Ranma, Sailor Moon 1. Chapter 1

Title: Prince of the Planets

Ranma ½ Sailor Moon Crossover

Idea: What would happen if Ranma was the reincarnated son of Sailor Jupiter and Nephrite?

Rating: PG-13

Timeline: After Herb but before they face the Orochi. Please note that Nodoka knows about Ranma's Curse (he wrote a letter to her explaining it all to her). In Sailor Moon it is after the Death Phantom but before the Death Busters.

Notes- I will try and not make the characters of Ranma in cardboard characters as often happens and I will be drawing from the Magna Ranma and T.V. Sailor Moon more for both sources. I don't own either series.

"_Remember__who__you__really__ are_!" Ranma suddenly shot up wide awake as he suddenly woke up from his dream. Ranma blinked a few times before he spoke, "Remember who you really are? Why on earth would I dream about something like that?" Giving his head a good shake, Ranma then got out of bed avoiding his panda of a father and started changing into one of his Maoist uniform clothes.

Looking out the window to see the sun just starting to come up while he buttoned his shirt Ranma said the words from his dream once more out loud to himself. For the past two weeks he had been waking up to those same words in his head and it was starting to drive the gender-blender nuts. Giving up on trying figuring out what the words meant, Ranma headed over to the dojo to practice some of his less used fighting stances. After a good 40 minute workout, Ranma was called to the breakfast table by Kasumi.

Although Ranma was focused on eating so that it looked like he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, he actually was paying attention on a subconscious level. Kasumi was happy as she normal was at this time of day. Nabiki was grinning in a way that showed that she had a money making plan in her head. Soun was focused on the paper as always while Ranma's own father was doing a marvelous impression of a do-do bird for a Panda eating. Akane for some reason looked anxious and also looked like she was trying to hide her anxiety.

Once breakfast was over everyone but the two oldest Tendos were out the door. Genma was meandering his way to his job with Dr. Tofu. Nabiki was racing ahead of Akane and Ranma to school, probably to collect bets on what would happen when Ranma tried to get to class. Finally Ranma and Akane were both walking to school at a more casual pace with Ranma on the fence. For some reason Akane wasn't trying to talk to Ranma as they walked to school so it was an uncomfortable 10 minutes for Ranma.

Soon enough the school gates were in view and Ranma smirked at what he saw headed his way. It looked like today the insanity of choice was kick the Kuno bird as Kuno was charging at Ranma with his bouken raised the delusional boy was spouting drivel. Ranma casually leapt into the air towards Kuno's charging figure. Ranma then gave Kuno a kick to the side of his head before following up with his other foot that hit Kuno under the chin. This one-two combo of Ranma's sent Kuno flying into the air and into the dumpster across the street. As Kuno soared into the air a few students pulled out number cards showing that they thought that the flight only deserved an average grade.

Ranma heard Akane mumble "showoff" as she headed into the classroom. Praying to all the gods that he knew of, Ranma held his tongue from saying the sharp insult that was forming because he didn't want to break a promise to his mother. Ranma was having, unknown to the residents of the Tendo home, a decent relationship his mother although it was long distance relationship. With the help of Dr. Tofu to explain the curse, Ranma and his mother had an almost daily correspondence. Nodoka had originally wanted Ranma to come right home, but Ranma had convinced her to stay at the Saotome home and not visit him at the dojo.

Although not his area of expertise, Ranma had come to realize the pressure cooker that was his life in the Nerima nut farm. Even the low level chaos that he faced during a 'normal' day was slowly wearing him down. Ranma didn't want his mom showing up because he needed her as a safe place for when the next big misadventure came to town. Nodoka agreed with her son's worries and had told him in many pages how happy she was that he was able to read the situation.

The classes for that day were relatively boring for Ranma. However, Ranma had the sense not to appear bored in class. This was more than what the 8 dumb drained saps in the front seats could say for themselves. However, Ranma was definitely on edge near the end of the school day due to the fact that his danger sense had been sounding a Def-com 1 alert all day. Ranma started walking home and was a third of the way there when he realized that Akane wasn't walking with him. Worrying about her safety, Ranma hurried back to the school at full speed. However, when he turned the corner to see the school, Rama happened to glance in an old ally way. Ranma saw a sight in that ally way that turned his blood cold.

There in the ally way was Akane playing a game of tonsil hockey with her 'friend' Sayuri. As if to add further insult to injury, the top buttons of their respective blouses were undone. Ranma looked on the scene for a minute trying with all his will to drive it from reality. Seeing that what was going on in front of him was not a figment of his imagination, Ranma ran away as fast as he could. Akane and Sayuri were so into each other that they never realized that Ranma had seen them.

Ranma ran as fast as possible so that he could get away from vision he had seen while tears formed in his eyes. Ranma eventually came to an empty part of a park. Once at that spot, Ranma let out a soul piercing primal yell of pain. Falling to his knees Ranma looked to the heavens and with tears in his eyes cried out. "Why? It's not fair. What have I done to deserve this?!"

Slowly Ranma's heart hardened and a cold fury started to burn within his wounded heart against Akane. Ranma's teeth were clenched as his words forced their way out, "T-that no good excuse for a whore! Doesn't honor mean anything to her? I work to try and make the family pact work out and what does she do? She throws it all in my face! I ignore the advances of Shampoo and Uyko because our family pact is the oldest and she goes gallivanting around for the other team!"

Ranma then raised a fist into the air while shouting out, "As the heavens as my witness I, Ranma Saotome heir to the Saotome branch of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, vow that I will never support this farce of an honor pact. I declare a blood feud between my heirs and Akane Tendo along with her heirs. No aid will come to her or her line until honor has been satisfied so I vow."

His rage then left Ranma's heart, leaving only cold logical calculation behind in its place. Although normally considered a tad slower than the average person in most intellectual pursuits, Ranma's mind was now operating under battle conditions. Genma's barbaric training methods had funneled and refined Ranma's intellect into that of a tactician surpassing the likes of Alexander or Caesar. The reason why Ranma was considered slow in the head was do to the fact that Ranma been unintentionally trained to only used that mind of his for martial arts. While this might not have been a martial arts fight, Ranma was able break the mental blocks in order to use the razor sharp intelligence that he had when under battle conditions in order to look at the situation ahead of him.

Quickly analyzing the situation at hand along with all possible variables that he could think of, Ranma came up a plan. First, he would sneak into the Tendo home to get his things. Next he would leave a note telling the Tendos of his intentions and what he had seen. Step three was to go into the mountains to train for a week or two on some of the techniques he had observed from his opponents and that he was thinking about adding to his usual line-up. Fourth, head to his mother's house & transfer to a school around there.

Ranma speed-blurred as he ran, headed in the direction on the Tendo dojo. When he got there, he found no one was home. Silently thanking the kami for his good fortune Ranma headed up stairs and grabbed all of his things. Next, he raided the pantry for canned foods that were close to expiration date so he could have a few days' supplies. After Ranma had collected his provisions he wrote his letter to the Tendos. Just as he was about to leave, an idea for a going away 'gift' came to Ranma's mind. Ten minutes latter his angry and frankly childish goodbye 'gift' was done and Ranma hurried out of town.

* * *

Shock, Shock was all that was compensable to Nabiki, Kasumi, Soun, Genma, and P-Chan as they entered the front door. All over the walls were written insults and obscenities against all of the inhabitants of the house in general and Akane in particular. Slowly the gang made their way through the disaster zone that was the house until they got to the dining room where Soun and Genma almost had heart attacks. The Tendo dojo sign was broken in 5 pieces and Ranma's letter was sitting in the center of the five pieces.

Nabiki was the first come out of her shock at the sight, with cold furry she grabbed the letter and read it. The expressions on her face changed to calm, shock, and finally anger as she yelled out, "Akane you stupid numbskull!" Nabiki's shout brought Soun out of his shock. Soun's face was illuminated with anger as he turned to face Nabiki and demanded. "Why are you insulting your sister at a time like this?" Nabiki just glared at him and said, "Because this whole mess is her fault! Listen to this:

'_Dear Tendo Family,_

_This is a notice to the rest of you that the Tendo-Saotome marriage agreement has been dissolved due to the complete unfitness of the Tendo participant. Akane Tendo has proven her unworthiness on the following charges. The first charge against her is that, she has not achieved the skill level needed to be a master of the Tendo school of Anything Goes. This fact shows that she is unable to pass on the Tendo school as is stated under the 'unite the schools' clause of the marriage agreement. The second and far more serious charge against Akane Tendo is that it has been discovered that, while aware of the marriage agreement, Akane Tendo has entered into a romantic and personal relationship with one Sayuri Amino. _

_Given that Akane has broken the pack, I Ranma Saotome officially declare a blood feud between Akane Tendo and myself. This blood feud is to be carried on by our heirs until ether her branch of the Tendo family is extinct, or they have made restitution for the crime against my line's honor. However, under no circumstances is this restitution to be delivered by the producing of a spouse for my line as I refuse to allow the Saotome bloodline to be polluted by the dishonorable Tendo line of Akane Tendo. Please note that the now instated Saotome-Tendo blood feud does not extend to previous generations and it does not extend to one Kasumi Tendo and one Nabiki Tendo. Nor does this feud extend to their heirs and my heirs. With this being the case, I however refuse to allow the mingling of my line with their lines until the line of Akane Tendo makes satisfaction. _

_Sincerely,_

_Ranma Saotome, family heir and heir to the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts.'" _

Soun fell to his knees and covered his head in shame with his hands. His dreams had been destroyed by his little girl and left that dream as a nightmare. Ranma had just decreed that the Saotome and Tendo families would not be joined in his lifetime and Soun, for the life of him, could honestly not bring himself to blame the boy. Soun had always assured himself that the family pact would be fulfilled no matter how many girls chased after Ranma because he knew how important Ranma held honor. Oh the boy wasn't above tricking an opponent or taking advantage of something coming up in a fight but those were basic tenets of the school.

Yes, Ranma was not at fault even if his romantic ability was only that of a ten year old. Soun knew that the boy had tried his hardest to make the Tendo-Saotome engagement work. Little Akane would learn the seriousness of her crime against the family, of that Soun knew without a shred of doubt. Akane should have never done what she had because a martial artist like she proclaimed she was would never go against honor in such a fashion. Once Soun was through with her, he was sure Akane would regreat the day she ever decided to so carelessly break the honor of the Tendo family. Soun looked up and turned his gaze to the front door, which was now opening to reveal Akane coming in the door with her blouse messed up.

* * *

About twenty or so miles into a forest a good distance away from the special wards of Tokyo, Ranma was busy setting up his campfire next to his tent that he had just put up. Once Ranma had the fire going, he put on a pot of water so that he could have some soup. While he was cooking the food Ranma started talking to himself to think about what he should do for the next 2 weeks.

"Okay, what am I going to train in besides my normal daily exercises? With the limited time I have, I should focus on the skills that are hard for me to learn in a city environment. Let's see, Ryoga's Breaking Point Technique would certainly toughen me up a good deal so I'll make that a priority to learn. If I put weights on my arms and practice the Chestnut Fist I'm sure that I'll get stronger and faster at the same time. That makes my new Chestnut Fist training a must, but not as important as the Breaking Point Technique training. What else do I should I learn on this trip?"

Ranma then thought for a few seconds before a light bulb went off in his head and an idea came to him. A bright smile on his face, Ranma shouted out as he snapped his fingers, "What a second! Mom sent me that book on meditation and Chi techniques I can look at that and practice my Moko Takabisha! Yea and when I'm done, those nuts in Nerima won't be able to touch me- except maybe Happosai or Cologne." With a smile on his face, Ranma finished cooking his evening meal.

After wolfing down the soup, Ranma pulled out the book _Chi usage for Dummies _that his mother had gotten him. After looking at the table of contents Ranma turned to the section on Chi attacks are started to read. With gusto one wouldn't think about with the words 'Ranma' and 'book' together.

_Chapter VII: the use of Chi in attacking your opponent_

_As opposed to the internal use of Chi (see Chapter VI: Chi flowing from within); the external use of Chi can be quite dangerous. Regardless of whether a person gathers Chi from within themselves or takes it from the environment around them one must precede with caution. _

_The easiest and safest method of external Chi use is to infuse The Chi into an object like a sword or a kunai. This allows a person greater control over the weapon or object while strengthen that said object. There are numerous examples of this method; the most common example is of people using wooden swords to stop or even cut through a steel sword._

_After the infusing of Chi into objects, the next step of external Chi manipulation is the external use of Chi without any other object with it. Commonly these types Chi techniques are directed either towards forming an energy blade, an energy shield, or a Chi projectile of some sort. The Chi needed for such techniques must be either filtered through an emotion or must be summoned in the pure and raw from within. _

_Of the two methods of harnessing Chi for external attacks; the quickest, easiest, and most dangerous method is the emotional filter. The use of emotion easily focuses and magnifies the Chi of a person so that the user can quickly summon it to attack with; especially if the user only has a small amount of Chi to work with. However, as easy this method may be to perform, it should never be used. The constant and repeated use of emotional Chi, especially in the quantities as is needed to make an attack, will damage a person's soul in the form of cracks to their heart crystal. This damage shows itself at first in the form of the person taking on the personality traits of their preferred emotion. With continued use of emotional Chi, the damage to the heart crystal proceeds to such a point that either the person gets themselves killed or the heart crystal explodes killing the person and leaving massive damage to the surrounding area. _

_The harder and safe method is to use pure Chi. Although pure Chi is far more potent compared to the same amount of emotional Chi, it is also far harder for a person to collect and bend to the person's will. However, as hard as it is to start using pure Chi, the rewards are tremendous. The usage of pure Chi has none of the side effects of emotional Chi and at the same time mastery of it will increase a person's lifespan. _

Ranma stopped reading there as the rest of the chapter told how to meditate and gather the energy needed. Ranma thought about how glad he was that he now knew of the dangers of emotional Chi when a thought struck him and caused his blood to go cold. Ranma then uttered his realization out loud. "Damn it! Ryoga doesn't know about the danger that comes with using emotional Chi!" Ranma ran over to his backpack and wrote a note that was to be mailed to Ryoga telling Ryoga of the danger. In the morning Ranma planed to run to the nearest town and mail the letter to Ryoga as a first class priority. Ranma then spent the rest of the evening meditating before going to bed.

* * *

When Ranma woke up that morning he quickly ran into town and mailed the letter to Ryoga. After the letter was mailed, Ranma picked up some rope before heading back up to his campsite for the week's training. Ranma then constructed a crude swing system that he tied a large bolder to. This swing system allowed Ranma to push the rock away from him, thus sending the rock back at him so he could practice the breaking point technique. When lunch came around three and a half hours latter it was a black and blue grinning Ranma around the campfire.

In the middle of eating his meager lunch Ranma thought about his earlier training. In his mind he spoke to himself. "Okay, I've got the breaking point almost down. Now if I do it for an hour or so every day then by the end of the two weeks I'll be able to take getting hit by a truck and I'll not be hurt too bad. Now then, after I have an hour of the Chestnut fist and then I'll work on coming up with a new Chi attack to replace the Moko Takabisha. After that it will be evening katas before hitting the sack so I can repeat my training schedule tomorrow."

After his hands had cooled down from being in the fire for so long, Ranma was standing away from his camp preparing to try a pure Chi attack. Slowly over several minutes Ranma managed to coax the Chi into his right closed fist. When the strain of holding the energy there became too much for him Ranma quickly brought the hand straight up and level with his chest. He then instantly opened his closed fist while shouting "Moko Dan Ha!" (Fierce Tiger Bullet Defeat). With this scream a basket ball size mass of white energy erupted from Ranma's fist and flew towards a large rock about a hundred meters away.

While the rock was struck and exploded from the Moko Dan Ha; Ranma was falling to his knees panting in exhaustion. Ranma grinned looking at his handy work and said the only thing that came to his mind before he fainted from exhaustion "Amazing." While Ranma would have only had a person look at his handy work; if someone was to come on to this sight one would have seen something far more intriguing. On Ranma's forehead briefly glowed with a dull deep green light the symbol for Jupiter.

* * *

A week after Ranma left the Tendos; Ryoga was sitting in a bare room with a letter from Ranma in front of him waiting to be opened. At first Ryoga had wanted to kill Ranma for what the 'dishonorable coward' had done to his beloved Akane's home. However, hearing Nabiki read that letter and watching Soun chastised Akane made Ryoga stop and think. Soun had told Akane that for no reason was she allowed the privilege of being able to continue using the Tendo school of Anything Goes. Furthermore, Soun told her that he was going to transfer her to a military academy to see if she could learn some honor there.

Hearing Akane yell about how unfair it was and that she had done nothing wrong broke Ryoga's dreams about her. Ryoga had, even though it was slightly warped, a sense of honor. However warped that honor was, it was still important to him. Not being able to be with his parents often had left Ryoga with only his honor and his martial arts to be proud of; thus hearing and seeing Akane breaking her and her family's honor so carelessly had left a gaping whole in his heart.

Not wanting to see Akane or be near her as "P-Chan", Royga had taken off as fast as possible trying to get lost. Two days ago he had stumbled across this small monastery and had been taken in by the kind old monks who cared for the place. Ryoga had spent his time at the monastery up until now talking with the monks about honor and his family curse. Luckily for Ryoga two of the older monks were psychics who could diagnoses and help treat the family curse, but not his Jusenko curse.

Apparently the Hibiki direction curse was actually a malformed and mutated inherited psychic ability. They had told him that his family had the ability to naturally teleport where ever they wished to go to. However there were problems with how this ability had formed. The psychic and chi energy used for this unique ability were all funneled into the teleportation process without any energy used for the control part of the ability. This meant that the Hibiki family were able to teleport all over the world but also that they had no control over where they went or when the ability was activated.

Luckily for Ryoga those monks were able to repair his ability to where he could completely control it. Although Ryoga would now only be able to go 30 km maximum in one go and would have to rest afterwards, Royga was extremely happy. Ryoga thought back to yesterday as he tested out his ability and found that short distance bursts required only a short rest period afterwards meaning that Ryoga could possibly work it into his fighting style.

Now however Ryoga's attention was back on the letter in front of him. Deciding that Ranma was enough of a friend that it would be only polite to read the letter, Ryoga picked it up and broke the seal. Unfolding the letter Ryoga read what Ranma had to say and then thanked the gods for having a friend like Ranma. The letter was:

_Hey Ryoga,_

_How's it going man? You might or might not know it but I've officially broken off the engagement with Akane as she was running around with behind my back with Sayuri. Now don't go off on a tangent but I have not been running behind Akane with Shampoo, Uyko, or bur- Kodachi. Just thought you should know about it and for your information she still doesn't know about your curse though you should tell her soon before she finds out on her own. _

_More importantly I found some facts that you should know. WHAT EVER YOU DO DON'T USE THE SHI SHI HAKODAN! I found out that using emotional Chi attack's hurt the user leading them to either be killed by others or causing them to combust without warning. From what I read neither of us are in danger of exploding yet but don't do it again. Eventually the damage we've done to ourselves will heal itself. I'm working on a pure Chi attack which I found will not have negative effects to us. Hope you come up with one as well and I hope we can fight when that happens._

_Your friend,_

_Ranma Saotome. _

Ryoga put the letter down and smiled as he thought about what Ranma had written. Even though Ryoga had been a poor friend, Ranma was willing to warn him about a problem and still considered him a friend. Well far be it for him, Ryoga thought, to ignore a warning like that. A smirk crossed Ryoga's face as he spoke, "You just watch it Ranma, because next time we meet I'll cream you in a fight."

* * *

Mousse was quietly packing his backpack as he prepared to leave the Cat Café. The fallout from the 'Akane' episode was felt and still being felt by all the members of the NWC. Kuno was spouting about how 'the foul sorcerer Saotome' had fled from his 'righteous blade'. Although Mousse smirked when he thought about how the village idiot couldn't seem to register that Akane had now forced to come 'out of the closet', but then that made the fool a little more entertaining. Yuka had distanced herself from Akane and Sayuri to keep from being considered a lesbian as well. Uyko was apparently in shock that Ranma hadn't moved in with her.

However, the most important person to Mousse and the reason for his leaving was Shampoo. She was demanding that they go and look for Ranma every five minutes or so. It had gotten so bad that Cologne had been forced to lock Shampoo in a cage while in her curse form in order to get some sleep. Mousse had at first hoped that Shampoo would come to him for comfort. After all, he was her oldest and truest friend. However she had been harder and meaner towards him as of late. This had FINALLY broken through to Mousse that Shampoo would never like him.

Realizing that his only reason for staying at the Cat Café was a fool's quest; Mousse had stayed up all night thinking about his options. After his mother had died when he was 13 Mousse never really had a good life in the Amazon village. Although the elders would respect his hidden weapon's style of martial arts and his proficiency in it; the young girls of the village unanimously held him in distain. They thought that only they could be great martial artists and that the men from the village couldn't be their equal. Mousse knew that if he could keep his glasses on during the fight he could easily match one of them or take out a few more if he wasn't worried about his opponents living after the fight.

Knowing that going back to China and the Amazon Village was unacceptable for him, Mousse planed on how he could live in Japan. First he would do- get some contacts and then train for a bit in order to get used to fighting with the contacts. After say a week of training he would take the money that he had and open his own dinner. He knew he had the skills needed to run one sense he had observed Cologne run everything that he hadn't had to do which wasn't much. Cologne had in a surprising moment of generosity given him a book containing several Amazon techniques that he didn't know along with a good deal of cash telling him that she wished him well. She had told him that although she didn't always act it she did genuinely care about Mousse. Also, just in case she needed to reach him or he needed to reach her, Cologne gave Mousse her private phone number. With his pack packed, Mousse gave one last glace to Shampoo's room before he quietly exited the Café and walked out into the morning sun.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclamer: I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon you know that, I know that. Here we go with the next reworked chapter of the Prince of Planets.

The two weeks of training since leaving the Tendo dojo had been excellent for Ranma. He had completed the Breaking point technique training beyond his expectations and was able to move at Chestnut fist speeds with both his legs and arms while weighed down by 40 kilos. Even more important to Ranma, he had found that thanks to his training he could use one full powered Moko Dan Ha a minute and less powered versions of the attack even quicker. Now Ranma was heading home to his mother's house in Juban in order to move on with his life. Currently Ranma was stopping at this small village he had found to have lunch before he got to the special wards of Tokyo.

Suddenly the peace of the town was broken as a person on a motorcycle raced into the village screaming "GET OUT! GET OUT OF TOWN THE OROCHI'S AWAKE AND COMING THIS WAY!" In a flash the entire village was in an uproar. People were grabbing what they could carry and then running as fast as they could out of the town. Watching the mass panic happening in front of him, Ranma was trying to figure out what was going on. But his mind, even though he was now able to use his intelligence for more things than just martial arts, just couldn't figure out the reason why this was all happening.

Ranma finally gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just grabbed one panicky old man and demanded to know what was going on. The old man stuttered out. "The Orochi has been asleep for 1,000 years in Rygzuwara. Last time it was awake, the Orochi went on a spree of destruction devastating the land before the favored of Suzan-no was able to slay it. After it was killed by the warrior, the Orochi was then reborn in Rygzuwara were it remained asleep until today. Please sir, if you value your life; flee now before the Orochi kills you and me!"

Ranma thought about running along with everyone else but stopped when he remembered that the old man had said that the Orochi didn't stop its rampage until it was stopped. While he did not consider himself to be a favored warrior of the kami, Ranma just couldn't bring himself to do nothing and run away. Almost instantly Ranma made up his mind and decided to try and at least buy the villagers more time to evacuate. Running in the direction that would take him to the oncoming Orochi, Ranma muttered to himself "I must be nuts." Fifteen minutes latter he found himself on a forest path and he stopped as he heard the approach of the Orochi. As the Orochi came into view Ranma let out a low moan as he said to out loud, "Man, I really am insane."

The Orochi was about 20 meters in height and 40 meters in length. The path it had traveled was easy to spot due to the fact that the ground was plowed like someone had just come and ripped the soil away. It had seven dragon heads each on their own long neck attached to the main body. The Orochi had no legs but a body like a snake's. At the end of that body was another head that was far larger than the seven heads before it. The whole body of the Orochi was covered in green and purple scales that gleamed in the sun like polished armor. From its mouths' dark black smoke was slowly billowing out.

Taking that smoke as a sign that the Orochi could breathe fire Ranma cursed his luck. Quickly analyzing the monster in front of him, Ranma tried to figure out any weakness that he could exploit. Ranma was under no illusions that he could possibly win this fight; unless he used ever dirty and underhanded trick in the book that Genma had showed him. If he did that, Ranma gave himself a one in five chance of defeating the Orochi.

Quickly Ranma's mind came up with the attack plan to use. Ranma then started the battle by leaping into the air. At the apex of his jump, just as he was leveling off with the seven heads of the Orochi, Ranma suddenly let lose a scream of "Moko Dan Ha." Ranma made sure to unleashed the attack at its full potential. As the beach-ball sized sphere of Chi collided at the base of two Orochi head necks leaving a gaping wound; Ranma flipped onto the snout of the center head. Knowing that he needed every advantage he could get, Ranma lashed out with his fists at the eyes in front of him.

Seeing his arms buried in the eyes in front of him, Ranma quickly pulled his fists back out. When he looked at his hands Ranma found that they were covered in goopy remains of the monster's now blind eyes. Before Ranma could think about what was covering his arms, the head he was standing on jerked back in pain. This action was like a catapult sending Ranma flying through the air behind the seven heads of the Orochi.

Ranma was in the middle of twisting in the air so as that he could land on the Orochi's largest head in an excellent battle position. However, in mid twist Ranma saw something that caused his blood to freeze in fright. One of the heads whipped around to face Ranma with rage in its eyes and let loose a stream of fire at him. Ranma was shocked for a second as he had never expected to have to face a situation like he found himself in: unable to dodge and with a stream of fire at his person.

In a desperate bid to survive, Ranma went into the soul of ice and pumped his entire Chi reserves into the process. Ranma could only look at burning pillar of death with a detached worry. Soon enough the jet of fire collided with Ranma and carried him forward and into the ground in front of the larger head. For half a minute the Orochi flamed the ground before stopping its attack. The smoke from the attack soon dissipated revealing Ranma at the bottom of a blackened crater. His clothes were charred black and his skin was covered in minor burn marks.

Although Ranma was still alive even after that hellish attack, he had lost the will to live. His entire martial art prowess was useless against such a large creature as the Orochi. Ranma's despair grew larger as he felt that his Chi reserves were all spent up except for the little bit he needed to live. Also Ranma's entire body was crying out to him in pain from the wounds it had sustained trying to survive the hellish flames that it had been subjected to. Just before unconsciousness claimed him, Ranma let out a silent cry to whoever would listen to it. "Not like this, don't let it end like this."

* * *

"Is this the afterlife?" the words escaped Ranma's lips as he thought that this wasn't quite what he expected the afterlife to be like. Ranma had opened his eyes to find himself staring into a vast white expanse. Ranma had looked all himself at every angle that he could see. No matter where he looked, all Ranma could see was the never ending expanse of white nothingness. Seriously, if this was in fact the afterlife; Ranma had at least been expecting something to be there. Suddenly a voice from behind called out to him "No, not quite." Ranma turned around to face the speaker. In the formerly empty space Ranma saw a boy about his size and age dressed in armor.

Looking closer, Ranma saw that the speaker had on what looked like a formfitting dark forest green shirt and pants. Also the boy had on a long cape that was in a deeper green color than his shirt and pants. He also had metal guards on his forearms, shins, and shoulders. Whoever was this boy's tailor obviously loved the color green as he had a pair of green-black leather boots and a pair of gloves made out of the same color leather. Ranma thought that if the person in front of him had decided put on a green hat, then that person could play the part of Peter Pan or maybe Robin Hood. Those two characters had been Ranma's favorites when he had to do a book report for Miss Hinako.

Continuing his observations, Ranma saw that the young man was wearing an undecorated and functional metal breastplate. The metal looked like the polished iron that Ranma had seen on the Roman Legions in the T.V. documentary he had watched late one night. Finally to top the outfit off he wore a small golden crown with a green jewel in the center. The crown was over all simple and regal and not at all like those outlandish European crowns that Ranma had spotted in pictures of royalty in the school text books.

However the thing about the stranger in front of him that shocked Ranma to his core was the stranger's face. The young man's long wavy hair was deep red in color. Also, the young man's chin was a bit more angular than own would expect of an Asiatic person. But except for those changes, the person front of Ranma could be his double.

"W-who are y-you?" Ranma barely managed to stutter out with all of the blood metaphorically leaving his face. The teen flashed Ranma his own patented smirk before the teen took as steep forward towards Ranma. In response to the young man's approach, Ranma unconsciously took a step backwards. The unknown person saw Ranma reaction to his presence and he shook his head as he softly spoke softly in Ranma's own voice. "I am an echo, a shade of what you could have and should have been, Ranma."

Ranma got defensive and angry at that last remark. Now Ranma was willing, even if you had to pull it out of him first, to admit that he wasn't the greatest person around. Also, Ranma could admit in the privacy of his mind that his 10 year martial arts training trip had seriously messed with his ability to socialize and it had also messed with his studies. However, Ranma infuriated that this person would show up and tell him that he should have been something else. Therefore, and in a confrontational tone, Ranma demanded. "What do you mean by that pretty boy? I will not be talked down to by some fancy dressed fool who thinks that he's better then me. Now you're going to tell me where we are. And while you're at it, you better give me your name as well!"

The subject of the questions held his hands up in a peaceful gesture and said, "I mean no disrespect Ranma. I was only referring to the fact that I am the shade of your past incarnation that died violently before our soul was reborn as you the present. My name, for as little as I was called in my short life was Prince Nephelite, son and heir to the crowned princess Hippolyta of Jupiter, and I was the first count of the four great moons of Jupiter." Prince Nephelite paused for a moment to let Ranma comprehend what he was being told by the shade. It was a good thing that Prince Nephelite had stopped talking because Ranma was staring bug-eyed at the dead prince.

Once Nephelite was sure that Ranma understood what he had said but before Ranma could speak further Nephelite started to talk. "As to where we are, we are in the Twilight Realm. The Twilight Realm is a place that few mortals can normally visit. But those few souls who do manage to reach this realm can converse with the spirits of those of the past, present, and sometimes what could be. It is unique properties of the Twilight Realm that allows the two incarnations of our soul that being you and me, to talk face to face."

Ranma thought about what his 'past incarnation' had told him. While there was a part of Ranma's mind that wanted to shout out that Prince Nephelite was nothing more than a simple concussion; Ranma did not follow the directions of that impulsive thought. One thing that his life, and in particular his living in Nerima, had taught him was that nothing in his life was simple. The chances that could just be having a simple concussion caused illusion were about as good as Happosai become the Prime Minister of Japan.

Prince Nephelite then turned around and started walking away from Ranma and towards a bright red point of light that had suddenly appeared in the horizon. Nephelite called to Ranma even as he was walking towards the point of light. "Come Ranma, you have much to see and only a short time to see it. Keep quiet and at the end you'll hopefully understand what you must do." Not know of anything better to do Ranma hurried after the retreating figure of the prince. As the duo continued to walk towards the light, it got brighter and brighter until it blinded Ranma's view.

Ranma suddenly found himself floating in some reddish-orange clouds looking down at a massive sprawling city. Looking at the city, Ranma was filled with wonder; never had he seen a city such as this. The city was a sprawling complex filled with stone buildings that spread out all over the place. Surrounding the large stone buildings were smaller buildings that looked like they were single family homes. The bleached stone roads were easy to spot out and they were in a simple and sensible grid pattern. The various trees, parks, and roof-top gardens prevented the city from looking like it was cut out of the earth along with adding a special charm to the city. All in all, the whole city was a work of art. Floating next to the gabbing Ranma, Nephelite started speaking. "A truly magnificent sight is it not? This is the great city of Jovepolis, the capital of the Kingdom of Jupiter."

"We are currently looking at the shades of what happen in this system over 10,000 years ago. At this time the world-kingdoms of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are united under the banner of the Silver Millennium. The Silver Millennium is the nation of the Earth's moon called Luna by its inhabitants. It was the Silver Millennium that founded each of the other kingdoms 4,000 years ago from the time we are currently seeing. For over 6,000 years the Silver Millennium has been ruled by the House of Selene and at this time the Silver Millennium is celebrating the 300th anniversary of Queen Serenity IV's rule."

Prince Nephelite turned to his left in order to look Ranma in the eye. The prince then softly said to Ranma. "I know that this must be confusing for you Ranma. After all, you have probably heard in your classes at school that the Earth is the only planet that can support life. But then, how many scientists claim that it's impossible for a person to change back and forth between being a man and being a woman?"

Ranma then suddenly started to descend from his spot in the sky towards one particulary grand building. Looking over to his right, Ranma saw that Nephelite was descending with him as well. Ranma and Nephelite then passed through the roof of the building, which was in fact the royal palace. When they stopped, Ranma found himself standing in one of the palace's halls. As Ranma was looking at various artworks to be found he didn't notice the maid coming up behind him until she walked through him. Nephelite smiled at the nervous look Ranma sported as Nephelite said. "Remember these are merely shades of what was, they do not notice us nor can we interact with them. Come, a remarkable event is about to occur."

With that Nephelite led Ranma down the corridor following the maid. They stopped at a non-descript door and Nephelite turned to Ranma and said. "Before you see what I am about to show you, you need to know the events of 9 months ago. During the festival of Typhoon there was a grand ball held in this palace sporting delegates from all over the system. Even the planet Earth sent delegates even though they are not connected to the world kingdoms in any way except for the most basic of diplomatic forms. During the end of the festival the princess of Jupiter, my mother, took general Nephrite of Earth to her bedchambers. On that one night of wine enhanced love and lust, I was conceived."

Nephelite grabbed Ranma's hand and pulled him through the door and into the room. In the room was a bed with a young woman in labor on it. She had long brown hair and shiny green eyes. There were four maids in green in plain green dresses trying to comfort her in her pain while the midwife worked. After a few minutes the scream of a baby was heard but the midwife with the baby was approaching the woman with a shocked face. "M-mistress y-your s-son!" the midwife said before she ran out of the room like the grim reaper was on her heals.

As if the mid-wife running away was some sort of prearranged signal, pandemonium reined in the birthing chambers. Two of maids attending the new mother, who Ranma figured must be princess Hippolyta, quickly bolted from the room with their faces covered in pure terror. The third maid had backed herself into a corner and seemed to be on the brink of breaking out in hysterics. Only the fourth maid differed from the princess's helpers. That maid smiled at the new mother and son and said softly, "Your son is a handsome little boy my lady."

Nephelite turned to Ranma, who was trying to understand the scene that had unfolded before him, and Nephelite said "this was my birth and only the beginning of the shock it created. You have to understand Ranma that for six thousand years in their recorded history every daughter of the 9 kingdoms ALWAYS had a daughter as their first born. Also that daughter naturally got the lion's share of magical power compared to her younger sisters. There was a similar ratio of power difference between the younger sisters and their brothers as there was between the first and younger daughters. News that I was a first-born male, and with more power then ANY (the moon princess not included) three first-born princess's combined had shook most commoners and lords to the core. Although I was named prince Nephelite I was also known behind the Jovian royalty's back as The Abomination. Peoples' shock and worry did not decrease when on my presentation day seven days after my birth it was discovered that not only did I bare the symbol for Jupiter upon my head, but also on my hands and feet were the symbols for the four great moons of Jupiter."

Ranma stood there in shook as the shades of the past slowly disappeared around him. Ranma Saotome could honestly say that he had seen many crazy and unbelievable things, but he never expected to see something like he had just saw. It just didn't make sense to him. Yes he could understand people being confused at the oddity that Prince Nephelite was. Actually Ranma thought it was fitting that his last incarnation seemed to turn people's world views on their heads as much as he seemed to do. However, Ranma just couldn't understand why people were so scared at Nephrite's birth.

Nephrite seemed to sense Ranma's confusion and then said, "People tend to be afraid of what they don't know or can't understand. My unique birth and the oddity of my presentation was defiantly something they couldn't understand. In fact, the fear and hysteria that my birth caused got so bad that some of the common people were calling for 'that devil child' to be killed to prevent me from contaminating others with my foulness. However Queen Serenity refused to hear it and enacted harsh punishments to those that tired to harm me. She did everything that she reasonably could to protect me." Nephelite paused for a minute as a smile formed on his face before he continued. "The Queen would often have me over at the palace to play with her daughter princess Serenity even though I was 2 and she was 14 years old. Serenity said it was convenient to have me at the Lunar Palace because my mother was serving as Sailor Jupiter and guard to the princess.

When I was around five years old I was no longer hated or feared by the population as much. I think this was partially due to the fact that they had time to calm down and accept the oddity that I was. But mostly it was because they saw the moon princess and me playing together. Princess Serenity was deeply loved by everyone in the kingdom and seeing that she liked me forced them to look at what they were doing. But in a way the Doom Sayers were correct that I was herald of disaster because on my fifth birthday my father came to see me. Although not officially recognized as my father general Nephrite was there with the three other guards and Prince Endymon. Endymon and Serenity were enamored with each other and a few months latter their romance was revealed to the public.

This caused Duchess Beryl von Nova of Avalon to become insane with trying to win the prince who was to be her betrothed next year. During her insanity she found a dark entity of enormous power called Metallia. With the power of this dark entity, Beryl was able to corrupt the generals and armies of Earth. With these armies and the legions of yoma spawned by Metallia itself 'Queen' Beryl of the Dark Kingdom launched a surprise attack on the nine worlds. The world kingdoms were the first to be destroyed due to being caught unprepared and due to the fact that the world kingdoms' armies were far smaller then those of Earth. Still, even as badly prepared as they were, the world kingdoms were able to take out a significant portion of Beryl's army. With the last of her forces Beryl attacked the Silver Millennium grinding it to the dust.

However all was not lost for the Silver Millennium. With all of her senshi dead and the enemy on her doorsteps Queen Serenity used the Silver Imperial Crystal, an artifact of unimaginable power, to trap Beryl and her legions into another dimension. Then with the last of her life energy Serenity sent the souls of her daughter, the senshi, and the entire court into the future. After that spell was complete, the last queen of a six thousand year old kingdom died among the ruins of that civilization.

But I was different than what the queen expected. You see, unlike the other people sent forward to be reborn, I was not already dead when the spell occurred and my or I should say our soul is very different then the others. These two very important variables caused our soul to not follow the commands of the spell. The end result is that not only were we born to a different family than our mother but we were reborn 23 weeks before she was born instead of about 23 years after she was and to her."

Prince Nephelite stopped talking at this point and let Ranma absorb what was said. It seemed impossible to believe that he, one trick pony Ranma, was once a powerful prince. However Ranma decided not to argue with what he had seen. Suddenly a thought came to him that he blurted out loud. "Okay, okay, I can accept that I was once a prince but what does that have to do with the Orochi that I was in the middle of fighting?" At this Nephelite smiled and said. "If you merge with me not only will we be whole once again in mind and soul, but the celestial powers that are ours by right of birth and soul lineage will be ours to command once again. You needn't worry about me taking over you for I am just a shadow that does nothing separated but joined to this body, you, allows many things to be done. If you wish us to merge just put your hand on my chest over my heart and the fusion will happen."

Ranma, figuring that this was the best thing to do, placed his hand over Nephelite's heart. Immediately both of their bodies started to glow a soft deep green light. The light got larger and brighter until the light covered their bodies and prevented them from seeing any details of the other person's body. Lighting started to crackle around and between both Ranma and Nephelite's glowing bodies. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light accompanied by a tremendous boom.

* * *

Ranma opened his eyes to find himself standing in the crater that the Orochi had sent him into thanks to its fire attack. No longer was Ranma in his burnt up clothes but he was instead wearing Nephelite's armor. The merging had gone perfectly and now, although still pretty much physically spent, Ranma knew he could win the fight. With the tremendous celestial power granted as prince of Jupiter and lord of the four moons Ranma received the knowledge that he needed to harness and weald those powers he had so recently reclaimed in a battle such as this.

As the Orochi turned its seven heads to face him Ranma cycled through his attacks and smirked. Most of his attacks were geared for a fight against human sized opponents; however there was one attack that seemed to have been crafted for just such an occasion as this. Ranma _really_wanted to try out this attack and he knew that he probably wouldn't get the chance in a long while to break it out again in battle. At least Ranma hoped he didn't have to use it in a battle for a long while. The attack was his strongest attack and totally inadvisable for a fight in a city against ground troops, but in the country against such a large beast it was perfect.

Ranma's feet shifted apart and Ranma closed his eyes to prepare to channel the vast amount of energy that the attack needed in order to work. Ramna then brought his hands together as if he was going to pray. As soon as his hands were pressed together, Ranma opened his eyes and called out, "I call upon your power!" A bright circle of energy then surrounded Ranma about 4 feet away from him in all directions. As Ranma named them, their symbols appeared within the circle surrounding him. "Hear me Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa; deliver your judgment oh Jupiter." Ranma then formed his right hand into a fist and sent it soaring into the air yelling out, "Imperial Thunder Dragon King Ascension Fist!"

From the circle surrounding him, a giant beam of golden energy soared into the air taking the form of a Chinese dragon. This dragon twisted about itself as if it was looking for prey. It then 'spotted' the Orochi and flew at it roaring in such a way as to drive fear into the hearts of the even the bravest of men. All eight heads of the Orochi let loose a barrage of fire in an attempt to stop the attack. However for the Orochi the dragon cut through the flames and struck the body of the Orochi. The dragon kept on driving though the Orochi until it came out the other end of the Orochi. As soon as its front claws passed through the other end of the Orochi, Ranma's 'dragon' exploded in a bright light, thundering booms, and hurricane like winds.

Ranma transformed out of his royal battle robes with the bright light of the explosion serving as a back drop for him. Once he had de-transformed and found himself back in his miraculously repaired regular clothes; Ranma had a contemplative look on his face due to the magnitude of what he had done finally reaching him. Ranma looked upon the dead and burnt remains of the once fearsome Orochi. Strange, Ranma thought, that even as tired as he was after the merger, he was still able to summon the strength to slay such a beast. After all, the amount of power he was able to summon in his senshi form was related to how well and rested he was in his normal form.

Ranma slowly walked through the charged ground that the Orochi had previously been located at. Once he had cleared the burnt areas of ground, Ranma picked up his discarded backback that was hidden a little ways away from the battlefield. Walking away from the gruesome seen the words left his mouth of there own accord "I have become death; the destroyer of worlds."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: If you're here at this site, you know that they aren't owned by me.

Nodoka Saotome was quite worried about her son as she finished cleaning up the house to prepare for Ranma's arrival. She had read the letter that Ranma had sent her two weeks ago telling her about Akane's betrayal and that he was going to be training alone for two weeks so he could cool off before coming home at least once a day. Nodoka had mixed feelings about her son finally coming home. On the one hand she hadn't seen her 'son' for ten years and here he was returning home to her. On the other hand it was because his promised bride had betrayed him and left both families with shattered honor.

As Nodoka was looking through her bedroom trying to find something to clean, she noticed a class yearbook from when she was in high school. On a whim she took the yearbook out and started looking at it. Eventually she came to a picture of just her, her best friend Ikuko Ikari, and Ikuko's boyfriend Kenji Tuskino. Nodoka felt a tear on her cheek as she put the book back and thought about her old friends. Ikuko and Kenji had married shortly after the picture was taken and now her friends lived about 10 minutes walking distance away with their son Shingo and their daughter Usagi.

* * *

Ranma was enjoying a quiet walk through the park as he was heading home to his house. The evening after he had discovered his Jovian heritage Ranma had made another discovery. With a mild drain on his chi while he was in normal form, he was able to summon some energy from Io. Although not useful for fighting with Ranma was able to use it so that if he knew where the water was coming from he would be able to heat the water up enough so that he wouldn't change. Ranma figured he could do the same trick with just his Chi, but it would then be twice a draining on him. Knowing that in his transformed state it would be impossible for others to recognize who he was unless he wished it or they already knew that it was him Ranma had had a long debate.

Ranma remembered his mother talking about the sightings of 'Sailor Scouts' in the neighborhood Ranma knew then that the old royal guard was reborn and apparently at times fighting against enemies of the population. Knowing that his previous mother was Sailor Jupiter, Ranma decided not to mention their relationship until she confronted him about it. It would be too awkward otherwise. However much he would want to help the Sailor Scouts, Ranma knew that he couldn't fight as himself without drawing undue attention; he didn't want the nuts of Nerima to come over. Therefore an alias was needed and Ranma had decided to be known as the Jovian Paladin.

Ranma's peaceful walk was interrupted by the sound of a girl crying coming from the path ahead. Stopping to think it over Ranma bit the bullet and started heading over to the person crying. As he approached Ranma saw a girl about 15 or 16 years old sitting on a stone bench crying her eyes out. She was in a school dress and had her long golden hair done up in ox horns with long ponytails trailing down out of the ox horns. A small part of Ranma's mind whispered that she was quite lovely. Maybe she was not supermodel beautiful, but she was beautiful just the same.

Ranma quickly squashed that part of his mind and forgot that it had even whispered to him. He was in no mood to try and go after girl; Akane's betrayel still hurt him deeply. Besides, the girl was crying; going after a girl in that condition was just despicable. As the girl continued to cry, Ranma grew more and more uncomfortable. Although the merging along with his mother's letters had helped Ranma gain a little knowledge of how to handle social situations he knew that it was not is forte. But on the other hand Ranma never could stand to see a girl cry.

Ranma took a moment to actually think about what he should say to calm the girl down before he opened his mouth and said. "Why are you crying?" The girl turned around to face him and Ranma saw that she had soft blue eyes. The girl took a look at Ranma's inquiring face and then said. "M-my boyfriend just dumped me." That hit him in the heart. Now with Ranma you normally have to fight tooth and nail to get anything about his past out of him, but Ranma felt that this one time it would help the girl if she knew a little bit of his past. After all, a pain shared is a pain halved or so he had heard.

Sitting down next to her on the bench, Ranma closed his eyes and then started to speak. "I know what that pain's like. I had a girlfriend once." Opening his eyes Ranma turned to look at the girl as he spoke again. "However I caught her cheating on me with one of her friends. So you see, even though it hurts it could have been much worse. Don't worry. The pain slowly goes away with time." With that Ranma got up and started walking away leaving the girl to ponder what he had said; not knowing if they would ever meet again or not.

* * *

Usagi Tsukino was sitting on a stone bench pondering what the unknown young man had just told her. It had been a roller coaster of week. First she had traveled 1,000 years into the future to fight invaders from that time. Next she finds out that in that time she was queen of the whole Earth with her boyfriend as her King and husband. After an exhausting battle against the death phantom she and her friends get back to the twentieth century. Finally her boyfriend goes and dumps her in the park just after her friends leave. Needless to say, Usagi felt she deserved to have a good cry.

However Usagi thought about the strange teenager and what he had said. He had blue eyes and black hair that was in a pigtail in the back. From the quick glace at his body she noticed that he obviously worked out. She also noticed that he appeared nervous about her crying and was trying to calm her down even if he didn't know how. Still, his few words were true. Usagi could have found Mamoru cheating on her like the boy said his girlfriend had done to him.

Getting up from the bench, Usagi started walking home. She knew that her mom was waiting for the whole family to get home to tell them something. What it was Usagi had no idea but apparently there was something that was eating at mama for the whole week. During the walk Usagi thought about her relationship with Mamoru. As she thought about it she came to the realization that she and Mamoru didn't really have much in common in this lifetime. As she entered her home Usagi decided to try and make the most of the situation and not cry about the loss of her 'prince charming' too much.

Deciding to try and do something, Usagi heading upstairs to her room. There she pulled out her book bag, grabbed one of her textbooks, and started catching up in her homework. It was not fun for her, but Usagi figured that she needed to keep moving for the day to help her handle the pain of the breakup. Finally, after two hours of work, Usagi was able to finish all of her schoolwork and her make-up assignments.

Putting her books away Usagi thought about the Sailor Scouts. Although she usually didn't like being the princess and having to lead the scouts, she did think about their situation. Usagi wondered why it was that after 1,000 years of experience Neo-Queen Serenity had needed HER help to face the Black Moon Family. Suddenly a though crossed her mind. The Scouts were her body guard reborn, but they were also supposed to be soldiers. As their leader maybe she should read a book or two about how to fight battles? However that thought left her mind as Usagi heard her mother calling the family together downstairs.

When Usagi got downstairs she saw her parents sitting at the table waiting for Shingo to come in the room. Once the whole family was together Ikuko started to speak. "Okay Usagi, Shingo, as you know I like to visit an old friend of mine from high school Nodoka Saotome. Shingo, you weren't born yet but Nodoka has a son that is a year older than Usagi who is coming home after a ten year training trip with his father. Now your father and I along with Nodoka have decided that we'll all go out to eat and celebrate her son coming home."

Usagi smiled at that news, she remembered 'Aunty Nodoka' and her very frequent visits over to the Tsukino home with fondness. Besides a small party with her family and friends sounded like a good end to the day. Shingo wasn't as excided as she was, he wanted to stay home and play the new game he got from a friend. With that the whole family got up and started walking over to the Saotome home.

Usagi wonder what Nodoka's son would be like as she walked silently. She really hoped that he would be caring and gentle. But what if he was rude and arrogant like some of the jocks she knew of. After all, if he was on a ten year training trip he must be into martial arts. Would he be a friend to her or would he tease and torment her? Oh the questions were springing up in her mind and getting her worried. Usagi was pulled out of her worried state of mind when her mother stopped in front of a house and said "We're here." When Ikuko opened the door Usagi was able to see the Saotome family. Aunty Nodoka was easily recognizable, but Usagi practically froze when she saw who that the son was the same boy she meet in the park.

Nodoka smiled at her friends' family, she honestly like Shingo and Usagi like they were a daughter and son to her. Speaking up Nodoka started. "I think that introductions are in order". Gesturing to each person in turn Nodoka smiled and stated. "This is my son Ranma, Ranma this is Ikuko Tsukino, her husband Kenji Tsukino, their son Shingo Tsukino, and their daughter Usagi Tsukino."

At this point Ranma Spoke up and said after Usagi was introduced. "We've meet." At this the parents all raised an eyebrow and Kenji started talking with a stern face. "Oh? And when did this happen?" Usagi started to sweat and Ranma continued oblivious to the bombshell he was unknowingly setting off. "I meet her in the park, she was crying because her boyfriend dumped her."

Two words best describe the scene that happened upon Ranma saying those words, COMPLETE. MANIA. Kenji rotated between yelling at Usagi telling her that she should never have had a boyfriend in the first place and him promising to castrate the guy who broke his little girl's heart. Ikuko was trying to calm Kenji down. Nodoka was comforting Usagi who was slumped down on the ground with a huge sweat drop on the back of her head. Shingo kept on trying to get Kenji even angrier because he thought that the situation was hilarious. Finally Ranma was hitting his head on the wall muttering about how stupid he was bringing this up.

However, this seen of panic ended when a water pipe over Ranma's head burst open activating the curse. Turning around to seen the shocked looks on the Tsukino family and the resigned look of his mother Ranma spoke up "Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." Shingo was the first to speak up and pointing to Ranma Shingo said, "Dude, why did you just turn into a girl?" Ranma walked over to the kitchen as he spoke. "It's a curse I picked up in China by falling into the spring of drowned girl. The spring is one of many, each spring having their own cursed form. Cold water turns me into a girl and hot water turns me back into a guy. Before you ask, yes I am a guy and no, I don't like boys when I'm in my girl form."

Ranma then got a glass out of a cabinet and poured himself a glass of hot water. Not noticing that his guests had followed him into the kitchen Ranma poured the water on his head returning him to a guy. At this point Shingo said, "That's really freaky." Noticing the pained look in Ranma's face at the words her brother had carelessly spoken Usagi spoke up. "Hey, it's not his fault that he has that curse, besides at least he's human. Didn't you hear? There were a lot of cursed springs there. He could have just as easily ended up as a dog, a rat, or a Panda!"

At this point Ranma started laughing as he said. "Pops has the Panda covered, fits him too." Nodoka just shook her head and said. "Sadly yes son it does fit him. But he does have his good points. After all, look at you; I'd say that you've grown up pretty well except for your bluntness." Ranma nodded his head as he dried off his hair. At this point everyone agreed to drop the conversation silently and left to go to the restaurant

Kenji had been the one to select the restaurant and had chosen an Italian place nearby where he worked. Over all he was happy with how the dinner went. While still mad that Usagi had a boyfriend that. He. Didn't. Know. ABOUT! He was able to calm down. During the meal he had paid a lot of attention to Ranma. The boy was quiet and tried to give off an air of confidence but with an eye used to noticing small details of pictures Kenji notice that Ranma was uncomfortable, nervous, and sad. Ranma wouldn't start a conversation and tried to keep his words a few as possible. In fact Nodoka and Usagi seemed to be able to get him to talk in more than three word sentences unless provoking him.

One such instance was how Kenji found out about how Ranma's fiancé betrayed him. At first Kenji was shocked that Ranma had been engaged at such a young age but his heart went out to the young man. No one deserved to have their heart broken like that. Noticing the look of sadness in Usagi's eyes at that story Kenji felt that he should look into his daughter's life more.

They were all walking home with Ranma and his mother when suddenly five guys appeared around the corner and four appeared behind them. The center guy spoke in a creepy voice. "Give us all your money, credit cards, bank pins, and any valuables and we might let you live." Kenji was reaching for his wallet when one of the gangsters spoke and asked the boss if they could have some 'fun' with Usagi. The man's tone and perverted gaze left no question as to the kind of 'fun' the criminal was referring to. Kenji, while fearing for Usagi, noticed Ranma's face get hard with a cold rage before the boy's image flickered. Suddenly too fast for his eye to follow, Ranma bolted from his spot in a blur taking down each and every one of the gangsters.

Grabbing the person who had spoken to them Ranma slammed him into the wall and growled. "If I EVER hear about you, or your people, hurting anyone else; I will make you wish you could hide in any of the seven hells." Ranma then slammed a fist into the ground leaving the cement cracked. Bringing up the fist so that the scum could see that Ranma's fist was in good condition Ranma spoke again. "Do we understand each other?" The gang then ran away from Ranma like he was some demon after their souls.

Ranma then turned away and looked at the Tuskino's and said. "Is everyone okay?" There was no trace of the harden fighter all that Kenji could see was a nervous young man worried about him and his family. As they split up and headed home Kenji thought to himself that interesting times were coming.

* * *

Two days latter was Monday and school. While Usagi was running to get to school on time Ranma and his mother were walking to the same school in order to enroll Ranma in Juban High. Actually, Nodoka was walking on the sidewalk and Ranma was on the railing as he usually was to be found. Nodoka was in her usual kimono and Ranma was sporting blue jeans and a black T-shirt. Nodoka had gotten him several new sets of clothes for when he came home and Ranma wanted to try one out.

In no time at all Ranma and his mother were speaking to the principal of the school. Apparently the school couldn't get a hold of any transcripts for Ranma beyond middle school. This was due to Genma's laziness and Furinkin's Craziness. The Saotomes' sat down and discussed the options that were open to Ranma with the vice-principal. Finally it was decided that Ranma would take a test to see what grade he would go into.

The test took Ranma three hours to complete. The geography of Japan and China was easy for Ranma due to his having been to those locations. The rest of the world geography was a bit of a struggle for Ranma. History was easy as well as Math in which Nephelite was a child prodigy in. However, the Science part was up to the favor of the kami as to whether he succeeded or not. Over all things were looking up for Ranma as he handed in his test to the secretary for computer checking.

That peace was shattered when Ranma heard several people scream at the top of their lungs in terror. Seeing the secretary start running away he figured it was time for the Jovian Paladin to make an appearance. Closing his eyes a second in order to find the tendrils of power that flew from him to the heavens; Ranma opened the mystic floodgates to the planetary manna and allowed it to flood his entire being. Opening his eyes Ranma was now Prince Nephelite under the alias of the Jovian Paladin.

Opening a window Jovian Paladin leapt up and onto the roof in order to head towards the origin of the disturbance. Reaching the edge of the roof Jovian Paladin saw a strange creature that looked like a strange mix of a woman and a car facing off against five young women in short fukus. Instantly Jovian Paladin knew that the women were the princess, his old mother, and the inner scouts.

Suddenly the daemon launched an enormous attack that looked like black fire that left the scouts frozen in fear. However it wasn't going to hit the girls as far as the Paladin was concerned. As he leaped down to protect the girls he noticed that they started to run but that the one in the center tripped and fell on her pigtails. Thanks to the aerial training that Ranma had gone through Jovian Paladin was able to correct his fall so that he was between the fallen scout and the incoming attack. Once on the ground he let loose a yell of "Callisto Celestial Shield!" this caused a sparkling dull purple and red wall of energy form in front of the prince stopping the attack.

As the smoke cleared Jovian Paladin looked around and recognized that the scout whose life he saved was the Princess who was looking at him with wide eyes. The first friend that he ever had; that thing had tried to kill his best childhood friend and the heir to the kingdom, this was UNFORGIVABLE. A cold rage grew within him making him want to only destroy the THING that would DARE attack the sweet girl in front of him.

Turning towards the daemon the Jovan Paladin spoke with a voice filled with controlled rage and malice. "Attacking the High Princess with the intention to kill merits only death." Raising his fists in a boxing position the prince smirked as he stated "prepare to pay the ferryman, RAIDEN'S RAGE!" His fists now crackling with lighting all around and emanating from them Nephelite ran towards the daemon and started pounding the life out of it.

After a minute of fast and brutal punishment at the Paladin's hands the daemon was lying on the ground apparently gasping for breath. Lowering his hands and allowing the lightning to fad Jovan Paladin looked on demonic creature and allowed the rage to fad a bit. Raising an arm up Nephelite yelled out "IO INFIERNO!" sending with the sweep of his hand a blade of blazing red energy that cut the daemon in half ending its life.

Turning around to face the shocked scouts Nephelite spoke softly in a voice that was commanding and yet comforting at the same time while his face softened slowly as he spoke. "I am the Jovan Paladin reborn from long ago by the grace of Queen Serenity. All who threaten this city's people or attack the Queen's daughter will die by my hands." Not waiting for the Scouts to respond to that statement the Paladin jumped up onto the roof and quickly vanished from sight.

* * *

At the Cherry Hill Shrine latter that day after school let out pandemonium reigned. The scouts were all there with the moon cats talking at each other about the attack and the appearance of the 'Jovan Paladin'. Finally Luna had enough of trying to follow the conversations and putting her paws to her face whistled loudly to get the gaggling girls' attention. The scout all stopped talking to face the feline familiar and waited for her to speak. "Okay," she started, "during class your school was attacked by a daemon. During the fight this Jovan Paladin showed up, brutally attacked and then killed the monster. Now one at a time girls, can you add any RELAVENT information about the monster and its slayer?" Luna added the emphasis while looking at Minako and Makoto.

Rei looked up and then said. "Now that you mention it, he was dressed in armor like Prince Endymon but the color looked closer to the colors worn by Makoto when she's Sailor Jupiter." Ami decided at this point to add her observations. "He seemed enraged when he saw that Usagi was attacked by the daemon and referred to her as the princess." Usagi who was munching on a rice ball made a comment in between bits. "He had a gold crown with the symbol for Jupiter engraved on it." At this point everyone turned to face Usagi with shocked looks. Usagi ate for a moment before she noticed that everyone was looking at her and exclaimed "What!" Rei muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. "Amazing that meatball head actually noticed that." This comment set Usagi off crying for a few minutes.

Artemis turned the facts over in his head for a minute before a memory came to him turning his blood cold. Softy in a voice filled with fear that everyone somehow heard he spoke. "Prince Nephelite, the Abomination." Looking up and seeing that he had everyone's undivided attention Artemis side and said. "Sit down girls; I just remembered something that will shock your view of the past."

Noticing that everyone was sitting down Artemis continued. "During the Silver Millennium every one of the planets had life on them including the Moon. All of them but the Earth was ruled under Queen Serenity as you remember with you acting as guards for the Moon princess besides being princess' yourselves. Besides you, the four outer worlds had princess' who were sailor scouts as well. These Outer scouts were more powerful generally than the inner scouts with Saturn being the strongest capable of destroying a world with her power. However, during the last years of the Silver Millennium someone else was born who was feared above all, even Sailor Saturn whose awakening was said by the lower masses to herald the death of worlds. This person was Prince Nephelite, Makoto's first born son." At this point every scout was shocked and Makoto fell passed out from the shock.

Waiting for his audience to be able to hear him again Artemis collected the memories that were flooding his brain before continuing. "Prince Nephelite was the first born son EVER recorded to be born to a citizen of the Silver Millennium. His power, when he was born, was the highest birth power recorded except for the princess's. He drew his power from Jupiter and its major moons naturally when scientist's had insisted that it was impossible for a mortal to sustain a connection like that to more that one celestial body.

These facts led to the boy being called the Abomination by the common people. It got so bad at one point that the Queen had to bring him to the Lunar Palace in order to protect him. Attacks' on the prince's life ended do to the efforts of the Queen and the fact that if an assassin managed to get to the young prince, his powers were manifest killing any threats to his life. I guess when the Queen set you all to the present to be reborn she sent the prince as well."

For a few moments everyone in the room was silent before Makoto got up the nerve to as a question that was eating at her once she heard that the handsome hero was her reincarnated son, "W-who's the f-father of m-my son?" At this Minako blurted out. "General Nephrite, you told me when you asked my to be your child's godmother even though it was a secret." Makoto fainted on hearing who the father was and Minako snapped her fingers in frustration that _another _cute boy was off-limits to her.

* * *

At the underground hidden lab Kaolinite was chewing out Eudial over the failed attack. "What were you thinking? Your mission was to find a talisman and instead of victory our daemon was destroyed and you didn't even _attempt _to steal a heart crystal to check if it had a talisman. Now what do you have to say for yourself hum?" Eudial looked at her superior and grinding her teeth spoke out her first words. "_Magnus Kaolinite_, I was trying to get the heart crystals of the Sailor scouts as it seemed likely that a talisman was hidden in one of them. Before the daemon could weaken them so that I could steal the crystals an _unknown _fighter appeared and killed the daemon. I then left due to the objective being impossible."

Kaolinite thought about what she was told for a minute before speaking. "Very well, your actions are excusable. Now go." With that Kaolinite turned around and left Eudial to simmer in the room. As Kaolinite was walking out she thought to herself. Hum, this new fighter changes things, but by how much? With that she left to go and talk with the professor to see if he had any ideas about what to do with their plans to revive Pharaoh 90.

Entering the part of the lab where Professor Tomoe was working on creating Daemon seeds Kaolinite softly approached and then spoke. "Professor there is a problem; a new fighter appeared and prevented one of the Witches Five from obtaining a heart crystal. Does this new person affect our plans to bring Pharaoh 90 here to Earth?" The Professor turned to Kaolinite and said. "This changes nothing, the Witches' Five WILL collect the talismans allowing Mistress 9 the strength she needs to summon our master here." Kaolinite bowed her head and stated that she understood before letting the professor continue his work in peace by leaving the room.

* * *

In his room at home Ranma was meditating about the fight and what he should due in the future. Thinking to himself Ranma spoke in his mind to focus his thoughts. "What happened out there? I was calm and ready to fight the daemon. Even when it attacked the scouts I was fine. But when I saw that it was the princess… I just lost it. WHY! Maybe it was a one time thing, yah that's what it was. The scouts should figure out who I was by now unless they don't remember; either way, I won't tell them who I am or who I was until they figure it out.

What about that monster? Was it acting alone or was it part of an invasion? Mum said that the Scouts fight monsters in what seem like sets of fights. Each set of fights seems to last several months before stopping. Then there's ah few weeks or months before the next round happens with a different set of leaders leading the monsters. If it's been quiet sense I started writing to mum then that means that another round is starting up again.

If that's the case then I'll have to 'disappear' for 'Jovian Paladin' to fight the bad guys. Mum's going to worry about me if I keep disappearing on her. If mom asks if I'm fighting the monsters what am I going to due? I don't want to lie again; 'Ranko' was enough lying to mom for me. I guess the only thing I can due is tell mom about prince Nephelite.

Ranma went down stairs and found his mom. After showing and telling her about Prince Nephelite and what he could remember about the Silver Millennium he stood and waited for her to say something. Needless to say it was quite a shock to her system to hear about it but finally she spoke and told Ranma how proud she was of him and that she wouldn't speak of his alternate identity to anyone, unless he stated that the person knew about his secret.


	4. Chapter 4

Prince of the Planets Section 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Ranma1/2

Author's Notes: Well I am definitely glad to see the number of hits and positive reviews that this story has generated in such a short time. Hopefully this new and improved version of The Prince of the Planets is even more enjoyable to my readers. Enough of that, Lets get on with the story

Ranma Saotome woke up in the morning after having a good night's rest, which was still something new to the martial arts prodigy. As he was getting his clothes on Ranma thought about how lucky he was to have such an understanding mother. After all, how many mothers would just accept the idea that their son is a reincarnated prince whose previous mother has been reincarnated and is running around as well like it's the price of rice at the market? Sure Nodoka was a little worried for him and whether he still considered her to be his mother. But after telling her that she would always be his mother, Nodoka was fully supportive of him and didn't let the fact that his previous mother's reincarnation was out there was well get to her. After thinking about it for a moment, Ranma just smiled and thought that finally karma was staring to pay back the debt it owed him.

Ranma quickly ran down the stairs and barely managed to stop himself from sprinting across the hall. Ranma arrived at the table and sat down right when Nodoka was placing his breakfast plate on the table. The two of them just sat around the table for a few minutes having small talk as they ate their breakfast. After Ranma was done eating and was about to get up, Nodoka said to him, "Wait Ranma. This letter came in the mail for you yesterday." After saying that, Nodoka pulled an envelope out of her dress and handed it to Ranma.

Ranma quickly torn open the envelope and skimmed through the contents of the letter before smiling. Nodoka, on seeing his smile, asked Ranma who the letter was from and what was in it. At this Ranma smirked and said, "It's a letter from Ryoga. I sent him a letter a few days ago with some information I found about emotional Chi from that book you gave me. Ryoga may be a bit pig-headed at times, but he is my friend and needed to know about the dangers of his emotional based Chi attack. This letter says that he's gotten my information and is glad that I sent it. Also, he says that he's found some monks that can help him with his direction problem. I glad that he's able to cure at least one of his curses. I wish could cure one of mine, even if it was only the crazy luck curse I seem to have. Finally we'll be able to have a duel on time for once."

Nodoka just smiled at the happy look on Ranma's face as he told her about the letter. She had seen his eyes light up when he mentioned having a duel with Ryoga. If there was one thing that she knew without a doubt, besides the fact that Ranma loved her, was that he absolutely loved a challenge. Ranma didn't care what the challenge was, it was the testing himself against others that Ranma loved about the challenge. If the challenge in question just happened to be a martial arts contest; that was even better in her son's book.

Nodoka then glanced at the clock on the wall and seeing the time said, "Ranma its time for you to leave. You don't want to be late for your first day at the new school do you? After all, it wouldn't do to have a bad first impression now that you have a fresh start to school." Ranma nodded his head showing that he didn't want to be late just before he got up from the table. Ranma then grabbed his school books and lunch before he headed out the door leaving Nodoka alone in the house with a smile on her face.

Ranma was walking on the fence on his way to school when his eyes caught sight of two blonde pigtails ahead of him. Ranma then hurried up his pace a bit till he caught up to Usagi. Ranma startled Usagi, causing her to drop her books all over the sidewalk and fall down on her rear, when he said, "Hey Usagi." Ranma felt a little guilty about causing her to fall over and, after flipping over her head and landing on the ground in front of her, started to pick up her scattered books for her. "So sorry Usagi, I honestly didn't mean to startle you." Ranma uttered as he hurriedly gathered up her books for her in an attempt to apologize.

Usagi sat there where she had fallen on the sidewalk blinking her eyes as she looked on at Ranma as he scrambled to get her books for her. At first Usagi was angry that he had caused her to fall down and spill her books, but seeing him collect her books made it impossible to keep angry. She came out of her thoughts when she saw Ranma hold out a hand to help her up. Usagi gave Ranma a bright smile as he helped her up and then gave her back her books before he returned to the fence. The two of them then started walking to the high school.

After a minute of walking together in silence Usagi, without breaking her stride, decided to ask Ranma a question, "Ah Ranma, why are you walking on the fence?" At this Ranma just shrugged his shoulders and replied, "One of the few things I agree with my old man about is to turn everything that you can into training. By walking on the fence I'm practicing my balance and coordination. Besides, it's a lot of fun once you get the hang of it."

Usagi thought about what Ranma had said for a few minutes. Usagi had to admit that it did look like fun and she could see how it would do what Ranma said it trained him for. She then asked, "Ranma, do you think that you can teach me to walk up there like you?" Ranma thought about it for a second before he said, "Sure. But ah, I think we should wait till tomorrow." At this Usagi inquired, "Why should I wait till tomorrow to learn how to walk on a fence? Why don't you want to teach me now?" Ranma then had a nervous chuckle in his voice as he replied, "Well yes, we could start now. However I don't think you want to flash you panties to everyone." When Usagi heard Ranma's reason she blushed and nodded her head in agreement.

About a minute after Ranma had told her why he wasn't going to teach her how to walk on the fence, Usagi said in a very uncharacteristically quiet voice, "Thank you Ranma." Ranma when he heard Usagi say this; turned his head to pay especial attention to what she had to say. Usagi then continued on talking in a quiet voice, "In all the commotion Friday and Monday, I didn't get to tell you how grateful I am to you for protecting me and my family from those robbers. I got so nervous when that one robber started talking-" At this point Usagi was interrupted by Ranma who said in a firm tone that didn't allow for any debate, "If they had so much as touched you, I would have killed them. Still, your welcome just the same Usagi."

Usagi was looking up at Ranma and clearly saw face. When he mentioned the robbers, his face became hard and Usagi could see that he would have indeed killed the robbers if they had touched her. However, as soon as Ranma had uttered that line, his face returned to the easy going attitude that Usagi had come to associate with Ranma. Silently Usagi thought about the changes in Ranma's personality. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind when she realized that the Jovian Paladin had used a similar voice when he had seen her attacked. For a brief second Usagi contemplated the idea that Ranma could be the Jovian Paladin before the thought vanished from her mind as the school building came into view.

The two of them walked into the school courtyard together and entered the building to go to their classrooms which, for some reason, were the same room. Neither of them noticed the surprise in the local gossip queen's (Minako) eye when she spotted the two of them walking together. Although Ranma and Usagi weren't holding hands, Minako was determined to grill her friend about where this new hunk came from. After all, as the senshi of love it was Minako's duty to ensure that destined love (Usagi and Mamoru, her and Ranma) happened!

Ranma would have preferred it if he could just sit down in a seat in class without any fuss, but that was not to be. Apparently the teacher of the classroom liked to announce to the class when new things happened that were of note, and a new student in the class was something of note in the teacher's eyes. Tapping his desk with his pointer, the teacher got the attention of the slightly rambunctious students. He then, in a slightly boring voice that made the students wish for another hour of sleep, said very officially, "Good day class. Today I have the pleasure to welcome a new student to this fine school and who will be joining us for the rest of the year. Please come in, Mr. Ranma Saotome."

Ranma walked into the classroom and started to mentally berate himself for his outfit choice. When he had gotten up in the morning he had decided to go with tight jeans, a black wife beater tee-shirt, and his Maoist cap. Now, while he may have liked how he looked in the outfit, it seemed like the girls of the class liked his outfit to. Even the blue haired girl in the back of the class the Ranma figured was some type of bookworm was sporting a fine blush after taking a glance at him.

This was so not what Ranma had wanted on his first day of school. He had wanted to just get into school, learn his lessons to prove to himself that he could do more than just martial arts, and get by without causing too big of a stir. Unfortunately, he seemed to have amassed a fan girl following of almost every girl in the class. This, from the rather pathetic glares of death being shot his way, was not earning him any friends from the guys of the class.

Apparently the teacher was completely oblivious to the new friction in his classroom, because the teacher just smiled and said, "Well now then Ranma, why don't you pick a seat and sit down so that we can begin class?" Ranma dumbly nodded his head as he searched over the desks in front of him for a rather safe location to sit down in. He quickly spotted an empty seat next to Usagi which only had two other people sitting next to it. One of these was a red haired girl and the other was a rather short haired boy with thick coke bottle glasses. Besides the fact that these three were the only ones sitting by the seat, it was also on the last row to the far left. Ranma quickly, and to the complaints of several girls, moved to that seat and sat down for class.

* * *

It was lunch time and Minako was quite annoyed. First that hunk had walked in with Usagi this morning. Then it seemed like her luck was about to go her way when the teacher told the very fit boy to find a seat. After all, she was a very pretty girl and there was a seat right next to her that was open. But he had to ignore her and go sit down by Usagi! Yes, it made sense to her that the boy may want to sit by someone that he knew, however Usagi already had a boyfriend!

Looking out over the cafeteria Minako had been hoping to find out where that hunk Ranma was so that she could sit next to him. Then they would get to talking, he would soon enough be falling for her charms, and she would have landed herself one hunk of a boyfriend! However for some reason Ranma seemed to have missed the memo and wasn't getting with the program.

After looking for him for a few minutes, Minako huffed to herself and walked over to where Ami, Makoto, and Rei were sitting and having their lunches. Sitting down, her annoyance plan to see, Minako let out a sigh of exasperation. As she put her lunchbox on the table, Minako suddenly noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where did Usagi go to?" Minako inquired honestly because normally Usagi could be found sitting with the rest of the scouts. Ami looked up from her sandwich and said after swallowing, "I think that she's sitting with that new boy Ranma."

Minako banged her head against the table and with annoyance in her voice said, "Why does she get to sit with the beef special!! She already has a boyfriend; she shouldn't be hogging them all like snacks!" Makoto, who for some strange to her reason had not been drooling over Ranma, narrowed her eyes at the blonde. With hardness rarely heard in her voice by any of her friends, Makoto said, "Grow up Minako! Besides for your information, I found out on Friday at the meeting from Luna that Mamobaka dumped Usagi just after our little 'after school' field trip. Also, Luna told me that Ranma happens to be the son of an old family friend who recently came back after spending several years with his father."

This news surprised Ami who, like Minako, had thought that Usagi and Mamoru were still dating. However, what surprised the girl genius even more was how Makoto was acting about Ranma. She had honestly pegged Makoto as being next in like with Minako in trying to date the, admittedly very good looking, young man. Not wanting her questions to go unanswered, Ami inquired. "Makoto, why are you acting like this? I would have thought that, you know, you would have wanted to date Ranma yourself."

At this two other inquiring eyes turned towards the first senshi of Jupiter. Makoto shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know. It just feels I don't know how to exactly put it, wrong to me to want to go out on a date with Ranma. Besides, I was over at the Tuskino home on Saturday and heard that Ranma was the one who first found out about Usagi and Mamobaka breaking up. I don't know what happened as Auntie Ikoku was pretty tight lipped and Usagi's father was still quite upset, but Ranma apparently said something that helped Usagi get over the jerk."

Minako now felt terrible at how she had acted. Although she still wanted Ranma to go out on a date with her. In fact hearing that Ranma took the time to cheer Usagi up was a major plus in her book. However it was obvious that Usagi needed a friend to help her get through this particular problem and Ranma, who had never met Mamoru, was the best choice for the job. She would just wait until Usagi got over the breakup and then she would get Ranma to notice her.

* * *

After school was over, the inner scouts were all peacefully walking over to Rei's family shrine. However, their peaceful walk ended when they heard the sound of people screaming. The girls quickly made a dash to a secluded area and, after a quick light show, came out in their Sailor Scout uniforms. The Sailor scouts came out onto the battle field to notice that same red haired girl drawing something out of a person's chest while a daemon that looked like a Freddy Kruger want-a-be was wreaking havoc all over the area.

Getting into their usual poses, Usagi shouted out, "Don't you dare attack the peaceful citizens of this city! I am Sailor Moon and in the name of the Moon I will punish you!" The daemon just smirked at the Sailor Scouts and yelled out. "You may have won against my predecessor, but I'm far more powerful than that fool ever would dream to be." His 'hands' then started glowing in an ominous black color before he shouted out, "Kruger Chaos Claws!"

The Scouts all saw two large black shadowy claws shoot out of the daemon's hands and fly towards them. All of the Scouts quickly dodged the attack and saw the claws sink into the car behind where they were. The car turned pitch black in color before it promptly exploded. Luckily, no one was caught in the shrapnel from the explosion.

However, things were not going too good for the daemon as the all Scouts immediately launched their attacks at the daemon. Although it managed to escape from the attacks, the daemon was wounded by a glancing blow from a 'Mars Burning Madelia'. The daemon scowled as it looked at its now burnt and useless left arm and back to the now smirking Scouts.

The Daemon then thought back on the attack and said with a sadistic grin on his face. "You may have wounded me Sailor scum, but you'll never win. Your attacks are too slow to catch me unless you attack me from all sides." At this the daemon let out a horrible laugh as it said, "But if you do that, you'll have to worry about the civilians getting caught in the attack as well. How many are you willing to sacrifice to take me down? Can you handle losing one, ten, or a hundred? How many people's lives will you trade to 'punish me in the name of the Moon? "

A pit grew in the bottom of the Scouts stomachs as they realized that the daemon was correct. All of their fights previously had been on the enemy's territory or the enemy was slow enough that they could hit it without worrying about casualties. Usagi really didn't like where this was going. She had sworn that she would use her powers to protect the people of this city, not use them to end people's lives. Silently she sent up a prayer begging the gods to send her some way of stopping this creature without killing anyone else.

Apparently the gods were watching out for her when she saw someone jump down in front of her from somewhere behind her. Usagi turned her head and saw that the person was none other than the Jovian Paladin. With a concerned look in his eye, the Paladin softly asked her, "Hello there Princess Serenity, what can I do to help you?" Usagi had to fight down a blush that was starting to form on her face; Tuxedo Mask had never asked what he could do to help her in a battle before.

Luckily, from Usagi's point of view, she was able to fight down her blush and turned to face the inquiring prince. Quickly and with her worry evident in her voice Usagi said, "That monster's too quick for us to hit it with our attacks, can you do something to keep it from moving as quickly?" On hearing this request from Usagi, Jovian Paladin just smirked and said in a friendly voice, "Your wish is my command, Princess. I'll keep that monster from moving and then you'll get rid of it. Just like what we used to do in the palace to get candy from the kitchen."

That last statement caused a small smile to appear on Usagi's face. She suddenly remembered several incidences where Prince Nephelite distracted the palace guards while she would sneak into the kitchen to steal a snack for the two of them. Usagi shook her head, now was not the time to be having flashbacks of her previous life! She watched as Nephelite's reincarnation pulled his left hand back and the fingertips of that hand started to glow. With a smile on his face, Ranma rapidly pushed his hand forward and shouted out, "Jove's Joust!" Out of each of his fingertips flew a small bolt of lighting, each about a foot long and half an inch wide.

The bolts of lightning flew at tremendous speed towards the daemon, where they speared its hands, legs, and chest. Nephelite turned to face Usagi and said, "There you go princess, one daemon ready for removal." Usagi nodded her head and then got down to business. With one quick use of her Moon Spiral Heart Attack Usagi destroyed the daemon completely.

Usagi looked on the sight of the battle and sighed in relief that no one had died. Suddenly she remembered that the red head with the daemon had taken something out of a young girl's chest. Usagi and Ranma hurried over to the young girl who was lying down on the ground. Ami was hurriedly scanning the girl and said to Usagi. "This is very bad. If we don't get that crystal back into this girl in the hour, she will die."

Ranma saw the look on Usagi's face and determined even more than he already had to get that crystal back. Reaching out with his improved Chi senses Ranma looked around before he shouted out, "Come quickly! I can sense that the witch was heading off in that direction." The Scouts saw where he was pointing at and started running in that direction. However, Ami and stayed behind wanting to monitor the girl's condition.

The five reincarnated warriors form the Silver Millennium ran along the streets following Ranma's lead. They stopped a few minutes latter when they saw two girls in Sailor Scout uniforms holding the crystal that the witch had made off with inspecting it like it was a diamond to be evaluated. Usagi shouted at the girls, "What do you think your do?! A girl will die if she doesn't get that back within her soon."

The blonde girl with short hair just scoffed at Usagi and said, "Get out of here little girl. Leave the decision making to the true fighters." Just after she said that, Sailor Uranus found Ranma's knee crashing into her spine. Without stopping for a second, Ranma flipped over Uranus and brought her head crashing down into the cement so hard that the cement cracked.

Neptune looked on in shock as the, unknown to her, man so savagely attacked her lover. She saw the blood bleeding down from Uranus' eye sockets and mouth as Uranus' unconscious body was held up by Ranma who was holding Uranus by her hair. Ranma then threw Uranus away like she was a piece of trash.

Neptune wanted to avenge her lover and was about to attack the youth. However, Ranma got into her face and had a hand that crackled with lighting raised to her throat. Neptune felt as he grabbed the crystal and casually tossed it to Makoto. Looking into his eyes Neptune felt that she was looking into the eyes of a very large and enraged tiger. In a voice that froze her blood Neptune heard Ranma say, "Listen well and remember well; Senshi of Neptune. If you or your foolish lover EVER so much as utter one word of disrespect towards the Moon princess, or so casually disobey her commands, run. Run away and hope that I never find you because when I do, unless the princess pardons you for your offence, I will kill you."

Ranma then lowered hand and gave a final glare to Neptune before saying, "Remember your place, Sailor Neptune. You are but the servant of the royal family of the Moon. That means that you WILL follow the commands of Princess Serenity, who fights to protect this city as Sailor Moon. Tell Uranus to remember that and remember her place. If she acts up, I will spay her to calm her down."

When Ranma finished his speech, Sailor Neptune ran towards where she had seen Uranus go sailing. Anyone who would look at the nervous girl would swear that she was running like the hounds of hell were after her. Ranma turned around to face the remaining Sailor Scouts. Rei and Minako were shocked that the handsome prince could be so savaged to a Scout. Makoto was torn at seeing how her son had handled the situation. Usagi was sad that her little friend had grown up to be so vicious and wondered what could have caused him to act like that.

The five of them all silently walked back to where Ami was staying with the girl. Makoto quietly placed the heart crystal back into the lying girl's body and was relieved to see color returning to the girl's cheeks. Once everyone was sure that the girl would in fact make it, the Scout's turned to face Ranma. Rei spoke her mind and said, "What the hell was that for back there Paladin! Those were fellow scouts who you just attacked and threatened with death. So what's your excuse for acting like that?!"

Ranma, now that he had calmed down, was a little ashamed that he had acted like that. However, he was only ashamed that he had acted in anger and not at his actions as a whole. Ranma turned to face the angry priestess and said, "Sailor Uranus was openly defying and insulting the princess while also knowingly endangering a civilian's life. The punishment for such an unforgivable act back in the Millennium would have been her immediate execution involving her being publicly striped naked, bound in barbed wire, and thrown into an acid vat!"

At this every scout's face showed their shock at the thought that the Silver Millennium having such a barbaric punishment. Rei was the first to regain her ability to speak as she said, "W-what the hell are you talking about!" At this Ranma realized that the scouts apparently did not have their full memories of the Silver Millennium like he did and only had an idealized vision of it.

Shaking his head, Ranma said in a soft voice to explain it to the girls whose world views suffered such a radical shock. "When the Silver Millennium was set up 16,000 years ago by Queen Selene I, certain rules were set up for the various then noble houses. One of the laws that Selene I wrote was that 'Should a warrior of noble birth, with full control of their faculties, knowingly disobey the lawful orders of the Royal house and as a result deliver grievous injury to a civilian; then that noble shall suffer the ancient punishment of the traitor's death bath.' That punishment in the 6,000 year history of the Silver Millennium has only been delivered three times and all times it was on a senshi of Uranus."

It was at that moment that Scouts realized the day dream that they had unknowingly created. What did the really know about the Silver Millennium? All they had were their powers and the knowledge that they had been princesses of various planets with Usagi as their soon to be ruler. They knew nothing about the customs, laws, history, or beliefs of the kingdom whose memory they had sworn to protect. Each of them vowed then and there to try to find out everything they could about the Silver Millennium."

Usagi turned to look at the Jovian Paladin and saw the concern in his eyes. He knew far more about the kingdom then she did and apparently fully believed in at least some of their laws. However, it was obvious that he was also influenced by today's laws and his present life's experiences. She could see the kind soul within the Paladin that was concerned for the pain the Scouts were going through.

Usagi spoke up to end the trouble between Ranma and Scouts by saying, "Thank you for bringing this my attention Jovian Paladin. I want you to know that from now on, that particular law of my ancestor is forever rescinded. In the future, you are to bring any relevant laws that I, do to our resurrection, may have forgotten before you enact their punishments."

Ranma then got on his knee before Usagi, and while bowing his head said, "You have the bond of in my blood, the oath of my honor, and the eternal servitude of my soul, princess Serenity. Never doubt for a second that your orders will not be obeyed." With that Ranma left the Scouts to themselves in the street.

Author's notes:

Some people may be shocked at the punishment I have Ranma details. I would like to draw their attention to the fact that many kingdoms for a long time had nasty death penalties for treason towards the crown. For example, until 1814 it was on the books that the full punishment for treason in England was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. http://en. fully describes this nasty process. I am NOT in any way trying to demonize the Silver Millennium. I am just trying to base some of its social conditions off of the European Kingdoms due to the fact that the kingdom's architecture and shown dress is European in style.

In the next chapter-

Ranma confronts himself and goes to Nodoka for advice about his actions; Uranus and Neptune get waked on the head by Setsuna and her staff; Ryoga comes to town, and the cats get grilled by the inners. All of this is happening while the Death Busters continue to work.


	5. Chapter 5

HistorianoftheKais- I want to thank all of my readers who have posted a review and I wanted to clear up two things that were being asked in the reviews. One person commented that the Silver Millennium would have done away with the punishment I created long ago. I can't really argue this one way or another and at this point in the story is a mute point. However, I would like to point out that there are still taxes on the books in the U.S. for taxes that were emergency measures to help pay for the Spanish-American War! Also, someone said that I was making Ranma into a 'badass'. I don't see it like that, Ranma in my story has about the same personality that he had in the latter volumes of the Manga. But he will also have a temper that will flare up whenever someone attacks Usagi whither it is verbally or physically. Now on with the story

Nodoka was deeply worried about Ranma. He had come home female and in a bad mood and without giving her a hello, proceeded up to his room. She had called him down to dinner an hour ago and he had not responded. Nodoka sat at the table debating wither or not she should start to eat the dinner she had made alone before it got cold. She then chilled herself for thinking like that while Ranma was in obvious distress.

It hurt her so to see the kind of life her son had to put up with. First there was her husband's admittedly less then stellar raising of him which she had foolishly allowed. Next, Ranma had to put up with that annoying curse. After that, Ranma was then promptly engaged to that dishonorable Akane. However, Nodoka suspected that this current trouble for her son must have something to do with the latest curve ball in his life.

Nodoka honestly didn't know what her thoughts on that aspect of her son's life. Nodoka's parents had raised her in the Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, so the idea of reincarnation was not a foreign concept to her. However, she had never expected to have that belief confirmed and confronting her like it was in Ranma's situation. Nodoka didn't know where to go to get help in helping Ranma deal with the problems connected to his past life.

However, Nodoka was not about to let that handicap stop her efforts to help her son. While she might not know what Ranma had lived through in his past life as 'Prince Nephelite,' she did know that right now she was his mother and nothing could change that. Nodoka did have a small smile at the thought that her son had been a prince as she slowly walked up the stairs.

Nodoka walked down the hall towards the closed door of Ranma's room. Nodoka softly knocked twice on the door and waited for Ranma to respond. After waiting a few minutes for Ranma to respond, Nodoka softly opened the door and stuck her head inside. It tore at Nodoka's heart to see Ranma lying on his bed crying into his pillow. Her son was a proud boy so whatever had reduced him to crying like this must have really been bad for her boy.

Nodoka softly glided over to Ranma's bed and gently scooped her son into her arms. It a while for Nodoka to calm Ranma down and get the story of what happened out of her boy. She saw how alone Ranma was feeling at that moment when he told her about how he had to explain facts about the Silver Millennium to the Sailor Scouts like they were little girls.

Nodoka could see that Ranma had used the fact that the Scouts had been reborn to help him cope with the stress of dealing with his past life. However, that incident had shattered Ranma's safety net. Nodoka saw the little prince in Ranma that wanted and needed the Sailor Scouts to be better than he was. They had obviously been Nephelite's heroines growing up who were always there for him with advice and help.

Softy Nodoka whispered into Ranma's ear, "Don't worry my son, everything will be fine." Ranma turned to look at his mother with a lost expression on his face. Nodoka smiled and said, "You've had a bad shock today. Even after living your life as my son, there is still a part of you that is a little boy. A little boy who today found out that his heroines were human. Just because the sailor scouts can't remember their past lives as well and you can, does not mean that you're alone."

At this Ranma looked down at his legs and said, "That may be true. But what kind of a person am I turning into? I lost complete control of myself and brutally attacked Uranus. I mean, yes she was disobeying the princess and needed to be brought down a peg or two; but she didn't deserve to be mangled like that."

Nodoka thought for a second about how to answer Ranma before she spoke. "Ranma, I don't know why exactly you acted like you did. However, I think I can put your mind at ease. You were very close to the princess in your last life. That closeness has turned into a very large desire to protect the princess in this life. You assumed that all of the scouts had all of their memories of their last lifetimes just like you did. When that Sailor Uranus started to disrespect Sailor Moon in front of you, you using the information that you had at the time logically assumed that she was insulting the princess with full understanding of what she was doing."

"So you see Ranma, when you acted like you did, you were trying to bring justice to a serious offence and save a life at the same time. True, you should have acted about it calmly and checked with the princess first, but you are honestly sorry about it and the princess forgave you. Put this in the past my son and learn about it. You now know how protective you are of the princess and how enraged you can be by her being attacked. I know that you can learn to control your anger and continue to help your friend."

Nodoka watched as Ranma thought about what she had said for a few minutes. Then Ranma's confident grin slowly returned to his face showing that she had gotten her message across to Ranma. After Nodoka gave Ranma another hug, she led the both of them down to the kitchen where she re-heated dinner.

* * *

Ranma and Usagi were calmly walking home from school together in comfortable silence. Both of them had once again met up on their way to school and had started walking with each other. Ranma wasn't saying anything because he still thinking about what his mom had told him last night. Usagi wasn't trying to talk to Ranma because she could see that something was eating at her acquaintance and to be honest, she was still trying to get over the shock at realizing that the Silver Millennium wasn't as rosy and glistening as she had so childishly assumed had caused.

At school during her free period, Usagi had talked to her history teacher about countries around the world and their morals. She had been slightly shocked to learn that every country it seemed had, as her old teacher put it, a 'skeleton in their closet' of some sort. On seeing how many countries had things that their people were not proud of, but were still able to move past them, Usagi had her hope in the Silver Millennium restored.

However, even though her hope was restored in her past kingdom, Usagi was now looking at it in a permanently different light. The kingdom that her past life would have inherited was a real kingdom, with all the muck and grim to go along with the marble and champagne. The people of the kingdom would have had to have been real people who could love, appreciate beauty, and had hopes and dream. However, there was a side of her people who could hate, despise, and loathed their fellows. That side might have been small and kept in check, but to pretend that it wasn't there would have been foolish.

This train of thought made Usagi wonder, what had happened in that future of Crystal Tokyo? Her future self had told her in private that Crystal Tokyo was just as great and perfect as the Silver Millennium had been at its height. What exactly was Neo-Queen Serenity referring to when the queen had told her that? Neo-Queen Serenity had called Crystal Tokyo a utopia. However, Usagi knew now that, while it might have been a splendid and generally just kingdom, the Silver Millennium was not a utopia.

Usagi racked her brains to think about what that logically said about Crystal Tokyo. This was hard for her because Usagi liked to just do whatever Ami told her was the best choice was. Finally she decided that it must have meant that Neo-Queen Serenity must not have truly understood what it was she was running. This could explain, Usagi thought, why Crystal Tokyo suffered so much during the Black Moon attack. If Neo-Queen Serenity was living a fantasy life, then she must not have prepared for the possibility of attack.

Usagi then made a promise to herself then there silently as she walked next to Ranma. Usagi vowed that she would look at each situation that came up as clearly as she could. That didn't mean that she couldn't strive towards her goals, but that she wouldn't just ignore the facts that she didn't want to hear about. As much as Usagi didn't want to do it, she knew that she would have to get some books on warfare. Also, some books on political history would be needed if she was to become the leader the scouts needed and possibly a queen.

Usagi and Ranma were approaching a large park when Ranma noticed a person walking down a cross street towards them. Ranma then stopped walking and shouted out, "Hey Ryoga, how you doing?!" Usagi stopped walking and turned her head to see who Ranma was yelling at. She saw a boy about Ranma's age carrying a backpack and a red umbrella.

Usagi thought that the boy who she assumed must be Ryoga was cute. Not as cute as Ranma, but still cute. Usagi's mind suddenly came to a halt as she went over her thoughts. Ranma? Cute? Usagi turned to look at her pigtailed friend on the fence who was smiling like he was without a care in the world. A faint blush appeared on Usagi's face as she realized that her friend was indeed a very handsome young boy her age. Usagi stopped thinking about that immediately. She had only lost Mamoru about two weeks ago and Ranma still was quite sore about the loss of his fiancé. Dating anyone wasn't in the cards for either of them at the moment.

Usagi pulled herself out of her thoughts and watched as Ranma flipped off the fence and landed a few feet in front of Ryoga with his arms across his chest and a smirk on his face. "Hey Ryoga, where are you going?" Ranma said in a friendly voice that also seemed to carry a challenge to Ryoga as well. Ryoga lifted his umbrella off of his shoulders and put one end on the ground while keeping the other end in his hand. Ryoga answered Ranma, to Ranma's surprise and delight, in a cheerier tone than was the lost boy's normal. "I was just looking for you Ranma. After all, we have a match to settle between the two of us."

Ranma's eyes lighted up when he heard Ryoga say that to him, a good old fashion martial arts no holds match was just what the doctor ordered in his mind. Ranma then said while pointing his thumb behind himself at the park. "Let's take the fight in the park where there'll be less property damage. Usagi, if she wants, can tell us when to begin." At this Ryoga noticed Usagi who was standing behind Ranma and said, "Hey Ranma, who's Usagi?"

At this Ranma said, "She's the daughter of my mom's closet friend. Our parents live near each other and we go to the same school." Ryoga nodded his head at what Ranma was saying and didn't get mad like he used to before he had spent time with the monks. Ranma then turned to face Usagi and, unknowingly on Ranma's part, used his lady-killer smile as he said, "So what do you say Usagi? Can you be a friend and give the starting signal for Ryoga and my match?"

Although not a big fan of violence, Usagi was happy to oblige Ranma and cheerfully nodded her head in agreement. To be honest with herself, ever since that night with the robbers, she had been curious as to how skilled her cursed friend was. The thought of seeing to very fit young men getting sweaty from working out in the hot afternoon sun had nothing to do with her agreement. Usagi led the two boys into the center of the park where they stood about twenty paces from her on opposite sides. Usagi raised her hand and with laughter in her voice said, "Ready, Set, GO!" she then got out of the way and sat down to watch what looked to be a good show.

Ryoga and Ranma rushed at each other to start the match. Ryoga attacked with a strong punch and Ranma with a strait kick to the side. Both boys' attacks were almost effortlessly blocked by the other, and looking into their friend/rival's eyes they smiled. This matched promised to be a good one between the two of them without any outside interference. Just a match between two friends who liked to see how they stood against the other.

Usagi watched as the two started trading punches and kicks at an extreme pace. While not a skilled martial artist or a rabid watcher of martial arts matches, Usagi soon noticed some facts about Ranma and his friend's fighting styles. Ranma, she noted, was more prone to trying to attack from a kick or a punch after a jump. Also, her friend liked to move around and attack at odd angles using his speed. Ryoga however, used a different style of attack. The boy was a tank just soaking up all of Ranma's hits. Ryoga would attack with his fists and apparently used his feet to keep himself firmly planted on the ground.

Usagi knew that Ranma was powerful, but when she started looking at where both he and Ryoga had missed a punch she was shocked. There were punch indents with cracks surrounding them in solid concrete! When Ranma or Ryoga would slow down for just a second and give her a clear look at their hands, Usagi saw that there wasn't any blood or any broken bones. Usagi honestly doubted that any of the scouts could take the kind of damage the boys were dishing out and still be conscious let alone smiling like Ranma and Ryoga were.

After about ten minutes of wire-fu like fighting between Ranma and Ryoga, Ranma back flipped a few times away from Ryoga and said smiling. "It's great to see that you've improved Ryoga! How about I show you my latest technique." Ranma closed his right fist and started to collect energy into the fist. When the hand was starting to glow with energy seconds later, Ranma made a punching motion with the fist and opened his fingers shouting, "Moko Dan Ha!"

A ball of white energy erupted from Ranma's fist about three feet in diameter and hurtled towards Ryoga. Ryoga just stood there and let the Chi attack come closer to him. Ranma was starting to get worried for his friend. Breaking point technique training or not, being directly hit by the Moko Dan Ha at that range would send Ryoga to lala land for the rest of the day at least.

Ranma was just about to yell at Ryoga to get out of the way when he saw Ryoga smirk and pull back his right fist. Ryoga then shouted out as he sent his fist flying towards the Chi attack, "Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken!" (Lion's breaking point fist technique) Ryoga's fist hit Ranma's Moko Dan Ha and caused the Chi attack to explode. However, the explosion of the Moko Dan Ha was funneled away from Ryoga and back the way the attack came.

Luckily for Ranma, who was shocked still at what he saw Ryoga do, the Chi blast completely dissipated less then two feet away from Ryoga leaving only scorched earth to show what had happened. Ryoga grinned and, while holding up his fist, said, "What do you think of my new attack Ranma? I may not be able to project pure Chi like I can do emotional Chi, but with the Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken I don't have to."

Usagi, who was safely away from the immediate action, was shocked at what she was witnessing. Where on Earth did Ranma and his friend learn these abilities? Although she didn't have Ami with the mercury computer with her, Usagi was sure that both of the boys hadn't used magic at all in their attacks. But if that was true, and she was willing bet a year's supply of ice cream on it, what were the two using for their attacks?

While Usagi was absorbing yet another attack on her view of the world, Ranma's brain was intensely analyzing Ryoga's attack try to figure out a way around it. Grudgingly Ranma had to admit that out of the two of them, Ryoga's first pure Chi attack was far more cleaver than his was. All the Moko Dan Ha was, when you got down to it, is a Moko Takabisha powered by the more potent pure Chi instead of Emotional Chi. The Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken on the other hand, took the principal behind the Bakusai Tenketsu training and took it to a whole new level.

However much Ranma admired his friend's hard work, Ranma was determined to win this match and not a rematch latter like he had when Ryoga had unveiled the Shishi Hakkodan. Ranma thought about what he had seen Ryoga do in the attack and what his rather imprecise Chi sensing, Ranma could read power levels but only on general notions, abilities told him. It would be close, but Ranma saw a glimmer of hope for victory. But first, in order for his plan to work, Ranma would have to test to see if his theory was true.

With a confident smile on his face, Ranma started moving around and shooting Moko Dan Ha's of different power levels at Ryoga. Each and every time a Chi attack approached Ryoga, Ryoga would use the Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken against the attack. However, Ranma had seen enough to know that he could win.

Ryoga watched Ranma continue his attack and the varying sizes of Chi attacks that the pig tailed boy was sending his way. Inside his mind Ryoga was ranting to himself. "What is Ranma up to? He may be proud of his skills and too stubborn to admit defeat, but Ranma wouldn't keep on wasting his energy like this. He'll never get me to admit it, but I know that Ranma's far too good of a fighter to uselessly attack me like this.

He can see that my Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken will defeat his Moko Dan Ha, so what's his game? He can't be trying to get ready for a Hiryu Shotan Ha can he? No, that can't be Ranma's game. While there is enough chi in the air for a Hiryu Shotan Ha, it's at too temperate of a temperature to be useful. Cologne could probably pull one off in these conditions, but she has far more skill in chi manipulation that Ranma had in Nermia or could have now.

Ryoga saw Ranma stand still for a moment and calmly collecting chi. Ryoga was expecting a huge attack with the way Ranma was charging up. However, when Ranma released his Moko Dan Ha, it was a rather small ball of Chi. Obviously Ranma had run out of energy but was still too stubborn to admit that Ryoga's technique could beat Ranma's.

Ryoga powered up his fist and launched it at the Chi attack, but was in for a huge surprise. Seconds after his fist had hit the chi ball, Ryoga found himself on his back looking up at a smirking Ranma. "H-how the?" Ryoga started to say, still shocked that Ranma had won. Ranma just smiled and patted Ryoga's head while Usagi was running over to them to check on Ryoga.

Ranma then said once Usagi had come closer, "You know Ryoga, that Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken of yours is really something. I never imagined taking the Bakusai Tenketsu training to such a level, but it figures that a guy like you who likes to plow through his opponents would. However Ryoga, there are two weaknesses to your attack." Ranma took a break for a second to put his hand on an outstretched finger and casually look up at the sky before listing the problems.

"Your first problem is that you can only use it with your right first and don't try to deny it. I threw several attacks that would have been easier to block with your left hand instead of your right. That is, of course, if you could use the Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken with your left hand as well as your right." At this Ryoga became embarrassed, he had been so happy to have his family curse taken care of that when he had created his attack he hadn't bothered to learn how to do it with the other fist.

Ranma then grabbed another finger of one hand into the other as he said. "The next weakness of the Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken is that you have to apply at least the same amount of energy in order to completely deflect an oncoming attack. If you don't, as this match shows, you still block the attack but are caught in the aftershock. This wouldn't be so much of a problem except for the fact that you can't sense the strength of an approaching chi attack. You rely on your eyes to judge the strength of the attack. When you thought that I had unleashed a small chi attack instead of taking the time to really compress my chi, you only put a small amount into your attack."

At this point Usagi stopped standing next to the two boys, walked over to Ranma, and gave him a light bop on the head. Ranma rubbed his head and then turned to Usagi to say, "Hey! What was that for?" At this Usagi answered in a soft and friendly, but still at the same time firm, tone. "What was that for? Ranma, look around you for a second." Ranma and Ryoga looked around and saw the completely totaled section of the park that they were standing in at the moment.

Usagi put her hands on her hips and said to Ranma, "I can understand that you wanted to see how good you and your friend are. I actually enjoyed the show, when I wasn't worrying about your lives that is; but think for a moment. We're in the middle of a city. A city, might remind you, which has had to put up with attacks from various creatures every few days. Just how do you think the people of the city are going to feel when they find that one of the more popular parks has had a section renovated by you two?"

At this both Ranma and Ryoga looked sheepish and found the ground to be very interesting to look at. Usagi just couldn't chill the boys any longer; she had never really been mad at them in the first place, only worried. However, that didn't change the truth in her words. Usagi softly smiled and said, "I'm not saying that you guys can't have your matches here. I'm just asking you to stay away from the energy attacks okay?" Both Ranma and Ryoga nodded their heads and were rewarded to see a smiling Usagi.

Usagi then stood next to Ranma and said, "Why don't the three of us go out to eat? I have a little bit of my allowance left over with me and Makoto mentioned this great new restaurant that just opened up." Ranma and Ryoga both smiled at the idea of having a bite to eat, but they insisted that they pay for their meals. The three then left the area to go to the restaurant that Usagi had heard about. Apparently its name was the 'Mainland Mandarin meal stop' and was run surprisingly by a boy about their age.

* * *

Unknown to the three teens, there was another spectator to the fight. Setsuna Meioh had decided to come over to the park and do her paperwork there instead of at the high school. Setsuna was glad that she had decided to take a job in Juuban. It kept her from going crazy just standing by the Time Gates all the time, and allowed her to be close to her princess just incase Usagi needed her. It was for that reason Setsuna had taken a job at Usagi's school, and had found working with the children to be quite rewarding.

However the fight that Setsuna had just witnessed in front of her really surprised the immortal senshi of time. Setsuna couldn't read the future like the commoners of the Silver Millennium used to claim, but she could see the most probable outcome for major events at least a few days into the future. Also, ever since that future version of her had allowed chibi-Usagi to come back in time, her time scrying abilities had been on the frits. It happened every time something from a possible future came back into the now and would take a few more weeks to calm down.

But this couldn't have happened at a worst possible moment in Setsuna's opinion. She knew, generally that is, that there was a major threat on the horizon and she couldn't get any information with which to help the princess. In fact, Setsuna didn't find out about the Orochi's attack until a day after it had happened. Even now, since the Time Gates were still 'resetting' themselves, she still didn't know what happened there or who stopped the Orochi.

Could one of those boys with the princess have stopped the Orochi? Setsuna admitted that such an event was possible. She recognized that the boys were very strong and very skilled in the art of chi manipulation. But this knowledge brought about even more questions. Did information on that level of Chi manipulation somehow survive the destruction of the ancient kingdoms or did those boys rediscover the secrets on their own?

Ether way, it was obvious that the boys weren't out to harm the civilians and were at least acquaintances with the princess. From what Setsuna could see Usagi would, if she hadn't already, win the boys over to helping the Sailor Scouts. In these uncertain times, it would be wonderful to have more allies with which to protect the people of Earth. Also, the scouts could learn some things from the boys in order to become even better defenders of the city.

Setsuna had to break out of her musings to make her way to her car. Setsuna had a meeting with the other two active outer scouts in an hour and was just dreading it. Setsuna had told the two about the talismans and the need to find them before this new nefarious group did. However, knowing those two and especially Hakura, Setsuna could safely bet they had done something stupid that she would want to whack them on the head for. The two meant well and tried their hardest, but Setsuna just couldn't help but feel like she was the parole officer for them when they got going.

An hour latter Setsuna arrived at the Tenoh/ Kaioh household and went in the door. Setsuna walked into the family room and felt her eye develop a tic as she looked on the scene of an angry and banged up Hakura trying to be calmed down by a worried Micharu. After demanding to know what happened, Setsuna was told about the whole fiasco with the inner scouts and an unknown fighter.

On hearing what Dwiddledee and Dwiddledumb had done, Setsuna quickly knocked them both out with her Time Staff that she had somehow summoned without transforming. Sitting down with a bottle of Jack Daniels Setsuna said to herself, "What is with you to fools? Something must have gone wrong with your reincarnation, because you two were never, even at your worst, this dumb. I don't know what to do with the inner scouts or that new warrior, though I have to wonder where Endymion went off to.

However, I do know what I'm going to do with you to. If you to morons don't shape up, I going to take you to Las Vegas, get you knocked up, and put the kids in foster care. That way at least the royal lines of Uranus and Neptune don't die when you girls get the Darwin Award. Wait, that won't work because how can I be sure that you two will get the kids go to term? Maybe one of inners would be willing to have one of your fertilized eggs implanted into her womb?" Setsuna spent the rest of the day drinking and trying to figure out how to clean up the mess her two 'teammates' had caused.

Author's notes: There you have another chapter of Prince of Planets. Just so that people know, I don't hate Sailor Uranus and Neptune. It's just that where would you be with a Ranma crossover without some stupid humor. I've decided that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto will be filling the comedy routine that we see with Prince Herb and with Kiima and their subordinates for this story. Review please and I want you to know that the poll for this story is still open.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I may not own Sailor Moon or Ranma ½, but people seemed to like how I've blended them together. Please note that while a few of Mouse's new techniques come from Naruto, that's all that will come from that series so you can pretty much consider this a SM/Ranma crossover and not a SM/Ranma/Naruto crossover. Without further notes from me, let's get this show on the road!

Usagi, Ranma, and Ryoga stopped in front of a small building that looked like it was an American 1950's dinner. Why such a place was in Japan, the trio didn't know and they didn't want to know. A new sign was above the building proclaiming it as "Mainland Mandarin Meal Stop." Right next to the door was a small sign that said, "Today's special, spicy beef ramen only 700 yen." Ranma in an uncharacteristic, at least to Ryoga, move opened the door for Usagi. Once Usagi was inside, Ryoga shot Ranma a questioning stare which was answered by a confused look on Ranma's face. Ryoga just shook his head and went in the door followed quickly by Ranma.

It was a relatively slow day for the dinner, but then again it had just opened up. Ranma looked around at the décor of the restaurant and was starting to get an inclining on who the owner was. Along the walls were various exotic weapons and the architecture was shaped to look like a traditional Chinese style. Ranma lead Usagi and Ryoga over to a side booth next to a large window. Usagi got into the booth first and was followed by Ranma while Ryoga stat down on the other side of the table. The three of them then pulled out the menus and began to look for what they wanted to eat.

About five minutes after they had sat down, a person came over and said, "Hello there. I'm the owner of this restaurant and- What! Ranma! What are you doing here in town?!" At this, everyone at the table turned to see Mousse in his usual outfit minus the coke-bottle glasses that Ryoga and Ranma were used to Mousse sporting. Ranma then calmly said, "I'm here in town because my mom lives here. Please don't tell me that the other two are here as well. I just want to eat a late lunch in peace, its something that I've grown to like a lot."

Mousse, although he had a while ago decided to bury his hatchet with Ranma and not in Ranma's back, couldn't help but want to make Ranma squirm. In a voice that held mischief in it and got more blatantly sarcastic as he continue Mousse said, "Which two are you referring to Ranma? Could it be Shampoo and the old mummy or maybe Soun and Genma? I do know that Kuno and Kodachi are greatly interested in your location. Maybe I should give a call to Nabiki and get a cut of the money she'll make off of your location."

Ranma, who had mid-way through Mousse's monologue, picked up on the fact that Mousse was pulling his leg decided to return fire. Crossing his arms over his chest and with a joking smile on his face, Ranma said, "That may be true Mousse on all accounts. But do you really think that your new business can withstand a visit from all the characters over in Nerima when you tell them that its housing the Nermia Nut farm's most wanted martial artist?" Mousse just shook his head and said, "Just give me your order you Prima Dona."

Usagi gave her order without paying a lot of attention to it because she was thinking about the events that were happening around her. Her friend Ranma Saotome just seemed to be full of surprises to her. From what she could tell, all of Ranma's acquaintances from Nerima seemed to be very unique in their own ways. Obviously, the boy had a great deal of adventures before coming to Juban. Ranma's adventures were probably not as influential as her own with the Sailor Scouts, but they were probably at least as fantastic.

Usagi was brought out of her musings by Ranma gently shaking her shoulder and she answered with a "huh?" Ranma just smiled and said, "I guess you were too busy thinking Usagi, but Mousse over here is offering us all flexible jobs as helpers in his restaurant. So what do you say Usagi?" Usagi closed her eyes and thought for few seconds about the offer. It sounded great, but what about a daemon attack or her parents? Usagi opened her eyes and looking into Mousse's said, "Let me get back to you on that Mousse. The offer sounds very tempting, but with the increasing monster attacks I think I should check with my parents to see if they want me to be out working."

Mousse nodded his head and said, "I understand. Remember that this offer is an open ended offer. Once this place get off the ground in a few days or a week I'll be needed all the help I can get. Not even my Shadow Clone technique will be able to help me deal with the rush."

Ranma then blinked his eye and said, "Shadow Clone technique? What's that Mousse and can I learn it?" Mousse shook his head and said, "The Shadow Clone technique is the advanced form of the splitting cat's hairs technique and creates an actual physical body that can think on its own with everything on it that the original had at the time of creation. The clone can only take one good hit of damage before it is destroyed, but you get all the information that the clone in question learned. However, the real drawback to the Clone technique is that it takes up a large amount of Chi to use and then splits your remaining Chi evenly between you and your clone. Also, you have to make sure that you use only pure Chi because if you use emotional Chi then your clones will just act on a particular emotion that can't be determined until after the Clone is created."

Ranma then asked Mousse on how many clones the formally sight challenged boy could create. Mousse then told Ranma that he could create about 3 or 4 clones without using up all of his chi. Ranma just nodded his head at what Mouse had said. While he had to admit that the Shadow Clone technique sounded very cool, its drawbacks made it undesirable for his style of fighting. However, it sounded like it would be of great help to Mousse whose style revolved around weapons and launching as many as possible at the target. The thought of facing 5 or 6 Mousse's with corrected vision and their individual scrap yards of metal made Ranma REALLY glad that he had gone through the Bakusai Tenketsu training. Ranma figured that without that particular piece of training he would most likely be turned into sliced ham if he fought Mousse simply do to the fact that there would be too many blades flying about.

Half an hour latter, Ranma, Usagi, and Ryoga paid for their meals and left the restaurant. Before they left though, Ranma had told Mousse where he lived incase Mousse ever wanted to come over to visit or have a match. Usagi waved good-bye to Ranma and Ryoga when it came time for her to go her own way to her house after telling the boys that she enjoyed the afternoon. Ryoga saw that Usagi, whether she realized it or not, was looking at Ranma when she said this and figured that he had some teasing ammo against Ranma. Ranma invited Ryoga over to stay at his house with his mother. At first Ryoga was hesitant, but when he met Nodoka and she heard Ranma's request, he went along with the request.

* * *

Usagi woke up in the morning and from her point of view on her bed looked around her room. Luna was sleeping at the foot of her bed and Ami, whose mother had to go to a week long conference in Kyoto for work, was sleeping peacefully on a futon to the right of her bed. Usagi was gland that her parents had allowed Ami to spend the week here while Ami's mother was out of town. Not only was Usagi glad to be able to spend time with and help out a friend, but in Usagi's opinion Ami was the most level headed of her scouts.

Usagi and Ami had spent a good part of the night talking to each other about various scout related things. Ami had told Usagi that she had been looking through the Mercury computer for any historical files on the Silver Millennium. In fact, Ami had in fact found that law that the Jovian Paladin had mentioned. Although Usagi had already come to accept this fact, she still wondered about something. How was it that Prince Nephelite's reincarnation seemed to remember these facts while she and the other scouts did not? Could it be the fact that he had been so young that allowed him to remember or was it something else? Usagi decided to leave those thoughts over to someone who could accurately understand the whole processes.

However Usagi and Ami's conversation last night had quickly been interrupted by Minako, who was calling to report about yet another daemon attack. She and Ami had quickly snuck out of the house and had gone to meet with the rest of the scouts. They had been joined in their roof hoping by none other than the Jovian Paladin, who had told them as they roof hopped together that he had felt something wrong coming from the direction they were headed. She and Ami had gratefully accepted his offer of help.

When the three of them had arrived on the battle scene, they saw Sailor Jupiter protecting the young man who had apparently had his 'heart crystal' extracted. The monster of the week was rather unique looking like a female version of 'The Rhino' with crystal projections all over its body. The battle with the daemon was difficult at first, but then the Jovian Paladin figured out an attack plan to kill the daemon which involved her and him double-teaming the daemon.

After the monster was taken care of, she and everyone else began to look for the heart crystal. They found it in the hands of Sailors Uranus and Neptune who were scanning the crystal for some reason. When Uranus saw the Jovian Paladin, she saw red and attacked him with a World Shaking. Jovian Paladin dodged the attack, stole the heart crystal from Neptune, and then said "You two need to cool off." Jovian Paladin then launched a 'Europa Enhancing Eruption' at the two dazed outer scouts. The ball of energy hit the two Scouts and sent them flying off into the sky ala Team Rocket.

Sailor Mars then immediately started digging into Jovian Paladin demanding to know why he was daring to attack scouts. He had, in a rather amusing tone to Usagi, said, "What do you mean how dare I attack them? They attacked me first! Besides, I only used a low power Europa Enhancing Eruption. They should be landing in Tokyo bay any second now and you can't deny that they need to cool off." Usagi had to admit to herself, that she had almost busted out laughing right then and there the scene was so funny.

Usagi got out of her thoughts when she saw that Ami was getting up. Each of them took turns getting ready of the day in the bathroom down the hall before they headed downstairs for breakfast. When the girls got downstairs, they found Shingo talking about the latest Sailor Scout news to the parents, "-And the Scouts have this new guy who helps them out. I have heard a rumor going around that he's Sailor Moon's new boyfriend. If he is Sailor Moon's boyfriend, then he is definitely an upgrade over the penguin." Ami turned her head just in time to catch a faint embarrassed blush on Usagi's face.

Usagi managed to cover up her blush and said walking into the room, "And just who are you talking about squirt?" At this Shingo shot a glare at Usagi, who was sitting down, and replied, "I was talking about the Jovian Paladin sis; don't you keep up on the latest news in town? A lot of the guys at my school are ecstatic that he's shown up. It's about time that a decent male hero showed up in town. That Tuxedo guy was just an embarrassment to the male gender with his pansy cheerleader routine."

At this Ikuko shot Shingo a glare and said, "Shingo! You know that I don't tolerate that kind of language in my house. Still, it is go to see that Sailor Moon and her friends have someone there to help them. Those poor girls just have too much ridding on them having to defend this city from all these monsters that show up. It's such a shame that there isn't anyone else to help them." Usagi, and to a lesser extent Ami, was quite glad to hear that Mrs. Tuskino worried about the scouts and wished that the scouts didn't have to do the things they did.

Usagi, wanting to find out what Shingo was thinking about the scout's newest ally, said between bites, "So Shrimp what's your take on the Jovian Paladin and his relationship to the scouts?" Shingo ignored the shot Usagi had taken at him and said, "I actually like him because he actually fights the various monsters like I said before. I think that he's a brother or cousin to Sailor Jupiter. I mean, his uniform has similar colors to her outfit and all of his attacks plus his name are connected to the Planet Jupiter. It makes more sense that he's a relative of Jupiter instead of her boyfriend like one of my classmates was saying. I mean, he's always been said to be far more protective of Moon than any other scout."

After that, the discussion changed to other topics and the girls focused on eating their breakfast. Usagi and Ami then said goodbye to everyone at the table before they headed out to school. At the, by now customary, meeting spot Usagi was pleasantly surprised to see Ryoga accompanying Ranma. As the four of them were walking down the sidewalks, duel file with Ranma and Usagi in the lead, Usagi inquired if Ryoga was going to start coming to school with them. At this Ranma replied that Ryoga was going to join now that he could find his way to the school.

* * *

Setsuna Meioh was sitting in her councilor's office trying to decide on a course of action. The Time Gates would clear up within two days provided that a temporal storm didn't suddenly develop. However Setsuna was afraid that, by the time she could actually use the Time Gates to find out all the facts on the situation, the situation would have grown completely out of control.

Not only was the group behind this latest round of daemon attacks getting more aggressive, but the scouts weren't unified! The fact that Uranus had launched an attack on the Jovian Paladin, whose name she had to learn from her students, when he had appeared to regain that heart crystal showed how bad the situation was getting. Fishing Uranus and Neptune out of Tokyo bay was so not how she had wanted to spend that evening.

Thinking over the situation, Setsuna could only come to one course of action. She would have to reveal herself to the princess. The only real place that Setsuna could figure for her to reveal herself to the princess would be here at school. She could have the school secretary call her up to visit. Setsuna even had a valid excuse, the attempted robbery and threat of rape from a few days ago. All anyone would think was that she, as the school councilor, was checking up on a student who had been through a potentially traumatic experience.

Setsuna phoned the school secretary's desk and had her request that Usagi come to the school councilor's office. Setsuna then busied herself with taking care of some paperwork while she waited for Usagi to come to her office. A few minutes latter, Setsuna heard a slightly nervous smile knocking on her door. Setsuna smiled and said in a calm voice, "Please come inside." On seeing Usagi nervously walk into her office Setsuna said in a comforting tone, "Sit down Usagi what we say here is just between the two of us. After all, I'm only here to help you."

Once Usagi was sitting down comfortably Setsuna started the questions needed for her official report. About fifteen minutes down the road Setsuna got the real reason for the visit and said, "How is this event affecting your abilities as Sailor Moon?" To Setsuna's pleasure Usagi immediately said without her body giving away her fear at possibly being discovered, "I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about Ms Meioh." Setsuna got up at this point and said, "I think that you do princess, Pluto Crystal Power, Make-Up!" Once the transformation was done, Setsuna sat down in her seat like nothing happened.

Usagi was gapping at the sight of her school counselor now in a sailor scout uniform calmly sitting down in front of her. When Usagi found her voice she stuttered out, "Y-you mean to tell me that you're a Sailor Scout?" At this Setsuna nodded before speaking, "That is correct princess. I would have helped you battle against the Dark Kingdom and the Black Moon Clan, but I needed to be by the Time Gates in order to protect them from our enemies possibly trying to use them."

At this Usagi nodded her head, it made sense that Setsuna hadn't been there before as she would have been busy defending the Time Gates. But Usagi had to wonder why Setsuna was revealing herself now and so asked. Setsuna responded by saying, "The reason why I'm appearing to you now is that this enemy is different than the others. They don't want to rule Earth as far as I can tell. Rather from what I've been able to find out about their goals they want to destroy Earth, or at least twist it into something that can't be recognized as Earth. They also either have no knowledge of the Time Gates or they don't see it as useful to their plans."

"To be honest Usagi, I am of greater use under your direct command fighting on Earth then I would be in protecting the Time Gates and using them to gather information." At this last remake Usagi said, "Uh Setsuna? What do you mean by using the Time Gates to gather information?" Setsuna was secretly pleased that Usagi was more thoughtful and aware then she had shown in the past.

"What I mean Usagi is that I can use the Time Gates to see the most probable major events in the upcoming few days. Now I can in no way 'read the future', but I can view the most probable events to happen in the next few days. Also, I can view the history of a person or a place accurately up until a few seconds to the present. However, thanks to all the time travel done by the Black Moon Clan from that particular possible future, the Time Gates are currently useless for gathering information. Can you tell me any important information as of your return from the future timeline of 'Crystal Tokyo', specifically revolving around your fights with the Daemons?"

Setsuna listened quietly and intently as Usagi told her tale to Setsuna. Setsuna was honestly surprised to find out that 'Little Nefy' had been reincarnated and that it was his reincarnation who was helping the Scouts. Setsuna was glad that a fighter of her 'little brother's' caliber had joined up with the inners. Usagi ended her recap with a single question, "What's with the other Outers and what are they after?"

Setsuna rubbed her temples and said, "Their currently looking for the talismans, three items of incredible power that we cannot allow to fall under the control of the group behind the daemons. I have one talisman with me and the other two are 'off the grid' so to speak. They know that the talismans were hidden within the Heart Crystals of two individuals. What I don't understand is why their endangering civilians by delaying the return of the civilians' Heart Crystals. I gave them a gemstone that will glow and point to a person holding a talisman within their Heart Crystals. Once you know who carry the talismans princes, you would only need to send a small spark of energy from the Silver Imperial Crystal to call the talismans from the Crystal without any damage to the barer whatsoever."

"To be honest Usagi, Uranus and Neptune are starting to really annoy me with Uranus being the biggest pain in my anus. They mean well don't get me wrong, but it seems like I'm more of their watcher than their teammate. We all need to work together in order to protect this world from the group attacking it and they insist on going it alone. I'm worried that when we find Saturn that one or both of them will try to kill Saturn due to Saturn being hailed as 'The Messiah of Death and Rebirth'."

Setsuna shook her head and said, "Let's get on to more constructive topics shall we? If you're wondering what power it was that, I believe you said their names were Ranma Saotome and Ryoga Hibiki, used in their fight the other day I can tell you. The energy is called 'Chi' and is something that all people naturally produce. In the time of the Silver Millennium it was quite common for the warriors of the Earth Kingdom to be able to manipulate Chi to form attacks and/or to greatly strengthen their bodies. I must admit that I was surprised when I was at the park to see that they were able to manipulate Chi as I thought the secrets had been lost."

Setsuna then got a deadly serious look in her eyes as she said, "Usagi, I want you to honestly consider revealing the identities of the Sailor Scouts to these boys. However, only do this if you trust them with you life. To be frank, all of the Scouts and you as well need training in your powers. Training that these boys can teach you, but they would need to know about your Scout powers in order to help train you. Also, you should talk to Nephelite's reincarnation and try to get his identity. Even if he requires that you alone know it, then at least you can reach him at any time. In the coming days I fear we will need all the help we can get to beat this coming evil."

* * *

It was the end of the school day and Usagi was walking out the door when she saw Ranma standing by a tree. Usagi then ran up to Ranma and smiled cheerfully asking him if they could walk through the park on their way home today. Ranma just shrugged his shoulders, agreed to her request, and started following her home. Ami was not heading over to the Tuskino household just yet because she had wanted to visit the library. Ami ended up walking next to Ryoga because he was going to the library was well.

Minako saw this and screamed to the heavens, "THAT'S TWO HUNKS NOW THAT HAVE PASSED ME UP!" Minako then pulled out a fancy Texas Instrument Calculator and started pressing buttons on it while talking to herself, "Let's see, take the total number of men in the world, factor in the percentage that are single, divide that by the number of men who are gay to the 4th power of the number of hot men…" Matoko turned to Rei and said, "She can do all of that to figure out her chances of getting a date, but she can't figure out how to work with binomials?" Rei just sighed and said, "I'm a fortune teller, not a psychic."

Meanwhile, Ranma and Usagi were calmly walking back towards there homes. If one could read their minds they would have seen that both were on the same track of thought. "Should I reveal my identity as Sailor Moon/Jovian Paladin to Jovian Paladin/Sailor Moon? What if he/she is someone I don't like? What about the other Scouts? Could I live with myself if the other Scouts don't like what I've done/who I am?"

Ranma and Usagi both broke out of their thoughts when they heard crying coming from behind a bush in the park. The two turned to each other and looked into each other's eyes. They could both see that they didn't want to leave whoever it was that was crying without at least trying to help. They both nodded their heads at the same time, Usagi with a sweet smile on her face and Ranma with a grin on his face. They turned and walked into the park to head towards the bush.

Once they could see past the bush, Ranma and Usagi saw a black haired girl kneeling on the ground crying her eyes out. She was about 13 or 14 years old and had on a black dress. Usagi's heart started to break at the sight of the girl crying and Ranma was uncomfortable as he hated to see girls cry. Usagi quietly walked over to stand in front of the crying girl. Ranma follow her but stood a few feet behind Usagi and was leaning against the trunk of a tree.

Usagi got down on her knees and softly whispered, "Who are you and why are you crying?" The girl's crying seemed to become interrupted as she realized that someone was talking to her. The girl raised her head a bit and found herself looking into Usagi's blue eyes with her violet ones. Fighting back the tears the girl said, "My name's Hotaru Tomoe. I'm crying because no one wants to be my friend as they think that I'm too strange."

This sad fact went like a knife straight to Usagi's heart. If there was one pain of the heart that Usagi didn't like to hear about it was the pain of loneliness. Usagi was a naturally caring girl that could rather easily make friends, so the idea of someone being left alone was wrong to her. Usagi liked to take care of this problem by become said person's friend.

While looking straight into Hotaru's eyes Usagi said, "Your not alone now, I'll be your friend." Ranma, who had been letting Usagi work her magic, then leaned forward from his spot by the tree and said, "I'll be your friend as well Hotaru." Ranma, while not the most sensitive of men, was very familiar with the pain of loneliness and didn't want another to suffer it if he could help them.

Hotaru looked back and forth between Usagi and Ranma, staring into their eyes to try and see any deception. All she saw was compassion and worry in Usagi's eyes and concern in Ranma's eyes. Her heart leapt at the fact that two people were willing to offer her friendship. But then a voice in the back of her mind whispered that they would never accept her if they knew about her strange ability. With pain in her voice Hotaru said, "You don't want to be my friend. No one does after they see my ability."

At this Ranma raised his eyebrow and said, "Oh? And what ability would that be little girl because I've see a lot of weird things." Hotaru looked down and quietly, although Ranma and Usagi could still hear her, mumbled out "I can heal people by just touching them." Ranma and Usagi both blinked their eyes before Ranma said, "You can heal people just by touching them and the people are afraid of you for that? What kinds of brain dead fools live by your house?! Having the ability to heal injuries like that is something I would want to have." Usagi nodded her head and said, "Your gift is something to be respected not feared."

Hotaru just couldn't believe her ears at what she was hearing the two people in front of her say. They thought that her ability was to be respected? The boy actually wanted to be able to do what she could? Hotaru just sat there for a second while her mind tried to handle this shocking information. Soon Hotaru gave a faint smile before she tackled Usagi in as strong of a hug as she could.

Usagi looked up at Ranma who had moved into her field of view. Usagi could see the smile in Ranma's eye as he gazed down at her holding, the now crying in happiness, Hotaru. Usagi felt her cheeks flush a bit as she looked onto her friend as he stood there with his arms across his chest softly looking at her. Right then and there Usagi knew that things were looking up for her. She may have a lot of trouble from the source of the daemons and from the two maverick scouts, but Usagi knew in her heart that everything would eventually be alright.

Author's Notes: So now the Scouts have met with Hotaru. I hope you like Mouse's pure Chi attack. Please note that the only things that I'm borrowing from Naruto are: the Shadow Clone technique, the twin rising dragon technique (Tenten's final attack in the Chunin exams), and the Shadow Clone Kunai technique. In the next chapter, The Death Busters change their plans and The Scouts need some back up. Will Ranma be able to find a way to deliver the much needed help? And will Ranma's secret identity be able to remain a secret? Find out next time with the next Chapter of Prince of the Planets!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or Sailor Moon. Now that that's done, Welcome to another chapter of Prince of the Planets. Let's get on with the story.

Ranma and Usagi were walking home after spending an hour playing with Hotaru. Ranma had found that he had enjoyed the time he and Usagi had spent with the little girl even thought Hotaru was rather frail. Still, that smile that Hotaru gave him and Usagi when Usagi promised that they would visit Hotaru soon made Ranma's day. As the duo was walking down the streets Usagi turned to Ranma and said while smiling, "Thanks, for helping me cheer Hotaru up, Ranma." Ranma just shrugged his shoulders and said, "No one deserves to be alone Usagi, trust me."

At that moment Ranma was hit by a stray water balloon causing his curse to activate. Usagi looked at the pouting red head and had to keep from commenting how cute Ranma looked. Although the curse was strange, Usagi didn't let that negatively affect how she thought about Ranma. Usagi also figured that with the kind of outfit she transformed into to fight evil that she had no room to call Ranma weird on that account. Besides, Ranma was a great boy to be around and she enjoyed spending time with the pigtailed boy- err girl.

It was when she was walking the final stretch home by herself that a thought came to Usagi's mind. Ever since that meeting in the park, Usagi hadn't missed Mamoru at all. Usagi actually stopped walking when she realized that fact. When Mamoru had been brainwashed by the Dark Kingdom, she had spent hours each day worrying about him. However, except for mentioning the breakup to those who didn't know about it, Mamoru hadn't really entered her thoughts at all.

Usagi supposed that it was for the best; Mamoru didn't want her and her pinning for him would be a futile waste of energy. Just because they had gotten together in a timeline did not mean that they were 'destined' to always be together. There were plenty of guys out there that she could date when she decided to go find a boyfriend. Usagi thought that maybe she could consider the Jovian Paladin as a potential date, if he was single and she liked the 'real' person under the uniform. Usagi wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, especially when it dealt with her heart.

* * *

Down in the underground lair in the Tomoe estates, Professor Tomoe was angrily looking at Kaolinite and the Witches 5. The demonically possessed professor spoke with his displeasure known to all. "Find the three talismans so that Mistress 9 can have enough energy to summon our Master Pharaoh 90 from the Tau Ceti system to Earth. That's all I requested of you six. It is such a simple task, and yet I've given you daemon egg after daemon egg without so much as a weak Heart Crystal to offer Mistress 9 so that her strength might grow."

"Kaolinite, you are in charge of the witches 5 and responsible for how they act and their achievements. Did you not look closer at Eudial's failures or did you just chalk them up to Eudial being incompetent? And Eudial, why have you been using the same tried and useless tactics again and again to get the talismans? Surely a teacher in the Philosophy department and a computer specialist such as you would have the mental capacity to develop a better attack plan. I expect you to have a better plan of attack with this daemon egg I'm intrusting you with then you have before." With that, Professor Tomoe handed Eudial a daemon egg before curtly dismissing Kaolinite and the Witches 5.

Eudial took the daemon egg and quickly left her fellow witches in order to make it to her room at the infinity academy. Sitting down at her computer Eudial started to figure out where the next potential talisman holder would be located at. It took her a few minutes, but Eudial managed to locate a potential holder. She then pulled up the profile of her target and started reading it out loud. "Mister Kankuro Todo, co-founder and vice president of Maebashi manqué manufacturing company. Noted for his concern for factory worker safety and healthy working conditions, he has had no major scandals on public record. He will be in Tokyo tonight at a banquet at the penthouse of the Tokyo Hilton hotel for the society on worker friendly managers."

Eudial sat back in her seat trying to come up with a plan and talking to herself about it. "Okay, I know that the Sailor Scouts and that annoying Paladin will show up. Those other two scouts that always try and steal the heart crystal away from me probably won't be too far behind either. I can't just go after Mister Todo by myself as security will most likely be too tight. If I use a daemon to soften up my target, all my enemies will show up and I'll get chewed out again."

"Unless, now think about this Eudial old girl. Mister Todo will be at the penthouse which is at the top of the hotel. If I set the daemon to cause a distraction on the first floor, I could sneak up to the Penthouse I can get Mister Todo's heart crystal while the scouts are taking care of the daemon downstairs. I would have to disguise myself in order to escape, but I'll be able to just walk right past those pests while their trying to find the heart crystal. Now I just need to get out my little black dress."

* * *

At the Saotome home, Nodoka, Ranma, and Ryoga were getting ready for dinner. After the before meal blessing, Nodoka started serving dinner and talking to the two boys. "How was your trip to the library Ryoga?" Ryoga looked up from his home cooked meal and said, "It was very good Mrs. Sao-, I mean Auntie Nodoka. I was able to catch up on some of the subjects I was missing do to my former family curse." Ranma chimed in at this point and said, "I'm sure that Ami was a big help in this for you Ryoga." Ryoga got a little annoyed at Ranma and was also starting to blush. Nodoka wasn't helping matters at all when she said. "Oh, who's this girl you meet Ryoga?"

Ryoga was by now quite embarrassed. Still, a part of his mind was happy that this was going on because it was like he was part of a family. Deciding to answer Nodoka's question and get back at Ranma, Ryoga replied, "She's this girl that was walking with Usagi when Ranma lead us to where Usagi was this morning." Ranma quickly fired off a glare towards Ryoga before Nodoka said, "It's great to hear that you want to spend time with Usagi Ranma." Ranma half opened his mouth in a nervous smile before saying, "It's not like that mom. Usagi and my way to school meet up a fourth of the way there. It was just by coincidence that Usagi and her friend were walking to school and got there at that particular point when we did."

Nodoka just smiled and said, "Even if it's just a coincidence Ranma, I'm glad that you were spending time with Usagi. Usagi's mother is one of my oldest friends, and I know it puts my friend at ease that Usagi has someone like you walking with her. To be honest, I'm glad as well that Usagi has you there if something like that night after dinner was to ever happen again." Ranma just scratched the back of his head at his mother's praise. He hadn't even thought about something like that because he was happy to spend time with Usagi. But now that it was brought to his attention, Ranma didn't want Usagi in such a situation even more than if she just a regular girl.

Dinner was quiet after that last comment by Nodoka. She was happy to just be having dinner with friends and family after so many years that Ranma & Genma had been absent. Ryoga was happy to be eating dinner with friends. In all his years, Ryoga had only one or two months where he was able to share a meal with both of his parents present. He had maybe 3 or 4 months onto the time with both parents where he was able to share a meal with his parents individually. Thus to the formerly lost boy, being able to enjoy a meal with friends that were starting to consider him family was something special.

While Ranma was honestly enjoying his mother's cooking and the presence of the other people at the table, Ranma's mind was very busy. The topic on Ranma's brain happened to be Usagi and Sailor Moon. Ranma didn't want to admit it to his mother or even to himself, but the two girls were becoming like sirens in his mind. Just the thought of the two were starting to threaten his sanity. Ranma didn't know what it was that he was feeling when he thought of them, but he knew that they just had to be the same girl. If they were actually two different people, Ranma didn't know how he would be able to handle it.

Ranma's inner debate over Sailor Moon, Usagi Tsukino, and the connection between the two continued well after dinner had ended. While washing dinner dishes with Ryoga, Ranma decided that he would reveal his identity to at least Sailor Moon the next time the two of them met. Hopefully, Sailor Moon would reveal her identity and then end the debate in Ranma's mind. Just as Ranma had placed the last dish away, he felt the sense of wrongness that he got signaling that a monster attack was about to start. Ranma walked passed his mother and said as he was reaching the door. "I'm going to check on something mom, be back when I can."

Ryoga watched Ranma walk out the front door before he turned to face Nodoka. Ryoga noticed that Nodoka had a pained, and at the same time proud, expression on her face as she looked at where Ranma had been a few minutes ago. Ryoga then asked with concern in his voice. "What's going Aunty Nodoka?" Nodoka just smiled and said, "Nothing for you to worry about Ryoga." Ryoga thought about what Nodoka had said for a moment before he decided to follow her request.

* * *

Usagi in her Sailor Moon uniform was roof hopping as fast as she could with Ami right beside her as Sailor Mercury. The two girls had been at Ami's apartment taking care of the plants in the apartment when the Mercury computer sensed the output of a daemon being formed. As she ran as fast as she could, Usagi was silently thankful that her brilliant friend had been able to recalibrate and upgrade the sensors on the Mercury computer to be able to give them such an early warning.

One by one Sailors Mars, Jupiter, and Venus showed up on the rooftops and joined formation with Usagi at the lead. Just a few buildings before the Scouts reached the location of the new daemon; a familiar voice was heard calling out to them, "I hope this isn't a 'girls' night out on the town' because I think that I'll be joining you ladies." Usagi turned her head without breaking her stride to see the almost flying form of the Jovian Paladin rushing over to join them. Usagi just smiled and said, "We wouldn't mind the company Jovian Paladin." Subconsciously the Scouts changed into a 6 man formation and Ranma fell into formation.

The six teenaged defenders of Tokyo stopped on the edge of the roof facing the soaring Tokyo Hilton hotel. Their perches on the opposing roof allowed them to see the attacking daemon. The monster was a mix of steel and stone in the shape of a female gargoyle with a very large gun in its hand. Sailor Jupiter, after seeing the daemon fire a red beam from its 'gun' and destroy a car, mutter under her breath, "First we pound the Demona wanabe, then we tell Disney about the copyright violation."

Usagi and Ranma were about to jump down to stop the daemon when Ami shouted out from behind the mercury computer. "Something's up. No one down there has lost their heart Crystal." Rei turned to the brains of the operation and said, "Are you sure about that Sailor Mercury?" Ami nodded her head and said without doubt in her voice, "that is correct. The Mercury computer can scan to see if a person within 200 meters of it has lost their heart crystal. Also, it can now detect the residual energy from the Death Busters' heart Crystal extraction process within 800 meters. There is no sign of a lost heart crystal in the vicinity of the monster."

Realization as to what that meant hit Ranma like a ten ton truck, he whipped his head around and almost yelled out the answer, "This is a diversion! The target of the Death Busters is probably inside of that hotel about to be attacked." Ami nodded her head and said, "That would be a logical assumption given the evidence on hand." Ranma then turned to look Usagi in the face before saying, "Princess, might I suggest that you divide your forces to take out these separate threats. Where do you want me to attack?"

Usagi thought about the situation for a moment. Jovian Paladin's analysis made sense and was backed up by Ami, so Usagi wasn't going to doubt that this daemon wasn't a distraction. Jovian Paladin's suggestion of spitting up made sense, but Usagi needed to figure out who went where. Makoto's son could apparently sense the attacks and could track the Death Busters, so he should probably go in one group with Ami in the other. A reasonable, but slightly risky, division of her forces crossed Usagi's mind. Usagi then said with more confidence then she felt, "Scouts, I want you to defeat or at least contain the daemon. Jovian Paladin, you're with me in finding the Death Buster in the hotel. Once one group finishes their job, they will go help the others." The Scouts and Ranma nodded their heads to show that they understood their princess's plan.

* * *

Eudial smirked to herself as she watched the chaos unfold down below from her view point in an elevator with clear doors. It had been rather easy to get into the hotel due to the fact that there was no way for the hotel people to know that her story was false. But Eudial considered that she was lucky it was busy night tonight so all the employees were swamped. If you dress reasonably well but not extravagant and act confident, people tend to not question you. Eudial knew this from an old boyfriend who was a conman and had to agree that he was correct.

Eudial turned around to face away from the streets just as the elevator doors were about to open. Eudial calmly walked out of the elevator and down the hall. About midway to where her target was Eudial spotted a guard. The guard could possibly be a problem, but Eudial had a plan to get around him. Calmly Eudial opened her mouth and said, "Excuse me sir. So sorry to bother you, but you see, I had some transportation issues come up due to being delayed at a pervious function." The guard turned to face Eudial and said, "Who are you, this is an invitation only event." Eudial smiled and pulled out of her purse a practically perfect forgery of the invitation. "My name is Miss Eudial Ikari, from the board of trusties of the Rising Sun Higher Education Institute."

The guard looked a little puzzled and said, "Your invitation checks out so you can go in, but I've never hear of your organization before Miss." Eudial just smiled and said, "I would be surprised if you had heard of us. You see, we're a small organization that specializes in giving out tuition funds for promising but poor students on the understanding that they will pay back the money after they graduate." The guard nodded his head, she sounded like just the kind of upper-class bureaucrat that flocked to this fancy events. Eudial decided to end this and get rid of a possible threat to her escape by saying, "Thank you kind sir. However, as I was coming up the elevator, I noticed that there seems to be a riot going on outside." The guard just nodded his head and said, "Don't worry miss, we'll take care of it."

Eudial walked down the rest of the hall and opened the doors. The opened doors revealed that the banquet was in full swing with everyone in there busy on their meals. The head table was located just in front of a large French window that covered an entire wall. Eudial slowly made her way towards the head table were Kankuro Todo was having a steak dinner. Seeing Eudial approach, Kankuro looked up from his meal and said, "Good evening miss." Eudial then smirked and said, "Yes, it is a pleasant evening. I'll be taking that heart crystal of yours now!" With that Eudial shot at Kankuro with her collecting gun.

All the guests looked on in horror as a heart crystal came out of Kankuro's chest. Eudial had a gleam of triumph on her face as she grabbed the crystal and pocketed it in her dress. Just as Eudial was about to break off in maniacal laughter and run, A loud crash was heard coming from the French windows. Eudial looked on in shock and rage as she saw Sailor Moon and Jovian Paladin come crashing through the windows.

Usagi landed on her feet and said "This is a peaceful gathering, not meant for the likes of you." As if they had rehearsed their lines beforehand (actually they had, but that was only in the Silver Millennium for a parody play on the Scouts) Ranma then said, "There is a strict 'No Evil Bimbos' policy, you'll have to leave or be escorted out with extreme prejudice." Then in synchronization Ranma and Usagi shouted out, "Or in the name of Jupiter/The Moon we'll punish you!" In the back of Ranma's mind he ranted, "Why the hell did I just say that? It sounds pathetic as a battle cry. Next time, skip the pre-battle banter and go strait to the pounding part."

Eudial snarled and said, "I've already gotten the prize you brats. But here's a booby prize: Eudial flame thrower!" With that, Eudial pulled out her super powered wrist flamethrower and launched it at the two superheroes. Ranma immediately saw that the people at the head table were endangered by Eudial attack and moved to correct the problem. With a loud shout Ranma called out, "Callisto celestial shield!" This formed his defensive magical ability just in front of the head table protecting the scared people around the table.

Ranma, thanks to the well trained battle computer he called a brain, quickly analyzed the situation that he and Sailor Moon were in. Ranma turned to face Usagi and called out, "Princess, might I suggest that you move around to cut off the witch's line of retreat and commence with plan 'get the guards four'?" Suddenly Usagi remembered the plan that Jovian Paladin mentioned. It was a trick the two of them had once used to get rid of some pesky palace guards and Usagi could see how to adapt it to their current situation. Usagi nodded her head and ran to commence the plan as well as to cover the exit and helping the other people in the hall escape.

Eudial saw Usagi circling around behind her and wondered what Sailor Moon was up too. Suddenly realization on what her two opponents were planning dawned on her. Eudial growled as she mentally screamed, "Their not going to flank me and hit me from behind!" Eudial turned her Flamethrower away from the head table and pointed it at Sailor Moon. During the commotion, a wine bottle had fallen on the floor of the room. Sadly, Usagi was paying more attention to Eudial then the floor in front of her causing Usagi to trip over the wine bottle.

Ranma felt his Callisto celestial shield no longer being attacked and saw what Eudial was trying to do. A by now familiar rage ran through Ranma and he shot out like a dart towards Eudial. His armored leg lashed out at Eudial's head in a round-kick fashion. A sickening snap was heard as Eudial, who had never practiced martial arts, had her neck snapped from Ranma's kick. Eudial fell on the floor unable to move and died a few minutes latter due to snapped bones blocking her airways.

As the rage from the attack on Usagi left him, Ranma looked on in shock at what he had done. It was the first time that Ranma had ever taken a human life and it cut through him to the core. True, Ranma had destroyed his share of Daemons and he had killed the Orochi, but those were different. They were threatening human lives and had no free will or the ability to reason. The Orochi was just a powerful magical animal that operated solely on instinct, which was very different then Moon Cat advisors that he remembered as Prince Nephelite. The Daemon's were just artificial creatures created by the Death Busters and ran on a very simple programming. The dead witch in front of him was a human with free will, even if she had chosen such an evil path.

Usagi looked on at Ranma and saw the tears that were threatening to form in his eyes. Her heart ached at the thought that had she not fallen, this scene might not have happened. Usagi grabbed onto her courage and fortitude, allowing her to go over to Eudial's still warm body. Usagi knelt next to the body and began to search for the heart Crystal that Eudial had taken. Upon finding the crystal in Eudial's pocket, Usagi slowly walked over to Kankuro Todo's body and gently placed the crystal into the man's chest. Kankuro's friends watched on with joy as the man's face started to color up again.

Usagi walked over to Ranma and said, "I think that we should leave Jovian Paladin." Ranma nodded his head and said, "I agree princess." The two promptly made a discreet exit as the rest of the guests in the hall started to come out of the shock of the events that had just happened. One of Kankuro's oldest friends said when he saw Kankuro starting to wake up, "Thank god you're alright Kankuro." Kankuro turned to face his friend and said, "You know, I could have sworn I was in heaven. I thought I saw an avenging angel protecting you my friends as another angel led me back to you."

* * *

On the roof, Usagi and Ranma could see that the Scouts had just finished taking care of the monster that had caused so much commotion down below. Usagi flipped open her communicator and said, "Good work Scouts. We've taken care of the situation up here so go home. Meet together at the usual spot tomorrow, I'll tell you when at a latter date." Usagi turned around to see to her surprise and joy that Ranma had not pulled a disappearing act on her once again.

Usagi saw the look of pain on Ranma's face and said in a soft voice while her hand brushed against Ranma's jaw, "Look, I know what you're going through. Since I became a scout about a year ago, I've had to take the lives of three people. The first was Queen Beryl, but I tried to deny it by saying that she was just possessed by Metallia. The next two were Prince Diamond and Death Phantom, both of whom were from a then possible future. I'm ashamed to admit that on both of them I killed them with rage in my heart hopping that they would die. The pain never goes away Jovan Paladin, but time allows you to be able to handle it."

Ranma nodded his head silently. Usagi's words put him more at ease, and yet pained him so much. It made it easier for him to accept his actions as necessary and allowed him to see that there was hope for him. However, it pained him to know that the princess had to soil her hands with such a thing as taking a human life. Ranma would much rather take this particular burden onto his shoulders alone than share it with the princess, even thought sharing the burden would be easier for him to handle. Ranma then said, "Thank you princess, I hope our next meeting will not be so troublesome."

Ranma would have turned to leave, but Usagi had a firm grip on his arm. Usagi turned to look at Ranma and said, "Prince Nephelite, don't go. We were the best of friends in the Silver Millennium; can't you please just allow me to know who you are in this life? I won't tell anyone else who you are, although your previous mother Sailor Jupiter really wants to meet you." Ranma then remembered what he had originally had hopped to do before tonight's adventure started. Ranma then nodded his head and said, "If you would please do the same Princess."

Usagi's face turn a slight shade of pink due to how his addressing her like that made her feel. Usagi smiled and said, "We'll de-transform right now, facing each other so that we'll see who the other is at the same time." Ranma gave a slight nod with his head and said, "On the count of three, 1, 2, 3!" with that both of them were covered in light as their uniforms disappeared to be almost instantly replaced by their civilian clothing.

Usagi found herself looking straight into Ranma's eyes now seeing her new friend instead of his previous form. Usagi found herself slowly becoming lost in Ranma's eyes, not knowing that he was doing the same with hers. Usagi slowly moved closer to Ranma, before she closed her eyes and kissed Ranma on the lips. Any shock at this action on Ranma's part vanished as he wrapped his arms around Usagi and responded to the kiss.

Author's notes: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter of Prince of the Planets. We've finally gotten to the Ranma/Usagi romantic part that we've all been waiting for. I've tried a new section dividing method to try and help story flow. Comments on this method and any others are well appreciated. Remember, Reviews (especially ones that explain more) are a writer's best friend -HistorianoftheKais


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: you know the drill; I own nothing but the unrecognizable parts of this story. Why do we even bother with these disclaimers when we all know that the things on this site are FANFICTION! Anyway, welcome to another chapter of Prince of the Planets I hope you enjoy!

It was the day after Eudial's death and Ranma and Usagi were walking home from school. They were alone due to the fact that Ryoga and Ami had again headed off to the library. Ranma, unlike his usual way of doing things, was currently walking beside Usagi on the sidewalk. Ranma was shooting glances at Usagi and hoping that she didn't notice his glances. Although they had that one kiss yesterday, Ranma wasn't sure of were the two of them were in relation to each other. Being honest with himself Ranma knew exactly what he wanted: Usagi. Ranma knew that he wanted Usagi as his girlfriend and his heart would not accept any other girl but her. Still due to uncertainty and bad experiences, Ranma was unable to act on his feelings.

Usagi had caught Ranma looking at her and, not being nearly so romantically challenged as Ranma, knew that Ranma wanted her. Inside her mind Usagi thought about the situation, "Well it seems that Ranma wants more than just that teaser from last night. I guess Auntie Nodoka was right when she said that most boys can't tell when a girl is genuinely interested in them. That is, unless the girl gives the guy no other option but her or to retreat." Usagi had to apply a lot of willpower not to go hopping in the air like her namesake knowing that Ranma wanted her. After all, it's not every day of the year that a magical girl can get a handsome and useful young man interested in her that said girl can get along with and like. Ranma ever so nicely filled out all the requirements on the list with flying colors, and a few that Usagi had penciled in.

Inside of Usagi, a piece of her personality that had made the palace guards who knew Princess Serenity want to transfer over to the Pluto Prison yards started to rear its head. Back in the Silver Millennium, a bored Princess Serenity was a dangerous Princess Serenity. This was because Princess Serenity loved to alleviate boredom by pulling pranks and playing tricks; Nephelite just multiplied the trouble once he could walk. Usagi turned to face Ranma and gave him a kiss full on the mouth. Ranma was once again surprised by Usagi's actions, but unlike last time he immediately responded to Usagi's advances.

After a minute after kissing Ranma, Usagi started to get bolder and used her tongue as well. Only a few seconds after Usagi started, she pulled back and whispered into Ranma's ear. "That was only the first course love, the buffet is open 24/7" With that, Usagi winked at Ranma before starting to walk in front of him with a slight swing to her hips. Ranma just stood there on the sidewalk in shock, only his eyes moving that that was to watch Usagi's rear. After Usagi was about 15 feet away from Ranma, she turned around and said with a smile and her hands on her lap. "Come on Ranma, we are going over to your house to study for that test tomorrow, remember?" Ranma then shook his head, smiled, and jogged over to where Usagi was waiting for him. The two them took the other's hand into theirs as they walked the rest of the way to the Saotome household, sealing the pact of companionship that had grown between the two.

* * *

Ryoga Hibiki was one very happy little ham. Thanks to Ranma's little trick of heating up the immediate air around yourself, Ryoga had managed to avoid turning into a pig 15 times this week. Sure, both he and Ranma needed to see or be told in advance that cold water was heading their way in order to have the time to get the technique ready. But fortunately Ryoga (and Ranma) had managed to avoid transforming into their curse forms at school. This fact, plus the fact that the Hibiki family curse was now a blessing, had allowed Ryoga to reach what he considered to be a karmic reward: walking alone with Ami Mizuno.

Over the past few days of staying with the Saotomes Ryoga had been able to get to know the blue haired genius. The quiet Ami had unknowing been helping Ryoga to mend his shattered heart by just being a friend. Although Ryoga had been enraged at Akane's behavior, the fact that the girl that Ryoga thought he had loved didn't really exist had be a serious blow to Ryoga. While he wasn't in love with Ami, Ryoga had in inkling in the back of his mind that he was starting to develop a crush on the girl. Still, mostly when Ryoga thought about the situation he laughed at the fact that he only had met Ami do to being friendly with Ranma. At least one of the gods up in the sky must be laughing at him and the situation.

Ami herself was quite pleased to be able to spend time with Ryoga. The ruggedly handsome young man was trying so hard to catch up to the rest of the class. She didn't know the full story, but from what Ryoga had told her it seemed to Ami that Ryoga wasn't able to get to school as much as he desired. It had genuinely surprised Ami when she spotted Ryoga heading to the library the other day; especially when she saw him checking out books that contained what they had learned last year. When Ami had on a whim decided to check up on him an hour latter, she had been saddened to see Ryoga struggling to learn part of last year's work and not even touching that day's assignment.

The sight of Ryoga struggling to learn, plus the fact that she knew he was a rather kind boy, had led her to offer him some help in learning the material. Their tutoring session went very well for the both of them. Ryoga was able to learn much faster then he had been and Ami was able to teach a person who paid strict attention (unlike others) to what she was trying to teach. The next day when Ryoga had again gone to the library to learn, Ami just decided to help him from the get go and they had just continued studying together.

Their peaceful walk back to the Saotome household, where the Saotome & Tsukino families were going to be having dinner and thus by extension Ryoga and Ami, was suddenly interrupted. Ryoga heard the roar of a loud beast and looked up to see a car come flying at him and Ami. Ryoga positioned himself so that his body would shield Ami before stretching out his finger and yelling, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ami watched on in shock as shrapnel from the car flew past her and she heard chunks of metal hit Ryoga. Ami was starting to cry believing that Ryoga had died in order to protect her life when Ryoga turned around and smiled at her.

"H-how?" was all the Ami could dumbly stutter out looking at Ryoga. Except for his torn shirt, which a small part in the back of Ami's mind was glad to have removed, Ryoga was completely uninjured. Ryoga just smiled and said, "Heavy duty training; just stay here while I take care of the situation." Ami's mind was so shocked that she just registered 'Stay…here'. Ryoga looked around the area trying to find what had thrown the car. Suddenly Ryoga spotted the creature that threw the car in their direction and he let out a groan. "A transformer's reject attacking Tokyo; I thought we had filled up the weirdness quota until next Tuesday!"

The monster of the week really did look like a transformer; to be more specific, like a transformer from the live movie Transformers. Ryoga immediately switched his mind over to Battle Mode XP. While not as great as Ranma's Battle Mode Vista Ultimate, Ryoga was still a very good tactician when it came to fighting. Within his mind Ryoga looked over his analysis of the fight and didn't like what he saw. "That thing is strong no doubt about it and this battle does not look good. The Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken should be able to destroy that thing as it's not alive, but I'll have to super-charge my attack in order to do that. I can't teleport with a super charged Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken, and if I move more that three or four feet after I've charged I will lose most of the energy. Why the hell am I worrying about that now when Ami's in danger?"

Ryoga grabbed Ami and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, I'm get you to a safe place." With that, a soft faded purple glow covered Ryoga and Ami before they vanished from the street. The two teens reappeared on the roof of a medium sized building half a block away. Ryoga just looked into the shocked eyes of Ami and said, "Just stay here Ami while I go take care of that monster." Ryoga then straightened up and was covered in that same purple glow before leaving Ami alone on the roof. Ami sat on the roof for a few seconds trying to process what had just happened to her. Suddenly the fact that Ryoga was going off to fight that daemon hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh my god, Ryoga's going to need help!" With that, Ami transformed into Sailor Mercury and headed off to save Ryoga. However, in the shock and excitement of it all, Ami forgot to notify the other Scouts via communicator.

Ryoga reappeared on the street only a few feet from where he and Ami had previously been. Right at the moment, Ryoga realized that he had no real plan of action on how to deal with the monster in front of him. He then bared his fangs and growled out, "Stupid Ryoga, Ranma's the one who goes into things without a plan not you!" When Ryoga considered his options he had to admit that this battle was stacked against him. Ryoga was a power fighter and normally that worked well for him. However in this instance he was going up against a far stronger power fighter and Ryoga didn't have enough speed or techniques to negate that advantage.

Suddenly Ryoga heard a voice to his left call out, "Hey Ryoga, why isn't Ranma here at the center of the chaos like he usually is?" Ryoga turned his head to see Mousse standing a few feet to his left. Both martial artists locked eyes for a second. Then, as if they had planed for such a situation beforehand, they grinned. Mousse ran out in front of the monster and, as he did that, he created three shadow clones of himself. The four Mousses then ran around daemon until they formed an X. In perfect symmetry Mousse and his clones pulled out a thick steel chain and lassoed it onto the daemon's arms and neck.

The Mousse that was holding the daemon's right arm in place turned his head to Ryoga and yelled, "Well what are you waiting for! I can't hold this thing's still forever so stop showboating and get the job done!" Ryoga ignored Mousse's little pot shot and ran till he was a foot in front of the monster. Only a few seconds later, Ryoga's right fist was crackling with pure Chi showing that the technique was super charged. Ryoga the pulled back his fist before sending it flying at the daemon with a cry of, "Shishi Bakusai Tenketsu Ken!" Everyone in the area was blinded by the explosion that accompanied Ryoga's new signature attack.

Ami had managed to arrive on the battlefield just as Ryoga unleashed his attack and was deathly afraid that Ryoga had died in the explosion. Her fears grew even worse when the smoke cleared to show Ryoga and Mousse lying on the ground. The medic in Ami pushed away the thought that Ryoga and someone else might be dead. Instead, Ami ran as fast as her magically enhanced legs would allow her towards Ryoga. As soon as Ami got to Ryoga's side, she whipped out the Mercury Computer in order to check on the two boy's life-signs. Immediately upon the Mercury Computer telling her that the two boys were alive, Ami let out a sigh of relief.

Just as Ami was about to turn to leave so that she could de-transform, she heard Ryoga walking up. Ryoga, using both his arms to lift himself up, tiredly turned his head to look at Ami. In a questioning voice Ryoga said, "Who are you?" Ami then calmly said, "My name is Sailor Mercury, one of the Sailor Scouts. I was coming to take care of the daemon problem as soon as I heard about it; imagine my surprise that an ordinary citizen had done my job for me." At this Ryoga just blushed and said, "Mousse and I are not your run of the mill citizens." At this Ami just nodded her head and said, "That is quite obvious, still it is good to know that there are others out their capable of fighting these creatures. If you don't mind, I must be leaving now." With that, Ami took off only to meet with Ryoga a few minutes later in her civilian form pretending that she didn't know a thing.

* * *

Setsuna was walking over to the Outers' household with a slight smile on her face. Thanks to the fact that Michiru was playing at a concert and Haruka was in a race; neither of Setsuna's 'teammates' had shown up. This was a good thing in Setsuna's opinion because she felt that, until the talismans had been found, the less contact her two compatriots hand with heart crystals the better. It wasn't that Michiru and Haruka didn't mean well, they were honestly trying to help defend the people of Earth. They just had a six pack without the plastic to hold the cans together whenever they were in their Sailor forms.

Setsuna shook her head trying to get off of such depressing thoughts. Since the time stream had finally calmed down, Setsuna had spent a good deal of last night reviewing the life of Ranma Saotome. On seeing the boy's harsh life Setsuna viewed Genma in the same category that she held the other currently awakened Outer Sailor Scouts; well meaning without a doubt, but completely lacking in common sense. However little she liked the man, Setsuna had early on decided not to hold a grudge for anything that Genma did to Ranma against the man because of the fact that Ranma still cared for his father.

That fact made Setsuna smile; Prince Nephelite always cried for his would be assassins and Setsuna loved the fact that both incarnations shared that general good will towards their attackers. Except for when someone attacked the Princess, then both Prince Nephelite and Ranma Saotome seemed accept no surrender from the offender. However, Ranma tended to be far more violent and aggressive in punishing the offenders of the princess then Nephelite ever was. His honorary big sister thought that the extra aggressiveness must have been absorbed by Ranma from the Neko-ken when he merged from the phantom personality of Prince Nephelite.

Quietly Setsuna mentally mulled over the romantic scene she had personally witnessed last night. "So it seems like Ranma and Usagi are falling in love with each other. I wonder if this means that technically Queen Serenity won the bet I had with her. After all, she did privately say to me that those two would get together by Nephelite's 17th birthday. I still remember back then that as soon as Serenity and Endymion's love affair became public knowledge I asked for my 30 denarii winnings. How childish I was to be upset when Serenity just smiled at me and said, 'Nephelite hasn't turned 17 yet; who said anything about my daughter having a love or two beforehand?' Still, how could the Queen know about this possibly happening?"

"Well that doesn't matter now, what matters is that Ranma and Usagi are together now. Looking back on how things have happened in this live, this pairing is far better then Usagi and Mamoru. Endymion may have been a good match for the princess but his reincarnation, while still a good person, just isn't suited for her. Without meaning to or wanting to, Mamoru would most likely stunt Usagi's growth as a leader. Ranma seems to be unconsciously helping her to grow to her full potential. As long as their happy together, I have no complaints. Besides with that curse of his, should the two of them get married, Usagi won't ever get bored!" That last thought almost caused Setsuna to burst out laughing.

Setsuna opened the front door and let herself into the Outers' home. Hearing Michiru and Haruka chatting away in the family room, Setsuna decided to join them. Michiru and Haruka stopped talking for a second in order to turn their heads to see Setsuna walk into the room. The two lovers commenced talking again about their days while Setsuna sat down in a seat, put her feet on the ottoman next to the seat, and started to read The Pillow Book.

Setsuna had reached a very interesting, in her opinion, musing of Sei Shonagon when Michiru politely got her attention. Setsuna put her book down and turned to face the senshi of the sea. Michiru, who had a cup of tea in her hand, put the cup onto a small plate on the table in front of her and then spoke. "Setsuna, you seem to be in a very good mood this afternoon. Would you mind sharing what it is that has you so happy?" Haruka turned her head to look at Setsuna, eager to find out what could make Setsuna happy.

Setsuna gave off her infamous smile and said, "Sure you can ask but that doesn't mean I'll tell you." Haruka got annoyed and then almost yelled out, "Drop the Xellos act and just answer the stupid question Setsuna!" Michiru put her hand to her mouth to cover up the slight shock she had. Michiru knew that Haruka tended to be direct and to the point; with her of course silently supporting her lover and following Haruka's lead. However, Michiru thought that Setsuna shouldn't be talked to like that; their teammate did deserve a good deal of respect.

Setsuna shot Haruka a quick glare before she said, "Fine. Since you can't keep from butting into other people's affairs Haruka, I'll tell you. The fact of the matter is that the time stream has finally calmed down allowing me to use the Time Gates again. Also, the princess has chosen a new boyfriend. One who, in my opinion, is a far better one that her previous boyfriend." Michiru was intrigued; the princess would be their new queen so who her husband would be was important. Michiru then said, "Who is her new boyfriend Setsuna?"

At this Setsuna gave a small smile before answering. "The princess's new boyfriend is none other then the Jovian Paladin." At this news, Michiru's eyes narrowed and Haruka screamed out, "The Princess is dating that jackass!!!!" POW! Michiru looked to see Haruka suddenly with her head lodged into the wall and Setsuna pulling back a fist.

Michiru ran over to where Haruka was and pulled Haruka's head onto her lap. Haruka had swirls in her eyes and was muttering about the license plate of that semi. Michiru rapidly got up, forgetting that Haruka's head was in her lap, saying. "Don't worry love; I'll get you some ice!" Setsuna thought she heard Haruka say after Haruka's head hit the floor, "and don't forget the rubber ducky." However the Senshi of time just shook her head and convinced herself that she had misheard.

Setsuna noticed something come rolling out of Haruka's pocket. She then walked over to her unconscious roommate to pick up what looked like a dark green uncut diamond. Setsuna's eyes widen as she said out loud, "This is the gem I gave Michiru to help locate the talismans! I said that it would form a little red arrow within itself when a talisman is near." She suddenly noticed that a red arrow was within the diamond and it was pointing towards Haruka. A tick suddenly formed on Setsuna's forehead as she thought about what that meant. "Don't tell me that Haruka and Michiru have been the people we're looking for all along and they didn't even bother to look at this thing in the first place! What did I do to deserve this? Was I some sort of evil grand manipulator of time in another lifetime or something?"

* * *

Usagi was really happy with her study session with Ranma, and she had learned a good deal too. She and Ranma had, through unconscious mutual agreement, created a system where they would give the other a kiss as a reward for figuring out something that was causing one of them trouble. Both of them were responsible and the congratulation kiss didn't devolve into a make-out session. Besides, despite Usagi's earlier bravo, neither of them was really comfortable with anything more than a simple chaste kiss on the lips. Thanks to the very enticing incentives along with the friendly help, both of them were able to get through their homework faster and more complete then either could remember doing before.

As the two of them were putting their books away in their book bags; Usagi turned to face Ranma and said. "How about we go down to the couch to talk about our nightly activities Ranma?" Suddenly Usagi realized the implications of her statement and got a titanic full body blush. Ranma blushed as well, but then decided to help Usagi out by saying. "Sure I wouldn't mind talking more about the Sailor Scouts with you." The two of them then headed downstairs to talk on the couch.

Once they got there, Ranma sat down at one of the ends while Usagi took the seat next to him. Usagi put her head on Ranma's shoulder before she began to speak. "You know Ranma, Sailor Jupiter really wants to meet with you. She wants to see how her 'son' has turned out to be." At this Ranma then said, "Is she Ami, Minako, Makoto, or Rei?" At this Usagi's eyes widened up. Usagi then said, "W-what makes you think that the other Sailor Scouts are one of those four?" Ranma just smiled and said, "I may not be the smartest person in the class dear; but once I knew that you were Sailor Moon, it was easy for me to figure out who the other inner Scouts were."

At this Usagi let out a faint chuckle. Looking at the situation from Ranma's perspective, Usagi could see how he was able to figure out the other scouts. While their senshi magic might offer them protection from those who don't know who they are, people that knew them were not protected. With Ranma knowing who she was, it would be easy for him to figure out who the other scouts were by who she hung out with and comparing their profiles to those of the other Scouts. Usagi decided to snuggle a little deeper into Ranma's shoulder before she spoke again. "Sailor Jupiter is Makoto, Ami is Mercury, Minako is Venus and also your godmother, finally Rei is Mars. I know that each of the scouts wants to meet you, so when should you mister 'Jovan Paladin' reveal yourself to them?"

At this Usagi and Ranma were startled, Usagi far more then Ranma, to hear Nodoka's voice say, "How about tomorrow Ranma? After all, we don't have any family occasions then and it is soon." Usagi got up and with a shocked voice said, "A-aunty N-nodaka, how much do you know?" At this question Nodoka just smiled and said, "Why hello Usagi. I didn't know that you were involved in the Sailor Scouts. As for how much I know, well my son here told me everything he knew about the Scouts a few days ago. Although, he didn't mention who the other Scouts were."

Ranma, sensing Usagi's discomfort, quickly got up and said, "Don't worry about it Usagi. I told my mother and only my mother about the fact that I was the Jovan Paladin. I did this because I didn't want her to worry about me leaving at odd times of the day in order to help protect this city. Besides, my mother's missed out too much of my life already. I hadn't told her about you Usagi simply because it wasn't my place to reveal that information."

Ranma turned to face his smiling mother and said, "Usagi's just shocked mom. It seems that the Scouts haven't told their parents what they are. Can you please not reveal that Usagi is a Scout to Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino? Usagi will reveal that part of her life when she's ready. She's also startled by your comments, since she assumed that I was doing the same with that part of my life as the Scouts." Nodoka nodded her head and said with a smile. "Don't worry Usagi, your parents won't find out about this from me. Just so you know; if you ever need an adult's opinion on something with this Sailor Scout business I am always available."

Usagi just stood there slightly shocked as she listened to Ranma and Nodoka talk about the Sailor Scouts. Once the shock wore off, Usagi felt herself get a tad jealous towards the two. Usagi really wanted to be able to talk to her parents like Ranma and Nodoka currently were, but she doubted that her parents could take it well. However, Usagi quickly crushed those feelings of jealousy. Ranma had been separated from his mother for 10 years. Those were 10 years that she had been happily enjoying with her parents that Ranma had missed out on with his. This was fate repaying a large debt it owed to her pigtailed boyfriend.

Besides, Aunty Nodoka had always been a person she could go to whenever she couldn't talk to her parents about something. This was just one more thing that would be between 'Aunt' and 'niece'. Seeing that Nodoka was waiting for her to say something Usagi just smiled and said, "Thank you Aunty Nodoka." Nodoka just nodded her head and said, "Just out of curiosity, which Scout are you?" At this Usagi's smile beamed with pride as she proudly proclaimed, "I'm Sailor Moon!"

Nodoka then said, "Well why don't I leave you to reborn royals alone for now." Nodoka then turned around and walked out the door. Usagi then turned around and with her best motherly voice, along with waving a finger at him, spoke to Ranma. "Mister, do you realize how big of a scare you caused me by not telling me that you mother knew?" Ranma started to chuckle nervously and scratched the back of his head with is hand. Usagi then smiled, wrapped her arms around Ranma, and then said. "I'm just teasing you dear."

A minute latter after Usagi let Ranma out of her hug, Ranma turned to face her and said. "How about I get us some snacks Usagi?" Upon seeing Usagi smile, Ranma headed into the kitchen to fix them up a quick snack. A few minutes latter, Usagi was startled to hear a crash and a "stupid rag" coming from the kitchen. Usagi ran into the kitchen to see Ranma pouting in his cursed form sitting on the floor. By his side was a now empty pitcher of water, a tray, and several different snacks all across the floor. Ranma looked up to see Usagi looking at him and quickly diverted his eyes.

Usagi realized that Ranma was afraid that she wouldn't like him in his curse form. She immediately decided to rectify that problem. Usagi leaned down next to Ranma and gave him a full kiss on the mouth. After a few seconds Usagi pulled back to hear Ranma stuttering. She then smiled and said, "It doesn't matter to me Ranma whether you're in your boy form or you're girl form. I love you for who you are and you are a very wonderful and special person. Even if you were locked into that cursed form of yours, I would still love you just the same. True I would miss your guy form a great deal, but I would still stick with you."

Usagi then helped Ranma get up from the floor. Ranma and Usagi, now eyelevel, stared into each other's eyes. Ranma could see the steady love that Usagi held for him emanating from her eyes. Usagi watched as Ranma's doubt disappeared from his eyes and was replaced by his usual confidence. Then as one the two of them wrapped each other in their arms and shared a kiss.

From the hallway Nodoka had silently watched the whole proceedings. On seeing Ranma and Usagi, who she had considered to be a daughter to her, kiss Nodoka had to wipe a tear from her eye. Nodoka had been hoping ever since she found out about Akane's betrayal that Ranma would find a good young woman to mend his heart. It was a great bonus to Nodoka that Usagi just happened to be that girl. Nodoka had suspected when Usagi had first seen the curse that I would not bother the young girl. Seeing Usagi proving that she loved Ranma, whether he was a boy or a girl at the time, showed Nodoka that she had called her hunch regarding Usagi correctly.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from the series that this fanfiction is based around. We have now reached the last chapter to be re-edited. As you have notice, chapter 4 onwards has mostly just been minor grammar corrections. I will have chapter 10 out soon, but finals are this week so it may be ahwile or I may get it done at a regular pace. Rest assured that Chapter ten of Prince of the Planets will be out before the next chapter of Mother Moon. Enough of that, on with the story!

Ranma and Usagi were both calmly walking up the steeps in order to get to the Scout's usual meeting spot in Rei's temple. Actually, Usagi was calmly walking and Ranma was quite nervous. Luckily for Ranma, Usagi was right there with her arm around his own giving him the particular kind of courage that he needed. It was one thing in Ranma's mind to fight against daemons; it was a completely different thing to meet your past life's mother. Usagi and Ranma reached the top of the steeps and then Usagi opened the sliding door to reveal the surprised inner Scouts.

Each of the inners was looking at Ranma and Usagi with surprise and shock showing in their eyes. Their surprise was understandable do to the fact that Usagi forgotten to mention that she was bringing over the Jovian Paladin a.k.a Ranma for the meeting today. Rei was the first to get over her surprise and said with a glare towards Usagi, "What is he doing here? No offense Usagi, but this is a _private _study group. You should have asked if he could come over first." At this Usagi smiled and said, "Well Rei, This is my boyfriend Ranma also known as the Jovian Paladin."

At that announcement of Usagi's, all of the inner's minds got a blue screen of death. On seeing the frozen shocked faces of Ami, Rei, Minako, and Makoto, Ranma turned to Usagi and said, "I think you broke them." At this comment Usagi blushed before giving a nervous giggle. Usagi then spotted the empty loveseat and decided that she and Ranma should move into a comfortable position while her friends sort themselves out. Usagi closed the sliding door and then lead Ranma to the loveseat. After Ranma was sitting down, Usagi took the seat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

Makoto, thanks to the earlier shocks revolving around Ranma/Prince Nephelite, had been preparing for such an event as this to happen and was able to recover the fastest. She shook her head and then looked at the two new, still unsure of how to act in public, lovebirds before she started questioning the two. "So Ranma is Prince Nephelite's reincarnation? Why didn't you tell all of us sooner about who you are Ranma? How long have you known Usagi? When did you and Ranma hook up Usagi?!" By the last question all the other inners were able to start understanding the world around them and became interested in Makoto's questions.

Ranma was getting very nervous over the questions being directed at him due to his nature to keep quiet on his personal life. However, Ranma also saw that Usagi didn't want to have to answer those questions herself. Unfortunately, the royal couple and unconsciously realized that this meeting wasn't going anywhere until some curious people were satisfied. Ranma decided to spare Usagi the trouble of deciding what to tell and not tell about his and their private lives by speaking up. "Yes I am Prince Nephelite's reincarnation just like Makoto here is the reincarnation of princess Hippolyta or Lita as she was known among her close friends. Usagi has known that I am the Jovian Paladin since we killed that witch a few days ago. We've been together only recently." Ranma then sent a look that told the Scouts that no more questions should be asked right then.

The thoughts of the Scouts to this new news varied. Makoto was glad to finally meet her son's reincarnation and was proud to see that he had turned out into such a fine young man. However, the jury was still out on whether Makoto wanted Ranma to be dating any of her friends. Ami thought that it was interesting that Usagi had fallen in love with two different people who had been princes in their past lives. Ami just hoped that Ranma wouldn't break Usagi's heart like Mamoru did. Minako was embarrassed that she had been going gaga over HER GODSON and vowed to no longer go after every cute boy she saw. Rei was happy for Usagi, and was hoping that the third time would be the charm in her own love interest.

Usagi looked around at her friends and, although it pained her to think of them in such a manner, soldiers. Usagi then coughed politely to get everyone's attention and then she started to speak. "I've been thinking about how our battles have been going lately and I have noticed something. We, that is, the Scouts seem to have stopped improving in terms of our ability to fight the daemons. I don't like how we stand against the daemons in terms of power. Currently only Ranma and I can take out a daemon one-on-one, and I need the stupid monster-of-the-week to be distracted in order to kill it. The rest of you need 3 preferably 4 of you to team up in order to take out a daemon."

"Our teamwork is great, but it's reaching a peak in what it alone helps us to accomplish. We can't count on miraculous sudden power-ups or a new previously unknown fighter to save us when the battles get too difficult for us. I've talked to Luna and Artemis; both of them claim that each of the inner scouts could in the Silver Millennium single handedly kill an Arch-daemon level foe. Also, you girls could single handedly fight a Yokai level foe to a standstill. We all need to get up to those levels again. If it wasn't for the fact that Beryl allowed her forces to degrade into just youma, Earth would now be under her rule."

"I've spent the last couple of days thinking about what to do and I've found a solution. We're all going to have Ranma and some of his friends train us Scouts in martial arts. Ranma and I each draw about the same amount of power in our senshi forms. However Ranma can keep fighting long after I've dropped out the fight. His training is what makes this difference. Now I know that we can't train as hard as and as completely as Ranma has done; he's been training his whole life after all and still devotes a large portion of his free time to refining those skills. Still, any training we get will greatly help us."

"What I want is for each of us to spend at least 2 hours three times a week training with Ranma; one hour in our civilian forms and the other hour in our senshi forms. If we do this plus practice a bit on our own we should start to increase our powers up to, if not beyond, the levels we used to have in the Silver Millennium. Ranma and some of his friends are strong enough through marital arts training to each slay a daemon. If you don't believe me then you should listen to what I have to say. I talked with Sailor Pluto the other day and she explained to me that back in the Silver Millennium era, Earth had veteran soldiers capable of slaying daemon level threats and a little higher. She told me that Ranma and his friends have managed to reach those levels."

The room was quite for a moment before Ami spoke up and said, "It's true. The other day I witnessed Ryoga, who's a friend of Ranma, and a boy named Mousse kill a daemon before I could transform and fight the monster. From what that boy Mouse told me after I rejoined him and Ryoga in my civilian form, Ranma is slightly better then they are in martial arts. I may not be much of a fighter, but I'll join the training" Ranma was proud that Mouse recognized his superiority in martial arts. However he didn't want to step on anybodies' toes and so resisted the urge to boast.

Makoto, Minako, and Rei thought about what had just been told to them. Slowly, one by one, each of the remaining Scouts agreed to join Usagi's new training routine. After that was all said and done Ami, who was in charge of the Scouts' technological supplies, tried to give Ranma a compact communicator. Tried being the operative word, Ranma flatly declared that such a device would never be on his person. Also, Ranma pointed out that a compact wasn't something that was normally carried by boys. Usagi felt the urge to pour a glass of cold water on Ranma's head and say that he could carry one that way. However, due to the knowledge of her boyfriend's discomfort with his curse plus the fact that none of the Scouts there but her knew of Ranma's curse, Usagi resisted her awaken trickster impulse.

The last thing that was talked about at the meeting was the fact that Nodoka Saotome knew about Ranma and Usagi's Scout activities. It was decided, after some heated debate from Minako of all people, that the Saotome home would be another 'safe' area to hold Scout meetings. Once that was settled to everyone's satisfaction, Usagi declared the meeting over. Ranma and Usagi then left Rei's shrine to go get some books on military history at a used bookstore for Usagi. The other Scouts soon left as well leaving Rei alone at the shine except for her grandfather.

* * *

It had been a little more than a month since 'The Incident' and Genma was making his way back to the Tendo home from his job at Doctor Tofu. The once proud and boisterous, if very annoying, senior Saotome was walking with his head hung and a slight frown on his face. The last month had really taken its toll on Genma and left him almost a broken man inside. 'The Incident' had ripped Genma's lifelong dream away from him and left him forever barred from his wife should he want to live.

However Genma did not, as many people expected, blame his misfortune on Ranma. Even before the ill fated training at Jusenkyo, Genma had been immensely proud of his son. Genma knew, as he admitted privately to Soun one night when the Saotomes first came to the Tendo household, that he was a pathetic father to Ranma. Looking back on his trip with Ranma, Genma admitted that he had been more focused on being a sensei to Ranma instead of being a father. As proud as Genma was for how, relatively, well Ranma grew up; he felt hollow inside because he had contributed so little to shaping Ranma as a person.

As Genma was pondering his mistakes the sky opened up in a drizzle activating his curse. The Panda raised it's head to the sky and let out a gruff before turning a Panda sign towards the sky that said, "I know, I know, I really messed up-" flip "-don't you kami think that you could-" flip "-send my punishment in slightly more manageable portions?" A lighting bolt striking Genma appeared to be the answer.

A short while latter Kasumi watched as a wet and slightly cooked panda waked into the house. Kasumi handed Genma a glass of hot water which he gratefully accepted. The now human Genma made his way over to the shogi board were Soun was sitting. The two old friends calmly plaid a game of shogi without trying to cheat; it just didn't seem worth it to them to try and cheat anymore.

Midway through the game Soun started to talk. "Saotome old friend, it seems that the kami must be punishing us for the sins of our youth. Everything we've ever dreamed of has been taken away from us one piece at a time. It seems that we are still brothers in almost every way, except that we are now sharing our equal misfortune."

Genma shook his head and said, "While you are correct about the kami punishing us, you fail to see your fortune old friend. I am the one who is the worse off between the two of us old friend, and I accept my punishment for my greater amount of sins. There's only so long that a man can run from his mistakes before he has to accept his punishment. I've made so many foolish mistakes, and compounded them by foolishly trying to avoid the punishment due to me. I've been left a broken man not even able to repay your kindness of providing me with a roof over my head. I have no material wealth, I am estranged from my wife, out of contact with my only son who justly only barely recognizes me as his father, and you are my only friend left."

"You Tendo, my old friend, still have many things to be thankful for. You have your house and dojo, your job on the city council, two beautiful and honorable daughters, the respect of many of your neighbors, you even are in contact with Akane although I will admit that things between the two of you is still quite strained. True, we have both lost our lifelong dream of seeing our families' and our schools' united as one in marriage. However I would rather be in your shoes than mine."

Soun was forced to concede that Genma was correct. However there was one thing that Soun considered himself to be the poorer in. "Saotome my old friend, your correct. However you have the joy of knowing that your martial arts school will last another generation. Mine it seems will die with me." Genma then replied, "Don't be so down Tendo, you're only in your mid forties! We can both train one of your grandchildren when Kasumi or Nabiki decide to have a family. And when we do train any of your future grandchildren, we'll make sure not to make the same mistakes as we did with our own children." The rest of the day went along very quietly at the Tendo home.

* * *

Nodoka Saotome and Ikuko Tsukino were both sitting around the Tsukino dinning table drinking some tea. Ikuko had invited Nodoka over to just chit-chat and Nodoka had readily agreed. Currently Ikuko had her head in the pantry as she was looking for some snacks that the two old friends could snack on. Spotting a box of wheat wafers, Ikuko grabbed the box and brought it to the table.

Ikuko then set the box of wafers down on the table and started to talk. "Nodoka, have you noticed anything different going on with Usagi? I would ask about Ranma but I don't know a whole lot about how he normally acts." Nodoka had to stop herself from choking on her tea due to Ikuko's question. Nodoka set her tea cup down and locked her eyes with Ikuko's.

Nodoka was hoping that Ikuko wasn't asking about Ranma and Usagi's nights out on the town as Jovan Paladin and Sailor Moon. Nodoka really didn't want to betray Ranma and Usagi's trust even if it was to her oldest friend and Usagi's mother. Luckily for Nodoka, she didn't jump the gun but simply and politely asked Ikuko a question. "Oh? What do you mean Usagi's been acting strangely lately? When I seen the little dear she's been just as wonderful and cheerful as always."

Ikuko cracked a small smile on hearing Nodoka's praise for Usagi. Ikuko then started to explain what she meant. "It's just that Usagi has been doing some odd things lately. Like yesterday I saw Usagi bringing home 5 books on military history. Usagi has never shown the lightest interest in something like that. And she's been gone for several hours in the afternoon saying that she was with friends; however Ami and one or two of her regular friends have been hanging over here. I'm just worried that Usagi's getting into trouble. I know that she would never do such a thing but I'm still very worried."

After listening to her friend, Nodoka saw a way to calm Ikuko's fears and still keep Ranma and Usagi's major secret. Sure, Nodoka would have to reveal a small secret about the duo; however it was nothing that anyone with eyes couldn't figure out. Nodoka just smiled and said, "Well Ikuko, with the occasional monster attack around here, it's not too hard to see that Usagi may just be getting interested in the armed forces. After all, aren't the Sailor Scouts troops who are defending us even thought they are so young? She's probably just curious and trying to understand what's going on in these attacks better. And for Usagi not being with her usual friends, don't worry Ikuko; I think I know what's going on. You see, the other day I saw Ranma and Usagi kissing in my kitchen."

On hearing that last bit of news Ikuko put her hand to her mouth and started to blush. She then leaned in and started talking like a schoolgirl who has just heard the latest gossip. "You're sure you saw the two of them kissing. Why hasn't Usagi told me about this? I thought I told her to tell me when she started to look at boys again." Ikuko was asking Nodoka for more details about what she saw regarding their children.

Ikuko was so into trying to get answers from her old friend that she didn't notice Luna hop onto the table. Luna, who had heard the entire conversation, gave Nodoka a wink in thanks. Usagi's feline advisor was now quite thankful that Nodoka had found out about the Scouts. Nokoka was easily and completely removing Ikuko's worry. Nodoka, who had been told about Luna yesterday after Ranma and Usagi came over from their Scout meeting, slightly nodded her head to acknowledge the advisor.

Nodoka then was able to get a word in edgewise with Ikuko so she started to speak. "I wouldn't know too much about Ranma and Usagi's relationship. I don't doubt that it's a real relationship and not just some rebound thing. Usagi probably hasn't told you about it simply because of her last boyfriend. I'm sure that it's because of his failed engagement that Ranma hasn't told me yet. They probably don't want us to worry about them getting hurt again. They'll tell us when their ready; and I don't think that we shouldn't worry about it in the mean time."

Nodoka's words completely calmed down Ikuko's worried nerves. After getting over it all Ikuko got a conspiring grin on her face. She then said "You have to admit Nodoka that Ranma and Usagi do make a cute couple." Luna then left the two mothers who were now lost in a discussion about how cute their children were together and what gorgeous grandchildren the two could have. Luna hoped that neither Ranma nor Usagi ever heard the conversation that was now going on. Frankly those two mothers going like that were scarier in Luna's opinion than Metallica.

* * *

Hotaru found herself backed in a corner surrounded by some of the meanest of the girls at her school. Ever since the death of Miss Eudial two weeks ago, things seemed to be going down hill for her. Her father spent more and more time away from home; and when he was home he seemed angrier and more distant from her. At the same time, a new bully named Kekio had enrolled in Infinity academy. Kekio had quickly picked up on the local game of 'annoy the freakish girl' and started to gather up some of the meanest girls she could to pick on Hotaru.

Kekio was in the lead of seven girls with a grin on her face as she cracked her knuckles. Kekio was just about to hit Hotaru when she felt something hit her back hard. Kekio and her friends turned around to see Ranma standing by a poll juggling two pebbles lazy in his hand. Ranma then glared at the bullies and said in a very hostile voice. "Leave now or I'll send you into shock trauma." Kekio then started to run away calling out to her followers, "Get out of there! My big brother told me about this guy, he's too strong for us!" All of the bullies quickly scrambled away not wanting to suffer Ranma's anger.

Once all the bullies had disappeared Usagi walked into Hotaru's view and then scolded Ranma. "Ranma, was it really necessary to scare them like that? You could have just told them to leave." At this Ranma started scratching his head as he defended himself, "Well, er-, you see Usagi, ah." Usagi gave a small smile at seeing Ranma get completely tongue tied trying to explain his actions to her. She then just walked up and gave him a peck on the cheek before she said, "Relax Ranma. I know why you did what you did; I just wanted to get a good opening for a kiss."

Hotaru started to giggle on seeing her two friends interact. Those two were always able to brighten up her day in Hotaru's opinion. Neither of her friends thought that she was odd or weird at all with her healing abilities. Usagi and Ranma just accepted her for who she was and Hotaru was eternally thankful for that. A few days ago when Hotaru learned that Ranma and Usagi had started dating, even though they hadn't gone on an actual 'date', Hotaru was ecstatic. Not only were the two nicest people her age, in Hotaru's opinion, go out with each other; but they were still willing to spend time with her.

Since she first met the duo, Usagi and Ranma had showed up every other day to play with her. Usagi, on seeing that Hotaru's frailty would prevent her from playing most outdoor games, had been insisting that the three of them play board games. Each time Usagi and Ranma showed up to play they had a different game to play. The trio headed into a nearby park and sat at a picnic table. Ranma then pulled the game out of his only hidden weapons pocket, which he had developed thanks to Mousse, and started setting the game up.

The game of choice for today happened to be Risk. Ranma started off with North America, Venezuela, Iceland, England, and Scandinavia. Hotaru got the rest of South America, all of Africa, The Middle East, Western Europe, and India. Usagi had the rest of the territories. Hotaru was quite happy that she won the dice roll to go first. She was even happier when her armies on the starting turn managed to steamroll Usagi out of Europe. When Usagi tried to reclaim her territories from Hotaru, her invasion failed completely.

Unfortunately for the girls, it was then Ranma's turn. He completely drove Hotaru out of South America and managed to claim the one Asian territory that bordered on Alaska. As the turns progressed Ranma was relentless in his assault on the girls' combined territory. At the end of his next turn Ranma unified Europe causing Usagi and Hotaru to forge a temporary alliance against him. Sadly for the girls, Ranma was able to defeat their combined assault and still kept expanding.

After she saw Ranma win the game in only seven turns for him, Usagi lowered her head in embarrassment. In the back of her mind Usagi was saying over and over again, "At least his on my side when we face the daemons." Hotaru had a slight blush on her face due to being embarrassed at losing so quickly.

Ranma, on seeing the embarrassed looks on his girlfriend and also on someone he was starting to consider a little sister, just started scratching the back of his head. He then chuckled out, "Now this is unusual. Normally I'm the one who has the bad luck at these kinds of games. In fact, my luck has almost never been as good as it's been the past few days."

As soon as the words left Ranma mouth, his face started to drain of color. Usagi grew concerned and asked, "What's the matter Ranma?" Ranma then got very serious and said, "Usually when my turns good, that means that something big and crazy is about to happen. I'm hopping that with the craziness of Juban acting as a backdrop whatever is about to happen won't cause too much trouble or be too insane." On seeing the odd looks Hotaru and, to a far lesser extent, Usagi were giving him Ranma shook his head. "I'm not kidding here about the insanity I've had to deal with here. One time my school was invaded by a small herd of German speaking, polka dancing pigs! Apparently the pigs were protesting the new roast pork on the school's menu."

Hotaru sweat dropped upon hearing Ranma say this story with full conviction in his voice. Usagi just slightly shook her head at this latest tale that she heard about Ranma's life. Usagi knew that Ranma was telling them the complete and honest truth. She had been able to get Ranma to slowly open up about his past misadventures in Nerima and so knew that something like that was bound to happen in Ranma's life. Usagi hoped that whatever new chaos that was probably coming wouldn't hurt any civilian lives. Also she hoped that it wasn't something in the likes of yet another fiancée out for her boyfriend. Usagi just didn't want to go through that kind of a headache, not when she was worried about what to do when Uyko or that Shampoo girl would eventually locate Ranma.

Hotaru, who was looking up at the sky, tilted her head a bit and said, "Uh, is it me or is that a giant pigeon in the sky. Why is there a giant pigeon carrying a scroll in its feet flying towards us?" At this Ranma and Usagi followed Hotaru's gaze to see that there was in fact a giant pigeon carrying a rolled up scroll in its feet. The pigeon started to fly in circles as if it was looking for something. It then banked sharply to the inside of the circle it was flying in and started descending down to the ground. The pigeon landed on the table facing Ranma and started bobbing its head up and down.

Ranma pulled a cracker out from his hidden weapons pocket and gave it to the bird saying, "Okay, okay here's a treat. Now can I have that scroll you've got in your feet?" The pigeon greedily took the cracker before it hopped in Hotaru's lap and made itself comfortable. Ranma picked up the scroll and, noticing the seal on the scroll, opened it with a slight bit of curiosity.

Usagi noticed that Ranma's face went from showing slight happiness, to nervousness, then to relief, followed by shock, and then to amusement. Usagi wanted to know what was going on and so spoke up. "Ah Ranma, what's going on?" Ranma put the scroll down on the table in order to look Usagi square in the eye. He then sat silently for a second before he spoke up. "Usagi, do you remember the special announcement that our principle stated yesterday?"

Usagi thought back to the announcement that the principal made, apparently their high school was going to be holding a few exchange students from several neighboring countries. Usagi then nodded her head and said, "Yes I remember. Rei was talking about how she and her grandfather are going to be hosting one of the exchange students for the time that they are in Japan." Usagi's eyes widened as she figured that the strangely delivered letter in Ranma's hands probably had something to do with one of the exchange students. Ranma saw the look of understanding cross Usagi's face and he just nodded his head. Ranma then said, "Let me read you the letter Usagi. Ahem,"

"Dear Ranma Saotome,

I am sure that you remember my clan's seal after our little 'encounter' on Mt. Horai. Even though we did not meet or depart on the best of terms, I do owe you my life and for that you have my thanks. In light of this turnaround, and to prevent further misunderstandings between the two of us, I feel compelled to inform you of certain events that have taken place after we departed.

As you know, our whole confrontation happened because of some ill-advised actions of mine in regards to my upcoming betrothal ceremony. Due some of the lasting effects of my actions, plus the blundering of Mint and Lime, my betrothal ceremony was a complete disaster; resulting in my prospective betrothed to break off the engagement. My father has decided that I need 'to expand my understanding of the world' and has enrolled me into a transfer program with a school in the district of Juuban, Tokyo.

My father, who received the complete school roster for the school I am to attend, has informed me that you are attending the same school that I shall shortly be attending. Due to the situation that I currently am in, I am in need of help regarding certain things that only people who have visited certain regions of China are familiar with. I know that I have done nothing to endear myself to you and that it is I who am in your debt, but I find myself without any other options to turn to.

This letter is a formal apology in regards to all the ill that I have committed against your person and those that were in your company at the time. Even though I wasn't in my right mind due to stress at the time, my actions were unacceptable to a person of my rank. If you are willing to put the troubles between us in the past, we can talk more about things in person. I am to be staying with an old priest and his granddaughter at a place called the Hikawa Shrine.

Signed,

Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty."


	10. Chapter 10

Welcome to yet another chapter in Prince of the Planets! I see to be getting a lot of e-mails saying that I reposted chapters 6 and 7 as chapters 8 and 9. GO BACK TO THE STORY SUMMARY! I broke my original chapter 1 into three chapters; therefore my latter chapters were all moved up two spots. Please don't send me any more e-mails about this. Now why don't we remember that HistorianoftheKais doesn't own Sailor Moon or Ranma ½ so we can get on with the story?

Usagi, Ranma, Rei, and Rei's grandfather were all calmly waiting in one of the lobbies of the Tokyo International Airport. Ranma was with Rei and Rei's grandfather due to a letter that Rei's grandfather had received a letter from Herb requesting that Ranma accompany the Hinos when they picked him up as Ranma was a familiar person to him. Usagi had tagged along to be with Ranma and to also talk with Rei. Ranma was at first surprised that Herb was going by plane because the last time the prince had been to Japan, Herb had gone by boat. However, he told by Rei's grandfather that all of the transfer students were going to be arriving in Japan together and that it was cheaper to send them all by plane then by boat and rail.

Currently Ranma was leaning against a support pillar while Usagi and Rei were both sitting on the nearby bench chatting away. Rei's grandfather was off a ways talking to the other parents that were hosting the transfer students. Ranma ignored the girls' conversation figuring that he really didn't want to know what the girls were talking about. Having to hear and even participate in 'girl talk' was hard enough when his curse activated, Ranma had no desire to have to deal with it when he was a guy. However, Ranma was very protective of Usagi so he was constantly shifting his gaze slightly so that he could look for potential problems.

It wasn't that Ranma was paranoid; he just knew that crazy things tended to happen when things like this went on around him. Although Usagi and Rei could easily defend themselves should a daemon attack; they most likely wouldn't be able to use their powers against the more 'normal' craziness that Ranma was worried about. Both of the girls were doing great in his martial arts training, but a week of training definitely did not qualify someone to handle what Ranma was afraid of happening. Therefore, Ranma was determined to keep track of everyone he came to the airport with and was praying that they could leave with Herb without any trouble.

Usagi and Rei's conversation was interrupted when the intercom blared that the transfer students' plane had arrived and was now disembarking. Rei's grandfather then cheerfully walked over to where the teens were at and said "Well now let's go and greet Herb, uh what was his last name again? Oh yes, it was Ryutaisa (Dragon Captain), well lets go and give Herb Ryutaisa a warm welcome!" As Usagi got off the bench she thought she heard Ranma mutter, "A warm welcome; let's just hope it's not too warm." Usagi understood what Ranma was referring to and was silently hoping for just what he had said as well.

The four made there way over to the check-in part of the terminal, the farthest a person was allowed to go without a security badge or a ticket. There they waited and watched for Herb to come into sight. Soon enough they spotted a large crowd of mostly loud teens coming out of the terminal. These people were lead by a man in a business suit who was hopelessly trying to keep the teens in order. The man in the suit pointed to where the transfer parents were standing and shouted something in Chinese. The man then left the teens to go to their transfer parents and he headed over to the bathroom. Ranma the first to spot Herb and blinked his eyes before uttering out in a questioning voice, "Herb?"

Ranma knew for a fact that the person he was looking at couldn't possibly be anyone else other then the Musk prince. However, Herb looked very different then he had the last time Ranma had seen the prince. One of the most obvious differences was that Herb was no longer in his scaled armor. Instead, Herb was dressed in western black silk dress pants, had on a long white Sunday dress shirt, and had a v-neck grey wool vest to top his outfit off. It was obvious to everyone who looked at him that Herb was uncomfortable in his current clothes.

Herb, possibly because he heard Ranma say his name, turned his head and spotted Ranma and the others with Ranma. Herb then instantly put on a mask of calm confidence and started walking towards Ranma. As he passed Ranma to go to face Rei's grandfather, Herb momentarily stopped next to Ranma and whispered "thank-you" as he gave the pig-tailed martial artist a slight nod of the head. Herb then walked in front of Rei's grandfather, bowed his head towards the old priest, and said in a quiet but firm tone. "I am Herb Ryutaisa, crown prince of the Musk people; I am honored that you would open your house to me and allow me to stay with you for the duration of my visit to Japan."

Rei was shocked that Herb had announced that he was a prince and was even more shocked that Usagi and Ranma didn't seem to be surprised by this announcement. Her grandfather just smiled and said in a cheery voice, "No need to be so formal kid. After all, even royalty are people who need to at times just relax. Just call me by my name, Shigeru; trust me, people are easier to live with when they are more relaxed with each other." Herb blinked his eyes several times as if he was having trouble comprehending what he had heard Shigeru say to him.

Ranma just smirked as he watched the confusion on Herb's face, seeing the self-assured prince out of balance was secretly enjoyable. Still, Ranma knew that he was the closest thing Herb had to a friend in 700 miles. Taking a step forward, Ranma put his hand on Herb's shoulder and said, "What the old priest means is that you can just be an ordinary, well as ordinary as a person in your situation can be, teenager while you're in Japan. Just remember that I will help you if you ever find yourself in a situation because of your 'status.' Now let's go and get your stuff so we can leave."

Five minutes later Herb's welcome party with the prince in tow was at the baggage claim station. Herb quickly spotted his two suitcases and walked over to grab them. Carrying both suitcases firmly in his hands, Herb made his way over to where the others were waiting for him. Shigeru then lead the teenagers out of the Airport and over towards the rail stop. Part of the trip to the rail station required them to walk next to a road. Just as the rail stop came into sight, a truck carrying water cooler jugs passed by and one of the full jugs fell off the trunk and hit the pavement. The now free water splashed Ranma and Herb activating their curses. Rei, who had turned around to check on the 'boys', saw two very beautiful girls where she knew Ranma and Herb had been and promptly fainted. Ranma, who saw Rei faint, just snapped his fingers and said, "And we were so close to going home without an incident too."

* * *

"I am sooo dead." Ryoga thought to himself as he considered his very perilous position. It just wasn't fair, Ranma was supposed to be the poor fool that got into these kinds of situations; not him! He had been caught off guard as he was heading to the park to practice martial arts and had his curse activated. Not wanting to cut into his practice time too much, Ryoga had decided to just teleport back to the Saotome household so he could change back. He hadn't used his teleport abilities too much because he, like Ranma, didn't want his location getting back to the remaining Nerima Nuts.

Unfortunately for Ryoga, he hadn't really practiced teleporting while in his cursed for thus leading to his current situation. He was in his cursed form currently above a bathtub of hot water. The only reason he hadn't fallen into the tub of water yet was because he had a death grip on the shower head. What made the whole situation all the more deadly for Ryoga was the fact that the tub was currently occupied by Ami. Ryoga knew that Ami was in the tub because Murphy had spared no expense in causing him trouble; Ryoga had teleported with his face facing the tub instead of the wall.

As soon as Ryoga saw Ami's face and all the rest of her at the same time, he immediately shut his eyes. Ryoga couldn't just teleport out of his situation because of the recharge time needed. As he was waiting for the recharge time to pass Ryoga prayed that Ami wouldn't look up and that he wouldn't get a nose bleed. Murphy hadn't moved on because a single drop of blood fell from Ryoga's snout and hit the bathwater below.

Ami noticed the drop of blood hit the bath water near her feet and was puzzled for a second. "Huh? What's going on?" Ami said to herself as her eyes followed the path that the drop had come from. Spotting a cute black piglet that was gripping the shower head with its hoofs, Ami stood up in the bathwater and said, "Where did you come from little guy?" Although Ami had no idea how a black piglet got up there or even in the house, Ami didn't want to leave the poor thing up there. She reached over and grabbed the piglet and had to use more strength then she had expected to get the little porker off of the shower head.

Once Ami had Ryoga in her hands she thought about what she should do with the piglet. Ami decided to just put him on the bathroom floor and finish her bath. Sadly Ami's hands were still lightly covered in soap as she hadn't bothered to make sure there were no more soap suds. Therefore Ryoga fell out of Ami's hands and into the warm bathwater. Ami could barely keep herself from screaming out in shock as she found a nude Ryoga in the bathtub with her. The shock of it all caused Ami to faint and fall face forward onto Ryoga. Pin down by Ami, all Ryoga could do was silently curse his luck.

* * *

Makoto was in her apartment kitchen trying to think about she should cook for dinner. Sure, dinner was two hours away for her, but she liked to plan out what she would cook and get all of the ingredients ready before she actually started. It was something that her mother had done with her many times before her parents died. Makoto liked to continue to make her meals like that because it made her feel close her mother. Even though she tried not to show it to the other scouts, Makoto was really bother by her lack of family.

Family that bittersweet word had taken on a whole new twist for Makoto ever since Ranma showed up. He just confused Makoto and was unknowingly playing with her emotions like crazy. On the one hand, she viewed him as a fellow student and defender of the city. That side of Makoto view Ranma as Usagi's new boyfriend and the Scouts' new martial arts instructor. On the other hand, there was a part of Makoto that was screaming for Ranma to be safe and well away from the battlefield. That part of Makoto was extremely upset that one of her friends would DARE date Ranma.

Makoto started to rub her temples as she talked to herself. "Okay Makoto, get it together. Ever since you found out about Prince Nephelite, your memories of him as a little boy have been coming back very quickly. Obviously all of your motherly love for Nephelite is still there. You just don't know how to relate those emotions over to Ranma." Talking to herself was just not working for Makoto.

Makoto was knocked out of the cycle of depression that she had inadvertently put herself into by the ringing of her doorbell. Shaking her head as she got up, Makoto calmly walked over to the front door and opened it. Even though she had a smile on her face, Makoto could barely keep her shock from showing. Right there in front of her dressed in a rather traditional kimono was none other Nodoka Saotome. Makoto had to keep herself from closing the door in the woman's face because of shock. Ranma's mother was the last person, besides Ranma himself, which Makoto wanted to deal with until she got her head strait again.

Nodoka looked at Makoto and noticed the minute signs that Makoto was not resting easily; also the fact that Makoto didn't really want to see her was obvious to Makoto. However, Nodoka didn't just walk away because when she looked within Makoto's eyes she saw the eyes of a scared girl who needed someone's help. It wasn't hard for Nodoka to figure out that the source of Makoto's distress was 'their' son Ranma. Nodoka was afraid that Makoto would burn up if the girl continued going how she was without getting help. Deciding that confronting the issue would be in Makoto's best long term interests, Nodoka bowed her head and said, "May I come in Makoto? After all, there are several things that the two of us need to talk about."

Makoto, who was still in a great deal of shock, steeped aside and let Nodoka into the house. Then, even though she was still in shock, Makoto's instincts as a good housekeeper took over. Walking ahead of Nodoka, Makoto led the older woman over to the small family room. There were two simple chairs in the small room which two women promptly sat on. A few minutes passed between Makoto and Nodoka in uncomfortable silence.

Nodoka broke the silence by turning to Makoto and saying, "Well then Makoto, I guess this conversation has been coming. I must admit, this is one conversation I never expected to have. How are you holding up knowing that Ranma is the reincarnation of your past life's son?" Nodoka spoke with a concerned tone and a look of worry on her face the entire time.

Makoto looked into Nodoka's eyes and saw that they didn't offer pity, only understanding and compassion. They were eyes that promised that no matter what, the barer of the eyes would make everything go better. Makoto hadn't seen eyes like that directed towards her since she had last seen her mother alive all those years ago. Those eyes and what they reminded Makoto of were the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The poor girl broke out into a river of tears and was quickly wrapped up by Nodoka's arms. For the next several minutes Makoto was unable to stop crying as Nodoka tried to sooth the distraught senshi.

Eventually, Makoto stopped crying and just took comfort in Nodoka's embrace. Sadly, in Makoto's secret opinion, the reality of the situation returned to the young brunette. Makoto then slowly and politely worked her way out of Nodoka's hug to sit back fully in her chair. Nodoka also moved back into her own chair, sensing that Makoto wanted a little bit of room after that outburst. Taking a deep breath to help calm her nerves; Makoto then said in a more collected voice, "I'm not holding up nearly as well as I would like to Mrs. Saotome. Finding out about Prince Nephelite/Ranma is one of the best and worst things for me."

Upon seeing the confused look on Nodoka's face, Makoto decided to explain what she meant. Makoto made a sweeping motion with her hand and said, "You have to understand, all of this belonged to my parents. They died 6 years ago leaving everything to me and provided me with a modest income via a trust fund they established for me. My parents came from a small family so there were no relatives for me to go to after their deaths. For some reason that I still haven't fully been able to figure out, I was declared an emancipated minor instead of being put into a foster home like I had at first expected."

Makoto then let out a small sigh and her eyes gained a slightly dreamy look as she continued to talk. "Ever since the plane crash that killed my parents, all I've ever dreamed about was being part of a family. I can't tell you how many nights I went to sleep hoping that tomorrow a social worker would show up at my door and tell me that they've found a relative of mine. Those dreams always ended with that dream relative of mine whisking me away to be apart of his or her family. As I got older, those dreams of mind for a family changed. Instead of it being a relative showing up; it was me getting married to a great guy and having several kids of my own."

Closing her eyes and bowing her head, Makoto took a second to collect her thoughts and calm down again before she continued in a quieter tone. "And now Ranma and his past incarnation show up; completely turning my world on its head. I now have a relative but at the same time I still don't have one. And to make the whole situation worse, I'm getting the memories and feelings that my past incarnation had towards her son. Now whenever I look or think about Ranma, I find my feelings torn. I feel like he's a friend that could possibly become of brother-figure for me; while on the other hand there's a part of me that wants to crush him in a hug and is deeply upset that he refers to you as mother."

Nodoka listened to Makoto's speech with patience and understanding. It tore at Nodoka's heart to listen to what Makoto was going through. Nodoka knew that Makoto must have been going though some tough feelings about this whole situation before Nodoka came to check on the girl. After all, Nodoka herself was still having some difficulty dealing with the fact that Ranma could remember being the son of princess Hippolyta. But before she came over to visit Makoto, Nodoka never imagined that Makoto was having such a difficult time. Any jealousy that Nodoka might have unknowingly kept towards Makoto and her connection to Ranma was forever banished from Nodoka's heart.

Nodoka saw Makoto bowing her head in shame and Nodoka felt a pull at her heart at seeing Makoto like that. It was obvious to Nodoka that Makoto was afraid that she had upset Nodoka with how she felt towards Ranma. Nodoka suddenly felt an idea enter her head and she softly started to speak. "Makoto, I can't begin to fully understand what you're going through because of this. I may not have seen Ranma for ten years, but at least I knew that he was alive and coming back to me. Being able to handle growing up on your own for so long like you have really impresses me."

Nodoka saw that she now had Makoto's attention and that Makoto was no longer as embarrassed as she had been. Looking into Makoto's eyes Nodoka continued her own speech saying, "Makoto the two of us may be in a rather unique situation regarding Ranma, but that doesn't mean that either of us has to deal with any heartbreak. We both regard Ranma as our son; you because of your past life and me because I gave birth to him in this life. I know that Ranma, although he tries not to show it me because he doesn't want to hurt my feelings, views both of us as his mothers. Will a little bit of work, and a good deal of understanding all around to start off with, I think that it's possible for the three of us to make our rather unique family work."

Makoto thought about what Nodoka had just told her very seriously. It did make sense that the three of them were a family like Nodoka had said. Could she make it work? Makoto asked herself whether she could honestly make such a situation work. Slowly Makoto started to smile and the smile got bigger. Yes, yes she could make such a thing as Nodoka seemed to be proposing work. With a big smile on her face, Makoto looked at Nodoka and said, "Well what do you know, dreams really do come true."

* * *

Herb, now in his male form, was sitting currently helping Rei to set the Hino's dinner table. The young prince was silently thankful that he had been able to change out of those uncomfortable clothes that he had been in during his flight from China. Currently he was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that had the image of a Chinese dragon covering the back. While not as comfortable to Herb as his armor, it was infinitely better then that 'monkey suit' he had been forced to wear.

Looking across the table where Rei was currently setting out some strange utensils he had never heard of called 'forks', Herb was again thankful that he had sent that letter to Ranma. As much as he hated to admit it even to himself, Herb knew that things would have gone FAR worse after his and Ranma's curses were revealed if Ranma hadn't been there with his 'girlfriend'. One of the things that Herb had learned about himself after that fiasco with the locking ladle and the kettle of liberation was that he still needed to learn with other people who were not his subordinates like Mint and Lime were.

For a second, Herb felt his mind wander back to the events that afternoon after his and Ranma's curses were activated. Usagi had helped Rei get back on her feet and steady the then shocked shrine maiden. Shigeru Hino had just calmly stood there; Herb guessed that his father had included information about the curse in the letter to the old priest. Usagi and Ranma then proceeded to explain the curses to Rei and made sure that she fully understood what was going on. The four teens and their accompanying elder then got on the train in order to get to the shrine. After they had made sure that Herb was settled into his room at the shrine, Ranma and Usagi had left to go on a date.

Shaking his head, Herb focused on finishing up his part of taking care of his part of setting the table. Looking at the table and noticing that it was set for four people, Herb turned to look at Rei and said, "Who is the fourth person that we've set the table for? Is it for your father?" Immediately Rei's body tensed up when she heard Herb mention her father. Herb noticed the hostility that Rei was showing at the mention of her father and immediately bowed his head. He then, even as hard as it was for him, said in apologetic tone. "I am truly sorry if I have said something to offend you Miss Hino, I was only curious." As much as Herb disliked having to apologize for his actions; he had learned, and rather painfully too, that sometimes it was better for him to swallow his pride.

Rei at first stiffened when Herb had brought up her father; that man was practically a taboo subject for Rei. Rei was about to curtly tell Herb never to mention her father again when she heard his apology. Her face softened as she realized that Herb was genuinely curious as to why the table was being set like it was. With a neutral face that turned into a small smile as she continued to talk, Rei said, "Please don't mention my father around me again Herb. He and I have issues that need to be resolved. The fourth set of dishes and silverware is for a friend of mine that's coming over."

Herb nodded his head in order to show that he understood what Rei was telling him. The concept of a father and child being such terms as Rei was implying was a foreign concept for Herb, but he could understand it. Herb and Rei then finished setting up the table in a relatively comfortable silence. Just as piece of silverware was set on the table, the doorbell rang. Rei then left Herb to bring over the prepared dinner from the kitchen as she headed over to the front door to greet her friend.

Less then two minutes latter Herb saw Rei return to the dinning room with a blond haired girl following her. Rei then motioned between Herb and Minako while saying, "Herb Ryutaisa this is my friend Minako Anio. Minako Aino, this is the exchange student that's staying with me and my grandfather, Herb Ryutaisa."

Herb put the tray holding the main dinner dish down on the table. He then took a quick glance at Minako and said with a stiff and slight nod of his head, "an honor to meet you Miss Aino." Actually, it wasn't that much of an honor in Herb's mind to meet Minako but he didn't want to offend Rei. Minako, for some reason that escaped him at the time, just reminded Herb of his former betrothed. Why Minako would remind him of her, Herb had no clue. Still, Minako put Herb slightly on edge and one thing that every Musk child was taught since birth was to trust their instincts.

Before Minako could say anything more then a simple greeting, Shigeru walked into room and stated that it was time to start eating. During the dinner Herb was quiet and only answered the girls' questions. Minako tended to ask him more personal questions than Rei did and so Herb tended to be a little sharper in his replies. He said nothing overly hostile, just a slight change in his eyebrows and tone in order to show that he didn't want to pursue that line of questioning. Privately Herb had to admit that the dinner, even with its uncomfortable parts, was a pleasant change from the more formal dinners back at the Musk citadel.

Half an hour latter everyone was finished eating and had started clearing the table. Once all of the dirty dishes were next to the sink Rei's grandfather smiled and asked the teens to let him take care of the dishes. Minako was the first to jump at the chance to get away from the dishes; Herb and Rei were both far more reluctant to leave the rather large pile of dishes for Shigeru to tackle by himself. Fortunately, at least in Minako's opinion, Shigeru managed to chase Herb and Rei out of the kitchen while muttering about how kids these days just don't respect their elders.

While Shigeru was tackling the dishes, the teens soon found themselves sitting in the family room with their text-books out. Rei and Minako were both quizzing each other for a test next week while Herb was working on better understanding the various writing methods that the Japanese used. While Herb could read Japanese, he was still easily confused by the kanji. The numerous variations within the Japanese writing system seemed totally irrational to the dragon prince who was used to the single simple system of characters used in the Musk lands and the other surrounding areas.

Placing his book down on the coffee table, Herb grabbed the one thing that he was completely familiar and comfortable with; the TV remote. Herb then turned in his seat a bit so he could get a better view of the television and pressed the ON button. Although the TV screen was not nearly as big as the 72" screen TV his father had installed in the basement of the citadel; the clarity was a whole lot better then the satellite signal that reached the citadel. After only a few minutes of seeing the clarity of the TV programs and the massive variety of channels, Herb was determined that he would have a cable line installed in the citadel ASAP.

Herb stopped his channel surfing when he got to a station that was playing the local news. Putting the remote down, Herb started to pay attention to what the announcers was saying. "-And in other news, less then ten minutes ago another monster attack was recorded. Luckily for our fellow citizens of Tokyo, the monster was quickly taken care of by our local hero Sailor Moon and her new helper Jovian Paladin. Surprisingly, none of the other Sailor Scouts showed up to fight the monster. However I have heard that we shouldn't hold this against the other Scouts. Apparently witnesses of the fight have reported that during the fight the Jovan Paladin said to Sailor Moon and I quote 'next time we go on a date princess we need to make sure that the monsters know that we'll be busy so that they can reschedule their attacks to be at a more convenient time.'"

"Does this mean that the gossip we've been hearing about these two heroes being together is true? In any case, both of these two heroes were able to slay the monster with no loss of human life and only very minimal property damage. And now, we turn things over to Toranaga with the weather report."

Herb turned off the TV as soon as the reporter stopped talking about the monster attack. Minako and Rei were quietly chatting to each other about the attack. However Herb wasn't paying them any attention. His whole mind focused in on the names of the monster's slayers. Herb could have sworn that he had heard those names, or at least names like those, mentioned before in his youth. However Herb could not be sure of the significance of the names, he could only be sure that they were important. Herb resolved then and there to get at the bottom of the situation and figure out why the names seemed so important to him. First thing in the morning, Herb promised himself, he would send a letter to his father asking for a copy of the Tome of the Taisho. If anything, that ancient book would help him solve the mystery of those names.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: sorry don't own any stock in any Japanese entertainment business. Now that that's over with, let's get on with the story.

Setsuna Meioh was currently walking down the street towards the Saotome home with a smile on her face. It had taken the senshi of time a while and several migraines, but she finally gotten it through Michiru and Hakura's heads that they held the talismans in their heart crystals and that the princess was the only one who could safely retrieve the talismans. Currently it was a warm and sunny afternoon on a school day. Knowing that Ranma and Usagi liked to do their homework together, Setsuna figured that the best place to find the duo would be the Saotome home.

Feeling the sun gently warming her shoulders, Setsuna stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. It had been a bit of a surprise to Setsuna that the media had caught definite proof that Usagi and Ranma, or rather Sailor Moon and Jovian Paladin, were dating two days ago. However, the real surprise for Setsuna was how much that news seemed to be on everyone's lips. And by everyone, Setsuna wasn't just referring to the students in school. Oh no, even the teachers in the teachers' lounge were chatting away on the subject. Poor Usagi and Ranma seemed so embarrassed at the fact that their love life generated so much gossip. The only saving grace for the royal couple was the fact that no one in school who was gossiping about the 'Heroic couple' knew that it was Usagi and Ranma that they were talking about.

Shaking her head, Setsuna resumed her walk towards the Saotome household. While Setsuna was pleased at how Usagi and Ranma were such good influences to each other, she respected their privacy. Soon enough Setsuna found herself standing in front of the small but cozy Saotome house. After knocking on the door a few times Setsuna stood back and waited for someone to answer the door. Setsuna waited a few minutes and was about to knock on the door again when she saw the door open. Standing in the now opened doorway was Nodoka wearing one of her traditional kimonos and blinking her eyes.

Nodoka stopped blinking her eyes and said in a slightly confused tone of voice, "Yes Miss. Is there something that I can help you with?" Due to Ranma's rather crazy life Nodoka had developed a bit of caution towards people that she didn't know. It wasn't that she was paranoid, but Nodoka knew that only fools don't prepare themselves for what they know is bound to happen.

Setsuna just politely bowed and said, "Good afternoon Mrs. Saotome. My name is Setsuna Meioh; I'm the student councilor at the school that your son goes to. Now don't worry at all Mrs. Saotome, Ranma has done nothing wrong in school. I just wanted a chance to personally meet your son who I've heard so many interesting things about."

Nodoka put her hand to her face as if she was thinking about what Setsuna had said. Then after a minute of thinking, Nodoka got out of the doorway and motioned for Setsuna to come in. With a faint smile on her face Setsuna calmly walked into the house. Once Setsuna was inside the house, Nodoka closed the front door. Nodoka then turned to Setsuna and said, "Ranma is currently up in his room studying with his girlfriend. I'll show you which room it is." Setsuna nodded her head to show that she understood what Nodoka told her. Nodoka then smiled and started to walk down the hall towards the stairs.

While the two women were walking down the hall they passed by a small table with a couple of photos placed on the table. One of the photos caught Setsuna's eye and she stopped for a second to give the photo a better look. The photo showed a 12 year old Usagi sitting in front of a large birthday cake with Nodoka, Ikuko, and Shingo grouped next to Usagi. All four people in the picture were looking into the camera and smiling. Although she knew that the two were dating, Setsuna had no idea that the Saotome and Tsukino families had had previous contact. Setsuna then stopped staring at the photo and quickly, but at the same time in a dignified manner, caught up to Nodoka.

Very soon, Nodoka and Setsuna were in front of the door to Ranma's room. Nodoka then lightly knocked on Ranma's door. Her knock was quickly followed by Ranma calling out from behind the closed door, "Come on in the door's unlocked." Nodoka opened the door to see Ranma and Usagi both sitting Indian style on Ranma's bed. In both of the teens' laps were their literary textbooks opened to the same page. If Nodoka or Setsuna were to look at the two teens closely, they would have seen that Usagi's lipstick was smudged a bit. Also they would have seen that Ranma's lips had a faint hint of pink to them that was the same shade as Usagi's lipstick.

Usagi looked up to see that Setsuna had walked into the room as well as Nodoka. Usagi then tilted her head a bit and said, "Uh Setsuna, are you here on school business or are you here because of something relating to the Sailor Scouts?" Both Usagi and Ranma developed sweat drops as they watched a bug-eyed Setsuna give herself whiplash from looking between them and Nodoka too fast. The teens then developed a nervous chuckle when the realized that Setsuna didn't know that Nodoka knew about the whole scout business. Usagi took pity on Setsuna and said, "Don't worry about it Setsuna, Auntie Nodoka knows about the Sailor Scouts. Almost anything that you need to tell us relating to the Scouts can be said in front of her."

Setsuna rubbed her temples and mentally swore to buy stock in a brewing company; there were just too many days that she needed to get drunk due to things relating to the scouts. Putting her hands back at her side, Setsuna looked at her attentive audience. Both Usagi and Ranma were looking at her waiting for her to say something. Nodoka was looking at Setsuna with accusing eyes that were filled with distrust. It was obvious to Setsuna that Nodoka was feeling like Setsuna had deliberately lied to the brunette. Not wanting the situation to fester any longer, Setsuna sighed and said, "I wish I had known that earlier."

Setsuna then looked into Ranma's eyes and said, "It's good to see you again little Nephy. Like I told your mother when I was at the door, I have wanted to personally meet with you ever since I heard about what you did for Usagi a month ago. My desire to meet you only increased once I found out that you were the Jovian Paladin. I don't know whether your girlfriend has told you about me or not. In any case, let me introduce myself. My name is Setsuna Meioh, High School councilor and Sailor Pluto." Nodoka's face plainly showed her surprise while Ranma was just slowly shaking his head as if he expected something like this to happen.

Usagi put her hand under her chin and said while looking at Setsuna, "You said that seeing Ranma was one of the reasons why you came here. Am I correct to assume that there is another reason for you being here that you haven't mentioned yet?"

Setsuna's small smirk grew into a noticeable smile as she witnessed Usagi logically analyze the information that was unintentionally provided. One thing that had annoyed Setsuna in the Silver Millennium was the fact that most of the Lunar Queens, even though they were wonderful people, had the analytical skills of a two year old. Seeing that her princess was more like Queen Serenity in that department then her grandmother Queen Diana was very heartwarming for Setsuna. The green haired senshi then said quite cheerfully, "very good reasoning princess. You are correct in that I have another reason for being here. The remaining two talismans, the Space Sword and the Deep Aqua Mirror, have been found."

Ranma and Usagi then turned around and gave each other a high-five at that news. Ranma and the inner Scouts had been worried about the talismans falling into enemy hands ever since Usagi told them that the talismans were what Neptune and Uranus were looking for. It had really angered everyone when Usagi told them that Neptune and Uranus were recklessly endangering civilians in their quest to find the talismans. Luckily, in Ranma and the Inner Scouts' opinions, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus hadn't been in a position to cause another confrontation like what had happened before Ranma's identity was revealed to the inners. Ranma then said in a serious voice, "Whose heart crystals bare the remaining talismans?"

Feeling everyone's eyes focus on her, Setsuna put her hand to her right temple and said, "Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus hold the Deep Aqua Mirror and the Space Sword respectively." On seeing the Glares of Death being directed by Ranma and Usagi when she mentioned who held the talismans, Setsuna felt her headache returning. Figuring that her future queen and (by the looks of things) king would want a more through answer, Setsuna started to explain. "As I told Usagi a while ago, I gave Sailor Neptune a gem that would detect who bore a talisman in their heart crystal. From what I can tell, Sailor Neptune gave the gem to Sailor Uranus and then Sailor Uranus figured that the gem wasn't working when it indicated that she and Neptune were talisman bearers."

On hearing what Sailor Uranus did, Ranma and Usagi crashed onto the floor anime style. Usagi, with her face still firmly on the floor, mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear, "That's it. If my senshi don't pass a basic common sense test, I'm outsourcing to the King of Fighter's Women's Team!"

Both Nodoka and Setsuna cracked a small smile when they heard Usagi's proclamation. Usagi then picked herself off of the floor and straitened out her skirt. After casually flinging her ponytails over her shoulder, Usagi looked into Setsuna's red eyes and said, "So I take it that you're going to take me over to wherever it is that those two live so that I can extract the remaining talismans?" Setsuna politely nodded her head to show that Usagi was correct in her assumptions. Usagi then turned to face Ranma, gave him a kiss on the lips, and said, "See you later Ranma. We're still on for tonight at the Mainland Mandarin Meal Stop?" Ranma's smirk and eye grin were an obvious and emphatic yes for Usagi. Dinner plans safely taken care of, Usagi and Setsuna walked out of Ranma's room to go extract two talismans.

* * *

Ryoga was currently sitting on a barstool in the Mainland Mandarin Meal Stop with his face on the counter next to a mug of root beer. Mousse, the real one and not one of the shadow clones working the kitchen, glanced over to where Ryoga was sitting and shook his head. The former lost boy had waked into Mousse's restaurant half an hour ago, ordered a soda, and had just sat there staring at the counter and at the soda. The fanged fool looked so pathetic just sitting there that it was eating at Mousse's heartstrings. Finally Mousse caved in and said, "I'm a restaurant owner, not a bartender. However, I can't stand him sitting there like that." Mousse calmly walked over to where Ryoga was sitting and said, "Are you going to drink your soda or are you going to mope around all day?"

Ryoga looked up and locked his eyes with Mousse; baring his fangs, Ryoga almost growled out. "Look Mousse, You're a friend and I respect you. However, you're putting yourself into some dangerous territory. So I would suggest, as a friend, that you mind your own business!" Mousse looked on as Ryoga sent a look of anger through his eyes in an attempt to make Mousse back away. However Mousse did not back away and Ryoga's eyes quickly betrayed the sadness that Ryoga was feeling. Ryoga quickly started to cry and put his head back on the counter. Mousse just stood by his friend and waited, Mousse figured that Ryoga would eventually tell him what the cause of the problem was.

Soon enough, Ryoga broke down and told Mousse all about the 'bathtub' incident involving Ami and him. All the while Mousse leaned back and calmly listened to what Ryoga was telling him. Once Ryoga was done talking, Mousse put his hand on his chin and thought about the situation in front of his friend. Snapping his fingers, Mousse turned to look Ryoga in the eye and said, "Guess what Ryoga! There is still a way for you repair the damage in your love life. Go down the street, buy a dozen roses, and go find Ami. Once you find Ami, give her the roses and apologize for teleporting on her in the bath. You should then explain that you were not used to teleporting in your cursed form. After you do that, explain to her all about the curse. However I would recommend that you don't tell her who else has a curse, that won't make you look good in a girl's eyes."

Ryoga listened to Mousse's suggestions and thought long and hard about them. A tiny part of him was shocked that Mousse told him to forget his pride, reveal the most painful secret he had, and go crawling and begging after Ami. However Ryoga quickly squashed this part of him and buried the remains in the bottom of the sea. This wasn't just any girl he was talking about, but Ami! In Ryoga's mind Ami was the perfect girl, nothing he could give up was too high a price to pay in order to possibly win her love.

Besides Ryoga thought, it's not like a normal girl like Ami would automatically freak out once he explained the curse to her. Ami had after all seen his teleporting abilities and was just as good a friend to him afterward as she was before. Also, Ranma's girlfriend Usagi knew about Ranma's curse and didn't dump Ranma even with all of Ranma's other faults. Since Ami and Usagi are friends, wouldn't it be likely that Ami wouldn't mind the curse too much after he explained it her? Even more importantly, could he ever forgive himself if he let Ami slip through his fingers now?

It didn't take much time for Ryoga to make up his mind: do whatever it took to get Ami to talk to him again. Sitting up strait on his stool Ryoga grabbed his mug of root beer, chugged it down in a few large gulps, placed the now empty mug on the counter, and stood up to leave. Just before he turned to walk out the door Ryoga tossed a coin at Mousse and said, "Thanks for the advice. You're a real pal Mousse and I'm glad that you were there for me."

* * *

Herb was sitting in his room at the Hikawa Shrine when he heard a soft but firm knock on his door. Turning his head towards the door, Herb said in an uncertain voice, "you can come in." The door opened up to reveal Rei leaning against the doorframe in her shrine maiden clothes. Most likely, at least in Herb's mind, Rei had just come back from attending her duties in the public areas of the shrine. Rei's face was in a frown as if she was both upset and worried about something at the same time. Looking his eyes with hers Herb asked in an uncertain tone. "Is something wrong Miss Hino, you seemed quite aggravated? Can I do something to lessen your aggravation?"

Rei closed her eyes and looked like she was counting numbers in order to keep calm. She then opened her eyes and said, "Yes Herb, there is something you can do to help me keep my temper. Actually, there are two things that you can do to help me." Rei then brought her hand out and slapped a finger on that hand with her other hand. "The first thing you can do for me Herb is to call me by my first name, understood." After Herb nodded his head to show that he understood her request, Rei grabbed a second finger. "Second Herb, tell me what's bugging you. Ever since that add that mentioned Sailor Moon and the Jovian Paladin, you've looked like you've seen a ghost."

Herb thought about Rei's second request for a moment, revealing the reason behind his troubles would be almost unprecedented in the long history of the Musk dynasty. However, these were almost unprecedented times as he had discovered so recently and just confirmed a few hours ago. Making up his mind, Herb motioned for Rei to sit next to him on his bed. Rei then promptly came over and sat next to Herb. After Rei had sat down on the bed, Herb reached into his trunk that was at the foot of the bed and pulled out an old leather-bound book. He then placed the old book reverently into his lap and turned to look at Rei.

Herb stared into Rei's eyes for a minute before he spoke with his usual confident tone. "Understand Rei that the Musk Dynasty has a LONG history. By long history I am not referring to 3,000 years or so like the Amazons Ranma and I told you about. I am not even referring to over 5,000 years of history like the 'ancient' civilization of the Egyptians. Rather, I am referring to over 10,000 years of history as a people and knowledge of the 4,000 years before the Dynasty arose. This book, known as the Tome of the Taisho, is a copy of the words that the founder of the Musk Dynasty carved into the Dynasty's sacred shrine 10,000 years ago."

Rei let out a small gasp of surprise when she heard Herb state the length of time that the Musk Dynasty had existed. Not only was her surprise from how long the Musk Dynasty had been around, but also from WHOM they likely had knowledge of. Thanks to the Mercury Computer the scouts knew that the Silver Millennium ended 10,000 years ago. The Scouts had assumed until now that they were the only people with knowledge of those times. However, Herb's proclamation and his reaction at the names of Sailor Moon and Jovian Paladin made it obvious that Musk at least knew of the Silver Millennium.

Herb, after seeing that Rei's face had calmed down from the shock, reverently opened the Tome of the Taisho and said, "I think that my situation would be even more clearer after I read you this section of the Tome." Rei instantly focused her entire consciousness on Herb and what he was saying. "And so it was that, to my eternal shame, that I the Dragon Captain was unable to prevent my ledge General Nephrite of the Earth Kingdom from being enslaved by the traitorous Lady Beryl. My survival of Ragnarok was not the act of a brave and courageous leader but the act of a coward. I and the rest of the 10th company hid ourselves in caves among the Tibetan mountains. There it was we stayed while our brothers in arms were coerced into destroying all that we held dear."

"Ragnarok has passed us by and we have lived, better it would be by far if we had perished in its flames. At least then we could descend into the Halls of Osiris knowing that we died doing our duty to defend the kingdom. Instead the kingdom is dead and our sisters in the heavens have grown silent while we live on. The stench of our shame permeates all of us; it is a musk that we suffocate in. Even our neighbors who are rapidly descending into barbarism avoid us, sensing the guilt that we bare. Not even a thousand times thousand generations will be enough time to whip out our shame."

"I can only offer this one hope to my children and the children of my subordinates. One single way that our shame may be removed and we may take our rightful places once again. I have visited the Pythia and she uttered a prophecy to me. She told me that 'The heir of the general shall be reborn in a far away land to fight with his mother and his promised bride.' Also, the Pythia revealed to me that only by serving the heir shall we remove the stain on our honor and regain our proper place and defenders of the kingdom reborn."

"I shall now reveal a secret that I have kept in confidence; I do so only so that my heir may use this knowledge to redeem the once honorable Dragon Company or as we have begun to call ourselves the Musk. Our General, the wise and clever Nephrite, fathered a single child. This child is known throughout the Silver Millennium and the Earth Kingdom although Our General was never able to claim the child as his. That child I speak of is none other than Prince Nephelite, FIRST BORN son of princess Hippolyta of the Jovian Kingdom. When news of the Prince Nephelite's rebirth comes, my heir must make all haste to deliver our oaths of loyalty to the reborn prince and take his place as the prince's loyal servant."

"I know that I shall not live to see the glorious day that our future liege is reborn. However, I have been able to do my part to prepare us for when our liege returns to accept our oaths of fidelity. I have managed to find and secure several armories of the on glorious Western Army. The locations of these armories are carefully guarded and will only be accessed in the following manner. On the western side of this monument that these words have been inscribed upon there is as you will notice a palm print carved into the monument. The reborn prince must place his hand on the palm print and channel a small part of his senshi energy into his hand. The palm print shall recognize the prince for who he is and using a hologram, display the locations of the armories that I have hidden."

Herb then closed the Tome of the Taisho and placed it back in his trunk. He then turned to face the shocked Rei and said, "Now do you see why I am so upset and worried? For 10,000 years my people have lived with the shame of our ancestors haunting us every day. Now, after so long, my people have a chance to have their shame removed and what do I do? I forgot about my part in removing their shame! Instead of instantly going out and looking for the prince, I have to go and check the Tome in order to remember my duties."

Rei looked on and saw that Herb was practically forcing himself to not cry. It really ate at her heart to see Herb like he was. She knew from Ranma that Herb had a lot of pride and confidence in himself and his abilities. His draconic blood enabled Herb, at least according to Ranma, to generate at least three times more chi than a normal person of the same training could. Although Herb wasn't as strong as a Senshi, his skill and power probably put him on equal footing with either Neptune or Uranus. With such power at his disposal it was not at all surprising to Rei that Herb would be prideful and confident.

However, none of that confidence or pride was being displayed before her right now. Before Rei was not a proud prince or a confident warrior but rather a scared and uncertain young man. A young man, who was almost alone in a strange land and deeply afraid that he had failed his people's hopes and dreams, was all that Rei saw when she looked at Herb. Although her temper might at times hide it, Rei was a rather empathetic person. You really can't work at a shrine helping people for years without developing at least some empathy. In a move that would greatly surprise the inner scouts, Rei wrapped her arms around Herb and pulled him into a hug.

Herb was at first shocked at Rei's action and was unsure of how he should respond. Since the Musk rarely ever saw a girl after they were weaned and until they were married, this was not an experience that he had any pervious knowledge of. To Herb's immense surprise, Rei softly said, "Don't worry Herb, you've done nothing wrong. All you've done is double-check your facts in order to make sure that you didn't make a mistake. After all, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I will do everything that I can to help you locate Jovian Paladin, I swear." Slowly Herb started to draw comfort from Rei's actions and words, knowing that everything would indeed turn out for the best.

* * *

Usagi and Ranma were walking down the sidewalk coming away from a happy date at Mousse's restaurant. Mousse had given them a private booth in the back of the dinner away from everyone else and away from the windows. When Usagi asked why they were given such a romantic location Mousse had responded, "I'm doing everything I can to make sure that no nuts who may have a pathetic grudge against Ranma can find him. After all, I don't want my insurance rates to skyrocket due to a low level martial arts moron trying to pick a fight in my restaurant. If the spot that best insures this just happens to be romantic, well I guess that it's just a good bonus for us all."

Even though that may have been the reason Mousse had told her and Ranma, Usagi had a feeling that Mousse was genuinely happy for Ranma and was trying to help insure that Ranma and her had a good date. Slightly increasing her grip on Ranma's arm, Usagi laid her head on his shoulder as they walked together in comfortable silence. There was a content smile on Usagi's face as she thought about her and Ranma. While she freely admitted that Ranma had his faults, Usagi loved him just the same. Although Ranma could easily be kind and caring, he wasn't like the white knight that Usagi had fantasized about when she was a little girl. Even thought Ranma was a reborn prince, he could be better described as the archetypical heroic barbarian coming to the rescue of the 'civilized' princess.

Of course, no literary archetype could fully describe Ranma in Usagi's mind. But Usagi actually liked that about Ranma. Ranma was a completely unique and wonderful person that was hers. At that moment Usagi tilted her head and gave Ranma a small peck on the cheek. She then softly whispered loud enough for Ranma and Ranma alone to hear her, "Thanks' for the date Ranma. I had a wonderful time tonight and I wouldn't trade it for anything." Ranma's cheeks started to blush as he listened to what Usagi said to him. Although they had been together for a little while, Ranma was still quite unused to such public displays of affection being directed towards him.

Usagi looked up from her position next to Ranma and saw the intersection coming up that ended the shared paths between their homes and the restaurant. Thinking about something for a moment, Usagi softly said, "Ranma, please walk with me to my house." Ranma turned his head to look Usagi strait in the eye. Before Ranma could say anything Usagi continued. "I know that if we show up together my parents are probably going to figure out that we're dating. I don't mind them finding out about us; I'm not ashamed of you in any way and there's nothing that we have to hide about our relationship. Besides, I wouldn't be too surprised if my mother at least has a suspicion that we're an item now."

Usagi's words made Ranma smile. It still at times seemed like a dream to him that he could have a girl like Usagi love him. She wasn't pushy, demanding, or considered him to be a pervert. Instead Usagi was everything that Ranma had secretly wanted in a girl without loosing that certain spark like Kasumi, who he had before used as a model of the perfect girl, seemed to have lost. A sense of warmth flooded Ranma's heart when he heard Usagi say that she didn't mind her family knowing about the two of them. Even during his days in Nerima, Ranma figured that no girl would really want to bring him home to meet her folks. The fact that the Tsukinos already knew him didn't factor into Ranma's worry when it came to his and Usagi's love life.

So in accordance with Usagi's wish, the two of them turned the corner and continued walking on their way to the Tsukino home. The setting sun painted a glorious image in the sky that both of them would occasionally glance up to see. However, the moment between them was broken when they heard the sounds of a labored run coming towards them. Ranma and Usagi looked down the road to see Hotaru running towards them like the hounds of hell were on the poor girl's heels.

Hotaru spotted Ranma and Usagi and seemed to redouble her pace in order to reach them. Usagi broke her hold on Ranma's arm in order to scoop up the frail frightened girl into a friendly embrace. With a calming voice Usagi softly said, "What's wrong Hotaru? We're your friends; we'll do whatever we can to help you."

Hotaru's frail body was practically shacking in Usagi's hug. Looking up at the worried looks on Ranma and Usagi's faces, Hotaru said in a quiet mouse like voice, "I-I h-heard my f-father talking t-to one of h-his assistants." Hotaru stopped talking for a moment and seemed to somehow make her form seem smaller then she really was. Ranma and Usagi then had to strain their hearing in order to clearly hear the next words that she mumbled out. "My father and his friends are behind the monster attacks."


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: if you honestly believe that I own them I've got only this to say. What are you smoking and why aren't you sharing.

Ranma walked out of his room and quietly closed the door. Turning around he was face to face with a very worried Nodoka and Usagi. Motioning with his head towards the stairs Ranma said, "Hotaru's safely tucked away in my bed. Let's head down stairs so that we can continue this conversation. Don't want to accidentally awaken Hotaru; she was exhausted before I got her to fall asleep." The two (Makoto was in third place) most important people in Ranma's life both nodded their heads to show that they agreed with Ranma's suggestion. The girls and Ranma then headed down the stairs and into the kitchen.

The sun was just beginning to set as Usagi and Nodoka turned into the room and started to sit down at the kitchen table. Ranma first made a detour to the fridge and grabbed a can of coke before he headed over to sit at the table. The kitchen was completely quiet once Ranma sat down and folded his hands together at the table. Nodoka was the one to break the silence and she said, "What are you two going to do?" Ranma and Usagi both turned their heads as one and stared at Nodoka. Ranma's mother then continued speaking to clarify what she meant. "What I mean is; what are you two going to do with the information that poor Hotaru has given you?"

Usagi closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and then replied. "Auntie Nodoka, I think that Hotaru should at least for the moment stay here at the Saotome household. Regardless of what's going on, Hotaru is going to need a compassionate mother-figure. I love my mother dearly but I don't think that she'll be able to handle the level of craziness that this whole situation is evolving into." Usagi was pleased to see Nodoka smiling and nodding her head at Usagi's suggestion. That was one less thing that the young princess would have to deal with.

Feeling more confident that she was making the right calls, Usagi continued to outline her plans to Nodoka and Ranma. "The first thing that I am going to do is contact Setsuna. She should be able to use the Time Gates to backtrack Hotaru's immediate past and verify that Hotaru's telling us the truth. It's not that I don't believe Hotaru; I sincerely believe that she telling us the truth. However we can't just move on one person's say so; not on something of this magnitude. After she has verified Hotaru's story Setsuna is going to get the locations that our enemy is using as a base. I then relay that information to Ami and have her use the Mercury computer to create a map for us of the enemy base. As soon as we have the map, we'll commence a full frontal assault on the enemy locations."

Usagi had to stop and take another breath to calm her nerves, it was difficult but necessary for her continue her train of thought. Firming up her resolve, Usagi continued to outline her plan. "During the assault we have to destroy EVERYTHING and we can. All of our information currently shows that the people we are fighting are doing this all of their own free will so-" at this point a small tear fell down Usagi's cheek. She took a moment to compose herself again before she continued in a quieter voice, "-we'll have to kill all who try and stop us."

Having said what she needed to say, Usagi was unable to hold back the tears any longer. Ranma, who was unable to bear seeing Usagi in pain, practically flew out of his chair and wrapped his arms around Usagi. He then slowly, while always whispering soothing words into her ears, maneuvered Usagi so that she was crying into his shoulder. Slowly as the minutes passed Usagi's tears stopped coming. Although she was no longer crying, Usagi was still clinging to Ranma as tightly as ever. He was her support pillar giving her the strength to do what she knew she would have to do. Ranma quickly figured out that Usagi was clinging to him so tightly because she was trying to draw comfort and strength from him that she still desperately needed. As far as Ranma was concern, Usagi could stay right where she was for as long as she wanted to, any time she wanted to be there.

* * *

It was around 10 o'clock at night at the Outers' house when Setsuna teleported into the deserted family room. She had just spent the past few hours at the Time Gates gathering the information that Usagi had requested. Reaching down into her dress pocket, Setsuna pulled out a cell phone and hit the speed dial for Usagi's home phone. As the phone was ringing Setsuna was busy creating a cover story just in case Usagi wasn't the one to answer the phone. To Setsuna's relief she heard on the other end, "Tsukino residence this is Usagi Tsukino speaking. How may I help you?"

Taking a deep breath Setsuna started talking, "Usagi, this is Setsuna. I've just gotten back from checking my sources and Hotaru's story does check out. However, as I was going over the records, I noticed that a few things in _Hotaru's _files that were filed a bit _strangely._Some of the odd files seem to be _connected to_ what you and Ranma were talking about in _the past_ few days with me. Sadly_Hotaru_ was not able to get _possession_ of all of the required documents. Not to worry though, with _Rei's help_ we can get Hotaru's files _taken care of_ and her back in_possession_ of that lost item."

Over at the other end of the line, Usagi was sitting down at the kitchen table. She wasn't used to speaking in code but Usagi was able to quickly put together what Setsuna was trying to tell her. After taking a moment to figure out how to say what she wanted Setsuna to know Usagi spoke. "Do you think that we should _tell Hotaru_ _about_ what we've been working on for _the past_ week? Or, should we _wait_ until Ranma and I get Rei to sort this all out? I wouldn't want to get her hopes up _until_ after everything involving who actually has _possession _of the item is _taken care of_."

Back at the Outers' house Setsuna had a big smile plastered across her face. Yet again Usagi was surprising her with the princess's growth and new maturity. No longer did the girl seem to need some to pull her courage out of a hat for her, Usagi was now an experienced battle leader. True the girl still needed to get a lot of advice before she made her decision, but what good general didn't need advice. Setsuna closed her eyes and thought for second before she said, "I would suggest that Rei sort it all out. Good night Usagi, could you please get back to me on this tomorrow after Rei sorts everything out."

Setsuna then ended the call and put her cell phone back in her pocket. Things were really starting to look up in Setsuna's opinion. After all the inner scouts were getting the training they needed. Also, Usagi was shapping up into a real princess instead of a fairy-tale princess. Finally if the scouts ever got into a situation that was too dangerous for them to handle, they had Ranma there to pull their bacon out of the fire. Shaking her head, Setsuna headed over to the fridge to grab a sub sandwich. She could tell Haruka and Michiru about the plan latter; right now she had a sandwich with her name on it to take care of.

* * *

Ranma, Usagi, and Hotaru were all walking together towards the Hikawa shrine in the early morning light. Hotaru was currently in between Usagi and Ranma tightly hugging onto both of their hands. Half in hour earlier when she had woken up, Hotaru had been told by Ranma that she was currently possessed. Her 'big brother' explained to her that he had encountered a Sailor Scout while she was sleeping. The scout had told him, Ranma said, that they knew about her father and what he was doing. Also, Ranma told Hotaru that the scouts had found out that she was mildly possessed. Hotaru was very scared at first when she heard that news. Luckily in her opinion, Ranma and Usagi knew an old priest and his shrine maiden granddaughter who had agreed to perform an exorcism for her.

Once the trio reached the Hikawa shrine, Usagi took the lead and directed everyone to the room with the sacred fire. Rei and her grandfather were currently waiting for their guest and already had everything set up. Shigeru Hino quickly spotted Hotaru trying to hide behind Ranma and Usagi. With a kind smile on his face Shigeru approached Hotaru and said, "So you're the one that Usagi told my granddaughter about. I must admit that we don't get a lot of cases of possession to deal with, not the cities anyway. Don't worry though little girl, I know what I'm doing and I'll make sure that your good as new in no time."

Shigeru's gentle and friendly disposition was calming on Hotaru's frayed nerves. She was still nervous about the whole procedure but she was now feeling better about at the same time. Tilting her head just a bit Hotaru looked into first Ranma and then Usagi's eyes. Her two friends were smiling at her and their concern for her shown in their eyes. Knowing that Ranma and Usagi were going to be there for her, made the whole situation easier for Hotaru to handle. Plucking up what courage she could find Hotaru slowly approached the elder Hino and said, "Uh sir, I'm ready to begin."

Taking the frail young girl by the hand, Rei's grandfather slowly led Hotaru over in front of the sacred fire. He then had her sit down on a soft mat that was on the floor so that she was gazing at the flames. Shigeru then instructed Hotaru to gaze at the flames and focus on the warmth of the fire and love of her friends. Once the old priest was sure that Hotaru had followed his directions, he lit a pile of incense and began to slowly chant. While her grandfather chanted Rei had to make sure that the incense and sacred fire were both properly taken care of.

Ranma watched on in worry and a bit of concern for Hotaru. He didn't know how long the whole procedure would take, but he was willing to spend the entire day there to help Hotaru out. The shy young girl had quickly grown on him and Ranma saw her like a little sister. As he was gazing at the proceedings happening in front of him, Ranma felt Usagi slowly take his hand into hers and give the hand a light squeeze. Ranma was secretly glad that Usagi was standing there with him. Her mere presence was enough to call Ranma's worried nerves that he had been trying not to show.

Reaching out with his developing chi senses, Ranma noticed a thick dark aura starting to emerge from Hotaru. That aura seemed to be trying to stay on Hotaru and burrow back in her even as it was forced to the surface. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the back aura was the aura of whatever it was that was possessing Hotaru. The dark and malicious aura soon became visible to Usagi who let out a gasp of surprise and worry. Shigeru continued to steadily chant even as a chilling wind started to blow in the room originating from Hotaru.

Ranma looked on the scene with a great deal of fear for Hotaru as the storms the dark wraith-like thing possessing her was creating. Ranma was only a hair's breath away from transforming and attacking the evil entity when the entity vanished. Hotaru started to wobble for a bit and Rei went over and caught the frail girl before she could fall. Rei then gently set Hotaru down and turned to her grandfather. Both Hinos looked each other in the eyes for a few seconds before sharing a mutual nod. Shigeru turn to face Ranma and Usagi and calmly said, "The maelevolent spirit has been removed from the girl's body. She only needs to rest."

Rei's Grandfather then started to slowly walk out of the room leaving the teenagers alone. After glancing down one more time to check on Hotaru, Rei looked up at Ranma. The fire wielding senshi then got a little nervous and said, "Uh Ranma, before we have the scout meeting, there's something you need to take care of. It involves General Nephrite and that portion of your past life." Shrugging his shoulders, Ranma wondered what if this day could get any weirder.

* * *

Two hours after the exorcism, all of the inner scouts plus the moon cats were sitting down in the usual meeting spot at the Hikawa shrine. Makoto looked around the room and then at Usagi. Worried about Ranma, Makoto raised her voice and said, "Uh Usagi, why were we called over? Also, where's Ranma at?"

All eyes turned to look at Usagi; most of those eyes were asking her to tell them what was going on. For a split second Usagi wished that Ranma was right there by her side but she knew that the discussion he and Herb were having right now was very important. Taking a deep breath, Usagi started to speak, "Ranma's not here right now because he's talking to a new ally that has been discovered. The two of them should be coming in here soon enough and Ranma knows the plan that I've come up with."

Everyone in the room besides Rei and Usagi started to send questioning glances to each other. They were all wondering what the mysterious plan of Usagi's was for and also, who the new ally was that Ranma was talking to at the moment. Not wanting to have to fend off a half-dozen questions at once, Usagi started talking again. "We've managed to locate where the people behind these attacks are at. Just so you know the Outer scouts are going to be patrolling the city to stop any daemon attacks while we commence the plan. The plan is simple, the inner scouts, Ranma, and the new ally will go in and get rid of the people behind the attacks _permanently_."

Usagi watched as everyone around her looked a little pale when they thought about what she had said. None of the other scouts had taken a human life before and were obviously upset at the idea. Trying to find a way to comfort her scouts, Usagi closed her eyes and thought about what to say. She then opened her eyes and softly said, "I know that this is hard to accept. We have after all always dedicated ourselves to saving lives whenever we could. Sadly however things have reached a point where, in order for us to save lives, we are called to take the lives of the few people behind these attacks. This isn't an easy thing for us to do and frankly it's not supposed to be an easy thing to do. However it is a necessary thing for us to do right now."

The room was deathly quiet after Usagi's speech, no one in there dared to break the silence that had descended upon them as they thought over what Usagi had said. Fortunately for everyone in the room, the door to the room opened up and broke the silence. Ranma steeped into the room and was followed closely behind by Herb. Both cursed princes were in their full battle armor; Ranma in is mystical Jovian Paladin armor and Herb in his dragon hide armor. Usagi looked at the surprised faces of her friends and said, "You all know about Ranma, but allow me to fully introduce his companion. This is Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty and the descendent of one of General Nephrite's army captains.

The look on Ami, Makoto, Minako, and the moon cats' faces were absolutely priceless in Usagi's opinion. One good thing about this sudden surprise in Usagi's opinion was that the thoughts of what they would have to do seem to have disappeared from the inner's thoughts. A camera flash suddenly happened and everyone turned to see Rei standing there with a camera. "What?" Rei said as she noticed everyone's eyes on her, "I thought that it was a funny scene."

* * *

Standing on the roof of a nearby building the seven warriors looked down at Infinity Academy. Usagi had ordered them all to stop here and wait for Ami to double-check the academy with the mercury computer. Looking up from the screen of the mini-laptop, Ami quietly but confidently said, "I'm only detecting a few human life signs but those life signs are saturated with the same type of energy as the witch Ranma and Usagi killed a while ago. Also, from what I can scan, there are three ways into the lair from the school grounds. One way is through the gym storage room, another through the teacher's lounge, and the final one being through the girl's bathroom on the top floor."

For the next minute Usagi leaned against a roof-top shed and thought about the information that Ami had given. Thinking about her forces, Usagi realize that she had three people who would best be able to handle the possibility of ending someone's life. She and Ranma were two of those people because they already had blood on their hands. The last one was Herb because as prince of the Musk he had been brought up knowing about the possibility of having to end a person's life. It didn't take long for Usagi to make up her mind. With a look of determination in her eyes Usagi said, "Alright, here's the plan. We're going to split up into three groups and have each group tackle one of the entrances. Ranma and Makoto will go through the gym entrance, Herb and Rei have the entrance in the teacher's lounge, finally Ami, Minako and I will go after the entrance in the girl's bathroom."

Everyone nodded their heads and left to go after their assigned targets. Ranma and Makoto, due to being the most physically fit team and the fact that their entrance was closer, arrived at their destination first. Before Makoto could enter into the gym; Ranma, who was standing by the door, motioned for her to stay back. He then turned to his reincarnated mother and said, "Makoto wait. I sense that one of our enemies is in the gym. From what I can tell from the person's aura he or she isn't aware of us yet. Also, whoever it is currently putting out more power then you currently do. Our best bet to handle this situation is to take them out before they realize that we're here. I want you to stay back while I attack. My attacks are quicker than yours are so I should be able to take that person out before they realize it. If I should fail and the battle gets a little crazy, I always have you here as back up."

Makoto firmly nodded her head thankful and disgusted with herself that Ranma was volunteering to take out the foe in front of them. As much as the Hippolyta portion of her was angered that her 'baby' had to do such a thing; Makoto was able to calm herself down with Ranma's logical arguments. After shaking her head to clear away those thoughts, Makoto was surprised to see that Ranma had vanished. Whipping her head all around to try and find him Makoto finally looked up and saw Ranma hanging on the ceiling.

Ranma, using the cling-to-the-ceiling-and-hope-they-don't-look-up technique, slowly walked across the ceiling ala Spiderman and into the gym. Looking down from his perch high up on the gym wall, Ranma noticed a girl with deep blue hair currently shooting hoops on the other end of the gym. For a split second Ranma was disgusted with himself for contemplating killing the girl while she was playing a game. However he reminded himself about what that this was no time for sentimentality and that these people were responsible for the recent attacks. Leaping off of the wall, Ranma spun around, crossed his arms together, and yelled out "IO INFERNO!"

Cyprine was the most powerful of the Witches 5 in terms of her power. However, even the most powerful of people can be brought down if they are caught unaware. Sadly for Cyprine, all she was able to do was turn around and look in shock as two blazing blades of red energy came at her. Before she was able to do anything to defend herself the blades cut through her. Luckily for Cyprine, she passed out from the pain and so didn't have to feel herself dying from blood loss.

Makoto walked into the gym to see Ranma standing next to the dismembered corpse of Cyprine. Although Ranma's face wasn't showing any emotion, Makoto could see the look of pain shining through Ranma's eyes. She watched as Ranma clapped his hands twice in a silent prayer for Cyprine's soul. Once Ranma was done praying he turned around to face Makoto and said, "Come, we still have much work ahead of us."

* * *

Professor Tomoe was working in his underground lab and was feeling very frustrated. For the past month he had been supplying the Witches 5 with daemon eggs in the hopes that they would collect the three talismans. Those talismans were needed for his and Mistress 9's plans to summon their lord Pharaoh 90 to earth. He was frustrated because he should have had those talismans weeks ago. Instead those annoying Sailor Scouts had shown up at every turn and messed up his plans. Hearing the door open up behind him, Professor Tomoe called out, "What is with you girls, I called you five minutes ago!"

A female voice that Professor Tomoe wasn't expecting then called out to him, "Sorry your former associates didn't get the memo to let us in." The diabolical professor turned around to stare at the Sailor Scouts with Sailor Moon in the center flanked by Herb and Ranma. Usagi, who was the speaker from before, then continued to speak. "The 'Witches 5' have all been killed. The malevolent spirit that you had possessing your daughter, who is currently somewhere safe, has been exorcised. All that is left to be taken care of is you."

Professor Tomoe became enraged as he listened to Sailor Moon's speech. How could his glorious enterprise come to this? With courage brought on only by the insanity of a madman who knows his end is near, Professor Tomoe grabbed a syringe that was lying on the table behind him. The syringe contained a new super daemon seed that he was in the process of perfecting. He would just have to inject it into one of these annoying children and then sit back and watch as they were destroyed from within.

Both Herb and Ranma noticed Professor Tomoe reaching behind to the workbench that the mad doctor was previously working at. Thanks to their extensive martial arts training, both princes could read Professor Tomoe's intentions do to how the doctor's muscles moved. It was obvious to them that Professor Tomoe was going to through something at Sailor Moon. Whatever was going to be thrown was most likely not something that the princes' would want to hit Sailor Moon or any of the Scouts. The two young men moved like grease lighting to put a stop to Professor Tomoe's plans. Ranma pulled Usagi down to the floor so that she was out of the path of whatever it was that Tomoe was going to throw at her. Herb whipped out his arm and yelled out, "Flying Sword of the Dragon!"

Professor Tomoe, although he was surprised at Herb's attack, managed to throw the syringe. Fortunately for the Scouts, Herb's chi blades destroyed the syringe as they made their way towards the evil doctor. The chi blades cut right through Professor Tomoe killing him in an instant. However, the blades didn't dissipate after they cut through Professor Tomoe but continued on until they crashed into the shelves behind the workbench. Some of the items contained on those shelves were highly flammable and caught on fire due to the energy of Herb's attack.

The small fire very rapidly grew into a bonfire thanks to the nature of what was stored on those shelves. Looking at the bonfire, Usagi called out, "Let's leave. We've taken care of the people who are behind the attacks; we'll let the fire destroy what remains of their work." With that said, Usagi, Ranma, and the rest of the assembled warriors wearily marched out of the secret lair.

Half an hour after the Sailor Scout's assault on the Death Busters, firefighters from several different stations were working furiously to put out the fire that was consuming the one prestigious infinity academy. The firemen had received a call about ten minutes ago telling them about the fire. When the first fire truck got to the sight they were greeted by Ranma and Usagi. The young couple had been the ones to put in the call to the station. Ranma was questioned by the head fireman why he and Usagi were at the scene of the fire. Very calmly Ranma explain that he had been in the middle of an afternoon walk with his girlfriend when they noticed that the school was on fire.

None of the firemen noticed during all of this that there were a set of eyes watching the whole proceedings. The owner of those eyes looked at Ranma and Usagi, burning their images into its brain. The unknown person was sure that those two had something to do with the Death Busters' demise. Silently the person in the shadows vowed revenge against the Sailor Scouts for what they had done, and against those two teens for whatever part they had in bringing down Pharaoh 90's plans.

-HistorianoftheKais here. We have reached the conclusion for this part of the saga. FEAR NOT fans of this story. While this part of the saga might be over, the Saga itself is not. I have simply broken the Saga into several stories that will each be posted separately. For you hard core SM fans, the rest of the story will most likely not touch Sailor Infinity and Sailor Stars. The next story in this saga will focus on the continuing growth of Ranma, Usagi, and their friends as they fight against the (currently) unknown enemy.


	13. Notice

Note: I have started the sequel to Prince of the Planets under the name of Crest of the King

Note: I have started the sequel to Prince of the Planets under the name of Crest of the King. It is in the Ranma fanfiction section and as of this posting is about 5,000 words long. Hope you enjoy it,

HistorianoftheKais


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