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Death Reborn Evolution
Chapter 03: Chapter 2: Hanami

By: Shanami

 
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Chapter 2: Hanami or "Hi, my name's Ranko, wanna be friends?"

Disclaimer: See prologue, it hasn't changed.

'It was a perfect day for a walk through the park,' Nodoka thought as she lazily pushed a stroller through the park. Crisp spring air, a light breeze and naught more than a few fluffy white clouds drifting lazily through the sky were accentuated by the annual blooming of the sakura trees. All in all, it was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. She was going to meet Kasumi near a small lake in a secluded portion of the park for lunch.

"Hello Auntie, isn't it a wonderful day?" greeted the ever optimistic Tendo girl when she spied the stroller rounding a bend in the path. She had already set out a blanket and was unpacking supplies for a picnic lunch under a sakura tree in full bloom on the near side of the lake.

"Yes dear it is," Nodoka replied.

" 'neechan!" A blur zipped out from the stroller and impacted Kasumi at high speed, knocking the eldest Tendo daughter flat on her back with a hyperactive toddler hugging the stuffing out of her and plastering kisses all over her face.

"Ranko dear, that's enough, let her up," Nodoka admonished gently. She picked the toddler up and settled her down on the blanket.

"Mmmkay 'kaasan!" Ranko chirped happily. Two months had passed since her rebirth, and she already appeared to be two years old. Her cheeks were still slightly chubby and her eyes shone brightly with wonder at the surrounding world. She had shoulder length hair pulled into twin ponytails that swirled with a combination of crimson and aquamarine that somehow managed to look as natural as it really was. She was wearing an orange halter top with a picture of a unicorn on the front and a pair of stretchy shorts. While Nodoka was still a traditional woman, she was also practical. Since Ranko's wings would deploy through and soak a normal shirt or blouse, she usually dressed her in small halters with low backs or specially modified shirts, and skirts were impractical for a flight-happy toddler on an outing to the park.

Ranko hadn't recovered many of her memories, but her appetite was still impressive considering how small she was. But where Ranma burned massive calories through constant martial arts practice, Ranko flew around at high speeds exploring the world around her. In fact, in spite of her appetite, she had already burned off most of her baby fat. Fortunately, both Nodoka and Kasumi were skilled cooks, and they had prepared enough to satisfy even the most ravenous toddler. While they were setting out a truly magnificent spread, Ranko spied a butterfly flitting about the clearing. "Ooo, pretty!" she exclaimed and bounced off after it while the adults indulgently looked on.

Eventually the butterfly's path took it high over the lake in an effort to escape the happily giggling toddler. But unlike most other children, Ranko couldn't be dissuaded so easily. Her wings reflexively deployed, and she shot off into the air at high speed to chase the butterfly back down to the surface and across the lake.

"Ranko, get back down here this instant," Nodoka screamed. But if she had been heard, she had been ignored by the inquisitive little girl. Nodoka was about the take off after her wayward child, but Kasumi gently laid a hand on her shoulder.

"She'll be fine Auntie, it's not like we can't see her, and she'll be back when she gets bored or hungry," Kasumi said.

XXOOXX

Another family was relaxing in the park near the other shore of the lake, but this was no ordinary family. Kaioh Michiru and Meoiu Setsuna lounged in the shade of a pair of trees while Tenou Haruka ran around with their adoptive daughter, Tomoe Hotaru, on her shoulders.

"Faster Haruka-papa, faster!" the toddler demanded as they raced off towards the lake.

Smirking, Haruka picked up speed and a moment later they arrived at the lake. Haruka set Hotaru down by the water's edge with a couple toys. "I'll be right back Hotaru, now be a good girl and don't go in the water until I get back, okay?"

Haruka had just returned to her companions when they heard a tremendous splash. She turned around to see was a column of water 10 feet high shooting out from the lake near Hotaru. A winged figure was just barely visible above it, streaking towards where she had left her daughter.

"Oh no, Hotaru!" Haruka quickly transformed into Sailor Uranus, and sprinted off towards the lake. Michiru shot up to join her, but Setsuna laid a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Stop, it's alright. Hotaru is in absolutely no danger. In fact, we'd better stop Haruka before she makes a fool out of herself." Setsuna languidly rose to her feet and calmly strolled towards the lake. Michiru, though quite confused by the turn of events, obligingly followed.

XXOOXX

Ranko was merrily chasing the butterfly above the lake when she saw some fish and a toad swimming under the water. Quite literally having the attention span of a two year old, she retracted her wings and dive-bombed into the lake to play with the aquatic life.

Nodoka and Kasumi would have been worried when she did not resurface immediately, except that they had accidentally discovered that Ranko didn't exactly need to breath, at least not when surrounded by water, when she snuck away from them at a local pool earlier in the week.

After a few minutes of chasing the fish, Ranko noticed a couple of birds flying above the lake and decided to go play with them too. She burst from the water at high speed with wings redeployed. However, when she reached the apex of her ascent, she noticed another girl sitting near the edge of the water and decided to investigate.

"Hiya, my name's Ranko. Who are you, wanna play with me, wanna be friends? I was just playing with the fishies, we can go visit them if you wanna, or we can go fly with the birdies. So, you wanna play?" She got out in one breath, leaving a slightly stunned Hotaru, who burst out giggling at the hovering girl's extremely bubbly personality.

"Um, hi, I'm Hotaru and I'd love to be friends. Ooo, pretty wings, can I touch them?" she introduced herself.

"Sure, then we can go fly with the birdies, what were you playing with, do you…" Ranko was cut off by a voice yelling from behind her.

"Unhand that girl, vile fiend!" Sailor Uranus got in an aggressive stance… and took a water ball to the face as Ranko spun around with wide, frightened eyes.

"Eeeep!"

Hotaru started giggling as Uranus brushed her sopping bangs off her face. "Oh papa, you are so silly. This is my new friend Ranko," she said.

"Oh hi, you're Taru-chan's papa? Oh, can I call you Taru-chan? Hi, I'm Tanaka Ranko. Huh? You're a girl, can girls be papas? My mama is a girl, do you have a mama? Sorry for splashing you, you scared me. Do you wanna play with me and Taru-chan? So Taru-chan, you wanna go flying with me? But, you guys don't have wings, do ya? Let's go play with the fishies!" Ranko burst out in one breath as she flew up a little bit to look at Uranus, then grabbed both of their hands and started pulling them towards the lake.

Michiru and Setsuna approached, desperately trying to hold straight faces at the sight of a flustered and dripping Haruka being dragged off towards the lake, senshi transformation and all, by a pair of two year olds.

XXOOXX

As Ranko raced off to meet Hotaru, Nodoka sighed and turned to Kasumi. "I suppose we'd better go find Ranko, she must have been distracted by something on the other side of the lake," she said.

"Alright Auntie, let's take the picnic with us, I'm sure she's getting hungry by now." They packed up the food and blanket and set out at a leisurely pace.

Meanwhile, Hotaru and Ranko were splashing about in the shallows, trying to catch the fish. Haruka had surreptitiously shifted back from her senshi transformation, and was watching them from the side with Michiru and Setsuna who had brought their own picnic supplies down to the lake with them.

"Ranko dear, its lunch time," announced Nodoka as she came into view.

" 'Kaasan!" Ranko exploded into flight with a front flip from the water and tackled Nodoka at high speed, knocking her over. "Aww, do we haveta, I'm kinda hungry but I was playing with Taru-chan and we were chasing the fishies and her papa was playing with us and her papa is a girl. Do I have a papa? Is it a girl too, I didn't know girls could be papas," she babbled excitedly, "Oh, and can Taru-chan join us for lunch?"

"Slow down dear. And yes, your friend can join us for lunch if it is alright with her parents," Nodoka replied. She and Kasumi started setting out the picnic once more.

Ranko bounded over to the Outers, grabbed Hotaru's hand and looked up with big, upturned, shining blue eyes and pouted her lip out a little bit, inadvertently melting even Setsuna's heart. "Can Taru-chan have lunch with me, pleeeeaase?"

"Can I have lunch with 'Ko-chan please Michiru-mama?" Hotaru mimed while proving that she could use the puppy dog eyes as well.

Michiru smiled indulgently at the toddlers. "Of course you can," she said to Hotaru. "Actually, we have a picnic as well, why don't we just all eat together?" Nodoka quickly agreed.

As they ate, the adults chatted a bit. The Outers watched with horrified fascination at just how much the rather petite Ranko was eating. Haruka chuckled, "That remind you of anyone?"

Both Michiru and Setsuna were overcome with a fit of laughter. At Nodoka's inquisitive look, Michiru explained, "We have a rather… um, slender friend who literally eats more than all of us combined. Ranko just reminded us of her between her appetite and personality."

After everyone had eaten their fill, the adults continued to bond a bit while the girls ran off again to play. Nodoka sighed forlornly watching them.

"What's wrong Auntie?" Kasumi asked.

"It's just, I missed so much of Ranma's life, and I'm afraid that Ranko is going to grow up far too fast. It's so nice to see her genuinely happy and playing with a real friend, but I doubt it will last," she replied

"Why's that? We'd be happy to let them see each other again," Michiru responded.

Nodoka sighed, "You'd never believe me if I told you."

Haruka snorted, "Try us, we've seen some incredible things. We do live in Juuban."

"Oh my, have you seen the Sailor Senshi, it must be so exciting. Though I've been told Juuban is rather tame compared to Nerima. Ranma had such interesting friends, though things have been so boring since the funeral," Kasumi commented.

The Outers sweat dropped and quickly denied having any contact with the senshi. Latching on to a convenient topic, Setsuna asked, "What do you mean by that? I've heard rumors about Nerima, but nothing specific."

Nodoka gave a brief rundown on the general insanity that permeated both the Nerima Ward and Ranma's life to the stunned senshi They had thought they had a rough life, but it was a miracle that the boy had been sane. "And so, three months ago my son died, but he left behind an egg, which gave me my daughter. She's just been growing up so quickly, and I've been told that she'll age extremely rapidly until she resembles a teenager. Between that, her darling but unusual appearance, and her powers, I'm afraid she won't have many friends."

Haruka turned to Setsuna and mockingly asked, "We've been set up, don't you think?"

"It does appear that way, doesn't it," Setsuna responded serenely.

"Um, excuse me, but what are you talking about?" Nodoka interrupted them.

"Now, this goes no farther than the both of you, understood?" Both Nodoka and Kasumi quickly agreed. "We knew that we had to come to the park today. Earlier, you mentioned the Senshi, well, we are involved. Hotaru is our adopted daughter, and she is really thirteen years old. Her father was apparently consorting with evil beings, which resulted in her possession. Hotaru had to be reverted to an infant as a byproduct of the Senshi's last battle. Since we decided to take her in, one of the Senshi has been in contact with us. She told us that the effect would be temporary, in that she will also age extremely rapidly. She also told us it would be advantageous for us to come to the park today. Hotaru has a few strange abilities of her own that have made her an outcast. Before her de-aging, she was picked on in school and only had one real friend. One of the senshi supposedly has the power to see through time, and it appears that she set us up so that our children could meet. You have to admit, they seem to be good friends already, and their circumstances are similar." Neither Nodoka nor Kasumi noticed the brief glances Haruka and Michiru shot at each other, which seemed to say, "Damn, she's good."

"Ah, I see," Nodoka responded after a moment to process and accept Setsuna's explanation. "They do seem to get on well, and while I don't appreciate people meddling in my affairs, perhaps it is for the best. I was worried that Ranko wouldn't be able to make lasting friends. Perhaps we could meet again?"

"Of course," Setsuna responded.

An hour later found both toddlers clutching each other like teddy bears, sound asleep.

AN: I apologize for how long this AN is, but I need to clarify where/which version of the SM-timeline I'm using.

First, I realize that 2 year olds don't speak as clearly as I'm writing them, but really, I don't want to attempt to write at the level that a 2 year old really talks. Personality-wise, the girls are too young to have regained much from their pasts yet, though in the SM-timeline, Hotaru is unusually mature no matter when in the series. Ranko is supposed to be essentially your standard 2 year old, an extremely short attention span, attraction to pretty/shiny things and animals, extremely gregarious, and incredibly hyper. I hope I captured that appropriately.

I'm currently going off of the manga version of Sailor Moon. I don't feel a full recap of the SM timeline is necessary, since it would make the story clunky. If you are unfamiliar with it, there are very good summaries online. Up to this point, the events of the manga have happened as in canon. For those more familiar with the anime, this means that Hotaru's father did not survive, and the Outers have adopted her. This also means that she will age at an advanced rate, but unlike the anime, she will not suddenly go from an infant to a 13 year old because the situation dictates it. The Outers are not involved at all in the Dead Moon Circus events, which will continue as in canon. Things will change from canon after the DMC arc, but that will take place within the story itself.

 
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