| So, here's the next part, only two more to go before we get some
| background in this thing! Wheee! C&C is humbly begged for.

Taking a breather from vacation and eight million assignments to do this. By
the way, reviews won't be out until Wednesday unless Shun-kun cares to take
them all on by himself; I've been swamped lately.

| Disclaimer: The playground is by Rumiko Takahashi, I'm only swinging on
| the monkey bars.  Remember to leave the grounds cleaner than you found
| them and please don't feed the Troll.
|
| /The Hunter and the Bear/ was picked up from Alan Cole and Chris Bunch,
| and extensively filled out by me. If it originated with them, they
| own whatever copyright exists. If it didn't, they don't. It was originally
| told by Wee Alex, Laird Kilgour of Kilgour, who _may_ have Ranma beat in
| cool, but who is nowhere near as cute.

With or without Nyanniichuan?

| *This is a sound.*
| 'This is a thought.'
| _This is emphasis._
| {This is a sign.}
| <This is Chinese.>

"We believe the need for compartmentalization eventually overwhelmed the
human species, resulting in their extinction in the Year of the Master
3512."

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|   She could barely believe her luck. It had already been a day to
| cherish forever in memory. First, she had been brave. Ranma-sempai
| herself had said so. Not that she really believed that she had been
| brave, as such. She had simply felt that something had needed to be
| done, and then she had done it. Still, it had gotten her praise and
| admiration, and Ranma-sempai had even thanked her for it, so ...

Well, bravery on demand is usually called bravado. It's much less effective,
as the real bravery only shows when the rational part of your brain should
by all rights be quivering in terror.

But whatever makes ya happy, kiddo.

|    She had, however, discovered that it was far preferable to feel that
| one had been brave than to feel brave in the current moment. The reason
| being, being brave _now_ meant that something deeply unpleasant must,
| by definition, be happening; whereas, on the other hand, _having been_
| brave meant that the unpleasant thing must have been faced. And, of
| course, overcome. (The narrator would like to note at this time that
| the subject is, after all, only 17.)

Even so, courage under fire, while admirable, necessitates fire, which is
unpleasant.

|    Second, her newfound notoriety had gotten her a date!

Had she been a guy, it would likely have gotten her several dates.

*Under heavy glare from the female portion of the list* I mean since every
guy at Furinkan was so obviously caught up in the herd mentality until
recently and has been proven to have the martial arts ability of a wet
noodle that a guy who could stand up to Daken would be a breath of fresh air
or something like that...

*deep breath* Don't kill me, kay?

| Which she was
| just now returning from. And which had been really fun, too.

Well, so long as you or your date aren't attacked in the middle of it, it's
a fun date in Nerima. What was it Nabiki said in the most recent chapter of
Doors Left Unopened? Something about an emergency service and that being
grounds for a date being declared a failure...

Sorry, rambling...

But {plug plug plug} if you've got time, read the Shadow Chronicles cause
they're GOOD. WUE meets TIL. {/plug plug plug}

| Not as
| good as it could have been, true, but the cute guy from class 3-C
| had been able to afford a trip to a _good_ restaurant - a good _expens-
| ive_ restaurant - and had spent most of the evening paying attention
| to her. Even if it had only been so he could ask about Ranma.

Ouchie.

| So, she
| felt, the gates had been opened, and it was now possible that she might
| achieve the lofty heights of Going Steady.

I'm having flashbacks to a particular musical number from Bye Bye Birdie...

| Just as soon as she found
| one of the boys at Furinkan who wasn't a jerk. She was sure there must
| be _one_.

Well, seeing as how there's a certain amount of assertiveness required to BE
a jerk, there's an oft-overlooked boy in the back row. He ain't much to look
at, but he's no jerk. Nerd, yes. Jerk, no.

|    But third, ahh _third_, now there was the thing. The great thing.
| The unalloyedly wonderful thing. For, walking home from her date, she
| had passed a park. And her attention had been drawn to an area just
| inside a screen of bush, she had made A Find.

"...and she had made A Find." Ne? Or perhaps "...where she had made A Find."

| A wonderful find. She,
| Asano Sayuri, Furinkan High Class 2-F, had found ... a puppy!
|
|    Stop snickering. Right now.

Who, me? If it had been P-Chan, I might be snickering. But it's just a
puppy. I mean, what's so special about a puppy?

Whuh-oh. I'm getting those Chills of Foreboding down my spine again.

|    It was weak and half-starved, and very ragged looking,

I THINK those last two words should be hyphen-joined, but that's just me.

| but she knew
| that it would grow up fine and strong. It had weakly snapped at her
| hand, but she knew that she would soon win its heart, and that it would
| be loyal and true. Best of all, it was in the park unhelped by any but
| herself, which meant it must be free for any who could aid and protect
| it. And since it was obviously Greatly In Need, her parents would have,
| could have, no objection to her keeping it.

Why do I get the feeling she's setting herself up?

|    Asano Sayuri, at heart, was a great romantic, who frequently viewed
| the world through glasses not merely rose-colored, but actively rose-
| projecting, and so she smiled and skipped slightly as she carried
| home the wolf cub she had found. It would, she knew, be grand. And,
| invisible to her view (since it was turned away from her), a tiny fleck
| of green light flickered in one of the wolf cub's eyes, and then went
| out.

Oh... my. This is about where the spooky music would start playing, were
this a horror movie...

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    And Kuno Kodachi sat quietly and watched her brother with what
| passed, for her, with concern.

That is to say, she was currently not actively contemplating grinding
nightshade berries into his evening portion of lo mein.

| He had been very different since yester-
| day, and no previous simple beating had even enjoined such a result.

I think you're looking for "EVER enjoined".

| Also, she noticed, his sword was now securely locked in its sheath,
| instead of displayed on its stand, as was proper.

Well, they'd have to put an extra rack on the stand and shorten it a little
bit for the sword to be displayed in all its proper glory.

|    Perhaps some spell had been cast on her idiotic older brother. Or
| perhaps something else odd had occurred.

He has fallen victim to the final attack of the Tae Kwon Leap school of
kendo: Sword... To the.... NECK!

You know, that really didn't work very well, did it?

| In any case, she supposed, she
| would have to check herself. Furinkan, bah! She had visited before, and
| in the whole school there was no person of merit or spirit. No person
| at all.

Consider updating your intelligence. Extensively.

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    And across Nerima a number of phone conversations burned late into
| the night. They had been beaten. They had been disgraced and dishonored.
| Moreover, some felt, they had deserved it.

Oh sure, go ahead and try to rationalize it.

| First, they had failed to
| adequately take into account the proper considerations of a challenge,
| and second, they had attempted to attack by surprise.

And the difference between the two is...?

| A direct frontal
| confrontation, it was agreed, would certainly lead to a restoration of
| honor. In one sense or another.

Let's hope it's not the sense which ends with a lot of slashed abdomens.

|    And in a maison apartment on the outskirts of the district liquified
| moonlight dripped, over a jade ring, into a silver pan. And the night
| rolled on. And morning came.
|
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Ranma & Akane: A Love Story.
| Chapter 3 :The Third Day

Watch your spacing, grasshopper.

| Part A: Point of Contact: The Hunter and the Bear
|
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    Bushiko Ranma exited her apartment with the rising of the sun above
| the horizon of her window.

Umm... that sounds confusing and/or physically impossible. "as the sun's
rays inched above her windowsill" or something of the like would be better,
methinks.

| Behind her she left her apartments just as
| she had the day before, ahead of her was a wait of at least 30 minutes
| before Akane would conceivably leave the Tendo Dojo for school.

I THINK those two clauses should be linked with a semicolon.

| A half
| hour of which she intended to make full use.

And that "half-hour" should be hyphenated.

|    The basic problem, she reflected, was that she had very little
| experience in dealing with the emotion of great happiness.

PLEASE don't pull a C-Ko...

| The only
| means of easily dealing with _any_ great emotion she had was to work
| off the energy. Therefore ...
|
|    She leapt, touched one toe to the nearest roof and leapt again.
| Spun in mid-air, turned a somersault, bounced off an air molecule,

Considering there are about 30 septillion of them in a given cubic meter,
that's not all that impressive. Bouncing off a passing dust particle, now
THAT's impressive. But you're the writer and it's your hyperbole.

| touched a foot to a passing water-tower, backflipped 30 yards of
| warehouse, touched down in a cartwheel, leapt again. Flickering from
| foothold to toetouch, flashing from tower to wall, dancing across the
| Neriman skyline, her only accompaniment the musical chiming of her own
| delighted laughter, filling the air behind her progress with a chorus
| as of silver bells.

I'm hearing Bing Crosby at the moment and considering how awfully
inappropriate the song that follows is, considering the season and all
that...

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    Ranma came down on Akane from out of the rising sun.

CURSE YOU RED BARON... waitaminute, that actually kinda fits...

| Akane appre-
| hended that Ranma's attack was not serious by the simple fact that it
| was neither unblockable nor sufficiently forceful to break through
| the defense she raised against it.

Apprehended? I think you were maybe thinking of ascertained...

| Indeed Ranma nearly bounced off her
| raised arm, transferring no force but achieving enough velocity to
| bounce off a nearby fence in another attack.

Bushiko Ranma, human superball...

| This sequence continued
| with Akane blocking and Ranma delivering increasingly complex and more
| difficult attacks, and coming increasingly closer to breaking past her
| guard.

Hmm. Sounds awkward. Perhaps "attacks, attacks which came increasingly
closer to breaking past Akane's guard."

|   Akane's defensive maneuvers had drawn her farther and farther from her
| beginning position next to Nabiki, to the point where her back was
| almost against the fence by the side of the road. Then a sneaky rebound
| off the fence behind her left her nowhere to go but up. She snap-jumped
| to the top of the fence and was then forced repeatedly back, unable
| to spare the attention needed to discover where she was but happy just
| to have no more than one direction from which to expect attacks.

That direction being down? I mean, Ranma's certainly capable of vaulting off
the pavement into a takedown maneuver. Of course, the obvious reply is that
this is just training.

|    Akane was driven back more than sixty yards along the fence before
| Ranma took pity and ceased her attacks. Akane stayed in a defensive
| stance for another few seconds as Nabiki came running up with her mouth
| open. "Akane! That was great! I didn't think anyone could move along
| the top of a fence like that!"
|
|    Akane looked down, wavered, and wildly waved her arms in an attempt
| to keep her balance, but succeeded only in falling off the inside of the
| fence, onto the sidewalk, instead of the outside, into the stream.

Well, that was fortunate.

"The fiwst waw of Cawtoon Physics is that you wiw not faw unwess you wook
down. *crash* huhuhuhuhuh." -Perfesser Elmer Fudd, Acme Looniversity

|    Looking up from her position flat on her rump on the ground, Akane
| observed Ranma covering her eyes and shaking her head, and Nabiki
| shaking her whole body with barely restrained mirth. "And so gracefully
| done, too", Ranma observed mildly.

Oh dear. Mallet Of Justice, coming... erm. Pardon me.

*scrape shuffle shuffle click CLUNK*

Ah. Still had one part of meself back in the original series.

|   "If you'd _told_ me I was on a fence _earlier_...", Akane complained.
|
|   "You'd have fallen off earlier, neh? It's often the case that the
| body unconscious of its circumstances can do things it never could by
| the will of the mind alone, but you don't often see it that clearly",
| Ranma replied, still calmly. "And now, for your next trick, get back on
| the fence."
|
|    "But, but, but ..."

"I said get on the fence, not imitate a motorboat."

|    "_Up_!"
|
|    Wobbling frantically, Akane attempted to keep her balance on the fence-
| top. Then she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, steadying her
| balance. Ranma turned to Nabiki, "Please excuse us Nabiki-san, and con-
| tinue to school. I see that I have some training to accomplish, but
| we'll be along shortly."
|
|    Akane gulped, and commended herself to the protection of the Kamis.

And Teflonos, Mypiote god of protection!

...you didn't SEE that episode of "Perfect Strangers"?

|    "Now, Akane, first we walk", beginning to do so, "and then we run."
| Accelerating along the top of the fence, Ranma took a corner and left
| Nabiki behind, pushing Akane along before her.
|
|    Akane observed the sharp-looking top of the fence vanishing beneath
| her and quavered, "Wh-what happens if I lose my balance?"

I DON'T think you want to know that.

|    "You get to drop your groin onto a sharp surface and hurt alot",
| Ranma replied calmly. "I don't recommend it."

Perhaps "and hurt. A lot."

|    "Oh, fine!", Akane mumbled.
|
|    "And now we go faster."
|
|    "Help."

Oh dear. Ranma's putting Akane through the wringer.

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    Returning to the straight track to Furinkan as they neared the
| school, Ranma and Akane caught up to Nabiki just before they reached
| the outer wall of the courtyard. Akane, Nabiki noticed, was looking
| somewhat frazzled but bore no evidence of injury. Returning to the
| sidewalk, the two walked alongside Nabiki as they entered the school-
| yard, only to run into a wall of semi-determined male silliness.

I don't know. "Determined" and "silly" don't work together. "Stupidity",
maybe. "Stubbornness", I could see. But you're not determined and silly
unless you're, say, the Joker.

| Perhaps
| a dozen Furinkan students were lined up in the center of the yard, each
| bearing some form of combat implement.

You know, that conjures up really weird images, given the Martial Arts
Everything mindset of the local area. Like the kid who practices Martial
Arts Whittling and fights with pointed sticks...

| The leader bowed to Ranma and
| began to speak.
|
|    Ranma raised an eyebrow and interrupted. "Let me guess. You lads have
| decided to go the formal challenge route."
|
|    "Err ... yes", the leader said uncertainly.
|
|    "Ah. Tell me", Ranma said, "have any of you gentlemen heard the story
| of the Hunter and the Bear?"
|
|    General negation was expressed.

And we cut to commercial as the story starts. Don't you hate that?

...and, we're on.

| 	  And _again_ he heard the voice, the terrible voice of _Bear_!
| 	And it said, "Now lad, ye did nae come here frae the huntin',
| 	did ye?"

And the commentator, who's been watching the whole things, is currently in
hysterics. And the odd thing is that THIS FITS TOO! It's PERFECT!
GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

|    Ranma's voice on the last question had become soft and gentle. And
| she looked upon the white-faced boys huddling before her, and bestowed
| on them a smile. A gentle smile. A kind and sweet smile. An angelic
| smile.

A smile which, oddly enough, is echoed by Princess Aeka in the throes of
"oujo-sama" mode.

If you don't get that, just let me tell you that that little alternate
future Gregg was talking about where Tenchi finds out the Juraian wedding
night involved bondage and leather... well, let's just say that it isn't
quite so alternate as one would think.

|    And the last remnant of the Fight at Furinkan, pale and shaking,
| turned away from the terrible figure they had sought to challenge, and
| stumbled weeping up the steps. And divided themselves among their
| several classes, where they sat huddled and still all the rest of the
| day. And where no-one spoke of the story, or of the Fight. Not that day,
| nor for a long time to come.
|
|    And Ranma and Akane, arms linked, and voices rising to the brilliant
| cerulean sky, walked up the stairs behind them, singing.
|
| 	When he was fast asleep, hey do me harity
| 	When he was fast asleep, me being young,
| 	When he was fast asleep, I from his side did creep,
| 	Into the arms of a handsome young man!
|
| 	Now he's got Faloorum, Faleerum, Fallorum,
| 	Now he's got Fallorum, Faleerum, Falaay!
| 	Now he's got Fallorum, he's got a Ding-Doorum,
| 	Maids, when you're young, never wed an old man!

As does one of the two singers, when hot water is applied in the absence of
a certain artifact.

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|    She had woken with the new day and prepared for school. Then she
| had gone to the room where the puppy had slept, to see its progress for
| herself. Now she knew, she had made a mistake, a dreadful mistake, the
| previous day. Now, she knew, she must be brave, and even bravery would
| do no good for her. But it still might serve another. And so she
| clutched the twisted, claw like hand that held her throat with both her
| own. And so she looked up into the eyes, burning with a green internal
| fire, of the 7 foot, near skeletal, black-robed figure that held her
| fast.

Oh good god. Kid, I don't think anyone's going to CARE whether you were
brave or not in the next... oh... ten seconds or so.

| And so she saw the twisted, part wolf, part fox, part feline, all
| terrible face of the being before her, and recognized in it the remnant
| of the puppy she had found.

Toldja. Didn't I tell ya? Horror-movie music, all the way...

|    And so she heard it ask, in a horrible, pain-wracked, voice, as
| twisted as itself, for information about _Ranma_. And so she was brave,
| and made no sound. And she heard the horrified shriek, and saw, through
| a sudden twilight, her mother standing in the doorway, aghast. And then
| the night came down.
|
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Next: Who is the wolf-demon? What is he doing in Nerima? Why is he
| looking for Ranma? Will they fight? (Alright, so that last was a
| stupid question.)

Umm... yeah.

| Join us next time for a fight to the finish, and the fate of Asano
| Sayuri, when the FFML hosts
| Ranma and Akane: A Love Story.
| Chapter 3: The Third Day.
| Part B: Breaching the Wall: A Game of Wolf and Dragon.

You know, you make goooooood cliffhangers...

Next part, commented on in a day or so. I've got Work To Do...