Another fun chapter. :) This fic is one of the very few in recent months
that I actually look forward to seeing in my box... Ranmafic that don't
rehash a done-to-death plot or concept are all too rare, and seldom as
well executed as this.

Interesting speculation on the mind effects of the curses, although one
which does smack slightly of rationalization. Then again, since it's Ukyou
who's guessing at it and not the author, that's not necessarily a bad
thing.

My two pfennigs on the Ranma situation: he's an utter jerk in this
chapter, and completely IC. Ranma's a nice guy and a pretty generous soul,
but he's also arrogant, inept at interpersonal relationships, and often
displays a bit of a verbal cruel streak. Not really surprising; this _is_
someone raised almost completely by Genma, after all. Verbally cutting
down people you care about is second nature to him.

Ranma's 'training' is interesting and alarming... 'Relentless' and IMBS
ran on parallel tracks in a lot of areas (Akane's training, etc) and I'll
be curious to see how close a match this is to the scrapped Nekoshiken
concept that never made the final cut of Ill Met. ;)

A final thought on the Reikoku, and how one might defeat it...

----------


	The Reikoku gave a noiseless snarl. Black-roded arms raised to
rend, it advanced on the group of young martial artists.

	They had defeated it once. None of them possessed the
newly-acquired skill to take it on a second time. It knew their
techniques, their strengths, their weaknesses, their...

	*WHOOOSH*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

	"Got it."

	"The bits are crawling back together, Ranchan."

	"Right, run for it! And try to think of something to stop it now
that it's learned to adapt to anti-tank rockets."


-ML