Ranma: Senshi of the Moon

Ranma: Senshi of the 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 am just a poor fanfic writer playing around with other people's characters and I make no money off doing so. There, I said it! Are you happy?

Timeline Notice: This takes place after the failed wedding in Ranma's part of the world and at the very beginning of Sailor Moon. Other inconsistencies will be explained in the story itself.

Chapter 4

The next morning Ranma was awakened by a gentle shaking. The girl cracked an eyelid open and looked. She said, "Hi Mom."

"I'm just getting ready to leave for work," the auburn haired woman informed her daughter. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," the teenager reported. "Now I only feel like the tomboy bashed me with Mallet-sama a few times instead of my head feeling ready to explode. It still hurts, but I think I can deal with it well enough to get breakfast. I'm pretty sure I'm not feeling up to going to school, though."

"Alright, I'll call them from the Library," Nodoka replied. "Since you started at Juuban High you've had an excellent attendance record. I'm sure that, along with your good marks in all of your classes, should assure that you don't get into any trouble for this."

"Thanks Mom," the girl said. When the older woman left the room, Ranma got out of the bed. She was a little shaky and leaned on the wall to steady herself but navigated with no real trouble. She visited the toilet and then went to the bathing room. There she washed off and went to soak on the furo for a while, changing into male form in the hot water.

Luna had followed and now sat on the edge of the tub. She said, "Do you feel up to talking now?"

Leaning back against the side of the tub, the martial artist closed his eyes. "I guess so. Did you have a question you wanted to start off with?"

"Well, your mother said she was leaving for her job," the cat started. "Since she mentioned the library, is that where she works?"

"Yeah, she's a librarian," Ranma confirmed. "She's the first one there in the morning. She empties the book return bins and checks them back into the computer to get them ready to be put back on the shelves. It does mean she's usually gone by the time I head off to school but at least she's always home when I get back here."

"I see," Luna said. She thought for a moment before asking, "So what can you tell me about what happened during the mind meld?"

"I'm not completely sure myself," the boy admitted. "What I do know is that what you did, maybe combined with something I did, caused all of my past life memories to be dumped into my current consciousness. I sort of had to push them off to the side and I will need meditation to sort the memories out and organize them."

"You remember everything of your life in the Silver Millennium?" Luna's voice had a wistful tone.

"Yeah, everything," the black haired boy agreed. "It's mostly a big jumble right now, that's why I need the meditation to sort things out." He paused and then said, "From your tone just now I get the feeling your memory of those times is not perfect."

Now sounding depressed, the cat responded, "It is a side effect to the stasis process. Right now my memory has more holes in it than Swiss cheese."

"I kind of guessed that from what you were saying about the Senshi and how you need to find the Princess," Ranma said.

"What do you mean?"

"From what I can sift out of the memory download, for 16 years I was Princess Serena Serenity, the daughter of Queen Selene Serenity," he explained. "Officially, there never was a Sailor Moon. Unofficially, I got the Senshi training and was able to transform, but I never went out in public that way. It had to be kept secret because of some political problem with the countries on Earth."

On hearing the name, the cat had a memory jogged loose. She sounded puzzled as she said, "As best as I can recall, Serena had blonde hair."

"I know," Ranma responded. "I can remember looking at myself in the mirror. In that lifetime I looked a lot like my mother, the Queen, except her hair was more of a platinum blonde while mine was yellow blonde. In fact I looked almost exactly like my Aunt Bunny, even to that hairstyle with the odangoes and long pony tails. I don't know why I look different in this lifetime."

"But I was led to believe that all of the Senshi would look the same in their reincarnated forms as they did in the Silver Millennium," the cat complained.

"I'd say I was sorry, but it wasn't anything that I did that caused it, at least I don't think so," the teenager stated. "I can remember dying just as Mom was casting the spell that would send my soul into the future. She said she'd sent all of the rest on ahead of me. Her exact words were, 'you are the last.' She looked close to death's door herself. Maybe she messed up the spell and that led to me being born as a boy in this life. I know that in my current girl form I look like almost like a smaller copy of my mother in this lifetime."

"Well, your hair is a much brighter red than hers," the cat commented.

With a thoughtful expression Ranma nodded and then said, "Oh right, it's dogs that are supposed to be color blind."

The cat didn't dignify that with a reply. Ranma went on, "Mom has told me that her hair was just as bright when she was my age. She dyes it to make it darker because people made fun of her. Me, I don't much care if my hair is a freaky shade of red. I kind of like it that it makes me look different from other kids my age."

What Ranma said next was a shock. "As far as finding the Senshi, I don't think that will be too much of a problem. I already know where three of the other Inners are."

"You do?"

"Yep!" the boy affirmed. "They do look like their Silver Millennium selves. Oddly enough they're all friends of mine too. Mizuno Ami is my study buddy and I now know her to be Sailor Mercury. Kino Makoto is my martial arts sparring partner and I now know she is Sailor Jupiter. Hino Rei, my friend who works as a miko at the Hikawa Shrine, is Sailor Mars, or will be when she's Awakened to her power."

Looking a bit bemused, Luna finally said, "I guess that will help matters."

"I haven't met her, but I've seen pictures," the young martial artist's tone was thoughtful. "I'm pretty sure that Sailor V, who is fighting monsters and crime in London, England is Sailor Venus. I hope she gets some money off the video game they made of her."

"I was certain that was her as well," Luna admitted. Through the use of a cell phone she had been able to obtain, she had been in touch with a central authority that kept her apprised of the battle against the youma in England.

Ranma continued, "As for the Outers, in this life I haven't met Uranus, Neptune or Saturn, but I'm sure I would recognize them instantly if I were to meet them. I saw a little girl who looked like Saturn at the playground of the middle school that's over by the market where Mom gets her groceries. I chased off some bullies who were bothering her. However I do know where Pluto is, or at least one place where she can be contacted."

"You know where Sailor Pluto is?" the cat sounded shocked again.

"Yeah, she's Meiyoh Setsuna, my guidance counselor at Juuban High," the teenager stated. "I wonder if it would be a good idea to alert all of them to the trouble that is coming up."

"Yes, I believe it would be a good idea," the cat advised. "At least for the Inners. As for Pluto, I'm not sure. I would like to guess that she already knows. One thing I do know is that she didn't die in the attack on the Moon Kingdom. Queen Serenity gave her the duty to guard the Gates of Time and to watch for the return of the Negaverse. I am not sure, but I believe it was she who released me from my stasis capsule."

"Well, I'll tell Ms. Meiyoh that I know she's Pluto the next time I see her," Ranma said. "Are you saying that she's the same woman and not a reincarnation?"

"I believe that to be true," the cat confessed.

"20,000 years on the same job?" the teen boy said in wonder. "I can't imagine it. I think I'd go insane in all that time."

"You make a valid point," furry visitor to the house said in a musing tone. "Perhaps it would be wise to be cautious around her."

She paused a moment to think of her next question. "I started to ask about this last night, but your headache was so painful that you didn't want to talk. Why did you change into a girl before going to bed last night?"

"That was something my mom figured out," Ranma explained. "You see the Curse seems to want me to be female at least half of the time. If I go too long in male form all sorts of weird 'accidents' happen."

"What kind of accidents?"

The boy rolled his eyes and recited, "Lawn sprinklers start up right as I'm walking by, sudden cloudbursts that rain on just me, pipes burst or roofs leak if I'm indoors, I've even seen water flow uphill. If somebody is dumping wash water off their balcony it will almost always be when I'm right in the way."

"The thing is, if I schedule times when I'm going to be a girl, and try to make that at least half of every day, then the water accidents pretty much stop happening," he said. "I suppose if the curse thought I was spending too much time in girl form, there would be hot water accidents, but I haven't had any of those, so I must be getting the right balance so far."

He went on, "Mostly I sleep in girl form and go to school that way. Mom figured that the curse doesn't care whether I'm awake or not for the time I'm a girl, just which form I'm wearing."

"Wearing?" the cat was intrigued by the choice of words. "Do you look on whichever sex you are as being like clothing, to be changed at need?"

"Yeah, pretty much now," Ranma admitted. "I used to hate being a girl. Like I mentioned to you, my father pretty much hated women or at least didn't think too highly of them. I sometimes think he had only two reasons why he married my mom. The first was because she's a great cook, and the second because she could give birth to the heir who could support him in cushy retirement."

"He must not have reacted well to your getting the curse," Luna guessed.

"That would be putting it mildly," the boy chuckled. "When he was around, he wanted me to change back to a boy almost immediately. Which was sort of strange, because he never seemed to mind being in panda form."

"Sounds like a double standard," observed the furry visitor.

"Yeah, that's the way he is," Ranma agreed.

"You say you don't really care all that much about whether you are male or female," the cat ventured. "But you were raised very much male. Does that mean you retain a male viewpoint even when your body is female?"

"Pretty much," Ranma admitted. "I've started to bend a little on some issues, like girl clothing. I used to hate wearing girl's undergarments, but now it just seems more practical to wear clothes designed for the body I'm in at the time. When I was having water accidents all the time I tried to dress as unisex as I could."

"I guess that makes sense," the feline conceded. "However, that wasn't what I was getting at."

"If you mean my views on guys and girls for dating and the like, then I'm still mostly male," he said thoughtfully. "I mean that I like girls regardless of which body I'm wearing. I guess that makes me heterosexual when male and a lesbian when a girl."

He suddenly sat up, causing water to slosh over the rim of the tub. "Oh, gross! I just remembered that I had a boyfriend back in the Silver Millennium. I'm pretty sure that Prince Endymion is that jerk Chiba Mamoru in this life. Even if I was into guys, I wouldn't want to hook up with that one."

"So is there a girl who has caught your eye?" Luna asked.

"Actually, yes," he admitted. "Now that the engagements in Nerima are all cancelled, I find I really like Hino Rei. She's pretty, strong and has a fiery temper but not so bad that she would hit me like Tendo Akane used to."

"Your fiancée used to hit you?" the cat sounded shocked again.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Akane is the tomboy I spoke of back in the bedroom."

"She hit you with a mallet?"

"Yeah," he agreed in a sad tone. "There was a time when I thought I loved the girl. I guess you could say she beat that idea out of me."

His tone turned thoughtful, "As for how things are going with Rei... Before I tell her I can change into a guy, I want to see how she reacts to me in my girl form. I figure that for me to get together with any girl, I'm going to need to find one who 'swings both ways.' If she doesn't like me in both forms then any kind of relationship would be pretty much doomed to fail."

He frowned. "I thought Rei and I were making good progress until two weeks ago. Then something must have happened, because Rei started acting colder toward me. It was like something had made her sad and she could only treat me as a friend and nothing more."

At that point he opened his eyes and looked at his hand. He stood up and said, "I'm starting to prune up. I need to dry off and go get breakfast."

After toweling himself off, he ran his arm under the cold water faucet and changed to female. Then she dressed in a dark blue skirt and a yellow blouse before heading to the kitchen. Luna followed.

Checking the refrigerator, Ranma found that her mother had left her some rice, fish and miso soup. She took those items out and microwaved them to heat them. She put a portion of the soup into a saucer and some rice and fish into a another one. She set that down on the floor for Luna.

The red haired girl sat down and ate slowly. Because her head was still hurting, she found she didn't feel like eating at her normal speed.

Looking around the kitchen she noticed a glass of water that had been set on top of a piece of paper. After she had finished her food she walked over and found another of the prescription pain pills left on the paper. The glass of water was acting as a paperweight to hold down a note. It read, "In case you are still in pain, I left you another of those pills."

"Bless you, Mom." She picked up the pill, but before she could put the it in her mouth, Luna spoke up, "You don't need that."

Frowning, the girl argued, "My head is still hurting. I really do think I need this."

"If you change into Sailor Moon, your transformation has magic powers of self-healing," the cat countered. She leapt into air and performed an unusual flip. At the apex of her leap an odd broach appeared and clattered to the floor.

"Put that on and then say 'Moon Prism Power - Makeup," the cat instructed.

Ranma picked up the broach and examined it. It seemed to be gold with a sort of sunburst design. If she was supposed to wear it all the time, it would be necessary to hide it when in male form, because it looked way too feminine. She didn't mind that when in girl form, but needed to at least maintain appearances when male. Now that she had it in front of her she recognized it as the transformation broach she had used in her past life.

She pinned the broach to the front of her shirt and touched the thumbs and index fingers of both hands to the sides. She called out the phrase that Luna had suggested. Rotating bands of energy surrounded Ranma as she levitated a short way into the air and her clothing vanished. Shortly new clothing formed on her body.

When she got done with it, the red haired Senshi turned to the cat and complained, "Damn! I'd forgotten that I would be naked for part of that transformation. "

"Well, it is a fairly standard part of the transformation sequence," the cat admitted.

"Humph!" she grumped. "Purely aside from the secret identity thing, I can definitely see why I wouldn't want to do that in public. I might die of embarrassment. I have to wonder about the guys who invented that process. Must have been a bunch of perverts."

"I'm sorry about that," Luna apologized. "I had no part in the process of granting your powers and the transformation."

The girl put a hand to the side of her head, looking surprised. "Well, what do you know? You were right. The headache is gone."

"Okay, let's take a look at this costume," she said. She left the kitchen and went to the bathing room to look at her reflection in the full length mirror. She turned to and fro and lifted up the skirt to look at what was under it. She tugged at the end of the long gloves she was wearing. She looked at the boots and experimentally flexed her ankles.

Finally she said, "Just like I remember it. I don't hate it, but I can't say that I love it either. The suit is sort of like a leotard with a skirt. I've had to wear a leotard in the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics match, but I think this is closer to either the Martial Arts Figure Skating costume or maybe the Martial Arts Cheerleading outfit."

"Do I even want to ask about Martial Arts Cheerleading?" The furry observer rhetorically queried.

"Hey, in Nerima they mix martial arts with almost anything," Ranma informed her companion. "At least it makes some sense when mixing it with athletic events. There's some stuff that's just plain weird."

"Weirder than martial Arts Cheerleading?" Luna had to admit that her curiosity was aroused.

"There's martial arts dining, Martial arts tea ceremony, and even martial arts housekeeping," the red haired Senshi replied. "My friend Tendo Kasumi has been the All Tokyo champion in that last one for four years running. It's kind of strange how she acts for that. For most of the time she is kind, sweet and gentle, but get her into an actual contest, and she is a vicious competitor."

"Martial Arts... Tea Ceremony?" Luna was clearly boggled at the idea.

"If you think that's bad, try the idea of Martial Arts Restaurant take out racing," Ranma suggested.

The cat shuddered as she contemplated those ideas.

Ranma continued, "There's also Martial Arts Volleyball and Soccer but I don't think there's a martial arts version of track and field. Board games like chess, checkers, go and shogi are sort of battle strategy games anyway, so there was no need to do martial arts variations on them."

"Is there such a thing as martial arts cooking?" wondered Luna.

With a thoughtful expression, Ranma said, "If you can ask that question, I guess you've never caught an episode of Iron Chef Nerima. My old friend Kuonji Ukyo does great in the combat parts of that but she looses points because she hardly ever makes anything other than Okonomiyaki."

"Now, about the costume," Ranma resumed.

"Yes?"

"Like a leotard, it does give good freedom of movement," the girl said, analytically. "The gloves could have been a problem but the palms and fingertips have some texturing to allow for good gripping. Medium heel, high-top boots are not usually the best footwear to fight in, but these are nice and flexible, so I guess I can't complain too much."

Looking in the mirror some more she said, "As for the decorative touches... Well I guess I can live with the bow on the front. The bow on the back has got to go. Although I never complained too much about it in my past life."

"What's wrong with the bow on the back?" demanded the aggrieved feline.

Turning a look on the cat, Ranma raised one eyebrow. "In close-up hand-to-hand combat an enemy could yank on the bow or the trailing ribbons and pull me off balance."

"Hmm..." she hummed thoughtfully. She held up a clenched fist and shortly glowing red claws sprouted from her knuckles.

"What's that?" Luna queried.

In a thoughtful tone Ranma said, "It looks like what you did wasn't a cure for the nekoken, but a way for me to master the technique. These are ki claws that are strong enough to shred wood, stone and even metal. It probably wouldn't work too good against creatures that can absorb ki, but maybe I can use some of the magic of this Senshi form to make a stronger set of claws."

"In the meantime..." She concentrated and the claws disappeared from her knuckles and reappeared on her finger tips. The girl then reached behind herself and the red bow fluttered to ground a moment later. After she dismissed the claws she noted that they had left holes in the gloves.

Luna pointed out, "That bow will reappear every time you transform into Sailor Moon."

"Then I'll cut the bow off every time," the new Senshi of the Moon replied. "It's not open to debate. After I get more used to the transformation process I'll see what I can do to keep the back bow from being part of the costume."

Ranma suddenly froze as a chill seemed to race up and down her back. "I can sense something happening, something evil. I can feel that it's going to affect one of my friends."

The red haired girl picked up the cat and ran quickly to her bedroom and out the window. She swung herself up on to the roof and then leapt toward the roof of a house across the street. She was surprised when her leap overshot the target and she ended up landing in the street beyond the house she had been aiming for.

Looking at the cat in the crook of her arm, Ranma said, "Ok, note to self: I'm a lot stronger in this form and I need to do some practice with my roof hopping to compensate."

She quickly got the hang of it, but it still seemed weird to be able to cover such distances with such a small fraction of her strength. Before long she was in a business district and standing on the roof of a store that was across the street from Osa-P, the jewelry store that was run by her friend Naru's mother.

The sense of evil was strong coming from the store. Then there were posters in the windows that proclaimed a 90 percent off sale. That didn't sound right. Why would Naru's mom discount her jewelry that much? Surely she would be losing money. This bore investigation.

Ranma jumped down and walked to the door of the store. The customers were acting a little frenzied in their pursuit of bargains. Before long something began to happen to them. Ranma could sense their life energy was being drawn out of their bodies and being channeled to the woman who at the moment looked like her friend's mother. The ki signature was completely wrong.

"Hey lady!" The newly minted Senshi of the Moon shouted. "You aren't Naru's Mom. Who are you?"

At that moment all of the customers in the store slumped to the floor. The woman looked to the figure in the door of the store and scowled. "A better question might be who you think you are."

"I'm Sailor Moon and I've come here to kick your ass and stop evil wherever I find it," Ranma shouted. Under one of the display cases, Luna put a paw over her eyes and winced at that. It was not the right kind of challenge, but it would have to do.

"Oh really?" the woman's face seemed to almost collapse in on itself as the cheeks became hollow and the color turned dark and grayish. The eyes sunk in deeper and the body became more emaciated. She said, "I don't think so! Arise my children and remove this pest!"

The women and girls who had been lying on the floor got unsteadily to their feet and shuffled forward like zombies. It was evident that their intent was to attack Sailor Moon.

"Really?" the redhead mocked. "Zombie minions? That's the best you could come up with?"

Sailor Moon suddenly blurred as she made her way through the crowd of women. She didn't hit any of them with fists, but instead pressed shiatsu sleep points on the neck of each. A mere moment later the crowd of women fell to the floor in boneless heaps. She didn't want to hurt them after all. They were innocent civilians.

Luna called out, "Sailor Moon, take off your tiara. Say 'Moon Tiara Action' and then throw it at the youma."

Feeling silly, the girl grabbed the tiara by the point on her forehead where the jewel was mounted. She called out the words and saw the metal partial hoop transform into a glowing discus. Ok, this had possibilities. She flung that at the creature and watched at it impacted. The strike was apparently more than the youma could take and it turned to dust which fell to the floor in a pile. The glowing disk returned to Ranma's hand and changed back into the tiara. Somewhat absently she put it back on.

A shadow was thrown on the floor from one of the windows high up on the wall of the store and Ranma looked up to see a tall man dressed in what appeared to be a tuxedo. He carried a cane or walking stick tucked under one arm. The red haired girl frowned and demanded, "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"I am Tuxedo Kamen," he announced. As he spoke he had pulled a rose from his cape and looked around. Finally, somewhat uncertainly, he said, "I... I guess you don't need my help."

"Help? No, I don't think so. I'd say that it was silly to be taking your name from the costume, but since I've got the name Sailor Moon because of the sailor collar on this suit, I guess I can't be too critical," she said. "But... A tuxedo? You fight while wearing a tuxedo? And what's with the rose?"

"This is my weapon," he announced.

Ranma put a hand over her mouth but wasn't able to stop her snicker. The snicker turned into a laugh and the girl had to fight to keep from falling down and rolling on the floor. "Your weapon is a flower? That's almost as bad as that nutcase Kuno Kodachi. At least she just flings the petals around and doesn't pretend that they have any value as weapons other than a distraction."

She laughed a little more before turning serious. "Look, Tux boy, why don't you clear out and let the real fighters handle stuff like this?"

"But it is my duty to protect the Senshi of the Moon!" He protested.

"With a rose?" She shook her head and said, "You're going to protect me... with roses? Like that's going to do much good against life sucking monsters. Whatever! You do what you want; I'm out of here."

Sailor Moon grabbed the cat and then ran out of the store and leapt to the roof of the store across the street. She ducked behind an air conditioning unit's heat exchanger and transformed back to Ranma. Then she roof hopped back to her mother's house.

"How did you do that?" demanded Luna.

"How did I do what?" the girl responded, sounding confused.

"You were able to leap from roof to roof without your Senshi power," the cat pointed out.

"Huh?" Ranma couldn't understand why that was a big deal. "I've been able to travel by roof hopping for years. What do you find so impressive about it?"

As they came in sight of the Tsukino home Luna sighed. "I guess I was expecting the Princess to be a pampered child who could only use her magic powers to fight with."

"Well, I'm 18," the girl shot back. "I don't know how old you are, but I'll grant that you may look on that as a child. But pampered? That may have been true in my life during the Silver Millennium of the Moon Kingdom, but I've been anything but pampered in this life. You saw my memories. Did that look like the training of a pampered layabout to you?"

"I suppose not," the furry passenger admitted.


Author's Note: Just to be clear, the little accident that caused Ranma's full past life memories to be brought forth will not work on the other Senshi. One of the factors that allowed it in Ranma's case was the Nekoken and something that will be explained in a later chapter.