Magic had been in constant use during the time of Queen Serenity. It was used to move between worlds, strengthen buildings, and even such trivial things as making clothing become stainless(Dockers Magic Clothing Spell #2 of the Moon Kingdom Tome of Magical Frivolties - TM). Therefore is it any wonder that Queen Serenity herself had used it to solve some of her most troubling concerns.
The geas upon Sailor Pluto for instance would have been considerred a good judgement call by that particular lady. Magical geas weren't just used to insure loyalty however. Serenity had been concerned that her daughter and descendants would one day be without an advisor, as even the long lifespans of the moon cats weren't limitless. Therefore she had hired a coalition of the kingdom's best mages to put together a spell to avoid that dark day from ever occurring. A spell was designed by those great minds from long ago that would instantly call a new advisor upon the death of an older one.
The initial version of the spell had simply called forth a new advisor. The problem with that was found out upon the death of an old grey tom of a moon-cat by the name of Orion. The advisor called forth upon the death had been of a breed that was only able to survive for a few minutes on the moon.. not a good thing considerring the kingdom he was advising was to be a 'moon' kingdom.
A new version of the spell had come into being wherein the advisor to be called would only be a moon cat thus insuring a long life and compatability for the moon-life. Sadly that had ended the day a plague had swept through the ranks of the native moon cats sending them into extinction.
All would have been lost if not for a mage most had called 'mad'. The mage had come from the universities of Mercury and was quite frankly ahead of his time when it came to his spell inovations. This particular spell however was to be his masterpiece. He had devised a way to make the magic seek out the best candidate to be the next advisor and then transform him, her, or it into being a mooncat. Thus saving the species from extinction, insuring advisors to the queen for all of eternity, and allowing the advisor to survive being in the royal palace.
The downside to the wonderful spell had been that because of the intricacy of its craftmanship it only had a limited search range. In times past this was avoided by having 2 advisors active at once and at the end of one's life having them sent to a special retreat along with all of the kingdom's best candidates thus insuring the spell would select one of the chosen.
But that had been in a time of peace. Everyone had assumed the kingdom was safe from invasion much less destruction. Which is why a failsafe plan was never put into works should an advisor ever die from battle instead of old age.
Upon the youma having taken over poor Luna it had suddenly put into motion that one unforseen lapse in the spell's ability. Now luckily for the Sailor Scouts they were immune to the geas having already been called into service as fighters for the kingdom.
So the spell had pushed outwards, briefly identifying each possible candidate within its range and making the decision as to which would make the best possible replacement. Thousands of people had their lives looked into and rejected for one reason or another. For a great kingdom such as the Moon Kingdom after all only the best would do.
Of course there were many who would have made excellent replacements within the nation of Japan. Unfortunately the Cabbit was in space. Nuku Nuku had been last seen 'trying to play' with some boy with fangs and a bandanna. Girl after girl and cat after cat that might have made acceptable candidates either were no longer within the target range or else were somehow immune to the geas itself.
One of the most promising of candidates was sadly rejected as the advisor that had died was a female cat and the spell took the path of the least resistance meaning it was searching for not only a good advisor but one that was also most similar to the departed one.
Just as the spell was about to accept a slightly less worthy individual something changed that had made the candidate acceptable.
"Uncute tomboy!" a naked Ranma shouted from her spot in the koi pond after being evicted from the furo by an equally naked Akane. Then her world shook and twisted as for the briefest of moments she underwent sheer agony only for it to end as abruptly as it began without any lingerring pain.
Ranma stalked angrily back into the house to get dressed. Upon seeing Kasumi in the kitchen she said, "Hey, Kasumi, can I have some hot water please?"
Kasumi was about to smile kindly at Ranma and hand her the kettle just as had become an instive action after a daily routine of the action. The smile turned into a slight eye widenning. "Oh my. I'm sorry, miss talking cat, but you have to get out before Ra-" Kasumi stopped to blink in confusion. "That's strange.. why would a talking cat use its voice to scream out 'C-c-cat!' I wonder?" With a dainty shrug of her shoulders she went back to chopping the greens for her soup.
(Posted Tue, 08 Apr 2003 10:21)
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