[SM/Ranma][FanFic] Lines Of Destiny - Chapter 6
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!!!
Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko
Takahashi. Please don't sue me.
Chapter 6 (version 5.0)
Meanwhile, Ranma and Akane were making their way back to the Hikawa
Shrine, unaware of the reception they were going to have. The people
occupying said shrine were busy staring at what was supposed to be a
picture of the orignal incarnation of Mamoru's sister, Akana, who had
also happened to be Sailor Terra in the days of the Moon Kingdom.
"You're right, Ami. Except for the hair, she *does* look like a
female version of Ranma," said Makoto.
Akana could have been Ranma's sister. She had the same basic looks,
only with a feminine cast. The only thing that was truly different was
her hair, which had a flaming red color. Also different was the
hairstyle: instead of Ranma's pigtail, Akana wore her hair loose. It
flowed down a bit past her shoulders, a river of red as bright as Tuxedo
Kamen's roses.
Mamoru gulped loudly without being aware of it. The girls watched as
he slowly raised his hand and tried to touch the hologram, to no avail.
"It's her," he whispered in awe. "She's definitely the one I've been
having dreams about recently."
Usagi felt a brief pang of jealousy at the thought of Mamoru dreaming
of another woman, but quickly dismissed the idea when she realized he
was talking about his sister. She turned to face her guardian cat.
"Luna, is there some chance Ranma might be a Senshi?" she asked. The
other girls all started at the question.
The black cat looked uncomfortable. "I don't think so, Usagi. The
Senshi were and still are all female. I never imagined that one of them
might be reincarnated as a man."
"Besides, Usagi-chan, I don't think he'd look very good in a Sailor
fuku," deadpanned Makoto.
The comment ellicited a round of snickers that helped alleviate the
atmosphere.
Rei turned to Sailor Mercury. "Ami, why didn't you ever come up with
this picture before?"
"Well, I've never exactly had any reason to look for it before,"
replied the blue-clad Sailor. Her computer suddenly beeped. "There are
people approaching the shrine, Rei."
Rei's eyes widened slightly. "Turn back to normal, Ami. It's
probably Ranma and Akane coming back and," her eyes narrowed, "he owes
me an explanation for the train station incident."
"You don't need to go on the warpath, Rei, I doubt he lied in order
to spite you or anything. He doesn't know you're a Sailor Senshi, so he
was probably just concerned about how you'd react if you learned he'd
fought a monster," said Ami calmly.
Rei deflated a little. "Maybe you're right, but I still want to know
if he's as powerful as you described him to be, and if he is, I want to
know how he does it."
Ami smiled. "So do I."
And so, they all moved outside the shrine to wait for Ranma and
Akane.
Ranma-chan and Akane were getting close to the Hikawa Shrine, so
Ranma quickly poured the hot water he had gotten at the cafe on himself.
The usual change soon followed.
"Aaahh! It's good to be a guy again," Ranma said with a smile.
True to form, it couldn't last. Ranma was almost in front of the
gate when a bicyclist whizzed by Ranma and splashed him with the
contents of a puddle left there by the previous rainfall.
Ranma-chan frowned, disgusted. "I hate my life," she said in a
depressed voice.
Akane groaned. "What are we going to do now? You used all the hot
water!"
Ranma-chan thought about it for a second. "Well, you could just go
in the shrine and smuggle out a cup of hot water while I wait outside,"
she suggested.
Akane nodded. "I guess it's as good a plan as any." She turned
around and crossed to the gate. She had not taken three steps inside
the gate before she was confronted with the sight of a party of six
girls and a young man looking for all the world like they were expecting
someone. Her gaze was momentarily drawn to the shortest of the group.
Akane stopped dead in her tracks and a sweatdrop found its way on to
the back of her head. "Ano.. am I... interrupting something?"
Rei suddenly realized they all looked like a bunch of starving
vultures ready to dive on someone. "Oh, I'm sorry Akane-san, I was just
saying goodbye to my friends when we heard people near the gates." Rei
looked around, but didn't see Ranma. "Isn't Ranma with you?" she asked.
"He'll... be along shortly," Akane said slowly. She took a long look
at the group of girls and her eyes widened in recognition when she
finally realized where she had seen them before. They were the same
girls from the train station! She also belatedly realized that the
young man was the one who had sat across from them in the train.
*Great!* she thought sourly. *They're the only ones who really saw the
fight at the train station and they happen to be friends with Rei?* She
felt a small hope flare. *Maybe they don't remember me!*
"Well, don't mind me," Akane said in a falsely cheerful tone. "I'll
just go inside."
Akane had barely gotten past the group before Rei spoke again.
"Akane-san, my friends tell me you and Ranma were involved in a
monster attack at the train station today. Is this true?" asked the
priestess.
Akane stopped and cursed inwardly. *Damn! Looks like we won't be
able to sweep this one under the rug. Oh well...* With her back still
turned, she said: "Well, the attack was quickly over, so it didn't seem
really important. You looked like you had better things to worry about
than fret over a monster attack."
Rei narrowed her eyes. *She's treating the attack almost as if it
were a walk in the park! Very strange...* But before she could ask her
next question...
Ranma-chan was standing outside the gate. When she heard Akane being
greeted, she winced. *It sounds like there are a lot of people there.
I hope Akane can get the hot water anyway.* She winced even more when
she heard Rei question Akane. "I knew we shouldn't have tried to keep
it secret," she muttered in a low voice. She then decided to go bail
out Akane and stepped inside the gates, intent on diverting the
attention away from Akane. "Hey, Akane, is everything all right?..."
She got no further when she noticed the stares she was getting.
Rei was a nanosecond away from asking her next question to Akane when
she noticed a second person walking through the gates. It took her a
few seconds to realize exactly *who* had just walked through the gates.
She blinked, not trusting her eyes. Slowly, she turned towards the
other girls to see their reactions and realized they were reacting much
the same way she was.
"Akana?" Mamoru blurted out incredulously, not believing his eyes.
The comment was enough to break the staring contest. Ranma-chan was
the first to snap out of it. "I'm Akane's *cousin*; my name's Ranko,"
she said, startlement replaced by confusion. "*She's* Akane," said the
redhead, pointing towards her 'cousin'.
The shortest girl in the group, shook her head. "He didn't say
'Akane'; he said 'Akana'."
"Well, I'm neither Akane or Akana, so you must have the wrong
person," Ranma-chan said, looking at Mamoru. Unfortunately, she
couldn't stop herself from staring at Mamoru as well. *He's the guy who
was sitting with us in the train, but ... why does he look so
familiar?...* Suddenly, for a brief moment, an image, like a
long-forgotten memory flashed in her mind in which the young man in
front of her was clad in a black and silver armor. She was about to put
a name to him when the fluttering memory vanished as fast as it had
appeared. She quickly shook her head.
No one noticed Akane tiptoeing inside the shrine. *Might as well get
the hot water while Ranma's distracting them,* she thought.
"Are you okay, ah... Ranko-san?" asked Mamoru.
"Yeah, it's just that for a second there, you reminded me of someone,
that's all."
"Who?" asked Hotaru, with what Ranma-chan detected as a hint of
eagerness in her voice
"And just *who* are..." Ranma-chan trailed off, her eyes widening.
She never finished her statement. Suddenly,an expression of pure,
utter, undescribable, unadulterated horror appeared on her face. A
powerless young virgin faced with a legion of horny tentacled demons
would not have looked so horrified. The girls were already halfway
reaching for their henshin sticks when they turned around to look at the
gruesome horror whose sight alone had frozen "Ranko".
The only things they saw were Artemis and Luna, who had come out of
the shrine. They were currently imitating the girls, in the way that
they were gawking (as much as a cat can gawk) at Ranma-chan.
Everyone (minus Ranma-chan) blinked. They turned back to Ranko, not
understanding what had her so frightened.
"C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAAAATTTS!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, pointing at the two
cats.
Everyone blinked once again. It was the last thing they did before
Ranko took off at supersonic speed through the front gate and down the
street.
Before they could react to that particular twist of events, Akane
came barrelling down the shrine steps, a water-filled glass in her
hands. "What? Where?!" she said looking left and right. She then
spotted the two Moon cats and sighed audibly. "Great, just great..."
she muttered.
Rei looked at Akane, puzzlement painted all over her face. "Akane,
what just happened here?" asked the bewildered priestess.
Akane thought about it for a second. *If those cats are pets, Rei
might as well know the truth. Ranma will forgive me.* She headed out
towards the gate, intent on catching up with Ranma-chan. At the last
second, she turned around. "Ranko had a training accident when she was
young and, as a result, she freaks out every time she sees a cat." She
looked pensive for a second and added: "Ranma doesn't like people to
know, but he has the exact same fear, so if you don't want him to freak
out when he gets back, you might want to take those cats elsewhere."
Without adding another word, she turned back and ran away after
Ranma-chan.
By the time Rei and the others moved to the gate, Akane was already
long gone.
Luna and Artemis slowly came back to their senses. "Excuse me,"
Artemis asked in a confused tone, "But can someone tell us what just
happened here and who was that girl who looked so much like Akana?"
Everyone started speaking at the same time.
Akane managed to catch up with Ranma-chan a couple of blocks from the
Hikawa shrine. The pigtailed martial artist was slowly banging her head
against a wall, embarassment chiseled on her features. Akane rolled her
eyes and approached the young woman.
"You won't be able to get rid of your phobia that way, Ranma," she
said with a small smile.
Ranma-chan stopped pounding her head and looked at Akane. "It's just
so embarassing! Do you even realize how foolish I'll look now? How am
I going to explain to a group of high school girls, one of them who's my
cousin, why I got freaked by a couple of cats?"
"I think you're overreacting to all of this, Ranma."
Ranma looked at her with a flat look. "You're not the one who runs
for the hills each time a cat crosses your path."
Akane sighed. "Just before I left to come after you, I told them
about your phobia, Ranma."
"You did *what*?"
"Look, Ranma," Akane said, her tone rising, "If those cats happen to
be Rei's pets, she needs to know about your phobia. Besides, the other
girls would've asked questions anyway, so I told them."
It was Ranma-chan's turn to sigh. "What exactly *did* you tell
them?"
"I told them you and your male form had a training accident when you
were young and as a result, you developed a fear of cats."
"Why did you tell them I was afraid as a guy, too?" Ranma almost
cried out.
Akane merely looked at Ranma, not saying a word.
"Right, right, I guess it couldn't be helped. They would've found
out soon enough, ne?" Ranma closed her eyes for a couple of seconds,
then opened them up again and looked at the glass of water in Akane's
hands. "Is that hot water?" she asked.
"It's not boiling, but at least it's warm enough to change you back."
She smiled. "I guess that was the one good thing about all of this; it
allowed me to get the hot water while everyone was staring at you." Her
smile faded a little. "By the way, why *were* they staring at you like
that? They were acting as if they'd seen a ghost."
Ranma-chan took the water and poured it over her head. He shook his
damp head. "I'm not sure," he said. He thought for a couple of
seconds. "Akane, did you notice that the guy who was there was the same
one as on the train?"
Akane nodded. "And the other girls were the ones you pushed me
towards at the train station."
Ranma shook his head slowly. "I told you we shouldn't have tried to
hide the fight."
Akane opened her mouth to protest, but Ranma forestalled her
protests. "Let me finish first," he said. His wife settled back,
looking a bit unhappy. "Akane, did you notice anything strange about
the guy from the train? Did he remind you of anyone?" Ranma asked.
Akane blinked. "No... not really," she said slowly. "Why?"
Ranma looked introspective. "I can't help feeling I've seen him
somewhere before. Not like having seen him before in a street or
something, but it's like I remember him from a really long time ago... "
It was Akane's turn to shake her head. "Sorry, but he doesn't really
remind me of anyone. The only one who looks familiar to me is the
little one with the purple eyes." Ranma raised an eyebrow, but said
nothing.
Ranma and Akane looked at each other for a few seconds then shrugged
in unison.
"Oh well, we'll sort it out later. Right now, I suppose we'd better
head back to the shrine and face the welcoming party," concluded Ranma
with a wry smile.
Akane smiled back and they headed once more towards the Hikawa
Shrine, hand in hand.
At the shrine, a healthy disussion was under way. Mamoru, the two
Moon cats and the girls were waiting for the return of Ranma, Akane and
Ranko. Mamoru was still a little shocked at having seen the girl from
his dreams - his long-lost sister - appear out of nowhere and leave just
as quickly. The other girls had just been plain frazzled by the
"apparition". They had just finished explaining what had happened to
Luna and Artemis.
"So she said she was Akane's cousin?" asked Artemis.
The girls nodded. "That's what she said before she ran away," said
Hotaru.
Mamoru suddenly spoke up. "I need to find her."
Everyone, especially Usagi, turned towards him.
"I need to find her," he repeated. "I'm positive she's the girl from
my dreams and before she took off, she mentioned I looked familiar."
"Mamoru," Luna said diplomatically. "You realize this might just be
a freak encounter?"
Mamoru stared at Luna with what could almost pass as hostility before
calming down. "Maybe," he said, "But I intend to find out."
Minako broke the awkward silence that followed, taking the
opportunity to change the subject. "I still don't really understand why
she freaked out like that when she saw Luna and Artemis," she wondered
out loud. She turned towards Ami. "Do you really think a training
accident could've done that, Ami?"
The resident genius took on a slightly lecturing tone. "Her case is
very unusual. I've heard of cases in which a patient who's been
traumatized by an animal, develops an irrational fear of that animal
afterwards. However, I've never heard of a case like hers. If her fear
*is* due to a training accident, the trauma must have been considerable
in order for her to react like that. The best thing is to ask her about
it when she comes back."
"Do you really think Ranma has the same fear as her? He sure didn't
look afraid when he trashed the daimon at the train station today," said
Usagi.
Ami shrugged slightly. "It's possible. We can ask him when he comes
back. In the meantime, I suggest Luna and Artemis go hide somewhere
before Ranma comes back, just to be sure."
The two cats reluctantly went to hide in a couple of bushes.
"Speak of the devil..." said Makoto.
Ranma (still male) and Akane walked in the gate and found the girls
sitting on the steps leading to the shrine. While most of them looked
at him with varying degrees of surprise, Ranma noticed that the young
man looked somewhat disappointed.
"Ranma, Akane!" said Rei. "Did you find Ranko?"
"She bowled me over when she was running away from here," said Ranma.
"She decided to go straight home instead of taking another chance with
the cats." He then started looking nervously around him. "You're sure
they're gone?"
"They're Minako and Usagi's pets," Rei said, indicating the two girls
with a nod of the head. "Don't worry, they're gone." Ranma heaved a
sigh of relief. Rei almost couldn't believe Ranma's reaction. "Would
you mind explaining why you and Ranko are so afraid of cats?"
Ranma looked at the group of girls before him. "Before I tell you,
none of this goes anywhere, understand?" He waited until everyone had
nodded. Ranma lowered his head and sighed. "You know about dad
training me in martial arts when I was very young, don't you?" Rei
nodded. "Well, he trained Ranko, too. When I was ten years old, dad
decided Ranko and I were old enough to learn a special kind of martial
arts... the Neko-ken."
Ami made a mental note to look up anything she could find on this
style, while Makoto was shaking her head at the thought of anyone
learning special martial arts techniques at that age.
Ranma continued. "The Neko-ken was supposed to be an extremely
powerful style. To train us in it, dad wrapped us from head to toe in
fish sausage and dropped us in a pit full of starving cats. Needless to
say, the cats didn't ask before tearing the food off us."
Everyone (save Akane) gasped. "But... that's insane!" blurted out
Ami. "What were you possibly supposed to learn that way?"
Rei shook her head. "I can't believe Uncle Genma would do something
like that!"
Ranma looked hard at her. "Believe it, Rei! There aren't a lot of
things my father wouldn't have done to teach me martial arts."
Usagi interrupted. "It mustn't have been pleasant for you and Ranko,
but at least it only happened once."
Ranma slowly turned to look at her. "Who says he only did it once?"
Everyone gulped. Ranma continued. "When the first time didn't yield
any positive results, he covered us in fish sausage again and tossed us
back in the cat pit. And again, and again, and again... Eventually we
snapped and went insane," Ranma said emotionlessly.
By then, everyone was looking at Ranma with some degree of pity.
Even Luna and Artemis, hidden in the bushes, winced in sympathy.
"Still, you look sane enough to me," Minako said in a bright voice.
*Geez,* thought Usagi. *And I thought I was the one who was
tactless...*
Before the other girls could tell Minako to shut up, Ranma smiled
wryly. "Fortunately for us, the insanity was only temporary. An old
lady managed to snap us out of it. It turns out that we were finally
able to use the legendary Neko-ken, but at the cost of our sanity.
Since that day, whenever Ranko or I see a cat, we freak out and we can't
help it. It can become quite dangerous if we're exposed to a cat for
any length of time."
"What does that mean, exactly?" asked Ami.
"We end up accessing the Neko-ken. If that should ever happen, you'd
better pray Akane's nearby or run for your lives, because at that point,
Akane is the only one who can bring us out of it," Ranma said. *Well,
there's also a very good chance that being splashed with cold water
might do it, but I'm not about to tell them that.*
"You can't possibly be *that* dangerous, can you?" asked Minako with
a small, nervous smile.
Ranma merely looked at Minako and raised an eyebrow. "You were at
the train station this afternoon, ne? *You* decide how dangerous I
could be if I were several times faster and stronger with no control
over what I did."
While Akane scowled at the mention of the train station incident,
Minako remembered what Ranma had done at the train station and wisely
decided to shut up. Rei, however, was not so easily deterred.
"Ranma, would you mind explaining how you trashed a monster at the
train station?" asked the young priestess.
"Why is this so important to you, Rei?" asked Ranma.
Rei was only stumped for a second. "Because you could've been hurt!"
she decided. She couldn't very well tell him she had a more...
professional interest in the matter, now, could she?
Ranma snorted. "Rei, I've been training in martial arts since the
day I could stand up without falling. I've faced a lot worse than that
monster, trust me." Ranma stopped when he saw Akane's expression
turning red.
*Stupid macho bravado,* Rei thought. "Well next time, leave it to
the Sailor Senshi, okay? They're better equipped than you are to face
these monsters."
"You mean they're actually real? Anyway, people could have been hurt
by that monster and I didn't see those Sailor Senshi anywhere, so I took
care of it. Don't worry about me, Rei. I can take care of myself."
"What about the energy blast? I'm quite curious as to how you did
that." asked Ami.
Ranma decided enough was enough. "That was a Ki-blast," he said.
"Now, If you'll excuse me, Akane and I need to get some sleep if we're
going to wake up early for registration tomorrow." Akane and Ranma got
up and went inside the shrine.
*He can manipulate his Ki?* thought Rei, incredulously.
"Wait!" yelled Mamoru. Ranma and Akane stopped. "I'd like to speak
to Ranko again soon, if possible."
Ranma frowned almost imperceptibly. "Why?" he asked.
"She reminds me of... someone. I'd just like to talk to her, that's
all."
Ranma thought about it for a couple of seconds. *Mmmhh, if I let him
meet 'Ranko', I might be able to find out why he looks so familiar,* he
thought. "I'll let her know," he said out loud.
"Thank you," said Mamoru.
Akane was nearly inside the shrine when she turned around. "Excuse
me, but what's your name?" she asked Hotaru.
Hotaru's eyes widened slightly. "I'm Hotaru Tomoe, Akane-san," she
said.
Akane narrowed her eyes slightly, examining Hotaru. "Have you ever
been in the Nerima area, Hotaru?"
Hotaru blinked. "No, why?"
Akane shook her head. "It's nothing, I guess. It's just that... I
thought I'd seen you somewhere before, that's all," she said ruefuelly.
She turned back around and went inside with Ranma before she could
see Hotaru staring at her, eyes wide open. *She remembers?...*
Just then, a yellow sportscar came close to the gate and stopped to
reveal Haruka. "Hotaru! It's time to go back home," she called out.
She blinked when she noticed everyone's expressions, from Rei's
puzzlement, to Mamoru's slightly anguished expression. Hotaru's
features were in the process of acquiring a nervous twitch. "What
happened here?" she asked. "Hotaru, are you all right?"
Hotaru snapped out of the daze she was in. Barely. "I'll tell you
all about it on the way home, Haruka-papa," she said numbly.
Haruka, seeing as she wasn't going to have any answers from the Inner
Senshi, who seemed to be ignoring her for some reason, shrugged and got
back into the car with Hotaru. "Michiru and I had an interesting
evening too," she said. "I'll tell you about it on the way."
Just before she closed the door, Haruka heard Minako and Usagi scream
in unison: "LOOK AT THE TIME! MY PARENTS ARE GONNA KILL ME!". Haruka
shook her head and closed the door.
Author's notes
"Henshin sticks" are more commonly referred in fanfics as
"transformation pens".
Thanks to everyone who sent typo corrections and everything!
End Chapter 6
--
**********************
* The Phoenix Reborn * Jordanite and Mystical
********************** Freak at Large
Louis-Philippe Giroux