Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, as are all characters
portrayed within this story. These characters are being used without
permission, and though the author does not intend to profit in any way...
yadda yadda yadda. (be nice, it's late, okay?)

Comments are appreciated. It would be nice if you explained why, though
(as in, why you think that Ranma should be wearing a shirt that says 
"I'm with stupid" on it, for example).


				Soul of Ice



	"Come here, son-in-law," said Cologne.

	"I ain't your son-in-law, old ghoul!" Ranma snarled.

	Cologne merely nodded. "Very well then, Ranma."

	Well, this was new. Ranma's interest was piqued. He followed the old
woman, across roofs, across fences and over a canal, until they landed in
the middle of a desolate park, maybe half an hour before sunset.

	"What'd you want?"

	"I want to talk to you. I think you're ready now, Ranma."

	"Ready for what?"

	"For the rest of the training, of course. Remember the Hiryu Shoten Ha?
That was only the first part, one step only. You have you to realise its
full potential."

	"Full potential?"

	Cologne nodded sagely. "Soul of ice," she announced profoundly.

	"What do you mean, soul of ice? I don' understan'."

	Cologne sighed. "Take a look at all the other practicioners of the
Anything Goes style. Happousai, with his perversions, your father, with his
gluttony, Soun Tendo with his tears and emotional excesses, and Akane--"

	"What about Akane?" Ranma asked a little ominously, his knuckles
sounding off like gunfire as he clenched his fists.

	"Akane and her anger," Cologne ended off simply.

	Ranma protested, "She doesn't get as angry as often now."

	"And when she does...?" Cologne probed. "Does she wait for an
explanation? Does she believe your explanation, even if it is the truth?
Does she apologise to you when she's wrong. Does she ever apologise for
hitting you?"

	Ranma fumbled, and looked away from Cologne, and into the wooded
enclosure not far away. "Well... no... she... you see...."

	Cologne gave a small smile.

	"But sometimes I deserve it!"

	"You deserve it. You deserve to be hit and to be beaten. Do you?
Do you really believe that? Oh, child, if they have forced you into
believing that, I think I would have lost you after all."

	Ranma hit upon something, and said triumphantly, "But if I really 
wanted to, I could avoid the blows. They don't do any real damage to me, 
anyway. Haven't for a while, actually."

	Cologne's smile grew fractionally and she chuckled slightly. "And what
about her insults then. Coward. Gutless. Spineless. Insults to your honour,
about how you keep leading women on. Pervert. And then, and then, the
water. No, son-in-la-- sorry, force of habit, Ranma. No, Ranma, she seldom
hits you anymore, true. I see things, I hear things. I know. The insults to
your manhood, and then, then she takes it away from you. Deliberately, she
emasculates you, castrates you," looking at Ranma's slightly confused
expression, Cologne sighed and said, "unmans you. Even though she knows
about your promise to your mother." 

	Ranma's eyes widened in shock.

	"Oh-ho-ho. Yes, I told you. I hear things, I see things. I know about that
promise. Even though she knows about that, knows how any little comment
about any supposed lack of manliness on your part sets you off, nevermind
the water...."

	"I've grown used to my curse. I've accepted it," Ranma said quietly, eyes
down.

	"True, but that doesn't mean you have to give up control of it to 
others. Back to my point, look at everyone else who practises Anything
Goes, and what do you see? Excess. A lack of control. Akane was with us
when you learned the Hiryu Shoten Ha. She heard what you heard, saw what
you saw. How come she never learned the move then?"

	"Soul of ice?"

	Cologne cackled appreciatively. "Good, good, child! And what is soul of
ice but control? Being in command of yourself, your emotions, and your
opponent, leading him or her through the spiral."

	"What about me then? I practise Anything Goes."

	"One of your most powerful techniques is the Neko-ken. Can you tell me in
truth that you are in control of yourself while using it?"

	Ranma paled slightly. "Then why," he said, in a voice rapidly 
tightening with strain, "are you talking to me? and how come I can use the
Hiryu Shoten Ha then?"

	"You can use it for the same reason I'm talking to you, Ranma. There's
still a chance for you. You don't have to go that way. Become my student,
I've already taught you some things; I can teach you more, so much more,"
Cologne said enticingly, seducing Ranma with hints of techniques and skills
matched by few.

	"And I'll have to marry Shampoo, right? No deal, crone."

	"If you don't want to marry her, I can arrange for that."

	Ranma was taken back by the surprise. "Why? I don't understand. Give up so
much, just for that. Why?" The shock had perhaps made Ranma a little more
apt to want to know why, or perhaps it was the seriousness of Cologne's
tone, or some strange quality that pervaded the whole conversation.

	"Me. And Happousai. It's a fight."

	A fight.

	"For you." Cologne pointed a bony finger straight at Ranma's heart.

	"Me."

	Cologne nodded. "You, and I will not let him win. Come with me. Be my
student, learn what  have to teach you. I know things. Ways of moving,
points on the body, means of manipulating ki. I know ways around the curse.
To nullify it temporarily, or," Cologne let the moment linger, permanently."

	Ranma peered deeply into Cologne's eyes, and saw no hint of deception in
them. "You can... then why haven't you...?"

	"Because, it wasn't necessary, not before. But now, maybe now. You 
may have accepted your curse, Ranma, but only because you've had to. I
offer you a chance at a cure, a way out of at the very least one of you
current relationship problems, and with my training you will be able to
solve the others easy enough, and training the gods themselves would weep
at to have a chance at. Take it boy, take it, lest Happousai make you into
another version of himself, or your father, or any of the others."

	"I... I need time to think about it," Ranma said, the phrase somewhat
alien to his mouth, but it felt right, nonetheless.

	"I see," Cologne nodded absently. "You need time. Don't take too long,
however, it might be too late for you if you do." So saying, she hopped off.

	Ranma slowly made his way home in the twilight, going neither right nor
left, wondering whether there might be some path of his own, somewhere
between Cologne's soul of ice, and Happousai's excess.


The Beginning?


Author's Notes: Some thoughts. One way to look at the series. I'm not 
suggesting it is THE right way, or if there even is ONE single right way to
view the series, or any work of fiction (or perhaps fact, for that matter).
I'm not even suggesting that this is a particular good way to look at the
series, merely that one can.
	Couldn't find a way to incorporate these thoughts (of which some are not
necessarily mutually dependent) into any story I had involving Ranma, so I
decided to lump them together, and found that it came out as mostly dialogue.
I suppose this could be used as a base to write something; the story could
potentially be used as a bit of a prologue, I suppose, for something of a
serious bent (possibly dark, or with dark leanings). If you think so, and
you have something you want to use it for, go ahead. Do it.  Hey, almost
sounds like a challenge there, don't it?
	Shut up, I've stayed up several hours later than I should have, and
the fumes from work (ah, that wonderful place where I have plenty of time
to think about my fics, but no time nor opportunity to write them) could
have something to do with it too.
	Oh yeah, and in another obvious attempt at trying to get some 
mercy, it was written in roughly one hour (less distractions, like 
miniature daschunds sleeping in my lap, then waking up [no, I'm actually
serious about that one, folks]).
	I'm going to go to sleep now, and I don't know if I'll post it after I
write this, or when I wake up. Depends. Either way, comments are nice.
	To anyone I'm pre-reading (hi Elsa!) you got top priority right now
on any works (which, BTW, I'm well aware of my commitments. I'm just hoping
everyone else will forget them... that's why I'm not saying anything.... ^_-).



Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis
Maybeso on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
Warped, in Real Life
Member of:
FFML, FFIRCML, El Hazard ML
	maybeso@ican.net
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Change is inevitable, especially if you pay with
large bills.
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