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DISCLAIMER: 'Ranma ½' and all characters therein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. 'Sailor Moon' and all characters therein belong to Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation Co. Ltd. Cutey Honey Flash and all characters therein belong to Go Nagai. The original concept for the Wild Honey fusion was Metroanime’s. This fanfict has been produced for my own enjoyment and to pass on without profit. Other characters that come into play in this fanfict may or may not be pulled from other sources (including other fanficts, RPGs, manga, anime, literature, or possibly even *GASP* American comic books!).
CHAPTER THREE:
Cologne looked over the young girl who had come to the aid of the Nichieju. She was, perhaps, about the same age as her own great granddaughter, Shampoo, if just a bit shorter. Her ample bosom indicated that she had clearly reached child bearing age, as did her rounded hips, but she didn’t seem to have achieved full maturity yet. In this form anyway, considering that the girl had been nearly two feet taller until shortly after she had healed Shampoo’s injuries. The young champion’s hair was a lustrous red, glorious as a setting sun, and tied at the nape of her neck into a short ponytail. Her eyes, tired as they were, were a rich blue akin to the evening sky.
It was important to note such details in the chosen champions of the gods, so that their chronicles could be written without offending their patron deity (or deities as the case may be). Judging from the symbol on the visor of the helmet the girl had handed off earlier, Aphrodite was at least one of the champion’s patrons. Perhaps Zeus as well, if her ability to assume other forms was any indication. The girl might even be one of his get, with such gifts as he tended to favor even his illegitimate children.
File that worry for later though. Hera may like to strike at Zeus’ infidelity through the resulting offspring, but there was as yet no proof that this was such a one. Besides, with the aid that the girl had provided, the Nichieju of Joketsuzoku owed it to the girl to stand by her, even if such was the case.
Too bad the helmet had faded before Cologne had gotten to give it more than a cursory examination. At the time though, she had far more important things on her mind. She and the small party of Nichieju archers who had come to aid the champion, had followed the girl after the battle. They had followed her right to the still smoldering ruin that had been Shampoo’s body. That some of the warriors in the group had immediately gotten ill was understandable, and a couple had even lost control and had to turn away and vomit. Shampoo should not have still been alive.
Kept alive by the demon-spirit, right up until Cologne sensed its retreat upon the champion’s approach, the only undamaged part of Shampoo’s still smoldering body had been her tear-filled eyes. The rest had been severely burned, leaving bloody blisters and areas of exposed muscle that had been seared black. And those were the more intact portions of her great granddaughter’s body. Shampoo’s limbs had been reduced to stumps of charcoal, and if there had been any hair remaining on the girl, Cologne could not imagine where it might be. Shampoo’s breathing had a dry, raspy component to it as the poor girl wheezed in whistling gasps that were clearly full of pain.
Cologne had been ready to say the last rites of a warrior who had survived the fight, but was fated to die anyway, for her great granddaughter. And then, as hard as it would be, she would put an end to Shampoo’s pain herself, and grieve at the horrible tragedy of the loss.
But before she could, the champion had gathered the tortured ruin of Shampoo’s body into her arms while the spark of life was still within her body, and pulled off the most powerful healing spell that Cologne had ever seen. Shampoo had been restored to full health, completely revitalized and returned, life, limb, and even hair, to her former glory. And then her great granddaughter had given the obviously exhausted champion the Kiss of Sisterhood, adopting her into the Nichieju on the spot.
Beating Cologne’s own attempt to it by about three seconds. The terrible grief and despair that had threatened to overwhelm her before, with the imminent death of Shampoo, had been lifted and dispersed with a miracle of life. This most blessed of champions had taken her precious great granddaughter from death’s door itself! If the girl had asked Cologne to follow her into hell itself, on a mission to slay one of the great archfiends with her bare hands, the ancient Nichieju Elder may well have taken her up on the invitation!
At least until cooler heads prevailed. Then they’d step back, plan, and train for such a dangerous mission before continuing on their way. Just cause or not, an important part of any plan of action was to be able to come back from it alive if at all possible. If not, well, then they’d best make sure that their last rights were prepared ahead of time, and to go down fighting to their last breath. A blaze of glory so great that their enemies would look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives out of fear that it had all been a trick. Such was the way of things with the Nichieju.
The other preferred method of leaving the material world was to be surrounded by grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. Being burned to a crisp and then kept alive to be fed on by a demon spirit was about as far from either of those as being drowned at Jusenkyo by the fabled warriors of the Musk Dynasty. By all accounts, they had last done that about nine hundred years ago, shortly before they fell into decline, in order to make a new Spring of Drowned Girl variant.
None of the Springs of Sorrow involved a devil hunter such as the girl who wobbled exhausted amongst their group, supported by Shampoo, so it was understandable that it never occurred to Cologne to check for that possibility. Instead she pondered other possible sources for the miracle girl, whether she be a child of the gods, a favored champion, or perhaps had even been bred to the job of devil hunter through a lineage either proud or mundane.
Cologne sent some runners ahead to announce their arrival and to call for the preparations for a celebration. Not only was the war party returning intact, with their victorious new champion, the champion had restored Shampoo to them and had been adopted into the Nichieju! Surely a cause to hold a victory feast if Cologne had ever heard of one. And they had better celebrate while they could, for on the morrow they would be preparing for war.
Cologne would not forget what the demon-spirit had done to her great granddaughter, or the terrible feeding off of Shampoo’s pain, horror, and despair that she had sensed before the champion had turned the tide of battle. Such an evil had to be expunged from the world, as the Great Moon Kingdom of old had expunged the dark invaders thousands of years ago. Hopefully, the cost won’t be nearly as high this time though, for while the invaders had indeed been vanquished, there was no more Moon Kingdom anymore…
* * *
The woman with long green hair finally got to the register and began unloading her arms.
The checkout clerk looked over the purchases and then back at the woman. She *did* look like she had a headache. But still, two bottles of Excedrin Migraine, five bottles of generic aspirin, and an Ice-E-Pak? "All these, ma'am?"
The woman favored the clerk with a cold glare.
"Yes, ma'am," said the clerk, quickly ringing up the purchase. "Hope you feel better soon."
Setsuna sighed and gathered the medicines. She hoped so too.
* * *
Ranma wobbled into the village that she had just saved, supported by the lavender-haired girl that she had healed only a short while ago. After being kissed on the forehead, and nearly passing out from a nosebleed from the clear look that this had given her of the girl’s ample assets, Ranma had handed her new friend her gi top.
Granted, this had left her topless for a little while, until the archer women that had helped to distract the Dark Phoenix King during the battle had joined them. In moments, various sashes provided Ranma with a comfortable amount of modesty, although she wasn’t really sure why she cared, as she had been a guy all her life, and wasn’t used to feeling modest about her chest. Not that she really cared all that much, but some small part of her was nagging her that it just wasn’t right to have her ‘talent’ showing.
Which had Ranma wondering what talent had to do with anything. It had been her breasts that were bare, not some flashy display of skill! And why shouldn’t she show off her skill? Guys did that all the time, from what she experienced. They even bragged about it whenever they thought that they could do something really well!
Not that Ranma was a guy any more. Jusenkyo had changed that, stripping away her manhood as quickly as it had stripped his father of humanity. At least, if she had to be a girl now, she had become some sort of devil hunter. Pop couldn’t say anything bad about that, could he?
Of course, the old man wouldn’t be saying anything ever again anyway. Pandas couldn’t talk.
* * *
Powder walked carefully back towards the village, following after most of the rest of the Nichieju archers and the champion. The reason for her cautious pace and the three other warriors who maintained positions around her was the safety of the priceless bundle that she carried. The inhabitants of Jusendo would be most upset if the Nichieju of Joketsuzoku permitted any harm to befall the egg containing the resurrected Lord Saffron.
Few had noticed when the smaller, pure spirit separated from the spiritual mass of the demon thing that has possessed the Lord of Jusendo. Elder Cologne had, of course, as had a couple of others, but it was Powder, the healer of the party, whom the Elder had entrusted to bring the egg back safely. The honor of that trust was an immense burden, but one that she bore with dignity and responsibility. Time enough to get nervous shakes and giddiness later, after the precious package that she carried against her bosom had been safely delivered to the village!
* * *
“Hot… water… make you… man again… Mister Customer…” the guide puffed as he walked with the panda back towards Jusenkyo. Running almost all the way to Joketsuzoku had taken a lot out of him. The panda seemed to be tired too, or at least seemed to be willing to slow down once the sound of explosions could no longer be heard behind them. As the two made their way back to the ground of accursed springs, the guide continued to explain how the curse was supposed to work…
* * *
“So, child,” Cologne addressed the young champion in Japanese. “My great granddaughter, Shampoo, has given you the Kiss of Sisterhood. Do you find becoming a bond-sister with her acceptable?”
“Huh?” Ranma responded, startled at this turn of events. “Umm… Sure! I’d be honored to join her clan!” A family again! And so soon after she had lost her father and her manhood. Not that Genma had been much of a father, but he was now even less so as a panda. As for becoming a girl, well, becoming some sort of honest to kami devil hunter had been something of a rush.
Ranma could learn to live with it if she had to, if that was the kind of life that lay ahead of her. None of this silly, weak stuff that pops had gone on and on about whenever the subject of girls came up. Heck, she couldn’t even see any girls here who didn’t move like they had some form of martial arts training or another. Her kind of people, not the frail creatures that pops had told her of.
“Well, then,” Cologne beamed at her new bond-kin. “We are going to be having a victory feast in your honor soon. It will be easy enough to work in the appropriate touches to celebrate your adoption as well. In the meantime, you have obviously been exhausted by your recent battle with the possessed Lord of Jusendo. I’ll have someone see to the needs of you and Shampoo.”
“Shampoo,” Cologne explained, switching to the dialect of Mandarin Chinese that the Nichieju used. “Your new bond-sister has accepted her adoption into our clan. Rin Rin and Ran Ran will see to your needs, unless I am mistaken. Perhaps even a few others as well. The rest of us will continue to set up the victory feast.”
“Yes, Great Grandmother,” Shampoo acknowledged. “But, honestly, I feel better than ever! I’m sure that I could handle seeing to my bond-sister’s needs myself!”
“You will do no such thing until Lilac or one of the other healers have looked you over!” Cologne admonished. She fought to keep her voice steady as she tried to explain. “You were reduced to a lump of burnt gristle! Even if your bond-sister has somehow miraculously healed you to full health with that spell, it has taken quite a lot out of her to do so. Please, Shampoo, I don’t want to risk losing you twice in one day over something trivial like this.”
“Very well, Great Grandmother,” Shampoo acquiesced. “I will do as you ask. But I will resume my training as a warrior as soon as Elder Lilac says that I am ready!”
“Of course, Dear One,” Cologne conceded with amusement. “I would expect no less of you.”
“And I want to be trained as a Devil Hunter, so that I may fight alongside my bond-sister! None of this weird herbal potion stuff or strange pressure point techniques!” Shampoo demanded. “When am I ever going to use that stuff anyway?”
“Never the less, you will continue to train in them, Great Granddaughter,” the Nichieju Elder stated firmly, brooking no further argument. “As for the rest…”
Shampoo looked on, hopefully.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Cologne granted. “Now off with you! Take your bond-sister to the baths and let yourselves be pampered, at least for today. You both deserve it.”
“I will, Great Grandmother!” Shampoo chirped happily. “We will be back as soon as,” the young Nichieju paused. “Ummm… Great Grandmother?
“Yes, child?”
“What is my bond-sister’s name, anyway?
“…”
“Great Grandmother?”
“You know, Shampoo,” Cologne admitted. “I never even thought to ask…”
* * *
Artemis looked over the passport and residency papers once again, checking for any errors that he may have missed before. Everything seemed to be in order for one Grey L. Shard to study abroad in Japan, but the white cat wanted everything to be perfectly in order this time. The last thing he needed was for Basalt’s reincarnation to be irritated yet again by some small error that Artemis had thought was trivial.
How was Artemis supposed to know that it was a bad thing to have points on your driving record? All he knew was that Grey’s record had been at zero points, which just had to be wrong, since the boy was such a careful driver. So Artemis had dummied up the records a little bit, giving his charge what he had felt was an impressive six points…
One year without a driver’s license, and a mind-boggling amount of bureaucratic run-around, had taught the well meaning moon cat something. Well, a few things actually. One was that having to pay cab fare meant that Grey couldn’t afford the better brands of cat food that Artemis liked. Nor did the boy get him any treats or nifty little cat things for the longest time. In fact, Grey had gone so far as to stash the comfortable, carpet covered thingy he had been building away where Artemis couldn’t get at it.
Artemis had wanted one ever since he had spotted one in a pet shop window too. And the one that Grey had been building was covered in white carpeting, inside and out, just the thing for sharpening claws. The two little rooms on the inside were absolutely perfect for comfortable cubbyholes to curl up and rest in. And Grey had sold it to a neighbor with a mean spirited tabby as soon as it was finished, claiming that he needed the money.
Granted, that had been a few years ago, and Grey had since built a better one for Artemis, but that was all the more reason to make sure that everything was in order this time. Mrs. Fluffikins wasn’t getting another one of his things again, if he could help it!
"Oops, how did *that* get in there?" Artemis wondered, as he quickly corrected a miss marked gender on one form, and then did a search to see if the same error had cropped up anywhere else. Finding none, the satisfied advisor finally called it a night, secure in the knowledge that he had caught the embarrassing error ahead of time. Which was really a pity, as Artemis still hadn't noticed one critical little error that would later come up to bite the little white moon cat in the tail later. Nor had he noticed the extra form that had self loaded during one of his queries into the colleges in the Tokyo area…
* * *
Ranma had made some minor protests over being pampered, but was really too exhausted from her battle with the Dark Phoenix King only a short while ago to keep it up for long. Besides, these people had thought that they were going to die horribly at the hands of the demon-infected Lord of Jusendo. If they wanted to celebrate, who was she to stop them?
As the victory feast was being prepared, Ranma was led, by the cute girl with the lavender hair whom she had healed after the battle, to a large structure that was set away from the rest. Healing the girl had been an act that had taxed Ranma as much, if not more, than the battle itself had. Granted, the effect had caused a barren, scorched valley of half-molten wasteland to turn into a lush garden paradise, which was obviously an overboard side effect, so the drain was understandable. It was definitely worth it though, as she now couldn’t imagine letting the happy bundle of joy babbling at her in some native dialect of Mandarin being permitted to die as a lump of burnt flesh and blackened bone.
And the girl had adopted her as her sister. Ranma could FEEL the bond of sibling love and respect that the girl had already formed with her. She could also feel similar ties of friendship and acceptance from many of the other villagers as well, somehow revitalizing her even as the links grew stronger. Nothing at all like what she felt with her father over the years. Was this what it meant to finally have a real family?
“So,” Ranma started in her somewhat shaky knowledge of mandarin. “Where Shampoo be take Ranma?” she asked her companion as they entered the building. Once again, Ranma silently cursed her father for his insistence that they didn’t need to take the time to learn any of the Chinese dialects before coming over to the mainland. That Ranma knew any trade pidgin at all was due to her, or rather his, growing tired of not being able to understand anyone but Genma. Now, she wished that she had made a better effort of it.
“This is the covered hot springs that we use as a bath house,” Shampoo explained cheerfully, completely missing the blank look on her bond sister’s face.
* * *
Panther Zora cursed her luck as she returned to the dimensionally weak zone around Tokyo. Wild Honey, or Sailor V, or whatever her accursed adversary was calling herself in this world, had somehow gained the potential to destroy her outright. That was something that Cutey Honey had never been able to do before. The android had been able to defeat her, and even eliminate her physical representation in the world periodically, but never had her enemy had the potential to outright annihilate Panther Zora from existence.
Panther Zora needed a local host body more than ever now. Wild Honey had proven that she could detect her spirit form far too easily by confronting her as quickly as she had. The Dark Phoenix King was supposed to lure the android in by causing reports of widespread terror and destruction filtering out in the region where the android had entered the world. Panther Zora had expected to be able to feast on that terror for a day or two before Cutey Honey arrived. Instead, her opponent had shown up scant hours later, mere minutes after she had enabled the Dark Pheonix King to consolidate his hold over the winged people of Jusendo to the point where he could afford to leave and terrorize the local villages!
Even if the android had arrived as a centaur, it had been too soon for the cause to be just the attack of the Dark Phoenix King. No, Wild Honey was somehow able to sense Panther Zora’s spiritual essence better than her previous incarnation as Cutey Honey had been able to do. Not that it was an insurmountable problem. One solution was to operate within or near a dimensionally weak zone such as the one around Tokyo, where she would be harder to detect due to ‘background noise’. Another was to find a host for her spiritual manifestation to inhabit, cloaking her presence more thoroughly.
Hmmm… Panther Zora could feel desperate pleas for power coming from any number of potential female hosts around Tokyo. An intriguing one for more power was being sent by a so-called witch under the nominal control of another entity. Closer investigation revealed that the witch, one Eudial of the ‘Witches 5,’ wasn’t even properly bonded to this other entity. Nor were any of her compatriots, really. It was all too easy to sever the spell that held Eudial to the service of Pharaoh 90.
“Power,” whispered a voice in Eudial’s mind, freaking her out somewhat. Mere moments ago, she had been desperately praying for more power. Enough power to stop the other members of the Witches 5 from picking on her for having so little potential to harness the powers provided by their master. Then she had a moment of epiphany in which it occurred to her that destroying the world was counterproductive. Except that that was what the Witches 5 was helping to bring about. For the life of her, Eudial couldn’t think of one good solid reason why that had seemed like such a good idea until a moment ago.
“Power,” offered the voice seductively. As freaked out as she was, Eudial was sorely tempted to accept the offer. By herself, she knew that she had no hope of defeating the rest of her former juku. It had all been a game back then, pretending to be witches who could do whatever they wanted. A game that had gone horribly wrong one night when Professor Tamou’s assistant, Kaolinite appeared in their midst and laughingly captured them all with a real spell.
“Power,” promised the voice. Enough power to enable Eudial to take control of her life again. Enough power that the cruel pranks that the rest of her former juku now played on her would seem to be mild amusements if she accepted. Enough power to become a real witch and save the world from Pharaoh 90’s insane plan of destruction. All she had to do was agree to become Panther Zora’s host in this world and she would have the power to do whatever her heart desired.
“Power,” Eudial said herself, opening her heart to the entity who contacted her above all others…
Deep in the sub-basement of Mugen Academy, Eudial Zora laughed at the power she now had. Her new Mistress, Panther Zora, had needed a host in exchange for that power, but that was a price that she was willing to pay. Pharaoh 90 was a fool to rely on control spells to bind the Witches 5 to his goal of destroying humanity. Eudial’s Mistress had proven that by breaking that spell easily, without alerting her former master.
Now all Eudial Zora had to do was consolidate her power and take over the Witches 5. Pharaoh 90’s plan to eliminate humanity went against her new Mistress’s will, and had to be stopped. That was something that Eudial could agree with whole heartedly, now that she was free of the spell that Pharaoh 90 used to control her. What use was power without pawns to manipulate or masses to lord over?
No, Pharaoh 90 had to be stopped, and the rest of the Witches 5 would either serve Eudial Zora…
Or die.
* * *
Ranma blushed deeply, trying to avoid looking directly at the breasts of her new sister, Shampoo, or any of the amazons attending them either for that matter. She felt a mild tingling sensation as she poured the buckets of hot water over herself so that she could bathe before entering the pool carved out of the natural hot-spring, but she forced it out of her mind. Much as she was trying to do with the feelings that she was experiencing from seeing Shampoo and the others’ naked bodies.
It just wasn’t right for her to feel this way about other women now that she was a girl herself, wasn’t it? Ranma was confused by the conflicting feelings of excitement and embarrassment warring within her psyche. The sight of bare, attractive, bodies with ample natural ‘talents’ shouldn’t be affecting her like that…
What did talents have to do with anything? This was the second time that Ranma’s subconscious had produced the word in an unfamiliar context today. Not that she would know what a euphemism was if one came up and bit her on the ankle, considering the lack of steady education inflicted upon her by her father. As it was, now that such phrases percolated through her mind, she tended to be thrown off track by them.
Thus distracted, Ranma remained calm as her attendants finished scrubbing her head and back as she washed her front. Which was fortunate, as if she had really been paying attention to what she was doing, she probably would have collapsed from a nose-bleed over what she was doing with her own body. And she already felt awkward over the fact that other girls still turned her on without having to deal with the fact that she could turn herself on quite adequately just by washing herself.
Ranma had enough problems just trying not to admire the scenery. A lot of amazons were nicely proportioned. Though she never wanted to look at the one filling the buckets again.
The warriors doing the pampering glanced at each other and nodded. The new champion's preferences were at least half known. Though the production of heirs was in doubt, her taste was not. Lather, for her part, wasn’t offended by the champion failing to find her attractive, as she was more interested in guys herself. Mousse would be a nice catch as far as she was concerned, as long as he kept his glasses off when he looked at her. Too bad he was fixated on Shampoo…
* * *
The victory feast was well under way, with Ranma in the seat of honor, when Genma finally made it into the village that evening. The guide had wanted to rest for the night, but Genma had managed to convince him to carry Ranma’s pack and follow him back to this so-called amazon village.
Women warriors indeed. The whole idea was preposterous! Best to remove Ranma from their influence before the boy acquired any strange ideas from them. Women had no business on the fields of martial combat as far as Genma was concerned, and he had spent years trying to instill his son with similar values. Such weak, soft, beautiful creatures were certainly to be treasured, but respected? Never!
Thus, it is perhaps understandable why Genma marched right up to where Ranma was sitting, totally ignoring the festivities and people around him despite the glares that he was evoking with his rudeness. The guide, demonstrating far more sense, stayed at the edge of the celebration and held a hand against his head, moaning about his elder customer’s stupidity.
“Ranma!” Genma proclaimed harshly. “Why didn’t you return after the battle, boy?”
“POP!?” Ranma was beyond startled. Hadn’t her father been turned into a panda?
Genma, disgusted with his son’s weak reaction, grabbed a steaming cup of whatever and splashed it in Ranma’s face.
“What’cha do that for, Pop!?” Ranma yelled, once again ignoring the tingling sensation caused by hot liquid. If she had been shocked by her father’s restoration from being a panda, it had nothing on the shock that Genma and the guide felt when she failed to change back into a boy.
“But… but… you should have changed back!” Genma exclaimed. He didn’t have time for anything else, as he was immediately beset by a large number of amazons who had taken offense at his behavior towards their new champion.
Ranma merely admired their handiwork and technique for a moment before getting up and heading toward the guide for an explanation. Cologne followed, leaving Shampoo and the others to continue pummeling the interloper to their hearts’ content.
“What’s going on?” Ranma demanded to know from the guide when she reached him. “Why is my father human again? He turned into a Panda at Jusenkyo!” In the background, a much beat upon Genma extracted himself from the group of warriors pummeling him, and took off running. Straight into another group of amazons, who preceded to pummel him themselves.
“Young Mr. Customer! Why you no change back?” the guide asked in perplexity. “Hot water supposed to change you back into male young Mr. Customer!” He was genuinely alarmed. If the nature of Jusenkyo was changing, there was no telling what all the locals would do… or if they would be safe for that matter.
“Really?” was Ranma’s nonplused reply. “But I was soaked in hot water several times and all I felt was a kinda tingly sensation for a second or two…” In the meantime, Genma had gotten away from the second group of warriors and was now running hither and yon trying to avoid being attacked again.
“This is most disturbing, Great Granddaughter,” pronounced Cologne. “All victims of Jusenkyo can revert to their true forms with the application of hot water. Well, excepting those victims also splashed with water from a particular artifact of the Musk Dynasty, but no one has seen them or their artifacts for generations…” The sight of Genma running by with a couple of arrows in his backside distracted her. None of his pursuers were armed with bows, so she guessed that some had fallen to the sidelines and started taking potshots at the man.
“No,” Ranma muttered to herself, reviewing her memories of the day, “nothing like that happened. I felt lotsa pain after I hit the water…”
“Three bolts of lightning hit Spring of Drowned Girl right after young Mr. Customer fall in!” the guide pointed out helpfully. “It amazing young Mr. Customer come out of spring at all!” Genma ran by yet again, somehow having extracted the arrows from before. This time, the amazons chasing him were now brandishing torches.
“No wonder it hurt then,” Ranma winced at the memory, especially as she now new the cause of the pain. “Anyway, even before I got outa the spring, I felt this great evil pass by overhead and I somehow knew that it was some demoness by the name of Panther Zora an’ that she’s gotta be stopped somehow. Y’know, like the duty of a Martial Artist, only much more important…”
Cologne catalogued this information with the rest that she had observed about their new champion. Ranma had indeed been ordained by the heavens to be a Devil Hunter. The lightning, and what it did to the curse was a big tip-off. The imperative to hunt down this Panther Zora demon-spirit was another. So what if she had started out as a male? Ranma was a Devil Hunter now, a calling that knew no bounds of gender, age, or race. Still, it might be a good idea to find out if the young champion could still turn back into her old self somehow, if for no other reason than to earn her further gratitude towards the Nichieju.
“Great Granddaughter,” Cologne directed at Ranma, catching the girl’s attention. “This tingling sensation you get when hit with hot water. Does it go away on its own, or do you force it out of your mind?” Cologne mostly ignored the continued antics of Ranma’s father, noting only that he must have annoyed Mousse at some point as he was now running around half wrapped up in chains.
“Umm…” Ranma murmured as she tried to remember. “I forced it outa my mind until it stopped botherin’ me.”
“Okay then,” Cologne stated with deliberate calmness, so as not to overexcite her new great granddaughter. “We will splash you with hot water again, only this time try to focus on the tingling sensation rather than forcing it away.”
Right about then a troop of amazons marched triumphantly by hauling one Genma Saotome mummified in chains on their shoulders. Another group was setting up a stake with a pile of sticks, logs, and dry underbrush. Cologne and Ranma looked at each other, and then moved to stop the burning of the idiot, however justified it might be.
Even if they both felt that they would probably regret that decision in the morning.
* * *
Ryoga wandered aimlessly through the wild jungle of Borneo… or perhaps the paved streets of Hong Kong - he never really paid that much attention to where he was when he was obsessing. A new focus was now driving him. Forget Ranma! What was a slight of some stolen bread and a missed fight compared to such exquisite beauty of his new goddess? A girl so powerful that he wouldn’t have to worry about hurting her with his great strength! A girl so gorgeous that his heart pounded at the mere memory of her divine beauty! A girl who had been running around naked every time he saw her!
Ryoga, once again overcome by hormonal overload, stopped and keeled over backwards with a crash. His face bore a blank-eyed expression with a drooling grin and a lightly bleeding nose…
* * *
With Genma ‘resting’ off to one side (bound with chains, gagged, and knock unconscious for good measure), the Nichieju watched as Cologne and Ranma experimented with hot and cold water.
“So hot or cold water will still trigger the change into a boy or girl, but only if I let it?” Ranma pondered, trying to assimilate the information. He really felt that he should be more excited about being able to return to his true gender than he was, but some part of him was now actually freaked out that he was a guy again. He didn’t understand that at all.
“That does appear to be the case, Great Granddaughter,” Cologne agreed.
“Uh… Could you not call me that when I’m a guy, please?”
“Sorry, but no. You were adopted into this tribe as a girl. That the only reason that you have a girl form is your trip to Jusenkyo is immaterial to our laws once you have been adopted. Perhaps later, once everyone has come to accept that they must treat you according to your status, we can be more lenient and humor you when you are in your true form. Until then, you are a Daughter of the Nichieju, no matter what your form.”
“That’s just… Weird…”
“Even so, it is as much for your safety as anything else.” Cologne pointed out. “Now, while you are still male, can you access your Devil Hunting forms?”
Ranma focused inward for a moment before replying. “I think so. Do you want me to change and find out?”
“Please do. We need to verify that you still have the power that has been granted you as a divinely appointed Devil Hunter.”
“I don’t know about divinely, but here goes…” Ranma straightened out and shouted, “HONEY SPLASH!” A swirling column of water materialized around him for a moment, washing away his clothing as he floated up a few feet off the ground in a slow spin. As he turned, he grew sixteen more inches in height and visibly shifted from a boy in his mid-teens into an attractive young man. Then his proportions slimmed down and his features became more feminine as his more masculine anatomy retracted into the body to be replaced by the softer curves of a woman. Her hair had tuned red at this point, and was once again braiding itself into a pigtail that reached the small of her back. Narrow streams of water formed in the air around her, spiraling in and painting her red and blue costume onto her as before. After all this was done, the woman who had been Ranma dropped lightly to the ground, landing gracefully on her feet.
“Well, that answers that question,” Cologne commented. “Let’s see if you can still change genders in this form, Ranma.”
“You may experiment if you want, Great Grandmother, and I’ll help as much as I’m able to, but I can already tell you that I cannot change gender as Wild Honey or Sailor V. That is the purview of my Ranma form, and does not carry over into this one or the other.”
“Fascinating… How do you know this, Ran… Wild Honey?”
“I’m not sure, Great Grandmother. It just feels right.”
“Can we see this Sailor V form?”
“All right,” Wild Honey agreed with some reluctance. “But I used a lot of power in that form today, and won’t be able to maintain it even at low power for more than a few minutes at this point.”
“Whatever you can do child, so long as you don’t overstrain yourself.”
“VENUS PRISM POWER MAKE-UP!”
This time the transformation was much faster, involving a flash of nearly blinding light that obscured Wild Honey momentarily as she turned unto a blond woman with unbound luxurious blond hair. She was nude again, but light played across her form, leaving a new orange and white costume in its wake.
Cologne, and indeed many others of the Nichieju, were taken in by the otherworldly beauty of Sailor V as she smiled at them. Many took note of the features of her costume. Others merely basked in the great serenity and love that radiated from the woman who stood before them. This truly was a Champion of Love and Justice! They could feel it radiating from the woman with their trained combat senses! The Heart and Soul of the Nichieju had been delivered upon them in the form of this great warrior! How? How could they possibly refuse this sign of the gods that they were once more called to battle for the safety of their world?
True to her words, Sailor V reverted back into Ranma’s female form a few minutes later. Helpful hands caught her as she barely held onto consciousness long enough to be lead into her new home by her bond sister and new friends. There would be much to do in the morning.
Panther Zora, and other demons like her, must be stopped, and the Nichieju felt the call to serve this cause in battle. Just how they would serve in this new war had yet to be determined, as not everyone could become Devil Hunters themselves. Some wouldn’t have the potential, and others would have other callings and rolls to fill.
Cologne settles down into a late night meditation, hoping to determine what the meaning and ramifications of the days events and discoveries had…
* * *
Sailor Pluto sat back, took three Excedrins, and started looking for something to drink.
"Here."
Sailor Pluto let out a long deep breath, took the drink, the aspirin, and started rubbing her temples. "Why are so many strange people showing up where nobody is supposed to be allowed?"
"Why bring us here, Toltiir?" The guy who had passed her a shake asked of a black cat.
"I prefer tea," said Sailor Pluto, sipping at the milkshake. Hmmm. Made with green tea ice cream. Interesting.
"You pointed out that three unrelated timelines being forced into a merger was against the rules," said the cat. "I wanted to point out that they were not. Check this out."
The Gates Of Time slammed open and revealed a desolate wasteland.
"Timelines are continually spinning off and remerging when their differences are zero," the cat lectured, morphing into Groucho Marx as Professor Hackenbush.
Pluto decided this was a dream sequence and she might as well sit back and enjoy it.
"Yeah, we know that," said the remaining intruder, brushing her long white hair back with a practiced gesture. "Law Of Conservation Of Realities."
"All three realities merge after a certain point. Originally, after Ranma's divorce, he continued to be alone. He grew distrustful and bitter. In the year 2006 he died, having given up on everything and everyone. This reality also had a great evil occur, this one in 2009. One whom Ranma could not have stood alone against even if he had not gone through the divorce and resulting depression and slide into apathy."
Sailor Pluto leaned back against the Gate and watched. Amazing detail in this dream. She could even smell the dead air with the faint dusty-smoky smell to it in the breeze from the Gate.
"Sailor Venus was miserable in her timeline, but there was also a menace to occur after Usagi's reign. As the Senshi had no heirs..." Professor Hackenbush morphed into the Jusenkyo Guide. "Terrible Tragic Story of kingdom who rely on only one defender. Terrible tragic sirs. Invading alien force find that Crystal Tokyo easy pickings. If only one menace, then Sailor Saturn and Princess Usagi (not Chibi at time) be able to fight off. Against millions? They no do so good. Crystal Tokyo fall, Earth fall. Differences zero, merge with this time line."
"Is Sailor Venus dead, then?" The dark elf looked over the mist shrouded area and decided if they were going to be here for awhile, they needed some furniture. Fortunately, a high level mage could do things like that. Three La-Z-Boys and a small table to be exact.
The Jusenkyo Guide blurred and became Professor Wiseman. "No. Merged with Ranma and Honey. Honey's timeline ended with Panther Zora triumphant, by the way. Ranma, Honey, and Venus are merged. Ranma dominant, as it was his body primarily, but with personality aspects of the other two. Of course, this being at least partially a Ranma timeline, there exists means of locking him in 'cursed form' or even splitting them all off again. Though altered by their shared experiences, and it is as difficult for that to occur as it would be for Ranma to actually have gotten cured of his curse in the first place."
Sailor Pluto nodded. Okay, if this hadn't been a dream, that would have been reassuring.
"Their mutual wish, after all, was to 'do it all over again' and be able to handle it better this time." The professor adjusted his glasses. "Whether they do or not depends entirely on them, of course. I *do* generally play within the rules, little nudges not withstanding, and I know that the rule is for immortals not to muck around with the heroics or villainy in progress. Mortal Kombat and all that sort of thing."
"Oh, so that's why we're in this dream sequence with Cologne and Sailor Pluto?" The man who vaguely resembled Basalt said. "A 'little nudge' so Pluto doesn't try something risky to repair the timeline, and Cologne can stop losing sleep over the implications for her village."
"Exactly, oh and I think this'll do it for *my* involvement," said the Professor, morphing into Hermes (complete with staff and helmet, though he was wearing an Italian business suit). "And as the destruction of the Earth and all life on it wasn't funny, it *did* fit within my chosen portfolio."
"Meddling?" suggested an old woman from a staff, canceling her invisibility technique.
"Humor," said the cat with mock solemnity. "And I think it's time for you to WAKE UP!!!!"
* * *
Sailor Pluto's eyes shot open. Odd, snoozing off like that. She hadn't done that in...
Sailor Pluto shifted the recliner she was lying on to a seated position. "Oh dear."
* * *
Cologne frowned as she got up. She needed some hot tea. A *really* strong cup. It was said that it takes a half-hour to properly brew tea. She *really* needed it.
END CHAPTER THREE
OMAKE THEATER PRESENTS: Miscued transformation…
“Can we see this Sailor V form?” Cologne asked with polite interest.
“All right,” Wild Honey agreed with some reluctance. “But I used a lot of power in that form today, and won’t be able to maintain it even at low power for more than a few minutes at this point.”
“Whatever you can do child, so long as you don’t overstrain yourself.”
Wild Honey summoned a small hand-held device and thrust it over her head as she posed in a dramatic manner.
“METAMORFORCE!”
Wild Honey’s red and blue costume disappeared in a quick series of small bright flashes of light. She was only nude for an instant though, as a new costume suddenly blinked into existance around her. It seemed to be a highly stylized sailor suit style shirt and skirt combo, much like the school uniforms used by many of Japan’s educational districts for their female students. If one chose to ignore the visor with the heads-up display and the quirky fashion sense that seemed to cry out “I’m combat ready, but I insist that I look cute too!”
Wild Diver found herself hit on the head (not that she even felt it). “I said Sailor V!” Cologne admonished. “Not Moldiver!”
“Aheh-heh… Wild Diver - MAXIMIZE!”
One silly, origami-like folding transformation sequence later, a huge humanoid robot stood ready for action…
“No! No! No!” Cologne shouted at Mecha V. “You are not a transformer either!”
Shampoo looked up at her bond-kin and viewed the result of this latest transformation with a speculative gleam in her eye. “Shampoo think that she go far as pilot of Demon Slayer Wild Robo…”
Mecha V nervously scratched the back of her head, wondering how to get back to the original fusion variant that would result in Sailor V…
END.
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