Standard disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and all elements thereof belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, et al. Sailor Moon, the Dark Kingdom, the Doom-Tree, Ail, Ann, and the Nemesians belong to Naoko Takeuchi, DIC, and so on. Chang Delune, Isamu Delune, and the Delune Family and history are property of their creator, me, David Gordon. Please don't sue me, I'm poor! Have mercy! etc. etc.

Part 2: Introductions

It was almost a week after the fight on the beach, and Chang had returned to work at Ucchan's Okonomiyaki. He was back in form - physically. Mentally, he was still somewhat unsettled. {I'm still not sure what happened to me that day,} he thought. {I haven't had any more 'episodes', so it might have had to do with those 'Sailor Senshi' girls.} Chang was unconsciously fighting very hard to _not_ consider a second possibility - that his link had given him his ancestral memories, meaning his father was dying or dead. In the back of his mind, however, the notion lurked unthought, and Ukyo had noticed that Chang's temper seemed to be unusually short this week - he'd almost injured Tsubasa that morning. He looked up from his introspection as there was a pause in the day's work. To his surprise, he found that the tables were all served and no new customers were around.

Ukyo waved cheerily from behind the counter. "Way to go, sugar! We've cleared the noon rush! Take five, Chang-kun!"

Briefly, Chang shrugged, then headed for the door as a notion occurred to him. {Maybe Cologne-sensei will know something about the Sailors!} Nodding to himself, he set off to the Nekohanten three streets over.

Minako Aino was getting depressed. It hadn't been hard to get the general area of her goals- it seemed that just as Juuban was known for monsters, Nerima was a center of martial arts weirdness. Finding her specific quarries was turning out to be a case of needles in a haystack, however. Once in Nerima, inquiries into martial artists of exceptional skill had led her everywhere _except_ to her objectives. Martial arts figure skaters, photographers, one very dense Kendo artist bemoaning his 'pig-tailed love', shriveled old perverts, fighting gymnasts, crossdressers, and teachers, some or all of whom changed shape: there were so many stories that Mina was losing track. Tired and hungry, she saw a Ramen shop and headed that way, slumping at a table and naming her order to an obscenely cheery waitress without even looking up.

{After all my big talk, I *can't* just give up, I'd never hear the end of it! I guess this is one of those times that detective novels mention, when 'ya just gotta keep on the case and hope for a break, kid!'} she thought. The cheery waitress bounced by, crying "Aiyah! Is Chang and Ranma! Nihao, Airen!" but Mina wasn't paying attention.

* * *

Chang had run into Ranma a block from the Nekohanten and joined him. He enjoyed talking with the young Anything-Goes student and comparing notes about lives, skills, and families, so he'd stayed with the young man until they entered the shop, when Chang headed for the back, offhandedly noting the very pretty blonde girl sitting at a corner table. He proceeded to the back and nodded to Cologne, who simply said,

"I've been expecting you. You've been out of sorts this last week: what kept you?"

{Spying again, Cologne? I'm starting to agree with Ranma: you _are_ an old ghoul at times,} he thought. Aloud, he asked, "Cologne-sensei, I knew the names of those girls who fought the monsters without being told, and my *chi* has been troubled since. Do you know who they are?"

Cologne smiled at him, amused. "Shame on you, boy! Countless generations of a line that began by fighting evil, and you don't know your most famous allies of the day?" Cologne followed up with a description of the Senshi's exploits from the first appearance of Sailor Moon to the day when Tokyo blacked out for an hour and a massive energy blast was noted at the North Pole.

"The five Senshi disappeared for a while after that, so it's generally thought that they were resting and healing after that battle. Recently, however, rumours have it that the monsters have returned - as we saw - and now the Senshi have returned as well," Cologne finished. Chang was flabbergasted.

"Well! That explains who they are, but why would I know them like that?" he asked plaintively.

"Silly boy!" Cologne reproved him. "Many of the warriors for good instinctively know each other! If you'd been sufficiently powerful, I believe they'd have known you as well!"

Relieved, Chang nodded. "That does make sense, given my skill at seeing auras and *chi.* Domo Arigato (Thank you very much), Cologne-sensei!" He was just turning to leave when a cry that was far too familiar rang out through the Nekohanten.

"RANMA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY FUTURE BRIDE!"

Chang sighed. "Mousse no baka..." (Mousse, you idiot...)

* * *

Mina jerked up from her ramen as the shout shook the walls of the small restaurant. Her eyes widened as she saw the waitress *clinging* to the arm of a young man with black hair in a pigtail who was in the door of the restaurant (and who just seemed to want to get her off and leave) and a young man with long black hair in a white robe seething at him. As she watched, the robed boy produced a fighting staff from his sleeve- {Whoah! Does he have our Lunar Space Pockets?} Mina thought- and attacked the pig-tailed boy, who dodged by bounding all over the restaurant. Mina got up and called to the robed boy, "Now wait a minute! You can't just-" The pigtailed boy passed in front of her for a split second, and when her view of the robed boy was again clear, her eyes focused on a single kunai throwing dagger headed right for her head. For the first time since becoming Sailor V, she froze.

Chang looked out of the kitchen at the beginning of battle and time seemed to slow to a crawl. One of Mousse's kunai blades was headed right for a bystander - the young blond girl. He lunged forward, closing his hand around the blade scant inches from the girl's nose.

* * *

Mina blinked as a hand seemed to come from nowhere and grab the dagger out of the air. She turned to offer thanks, but her rescuer was already lunging at the robed boy, shouting angrily in Chinese.

* * *

Cursing Mousse for a fool (in Mandarin) the whole way, Chang leapt out into the ongoing fight and went for his old rival. It wasn't long, only a few seconds, before the hidden weapons master was caught in an Amaguriken sandwich between Ranma (who took off immediately afterward, before Akane could be drawn to the commotion) and Chang, who screamed at Mousse about not endangering the innocent for five seconds before realizing that his 'listener' was quite unconscious.

* * *

Mina gaped as she watched the three boys fight - the speed was incredible! The robed boy took whole barrages of punches from the pigtailed boy and the new long-haired boy who had saved her. The robed boy collapsed and Mina went over to her savior.

"Thank you, I think you saved my life! I don't know what came over me to freeze like that." She looked down at his left hand, the hand that had caught the kunai, and noticed the long cut along the length of the palm. "Hey, you're hurt! You got cut grabbing that dagger!"

"Huh?" Chang looked down at his hand. "Oh, yeah," he replied offhandedly - Mousse had gotten him far worse before. "Didn't notice that in the heat of the fight. Thanks." He took some cloth from his pocket and roughly bandaged his palm.

Looking at his profile, Mina gasped. {He's the long-haired boy from the beach! What luck!} Gathering her nerve, she asked, "Excuse me.. but I was on the beach last week and saw the monster attack. Was that you fighting that thing?"

Chang gulped. "Eehhh.. I'd _really_ appreciate it if you didn't go blabbing that around," he pleaded. "I'm not looking to be a-" he paused for a moment, "-a Sailor Senshi or anything like that, I just couldn't let that thing go on attacking innocents. Martial artist's code and all that."

Mina smiled. After all, it wasn't like she was going to tell this to more than four other people (and two cats.) "Sure! But who were the others helping you?" she asked brightly.

Chang thought about it - her aura seemed like that of a trustworthy person. "Well, good luck finding the other boy helping me, 'cause even _he_ doesn't know where he is half the time." (Indeed, Ryoga had vanished shortly after the beach fight, only managing to stay with the group long enough to get everyone's bags back to the Nekohanten.) "That was Ryoga Hibiki," Chang continued, "a wandering martial artist with an unbelievable skill level and an equally _bad_ sense of direction. He can literally get lost going to bed at night." The blond girl giggled. "I'm Chang Delune, a member of a martial artist family in China, here in Tokyo on sort of a training trip. And you are?"

Mina stopped giggling long enough to answer. "I'm Minako Aino, and I live in the Juuban District. My parents transferred there a couple of years ago, so I don't have too many friends yet. I guess you can understand that, being in from China and all."

Chang nodded. {Actually, aside from the 'Ranma Crew', I know almost no one in Tokyo. Hmm... Why not?} he decided. "Actually, if you wanted to try having another friend, I wouldn't mind joining you in the effort."

Mina looked over at him, startled. "Huh? But it's so far to commute between the districts..." she found her heart wasn't in the protest, though. {Everyone else has someone - why not?} she thought.

Chang grinned at her reluctance, thinking of bouncing on rooftops. "I can get around pretty well. How about this: I'll meet you at 3:00 p.m. in a week in Juuban, and you can show me around!"

Mina grinned back. "OK! I'll meet you at the gate of Juuban High School and introduce you to my friends! I look forward to it! Ja ne!" she cried as she ran off. {Well! Mission accomplished, and a possible new friend to boot!} She grinned nastily. {Mako-chan will be _sooo_ jealous...}