Hmm. I'm of two minds about this one.

   On the one hand, the story was very skillfully presented. Good
dialogue, prose, etc. The plot was fairly original (fairly), and the
author did a good job with the dark tone. Normally I'd be endorsing the
story.


Spoilers Below
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   But the ending is just, IMHO, skewed. We have Ranma killing Nabiki to
satisfy "Justice", even though it's clear he doesn't want to. Justice?
Let's examine the case.

   Nabiki is guilty of telling the Amazon Duo when the wedding would take
place. She does this because:
   She's getting paid a lot of money
   She's been promised that a cask of male Jusenkyo water will be given to
    Ranma.
   She has Cologne's promice that they won't try to inferfere with the
    wedding.

   Obviously she doesn't expect or anticipate the results.

   She conceals the truth from Ranma, because she's afraid he'd hate her.
Well....that's sensible. I'd do the same myself.

   She has just given birth to a child.

   She's been guilt-ridden and mentally tortured by her sister's death,
which she sees as her fault.

   She's been trying to make Ranma happy for his sake.

   Well....Nabiki did a stupid thing. Not a malicious, or a hateful one;
just stupid. And everyone got hurt as a result, including her.

   How on earth does this make killing her "justice"? Hell, it doesn't
solve anything, it leaves poor Midori without a mother, Ranma's got a
guilt complex and probably a jail sentance now, and I doubt Akane's shade
of spirit or whatever is crying out for Nabiki's blood. Not to mention
that the punishment is _way_ out of proportion to the crime.

   Well-written story. F--ked up premise.

- Mike of No Particular Title or Handle
===/\=====+==================================================================
  /  \    l   Mike Loader - Lincolnite, Amberite, Illuminatus, Discordian,
 / () \   l      Journalist, Author, Traveler, Historian, Java Fiend.
/      \  l        Trier - LA - LV - Kiev - Reno - Hong Kong. Fnord.
--------  l                    mloader@scs.unr.edu
==========+==================================================================