In a message dated 98-06-05 06:42:55 EDT, Nephilim wrote:

	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.

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

 	�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'...

 	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.

 
 End
 
 	Well, this is my first Ranma 1/2 fic. I�m not sure exactly how this one
 would be qualified. It�s not �dark� as such, but it�s definitely not happy.
 Maybe it�s a pain fic? Whatever it is, there you have it.

 The sad fact is, Kuno would have to learn it the hard way.

Quite.

 	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...

 	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...

All in all, a promising debut.  Omedeto.

Itsu mo,
Ucchan   ^_^