Preface

(For the unaware: the title is supposed to sound like "caring and sharing.")

I wrote this story for the sake of the characters Setsuna and Chibi-Usa, mostly regarding how I've seen them depicted in Ranma 1/2 crossovers.

The reason for Chibi-Usa is fairly simple: because of how often her character is either abused or underutilized. I imagine that the source of this contempt primarily stems from the anime. I don't see enough justification for it in the manga, and that's what I tend to subscribe to, so...

Setsuna is just a great, big mess. After well over a decade of reading fan-fiction, I can't even think of a single example (offhand) where her character was able to meet my standards. To me, at least, it's like hardly anyone knows who she is, how to use her, or even how the Door of Time works.

Finally, I felt that the only way to see a decent depiction of these two characters was to do it myself. Mind you, with people's perspectives and opinions being what they are, what I have here is by no means an example of how things should be. This is merely the realization of my own expectations, and is just as open to criticism as anything else.

Then there's the time travel element. Rarely do I come across a story where its use doesn't cut whatever's suspending my disbelief. Since I was going to be working with Sailor Pluto anyway, I figured I'd take up the challenge myself and see if I fare any better.

And Ranma? Well, he just naturally gravitated into the picture as various nebulous ideas began to coalesce. Originally there were going to be separate stories for Chibi-Usa and Setsuna, but their relationship eventually had me thinking of a story that featured both of them, and then Ranma waltzed in to tie everything together. However, even though he's at the center of the story's plot, he's really just a convenient gluing agent that I happened to have lying around. (Don't tell him that, though, 'kay?)

Prologue

Ryoga collapsed, face-first, upon his bed. Then he rolled over onto his back, with his arms splayed out, and sighed. He stared up at the ceiling, though he didn't really see it. Instead, he focused his attention inwardly, lost in thought.

His relationship with Akari was becoming strained. Which was no surprise, considering how his bad sense of direction kept them from meeting each other for long periods of time. How his parents had managed to stay together long enough to start a family was beyond him. Maybe their love for each other was just that strong, but... would it be worth it? Could he and Akari continue to love each other, knowing that they would spend most of their time apart?

His eyes drifted away from the plain expanse above, to take in all of the souvenirs and knickknacks that filled his room from floor to ceiling. He knew that, with each addition, his relationship with Akari was getting worse. She had yet to get angry or complain, but she had become increasingly more subdued when they spent time together, feeling more regret for the time lost than happy for the time that they spent together.

The solution was really quite simple: all he had to do was stay home. That way Akari would know where to find him, and they could spend time together. It sounded easy enough, but it was not without its sacrifices. Between being stuck in a house with nothing to do, and becoming restless due to being restricted to the same environment, he felt that he was going to go crazy before their relationship ever had the chance to take the next step.

He closed his eyes, sighed and thought, "I don't know how much longer I can take this."

When he heard the doorbell ring, he opened his eyes and sat up. As he got to his feet, he absently said, "I wonder who that could be..."

It didn't take him long to reach the front door. His house was one of the few places that he could navigate without a problem, since it was both familiar to him and contained. Which was ironic because that same familiarity made sure that there wouldn't be any surprises around the next corner, so the boredom wasn't making him feel any better than how he did when he was lost.

Upon opening the door, he squinted his eyes against the evening sun and saw what appeared to be a door-to-door saleswoman, with briefcase in hand. She was about his height, though she seemed taller because her hair — which was a cotton candy pink in color — had been put up into two, cone-shaped odango. She wore a slate-colored skirtsuit, matching heels and a white, button-up blouse — all of which did nothing to hide her beauty.

It took him a while to reach her amaranth-colored eyes, much to his embarrassment, but he finally managed to ask, "C-can I help you...?"

"Good evening," the saleswoman greeted him, with a radiant smile. "My name is Usagi, and I'm here to represent the Silver Millennium corporation. Might I borrow some of your time, so that I may showcase our latest product?"

"Um, well, I'm not really interested," came Ryoga's awkward reply.

"You won't even take a look before you decide?" Usagi asked with a pout, while looking at him with imploring eyes.

Ryoga sighed with resignation. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to look..."

"Thank you very much," Usagi cheerfully replied. One corner of her smile twitched, as she restrained the smirk that fought for its freedom.

Raising her briefcase to the height of her chest, she held it up with one hand while the other released the clasps and opened it. She proceeded to present the product to him, so he could get a good look at it. What he saw left him unimpressed.

"That's a key," he stated in a flat tone, as he pointed at said object. Sure, it looked fancy enough, in part because it hung from a necklace, but it simply didn't interest him.

Undeterred, Usagi enthusiastically declared, "Ah, but it's not just any key!"

Ryoga regarded her with a skeptical look. "It's not?"

"Nope," Usagi chirped in response. "Whoever uses this key is guaranteed to get lost."

The skeptical expression on Ryoga's face turned incredulous as he shouted, "Why in the world would I need something like that!?"

"You don't need to use it," Usagi calmly pointed out, still smiling.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what that meant, but — just to be sure — Ryoga asked, "You mean...?"

Usagi nodded her head in confirmation. "That's right. You could trick someone else into using it."

Ryoga now looked at the key with keen interest. He knew who he'd like to get lost, for all of the times that they had made fun of his bad sense of direction. With the key, he could make that person understand how he felt about it, and understand intimately. The idea made him giddy with excitement.

Barely being able to contain himself, he gulped and — almost in a whisper — asked, "How long?"

"Oh, just forever," came the nonchalant reply.

That was just the icing on the cake, as far as Ryoga was concerned. He would have bought it even if the effect would have only lasted a day. Now, there was only one last thing to ask. "...How much?"

"Since this is a promotional item," Usagi explained, her eyes glinting like those of a predator's, "it's only two-thousand yen."

"I'll take it!" Ryoga immediately exclaimed, as he pulled out the required amount of money from his pocket and thrust it toward Usagi.

She accepted the money with a smile and motioned for him to take the key. Once he had it in his possession, she proffered a slip of paper to him. "This will tell you how to activate it."

Ryoga took it eagerly.

"It was nice doing business with you," Usagi happily stated.

Ryoga could only nod in reply, his mind elsewhere. He was eager to go and do what he planned to do with his new acquisition, so — being as spontaneous as he was — he was soon rushing past the person that had sold the key to him. A second later he turned a corner, and he was gone.

Usagi, who still stood on the doorstep of Ryoga's house, with her back now facing a closed door, frowned. The frown remained after an eruption of smoke enveloped her form and cleared away a moment later, to reveal a younger version of the lady that she had once been. She appeared to be a young teenager (or was on the verge of becoming one), and now wore a sailor-styled school uniform. In her hands, in place of the briefcase, was a dark sphere with the face and ears of a cat, which had an antenna that rose up from between said ears.

"So," Chibi-Usa thought bitterly, "even after nearly a thousand years, he didn't really change. At least I had an excuse..."

She shook her head at the thought.

"Either way," she continued, "I've set things in motion. It's risky, but..."

She bit her bottom lip as she thought about the particulars of her plan. Not only was she risking someone's life (a life that she was trying to save), but she was also playing with time... And that held far greater consequences if things didn't work out just right. But, if things did work out...