Passing Strangers on a Moonlit Night
(A Ranma One Half / Sailor Moon Alternate History)
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://members.tripod.com/~Ammadeau/fanfiction.htm

1980
	The doctor slowly approached the pensive man in the 
waiting room, who was wearing a martial arts gi, of all things.  The 
doctor wanted to say this in just the right way since the man had 
already fainted once.  You'd think a martial artist could stand 
seeing his own child being born.
	"Well, doctor?" the man asked nervously.
	"Congratulations, Mr. Saotome, it's a boy . . ."
	A boy, boy!  Genma thought, suddenly hugging the 
surprised doctor and dancing around the room at the same time.  
Finally, he had an heir!
	When the man had finally calmed down, the doctor told 
him the rest of the news. ". . . and a girl!"
	Genma Saotome, master of Anything Goes Martial Arts, 
fainted once again.

1985
	Genma grumbled again as he watched Ranma and Ami 
playing when the boy should have been practicing.  He had tried to 
speak to his wife about it, but she simply couldn't understand the 
importance of regular training.  How was he supposed to raise the 
boy to the best martial artist of his generation with all these women 
around babying him?  Something had to be done.

1988
	Mrs. Saotome wiped tears from her eyes as she put down 
the phone.  She had always regretted making that fool agreement 
with her husband, but never more so than that moment.  Ever since 
then she had felt their absence and had told her friends to bring her 
any news of her son and husband.  She had even sold the house and 
moved to an apartment to get away from the memories.
	Several weeks ago she had heard a had a report of a young 
boy being rescued from a pit of cats, but too late.  He had been so 
torn up that they had doubted the boy would last long.  Before 
anyone could bring him to the hospital, however, a bald man in a gi 
grabbed him and ran away.  Without immediate medical attention, 
there was no chance the boy would survive.  Ever since then, she 
had been frantic for any news on her son.  Today the call had 
finally come, they had found a boy's body so badly mutilated that it 
was almost unidentifiable, except for the torn gi which it wore.
	That was it.  Her son Ranma, who she had not seen in three 
years, was now dead because of her husband's foolishness.  No:  
husband no longer, for what he had done had gone well beyond her 
breaking point.  It was time for Mrs. Saotome to get a divorce and 
become Dr. Nodoka Mizuno again.
	"What's wrong Mom?" Ami asked her as she walked into 
the room.  She had become such a polite and studious child after 
getting over the loss of the brother and father.  Nodoka didn't want 
to tell her, but she couldn't bring herself to keep the truth from her 
daughter.
	"Ami, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you're brother is dead."
	Nodoka was heartbroken as she watched her daughter run 
to her room, tears streaming down her eyes, but she knew that she 
had done the right thing.
	
	With people still looking for him after the cat incident, 
Genma had decided to head to China a little earlier than he had 
originally planned.  That meant skipping on those Chinese 
language courses he had planned on taking, but he wasn't worried.  
What could go wrong?
	He was lucky that the boy had recovered so quickly from 
those cat-inflicted injuries.  Even Genma realized that Ranma 
shouldn't have recovered so well or so fast, but just attributed to 
the wonderful Saotome genes with which he was blessed.

1995
	Ranma scoffed as he looked over the long bamboo poles 
jutting out of shallow pools.  "This is a training ground?  Doesn't 
look that tough to me."
	"Enough of your whining, boy," Genma declared, leaping 
up to land only a bit unsteadily on one of the poles. It was a 
testament to his ability as a martial artist that the thin bamboo pole 
could support his considerable bulk.  "Let's get to training."
	Ranma nodded and leapt to one of the other poles, where he 
maintained his balance easily as he waited for his father's opening 
move.
	Both of them ignored their guide yelling warnings in bad 
Japanese as they simultaneously leapt up and began their training.

	The guide sighed and found a comfortable place to sit.  
They never did listen, not until afterwards at least.  He had already 
put the teapot on the stove to get the hot water ready.  He knew 
that he was going to need it.

	Ranma got in a lucky shot.  There was a momentary slip in 
his father's defenses and he went for it, knocking the old man into 
one of the shallow pools.  Or at least Ranma believed them to be 
shallow before; that pool seemed to swallow his father up until he 
couldn't be seen.
	Ranma expected his father to leap right out again, probably 
complaining about his ungrateful son getting him wet.  He did not 
expect the unearthly silence to remain unbroken for several 
minutes, nor for their guide to suddenly rush over to the pool with 
a long bamboo pole, muttering to himself in Chinese.  Ranma got a 
cold feeling in the pit of his stomach that something had just gone 
very wrong.
	By the time he was down by the pool where his father had 
landed, the guide had pulled his pop from it and was yelling at 
Ranma not to touch anything wet.  He noticed that the guide was 
wearing thick rubber gloves as he hauled Genma onto dry land and 
flipped him over on his back.  He also noted that his father's skin 
looked pale and waxy; all except for a large, purplish bruise on his 
forehead.
	He watched the guide check over his father for several 
moments, sigh finally, take out a notebook, and start to write.  
Ranma had picked up a few things during their trip to China, one 
of which was reading some Chinese.  He peered over the guide's 
shoulder and read, "Spring of Drowned Martial Artist."
	The word 'drowned' hit him like a hammer.  'No, it can't be 
true.'
	"Come on, wake up, Pop," Ranma said frantically as he 
shook his father, "I'm not falling for your tricks this time, old man.  
I know you're just pretending to be unconscious.  Wake up!"
	"It no use, Mr. Customer," the guide told him in a resigned 
tone, "he gone."
	Ranma wanted to deny it, to explain to the guide that his 
father was always faking things like this, but his eyes were drawn 
to the bruise which was starting to yellow at the edges and his gi 
was open to reveal Genma's bare chest.  It was clear that he wasn't 
breathing.
	"No!!!!" Ranma screamed and ran, in the grip of a panic 
worse than any caused by cats.  He practically flew through the 
valley as the guide struggled to keep up, shouting more warnings 
in broken Japanese.
	Ranma didn't even see the pool before he hit it.  His eyes 
had been too filled with tears to notice anything at that point.  The 
sudden splash caught him by surprise, as well as the odd tingling 
sensation that swept through his body.  Somehow the coolness of 
the water restored his rationality.  He knelt in the water and took a 
deep breath.

	This gave the guide enough time to catch up, though he was 
gasping for air as he stood by the side of the pool.  "Very bad," he 
said as if reading an often rehearsed speech, "You fall in 
Nyanniichuan, Spring of Drowned Girl . . .?"
	The guide was shocked to find that Mr. Customer was still 
a mister.  The way that the gi was plastered to him because of the 
water left no doubt that this was still a boy.  How could that be?  
He checked his notebook and it was clearly marked as the drowned 
girl spring.  The drowned boy spring was on the other side of the 
valley.
	"In all the years I work as guide," he said in Japanese, "This 
never happen before!  You fall in spring of drowned girl, but you 
not turn into girl!"
	Ranma felt something, a memory, well up from deep inside 
him, as if it had been locked behind some door and the cool water 
of the spring had been the key.  It was of a face which he was 
certain that he had never seen before and one he could place no 
name to.  It was of a young woman at least a decade older than 
himself, though there was something ageless about her.  She had 
bright red hair worn in a strange hairstyle and clothes the likes of 
which he had never seen before.  When Ranma left the pool, the 
vision faded, though he could not forget her face.

	Ranma had found his mother's address among his father's 
things and decided that the training journey was over:  it was time 
to go home.  With the ashes of his father, he started the long 
journey back to Japan.

Chapter 1

Note:  This takes place a little after Sailor Moon S begins.  Ranma, 
like the Sailor Senshi, is fifteen.

	Ranma trudged through the streets of Juuban, slip of paper 
with address on it in one hand, umbrella in the other.  The rain was 
pouring down in sheets, obscuring everything.  He wasn't surprised 
though; it seemed that after Jusenkyo, wherever he went water 
would find him.  It would have made sense if he had gotten cursed, 
but for some reason when he had fallen into that pool, nothing had 
happened, nothing except the sudden vision he had had.
	He finally found the address.  It was a surprisingly lavish 
apartment in a well-to-do neighborhood.  He wondered about some 
of the things he and his father had to do to scrape by when his 
mother lived in a place like this.  Ranma stood before the door for 
some moments, gathering up his courage.  What would he say to 
his mother after so many years, after his father was gone?  He was 
still too numb from his pop's death to feel anything but sadness and 
anger.
	When he finally rang the bell, he was surprised to be 
greeted at the door by a girl his own age.  She had short, blue-black 
hair and was someone that he might have found cute under other 
circumstances.  There was also something deeply familiar about 
her, but he just couldn't place it.

	Ami put her book down as soon as she heard the doorbell.  
She expected it to be her mother and wanted to help her put away 
the groceries.  Her mother was usually so busy being a doctor that 
Ami had to do all the shopping, but she had some free time today 
and wanted to treat her daughter to a warm, home-cooked meal for 
once.  Ami would have preferred that her mother simply take it 
easy and relax, but found it difficult to argue with her mom.
	So Ami was very surprised to find a handsome pig-tailed 
boy at the door, looking somewhat somber and downcast.  She 
noted that his mood seemed to fit the weather perfectly, with the 
dark clouds and pouring rain.  There was also something familiar 
about him, but then it could have been his blue eyes, which were 
much like her mother's, and her own.
	"Can I help you?" she asked him.
	It took the boy a few moments to respond.  "Yes.  Does a 
Mrs. Saotome live here?"
	Ami thought for a moment.  That had been her mother's 
maiden name before she had gotten divorced.  Could this be a 
cousin of hers?  She didn't know any of her aunts, if she had any, 
from her father's side of the family, and knew that her grandparents 
had died when she was still very young.
	"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone by that name.  Only my 
mother and I live here."
	"Oh."
	Ami had never heard such a tone of hopelessness conveyed 
in a single word before.  The very thought of turning this boy away 
in the rain made her heart hurt.  She couldn't do it, even if he was a 
complete stranger.
	"My mother might know her though.  She just stepped out 
to do some shopping, but should be back soon.  Why don't you 
come in and wait?"  Ami even smiled reassuringly at the boy.  She 
may have spent most of her time with books, but she knew a cute 
boy when she saw one.
	The boy seemed to want to study his feet.  "I don't know."
	Impulsively, Ami grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him 
inside.  "Come on, my mom should be home soon and you'll 
probably get soaked wandering around in the rain."

	"So who is this Mrs. Saotome you're looking for?" Ami 
asked as she lead the boy into the living room.
	"My mother,"  Ranma replied, still looking mostly at the 
floor.
	"Huh?" asked Ami, a little confused to why this boy was 
searching for his own mother, especially using an address that had 
to be over ten years old.
	"I haven't seen my mother in nine years,"  he answered her, 
somehow guessing her question.
	"Why is that?  Did your parents divorce?"  Ami asked.
	She hadn't seen her own father for about the same span of 
time, ever since he had taken her brother on that ill-fated training 
trip.  It was so long ago that Ami couldn't even remember what he 
looked like, only that he was a big man with an even bigger 
appetite.
	"Not really.  My father took me on a nine year training trip 
to study martial arts."
	Ami shook her head.  It was just an odd coincidence, it had 
to be.  She knew that her brother was dead.  "And not once during 
that whole time did he bring you back to visit with your Mom?" 
Ami asked with a little surprise and anger.
	Ranma shook his head.
	Surprise dropped out of Ami's voice and her anger 
increased to near-Rei levels.  "How could someone do that to their 
own child?  That's horrible.  I'd be tempted to bring your father up 
on wrongful parenting charges, and perhaps even kidnapping."
	"You can't 'cause he's dead."
	Any reply Ami had planned died in her throat as she looked 
at the pig-tailed boy in horror.  Here she had been badmouthing 
someone, which she almost never did, someone she didn't even 
know, only to hear that he was dead.  When Ranma looked at her, 
he was stone-faced, but Ami got the sense that he was trying hard 
not to break down and cry.
	Ami was finally able to break the veil of silence by saying, 
"You wait here and I'll get us some snacks."

	Ranma sighed in relief as the girl went into the kitchen.  He 
thought for a moment there that he was going to embarrass himself 
by weeping in front of Ami.  Here he was a total stranger, she had 
done nothing but be nice to him, he went and chased her off by 
saying something like that.  Ranma still felt depressed, but he 
didn't want to make his host depressed as well.

	Ami reentered the living room with a tray of rice balls and 
tea, along with a determination to steer clear of any gloomy 
subjects.  She could have just brought some crackers and soda, like 
she and her friends usually had for snacks, but she decided she 
wanted to make something a little more impressive for the cute, if 
somewhat melancholy, boy.  She nearly jumped back in surprise 
when the boy started to gobble up the rice balls like they were 
going to run away from him.  Ami never thought that she'd meet 
someone with the same table manners as Usagi.
	Ranma paused in mid-bite when he realized that Ami was 
staring at him.  Suddenly feeling self-conscious, he said, "Sorry 
about that, I guess I was hungrier than I thought."
	"It's okay, really, I was just surprised," Ami told him.  "You 
happen to eat a lot like a friend of mine."
	"Your boyfriend?"
	Ami blushed and stammered a little.  "No, not that.  My 
friend Usagi is a girl, though she does eat like a boy.  Well, that's 
not true.  Her boyfriend doesn't eat like that.  She eats like no one 
else that I've ever seen before, except for you."
	For Ranma, thinking of his eating habits only made him 
think of his father, which only lead to depression.  Determined not 
to fall into that again, Ranma changed the subject.  "Ah, so what 
does your mom do for a living?"
	Ami had noticed the expressions Ranma's face went 
through and the abrupt change of subject, but decided to let it pass 
without comment.  "She's a doctor at Juuban General Hospital.  
Normally, she's very busy, but today she took the day off and 
decided to make dinner.  She's still out buying the ingredients."
	"A doctor?  That's pretty cool."  With all the scrapes and 
bruises Ranma had gotten over the years, he had earned a lot of 
respect for people who practiced medicine.
	"You think so? I want to go to college and study medicine 
just like my mother."
	Ranma could also understand following in the footsteps of 
a parent.  "I'm sure you'll be a great doctor, you're such a nice 
person."
	Ami blushed a little at the compliment.

	Nodoka Mizuno, who preferred not to be known as a doctor 
when she wasn't working, was putting away the groceries without 
really paying attention to what she was doing.  As a result, Ami 
would have to straighten things out later, since the eggs ended up 
in the cabinet and the tofu in the freezer.  Ami was exactly who 
was causing her to be distracted.  She had expected to be greeted at 
the door when she rang the bell, only to stand in the rain like a fool 
for several minutes.
	Nodoka had come in the house with every intention of 
seeking her daughter out, only to be stopped by a sound that she 
hadn't heard in a long time:  laughter.  Her always-serious daughter 
was actually laughing?  The next sound she heard might have even 
been more of a surprise.  A boy's voice?  Her, never went on a date 
no matter how much she was encouraged to do so, daughter 
actually had a boy over?  Whatever the reason for these surprising 
events, Ms. Mizuno was determined to stay out of sight and not 
spoil them.  That didn't mean she wouldn't take a little peek around 
the corner and get a look at this boy.  She had to make sure if he 
was right for her daughter after all.

	Ranma found himself smiling, something he hadn't done in 
weeks.  He didn't know why exactly, but somehow this girl just 
brought it out of him, like a part of himself that had been buried 
long ago.  She made it easy for him to forget about his father's 
death, at least for a little while.
	Ami was currently relating some of the non-senshi antics of 
Usagi and her friends.  Her dumpling-haired friend was one of the 
few things that could get Ami to laugh, and stories about her 
seemed enough to bring Ranma out of his depression.
	Seeing the once melancholy boy now laughing, Ami 
smiled.  "I just realized that here we've been talking for a while 
now and we haven't even introduced ourselves."
	"Oh, I'm Ranma, Ranma Saotome."
	Ami could only stare at him in surprise.
	Ranma noticed her reaction.  "What?  What is it?"
	Ami shook her head almost violently to clear it.  If one 
coincidence could happen, so could another.  Ranma may have 
been a popular name in the Saotome family.  "Nothing, it's just--"
	Both Ami and Ranma were surprised by a large gasp they 
heard from somewhere in the direction of the kitchen.
	Ranma was shocked when a middle-aged woman ran up to 
him and gathered him up into a giant hug.  "Ranma!" she shouted 
with tears in her eyes.
	Nodoka looked him over through eyes blurred by tears.  It 
had been so long, but she could still see signs of the little boy that 
had grown into this fine man before her.  She could hardly believe 
that he son was alive after all these years, but could not deny the 
proof before her.
	"Mom?"  Ranma said weakly, as he looked into face that he 
had only seen in dreams for many years.

	"Mom, what's going on?" Ami asked with a slight tremor in 
her voice.  She had never seen her always-in-control mother act 
anything like this before, at least as far as she could remember.
	"Ami, this is your twin brother Ranma!"
	Ami did what any other sensible girl would have done in 
the same situation.  She fainted.

	After Nodoka had brought her daughter Ami up to her bed 
to rest from what she now realized must have been a terrible shock, 
she came back down to sit by her newly rediscovered son, Ranma.
	For a while, all she did was look at him, which made 
Ranma considerably nervous.  She couldn't stop thinking of what a 
fine boy he had grown into.
	"Tell me son, where's your father?  I want to give Genma a 
piece of my mind from keeping you from me for nine years 
without a word.  I thought you had been killed a long time ago.  
You don't know how much that hurt Ami and I."
	"Pops is … dead."
	Ranma was concentrating so hard on not breaking down 
and crying that he didn't notice when Nodoka has swept him up in 
a gentle hug.  In fact, he nearly jumped in surprise when she spoke 
right next to his ear.
	"Oh my poor baby, that must have been very hard on you," 
Nodoka told him.  She herself only felt a small pang of loss on 
hearing of Genma's passing.  Any feelings she once had for him 
had died abruptly when she had heard him responsible for her son's 
death.
	"It is, kinda.  The old man wasn't nice or anything, but I 
knew that he always cared about me.  He never praised what I did, 
only turned around and pushed me harder, but I know he was 
proud."
	"I'm proud of you too, my son, having come so far on your 
own.  I can see that you're a fine young man and I'm sure an 
excellent martial artist.  But that doesn't mean that you have to 
hold everything in.  It's okay to cry when you feel like it."
	Ranma tried to hold it back, but it was as if his mother's 
permission had been the key to unlock the floodgates.  With a cry 
of "Mom!", Ranma held on to Nodoka, his whole body shaking 
with his sobs.  It was some time before they finally stopped.
	"There, there Ranma," Nodoka told her son with a small 
smile.  "Do you feel better now?"
	Ranma nodded as he dried his eyes with the tissue she had 
given him.
	"Good.  You wait right here while I check on your sister.  
She should be coming around at any moment."

	When Ami came to again, she found herself in her bed with 
her mother looking over her in concern.
	"Mom, I had a really strange dream that some guy turned 
out to be my twin brother."
	"Honey, that was no dream.  Ranma is your brother.  He's 
waiting in the living room."
	"But you told me my brother died!  And how can we be 
twins?  We don't look that much alike."
	Ms. Muzino looked a little sad as she spoke.  "You two 
were born as fraternal twins, not identical, even though when you 
were growing up you did both look very much alike.  You were 
also inseparable.  Where one was, the other was always not far 
behind. As babies, you'd cry endlessly if you were separated.
	"But your father wanted to raise Ranma to be a great 
martial artist and felt that your and my influence were making him 
weak.  And so, despite all I tried to do to stop him, he took Ranma 
away from us."

	Ranma sat in the living room, no less surprised than Ami 
was.  The nice girl he'd been talking to had been his twin sister all 
along.  Ranma had known that he had a sister, but with all that had 
happened recently he had forgotten about her for a while.  Besides, 
he thought that his sister and him would look identical.
	At first he'd been doubtful.  He immediately accepted that 
Nodoka was his mom, he couldn't see the point of faking that 
degree of enthusiasm and she did seem sort of familiar, like 
someone he'd seen a long time ago.
	There had been some sort of initial recognition with Ami 
too, but Ranma couldn't place it.  Ami could be adopted and 
Nodoka was trying to keep that a secret, but the two woman looked 
a little too much alike for that to be true.  Even though they weren't 
identical, deep down he knew that this girl was his sister Ami.
	"Ranma?" Nodoka called down from upstairs and 
distracting him from his thoughts.  "Come up here and get 
reacquainted with your sister!"
	The pig-tailed boy shrugged.  Better face this now and get 
it over with.  "Coming … Mom!"

	Ami was still in bed when Ranma came into their room.  
For a while they simply looked at each other, wondering what to 
say.  They were both more than a little embarrassed over the 
attraction that they had felt towards each other.  Ami rationalized 
that this had probably been sisterly affection without her realizing 
it.
	"Oh, I'll leave you two alone while I get started on dinner," 
their mother announced, closing the door behind her.
	"Um, hi," Ranma settled on after a while, "I'm Ranma."
	Ami smiled and then giggled a bit at that.  Somehow seeing 
Ranma acting so nervous had evaporated all the nervousness she 
felt.
	"You're my brother, Ranma, you don't have to introduce 
yourself.  We haven't seen each other in a long time, but we're 
hardly strangers.  Actually, we have years of catching up to do.  
Why don't you sit down and tell me what you've been doing for the 
last nine years?"
	Ranma laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.  
He took the offered seat though, and began in on his life story, not 
feeling as nervous as he just had been.

	"So our father is dead?" Ami said near the end of the tale.
	Ranma nodded, feeling his earlier depression return.
	"I never got to know our father very well.  Could you tell 
me about him?"
	Ranma went into a long description of their father.  "Well, 
he was a big man cause he always ate a lot.  Food and martial arts 
seemed the only important things to him.  When he wasn't eating, 
he was training me in martial arts.  Some of the training methods 
he used were kind of strange; some worked, while others didn't.  
He always wore a big white gi, with a while handkerchief to cover 
his bald head and wire-rim glasses.  He had a loud voice, it always 
seemed like he was shouting.  Hmm..."
	"I think I get the idea," Ami said and laughed a bit.
	Soon Ranma was laughing as well, while in the back of his 
mind he was thinking that suddenly how great it was to have his 
sister back again.