Well, now that the ML seems to be back up... here goes. ^_^

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P O I S O N                          |
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by Susan Doenime                     |
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Characters and Backstory by          |
Rumiko Takahashi. Used without       |
permission.                          |
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  It still seems odd not to be engaged to Ranma. Not bad, not 
really, just odd.

[snippage for space]

  Father should have seen it. Look at how Saotome Genma-san 
acts. It's obvious that he's one of them, obvious. Ranma will turn 
out the same way.

  There are times I wish I had never found out, but really...it 
would have been wrong. Unnatural. Unclean.

 That's just the way burakumin are.

Oh my! It takes me back, it does. I lived in Japan for a while as a young,
ignorant member of the U.S. Navy. That was more years ago than I care to
think about, sometimes, but one of the biggest impressions I had of Japan,
at first, was how homogenious the country seemed. My roommate worked with a
Japanese man who invited us to his home several times for dinner and talk.
The civil rights movement was very much in the news from the U.S. in those
days and on one of our visits I remarked that Japan seemed to me like it
might not have the sort of racism that the U.S. does since there didn't seem
to be anyone to be racist about. He gently chided me for being so naive, and
then told us about the eta. When he said the word he made an odd gesture
with his right hand: palm down with all fingers but the middle pointing down
and the middle finger extended as if miming a four legged animal. As he
explained it, the whole thing was rather stupid being based on things that
happened centuries ago. Most modern Japanese didn't think much about it, he
said, although it would, certainly, be unthinkable for his daughter to marry
one...

He also mentioned the same thing you did: an identified eta can have a hell
of a time getting a good education and finding a job after school. There
_is_ one rather militantly equal opportunity employer in Japan that wouldn't
care a bit.  Can you say Yakuza? I knew you could. From some of the other
things my old Japanese acqaintance mentioned, I deduce that Ranma's life is
all but over at this point. See, he's not a martial artist anymore... at
least not the sort of one he wanted to be. Among other things, there is no
dishonor in refusing a challenge from such a one, and if he pressed the
fight (the way so many others have done on him) he would almost certainly
get arrested for assault. Charged and convicted, too. An open and shut case,
as they say. "Imagine! The nerve! One of _them_ (insert hand gesture)
attacking one of _us_!"

Weird, eh?  Sad, too.

  There are roughly 4 million Burakumin in Japan today.

You've got to wonder about that number. Falsification of geneological
records is a serious offense, but it's easy to see why many folks might want
to do so. Also, if one were prone to paranoia about such things, it's easy
to see why a person might want to visibly live their life in such a way that
there could be no doubt whatsoever about their background since even a rumor
can be so destructive. Your story really takes me back to a time when I
realized for the first time just how _different_ another country can be.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, so to speak. 

  And for those who are curious - Ill Met 4 is completed, and will be
sent out in a day or so. ^_^

Yay! Can't wait.

Best,

Bob Barnes
rbarnes@moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho

When opportunity comes, the trick is to CATCH the red hat.