[FFML] [fanfic][Ranma][Sailormoon][SMT] Chikan Senshi Sailormoon, Chapter 3

[Mythril Moth]

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Disclaimers: Ranma 1/2 is the intellectual property of Takahashi Rumiko.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is the intellectual property of Takeuchi Naoko.
Shin Megami Tensei is the intellectual property of Atlus.
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Chapter Three:
  "Mamoru's Grief! The Terror Of Talking Cats!"

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The Senshi stood protectively around the body of their fallen leader. Makoto 
tapped her foot impatiently. "Dammit...!" she growled. "It's been over half 
an hour! What the hell is wrong with the police around here?!"

Ranma shuffled her feet. "Uhh...yeah...this part'a town's kinda weird, an' 
with all th' crazy fights we have around here all th' time, there's some or 
another kinda big disaster damn near every other week, so...th' cops've just 
kinda given up on this place."

Rei grumbled. "You coulda told us that earlier."

"Sorry."

"Don't snap at Ranko-chan," Minako admonished. "She's doing her best. 
This...I don't think any of us really know what to do right now."

Rei looked down and away. "Sorry."

"Hey, it's cool," Ranma said. "You just lost your best friend. I know how 
pissed you are. If somethin' like this happened t' Ucchan, or Ryouga, or 
Akane..." She shook her head. "If any one'a my friends had...this happen to 
'em...I'd be tearin' shit up all over th' place."

As they continued to wait, Ranma became increasingly uneasy, shifting her 
weight and looking alertly all around her. By the time they finally heard 
sirens in the distance, she suddenly said, "I'm comin' with you." Before any 
of the others could say anything, she pulled her own phone, sealed in a 
watertight aluminum case, out of her pocket. "Yo, Kasumi," she said once the 
party on the other end picked up, "I gotta be someplace right now. I might 
not be back 'til after dark, if I'm back tonight at all. Just...tell 
everyone not t' worry about me, okay? I just gotta handle somethin'. Cool. 
Thanks. No, I'm alright. No, nothin' like that. Listen, I gotta go now. 
Later." With that, she disconnected the call and slipped her phone back into 
her pocket.

"Nice phone case," Minako said.

Ranma chuckled. "Y'see th' kinda fights I get inta all th' time. Keeps it 
from gettin' broke. Keeps it from gettin' wet, too. I'm kind of a water 
magnet."

A patrol car and an ambulance finally arrived at that moment. After fielding 
a number of uncomfortable questions, Ami and Rei insisted that Usagi's body 
be transported to Juuban Medical Center. "That's where we all live. Where 
she lived. And my mother is a doctor there," Ami explained.

Rei insisted on riding with Usagi. The rest of the girls piled into the 
patrol car, and soon the two vehicles were on their way to Minato-ku.

* * * * *

In the back of the patrol car, Minako, face pale with dread, made a series 
of phone calls.

"Ikuko-basan? It's Minako. Anou...you need to drop everything you're doing, 
round up Kenji-jisan and Shingo-kun, and meet up with us at Juuban Medical 
Center. Something bad happened to Usagi-chan. We're all on our way there 
now. It'll be a little while, we're coming in from Nerima-ku. ...I'd rather 
not tell you over the phone. We'll see you when we get there."

"Mamoru-san?  It's Minako. You need to meet us at the Medical Center as soon 
as you can. Usagi-chan's family should be on their way there. It'll take us 
a while to get there. ...hai. That's right. I'm sorry. No, don't blame 
yourself. There's no way you could've...you'd never have made it in time. We 
were in Nerima-ku when it happened. Look, I can't explain everything right 
now, but we'll...hai. Hai. See you there, then."

Minako sighed as she hung up, rubbing at her eyes, which were filling with 
tears again. Ami looked at her. "He knew?"

"Of course he knew," Minako replied. "He was already halfway across Shinjuku 
when...when she..."

"Right, he would've been, wouldn't he?" Ami replied. At Ranma's questioning 
gaze, Ami said, "We'll explain later." She glanced at the front seat, and 
the policeman driving the car, out of the corner of her eye. Ranma nodded.

"Are you gonna call Haruka-san and Michiru-san?" Makoto asked Minako. 
"They...they need to know too."

"Oh, right, I really should." Sighing, Minako placed another call. 
"Haruka-san? It's Minako. Listen...Usagi's dead. No, this isn't a joke. 
She...was murdered this afternoon. We were in Nerima-ku. We're...all of us 
are headed back now, with her body. We already called her family and 
Mamoru-san, they're all meeting us at the Medical Center. I can't say much 
about it right now. Can you and Michiru-san meet up with us? Bring 
Setsuna-san too, if she's around."

The look on her face told the others that Haruka had hung up on her rather 
abruptly.

"Think they'll come?" Makoto asked.

"I hope so," Minako sighed. "We may not be close, but at the very least they 
respected her..."

The rest of the trip to Juuban was made in silence.

* * * * *

Ranma felt like a fifth wheel as she hung back from the crowd in the waiting 
room. Tsukino Ikuko, a middle-aged but still attractive woman with wavy 
blue-black hair, was sobbing loudly. Behind her, her husband Kenji, a 
kind-faced salaryman with short hair, absently polished his square-rimmed 
glasses while be blinked back tears; he was clearly fighting not to break 
down. Usagi's little brother Shingo sat morosely on a bench beside his 
family, looking at the floor and saying nothing. Rei stood with Usagi's 
parents, attempting to console them while at the same time looking very much 
in need of consoling herself.

If Usagi's parents were in bad shape, the man sitting in the corner of the 
waiting room was utterly, completely broken. Ranma wasn't the most empathic 
or sympathetic person in the whole world, but even she could see that this 
guy looked as though his soul had been ripped out.

"Mamoru-san is...*was* her boyfriend," Ami whispered quietly to Ranma.

Ranma blinked. "Ain't he a little..."

"Older than her? Yes. It's...a long story."

Ranma shrugged. "It don't bother me none. Besides, he looks like hell. He 
musta really loved her."

"More than life itself. He'd have died in her place, had he been there."

In another corner of the room, two tall women, one with sandy blond hair and 
dressed in male clothes, the other an elegant, graceful beauty with long 
aquamarine tresses, stood conversing in low tones with Minako and Makoto. 
Occasionally, one or more of the small group would cast a glance at Ranma; 
she pretended not to notice.

Ranma had quickly cottoned on to the fact that Usagi's parents had no clue 
she was Sailor Moon, and that the others didn't want that to be public 
knowledge; they had told the police and Usagi's family, rather convincingly, 
that Usagi was murdered by some freak in a costume carrying a huge sword, 
and that the killer ran off before they could try to stop him. The lie was 
likely to put half of Fuurinkan on edge for a long time, but it at least 
seemed to satisfy the police, since the story matched the apparent cause of 
Usagi's death.

And it was, after all, at least partially true--Usagi *had* been impaled by 
some freak with a huge sword.

Rei suddenly walked over to Ranma and Ami. "Her family needs to be alone for 
a while," she said. "The rest of us are going to go back to my place for 
now. Mamoru-san's going to come too, if I can pry him off that bench."

"Are you sure he'll be willing to leave right now?" Ami asked. "I mean..."

"Nothing good can come of him sitting around in the same place...in the same 
place her body is," Rei said miserably. "And we need him. We need to tell 
him what really happened."

"What really...wait, y'mean he knows she was...?" Ranma asked.

"Hai," Rei replied. "I guess there's a lot we need to explain to *you* while 
we're at it."

"Yeah, no kiddin'." Ranma shuffled her feet. "Okay, round everyone up an' 
let's get th' hell outta here. I don't think I can take much more o' 
watchin' her folks cry anyway."

Rei nodded. "It hurts like hell," she said in a hoarse whisper. 
"It's...better to do something more productive right now."

Ami glanced up sharply. "I just thought of something."

"What is it, Ami-chan?"

"Luna and Artemis...they don't know yet."

Rei winced. "Oh GOD. Luna's going to go completely berserk. She's known 
Usagi longer than any of us."

"Well, Minako-chan can pick Artemis up and bring him to the shrine, but what 
about Luna? I don't feel right just going over and..."

Rei glanced at her watch. "Actually, I think Luna's usually out right about 
now. Maybe we'll run into her. If not, I'm sure Artemis knows how to get in 
touch with her right away."

"This...Luna whoever...she don't got a phone?" Ranma asked.

Rei couldn't help but giggle. "That would be an interesting sight," she 
said. At Ranma's puzzled expression, she added, "You'll understand when you 
meet her."

* * * * *

A very sober group boarded a bus near the medical center, bound for the stop 
near Hikawa Shrine. On the bus, Mamoru kept sneaking glances at Ranma; she 
wasn't sure if it was because she was unfamiliar, or because she was covered 
in Usagi's blood.

After what felt like entirely too long, the bus disgorged Ranma, Rei, 
Makoto, Ami, and Mamoru; Minako had gone with the two older girls to collect 
Artemis, and Rei assured Ranma that with the way Haruka drove, that group 
would be with them shortly.

Ranma whistled as he looked up at the torii. "So, you really live at a 
shrine?" he asked Rei.

"Hai. This shrine has been maintained by my family for generations. I'm 
training as a miko." She studied the petite redhead and frowned. "Would you 
like me to get you a change of clothes?

Ranma looked down at herself and grimaced. "Uhh...yeah. I think...that'd be 
a good idea."

"We'll wait out here while Ranko-chan gets changed," Makoto said. Rei nodded 
to her, and the two girls rushed up the steps to the shrine.

Once they were gone, Mamoru asked, "Who *is* that girl?"

"Her name is Ranko. She hasn't given us her family name yet," Ami explained. 
"She was...involved in the incident earlier. It's better to wait until we're 
all inside to talk about it." She noticed the furrowing of Mamoru's brow, 
and added, "Ranko-chan did everything she could to help us today. She feels 
very bad about not being able to save Usagi-chan. Please don't be cold or 
hostile to her."

"I won't, but...what do you mean, she tried to save Usagi? A regular person 
got involved in...in a Senshi fight?"

Makoto chuckled. "If there's one thing Ranko-chan isn't, it's normal."

Ami's phone rang. She answered it, spoke briefly, and nodded. "Okay, 
Ranko-chan's changed. Let's go up."

* * * * *

As Makoto, Ami, and Mamoru entered the shrine, Rei was just hanging up the 
phone. She had changed clothes as well, having also gotten quite a bit of 
Usagi's blood on her. Ranma was already seated at the low table, now dressed 
in a spare set of miko raiments. The others seated themselves around the 
table.

"That was Minako-chan," Rei said. "They just picked up Artemis and Luna, and 
they're on the way."

"They found Luna that fast?" Makoto asked.

"She was with Artemis, it turns out," Rei said, an amused smile on her face. 
She shook her head. "I'll be back in a minute with tea."

As she left the room, Mamoru turned to face Ranma. "I'm told you fought to 
protect Usako."

"I tried," the redhead said uncomfortably. She looked away. "They told me 
you an' her were..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her."

"It can't be helped," Mamoru said with a sigh. "Just the fact that you tried 
counts for a lot." He clenched his fists tightly, head bowed. "Dammit...if 
I'd only been able to make it there...!"

"They said you knew Usagi was in trouble," Ranma said. "How...?"

Mamoru smiled thinly. "I suppose, since it appears you already know quite a 
bit about us..." He withdrew a long-stemmed red rose from his pocket. He 
began to shimmer and blur; an instant later, his clothing had transformed 
into a black tuxedo with a long, red-lined opera cape. A white silk domino 
mask covered his eyes.

Ranma blinked. "Oh...kay..."

"Ranko-chan, Mamoru-san is Tuxedo Kamen. You have no idea who that is, do 
you?"

"Nuh-uh."

"I've been Usako's protector since before I knew who she was," Tuxedo Kamen 
said, reversing his transformation. "I have a deep connection with 
her...I've always been able to sense when she was in danger, and until 
today, I've never failed to protect her when she needed me. 
Until...today..." Mamoru bowed his head, silent tears spilling from his 
eyes. As Rei returned with a tray of tea and crackers, Mamoru looked up at 
her. In a hoarse whisper, he asked, "What happened, Rei?"

Rei sighed. "We were attacked," she said simply. "Some monster showed up, we 
fought it. Ranko helped. She's an incredibly powerful martial artist. The 
monster...it was strong, and it hurt Usagi pretty bad, but with Ranko's 
help, we were able to weaken it enough for her to finish it off. Then, while 
we were all checking on Usagi to see how badly she was hurt, this...man, 
with purple skin, showed up, and he just ran her through with a sword. 
There...wasn't any time for any of us to do anything. He came out of 
nowhere, and it was over before any of us really realized what was 
happening."

Mamoru nodded, face grim. "Naruhodo." He shook his head. "So...there's a new 
enemy. And we have to fight without Sailor Moon...without the Gin..." His 
head snapped up sharply. "The Ginzuishou. What happened to it?!"

Rei shifted uncomfortably. "About that, well..."

Ranma raised her hand. "I've got it," she said.

Mamoru stared at her, eyes wide. "You...?"

"Usagi kinda gave it t' me, just before she died," Ranma said. She reached 
into her top and pulled out a locket which hung around her neck on a long 
loop of yarn. She pressed the two dots on the face of the locket; it opened 
to reveal the brilliant, shimmery crystal.

Mamoru gasped. "But...why..."

Rei and Ami exchanged a glance. Ami nodded grimly. Rei sat down beside 
Mamoru and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mamoru-san...I know this is going 
to be hard for you to accept, but..." She took a deep breath. "Ranko...Usagi 
chose her..." She stopped for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to deliver 
the news.

"I'm her replacement," Ranma said bluntly. "I'm Sailor Moon now."

Mamoru's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"

"Mamoru-san...the new enemy is after the Ginzuishou. Usagi was targeted 
specifically. They knew she had it. That's what they were after. I 
believe...they knew she was the only one who could use the Ginzuishou."

Ranma nodded. "That's what Princess Serenity told me, when we were all 
knocked out."

"Princess...Serenity told you..." Mamoru frowned, brow furrowed. "What do 
you mean?"

"There's a piece of Usagi's soul still inside th' crystal," Ranma explained. 
"I *still* don't get th' whole Princess Serenity thing, but anyway, she 
talked t' me, an' she asked me t' take her place, 'cuz it ain't enough just 
t' protect the crystal. Somebody's gotta be able t' *use* it, or we're all 
screwed."

"Sou ka..." Mamoru said thickly, eyes cloudy with pain. He gazed intently at 
Ranma, then nodded. "If...if she chose you...as her successor...I'll do my 
best to protect you and the Ginzuishou, at any cost."

Ranma laughed. "Thanks. Don't worry too much, though. I've pretty much got 
things under control."

"Ranko-chan was beating the hell out of the monster we were fighting, and 
that was *before* she turned into Sailor Moon," Makoto said. "Without any 
Senshi powers whatsoever, she went all Street Fighter on that thing. It was 
unbelievable!"

"How DID you do that, Ranko-chan?" Ami asked. "I didn't think people could 
actually do things like that in real life."

Ranma chuckled. "Like I said, I'm th' best in th' whole world." She quickly 
sobered, and looked down at the table. "Anou...there's somethin' ya gotta 
know, though. About me. I got this kinda, well, problem..."

The others looked at her with concern. "What is it, Ranko? We'll help 
however we can."

"I wish you could," Ranma replied. She sighed, glancing at her teacup. She 
swallowed heavily. "Maybe I better wait 'til th' others get here, though. I 
don't wanna hafta explain it more than once..."

The door slid open. "We're here!" Minako called out.

A moment later, three girls walked through the door. A blue-black blur shot 
across the room and landed on the table in front of Rei. "Tell me it's not 
true! Usagi-chan...she can't really be dead!"

Rei opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by an ear-splitting scream.

The Senshi and Mamoru all stared in alarm at Ranma, who was suddenly 
clinging to the ceiling and screaming her head off. 
"C...c....c.....c......CAAAAAAAAAAT!!"

"What the hell?" Makoto wondered, eyes wide with shock.

"Ranko?" Rei asked. "Are you...alright?"

The redhead declined to respond, electing instead to tremble and stutter in 
terror.

"Luna! Artemis! Wait outside!" Ami hissed at the two cats. Exchanging 
puzzled glances, they left the room, casting curious stares back over their 
shoulders at the freaked-out redhead on the ceiling.

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "Wow, I've never seen ailurophobia THAT bad 
before."

"Neither have I," Ami said. "This...complicated things."

"Ranko?" Rei called softly. "The cats are gone...please come down..."

"G-gone?" Ranma said, looking around warily. At the distinct lack of cats in 
the room, she took a deep, shuddering breath, dropped from the ceiling, and 
landed in a seated position at the table. "Sorry about that," she said.

"It's okay. We didn't know you were afraid of cats." Rei paused. "Is that 
what you were going to tell us?"

Ranma shuddered. "No...it's somethin' else. But I..." She paused suddenly. 
"Wait a sec. That c-cat...it didn't..." She shook her head. "Nah, couldn't 
be. I'm imaginin' things..."

"Talk? Yes, she can. Luna and Artemis--the white cat that was with her--can 
both talk," Ami explained. At Ranma's wide-eyed stare, she continued, 
"they're not ordinary cats, Ranko-chan. And I'm sorry to say this, but now 
that you're Sailor Moon, it's important for you to be able to deal with this 
ailurophobia, because Luna and Artemis are very important members of our 
team..."

"Wait. Back up there," Haruka said sharply. "What do you mean, 'now that 
she's Sailor Moon'?"

Rei took a deep breath, and explained everything that had happened in Nerima 
to the late arrivals...

* * * * *

Haruka and Michiru stared at the petite redhead. "Odango really gave you the 
Ginzuishou, right before she died?"

"Yeah. An' now I'm Sailor Moon. It ain't exactly th' best thing that coulda 
happened t' me, but I gotta do it. I'm gonna find out whoever th' hell's 
behind all this, an' they're gonna pay."

//You're absolutely certain that this new enemy was after the Ginzuishou?// 
a voice issued from the speaker of a mobile phone sitting in the middle of 
the table; before Rei had begun her explanation, Minako had gotten the idea 
to shove one of their phones outside, in speakerphone mode, with another 
phone on the table inside, so that Luna and Artemis could be included 
despite having been forced out on account of Ranma's ailurophobia.

Ranma shuddered, but fought it down to reply, "Yeah. That purple-skinned 
bastard was hell bent on takin' th' crystal from me."

//That's...troubling,// Luna said. //I honestly can't think of anyone we 
haven't already faced who would even know about the Ginzuishou.//

//Me either,// Artemis added. //This one's a total mystery.//

"Ranko-chan," Minako said, "you said there was something you wanted to tell 
all of us, right?"

"Oh, yeah, that. I almost forgot." Ranma chuckled nervously. She took a deep 
breath. "First, I think we need more tea."

"Sure thing," Rei said. A few minutes later, she returned and refilled 
everyone's cup with fresh, hot tea.

"Okay, so spill your big secret," Haruka said, eyeing the redhead, arms 
folded.

"Okay, here goes..." Ranma picked up her teacup, but instead of drinking it, 
she dumped it over her head.

She gained a significant amount of height. Her hair turned jet black.

With a rough, masculine voice so very different from the voice they had 
heard earlier, Ranma said, "I'm Saotome Ranma. Sorry about this."

==================
Mythril Moth
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