The next morning, Akane cornered Nabiki while she fumed with lightly restrained anger. "Where were you and Kasumi last night? I cooked dinner and neither of you showed up!"

Nabiki smiled "We were listening to Cologne freeing Ranma and Shampoo from their obligation to marry. They're leaving for China today."

"You're kidding."

"She announced it to Kasumi, Ukyou and I, and Shampoo agreed. Shampoo seemed to be looking forward to her new status."

"But they've been chasing Ranma for ages. What about Shampoo's honor?"

"Shampoo's off seeking absolution. Once she undergoes her punishment, her honor will be restored. Cologne even set it up so that other amazons couldn't give Ranma the kiss of death or marriage."

"Why wasn't I invited?"

"Have you ever had a kind word for Shampoo?"

"Still, It affects me."

"Yes, but nothing you do now affects them. Why should they go out of their way to help you?"

--------------------------------

As Ranma walked into the classroom, Ukyou called out "Hey, Ranchan, how are you today?"

"Much better. Last night I figured out the secret to a happy life."

"How'd you do that?"

"It came to me as a fully formed idea. Love is flame, therefor to be happy, one must flee love."

"What are you talking about?"

"Love is dangerous, so to be happy and safe, you should give love to as many people as possible, to deplete your own supply. And above all, resist accepting any love that other people try to give you. It's too hard to accept just as much love that will keep you warm, and not get burned."

"So you're just going to refuse other people's love?"

"Wherever possible. Love is freely given, therefor it has the most strings attached. Chains of honor, pity, guilt. Love others, and you bind them to yourself.

If love is a thorn, they show no wit

Who foolishly hug and foster it.

If love is a weed, how simple they

Who gather it, day by day!' "

"But what about those of us who already love you?"

"I've forgiven you, because of our friendship. But you shouldn't dwell on it, it will pass. Love fades. There's even a cure for it, they call it marriage."

"Marriage isn't a cure for love!"

"Isn't it? Marriage is supposed to unite two people into one, One mind, two bodies. Imagine how silly it would be if your right arm desired your left arm romantically, so why should husband and wife love each other? It reeks of Narcissism. You have an attractive left elbow. Should your ears be in rapturous desire over it?"

"It's not the same thing!"

"Sure it is. For there to be a passionate feeling, there can't be complacency. And how could you not become complacent when your partner has sworn lifelong devotion?"

"Making a relationship work requires effort, but it's worth it!"

"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.' That's why people are always reluctant to admit when they're either falling into or out of love. They're trying to deceive someone."

"People don't like to admit to falling out of love, because loosing someone's love hurts."

"Like an abcessed tooth being pulled. Less painful in the long run. But you shouldn't worry, I love everyone. I love you for your naivite. I love Soun Tendo for his pathetic pathos. Nabiki for her predictably trying to be unpredictable. Cologne for her ability to rule, and refusal to govern. Kuno for the silence when he breaths in. Akane's imagination in believing the worst possible scenario for what happened, regardless of fact. And Shampoo for her empathic understanding of others. Who did I miss? Bless this chair for doing a great job supporting my ass."

--------------------------------

Nodoka puts down her teacup. "So you think it was due to Genma's training methods, that classified as child abuse? But surely the hospital understands that there will be bruises while sparring."

Soun sighs, "Yes, well, Genma does believe in training outside of training sessions."

"You mean he beat my son?"

"Oh, no! I meant that he trained Ranma to detect surprise attacks by attacking him at random intervals."

"Still, this isn't unreasonable treatment for teaching someone martial arts."

"Well, there's also the problem of the esoteric training methods Genma used, like the Nekoken."

"What did he do."

"When Ranma was six, he wrapped him up in fish sausage, and through him into a pit of starving cats a few times."

"What!"

"But Ranma survived and learned a valuable technique."

"So my son overcame all of that without injury?"

"Just a few scratches, and an occasional lapse in sanity."

"My son's insane?"

"Oh, nothing like that. He only loses his sanity around cats."

"So you think that this was the technique that they are referring to when they say he was abused?"

"Well, it could have been the time he bound Ranma's arms behind his back, and dropped him in the middle of lake Biwa to teach him to swim, or the blindfolded caber juggling. Or the landing of the drunken owl."

"How do you teach that one?"

"Fasten the subjects forearms to their opposite calves, and catapult them into pine trees."

"So you think it was training violence?"

"Well, there's also the starvation diet until the subject learns Saotome style eating. And there was the constant verbal abuse to drive him further in the art."

"So it was just his training methods, that he used twenty four hours a day that were considered Abuse?"

"Well, there was also the constant moving around, so he never made friends for long, and the lessons in theft, and the stealing of his best friend's dowery, and the multiple engagements. It's really hard to say what it was that they considered Child Abuse. There's so much to choose from."

--------------------------------

"I can't understand why you wouldn't want to be loved."

"Do you think Shampoo likes the way Mousse acts? Do you like the way Tsubasa acts around you?"

"That isn't love, it's just mindless obsession They're a pair of idiots."

"I've only seen one person happy in his lovelife, and that was Kuno, before I started school here. He loved Akane with all his heart, or at least some part of his anatomy, and she didn't even like him. Kuno was in rapture."

"Kuno's an insane idiot."

"My point exactly. one must be insane to enjoy love."

"People fall into love because it feels wonderful."

"For the same reasons that they smoke, drink, take morphiene or caffiene, and all the other poisons they dump into their system to dull the pains of existence."

"Love isn't a poison!"

"It destroyed your childhood. It leaves Mousse open to constant abuse. It's made a basket case out of Akane's father, and made Akane despise boys. It drives Kuno into making an ass of himself. Show me one pair of people who are happy in love. Even if you find a pair, you can't prove that it will last. Love engenders hate. philanthropy causes mysanthropy. Cruelty arises out of kindness. There was no sin before there was a moral code. All sadness arises out of desires. Perhaps it is time for me to renounce life altogether and become a budhist monk."

"You'd really give everything up and take the vows to become a monk?"

"I've never had anything to give up! The only thing I ever had was the art. I can certainly practice it better at a mountainside temple than I can in this madhouse."

"And what about my family's honor!"

"You bring honor to your family through the life you lead. I don't see what it has to do with me. If you want, I could lecture your father on the stupidity of making marriage arrangements with a known thief, but if he didn't learn his lesson when he frittered away your dowery, he's not likely to now. Besides, you don't need the yattai for a dowery. You're already a successful business woman at 16."

"Your father engaged us!"

"I have no father. I'm inconceivable. Look at how complex the human body really is! Do you think any of those idiot adults could have actually created me? Besides, my divinity was revealed last week."

"What are you talking about?"

"Last week, I tried praying. But I found I was only talking to myself. Don't worry, I learned my lesson last time. This time, no disciples!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Judas may have betrayed me to the state, and Peter may have denied knowing me three times, but it was Paul who perverted my teachings to make them acceptable to the Hellenistic world. Damn idiots couldn't tell a parable from a metaphore. Siddartha had the right idea. Class is starting again. We can discuss this more later.

--------------------------------

"Have you thought of any defence for love?"

"Love doesn't need a defence. It's the strongest of emotions. Anyone who has felt true love knows that."

"Love is the flimsiest of emotions. It cannot survive, except through constant work, or insurmountable odds."

"Then, it is even more wonderful that something so beautiful and ephemeral exists!"

"It appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestelent congregation of vapours. Don't worry, there are antibiotics that can end that foul, foriegn, pustule of love deep within you."

"You know Shampoo still loves you, even though she gave up her claim to you?"

"She told me that, the first time she opened her mouth to listen, and could finally see clearly what I said. I talk, and people hear me not. When I shut up, everyone hears me."

"Ranma. Is the boy I fell in love with still inside you? You've changed so much."

"I haven't changed. I'm just standing my ground. How well did you ever know me? Everyone tries to force my hand, make me do what they want, and everyone says they're doing it for my own good. Some even believe it. But no one has even picked up on my most noticeable characteristic. I won't be forced, coerced, manipulated, tricked, bribed, bought, sold, rented, owned, or traded. My life's my own. i am not an object, I am a free man."

"But I love you!"

"Love isn't a good enough excuse. I can understand your problem, and sympathise. But beating me over the head with your pains, is not an act of love, nor of friendship."

"I don't beat you over the head with anything!"

"You constantly insist we're going to marry. The idea of other people expressing affection drives you to anger. You often imply I have no choice in the matter because of your dowry, and your families honor."

"This isn't the real you talking. Something has happened to you. You'll snap out of it!"

"Even if I were mad, that doesn't change the truth about your actions. The truth doesn't depend on who says it. You're either my friend, or my fiancee. No one could be both."

"You're breaking our engagement?"

"No one can tell me who I can't marry! I'll propose to whomever I want! I'll destroy anyone who tries to stop me. But not right now, I haven't succeeded sacrificing my life yet. Maybe then I'll be ready to marry."

--------------------------------

A secretary from the school administration enters Ranma's classroom, and talks with his teacher. The teacher turns towards the class and says, "Ranma Saotome? You're excused from class in order to take care of this problem."

As Ranma follows the secretary down the hall, he asks her "What's this about?"

"Your mother is waiting for you in the faculty office." She stops walking as she noticed that Ranma is no longer following her. "What's wrong?"

"She's trying to bypass the court's orders against seeing me. Who gave you the order to bring me?"

"The vice principal. Come on, they're waiting for you."

"Tell them I've left for the day." Ranma turns around and leaves the school."

--------------------------------

The secretary enters the faculty office. "I'm sorry, but when I told him it was to see his mother, he got angry, and left the building."

The vice principal becomes insensed "How dare he disobey when I summoned him. I'll see he gets detention for this, at least." He turns towards Nodoka "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you."

"That's quite alright. I'm aware how headstrong my son can be. Thank you for your time and effort."

--------------------------------

--------------------------------

Author's notes: I'd really appreciate it if you could review this.