"I'll be happy to see you too, Kuno-sempai. Goodbye, see you
soon."

"Sempai," still?  Is that an old reflex or do people keep using those
honorifics even aft they're out of school.  Just curious.

	The life Kasumi had chosen had surprised everyone. Akane had
expected her to be married with a family of six by now. 

And, of course, we all can't wait to see what that life is (*grin*).

	Soun was at the grocery store. Akane's food didn't usually
inspire the immediate bad reactions it once had, but it still left a lot
to be desired in terms of taste. She worked on it when she could, but
improvement was slow and difficult. So Soun did most of the cooking, and
he had become pretty good at it.

Quibble, quibble.  If we're sort of inside Akane's head right now, maybe it
should be "father" or "her father" instead of "Soun."

	"I'm... sorry... I didn't mean... I just meant that... if *you*
don't mind... then I don't."

	"Really?" Ranma turned hesitantly back toward Akane.

	Big romantic moment?

	Close enough.

I love it!  This is a perfect Ranma and Akane moment.

	Or he could just do nothing. Trust Akane to handle whatever was
going on.

	Now there was a plan. Cunning in its simplicity. It was the
clever plan to end all clever plans. But would it work? Or would Akane
and Koichi end up the ones married next week?

	Ranma stepped out of the tub. He toweled himself off and started
to dress. He wouldn't do anything... for now. Tomorrow, he wasn't sure
about.

This part was also really cool.  I like how the characters are growing up
little by little, rather than in the leaps and bounds we sometimes see in
fanfics.

	Koichi smiled wistfully as he pulled out his credit card. After
all these years, Akane was still the same idealistic little girl that he
<snip>
to do. Akane wouldn't understand. Sometimes Koichi felt like even he
himself didn't understand.

Are we going to see more of this guy?  I'm not sure if this bit of exposition
about his thoughts is really necessary if we aren't.

	"Don't worry, Tendo." Genma gave his old friend a pat on the
back. "This place is all the way across town. What's the chance anyone's
going to find us here?"

Famous last words.

	Ranma was the first to react. "Hey, you got rid of him! Way to
go! Uh... you *were* just pretending, right? You don't actually... LIKE
that..."

	Kaede smiled wistfully. "He's not a bad person, deep down."

	"Love is blind," Akane said quietly to Ranma. "And deaf,
and...."

"...insane?" 
You've got an extra period in your ellipsis there.

	She thought about the man she was marrying. He often insulted
and provoked her; but he didn't deserve the way she sometimes treated
him. Did she unconsciously try to hurt Ranma, to get back at Koichi?

Not a bad bit of speculation about why Akane is the way she is.  

	A man walked into the foyer area of Romance Villa. "Hello. I'd
like to get married, please."

	"I'm sorry," Mousse said proudly, "but I cannot marry you, for
my heart is given to darling Shampoo."

That was really funny to me, for some reason.

	"I... I...." Shampoo looked all around the room, as if searching
for a friendly face. Except for Kasumi, who still smiled blissfully, the
Saotomes and Tendos stared at her coldly. Kaede, Ryoga, and Akari
glanced nervously around the room; the priest seemed completely
confused; and Hiroshi and Daisuke gazed at the Amazon's legs.

Well, that's SORT of friendly, isn't it?

	Mousse stood up as his gaze panned over, to Ranma, who glared at
him with extreme hostility. Wet. And female. "Um... oops," Mousse said
feebly.

There's a certain grim comfort in inevitability, is there not?

	"What is it, Shampoo?" Ranma asked. "What the heck is going on?"

	"It Great-Grandmother. She need you come right now PLEASE!"

	"That old ghoul? What does she want?"

	Shampoo's gazed with eyes that were truly haunted.
"Great-Grandmother is dying!"

My God... Shampoo really DID have an emergency!  Truly amazing.

Another very nice chapter.  The bit with the Monopoly game was a lot of
fun.  

Did you consider including a last-minute panic scene for Ranma or Akane before 
the wedding?  I've observed that there seems to be a certain moment of realization
for many people as they're heading towards the critical exchange of rings when
the enormity of what they're doing finally sinks in.  I think Ranma would be more
prone to such a thing than Akane, and this wasn't actually his chapter... just a 
thought.  And did they have any bachelor/bachelorette parties, or were they just
(somehow) unveventful?

Not sure about an alternative for the chapter title.  I think "Something Old, Something 
New" might round it out a little better.  

TO BE CONTINUED...

Looking forward to it, as always.

Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless