Downfall (Ranma/Sailor Moon) (Patreon)

Themes: No Sex, Prologue, Plotting

Word Count: 2,586

Summary: A bit of a reimagining of both Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon here. Don't expect things you know from either canon to necessarily count here. Essentially, Ranma leaves Nerima. The Dark Kingdom steps in to give him an offer he CAN refuse... but won't. The poor Senshi won't know what hit them. 

Downfall  

Ranma Saotome had had enough. It was just too much. Everything that he dealt with on a daily basis, the struggles, the curse, the derision from the people who were supposed to care about him. Life at the Tendo Household had never been anywhere near the best times he’d had on the road with his Pops, even if they had sometimes been few and far in between.

It had taken getting expelled from Furinkan High School for Ranma to finally realize something. He was happier on the move, rather than tied down any one place. And of course he was, why wouldn’t he be? Thanks to Genma, Ranma’s enemies were numerous. People of all sorts wanted to do him harm one way or another, either for some perceived slight or an actual terrible thing his father did.

Ranma could never get back his childhood and at this point, he wasn’t sure he wanted to. As a young boy and then a young man, traveling and training with his Pops had been fun, an adventure of sorts. Only now with years of time between those days and the present, did Ranma realize in hindsight how fucked up their life on the road had been.

But it had still been the most enjoyable time of his life, which really said something about Nerima and the people who lived there in Ranma’s humble opinion. And in the end, if he wasn’t happy there, it was time to leave. Time to leave all the fiancés and the rivals and the insanity behind. Time to find his own happiness again. He wasn’t going to live constrained by his father’s promises anymore. He no longer cared about his honor.

That isn’t to say Ranma immediately up and left. He hadn’t immediately abandoned his honor. But the thought of leaving Nerima had stuck in his mind. It had niggled at the back of his head. Once he’d had it, he couldn’t un-have it. Ultimately, Ranma had gone through the motions for a few weeks more after his expulsion, fighting off bad guys, dealing with crazy plots from his numerous fiancés. And then he’d gotten his stuff together and left.

Cathartic didn’t even properly describe the level of satisfaction Ranma felt upon getting away from the Nerima Ward in general and the Tendo Home specifically. It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Amusing really, because Ranma knew that he would be on the run from that point on, with no real chance to ever stop and rest. If he paused for even a little while, the martial artist had no doubt that his fiancés or his rivals would catch up to him.

But… that was actually okay. The idea of staying on the move forever appealed to Ranma. He would travel the world an-

“Ranma Saotome.”

The martial artist stopped dead, spinning around and dropping into a fighting stance as an unfamiliar voice spoke his name only a few feet behind him. His eyes were wide as adrenaline coursed through his veins, but then his brow furrowed in confusion as he took in the relatively normal, nondescript man standing before him. The stranger was wearing a suit and tie as well as a pair of glasses. Ranma was not in the least bit threatened, but he was still worried that whoever this was had known his name so easily.

It didn’t cross the young man’s mind to lie though. Despite getting away from Nerima, giving up his identity hadn’t even occurred to Ranma yet. He WAS Ranma Saotome, regardless of what disgrace his father had brought to their family name. He would always be Ranma Saotome. Perhaps a couple years down the road after a few close calls the martial artist would have re-evaluated this ideal. But he wouldn’t get to wander for quite that long as it turned out.

“Yeah, that’s my name. What’s it to you?”

A strange, inhuman smile spread across the bespectacled man’s face and Ranma quickly realized this wasn’t a human at all, given the rows of sharp, sharp teeth and the way its lips spread far too wide. Tensing up, Ranma stayed in his stance, prepared to fight or flee at a moment’s notice. Rather than leap at him or attack in any way at all however, the creature wearing human skin lifted up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Peace Saotome. I have been sent to treat with you, not to cause strife. We will talk and you will be allowed to walk away if that is your choice. All I ask is that you listen to what I must say.”

Even still, Ranma wasn’t inclined to agree. Every moment that he stayed in one spot like this was a moment lost in which he could have gotten away. The martial artist wasn’t nearly far enough away from Nerima at this point for his liking and the fact that he’d run would no doubt be discovered soon, if it had not already.

Gritting his teeth, Ranma shook his head.

“Sorry, but I’ve got places to be. You have fun with whatever it is you’ve got going on Monster Man.”

Ranma crouched down from his stance, his powerful legs winding up for a spring into the air as he planned to leap atop a nearby building and begin roof running. Before he could leave the ground however, the inhuman thing called out to him.

“Wait! We can cure your curse!”

It shouldn’t have given him pause, but it did. Ranma was jaded enough by now to know curing his curse was probably simply impossible. Cure after cure had proved to be fake or had simple been destroyed before he could fix yet another issue that could be laid at his father’s feet. Ranma should have just leapt anyways and damn this fucker and his empty promises.

It was a trap, had to be. That didn’t stop Ranma from wanting to walk right into it though. If there was one weight still weighing heavily on Ranma’s shoulders, it was the curse. Being forced to transform into a woman was humiliating. He’d never gotten quite used to it, no matter how much he’d been forced to endure in his female form. Ranma Saotome was born male and he was a man through and through.

That didn’t stop people from treating him differently for having a female form. That didn’t stop them from abusing his weakness for water in battle to get an advantage. What Ranma would give to have the curse removed… letting out an explosive breath, the young martial artist rose from his crouched position, hands still clenched into fists but fighting stance abandoned as he stared at the monster in human’s skin not twenty feet away from him.

“How? Explain how right now, in detail or I walk. Once you’ve explained, we can discuss what you want from me, if I believe you.”

Swallowing thickly, the stranger nodded. He splayed his fingers outwards and pressed a palm to his chest.

“I am what is called a youma. I work for my Queen, as do all of my kin. She is powerful in the magical arts, creating us, maintaining an entire other world in which we all live. We travel to your world in search of energy to sustain us and to grow our Queen’s power. Please, hear the truth in my voice when I say she is mighty. Through her magics, she has watched you Ranma Saotome. She has seen your struggles and your victories. She knows what you have faced and believes your life to be unjust.”

Ranma wasn’t hearing what he wanted to hear quite yet, but the ‘Youma’ was still talking, so he let the thing finish before he got mad.

“And through her magics, she knows that she can remove your curse with ease. In person, it would be as simple as waving her hand and exerting her immense Will. You would be freed forever. However, as a token of her esteem and a gesture of good will, she has given me this so that you may taste her power.”

The monster put a hand in his suit jacket and pulled forth a small medallion, no larger than a five yen coin. The self-professed youma tossed the necklace through the air to Ranma and the young man caught it, before blinking dumbly as he realized it WAS in fact a five yen coin on a fine, golden chain. The chain looked real and was probably multitudes more valuable than the yen coin it looped through.

Distracted as he was, Ranma didn’t dodge in time to avoid the water that the youma subsequently tossed his way. Quite abruptly, a short, stacked red head stood where Ranma had, holding the coin and glaring daggers at the sharp toothed monster currently backpedaling with his hands up.

“Peace Saotome, peace. You must see that it works. Put the medallion on and concentrate on returning to your base form. If nothing happens, you can kill me and go find hot water.”

Glaring daggers, Ranma supposed it couldn’t hurt and did as the monster said. The medallion slipped into her irritating cleavage, her large tits hanging with no binding to keep them wrapped tight. Shutting her eyes, the red head focused on his true form and the instant he did so, he found himself back in his male body, the transition from woman to man smoother than it had ever felt before.

The martial artist opened his eyes to see the medallion’s glow abating beneath his shirt, no pressed against his flat, muscular chest. Breathing out slowly, Ranma looked up at the patiently waiting youma.

“What is the cost of this? What is the cost of a full cure? What does your Monster Queen want with me?”

Ranma was no fool. He had been, when he’d first arrived in Nerima. But time and experience will make a wise man out of the biggest idiot, so long as they can survive long enough to learn something. Ranma had been that gigantic idiot. He wasn’t anymore. Judging by the way the youma’s toothy grin got even wider; the martial artist knew it was going to be some type of “Deal with the Devil” situation.

“Yes, now that you’ve had a taste of what my Queen offers, let’s discuss business. There is a place here in Tokyo, near the shoreline but not quite there, called the Juban District. It lies in the Minato Ward. Simply put, this is the location of the primary portal from my Queen’s Dark Kingdom to your world. It is where we first arrived in your world to gather the much needed energy that keeps us alive. And it is where even now, my kin and my Queen’s soldiers are killed by a group called the Sailor Senshi.”

If Ranma hadn’t been rather blind to media, he’d probably have known what the Youma was talking about. As it was, the martial artist was too focused on his own problems to know about the shadow war that the Sailor Senshi had been fighting against the Dark Kingdom’s forces for years now. Pressing his lips tightly together, Ranma shrugged.

“What’s it got to do with me?”

It was strange, how the youma kept managing to widen his already obscenely wide grin even further. Unnatural… inhuman. Of course, it wasn’t human now was it? Still, at this point the thing was about one inch from literally popping the top half of his head back like some demented hinged jar.

“Simple. My Queen wishes for you to take care of the Senshi, once and for all. You would be promoted to Dark General, in charge of all of the Dark Kingdom’s forces and only answerable to her. You would be given resources and supplies and whatever else you might need to finally remove this thorn from the Queen’s side.”

“So I have to kill them?”

Was it odd that Ranma wasn’t sure he minded that? Killing to remove his curse… the Ranma Saotome of even a year ago may not have been interested, but the Ranma of now actually was. Of course, then the youma shook his head and dispelled any notion of killing. As it turned out, the Senshi were to be given a fate worse than death.

“No, no. My Queen does not want them dead. She wants them neutralized. It will be your job to track down each of the Senshi, one by one. You will find them in their civilian lives, which have long eluded us. You will take them and rape them and corrupt them. My Queen wishes for the Senshi to be brought lower then low. She would not mind particularly much if they were impregnated by your seed either. As one of the strongest martial artists we’ve ever seen, you are considered better breeding stock than many of the Dark Kingdom’s youma.”

That gave Ranma pause. Apparently murder was one thing, while rape was another. Was it though? Would he draw the line here? Would he sacrifice the ability to control his curse, would he sacrifice a cure, because he would not go as far as this monster and his Queen wanted him to? Seeing his hesitation, the youma spoke up hastily, still grinning all the while.

“This is the other gift that my Queen offers you. You will be given a place in the Dark Kingdom, an extravagant home where none of your past acquaintances will be able to find you. And once you’ve conquered and corrupted a Senshi, you may consider them yours. They will stay with you as your slaves. So long as they are no longer bothering my Queen, she cares not what you do with them.”

That was an interesting offer. The ‘escape to another dimension’ bit more than the slave harem bit, but still. Ranma was sorely tempted to leave Earth behind in order to get away from the people in Nerima. Both his enemies and his so-called allies. And he supposed if he was allowed to ‘keep’ them once he got them, Ranma could in turn treat the Senshi as nicely or poorly as his conscience demanded.

It was a bad deal. It forced him to sacrifice all of his honor. However, Ranma had already sacrificed his honor, hadn’t he? What more was this? If he was willing to kill for a cure, why would he also not be willing to rape? Ranma Saotome was not the boy he’d once been. He was a man fed up with the world. Perhaps this Dark Kingdom was exactly where he belonged.

Finally letting his fists loosen into open palms, Ranma let out a low, long breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Then he gave the youma a nod.

“Fine. We have a deal. Take me to this… Dark Kingdom.”

-x-X-x-

A time later, Ranma stood in an extravagant room that he now owned, part of the mansion gifted to him by the Queen herself. It had taken quite a lot, but he’d finally done it. Looking down at the preliminary profiles of each of the Sailor Senshi, Ranma crushed the faint stirrings of guilt over what he was going to do to all of them in the name of his own selfish desires to be free of his curse.

Slowly, his eyes traced over their pictures as he tried to decide which one would be first. Who would begin the downfall of the Sailor Senshi?