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   |  Could He Be?...  |
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Akane watched as Ranma and the Senshi battled the alien. It was not the 
first time that Ranma had fought on the side of the Senshi, and Akane 
secretly hoped it would not be the last.

First and foremost was the obvious reason: to fight beside the Senshi 
in the future would imply that they won this battle. At the moment, 
that was not looking very likely. Sailor Moon was down, her most 
powerful attack stopped cold by the alien. Sailor Mars was watching 
over her now, since the alien appeared invulnerable to fire, but the 
rest of the Senshi were still fighting it. At least, those Senshi still 
able to fight.

Neptune had been drained of energy almost immediately on her arrival. 
The poor girl was now grey and listless. Alive, but only barely hanging 
on. Venus, Jupiter and Uranus had teamed up to try and buy some time 
for Sailor Mercury work with Sailor Pluto to try and find a weakness. 
Yes, in all the times that Akane had come with Ranma and watched him 
fight with the Senshi, this was the first time she had seen Sailor 
Pluto. Once, when she had spoken to Sailor Mercury after the fight, the 
girl had confided that Pluto only appeared when the Senshi were at the 
most challenged, and even then rarely joined in the fighting.

There was no sign of a Sailor Saturn. From what she had heard (and 
Akane was a closet Sailor groupie) Sailor Saturn had only appeared once, 
and that was when Mugen Academy was destroyed by the massive demon 
uprising a few months ago. That was an unconfirmed rumour - she had 
tried asking one of the Senshi, but they just said "no comment". 
However, according to legend, Sailor Saturn was the most powerful and 
dangerous of the Senshi. Her attacks were supposed to be vastly 
overwhelming and massively overpowered. Should she join the fight, it 
would be questionable if Tokyo would survive the compliment.

Ranma had shown up around the same time that Neptune had been drained. 
At first he and Akane had assumed that it would be nothing worse than 
when Miss Hinako drained someone's battle aura, or when the youma 
attacks from the Senshi's early days. The fact that the Outer Senshi 
was still unconscious, and could hardly breath was a firm indicator 
that this was not the case.

Although Ranma was a martial artist beyond compare, even he had been 
able to do little more than delay the alien from ripping through the 
city and killing people at its least whim. The alien did not seem to 
generate any sort of battle aura which ruled out using the Hiryuu 
Shoten Ha, perhaps the half-machine creature was not truly alive and 
could not produce one. Genma's Secret Techniques and Ranma's own Moko 
Takabisha rivalled Uranus' World Shaking for sheer power, but like that 
Senshi's, they were not in the same league as Sailor Moon's Moon 
Gorgeous Meditation. If that did not work, what hope did lesser 
attacks?

As such, Ranma and the remaining Senshi had resorted to the most basic 
language of negotiation; they attempted to beat the snot out of it with 
their bare hands and fists. Uranus had a sword, but it seemed to be of 
little use, bouncing off the aliens armour or skin if it was lucky 
enough to hit. Even Ranma - although he managed to deliver more blows 
that the girls - did not succeed in doing more than making it angry 
with him.

Gasping in horror, Akane leapt to her feet and dashed across the road. 
Ranma had just been struck by the alien, and it did not look like he 
enjoyed it in the least. As he flew backwards to crash through a 
concrete wall, a thin stream of blood trailing from his mouth, while 
his head and limbs flailed in that uncontrolled fashion that only truly 
is perfected by the unconscious. Running to his side, Akane gently 
cradled his head, weeping in fear that his eyes would never open.

After just a short time, Ranma's eyes did indeed open, but they refused 
to focus for many long seconds, rolling aimlessly in their sockets. 
Eventually the pig tailed boy blinked several times and shook his head, 
finally regaining control of himself. "Ohh... What hit me?"

"Oh, Ranma! I know you told me to stay out of this, but I think this is 
too much even for you. Not even the Senshi have been able to do 
anything. We've got to get help!"

Pulling himself up to his elbows, Ranma looked around. After taking him 
out, the alien had also dispatched Sailor Jupiter. Like this, there was 
no way that they could win. What the needed was someone with more power, 
someone with a greater strength in battle than any of the Senshi...

Getting to his feet, Ranma clenched his fists, gritting his teeth in 
determination. "Akane... This is something I've gotta do... I don't 
wanna do it, matter of fact, I always hoped that you would never find 
out about this... But..."

When Ranma doused himself with some cold water and turned into a girl 
then marched over to stand in front of the alien, Akane felt her heart 
skip a beat. "D-Don't tell me... Could he be?... Could he really be 
Sailor Saturn?..."

Raising on hand to the sky, the petite female Ranma called out her 
trademark transformation phrase:
"Seina chikara! Seina negai!"
"Holy Power! Holy Prayer!"

With that, a series of lights proceeded to coalesce onto the girl, 
lifting her and spinning her around. Her hair flew free of the pigtail 
that held it, cascading down her back while she struck a series of 
poses, the light glinting off her body.

After her white top and short skirt formed, Ranma's feet again touched 
the ground. Raising both hands above her head so that the light glinted 
off her jewellery, Ranma began to spin. Gathering in several ephemeral 
ribbons into her hands, she drew them around her body, eventually 
having bows and ribbons attach to her uniform. One formed on her torso, 
another on her lower back that had a pair of long ribbons that almost 
reached the ground as they wafted out either side.

As the transformation reached its end, Ranma was fully dressed again, 
rotating as balls of light shot into her body from all around, 
gathering their power into her. Striking her final series of poses, 
Ranma exhibited her uniform to the Senshi around her and the alien.

There were bows.

There was jewellery.

There was a short skirt.
 
There were white gloves.

She was wearing a magical girl's version of a respectable uniform.

"The spirit is with me!"

Raising her right hand to the sky, Ranma concentrated on summoning her 
magical weapon. "ANGEL VIEW UP!" When it appeared, Ranma span it around, 
twirling and showing off her dexterity.

Ignoring the looks she was getting from Akane and the gathered Senshi, 
Ranma pointed her weapon at the alien. "You might be pretty tough 
compared to the people here, but believe me, you haven't got anything 
on Dark Joker!"

Spinning her weapon like a baton several times, Ranma raised it to 
chest height and pointed it at the alien. "ANGEL AID BOMB BEAM!"

An immense green ball shot out the end of the baton, using the power of 
the spirit of the earth to blast straight through the alien without the 
slightest hesitation. Smiling broadly, Ranma twirled the baton a few 
more times before finishing in another pose.

"Nurse Angel Ranma is here!"

Akane blinked several times, looking at her fiancee in the stylised 
pink and white nurse's uniform. "Ranma?... What on earth?..."

Suddenly looking sheepish, Ranma blushed a delicate shade of red and 
twisted the toe of one of her pink ballet shoes into the dirt. "Err... 
Actually, there's a really good explanation for this... Honestly... 
I'll just... need a little while to think of it..."

-----

Author's Notes:

What? You were really expecting Ranma to be Sailor Saturn were you? 
This came about when I wondered "what would Ranma hate even more than 
being one of the Sailor Senshi"? 

If anyone has not seen "SOS Nurse Angel Ririka", and likes magical girl 
anime in the style of Sailor Moon, give it a try. Good fun, and not 
quite as formulaic as Sailor Moon.