sigh. sorry about this repost. all sections avail at website.
   i don't like doing this 'cause of my slow modem (9600) anyway.
The Art____Chapter 7: 
         The Choice
by GreggSharp     Metroanime@aol.com
  Ranma 1/2 created by Rumiko Takahashi, AMG created
by Kosuke Fujishima, Gold Digger owned/created by
Fred Perry.
  i don't have money so don't sue me, hire me and we
can BOTH make money.
--------------------------
	It had been almost a month now since Ranma
had come to Nerima. The days had settled into a routine,
which had given some necessary stability to his life.

	Morning would see him sparring with his father
or Shampoo to increase his HTH skills. This would be
followed by breakfast with Kasumi's shy flirting, 
Nabiki's talk about finances and the local news, Akane
grumbling about whatever she was blaming him for at
the moment, Shampoo coming by to tell him the shower
was ready (usually accompanied by an offer to scrub
his back), and Akane finally making a half-hearted
attempt to be nice.

	The run to school, culminating with a short
battle with Tatewaki Kuno using his latest "anti-evil
sorcerer" technique or gadget. Sometimes Kuno would
just try the "Wizard Of Oz" method and rejoice at the
return of his Osage No Onna.

	The run to school was followed by a number of
girls passing him notes in class, which he typically
ignored unless it included a free lunch. He'd be sitting
between Ukyou and Akane and they tended to "ride herd"
on him. The two stuck with him most of the day. Akane
usually glaring at him, or at Ukyou, or at everyone else
around her. Ukyou was usually flirting, making double
entrede comments, or talking about Her Dream. (This was
the one where her eatery became a nationwide chain.)

	The end of the school day saw the scheduled
fight with Ryouga, sometimes in his wereform (nicknamed
"Porkchop" by the locals) and sometimes his Faerie
cursed hyper-kawaii form (nicknamed "P-chan" by Akane
who still hadn't figured it out.) Ranma then went home,
did his homework, tried to figure out a new spell, and
did whatever odd jobs Nabiki had arranged for him. 
Sometimes this just required a Quick Fix spell to
repair simple damaged items, sometimes it was much more
challenging like the bodyguard job on the visiting idol
singer or being on retainer with one of the local "ghost
sweeper" companies.

	Yes, even this sort of life had become a routine.

	Unfortunately, Ranma noted to himself on the
roof of the Tendo house, it had also made the month
of his postponed decision run by way too fast.

	"So what are you going to do?" Ryouga was
watching the clouds overhead. Kasumi had made it 
perfectly clear that the house was NOT to be used as
a battlefield. Ryouga had argued the point, once.

	"They've all got their pluses and minuses,
you know." Ranma sighed and watched the people going
by. How nice it must be to have a NORMAL life. No
vengeance crazed wereboars, no AT-field generating
ribbon-weaponed would-be fiancees, no multiple fiancees
ready to break into open combat, no crazed and 
clueless kendoists throwing buckets of water. Just a
nine-to-five job and coming home to the wife and kids.
It would be boring. Boring sounded really nice at times.
----------------------
	Nabiki smirked. She KNEW it had been a good idea
to use electronic eavesdropping on the roof. Esper or
magical scrying would have been detected by Ranma, but
many of the esper/magic crowd tended to forget about 
the wonders of technology.

	Collecting her yen at the door, she started
letting the fiancees know that The Decision was going
to be made soon, and if they wanted it piped into 
Ucchan's...1000 yen apiece.

	Nabiki became much wealthier, very quickly.

(WRITER'S NOTE: picture this as a split screen. The top
half showing the two on the rooftop. The bottom half
showing people at Ucchan's.)

Rooftop:
	"So you HAVEN'T made a decision," Ryouga asked.
"In that case, can I have Akane?"

Ucchan's:
	Akane abruptly choked on her tea, requiring
Nabiki to pound her back until she stopped.

Rooftop:
	"I dunno, Ryouga. There are times when she isn't
angry and she smiles, and she is just SO cute then. Her
smile can really light up a room, y'know."

Ucchan's:
	Akane blinks. A hesitant smile appears on her
face. "He called me...cute?!"

	Everyone else glares at Akane.

Rooftop:
	Ryouga glanced over at Ranma before turning
his apparent attention back to the clouds. "Yeah, and
most of the time she's ready to pound you for things
you haven't done or at least aren't your fault. Face it,
you and her don't get along because in some ways you are
too alike."

	Ranma looked startled. "Ryouga, when did you get
so philosphical?"

	Ryouga snorted, sounding very piglike when he
did so. "I spend a lot of time alone, you can get very
introspective when you're lost in a foreign land with
no one to talk to."

	"Yeah, I guess." Ranma turned his gaze back to
the street. "Still, Akane has her good points. She 
has a lot of fire, doesn't back down from a 
confrontation, and you can count on her speaking her
mind. Her telekinetic skills and her martial arts are
both pretty good."

Ucchan's:
	Akane is practically beaming at the praise.
Ukyou watches as a bowl of peanuts lifts up off a table
to join a crowd of similar objects floating in midair.

Rooftop:
	"On the other hand, she's violent, never gives
me a chance, and hates my guts. So she's not a good
choice."

Ucchan's:
	Ukyou looked over the various items now 
scattered all over the floor. "Akane, since you made
the mess, I think y'all should be the one to clean it
up. Broom's over there."

Rooftop:
	"Then there's Shampoo."

Ucchan's:
	"Uh oh. Shampoo near beginning of list, this
not bode well." Swearing something in Mandarin about
how this must be her purple-haired destiny, she turned
her attention to her tea. "Pfeh. Stupid mage."

Rooftop:
	"Shampoo's loving and caring, I get the 
impression that she'll  make someone a nice wife."

	"As long as Mousse doesn't return and try
to make her a vampire like himself." Ryouga closed his
eyes. "Maybe I ought to go after her if you're not. I
hear she likes strong guys."

	"I thought you liked Akane."

	"I love Akane. I think if she finds out I'm
P-chan as well as Porkchop I'll have trouble keeping
from out of the frypan."

Ucchan's:
	Akane is being restrained from running out
the door by Shampoo and Ukyou. "LET ME AT HIM! He's 
seen me in the nude, the lech! That PIG!"

	"Shhhh."

Rooftop:
	"Anyway, do you remember back to that little
contest with Kodachi the Black Rose?"

	"How could I forget?"

	"Remember how Akane was watching me fight
Kodachi? Kodachi had that ribbon of hers with a TK
field extended around it so that it would slice through
damn near anything."

	"I remember, Nabiki was off making bets, Akane
was yelling at you for getting P-chan involved in the
match, and Shampoo had lessons with that amazon sensei
of hers, Mrs Tofu."

	"Yeah, and here Shampoo had gotten all shy 
and demure on me, so that I didn't know what to think
of how she felt about me, and then goes off to see her
'teacher of amazon ways' during an important fight."

Ucchan's:
	Still straining to hold Akane back, Shampoo 
growled. "Shampoo knew should have glomped Ranma, but
NOOOOO Shampoo have to be proper Japanese girl and not
do Amazon heritage. Shampoo have kitten fit later."

Rooftop:
	"Subtle doesn't do it for you, huh?" Ryouga 
smiled. "Yeah, I expect that's one thing we've got in
common. After all, with all the studying and being 
dragged through various dimensions, we're in the same
boat as far as social skills are concerned. If we can't 
fight it we're kinda at a loss how to handle the 
situation."

	"Yeah, yeah." Ranma nodded. "Maybe if I weren't
a mage, I could be more comfortable with my feelings and
such."

	"Well then," Ryouga sighed. "That leaves Ukyou,
Kasumi, and Nabiki, doesn't it?"

	"Nabs found out what was going on with Ukyou.
She's got the blood of a dragon in her family tree,
you know the Chinese legends of the daughter of a 
dragon and a noble warrior who marries her, only to have
said daughter forced to return to the dragon's lair
under the sea?"

	"Kuonji?"

	"Yup. Mind you, Ukyou is nice, affectionate,
and has a good level of magic resistance. Still she's
got no magical or esper skills to speak of, and she
didn't attend my match with Kodachi either, just
attended some local business manager's meeting."

Ucchan's:
	"He didn't choose me?" There was a spattering
noise as Ukyou's tears hit the hot metal grill. "Baka."

Rooftop:
	"Nabiki? Give me a break. You're choosing 
someone who sold you out to Kuno?"

	"You should have seen her when she came to 
apologize. She looked so...vulnerable, so nice and, well,
cute. I don't know, she can also be so mercenary and cold
and calculating at times. At times like that the Triclops
seems more human."

Ucchan's:
	"I'm not THAT bad, am I?"

	Everyone looked at Nabiki and nodded.

	"Oh my," said Nabiki with a groan.

Rooftop:
	"But the fact remains that she HAS sold me out,
and not just for the sake of the Dojo or her family."

	"Oh?"

	"You really think it's a coincidence that she
got a new CD player after selling Kuno pictures of his
'pig-tailed goddess' sleeping half-nude? Originally I
thought she was just keeping the household afloat."

Ucchan's:
	"...but it was a CD player AND TWO CDs."

	Ukyou made an unflattering comment about Genma
being a second-rate Nabiki.

Rooftop:
	"That leaves..."

	"Kasumi. Mind you, the Triclops scares the
CRAP out of me. Kasumi, though, Kasumi is nice. I might
be able to put HER in charge of the Triclops instead of
the other way around. Tricky, but it's possible. Still,
I've got to give my answer tomorrow, and it looks like
Kasumi is the only one who won't betray or abandon me."

	"What could change your mind overnight? Maybe
if one of them seduced you?"

	"Yeah." Ranma looked at the sky for a moment.

Ucchan's:
	The door to the empty cafe swings shut. Ukyou
runs back to put the "Closed" sign up.

Rooftop:
"Like THAT could happen. Nah, that'd just freak me out."
---------------------------
	Cologne watched her carefully laid plans get
ripped up and thrown to the winds. "How did this happen?"

	"You should know that by now, my dear." An
equally short figure moved out of the shadows.

	"Happi," Cologne snarled. "I should have known."

	"Simple enough to manufacture crises for both
the Kuonji woman and Shampoo, diverting them at a time
when Ranma had himself been manipulated to think the
threat of the Kodachi woman far more severe than it was.
Her minor tricks of the AT field and her trick weaponry
proved no match for Ranma. This way the Tendo daughters
had a clear shot at the boy, even if it was not the one
I'd originally chosen."

	"You WANTED an Akane-Ranma match? He would not
have survived the year!"

	"Ranma may not have survived such a relationship,
but his survival was not my goal anyway. The children 
that would have resulted from that union would have 
their mother's strength and vitality, as well as Ranma's
gift for magic and talent for survival. It may still 
work out."

	"Happi, I think you've finally flipped out."

	"Au contraire, Cologne." Happosai flipped out
his own tarot deck. "How do you build a future?"

	He drew a card. "Le Force, Akane." Another card.
"Le Bataleur, the mage- Ranma. Strength of arm and 
strength of will, m'dear." 

	Cologne shook her head and drew two cards of
her own. "He has made his choice. But will it be
the Triclops?" She flicked the card showing a demon
over. "Or will it be Kasumi that he ends up with?" 
Another card was flipped, showing the Ace Of Cups.

	"We shall see, shall we not?" Happosai sighed.
"Now that we got all the gloom and doom stuff done,
you got any of that good Amazon moonshine?"

	"Hmph. I've got a bottle here that'll peel the
skin off a basilisk. It's been a long time, Happi."

	"Hotcha!"
=====================
Kasumi: "In the next episode of Ranma 1/2: The
Art, we see... Oh my. Shampoo, what were you doing in
Ranma's bedroom? Nabiki, I really don't think that's
appropriate behavior. Oh my, Ukyou what do you mean
there's a link between our souls?
	"The next episode is: 8 is way too damn much.
	"We'll see you there, bye bye!"