Futanari Ranma - Chapter 8

Futanari Ranma
A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction
by Michael A. Ivins

Ranma, his family, friends and rivals are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I get no money for writing this story. Mostly I just have some fun sharing the products of my imagination with others. I also do not own any of the characters from Manga (or is that doujin) Futa Club.

This chapter has LEMON content including incest. If you find that sort of thing offensive, stop reading

Chapter 8
Nabiki Joins In

When Ranma and Akane got back home, Kasumi noticed that Ranma was in girl form and asked, "Did you want to change before dinner."

Ranma wanted to say she'd prefer to stay as she was, but noticed her father glaring at her. Taking the invitation, she stepped into the kitchen and poured some hot water from the kettle over her arm.

He grumbled as he went back into the dining room. As much time as his father spent as a panda, it wouldn't hurt him to cut Ranma some slack when it came to being in girl form. The young sex changer was finally at peace with the change and even liked his alternate form now that he had experienced sex with it.

Ranma wondered seriously what his father would say if he learned what the cursed water had done to him at the wedding. He also had to wonder what his mother would say with her fixation on manliness. Would she feel that the addition of a penis to his cursed form made him more manly or less?

When all the family had gathered around the table, Kasumi announced, "Nabiki has asked me to prepare a special meal for lunch tomorrow. While she was a little vague on the occasion it's for, she said the lunch will be a celebration."

Nabiki nodded and said, "That's right. There have been changes in my life recently and for others in this family as well. I can't say what the changes are right now, but I feel they are good changes and I would like you all to help me celebrate them."

"Will you tell us later?" Asked Soun.

"Oh, yes. I promise you that." She paused a moment, then said, "The lunch is dual purpose. It's to celebrate the new and wonderful change in my life, but it's also to apologize for the part I played in the wedding mess. It's safe to say that things would have gone differently if I hadn't sent out invitations to all of the people that I did."

She looked over at the couple and said, "Tomorrow will be exactly one week after the wedding. I didn't think Ranma and Akane were ready to married. I can see now that they do truly love each other and really want to be married."

"However," she said, placing strong emphasis on the word. "I think it would be a very big mistake to try and have another big wedding ceremony. If we did, people would find out and there would be more fighting and other problems. I think if Ranma and Akane are to be married it needs to be done in secret. Only after all the papers are signed and filed and the union consummated should it be revealed. Then nobody can do anything to stop them."

Soun protested, "But I wanted a ceremony. It's what Kimiko would have wanted for her youngest."

Nabiki shook her head. "That may be so, but it still isn't a good idea. Even if he tries not to be, Ranma is a trouble magnet. My thought on it was that once they are legally married and nothing can be done to reverse it, then we can make a public announcement. Then we can do a ceremony to re-affirm their vows and let us take pictures and such."

She let them absorb that for a moment. "Think about it. If the next wedding ceremony is done where everybody knows they are already married, then the people who come won't be trying to break up the happy couple and there shouldn't be any gate-crashers."

"Well..." Soun didn't sound completely convinced. "There may be something to what you say. The wedding last week was a nearly complete disaster. What you are suggesting would prevent a lot of problems. I'll need to think about it."

"You do that Daddy," Nabiki said. She didn't think he would put up too much protest after tomorrow's planned events. She had seen the shopping bag Ranma had been carrying.

Turning her head, Nabiki looked over to the engaged couple. "Ranma, Akane, after dinner could you come to my room. I've stuff to talk to you about. It includes the arrangements we need to make for college, so it could take a while." She took a moment to glare at the others around the table, with an especially hard look at Genma. "We have serious stuff to talk about, to I'd appreciate if there are no interruptions."

The others at the table nodded vigorously. Nabiki could be scary when she got like that. They had all learned the hard way to not get involved in Nabiki's business dealings.

A short while later the three teens entered into Nabiki's room. They were not surprised when the brunette locked the door behind her.

Akane asked, "What's the occasion you want to celebrate tomorrow?"

Nabiki smirked and pulled down her skirt and undergarments. "The change I'm celebrating is this." They could see that there was now a penis at her groin.

She asked, "So Akane, how did it feel fucking your new cock into Ranma's tight little pussy?"

Taking Nabiki's exposure of herself as an invitation, Akane started to unbutton her blouse. While doing that she said, "It felt great. Almost as good as having Ranma's cock in my cunt."

Ranma asked, "That bit about promising to tell about your change, does that mean you're going to tell them about this?" He gestured toward her lower body. "How are you going to tell them about your change without telling about Akane and me?"

After pulling off her t-shirt, Nabiki said, "I'm making arrangements. When the events I have planned take place we should all be able to tell our parents without any risk of them reacting badly."

"That sounds like a pretty tall order," remarked Ranma. He picked up a bottle of water he saw on Nabiki's desk and poured some on his face. Setting the bottle back on the desk, the young futa used a towel that Nabiki had left there.

"You'll see," Nabiki in a tone of absolute confidence. "They'll accept you guys and me being futanari and they'll agree to an elopement for you two."

Now completely nude, Akane sighed and said, "Part of me wants to know how you plan to accomplish that. A different part of me says I'm better off not knowing what you have planned."

As Akane sat on the bed, Ranma asked, "What did you want to say about college? I know you mainly said that to get us privacy for the time we need to have sex, but I also know you wouldn't have said that unless you did intend to actually talk about college."

Nodding, Nabiki said, "Akane, I'd like to ask you to send another email and request all of the free stuff the people at Realm of Futar are willing to send. That will allow me to buy more at half price. I can find customers for more. The money I can make from selling that stuff should pay for college for all of us and even let Kasumi get the education to be a nurse. I know she wants to."

"I can do that," agreed Akane.

"Ranma, you need to start paying attention in class," Nabiki continued. "If you want even a hope of getting into college you have to start getting better grades."

Having expected that, Ranma answered, "I've been working on that. It's a struggle, but I've decided that what I need to do is to treat school work like a martial arts challenge. If I do that I should be able to stay awake and learn the stuff they're teaching. I'll treat it like the lessons were weaknesses in an opponents defenses that I'm trying to learn."

"Work harder," was Nabiki's only response. She sat on the bed next to her sister.

Placing a hand on Akane's shoulder, Nabiki said, "I wish we could have a more romantic setting for this. I've admired your beauty for years." She gently stroked the bare skin.

The brunette let her fingers trail down from Akane's shoulder to lightly trace a line over the tops of the younger sister's breasts. She leaned in and shortly the two futa's lips met in a kiss.

Ranma had seated herself on the desk chair. Making the scene even more arousing was the fact that the two sucking face were sisters. With all of the talk of incest she had heard the last week, she somewhat regretted the fact that she had no siblings of her own to get involved with.

To be sure siblings were not the only kind of family that one could have incest with. Her mother Nodoka was a fine specimen of womanhood. The woman seemed to have some odd ideas of what was proper. From the way Nodoka spoke she seemed to have the idea that Ranma should marry one of the fiancées and have the rest as mistresses. How would the woman respond to the idea of having sex with her own son?

Incest sometimes involved fathers with daughters. Ugh! The idea of having sex with Genma was not the most appealing. The man was tall and, while he gave the appearance of being overweight, was in fact quite fit. He was not physically unattractive, it was the man's personality that was the turnoff.

Shaking herself out of her introspection, Ranma looked over to the bed. The two sisters were now engaging in dueling tongues while their hands groped everywhere. Looking at the middle sister, Ranma had to admit that Nabiki was very beautiful. She lacked the trim, athletic musculature that Akane had, but was still slim and reasonably fit.

While watching, Ranma brought a hand to her bosom and began massaging one of her breasts. She also reached down and first grabbed her cock in preparation to stroke it. However, a thought about how good it had felt when Akane had fingered, then licked her pussy earlier in the day came to mind, Ranma's fingers move a little further down to start fingering her own pussy.

The redhead got so involved with the pleasant sensations she was giving herself that when she looked back to the bed, Akane was on her back and Nabiki was over her. The older sister had her cock pressed against the lips of Akane's pussy. It was obvious that Akane was very excited because Nabiki's cock went in quickly and easy. Akane's cock was trapped between her own body and Nabiki's.

Before starting pumping her cock in Akane's pussy, Nabiki said, "Hey Ranma, instead of sitting there playing with your pussy, why don't you come over here and let Akane suck on your cock? I'm sure she won't mind, would you, Akane?"

The black haired futa shook her head and grunted, "Nah. Come on."

Accepting the invitation, Ranma stood and stepped over to the bed and presented her cock. When Nabiki saw that her sister had Ranma's cock in her hand, she began thrusting her own cock in and out of Akane's pussy. The youngest Tendo turned her head and took the head of Ranma's cock in her mouth.

The movement of a cock in her pussy was causing Akane's body to move. That fact, plus the sensations of pleasure coming from her cunt, guaranteed that she was not doing any of the more elaborate techniques she had studied. She was simply sucking cock without very much tongue action. Ranma didn't mind.

Nabiki had read just as much porn as Akane had, so she knew what she was doing in theory. However, she'd never had a cock before, so she was mostly just slowly stroking in and out without using any of the techniques she had read of. She was enjoying the sensations too much to think about fancy techniques.

This was what she had dreamed of for years. She finally had cock just like the people she read about, like the ones she'd seen on the internet. She had a cock and didn't have to change completely into a man to get it. It was wonderful, it was amazing.

Akane was enjoying the fucking and could also tell that Ranma was enjoying the felatio. However, she wanted more. Momentarily releasing Ranma's cock from her mouth, Akane said, "Faster, Nabiki." She quickly took Ranma's cock back into her mouth.

So intent had the brown haired futa been on the sensations she had been feeling, that she had missed the words Akane spoke. She looked at Ranma and said, "What'd she say?"

"Faster," Ranma repeated for her lover.

Feeling a moment of guilt, Nabiki speeded up her thrusts. She realized that she had been an inconsiderate lover, paying more attention more to her own pleasure than to Akane's. Her increased effort was reward as her sister grunted around the cock she was sucking.

Hoping to increase Akane's pleasure even further, Nabiki tried changing the length and angle of her thrusts. She gauged the success of her efforts from the sounds Akane made.

The effort paid off. Grunts became mixed with moans as the black haired futa made her feelings known as well as she could with her mouth full.

The mercenary girl, now the mercenary futa, said, "This is wonderful, sis. Your pussy feels incredible. I always thought having a cock would feel great. It's better than I ever imagined."

Not diverting too much thought away from the sensations in her pussy, Akane did think, "Just shut up and fuck me."

The three way action continued until the inevitable happened. Ranma called out, "Akane, I'm gonna cum!"

The black haired futa nodded and readied herself. When the semen came spurting into her mouth she was ready and quickly gulped it down. When Ranma stepped back, Akane was now free to concentrate on the sensations she was feeling from her cunt.

She was close. It didn't take much longer for her arousal to reach a peak. Akane announced, "I'm cumming!" Her cunt clenched around Nabiki's cock. Semen spurted from Akane's own dick, getting on both futa.

The spasms around her cock were enough to trigger Nabiki. She came too, pumping sperm into her sister's depths.

After a moment to catch her breath, Akane said, "That was great, sis. For making me feel so good, I almost forgive you for the mean things you've done to me in the past."

Raising herself up, Nabiki protested, "You know I only did that stuff to keep a roof over our heads."

Taking the towel that Ranma handed her, Akane started to wipe her cum off her breasts and face. She said, "I'd buy that excuse if I didn't know you enjoy the stuff you do. You like all of the manuvering, blackmail and other stuff the way a chess master enjoys playing the game."

Pulling out of Akane, Nabiki moved to sit on the end of the bed. She had to admit there was some justice to her sister's accusation. There was a certain strategy that had to be employed to her moneymaking schemes. It was a challenge to at least some of it. It took a clever mind to continue thinking of new ways to take advantage of the obsessions of someone like Kuno.

Ranma handed Akane the bottle of water she had used to transform earlier. It was still half-full, so the black haired futa was able to get a good drink from the bottle.

The youngest sister said, "It's a good thing I'm young. I've already cum three times in the last few hours. If I was older, I'd probably need some of that aphrodisiac to get it up again. As it is I'd like to take a little break. Then I wonder if Ranma would like to help me get hard again."

Ranma looked blank for a moment until she realized that Akane was asking her to do what Tamiya had done for both of them earlier in the day. She'd never sucked on a cock before, but felt sure that what had been done to her, she could do to someone else. "Uh... sure Akane. I can do that."

Nabiki said, "It's probably a good thing that I can get more of the water to sell."

"Oh, why's that?" Akane asked.

"I think you may have got through to Kuno this week," Nabiki explained. "He was really upset by what you told him and came to me, looking for advice. I gave him the name of a psychiatrist who owes me a favor. If Kuno's head straightens out I lose one of my biggest customers. I had nothing to do with him getting in that condition, but I was willing to take advantage of it."

"Would you feel sorry to see him get cured?" Ranma inquired.

"Actually, no," Nabiki admitted. "I've given him little bits of advice and you know I did try to tell him about your curse. I even demonstrated your transformation to him. When that didn't work I more or less concluded helping him was beyond my skills and I'd just exploit him instead."

With a nod, Ranma said, "Yeah, I remember you pouring hot water on me while he was hugging my girl form. How he could think magic could have swapped out a girl for a guy is something I don't understand. That isn't any less fantastic than a girl transforming into a guy."

Shaking her head, the mercenary futa, replied, "I think it's some kind of homophobia thing. If Kuno admitted that the 'pigtailed girl' and Ranma-otoko were the same person it would be the same as admitting he had fallen in love with a man. Even if it was because of a mistake or misunderstanding, I don't know if Kuno would be willing to do that."

With a sigh, Ranma said, "Yeah, I sort of thought it would be something like that. With that kind of thinking he'd say me having a dick on my girl form was my guy side casting more spells."

"Hey Ranma," Akane said, "How'd you like to do a replay of this afternoon but with Nabiki the filling in the sandwich."

The redhead got an evil smirk on her face as she said, "If Nabiki's willing, I am."

"Huh?" Nabiki looked confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Would you be willing to let Ranma fuck your ass while I fuck your pussy?" Akane asked.

The brunette looked back and forth between the two other futa in the room. She had known that Akane had planned something like she had just mentioned. In fact she was to have done it earlier in the day.

She finally said, "Well, I was sort of thinking you wanted this to be a special moment between us sisters, but I guess I don't mind."

The younger sister rolled her eyes and commented, "If that's what you thought, why did you invite Ranma?"

Good point. "Ok, let's do it."

Ranma sat on the bed next to Akane and said, "To get hard again, lets 69."

Nabiki moved off to the desk while the engaged couple lay down. Rather than one laying on top of the other they both lay on their sides, facing each other. Quickly they began to lick each other's penises.

Before long Akane got up from the bed while Ranma rolled onto her back, hard cock evident. The redhead futa lubed her cock and made a gesture of invitation.

Soon they had a virtual re-enactment of the scene at Yuka's house. Nabiki lying back on top of Ranma with the redhead's cock in her ass and Akane thrusting her own cock into her sister's pussy.

The engaged couple had learned which movements felt best to them and coordinated their thrusts better. Nabiki hadn't been too sure about being double penetrated, but decided that she loved it.

When all had climaxed, they cleaned up the cum and sat on the bed. Nabiki told the others, "That was great. Thanks you two."

Ranma replied, "Thanks for letting me take part. I know you could have easily made this a sisters only thing. How do you like being a futanari so far?"

"So far I love it," admitted Nabiki. "It's a little early to tell, though. I've only been like this for a few hours, just like Akane. There's bound to be things that come up that we haven't anticipated."

"Yeah, I know," Akane muttered. "How do we keep the people at school from finding out?"

Nabiki said, "There's a doctor I know who owes me a favor. He's writing up exemptions to let us stay out of swim class. I'm sorry Ranma, but I couldn't get one to keep you out of gym class completely. You're just going to have to take hot showers and avoid getting splashed with cold water when you're naked."

With a sigh, Ranma said, "I do that already anyway."

"I know, but as things stand now, you'll need to be extra careful," the brunette cautioned.

With a glum expression Ranma got dressed again. She said, "At least with Pop sharing a room with Mom, I don't have change before I go to bed. I don't see why he bitches at me so much about it. He sleeps as a panda more than he does as a human."

Chuckling, Nabiki ventured, "Maybe he finds that gorgeous female body a temptation. Maybe that's why he's so insistent that you sleep in male form."

"You think so?" Ranma considered that. Now that she thought about it, she had noticed her father giving her some odd looks especially when she was topless or otherwise underdressed. Could it be that some of the tension between her and her father was because he wanted her sexually?

On the one hand that seemed flattering but on the other it seemed a little disgusting. The attention and possible lust were flattering, but Genma was a man after all and Ranma just couldn't stand the idea of sex with a man. Maybe the two of them would have to have a talk about it and get all of the issues out in the open. Oh well. That was something to think about later.

As Ranma turned the lock on the door, Nabiki reminded her and Akane, "Be sure and come to lunch tomorrow. I'd feel really bad if you missed it."

With a shrug the redhead answered, "Sure, no problem. You know me, I never miss a meal if I can help it."

When the others were out of the room, Nabiki went ahead and checked her preparations. She had the bottles of transformation water stashed, She had the sleep gas. She would attach the canister to the bottom of the dining table right after breakfast. She had mixed aphrodisiac into a couple bottles of fruit juice. She would put that juice in the refrigerator after breakfast. She would help Kasumi with lunch preparation by making the tea that would be served during the meal. She had two guys to help her after the sleep gas was released. She had bought what snacks she could that didn't need to be prepared fresh. Everything was set.

Author's Note: Tendo incest has begun. Nabiki will execute her plan at lunch. There will be a lot going in the next chapter.

Ranma: Senshi of the Moon chapter 3

1/2 Moon
A Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon Crossover Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins

What was that? You say I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon? Are you sure?
Oh, all right! If you insist! I'm just a fanfic writer playing around with other people's characters. There, I said it! Are you happy?

Chapter 3
Memories of Times Long Past

After causing the spirit of the cat-fist to disperse itself into the background of Ranma's mind, Luna's projected image had felt drawn to what seemed to be a representation of the boy's memories of his past life in the Silver Millennium. When she had spotted a memory of her earlier self, she had touched the barrier and, it had unexpectedly ruptured. The resultant flood of memories had slammed into the cat's mental probe and pushed her out. Within Ranma's mind memories came in a torrent.

FLASH

The newborn baby girl lay in the crib looking up at the face of a woman with long silver hair that streamed out in two long tails to the sides. There was a loving smile on her face as the woman proclaimed, "As required by family tradition You are Princess Serenity. Your name to friends and family will be Serena."

Even though she could not yet understand the words being spoken, the little girl remembered them. There was a bond she had with this woman. She didn't know what it meant, but she did know that it felt good being near her.

A knock came on the door and the silver haired woman turned away from her new daughter. The child looked through the bars of her crib and could see a tall, gray haired man come in through the door.

"My Queen, may I speak with you?"

The silver haired woman acknowledged and the man said, "I have news I thought you should know."

"What is the news?"

"In our examination of your daughter we found that she is the possessor of a Senshi Star Seed," the man reported.

The queen frowned on hearing that. "How is that possible? To my knowledge there has never been a Senshi in the Serenity royal line."

"I do not know, your majesty." The doctor continued, "All I can say is that the results of the examination leave no doubt."

The queen began pacing back and forth. The girl in the crib took notice and wondered what was wrong with the nice lady.

Finally the queen stopped pacing and said, "With the political situation on Earth, there is no way the nations down there would accept my daughter as Sailor Terra."

She let out a short bitter laugh. "It's ironic. Those squabbling nations can't reach a consensus on picking a girl to be Sailor Terra, yet I have no doubt they would band solidly together to oppose my daughter being given that position."

"What will you do?" asked the doctor.

Her expression changing to one of satisfaction, the queen stated, "When she is old enough and has completed her training, Serena will become Sailor Moon."

Puzzled, the doctor pointed out, "There has never been a Senshi of a moon that didn't have one for the planet that it orbits. How would that work."

The queen explained, "At times in the past, a planet Senshi could assign a portion of her power to a lesser Senshi, representing one of the moons of her planet. That is how Sailors Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan came about."

The woman walked over to the crib and held her hand out so baby Serena could grip one of her fingers. With a warm smile on her face, the queen went on, "In truth we would call my daughter Sailor Moon, but with no Senshi of Earth, she would actually be the Senshi for both."

"As earth is the only planet in the system that is livable without the need of magical constructs, the power available to the Senshi of that world would be greater than that of most other worlds."

"But what would happen if the nations of earth could put aside their differences enough to pick a Senshi for the Earth?" The doctor wanted to know.

"Then Serena's power would diminish," was the queen's simple answer. "That is why we must not tell the nations of Earth about this. When I am raising her, she will be given the training of a Senshi, but she will not openly show herself as Sailor Moon unless there is great need of her power."

FLASH

At five years old young Princess "Serena" Serenity was seated on the balcony of the Moon Palace. Her mother, Queen "Selene" Serenity sat beside her. It was one of the rare quiet moments that come in the busy life of a queen.

The two were looking up at the bright blue disk of the earth. The position of the moon today was showing the Earth in almost full phase. The platinum blonde queen pointed and said, "Do you see that land mass in the middle?"

Remembering her lessons, the little girl asked, "That's Atlantis, right Mommy?" She felt pleased with herself that she remembered.

"That's right Serena, dear," the queen agreed with a smile. She was proud that her daughter was already learning so much. "That is the land that is ruled by King Endymion. He has a son who is also named Endymion. Young Endymion is just a little older than you are."

"Am I ever going to get to visit the Earth?" the little girl wanted to know.

"Eventually," the queen assured her daughter. "You will get to visit most of the other planet kingdoms."

The blonde girl frowned in thought before asking, "We can't see Lumuria right now because it's on the other side, right?"

"Yes, dear." The queen pointed and said, "To the right and down from Atlantis is the Kingdom of Kush. You can't really see it right now because it is covered with clouds."

"I know what that means," little Serena exclaimed, looking excited. "There's bad weather there. It's probably raining and maybe a big storm."

"Clouds don't always mean a storm, love," the queen clarified.

FLASH

The six year old Serena put down the squirming form of the cat she had been carrying. "Luna! Why don't you want to play with me?"

"I'm sorry Serena, but I am the advisor to the Queen," the black furred Mau protested. "I have important duties. I can spend time playing with you. If you want me to help you with your lessons, I believe I can find time for that."

The little girl stuck her tongue out, then said, "You aren't any fun."

Another voice spoke, "I'll play with you."

Serena and Luna looked and found another moon cat. This one was larger than Luna with creamy brown fur on her body and darker brown fur on tail, paws and forming a mask that covered her face and ears. There was the normal crescent moon symbol marking the face of this cat.

"Bubastis?" Luna said. The other moon cat was a mere kitten by Mau standards, barely two decades old. She had yet to learn to behave in a properly dignified manner as befitted an advisor to royalty. Still, she might be suitable to play the part of playmate to a royal child.

The little blonde haired girl knelt down to put her closer to the new cat's level. She introduced herself, "Hello. I don't think I met you. I'm Serena."

The lean, elegant looking cat bent her front legs and lowered her head in a bow. "It is a pleasure to meet you, highness. The other Mau say I'm too young to take a 'serious' job. I've been getting bored with all of the things they're trying to teach me."

The princess's eyes lit up. "I'm bored too. Come on!" She ran down the hall and the larger moon cat ran after her. Luna shook her head and wondered if this was really a good thing.

FLASH

Still six years old, Serena was introduced to Tragis one of the instructors for the Royal Guards.

Dressed in an outfit that resembled a martial arts gi, but was made of much finer cloth and gave even better freedom of movement, Serena swung a kick into the pad her teacher was holding.

Although she was still small, the kick had a good deal of power in it. "Again," he ordered. And the little girl kicked into the pad. At this point they were in the training aspect of drill. The idea was to repeat certain motions so often that they became ingrained in muscle memory. If or when it came time to use the training, little thought needed to be devoted to how to perform the move, just which moves to use.

After more of this, Tragis finally said, "That is enough for today, Princess. You may go bathe and then get on to your other studies."

Serena had a aptitude for fighting seldom seen. She had gotten off to a shaky start due to poor coordination, but some special exercises had corrected those faults. Once she learned to move gracefully, her training began to progress

FLASH

Seven year old Serena was in class. The subject for the moment dealt with the Sailor Senshi.
One of the other students in the class asked, "If the Senshi are soldiers, why do they wear that silly outfit?"

The teacher fixed the inquiring student with a piercing gaze. "The Senshi fuku is not silly. The basic part of the uniform that is common to all Senshi is a leotard that gives the soldier full range of motion. The fabric of the suit possesses armor like qualities that protect the body."

The little girl who had asked the question was not intimidated by the teacher's look. She pressed, "But if the suit gives armor protection, why leave the arms and legs bare? Doesn't that make them vulnerable?"

The teacher now smiled. That was a slightly more intelligent question. "You might think so, but that is not the case. The uniform has magic that extends invisible protection to the arms, legs and head of the Senshi. That protection is equal to that granted by the suit itself. The Senshi transformation itself not only grants magical attacks and enhanced strength, but makes each of the Senshi tougher against damage."

"As for the decorative touches, that is a secret that is not been given to the public. The unique color of the outfits are indicative of the planets or moons of the Senshi's power source.

Spotting a raised hand, the Teacher called out, "Yes, Serena."

"Why is there no Senshi of Earth?" the princess asked.

The tutor explained, "The problem is that Earth is not a unified world. Of all the inhabited worlds of the Moon Kingdom, the Earth is the only one that has separate nations. Because of the nature of the magic there can be only one Senshi for each planet. Unfortunately, the nations of the Earth cannot agree on which of them Sailor Terra should come from. Each wants her to come from their own nation and none wants her representing any of the others."

"So they don't have a Senshi of Earth because they can't agree on who it is to be?" Serena summed up.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the teacher confirmed. "Complicating the picture, is the fact that candidates for Senshi of Earth are few. It takes a rare individual to become a Senshi. The only candidates now on Earth who have the necessary qualities hold political views that are strongly opposed by all nations outside their own."

Sadly shaking her head, "I'm sorry to say that it is unlikely there will be a Sailor Terra until a new possessor of a Senshi Star Seed is born. Such a child would have to be raised by a coalition group including representatives from all the major nations so that she would be free any regional prejudices. It was agreed that the Senshi of Earth must act for the good of the whole planet, not just one region or another."

FLASH

The eight year old Moon Princess was on a tour. Part of her responsibilities as princess included knowing about how the environment of the moon was maintained as defended. She had visited the massive computer complex known as the Eternity Mainframe.

They stood now in the main core of the complex that was located beneath the palace. To use what many considered an oddly Earth based metaphor, the Palace was merely the "tip of the iceberg." The underground complex occupied ten times the space of the palace itself.

For all the grandeur of many of the chambers, the central core of the computer was deceptively simple and even plain in appearance. There were desks with computer terminals and a crew of operators at work. In truth the computer was quite capable of running itself, but the workers were there to monitor the various systems under the control of the Eternity Mainframe.

Today Serena was being taken to be "introduced" to the main system. At the front of the room there was a large comfortable chair. The little blonde girl walked up and hopped into the chair. It was plainly intended for an adult, because her feet couldn't reach all the way to the floor while sitting in it.

The Chief Technician called out, "Activate voice interface."

"Voce Interface active," the pleasant, synthesized voice replied. It was a woman's voice that was intended to be an amalgam of several different people and therefore not match any specific individual.

"Recognize Chief Technician Garmain," the technician commanded.

The computer scanned. It had far more reliable methods of determining identity than just image, voice or even DNA. All such things could, and at times in the past had been faked. Using the combination of magic and technology, the Eternity Mainframe was able to scan the very soul of the person presenting himself.

"Identity verified," the computer stated. Then in less stilted tones it said, "It has been a while since we've talked, Garmain. How can I help you today?"

The Chief Technician smiled before saying, "I regret we won't have a chance to socialize today. We have an important task to complete today. Please scan the person now seated in the chair."

"Scanning," the computer replied. A short while later it announced, "Scan complete. Is this Serena, Selene's daughter? My goodness, if weren't for the color of your hair, you would look almost like a younger copy of your mother."

Feeling slightly intimidated by the reputedly vast intelligence of the computer speaking to her, Serena replied, "Yes ma'am, Miss Eternity. I'm Serena."

Garmain added, "I confirm that." The confirmation was not needed. The computer had scanned the girl one day after her birth, when the queen had presented her child.

"Greetings child," the computer responded. Then more formally, it announced, "Recognizing Princess Serena Serenity. Per the instructions of Queen Selene, you are granted full override authority. You will also be granted access codes for remote access from any terminal or mobile computer."

Serena got up from the chair and bowed. Before she could speak more to the computer, Luna came forward and proclaimed, "Very good. We can't dawdle here. We have a lot more things to see, so we must continue the tour."

The little girl cast a sour look at the royal advisor but went to join her. She wished she had her playmate, Bubastis with her. Boo had begged off, saying it would be just too boring.

The tour included power systems, maintenance, weapons and many others. Each visit was accompanied by a boringly detailed lecture on the functioning of the machinery they viewed. Serena couldn't even take refuge in feigning interest while thinking of other things, because she knew she would be quizzed on this stuff later to be sure she had understood all of it.

FLASH

In secluded part of the palace, away from prying eyes, fourteen year old Serena and her mother stood in one of the practice rooms. The blonde girl didn't know the exact reason for their being here, but she had suspicions.

When the queen finished setting the controls that sealed the room from outside surveillance, she turned and produced a velvet covered box. This she presented to her daughter.

After opening the box, Serena found a golden broach. She looked up from this to gaze upon her mother's face and then asked, "Is this...?"

"Yes, my daughter."

Taking broach from the box, she set the box on the floor and pinned the jewel to her blouse. When it was properly affixed she touched the thumbs and index fingers of each hand to the sides of the broach and in firm tones, proclaimed, "Moon Prism Power, Makeup!"

For the first time in the history of the moon kingdom, a girl of the moon's royal family experienced the transformation. For the first time Sailor Moon stood ready to fight for love and Justice. Even if the costume looked silly, Serena felt a fierce pride in being selected to wear it.

It was too bad that the political situation with Earth would not allow Serena to openly declare her status as a Senshi.

FLASH

A fifteen year old Serena awoke to find herself snuggled up to another girl. A moment of confusion quickly gave way to memory of the previous night. Now she knew why she was sharing a bed with the Senshi of Mars. Her nude body was currently spooned up against the nude body of her lover.

The blonde Princess of the Moon rubbed her hand lightly over the abdomen of the other girl, loving the feel of her skin. The stimulation of her touch was enough to bring a moan from the raven haired beauty.

"Uh!" the older girl grunted. There was a hint of pain in her voice as she begged to know, "What was in that punch we drank at the party?"

Chuckling softly, Serena bent over and spoke softly into Mars' ear, "I don't know, but I sort of like the results."

Becoming aware of the naked girl nuzzling at her neck, the Senshi of Mars groaned. "We didn't, did we?"

Kissing her lover's ear, Serena whispered, "We certainly did."

"Your mom is going to kill me when she finds out."

The Moon Princess chuckled softly and retorted, "Who says she's going to find out?"

The raven haired girl froze for a moment in astonishment. "Do you mean you're not going to tell her?"

Laughing again the blonde asked, "Why would I do a thing like that, Reina? If you're dead we wouldn't be able to do that again."

The older girl moved away from the princess and turned to lie facing her. "You want to do it again?"

"Pleeeease."

Reina studied the face so close to hers. She had always thought the princess was adorable and sexy. After studying that face for a little while longer, Sailor Mars finally said, "Well, the queen can only kill me once." She moved in to kiss the blonde.

FLASH

It was the ball celebrating Serena Serenity's 16th birthday. Everyone who was anyone in the Moon Kingdom had come. Even the somewhat reclusive Sailor Pluto had showed up. So many people were there that the Grand Ballroom was strained to contain them all.

In the receiving line, Serena, the Queen and several of the higher level nobles of the Moon Kingdom stood, to greet the visitors. Because of the large number of people who passed in front her that day, the majority of them were a blur. The Princess would have found it difficult to put names to faces later.

Serena was feeling a trifle sad. Reina, the Princess and Senshi of Mars had been required to return to her home world. As a princess herself, Serena recognized the necessity of such things, but she missed her lover. That was a major part of her reason for being so absent minded as she greeted her party guests.

But then there was a difference. A man garbed in a black tuxedo stepped up to her and bowed, taking her hand to kiss it. "I am Endymion, prince of the Kingdom of Atlantis," he proclaimed.

While mouthing polite niceties, the princess was struck by what she saw. The man was tall, handsome and well mannered. She had been hearing about this young man nearly all of her life and this was her first time meeting him. He was dreamy! She definitely wanted to get to know this man better!

Likely he wouldn't be an adequate replacement for Reina, but she would have to find out. She wasn't familiar with the phrase "being on the rebound" but would have recognized the concept if she had heard of it.

FLASH

The bombardment had stopped. Relative peace was restored to the Throne Room of Moon Palace. There was a faint haze of smoke in the air from burning furniture here and there. The crackle of flames were almost the only sounds audible. Some distance away there was a crash could be heard as a damaged section of wall finally surrendered to gravity.

Princess Serena Serenity lay still with her legs pinned by debris that had fallen from the ceiling. She couldn't feel her legs beneath the rubble. It seemed likely she had broken ribs pressing against her lungs because each breath was searing agony. Consequently, she tried to keep her breathing light and shallow. From her training, she knew that unless she received medical attention or magic healing soon, she was going to die.

Most, if not all of the palace staff were probably already dead. It would have to be so, or somebody would have come to the throne room and found her by now. Before a portion of the ceiling had collapsed on her, she had seen some of the courtiers lying in unnatural seeming positions around the room. She had managed to push some of the debris off her face and upper torso, but lacked the strength to shift the material that pinned her legs.

She had tried to draw her transformation broach from her subspace pocket, but was not able to bring it forth. Was she too badly injured for even the healing power of Sailor Moon? Or was the pain she felt disorienting her too much to focus on retrieving the artifact?

There was only one other thing she could try. One of the facets of her combat training dealt with channeling her internal life energies. While not so good as magic healing, it could be used to accelerate natural healing when no magic was available. She had a hard time focusing her will to assert the necessary control of her energies.

The girl felt a hand grasping her own and opened her eyes. When she looked to see the owner of the hand she found the face of her mother, the queen. The platinum blonde was bleeding from several small wounds and looked deeply fatigued and haggard. She lay on the floor next to Serena. It was apparent that the older woman had dragged herself to her present position. There was a trail of smeared blood on the floor that showed where the Queen had been.

Serena opened her mouth, but stopped when she felt fingers on her lips. The Queen's voice was raspy, as if she had inhaled fumes that irritated her throat. "Don't try to talk Serena. I can see how badly hurt you are. I just wanted you to know that Beryl didn't win. There was no way to destroy her so I sealed her, her patron Metallia and all of her youma away in a pocket universe. While I hope they will remain sealed up until they die of starvation, I can't count on it."

"It will take thousands of years for the seals on her prison to weaken enough for her to be able to touch the worlds again. To fight her when she is finally able to escape, I have cast spells to send the souls of the Senshi along with Endymion, the Earth Knight, into the future to be reborn in time to take up the power again."

"You are the last, my daughter." The queen's eyes momentarily closed. It was with a little shake that she brought herself back to full wakefulness. From what Serena could see, it looked like the queen was driving herself with little more than determination and will power. "I am at the end of my... strength. I have not the power to heal you nor the strength in my body to move the debris off of you."

Selene's body was suddenly wracked by hard, rasping coughs. When she could speak again, the queen said, "I'm almost out of time. I regret... that I never got the chance to see you fight as Sailor Moon. As the Princess... the task will fall to you to lead the rest of the Senshi after you are reborn. I know you will make me proud."

The last thing Serena saw was her mother reciting the words of the spell. Her strength was deserting her. It was becoming too painful to breathe and she closed her eyes again. As her awareness faded for the last time, she could still hear the murmur of her mother casting her spell.

FLASH

With that final flash, Ranma was back in his own body and mind. The boy moaned and pressed both hands to the sides of his head. "Oh Crap!" he exclaimed. "Was that... supposed to happen?"

Confused, the cat fearfully asked, "I... I don't know, what did happen?"

"Luna... I don't how you did it... but I just got... my past life memories," Ranma groaned. "16 years worth of memories... crammed into my head... all at once... Feels like... my head's gonna explode."

There was a knock at the door and Luna dived under the bed to hide. When Ranma called out, "Come in," Nodoka stepped in to see her son lying on the bed with a pained expression on his face. "Are you alright, Ranma? I heard what sounded like moans of pain. Did the meditation work?"

"Yeah... I think it did, Mom," he ground out, needing to pause to take a breath between phrases. "I'm pretty sure... I'm over the nekoken... but the side effect... It feels like my head... is going to split open... Do you have any... really strong pain killers?"

"I have some prescription pain medication left over from when I got sprained my ankle last year." Nodoka looked worried. "I healed up faster than expected, so I still have a few pills."

"Good... I... need one," the boy begged.

The older woman left and came back in a few minutes with a pill and a glass of water. He gulped the pill and took a sip of water to wash it down. "Thanks Mom... I think... I need to sleep... Right now... I don't think... I can do much else."

Concern clear in her voice, Nodoka suggested, "If you feel that bad, maybe you should stay home from school tomorrow."

"You... could be right," Ranma admitted. "Would you... call the school in the morning?"

"I'll call them from work," the older woman promised.

"Thanks," the boy answered then got up from the bed and lurched down the hall to the toilet. When Ranma returned to the bedroom she was in her female form, Luna asked, "Why did you change back to a girl?"

The red haired girl pressed her hand onto her forehead and groaned. "Do you mind... if I explain that in the morning? I need sleep."

"Alright," the cat agreed. She watched as the girl undressed and put on boxer shorts and a tank top. She got onto the bed and pulled the blankets over her. After lying with a pained frown on her face for a little while her features smoothed out and her breathing began to exhibit the deep slow rhythms of sleep. The medication her mother had given her had done its work.

Luna studied the face of the girl on the bed. This person looked different from what she had been told to expect. She just wished she could remember better what kind of girl Sailor Moon had been and what the Princess was like.

Author Notes: I've seen all of the anime of Sailor Moon (except the movies,) but haven't read all of the manga. I don't remember seeing in the anime where anyone ever made a point of whether or not there was a Sailor moon back in the Silver Millennium. I do remember reading in fan fictions where the authors did say there never was. I thought I would address that with Ranma's flashbacks to his memories of being the Moon Princess. It also explains why there is no Sailor Terra.

I would welcome ideas for other things to include in memory flashes from the Silver Millennium life of Princess "Serena" Serenity. One reader suggested a lemon based on Serena's affair with Reina, the Senshi of Mars. I wasn't planning to write one myself, but if anyone out there would like, feel free to write one of your own. I'd be happy to post it on my blog.

I don't recommend that anyone should take medicine that was prescribed for someone else. That can lead to unforeseen problems. Remember this is a work of fiction, so I'll put in the disclaimer (Like on TV) "Don't try this at home."

Ranma: Senshi of the Moon Chapter 2

1/2 Moon
A Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon Crossover Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins

What was that? You say I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon? Are you sure?
Oh, all right! If you insist! I'm just a fanfic writer playing around with other people's characters. There, I said it! Are you happy?

Chapter 2
Taking Care of Feline Problems

The short, red haired girl stopped on the sidewalk in front of a modest home. It was two stories and mostly different from the other houses on the block only in the color of the paint and details of the yard.

The girl was breathing hard from running full out. She scanned the sidewalk in the direction she had come from. There was no sign of pursuit either on the sidewalk or the street. She couldn't see anything in the trees or shrubs.

The busty redhead took in a deep breath and let it out in a big sigh. She said, "I guess I lost it. Damn fur-ball! Why can't they just leave me alone?"

As the girl went toward the door of the house, a small, black furred head poked its way around the corner and took note of which house the girl went to. When she was sure the girl couldn't see her, A smallish black cat with a peculiar crescent moon symbol on her forehead raced after her target. Damn, but that girl was fast! If the house she had been running to had been just one block farther, the cat would have lost her.

Considering the expression of sheer terror on the girl's face when she had run, the cat felt that it might be wise to scout out the situation before trying to confront the redhead again. If this girl was who the cat believed her to be, it would be hard to fathom why she might be afraid of cats.

Inside the house the girl walked into the kitchen, panting a little. She said, "I'm home. How was your day, Mom?"

"My day went well enough," the older woman answered. "What happened to you? You are out breath."

"The usual sort of craziness, I guess," the girl replied. "And I thought moving here was going to get me away from all of that."

"Did one of the fiancées find you?" the older woman asked with a worried expression.

"Nah, not one of them." Ranma clarified, "I said the same sort of craziness, not the exact same stuff. In this case when I was passing the park there was some kind of monster attacking people. It seemed to have knocked them out. From what I could read of their ki, I got the idea that it had drained some of their life energies."

"How horrible!" Nodoka exclaimed. "But if the creature could drain their life energies, how could you fight it? Aren't most of your attacks making use of that same energy?"

"Most, but not all," the redhead explained. "Some of Pop's sealed techniques worked. The Yama Senken uses ki to create the vacuum blades, but the blades themselves are voids in the air. I was able to use them to kill the monster."

Her expression troubled, the girl said, "When I used a vacuum blade to cut the monster in half, it turned to dust. It was almost like it was some kind of alien creature or magic monster that the person who sent it didn't want to leave any body for examination."

"It sounds horrible."

"Nah, that wasn't the horrible part," Ranma said. "Right after I got done with the monster, one of those little... furry things stepped out of the bushes and just stood there, staring at me for a minute."

Furry thing? "Oh, do you mean a cat?" the mother queried.

The girl shuddered and said, "Yeah! Well I took off running to try and get away, but the damn thing ran after me. It was damn fast too and was able to keep up for most of the way. I only lost it when I got to our neighborhood."

The older woman patted her daughter on the back and said, "My poor Ranma. Your father really messed you up. Some day we are going to have to get you to a psychiatrist to see if there is anything they can do to get you over your fear."

With a sad expression, the girl said, "I don't know if a shrink can help."

Nodoka took the kettle she now always kept on low heat for when Ranma came home and handed it to her daughter. The girl poured some of the warm water over her head.

A few minutes earlier the cat jumped to a window that looked into the kitchen. From there she was able to see what happened and could overhear the conversation. She witnessed an almost unbelievable sight. The red haired girl she had been following spoke to an auburn haired woman who looked enough like the teenager that she had to be the girl's mother. That woman handed a kettle to the girl who poured some of the water on her head.

That action caused a change. The girl grew taller, more angular and more muscular in appearance. In addition the hair went from red to black and it was pretty clear that the black haired person was male. What sort of magic was this and how had a Senshi fallen victim to it?

Well, it didn't matter how it happened. The important thing was that the person she had followed was a girl at least part of the time and she had the crescent moon symbol on her forehead. That meant that the person had to be Sailor Moon, at least when she was female. From what she knew of Senshi magic, that would likely make him the Lunar Knight when male.

The cat watched as the boy gave his mother a hug and left the kitchen. He said he was going to work on his homework assignments while the woman prepared supper. The cat listened to the boy's movement through the house and finally heard him go to a room on the second floor. That likely had to be his bedroom.

Looking around, the cat was able to spot a tree that grew near the house. The branches of the tree were not stout enough to support a human burglar, but it would be quite adequate for the cat to get herself to the second story window.

At her landing with soft paws on the windowsill, the boy started and halfway turned his head toward the window without actually looking at it. He muttered, "Stupid tree! Gonna have to trim it back so it doesn't scratch the side of the house every time the wind blows."

The black furred feline breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently the boy, Ranma was used to hearing small noises from the tree branches brushing up against the house. As the cat cautiously pushed her head through the curtains and peered into the room she could see the boy sitting cross-legged on the bed. His school books were in front of him but none were open. The boy appeared to be brooding.

Pulling herself back behind the curtain, the black cat debated with herself what to do. Finally she decided.

Seated on the bed, Ranma knew he should be doing his homework. That math assignment wasn't going to do itself. Now that he didn't have the fiancées, rivals and others bothering him all the time he was actually able to get enough sleep that he could stay awake in class. It had worked wonders and he (well, she) was able to learn the material the teacher was trying to impart.

The problem was that the monster in the park had worried him more than he had let his mother know. If it was simply an isolated incident, that was one thing, but what if there were more of them out there, somewhere? If there were more of them, then there was no way he could stay out of it, the way his life went.

Suddenly from behind him a woman's voice spoke. "Ranma. Don't be alarmed and please don't turn around."

In spite of the request the boy was tempted to look anyway. If this were an enemy they could have attacked already, so he was willing to cut the intruder some slack. "Who are you and how do you know my name? I don't recognize your voice."

"My name is Luna," said the voice. "You saw me in the park after you fought the monster. As for how I know your name, I was at the window of the kitchen and I overheard your mother call you by that name."

"Eavesdropping?" the boy observed. Then he thought back to the people he had seen at the park. "I didn't see any women at the park. At least none that were conscious. You weren't one of the people the monster drained, are you?"

"No, I am not one of them," the voice announced.

Ranma felt the cold hand of fear clutch at his heart as he realized what else he had seen in the park. He was able to control the fear but only because he couldn't actually see a small fuzzy body and the voice didn't seem to have any feline overtones. He finally summoned up enough presence of mind to say, "So you're telling me that you are the cat I saw, a talking cat?"

"Maybe this will put your mind a little more at ease," the voice offered. "I am not a cat such as you know of them. In truth I am an alien to your world and I just look like a cat. I am from a planet called Mau."

"An alien?" The boy was silent to consider that for a moment. Finally he said, "Well, I guess the way my life goes, aliens were bound to come into it sooner or later. Why did you follow me? What do you want from me?"

The cat explained, "The type of monster you fought in the park is called a youma. It was sent out to gather human life energy by a magical dark kingdom that is called the Negaverse. While you were fighting it, a symbol showed up on your forehead and glowed. The symbol was that of a crescent moon."

The pigtailed boy placed two fingers from his right hand on his forehead and rubbed lightly. He couldn't feel anything odd. "Ok, let's say that I believe you saw something on my face. What's it supposed to mean?"

The cat frowned but pressed ahead. "What I am going to tell you will sound like a fairy tale, but please listen."

She paused to collect her thoughts and then began, "Twenty thousand years ago or more, I'm not really sure exactly how long ago it was, there was a kingdom that existed on the earth, the moon and all of the planets."

"Planets?" Ranma was listening and wasn't going to voice his skepticism, but did want clarification on points of the story.

The cat continued, "Through the use of a combination of magic and technology the people of the Silver Millennium created habitable biospheres on all of the planets of the Solar system as well as many of the moons. The capital of the system was the Moon of Earth. It had a palace beside what it now called the Sea of Serenity that Queen Serenity the 9th ruled."

"So was the Sea of Serenity named after queen?" Ranma wondered.

"I don't know, but I suspect it was so," Luna responded. "The queen selected one special woman from each planet to be linked to that world's power. They were called the Sailor Senshi because of the sailor style collar on their uniforms. The only exception I know of was Earth. I'm not sure if that was because the Earth was not a unified planet. Of all the planets in the system, Earth was the only one that had separate nations that existed on it."

"Ok," the boy responded. "What did these Senshi do?"

"They were soldiers that protected their worlds and the Queen as well," the cat replied. "But on Earth one woman who was a member of the nobility of one of the nations there became ambitious. She allied herself with forces that seemed to come, not from another world of the galaxy but from some alternate dimension. We called it the Negaverse."

Ranma prompted, "What happened?"

"The woman named Beryl proclaimed herself to be a queen and used the youma, demons she had summoned, to attack the other worlds," Luna continued. "There was a terrible war and in the fighting the artificially maintained biospheres on the other planets were destroyed and everyone died. Only the Earth survived because its habitat was natural and not maintained by magic or technology. The Senshi were overwhelmed."

"In a desperate bid to salvage what she could, Queen Serenity used the last of her power to seal away the forces of the Negaverse into a pocket universe," the voice related. "Well I suppose it would be more accurate to say that she used nearly the last of her power. She put myself and at least one other Mau advisor that I know of into stasis capsules that were launched to Earth. The souls of the Senshi were sent forward in time to be reincarnated in a time when the forces of the Negaverse would finally start to break free from their prison to menace the world again."

"And if I fought a youma from this Negaverse place, then I guess it means this Beryl person and her people are starting to break loose from their prison," Ranma surmised. "That must also mean that the Senshi have been reborn. That still doesn't explain what you want with me."

The cat let out a sigh. "The crescent moon symbol I saw glowing on your forehead proves that you are the reincarnated Senshi of the Moon."

"What?" Ranma almost turned to look at the cat but stopped himself. "You're crazy! If that were true I'd have been born a girl. Even if I have a curse to turn into a girl, I was born male and have been a guy most of my life."

"How did you come by this 'curse?'" the furry creature wanted to know.

The boy gave a highly condensed account of the visit to Jusenkyo. He spoke of the many pools, the Guide and the sparring match against his father on the poles. He spoke of how he felt when coming out of the spring.

Finally he said, "It was pure chance that I landed in that pool. From what I've heard there are a lot more springs that turn people into animals than humans. I was just as likely to have turned into a dog, a rat or horse. Those were some of the other springs near the one I fell into."

The cat took that in for a moment before replying, "So if we were just talking laws of chance, it would have been far more likely for you to get a cursed form of an animal instead of a human."

"That's what I said," Ranma said a little grumpily.

"Destiny has a way of doing things like that sometimes," Luna said. "I firmly believe that you were meant to be a girl and to take up the mantle of Sailor Moon, warrior for love and justice. As the leader of the Sailor Senshi it would be your job to find the rest of the Senshi and to find the Moon Princess."

"Love and justice?" The boy's tone was evident with disgust. "It figures it would be something girly like that."

"What's wrong with girly?" the cat demanded with some asperity.

"Nothing, if I was born as a girl," Ranma fired back. "But I was born a boy and raised by one of the most macho, misogynistic men on the face of the planet. His goal was to make me a 'man among men,' (whatever that's supposed to mean.)"

Falling silent for a moment, Ranma considered what he had been told. Finally he asked, "So, does a 'warrior for love and justice' still get to kick ass?"

"Well, that is part of what being a warrior is about," the little black cat conceded. "You would get to fight against terrible evil, not just for love and justice, but for the safety and survival of everyone on the earth."

Fight for the safety and survival of everyone? Now it was starting to sound more like something Ranma could really get into. He nodded and asked, "So if the bad guys win, what's their plan. Are they going to conquer the earth or just wipe out everyone?"

The furry lurker behind the curtain sighed and said, "At the beginning of the conflict I would have believed that conquest was the goal. After what Beryl's forces did to the other planets though, I think extermination might have been her objective. I can't say that I understand it, though. Why would anyone want to rule over dead planets?"

Shaking his head now, Ranma said, "Killed or conquered, it's just different kinds of bad. At least with conquest, there's a chance of rebellion and freedom later. I'd tell you to sign me up right now, but I see a problem."

"What problem?"

"If I'm doing this Sailor thingy, I'll have to work with you, won't I?" the boy pressed.

Catching the hint, Luna asked, "Did you suffer some kind of trauma related to cats when you were a child?" the cat probed.

"You could say that," he allowed. He launched into a brief description of the cat fist training along with the fact that Genma hadn't read the warning at the end until after the damage was done.

"Your own father did that to you, and you let him live?" She was astonished.

"The man is not evil, just careless and impatient," Ranma stated. "If you were to ask him about it now he'd say something like, 'who reads the whole manual anyway?' He'd also say something about how weak I am that I would fear something that small and harmless looking."

"I hope you are free of his influence now," the cat said fervently.

"Yeah, my mom divorced him and used the nekoken training as the grounds to get custody of me," the boy answered. "That still doesn't answer the question of how I'm going to work with you if I can't stand to even look at you."

The voice from behind him sounded uncertain, "There is a procedure, a technique I guess you could call it, I could try."

"What kind of technique?" Ranma wanted to know.

"A mind meld," said the cat. "I can probe your thoughts and try to correct the damage done by the nekoken training."

"Mind meld?" Where had he heard that term before? Oh, right! Ami had the complete original Star Trek series on DVD. Ranma had viewed a few episodes with her between studies. "Do you mean like that Spock guy in that American TV show?"

"It's a similar idea," she admitted. "Would you be willing to try it?"

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"Reasonably sure," the cat hedged.

"Look, if the possible result would be to put me in the nekoken state permanently, then I'd have to bow out," he told her. "Other than the c-c-cats themselves, one of my greatest fears is that I'll wake up from the blackout to find out that I've seriously hurt or even killed someone. If I was permanently in the Nekoken state, I'd be effectively dead."

"No, you won't be stuck in the cat-fist state," Luna promised. "The worst that could happen is that you would be no worse off than you are now."

"Ok, I'll give it a shot," the boy finally decided. "What do I have to do?"

"It would be best for you to lie down and close your eyes," instructed the furry visitor.

Before Ranma could comply with the directions, Nodoka's voice called out, "Ranma, dinner's ready."

Turning his head to the door Ranma nodded. He got up from the bed and said, "Ok, Luna. Could we do this after dinner?"

"I see no problem in that," the feline responded. "Um... could you bring me something from your meal? I've sort of been living on the streets and meals are somewhat irregular." Her pride wouldn't let her mention eating out of garbage cans.

"Sure, no problem," the boy said. "From the smell I'm pretty sure that she made something with fish. Can you eat rice?"

"Actually I can eat pretty much anything you can eat," the cat assured. "Although I am quite partial to fish, when I can get it."

"Ok."

The boy exited the room, and closed the door behind him. Luna poked her head out from the curtains and then jumped to the bed and from there to the floor. She decided the best place to wait would be under the bed. When she got there she was surprised at how clean it was. In fact the whole room was surprisingly tidy for the dwelling of a teenaged boy.

When Ranma got to the kitchen his mother asked, "Were you listening to the radio in your room? I though I heard voices."

"Yeah," Ranma agreed. "The radio." He didn't want to try and say more because he knew that he couldn't tell a lie convincingly. He ate as his mother had insisted. He still ate quickly, but more slowly than in the past so he did not offend his mother's sense of propriety.

When he finished, he told his mother, "I'm going to work on a meditation technique. I think I may have figured out a way to get over the nekoken."

"That would be wonderful if it works," Nodoka stated. "So you won't be practicing in the yard tonight?"

"Not tonight," the boy agreed. "None of the girls are coming over, so I've got the evening free."

"Good luck with your meditation."

"Thanks Mom," he said as he headed to his room.

When he got into the room he quietly called out, "Luna, where are you?"

"Under the bed," came the voice. Ranma nodded and slid the plate he had snuck out of the dining room under the bed. "Here you go. Some fish, rice and vegetables. I hope there's enough."

"It's fine," was the brief answer. A few minutes later the empty plate slid out, pushed by a black furred paw.

Ranma picked up the plate and set it on his desk to take downstairs later. "Ok." He said as walked to the bed to lie down. When he was comfortably settled he said, "I'm ready when you are."

He could feel the slight impact of a small body landing on the bed. At the thought of a talking cat on the same bad as him, he reached for the calm of the Soul of Ice. When he was calm he went into a meditative state.

Luna looked at the boy laying in front of her. After all of the memory loss she had suffered from the suspension in the stasis pod, she just hoped that she remembered how to do this.

She extended her mind and touched his. Even if she couldn't remember how to change her body into a humanoid form, she was still able to adopt that form in her mind. That is what Ranma saw in his mind.

Together they explored the landscape of his mind. They found the memories of the pit. When she viewed the memory, Luna commented on how she would like to conduct some tests on a certain panda's level of pain tolerance.

With a snort, Ranma replied, "You're in good company. Just about everybody who hears the story of the N-Nekoken training wants to do something painful to Genma."

Luna pointed out, "You should know that not all cats are like that. Even the ones in the pit weren't. When they were that hungry there was little left of them but wild beasts. They weren't attacking you to hurt you; they were just trying to get the food that was tied to you."

"I know that in my head," they boy responded. "But I don't think that understanding has reached my heart yet."

After some searching they were able to find some happy cat related memories. A 3 year old Ranma played with a kitten. There were other memories. In fact when Ranma was a small child he had loved cats.

Then she saw it. There was a presence, a personality that was distilled from the spirits of the cats which had been in the pit. In the landscape of Ranma's mind it looked like a tabby housecat the size of lion. The memories Luna had scanned had shown that Genma had intended the training technique to create a berserk warrior of incredible ferocity. What he got was basically a playful kitten that might fight to protect itself if threatened, but was otherwise no danger.

The moon cat "talked" to the spirit and found out that it considered itself Ranma's guardian. It was there to protect him and when the fear became too great and cause his mind to retreat, it would take over his body.

The mental projection of the Mau advisor felt sadness for what she must do. She told the cat spirit that, by keeping itself separate from the psyche of its host, it was perpetuating the fear. Only by sacrificing itself, merging with the host, would the spirit achieve its true purpose.

The cat spirit looked angry for a moment. It was being asked to give up its existence as an individual. But then it looked around itself. The soul of its host lay around it and the spirit could read the true nature of the being that it guarded. Here was someone who truly loved cats, and the training had turned that love to fear.

The choice was clear. The spirit froze in place and suddenly seemed to expand. At the same time as it grew larger, it became more ethereal until it turned into a mist that dispersed into the dreamscape of Ranma's mind.

With that dispersal the calm landscape seemed to shift and flow. When things settled down the "sky" had changed into a blue that could not exist in the real world. A rocky mound seemed to grow out of the ground and in the side facing Ranma and Luna there was an opening that seemed to be blocked by a glowing transparent barrier.

Through the barrier she could see a whole host of memories that looked entirely different from the ones she had been looking at. She suddenly jumped to the barrier to look closer at one of the images.

In past times when performing mind melds, Luna had not seen anything like this before. From some of the flashing images, she could see that the memories on the other side of the barrier had to be images from the past and the Moon Kingdom. She could see the Moon Palace, the queen, and...

"Is that me?" She put a hand out to the barrier and pressed on it. Suddenly the barrier ruptured and there was what seemed to be a flash of light and Luna was out of Ranma's mind and back in her own body.

Author's Note: When I first posted the second chapter of RSM on my blog, one comment I got was a complaint about how long it was. What I have done is to actually expand parts of what I had written before and then divided that into two separate chapters.

Ranma's Full Potential Chapter 2

Ranma's Full Potential
A Ranma 1/2 crossover Fan Fiction
by Michael A. Ivins

Disclaimer: This story uses characters, locations and situations that were created by others. I don't own them and don't get paid for using them.

This story takes place post Manga for Ranma, so it is after the failed wedding.

Chapter 2
Departing

It was now afternoon in Japan on the day after Ranma's Wish had been granted. Ororo Monroe had piloted the blackbird to a landing in a vacant lot a few blocks away from the Tendo dojo. Though they didn't know it, this lot was a common location for martial arts challenges. Ranma had used this site on many occasions.

They were now making their way along the sidewalk with Logan pushing Professor Xavier's wheelchair. Before long they approached a gate and saw the sign that proclaimed the Tendo School of Indiscriminate Grappling. They also noticed that what they took to be a little girl with red hair in a ponytail to her waist was seated on the curb next to a backpack that looked bigger than she was. She was wearing blue shorts and a yellow T-shirt and a dark blue windbreaker. On her feet were dark sneakers.

While Xavier could communicate with people in other languages by virtue of his telepathy, it was deemed better to let Logan do the talking. Since he had lived in Japan before, he was completely fluent in the language.

The short, muscular Canadian walked up to the girl and said, "Excuse me, please. We are looking for Saotome Ranma. We were led to believe that he lives in that house behind you."

The child gave the man a measuring look. This guy was a fighter, she decided. He carried himself well. His moves spoke of a style that emphasized strength and not much in the way of defense. What was up with the guy's hair though? It seemed to come to points on both sides of the man's head like an animal's ears or maybe horns.

She stood up and announced, "If you are looking for Saotome Ranma, then you've found him, I mean her."

Logan looked confused as he turned to the man in the wheelchair and said, "The kid says she's the one we're looking for."

His expression mirroring that of the Canadian mutant, the bald man in the chair said, "The trace from Cerebro gave me the name and location of the new mutant but it led me to believe that the person we were coming to find was a teenaged male."

Turning back to child, Logan told her, "Look, little girl, I think you're confused. We're looking for a teenage boy. Maybe he's your brother or something."

The professor suggested, "Perhaps we could go inside to talk about it."

Nodding, Logan reached toward the gate to open it, but stopped when they heard the sound of raised voices from inside. The little girl made an emphatic negative gesture and said, "Trust me, friend, you do not want to go in there right now!"

"What's going on, kid?" the short man queried.

"The people in there were not happy about me leaving and they are having a major argument about it," the girl explained. "It's gotten to a point where they weren't so much arguing with me as they were arguing about me, so I snuck out to wait for you. I mean, the guy in the wheelchair is Xavier sensei, right?"

When Logan relayed this to the others, telepathic mutant asked, "How did you know we were coming?"

The girl sighed and said, "Damn, my English sucks. I wish I had paid better attention in English class. Well, I'm supposed to be getting smarter soon, so maybe I'll learn it fast. Anyway, the lady who activated my X gene told me to expect you."

Not waiting for the professor, Logan demanded, "How do you know about X genes?"

More shouts could be heard from the house and the little girl begged, "Hey, could we maybe go to where you parked your plane please? I'd sort of like to be out of sight from the house when they notice I'm gone."

After Logan relayed what the girl was saying, the professor shrugged and said, "Since she seems to know so much, let's go back to the plane. If she isn't the person we're looking for we can still come back to this house." He didn't add that he could, if needed, erase the girl's memory of their visit.

The girl picked up her pack and put it on, adjusting the straps a bit. Logan frowned as he looked at the size of the pack the girl was carrying. It looked much too big for a girl that size and it was obviously tightly filled with whatever its contents were.

A short walk later and they arrived at the vacant lot. When she perceived that this was their destination, the girl said, "I guess the plane must be invisible. This must have been the closest place to the dojo where you could land, but it might not have been the best choice. This vacant lot is used for a lot of martial arts battles. Some of the fighters can throw ki blasts (like me) and your plane could have gotten damaged. You're just lucky there weren't any duels going on today."

"Ki blasts?" Logan echoed. He knew some high end martial artist like Iron Fist so he was knew what the girl was talking about. "It takes years to learn to throw ki blasts. How could a little kid like you do that?"

"Yeah, I need to explain that," the girl told them.

From her pocket Ororo pulled a small device and pressed a button. There was a metallic sound and a ramp seemed to open from nothingness. This revealed a door into a dimly lit space.

"It was invisible!" the little girl enthused. "That is so COOL!" She ran up the ramp. The rest looked at each other and then shrugged and followed the child.

A short while later they were gathered in the cockpit. The child seemed annoyed that her legs didn't reach the deck from the seat she was in.

Logan prompted, "You were going to explain."

"Right," she agreed. "First I have to ask, do you believe in magic?"

"Yeah, kid," Logan agreed. "I can't say I'm comfortable with it, but I've had magic used on me a few times and I've met some magic users. Can you use magic?"

"Me, no," the girl answered. "At least not yet. I've been told I'll learn. My next question is if you believe in gods and goddesses."

Looking at the others, Logan shrugged, "Well, I have met Thor, the Norse god of thunder. He's a member of the Avengers."

"Norse?" The girl thought about that. "That's great! If you ever happen to meet up with him again ask him about the Norns. I met one of them. Her name is Belldandy, goddess of the present."

"You met a goddess?" Logan queried.

"She said she came to grant me a Wish," The girl stated. "The problem was that I never really got a chance to think about what I wanted to wish for. Right as the goddess got to the door of the dojo I was practicing in I said that I wished for a chance to reach my full potential without all the crazy people in my life interfering."

"Potential?"

"Yeah," confirmed the girl. "Part of that was changing me from an 18 year old into a five year old."

"So you're telling us that you're really Ranma Saotome?" the mutant code named Wolverine asked.

"Yep," the girl agreed. She proceeded to tell the story of the Wish.

"Well, that sounds like a lot of potential, kid," observed Logan after hearing the story.

The professor said, "I can sense that she is telling the truth or at least that she believes it to be the truth."

Logan nodded and passed that along to Ranma. "Well that explains how a teenager came to be turned into a five year old kid. The next question is why you're a girl."

"Oh, right, I didn't mention that," the girl grimaced. "Well that goes back a little farther." She told them of Jusenkyo and some of the craziness of her life in Nerima.

Now the Canadian Mutant had to ask for clarification again. "Ok, I get that you can change sexes, but why are you a girl right now?"

She tapped a ring on her right ring finger and said, "This ring locks me as a girl. If I take off the ring the curse unlocks."

"As for the reason for doing that, well that takes a little longer to explain," Ranma told them. "Belldandy told me that the way my Pop raised me was an effort to turn me into some kind of hyper-masculine, macho, jerk, playboy, pervert. Both he and my mom seemed to think I should sleep around and get as many girls pregnant as possible. How my father ever expected me to do when he never even gave me 'the Talk' is a mystery to me."

That produced frowns with her listeners. She went on, "Bell said that because of that upbringing, I should get raised as a normal girl this time to balance out all of the stupid macho crap my Pop taught me. Well, at least as normal as a psychic mutant super genius girl who is also a world class martial artist can be anyway."

Logan arched an eyebrow and said, "Humph, got much of an ego there kid?"

Ranma shrugged and said, "Well, for the martial arts I can at least claim to be one of the best for my age and I mean my real age, not what I look like right now. If you were to ask around Nerima, they would tell you Saotome Ranma is the one to beat. As for the rest, a goddess told me I'd have those abilities. And that was leaving out the bit she told me that I'd be a witch when I get older."

"A witch?" Logan queried.

"That's what she told me," Ranma affirmed. She thought for a moment and said, "If it isn't rude to ask, what's your mutant power? I know that Xavier sensei is a mind reader but only because Belldandy told me."

The Canadian mutant pointed with a thumb to the dark skinned woman with the white hair and said, "That's Ororo Monroe. Her power is control of the weather. She hasn't said much because she doesn't speak Japanese. I'm Logan and my power is fast healing and animal-like senses such as smell."

The little girl frowned at that. "Fast healing? I'm not questioning that, but I've been reading your aura. I could swear you have metal bones. I thought that might be your mutant power."

Logan grimaced slightly. "No kid, that's not my power. It was the healing factor that let me survive the process that covered my bones in that metal. Anyone who didn't have my healing factor would have been killed by the surgery."

Noting the grimace, Ranma apologized, "Hey, sorry if that brings up painful memories."

"Nah, it's Ok, I'm used to it," responded the man. "Besides I can do this." He held out a clenched fist and Ranma watched as shiny metal blades slid out from between the knuckles on the back of the mutant's hand.

The little girl studied the claws for a moment then reached out to touch the tip of one of the blades. She pulled her hand back abruptly and looked at the dot of blood on the tip of her finger.

"Whoa, those are very sharp," she commented. "With blades like that, isn't there a danger that you could cut yourself sometimes?"

"Yeah, sometimes, after I first got the metal blades" agreed Logan. "I've had them long enough that I don't cut myself anymore. Even when I did, I heal fast, so it wasn't a problem."

She nodded absently and said, "I heal fast too, but that's more because of ki control than any power. It took long, hard years of training to get that ki control."

"You mentioned throwing ki blasts," the older mutant stated. "Is that true?"

The red haired girl looked thoughtful. Finally she said, "Ok, I'll show you. Keep in mind that I'm doing this just as a demonstration and not as an attack."

She held out her hand and they all watched as a pinpoint of light came into being floating over it. That pinpoint expanded until it was a glowing sphere the size of a softball of white.

Adopting an lecturing tone, the little girl stated, "The light you see is my ki, or life energy. I started out with about twice the amount of ki that a normal person needs to live with. From that point I did special exercises and went through meditation techniques that increased my total reserve of this energy to many times what a normal person has."

As she let the ball of light dissolve she continued, "The basic life energy runs through the body in channels like blood flows through veins. One of the differences is that those flows can't be detected by normal medical instruments. An acupuncturist uses his needles to stimulate important ki pathways and junctures as treatment for all kinds of problems when people get sick or injured. This can also be done through acupressure, also known as pressure points."

Still in the lecturing tone she said, "The ball that I showed you only had enough energy in it to let glow in visible light. If I had put more energy into it I could have projected it away from me to use as a weapon. Depending on how I will the energy to be, it could strike like the blow of a fist or it could explode and cause damage to anything it touches."

"Throwing ki blasts like I showed you is one of the most extreme uses of a person's own life energy," she explained. "The more common use is for a martial artist to enhance the strength and speed of their movements. In fact many of the best martial arts masters first start using ki without knowing they're doing it. The clue is when a martial artist begins performing feats that should be impossible for a person just using normal human muscles and nerves."

"The real trick is learning to take conscious control of that energy," the girl told them. "With the right kind of training and discipline people can control their ki the same way some people can consciously control their heartbeat and body temperature."

After hearing the translation, Ororo laughed and said, "You don't sound like a small child."

"I was quoting some of the stuff my sensei's told me," the little girl said with a shrug.

She looked over to Logan again and said, "Could I see those claws again?"

When he extended them, she looked at them carefully then tapped a finger on the side of one. After a moment she said, "I thought so. That's adamantium."

"How did you know that?" demanded Logan.

She pulled back the sleeve of her wind breaker and they could all see that strapped to her forearm there was a leather holster. In that holster there was what looked like a metal rod with a sort of knob on the end. The knob was just a slightly wider cylinder of the same shiny metal. She tapped it with a finger and said, "The outer shell of this is made of adamantium too."

Frowning, Logan asked, "How can you tell the difference between admantium and say, steel for instance?"

"Huh?" She stopped to think about it. "Well, steel would get rusty and you couldn't have it inside your body. But as to how I know the difference, I guess different metals react differently to ki and I can see, or at least sense that."

"What is that metal bar anyway and why are you wearing it on your arm like that?" the Canadian mutant asked.

"Oh this was a gift from Belldandy-Sama," Ranma answered. "This is a magic wand."

Magic wand? Logan thought about that for a moment. "I thought magic wands were made out of wood."

"Usually," Ranma conceded. "This one was specially made for me by Hephaestus, the smith of the gods. It has a thin outer shell of adamantium and an inner shell of vibranium. Now most wands used by wizards and witches have a magical element included with them like a dragon scale or a phoenix feather. This one has three hairs, one from each of the Norn goddesses. Those hairs were freely given and are each of them is in a special channel in between the inner and outer shells."

She gently ran her finger along the surface of the wand. "There's other things that have been done to this to make it even stronger than a normal wooden wand. All of the inner surfaces are covered in runes and other magical symbols. Those will help channel even more magical power than a simple wooden stick."

Confused, Logan asked, "Adamantium is indestructible. How do you engrave symbols onto a surface of that metal?"

"Oh, it's not that hard," Ranma answered. "The adamantium starts out as a liquid. You pour it into a mold that has tiny raised designs on it. After you harden the liquid you use a weak acid to dissolve the mold and the inside surface of the metal has symbols that look like they were engraved. The same thing works for the vibranium."

"The usual wand is a skinny, flexible stick, while this is a lot fatter and completely rigid," Ranma went on. "That's because the core of this is a chunk of molecular circuitry along with a power source. Where the core comes from was left kind of vague. I think it's either alien technology or some kind of tech from the future, I'm not sure which."

The professor asked, "What does the device in the wand do?"

After hearing the translation, Ranma said, "It's sort of like those tri-corder things in Star Trek. It's a multi-spectrum scanner and detector as well as a computer to interpret the scanned information and format it into easily readable form. It can also be a general purpose computer too."

(AN: When Ranma answers a question from someone other than Logan, assume that Logan translates both from and into Japanese.)

"How do you use a computer with no display screen?" asked Ororo.

"Like this," Ranma said. At a mental command a hologram was projected from the wand to display over the girl's wrist. She said, "This is the scanner mode."

The holographic screen faded out then another screen came into being, floating in the air. There also appeared a keyboard that appeared to be made of light that floated in front of the little girl. She said, "Right now I don't really know all of what the computer can do. I know there is a word processing program loaded in along with a spread sheet and a personal finance tracker with checkbook. There's tons of other software loaded, but it will take me a little while to fully explore all it can do."

The professor nodded and said, "That is truly amazing. I would advise you not to use this computer when you are in the presence of ordinary people. It might be difficult to explain where you got such a device and I'm sure people in authority would probably take it away from you in an effort to understand its workings."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out," said the little girl.

She paused a moment before saying, "Since you are going to be teaching me how to use my mental powers, I guess I should tell you I've got another mutation. I don't think your computer had detected it because it is what Bell-sama called a passive mutation."

"Oh, what is the passive mutation?" the professor.

She thought about it for a moment before asking, "Logan-San, please pick me up?"

With a slightly bemused expression, he shrugged and stepped up to the little girl. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her up. He grunted and commented, "You're heavy for your size."

After he set her down, she said, "I'm about half again as heavy as a kid my size would normally be. My goddess friend said that when I develop strength beyond a certain point, my muscles stop getting bigger and start getting heavier... denser?"

Poking a fingertip gently into a well developed shoulder muscle, the Canadian mutant agreed, "Definitely denser. So basically your saying this 'passive mutation' of yours is that you're stronger than you look?"

"No, that's not the mutation itself," Ranma clarified. "When I use ki to push my body to perform feats normally impossible to most people, my muscles are pushed to become stronger. If I had never done the work, I would never have gotten the denser muscles."

Taking in the explanation, Logan nodded. "I get it. The mutation didn't give you the denser muscles, but lets you develop them, right?"

"Yep," the girl confirmed. "If I keep working out, I should keep getting stronger without looking like a body builder. If I'm gonna stay as a girl, I guess I should make an effort to keep a girlish figure, well, when I'm old enough to have a figure. I keep forgetting I'm not a teenager right now."

"Ranma, I hope you will not be offended by this," Xavier said. "While I can see the mental image of yourself you hold, it will still be hard to imagine you that way. After all we have only seen you with the body of a small child. I hope it will not bother you if we sometimes treat you as the child you appear to be."

"Nah, I'm not offended," she answered. "I've been told that having the body of a little kid will have me acting childish at times, in spite of the greater experience I have."

"You present something of a problem for me," Xavier said. "The Xavier school for gifted youngsters is a boarding school, but none of the students staying there is as young as you now appear to be. That is mainly because mutant powers usually start to manifest at puberty or later. It is only in rare instances that they activate earlier."

He thought about it and said, "Besides that, there is the fact that we would need parental consent for you to live at my school. From what you have told me of your parents and the plans they have made regarding you, it would seem unlikely that they would be willing to give permission for you to attend my school."

He shook his head. "If you were still 18 that is the legal age of consent in the United States, at least in the state where my school is located. If you still looked that age and decided to come live at our school, we would have no trouble accommodating you."

Ranma considered that. She said, "Maybe my grandparents would have some ideas on that. They are Himura Kenjiro and Naoka."

Xavier frowned and said, "I know those names. Isn't Naoka a medical researcher?"

"Yes, and grandpa is a research scientist," Ranma affirmed. "At least they were. I understand they're both retired now. They have been informed we would be coming so you can land on the front lawn of the estate."

The three visiting mutants exchanged looks. Ranma had the feeling there was some sort of telepathic conversation going on as well. After a moment Logan asked, "Where do your grandparents live?"

* * *

At a country estate outside the city of Okayama a large, comfortable house was located. There were a few outbuildings but nothing terribly fancy. Everything looked to be of very solid construction and sturdy materials.

On the covered porch two people sat in comfortable chairs. One was a man in his early sixties, his mostly gray hair had streaks of dark. The woman next to him was of similar age although the years seemed to sit more lightly with her than the man. The mixture of gray and red hair gave her a distinctly pink haired appearance.

Both people looked fit. In truth they had both been working in their garden not long before and were now taking a break. The man looked at an expensive wristwatch and commented, "It's almost time. From what Miss Belldandy said, they should be arriving soon."

"To finally get to meet Ranma..." The woman said. "I know we didn't approve of Nodoka's choice in husband, but she could have contacted us after Ranma got back to Japan."

"Well, from what the nice young lady told us, it would seem we were justified in our attitude toward Genma," Himura Kenjiro said. "I'd like to hope that Nodoka can see the truth of the matter now."

Naoka shook her head sadly. "I know what you mean, but No-Chan can be ever so stubborn about such things. I think our opposition made her dig in her heals and stay with Genma when she might have taken a more careful look at him otherwise."

"You could be right about that," conceded the man.

Before the conversation could proceed any further a sudden wind seemed to spring up out of nowhere. The pink haired woman said, "I guess that must be our guests arriving."

Kenjiro looked at the place where all of the wind was coming from and said, "Impressive stealth technology. I wonder..."

His wife interrupted, "No! You will not try to duplicate it! You have gotten out of that kind of work. We're retired now."

He sighed. "I know, you're right, dear. It's just that I can't help being curious."

She lightly caressed his face and said, "I know."

At that moment the wind cut off and a short while later the ramp appeared out of empty air. Shortly three adult figures and one child came down the ramp, one of the figures in a wheelchair. As the visitors came up to the porch the older man who was their host stood up.

Kenjiro bowed and said, "You should know that this area is not visible from any of the other houses in the area. You could drop your stealth field and not have to worry about your plane being observed." He spoke in barely accented English.

The bald man in the wheelchair replied, "While I trust you, we don't have just local observers to be concerned about. Even if there is no one on the ground to see the plane, there are still surveillance satellites in orbit."

"Ah." Kenjiro glanced at the sky, while trying to estimate the location of the nearest satellite, and nodded. "You do have a point."

He and his wife stepped down from the porch and went forward to greet the visitors. Naoka bowed to each of the adult visitors in turn. However, when she got to the child, her face lit up in a big smile. "Is this... Ranma?" she asked.

The little girl kicked a toe into the grass and nervously tugged at her ponytail. Feeling unsure of the reception she was likely to get, Ranma said, "Uh... hi Grandma. Yeah, it's me, Ranma."

The next thing she knew, Ranma was lifted up in an Amazon-grade glomp. Her grandmother gushed, "Oh my, Ranma-Chan, you are so CUTE!"

Over her grandmother's shoulder Ranma directed a look that clearly said, "Help me," to her grandfather. He just grinned and had to restrain himself from laughing out loud. The visitors all smiled at the display of unbridled affection being lavished on the age-regressed martial artist.

Naoka was babbling somewhat incoherently, and Ranma finally had enough. She begged, "Grandma, please put me down. You're gonna squish me."

The older woman eased up on the force of her embrace but held onto the little girl. She looked into the small face in front of her and said, "You look exactly like Nodoka did at your age. And I see you have the family hair color."

"Well, only when I'm a girl," Ranma noted.

"Ah yes, I had forgotten about that magic curse," Naoka said. "You were born a boy. Why are you a girl right now?"

"Could we go inside and talk about it?" the little girl begged. "If I took the time to explain it while you're holding me, you're gonna get pretty tired."

"Good point," the older woman acknowledged. She set Ranma down and commented, "My goodness, you are a heavy little thing. Do you have extra strength to go with those dense muscles?"

"Yep," Ranma responded. "We can talk more about it inside."

"Ah yes, where are my manners?" the lady said. "All of you are invited to come into my home. When I was informed that we would be having guests I called the catering company in town and they brought out some food."

They followed their hosts into the dining room. This was a western style room with a higher table and chairs positioned around it. On the large table there were plastic trays covered with clear plastic. On those trays could be seen several different varieties of sandwiches. There were also potato and corn chips along with cans of soda pop.

Ranma looked over the table and asked, "Sandwiches, Grandma?"

Hearing the question, Naoka said, "You're probably wondering why we're not serving some kind of traditional Japanese food. Well, it's not because our guests are coming from America. Jiro and I are not what you could call traditional. Nor am I at all domestic by any stretch of the imagination."

"You must remember that I was a medical researcher up until I retired," the older woman explained. "I got used to eating in restaurants or getting take-out. If I prepared anything at home it was usually using the microwave to heat up various frozen foods."

Kenjiro said, "Because of a mutual dislike for cooking, we've made arrangements with two local restaurants. On alternating weeks they will cook up a week's worth of meals, portion it out and freeze it. They then deliver the frozen meals to us. On occasions when we are expecting guests, we get the catering company to deliver something like what you see here."

Naoka nodded. She continued, "I don't do housework. We have a maid service that comes in to clean once a week. For any dishes that get dirty from the restaurant food, I have a dishwashing machine."

The pink haired woman looked thoughtful. "Ranma, I understand Nodoka is a good cook."

"Yeah, she's great," was the little girl's answer.

"She didn't learn it from me," informed the older woman. "It was my sister that taught Nodoka what she now refers to as 'the womanly arts.' There were times that I thought she might be ashamed of me that I wasn't more 'womanly' than I am."

Shaking her head in amazement, Ranma said, "Wow, that's weird. Mom is so traditional that it's hard to understand how she could be that way when you guys are not like that at all. I bet you two would be a lot more fun to hang out with."

"Thanks, Ranma-Chan," Naoka said. "I think you would be fun to hang out with too. As for your mother I think she took it on herself to learn traditional Japanese ways as a means of rebellion. I think she saw it as a way to feel morally superior to us."

Turning to the other visitors she said, "If you wish something other than the cold soda, I can make coffee or hot chocolate. I've never been all that fond of tea, so I don't really keep the supplies to make the stuff."

Logan popped open a can of cola and said, "I often like beer with my food, but this is fine." The others agreed.

As they began to eat, Ranma launched into her story. Because she was speaking between bites, she ate much slower than was her habit. That didn't mean she ate less than usual. In fact she ate more than half of all of the food on the table. When she had emptied the last of the trays she pointed to a half sandwich in front of Naoka and asked, "Hey Grandma, are you gonna finish that?"

With a slight chuckle the older woman handed over the half sandwich and commented, "Honestly dear, I don't know where you put it all."

The little girl shrugged and said, "I'm a martial artist, I burn lots of calories."

Kenjiro laughed and said, "I can believe that."

There was silence around the table for a moment before Kenjiro spoke again, "Well I believe we have a limited time to work with. From what Miss Belldandy told us, Ranma's intelligence is already started to increase and her mutant powers will start to become active in only a few days. It would be best if she were able to get to Professor Xavier's school as soon as that happens to teach her the proper way to use those powers."

He thought for a moment before saying, "Naoka and I have many friends in the government. We should have no trouble getting Ranma removed from the Saotome Clan register and moved to the Himura register. However, to make a clean break of it I think it would be best to change her given name as well."

"What name would you give me, Grandpa?" Asked Ranma.

"Well, you say you are going to be staying female, is that right?" asked the grandfather.

"That's the plan," confirmed the little girl. "At least I'll stay a girl all or most of the time until I reach puberty. After that I'll start taking the ring off when I'm at home and be a guy in private and not in public. Belldandy told me that by that time I should learn how to change by will power and not water."

"What if you decide you like being a girl better?" asked Naoka.

"Good question," Ranma said. "I guess if that happens then I'll be a girl who can change into a guy instead of a guy who can change into a girl. I'll just plan on spending most of my time in girl form in that case. I may still need to change into guy form for a disguise, so I'll keep the ability to transform instead of getting locked."

"That sounds like a good plan," agreed Kenjiro. "Now as to a name, I think you should have a more American sounding name if you are going to be living in that country. I was thinking Veronica Himura."

Ranma thought about that for a moment before saying, "Ok, I get that in America they give the family name last, but why 'Veronica?'"

Kenjiro grinned and said, "A common nickname for Veronica is 'Ronnie.'"

The little red haired girl blinked. Then she said, "Oh right. Ronnie sounds at least a little like Ranma. Then if I needed a name for my guy form, I could call myself Ron. I think that's an American name, right?"

"It is an English name that is also used by Americans," Naoka clarified.

Kenjiro said, "I have some friends in America. The ones I'm thinking of are George and Natalie Tanaka. They are what they call semi retired. Their children are grown and moved out. George writes a syndicated column that is published in 30 newspapers. He has often bragged that he can work anywhere that has a phone or a computer data connection. He currently lives in New York city, but I think he might enjoy a move to upstate New York."

"Are you suggesting I stay with them?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, you could call them Aunt and Uncle," Kenjiro replied. "If you're going to be as smart as that Belldandy girl said, you will probably need to be home schooled. Especially considering that you have already attended high school, regardless of your grades, I can just imagine how you would tear through the curriculum of an American elementary school."

"Home schooled?" the little girl echoed with a frown.

"Yes," confirmed Naoka. "You would study at home for academic subjects and go to the Xavier school for training with your powers. By going to the Xavier school you will get the social interaction that you might miss by not going to a public or private school. To make sure you get the proper certification you would need to take tests from time to time."

"Ok, that sounds like it could work," Ranma allowed. She turned to the mutants and asked, "What do you guys think?"

The professor nodded and said, "I think that sounds like a workable plan. I believe it would be for the best if Veronica travels with us. It would look suspicious for a child as young as she appears to travel alone on commercial flights."

Naoka's expression turned sad. "I'm sorry that we have to say 'sayonara' to you so soon after meeting you, little Ronnie."

"It's not forever, Grandma, Grandpa," Ronnie replied. "I'll be back in the summer."

The older woman smiled. "That's true."

Kenjiro turned businesslike. "I will call my friend, George. Considering the time it will take to fly back to your school, he can drive down from New York City and meet you at the school."

"Very well," said the professor. "Logan, Ororo, go get the plane ready. Ranma, I mean Veronica, will want to say goodbye to her grandparents."

Logan pushed the professor's chair as the mutants left the house. Ronnie went to hug her grandmother. She said, "I'll work hard to learn all that Xavier-San can teach me."

"You should also be sure to mind your uncle George and Auntie Natalie," the pink haired woman admonished.

Author's Note: Ok, it seems people are interested in this story, so here is chapter 2.