Subject: [FFML] ACK! Bad format teaser on Paragon 4! GOMEN!
From: Kenjiko2@aol.com
Date: 2/27/2000, 1:29 AM
To: ffml@fanfic.com


    I'm SORRY!  I forgot to format the teaser before sending it!  I'm SOOO 
sorry!

    Um... here it is... formatted... please don't kill me.

Kenko/Robert Haynie-- Author of Girl Days, Paragon, Redheads, 
and War and Peace-- and firm believer that the BEST damn anime on TV right 
now is Iron Chef. (Aw, come ON-- two men in a pitched battle to prove their 
style is the superior, no holds barred, no IDEA what they are dealing with-- 
what's not anime about that?)


-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: paragon4t.txt

	Most people didn't understand the truth about Cologne.  Which
suited her just fine.

	For quite some time now, she had been well aware that the chances
that Ranma would actually submit to Amazon law and return to China
with Shampoo were less than good.  One doesn't live to be more than a
hundred without being something of a judge of human nature and
hearts, and there was little doubt in her mind that the only thing
keeping Ranma and Akane from the altar was the fact that they were
being forced into it.

	Besides, law or no law, she no longer really wanted Ranma in the
tribe.  They boy was just too independent-- he'd make a proper amazon
husband the day that Mousse developed spontaneous 20-20 vision and
Shampoo took a vow of chastity.  The lad also carried chaos around
him in ways that she still at times could not believe.  A year in
Jokuzetsu would likely mean no more Jokuzetsu, since she had no
reason to believe that the unending string of challengers, strange
happenings, paranatural occurrences, and just plain wierdness would
stop at the Nerima limits.  True, this area probably amplified it a
bit-- the ward was known for a history of odd happenings-- but the
boy attracted such things wherever he went.  

	She hadn't taken a really active hand in the matter since the boy
had used the Neko-ken to defeat her for the Phoenix Pill.  It was
then she realised that he was truly opposed to the idea, which had
startled her.  She had assumed-- as had most Amazons-- that a male
would fall for Shampoo's allure, sensuality, and culinary skills in a
heartbeat.  She had assumed wrong.

	Because Ranma wasn't like most males.  He was practically
unseduceable.  He reacted to physical advances not with
reciprocation, but with unease.  He wanted-- if he wanted anything--
to be left alone, to find his own path.  It was fairly clear that
that path didn't include making many little Amazon babies.

	Of course, that combined with the fact that Shampoo's first idea
was to kill him and her second and following ones were to hang onto
him like a love starved chunk of moss on a reluctant oak tree didn't
do a lot to help either.

	Sometimes Shampoo would come across some old or arcane piece of
lore or paranormal seasoning, and try it.  It never worked, of
course-- love doesn't work that way, and fate derailed attempts to
make it do so-- but Shampoo, who couldn't see anything past the idea
that Ranma = Airen would try again.  Cologne neither encouraged or
discouraged these attempts anymore.  She just sat back, watched, and
enjoyed the chaos.

	After all, Nerima was so much more FUN than the sleepy Amazon
village.  What had started as a husband hunt had become what Cologne
considered a sort of temporary retirement with a never ending floor
show.

	From time to time she would teach Ranma something.  Not because
she hoped to gain him for the tribe.  Not because she had any real
plans for the boy.  Rather, because he was such a joy to teach--
unlike the children of the Amazon tribes she knew who saw the Art as
just another way to fight, he understood the truth--

	The Art was... The Art.

	Shampoo knew how to fight-- very well indeed-- but she didn't
really understand the Art.  Kuonji was skilled with her-- admittedly
peculiar-- weapon of choice, but she didn't really understand the
Art.  Akane, the one she knew Ranma would eventually choose, Amazon
Law be damned, had potential that she was letting go to waste because
she had no real commitment to it-- she could have understood the Art,
but she didn't.

	Hibiki, now... he understood.  You don't learn the true Bakusai
Tenkatsu without understanding the Art.  You don't master a move like
the Shi Shi Hokodan without understanding the Art.

	And Ranma-- mastering the Burning Chestnut technique without
being able to touch fire-- and THEN refining it into a devastating
attack technique (which it had not been intended for).

	Mastering the Hiryuu Shoten Ha without having been taught the
final move-- instead exectuting it on instinct... and later
developing methods which didn't require leading the opponent into a
spiral, but merely executing one himself.  Much less once creating,
on the spot, a variation that worked while he was soaring in midair.
(And oh, did she have a quiet chuckle when Mousse had related THAT
tale to her.  Poor Herb... heh.)  She expected any day now for the
boy to design a variant that let him stand still.  

	Seeing the Shi Shi Hokodan and imitating it without the scroll--
and then after seeing the scroll refining it into a new and non-self
destructive technique-- Mokou Takabisha.  

	And his almost insane skill at adapting whatever was around him
into a new technique on the spot for that fight alone.  (She still
boggled at times when she thought about the Pantyhose Meteor Kick.)

	The boy didn't understand the Art.  The boy WAS the Art.

	Besides, law or no law, no WAY was she going to try to force the
lad who had killed Saffron- SAFFRON, dear Gods, SAFFRON- to go to
China.  She liked her little restaurant in one piece.

	Her little body, also.  

	And as for the lure of a cure for the curse-- apparently some
passing spirit had whimsically decided to remove it.  Even if Cologne
found a cure, it was useless as a lure now.  

	Well, it was really for the best.  Ranma would NOT make a good
Amazon.

	But Shampoo didn't understand that.  And so, without mentioning
it to her, Shampoo had gone to prevent the wedding of Ranma and
Akane.  And she had actually expected Ranma to be grateful.

	(My great-grand-daughter's a love-struck idiot,) Cologne mused.
A miserable one now, since Ranma refused to talk to her, or even
acknowledge her presence of late.  Ranma was not grateful for the
interrupted wedding.  He was, in fact, unhappy about it.  

	Or he had been.

	Something had happened along with the cure, Cologne decided.
Something important.  Ranma would vanish for extended periods, and
no-one knew where.  He wasn't talking about it.  He wasn't, in fact,
acting much like Ranma.  He was acting as though he was finally
maturing.

	Hmm... how much did a curse have to do with his long-held
immaturity?  

	The phone rang, interrupting Cologne's musing.

	"Moshi Moshi."

	"Oh, you.  Haven't heard from you in a long time, Doctor--"

	"You... you aren't serious?  You ARE?  Oh, GODDESS..."

	"Well, of COURSE I'll come.  I'm sworn to her service as much as
any of the rest of the Brotherhood.  Especially since I'm the only
female IN the Brotherhood, and I'll have to make certain you don't
advise her poorly with your male outlook..."

	"I don't see what's so funny.  Hmmph.  I'll meet you there
tomorrow."

	She hung up.

	Thoughts about Ranma, about Shampoo, about the Art, about
everything were banished.  There was something vastly more important
to consider.  

	The Dark had returned.  It HAD to have returned--

	Because the Paragon had.

	####

	Robert Haynie Presents

	A Ranma 1/2 / Sailor Moon fanfiction

	PARAGON

	Episode Four : A Mysterious Conspiracy? The Circle gathers!

	####



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