Hi Michael,

Thanks for your speedy response, I greatly appreciate it.  I'm horribly
embarrassed at the sheer number of typos and misspellings in this chapter -
thank you for being patient enough to pick them up.

I've gone through and fixed the ones you're pointed out, and I'll reply to
your other points below.

Ranma sighed as she watched the Amazon, unsure of what to say, what to

do.

The girl had finally begun to come to terms with what had happened with
Genma, and now this had happened.  It was obvious that Shampoo simply

could

not cope with the consequences of killing another person.

Shampoo seems awfully squeamish for that time period.

This is a good point.  Shampoo in the original series couldn't bring herself
to kill her rivals (obviously this wouldn't be suitable for a comedic anime,
but that doesn't make it any less important a character trait), but as you
mentioned, she's living in a different time period here.

My explanation is this:  Shampoo's been raised in a relatively isolated
little village, and hasn't actually been involved in any real conflict
before.  She's trained in the art of fighting, but she's never actually had
to fight anyone seriously before.  The first person she ever attacked with
the real intent to harm was Genma, and she killed him.  As was mentioned a
couple of chapters back, she feels horribly guilty about that, espescially
as she's grown to know Ranma.  That guilt has carried across, and she now
feels similar guilt for this unintentional killing.  She didn't want to kill
the soldier, but her fighting instincts took over and she didn't really have
any say in the matter.

She's not so much squeamish as surprised at herself - she doesn't really
want to kill anyone, but she jumped to her master's defence and struck down
the attacker without stopping or hesitating.  Those instincts intimidate
her, and she's having a little trouble coping with them.

Phew!  Well, that's the explanation I'm going to give for it.  :)

Tying the soldiers up without the prospect of handing them over to someone
for safekeeping doesn't make any sense.

Who would they hand them over to?  The villagers are all dead, and there's
no-one else around for miles.  Ranma stated her intent - they can stay tied
up, until something or someone finds them.  If they get killed, or starve,
well - sucks to be them.  It's probably a little sadistic, but Ranma is
developing something of a mean streak.

I've had a few people commenting that they would prefer I concentrate

more

on Ranma and Akane rather than telling Ranma's back story.  That's a

valid

point, but I feel that what is happening with Ranma and Shampoo isn't

just

backstory.  I'm trying to tell two stories at once:  Ranma's story, and
Akane's story.  The two stories have many similarities, but many

differences

as well, and I feel it's important to keep telling Ranma's story.  It

was

always my intention to do this, and while the Ranma / Shampoo storyline
won't carry on forever, there will be other glimpses into Ranma's past

that

will explain how she became who she is.

Whether it is backstory or not, we need to eventually discover how Ranma
came to be the way she is when Akane meets her.

Indeed.  One of the things I've often heard said about alterverse fics is
that the characters are usually pretty OOC without much explanation.  I'm
trying to give that explanation as I go.  The story behind Ranma's life will
continue to unfold, not in the background, but alongside the main storyline
of Ranma and Akane.  I can't really make any apologies for that decision,
but I'll try to make the backstory interesting enough to merit reading.  I
hope it works out.  :)

Regards,
R. E.

========

Ten
http://ten.waxwolf.com
Perfection has a price.

========

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