When the MasterPC was destroyed by Pluto's EMP device, the evil magic powering it had started leaking out and dissipating. While not exactly sentient, it did have a form of evil intelligence to help it achieve its goals. Finding its power rapidly disappearing, it first looked for a suitable replacement vessel. Any evil person or enchanted object would work. Much to its disappointment, there was none nearby. Faced with this fact, it sought for the best way to fulfil its final purpose:
If destruction is inevitable, use all reserve power to cause the most evil possible, in accordance with your goals.
Sensing the time storm brewing, it launched all its power at it. Using every scrap of power it had left, it heavily influenced the storms effects, causing the storm to do a far greater rewrite of history than it normally would have.
When the time storm ended, history had been rewritten, incorporating nearly all of the changes that had taken place and also incorporating many other changes in line with the goals of the Master PC. The only people who remembered any of the previous versions of history were those at the center of the time storm: the slave-Sailor Pluto, Nuku Nuku, and Ranma - and Nuku Nuku's memories had already been altered so that she thought of herself as Ranma's slavegirl.
"Break’s over Nuku!" the diner’s manager called. Frowning at the sight of another of Ranma’s slavegirls lying in the middle of the floor he added "Put her in the booth with Ranma and get back to work."
Nuku Nuku picked up the unconscious girl and placed her in the booth next to Ranma. Maybe Ranma would introduce them after he woke up!
A few minutes later Setsuna woke. Finding herself alone in a booth with the person she was sure was an evil villain, she summoned her time staff to blow him out of existence.
Or at least she tried to.
When the time staff failed to appear she started worrying. When she found that none of her other powers worked, the worry turned to panic. Somehow this boy must have stolen or sealed off her powers! She carefully reached over to start searching him (without waking him up) in an attempt to find anything that might help her save this situation. She wished she knew more about him so she would know what to expect.
The moment she touched him, knowledge started pouring into her brain. Startled, she immediately let him go and shook her head. She now suddenly knew that this boy was Ranma Saotome, Martial Artist. Wondering where that came from, she carefully touched him again. This time, she instinctively controlled the flow of information.
After a few minutes, she had learned enough to know a brief synopsis of his life. Concentrating on learning how he enslaved her and what his plans and reasons for doing it were, she was extremely surprised to learn that he had no idea what he had done. Indeed, even now he was unaware that the changes he made in his ‘game’ actually altered the people he knew in real life.
Setsuna leaned back, temporarily satisfied. While she was annoyed at his actions, he seemed not to mean any real harm and the computer he had used was right here in front of her. She would just use it return the timeline to its proper course, and then destroy the evil thing.
Flipping open the computer, she was horrified to discover that it no longer worked. Gripping the keyboard, she wondered what could have happened to it. Instantly, the knowledge came to her that the computer had been within the range of the EMP device she had used on Nuku Nuku. Thus resulting in one ruined computer and a temporal paradox.
Setsuna’s eyes widened as she realized that she had caused a paradox. Oh dear. The results of that could be very bad. Especially since there were technically two versions of herself in existence at the time of the paradox. There were four ways the time stream would deal with that:
(1) Erase the future version. – Obviously that did not happen, she was the future version and she was still here.
(2) Erase both versions. – Ditto.
(3) Erase the past version. – Possible, but it didn’t explain why she couldn’t summon her powers.
(4) Rewrite history to allow both versions to exist. – This might explain things.
The more she thought about it, the more she became convinced that the fourth possibility was what happened. Given the nature of the Senshi’s powers, if there were two versions of herself in existence, it was likely only one would have the powers of Sailor Pluto. And it was obviously not her.
Still, if she didn’t have her powers, how did she suddenly gain the knowledge about Ranma and the computer?
The answer came to her as soon as the question formed. It was a power she was born with. She had the ability to learn about the history of things and people she touched. If she was in physical contact with a person or item while concentrating on a question about their past, she could often learn the answer.
Born with? Why in the world would she be born with such a power?
As soon as she thought this, some ‘current’ history appeared in her memories.
During World War II the United States had been alarmed by reports of German research on atomic power. This had led to the formation of the Manhattan Project. The US had also been alarmed by Hitler’s interest in the occult. This had led to the formation of the Merlin Project. Both projects were aimed at producing weapons, one based on atomic power, one based on magic power.
In early 1945, the Manhattan Project had been plagued by setbacks and delays, while the Merlin project had their weapon ready for testing. Because they did not have enough time to develop any but the crudest weapons, they had simply made a bomb that would release a huge amount of magical energy, utterly destroying anything in a five mile radius.
Testing in the badlands of North Dakota had been a success. When the US needed a weapon to convince the Japanese to surrender, they used their ‘mage bombs’. After losing two cities to this terrible weapon, Japan surrendered.
After the war, people were dismayed at the destructive power of the weapons, which quickly became the primary weapon in Cold War arsenals. Magic gained a sinister and dangerous reputation and people began to fear it and place strict limits on its use. Treaties were signed (and often ignored) limiting research into, and production of, magical weapons.
Having never been used for destruction, nuclear power suffered none of this stigma and was rapidly gaining popularity as a source of energy. The scientists used the knowledge they had acquired during the war, and slowly developed safe and well tested means of using it. Learning from the stigma magic had acquired, they were extremely careful to make nuclear power plants safe and well shielded.
The need for proper shielding was emphasized when the long term consequences of improperly shielded magic started showing up. Here and there, all over the world, people were starting to show signs of being altered. Researchers quickly linked the changes to exposure to raw, unshielded magic. Often it was not the person exposed who was changed, but rather their children or grandchildren. Most of the cases of changes were limited to only a few people, mainly children of those working in the research facilities, but there were a few exceptions. The US and Canada had a high number of cases centered around North Dakota. Several communist countries were rumored to have varying numbers of cases in communities unintentionally (or intentionally) exposed during their own research into magic weapons.
Of course, Japan suffered the highest number of cases.
Perhaps as much as 1% of the population of Japan was affected. It was difficult to get an exact number, because the change wasn’t always immediately noticeable, and the Japanese people tended to hide it if possible, to better fit in.
Changed people fell into two basic categories.
First were Magical Girls. So named due to the fact that females tended to be affected a lot more often than males. For every one male with noticeable powers, there were at least 100 females. These were people who basically had some form of super power, whether they still looked completely human or not.
Second were furries. These were people who had some form of non-human appearance, but no (or at most rather lame and inconsequential) super powers. While not all were actually furry, most were and the name stuck. The female to male ratio for furries was also about 100 to 1.
For a number of years, the Japanese government ignored this problem. The altered people were not legally distinguished as any different than the unaltered. The occasional furry who was too non-human to talk (or had other problems) was treated as if they were handicapped.
This benign neglect changed in the 1970’s and 80’s.
It started in the late 1970's when several evil groups hatched different plots to seize control of Japan and from there take over the world! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!
Ahem. Anyway, these groups were each opposed by one or more Magical Girls. For years their battles were fought all over Tokyo and Japan. While some Magical Girls were initially cheered on by the public, this changed when one of the evil groups got the idea to discredit their enemy.
They started a publicity campaign vilifying the ‘Magical Girl Wars’. They emphasized the amount of damage these fights caused, and played up the extent of any collateral damage. Their goal was to break the morale of their opponents by turning public opinion against them. To the eventual horror of at least a few of the groups, they succeeded far beyond their expectations.
After an initial slow start, the movement against Magical Girls gained support and momentum and soon had a life of its own. This culminated in 1984 after a particularly vicious battle between two rival groups of evil Magical Girls. The devastation caused by this battle led to such a public outcry that the Japanese government was forced to act.
So in 1984 they passed the Magical Girl Control Act (MGCA).
This act reduced the legal status of all girls changed by magic to that of property.
Furries, never considered that much of a threat, held a status equal to pets.
Magical Girls (and this act defined any girl with greater than human abilities as a Magical Girl, whether they were actually magical, alien, esper, or whatever) were considered slaves.
To enforce this law, the government assembled a team of top scientists and researchers. Together with the help of many of Japan’s top research facilities, they created control devices designed to hold even the most powerful Magical Girls. A collar, bracelets, and anklets made out of adamantium, with circuitry inside that synchronized with the wearer’s nervous system and conditioned and trained them to be obedient slaves. Once fitted on, they would never be able to be removed.
In a measure intended to encourage those outside the government to help, the law gave ownership of a newly collared girl to the person who brought her in for collaring. Needless to say, there were provisions preventing known criminals from benefiting from this part of the law.
Technically, magical and furry males weren’t covered by the MGCA. Their numbers were so few compared to the girls, that they had been completely overlooked when the law was written. But it did have an effect on them. Learning from the fate of the girls, they started policing themselves. Anyone who looked like they might be creating a public outcry was ganged up on by nearly every other magical male around. The evil ones quickly learned to act subtly, keeping their powers out of the limelight and the good ones were extremely careful when using their powers. The persistent rumor that the government had a means of changing the sex of those they deemed a menace, and thus making them subject to the MGCA, also kept them in check.
The heroics of many of the 'good' magical males did contribute somewhat to improving the public's opinion of magic in general. Much to the dismay of many feminists however, this restrained use of magic power by males, combined with the public's memories of the Magical Girl Wars, contributed to an increasing belief among the Japanese (and, to some extent, world) population that only men could be trusted to use magic wisely. Girls obviously couldn't handle the responsibility for such power. This in turn led to a hardening belief that all Magical Girls should be caught and enslaved.
(Few paid any attention to those who pointed out that if the gender ratio of those affected had been reversed, they might now be arguing that only women should be trusted with magic power, and that the men should be enslaved.)
Setsuna grimaced as she absorbed this history. She didn’t much care for the world she now found herself a member of. She hoped that the Senshi had not been reborn yet in this world, but in her heart she knew they probably had. She feared what might happen to them.
She next turned her attention to…
Mon Sep 9 23:30:35 2002