Warning: No approved medicinal properties.
Warning: Altaverse (Keiichi ain't here, and the senshi timeline is all messed up.)
"words"
'thoughts'
A Time for Wild Horses chapter 20 by Jose Argao
"...and then when we looked he'd already run off to score with the brown-haired girl."
Soun nodded thoughtfully at his daughter's account of what transpired during the night of Ranma's disappearance. He didn't really understand why Ms. Ninomiya and Ukyo's strange girl-man friend were also there, but no one else was questioning their presence and he did not want to risk sounding stupid by asking. He took a sip of the tea that Kasumi had thoughtfully served everyone while Akane was telling the story.
Soun cleared his throat before speaking. "So, Ranma regained consciousness and immediately ran off with the girl who used... an angel... to thwart the attack of the demon woman, who was actually Ukyo, before escaping with Ms. Urd, Ukyo, and the other demon woman who turned out to be a little girl."
Konatsu chose to answer that question himself. "Well, we're not actually a hundred percent sure that Ran--"
"That's exactly what happened." Akane slammed a fist onto the table to punctuate her point. "I'll bet he was planning it from the start! It's just like him to pull a stunt like this. He's always on the prowl for new girl to add to his list of conquests."
"Actually, now that we're on the topic, I'd like to hear
more about these Sailor Senshi that my son has gotten himself engaged
to." Nodoka beamed as she spoke, pride clearly visible on her face.
"Are they pretty? They looked nice enough on television but I've never
seen them in person. Do you suppose Ranma could introduce me to them
when he gets back?"
"Oh, they looked really nice!" Hinako giggled as she pulled a glossy photo from her bag and handed it to Nodoka. "I thought they were delinquents at first, but they explained everything to me and now I understand that even though they fight evil, they don't really neglect their studies any more than they usually do. I got my picture taken with them and they signed it and everything too!"
An awkward silence followed, only to be broken by the sound of the telephone ringing. Kasumi picked it up immediately.
"Hello, this is the Tendo residence. Yes... yes... she's right here. It's for you, Nabiki-chan."
Kasumi handed the receiver to Nabiki, who merely listened to what the caller had to say for a few seconds before putting the phone down.
"That was Pluto-san, one of the senshi. She says that they have information about where Ranma is and that we should go over to Juuban tomorrow night to find out more."
"Everyone, attack her at the same time! One of us is bound to get through!"
Five Amazon warriors nodded at their leader and started to close in on Shampoo. There had originally been a dozen members in their group, but the rest had already been rendered unconscious by their opponent's swift and powerful attacks. The two fastest members of the squad reached their quarry first.
"Ugh."
Shampoo grunted as she deflected her first opponent's kick away from her body with practiced ease. She used her forearm to send the blow in the direction of her second opponent, who was trying to get behind the village's best warrior.
Silly girl. No one had ever been fast enough to get the drop on Shampoo.
The poor girl took the hit directly on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Shampoo took advantage of the Amazon's stunned state by unleashing a flurry of lightning-fast punches all over the winded girl's torso. The speed at which Shampoo accomplished this was enough to render her first attacker paralyzed with awe, a state which was rapidly changed to one of unconsciousness after a kick from Shampoo hit her on the chin and finally knocked her out.
The purple-haired fighter's four remaining opponents stepped backwards, trying to figure out how to recover from losing two of their comrades. They communicated silently, using subtle changes in their body posture and quick movements of their eyes to converse. Within seconds, a plan was formed.
The four Amazon warriors fanned out as they dashed towards Shampoo, forming themselves into a perfectly formed arc designed to maximize area coverage without sacrificing the group's ability to join forces in the blink of an eye and gang up on Shampoo. Their opponent could neither escape nor engage them in smaller groups.
Shampoo rolled her eyes. The fools were actually using a containment strategy. As if she had any plans of running away. She smiled to herself as she ran to meet them in combat. The slaughter that ensued was a sight to behold.
Shampoo engaged the closest warrior to her left first,
knocking the girl out with a kick to the chin. Two of the remaining
fighters met the same fate as they made the mistake of taking their
eyes off of Shampoo to see what had become of their companion. The
leader, a rather large fighter who would not look out of place in a
herd of oxen, managed to dodge at the last moment, avoiding a direct
hit. The large warrior shook her head several times to clear it,
picked up a spear that one of her squad members had dropped on the
ground beneath her feet, and charged at Shampoo with violence in her
eyes.
The purple-haired fighter sighed as she retrieved her bonbori from behind her. This was way too easy.
After the dust cleared, Shampoo stood unharmed and surrounded by the bodies of her fallen foes. The whole battle had taken less than half a minute, a new record even for her. All around Shampoo, the audience roared with applause. She smiled and waved her hands at them.
The tournament was over. Once again, Shampoo stood victorious.
"Mr. Customers! What you eat here?"
Shampoo spun around in an instant and was greeted by the sight of a pretty redhead wearing a tattered karate gi and eating her prize feast. A large panda, obviously the girl's pet, was also partaking of the food. Shampoo blinked her eyes several times and looked again. The girl and panda were still there, devouring the feast that she had earned by virtue of her victory. The smile on her face quickly evaporated. This was totally unacceptable. She lunged towards them towards the gluttonous duo and swung her weapons at them.
Surprisingly, both the girl and the panda were able to dodge her attack with ease. Shampoo turned towards the girl with an angry shout.
"You there! Woman and panda! Why you steal my prize?"
And then there was a lot of confused chatter between the girl
and a man who apparently was her guide. Her Japanese wasn't very good,
but Shampoo could tell the girl had no idea that she had been eating
the prize for winning the tournament. Moreover, it seemed that she
wanted to challenge Shampoo for the prize in order to gain ownership
of the feast. That was certainly very strange.
Although strictly speaking, there was no rule barring outsiders from entering Amazon tournaments, no one ever did. The consequences of losing were far too great, and those of winning even more so. What was this girl thinking? Did she really think she could win? Shampoo was the best of her generation, undefeated in combat. She had learned to fight from Cologne herself. If a whole squad of Amazon fighters could not touch her, what hope could this girl possibly have of winning?
And then Shampoo was flying.
It was a strange experience for the young woman. All her previous defeats had come at the hands of one of the elders who had hundreds of years more experience in fighting than she did. This girl didn't look much older than she herself was. And yet she was fifty feet closer to the sky than she used to be with no idea how she got there.
The fall seemed to last forever, but eventually Shampoo's body met the ground with a loud crash. It hurt like hell, but Shampoo was smiling as she slowly got up and made her way towards the girl. For the first time in a long while, she was happy.
Finally, a worthy opponent! Someone who could help her improve!
It was her chance to finally get to the next level. No more boring
fights with other young amazons who had nothing new to show her. No
more pointless battles with Great-Grandmother that ended before she
could blink and taught her nothing. She would hunt this girl down to
the ends of the Earth and kill her, learning every little trick the
redheaded fighter knew in the process.
It took a small eternity to traverse the short distance
between her and the girl. Shampoo could hardly wait to begin the
chase! She raised her arms as she reached out towards the girl's face.
Her lips moved closer and closer to the girl's cheek. The first touch
of her lips upon the redhead's cheek sent a tingle down her spine.
Somehow, she just knew that this was going to be the start of the
greatest adventure of her life.
And then the girl changed.
Shampoo opened her eyes and recoiled from the sight that showed itself to her. Gone was the girl with red hair that she had fought mere minutes before. In her place was a strange woman wearing trashy clothing and prancing around in a series of movements that Shampoo could only describe as really bad dancing. The woman stopped after a bit and pointed a gloved finger at Shampoo.
"For love and justice I am the beautiful sailor-suited soldier Sailor Pluto! I shall punish you in the name of Pluto!"
Shampoo actually laughed out loud. That was easily the lamest thing she had ever heard anyone say. She stopped laughing when she realized that the woman had been gathering energy to attack her. By then, however, it was already too late.
"Dead Scream!"
"No!"
Shampoo sat up quickly on her bed and immediately regretted it. Her body was ached all over. Her lower lip was swollen, her ribs felt like a herd of oxen had trampled them, and her hair was puffed out and frizzy like a 70's afro.
"Ah, so you are finally awake. It took you long enough. I guess it's to be expected. Setsuna is nothing to sneeze at, after all."
Shampoo raised both of her hands to massage her temples for a
second as she closed her eyes to blot out the bright, painful light.
The last thing she could remember was using Cologne's powder to defeat
Lilith. After that there was something about a strange woman shouting
gibberish... it was all so confusing. In any case, she was no longer
in any apparent danger. Her great-grandmother had presumably picked
her up from the battlefield and brought her-- where was she anyway?
Her bed seemed like a perfectly normal bunk bed, but the room she was in was unlike any other place she had been to. It seemed to be a small, cramped room with steel walls and no windows. The blinding light was coming from a large light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There was what looked like a closed set of elevator doors near one of the corners, and an air vent on the ceiling above it. Her great-grandmother was on the other side of the room from her, looking at the monitor of a computer placed on top of a small table. The old woman regarded her with an inscrutable look.
"You are at the Nekohanten, my dear. Well, several meters
beneath the Nekohanten anyway. You've been unconscious for three days.
I told you not to make contact with the senshi, did I not? This is the
result of your disobedience."
Shampoo frowned at Cologne's remark and got up from the bed.
Although it was true that she had disobeyed the orders given to her,
she felt that the circumstances were more than enough justification
for her actions.
"Shampoo only fight because Airen was in danger. Shampoo almost win, but strange dancing lady used dirty trick to beat Shampoo."
Cologne shook her head slowly. "You are young and foolish,
child. You only managed to get as far as you did because the senshi
haven't been able to utilize their power fully yet. Had they been in
top form, you may well have died back there."
Shampoo pouted. She was the best fighter of her generation among the Amazons. She was not used to being told that she wasn't strong enough.
"Senshi are slow and weak. Is easy to beat them. They not even as good as annoying spatula girl."
Cologne shrugged. "Perhaps for now, but they haven't even gotten to half of their potential power. You, on the other hand, are already pushing your limits. Do not forget that you were defeated with but a single direct hit. They outclass you in sheer power. In a few years, you will not even be able to fight them on equal footing."
Shampoo remained silent for a moment. She was aware of the fact that her great-grandmother was right. The Sailor Senshi had fought sluggishly and ineffectively, but their attacks were powerful. The last moments of her recent battle had shown her that one hit was all it took to take her down. Given proper training, those girls might grow to be formidable opponents indeed. They might even turn out to be as strong as Ranma himself. Speaking of which....
"Where is Ranma, Great-Grandmother?"
Shampoo's mentor looked thoughtful for a bit before answering,
as though the old woman wasn't sure exactly how to word her reply.
"Right now, nobody knows where Ranma is."
Shampoo's eyes narrowed in anger after hearing the elder's reply.
"Silly dancing woman steal Airen?"
Cologne shook her head. "No, that's not it. After you were knocked out, the remaining combatants continued their battle at Juuban High School. The television coverage showed the senshi battling Ranma and three other women. One of them was the succubus you fought at the senshi's apartment. She was with another, older succubus who appeared to be her ally. The third woman matched the description you gave me of the silver-haired lady you saw coming out of Ranma's apartment.
"Two of the Tendo girls and the Hibiki boy also joined the fight near the end. I'm not sure if I saw correctly, but there was also a young girl there who looked like Ranma's energy-draining teacher. The battle abruptly concluded when a woman I didn't recognize appeared and took the two succubae and the woman with silver hair away. Mousse arrived in a car with some other woman I've never seen before and everyone started arguing. I couldn't tell what they were arguing about... the television crews couldn't get any sound. When the camera went back to where Ranma used to be, he was gone."
Shampoo immediately grabbed Cologne by the shoulders, becoming only the fifth person to ever do so and live to tell the tale.
"Ranma kidnapped?! We need find Airen!"
Cologne stroked her granddaughter's hair. "Do not worry, child.
All is not lost. We may not know where son-in-law is right now, but
we know he's not with the senshi. As long as he avoids contact with
them, we can still deal with the situation. Now come with me."
At that, Cologne hopped towards the closed elevator doors and punched a few buttons on a nearby control panel. The doors slid open and she hopped in. Shampoo slowly followed Cologne inside. The doors closed in front of them and Shampoo felt herself moving lower. She turned to her great-grandmother to ask a question.
"Where we going, Great-Grandmother?"
Cologne remained gazing towards the doors as she answered.
"I shall explain fully after you have seen for yourself,
child. Trying to tell you now would take too long, and time is a luxury
we have very little of at the moment. Doubtless, the senshi are
making their own efforts to track Son-in-Law down even as I speak."
"Everyone get over here! I've found him!"
Usagi, Rei, Makoto, Ami, Rose and Mousse all started running towards the Shrine's storage room, where Minako had finally found the man they had spent the better part of the morning searching for.
Minako shook her head and giggled as she grabbed Ryoga by his shirt and pulled him out of a box containing old Christmas lights.
"Ryoga, what on Earth are you doing in there? We've been looking all over for you! You said last night that you were just going out for a walk."
Ryoga opened his eyes a crack and saw a beautiful young woman looking worriedly at him. The last thing he could remember was going out for a walk and getting lost along the way back. He also remembered something about falling into an old box filled with light bulbs and not being able to find his way out without breaking it open. Seeing as the box was owned by one of Mako-chan's friends, he decided to just stay there until he was found. Then he went to sleep.
That meant that he was probably still asleep.
Which meant that he was probably dreaming.
About a beautiful young woman, no less.
If there was one thing you could say about Ryoga, it was that he never looked a gift horse in the mouth. Whether it came from an old Amazon crone teaching him a new technique to beat Ranma, or Akane's fondness for cute little pigs allowing him to stay in close proximity to her chest area, Ryoga took his happiness where he could find it.
Quickly, before he could wake up and ruin things, Ryoga decided that now was a very good time to reach out and touch someone. He was instantly rewarded by that nice, euphoric feeling that all boys his age get when put in such a pleasurable situation. If past dreams were anything to go by, the girl would start moaning in pleasure any minute now.
The girl screamed. Then she started slapping him. The slaps didn't really hurt, but the fact that the girl wasn't writhing in the throes of passion hinted at the possibility that maybe he wasn't dreaming at all. Actually, now that his eyes were fully open he was able to recognize the girl as Minako, one of Mako-chan's friends.
This was not good.
Ryoga was just about to take his hands off the girl when he was interrupted by the voice of someone he did not really want to hear at the moment.
"Sempai, just what do you think you're doing?"
Ryoga turned his gaze sideways and locked eyes with Makoto,
who was surrounded by the rest of her friends. Rose was standing a
little bit behind the group, and Mousse was right behind her.
"Um... Mako-chan... It's not what it looks like.... I normally only do this sort of thing in my dreams."
The expressions of outrage that Ryoga got as a response made his blood run cold. He wondered if this was payback for all those times he'd gotten Ranma in trouble with Akane.
Makoto pointed towards him and spoke in a low, menacing voice. "Sempai... your hand...."
Ryoga cursed himself when he realized that he had forgotten to let go of Minako's considerable frontal endowments.
Ryoga would later look back on this incident and decide that it was probably a bad move on his part to have continued groping Minako like he did. For now, however, the pain and suffering he was feeling at the hands of the girls was distracting him from coherent thought.
Rose watched the spectacle from the doorway and turned her gaze away in disgust. After having a good look at Mousse's face, she turned it away in disgust again.
They were supposed to be looking for Ranma, not playing around.
She had been getting conflicting accounts of what Ranma was really
like, but if only half of them were true then he was a force of evil
unlike any she had ever seen before. If he were to join forces with
someone like Bison, who knew what would become of the world?
Then again, if the other half of what she'd heard about him was true then he was actually a nice, attractive young guy whose only threat to the world at large was that he just might engage himself to its entire female population, herself included.
Still, she couldn't take any chances. Ranma's disappearance worried her. The Tendo girl seemed convinced that he'd run off after the woman who'd appeared from the sky... but what if he wasn't just running off to get some? What if he was kidnapped?
Rose idly wondered if the older senshi were getting any closer to finding Ranma than they were.
"Well, what's happening? Are they going to change their clothes yet? The best time to collect pretties is while the owner is changing, you know. They aren't wearing much, so they won't be able to go after you even if they do catch you in the act, which they probably won't because they're busy changing! Let me tell you about this one time I managed to sneak into Furinkan High's changing rooms while the girl's basketball team was changing. It was like paradise...."
Mamoru tried to ignore his new partner's incessant talk of his adventures in panty-thieving. Somehow, the old goat had gotten it into his mind that he was interested in that kind of thing, which of course he was not. No, Endymion was only interested in women, not the clothes they wore.
For all his faults, though, the old man was certainly very useful. Why, this session of senshi surveillance wouldn't even be possible if it wasn't for the handy magical artifact that Happosai had given him. It was a convenient seashell that you could use to hear what was happening someplace else rather then the usual roar of the sea.
Happosai was also a force to be reckoned with. Despite his looks, Mamoru could still remember being soundly thrashed by his new ally during their first encounter.
But still, what an idiot the old geezer was! Imagine,
accepting a deal where the only thing the wrinkled gnome got was the
lingerie, rather then the girls who wore it!
Mamoru nodded as he listened to his seashell some more. "It sounds like they've finally found that Ryoga person that they were looking for. They've started beating him up, though. I'm not sure why exactly. I'll listen some more and tell you if I learn anything."
Happosai tried to ignore his new partner's incessant talk of the goings-on at the shrine where Sailor Mars was said to reside. For some reason, the young fool had gotten it into his mind that he was interested in that kind of thing. The great Happosai cared only for pretties, not the daily lives of the women who wore them.
For all his faults, though, Mamoru was certainly very useful.
Why, this session of senshi surveillance wouldn't even be possible if
it wasn't for his willingness to hold that magical seashell which was
the size and weight of a small anvil against his ear for long periods
of time.
Mamoru also seemed to know a lot about the Sailor Senshi.
Happosai could never figure out how the young man was able to know so
much about the girls, but all evidence pointed to his information being
accurate.
Still, useful as he was, Mamoru was an idiot to have agreed to the deal where he himself would get all of the senshi's underthings while Mamoru would keep the girls themselves. Happosai's long life had taught him that no matter how beautiful a girl might seem to be, she would inevitably grow old and wither away, or at least shrink to the size of a watermelon and start hopping around on a cane. A properly cared for pair of panties, however, could last for years and years and lose none of its appeal. It didn't get jealous of the other panties or anything to boot. It never nagged you about commitment or asked awkward questions about why you were wearing women's underwear on your head.
"Wow, that is so cute!"
Setsuna giggled to herself as she watched Ranma getting married to herself in an alternate timeline. He had gotten into college on an athletic scholarship, and she was the student assigned to tutor him on his academics and make sure that he would remain eligible to play for their university's baseball and football teams. One thing led to another and two years later there they were, reciting their marriage vows in front of a priest.
"Well, let's move on to the next one!"
Setsuna happily sifted through the millions of alternate lines
of fate looking for another one where she ended up living happily ever
after with Ranma. Trying to manipulate them was out of the question,
since they had grown far too complex for any direct action on her part
to have predictable results, but she was still easily able to follow
each one along and see how it turned out.
"Hey, it's Crystal Tokyo! Cool!"
Setsuna grinned as she looked through the timeline currently on display. It was Crystal Tokyo, alright, the future that until a few days ago was virtually assured to be the fate of mankind. A lot had happened since that time. This was only the fiftieth time she had glimpsed it so far, and she had gone through quite a few possibilities already.
The senshi of Pluto could remember a time, not too long ago,
when the current state of the timelines would have been unacceptable
to her. There were currently millions of possible futures looming ahead
of her own line, and less than an eighth of those now featured Crystal
Tokyo. Setsuna found herself becoming overcome with worry when she
realized that the thing she had worked so hard to protect was slipping
away, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She forgot all about her worry upon glancing at another possible future, though. In this one she was a pop star and Ranma was one of her backup dancers. Naturally, she ended up marrying him. They looked so cute together. It made sense, really, since they looked cute on their own as well. Obviously they could only get cuter when in close proximity to each other. It was like their respective powers of cute had the ability to combine into a towering mountain of kawaii the likes of which had never been seen before and likely would never be seen again. Setsuna knew this for a fact, because she was the senshi of time and had the ability to check.
"Personally I think the one where Ranma's a country boy come to Tokyo to attend a yubikou and you're his personal computer android is just a little bit cuter, if a bit unoriginal."
Sailor Pluto immediately turned around and pointed her staff at the intruder. "Who are you?"
Setsuna's visitor chuckled at the senshi's surprise. She shook her head at the state the Time Staff's owner had fallen to.
"My name is Freya, and I'm here to help you. Before I can start, though, you need to take one of these pills...."
"I'm sorry, okay? I should have listened to what you said, but how could I possibly have known that the dream was an omen? I thought it was just hormones! Hotaru-chan, please talk to me."
Hotaru remained silently seated on the sofa, the video of what had happened just a few nights ago repeatedly playing on the television set in front of her . She knew it was unfair of her to blame Haruka for what happened, but she was still angry at her guardian for ignoring the dream that had warned her of the danger Ranma was in.
Having no luck with Hotaru, Haruka went up to the room she shared with Michiru, where her lover was trying to use the Aqua Mirror to find Ranma.
"Any luck?"
Michiru put the Aqua Mirror down and shook her head. "No,
nothing. The Mirror isn't meant to be used for this kind of thing in
the first place, so it's very difficult. It would be better if we
had Setsuna working on this as well... but...."
Haruka sighed. "I know what you mean. What's wrong with her these days? She hasn't been helping with the Ranma thing at all, she's been spending almost all of her time playing games, she's tried to seduce you twice--"
"Three times," Michiru corrected Haruka. "She tried again this morning."
Haruka shrugged. "Okay, three times, whatever. She got herself
a one year subscription to Shonen Jump, she bursts into tears for no
reason when I try talking to her... I don't know what to do with her
anymore. Last night I caught her watching pro-wrestling on television.
There's something wrong with her. It's like she's sick or something."
Michiru shook her head. "That's impossible. Setsuna can't get sick. She isn't built that way. And she's not as bad as you make her out to be. She did teach me how to use the Aqua Mirror to look for Ranma, after all."
Haruka slammed her fist on a nearby table. "That's another
thing that bothers me! Why does she know how to do that and you don't?
What else does she know that she's not telling us? And if she's so
interested in helping Hotaru find Ranma why doesn't she do something
herself? Where is she anyway?"
It was Michiru's turn to shrug. "I have no idea. She was trying to get me to play with her this morning when she suddenly stopped and ran off."
Haruka was taken aback at this new development. "You mean she went away before you could say no?"
Michiru grinned. "Who says I was going to say no?"
Haruka rolled her eyes. "You're as crazy as she is. I'm taking a shower to cool off."
Michiru's grin went away the moment Haruka disappeared into the bathroom. She didn't want to let it show, but she was just as worried about Setsuna as Haruka was. It was so frustrating to know something was wrong with a close friend and that there was nothing you could do about it. Whatever it was, she just wished Setsuna would be able to get through it soon.
"Did anyone get the license plate on that bug?"
Skuld groggily sat up on her bed and yawned, stretching her arms above her as she did so. She had barely gotten her mouth open when the young goddess found herself wrapped in the arms of her elder sister Belldandy.
"Skuld, you're awake! Thank goodness! I was so worried."
Skuld frowned. Belldandy was worried about her? That couldn't
be true. She made it a point never to have Belldandy worried about her.
It was possible for Belldandy to be worried about someone like Urd, but
she herself had dedicated her life to ensuring that Belldandy would not
have to burden herself with anxiety over her younger sister.
"Hey, I do not burden Belldandy with anxiety!"
Skuld turned her head to face the other way and found Urd sitting near the other side of the bed, arms crossed in front of her chest. She hated times like this, when Urd seemed to be able to read her mind. She chuckled in what she hoped was a nonchalant way before replying.
"What are you talking about, Onee-chan? I didn't say that."
Urd glared at her younger sibling. "You were thinking it."
Electricity crackled between the eyes of the two sisters,
forcing Belldandy to intervene before matters degenerated further.
She placed a hand on Skuld's shoulder and pulled the younger goddess
back. "Please don't fight. This isn't the time for it. We should be
more concerned with Skuld's condition."
Upon hearing Belldandy's words, Urd immediately softened her gaze. She nodded slowly as she spoke. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm sorry about what I said, Skuld."
Skuld blinked in confusion at Urd's abrupt change in demeanor.
What was going on here? It actually seemed as if Urd was really worried
about her. Belldandy seemed to be the same way. Not knowing what else
to do, Skuld gave Belldandy a hug as she tried to relieve her sister's
anxiety.
"Um... Oneesama, I feel fine. Actually, I feel great! There's
no need to worry about me. Right now, I'm more worried about Ukyo-san.
We went to Jusenkyo together. Is she okay?"
Belldandy released Skuld from her hug and shook her head sadly at Skuld's comments. "Ukyo-san is in good health. She should be joining us here shortly. More importantly, Skuld-chan, summon your angel."
Now Skuld was worried. Were the springs poisonous to angels?
Was Noble Scarlet sick? That couldn't be. She felt great. If something
was wrong with Noble Scarlet it would surely affect her as well. She
raised her right hand into the air and started calling for her angel.
"Noble Scarlet, come forth!"
Skuld felt the familiar rush of euphoria that always came when she called for her angel. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling for a few moments. Now she was sure Noble Scarlet was fine. She would have felt it if something was wrong.
The sight that greeted Skuld when she finished shocked the young goddess to the core of her being. Her lips trembled as she said the only word that came to mind.
"No...."
Setsuna caught the small bag that the woman threw her way and
opened it. The bag was full of small, pink pills. She popped one into
her mouth and chewed. It actually tasted pretty good. It had a minty,
fruity sort of taste and it went down her throat smoothly even though
she didn't drink any-- WHY ON EARTH WAS SHE SWALLOWING A PILL GIVEN TO
HER BY SOMEONE SHE HAD NEVER MET BEFORE?
Setsuna's eyes focused on the newcomer as she raised the Time Staff and pointed it at the woman. "What is your purpose for being here? Answer me quickly or face my wrath."
Odin's most trusted assistant frowned. She didn't need to put up with this. "My, such hostility! Is that any way to treat a guest?"
With a flick of her wrist, Freya sent a bolt of energy towards Setsuna that knocked the Time Staff clear across the room. The Senshi of Time attempted to dash towards where it had fallen, but she found herself completely unable to move. A cursory examination of herself revealed that bands of energy were now wrapped around her body, doing a very good job of immobilizing her. Setsuna glared at her opponent.
Freya shook her head and sighed. "I think, my dear, that you
are currently in no position to be making demands. From this point on,
I will do the talking and you will merely listen. Do you understand?"
Taking the silence as her cue to start talking, Freya began to speak once more. "My name is Freya, and I am a Goddess. I am here acting as a representative of Asgard. We know of your interest in the man called Ranma Saotome, and we would like to help you resolve this rather unfortunate situation that you were thrust into."
Sailor Pluto stopped trying to break free at this point,
realizing that the energy bands were not going to break anytime soon
and that she was simply tiring herself out. The bands immediately
dissipated afterward and she fell to the floor, having lost her
balance.
Freya chuckled lightly at Setsuna. "I see you've finally
stopped struggling. Useful things, those bands. They reflect any force
directed at them. They get stronger the more you try to break them,
but they go away when you stop trying to break free. Anyway, as you've
surely noticed by now, I am not here to fight. I am here to help. With
my assistance, you and your friends will be able to resolve this
crisis in a fashion satisfactory to all parties, Asgard included."
Setsuna raised an eyebrow at this new development. "Help? And how do you propose to do that?"
The blonde-haired goddess smiled. "I'd rather explain in front of your whole team, if you don't mind. I will meet you at the shrine where the one called Rei resides tomorrow night. Make sure that all the senshi are there, as well as any other individuals whom you might want to have assisting you. In the meantime, don't forget to take one of those pills every six hours. They'll keep your thoughts from growing chaotic in response to the changes happening to the timelines."
At that, the goddess Freya disappeared from the dimensional pocket containing the Time Gates with a bright flash of light.
"Ugh."
Ukyo opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her. It was white. Completely white, in fact. No dark specks or lines where the painter wasn't careful. No visible dust to speak of. Just white. For a moment, the okonomiyaki chef wondered how much it would cost to get ceilings like that installed at the Ucchan's. The thought died rather quickly, though, when she realized that she had no idea where she was or how she got there.
"Good evening, Kuonji-san. I hope you are feeling better.
You have been unconscious for the past few days. Would you like some
water to drink?"
Ranma's childhood friend turned towards the source of the voice and saw a man she didn't recognize holding a glass of water out towards her. He was a bit strange. Physically, he looked like he was still pretty young, but there was an unmistakable aura of maturity about him that sent shivers down her spine whenever she tried to look directly at him. He was also wearing strange clothing and a red cape that looked like it came straight out of a medieval-themed anime.
Ukyo accepted the glass and drank deeply. She decided that her mind was playing tricks on her. The man was probably a doctor or something. Maybe he was going to a cosplay party later. She must have hit her head when she fell into the spring.
'Oh god, the spring!'
The worried okonomiyaki chef quickly looked at herself under her blanket and heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the same body she had always possessed. Apparently, she had lucked out and fallen into a spring that wasn't cursed.
Ukyo smiled prettily at the man before speaking. "Yes, I feel fine. Are you my doctor?"
The man chuckled. "No, I'm afraid I am not a doctor at all.
I need to speak to you, however. It's about your new job. I'll need
to brief you on your first assignment as our newest employee. There
are other things as well...."
The owner of Nerima's most successful okonomiyaki restaurant
raised an eyebrow at his words. "I'm sorry, but I already have a job.
I'm an--"
The caped man cut her off with a wave of his hands. "Yes,
I know. You are an okonomiyaki chef. You own a restaurant and you did
not apply for a job here. However, because of circumstances beyond our
control, you have already been 'hired', so to speak."
Ukyo shook her head vigorously. "What are you talking about?
How can I get a job I didn't apply for?"
The man quickly grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her from moving.
"Please refrain from making any sudden movements. You might spill your water and we wouldn't want to activate your curse."
Ukyo slowly placed her glass on top of a nightstand. "My.
curse?"
The man replied quickly. "Yes, your curse. If you would please follow me, I will explain everything when we get to the multimedia presentation room. I have slides made up and everything."
Ukyo grabbed at the man before he could turn away. "Wait a minute! I have a curse? Why do I have to follow you? Can't you just tell me about my curse right here?"
The man shook his head. "Well, Skuld needs to hear this too.
She has the same curse, after all. She should have awakened at the same
time you did. I have a lot to say to both of you and I'd rather not
have to do it twice. Besides, that room cost a bundle to construct, and
I'll be damned if we're not going to use it."
The confused chef watched as the man turned and started walking away. She was about to get up and follow him when she realized something important.
"Wait a minute! I'm naked!"
The man stopped walking and answered without turning back towards Ukyo. "Oh, right. This should suffice, I think."
Suddenly, Ukyo found herself bathed in a light so bright she had to close her eyes. When she opened them again, she was already clothed in a beautiful white dress that hugged all her curves and flowed all the way to the ground. Not really her thing, but better than nothing. She looked at the strange man once again. He was already walking away.
"Just who are you anyway?"
The man turned back towards her and smiled. "My name is Odin.
I am the leader of the gods."
"Good afternoon, Father. Welcome back. I am Sister Maria. I have been expecting you. Please follow me."
Father Andersen smiled at the nun that greeted him at the church's door. She handed him a folder containing a large amount of papers, which he took. The two of them remained silent as they made their way across the public hallways of the large cathedral. As soon as they reached the restricted areas, however, the nun began talking.
"I shall now brief you on what we currently know, so please turn to the contents of your folder."
The tall priest opened the folder he had been given and started reading. The nun continued to speak.
"As you are no doubt aware of, Father, a large energy spike
was detected earlier indicating that the entity known as Morrigan
Aensland has reappeared after many years of dormancy. Needless to say,
something must be done to address this new development."
Father Andersen quickly skimmed through the first few pages.
They contained basic information about Morrigan that he already knew.
The next few sheets, however, were new to him. They contained pictures
of what appeared to be a great battle.
Sister Maria ducked into a small hallway as she spoke, Father Andersen following closely. "Those pictures are screen captures from news coverage of an encounter between Morrigan and a Japan-based vigilante group composed of young girls wearing colorful and revealing attire. Several high-level fighters from the nearby areas were also spotted participating in the confrontation."
Father Andersen nodded thoughtfully as he squinted at the pictures to get a better look. He had previously heard of the magical girls of Japan, but this was his first opportunity to see them. He doubted that the teenaged females were of any use in hand to hand combat, but apparently they were powerful enough to stand against the Makai realm's finest anyway.
The nun smiled as she slowly came to a stop and gestured
towards a large, ornately carved door. "You are to go inside for
the rest of your briefing, Father. The others are already inside.
Good luck on your mission. I shall pray for your success."
Father Andersen smiled and thanked Sister Maria as he opened the door. Apparently, the matter would be handled by a team instead of just an individual. He was curious as to who he would be working with for the next mission.
He nearly gagged at the sight that greeted him on the other side of the door.
With a speed that belied his large frame, Father Andersen retrieved a large blade from inside his robes and lunged towards the man sitting on a chair in the middle of the room with a loud shout.
"Ramza Beoulve, prepare to die!"
Skuld stared in shock at her angel, unable to understand why half of Noble Scarlet's hair had changed into a jet-black color and her body was now covered with the dark tattoos that were common among mixed breed angels.
"What happened to her?"
Urd sighed. "I'm sorry, but you contracted a Jusenkyo curse that turned you into a half-demon entity and now your angel reflects that."
The young goddess frowned. "You mean I'm cursed? What kind of curse? Jusenkyo?!"
A slow nod was all Skuld received in reply.
The young goddess glared at her eldest sister. "How can that be? How can a goddess be cursed? That's not possible! I'm a debugger and debuggers are immune to bug infestation!"
Urd mumbled something unintelligible.
Skuld pointed an accusing finger at Urd. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this, would you?"
Urd simply grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head.
Skuld started shouting. "I don't believe this! How could you!
I need to get rid of it. I need to get cured of this curse as soon as
possible!"
The young goddess turned towards Belldandy. "Oneesama, you've got to do something about this!"
Belldandy shook her head apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Skuld.
I really am. If the problem was based on actual code or a virus, I
could fix it. But your curse is magical in nature. It's impossible to
predict what would happen if an attempt to remove it was made."
Skuld's face darkened as she turned towards Urd once more. "Oh,
this is all your fault! What am I supposed to do now? I don't want to
be a half-demon!"
Before Belldandy could answer, a rather loud beeping sound started to ring throughout the room. Belldandy and Urd both reached into their robes and retrieved their cell phones, but only Belldandy raised hers to her ear and answered it. She listened to the voice on the other end for a few moments before lowering her phone and locking the keypad.
"I'm sorry, Skuld, but we're going to have to discuss this later. We are being called to the Multimedia Room."
All three goddesses immediately stood up and started making their way out of the room, Skuld complaining about having the curse and still being made to work the whole way.
Ranma awoke to a wet, ticklish feeling on his left ear. Judging by the sensations alone, he appeared to be lying on an extremely soft and comfortable bed. There was an unknown female lying beside him, one of her arms draped across his body. She was apparently busy nibbling on his ear. The young martial-artist kept absolutely still and refrained from opening his eyes, years of experience teaching him that when the going was good it was best to just keep doing what you were currently engaged in and not rock the boat.
"You were amazing, Ranma. Absolutely the best I've ever had.
I hope you aren't planning on keeping this as a one-time thing because
I plan to be repeating that performance many, many times in the future.
My husband doesn't even compare."
That got the young man's eyes open in a hurry. He hurriedly looked down and got the shock of his life when he realized just who it was that had herself wrapped around him.
"A... Akari?"
The pretty owner of Japan's largest sumo-wrestling stable
looked up at him and smiled prettily, playing with the ruffles on the
frilly lingerie she wore. A flood of pleasant memories came to Ranma,
reminding him of how they had spent the previous night engaged in
activities so pleasurable they were illegal in several countries.
"Yes, Ranma? Do you want to go another round? Ryoga isn't supposed to be home for another two days at least and I don't have anything else to do... or rather... I don't have anyone else to do."
Akari chuckled lightly. All the color drained from Ranma's face. As unlikely as it would seem, his stellar performance the night before had apparently fried the pretty woman's brain cells, robbing her of the ability to think clearly.
The seemingly deranged female frowned and touched her forehead
to Ranma's own. "You're looking kind of pale, darling. Are you sick?
You don't feel hot to me, though. At least, not any hotter than usual."
Ranma rolled his eyes. It would appear that Ryoga's wife managed to retain her affinity for bad puns, if nothing else.
"Honey, I'm home!"
Ranma raised his eyebrows at his companion, who started giggling with excitement.
"I can't believe it. Ryoga's home! To think he'd find his way back here so soon, it's positively unbelievable! And right when you're with me, too. The odds must be one in a billion! Oh, this is just so exciting!"
Ranma started moving to get out of bed when he realized that all of his limbs were firmly handcuffed to the bedposts. Akari giggled again.
"Oh, you're not getting away that easily. Those handcuffs are special made to withstand Ryoga-kun, so you're not going to be leaving anytime soon. Can you just imagine what his reaction will be when he sees us?"
Unfortunately for the immobilized playboy, he was perfectly able to imagine what Ryoga's most probable reaction would be and he wasn't finding it to be very exciting at all. Akari wasn't helping things at all, the way she decided that positioning herself in the most incriminating way possible when her husband finally walked through the door would be a good idea.
"Wow, to think I'd find my way home so soon. The odds must be astronomical. I tell you, Honey, it's lo--"
Ranma saw Ryoga pause in the middle of opening the door to the bedroom. The directionally-challenged fighter's face went from bewilderment to shock to sadness to anger and finally settled on blind rage in the space of a few moments.
Ranma gulped.
"No!"
Ranma opened his eyes and sat up, burying his head into a soft valley of comfort that he was far more familiar with than a boy his age had any right to be. It felt nice.
"Gee, you don't waste any time do ya?"
Nerima's most eligible bachelor managed to have the presence of mind to grab the unknown girl by the shoulders and push himself away from her. All thoughts of his nightmare left him when he realized who he had just inadvertently groped. Ranma almost couldn't believe his eyes as he spoke her name.
"Natsume?"
Author's Rant
I would like to thank Chester, Shade, Beege, Michael Myers,
Gordon, Helmut Steeg and David for all the help they gave me for this
chapter.
Griever was supposed to be a prereader for this chapter, but I sent it to him a million times and it bounced a million times right back.
Before anything else, let's get the reasons for the delay in this chapter's release out so y'all aren't wondering anymore.
First of all, I started work on my masteral thesis, which is kicking my ass. My topic is about Bayesian Network Models of students and I've been having all sorts of trouble with it. If you have an easy way of implementing Bayesian Networks, please tell me about it before my head explodes.
Another thing is the fact that I've been reading a lot more
manga and watching a lot more anime recently. Naruto may be embarking
on yet another sucktacular flashback about the ever-annoying Kakashi,
but Ichigo 100 is still going strong. I know I'm setting myself up
for a colossal disappointment, but I still hope that Manaka manages
to end up with Tsukasa or Satsuki.
Futari H is still funny as heck, Bleach is getting cooler with
every new chapter, Negima is still good, and a whole lot of other
titles are distracting me from writing as well. Eyeshield 21, Parallel,
Tende Freeze, and many other mangas are also good.
Airgear sucks, but I already read the first few chapters so I might as well wait and see if it becomes as good as Bleach. Right now it kinda reminds me of Tenjou Tenge, which is probably the title that I dislike the most. I dunno why I hate it so much, since it has humor and action with lots of pretty girls.
A friend told me that the reason lies in my affinity for hardworking Lee-types. He tells me that I harbor a great disdain for the idea of raw talent defeating hard work, which is a central theme in Tenjou Tenge. I say it's because I hate each and every single character in the series. My sister says it's a combination of both.
As for anime, I've been watching Samurai Champloo (much, much
better than RK) and Samurai 7 (mildly interesting). I saw Bakuretsu
Tenshi, which started out great but then got cheesier and cheesier as
the creator flip-flopped between wanting to rip off Evangelion,
Xenogears, Bubblegum Crisis and Love Hina. The cheese culminated in a
resort ep where the female characters grew breasts the size of
mountains.
You know you're overdoing it when Jose Argao complains about big boobs.
The episodes after that were much better, but they never
managed to get back to the perfection of the first few eps. I've also
been watching the Saber Marionette series, Final Approach, Naruto,
and a bunch of other titles. As expected, none of them even come close
to the utter perfection that is the Hanaukyo Maids series.
Other anime fans will go on and on about trash like Akira and Princess Mononoke. They will engage you in lengthy discussions about the wonderful stick figures in the Evangelion movies. They will talk for hours about the beauty of Bible Black (seriously, this happened to me) and the greatness of Serial Experiments Lain. Their eyes will light up as they tell you that HxH or Dragonball is the best thing since sliced bread. They will break down RK sword stances and Naruto hand seals like it's 1999.
Me, I like Hanaukyo Maids.
See, I want my anime simple and humorous, with lots of pretty girls and a minimum of thinking required. If I want to wrap my mind around something, I'll read some Dan Brown. When I watch anime and read manga I want my brain to take a break. I want to laugh. Most of all, I want lots of fanservice.
The last thing I want to be doing when I watch anime is pondering the meaning of life.
I'm going to stop talking about HM now, because if I don't this will turn into a 150K exposition on the perfection inherent in such a brilliant concept. Hanaukyo Maids is a masterpiece. I watched Akira and Ghost in the Shell and thought they both sucked. Princess Mononoke put me to sleep. Spirited Away bored me to tears. Let's leave it at that.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the reasons for this late release. Well,
I've been also been writing articles for Magic: The Gathering. I may
not get as much fan mail for my articles as compared to my fics, but I
win store credit and the allure of free cards is hard to resist. I
write casual articles mostly, they can be found at
under the name, Ukyo.
I prolly won't be writing much in the near future, though.
There's not much to say except that Affinity is basically unbeatable
unless you dedicate your whole deck to killing it, at which point you
lose to every non-Affinity deck. Any player who thinks B/G or U/G can
consistently beat Affinity is deluded, playing against weak Affinity
players, or just really stupid.
Affinity is invincible. It's the most powerful aggro deck ever created in the history of Magic. It's like Sligh, but faster and more resilient to hate. A good Affinity player with an updated list has zero bad matchups. Get over it.
Another reason this chapter is late is the fact that I've been
honing my skills in the great PS2 game, Narutimate Hero 2. Soul Calibur
2 and MVC2 all bore me right now. King of Fighters '03 is an annoying
exercise in learning to play Goro, Duolon, and another character. It's
so unbalanced I've watched tournaments where literally every single
participant played Duolon, Goro and another character. Soul Calibur is
boring when you know frame data and your opponents don't. MVC2? It's
all about the snapback kills. I don't want anything to do with that.
Right now I'm all about shuriken cancels, backstep cancels, item super
cancels and using Might-Suit Naruto to kick ass.
Eminem also released his new album. Not much to say here except the guy's a freaking genius. I really like it when he raps gibberish or nonsense. It's really funny.
I've also seen Lindsay Lohan's new video. Is it just me or does she look significantly hotter in there? I normally could care less about her but when I saw the video I was so stunned by her looks that I never even noticed that the song was horrible.
Have you ever noticed that in mIRC, the ops are really hard on newbies? A lot of them strike me as arrogant bastards who have nothing better to do with their sorry lives than provoke noobs into breaking rules so that they can ban the sorry suckers. I see a whole lot of this:
#RandomAnimeChannel
noob1: I am looking for RandomTitle chapters/episodes. I'm new to mIRC and have no idea what to do.
op1: Type findRandomTitle
noob1: banned
op2: LOLZ that was funny dude.
op1: Yeah.
noob2: I couldn't find RareTitle in any of the fserves or bots. How can I get it?
op1: Shut up before I ban you. If you can't find it that means we can't help ya.
op2: Yeah. That title sucks anyway. You should be ashamed for wanting to have it.
noob2: Hey, I like that title! It's not all that bad.
noob2: banned
op2: LOLZ that was funny dude.
op1: Yeah.
Yep, that should go a long way towards expanding the
community of anime lovers. I'm not saying all ops are like that.
I'm just saying that I've been seeing a ton of that kind of thing
recently. Of course, they can do whatever they want and operate
their channels as they see fit. I myself have never experienced
problems since I just lurk, but this kind of anti-noob behavior
is giving anime lovers in general a bad rep.
Noobs are people too.
Now that we're done with most of the reasons this was late,
I'm sure you're wondering what finally motivated me to write. The thing
is, this chapter was 98 finished for about four weeks but I just
couldn't be bothered with it. See, I figured that if Warpwizard could
hang around his beach resort with various girls in slinky catsuits
hand-feeding him jellybeans (may not be an entirely accurate guess as
to what goes on in his private life) then I can hang around my house
and watch Beast Boy get the short end of the stick so Robin can look
cool in Teen Titans.
Then he went and released a chapter of WHBM.
What kind of a world is it when an author can't laze around without some other author releasing chapters and making him guilty?
Tip: If you want to get me writing faster, bug Warpwizard for the next chapter of his Shinji/Rei lemon or his Pokegirls story. Don't bug me. Bug him.
I didn't ask Warpwizard for permission to give his email out,
but you can easily find it by googling for his fics or looking at his
online journal. Let the nagging commence!
Anyway, I immediately finished the chapter (took all of seven minutes to do) and sent my usual pre-reader call to the FFML. Two weeks later, after I've given up on the remaining pre-readers ever sending me their comments, here is the result. Speaking of pre-readers, isn't it just grand when they totally agree on what the chapter needs?
Chester: You can express a lot of drama with minimal use of descriptions, packing a lot of emotion into a few words. That's great.
Shade: The detail in this chapter took a plunge. Add more descriptions!
Now normally I'd go with Chester because it saves me work, but I went over the chapter and added some descriptions where I felt they were called for anyway. What do you guys think?
A couple of weeks (months?) ago Warpwizard and I were exchanging emails and talking about MST fanfics. Basically, we hate them. I dunno about him, but it always annoys me when MST authors say that they write MSTs to help authors improve their work. I find that impossible to believe.
My friends and I play a lot of M:tG and there was this one guy who just sucked at the game. He became the butt of every "bad play" joke in our group.
The thing is that my friends and I weren't pointing out his mistakes so he could learn from them. We were laughing at his failures for fun. We wanted to humiliate him in front of his peers, not help him get better. He eventually quit playing Magic altogether.
What we did was bad, and it's not something I'm proud of, but
at least I admit that I was just being mean when I did it. MST writers
seem to think they deserve thanks for pointing out an authors mistakes
in public. That's BS. If they really wanted to help the author improve,
they can send C&C privately. Public C&C can serve only two purposes.
They exist to either highlight an interesting problem with the fanfic
that other authors may benefit from, or they exist to put an author's
mistakes in the spotlight. The majority of MSTs I've read contain no
interesting corrections. They mostly point out the obvious. This leads
me to conslude that they are there so that the readers can laugh at
the MSTed author's mistakes.
MSTs are created for the purpose of ridiculing authors who aren't good at what they do. MSTs are written so that everyone can point and laugh at someone else's mistakes or shortcomings. The last thing in an MST author's mind is the improvement of the victim's writing skill. If the bad authors started to improve, the MST authors would have nothing to write about!
You know what makes MSTs even worse? It's the fact that fanfic authors don't deserve that kind of treatment. They're offering a free service, after all. John "I suck at writing" Doe didn't have to take the time to write his horrible lemon and post it on the web for others to read. It's not like the readers deserve quality fanfiction.
That's right, I just said that fanfic readers do not deserve quality fanfiction (yep, that'll endear me to my audience).
What did they do to deserve what they read, anyway? They
didn't pay for it. You know those little utility programs that you can
get for free on the web? They always come with a "use at your own risk"
clause. No one complains because when you think about it, that dude
didn't have to make his little utility program available for download
at all. He could have just kept it to himself. He was offering a free
service, and if the user didn't like the program he could go jump in
a lake.
Fanfics are the same way. So what if you read a self-insert where the author gets all the girls and never loses? So what if you read a lemon that's about as realistic as Bush's claim that combat is over in Iraq? You got something for nothing, and if the something you got turns out to be worth nothing, then you got what you paid for.
I myself have read hundreds of fanfics and sent C&C to a lot of their authors, but I've never felt that I deserved to read the great stuff I was reading. I never felt ripped off if the fic I got from turned out to be really bad. I paid nothing, and I deserve nothing.
A friend of Chester once sent me a bad CCS fanfic. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give it a four. It had some promise, however.
The C&C I sent back to him tore into the fanfic like it was.
something that gets brutally torn a lot. I pointed out every little
mistake I could find, and I didn't pull any punches.
That was wrong of me.
Here was a promising young author and I smashed him totally.
My corrections were legitimate, but they were designed to create an
extremely good fanfic out of a bad one. For a beginner like him, it
would have been better just to point out the most glaring errors and
have him fix those. When he writes good enough, the smaller details
could be ironed out. He was struggling with making a house and I was
telling him he needed to build a tower. That's not the way to nurture
newbie writers. Fanfics are supposed to be written for fun!
You can send negative C&C, of course. That's fine. It helps the author improve when you tell him what he did wrong and how he can fix it. However, you need to understand that criticism should encourage authors to improve themselves, not give up. Telling the world what a newbie author did wrong and making jokes about his mistakes so everyone can point and laugh at him is just mean.
Hmmm... now for my want-list (help me find stuff I want so I have more time to write!):
.Jose Argao's Amazing Want-List.
1. Iceman fanfics - I haven't read any Bobby-centric fanfics lately and it's making me cranky as hell.
2. Age of Apocalypse scans - I'm looking for those, as well as related
the Legion Quest series that lead up to it. I have the actual comics,
but I don't want to ruin them by scanning the pages.
3. Anime/Manga titles I would like but haven't read yet - You know I like Hanaukyo Maids, Ichigo 100, and the like. What else should I be reading?
4. Dan Brown ebooks - I have the actual books, but can't be bothered to scan them. I already have the Da Vinci Code in PDF. I'm looking for Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress, and Deception Point.
Finally, I'd like to end this rant by saying that I don't, as
some misguided souls seem to think, hate Akane. I don't like her, but
I don't really hate her either. What I hate is the Akane/Ranma pairing.
Stop trying to convince me that she's nice and lovable. I already know
that she's nice to Ryoga and lovable when Ranma isn't around.
Please send C&C to
Visit my homepage ) for new chapters.