Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor...Sister?! ❯ Chaptre the Fifth ( Chapter 5 )

Ranma sat on the roof of his home, reflecting the changes just a few weeks in a "normal" household.  His social development was increasing, since he didn't have his father hindering him; his grades were improving, as he applied his incredible ability to learn to his schooling.  Since his move back into his home, Ranma had only one rival to deal with, and that was Ryouga tonight.  He got engaged with his own free will, the Saotome-Tendo agreement could burn for all the pigtailed martial artist cared for it.  His fiancée had a secret, but hell, most of the people he knew had some sort of secret that they didn't want revealed.

He heard a ladder thump up against the roof, but didn't think anything of it.  Most of his rivals would have jumped up to attack.  "Ranma," he heard his mother call.

"Yeah Mom?"

"What are you doing up here?"  Nodoka carefully made her way over to her only son/daughter.

"I just needed some time to think, that's all.  The roof was the one place I could get away from the insanity of my life in Nerima."  He looked over at her, and was kind of shocked to see her in jeans and a sweatshirt.  Usually she was in her traditional kimono, with the family katana on her back.

"I see.  Speaking of Nerima, I spoke to Kasumi today."

"Oh?"

"Yes.  It seems there were some interesting revelations in the past two days."  She sat down next to him.  "You no longer have an Amazon 'wife'."  The face fault that Ranma did would have been relatively mundane, had they been at, say the dining room table.  From the roof of the house, however, it was quite spectacular.  "Ranma, are you alright?"

"Yeah Mom, I'm fine," the pigtailed martial artist said as he dusted himself off.  "What was that about Shampoo?"

"Shampoo apparently disgraced herself in her pursuit of you, and someone known as 'Dai Ryuujin no Nishi'.  Her great grandmother didn't like the dishonor that it brought to her tribe."

Ranma leapt back up to the roof.  "Wow.  That's such a relief.  Now I don't have to worry about Shampoo come charging Setsuna shouting 'You obstacle.  Obstacles are for killing!'."

"Well, there is a twist, my son.  If you were to marry a Tendo, she'd be your niece.  Kasumi and her fiancé are adopting her."

"Oy," he muttered.  "I'm sure Akane isn't taking this lightly."

"No, she's not.  In fact your former fiancée had a conniption when she found out that Kasumi was letting her stay at the Dojo.  Kasumi and Lt. Marx took care of it."

Ranma shuddered.  You didn't want to piss off any dragon, even a young silver like Lt. Marx.  At least his mother didn't know that Marx was Dai Ryuujin no Nishi; that was one secret he wasn't going to let slip or even hint at.  "Did she say she still had a little sister?"

"I don't know.  She didn't say either way.  Why?"  Her shuddered again, but for a different reason, before he could answer.  "Ranma," his mother asked, concern in her voice, "are you alright?"

"There's a fight brewing," he said, as he looked towards the fight.

As he stood, his mother nodded her assent, and kissed him.  "Be careful, Ranma.  I lost you for twelve long years.  I don't want to lose you again."

"I will mom."  With that, he began roof hopping towards the fight, the call of battle singing to his blood.

------

In another part of Juuban, the Sailor Senshi were hard pressed fighting against this newest foe.  They were used to fighting droids, youma, what have you, that weren't the brightest creatures, led by overlords who were more interested in capturing life energy than defeating the Senshi; despite their mandate to destroy the Senshi they themselves wound up losing.

Forming a loose defensive perimeter, at least behind Saturn's Silence Wall, the Senshi were taking a breather, in the form of forming a plan.  "What are these things?"  Moon asked.

"Undead," Mercury replied, looking up from her computer. 

"Like in that movie 'Day of the Dead', right?"  Makoto asked.

"Something like that," Ami replied, as the undead scraped and scratched at the invisible barrier separating them from their prize.

"Then we should have no problem with our normal attacks," Jupiter said.

"Except that the numbers of undead make such attacks difficult," Pluto said, as she appeared out of the shadows.

"Where have you been?"  Usagi asked.

"Dealing with a…personal issue, Princess," Setsuna replied cryptically.  Uranus couldn't help but to smirk, in an "I know something you don't know" manner.  The Senshi of Time looked at her housemate, and soon to be sister-in-law, with such a glare that Haruka kept her mouth shut.

"So how do we deal with this new threat?"  Ami asked.

"With weapons.  Skeletons don't tend to react well to swords; they'll suffer more damage from blunt weapons…"

"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

Further discussion was interrupted when a ball of blue ki blew the skeletons around Saturn's barrier to bits.  "Holy…" began the response by Minako.

Makoto finished it, particularly when a black-clad individual followed the ball.  "…shit!"  She said, quite succinctly.

The Senshi stood there, as if rooted, as they watched this pigtailed ball of fury tearing into the undead surrounding them.  Setsuna recovered first.  "Saturn, I want you to hit them with a Silence Glaive Surprise when I tell you to drop the wall.  Remember, physical attacks will work best, but if you can hit them with magic quickly enough, do it."  Counting to herself, Pluto hit four, and shouted: "Now!"

Hotaru dropped the wall, and fired off a Surprise.  Several skeletons were suddenly not there.  The Senshi charged their enemy, and began engaging them with fists and feet, and weapons.

Ranma, not aware that the cavalry had arrived to save the cavalry, was having the time of his life.  Noting that most of the targets were skeletons, he unleashed the forbidden arts of Musabetsu Kakutou Saotome-ryu.  Vacuum blades and rib cracking open handed palm strikes abounded.  The vacuum blades were particularly devastating when they severed skull from body.  Kachuu Tenchin Amaguriken powered punches turned targets into powder.

Tskumoto-san's reconnaissance battalion of skeletons were quickly and efficiently devastated by the combined attacks of the Senshi and this mysterious, yet handsome, stranger.  The death knight looked on from a rooftop near the battleground.  "Interesting.  Both of Lividicus-san's baubles are there.  It seems these senshi have control of those items.  And that one lad is a powder keg of power.  I haven't seen such potential in generations.  It will be time to up the ante."  Stepping into a shadow, he disappeared.

On the street below, the Senshi swarmed around the mysterious stranger, asking a host of questions: "Who are you?"  "How did you do all that?"  "Are you available?"  "What's your number?"  The last two were asked by the continually dateless Venus and Jupiter, and were discounted as irrelevant by the rest of the Senshi.

For his part, Ranma took being surrounded by nine women dressed like a pervert's wet dream reasonably well.  His eyes narrowed on the blonde with the butch hairstyle, but dismissed her as being a double to his sister.  The senshi with the long green hair in the background also looked familiar, but couldn't place her.  "My name's Ranma Saotome," he replied.  "I'm not available, and you can't have my number.

"As for how I did that, that was my ki." 

Mars gave the pigtailed martial artist a wide-eyed stare, amazed that she met someone capable of doing that.  "It was like something out of anime," she said, voicing her thoughts aloud.

Ranma smiled, and gave the Senshi of Fire a nervous grin.  "You wouldn't be surprised how much TV is a lot like real life.  So who are you guys supposed to be, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Cheerleaders?"

Usagi gave the pigtailed boy a dark look.  "No.  We're the Pretty Defenders of Love and Justice," she paused long enough for the Senshi to get into one of their classic poses, "the Sailor Senshi!"

He barely suppressed his laughter at the pose.  "Sure, whatever.  Now if you'll excuse me…" He leapt back into the air, not wanting to get involved any further with the Senshi.

"Who was that," several of the Senshi asked.  Minako and Makoto both took the opportunity to wipe the drool from their faces. 

"Wow!  I didn't know my little brother could do that," Haruka said, just loudly enough for Michiru and Setsuna to hear her.  She saw the dreamy look in her daughter's eyes.  "Hotaru, he's your uncle.  That's just not right."  Hotaru stuck her tongue out at her "father".

Jaws dropped, because the rest of the Senshi overheard her last statement.  "What do you mean he's her uncle," Usagi asked, as the Sailors returned to their civilian identities.

"Oh boy," Haruka muttered under her breath.  Like brother, like sister.  "Just what I need…" She looked at her cohorts.  "Ranma Saotome is my brother.  My twin brother."  With the exceptions of Michiru, Hotaru, and Setsuna, the rest of the Senshi made spectacular craters in the pavement.

A flurry of questions followed that statement, all about how it happen.  Setsuna, off to the side, smiled at the girls.  "Ladies," she said, "it happened like any other birth.  It's just that Ranma is…special.  His story is his own, but you can't force him to tell it."

"I'll bet he was my old sempai back during the Silver Millennium," Makoto just had to add.

"No, Makoto.  Ranma was not sent forward by Serenity.  He is the product of an intense martial arts training regimen that had no days off, no quarter given or taken, because none of it existed in his master's heart.  He has spent the last two years fighting all manner of martial artists…"

"Oh!  Now I remember him.  He was on the cover of Weird Tokyo after they reported some troll terrorizing Nerima on panty raids.  They even had odds from his manager on his fights with someone named Ryouga," Makoto said.

"Yeah, I remember that issue," Haruka said.  "I think I even bet on Ryouga... What, Michiru?"  Haruka began rubbing where her lover slapped her.

"So that's where the money went to?  You said you lost it."

"I did.  It's just that I lost it betting against my brother.  I'll know better next time."

"You'll do no such thing, or you'll be sleeping on the couch.  For eternity."

"Ok, ok."

"I needn't remind you that most of you have a test in the morning.  And that it is very important that you pass this test," Setsuna said, reminding them.  The Senshi quickly scattered, heading home.

------

Ranma leapt through the window into his bedroom.  His mother may not appreciate his unorthodox entry method, but it beat leaving the front door unlocked if he forgot his keys.  He changed quickly, and went to bed with dreams of Setsuna and the green haired Senshi.  His mother was already asleep, so he didn't have to tell her why he was so late from his fight.

------

Superintendent Kuno walked into the office of Juuban High, and could tell that something was odd.  The office staff was clustered around Setsuna Meiou, normally the cold fish of the school.  More specifically, they were ogling her engagement ring.  "Meiou-san, may I have a word with you in private?"

"Of course, Kuno-san," Setsuna replied, coolly.  She excused herself from her coworkers, and went into her office, with Kuno following.

"Meiou-san, I notice that you are wearing an engagement ring, correct?"

"Have you known me to wear any jewelry at all, Kuno-san?"

"Of course not.  I assume it's from Saotome?"  Setsuna kept her mouth shut.  "From your silence, then I take it the ring was from him.  Board policy neither condones nor acknowledges a faculty member being married to a student, as long as it can be maintained professionally within academic environment.

"Of course, I have no problem if the marriage occurs by the end of the week," Kuno said, the barest hint of a smirk on his face.  "If it doesn't you have two options, Meiou-san.  First, break off the engagement, or second, leave Juuban School District."

"I understand, Kuno-san," Setsuna replied.  She was keeping her voice at that "I know what I'm doing, because I can be so mysterious" level she normally used with the Senshi.

"I'm glad you do, Meiou-san.  And congratulations on your engagement," he said.  The last was said with a sneer.

With her door closing, Setsuna sat down heavily in her chair.  "How is it that he knows what's going on in my private life," she asked herself.  "It's almost as if he has a ninja either following Ranma or me."  She chuckled darkly with her next statement.  "And it's not like I can see this in the Gates of Time.  Everything dealing with my fiancé clouds it up so I can't see the immediate future."  She sighed in frustration, and let her thoughts dwell on him.

Ranma, on the other hand, was having a difficult time trying to stay awake during his classes.  Even though he was getting more sleep at night without worrying about being attacked; it's just with the teachers droning on and on in that boring, monotonous tone that put the pigtailed martial artist to sleep.  Of course, he'd wake up when the bell rang, and stay awake for roll call, but he'd go right back to sleep.  His belief was that if he could learn it on his own, he didn't need to sit in a classroom all day.  And for that reason, he missed his tutor at the Dojo.  At least the Lieutenant made it interesting for him to learn.

One of the things on his mind was his meeting with the Senshi.  It probably could have gone better, but tact was never his strong point.  Two of the Senshi stood out in his thoughts, though.  The blonde with the butch cut and the one with the long green hair.  He only knew of two people with those particular hair colors and styles.  His sister and Setsuna.  Plus, Setsuna had said that she had a secret to tell him, and if it weren't for Ryouga attacking them, she would have told him it.  His ruminations were interrupted by the PA system.  "Saotome Ranma, report to Meiou-san's office."

"Sensei," he asked, waking up.  His teacher nodded, and the pigtailed martial artist was out the door.

Setsuna looked up at the door at the knocking.  "Come in," she called, and her fiancé hesitantly entered.

"You wanted to see me, Meiou-san," he said cautiously, as he closed the door.  Living with Nabiki for two years had taught him when to be wary of listening devices.

"Relax Ranma.  The room is clean," she said.  After all, how could she counsel the Senshi if her room was bugged.  Ranma almost literally took her seriously as he collapsed in the chair across from her desk.  "Rough day?"

"Nah.  You said to relax.  What's up?"  He countered with his roughish smile.

"My prediction was correct.  We need to be married by the end of the week."