At the Hino Shrine, seven young girls and one young man gathered together. In normal situations, this would either feature into some kind of study group. In slightly supernatural situations, this could also be the setting of a super sci-fi hentai.
However, normal or slightly supernatural would not cut it here. These were the legendary Sailor Senshi of Juuban. The protectors of mankind, destroyers of youma, enemies of all who would stand against love and justice...
“Usako! Put that down!”
“Wah! Rei-chan is being mean!”
And now, they were watching two of their own argue over manga.
Ami sighed. There had been a lack of major activity lately, and she had gotten used to the monthly meetings that had started to take place. Then Pluto, curse her, had to call for an emergency meeting, just when exams were rearing their ugly head. Hell, this was their junior year! This was when colleges really start paying attention! This was...
“Penny for your thoughts, Ami-chan?”
Ami shrieked and whirled around. The other senshi did the same, expecting to see Meioh Setsuna, smirking her usual smirk. Instead, they found Hotaru, grinning like the cat who caught the canary.
Setsuna’s voice sounded out behind Usagi, making her tumble to the ground when she tried to turn. “I’m over here, just so you know.”
Hotaru giggled at this, skipping over to Haruka and MIchiru, her official adopted ‘parents’. Considering her normal energy levels, this was highly unusual, and everyone just stared at the girl.
“Don’t mind her,” Setsuna continued, “she’s just a bit hyper from the specialized healing technique that was used on her.”
“Healing technique? What healing technique?” Michiru asked, alarmed. “What was wrong with her?”
“I was Sailor Saturn,” Hotaru deadpanned, before grinning and then tackling Makoto, giggling all the while.
The group of girls (plus one guy) just blinked at this, before looking to Setsuna, who sighed, “Let’s just say that the post of Saturn is not conducive to the lives of their takers, and just leave it at that for now; I’d like to get drunk before I give the full spiel again.”
“So wait, there was something wrong with our daughter, AND YOU AREN’T GOING TO TELL US ABOUT IT?!?” shrieked Haruka, getting into a snit.
Setsuna winced, but before she could answer, another voice rang out, coming from the entrance to the room, “No, there was something that was, until now, incurably wrong with Hotaru, and Puu-chan really didn’t want to think about it.”
The group whirled around to find a young, pink haired girl leaning against the doorjamb. What shocked the group, however, was how much older she looked. Instead of the typical, ten year old girl figure, she looked several years older.
Chibiusa rolled her eyes at this, “Yes, I have boobs and a butt. There is no need to look at them like that.”
Suddenly, Hotaru leapt up, yelling, “Usa-chan!”
As the young girl tackled her friend, they fell out the door. The rest could only sweat drop at the unusual scene.
Usagi turned to Pluto, who was smiling at the doorway, “Setsuna, while I am willing to wait for the full story, can you at least give us a summary of what is going on?”
Setsuna’s smile turned slightly sorrowful at this, “Understood, my Princess. Hotaru suffers from an affliction that gives her an extreme feeling of fatigue. The specific history of this will have to wait, but needless to say, this affliction would kill her in the end. It has only been cured once in the past, by a type of mage called a Chi Sage. They, as well as anyone who uses Chi Magic, whether light or dark, are untraceable by the Time Gates. While there are several other types of Chi mages out there still in existence, the Sages were all thought to have been killed off centuries ago.”
“Then where did this one show up?” Ami asked.
Setsuna grinned, “This one found something that should not exist.”
As the rest of the girls stared at her, she continued, “This one found a book that was first published back in the times of the Silver Millennium. It has, since then, been rewritten many times over, passed down by monks who have kept these kinds of things. It has been spelled to find its next heir, but it has taken so to find a chance to do so. Recently, it has resurfaced in the hands of someone who knew a contact of mine, who got in touch with me concerning a problem that they now have. I was hoping to get things moving from behind the scenes, but it seems like this one is slightly more advanced than I was expecting.”
Rei cocked her head, noticing something, “Exactly what do you mean, ‘this one’? It’s either male or female, right?”
Hotaru and Usa, just now entering the room, starting snickering, gave each other odd looks, and then started snickering again. This was relatively unnoticed, as Minako started gushing, “Oh please tell me it’s a hunk! I haven’t had decent date in weeks!”
“What about that one guy two weeks ago?” Ami asked.
“Oh him? He ran off. I think he might have had a fear of admission or something.”
The rest of the senshi ignored the obvious error, while Haruka muttered, “What is it with you girls and guys? I mean, what’s so special about them, anyways?”
Minako gave the Outer Senshi a harsh look. Several months ago, she had gotten depressed over her love life and had started complaining about it for two weeks straight, causing the tomboy lesbian to snap at her, finally annoyed about the amount. Needless to say, neither girl had seen eye to eye about much of anything after that.
Setsuna just giggled at this, getting some odd looks, “Ami, can you check your files for a file concerning a place called Jusenkyo?” As the blunette did this, Setsuna turned to the others and said, “You may check the results on Ami’s computer if you have problems believing this, but early on in our associations with the Earth Kingdom during the Silver Millennium, we had a battle in what is now Jusendo Valley, in China. Much magic was used in that area, creating a mixing effect. This happened in several other areas, but after the fighting was done, we both did our best to fix these areas.”
“Only Jusenkyo remains of those areas, as none of our collective breaks managed to dent it. Our current running theory was that the mix caused a rip in the fabric of reality, tainting the ground with true chaotic forces beyond our understanding. Simply put, anyone who drowns in the waters of Jusenkyo creates a template, one that can be used to ‘curse’ anyone else who falls in. For example, if one were to fall in the Spring of Drowned Cat, the victim would become a cat. The least our magic collective could do was weaken the curse effect so that there could be a temporary ‘cure’, so to speak. Warm water could turn the victim back to his or her natural form, but cold water could reinflict it.”
At the weird looks she was getting, the Senshi of Time turned to Ami, who was staring wildly at her computer. “It’s... It’s true. Kami, the amount of data that has been collected from there is enormous... “
Ami had always been included in the Inner Sanctioned Boy Watching events, but this was truly the first time any of the group ever saw her drool.
“So, what does this have to do with our Chi Mage?” Makoto asked.
Again, the group (minus Hotaru and Usa), was surprised to see Setsuna giggle, “He is a young martial artist who made the mistake of getting dragged to Jusenkyo by his father, who, might I add, has the IQ of a rock and a high sense of female discrimination.” Again, the girls looked at her oddly. “One of the main talking points about Jusenkyo is how it may have a consciousness. Simply put, any curse it gives will have a lesson attached, and it will fix it so that an individual will be forced to learn a specific lesson. On rare occasions, it may give out a curse as a punishment. In short, being raised by his bastard of a father had given our mage friend a warped opinion of gender roles, which has since been corrected by being forced to spend have his time after Jusenkyo as one.”
The reactions to this was mixed. Minako and Makoto was lost when the words ‘He is a young martial artist’ were mentioned. Ami was still focused on her screen, and Michiru was wondering if there was a Spring of Drowned Boy (she really did want to be a mother). Rei, on the other hand, noticed something else.
“So, you’re saying that this guys some kind of misogynistic jerk?” she said, half snarling.
At this, both Hotaru and Usa starting giggling, and Setsuna smiled, quite amused, “Not really; his father raised him for about ten years, and as the only example and parental guide, he just ended up with warped ideas that only come up as knee jerk reactions now. His father wanted him to be a man amongst men, as ‘women are weak’. Now, he has seen enough examples of strong women to get the idea that it isn’t so. His masculinity is still a bit of a sore spot to him, but he seems to have gotten used to it. His ideas about studying and school are rather pitiful, but he’s smarter than average, and can pick up concepts and things instantly if explained properly.”
Setsuna then winced, “Then again, I doubt that any of the schools he has attended could fix that; his father has made a point to enroll him in areas with high Juvenile violence rates, so getting high grades would never be a priority. Given the right atmosphere and motivation, however, and you could possibly make a genius out of him.”
“In summary, Ranma is probably one of the best examples of an unrefined gentleman warrior. His attitude needs work, but he is honorable to a fault. He has a habit of saying whatever pops into his head, but his actions speak for himself. He has the potential to become great at anything he puts his mind and will too... I once saw a timeline involving him... er, her, curing cancer.”
The girls goggled at this, while Mamoru peaked up a bit, as his chosen profession was in medicine. He also noted something else. “Setsuna-san, forgive me if I’m wrong, but why do I get the feeling that there is more to this than him healing Hotaru-chan?”
The rest of the senshi turned to him, wondering what he meant, when Setsuna agreed with him. “True. Truth is, Chi Mages have a habit of drawing the opposite of their chosen path to them. In this case, Ranma has attracted an experienced Dark Chi Mage who has them out gunned. My contact called me into help, and for a given price, they convinced me to ask you to assist us in their endeavors. No matter what your decision entails, I have already given my oath to help, and I believe that you’d find it impossible to stop Hotaru from assisting us as well.”
Hotaru nodded emphatically, as the Time Guardian continued, “For our assistance, we would receive training in hand to hand combat and battle tactics, which we could use right now, and several aids in further lessons and endeavors. Our roles would be more along the line of support, so it would not be too out of our depths.”
“Wait, battle tactics? Hand to hand combat?” Rei asked, “I thought there weren’t any issues from now until Crystal Tokyo?”
To her surprise, it was Usa who butted in, “Yeah, but why go with that path when there is something better on the menu?”
“WHAT?!?” several girls shouted, confused.
Pluto sighed, “I didn’t want to tell you this, but Crystal Tokyo, before today, involved an Apocalyptic scenario. A giant meteor, Codenamed Doombringer, is due to appear in the next few years, bearing an astonishing immunity to Silver Millennium magic. The only thing we’d be able to do is save about ten to fifteen percent of the World’s population. In the past, such things were often eliminated with the aid of a small squadron of Chi Sages, but before today, none existed. Considering how Usa-chan is here now, I can only assume that we are much better off on our current path, despite the chance of having more enemies to face.”
Usa nodded, “Yeah, I remember quite a bit of the old Timeline, as my Puu-chan made sure to protect my memory against sudden time shifts ages ago. I can’t say much about it, but many more people survive this way, and the world is a lot better looking.”
The room was silent for a moment, until Usagi looked at Setsuna, “When were you planning on telling us about this, Pluto?”
“Feasibly, I hoped to never tell you. The price was my burden to bear, not yours.”
Usagi looked down, face lost to the rest of her friends, “Will these people... be able to help us, like you said?”
“We help them, they help us. Ranma-san is a master at fighting, and he has already taken on something of an apprentice. Hotaru, in her past life, learned quite a bit from her Chi Sage, so I’m sure that he wouldn’t mind tutoring her as well. That would give us three Chi Sages. We also have an example of an... underground group... that would be appearing in the near, Crystal Tokyo-less, future, so some lessons involving him on good and bad demonic forces would aid us greatly.”
When Usagi finally raised her head, her face was filled with determination. “Then set up a meeting with them later. I’d like to see what we’re getting into.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by A Wandering Soul
(Posted Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:55)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.