At 20:51 1999-09-03 , Freemage wrote:
Well... I'm not *that* late. Just a few weeks. ^_^
Nabiki noticed that Ranma-chan wasn't going home via LEO
quicker than the pig-tailed girl did. "Akane, you okay?"
Uh? Ranma wasn't going home quicker than Ranma was? Confusing
sentence, especially with two different referals to the same
person.
Nabiki sat, not having to fake her shock. {I don't believe
it. He actually came up with a plan that works. Still, I'll
have to pin him later tonight and work out some of the finer
details. Overall, though, this will save her more grief than
she'll ever know, hopefully. I'll have to get word to the
others, though--I'd hate for Ranma to pick the wrong moment to
confess everything.}
It might've helped that he wanted her there for personal
reason, hm? ^_^
Btw - did Nabiki suspect/realize any of that yet? Wasn't it
rather obvious in one of the previous chapters? (my memorios
are somewhat vague)
Ryouga considered the question. "Well, I don't think it's
you, even though you've been hit--there's too much that has
nothing to do with you, at all. It's actually a lot like some
of the softer styles of Martial Arts; all misdirection and
rechannelling your opponents' blows."
He paused for a moment, letting the analogy form in his mind
before continuing. In order to fight that, you have to look for
the overall pattern. Figure out where their center of attack
is. Now, the way they've apparently switched their primary
focus from you to Ranma would mean that it must be someone who
was close to you before he came, and also close to him after he
and his father arrived."
>From any other martial artist, I could buy this, sure - but Ryoga
hardly strikes me as the analyzing type of fighter, so him drawing
this parallell doesn't really work IMO...
Ranma seemed to be grappling with some shadowy figure. Except
that even in the faint and pale light of the moon that the
"figure" was only the panda-skin. A moment later she realized
that the boy was still asleep, dreaming of some horrific battle.
"It's no wonder, using _that_ as a blanket," she muttered as she
approached the thrashing boy carefully.
Isn't it just a wee bit tasteless actually USING it?
(Or was some rationale given earlier? I forget.)
[snip rest of dream scene]
***********************************************************
I dunno... I think (overall, not only in this scene, though it made
me react here) Akane has grown a bit too efficient/calculating/
confident/tough a bit too quickly. I'm not really objecting against
what she *does* here - which I have no problem seeing given what's
happened - but rather *how* she does it, the attitude with which
she behaves outwards.
"Oh. Why is it coming up in the south?"
Considering dawn comes roughly once every day, you'd think
Ryouga would have seen it appear from subjectively varying
directions enough times by now not to question it.
They embraced, and let passion take control again.
Ooooooh. ^_^
I'm now going to go out on a limb that I swore I'd never get on again
and predict... three more chapters, plus epilogue(s). Next chapter
should not take too long, I hope, as the outline is pretty much
completed. My primary motivation right now is that I've got another
fic in my head that's SCREAMING to be let out, but this thing is still
in the way.
Well, it's been a few weeks, so you should've had plenty of time
to finish it by now. C'mon, gimme! Gimme! :-P
The mystery tightens. I like it.
---
Ronny Hedin, thark@mangakai.org, http://nabiki.newberry.edu/thark/
"Baka baka, minna baka." -Hoshino Ruri
"Kids grow by exploiting adults." -Yang Wen-Li
"Time does not betray a dream." -Hoshino Tetsuro