Having found the ML archive and read the post of wliia I am now prepared to
offer a slightly more informed opinion of Akane's new ki powers :).

Overall they are a lot more in balance then I had thought, there are indeed some
downturns to them and they aren't quite as powerful as the pure description of
them would imply.  I do still think they are more powerful than most of the
Ranma-verse characters, but in context of the story they aren't quite so out of
place.  Continuing the discussion of them is probably a good idea though, since
at the very least it'll get Andrew a more defined mental picture of how they
work, and what drawbacks/advantages they have.  

Actually, as this story has been in the works for about six months. I have
a very good idea of what is going on.

 >

Now a few more questions based on my reading:

Obviously Akane is still using them in a very instinctive manner, will they get
more powerful as she learns from Cologne?  Or just become easier to do on a more
intentional level?

More powerful? No. but Cologne does help her alot.

Is her running in the opening chapter a byproduct of her new abilities (ie will
she be able to perform this again), or was that more motivated by her concern
for Ranma?

Motivated by her concern. Although her training under cologne gets her in
better physical shape, she never repeats that.

At this point (upto chapter 7)  how much ki does Akane have to use on her
powers?  (i.e. how long could she go approximately before she runs out of
willforce to power the useful abilities?)  And how long will it take under
normal circumstances to regenerate that ki back? 

I'm not explaining this again....If you had a bucket full of water, with a
hole in it that you wanted to
drink from, everything would be fine until you're thrist outweighed the
flow. The you would have to expend energy to get more water (no, you can't
tip the bucket), the more water, the more energy needed to pull it through
that hole.

Thus anything Akane's mass or less is easy, she merely has to want to hold
it. (wanting to hold it is easy with her hands, difficult elsewhere, she
is used to the concept of 'gripping' something, and it translates well)

If it exceeds her mass she has to pull more force to hold it. Like sucking
water through the hole, it is an exhausting process, and the more water
needed, the more exhausting. If she never exceeds the natural flow of her
body (the hole) it takes no effort use the energy which is naturally there
(it flows through her, so it doesn't build up, however she can augment it
with her own energy if she is has a supply, like anger, for the
punch/kick mostly.)

bleah.. better understanding now?

A side effect is she doesn't really need to eat for metabolic energy.  Does she
need to eat at all or would water and vitamins do the trick?  (Hey, sounds like
my diet :)  Would she be able to draw heat energy from the surroundings and convert
it into useful physical energy during/after a fight?

No, heating cooling is easy, an actual heat->energy conversion would
require a major physical restructering of her body, and is not goin to
happen. She also will tend to snack more (smaller meals more often) but I
don't really get into it that much in the story.

Overall I was actually very impressed with the writing... hurry up and finish it
;)

It'll get done when it gets done. Nothing gets posted until I am happy
with it. (Don't worry, this is the speil everyone gets, so no offense.)



--
Andrew Stodden	( bg715@freenet.carleton.ca )
"Infinity happens twice a day, and you eat the impossible for breakfast!"
Me, trying to convince my friend to help with a project.
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