Well, here is the "revised" revised version of the sixth and seventh
chapters.

Chapter 6

   While Ranma and Akane made their way back to the Hikawa Shrine, they
were largely unaware of the reception they were going to receive.  The
people occupying said shrine were busy staring at what was supposed to be a
picture of the orignal incarnation of Mamoru's sister, Akana, who had also
happened to be Sailor Terra in the days of the Moon Kingdom.
   "You're right, Ami.  Except for the red hair, she _does_ look like a
female version of Ranma," said Makoto.
   Akana could have been Ranma's sister.  She had the same basic looks,
only with a feminine cast.  The only thing that was truly different was her
hair, which had a flaming red color.  Also different was the hairstyle:
instead of Ranma's pigtail, Akana wore her hair loose.  It flowed down past
her shoulders, a river of red as bright as Tuxedo Kamen's roses.
   Mamoru gulped loudly without being aware of it.  The girls watched as he
slowly raised his hand and tried to touch the hologram, to no avail.
   "It's her," he whispered in awe.  "She's definitely the one I've been
having dreams about recently."
   Usagi felt a brief pang of jealousy at the thought of Mamoru dreaming of
another woman, but quickly dismissed the idea when she realized he was
talking about his sister.  She turned to face her guardian cat.  "Luna, is
there some chance Ranma might be a Senshi?" she asked.  The other girls all
started at the question.
   The black cat looked uncomfortable.  "I don't think so, Usagi.  The
Senshi were and still are all female.  I never imagined that one of them
might be reincarnated as a man."
   "Besides, Usagi-chan, I don't think he'd look very good in a Sailor
fuku," deadpanned Makoto.
   The comment ellicited a round of snickers that helped alleviate the
atmosphere.
   Rei turned to Sailor Mercury.  "Ami, why didn't you ever come up with
this picture before?"
   "Well, I've never exactly had any reason to look for it before," replied
the blue-clad Senshi.  Her computer suddenly beeped.  "There are people
approaching the shrine, Rei."
   Rei's eyes widened slightly.  "Turn back to normal, Ami.  It's probably
Ranma and Akane coming back," her eyes narrowed, "and he owes me an
explanation for the train station incident."
   "You don't need to go on the warpath, Rei, I doubt he lied in order to
spite you or anything.  He doesn't know you're a Sailor Senshi, so he was
probably just concerned about how you'd react if you learned he'd fought a
monster," said Ami calmly, as her fuku vanished.
   Rei deflated a little.  "Maybe you're right, but I still want to know if
he's as powerful as you described him to be, and if he is, I want to know
how he does it."
   Ami smiled.  "So do I."
   And so, they all moved outside the shrine to wait for Ranma and Akane.

   Ranma-chan and Akane were getting close to the Hikawa Shrine, so Ranma
quickly poured the hot water he had gotten at the cafe on himself.  The
usual change soon followed.
   "Aaahh!  It's good to be a guy again," Ranma said with a smile.
   True to form, it couldn't last.  Ranma was almost in front of the gate
when a bicyclist whizzed by Ranma and splashed him with the contents of a
puddle left there by the previous rainfall.
   Ranma-chan frowned, disgusted.  "I hate my life," she said in a
depressed voice.
   Akane groaned.  "What are we going to do now?  You used all the hot water!"
   Ranma-chan thought about it for a second.  "Well, you could just go in
the shrine and smuggle out a cup of hot water while I wait outside," she
suggested.
   Akane nodded.  "I guess it's as good a plan as any."  She turned around
and crossed to the gate.  She had not taken three steps inside the gate
before she was confronted with the sight of a party of six girls and a
young man looking for all the world like they were expecting someone.  Her
gaze was momentarily drawn to the shortest of the group.
   Akane stopped dead in her tracks and a sweat drop found its way on to
the back of her head.  "Ano.. am I... interrupting something?"
   Rei suddenly realized they all looked like a bunch of starving vultures
ready to dive on someone.  "Oh, I'm sorry, Akane-san, I was just saying
goodbye to my friends when we heard people near the gates."  Rei looked
around, but didn't see Ranma.  "Isn't Ranma with you?" she asked.
   "He'll... be along shortly," Akane said slowly.  She took a long look at
the group of girls and her eyes widened in recognition when she finally
realized where she had seen them before.  They were the same girls from the
train station!  She also belatedly realized that the young man was the one
who had sat across from them in the train.  *Great!* she thought sourly.
*They're the only ones who really saw the fight at the train station and
they happen to be friends with Rei?*  She felt a small hope flare.  *Maybe
they don't remember me!*
   "Well, don't mind me," Akane said in a falsely cheerful tone.  "I'll
just go inside."
   Akane had barely gotten past the group before Rei spoke again.
   "Akane-san, my friends tell me you and Ranma were involved in a monster
attack at the train station today.  Is this true?" asked the priestess.
   Akane stopped and cursed inwardly.  *Damn!  Looks like we won't be able
to sweep this one under the rug.  Oh well...*  With her back still turned,
she said: "Well, the attack was quickly over, so it didn't seem really
important.  You looked like you had better things to worry about than fret
over a monster attack."
   Rei narrowed her eyes. *She's treating the attack almost as if it were a
walk in the park!  Very strange...*  But before she could ask her next
question...

   Ranma-chan was standing outside the gate.  When she heard Akane being
greeted, she winced.  *It sounds like there are a lot of people there.  I
hope Akane can get the hot water anyway.*  She winced even more when she
heard Rei question Akane.  "I knew we shouldn't have tried to keep the
fight secret," she muttered in a low voice.  She then decided to go bail
out Akane and stepped inside the gates, intent on diverting the attention
away from Akane.  "Hey, Akane, is everything all right?..."  She got no
further when she noticed the stares she was getting.

   Rei was a nanosecond away from asking her next question to Akane when
she noticed a second person walking through the gates.  It took her a few
seconds to realize exactly _who_ had just walked through the gates.  She
blinked, not trusting her eyes.  Slowly, she turned towards the other girls
to see their reactions and realized they were reacting much the same way
she was.
   "Akana?"  Mamoru blurted out incredulously, not believing his eyes.
   The comment was enough to break the staring contest.  Ranma-chan was the
first to snap out of it.  "I'm Akane's _cousin_; my name's Ranko," she
said, startlement replaced by confusion.  "_She's_ Akane," said the
redhead, pointing towards her 'cousin'.
   The shortest girl in the group, shook her head.  "He didn't say 'Akane';
he said 'Akana'."
   "Well, I'm neither Akane or Akana, so you must have the wrong person,"
Ranma-chan said, looking at Mamoru.  Unfortunately, she couldn't stop
herself from staring at Mamoru as well. *He's the guy who was sitting with
us in the train, but ... why does he look so familiar?...*  Suddenly, for a
brief moment, an image, like a long-forgotten memory flashed in her mind in
which the young man in front of her was clad in a black and silver armor.
She was about to put a name to him when the fluttering memory vanished as
fast as it had appeared.  She quickly shook her head.
   No one noticed Akane tiptoeing inside the shrine.  *Might as well get
the hot water while Ranma's distracting them,* she thought.
   "Are you okay, ah... Ranko-san?" asked Mamoru.
   "Yeah, it's just that for a second there, you reminded me of someone,
that's all."
   "Who?" asked Hotaru, with what Ranma-chan detected as a hint of
eagerness in her voice.
   "And just _who_ are... " Ranma-chan trailed off, her eyes widening. She
never finished her statement.  Suddenly, an expression of pure, utter,
undescribable, unadulterated horror appeared on her face.  A powerless
young virgin faced with a legion of horny tentacled demons would not have
looked so horrified.  The girls were already halfway reaching for their
henshin rods when they turned around to look at the gruesome horror whose
sight alone had frozen "Ranko".
   The only things they saw were Artemis and Luna, who had come out of the
shrine.  They were currently imitating the girls, in the way that they were
gawking (as much as a cat can gawk) at Ranma-chan.
   Everyone (minus Ranma-chan) blinked.  They turned back to Ranko, not
understanding what had her so frightened.
   "C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAAAATTTS!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, pointing at the two
cats.
   Everyone blinked once again.  It was the last thing they did before
Ranko took off at supersonic speed through the front gate and down the
street.
   Before they could react to that particular twist of events, Akane came
barrelling down the shrine steps, a water-filled glass in her hands.
"What? Where?!" she said looking left and right.  She then spotted the two
Moon cats and sighed audibly.  "Great, just great..." she muttered.
   Rei looked at Akane, puzzlement painted all over her face.  "Akane, what
just happened here?" asked the bewildered priestess.
   Akane thought about it for a second. *If those cats are pets, Rei might
as well know the truth.  Ranma will forgive me.*  She headed out towards
the gate, intent on catching up with Ranma-chan.  At the last second, she
turned around.  "Ranko had a training accident when she was young and, as a
result, she developed a pathological fear of cats."  She looked pensive for
a second and added: "Ranma doesn't like people to know, but he has the
exact same fear, so if you don't want him to freak out when he gets back,
you might want to take those cats elsewhere."  Without adding another word,
she turned back and ran away after Ranma-chan.
   By the time Rei and the others moved to the gate, Akane was already long
gone.
   Luna and Artemis slowly came back to their senses.  "Excuse me," Artemis
asked in a confused tone, "But can someone tell us what just happened here
and who was that girl who looked so much like Akana?"
   Everyone started speaking at the same time.

   Akane managed to catch up with Ranma-chan a couple of blocks from the
Hikawa shrine.  The pigtailed martial artist was slowly banging her head
against a wall, embarrassment chiseled on her features.  Akane rolled her
eyes and approached the young woman.
   "You won't be able to get rid of your phobia that way, Ranma," she said
with a small smile.
   Ranma-chan stopped pounding her head and looked at Akane.  "It's just so
embarrassing!  Do you even realize how foolish I'll look now?  How am I
going to explain to a group of high school girls, one of them who's my
cousin, why I got freaked by a couple of cats?"
   "I think you're overreacting to all of this, Ranma."
   Ranma-chan looked at her with a flat look. "You're not the one who runs
for the hills each time a cat crosses your path."
   Akane sighed.  "Just before I left to come after you, I told them about
your phobia, Ranma."
   "You did _what_?"
   "Look, Ranma," Akane said, her tone rising, "If those cats happen to be
Rei's pets, she needs to know about your phobia.  Besides, the other girls
would've asked questions anyway, so I told them."
   It was Ranma-chan's turn to sigh.  "What exactly _did_ you tell them?"
   "I told them you and your male form had a training accident when you
were young and as a result, you developed a fear of cats."
   "Why did you tell them I was afraid as a guy, too?" Ranma-chan almost
cried out.
   Akane merely looked at Ranma, not saying a word.
   "Right, right, I guess it couldn't be helped.  They would've found out
soon enough, ne?"  Ranma closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then
opened them up again and looked at the glass of water in Akane's hands.
"Is that hot water?" she asked.
   "It's not boiling, but at least it's warm enough to change you back."
She smiled.  "I guess that was the one good thing about all of this; it
allowed me to get the hot water while everyone was staring at you."  Her
smile faded a little.  "By the way, why *were* they staring at you like
that?  They were acting as if they'd seen a ghost."
   Ranma-chan took the water and poured it over her head.  The now male
martial artist shook his damp head.  "I'm not sure," he said.  He thought
for a couple of seconds.  "Akane, did you notice that the guy who was there
was the same one as on the train?"
   Akane nodded.  "And the other girls were the ones you pushed me towards
at the train station."
   Ranma shook his head slowly. "I told you we shouldn't have tried to hide
the fight."
   Akane opened her mouth to protest, but Ranma forestalled her protests.
"Let me finish first," he said. His wife settled back, looking a bit
unhappy. "Akane, did you notice anything strange about the guy from the
train?  Did he remind you of anyone?" Ranma asked.
   Akane blinked.  "No... not really," she said slowly.  "Why?"
   Ranma looked introspective.  "I can't help feeling I've seen him
somewhere before.  Not like having seen him before in a street or
something, but it's like I remember him from a really long time ago..."
   It was Akane's turn to shake her head.  "Sorry, but he doesn't really
remind me of anyone.  The only one who looks familiar to me is the little
girl with the purple eyes."  Ranma raised an eyebrow questioningly, but
said nothing.
   Ranma and Akane looked at each other for a few seconds then shrugged in
unison.
   "Oh well, we'll sort it out later.  Right now, I suppose we'd better
head back to the shrine and face the welcoming party," concluded Ranma with
a wry smile.
   Akane smiled back and they headed once more towards the Hikawa Shrine,
hand in hand.

   At the shrine, a healthy disussion was under way.  Mamoru, the two Moon
cats and the girls were waiting for the return of Ranma, Akane and Ranko.
Mamoru was still a little shocked at having seen the girl from his dreams -
his long-lost sister - appear out of nowhere and leave just as quickly.
The other girls had just been plain frazzled by the "apparition".  They had
just finished explaining what had happened to Luna and Artemis.
   "So she said she was Akane's cousin?" asked Artemis.
   The girls nodded.  "That's what she said before she ran away," said Hotaru.
   Mamoru suddenly spoke up.  "I need to find her."
   Everyone, especially Usagi, turned towards him.
   "I need to find her," he repeated.  "I'm positive she's the girl from my
dreams and before she took off, she mentioned I looked familiar."
   "Mamoru," Luna said diplomatically.  "You realize this might just be a
freak encounter?"
   Mamoru stared at Luna with what could almost pass as hostility before
calming down.  "Maybe," he said, "but I intend to find out."
   Minako broke the awkward silence that followed, taking the opportunity
to change the subject.  "I still don't really understand why she freaked
out like that when she saw Luna and Artemis," she wondered out loud.  She
turned towards Ami.  "Do you really think a training accident could've done
that, Ami?"
   The resident genius took on a slightly lecturing tone.  "Her case is
very unusual.  I've heard of cases in which a patient who's been
traumatized by an animal develops an irrational fear of that animal
afterwards.  However, I've never heard of a case like hers.  If her fear
*is* due to a training accident, the trauma must have been considerable in
order for her to react like that.  The best thing is to ask her about it
when she comes back."
   "Do you really think Ranma has the same fear as her?  He sure didn't
look afraid when he trashed the daimon at the train station today," said
Usagi.
   Ami shrugged slightly.  "It's possible.  We can ask him when he comes
back.  In the meantime, I suggest Luna and Artemis go hide somewhere before
Ranma comes back, just to be sure."
   The two cats reluctantly went to hide in a couple of bushes.
   "Speak of the devil..." said Makoto.

   Ranma (still male) and Akane walked in the gate and found the girls
sitting on the steps leading to the shrine.  While most of them looked at
him with varying degrees of surprise, Ranma noticed that the young man
looked somewhat disappointed.
   "Ranma, Akane!" said Rei.  "Did you find Ranko?"
   "She bowled me over when she was running away from here," said Ranma.
"She decided to go straight home instead of taking another chance with the
cats."  He then started looking nervously around him.  "You're sure they're
gone?"
   "They're Minako and Usagi's pets," Rei said, indicating the two girls ,
who smiled sheepishly.  "Don't worry, they're gone."  Ranma heaved a sigh
of relief.  Rei almost couldn't believe Ranma's reaction.  "Would you mind
explaining why you and Ranko are so afraid of cats?"
   Ranma looked at the group of girls before him.  "Before I tell you, none
of this goes anywhere, understand?" He waited until everyone had nodded.
Ranma lowered his head and sighed.  "You know about how Pop trained me in
martial arts when I was very young, don't you?"  Rei nodded.  "Well, he
trained Ranko, too.  When I was seven years old, oyaji decided Ranko and I
were old enough to learn a special kind of martial arts...  the Neko-ken."
   Ami made a mental note to look up anything she could find on this style,
while Makoto was shaking her head at the thought of anyone learning special
martial arts techniques at that age.
   Ranma continued.  "The Neko-ken was supposed to be an extremely powerful
style.  To train us in it, Pop wrapped us from head to toe in fish sausage
and dropped us in a pit full of starving cats.  Needless to say, the cats
didn't ask before tearing the food off us."
   Everyone (save Akane) gasped.  "But... that's insane!" blurted out Ami.
"What were you possibly supposed to learn that way?"
   Rei shook her head.  "I can't believe Uncle Genma would do something
like that!"
   Ranma looked hard at her.  "Believe it, Rei!  There aren't a lot of
things my father wouldn't have done to teach me martial arts."
   Usagi interrupted.  "It mustn't have been pleasant for you and Ranko,
but at least it only happened once."
   Ranma slowly turned to look at her.  "Who says he only did it once?"
   Everyone gulped.  Ranma continued.  "When the first time didn't yield
any positive results, he covered us in fish sausage again and tossed us
back in the cat pit.  And again, and again, and again...  Eventually we
snapped and went insane," Ranma said emotionlessly.
   By then, everyone was looking at Ranma with some degree of pity.  Even
Luna and Artemis, hidden in the bushes, winced in sympathy.
   "Still, you look sane enough to me," Minako said in a bright voice.
   *Geez,* thought Usagi.  *And I thought I was the one who was tactless...*
   Before the other girls could tell Minako to shut up, Ranma smiled wryly.
"Fortunately for us, the insanity was only temporary.  An old lady managed
to snap us out of it.  It turns out that we were finally able to use the
legendary Neko-ken, but at the cost of our sanity.  Since that day,
whenever Ranko or I see a cat, we freak out and we can't help it.  It can
become quite dangerous if we're exposed to a cat for any length of time."
   "What does that mean, exactly?" asked Ami.
   "We end up using the Neko-ken.  If that should ever happen, you'd better
pray Akane's nearby or run for your lives, because at that point, Akane is
the only one who can bring us out of it," Ranma said.  *Well, there's also
a very good chance that triggering the curse might do it, but I'm not about
to tell them that.*
   "You can't possibly be _that_ dangerous, can you?" asked Minako with a
small, nervous smile.
   Ranma merely looked at Minako and raised an eyebrow.  "You were at the
train station this afternoon, ne?  _You_ decide how dangerous I could be if
I were several times faster and stronger with no control over what I did."
   While Akane scowled at the mention of the train station incident, Minako
remembered what Ranma had done at there and wisely decided to shut up. Rei,
however, was not so easily deterred.
   "Ranma, would you mind explaining how you trashed a monster at the train
station?" asked the young priestess.
   "Why is this so important to you, Rei?" asked Ranma.
   Rei was only stumped for a second.  "Because you could've been hurt!"
she decided.  She couldn't very well tell him she had a more...
professional interest in the matter, now, could she?
   Ranma snorted.  "Rei, I've been training in martial arts since the day I
could stand up without falling. I've faced a lot worse than that monster,
trust me."  Ranma stopped when he saw Akane's expression turning red.
   *Stupid macho bravado,* Rei thought.  "Well next time, leave it to the
Sailor Senshi, okay?  They're better equipped than you are to face these
monsters."
   "You mean they're actually real?  Anyway, people could have been hurt by
that monster and I didn't see those Sailor Senshi anywhere, so I took care
of it.  Don't worry about me, Rei.  I can take care of myself."
   "What about the energy blast?  I'm quite curious as to how you did
that." asked Ami.
   Ranma decided he had enough.  "That was a chi-blast," he said. "Now, If
you'll excuse me, Akane and I need to get some sleep if we're going to wake
up early for registration tomorrow."  Akane and Ranma got up and went
inside the shrine.
   *He can manipulate his chi?* thought Rei, incredulously.
   "Wait!" yelled Mamoru.  Ranma and Akane stopped.  "I'd like to speak to
Ranko again soon, if possible."
   Ranma frowned almost imperceptibly.  "Why?" he asked.
   "She reminds me of... someone.  I'd just like to talk to her, that's all."
   Ranma thought about it for a couple of seconds.  *Mmmhh, if I let him
meet 'Ranko', I might be able to find out why he looks so familiar,* he
thought.  "I'll let her know," he said out loud.
   "Arigato," said Mamoru.
   Akane was nearly inside the shrine when she turned around.  "Excuse me,
but what's your name?" she asked Hotaru.
   Hotaru's eyes widened slightly.  "My name's Hotaru Tomoe, Akane-san,"
she said.
   Akane narrowed her eyes slightly, examining Hotaru.  "Have you ever been
in the Nerima area, Hotaru?"
   Hotaru blinked.  "I don't think so, why?"
   Akane shook her head.  "It's nothing, I guess.  It's just that... I
thought I'd seen you somewhere before, that's all," she said ruefuelly.
   She turned back around and went inside with Ranma before she could see
Hotaru staring at her, eyes wide open.  *She remembers?...*
   Just then, a yellow sportscar came close to the gate and stopped to
reveal Haruka.  "Hotaru!  It's time to go back home," she called out.  She
blinked when she noticed everyone's expressions, from Rei's puzzlement, to
Mamoru's slightly anguished expression.  Hotaru's features were in the
process of acquiring a nervous twitch.  "What happened here?" she asked.
"Hotaru-chan, are you all right?"
   Hotaru snapped out of the daze she was in.  Barely.  "I'll tell you all
about it on the way home, Haruka-papa," she said numbly.
   Haruka, seeing as she wasn't going to have any answers from the Inner
Senshi, who seemed to be ignoring her for some reason, shrugged and got
back into the car with Hotaru.  "Michiru and I had an interesting evening
too," she said.  "I'll tell you about it on the way."
   Just before she closed the door, Haruka heard Minako and Usagi scream in
unison:  "LOOK AT THE TIME!  MY PARENTS ARE GONNA KILL ME!".  Haruka shook
her head and closed the door.
   *Some things just _never_ change...* thought Haruka.


Author's notes

   "Henshin rods" are more commonly known in fanfics as "transformation pens".


End Chapter 6


Chapter 7

   Haruka was driving back at a comfortable speed (at least for her) to the
apartment she and Michiru shared with Hotaru and Setsuna.  Watching out of
the corner of her eye, she noticed Hotaru had been strangely silent since
she'd picked her up at Rei's temple.
   "Is there something wrong, Hotaru-chan?" she asked.
   The question seemed to shake Hotaru out of whatever daze she was in.
"Haruka-papa, I... I think I might have found my brother," she said
hesitantly.
   Haruka blinked.  "Your... brother?" she asked slowly.  "Hotaru-chan, you
don't _have_ a brother!"
   "Not in _this_ life, but I had a brother in the days of the Silver
Millennium."
   Haruka blinked again and tried to keep her eyes on the road.
"Hotaru-chan, would you mind explaining this to me a little more?"
   Hotaru let out a small sigh.  "Well, it all started when we went to
greet Mamoru at the train station..."

   While Haruka and Hotaru were heading back, Michiru decided to try and
find out a little more about the mysterious redhead from the restaurant.
Pulling out the Aqua Mirror from its subspace pocket, she concentrated on
Ranma-chan's image.  Mere seconds later, Ranma-chan appeared in the Mirror.
   _Then_ things started to get strange.
   Ranma-chan's image started to waver and was suddenly replaced by
Ranma's.  Michiru became puzzled, as she had never met Ranma before.
   *Who is he?* Michiru wondered.  *And what is his connection to Ranko,
aside from the fact that he looks very much like her, that is.*
   All of a sudden the image switched back to Ranma-chan, but this time, a
smiling Mamoru appeared behind Ranma-chan, a hand on her right shoulder.
Michiru became even more perplexed.
   "Mamoru-san?..." she wondered out loud.  A memory started gnawing at her
from the back of her mind.  Something about Ranko and Mamoru...  No, not
Ranko... Akana?
   Before Michiru could ponder this new development further, Mamoru's image
disappeared from the Mirror and Ranma-chan was suddenly back-to-back with
Ranma.  Two seconds later, the image slowly disappeared.
   Michiru was surprised.  *Something's interfering with the Mirror?*  She
waited for a few seconds, but all the Mirror gave her was the image of a
valley filled with springs that had bamboo poles sticking out of them.  She
sighed and looked up.  It seemed it wasn't going to be as easy as she had
thought.  Michiru then closed her eyes for a second.
   If she hadn't, she might have seen the Mirror flickering for a fraction
of a second, showing a red-headed girl in Senshi garb...

   Haruka and Hotaru had finally arrived at their apartment.  They got out
of the car, Hotaru still talking about what had transpired earlier today.
   "... we were expecting Ranma, but instead, this girl called Ranko
arrived with Akane."
   Haruka looked up sharply at the name.  "Did you say Ranko?" she asked.
   Hotaru seemed a bit surprised by Haruka's sudden interest.  She wanted
to tell Haruka about Akane, not Ranko.  "Uh... yes, why?"
   "Did she happen to have red hair?" pressed Haruka.
   Hotaru's eyes widened.  "How did you know?"
   Haruka's eyes narrowed in response.  "If she's who I think she is,
Michiru and I met her in a small cafe this evening."  She paused.  "She has
some... interesting talents."
   "Well, Ranma trashed a daimon at the train station and he *did* say that
they had both trained together, so it makes sense, doesn't it?" said Hotaru.
   Haruka gave a slight smile.  "I'm going to want to meet this Ranma,
someday."
   They entered the apartment, only to find Michiru sitting on a couch,
looking pensive.
   Haruka immediately noticed this.  "Michiru, is there something wrong?"
she asked in a slightly concerned voice.
   Michiru looked up to Haruka.  "The Mirror won't give me a straight
answer, Haruka," she said in a puzzled tone of voice.
   Hotaru blinked.  "What are you using the Mirror for?"
   "We're investigating someone we met in a cafe earlier this evening,"
said Michiru.  "A girl who calls herself Ranko."
   "You're using the Mirror to probe Ranko-san?" asked Hotaru.
   It was Michiru's turn to blink.  "Hotaru-chan, you know this 'Ranko'?"
   "We met her today at the Hikawa Shrine, but only for a short while."
   "What was she doing there?"
   "Well, she came back with Akane-san and Mamoru thinks she's..."
   "Akane?  As in Saotome Akane?" interrupted Michiru.
   "Yeah!  She's Ranma-san's wife."  Hotaru saw Michiru about to ask the
inevitable next question. "Before you ask, Ranma-san is Rei's cousin," she
added, stopping Michiru in her tracks.
   Haruka was watching all the byplay with increasing annoyance.  "Time
out!" she said, sounding exasperated.
   Michiru raised an eyebrow and Hotaru looked at her with a questioning
look.
   Haruka blushed faintly.  "Sorry, Michiru, but maybe you should hear
Hotaru's story completely before starting with the questions.  She knows
more about the situation than we do."
   Michiru cracked a smile. "I forgive you," she said sweetly.  She turned
to Hotaru. "Maybe you'll be able to explain what I saw in the Mirror."
   "So you *did* see something," stated Haruka.
   Michiru nodded to Haruka and Hotaru started repeating the events of the
day for the second time.  She was eager to tell them about Akana.

***

   Back at the Hikawa Shrine, Ami, Makoto, Mamoru and the cats had left
shortly after Usagi and Minako's sudden departure.  They had promised each
other to look a little more into Ranma's situation later, since Ranma
didn't look too inclined to undergo a questioning session.  Ranma and Akane
were getting ready to go to sleep when Rei knocked on their door.  Ranma
opened the door and saw Rei standing there with a thoughtful expression.
   "Is there a problem, Rei?" he asked.
   Rei gave herself a small mental shake.  "I just want to ask you one
question before you go to bed, Ranma."
   Ranma almost raised an eyebrow, but shrugged instead.  "Shoot," he said.
   Rei's left eyebrow twitched and she smiled a little.  "Odd choice of
words, Ranma," she said.
   Ranma gave her a questioning glance.
   "You said you used a chi-blast against a monster at the train station,
right?"
   Ranma sighed and nodded.
   "How exactly did you do that?"
   Ranma said nothing and raised his right hand so that his palm faced
upwards.  He concentrated and a baseball-size sphere of blue-white chi
formed in Ranma's hand.  "Like this, only much bigger," he said simply.  He
then noticed Rei was gawking.
   Rei couldn't believe what she was seeing.  She had heard legends that
the best martial arts masters could use their chi to do what Ranma was
doing with apparently little effort.  Rei herself was no stranger to chi.
In fact, she knew she used her chi when she did fire readings, but when she
thought about the necessary skill to produce a chi-*blast*... If Ranma
could summon a chi sphere so easily, it meant he had an extremely powerful
spiritual strength.
   Rei noticed Ranma's expression and realized she was gawking.  Chiding
herself mentally, she quickly regained her composure and she looked at
Ranma.  "May I?" she asked, pointing to the glowing ball.
   Ranma blinked.  "Ehh... sure..." he trailed off.  He didn't exactly know
what Rei was planning to do, but he got ready to dissipate the chi-sphere
at a moment's notice.
   Rei put her right hand approximately an inch above the chi-sphere and
closed her eyes.  Her spiritual training allowed her to easily feel the
power of the sphere and through the sphere, Ranma's aura.
   She fought back a shudder.
   Rei was shocked to realize that Ranma was not straining very much in
maintaining the sphere. *How can he possibly manipulate his chi so easily?
He formed that sphere as easily as Sailor Jupiter does her Sparkling Wide
Pressure attack.*  Now she understood why he'd seemed so unconcerned about
the attack at the train station.  "Incredible..." she whispered.
   Ranma nearly blushed at Rei's compliment and dissipated the chi-sphere.
   Feeling the sphere disappear, Rei took a deep breath and opened her
eyes.  She needed to think about this. "I'm very impressed, Ranma," she
said honestly.  "I'll look forward to seeing what else you can do."  With
that, she gave a small bow and left before Ranma could say anything.  Ranma
might be a bit arrogant, but she knew talent when she saw it and she
respected talent.
   Ranma looked at his hand and shrugged faintly.  *Oh well...*
   Akane, who had watched and heard the scene between the two cousins,
approached Ranma.  "I hope she won't go babbling that all away."
   "What if she does?" asked Ranma.
   His wife sighed and took a deep breath.  "Ranma, each time you show off
your abilities, someone hears about it, comes around, challenges you and
usually makes a mess out of our lives.  We're married, Ranma.  There aren't
any other suitors; Mousse, Shampoo and Cologne are back in China and we
haven't heard anything about Happosai since the first wedding attempt.  Why
can't you leave it at that?"  There was a noticeable tone of pleading in
the last sentence.
   Ranma's features softened.  "All right, Akane.  I promise I'll try not
to do anything that could deliberately attract unwanted attention.  "_But_,
if some monster shows up and tries to kill me like this afternoon, I make
no promises."
   Akane sighed and smiled wearily.  "I guess it's the best I can expect
from you, ne?"  She turned around and looked the two futons, which were
about two feet apart.  She looked back at Ranma and raised an eyebrow.
   Ranma grinned.  "How about a compromise..." he started.

***

   Back at the apartment, Hotaru had just been put to bed, but Haruka and
Michiru were deep in thought, digesting what Hotaru had told them and
correlating it with what they knew.
   "Do you think Ranko _is_ Mamoru's reincarnated sister?" asked Haruka
after a while.
   "I think she might very well be.  You heard Hotaru-chan describe
Mamoru-san's reaction.  She told us that he said he's been having dreams
about his sister and then this person who looks exactly like her shows up.
Not only that, but whoever Ranko really is, she also has a very close link
to Ranma."
   "You couldn't tell anything more from the Mirror?" asked Haruka.
   "I'm afraid not," said Michiru.  She had tried to summon more images of
Ranko and the young man, but all she could get were bare glimpses.
Something was interfering with the Mirror.  Whatever it was, it had to be
very strong to counteract the Mirror and it centered only around Ranko and
the young man.  Michiru had then had an idea.  She managed to do a decent
sketch of the face of the young man she had seen in the Mirror (not an
extremely hard feat for her).  Hotaru had wasted no time in recognizing
Ranma.  This had put a new spin on the puzzle that represented Ranko and
Ranma.
   "I still don't know what to make of Akane, though," said Haruka.
"Hotaru seems *very* convinced she's her reincarnated brother."
   Michiru sighed.  She remembered her quick conversation with Akane at the
cafe.  "Well at least she seems like a nice enough person.  Time will tell,
I guess.  I just hope Hotaru won't accidentally say something important to
Akane."
   "Hotaru has good judgment," said Haruka confidently.  "Speaking of time,
did you hear anything about Setsuna?"
   "Not as of yet, I'm afraid, but then, Setsuna often does things like
this, so I guess we should be used to it by now," Michiru said.
   "Oh well, I guess we should at least tell Mamoru about Ranko, ne?" asked
Haruka.
   "We can tell him tomorrow.  Right now, I just want to go to sleep," said
Michiru with a yawn.
   Haruka grinned.  She scooped Michiru in her arms and took her into their
bedroom.

***

   That night, Ranma and Akane had interesting, if disturbing, dreams.
   Ranma's dreams were plagued by the mysterious girl from the previous
nights.  He was standing on a dreamscape, the girl in front of him.  Ranma
was growing increasingly annoyed with this dream, for no matter how close
he came to her face, he couldn't make out her features.  Annoyed, he turned
back, only to be faced with a young man in black and silver armor, his face
shaded as well.  Ranma looked on, puzzled, as the girl and the young man
walked towards one another.  When they finally got within arms reach, the
girl jumped up and hugged the young man.
   Tired of being ignored (he somehow knew that he was in the middle of a
dream), Ranma walked up to the couple.  "Hey!  Who _are_ you people
anyway?!"
   Both figures suddenly turned and, while the image of the young man's
face barely cleared enough to allow a general outline of his facial traits,
the young woman's face cleared more than was necessary for Ranma to
recognize it.  Then, a symbol flared on each of their foreheads, blinding
him.
   Ranma woke up immediately.  The face of the girl he had just seen...  He
knew it very well.  After all, he'd seen it in mirrors more times than he
had ever wished.  It was the face of his female side.
  *What the hell was that???* he wondered.  *That girl was my female side?
Ugh!  I hope I'm not having fantasies about my female side.  If I am, Akane
was right all along.  Maybe I _am_ a pervert.*  He shook his head.  *And
who the hell is the other guy and why is he so familiar?*
   Shaking his head a little, he turned his head towards Akane, who still
seemed to be fast asleep.  Before going to sleep, Ranma had suggested a
compromise in sleeping arrangements: they put the two futons together, but
agreed not to do anything else until they were in their own apartment.
Ranma looked at Akane with a slightly troubled expression.  *I hope she's
not having dreams that are as weird as mine.*  He turned slightly to peer
at the small alarm clock they had brought with them and happily noticed
that he could still sleep for a few hours.  Falling back onto his futon,
Ranma tried to clear his mind as much as possible before trying to fall
back asleep.

  Unfortunately, Akane she was having an equally strange dream of her own.
She found herself standing in front of the girl she had seen in a previous
dream.  This time, the girl, whose features were slightly blurred, was
wearing an Silver Millennium-era dress (*How did I know that?* she briefly
wondered) and now seemed to be staring straight at Akane.  Suddenly, the
girl smiled (though it was a bit hard to make out with the blurred
features) and walked towards Akane, who could now make out some kind of
glowing symbol on the girl's forehead, almost like a stylized "h".
   Suddenly, it was as if a figure who had been standing in Akane's
position had decided to move forward.  Startled, Akane took a step
backwards and looked at the figure who had quite literally stepped out of
her.  Although she could only see him from behind at the moment, she could
tell he was approximately her height and he had a build that spoke of years
of hard work.  He was wearing an odd armor and cape, almost like some
guard's, mused Akane.  He also had a mean-looking war hammer strapped to
the belt of his uniform.
   When the girl and the young man were approximately six feet away from
each other, they ran forward and hugged one another.
   It was then that Akane distractedly noticed she was holding her own
hammer, which she couldn't remember summoning.  She was spared further
puzzling about her hammer when the young man turned towards her and took
exactly the same stance as Akane, his own hammer in hand.  Akane got her
first good look at the young man and started.  Except for the obvious
musculature, the braided hair and hardened face, the young man looked a lot
like her.
   "Who are you?" she asked.  She absently noticed that there was no echo
to her voice.
   The young man had exactly the same stance and expression as Akane, but
did not move.
   "Hey!  I asked you a question!" she asked, becoming annoyed.  "Who are
you!?"
   This time, while the young man was still mimicking Akane's facial
expression, he raised his right arm and pointed to Akane.
   "You," he said, and Akane woke up.
   Disoriented, she noticed that Ranma was sleeping beside her.  *Geez,
that was a weird dream for sure...*, she thought.  Unlike Ranma, though,
she didn't give it any more thought and quickly went back to sleep.

***

   Meanwhile, Mamoru and Hotaru were having dreams of their own.
   Mamoru was dreaming of Akana again.  It was exactly like his previous
dreams, although he could now see Akana's image clearly and he now knew she
was his sister.  He remembered bits and pieces of his life on Earth, how he
used to practice with his sister, meeting young Serenity...
   Unlike Akane and Ranma, Mamoru didn't wake up.

   Hotaru dreamt about her previous life in the Silver Millenium, how she
used to play with her brother around the palace until the fateful day when
Saturn marked her as its avatar.  She remembered how people she knew shied
away from her, because of who she was, because of what she represented.
   But above all, she remembered her brother, who had always found time to
speak with her, to listen to her plights and comfort her until the day he
disappeared without a trace.  She remembered coming to Saturn after
Metallia's attack only to find the Royal Palace destroyed, the forge where
her brother used to spend so much time nothing but a stack of ashes.
   While the dream itself wasn't enough to awaken Hotaru, her cheeks were
wet from tears of mourning and despair.

   The next morning, Ranma awoke to the irritating sound of a portable
alarm clock, dreams of the previous night forgotten.  Ranma was vaguely
surprised that the small device had actually managed to wake him up, but he
chalked it up to the fact that he knew that he had too much of an important
day ahead of him to let himself sleep through it.
   Nudging Akane, he whispered in her ear: "Wake up, otemba-chan."
   The taunt had the desired effect.  Akane opened one eye and looked at
Ranma.  "What did you call me?" she said in a flat voice that was partly
muffled by the pillow that had taken residence in front of her mouth.
   "Otemba-chan," he repeated with a grin.
   Akane's only visible eyebrow twitched.  *Two can play at that game,* she
thought.  "That's what I thought I heard, baka-kun."
   Ranma decided to take the bait.  This might be fun.  "Well, are you
getting up today or tomorrow, baka-sempai?" he teased.
   Akane got up and looked at Ranma with a radiant smile.  *Getting
creative, are you?  You won't beat me that easily, Ranma,* she thought
amusedly.  "You must have confused me with Tatewaki, baka-sama," she said,
not losing her smile for a second.
  Ranma went red for a second, silently acknowledging Akane's hit.  *And
she fights back!  But can she beat _this_?* thought Ranma.  "Well, why
don't you get ready for our morning practice, baka-megami-sama?"
   Akane briefly considered hitting him through the roof, but decided it
would be impolite since they were guests in Rei's temple.  Besides, they
had just gotten married.  She still felt way too good to justify a pounding
this early in the morning.  She settled by sniffing at him and looking the
other way.  "Baka-megami-sama, eh?  No fun for you tonight, mister!"
   Ranma's eyes opened wide.  Akane had her back turned to him and had a
wide grin plastered on her face.  She listened to Ranma apologizing to her
for the two following minutes before she turned around and planted a kiss
on Ranma's lips before he could wonder what was going on.
   When Akane stopped kissing him, Ranma decided that she was the one who
had won after all.

   A few minutes later, Ranma and Akane were standing face-to-face in the
temple's yard, Akane clad in her traditional gi and Ranma wearing his
everyday black pants and red shirt.
   "Remember your promise, Ranma!  I want this to be real practice!" said
Akane.
   Ranma waved her off.  "Yeah, yeah, yeah!  Let's see what you can do, then."
   Akane smiled and rushed Ranma.  *I _have_ learned a few things from
you...* she thought.
   Rei had gotten up some time ago and was preparing a ritual in front of
the fire when she heard fighting sounds coming from the yard.  She nearly
used her henshin rod out of reflex when she remembered that Ranma and Akane
had said that they'd be practicing in the yard.  She glanced at a clock to
confirm the time and was surprised to see that it was unusually early for
martial art practice.  Remembering the previous day's conversations about
Ranma's skill, she headed outside.
   She was greeted by what shouldn't have been an unusual sight, but was.
She expected to see Ranma and Akane sparring the way Makoto did sometimes,
but she was instead treated to what could easily have passed as an
acrobatics show.  Akane was a whirlwind of punches and kicks while Ranma
was practically dancing around the blows.
   Akane was concentrating.  So far, Ranma had been behaving exactly as she
had thought he would.  Namely, he'd only been dodging her blows and hadn't
attacked.  Time to let him see how unpredictable she had become.  As she
completed a series of punches, instead of simply throwing a last punch, she
retrieved her mallet from its resting place and swung it at full speed
toward Ranma's face.
   Meanwhile Ranma was becoming impressed with Akane.  *She _has_ been
practicing!  She's a lot better than the last time I sparred with her!*
Guiltily, he realized that he was to blame for that, for he had not tried
to initiate any kind of sparring session with her lately.  Busy with his
thoughts, Ranma hadn't realized that he had kept standing about an inch
away from her strikes, not bothering to dodge to the side.  That might be
why he didn't move in time when Akane's hammer suddenly made contact with
his face.
   Rei watched in shock as Ranma was clocked with a hammer Akane had gotten
out of seemingly nowhere.  Ranma, stunned, was thrown back several feet and
Akane wasted no time in continuing her offensive, minus hammer this time.
   At the very least, Akane's hammer strike _had_ managed to shake Ranma
out of his stupor, if only to daze him again.  Ranma had to parry the next
two blows (he couldn't dodge too well) when he saw Akane wearing a wide
grin while punching him.
   "Come on, Ranma!  Fight me!" shouted Akane.
   Ranma smirked and Akane quickly found herself moving on the defensive.
Ranma was pleasantly surprised to see that Akane's defense had improved
dramatically over the two years he had known her.  Of course, even without
the speed granted by the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken technique, he could
still overwhelm her, but then, there were very few people against whom such
a move wouldn't be overkill.
   Rei watched as Akane managed to slip a few attacks now and then, but
still found herself staying mainly on the defensive.  Rei then realized
that Ranma had received a hammer strike (*_Where_ did she get that
hammer?*) that would have felled most people but had barely fazed him.  She
also realized that Makoto, whom she considered to be a good martial artist,
probably wouldn't stand a chance against Ranma and would probably meet more
than her match with Akane, who appeared to be an excellent martial artist
in her own right, despite being forced on the defensive by Ranma's
relentless attacks.
   Rei, becoming very curious, decided to ask them a few questions.
"Break!" she said.  Ranma and Akane both blinked at the unexpected command
and turned around to see Rei in her priestess robes looking at them.
   "Is there a problem, Rei?" asked Ranma.
   "Well, not exactly," said Rei.  "I just wanted to know what kind of
fighting style that was.  I don't think I've ever seen two people fighting
like that."
   "That was the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu.  I'm not surprised you didn't
recognize it.  There aren't a lot of practitioners of that style around,"
said Ranma, grinning.
   "It looked like several other styles mixed together."
   "It kinda is; practitioners of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu must always be
able to adapt to any fighting style."
   Rei had a wry smile.  "You mean like getting slugged by a hammer?"
   Akane smirked and Ranma rubbed his cheek, where an imprint of the hammer
was still evident.  "Yeah... kind of, I guess."  He turned to Akane.  "What
was the big deal with the hammer, anyway?  You've never used it in practice
matches before."
   Akane looked smug.  "You just said that practitioners of the Musabetsu
Kakuto Ryuu must be ready to adapt to anything.  A great martial arts
master like yourself should have seen it coming a mile away, especially
after all the times you fought with Mousse.  Consider it a punishment for
not taking me seriously at the beginning."
   "Mousse?" Rei said incredulously.  "You fought against hair care products?"
   "Not a hair care product; a Chinese Hidden Weapons expert.  Reeeaaallly
long story, Rei, trust me," said Ranma quickly.  He changed the subject.
"Thanks for stopping us anyway, Rei.  We really ought to have breakfast now
if we want to get to registration early today."
   *Oh well,* thought Rei.  *I can always wait a little longer before
asking him more questions.*  She motioned towards the temple.  "Help
yourselves in the kitchen.  I still have a few things to do."
   "Thanks, Rei," said Ranma.
    Akane's eyes lit up.  "Do you want me to fix something up for you, Ranma?"
   Rei watched, puzzled, as Ranma became distinctly uncomfortable before
her eyes.
   "Err... Akane, I don't think that'll be necessary," said Ranma, trying
to prevent another poisoning session.  Akane's temper might have mellowed
out in recent months, but her cooking still left much to be desired.
   Akane's smiled faded a little.  "Why not?  I wanted to cook breakfast!"
   Ranma thought fast.  She wasn't angry yet; he could still salvage this.
"Aahh.. Look at yourself, Akane!  You're all sweaty!  You need to take a
bath before we go to the university.  I'll cook us up something while you
go take your bath."
   "Oh, all right, then," replied Akane, not pursuing the subject.
   *Domo arigatou Kami-sama!  She didn't object!* A part of his mind idly
noticed that instead of proclaiming that she would make his breakfast,
she'd asked him about it first.  How odd...
    Ranma waited until Akane turned around and went inside the shrine
before releasing a deep sigh of relief.
   "Is there something I should know, Ranma?" asked Rei, coming up behind him.
   He turned around.  "Rei, whatever you do, you shouldn't *ever* let Akane
cook a meal for you or for anyone you care for."
   "Ranma, I may not know her like you do, but you sound a bit too harsh
about her cooking abilities."
   "Rei, you don't understand!  She _very_ rarely happens to cook edible
stuff, except maybe curry at best.  Ask her family!"  Rei had to strain a
little to hear, but she heard Ranma grumble: "I could swear some of her
meals came alive once..."
   Rei gave Ranma "Do-You-Really-Expect-Me-To-Believe-That?" look.  "Ranma,
stop exaggerating!  She's your wife for Kami-sama's sake!  Don't you feel
ashamed saying things like that about her?"
   Ranma shook his head.  "Not when it doesn't change the fact that she
can't cook. Her cooking isn't quite so bad anymore, but that's only because
I'm the one she usually feeds it to. She might have gotten better, or maybe
I'm just slowly becoming immune to it.  You'll just have to trust me on
this one, Rei."
   Rei shook her head at Ranma's somewhat passionate speech and went back
inside the shrine, followed by Ranma.
   "So when are you leaving for your registration at Mizuharo University?"
she asked when they were back inside.
   "As soon as we've finished eating," replied Ranma.  "Akane and I don't
want to be stuck waiting in line for hours to get our courses."
   "I never got around to asking you this, but what *are* you going to study?"
   "Well, I'm going to study physical education to become a certified
sensei since I'm the heir to the family's dojo and Akane chose to study
acting, though Nabiki and I keep telling her she'd be far more skilled at
chemistry."
   "Why chemistry and who's Nabiki?"
   "Remember what I said about her cooking?"  Ranma ignored Rei's eyebrow
twitch.  "As for Nabiki... she's one of Akane's sisters and a first rank
extortionist.  Don't ever make a deal with her; your life will be much
easier that way, trust me."
   Rei raised another eyebrow.  "Is she *really* that bad?"
   Ranma looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Nah... She's usually much worse."
   Rei looked at him with a strange expression, which bordered disbelief.
*What kind of life does he lead anyway?*  Suddenly, she remembered
something.  "Oh, Ranma, before I forget, my grandfather and Yuuichiro may
come back today, so don't be surprised if you see them.  I'll leave them a
note to tell them you're here."
   "No problem," said Ranma.

   Barely half an hour later, Ranma and Akane had left the Hikawa Shrine
and were on their way to Mizuharo University.  A few minutes after their
departure, Ami and Makoto stopped by the Shrine to check up on things with
Rei before she left for her own school.
   "So, learn anything new, Rei-chan?" asked Makoto.
   Rei sighed.  "Lots of things.  I'll tell you all about it this
afternoon."  She looked at Ami, then Makoto.  "Wait a minute, if you're
both here, then who's going to pick up Usagi at her house?"
   "Minako said she'd take care of it today," said Ami.
   Rei looked uncertain for a moment, then shrugged.
   Minako Aino and Usagi Tsukino earned detention for being late to class
that day.

***

   Ranma and Akane made it early enough to be among the first in line to
get their courses.
   "I still say you should've taken a chemistry course instead of acting,
Akane," said Ranma distractedly, looking at his schedule.
   Akane felt a little grumpy. She still didn't like it when Ranma and
Nabiki said she'd be good at chemistry.  The last time she'd cooked, Nabiki
had told her something about being able to sell her discoveries to the
army's chemical warfare division for a hefty sum.  She had come to grips a
few months ago that her cooking was not quite equal to Kasumi's when she
had accidentally tasted a very special dish she had made just for Ranma and
had spent the rest of the day sick as a result.  Since that day, she had
considerably mellowed when Ranma made jabs about her cooking, since she
knew how painful it could sometimes be.  Of course, Ranma had never known
that she had accidentally eaten her own cooking (she had told him she had
the flu), so her pride was still somewhat intact.
   "Ranma," she said, her voice without conviction, "Don't make me hurt
you.  The day's started out too fine for that."
   Ranma blinked.  He had been recently starting to learn just how far he
could push Akane without triggering her "hammer-happy" temper, but he'd
been surprised at the number of times Akane had left jabs about her cooking
abilities unchallenged.  He wondered why.  "Ano... So what do we do now?"
he asked.
   "Well, there's the welcoming ceremony soon and afterwards, we're free to
wander around," said Akane.  "I'm going to take a look around to see if
there are any interesting clubs to join."  *Maybe there's a cooking club I
could join to try and get better.*
   Ranma smirked.  He'd have to check out the sports clubs (not that he
needed, nor really wanted, to join one, but still...)
   True to form, Ranma found it hard to stay completely awake and conscious
during the dean's welcoming speech and was more than grateful when he got a
chance to stretch his legs again.  Ranma and Akane had lunch together and
decided that they would meet up later for dinner at Rei's shrine when they
would meet up later for dinner at Rei's shrine when they had both finished
exploring the university's faculties.  After all, it made sense that they
would cover much more ground that way.

  It was late afternoon.  Ranma had visited a couple of clubs and was
walking along one of the dorm buildings when he suddenly received a bucket
full of water on the head.  Ranma-chan cursed under her breath and hoped no
one had seen her change.  Almost snarling, she took off the bucket from
atop her head and looked for the origin of the wayward container.  She
quickly found out as two girls leaned out of a window two floors above her.
   "Oh geez, I'm sorry!" one of them yelled.  "We were cleaning up inside
when the bucket fell out of our window.  Are you hurt?"
   *Only my pride...* thought Ranma-chan darkly.  "No, I guess I'm all
right," she yelled back and quickly tossed them the now empty-bucket back.
After heaving a sigh of relief when she made sure no one had noticed her
change, she quickly wrung her hair out and headed towards a bathroom to dry
herself up and get some hot water.
   She was nearing a public stall when she heard a familiar voice behind
her.  "Ranko-san?  Is that you?"
   Ranma-chan turned around and found herself face to face with the young
man who'd been at the temple the day before.   She decided to play it safe.
"Who are you?" she asked.
   "Oh, I'm sorry.  My name is Mamoru Chiba.  I was at the Hikawa Shrine
yesterday when you came by with Akane-san.  You left... uhm... rather
quickly," he finished, a bit unsure of what to say about Ranko's abrupt
departure.
   Ranma-chan turned a little red at the memory.  "Ah, yes... well, sorry
about that," she mumbled.  She pretended to look a bit surprised.  "Say,
Ranma told me yesterday that you wanted to speak to me.  Is this true?"
   Mamoru looked relieved.  "Yes, there are some things I'd like to talk to
you about."
   "Such as?" she prodded.  She didn't want to let him know just yet that
_she_ wanted to ask _him_ a few things too.
   Mamoru looked at the people around them.  "Well, it's a bit personal..."
   Ranma-chan nodded.  "All right.  Could you at least let me dry myself
off first?"
   Mamoru seemed to notice for the first time that she was somewhat damp.
"What happened?"
   "Just a small accident," she replied, waving her hand dismissively.
*And maybe a fortunate one for once,* she added, mentally.

   Over at Juuban High, classes had ended and Makoto and Ami were waiting
for Minako and Usagi to come out of the detention they had been inflicted
with this morning.
   "I still don't understand why you agreed to let Minako wake Usagi up,"
said Makoto, shaking her head in disappointment.
   "I spoke to Minako at lunchtime and she blamed it on the fact that
Artemis didn't wake her this morning," said Ami.
   "Doesn't the girl have an alarm clock?" said Makoto, shaking her head.
   "It wouldn't make a difference if she's as sound a sleeper as Usagi."
   "Why those two rely more on their cats than on alarm clocks to wake them
up is beyond me."  Makoto looked around impatiently.  "How much time before
Minako and Usagi finish their detentions?" she asked.
   "It should be any time, now," said Ami, glancing at her watch.
   Suddenly, they both heard shouts and screams coming from inside the
school.  They went inside to check what the problem was and watched as
several girls coming out of the locker room, shrieking.  Makoto grabbed one
as she was passing by, a distressed look on her face.
   "Hey, what's going on?" she asked.
   "There's a shrivelled monster stealing underwear and groping us in
there," the girl said shakily, pointing towards the locker room.
   Makoto let the girl go and looked at Ami.  "Is it another youma?" she
asked Ami in a low voice.
   Ami shook her head.  "I can't tell from here."  She looked puzzled for a
moment.  "Why would a youma steal underwear anyway?" she asked rhetorically.
   "Why ask me?" said Makoto.  "I don't..."
   "Hotcha!  SWEETO!"
   Makoto didn't have the chance to finish her sentence as something
rocketed out of the locker room and latched itself onto her chest.  She
looked down and saw a small _something_ happily squeezing away.
   "Whoa!  I never thought there'd be someone as well-built you here,
sweetie!  Why don't you and I elope for a few nights of wild passion?" the
creature suggested.
   Makoto went from Peaceful to Confused to Murderous Rage in the blink of
an eye.  She tried to hit the thing on her chest (*How _dare_ it even think
about eloping!?*), but it proved to be faster than her fists.  However,
Makoto's failed attempt seemed to have the desired effect, as the creature
dropped to the floor, landing on its feet, in front of her.
   She finally got her first good look at it and was a bit surprised to see
that the thing (or youma, whichever), was in fact a small, shrunken old man
with barely a few tufts of hair on his head.  It also had a very lecherous
smile on its face and was covered with various pieces of women's underwear.
   "You PERVERT!" Makoto screamed and tried several times to kick Happosai
into next week, without much success.
   The old man was nimbly dodging all of Makoto's kicks.  "And you look
like you know martial arts, too?" he said.  "This place is even better than
Nerima!"
   Suddenly, several girls came out of the locker room, murder in their
eyes and carrying various implements, such as purses, chairs, hockey sticks
and the occasional mallet.  Happosai decided a tactical withdrawal was in
order for the moment.  He glomped a stunned Ami for a quick charge and left
down the corridor.
   "I'm gonna KILL that thing!" roared Makoto.  She was about to run after
the little hentai from hell when she noticed that Ami was standing as stiff
as a stone.  Anger died down for a few moments.  "Hey, Ami!  Are you all
right?" she asked, concerned.
   Ami blinked, expressionless.  "You want to kill that thing?" she asked
Makoto in a flat voice.
   "I'm gonna ram a lightning bolt up its ass!" Makoto snarled.
   Instead of blushing at the tall brunette's choice of words as she
usually would, Ami uncharacteristically replied:  "Get in line."  She then
ran like a rocket after the shrunken pervert.
   This time, Makoto was the one who blinked.  Ami was usually the most
harmless (temper-wise) member of the team.  For her to react like that...
She mentally shrugged and ran after Ami.  As Sailor Senshi, it was their
duty to eradicate threats to public safety, wasn't it?
   The pervert would pay.  Dearly.

   Nearby, Ranma-chan and Mamoru were aimlessly walking down a street.
   "Say, how did you recognize me back at the university?" she said.
   Mamoru smiled a little.  "Well, I didn't see you for a long time
yesterday, but one thing I did notice was your hair.  Red hair like yours
tends to stand out in a crowd,"
   Ranma-chan nodded absently.  The more she was with Mamoru, the more she
felt she knew him from somewhere (but little did she know the same thing
was happening to Mamoru).  It was getting strange.  "What were you doing at
Mizuharo university anyway?" she asked Mamoru.
   "I study there, of course," he said with a smile.
   Ranma became a bit more interested.  "What do you study?"
   "Journalism," replied Mamoru.  "What about you, Ranko-san?"
   "You can call me Ranko," said Ranma-chan.  "As for what I was doing
there...  I was accompanying Ranma and Akane to their registration today."
   "What does Ranma study?"
   "Physical Education, what else?" she said with a small grin.
   They walked a little more in silence.  Mamoru was trying to figure a way
to ask Ranko his questions without sounding like a loon.  His musings were
cut short when Ranma-chan asked him a question first.
   "So, what *did* you want to talk to me about?" asked Ranma-chan.
   *Oh well, here I go,* he thought.  "Actually, it was because you remind
me of someone.  I could swear I had never seen you before yesterday and
yet, when I saw you, I couldn't help thinking I'd seen you a long time
ago," he said. *And why did _you_ seem startled to see me yesterday?* he
also wondered silently.
   Ranma-chan thought about it for a moment and decided to be truthful.
"This is a strange coincidence.  You also remind me of... someone, even
though I know I've never met you before.  Ever since I saw you, I've been
thinking about you..."  Ranma-chan trailed off when she realized how the
last sentence could be interpreted.
   Mamoru was starting to sweat.  This wasn't going the way he'd planned.
    "No, no, wait... I didn't mean it like that!" Ranma-chan stuttered.
"I'm not in love with you or anything..."  Mamoru sighed in relief.  "It's
just that you look so familiar and I want to know why!" she finished
forcefully.
   *Should I tell her?* Mamoru wondered.  Ranko said that he reminded her
of someone familiar.  The odds of her being Akana reborn had risen
dramatically.  As he looked around at his surroundings, he blinked and
noticed they were now walking in front of Juuban High School.  He was still
weighing the risks of telling Ranko about his previous life when he heard
sounds of enraged shouting coming from the school.  Mamoru froze for a
moment and quickly peered inside the school gate, wondering what all the
commotion was all about.  For a moment, all he saw were angry girls running
around, but he soon noticed they were pursuing someone or something.  As he
tried to make out what, he turned around and saw that Ranko was standing on
top of a wall, looking at the mayhem.  He watched, a bit puzzled, as her
expression darkened.  She then growled out a single word with disgust.
  "Happosai."

   When Ranma-chan had jumped on top of the wall, she noticed all the girls
running around.  The scene was unfortunately all too familiar, as she had
seen it countless times at Furinkan and in Nerima in general.  She quickly
looked ahead of the mob of angry girls and found what she hoped she
wouldn't find.  She had hoped they had seen the last of Happosai back at
the first wedding attempt, where he had accidentally drunk the nannichuan
water that had been meant for her.  Obviously, the ancient pervert had
moved on to greener pastures (so to speak).  She growled his name and was
about to go pound him when she spotted out two figures jumping in front of
him.  She blinked when she realized that the two girls somehow matched the
pictures of the magazine in the train.
   She turned to Mamoru.  "Are they the Sailor Senshi?" she asked quickly.
   Mamoru, who seemed a bit put off by the fact that Ranko was standing on
the wall (the wall *was* around two meters high and there wasn't any way
she could have easily climbed it), replied:  "Yes, they are.  Or at least
that's two of them, anyway."  He quickly scanned the crowd, but did not
find any trace of Sailor Moon or Sailor Venus.  *Where are they?* he
wondered.  He knew that at least Usagi was fine or he would have felt it.
   "I hope they won't try to stop Happosai while wearing skirts like
those," commented Ranma-chan, shaking her head.
   "You know what that thing is?" asked Mamoru.
   Ranma-chan sighed.  "Unfortunately.  'Its' name is Happosai and he's a
hentai who glomps girls and steals women's underwear.  He also happens to
be a very strong martial artist."
   "What were you saying about the Senshi not being able to stop him?  I'll
have you know they've beaten lots of monsters before," said Mamoru.
   *My, my, a bit protective, aren't we?* thought Ranma-chan.  "It's not
that," she said out loud.  "Remember what I said about him being a hentai?
Happosai will become even more nuts when he sees how they're dressed."  As
proof, she pointed towards the confrontation.

   Makoto and Ami had found a closet in which to transform on the way out
and had jumped through an open window on the first floor to cut ahead of
the mob of girls.
   "Is it close?" asked Sailor Jupiter.
   Sailor Mercury tapped her earring and her visor appeared.  "It should be
coming soon."
   As she predicted, the mob quickly became visible.  Of course, when the
girls who made up the mob saw the two Sailor Senshi, everyone broke off
pursuit and moved away.
   The two Senshi decided to forego the introductory speech and blast away.
   "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
   "Shine Aqua Illusion!"
   Happosai was nearly flash-frozen and electrocuted, but evaded in time.
Looking at the source of the disturbance, he nearly had a heart attack.
There were two young girls, clad in white body-hugging suits and *very*
short skirts.  He was in heaven. A distant part of his mind noticed that
they seemed very angry at him for some reason, but he figured that it was
because he hadn't paid any attention to them.  He immediately made a
beeline for them, regardless of the fact that one of the had just tried to
hit him with a lightning bolt and the other had tried to turn him into a
popsicle.
   Sailor Jupiter saw the little pervert heading their way and fired off
another Sparkling Wide Pressure attack, which came close, but missed and
blew a hole in the ground behind Happosai.  Before she could get ready for
another attack, the pervert moved with a speed that made rifle bullets seem
sluggish and he was once again snuggling in her chest, even more vigorously
than before.  Sailor Jupiter saw red.  She put her hands about an inch away
on each side of the diminutive pervert's head.  "Supreme..." she started.
The metal rod came out of her tiara and started crackling with power.  At
the same moment, Happosai's head snapped up in surprise.  "... THUNDER!"
she finished.  The area was bathed in a green glow.

   A few moments before, Usagi and Minako had finally come out of detention
and quickly noticed that everyone seemed to be running outside.  Usagi
spotted Umino barreling towards the exit, camera in hand.  She managed to
grab a hold of him as he passed by her.
   "Hey, Umino!  What's going on?" asked Usagi.
   "Didn't you know?  Some kind of hentai creature raided the girls' locker
room and now, two of the Sailor Senshi are supposedly fighting it outside!"
said Umino, excited.
   "Sailor Senshi!?" asked Usagi incredulously.  She turned towards Minako
and in the process, loosened her hold on Umino, who promptly wiggled out
and went to watch the fight.  "Come on, Minako-chan!  We've got to go see
what's going on!"
   Minako nodded and several moments and shoves later, they had a prize
view of the fight.  Usagi could only stare as Sailor Jupiter tried to
vaporize the short creature latched onto her chest with the Supreme
Thunder.  There was a bright green flash, but when the light cleared, it
was immediately apparent that the attack had been to no avail.  The
creature had somehow jumped away at the last possible moment and was now
standing a few feet in front of Sailor Jupiter.  They were so captivated by
the fight that neither noticed their communicators beeping.
   Minako grabbed Usagi by the arm.  "Come on, Usagi!" she hissed in her
ear.  "We've got to transform and help them out!"
   Usagi's reply was lost as they saw a familiar red-headed girl do an
impossibly high leap and descend down on the short creature, screaming a
name: "HAPPOSAI!!!"
   "Ranko?"  chorused Usagi and Minako, confused.

   Ranma-chan decided that the two Sailor Senshi might need help against
Happosai.  Apparently, they weren't aware that he became stronger after
each glomp.  She jumped from her perch, screaming the pervert's name.  She
always relished a chance to pound the pervert into jelly.
   As she partly expected after yelling his name, Happosai saw her come
down and quickly leaped out of the way.  Ranma-chan tried nailing him with
a chi-powered punch as she passed, but he was too nimble.  She did,
however, manage to make a sizable hole in the ground.

   Happosai was surprised, to say the least.  The tall girl had apparently
called upon a thunder bolt and had nearly electrocuted him.  Only his
advanced martial arts reflexes had saved him from that one.  He was about
to try glomping the second one when he heard a familiar voice crying out
his name.  He turned around and saw someone he never expected to see in
this part of Tokyo.  He quickly moved aside, evading a punch that resulted
in a small crater.

   Ranma stood in front of Happosai, battle aura glowing brightly.
"Happosai!" she said in a loud voice.  "Isn't it bad enough you had to raid
Furinkan all the time?  Do you have to pick on girls who can't defend
themselves, now?"
   "Hey!" cried out an indignant Sailor Jupiter, but Ranma-chan ignored
her.  Sailor Mercury was busy scanning the redhead with her computer and
visor.
   "My darling Ranma-chan!" Happosai cried out in delight.  "You've come
all this way to see me!  How about you wear these for me?" he asked,
pulling out several pink, lacy bras.
   Ranma-chan shuddered in disgust.  "Shut up, you perverted old fart!
It's been a year since we saw you and it'll be another year 'till you can
make it out of the hospital once I'm through with you!" she shouted.  She
cupped her hands and aimed.  "Mouko Takabisha!"
   The ball of blue energy shot forward, but Happosai dodged and shot
forward for a quick glomp.  To Ranma's utter surprise, he managed to get a
good squeeze before Ranma-chan punched him off, Amaguriken style.
   Ranma-chan looked at Happosai.  *What the hell has he been doing for the
last year?  He's a lot faster than he was before!  Even with the effects of
the pressure point in my battle with Cologne, he shouldn't have been able
to glomp me.*  Since the pervert could evade the Mouko Takabisha, Ranma
rushed forward and decided to take it up close and personal.
   Soon, Ranma-chan and Happosai were a blur of movements, punches, kicks
and blocks flying faster than the eye could see.  Eventually, Happosai
jumped over a leg sweep, but got nailed by the other leg and was kicked
into one of the outer walls.  However, it was a surprise to most of those
watching, that after digging himself out, Happosai didn't seem too damaged.
   "I'm getting tired of this," he said, becoming serious.  "I think you
need a lesson from your master!"
   Ranma-chan snorted.  "You're not my master and I need a lesson from you
about as much as the world needs the plague!"
   Suddenly, several Happo-daikarins came flying her way.  She evaded them
all, but suddenly realized that there was a substantial crowd around them.
"Get out of here!" she yelled.  "Those things are bombs!"
  As soon as the warning was issued, the courtyard started to empty out
very quickly, but the mini-bombs went off and soon, there was panic
everywhere.
   Usagi and Minako were among the less fortunate ones, as they had been
standing relatively close to one of the Happo-daikarins.  However, all the
bomb did (aside from scaring them witless, of course) was knock them on the
ground.
   When Ranma-chan saw all the people getting knocked out by Happosai's
bombs, she whirled on the little pervert.  "What are you doing?!" she
exploded.  "You can't involve bystanders in this!  Don't you have any honor
left?"
   "Those were weak Happo-daikarins and besides, I wasn't aiming at them; I
was aiming at you!" answered Happosai. "If you hadn't dodged and stood
still instead, this mess wouldn't have happened!"  He then threw several
other Happo-daikarins at Ranma-chan.  She quickly tried to send them all
high up in the air, but she missed one and it landed near the dazed Usagi
and Minako.
   Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury had been shaken by the first round of
bombs.  When Sailor Jupiter saw the last Happo-daikirin landing near Usagi
and Minako, fear gripped her heart.
   "NOOO!!!!  Usagi, get up!" she yelled and started running at full speed
towards them at the same time as Mamoru became Tuxedo Kamen and he also
rushed towards Usagi.  Usagi, dazed, looked around for the reason of Sailor
Jupiter's cry and saw another one of those bombs.  She locked up in fear
and froze, looking at the Happo-daikarin near her.  Minako was only
starting to get up.
   Ranma-chan, however, was the closest to them and the fuse on the
Happo-daikarin was almost out.  She shot a burning look at Happosai and ran
as fast as she could towards the two girls.  To the untrained eye, it would
almost have seemed as if Ranma-chan suddenly blurred.  She quickly picked
up Usagi and Minako (who barely had time for a muffled "What the...?!") and
jumped away, just as the Happo-daikarin exploded.
   As Usagi and Minako were being carried away by Ranma-chan, they couldn't
help but stare at the bright sigil of Earth, a circle divided in four, that
was shining on Ranko's forehead.
   Ranma-chan made a two point landing in front of Tuxedo Kamen.  When she
looked at him, she somehow knew that she could trust the man in black (even
if he was wearing a tuxedo and top hat).  She didn't question her instincts
for once.  She quickly passed off Usagi and Minako to him and jumped back
towards Happosai.
   "Usako," Tuxedo Kamen said, hugging her, "Are you all right?"
   Usagi finally managed to find her wits and looked at Tuxedo Kamen.  "I'm
all right, Tuxedo Kamen-sama," she said with a smile.  Her smile then
changed to an unreadable expression.  "Mamo-chan," she said in a hurried
whisper, "I saw it when she carried us away!"
   "You saw what, Usako?" asked Tuxedo Kamen, now a bit confused.
   "Her sigil!"
   Tuxedo Kamen jerked.  "Are you sure, Usako?"
   "Yes I..." Usagi trailed off, eyes blinking at him.
   Mamoru blinked.  Usagi and Minako seemed to be staring at him for some
reason.  "Is there something wrong?"
   "Mamo-chan," Usagi said in a strangled voice, while pointing at Mamoru's
forehead, "Your sigil...  It's showing!"
   "And it's the same as Ranko's," Minako said in wonder.
   Tuxedo Kamen would have given a lot at that point to have a mirror.
   As Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury reached their group, he looked back
at the confrontation between Happosai and Ranko.

   Ranma, whose sigil had now faded again, looked at Happosai with disgust.
"Why did you attack bystanders, Happosai?"
   "_I_ didn't attack them; _you_ dodged my Happo-daikarins," replied
Happosai, simply.  "Besides, I've grown weary of your constant
interference, Ranma.  I can't even glomp a girl in Tokyo without you
showing up."
   "Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" Ranma-chan said in a voice laced
with venom.
   Happosai smiled.  "It's time I put you in your place and showed you
who's the real master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu."
   "Yeah, right!" Ranma-chan snorted.  "I haven't wasted the last year like
oyaji, Happosai!  I've gotten a lot better!"
   Happosai smiled.  "You're not the only one who trained, Ranma.  How do
you think I managed to glomp you when I couldn't do that anymore a year
ago?"  His smile became lecherous.  "Beaches make wonderful training
grounds, you know..."
   Ranma-chan fumed.  So that's how he'd gotten so much better.  She had to
pound the pervert into jelly or kick him into deep space; there was no
other choice.  She rushed Happosai, who dodged.  Ranma-chan broke through
the wall behind Happosai with her punch.  Snarling, she rushed him again,
but Happosai sent her flying in another wall with his pipe.  She broke
through said wall completely.
   Tuxedo Kamen gasped.  "I've got to help her!"  He started to go, but was
surprisingly held back by Sailor Mercury.  "Mercury," he said, "Let me go!"
   Sailor Mercury shook her head.  "There's no need to, Tuxedo Kamen," she
said, while looking through her visor.
   "What do you mean?" said Tuxedo Kamen, worry slowly replaced with confusion.
   "She means _that_," answered Sailor Jupiter, pointing disbelievingly at
the wall where Ranko had been sent flying.  Ranko was coming back out, none
worse for wear, except that she seemed to have lost the string that held
her pigtail in place.  Her red hair was now flowing freely, cascading down
her back.
   Everyone gaped at the uncharacteristic display of endurance.  Tuxedo
Kamen was also gaping at Ranko's now complete resemblance to Akana in his
dreams.  It was at that time that Sailor Mars decided to make an appearance.
   "What's going on?" she asked between breaths.  "I was walking back to
the temple when I felt... something... evil around here, not quite like a
youma.  I tried calling Usagi and Minako, but they didn't answer.  I
transformed and ran here as fast as I could when I felt spiritual energy
being channeled around here."
   Sailor Jupiter pointed at the redhead who was coming out of the debris
and at the shrunken pervert.  "_They're_ what's going on, Mars," she said
flatly.  "I wouldn't advise trying to break them up."
   Sailor Mars peered at the two combatants.  She blinked.  "Ano...  Is
that Ranko?"
   Everyone nodded.
   "She looks even more like Akana without the pigtail," remarked Sailor
Mars.  Before any of the others could comment further on that particularly
accurate statement, Sailor Mars let out a hiss as she laid eyes on Happosai.
   Tuxedo Kamen, who was closest, looked at her, a bit startled.  "Is there
something wrong, Mars?" he asked.
   She pointed at Happosai.  "If it isn't a demon, it's the next thing to
it," she said, narrowing her eyes.  "That's the source of the evil I felt."
She started readying an ofuda.

   Ranma-chan came back out of the debris a little more composed.  *Good
thing I don't need the Dragon Hair anymore...* she thought grimly.  She
analyzed what had just happened.  *The pervert is staying calm; he doesn't
want me to use the Hiryu Shouten Ha on him,* she thought.  *If I can't put
him on fire, I'll have to make him madder.*
   "Mouko Takabisha!"  The chi-blast shot forward, but Happosai evaded it
easily.
   "Is that the best you can do, Ranma-chan?" taunted Happosai.
   She answered with a cry of "Kijin Raishuu Dan!", but Happosai evaded the
vacuum blast as well.  When she realized what she was doing, she berated
herself. *Cool it, Ranma!  He's not worth using the Forbidden Techniques
on.*  She thought about her situation.  *I know he'll get mad if I hit him
with a chi-blast, but the Mouko Takabisha is too slow.  How can I make it
faster?*  Then an idea came to her.  She smiled.
   "You want to know what I can do, old fart?" she said.  "How about this!
Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken and Mouko Takabisha combination technique!"  She
held both hands opened, palms facing Happosai.  "RENSHA-HAPPA-DAN!"
   Ranma-chan cupped her hands and summoned a chi sphere.  Instead of just
shooting it away like the Mouko Takabisha, though, her hands blurred and
the sphere started to waver.  Suddenly, the sphere broke apart and a dozen
smaller spheres rocketed forward at incredible speed towards Happosai as
Ranma-chan lost her balance and fell backwards.
   That loss of balance was the only thing that saved Happosai from
potentially grievous injuries, as only a few of the spheres made it to the
target.  However, only a few spheres were necessary to hurt Happosai.  The
old pervert was knocked back a dozen feet as the remaining spheres slammed
all around him, tearing the ground up.

   Sailor Mars could only gape as she saw Ranko executing the technique.
*How did she do that?* she thought.  That particular train of thought
stopped when Happosai landed at her feet.  It was then that she realized
that the "demon" was in fact a bald, shrunken old man.  It was the last
thing she thought about before said old man suddenly rose and glomped her
with inhuman speed.
   "Thanks for helping an old man in his time of need, sweetie," Happosai
said, as he fondled Sailor Mars.
   Said Sailor went into an holy fit of dark rage.  She quickly took the
ofuda she had readied and slapped it on Happosai's shriveled head.  "Rin,
pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!" she chanted as
fast as she could.
   The result was not exactly what she expected.  Instead of freezing up as
most youmas did, Happosai reacted as if he'd been strapped with a burning
iron on his head.  She smiled despite the unusual result.  This was much
better than paralysis!  As the old hentai master ran around trying to get
the ward off his head, Sailor Mars smirked.  "You think they're hot?  How
about this!"  She clasped her hands together and concentrated.  "Burning
Mandala!"  The fire rings sped towards Happosai, who had just managed to
get rid of the ofuda.
  "How dare she..." he growled, and stopped when he saw a dozen rings of
fire heading towards him.  He evaded most of them, but his clothing caught
fire in several places.

   Ranma-chan had underestimated the difficulty of the Rensha-Happa-Dan.
The technique she had made up essentially required her to form a big sphere
of chi, like the Mouko Takabisha and then disrupting it with the speed of
the Kacchu Tenshin Amaguriken, forming a veritable storm of smaller chi
spheres.  What she hadn't expected was the slight recoil and the strain
involved, which had caused her to fall down.  As she got back up, she
noticed that there was a new Sailor Senshi on the scene.  Ranma-chan
watched, dismayed, as the ancient pervert got up and glomped her.
   What pleased her is when the Senshi in question strapped an a piece of
paper on Happosai's head.  She hadn't expected any results, but she smiled
when she saw Happosai jumping around in pain.  *Serves him right,* she
thought gleefully.
   She was about to go punt Happosai into Low Earth Orbit (or severely maim
him; she wasn't sure), when she saw the new Senshi throw fire rings at
Happosai.  She stared for a moment watching Happosai trying to put the fire
in his clothes out.  *Fire?...*  She blinked and ran as fast as she could
towards Happosai and started running in circles around him.
   "Hey, Happosai!" she taunted, "How's it feel to be beaten by a girl?"
Happosai snarled at her and tried to put out his flaming clothes. *Good!
Between his temper and the leftover heat from those fire rings, he's
radiating enough heat,* she thought.  Ranma-chan turned towards the
remaining girls (by now, most of the other spectators had left in fright).
"Get down!" she yelled.  She glanced at Happosai, smiling as she felt the
air currents shaping up.
   The other girls were puzzled.  Why was Ranko running around the pervert
instead of pounding him and why did she want them to get down?  It was
Sailor Mercury's gasp that made them start.  "Masaka!  The air
currents!..." she breathed, staring though her visor.  "Get down!
Quickly!" she yelled, promptly following her own advice.  The others needed
no further urging and they all dropped to the ground.
   When Ranma-chan saw the girls flattening down, she turned to Happosai
"Here!  Let me help you put that fire out!"  She then stopped running and
threw an uppercut that came nowhere near Happosai.  It never needed to as
Ranma-chan unleashed one of the most devastating moves in her arsenal.
"HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!"
   Happosai felt the stirrings of despair as he finally realized what
Ranma-chan was doing.  He tried to brace for it, but his clothes were still
on fire, so he had to let down his guard. The Rising Dragon Ascension
Defeat formed around Happosai and he was hurled into the sky by
cyclone-strength winds as the chi dragon blasted out of Ranma.  His last
conscious words were:  "I'll get my revenge, Ranma!  I promise you'll pay
for this!!"  But by that time, Happosai was already several miles over the
horizon.

  As the Hiryu Shouten Ha dissipated, Ranma-chan took a deep breath and
smiled.  She'd probably managed to seriously injure the old pervert and she
had made up a new technique.  *Today is a _good_ day to fight,* she thought
happily.  She looked around and noticed there was a bit of property damage
(not nearly as much as at Furinkan, but still).  She then noticed that the
Senshi and the two girls she had saved from the Happo-daikirin were getting
up off the ground and gawking at her in undisguised amazement.  She walked
over to the two girls.
   "Are you two all right?" she asked.
   Usagi and Minako, still a bit shell-shocked, nodded dumbly.  Ranma-chan
looked a bit more closely at Usagi, then at Minako.  It was then that she
realized for the first time who she had saved.
   "Hey!  Weren't you two the ones with the cats at the Hikawa Shrine
yesterday?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
    Usagi and Minako started.  Ranko had been at the Shrine for less than a
minute and she remembered them?  And worse: did she remember the incident
with the cats?
   "Uh... yes, that's us," said Minako weakly.  She remembered Ranko's
reaction at Artemis and Luna yesterday and she desperately hoped Ranko
wasn't angry with her.  After what she'd just done...  Glancing at Usagi,
Minako could tell similar thoughts were running in her head as well.
   Ranma-chan blinked, not understanding Minako's reaction.  "Oh, don't
worry about the cats," she said, waving her hand dismissively.  "It's not
your fault and you didn't know."  She looked around.  "Has anyone seen
Mamoru?" she asked.  "Tall guy, black hair?" she specified.  She never saw
Tuxedo Kamen twitch nervously.
   "Umm, why are you looking for Mamo-chan?" ventured Usagi.
   Ranko blinked.  "Mamo-chan?"
   "Yeah!," Usagi said, perking up.  "He's going to be my husband one day!"
she exclaimed triumphantly.
   Tuxedo Kamen and the other Sailors present bigsweated.
   *Mamoru's dating a high school student?  He must be at least three years
older than her!* she thought.  "Eh, yes... well...  I was speaking to him
when all this mess started.  Do you know where he went?"
   Usagi started to sweat.  She had never been good at lying and she knew
she'd put her foot in her mouth if she tried to lie to Ranko.  "Well...
I..."
   Tuxedo Kamen came to her rescue, albeit in a different way that he
usually did.  "I saw him directing the girls out of the school when the
fighting started.  I don't know where he went after that."
   "Kuso," Ranma-chan swore softly.  "Great," she said in a louder voice.
"Now I have to find him again!"
   In a rare moment of brilliance, Usagi started to form a plan.  She had
seen Ranko's sigil.  That and the fact that Mamoru's had glowed for the
first time as well definitely marked her as Sailor Terra.  She needed to
tell Ranko about it, but she couldn't do it here.  Luna and Artemis needed
to know about Ranko.  She and Minako weren't in Senshi form; if she started
to talk about it here, unwanted ears were sure to overhear, especially
since there were still a small number of students who were now taking an
interest in their group.
   "You won't have to look for him," she said in a bright voice.  "He'll be
at the Hikawa Shrine in half an hour," she continued, ignoring the puzzled
looks she was getting from everyone.
   Ranma-chan thought about it.  Akane likely wouldn't be back from
university anytime soon and she could easily grab a snack in half an hour.
She had worked up a small appetite because of this fight.  "All right," she
said.  "I'll be there.  And don't bring any cats, okay?"  And then, before
anyone could blink, she jumped over the wall and disappeared through the
streets.
   Nobody gave pursuit, though.  They were too busy looking questioningly
at Usagi.  Seeing that the other students were coming her way (Umino was in
the group), she quickly hissed to the Senshi in uniform: "I'll explain
later!  Just make sure to be at the Shrine in half an hour!"
   She got dubious looks from most of them, especially from Sailor Mars,
but they all gave a short nod and quickly left before students asked them
any questions.
   Usagi then turned towards Minako.  "I hope I'm doing the right thing,"
she said.  She then turned to face Umino the Questioner.

   Twenty-five minutes later, the Inner Senshi (in civilian garb) and
Mamoru were milling around in the main hall of the Hikawa Shrine, after
having shaken off Umino (it had taken Naru's accidental intervention to get
rid of him).  Luna and Artemis had been picked up and briefed along the
way.  Needless to say, the Moon cats had been very vocal in their
exclamations when the Senshi related the afternoon's "adventure".  Both
cats had been shocked at the fact that their respective charges had almost
been severely injured in their civilian forms and they showed disbelief at
the level of power Ranko had supposedly displayed against the old pervert.
   Luna was unsure, especially about Usagi's plan to "spring the surprise
on Ranko", as it were.  Or maybe it was the fact that Usagi had come with a
plausible plan in the first place that worried her.  She couldn't be sure.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Usagi?" asked Luna yet again.
   Usagi was starting become exasperated at her feline mentor's attitude.
"Listen, Luna!  Me and Minako both saw her sigil, so I didn't imagine it.
Unless she can duplicate one, and as far as we know, it can't be done, then
there's no doubt that she's Sailor Terra!  Now, all we need is her henshin
rod, which _you're_ supposed to have, by the way, and we'll be set!"
   "I still say Artemis and I should talk to her," insisted the black cat.
   Makoto snorted.  "And have a free repeat of what happened yesterday?  I
don't think so, Luna.  As risky as Usagi's plan sounds, we have no choice.
We don't need Ranko to go insane on us just now."
   Luna grumbled a bit more, but eventually agreed.  "All right.  I'll give
you her henshin rod, but Artemis and I will be watching from a hidden
place.  It's going to be very inconvenient if we can't talk to her."  She
concentrated and did a backflip and a henshin rod appeared.  Usagi eagerly
took it.
   Meanwhile, Makoto's gaze wandered over to Ami, who was typing on her
computer.  "So, what are _you_ doing," asked the tallest Inner Senshi.
   "I'm analyzing all the data I collected on Ranko during the battle,"
replied the shortest one.  "Makoto, these readings are unbelievable..." she
trailed off, shaking her head.
   "I know.  I saw her, remember?"  She then heard Ami mutter something
incredulously.
   "Ami-chan, what's wrong?" asked Usagi.
   "I have some trouble believing what my computer tells me.  According to
it, when the old pervert and her were going hand to hand this afternoon,
she threw 272 punches in three seconds" said Ami in a disbelieving tone.
   All the others stared at her incredulously.
   Ami seemed pensive for a second.  "Makoto, did you notice anything
strange during the battle?"
   Makoto blinked.  "After what you just told us, could you ask an easier
question?"
   "Well," Ami said, "Did you notice the fact that Ranko and the dwarf
seemed to know each other?"
   "I noticed."
   "Isn't it also strange that the old pervert kept calling Ranko, Ranma
and 'boy'?  Not to mention her rather sloppy language."
   Makoto shrugged.  "Maybe she just talked that way because she was
stressed," she said.  Her eyebrows then knitted in thought.  "As for the
'Ranma' and 'boy' remarks, I did notice, and so did the other girls.  Maybe
she's just a tomboy.  We can always ask her when she comes back.  I
wouldn't be surprised if she told me the old pervert was addled, too."
   Makoto and Ami walked over to Usagi, who was showing Terra's henshin rod
to Minako.
   "It's not as if she really needs one with the kind of power she already
has, anyway," commented Makoto.
   "It's not just that," interjected Ami.  "Our transformations also
provide us with a disguise field that prevents people from recognizing us.
If Ranko is going to go around killing monsters and perverts, she might as
well do it as Sailor Terra or she'll attract unwanted attention."
   "Say, Ami," asked Makoto.  "If she's that powerful in non-Senshi form,
what's going to happen when she powers up?  I saw her fight in hand to hand
combat against the little pervert and she could probably wipe us all out
without using her energy blasts."
   "Chi-blasts," corrected Rei.
   "What's the difference?"
   "You don't need to be a Senshi in order to be able to manipulate your
chi," explained Rei, "I use my chi when I do fire readings and my ability
the read the fire does _not_ come from being a Senshi.  Ranko's just
developped her ability to an remarkable level, that's all."  She paused.
*Just like Ranma...* she added silently.  She looked around the Shrine.
*Well, at least Grandpa and Yuiichiro aren't here yet.*  She was brought
back into the conversation by a question from Minako.
   "What do you mean?  Is it like telekinesis or something?" asked the blonde.
   "Not quite...  The simplest explanation is that she uses her own
spiritual strength to create the blasts," said Rei.
   "If we don't use chi, then what _do_ we use?" asked Minako.
   "Mana energy.  We draw our power from each of our respective planets.
Our Senshi forms act as conduits of sorts for mana energy."
   Ami looked at the readings she had taken from the fights and decided to
do a little comparison with their own powers.  It would take a while to
compute, though..  "Makoto?" Ami asked, "In response to your earlier
question, I'm not sure what will be her power increase or if she will even
have one, as there are several possibilities.  One factor is the nature of
her powers as a Senshi; Tuxedo Mask and Endymion have basic psychokinetic
powers and some sort of healing ability Mamoru found about when he kept
Chibi-Usa alive during the Pharaoh 90 confrontation."
   At the mention of his psychokinetic powers, something started stirring
within Mamoru's subconscious.  A forgotten memory... a Psi-tech?  Mamoru
blinked.  *What in the world is a Psi-tech?* he thought, puzzled.
   "Why are we worrying about that, anyway?" said Usagi.  "All we need to
know is the she'll be a really powerful addition to the team!" she said
enthusiastically.
   "How will Luna be able to wake her memories without freaking her out?"
wondered Minako.
   "Leave that to me," said the young priestess.  "I worked on this with
Luna once and she taught me the basics of the Luna Mind Meld.  The
technique is unusually simple; it's like hypnotism, really.  I'm not sure
if I have it right, but I'm sure I can do _something_."
   "She's coming," warned Makoto, cutting off any further replies.

   Everyone's heads snapped up and saw Ranko entering in the yard.  Her
hair was bound again, but this time in a ponytail, not a braid.  Minako was
silently swearing that she would eventually get the girl to wear it loose,
like at the battle.  She looked much better without that horrid pigtail.
   Rei was getting even more suspicious.  Ranko and Ranma, two people with
similar names, who dressed exactly the same and who had roughly the same
fighting abilities.  Quite a list of coincidences.  *Too many
coincidences,* the raven-haired priestess thought.  *There's something
going on and I don't know what it is.*  Rei decided to ask the sacred fire
about it at sometime later.  She looked around and was suddenly
disappointed that they hadn't thought of inviting Hotaru.  She probably
knew more about this than any of them.

   As she walked up the stairs to the temple, Ranma-chan felt like she was
walking into a trap.  She could almost feel the tension in the air.  She
wondered why she was feeling so apprehensive; after all, she was only
coming here as a girl to clear up the mystery of her memories about Mamoru.
   Suddenly, she jerked to a stop, if only for a moment.  When she had
thought about Mamoru, she'd felt a fleeting... something.  She didn't know
why, but she *knew* Mamoru was inside.
   Inside the Shrine, Mamoru felt something and he looked around him in
confusion.  He was sure someone was watching him.
   When Ranma-chan finally made it inside the shrine, she was only
half-surprised to see all the people obviously waiting for her.  *So that's
why I was nervous,* she thought.  Scanning the group, she saw Mamoru, who
seemed very relieved to see her, and all the other girls she had seen as a
guy.  She would have to be careful.
   "No need to look like that, girls," Ranma-chan began, trying to smooth
her entrance.  "I just want to speak privately to Mamoru for a while."
   Usagi looked as if she was going to say something, but Mamoru beat her
to it.  "We can go in the courtyard, Ranko.  We won't be bothered there,"
he added, giving a meaningful glance to all the girls.
   All the girls, including Usagi, nodded weakly.  This hadn't been part of
the plan, but they'd have to roll with it.

   As they walked outside the hall, Mamoru spoke up: "I'm sorry about the
reception in there.  It's just that you intrigue them a *lot*, to say the
least."
   Ranma-chan blinked.  "Why?"
   "Well, you did save the life of two of them this afternoon and the way
you handled that short pervert this afternoon speaks volumes for your
skills in martial arts.  All the elements necessary for high school gossip,
wouldn't you say?"
   Ranma-chan nodded.  It made sense, to a point.
   Watching her reaction, Mamoru smiled inwardly.  The last thing he needed
was for her to feel apprehensive about the situation.  He'd managed not to
make her too suspicious.  "So now I guess you're wondering about the two of
us, right?" he ventured.
   "Yes," she said simply.
   He decided to take a potshot.  "Let me guess.  You've recently had
dreams and I'm in them somehow," he hazarded.
   Ranma-chan stopped in her tracks and looked hard at Mamoru.  "How did
you know that?" she asked.
   "Because I've been having dreams of you as well in the last few days."
   Ranma-chan decided not to panic just yet.  She kept her tone level.
"And could you tell me *why* we've been dreaming about each other if we've
never met before?"
   Mamoru was nervous.  The hard part was coming.  "In your dreams," he
said, "What was I wearing?"
   Ranma-chan was surprised by the question.  "You were wearing some kind
of black and silver armor," she said.  She was surprised again when she saw
him nod.
   *This clinches it,* he thought.  "It appears that you were having dreams
of a previous life... sister."
   Ranma-chan gaped at him.  "Sister?..  I'm... I'm not your sister,
Mamoru!  I can swear I'm an only child!"
   Mamoru shook his head.  "Not in this time.  We were brother and sister
in a previous life."
   Ranma-chan looked at him as if he'd grown two heads.  *At least he
didn't say we were long lost lovers,* a distant part of her mind commented.
The worst part is that however much she wanted to deny it, a small voice in
her head insisted that he was telling the truth, that she was indeed his
sister.  "How can you prove it?" she asked in a strangled voice.  *Why am I
believing him?!  I'm a guy!  I can't be his sister!!!" she thought
desperately.
   Mamoru took a deep breath.  Without saying anything, he took out a red
rose and became Tuxedo Kamen.  He saw Ranma-chan staring at him.
   "You were *him*?  The guy with the tux from the school?" she exclaimed.
   "I'm afraid so, and it's not over..."  Concentrating, he summoned his
armor and became Endymion.  *Strange,* he thought, *Usually, I can't do
this without Usagi as Princess Serenity.*
   Ranma-chan took a step back.  *Who _is_ this guy!?* she thought
frantically.  Surprisingly, a name came to her lips before she could stop
it.  "Endymion?" she said softly.
   Endymion's eyes widened.  "You remember?  Endymion was my name in my
previous life!"
   "How can you do that?!" Ranma-chan asked, getting a bit more under control.
   "The same way we can do this," replied a voice from behind.  Ranma-chan
whipped around and saw Usagi in front of the other girls.  She saw each
girl raise an object in the air.  She would never forget what came next.

"Moon Cosmic Power, Make-Up!" shouted Usagi.
"Mercury Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Ami.
"Venus Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Minako.
"Mars Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Rei.
"Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!" shouted Makoto.

   Ranma-chan could only stare as each girl, including his cousin Rei, was
successively bathed in a dazzling array of colors and patterns, ranging
from light, to water, to fire, to lightning.  When the light show faded, he
saw that the girls were now wearing *short*, color-assorted sailor fukus
and they all had tiaras with gems that matched their fukus on their
foreheads.  She blinked and automatically recognized Sailors Mercury,
Jupiter and Mars from the school this afternoon.  She quickly deduced that
the others were the other members of the somewhat famous Sailor Senshi.
   "Rei?" Ranma-chan blurted out.  "You're a Sailor Senshi?"
   Sailor Mars looked a bit apologetic.  "It's Sailor Mars when I'm like
this, Ranko, and I'd like it if you didn't tell Ranma about this, please?"
   Ranma-chan blinked.  "But I'm... ah, nevermind...  What does all of this
have to do with me?!" she asked.
   "Actually, this!" said Sailor Moon, tossing Ranma-chan the henshin rod.
   Ranma-chan easily caught the object.  It was a short, deep blue colored
rod with a small golden orb representing the Earth on top. It also had a
strange symbol, a circle with two perpendicular lines intersecting in the
middle, that Ranma-chan somehow knew stood for Earth.  Ranma-chan turned it
around it her hand.  *I've seen one of those things before, but where?* she
thought.  "Ano...  What am I supposed do with it?" asked Ranma-chan,
confused.
   "Raise it in the air and shout the first thing that comes to mind," said
Sailor Moon with a smile.
   Ranma-chan was almost on autopilot.  She raised it in the air and was
about to say the words that hadn't been said for over a millennia and a
half when she turned to Sailor Moon.  "No," she said and turned to face
Sailor Moon.
   Sailor Moon blinked.  "But... why?  You're one of us!"
   "Maybe," said Ranma-chan, "But I've had more than enough madness in my
life so far," she said, regaining control of the situation .  "I don't need
this.  I'm trying to live a quiet life."
   Sailor Moon tried to think fast.  Things weren't supposed to be like this.
   Ranma-chan whirled on Endymion.  "And you!  I still haven't seen
concrete proof of what you're saying.  That I'm your... your sister!"
   Endymion concentrated.  His sigil flared and so did Ranma-chan's in
response.  Ranma-chan took a step backwards.  "Do you see the sigil on my
forehead?" asked Endymion.
   "Yeah, it's the same one as on the rod," replied Ranma-chan wearily.
   "It's the same as the one you have on *your* forehead, too," he said,
handing Ranma-chan a mirror.
   Ranma-chan took the mirror slowly.  She knew she didn't have to because
she knew the sigil was going to be on her forehead.
   "The sigil is the mark of the Royal Family of Earth.  Some people in our
line were chosen to be warriors who would protect the Earth.  Those people
include you and I, sister."
   Ranma-chan momentarily forgot what she was doing and waved the henshin
rod defensively.  "Even so, that was in another life!" she said in protest.
"You are *not* going to put me in a mini-skirt by getting me to shout
'Terra Star Power, Make-Up!'..."  Ranma-chan's eyes became the size of
baseballs when she realized what she had just said.
   *Chikuso!* was Ranma-chan's last thought before she was swallowed by
multicolored lights.


Author's notes:

   Who spotted the gratuitous Klingon and Wheel of Time references?

Linguistic Notes:

Baka compound terms borrowed from Narrabundah 1/2 by Ratbat with her permission
Otemba: "Tomboy" in Japanese.
Musabetsu Kakuto Ryuu: What is translated by Viz as the "Anything-Goes Style"
Rensha-Happa-Dan: Rapid Fire Blasting Shot/ Rapid Fire Explosive Blast
Missile (Thanks Chris Rijk!)
Ofuda: a ward
The Dragon Hair: The Dragon's Hair is _another_ curse Ranma got in China
(by eating one accidentaly), which makes a young man's hair grow wildly,
but is a baldness cure for old men. To prevent the hair growth, Ranma
needed to braid his hair with another Dragon's Hair.  Fortunately for
Ranma, the effect eventually wore off, so he didn't have to keep his hair
tied with the second Dragon's Hair - he just kept it for show. (Thanks
Chris Rijk!)

End Chapter 7



**********************
* The Phoenix Reborn *              Jordanite and Mystical
**********************                  Freak at Large

Louis-Philippe Giroux
Phoenix@upc.qc.ca

Phoenix's Den at http://www.upc.qc.ca/~phoenix/phoenix.html
Or http://pages.upc.qc.ca/phoenix/phoenix.html