Child of Love Children of Hate chapter four by jay f kominek Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko and some corporations. Ranma 1/2 is the property of Takashi Rumiko and some other corporations. I only claim ownership to the plot. It is not my intention to violate their copyrights, but instead to entertain. I can only hope to do so with a fraction of their skill. This story is meant to be distributed for free. Please do not change it, or stick your name on it. Pre-readers, to whom I am grateful: Jonas Fang, Lord Talon, hachiman, James Merritt Jr, Tigress Comments and feedback in all forms are appreciated. Insults are not. This story takes place after the ends of both Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. I mix and match the manga and anime continuities as I see fit. Minor details of the original series may go out the window in the face of artistic freedom. :) Past, present and future parts are available at: http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~kominek/fanfiction/ - - - - - - - - "While the exact origins of the technique have been lost, it is entirely ki-based, and thus completely safe for usage by anyone able to master it." - Chinese Amazon instruction text discussing the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken As the train screeched into the Nerima stop, four very special passengers prepared to disembark. Two were husband and wife, practitioners of one of the most advanced forms of martial arts ever devised. Two were young girls, reincarnations of magical warriors from a kingdom dead a millennium, and a millennium away from returning. All were nervous, though for various reasons. The first two shared a reason. Long ago, they'd sworn to produce an heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Instead, they had chosen to take their daughter away from the kind of chaos that would rain down upon her. Their daughter was one of the two young girls. She was basically unaware of her parents' oath, but she did know that her grandparents expected her to demonstrate some degree of martial arts talent which she did not possess. That fear, compounded with the fear of meeting her grandparents for the first time in her memory, was making for one nervous young girl. The last member of the entourage was also the least nervous. She experienced naught but a miniscule case of the jitters, and those only because she was going to be training with her idol. Even if she knew what would be expected of her idol's first student, she wouldn't have worried. Much. * * * * * * * * Mamoru Chiba looked about his fair sized apartment. His beloved, Usagi Tsukino, had been over the previous evening and left food and other detritus scattered all around. Sighing, he debated even bothering cleaning up before her return in another hour or two to the spend the afternoon with him. The phone decided for him and announced its decision by ringing. Twice. "Hello? This is Chiba." "Hey, Chiba. This is Haruka. Michiru.. and I were wondering if you could stop by the shrine in a little bit. We thought it might be a good idea to try and work with Rei to `investigate' these demons and figured you might could help us think of something." Nodding to nobody in particular, Mamoru thought for a second. "Sure, I can come by. Usagi is going to spend the afternoon with me, though, so I'll have to bring her with me." Ignoring the hurried and poorly hushed discussion that took place on the other side of the phone, Mamoru surveyed his poor apartment again and resigned himself to cleaning it up tomorrow. The safety of Tokyo took precedence over his tidiness. Haruka's tired voice returned to the phone, "Sure, what the hell, bring Usagi too." Smiling weakly, Mamoru drudged through the standard farewell pleasantries and got ready to leave. * * * * * * * * "Rei, the mail just came, would you please get it?" Pulling herself up from the floor, Rei dusted off her robes and adjusted her hair. Satisfied that she was presentable, she began trudging down the steps of the shrine towards the gate where the mail was delivered. *I wish the mail man could deliver to the top of the steps instead of the bottom. Oh well, that's too much to ask of Mr Dantomo, he _is_ getting on in the years.* Nearing the last few steps, Rei could hear the distinctive sound of Haruka's motorcycle purring its way along the pavement towards the gate of the shrine. The sound of another motorcycle and its passenger became audible as Rei's left foot touched down on ground level. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaa! I want you all to myself today, Mamo! Rei's *mean*!" Her hair wiggling back and forth as she shook her head, Rei just ignored Usagi's high-pitched wailings and continued towards the mailbox. Pulling the cover open, she slipped her hand in and grabbed the mail that was present. One engine shut off as she pulled the mail out. Flipping through the mail, she found that most of it was for her grandfather. A shrine owners' convention, a lingerie catalog, junk.. more junk.. and a letter to "Father Hino and Rei Hino." Hmming to herself, she wondered who it could be, since there was no return address, and the postmark placed the letter's origin in the Kumamoto Prefecture[1]. She didn't know anyone from Kumamoto. Curiosity gripped Rei. Luckily, it was easy to find out who sent the letter. So she did. A quick swipe of her hand tore the envelope open and pulled the letter out. A quick perusal told her everything there was to know, but not how to feel about it. With a sigh she looked up, Usagi was standing no more than a few feet away, talking at her. She didn't hear any of it. Haruka and Michiru were just sliding off their motorcycle. She'd wait until they were here to say anything. Glancing back at the small piece of paper, Rei found herself trying to decide how she felt. Happy. Sad. Angry. Indecision wracked her, until she decided to go with her default emotional state. Returning her eyesight to the horizontal, she found that Haruka and Michiru were also now present and staring at her, so she said it: "My parents are coming to visit. I'm so mad! Why couldn't they have visited sooner?" * * * * * * * * Another pesky grain of dust had fallen on the walkway. Intending to remove the offending dirt, Nodoka Saotome began to rise from her seated position. Reflexively her left hand moved to pick up the katana that she always carried. It wasn't there. Shock and worry set in for a moment until Nodoka remembered that she hadn't carried that blade for nearly 20 years. Her daughter-in-law now bore the Saotome honor blade in her stead. With a sigh, Nodoka continued towards the offending speck. Everything would be perfect for her son's return and meeting her granddaughter. It would be so wonderful to see the new heir to the family school. The broom almost in hand, Nodoka came to a stop. Someone was at the door. *Knock* *Knock* Sheer glee filled Nodoka's heart as she scrambled towards the door. She wished she had another chance to make sure that Soun and Genma weren't drinking again, but then, some things were just unstoppable. "Coming!" she announced, loudly. She could hear voices on the other side of the door, one was a man's.. it just _had_ to be Ranma! Behind her she could hear other mens' voices. Genma and Soun must've heard it, too. Almost there.. hand on the latch.. pull it open.. and.. "Ranma! My son!" Latching herself around Ranma's torso, Nodoka hardly noticed the breathless choking noises he was making. Then someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me? My father can't breathe." Nodoka whirled around to face Minako, who was taking on the appearance of a small furry animal trapped in the headlights of an oncoming truck. "Minako?" Minako gulped visibly and then nodded. It didn't take her too long to regret it. "MINAKO! GRANDDAUGHTER!" "Murfflurghleflub!" Concerned at her daughter's inability to clearly enunciate, Nodoka pulled back and gave Minako an appraising eye. "Is something wrong, dear?" "Grandma?" Nodoka's head bobbed exuberantly, and Minako began to beam happily. She gave a quick bow and said, "It's very nice to meet you." "And you as well," Nodoka returned the bow with a bemused expression, "I look forward to seeing the heir to the family school." Everyone except Hotaru gulped. Not one to forget anyone, Nodoka turned to Hotaru next. "Whom do we have here?" "I'm Hotaru Tomoe," she bowed politely, with a giggle and a smile. "It's very nice to meet you. I am Nodoka Saotome." Nodoka turned to her son, arching an eyebrow in the process. The question on her mind was quite obvious. "Hotaru is my first student." "I see," Nodoka quickly gave Hotaru another appraising look. "Well then, come in, come in. I believe Genma and Soun are already progressing nicely through the sake we bought to celebrate." * * * * * * * * Usagi was already quite bored. First she'd had to listen to Rei rant for a good 15 minutes *or* *more* about her parents coming to visit and how they should've visited sooner. Then Rei had started going on about how her parents should've come to visit sooner. Almost all Usagi could think about (until snacks arrived) was how glad she was that Rei's parents weren't visiting for a few weeks. Rei would've had a fit about having to clean up if they'd been coming any sooner. Finally she'd been forced to endure Michiru and Rei talking about vision interpretation for the past 5 minutes! It was getting to be more than she could take. In a clever attempt to try and get someone more fun involved, Usagi had suggested inviting Ami over to "discuss" the subject at hand, too. Haruka's words still rang in Usagi's ears, "I already tried to get ahold of Ami. She was busy, and her mother didn't know what it was." Sighing, Usagi shoved a few more cookies into her mouth and swallowed. Her throat barely cleared of food, she piped up, "Hey. When are we going to do something fun?" Calm as always, Michiru replied, "Usagi, we are trying to discuss the visions we've been having about the current enemy. This is very important, and it seems to be the only thing we can do to assist the Saotomes in what is likely going to become a fight which only they can handle." Her shoulders sank, "You will recall that during our previous fight... we were, ah... Less than effective until the very end when one of the demons was finally weakened enough to destroy it." Solemnly, Usagi did nod her agreement. She definitely remembered destroying that demon. In fact, remembering inspired a question. "Hey.. why is it that these demons are so much more powerful? We fought daimons before and beat 'em up good, even before we got powered up." "Ami explained this to you," stated Haruka, "don't you remember?" Not even waiting for Usagi to say "no," she continued, an oddly tired expression on her face. "The daimons weren't pure evil. They were like demons' `souls' bound to normal objects, which weakened them, but made them controllable by the Death Busters. What we're fighting now are real demons, in their natural form." "They're not weak, like daimons. They're pure evil." Slowly nodding, a question came to Usagi, "If the Death Busters had to, um, weaken the daimons so that they could control them.. then how was that girl `Cassia' controlling those two demons, and the ones before it?" Noone responded immediately, giving Usagi time to think "Oooo. I bet I know. When Ami and I showed up with the Saotomes to that last fight, `Cassia' pulled two of those demons out. It was hard to hear, but I think when they asked why they should do what she told them to do, she threatened to kill them." Michiru nodded and Mamoru whistled. Michiru followed her action up, unlike Mamoru, "If she could actually hope to follow through with such a threat, then it would make sense that the demons would obey her. But how would she get that kind of power? She can't be much older than Haruka and I. And while she seems to practice some form of martial arts, I was under the impression that not even Ranma had her power at that age." "Did anyone ask Ranma and Akane to try and identify the style that she used?" inquired Mamoru. After waiting a moment and receiving little but blank stares, he continued. "Well.. Has anyone asked the Saotomes where they get the power for their attacks?" Quick to pipe up this time, was Rei. "They're using ki I tell you!" "And then you say its impossible..." mumbled Usagi. Rei shook her head, swinging her black hair around. "No, it isn't _really_ impossible to do it. Gramps could probably make a ball of ki if he really wanted to. And there are stories of people being able to do the some of the same kinds of things, but in the stories, they always get very tired, and can't use those attacks much. There has to be some secret to it that only the Saotomes have figured out." "Could you tell us some of those stories?" requested Michiru. Rei hung her head. "No. I read them a very long time ago, and didn't pay much attention to them. I didn't really believe them until I saw the Saotomes in person." "What about the visions you've been getting, from the fire," Haruka pointed at Rei, "and the mirror," she nodded at Michiru. "When I try to ask the fire about our enemy, I just get strange pictures of standing water. And when I ask about the future, I see ice. Just.. ice. Its really weird because the Great Fire has never shown images of water before," finished Rei, a strange look on her face. "Standing water?" Haruka raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. I'm not shown to an edge, so it could be a puddle or a pond or an ocean for all I know." Rei paused and considered for a moment. "The more I think about it, though, the most I get the feeling that there is some sort of strong emotion attached to the water... something negative." She shrugged and said no more. Haruka continued pressing for more, "What about the ice?" "I didn't get anything else about the ice.. at all. Just *ice* and nothing more. Gives me the creeps to even think about it." Again, Rei went silent and retreated into her thoughts. Michiru took that as her cue, "The mirror consistently shows me images of duality when I ask about the current threat. The yin-yang, the dragon and the tiger, heaven and earth.. As far the future, I can't even begin to interpret the images. It depicts the Senshi, but, they're not the Senshi. Things change and shift, too, as though the future is somehow indefinite, which is impossible." "How is that impossible?" peeped Usagi. "You've seen the future," shrugged Michiru, "havn't you?" "Oh... Right." * * * * * * * * Minako, for all her dreams of becoming an idol singer, was not in the least bit prepared for all of the attention she was receiving. For a second, Minako was almost glad that she didn't have a fourth grandparent, but she quickly perished that thought. "Why look at our beautiful little granddaughter, Saotome! She is the spitting image of my dear departed Tomoya," Soun began to build up to wail when he was interrupted. "Um, Grandpa Tendo, could you tell me about Grandma?" Surprisingly, Soun stopped, and paused for a minute, while he looked at Minako. "I'd love to, granddaughter." * * * Nodoka rapidly grew tired of listening to Soun recount all of his failed attempts to court Tomoya, in chronological order. She was glad to see her granddaughter again, but a person could only listen to someone happily recount being malleted so many times. In retrospect, it was quite clear where Akane's temper had come from. Her mother was an absolute saint with her children, but that was it. With a sigh, she pulled herself to her feet and went to find her son. It couldn't be too difficult, the only three things he did was eat, sleep and practice. First stop, the kitchen. Poking her head in, Nodoka found it empty and undisturbed since she left it after preparing breakfast. Worryless, Nodoka began to climb up the stairs to check Akane's old room which she had shared with Ranma until they moved out. The duck on the door had long ago been replaced with a simple sign that had simply read `Akane'. Shortly after the unceremonious departure of the duck, Akane and Ranma had wed. Thus, some enterprising fellow (it was obviously Genma, as everyone recognized his handwriting) had scribbled in `Ranma' beneath Akane's name. For a second, Nodoka considered not walking straight into the room. After all, she knew about her sons' manliness, his daughter was downstairs. She figured though, that it wouldn't hurt... So she pushed the door open and stepped in. There wasn't anyone there. Only a tad disappointed, Nodoka headed back towards the stairs. As she passed by the living room she noted that Soun was still relating stories of his courtship to an entranced Minako. Shaking her head, Nodoka continued out the door and towards the dojo. Surely Ranma couldn't be anywhere else. Walking smoothly along the well worn path to the dojo, Nodoka noticed that no sounds of practice echoed from the dojo. Now she was getting concerned. Certainly something must be wrong. She increased her pace. Careful not to look overly concerned, Nodoka pressed on towards the dojo doors. Arriving at the aforementioned doors, she slid them open and stepped inside... to find Ranma and Akane sitting peacefully in the middle of the room bent over looking at something. As the worry rushed out of Nodoka's system, curiosity rushed in to fill its place. Demurely, she coughed to get her son's attention. "Yes, mother. We felt you coming up to the dojo," mumbled Ranma, without turning around. "What are you doing, Ranma?" Akane stood up and carefully padded over to Nodoka. "He's studying," whispered Akane, "He wanted to read over some of my father's martial arts scrolls." "Oh?" Nodoka had joined in the whispering by now, too. "Which ones?" "Weapons handling. Um, the yari, naginata, bo, and some other foreign pole weapons." "And why is my son interested in using weapons?" "He isn't, for himself, anyways. His student, Hotaru, will be learning learning how to use a glaive." "I see. And why will she be learning how to use a weapon instead of Anything Goes?" Akane instantly became very glad that they'd agreed on the story ahead of time. Telling people that Hotaru wanted to learn how to use a glaive because she was Sailor Saturn probably wouldn't be a good idea. It would be an even worse idea to tell them that the glaive she was planning on using was a sentient weapon keen on destroying the solar system and any other celestial bodies it could find. "Her family's traditional weapon is the glaive, but her parents passed on before they could teach her. Ranma offered to create a new style which would be worthy of her family's history." "Interesting. I suppose Ranma will be studying those scrolls for the duration of his stay?" Akane's mouth had barely dropped open when Ranma stood up and announced, "Nah. I just finished. Mr Tendo has a bunch of stuff about weapons, but none of it goes really in depth." "Ranma, how does that small girl expect to wield a glaive? Many of them are easily twice as long as she is tall." "Ah, heh," Ranma chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "she is much stronger than she looks. Runs in the family I guess." Nodoka smiled and nodded. "Well, how about you come back to the house and save your daughter from more of Soun's stories? I don't think she knew what she was getting into when she asked him about his wife..." * * * * * * * * Usagi looked at the others in the room again. They'd all decided to go to different parts of the room and think about what the visions could mean separately. Though, Haruka and Michiru hadn't done much splitting up. Usagi had even begun scooting back towards Mamoru. "Uuuusaaaagiiiii..." slurred Rei. "What do you think you're doing?" Terror gripped Usagi at the sound of Rei's voice coming from so close behind her. Quickly she looked for an escape from Rei's questioning. There, on the table. Her way out. Her hands snuck out with a shot, grabbed the food, and quickly shoved it into her mouth. Thus occupied, she turned to face Rei and said: "Dufh hoom unt sumfh?" "No I don't want any. We're supposed to be brain storming, _separately_, and you're just thinking about Mamoru!" "Bufh eh _uz_ danfoming!" "No you weren't. Now get back to your corner." Rei pointed ominously at the corner of the room which Usagi had previously occupied. Obediently, Usagi sulked her way back to the corner. *Welll... Hmm, if Rei is gonna be a meanie about it, I might as well sit here. Lets see. The bad guys are like two opposites. That doesn't make much sense. They're really mean, and Cassia wasn't even trying to steal anything, she just made a big mess until Mr and Mrs Saotome showed up.* *The ice and water is weird, too. Maybe something is gonna happen to Ami or Michiru? Ami is still gonna be alive in 1000 years, though, so nothing too bad can happen to her... Michiru, though...* * * * * * * * * Akane found herself rather unsurprised by the scene which greeted her upon her return to the living room. Minako and Soun were bawling on each others shoulders, occasionally holding up a tissue to the other's face so they could blow their noses. "Excuse me.. Minako? Whats wrong?" For a moment, Akane didn't think that Minako was going to answer her. After a moment, though, she managed to contain her sobbing and face her mother. "Grandpa was telling me all about your mother.." Minako fought back a stray sob, "its soo sad!" Unable to keep back the tears any longer, she returned to crying on her grandfather's shoulder. At this point, Nodoka came up behind Akane and asked, "Does my granddaughter always cry uncontrollably like this?" Akane's reply came slowly. "Not normally. She is a sucker for romance stories, though. Gets really emotional about love." "Any particular reason?" "Its a long story," coughed Akane. "Some other time." Nodoka merely nodded. "Why don't you two have a seat with your fathers? I'll prepare lunch." Ranma's stomach rumbled that it had no problem with that plan. The matter thus settled, Ranma moved to sit down, and Akane followed. A few minutes later, Minako and Soun finally brought their water works under control. Minako looked at her other Grandfather, passed out from the quantities of sake he'd drank. Soun looked at his daughter and son in law. "Akane dear, will you be visiting your sisters while you're here?" "We were hoping to, dad. Are they both still in the same place?" Soun shook his head. "No. Kasumi and Tofu recently acquired a much larger medical practice, and moved into an apartment above it." A brief pause to down some of the little remaining sake and he continued. "Nabiki and Ukyou both live in a large flat atop their corporate offices." Ranma made a funny little thinking noise and asked, "Will we have to make an appointment to see them?" "I suppose it wouldn't hurt, son. But they have lots of visiting martial artists, so they tend to leave a door on their balcony open. You can just jump up and walk on in. They probably won't mind." Ranma just grinned. "Who'da ever thought that Ucchan would'a made it so big?" Genma rolled over and grunted. "No thanks ta you, old man. You should just be glad she ain't thought ta sue 'ya for emotional abuse or somethun." Ranma formed a small ball of ki with his left had and let it loose at his delinquent father. One yelp later, Genma was up and looking around alertly. "What was that for, boy?" "Bein you." "Why I'll teach you manners yet, boy." Genma cried as he lunged at Ranma. A flurry of feet and fists came flying at Ranma, who continued to sit impassively. At the last second one arm whipped out and disappeared from sight in a blur from the shoulder down. "You think yer gonna lay a finger on me, old man?" Genma showed no sign of giving up. Instead, he was keeping himself aloft by pusing off of Ranma's arm, allowing him the use of both hands and feet in the fight. Even though neither combatant was planning on giving up, the fight ended quite suddenly. "Idiot," sighed Akane, as she withdrew her mallet from the back of her husband's head. "Don't pick on your father. You know it isn't fair. And stop talking like you're uneducated." "Son," asked Soun, "was that the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken?" The reply came from a rather groggy and only barely conscious Ranma, "Yes." "But you didn't even have to prepare! No ki buildup or anything." Ranma just shrugged. "The Amaguriken has become second nature to me in the past few years. I can keep it going over my entire body for a few minutes." Two jaws dropped. They belonged to Genma and Soun. Notably, Minako's jaw was still drooping from watching her father fight her grandfather with one hand. She'd seen some of her father's speed and grace already, but this was even more amazing. Hotaru sat rather impassively, unimpressed by this minor display. Genma recovered first, "Come on, son, share your secret with your old man. I won't tell anyone." "I'm not stupid, pops. Besides, there isn't any secret. Its like the technique was just made for me. It was easy back when I was a kid, but this is as easy as breathing." Nodoka chose that moment to announce that lunch was served. Ranma's form had disappeared before Nodoka finished saying the word `food'. Genma followed shortly after that. Akane, Soun, Minako and Hotaru all slowly rearranged themselves around the table while listening to Nodoka keep her husband and son from eating all the food before she'd even served it. As two thuds were heard, Nodoka stepped out of the kitchen carrying a tray full of food, which she sat on the table. "Here you go. The other two will be joining us in a moment, so take all you might want now." The four seated at the table readily took Nodoka's advice, while she sat down, and then took her own advice. Munching down the food at a brisk pace, Minako paused to state, "This is very nice, Grandma." Hotaru made her agreement known with some vigorous nodding. "I'm glad you like it, dears. I'll be sure to send the recipe home with Akane." Minako just beamed and went back to eating. After a few minutes of silent eating, Ranma and Genma both stumbled back into the room and took their places at the table. They hardly even fought over each other's food, too. Mere peaceful minutes later, everyone was done eating. "I'm going to take Hotaru out to begin her training in a few minutes," announced Ranma. "So soon after she ate?" inquired Nodoka. "Need to talk to her for a little bit, first. Get the mental stuff down pat so she'll be on the right track for ki manipulation." Hotaru's eyes just became sort of large at the thought of manipulating ki all by herself. * * * * * * * * "And what do we have here?" Usagi froze at the voice of her keeper, Luna. "Well? Don't tell me you're having a meeting and you forgot to invite me?" Another small voice spoke up to correct Luna, "Umm.. Us." Usagi recognized the voice as belonging to Artemis. Slowly, she decided to turn around and face Luna. "Not exactly.. I was gonna go to the park with Mamoru this afternoon, but he drug me over here instead and Rei has been mean to me all afternoon." Usagi quickly put on her best pouty face to try and look as distraught as possible. Luna wasn't convinced, but there wasn't much she was inclined to do to her Princess at this point. She had another thousand years to correct her behavior, so she wasn't in any rush. "Very well then. What exactly have you five been discussing?" asked Luna. Rei interjected at this point, "I've been consulting the Great Fire about the situation, and Michiru has been looking into the Deep Aqua Mirror. We wanted some people to talk to about what we've seen, so we asked Mamoru over. He brought Usagi along." She paused for a moment, and then asked, "Hey Artemis, why aren't you with Minako?" Artemis coughed. "The, uh, Saotomes didn't want to take me along. They didn't want to have to explain why Mr Saotome wasn't cowering in fear of me." Usagi just snickered a bit. "Back to business then," announced Luna. "What have you two come up with?" Rei and Michiru both sighed and readied themselves to relate their visions. Again. * * * * * * * * Hotaru Tomoe stood facing her new teacher, Ranma Saotome, in his dojo. Her gi screamed out to the world her novice status by means of its sheer newness. Not even Kasumi was able to clean a used gi to such a state of perfection. In Hotaru's hands was a long pole, roughly the length of her Silence Glaive. This pole carried no blades, though. Instead one end had been dipped in purple paint, while the rest of it remained in its natural wooden state. Since entering the dojo and noticing Ranma, a rather curious question had been floating through Hotaru's head, "Where is his pole?" This question had been rattling about in her head all thru his lectures. Now that actual, physical practice was about to begin, she gave voice to her question, "Um, Teacher, where is your weapon? I thought you'd said we were going to practice with weapons." A grin grew up on Ranma's face which Hotaru would learn to dread during their practice session. "One of the problems with using a weapon is that it can be taken away from you. The first thing you need to do before you can hope to effectively use a weapon is to make sure it cannot be taken away from you." After waiting for Hotaru to acknowledge him with a nod of understanding, Ranma continued, "That is what we will be practicing today." He began to grin even bigger, "My weapon is already in this room, 'ya know." Snapping her head around as quickly as possible, Hotaru surveyed the dojo, looking for another pole, but her eyes confirmed that the dojo remained just as empty as before. Then understanding struck her. "Teacher.. there is only one weapon in this room." "Yup." * * * * * * * * "Your dad gave me a really good workout, though. I don't think I've been this tired since.. I was sick." "Come on Hotaru, mom and dad say Aunt Nabiki is cool, and so is Miss Kuonji. Besides, won't it be neat to meet the richest women in Japan? Gee, if I would've known that I was related to them, I wouldn't have had to work so hard to get that chance to be an idol singer. I guess it was still worth it, though." "I don't know, Minako. You're related to Miss Tendo, and Miss Kuonji is a good friend of your father's. I'm just a stranger to them." "Don't be silly. You're my friend, and you're my father's student, I'm sure it will be just fine. Come on, get changed and we'll go." Minako grabbed one of Hotaru's hands and began to drag her back towards the house. "Are you sure about this? I don't really have anything nice to wear, you know." "I was digging around in some of my mom's stuff while you were out training. She has some nice old dressed from when she was your age that will probably fit you. Just add a nice belt or something..." "If you say so, Minako." Hotaru wouldn't have agreed if she'd known that Minako had always wanted a clothes doll. * * * Ranma sat, impatiently, next to the koi pond. Years ago, he would never have dared to come this close to a body of water. By doing so, he would've been *taunting* fate to get him wet. Fate was not one to pass up a chance to thumb its nose at Ranma Saotome. However, Ranma was still sitting next to the koi pond, quite peacefully and quite non-wet. Instead of hastily running from the pond as quickly as he could, he was trying to remember the last time he had come in contact with cold water accidently. It was back in England, where he and Akane had gone for years to make sure they escaped everyone who could possibly disrupt their child's life. Shortly before moving back, he'd been caught without an umbrella in some rather chilly afternoon rain. No little old ladies had splashed him, no leaky faucets, no Happosai looking for his darling Ranma-chan. Just a bit of weather. And that was it. No unintentional activations of his curse since then. He'd wondered about it before. He checked regularly to see if the curse had disappeared. It hadn't. He came to the same conclusion that he had come to in the past. *Maybe fate is done with me?* Ranma continued to sit and ponder, until a few minutes later when he felt his daughter trying to sneak up on him. No matter how many times she had tried to sneak up on him as a child, she'd still not learned she couldn't pull it off. Just grinning, Ranma sat still and didn't give away his knowledge until she got within a meter. Chuckling to himself, he decided to jump and spin around to face her. * * * *Hehehe, I'll get him this time, I know it!* Minako had been trying ever since she was a child to catch her dad unaware. This was the closest she'd ever gotten to him without him knowing. *Now I'll just pounce on him, and I'll have him!* Springing her legs for the jump. Minako noticed her father twitch, but thought nothing of it. *Here I go!* With that, Minako sprang into the air, aiming towards her father. Once in the air, she noticed that her father had jumped and was now spinning in the air. At the same time, they realized what was going to happen. Had Minako had time to reflect on the situation, she would've realized that her father's horrible expression roughly mimicked her own. Another second later, Minako slammed into her father and pushed him over the koi pond. Very shortly after that, gravity succeeded in its never ending task, and pulled both Ranma and Minako into the cold water. As Minako pulled her head above the water's surface, she noticed that her left hand was on something rather soft. Squeezing it, she confirmed that she wasn't imagining it. A voice she hadn't heard in a long time spoke up. "Excuse me, could you stop that, please?" "Dah-dad?" Ranma Saotome, Jusenkyo victim, coughed. "Not much of a dad like this." "Wow, you look pretty good." "Thanks. I know. Ready to go visit your Aunt?" Minako bobbed her head in the positive, causing her loose hair to wiggle and shimmy all over. "Good. Go get your mom and Hotaru. I'll meet you at the gate." * * * "Mr Saotome, what about that one?" asked Hotaru, pointing to another spot of concrete that wasn't quite the same color as the rest of the concrete around it. "Hmm. I think that crater must've been Ryouga's umbrella again. He really liked those original ones." Minako perked up, "Original ones?" "Yeah. After the first Tenka-ichi-budo-kai, he lost the last of his original umbrellas. So he got Nabiki to have new ones made for him. I tried 'ta pick one up.. they must weigh a couple tons each, its just crazy." While the girls gaped at the thought of a multi-ton umbrella, Ranma and Akane just smiled. After walking along for a few minutes peacefully, they came up on a rather quiet intersection where Ranma stopped. "See where the concrete changes here?" Minako and Hotaru both eyed the ground carefully and each nodded after a second. Hotaru was done, though. "Where is the other edge of the new concrete?" "The other side of the intersection," stated Ranma in a very calm voice. Slowly, Minako asked "What made this one?" Akane spoke up for the first time since they began picking out Nerima "landmarks." "This one was Ryouga, again." "The Bakusai Tenketsu?" inquired Hotaru. Akane shook her head, "No.. The Perfect Shishi Houkou Dan. The normal Shishi Houkou Dan is like my own Rekka Hokan or Ranma's Mouko Takabisha. But instead of anger or confidence, it feeds off of depression." "Everyone of the ki attacks that feeds off of emotion has a matching `Perfect' version. But you can only use it when you are so full of that emotion that nothing else exists within you. Then you release everything you have into an explosion around yourself. You survive only because you are emptied of all emotion." "Ryouga is the only person still alive to have performed the Perfect Shishi Houkou Dan." "What happened to the others?" asked Minako, almost afraid to know the answer. "They committed suicide." There wasn't much left to be said at that point. * * * "Here we are," announced Akane, who twirled around to face the rest of her group while raising her arm up to point, "Kuonji-Tendo Light Industries, corporate headquarters." Minako and Hotaru ooed and awed as was expected while Ranma began looking for the balcony his father-in-law had mentioned. Akane was itching to get inside, though. "Come on, Ranma, stop gawking and lets go on inside." "I don't feel like dealing with any secretaries or anything.. Lets just go straight up." With a sigh, Akane announced she had no interest in arguing. Thus, Ranma led the small group around the corner of the building where he'd found the balcony. "Here it is, just four stories up." "Um, dad.. What do you mean _just_ four stories? How were you going to get up there?" "I was going to jump. Your mom can carry Hotaru." "And you're going to carry me, right?" "Um. I was hoping to see if you could make it up jump up there yourself." "I don't think so, dad.. Not even if I, er," Minako mumbled the next word, "transform right here in the middle of the street. Four stories from a standstill is crazy!" Ranma sighed. "Here, I'll show you how you can get up there, then." At that, Ranma faced the building across the street and crouched down. Waiting for a second, he sprung, directly at the other building. A moment later and he impacted against the wall, roughly two stories up. From there, he pushed off again, aiming for the balcony across the street. Just a few seconds after he'd started his `trip', Ranma was waving down to Minako from four stories up. "Come along dear," encouraged Akane, "you can do it." Mumbling to herself about being related to "a bunch of crazies," Minako began to repeat her father's movements. Still shaking her head, she took the leap towards the wall. She easily made it to where her father had hit, and pushed off again. She didn't put quite enough power into it, though. "Waaah! I'm not going to make it!" And indeed, she wasn't going to. Seeing her daughter about to fall an unpleasant distance to the ground, Akane ran to scoop Hotaru up under one arm. Her first passenger secured, she flared her ki and put the slightest bend in her legs. Arcing up into the air, Akane managed to catch Minako under one arm and continue her flight to the balcony. Once safely on the balcony, Akane set down her two passengers. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Minako was busy patting herself down and asking "Am I alive?" Hotaru's eyes were like those of someone who'd just gotten off of an out of control roller coaster and was still trying to decide if it had been fun. Ranma was just grinning from ear to ear, "Lets go on it." As he stepped towards the sliding glass door, it opened of its own accord. Not acting very surprised, he stepped on through. "Hello, Mr Saotome. Your family and guest may wait in here. Miss Ukyou and Miss Nabiki will be with you shortly." Eyes already adjusted to the dim interior, Ranma picked out the speaker, a very attractive young `woman'. "Hiya Konatsu. You still working in security for them?" Konatsu shook his head, "No, no, Mr Saotome. I *am* security, these days. The head of it, anyways." "Good going. So, they in a meeting or what?" "Indeed. I believe they are currently in the process of acquiring the remains of the Kuno Estate." Ranma just nodded at that tidbit of news. "Well Mr Saotome, I must be going. I wish you luck on your various `endeavors,"' said Konatsu. With that, he walked into a shadow and disappeared. Akane came up behind her husband and asked in a quiet voice, "What did he mean by that?" "I don't know, but I'm betting that Nabiki does. Don't you, Nabiki?" Two women walked out of a door which hadn't been there a moment ago. "I sure do, Saotome." "Heya, Ranchan. How are 'ya?" As Akane hurried over to hug her sister, Ranma walked over to Ukyou. "I've been better, Ucchan," he paused for a minute as Ukyou hugged him hard enough to force the air from his lungs, "how about yourself?" Ukyou flashed him a smile, "I'm wonderful. Did you hear that I'm listed as the richest woman in Japan this year? I managed to beat Nabiki out for once." Across the room, Nabiki called out, "Hah! I'll be back on top next year." "Suuure," Ukyou teased. "Come on you guys, have a seat, we didn't buy these couches to hold the floor down." Everyone moved to take a seat, Ukyou ending up next to Hotaru, and Minako next to Nabiki. "So," began Nabiki, "how is my favorite niece doing these days? I havn't gotten to see you since you were a baby. Maybe I should've sent your parents plane tickets to come visit.." "I'm great Auntie Nabiki." "Doing good in school?" Minako choked. "Uhh. Well..." "Yeah, I figured you took after your dad. Oh well. Congratulations on winning that idol search last year, by the way. If you ever get around to taking advantage of that and it doesn't work out, just let me know. You've got real talent, so Kuonji-Tendo would be happy to set you up." Beaming, Minako responded, "Thanks! I hope to have time to get around to it, but I've been, ah, really busy, recently." Nabiki began to grin like a cat who'd just caught its prey. "Yes, you sure have, havn't you, Sailor Venus?" Minako turned three different shades of pale before going green. Hotaru was already pale, so she just skipped straight to green. Ranma and Akane both sputtered. "Oh come on you guys? Did you really expect me not to know? I've been watching you for years. I know almost all about your little `adventures'. You managed to disappear a few times and my surveillance forces couldn't find you for a few days, but that was it." No response, so Nabiki continued. "I also know that you're currently engaged in some sort of off and on street fight with any number of rather unpleasant demons." Ranma perked up at this, "Do you know anything about the girl summoning them or where she is from?" "Named `Cassia', she appeared in this country through unknown and likely illegal means. She disappears to an unknown location after summoning the demons. She is 130 centimeters tall and weighs roughly 80 kilograms. Black hair, black eyes, pale complexion, no distinguishing features until you removed her right hand. She suffers from almost every mental illness we can diagnose from a distance, the only one one note that we havn't identified is multiple personality disorder. Her style of martial arts is unidentifiable and she radiates an evil magical aura that puts Happosai to shame. In summary, she is serious screwed up in the head, and Kuonji-Tendo Security Services has her labeled as a class 5 magical hazard." "What does class 5 mean?" "Run. Quickly." "Know anything about her that we don't?" "Nope." Ranma sighed deeply. "Ranchan?" Rather slowly, Ranma turned to face Ukyou. "Yeah?" "I just wanted to tell you, that, I wish I could come help you guys fight, but.. I don't think I'd be very useful." "You stopped practicing martial arts?!" Pulling her large spatula out of nowhere, Ukyou slammed it into Ranma's side, knocking him over. "Don't be stupid. I'd never do that... but, after all these years, I've just never managed to do much more than flare my ki. I just don't think I've got it in me to do it." Ranma nodded sadly. "Not everyone does. I just figured all of the old group woulda managed to do it sooner or later." Ukyou perked back up, "Luckily, we can do some other things to help you!" "Like?" "For starters, we'll get medical teams standing by after your fights. They can take anybody whose hurt to some private medical facilities with `discreet' doctors." Ukyou stage coughed and leaned over towards Ranma a bit, "We had to clean up a slight `incident' when your daughter's friends took her to the hospital. Apparently they forgot to switch back to their real names in the hospital. It was also sort of suspicious that they said they'd carried her a mile or so on their backs. Luckily Konatsu can be `discreet' too." Finished, Ukyou sat smiling. Without any response, Ranma sat nodding dumbly until Nabiki spoke up. "About Konatsu.. he is really rather underutilized these days. While his skills aren't suited to direct combat, he can probably help out with reconnasinse. Lend a hand if things start looking bad, that kind of stuff." Nabiki paused for a moment and brought a hand to her face to think, "You know, we've even got some competitors in that area he can spy on. He can help you _and_ be profitable." Minako could've sworn her aunt was drooling. Putting on a sly smile that told everyone she wasn't interested in talking about business anymore, Nabiki faced her niece again. "Now, I'm sure you've had some boyfriends in your time.. spill it." * * * "It was really nice to visit Auntie Nabiki, Mom." "Yup," Ranma added, "Seeing Ukyou again was good, too. We need visit 'em again sometime." Akane smiled and nodded. "Sure. I suppose next time we can just make an appointment. Lets see, Tofu's new office should be riiight here." Rounding the corner with her little gang, Akane was faced with a sign that read "Gone on vacation, back on the 10th." "The 10th?" Minako read aloud, "Thats next week! Argh." Akane's mood got visibly darker and she sighed. "I guess thats what we get not calling ahead of time." Already turned away, Ranma started walking back to the Tendo Dojo. "Come on," he called over his shoulder, "lets go, girls." * * * * * * * * Artemis and Luna had both been nodding and listening intently throughout the description of the visions. Now they were ready to interrogate the two seers. "Rei, now, about this water, you say there is some sort of `negative' emotion," Luna continued, "Can you describe it anymore than that? Is it like pain?" "I'm not sure... There is, agony.. anguish. But it isn't anything physical." Artemis' turn. "Do you know the source of this `agony'?" "I don't think it is the water. I just don't know, though. The visions aren't that specific." "And the ice, do you know its source?" persisted Artemis. Rei just shook her head. "Is it magical?" "No.. It feels very natural." Luna nodded, "Well, that narrows it down. The only places where you'll find as much ice as you describe are the polar caps. Quite strange, though. Don't see what the future has to do with the polar caps. Maybe you'll have to take a trip back to Beryl's base near the north pole." Usagi shuddered, remembering her last trip to the north pole. Rei shuddered more, remembering her death. It was obvious to Luna how little either girl wanted to keep thinking about that, so she quickly moved on. "Michiru, how about this duality? Is there one particular image you get more often than the others?" "The dragon and the tiger occur much more frequently than any of the other symbols. The others still appear often enough that they should not be disregarded in the interpretation, mind you." "Do the symbols," Artemis stopped for a minute to look for an appropriate word, "`appear' differently than you would expect them to?" Raising a finger to her mouth, Michiru thought for a few moments. "I cannot recall. One minute." From her seated position, Michiru took her right arm, raised it to match the horizontal level of the floor and then pointed it directly to her right. In a quick motion, she swung it around to her left side. When she was done, the Deep Aqua Mirror was in her hand. Oddly, noone could remember where in her hand's path the Mirror had appeared. With calm poise, Michiru began to peer into the mirror, and concentrate on thoughts of Cassia and whoever might be associated with her. Soon she had conjured up the first image she wanted, that of the dragon and the tiger. Michiru held up the mirror so the others could see and said, "Here you go." Everyone bent over to peer into the mirror. Usagi nearly lost her balance, but a steadying hand from Mamoru kept her from tipping over and crashing through the table. "The dragon and the tiger seem to be very, ah, distinct and separated from each other," commented Mamoru. Michiru replied "Yes, they do." "Can you show us the other images?" asked Artemis. Pulling the Mirror in close again, Michiru refocused on the image of heaven and earth. A moment later, she had it ready. Again, she held the mirror up so everyone could see it. As she expected everyone blinked repeatedly when they saw it, like they were trying to clear their eyes. "It is very blurry, is it not? Before I simply thought the image was hazy, but now I believe that it is purposefully being blurred." "Like heaven and earth are being merged," noted Haruka. "Exactly." * * * * * * * * "Akane, would you be a dear and come here, please?" "Yes, Mrs Saotome?" "Your father and my husband are both quite eager to see Minako in action. I, too, must admit that I'm anxious to see what Ranma's training has been able to produce." Paling slowly, Akane tried to keep any hint of worry from her voice. "Right. Anxious. Ummm... I'll go get Ranma. Right. Ranma..." Didn't work. Thus Akane walked off mumbling to herself about looking for Ranma when he was standing no more than two meters to her left. "I'll get Minako and head out to the dojo with her," Ranma eyed his wife's retreating form, "grab Akane and drag her along. Shove her into a gi while you're at it, too." * * * "Listen Minako," began Ranma as he sat with her in the yard, "you can't beat your mother. Sailor Venus can't beat your mother. But you've got a better chance against her than you do against me, so to show you off to our parents, you'll fight her. Now, even to this day, she still uses a style which focuses on dealing with a large number of opponents simultaneously. This is her weakness. You must make a small target of yourself, while remaining mobile enough that she can't tag you. This demonstration won't go far enough that Akane will attempt the Amaguriken, so her speed isn't that much greater than yours. Thats the closest thing you've got to an advantage, so make the most of it." Minako nodded sickly. "If you got a card up yer sleeve or something like a Hiryuu Shouten Ha, don't hold it back, though." Ranma smiled and winked. "I don't think so..." "Neither did I," sighed Ranma, "Lets go." * * * * * * * * "I overheard a butcher talking about throwing some stock away on the way over here," states Artemis, "so I want to get this finished up." Luna gave Artemis a glare strong enough that it nearly knocked him over, but, she said nothing. "What about the final image you got from the mirror, Michiru? The one of the Senshi that weren't." "Would you like me to bring up that image, as well?" "Sure." Again Michiru brought the Mirror to her face, and again, she paused a moment as she concentrated. Then, as before, she held up the mirror so everyone else could see. With the blurred image of heaven and earth, everyone had simply blinked a bit, trying to clear their eyes. This time, though, blinking did nothing to clear things up. Usagi cringed painfully, "Looking at that is giving me a headache!" Peering into the Mirror deeply, Luna's face was visibly grimaced. "You can tell it is a picture of the Inner Senshi, but you can't hold your eyes on them to see any detail." Eyes averted, Rei commented, "And the picture seems to waver and shift. I could swear we kept changing places without moving." "That is certainly interesting," said Mamoru, "Can anyone see anything about the image which Michiru didn't already describe?" After a few moments of silence, Mamoru had his answer. "Ohhhkay." "Hey," injected Artemis, who hadn't forgotten about the butcher, "if thats it, lets cut out. I'm getting hungry." "Aww," Rei began to sing-song her voice, "poh wittel Artemis wif no Menahkoh to feed him." "I don't see you volunteering to feed me!" Haruka stood up, and Michiru joined her a half second later. "I believe Artemis is right. There isn't anything more to discuss. We'll be on our way now." "How about we go get some ice cream together?" asked Usagi, obviously exuberant about the idea. Both Haruka and Michiru shook their heads. "We have things to do. We'll be around, though." With a flash of a smile, Haruka said, "Don't forget to call us if any demons or that Cassia girl show up." Usagi laughed nervously. "Don't worry, we'll let you know if we run into her." * * * * * * * * The fight over, and his parents already out of the dojo, Ranma grabbed one of Minako's arms and drug her to a corner opposite from the door. "Ami said you couldn't use magic without being transformed.. how did you do that? And how did you learn those martial arts you used?" "I.. I... remembered," stammered Minako. "But we never taught you any martial arts to remember, and we always made sure you didn't see us practice, even when you were small.." "No. I remembered my past life." "Didn't you already tell us you remembered it?" "Just little pieces before..." "And now?" "All of it." - - - - - - - - [1]: Middle prefecture of Kyushu. Has some western coastline to it.