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|The Gate of Eternity}}
''[[Relatively Absent]]'' is a long-lost (and [[Dead Fic|incomplete]]) ''[[Ranma ½]]/[[Sailor Moon]]'' [[Crossover Fic]] written by Mark Shurtleff (AKA "Togashi Gaijin"
When Sailor Pluto kills herself with a timestop at Mugen Gakuen, the Gate of <s>Time</s> Eternity decides it wants a ''different'' guardian, one who will not impose her own agenda on the Gate's ancient mission and on the course of the future. The only suitable candidate it can find within 500 parsecs, though, is a critically-injured Ranma, locked in her female form and [[Buried Alive|buried deep under a landslide]] in the aftermath of a failed confrontation with Prince Herb over the Chisuiton. Accepting the offer made by a mysterious voice in her head saves Ranma's life and just incidentally gives her a second chance at breaking the lock on her curse.
Partly healed and thoroughly turbocharged by the Gate's limitless ki, Ranma digs her way out of the rockfall and into the middle of the camp of four girls -- Tsuya, Kioko, Midori and Harukichi -- who have been surveilling her for a year. To her astonishment, they turn out to be her cousins, watching her on behalf of a family she never knew. They bring Ranma home to her grandmother Aiko Yamada, matriarch of the powerful and influential Yamada clan -- the family
With the cousins' help she finally makes her way to the Gate to complete the bonding process. In the process she makes an enemy of the [[Back from the Dead|resurrected]] Sailor Pluto, who wants the guardianship back but can't understand why the Gate won't accept her. Bonding with Ranma not only gives the Gate its new guardian, it also wakes up the controlling intelligences of the <s>Silence Glaive</s> Glaive of Space and the <s>Silver Imperium Crystal</s> Crystal of Life --
Complicating matters beyond [[Magical Girl]] politics, Ranma's apparent death in the avalanche on Mount Horai sets in motion events far beyond the parochial concerns of Nerima, the Tendos and the fiancees. These events involve the Yamada -- and also the Japanese government all the way up to the Emperor. And why has the Japanese National Intelligence Directorate been watching Nerima and its martial artists? What is Project Chameleon? And why is the US Navy involved?
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A well-written fic that was already building up to epic length when its author renounced fan fiction entirely and tried (with surprising success) to purge it from the Web, ''Relatively Absent'' was clearly still in its early, establishing chapters when it was abandoned. It's an enjoyable read, but a heartbreak to finish, because ''so'' many plot threads had been set in motion with nothing close to a resolution anywhere to be found in the extant material. Where Shurtleff was heading with them all is a mystery, with so much in play that it's impossible to guess how it all would have been tied up at the end.
Before he abandoned
While ''Relatively Absent'' is no longer hosted anywhere online, if you're lucky you can find a complete off-line archive maintained by [[User:Looney Toons|a fan]] who is willing to share. <!-- Strictly speaking, this is not true; links to copies on a dozen different file hosting sites could be found at https://jusenkyo.fandom.com/wiki/Relatively_Absent#Other_External_Links as of April 2020. Just how complete these archives are is unknown, though -- the authorized offline archive shared person-to-person contains the prologue, 11 chapters and the side story ''Illusions of Honor''; some of the archives appear to stop at chapter 9, and may not have the side story. -->
{{tropelist}}
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** Aiko implies that before she was adopted into the clan, Harukichi's birth family was abusive.
* [[Accidentally Accurate]]:
*
** Genma refuses to believe that Ranma is actually dead -- not because he has any information to the contrary, but because Ranma is so critical to [[It's All About Me|Genma's plans for his own enrichment]] that he can't conceive of her not being there for him to exploit. From his point of view, she ''must'' be lollygagging somewhere he can't find her, depriving Genma of whatever benefit he thinks he's due at the moment.
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: Sort of. Ranma initially has black hair in her female form, matching the manga. However, becoming the Gate's guardian and undergoing her first [[Transformation Sequence]] turns it to a red hue to match the anime version.
* [[The Ageless]]: This is an immediate benefit of being an artifact's Guardian. (It's later implied that if a Guardian finds a soulmate, they ''too'' get this benefit.)
* [[Air Travel]]: Ranma takes only her third plane ride ever in chapter 11. She's disappointed that the plane is too big for her to properly "feel" it flying ("I might as well be riding a bus," she says), but she can't deny that traveling First Class makes up for it.
* [[Altar the Speed]]: The wedding in chapter 10 was in some ways a foregone conclusion (although its participants weren't), but no one expected it to happen ''right then''.
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* [[Anime Hair]]: Generally averted except where imposed by the source material, with one odd exception: in chapter 8, an American Naval officer who meets with Aiko Yamada is a ''Nisei'', an American of Japanese descent, and he is described as being platinum blond. The description comes from a third-person narrative view of Aiko's thoughts, and she doesn't seem to think it odd or unusual.
** There also appears to be at least one ethnic Japanese agent in Hiroyoshi's team at the JNID who is a natural blonde as well.
* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Averted (as is common in fanfic) for Ranma, who has seen ''so'' many weird things just in the last few years of her life that she has absolutely no problems accepting the mysterious voice in her head that claims it's feeding her ki to keep her alive.
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** In chapter 10, the Emperor of Japan arranges a marriage between Ranma and her cousin Midori (wearing a male form thanks to instant Jusenkyo powder) on ''very'' short notice, as a ploy to keep the Yamada ninja clan alive and to preserve their ninjustu ryu. Not the purest example of the trope, as both Ranma and Midori are given the opportunity to object and back out -- but the ''dire'' political and social consequences of doing so are impressed upon both of them, and neither feels they can decline honorably. (And Midori has a crush on Ranma -- to which she admits -- which makes her decision to go along with it much easier.)
** Midori also notes during chaper 10 that if she doesn't marry Ranma it is likely that she will end up in an arranged marriage with her other cousin Daichi should their aunt [[Gold Digger|Tomoko]] try to marry her daughter Hiroko to him in a ploy to gain control of the Yamada estate.
** In chapter 11, Aiko informs Lieutenant Commander Kuroi (the Japanese-American naval officer who will be one of Ranma and Midori's guards during their honeymoon) that he is now affianced to Tsuya thanks to a (disguised) omiai during the tea ceremony at the Imperial Palace the day before. She ''might'' be teasing him, but Tsuya certainly takes it seriously. (Unfortunately, the extant material ends shortly afterward, and we will never find out.)
* [[Australia]]: The Gate directs Ranma to the Southesk Tablelands in Western Australia -- a remote bit of the Outback -- when she wants to try out some of her more destructive guardian powers for the first time.
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** The Gate also suggests to the Crystal that she engage Sailor Moon to help her deprogram herself from whatever blocks and reprogramming Serenity imposed on her.
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Kasumi reaches this in chapter 11 after a [[Trauma Conga Line]] that starts with her entire family getting arrested and culminates when she realizes from the Chrysanthemum seal on the orders to arrest her sisters that the Yamada family -- to whom she had planned to go for help -- had to know about their arrests and either would not or could not help her. Just reading the arrest warrants for her sisters was nearly enough by itself.
* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: The JNID sector chief for Tokyo is clearly of the opinion that the day after Ranma and Midori's wedding is a bad case of this; he resigns himself to working ''very'' late dealing with everything happening and asks his administrative assistant to get him an entire bottle of aspirin.
* [[Disney Death]]: Twice [[In-Universe]]: First, the misapprehension that Ranma died at Mt. Horai, which is corrected (for the Yamada, at least) by chapter 3. Also, Aiko believes that her youngest granddaughter -- who by all appearances is Hotaru "Sailor Saturn" Tomoe -- died in an explosion with her father. She is, of course, not dead, but is currently in infant form after the events of Mugen Gakuen.
* [[The Ditz]]/[[Genius Ditz]]: There's a little bit of this worked into Tsuya's personality.
** JNID agent Yumi Yosano, who appears in chapter 11, apparently enjoys pretending to be a ditz for its humor value.
* [[Divorce Requires Death]]: This certainly seems to describe Nodoka's intentions toward Genma in chapter 6, as part of her [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].
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* [[Family Honor]]: An important element in both the story and the [[Backstory]]. Nodoka is disowned to protect the Yamada family honor (and finances) from Genma and Happosai, forcing Ranma to grow up unaware of any family other than his parents; the Yamada did not rescue him from Genma out of uncertainty whether Ranma was a willing participant in Genma's continuing honorless behavior; Nodoka considers Genma's inaction resulting in the apparent death of Ranma the final dishonorable act from him she can stand, and she also accuses the Tendos of being honorless. Other acts have ramifications on one family's honor or another, and the demands of family honor drive key moments of the plot, sometimes to whipsawing extremes.
* [[Fiery Coverup]]: Accidentally invoked during the <s>jail break</s> rescue of Soun, Akane and Nabiki from the police by the JNID in chapter 11.
* [[First Law of Gender Bending]]: Subverted -- although Ranma never returns to male in the extant material, the Gate assures her that with sufficient experience she will be able to toggle her gender-switch curse at will. And even if she doesn't, it will eventually wear off on its own over the course of Ranma's now [[The Ageless|immensely-prolonged lifespan]].
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* [[The Force Is Strong with This One]]: Aiko, Seiko and other members of the Yamada household are able to sense ki, to the degree that they can tell apart family influences (Ranma's ki apparently has markers of both Yamada and Saotome), in addition to strength, aspecting and other qualities. It is detecting the Gate's vast, pure, "unflavored" and ''inhuman'' ki feeding into Ranma's that convinces Aiko that her grandchild is not insane but is in fact in communication with something that she perceives as a kami.
** Kasumi Tendo possesses a simple ki sense that helped her balance the "wa" of the Tendo home, and allows her to detect individuals in her unspecified but apparently large range. (She detects the brief presence of Ranma in the dojo when Ranma [[Random Teleportation|accidentally teleports]] there, but dismisses it as wishful thinking since she believes Ranma to be dead.) And she somehow draws strength and emotional support from something she attributes to the presence of the Tendo ancestors.
* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: The cousins, but only in the broadest strokes: Harukichi (Phlegmatic), Midori (Choleric), Tsuya (Sanguine), Kioko (Melancholic).
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* [["It" Is Dehumanizing]]: Explicitly invoked by the Gate regarding itself. It takes the time to correct Ranma when she tries to assign a gender to it, telling her that "it" is the most accurate pronoun to use because it isn't human, or even alive, precisely.
** By comparison, the trope is very oddly averted with the Glaive of Space (which is explicitly a "he") and the Crystal of Life (which is a "she").
* [[It's All About Me]]: Genma, to a ridiculous extreme. Because Ranma is so important to Genma's plans for his own enrichment, [[Accidentally Accurate|he refuses to believe that Ranma is dead.]] And in chapter 11 he spies on Kasumi as she's crying over the Imperial arrest warrants for Akane and Nabiki. His thoughts make it clear that he thinks they are for himself and Soun, regardless of the evidence of the aftermath of the police raid.
* [[Justified Tutorial]]: Over the course of chapters 7 and 8, the Gate walks Ranma through all her basic powers and the major functions of the Gate she can access.
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** A significantly less comedic example than usual is found at the beginning of chapter 9, when Happosai and the spirit of Yasuko Saotome, his daughter, discuss ''something'' that Happosai did that seems to have resulted in her death but also gave her five years of motherhood. From what little is actually said, whatever it was seems to have been more -- and more damaging -- than the [[Parental Incest]] that resulted in Genma's birth.
** Also in chapter 9 is a throwaway line about the origin of one of the Australian superteam investigating where Ranma did her "practicing" with her Guardian powers, when one member of the team shudders at the unspecified memmory of "the terrible price Lizzy had paid for her powers."
* [[North Korea]]: According Ranma's account of the training trip, Genma originally wanted to go through North Korea on the way to Jusenkyo, but there had been a big troop build-up and he couldn't figure out how to do it without getting them both shot full of holes.
* [[Nosebleed]]: Midori gets one in chapter 4 when a braless Ranma stretches after a nap.
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* [[Place of Power]]: Happosai travels a considerable distance, carrying a large backpack of supplies, in order to visit a hidden building which is apparently the only place where he can perform the [[Necromancer|necromantic]] [[Ritual Magic|ritual]] that allows him to speak with the spirit of his daughter.
* [[Police Brutality]]: In chapter 9, Akane and Nabiki (along with their father) are arrested by police from the Chiyoda-ku precinct, who mistreat them when they're incarcerated at the local station. (And in the original version of the scenes, [[Lost Forever|rewritten by Shurtleff after reader complaints]], the mistreatment was
* [[Power Glows]]: A side effect of Ranma's [[Power Incontinence]] before she finishes the bonding with the Gate. Just as in real life it indicates that energy is being used ineffciently and wasted, as Ranma and the Gate both note several times.
** The obviously magical pendant Happosai receives from a dragon in chapter 9 briefly glows with brilliant light when he puts it on.
** In chapter 11, Kasumi (unknown to herself) glows a soft white when drawing on what she perceives as the Tendo ancestors for support and emotional strength.
* [[Power Incontinence]]: Until Ranma can complete the bonding process with the Gate, she suffers from having more ki than she can use, almost more than she can control, and too much to use with any kind of fine control. And the Gate eventually admits she will lose control of the ki within days if she doesn't complete the bonding quickly.
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* [[Psychic Link]]: One exists between Ranma and the Gate; establishing this was the first step in the bonding process, and required the injured, semi-conscious Ranma's agreement in chapter one.
* [[Punch Clock Hero|Punch Clock Spy]]: In chapter 11, NID
* [[Random Teleportation]]: During her first few tries at teleporting, Ranma discovers if she loses focus on her intended target, she may go somewhere else familiar which is similar to where she actually ''wanted'' to go, or where she subconsciously wishes she were (like the Tendo dojo).
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* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: During the events of Shurtleff's untitled side story, Cologne muses on how she was forced to acknowledge that this is the case for the Chinese Amazons -- that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, they are a miniscule tribe of backwater barbarians whose martial arts prowess is only exceeded by their ignorance and arrogance.
* [[South Korea]]: In chapter 11, as they fly to San Francisco, Ranma tells Midori the story of the training trip that ended with Jusenkyo, and how one leg took her and Genma through South Korea from the southernmost tip all the way up to the DMZ.
* [[Spoiled Brat]]: Tomoko Yamada comes across, admittedly at a distance, as a grown-up version.
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* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]:
** Ranma's combat abilities as Guardian Khronos ''start'' at "quite destructive" and rapidly escalate from there, as she discovers (and inflicts on the Australian Outback) when she first learns how to use them. A "Khronos Lance" cast in chapter 8 results in the impressive obliteration of a large rock outcropping, for example.
** The JNID operation to rescue Soun, Akane and Nabiki from the [[Dirty Cop]]s who arrested them includes a ''lot'' of breaching charges -- to get into the station through a wall, to break the Tendos out of their cells, and to get into the evidence room to retrieve the evidence collected from the Tendo home. Unfortunately one of the charges took out a structural support column and the entire south wall of station ultimately collapses from the damage.
* [[Suddenly Always Knew That]]: Ranma discovers that the knowledge of how to use her various tools and powers as Guardian Khronos was "implanted" in her by the bonding process. ("Isn’t that like ... well ... cheating?" she asks the Gate. No, because, as the Gate explains, knowing how to use her powers is not the same as having experience and skill in using them, and there's more to what she can do than the simple preprogrammed abilities built into the transformation -- making this a simultaneous invocation ''and'' subversion of the trope.)
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** To a lesser degree the Primary Key (aka the Garnet Rod) is also this, as its use is required to access Khronos' mid- and higher-level spells.
* [[Villainy Discretion Shot]]: The scene of Nabiki's cooperation with the [[Dirty Cop]] who's arrested her in chapter 9 ends with the cop instructing her to strip, supposedly so he can do a full strip search.
* [[Wedding Day]]: Ranma (as the bride) and male!Midori (as the groom, thanks to instant Jusenkyo powder) are married at the behest of the Emperor of Japan in what is the last major set-piece of the extant story material.
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** The Emperor notes that many of the fifteen surviving ninja clans are associated with organized crime.
** The police who arrest Nabiki and Akane appear to legitimately believe Nabiki has Yakuza connections -- and that Akane works as her enforcer.
** The JNID team who rescue Nabiki and Akane from the cops plan to frame the local Yakuza for the [[Stuff Blowing Up|spectacularly pyrotechnic]] jail break they perform, as well as link Cologne, Shampoo and Mousse to them.
* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: The inevitability of Crystal Tokyo -- and its [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|implicit guarantee of her victory over all the enemies she had already faced and that have yet to appear]] -- was a substantial component of Usagi's confidence in herself and her ability to face her foes without, as she put it, gibbering and cowering in a corner. However, with Ranma replacing Setsuna as the guardian of the Gate, what was once a certainty was now only a low-probability future.
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* [[Lost Forever]]:
** First, the fic itself. It only exists in individual readers' offline archives, because even more than a decade after he yanked his fanwork from the Net, Shurtleff still responds ([[Kibo]]-like) to any attempt to repost it with take-down requests. <!-- This may no longer be true -- links to copies on a dozen different file hosting sites could be found at https://jusenkyo.fandom.com/wiki/Relatively_Absent#Other_External_Links as of April 2020, suggesting he's no longer policing the net for the story. (Just in case, though, this link is in a comment and not open text.) Just how complete these archives are is unknown, though -- the authorized offline archive shared person-to-person contains the prologue, 11 chapters, Shurtleff's untitled sidestory and the sidestory ''Illusions of Honor''; some of the archives appear to stop at chapter 9, and may not have the side stories. -->
** On a smaller level, the
* [[Shout-Out]]:
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** Agent Hirohisa at the Imperial Palace apparently dates a lot of women, who all have familiar names, like [[Sailor Moon|Minako]] and [[Spider-Man|Mary Jane]].
** Cologne was explicitly doing a [[John Wayne]] imitation while riding on Shampoo's pack to Mount Horai.
** In chapter 11, JNID agent Yumi Yosano is jokingly addressed as Minnie May Hopkins from ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'' after she overdoes the breaching charges during an operation and accidentally takes out a structural support column. She plays into it.
{{quote|Shigeki nodded. "Gotcha." She reached over and grabbed a hold of the blonde's wrist, pulling her up off the sofa. "Come on, 'Minnie May', we've got some innocent yaks to frame."
"But Raaaaally ..."}}
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Well, the entire story, basically. But more specifically...
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