Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor...Sister?! ❯ Chaptre the Third ( Chapter 3 )

AN:  I really hadn't thought about continuing with this but with all the positive feedback, I feel compelled to continue.  Sanjiyan:  The plot was rolled up with Targhan's Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover Creator, and the rest wrote itself.  So if it looks familiar, then there's similarity in everything.

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Ranma sat across from his date.  Even though he tried to present a calm front to his date, he was failing horribly, fidgeting nervously in his chair.  Although he had no reason to.  The restaurant they were at was nowhere near Nerima; none of his fiancées had shown up; and his rivals were noticeably absent.  There was something in his mind that equated calm with disaster.  But there was also another thing weighing heavily on his mind-the suggestions his mother made to solve his whole problem.

Setsuna saw the unease that her date was giving off, and chose to do something about it.  "Ranma, what's wrong?"

"It's…ah, it's nothing to concern yourself with," he replied.

"Bull, Ranma.  You've were honest with me last week, you were honest with me today.  So what's wrong?"

The pigtailed Saotome looked into his date's crimson eyes.  "My life hasn't exactly been my own apparently since before I was born.  From the time I could walk, and began training, Pop was always telling me how to act, what to learn, what to be, who I'd marry.  It's been so long, that I've almost forgotten how to think for myself.

"And now Mom tells me that I'm a free man, free to date with whomever I choose.  But there's also the honor of my Clan at stake.  That's mainly because of Pop dragging the family name through the mud."

The Keeper of the Gates of Time looked at him.  She hadn't foreseen this problem as a potential problem, but the Gates were a little…fickle when it came to trying to this particular butterfly's immediate future.  "How so?"

"If I don't marry Akane, the family looses face, because Oyaji arranged for the two schools to unite with her father.  If I don't marry Ukyo, her honor will be destroyed, because of Pops.  And if I don't marry Shampoo, her honor will also be ruined.  All caused by Pop's fat stomach.

"And there's something else.  Ever since last Saturday, I can't stop thinking about you."

Setsuna took his hand in hers.  "Ranma," she said, as she ran a green lacquered fingernail along his hand, "I've been alone for so long, that I've almost forgotten to be in love."  There was the ghost of a smile on her face as she continued.  "I've been thinking about you as well." 

Meiou Residence

1:40am Wednesday Morning

Twin pools of radiance lit the front stoop of Setsuna's home, illuminating two figures.  Haruka was busy peeking out the living room window at her brother and the eldest Senshi.  "Haruka, leave them alone," Michiru said, sipping a cup of Setsuna's tea.

The butch Sailor Suited Warrior of Love and Justice looked back at her lover.  "I want to see if Ranma and Setsuna will kiss on the first date."

"I doubt it, love.  Your brother doesn't seem like that kind of young man."

Outside, Ranma gave the only contender for his heart a grin.  "There are two still awake inside, Setsuna.  I'll bet it's my sister and Michiru."

The green haired Senshi smiled back at him.  "I'm sure it is.  They've never seen me out on a date before, so they're acting like my parents."  Giving in to impulse, Setsuna swept the pigtailed martial artist into a passionate kiss.  Ranma fought against it for a few moments, just long enough for his brain to get comfortable with the fact that this girl-no, woman-just wanted to enter a relationship through normal means.

"That…that…that pervert!"  Haruka exclaimed, not noticing that it was Setsuna who initiated the kiss.  Uranus turned and stormed for the door.

Michiru grabbed her lover by the arm.  "Haruka, relax.  Setsuna's a big girl.  All your brother is doing right now is just kissing her.  After all, she started it."

Haruka hrumphed.  "That still doesn't mean I'm not going to thrash him tomorrow."

Michiru smiled at the blonde butch.  "You saw what he did to Lei-sensei.  I hate to be honest, but you wouldn't stand a chance against him."

"Maybe untransformed, but…"

The aqua-haired violinist interrupted her, before she could get on a tirade.  "You yourself told Setsuna that your brother took down a god.  And you've been training with him.  Even transformed, you'd probably still lose.  Although I don't know why you read that tabloid."

"Hey, Weird Tokyo keeps me informed about all of the weirdness going on in the city.  Besides, I think I can still take him."

Michiru rolled her eyes.  ""Come on, lover.  Let's go to bed and leave them alone."  Haruka was about to growl when Michiru whispered in her ear.  The butch Senshi grew a lecherous grin and let her lover lead her off to bed.

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Ranma slipped into his mother's house through his bedroom window.  He hadn't brought up his options to Setsuna, although he had wanted her council, it was ultimately his choice in the matter.  The two things that were a relief to him were that his mother no longer held the seppuku contract over his head-unlike his fat, lazy panda of a father-and she'd given her blessing to court Setsuna.  That, in itself, surprised the pigtailed martial artist.

Setsuna was an older woman-little did Ranma know just how old-whose biological clock was ticking.  And yet Nodoka "I hope for lots of grandchildren to spoil" Saotome had given her blessing.

As he stealthily slipped through his childhood home, Ranma pondered his options.  His mother could name him head of the Clan; he was legally an adult.  That would give him authority to honor or dissolve any and all engagements Genma made in his name.  It would also allow him to legally kick the pandaman out of the Clan.  It was a very potent option, one that reminded the pigtailed boy of what one of his sensei's had told him.  "With great power comes great responsibility."  It was also one that Genma would fight tooth and nail over.

His second option would be to have his mother kick him out of the Clan, declaring him honorless.  Being ronin would be painful for the boy in two ways.  The first is because he tried to live his life to a personal code of honor, one that ignored his father's two-faced treatment of the subject.  The second is because everything in the country depends on family name.  No name: no post-secondary schools, no license to instruct martial arts, no jobs.  The way around that would be to marry Setsuna, and take her family name.  Ranma discarded it as an option of last resort.

His final option was to be adopted out of the Clan.  That would solve a number of his problems.  On the plus side, he already knew of someone who was familiar with his situation, had no allegiance to either the Tendo or Saotome clans, and wasn't bound by traditional Japanese honor.  On the negative side, he would be leaving his family and what friendships he'd begun establishing with his sister's friends when Dai Ryuujin no Nishi rotated out of the country.

But as Ranma changed into his pajamas and slipped under the covers of his bed, he realized just how quickly events were slipping out of his grasp.

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Setsuna was just walking into Juban High early, as was her want, when the Superintendent intercepted her.  "Ms. Meiou."

"Kuno-sempai," she replied coolly to the sane member of the Kuno clan.

"Meiou-san, you were seen last night with the transfer student from Furinken.  Would you care to explain yourself?"

"Kuno-sempai, Saotome-san and I were discussing his goals as a student of Juban High.  There was nothing improper going on at our dinner meeting; so there is nothing that should violate student/faculty policies."

Kuno Toskino was known amongst the educators of the Tokyo school system to be a hard ass, just to counter his brother's actions at Furinken High.  So his answer was appropriate for him.  "Be that as it may, Meiou-san, if anything improper does occur, they would result in immediate and swift repercussions against you.  I would strongly recommend that you review the teacher's regulations covering student/faculty relationships, and understand that violation of those would result in immediate revocation of tenure and termination.

"Good day, Meiou-san."  Without allowing the guidance counselor to reply, the Superintendent left her office and headed towards his chambers.

"Repercussions my Aunt Matilda's fanny," she swore.  While waiting for the Senshi to awake, Setsuna had spent the long years after the destruction of the Imperium educating herself.  Although she only displayed the doctorate in clinical social work from Tokyo University, along with her Masters and Bachelors from Columbia University in History, she had degrees from several institutions throughout history, along with letters and correspondence from the greatest intellectuals of history, in her apartments on Pluto.  Her reasoning was that she had to do something with her time.  She opened the door to her office in time to see the Guidance Department secretary walk in.  "Ms. Takashi, as soon as Ranma Saotome is here, have him sent to my office."

"Hai, Meiou-san."  Setsuna closed the door and waited.

She didn't have to wait long.  The door to her office opened and her pigtailed love interest entered.  "You wanted to see me, Setsuna," he asked, with the door securely closed behind him.

"I did.  Superintendent Kuno heard about our date last night.  And before you start out about it being the one from your old school, it was his brother.

"He decided to 'advise' me about potential sanctions against me if we are found to be doing anything inappropriate."

With an incensed look on his face, Ranma said "I won't let anyone get away with that."  Before he could catch himself, Ranma found himself adding "They can't do anything about it if we're married."

The look on Setsuna's face was priceless, as a combination of shock, surprise, and horror.  "Um," the pigtailed martial artist said, "that is if you want to marry me."

Setsuna smiled at the boy who, in such a short time, filled in her heart a blanked out area.  Of course, she hadn't seen this coming, but with the exception of the recent past and distant future, anything dealing with Ranma was fuzzy, and tended to make the donut-shaped, semi-sentient Gates of Time unstable.  "Ranma," she asked, "you aren't troubled by what your father's done to you, are you?"

Ranma sighed.  "I am. I've got four fiancées that I know about, all who will be dishonored if I don't marry them.  What makes it worse is that they all think they love me, but I don't love them in the way they think I do.  For me, there's only one person who I'd like to share my crazy life with.

"I swear, Suna-chan, if I didn't get out of the Tendos, I'd have lost my cool, and done something horrible…"  The late bell chimed, interrupting the pigtailed warrior's diatribe.

"We'll discuss this at my house later, Ranma-kun," Setsuna said as she wrote him out a late pass.  "Here, this will keep you out of trouble with your first period teacher."  Setsuna surprised even herself when she kissed the pigtailed teen on the cheek.

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Over in Nerima, one of Ranma's formally recognized fiancées was being removed from consideration.  Shampoo should have realized something when she walked down the stairs from the apartments above the dining room in the Nekohanten.  The lights were off, as candles threw guttering pools of light, reminding the Amazon of her village.  But what really should have tipped her off was that Cologne wasn't perched on her staff.  Add the fact that she, along with Mousse and Tigar, were in formal robes, and not their usual clothes.

"Xian Pu," Cologne intoned formally, "have you found any trace of Son-in-Law?"

"No, Great-Grandmother."  Shampoo replied tensely, although she had schooled her features.  She'd failed time after time to capture the aquatransexual who defeated her on a regular basis.  And she knew the penalty for failure.

As much as she enjoyed her semiretirement in Nerima, far away from Council politics, with it's never ending martial arts floorshow, and the continual training Ranma before he left-it was a pleasure for the elder to teach someone who lived, breathed and slept the Art-but Cologne would much rather have the boy in the tribe, even despite the fact he was trained in that despicable pervert's art.  And Shampoo's bungled attempts to woo the boy by magic didn't help.

Plus, when the fact that Shampoo spent most of the past week at the Tendos watching over both the family and Dai Ryuujin no Nishi without successfully locating the golden key that, by right of conquest, was an Amazon possession.

There was an additional factor that added in to Cologne's decision to cut the Amazons losses in Nerima and run-internal tribal politics.  The matriarch's eyes and ears within the village were sending her reports that rival elders were planning something against her for her failure to bring the Saotime boy into the tribe as well as her failure to deal with the silver dragon.

"Xian Pu," Cologne said, "you have failed in capturing the heart of the warrior Ranma Saotome, and bring him into the tribe.

"You have failed to retrieve a rare Amazon treasure held in the clutches of the vile Dai Ryuujin no Nishi.

"While in the lair of the wily beast, you failed to eliminate an enemy of the tribe.  Dai Ryuujin no Nishi yet breathes, and you did nothing about him.

"You have been found wanting as an Amazon, Xian Pu; a failure to your family, your clan, your tribe, and your ancestors.

"Before sentence is passed, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

With fire in her eyes, Shampoo held her tongue.  Even though she wanted to blame her great-grandmother as the cause of her failures-for not training her in the more advanced techniques, and for not teaching her the necessary magic-the lavender-haired warrior knew when to fight and when to admit she lost.  This was one battle that she lost.  "No, Elder," she replied, neutrally.  "I do not.  My failure is my own.  My dishonor is my own."

"Know then this- Xian Pu, you are no longer an Amazon warrior."  At a subtle signal from Cologne, Tigar took a pair of barber shears and cut short Shampoo's long hair.  Cologne continued.  "You are cast out of the Clan, the Tribe, and your family.  Seek not aid or comfort in Amazon territory.

"Be gone, Lost One."  As Shampoo fled the restaurant that had been her home for the past two years, Cologne turned to the other Amazons.  "Find me Saotome.  Tell him that the Kiss of Marriage and Kiss of Death have been annulled, and that the Amazons wish to discuss reconciliation and the possibilities of an alliance."  Tigar and Mousse bowed and left the restaurant.