Big thanks to LarryF for answering my previous question about
El-Hazard.

Now I have another one:

I'm currently undergoing the somewhat painfully slow process
of revising No Need for Ranma!, trying to clean up the plot.  I've
decided that the whole Sailor Moon angle was just too much of
a pain to keep so got rid of it (besides, I have two other Ranma/
Sailor Moon crossovers in the works and need all my ideas for
them).  My problem is that I need to give Ukyo a power-up or
she won't be able to be in the finale for season one (and I want
her to be there).  So what other character from another series
can I fuse her with that would be about equal in power with
Sailor Jupiter?

I was thinking of either fusing her with Umi from Ray Earth, or
make her a forth magic knight.  This would take place after the
series so less plot carry-over to deal with and less characters.
There's also the added bonus of having Hikaru and Ranma-chan
getting mistaken for each other.  The only problem is I've only
seen the first 4 episodes of MKR and have no idea how the
series ends.  Can anybody give me a quick summary or direct
me to a webpage where I can find one?  I've looked, but all 
I found pertained to the begining of the series.

And now a teaser:

Passing Strangers on a Moonlit Night
(A Ranma � / Sailor Moon Alt History)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://members.tripod.com/~Ammadeau/fanfiction.htm

1980
	The doctor slowly approached the pensive man in the 
waiting room, who was wearing a martial arts gi of all things.  The 
doctor wanted to say this in just the right way since the man had 
already fainted once.  You'd think a martial artist could stand 
seeing his own child being born.
	"Well doctor?" the man asked nervously.
	"Congratulations Mr. Saotome, it's a boy . . ."
	A boy, boy!  Genma thought, suddenly hugging the 
surprised doctor and dancing around the room at the same time.  
Finally, he had an heir!
	When the man had finally calmed down, the doctor told 
him the rest of the news, ". . . and it's a girl!"
	Genma Saotome, master of Anything Goes Martial Arts, 
fainted once again.

1985
	Genma grumbled again as he watched Ranma and Ami 
playing when the boy should have been practicing.  He had tried to 
speak to his wife about it, but she simply couldn't understand.  
How was he supposed to raise the boy to the best martial artist of 
his generation with all these women around babying him?  
Something had to be done.

1988
	Mrs. Saotome wiped tears from her eyes as she put down 
the phone.  She had always regretted making that fool agreement 
with her husband, but never more so than that moment.  Ever since 
then she had felt their absence and had told her friends to bring her 
any news of her son and husband.
	She just had a report of a young boy being rescued from a 
pit of cats, but too late.  He was so torn up that they doubted the 
boy would last long.  Before they could bring him to the hospital 
however, a bald man in a gi grabbed him and ran away.  With 
immediate medical attention there was no chance the boy would 
survive.  She had no reason to doubt her friend who was a doctor 
like herself.
	That was it.  Her son Ranma, who she had not seen in three 
years, was now dead because of her husband's foolishness.  No, 
husband no longer, for what he had done had gone well beyond her 
breaking point.  It was time to renounce Mrs. Saotome and become 
Dr. Mizuno again.
	"What's wrong mom?" Ami asked her as she walked into 
the room.  She had become such a polite and studious child after 
getting over the loss of the brother and father that she no longer 
remembered.  It seemed that forgetting their existence was the only 
way in which she could deal with there being gone.  While it was 
nice for her to not have to worry about Ami getting into any 
trouble, she still wished that her daughter would go out and have 
fun like she had with her forgotten brother.
	
	With people still looking for him after the cat incident, 
Genma had decided to head to China a little earlier than he had 
originally planned.  That meant skipping on those Chinese 
language courses he was planning on taking, but he wasn't worried.  
What could go wrong?

1995

	Ranma scoffed as he looked over the long bamboo poles 
jutting out of shallow pools.  "This is a training ground?  Doesn't 
look that tough to me."
	"Enough of your whining boy," Genma declared, leaping 
up to land only a bit unsteadily on one of the poles.  His 
unsteadiness was mostly due to his large paunch rather than a lack 
of skill.  It was actually a testament to his ability as a martial artist 
that the thin bamboo pole could support his considerable bulk.  
"Let's get to training."
	Ranma nodded and took his place on one of the other poles, 
maintaining perfect balance, but not without some effort.
	Both of them ignored their guide yelling warnings in bad 
Japanese as they simultaneously leapt up and began their training.

	The guide sighed and found a comfortable place to sit.  
They never did listen, not until afterwards at least.  He got out a tea 
pot and started making some warm water.  He knew that he was 
going to need it.

	Ranma got in a lucky shot.  There was a momentary slip in 
his father's defenses and he went for it, knocking the old man into 
one of the shallow pools.  Or at least Ranma believed them to be 
shallow before; that pool seemed to swallow his father up until he 
couldn't be seen.
	Ranma expected his father to leap right out again, probably 
complaining about his ungrateful son getting him wet.  He did not 
expect the unearthly silence to remain unbroken for several 
minutes, nor for their guide to suddenly spring up and rush over to 
the pool with a long, thick branch, muttering to himself in Chinese.  
Ranma got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach that something 
had just gone very wrong.
	By the time he was down by the pool where his father had 
landed, the guide and pulled his pop from it and was yelling at 
Ranma not to touch anything wet.  Ranma noticed that the guide 
himself was wearing thick rubber gloves as he hauled Genma onto 
dry land and flipped him over on his back.  He also noticed that his 
father's skin looked pale and waxy, all except for a large, purplish 
bruise on his forehead.
	He watched the guide check over his father for several 
moments, sigh finally, take out a notebook, and start to write.  
Ranma had picked up a few things during their trip to China, one 
of which was reading some Chinese.  He peered over the guide's 
shoulder and read, "Spring of Drowned Martial Artist."
	The word 'drowned' hit him like a hammer.  'No, it can't be 
true.'
	"Come on, wake up pop," Ranma said frantically as he 
shook his father, "I'm not falling for your tricks this time old man.  
I know you're just pretending to be unconscious.  Wake up!"
	"It no use, Mr. Customer," the guide told him in a resigned 
tone, "he gone."
	Ranma wanted to deny it, to explain to the guide that his 
father was always faking things like this, but his eyes were drawn 
to the bruise which was starting to yellow at the edges and skin that 
was now so pale that it was almost translucent.
	"No!!!!" Ranma screamed and ran, in the grip of a panic 
worse than any caused by cats.  He practically flew through the 
valley as the guide struggled to keep up, shouting more warnings 
in broken Japanese.
	Ranma didn't even see the pool before he hit it.  His eyes 
had been too filled with tears to notice anything at that point.  The 
sudden splash caught him by surprise, as well as the odd tingling 
sensation that swept through his body.  Somehow the coolness of 
the water restored his rationality.  He knelt in the water and took a 
deep breath.

	This gave the guide enough time to catch up, though he was 
gasping for air as he stood by the side of the pool.  "Very bad," he 
said as if reading an often rehearsed speech, "You fall in 
Nannichian, Spring of Drowned Girl . . .?"
	The guide was shocked to find that Mr. Customer was still 
a mister.  The way that the gi was plastered to him because of the 
water left no doubt that this was still a boy.  How could that be?  
He checked his notebook and it was clearly marked as the drowned 
girl spring.  The drowned boy spring was on the other side of the 
valley.
	"In all the years I work as guide," he said in Japanese, "This 
never happen before!  You fall in spring of drowned girl, but you 
not turn into girl!"

	Ranma decided that it would be best if his father's body 
was burned so he could take the ashes back to Japan, rather than 
burying him in such a foreign place.  Apparently, the neighboring 
Amazon tribe also dealt with their dead in this way, so the guide 
had known how to build a pyre from watching them.
	He had found his mother's address among his father's things 
and decided that the training journey was over, it was time to go 
home.

Chapter 1

Note:  This takes place a little after Sailor Moon S begins.  Ranma, 
like the Sailor Senshi, is fifteen.

	Ranma trudged through the streets of Juuban, slip of paper 
with address on it in one hand, umbrella in the other.  The rain was 
pouring down in sheets, obscuring everything.  He wasn't surprised 
though, it seemed that after Jusenkyo wherever he went water 
would find him.  It would have made sense if he had gotten cursed, 
but for some reason when he had fallen into that pool, nothing had 
happened.
	He finally found the address, it was a modest apartment in 
the obviously nicer part of the district.  Ranma stood before the 
door for some moments, gathering up his courage.  What would he 
say to his mother after so many years, after his father was dead?  
He was still too numb from his pop's death to feel anything but 
sadness and anger.
	When he finally rang the bell, he was surprised to be 
greeted at the door by a girl his own age.  She had short, blue-black 
hair and someone that he might have found cute under other 
circumstances.  There was also something deeply familiar about 
her, but he just couldn't place it.

	Ami put her book down as soon as she heard the doorbell.  
She expected it to be her mother and wanted to help her put away 
the groceries.  Her mother was usually so busy being a doctor that 
Ami had to do all the shopping, but she had some free time today 
and wanted to treat her daughter to a warm, home-cooked meal for 
once.  Ami would have preferred that her mother simply take it 
easy and relax, but found it difficult to argue with her mom.
	So Ami was very surprised to find a handsome pig-tailed 
boy at the door, looking somewhat somber and downcast.  She 
noted that his mood seemed to fit the weather perfectly, with the 
dark clouds and pouring rain.  There was also something familiar 
about him, but then it could have been his blue eyes, which were 
much like her mother's, and her own.
	"Can I help you?" she asked him.
	It took the boy a few moments to respond.  "Yes, does a 
Mrs. Saotome live here?"
	Ami thought for a moment.  While it did sound familiar, 
there wasn't any face she could place with it.  It could have been 
the previous owner, Ami had been little when they had moved 
there. "I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by that name.  Only my 
mother and I live here."
	"Oh."
	Ami had never heard such a tone of hopelessness conveyed 
in a single word before.  The very thought of turning this boy away 
in the rain made her heart hurt.  She couldn't do it, even if he was a 
complete stranger.
	"My mother might know her though.  She just stepped out 
to do some shopping, but should be back soon.  Why don't you 
come in and wait?"  Ami even smiled reassuringly at the boy.  She 
may have spent most of her time with books, but she knew a cute 
boy when she saw one.
	The boy seemed to want to study his feet.  "I don't know."
	Impulsively, Ami grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him 
inside.  "Come on, my mom should be home soon and you'll 
probably get soaked wandering around in the rain."

	Ms. Mizuno, who preferred not to be known as a doctor 
when she wasn't working, was putting away the groceries without 
really paying attention to what she was doing.  As a result Ami 
would have to straighten things out later, since the eggs ended up 
in the cabinet and the tofu in the freezer.  Ami was exactly who 
was causing her to be distracted.  She had expected to be greeted at 
the door when she rang the bell, only to stand in the rain like a fool 
for several minutes.
	She had come in the house with every intention of seeking 
her daughter out, only to be stopped by a sound that she hadn't 
heard in a long time, laughter.  'Her always-serious daughter was 
actually laughing?'  The next sound she heard might have even 
been more of a surprise.  'A boy's voice?  Her, never went on a date 
no matter how much she was encouraged to do so, daughter 
actually had a boy over?'  Whatever the reason for these surprising 
events, Ms. Mizuno was determined to stay out of sight and not 
spoil them.  That didn't mean she wouldn't take a little peek around 
the corner and get a look at this boy.  She had to make sure if he 
was right for her daughter after all.

	Ranma found himself smiling, something her hadn't done in 
weeks.  He didn't know why exactly, just somehow this girl just 
brought it out of him, like a part of himself that had been buried 
long ago.

	Both Ami and Ranma were surprised by a large gasp they 
heard from somewhere in the direction of the kitchen.  Ami was 
suddenly worried.  She had forgotten all about her mother and 
knew how this might look to her. In truth, it was all perfectly 
innocent.  While she still thought the boy was cute, she no longer 
felt an attraction to him, at least in that way.  Ranma was becoming 
more like a friend than a boyfriend, sort of how Ami felt about 
Maramou.  She knew he was attractive, but just couldn't conceive 
of anything beyond friendship with him.

	Ranma was shocked when a middle-aged woman ran up to 
him and gathered him up into a giant hug.  "Ranma!" she shouted 
with tears in her eyes.

	"Mom, what's going on?" Ami asked with a slight tremor in 
her voice.  She had never seen her always-in-control mother act 
anything like this before, at least as far as she could remember.
	"Ami, this is your twin brother Ranma!"
	Ami did what any other sensible girl would have done in 
the same situation, she fainted.


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