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Sailor Ranko: The Harder They Fall: Chapter 5, Kasasa.
by
Rebecca Ann Heineman
Ranma 1/2 and the characters therein are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Based on "Sailor Ranko" by Duncan Zillman and "Twice in a Millennium" by Kevin D. Hammel.
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or make me watch a Jerry Springer marathon.
Kasasa, Kagoshima was a city on the southwest tip of Japan. The fishing vessels were leaving port on another trek to fill the nets with fish to feed the hungry masses. This was no ordinary day. It was a day that something would pay the city a visit.
Five fishing boats moved in a loose formation. They were traveling westward to the deeper waters. The captain of the lead boat noticed the water ahead was white and frothing. The water in the ocean started to swell. The fisherman on all of the ships saw it as a bad omen and turned their vessels away from the second wave that came from the sea. The lead ship tipped and almost capsized. The captain was able to right the vessel and brought it to a stop. He dropped anchor and assessed the situation. He got on the radio. "Docking control. Was there an earthquake recently?"
"No. Everything is..." THUMP! "We just felt a tiny quake. Maybe it was an aftershock."
The captain was about to answer when his vessel lurched backwards toward the shore. His anchor was stuck on something. He ran outside of the bridge and on deck and saw his crew fighting with the anchor chain. "Release the anchor!"
One of the crew pulled the lever that disengaged the chain motor from the spool. The chain quickly was pulled into the ocean and the vessel stopped its backwards motion. The water behind the ship rose up and a four-meter tall fin broke the surface and headed toward land. The crew uttered cries of, "Oh my god!" "What the hell is that?" "Call Japanese defense!"
The captain ran to the wheelhouse and grabbed the mike. He had friends on a fishing vessel that was sunk years ago. He spoke the word that he never wanted to say in his life. "Docking control! Gojira! Gojira!"
The docking control operation was terrified. The last time that word was said, a Japanese seafood processing ship was lost with all hands. "What!?!?"
The captain watched the fin move quickly to the city. "It's Godzilla! Sound the alert! It's coming right NOW!"
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The air raid siren went off. Everyone in Kasasa looked around as if it was some sort of mistake. The ground shook. THUMP!
The people of the city of Kasasa turned to the origin of the sound. The sea appeared calm. THUMP! The ocean started to froth. People started to walk away from the ocean. THUMP! It got louder. There were some screams from the crowd and fear ran rampant. THUMP! Something came up out of the water. More people screamed and ran for their lives from the form rising from the sea.
A giant head emerged from under the end of the dock. The wooden planks shattered and flew in all directions. Two men went flying into the air and landed with a splash. The head lifted itself twelve meters above the surface and a boat slid off the spike on the neck and crashed on the rocks below. The head opened its gigantic gaping mouth exposing tall fang like teeth. A mighty roar echoed across the cityscape shattering windows for blocks. Everyone who was within two hundred meters had to hold onto their ears to lesser the pain from the volume of Godzilla's bellowing cry.
The creature sniffed the air. It was attracted by the odor of a cannery near the shoreline and lifted itself out of the water. It stood over fifty meters high and was over one hundred twenty meters long. The monster had three parallel rows of spikes on its back starting from the back of the head all the way to the tip of the tail. Its body was dark green and resembled an iguana yet it had features of a tyrannosaurus rex. It took a step towards the rapidly emptying cannery building.
The supervisor gazed out of his office window petrified with shock. He dropped his tea cup on the floor and pushed his wheeled chair away from his window as if that was going to save him. The monster looked in the window with its huge reptilian eye. Another man ran into the office and slapped his boss to wake him from his stupor. The two ran for the stairs and sprinted out the front door.
The personnel of the cannery ran away. Godzilla placed its massive claw on the roof and peeled it off like an orange rind. It reached in and grabbed a bin of fish and placed it in its mouth. It continued to eat until there was no fish remaining. It proceeded to pick up a trailer truck and empty the fish products into its gaping mouth.
The entire vicinity near the cannery was devoid of human life. They were long gone. The police cars arrived. The officers got out of their vehicles and stood staring at the awesome sight before them. The creature turned to look at the flashing lights on the patrol cars. The officers jumped back into their police vehicles and drove off once the creature took a step in their direction. It roared at them. Seeing that there was no more fish in the building, it turned back to the sea. It dove into the water and out of sight.
The fishing vessels still out at sea saw the shadow of the creature move quickly past them and out into the deep water. The crews breathed a sigh of relief.
Godzilla had been fed.
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Ami was getting ready to go to school when her communicator went off. "Mercury here."
Artemis was on the other line. "Mercury, watch TV right now. Something is going on in Kasasa. I think it's related to what happened on Okinawa Island yesterday."
"What happened?" Ami turned on the TV in her room. She rarely watched the TV except for the Discovery or History channels. She turned to the news station.
"... was incredible. The monster had destroyed two fishing boats and three people are missing. The creature is similar to the one called Godzilla that attacked New York City several years ago." The TV showed footage of the creature diving back into the ocean from a camera that was jumping everywhere. The cameraman was worried about being the things next meal.
Ami was sweating. "I see it. Can you get Sun to give me a ride?"
Artemis frowned as best as he could. He was a cat and cats don't frown very well. "You know what Sun does when she sees me. Ask her yourself. I'll gather all the information I can and upload it to your computer. Artemis out."
Ami dialed Ranma's number. It beeped. "Sun here, OUCH!"
Ranma, Usa, Makoto and Akane were sparring on the roof of Ranma's apartment building. They were all wearing martial arts gis. Ranma was knocked down by Usa's kick. Usa saw an opening and went for it. "Sorry Ranma!"
Ranma glared at her. "You know I've got to answer the call when this thing beeps." He turned to the communicator. "What is it?"
"I need a ride to Kasasa."
"Kasasa? Where's that?" Ranma hadn't memorized the entire geography of Japan.
"I've got a map. It's around southwest Japan."
"Finally! A place I can relate to. Where are you?"
"I'm at home, teleport to my bedroom. Mercury out."
Ranma groaned. "I'm going to get detention for this. I know it." He looked at Makoto, Usa and Akane. "Gotta go. Sun Star Power! Make Up!" The other girls just ignored Sailor Sun's transformation and began to spar with one another. Sun flashed out.
Usa stopped sparring with Akane. The pink haired girl walked to the edge of the apartment building's roof. In the distance she saw the ocean to the east. She shed a tiny tear. "It's started."
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Sailor Sun appeared in Ami's bedroom. Sailor Mercury was ready to go and held out a map of southwest Japan. She pointed at the city of Kasasa. Mercury instructed Sun, "I need you to look for a cannery or factory that was destroyed by a giant monster."
"Giant monster?" She added sarcastically. "Oh that's just great." Sun concentrated on the map and focused her magic on the destination. "What in the world?"
Mercury stowed away her computer in subspace. "What do you see?"
"I'll have to show you. You're not going to believe this." Sun grabbed Mercury. "Sun Beam Transport!"
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The area was evacuated and the Japanese Defense force had arrived. The attack was long over. There was destruction all around the dock and the cannery. Two Senshi appeared in the middle of the dock. Mercury activated her visor and scanned the area. Sun looked at a fishing vessel that was lying on the sand on its side crushed like a child's toy. Sun saw the outline of the hand that had held the boat. It was larger than any creature she had ever encountered.
Mercury walked as far down the dock as she could. The end was smashed and shattered boards were everywhere. Her visor displayed a newly dug trench cut into the ocean floor leading from the sea up to shore. The trench was twenty meters wide and ten meters deep. Whatever made that trench was massive. Mercury turned to look at the cannery and gasped as the way the roof was discarded off to the side as if someone opened a can of sardines and threw away the lid. She ran to the cannery to check out the damage. Sun followed her.
The cannery had several soldiers surrounding it. The lead soldier stopped the Senshi. "You can't come any closer."
Mercury shut off her visor. "I'm Sailor Mercury. I'm here to see what happened here."
"Can you prove you're Sailor Mercury?" The soldier had seen girls dress like Senshi before to try to sneak pass police lines at concerts. He wanted to make sure he wasn't being fooled.
Sailor Sun didn't take any lip from anyone. She invoked her magic turning her eyes into giant black dots with flames for pupils. "Is this proof enough?" She held out a fireball in her hand.
"Uh... Ok..." He backed off.
Mercury got wide eyed. "Don't do that Sun. You'll scare them senseless." She walked to the cannery and went inside. The place was barren. All the fish packing equipment was smashed and fish slime covered the floor. Only the four walls remained standing. The interior was completely gutted. The place stank of rotting fish. "Ewww!" Mercury activated her visor and took recordings.
Sun looked around. "Looks like this thing has a taste for sashimi." She held her nose. "Bad sashimi."
"Well, at least we know what it wants." Mercury scanned the perimeter and got a radiation spike. "Let's go this way."
Outside of the cannery was a Frenchman with a camera. He was taking pictures. Beside him was another Frenchman holding a Geiger counter taking readings. Mercury approached the man with the Geiger counter and scanned the device. The French cameraman saw the girls and spoke in halting Japanese with some French mixed in. "Hello there mademoiselle. Pleasure meeting a Senshi." He took Mercury's hand and gently kissed it.
Mercury blushed. Sun crossed her arms. "You're not kissing my hand."
"But of course." He snapped another photo of the cannery. He reached into his shirt pocket. "My card." He handed business cards to both Sun and Mercury. He pointed at the building. "What do you think did this?"
Mercury glanced at the cannery. "We're looking into it." She looked at his card. It read, 'Industrial Insurance International.'
Philippe smiled, "I need to ascertain whether this was an act of god or an accident. We have to know if it's covered."
Sun was suspicious. Her experience with Nabiki was telling her that he wasn't exactly being truthful. "This only happened recently. You got here pretty quick."
Philippe loved his line of work. "It's my job."
Mercury tapped Sun. "We're done here. The radiation spike was the Geiger counter."
Sun never broke her gaze at Philippe. She grabbed Mercury. They flashed out.
Philippe held his camera lovingly. He had snapped a few pictures of the Senshi as well.
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Usa, Makoto and Akane were continuing their practicing of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Akane was impressed at Usa's skill level. Akane was much better then Usa, but Usa was only a month or two of intense training away from catching up to Akane. Akane threw a series of blows on Usa who deflected most of them. Akane kicked Usa in the ribs and sent her flying.
Usa got up. "You're good. I didn't expect you to be this good."
Akane held her attack stance. "What did you expect?"
"Well you only became this good after your adventure in Solitude. I thought it took you a year to get to this level."
Akane spun around and placed a kick in Usa's shoulder. Usa dodged it. Akane prepared another volley of blows. "I've been practicing the art since I was a little girl."
Usa dodged the new assault. "It shows." Usa took a gentle blow to the head. Akane was pulling her punches.
Akane hopped away from Usa. "Ok. Makoto it's your turn."
Makoto pleaded. "Please don't beat me up like that. I'm not that good."
Akane smiled. She loved having her ego fed. "Let's practice flips then."
Akane was showing a different way to perform a flip for Makoto when a visitor arrived on the roof. "Hi there sis!" Nabiki came out of the stairwell.
Akane was surprised. "Nabiki? What are you doing here?"
"I came to see my sister. Can't I do that once in a while?" She gave a well-practiced innocent smile.
Akane grew stern. "What do you want?"
Nabiki saw Makoto and Usa. "Who are your friends?"
"This is Usa. She is Usagi's cousin and you've met Makoto."
Usa gave a very cold stare at Nabiki. "Hi." Usa didn't appear to like Nabiki at all.
Nabiki took Akane aside so that Makoto and Usa wouldn't hear. She whispered. "I need to ask a favor of you."
Akane whispered back. "What sort of favor?"
"Well, I know that Ranma knows the Senshi."
Akane trembled. "Uh... No he doesn't."
"Don't lie to me little sister! I know there is a connection. Now, I need for you to arrange a meeting with Sailor Sun and Sailor Io and Kuno."
Akane was insane with rage. She shouted, "Are you out of your mind!"
"Hey sis! It will get that loser off your back."
Akane started to control herself. "Explain."
"Simple, Tatewaki has developed a crush on Sailor Io and Sailor Sun. Don't ask me why. He's just hounding me to arrange a meeting. I think he wants to date with them. Now, if he is bugging the Senshi, that means he's not bothering you." Nabiki stood up and gave a grand smile. "Besides, he's paying a fortune!"
Akane didn't know whether to kiss her sister or launch her into space. "So you're saying that you want to piss off the Sailor Senshi?"
"They'll be mad at Kuno. You don't have to tell them that I arranged the meeting. It will only take about ten seconds with Kuno before they blast him with their magic or he'll knocked out like a light."
Akane had to poke holes in Nabiki's logic. "Let's say Kuno meets the Senshi. They'll zap him and leave. What then? Did you think about that?"
Nabiki held her arms up. "Hey, that's Kuno's problem. He only wants me to arrange a meeting and has paid handsomely for it."
Akane leaned toward the idea of launching her sister into space. "And then you'll arrange another meeting and another. When does this end Nabiki?"
Nabiki giggled. "I hope it never ends! The amount of money I'm getting from him will pay off our college tuition. At the rates he's paying, I'd say three meetings should pay for two years for both of us."
Akane melted emotionally. Nabiki may use mercenary tactics, but her heart was with the family. Akane had some thoughts. She could use this to her advantage. "I'm not saying I can get the Senshi to show up. They do whatever they want to do. But if I can arrange a meeting, what's supposed to happen?"
Nabiki shook her head gently. "I suppose that Kuno will recite confessions of love and beg to date with them. I think that would be the time he's roasted and then the meeting would be over."
Akane liked that idea. "When and where is the meeting supposed to take place?"
Nabiki put her hands on her hips and gave a mocking look. "You tell me."
Akane needed some time to plan. After yesterday's disaster with the Kunos, Akane really wanted to punish them. "I'll see what I can do. No promises you understand."
"Call me with the time and place. I'm certain Kuno will get there by any means necessary. Ta ta!" Nabiki was ecstatic. She was going to bleed Kuno dry and he was going to come back for more. It was worth the detention she was going to get for being late to Furinkan High School.
Akane felt good. Makoto and Usa waited for Nabiki to leave and then went over to Akane. Makoto faced Akane. "What was that all about?"
Akane cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to punish Tatewaki for love and justice."
Usa jumped in glee. "Can I help?"
Makoto grinned. "Was it that jerk that tried to marry you yesterday?"
Akane nodded giggling at what horrible things she could do to Kuno. "Yep."
"Well then count me in too!"
Akane walked to the edge of the building. Akane apologized, "Don't worry Makoto. A few more weeks of training and you'll be able to ki jump like Usa and I." She grabbed Makoto and jumped to the balcony of her apartment. Usa jumped down as well.
Usa led the way inside and did a back flip right onto the couch. Akane did the same. Akane smirked. "I'm still better than you."
Usa pouted. "I thought I had you."
Makoto was amazed at how Usa had changed. "Chibi Usa, you've really grown up."
Usa didn't listen. She reached onto the table and grabbed a plate of store bought cookies. She devoured them in five seconds.
Makoto retracted her statement. "Or maybe not."
Akane reached under the table and opened another bag of cookies. She poured them on the empty plate. "Girls, let's plan operation: Make Kuno Pay!"
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Sailors Sun and Mercury were inside of Mercury's bedroom looking at footage that Artemis had given them from the attack on Okinawa. They teleported to the village and saw the destruction firsthand. Mercury scanned the burned buildings. She choked back tears.
Sun held Mercury's shoulder. She knew what had happened. She could feel the death in the air. "How many?"
Mercury turned off her visor and turned away from the decimated dwellings. "I counted thirty-five bodies still in the wreckage."
Sun held Mercury as she gave a gentle sob for the victims. "There was nothing we could have done. We didn't know." Mercury cried louder. Sun held her face. "Let's find this thing and get rid of it."
Mercury stopped crying. "You're right."
Sun turned to look at the giant footprint at her feet. "We are going to need everyone when this thing shows up next."
They flashed out. Sailor Sun left Mercury at home. Sun teleported again to her apartment.
Sailor Sun appeared in the living room with her back to the three scheming girls. Usa called out, "Hey, we need your input on this."
Sun turned to the girls. "I'm not in the mood right now." She changed to Ranko and went to the bathroom.
Akane got up and follow Ranko. "What's the matter?"
Ranko washed her face. She dried herself with a face towel. "We've got a new enemy and it's huge."
"Huge? What is it?"
"Remember a few years back, the United States was attacked by a giant monster called Godzilla?"
"Who could forget that?"
"There's another one."
Makoto ran to the bathroom. "G-G-Godzilla?"
Usa sat sullen on the couch. She reached into subspace, felt something, smiled and put her hand down.
Author's Notes: Please review my story. It makes me feel oh so happy and prevents me from switching your long distance service to two tin cans and a long piece of string.
Last edited on January 25th, 2007