Charles K. Hurst wrote:

Does anyone besides me get the feeling that whatever Genma did to Ranma is
similar to the Nekoken, in that Ranma may not really be in control?  

I was thinking about that, during the knife scene. My guess is, one of
the ways the nekoken training has caused his mind to break him is to
develop animalistic traits, i.e., he plays with his prey like a cat. I
do think there might be a tiny spark of sanity. I suspect his fearful
look at Nabiki wasn't so much that he was horrified he wanted to kill
her messily -- it was fear that he was so out of control. (Kind of like
a shark frenzying at the smell of blood.) I also figured that he'd get
rid of her as quickly as possible after that--and as simply. The car
being a quick way to remove the temptation to revel in 'playing' with
her.

And then Brendan wrote:

think you guys are making unwarranted assumptions here.  Yeah, she's
very severely injured, almost unto death, but timely action *might* save
her.

        Hell, if Ranma provided that timely action he'd benefit immensely.
Nabiki would be in the hospital for weeks, and Akane would see him as the
person who saved her life.  And if he did need to kill her later there
wouldn't be any of the doubts about him that would filter through everyone's
mind now.  Of course if Ranma rushed her to the hospital, she might
"accidentally" end up partially or fully paralysed.

That's true; and that kind of cruelty would be in line with what we've
seen of Ranma so far. It wouldn't really lessen the dramatic impact of
her sudden death too much; however, I think he wouldn't do this
particular manipulation because of what I said above. He needs her
cleanly killed and away from him, because she's too much of a temptation
to him.

I'm looking forward to going back and re-reading the previous parts.
Didn't Kasumi have a thought where she pegged him as a psycho? Will she
figure him as Nabiki's killer? Will she do anything? Or was that a
throwaway line? What _IS_ Kasumi's problem?

Ukyo has been great. I love her characterization in this. 

I'm just grateful Happosai isn't involved. The last thing we need is
_this_ Ranma with more techniques; its bad enough he's figured some
advanced things out on his own. 

Nightman