A minute sound.
A sound so small it can be ignored by anyone.
A sound so great no silence is able to withhold it.
The sound of rain drops falling on a roof.
That was the only sound Ranma was able to hear at that time.
A sound that gave him comfort in spite of his injuries.
A sound that made his mind dream, and his hope surge.
And a sound that was driving him crazy.
Destroying his mind piece by piece as with each drop a memory was relived.
And with each remembrance brought to mind, his heart suffered.
For even if the memories were long forgotten, and his will was strong, these memories weren't nice.
No, definitely not nice at all.
For these were memories of a family he never got to know.
And of a love he never got to live.
Remembrances of times when a day was easier to live than the last.
And of a time when the future held promises of life, and happiness, and above all else, when the future held an offering of love.
A time destroyed in a second.
A time his feverish mind was hell bent on recall.
And so, as the quiet sounds of rain falling on a roof made him dream, his memories surfaced, and in surfacing, his memories gave him the strength to live on.
It was his memories that showed him the way to win a clash no mortal had fought before.
An approach to overcome destiny.
And to break out of fate.
****************************************
I've seen so much
A Ranma ½ Fan fiction
****************************************
---------------------------------------- Chapter Four -----------------------------------------------
********** Moon's Memories **********
Tired eyes opened to the world once again, but unlike before they didn't rest on a ceiling he was getting used to know, neither did they catch a glimpse of an old man tending to his wound.
They didn't see darkness neither light, and as his eyes got used to the sight before him, his mind was screaming it was all a dream, it must be all a dream, for his eyes rested upon the visage of one Genma Saotome, his father and his master in the art, a man who gave him his greatest fear and his most important strength.
And these eyes didn't hold fear or sadness in their depths, they held determination.
And dare he say it they held admiration.
And as his eyes encompassed the surrounding landscape they saw a green lush forest, a forest that was the common scenario where all his nightmares started, always in this forest, always in this same clearing, always by the same pit besides him . . . but never before had he seen Genma's eyes the way they were shown to him this time.
And as he saw his father, the man he used to respect the most in all the world, shove him into the pit and close the lid over it casting him in almost total darkness he saw what he had ignored in all these nightmares, all these years.
For as Genma berated him for being scared of cats and cursed the heavens for giving him a weak son who couldn't even master a simple technique, he saw his tears fall and his eyes close, and he saw in that moment a truth he denied for more than ten years, a truth that always was at the forefront of his mind, and as such, a truth he didn't accept, a reality he couldn't accept.
A truth that told him Genma had cried when he pushed Ranma inside the pit, and Ranma had seen love and regret on his father's eyes.
And as the lid closed, and the cats started mauling his body in the never-ending pain so common of these nightmares, Ranma cried.
Not of pain for the claws ripping his skin to shreds.
Not out of fear for the mewling coming from those damned cats.
He cried for the lost chance of forgiving his father, of loving him.
And as his tears fell, he saw the world fracture around him and the darkness melt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happosai was apprehensive as he saw Ranma's body trash around, and his breath come in ragged gasps.
And as he tended to his fatal wound and tried to reduce the fever, he got an insight of what Ranma was facing now, he received enlightenment on the best way to help Ranma overcome this last challenge.
And as he applied another compress on his pupil's forehead and tried to restrain his body from worsening the wound, he understood the demons Ranma should be facing in his mind.
And even as he injected some of his ki into Ranma's body he couldn't help but mutter a silent prayer, a promise to Ranma that everything would be okay, a calm "Fight on Ranma, fight on, for you must not lose, not this battle."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His eyes opened again, to behold the sight of a blue sky and the smell of fresh rain on the air.
And while his mind cried fanatically that this was another dream he delighted in the sight of a serene sky.
And as his eyes turned to the earth he saw a gate he knew well, a gate he had crossed on countless times.
The entrance to the Tendo dojo.
And as his father crossed it, and as he was deposited on his own feet and embraced by a loudly crying Soun Tendo, he felt the fear of reliving these events.
The dread of seeing the same rejection on Kasumi and Nabiki's eyes, and the same betrayal on Akane's eyes.
And as the events went on unchanged, and as he beat Akane on the dojo, and went to the furo to bath, his mind cried for him to wake up.
But his heart told him to stay, and to listen, and to learn.
And as before he saw Akane enter the bathroom without knocking, and as he recalled what happened next he saw a second truth behind Akane's brown eyes, the truth that made him kill Saffron to save her, and the truth that made him challenge every opponent that came for her.
For he saw the same betrayal he had seen before, he saw her turn and run away, but he also saw pain, the pain of being lied to, and in that instant Ranma realized Akane had been hurt as much as him when the truth about his curse came about.
And as he realized her hurtful expression, and recalled her cry of 'pervert' that resounded throughout the house, and as he felt the impact of a heavy table on his head, he knew Akane had waited for him to ask forgiveness.
She had waited for him to ask for love.
And he, as proud and stupid as he was, had not done a single thing.
Also in doing so he had let love to die, and forgiveness to be forgotten.
And so, as his tears fell once again, he saw the dojo shatter around him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Come on Akane, you should rest" said Kasumi as she dragged her youngest sister back to her room. And as she laid her on the bed and wrapped her in warm blankets she couldn't help but cry, cry for her family that was breaking apart faster than anything she could do to prevent it, and cry for Ranma that died when those who knew him let him down.
And as she closed Akane's door and walked quietly back to her own bedroom she remembered the mornings of seeing Ranma slip into his room by a window, of foolishly thinking he was up until late because of training.
And as she remembered Ranma's eyes those last days, of his look seeing at nothing and at everything at the same time, eyes that searched for an answer but found more questions instead, she remembered the quiet thumping sounds as he destroyed practice dummy after practice dummy while locking himself inside the dojo.
And while she disrobed in preparation to go to sleep she remembered an instant when she had seen this coming, a moment in time when she knew Ranma would do anything to get out of the situation he was put in, a morning when he asked her a simple question which she blew out as curiosity.
"Kasumi, tell me, how do you do it?" and as she turned around and asked with a smile "do what, Ranma-Kun?" she saw his eyes avoid hers as if trying to hide a reality he didn't want anyone to know about him and said in a quiet voice which made her imagine she had never heard it in the first place "Nothing, forget I asked."
If only she had answered that question.
But Tendo Kasumi was never a woman of ifs.
So she got into her bed and slept.
Not peacefully, but hoping that maybe the next day she could help her family overcome this great sadness, and maybe then could she find peace.
A peace she had sought after for so many years.
Peace denied to her when her mother passed away and she took care of the house.
Tranquility she craved for.
A harmony her home lost when a pigtailed boy stepped on the porch and said in a bashful voice "I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."
The words that changed their lives forever.
Words that brought changes to their everyday lives, changes that at that particular moment were making her tears fall and her body shudder in fear of an unknown force that seemed to have enfolded the dojo in a dark mantle.
Thus as Kasumi slept, the world moved on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hot tears still fell from Ranma's eyes as they opened again, eyes that saw gray concrete walls and as his head moved to take in the wholeness of his surroundings trying in a way to anticipate what would come now, to get ready for the nightmare he'd be facing this time his mind remembered, a day like every other that had happened before it, a day that changed his life forever.
He saw a classroom full of chatting students, whose visages were full of life and happiness, of young boys and girls that never dreamed it was possible to die without dying at all, features that spoke not of fear either of loss, but faces that held the hope for a bright future, a future Ranma knew was denied to him since the day his father decided they were to leave home.
And as his thoughts turned dark towards the injustice of it all he heard what his mind was trying to make him experience again, a quiet sound he remembered well, the muffled scream of someone whose life is nothing more than a façade, someone who's thoughts speak of despair, of loss, of loneliness.
And just as before he ran, for the voice reverberated in his bones as his ears caught every sob, and the air felt thick with depression on a level greater to what Ryoga could generate even in one of his worst days.
But even as his legs pumped faster and faster to reach the source of that sound, and even as his nostrils flared with the stench of cheap alcohol, a tang he could recognize everywhere, his mind brought to the forefront a figure he tried desperately to forget, the shape of a broken girl who seemed ready to face death, and embrace it.
And as he turned the building's corner his eyes rested upon the faint outline of one Hinako Nanomiya with a bottle of cheap sake in her hand, and the moan of "why?" on her lips. And as he approached her without making a noise with his eyes moist as his mind relived what he learnt this particular day he saw her face turn around and her eyes stare right into his, and as he sat on the floor next to her and took the bottle to break it against the floor he heard himself ask the question that changed his life forever "Why are you crying Miss Hinako?" and as her tears fell again he heard what marked his life from that day on "Because I can't go on".
The conversation then was as if tuned out, as much as he tried to remember the words that were spoken that day, they were unclear, as if his ears were filled with cotton, although he clearly felt his mouth move, and when his mind cleared enough to hear coherently he heard his own words spoken in a voice not of his own, but clearly remembered by his mind "I don't understand why you'd be crying for that old troll Happosai, after all if he could avoid being sucked dry of his aura he would fondle you like he does to every other girl" and he saw her lips move and heard an answer he never expected to hear "Because I love him Ranma, I love him like my father, and to love is to forgive".
And as his soul cried, the world around him evaporated like steam on the wind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A dark restaurant, an empty café, usually full of chatter and life seemed lonely that night, as if silently sharing the pain of it's inhabitants, as if by being silent and dark could in someway help those that live inside it, and those that had lost someone very dear to them.
A broom laid in one corner, untouched since the afternoon when the last cleaning of this place happened, steam raised from a pot set on a table, two cups full of tea besides it as Cologne had brewed a special mixture to help calm nerves, three thousand years of amazon history dedicated on a single pot of tea, a long and proud history of valiant warriors and sage elders that couldn't help a lost member of their tribe this time. And at the table, lost in their own memories and facing their own guilt sat two women, one in her teens, the other beyond what would be considered normal even for some trees, and in a corner, at another table sat a man, a young man blind to the world around him that nevertheless saw the truth that night, and the only sound penetrating the atmosphere of solitude in the restaurant was that of tears falling on the soft cloth that covered the table, and the quiet sighs of an old woman trying to help those that she loved the most.
How many tears should fall before a soul finds peace? That was a question Cologne couldn't, for the life of her, answer. And in seeing her great-.granddaughter weeping for the loss of her husband, and as her tired eyes rested upon the form of Mousse shivering from the cold in a corner while his eyes avoid those around him, she remembered the gray blue eyes of a young man that used to come to her for help when he needed it the most, never asking for it as his pride was too big to acknowledge the need of help, but always searching for a way to overcome a last challenge, the means to defeat a last challenger.
And as her mind returned to previous days, when Ranma would come to the restaurant seeming lost and alone, as if he had lost all he cared for in the world, she regretted her lack of observation and damned his stupid pride for not allowing him to ask for help when an opponent was about to crush him, when a battle was raging on inside of him, tearing him apart, and turning his heart to a blackened piece of coal that she could not repair.
And as her tears fell on the table besides her tea and damped it even as her great grand daughter's did, her mind found the answer to that question, for no matter how many tears fell, a soul would find peace only after the pain can be accepted as a part of living, as she had done when her daughter died, as shampoo had done when her mother left, so they would accept the pain, and live on.
But this night, tears must fall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trembling eyes opened once again, to behold a world full of light and sound, and to see his legs moving even when he tried to stop them. And as his vision encompassed the city surrounding him his soul felt dead, for he remembered this day, for it happened yesterday, or was it a year ago? A lifetime ago? He could not be sure, but he was sure this was the day that the status quo at Nerima was brought down, the day that the fiancées fights ended, for no one can win a dead man's heart.
And as his stomach grumbled, expressing his lack of food as he clearly remembered, his legs carried him to the one place where he was sure food was always a constant, were he could find a friend to talk to, a friend that asked for nothing but gave everything, and as his eyes caught sight of the sign above the building, of a sign reading the familiar letters of "Ucchan's Okonomiyaki" he felt rage surging inside him.
Rage for the betrayal that came from this place on this day, and rage for the inability to change the past.
But his legs obeyed not his commands, and his mouth listened not to his mind, as if this was all a dream, memories forced to surface as if trying to break him, and broken he was. Broken by the pain of various moments when he regretted his actions, and broken by the truths he had seen.
But this moment would not break him, for it had already done so before.
So as he took a seat at the counter, and watched Ucchan prepare and okonomiyaki on the grill, he kept silence, trying to find the motivation for that last betrayal, and the reason for his last friend to destroy him.
And he saw a okonomiyaki placed in front of him, saw the face of Ukyo without the smile that always accompanied it when he stopped by to eat and chat, but a face grim with determination, with the security of a last effort, a last chance for Ranma to grow up and choose her as her rightful fiancée, the hope of Ranma finally acknowledging the sufferings she had endured for him.
And an empty envelope lay beside the grill, and a piece of paper lay on the floor untouched, something he hadn't noticed before.
And as his hands brought the food to his mouth, and his mouth tasted the distinct savor of his friend's art, he concentrated on her eyes, and her words, looking for the piece that was missing to this puzzle, and trying with all his might to endure a second performance of that day.
And it all started with a simple phrase, a careless remark made by him "You know Ucchan, if that tomboy could cook half as good as you maybe I would already had married her" a phrase meant as a flattering remark to her cooking abilities, that instead of the usual smile he got whenever he complimented her got in answer a scowl, and a low growl he had failed to notice before "If she could cook half as good as me Ranchan? Does that mean that you haven't married her yet because she can't cook?" and the hit of a spatula on the counter, right in front of him accentuated her words like nothing else before it "No Ucchan you've got it all wrong! I didn't mean it like that I . . ." explanations that nobody heard from him, why had he thought that Ukyo would be different then? "Tell me Ranchan damn it!" and tears, his main weakness when dealing with girls "Tell me, is that all I am to you? Free food whenever you're hungry and not in the mood to taste Akane's cooking?"
Damn that had to hurt, and he knew it, he had hurt her when she least expected it but he had to concentrate on the now, on the exact words that were spoken that day, to identify the reason for the behavior that haunted him in his dreams the last night he spent at the Tendo dojo.
"No Ucchan you're not! You're not just free food! You're my friend!" a slap, a strike that caught him unaware despite all his training in avoiding hits, a slap that brought anger in him just as he remembered and the words "A friend?! So I'm just a friend Ranchan?! You jackass here I am thinking that I'm your fiancée and all I am to you is a friend?!" yes, the anger, he remembered it well, the anger of being constantly reminded of his father's mistakes, "I never asked for you to be a fiancée Ukyo!" the hurt in her eyes, the same hurt that he saw for hours afterward, the hurt of losing a dream "It was arranged by my baka oyaji! Do you think I asked for all this shit?! I never asked you to marry me so why do you insist on marrying me?!"
Now he noticed the restaurant was empty, no wonders there, the coward customers had always run whenever he and Ukyo fought, not that he blamed them for it, he would have done the same thing if he could "Then why do you keep leading me on Ranma?! Why don't you just break this damn engagement and end all this crap?!" the tears were falling faster now, a veritable fountain of sorrow and pain he had ignored all the time "And just how am I supposed to do it Kuonji?! Just up and leave all behind?! I value my honor unlike everyone else around here! And I won't lose it just because you're tired of something!" a second slap coming, he saw it this time and his hand shot up to stop hers, how typical, if you can't talk with Ranma, then strike him "Honor Saotome?! You don't have honor! You bastard! You left me behind the road that time and now you talk to me about honor!?"
More words, words that he could not, would not remember, words that made him rage and speak, and shout. Words that brought his world down to pieces.
And hits, and yells, and truths that came to the front of repressed thoughts.
A fight bigger that any other he had had before with any of his fiancées.
A phrase that in his own rage induced mind he had ignored.
An expression that gave him the queue to answer this enigma, just as he was leaving the restaurant in a rage, to go to the dojo and spend hours in practice to try and calm his frayed nerves "I'm tired of this nonsense Ranma! One way or another this will be solved you hear me! One way or other you'll be begging me to take you back Saotome!"
"I don't beg nothing Ukyo. . ."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bottle of good sake, two cups, a couple of old stories, and two friends drinking under the light of the moon.
A constant that Soun had seen so many times along his friend Genma, a custom that helped them ease their problems and face life.
A way of drowning sorrows that had never failed.
That is, until this night.
And as they both sat with pain in their eyes Soun felt that his friend was finally lost, as lost as he himself had been when his wife passed away.
And as he tried to comfort Genma with a calm "Do you remember the nights we spent looking at the stars Saotome-kun? How we dreamed of having a family and being free of the master? How after we married our wives we still used to go camping and sat all night looking at the stars? Do you remember it?" and a gulp of sake, as always , as in the good old times.
But tonight this recipe failed, for Genma still sat there, saying nothing, not looking the stars with dreams of uniting the schools, of being free, of having no worries for the future.
For he just sat there, with his cup untouched, sober as Soun had never seen him, until at last, in a quiet voice Genma answered, with a voice unlike the powerful martial artist he so well remembered, but a voice very much like that of an old man that had seen his dreams melt away under the same stars that they were now contemplating "No Tendo-kun, I don't remember it. But I remember nights on the road with my boy, looking at these same stars, and trying to call up names for the constellations, I remember nights damning myself for taking him away from his mother."
And at last a drink from a previously ignored cup of sake "I remember the smile on the boy's face when he first saw the stars from the peak of a mountain, and his cries when he laid down to sleep, I remember his first kick and his first fall Tendo-kun. I remember my boy singing when I carried him on my shoulders when he was too tired to walk, and his sighs as he walked along me, I remember his questions when I tried to teach him to read, and his laughs when I taught him the art, forgive me Tendo-kun, but I don't remember anything else, just my boy. . . my son."
And once again tears. . . and silence.
And in the dark, under the light of the moon two men sat drinking good sake and seeing the stars.
And in the dark, in a night when both lost what was keeping them alive, two friends rediscovered the meaning of friendship.
And taking his warm cup in his hand Soun smiled and said in a far-away voice "You're right Saotome-kun, I remember when my little Akane. . ."
Trying to take strength from that friendship to face the future, and maybe to live once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wooden walls, a light paper curtain covering the way to the garden, quiet laughs and soft whispers, the chat between two sisters about everyday events, and the light of a bulb above his head.
Such is the image that greeted Ranma's eyes when they once again opened to contemplate another dream, a memory his mind seemed hell bent on recalling.
And his eyes roamed around the dojo while his soul wanted desperately an escape, a way to out run this nightmares and face life, for life could be a dark room besides an old pervert, but it was very much more desirable than living in dreams, and crying tears for events that had changed his life.
So when the doors opened, and his mother's voice sounded in his ears "Ranma, we need to talk" he was ready to face this last ordeal, to overcome this testing and face life, remembering times when he used to love his dreams, where his visions of a better future held promises he knew would not be fulfilled now.
So he sat among the silence, watching his mother's eyes for every little clue that may help him understand this last test, this task for his soul to overcome the sadness that encompassed it in a cold blanket.
And his ears were listening, even as his eyes saw images from the future, and his mind summoned images from what he now knew was the past.
And when her mother spoke, and the girl, Ukyo, who was sitting besides her stared at him with scorn in her eyes he saw his world, a imaginary world he dared not ditch, fade away, and the hidden truths come to the forefront.
And in seeing those truths Ranma found the reason why these nightmares were presenting it selves to him, why he had to relive every moment in his young life, to gain an understanding of the past, and in doing so, to find a way to face the future.
So the words were spoken "Son, Ukyo-chan tells me you decided to break the engagements, is it true?" and he saw his vision vacillate, as if his head was nodding and heard the same conversation he had heard earlier in the night "You're aware that doing so would destroy the honor of our clan, aren't you?" a nod, again, it seemed as if he had finally lost the ability to speak "And if you lost your honor you can't be a man among men, right?"
Doubts that surfaced, and fears that he dared not face head on, the fear of being rejected by the person he cared most for in his life, and the doubt that maybe, he was already dead.
So as the conversation went on he just remembered fragments of it, as if his mind was unable to take the information and keep it. . . or maybe it was his soul that could not longer face the pain.
"The Saotome clan . . ." "Honor demands that you. . ." "You took her dowry without thinking about the consequences . . ." ". . . the shame of living like a boy for most of her life?" ". . . better than your father"
Fragments his mind conjured as if to torment him, and finally the challenge, the last words that chose his future for him, "Choose carefully Ranma, as Genma already accepted the dowry from the Kuonji family you have to accept the engagement as well, therefore I've decided to finish the Tendo engagement, although it pains me so much to do so, and I name Ukyo the rightful fiancée, now Ranma you must marry her, you understand? Reclaim your honor Ranma, marry her or commit seppuku, I won't have you destroying my clan's honor for your carelessness."
The words spoken by Ukyo, and the words spoken by his mother, a double betrayal his heart was no more capable of handling, "I told you Ranma, I told you you'd be begging me to take you back. Now choose carefully Ranma, is my hand and life or the sword and death."
And his own words, his own conviction, instilled on his self by his father but adopted by his soul as his own truth, as his own personality, a phrase told to him by his father on a cold night, and after so many days without food, the answer to a question he asked in a moment of desperation, "Papa, why don't we ask that nice lady at the restaurant for some food?" and the memory of his father's face hardening, and of a voice, the same voice that spoke to him about honor, and life, and love. . . and martial arts "Because that would be begging Ranma and a Saotome doesn't lose and to beg for something is to accept you had lost."
And so, his own words "I don't beg for nothing Ukyo" came back to him with the choice between begging for life by accepting a future he didn't want, a future he still believed he could change, or the choice of trying to fight once again, to try and face destiny with fire in his eyes and fists blazing. . .
Really, not a choice at all. . .
And so he took the sword over Ukyo's hand, death over life, boldness over smartness. . .
Freedom over bindings.
And he felt his spirit soar the skies at the same time the coldness from the steel entered his chest and his mouth turn into a smile as his blood flowed fiercely down his body.
Freedom at last.
Freedom that destroyed the world around him in a flash of light and made him gasp for air.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For days had the sky rained and the earth trembled under the constant onslaught of thunder and water, and for years would the inhabitants of Nerima shake from fear, and death.
But as every other storm this one came to a halt in a moment, making some believe it was all a dream, and it could be if not for the uprooted trees that still lined the streets and the smashed windows that some stray pebbles had destroyed in the winds rage.
Just as Furinkan high laid with the damage made by Ranma's battles shadowed by the damage this storm had made, and the canals overflowing with waters, as if carrying the tears of an entire city the sun finally peeked amidst the clouds, giving an ethereal feeling to a desert city.
Something akin to a ghost town whose residents had fled from fear or loneliness.
And behind the city, on a low hill residing inside a small forest, the very same woodland where Ryoga had mastered the Bakusai Tenketsu and Ranma had dominated the raging energies necessary to create a Hiryu Shoten Ha stood two lone figures, masked by the rays of the sun, making them appear as nothing more than a figment of your imagination, a visage your mind would doubt was there even as your eyes focused upon them.
And the quietness surrounding the forest was broken by the first figure, that of a little man no taller than three or four feet, with a gnarled staff in one hand and a big pack on his back "Ready to go Ranma? Ready to leave all this behind? We can always go back, you know."
More silence, as if the entire forest expected the answer that was to come from the man's lips, a man dressed in black silk pants and a tattered red chinese shirt, a man whose hair no longer rested on a pigtail but was free and wild as his owner himself.
And a silence broke by three words "Yes, Let's go."
So as the figures turned around and left Nerima, with it's fearful residents behind, with the Tendo dojo destroyed by fire, with the Nekohanten closed up and the Ucchan's seeming like an abandoned place, a story began to be written.
So, this is not the end.
Neither is it the beginning.
This is just a fragment more, an episode if you'd like.
Another day in another life.
Another dream in another night.
A hero on a hard journey.
A god working to change the world.
Or a demon on vacation.
A.N. Well it's done! Chapter four finished! Whoa it took me a really long time to write this little thing. . . blame school and real life for that. I'll try to get the next chapter up faster, really I will! Well there's not much more I can say about this except that I'm accepting unsigned reviews now! Go ahead, flame me! I love flames! Flame, Flame, Flame, Flame, FLAME!!!! *insert evil maniacal laugh here*
That took care of there's just one more thing to say. . .
Bans . . . off!