“Dinner Date”
Queen Beryl was very displeased. How many dark lords did she have to kill before she got some results? Jadite had gathered quite a bit of energy, but he couldn’t deal with three Sailor Senshi. After she gave him repeated chances, he still failed miserably. Then Nephrite tried his hand with his ‘Visions from the stars’. The weak fool couldn’t destroy the Senshi, and worse, he fell in love with a HUMAN! Zoicite had been dispatched to take care of him. When she had killed Nephrite, Beryl thought that she had found the one to dispatch the pretty soldiers. She found several of the rainbow crystals, but lost the Silver crystal. She had suffered the same fate as Beryl’s other generals: death. The worst part about all of this was that now they had five Senshi! Who would have guessed that the media idol Sailor V was the fifth soldier Sailor Venus.
Queen Beryl looked down on the two in front of her, fresh from another defeat. Kunzite was her last dark lord of the negaverse. Although he had failed to kill the last defenders of the Moon Kingdom, his life was spared for returning her beloved Endymion. The harlot of a princess had taken him from her in the past, but now was her time. Her and her dark lord had to make some ‘adjustments’ to him, but now he was totally loyal to her. She had dispatched him to retrieve the silver crystal so that Metallia could live once again, but here he stood, defeated like all the others. Kunzite and Endymion had squabbled like children when they had arrived, each blaming the other for the defeat. It had taken her a while to drag the whole story out of them. Apparently, not only did they have five Senshi to worry about, but also they had a new threat in this Great Saiya-Man. Was she from the Silver Millennium, or was she just some troublesome do-gooder? It was obvious that she had already sided with the Senshi, so she had to be dealt with.
The Queen looked down on her servants. “Begone! Do not come before me again until the Silver Crystal is ours!”
The two bowed and left.
“Having trouble, Beryl-Sama?” A snotty and sarcastic voice came over her shoulder.
“Nothing I can’t handle.” That insufferable woman is back here again!
The woman in question was floating behind the throne. She was almost as tall as Beryl herself. She had a reptilian tail and chalk white skin. “Then what is taking you so long? Hmmm? Can’t you and your ‘dark lords’ handle a few little girls in short skirts?”
“They will be dealt with in time.” Beryl fought hard to keep the emotion out of her voice.
“If you’d do as I ask, they’d be dealt with immediately.” The chalk white woman blew on her fingernails like she trying to dry some polish.
“They will be dealt with in time!” Beryl was not going to suffer any more of this. “I do not need yours, or anybody else’s help! We will deal with the Senshi!”
The other woman shook her head. “Tsk, tsk. Losing your composure. How un-queenly of you. Well if you change your mind, just call my name.” The woman turned and disappeared.
Beryl waited until she was sure the other woman was gone. She pounded a fist on her throne. “I will never call on you, or your miserable family, Shiver!”
Goten’s class had just ended for the day. To avoid Akane for a while, Ranma had helped him out with the students, walking among the students and giving them help here and there. The same brunette with the ponytail was there again. At times Ranma could swear that she was screwing up on purpose.
“No, keep your shoulders turned like this.” Ranma showed her again how she was supposed to stand.
“I’m sorry, I just can’t seem to get it.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get it.”
“Makoto.”
“What?”
“Makoto. That’s my name. Kino Makoto.”
“Well, Makoto, keep working on your stance.”
“I’ll do that. Ranma?”
“Yeah?”
“What kind
of food do you like?”
“Anything, as long as it’s in large quantities. Why?”
“I can cook. I was wondering if I could make dinner for you some time.”
“Ahh…I don’t think that would be good.” Ranma jumped back and started waving his hands. “Not that I don’t think the food would be good! I just don’t think Akane would like that.”
Makoto shook her head. Look how jumpy he is. What kind of girl is she when she has her fiancée ready to jump out of his skin every time he talks? “Ranma. Maybe some other time?”
“I can’t have dinner with you.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s having dinner with me!” Ranma turned around to see Bra standing there. “Hey, Raaanma.” She gave him a seductive smile and wink. “How about we grab some dinner. Some candle light, some soft music, and all you can eat. I’ll buy.”
Ranma started to develop a nervous twitch as he started getting flashbacks of Shampoo and Ukyou. He started to back away from the two girls. A plan quickly came to mind. Where was Akane when you needed her? He started glancing around the room.
The two girls started to argue.
“If he’s having dinner with anyone, it’s going to be me!” Makoto started. “He can enjoy a good home cooked meal.”
“Why bother cooking and dirtying things up, when you can buy a good dinner? Besides how old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
“Well squirt, I’m fifteen. I’m older and more mature. Ranma is going out with me!”
The girls kept going along those lines for a while until they realized that Ranma was gone.
“Where did he go?” Both of them asked at once.
Ranma had bolted at the first opportunity. He shot up the stairs and whizzed past a startled Pan. She didn’t know he could move that fast.
Ranma poked his head into Akane’s door. “Akane!” He ran down and poked his head into the bathroom. “Akane!” He ran back to the stairs and grabbed Pan. “Pan, where’s Akane?”
Pan was just startled by this sudden need for Akane. “I don’t know. She said something about visiting a new friend.”
“Oh great! Just when I need her!”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s happening all over again!” Ranma was borderlining hysteria.
“What’s happening all over again?”
“ThegirlsarecomingaftermeagainandIneedAkanesoIcantakehertodinnersoIdon’thavetogowiththem…”
Pan slapped him. “Start over. Slowly.”
Ranma took a deep breath. “The girls are coming after me again…”
“What girls?”
“Makoto and Bra! They’re starting to go Shampoo and Ukyou on me! They’re down there right now fighting over who gets to go to dinner with me! I need to find Akane so I can have an excuse not to go!”
“Can’t you just tell them that you two are engaged?”
“Bra already knows, and it hasn’t stopped her!”
“Good point. Who’s Makoto?”
“One of the girls in Goten’s class. The tall brunette with a ponytail?”
“Oh, the one you were trying to pick up the other day.” Pan teased.
“Don’t start that again! I already have enough problems!”
Pan patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ranma. Did you know you’re twitching?”
“No.” Ranma started a violent fit of twitching.
Pan slapped him and backhanded him. “Get a grip! You can handle this! Here I’ll help you.” She looped her arm around Ranma’s. “We’ll just tell them we’re going out for a friendly dinner. Just tell them we made plans beforehand.”
“You’ll explain to Akane when she comes in at the absolute wrong moment?”
“Sure, I promise.” Pan led Ranma back down the stairs and saw Bra and Makoto still going at it. It looked like it about to come to blows. Pan made a big throat-clearing noise. “Well, Ranma! Let’s get to our friendly dinner!”
“Yeah, just friends. You and me.” Ranma said in a very stiff voice.
Bra put her hands on her hips. “Where do you think you’re taking him, Pan?”
“Out for some dinner. We already had plans for tonight.”
“Where’s Akane? Are you moving in on Ranma too?”
“Akane was supposed to join us, and we’re just friends. This is just a friendly dinner.”
“Well, if it’s ‘friendly’, I can come to, right?” Bra asked.
“Hey! You can’t leave me out of this!” Makoto was not going to give up that easily. “It’s only fair!”
Ranma started to twitch again.
A few blocks away, Akane was visiting Usagi. They had become fast friends since the Princess Seminar. Akane had just run through a censored version of her and Ranma’s life. Despite being what she was, Usagi was very surprised.
“That’s all true? How could one person have that much happen to him?” Usagi asked between cookies.
“It’s a curse.” Akane said mysteriously. The double meaning was completely lost on Usagi. “So, what do you do for fun?”
“I like to eat sweets and play video games. What do you like to do?”
“I usually like to hang out with my friends, but I haven’t had anyone to hang out with since moving here.”
“Well you can hang out with me and my friends. We could have a lot of fun!”
“Sure that would be great!”
“You think we could meet your fiancée?”
“Sure, but maybe some other time. I need some time without him to think about us.”
“Having problems with the engagement?”
“You could say that.”
Usagi stuffed another cookie in her mouth. “So what’s wrong?”
“Well…we always fight. Lately I think it’s been my fault.”
“How so?”
“I guess, it’s because I haven’t told him.”
“Told him what?”
“That I…”
Usagi sat up and leaned forward. “That you?”
“L…Lo…” Akane looked at her hands.
“That you love him?” Usagi got a large smile on her face.
“Y..yeah.” Akane buried her face in her hands. “I can’t even say it when he’s not around. I do, but I just can’t tell him.”
Usagi put an arm on her shoulder. “Maybe you should write him a letter saying it. It would be much easier.”
“I…could try that.”
Usagi slapped Akane on the back. “That’s the spirit! The course of love always runs true!”
Akane sweatdropped.
“I’ll call Ami-Chan and the others and we can all grab something to eat!” Usagi went bouncing out of the room.
Akane just sat there. “What an odd girl.”
The cat, which had been sleeping at their feet, agreed.
Usagi picked up the phone and called the rest of the Senshi. She got a hold of everyone except for Makoto. Usagi took out her communicator and tried calling her. After a little bit, Makoto picked up.
“Yes, Usagi. Is something wrong?”
“We were all getting together for dinner. I’ve got someone I want you all to meet.”
“Sorry, Usagi. I can’t make it. I’m already having dinner with someone.”
Usagi got a silly grin on her face. “Is it a boy?”
“Yes.”
“So when do the rest of us get to meet him?”
“Hopefully not until I’ve landed him. I don’t need any competition from Rei and Minako.”
“So where are you eating?”
“At the Ramen Shop, why?”
“Just wondering…”
“Usagi DON”T YOU DARE!”
Usagi got an innocent look on her face. “What? I just want to get a look at this guy.”
“But the others will get a look at him too!”
“Mako-Chan, you worry too much. See you later.” Usagi turned off the communicator cutting off any response from the brunette. She knew where they were all going to eat tonight.
A while later Ranma and Pan were walking down the street with Makoto and Bra following close behind. Ranma’s stride was so stiff that he looked like Frankenstein’s monster. Pan turned to him. “You really should try to relax Ranma. You’re going to have a heart attack.”
“I can’t help it. I just know Akane is going to come out of no where and mallet me!”
“Ranma, don’t worry about it. I told you I would explain to Akane. Just be nice to the girls and don’t do anything foolish.”
“I know, but Akane always picks the absolute wrong moments to show up, and she always misinterprets everything I do. It’s like she’s always looking for an excuse to vent all over me.”
Pan took a deep breath. “Ranma, I think she’s still angry about the arranged marriage.”
“Ya think?” Ranma replied sarcastically.
Pan continued. “She just needs to get over it and accept her feelings for you. Despite what she says and does, she does love you.”
“She sure has a funny way of showing it.” Ranma sighed. “It’s nice of you to try and cheer me up, but I just want Akane to say something herself.”
“I understand.”
“I guess it could be worse.”
“How’s that?”
“Shampoo and Ukyou could jump out of nowhere, and then Akane could show up.”
“That’s true. Luckily we made sure they couldn’t find us.”
Ranma remembered how much they had to pay Nabiki to keep them in the dark. “Are you sure I don’t owe you anything for that?”
“Just call it rent for staying at your place so long. Besides, grandpa can afford it.”
They all arrived at the Ramen Palace and were seated. Ranma sat beside Pan as fast as he could before either of the other girls could corner him into sitting with them. After they ordered, Bra and Makoto started to lay into Ranma with all kinds of questions about him. They were trying to get every single detail of his life out of him. Because of everything that had happened to him, Ranma was a little loose on the details of his answers. “Yeah, I was born”, was heard at one point.
“So you had three fiancées?” Makoto asked.
“Yeah, but none of them was my idea. If I had my way, we wouldn’t have been in Nerima at all.” Ranma shoveled a few more bites of Ramen. “I’d been in China.”
“Why China?”
“Uhh…” Ranma thought quickly. “I like it there.” He replied lamely.
“Why? Why is China any better than Japan?”
“Well…there’s a lot more room to train and practice and stuff.”
About that time Makoto saw Usagi come in the door. “Uh, Excuse me for a second. I need to go talk to someone.”
Bra got a smug look on her face. “Go ahead. We’ll be just fine without you.” Better even. After Makoto left, Bra leaned over to Ranma. “I know why you want to be in China. That’s where you got your curse, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, you can fly. Why don’t you just fly over and look for your cure?”
“I found out that the pools’ curses don’t replace each other, they mix. I could have taken a dip in the spring of drowned man, but I would have came out a herm…hermf.”
“Hermaphrodite.” Pan helped out.
“Yeah, what she said. At least I can use the advantages that my girl form grants.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m a lot faster. I can also get free food and stuff.”
“How do you manage that?” Bra kept on questioning him, prying more and more details about him out.
Meanwhile, across the restaurant, Makoto was trying to push Usagi out the door. “Go away! I don’t want the others to see him yet!”
“Why Mako-Chan? They wouldn’t steal him or anything.”
“Yes they will! Just wait a while before letting them know about him.”
“But I’ve got someone I want you meet with us.”
“Who?”
“She’s a new friend I met at the Princess Seminar.”
“Really?”
Usagi used Makoto’s momentary lack of attention to get in the door. Minako and Rei promptly followed her.
Rei put her hands on her hips. “What’s the big deal, Mako-Chan?”
Minako followed suit. “Yeah! Why wouldn’t you let us…hey! Who’s that cute boy?” She went straight to Ranma’s table. Rei was quickly on her heels. Minako recognized the girls sitting with him as the girls from the Princess Seminar. “Hey, nice to see you two again.” She whipped around to face Ranma. “Who’s your friend?”
Rei was right behind Minako hanging on every word. Bra silently cursed about sitting across from him. It was a hard to block someone’s view when there’s a table in your way. “This is Ranma.”
“Ranma!” Rei and Minako repeated the name.
Ranma started to twitch again. It could be worse; I can handle this. It could be worse; I can handle this. He kept repeating to himself. He saw the looks in all the girls faces and started to press himself into his seat as much as he could.
“Nihao!”
“CRASH!”
Minako looked at the new hole in the ceiling. “Oh how cute! A Ranma shaped hole complete with pigtail!”
Pan turned to find the source of the Chinese greeting. “That was cruel, Akane.”
“Yeah, but he probably deserved it.”
Pan just glared at Akane for a little bit. Akane finally broke down. “Okay! Okay! I’ll go find him and apologize.” Akane turned and left, leaving a confused group of girls with Pan.
“What was that about?” Rei asked.
Usagi gave them a nervous giggle. “Meet Akane, Ranma’s fiancée.”
The other Senshi facefaulted.
Once she was outside, Akane closed her eyes to try and sense where Ranma fell. She could just barely feel him falling a distance away. He’s not far, but he seems to be close to unconsciousness. She took off at a brisk pace toward him.
Ranma pulled himself out of the hole he had made on impact and rolled himself over groggily. “Stupid tomboy, always making my life miserable. Why can’t she have some consideration.” Ranma had figured it out after landing that it wasn’t Shampoo he had felt there, but Akane.
“Are you okay?”
Ranma looked up to see a guy with long platinum hair wearing what looked like a strange military uniform with a cape. He got back up to his feet. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“You must be awfully strong to take an impact like that.”
“That not the part that hurt. The part that hurt was punching through the roof of that restaurant. I think I hit an A/C unit on my way through.”
The man smiled an evil grin. “Very strong indeed. You’ll do nicely.”
Ranma got a blank look on his face. “Do nicely for what?”
“How would you like to change your situation? You obviously wouldn’t jump through a roof without a good reason.”
Ranma scratched his head. “Yeah, but I don’t think you can help me.”
“How about if I granted you more power? I could grant you the power to do anything you want.”
He had Ranma’s full attention. “You can increase my power? Like how much are we talking?”
“At least ten fold. You will also be granted magical abilities. You’d be the strongest person in Tokyo.”
“What’s your name?”
“Kunzite. Why?”
“Just checking to make sure it wasn’t Lucifer, Satan, or something along those lines. So what do I have to do?”
“Just hold that pose.” Kunzite reached into his shirt and pulled out a black crystal. “In just a few seconds, you’ll be a new man.” He smiled evilly as the black crystal began to radiate waves of magic.
The waves struck Ranma, and he began to feel the power seeping into his body. He felt his strength growing. “Wow!” He started flexing his muscles as his clothes’ weight became insignificant. “This is awesome!”
Kunzite bared a toothy grin. “The best is yet to come.”
Ranma started to feel himself slipping away as something else began to well up inside of him. He dropped to his knees. “What’s happening? I’m losing control!”
“That’s the point! Come forth Youma Ramadan!”
Akane felt a shift in Ranma’s aura and started running. She rounded the corner in time to see Ranma drop to his knees. “Ranma!!!”
Ranma’s body flashed briefly and was replaced by a large gray beast with crystal protrusions from his joints that looked like primitive blades. Crystals covered his face and formed a ridge above his eyes. The only recognizable portion was his pigtail of black hair that extended all the way to the small of his back and was tipped by a small mace. He rose up to his full height and roared. “Ramadan!!!” The voice was deep and menacing, no hint of Ranma anywhere.
Akane ran over to him. “Ranma!” She turned to face Kunzite. “What have you done to him?!”
Kunzite smiled. “I freed him…to do my will.”
Akane turned around to the transformed Ranma. “Fight it Ranma! You can pull yourself back!”
Kunzite’s smile broadened. “Kill her, Ramadan.”
Ramadan lifted his hand. Akane took a step back. “Ranma! Snap out of it! I’m your fiancée!” Ramadan backhanded her and sent her flying through an office-building wall.
Kunzite walked over and saw the girl lying facedown and unmoving. “Very good! Now let’s see how well you fair against the Sailor Senshi! I will have my revenge for Zoicite!”
Ramadan threw his head back and roared again. “RAMADAN!!!”