On Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:05:04 +0000 Krista Perry wrote:
: And here's Part 11 of "Hearts of Ice." Only three more Parts to
: go! Woo-hoo! I can't believe I started this in August.
Heh, you are comparatively fast. I started my own series in April
and it's still not finished. :)
: Maybe
: when I'm finished with this, I can get a life. Then again, I may
: do something really stupid, like starting another fanfic... ^_^
We can always hope...
: Many thanks to everyone who sent C&C on Part 10. Almost
: everybody seemed to be concerned about the whereabouts and
: content of Nabiki's tape. Well, I'm afraid you'll just have to
: read on to see if I resolved anything. Heh heh. (Yes, the
: author is stooping to blackmail to get people to read her story.
: Pathetic, or what?) ^_^
Jeez. you must have a pretty low self esteem if you think you need
to *pressure* people into reading your fic. _Hearts of Ice_
happens to be one of the most brilliant fanfics-in-progress on the
list. Everybody who counts is certain to be reading it already.
:)
: ---------------------------------------------
: Hearts of Ice
: Part 11: Best Laid Plans
: by Krista Perry
: --------------------------------------------
: To returning to the Nekohanten, only to discover that Ranma
: knew they were the ones behind the spell, and the ones to blame
: for Akane's disappearance and the voices that now plagued his
Well, *suspected* it anyway. If he had known it for certain, I
doubt she would be drawing breath anymore. Say, were the spell
voices a *planned* part of the spell? If so, I think they were a
dumb idea, since they would always remind Ranma of Akane, even if
he gave up searching for her and went with Shampoo.
: She knew
: what effect the Kami Plane had on those mortals who became
: trapped within its boundaries. As well as what effect it had on
: the friends and family who were left behind. It was a small
: piece of the vast knowledge of the unusual she had acquired in a
: lifetime that spanned three centuries.
So you are using the Anime as basis for your fic?
: Her own memory told her that Ranma had two other girls, Ukyo
: Kuonji and Kodachi Kuno, who lay claim to the boy as their
: fiance, and that he had another potential fiancee in one of the
: two Tendo sisters, to honor an agreement their fool father made.
Um, Kodachi never claimed to be Ranma's fiancee, since that would
imply a formal engagement. She just claims him as her own,
because she happens to want him. In fact, despite her talks about
Rana's love for her, she shows indication that she is very well
aware of the fact that Ranma is not actually attracted to her at
all - she just doesn't give a damn.
: Her own memory told her that her first attempt to remove the
: spell voices from Ranma's mind had failed, but that she had
: bought herself some time by going to China to get an Amazon cure
: known as the Eye of Kami.
BTW, I forgot to mention this before, but the name of this alleged
artifact sounds rather suspect. Don't the Chinese have a
completely different mythology? I'm just assuming this, so please
don't hit me if I'm wrong. :)
: Cologne sighed, holding her tiny, wrinkled hands out to the
: fire. The problem lay in the spell voices. They continually
: whispered to Ranma's mind that Akane was alive, but that he would
: never find her. There *was* the possibility that his memory of
: Akane would fade in spite of the spell voices, and that the
: voices would simply stop making sense to him. But there was also
: the greater danger that, instead, they would keep Akane's memory
: alive in him.
:
: She *had* to find a way to eliminate the spell voices. She
: had to make sure Ranma forgot Akane completely.
Hmmm, Cologne, I think you might be mistaken about what exactly
keeps Ranma from forgetting Akane. :)
: It was time for her and Shampoo to cut their losses and run.
Should have done that *ages* ago. :p
: But... there *was* a potion she could make that would numb
: Ranma's mind to the point where he would no longer hear the spell
: voices in his head. The disadvantage to this was that, while
: Son-in-law would retain his martial arts prowess, the potion
: would rob him of all functions of higher thought and much of his
: memory. It would, essentially, leave him with the mentality of a
: small child.
What, you mean no discernible side effects? :)
: Then again, with Ranma in such a state, it would be easy to
: take him by the hand and lead him docilely to Jokensuoko,
"Joketsuzoku" (lit. "Tribe of warrior women") or the original
Chinese "Niichieju" (That's the japanese transliteration. Means
the same, anyway).
: A smile crawled across Cologne's face as she contemplated
: her decided course of action. A child-like Ranma with little
: memory of his past could be easily molded into the perfect Amazon
: man. <All in all,> she thought, <a plan with very few
: drawbacks.> Now all she had to do now was find the necessary
: ingredients for the potion...
Hmmm. Following the laws of poetic justice, it would of course be
herself, who receives the potion in the end... }:)
: "Does... does she plan to hurt Ranma?"
:
: The tengu closed his eyes. "I don't know.
Liar. Well, he does still like Yuki-onna and probably hopes that
Akane will understand her and they'll work it out.
: A cold smile lit the Snow Woman's face as she watched.
: This... this was something she would have to watch again. She
: could almost see the boy's sanity start to crumble as Akane's
: sister used piercing, if flawed logic to shatter his conviction
: that they had forgotten Akane because of the blood spell. *He*
: was the one touched by the blood spell, ergo, *he* was the one
: with the delusional mind.
Well, the logic itself is not flawed per se - it just doesn't take
into account all facts, some of which were not known to Nabiki at
the time. At the time of that scene, all Nabiki and the others
had seen was the "store room" that had "transformed" into Akane's
room. This *could* have been manufactured by Ranma, unconsciously
driven by the blood spell. But as more and more physical evidence
will emerge, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Ranma could
have created it all to convince himself, especially since some of
the evidence turns up at places where it is unlikely to affect him
in any way (like Nabiki's ledger or something). In light of these
facts, it would be no less likely that everyone's memory was
altered, than that all the physical object were created by the
spell.
The final fact, though, that makes all these deductions moot is
that it *isn't* the blood spell that manipulated everyone's memory
- it's the Kami Plane.
: Yuki-onna's stepped back in shock, leaning against the
: mirror to keep from collapsing as the strength drained out of her
: legs. "Akane..." she said hoarsely. "How... how long have
: you..."
:
: "Long enough," Akane replied.
: When Akane looked up, her eyes were wet, but determined.
: "I'm leaving," she said softly, hoarsely. "I'm going to find
: someone in the Kami Plane who will break the blood spell so I
: can... go home. You'll have to find someone else to be your pet
: mortal from now on."
: The Snow Woman sat silently and stared at nothing as tears
: of ice slid unnoticed down her face.
Damn.
She had that coming, true, but still... I feel sorry for her in a
way. I had hoped that they could have come to a friendly
resolution - but then, this story is far from over, and things
always get worse before they get better. This will have
repercussions, I can tell.
: "You don't... have to run... so fast," she said, her chest
: heaving as she got her breath back. "Besides, we're already
: late. A few more minutes won't kill us."
Well, *she* doesn't have Hinako-sensei as teacher. :)
: But another, deeper part of him screamed at him that his
: memories were true. That Akane, and his feelings for her, were
: the most real things he'd ever known.
<sigh> Wonderful.
: Nabiki immediately wished she hadn't asked him to walk.
: Even though it annoyed her that he left her in the dust, running
: had seemed to revive a bit of the old spark in Ranma. But then
: *anything* was better than watching Ranma waste away at home as
: he pined after his imaginary blood spell girl. Still, telling
: Ranma to just *walk* was like... like clipping an eagle's wings.
Beautiful picture. Very true.
: Ranma jumped to the sidewalk in front of her again, only to
: get hit in the face with a ladle full of water.
My, does the boy have good timing. :)
: Ranma glared at her as he re-tied his belt to fit his tiny
: waist and swiped the water from his dripping red bangs.
Yep, definitely the Anime version. :)
: "Yeah,
: well, I was distracted," he growled unhappily.
Hmmm. What was he going to do if he hadn't been hit by the Misogi
Woman? He had just landed on the sidewalk before Nabiki...
: Kuno lay on his back with his arms folded across his chest
: and gazed up at him with adoring eyes. "Alas, the quandary of
: true love! Know now that my heart ever belongs to thee, my pig-
: tailed goddess. And yet this very morning as I roused myself
: from sleep, mine eyes beheld a most amazing sight! For, next to
: thy most sacred images on the walls of my bed chamber, I found
: images of a creature most fair! Delicate and beautiful as the
: blooming lily, yet fierce and powerful like a tigress. Truly, I
: can see no other explanation as to how these images came upon my
: walls than that the girl herself, longing for my person from
: afar, cast aside her fears of rejection and entered my chambers
: at night, stealing with such silent grace as to not awaken me
: from slumber. Thereupon, she placed her images next to thine,
: thinking not to compete with thine exquisiteness, yet hoping to
: arouse the fiery passions of this devout heart."
Great Kuno-speech, Krista. Going for iambic pentameter, next?
: Kuno then clenched his fists, tears streaming from his eyes.
: "Oh, the pure love and fierce beauty of this mysterious maiden,
: who has yet to make herself known to me!" He turned to Ranma.
: "And yet, how can I abandon thee, who art yet so fair, to the
: horrible machinations of the evil Saotome?" Kuno sat up and
: thrust his fists in the air. "Oh curse you cruel Fate, to force
: such a dilemma upon this faithful soul! I would date them
: *both!*"
A-haa! That's what you meant. *Great* idea. Way cool. :D
: A male, slightly damp Ranma entered the classroom with no
: small amount of trepidation. Hinako-sensei paused in the middle
: of her lecture and favored him with a sickeningly cute glare as,
: with a sharp flip of her hand, she produced a five yen coin
: perched perfectly between her index and middle fingers.
Um, I've got a general question to the ML here: The part "between
her index and middle fingers" is a contraction of "between her
index finger and her middle finger", right? Shouldn't it then be
"finger" instead of "fingers" in the contracted form? I have no
clue, so please someone clarify this.
(These grammar questions are tricky ground for me, since there is
always the possibility of being spectacularly wrong. :)
: Ranma groaned silently. It came down to which was more
: plausible -- the blood spell creating physical evidence to fit
: his memory, or the blood spell erasing Akane from the minds of
: everyone who knew her. Either one sounded far-fetched, and yet
: it had to be one or the other... Didn't it?
:
: If the blood spell wasn't responsible for what was
: happening, either to him or to everybody else, what was?
*Good* thinking, Ranma. Keep on that track.
: He knew he had hurt her. Going too far with the name
: calling, or making fun of her martial arts abilities or her
: cooking...
:
: He would eat a whole room full of her cooking if it meant he
: could see her again.
Wow, that's True Love, if I ever saw it. :)
: "Really? I heard he was enchanted or something."
:
: "No way. Again? How many times can a guy get cursed?"
Heh, you don't really wanna know. :)
: She grinned predatorily. "Don't worry, Roshi. I'm not
: here to collect on your... substantial debt.
:D :D
: Her thoughts kept returning to the instructions she had
: given to each of her hired "distributors" a few days before.
:
: How, when she read the instructions again today, she found
: the very specific instruction that Ranma was to hear the tape if
: he or anyone else, by mysterious means, forgot one Akane Tendo,
: her little sister.
Um, is this *one* instruction in a set of them or is this all
there was. I suspect the former, since this doesn't *nearly*
cover all cases that the Amazon memory manipulation technique
could have produced.
I probably would have formulated it as "... if anyone shows *any*
sign of having their mind altered, *especially* as respects the
disappearance of Akane Tendou," just to be sure.
: <No. It can't be. It's just more physical evidence created
: by the blood spell,> she reasoned. <Like the room. That's all it
: is. If I had a younger sister, I'd remember her, I'm sure of
: it.>
Except, as I said before, this "evidence" has virtually no chance
of ever influencing Ranma, so it doesn't make sense for the blood
spell to create it.
: Nabiki looked at the cute, cheerful okonomiyaki chef, and
: felt faint stirrings of... annoyance deep within her. "I
: haven't seen him since this morning," she said briskly. <And if I
: knew where he was, I certainly wouldn't tell you.>
Oh.
: Ukyo stared at Nabiki. The frost coming from her gaze
: nearly chilled her to the bone. <Jeeze, what's with *her* all of
: a sudden?>
I think I know...
: "Wrong, Shampoo. Nabiki's right," said Ukyo, glaring at the
: Amazon. "It's all your fault Ranma is suffering with this blood
: spell. Even if you really were captured by some dragon -- which
: I seriously doubt, I might add -- Ranma wouldn't be in this mess
: if you didn't keep claiming he was your husband."
:
: Nabiki raised an eyebrow at this. Apparently, Ukyo wasn't
: as naive as she thought. Then again, she had good reason not to
: believe Shampoo...
Well, you'd have to be a genius of Ranma's caliber to believe the
story the Chinese women cooked up.
: Shampoo's stunned expression slowly dissolved to anger. In
: the past few days, this brazen Tendo girl had practically
: destroyed any chance of happiness between herself and Ranma,
Huh, how can she destroy something that never existed in the first
place?
: "Look, Ukyo." Nabiki turned to her. Ever perceptive, she
: hadn't missed that Ukyo had planned to intercede on her behalf.
: She looked at the okonomiyaki chef, her expression calm. Yet her
: eyes glimmered with some unidentifiable emotion.
I liked Ukyou's role in that almost-fight.
: "Ranma will marry whomever he chooses," Nabiki said
: steadily. "I'm not going to force him to honor the agreement our
: idiot fathers made almost seventeen years ago. Besides, I've
: never been one who likes to be bound by traditions as archaic as
: arranged marriages. So if Ranma decides to marry you, that's
: fine with me. I'll support him."
:
: Nabiki's neutral expression quirked at the corners, and her
: mouth turned up in a tiny, self-depreciating smile that matched
: the wetness in her eyes. "But if, for some strange reason beyond
: my comprehension, he decides to stick to our fathers' agreement,
: I don't think I'll complain too loudly. I hope you don't
: begrudge me that."
<sniff> Waaaaaaahhhh! Poor Nabiki! Finally someone writes her as
a human being with feelings, and already she is on the best way to
get her heart broken. Waaaahhh, It's not fair!
God, I just love your interpretation of Nabiki, and this scene in
particular was truly wonderful. Poor, poor Nabiki. Whatever will
happen to her when Akane turns out to be very real indeed?
: Ukyo chuckled, a bit sadly. "That's my Ranchan," she said,
: sighing. "The human fiancee magnet.
:D :D :D
: The man knelt next to him. "Here," he said, handing him a
: small package. "I've been instructed to give this to you. If
: Tendo-san says anything, tell her I was simply following her
: original instructions to the letter, which included ignoring any
: instructions she gave afterwards that sounded suspicious, or went
: against the original agenda."
*Good* man, that. A man of principle. Nabiki did well to choose
him.
: "There," he said. "I've done my job. See you around, kid."
: The man walked away, knowing from experience that the less he
: knew about what was on that tape, the better.
Heh, too true. Knowledge may be power, but on the other hand,
nobody sticks their fingers into a power outlet. :)
: Ranma sat, his besieged mind barely registering the words
: that sounded in his ears at first.
:
: Fortunately, it was a long-playing tape, and Nabiki had made
: sure the whole thing was filled with the vital conversation,
: repeated over and over...
Um, I can't remember it any more, but did you include some
explanation why Cologne and Shampoo were speaking Japanese, so
that Ranma and Nabiki can understand the conversation?
: Two weeks, and Akane had not returned. Yuki-onna raised her
: slender white hands and pressed them against the prickly energy
: of her barrier. Beyond the barrier lay the mists of Kami that
: separated the different realms from each other. It was into
: those very mists that Akane had ventured two weeks previous
: without a backwards glance for her former friend and protector.
:
: All because of that boy...
That's what I feared. Because Akane left without them having
worked out their conflict, Yuki-onna doesn't see her own faults at
all, but still sees Ranma as the sole problem.
Oh, and it should please you to hear, that I have no clue
whatsoever about what you plan do to with Ranma's cat-fist
neurosis and the Shadowcat demon. :)
: The Kuno-speak was fun to write though. What do you think? Was
: it a bit much?
Of course. That's the *definition* of Kunou-speak. :)
: Coming soon:
: Hearts of Ice
: Part 12: Revenge Is a Dish Best Served...
Whoah! I presume that we get to see both Ranma's actions against
Shampoo and Cologne *as well* as whatever Yuki-onna is planning
with the Shadowcat. That should be... interesting. :)
Sebastian