At 03:58 AM 96-11-16 -0700, Eimii wrote:

After much deliberation, i have decided that i may have a way to explain
Ryouga's ability to get lost in an empty room with one door and no
windows. I'm drawing this from a phenomenon description found in palladium
books Rifts:Phaseworld dimension book. In short: Ryouga lives in a
constant state of partial cross-dimentional phase. That is, he is never
completely in sync with the universe at large (other people have said this
about him for different reasons, but that's not what i mean). What might
be ten feet for one person could be countless miles for Ryouga. A left
turn for Ryouga might be a right turn for everyone else. Also, to take it
to an extreme, an empty lot in Nermia might easily become an empty lot in
New York to Ryouga, as he probably dosen's pay enough attention to his
surroundings to tell the difference immediately. This could explain how he
can travel from continent to continent without ever crossing a large body
of water. He could get lost in any forrest in the world and emerge from
any other forrest in the world.
If he ever got control of this, it would probably be real advantage in a
fight. If Ryouga was ever on the recieving end of a final attack, he could
probably think to himself 'No, i'm not standing in the path of a Hiryu
Shoten Ha, i'm really standing right behind Ranma/50 feet above
Ranma/somewhere in Panama.' and viola, Ryouga is gone. Where he actually
ends up is still probably anyone's guess.
Well, i've rambled enough, and i think i can see someone coming down the
hall carrying a large blunt object. This is of course my cue to pray for
my life and concentrate on being anywhere but here.

Maybe it's best to think of Ryouga as similar to one of those
hyperdimentional mallets, exept that he tends to protest more when you
smash him over Ranma's head.

~Eimii 

        Ryouga's method of travel is truly an enigma.  How else could he
travel from Japan to China to Moscow to Japan again without getting wet from
crossing the ocean? It could be several reasons.  The Shifting Reality or
Trans-Dimentional gateway ideas are just one theory.....

        Some have said it has somthing to do with the bandanna that he wears
and if he ever bothered to take it off for a long period of time, he
wouldn't get lost anymore.  If that's the case, perhaps the bandanna itself
is cursed....Do all of the Hibiki's wear bandanna's?  Maybe it's just
wrapped too tightly?

        Another theory is that something happened in Ryouga's past that was
so horrifying that he subconsiously blocks it out and gets lost so he won't
be able to find his way back to the specific location where the horror
occured.  It makes sense when you realize that Ryouga hasn't been able to
stumble across Jyusekeou again by accident.  Could the horror of becoming
P-Chan and almost being eaten have blocked Ryouga's ability to find it again? 

        It could also be a mental thing.  We know that the Hibiki clan are
wanderers and therefore Ryouga's direction problem didn't suddenly develop
after he met Ranma.  However, Ryouga's current obsession with Akane, Ranma
and finding Nerima may prevent Ryouga from thinking straight if he never
allows himself to clear his mind once in a while, thus making it impossible
to focus on where he is going.  When his mind is clear, he tends to not get
lost so often or not as much....

        We may never know for sure how he does it but in my opinion it's a
lot more fun to guess on Ryouga's method of travel than to have a SOLID
reason.  Mainly because it enables us, the Ranma 1/2 fanfic writers, to
write whatever reason we feel suits our own stories best. :)

        Of course, it could be that Ryouga is in fact not what he
appears....a human boy with unusual strength who *mysteriously* gets lost
after an adventure is over, only to reappear at random times in random
places with no explanation on how he got there.  Perhaps the reason Ranma
completely forgot about Ryouga when he was first confronted at Furinkan High
School is because....


        ....There was never a grudge to begin with....until Ryouga planted
it there....

        
        Why, if that were the case, one would think Ryouga was in fact not
human at all.  That he is and always has been, *someone* or *something* sent
from *somewhere* to accomplish a task that would not only involve the entire
Ranma 1/2 cast, but would have repercussions that would change their world
forever and lead them all down a dark path who's ending would be uncertain
at best....        

        But let's not get carried away now.... ;)