Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Come What May ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Thank you so much for all your reviews! I love to read them and I get so excited when people say they're enjoying my story. A quick question: Who here hates Mamoru Chiba? *Looks at all the hands waving in the air* Whoa, did I step into a meeting of the "We hate Mamoru from Sailor Moon club"? Why do you all hate Mamo-chan? I love him; he's so yummy! I want to dip him in chocolate and lick-ah, maybe now's not the time to go into that. *sweat drops* Oh, not that I don't like Kenshin or anything. I love him too! He looks like he would be great to snuggle with. I can just see myself with him in bed and-you know what? The rating of this story will not let me go further with that line of thought. Hmm, I think I should just get on with the story before I fog up your monitor screens, ne?

Come What May--A Sailor Moon/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fanfiction

DISCLAIMER: Characters do not belong to me; they belong to Takeuchi Naoko-sama and Nobuhiro Watsuki-sama (Aren't those two just wonderful).

*I'm setting this story in the Sailor Moon anime continuity, one year after the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Season. Usagi and the Inner Senshi are 17 year olds and Mamoru is 23 years old. There are references to events that happen in the Sailor Moon anime and I give notes on them at the end of the chapter if you are confused. For the Rurouni Kenshin part of the story, I am using the anime up till the "Kyoto arc" and then I switch to the manga for the "Revenge arc". Explanations of the RK events are also explained at the bottom. If you don't know much about Sailor Moon or Rurouni Kenshin, be prepared for some spoilage.*

Chapter 3

By: Hime

Updates at himes_fanfiction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

~*~*~*~

"Some love lasts a lifetime. True love lasts forever."

-Unknown

~*~*~*~

Yaruki shifted his eyes back and forth from his father and Usagi, watching them stare into each other's eyes. Something was happening between the two of them and he didn't like it one bit. He tugged at his father's sleeve. "Dad," he called, breaking the gaze of the two, "her name's Usagi, not Kaoru." His father looked down at him and gave him a distracted smile.

"Yaruki, why don't you go to the car now. You're brother's already waiting in there." At Yaruki's suspicious glance, his father gave him a shooing motion and said, "I'll be there in a minute. I just want to speak to Usagi-san for a moment." Yaruki started walking away, but kept looking back toward the two.

When the boy turned the corner, the two began looking at each other, noticing the similarities and differences of memory and reality.

"You look completely different, except for your eyes."

Usagi didn't even try to pretend she didn't know what he was talking about. "And you look exactly the same, except for your scar." In a motion that wasn't entirely hers, Usagi brought her hand up to his cheek, caressing the smooth skin. Ryu's hand went up to hold hers, trapping it between his palm and his cheek.

His eyes closed and he took her scent in. "In your last lifetime, you smelled like jasmine. This time you smell like roses."

'Roses.' Usagi softly withdrew her hand. "I'm sorry for what I just did. I have no right to do so. You have a wife and children, and I have-."

"I don't have a wife." Usagi gasped. Would fate be so cruel as to take away his beloved wife in this lifetime as it had in the last?

"I mean I'm divorced."

"Oh. Why…why did you…?" Usagi's voice trailed off, unsure if she even had the right to ask, let alone the right to know the answer.

"I married Kaori-san when I was twenty. She was a student like me at Tokyo University. She was studying to be a teacher and I was going into law." Ryu's eyes were far away. He smiled softly, but the sight of it made Usagi's eyes tear. "She married me thinking I was going to be part of some big law firm. I married her because I thought she was-."

"You married her because you thought she was me." A tear rolled down her face. 'Oh, Kenshin.' She thought mournfully.

"Don't be sad; I'm not. Because of her, I have two beautiful children."

"Yaruki and that other boy, right?"

"His name is Yuuki. Yes, they're fraternal twins."

"I meet both of them the other day. I saw them with an older guy." Usagi paused, waiting for a name.

"You must mean Shinnosuke."

"Who are they? I mean, who are they to me, to Kaoru?"

"You don't remember anything?' His face showed concern, his voice held curiosity.

"You're the only one I remember clearly. I get flashes of the other people and I know in my heart that we were friends, family. But I can't seem to remember exactly who they were to me." Well that wasn't exactly true. There was someone else she remembered about quite clearly even if Usagi hadn't met her in her last lifetime.

"Yaruki was known as Yahiko, Yuuki was known as Yuutarou, and Shinnosuke was known as Sanosuke. Yahiko was a young boy we basically adopted after saving him from a bunch of yakuza. He became your first student in your family's sword style. Sanosuke was our friend, my best friend. And Yuutarou was another young boy we saved from someone who couldn't move forward in his life. He also became your student."

Usagi was looking at the ground. "Why," she began and then stopped.

"Why, what?"

She raised her head and he could see her tears as they rolled down her cheeks. "Why can't I remember them? I know they meant something to me but I can't remember them clearly."

Ryu stepped forward and gathered her in his arms. "Shh, don't cry. You remember that they were close to you. It doesn't matter if you can't remember names. Names aren't important-names change from life to life. The soul stays the same. Even those three don't remember our past. None of them do."

"But you remember. You remember everything. Why?"

Usagi could feel him shrug. "I don't know why. I've always could remember that life every time I'm reborn. I've looked for them; I've looked for you. This is the first time I've met anyone else from the Meiji lifetime."

Usagi closed her eyes as the tears fell once more. 'Oh Kenshin, I'm so sorry.' Usagi gathered herself and stepped out of the comforting circle of his arms. She wiped her face with her arm and smiled. "I don't even know your name and already I'm getting your chest wet."

He watched her with those gentle violet eyes that saw so much. "Hajimemashite, Kohakume Ryu desu. Dozo Yoroshiku." He bowed to her.

Usagi tried to laugh but it sounded more like a chocked sob. "Hajimemashite, Tsukino Usagi desu. Dozo Yoroshiku."

"How old are you Usagi?" This was the first time he had called her by her name and left off any honorific. She felt her stomach clench and release in an odd sort of pleasure.

"Seventeen."

He nodded as if in thought. "I'm twenty-eight. You realize that we're meeting each other at the same age as we were in our last lifetime together." He looked at her, then away. "Seventeen," he murmured, more to himself then to her, "you're so young. Even more so now then in the past."

Usagi knew what he was thinking and felt even worse. He had just basically told her that he had spent several lifetimes looking for her and now that he had found her, he was trying to think of a way for them to be together. 'How do I tell him about Mamo-chan?' she thought to herself. It wasn't fair, not to him or to her. But it wasn't fair to lead him on either.

"Ryu, no Kohakume-san," Usagi called to him. "I have to tell you something. What we had in the past was beautiful, and I'll always cherish those memories. But this lifetime, things are different. I have a new destiny," Usagi held up her left hand, the heart shaped stone of Mamoru's promise/engagement ring glittered in the weak light of the late afternoon sun. "And a new love."

Ryu's eyes widened at the sight of the ring on Usagi's left hand. He dropped his head, his bangs covering his eyes. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. "I see." He turned away from her and lifted his head. "Who is he?"

"His name is Chiba Mamoru-"

"The twin's kendo instructor?"

"Yes."

Ryu turned to face her, an outraged look in his eyes. "But he's twenty-three years old! He's six years older then you!"

"And you're eleven years older then me." Usagi managed to say calmly.

"Yes, but I want to marry you!"

"What do you think this ring means!"

They stared at each other, breathing hard. Ryu shook his head and let a drawn out sigh. "I'm sorry. It was out of line for me to accuse Chiba-san of something underhanded."

Usagi sighed also. "It's alright. I understand why you did it."

"Do you?"

"Hun?"

"Never mind. So, where does this leave us?"

"As friends?"

"What?"

"Can't we be friends? I mean, you and Yaruki, Yuuki, and Shinnosuke? I've just met you four and I want to know you guys again."

"Of course we can be friends." Ryu smiled at Usagi. 'If the only way I could be in her life again was as her pet, I would go and buy myself a collar.' He thought, somewhat deprecating toward himself.

Usagi smiled widely, "I'm so happy to have you in my life again."

"So am I." They smiled at each other, but if Usagi's was a bit too bright and Ryu's was a strained, they didn't mention it too each other. Finally Ryu spoke. "Ah, I've got an idea on how you can get to know the twins. Shinnosuke has been looking after them after school but I think it's time he should start thinking going on to college. Why don't you take over his babysitting duty? It should be easy to keep a pair of eleven year olds occupied."

"ELEVEN?" Usagi tried to calculate the numbers in her head. "You married at twenty and you're twenty-eight right now…you had your children out of wedlock!"

"Oro?" Ryu's eyes went wide and he put his hands up in front of him. "No, no. Kaori-san and I adopted them when they were six."

"But you said that it was because of …of her that you had two beautiful children."

"Five years ago, I was only twenty-three. It was because I was married that the courts found me to be a fit parent. If I hadn't been married, I wouldn't have been able to adopt them."

"So Yaruki is adopted in this lifetime like he was in his last."

"Un. Patterns from our last lifetime together are starting to form here. Even Shinnosuke had a similar past like in his last lifetime. He had run away from home and ended up joining a gang to survive on the streets. They called themselves the 'Red Fists'. When Shinnosuke was sixteen, a rival gang committed armed robbery and murdered two police officers. They framed the 'Red Fists'. Shinnosuke and two other gang members were arrested and put into Juvenile Detention. The others were killed in a shootout with the police."

Usagi gasped, both in shock and in horror.

"Shinosuke got out at eighteen with some help from me. I basically gave him a job watching the twins but I think it's time he starts to look toward the future."

"Has he been studying for the college entrance exams?"

"Well he says he has." Ryu thought about it and with a sweat drop said, "But I don't think so."

Usagi laughed. "Well he can join the study group I'm in!"

"Are you sure about that?" Ryu looked doubtful. "Don't you still have a year to go before you have to worry about college?"

"Yes but my friend is very concerned about getting into a good college. In fact, it's probably the best thing for Shin-chan to study with us." Ryu's eyebrow lifted at the 'Shin-chan'. "Mizuno Ami is one of my best friends and if anyone could tutor the hopeless, it would be her."

"You're friends with Mizuno-san?"

"You know her?"

"Well I know her mother."

"You…do?" Usagi felt a bit of jealously. Even though Ami's mother was in her mid-thirties, she still looked quite beautiful and elegant. And she was smart and nice too. 'Did Ryu date her?' she thought to herself a bit darkly.

Ryu noticed Usagi's dismay and smiled to himself. "I know Dr. Mizuno because she's become a mentor to someone I know."

"Oh." Usagi then shook her finger at him. "You didn't have to tell me that, you know."

Ryu smiled down at her. "I wanted too."

"Then that's okay." She smiled back at him. "Well like I was saying, if anyone could tutor him to pass his college exams, Ami-chan could! If he likes, he can come with me on Saturday for our study group." Usagi paused and thought for a moment. "That is, if he doesn't mind being surrounded by girls."

Ryu hid his smirk from Usagi. "I'm sure he won't mind one bit."

"Alright then. Tell him to meet me at 12:00 p.m. at the front gates of Juuban High School. We can all walk together to the Hikawa Shrine to study."

"Hikawa Shrine? The one on Sendai Street?" At Usagi's nod, Ryu frowned. "Isn't that the shrine with the pervert priest?"

Usagi goggled at him. "Wow, you have a good memory. That article's a couple years old." At his continued disapproving stare, Usagi said, "Don't worry. Gramps isn't as bad as the article made him out to be. Anyway, his granddaughter would roast him alive if he tried anything on us." Usagi giggled at the image of Rei roasting her grandfather over an open fire, turning him on a spit as if he was a pig.

"Well I guess you would know…"

"Don't worry." She patted him on the shoulder. "As for the babysitting job, how much would I be making?"

"What? You mean you don't want to do it so you can get to know the twins better?" he said in mock surprise. Usagi gave him a look. "Okay, okay. We'll work something out."

"I want 35,000 yen a month and food privileges."

"Oro!"

"Hey, childcare doesn't come cheap these days."

"Hmmm." Ryu looked at Usagi, considering her offer. 'Well it is less then what Shinnosuke gouges from me. And as far as for the food, look at her; she's so tiny. She probably doesn't eat that much.' Usagi grinned at him. "Deal." Ryu stuck his hand toward her and was surprised when she jumped up and down with a squeal before throwing her arms around his shocked form.

"Usako! Usako!" Mamoru's voice called out. When he turned the corner he saw Usagi standing with her arm in front of her and Kohakume-san lying prone of the floor.

"Orooooo…" Ryu moaned dizzily. Usagi had a sweat drop on the side of her head as Mamoru went to help him up. "Are you okay, Kohakume-san?"

"What did you do to him, rabbit girl!" Yaruki's small form came racing around the corner. He ran in front of his father and glared at her with his teeth bared.

"Yaruki?" At his father's surprised call, Yaruki turned and looked at him with innocent eyes. "You said you were only going to be talking to her for a minute. I got worried." Yaruki turned to look at Usagi with an expression in his eyes, 'With a good reason to be so.'

"Maa, maa. I just tripped." Ryu stood up with a hand from Mamoru. "Thank you." Mamoru gave him a polite smile and went to stand by Usagi.

"Well then, I'll talk to you later Tsukino-san. I'll probably have to talk to your parents."

"Oh yes. Wait." Usagi dug through her pockets, and found a napkin. Ryu gave her a pen and she wrote her phone number down. "Here." Ryu nodded his head.

"What's going on?" Yaruki asked his father suspiciously.

"You'll find out soon enough. Let's get to the car. I bet you left Yuuki in there, didn't you."

Yaruki gave an unconcerned shrug. "What? I left the windows open."

~*~*~*~

Usagi and Mamoru watched the two walk away. "So what was all that about."

"Kohakume-san asked if I would like to take care of Yaruki and Yuuki during the afternoons."

"Are you sure about that? I mean babysitting. What about those study sessions?"

"I would still be going to the Saturday study session. I should be fine." She flapped her hand at him. "Don't worry."

"Well if you say so." Mamoru put his arm around Usagi's shoulders and gave small contented sigh. "Let's go to the park and watch the sunset off of 'Rainbow Bridge'."

Usagi turned to him in surprise. "But if we go to the park, won't you be late for at the hospital?"

Mamoru looked down onto her face and smiled. "It would be worth it to see the sunset with you."

"Mamo-chan." Her cheeks turned a bright pink but she sighed happily in agreement. As they walked back to the dojo to collect Mamoru's things and Usagi's book bag, she thought to herself, 'I don't care about the past. I'm not letting anything destroy this present.'

~*~*~*~

"Bye bye Mamo-chan! Have fun!" Usagi waved to her running boyfriend and sighed. It was so romantic to have been snuggling next to him as the sunset had painted the sky with streaks of orange and red.

Usagi turned away and started to walk toward her home. 'I wonder what mama is making for dinner.'

"Usagi-chan." The voice called from the shadows. A figure stepped forward into the light. "I need to speak with you."

"Hello, Setsuna-chan. I thought you might."

~*~*~*~

Glossary:

Hajimemashite, [insert name here] desu. Dozo Yoroshiku: This is a traditionally greeting between people who are introducing themselves for the first time. It basically translates too: "Hello. My name is [insert name here]. Nice to meet you." This is not a literal translation of course.

Yakuza: Gangsters

Side Notes:

"In your last lifetime, you smelled like jasmine. This time you smell like roses.": For some reason in fanfics, Kaoru's signature scent in RK is Jasmine. I'm not sure where this idea came from as I don't remember any mention of Kaoru's scent in the manga or the anime. In the Super movie, Usagi tells Luna the reason she smells good is because of the potpourri she uses. A lot of time, potpourri is made with rose petals, so I figured the main scent would be of roses. Also, the scent of roses is a subconscious reminder of Mamoru.

Would fate be so cruel as to take away his beloved wife in this lifetime as it had in the last?: In RK, Kenshin had a wife named Tomoe who died when she ran between Kenshin and his enemy. This story is told in the "Revenge arc" of the manga and in the RK first OAV series. On a side-side note, Tomoe's signature scent was plum blossoms.

"…I was going into law.": Can't you see Kenshin as a lawyer? This way Kenshin can still fight for the downtrodden, but he uses words now instead of a sword. Actually, Kenshin did try to use words to solve a fight before having to resort to his sword, but it never really worked.

"Hikawa Shrine? The one on Sendai Street?": The shrine that Rei lives in is called actually Hikawa (Fire River) in the original Japanese version. Sendai is the street, I think, where the shrine is located on.

Usagi goggled at him. "Wow, you have a good memory. That article's a couple years old.": The article I'm referring to is in the R Season of Sailor Moon in that episode where Rei's grandfather was starting some sort of martial arts/exercise course at the shrine. In the DIC version, Rei gets mad at her grandfather for buying an add in the magazine to advertise for his class. In the original Japanese version, Rei's mad at him because that magazine had just published an article warning young women that the Hikawa Shrine had a perverted priest running around.

"I want 35,000 yen a month and food privileges.": 35,000 yen is around $300 in America, using a conversion rate of 116 yen to a dollar. I came up with this figure by multiplying $5 by 3 hours a day. Then by 5 days a week, times 4 weeks a month. Then I multiplied it by 116 and rounded up to 35,000.

"What did you do to him, rabbit girl!": The reason Yaruki is calling Usagi 'rabbit girl' again is because he's upset at her at the moment. Almost all of the RK cast will call Usagi 'rabbit girl' at some point in this story, as it's the counterpart to the nickname "tanuki-chan" or rather "raccoon girl".

Kaori: In Fanfiction dealing with the RK cast in the future, lots of time the name Kaori is used for Kaoru. I wonder if this is because the names are so similar to each other. So anyway, I used that name for the woman that Kenshin thought was Kaoru as some sort of joke.

Shinnosuke (Sanosuke): I gave this name to Sano because in a fanfic I read, Sano and Megumi had married and all their children's name ended in "nosuke". I had a laugh over that and decided that even in this lifetime, he would have a "nosuke" at the end of his name. The only other Japanese name I knew that ended in "nosuke" was Shinnosuke, and so that's how I got the name.

Yuuki (Yuutarou): Courage. Also if you noticed, Yuutarou starts off with a "Yuu" and so does Yuuki. The same pattern is repeated with the names Yahiko and Yaruki.

Author's Notes:

Hmm, another chapter done in a week. This better not become a habit or I'm going to be so stressed. *sigh* Well I just took my physics midterm and I'm not feeling all that secure about my grade. I definitely must not write any more chapters during my lectures. I ended this chapter on something of a cliffhanger. You wanna know what I noticed? I hate when there's a cliffhanger when I'm reading, but writing them is real fun.

Oh yeah, just in case you readers didn't know, I got the title of this fic from the song, "Come What May" from the movie, "Moulin Rouge." I loved that movie! Can't wait to get the DVD. Anyway, as a little treat, here are the lyrics to the song. It can be considered a duet between Usagi & Mamoru or Usagi & Ryu. Heck, perhaps all three of them might sing it.

Male: Never knew I could feel like this

Like I've never seen the sky before

I want to vanish inside your kiss

Every day I love you more and more

Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing

Telling me to give you everything

Seasons may change, winter to spring

But I love you until the end of time

Come what may, come what may

I will love you... until my dying day

Female: Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place

Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace

Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste

It all revolves around you

Duet: And there's no mountain too high, no river too wide

Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side

Storm clouds may gather... stars may collide

But I love you...

Female: I love you...

Duet: Until the end of time...

Duet: Come what may, come what may...

I will love you until my dying day

Oh, come what may, come what may

I will love you...

Female: Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place...

Duet: Come what may, come what may

I will love you until my dying day

Come what may, come what may

I will love you until my dying day

*sigh* Aren't the lyrics so nice? I love that song. And Ewan McGregor has such a great voice. Oh well, these notes are getting too long. I think I should shut up now. But before I go, let me just say this: Setsuna stopping by can only mean one thing-an irregularity in the time stream. What sort of trouble did Usagi's meeting with Ryu start? You'll find out with my next chapter. Bye squared.

Hime

11/18/01

revised 4/3/02