Chapter One: Planet Ranmaru, Twinkling in the Night Sky

It has been five years since the Bloody Opening of Edo Castle.

From the ruins of Edo, a new capital city emerged: Ki-ki Restoration City, SAITAMA

And at its heart, we have YAMATO: the Restoration Reactor providing the prosperity we all enjoy today.

The new technologies it powers have already revolutionized our way of life, and we're still just getting started!

This broadcast has been brought to you by Takasugi Industries. Takasugi: making a boring future fun for all.

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And now, a report from the Takasugi Industries Military Police.

The Kinnou Shishi are stepping up their terrorist efforts throughout Kasukabe Block.

We ask that all citizens refrain from entering Kasukabe Block until the situation is resolved. And remember:

If you see any suspicious activity, report it immediately.

See a Kinnou Shishi, report a Kinnou Shishi.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Hey, you hear that? Sounds like the old regime loyalists are up to no good again.

I heard they blew something up in Kasukabe Block.

I swear, can't they do something about those thugs?

We're in the Showa Restoration now. There's no place for their nonsense anymore.

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...ay!

...of the way!

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Get out of the waaay!

Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh!

I'm gonna craaash!!!

Ow, ow, ow... I must have messed up the attitude control.

Good thing I found such a soft landing spot...

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Aah! I'm so sorry.

...Are you the one who broke my fall?

Please accept my deepest apologies.

I must have messed up my attitude control when I entered this airspace...

I'm usually much more careful, but I'm afraid I got distracted by the MRG signal.

Oh, I can observe MRG (read: Master Recognition Geotracking) signals with my right eye. It's something all Ranma

...H-huh? I don't have my eyepatch on!

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

The eyepatch! Where's my eyepatch!?

Oh! Here it is!

It must have come off when I crash-landed. I-I better get it back on, quick...

...Phew.

That's a relief...

...!

Huh!? You there!? Did you see my right eye!?

P-pretty!? Oh gosh... You really think so?

W-well, I know, but still...

Yes, that's right!

Whoever possesses this eye is considered the greatest of all the Ranma

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B-but now's not the time for that!

I-I can't believe it's come to this...

But I have no choice. I have nothing at all against you...

In fact, if anything, I owe you a great deal for breaking my fall...

But, by the most unyielding of my clan's rules...

...

I'm very sorry about this, but...

...I'm going to have to kill you now!

Huh. You're very agile, aren't you?

No... It's not that. It's more that you seem comfortable in combat.

B-but even so... Y-yaaah!

D-did you just dodge my attack again?

That can't be. My interstellar flying sword technique is ranked at level three. I was considered a swordfighting prodigy on my home planet...

H-huh? What's going on? Why can't...I move?

N-no way... I'm out of Ranmanium?

Does this mean...there's no Ranmanium on this planet?

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R-Ranmanium is a mysterious element. It's the only thing that can power the people of my clan's magic circuits.

But it looks like it doesn't exist on this planet.

(Gulp...) And without my magic circuits, I'm as good as dead.

(Hyperventilating)

I can't believe my journey's going to come to an end on this backwater planet.

Now I will never be able to meet the clan's expectations...

...or find someone to share my life with...

...

W-waaaaaah!

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Huh...?

I can't believe you're being so kind to me even after I tried to kill you...

Who are

Hey there. I finally found you.

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Yup, no mistake. According to these readings, you must be the Servant this thing called here.

...Hm? Are you

...Nah, you couldn't be.

Anyway, no sense putting this off. I'll just get rid of you now.

Kinnobu, Kinnobu!

Wh-who are they!?

Sorry about this, but I've got my own issues to deal with. This is...an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice.

Kinnooobbu!!!

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Ah! You saved me...

Huh, what are you? A foreign mage? And you saved the Servant?

I-I won't let you kill him.

Okay, then. I'll just deal with both of you.

I'm the only one who's allowed to kill h

Ghh...

Not feeling so hot, are you?

Anyway, it's a shame, but if he's going to get in our way, I'll just have to deal with the two of you together.

Okay, Showa Kinnoutou, you're up.

Kinnooobbu!

Khh. Ordinarily, I could eat low-level fighters like this all day long...

...but right now, I don't think I could manage a single bite...

My only way out of this is forming a contract with a Master who has Command Spells...

But no one's seen any such Master on my home planet in forever. They're basically legend now.

So I couldn't possibly just happen onto one now...

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...

Whaaaaaat!?!?!?

Th-those are the very Command Spells spoken of in my home planet's legends!

The mark of the Chosen One destined to lead my people!

I-I know this is sudden and presumptuous, but we're both in big trouble here.

Sooo...would you consider becoming my Master, just for now?

Really!? Just like that!?

I-I mean, that's great! I'm so impressed by your decisiveness!

Th-that's great!

Thank you for agreeing to do this!

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Oh? Whoooa!

I can feel my body surging with Ranmanium!

The legends were true... I had no idea Command Spells were so powerful!

Command Spells...?

I see. So you're not just an ordinary mage.

Then we really do need to exterminate you here. Anomalies can't be left to roam free.

Oh, no you don't!

Leave this to me, Master! I, Ranmaru, will send them packing in no time!

Ranmaru?

Hehehe. This will no doubt come as a huge surprise...

But I'm not just any Ranmaru!

I'm THE Ranmaru among Ranmarus!

I'm the only one who's been given the right to go by the most exalted of Ranmaru titles.

That's right! I'm...

Mysterious Ranmaru X!!!

Well damn. I thought I'd just be taking care of a Servant. I wasn't expecting to run into such a huge anomaly.

Is that the best you've got!? It'll take much more than that to defeat me!

Don't you worry, Master!

A mage and a Servant working together, huh. I don't like those odds.

I'd better retreat for now.

Did you really think I'd let you get away that easily!?

The retreating Sakumanians might let you off the hook, but I won't let you get away while my eye still shines!

Welp, this doesn't look good for... Hm?

Where could Master and the others have gone?

We must've gotten split up. Ah well, I'm sure we'll run into them eventually if we just keep looking.

Perfect. Pardon me, you two.

Aah! What's all this black smoke!?

The hell's going on here!?

Hm? That's strange. It's not affecting the man, for some reason.

Oh well, that's fine. One Servant will suffice to buy me some time.

How dare you!? How dare you, Tokugawa shogunate!

You'll all pay for this!

Who's that!?

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Okay, you can take it from here. If you could actually kill them for me, that'd be a huge help.

How dare you... How dare you!?

You're all going to burn! Where's Hiroi!? Give me back my Hiroi!

Hm? Lady Chacha? What're you talking about?

Get away from me, you cretin!

Gah!

What happened to you, Lady Chacha!?

Just because you were Lord Toyotomi's old lady doesn't mean you can just do whatever the hell you want!

Who are they!? Are they with that last guy!?

Oh, hey, Master! We've been looking all over for you!

I don't know what's going on, but Lady Chacha's gone nuts!

How dare you... How dare you!?

I got no idea what's gotten into her, but if she's trying to kill you now...

Well, I hate to say it, but our only option here is to kill her first!

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Mmm. That's a very tall order, Master.

I'll admit she doesn't seem to be in her right mind...

...but as far as I can tell, she's much more powerful than I would have guessed by looking at her.

No, that's not quite right. She's seething with a fierce grudge!

My flames will turn everything...EVERYTHING to ash!

Yeow!

Whoa!

You... Why are you still alive!? Why are you alive when Hiroi is dead!?

Master!?

Huh!?

Hey there, human.

Say, didn't we do something like this before, too?

Oh good. I finally found you.

You again!?

I don't know what you're playing at, coming back here, but I'm not letting you kill my Master!

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It looks like Chacha's being controlled by some kind of magecraft. We'll have to do something about her first.

Any idea what we can do, Oryou?

She's acting pretty crazy right now. It's gonna take more than a light bonk on the head to snap her out of it.

I see. Then it looks like our only choice is to subdue her.

You there. Can we ask you to help us help her?

This is all pretty fishy to me, and I'm not sure what the difference between you and that other guy is...

Oh well! If Master trusts you, I will too!

Great. Okay, Oryou, let's go!

Got it. Just leave everything to Oryou!

Ow, ow, ow, ow!

Did we get her!?

Stop that. We don't actually want to kill her.

I'm not so sure...

(Cough, cough...) Why all the abuse heaped on Chacha!? Chacha almost died! It's old tanuki Tokugawa's "peace talks" all over again!

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Of course, Master! Just doing my duty to keep you safe!

Oh, and you can just call me Ranmaru.

Sheesh. Lady Chacha sure can be a handful sometimes.

Hm? Ranmaru... Ranmaru? As in, Naritoshi?

Huh? Why are you looking at me like that? I don't know you, you know.

Well damn, it IS you, Naritoshi! I knew I recognized your face! Long time no freakin' see!

Ranmaru? As in, the Ranmaru who used to be Auntie's page?

Hyahahahahaha! Damn, I haven't seen you since the boss bit it at Honnoji!

Wh-what in the world are you talking about?

Besides, I am neither Naritoshi, nor just your everyday Ranmaru.

I am...

Mysterious Ranmaru X!

...Huh?

All right, where to begin...

Hold on, Sakamoto. Ranmaru?

You don't seem like the Ranmaru Chacha remembers being with Auntie way back when!

Of course I don't. I'm the crème de la crème among Ranmarus; I'm the one who was chosen from many different Ranmarus! I'm...

Mysterious Ranmaru X!

Hyahahahahaha! Now that you mention it, I guess you don't look at all like Naritoshi.

Then again, who can say. It's been so long since I've seen him that even I don't remember.

Chacha would have thought you'd remember what your own brother looked like, but okay.

At any rate, you don't have to worry about me. Right now, I'm just Master's loyal attendant.

So why did you come to this city in the first place?

Oh, that's because I was drawn here by its MRG signal, of cour

Huh? Why DID I come here again?

I feel like I had a very important objective, but I can't remember what it was...

Oryou doesn't know if we can rely on this chump or not, but the whole "X" thing sounds pretty good. Maybe Oryou's name should have an "X" in it, too. Then Oryou could be...

...Mysterious Oryou X! Yeah, Oryou likes that.

Hahaha, I think you're great just the way you are, Oryou.

At any rate, even though our contract is only temporary, I've still sworn to serve Master faithfully, so that's just what I'm going to do.

That sounds great to me. Glad to have you with us.

So hey, what is this place, anyway?

You mean you've never heard of the New Sakamoto Detective Agency? You must've been living under a rock.

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I'm not sure why, but when we Rayshifted here, we all got sent to different points along the Singularity's timeline.

So that's why we all got separated.

Oryou and I arrived in this Singularity a little before the rest of you...

And we took the Independent Action of securing a base of operations here while we looked for you.

Wow, you guys might be shady, but damn if you're not pretty considerate too!

If you have a bit of yummy tea to offer, Chacha's approval of you might just skyrocket!

I thought someone might suggest tea, so I went ahead and made some, Master.

I hope you like it.

So that's what you were doing over in the corner; you were opening up a tea shop without permission. Not bad.

Hell, if you want, you and Oryou can go into business together.

I call it "Ranmaru Café"!

Go on, everyone. I made tea for all of you as well. Please, relax and enjoy.

Mmm, this tea is the perfect temperature AND sweetness! And Chacha doesn't know what kind of cookies these are, but they go great with it, too!

Such thoughtfulness might be just like the Ranmaru Chacha remembers Auntie being fond of.

Hey, this is great. Thank you.

Okay, now that we're all more settled in, let me tell you everything I know.

We're currently in Ki-ki Restoration City, SAITAMA.

In modern timeswell, Master's time, I should sayit's located to the north of Tokyo.

In this Singularity, Tokyoactually, make that Edo, since that's what it was still being called here...

Edo was annihilated five years ago, and SAITAMA was chosen to replace it as the capital.

So the old tanuki Tokugawa's city got destroyed? That's music to Chacha's ears!

In Proper Human History, Katsu-sensei's strategy succeeded in the Bloodless Opening of Edo Castle, but here, that never happened.

Instead, countless shogunate people, and several opposing key figures from Satsuma and Choushu...were slaughtered on the spot.

It was as far from a "bloodless" revolution as you could possibly get...

So it's no surprise that here, that event became known as the Bloody Opening of Edo Castle.

Following that, there was more bloodshed in Edo. Eventually, the whole city was destroyed, and the Edo shogunate with it.

From there, SAITAMA, this city in the Musashi Province, was named the new capital of Japan.

Huh. So a town out in the sticks in the east is the whole country's capital now.

That's right. And what's more, the Meiji Restoration of Proper Human History never happened in this Singularity, either.

Instead, it skipped right over both Japan's Meiji and Taishou periods and went straight to Showa...

So the reformation that took place here ended up being called the Showa Restoration.

Showa? What's that again?

In Proper Human History, it was a period in Japan's history that began in 1926.

So the world of this Singularity is technologically fifty years ahead of where it should be in Proper Human History.

That goes a long way toward explaining why it doesn't look anything like a city from 1870s Japan.

Suffice to say, history has obviously taken a very different turn here.

Again, in Proper Human History, other countries considered Japan's Meiji Restoration to be a miraculous innovation in Japan's way of life, but it was nothing compared to this.

Here, they found a way to use magical energy to provide power to the city...

...and they've clearly used it to propel this Showa Restoration's civilization to an abnormally advanced level for its time.

Okay, but doesn't that kind of stuff happen a lot in these Singularity things?

Oh, and who ended up taking over after Tokugawa? That's what I really wanna know.

Don't be silly! After Tokugawa comes Toyotomi!

Maybe this even marked the return of Princess Toyotomi!

Well... Since most of the key government figures from the Satchou Alliance were killed in the Bloody Opening of Edo Castle...

...the entity governing SAITAMA now is actually a military conglomerate called Takasugi Industries.

Takasugi? That sounds kind of familiar...

...

By the way, who was that man we met who looked just like you?

He threatened Master's life, so I have to make sure he pays with his own.

Someone who looked just like me?

Exactly like you. So much so that I'm still not entirely sure you're not just him in a different outfit.

Huh, I didn't see any bastard like that. Do you have a brother or something you never told us about, Sakamoto?

I do have a brother and sister, but Gonpei looks nothing like me. Not to mention he's a lot older.

What are you talking about? Of course there's no one out there who looks like Ryouma.

Anyway, it looks like I still have lots to investigate, including this look-alike of mine.

Then the Sakamoto Detective Agency is officially open for business again.

Oryou will be the beautiful and powerful vice director.

You can be the muscle.

Hell yeah! I'll kill everyone who so much as looks at us funny!

Chacha's not sure making Nagayoshi the muscle is a good idea.

For that matter, Chacha's never even heard of a detective agency having its own muscle!

Oh! Chacha can be the in-house consultant.

I will do whatever I can to help, too. Both for Master's sake, and for whatever my objective was.

That's great to hear. I'll be counting on everyone.

Huzzah!

Man, what the hell's with this city?

So this is Edo? It's nothing like good old Tosa.

And what's worse, I can't find Ryouma or any of the others anywhere.

They probably left me behind. Again.

Well, not this time.

...

Hey, you there.

You think I didn't notice you?

I can sense your presence as clearly as if you were standing right in front of me.

Now come on out.

'Course, if you'd rather I just cut you down without another word, that works for me too.

...

Hmph. So that's how it's gonna be, huh.

Well, don't worry. I'll make this quick and painle

...!

Y-you!?

...It's been a long time, Izo.