Suggested changes: {before : after}
On 04/01/2004 01:09 PM, Mike Feeney said:
Finally finished... no one to blame for how long this took but
myself. I really need to reestablish some writing {disipline :
discipline}.
Ranma {� : 1/2} and Maison Ikkoku are both property of Rumiko
Takahashi, and the several publishing companies she has sold the
rights to as well.
Kocho Kuno was in his office, and all was right with the world as he
stood at the window and surveyed his domain. Miscreancy was at an all
time low since the arrival of {? : '}Typhoon Gaijin'; the only fly in
the ointment being that Thunders, knowing what would probably happen
to them, refused to send students to him unless the offense was
severe enough to actually merit it, depriving him of his favorite
pastime of handing out really bad haircuts. Even his son had finally
gotten it through his thick head that one did not ignore the Typhoon
lightly. The man was depressingly honorable, though. He only came
down hard on the real miscreants... and was willing to give a student
the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. Personally, Kocho
was surprised that Nabiki hadn't wound up in deeper trouble yet;
although that was probably because she worked very hard at not
getting caught. Shaking his head, he pulled the curtains closed
before turning on the sunlamp and settling into his beach-chair. The
day was still young; even if he didn't get a victim to... counsel
this afternoon, at least his tan would be nice and dark!
Ranma winced, realizing at once that this was going to be even harder
than he'd already imagined; he also knew that the only way out of
this was through the other side. "Yeah. Hi. You might wanna hold
off on the Ran-chans till you've heard everythin' tho." Seeing her
face fall, his stomach went and tightened itself into a knot tighter
than the worst Akane's cooking had ever done. The urge to use the
Saotome secret technique was overwhelming{; : ,} but wasn't going to
solve anything this time. The point of running was to give one
enough time to think up another solution{; : ,} but no amount of
thinking was ever going to come up with an answer to this one! Even
facing Saffron hadn't been as hard as this, he realized as he mutely
stood there for a second, bumping his index fingers together. It
took every bit of the discipline and resolve he'd ever learned to
force the words from his lips, and still they came out as a barely
audible mumble.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand you, {sugar : Sugar}," Ukyou
prompted, a faint hope still wavering inside her pounding heart.
Neither noticed the crowd that had started to gather around them, nor
did they notice Nabiki and her cronies somehow materialize between
them and the crowd, keeping them away from the discussion. And as
the crowd gathered, much like storm clouds on the horizon, this drew
the approach of the Typhoon... Who, on seeing what was happening,
simply nodded at Nabiki and changed course.
As usual with such a journey, it was the first step that was the
hardest, so Ranma was better able to articulate himself this time{; :
.} "I... I wanna apologize for the way I've been acting since...
well... you know."
A global search for ';' might be a good idea. I'm sure I didn't notice
all the places it might be reconsidered.
"But not my wife," he confirmed. "I... I don't have a way to replace
your {dowery : dowry}... Not yet. But I will, somehow."
"Why? Why should I, {sensei : Sensei}?"
"Yes, {sensei : Sensei}," Ukyou giggled as she accepted his help.
Somehow, he'd managed to turn her sorrow into hysteria, which still
threatened to overwhelm her, but somehow the laughter was holding the
pain at bay. She started to ask about her things, but stopped when
she saw that he already had them with him. Dusting herself off
slightly, she fell into step beside him as he escorted her off the
grounds. It wasn't until they were about to cross the rail line that
ran between Furinkan and the rest of town that she spoke again.
"Oh. But this seems kind of... well, above and beyond what's
necessary, {sensei : Sensei}."
"Yes, {sensei : Sensei}," Ukyou sighed as she sagged into the booth
by the door and Konastu appeared as if by magic, as {ususal : usual}.
The {kounichi : kunoichi} glanced worriedly between Ukyou and her
teacher, but kept silent in response to a warning shake of the head
from Muck, who quietly set down Ukyou's school things before drawing
the {kounichi : kunoichi} aside.
"{Kunonji : Kuonji}-san's having a very bad day, Konatsu. I don't
know if she's going to feel up to talking about it later, but if she
doesn't don't push it, ok? Oh, and give me your order pad for a
second."
"Yes, Thunders-sama," the confused {kounichi : kunoichi} replied as
he handed over the pad. "I don't understand..."
"It's been just over a month, yet you've managed to get the two most
unruly classes in the school eating out of your hand. You get their
attention and hold it; and the whole school is a- buzz over the
{companionate : compassionate} way you handled what happened at
lunch. You keep this up, and the whole school is going to be
worshiping you by summer break!"
"He never struck me as yaoi," someone commented. As one, they turned
their gaze to Yotsuya, who's only response was a {? : '}darn if I
know' shrug.
"He isn't," Akemi spoke up from where she was lounging against the
door to room 6. "He mumbles about Patricia in his sleep."
Astonished eyes {swivelled : swiveled} to stare at her. "What? I
took a day off..."
The sound of Thunders-san ending the argument with "Fine, be that way
you {unsufferable : insufferable} slab of silicon! I'm going out,"
prompted most of them to scatter, leaving only Yusaku and Kyoko in
view when Muck flung open the door. His sudden shift from anger to
embarrassment was rather comical as he hemmed and hawed. "Errr, sorry
about that," he finally stammered.
"They have one child and another on the way. I'm sure peace and quiet
is only a fond memory," the computer replied tartly, before swiveling
the camera on top of the monitor to face them; it then panned it down
and up in an approximation of a bow. "Hajimemahite, Yusaku and Kyoko.
I am Fred."
Did they know about the one on the way yet? I don't recall it coming up
earlier.
"He's also the result of sleep {depravation : deprivation} combined
with a caffeine and nicotine overdose," Muck added. "I can't
replicate my results..."
Akane looked up at Ranma and glared. From the vacant look in his
eyes, he wasn't concentrating on homework. Again. Which meant he
was probably worrying about Ukyou. Again. All right, maybe this
would be a good thing under most circumstances, certainly better than
a lot of the other BOYS at school who seemed only to think of
themselves{; : ,} but he needed to concentrate on the task at hand!
He was HER fiancee, and she was trying to help him in his
self-proclaimed quest of Martial Arts Catch-Up! He should be giving
her the same level of commitment that he gave to learning new
techniques! With her frustration reaching critical mass, she picked
up an eraser and bounced it off his head {? : --} with enough force
that it bounced off his head and caromed through the rice paper of
one of the half open doors. Ranma's head snapped back and his eyes
refocused on her and he instantly started an apology{; : ,} but Akane
was still too frustrated to accept it, so with a few snippy comments
to Ranma she gathered up her school-books and beat a hasty retreat to
her room.
Ranma started to say something, but whatever it was never really
penetrated, because several other facts quickly flashed through
Akane's head first. One, she'd been sitting on her bed in sort of a
lotus style. Two, she'd flopped back on her pillow without thinking
about that. Three, she was still wearing her school uniform, which
meant; Four, she could well have just given Ranma an unintentional {?
: '}Show'. It wasn't until Ranma was pulling herself out of the {Koi
: koi} pond that several more points hit... First and foremost being
that Ranma had been telling her dinner was ready. Sure, the stupid
jerk could have knocked on her door, but that wasn't the way Ranma
did things, was it? No, the Saotome branch of Anything Goes was as
at home in the air as a fish might be in the water. And Ranma loved
to lie back on the roof and watch a sunrise or sunset, so if he'd
been asked to let Akane know, it would seem only natural to just hang
off the edge of the roof and knock on her window. And he wouldn't
have had any way of knowing how she was sitting. Which meant she'd
just belted Ranma for something that really wasn't his fault!
That's a real moment of realization. Something like it had to happen
for their relationship to progress and Muck had no say in it.