On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Nicholas Stone wrote:

Greetings all,

	Yo.

    Say, I have a question for all Ranmaites out there.  Recently during
a group get together with some fellow writers of per said fanfic anime,
I laid out an outline for 'Dark Family: Unwanted Reunions'.  After some
calm perusal, of which the term 'calm before the storm' came to mind, we
found ourselves in quite a heated debate over who would be the best
choice to knock off said major bad guy from the prior stories. 

	You realize that I have no idea what you are talking about, could
you give me an outline of the events referred to? 

    My take is I don't think Ranma is or will ever have the guts to kill
a person no matter what they've done, or who they've hurt (even Akane). 
That almost got me banished from the group :-). 

	I must agree with your detractors.  While I doubt he's capable of
premeditated murder normally and is less generally homocidal than most of
the cast, Ranma seems quite capable of killing in the heat of _serious_
battle or under extraordinary provocation. 

So, to make a long story short, I'm back to pondering who'd have the
right character for such an event, if that's the way I go.  My favorite
choices are: 

	Again, I am in the dark, but given what I know of the characters
in general I'll give you some feedback

                        1.  Nodaka Saotome.

	Depends how deeply she's mixed up in this and how affected she is.

                        2.  Shampoo

	She's a stone killer by almost any civilized standard.  If she
went headhunting over loss of face she would definitely murder any who has
harmed her or hers without batting an eye.

                        3.  Akane

	Again it's a matter of provocation, if she gets worked up
enough....

                        4.  Kasumi (I know, but I'm sure thinking about
her abuse would be enough to set her off). 

	OK, I _have_ to know what could possibly traumatize Sweet Little
Kasumi to the point of homocide. 

                        5.  Doctor Tofu (see afore mentioned abuse)
                        6. Soun Tendo

	In these cases, I suspect they can be very dangerous to those who
have harmed Kasumi (and Nabiki/Akane in Soun's case)

                        7. Genma (eh, not my favorite, but he has the
potential)

	Darn, I was hoping he would be the dead one! ^_-

    Anyway, since I'm about to return to sea duty, and with a long
deployment in front of me, I've plenty of time to ponder, write and
smooth this before I get back (work load permitting). 

	Navy boy, I pity you.

    Please, any thoughts about this/inputs will help immensely.

	Here ya go.  Feel free to tell me how clueless I am in regards to 
your story.

                                                        Nicholas Stone

HTG