Fanfic / Fist of the Moon

"Sailor Moon and Ranma ½ Xover. Ranma's life changes after Jusendo, mostly for the better, including an acceptance of the Curse. Life really throws him a curve when he aids the Sailor Senshi, only to be locked in girlform forever. But forever is a long time."

—FF.Net summary

A story that chooses to rework a canon plotline instead of creating new villains, Fist of the Moon by Penguin-sa is a completed story that tells the tale of the senshi and the Nerima crew learning to live together and fight enemies. It begins after the canonical end of Ranma ½, when Kasumi confronts Ranma in the aftermath of the wedding incident. After he accepts responsibility and admits that something has to change, she reveals that in addition to having a crush on Doctor Tofu, she has also genuinely studied physical and mental health, leading her to conclude that Ranma has a gender disorder.

Several weeks of secret girl-time therapy with Kasumi helps gradually balance him out, to the point that he admits being as much girl as boy, (though no more in either direction,) and the other Tendo sisters gradually get brought into the secret one at a time, with their own Character Development as well. Things are finally starting to stabilize, when Ranma (as a girl) happens onto a battle between the Sailor Senshi and a group of youma designed as a last farewell from the currently deceased Beryl.

No instantaneous transformations occur, nor does Ranma wipe out the youma, but s/he gets several children out of the way so the senshi can finally cut loose, and saves both Mercury and Venus from attacks. Unfortunately, something about the negative energy reacts very, very badly with something about Ranma, and Usagi and the Silver Crystal become her only hope of survival. But not only is Silver Energy heavily associated with the feminine, Usagi doesn’t know Ranma is supposed to be a boy…

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Fist of the Moon provides examples of the following tropes.

• Action Girl: Ranma and Akane start off as this, and gradually the other senshi become this trope as well.
• The Ace: A lot of Rei's sniping comes from the fact that Usagi wasn’t this, despite being more powerful and experienced (as well as her leader the Princess). When Usagi starts growing up, Rei gets a lot more complimentary, though they’re still Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Adaptational Badass: Almost everyone on the good guys' side, especially in the future.
• Affectionate Nickname: Over a dozen. Ranma alone is Red-chan. Ra-chan, Ma-chan, and sensei. there are also some less affectionate nicknames, such as Shadow Witch or Akane's designation of people as "perverts".
• Amazon Brigade: All of the senshi. Also, the village of Chinese Amazons makes an appearance.
• Awesome by Analysis: Ami is this canonically, but also Ranma. Ranma’s skill at dissecting martial arts moves in fights extends to deducing potential senshi abilities that they haven’t discovered yet.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Usagi ascends from Moon Princess to Moon Queen, increasing her power and control by half again, minimum. The collateral affects include accidentally purifying an enemy that would usually have required use of the crystal, and imbuing another character with powers of their own.
• Batman Gambit: Wiseman arranges Esmeraude’s suicide attack on the senshi to be this. While they are busy holding her off, he abducts Usa before they can even notice he’s there.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Not against an enemy, but against the mind itself. Sailor Moon ends up in this alongside Ranma when she heals him/her, battling the damage done by the negative energy and the cat fist.
  • Between Usa and Wiseman, with help from others for the former.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: When the senshi need to split into two teams, Ranma, Ami, Luna, and Usagi form the away team. Lacking the two people who would normally be leaders, Usagi puts Rei in charge of the home team. Lampshaded when Rei is found rushing around the Shrine in a panic less than an hour after they’ve left, suffering a major Freak Out about all the preparations, what the villains could be planning, what precautions to take… Another character points out that Rei usually enjoys being bossy and in charge, but being given the trust and responsibility a leader has to deal with is a bit too heavy for her.
• Berserk Button: When Saphir dies, the normally calm and composed Dimade breaks down screaming at his murderer and devoting the whole of his power to Wiseman’s death.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Usagi and Kasumi.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Usagi again, and Ranma.
  • Ranma times ten in the future.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Four Phantom Sisters and Rubeus ambush Usa at a train station with only Usagi and Kasumi (who has no powers) nearby. They hold together long enough for Mercury to arrive and shroud them, and then the trains pulls in and more senshi show up to help.
• Big Eater
  • Ranma and Usagi are this as in canon.
  • All of the senshi become this during training trips, as they're training about twelve hours a day and burning a frightening number of calories.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Akane is homophobic. She can tolerate Ranma being in a relationship with a girl while being a girl if it’s not her personally, but she doesn’t get why Usagi’s uncomfortable about her being disgusted by Michiru and Haruka for the exact same reason.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The amazons do this to some of their own warriors during power struggles, and want to do it to Ranma.
• Break the Haughty: Nodoka gets a downplayed version after disowning Ranma. She’s alone again, and with Genma being a drain on her funds, she couldn’t make ends meet without Kasumi’s charity. She’s miserable enough to question if she over-reacted to Ranma’s situation, drawing comparisons between losing an arm or a leg. Then Ami comes to visit…
• Brick Joke
  • When Ranma is about to beat up Mamoru for condescending about her skills, she acts very ditzy, including using a cheerful “Yeppers!” to answer his question. When Akane is about to do the same to Sailor Uranus she gives the exact same “Yeppers!” answer.
  • Several jokes are made about Ranma being a Magical Girl.
  • The others treat Nabiki's Self-Deprecation as this: even after saving a third of the world's population she still insists that she's a horrible person.
• Broken Bird:
  • Ranma is this after her Mode Lock. she refuses to eat, bathe, or exercise for three days until Kasumi snaps her out of it.
  • Cologne is reduced to this by the fates Shampoo and Mousse suffer in Moral Event Horizon.
  • Nabiki has elements of this. She is it fully after her Heel–Face Turn, and never quite grows out of it or forgives herself.
• Can't Catch Up: Rei felt this way about the martial arts training after even Usagi and Ami surpass her. It causes splits in teamwork until Ranma pulls out a certain video.
• Character Development
  • Usagi demonstrates ability as a capable leader.
  • Shampoo relents on the Kiss of Death, declaring it to be the result of stupid pride.
  • Nabiki learns to care about things other than money. Best described by how she cancels Ranma’s debt, after he saves one of her debtors from the yakuza loan sharks he was defaulting on to pay her off.
  There was a page tracking Ranma’s account in precise handwriting. The last entry read: Feb. 27, received in lieu of payment of 73,500 yen; Nabiki Tendo’s Soul. Account paid in full.
  • Rei stops sniping at Usagi and genuinely begins openly admiring her. As well as being afraid of disappointing her.
  • Ranma mostly comes to terms with his/her gender dysfunction and loses a lot of selfishness.
  • When Ranma is announcing an end to the fiancé fights, Ukyo desperately brings up the point that since she’s still registered as male, and Ranma’s locked as a girl, they could still, “… still … live a total lie and hurt both of us and ruin our friendship.”
  • Mamoru stares when he arrive to his welcome-back party and sees Ami casually curling a five kilo dumbbell while typing on her computer.
  • Akane matures and mellows out, especially after having to keep Usa safe during several fights, wondering if she was as bad as the eight-year-old, since they both are known to insist, "I can fight too! I'm a martial artist," even when way out of their leagues.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A symptom of the negative energy. The more powerful you are, generally, the worse this is. The only exceptions appear to be Saphir and Diamante to each other.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ranma in the future exploits this by playing the Plucky Comic Relief and The Ditz cards to their fullest as a means of hiding the fact that she is extremely skilled and Usagi's de facto assassin in order to not make many other leaders outside of the Senshi nervous.
• Contrived Coincidence: With time-travel involved, these pop up quite a bit in retrospect. For the biggest one, see Point of Divergence.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Almost every fight against the droids. At least one was killed before it could even launch an attack.
• Darker and Edgier: Than the original Ranma ½, and slightly more than the original Sailor Moon. Not much, though, as there are still plenty of funny and heartwarming moments.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Happens to Nabiki. See Heel–Face Turn.
• Demoted to Extra: Mamoru was never a major character but he fades into the background after reconciling with Usagi and plays no real role apart from a few brief appearances afterwards
• Determinator: In chapter 2 Ranma was almost literally dead on her feet when she grabbed a little girl and got her out of the youma’s crossfire. Then she came back to help still and took a second attack in Mercury’s defense.
  • Mousse keeps himself alive on sheer will after the punishment detailed in Moral Event Horizon. Cologne has to order them not to reveal that Shampoo is safe and rescued, because that is his only reason for living, and he would die if he discovered it.
• Didn't See That Coming: Akane can see through the disguise fileds so clearly she doesn’t realize they’re there. The senshi didn’t see that coming, nor did Akane see that Ami and Usagi were senshi coming.
• Distant Finale: In three parts. One covers the distant future Usa returns to, the second is a letter from Sailor Pluto to her successor, explaining the Point of Divergence, and the third is after the fight with the Deathbusters.
• Distracted by the Sexy: During training trips, this happens a few times between Usagi and Ranma.
• The Dreaded: Future Ranma is engaged in singlehandedly sabotaging and psychologically harassing the Black Moon Family, sowing chaos and picking off weaker members. It’s so bad that when Present Ranma shows up and Emraude makes the connection she flees in sheer terror and spends the next few hours curled up in a corner whimpering.
• Elemental Powers
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Ranma grabs three kids that the senshi were protecting from youma and get them out of danger, then comes back to help again. During this s/he takes two hits that leave her literally dead on her feet, and require the Silver crystal to heal.
  Usagi: “We know her, Mars. She rescued three children and two senshi, putting her life on the line. We know her very well.”
  • The above quote also serves as Usagi’s, justifying (potentially life-threatening) use of the Silver Crystal for someone they only just met.
  • And in the same event, Rei begins by begging her not to risk her life like this, and declares her hatred of “that life-sucking rock”.
  • When Usa shows up for the first time, her hair is in a braid and she tries a physical assault against Usagi.
• Evil Counterpart: The Four Phantom Sister serve as this for two groups. Their powers make them this for the Inner Senshi, such as Koan’s aquamarine flames versus Mars’s fire. Then their names are lampshaded as the counterpart to the Four Sisters (Kasumi, Nabiki, Ranma, and Akane).
• Evil Feels Good: Not at all. One of the Four Phantom Sisters brings up how long it’s been since she could honestly laugh or relax.
• Eye Scream: An Amazon Elder shatters Mousse’s glasses while they’re still on his face, and the glass shards…
• Fatal Flaw: It’s noted at several points that Ranma and Usagi have the same ones: laziness (except for training), a non-serious personality, being a Big Eater, major fans of anime and manga, and a general dislike of school.
  • Rei starts off with a mix of Pride and envy—it’s really hard for her to handle Usagi being better than her at anything, especially in light of the blonde’s flaws. This mellows out, and she later suffers from worry that she’s going to mess up and disappoint Usagi.
  • Akane has a temper, and remains mildly homophobic through the entire story.
  • Luna doesn’t appreciate the suggestion that she might be wrong.
  • Mamoru isn’t a bad guy, but he can’t really click with Usagi’s playful immaturity, meaning he doesn’t always take her or their relationship as seriously as he should. Evidenced by the fact that he privately refers to her as “the Kid”. He also feels guilty if he spends time with a female closer to his age, but doesn’t stop either.
• Foreshadowing: Ranma can’t believe that Usagi takes all the falls she does without being hurt. It turns out she had gymnastics training in the past, which led to her awakening her ki, but losing a lot of fine motor control and balance.
  • Ranma comments when she, Mercury, and Moon go to the Tendo dojo that they don’t want people to notice two Sailor Senshi hanging around. Usagi absentmindedly corrects her, saying “Three”. Ranma later becomes Sailor Nightfall.
  • Usa sees Mamoru and Usagi together, and comments that she has to get the Idiot away from Pops. Usagi later gives herself a Spring of Drowned Boy curse to then pass it onto Ranma, making them both gender benders. It is implied that Usagi is the father and Ranma the mother.
• Fuku Fic But not until about halfway through.
• Gender Bender: Ranma, of course. Ranma suffers a Mode Lock, but regains his/her "gift" when Usagi becomes this as well to return it.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Ranma
• Happily Married: In the Distant Epilogue.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. The girls start off capable, but become more so as Ranma puts them through their paces. Also, Akane gets the benefit of this retroactively when it’s pointed out that despite no longer being at the top of Nerima, she’s still better than 95% of all other martial artists, capable of wiping the floor with Makoto or Haruka in terms of strength and skill.
• Healing Hands: Kasumi, after exposed to Usagi’s Awesome Moment of Crowning
• Heel–Face Turn: Several characters, beginning with Akane and Nabiki, who were merely unpleasant people.
  • Then the Four Phantom Sisters who worked for Rubeus get purified and recruited.
• Heroic BSoD: Several, particularly with Usagi and Ranma, who come face to face with things that go against all they believe should be.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Akane and Ami end up like this, as do Akane and Ranma.
• Hidden Depths: Everyone, but especially Usagi. She has former gymnastics experience, and there are still times when she surprises even the other senshi with her competence and seriousness.
  • Also, Kasumi has a deep and abiding fondness of Star Wars.
• Honor Before Reason: Nodoka.
• Hypocrite: Oddly, a way that works out in the protagonists’ favor. Akane is and remains mildly homophobic. Because Ranma and Usagi are her friends, she overlooks the relationship, but Haruka and Michiru get no such considerations.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Usagi and Ranma both.
• I Have to Go Iron My Dog: Upon hearing that the training trip will keep them so busy that Ami will likely not have time to study, even, she babbles: “Um, I just remembered an important tea ceremony I have to attend.”
• I Just Want to Be Special: The Black Moon Family is composed of people who are Silverblind, and unable to use the Silver Millennium tech of the future, as well as denied the extended lifespans. It’s no one’s fault, anymore than being left-handed or colorblind is, but while the Silver Confederation has put plenty of effort into developing Silverblind alternatives there are enough people who resent the accident of birth for Wiseman to recruit them.
• Important Haircut: Downplayed. After she starts training with Ranma Usagi begins wearing her hair in a braid more often. Mamoru doesn’t recognize her the first time he sees her.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Justified. Due to the paradox defense, almost every member of the Black Moon Family except Wiseman himself ends up at varying levels of this. It’s played for tragedy as much as for laughs.
• Insult to Rocks: When Ranma has neither eaten nor bathed for three+ days, Kasumi says she smells worse than Akane’s cooking. Akane (who's undergone Character Development and matured considerably) hears this and takes offense.
  Akane: “Hey! You take that back Kasumi! Nothing smells worse than MY cooking!”
• In the Name of the Moon
• Ironic Death: All of the highest ranked Dark Moon Family members. Esmeraude specifically told Rubeus to avoid setting himself on fire. And then she, who values her own beauty and powers, ages to death for using her own life force to fuel her spells. Saphir is killed by Wiseman in an attempt to stop him, and Dimande throws himself in front of a blast meant for the woman he had been trying to capture and overthrow.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Not between two people, but this is why Ranma refuses to stay at the Shrine with Rei for very long—the chaos that follows him would eventually wreck it.
• Jerkass: Esmeraude could easily have saved Rubeus’s life, but doesn’t and makes sure he knows this before he dies.
• Karmic Death: Rubeus betrays and abandons the Four Phantom Sisters, and then dies when Esmeraude does the same to him.
  • Esmeraude obsesses over her beauty and power, so Wiseman gives her a tiara that makes her more powerful than Dimande by tying into her life force. She spends so much magic that she ages to death, losing both the traits she held so dear.
• Kick the Dog: Some of the Amazon Elders decide that mere victory isn’t enough, and do this. See Moral Event Horizon.
• Lethal Chef:
  • Akane, but she’s mostly stopped trying to cook now, instead getting snacks from Kasumi or a store.
  • Usagi is almost as bad, except for her pancakes, which are nearly divine. Even Makoto can't do better, and she can get other people to volunteer to do the washing up in exchange for servings.
• Lightning Bruiser: Ranma.
• Little Miss Badass: Usa pulls this off pretty well, being eight years old.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Chibi-Usa's parentage is revealed when, after Ranma goes down during a fight, Chibi-Usa screams “Mommy!”
• Meaningful Name
• Mistaken for Female: When the senshi find (female) Ranma’s student ID in her pocket, they assume he (the male in the picture) is her brother or boyfriend.
• Mode Lock: This happens to Ranma when Usagi heals him.
• Mood Whiplash
• My God, What Have I Done?
  • Nabiki nearly gets someone killed when they pay her off at the cost of defaulting on a yakuza loan.
  • Akane feels this way about herself when she realizes how abusive she’s becoming towards Ranma.
  • Luna gets this when Ranma comments how she sounds like Genma, causing the Moon Cat to review her interactions with Usagi and realize how much she’s bullied or manipulated Usagi into doing something.
• Mythology Gag: When Ranma is forced to prove her Mode Lock to a hostile school crowd, she protests that she's just as much a girl as they are, to which Akane adds, "and better built to boot!", something Ranma used to insult Akane in the first volume of the original manga.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Black Moon Family are all terrified of The Shadow Witch: Future Ranma as Sailor Nightfall.
• The Nick Namer: The author. Several characters get new ninknames from several other characters, including Red-chan, Second, Blue, M2 (Em-two), and Ra-chan.
• No-Sell: The senshi all have built in resistance to shape-change. They are among the only beings completely immune to Jusenko, etc.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The senshi’s disguise fields are downplayed versions of this. Being unable to remember the face of someone while you’re looking straight at them is unanimously described as unsettling at the least.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Originally, no one would have seen the Amazon Elders as threatening, despite knowledge of how dangerous they could be. They’re something of an Outside-Context Problem. Then we see what they actually do to Mousse, Cologne, and Shampoo which requires the direct and immediate intervention of Sailor Moon, Ranma, and Sailor Mercury, and is still something of a pyrrhic victory.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Usagi declares she needs to heal Ranma with the Silver Crystal.
  • When Ranma treats the previously impenetrable disguise field of the Sailor Senshi like a Paper-Thin Disguise, not even realizing it’s supposed to hide their identity.
  • When Esmeraude has too close a call with Ranma, she flees in a panic and spends the next few hours curled up in a corner, whimpering.
• Old Master: Cologne, and some of the other Amazon Elders.
• Orcus on His Throne: Wiseman and Dimande.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: akane feels like this is Nerima, and thus is actually embarrassed to have the Sailor senshi fawning over her “super martial arts abilities”.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Justified. Several people can see through the senshi disguise because they have a connection to the Silver Millennium of some kind. For everyone else, it’s very disconcerting to forget what someone looks like as you’re still looking at their face.
  • Of course, the people being able to see through it becomes a running gag, Lampshaded by Ranma's comment, "Do those disguise fields actually work on anyone?"
• Parental Abandonment
  • Nodoka and Genma effectively disown Ranma after Usagi inadvertently locks him during the healing.
  • Akane notes that Ami suffers this from her mother, but that Ami’s mother hates it as much as anything. Summed up with the tearstained note that brings up the subject.
  Note: Ami-chan/ Called back to the hospital. Emergency surgery on car crash victim. Hope to save her, she’s nine. Be home very late, don’t wait up, supper in the fridge. That’s 196 I owe./ Love, Mom
• Point of Divergence: We later learn that the entire plot began because Sailor Pluto told her past self to go to a wine-tasting event. There she met Kasumi, which prompted Kasumi to approach Ranma, and later to send her to where she’d meet the Sailor Senshi.
• Ret-Gone: Inverted by Pluto. She purposefully arranges changes to the past to make the future better for everyone, with more people there who weren’t before.
• Redemption Equals Death: Esmeraude, Saphir, and Dimande all have elements of this.
• Reverse Mole: Guard Captain Endymion in the future has been feeding the Black Moon Clan bad data so that they are less damaging than could be.
• Run or Die: The Black Moon family has to do this several times, even including Prince Dimande.
• Seen It All: Ranma. He says it would be more surprising if the senshi didn’t have a talking cat than that they do.
  • Doesn’t stop him from being horrified and disgusted when he sees what the Amazons have done to Shampoo, Mousse, and Cologne.
• Shipper on Deck: Several for several couples. Chibi-Usa for her parents, and the Tendo sisters for Kasumi and Tofu, among others.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The Four Phantom Sisters, as well as almost a third of Earth’s population.
• Supreme Chef: Kasumi, of course.
• Title Drop: In chapter eleven, Ranma is referred to as Usagi’s completely loyal fist of the moon.
• Took a Level in Badass: Beyond the obligatory new season power-ups, this is the result of averting Hard Work Hardly Works. Not only does everyone get new, stronger powers, but more diverse ones as well.
  • Usagi graduates from Moon Princess to Moon Queen, resulting in better control and at least a 50% increase.
  • Ranma becomes Sailor Nightfall, who is still the weakest senshi in terms of fire-power, but this is Saotome Ranma.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Mamoru. Seeing some of his thoughts can be somewhat disconcerting, even if it’s more condescending than malicious. Justified, because he’s subconsciously reacting to influences from Usa, his future self, the Silver Crystal, and the bond between him and Usagi that is also restraining his full potential.
• Training from Hell: The senshi feel like Ranma puts them through this, but they know it could be worse, and is for a good cause.
• Tranquil Fury: Ranma never has an expression of anger in the dojo, she’s either smiling or has a neutral expression. The latter means you’ve messed up. She also acts bright and ditzy when she’s preparing to trounce Mamoru after he acts condescending towards her skill.
• Trash Talk: Ranma, first displaying it against a youma, and repeatedly later on.
• True Companions: As more appear, they get their own buttons on the senshi communicators.
• Vitriolic Best Friends: In spite of their arguing, Usagi and Rei are explicitly the closest of friends. Usagi has officially named Rei as her successor with the crystal and leadership if she dies, and Rei is the one who panics most about Usagi’s life (when using the crystal) and opinion (when they need to split up and Usagi leaves her in charge of the second group).
• Weak, but Skilled: Ranma as Sailor Nightfall when compared to the other Senshi. She's also was the one who trained them, was uniformly feared by the Black Moon Family, and is Usagi's de facto assassin.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 7. In addition to the teams splitting up so that Moon, Mercury, Artemis and Ranma can go out of the city to train, Mercury and Nabiki deduce from discrepancies that Sailor Moon may not be an actual senshi, as she lacks the protections against external shape-shifting. Also, it’s the first time Ranma admits that she may like Usagi as more than a friend.
  • Chapter 10. Nodoka admits to herself that she is proud of her child. Ukyo gives her approval to Usagi and Ranma going out by gently teasing the blonde, followed by Ranma asking Usagi out on a date, and Usagi kissing Ranma. Nabiki officially kicks off Moon Confederated with the Phantom Sisters as her first employees. Usa reveals that she knows they’re the senshi, she’s from the future, and she accidentally lets a few things slip, including her wild approval of Usagi and Ranma dating. Rubeus tries his last-ditch plan by kidnapping the senshi, which fails and he burns to death. Mamoru loses the ability to become Tux-boy, as well as his link with Sailor Moon, but gains the ability to transform into Endymion. At the end, Ling-Ling shows up to reveal how deeply in trouble Shampoo and co. are with the other Amazons.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Inverted. Mamoru isn’t there in the beginning and is barely mentioned, up until it’s revealed he was studying in China. He returns in chapter 5.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: After yelling out the phrase and transforming into Lesser Mercury, Akane starts to berate Artemis for teasing her with the possibility of being a magical girl, only to stop when she realizes she is.
• Would Hurt a Child: All of the Black Moon Family, as their prime strategy involves targeting pre-teen Usa.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Played with. Ranma tells Nabiki that she can become better than she is.
  “Anyone can lose their way, Nabs. I’m glad you came back to us.”
• You Can't Fight Fate: As it turns out, you can, which is why the Black Moon Family is a threat. It’s just a really bad idea.
  • Mamoru felt this way about his marriage to Usagi because of the Endymion-Serenity bond.