[SM/Ranma][FanFic] Lines Of Destiny - Chapter 3
Louis-Philippe Giroux
Lines Of Destiny
A Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 Crossover
By Louis-Philippe Giroux
<Pho...@upc.qc.ca>
Thank you for all your comments! Keep'em coming!
C&C is always welcome!!! (as well as plot ideas)
Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko
Takahashi. Please don't sue me.
Chapter 3
Ranma and Akane had gotten off the train and were looking for the
exit. Akane noted with some amusement that the young man who had been
sitting across them in the train was being hugged to death by a girl
with uncannily long meatball-type ponytails. She frowned when her
subconscious decided to replace the young man with Ranma and the girl
with Shampoo.
She blinked. *Get a grip on yourself, Akane!* she berated herself.
*Ranma's married to you now. There's nothing to fear from Shampoo.*
She was quickly brought back to her senses by a growling monster that
appeared out of nowhere.
Ranma was getting off the train and he was still thinking about the
article he'd read on the Sailor Senshi. According to the magazine,
there had been a rash of monsters in this part of Tokyo, but the Senshi
usually took care of them. What he couldn't figure out, though, was why
his mind wouldn't let go of the Senshi's images. Why did they seem so
familiar?
He was rudely interrupted by a monster who made its presence known by
sending people screaming for their lives. He stared blankly at the
monster for about half a second before he took a ready stance.
"I thought I left that kind of crap in Nerima..." he muttered. He
quickly shoved Akane towards a knot of girls to keep her out of danger.
Akane quickly found herself shoved towards a group of girls. She
managed to slow down before ramming into Minako. She turned around to
see Ranma approaching the monster.
"What's he doing?!" shouted the girl she'd almost collided with.
Akane let out a sigh. "The baka's proabably going to try to fight it
as usual."
A girl with oddly familiar purple eyes spoke up: "He... he can't
possibly mean to fight it alone, can he?"
Akane looked at the girl, then back at Ranma who had engaged the
monster. "You're right!" After a second, she added: "I'm going to go
help him. I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines."
Mamoru, Usagi, Minako, Ami and Hotaru and the two cats all took a
step back and could not help but stare in surprise when the girl pulled
out a massive hammer out of nowhere and walked back to the fight in
progress. They were all so stunned that they never noticed that the
sigil of Earth flickering faintly on Mamoru's forehead for a few
seconds.
*God that thing is ugly,* thought Ranma absently. *Even Pansuto's
cursed form is better-looking.* The monster was about two meters tall,
had two legs and six arms, and looked particularly fast. The head
looked like that of an insect, complete with a collection of eyes of
various sizes.
The monster, seeing Ranma wasn't running away, decided to rush him.
Ranma neatly avoided all of the arms and managed to land a kick in the
monster's face. The moster stumbled back a step and snarled. It
decided to immobilize its target by sending a stream of glue-like
substance at its prey's feet. Ranma easily jumped over the stuff and
landed on the monster's head.
"Looking for someone?" he said conversationally, while rubbing his
feet on the monster's head.
The monster responded by slicing the air over his head with four
clawed arms. Of course, Ranma wasn't there anymore. Ranma landed in
front of the monster, his face turning serious.
"All right, enough of this crap! KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!!!"
Ranma's fists blurred and the monster was violently thrown back
against a wall. It's body was covered in bruises but it didn't seem
worse for wear. *Mmmhh, that thing's tougher that it looks. Might as
well hit it with the heavy stuff.* Suddenly, Akane ran up to him,
hammer in hand.
"Ranma, you baka! I can fight too, you know!" she said testily.
"Look, that thing ain't human, so why don't you step back and be
careful, okay?" For a split second, Ranma switched his attention from
the monster to the group of girls he had pushed Akane towards, and saw
Luna. Ranma immediately froze up in terror.
The monster saw this forced the arguing couple apart, sending Ranma
crashing against a brick wall while Akane jumped to safety. Not seeing
Luna anymore, Ranma came back to his senses and was about to ki-blast
the monster into oblivion when he saw a train coming from the other side
of the station. He smirked. *Time to hit two birds with one stone,* he
thought. *I can get rid of the monster and let Akane vent her anger on
the thing.*
"Akane!" he shouted, while evading the frustrated monters' claws.
"I'm gonna blast it over to you! Aim for the the train!"
Akane turned her head sideways and saw the train coming. She turned
to Ranma and nodded, mallet at the ready.
Ranma cupped his hands and gathered his ki. "MOUKO TAKABISHA" he
shouted and a sphere of blue ki-energy blossomed forth from his hands
and sent the monster flying towards Akane, who used her ki-powered
mallet to hit the monster and send it sprawling on the track, a mere
foot in front of the train, which subsequently crushed it. The monster
quickly turned into dust.
Ranma and Akane walked over to the track just in time to see the
monster being reduced to a pile of ashes.
"Nice swing Akane," commented Ranma offhandedly while dusting
himself.
"It disappeared just like that?" wondered Akane out loud, before
returning her mallet to hammerspace. "What was that thing, anyway?"
Ranma pulled out the magazine he'd been reading in the train and gave
it to Akane. "I read about it in the train. Apparently, monsters
attack this part of Tokyo on a regular basis." He sighed, then
chuckled: "And I thought we were done with this kind of stuff we moved
out of Nerima."
Akane frowned. "I hope this doesn't happen too often. Who usually
deals with them?"
Ranma flipped the pages of the magazine and pointed to a blurry
picture in which you could barely distinguish five young women in rather
skimpy outfits. "They do. They call themselves the Sailor Senshi..."
While Akane and Ranma were discussing the topic further, Minako,
Usagi, Ami and Mamoru were alternating between staring at Ranma and
Akane and giving each other nervous looks. Hotaru was watching them
intently, as if she was trying to figure out a puzzle.
"What the hell just happened, Ami?" asked a bewildered Minako.
Ami soon found herself under close scrutiny when everyone turned
towards her. "Why are you asking *me*? I know as much about this as
you do!"
"Well, you *are* usually the one who comes up with an answer,"
replied Usagi in a matter-of-fact tone.
Luna looked clearly stunned. She started scratching the Usagi's
socks to get her attention. Usagi looked down and quickly deduced from
her guardian cat's face that she wanted to speak as soon as possible.
"They're leaving!" said Mamoru.
In a rare moment of self-control, Usagi snapped out of it and started
to run towards the two. "Come on! We have to find out who they are!"
The two teenagers had left through the exit, with Usagi close on
their steps. When Usagi went through the gate, however, she was met
with empty air. "Where did they go?" she wondered out loud.
Akane and Ranma finished their conversation when they noticed that
the few people who hadn't left the station in fear were staring at them.
Then the whispers began.
Ranma looked around him and decided it wouldn't be a good idea to
stay here for long. He tugged Akane's sleeve. "Akane, I think we'd
better bail out of here. I think we may have made too much of an
impression already and what's worse, I think I saw a cat earlier. I
don't want to stay here if there is a cat around," he said nervously.
Akane frowned and gave Ranma an annoyed look. *Again with his fear
of cats!* Akane sighed. *I wish there was a way to cure him of that.*
She then looked around and saw that people were starting to throw
strange looks at them. She heard mutters of "youmas", "monsters" and
"Sailor Senshi." She nodded to Ranma, and as soon as they made their
way out of the exit with their luggage, they jumped up and kept
themselves to the rooftops.
As the girls were leaving the station, the questions started flying
again. "All right, first things first," said an uncharacteristically
serious Usagi. "Ami, what exactly *was* that monster, anyway? We
haven't had one of those for a long time, now."
"According to my computer, it was a daimon. Probably a reject from a
leftover daimon egg. I'm surprised that it lived this long without
being detected," answered Ami.
"And now for the $5000 question: What do you have on the guy who
trashed it?" asked Minako.
"He's quite human, if that's what you want to know. I got a few
readings on him since I inadvertently left my computer opened when the
daimon attacked."
"So let's hear it," said Luna.
"Well, what you saw at the train station practically speaks for
itself. First of all, he's incredibly fast and agile. I'm passably
sure his speed rivals or might even surpass our own in our Senshi forms.
He must have a great tolerance to injuries, too, since being slammed in
the wall merely stunned him for an instant."
"What about that blurred punch he threw?" asked Mamoru. "He yelled
something and then I couldn't even see his arms anymore."
Ami consulted her computer and frowned. When she stopped walking and
stood there frowning at he computer, the others stopped and looked at
her strangely.
"Masaka... there must have been a malfunction... he couldn't possibly
have thrown so many punches" they heard Ami mutter incredulously.
"Ami-chan, what's wrong?" asked Usagi.
"I have some trouble with what my computer tells me. According to
it, he threw *at least* 120 punches in under 5 seconds, very probably
more; the computer wasn't calibrated to analyze something like that."
said Ami in a disbelieving tone.
All the others stared at her incredulously.
"What about the energy ball he threw?" asked Usagi, snapping out of
it.
Ami sighed and started walking again. "The computer didn't have
enough time to gather enough readings for that. I'm sorry, Usagi."
"I don't think we should forget what the girl did either. How many
girls do you know pull out giant wooden hammers out of nowhere and punt
youmas around like baseballs?" commented Usagi.
Mamoru shook his head and Usagi noticed it.
"What's wrong, Mamo-chan?" she asked in a worried voice.
"They were in the train with me all this time; they were sitting
straight in front of me and I didn't notice a single thing..." But
Mamoru's voice had taken an uncertain tone by the end of the sentence.
"Out with it, Mamoru", said Minako, noticing the change in tone.
"What is it?"
Mamoru took on a thoughtful look. "It's probably nothing, but the
guy looked very familiar for some reason. I can't help wonder if I've
seen him before somewhere."
Hotaru, who had been silent up to now, suddenly became aware of the
conversation. "You too, Mamoru?!"
Everyone stopped walking and looked at both of them. Mamoru and
Hotaru were looking at each other.
"Where do you think you know him from?" asked Hotaru first.
"I've been having strange dreams for the past few days. It's in the
days of the Moon Kingdom. I'm wearing my armor as Prince Endymion and
this girl is running towards me, but I never quite clearly see her face;
only shadows. When I saw that guy, I immediately started thinking about
that girl." He passed a hand through his hair. "I don't really know
why I should connect the both of them in the first place."
Hotaru looked at Mamoru with what looked like pity in her eyes. "You
don't remember her, do you?"
Mamoru felt a chill go through his spine. "Remember who?"
"I know who the guy reminds you of, Mamoru. He looks exactly like
what your younger sister would've looked like had she been born a man."
Mamoru froze in shock. Sister?... He had a *sister*? Was the girl
in his dream his sister?... "I had a sister?..." he said weakly. He
turned to Luna. "Why was I never told I had a sister?!" he asked in a
tone that was rapidly rising towards that of anger.
Luna found herself flinching under Mamoru's angry gaze. The worst
thing was that for some reason, she now knew about Akana, something she
knew she hadn't known even yesterday. It was quite disconcerting. How
was she supposed to explain to Mamoru that she had just *now* remembered
about his sister?
Fortunately, Hotaru quickly came to Luna's rescue before the black
cat had to explain herself. "Mamoru, there's no guarantee that she did
know about Akana. Her and Artemis' memories are a bit swiss-cheesed,
remember?"
Mamoru turned to her, his cold anger fading in the light of Hotaru's
argument. "Then how is it *you* know?" he asked.
"When I was reborn after the Pharaoh 90 incident, I grew up again
extremely fast, but this time, I had most of my memories of the Moon
Kingdom." Hotaru hesitated before continuing. "There's also the fact
that your sister couldn't have been reborn in this time like us,
Mamoru." Seeing his questioning look, she went on: "Akana and I became
the Sailors Terra and Saturn on the same day; we were the last Senshi to
be nominated. Akana was supposed to be the strongest Senshi next to
myself in term of raw power, but she mysteriously disappeared two months
after her nomination as Sailor Terra. No one really knows what happened
to her and believe me, they *really* tried to find her." Hotaru paused
for an instant, then continued again. "As for me, I was sent to train
far away in the system because everyone had become afraid of me, of what
I meant. They were afraid of Saturn the Destroyer. They were all
afraid, save Serenity, the Senshi and my brother." She gave a bitter
smile. "The real irony of it all is that as it turns out, they sent me
to train so far I couldn't come back in time to destroy Metallia when
she launched her attack a few months later. The Moon Kingdom passed
away because it was afraid of the one who was supposed to be its
protector."
Minako found her voice first, although Hotaru did not expect the
question: "You had a brother?"
Hotaru looked sad for a moment. "Yes, I had a brother. His name was
Kanma and he was one of the rare people who didn't flinch when speaking
to me after I became Saturn. That's the other thing I find strange in
all of this: If I didn't know any better, I would swear that the girl
was my reincarnated brother."
"How could you be sure she's your reincarnated brother?" asked Luna.
Hotaru looked down to Luna with a small smile for an instant: "You
probably wouldn't understand, but it has something to do with the way
she handled that hammer of hers. Kanma was always using hammers; he
used to say pounding things made him relax. She looks so much like he
did... but I gave up hope of my brother being reborn a long time ago."
she finished with a sad look.
"How can you be so sure?" asked Usagi, who had not taken her hand
away from Mamoru's shoulder since Hotaru's revelation. "My mother
managed to send a lot of people to the future when she used the
Ginzuishou to seal Metallia away. How can you be sure your brother
wasn't one of them?"
Sad purple eyes looked up at the sky. "When I finally came back to
the Moon and found the Crystal Palace destroyed, I immediately rushed to
where my old home was and found nothing but ashes. I later found out
that my home had been the among the first areas hit by youma strikes,
which happened at least a month before Metallia launched her final
strike."
Everyone was silent for a while, digesting the new information.
Further along the way, Ranma and Akane got back down from the
rooftops after being sure nobody had followed them from the train
station.
"I hope you're not planning on doing this on a regular basis, Ranma.
I really wouldn't appreciate all the attention."
"Kinda strange, isn't it?" Ranma replied over his shoulder. "In
Nerima, Ryoga and I destroyed a lot of things each time we fought and no
one ever looked twice."
"They did look twice," Akane replied. "They were just too afraid of
doing anything about it."
Ranma raised an eyebrow, but let the matter drop. They soon arrived
in front of a Shinto Temple.
"This is the place!" said Ranma. He looked at Akane, took her hand
and went inside the gates.
End Chapter 3
Author's note: I go to the university full-time and also have a
25-hour/week job starting tomorrow, so I may be quiet for the next few
weeks. But do not despair! I will not abandon this story!
In the meantime, if people have plot ideas they'd wish to see,
they're welcome to share them! I'd like this story to be long-lived, if
possible. (Thanks Cynewulf!)
--
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* The Phoenix Reborn * Jordanite and Mystical
********************** Freak at Large
Louis-Philippe Giroux