of Ryoga!! Well, she wouldn't give up until she found
him!

Suddenly, Minako skidded to a halt as and idea came to her. She'd just ask people if
they'd seen Ryoga. What a perfect plan!

Smiling to herself in satisfaction, Minako looked around,
scanning the are for someone to ask. There were plenty of people, of
course, the question was, 'Had any of them seen Ryoga?' Well, she'd
find out soon enough.


The truck stopped.

Genma had to stop himself from jumping up in celebration and
wait patiently. Something he had never been very good at. But he had
to this time. He to or he would... er, he and his son would starve.
Well, maybe not starve. He still had that job as a janitor, but that
could hardly pay enough to feed the mouths of a... er, two hungry
martial artists!

He didn't care if anyone saw him now, he didn't care if his face
would be all over the news, he had enough of sitting around in the
back of a dark delivery truck. He was going to break out fighting,
witnesses be damned. Besides... he was hungry.

"Alright, here ya go boys."

With a rusty screech, the metal door slowly started sliding
upwards. Squinting, as to allow his eyes to get used to the light,
Genma tensed, ready to punch, kick, and throw to his hearts content.

The four men outside had been in the delivery and unloading of
goods business for a long time. Well, five years anyway. In that time,
they had seen or heard of hijackings and robberies of trucks. Of
course, all those had been of armored vehicles containing stacks of
money or other precious materials. Naturally, there wasn't even a
single guard in sight. Who, in their right mind, would even think of
robbing a truck of Instant Ramen?

The last thing any of them saw before succumbing to several
quick blows to the head was a white blur leaping from the shadows.


"Oh yes, I've seen the lad. Walking with a lovely-looking couple
he was."

"Where?!" Minako grabbed onto the old lady like she was drowning.
"Where did they go?!"

"C-calm down miss!" the old lady said, startled by the sudden
outburst.

Minako let go of the lady and took a deep breathe. "I'm sorry."
she apologized. Could you please point me in their direction."

"Much better," the old lady said, smoothing out her shirt. "A
lovely young lady like yourself should learn to be more polite to
people; especially your elders."

"I said I'm-"

"That young man you're looking for, and the other pig-tailed lad,
they argued with each other a lot-"

"Could you just-"

"Hush, child! You shouldn't interrupt your elders like that!"
the old lady scolded. "Now where was I?"

Minako sighed in frustration. Normally she would be much more
polite, but she really wanted to find Ryoga.

"Ah yes," the old lady smiled, remembering what she had been
saying earlier. "Those to fought a lot, indeed, but they were very
kind and polite to the young lady. The very epitome of politeness,
they were."

Minako sighed again. "Could you please tell me which way they
went?"

"Oh, I believe they were heading down in that direction," the
old lady replied, pointing further down the street. "Nice young people
they were. I could tell without even talking to-"

"Thank you ma'am!" Minako shouted, shooting down the street like
a rocket.


Another intersection. Which way could Ryoga have gone? Well,
time to ask someone again. "Excuse me sir," Minako said as she grabbed
a passing man, attired in a business suit.

"W-what?" the man stuttered, obviously not used to people
suddenly grabbing him for no apparent reason.

"I'm looking for a boy, about 15," Minako said, quickly. "Dark,
short hair, Yellow bandanna and shirt; have you seen him?"

"W-what?" the man stuttered, his shaken mind still trying to
absorb the information.

"Have you seen him?!" Minako nearly shouted. "Yellow bandanna,
red umbrella!"

A moment of silence passed between the two, other pedestrians
clearing a wide path around the obviously crazy girl and unfortunate
man in her grasp. They would have liked to help, really, but... Okay,
maybe they would have rather avoided the two.

A flash of memory and the man pointed frantically down the
direction he had come from. "T-There!"

Releasing her hold on the man's shirt, Minako flashed him a
grateful smile and the shot down the street.


"Hmmm... can't say I have..." the man said, leaning back into
his chair.

"Are you sure? Nobody? How about a boy with a pig-tail?" Minako
tried desperately. "Or a girl with black hair."

"No, I haven't seen a boy with a pig-tail, and I can't even
begin to count how many girls with black hair have passed by here

Minako sighed, crestfallen.

"But perhaps I could interest you in some jewelry?" the man
gestured to the table full of various sparkling trinkets or gems
before him. "A pretty young lady like you would surely look even more
beautiful with a nice necklace or ring."

Minako blushed a little at the compliement, forgetting about
her quest for a moment. "R-really?"

"Of course!" the man replied, practically oozing with confidence,
that was, perhaps, even real. "I'll even give you a 25% discount."

"25 percent?" Minako asked, tempted by the idea. Some of those
necklaces did look rather pretty...

The man nodded. "I'm sure it'll impress that boy you're looking
for."

Boy! Of course, how could she have forgotten?! "I'm sorry, I
have to go now!"

Before the man could even open his mouth, Minako was already
blazing down the street as fast as any Olympic sprinter.


"Oh, I know who you're looking for!"

"You do? Where is he?!" Minako questioned excitedly.

"He was walking down there," the girl pointed down the street.
"He was with this other pig-tailed guy and a girl."

Minako frowned a little at the mention of Hotaru but managed to
convey her thanks before shooting down the street again.


"Leave me alone girl, I'm in a bad mood!"

"Please! Just tell me where if you've seen him."

"What's the matter girl, are you deaf?! I said, 'Leave me
alone'!"

"Just tell me!"

"Go away!"

"You shouldn't be so rude, I just want to know if you've seen
him, that's all."

"Arrgghhh!!" with a frustrated scream the large, burly man ran
down the street and away from Minako, hands pressed against his ears.

Sighing in frustration, Minako glanced around for someone else
to ask.


"*Cough* *cough* *cough*"

Ranma looked over at Hotaru worriedly. They hadn't even been
in the cloud for a minute yet and she was already coughing. Actually,
that in itself wasn't too bad, but with her already frail health...

"You okay Hotaru? Maybe we should go back- *cough* *cough*
out." Ranma smiled sheepishly at Hotaru.

Hotaru managed looked up at Ranma through squinted eyes. She
may have burst out giggling if she hadn't know that would have just
sent her into another coughing fit.

"I'm alright Ranma," she assured, trying not to ingest any dust
or the like. "We have to find Ryoga."

"The idiot can take care of himself," Ranma replied, careful
not to get dust into his mouth. That involved waving his hand in front
of him repeatedly, in hopes of keeping all the floating particles
away form him.

"Ranma *cough* that's not very *cough* nice," Hotaru chided.

"Hey, I'm more worried about you than that idiot Ryoga!"

"You should *cough* stop calling him names," Hotaru said. "And
this won't take too long. The *cough* cloud isn't that big." Although
it was sweet of him to worry about her.

"Oh alright," Ranma said, giving in. It was just so hard to deny
Hotaru something. Well, as long as she didn't fall into a seizure,
or something he could deal with it.

"Thank you Ranma," Hotaru said, smiling and tightening her hold
on Ranma's arm.

Ranma twitched slightly at Hotaru's action but chose not to
comment on it. "Ryoga's the one who should thank me..." he instead
chose to mutter.

"Don't worry, I'll remind him," Hotaru replied, smiling and
leaning her head on Ranma's shoulders.

"Sure, whatever," Ranma replied resisting the sudden urge to
sigh. Moving forward, he wondered how Ryoga had managed to make such
a big mess. He did fall from a three-story building, and his head was
pretty thick, true; but still... Well, then again, it didn't really
matter, he supposed.

"*Cough* *cough*"

Then again...


Whistling cheerfully, Genma grabbed a conveniently-placed
grocery cart and wheeled it over to the back of the truck he had
just recently escaped from, carefully avoiding the four unconscious
bodies sprawled around the ground. It wouldn't do to have to the
wheels on the cart damaged, now would it? Especially if that cart
was going to be wheeling food on home.

Once he reached the back, he easily hopped into the interior
and grabbed several of the numerous boxes of Instant Ramen and tossed
them, one by one into the cart behind him with an almost careless ease.

Grabbing another he then proceeded to toss that into the cart
as well. Then another one. And another one. And ano- Waitaminute...

Genma paused for a moment, and lifted the box up closer to his
face. Scrutinizing it carefully, almost as if he were shopping for
groceries, Genma frowned. There just so happened to be a rather large
hole in the bottom of the box.

Not much of a problem, actually, as each cup of Instant Ramen
inside was covered in a protective layer of plastic; but hey, if he
was going to steal, he may as well go for quality.

So, tossing the box aside, Genma then proceeded to pick up
another one. Quickly scanning it and finding that it was apparently
undamaged, Genma nodded to himself, and tossed it into the cart.
Genma smiled to himself. He would be eating well for awhile indeed.

Oh, and Ranma would have some food as well, he added after a
moment.


Ryoga sat quietly on the ground, legs crossed and eyes closed;
attempting to take in as little air through the mouth as possible.
That, of course, meant his mouth was closed, and oxygen reaching his
lungs via his nose. But despite the lack of several of senses right
then, his hearing and danger sense were on full-time alert.

Thus it was only natural when he sensed-

"Ranma!" Ryoga shouted, jumping to his feet, "What took you so
*cough* *cough* long?"

"Stop complaining and *cough* let's get outta here!" Ranma shot
back in irritation. His features softening, he cast a worried glance
at the young girl besides him. "Hotaru doesn't look too *cough* good
right now."

Ryoga dropped his annoyed look and shifted his gaze slightly to
look at Hotaru, who was looking even paler than usual and tightly
latched onto Ranma. Ryoga could tell that she was leaning on his rival
as much for actual need of support as she was out of affection or
anything of the like.

"Why'd you *cough* bring her in her you *cough* idiot!" Ryoga
demanded angrily. Hotaru was both of their friends, and maybe even
more to Ranma. How could he put her in danger like that! Sure it was
just dust, but... but... but he shouldn't have brought her in,
especially with her health.

But despite his feelings on the matter, Ryoga didn't take any
pleasure in watching the guilty look that crossed his rival's face.
Besides, it was partly his fault for creating the damn cloud in the
first place.

Before either Ranma or Hotaru could open their mouths to say
anything, Ryoga cut in, "Forget *cough* *cough* Forget it. Let's just
*cough* get out of here before she *cough* gets hurt or something."

Nodding grimly Ranma turned around and started walking away,
Ryoga close behind him.


Whistling a cheerful tune and trying to look as innocent as
possible, Genma pushed his cart, loaded to the brim with boxes of
Instant Ramen down the streets of Juuban, heading towards his
apartment.

A few pedestrians glanced curiously at him, but most didn't pay
him any heed. After all, a man who loved Instant Ramen wasn't so
unusual. Heck, if energy-sucking monsters weren't even unusual
anymore, why worry about a bald, noodle-eating man?

Genma thought to himself
proudly; nevermind the fact that the job had been to rob a delivery
truck full of Ramen. He'd have to reward himself with a good meal once
he got back. After all, he couldn't fight with an empty stomach; and
Ranma needed to be trained. Then a little more advanced lesson in Ki
manipulation, and Ranma would be ready for the REAL challenge. And once
he finished that, as he surely would for was it not he, the great Genma
Saotome himself, who trained the boy?

And after all that was done and through... Genma sniffled, a
single tear running down his checks as he allowed himself to get
sentimental for a moment. Real emotion. Not the ones he faked to
get Ranma to cooperate with him, but a real feeling of joy and
nostalgia.

For after all was done and through, Ranma could marry one of
Tendo's daughters, and the future of the Anything Goes Schools of
Martial Arts would be secure. Not to mention his retirement...

But before that, there was still work to be done. Genma sighed.
Work. So much work still... Sometimes when he was half-starved and
freezing to death in the middle of a snowstorm, he was sorely tempted
to just put an end the entire training trip and go get Ranma married.

But he had endured. Gods knew how, but he had managed to drag
through nine years of his and Ranma's journey still alive and
healthy. Well, not exactly as healthy as he'd like to be, but close
enough. Besides, after all that the... Master... had put him through,
his life-style could be considered, in comparison, almost idyllic.

Now, the Last part of the whole training mission was nearing
to an end. First, he would finish things in Juuban, and then after a
little trip to China, it was on to the Tendo's and happy retirement!

Genma sighed again. No matter how much he had tried to
rationalize things to himself, fruits of his labor still seemed and
felt like it was an eternity away. Especially once he took into
consideration that he had no idea how long he would be in Juuban.

Well, he had lasted nine years, he could survive another 9 if
he had too. Sure, it was getting harder and harder to defeat the boy
for his meal, but Ranma's own experience helped compensate for that.
The boy was now rather adept at hunting, thus he was able to help
provide food. Genma would have rather the boy had just stolen food,
but he supposed hunting for fresh food could do.

Besides, his dear, dear wife probably had something against
stealing. Most likely it was considered unmanly. And while he wasn't
sure if his beloved Katana-wielding wife would actually force him and
his son to commit Seppuku for being unmanly, he wasn't about to take
any chances.

Genma thought to himself as he stopped
and stared at the apartment building he lived in. It didn't look like
much, and was nowhere near as comfortable as his or Tendo's home, but
it was still better than camping out in some vacant lot. And he could
even get his clothes washed for a small price. Oh, and Ranma's as
well, of course.

Well, he'd best get his little cargo inside; he was starting to
get hungry. Resuming his whistling, Genma started pushing the cart
inside the building, glad that there was an elevator in the building.
He could have walked up the stairs carrying the cart, but that would
have taken too long, and he wasn't feeling up to any hard labor right
then.

And he might have been able to jump three stories with the cart,
but there was no way the thing could fit inside through the window.

Genma wondered
to himself as he pushed through the glass doors of the building. He
hoped not. He wanted to start training on the boy immediately, really,
but... well, he was hungry right then, and his son would have probably
tried to steal some of the food that he, Genma Saotome, had rightfully
'aqquired'.

Genma paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. Nah. If the boy
was there, he would just have to be beaten into the leaving the food
alone. He had won almost all the previous times they had fought for
food; why should this time be any different. The fact that Genma
hadn't won a fight with his son in the past three weeks escaped the
aging martial artist's mind as he was currently busy anticipating the
upcoming feast of Instant Ramen.


With one last cough, Ranma broke free of the cloud of dust,
Hotaru by his side, leaning heavily on him and looking even paler
than normal. A second later, he was joined by a Ryoga, looking a
little messy, but otherwise okay.

The trio slowly walked away from the area of the dust cloud,
taking their time more out of worry for their female companion's
health than their own.

Ranma, however, very quickly got either too impatient or too
worried and, with one swift motion, lifted Hotaru into his arms,
cradling her gently and breaking into a short sprint for the shade
of a nearby fence.

Laying her gently down onto the ground, he looked worriedly into
her purple eyes. "Hotaru, are you alright?" he asked, his voice choke-
full of concern.

Hotaru slowly nodded in reply, making an attempt to rise back
to her feet but only managing to get up a few inches before falling
back down but a soft thud.

Hotaru winced, feeling slightly embarrassed, but more tired
than anything else. This wasn't like one of her fits; those occurred
spontaneously, whether she was feeling full of energy or tired as a
sack and forced her to cough and cough and then just pass out, often
rather painfully. Right now, she just felt so... tired, period. Like
she how she imagined she would feel if she had ever run a marathon
and survived. Very, very tired; yet not sore or out of breathe, just
like... like she hadn't had enough sleep, but... worse.

But... Ranma would protect her. It would be alright. Ranma
would keep her safe, she knew it. With him around, everything would
turn out alright. Lifting her head up weakly, she found herself, just
as she knew she would, gazing into her friend's concern-filled eyes.
And nearby, also radiating worry, she knew her other dear friend was
watching.

Her heart warming at how much her friends cared for her, Hotaru
forcing up a weak, reassuring smile and once again attempted to get
back to her feet. Her smile, apparently, wasn't reassuring enough, as
she found herself gently pushed back down by Ranma's strong hand.

"C'mon Hotaru," he chided softly. "You better rest; ya don't
look to good right now."

"I-I'll be okay..." the dark-haired girl muttered out. "I'm
just... a little tired..." So very, very tired indeed. She had never,
in her life, ever felt so completely... drained... before. And yet...
she felt like she should be familiar with the feeling for some reason.
But... this was no time to be thinking about things like that. Right
now, she just wanted to curl up into her nice, warm, bed and go to
sleep. Sleep...

Slowly, her eyelids suddenly feeling heavy, Hotaru shut her
eyes, wishing she could muster up the strength to yawn. But she
wasn't asleep yet; though she wanted to.

"Yeah," Ranma said softly. "You better get some shut-eye,
Hotaru."

She was just... resting. She couldn't sleep yet... Someone had
to... keep her friends out of trouble. Without her... Ranma and Ryoga
would probably... fight. And someone would... get hurt... And she...
wouldn't be able to... And then she'd be... alone... She didn't want
to be alone anymore... Not anymore... She had to...

"Ranma..." the young girl managed to mutter out tiredly.

"Just go sleep, Hotaru," Ranma said in answer, his eyes never
leaving his friends face.

"Please don't... fight... I don't want you... hurt..." the girl
continued. She had to convince Ranma not to fight; at least not while
she was asleep.

"Yeah, whatever," Ranma said, a hint of frustration barely
evident in the sea of concern that was his voice. "Just go to sleep,
alright? I'm more worried 'bout you than me..."

Ranma paused, forcing up his usual cocky smirk, even though he
knew his friend wouldn't see it. "After all, I'm the best; ain't
nuthin' that can beat me."

Hotaru's lips moved just slightly, barely even noticeably,
upwards. Inside, through her tired mind and body, a familiar warm
feeling spread throughout her. It soothed and comforted her, making
her feel safe and protected and enveloping her like a blanket. It
had all the effects of a nice cup of hot tea and a warm blanket and
fireplace: it made her want to sleep even more.

But before she did, she still had to take care of one last
thing. "You too... Ryoga..."

Ryoga nodded despite knowing that Hotaru would not see his
gesture of agreement. "Of course, Hotaru. You just get to sleep."

Once those words reached her ears, she barely had time to feel
content, before she feel into a deep, peaceful sleep filled with
visions of warm beds and flaming fireplaces.


"Thank you sir!" Minako yelled as she shot down the street.
She was getting closer, she knew it. Not only were the number of
people who had seen Ryoga getting larger and larger, but she could
feel it inside of her. Like a sense of anticipation and excitement,
mixed with the slightly nervous feeling of not-knowing what exactly
was going to happen.

But she had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen: she
was going to find Ryoga, and win him over! She felt a little sorry
for Hotaru, but only a little. After all, this was destiny. Ryoga was
made for her and vice-versa. She was sure Hotaru would understand once
she explained it to the girl. And if not, well... who could stand
against the powers of fate and what was meant to be?


With a satisfied belch, Genma tossed his empty cup of Instant
Ramen into the large paper bag that served as a trash can. Then, he
grabbed another package of the food from the open box besides him and
and quickly tore it open.

Genma thought to himself as he poured
the hot water into the cup. Immediately after placing the kettle
down besides him, Genma dug in with his chopsticks. So what if he
hadn't waited long enough for the noodles to become soft and
sepearate? Crunchy Ramen was just as good as soft Ramen to Genma.
Noodles were noodles, after all.

Less than a minute later, Genma tossed another empty Styrofoam
cup into his paper trash bag. Belching yet again in satisfaction at
the delicious meal, Genma reached to his side to grab another package
of Instant Ramen... and came up empty.

"Huh?" Genma turned his head and looked down at the box of
Instant Ramen curiously. The empty box of Instant Ramen, that was.
"I finished already?" the martial artist wondered aloud in surprise.

Picking up and tossing the empty box next to his trash bag,
Genma then reached over to his other side and picked up another
box of Instant Ramen.

Lifting the box up to his face, Genma stared at it intently,
almost as if he were studying an opponent, searching for a weakness.
Genma though to himself. Not the soundest of arguments, but it worked
for Genma.

What should he do? What should he do indeed? It was just one
more box, after all. Only one, nothing important. It wouldn't even
be missed; especially not by Ranma as he hadn't even known what that
Genma had gone out and... acquired... the food. But... he did want to
make the food last as long as possible, and Ranma would be forced to
ration the thing...

A whole half-minute longer passed as Genma stared at the box
of Instant Ramen held up before him.

Genma decided to himself
before tearing open the box and pulling out another package of Instant
Ramen. All feelings of guilt were washed down his throat along with
a mouthful of noodles.


"You should have known better than to bring her with you!"
Ryoga said, keeping his voice down but making sure the anger was
easily evident.

Ranma winced, a pang of guilt striking him as he walked, almost
pausing him. Instead, he unconsciously pulled Hotaru, cradled safely
in his arms, even closer to him.

"She wanted to go!" Ranma shot back, keeping his voice down so
as not to disturb the peacefully slumbering girl held in his arms.

"Still," Ryoga continued, his voice more calm and this time,
"You shouldn't have done that, Ranma. You know, better than either
of us, how weak she is." Hotaru was his friend too, dammit! He was
just as concerned about her health as Ranma was and didn't want her
to be hurt.

"I didn't think the dust would be so bad," Ranma replied
defensively. He knew he was to blame for Hotaru's current condition,
but he be damned If he was going to take all the blame! "She wouldn't
be like this if it weren't for you making that big mess."

"Are you blaming me for this?!" Ryoga demanded, a fist clenched.
He wouldn't fight Ranma. He had told Hotaru he would avoid fights and
he was going to stick by those words. Besides, if he tried to sock
Ranma right then, it would've hurt Hotaru more than his annoying pig-
tailed rival.

"Y- I mean..." Ranma trailed off, taking a deep breathe. He and
Ryoga had both told Hotaru that they wouldn't fight, and he would
stick by his promise until Hotaru was up and about again. In the
meantime, he should probably avoid provoking his 'friend'. "It's both
out faults, okay?"

Ryoga lowered his fist. He hadn't intended to use it, and there
was no need to act threatening as he had already learned that
threatening Ranma would get him probably even less than nowhere. It
had been more out of habit than anything else anyway.

"What do you mean our faults?" Ryoga asked instead. "You were the
one who said, 'Follow me'!"

"Yeah, and where did you go instead?" Ranma asked smugly,
shifting the weight in his arm slightly to what he thought would be
a more comfortable position for his passenger.

Ryoga's face twitched slightly as Ranma's cold logic was
presented to him. "W-well..." he said, flustered.

"And then you went and jumped for a three-story building!"

Ryoga blinked, confusion replacing embarrassment. "I almost
made three stories?" he asked, his previous feelings temporarily
forgotten.

"Who cares if you almost made it?!" Ranma snapped. "The point
is you fell down and made the mother of all dust clouds!"

"Three stories?" Ryoga repeated, staring at Ranma , mouth
hanging slightly open and apparently oblivious to Ranma's previous
words. Could it be? He hadn't actually lost to Ranma?

"Yes!" Ranma almost screamed in frustration. As he wanted a
certain important someone to remains asleep, however, he had to
settle for snapping at Ryoga.

"I made three stories!" Ryoga shouted, jumping in the air.

"Shut up!" Ranma hissed. "And you didn't make three stories!"

"S-sorry," Ryoga apologized softly, settling down. He had almost
awakened Hotaru for something as stupid as the thought that he had
jumped three stories and beaten Ranma. And it was true that he hadn't
actually made three; And Ranma had actually went two while actually
carrying someone.

Sighing dejectedly, Ryoga tried to turn his mind back to Hotaru.
For one brief moment, he had been happier than he had ever had been
before. For one incredibly short moment, he had thought that he had
beaten Ranma Saotome. And it had been false. Ryoga sighed again.
Disappointment: the story of his life.

Hearing Ranma speak, the Lost Boy snapped back to reality.
"W-what did you say?"

"I was wondering how the heck you screwed up the ground so
bad," Ranma replied, a curious look on his face. It was almost
amazing; any signs of previous hostility had vanished, replaced with
a familiar curious and almost care-free Ranma that now stood before
the Lost Boy, Hotaru held snugly in his arms.

"What do you mean?" Ryoga asked, although he already had a
pretty good idea what Ranma was talking about.

"I mean all that dust and stuff," Ranma answered. Abruptly,
Ranma's face darkened slightly and the pig-tailed martial artist
was replaced with the serious and angry Ranma that Ryoga had never
seen much of before. "It sure hurt Hotaru."

"I-I don't know..." Ryoga replied, a little taken aback by the
sudden hostility in his rival's voice, although he would never have
admitted it to anyone. "I just took the fall on my side..."

Ranma stared intently at Ryoga, as if studying him. The seconds
ticked by as the two martial artists walked in a direction roughly
leading them to Hotaru's house, and Ranma still stared at the Lost
Boy, all signs of anger and the like having disappeared, replaced with
a calm and neutral expression.

For Ryoga, it was just plain annoying. And a little unnerving
as well. All of Ranma's mood swings and now his little staring
contest was starting to get to the Lost Boy.

Just as Ryoga was about to open his mouth and scream in
frustration, however, Ranma spoke up. "You've gotta have a pretty
thick head ta be able ta make a mess like that."

If Ranma hadn't been carrying Hotaru right then, he would've
had a nasty headache the next day.

"Why must you keep tormenting me ?" Ryoga instead demanded,
trying to remain cool and in nonviolent. Ranma was just so damn
annoying! If the risk of hurting Hotaru hadn't been so high, he would
have been pounding some manners into his pig-tailed rival right then
and there.

Ranma's lips formed a cocky smirk.

Ryoga fist clenched shut, his veins popping as he tried to keep
control of his emotions. He really
hated how Ranma kept insulting him. The 'smile' was just too much. By
itself, Ryoga didn't really mind, but right then, he just KNEW that
Ranma was insulting him.

'You too... Ryoga...'

Hotaru's words suddenly came flooding back into Ryoga's mind,
accompanied by images of the sweet young girl smiling and hanging onto
Ranma.

'Don't fight.'

She wanted them not to fight. And Ryoga was pretty sure she
didn't want Ranma hurt either.

Taking a deep calming breathe, Ryoga closed his eyes and
thought peaceful thoughts, trying to subdue his anger. Hotaru had
wanted him to stay out of a fight. And until she woke up, he was
going to do exactly what she said. "Just shut up Ranma."

Ranma dropped the smirk, curiosity briefly flashing through
his eyes before his face adopted a mock-innocent look. "Me?" the pig-
tailed martial artist asked, his words laced with disbelief.

Ryoga gave Ranma an odd look, a hint of anger buried within it.

"All I did was smile, I didn't say anything!"

Ryoga scowled and smacked himself on the head in frustration.


"Ahhhh... this is the life..." Genma said to himself, sighing
in content as he lay down on his sleeping bag.

Patting his stuffed stomach happily, Genma closed his eyes,
dreaming of what it would be like when he was able to have meals like
this everyday.

A frown briefly crossed the martial artists face. Well, he had
to admit that eating 3 boxes of Instant Ramen everyday could get a
little expensive... Well, at the very least, he would be able to eat
well once Ranma got married and was running the dojo. And who knows?
Maybe if the place was successful enough, he would be eating those
noodles everyday.

Genma sighed wistfully. He could only hope... For now, all he
would be able to do was train Ranma as best he could. And under his
expert leadership, the boy would no doubt become a truly great
martial artist. He was already beating his own father in sparring
matches.

Genma added silently. Ranma
still had a long way to go before he would be able to match his
father's fearsome skill. Why, was it not he who was able to get rid
of the dreaded... Master?

Genma smirked proudly. Yes, Ranma was doing well, but the boy
still had a long way to go. Why, if he went all-out, the boy wouldn't
even stand a chance!

Of course, Genma had conveniently forgotten that short of the
Forbidden Techniques and a few more advance Ki techniques, he had
been going all-out against Ranma.


Minako stared at the large cloud of dust before her dumbly.
She had just been running down a rather empty residential area street,
hot on the trail of Ryoga when she had practically runs smack into
the middle of a large cloud of dust.

The fact that what looked like a large, unmoving dust-devil was
sitting in the middle of a street was strange enough, but that wasn't
what had really caught Minako's attention. Sure, that in itself would
have been interesting and maybe a good story, but it wasn't anything
too special.

No. What caught Minako's attention was something far more serious
than just a cloud of dust. Minako Aino was one of the Sailor Senshi,
a defender of Love and Justice. In her case, Love in particular. As
such, she was gifted with several little bonuses when she was in
'civilian mode'.

The first ones included the standard package of increased
strength, speed, etc. While not as much as what she would get when
she transformed into Sailor Venus, it was still quite a bit.

The next was a strong and fierce loyalty to the princess. She
would willingly and unhesitatingly give her life for Usagi if
necessary. And she had, actually. She had given up her life when Usagi
had gone to fight Queen Beryl, only to be brought back to life by the
princess. That act had only strengthened those already strong feelings.
She, essentially, owed her life to Usagi.

And the next gift could actually be considered a curse. She,
along with the rest of her friends seemed to be trouble magnets; or
rather, monster magnets. Whenever there was an evil maniac out to
conquer Tokyo and/or the world, their plans always seemed to be
executed when she or the other Senshi were around.

Or maybe it was the other way around: she was actually cursed,
bound by the all-powerful threads of destiny to wander into any
maniacal, supernatural schemes that happened to be brewing. Heck,
maybe it was a bit of both.

And finally, there was her 'evil-sense'. Whenever she was close
to a Youma, or Droid, or something evil like that, she would get this
feeling inside her that told her to watch out and be careful. And
Whenever she was close enough, she could feel it if there were any dark
or even good magical energies. It was the reason behind any time she
said the words 'I've got a bad feeling about this,' in relation to
monsters, demons and the like; and she had learned to trust it in a
fight.

It wasn't as accurate as the Mercury Computer, of course, but
it was still very useful to help decide when to be on one's toes and
ready to transform. And Minako, being by far the most experienced of
the Senshi, had developed that certain gift to a much greater extent
than her fellow defenders of the Moon Kingdom.

And thus the blond-haired defender of Justice was able to much
more easily sense the small dark-energies currently swirling around
the cloud of dust, keeping it airborne much longer than natural and
even helping it grow stronger. She could tell it the energy had been
borne from some type of monster and not just the normal dark energies
used in the up-keeping of the universe. it was quite distinctive,
especially as it was, technically, being applied to a task right then.

It couldn't have been another enemy could it? Not so soon!
Well, actually there had only been a short period of time between
the previous major enemy appearances; a few months between each at
most, but this could just be an unrelated individual demon outbreak,
right?

And if there was a monster, where was it then? Maybe it was
just some kind of random energy-leakage from hell or something?

Sighing tiredly, Minako decided that she might as well inves-
tigate and see if it was harmful or dangerous or if Ryoga was trapped
in there and then she could rescue him and he'd fall in love with
her and-

Shaking her head clear, Minako walked towards the cloud warily,
ready to transform at a moment's notice. She couldn't be distracted
right then, she had to be ready to be on alert least she lose her
life.

Slowly, she walked into the cloud, her field of vision becoming
more and more limited as she ventured deeper into the cloud.
Squinting her eyes and keeping her breathing slow to minimize the
effect ill-effects of dust in her eyes and mouth, Minako slowly
scanned the area.

She couldn't see much, but she could feel the dark, evil
swirling around her. Yes, evil. If she hadn't been sure before, she
was as sure now as she was sure that Ryoga was meant for her. And it
seemed like the energy was growing stronger the further in she went.

It was all about, as far as she could sense, teasing and mocking,
swirling around in an endless dance of darkness. The air around her
streaked with invisible energy and she could feel it. Surrounding and
enveloping her like a cold blanket. Not comfortably cool, but like the
coldness of death itself.

"*Cough* *cough* *cough*"

Minako stopped, covering her mouth out of habbit as she coughed.


Taking a moment to recover Minako tried to continue forward, but
fell into coughing fit.

Feeling suddenly tired, Minako fell down to her knees, coughing
violently.

It drew closer, embracing her with icy arms and she felt her
more of her strength fade away. Closer and closer, more and more,
swirling winds of darkness and death.

With a blast of fear, Minako realized the truth: she wasn't
walking closer to the source of the dark energy, if indeed there was
one; the energy was coming to her!

With a strangled gasp of fear, Minako summoned her Transformation
Pen and, with the last of her strength, and then some, thrust it into
the air, shouting out the magical words that would save her life.

"Venus Star Power Make Up!"

She didn't even waste time pausing before the words 'Make Up.'


"Well, I still can't believe you made that huge cloud just
fallin' down; even if it was three-stories, and your head is thick."

"Just be glad Hotaru's alright," Ryoga replied simply, having
long since calmed down from Ranma's previous insults. He had actually
been starting to get rather uncomfortable with the minutes-long
silence, having becoming almost used to Ranma's insults and such.

Ranma glanced down at the girl in his arms, apparently
peacefully asleep. But if the price for such restful slumber was
her suffering, Ranma would have rather gone back into the pit of...
well, maybe not, but he still would have went to hell and back to
keep Hotaru safe.

"Maybe, but I woulda rather she not get hurt at all."

Ryoga nodded in silent agreement. He would have done anything
to protect the poor, innocent girl lying in his... rival's arms.
She was one of his first...

Ryoga shook his head clear, berating himself for even thinking
of Ranma at such a time.

"Think we should take her home?" Ranma asked, his expression
completely neutral and unreadable.

Ryoga looked up, shoving his thoughts aside. Ranma had asked
something, and it actually sounded important. And from what he had
managed to figure out about his pig-tailed martial rival, the things
important to him were mainly: Food, fighting, and Hotaru.

They had just eaten and Ranma had given a promise to not fight,
so the first two should be out. SHOULD be. Ryoga had once thought
Ranma a dishonorable dog, but now... well Ranma couldn't be ALL bad.

Well, with the first two out, that left one more. "What about
Hotaru?"

"I was askin' if we should take her home." Ranma replied softly.

Ryoga immediately understood what was going on: Ranma wanted to
stay with Hotaru, but was worried about her health. The same thing had
happened not too long ago that very morning. "Didn't you already ask
me that?"

Ranma glanced over at Ryoga, looking confused. "What the heck
are ya talkin' about now?" He felt tempted to include an insult in
his already rather rude-sounding question, but refrained. Actually
using his head, he decided that perhaps the best way to get an answer
would not involve bombarding his 'friend' with name-calling.

"I asked you the same question after... that incident with the
truck," Ryoga replied, a little surprised that Ranma had not insulted
him. But then again, the pig-tailed martial artist did seem to be in
one of the more serious modes; the one that Ryoga had only seen once
before today.

Ranma cocked his head to a side, wading back to his memories
of the day. Ranma's face darkened for a moment as he remembered
that certain event, but then quickly shifted back into thoughtful
mode. After all, what was done was done.

Ranma mentally slapped himself for
thinking of such thoughts right then. Besides, it was best not to
think of such things at all, in his opinion. Too distracting.


Ranma smiled
slightly. proud at himself for finding the correct answer. Now, what
had happened next?



The memories rushed back and Ranma's brain, rattled from all
the emotional stress he had been going through all day, recalled
exactly what happened. He recalled exactly how Hotaru looked like
as he looked upon her while she slept. He recalled exactly how much
more time he wanted to spend with Hotaru and even Ryoga.

"Well, it's different, now," Ranma said simply.

"Oh?" Ryoga asked with mock-curiosity. "And why is that?"

Ranma gave Ryoga an icy look, but refrained from commenting on
the Lost Boy's tone of voice. "This is the, what?" Ranma did a quick
mental count. "Third time Hotaru's gotten all sick and stuff."

"Well, that didn't stop you from going on, did it Saotome?"
Ryoga asked in reply, crossing his arms over his chest, daring Ranma
to challenge his statement.

Ranma shrugged, unperturbed. "Yeah, but this is the third time.
Don'tcha see a pattern or somethin' here?"

Looking at Ranma curiously, Ryoga scratched his chin in thought.
"Umm... No?"

Ranma would have smacked his head, or perhaps Ryoga's head if
his hands had been free. After all, that wasn't considered fighting,
right? "You idiot!"

"What did you call me?!" Ryoga demanded heatedly, keeping his
voice below shout-level, but still loud enough to show that he was...
displeased.

Ranma rolled his eyes. Ryoga could get upset at the littlest
things. "Alright forget I said that."

"..."

Taking the Ryoga's silence as an 'I didn't say no,' Ranma went
on. He had to know what to do, and although he could think of better
people to ask for advice, Ryoga would just have to do. "What if she
get's one of her fits again?"

Ryoga blinked, soaking up the information. "Fits?"

"Ya know!" Ranma said, in exasperation. "Seizures?"

Realization dawned on Ryoga and the fanged martial artist
nodded his head. "Ooooohhhhhh..."

"Yeah, oooooohhhhh..." Ranma said, sarcasm coating his voice.

"So you think she might get another seizure?" Ryoga asked,
ignoring Ranma's previous words.

The serious Ranma dropped back into place once again, and
the young martial artist nodded. "Yeah... It's already happened three
times, whadda you think?"

"I..." Ryoga trailed off, thinking. The obvious and logical
course of action would be to take Hotaru back home, but still... He
could tell that Ranma still wanted to spend more time with Hotaru.

If the pig-tailed martial artist's reluctance to do the sensible
course of action hadn't been clue enough; well, Ryoga just knew.

So, what should they do?

Ryoga sighed. What could they do, really? Hotaru's well-being
had priority over any of their own wishes. And if she had already
fallen unconscious three times, there was just too much of a chance
that it could happen another time. If it did, it would be best it
she did so in the safety of her home and comfort of her bed. Well,
Kaolinite aside...

"You'd better take her home Ranma," Ryoga said softly,
surprising himself with how sorry he actually felt for the pig-tailed
martial artist before him as he watched him deflate.

"Yeah, I guess you're right for once..." Ranma replied with a
sigh, shoulder's slightly slumped.

he chided himself half-heartedly. He would see her
again. The very next day, actually; there was no need to act so...
down in front of Ryoga. He had gone years without friends before, he
could go another day. He had been able to go a day away from Hotaru
before, too, he could do it again! But... she was his best friend...

Ranma sighed again. Maybe he was getting soft.


"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

The yellow beam of pure magical energy shot forward from
Minako's extended fingers, spreading into multiple rays of destruction
as they cut through the air and disappeared into the brown cloud of
dust before her. A moment later, Minako was rewarded with the ear-
pounding sounds of explosions, as her attack impacted something:
most likely the ground.

The 'Venus Crescent Beam Shower' wasn't her strongest attack.
That spot had recently been taken over by her 'Venus Love-Me Chain'.
But her older attack, while generally weaker in power, still had the
advantage of being able to affect a broader area.

And as she didn't know exactly where, or even if there was a
monster hidden inside the swirling cloud of dust and dark energies
before her, she had decided it would be best to bombard the area with
multiple attacks. Her 'Venus Crescent Beam Shower' had proven ideal
for the task.

Well... it had looked good on paper anyway. So far she didn't
think she had done much more than cause massive amounts of damage to
the street and perhaps add even more dust to the cloud. But she'd give
up Ryoga before she gave up a fight! Well, actually...

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

Once again, Minako, heard only the sounds of large chunks of
the street being blown into it's component atoms. No demonic howl or
nightmarish screech of pain and death; just property damage.

Sighing in frustration, Minako focused her mind and tried to
'sense' the energy of the cloud. With her 'evil-sense' increased
significantly in Senshi form, Minako was able to tell, even 50 feet
away, that the cloud's power had dropped, if only slightly. Without
the Mercury Computer handy it was the best she could do and good
enough. All she needed to know was that she was making progress.
After all, she wasn't going to run out of attacks anytime soon.

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

Once again, only the sounds of property damage, the cloud
seemingly unaffected. But a quick moment of intense concentration
and she was able to ascertain that the cloud's dark energy HAD
decreased slightly.

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

Minako sighed, this time not even bothering to check on the
cloud's status. She'd just shoot till the dumb thing dissipated or
whatever.

"Venus Crescent Beam Shower!"

She had a funny feeling she was going to be there for awhile.
It was a simple plea, full of hope
and longing; but her past experiences had repeatedly told her that
such wishes were made in vain.

Well, she always was a stubborn one.


"I got it!"

Ranma turned his head slightly to the side, looking at Ryoga
with rather bored and slightly depressed eyes.

"What?" he asked impatiently. He wanted to enjoy his time with
Hotaru and that involved not being pestered by Ryoga and his dumb
accusations and the like.

Ryoga favored Ranma with an arrogant smirk. "You should be more
polite Saotome, I just discovered the answer to your problems."

Ranma gave Ryoga a wary look. Images of him being thrown off a
cliff, shot in the head, and run over by a truck passed through his
head as he tried to think of what Ryoga's 'solution' to whatever he
problem he supposedly had.

"What problem?" Ranma asked.

"How you can stay with Hotaru!" Ryoga replied, a superior look
on his face, elated at having outdone Ranma at something.

Ranma's interest was immediately, caught, but being used to
a more angry Ryoga out to get him, Ranma kept all emotions carefully
wrapped under an almost comical layer of neutralism. Besides, it
wasn't like it mattered whether or not he was with Hotaru; he was
just worried about her. Not like he wanted to stay by her all the
time...

"Well, go on," Well, maybe just a lot of the time...

"And why should I tell you, Saotome?" Ryoga asked smirking at
his rival. He was rewarded with the gratifying site of Ranma's right
eye twitching. It wasn't much, but...

"Damn it Ryoga, I ain't in the mood..." Ranma slowly said in
irritation. If his hands had been free, he would have whacked Ryoga
a good one on the head by then. The were currently preoccupied with
a much more pleasant task however, and he just had to settle for
glaring at the fanged martial artist before him.

Seeing Ranma angry only added to Ryoga's ego. "You're not going
to get anywhere being so rude," the Lost Boy lectured, shaking a
finger in front of his rivals face mockingly.

Ranma took a deep breathe...

And kneed Ryoga in the stomach.


"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

Twin beams of yellow energy shot forth from each of Minako's
outstretched hand, splitting apart into multiple shafts of power and
cutting into the cloud, devastating the ground within.

Frustrated and impatient beyond belief, Minako had invented an
attack on the spot. It had just been taking far too long for her
liking and as she wished for a way to speed things up, inspiration
had hit and she had just field-tested her new attack.

Minako smile proudly as she heard the sound of explosions.
She had been able to cause twice the damage with her new attack.
It was the best she could do without the other Senshi helping her.

Minako sighed as she shot forth another 'Venus Double Beam
Shower'. Even if her communicator had been working, she wasn't too
sure if she actually would have called her friends for back-up.
It looked like it was going to take an annoyingly long time to get
rid of the current threat, but it wasn't very dangerous at all; as
long as she stayed out of the cloud, that was.

If she did call her friends, things would probably go much
faster, but the chances of one of them going after Ryoga would be
much higher too.

Well, the communicator hadn't been working when she tried it,
so the choice was already made.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

Hopefully, her new attack wouldn't be all she got by the end
of the day. After all, she had learned the attack pretty much just
to be able to reach someone.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

she thought wistfully. But now was not the time for
that. Right now, she was on 'Sailor Business'.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"


"Saotome..." Ryoga growled angrily as he slowly stepped away
from his pig-tailed rival, removing his abdomen from a certain knee
along the way.

"You promised Hotaru..." Ryoga said slowly, angry and slightly
confused. The only thing that had been hurt from Ranma's attack was
his pride. In fact, if he hadn't known any better, he might have even
thought the strike had been pulled.

But still, Ranma had basically broken his promise to Hotaru: no
fighting. He knew Ranma was an insensitive thief;(though he had...
'forgiven' Ranma for the latter) but he also knew that Hotaru and her
opinions were very important to the pig-tailed martial artist. So why?

"In case ya didn't notice Ryoga, I pulled the knee," Ranma
said, rolling his eyes. "No need ta get all ballistic on me."

Although the anger at being hit in such a cowardly manner
remained, Ryoga's confusion only deepened as heard Ranma's words.

"So I wasn't fighting," Ranma continued as Ryoga hadn't said
anything.

Ryoga took a deep, calming breathe. He would have liked for
nothing more than to start pounding Ranma right then, but a
combination of the facts that he had pretty much promised not to, and
that there was a large chance of hitting Hotaru, refrained him.

Instead, he took a deep, calming breathe, eyes closed.

"What's the matter Ryoga? I didn't ya too hard did I?" Ranma
asked, a hint of concern in his voice, as he watched his 'friend'. He
hadn't hit the idiot too hard had he? All he had been trying to do
was get the guy's attention and make him shut up.

Ryoga tensed and took another deep breathe, telling himself
that Ranma was an idiot and didn't know any better when he made that
insulting inquiry. It didn't matter whether or not it was true. He'd
figure that out later and pound Ranma for it. Right now, however, he
had a promise to one of the sweetest girls he had ever meet, if not
the sweetest, to keep.

"You alright man, I didn't mean ta hurtcha,"

Ryoga took another deep breathe. Ranma wasn't making it any
easier...


"Venus Double Beam Shower."

Minako's twin attacks blew off large chunks of street she
could not see yet again. She had long since lost enthusiasm, opting
to merely speak the name of her attack as opposed to yelling it out.
Her voice was starting to get strained after shouting out the same
words repeatedly again and again and she was feeling slightly weaker
already, though she didn't think much of that. 'Over-using' her powers
had never been a problem before.

Minako sighed.

She was getting bored. Something she never thought could be
applied to fighting monsters. But this one had been so DULL since she
had escaped from it. She probably should have been thanking her lucky
stars that the monster was rather harmless, and that no people had come
by yet, but it was all just taking so damn long! Who knew where Ryoga
could've gone to by now?

And in the 15 or so minutes she had been there, the cloud had
only gotten slightly smaller. Standing on her legs the whole time,
pumping out attack after attack didn't help much either.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

With a bored sigh, Minako decided the hell with it and just
plopped down onto the ground. If she had to stay for awhile, she might
as well be comfortable.


"Ranma, I am trying very hard not to hurt you, please shut up."
Ryoga said slowly, his voice strained as he tried to keep his calm.

Ranma looked at Ryoga oddly for a moment before shrugging his
shoulders. "Fine, I was just aksin', sheesh."

Taking advantage of the silence, Ryoga focused his mind on
calming thoughts. Thoughts that, in other words, did not involve
beating anybody, particularly certain pig-tailed martial artists,
into bloody pulps.

A minute of awkward silence passed, Ryoga with his eyes closed,
and Ranma standing nearby, Hotaru in his arms.

As a whole minute ticked away, Ranma decided Ryoga was a moron
and turned back to more important matters: namely, Hotaru. Or rather,
enjoying the time he had left with her for the day. Well, as much as
he could with her being unconscious, anyway...

"Dumb Ryoga..." the pig-tailed martial artist muttered darkly
to himself. Well, he might as well get going. "Yo Ryoga!"

He was greeted with the solemn face of a quite Ryoga, eyes still
closed and mouth unmoving.

Ranma gave his 'friend' another odd look, the fact that the
Lost Boy couldn't see him passing over his head.

Well, as long as the ears weren't covered... "Since ya ain't
gunna talk about your 'answer to my problems', let's get goin'
already," Ranma suggested loudly.

Once again, Ryoga remained silent, as if in meditation.
"C'mon Ryoga, this ain't no time to meditate." Ranma tried in
annoyance. The more time he spent trying to get Ryoga moving, the
more time spent with Hotaru was wasting. Well, at least that was
how he figured it.

Once more, Ryoga's eyes were closed and no response was
drawn from the Lost Boy's lips.

Ranma took a deep breathe, annoyed at Ryoga's ignoring him.
It wasn't so bad really, but this was all so pointless; and they
needed to get Hotaru home! So just what the heck was Ryoga doing
wasting time being a lousy statue?!

Ranma was sorely tempted to say 'the hell' with his promise
and just clock Ryoga a good one. Whether a direct punch to the
Lost Boy's inhumanely strong face would hurt the receiver or the
executor more, however, Ranma was unsure of. Besides, his hands were
occupied.

"Can we go now? the pig-tailed martial artist asked impatiently.

Slowly, Ryoga opened his eyes. Without a word he turned to look
at Ranma, staring at him calmly, all traces of anger apparently gone.

Ranma just looked back, getting bored and tired of whatever it
was Ryoga was doing. "Look," the pig-tailed martial artist said, "I
ain't in the mood for whatever it is you're up to; I'm outta here."
With those words, Ranma turned around and started walking off,
glancing around for a good fence to jump onto.

He had next to no idea what Ryoga had been up to, except that
it had involved him and his supposed problems somehow, but if the guy
was going to be so stubborn in keeping quite... Well, Ranma had more
important things to do.

"Aren't you interested in staying with Hotaru?" the Lost Boy's
words, drifting to Ranma with a faint hint of amusement and mockery
in it stopped Ranma dead in his tracks, hitting him with the full
impact of one of the bandanna-clad martial artist's punches.

"What?"


"Venus Double Chain Shower."

At the command of her bored words, the flying projectiles once
more flew forth from Minako's fingertips wreaking mass havoc upon the
cloud-obscured streets.

The blond-haired sighed tiredly. The cloud had been getting
smaller, certainly, but it was all so... BORING! To think, just a scant
twenty or so minutes ago, her life had actually been in danger. Now...

"Venus Double Beam Shower."

Well, on the plus side now she had discovered a new attack.
Smiling lightly, Minako gave thanks to Ryoga for helping her discover
the 'Venus Double Beam Shower'. Without him, she would have taken
twice as long destroying the cloud! Surely it was sign that they were
meant to be!

"Venus Double Beam..." Sailor Venus dropped her hand back down to
her side and took a deep breath. She could hardly believe it, but she
was actually starting to feel tired using her attacks. She had almost
believed she had no physical limitations in her Senshi form, as in
practically all the fights with monsters before, she had never had to
shoot so many attacks! And the long, epic battles, were usually taken
care of by Usagi.

Sailor Venus sat, staring at the cloud before her lazily. Her
arms were starting to feel a little tense... Well, at the least the
cloud was getting smaller. She had been slightly afraid that she was
just adding more dust to the cloud at first, but the cloud had just
been getting smaller and smaller.

She was no rocket scientist, but she had come to the conclusion
that it was the dark energy that was keeping the cloud up, thus with
less energy to keep the dust afloat, the cloud got smaller. Actually,
that had been her thoughts from the beginning, but it was nice to be
able to actually use that scientific process Ami had pestered her so
much about.

Now if only she could finish off the stupid thing and be on her
way to find Ryoga. Who knew how far he could have gotten already in
twenty minutes? Especially someone as strong, handsome, muscular...

"Ohmigod it's Sailor Venus!!"

Uh oh. Someone had found her. That meant the press would no
doubt be there soon. That meant that she had better get off the
ground and start putting up a good show. It wouldn't do for all of
her loyal Sailor V fans to see her any less than spectacular and
awe-inspiring. Well, she was still feeling a slightly drained, but
still more than strong enough to take on a Droid, Youma, or any other
monster, especially a dust cloud.

"Stand back, it's dangerous!" Sailor Venus shouted as she
jumped into the air, executed a perfect mid-air flip, landing
lightly on her feet and striking a dramatic pose. Ack, stupid shoes
were being a bother; almost tripped there. So maybe she was a little
more tire then she thought...

"Sailor Venus, defender of Love and Justice will handle this!"

Mentally smiling as she saw the awed faces of her now five-
person audience, Venus launched her newest attack, her need to please
her fans digging up the necessary will power to overcome the extremely
minor tiredness she was feeling.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

The yellow beams of energy streaked forward from her gloved-
fingers, splitting apart and crashing deep inside the cloud of dust
with a loud explosion.

Turning to her now seven-person audience, Venus smiled and
winked at them. "You're the first ones to see my new attack."

Watching the awed and open-mouthed expressions on her audience
of mostly elementary-school students, Venus felt the intense boredom
disappear.

"You're the best, Sailor Venus!' one brave girl shouted out
to her.

"Of course!" Venus replied enthusiastically favoring her with a
smile. "I bet you're pretty smart at school!"

Ooooh... It was always so nice when her fans were around to
cheer her on. Blowing all of the audience a kiss, Sailor Venus
launched herself into the air, back-flipping gracefully and landing
lightly on her feet a good 15 feet away, spinning around to face the
cloud.

The shoes again. Sometimes, she wished she had something
better to fight in than high heels. It wasn't exactly the best of
foot-wear to fight in, although she managed to compensate for most of
it with her experience and skill. After all, Usagi and Ami had the much
more sensible boots, which were much easier to fight in. Then again,
maybe they had it easier because they were the *ahem* least skilled in
the art of fighting among her friends...

On the plus side, she didn't feel any strain at all. How could
she, when she was surrounded by so many loving fans? They loved her,
she loved them, how could she feel tired helping the people?

Pushing those thoughts aside though, Sailor Venus focused on the
task at hand. She had a job to do, and she needed to make it look good.
After all, her friends weren't there to cover for her if she did
something stupid.

"Venus Double Beam Shower!"

And she needed to make it snappy too. Ryoga was somewhere out
there and she wanted to find him.

"Venus Double Beam Shower! Venus Double Beam Shower! Venus
Double Beam Shower! Venus Double Beam Shower!"

Heeey... A bit more tiring, but it could work...

Sailor Venus proceeded to launch as many of her 'Venus Double
Beam Shower's as possible in the space of two seconds.


"Tell me already ya moron!" As soon as the words left Ranma's
mouth, the young martial artist realized that it may not have exactly
been the most tactful thing to say. Not that he really cared; he had
actually kneed the idiot, after all.

Ranma's realization was confirmed as he watched Ryoga cross his
arms and snort indignantly. "You ought to learn some manners, Saotome.
What makes you think I'll tell someone as rude as you anything."

Biting down the instinctive urge to give Ryoga a reason
involving large, unsightly bruises, Ranma took a deep breathe,
calming breathe and looked at Ryoga, who was smirking mockingly
at him.

"Oh mighty Ryoga," Ranma began, not even trying to conceal his
sarcasm. "Please... er... tell me whatcha know!" Having unsuccessfully
tried to come up with a large word, smart-sounding word to fit in his
sentence, Ranma had to settle for the less-than eloquent wording from
the top of his head to phrase his request.

"Better, but you're not convincing me..." Ryoga said, not at
all perturbed by the dripping sarcasm.

"Um..." Ranma frantically started picking his brain for an idea.
Beating the answer out of the Lost Boy was out, what with his promise
and all; and that pretty much screwed most of his ideas. Which were
all pretty much variants of the basic, 'hit Ryoga' suggestion.

"Please?" Ranma tried hopefully.

Ryoga stared silently at his rival for a moment.

"Hahahahaha!" He couldn't help it, he just had to laugh. The
expression on his rival's pleading had just been too hilarious. He had
NEVER seen Ranma look so... pitiful, and now that he had...

"Ah, shut up," Ranma said, scowling and then settling into an
extremely annoyed glare directed at the laughing boy before him. Great,
that was the last time he tried to be polite...

"Hahahahaha!"

"Shut up!" Ranma repeated, wishing he could hit Ryoga right
then. But even he hadn't promised not to, his hands were still
occupied with more important matters.

Slowly, Ryoga's laughter died down, into chuckles. Then, after
many more glares and demands to 'shut up', the chuckling died out,
replaced with and amused and knowing smirk.

"Geez, I thought you'd never stop," Ranma said, relieved that
Ryoga had finally stopped with his pointless laughter.

His reply was an amused snort. "Stop being such a girl."

"What did you call me?!" Now Ranma wasn't just annoyed, he was
angry.

"A girl," was Ryoga's simple, reply. This was all so much FUN!
Now he had an inkling as to why Ranma enjoyed tormenting his so much;
well, two could play at that game.

"Why you..." Ranma growled, tensing. "You take that back."

Ryoga was silent for a moment, his amused smirk never leaving
his face.

Just as Ranma was about to say the hell with it quit and
accidentally trip Ryoga into the nearest, hard, solid wall, the Lost
Boy spoke a single, very important word. "Fine."

Ranma's expression softened and he relaxed. "Great," the pig-
tailed martial artist said. He'd get Ryoga back for the whole thing
later, but for now, he was just glad that the Lost Boy hadn't put
Ranma through all that crap while Hotaru had been awake.

"After you tell Hotaru you're in love with her."

"W-hat?!" Ranma demanded, immediately tensing back up, not really
angry, but... well, surprised.

"Don't try to deny, it!" Ryoga said, still smirking. "Hmph,
you're even groping her right now."

"I am not!" Ranma shot back angrily, glancing down at his hands,
satisfied that they weren't on any inappropriate parts of Hotaru's
body.

"Well, you have a rather 'strong' grip on her." Ryoga replied
simply.

"S-shut up!" Ranma shot back uneasily, quickly relaxing his
tensed grip on his unconscious friend.

Enjoying the Ranma's flustered state, Ryoga continued on.
"Why don't you tell her you're in love with her?"

"Why the hell should I do anything you say?!" Ranma demanded,
twitching slightly as he tried to avoid his least favorite
conversation topic. Ryoga just seemed to love bringing up him, love,
and Hotaru at the same time.

"You still haven't denied it Ranma," Ryoga replied.

"Will you shut up already?!" Ranma shouted out, forgetting for
a moment that he might have been disturbing Hotaru's much-needed rest.

"No."

And although Ranma had not, Ryoga had noticed that the pig-tailed
martial artist had, once again, not denied anything. More fuel for the
flames, it was.


The remaining dust particles that still hung in the air was
swiftly carried away by soft, natural winds, reveling the devastated
street, filled with an almost uncountable number of mini-sized craters
and hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of debris.

Catching the attention of most of those present, including the
beautiful Sailor Venus herself, however, was a significantly larger
crater off towards the side of the street.

But what really caught Venus's attention what lay in the crater.
Perhaps the others couldn't see it, but Sailor Venus could just barely
make out the remains of something... strange at the center of the
crater. Actually, a normal person probably would not have notice it,
unless they knew what they were looking for, and were looking very
hard.

But with the swirling cloud of dark energy gone and no longer
masking the power of whatever had been inside, Sailor Venus could
clearly sense the powerful residual dark energies that emanated from
the center of the crater. Or rather, from the fragments of...
something that lay scattered around the it. Something well-camouflaged
among the pieces of debris created by her attacks.

"Stay back," she called out to the small crowd that had formed
to watch her. They had been so kind, cheering her on like that, and
she didn't want to risk them getting hurt. Even if most of the dark
energy was gone, the kids would still have problems like how they were
going to navigate through the crater-pocked street to actually even
reach the large crater; and Sailor Venus wasn't about to risk their
well-being.

Venus broke out into a slow jog towards what had once been the
edge of the cloud of dust. Now there was merely a fine layer of the
floating particles on the ground, marking the line to what had once
been dangerous ground.

Focusing for a moment, Venus was satisfied to confirm once again
that there was not much more than residual negative energy floating
around in the area.

Quickly calculating the distance between her and crater Venus
the bent down and launched herself into the air, the 'oooohs' and
'ahhhhhs' of her fans bringing a smile to her face.

She was only airborne for a short second before gravity took
effect and she found herself falling towards the ground. With a soft
thud, her feet hit the ground, scattering dust and debris.

She stopped for a few seconds, catching her breath. Those attacks
she threw had worn her out... a bit, and she had discovered that she
couldn't run on idolization alone.

After the three seconds that it took for her to regain her
strength where her fans couldn't see her she was up into the air again
soaring towards the crater. After all, she couldn't let them think that
she actually had a weakness, could she?


"It's simple," Ryoga said, having finally stopped laughing and
decided that he might as well tell Ranma what he wanted to know.

"Well, go ahead and enlighten me," Ranma deadpanned. Ryoga just
ignored him.

"All you have to do," Ryoga said, pausing dramatically.

"Yeah yeah, tell me already!" Ranma said impatiently; he had
practically went through a hell of torture and was now on the edge
of going insane.

"is stay with her!" Ryoga finished proudly.

An eerie silence fell on the two martial artists; one with an
expectant and proud look on his face, the other carrying a dark-haired
girl in his arms and staring speechlessly at the other.

Ranma was the first to break the silence. "You idiot!" he almost
shouted. "That's what I want to do! What I want to know is how!" Ranma
was disgusted. He had put up with all of Ryoga's crap for this? He
suddenly felt a strong urge to start hitting the Lost Boy multiple
times on the head.

"By staying with her!" Ryoga repeated, more confused than
anything else. Just what the heck was that idiot Ranma babbling about?

"You moron!" Ranma said shaking his head and groaning. What
the heck was Ryoga talking about her.

"What?!" Ryoga demanded defensively. "I'm helping you out, you
idiot!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not!!"

Sailor Venus bent down, clearing away the larger chunks of
debris with a swift, casual flick of a wrist. She could feel it,
right at the spot in front of her: the source, or what had been
the source of the dust cloud.

She could feel it, but she couldn't see it; at least, not yet.
Venus wondered, pushing aside the small
pieces of black debris and dirt.



There. That had to be it.

Laying among the clutter of debris was an inch-long piece of...
something. It was from this mysterious still-white fragment with
strange grooves running down it's side, that a large amount of the
residual dark-energy in the area was coming from.

Although she knew that the whatever significant power that had
been in the thing had been destroyed, Sailor Venus still tensed as
she slowly reached down and picked up the strange thing.

Nothing.

A slight tingling as the residual power still clinging to the...
rock, for lack of a better term, clashed with her own; but that was all
And in a swift second, even that was gone; overcome by her magic.

Although she knew it had been stupid to worry about a little
thing like that, Sailor Venus sighed in relief anyway. the blond-haired Senshi thought to
herself. she amended as she suddenly remembered Ryoga.

Staring at the white fragment of what had once probably been a
monster or something, Ryoga in her thoughts, the Senshi suddenly felt
a surge of anger rush through her. That one stupid little rock had
delayed her from finding Ryoga!

with one swift movement, she crushed the
white 'rock' in her hands, a small part of her mildly surprised at
how tough the thing had actually been. Venus thought in annoyance to herself. If anything
did there wouldn't be enough of it left to make moon dust...

A sudden screech of rubber against the street brought Sailor
Venus's head up in surprise. Somehow, she had been so distracted
that she hadn't heard the news van's arrival sooner.

Well, publicity was fine, but Sailor Venus had a certain boy
to find! Dropping the crumbled remains of white 'rock' onto the
ground, the orange-skirted Senshi jumped to her feet and flipped
backwards into the air as high as she could manage, spinning around
in a dazzling display of acrobatics she normally did not bother to do.
But right then, she wasn't Sailor Venus of the Sailor Senshi; she was
Sailor V, lovely defender of Justice, and she had fans to amaze.

Cutting through the air in a in a series of graceful spins,
Venus smiled. It always felt wonderful to almost fly through the air
like that; just another one of the many perks to being a Sailor
Senshi. She had long since acquired all the skill necessary to beat
the best in the world of acrobatics and the like; all she lacked was
physical ability. She could still jump higher and was stronger than
most, but who, without magic, could really leap over buildings?

Landing lightly on her feet, Sailor Venus was met with a
thunderous wave of applause. Smiling and winking cutely at her fans and
the few cameras that were set up, the Orange-skirted Senshi then spun
around and broke out into an almost unbelievably-fast sprint out of the
area.

Minako Aino suddenly felt a lot better.


"Oooohhhh..." Ranma said, nodding in understanding, having
finally figured out what Ryoga had been talking about.

"It's about time you finally figured it out," Ryoga said,
rolling his eyes. And to think, Ranma actually called him an idiot.

"Ah, so I missed one lousy thing," Ranma said his voice casual
and unconcerned although his face took on a slightly embarrassed look.

"Whatever you idiot," Ryoga replied, rolling his eyes. "Just
remember, you owe me." The Lost Boy's face smiled, showing off his
teeth, and in particular, his fangs menacingly.

Ranma twitched, more than a little nervous by Ryoga's words.
"Uh..." he trailed off, trying to buy some time to come up with a
good idea. He was beyond glad to have found such a simple way to
stay with Hotaru longer, but he didn't want to be owing Ryoga any
'favors'.

"Uh..." Ranma repeated, the gears of his mind spinning overtime
as he tried to figure something out.

"What are you babbling about now?" Ryoga asked, annoyed at
Ranma's 'uh's.

"Er, I don't owe you nuthin'." Ranma decided say, having decided
that trying to think was taking to long, despite Hotaru's insistence
that it would be better in the long run. He knew it was in vain, but he
prayed, nonetheless, that Ryoga wouldn't ask-

"Why?" the Lost boy asked remarkably keeping his calm, more
annoyed than anything.

Who knows? Perhaps the Ranma mentality was starting to rub off.

"I did you a favor," the bandanna-clad martial artist continued,
an eyes starting to twitch.

Then again...

"Uh..." Ranma said nervously. He was half-surprised that Ryoga
hadn't burst out in anger yet, but thankful nonetheless. Maybe it had
to do with the promise; or perhaps it was because of his long period
of supposed meditation or something.

"Stop that!" Ryoga snapped.

"What?" Ranma asked, feigning innocence, as he turned around,
and started walking in the general direction of Hotaru's home.

"Stop stalling!"

Ranma came to an abrupt stop, twitching slightly. Okay, he
supposed he should have known better than to think that he could
have actually cleverly changed the subject like that...

"You owe me a favor, Ranma!" Ryoga repeated loudly when the
pig-tailed martial artist didn't say anything.

Sighing in frustration, Ranma spun around, careful not to
disturb Hotaru's rest as he gave Ryoga an annoyed look, not
bothering to use his brain anymore. "Are you crazy?! You'd probably
make me go... and..."

Ranma trailed off, his face growing white as he upon a solution
to the problem of owing Ryoga a favor. Unfortunately, it also killed
Ryoga's plan.

Ryoga's annoyed look vanished as he watched Ranma pale. Was
there some sort of danger? Had something happened to Hotaru? The Lost
Boy clenched fist, anger starting to surface as the thought of his
friend, sweet Hotaru, being hurt presented itself to the boy's mind.

"What is it?" he asked steeling himself for the worst.

Ranma only whispered a single, quite word in reply. "Kaolinite."

A split second of shock and Ryoga was spinning around, expecting
the red-haired housekeeper to have somehow managed to sneak up on him.

He was met with empty street.

"No," Ranma shook his head despairingly, understanding what his
'friend' had been thinking. "Your plan, Kaolinite."

This time, Ryoga understood.


The blond-haired girl shot down the street at blazing speeds,
even faster than the one she used whenever she was late for school.

Normally, the girl would have been able to keep up that kind of
speed for quite a long period of time, but she had been running almost
nonstop since she had left Crown Arcade. She HAD to have gotten a
little tired by then.

Of course, that little rule of supply and demand only applied
when she wasn't in Senshi form.

Now the only thing keeping her from an appointment with destiny
was knowledge. Namely, knowledge of where her Ryoga was right then.
All she knew was that he had gone down the street she was currently
on.

Oh. And she had made the discovery that throwing a constant
stream of magical attacks on something for extended periods of time
could wear her out a bit. Fortunately, she had yet to find a limit to
how long she could run, and she had already recovered from a little
thing like expending too much energy.

Minako thought to herself as she blazed
down the mostly empty residential streets. She knew she had wasted a
lot of time destroying that cloud, but Ryoga was probably walking, and
she had long since broken world records with her blinding speed. She
HOPED it would compensate for the lost time, maybe even more then.

Her guilt at using her powers for her own purposes may as well
be non-existent.


Heads hung low, shoulders slumped, Ranma trudged slowly towards
Hotaru's home, Ryoga behind him, also depressed, though those who
looked would have merely labeled him as 'serious'.

"Some plan that was," Ranma sarcastically repeated yet again, a
touch of bitterness mixed in his voice as he shifted Hotaru slightly,
his arms starting to get restless.

"Shut up," Ryoga replied, any emotion having long since fled
from the normally rude reply. Right now, it was all routine; he even
had to admit that Ranma had a point: his plan had been rather flawed.
From what he had observed of Kaolinite's behavior, he doubted she
would let them in. And as for Hotaru's father, he really doubted the
man would appreciate seeing his daughter brought home unconscious.

The two continued their silent march to Hotaru's home, a heavy
air of depression and other negative emotions hanging over them.

Eventually, Ranma broke the silence yet again. "Some plan that
was."

"Shut up," was, once again, the rather unenthusiastic reply.


Minako screeched to a halt, her hopes deflating as she saw what
lay in front of her: an intersection.

the blond-haired Senshi thought to herself
as she quickly and impatiently glanced around for anybody to ask for
help. If people had been so willing to help her before, then they'd be
doubly so now that she was in Senshi form, right?

Problem was, there wasn't another soul in sight; and she had
pretty good eyes.

Minako thought to herself as she gave a frustrated
sigh. There were three ways Ryoga could have gone, and she had no clue
whatsoever on which path the boy had taken.

It looked like she was just going to be making a lucky guess.
Muttering darkly to herself, Minako shook her head in frustration.

Taking a deep, calming breathe the blond-haired glanced at each
of the three possible routes briefly.

she decided.

She hesitated for only a split second before breaking into a
run towards her decided course. A wild guess; but love was on her
side, was it not?


"Some plan that was."

"Shut up."

Silence, broken only by the heavy and slow fall of weary feet.

"Some plan that was."

"Shut up."
Again, silence.

"Some plan-"

Ryoga's head shot up, his eyes shining and a smirk forming on
his face . "Of course!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers and cutting
off his rival's sentence.

Glancing back at the Lost Boy briefly, Ranma just rolled his
eyes, unaffected by the young man's enthusiasm. "What is it now?" he
asked rather uninterestedly, not even attaching an almost customary
insult to the end of his question. "Got some stupid new plan?"
Knowing Ryoga, it was probably a plan on how to get Kaolinite lost.

Ranma paused in his thoughts for a moment, thinking about that
idea. Oh... That still left her old man
though...

Ryoga merely stared smugly at his rival's back, unperturbed by
the fact that all facial expressions he made were currently next to
useless in drawing a reaction from his rival. "Heh, I'd take that back
if I were you," the bandanna-clad martial artist suggested, his posture
and voice so proud and confident that you could hardly relate him to
his usual self, much less his demeanor just a scant minute ago.

Ranma thought to himself,
rolling his eyes. "So what's your plan now?" the pig-tailed martial
artist asked, a hint of mockery and a definite dose of sarcasm in his
voice. "You gunna break into her house or something?"

Ryoga stopped, twitching nervously as the words left Ranma's
mouth. "Umm..."

Ranma stopped and quickly turned around as the familiar sound
of heavy footsteps behind him disappeared, wondering absently why that
idiot Ryoga had stopped.

He hadn't even insulted the guy yet; all he had said was some
weird stuff about breaking into Hotaru's home.

"Whatcha stopping for now, Ryoga?" Ranma inquired as he shifted
Hotaru's weight slightly to hopefully better accommodate her. "Don't
tell me you're," Ranma halted his sentence, looking closely at the
tight-mouthed and expressionless martial artist before him. "Don't tell
me your lost?"

Ryoga's reaction was as swift and sudden as a volcanic eruption.
"What kind of man do you take me for, Saotome?!" the Lost Boy demanded
to know angrily."

"I dunno," Ranma replied with a simple shrug, not at all taken
aback by the sudden mood swing. "A stupid one?" The chances of Ryoga
getting lost while directly behind him should have been non-existent,
but you could never be sure.

"What did you call me?!" Ryoga demanded , his fists clenched.

"Ah, forget about it," Ranma replied, rolling his eyes.

"Grrr..." Ryoga merely glared at him for a moment, before taking
a deep, calming breathe and composing himself. As soon as Hotaru was
awake, he could start pounding Ranma to his heart's content.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Ranma said long since used to Ryoga's
vainly intimidating nature. "Let's get goin' already." And with that,
he turned around and continued walking in the general direction of
Hotaru's home, his conversation with Ryoga, although he would never
admit it, having cheered him up slightly.

Ryoga stared, confused for several moments as Ranma walked off.
Shaking his head clear, he quickly ran after the pig-tailed boy.
"Don't you want to hear my plan?"

Ranma shook his head negatively. "Like some stupid plan of yours
could really work."

"If you don't want to hear it, then I'm not going to say it!"
Ryoga threatened. Stupid Ranma. He knew the idiot wanted to hear his
plan, so why wouldn't he just admit it?

"Fine." Ranma said simply, wishing Hotaru were awake so he could
actually have a conversation that didn't involve threats, insults,
shouting and the like. He didn't really mind, actually, but it was
starting to get old. And Hotaru... Ranma smiled briefly. Hotaru never
bored him.

"What?!" Ryoga exclaimed in disbelief. Ranma didn't... want to
hear his plan?! Why that little... Ryoga clenched his fists and
narrowed his eyes. He KNEW Ranma wanted to spend more time with Hotaru,
so what was going on?

"Whatever stupid plan you have, it probably won't work," Ranma
said, answering Ryoga's unspoken question.

"What?!" Ryoga demanded. Stupid?! Well, if Ranma didn't want
to hear his plan, he was going to tell it anyway! "Then I suppose
you're not interested in going through Hotaru's window!"

Ranma paused. That almost sounded like it could work... But
there had to be something wrong with it...

"So how about that, Saotome," Ryoga taunted, arms crossed over
his chest.

Of course. There was one major flaw in the plan. Ranma wasn't
happy to have found it, but he could hardly go around trying out
stupid plans that wouldn't work. "What're we gunna do? Break her
window?"

"What are you talking about?" was Ryoga's confused reply. "We'll
just open it you idiot!" Once again, Ranma was acting stupid. Break
through Hotaru's window? What kind of dumb idea was that?

"I dunno," Ranma answered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. And
Ryoga called him and idiot. "Maybe her window's locked!!"

Ryoga suddenly wished that Minako was with him.


"No," Minako whispered to herself. This wasn't the right way,
she knew it. Something inside her, something that she had felt twice
before in her life wanted her to go back. Go back to the intersection
and take the path that had led forward.

Screeching to a halt, Minako spun around and ran back, doubling
her speed. She knew she had been on the wrong path. She knew without
a doubt that Ryoga was waiting for her on the other path. She knew
she could trust this feeling inside of her; because she had felt it
twice before, and she had followed it.

She followed it once and had found Artemis. She followed it
again, and she had found her princess. And now, once again, she was
following it. Only, it had never been so strong before.


"Some plans those were," Ranma said as he trudged onward. He
wasn't feeling as down as he had before, but the thought of leaving
Hotaru alone was still as depressing as ever. Not only would he be
leaving her all by herself with that psycho Kaolinite, whom he knew
his friend... disliked; he would also be leaving himself alone with
Ryoga, without even the pleasure of being allowed to engage in a good
fight!

"Shut up Ranma," was Ryoga's nearly routine reply. He couldn't
believe it: he had practically humiliated himself twice in a roll. In
front of that idiot Ranma, no less. But at least the idiot hadn't
laughed at him or anything...

Ryoga shook his head in frustration, resisting the urge to groan
and hit something. He was calling Ranma and idiot, and here he was
coming up with stupid plans that had extremely low possibilities of
success. If Minako had been there, or Hotaru had been awake...

"Some plans those were."

And he couldn't even let it all out in a nice, crushing hook
to Ranma's head, either! He was starting to wonder if making that
promise to Hotaru had really been a good idea.

Well, what's done is done. Only the present to deal with. "Shut
up Ranma." The annoying present that just wouldn't bury the past.

Of course, that was the same way Ranma felt about every time he
had been called a 'thief' by a certain bandanna-clad martial artist.


It was getting stronger, she could feel it. So much like what
had led her to being a Senshi in the first place; so much like what
led her to Usagi. And so much... stronger!

The first time, she hadn't even been aware that something had
led her to Artemis until long after; and the second time, she had
barely even felt it, and did not even realize what it had meant until
long after she had met Usagi. And now... now it pounded her with such
strength, leading her own with such vigor, that she wondered how she
could have missed this the last two times.

Minako smiled briefly to herself; a smile that although small,
was full of more joy then any of her previous grins or laughs. Twice
before, she had been led to... destiny by this feeling. And if she
was feeling it so strongly this time, what did that tell her of her
and Ryoga?

She felt slightly sorry for Hotaru, but if destiny was favoring
her and Ryoga, it just couldn't be helped. the blond-
haired girl thought happily to herself.


"R-Ranma..."

As the soft voice reached his ears, accompanied by stirring,
Ranma immediately stopped and looked down at Hotaru. Was she awake
again? A guilty part of him hoped so and that she would want to
continue on with the day as normal. The other wanted her to awaken so
he could get past Kaolinite and stay with her. Either way, Ranma's
hopes were pinned on Hotaru's awakening.

"Hotaru?" he asked softly, hoping the girl would answer him.
His only response was a soft moan and the young girl's stirrings.

"What's going on?" Ryoga asked as he walked around Ranma to
see what had stopped him. He had been expecting Ranma to say something
regarding his proposed plans.

"Hotaru!" Ryoga gasped as he saw his friend squirming around
in Ranma's arms. "What did you do to her Saotome?!" In one swift
motion, Ryoga pulled his umbrella out from behind him and pointed it
threateningly at his pig-tailed rival. Promises be damned, but if
Ranma had hurt Hotaru, he would pay.

"W-what?!" Ranma exclaimed as he managed to tear his worried
gaze from the girl in his arms and turn his head to look at Ryoga.

"If you hurt her..." the Lost Boy started menacingly. He thought
Ranma had had something for Hotaru, but if he had done something to
Hotaru...

"I didn't do nuthin!" Ranma shouted angrily as he took a step
away from Ryoga. What was with the guy? Him, hurt Hotaru? That idea was
just plain stupid!

"Then what's with all the moving around and screams?" the
bandanna-clad martial artist demanded, unconvinced.

"Screams?!"

"You know what I mean!" the Lost Boy snapped, not at all
embarrassed at his extreme exaggeration. "So are you going to answer
me, or shall I beat one out of you?"

"She's probably just waking up, you idiot!" Ranma shouted,
wishing he could whack Ryoga a good one on the head. If that idiot did
decide to break his promise and fight, both of them would be at a
severe disadvantage. He was carrying Hotaru, and Ryoga wouldn't want
to hit her; at least, he had BETTER not want to hit her...

Ryoga lowered his umbrella slowly at Ranma's words. He didn't
think that Ranma would hurt Hotaru, but he was a thief... No. Ryoga
shook his head as the memory of his conversation with his rival after
that truck incident flashed through his mind. He couldn't call Ranma
a thief... yet. And not after he had almost gotten him killed, even
if he had been forgiven. No, especially since he had been forgiven.

Still, he couldn't let Ranma just get away with calling him
names. "Don't call me an idiot." He wanted to do so much more than
that, but under circumstances, he had to settle for the words.

"Shut up Ryoga, this is NOT a good time," was Ranma's distracted
reply as he watched Hotaru moan and turn about in his arms. In fact,
he had barely even registered what his 'friend' had said. All he knew
was that Ryoga had said something rather pointless and unimportant
under the circumstances.

The Lost Boy, to his credit, did not push the subject once he
he followed his rival's gaze and saw that Hotaru's thrashings were
becoming stronger. "We better get her home NOW, Ranma." He had never
seen Hotaru this bad while unconscious, and it scared him.

"Y-yeah," Ranma muttered. No more taking their time. Maybe
Hotaru was just waking up, but he had never seen her do it this way,
and he wasn't about to take such a big risk. "Let's get going."

And then with a startling abruptness, Hotaru stopped. Moaning,
thrashing, everything.

All was silent.

Ranma could've sworn he heard his heartbeat as he slowly turned
his gaze back towards Hotaru. He couldn't fathom why, but he suddenly
felt very tense and nervous, like something bad was about to happen.
It wasn't his 'danger sense', though that, too, was quietly telling him
that something was wrong; no, this was something else. Something... in
the air. Something... wrong.

And then he saw her.

Simultaneous sighs of relief at the angelic sight of Hotaru,
apparently soundly asleep, were made.

Smiling fondly at the beautiful face before him, Ranma decided
that he was just getting paranoid. The dark-black hair, the fine
eyebrows, the... waitaminute... Where was the smile?

Ranma quickly resisted the urge to smack himself on the head.
Hotaru didn't always smile when she was unconscious; heck she didn't
even smile when awake when he first met her. Still, it felt kind of
strange not to see her cute face graced with that soft and kind smile
that he... liked so much. And why did he still have that stupid feeling
that something was wrong?

As if on cue, Hotaru's eyes shot open.

Looking back on the next few minutes of his life, a slightly
older Ranma could have sworn that his heart had stopped.


It was stronger, so much stronger now, as if a spark had been.
She could feel it inside of her, pulling her unerringly towards...
Ryoga. It had to be Ryoga. What else could it be?

It all made sense to her in a weird sort of away that this...
feeling would lead her to Ryoga. First, she had found herself. Then,
she had found her friends. It only made sense that now she would find
her love.

What else could it be? Ryoga wasn't, after all, a girl and
thus not able to be a Senshi. Therefore, it was a sign that her and
Ryoga were meant to be. She felt sorry for Hotaru, but if this was
fate and destiny, they had better not fight it. And if someone did
try to... Well, they'd just learn the hard way that some things were
just meant to be.

Minako sighed wistfully. It would be sooooo wonderful to have
someone like Usagi had Mamoru. A love so great that even death could
not destroyed it. Well... Maybe something of that caliber was too much
to hope for... But she could dream, couldn't she? And like Usagi and
Mamoru, hers was destined, so who knew?

She could feel it. Just up ahead and around the
corner, she could feel was where she was being led.


"H-Hotaru?" Ranma asked shakily of the girl that had silently
slipped out of his arms and now stood before him. The girl looked like
Hotaru, but... she couldn't be. He KNEW with dead certainty that the
figure standing before him was Hotaru, but... she couldn't be.

The look the girl wore was a... hostile one; a face more suited
for the times she had 'conversed with Kaolinite. The way she stood,
even, was different. Slumped and loose, yet still radiating danger; a
far cry from the graceful and shy girl he had grown to know and...

And the eyes. Those cold, emotionless eyes were definitely not
like those of the cute girl he had been tutored under for the past
week. The purple was gone, replaced with glowing yellow; hell, the
whole damn pupils were gone! All that was left were glowing, yellow
orbs, somehow managing to shine forth not only cold, yellow power, but
a strong aura of... evil. Those eyes were evil.

A quick glance at Ryoga confirmed the fact that the Lost Boy
was also... disturbed. As if he didn't already know...

"H-Hotaru?" he repeated. It wasn't Hotaru, it couldn't be.
Hotaru wouldn't look at him like that; Hotaru wouldn't make him feel
so threatened; Hotaru wouldn't make every instinct in his body scream
at to kill the person standing before him before something so bad it
was worse than an extinction-level event happened. But he had to ask.

His only reply was a cold, silent stare that seemed to bore
right into his soul. Ranma could only stare speechlessly back into
the strangely familiar eyes, a sense of dread starting to creep into
him as he sensed something. A surge of power filling the air with
energy, almost like something... was charging up...

"I-I don't like this..." he heard Ryoga mutter out off his side,
followed by the rustle of clothes as the boy shakily dropped into a
half-hearted defensive stance.

And he knew with dead certainty, as everything martial arts in
him screamed at to, that he should follow suit.

But he didn't.

Another ingrained part of him; one strengthened by every bright
smile, every melodic laugh, every friendly look, every sweet word and
kind gesture, demanded that he not hurt the girl before him no matter
what; that he have faith in her. Because no matter what, she had to be
Hotaru. She... just had to.

"H-Hotaru?" he tried again. Mustering up his courage to approach
the girl before him, fighting against the waves of hostility that
assaulted him, Ranma took a step forward and raised a hand towards
her, not even sure himself what he intended to do.

The girl remained expressionless, staring at the outstretched
arm as if waiting for the it to do something.

"W-What's wrong?" he asked, barely getting the words out of his
mouth. He could feel his heart beating steadily faster, a sweat
starting to form his brow and a cold, uncertain fear building within
him. Fear that whatever happened to Hotaru would endanger him.
Something that the martial artist in him screamed was a certainty, that
the girl before him was infinitely more dangerous than Kaolinite could
be.

It wasn't that he doubted his ability to win a fight against...
the girl... Hotaru; his pride refused to admit that there was a fight
he couldn't win. No, it was that he didn't WANT to fight with her. How
could he betray their friendship like that? How could he just throw
away everything he owed Hotaru by hurting her? Wasn't she already in a
bad enough situation?

Ranma didn't even try to think of an answer to any of that though.
All he felt was the fear, his pulse accelerating, and the cold
eyes upon his outstretched hand; upon him, as if she were judging
something. But he couldn't bring himself to look up, look into those
cold, yellow eyes.

Pasting a picture of Hotaru, the Hotaru he knew, smiling in his
mind, Ranma concentrated on his hand. He was being stupid, probably,
leaving himself exposed like this; even Ryoga's weak stance was better
than his position! But he couldn't, not to Hotaru.

"R-Ranma..."

The pig-tailed martial artist's head snapped up as he heard the
strained voice, the feeling of danger starting to evaporate away.

"Hotaru?!" The eyes, they were normal! Tired, but normal!

Relief filling him, he took a step forward, a smile, a real
one, not a smirk, starting to fill his face. Hotaru was alright, he
knew she was alright. No stupid seizure could have kept her down; he
knew it all along.

Hearing Ryoga sigh in relief next to him, Ranma felt pride
flow into him at his faith in Hotaru. He had put everything in the
belief that no stupid seizure, no matter how weird, could beat Hotaru.

"You alright Hotaru?" Ranma asked, relishing how relaxed he
suddenly felt now that everything was okay. That had been one weird
seizure, especially with the glowing eyes, but that had probably just
been because of the girl's healing powers or something.

"W-What?" the girl asked, shaking her head in confusion, and
taking a step towards the pig-tailed martial artist.

"I'll tell-"

Ranma's words were cut off as a yellow aura shot up around the
girl in front of him, blowing both him and Ryoga back a few dozen feet
as waves of power impacted them.

Shaking head clear, the first thing Ranma noticed as he got
back to his feet were the yellow eyes.


To be continued...


Author's Notes

Don't you just love the cliffhanger? You can blame my good ol'
prereaders for convincing me to cut off the original ending of chapter
2 and transplanting it to chapter 3. Specifically, VidWizard! Anyway,
moving on, I have some stuff to clear up, explain etc.

Okay, the Hotaru dust cloud thing. For some strange reason,
which I wont bother to come up with an explanation for, the dust cloud
was after Senshi more than other 'regular' joes. Since Hotaru wasn't
yet an official Senshi, she wasn't affected as badly as Minako. However,
because of her poor health, she still got knocked out.

And the thing that led Minako to Ryoga; yes, I know it seems a
little cheesy, but here's the real reason she was led towards Ryoga:
it was because Ryoga was with Hotaru. That's right, Minako got the
'feeling' around the time before Hotaru went into 'possessed mode'
because she was in Senshi form and her powers were both picking up on
Hotaru and the possibility of another Senshi.

At the same time, however, Hotaru started going into possessed
mode in the first place because of a combo of her being in the dust
cloud and getting knocked out along with her picking up the supposed
threat of a powerful Senshi in the area. Namely, Minako. The reason
she even 'reacted' to Minako at all probably had something to do with
her being in the cloud.

Hmmm... That's about it. Sorry I didn't get more action in, but
I did say 'later'. I didn't specify in chapter 2. ^_^ And don't worry,
there'll be more Senshi coming in 'later' on as well.

Okay, a few other things. For those of you who want to know, I'm
posting my fic at Tannim's page: http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/
which is a great place to find crossover fiction. He updates every two
weeks,(unless it's his birthday...) but at least you can be practically
guaranteed that SOMETHING will have been added.

I'm also posting at VGAP's page: www.vg-ap.com
It's a pretty cool site, with some good fanfiction from both VGAP and
other people's works he hosts. The main attraction, in my opinion,
though, is the Church of Crossover Couples. Go check it out, and if
after reading my fic, you're starting to love Ranma/Hotaru match-ups,
like Christopher Angel's "Turn the Page" did for me, then think about
sending in your vote for the pairing. Hotaru had been tied with Ami
at 13 when I sent in my vote, but now the blue-haired Senshi is back
in the lead with 15!

And finally, I'm also posting to RAAC. Hopefully. Long story
and I don't want to explain it. Just hope my story shows up there
sometime.

Okay, here's where I say thanks to all the wonderful people who
helped in getting chapter 2 out. First of all, thanks especially to
Tannim for being the first person to host one of my stories and also
being the first person to ever send me mail about a fanifc I wrote.
And on toppa that, it was a very positive reply too! I swear, my hands
were shaking as I read it!

Then there's VGAP, who is also hosting my work. Thanks to him
for making me realize there were tons of spelling errors in chapter 1.
It's because of him that chapter 1 is currently looking as nice as it
does. (spelling, wrapping, Senshi names, wrapping, wrapping...)

And then there's Lim Tzu Chan, who got the idea to go and run
the first version of "Sound Hearts" through a spellchecker... right
after I had just done the same thing. Well, thanks to this thoughtful
person(who had lousy timing ^_^), whom I sent a teaser to, Ryoga was
saved from the horrible fate of being struck with the Ultimate
Technique of the Saotome School of Underhanded Tricks. ^_^

And finally many thanks to my pre-readers.

First, of all, special thanks to the very first person to
volunteer to preread for me, Windmage. His conversion table for the
Scouts and company's Japanese names and their meanings, and especially
the list of their attacks, is greatly appreciated. Saves me so much
trouble! You coulda been a little faster with the prereading itself,
though... And if you don't like Minako getting tired when she went
against the dust cloud, it's all his fault! ^_^

And my second prereader: Vidwizard. If you want to flame him
for getting me to cut chapter 2 short, his e-mail is... ^_^ Just
messing around Vid. Anyway, thanks goes to him, and feel free to visit
fanfic page at: http://members.tripod.com/~ryogahibiki
I think his own fanfics are down at the moment, but, err... he has some
good links! Waitaminute... you can find his e-mail adress on that
page...

And my third prereader, Chester, or Chet if you will. He was the
one who found the most grammar/spelling mistakes in the fic, few as
they were. Man, he must have good eyes or something. Anyway, thanks to
him for keeping tabs on my progress and forcing me to write very damn
fast when I foolishly told him I'd have the story finished by tommorow
or the day after. After all, I can't back down on what I said.

And finally, there's Will, The Eternally Lost Tone-Deaf Bard.
Most of the critique on the story-line itself came from him. No
corrections on grammar, but there wasn't much of those and I was
more interested in what people thought of the people itself anyway.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, etc.

Well, that's it. Now it's time to work on chapter 3 and hope
that chapter 1 shows up on the RAAC. Oh yeah, I have a question for
you guys. Do you think I should bring some of the other Ranma cast?
And I don't mean the Tendos, I mean people like Tarou, Kumon Ryu and
Ukyo, maybe even Happosai. I did originally intend to bring them in,
but I don't know anymore. Maybe I'm just getting lazy or something,
but tell me what you guys think.


KaosQu
kaosqu@hotmail.com


-Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already
tomorrow in Australia.

- Charles Schultz