From: Henry J. Cobb [mailto:hcobb@slip.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 1998 12:45 AM

The best way to think up an idea that nobody in their right minds would
touch is to ask the wrong questions.

For example, in the Ranmaverse....

Ten years before the start of the series Genma was either taking Ranma
around to meet Ukyou or he was the student of Happi.

The simple, easy answer is that Genma trapped Happi in the cave after
Ranma (and Akane) where born and then came home and took Ranma on the
training mission.  (He was inspired in the art or some nonsense).  So

the

story Genma and Soun related when Happi reappeared was simply off by a

few

years.

My story, "Genma and Nodoka", is similar in that it provides the wrong
answers to the right question, or vice versa.  :)  In that story, Genma
and Soun sealed Happi in the cave before either one of them were married.
Genma, feeling slightly guilty, stops by to visit once in a while, talking
to the boulder, telling it of what's going on in his life.  In his last
visit, made as he's taking a very young Ranma off on their epic journey,
he mentions Soun's latest child, Akane - and that somehow sticks in
Happosai's mind.  :)

I'm still working on that story myself.  Nick Leifker is also working on a
similar story, I believe.

Ah, the fun we have trying to explain the inconsistencies in the manga.
Ask Zen sometime about pre- and post-Volume 30 Ukyo.  :)

	Henry J. Cobb

-Richard
sterman@sprynet.com

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