"Then," he interrupted, snapping the next page into place,
"you go to this outhouse - the one on the farthest edge of the
village."  The Akane in the image had been drawn walking with
a pained look on her face, struggling along like a toddler
still in potty training.

She seethed at this latest unflattering sketch.  "If you want
someone to help you," she grumbled, "you could at least TRY to
be nice to them..."

For some reason, perhaps the use of unconventional clothing,
This part reminds me of that manga story where Shampoo almost
turned into a cat on New Year�s.

The Tendou girl felt a flush rising in her face.  "Well...
no," she admitted.  Her gaze drifted to Shampoo, and she
fidgeted uncomfortably.  "I'm not so sure it'll be such a good
idea... to have anybody else there."

SHAMPOO: �It ok. Shampoo get vicarious pleasure.�

"If I'm right," Cologne cut in, "Ranma will need help
defeating the third form of the Reikoku as well.  This is help
that only Shampoo can provide, I think."

"Only Shampoo?" Akane looked doubtful.  "What does that mean?"

"No time now," the old woman insisted.  "Winter is coming, and
you must not tarry in finding Ranma if he is to survive this
season.  The Reikoku is not hindered by dark or cold as humans
are.  Now hurry.  Gather your belongings and make ready to
leave.  There is no more time to talk."

You�d think Cologne would�ve mentioned that in their little
strategy session described earlier? It seems like something a
bit too important to leave out. Then again, keeping Akane

is the dark is a Ranma � tradition!


Happosai was a parasite, and he knew it.  He had long devoted
himself to a brand of martial arts which allowed him to pull
energy off another - a woman, it had to be - and nourish
himself.  The drawback was that once he became good at doing
that, he was hooked.  Happosai was not just a pervert, he was
a perversion junkie.  So thorough was his addiction that any
act of decency or kindness he might show to another caused him
to suffer violent seizures of withdrawal.  He had to devote
himself to being rotten just to keep going.


I really like this.
�The Happosai Monologues.�

Often, he is portrayed as the sort of remorseless evil that
Genma and Soun describe, but for the most part, it is pettiness
and not outright maliciousness. And he has, from time to time,

tried to do good or semi-good things. He has his vulnerable side!
*sob sob* �He�s a human being!!�

Then again, he�s also a rotten pervert.

I can�t imagine how anyone is going to convince him to die for
Ranma (or the others) though...

The trick was to find the right students.  That was where he
felt he'd gone wrong the first time around, quite frankly.
Genma and Soun had seemed so promising at first, but somewhere
along the way they'd cracked under strain.  Saotome had become
a coward, and Tendou had become a crybaby.  Disappointing,
really.

Heh. Always nice to see one�s psychological trauma reduced to an
eleven word blurb.

Happosai closed his eyes and tapped his foot, pretending to
think this over.  Best not to let a youngster like this one
get too cocky.  Still, this sounded too good to pass up.
"Okay, boy.  Let's go have a look.  But I warn you, if this
little doe of yours turns out to be a pig, I'm going to get
pretty angry."

The boy stifled a snort, possibly of laughter.  It was the
first crack in his respectful demeanor.  Happosai glared at
him.  "Something funny, kiddo?"

"Forgive me, venerable one," the black-clad youth said
smoothly.  "You shall see with your own eyes.  I promise you,
this girl is not a pig.  Not a pig at all."

Heheh. I liked this when you wrote it all those months ago, and
I still do. Poor ol Happi...

His respect for the young hopeful who was leading him also
crept up a notch.  The boy had potential, that much was sure.
To go through all this trouble for a bit of peeping?  Quite
impressive.  And he was good, no question.  He seemed
completely at home in the tangled wilderness, showing the easy
grace of one who has traveled far on foot over all manner of
terrain.  He also had a natural instinct for stealth, keeping
himself cloaked in the shadows at almost all times, to the
point that even Happosai hadn't gotten a really good look at
him yet.  Very admirable indeed.

This always struck me as a bit off for Ukyou. She never came off
as particularly stealthy (and rarely very subtle). I suppose you
can chalk it up to all the training she had done recently, but I
don�t think any of that included ninja-esque type stuff.

"Well?" the youth beside him whispered.

"Not bad," Happosai rasped back.  "What a hottie..."

Austin Powers: �It�s a MAN, baby!!�

"I... I have looked," the boy admitted, "but I cannot bring
myself to..."  He heaved a huge sigh.  "I know that the moment
a woman steps into her bath, she is at her most vulnerable.
And yet, for all that I have prepared, I still cannot bring
myself to do it!  I can't bring myself... to cop a feel!"  He
hid his face in embarrassment.

It is a big leap from sexual harassment to assault, I suppose.
There, there. Hesitation is only natural.

Konatsu: �Poor Ukyou-san!�

Happosai felt the air squeezed out of him by a grip like a
titan's.  His frog-like eyes bulged as he looked up into the
smiling, fanged face of his captor.  "Y... you?" he managed to
gasp as the air rushed from his lungs.

"Surprise, you son of a bitch," Hibiki Ryouga snarled with
savage triumph.  "We've finally got you."

I do do do wonder just how they�ll �convince� Happosai to cooperate.
Or if it will even help. No: it probably will help, since you�ve
devoted this much fic-space to it, but how? Hmmm...

"How come?" Ranma felt a trace of unease.

"Oh, you know him," Nabiki said smoothly. "Always crying about
something.  So, where are you now?"

I laughed out loud at that.


"Crap," Ranma swore.  He peered out the front door of the
little roadside restaurant where he had checked in to use the
phone, trying to get his bearings.  "Lessee... there's kind of
a valley back the way I came, with a windy river thing through
it that's all frozen.  It's hilly around here, but the
mountains are off to the west..."

Those are the kind of directions you�d expect from Ryouga. �I�m
in a city somewhere. Mountains to my left, is that north or west?
Let�s see: buildings. I�m in some sort of Square. Tanks are

rolling around, protestors screaming. Is this Washington DC?�

He was out of inspiration, spinning his wheels.  He was tired
and lonely, and so sick of being afraid...

"Ranma?  You still there?"

The young Saotome cleared his throat.  "Yeah... still here."

I liked the above scene. It was well timed, and gave a good
impression of Ranma�s unusually stressed state of mind.

"I'll ask Shampoo."

There came a pause from her sister in Nerima.  "Well... I
guess.  Are you sure you can trust her, sis?  I mean, this was
the girl who out to kill you."

�who (was) out to kill you.�
Or
�who tried to kill you a few times. Two or three, maybe? Then
again, who hasn�t tried to kill somebody, somewhere, for some
perfectly good reason? ...Akane? Hello?�

"We've got that cleared up," Akane said.

�She doesn�t try and kill me, and I don�t cook for the village.
A fair bargain, I�d say. No one HAS to get hurt...�

Akane grinned a little as she hung up the phone. She'd been
pretty caught up in the past months with her own struggles
with training and wanting to go after Ranma, but not so much
that she hadn't seen the changes in her sister. The cool
mercenary exterior still held firmly in place, but the Nabiki
underneath had grown up quite a bit. Akane knew Nabiki had run
into more trouble running the restaurant than she'd
anticipated - and that seemed to have burned some of the
selfish cynicism out of her. All you had to do was look at the
way she treated Konatsu to see how much she'd changed. If this
kept up, Ranma would barely recognize Nabiki when they got
back home.

This story has one of the better Nabiki character development
subplots, I�d like to add. I especially liked when you paralleled
it to Akane�s own training regimen.


The Amazon girl raised her gaze a little. "Is penance. Shampoo
have duty to her people..."


SHAMPOO: �Shampoo is madclaw. Must honor lifedebt.�

READER: �What the hell is this a reference to?�

CAPN: �Star Wars Wookie thing. Don�t look at me like that!!�

Akane drew out the colorful, purple scarf and showed it to her
companion. "My adopted sister back home had her head shaved
too... kind of by accident, but still. This is what we did for
her. Let me tie it on..."

Shampoo�s head ends up wrapped up like a mummy.

SHAMPOO: �Why Akane kill sister like this?�

Shampoo's lips trembled. She eased closer to Akane. "I... not
realize... you such a kind person..."

Yes canon Akane is something of a sucker for charity cases.


"Pfft," Shampoo snorted. "Boat take forever. Is train leaving
very soon. Hurry, slowpoke, or we miss it!"


Shampoo�s sudden turnaround of behavior threw me off, to tell the
truth. It was like �frowny face� -> �happy face�!! Reversal Jewel
type fast, too. But that�s could just be me.

Saotome Genma turned in surprise at her entrance, fidgeting
with his glasses. He had been moved to the smaller guest room
now that Natsume and Kurumi were here, taking up the space
where he and Ranma had once slept. He slapped the book he'd
been reading closed and tucked it behind his back. Nabiki made
a mental note to find out what it was - she liked to keep
informed about the goings-on in the household. For now, it
wasn't an issue.

�Mating Habits of the Giant Panda�
(insert sweatdrop wherever)

"Oh come now, Mr. Saotome," she hummed. "No need to be shy.
After all, you've been known to complain about what an ingrate
your son is. Now, it becomes clear that you have not one, but
two lovely daughters."

Ah, I saw this coming, of course, but still...
Genma isn�t exactly the best father around, and he�s much maligned
as a character, which is perhaps why I personally don�t want to
throw infidelity in with the rest of his crimes. Make it seem if he
at least has some loyalty and decency. It is a purely personal
preference type thing, so that Panda-san hasn�t gone back on EVERY
vow and word of honor over the last twenty years.

She indicated the dossier. "It's all there, I'm afraid.
Testimony gathered from Natsume and Kurumi about what they
know from their father. The matter of your Anything-Goes
Scroll in their hands. Comparative analysis from your poetry
and the journal Natsume read. A timeline of your 'training
journey,' which coincides with two protracted stays in the
same neighborhood as Natsume and Kurumi's mother. Witnesses
who said..."

�Then there�s the video tape.�

"It's circumstantial!" the broad-framed martial artist
protested loudly. "It's not proof of anything!"

He was performing the Heimlich Maneuver. Very very well.
*dodges thrown vegetables and assorted weapons*

"Ah," Nabiki raised a finger. "I wonder. Would your wife see
it the same way?"

The ashen look that often accompanied Mr. Saotome's
reflections on his marriage crept onto his face. He faked a
nonchalant pose. "She'd understand. Manly behavior, and all
that."

Genma (serious face): �You didn�t live through the Sixties.
You wouldn�t understand.�

Nabiki's smile just broadened. She made a little "tsking"
noise. "Ah, like father, like son," she opined. "How utterly
predictable. Did you really think I'd allow you to eat your
way out of this?"

LOL! �Brilliant!�

He wasn't that strong physically, but he made up for it by
knowing how to apply leverage in ways that would make
Archimedes' head spin.  They had agreed that when making bonds
for the old goat, you couldn't just hope to truss up his hands
or his feet or anything - you'd better go for the full
mummification treatment from the neck down.  And the last
thing to keep in mind was that if Happosai got his battle aura
going, there was no holding him down.  The strategy had to be
to use something to weaken his energy to the point that he
couldn't even generate a spark.

For this, they had decided to use Ryouga's socks.

How deliciously cruel!
Then again, it could be worse. Much much worse.


"Of course he remembers you!" Ukyou shouted, struggling
against her angry companion.  "Remember that other guy we met?
The groveling one?  Happosai had been telling stories about
you, and Ranma, and everybody!  He remembers you just fine.
He's just pulling your strings, dummy!"


Ukyou saves the day.
I can so see Happosai doing this.

Ukyou reigned in her temper and pulled back, composing
herself.  "Heh," she said as she tossed her hair back and took
a deep breath.  "Yes, of course.  You really are a slippery
old bastard, aren't you?  But we're not going to fall for any
of your tricks."

�Not even one? Please? Fine! Be that way!�

"Since we're in China," Ukyou explained evenly, "we decided to
use a bit of Chinese history to inspire us.  Extracting
confessions from prisoners has been a fine art in China for
many centuries now. Did you know that? Water torture, bamboo
torture, caning, thumbscrews... the list just goes on and on."

There are some pretty creative Vietnamese tricks, too. Like the
infamous thin glass rod and the stripper technique. It is actually
a rather interesting study; the different ways cultures and
 societies developed and applied torture. I wrote a paper on it
for Comparative Civilizations, years ago.

"AAAK!" Happosai gagged as powerful male musk flooded his
nostrils.  "Get it away!  Get it away!"

�It BURNS US!!!�

"Lights out," Ryouga said with unmistakable relish, then began
to smack the heavy stones together like a pair of cymbals,
with Happosai's head in between.  Quite a few loud whacks
later, the stones had crumbled into powder, and the old man
was dangling unconscious from the tree limb.

That was brutal.
I strongly approve.


Well, you got him to talk, and in a believable way. Of course,
 he isn�t really helping, or anything like that, but that would
be a tad on the easy side.

As for the end of this scene, heh � I�ll always have a soft spot
for Ukyou/Ryouga stuff. It must�ve been among the first Ranma
fanfiction I read, waaay back when. That latent inclination

will probably be with me till the end of my days.

This had been pretty jarring at first. Kunou had a tendency to
burst out of nowhere and... express his affection. The
attempted hugs were one thing - she could deal with those, and
even found them a bit charming. The poetry, though, was a
problem.

�It�s always something! Women!�


"Is mine verse so offensive to thine ears?" Kunou lamented.
"Can the muse of the Supercharged Shogun of Furinkan High
truly speak with a tin voice?"


Supercharged Shogun?
Kuno, I salute you. Truly great men are never limited to just a
few titles.

She reached for another cookie... only to find her fingernails
scrabbling against a bare plate. Natsume looked down, aghast,
and saw her little sister standing beside her. Kurumi's cheeks
bulged with a payload caramel-coated confections - crumbs
tumbled down her chin as she gnawed the huge sugary bolus in
her mouth.

"You ate them!" Natsume shouted in despair. "You ate them
ALL!"

�JUDAS!!!�

     "There once was a maiden named Tendou

  >     Who was belov'd by a master of kendo
  >     She had keen, piercing eyes
  >     Lithe and muscular thighs
  >     A firm bust, and a shapely rear-end-o...AAAAaaaah!"


Poor Kuno.
I thought that was pretty good.

"T... thanks," Natsume replied through clenched teeth. <I
guess love is never easy,> she mused ruefully.

Not in Nerima, it seems.

The two turned, and suddenly they were flying across the snow.
The flat things they stood on slid across the pristine white,
carrying them with stomach-dropping speed down the steep
slope.

Nice scene with Ranma and the fire there.

Skis... where�d they get those? I can say from experience that
skis aren�t exactly the easiest and most convenient things to lug
around. Plus, where/when did Akane and Shampoo learn to use
them? Even in good conditions, and on groomed trails, it takes
a while to learn. Then again, it isn�t like Japan itself has
some great lack of skiing.

"We going," Shampoo told him. "Only got two snowboards, so you
have to be carried. Hold on, Ranma-san..."

Snowboards?! Bah. Even harder to learn, IMHO, but easier to carry
around, at least.

Akane led them on a course parallel to the ravine, then with a
sudden leap that made Ranma-chan cry out in shock, she hurled
herself into the blackness of the canyon. But as she'd said, a
power line snaked its way up the mountainside on tall poles
across the ravine, within jumping distance at the edge of the
chasm. Akane landed with her snowboard lengthwise along one
of the steel cables and began to slide.

Triple X type stuff! Dis chick�s burnin� yo, crackin� some spinsies
in dere, yeeea! Dey all up in da hizzy, getting� bizzeey!

I think Akane�s been playing too much Sonic Adventure 2 and Tony Hawk.
Oh well. Hizzy.

"Combo!" she cried in glee as she sped down the slope.

She'd been training - that much was obvious to Ranma-chan -
but it was more than that. She had found something in herself
that Ranma-chan hadn't seen for a long time, almost since
they'd first met. Tendou Akane had found her confidence again.

I still blame video games.

In the air, the letters: �5000!! Excellent!� appeared

Confidence was a martial artist's greatest ally. It let you
transcend your physical limits, pull off moves and attacks
with authority, and achieve all the techniques you'd practiced
in a real fight, when it counted. Whether it came across as
cocky arrogance or quiet inner strength, every great martial
artist had a well of deep confidence upon which they could
draw when battle came.

Akane had lacked that. She had tried to cover with a sort of
false bravado that tended to collapse when she was under
pressure, but somewhere along the way, she had lost the
confidence in herself that the other martial artists in Nerima
all possessed.

<Lost it along the way, huh?> Ranma-chan asked herself, her
inner voice harsh in her mind. <You TOOK that away, buddy. You
came in and got a huge kick out of being better than her at
everything she cared about. You tore her down and made fun of
her at every opportunity. You just picked and picked and
picked away at her confidence, like some kind of damned water
torture. That was YOU, Saotome Ranma.>

Sad, but kind of true.
Though a lot of Akane-stuff I remember in the manga is typical of
supreme over confidence...

Akane smiled at her and hugged her back.  Ranma-chan felt
herself sliding into unconsciousness as she heard her
fiancee's answer. "What do you think, you dummy? I came here
to save you."

Truth be told, I�ve been waiting for Relentless to continue for a
long time. I remember when I first read it, and tried to send an
email about how much I had liked it. That I can�t remember whether
I got an �email addy doesn�t exist� msg, or what, is telling for
how long ago it was.


It is a good good thing to see it continued to completion!

And I don�t even have to wait for the next chapter.

Sweetness.

- Capn Chryssalid (jbw@wpi.edu)
(I didn�t even go by that name when I first read Relentless, now that I
think of it)


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