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No Need for Destiny
Chapter 8
No Need for Queens
Disclaimer: I don’t own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.
I would like to first personally thank all of those reviewing my stories. I enjoy reading your comments, and try to correct the grammatical errors I miss with my final read-through as well as my spell checkers. The suggestions you all make will help make this story better for everyone to enjoy, as well as allow my to fix some plot holes I may unintentionally leave. If you find any, let me know, and I will correct them and repost the chapters.
“You’re here because this is where you are to meet Ms. Kino,” said her father, standing beside the machine in question—Sailor V and the Queen’s Ruby—and directing stares at any young boys who dared to look like they might either approach his youngest daughter, or look at her figure in a perverted way. “And the answer to the second question is I think she’ll be good for you. If we plan to stay, you’ll need to learn how to blend in. And sad to say, you blend in about as well as I do in a field of snow.”
“Whatever,” the redhead mumbled. “If you’re that worried, I’m surprised I’m not staying at the mansion.”
“You know your mother and I won’t be there all the time. I want you to have a peer to talk to, share interests with. Besides, you know ‘he’ would see you, and we know how that would end.”
She shivered a bit, once again cursing the fact she looked like her father’s girl form, and that she was forbidden from killing Tatewaki Kuno. Well, at least I can still break bones. “You want me to have a babysitter,” she whined, performing a combo on some random enemy that no one had ever done before, earning her a score bonus.
Her father smirked. “Think, Little One; would I have placed you with ... normal ... people?”
Ranko paused at that for a bit, before resuming her attack on the game. “So, what is she like?” she asked, wondering what her father had done to her this time.
Her father nodded, glad she was at least willing to listen. What is she so mad about? It’s not like I’m springing a fiancé on her or anything. “Her name is Makoto. She lives alone because her parents died a long time ago.”
Ranko nodded, as she achieved a new power-up. She knew how her parents felt about orphaned or abandoned children. For them, it was a mission to find any child a good home who wanted one. It was even said that the Kuramitsu elders were de-facto parents for a lot of people who never got adopted for one reason or another.
“She also is into cooking and martial arts. I’m sure your mother told you it was okay to teach her a bit of the family style.”
Ranko turned towards him, smirking, as the game started some cut scene where Sailor V was talking with some minion or ally, one of the two. “Does that mean I have Master certification now?”
Sighing, her father produced a framed copy of a certificate, stating that Ranko Nodoka Kuramitsu was a certified Master of Infinity School Martial Arts.
She jumped with glee as she took the frame, giving her father a quick kiss on the cheek, as she looked at the certificate, the game already beeping for her to signal it was ready for her to start the next level.
Ranma sighed. He had been hoping to give that to her in private. But he knew how much Ranko had wanted that little piece of paper. While her personality was more a mixture of what his and Nabiki’s had been like before their journey into the past, she was still an Art-lover like her father.
Though Ranma still felt wrong calling his school Infinity and not Anything Goes. Sure, it carried Anything Goes inside of it as one of the founding styles. But given how many other styles were similar to Anything Goes and on other worlds, it was Nabiki who had suggested the renaming. After all, if word got out, they didn’t want their Art blamed for anything done in the name of Anything Goes.
And knowing their luck, Happosai or the fathers had done something stupid to a visiting alien.
“Yes,” said Ranma, looking around to make certain they were not being observed in any way. “When you see them, they’ll look like the Lost Ones.”
Ranko paled a bit, her character stopping between levels, as she tried to wrap her head around what her father had just said.
The Lost Ones were the only Kuramitsu children ever to die. Every child of the clan knew the story of the siblings they would never get to meet outside of holo-recordings. Of course, most of the learned reverence came after the shock of learning how “open” their parents were about their marriage.
But at least she wasn’t being married off to any relatives or half-siblings, like what Jurains did. That was just ... weird.
“Anything about why they look like them?” she asked silently, turning back to the game.
“I think her act is finally revealed.”
Ranko found herself pausing again, glad she had been able to clear the stage quickly of her attackers. Turning slowly to her father, she tried to form the words to her question. “Are ... are you sure?” she asked, knowing full well what this meant.
He nodded, motioning to the door, where several girls had entered.
Ranko turned, before she openly gasped at the girls. It ... it’s them!
She never saw the sad smile on her father’s face, or the look of his eyes about to cry, as he spotted not only friends he had thought he had lost, but of two girls he was once a proud father of. He quickly placed his sunglasses on to hide those same eyes from the girls, lest the wonder why the man was crying.
“Is that her, Mako-chan?” asked one of the girls, with blond hair and two dumpling globes on her head.
“Hey, Sis.”
Rei Kuramitsu sighed, as she looked up towards her older brother. “Don’t you have the decency to refer to me by my title, dear brother. If that is too difficult for you, how about by my name?”
Genma Kuramitsu smirked, sitting on her desk. “Please, sister. You are a member of the executive board of our family company. And besides, saying your title just seems so ... unfriendly.”
“What do you want?”
Genma snorted. “Expecting me to call you by your title and not offering the same courtesy. I should be hurt.”
“You will be, dear brother, if you don’t get on with it,” growled out the young woman with black hair and brown eyes.
The man with spiky red hair sighed. “Really, you think you would be happier to see me.” Hearing her growl as she prepared to actually attack him, he held up a crystal. “I was called at my office at GP today and asked to come to the Emperor’s Palace on Jurai to pick this little beauty up.”
Rei gasped at that. “What? Why?”
Genma shrugged. “Emperor Junpei didn’t say what was on it. He just asked that I pick it up ‘in my family’s ship’, and deliver it to Mom and Dad.”
“And how did he know about our family ships?” growled out Rei.
Genma gave her a stare as if to ask how stupid she was. “Hello, do remember who gave us those ships. If it is this important, then Tsunami must have told him. It was like he didn’t even know what it meant. He just wanted to make certain it was delivered and not accessible to pirates.”
Rei sighed. “Well, Dad is on a small trip with Chibi-Ranma. But I think Mom is free right now.”
Nodding, Genma left the desk, heading to the transport pad to his mother’s office. “Thanks, Sis!”
It took her a few seconds of the seriousness of what her brother had brought before she remembered what he had called her as he left. “AND DON’T CALL ME ‘SIS’!”
“That should do it,” said the man on the screen, a mid-level management member of their shipping department though Galaxy Police.
“Okay then. Make certain the procedures are followed to the letter. We need to make certain that we don’t have any spies within the network who might want to make a petty profit from those shipments being hijacked.”
“Understood, ma’am,” said the man, before the screen blinked out.
Smirking, Nabiki turned to an empty corner. “You know, Genma-dear, you are nowhere near good enough with the Umisenken to sneak around on me.”
A deep chuckling grew from the shadow as the redheaded captain of GP faded into view. “Can’t blame a boy for trying.”
Nabiki shook her head. Genma had been one of the twin boys she had given birth to about 3,000 years ago. The other she named after her father, Soun.
Strangely enough, Soun was always quiet and rarely showed his emotions. Genma was a prankster, always enjoying yanking other people’s chains. Morally, the two were complete opposites of their grandfathers. They never backed down, never did a single thing that would be dishonorable.
Though both seemed to be excellent cooks, something she knew for a fact that neither had received from either of their grandparents. Hell, it took a century before Nabiki had found herself cooking at Kasumi levels. And even then, she still hadn’t figured out how she had melted a cooking pot without a fire those first few nights they had arrived on Jurai.
Walking over to her desk, he handed her the data crystal. “Junpei said I should give you this.”
Nabiki blinked. It had been decades since she had heard the current Jurai Emperor’s name. The last she had seen him was when Emperor Orito; son of Emperor Mikado, had been laid to rest. “How is he?” asked Nabiki, remembering when she had often visited the Palace on business, watching as the young prince would run about, causing terror and fear in his guardians.
Genma shrugged. “He seems to have mellowed out over the years.”
“That’s good,” said Nabiki, preparing to insert the crystal. She had already entered in seven of the ten pass codes needed just to insert the crystal into the reader and not have it explode. “He really needs to learn to relax more, like his grandfather. I don’t think that man ever had a wrinkle from stress in his long life.”
Genma shrugged. Heavens knew he never worried about stress, having lived by his father’s motto that “you can’t control what’ll come, only control what you do when it gets there.”
Of course, there were some in the GP hierarchy that would have preferred him to be a bit more proactive. But they weren’t him.
Genma Kuramitsu may have seemed air headed, but he preferred to think he enjoyed life as it came to him. Besides, what good would stressing out do?
Soon, the message was decoded, and it began to play.
“But such is not to be. You see, the empire that we have been observing within what you termed the Sol System has reached a state of expansion that we feel indicates it will soon discover our presence.
“As such, we would like both Nabiki and Ranma Kuramitsu to begin negotiations with them. Since you two come from this system, I feel you would be a better ambassador to these people than any the Jurai Star Empire might offer.
“But I must caution you. Our long range observations show that they have access to a power that nearly mirrors that of Tsunami. We are not sure as to what level they can wield it, or what their purposes are with such power.
“It is Tsunami’s will that you make contact with them and attempt to open up trades between our three empires. She has suggested you take her ‘gift’, whatever that is, and do so as soon as you are ready.”
He leaned forward towards the camera. “I don’t know what these ‘gifts’ are that Tsunami is referring to, but I will not pry. If she wanted me to know, she would have informed me. All I ask is that you do what you can to allow these negotiations to go well. I must inform you there are those within the cabinet of the Senate who feel we should annex this area.
“I would prefer an open peace, rather than a forced war.
“Good luck.”
“So,” said Genma, smirking, “you get to visit your old stomping grounds.”
Nabiki glared at him. “Must you be so cavalier all the time, my son?”
Genma shrugged. “I prefer to think I play my character quite well.”
She shook her head. “You’re too much like your grandfather; a general pain in the ass most of the time.”
Shrugging once again, the man moved towards the door. “Well, you can go to your home. I must return to mine.”
Nabiki sighed. “Do try to visit more. Your father does miss you.”
Genma stopped, slowly turning his head to face Nabiki. “I miss him too. But ... I can no more shirk my responsibilities at GP than you or father can here.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t call more than once a month.”
Genma sighed. “I will ... try ... to be more connected with this family.”
“That’s all we ask, son.
“You do know we are all very proud of you, even if you chose a different field than we thought you would.”
Genma smiled. “I do have to set an example for Mikumo and Miyuki’s children. I swear they have the drive to be the next Grand Marshall.”
Nabiki nodded. “If we do find out what has happened to our families, would you like to join us on Earth for the ceremonies?”
“Of course,” said Genma, leaving. “Just because I am rarely in touch, doesn’t mean I don’t understand what this means to you. I do hope you and Dad find what you are looking for on Earth.”
As the door shut, Nabiki turned back towards the screen that had displayed the message. “So do I.”
The two space trees had found a peace of sorts with each other. Their branches and roots intertwined in a fashion some might see as signs they were lovers.
Of course, with an internal docking bay filled with smaller ships, each holding a space tree, and waiting for a child of either Kuramitsu to bond with, they might further believe that idea.
“I’ve waited for this day for an eon,” said Ranma, sitting in his seat beside Nabiki.
“Ranma, an eon is not ten thousand years. It’s too general.”
“Then what do you call that period?” Ranma asked, looking between the two people with him.
“Don’t ask me,” said Chibi-Ranma, having joined them, wanting to see if this strange power was anything like his mother’s.
Sighing, Ranma made a note to ask about that when he returned. Surely someone had to know what that name was. “So what’s our plan? I have no desire to be shot at when we arrive on their doorstep.”
“We will exit hyperspace between the orbits of Mars and the asteroid belt. Afterwards, we’ll stay put with shields up and all frequencies open. If these people are as advanced as Jurai Intelligence believes, they should see us immediately and send someone to investigate.”
“And we won’t be landing on someone when we enter normal space, will we?” asked Chibi-Ranma.
“I hope not,” said Ranma. “The last thing we need is to reintroduce a stereotype about Asian drivers.”
“Or women drivers,” said Nabiki. “Yes Ranma-kun, I remembered those jokes as well. Let’s just hope they didn’t grow with this new humanity as well.”
She then turned back towards her son. “While we have the time, any special women in your life, son?”
Chibi-Ranma sighed. “No. I’m quite frankly surprised Miyuki could find someone for herself, considering the people she thinks are just ‘perfect’ for me.”
Ranma chuckled. “Yes; you’re big sister does have a bit of a problem with bad tastes when setting up her siblings.”
“Yeah,” said Chibi-Ranma. “It’s enough to make me consider becoming a monk. Ten thousand years, and she has yet to find and try to set me up with someone without more baggage than a colony ship.”
“You’ll find someone, son,” said Ranma. “And when you do, you’ll know it was all worth it.”
“Who knows,” offered Nabiki, “maybe that special someone will be in Sol.”
“Maybe,” said the godling, as he turned back to his station. “They can’t be any worse than that one girl whose species killed the male after mating.”
Ranma nodded. “We really do need to talk to her about her attempts.”
“Please do,” said Chibi-Ranma. “I don’t want to hurt her, but one more bad blind date, and I will have to kill her ... for the safety of singles everywhere.”
Nabiki nodded, not knowing if he was serious or not. Then again, as much as she loved her daughter, she really wished the girl would give up on setting up couples. She was about as good of a matchmaker as Akane had been a cook.
It wasn’t that she hated these conferences, far from it. The gathering of the royals was always a fun time for them all ... after they got through the nasty business of treaties, grievances, and other assorted red tape that even their governments created. The parties afterwards always made up for those ... dark times. After all, there’s nothing quite like watching a Queen known for being a hard-ass dancing drunkenly on a bar.
It wasn’t even the fact she had Sailor Saturn aboard her vessel, escorting her to Selene. Unlike many of the other queens or even their daughters/Senshi, she found the woman quite agreeable. She too had heard the rumors of how dangerous the girl was.
Sailor Saturn was a nice woman, who would one day assume her mother’s position as Queen of Saturn. She was kind, considerate, and ... terribly lonely.
That was perhaps hurt Queen Venus the most, considering her line considered love the most powerful force in the universe, and all should have it.
But many were simply too afraid of someone who wielded an attack that could decimate a planet. They simply allowed such irrational fear rule their judgments rather than understand the woman as a person. After all, it wasn’t like she would vaporize them or their planet on a whim.
Well, hopefully not. Certainly even this girl’s patience was beginning to run thin.
Perhaps I should try and have a son for her to marry?
“Ma’am,” said one of the officers on the bridge. “Sensors have detected a ship in our path; configuration unknown.”
“Let’s see it,” said Queen Venus, as she noticed Sailor Saturn stiffening beside her. She had no doubt the Senshi would teleport out into space and obliterate the possible threat if asked.
Of course, Queen Venus hoped for something more; like First Contact with a new race. “Open a channel and see if we can establish contact. I’d rather not be known as the royal who destroyed a peaceful contact.”
Soon, the view screen changed, revealing something between a bridge layout that seemed to be made of natural wood.
“This is Nabiki Kuramitsu of the starship PI. We come seeking peaceful contact with the available empires of the Sol System, in the name both Seniwa and the Jurai Star Empire. Please respond.”
“This is Queen Venus, Queen of ... Venus. I gladly accept your opening proposal of First Contact and offer you escort to Selene, for further discourse with the other rulers of this system.”
“How do we know your intentions are good?” asked Saturn, Silence Glaive held tightly in her hands.
The male sitting next to the female sighed. “What will it take to prove we are friendly and not some random asshole out to rule the world?”
“Universe, Ranma-kun.”
“Sorry, universe.”
Queen Venus tried not to chuckle at the older man’s embarrassment. “Do understand our concern; we wouldn’t wish to welcome an enemy seeking our deaths, with open arms.”
“Please,” said the lone male with purple and blue eyes. “If we wanted you all gone, I alone have enough power to vaporize this system and walk away no worse the wear.”
“Not helping, son,” said the male with Nabiki.
“Really,” said Queen Venus. “Exactly how powerful are you, child?”
The lone boy smiled, before he disappeared from the screen.
“How’s this?”
She and Saturn turned, spotting the boy standing beside her chair opposite of Sailor Saturn.
Seeing a credible threat, Sailor Saturn turned her glaive towards the threat. After all, someone who was able to teleport past the enchantments and barriers to prevent such would surely be a threat.
Now the blade of the Silence Glaive is made of both magic and metals beyond normal means. As such, it was rumored that if the will behind it was enough, it could cut the very fabric of reality itself. No matter what was placed against it, the Silence Glaive would slice through it as if the offending item had been regular air.
So one could understand the shock when the offending man not only caught the glaive, he caught it on the blade ... with one hand.
Two fingers to be precise.
“Now that’s not very nice,” said the man. “Usually the women trying to kill me are either on a first date with me or crazy. Whatever it is, they usually tell me their name first.”
“RANMA CHAOTICA KURAMITSU!”
Chibi-Ranma winced at that. “Great, she used my full name.”
“Son,” said the male, “if you ever pull a stupid stunt like that again, I’ll have Tokimi lock your ass in a black hole until this galaxy is an empty shell! Do I make myself clear?”
“Shit,” muttered Chibi-Ranma. “I was just trying to help,” he said to the screen, still holding the blade-end of the glaive in his hand, showing no strain from holding back Saturn.
Queen Venus could only stare between the two scenes of two parents disciplining their child and said child holding off the most dangerous woman in the solar system.
The officer at the Comm. could only turn to his fellow crewmate in wonder. “Why is the Queen laughing like that?”
Sailor Saturn looked up from her lone seat in the ship’s cafeteria, seeing the strange man who had so quickly defeated her ... and was not even afraid of her. “Why are you not afraid of me?”
“Why would I be?” said Chibi-Ranma. “Hell, so you can blow up a damn world. Not like I’ve never done that.”
“You have?” asked Saturn in amazement. Using her Death Reborn Revolution was supposed to be a kamikaze attack unless she was fresh on the battlefield. And even then, it would damn near put her into a coma.
Chibi-Ranma shook his head. “Granted, they were still pretty fresh. But my birth mother would make them for me in efforts to learn to better control my power.”
“How can your mother make planets? I mean, Ms. Kuramitsu doesn’t look that powerful.”
Chibi-Ranma started to chuckle. “Sorry,” he said, seeing Saturn’s confusion. “She’s not my birth mother. My birth mother is the Goddess Tokimi.”
“I’ve never heard of her.”
“Not surprising,” said Chibi-Ranma, biting into his meal. “Most of the records only show my Aunt Tsunami, and that’s because she publicly supports Jurai.”
Saturn nodded, as if that had explained everything.
Sighing, Chibi-Ranma continued. “Publicly, there are two goddesses known in the Jurai Empire. The first is Tsunami, who gave much to those who eventually became known as the people of Jurai. The second is my mother, the Goddess Tokimi, who is often seen as a ... mystery.”
“Not evil?” asked Saturn.
Chibi-Ranma sighed. “Why do people keep asking that?”
Seeing the look on his face, she found herself hard pressed to hold in a small giggle at how he looked. “Get that a lot, do you?”
Chibi-Ranma shrugged. “Actually, very few know who my real mother is. They usually assume I am some child Dad had with another woman, and for some reason, I was raised by him alone.”
“Why?”
“It would just cause problems, get me challengers who think defeating or killing me will prove something, or that by going through me they can get to my birth mother.”
Saturn nodded, history among the Senshi a great proof of that problem. “Is that why you don’t fear me; because I couldn’t kill you if I wanted?”
Shaking his head, he motioned out the window, where PI was floating nearby in the sea of stars. “Take my folks for example. Even when Mom fell in love with Dad, he was already able to slay thousands if he wanted. He could have crushed her without a care, but he didn’t. She loved him anyway because she saw what was in his heart.
“People who can’t see beyond the minor trappings of the physical and peer below the veil into the soul of the person; these are fools not worthy of consideration for a heart.”
Saturn found herself smiling at the godling, noticing how he seemed to truly believe those words. “Would you like to go for a walk?” she asked. “The garden areas aboard the ship are quite beautiful, and I doubt you’ve seen much in the way of the flora of our small system.”
Smiling, Chibi-Ranma nodded, as he helped the girl up, glad she hadn’t noticed the fact he had eaten half of her meal as well.
After all, he had never had Sol food before either.
Ranma shrugged. “We’re already pretty well off. No need to stiff clients on the bills.”
Nabiki nodded. “Happy customers return, and they even give you a chance to explain or make up for an error. Unhappy customers tend to buy planet-killers and come looking for you.”
The Queen’s eyes widened at that.
Ranma nodded. “It happens more than people think.”
Queen Venus nodded, as she set the data-pads aside. “May I ask the real reason?”
Nabiki sighed as she bowed forward, steepling her hands on the crystal table top. “The local systems that seem to make up what the diplomatic corps have termed ‘Senshi territory’ have been guarded by Jurai for many centuries. Add to that our own forces, the Galaxy Police, have managed to keep outsiders and other trouble makers from interfering within your development.”
“So we’ve reached a certain point where contact can be made,” postulated Queen Venus.
Ranma nodded. “Yep, and the current emperor of Jurai asked us to make contact for them as well.”
“Why?”
Nabiki smiled a bit. “Roughly ten thousand years ago, our time; Ranma and I were sent off into time and space, away from our home, by a petty little man. When we were discovered, we asked about returning to our home. But sadly, we were told our home was in a protected area of space. They couldn’t even risk taking us there.”
Queen Venus’s eyes opened wide. “You came from Sol!”
Nabiki nodded. “We came from Earth to be exact, before there was life on the other worlds.”
Queen Venus leaned back in her seat. “Our history says that was countless millenniums ago, before the first biospheres were generated on the other worlds and moons.” That means they were even in the future before they started living here and now!
Ranma nodded. “We have a lot to be grateful for in our new lives, but we also will not forget about our first lives.”
“We want Sol to be a jewel among the stars,” said Nabiki. “So you can see why we want everyone to get the best out of the deals.”
“But we also don’t want our good will to be something that ends up destroying everything that humanity has made of itself in our absence,” said Ranma, remembering some of those old sci-fi shows, usually that voted to stay away so as not to cause harm. I think they called it the Prime Directive.
“Which is why we will only deal with a full consensus of the rulers of the whole system,” said Nabiki. “Last thing we want is a paranoid ruler thinking that we are some ravenous conquerors out to slay them in their sleep.”
Queen Venus nodded. So that was why there were no weapons in the proposals; they don’t want to arm us ahead of what we can handle. “And since the gathering on Selene will be attended by all of the rulers, including the few from Earth itself, you figured this would be the best bet for First Contact and initial negotiations.”
The two nodded. “Plus,” said Nabiki, holding Ranma’s hand, “we would like a chance to see home once more.”
Queen Venus nodded at that. She supposed it was how anyone would feel. Sure, you could move away, find peace somewhere else, but you never truly forgot your real home, the place where everything started from. “Well, I have sent word ahead of us to Selene. I don’t doubt that a few more ships will appear to escort us all there.”
Ranma nodded. “A sensible approach; enough to make it appear slightly imposing, while enough stay hidden to attack if needed.”
The Queen nodded. “But I figure it will only add to public scrutiny of how this goes. If anything, I do ask that you don’t go proclaiming Earth as your home. We can try and arrange some tours through the royal houses.”
Nabiki smirked. “I always wanted to walk on Mars.”
“We still must be careful, my Queen,” said Sailor Pluto, standing beside her. “The Gates cannot show me them, let alone anything about them.”
Queen Serenity nodded. “True, that means we must take extreme caution with them. But it could also mean we have perhaps found a flaw within the Gates themselves.
“When they are in areas we have not secured against the scrying abilities of the Gates, I want you to try and watch them. We need to know if they themselves are shielded against the Gates, or if anything from beyond Sol is beyond its observance.”
“Yes, my Queen,” said Pluto.
“And do be a dear and spend time with your mother,” said Queen Serenity. “Queen Pluto was able to do such when she held your position.”
Pluto sighed as she vanished from the room.
“I always like doing that to her,” said Queen Serenity, as she turned back to the ship. “I wonder if they would allow us to tour their ship.”
“Indeed it is, King Endymion,” she responded. “To think such wonders wait out there for us to find. It makes one wonder why we haven’t.”
Endymion shrugged. “Because each of us wants to see his or her home safe and prosperous first before exploring beyond it. None of us believed they would seek us out first.”
Nova nodded. “And here I had considered not attending the conference this cycle.”
Endymion chuckled a bit. “Yes, they usually have grand times.”
“Well,” she said, walking away from the image and out of the small conference room they were in, “it does promise to be most unique this time, does it not.”
The King of Atlantis turned towards the viewer again, sighing. “She always was a feisty one,” he murmured.
He didn’t regret marrying his current wife, not by a long shot. After all, even if it had at first been a political marriage to bring the Kingdom of Kush (what we know as the continent of Africa) into the alliance of Atlantis, he still grew to love the woman with such a passion, he could only hope his descendants could find such passion.
Though he did wonder what could have occurred if he had married the now Queen of the House of Nova, then the daughter of the ruler of Kingdom of Morning Star.
“Then again, one can dream of forbidden fruit, but one must strive never to taste it,” he replied.
Besides, if his wife found out he was entertaining such thoughts, he’d be living a pauper’s life in the special dungeon she created for him when he ... misbehaved.
“Perhaps it is true that women do have the real power,” he muttered as he began to leave the room. It’s not like I can put her in some dungeon if she upsets me.
Sailor Saturn nodded. “They grow primarily on the outer moons of Neptune.”
He nodded, as he looked around the displays. “So this room has plants from all over Sol?”
She nodded. “The people of Venus are known often as a people of beauty and the expressions of such. They find interesting ways to express emotions of love and such through music, dance, even designs of gardens and mosaics.”
“A commendable achievement,” he said. “Sounds somewhat like the Y’uor’t. They are a plant-based species, who communicate through scents. Strangely, the olfactory response seems to convey the same to other species. You truly can smell what they’re thinking.”
“Must make it horrible to fight them,” answered Saturn.
“Very peaceful race, considering the plants they evolved from would rip your head off in an instant for nourishment.”
She blinked at that. “Predatory plants?”
Chibi-Ranma nodded. “Oh yes. There is a black market for them because of the same scent properties of the Y’uor’t, but the plants tend to either attack the new owners, pets, or anything that gets close.”
She nodded. “I assume you have seen many wonders of this universe.”
Chibi-Ranma nodded. “I have seen the powers of formation, deaths of entire stars, the cycle of life for galaxies and beyond. My mother gave me quite the wondering education.”
“But you miss her?” said Saturn, noticing ... something ... in his eyes, something that showed ... sadness.
Sighing, he sat on a bench. “Don’t get me wrong, my parents have done their best. But ... but you do tend to miss a lot when one parent can’t be with you as much as you both want.”
Saturn nodded, sitting beside him. She knew all too well about such troubles. After all, first her mother tended to be gone for long times, depending on her Senshi duties. And with the death of her grandmother, her mother was forced to take the crown, and lost even more time with her daughter. “There is little to match the desire to be with one’s parent.”
He nodded, staring at some purple flowers off to the side. “It worries me that if my time comes to ascend as my true mother is, will I too be forced to act as such.”
He didn’t know how, but he sensed that Saturn was a kindred spirit in such.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” she asked, looking at him with her purple eyes. “I mean, we were strangers but a few hours ago, and I did try and cut you in half.”
He chuckled a bit. “My Dad always said that sometimes, things happen, words are said, not for malice or trust, but because it is right for the moment.” He paused as he turned to look into her eyes, finding himself ... filled with joy to do so. “I feel like that now, like I could tell you anything. I hope I’m not being too presumptuous.”
“Not at all,” she smiled, before turning her head, trying to hide her blush.
Shaking his head at how silly he felt, as if he was but a child once more, he turned towards another couple that had entered the gardens. “Amazing things happen in life; do they not.”
Saturn nodded, seeing the couple kiss. “Very interesting.”
Still smiling, she turned her attention back to other matters, namely the newest additions to the conference.
“Ranma and Nabiki Kuramitsu; what will your pasts on Earth bring about?” she wondered aloud.
For a while now, timelines had been popping up, timelines that did not bode well for the Kingdoms of Sol. It had been one or two at first. But those rare possibilities began to grow out of control as time went on. She had tried her best to steer the timeline past such an occurrence.
But she was limited to what she could do. Hell, she couldn’t even inform anyone due to a rule put in place by Serenity XVIII, which stated she could only warn of impending natural disasters.
But now ... a new possibility was occurring. Where once had been a destroyed and nearly lifeless system; now stood survivors in the hundreds. What more, in these timelines, the numbers of survivors continued to grow.
“The only thing that makes sense is that the new arrivals have something to do with this,” she muttered. They were the only new item in the equation. But for some reason, the Gates themselves were unable to get a lock on them, as if they were either protected from such measures of observance, or they were articles that the Gates were unable to zero in on.
But that may not have mattered. If anything, it would galvanize her support of the new visitors, something she could offer her mother at least.
“Mom,” she muttered, as she teleported back to Castle Pluto. She knew she was going to hear about how she was neglecting her duties to her family once again.
If she would have stayed for a few moments more, she would have seen one possibility stabilize within the viewing of the Gates.
It showed several crests of the planetary royal families, entwined within the branches of a tall and majestic tree floating in space. On the trunk of the tree ... was the Kuramitsu crest.
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