Phoenix Moon

Here is the usual spiel… I am neither Rumiko Takahashi nor am I Naoko Takeuchi thus I expect nothing resembling income for this diversion. It is simply my own personal fanfic. And if your life resembles this story I feel so sorry for you. You have my condolences.

A/N: Here is a new story that I just want to get out of my head and share it with you all. It should be a hoot. Sure it is a familiar crossover and a less than common pairing but it should be somewhat different than things I have read before. At least I hope. Enjoy!

Nightmares and Revelations

When it all came down to it, Setsuna wasn't sure if it was the scream of her adopted daughter or the earthquake that shook the city that woke her. When she sat upright in bed she could hear dishes, glass, windows all rattling and above that discord was Hotaru's fear filled voice. Something felt off, something she was sure was connected to time but there was nothing that easily came to mind. Hearing Haruka and Micheru rushing to Hotaru, she made her decision, flinging back the covers. Once standing she summoned her Key and went right for the Time Gates. Hotaru would be in good hands.

Once there she turned swiftly to the Time Gates, rolling things back to try and figure out what she was feeling. The quick scan of future trends showed that the future of Crystal Tokyo was in flux. Or rather the version of Crystal Tokyo that she was most familiar with was no longer the primary future. While Crystal Tokyo was still there this change sent a chill down her spine and she shuddered. Rolling back, she narrowed the focus in order to isolate the specific variable which had changed, destabilizing the known future for this new one.

The complex algorithms that shaped the Time Gates worked to comply with her desire. This process had enabled her to subtly shift events back into focus if the altered variable was not overly large. Time was completely ruled by the whole butterfly/tornado aspect of Chaos and if she could change a thing when it was still small she might just be able to return things to their proper course. After a short while the system pinged, stating that it found the variable. When she played the event in question she knew all hope of changing things while small was no longer possible. The Gates showed the vast destruction of the Kowlun region of China and the death of Saffron, the ruler of the Phoenix tribe in a fight against a mortal. "What the hell?"

She knew that Saffron was a bit of an arrogant ass but this? Why the hell had this happened? When she tried to look for who had killed the Phoenix all she got was static, a blurred form that made it difficult to focus on. She narrowed her eyes in consternation, running through possible reasons for such an occurrence. All she could tell was that the person had a vast concentration of Ki that had to have been the source of the power needed to defeat the near divine being. Frowning, she directed the Gates to focus on the event rather than the anomaly. What she saw boggled her mind.

The fight was more intense and insane than any battle the Sailor Scouts had been through, with a level of combat prowess that took her breath away. When the unpowered human anomaly created a vortex of fire from personal power mixed with Saffron's all she could do was gape in disbelief. That sort of attack would certainly throw the girls for a loop. Hell, it was throwing her for a loop and she had seen the Scouts back in their heyday during the Silver Millennium. Paying attention to the conversations of those around the anomaly she managed to pick up a name, Ranma Saotome. Good, something to work from. She needed to find out more about this Saotome person in order to figure out what this would do to the future. Since things were still in flux the future images hadn't become fully readable.

This lead to her first problem: Saotome did not show up in the Gates. After cursing for a while, she realized that she would need to run the histories of the people around them just to figure out basic information. Hopefully whatever was going on with Hotaru wasn't all that bad as this was going to take a while.

In actual Spacetme, things with Hotaru were not going that well. When Haruka and Micheru reached the bathroom where the scream had originated they froze in the doorway gaping at their adopted daughter, their minds barely able to follow the events occurring in front of them. Hotaru was standing naked in front of the mirror, but a Hotaru that wasn't the one they had tucked into bed that night. Tears filled Hotaru's eyes as she looked over at her parents, stretching out her now larger hands. "Mama, Papa… how could this happen?"

There were no answers.

Ranma lay back on the roof of the Tendo's house, the tiles pressing into his back comfortably. Like usual he was up here staring at the stars and pondering his life. All his life all he had to comfort him was the night sky, all those stars and planets shining down on everyone. He had killed someone. That realization chilled his soul. Sure Saffron would be reborn out of his new egg but still Ranma had killed him. To save Akane he had done something he had never wanted to do, something he had practically vowed never to do. He had killed for her and yet things were no better than before. The marriage debacle resulted in a severe beating of the fathers, but part of the fallout was the realization that Akane apparently did not share his feelings.

Added on top of that whole mess was the fact that Saffron's assistant, Kiima, had shown up earlier today while he had been alone, to drop off a rosewood box, her face pale, unsure of what she was doing. She had been brusque, hesitant, worried, all things that made Ranma concerned about what was in the box. Ranma had not opened it. It was safely it his weapon space so his father could not get to it. If there was one thing that his time here had shown him, it was that he needed privacy to find out what it was and that was nearly impossible to find in Nerima.

While the box itself was odd, Kiima's words were worse. They were formal, despite how they were broken up by her nerves. And really, what the hell did they mean? Sure it said one thing but was that honestly all there was? The slayer of the immortal was to be gifted an ancient treasure of their people. What the hell did that even mean? It had to be magic and his experiences with magic made him wary and so he hung back, resisting the urge to open it. Could he trust a gift from the Phoenix tribe? Should he?

He thought about the situation he was in: vilified by a number of people, called pervert, beaten daily, occasionally poisoned, chased by people he wanted as friends, cut off from those he would rather have connection with. Maybe what he needed was to not be here? To leave the Tendos, maybe go stay with his mother for a while, or find a place of his own? There was no way it could be worse than here, at least he hoped not. Maybe that was what he needed, a break from the way things were to find some sort of balance in his life. The chaos around him made that difficult to find and it was all he wanted.

The house was blessedly quiet at this time of the evening. He slipped from the roof and down through the window before he grabbed his pack. He needed to be quiet since his father and Mr. Tendo were still drinking sake and playing shogi, but they had consumed enough sake to dull the senses enough to make this easier. But first he needed to let Kasumi know what he was doing. Despite everything he knew that simply leaving without telling Kasumi would make him feel bad for days. Sure Nabiki would find out but if he told Kasumi nothing then what could Nabiki work from?

Not hearing noises from the kitchen, Ranma moved over the roof towards where the bedrooms were. If Kasumi were done for the day she would be in her room, relaxing before another full day caring for mostly ungrateful people. Hooking his feet to the gutters, Ranma flipped upside down before tapping on the window. After a short delay Kasumi opened the window, eyes wide, hand over her mouth. "Oh my, can I help you Ranma?"

With a slight blush of embarrassment, Ranma said, "I'm talking off for a while Kasumi and I didn't want you to worry. I wanted to let you know I was going."

The older sister scrutinized him briefly, "A training trip?"

He shrugged, "Pretty much. I need to get out there, train, and clear my head. Thank you for everything Kasumi."

"Take care Ranma." Kasumi watched him leave, a look on her face that he couldn't interpret.

With that out of the way, Ranma ran off into the night, heading away from Nerima at a very good clip. Roof hopping towards Azabu-Juuban in the Minato ward and where his mother's rebuilt home was. It was funny that her response to the destroyed house was to move to a new place and rebuild there. It was almost as if she were trying to get away from Nerima as well.

Ranma pondered where he would open the box. He honestly wanted to know what was in there despite how nervous it made him. Something about it felt odd, off. Besides, who knew what it was? If it had something that could help with his damn fiancée issues it would be worth all the grief involved.

Midway between the two areas he came across a canal in a more industrial area. He smiled to himself, this seemed perfect. No matter what happened it would be unlikely that anyone would get harmed, since he could hear no sounds of workers nearby. This should be a safe space.

Sitting on the concrete slope towards the bottom of the canal, Ranma pulled the box out of weapon space. He had to admit that the box was nice. The workmanship that went in to it was amazing. The Phoenix motif carved into the rosewood was impressive, nearly lifelike in the level of detail. Being cautious, Ranma coiled his legs under him, ready to spring to safety if needed to before reaching out to lift the lid.

Nothing happened.

Looking inside, Ranma saw a pair of bracers that appeared to be made of red gold, almost holding flames under the surface of the metal, resting in a lining of red, raw silk. Frowning, he glanced through the box to see if there was anything else. Nothing. These bracers were the ancient treasure of the Phoenix tribe?

He had to admit that they were pretty cool, what with the appearance of fire and everything. Visually they were stunning, with a Phoenix wound around the metal on each bracer. The eyes, made out of some red gem stone, seemed to glow in the dark. There was some sort of energy there, a little like magic, a little like ki, and definitely strong. Since there was no letter to explain anything Ranma figured that all he could to was put them on. This might not be the brightest idea ever but what else was he supposed to do? Trust the Old Ghoul to tell him what these were?

Despite the fact that there was no clasp on them, they slid on easily, apparently resizing themselves to fit his muscular forearms, before tightening again. They were cold but he could feel the metal warming up from the heat of his skin. If these things were strong enough they might make it less painful to block pork butts punches, which he had to admit had some appeal. They could even stop blades if he needed that. Suddenly the bracers flared with an orange gold fire that consumed him.

The world disappeared in a tornado of flames that brought his back to Jusendo and he found himself before a giant bright red bird a good bit taller than he was. He slid into stance, sure something bad was going to happen.

The bird looked down at Ranma, cocking its head to one side and then the other. He could feel himself being appraised and it was unnerving. The gaze of the creature was intense and nearly overpowering. Before he could relax, sensing no imminent violence, a power filled female voice sounded in his head, "You are not one of my people."

At a loss for words, he replied with his usual charm. "Um… yeah."

"And You defeated Saffron?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Ranma growled out.

There was a moment of extreme scrutiny, the giant bird leaning forward, looming over Ranma. Then it pulled back, "I see his fire burned with corruption. Interesting."

Ranma had no idea what to say to that and before he could even attempt words it continued. "Thank you for sending him back to the purifying flames."

"Uhm… You're welcome?"

"Now, what do I do with you?"

Ranma swallowed heavily at the question. This could be very, very bad if the giant squab came for him. Then something it had said registered, "You said purifying flames, right?"

The giant Phoenix cocked its head the other way before the voice sounded in his head, "I did."

"Does that mean that you could burn my curse free?"

A long slow blink, "I can, however you must be aware that there are some…"

"Yeah, there always are." Ranma waved the warnings off. There were always warnings. "Can you do it or not?"

Another slow blink. "If you are sure that is what you want, but I must tell you..."

"I'm sure." Ranma was so excited. His curse would be gone. He was practically beside himself in joy. He could finally be free to get back to his own life.

The Phoenix looked at him with something akin to pity before fire engulfed him. Despite feeling his body burning away it didn't exactly hurt. It was the strangest feeling he had ever experienced, warm, relaxing, and marrow deep. Bits of the flame licked with black, impurities burning free from his flesh. The fire receded and he felt lighter somehow. Then Ranma opened his eyes and looked down at himself. He cursed, "What the Hell?"

The voice of the Phoenix was filled with amusement as it chided him, "If you had listened to me you would have understood the consequences of this act. I did try to warn you."

Ranma lowered his head and sighed. He had pulled a Genma, just like at Jusenkyo, rushed in without paying attention to the warnings. He was a bit sheepish as he asked, "I don't suppose you could turn me back?"

"To burn the curse free from you I needed to fill you with my power. That power would mean you would become my champion here in the mortal realm. As I am female, being a font of life and rebirth, so would you become one as well." The voice was very understanding as it continued. "However all is not lost. As my champion you have gained powers and lost both the rest of the Jusenkyo curse and the curse of the nekoken, your body healed from all damage."

"Lost the nekoken?" Maybe there was an actual upside to this despite being locked in his cursed form again.

"Yes. The skills you learned are there, but the fear had been burned from you. Your body and soul are as pure as I can make them, using your cursed form to give you a female body."

That didn't sound so bad all things considered. Besides being a girl, there had to be another catch, there always was. "So, what exactly does being your champion entail?"

"It requires you to fight against the forces of death that plague this world. Basically protecting life where you can."

That didn't sound so bad. As a martial artist he was dedicated to protecting the weak so it was already something he had planned on doing anyway. However, Ranma was sure he had heard wrong. There was something in what the Phoenix said that didn't sit right, or was it something implied? He wasn't sure. "So, what you are saying is that I'm a magical girl?"

"Yes."

"With those dumb skirts, flashing all those perverts every time I leap about?"

Again Phoenix cocked her head, "Skirts?"

Before he could accept this he had to know, "What am I supposed to wear as your champion when I go to battle?"

Fire rolled up his female body in a flaming curtain. As it receded, it revealed a red and gold sleeveless cheongsam with an embroidered Phoenix on the back, a gold sash tied around the waist. Ranma wrote black pants underneath that like he usually wore and soft ankle boots in red and gold. Looking at the provided reflection shimmering in the air, he noted that his red hair was no longer in a pigtail but rather in twin tails coming from the base of his head, holding his hair out of the way. Ranma shrugged, "It could be worse."

"You don't like it?" asked Phoenix.

"No, it's okay and covers me. I just wish this agreement didn't leave me female." He had been locked before but this seemed far more permanent. But one thing he had learned, so long as he was alive there were options. There was always some other way to mess with fate. He just needed to look for a way to fix this and over time an opportunity would present itself. Maybe water from the pool of drowned man?

"Good. Now in Juuban you will find others who have powers similar to those I have gifted you and they fight against evil. Join them as they can help you become my champion more fully," ordered Phoenix.

"Sure, but they better not try to be my fiancée or we'll have words!" There had been too many women chasing after him for him to be comfortable with that notion. Besides, if he was a girl that should cut down on that possibility… right? He sighed, really what was his luck in that arena?

"Then we are settled. Go forth and find those others. We shall speak again." The flames vanished, leaving a transformed Ranma standing next to the box back in the canal, the flames dancing more under the surface of the bracers than before.

He looked down at his still female body and said, "Well damn."