My 2 cents:  Jyusenko isn't part of the Matrix, per se.  At least, not
part of the machines' Matrix.  It's something inserted by the people of
Zion, along with other "unexplainable phenomena" to a) keep the idea of
magic alive, and b) keep people questioning, wondering about the world and
just what they know about it.  To put it in terms of White Wolf's Mage
RPG, the machines are the Conventions, and the people of Zion are the
Traditions, trying to get people to "wake up" from the dream.  However,
the Conventions control reality (literally, in this case), and the
Traditions have to be very circumspect about how much they stretch
reality.  Now, since this isn't a Mage/Matrix crossover, throw out that
terminology, and just look at it as inroads the humans are trying to make
into the Construct.  The more willing people are to believe that "the
truth is out there", the easier it will be to bring them back into the
real world.
    In the case of Ranma and crew, their ki levels represent their ability
to manipulate, stretch, and maybe break the rules of the Construct.
Cologne is obviously a counterpoint to Morpheus and the Oracle, teaching
the youngsters as much as possible, trying to ready them for waking up.
Jusenkyo in particular is a means both of keeping people wary about
reality, and as a psychological program, made to confront the individual
with their greatest weakness or psychological hangup.  And probably
created by some bored hacker on Zion's mainframes who'd had too much beer
and pizza ;)
    As for why those particular individuals aren't caught by the machines,
I'd speculate that the Jusekyu program actually coopts the normal program
interface, making the humans' minds run through Zion before getting to the
Construct.  That would give Zion the means to mask those people that it's
training from the machines.  However, it also adds the risk that if the
machines ever did find those individuals, they'd provide a direct link
into Zion's mainframes, rather than just passcodes.  I remember reading a
story comparing Ranma and Bruce Lee, indicating Bruce Lee might have been
learning some of the same speed techniques as Ranma, but his body couldn't
handle it (or something like that), which is why he died so young.  In
this case, it could be that he was being trained by Zion, but was found
out by the machines, so Zion had to disconnect him.
    Now, once they awaken Ranma and crew, would they still have to pass
through Zion when they plug in?  I'd guess not.  But if not, would they
still be cursed, since they wouldn't be running through the Jusenkyo
program?  If there's the possibility of getting rid of the curse, you know
Ranma would be jumping on it with both feet.  Perhaps a variant on the
machines' ability to take over another person and morph to their own form
is that the Jusenkyo-cursed people have learned to modify their own form
(to a limited extent) once they plug in directly. <shrug>  I'm sure there
are other holes to fill in with this idea, but I like it.

What will you do with Non-cursed Nerimans?

For that matter, can we imagine Kodachi in the real world? *shudder*

And if Kuno went in, we'd have to see his self-image *bigger shudder*

Beky

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