Chapter Text
“It’s our duty to fight these monsters.”
“You shouldn’t be out here. This is a good way for a girl like you to end up killed.”
“I can’t just stand by and do nothing when innocent people are threatened!”
“My greatest wish is to be a champion of love and justice! To protect the people who can’t protect themselves!”
“Your Majesty… I did it. Can you see it?”
“What do you think you’re doing?! Get back here, now! This is an order directly from your Queen!”
“I’m sorry, your Majesty. That’s an order I can’t obey. The others won’t make it in time. If I don’t do this, all will be lost. Please… tell my friends that I love them. That I’ll miss them terribly. And don’t… don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.”
“There you are… Thought you could hide from me by using the magnetic phenomenon in these solar irregularities to conceal your signatures? I’ve been studying the sun my entire life! I know it better than anyone!”
“And now, by the light of the Sun—!”
Hands suddenly grabbed onto her, and she responded reflexively. Her sleep was broken, and with it, so were the voices in her dreams. She planted her feet and rolled, immediately slipping out of the attacker’s grasp. His large frame moved more quickly than it should have, but still not as quickly as her. An orange light from some unknown source illuminated his rough features. “What the—” he said.
“I’ll punish you!” she yelled out, grabbing him and throwing him at full strength. A cry of surprise was the only sound he made as he flew through the window, his voice cutting off with a tremendous splash outside.
She?
She glanced down… at himself. Reality reasserted itself like a ten ton weight slamming onto his head, and with it, came a throbbing headache that dropped him to his knees.
The same dream, Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, thought bitterly. A bizarre dream, highlighted by flashes of imagery that were so alien and, yet, so familiar. And, with it, the same headache upon waking. The only source of relief from the pain was…
He grabbed the thermos he kept next to his futon, dousing his head with the cold water kept within. Immediately, the change wrought by Jusenkyo began, his raven-black hair shifting to red, and his body collapsed nearly twenty centimeters, lines and shapes shifting into a feminine form, petite and curvaceous. With the change came relief from the headache.
She couldn’t tell why her cursed body did not suffer the debilitating headache of the dreams, but the first time she had discovered it, she began keeping a thermos of cold water handy just in case. At least it’s usually gone by the time I’ve eaten breakfast, she groused mentally, standing up and going about her morning routine.
The redhead gathered a change of clothes and her bathing things, tiredly opening the door to the room she shared with her father. An irate looking panda stood in the hallway, still dripping water from the koi pond outside. A sign in the animal’s hand read, Lucky shot. After a moment of peering, the sign flipped, now reading, Why are you a girl?
“Headache again,” Ranma explained, stepping past the panda. “I’ll change back after breakfast.”
I’m actually getting concerned now, boy, the next sign said. A quick spin again. Maybe you should go see Dr. Tofu.
“Is that actual parental worry there, Pops?” Ranma smirked as she put her hand on the door to the changing room. “Damn, if you’re that concerned about it, maybe I will go. Just so someone has a record of the time you actually gave a crap.” Ignoring whatever the panda’s next signs said, she was about to slide the door open, when she suddenly paused. Her knuckles rapped on the door… nothing. She slid it open, and nobody was there.
Shrugging, the redhead stepped in, shutting the door behind her. The door leading to the actual bathing area was closed but unadorned, and yet Ranma decided she was taking no chances. Once again, her knuckles rapped on the door.
“Who is it?” a girl’s voice called from the bath.
Uh-huh. Where’d the sign go? Ranma thought sourly. “It’s Ranma, Akane. Was about to wash up but I’ll wait. By the way, the sign’s gone. Again.”
“Again?” Akane’s voice was less surprised and more annoyed, but at least the annoyance didn’t seem directed at Ranma. “Well, I’m almost done, so just wait in the hall, I’ll be out in about five minutes.”
“Sure thing,” Ranma said, stepping back out into the hallway. This time, instead of an annoyed panda, there was a girl with brown hair, forming a helmet-like style just above her shoulders, and wearing light teal pajamas. “Mornin’, Nabiki,” the redhead said, nodding to her.
“Morning, Saotome. Line for the bath?” Nabiki quipped.
“Akane’s in there but the sign’s gone missing again.”
“500 yen says Daddy or Uncle Saotome swiped it,” Nabiki said with a smirk.
Ranma shook her head. “Even I ain’t gullible enough to take that bet,” she grinned back.
“Fair enough,” Nabiki replied. She yawned tiredly. “The headache again?”
“Yep…” Ranma brow furrowed slightly. “Even Pops is actually worried. I think I’m gonna go see Doc Tofu about it.”
Nabiki absently nodded in reply, looking thoughtful. “It started happening like two months ago, right?” she asked.
Ranma thought about it before nodding in return.”Yeah. Right after… China,” she said. “But before the wedding disaster.”
Nabiki winced at the reminder of the wedding disaster, and Ranma knew why. The wedding gifts had been nice… and were the only reason the reconstruction of the dojo had not put her family in the poorhouse.
“What’s going on?” Akane asked as she opened the changing room door. Short, black hair framed her face in a way that even Ranma would (sometimes) admit was cute, and she was wearing a flattering yellow blouse and jeans. “Why are you a girl?”
“The headache thing again,” Ranma explained. “Nabiki was just askin’ about it.”
“You should go see Dr. Tofu about it, it’s been nearly two months,” Akane pointed out as she stepped out of the way.
“I’m gonna, I’m gonna!” Ranma was starting to get a headache even in her female form, and she shut the door behind her as she went into the changing room. Grumbling irritably to herself, the redhead stripped off her clothes and went to wash up.
Traditionally, one would wash with buckets of cold water and soap before soaking in the tub of hot water, but Ranma had only made that mistake on a “headache day” once. The waves of pain and nausea that had struck her as she stepped into the bath and reverted back to her normal form, as Jusenkyo dictated, had very nearly pitched her into the tub face-first to drown.
Thank God that Mom was in the hall and heard the sound I made as I hit the tub and was able to pull me out, she thought with a grimace. Instead, after the last rinse with the cold water, the redhead filled her bucket with lukewarm water to help ward off the chill of the wash, before beginning to dry herself off. Soon dressed in her traditional red Chinese shirt and black silk pants, Ranma stepped out of the changing room, allowing Nabiki to go in while Ranma went downstairs.
In the dining area, she found her mother and father waiting. The panda of her father’s own cursed form was gone, and the familiar brass kettle sitting on the table showed why. Genma Saotome sat next to his wife, Nodoka Saotome, who looked up at Ranma’s approach. “Oh, dear,” the Saotome matriarch said. “The headache again, dear?”
Ranma simply nodded, taking her spot at the table. “And before ya say anything, Ma, I promise, I’m gonna go talk to Doc Tofu about it,” she said with a wan smile. “Even Pops is worried enough about it to say I should.”
“It’s only natural for a parent to be concerned for his child’s well-being,” Genma said imperiously, pushing his glasses up on his nose. Nodoka and Ranma shared a look in response to that, but Genma continued on. “By the way, Ranma, about this morning. Do you know why your forehead would have been glowing?”
“My forehead was what?” Ranma asked, reaching up to brush at the specified part of her head. She felt nothing and she looked at her parents. “Is it doin’ it now?”
“No, but it was also doing it while you were asleep. There was also a strange symbol on it. I was actually trying to wake you when you threw me out the window like that.”
“And were you gonna wake me by throwin’ me out the window?” Ranma asked dryly.
“That’s not the point.”
“What did the symbol look like, husband?” Nodoka asked.
“A burning orange circle with a dot directly in the center of it,” Genma replied confidently. “Strangely enough, I’m sure I’ve seen that very symbol before, or similar, but I’m not sure where.”
Ranma shrugged, not recognizing the symbol by its description. She rubbed at her forehead curiously again, but let her arm drop. Gotta wait for Nabiki to get her bath, then breakfast, then I go see the Doc. Just don’t say somethin’ dumb to tick off Akane again, she thought to herself.
Easier said than done. And yet, somehow, Ranma managed to keep her peace without setting off her temperamental fiancée. In fact, Akane even offered to walk with the redhead to the doctor’s office.
Ranma, as usual, kept her balance walking along the fence top while Akane kept her feet on the sidewalk. A thought occurred to Ranma. “Hey, Akane?” she said, glancing over to the other girl.
“Hm?” Akane looked up at her gender-bent fiancé. “What is it?”
“Kind of a long shot here, but do you know anythin’ about a symbol like a circle with a dot right in the center?”
Akane contemplated it as she walked along. “That does sound kind of familiar, but I can’t quite pin down why,” she admitted. “Something I saw on TV once a few months ago, maybe… or in a magazine…”
“Pops said he remembered seein’ it somewhere, too, but can’t place where, I wondered if maybe it was somethin’ in the Tendo history, but I guess not,” Ranma mused, jumping down and sharply turning as the pair approached Doctor Tofu’s clinic. “But if you and Pops know about it, maybe Doc Tofu will know something. Or maybe at least he can help with the damn headache.”
“It’s usually gone by now, right?”
“Yeah, never really lasts longer than breakfast.”
“Any idea what’s causing it?” Akane asked.
Dreams about me wearin’ a ridiculously tiny skirt and fighting space invaders, Ranma quipped in her mind. “No clue,” she said out loud, ducking into the clinic, where an empty waiting room greeted the pair. “Hey, Doc? Doc Tofu?” she called out, walking forward.
A door in the back opened, then another door in front of Ranma, revealing the kindly face of Dr. Tofu, smiling warmly at the pair. “Ah, Ranma, Akane, here for some hot water?” he asked, moving aside to invite the pair in.
“I’ll take some, but not exactly, Doc,” Ranma said, smiling as she stepped in. “I, uh, need to talk about somethin’ medical. At least it might be medical.”
Tofu nodded. “I see. Would you like some privacy?” he asked, looking over at Akane.
“Uh… Yeah, I think so. It might be nothin’ but it also might be kinda embarrassing.”
Akane sighed. “I’ll wait out here. But I want to know if it’s something important,” she stressed to Ranma, heading back out to the waiting room.
Tofu led Ranma to a room further back in the clinic, inviting the redhead to have a seat on one of his therapy beds. “So, something medical that might be embarrassing? Not a first period as a girl, is it?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Ah, no, nothin’ like that, Doc,” Ranma muttered, turning slightly pink. “Got to experience that joy once already. No, this is… weirder. Been havin’ dreams.”
Tofu blinked. “What sort of dreams?”
Ranma sat up, looking toward the window. Her eyes grew distant as she threw her mind back to the dreams, which was almost effortless for her. For him, it was often difficult. “It’s blurs… all motion and action and words… I’m holding a sword in one hand, and there’s some kinda dead monster in front of me… and then hands grab hold of me and someone’s in my face, askin’ me what I was thinkin’, because it’s their job to fight monsters like that,” she said in a distant tone.
“Ranma?” Tofu asked, clearly sensing the tone difference in Ranma’s speech.
“I say somethin’ about how… I want to help, protect the weak, and I get told that I should go home, because it’s a good way for a girl like me to get killed… but I can’t just stand by and do nothin’ when people are in danger,” Ranma continued, her voice picking up and fists clenching. “Because I… I have a dream… a dream to be a champion of… justice… to protect the people who can’t protect themselves.”
A pen and pad found themselves in Tofu’s hands as he began rapidly writing down something. Ranma did not even take notice.
“And then… I’m somewhere else… I think floating in space… but I feel fine,” Ranma continued. “I feel… better than fine. I feel powerful. Like I can take on anything. Like I succeeded, where everyone thought I was gonna fail.” Her face broke out into a wide grin as the emotions from the dreams ran fully through her, and it almost felt like power, and fire, were flowing in her veins. “And I ask if she can see that I did it…”
“She?” Tofu cut in. This time, Ranma noticed.
“The Queen,” she answered immediately with a nod. “She tried to discourage me but when she saw what I did, nobody was prouder…”
“I see… Please, continue,” Tofu said, still writing things down.
“Something… something happened, something incredibly bad.” Ranma frowned. “Then, I’m flying through space. I can hear her ordering me to come back… but I can’t… because if I don’t go, there won’t be time. Everything will be lost. No hope… so I leave one last message… and I go… and then…”
Ranma shook herself out of her reverie, passing her hand over her eyes. “Then it’s all a blur… and white,” she said. “I’ve been havin’ these dreams for the last two months.”
Tofu’s pen scratched on the paper as he jotted something down. “Two months… Didn’t you recently take that trip to China? Just two months ago, wasn’t it?” he said, brow furrowing. “What exactly happened there? You’re usually pretty tight-lipped about things and you’ve been even more reticent than usual about that.”
“Ah, Doc, well…” Ranma frowned. “There was a big fight… and I took it to a level I don’t usually. But I… had to protect someone. I had no choice.”
Tofu put a hand on Ranma’s shoulder, causing the girl to blink as she looked up into his eyes. There was only compassion and support there. “I’m sure you did everything you could to stop it from getting to that point,” the doctor said quietly. “When exactly did the dreams start? Were you back in Japan?”
Ranma blinked. Come to think of it… “No, we spent the night in Nyuchiezu, and that’s when I had the first dream. It was just of me flyin’ through space… to somewhere,” Ranma admitted. “That’s also when I had the other problem. The dreams give me a splittin’ headache every morning. Double vision, start seein’ auras, light and sounds are overwhelming, nausea, the works.”
“A full migraine, then,” Tofu noted.
“Yeah, but, the weird part? When we were headed home, we took a boat, and I was in girl form when I went to bed because there was no chance to get hot water durin’ the trip. I had one of the dreams, but no headache when I woke up.”
Tofu cocked his head to the side. “So, you only get the headaches after the dreams?” he asked. Ranma nodded in reply. “But, only if you were in your male body?” Another nod. “How long do the headaches last?”
“Couple of hours at most. Usually, once I eat breakfast, they’re long gone,” Ranma admitted.
Tofu nodded, jotting a few last things down, then reached back to his desk. There was a thermos, Ranma noted, that had a steaming liquid when Tofu unscrewed the cap. “Some coffee I made a little bit before you came in. It’s a slow day,” Tofu said, pouring a bit into the cap, which doubled as a cup, and holding it out to Ranma. “Would you mind?”
Ranma nodded, taking the offered coffee and pouring it on his head. It was just hot enough and just enough water to trigger the change, she noted—right before his head tried to split open like something was attempting to force its way out. He could barely hear Tofu’s voice past a sudden ringing in his ears, hands clutching the sides of his head as he dropped off the bed, landing in an uncoordinated sprawl. For a moment, he thought he would die. For that brief moment, he almost wished that he would, so that the pain would end.
Cool water was pouring on her head. The pain ceased. Ranma, again female, looked up in surprise to find a terrified looking Akane and a concerned Tofu looking down at her, Akane holding a now-emptied glass that still dripped with water.
“Back on the bed. Now,” Tofu said, his voice brooking no arguments. “Akane, I need the cordless in the hall.”
Ranma shakily got back onto the bed, lying down. As she did, she realized that while she had been locked up in pain, Dr. Tofu must have removed most of her clothing, as she was down to just her boxers, with her silk pants, tank-top, and shirt nearby on a shelf.
The doctor, meanwhile, had grabbed a plastic container with what looked like acupuncture needles in it. Unscrewing the top and discarding it, Tofu retrieved a needle, seeking out a specific point on Ranma’s skin. “Deep, even breaths, Ranma,” he commanded in a low voice. “As if entering meditation.”
Ranma gave the tiniest of nods to not disrupt the posture she was in, closing her eyes and beginning to take slow, deep breaths. She felt the sensation of the needle entering her flesh, but no pain. As she felt the sensation of other needles beginning to delicately pierce her, she focused on her breathing but marveled at Tofu’s acupuncture skills. Her eyes opened as Akane returned with the phone, but she kept her head level and breathing even.
Without breaking his attention on her, and even as he inserted another needle, Dr. Tofu told Akane to turn on the phone on speaker and then read off a number for her to dial. As Ranma began to enter an almost meditative trance, the voices faded away, replaced by the voices of her dreams. In addition, the symbol her father had described appeared in her mind, a blazing orange circle with a brilliant dot in the center. Suddenly, Ranma’s senses detected a second presence, the imagery and sounds of the dream fading. Her eyes opened…
“Old ghoul?” the redhead asked of the ancient Chinese matriarch, Cologne, standing over her and perched atop her customary gnarled cane.
“Stay focused on your breathing, son-in-law,” the wizened woman said, carefully tapping the acupuncture needles embedded in Ranma’s skin. The needles did not budge even a millimeter, but Ranma could feel the tapping in her ki. At first, she only felt it as the resonance of the needles themselves… and then she felt the wave resonating back as if echoing off of something. “Now, now, that’s interesting. Felt that, didn’t you?”
“Somethin’... in my ki?” Ranma asked, using the rhythm of her breathing to speak. “Why are… you here?”
“The good doctor gave me a call after you nearly stroked yourself out on the floor here,” Cologne explained, doing another tap sequence. This time, the resonance in her ki was even greater, and Ranma felt a warm flush running through her. An odd orange light began to fill the room as well, and Cologne leaned back. “Fascinating…!” The old woman hopped away, sketching something on the same notepad Tofu had been using earlier. “Now the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together. Well, son-in-law, I have good news and I have bad news. Which do you want first?”
Ranma groaned feebly, shutting her eyes. “Gimme the bad news first… and get the needles outta me, too,” she said. The pressure of the needles receded from her body, and she breathed a little easier.
“Such potential for a healer in that one, and he’s barely touched the surface,” Cologne mused as she put the needles into an empty jar. “The bad news isn’t that bad. You’re just going to be dealing with the dreams and headaches until this gets resolved. It stands out especially to me that your female form is unaffected by them, but you should also be able to change back now without the headache resurfacing. At least, for the time being”
“That’s the bad news?” Ranma asked as she sat up. “What’s the good news, then?”
Cologne smiled. It wasn’t a pretty sight by any means, but Ranma was used to that. “I believe I know what’s causing it,” she said, holding the notepad up. Drawn on the paper, below both Tofu’s and her other notes, was a symbol she had heard described before—a circle with a dot in the center. “Do you know what this is, son-in-law?”
“Apparently, a symbol that appears on my forehead now?” Ranma grumbled irritably, rubbing at said forehead.
“Accurate but imprecise,” Cologne replied with a nod. “It has many implications. To begin with, in alchemy, it represents the perfection of matter in all states and forms, and symbolizes the element gold.”
A strange chill ran down Ranma’s spine, chased by a warm flush that was beginning to become familiar. “What else does that symbol mean?” she asked.
“In certain circles,” Cologne began, “It represents the Sun.”
Ranma was again male, sitting in a small conference room with Tofu, Cologne, and Akane. He was surprised to learn that he had been in his meditative trance for two hours, but pleased to see Akane had waited for him the entire time. The four were now working with a large conference whiteboard that was in the room, and Cologne once again drew the symbol of the sun on the board.
“The symbol of the sun,” Cologne began. “I am now certain it is related to Ranma’s dreams and headaches. Son-in-law, you said these began while you were still in China, correct? Just after the battle at Jusendo?”
Ranma nodded in response, a pained look briefly flashing across his face. Akane reached out, taking his hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze and smiling at him. Ranma relaxed, giving Akane a weak smile in return. “Yeah. Exactly right,” he said to Cologne.
“Did anything else happen at the battle? Anything that stands out to you?” Cologne pressed.
Ranma thought back to the fight over Jusendo valley. The weight on his chest of Akane’s doll-like body, the heat of the phoenix-king Saffron, and the wind whipping through the valley and keeping Ranma himself aloft. In his mind, he played out the last moments of the battle, looking for anything standing out to his recollection as odd.
Akane’s body slipped out of his shirt, flying through the blazing aura Saffron engulfed himself in. The hole that was created would compress his next attack into a lethal, ice-cold whirlwind that would rip the phoenix-king to shreds. And so he unleashed it, pushed to his final attack with no choice but to kill Saffron to save Akane and his friends. And in that desperation, he retrieved Akane’s body as Saffron’s broke into a million pieces.
But it was too late, her eyes had almost closed, and the Guide assured him that meant her life was almost at an end. There was no time to get to the Dragon Tap and the life-saving water that would bring her back. Despair began to settle in Ranma’s heart. He had nothing left, the last of his energy expended against Saffron. In desperation, he looked down at the Dragon Tap, which seemed impossibly far. With a mighty heave, he launched the Gekkaja like a javelin, setting the staff spinning in flight.
Success! The staff speared into the neck of the Dragon Tap perfectly, and the spin twisted it with enough force to free the life-giving water. Now, all Ranma had to do was get down there.
But there was no time…!
If only he had enough energy for one more attack! If only he could somehow revitalize Akane’s fading time!
Ranma tapped into his very life force, feeling his body protest as he took the vital energies sustaining himself, and pushed it all forward. “I won’t give up now! I can’t! I’ve come too far!” he yelled out. “Dragon, look toward the Heavens! Hiryuu Gyoten Ha!”
The wind rushed out of his outstretched fist… as something else rushed in. He had been too distracted to notice at the time, but…
His attention returned to the present. “Somethin’ did happen… when I released the Hiryuu Gyoten Ha, it… it was literally everythin’ I had left and then some. I had to use my life energy to power it, I was completely tapped,” he said.
Tofu’s eyes widened, as did Akane’s, but Cologne simply nodded as if she expected this. “And when you released the energy you accumulated from your body…”
“Somethin’ else… came in. Like my body was drawin’ life energy from somewhere else. It was a huge rush of power, restored all the life energy I just used and all my expended ki. If Saffron had come back right in that moment, I’d have been fresh and ready for round two,” Ranma said. “It felt like a dam breaking, just so much energy rushing in and makin’ me feel strong enough to do anything, fight anyone.”
Cologne nodded again. “I’m sure the symbol of the sun burned on your forehead in that moment as well,” she said. She turned to the whiteboard, taking up a marker. “Legend tells us of great warriors who bore such marks.” She began drawing next to the symbol of the sun, completing a symbol that looked like a circle with a cross under it, and “horns” atop the circle. “For instance, this is the symbol of—”
“Mercury!” Akane gasped.
“Yes, correct, child. How did you know?” Cologne asked.
“Every girl in Tokyo over the age of five knows the symbol of Mercury!” Akane replied indignantly, taking the marker from Cologne, then drawing three more symbols. The first was similar to the symbol of Mercury but without the horns, the next was a circle that had an arrow extending out from it and pointing upward and to the right, and the final symbol almost appeared to be the Arabic numeral 4, albeit highly stylized. “Just like we know these symbols, too. Venus.” She tapped the first symbol she drew. “Mars.” Now, she tapped the second. “And Jupiter.” Finally, she tapped the last symbol.
“Why do you know those symbols, Akane?” Ranma asked, tilting his head in confusion.
“Because of the Sailor Guardians, duh!” Akane replied. “The beautiful sailor-suited soldiers who fight for love and justice! They’re local superheroes who fought invasions of demons in Minato’s Azabu-juban district!”
“Sailor-suited?” Cologne asked curiously.
“Love and justice?” Ranma asked in a voice that sounded an odd mix of haunted, distant, and hopeful.
Akane nodded. “I wish I had… Back home, I have a few magazines and stuff with them in it. There’s five of them, and they wear an outfit that’s… well, not exactly a sailor-style fuku, but it’s close. It’s kind of a leotard with a mini-skirt, and they all have different colors for the neckerchief and skirt,” she explained. “They have magical powers and they fight demons. Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, and the first of them was Sailor Moon.”
There was something odd in Akane’s statement, but Ranma was unable to determine exactly what. “And what’s that got to do with you knowin’ those symbols?”
Akane turned back to the board, drawing a series of symbols on it. A circle divided into quarters, a crescent moon, and a stylized letter “h” joined the board, then what looked like a letter “P” set directly atop a letter “L,” a three-pronged spear with a cross guard beneath the prongs, and a circle that seemed attached to two conjoined “H” letters sticking into its top. “Earth, the moon, Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus. Obviously, people noticed that four of the five were named after planets, so they started to speculate on the idea of the other planets having Guardians,” she said.
“And, they noticed the symbology of the alchemical planetary symbols, so they likely published them in the magazine you mentioned as a way to ‘get the word out,’” Tofu concluded. “Sort of like, ‘hey, keep an eye out for this, maybe you can spot the next Sailor!’”
Silence suddenly fell in the room as the implications hit like a truck. Three sets of eyes slowly turned to Ranma in shock.
Ranma, for his part, was equally shocked, swallowing past a lump that suddenly appeared in his throat. “You don’t mean me, do you?” he said, pointing at himself. “I’m a guy.”
“It would be highly unusual,” Cologne admitted. “Our legends of these warriors universally describe them as female. But, don’t forget, son-in-law: you do possess a curse that gives you the body of a woman.”
“I think we lack the necessary data to draw a proper conclusion,” Tofu said, perhaps a bit wearily. “What we have is a theory that happens to fit the facts. Unless…” Tofu’s eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. He looked over at Ranma, then grabbed his notepad, writing something down and showing just Ranma.
What Tofu had written down was a single word: Dreams?
A sinking pit formed in Ranma’s stomach. “I’m gonna need some cold water,” he said, already feeling the headache starting to return.
It only took a couple of minutes for Tofu to leave and return with the water, during which Ranma’s headache, as if beckoned by the mere thought of the dreams, had returned in force. It was a relief when the water hit and turned him back into a girl, the headache gone as if by magic.
“So why are we bringin’ up the dreams?” the wet redhead inquired.
“Ranma, I would like you to tell us the most precise, minute details you can about the dreams. How detailed can you be?” Tofu asked in reply.
Ranma hesitated. She hedged and hemmed. Finally, she caved, slumping over almost wearily. “Pretty detailed. The dreams are always from a first-person view, and not like normal dreams. They’re not fuzzy or distant at all,” she admitted. “If you asked me about my dream two nights ago, all I can say it’s some fuzzy memory of me kickin’ Godzilla’s ass. But these dreams? Clear as day, like I was actually there.”
“Then, the dream where you’re being chastised for fighting monsters. What can you tell me about that?” Tofu pressed.
Ranma nodded, the imagery coming as evoked by Tofu. “I have a sword in my left hand,” she began, sitting up straight and holding her arm out as if wielding the weapon. “And I feel power in my right hand, like I’m ready to attack just in case. There’s a monster in front of me, about eight shaku high, kinda shaped like a human woman but with blue skin and a mouth like a shark’s.”
Unseen, Akane flinched slightly.
“I wait for it to move, but it starts to turn to dust, so I know it’s definitely dead. Suddenly, hands grab me—a girl’s hands, in white gloves, and they turn me toward… her.” Ranma let out a quick, mischievous chuckle as he said “her.” “And it’s not the first time she’s caught me at this, either. She’s… taller than me, like a full head or so. Short blonde hair, and wearin’ the same outfit they all wear. Like a gymnastics leotard, but with a little neckerchief and miniskirt, and a big frilly bow on the front with a gem.”
“What colors?” Akane asked, sounding distant.
“Dark blue, but she has a… friend with teal hair and skirt,” Ranma answered automatically. “They show up in pairs to stop me sometimes. But today, it’s just her, and she’s askin’ me if I’m tryin’ to get myself killed. But I’m not, it’s not like that at all. I just can’t stand by and do nothin’ when people’s lives are at stake.”
That didn’t sound right…
“No, wait, she says… She says, ‘You can’t keep doing this. You shouldn’t be out here. This is a good way for a girl like you to end up killed.’ And she actually looks upset at the thought,” Ranma said, concentrating.
“And I say back to her, ‘I can’t just stand by and do nothing while innocent people are threatened.’ But we’ve had that argument already, so she just leaves in a huff,” Ranma said, grinning slightly.
“Ranma? Come back to us,” Tofu said gently, his hand on the redhead’s scalp.
“Huh?” The visage of the annoyed blonde vanished, and Ranma realized she hadn’t just been describing the dream, she had been revisiting its imagery. The wooded area around her vanished, replaced by Dr. Tofu’s small office area. “What… What happened?”
“You just—” Akane began, but both Tofu and Cologne held up a hand, quieting her.
“Son-in-law,” Cologne began cautiously. “I’d like you to look at the board again and touch the first symbol that comes to mind. Keep the thought of this… mysterious woman at the forefront of your mind.”
Ranma blinked, concentrating on the blonde in her mind. It was… easy to focus on her, the dream brought with it numerous associations. She turned to the whiteboard, eyes briefly passing over the symbols, and without hesitation, her finger came up, coming to rest on the symbol of Uranus. “Wait… Why did I…”
“As Akane was about to say,” Tofu began, motioning Akane on.
“You just described a Sailor Guardian, Ranma,” Akane said, eyes wide. “And I think you described Sailor Uranus, who nobody else has even heard of, yet.”
A chill went down Ranma’s spine… a chill that was similarly fought back by a warm flush at the dream of, the memory of, her verbal exchange with the Guardian of Uranus. It was more than the exchange in the dream. Ranma could remember multiple encounters with the dishwater blonde, sometimes alone, sometimes with a similarly-dressed teal-haired companion, each time trying to dissuade her from her course, but each time…
I have a dream, the Ranma of the memories said. A dream I can’t give up on! One day, I’ll be a champion of love and justice! This is just a stepping stone on that path, you wait and see!
Ranma shivered at the implications. Dr. Tofu and Cologne kept their own council. But Akane would not be quieted about it.
“I don’t believe this!” the Tendo heir sighed explosively. “Out of any girl who could have been the newest sailor guardian, not only is ‘she’ my housemate, but my idiot fiancé! Who’s a guy, to boot!” Akane glared at Ranma before pointing at the redhead’s chest. “You’d better not dare dishonor the Sailor Guardians with your usual stupid antics! Especially if you’re going to be Sailor… Sailor Sun!”
“Hey, I never asked for this! I don’t even wanna be this Sailor Sol or whatever she’d be!” Ranma protested.
“What did you just say, son-in-law?”
Ranma turned to Cologne, not seeing Akane’s surprised look. “Huh? I said I didn’t ask for this! So I don’t even want to be Sailor—” Sol. Ranma paused, nearly biting her tongue, before continuing. “Sailor Sun.”
“I think you were right the first time,” Cologne said, narrowing her eyes at Ranma. “Sailor Sol. It makes sense. That is the generally accepted name of our star, after the Roman god of the sun. How curious…”
Ranma shook her head in disbelief, turning to Dr. Tofu. The chiropractor offered her a supportive smile but shook his head. “It seems to me that we could go in circles about this question forever and never get any answers by ourselves,” he said after a moment of thought. “The only recourse available would be for Ranma to go to Minato, specifically to Azabu-juban, since that’s where these girls have been most often spotted. But, more importantly…” His face took on a serious, even solemn cast. “Do not tell anyone else about this. Most especially not Nabiki. Can you even imagine?”
“She’s not that bad,” Akane said weakly.
Tofu simply opened a nearby drawer and reached in, pulling out a tiny napkin… which happened to have an image of Ranma’s current body, and while the redhead was turned away from the viewer and had an arm up to cover her generous endowments, she was also still topless and it clearly showed how “gifted” the girl was. Akane looked down, embarrassed.
Ranma sighed bitterly. “No fear, wasn’t plannin’ on tellin’ anyone anyway, especially not Nabs. If Pops caught wind of even the possibility of me wearin’ somethin’ that frilly and girly, his head would pop like a shaken up can of soda; if Mom ever found out, my head would be rolling in the dust.”
Cologne nodded, speaking up in a quiet tone, “Likewise, I will keep your confidence, son-in-law. Not just out of respect for you as I know you, but out of respect for your possible new station,” she said.
“Respect? For that?”
“Of course,” Cologne chortled. “Our village is the village of women heroes! Can you think of any greater representation of that than these girls who have fought and beaten back demons?”
Once again, Ranma sighed.
It was a beautiful day at the Hikawa Shrine. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming. It was a beautiful day to sleep in, at least in the opinion of one Usagi Tsukino. That her opinion of such a beautiful day would be the same if it were cloudy or raining would do little to shift her stance on the matter.
The Usagi Tsukino in question turned her head from its position on the table she sat at. Within the central sanctuary of the shrine, the table sat before the sacred fire for which the temple was named. To her left were two of her friends: Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino. Ami was, as typical for the girl with the short blue hair, reading a book, while the ponytailed and brunette Makoto was impatiently tapping her fingers on the table, the vibrations of which traveled through Usagi’s face.
Usagi turned her head again, looking to her right. With long raven hair and the red and white robes of a shrine maiden, there was no mistaking that Rei Hino belonged at the shrine, and no mistaking that her image of classic Japanese beauty drew many an eye. And yet, that beauty was marred—at least, some might say, and others might say enhanced—by the irritated look on her face.
There was, after all, a reason some men might say, “You’re beautiful when you’re angry.” Sometimes Usagi felt that could apply to her friend.
Finally, whatever patience Rei had apparently mustered snapped, and she let out an explosive sigh. “Where is she? Even bun-head over here managed to get to the meeting on time!” she growled out.
“Hey, leave my buns out of this,” Usagi protested, sitting up and her hands coming up defensively to the twin dumpling-like protrusions of blonde hair atop her head. “Like you said, I managed to get here on time!”
“Well, I’m getting hungry, so I’m not holding these back anymore,” Makoto sighed. “She can pick over what’s left when she gets here, if there is anything.” With that, the brunette set a fairly hefty package, wrapped in a rather neat kerchief, atop the table. Tugging at the deftly tied bow, she let the kerchief fall to the table, revealing a plethora of various snacks and treats that immediately set Usagi to drooling.
“I don’t think it’s a crisis for Minako to miss this,” Ami noted, grabbing what looked like a crepe while Usagi grabbed an entire section of the snacks to begin devouring. “Nothing’s really going on, after all. We defeated the Dark Kingdom and Beryl, even destroyed Metalia. It’s not like we’re having a meeting to discuss the movements of the Enemy—we don’t have an enemy whose movements we would discuss.”
“I’ll concede the point about the critical importance of the meeting,” Rei agreed as she snagged a small tray of octopus-styled hot dogs out of the snack mass that Makoto had brought. “But, counterpoint, we’re all friends, like having these get togethers, and all agreed to be here by a specific time, and she’s apparently blowing us off without even calling to say why.”
Ami nodded in concession to Rei’s point. “Fair enough, I do enjoy these meetings. If nothing else, it’s a good opportunity to help you girls catch up on your studies,” she said with a smile.
This was met with collective groans and sighs from the other three, but then Rei sat up. “Besides, I did want to discuss something. I had… a premonition last night,” she explained. “A dream pulled me out of my sleep, so I came to the sacred fire and did a reading.”
“A premonition? Of what?” Usagi asked, looking as serious as one could manage around a mouthful of creamy pastry.
Eyebrow twitching, Rei pressed on, “The dream was fairly vague. I just saw fire surrounding the five of us, and a figure barely visible through the flames.” She put one of the decorative wieners into her mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing it. “I thought it was a premonition of a coming new enemy, and that’s why I did the reading.”
Ami had put her book down and was taking notes now, paying attention. “What did the reading reveal to you?” she asked.
“It made the figure more visible. I was able to get a few good details, too. First off, she had red hair,” Rei began.
“Oh, no,” Usagi whimpered, thinking back to the last redhead the group had encountered—the aforementioned Queen Beryl.
“Second, she had blue eyes.”
“Oh, ok,” Usagi said, relaxing. In addition to her hair, Beryl’s eyes had also been red.
“Third, there was a glowing symbol on her forehead, like a circle with a dot in the center,” Rei continued, annoyance in her tone as she shot a look at Usagi.
Ami held up the notepad she was using. “Like this?” she asked. Rei nodded. “What else?”
“Well, the fourth is the kicker. After I had committed those first three details to memory, the symbol on her forehead disappeared—because she was wearing the uniform of a Sailor Guardian,” Rei explained.
A heavy veil of silence fell on the room.
“What?!” Usagi sat upright and shrieked her surprise. The other girls winced and pulled back from the volume and pitch.
“Well, wherever she is, Minako probably heard that,” Makoto muttered, sticking a finger in her ear.
“I sure did!” came a voice from the entrance hallway. A paper door slid open, and in walked a pretty girl with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. “Sorry I’m late! Had some errands to run this morning. Did Usagi eat all the snacks already?”
“Hey!” Usagi pouted. “If I did, it would be your fault for being so late, Minako!”
Minako slid the door shut as she entered, smiling at her fellow blonde. Usagi had heard more than once from others that if she wore her hair loose and stood next to Minako, the two would be almost indistinguishable—their hair was almost the same length and their eyes almost the same shade, even their body types were similar.
The ultimate bodyguard, someone who can serve as your perfect body double, Usagi thought a bit weakly.
Unaware of Usagi’s thoughts, Minako knelt at the table, grabbing a stack of cookies from the tower of treats. “Well, fortunately, you didn’t, so it’s not,” she said with a pixie-like grin, taking a fair-sized bite of the first cookie. “So, what set you off so loudly? Mamoru didn’t secretly come out as gay or something, did he?”
Usagi rolled her eyes. “No, nothing like that,” she replied in a bland tone, grabbing another pastry cake to scarf down. “Rei did a fire reading last night and says she saw another Guardian, a redhead.”
Something apparently diverted course in Minako’s snacking, as she began coughing. Rei wasted no time in slapping the blonde on the back, causing her to cough up a chocolate chip that had lodged itself in her airway. “She what?” the blonde wheezed out.
“I was having a strange dream, so I woke up and did a fire reading,” Rei summarized. Minako began shaking her head rapidly. “What?”
“Cut to the cheese!” Minako insisted.
Silence briefly reigned again. “Did you mean ‘cut to the chase?’” Makoto suggested.
“Never mind that! New Guardian!”
Rei nodded. “A girl with red hair and blue eyes, with a symbol on her forehead like a circle with a dot in the center. As I watched the fire, she turned into a Sailor Guardian,” she explained.
“You’re sure it was red hair?” Minako pressed.
“Positive. Why?”
Minako leaned back, eyes wide as she looked up to the ceiling. Finally, she spoke.
“Because I owe her about eight thousand years of apologies…”
Silence once again took over the room, before general bedlam erupted with everyone peppering Minako with questions at once. When she seemed unable to answer four people bombarding her simultaneously, the girls turned to talk to each other, but were still unable to understand each other over, as it were, each other. Finally, a piercing noise sounded over the din, and the four girls looked at Minako, whose pinkies were in her mouth, marking her as the source of the shrill whistle.
“Luna and Artemis should be in here for this part,” she said. “I really only want to tell this once. Maybe twice, if she doesn’t remember, either…”
“Tell what once?” Usagi asked.
“What went into making a Sailor Sol.”