Ranma ½

Love Note

Usual disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, any resemblance to Ranma ½ or Death Note is purely intentional, and the rest of that jazz.

For the purposes of this story, any text within single quotes like 'this' is considered a thought.

Few question answers:

Has Mousse had a direct confrontation with Akane's newfound affections?

He knows about it, but is so far doing his best to keep his distance, while also not angering her.

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't an 'instantaneous' thing, and there are also those who think that Shampoo was tracking both Ranmas and therefore at least had some idea who he was before he defeated her.

That may well be, but from Ranma's perspective, and Kasumi's for that matter, it seemed pretty instantaneous.

Chapter 6


It was early Saturday morning, and in his hotel room, L was taking a short rest to eat, and to clear his mind. Eating was simply a necessity of life, but clearing his mind was a more situational thing for the genius detective. Something was bugging him, and he didn't know exactly what.

As he was trying to sort that out, a light on his computer began to flash. 'That's Watari's priority alert,' L thought as he rushed over. "Watari, what is it?"

"L... there's been an... incident."

"Incident?" L echoed with a frown.


Far away at the Tendo dojo, everyone was gathered for breakfast around the table before heading off to their various morning activities for the day. As they ate, the television was on, and Nabiki was currently dialing thru the various channels, only to stop at a news program. She was about to switch channels once more when the subject matter changed to Cupid. "Wonder if there is anything new on the Cupid front," she commented as she returned to the table to continue eating.

"There has been a great deal of discussion lately about the whole Cupid phenomena," the female anchor said. "Today, we're doing an extended segment on the issue to cover all the latest developments..."

Ranma sighed heavily, turning away from the television. "Is that all they talk about lately? And all they ever do is go over the same old news too," he complained, to which Kasumi only smiled.

Since their little outing, Kasumi had found her attitude toward Ranma had changed. She was finding herself more and more questioning the essential logic behind trying to get him and Akane together. While the thoughts had not turned into any kind of action, she had caught herself considering Ranma as a potential husband herself. Of course, with his incredibly complicated love life, she always dismissed such thoughts quickly, but they were lingering that much longer each time. At this particular moment she was pondering exactly what color of thread of fate currently connected herself and Ranma. 'Unfortunately, only Trista knows that, and she won't tell me,' Kasumi thought, giving the love goddess in question a quick glance.

"I wonder if this L character has gotten any closer to finding out who Cupid is?" Akane wondered aloud.

The question broke Kasumi out of her thoughts, as she remembered back to the broadcast. "L... oh, you mean that lady who made that broadcast," Kasumi concluded with a smile. "I think she's probably busy with other things."

Akane temporarily puzzled over this. "Kasumi, didn't you see the whole broadcast?"

"Whole broadcast? No, actually I missed the last part of it," Kasumi answered honestly. "Why?"

"That lady wasn't L," Ranma replied. "She and the other guy were actors. The real L was using that broadcast as a trap and Cupid fell for it."

"A... trap?" Kasumi repeated, not fully able to disguise her nervousness, but no one but Trista seemed to notice.

"Yeah, he was using the broadcast to get Cupid to reveal that he was in Kanto, and real. They said it was worldwide, but it was only aired in Kanto," Akane further explained.

"Oh... how clever," Kasumi said aloud, but inwardly she was thinking, 'Oh dear.'

Ranma let out a puff of air expressing his doubts. "Who cares? There are millions of people in Kanto. Like that means anything. And, the guy ain't so smart anyway. Cupid could have up and took off from Kanto now that he knows the police are after him. Pretty stupid to make such an open confrontation if you ask me," he commented.

"Police?" Kasumi echoed in concern.

"Yeah. He said he was going to stop Cupid, so I assume he's trying to have him arrested or something," Ranma answered.

"Arrested!" Kasumi again repeated, now very nervous. "Isn't that... a bit extreme?"

Ranma simply shrugged. "Hey, I ain't this L. It's the cops' choice what they do with Cupid."

As Kasumi agonized over this, her anxiety still largely unnoticed by the rest of the family, Trista simply nodded in an I told you so manner. 'This is terrible,' Kasumi thought in a panic, but after a moment managed to calm herself. 'I'm getting worked up over nothing. This L still only knows I'm in Kanto. Like Ranma said, there are lots of people in Kanto. Besides, I haven't done anything bad. Just made a few people fall in love. Surely they will just give me a warning or something if they do happen to find me.'

"...Ladies and gentlemen, we've just received a new update from sources within the Japanese Police Department," the woman on the television suddenly said as she listened into her ear piece. "Is this confirmed?" she asked someone off screen, and her eyes went wide before she reset her news anchor appearance and addressed the screen. "Yes, we apparently do have confirmation. Cupid has struck the Japanese Police Force."

"What?!" several people at the table exclaimed, turning to give their full attention to the TV. Kasumi, however, was in puzzled shock.

"Yes, reports are coming in now that Cupid has caused hundreds of members of the department to fall in love. Further, the entire Cupid task force has apparently been affected. Details are sketchy at the moment, but it appears that those members have actually moved to destroy all evidence and records of the Cupid investigation. There is no official statement at this time, but..."

"Excuse me," Kasumi said suddenly, but went largely unnoticed as she left the table and headed quickly upstairs to her room.

Up in her room, Kasumi closed the door and ran to her closest to retrieve the Love Note.

"What's going on here, Kasumi?" Trista asked. Although she was not panicked like Kasumi, she was no less puzzled than the eldest Tendo daughter.

"I don't know," Kasumi said as she ran through the pages of the note, looking. "I don't remember doing anything like that."

"I don't remember you doing anything like that either," Trista agreed as she looked over Kasumi's shoulder. "Of course, my memory isn't the greatest, but I think I'd recall something like that."

Finally reaching the end of the written portions of the Love Note, Kasumi closed it, and bit the nail of her thumb to try to calm herself and think. However, she only got a few seconds to do so before a knock came at the door, startling her. "Um... Yes?"

"Kasumi, we need to talk," Nabiki replied from the other side of the door.

"About?" Kasumi asked nervously.

"About a certain note book, and a certain person named Trista," Nabiki replied.

Kasumi and Trista exchanged looks, Kasumi's unable to hide a touch of accusation at the love goddess. Trista shrugged, now herself worried, having no idea how to answer. Finally, having no answers between them, Kasumi opened the door to find Nabiki waiting alone in the hall. As the door opened, Nabiki smiled and waved at the love goddess behind Kasumi. "Hi," she said.

"You can see me?!" Trista asked in total confusion.

"Yes," Nabiki answered and walked in. "Close the door," she directed and walked over to Kasumi's bed to sit.

Kasumi closed the door as requested, and looked at Trista now with open accusation. "I thought you said no one could see or hear you!"

"They can't, I swear!" Trista responded defensively, gaining a chuckle from Nabiki.

"Not unless they touch the note," Nabiki said.

Trista hesitated, looked at Nabiki, then back at Kasumi sheepishly. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that," she said, causing Kasumi to sigh heavily. "But, you didn't say anyone had touched it!" she said in her own defense.

"She didn't know," Nabiki explained.

Kasumi took a second longer to give Trista a brief stare in disapproval before letting out another sigh to relieve her stress and turned her full attention to Nabiki. "How long-"

"Since she first came here I'm guessing," Nabiki replied. "Look, this will take a while to explain, so you better sit down too."


Nabiki's tale began several days before Trista's arrival at the Tendo home, with a completely unremarkable, but decidedly important event. Nabiki was looking for something to wear. Having exhausted her own closet of choices, and even Akane's, she had moved onto Kasumi's. Nabiki rarely went into Kasumi's things. Kasumi was quite a bit taller than Nabiki, making most anything that fit Kasumi too large for Nabiki, so there was little point in it. However, today Nabiki was looking simply for some head-wear, and in that respect, her and Kasumi were quite a close fit. However, her search wasn't going well.

Rummaging through the top shelf, Nabiki could not find anything suitable and was about to give up when she happened to touch a book. Curious, she grabbed it and took it down from the shelf to take a look. "Love Note," Nabiki read the title aloud. 'What is this, a diary or something?' she wondered. She briefly toyed with the notion of looking inside, but quickly dismissed this. Kasumi's diary was likely, in Nabiki's opinion, to bore her to sleep rather the be anything of interest. Shrugging, Nabiki replaced the book where she found it, and deciding there was nothing to be had in Kasumi's closet, headed out.


Nabiki would have completely forgotten the whole thing had not, several days later, she been in her room studying when a voice called out. "HEY EVERYONE, THIS IS TRISTA, AND I'M A LOVE GODDESS! COME SEE ME IN KASUMI'S ROOM!" Needless to say, this gave Nabiki a moment of pause. The voice was not one she recognized, but at the same time it apparently had not caused anyone else to take notice. Not sure whether she believed her ears, Nabiki grabbed up a nearby glass she usually used to listen in on Akane's room, but this time used it to listen in on Kasumi's. She remained glued to the wall through Trista's entire explanation to Kasumi of the note.

Of course, at the first available opportunity, Nabiki sneaked back into Kasumi's room to take a closer look at the notebook. She read carefully through the instructions, as well as marveled over just how many names Kasumi had written within. Closing the book briefly, Nabiki was in a bit of shock. 'Kasumi really is the one doing all this,' she thought, pondering all the ramifications, that is until something else crossed her mind. 'You know, this could be really useful,' she thought and, taking a look around to confirm she was alone, she discretely removed a page from the back of the note where it would be unnoticed and replaced the notebook in its original hiding spot. Looking at the removed page, Nabiki couldn't help but smile with devious intent. 'There are so many possibilities. I'll have to do a bit of testing first, but that shouldn't be a problem.' Nabiki's smile widened.


Several days later, and with a numerous names on her test piece of the notebook, Nabiki was pondering all the possibilities now open to her. She was at school at the time, taking her lunch break, and sizing up all the various people around her.

'It's too bad I can't use this to make me win a contest,' she thought with some disappointment. 'Would be so nice to win a few hundred million yen, and falling in love with someone is not such a big deal, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work. Oh well, there is still plenty of rich bachelors out there,' she thought with a devious smile. 'Kasumi is so simple minded. She could do so much with this thing, and she doesn't even realize it. Hmm, I could sneak off with it, but then again what's the point. I can just take out another page or two and that should be more than enough. That way, everyone will just think it's Cupid and no one will even think about me." Smiling once more at her plan, Nabiki nodded and resolved to go do a little eligible man hunting for herself the next day.

However, as she was pondering this, the commotion of students around the television became evident. Struck by curiosity like so many others, Nabiki walked over to take it in, and watched the whole L broadcast. Once it was over, her upbeat mood was completely drained away.


Back home, hours later, Nabiki was in her room, for all appearances doing homework, but in fact simply thinking about the newest developments. After the broadcast, Nabiki had headed off to the library to borrow one of their computers and look up this L. There was little to learn, but what there was did not ease her mind any. Every time he was mentioned in any fashion it was in regards to a big case being solved, and in all of those incidents those cases had seemed unsolvable beforehand. If this was the man after Cupid, he was not a person to be taken lightly.

'Blast it all, now Kasumi has got the police involved. I can't use this now. If I gain any significant benefit from it, I'll be one of the people this L person looks into and that could get me in a load of trouble,' she thought with an intense frown. 'Well, it was a nice thought while it lasted, but it is just too risky. Jail time just doesn't agree with me,' she thought with a sigh of disappointment, but then her mind changed to another matter. 'But what about Kasumi? She's so bloody reckless she's bound to get caught. I suppose I could just steal the book and get rid of it... but who is to say that this L doesn't already have available enough information to catch her. Even if Cupid does stop it may not matter.'

Nabiki shook her head is dismissal. 'That's her problem, not mine. Why should I get involved? Everyone thinks she's such the perfect girl anyway, would serve her right to get tossed in jail!' Nabiki thought bitterly, but this merely masked the worry she was feeling.


Over the next several days, Nabiki did as she originally intended, which was stay out of it. Kasumi was apparently blissfully unaware of events around her, and the danger she was now in, but Nabiki said nothing, which wasn't made easier by having to act unaware of the love goddess following Kasumi throughout the house.

It was this day though that things changed. Nabiki had been on her way home when she noticed a rather out of place man in a suit questioning one of the local merchants. Nabiki recognized him as Jin Itsuki, who just happened to have himself a new girlfriend. Discretely approaching, Nabiki stopped at a nearby stand and listened in.

"...well, if anything comes to mind sir, please give us a call," the man in the suit said, to which Jin chuckled somewhat nervously.

"I really don't see the problem, officer. I mean, yes it's unusual, but I think Cupid means well enough," Jin replied.

"That may be, but ultimately that is for the authorities to decide. Thank you for your time," the officer replied and with a slight bow headed off.

Unnoticed by him or Jin, Nabiki was frowning deeply, her worry stronger than ever.


That night, she returned home and spoke to Kasumi in the kitchen. This served only to confirm that Kasumi was completely oblivious to the situation. Even when she dropped the hint that everyone was trying to figure out who Cupid was, Kasumi seemed more worried about the falsely accused than herself.

"Oh? I suppose it is only natural that everyone would be curious," Kasumi said, causing Nabiki to inwardly growl in frustration over her sister's thickness.

"Yeah..." Nabiki replied, masking her annoyance by finished her drink. 'Damn it all Kasumi, you're going to make me save your butt, aren't you?' she thought in annoyance, but let none of it show as she headed to the door, already pulling together a plan of action she had been toying with over the last few days. She stopped, and turned back to Kasumi, needing information. "I don't see you going out much lately, sis. You usually at least go see Tofu once a week or so."

Kasumi looked back over at Nabiki and nodded. "I did go to see him the other day, but he had a sudden emergency out of town apparently. And the time before that he was ill. Just bad luck I suppose."

Kasumi slight depression over this did not escape Nabiki. 'Okay, so the consequence is legit. Trista wasn't just making it up. That could complicate things,' Nabiki thought.

"Why?" Kasumi asked after a second.

"Oh, no particular reason," Nabiki lied but decided to turn the situation to her benefit. "Just thinking you've been spending an awfully lot of time at home lately. You should get out more."

"See, even she thinks so," the love goddesses agreed, but as usual, Nabiki acted as if she was unaware of her.

"I don't really have a lot of time-"

"Oh yes you do," Nabiki retorted. "You know, if you don't want to go out alone, I'm sure Ranma would go along." As Nabiki expected, Kasumi started at the suggestion, prompting her to press on. "Come on Kasumi, Akane knows, I know and you know he got hit by Cupid."

"How did...? I'm sure that wasn't Cupid's intention. Besides, it would be very inappropriate for me and him to go out together. He's engaged to Akane."

Nabiki pushed on. "Technically he's engaged to a Tendo. Nothing says we can't change the arrangement. It's not exactly like he and Akane get along as is and I'm sure you're just as aware as I am about her new interest."

"Listen to this girl, she knows her stuff," Trista once more agreed, briefly distracting Kasumi.

Feigning indifference, Nabiki turned to leave. "Just a suggestion. I mean, you stick around here so much and people might start thinking it's odd. With all the suspicion in the air, some fool might get the idea you're Cupid."

"Me?!" Kasumi said with a start, gaining an unseen smile from Nabiki.

'Now maybe she'll take the hint. Besides, I can use her distraction to get better access to the note. She is home so darn often it is hard. This plan will take quite a bit of prep and testing,' Nabiki thought as she walked down the hallway.


Sure enough, a few days later, Kasumi was off at the theater. A quick bit of suggestion on Nabiki's part managed to get Ranma out of the house too, leaving the upstairs empty, affording her easy access to the notebook.

She had already used the remaining amount of her previously gathered page to work out the details. Testing around school and the neighborhood was a bit risky, but necessary. However, as of now she was ready to put it all together.

By the time Kasumi and Ranma returned home, Nabiki had all the pages she needed for her plan to succeed, and Kasumi, as usually, was completely oblivious.


Back in the present, Kasumi looked at Nabiki in shock. "So you-"

"Yes, it was me," Nabiki replied in slight annoyance at Kasumi having to confirm the obvious. "I worked the whole thing out, and it's perfect. It is essentially untraceable, completely guts the investigation, drives a wedge between L and the police, and best of all, gives you an out."

Kasumi shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand. Exactly what did you do?"

Nabiki nodded, and straightened up to explain. "It's rather complicated, but the general plan is simple. I got the director of the police to become Cupid."

"What?"

"Yes. I did lots of testing on the note, using a piece of paper I took out of it. I found out, using that, that you can make people under its power do darn near anything, including write on paper from the note itself. Obviously, I can't tell them to write so and so's name in the note, since I'd have to not only know the person's name, but also I'd have to write their name in the note, potentially messing things up. No, what I did instead is give him a general instruction of write all the members of the Cupid task force names, and that worked just fine."

If it was possible, Kasumi was in even more shock than before. "Nabiki, you didn't... If someone uses the note-"

"Yes, yes, I tested that too. Don't worry."

"But, Dr. Tofu-"

"I said, don't worry," Nabiki repeated, standing up. "I'm guessing that if you knowingly and voluntarily use the note, that consequence does happen. But either if you don't know, or you're using it under the power of the note itself, nothing happens. I'm not sure which, as I couldn't test that, but I know that's the case. One of my classmates has got a boyfriend, and I got him to use it, and nothing seems to be wrong with their relationship... well besides him now being interested in this actress... but that's another matter."

"Nabiki!"

Nabiki waved off Kasumi complaint. "He was no good for her anyway. Point is, the director isn't going to suffer the consequence."

"But, how did you get to the director in the first place?" Trista asked.

"I didn't. Another girl in my class has a father who works in the police force. I used him to get the director. Unfortunately, he's not on the task force, so to make sure L couldn't track him back to me, I had the director hit a bunch of normal officers too."

"And how did you get the paper to him?"

"I had him come to a bus depot on the other side of the district. I just had him pick it up there."

"Hand it off... but won't he remember all this and tell-" Trista started to say, but Nabiki quickly shook her head.

"Nope, that's another thing I tested out. I can't make you do really unlikely things, like win a contest or something, but I apparently can make a person forget things. I just programmed him, and everyone else, to forget everything they knew about Cupid, and some random days too, just to cover my tracks. I also had him destroy the pages when he was done. Nothing to track back."

Trista nodded in admiration. "That's pretty smart of you. I never would have thought of all that. But still, now that he's touched the pages-"

"He didn't. I made some special envelops for them. Only the spot where he needed to write in was uncovered, and even there he was writing on normal paper. I put a piece of carbon paper in between so he never actually touched the paper, assuming the commands work, which apparently they did. I had to do that anyway. Had to put down a bunch of instructions down on the pages beforehand so they would do exactly what I wanted. Man, that was pain to figure out too," Nabiki explained, walking over to the window. "Took me a while to figure out that not only can you write the instruction before writing the names, but you can also write the object of the love to be literally the first person they encounter. Without that, I couldn't make it work. Even that was annoying. I had to write for him to obey instructions on another piece of normal paper. That Love note is too unforgiving. If anything happens that makes the instructions not possible, it will default. By making the instruction to simply obey instructions on a normal piece of paper as best he could, I didn't need to worry as much about some little thing causing the whole plan to foul up."

"Writing the instructions on normal paper, interesting. Never would have thought of that," Trista complimented, but was shocked to see Kasumi frowning at her, or at least as close to a frown as Kasumi could generally manage. "What?"

Ignoring the love goddess for a moment, Kasumi turned to her sister. "Nabiki, isn't this going too far? Now this L is going to be really mad."

"Maybe, but who cares? Think about it. Now, he can't trust anyone in the police force as I've shown I can control any of them. Beyond that, even if he does track it back to a source, he'll find out it was the director. I doubt he'll believe the director is the original Cupid, but now he won't be able to say anyone he tracks down is the original Cupid as they could potentially just be a puppet, just like the director."

"But, why do this?" Kasumi asked.

"Why?" Nabiki repeated with a frown as she turned back to Kasumi. "Kasumi, they had officers already interviewing people. I'm betting you didn't even bother being discrete about asking people's names, now did you?" she asked, causing Kasumi to hang her head. "I thought so. If he ever saw a pattern in that, he could have tracked it to you. What do you think would happen then, huh? Do you think Daddy would be happy seeing you dragged away in handcuffs?"

"No, I suppose not," Kasumi replied meekly.

"No, obviously he wouldn't. I was half inclined to let you... never mind. Anyway, now the police are out of the loop. He can't use them anymore. Without them, there is no way he can interview hundreds of people easily. Beyond that, even if he did, he couldn't trust the info he gets out of it for the same reason he can't trust the police anymore."

"I suppose you're right," Kasumi was forced to concede. "But still..."

"Look, all you have to do now is stop using that book. If you stop using it, even if by some miracle he tracks you down, he won't be able to pin anything to you. He might not even bother trying if you stop."

Kasumi nodded, self consciously looking down at her feet as she thought. Nabiki sighed in relief, concluding that she had at last gotten through to her sister. However, just as she did, Kasumi looked up suddenly at Nabiki. "But there is so much good I can-"

Nabiki planted her face into her open palm in frustration, silencing Kasumi. "Kasumi, look, you have to lay low here. This guy L is serious business from what I can tell. Trust me, I know how powerful that thing is and what it can do, but for now you have to stop."

"But... what about Ranma, Akane and the others?"

"They'll just have to wait, or fix things on their own. Not like things got any better when you used that thing anyway."

"I... guess you're right," Kasumi said with a sigh of defeat. "What should I do with it then?"

"Keep it," Nabiki replied. "On the off chance L does manage to keep going with the investigation and gets close, we may need it. We'll just need to find a better hiding spot for it."


Still in his hotel room, L was deep in thought as he watched the video feed from Watari's lap top. Watari was currently in the office of the director of the Japanese police force assessing the damage done. "...the computers were thoroughly cleansed. Every file was deleted and cleaned so recovery is impossible. Hard copies were also destroyed, mostly burned."

"This is a disaster," the director of the police said, hanging his head.

"I see," L replied. "A moment if you please. I must consider this," L said and shut off the mic to think. 'So, you finally made a move, Cupid. I must admit, you caught me off guard,' he thought in a small amount of admiration, before looking back at his notes to assess the situation. 'All the officers interviewed so far noted the affect occurred on Saturday night, while watching the same television program. Many officers also reported not normally watching that program, but finding themselves compelled to watch it this time. So, Cupid can control her victims, and the timing of the effect to a great extent. This is something she has never openly demonstrated before. Of course, she could very easily have been doing this all along, but in such a way as to not be noticed,' he pondered. 'Each officer also reported, beyond forgetting everything about the investigation, also forgetting a day in the last week, seemingly at random. What purpose does that serve? Cupid is attempting to conceal something, but what?'

L frowned, finding no quick solutions, and reactivated the mic. "Watari, is your monitoring program intact?"

"Yes L," Watari replied.

"And what does it show?"

Watari hesitated, cleared his throat and replied, "The only significant access to the personnel records was from the director's office. Further, the timing of these accesses coincide with times the director was presumably present, although that has yet to be confirmed."

"What?" the director said in total surprise. "L, you can't-"

"Calm yourself director," L quickly replied. "Cupid has shown the ability to control her victims with this incident. It is quite possible, even probable, that she controlled you as well. Nonetheless, you will understand that you now must be investigated."

"I..." the director started to protest, but quickly realized his situation, sighed and nodded in acceptance of this.

"Unfortunately, Cupid planned this out well. It has forced my hand, and I find myself compelled to move as she likely expects. As such, I must sever contact with the Japanese Police Force as far as the investigation is concerned," L said, causing the director to once more be surprised, but before he could say anything, L explained. "The entire force has been compromised, and with Cupid being able to control you all, I have no choice in this matter. You could further compromise the investigation. As is, with much of the record lost, I have only my local copies to depend on. Fortunately, I think they will be enough to proceed, but I cannot risk another such incident, or worse false information being feed in."

"I understand," the director conceded.

"Do not worry, my investigation continues. I will simply have to use other resources at my disposal," L said. "Watari, please download to me the complete record from your program, and continue the interviews, starting with the director. We may yet find something that Cupid did not anticipate," L directed and after receiving Watari's confirmation once more shut off the mic. 'The media has already gotten wind of this, and will likely soon learn of the removal of the Japanese Police Force from the investigation. That will likely satisfy Cupid for the moment. With that in mind, perhaps then it is time to move in a more subtle way against her,' he thought, already considering numerous alternatives.


Far away in China, Cologne was in one of the Amazon village's oldest buildings, looking over a large and tome that was even more ancient that the structure. After several minutes, she was not pleased with what she was learning. "Is this true?" she asked.

Across the room, an elder Amazon, even older than Cologne, nodded. She was the village record keeper, a position many thought her ill suited to given her blindness, but those didn't understand her true capabilities. "As true as any legend can be. It is of course difficult to say if all the details are right. The original events occurred nearly 3000 years ago, long before we kept such records. Even the story in that tome is a copy of what was only put to paper some thousand years after the fact."

"Then how can we be sure?" Cologne asked skeptically.

"Is not what is happening proof enough?" the record keeper replied, giving Cologne pause. "If this is what you now face, care must be taken. 3000 years ago, this power was great. In our modern age it is even greater."

"Yes," Cologne had to agree as she closed the tome. "If only there was some form of defense against such a thing."

"There is," the elder replied to Cologne's surprise. "Although, this is most definitely one of those occasions where it is fair to say the cure may well be worse than the disease," she said with a grin.


End Chapter 6

As I noted in chapter one, all input is welcome here. My ideas on this story are pretty sketchy right now meaning most my time is actually spent figuring out what to write rather than actually writing it, which is not the usual hold up for me.

Okay, now for the answer (since no one seemed to figure it out), where did I goof up? Simple, the last written rule states: After writing the object of the affection, the details of the subject falling in love should be written in the next 6 minutes and 54 seconds. Now, those paying very close attention will notice I violated this not once, but twice. In the first chapter, Kasumi first used the note specifying both subject and object and I was counting down in seconds. This error was more minor, and could easily just be chalked up to a lot of seconds, but I did it again when Kasumi affected the fake L and Watari. This time Kasumi was bounded by the time it would take her to get to the kitchen, do the last preparations with the tea and return, which is maybe 2-3 minutes tops, not over 7. Anyway, it's not a big deal, I'm adding the rule that if you don't start writing conditions within 42 seconds, it will assume you don't desire any conditions and use that time limit, not the longer one.