Dark Side of the Moon

Prologue

    Within the void of space there were a pair of hands that were alit by the luminous object that was held within them. The owner of said hands were lost to the darkness, as they drifted along silently, alone. All around them, as far as the eye could see, were the galaxies of the universe. However, nearby, there was not a star to be found, within a galaxy or otherwise. They were all that remained of a galaxy that had once been.
    Their hands parted, and the object within shone its brilliant light upon its holder. With the front half of their body illuminated, it was revealed that she was a fairly tall and buxom — as well as nude — woman. Behind her, flowing in and out of the light, were long, crimson tresses. There was an ethereal glow about her body, as the light from the object played upon her alabaster skin. And her eyes, a vivid blue, sparkled as if they had a life of their own.
    She stared down at the crystal in her hands with a piercing gaze. It was all that remained of two galaxies: one lost long before her time, and the other just a short time ago. It elicited many memories from her life, and she was able to recall billions of years worth of them. But, in the end, her oldest memories came to the forefront of her thoughts. In particular, she remembered those fateful days, the ones that had made her realize her destiny.
    The memories hadn't faded into obscurity over time. It felt like everything had happened only yesterday...

Chapter 1

    Ranma whistled idly, with his arms folded behind his head, as he walked along the top of the fence that overlooked the canal. He was intent on taking his time to the empty lot since he was, once again, on his way to answer one of Ryoga's challenges. The date for the duel, as usual, had long since passed. In fact, this was going to be his seventh day of routine inspections, to see whether or not Ryoga had yet to arrive at the disclosed location. At least it was during Summer vacation, and he had the time to waste.
    He wasn't really sure what was going through Ryoga's head these days. Even though he had found a girl that loved him, despite his curse, he still held a vendetta against him. Perhaps old habits died hard. Either way, he still considered Ryoga to be a rival martial artist, and he was glad for the challenges that presented him with. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to hate him. He was a nuisance, to be sure, but they did have a rapport of sorts every now and again.
    His musings were interrupted by faint screams, which were soon followed by explosions and plumes of smoke. They all seemed to originate from only a few blocks away, as far as he could tell.
    "What in the hell's goin' on over there?" He wondered, his duel with Ryoga forgotten.
    He ran toward the source of the disturbance, and silently hoped that whatever was happening wasn't being caused by anyone he knew. He wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with Happosai, for instance, since he was capable of both the explosions and eliciting such screams.
    Unfortunately, what he discovered made Happosai look like a saint. He had to skid to a stop, after rounding the last corner to his destination, and gawked, so shocked was he by the sight before him.
    He had fought Pantyhose enough times to have the confidence required to fight him without much thought, but what was before him now made him pause. He was overcome by a feeling of anxiety, and a strong sense of foreboding. The thing had two, long, segmented horns that protruded from its head, and they curved much like a ram's. Its body was monstrous, covered in black fur, and an equally black, leathery hide where such fur was absent. Muscles bulged to enormous proportions wherever muscle could be found, and its hands and feet, which were much like those of an ape's, seemed larger than normal. On its back, huge, bat-like wings could be found, adorned with knife-sized nails at the tips of each finger. Its face, though very much like Pantyhose's, was twisted into an ever-present scowl. And it had deep, seethingly-red embers for eyes; eyes that looked out from within the shadowy depths of their sockets.
    What he saw was a demon, pure and simple.
    Had he been capable of thinking at this point and time, and had decided to make a comparison between the entity before him and the cursed form of Pantyhose, he'd've gladly fought a dozen of the latter before even thinking of fighting the former. If anything truer could be said, the demon before him could probably win most of its battles through intimidation alone. However, despite the apprehension that he felt, his resolve to face the demon solidified when he saw it pick up a man, who had tried to run out from one of the stores. The demon enveloped him in some kind of red energy, then tossed him aside like a rag doll. The unfortunate victim met a building's facade with a mixture of sounds that were quite nauseating to the ear. It was then, as he watched the man crumple to the ground, morbidly transfixed as he was to the gore that he had just bore witness to, that he noticed others nearby, who had met a similar fate.
    "Enough!" He shouted, grabbing the demon's attention.
    He had his doubts about beating this... thing. But he'd forever be ashamed if he didn't try. And he wouldn't really know what his chances were without doing at least that much.
    His body tensed as the demon sprinted toward him, its hungry eyes unnerving him greatly. This was not his everyday, run-of-the-mill demon, that he fought on occasion. No; this one was extremely dangerous, if the lifeless bodies he'd seen were any indication.
    When the demon was upon him he jumped directly into its face, avoiding its grasp in the process. He decided against pulling his punches, since he figured that it'd be foolish to test the waters against something so obviously strong and evil. And thus his left fist blurred into a flurry of activity, as it struck the creature's face hundreds of times with all of the strength that he could muster behind it.
    The demon lumbered back against the onslaught, but was otherwise unfazed. In response it thoughtlessly threw its head forward, seemingly unconcerned about the impact that a headbutt would make against an entire human body. This caught Ranma completely by surprise, and he had barely been fast enough to shield himself with his arms before the impact.
    Sailing through the air, his forearms screaming in pain, Ranma knew that he was outmatched even before he crashed through a window, followed by several aisles of shelves within a movie rental shop. But that didn't stop him from standing up and running back out into the light of day, ready to give his all, with the hope of defeating his opponent. The demon awaited him, and licked its chops as it made another grab for him. Ignoring the disconcerting action that it had made with its tongue, he was comforted by his speed advantage as he dodged the demon's giant hand.
    Upon finding an opening, he gathered his confidence, joined his hands at their base, then extended them toward his target's face and shouted, "Moko takabisha!"
    He took the opportunity to leap back, in order to distance himself from his opponent. He waited to see the result of his attack, and wondered if said opponent's apparent inaction was a good sign.
    It wasn't. When the smoke cleared from its face, it was looking down at him with — if it were at all possible to tell, much less measure — a hunger bordering on lust.
    And then he was bewildered when it opened its mouth to speak. Its voice bellowed deeply, which rattled nearby windows and sent a disconcerting vibe throughout his body.
    "Yummmm..."
    Before he could respond, he found himself crushed within the demon's grasp, due to being distracted by the demon's reaction. Its utter delight had not been expected, and the sound of its voice had been unsettling. He had expected the demon to be annoyed by his attack, at the very least.
    But not this demon. And he soon found out why, as the red energy surrounded him and began to strip him of his strength.
    "This thing absorbs energy!" He realized.
    He tried to struggle, to escape, but the demon's grip was too strong for him to escape from; and he was rapidly losing what energy he had for accomplishing such a feat.
    "Shishi hokodan!"
    His body was jarred by the ball of heavy, green energy, when it impacted the wrist of the hand that held him; and, fortunately, the demon relinquished its grip as a result of said impact. He fell on his feet, but he immediately collapsed onto his bottom because he was too drained to stand just yet. Unlike his shaky legs, however, his neck was still functioning adequately enough, so he was able to turn his head to regard who he had expected to see, a short distance behind him: Ryoga.
    Ryoga had just finished setting his travel pack aside, when he saw him, and began to remove his umbrella from it. He held it up with confidence, as he pointed its business end at the demon.
    With a smirk on his face, he challenged the demon, proclaiming, "I won't allow you to kill Ranma: that's my privilege, and mine alone!"
    With that being said, he charged toward the demon with a battle cry.
    "Oh, my hero..." Ranma muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He thought that Ryoga had a lot of nerve to assume the right to his life.
    Since he had recovered from the initial effects of being drained, to some extent, he rose to his feet and decided to attack while Ryoga had the demon's attention. It seemed that someone with more energy, for the time being, was worth paying more attention to. The question was: what could he do, now? Throwing energy at it was the same as feeding it, and conventional attacks didn't seem to have much effect. The hiryu shoten ha wasn't possible because of the demon's size and strength: not because the demon might be too heavy to lift, or too strong to be affected, but rather because there would be no room to draw it into a spiral; that, and his shortage of strength wouldn't allow him to dodge very well.
    No sooner had he come to those conclusions did the demon snatch Ryoga out of the air, who hadn't figured out that the demon had been absorbing his energy blasts the whole time.
    "Ryoga!" Ranma yelled in alarm.
    He leapt at the demon and prepared to strike at it from behind, in an attempt to free his "friend." And was it ever an attempt: the demon, as if nonchalantly, spread its wings out and swatted him away with one of them, simply by turning about. It didn't hurt much since the thin membrane of the wing was much softer than a skull, but sliding along the pavement, and unable to right himself onto his feet as the friction quickly did away with the back of his shirt, had been anything but pleasant. Going through a stream of water, the source of which being a busted fire hydrant, whose water was being redirected by an overturned car, wasn't particularly pleasing, either.
    After raising herself to her hands and knees, she raised her head to see that Ryoga was in the process of being drained, in much the same way that she had been just a moment before.
    "Damn it!" She cursed, despairing over the realization that she couldn't do anything.
    And, so, she didn't even bother to rise to her feet, as she watched Ryoga lose more and more of his strength to the demon while he futilely pounded on the hand that held him. But almost immediately she bowed her head and slammed her fist against the asphalt, with enough force to crack it, and thought desperately for a solution. In the end, of course, only one idea came to mind: using what strength she had left to, at the very least, save Ryoga... Even though it would put herself at personal risk.
    Deciding thusly, she jumped to her feet, dashed toward the demon, and called out, "hey! Ugly!"
    "Who're you calling ugly!?" Ryoga retorted angrily from his place within the demon's grasp.
    Said demon looked over its shoulder to regard the source of the voice and promptly snorted.
    "I wasn't talking to you, you idiot!" Ranma responded with a tone of exasperation, just before she slid between the demon's legs.
    Then, for the first time in all of her years as a martial artist, she decided to implement a secret technique that was only to be used under the most desperate of circumstances: the Saotome's school of martial arts secret desperation attack... "taking the family jewels!"
    "HAI-YA!"
    Time seemed to stand still at that very moment. Ryoga stared at the demon's groin area, where Ranma's extended leg was currently embedded. Her head was turned away, with one eye closed, and the other only partly so; and with that one eye she spared a glimpse of her deed, because a small part of her had been too morbidly curious about just where her foot had actually gone.
    And then time appeared to flow freely again. Ranma landed on one foot, then proceeded to hop up and down on it while she clutched at her gallant one, which had begun to smart something fierce after it had delivered its blow. Ryoga had been released from his containment, in the meantime, and had been unceremoniously dumped onto the ground. The demon, who had been shocked into a slow response, let out a deafening howl of pain as it bent over and held its groin with both hands. Tears were literally pouring out from its void-like eyes.
    "Ranma!" Ryoga gasped, and pointed at said person accusingly. "Have you no shame!?"
    Ranma, while still relieving her offended leg from the ground, turned to face Ryoga, fixed him with a baleful glare, and expressed how ill-humored she had been made by his remark, by saying, "I just saved you, pork butt!"
    Whatever respite they had gained from her "unscrupulous" attack had been wasted with words: it had allowed the demon to backhand her before she had a chance to raise a proper defense, which sent her crashing through the brick wall of a nearby building.
    "Mercury aqua rhapsody!" Was suddenly heard from above.
    Startled, Ryoga witnessed a torrent of water as it smashed into the side of the demon's head. The demon was knocked off balance and fell onto its side, but it soon returned to its feet and shifted its gaze onto the figure that stood atop of a building that was across the street. It promptly forgot about its former captive as its mind settled upon its next intended victim.
    Sailor Mercury, who was the first and only senshi to arrive at the scene, as of yet, frowned down at the boy who continued to stand within close proximity to the demon, whom she thought would have had enough sense to run to safety.
    "Run!" She shouted. "While I have it distracted!"
    "Run? Me? Never!" Thought Ryoga to himself.
    "..."
    Well, he figured that a brief retreat, to await a second wind, might not be so bad. So thinking, he ran across the street and entered the building that Ranma had been hit through, using the entrance that she had involuntarily made. It wasn't that he was concerned about her: it was just a matter of making sure that she was alive so he could still have his revenge.
    As he heard the senshi announce her attack once again, he found his rival lying in what remained of a toilet and its stall, in some restaurant's restroom...

    "Where am I?" Ranma wondered, who was puzzled by her surroundings.
    All around her suspended, naked form she found nothing but whiteness, in the form of feathers, stars, moons, hearts and various styles and patterns of linen. The background was a shifting and wavering opalescence, often casting the colors of the rainbow onto the white objects around her. It was quite pretty, if she did think so herself.
    "What am I thinking!?" She questioned herself.
    Guys didn't describe things as... hold on. Technically, at the moment, she was a girl. And no one seemed to be around, so... nothing to worry about!
    "Still... Where on Earth am I? Am I dead?"
    "You're in a dream state, princess." A response came to her, seemingly from nowhere.
    "Who's there!?" She exclaimed in alarm, and looked about herself for her unknown quarry.
    It took a moment for her to register what exactly had been said; mostly due to being disoriented by the constant weightlessness that she was experiencing from her suspension. Once she did, she demanded, "and who're you callin' a princess!?"
    "Why, you, of course."
    A slight breeze began to come in from the West, she somehow noted, and it was warm and pleasant. Willing herself to turn about so she could face the movement of the wind, she yelped in surprise when she found a miniature copy of herself directly before her face.
    "But that couldn't be me!" She thought to herself, as she examined the form before her. Said form might have had her cobalt blue eyes, vibrant red hair, creamy white skin, as well as her figure and short stature, but there was no way she'd ever wear that getup!
    The getup in question was a black, form-fitting body suit with white ribbons tied into bows over her bosom and at the small of her back, with the bow on her chest bearing a shiny, black gem at its center. There was a white, sunburst-pleated miniskirt that proudly displayed her abundant thighs. Her feet and calves were encased in black, knee-length boots with two-inch heels, the top of each tipped with a small band of white. Also, her hands were fit with black gloves that only reached as far as the wrist, where the cuffs flared out; and they each had a small band of white encircling the flared end, that were similar to the ones on her boots. The sailor collar was white with three black stripes along the hem, and the choker around her neck was black. In her ears were dangling earrings, where black-colored crescent moons hung from pearls. Across her temple was a golden tiara with a small, black gem gleaming at its center. Finally, her fanny-length hair was tied with a black bow at the base of her braid.
    "Wh-who're you?" She managed to stammer out, finding herself feeling quite awkward.
    "I'm you, silly!" Her mini-self replied with a giggle.
    Ranma hadn't noticed before, but her voice was very pleasant to hear; a light and sweet soprano, if she had ever heard one.
    "Do I really sound like that?" She wondered to herself, in the privacy of her mind.
    "But... How can that be?" She asked in response to what her so-called miniature self had claimed, feeling confused. Wasn't she a man? And what was up with her attire, not to mention her diminutive size?
    Smiling as she had been since her appearance, her mini-self genially answered, saying, "you could say that I am a spiritual representation of your soul, and what you see before you is the former incarnation that has been awakened within you. The day you fell into the nyannichuan was the day that you reclaimed the body and memories of your past self." She leaned forward and, with a look of curiosity on her face, she added, "don't tell me that you never noticed any changes in yourself."
    Ranma shook her head, hardly being able to comprehend what had just been explained to her.
    "Notice what?" She asked. Was she saying that she was a girl in a past life, and that the nyannichuan had made her that girl?
    "Concentrate." Was her mini-self's simple reply, with an air of patience.
    Now even more confounded, Ranma regarded her with a puzzled expression.
    "Concentrate on what?" She wondered to herself. "Maybe... She did say something about memories from my past life... Could that be it?"
    Concentrating on memories that she didn't even know she had, she closed her eyes and cleared her mind in the process. It was then that she finally became aware of how calm she had been, at the place that she found herself in, and that being nude didn't bother her. She also noticed that her thought processes were working perfectly, with every thought coming and going freely and clearly. She found that a little odd. However, even stranger was her sudden realization of what her mini-self had been referring to. She had thought back to the day she had been cursed but, for some unknown reason, she had just now noticed how different she had been before taking her fateful plunge. In her search for the memories that belonged to her past life, she had instead stumbled upon some from her current one and, in all honesty, she did not like what she had found.
    She, before the plunge, had been very much like her father in almost every way and, despite not having any experience with girls, she knew that she would have been confident enough to... get what she wanted out of her girlfriends. She had been so much more arrogant, thoughtless and selfish. How could she have not noticed the changes — a significant decrease of said confidence, thoughtlessness and selfishness — after being cursed? She should have been confident when she had first met the Tendo family, instead of being so reserved. Furthermore, she would have chosen Kasumi as her fiancée, since she had seemed so docile, and thus would have been the easiest to manipulate. No doubt her father had wooed her mother for the same reason.
    "Kami-sama!" Was her shocked, internal response. "Would I have really done that? Yes... Yes, I would have."
    But the curse had seemingly mixed her personality with that of her past incarnation's, and had made such an occurrence impossible. She wasn't sure how she knew, but an unknown intuition told her that she was absolutely correct about everything that she had considered.
    Thus, the Ranma that was literally carried into the Tendo's lives was more timid and conscientious, more selfless and open to learning. However, depending on the circumstances, the better or worse aspects of her personality could be drawn out and become more dominant.
    Opening her eyes to gaze upon her mini-self, she was given a bouncy nod and a radiant smile.
    "That's right." She was told, in answer to her unasked question.
    "But... Why?" She inquired, before hastily adding, "not that I'm complainin' or nothin'."
    And why not complain? From her viewpoint, at that point and time, she didn't like her former self. Perhaps she wouldn't have had such an opinion of herself if no changes to her personality had been made, but how could she have lived with herself by treating people as badly as her father did? Moreover, why had she not noticed before... that she had become different? Perhaps the new persona had simply felt too normal to question?
    "Beats me!" Came the cheerful reply, causing Ranma to give her an incredulous expression. Then, with a shrug, she continued and said, "I'm a part of you that you never used in your past incarnation, so I'm about as much in the dark as you are. However..."
    "However?" Ranma inquired intently, taking the bait.
    "However, the reason for us meeting together like this, at long last, is because your 'heart' yearns for the capability to do good, to protect others from evil: such as the monstrosity that defeated you, for example."
    "I wasn't defeated." Ranma grumbled, her eyes downcast and cheeks slightly flushed. "I'm just taking a breather, okay?"
    "Whatever you say." Her mini-self replied with a smile that reached her eyes, clearly amused. "Either way, it's your choice to unlock your heritage and memories. As your guardian, I've come in your time of need, and in response to the call of destiny. The choice is up to you."
    "Wait-a-minute!" Ranma blurted out abruptly. "Heritage? Guardian? Destiny? What're you talking about?"
    With an impish little grin, her "guardian" cryptically said, "Now that... Is a secret!" She waggled her index finger at her.
    Ranma, for lack of a better word, was not amused. In fact, she was quite annoyed, and her facial expression demonstrated as much.
    Sighing forlornly, her guardian allowed her limbs to hang languidly and, with a pout, she said, "you're no fun, at all."
    Feeling a little apologetic, though still serious, Ranma softly stated, "I'm sorry. But I don't understand what's going on, and I've had enough problems caused by jumping into the unknown before, you know?"
    "I do." Her guardian replied, smiling slightly. "I'm you, remember?"
    "Yeah, about that..." Ranma said, purposefully trailing off in the hope of eliciting certain information.
    "Well..." Her guardian began thoughtfully, tapping an index finger against her chin. "Every living thing has a star seed: the planets, the animals, you, and every other thing in the cosmos. That's the part of you that I represent, but I'm no ordinary star seed. You see, certain star seeds are special, and they are called sailor crystals."
    "What's a sailor crystal?" Ranma interjected.
    "Don't interrupt!" Her guardian snapped, and glared at her reproachfully.
    "Okay, okay!" Ranma quickly acquiesced. And she thought that Akane could be capricious!
    Clearing her throat, her guardian continued in a lecturing tone, saying, "anyway; sailor crystals have special powers, as well as connections with their respective planets, or other celestial objects, in order to protect them. You, princess, are one of two who have a moon crystal, in representation of its dual nature. That's how it should be, anyway: but your sister has yet to become aware of her sailor crystal, and has been using the ginzuishou as her power source, instead. But your destinies are closely intertwined, so I suspect that that will change before too long."
    Ranma didn't understand much of the information at all, and could have cared less about destinies, but she did manage to, once again, catch a few interesting words.
    "Princess? Sister?" Her face contorted into a vision of utter complexity. Since when did she have a sister? And how could she be a princess? And she found herself a little surprised at not being disturbed by such feminine titles.
    "All sailor crystals are considered royalty." Her guardian explained. "But you were also born a noble in your past life, where you had a twin sister. She has been reincarnated, as you have been."
    "I... see..." Ranma spoke slowly, trying to make sense of everything that she had learned thus far, and only succeeding marginally.
    For reasons that she wouldn't share with her charge, the guardian of Ranma's sailor crystal reluctantly said, "I apologize, but I must go for now."
    "But... But I still have so many things to ask!" Ranma implored, who was suddenly overcome with anxiety. "Wh-what do I do? I mean, what do I do with my sailor crystal? What about my sister? How will this affect my current life?" She was practically pleading as she finished up, saying, "please! Tell me!"
    Her guardian regarded her with an expression of compassion, in response to her wide, searching eyes, and softly said, "you must make those decisions yourself, princess. Your heart is your key; feel it, follow it, allow it to guide you in the right direction. You can continue with your old life, or venture into a new world of learning and growth. Making the transition, should you decide to follow that path, will not be easy. Choose..."
    She began to fade away while, at the same time, she retreated into a source of light that grew ever brighter.
    "Until, perhaps, we meet again..."
    Ranma shielded her eyes with her arms just as she was blinded by a bright flash of light, which seemed to encompass everything and yet nothing...

    Groaning, her body aching from the blow that had been incurred by the demon, Ranma opened her eyes and focused on the blurry shadow that stood in front of a portal of light.
    "Good. I see you've managed to survive, Ranma." Came a condescending voice from the shadowy figure, whose tone Ranma quickly recognized as belonging to Ryoga. Soon afterward her vision resolved that same fact; along with the hole in the wall behind him, that shone light into the room.
    "Shove it, Ryoga." She replied sourly, and winced at the pain that she felt as she sat up. Several shards of porcelain cut her in the process. "The least you could do is show some gratitude."
    Ryoga snorted and turned his head away as he said, "I didn't ask for your help. I almost had myself free when you butted in."
    Ranma was tempted to argue, but she decided against it. There was a demon to take care of, regardless of her physical condition; and she was determined to fight it until the end.
    Clambering to her feet, despite the act being quite painstaking, her thoughts drifted to the dream that she had while she had been unconscious. It felt like it had happened to somebody else, since she had acted somewhat differently than what she decided was normal for herself. However, she was certain that it had been her, who had been the recipient of the dream. And what a dream it had been: if she had hardly understood anything whilst she had dreamed, she was quickly on her way to not having a clue, as the dream faded from her conscious memory. She could remember key elements that had caught her immediate attention in the dream, as well as the end of it, but that was about it.
    "What're you doing?" Ryoga inquired, who watched as his rival leaned against the remaining partition of the stall for support.
    She turned her head to regard the eternally-lost boy, with a "you've got to be kidding me" look on her face.
    "What do you think?" Came her rhetorical response. "I'm going back out there to fight that thing."
    "Ha!" Ryoga exclaimed, his mocking tone nettling Ranma instantly. "You couldn't do anything before, and now you can barely stand!"
    "I didn't see you do any better!" Ranma stated crossly, who wished that she had the strength to pound the arrogant bastard's head in.
    But he was right about one thing: she was quite unsteady on her feet, to say the least. There was no chance that she would be able to put up a fight at the moment, since she would be just as vulnerable as any normal person who happened to cross the demon's path.
    "Jupiter oak evolution!"
    The announcement was followed by an explosion and an enraged outcry from none other than the demon.
    "What's going on out there?" Ranma wondered aloud, who turned her gaze toward the hole in the tiled wall.
    "You mean... You don't know?" Ryoga queried carefully, with signs of disbelief creeping upon his visage.
    "Venus love and beauty shock!" Another voice rang out, and it sounded like the demon was shocked to find out that it wasn't very beautiful at all.
    Glaring at Ryoga with an ill-humored expression, Ranma pointedly said, "I was unconscious, remember?"
    Ryoga blinked a few consecutive times, and regarded her silently for a few seconds, before he burst out at the seams with laughter. He wondered how anyone could be ignorant of the Sailor Senshi. But he reasoned that it made sense, as far as he was concerned: that Ranma would be among those ignorant of them.
    Ranma was visibly steamed, and she wished that she could kick Ryoga where the sun didn't shine. But she knew that she wouldn't be able to do that, since she had injured her foot as a result of kicking the demon in the groin. Standing on, or otherwise using, her injured foot, in general, just wouldn't work.
    "I don't need this crap!" Ranma thought, feeling miffed. She stumbled toward the exit that she had installed earlier, against her will. Perhaps she couldn't fight the demon, but she could certainly leave the company of that annoying jackass.
    Grabbing a hold of the wall for support, she stood within the hole and stared wide-eyed at the sight of color-coded cheerleaders as they wove around the demon, who appeared to be distracting it with proximity of numbers while another separated from the group, undetected.
    "Mars flame sniper!" The lone cheerleader, in red, announced.
    She fired an arrow of flame and struck the demon from behind. The attack managed to knock it onto the ground. Much of the hair on its back was singed, and wisps of smoke wafted from the curled-up remains. The other three quickly took the opportunity to unleash their own attacks while the demon lay prostrate before them.
    "Venus love and beauty shock!" Declared the cheerleader whom Ranma noted as the one color-coded in orange.
    "Mercury aqua rhapsody!" Came from the one color-coded in blue, who synchronized with the one in orange.
    "Jupiter oak evolution!" The one color-coded in green joined in, in concert with the other two attacks.
    Ranma gaped, amazed at the display of power that she was witnessing. Who could they be? And what were those attacks that they were using, that the demon couldn't absorb? If she had attacks like those, then she was sure that she wouldn't have any problem taking out the stupid demon herself.
    When the smoke from the combined attack cleared, the demon picked itself up from the floor of the newly-formed crater and shook its head, appearing to clear itself of the disorientation that the blast of those attacks had induced. Then, turning her attention to the cheerleader in red, Ranma found her yelling at nobody in particular, as she regarded the watch on her upraised arm. She was too far away to understand what she was saying, despite her yelling, but it was obvious that she was quite unhappy about something.
    Once again Ranma wondered who they could be. Did they associate with... what was her name... Konjo, was it? Well, did they associate with whomever she was thinking of? That would explain the strange names of their attacks, and why they resembled cheerleaders. But where were their batons, as well as their pom-poms?
    "Still... They won't be able to defeat the demon by themselves." She observed, privately.
    Which was why she had to do something. She had a score to settle with that demon, anyway; and, with that mind, she thought that she was entitled to bring it down herself. But how...? She knew full well that she wasn't capable of fighting, much less walking a straight line, in her present condition.
    "Choose..." A whispering voice echoed in the background of her thoughts, which gave her a bit of a start. It was then that something, in particular, occurred to her.
    "These cheerleaders look just like my guardian!"
    Perhaps they weren't cheerleaders, then? Not that she was all that concerned about that: either way, they were undoubtedly suited for battling energy-eating demons, and were powerful to boot. It made her wonder what kind of attacks they used. As she watched the orange-colored "cheerleader" use her attack, she noticed that there was no reaction from her senses, insomuch as being unable to perceive a trace of a ki being used.
    Ryoga, by then, had suppressed his laughter and had joined his rival within the hole in the wall. His attention was on said rival, and not the girls fighting the demon outside.
    "You really don't know who they are?" He inquired, sounding skeptical. He expected to be fooled, since Ranma played jokes on him often enough.
    Ranma looked askance and, seeing that Ryoga seemed curious, rather than showing any sign of teasing, she answered him with a light shake of her head, in the negative, before asking, "who are they?"
    She then returned her attention to the activity outside and continued to watch the mysterious girls and their fight against the demon.
    "They're the sailor senshi." Was Ryoga's simple reply, before he returned his attention to the fight. "I'm surprised you've never heard of them."
    "Sailor senshi..." Ranma worded quietly; too quietly for Ryoga to hear over the din of the battle.
    "There's that 'sailor' word, from my dream." She thought to herself. And these senshi were, without a doubt, protectors, as her guardian had said they would be. They even declared the name of their respective planets with each attack. Was she to be like them?
    Reviewing the remnants of her dream, she realized that this was the choice that she was to make: whether to be, or not to be, a senshi. She could become a protector, one that was capable of defeating the sort of demon that those girls now confronted. All of them were girls, sure; they weren't the powerful, musclebound men in spandex with mighty swords or some other weapon of justice, but innocent, seemingly-fragile girls... And yet they wielded a power that she could only dream of having. It was true that she considered herself to be good, but even she could tell that the four senshi had her beat in the power department. Only her skill as a martial artist could serve her, but only so far as her strength could handle. She knew very well that she couldn't always expect the kind of opportunities that she had been presented with as far as her fights with Herb and Saffron were concerned. Those battles had come down to just one skill out of the many that she knew of, and it had been dependent upon the strength and capabilities of her opponents... There was always a chance that she'd have no effective option in the face of greater power and/or skill.
    "But I have a sailor crystal, don't I?" She reasoned to herself. "Couldn't I use the same power and defeat that demon?"
    Well, she didn't know if she would be able to defeat it, seeing as the other four couldn't accomplish that with all of their power combined; but she still hoped that she would be able to accomplish such a feat. The only question that remained was: how was she supposed to go about becoming a senshi?
    She pondered over that conundrum for a few moments, and watched the battle as she did so. Then, after catching a glimpse of one of the senshi's heart-shaped brooches, she remembered an aspect of her dream, that held the answer for what she had been looking for: she had to use her heart. Her guardian had told her that her heart would be the key, that she should follow it, and allow it to guide her in the right direction.
    Now that she knew exactly what she needed to do, it was only a matter of doing it. She closed her eyes and blocked out all of the outside disturbances. Then she began to search out for her heart blindly, since she didn't know how to find it. It seemed obvious that she should concentrate on the beating organ in her chest, but she knew better: because her training and meditation taught her that not all things were to be taken literally when told to focus on, or use, something that someone couldn't hope to accomplish through normal means.
    The search was, to her relief and delight, short. No sooner had she started, had her heart been drawn to her desire to accept her role as a senshi. Her pure intentions were a shining beacon for her heart to see, and thus it was able to guide her until they made contact. The contact nearly stole her breath away. It was so warm and comforting, and it suffused her whole body. It felt as if a breeze had swept right through her, from a Westerly direction... Just like in her dream, when her guardian had arrived.
    Glancing over at Ranma, Ryoga was shocked to find her illuminated by a hazy, white glow, which surrounded her body; and by how her hair and clothing was being swept about wildly by a nonexistent gale. In particular, he was taken by the serene expression on her face: so much so that he had almost mistook her for someone else.
    Ranma? That girlish and cute? Not a chance!
    "..."
    "What in the hell am I thinking, now!?" Ryoga exclaimed in thought, who was unable to turn away from the sight before him. It was no wonder that he so easily became attracted to Ranma whenever she was in disguise: because she was quite lovely when she actually appeared to be a girl.
    "R-Ranma...?" He managed to voice, despite feeling as uncomfortable as he did. But he was intent enough upon getting an answer for what was happening, and that was the only reason for why he was able to get anything out at all.
    Ranma was too engrossed with the energy that had lain dormant within her, behind a never-before-opened "door", to register Ryoga's voice. She was just glad to find out that, despite not knowing what the key to opening the "door" had been, consciously, she could confidently open it by using an instinctive withdrawal of knowledge from her subconscious. And that's exactly what she did.
    Clasping both hands over her physical heart, she declared, "Moon prism power! Make up!"

Chapter 2

    Ranma was consumed by the unfamiliar power as soon as she had unleashed it. She could feel it dissolve her clothing, as it wrapped about her body. Her heart raced as the power swelled outward, from within, and filled her being. Her injuries were healed, which relieved her of the pain that she had been suffering from. Soon afterward she felt her modesty returned to her, and felt some form-fitting attire encasing her torso, legs, hands and neck, followed shortly by something cold and metallic gracing her temple. The power did much more, but she could not readily discern what the finishing touches were: she only knew that the new power, that she now had access to, was now as much a part of her as her life energy was. Or, rather, it had always been a part of her, but only now was she aware of it.
    When her induction into senshihood was finished, she was left feeling exhilarated, pleasantly warm, and refreshed. She felt light on her feet, clear of mind, and confident enough to conquer anything; and conquer something she would.
    Reintroducing her eyes to the light of day, her curiosity inspired her to glance down at herself and she couldn't help gasping, in amazement, at what she saw.
    "I'm wearing the same getup my guardian wore!" She observed.
    Inspecting herself more thoroughly, she found that everything was exactly as she remembered, from her dream. Well, after pulling her pigtail over her shoulder, for a look, it was easy to tell that it wasn't any longer than usual. Not that she was all that concerned about the length of her hair.
    Then, realizing what she had done in the presence of a certain bandanna-wearing boy, she looked beside herself and found... an empty space. Casting her eyes downward, she found her quarry lying on the ground, a trail of blood trickling from his nose and a goofy grin plastered on his face. He was unconscious.
    Figuring out how Ryoga had come to be in that state, she giggled and said, "serves ya right, bacon breath."
    "I can't believe that dumpling head had to be sick today, of all days!" Ranma's right ear managed to catch, from a voice nearby.
    Turning aside, in order to see what was happening, she managed to get her first close-up view of the red-colored senshi. She had just leapt into the air, away from the close proximity that she had been to her... showing off her bottom in the process. Ranma couldn't help blushing when she caught a glimpse of it.
    After overcoming her embarrassment, she waited for the best opportunity to intercept the demon and initialize a rematch with it. She didn't want to jump right into an attack that the other senshi couldn't rein in, so she had to look out for the right time. When she saw it, she dashed out into the open and made her intention known.
    "Hey! Ugly!" She yelled out to demon, and hoped that, by repeating the insult that she had said earlier, it would catch the demon off guard. She also hoped that her action would arrest the attention of the other senshi, so they'd cease whatever strategy they were still in the process of implementing.
    The demon had barely spared her a glance over its shoulder before returning its attention to the orange-colored senshi. Then, suddenly, it spun around in a hurry to face an opponent worthy of its concern: a senshi that was making a direct attack. The demon had made the mistake of classifying the owner of the voice as weak, since it had defeated the owner of said voice before. Thus the demon realized, too late, that it had allowed the new senshi enough time to get right into its face before it could properly react to the threat that she presented.
    Grinning with triumph, and pleased that her voice hadn't warranted enough attention from the demon, Ranma took advantage of the demon's distraction by giving it a special knuckle sandwich right between its eyes. The demon's feet flew right out from under it as the back of its head was launched into the ground, where it slammed into the asphalt with a window-shattering thud.
    The four inner senshi openly gaped in surprise, shocked by the new senshi's display of physical prowess. They had never seen such a feat of strength before; or, at least, not from anyone among their own numbers.
    Before the demon could recover, Ranma grabbed it by one of its pinkie toes, which were many times larger than her own thumbs, and heaved it up into the air. Then, in one smooth motion, she swung it around in an arch before slamming it down onto the ground. She then proceeded to repeat the same maneuvers a few dozen times.
    The senshi continued to gape with astonishment.
    Brushing off her hands, once she had finished, Ranma looked down at her work with satisfaction. The demon was now lying face down in a hole that was shaped very much like itself, where one of its legs twitched every now and again. Not one to leave a job half done, she decided to use a technique that was only available to her as a senshi; one which came to mind as naturally as one would expect from someone who had used it many times before.
    "Moon tiara action!" She declared.
    Throwing her tiara like a frisbee, it quickly spun fast enough, with the aid of magic, to appear as a solid disk. It passed through the demon's neck without apparent trouble. And so it was that the demon perished, by dissolving into nothing.
    While she was filled with a sense of accomplishment, she noticed some activity on her forehead. When she glanced up she was pleasantly surprised to see that her tiara had reappeared on her forehead, without having to retrieve it and do it herself. That, in her opinion, was quite convenient.
    Upon hearing the name of the attack, and seeing what had once been one of Sailor Moon's trademark attacks, the inner senshi regained their senses and cautiously approached the redheaded senshi as a group. Ranma allowed this, and waited patiently while she wondered how to respond to them. Would she become a member of their team, become friends or, at the very least, become acquaintances? She felt that there was some underlying expectation to become a part of their group, but, along with it, she also sensed a tenseness.
    The senshi whose dominant color was orange, who had her thigh-length blonde hair accessorized by a red bow, stepped ahead of the others and said, "we appreciate the help, but that attack you used... Who are you?"
    Ranma crossed her arms and frowned. She knew that she was a stranger to them, but she made her displeasure about their offhanded offense known to them. They seemed inclined to being civil, but she knew that they were suspicious about something... And she had had enough suspicion in her life, already, to know that much. She didn't know why she was distrusted so often. It was true that she used deception often enough, most often in a fight, but she was sure that she didn't practice the kind of deception that would warrant the kind of suspicion that she often became a victim of. But, if they were going to be like everyone else, then why care about them, much less be friendly toward them?
    "What's it to ya?" She counter-questioned in a defensive tone.
    "Sorry." The senshi in blue spoke up apologetically, who had realized that she and her companions would have to tread more softly with the new senshi, and think carefully about what they should do and say. "But you must understand that another senshi has utilized the same title for that very attack."
    "So?" Argued Ranma indifferently. "That's what came to mind, so that's what I said."
    The senshi in red opened her mouth in preparation for an angry retort, but she was interrupted by a croaky voice from above, that said, "hey, guys!"
    Everyone shifted around to look up at the new arrival, who stood precariously upon the ledge of a two-story building that housed an electronic appliances store. She didn't appear to be feeling well, if her facial expression, and the arm that she held over her stomach, was any indication.
    "What did I miss?" The new arrival questioned, who looked about herself and found the immediate area — the road, in particular — to be moderately damaged. The motion made her unsteady on her shaky legs, and she began to lurch forward. Unable to regain her balance, while flailing her arms up and down, she yelped and toppled over the side of the building.
    The inner senshi, having much experience with their princess and her clumsy behavior, were more than ready to catch her. However, they weren't ready for the blur that was the new senshi, who arrived below their princess before her feet had left contact with the roof of the building. They paused and watched her fall into the awaiting arms of the mysterious senshi, seeing as she was already where any one of them would have needed to be.
    "You okay?" Ranma asked despite the answer being obvious, before she knelt down and gently placed her catch upon the ground.
    She hadn't known what a senshi had been just prior to her transformation into one, much less know that they existed, but she could tell that the girl she knelt before was one. She could feel it, somehow. Even so, she wondered why this one looked so different. What made her that way? Did it represent her status, strength or capabilities? And those wings... were they even capable of functioning for flight, or were they only there for appearances?
    "Oh, I just have a stomach virus..." Usagi replied, then paused when she realized that the voice that she had answered to had been unfamiliar to her ears. Looking up, she found the face of a stranger, one who had fiery red hair and... blue eyes? Yes... But there was something about them... something that felt familiar. She had the strangest feeling that they had met before, even though she couldn't remember a time when they ever had.
    Ranma felt really uncomfortable under the scrutiny that she had begun to receive from the girl with the funky hairdo, so she avoided further eye contact with her. Looking into her eyes, for some reason, evoked faint, yet mixed, feelings.
    "You have my, um, sympathy." She answered, unable to think of anything else to say.
    "Who are you?" Usagi inquired, who wondered what the identity of the strange senshi could be.
    All of the senshi of their solar system were accounted for, as far as she knew. Other senshi from elsewhere had different dress codes to represent their systems, but this one, as far as she could tell, was undeniably under their own. Besides the sun, whose potential for bearing a senshi was unknown, she had no idea what the senshi could possibly represent. But she knew that she was a senshi, regardless, because she could sense her sailor crystal.
    "That's what we were trying to find out." Came a voice from beside them.
    Both Usagi and Ranma looked askance and found the other senshi approaching, until they stopped only a few feet away from them. Usagi noted that it had been Makoto who had spoken.
    The senshi of Jupiter continued, saying, "she used your 'moon tiara action' attack." Then, after a brief pause, added, "I kinda figured that there was a reason for why we all had our own, unique attacks."
    The others around Makoto, along with Makoto herself, considered the redheaded senshi, as if looking for an answer.
    "Isn't that my weakest attack?" Usagi queried.
    She was unable to concentrate all that well because she was more concerned about her salivating mouth and the feeling that she was going to unload her stomach of its contents at any moment... again. Besides, why should she be worried about something so trivial? So what if someone else was throwing their tiara around.
    Rei, exasperated, said, "of course it's your attack! Aren't you paying attention?"
    "But I'm not feeling good..." Usagi whined in her defense, which inspired Ranma to support her, by saying, "yeah! So stop making her feel worse."
    "And who were you, again?" Minako asked sweetly, with a broad smile, as she bent over at the hip so she could be at eye level with the redheaded senshi.
    Ranma recoiled a bit at the intrusion of her personal space, but was even more discomforted by the subject of her identity being returned to the spotlight.
    "Er..." Was all that she was prepared to voice.
    Rei chose that time to step forward and, with her arms akimbo, she, in measured tones, said, "look: all we want to know is who you are. It's not going to kill you to share that much, is it?"
    "I s'pose not." Ranma sighed with resignation. She stood up, crossed her arms loosely, to seem more impressive, then smirked proudly as she said, "I'm Dark Side."
    The other senshi blinked, then simultaneously queried, "'Dark Side?'"
    "Of the Moon." Ranma helpfully supplied.
    Seeing that they were staring at her mutely, in response to her statement, she asked, "what?"
    "Um..." Usagi began, with evident confusion in her voice, as she picked herself up from the ground. She then placed a hand over her chest and said, "I'm Eternal Sailor Moon."
    Said senshi really, really wanted to go back home and spend some time with a porcelain bowl. Not that she wanted to, of course; but what better thing was there, that was more appropriate for releasing vomit in?
    "Oh..." Ranma quietly voiced in response, who didn't know what else to say or do.
    At least she now knew the reason for why they had been suspicious, being that she represented the same celestial object as another senshi. She supposed that it must have been due more to being an unknown element, or else they would have expected her to eventually discover her heritage. At least that's how her guardian had made it sound, as far as she could remember.
    The other senshi soon introduced themselves in turn, since she had finally revealed herself. No personal identifications had been given to her, however; no doubt as a precaution. She didn't know how to greet them, or even if she should try to get acquainted, so she just nodded as they each identified themselves according to their respective planets: Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.
    Absently, she wondered where the rest of the senshi were.
    "Well..." Ami spoke up, sounding thoughtful. "I can't recall learning about a 'Dark Side of the Moon' from any of the records, or from my past memories. Has anyone else ever heard of this senshi?"
    All present, with the exception Ami and Ranma, voiced or gesticulated that they did not. Ranma remained silent, and wondered what they were doing. Were they questioning her status as a senshi?
    "Perhaps we should ask Luna and Artemis, then." Ami suggested. "They may have heard of her, or know if she was present during the Silver Millennium."
    Ranma didn't know what the "Silver Millennium" was, but she found herself interested by the mention of "Artemis." The name sounded familiar, for some unknown reason.
    "Luna!" Usagi croaked out, who, at the moment, was wishing that she had been within the comfort of her home, so she could avoid vomiting in front of her friends and, subsequently, suffer from embarrassment. "It's okay to come out, now!"
    Searching with her eyes, Ranma didn't find anyone, or any thing, approaching within her line of sight. She soon found out why, when a new voice spoke up from the ground nearby and asked, "who is this? Another senshi?"
    "Luna is a cat!" Came the stark realization, when Ranma laid her eyes upon her. And beside the black cat was another one, this one white; and they were both scrutinizing her!
    "Wait-a-minute!" She thought, her eyes wide with surprise as she stared at Luna. "Did that one just speak!?"
    "We were hoping that you'd know." Ami answered Luna, who turned to face the senshi of Mercury with a pensive look on her face.
    Artemis was the only one to leave his attention on the new senshi, who began to inch away from the group as stealthily as she could. She trained her eyes on him, made eye contact, and maintained that contact since he was the only cat that was watching her.
    "Um... Guys?" Artemis spoke up, interrupting Luna's thoughts.
    "What is it, Artemis?" Luna replied and turned to regard him. She gave him a look of annoyance for his interruption.
    Jerking his head in the direction of the departing senshi, he said, "seems our new friend is leaving early."
    Everyone went to look where Artemis had indicated and discovered that he was right. Ranma, who found herself caught, laughed nervously and, agitated, rubbed the back of her head. She wasn't too surprised, though: that white cat had kept an eye on her, after all.
    "And just where do you think you are going?" Rei inquired with a challenging tone, her arms crossed under her bosom.
    Being the most perceptive of the group, Ami noticed something about the redheaded senshi's behavior; which inspired her to ask, "is there something wrong...?"
    "Um..." Ranma muttered as she looked about herself wildly.
    She tried to conceive a believable excuse for her need to vacate the area, but no ideas came to mind. She didn't want them to know about her acute ailurophobia, for several reasons; top among them being her pride. So she didn't want to stick around so they could find out about it.
    Becoming desperate for something to say, after a moment without having a forthcoming answer, she hastily resorted to saying, "oh, look at the time! I've seemed to've forgotten a... previous engagement! Yeah, that's it! Gotta go!"
    She quickly took to the rooftops and ran away as fast as she could.
    "Don't just stand there!" Luna chided the others, most of whom had yet to understand the new senshi's behavior as they stood, unmoving, and unprepared to give chase. "After her!"
    And, so, they gave chase. Although Usagi was quite reluctant to do so, despite all of Luna's nagging. She had to catch up with the others, so she was the only one who didn't have visual contact of their quarry. Fortunately, because she could see her comrades, she was able to follow the progress of the chase without getting lost. Even so, all the jumping around wasn't making her feel any better, and made her wish, all the more, that the demon had revealed itself on another day.
    Looking behind her, and seeing that the others were giving chase, Ranma wondered why she often found herself in situations of this nature. Why couldn't she get a break, for once? Be that as it may, all that she cared about, at the moment, was losing them. She wanted to get back home, so she could relax and reflect upon all that she had experienced.
    After several minutes of thought, all the while running and jumping in random directions so the senshi behind her wouldn't know the direction of the residence that she lived at, she decided that the only way to shake them was to literally disappear from their sight. Using her skills in the umisen-ken was an option, but she refrained from using those techniques for when she really needed to use them, since the umisen-ken was once again "sealed." Absently, she did wonder how they had managed to find her, even after she had given them the slip: because she had been sure that her expertly-performed, evasive maneuvers would have eluded all but Cologne and Happosai.
    Little did she know that Ami, the senshi that had introduced herself as Mercury, was leading the group with her visor, which was homing in on her life force and magical energies. It had saved them from losing her a dozen times or so, and they knew that, without it, they would have lost the new senshi for certain. However, even though they did have it, Ami was doing her best to not lose her concentration because the life force read-out on the new senshi was very large in supply compared to normal. It was nearly as high as her own magical energy! She was eager to study the data thoroughly, since it could explain the degree of strength that had been displayed against the demon just moments ago.
    Ahead of the inner senshi, who were followed by Usagi, Luna and Artemis, Ranma cursed when she failed to shake her pursuers, and continued to wonder what she could do to lose them. However, as her thoughts turned to other ways of getting the senshi off of her tail, something unknown directed her attention to the new energy source that intertwined with her ki. She knew, somehow, that she could change it, and use it, for a different purpose; a purpose that she was more in need of at the moment: literally making herself invisible. She didn't know if it would work, but she had the feeling that it would because being a senshi seemed to instill such instincts.
    "She's disappearing!" Makoto gasped, who, along with the others, witnessed the red-haired senshi fade from sight.
    "Don't worry!" Ami assured them.
    The life force of the senshi wasn't registering on her visor anymore, but she could still detect the magical signature and, thus, she could continue to home in on it.
    "Just listen for..." She ceased her instruction and abruptly shouted, "go right!"
    The others got the hint and proceeded to follow the senshi of Mercury, as she guided them toward a now-invisible senshi.
    "Damn it!" Ranma swore a few more minutes into the chase, wondering how they had managing to keep track of her.
    After taking a glance over her shoulder, she finally noticed how Mercury pointed in her direction whenever she changed course, and seemed to be leading the other senshi. She was the only one that wore some kind of visor over her eyes, so she guessed that that was being used to "see" her.
    Not knowing what else to do, she decided that her only place of sanctuary would be at her home. So concluding, she relinquished her invisibility status, since it was obviously making no difference, and made a beeline for the Tendo domicile. The senshi following her, she hoped, would catch the hint and show some respect by not invading her place of residence.
    Upon landing in the garden, a short time later, she dashed into the veranda and hid herself behind its outer wall. There she stood rigidly and quietly, hoping that the other senshi wouldn't pursue her any further.
    Outside, standing along the top of the perimeter wall, four senshi took in the sight of the house that the red-haired senshi had taken refuge.
    "Should we follow?" Minako asked of Ami, whose breathing was labored by exertion.
    "No." Was Ami's simple, yet subdued, response.
    "Why not?" Rei inquired, who eyed Ami questioningly.
    It was Makoto who spoke up next, who answered Rei's question with, "it's her home, isn't it?"
    Makoto could tell because of several factors: firstly, Ami had made it clear to not follow the new senshi into the house; secondly, the new senshi had tried to hide in random houses before going directly to this house in particular; and, lastly, the new senshi had become visible again before she had made the aforementioned action, as if in surrender to the inevitable.
    "Oh..." Rei and Minako voiced together, in understanding, as well as a bit of shame.
    If they had breached such a personal space, what would that have made them look like? Actually, it had been bad enough to chase her like a hunted animal, though they had hardly known how else to respond to the new senshi's strange behavior. Then, after Luna had issued the pursuit, they had gotten themselves caught up in the moment. It was only now that they found their actions unwise, and it could potentially cost them a great deal of trust in regard to the newest senshi.
    It was then that Usagi finally arrived. She hobbled toward them from the street below, looking rather green in the face. Luna and Artemis ran ahead of her, with the former asking the senshi, "where is she?"
    "Home." Makoto answered before she and the others left the heights of the wall, to join their princess on the ground.
    Luna sighed with disappointment and said, "all I wanted to do was ask a few questions."
    "You mean... You don't know who she is?" Rei inquired intently.
    Luna shook her head in the negative while Artemis helpfully supplied, "nor do I."
    Ami thought about the situation and considered what the best course of action would be, in light of their current position. Finding only one worth mentioning, she suggested, "perhaps Pluto would know? She is the eldest, and has much more experience than we have, so... This new senshi may have lived before or after we did, when we lived during the Silver Millennium, and Pluto may have learned about her."
    "It's a start." Minako commented with the slightest shrug of her shoulders, who didn't see anything particularly good or bad about the idea.
    Usagi found something wrong with the idea, at that point and time, however. She was currently on her hands and knees, as the need to vomit sapped her strength.
    "But don't... start right now..." She managed to say, in a quavering voice.
    She had to pause so she could swallow the saliva that had quickly accumulated within her mouth. It was the only time that Usagi didn't like having her mouth salivating so much: when she had to return her food to the light of day instead of the other way around.
    Everyone gathered around their princess, and future queen, because they were concerned about her health. Luna stepped into her line of sight, beneath her bowed head, and looked up as she apologetically said, "I'm sorry for dragging you out here, but it was necessary at the time. Would you like some assistance back home?"
    In reply, Usagi raised her head slightly, opened her mouth... And Luna's eyes widened in alarm as something much unlike words came spewing forth from her princess' lips.

    Just as Ranma finished her detransformation, with the help of her new instincts, she was startled by a woeful cry that had come from the other side of the perimeter wall. She was curious about the source, but she decided against investigating it for several obvious reasons. Akane, however, didn't have any reasons not to; and it wasn't long before she ran by her with nary a glance, and entered the garden to investigate. Still curious, despite herself, Ranma figured that she could find out what had happened from her. So she decided to wait for Akane's return.
    Akane returned a moment later, and appeared to be a bit irritated by something.
    "What's up?" She asked nonchalantly.
    "Oh, nothing..." Akane muttered unhappily in response. "But I know that somebody had blueberry pancakes for breakfast."
    "Gross." Ranma commented, even though she found it interesting to know what that one senshi had eaten for breakfast.
    "I wonder why that is?" She idly wondered to herself.
    "I know..." Akane agreed.
    Then she paused and blinked her eyes, once she realized just who she had been speaking to. She took in her disheveled appearance, and torn clothing, as she asked, "when did you get back?"
    "Just a minute ago." Ranma answered, watching as her fiancée made her inspection.
    After giving herself an inspection of her own, she found that, though her new power had healed her injuries, it hadn't mended her clothes or cleansed her body of filth.
    "So..." Akane started with slight interest. "Who won?"
    Akane secretly hoped that Ryoga had finally beaten Ranma, since he tried so hard. And she didn't think that it'd hurt to humble Ranma a bit, either.
    "I did, of course." Ranma replied with a proud smirk. "I put him out with a smile on his face."
    Akane didn't know what she had meant by that last comment, but she did know another thing.
    "But it seems he really got you good this time." She observed with a smile. In private, she thought, "let's see him deny that!"
    "Like you wouldn't believe." Ranma admitted with some lament, which surprised Akane.
    Of course, only Ranma knew that her appearance had been mostly due to Ryoga's distraction, which had caused the demon to inflict the worst of her bygone injuries. So it was, in a way, the truth.
    Then, since she didn't want to waste any more time standing around, she added, "and I'd like nothing more than a nice, long soak in the furo."
    Akane understood, so she allowed Ranma to walk away. However, after she walked by her, something conspicuous made itself known to her when she regarded her fiancé's departing back.
    "Ranma?" She spoke up, to get her attention.
    Turning about to face Akane, and ceasing her progress toward the bathroom, Ranma wondered why she was looking at her so oddly as she asked, "yeah?"
    "Your hair..." Akane began, who sounded uncertain about something. "I didn't know you were growing it out."
    "Huh?" Was Ranma intelligent response.
    She grasped her pigtail and pulled it over her shoulder, so she could examine it. She immediately realized that her hair had, indeed, become longer, and that it was now plaited quite loosely at the base of her head. Her pigtail was showing signs of looseness down the rest of her pigtail's length, as well. She determined that it must have grown by at least four inches.
    Doing an excellent job of hiding her surprise, as far as she was concerned, she flipped her hair back behind her and, while doing her best to act unconcerned, she said, "I didn't, either. I guess I haven't been paying attention to it, lately."
    Akane wasn't fooled, since she suspected Ranma of hiding something. But she didn't pursue the issue, since it was only about hair. Still, there was no way that she wouldn't have noticed that much hair growth "lately", which would have normally taken four to six months to develop. Something was going on, and Ranma was withholding information from her again. She would just have to keep an eye on the idiot, and find out what was going on.
    So, instead of making her suspicions known, she allowed her fiancé to leave. But not without a piece of advice, of sorts, as a parting gift.
    "Well, unless you want all the hassle that comes with long hair, I suggest paying more attention to it."
    Ranma nodded, let out a mental sigh of relief, and then continued on her way to the bathroom. When she was sure that she was out of Akane's sight, she quickened her pace and wondered, "what's going on?"

    "The senshi are stronger than I remember."
    The owner of those words gripped the armrests of his wheelchair tightly. His silvery-grey eyes stared at something beyond the sliding glass door, and past his apartment's balcony, with bitter hatred. Then he focused on the faint reflection on the glass door, of himself, and he saw, once again, that he was not in his armor, which he had been proud of wearing. He wore, instead, the standard attire for a man of the modern age, which he found to be rather unimpressive. And his pale blue hair, which had once been long, had been cut short, due to his injuries, after his accident.
    But that wasn't what bothered him the most, at the moment. It had taken him two months to get the required energy to summon his first demon, after all; and it had been his own energy, which had left him tired and weak the entire time. He was only fortunate in that it hadn't been a complete waste, since he had managed to gather enough energy to summon a stronger demon within half of a fortnight. In fact, he had gained more energy than he had expected. However, it would still require his own energy to acquire what would be needed for the demon that he planned to summon next.
    "But I will destroy them." He gravely vowed. "I will not allow the Moon kingdom to re-establish its rule over the Earth again."
    Turning away from the morning sun, he wheeled himself into his bedroom for yet another session of self-draining, that would render him weak and tired for the remainder of the day.
    "Never again." He muttered before he shut the door behind himself.

Chapter 3

    Ranma hurriedly entered the changing room, though she still had a mind to close the door behind her. Then she quickly made her way to the mirror that was over the sink, so she could better see what had her concerned. Once she had her loosely-braided hair pulled over her shoulder, she could tell that it had grown another inch or two, compared to a moment ago. Even as she watched, the length of her hair, which she had pulled straight, continued to grow. As a result, it began to slacken and rest on her shoulder.
    But her concern soon gave way to confusion, when an image of herself suddenly came to mind; one that was both foreign and familiar to her at the same time. Rather than the image being reflected in the small mirror before her, she saw her image in a mirror that was big enough to capture her entire form, set within an ornate frame. In it her hair was long, much longer than it was now (despite the recent growth); and the attire that she wore was strange, definitely feminine.
    It was like seeing herself, yet not. She couldn't mistake herself for someone else, but she didn't remember the time or the place that she had ever seen herself with her hair that long, or wearing that particular, silken nightgown.
    She shook her head.
    "That can't be right." She thought. "I'm sure it happened, but..."
    Then realization dawned upon her.
    While regarding herself with wide eyes, she thought, "these aren't my memories! No; that's not right: they're not my memories... from this life."
    It all made sense to her, now. Though it had helped to suddenly recall what her guardian had said, about unlocking her past memories. But it had been confusing because the memory, while taking place in the first-person, hadn't given her the sense of it being a personal experience. She had felt detached from the experience, even though she had seen it from her past self's perspective.
    That didn't explain her growing hair, however.
    "But I can always cut it." She reasoned.
    The thought, unexpectedly, made her pause. More memories came to the surface, of the time and effort that it had taken to grow out and maintain her long hair. Her hair, at present, could very well be on its way to achieving that bygone length. Even though she had no interest in having long hair, especially in regard to showing off her femininity, she knew that her hair had once been a source of pride; and she knew that it could be once again. In the end, however, she didn't want to deal with how some people would react to her having long hair, who might also ask questions about how it had suddenly grown in the first place. The effect of the dragon whisker had worn off, after all.
    She bowed her head, sighed, and mumbled, "this is going to give me a headache."
    She decided to put it all out of her mind, for now, and do what she had initially intended to do in the changing room: to undress so she could clean herself up in the furo. She decided to think more about her situation once she was relaxing in the hot water of the bath. Thinking thusly, she got undressed, tossing only her boxers into the hamper since her shirt, undershirt and pants were beyond repair — they found themselves in a small trash bin, instead.
    After retrieving a towel for herself, she entered the furo and hung it on a nearby rack. Then, once she had a stool and a washbowl in place, near the faucets, as well as a bar of soap, bottle of shampoo and a sponge ready for use, she sat on the aforementioned stool and got to work. To start, she removed the hair tie from her pigtail, set it above the faucets, alongside the shampoo bottle, and then shook her hair free from its plait. She then filled the washbowl with cold water, before she upended it over her head.
    From there she went through her usual routine, with, of course, one notable exception: how she took care of her hair. She usually washed it while it was still braided, but, before now, her hair had been shorter, and thus it had been easy to maneuver around when she washed her body. Since her hair continued to grow, and had now reached the small of her back, there would be more work in store for her; not only in moving it out of the way, when needed, but in rinsing it out, too.
    By the time she finished cleaning herself up, she felt glad that her hair hadn't become an issue. It seemed that, depending on what she thought, something relevant from the past would come to mind. All she had done was consider how she wanted to handle her hair, and she had recalled how her past self had done it. From there, it had simply been a matter of following that example.
    With her mind still considering how she had been able to handle her hair with finesse, she stood up and looked at her reflection in the large mirror that was mounted on the wall, above the faucets. Memories from the past continued to trickle into her conscious awareness, but not enough to tell her who she had once been. She didn't yet know what to think, about being a girl from a time long since past. There seemed to be a reason for it, however, but she did not know what it could be. And she had never put much consideration into destiny, besides.
    Still, she found herself quite a sight, now that her hair had achieved its full length. Her crimson tresses spilled down her body, front and back, and clung wetly to every curve. She was especially drawn to the locks of hair that flowed over her clavicles, like streams, to bend and part around the curves of her prodigious breasts. The sight made her think of blood, and what it might look like as it ran down her body.
    An image suddenly flashed in her mind, causing her to wince. It had felt different from the other memories, more... intense. Unlike the memories that she had previously experienced, she could have sworn that she had felt some emotion behind it. The image, however, had been cloudy and indistinct, and had come and gone too quickly to study in any real detail.
    She shook her head and thought, "I wonder what that was about..."
    Since her mind had been drawn away from her reflection, she focused her attention, instead, on the bath. It looked very inviting; she couldn't wait to soak in the hot water and relax, as she had planned. So thinking, she wasted little time in entering, and within seconds the hot water was nearly up to her chin. However, as she sat there, it occurred to her that something was wrong — very wrong.
    She was still a girl.

    As Ryoga drew ever closer to consciousness, he felt himself becoming progressively more rejuvenated. At the same time, he heard the steady sound of bricks hitting and sliding against each other, as if they were in motion. Then, as if on cue, when, simultaneously, the noise ceased and his energy was completely restored, his eyes shot open and he sat up.
    Unfortunately, his head slammed face-first into a tiled wall. He planted his hands upon the floor, behind him, and leaned back so he could pull his face free from the recess it had made. With a confused look on his face, he saw how close he was to the wall and realized that the lower half of his body wasn't putting more distance between it and himself, as it should have. Upon turning his attention downward, he discovered why.
    "What the...?" He gasped.
    His body, from his waist down, disappeared into the wall. He tried to shift his legs around, and he was relieved to feel that nothing horrible had happened to them. The thought of seeing his legs sticking out of a wall, on the outside, however, was embarrassing. If only he hadn't been lying within the hole in the wall when it had been fixed by Sailor Moon's power.
    Before he could do anything about it, he heard the door open and, with it, the sound of a conversation. He swiveled his torso around so he could see the door, and he saw three middle-aged women stepping into the bathroom.
    "...was afraid I wasn't going to make it." One of the women finished saying, with a sigh.
    "I know!" One of the other women replied. "I almost lost it when I heard that thing—"
    The women grew silent when they caught sight of him. He knew what it must have looked like to them, and, with the expressions that began to appear upon their faces, it was easy for him to tell that they saw it in the way that he had feared.
    He held up his hands and stammered out, "this... this isn't...!"
    "Pervert!"
    For the next moment or two he found himself being harassed by their purses, unable to get away. He tried to explain himself, as they continued to accuse him of being a pervert, among other things, but they wouldn't hear any of it. Finally, he lost his patience and pushed himself forward, through the wall, and onto the sidewalk outside. The three women, in response, squealed and hastily stood back from the crumbling wall.
    While he was on his hands and knees, among a scattered pile of bricks, he looked around. Aside from the wall that he had just reopened, the damage caused by the battle with the demon had been completely reversed. And, while there appeared to be medical personal, as well as firemen, police and reporters, along with their respective vehicles, he didn't see any sign of the dead, as far as he could tell. They must have been brought back to life by Sailor Moon, and were going through the motions of being checked out, just in case.
    But he soon noticed that he must have made a scene, because a lot of people were looking at him and being awfully quiet. So he stood up, which made several bricks fall from his backside, and looked around for his stuff, so he could escape their scrutiny. Where several people had been trying to lift his umbrella, and failing, they remained bent over at the waist, with their hands on the umbrella's handle, looking up at him. And there were several people gathered around his travel pack, who had paused in the act of rooting through it to pay him their undivided attention.
    And then someone, next to a reporter and their cameraman, pointed toward him and proclaimed, "hey! That's the guy!"
    Suddenly finding himself being approached from all directions, and from all sorts of people (uniformed or otherwise), he panicked. He frantically looked around himself and, finding no evident means of escape, he resorted to using a certain technique, due more to practice than practicality.
    "Bakusai Tenketsu!"
    He drove his finger into the ground, and the asphalt exploded upward, all around him. Just as he settled onto the bottom of the hole that he had created, he stuck his finger into the ground again, to the same effect. He repeated this action several times, tunneling his way away from the crowd, which had, by now, gathered around the entrance to the dark pit that he had left behind in his wake.
    After some time he dug himself into a sewer. Just in case there were any pursuers, he decided to put some distance between himself and the tunnel that he had made by navigating the dark sewers. Fortunately, the sewer system beneath Tokyo was large enough to stand upright in; and he could walk on either side of a channel, where the waste and storm water flowed.
    When he finally found himself beneath a manhole, he paused by the ladder and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, as his thoughts often did, they looked back on the reason for why he was currently in a sewer, unmindful of the rodent that dangled from the knot of his bandanna.
    "Damn you, Ranma!" He reflexively swore. "This is all your fault!"
    However, once he really thought about Ranma, he recalled something strange happening before he had passed out. Now that his mind wasn't distracted by other things, he looked back and considered Ranma's glowing form, and what had happened afterward. He blushed as the image of Ranma's naked body came to mind, but he held steadfastly to the scene, knowing that he had seen something of significance around that time. Even as his vision grew dark in his recollection, and his perspective shifted because he had begun to fall, he could see something beginning to cover her body, something familiar...
    Ryoga clenched his fist as the answer became clear. He hadn't been able to see the end product, before he had lost consciousness, but he had seen enough to know what it was that he had seen.
    He looked up, toward the manhole, and thought, "I won't accept it!"

    Ranma didn't know how long she had been sitting in the bath when her ears picked up the sound of a door opening and closing. The sound didn't register with her mind, however, because she was much too absorbed by her thoughts. It wasn't until she heard the sliding door open, and saw the resulting motion within her peripheral vision, that she took notice. When she turned her head to look, she saw Kasumi standing in the doorway.
    "Oh, I'm sorry." She apologized. "I didn't know..."
    She paused, considered the girl that was sitting in the bath more carefully, then, once realization dawned upon her, she asked, "Ranma?"
    "Yeah." Came Ranma's simple response, who went back to staring ahead of herself.
    "Oh, dear." Was Kasumi's concerned response, as she placed one of her hands up to her mouth. "Are you alright?"
    With a sigh, Ranma said, "just peachy."
    What she had said, for some reason, had struck a chord of familiarity within her. Exactly how or why, however, was a mystery. There were more important things to think about, however; and, certainly, more important things to do. With that in mind, she stood up and stepped out of the comforting warmth of the bath's water.
    She stood just outside of the bath, water dripping from her body, her head bowed and her eyes trained on the floor. Kasumi stood by and watched in silence, not knowing what to say or do; although it was obvious that the redhead had something weighing heavily on her mind.
    Finally, Ranma raised her head and said, "Kasumi?"
    Kasumi readily answered with, "yes?"
    Ranma turned to regard her and said, "tell everyone that I'm going on a training trip." Seeing the confused look on her face, she tentatively added, "it's... complicated. But I'll have this resolved before I come back. That way no one has to worry about it."
    She didn't really believe that she would, without a doubt, become a guy again. But she had to sound confident; for Kasumi's sake, at least, if not for her own. The last thing that she wanted was for anyone to worry about her, even though, in reality, she was more concerned about the reaction of only a few, particular individuals.
    "I understand." Was Kasumi's response, who kept herself from pointing out an observation that she had made.
    Instead, she procured Ranma's towel from the rack, held it out for her, and said, "here. Is there anything that I can do for you?"
    Ranma accepted the towel, considered her offer and, realizing that one towel wasn't going to be enough for both her body and her hair, she, with a smidgen of self-conscious reservation, remarked, "well, I think I'm going to need another towel..."
    "I'll be right back with one, then." Kasumi replied, with a hint of an amused smile. Her offer, after all, had intimated her willingness to aid Ranma with sneaking out of the house, rather than inspire such a mundane request. She wasn't worried about it, however, since she figured that the redhead would be able to manage it on her own, anyway.
    Once she left the furo, for the changing room, a pensive expression replaced the facade that she had put up after her initial concern. She could tell that there was more to what was going on than Ranma merely being unable to return to her male form. The lame assurance and hair growth aside, there were other clues, as subtle as they were, that hinted at something more.
    There was her body, for one. It somehow looked... more mature. And, while she hadn't gesticulated much, which made it difficult to recognize any change in that area, she had noticed the difference in how she carried herself. Then there was her voice, which, she felt, now sounded like it matched the appearance of its owner. Together, they left her with the impression of the redheaded martial artist being more of a lady than a tomboy.
    Be that the case or not, she believed that there wouldn't be any use in bringing it up. So, rather than addressing it, she acted as if nothing had her concerned, got another towel for Ranma, then returned to the furo and gave it to her.
    Then, rather than stand around while Ranma dried herself, she decided to take the opportunity to perform what had brought her there in the first place: the tending of the bath. Because it saw so much use throughout the day, due mostly to the convenience that it provided certain cursed individuals, the bath water was prone to becoming dirty faster than normal. It was all an effort to make as much use of the water as possible without compromising the user's experience, with impure water, in the process.
    She made her way over to the bath and knelt beside it, so she could inspect the water carefully. Fortunately, aside from some human hair and panda fur, it looked like the water was going to be of further use. It would be a simple matter of scooping out the hair and fur, with a tool that was made for such a purpose, and her job would be done.
    Before she could start, after retrieving the required tool and its accompanying receptacle from a corner of the room, she felt one side of her back warming up, due to a heat source that was greater than the furo's environment. When she turned away from the bath to look, she saw Ranma exuding an aura that she was more accustomed to seeing around her sister, Akane, when she got angry. It had a distinct effect on her longer hair, which had risen and spread out well above her head. Since she didn't know what was going on, she watched in silence, forgetting, for the moment, what she had intended to do with the tool in her hand.
    A minute later, when Ranma thought that enough time had passed to accomplish what she had in mind, she relaxed her body and released a sigh. The energy, that she had extended beyond her body, quickly dissipated, and her hair was pulled down by gravity. When she felt her hair sweep across her backside once more, she was satisfied by the feel of it: because it was dry.
    The idea, of course, had stemmed from her past self's memory. Even she had been impatient with her hair. But, in time, she had learned to apply her training in the martial arts to the tending of it. It had not been long after the time that she had learned to control her energy adequately and, in specific, how to maintain a healthy body temperature in a cold environment, that the idea had come to her.
    Discovering that her past self had practiced martial arts had been a pleasant surprise, and it made her wonder if there was anything else that she could learn from her. She hadn't used her ki to dry her hair as well as it had been illustrated, in the memory that had inspired the idea, since not all of her ki had been concentrated on her hair alone; but, she was sure that she'd be able to do it as her past self had once been able to, with enough practice.
    She knew, however, that it couldn't have been a coincidence. As she became more aware of her past self's memories, she had also realized that her time with her guardian was becoming much clearer. The dream-like memory, that the experience had once been, now came to her as if it had just happened, as any normal experience would have. She didn't know what that might mean, if it meant anything at all, but it did open her eyes to an unwelcome thought: that of being manipulated.
    Before she could explore that thought any further, however, she remembered that she wasn't alone. With her mind so preoccupied by her situation, she had forgotten about Kasumi when she had decided to dry her hair with her ki. When she turned to look, she saw that she was regarding her with a look of curiosity.
    Smiling sheepishly, she said, "it's something I recently picked up."
    It sounded like a lame explanation, even to her own ears; but, if Kasumi thought so, she didn't show it. She simply smiled, and she was glad for that. If there was one thing that she didn't like, it was trying to come up with an explanation for something that she didn't want to talk about. Though, had she been closer to Kasumi, she would have been one of the few people that she would have confided in. Not necessarily in this instance, but still.
    "Well," Ranma awkwardly continued, "I should probably get going..."
    Kasumi nodded almost imperceptibly and softly said, "take care."
    Ranma spared Kasumi a small but genuine smile before she left. Kasumi watched her go, the neutral expression on her face giving way to concern. There was nothing that she could do, she knew. And Ranma preferred to work things out herself, besides. All that she could do was hope that things worked out for the little redhead, whatever the problem may be.
    So thinking, she returned her attention to the task at hand. Ranma would be gone by the time she finished, if she took her time (and she would); which would be as good of a time as any to relay her message to the rest of the house. As she got to work, she couldn't help wondering what the now-long-haired girl really intended to do with her time away.

    After evading the teenage girl that had come out to investigate the noise that Luna had made, Eternal Sailor Moon had directed her guardian senshi back to the site of the battle, so she could restore the lives of those who had been killed — along with the condition of the surrounding property. As a bonus, her holy magic had also done away with her stomach flu; though it had done little to lift her mood, overall. The possibility of a new enemy aside, their first impression on the new senshi, along with the sight of more death, had her quite subdued.
    From there they had gathered in Usagi's bedroom, in order to have a meeting. While the owner of said room had snuck in through the window, everyone else had gone through the front door, under the pretense of visiting a sick friend. Everyone, that is, save for Luna and Mamoru, who would be in touch with them from the control room that was located beneath the Crown arcade. For Mamoru, the reason for him being there was simple: his girlfriend's parents — the father, in particular — wouldn't be happy to find an older man in their daughter's bedroom. The meeting place wouldn't've been a problem, normally, but they needed to have one and Usagi's parents expected her to be in her bedroom, sick. And while Luna was there to use the control room's resources to find out what she could about the new senshi, it was obvious that she was there, instead of Artemis, because she was too embarrassed to allow certain people to see her after what had happened to her earlier. The only other person who wasn't present, but worth mentioning, was back in the thirtieth century.
    Half of those gathered in the bedroom were on their feet. Haruka and Michuru stood together and rested their backs against the wall, near the door. In front of them stood the shortest and youngest of the group, Hotaru. Setsuna stood casually in front of the door, though a safe distance away. Makoto was in front of a desk, where she leant back on the heels of her palms and propped her upper body up on the edge of the desktop. Beside her, sitting in the desk's chair, was Ami. Everyone else was sitting on the bed, with Rei at the foot and Minako on the side that faced the door, alongside Artemis. Usagi sat at the head of her bed, with her pillow between her back and the headboard. She had her legs drawn up and her arms wrapped around them.
    Being that Ami had been the first to arrive at the scene, she was the first to recount what she had seen. She had arrived just as the demon had sent someone through a wall, but the speed of their flight, and the focus of her attention at that moment, had prevented her from discerning any particular details about them. After distracting the enemy with an attack, she had convinced a boy to go into hiding. From there, she had kept its attention until the rest of the guardian senshi had arrived. Rei picked it up from there, and said that the battle had gone smoothly, if nowhere, until the new senshi had made her presence known. None of the guardian senshi were sure about where she had come from, as she had already been in motion when she had caught their attention; though Makoto believed that she might have come from the direction where a hole had been made in a wall. Then, Minako, who had been the closest to the demon at the time, began to describe how easily the new senshi had handled the demon, and noted the attack that had been used to finish it off. After its defeat, she recalled their approach, as well as the defensive response that she had received when she had confronted her about her identity.
    "Things weren't going well between us," Minako admitted. "It was probably a good thing that Usagi arrived when she did."
    Seeing that said person was distracted, and not paying attention, Rei spoke up and said, "hey, dumpling brain!"
    Usagi snapped out of her thoughts and, in response, intelligently voiced, "huh?"
    Artemis regarded her with a look of curiosity and asked, "is something the matter?"
    "I was just thinking," came her soft-spoken reply. "If she really is a senshi of the moon, would that mean...?"
    Silence hung over the group as they mulled over the implication of that idea. It was true that every senshi was a princess of their respective planet — or moon, as it was in Usagi's case. However, they had yet to encounter two princesses, senshi or otherwise, for any one place.
    "Wouldn't we remember someone like that, though?" Makoto posed the thought that was on everyone's mind.
    "Especially me," Usagi thought to herself. "If she were my sister, I would know... wouldn't I?"
    Some connection had been made when they had first gazed upon each other, she knew. Her eyes... They may not have elicited any memories, yet they had seemed so familiar. It had been like... looking into a mirror.
    "In any case," Setsuna interrupted her thoughts, "what happened after the princess arrived?"
    "She lost her balance and fell off of a building," Rei readily informed the outer senshi, which elicited a chuckle from Haruka.
    Usagi would have normally been embarrassed by that, and made a retort in her own defense, but she was still too subdued by her thoughts to do so. Instead, she quietly added, "but she caught me."
    The outer senshi knew as to whom she was referring to, but no one admonished her for getting too close to a virtual unknown. They were all well aware of how she felt about the past relations with some of the senshi, and how their paranoia and mistrust had driven a wedge between both the outer senshi and the starlights, making critical communication difficult at best. She felt that the sailor senshi shouldn't fight each other, and her fight with Galaxia had only strengthened that belief.
    After a moment of awkward silence, Ami picked up where Rei had left off and said, "afterward, we convinced her to tell us who she was."
    Having heard snippets of what had happened before the start of the meeting, Michuru asked, "'Dark Side of the Moon,' was it?"
    After a few nods from some of the guardian senshi, Haruka queried, "what does she look like?"
    "Well, she..."
    Ami fell silent when she saw that Michuru had drawn out the deep aqua mirror. The senshi of Neptune smiled apologetically, but Ami nodded in understanding.
    "I wonder what she's up to," Makoto idly commented, as she eyed the mirror.
    "Let's find out," Michuru replied, as she focused her mind on her quarry.
    Hotaru leaned back into Haruka while Setsuna moved over to Michuru's side, so they could get a good view of the mirror. The reflective surface soon changed to reveal an overhead view of a bedroom, and the four outer senshi got their first glimpse of the new senshi. The girl had long, red hair, blue eyes, and a mature figure for a girl her age. She wore a sleeveless, red shirt that had a mandarin collar and frog buttons, along with a pair of black, loose-fitting mandarin pants that had elastic ankles. To top it off, a black sash was tied about her waist.
    Haruka blinked. She thought that the girl looked familiar. More importantly, however, she, like the others, noticed that she was packing; and with obvious haste.
    "It looks like she doesn't plan to stick around," Setsuna observed.
    "Luna," Minako spoke up, her watch-bearing wrist raised, "can you keep tabs on her?"
    "Yes," came Luna's reply. "I shouldn't have a problem following her."
    Hotaru watched, with a hard stare, as the girl in the mirror picked up a pair of chinese shoes, shouldered her traveling pack, and leapt out of the window. As the reflective surface of the mirror returned, she said, "I wonder what she's running away from..."
    Several pairs of eyes, from the guardian senshi, fell upon Artemis. Noticing this, he, in a defensive tone, said, "don't look at me."
    "Perhaps she has a fear of cats," Ami suggested.
    "If that's the case," Michuru spoke up, as she secreted her mirror away, "then all we have to do is keep them out of sight."
    Setsuna regarded Usagi with a soft expression and added, "and how we decide to approach her."
    Everyone looked on in silence as Usagi considered their options. What she knew it amounted to, was this: they simply didn't know the girl, and thus her situation. However, despite her guardedness, that didn't change the fact that she had fought a demon. She had also caught her when she had fallen from the building, and had shown no hostility toward them. They would have to treat her with care and consideration, for sure, but the trick was how to initiate their next contact.
    Once she came to a decision, she slid off of her bed and got to her feet. In response, those seated also got to their feet, while Makoto pushed herself away from the desk. She glanced around the room and saw that everyone was waiting for her instruction, whatever it may be.
    "Okay," she finally said, "this is what we'll do..."

    Ranma gazed upon Nerima from where she sat on a building's water tank. She hadn't put a lot of distance between herself and the Tendo's place, but it wasn't like she knew where she wanted to go — or what to do, for that matter. As such, she felt that she was far enough away to stop and think about her next move.
    She was at a loss, though. On one hand, she wanted to become a guy again, but didn't have any idea on the how. On the other hand, she couldn't help wondering about the senshi, in light of the fact that she now clearly remembered her conversation with her guardian. She was especially distracted by the thought of having a sister.
    She didn't know what to think about it, in much the same way as she had when she had found out about her mother. It was, at once, strange, but also... interesting. And if that other senshi of the moon was her sister... Did she really want to know? Was it important? Would it be worth it?
    The problem, of course, was that she would be her sister, not her brother. More importantly, she only had about a month to reverse her condition, if not for himself than for his mother and his fiancée, Akane. Getting more involved with the senshi would probably be counterproductive toward her efforts to become a man again. However, being senshi themselves, they may also know how to help her. Whether or not they would be willing to help, however, was another question, entirely.
    The more that she thought about it, the more it frustrated her. Logically, if she wanted to resolve her predicament, the senshi were probably her best bet. At the same time, however, they may expect her to join them, with or without any obligation to do so. Which wasn't bad, in and of itself, but the senshi uniform was a bit, well...
    In the end, if she didn't find a way to become a guy again, it would really make a mess of things. Her situation had been complicated enough before she had become a senshi. If things remained as they now were... She didn't even want to imagine how things would turn out. But she was sure that things would go from bad to worse.
    Due to being so preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't notice that someone was behind her until they spoke up and asked, "planning to go somewhere... Peach Blossom?"
    Without even looking, she, with a clear note of irritation, reflexively answered, "I'm not in the mood, old..."
    Her body stiffened, and her eyes went wide, when she realized what she had just done. Not only had she understood the language that Cologne had spoken, but she had spoken the language, herself. They had just exchanged in Lunarian, the language of... the moon kingdom. And she now knew that she had been referred to using the name that had been given to her in her past life.
    Slowly, she turned around to face Cologne, and found her standing only a few feet away, holding her staff rather than using it as a sort of pogo stick. She had a knowing look on her face, with a hint of something else, but she couldn't make out what. Regardless, it was obvious that she knew something.
    "Come," she insisted, as she hopped onto her staff. "We need to talk, and I'd prefer it take place at a more appropriate locale."
    Ranma nodded absently in reply, unsure of what was going on but willing to find out. She got to her feet and, once Cologne began to move, she followed.