On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Greg Phillips wrote:

	"The reason I've called you all here," Genma said, looking at his guests,
which consisted of Ranma, Shampoo, Ukyou, Akane, and Kodachi, "is to make
an important announcement."

	"Well, get on with it already, oyaji," Ranma said, visibly annoyed at
having to listen to another one of his father's speeches.

	"Tendo, you may bring them in, now," Genma called out, ignoring his son's
disrespectful comment for the time-being.

	A few moments later, Soun, Nabiki, and Kasumi appeared, each pushing a
cart of some sort.

	"Ukyou, it was wrong of me to engage Ranma to you when he was already
engaged.  It was even more wrong for me to run off with the dowery like I
did.  These three fully stocked okonomiyaki carts should repay the dowery.
I'm sorry, but that is the best I can do.  With these, your engagement to
Ranma is now invalid."

	Ukyou jumped to her feet and whipped out her combat spatula, which Genma
quickly swiped from her and snapped over his knee.  "Sit.  Down," Genma
said sternly with an air of such determination that nobody had ever seen in
him before.  Needless to say, Ukyou quietly returned to her seated
position.  Shampoo and Kodachi, at hearing this began to grin madly.  One
of their rivals had just been taken out of the race.  Akane, for her part,
just sat there, a bewildered look on her face.  What was Genma up to.  A
similar thought was passing through Ranma's mind as well.


	"Shampoo, I had a very long discussion with Cologne yesterday.  Because
Ranma beat you first as a girl, you must kill him before you can marry him."

	Shampoo jumped to her feet.  "That stupid!  If Shampoo kill, then no can
marry!"

	"Right.  So your engagement to him is now invalid as well."

	"But--"

	"Shampoo...  Sit.  Down."

	Shampoo looked down at the floor as she regained her seated position.

	"Kodachi.  You are not Ranma's fiancee.  You never were.  Any claim you
may think you have on him is in your own deluded mind and is therefor
invalid."

	Kodachi glared daggers at Genma as she slowly rose to her feet.  "I,
Kodachi, the Black Rose, will never give up my love for Ranma-sama!"  With
that, she produced her whip out of nowhere and took a swipe at Genma with
it, who grabbed the end and gave a hard yank, causing her to stumble
forward.  Genma quickly raised his knee up and slammed it into her gut,
causing her to drop to the floor, clutching her stomach in pain.  Everyone
looked disbelievingly at Genma.  They never thought that he had either the
will nor the speed to do something like that.

	"Kodachi, go over there and sit down before I lose my temper."

	"Pop," Ranma said angrily as he jumped to his feet, "if you think that by
getting rid of all of my other 'fiancees', that you'll make me and Akane
get married, then you got another thing coming."

	"I'm not quite done yet, boy.  Sit down and shut up before I lose my
temper with you, too."  Ranma, for his part, just leaned against the dojo
wall and waited for his father to continue."

	"Have it your way.  Akane, since I engaged you to Ranma, I can also break
off the engagement, which I just did."  A gasp was heard from everyone in
the room except for Genma and Soun.  "Now, if one of you wants to marry
Ranma, you are going to have to win him over.  Each of you is on equal
footing now."  With that, Genma turned and left the dojo with Soun to go
cheat their way through another game of shogi.

Ranma sprinted from the Dojo, and caught the back of Genma's gi in his
hands.  Spinning him around, he demanded "What's the meaning of this,
oyaji?  Is this some sort of stupid plan of your's again?  What's the
catch?" 

"No catch, boy.  You're free of all the engagements."

"No catch?"

"No."

"None at all?  No stupid training?  No time limit?  Nothing?!"

"Nope!"

By this time, the four girls had caught up to Ranma, and had him
surrounded.  Questions flew faster than spatulas, as Genma shook off his
son's hands and made his way back to the house.

"Ranma, you like Shampoo, yes?"

"Baka, if you don't choose me, I'll..."

"Sugar...?"

"Ranma-sama...?"

Not noticing, or noticing but not caring, Ranma began to laugh.  The
former fiancees glanced at each other, their own claims for marrage pushed
to the back of their minds momentarily. 

"Ranma?  What's wrong?"  Who asked the question?  Later, no one would
remember.

"FREE!  YATTA!  NO MORE FIANCEES!  YATTA!  I'M GOING BACK TO CHINA!"

*zoom*

Shock covered four faces for a minute.  Then, as one, four voices shouted
"RANMA!  GET BACK HERE!"

>From their hiding place, Genma turned to Soun and remarked "Well, that
didn't go as badly as I expected..."

-Natsume Ranma Ranma
-------
The sardines weren't worth the trouble.  A few more shots, then 
Ryoga-san would overheat and explode.  Ducking around a corner, 
I managed to lose him as I entered the ramshackle residence of 
my Anime supplier.

One look at his face and I knew that I was betrayed.  "Tell me."
I insisted.  He refused, so I slammed him against the wall.
"Last chance.  Where can Ranma-Ranma find good fanfics?"
"Try Jason Liao." he whispered, before he slumped to the floor.
I heard the sounds of a door splintering as I left through the 
window, one step ahead of Tendo Heavy Industries...