Part Two
Nodoka smiled as looked on her daughter/son. Even in the short time since she’d been reunited with her child she had noticed how quickly he/she was growing. What had once been an unbelievably cute young girl was fast becoming an incredibly beautiful young woman, much to said young woman’s dismay. She knew that the chances of her every having grandchildren at this point was nearly non-existent, but the sacrifice Ranma had made for someone he loved would ensure that if the Saotome line died out, they would at least die out with honor. Not that she had completely given up the hope of having grandchildren. Although she knew there was pretty much no chance that Ranma would ever like a man enough to have sex with him, in these modern times there were alternative methods for a woman to get pregnant. Added to that was the fact that with the way Ranma’s life went, it wasn’t too unlikely that something would come along to make the impossible happen.
Seeing her standing there defiantly in the Juban High’s boy uniform Nodoka didn’t have the heart to explain to her that the uniform was enhancing her feminine features and beauty rather than making them unnoticeable as Ranma obviously was hoping it would. “Are you sure that you want to wear a boy’s uniform, Ranma?” she asked, being very careful not to add the chan to Ranma’s name as she was naturally inclined to do.
Ranma gave what should have been a masculine grunt, but instead completed the picture of a pretty tomboy dressed in her brother’s clothes, “No way anybody’s getting me to wear the girls’ uniform!” she stated firmly. “It’s bad enough that I have to wear one at all,” she grumbled.
Nodoka sighed. Kasami had warned her to expect this type of reaction. “I’m sorry, Ranma dear, but the rules of all of the schools in this area are very strict and of them all, only Juban was flexible enough to allow even this much,” she told her new daughter with real regret. Even Juban wouldn’t have allowed Ranma to wear the boy’s uniform if it hadn’t been for the nice guidance councilor Nodoka had spoken with. After hearing Nodoka’s story, not only had she made a few exceptions for Ranma, but she had also suggested a very good divorce lawyer whom she said she’d speak to if Nodoka decided to divorce Genma. Not that she was planning to do that. The man was a fool, but she did love him.
While she was disappointed with the fit of her uniform, Ranma still considered it the lesser of two evils. The sports bra her mother had insisted on wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it’d be either and it tight enough that while still noticeable, her breast didn’t seem nearly so…healthy as they usually did. Still, she wished that she could get this stupid thing to hide her current gender like Ucchan was able to do.
‘Better than that stupid skirt I guess’ she thought. For the first time in her life, she was actually nervous about starting a new school. She was sure that this newfound case of nerves was the result of going to school as a girl, without the ability to change back to a boy. She had grown used to her female form during her time with the Tendo family, but before she’d almost always had the knowledge that being a girl was only a temporary thing. She no longer had that luxury.
A pair of warm arms encircled her form behind. “I know this is hard for you, Ranma,” Nodoka said gently. “But I want you to know that I’ve never been more proud of you than I was when I heard what you had done to save Akane’s life. Never doubt that you made the right choice or that son or daughter, I will always love you.”
Ranma fought back tears that she’d been holding in check for so long. Even for someone who had put up with what she did on a daily bases, loosing her male form and Akane was taking an emotional toll. But, girl or no, she would not cry! Nor would she give up hope of getting her male body back one day. “Thanks Mom,” she told the older Saotome.
“Now off with you,” Nodoka said as she gently pushed her towards the door. “Being late on your first day will give your teachers a bad impression of you,” Not the being on time was likely to help, with what Ranma decided to wear. But in the end, it would probably turn out to be best if Ranma learn what she’d likely be putting up with for the rest of her life, if she remained a she.
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The school looked like any other high school in the area did at this time of the morning; with children arriving via bus, bike, and walking. Many of the arriving students stopped to stare as the pretty redhead dressed in the school’s boy uniform walked up to the school easily keeping her balance as she walk along the top of the wall surrounding the school.
Ranma silently ground her teeth as her exceptional hearing allowed her to catch enough of what was being said about her to know that most of it wasn’t good. The girls mostly stuck to name calling and mocking laughter, things she had had to deal with all of her life as part of Genma’s train method and thus more easily ignored than the whispering of the boys who were talking about what they wanted to do with her and how one night with them would help her change her obviously wrong ways. The only thing that prevented her from knocking a few heads together was that she’d promised her mother that she’d at least try to make a good first impression. She hopped down into the schoolyard without breaking stride and continued on into the building doing her best to ignore what she was hearing and wondering if Akane was indeed right and all boy were perverts.
“Good morning! You must be new here,” said that a voice that was far too cheerful for someone that had to go to school on a beautiful day like today. Ranma looked up to see a girl with hair that was maybe a shade or two more red than her mother’s speaking to her. “Councilor Meiou asked that I wait for you and show you to your class. My name is Osaka Naru,” she said with a slight bow.
“Saotome Ranma” Ranma replied with a bow of her own. “Uh, why are some of the students wearing different uniforms?” asked the girl.
“Oh, that. Well the people in the green plaid uniforms used to go to Mugan Academy, a school the gifted,” Naru explained as she began to lead Juban’s newest student toward her classroom. “But Mugan was destroyed during a really big battle involving the Sailor Senshi. It turned out that some of the students were making monsters and sending them out to steal people’s heart crystals or something like that. After the sailor senshi stopped them, there wasn’t much of the school left and Sensei Tomoe announced that he wasn’t going to rebuild it, so the students that used to go there were divided among the local normal schools.”
Upon hearing of a fight that had completely destroyed a school, Naru had Ranma’s undivided attention. It was beginning to sound like Juban wouldn’t be nearly as boring as she thought it might be. “So, these Sailor Senshi are a group of fighters who go around fighting monsters and stuff?” she asked.
Naru wasn’t too surprised to learn that Ranma didn’t know who any of the Sailor Senshi were. It wasn’t the first time she’d met someone from another district that didn’t know about them. While no one in Tokyo would deny that they were very real, it wasn’t often that the any of the Senshi were seen outside of the Juban area. That combined with the fact that there was almost no actual footage of the team lead to very short stories about them when they did make the new or the papers.
“Actually, they’re Magical Girls who are each named after one of the planets, except for Sailormoon of course. She’s the leader of the Senshi. They’ve save me from youma attacks all too often it seems,” she added sadly. “Well, this is your class. I need to get to mine before bell, so if you really want to know more about the senshi, just ask around. Almost everyone around here thinks that they’re the expert on them,” she said more cheerfully. “Good luck!” she called and was off, down the hall before Ranma could protest.
Ranma once again noticed that she was the center of attention as she entered the classroom and waited next to the teacher’s desk for the first class to start. She ready herself for what she knew was coming as a fairly tall blonde boy in the Mugan uniform got up from the desktop of a green-haired girl in the girl version of the same uniform and approached her.
“Tenouh Haruka,” he introduced himself.
Ranma nodded politely back, “Saotome Ranma,” and watched as the boy’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Haruka had immediately recognized the name the pretty redhead called herself. Saotome Ranma was a legend in Martial Arts circuits all around the world, although more so in the eastern world. “You’re the Saotome Ranma!” she asked a bit more loudly than she had intended. Everyone who been causally eavesdropping gave up all pretense of not listening in. {A.N Ranma doesn’t realize that ‘he’ is really a ’she’}
Ranma rubbed the base of her neck and pulled on her pigtail somewhat embarrassedly, “The one and only as far as I know,” she answered. The listeners started whispering among themselves. Some were asking just who was Saotome Ranma going into details of her life that she didn’t think most people would even know about. Some of the boldest even began to ask her questions.
“Are you really a dojo destroyer?
“I heard she defeated the all city kendo champion on a every morning before school…”
“Isn’t Saotome Ranma a boy?” Ranma resisted the urge to shout, ‘I’m a guy, damnit!’
“I heard she was dating four girls and three boys all at the same time…” that one caused a large sweat-drop and a shutter as Ranma tried to imaging that happening.
“…no wonder she dresses and talks like a boy.”
“Hey! I’m right here, ya know!” Ranma protested, causing the mummers to die down. Mostly everyone went back to pretending they weren’t listening.
“Is it true?” Haruka couldn’t resist asking. After hearing Setsuna’s story it wasn’t too hard to guess that this was who she’d been telling them about and so she knew all about the curse that was causing some confusion among the other students.
“Is what true?”
“That you were dating four girls at once, of course.”
After a bit of grumbling, Ranma answered, “Only when they forced me, or tricked me. They’re my Iinazuke and there are only three of them.” She was doing her best to ignore the way the rest of the class leaned toward them upon hearing this information. And the somewhat vacant grin on Haruka’s face as she stared off into space was a bit disturbing as well. Ranma could have told her that it wasn’t anything like she was imagining, but…’Why ruin his fantasy?’ she thought.
Before Haruka recovered from her dream world, regardless of being hit with balls of paper by the girl she’d been sitting with, the teacher came in and after having Ranma introduce herself, class began.
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It had picked up the signature off and on a little, over the last two years. But this time was different. The signature was stronger this time and for the first time it had stayed active for more than a few weeks at a time. While the other times it had detected the signature had been dismissed as glitches or flair ups in the power of a particularly powerful descendants of the royal family, the fact that this one had been active for so long gave it hope that this time it was the real thing. Best of all, this time, the signature stayed active long enough for it to send a probe for better readings and confirm that what had been detected was real. Upon learning that the readings were indeed accurate, it started a series of preprogrammed actions along with a few actions it’s programming hadn’t covered.
A thousand feet above the surface of the now dead world of Titan a great fortress faded into view for the first time in over a hundred thousand years. Once completely back into normal space-time, Fortress Titan began to cast the preprogrammed restoration spells meant to once again bring life to the surface of Titan and rebuilding the Royal Palace and Capital City. Fortress Titan was the property of Senshi Titan, while the Queen of Titan and the rest of the Royal Court live at the palace. And thus with the birth of a new first princess, the Fortress was once again becoming active.
The AI that commanded the fortress also tried contacting it’s counterparts on the other planets in the solar system and after getting no response had gone from passive sensors to the much more accurate active sensors and probes. Its findings were not encouraging. The once powerful palaces and fortresses of the other planets had all been reduced to rubble and the planets themselves uninhabitable. Finding no preprogrammed orders for this situation, the fortress took action on its own.
It compiled a list of list of life forms and the ecosystems of each of the worlds from the time Fortress Titan had last been active and then with a combination of magic and technology created the genetic materials needed to restore the other worlds to the best of its abilities. It then loaded said items aboard probes along with nanobots enhanced by magic and programmed to repair its sister Fortresses and build from the raw material of the planets, the techno-magic shields needed for each world to sustain life. These probes were then launched and the restoration of the Sol system thus begun.
Meanwhile, Fortress Titan began to think of a way to contact its inheritor whom it had discovered was alive on Earth along with at least one other member of Titan’s Royal family.
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Ranma didn’t even try reading any of the dozens of notes that had piled up on her desk, far too used such things from her time in Nerima. Used to it or not she was very happy when the bell rung ending her latest class and the start of lunch period. There were no gasps of fear as Ranma-chan exited the class through the window, as the class was on the first floor. Most people just added it to the list of weird things about their newest classmate.
It wasn’t until she was looking around for a good tree to roost in to eat her lunch that Ranma realized that she had left home without her bento. With a depressed sigh, she was just about to slump at the base of the only really good tree she notices a really nice smell. She looked down and saw a bento that was being held under her nose. Attached to the bento was a hand, and attached to the hand was an arm that just so happened to be attached to beautiful blond with her hair up in a ridiculous hairstyle that reminded Ranma of the way Shampoo wore her hair.
Sounding like it was the most serious thing in the world, the blond spoke, “Forgot your lunch, huh? I know how that feels. My friend, Mako-chan always makes me some extra. I can share it with you if like. I’m Usagi-chan.”
“Thank you,” Ranma said accepting the offered bento. “I’m Saotome Ranma, but just call me Ranma,” she told her new friend.
Smiling happily, Usagi took Ranma’s free hand and led her over to the table where she and her friends were sitting. Ranma was a bit surprised to find that the boy, Haruka was there along with the girl’s whose desk he’d been sitting along with the girl who’d led her to her classroom when she’d arrived at school.
Haruka grinned as Ranma took her seat. “Saotome-san, I like for you to met my girlfriend, Kai-o Michiru,” she stated with nod indicating the green haired girl, “And these are our friends, Tsukino Usagi,” the girl who’d shared her lunch, (making her Ranma’s new best friend as far she was concerned) “Mizuno Ami” a slight, shy looking blue haired girl, “Aino Minako” a girl she recognized from a few TV commercials, “Kino Makoto” probably the ‘Mako-chan’ who’d made the extra lunch for Usagi, thus saving Ranma from starving to death, “Osaka Naru”
Smiling, Naru spoke up, “We met this morning.”
“And this is Hino Rei” continued Haruka indicating a long black hair wearing gray uniform instead of the blue of Juban or the green of Mugan.
Noticing the interest in her attire, Rei explained, “I used to go T.A. School for girls.”
“Everyone, this Saotome Ranma.” Haruka finished her introductions.
“So all you are in different classes?” asked Ranma.
Smiling, Michiru answered, “You, Haruka, and I are all juniors. Usagi and the others are sophomores.”
“We’re all in the same class, “ elaborated Rei, “With all the new students and teachers from Mugan they’ve been letting a few people slip by. Otherwise, Usagi and Minako would still be first year,” she added.
“Hey!” shouted Minako while Usagi made faces and stuck out her tongue. This caused the others to break into laughter, and even Ranma was forced to smile.
As the girls went back to talking, they all made a effort to include Ranma even though she kept her answers short focusing most of her attention on her food. If they noticed that she was eating as fast as Usagi, no one pointed it out so as not to embarrass their new friend. All too soon, lunch was over and it was back to class.
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“She has to be the one,” Makoto said to the others as they were walking back to class. Naru was walking with (Umino?) so it was safe to talk about the newest senshi now. “She talks, dresses, and acts just like a real boy.”
“Well, that makes sense I guess. After all, if she is the one, then as far as she knows, she has been a boy from birth until she was cursed,” Ami replied.
“Did you see how she was eating?” Minako asked. “I didn’t think anyone could out eat Usagi!”
Nods all around, except from Usagi who’s only comment was. “I still say she was stealing my food. I know I had more than that!”
Rei rolled her eyes and sighed, “Usagi, with all of us at the table talking with her, don’t you think one of us would have noticed if she was stealing from someone else bento?” she asked.
“What surprised me, was how well she and Haruka were getting along,” Makoto confided.
“I’m not too surprised,” said Usagi. “Setsuna didn’t go into too much detail about his…her personality, but from some of the thing she said, it seems to me that Haruka and Ranma-san have a lot in common. They’re both fighters, they’re both very competitive, and they act like boys!”
Before more could be said, they had to change the subject as they rejoined by Naru.
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Out in space heading toward the Sol system sped an asteroid the size of Earth’s moon. It was on the return leg of a journey begun well over a hundred thousand years ago. In fact, it was in the Sol system that its journey had first began. This asteroid was once the planet called Nemesis. However while it was on it’s way home, it would be another thousand years before it arrived anywhere near the Earth.
On Nemesis, trapped in a healing sleep since the destruction of the planet, was the being that was partly responsible for the planet’s death. In the timeline without Sailor Titan, this being would awaken at full power in about a hundred years and come to cover the Earth with an icy death that very few would survive. That would not be happening now however. For the creature was slowly but surly reviving even now.
*It sensed a familiar energy, the energy of the one that had caused it so much pain. The one that had nearly destroyed it! This shouldn’t be! This one should have died in its attempt to kill it, along with everything else it had destroyed in the attempt. But there was no mistaking that energy after being on the wrong end of it and surviving.
It was the sensing of the energy that was causing it to awaken so much earlier than it had planned. It awakened, not out of fear, but out of a need to utterly destroy the one that had destroyed that beautiful world it had created and caused it so much pain. It would not make the same mistake it had made last time. This time it would send agents. Even as it struggled to fully awaken, it sent small parts of itself, animated and programmed to kill and destroy, to test the power that had awakened it.
It would have it’s revenge!*
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