All characters belong to someone else. They're not mine, so don't sue me, 
this is not for profit.

This story is set after Sailor Moon S, but prior to Sailor Moon SailorStars. 
Assume that some time has passed, and that the Senshi have aged to about 
sixteen (aside from the obvious exceptions of Hotaru/Saturn and 
Setsuna/Pluto. The Ranma characters are their normal age (sixteen). This 
happens prior to volume 33 of the Ranma manga and before Ranma is revealed to 
Nodoka...

     ______________
    /              \
   |  Sailor Ranko  |
    \______________/


Thanks go to my pre-reader:
Kevin D. Hammel        http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~khammel/

Please distribute this work free, unaltered and crediting the author.
dzillman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dzillman/fire



Ranma stared out the window of the train and stubbornly refused to 
acknowledge Akane's presence. Akane in turn refused to acknowledge Ranma's. 
Of all the bad ideas that their parents have had, this possibly had to be the 
worst. Sure, they could send Ranma off for a training trip, but why send 
Akane too? Ranma thought back on just how stupid his old man was. At least he 
hadn't engaged him to someone new this time.

"Boy, someday you will be the master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes 
Martial Arts. When that day comes you must be prepared to take over the 
dojo."

"Sure, Pops, no problem."

Genma hit his son over the ear. "Be quiet and listen to what I am saying. 
Being able to fight is just the first step. A step that you are mastering 
well. But you must be capable of _teaching_ what you know. And that requires 
brains. Brains which you do not use."

Ranma glared at his father and prepared to hit him. From nowhere Soun 
appeared and dumped a bucket of water on the boy... er, girl. "Take it like a 
man, Ranma. You can fight but you can't teach. Genma and I have made and 
arrangement with an old friend in Tokyo. You will stay at his dojo, and he 
will begin to teach you what we cannot about how to be a sensei."

Ranma bowed his head. He had to admit, they might be right. He knew there was 
a lot to know about teaching; he just assumed that he would pick it up as 
easily as anything else related to Martial Arts. Mind you, Cologne had taught 
him so many secret techniques, maybe their "old friend" could teach him the 
secret techniques of being a sensei. "OK, Pops, Mr. Tendo. I'll do it. Hah! 
I'll be back here in no time!"

"Not so fast, boy. Didn't you realise that to be a fully recognised fitness 
instructor these days, you need qualifications? No? I didn't think so. This 
is why we have also found you a tutor at your new school. She's in your 
class, but everybody says that she's extremely smart, so she should have no 
problem teaching the likes of you."

Ranma jumped to his feet. "No way! I don't need no tutor!"

Grabbing Ranma's head, he held his face into the report card that had come 
through recently. "Look at these grades. You passed, but only just. For 
shame, Boy, for shame!"

With a flip, the elder Saotome crossed the room and slammed into the wall 
upside down. "And whose fault is that? If I didn't have all these fiancees 
hanging off me, bugging me all the time, there'd be no problems. But, nooooo. 
SOMEONE had to get me engaged five times over. Didn't they, POP!"

Soun grabbed Ranma shirt and began to sob. "Waahh, I know Ranma. But that's 
why we are sending you to another part of Tokyo. Get away from the fiancees, 
get away from the distractions and fights. Sob, sob! Oh Ranma. Say you'll go. 
Juuban High will be perfect for you."

Pulling away from the fountaining man, "All right, OK already! Just so I can 
get some peace and quiet."

Both fathers cheered up and smiled, patting him on the back. "Well done, 
Ranma! The next four months will pass so quickly, we'll hardly notice you're 
gone. We'll just tell everyone that you and Akane have gone to Hokkaido. Take 
care of my little girl."

With a burst of anger, Ranma grabbed his father. "WHAT! If you think I'm 
going anywhere for four months with that tomboy, you've got another thing 
coming."

"Boy, you agreed to this, have you no honour? *SPLASH*" Mr Panda looked up 
from the Koi pond snarling. 

"Sorry, Pop. Were you going to say something?"

*	*	*

Drifting back to the present, Ranma looked around as he noticed the train 
slowing. "Hey, Akane. It's our stop."

Without a word, Akane grabbed her things and left the carriage. Ranma simply 
looked around and threw up his hands "What did I do this time?"

*	*	*

Jadeite smiled and looked around. While everyone thought him dead, he had 
been too powerful for Queen Beryl to easily destroy. When her final attack 
had come, he had moved with the power of the magic. Instead of being forever 
destroyed, he had been banished to this small proto-universe. Rather than 
being the massive affair he was used to, with galaxies and overlapping 
dimensions, this universe had but a single dimension, and all that contained 
was a single sun. A complete, stable universe. All the mass in existence was 
within easy reach.

In the years since his defeat he had spent his time and energy well. Since 
the universe was completely uninhabited by any others than himself, there 
were little of the life force energies needed for most magical spells. He did 
have a completely uncontested source of solar power, geothermal power, tidal 
power and any other form of purely mundane power, however.

He had taken this power and his carefully husbanded supplies of life force to 
create vast machines to tap more energy. With this he began to raise his new 
army. Over the course of two years, Jadeite developed a new level of youma. 
His new creations had more power, more brains and more armour than ever 
before. He also made them in greater numbers than the short sighted Beryl 
would ever allow.

Jadeite had learned his lessons well. In the original invasion of the Moon 
Kingdom, the Negaverse had commanded a huge army, an army that not even the 
combined might of the Sailor Senshi could fight at the peak of their powers. 
When Beryl had command their forces to attack, they were under prepared, and 
the Senshi had destroyed them, forcing loss after loss despite the best of 
his plans. 

Now Jadeite had an army, a secure base of operations and a place from which 
to launch his strike. His only problem was that the spell needed to bridge 
the gap from his universe to the he wished to conquer required vast 
quantities of life force. For now, he would send through his scouts, and then 
he would gather the power from the people of earth. Soon his army would crush 
all resistance before him.

Opening the portal, Jadeite sent through the first of his scouts. Scouts 
which were the last of the youma he had brought with him when Beryl had tried 
to kill him.

*	*	*

Ami and Usagi walked down the street from school. They were both headed back 
to Ami's place for the night. Since the defeat of Queen Beryl, attacks by 
demons had fallen to an almost non-existent level. So low in fact, that Usagi 
had enough time to study that she even managed to pass everything without too 
much difficulty. The only problem with few attacks was that Makoto was 
beginning to start fighting at school again. The Sailors managed to help this 
by letting Jupiter take the brunt of the occasional demon attacks when they 
could.

"Hey, Ami! You wanna go out for ice-cream tomorrow morning?"

Ami looked a bit down at the suggestion, "Sorry, Usagi, I can't. I'm going to 
be tutoring a transfer student for the next few months, and since tomorrow is 
Sunday, he's coming over."

Usagi looked really sad for a moment, her lip trembling. She could fight 
youma in the name of the Moon for all eternity, but any rejection from her 
friends made her want to cry. Seeing the impending flood, Ami patted her on 
the back, "Come on, I'll race you home!"

Tears forgotten, the friends raced down the street, failing to see the light 
blue flash as a youma popped into existence behind them. The youma had bigger 
fish to fry than a pair of running schoolgirls. Searching for its partner, 
they decided it was time to check the state of the Sailors. One youma would 
hide, and then return to Jadeite after watching the battle. The other would 
openly attack some people for their energy. When the Sailor Senshi arrived - 
as they surely would - the scout would be killed. But to kill it, the Senshi 
would need to attack, and when they did that, the youma could see what powers 
they had gained in the last two years.

*	*	*

Akane and Ranma were almost at the dojo where they would be staying when 
Akane broke the silence. "Ranma, I'm sorry about being so cross with you all 
day. It's just, well, I hate it when our fathers force this sort of thing on 
us."

Shocked by her almost-apology, Ranma hesitated. When he caught her watching 
him, he realised that perhaps he should respond. "Um, Yeah. Same here. Look, 
just cause were gunna be together for the next four months, don't mean we 
gotta be... um... you know... I mean, we can say we're each other's fiancee 
and stuff, but, I mean, lets not go overboard."

Akane stiffened at that. Then she calmed. She knew she liked him, but she was 
never sure if he felt the same. At least he had offered to be acknowledged as 
her fiancee. She thought back to some of the times Mikado wanted to kiss her: 
'Akane is MY fiancée. Lay one lip on her and I'll kill you'. This was an 
improvement over that, sort of. Then he had just been defending her, now he 
was willing to admit his relationship in public. "I know what you mean. Have 
you decided what you're going to tell people about you curse?"

Ranma shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. "Nothing. I was sorta hoping we 
could do the old Ranma and Ranko thing again. It's only gonna be for only 
four months... Would... would you mind helping?"

Akane smiled. She'd have to try the cold shoulder technique more often. They 
had actually spoken several whole sentences to each other. Incredible. "Sure. 
But how about Mr. Miyagi? If we're living with him, he'll find out 
eventually."

Ranma grinned down at her and with a flourish reached into his pack. "Thermos 
flasks. I stick one in my room, and hide one outside the dojo. If I top them 
up every day, I can get to hot water without a problem."

Akane was stunned. Ranma had actually thought of something like that himself. 
She could hardly believe it. "Wow, that's really clever, Ranma. Getting you 
away from all of Shampoo's and Kodachi's drugs seems to have sharpened your 
mind."

Ranma stuck his tongue out, then ran down the street as she chased him, 
laughing.

Mr. Miyagi watched his two new pupils with great interest. Both were still 
sixteen and looked like the sort of impressionable kids he had been training 
back in America. This was why he had returned to Japan. Americans had no 
respect. Americans had no talent. Americans had... He could go on forever. At 
least these two already knew something of the Art, and if the boy's father 
was to be believed, young Ranma was actually quite talented. 

After showing them where they could sleep, he took them out to the dojo for a 
quick sparing session. If he could judge their fighting ability, then he 
could plan how to train them. The fight went like every other session that 
Akane and Ranma had. She kicked, punched, and struck at him as fast as she 
could. He just dodged. 

When Akane started to get angry, Ranma simply leapt over her and touched her 
back. "Come on, Akane. Your getting even slower."

They continued in this vein for a while, until Miyagi called them to a halt. 
"Akane, you are very good. Rarely have I ever seen a girl who could fight as 
well as you. While Miyagi-do is a powerful Art, I can only teach you few 
things you do not already know. I am afraid that most of my students have 
been new to the Art, and needed to learn a great deal in a greater hurry."

Akane smiled and basked in his comment. She couldn't remember the last time 
anyone had actually said she was good at something. She began to drift off, 
reciting his words to herself again when she heard him continue talking to 
Ranma. "But you, Ranma. You show great talent in dodging, but you never 
attack. The best defence in the world will never win you a fight. Why do you 
not attack her?"

Ranma looked at the floor. "Well, Sensei, she's a girl. And she's my fiancee. 
I can't hurt Akane. I mean she might be a violent tomboy, and a macho uncute 
chick, but she's still a girl."

Akane snarled and pulled a mallet out of nowhere. While Miyagi watched she 
yelled at Ranma, chasing him around the dojo, hitting him much more often 
than she did during training. Finally she smashed his head into the wall of 
the dojo, shattering the wood with his face. "Humph"

Mr. Miyagi watched this match in much greater awe. He had seen some great 
fighters, but he had never seen anyone take so much damage in such a short 
space of time. If she kept this up, he fiancee would be lucky to survive a 
week. When Ranma groaned and pulled his head out of the wall, Mr. Miyagi 
almost fell over. That was impossible. No one could receive those sorts of 
hits and not be hospitalised. But here he was standing up, just lightly 
bruised. He was even apologising for the unsightly behaviour of his fiancee.

Akane malleted him again, knocking him to the floor. Perhaps there was hope 
for this pair... "Akane. I need to speak to Ranma alone. Would you like to 
take a bath? We will be in shortly."

Akane bowed and left. When she was safely gone, Ranma stopped playing at 
unconsciousness and stood up, looking for all the world like he had just 
walked in, rather than looking like an accident victim. "Ranma. This is 
training. I understand that you do not like to fight girls, especially your 
beloved fiancee, but this is only training. If you expect to run a dojo some 
day, you must be able to fight and train the girls that you teach. Remember 
this: the best way for them not to get hit in combat is for them to get hit 
in training. Akane's attack is very good, but her defence is not. 
"You will change this. Each day the two of you will practice in the morning 
before school. When you train, you will hit her. It does not need to be hard, 
but it must be serious. Some day she may need to fight for real - although I 
doubt it, few people ever really need to fight. And if you do not hurt her 
now, she will be hurt worse or possibly killed. Do you want that?"

For a moment Ranma looked terrified. Then his gaze steadied, and his featured 
firmed with resolve. "Yeah, Mr. Miyagi. I... I just don't like to hurt her... 
I'd do anything so she wouldn't get hurt."

"Good. It is like a doctor. Sometimes we must do things that hurt to make 
things better. Now, before I begin to teach you to be a proper Sensei, can 
you show me how to fix that hole you made in the wall?"

Ranma grinned. "Sure. We do this sort of thing all the time at home, err, Mr. 
Tendo's dojo. I'll have it fixed in a jiffy."

Mr. Miyagi held up his hand. "No, show me. I need to know this so I can fix 
the dojo in the future. I am not much of a carpenter."

Ranma looked around then waved at the hole. "Well, just get a few bits of 
wood, then put them in the right place, it's easy."

Patting the taller boy on the shoulder, Mr. Miyagi led him into the house. 
"Think on it tonight. Tomorrow, you can show me."

*	*	*

Rei had been feeling nervous for the last few days. Something bad was going 
to happen soon. She didn't know what it was, but it was bad. Calming her 
mind, she decided the best thing to do was try a fire reading. Minako was 
coming over shortly; perhaps Rei could discuss whatever she saw with her 
team-mate.

Building up the fire, Rei found her focus then looked into the fire and 
saw... fire. Sighing, she tried again, but all she saw was fire. Perhaps I'm 
losing the ability, or maybe I'm just too worried. Meditating for a few 
minutes, Rei opened her eyes and looked into the fire yet again. 

All she saw initially was the fire, but then something more. It wasn't the 
fire that she was seeing; it was the _image_ of fire. That was what the 
reading was showing. Subtle hints showed other things. Taking hold of the 
image, she dredged for more information. Images moved through the flames, the 
first being a red haired girl. She looked like she was fighting something, 
but Rei couldn't see what. Trying to remember her face, Rei look onwards, she 
must be important, but who is she? 

Next came the Senshi. All of them, fighting again, side by side, all 
surrounded by flames, and they looked like they were loosing. The images 
stopped.

Breathing deeply, Rei checked the time and was startled to see Minako coming 
into the small courtyard to join her. Standing, Rei quenched the fire. 
"Sorry, Minako. The reading took longer than I expected." 

Explaining what she saw, and her feelings of dread, Rei found that Artemis 
had spoken of some strange red haired girl also. She couldn't be a Sailor, 
since all of them we accounted for. Could she be the cause of the feelings of 
dread and fire?

*	*	*

After training with Akane in the morning, Ranma lead Mr. Miyagi out to the 
dojo to teach him about fixing walls. Repairs were something he was almost as 
good at as fighting. And since he still couldn't really hit Akane, perhaps he 
was actually better at fixing than fighting.

Grabbing a couple of planks he had cut to length, he placed them in the hole 
that he had trimmed. Nailing them in place, he showed the old man how well 
they fitted. Sitting back on his heels, he surveyed his work. Lovely.

"Not so good." Miyagi kicked his foot through the wall, destroying the 
repairs. "How can I repair it myself if you plug good wood into a perfect 
hole? Show me again."

*	*	*

After a moderately successful tutoring session with Ranma, Ami heard Rei and 
Minako arrive. While she finished up the last problems with her student, they 
could be heard talking to another girl who had arrived at the same time.

Heading downstairs, Ami introduced Ranma to her friends, and Ranma introduced 
Akane to Ami. Akane was a bit mad about this. It's bad enough that he's got a 
girl for a tutor, but does she have to be so cute? Smiling nicely, she began 
to chat, and found that Ami was actually too nice a person to bear a grudge 
against.

After chatting for fifteen minutes, Usagi arrived, late as usual. "Sorry 
everybody. I tripped and hurt my knee. Are we still going for ice-cream?"

Akane and Ranma looked up at this, then Ranma looked a bit sheepish. Guys 
don't eat ice-cream. Seeing the look on the face of Ami's student's fiancee, 
Rei piped up: "Say, do you two want to come with us for some ice-cream?"

Akane clapped her hands and immediately nodded her head. Even Ranma perked up 
a bit, then got a strange grin on his face. "Listen, I can't come, but if you 
wait a few minutes, then Akane's cousin was coming here to meet us too. She 
must be running a bit late. I'll head off now, and if I run into her, I'll 
hurry her up."

When the girls nodded their assent, Ranma ran for the door. As soon as he was 
outside, he looked for a handy hose. Typically, there's never cold water when 
you need it. After a few minutes searching, a woman wringing her washing out 
the window drenched him. After growling at her to be careful, she sprinted 
back to Ami's.

Stepping into the room, Ranko looked around smiling. "Hi, I'm Tendo Ranko. 
Pleased to meet you!"

Rei simply fainted.

At the ice-cream parlour, everyone watched in awe as Ranko shovelled away two 
massive ice-creams. Leaning over, Akane whispered in her ear. "You know, 
Ranma, it's bad enough that you had to change to do this. If your going to 
look like a girl, at least try and eat like one."

Ranma glared back at her, obviously wanting to say something in retaliation, 
but the presence of the other girls precluded that. Rei kept giving Ranko 
quiet glances, and whispering to the other Senshi. They weren't sure what it 
was, but this girl was more than she appeared, and there was something 
serious going on here.

Akane was almost finished her ice-cream when she looked at her watch and 
screamed. "Oh my god! Mr. Miyagi will kill me! I'm late, I'm late! Ranm-
Ranko, can you pay for this? I've got to go!"

In a blur, Akane leapt over their table and raced out of the restaurant. 
Ranko merely grabbed her ice-cream and made sure she got to eat it before the 
others. Noticing everyone's gaze on her, Ranko looked up. "Well, if I'm 
paying for it, I'm eating it!"

Ami just looked at her. How on earth could she keep a figure like that when 
she at some much? "Where's your cousin off to?"

"Oh, she's got remedial lessons with our new sensei. Clumsy tomboy can't even 
fight."

Everyone just stopped and stared. Ranko was mocking Akane because she was 
taking advanced classes in Martial Arts? "Are you sure it's wise to pick on 
her if she's the one studying Martial Arts?"

Ranko leaned back and laughed so hard she almost fell off her chair. "Hah! 
Akane couldn't hit me on the best day of her life. That's why Mr. Miyagi is 
teaching her."

Minako nudged Usagi in the ribs. "Say, Ranko. Do you want to go for a walk 
for a bit and then have dinner at my place? If we drop over to Usagi's we can 
get some stuff and then invite Akane and Ranma."

Ranko grinned. "Hmmm, dinner. OK, but... um... I think Ranma's still going to 
be busy. So I'll eat his share, OK?"

Minako grinned. Perfect. First Usagi's house to get Luna, then when she and 
Artemis were together, they may be able to get some advice on Rei's fire 
reading. After paying for the ice-cream, the friends set off to look around 
the city and show Ranko the sights. Apparently she was just visiting her 
cousin for a while.

They were all walking down a wide street, looking at some clothes (much to 
Ranma's disgust, but hey, this was a free meal we were talking about). Then a 
terrible scream rent the air, and a wave of foul air washed over them. Near 
the end of the street, some sort of hideous monster had leapt out of the 
alley, and was starting to hit people and destroy cars.

Ranko immediately pushed to girls behind her. "And I wanted to get away from 
this sort of thing. Go get help for these people. _I'll_ deal with that 
thing."

Bounding forward, Ranko started yelling at the youma, trying to draw its 
attention, and lure it to a nearby mall. The Senshi were stunned for a 
moment. This crazy girl was going to get killed! This looked like one of 
Jadeite's older youma. It would be a challenge for any one of them as a 
Sailor, and this girl had just run to attack it! Usagi took charge for once, 
grabbing her henshin stick and running to an alley. "We can't let it kill 
Ranko! Lets change!"

None of the running people noted the flashing lights which emanated from the 
alley as the four girls called for the greater powers. Magically their 
clothes changed, and the four sailor suited warriors for peace burst onto the 
scene.

Ranko had successfully lured the youma to more open ground: a plaza in the 
middle of the street. While the youma's four tentacles kept striking at 
Ranko, she dodged and flipped under them, occasionally moving in for a few 
lightning quick punches which sent the monster reeling, but accomplished 
little else, and taking a few blows in the process.

When Sailor Moon arrived, she struck a pose, and the monster briefly halted. 
As much as it liked fighting the human girl, it wanted to kill the Senshi. 
"Stores are there for all people to enjoy. To destroy them and hurt people is 
a thing of evil. Now the beautiful sailor suited warriors: Sailor Moon"

"Sailor Mars"

"Sailor Mercury"

"Sailor Venus"

"Shall punish you in the name of the Moon!"

Ranko took the moment to catch her breath as the stupid monster watched the 
Sailor Senshi. This monster was tougher than she thought. She had seen the 
Senshi on the news before, and always thought they were wimps, but if they 
fought this kind of thing as often as they did, he was willing to cut them 
some slack for their silly clothes and speeches. Sailor Moon seemed like she 
must have the same scriptwriter as Kuno.

When Moon was coming to an end of her speech, Ranko watched the monster turn 
to face them, and ignore her completely. Fine, then. If that's the way you 
like it. I'll teach you to ignore me for some silly looking _girls_.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

Sailor Mercury was just preparing to launch a Shabbon Freezing Spay when a 
blue bolt slammed into the side of the youma, blasting off a tentacle, and 
knocking it to the ground. All the Senshi hesitated for a moment as Ranko 
prepared to unleash another attack. 

Mars yelled as she advanced to attack: "Sailor Mercury! Find out what that 
was! BURNING MANDALA!"

Even as Mars was speaking, Mercury was dropping her hands from the attack and 
getting out her computer. Venus immediately moved forward to guard her, and 
Moon joined Ranko and Mars, then launched her own attack.

Ranko's second attack was nowhere near as effective as her first, since the 
youma was now prepared for it. By the time her third Ki attack struck, the 
Sailors were finishing the job. Their powers had improved since they last 
faced a demon of this quality. Three to one - and with Ranko's help - they 
quickly defeated it.

When the youma dissolved into a messy puddle on the street, the four Senshi 
converged on Ranko, who began to look at them nervously. " Err, did I do 
something wrong?"

Sailor Moon looked at the girl, who seemed a bit worried at being the focus 
of some of Tokyo's most potent defenders. "Miss, we need to talk to you about 
what just happened. Can you spare a moment?" 

Ranko thought for a moment. She had the worst feeling that she knew these 
people, and she wanted to find out more about that monster. "OK, but you'll 
have to tell my friends where I am, they should be hiding in the mall, or 
maybe they went to call for help."

Venus smiled. "They ran into us. I'll go off and tell them your OK... they 
must be worried. Back soon."

When Venus left, Moon jumped to a rooftop, and motioned for Mars and Mercury 
to hold Ranko and follow her. Much to their surprise, before they could even 
touch her, she leapt up and stood beside Sailor Moon. "Lead the way."

Although they had to keep their speed down slightly, the Senshi were amazed 
at the speed which Ranko could maintain as they bounced across the roofs. 
Moon lead the way, with Mercury behind Ranko. The other two scouts had headed 
off already and were gathering Luna, Artemis and their team-mates. 

They were headed to a small park not far from Usagi's home, and all the way 
Sailor Mercury kept looking at her computer, marvelling at the readings she 
getting. The Senshi were magically enhanced so that they were stronger and 
faster than ordinary humans, so the simply took long, fast steps. This 
enabled them to sprint across the roofs of buildings, with the occasional 
jump over streets and alleys. 

Ranko on the other hand showed only the slightest of magical aura, but there 
was assuredly some burst of energy every time the girl launched herself off 
the roof of a building. Instead of running like they did, Ranko simply 
_bounced_. Her feet hardly touched the roof before the computer registered a 
brief flash of energy in her, and she leapt to the next roof. All in all, it 
was a remarkable performance.

When they arrived in the park, Ranko looked around nervously. She had been 
running at her best speed - using her Ki to boost her jumps - and apparently 
the Senshi had been fast enough to outrun her and bring in reinforcements. 
Well eight to one was a little bit of a worry. Best to keep her avenues of 
retreat open till she found out what was going on. All that Ranko knew about 
the Senshi was what appeared in the news, and that wasn't much. She knew they 
enjoyed killing demons, and apparently they had been involved in some sort of 
inter-dimensional war. Ranko was a Martial Artist, and while she was happy to 
beat up monsters, she still didn't like to kill them. As a matter of fact, 
she felt concerned that the monster they fought today was the first creature 
that she had ever killed. As far as she was concerned there was a fine line 
between killing monsters and creatures from another dimension, and killing 
sixteen year olds like her.

Ranko wasn't particularly keen on the Sailor Senshi.

Landing near the group of girls, Ranko looked them over, and they looked her 
over. It was Moon who finally spoke. "I am Sailor Moon, and these are the 
Sailor Senshi: the beautiful sailor suited soldiers for love and justice. We 
are extremely grateful for what you did. We just have a few questions which 
may help us in the future."

Studying Moon's face intensely, she didn't look at the others directly. There 
was something wrong here. She was not sure what it was, but something was 
appealing to her instincts. 'Run' it was saying quietly. Not knowing what she 
should be afraid of, Ranko stayed, but she stayed tense and ready to fight or 
run. Spreading her palms, Ranko blinked and acted innocent. "Ask whatever you 
like."

Immediately Sailor Mercury stepped forward and held up her computer. Its 
screen showed an image of Ranko blasting the youma with a Moko Takabisha. "As 
you realise, the Sailors are magically endowed with our powers. My computer 
can detect any form of magic, but I still don't know what it was that you did 
to the youma. Would you care to explain it?"

Ranko laughed nervously. As the Senshi gathered around to hear her answer, 
she felt more and more nervous. Ranko tried backing up a step or two "It was 
nothing, just a Ki manipulation technique. Anything else?"

Everyone noticed Ranko's nervousness. She would charge a youma - a killing 
machine from another dimension - but she was afraid of the good guys? Moon 
was about to ask for a clarification when she felt something touch her leg. 
Looking down, she saw Luna look at her. "Meow?"

Luna was so smart. Every girl liked cats. If she showed Luna to Ranko, the 
girl might relax a bit. She was just bending down when Ranko moved. Back-
pedalling furiously, her eyes grew to the size of saucers and she pointed 
with a shaking hand. "C - C - C- Caaaaaaats! Caaaats!"

After another moment's hesitation, Ranko turned and ran, sprinting across the 
park. Immediately the Senshi took after her, trying to find out what the 
problem was, but they could hardly keep up. She made it all the way across 
the park before a building stopped her. It wasn't the concrete wall that 
stopped her, she just ran straight through it. It was the steel pole behind 
the wall. Ranko blacked out.

Everyone gathered around and looked at the girl. Sailor Uranus touched the 
wall in shock. "She just ran straight through it! I don't believe it! I mean, 
we could, because we're Sailors, but her... she just ran through it!"

Moon and Venus patted their cats while Sailor Saturn examined the girl. 
"She's just unconscious. How about we go back to your place Sailor Moon? That 
way we can have some privacy."

Hefting the unconscious Ranko, they ran. On the way, Luna made a wise 
decision. "Sailor Moon, I fear that your friend is frightened of us. I don't 
know why, but if you wish to talk to her in your room, then we will wait 
outside. Perhaps you will be able to get more information that way."

With Ranko lying on Usagi's bed, Sailor Saturn placed a hand on Ranko's 
forehead. In moments Ranko regained consciousness and looked around. Her fear 
was gone, and Ranko felt relieved. It must have been the cats. Even if she 
could not see them, Ranko could sense the presence of a cat in the same room 
as her. Cats invariably could sense her too, because they would seek her out.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Ranko looked up at the Senshi, who had spread 
themselves around the room and were relaxing on various pieces of furniture 
as though they owned the place. Then she realised: they may be fighters for 
justice and garbage like that, but they were still young girls. Which meant 
she had been lying on some strange girls bed! Akane would kill her! Ranko 
gulped. Better not tell her about this. She didn't like Ranma having a girl 
like Ami as a tutor, how would she feel knowing Ranma had woken up in a 
bedroom filled with scantily clad, good looking girls? After all, they 
weren't called 'Pretty Soldiers' for nothing.

Seeing their guest getting nervous again, Moon pre-empted her question. 
"We've put the cats outside for the moment Ranko. Don't worry, they won't 
come in."

Ranko visibly sagged with relief. Then she realised: with the cats past the 
door, she was trapped here! Mercury tried again. "You were saying something 
about Ki manipulations?"

Ranko perked up at the mention of her favourite topic, fighting: "Yeah, it's 
pretty simple. You just have to be able to focus you Ki, then you can project 
it out. Of course, the better you get, the more power you can deliver."

Sailor Jupiter leaned forward. "I've heard of people being able to manifest 
their Ki, but I thought it was supposed to be almost impossible to use it as 
a weapon."

"Bah, you just need to be good. Here:" Ranko summoned a small sphere of Ki. 
It was similar to what she had fired at the youma, only smaller and she held 
it on the flat of her palm. All the Senshi came in close, going 'Ohhh' and 
'Ahhhh'. Mercury held her computer up close and admired the results.

"Amazing! This is just the sort of energy that Beryl was trying to harvest, 
but she's got so much! We'd better hope that they never return and catch you, 
they could leave most of Tokyo alone and siphon you like a tap."

Ranko gulped, it was not a pretty image. Dissipating the sphere, she sat back 
and answered the rest of their questions. After almost an hour of talking, 
the Senshi decided there was not much more that they could learn, so Mars and 
Mercury offered to take Ranko home, to make sure she would not get lost in 
the unfamiliar city.

As they ran along the rooftops, Mercury bridged the question they all wanted 
to know, but none had been willing to ask. "Ranko, why are you afraid of 
cats?"

Stumbling, she looked around. "Cats? Where? Where?"

"No! There's no cats. I was just wondering what made you so frightened of 
cats. If you don't want to tell me, it's OK."

Ranko sighed and slowed to a walk. " It's OK, I suppose people would find 
this out quick enough any way. Ever since I was really little, Pops trained 
me in the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Any technique, he would teach 
me. Anything that was needed, he would do. Well, one day he was reading a 
training manual, and he found out about the Neko-ken. Basically it's a secret 
technique which uses the unstoppable ferocity of the cat to make you 
unbeatable. Unfortunately, he didn't read the next page in the manual which 
told him you'd have to be an idiot to teach this technique... Mind you, I 
suppose that means he would be able to teach it."

Mercury nodded. "Ah, so. When you realised just how ferocious cats are you 
became afraid of them."

"Nope. From what he told me, I agreed and wanted to learn it. Then he wrapped 
me in fish sausage and threw me into a room full of starving cats."

The two Senshi stopped dead in their tracks. "That's awful! No wonder..."

"Nah, that didn't do it. You see, I didn't learn the Neko-ken, immediately. 
So the next day, he did it again. Then again. Then again... I don't know how 
many times it took, I was only five at the time, so I couldn't really count 
much then. Anyway, it ended up sort of working."

They resumed walking in silence. The Senshi were shocked. The youma and Queen 
Beryl seemed like true demons, but compared to this girl's father, they were 
normal. "Ranko, this looks like where you said you were staying. If you see 
any more youma, just leave them to us. We don't want you getting hurt."

As they turned to leave, Rei offered a consolation to Ranko. "I'm sorry about 
your fear of cats, Ranko. But at least you learnt the technique, right?"

Ranko huffed. "Sure I learnt it, but considering it drives me completely 
insane every time I use it, it's not very good. Is it?"

There was nothing they could say to that, so they left.

When Ranma told Akane where he had been all evening, he glossed over most of 
it. He just said there had been a bit of a fight, and he had been able to 
watch the Senshi in action. When he admitted to being impressed by their 
powers, she poked him. "Ha, Ha! There's one thing you can never do, Mr. I-
Can-Do-Anything! All the Senshi are girls! And you're a guy! Guys can't be 
Senshi!"

Ranma thought of how callously they had killed the youma. "Trust me, I 
wouldn't want to be a Senshi for anything."

*	*	*

Jadeite read his report with only the slightest worry. The Senshi had become 
better, but he was better still. Not only that, but he was not plagued by 
some of the strange ideas that Beryl held. To get energy, you don't harvest 
it all on the spot, you get enough for a stable gate, then you bring the 
cattle - er, people - to you. Selecting a school on the map, Jadeite prepared 
one of his new youma. A small gate initially, it could harvest the energy 
from the healthy, lively, young bodies, then the invasion could begin in 
force. 

Realising that sacrifice was a necessary part of war, Jadeite expected the 
Senshi to come in time to kill the youma. That was another problems of Beryl, 
he thought: every mission must be an unqualified success. Any losses meant a 
failure, and punishment.

Jadeite was more than happy to swap a single youma for the energy he would be 
able to harvest in the short time. A couple of days preparation, and all 
would be ready. Ready for the end of the beginning, and the beginning of the 
end.

*	*	*

"All right, Mr. Miyagi. First you cut the wood, and you clean out the hole, 
right? All right, now if I place a piece of wood here, I can nail it in 
place. Repeat it a couple of times, and you'll be done."

Mr. Miyagi nodded. Then kicked a hole in the wall. "Better, but how do I cut 
the wood?"

*	*	*

Ryoga looked around and grabbed the man in the tartan skirt. The man seemed 
to be torturing a cat in a bag under his arm... maybe this guy had once tried 
to learn the Neko-ken and was getting his revenge. "How do I get to the 
Tanaka Dojo in Hokkaido?"

*	*	*

"Are you thick? What do you mean you don't know how to use a saw?"

Mr. Miyagi shook his head. "Ranma, there is no need for anger. Stay calm, and 
tell me about using a saw. I came from a fishing village where I either 
fished or learned Martial Arts. I did not do carpentry. Focus. Find your 
inner peace... Good. Now tell me of the saw."

"All right. When cutting wood, you use a saw. These sharp bits are called the 
teeth, and they are what do the cutting..."

*	*	*

Ranma and Akane walked to school, admiring what a beautiful day it was. With 
this much sun, it mean he wouldn't have to spend as much time hopping around 
hiding from girls who though he was Ranko, or guys trying to find out who the 
hot looking pig-tailed girl was. 

Poor, Akane... it hurt her something awful the way that most of the girls in 
the school seemed to fall all over him. But one thing had come of being with 
Mr. Miyagi. He may not have taught Ranma about being a Sensei yet - he was 
too keen on his carpentry - but he had taught Ranma that even girls could 
cope with a little pain. Ranma couldn't remember seeing Akane so happy as 
when he had thrown her across Mr. Miyagi's yard and into his small pond. When 
she got out of the water, she didn't attack him with her mallet as he 
expected, she thanked him for finally treating her like a real Martial 
Artist. He just couldn't understand the uncute macho tomboy.

He could understand something though. That was the way that Akane hurt when 
the girls launched themselves all over him. Normally he wasn't very 
perceptive, but he had taken to watching her face more often. Must be because 
he was looking for her to attack, he thought, 'cause she wasn't cute unless 
she smiles. Hey, that's it! Without Shampoo and Ukyou all over him, she 
didn't have to scowl so much, and she didn't hit him!

They entered the school gates and he saw the smile slip from her face. Oh, I 
want that back, just smile once more! When the first girl ran up and latched 
onto him, he decided it was time for desperate measures. Prizing her off, he 
dropped her on the ground and grabbed hold of Akane. "Hey! Back off. I'm not 
interested. Just leave me alone!"

Ranma almost went after the poor girl. The way she looked, so hurt and sad at 
his rejection. But Akane looked at him, and he realised she hadn't pushed him 
away yet. Quickly he let her go, maintaining a bit of a distance. "I... um... 
its just that... um... Hey, there's Ami and Makoto!"

Akane almost smiled at his back. Sure he had been pretty harsh on that poor 
girl, but it was the first time she could recall him ever doing something 
like that. I almost think he does like me... She thought.

Joining Ranma and the two girls, they went in to class.

*	*	*

At the end of the day, Akane went back to Mr. Miyagi's dojo, while Ranma 
waited for Ami to finish her gym class and get cleaned up. Bah! Tutoring 
again. At least she seemed pretty smart, and she was a good tutor.

He was wandering around aimlessly when he heard sounds of fighting. Not just 
fighting, but fighting Senshi style! Sprinting around the school yard to 
where the sounds came from, he saw most of the Senshi ganging up against a 
youma which had appeared in the school ground. It looked like it had been 
attacking a group of students that had been doing some sort of literature 
study in the yard. Ranma agreed with its tastes. He hated literature too.

Looking for a better place to watch, he saw a guy in a formal suit balancing 
in a tree. Silently he jumped up beside him, and listened to him mumble. 
"Sailor Moon... you fight for love and justice... um... these are the source 
of your powers... err... Now kick it's butt... no, Now use your staff and 
destroy this evil..."

Ranma looked at the guy as he took a quick drink of water, and then grabbed a 
rose. A rose?!? "Kuno, is that you under that mask?"

Whoever it was, he leapt in the air. Apparently he had been concentrating on 
making up his bad speech and hadn't noticed Ranma. Ranma - being the water 
magnet that he was - immediately ended up with a face full of the cold water 
the man had been drinking. When the man finally calmed enough and had grabbed 
the tree for support, it was a dripping Ranko he saw. 

"I'm not sure who 'Kuno' is, fair lady, but I am Tuxedo Kamen. I am here to 
aid the valiant Sailor Moon in her quest for peace and justice."

Hmm, right script, right roses, wrong voice. "Sorry, I mistook you for 
another idio... person. And if you're here to help Moon, you better get a 
move on!"

As they had been talking, the youma had successfully struck the defender of 
love and justice and knocked her flying. While Moon struggled to be able to 
rise, Mercury had been grabbed by the thick, slimy arms of the creature. 
Sailor Jupiter looked on with fear. Her attack was too powerful and 
widespread to use now that Mercury was in close. Hoisting her fists she 
charged in yelling, and began to beat upon the monster. Gouts of slime flew 
everywhere, but she wasn't sure if any real damage was being done. Meanwhile, 
poor Mercury was having the life crushed out of her!

In a flash Tuxedo Kamen was beside Sailor Moon, helping her gently to her 
feet, and giving her words of encouragement. Seeing Moon safe, Ranko charged 
the monster. Ranko remember what happened the last time that she mixed it up 
with one of these things, and wished she could heed the warning to let the 
Senshi deal with the problem. But even if they were magically powered, Ranko 
couldn't let a bunch of girls get beaten up. If it were a choice between a 
monster dying and a Senshi dying, she'd let the monster die.

Since the monster held Mercury high in the air, Ranko zipped right up to its 
smelly armpit, which dripped some sort of equally smelly goo. "KACHUU TENSHIN 
AMAGURIKEN!" Launching a couple of hundred blows with her attack she realised 
that perhaps she should not laugh at the Senshi for their silly poses and 
speeches. After all, anyone which liked screaming about chestnuts couldn't 
really complain.

Beaten back by the damage, the youma dropped Mercury, and Ranko grabbed her, 
moving over to the side of the yard. As she placed Mercury on the ground, 
Ranko looked in her eyes and checked if she was OK. Mercury merely stared. No 
wonder they were concerned about Ranko! Her forehead was glowing with a 
symbol similar to her own. But that was impossible! All of the Senshi are 
accounted for! Even Luna said that there were never any other Senshi in the 
Silver Millennium. All the planets bar Earth had one, and the Moon did. There 
was no Sailor Terra, so who could this be?

Ranko didn't wait long. With Mercury out of the way, recovering from cracked 
ribs, and Moon still concussed, it was up to her and Jupiter! Jupiter had 
backed off a bit, and was hopping about trying to get space to do an attack. 
"Jupiter! When I go in, you hit it from the front! I'm gunna jump when you 
attack. GO!!"

With a dive roll over a massive arm, Ranko came in close to the creature. 
Launching another Tenshin Amaguriken, she mercilessly pounded the youma, 
buying Sailor Jupiter the time needed to prepare her attack. "SPARKLING 
WIDE..."

Ranko leapt vertically, evading the arms which were about to slam into her.

"PRESSURE!"

"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

As Sailor Jupiter's heavy blast hit it from the front, Ranko's Ki blast took 
it from above. Their efforts took the beast down, but not out. Smoking from 
its wounds, it continued to fight, and they only managed to hold it at bay. 
Minutes passed, and the two fighters began to weary. As their strength seemed 
to be almost gone, more Senshi arrived. Under the combined assault the demon 
died. With the death of the demon, Ranko's symbol also faded, leaving her 
facing a crowd of very inquisitive Senshi.

"Oh, no. I'm not staying this time! If my fiancee finds out I've fighting 
I'll be in big trouble."

Before they could stop her, Ranko sprinted off into the school. 

"Did you see it?"

"Her head!"

"The mark!"

"Don't loose her!"

Following her into the building, they lost her briefly, and then forever. The 
only person they could see in the corridor was a slightly damp Ranma coming 
out of the men's toilets. "No, no. I haven't seen any red- haired girls 
around here. Nope, none at all. Not a single one."

Leaving the slightly panicky Ranma behind, the Senshi continued their search. 
Unfortunately, they were destined to fail, leaving them all filled with the 
question of just who she was. Fortunately Ranma was so preoccupied at his 
tutoring that night that he didn't notice how pre-occupied the tutor was.

*	*	*

Usagi looked sternly at Luna. All the other Senshi other than Ami / Sailor 
Mercury and the mysterious Setsuna / Sailor Pluto were present. Ami had a 
tutoring position with the fiancee of Ranko's cousin, of all people! "Spill 
the beans, Luna. We need to know who she is. All of us saw the mark on her 
head, and we know she's a Senshi. Who is she?"

Luna shook her head sadly. "I don't know! There are no more Senshi! And there 
are never more than one Senshi per planet."

"Could she be Sailor Earth?"

"No, from what you've described, the symbol is wrong. Besides, Earth never 
had a Sailor associated with it, just Sailor Moon."

All was quite for a moment then Artemis spoke quietly. "I could be wrong, but 
I think I know who she is. Back during the Silver Millennium, only children 
of royal birth could become members of the Sailor Senshi, and so all of the 
positions were filled as time went by. But there was one young girl of common 
birth, and all she wanted was to be a Sailor Scout.

"Every day she trained. She learned and she focused. Whenever she could she 
observed the powers of the Senshi, and tried to imitate their every action 
and deed. This girl was very determined and very resourceful. Legend has it 
that lived in a small orbital station close to the sun, and spent her life 
trying to draw the focus of the sun for her strength, the same way you draw 
on the power of the planets.

"When the Negaverse launched their attack against the Moon Kingdom, I was 
once told that there was a tenth girl fighting with the Senshi. It was this 
girl, who called herself Sailor Sun, that managed to defeat and destroy much 
of the space fleet that the Negaverse sent.
"She wasn't a full Senshi, so she wasn't aided by the magic bestowed by Queen 
Serenity, but she had managed to tap the powers of the sun. Her power was 
devastating, even then. Short of Sailor Saturn's ability to destroy the 
world, she was more powerful than any individual. 
"It was her final self-sacrificing attack that blasted much of the 
Negaverse's fleet, and bought the Sailor Senshi time to recover and regroup. 
After Queen Serenity heard of this, she apparently decided she would 
posthumously make her a Sailor in honour of her deeds."

Artemis paused for a moment, remembering the terrible days at the rend of the 
moon Kingdom. "The only problem with this is that the Negaverse's main attack 
came too soon. She never had time to make her a Senshi. Queen Serenity 
sacrificed herself in the same manner and bought the human race the time it 
needed to prepare against the Negaverse's return."

Everyone sat in silence. It was eventually Luna that broke the silence. "Why 
didn't we know this before?"

Artemis merely shrugged. "It was not important then. She was not really a 
Senshi, and because she was already dead, she couldn't be reincarnated. The 
girl was only a minor character in a major production."

Putting her arm around Michiru, Haruka caught the eye of the other moon cat.. 
"But what if Queen Serenity _did_ make her a Sailor. Wouldn't Luna be able to 
produce a henshin stick for her?"

Luna thought about it for a bit. "I suppose. This doesn't explain how she is 
here now... but that's not as important as gaining a new ally."

With that, Luna thought for a moment, then executed a complex back flip. At 
the pinnacle of the arc, a small, bright pen came out. Rei picked it up off 
the ground. "Well, what do you know? Now, Ranko is Akane's cousin. And Akane 
has to train with her Sensei after school. What say we get Akane to invite 
Ranko for ice-cream. She liked that before, after all, the poor girl must be 
lonely in a strange city..."

Usagi bounced happily, blond hair flying everywhere. "Oh, boy! ICE- CREAM!"

*	*	*

"All right, after you measure the wood, you place the saw on the waste side, 
and gently begin to cut. In no time, we stick it in the hole, bang in a 
couple of nails. Hey Presto."

"Very good, Ranma. But I can't remember what you told me about how to hammer 
it in."

"ARRRG!" Ranma punched a hole in the dojo wall in frustration.

*	*	*

Ami approached Akane at school that day and asked her about getting her and 
Ranko out for ice-cream again. Akane shook her head and admitted to other 
commitments, but she suspected that Ranko would be delighted. Timing was 
arranged, and Akane promised to let Ranko know.

When Ranma's tutorial was drawing to a close, both he and Ami were getting a 
bit restless. More restless than Ranma normally is when he's trying to learn 
something, that is. Given both their inattention, Ami finally let Ranma off 
early, much to his delight. As he streaked away to change into Ranko, it 
dawned on him that there actually was an upside to this stupid curse. Every 
grey cloud has a sliver lining. His just happened to have a really small 
lining: an ice-cream sized lining.

Ami was just as expectant, but not for the same reasons. Sure, she loved ice-
cream, but the prospect of inviting a new Senshi into their midst was even 
more exciting. When they decided about this, she just knew they would become 
best friends. All the Senshi were good friends, even if the got on each 
other's nerves a bit; but Ami somehow felt she would be closer to Ranko. And 
they could visit her place, and meet her friends, and her parents, and see 
her school, and...

Ami slowed down her train of thought. Better not badger the poor girl too 
much, it's liable to be a bit of a shock for her. Ami realised what a 
surprise it was for her, but somehow she thought it was what she was destined 
for.

Leaving in plenty of time, Ami met Rei and they made their way to the ice-
cream parlour. The Senshi had discussed this amongst themselves and come up 
with a good plan. Rather than frighten Ranko with a whole crowd of girls 
powering up into their Sailor clothes, just Ami and Rei would be there 
initially. When they had told her the facts of life, then the rest of the 
Sailors could join them. Poor Luna and Artemis would just have to hear the 
details second hand.

After doing justice to another massive quantity of ice-cream, Ranko let 
herself be led to the Shrine where Rei lived with her grandfather. 
"Grandfather is out for a while tonight. I asked if he would mind if I had 
some friends over, and he said that the sounds of girls giggling would keep 
him up. So he's off to visit some of his friends from the war."

Ranko looked around and admire the peace and tranquillity of the shrine. It 
was a lovely place. Ranko thought it would be a nice place for some Martial 
Arts training. Hey, perhaps they would like to do some training before 
dinner? "Hey, you two! Ever considered doing Martial Arts? This place looks 
like it would be great for training..."

Ranko took one look at the expressions on their faces and immediately 
realised her mistake. "Oh, damn, I'm sorry, Rei. I just realised. If you live 
here, you must be a Shinto priestess or something. You wouldn't be able to 
fight even if a great slimy monster attacked you."

Ranko watched as their expressions went from surprised to completely stunned. 
Could she know already, and is just toying with us? Ranko reached the 
conclusion that she was digging herself in deeper, and tried to cover up. 
"Whoops! Just forget I ever mentioned a slimy monster. Or tentacles, or 
demons and Sailors and... Ah... Um... It's a lovely night isn't it?"

Rei and Ami exchanged glances. Did Ranko have a guide like Luna? But that's 
silly, Ranko hated cats. Rei spoke up. "Ranko, do you know why we're here?"

"Yep, it's your home."

"No, I mean _why_ are we here?"

"Err, you wanted to pick up something."

The girls looked relieved. Ranko did not know. "Ranko, we have some wonderful 
news for you, and we need to show you something."

Ranko watched carefully as Rei and Ami both took out small pen shaped 
objects. Holding hers aloft, Rei called out. "Mars Star Power, Make Up!"

Immediately shinning lights surrounded her. Despite the fact that she was 
covered in an impenetrable glow, Ranko averted her eyes as Rei's clothes 
vanished. When she did a pirouette, new clothes appeared. And after a few 
seconds, Sailor Mars stood where Rei had been. Before the shock could settle 
in, Ami also transformed into Sailor Mercury.

Ranko began to back up. Oh, no! They've seen me change sex! They must think 
I'm one of those demons! "No, No! It's just a curse! I'm not a demon! 
Honestly! Ami! I'm your friend! Don't do this to me!"

As the clearly terrified girl backed up, the Sailors advanced and tried to 
calm her. "Ranko, Ranko! It's OK. Don't be frightened. We're still your 
friends. We just need to talk."

Making placating gestures with their hands, the girls waited until Ranko 
calmed down. "You... you don't want to kill me?"

Sailor Mercury looked taken aback. "No! Why on earth would we want to kill 
you?"

Ranko looked sheepish. "Um... No reason. No reason at all. Ha, ha! Err... so 
why have you just shown me who you are? I mean, isn't that a closely guarded 
secret or something?"

Mars smiled and held out the new henshin stick. "It is. As a general rule, 
the only people who know our identities are the other Sailor Senshi. Take 
this." 

Feeling bemused for a moment, Ranko took the pen, then the word sunk in. They 
want to make me a Senshi! Ranko started to hand the pen back. "Sorry. I 
realise that it's supposed to be an honour and all that, but I'm not 
interested."

Not interested in being a Senshi! A sailor suited defender of love and 
justice! This was every girl's dream! But Ranko wanted to refuse. Placing a 
hand on Ranko's shoulder, Mercury offered her support. "No Ranko. It's not 
just that we want you to become a Sailor Senshi. The fact is, you already 
are. Sailors aren't chosen, they're born that way. Sometimes it just takes a 
while for them to awaken."

Ranko looked around and noticed that while they had been talking the rest of 
the Senshi had arrived. The courtyard of the shrine was filled with girls in 
those tight bodysuits and teeny-tiny skirts. Sailor Moon walked over and 
smiled at Ranko, trying to offer her the support of the entire team. "Ranko, 
you're one of us. Just take the transformation pen, raise it up, and say the 
first thing that comes into your head."

Ranko looked at the innocent looking stick. All she could think of was the 
words Akane had spoken the other day: 'All the Senshi are girls! And you're a 
guy! Guys can't be Senshi!' Looking around at all the girls, she could see 
them looking at her expectantly. Sighing she raised the henshin stick and 
spoke loudly. "Those dresses look really silly! I'm not gunna be a Senshi!"

The girls were stunned. That wasn't the response which should be top in her 
mind! "Ranko. I understand, you might be a bit afraid, but it's OK. We're a 
team. You don't have to face these things alone. Join us. We need you."

Ranko looked at the pen in her hand, then offered it back to Rei. "I'm sorry, 
Rei. I can't. It's different for me. I'm... I'm a... Look, what if Akane 
found out! What would she say? What would my mum say? She'd kill me for 
sure." 

Sailor Mars did not take the Henshin stick, but she did back off slightly. 
"Girls, I think I need to have a little talk to Ranko for a while. Why don't 
you go home? I'll call you later. Don't worry, it will be OK."

The other Sailors headed for the exit, changing back into their normal selves 
when out of Ranko's sight. If Ranko did not want to join them, perhaps it was 
best that only Rei and Ami had been exposed. Rei also transformed back and 
looked at the forlorn Ranko. She was standing there in the middle of the 
garden, head bowed. Rei walked over, and was shocked to see the girl crying. 
Placing her arm around Ranko's shoulder, Rei led her to a bench and sat down 
next to her.

"I'm sor... sorry, Rei. It's bad for me. I just... I just can't take this 
much more. It's like every day, another little piece of me is slipping away. 
Akane warned me about this sort of thing, but I thought it was just a joke. 
But it's true."

Grabbing hold of the black haired girl, Ranko put her head on her shoulder, 
and really cried in earnest. Rei held her tight and rocked her back and 
forwards. She wasn't sure what was wrong with Ranko, or what frightened her 
so much about being a Senshi. Rei wondered what her cousin could possibly 
have said which would make her frightened. Why Ranko's mother would want to 
kill her was another mystery. Rei always thought that being one of the chosen 
defenders of the earth was a great honour.

But what Rei thought, and what Rei wondered wasn't the issue. Obviously Ranko 
had some serious fears, and Rei needed to help her get past them. "Ranko. 
Ranko, I know you're scared. But you don't need to be. We all want to be your 
friends, and we all want to help. If you really feel that you don't want to 
be a Sailor Senshi, then you don't have to be."

Ranko stifled her sobs and looked up. When Rei started speaking she was sure 
Rei was going to badger her into joining. But maybe not. She started to give 
back the stick, but Rei didn't take it. "As I said, Ranko, you don't have to 
be a Sailor, but we would really like you on the team. Can you tell my what's 
wrong? Maybe I can help."

Ranko sighed and sat back. She wiped her face with her sleeve, and then 
looked up at Rei. "Well, what if Akane finds out. She'd kill me. Well maybe 
not kill me, but I don't think she'd ever speak to me again. I just couldn't 
cope with that."

Rei smiled. "Everyone keeps secrets. Even us. I realise that she's your 
cousin, but you don't need to tell her everything. Remember, you only 
transform when you want to. No one can force you, and the disguise field 
prevents anyone from ever seeing who you really are. And what about your mum? 
She wouldn't really kill you, would she?"

Ranko merely nodded her head. "Yes. That one I am sure of. I... I can't 
really explain it now; it's too complex. But trust me: if I became a Sailor 
Senshi and mum ever found out, she would hunt me to the ends of the earth and 
force me to commit seppuku. It's because of a promise I made many years ago."

That one shocked Rei to the core. Ranko was so sure, so certain, she had 
trouble doubting her. But what was so bad that could force a mother to kill 
her daughter? She though she heard Ranko say something like 'only girls can 
be Senshi', but that didn't make any sense. 

Rei listened to Ranko's objections one after another. Each time she countered 
with logic, support and friendship. When Ranko's excuses began to get thin, 
Rei changed to the offensive. "Ranko, everybody has fears. There's danger in 
everything we do. But facing those fears is what courage is all about. I saw 
you charge in and attack that youma with only your bear hands a few days ago. 
And why? To protect a few people you hardly knew? I was with you. Back then 
you didn't know Ami and I were Senshi, and you put your life in danger to 
save us. Why did you do that?"

The girl just looked baffled. Batting her big puppy dog eyes, she looked the 
other girl in the eye. "But it the duty of every Martial Artist to protect 
those who are weak. That monster could have killed everyone there if it 
wasn't stopped. And I was the only one who could stop it. Well, I _thought_ I 
was. Even that jerk Ryoga wouldn't pick on someone weak. Ha, he's always 
trying to kill me, and when I was finally weak once, he couldn't. Ryoga cried 
because his worst enemy had been struck down before he could do it."

She wasn't sure who Ryoga was, but this was definite progress. "What we face 
out there is more powerful than any Martial Artist. What we face is nothing 
less than a complete demonic invasion from another dimension. Once the Moon 
Kingdom ruled the entire solar system. In the first invasion, they were 
defeated, but at the cost of all civilisation as it stood. Queen Serenity 
sacrificed her life to provide the time that was needed for us to regroup. 
"The second time they invaded we again defeated them, but only just. It was 
the combined efforts of all of the Senshi that managed to halt the advance of 
a foolish and ill-prepared enemy."

Looking into the distance, Rei remembered all the details that her friends 
had been discussing in the last week. "In the last week the Senshi have 
destroyed more youma than we did in the entire previous three months. Ami 
thinks there's a pattern. Sailor Moon is worried that this is just the start 
of something bigger. I think that this must be a third invasion. The rulers 
of the Negaverse are just as bad as the youma they control. If we don't 
destroy them, they just keep coming back. Again and again.
"I have an ability to see images in fire. It's a limited form of pre-
cognition. When I did a reading on the weekend, I saw you, fighting some 
great evil. There were flames everywhere and great suffering. 

Rei was standing now, gesturing, imploring Ranko to understand. "Ranko, 
whether you like it or not, most of the people out there are weak. They can't 
defend themselves against the powers of the Negaverse and its armies. We 
don't fight because we enjoy it. If I could give up being a Sailor Senshi, 
and know that it would stop the demons attacking: I would. But it can't, so I 
won't. To keep people safe, we need defenders. People willing to risk their 
lives so that the people they love can continue their lives in peace.
"Ranko, don't do it because you can, or what you can get from it. Do it 
because if you don't, the consequences will be terrible. I know you care for 
your cousin, but the demons are getting stronger, and we're staying the same. 
If this keeps up, one day we will loose. We need you Ranko."

Ranko simply sat there. Rei's impassioned speech had touched her. Sure, Ranma 
would suffer from this. He seemed to suffer from all of the calamities which 
followed him. But as Rei said: if not her, then who? If not now, then when? 

Standing again she looked down at Rei. "I still don't want to wear that silly 
skirt and, err... leotard, but I'll do it. If you show me what to do, I'll 
change, and I'll be a Sailor Senshi. But I can't stay long now. Akane will be 
getting worried about me, so she's probably gunna call before I get home. 
Just tell her... tell her I came asking advice. Tell her... tell her that I 
like her. A lot."

Nonplussed that Ranko could care that much about the opinion of a cousin she 
seemed to see only occasionally, Rei nodded. "Just raise you hand in the air, 
and say what comes naturally."

Ranko lifted the henshin stick and called: "Sun Star Power, Make Up!"

A blinding light shone around her, and she felt herself float free of the 
ground. While she rotated in the air, she felt her clothes change, and the 
power filled her body. Even at his strongest, Ranma had never felt such power 
flowing through him. But now, as a girl, he knew he had powers he only 
dreamed of.

Sailor Sun stood there, looking glorious in her new Sailor suit. Her costume 
was similar to that of Mars, since bright red was her primary colour. Along 
with the white gloves and body suit, she had a short red skirt, and knee 
length red boots. Her bright read hair flowed loosely down her back, and was 
held in place by a simple head band of red metal. In the centre of the band 
was a clear jewel, which seemed to contain a continual flame, burning deep 
inside. Rei clapped her hands and looked on with pride.

"Just one thing, Rei. How do I get out of this?"

*	*	*

Ryoga swatted flies from his face and looked at the guy on the dusty farm. 
It's a good thing that his travels had left him good at languages, because 
where-ever he was, they spoke English. "Can you tell me how to get to the 
Tanaka Dojo in Hokkaido?"

The man facing him looked blank for a moment. Looking at the sheep that 
surrounded him, he scratched his head. "Well, Jim lives about 300 kays north 
of here. But I don't know anyone called Tanaka there. You got the address?"

Ryoga brought out the piece of paper, and read the address to him. The flies 
here really were terrible. "Well, mate. I'd say you're only a few thousand 
kays off. Try heading NorthWest for about eight or ten thousand kays. Should 
be about right."

The farmer watched the black haired Japanese boy head east. Good idea, 
really. He could go to town and catch a plane or something.

*	*	*

Two days later Ranma looked at Akane as they began their morning spar and 
shook his head. Mr. Miyagi had been trying to get him to train with Akane 
properly for almost a week now, had Ranma still had not landed one blow. As 
to be expected, Akane was getting madder and madder every day. Yesterday 
morning, Mr. Miyagi had said that they needed to work out their problems, and 
he would return when they needed his teaching; then he went back to bed.

Each morning they would spend two hours working out. To be more precise, 
Akane would spend two hours punching and kicking at Ranma - but never hitting 
- and Ranma would spend two hours dodging. It was shaping up to be another 
morning like the others when, fifteen minutes into the session, Ranma held up 
a hand for a break. Akane was a bit surprised. She knew that Ranma had been 
out last night, probably fighting judging by the way he was favouring his 
left side this morning. "Are you all right, Ranma? You look a bit stiff."

Ranma brushed aside the comment and looked at her sternly. "Akane, you know 
why I don't hit you whenever we train, don't you?"

She scowled fiercely at him. "Yeah, I know. You don't like to hit girls. But, 
Ranma! I'm not some piece of china. I'm a Martial Artist too. I managed to 
protect myself just fine for sixteen years before you turned up. I think I 
can handled a couple of hits in training."

"Akane... Akane... I don't know how to say this, but... But I don't want you 
to get hurt - - -"

"I'm not a baby, Ranma! I can take care of myself you jerk!"

"That's not what I meant, you uncute tomboy! Hey! Wait! Put that hammer down! 
OW! STOP!"

When Ranma pulled himself out of the ground he looked up at the angry Akane 
and tried again. "Please don't hit me this time, I just need to... to talk 
for a bit. Akane, I ... I... I really don't want to see you getting hurt. 
It's a rough world out there. You and I both know that I'm a better fighter 
that you. Put down that mallet! I'm not trying to insult you; it's just the 
truth. But Akane, when I was out last night, I got into a bit of a fight, and 
well, take a look."

Ranma pulled up his shirt and turned so that she could get a good look at his 
left side. From just above the hip to almost his armpit there was one big 
bruise. Ranma was glad that Akane had not received his crash course in youma. 
If she had, she may have realise just what sort of fight he must have been in 
to receive the injury. What was more incredible to Ranma was just how little 
injury there was. When the beast had hit him (her), he had been pounded 
straight into the ground. He knew that at least two of his ribs had been 
broken. It was only his own incredible healing combined with the magic of the 
Sailor Senshi powers which had allowed him to get off so lightly.

When Akane had finished going 'Ohhh' and trying to mother him, he pulled his 
shirt down. "It's just a bruise. It's not that bad, I've had worse before. 
But when this happened to me, I swore that nothing like this would ever 
happen to you if I could help it."

Akane growled "I just told you, Ranma: you can't protect me all the time. I 
can fight too, you know!"

He nodded and dropped his head. "You're right. I... I also realised that I 
can't be there for you all the time. I also know that there's only one way 
that I can stop you from having this happen to you. I don't like it, and I... 
I need you to tell me it's OK. Akane, I care, I really do. That's why I need 
to hurt you. It's the only way I can feel safe about you."

Akane looked at him in shock. She always thought he was a bit of a pervert, 
but now the truth was out. He really was worse than Happosai. Well, if Ranma 
thought he could get to play his sick little games of torture with her just 
because he said he cared, he had another thing coming! "You're sick, Ranma. 
Really sick! If you want to play you're little S&M games, go see Shampoo, 
she's probably right into it. Anything for her husband! But if you every try 
and lay one perverted finger on me, I WILL KILL YOU!"

Ranma stood back stunned. After a moment he started to race after her into 
the house. "No! Wait! It's not like that! It's what Mr. Miyagi said. The only 
way I can stop you from getting hurt badly is to hurt you now. Akane... 
Akane, I really care. I mean I l... Oh, I mean I need to train with you. If I 
don't, then what happened to me might happen to you, and I don't think I 
could really cope with that. Please."

Akane had stopped part way through his tirade. When he was finished she 
turned around and looked into his eyes. Placing one hand gently on his cheek, 
she looked up into his big blue eyes. Those blue eyes looked back at her with 
concern, fear, and perhaps, perhaps even something else. "Oh, Ranma. Do you 
mean it? You really want to train with me? Properly? So I'll actually learn 
something?"

Ranma nodded his head. "But, Akane, I have to warn you. Your defence sucks. 
Honestly. And there's only one way to improve it. Look at me. My defence is 
great. Ryoga can almost never hit me. Do you know why? Because when he does, 
it really hurts. It's the only way to learn. We could stand outside and do 
Kata all day, all year, and your defence will hardly improve. But... but if I 
hit you, and it hurts, then in a week's time, I have you defending twice as 
well as you do now. Akane, I would do anything to prevent this. I never want 
to hurt you, ever! But I can't be with you all the time. And I can't protect 
you like I want to. I know you don't want to be protected, but at the moment, 
you need to be. Please, Akane, say it's OK. Say you won't mind, because I 
can't live in fear for you."

Akane was touched. He had said everything for almost exactly the wrong 
reasons. She was a Martial Artist, and while she wasn't as good as Shampoo or 
Ukyo, she knew she was one of the best. As Ranma said, her defence could be 
much better, and he was right about how he could make her better. What it 
amounted to, was that Ranma was offering her one of the few things he had 
always refused: respect for her abilities. He was willing to treat her as a 
Martial Artist, not his equal (Ranma never treated anyone that way), but as a 
proper training partner. 

Despite what he had said, she knew he also did it for the best reason: he 
cared about her. He even said it. Finally she knew he had some feelings. Not 
love. Probably never that, not when he had Ukyo and Shampoo to choose from. 
But now she knew she had his respect and friendship, and that was worth a lot 
to her. She finally looked back into his eyes. She saw the fear that he had 
overstepped the line. They might be engaged, but Akane could hardly remember 
the times when they had said something nice to each other. Well, actually, 
she could remember them perfectly, every single instance. But for him to say 
something unprompted, and meaningful, this was new.

"Oh, Ranma. Of course I want to do this. I've always wanted to do this. You 
just... never mind. Thank you."

Ranma took her out into the yard again and warned her that while he would be 
going easy, she was still going to get hit, and he didn't want her to go 
easy. If she did, then he would just hit her again until she took it 
seriously.

Akane nodded and the fight began. She had hardly taken a defensive stance 
when she was on the ground, her left shoulder hurting. "You're slow getting 
your guard up. Always pay attention to you opponent. Try again."

Ranma backed off to let her stand. When she was on her feet, she put her 
hands up. *SMACK!* Her eyeballs rattled from the blow to the side of the 
head. After a moment Ranma and the garden stopped spinning and she could her 
him speaking. "Keep your arms up. If they are up, you can block a blow to the 
head, or drop them to block a blow to the body. Stay ready."

They only trained for an hour that morning. Akane didn't launch a single 
attack, and by the end, she was feeling like a punching bag. When Ranma 
signalled an early break, she slumped and agreed. "Oh, I hurt all over."

Ranma was immediately by her side and full of concern. She waved him away, 
insisting all she needed was a hot bath. When they we inside, Akane headed 
upstairs, and Ranma walked to the kitchen to see about breakfast. Much to his 
surprise, Mr. Miyagi was already there, and had a full breakfast waiting.

"Hmm, You did well this morning. I think that we should skip your lessons on 
woodwork this morning. I have an important technique from Miyagi-do to teach 
you."

Ranma's eyes immediately lit up. It hurt him terribly every time he hit 
Akane, but now Mr. Miyagi was apparently going to finally respect him enough 
to teach him to be a sensei! After breakfast, Mr. Miyagi led the two 
teenagers into the living room, and had Akane lie face down on the floor. 
Kneeling beside her, Mr. Miyagi pointed out various vulnerable spots on her 
back and legs to Ranma. He already knew these, but repetition never hurt... 
much.

"Now, must know this. No student ever learn if too injured to practice. No 
fighter ever win if too injured to fight. You watch and learn: Special 
Miyagi-do Massage Technique!" Ranma was just stunned as Mr. Miyagi began to 
teach some of the techniques which made Dr Tofu so renowned in Nerima. 

*	*	*

Things rapidly went from bad to worse in the youma department. Attacks were 
occurring at least once a day, and generally at night. In many ways it was 
fortunate that they were happening at night. It was much easier to explain 
that you were tired at school than to say that you had to leave class because 
you were one of the Sailor Suited defenders of love and justice... especially 
when you were a guy.

What worried the Senshi even more than the number of youma attacks was their 
level of success. Rather than being able to win all of the fights, the Senshi 
were winning only one in three. Certainly, they would often be able to kill 
one of the demons, but these days, that was not assured. Often when the 
Senshi arrived, the youma would simply turn tail and run, eventually being 
sucked back through whatever dimensional gate they used. Other times, the 
youma would have come, attacked and left before the Senshi could wake up and 
get to the scene.

Given that most of the time it only took three or four Senshi to defeat a 
youma (without unnecessary risk) they tried to hold a staggered roster. Two 
days after they tried this, it all fell apart. Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Mars 
and Venus had headed out to battle one of the youma which had attacked a 
picture theatre. When they arrived, they found almost everyone in the cinema 
drained of their energy. The Senshi spotted the youma and gave chase. 

Just when they had it cornered, they were ambushed. A full dozen youma burst 
from the surrounding buildings. The Senshi immediately called for 
reinforcements, and prepared for battle. The battle was long and hard, with 
the outnumbered Sailors taking the brunt of the punishment. By the time the 
remaining Senshi arrived, only Sailor Uranus was on her feet. The rescuer's 
combined assault managed to destroy one of the youma outright, and dispersed 
the remainder. Unfortunately the need to defend their fellows prevented the 
Senshi from pressing the attack. By the time they reached their wounded, the 
youma had vanished. 

It was the first true defeat that the Senshi had faced in a long time. Three 
of their number were struck down, and in need of serious rest for several 
days, everyone else was injured. The youma had also escaped with their haul 
of stolen energy completely intact, and all at the cost of only one of their 
number.

The days wore on, and somehow, the Sailor Senshi felt that this time they 
were loosing the battle.

*	*	*

Ryoga wasn't sure where he was, but at least it was back in Japan. "RANMA, 
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!" 

If Ranma had not stolen Akane, then he wouldn't be wandering around looking 
for her. He would kill Ranma when he found him. He looked around and the 
moderately deserted street. Eventually he spotted a policeman and made his 
enquiry. "Do you know where the Tanaka Dojo in Hokkaido is?"

The policeman looked at him with sympathy. "It can be a bit hard to find 
can't it? Tucked away like that. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Just go up two streets, then 
left one. You can't miss it."

*	*	*

Akane flipped up from her back, and launched forward. Her blow caught Ranma 
under his arm, and he paled when she struck. Backing up, she waited for his 
strike. But Ranma simply stood there, gasping. After a few moments, she 
called 'break', and came in to help him. He backed up, not wanting to admit 
pain, but when he tripped over the stair to the house and landed heavily, he 
almost passed out.

Akane let out a short scream and then called for Mr. Miyagi. He might not be 
as good as Dr Tofu, but in his own way he was superb at the healing arts. 
Akane laid Ranma on the porch and lifted his shirt. Gasping, she held her 
hand to her mouth. Ranma showed an assortment of bruises and injuries, minor 
cuts and grazes. "Oh, Ranma."

When Mr. Miyagi joined them, he took one look at Ranma and began to inspect 
his ribs. Even Ranma's control could not stop him from wincing when Mr. 
Miyagi prodded one of his ribs. "Hmm, Ranma, this rib is broken. You no 
fight. You no train. Ranma, you stay home and let this heal. I cannot let you 
go to school like this. Akane, go and get bandages."

Mr. Miyagi looked at Ranma with concern in his eyes. He had been training 
Akane, so he knew that her skills were improving. He also knew that Ranma was 
far better than her. All he needed to do was watch when they trained. Akane 
could leap and strike, and the only time she ever hit was when Ranma let her. 
Mr. Miyagi was surprised the first couple of times he saw Akane hit him. Then 
he watched more carefully. Each time Akane executed a good defence / attack 
combination, or if he wanted to make a point about her vulnerability if he 
sacrificed himself for a hit, Ranma would take a blow. 

But it was not a blow that could ever hurt the boy, Mr. Miyagi was sure. 
Ranma always moved with the blow, cushioning the impact. Sometimes he would 
allow her a moderately solid strike, but it was always to a carefully 
prepared location, which Ranma had (almost) obviously provided as the target. 
Mr. Miyagi was honestly impressed with Ranma's abilities. What still 
impressed him was the damage Ranma could take when he invariably upset his 
fiancee. Day after day, Akane would thump him through a wall, or belt him 
with a mallet which would hospitalise lesser men. All this did to Ranma was 
stun him briefly. 

Mr. Miyagi was not sure he ever wanted meet the person or people which could 
cause injuries like these to Ranma.

Akane returned with the bandages, and Mr. Miyagi bound him up. With the 
support of the two of them Ranma was taken to his room. On the way, Mr. 
Miyagi tried a few gentle questions, trying to see who had hurt his student. 
Ranma was evasive, and said that it was just some fights he had been getting 
into with some friends from school. After admonishing Ranma to stay in bed, 
Mr. Miyagi departed, leaving him to Akane's ministrations.

"Ranma. How could you do this to yourself? Couldn't you at least tell me? We 
don't need to train if you're hurt."

"Oh, Akane, it ain't nothing. Don't worry, I'll be right as rain before you 
know it."

"Don't be an idiot, Ranma! You've broken one rib and fractured two others. 
It's going to take weeks to heal. Why, Ranma, why? Who have you been fighting 
that did this to you? Is it Ryoga? Who could it be that can hurt you like 
this?"

Ranma looked sheepish. "No, it's not Ryoga. I could clean the floor with him 
any day of the week. I just... got clumsy, OK? I really didn't think anyone 
would notice. Besides, there isn't anyone in Tokyo that could hurt me. You 
know that, Akane."

"Then who..." Akane paled. A dreadful suspicion formed in her mind. 

"You haven't been fighting those youma, have you? I told you, that's a job 
for the Senshi. Oh, Ranma. It's awfully kind and noble of you to try. I know 
you feel Martial Artists are supposed to protect the weak, and I know you 
like to protect girls. It's one of your most endearing features. But this is 
work for the Senshi. They have the sort of magic to deal with these demons. 
If you keep going out there every night, then, then some night you might not 
come back. And I don't want that."

Ranma held Akane as she knelt by his bed and sobbed. He felt so bad doing 
this to her. But he could not tell her that he was one of the Senshi that was 
fighting the demons, and even with his skills and Sailor magic, they were 
fairly even. He could not lie to Akane, but he could hide the truth a little. 
"Akane, I'll tell you what. I won't go looking for them. If one of those 
things ever attacks me or you, I'll grind it into dust. Otherwise, only the 
Senshi will fight them, OK?"

Akane perked up. She was surprised that she would get such an offer out of 
him. "Oh, thank you, Ranma. I just worry about you sometimes. But don't worry 
about the Senshi. I know you like to watch them on the news, but they're 
strong. They can take care of themselves and Tokyo. Oh, Ranma can't you just 
imagine what it must be like to be one of those magical girls, able to defeat 
monsters for love and justice?"

Ranma blushed and looked nervous. "Um... well... sort of..."

Akane had her turn at blushing. "Sorry Ranma. Sometimes I forget that while 
you look like a girl you really a guy through and through. Of course you 
couldn't be a Sailor Senshi: only girls can be."

*	*	*

Ranma went to his tutorial with Ami that night. He was not sure how she did 
it, but both he and Akane acknowledged that Ami managed to teach him more in 
two hours than the teachers could all day. Ranma was not only starting to 
catch up; he was even beginning to show real academic progress.

They were delving into modern history when they both felt slight tingles from 
their communicators. Ranma ignored his. While he knew who Ami was, she did 
not know Ranma's curse. The Senshi were still upset with their new team-mate. 
Whenever trouble struck, she would be there. Any other time and she was 
impossible to find. None of the girls knew about her, no-one knew where she 
lived. When Ami had tried to subtly pump Akane for information on her cousin, 
she froze up. Even Ranma only mentioned that he and Ranko had similar 
training, but that was all. All that knew was that she must still live in the 
Tokyo area, since occasionally she would be spotted at school or walking 
around town.

Ranma was hardly surprised when part way through a question, Ami mentioned 
that she had to go to the bathroom. Excusing herself, Ami moved to the toilet 
and activated her communicator. As soon as she was out of sight, Ranma 
activated the communicator and signalled his presence - indicating that he 
(or as they thought, Ranko) was in a public place and could listen but not 
speak.

It was a youma alert, naturally. Two youma at a train station. This was a job 
for the Sailor Senshi!

Ranma killed his communicator. There were advantages to knowing Ami was one 
of the Senshi, when she did not know he was. He knew in a moment that she 
would return and break off the tutoring early. All he had to do was wait. Lo, 
and behold: Ami returned from the bathroom feeling unwell. Could they make up 
the time some other night? Certainly.

Outside her house, and hidden down a street, Ranma pulled out the henshin 
stick and cried out: "Sun Star Power, Make Up!" The power of the Sailor magic 
surrounded him. As the transformation sequence begun, there was a short cloud 
of water, obscuring him, and changing him to her. Then the blinding light, 
the spinning and the itty-bitty skirt. Ranko looked down at herself with 
relief. Now I know what happens when I'm too dumb to have a cold shower 
first!

Ranma still did not like the Sailor clothes. He felt like an idiot and a 
pervert wearing girl's clothes. But the Senshi had been right. The disguise 
field worked well. As Sailor Sun, she had bumped into several people from 
school, and none had shown the faintest recognition. As far as Ranko was 
concerned, the best thing about the Sailor suits was the incredible healing 
which they offered. Even as she ran to the battle, Ranko could feel her ribs 
healing.

Despite the healing, Ranko tried to stay to the back in this fight. 
Outnumbered nine to two, and apparently unable to reach their portal, the 
Senshi scored a stunning success. As usual, when the battle was done, Ranko 
disappeared as thoroughly as possible, as quickly as possible. The girls 
grumbled a bit. It was hard to trust someone who obviously did not trust you 
enough to describe themselves. For this reason, it was still only Rei and Ami 
that Ranko had been officially introduced to. The Senshi had offered. They 
had asked several times to meet at Ranko's place, and let everyone meet 
informally, but she always refused. 

Ranko agreed to be a Senshi to fight the youma. That was all.

*	*	*

In the morning, Ranma dragged Akane out of bed, bright and early. 

"Ranma, go back to bed! You can't train when you've got a broken rib."

Ranma rubbed his jaw indecisively then pulled her onto the floor. Holding up 
his shirt, he showed his undamaged chest. "You're right. But since it's not 
broken, get moving. I'm going to give you a lump for every minute you're 
late."

Akane stared at his firm muscled chest. Gone was the massive bruising. Gone 
was the slightly dented look that his ribs had shown. It was smooth and 
perfect, just the rippling muscles of a master Martial Artist in his prime. 
"What? But? How?"

Ranma nodded and touched his nose. "I'm just a quick healer... or would you 
believe a secret Sailor Senshi speed healing magic?"

Akane threw a pillow at him.

*	*	*

Ranma, Akane, Ami and a pair of her friends - Usagi and Makoto - were having 
lunch together. It was beautiful day, and everyone was enjoying their lunch. 
Ranma was particularly happy. He had managed to keep Akane training long 
enough this morning that she did not have time to prepare lunch. That meant 
cafeteria food: it was bad, but it was still better than Akane's cooking. 
Showing his new found wisdom, Ranma carefully avoided mentioning this to 
Akane.

It was part way through lunch when the subject of why Akane and Ranma had 
transferred there for the semester raised itself. When Makoto found out that 
they were Martial Artists, she immediately wanted to have a little match. 
Naturally, Ranma balked. He hated fighting girls. Fighting Akane was bad 
enough each morning, and that was just training.

Akane on the other hand had no such compulsions. She immediately took up 
Makoto's challenge, while the rest of the girls needled Ranma for not being 
as good as his fiancee. Ranma fumed and protested, but it did not change 
their minds.

When the fight started, everyone was impressed. Makoto was the best fighter 
that they knew, other than Ranko. Makoto was fast and strong, and she easily 
could beat up everyone at the school. Actually, she had beaten up most of the 
students at several previous schools which is why she was now at Juuban High. 
Akane was a different matter.

Makoto started out with a high kick to the head. It was designed to be a 
simple win, or something easily dodged if the opponent had any skill. 
Unfortunately, Akane possessed lots of skill. She immediately moved under the 
leg. With one arm, she lifted the attacking leg, while turning and sweeping 
Makoto's supporting leg. In a flash, Makoto was on the ground, and Akane was 
backing up for the next exchange. Ranma yelled support. "Well done! Don't 
forget to keep your right arm up. Defence and attack are the same thing!"

Makoto regained her feet and circled her opponent with renewed caution. 
Obviously Akane had not been boasting when she said she was training hard 
these days. With a flurry of punches, both girls closed. Only a few got past 
either defence, but again it was Akane which emerged triumphant. While Makoto 
concentrated on the upper torso, Akane snaked out one leg and neatly flipped 
her onto her back.

The third round went slightly slower. Makoto spent more effort on defence. As 
a result, she only hit Akane once. But Akane eventually moved in, locking the 
girls left arm in a pain hold. When Makoto dropped to her knees and offered 
to yield, Akane released her. Immediately Ranma was there, picking her up and 
spinning her around. "WOO HOO! Well done, Akane! That was beautiful! You've 
really learnt a lot in the last few weeks!"

It was in the excitement of the moment that he leaned in, and kissed her. It 
just seemed so natural, so normal that neither noticed in their excitement. 
It was not until Usagi coughed that they realised what they were doing, and 
with whom. Instantly they were several feet apart, looking completely 
innocent. With a great show of casualness, they returned to the lunch table, 
where a surprised Makoto was waiting.

Usagi watched them and thought of her beautiful boyfriend. She sighed. It was 
so beautiful watching people in love. "Gee, you guys act as though you'd 
never kissed before."

Akane and Ranma immediately found something, anything interesting to look at. 
"Um, you guys have kissed before, haven't you? You've been engaged for a year 
now, haven't you?"

"I never wanted..."

"It was our parents..."

They both looked incredibly sheepish. So much so, that even Makoto decided to 
take pity on the girl that just beat her. "Akane, that was incredible. I 
don't think I've ever fought anyone that good. As a matter of fact, the only 
person I can think of who might give you a run for your money would be you 
cousin, Ranko."

"Blah!" Ranma was coughing and choking on his drink. After a few solid thumps 
on his back, he recovered. Akane decided to take pity on him, after all, he 
had said such nice things after she won. 

"Err, that doesn't matter. I don't think you'll see her much, she's pretty 
shy. So you don't need to worry."

The Senshi eyed each other curiously. Usagi suddenly had an inspired idea. 
"Say, Akane. Where did you learn to fight? It would just be so nice to defend 
ourselves as well as you do!"

Once again Ranma nearly choked on his drink. While he coughed and spluttered 
off the end of the table, Akane gave them a new shock. "Well, Dad taught me 
initially, but now Ranma is studying to take over the dojo, so he's teaching 
me some of the things he knows."

"RANMA is teaching you?"

"Err, yes."

"Wow. So, is this just tutoring what you know or is he actually better than 
you?"

"Um, better. Lots better actually."

Ranma could barely believe his ears. Someone was actually accepting he was 
good without this absurd need to try and beat the life out of him or marry 
him. What a pleasant experience.

Makoto decided to follow up with Usagi's idea. "Well then, Ranma. Would you 
be interested in some students?"

"Well, I don't know. I'd have to ask Mr. Miyagi if I can use the dojo, but I 
don't think he'd mind. Would it be OK with you, Akane?"

When Akane agreed, Ranma promised to ask Mr. Miyagi, and try to start 
teaching as soon as possible. Ami offered to stop charging for the tutoring 
in exchange for the lessons. Ranma initially objected since he was not 
qualified, but soon relented. Maybe it was living with Nabiki, but Ranma was 
beginning to see the advantage of charging for some things. Even so, he would 
have taught for free if they wanted. Over the next few days, Ranma made 
arrangements. Soon his day was more packed than ever. 

In the mornings, he would wake early and train with Akane. Then he would show 
Mr. Miyagi the finer points of Dojo repair. School, then tutoring with Ami. 
After that, the two would walk to Mr. Miyagi's dojo, where Ranma would train 
the three girls from Juuban High, Akane, and five of their friends. Ranma 
managed to hide his surprise at seeing Rei and Ami, since he knew they were 
both Sailors. However, Usagi introduced Rei as a friend of theirs from Junior 
High school. It was a rough world, and even being a Shinto priestess did not 
guarantee protection. After training and dinner, Ranma would turn in early. 
Most nights, he would awaken to his communicator, leave the house and fight 
demons for a few hours.

*	*	*

Kasumi smiled as their visitor entered though the door. "Hello, Ryoga-kun. 
Have you managed to find Ranma and Akane yet?"

Ryoga snarled. "No, Kasumi. Not yet. I almost had them. I was this close, but 
they must have moved the dojo. Do you mind if I have a quick bath, then I 
shall head out again."

"Certainly, I shall prepare some tea while you have a bath. Just follow me, 
and I'll show you where you can put your bag. It's been so quiet without 
those two, I hardly know what to do with my time any more."

Kasumi smiled. It was nice to have a guest in the house again.

*	*	*

Two weeks passed quickly. Most of the Senshi picked up the techniques that 
Ranma taught quickly. Most that is. It soon became obvious that trying to 
teach Usagi to kick (or anything which required balance) would be an uphill 
task.

Akane continued to improve. The morning sparring sessions quickly became time 
where Ranma was able to expand his teaching skills. He would show Akane a 
technique, then watch her use it against him. She was good, no doubt about 
it. Next time Shampoo decided to challenge this girl, she would have a 
surprise.

Mr. Miyagi proved to be a very indifferent student of woodwork. No matter how 
basic a level Ranma went to, there was always something left unexplained. He 
soon found that anger or shouting had no effect on how fast Mr. Miyagi 
learned. But sometimes, he would see Mr. Miyagi finally mastered something, 
be it how to select wood, or how to hammer, and he felt a surge of hope. His 
hopes were always dashed. The next day, Mr. Miyagi would refuse to teach him 
the techniques of being a Sensei, saying he would when Ranma showed how to 
fix the dojo.

Ranma also learned more about the youma. He learned that they were smarter 
than the Senshi had described. They plotted, they planned. They also hurt 
when an attack got through. It was an unusual day when Ranma did not have 
some injury.

*	*	*

"Oh my, Ryoga-kun! I didn't realise you were still here."

"Sorry, Kasumi. I just can't seem to find the front gate. I need to find 
Akane before Ranma does anything. Um... I don't suppose you could show me the 
way to the gate?"

"I would be glad to."

When Ryoga reached the gate, he turned south and walked with a determined 
stride. "Hokkaido, here I come."

*	*	*

Sunday was a lazy day. No school, no training, no tutoring. Akane sighed as 
she lay in a chair and read a newspaper in her bedroom. She had actually been 
hoping that Ranma and her might go for a walk today. Things had been going so 
well for them; they hardly even fought these days. No, going for a romantic 
walk was too much to expect of Ranma.

Just then a knock sounded on her door. When she responded Ranma came in and 
sat by her feet, holding a piece of paper. He looked sheepish again. As 
though he was going to say something significant. Akane felt her heart surge. 
Maybe he did want to go for a walk. She blinked her eyes and tried to look as 
cute as possible. Let's make things easy for him.

Ranma looked at her, and felt a pang of guilt over what he was going to do. 
He knew Akane's Martial skills as well as his own. There was one main 
technique she had not mastered. That technique she just did not have the 
focus for normally. He had pondered on it for several days, and reached the 
only way he could do this.

"You know, Akane, you're doing really well these days. You fight better than 
Ukyo every day now."

Akane almost fell of her chair. Ranma actually though she was better than one 
of his fiancees at something. She couldn't cook, she wasn't cute, but she 
could now fight better than Ukyo!

"But there's something really important for you to master. When me or Ryoga 
use a Shishi Hokodan or Moko Takabisha, or even the breaking point, it's a 
matter of Ki manipulation. Now I know you've got a good Ki, God knows I've 
seen your battle aura often enough. Well, I was wondering if you're ready to 
learn a special technique."

Her eyes lit up. Few warriors could do Ki attacks, and Ranma thought she was 
ready to learn. Even Shampoo could not regularly do Ki attacks. "Oh, Ranma. 
Do you think I'm ready?"

"To be honest... I'm not sure. But I think so. I hope so. What I want to do 
is teach you to do a new attack. I designed it specially for you. It suits 
your strength, your personality. Do you want to learn it?"

Ranma looked at her with hope in his eyes. The youma attacks had been getting 
worse, not better. The Senshi had caused them casualties, but according to 
Sailor Mercury's best guess, the youma were stealing more energy than they 
were loosing. He figured it was only time until one of them attacked Akane 
when she was alone. Maybe not now, maybe not for another month. But it would 
surely happen someday. If he did not do everything in his power to prepare 
her for that day, he would be as much to blame for her death as if he stuck a 
knife in her. 

He knew what he needed to do to teach her, and it hurt him just to think 
about it. But if her hurt her now, it might keep her alive later. Any 
sacrifice was worth that. Any, even loosing her.

"Oh, please, Ranma. Yes!"

"OK, but there are few things you need to agree to first:

"One: I think I can teach it to you this morning. So remember, anything I say 
or do before midday is just part of the training.

"Two: No matter what I tell you to do, you do. It may seem strange, it may 
seem silly, but do it.

"Three: I'm going to leave this note in your room. Don't read it now, but 
read it after we finish training. Only afterwards, understand?

"If you promise to do these three things, lets get changed and get started."

Akane promised, so he left the note while she changed. Akane wondered what 
was in the note that she could not read it till after training. No matter. 
Ranma was trusting her, so she would fulfil that trust. The met outside and 
did some quick warm ups and a little light sparing.

After that, they sat down on some rocks and he explained about focus, and how 
to source the Ki which she would use. To Akane, it did not always make sense. 
But Ranma kept explaining patiently until she could almost envisage the well 
of power within herself. After that he explained her attack.

As he had said, it was finely crafted to her. The Thunder Hammer Strike was 
something he had designed for her, and her alone. Ranma had studied her, she 
realised. He knew her better than she knew herself. What he described seemed 
so natural, so simple. She would stand upright, and gather the energy in her 
raised hands. Above her head, she would form her Thunder Hammer. When she 
felt it was ready, she would bring her hands in front, 'swinging' the Hammer, 
and 'releasing' the Hammer at it's target. 

As far as Ki attacks went, it was quite simple. It was also fairly weak. But 
that was only compared to Ki attacks. Compared to a punch or kick, it was 
much stronger, it also gave you the range advantage over almost every 
opponent. 

Without summoning the energy, Ranma had her walk through the motions and 
thoughts needed for the Thunder Hammer Strike. It was half past eleven before 
he was satisfied with her technique. Finally he decided it was time for her 
to put things into practice. Setting up a target at the side of the garden, 
he stood beside her and coached her to raise her aura, and strike.

Breathing deeply, Akane concentrated. Raising her hands above her head, she 
felt the power funnelling into them. After minutes of this, she felt the 
strain and brought her arms down. Glaring at the target, she screamed and 
released. "THUNDER HAMMER STRIKE!"

A dim light flew from her palms and vaguely lit up the target. 

"Oh, good try there, really Akane. But I honestly think it should have been 
more like this:" Ranma negligently gathered a ball of Ki in his palm, then 
sent it flying into the target, burning a small hole in the centre.

Akane turned at him and snapped. "Hey, back off! This is my first time, 
remember."

"Sure, sure. Try again."

Try she did, but with little more success. They kept trying for twenty 
minutes. Each time she failed, Akane became more frustrated. Each time she 
failed, he insulted her more. By the end of that time, he yelled at her for 
being a stupid girl, and stalked to the end of the firing range, where the 
almost undamaged target stood. "Well, I think I should be safe enough here, 
what do you think, Akane?"

"Shut up, Ranma. I'm trying the best that I can!"

"Oh, suuure you're trying! You're really trying. I don't know why I bothered! 
You don't care. You can't even be bothered with the effort. This is why I 
have to run around looking after an uncute tomboy like you. You couldn't 
protect yourself from a mosquito!"

"Shut up, Ranma you jerk! I am trying!"

"Tell it to someone who cares. God! Why did I waste my time trying to teach 
you? I knew we should have brought Shampoo along!"

"WHAT did you say?!?"

"I said we should have brought Shampoo! She can cook, she can fight, she's 
cute, and she could have mastered this in her sleep."

"WELL FINE THEN! SEE IF I CARE!"

"Hey, at least I have a fiancee I didn't need daddy to trap for me! Shampoo 
could have done this in her sleep. Uncute violent macho tomboy!"

Akane's battle aura flared, and she screamed at the top of her lungs: "RANMA 
YOU JERK! I HATE YOU! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! PREPARE TO DIE! THUNDER 
HAMMER STRIKE!!"

Akane summoned a massive blue ball into her raised hands, then flung it down 
range at him. Although he was expecting it, it still smashed him through the 
wall around the yard. Lying on the street amid the rubble he heard Akane 
yell. "And don't come back!"

When he heard her walk off, he crawled out of the rubble. Gods, that hurt 
more than he thought it could. And it wasn't the Ki blast that hurt.

Back in the house, Akane threw herself onto her bed and cried. In the 
distance she heard the clock strike twelve. Oh, Ranma. How could you? How 
could you?

Akane cried.

*	*	*

It was around four o'clock by the time Akane left her room. Her face was red 
and puffy, and her eyes hurt from crying. I thought he cared. I really did. 
How could I have been fooled by that idiot? I'm such an idiot. Heading to the 
bathroom, she washed her face, and tried to clean up a bit. She didn't want 
Mr. Miyagi to see her like this. Perhaps in a few days she could explain why 
Ranma was not around any more.

As she returned to her room she saw the note that he had left that morning. 
Grabbing it angrily, she was about to tear it up, unread. Hesitating just 
before she did she remembered. I promised I would read it, Ranma you jerk. I 
keep my promises. I care enough for that. I'll read it and get you out of my 
system forever. Akane suddenly realised she would not need to explain to Mr. 
Miyagi why Ranma was not there: she would go back to Nerima tomorrow. At 
least her family cared.

"Dear Akane,

 	I hope you are reading this today. If not, then things may be too late, 
but please try. Firstly, I want you to remember rule one from this morning. 
Do you? I wrote these down just a few minutes ago, so I do. Here's the rule I 
am about to tell you:

'1) Anything I say or do before midday is just part of the training.' Trust 
me, Akane. I timed it carefully. Everything should have happened before 
midday. Even if not, please allow me a few minutes grace.

Secondly, I need to say what I did. I know you well, Akane. You're really a 
nice person on the inside. I can see that these days. Even when I call you a 
macho uncute tomboy, you're still not really mad. But I know when you do get 
mad; your battle aura is huge. You glow like a street lamp, honestly.

All that power is what is needed for a Ki attack. I know you can do a Ki 
attack, but inside, fundamentally, you don't. You resist every effort I have 
made to introduce it subtly. There was only one option left. I teach you the 
technique, and turn you into an unloaded gun. But you could never do it when 
you needed it if you did not believe you could. So I needed all the power of 
your anger. 

I know what I said hurt you, it was meant to. It hurt me to say it, and I 
never meant a word. But the first is always the hardest. So I gave you the 
technique, then I gave you the power and motivation to use it. I expect that 
by the time you are reading this, you have blasted me through the wall and 
said you never want to see me again.

Here's why I did it. The world is a dangerous place, and it's getting worse. 
The demons the Senshi are fighting are getting bigger, nastier and more 
numerous. You couldn't hurt them with just Martial Arts. Even I can't. The 
only hope you have if one attacks would be to use Ki against it. I realise I 
can't be there to protect you all the time. I want to be, but I can't. This 
is the only way I could think to allow you to protect yourself. 

Keeping you safe means more to me than anything. If making you hate me for 
the rest of you life will keep you alive for a long time, then I'm willing to 
pay that price. I don't know whether this makes sense to you, but if you want 
to see me again, I am going to be at Ami's for a while.

I love you.

Now and always.


Ranma Saotome."

By the time she finished the note, Akane was crying again. He knew. All that 
time he knew what he said, what it meant, and what it would do. He knew I 
would blast him with everything I had, and he stood there and took it. Oh, 
Ranma, you idiot!

*	*	*

Ranma knocked on the door of Ami's home and stood there until it was opened. 
He had walked here in a complete daze. All he could think about was Akane 
yelling at him: 'I never want to see you again'. She looked so sad, so hurt, 
so betrayed. He always knew what he had done would hurt, it had to, it was 
planned that way. He just never realised how much it would hurt him. Ranma 
had thought that any price was worth the chance that she would be able to 
protect herself. Now all that he could think was that it was not worth it. He 
should have settled for being condescending to her. He just should have 
ensured that he was by her side every minute of every day. Anything but 
loosing her forever.

Ranma wondered if she had read the note he had left. He had to write it 
twelve times before he got it right. The last nine times had just been to get 
the last two sentences right. He still did not know what Akane felt about 
him, but if that was going to be the last chance that he would have to speak 
to her, Ranma eventually realised that he had to tell her how he felt. 

Oh, why did he have to say those horrible things to her? Sure it was the only 
way, but... Ranma's musings were interrupted when the door in front of him 
opened. "Oh, Ranko, what are you doing here?"

Ranma looked down at himself. He was dripping wet and quite obviously female. 
I wonder when that happened? She looked up at Ami and saw concern in the 
girl's eyes. Ranko was about to reply when Ami continued. "Did I miss an 
alert or something? No, there's something else wrong, isn't there? Oh my! 
You're soaking wet! Get inside, we need to dry you off and get you some clean 
clothes."

Ranko numbly followed the girl into the house. Ranko had been here once 
before, briefly when the Senshi had started to try and get her to open up to 
them. She would have to be careful that she didn't show too much knowledge of 
the place, after all, Ranma had been here almost every day for a month and a 
half, and he knew the place well. "Um, Ami, err, I saw Ranma on my way over 
here. He said he and Akane had just had a big fight and told me all about it. 
So, if Akane calls, just tell me, and I'll apolo... I'll go talk to her."

Ami's eyes narrowed. There was something a bit odd about this. She knew that 
Akane and Ranko were cousins, but from what Akane said, it seemed Ranko 
avoided her. But now, Ranko was having deep heart-to-heart talks with Ranma, 
and they appeared to affect her deeply. "You, really care about Ranma, don't 
you Ranko."

Ranko looked very guilty and stared at her feet. "You could say that we're 
pretty close. Heh, heh. I suppose that's right, really. No matter what people 
have tried, they just can't separate me and Ranma. I know Akane and Pops have 
tried often enough."

Ami dropped the clothes she was getting and put here hands on her hips. 
"Ranko that's terrible! Akane is your cousin! How can you possibly try and 
seduce her fiancee? That's a terrible thing to do!"

Ranko looked up in shock, then began to laugh. "Is that what it looks like? I 
guess it must, I mean we dress the same, and we do the same sort of things. 
Heh, perhaps we would be a good match. But, Ami, believe me. There is nothing 
between the two of us. We're more like brother and sister. If Ranma is cut, I 
bleed. If I hurt, he hurts. Trust me, Akane knows it, I know it, Ranma knows 
it. It really is impossible for anything to, you know, happen between me and 
Ranma. Impossible, between us, get it, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!"

Ami watched as Ranko fell to floor laughing at some private joke. She didn't 
understand, but apparently Ranko thought that the very idea of her seducing 
Ranma was a joke. She might have thought some relationships were impossible 
too, but she had seen Makoto in action. Makoto proved almost anyone could 
fall for a nice smile and a pretty face, and Ranko had those. Eventually 
Ranko realised that she was the only one laughing, and calmed down. "Thanks, 
Ami. I think I needed a bit of a laugh just now. Um, someday I may explain it 
to you, but I'm afraid I can't just now."

Ami sighed. Well, so much for the hopes that Ranko had come over to be 
finally want to be friends with some of the Senshi. Picking up the clothes 
she had dropped, she displayed them for Ranko. The was a pink tee-shirt, some 
blue shorts, and some underwear. "We look about the same size, so you can 
borrow some of my stuff until yours dries. We don't want you catching a cold, 
do we?"

"I can't wear that! They're girl's clothes!"

"What's wrong with girl's clothes? You're a girl."

"I'm a g - - -. Um, yeah, I suppose I am a girl, but I always wear guys 
clothes, their much more comfortable, see."

Ami blushed as Ranko showed her that she was actually wearing boxer shorts. 
Perhaps this was what she meant about not being able to have a relationship 
with Ranma. "Err, Ranko, does that mean that you're, you know, um, that way?"

"What way?"

"You know... THAT way."

"Um." Ranko stood there confused. She managed to follow what Ami had been 
talking about until she stopped being clear. Unfortunately after living on 
the road for so many years with only an obsessive father for company, Ranko 
missed out on some of the finer points of people's conversations. When people 
went 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink', all Ranko understood was a nudge and a wink. 
Innuendo was something that went right over her head. 

"Well, I was just wondering if the reason you never wanted to go out with the 
Sailors is if because, well, you were a little bit of a Hentai and worried 
about what we would say. But it's OK. I mean, not all of us are quite normal 
either."

Ranko went pale. "I AM NOT A HENTAI! It's just a curse, OK? But, err, yeah, 
that's why I never went places with the Senshi. I just... just didn't know 
how you would react. Wow. You must be really clever, Ami. When did you figure 
it out?"

Ami beamed at the complement, so she realised that Ranko was a lesbian, it 
was no big secret, really. "Oh just now. I sort of looked at the boxers, and 
thought of the confusion that Sailor Uranus sometimes gets, and well, it fell 
into place."

Ranko was seriously impressed. One look at her boxers, and Ami knows all 
about her curse. Ranko was just amazed that it took this long. But then, 
Ranko had been avoiding them whenever possible. When she saw Ranma, he really 
was a guy, so no clues there. Ranko was still impressed that she figured out 
about it so quickly. "Well, I still think you must have a pretty good brain 
to put it all together. I suppose there's not really much point in hiding it 
from you now, but don't go telling the others, OK? I really don't like people 
to know about my curse."

"Oh, Ranko. It's not a curse, really. You're just a bit different from 
others. No one would mind, honestly."

"Ami, it is a curse. When Pop and I were training in this place called 
Jusenkyo, I fell into the spring of the drowned girl. And that made me into 
what you see today."

"Oh, Ranko, it really is OK." Ami patted her on the shoulder. "Besides, if 
you feel more comfortable not wearing girl's clothes, then I think I can find 
something more to your liking."

Ami rummaged through her draws, and then found some more nondescript clothes. 
Ami was glad that she and Ranko had this little chat. If she could make her 
feel comfortable with herself, perhaps Ranko would really become part of the 
team. A real member, not just one that helped in the fights. When Ranko was 
dressed, the headed to the kitchen for some tea. Perhaps if she could steer 
the talk to more neutral topics, she continue to draw Ranko out of the shell 
she had built. 

"Ranko, what's that attack that you use when you attack the youma?"

"It's called the Moko Takabisha. Its a Ki based attack. Basically you summon 
up your internal energy and project it at the target. Why?"

"That's the same attack that you used when you fought the youma before you 
became a Senshi, isn't it?"

"True, but when I'm a Sailor, I can regain my Ki much faster. Since I'm not 
in danger of seriously draining myself, I can use bigger and better blasts 
every time I let loose. You're right though, it is the same attack."

Ami smacked a fist into her palm. "I knew it! Rei did a fire reading before 
we first me you, and saw you surrounded by flames. Artemis also said that 
according to legend, Sailor Sun is supposed to have the most powerful attacks 
of any of the Senshi. Now I hate to say it; your Ki attacks are OK, but not 
that great. Take my Shabbon Spray Freezing: it can do about as much damage, 
but it does it to everything it touches, if I want it to. Your Moko Takabisha 
is good, but it still doesn't have the power you need.

"Next time we encounter a youma, I want you to concentrate. Feel the magic, 
feel the power flow through you. When you attack, don't force it, just use 
what comes naturally."

They continued to talk for a while, usually inconsequential things. Ami 
deliberately stayed away from personal information so that she did not scare 
away the slowly opening Ranko. Ranko was equally willing to stay on lighter 
topics. Thoughts of Akane kept breaking to the surface. All that she wanted 
to do was run back to Mr. Miyagi's and apologise, but she knew it would be 
impossible. If Akane read the note, she would either forgive her or not. If 
she had not read the note, it would be months before Akane would let Ranma 
speak to her again. If ever.

They were on their third cup of tea when their communicators signalled. Trust 
the youma to ruin a perfectly good Sunday afternoon. Moments later, two 
Sailor Senshi leapt from roof to roof on the way to their rendezvous.

*	*	*

Jadeite looked into the screen that showed the battle about to take place. 
The last few weeks had been a greater success than even he had anticipated. 
While there had been losses, they were lower than expected. While the Senshi 
had a new one added to their number, the attacks which she possessed was not 
great enough to added a decisive advantage. Now was time to spring the next 
phase of the invasion. 

A force of youma would be sent to earth. Not just one or two, but over 
thirty. Thirty of the new generation of powerful youma. It was costly, but it 
would be worth it. Jadeite knew that the Senshi would stand a chance of 
winning against them. Not a big chance, but it was a chance. Unbelievably, 
the Senshi had managed to win from impossible positions so often, Jadeite was 
beginning to expect it. This time there would be no failure.

The youma would not fail because the Senshi had less brains than the youma 
did. You play with them a while, and they fall into a pattern. Then you trap 
them, so they see traps every where. It was a battle against superior forces, 
so sneakiness was needed. Over the time he had gathered the power for his 
army, Jadeite had let the Senshi become used to fighting one or two youma. He 
had also let the get used to the idea of being ambushed by a larger force.

When he launched a convincing attack against them, that is all they would 
see. It would be more of the same, just on a bigger scale. They would never 
see the dimensional beacon. They would never even look. From what he knew, 
thirty youma should be sufficient to destroy the Senshi. But Jadeite could 
not get his hopes up. Injure them, almost certainly, but kill, he felt he 
could not be so lucky. Something would save them, it always did.

The dimensional beacon was another matter. It would enable his forces to move 
back and forwards at a fraction of the current cost. Where sending thirty 
youma expended so much energy, he would send over a hundred at a much smaller 
cost.

*	*	*

The Senshi gathered and looked at the youma. Their detectors had registered 
the arrival of one or more in this area, and this was all they had been able 
to spot. Now it had drained the energy from over twenty people at an 
amusement arcade. They were ready to attack when Sailor Mercury spoke up. 
"I've been having a chat with Sailor Sun, and I think I have an idea on how 
we can release her full powers. Venus, if you can use you chain to hold the 
youma, we can give Sailor Sun the time she needs to realise her attack."

Sailor Moon nodded. "Great idea. See Sailor Sun, soon you'll really be one of 
us girls. Not only do we get these great costumes, you also get to have your 
own cool magic attack!"

As everyone leapt into position, Sailor Sun hesitated and in a small voice 
whispered. "But I don't want to be one of the girls."

"Amusement centres are a place for happiness and enjoyment of children and 
families. To pervert such a place and harm people is a thing of evil. For you 
actions, the beautiful sailor suited warrior for love and justice, Sailor 
Moon, shall defeat you."

Finishing her set of poses, Sailor Moon threw her tiara. "MOON TIARA ACTION!"

Weaving a beautiful stream of light, it few at the youma, causing it to dive 
out of the arcade, and into the open. With elegant poise, Sailor moon reach 
up and collected her tiara as it flew back. While she replaced it on her 
head, blonde hair flying, the others went into action.

The twin calls of "SHABBON SPRAY FREEZING!" and "BURNING MANDALA!" Sailors 
Mercury and Mars managed to confine the ugly beast, and obscure its vision. 
Neptune and Uranus leapt to either side of the monster outside of the burning 
ring which surrounded it. There was no escape now. With all the others 
forming a defensive line in front of Sailor Sun, Sailor Venus moved up to 
attack.

Spinning slowly, she began to fire the chain of hearts from her hand. When 
she screamed "VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN!" they flew out. In no time, a chain of 
glowing orange hearts snaked out, bailing up the youma. 

Sailor Moon looked on impressed. Their attack had worked perfectly, something 
to be remembered for the future. Behind her, Sailor Saturn placed a hand on 
Venus, and the two continued to feed power into the Love Me Chain. With this 
much effort, even a youma of this strength could not hope to escape.

Sailor Sun looked on, feeling impressed. She had been fighting with them 
regularly now, but this was one of their best co-ordinated and executed 
attacks yet. It was amazing what these girls could do with little notice. 
They obviously worked together so much, they could almost read the thoughts 
of their compatriots. Clearing her mind of the Ki attacks that she usually 
used, Sailor Sun meditated for a moment. 

Somewhere deep within her, Sailor Sun could feel the magic responding to her 
request. Before, there had always been a sharp distinction, it was Ranko and 
Sailor Sun, they were separate people. Once she had fought the idea of being 
Sailor Sun. She was a guy, she was a Martial Artist, she didn't need the 
silly magical powers. As a consequence, all she received from being Sailor 
Sun was the minimal powers possible to be a Senshi. The true powers of 
attack, and the ability to withstand magical damage had been withheld. Now, 
deep inside her soul, Ranma called for those powers.

But she did not call for them for herself. She called for them so that she 
could save Akane, and others like her throughout the world. Then the powers 
came. Suddenly Sailor Sun could see what she was missing out on. Within her 
soul, she could feel the very energy of the sun; the linking of her life 
force to the power which rules the solar system. Barely seconds had passed 
before Sailor Sun opened her eyes, but she felt like it was years, an entire 
lifetime. 

Sailor Moon stared at their latest recruit. She had watched seven other 
Sailors come into their powers. She had been there when all of them had had 
their first boost in their powers, changing their battle cry from 'Planet 
Power, Make Up' to 'Star Power, Make Up'. Now she realised that she was 
seeing the true Sailor Sun for the first time. When the girl had closed her 
eyes there had been a pause, then a flare of flames. For several moments, 
Sailor Sun was bathed in the fire which Rei had witnessed in her fire 
reading, all those weeks ago. 

When Sailor Sun opened her eyes, the others fell back in surprise. Gone were 
the sparkling blue eyes that they were used to seeing. In their place were 
twin flames, burning in the darkness where her eyes should be. With a manic 
grin, Sailor Sun trotted to the front of their line. Passing her hands in 
front of herself, she began to gather small flames, then a glowing ball of 
red. Moving like she was pitching a baseball, Sailor Sun drew back the 
flaming, crackling sphere she was making. "SEARING PLASMA BLAST!" Like a 
whip, the arms shot forward and a flaming comet charged at the captive youma.

When the blast struck, the fireball exploded. A wave of heat came over them, 
and the two Senshi nearest cowered behind their arms, fending off the 
effects. The bitumen street where it had been targeted was cratered and 
melted, still bubbling and boiling in parts. Nearby shop signs had caught 
fire, and several windows had been smashed by the force of the blast. Of the 
youma, there was simply no sign.

"YEE-HAH! I did it! Whoo-hoo! Take that you evil demon, you! Go the Sailor 
Senshi!"

Sailor Sun danced around, her ecstasy obvious. While everyone else watched in 
awe of her demonstrated powers, she ran over to the hole in the street she 
had made. Sailor Moon was the first to recover. It's a good thing she's on 
our side. I wouldn't want to fight her! Shortly all the Senshi were running 
to her, cheering. 

The crowd of super powered girls in short skirts had almost reached their 
friend when Sailor Mercury's computer beeped a warning, a youma was still 
nearby. It was only her excited dancing which caused the youma to miss Sailor 
Sun when it fired at her. 

The youma was a new variant, something else they had never encountered. 
Rather than the heavy, bulky youma with devastating strength, this was a 
tall, skinny, hunchbacked creature, fairly human in shape, although almost 
twice as tall. This one also seemed to have some sort of long range weapon. 

Sailor Sun had missed being hit by the youma, but when the blob it fired 
landed, she was splashed. It must have been acid of some sort, because the 
much abused street began to bubble and hiss. Sailor Sun also began to scream 
as drops of the fearsome gel clung to her in spots. As the pain began to 
register, she began swatting at the burning spots, smearing the acid with her 
gloved hands. The damage was only minor, even if painful. Sailor Neptune 
rushed up and summoned some cold water with which she washed off Sailor Sun. 
The acid gone, they could see several holes in her skirt and suit, and the 
glove on her right arm was almost destroyed.

Moon looked around and spotted the fleeing youma. "Come on Sailor Senshi! We 
can't let it get away!"

Everyone yelled, and gave chase. The youma was fast, but they were faster, 
and slowly made up the distance. Now that t