Adrian Tymes <wingcat@soca.com> wrote:

appointment in two minutes to take on Happousai, Ryoga, and Kuno
simultaneously that he really did not want to be late for, after
Happousai went to all the trouble of leading Ryoga to the duel site and
waiting with him to make sure he did not get lost.  Despite Ranma's easy
forgiveness, the only pleasure Ukyou had gotten from that exchange was,
she realized, wondering exactly how much detail Happousai had coaxed out
of Ryoga about what the latter had seen of Akane in the guise of her pet
pig.

Actually, Ryoga had pretty much given up his vendetta against Ranma by
the end of the series; and why would he risk revealing his secret to
Happosai -- who might well end up blurting it out to Akane?

Shampoo's eyes widened.  "Great-grandmother not serious!"

"I am.  You know what must be done."

"Yes," she sighed, with more than a hint of resignation in her voice.
"Knife."  She held out her hand to Mousse, who gave her the requested
object.

Akane blinked.  "What are you talking about?"

Shampoo whirled on Akane, murder in her eyes.  "DIE!"

Shampoo not *AHEM* I mean, Shampoo isn't that stupid. If she were going
to kill Akane, it wouldn't be right in front of Ranma, and she'd at
least try to frame somebody else for it.

"Don't bother."  Nabiki folded her arms.  "If any harm befalls Ukyou,
accidental or otherwise, the Chinese government will learn that a village
in its less civilized parts has not only practically declared independence

>from China, but has taken to enforcing its law, which could be mistaken

for Chinese law, outside of China's borders.  The entire village will be
razed, and its citizens either...I think the term is, 're-educated'...or
dead, before you can say 'international incident'.  You will probably take
out a few of their tanks.  At least ten, if you're lucky...out of the
hundreds, if not thousands, they will send once you start fighting back."

Didn't we have this discussion over some other fic last year? Nabzy is a
clever little entepreneur, but she's NOT a Fortune 500 CEO. I simply
cannot believe that she has the governments of the world at her beck and
call. If the Chinese were going to raid the Amazons, they'd have done it
already. The most Nabiki would get out of this IMO would be an official
statement saying that Cologne's actions are unauthorized.

"Ukyou?"  Akane peered inside.  Ukyou's restaurant had been unlocked, with
a "closed" sign deterring customers, when she arrived.  The internal
lights were off, and the sun had set an hour ago, so she could not see
beyond a few meters inside.

"Ukyou's gone.  There's only me, now."

"I am the gatekeeper. Are you the keymaster?" :-)

Akane knew they would never see that the horror was part betrayal, and
with the body in many pieces, it could be mistaken for Ukyou.  She also
knew that they would never find the container of Spring of the Drowned
Akane, or the other container of water that locked Jusenkyo curses, that
she had had imported from China.  Both had burned to ashes in the
explosion.

Now how could she POSSIBLY have gotten her hands on that stuff? Far as I
know, only Kiima (and maybe Akane) knew where the Akane-niquan was --
and if there is a permanence water, nobody in the series seemed to know
about it. Ukyo has never been to China and has no Chinese contacts that
we know of. But she's able to get those things sent to her on days
(hours?) notice, without other people finding out?

"Nabiki," Ranma growled, "did you mean what you said about the Chinese
government?"

Nabiki thought for a bit, then realized who Ranma had concluded was
responsible for the bombing.  "Yes."

"Do it."

C'mon, this obviously isn't Cologne's style, and if Ranma doesn't
realize that, Nabby ought to. There's also another obvious suspect
(Mousse). What's more, I can't see Ranma as willing to let the Chinese
army fight his battle for him, especially if it means a village full of
innocent people will probably die. If he did blame Cologne for this, It
seems to me he'd want to deal with her personally.

"Yes."

Akane smiled to herself.  Cologne would take the blame for this, and Akane
would live the rest of her life with her true love.

Until she discovers that there's more to impersonating someone than just
raw physical appearance....

Overall, this story was much the same as its predecessor. Very good
writing, but far too many contrivances to be anything close to
believable. Frankly, this plot just falls apart like tissue paper when
you examine it critically.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics