This is concerning C&C of the fanfic Leaving, prologue, written by 
myself.

This is a reply to the dozen or so C&C e-mails I've received. After 
reading them I felt like I had some explaining to do, so I'm posting it 
so the comments don't get repeated. Here are the major points I've been 
told.

1) Ranma is OOC. Granted. I agree wholeheartedly. The only person who 
can write every character in character is the great Rumiko Takahashi 
herself. After all, for a fanfic to be a fanfic, something has to be 
different. What Ranma saw and who he met while on his first training 
trip alone are the reasons he changed. Those will be covered in further 
installments as I wanted to truly give the impression Ranma was killing 
himself for a little while, as if the title and notes weren't much of a 
clue (if I've failed thoroughly in that task, let me know, but at least 
say what I should change and why).

2) The second thing is the cruelty involved in bringing everyone to 
watch him 'die'. I'd think this would explain itself. Ranma wishes to be 
left alone. Simply disappearing would make everyone else run after him 
to the ends of the earth, and he doesn't want that. If he brought one 
person, some of the others wouldn't believe the story and search for 
him, since nobody gets along with everybody. In order to evade pursuit, 
everyone must witness his faked death. If you still think it is somewhat 
cruel, you have to understand Ranma is thinking about his own prolonged 
happiness. Selfish, yes. Everyone must think about himself some time, 
and I haven't seen Ranma exactly selfish in the series.

3) This brings the third point. I agree that Ranma usually don't let 
things get to him and has fought to preserve the status quo. Anyone 
raised on the road is willing to let a few things pass to keep his 
newfound friends, especially when they are under the influence of magic 
(Reversal Jewel incident). You have to remember Ranma is a nice guy who 
doesn't like hurting people, even at the cost of hurting himself. I say 
this is all well and good, but everyone has a breaking point (no pun 
intended). Ranma can shrug it off, but deep down it still hurts and 
slowly accumulates. Over his 'training' weekend, Ranma saw how wrong and 
different from normal his life really was, and he took what he 
considered the only way out. You have to admit his life is pretty 
complicated, and the fanfics where Ranma chooses one and deals with the 
others have almost all been done, so I shied away from that format. If 
you think he's running away, maybe he is. Even though I'm making him 
more mature Ranma is far from perfect, and is no good at confrontation. 
He'd just babble and agree with whatever was said, too uncomfortable to 
face the woman directly (we've all been there).

4)  The last point is about Kuno, Ryoga and Mousse. Of course they're 
ridiculously happy. They're not gloating (at least not right away) but 
they're happy. They have no reason to believe it is a trick as I believe 
the death scene was well-staged. They're not angry at Ranma because they 
truly believe (in some misguided way) that he was the only obstacle 
between them and their loves. When they find out the girls still weren't 
interested, that's another question, and another part of this fanfic. 
Don't worry. Just because they believe he's dead doesn't mean Ranma 
won't be their scape goat anymore. And when they hear he's still 
alive...

I hope you'll agree with me about Ranma's changes when I write about his 
first weekend at Needles Falls. It'll be at the end of chapter 1 or 
chapter 2 in itself. Chapter 1 will be Ranma's death from his point of 
view and Akane finding out. Being extremely emotionnally unstable, 
she'll run crying to Kasumi or Nodoka, Nabiki overhearing and selling 
the information. Chapter 3 will be about the hunt for Ranma. At least, 
that's what I just thought up (*grin*).

Those who still have a few misgivings are welcome to write me back, and 
I'll keep the replies private. Those who don't agree only have to delete 
my fic when it comes on their e-mail in-box service. Those are the basis 
of this fic and if you don't like them, you won't like my fic, though 
I've been told it's well-written. (As a potential future writer, I thank 
you.)

Preview Chapter 1: New lifestyles  (tentative title)

Akane's mind was a jumble. Those were too much circumstances to be a 
complete coincidence. A man, looking and sounding every bit like Ranma 
had jumped from the cliff into the waterfall and walked away. And the 
time the woman had mentioned. Ranma had first came to this place two 
weeks ago. She came to the obvious conclusion that Ranma was still 
alive.

Her heart an even bigger mess than before, Akane ran to the train 
station, needing to talk to someone desperately. She had three news to 
say. Ranma was alive. Ranma had staged his death one week in advance. 
Ranma had done it all for a woman.

End Preview

Thank you all!

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