Wild Rabbit
Book One, Chapter One
Cadence, Accelerating
A Ranmoon fic
Ranma 1/2 is the property of Takahashi Rumiko. Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko.
Thanks to Siaru for prereading.
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Ranma stood on the edge of the pit, looking down into its murky
depths. His father finished tying the meat onto his arms. "Ready,
boy?" Genma asked, folding his arms, shoving the Neko-ken book in his
pocket, and standing back.
Ranma shivered. "I suppose so, Pops. You sure this is the way to learn
it, though?" Genma started to answer, but Ranma wasn't paying
attention anymore. He was staring up at a nearby hill. "Who's that
woman?"
"Woman?" Genma looked where Ranma was pointing. "I don't see
anyone. Stop stalling and get in, boy."
"She's right on that hill. She has green hair. I didn't know people
could have green hair."
Genma pushed him in, and then the cats came.
------
Ukyou handed Ranma another okonomiyaki. The young martial artist
grinned at his friend and began to eat. "Y'know, Ucchan, we've been
here an awful long time. Pops usually keeps moving pretty
quickly. Y'think he's trying to find some special techniques or
something?"
"Around here? I guess maybe he could. But he just spends all his time
with my dad, doesn't he?" The chef scratched his head in puzzlement.
Ranma shrugged and returned to eating. Casually looking around,
waiting for his father to return, he noticed a woman sitting on a
bench across the street. She wasn't dressed like a normal person. Her
clothes were like a black school uniform. And she had green
hair. Ranma scurried around behind the yatai. "You wanna play again,
Ranchan?" the chef asked.
"No, I'm just staying away from the woman." Ranma remembered the
Neko-ken and shuddered again. "Last time I saw her, something bad
happened."
"What woman?" Ukyou walked around the yatai, looking back and
forth. He turned to Ranma. "I don't see any woman."
Ranma poked his head around the corner and pointed. "Over there, on
that bench. She's looking at me."
"There's nobody there but some birds, Ranchan. Are you feeling okay?"
Ukyou put a hand to Ranma's forehead.
"I'll be okay. Can I have another okonomiyaki?"
A hand grabbed Ranma's shoulder. "Ukyou, your father wants to talk to
you. Come on, boy." Genma began to wheel the yatai away as Ukyou ran
off.
------
The knock echoed back to him. Ryouga's house really was empty. Ranma
jogged back to the lot and began a kata. Focusing his attention on the
flow of the forms, he spent a good hour ignoring the world.
"You are very skilled," a female voice interjected. Ranma slid
smoothly to the end of the kata and looked up. The woman pulled a
strand of green hair away from her eyes and smiled. "I have not seen
that kata performed by a person your age in many years."
Ranma stood his ground. "I'm gonna be the best there is."
"Indeed. But not for a while yet." The woman bowed and walked
away. Over her shoulder, she called out, "I'll see you again soon,
Ranma."
Once she was out of sight, Ranma looked around for a place to hide
from his father. Genma would be back, soon, to do something. He always
was. And Ranma didn't want to leave before his friend showed up.
------
Ranma balanced, crane-like, on the tip of a pole. There were many
poles, sticking out of the pools and reaching various heights. It was
an obstacle course in the air, if one were so inclined. Genma was so
inclined.
The young martial artist kept himself alert. Genma crouched upon a
pole just below him and to the right. Without so much as a warning
yell, he launched himself at Ranma. Spinning wildly, Ranma dodged to
another pole. As he did so, he caught sight of a woman with green
hair.
Flailing, he fell backwards. Water enveloped him. Water filled him. He
felt change, change fueled by the magic of Jusenkyou and the magic of
his bloodline.
Sputtering, he reached the surface of the pool. He reached up to brush
the pink hair away from his eyes. *Wait a minute. Pink hair?* He
noticed that his hand looked different as well. Smaller, more
delicate. He followed the hand up the arm to his body. His body was
also different. The chest was more pronounced, for one thing.
After a few seconds, Ranma pulled open her gi, saw her breasts, and
screamed.
------
Setsuna leaned over the table, sipping at her cup of tea. She didn't
particularly like this bar and the dim lighting was even worse in her
corner. She normally wouldn't be here at all, since she preferred to
do her drinking with friends, but she was on a mission.
A balding man in a white gi strode purposefully into the room,
followed by a pink-haired teenaged girl. She immediately headed for
the unisex restroom near the back of the room, while the man sat down
at the bar. The bartender walked over and the gi-clad man pulled out
some bills, presumably to pay for his drink. The bar was still empty
enough -- the hour was early -- that she could hear their discussion.
"Sake. And leave the bottle." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a
black-haired teen come out of the restroom and sit in a corner much
like her own.
"I can't take Crystal Tokyo yen, sir. I'm sorry, but the boss is firm
about that. He likes the Queen and all, I think, but he doesn't trust
her, and since we're not in Crystal Tokyo proper, he doesn't have to
accept it. So he doesn't. If you had some Japanese yen..."
The man rummaged around in his pockets and came out with a smaller
bundle of money. He counted it. Counted it again. "Ranma! I need that
money I gave you!" The teen slowly walked over to the bar, set down a
small pile of bills, and walked back to his table. The man, whom
Setsuna recognized as Genma, paid for his drink and settled back to
discover how drunk he could get.
When she judged Genma to be well-enough focused on his sake, she stood
up and made her way to Ranma's table. "Hello, Ranma."
He looked up. After a moment he recognized her. As much as he could,
anyway, given the disguise magic that had been active the last times
he'd seen her. "You. Who are you? What do you want?"
"Right now? Simply to talk. My name is Setsuna. I'm a friend of your
mother. Your real mother."
"My mother?" Ranma seemed to be curious, but there was a tinge of fear
and worry on his voice. Setsuna decided to take it a bit more slowly.
"Yes. Saotome Genma did tell you that he's not your real father,
didn't he?"
"Yeah, he mentioned it once or twice." Ranma nodded slowly. "Never
said anything about my mother, though, either way. And he didn't talk
about it any more than that."
"I might have guessed. Anyhow, I am the one who placed you with the
Saotomes, your foster parents. I'm glad to see that you turned out
well, in spite of Genma's efforts."
"Hey, he's not done that bad!" Ranma, again, seemed torn between two
emotions: indignation at Setsuna and anger at Genma.
"He hasn't? What about Jusenkyou? I saw the pink-haired girl who came
in, you know."
"You got a point there, I guess. Still, he's not usually that stupid."
"Perhaps not," Setsuna conceded. "Nevertheless, I apologize to you. I
needed you to learn some things you would only learn from Genma, but I
was unable to prevent the unnecessary stupidities."
Ranma shrugged. "By and large, he's not that bad. You could have
picked worse. But why did you have to put me with foster parents in
the first place? Did my real parents die or something?"
"No, they're quite alive. But they couldn't have raised you in the
right way for your destiny."
"Destiny? What do you mean?"
"I'll explain later. For now, would you like to meet your real
parents?" Setsuna held out her hand.
Ranma didn't take it. "I'll have to tell Pops. He wanted me to meet
someone here in Old Tokyo."
"Feel free. In fact, he can even vouch for my identity, if he wants
to. We'll be going into the main city, to the Capital. You can come
back afterwards, if you want."
------
"So, where are we going, Setsuna-san?" Ranma looked around at the
crystal buildings surrounding him. His father, or so he still thought
of Genma, had been unusually acquiescent to Setsuna's proposal,
muttering something about extra time to finalize some arrangement.
"To the palace. That's where your parents are." Setsuna led Ranma to
the nearby transport terminal. She punched a code into the pedestal
and pulled Ranma onto the teleport pad. "Have you ever used these
before?" When Ranma shook his head, she explained. "All of the crystal
points that make up the regions of the city are linked to the palace,
and through the palace to each other. What this does is piggyback on
that link to teleport us to a given destination."
As Setsuna finished, lights began to flash around the borders of the
pad. From Ranma's point of view, he was on the edge of Crystal Tokyo
one moment and deep inside the city the very next. Setsuna started
walking towards the nearby building, which matched the pictures of the
palace that Ranma had seen. He quickly caught up to her.
Ranma remained silent for a while. He knew quite well that he was no
artist, but he knew how to appreciate beauty when he could. Years of
training with Genma had taught him that his time to appreciate such
things was usually quite brief, so he concentrated on enjoying his
surroundings.
A great arch of marble, perhaps the only non-crystalline structure
within a kilometer of the palace, stood in front of the entrance,
reaching perhaps a hundred meters at the peak. Letters curved across
the face, spelling something in no language Ranma knew.
"It's in a very ancient language, thousands of years old. It means,
'Let there be light.'" Setsuna had apparently noticed his
puzzlement. "Queen Serenity had had enough of fighting darkness on its
own terms, you see."
Ranma smirked. "Smart woman."
"Yes, well, it did take a few years for her to get to that point."
Setsuna kept walking towards the open doors. She passed through them
and led Ranma along a twisting side-path.
"My parents work here in the palace or something?" Ranma had given up
observing his surroundings, focusing instead on matching Setsuna's
ever-quickening paces.
"You might say that." They rounded a corner and stopped before a
door. "Ah, here we are. They should be eating lunch about now."
At Setsuna's gesture, Ranma put his hand to the door and slowly opened
it. He stepped inside. Setsuna followed, but remained in the doorway.
The interior was decorated with crescent moons coupled with images of
food. The room was full of equipment, some of which Ranma recognized
as archaic forms of modern kitchen appliances. It was all, so far as
he could tell, in perfect condition.
Inside were two men and two women. One couple -- for it was obvious
that the black-haired woman and the white-haired man were a couple --
sat at a table at the far side of the room. The other two were busy at
all the equipment, cooking food.
The door had opened silently and none of the four had yet noticed
Ranma, so he spoke. "Uh, hello?"
The blonde woman standing over a pot of curry turned and
stared. "Ranma? Is that you?" When he hesitantly nodded, she left her
cooking and dashed over to enfold him in a hug. "Mamo-chan, Luna,
Artemis! Look at my son, all grown up!"
"Mo...." Ranma found his voice. "Mother?" He found himself returning
the embrace. "Mother?"
"Oh, Ranma, it's so good to finally see you after all these years."
She began to cry into his shoulder.
The second man in the room joined the hug. "Hello, my son. I wish... I
wish I could have seen you grow up."
"At least I finally know you now." Ranma smiled. After a moment, he
sniffed. "What's burning?"
"My curry!" The woman with the blonde pigtails broke out of the
embrace and ran back to the stove. "Oh, it's ruined. The one time a
month I get to make lunch and then you show up and I go and ruin the
curry."
The man let go of Ranma and chuckled. "There's still enough food,
Usako. And I don't think our guests will mind if you make more curry
later, if you really want to."
Ranma grinned. "I sure won't mind. But why can't you make lunch more
than once a month? Does Queen Serenity not like you using this old
equipment or something?"
All four people looked stunned. The black-haired woman recovered
first. "Ranma, didn't Setsuna tell you who your parents were?"
"No... She said they worked in the palace, but she didn't say anything
else."
The woman's companion snorted. "I'll say they work. They work the
hardest of anyone here. Young man, your parents are King Endymion and
Queen Serenity."
"WHAT?"
"It's true, Ranma," Setsuna stepped out of the doorway and helped
Ranma to one of the chairs. "I wanted it to be a surprise."
"Well, it was." Ranma sat down. "So. You're my parents. The King and
Queen."
The two nodded as they pulled up chairs of their own.
"You don't look much like royalty dressed like that." Ranma gave a
short chuckle. Indeed, the Queen was wearing a fading sundress and the
King wore an apron over his short-sleeved shirt and pants.
"Well, like Usako said, we only get to do this once a month, or else
the staff get upset. Once a month, we ignore who we are in the public
eye and just spend time as ourselves with our friends. Part of that is
cooking for ourselves."
"And speaking of which...." The Queen grinned and began to bring over
plates of food. "Will you join us, Setsuna?"
"Certainly, provided it is your husband who did the bulk of the
cooking."
"I'm not THAT bad, am I?"
Setsuna and Endymion nodded.
"Mouu!" Serenity shook her head and pulled a plate towards herself.
The white-haired man coughed slightly. "Mmm?"
"Yes, Artemis?" Serenity looked up from her rice and fish.
The black-haired woman leaned over and whispered in the Queen's ear.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot to introduce you. Ranma, this is Luna. And
this is Artemis, her husband. And of course you both know Ranma. You
were there when he was an infant." Serenity nodded and returned to her
food. Ranma bowed as well as he was able, sitting in a chair.
Implications began to occur to him. "My parents are the King and
Queen. That makes me a prince, right?"
"Actually, you're the crown prince, Ranma, since you're the only
child," Luna answered.
"And that's actually part of the problem, Ranma," Setsuna spoke
up. "I'm an expert on time and it's part of the historic record that
for at least several more years, the Queen only had one child. But
it's also part of the record that the Queen's child was the crown
princess. As in female."
"No." Ranma shook his head. "I'm a guy." This was all too much and
Ranma found himself retreating from the assault in the only way he
could: ignore it until it goes away.
"We know that, Ranma," his mother said. "Which is why we were all very
surprised when you were born. As far as we knew, my first child was a
girl named Usagi who, a few years from now, travelled back in time a
thousand years to help us fight certain enemies. When you were born,
we could tell you were the same person as Usagi; your 'mental
signature', for lack of a better phrase, was identical to hers."
"No. No way. Not happening. I'll be going now, thanks." Ranma stood
up.
Setsuna pulled a photo out of her pocket and placed it on the
table. "Recognize her, Ranma?" He looked at it. In the picture was a
teenage girl looking rather surprised. Her pink hair was done up in
pigtails. She was, as near as he could tell, his cursed form. He felt
cold water pouring over him. Ranma spun around to see Setsuna
holding an empty glass over her head.
"You are her, Ranma. Like it or not, you are that girl. You will save
your parents' lives one thousand years ago." Setsuna's voice was firm.
She knew it was true. All of a sudden, she knew it was true. She
looked at the photo, then looked at her mother. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you send me away and just bring me back to tell me this?"
Ranma struggled to hold back her tears.
"There was no other way." Setsuna stood up. "Or, more accurately, you
would not have liked the few other ways that there were."
Serenity burst into tears and held onto Ranma. Reluctantly, Ranma put
her arms around her mother. She knew that this woman was her mother,
somehow, though she didn't know how she knew it. And so she held her
mother until the blonde stopped crying. "I'm so sorry we had to do
this to you, Ranma, my son. I'm so very very sorry."
Ranma smiled faintly and wiped the tears from her mother's
cheek. Warily, she asked, "I've gotta save the world, then. What do I
gotta do?"
Setsuna sighed in relief. "Well, it starts like this...."
----------
Author's Notes:
Heh. I wanted to be done with R by the end of July. It's 7:00 on July
25th right now, and I'm nowhere near there. Oh well. At least I know
what I'm doing. And this went fast, at least, since I started on the
22nd.
Oh, and I'm not finished with Genma yet, just so you know.