I agree with Ukyou-sama.  That was an excellent fic.  

	Tenacity beyond reason. Nabiki now understood what that term

meant

 perfectly. She felt a great deal of pity for Kuno. He wasn't a bad

guy,

 just delusional. She knew about his family, his childhood, and her

heart

 went out to the boy whose life seemed destined to misery.

I'm not sure... from a character standpoint, Kuno seems to refuse to 
accept misery.  He reminds me of the Black Knight from Monty Python
and the Holy Grail.  Consequently his suffering tends to be his own 
fault -- not that he notices it -- and it's hard to sympathize with
him.

I watched a Biography special on Cervantes yesterday.  It went into
detail on the two Don Quixote novels that he wrote.  Based on that, I
think that Kuno is more like Don Quixote than the black knight.  Like
Don Quixote, Kuno wishes to be something, a samurai, that doesn't exist
today.  He tries to hold onto those codes.  Also, like Don Quixote, Kuno
would rather believe in his own reality rather than in the bleak one he
actually exists in.  I wonder that if, like th Don, when Kuno is
stripped of his illusions, his vitality would also be stripped?  In
Cervantes, the Don died after being stripped of his "knighthood".

And Nabiki sympathizing with anyone, let alone Kuno?  Maybe I just
don't know her well enough.

Look at the opening sequence in OVA 4,5 or 6.  It shows Nabiki playing
with a puppy.  Kuno is shown in the background.  Kuno is completely
bumfuzzled* by what he sees.

bumfuzzled vt. To be confused, Southern USA colloquial term.  

 	"You've won, Ranma! He won't bother you anymore!" The mercenary

girl

 shoved Ranma off, "Let him go."
 	With the pressure gone, Kuno finally lost consciousness. Nabiki

held him

 upright, and cried for one of her oldest friends. Whatever the

final

 outcome, it was over.

Again... it's well written, but this isn't the Nabiki I'm familiar
with.
I kinda like this one, tho'...

I must admit that I only have Viz's ten volumes of translated manga.  I
havenever seen Nabiki as particularly cruel.  She has always seemed to
me to be a schemer.  This, of course, is my humble opinion.

 	Ranma walked over to Akane, who poured another thermos of hot

water >
over his head.

 	"Ranma," Akane asked, "Are you okay?"
 	Whatever dam had been held in place by Ranma's anger finally

broke; the

 great fighter broke down and cried. Akane held him, not quite

understanding

 but sympathetic nonetheless.
 	And only Kasumi noted how much alike the two pairs looked just

then.

Nice touch.

ditto. 

 	I don't like Kuno. He's an aristocratic, effete, delusional,

obsessive

 snob. Someone should shave his bikini-zone with a blowtorch. 'Nuff

said.

 ('sides, it'd help him control the hormones...)

Brrr... that's too, too cruel, even for Kuno.  Happosai, on the other 
hand...

talk about having the hots for someone...

 	Another little thing I don't get is that Kodachi keeps on making

more

 trouble in fics than Kuno. Odd thing, I don't recall anyone trying

to sit

 down and explain to her the way they do to Tatewaki. I mean, she's
 obviously more intelligent than her brother is, if a little more
 imbalanced, but she'd probably get the hint a little quicker than

Tatewaki.

 (Just my opinion. It's probably biased die to the fact that I just

/love/ a

 girl in black� ;-) Hence, a severe beating for Kuno-sempai.
 

Does Ko-chan ever put two and two together, either?  Just a question
for all of you out there on the ML...

Not in the anime, thus far released.  


Ja ne,

Mike Allen