[Ranma/SM][FanFic] Sailor Ranko Just Add Water, Chapter 6
Bill Heineman
The ongoing saga of "Sailor Ranko", set after "Sailor Ranko: Tunnel Vision"
Based on "Sailor Ranko" by Fire and "Twice in a Millennium" by Kevin D.
Hammel and acknowledging "Black Moon - Eclipse of the Sun" by Arthur Hansen
By Bill Heineman
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or have Kuno date
with me.
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It was midnight outside of the men's locker room at Juuban High School. A
little former pervert was busy making changes to the plumbing. He just
finished building a small platform with a water intake valve at the bottom
of it. He was starting to attach a small heating unit when he realized the
power cord was too short.
The demon wearing Happosai's body was patient. It would wait until daytime
and go to a hardware store to buy the missing parts for its contraption.
Deep down in Happosai's mind, the real Happosai was cursing and screaming.
He wanted to warn Ranma. He wanted to warn the world. The demon heard the
screams and it made the creature happy. Pain and suffering was what the
demon did best. The pain and suffering it was going to inflict was going to
be biblical.
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Ami was studying for tomorrow's exam when her Sailor Scout communicator
vibrated. She answered it, "Ami here."
The image of Akane was visible, "Ami, can you come over to my family's place
in Nerima? I think we found something about that youma you detected."
"Nerima? It will take me a while to run there. Is the youma there?"
"No, we don't know where it is but look..." Akane turned the communicator
upside down so the camera would pick up the hoof prints so Ami could see it.
"We found these."
Ami could barely make out the footprints. The screen on the communicator was
very small and wasn't very good for showing things other than people's
faces. "Can Sun teleport me?"
"She could, but you know how she is at night." The sound of someone giving
the raspberry was heard. "Give her a moment to sneak out and change."
"Ok. I'll be waiting." Ami shut off her communicator and transformed to
Sailor Mercury.
Akane put her communicator in her pocket. Ranko had already jumped out the
window into the backyard to find a place to transform. Nodoka stood close,
"She didn't need to leave on my account."
Akane whispered into Nodoka's ear, "You are the only one here who knows
about us. Kasumi doesn't know."
Nodoka felt honored that she was the only one they trusted with their
secret. "You know you can trust Kasumi."
"I know I can. But I just can't tell everyone about us." Akane started to
examine the room for any other clues about the thing that made the hoof
prints. She saw in a corner a silver metal box that was open. The box was
fifteen centimeters wide, eighteen centimeters long and ten centimeters
high. She touched it and reeled back. "Whoa!"
Nodoka came to her daughter-in-law's side. "What's the matter?"
Akane reached into a dresser and pulled out one of Happosai's shirts. She
used it to pick up the box without actually touching it again. "This box
feels evil. I think it had something to do with those foot prints." Akane
examined the box and saw an inscription on the bottom.
Akane read the words written on the bottom. "There are some words in
Japanese. Pity those who dare ask for the avatar of suffering. The price for
its service is to walk the path of pain." She looked up. "That's not good."
Nodoka looked at the box. "I remember Happosai was doing something in his
room early this morning. I thought I heard him speaking to someone and when
I came down to see who was his guest, he was not here."
"This morning? That was when Ami said she detected something in Nerima."
There was a flash outside and two splashes were heard in the koi pond. A
voice called out, "You could have shorted out my computer!"
Akane ran to the window, "Keep quiet!" She waved. "Over here." She moved
aside and Sailor Mercury jumped in through the window, flipped over and
landed in the middle of the room like an acrobat. She was dripping wet.
Akane pointed out the footprints. "What made these?"
Mercury shook her computer to get the water out of it. She scanned the
prints and started checking the shape against known youma or other
nastiness. "Checking now. By the way, that's a nice kimono."
"Thanks." Akane grabbed the box from the bed. She used the shirt to hold it.
"I also found this."
Mercury took a look and saw that the silver box seemed ancient. She noticed
that it had inscriptions in a strange language she never had seen before.
The computer beeped. "Well, there are over two hundred youma types that
could have made that print. Let me scan the box." She typed a few commands
and the box was on her screen. "Let's see what it is."
The computer only searched for a few seconds before it gave the answer.
"Well, it's evil." She scrolled the text on her computer's display. "It's a
stasis box for... Uh Oh..."
Akane didn't want to know why Mercury said that. "Uh oh?"
Mercury looked at Akane. "Oh yeah, it's a box made to hold a demon lord."
"I assume that's bad."
"Yeah, that's really bad."
"How bad?"
"Well, uh... For one, it would take all eleven of us to kill it. And I'm not
even sure if that's enough firepower."
"That's bad."
"We can trap it."
"That's good."
"We don't have the proper ward."
"That's bad."
"Sailor Mars can make a ward."
"That's good."
"We don't know where the demon is."
"That's really bad."
"I think we have bait."
"That's good. Hey wait a minute. What bait?"
Mercury looked around the room. "Whoever summoned this demon wanted to do
something to someone. Who summoned it?"
Akane gulped, "Happosai."
"Happosai? The underwear thief?"
"Yes, and I think he would be targeting Ranma."
"If Ranma is the target, then it would be easy for him to lure out the
creature so we can trap it. I don't know if Mars is strong enough to make a
ward that can hold a demon lord."
Akane pointed to the box. "Well we should show this to Mars then."
Sailor Sun jumped in the room. She was dry. Mercury turned to her, "How did
you dry off so fast?"
"I used my ki to warm myself to dry off."
Mercury just stood there. She blinked. She blinked again. Akane shrugged,
"It's just a basic ki manipulation technique."
Mercury blinked at Akane, "You can do that too?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"Well, uh... Only that most of the human population can't do the things you
two can do."
Sailor Sun gave a look of puzzlement, "Most of the martial artists around
here can do these things."
Mercury blinked again. She started to key some more commands into her
computer. She was going to scan the air and the water of Nerima for future
analysis. This was too weird. She planed to do a full soil test if nothing
was found in the current scans.
Kasumi came into the room with some snacks. "I brought you and your guests
something to eat."
Sailor Mercury took a small cookie and munched on it. "Thank you. Oh, allow
me to introduce myself. I'm Sailor Mercury."
Sailor Sun ignored Kasumi. Akane tapped Sun's foot. "Oh, and I'm Sailor Sun.
Uh... Nice to meet you." She gave a little bow.
"It is a great honor to meet you. I am Kasumi Tendo. I see you've met my
sister and our mother-in-law." Kasumi looked around, "Where's Ranko?"
Sailor Sun answered, "Uh... She's out."
Kasumi blinked and gave a knowing smile. "Will you be staying long?"
Mercury pretended not to know Akane. "No. We are here investigating a youma
sighting." She pointed to the hoof prints on the floor. "Once we are done we
will be leaving."
Kasumi looked at Sun and Akane. "Very well, if you need anything, I'll be in
the kitchen." She left the small plate of cookies on Happosai's bed and gave
a hint of a look of disappointment. She went back to the kitchen.
Mercury's computed beeped. She read the analysis of the stasis box. "I've
got a translation of the writing. Hmm... Oh boy!"
Akane, Nodoka and Sun's faces dropped. Akane asked, "Oh boy?"
"I've got good news." Mercury had a blank expression. "This demon isn't
after Ranko. She didn't summon it."
Sun put her hand on her chin and grinned. "So, it's after Happosai? Maybe
there is justice in the world after all."
Mercury finished reading the translations. "Well maybe or maybe not. It says
that the demon is to be summoned when someone wanted to walk the path of
pain and suffering. What would make Happosai feel pain and suffering?"
Sun crossed her arms, "Oh that's simple. A world without women... Uh... Uh
oh..."
The girls looked at each other and gave a collective gasp. Nodoka took a
step back, "You can't be serious!"
Akane was wide eyed, "Could this demon do something like that?"
Mercury was typing on her computer at full Senshi speed. She was terrified.
"I'm afraid if it is indeed a demon lord, then yes, it has that much power.
It would take time to cast such a spell that could kill everyone in the
world. It would need to tap some sort of magical power source of great
magnitude to power the spell."
"Where could it get that much magical power?" Sun asked.
"I don't know. But I'm going to find out. I've got some friends I can talk
to tomorrow who might have some answers. Sun, could you take me home?"
"Sure." Sun held Mercury. Mercury held the stasis box in the shirt and the
two flashed out.
Akane sighed. "Well Sun won't be back for a while."
Nodoka was curious, "Why is that?"
"It's nighttime. She teleports using sunlight as a power source. Without
direct sunlight, she falls asleep. She probably will be napping for a few
minutes before Mercury can wake her up to get back here." Akane turned to
Nodoka, "I guess we'll be spending the night here. She won't be able to get
us home tonight."
Akane searched the room again. She was looking for anything that would give
a clue as to where Happosai could have gone. She pulled out drawers to
examine the contents. She finally noticed what was different about the room.
"Mom? Where is Happosai's underwear collection?"
Nodoka noticed the empty drawer. "I don't know."
"Strange. Very strange." Akane and Nodoka turned out the light and sealed
the room. Akane kissed her mother-in-law goodnight and went upstairs to her
old bedroom.
Nodoka watched Akane enter her old room and gave a sigh of contentment. She
was proud that her son had such a wonderful and caring wife. She was about
to go to her room when she noticed the dining room table still had a few
dishes on it. She went over to pick up the last dishes and took them to the
sink. Kasumi was leaning against the kitchen counter with a sad look on her
face.
Nodoka placed the dishes in the soapy water, "What's the matter Kasumi?"
Kasumi looked at the floor, "Why don't they trust me?"
"Trust you?"
"I know what's going on. Nabiki may be fooled, but I'm not." Kasumi turned
on the faucet and started to do the dishes. "I know they are Sailor Senshi."
"Kasumi, if they are. I'm certain that they have a very good reason to keep
that a secret." Nodoka gave the look of motherly wisdom.
"Well mother. They are doing a really bad job keeping that a secret. I heard
a girl screaming about cats while I was inside the kitchen. She was loud and
probably woke up the whole neighborhood. A while ago those two acted so
guilty when Mr. Saotome mentioned about the 'red head and the brunette' he
bumped into at his job. Nabiki mentioned the Senshi's hair looked like
Akane's." Kasumi looked out the window of the kitchen. "How often do we have
Sailor Senshi teleporting into our backyard?" Kasumi was a lot smarter than
she let on.
Nodoka sighed. "Kasumi, talk to her. She is your sister." She backed away
and went upstairs to her room.
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Kasumi was at Akane's door. She had finished the dishes and checked on
Nabiki. Nabiki was sound asleep so she wouldn't be able to spy on her
tonight. She gently knocked on Akane's door. Kasumi softly spoke, "Akane,
it's me Kasumi. Could I come in?"
Kasumi heard Akane say something and then a strange sound came from inside
the room. The door unlocked. Kasumi opened it slowly and went inside. She
shut the door and was greeted by Sailor Io. Kasumi was embarrassed. "I'm
sorry, I was looking for my..." She took a closer look at Sailor Io. The
Senshi looked familiar but Kasumi couldn't place why.
"Please lock the door Kasumi." Io asked.
Kasumi felt that this person was trustworthy, so she locked the door.
"Please sit down." Io sat on the bed.
Kasumi pulled out Akane's chair from her desk and sat down. She ventured a
guess, "Akane?"
Sailor Io smiled. She got up and gave her sister a hug. "Yes, it's me."
"Oh Akane." Kasumi returned the hug and her eyes watered a little. "I'm so
happy for you. I knew it! I knew you would join them!" She pushed her sister
away so she could look at her face. "My sister fights for love and justice!"
"Quiet down!" Io whispered. "I was hiding at the stairs and heard you and
mom talk. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
Kasumi shot out the questions like a machine gun. "How long have you been a
Senshi? How did you get chosen? Which planet are you named after? What does
Ranma think... Ranma?" Kasumi placed her hands on her face under her nose.
Sailor Io giggled a bit, "Yes, Ranko is one too."
Kasumi let out a laugh. "Oh my!"
"She should be here soon. I'm amazed that..." A flash appeared in the room
directly above the bed. Sun fell about a meter on the mattress sound asleep.
"Oh, here she is now."
Kasumi stood up and gazed at Sailor Sun's sleeping body. "She doesn't look
anything like Ranko."
"You didn't recognize me either."
Kasumi looked at Sailor Io and finally saw that it was Akane. "Why didn't I
recognize you before?"
"Disguise magic. When we are like this, people don't associate our Sailor
form from our regular form. It helps to keep our identities secret." She sat
next to Sailor Sun and transformed back to Akane. "It works until someone
like lame-brain here runs down the street because of her fear of cats."
Sun turned on the bed and lay on her side. "I heard that." She changed back
to Ranko.
Kasumi had so many questions to ask. She didn't know where to begin.
Akane took her sister by the hand and gently nudged her to the door. "We
need to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning when we train, we can go somewhere
away from here and talk about it." She pointed to the wall that separated
her room from Nabiki's. "I sense that the walls might have ears."
Kasumi gave one more hug to her sister and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank
you for trusting me."
Akane kissed Kasumi on her cheek in return. "Thank you for being my big
sister." Akane locked the door behind Kasumi and turned out the light. She
slid off her kimono and jumped under the covers. She saw that Ranko had
already passed out from teleportation fatigue. "Well, I guess we pushed our
luck too far dear." She went to sleep.
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Nabiki put her stethoscope down from the wall. She woke up too late to get
any details of what Kasumi and Akane were talking about. She silently cursed
herself for not waking up sooner. She went back to bed and felt another
tinge of guilt. Her sister had forgiven her. She knew that Ranma would hold
a grudge. She did what she had to do to keep the Tendo dojo running. She
turned and went to sleep. She dreamed about Sailor Scouts. She didn't know
why.
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The morning came and as promised Akane took Kasumi out for a walk. Ranma
found some male clothes to wear and gleefully became male again. He and
Nodoka made sure that Nabiki was occupied so that she couldn't follow Akane
and Kasumi's little stroll.
Later, the couple went to the dojo and proceeded to pummel each other for
half an hour until breakfast was ready. Genma joined the melee and Akane
wiped the floor with him. Genma was very upset that a girl had beaten him.
Ranma jumped into the koi pond and then proceeded to pummel her father to
drive home the idea that two different girls now can beat him up.
Genma called a timeout. "That's not fair boy. You are not a girl. So you
don't count."
Akane and Ranko looked at each other. Ranko waved her hand to Akane, "Show
him what a girl can do."
Akane cracked her knuckles, "With pleasure." She didn't hold back. Soun
watched the massacre and was so proud of his daughter. He went inside to get
the first aid kit. Genma was going to need it.
The workout ended and Ranko got the hot water. He happily ate his breakfast
at light speed without fear of Nodoka pinching his leg. His mother let him
get away with poor table manners when he was male.
They bid the family goodbye and ran off. Akane carried the kimonos in a
spare laundry bag.
Nabiki stood at the gate of the Tendo dojo. She looked at her watch. She
shook her head and put things together, "Ok, how are they getting home to
change and then to Juuban High School in twenty minutes? It takes
thirty-five minutes just to get to Juuban by train. They got here last night
at 10:20. Ranko got off work at 10. How do they get around so fast?"
She was going to have to ask around. Maybe Ukyou or Shampoo might have some
answers to Nabiki's growing list of questions.
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Author's Notes: Is this the end for all women in the world? Stay tuned. Read
and review my story... Or die...
Bill Heineman
November 18, 2002
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bur...@contrabandent.com
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