Awakenings
Legacy of the Moon
by Lerris Smith
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon.
Nabiki understood, at least in part. In an instant, thoughts and memories raced through her mind like a flood. A few left impressions and memories. She tried to focus, to save this precious information as it flooded through her consciousness, but the results were mixed at best. Still, some knowledge was better than none. Where Ranma had flailed blindly, she was able to pick and choose, at least in part.
Her clothes vanished as swirls of multicolored light crawled over her body. A form fitting black bodysuit appeared on her with silver edging. The top portion buttoned on the right side of her chest. The buttons matched the surrounding black almost exactly with only the silver edging standing out. Silver edging surrounded her waist and went down the sides of her pants. Black one piece boots with silver edging along the bottom appeared on her feet. Unlike the high heels common on the original scout uniforms, these looked very practical, while at the same time being stylish. Silver bracers with an intricate rune like design covered both of her forearms. Her hair lengthened till it touched her shoulders and darkened to a midnight black while at the same time her eyes shifted from a warm brown to a piercing gray. A silver tiara formed on her forehead that pointed slightly downward. Its center contained a single softly glowing blue sapphire about a centimeter in diameter. Finally the glow that was forming her clothing separated from her and coalesced into a midnight black staff that perfectly matched her height. Each end contained a dark blue sapphire inset so that only half of the gem was showing. A close look at the gems on the staff reveals a blue fire pulsing in sync with the sapphire in her tiara. As the magic faded that glow too faded.
Nabiki stopped to wonder how these memories could seem to be her own, when she knew she hadn't had them just moments before. This proved to be a mistake as the memories seemed to retreat and fracture as she continued to try to learn from them. She remembered how to transform and a little about staff work, and, perhaps most importantly, how to use the staff as it was intended to be used. She cursed briefly, that the least they could have done, whoever they were, was to give her the power to blow things up.
Nabiki ran back to the battle and was amazed at the speed she was moving. She pushed that thought aside as she saw Ranma still dodging sharp spikes of ice that seemed to form from the objects vaguely hand shaped appendages. She could see no damage to his tuxedo, but a partially failed dodge quickly explained that. It seemed the tuxedo immediately fixed any minor damage to itself. From the way Ranma was favoring his left leg it seemed likely that Ranma was not healing as fast as his clothes were. Nabiki cursed again. She wished there was someone she could sue for providing them defective powers.
Suddenly she had an idea how she might be able to help. It was an idea that she absolutely hated, since it left her very vulnerable. It was also the only idea she had. Nabiki cursed inwardly and yelled, "Ranma, get over here. I have a plan."
"Are you nuts? I can barely dodge this thing." Ranma dimly noted Nabiki's new clothes, eye, and hair, but they didn't seem very important compared to trying not to get killed. Still, a part of him noted that she looked very nice in that almost form fitting black and silver outfit.
"Just do it you moron!" Nabiki muttered quietly about macho martial artists as Ranma hesitantly moved towards where she had taken cover behind a van. She really hated this plan, and the really annoying part is she did not have time to explain it. Well, there was also the fact that she wasn't sure it would work, but it was best not to thank about that.
Finally Ranma got within a few feet of her. She swung her black staff towards him. As it got to withing about two feet of the tuxedo clad hero, the gems on both ends of her staff and the one in her tiara flared with blue light. Suddenly Nabiki seemed to be moving in slow motion, and so did the monster, but it seemed faster than Nabiki. Ranma briefly wondered just what was going on, but he could not stay here. Whatever plan Nabiki had would not be useful if she got killed. He shouted while running away, "I don't know what you had planned, but getting us killed seems a bad way to pull it off!" If one waited just a few seconds longer they could have seen an annoyed frown form on Nabiki's face.
Ranma still couldn't figure out what was going on. He was easily able to dodge the projectiles now. It was almost as if they were in slow motion. It seemed to have angered whatever it was since its attacks seemed to be coming a little faster and with almost no control or plan. Am I faster now? Regardless, I better kill that thing and figure out the details later. Once again he felt an irresistible urge to throw that stupid rose in his pocket at it. Seeing as no one was there to see, and well given the fact that he really didn't have a better idea, he plucked it out of his pocket with his right hand and grabbed ahold of the stem throwing the flower right at the monsters chest. He was surprised when the flower impacted like a dagger and seemed to blow away a chunk of the monsters substance. Oh great I attack with flowers. I wonder which kami I annoyed today. Lacking a less stupid attack, he kept withdrawing flowers from his inside pocket, where they magically appeared, and tossing them at the suddenly slow moving monster. I can't believe the monster is moving so slowly, and its almost as if those knife like ice shards are barely moving through the air. Some more of the monsters substance was obliterated yet it was still moving.
"Moko Takabisha!" yelled Ranma as a yellow ball of confidence ki emerged from his hands and sped towards the target. It was strange, it almost seemed that the ball slowed down as it approached the monster. Just as the ball was about to impact you could see an opening forming in what was left of the monster. It was too little, too late, as the ball impacted and obliterated the remains of the odd water monster. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. He really wondered what Nabiki's plan was. He decided to go check on her.
Nabiki seemed to return to normal motion when he was a few feet from her. Nabiki stumbled a bit, and then caught herself before she could fall. In a weak voice she asked, "You got him?"
"Yes, of course. I'm the best after all. I'm not sure what plan you had, but well Ranma Saotome never loses."
Her voice started weak but grew stronger as she spoke. "You idiot! The 'reason' you didn't lose was because of me. The least you could do would be to thank me, but no I get to listen to you thump your chest like some kind of ape."
"Hey, I kicked its arse. I didn't see you there."
"The reason you kicked its arse is I placed a temporal field around you which effectively made you like three times faster." She again wondered just where her new found and annoyingly sketchy knowledge came from.
"Huh? Your saying you made me faster?"
"Yes, I was able to temporarily make you faster, but the only way I could hold it for any length of time was to provide myself as a balance, hence while you were three times faster, I was three times slower."
"Weird."
"Look we better get out of here. By the sounds of the sirens, emergency workers should be here any second, and explaining our presence is not going to help anyone."
Ranma looked around at the carnage surrounding the area. Fighting the monster had temporarily put it out of his mind, since his own survival was rather uncertain there for a time. "But I may be able to help."
Nabiki sighed. He was right. Ranma was far more skilled for these situations. So far, all she could do was a few tricks. Nabiki gave a half nod. "I know almost nothing about first aid, but I can probably manage to do that trick again, for a little while. Come back and get me when your done." She touched her staff to the tuxedo clad boy.
The gems flared and somehow Ranma knew that she had done it again. He smiled briefly at the short haired girl. The black outfit truly did look good on her, and seeing Nabiki tire herself out to help others seemed such a precious memory. He would have to be quick. He ran into the center of the clearing and looked around. He could see a few of the unlucky ones, or what was left of them. They certainly did not need rescuing. The sirens seemed to be very near now, yet the pitch shift down made it hard to be sure. He pushed the carnage away from his thoughts as he embraced the soul of ice. He dropped to the ground and quickly sat Indian style. What he needed to do would require a great deal of concentration, and to be honest, while he understood the theory he never had much luck making it work, except for people very nearby. He focused on his chi, using his confidence in his abilities, to build it to its highest level while keeping it contained. Suddenly a bright disc shaped band of yellow chi began to emerge from Ranma and fly rapidly away from the Tuxedo clad boy. The disc was imperfect with brighter and darker portions yet Ranma thought it would work. The emission lasted about six seconds in total.
Ranma tried to keep his mind as blank as possible. The echos would be weak. There was one and another and a third. No, the third was Nabiki. He waited a few more seconds, but nothing happened. Only two out of he wondered how many. Still the technique worked, as their chi signatures were too weak for him to sense normally. Fortunately, they were next to each other. He called his chi forth to once again strengthen his body and allow his speed to go beyond what most would consider normal. He almost didn't have to think about it now, except it was different somehow. He pushed the thought out of his mind as he rapidly crossed several blocks to come to where three cars had collided with each other. He didn't understand why the crash had occurred until he saw the pieces of ice not far away from where the cars were punctured in many places. Two dead. Killed by what I dodged. A part of him realized that he should feel something more to see all this death, but the soul of ice kept the regret and the sorrow a distant thing. He noted that the third car had what appeared to be a mother and her daughter in it.
The car was partially crunched by the impacts making it unlikely that any of the doors would open easily. Ranma jumped the remaining distance to get to the other side and grabbed ahold of the door only to rip the handle off.
Not far away, Nabiki sighed. While she didn't understand everything she remembered, she understood enough, for now at least. Temporal fields were always continuous. To put it in mathematical terms their gradients were always finite. Put more simply, sharp transitions in the flow of time were impossible. You could create local disturbances, but the more abrupt you tried to make the change, the harder it was and the more difficult it was to balance things. She suspected Ranma had grabbed ahold of something large quickly. Ordinary objects are linked to the normal temporal field. When Ranma pushed against a large object it caused the accelerated field around Ranma to be in conflict with the one from whatever he had come in contact with. It seemed the magic tried to compensate, by pulling more energy from Nabiki, but in the end Nabiki was too tired and that was the final straw. Hence Nabiki's semi noble action to help Ranma's search out, had perhaps saved about a minute in total. She hoped it was a useful minute.
Ranma, of course, noticed almost none of this other than the obvious change of the sirens resuming their normal pitch and seeing a bit more motion from the two inside the car. No, Ranma's attention was fixed on the people inside. The daughter was perhaps around ten years old with the mother in her mid thirties. Both were examples of traditional black haired Japanese beauty. The daughter had a nasty gash on her leg and was unconscious or sleeping. Fortunately it wasn't bleeding too badly. The mother had a puncture wound in her lower stomach. It looked like it might have gone through her kidneys and the blood loss alone made this very bad. All because I couldn't finish this sooner, and now she is going to die. He felt the soul of ice begin to crack. It allowed one to bury their emotions, but the stronger the emotion the harder it fought to break free.
The paramedics pulled up and headed his way.
"It doesn't have to be that way." came from a young woman's voice from no discernible location.
Ranma looked around. "What? Hey if you can help come here."
The paramedics looked at him as if wondering who he was talking to.
"Only you can hear me, and only this once. Will yourself back to your normal girl form and then focus on your desire, your need to heal her. You have always had the potential. Now you have the seed for how to use it. Concentrate and you will find the way. Goodbye and good luck Ranma."
"Goodbye Hotaru." He didn't stop to think how he knew the name.
"Step out of the way. We need to get to her."
Ranma didn't notice someone else was talking to him. The need to save her had become an all consuming focus for him. He willed himself to change back to his normal girl form, and surprisingly enough it happened with the fancy clothes vanishing and leaving her once again in her normal red and black combination. Without hesitation, she kneeled down and placed one hand over the wound and the other behind the woman's back in the same general location. Her actions seemed strange because they seemed to be almost automatic. Ranma's face took on the look of intense concentration. Her face was turned towards the wound, but no focus could be seen in her eyes. Suddenly a cool blue glow could be seen to form around Ranma's hands as it extended into the woman's body. Tears began to fall from Ranma's eyes as the soul of ice shattered, yet the glow remained even and steady.
"Hey. What do you think we should do?" asked the one paramedic.
"I saw that wound before she covered it. I remember Sailor Saturn healing some people before. This looks kind of like that. Regardless, I doubt we could do anything other than prolong her life a bit, so she died in a hospital. Lets help the girl."
"Right."
A quick bandage was applied to the wound and the girl was carried to the ambulance. The paramedics went back to look at Ranma and the girl's mother only to see the glow dim around Ranma as she fell slowly forward with her face pressed into the seat fabric and her arms sprawled out over the unconscious woman.
"What now?"
"We take them with us. Come on and give me a hand."
A very tired Nabiki looked on from around the corner. Ranma healed that woman. I didn't know she could do that, but then, perhaps, that is new as well. Oh well, there is nothing more I can do here.
The pair loaded both Ranma and the woman into the ambulance as well. It was getting a little crowded in the back, but the closest other ambulance was a couple blocks away, and not worth the time to go to. Given the carnage, it was hoped that the other ambulances were able to find people alive as well.
"What should we write on the report?"
"We found an injured young girl, her mother, and another girl and brought them in for treatment of course."
"What about the glowing and stuff and wasn't there some guy there before?"
"Leave it out. If you were believed, you'd only be making that girl's life harder and I for one don't want to see people who can heal like that pestered. Who knows, it might be you she saves next time. If you aren't believed, it might end up helping to cost you your job. No, nothing good can come of those details."
The other paramedic nodded.
Nabiki willed her transformation away and was soon back in her normal clothes, hair length, hair color, and eye coloring. She almost regretted the change since the fatigue she was feeling seemed so much worse now. She trudged back to the house where they had come from. Some answers should be found there. She wondered if Dr. Tofu was still there. Somehow, she was sure they had been asleep for awhile given their changed clothes and how hungry she was.
After about ten minutes of walking, she saw Dr. Tofu looking around as if searching for someone.
"Dr. Tofu."
Dr. Tofu turn around and saw her. "Nabiki, are you alright? We were looking for you. Well mostly me and the cats. Setsuna can't walk for long anymore."
"Setsuna? Oh you must mean the old woman who's house we were going to." Nabiki yawned as she got within a few feet of Dr. Tofu.
Dr. Tofu looked her over in a clinical manner. "Yes, thats her. Where is Ranma? Is he ok?"
"Oh, he had to be the hero. I think he is fine. Ranma was apparently exhausted helping out with the weird youma attack and they carted her off to the hospital."
"Ranma-chan was hospitalized? I should go check on her. Do you want to follow me back to the house and then take my car there?"
"Sure doc. Just don't expect me to walk too fast. I'm kinda tired." The good doctor knows more than he has told. That much is obvious. Nabiki mentally shrugged figuring that patience would reveal what she wanted to know. Still, she would have to find out soon, since waking up in a bed with Ranma Saotome might have long term repercussions. An Amazon and a sister came to mind..
They picked up Setsuna from her house and drove to Jubaan general hospital. It took them awhile to find Ranma, as they had filed her under Jane Doe since obviously the identification she had on her wasn't her own.
Dr. Tofu walked in the door to see Dr. Mizuno checking the still unconscious Ranma's blood pressure.
"Hello Ann. I was sorry to hear about your daughter."
Dr. Mizuno turned abruptly to face Dr. Tofu. "Ono, oh um thanks."
Dr. Tofu went over and pulled his friend into a hug. She had married quite young, against her families wishes. It was perhaps as well that they did get married so young, because they had so little time together before she lost him, and now she had lost her only child. "If you need anything..."
"I'll call. Is this girl the strange young man you keep telling stories about?"
"Yes, that's Ranma." Dr. Tofu gave a wan smile. "How is she?"
"As near as I can tell she probably collapsed from exhaustion. I can't find anything else wrong with her, although it looks like she may not have been eating well recently."
Dr. Tofu looked over Ranma with his aura sight. Things seemed similar to when he had last looked upon her in Setsuna's bedroom. Setsuna walked carefully over to Dr. Mizuno while Dr. Tofu continued his examination. Dr. Tofu glanced her way, but returned to his examination. Some things were sharper, and a few were weaker, but everything seemed fine from what he could tell. "Yes, I think your right."
Setsuna let out a small involuntary sigh. How do you tell a mother about her daughter's death? It was not a question Setsuna was looking forward to answering, yet they deserved to know, and secrets be dammed. "Are you busy?"
"Actually, no. I was going to go home after I finished here."
"I knew your daughter. She was a good friend. I thought that perhaps you might want to talk for a bit."
"Why not?" she said in a bitter tone. "It is not as if I ever really had a chance to get to know her. I was always busy with work."
Dr. Tofu hated this kind of thing. He didn't envy Setsuna one bit. "You two go chat. Ranma should be up and around soon and I can watch over her until then."
Dr. Mizuno looked back at her friend and then over at Setsuna. Both had concerned looks on their faces. "Okay, but I expect to be told how someone with Ranma's constitution manages to exhaust himself to the point of collapse. It is bad enough what happened to my daughter and her friends. I couldn't bear to see it happen to another child."
Setsuna said simply, "okay" and walked out the door followed closely by Dr. Mizuno.
Nabiki waited until the door was closed before turning to the doctor. "Spill. Just what is going on?"
Dr. Tofu started to speak, but hesitated. Finally he said, "Ranma will wake soon and then we can go somewhere and talk about it."
Dr. Mizuno and Setsuna decided to go to Ann's house since Setsuna didn't know where Dr. Tofu would go when Ranma left the hospital and things were complicated enough as is. Ann made tea while Setsuna took a seat at the table.
"So, tell me about my daughter?" Her words still seemed to take a frigid tone whenever she was forced to admit she didn't know her daughter as well as she might have wanted.
The doorbell rang. "I'll get it. It should be our dinner." came from Setsuna. Ann seemed a bit surprised, since she had not heard Setsuna order any food, but then she didn't remember much of the drive home either.
Setsuna came back in with several bags of food.
"Don't you think you over did it? I doubt the two of us could possibly eat so much."
"Well I wanted some variety since I wasn't sure what kind of food you liked, and you were a bit out of it in the car."
"Oh. Okay.. You were going to tell me about my daughter.." Her words were a bit less bitter then and a bit more hesitant. Setsuna had somehow managed to throw the doctor off balance which included her own self recrimination.
Setsuna smiled. "In a way I have known your daughter for a very long time, and I hope to meet her again someday."
"What are you talking about? My daughter is dead. I saw.."
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
"I'm a doctor. I believe in science, although I certainly can't disprove reincarnation or anything."
Setsuna smiled. "You believe in science, and yet you just treated a boy with a magical curse."
"But that is different. Ono told me about him, and I've known Ono for years. He wouldn't lie."
"So you believe in things you see or that someone else you trust sees. Well, it is perhaps a little soon for you to trust me so much. Fortunately, I have proof." She paused briefly as if considering how to continue. "You see, I knew your daughter in the distant past."
Ann looked at the older woman skeptically. Anger began to creep into her thoughts at what she thought was someone playing with her and trying to prey on her daughter's memory. In a sarcastic tone she said, "You say you have proof. Let's see it now or get out! It is bad enough my daughter died in these accursed attacks this town is famous for.."
Setsuna continued in a cool almost kind tone. "Very well." She fished a blue crystal about an inch in diameter from her purse and placed it in the palm of her hand. It immediately began to glow a soft blue to indicate its readiness. "Grant Dr. Mizuno access to all collected records of Sailor Mercury for a week."
"Huh? Thats a neat toy you have there, but what does Sailor Mercury have to do with my daughter?"
"You will see. When I'm gone, ask the history archive to show you Sailor Mercury's first transformation." She set the crystal down and pulled a pen out to write something on the fast food box. "I should go, my number is on the box. Call anytime."
Setsuna picked up the one bag and walked out the door. Ann froze as if trying to make it all make sense. Somehow she knew and that scared her most of all.
Setsuna knew that Ann would use the crystal. She had the right to know. It was a risk, but one she could manage since she knew Ann would understand after she saw. She supposed she was getting emotional in her old age but she had eighteen years to think about it and the bottom line was that if it was her daughter she would want to know. Of course that still left the others families. She pulled out a cell phone and called the cab company she was part owner in. Her house wasn't that far, but it was still more than she wanted to walk. That bench seemed a good place to wait and the food was getting cold.
Ann felt a little guilty for not offering Setsuna a ride home, yet the crystal beckoned. She eat a few bites of Empress Chicken before saying, "Show me Sailor Mercury's first transformation." The history archive was a simple thing, and while Setsuna may have meant this reincarnation, the archive took her literally. Her chopsticks fell to the floor as half of her room seemed to disappear to show an elegant thrown room with crystal spires. The most startling thing was the young woman who shouted, "Mercury Star Power... Make Up!" The young woman was her daughter.
Ranma tossed in her sleep. "No, I aint gonna eat it. It's still moving!"
Nabiki tossed her hot tea on the pig tailed beauty. She supposed the action was a little too Akane like for her taste, but trying to shake someone awake who could punch holes in concrete was not high on her list of stupid things she had to do today. She was disappointed to still see a very wet red head. "Uh oh."
"What did you do that for!" Ranma came to and looked around. Nabiki. Tofu. Hospital. Check. Warm wet breasts. Oh crap. "That was hot!"
"No kidding Saotome."
"I'm still a girl."
"What gave you the first clue?" said Nabiki. Ranma was so much fun to tease, although she was wondering why he was having trouble with his curse again. He was male not that long ago...
"You know what I mean. Dang it, I hate being stuck as a girl!"
An orderly came in and asked, "Is everything okay in here?"
Dr. Tofu mentally let out a sigh of relief that Ranma seemed to be taking it well. He turned to the orderly. "Yes, everything is fine. Ranma is just a little disoriented."
"Okay, well if you need anything just hit the call button."
"We will." The man went back out the door.
"If you feel up to it, why don't we discuss this somewhere else?" came from the doctor.
Author's Notes: I thought about writing more, but this is a reasonable stopping point. One thing that is yet to be determined is how to handle the various Nerima issues, or for that matter which to handle at all. We can't let Ranma's or Nabiki's life get too easy now can we? I also need to develop the bad guys and their plans to a much larger extent, although the point of the story is not defeating the bad guys, they are merely steps towards them dealing with their new unasked for heritage. For those who asked, no Ranma will not permanently be in an exact copy of Tuxedo Kamen's outfit. I'm not quite that cruel. I suppose the next thing to work on would be Kitten's Hope.
2005-06-02