Hi!

	Missed one or two of these along the way, but read enough of them
to get the basic concept underlying the series -- and it's interesting.
Well written, too.
	Of course, I disagree with some of your conclusions, but I suppose
that's to be expected in a series like this.  Take this chapter, for
instance.  As you suggested in you after-prologue, whether it's a
'success' is unclear -- the person he becomes has, in my opinion, lost
more than he gained; that, of course, is a matter of perspective.  But the
major discovery he makes -- the seemingly paradoxical control of wild
emotion, the harnessing of untamed urges -- isn't that big of a
revelation, really.  True, it seems to lie at the halfway point between
Happi and Cologne (or your interpretation of them, anyway), but that's
only because they're such extremes in themselves.
	I have no pretentions of having a profound understanding of the
martial arts, but that shifting between relaxed and tensed states, the
conscious control of intense emotions, is an essential and underlying
concept in many styles; at least, it has been in what I've studied.  I
guess I just had trouble accepting Ranma's realization justifying such
manifestations of his awakening skill as shifting skin and roiling
innards.  Then again, this is anime, eh?  These guys always feel things a
lot more intensly than you'd otherwise think.  (You!  You stole my kumquat
when I was five!  I hate kumquats, but for that insult, I pledge eternal
blood feud upon you, and your dog, too!)

	Most intersting part of the story, in my opinion, was the shift to
Ryoga's POV at the ending.  His contemplation whether or not to follow
Ranma and learn from him seemed the true climax of the fic.  I would've
liked to see more of it -- an actually look into the payoff, and cost, of
such dedication to a single objective.  And with Ryoga, you already have
someone with a good idea of the cost of obsession...

	Anyway, I'm starting to ramble here, so... good fic.  Complaints
aside, liked it, and the shifting POV style worked well; only once or
twice did I not know immediately who'se eyes we were looking through.
	So does this end the Synthesis series...?

	-Mike Noakes
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"We are but of yesterday, and we know nothing		*
	for our days on earth are but a shadow.		*
Will they not teach you and tell you			*
	and utter words out of their understanding?"	*
							*
	Job 8.9-10 (NRSV)				*
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E-mail: noakes_m@hotmail.com
Webpage: www.geocties.com/Tokyo/Subway/9701/