Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi, not I,
the lowly scum that I am who is doing this without her
permission. You hear me? I ain't got no rights to use
and abuse the cast and characters of Ranma 1/2 like
I'm about to! ^_^

C&C is, of course, a very nice thing to get, so why not
do your good deed for today and give me some? :)

Before we start, make sure you've read SoI: Point and
SoI: Counterpoint-- it'll make more sense, and perhaps
give you an idea of the feel for this, cuz dis ain't da
Ranma you know, no more, y'hear?


So, what if Ranma chose to become Cologne's pupil? I give you:



                    Soul of Ice: Thesis


I


    Weak.

    That was Ranma's thought as he remembered Soun, crying. Weak.
How could he stand to be so weak, to cry so much, and for so little
a reason. Shampoo came by today. She hugged Ranma. Akane saw and
got mad. Soun bawled something about how, "the two schools would
never unite now!" and then he started crying, after grabbing
Ranma's waist and hanging on for dear life. The dried tears left
white stains of salt in tracks on Ranma's black pants. Weak.
    Genma had taught Ranma better than that. At a young age Ranma
learned a very important lesson. 

    A long time ago, before Genma threw Ranma into the pit of cats
for training, back when Ranma still remembered he had a mother and
would sometimes cry at night because he missed her, Genma showed
him something. 

    It was morning, the morning after a particularly bad crying
bout on Ranma's part. "Ranma," the Saotome patriarch said in a
resounding voice. "Today I'm going to teach you a very important
lesson." 

    Ranma merely nodded, eyes still a little red and puffy from the
night before. The father and son walked through the city, down old
alley-ways and little-used sections of the city until Genma found
what he was looking for: a dog-fight. "Look closely," he said, and
Ranma did.

Two mongrel dogs fought, mixed breeds and vicious from a harsh
life on the streets. Finally, one of the dogs rolled over on its
back and exposed its belly. The fight was over and that dog had
lost-- it ran away with its tail tucked between its legs.
    Ranma looked up at his father for an explanation.

    "Did you see what that dog did, Ranma? That's how dogs
surrender. It's a defense mechanism, so that they don't always kill
each other in a fight. Nature's way of making sure they don't kill
themselves off." Ranma nodded and Genma continued. "All animals
have that reflex, even humans. Do you know what it is people do?"
Ranma shook his head. "People cry. That's how we show surrender."
Genma's voice took on a darker tone, low and rumbling, away from
the lecturing one he used so well. "Boy, you are the heir to the
Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts and you have to know
one thing-- we do not surrender, ever. Giving up is not an option!
Surrender is for the weak, and I did not raise you to be weak, I
raised you to be strong."

    Ranma looked up at his father then, and he understood,
understood the lesson perfectly. To surrender is wrong. Only the
weak give up. Only the weak cry. Being weak was wrong, and that
meant that crying was wrong.


II


    Ranma sat on the rooftop of the Tendo dojo, eyes staring out
into the stars on the edge of the horizon. The cold night turned
his breath into small clouds in front of him, a fearsome dragon
pondering deep matters. 
    A little below the surface though, Ranma was not looking into
the night sky at all; he was aware of the lighting condition only
peripherally. Ranma's thoughts concentrated on recent events, and
of two conversations he had some time ago. His father, stuffing his
face, Nabiki, avidly counting money, Soun Tendo, bursting into rage
and then crying helplessly, and Akane, Akane. 
    Was it his fault? Could you honestly blame Ranma for what
happened? How could Ranma have checked his flight, hurtling as he
was through the air because Ryouga took that particular time to
renew his pointless, one-sided feud with Ranma? Why was it Ranma's
fault that the shrine to her mother was damaged by his landing? As
it was, Ranma tried to save as much as he could, deliberately
taking the brunt of the blow and subsequent landing so that the
shrine would suffer less.
    Damage was too harsh a term, really: jostled was more like it.
Shaken up a bit, things out of position. 
    Did Ranma really deserve what happened? Did he deserve the
explosive and short-lived anger of Soun which was quickly replaced
by tears, the cool disdain of Nabiki, the way she looked at him,
much like he was a roach, or the water followed by the kick from
Akane? Did he deserve to watch her side with Ryouga, to lavish
affection upon that pig while she piled insult upon insult on
Ranma?
    Ever since Cologne's talk these, and similar, thoughts kept
going through his mind; they all ended up being the same question
in the end: why did he put up with it? Even now Ranma could hear
the inhabitants on the house below harangue him. Why should he put
up with it indeed? Even more pressing a concern was: what would
happen to him if he continued this way? Did he want their weakness
to drag him down to their level? Their jealousy make him as weak
and pathetic as they?
    Letting out a large cloud of breath as he sighed, Ranma closed
his eyes. Things had to change, there had to be a better way. Ranma
suddenly found that he did not like where events were headed,
especially what he saw himself becoming. A way out, there was a way
out, and he would take it.
    Nodding to himself, Ranma leapt off the roof and made his way
through the night streets to his one hope. He paused momentarily in
front of a door, suddenly beset by doubt. A quick shake of the
head, and Ranma knocked.

    The door opened.
    
    "We closed now, come back later," answered Shampoo before she
realised who it was she was talking to.

    Shampoo's face lit up as finally Ranma had come to his senses
and--

    "I need to speak with Cologne, Shampoo," Ranma said,
forestalling any attempt on Shampoo's part for a date.

    For her part, Shampoo sighed with disappointment, wondering
when Ranma would come to his senses and marry her as she opened the
door wider and let Ranma see into the shop, where--

    "Hello, Ranma," Cologne said, atop her staff. "Is this a social
visit, or do you have some other reason?"

    "I got an answer for ya, old ghoul," Ranma said.
    
    Cologne's face grew expectant with glee, because she could
guess what the answer would be, could see it in his face, in his
eyes, in his heart and in his soul.

    "Yes," Ranma said. 

    One word, one tiny insignificant little word, yet it would make
all the difference.

    Cologne nodded her head up and down, up and down like a
deranged marionette, feral grin with teeth glacier-white shining
into the night.


III


    Morning arrived slowly, tentatively, unsure it wanted to
announce the coming day. The dawn found Ranma, dressed and packed.
The rising sun was not the only one to find Ranma in such a state.

    "What are you doing, boy?" asked his father, asked his would-be
father-in-law. The only difference in the two was the tone of
voice, where the former was gruff and accusative, the latter
oscillated between anger and sadness.

    "Training trip. When I come back, I'll've sorted out this whole
engagement mess," Ranma replied curtly, checking the straps of his
pack.

    "You'll marry Akane then?" inquired Soun hopefully.

    "I'll be ready to marry my fianc�e when I get back," Ranma
answered and evaded. The two fathers did not notice it, however,
only hearing that Ranma would be ready to marry when he got back.

    "Wait until Kasumi has breakfast ready, boy, and then we'll be
off," chortled Genma.

    "You ain't goin' with me, pops. I gotta go do this an' figure
it out by myself, okay? A man's gotta be able ta do that, right?"

    Genma seemed to accept that as a viable excuse. "Oh my son, you
do your father proud!" Genma exclaimed, weeping tears of joy. Soun
joined his friend in a display.

    Ranma shook his head and left. That was the last they would see
of him for a long, long time.


IV


    Winter was ending, bleeding slowly into spring, but still held
a tight grip on the country. Ranma had been gone on his training
trip for a very long time. Cologne had left for the Joketsuzoku for
an almost equally long time; Shampoo received letters from Cologne
once in a while talking about what was going on.
    Life had gone on without Ranma around-- it tends to do that
when we least expect it to. The world did not stop because Ranma
had retreated from it to do some training; Akane was still at
school, true, but was a senior now. Nabiki was still conning money
out of gullible classmates, but now they were in college students
and not high school ones. 
    Why then did there seem to be an extra bit of life on one
particularly grey and dreary day? Why was there an unusual amount
of hustle and bustle around the Tendo household? What kind of
celebration or party was being prepared that could cause such grins
and put a spring in the step of so many people? What made this one
day special? A postcard, nothing more, unless perhaps it was what
was written on the card:

        Finished training, inasmuch one can ever really finish 
        training. Coming back as soon as possible.

                                                  Ranma


The front of the card had the very peaks of a mountain range,
majestic and jagged with their crowns of never-melting ice.
Attached to the card was a train schedule, with a particular train
and time circled, along with a date; the same date as that
overcast, dreary, lively not-yet-spring day.

    In a slightly different part of Nerima, another message was
being read, another arrival was announced.

    "Hurry up, Mousse! Great-grandmama coming back today, and don't
want to be late for her!" shouted Shampoo.

    Mousse hurried-- how could he do anything else but what Shampoo
asked him to do?


V


    The train pulled into the station. The whole Tendo family was
there, as well as the Saotome parents. Strangely enough they met
Shampoo and Mousse there as well. It seems it was to be a double
return after all. It never rains but it pours, especially when
Jusenkyo's involved.
    People began to filter out of the train. Where was he? Where
was she? A somewhat gnarled staff could be seen. More importantly,
a mane of white hair on top of said staff. Cologne, obviously.
There was a man beside her, young. Who was he? He wore black pants,
tied at the ankles and a red long sleeve shirt, sleeves folded back
once, with wooden ties. Who was he? Not Ranma, couldn't be Ranma,
because otherwise--

    "Ranma?" a thoroughly shocked Akane asked the almost grey
haired stranger, pointing at short locks and pale, almost bleached
skin. "Is that you? What happened?"

    "Side effect. Nothing more."

    "Of what?" He looked like a pale shade of what he was before he
left, Akane noted, like the very life had been leeched from him.

    "Purity."

    One word and nothing more, but it was all that needed to be
said.

    Both parties decided to merge into one, Shampoo eager to find
out what Ranma was up to on his trip. Cologne seemed to want the
same-- she stayed close to Ranma, at the least. 
    The decision was easier than one might expect-- Kasumi in her
infinite wisdom had sent out invitations to everyone for Ranma's
return, so there was not as big a fuss as one might assume.

    The return to the Tendo house was quiet, strangely enough.
Ranma fended off all attempts to weasel any information out of him:
what has he been doing, what did he decide, and the like by merely
saying, "I will tell everyone at the party. That way I do not have
to go through it again and again. Besides, if I tell you now,
you'll be tired of it when I tell everyone else later, right?"

    No one could fault Ranma's logic, which in itself was a new and
shocking development for them, one which helped keep everyone else
silent as they mulled over the possibilities.
    The apparent changes in Ranma were obvious. His hair, as was
mentioned was no longer the same colour, as if the colour had
mostly bled away. He stayed on the ground on the way back. He was
silent, not really speaking, making jokes or remarks about Akane.
Graceful as well-- Ranma had always had a certain fluidity to his
movements which matched that of trained and long experienced
dancers, but now... but now. 
    Ranma did not walk so much as he flowed. Watching him simply
move was... breathtaking? It was like space and gravity and time
were different for Ranma in some indefinably beautiful way which
made the world and everyone in it seem cruder and clumsy by
comparison.
    The greatest change though was in Ranma's face: it was
impassive. Where once Ranma's emotions could be read with a glance
at his face, now there was nothing. Tabula Rasa, a perfect poker
face. No cocky smirk, no boyish smile or jealous frown, nothing.
The perfect blankness made Akane's hands itch to do something about
that, but she restrained herself.
    The journey from the station to the Tendo house was a short
one; it went on interminably and for too long. 

    "Where is Happousai?" Cologne asked eagerly after they entered
the house.

    Genma and Soun looked about fearfully. "The Master," they
began, nervous that mere mention of him might call his attention
upon them, "is not here right now. The last we heard he was in
Hokkaido, training, he called it."

    "Satisfying his lusts, more like it," Cologne cackled
derisively at the two men and their master.

    Ranma looked around, intense boredom and ennui radiating from
his features. This was something they could accept from him, a
reaction they could deal with. "It hasn't changed, has it?" Ranma's
voice had a curious hollowness to it, as if he spoke from far away.
"Nothing has changed at all."

    "You've changed," Cologne crooned. 

    "True," Ranma mused. "But it seems nothing and no one else has.
They're still... still...."

    "Yes," Cologne whispered to Ranma. "Why do you think we came
back?"

    "What are you two talking about?" Akane asked. Something
happened between them when those two were gone. Was Cologne
plotting to get Ranma together with Shampoo again? Well, she would
put a stop to that.

    "Aiyah!" Shampoo burbled happily. "Ranma and great-grandmama
get along good now! We get married, yes?"

    "No," Cologne said. "That particular agreement is void and
null. Your Kiss of Marriage to him has been retracted, rendered
invalid, over and done with."

    "What?" Shampoo asked, her world crumbling around her. "How--?"

    Cologne's answer was a piece of paper which she gave to
Shampoo. Shampoo held the paper with uncertain hands as she read
it, once, twice, three times to make sure it was real and true and
not some mistake. She looked up once at Ranma's emotionless face
for confirmation, which she received. Bursting into tears, Shampoo
left. Those who watched Shampoo leave noticed she walked with an
injury of some sort, as if something was broken and she did not
know what it was.

    "Well, what was it?" Nabiki demanded, never liking to be kept
in the dark about anything.

    "An exception," Ranma breathed out, "was made for me.
Extenuating circumstances."

    "How? Why?" Nabiki asked, hoping to clarify the vague answer.

    "In exchange for services rendered, you might say, Nabiki."

    Nabiki merely cocked an eyebrow. Akane was starting to think of
what the services might have been, and was none too pleased at what
she came up with. Before she could act on it though, Ranma
continued.

    "I agreed to be train under Cologne. Just training, nothing
more."

    Cologne confirmed it when everyone's gaze turned to her. "It is
every teacher's dream to find as apt a pupil as Ranma. I knew I had
to make him mine-- student, that is." Cologne laughed at her little
joke.


VI


    "We'll begin your training with lessons in involuntary muscle
control, Ranma," Cologne lectured absently, hopping around Ranma so
that her voice came from all directions. "This will have the
obvious effect of greater control of your body among other things.
You will find that much of your training will carry over into other
areas of your life since most of it will have a strong mental
component."

    Ranma nodded.

    "Good. Now first try to slow your heart down. Picture it in
your mind, pulsing regularly, pumping out life and energy to your
body. Let it rest and...." Cologne's voice droned on, calmly,
patiently, making it easier for Ranma to consciously slow his heart
rate down.

Thus the training began.


VII


    The party celebrating Ranma's return was strange, at least by
Nerima standards. Unusual because while there was a tension in the
air (considering the love geometric shapes which usually were
present at such gatherings, this is to be expected), nothing was
acted upon. An almost dreadful waiting hang over the event, which
cast a pall over the celebrations. Genma and Soun dealt with it by
trying to get extra drunk, while Nodoka and Kasumi kept them
well-supplied with alcohol. Ranma and Cologne were in close
conversation-- what they were saying was not known, nor was it
particularly wished to be known... at least not enough to actually
go up to them and ask.
    Ryouga was there, so was Ukyo, as were the Kuno siblings. Even
Ninomiya Hinako was there, although no one was really sure why.
Shampoo was not, for rather obvious reasons, although Mousse was,
oscillating between hatred (Shampoo's feeling bad) and elation
(Ranma and Shampoo would never be an item). Almost everyone Ranma
knew and saw on an at least semi-regular basis when he was in
Nerima was there, students of Furinkan (even Principal Kuno, who
was busy trying to give new arrivals to the party a hair-cut).
    Ranma had always been aloof, always a little arrogant and
disdainful of everyone else's abilities, and Akane had had enough
of it. She was about to ask him what the hell he was doing when
Genma and Soun staggered towards Ranma, each supporting the other
as they moved with drunkenly ecstatic grins plastered over their
faces.

    "Ranma!" the two drunken middle-aged martial arts masters said
in unison. "Now you can marry Akane like you promised!"

    The response from Ranma was quiet, yet it was heard across all
the raucous noise of the party, heard through the alcohol-filled
haze the two fathers had surrounded themselves in. "No," Ranma
said, absolute finality in his voice.

    Akane grew furious. The fathers grew confused. Ukyo, and one or
two others perhaps, grew happy. Akane stormed over towards Ranma
with a glass of cold water in her hand. She splashed Ranma with the
contents once he was in range. Ranma looked at Akane, dispassionate
expression still on his face; something about it made him look like
a scientist examining an insect. 

    "Ranma!" Akane spat out furiously.

    "You have not changed one bit, Akane," Ranma stated. "Do you
even want to make the pretense of hearing an explanation?"

    At this point people noticed something different, or rather,
that something was not different-- specifically, Ranma. He still
was... a he that is.

    "Are you cured?" "Spring of Drowned Man?" "Did you bring any
back with you?" the questions immediately flew at Ranma, from some
more coherently than others.

    "No, to all of them. Jusenkyo is still within me; I merely
decided not to let it activate at this time." Ranma laughed, cold
and hollow and empty, without any life or any emotion in it. "Why
are you surprised? You should not be-- after all, I left to train,
did I not?"

    Akane had unconsciously raised her hand, balled into a fist.
Ranma noticed it, however.

    "Be warned, Akane. I am not the same Ranma. I will not allow
you to hit me, so I suggest you put your hand down."

    Akane looked at her arm in confusion, at that moment realising
where it was, and what it looked like it was about to do.

    Ryouga and Tatewaki snarled, they would not stand idly by while
someone, especially Ranma, threatened Akane. Even though Ryouga had
Akari, even though Akari was in fact at the party (indeed, she
guided Ryouga there), he would not stand for it, not from Ranma,
not now, not ever. Akane was... something more than a friend and
less than a lover. They leapt for Ranma as one, ready to pulverise
him into the ground, and if he thought they slackened their
training one iota even though Ranma was gone he would be sorely
mistaken. A grin burned onto their faces as they imagined what
would happen to Ranma.
    A grin which proved to be premature at best. Ranma held the two
of them in front of him by their wrists; Ryouga on Ranma's left and
Tatewaki on his right. They were kneeling before him. No one had
seen Ranma move. One moment Ryouga and Tatewaki were almost flying
at Ranma with their desire to punish him, and the next they were
kneeling in front of him. Ryouga and Ranma did not even register
what had happened and still had the grin on their faces; Ranma's
face betrayed nothing.

    The two would-be attackers realised their predicament and tried
to stand-- they found they could not. They were trapped, paralysed
by Ranma's hold on their wrists. "K-K-kuh-cold," Tatewaki managed
to stammer out.

    Ryouga, who had greater conditioning against the elements and
did not really notice such things as much, found himself wondering
at the icy grip Ranma had on him wrist.

    "Two against one. Hardly fair. Especially without a challenge
or a warning. So much for your much vaunted honour." Ranma paused,
then started again. "Fortunately I am more than sufficient."

    The rest of the party-goers were too much in shock to be
outraged. The rest, that is, except for an eagerly chortling
Cologne.

    Ranma spoke again, still holding Ryouga and Kuno. "I was
talking about the engagement situation before I was rudely
interrupted," he said mildly, perfectly objective. "I believe the
engagement was myself and a Tendo daughter, not necessarily Akane,
yes?" Ranma looked at the two patriarchs who nodded dumbly. "At our
first meeting, I was offered a choice-- a choice I never really got
a chance to make." Ranma was about to wave his hand to brush off
this fact, but noticed there was a Kuno still being held by it. He
sighed and made a slight motion with his wrists. Ryouga and
Tatewaki were embedded in the far wall.
    "This is beside the point though. I am just pointing out a flaw
in the reasoning that I must marry Akane. I do not, for this and
other reasons." Ranma did wave his hand dismissively this time.

    Ukyo squealed with glee. "That means you're mine, Ran-chan!"
she burst out joyously and ran towards her husband-to-be.

    "Whatever gave you that idea?" Ranma said dispassionately,
stopping Ukyo's rush with the tone of his voice and the look in his
eyes. "You are just chasing after your childhood dreams of marrying
a young boy that I doubt I ever was, and certainly am not now.
    "This brings me to the real reason I am not bound to marry. We
have two engagement agreements for me made by my father: one to a
Tendo daughter, made sometime before my birth, presumably, and the
other to Ukyo. The agreement concerning Ukyo could be said to
supercede the Tendo daughter agreement because it was made after
Genma had made the Tendo arrangement, meaning that he would have to
nullify the first one. This is backed up by taking the proffered
dowry-- the engagement cart. Indeed, when Ukyo appeared in Nerima,
my father introduced her as my fianc�e.
    "Still, my father has also made it very certain that the
engagement to a Tendo daughter is very real-- specifically to
Akane, time and time again."

    Ranma folded his arms behind his back and started to pace. His
tone, while still emotionless, took on a somewhat patronising and
lecturing tone. "'How can this be?' you might ask. How can these
engagements, promises to marry, possibly co-exist? Since polygamy
is not recognised as being legal, they cannot. Ergo the two cancel
each other out." Ranma shrugged and stopped his pacing.
    "Take it up with Genma, if you wish. It is of no concern of
mine."

    Soun was ready to go demon-head. In fact, he had started to
manifest the hellish aura. Ukyo, it looked like, was well on her
way to being the first person to ever duplicate Soun's attack. A
somewhat similar reaction was coming from most of the fighters in
the room. Ryouga and Tatewaki certainly wanted some payback, at the
very least-- Mousse on basic principle (he made Shampoo cry!) and
the others? They had their reasons.
    Cologne did not join in, obviously. The regular students of
Furinkan did not join in either. Most of them had the good sense to
leave the area long since then. Kodachi was not there anymore,
either. She had left, actually correct in her assessment that,
"this was not the Ranma (she) fell in love with."

    They rushed Ranma at the same time, unconsciously trying to
overwhelm him with their numbers. Soun and Ukyo used demon-head
auras (while at the same time Ukyo attacked with her spatula).
Genma stuck with a tried and true flying kick. Mousse went to
incapacitate Ranma by binding him in chains. Tatewaki attacked with
his bokken while his father used shears. Ryouga used his umbrella,
to keep Ranma from being able to grab him-- Ryouga had managed to
duplicate Tatewaki's quick multiple strike attack with his umbrella
and was trying it out against Ranma. Akane, however was closest,
and she merely picked up the closest heavy blunt object she could
find (the table the punchbowl was sitting on) and tried to bash
Ranma into the ground with it, something which always worked.
    So what happened? Ranma spun around and grabbed Akane and flung
her in the path of Mousse's chains, which wrapped themselves around
her. The table kept on going and hit Mousse in the face,
incapacitating him. This also had the effect of evading Genma's
kick, which instead hit Principal Kuno in the face, knocking him
out. Genma was smashed by Ukyo's spatula. Three down, one injured,
and Ranma was no longer in the path of anyone's attack.
    Ranma skipped to his left with deliberate slowness, circling
around to Tatewaki's unprotected right side (Ryouga being on his
left side) and jabbed him in the floating ribs, once, twice, thrice
in less than a blink of an eye. A breaking sound could be heard as
several bones broke. Tatewaki groaned and fell, but not before
Ranma snap-kicked the bokken out of his opponent's hands and sent
it flying into Ukyo's spatula, pinning the weapon against the wall
and ruining both the bokken and the spatula. Genma, who was still
behind the spatula when the bokken hit, was also incapacitated. Two
more opponents unfit to fight, and one more had her fighting
capabilities significantly reduced. Steel showed more feeling than
Ranma's face did.
    By this time Ryouga had managed to note that Ranma was no
longer in the same spot and spun around to alter his attack. The
spin was met with Ranma's foot, who timed his spin-kick to connect
with Ryouga's face. A crunching sound and blood indicated a broken
nose, but Ryouga would not be dissuaded by that. Ukyo came to
Ryouga's rescue, throwing a series of spatulas at Ranma's back.
Ranma side-stepped them though, and they cut deeply into Ryouga
instead, minus two which hit his umbrella. 
    Soun's demon head attack vanished as soon as Ranma looked his
way. The heat fizzled and died from the ice-cold look Soun received
from Ranma. Before Soun could figure out what had happened, Ranma
was in front of him, was grabbing his gi, was tossing him into the
air owards Ukyo, who was not able to react in time. The rest of the
attackers had been dealt with-- Ranma's breathing was even and
controlled, it had not changed in the slightest.

    Ninomiya Hinako was quite willing to let things happen until
Ranma attacked her Soun Tendo. The delinquent had to pay. She
pulled out a five yen coin and started her attack.
"Happo-go-en-satsu!" she cried as she made the appropriate
gestures.

    Ranma looked at her, and almost, only a perhaps of a perhaps,
there was a nearly bemused expression on his face instead of the
terrible void which so far had reigned. The flow of ki began as it
should, from Ranma to Ninomiya, but then before it could actually
reach her it abruptly reversed direction and went back into Ranma.
Even worse: he was now taking her ki. "Surely you should have
expected that I would have gained more control over my ki while I
was training and not just the more physical aspects," his voice the
dead of winter.

    The would be attackers lay on the ground, groaning or
unconscious. None of them had even managed to lay a finger on
Ranma. "You should be prepared for retaliation when you attack
someone. This was not necessary." Ranma paused. "You are weak, all
of you-- letting your hormones and your feelings and your pride and
your emotions rule you. Weak." 

    "Am I weak, Ranma?" asked a new voice near the entrance.

    "Happousai," Cologne crooned, savouring the sensation. Her face
was ecstatic. "Since we came back, I've been looking for you, I've
been waiting." Such longing in her sing-song words was a marked
contrast to the expression on her face. "He's mine, Happi, mine!"

    "I thought as much," Happousai snarled. "That's why I brought
these." Happousai pulled out a couple of items of lingerie and
brought it to his face, caressing the silken items lovingly.
"Better. I needed that!" he exclaimed joyfully.

    "Ranma!" Cologne snapped. "This is it! This is the real reason
we came back, for you to prove that our way is the better way, that
we are the stronger style!"

    Ranma looked at her and nodded like an automaton.

    Happousai crooked his head to a side and looked at Ranma oddly.
"I hoped this wouldn't be necessary, boy. Would you believe me if I
said that I actually liked you, before? I has such high hopes for
you as my successor."

    "It does not matter either way whether you liked me or not.
Shall we begin?"

    "I wish there was another way," Happousai said, his usual
demeanor gone.

    "There is. Admit you're wrong. Admit I'm stronger."

    Happousai laughed and shook his head. "Can't do that, Ranma.
Just wouldn't be right. Besides, Cologne wants this so much and we
wouldn't want to disappoint her, right?" They both looked at the
eager Cologne who just nodded vigourously.

    The battle was disappointing to an outside observer. There were
no moves, no flaring auras or attacks. Ranma and Happousai slowly,
gingerly walked towards each other. This was not a physical battle,
nor even a mental one. The two martial artists pitted their
essences against each other, their essential being-- a struggle
only one other person in the room could perhaps comprehend. To
most, it looked like they were just staring at each other:
Happousai with a lecherous half-grin on his face and Ranma with his
awful nothing nothing nothing.
    To those in the know, it was the most extreme and skilled of
battles, one which could only occur between such skilled opponents.
Happousai's passions burned against Ranma's ice like wildfire,
trying to melt Ranma with his heat. Ranma was a glacier: patient,
powerful, able to withstand the test of time and deceptively fast
when it needed to be. 
    They were beyond tactics, beyond strategy. They fought without
any constraints, not bound by physical, moral or ethical laws,
oblivious to everything and everyone else. Happousai's
conflagration and Ranma's winter. 
    In the end, for the fight, like everything else, could not go
on forever, there was a winner. Happousai's heat was brave,
Happousai's heat was valiant, but in the end it burnt itself out
against the glacial order of Ranma. Happousai gasped and slumped to
the ground bonelessly, broken and discarded.

    Cologne crowed with joy. "You did it Ranma, you did it!" she
sang savagely and began to dance. "Our way is stronger! We are done
here, now!"

    Ranma slowly turned his head, taking generations to do so, and
fixed his implacable gaze on Cologne. "Our way?"

    Cologne stopped dancing. "Yes, our way. Now, let us leave
here," she sounded a little annoyed as she stretched out a
desiccated arm towards Ranma.

    Ranma shook his head. "Not our way. My way. You are corrupt,
Cologne. This world still has a hold on you," he said, each word
pronouncing doom. "You are still a slave to your desires and
emotions. Weak." This time it was Ranma who stretched out a hand to
her. "You are better than them, though, and you did teach me. It
may be possible to expunge this flaw from you. Will you accept my
offer?"

    Cologne was livid. "Boy, I've been around for a far longer time
than you! Anything you know that's worth knowing came from me! Me!
and now you have the presumption, the _audacity_ to say that I am
flawed and that you will teach me?" the aged woman snarled. "I'll
show you why I am the teacher and you the student!"

    Cologne knew more than to merely leap at Ranma. She knew his
abilities and style intimately, having trained Ranma herself. This
was a different sort of battle than the others-- physical, yes, but
between two extremely skilled and powerful opponents who knew each
other perhaps better than lovers. It was a game of cat and mouse,
although who was the cat and who was the mouse had yet to be
determined.
    An hundred feints, a thousand deceptions; Ranma fell for none
of them. "Please, Cologne. You should know that I would not fall
for such obvious tactics. I was taught well."

    "You were taught by the best, Ranma," Cologne sneered, "and I'm
going to prove it to you now!"

    Cologne stabbed her finger at the ground, which erupted under
Ranma's feet, destabilising him momentarily. Cologne immediately
followed with her staff, sweeping it forward like a scythe, but
Ranma was no longer there. He stayed ahead of the staff's path and
caught Cologne with an open-palm strike just above her eyebrow.
    Whirling around, Ranma shifted away from Cologne's retaliatory
strike and hit the back of her skull with his hand, the spin adding
momentum and force to the blow. Cologne, to her credit remained
conscious, although she did go flying into a wall. Ranma was
already there, though, and Cologne was defenseless before his
onslaught. A quick series of very specific and precise jabs, and it
was over.

    "You will live, Cologne. I merely incapacitated you for a while
with those points. You are weak, like them." Ranma's hand swept
around him, indicating the other fallen martial artists. "Perhaps
there was a time when you were not, but that time has long passed.
The world has tainted you, corrupted you from the true path with
its desires and its emotions and its imperfections and chaos-- it
will not taint me. I will go now, leave this place and go to where
this corruption will not weaken me." Ranma turned to leave.

    "But what about the Art? Who will you pass it on to? You cannot
let it die!"

    "Why should I care?" Ranma asked, his voice as cold and remote
as where he was heading. "I do not need to pass the Art on, there
is no benefit to me in doing so. It is not my concern. I came back
here because I said I would rectify the perceived problem of the
engagements, and because you wished a confrontation with Happousai.
I had no reason not to come here, but I have sufficient reason to
leave now that this business is taken care of."

    Akane had managed to disentangle herself from Mousse's chains,
and the others had started to revive some time before, to witness
Ranma's battles. "But what about love?" she asked, one final plea
to find the old Ranma, the one everyone remembered.

    "It is not... necessary, to me. I am beyond the petty concerns
of humans, though still technically human. There is no reason for
me to love."

    "But what about raising a family? of teaching? of family and
friends and laughter?" Ukyo put in.

    "It does not signify. There is no reason for me to procreate,
no benefit to myself to participate in these actions. Continuation
of the species is irrelevant to me once I am gone, and what you
suggest would make me weak, like the rest of you." Ranma took one
more look at the people in the room. "Attempts to follow and attack
will be met with deadly force. I have no compunction against
killing. If, however, you wish to become strong and want me to
teach you, very well, I will. You must prove it though by finding
me."

    "Where will you go?" rasped Ryouga.

    "South, where it is cold." Ranma turned around and left.


VIII

















































IX


    Ranma lifted himself out of the waters and onto the ice shelf.
Antarctica was under the cloak of night, and would remain so for
several months. A small effort was all it took for Ranma to dry
himself, a brief thought and a pulse of ki. He did not feel the
cold, which could not ever hope to match the absoluteness of the
one inside of him. He made his way farther south, deeper and deeper
over the glacier, past all life and all human outposts. There came
a time when Ranma sat down cross-legged and tilted his head upwards
to look at the cold sky and the remote stars which populated it.
    Would any of them figure out what he meant by the "south, where
it is cold?" Would any of them want to come, even if they did
figure it out? It did not matter, Ranma was sufficient to deal with
the situation if they came or if they did not.


X



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                    --Soul of Ice: Thesis--


After fic type stuff:

Chapters VIII and X? Why, actually they _do_ have a purpose. Blame
it on reading "The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy" by Lawrence
Sterne. You can't help but be effed up by... I mean, affected by
that book. That's why I'm putting the preface here:



Preface:

    Yes, time again for one of what should be becoming infamous
preface's to my Soul of Ice stuff. Think of it as my author's
notes, I suppose. Feel free to ignore it as you would (or is that
'as you should?') my normal author's notes.

    There seems to be, in many circles, a direct relation between
purity and being good, that you have to be pure to be good. Purity
is seen as a desirable quality, in our culture and in others. The
question of purity, like the 'pure of heart' for example, is a
familiar theme in stories, whether from anime and manga or more
occidental sources. 
    Many acts of evil have been committed in the quest for purity;
Hitler was trying for purity, for instance.

    I ask you this: if purity is so good, so strong, then why is it
that we alloy metals to make them stronger, more flexible? Why do
mongrel dogs win in fights against purebreds? Why have hybrids if
purity is so much better? Why do we want things to be pure, why do
we desire purity, when it is the combination of different elements
which is more useful to us.

    Another question: can purity survive in an impure world? can
true perfection exist? and moreover, _would we want it to_?




Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
InDefinitelyso on IRC
See him on FFIRC [bachman.newberry.edu fanfic]
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
	maybeso@ican.net
Playing the fool in a foolish world
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Sheen watched his flight. "I forgot to mention the most
important thing," he murmured. "If there's one thing a mind
can't avoid, it is its automatic aversion to evil. The
moment he lets it into himself, he places his feet on the
road to demolition."
 		    -excerpt from A Billion Days of Earth
			by Doris Piserchia
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