I like this very much. I sort of held my metal breath waiting to find
out who Tachi's mother was. I was relieved to find it to be Nabiki -
and a *good* Nabiki at that. She's my favortie character in the manga,
and I happen to believe she and Kuno belong together. It's good to find
others with my viewpoint. :)
The whole bit with "The Will of Heaven" was great. It seems so in
character with Tatewaki.
The reference to "X-Men" was a little jarring; IMHO. Maybe you could
change it to, "with enough angst and confusion thrown in to make you
think you were a Hibiki", or something that stays within the Ranmaverse.
Where do you keep "Descents and Inversions"? "Symmetric Polynomials"
has got me sufficiently interested that I'd like to read the prequel.
Good job, keep it up.