I'm not sure if this got through the first time, so I'm trying again.

=====

Gratuitous Self 
Part 7: Kuno-chan ga yatte kuru (Kuno-chan is coming around)


	Takezo, after struggling through his finals, finally returned to the
restored list, only to have it nearly split before his eyes. Quickly
deleting all the messages related to the topic, (all 300 of them) he
immediately went to the other stuff.
	"So," he said, "the Scriviner's working on another story idea. 'Bubble
Gundam'. O-kay…"
	"What? 'Logs in Love' is delayed? And I was looking forward to it. I even
have a slogan for the darn thing that I was going to give Keener… 'Logs in
Love… where the line 'Here we come' takes a whole new meaning!'"
	"'Space Quest for Glory W: So you want to be like Heero.' Huh?"
	"What?! Kojiro is High Commander?! No way!" He mused on this for a while,
then… "Oh well," he finally said, "he can't be any worse than Templar,
that's for sure. Speaking of Templar… I wonder how the little bugger's doing?"


	[…Damn you Kojiro. Damn you Takezo. I will have my revenge upon you, and
you will suffer for this treason!!!]


	Somewhere, Kojiro Sasaki, High Commander of the Holy Crusaders of Nabiki
Tendo, sneezed.



	Takezo was wondering which of the proposed five lists he would subscribe
to. "I mean," he said to himself, "I definitely will sub to the Ranma Fic
list. Maybe the Sailor Moon list. The 'Other' list… definitely. Now, do I
subscribe to the Discussion list? I mean, they're bound to discuss fics on
that one. Or is it off-topic discussion? Wait, no, that's the Spam list.
Then again, won't threads on the Discussion list degenerate? When is it time
to carry over a thread on the discussion list over to the spam list? Does
C&C for a Ranma fic belong to the Ranma or Discussion list? How does a
person subbed to only the discussion list follow a thread if it is ported
over to the Spam list? If my fic is a crossover of Ranma, Sailor Moon, and
Oh My Goddess!, do I post it on three lists? If not, how will the other
lists get a hold of my fic? And since C&C is not off-topic, and may be
posted on the fic lists, can it be posted on four? If the thread
degenerates, will it be posted on all five, including the Spam list? What's
to prevent me from getting a post five times? Why is the world round? Why
did the chicken cross the road?

	But before any resolution could be brought to the split issue, the list
crashed.
	"Oh, well," he said to himself as he looked at all of 10 new messages reach
him, most of them from the Ronin list, "at least it gives me time to write
part 6 of Turning Road, I guess… "

	Bob and Takezo met at the local gyudon place, as usual.
	"Is this it?" Bob asked while Takezo handed him a manuscript.
	"Yeah," Takezo said. "Give it a thorough roasting so I can improve it
before I post it."
	"Okay. You asked for it," Bob said as he put on his glasses and begun to
read, taking the cap off his red pen.

=====	

Turning Road 
Part 6: A Smack on the Head is Worth…


	Sandwich in mouth, bag under arm, and top partially buttoned, Takezo ran
out of Ryo Kurin Ryo and headed straight for Furinkan. "Damn it, damn it,
damn it! I overslept!"
	Kojiro had already left, earlier that morning. "That's because it was HIS
snoring that kept me awake all night!" Takezo said aloud. That and thinking
of Nabiki and Ukyo, he added silently.
	What is this… predicament? I mean, Ukyo's a friend, right? So why…? And I'm
only supposed to get even with Nabiki, right? So why can't I, for the life
of me, bring myself to do so? And what's this about my plan working? What
was Ukyo talking about?
	Takezo had not spoken to either Ukyo and Nabiki the whole weekend. Frankly,
he couldn't bear to see the look of triumph he imagined would be on Nabiki's
face. And Ukyo… What was with that girl? What was with ME, for that matter.
What was she talking about? What plan? What acting?
	He bumped into something. Someone. Well, that woke him up.
	The figure in the ponytail and blue boy's uniform shouted "Hey!"
	"So sorry… Eh?" Takezo stared in surprise. "U… Ukyo?"
	"Ta… Takezo."
	They stared at each other and at the ground for a while.
	Then a smack behind the head woke Takezo from his reverie. "Hey," an
all-too familiar voice said. "If you don't get in now, Mr. Loverboy," Nabiki
said as she ran for the front door of the school just as the bell rang,
"you'll be carrying pails of water out in the hallway again."
	Damn that woman! "Uh," Takezo finally said to Ukyo after Nabiki had
entered, "I guess we'd better get going, huh?"
	"Yeah… I guess so… "

	"Poor Takezo," whispered Kojiro to Nabiki from inside the classroom. "I
wonder what kept him up all night. He was still asleep when I left Ryo Kurin
Ryo, you see."
	He was up all night? Why? Did he…? No! He couldn't have! "Uh,  Kojiro,"
Nabiki whispered back, "where was he all night? Did he leave the room? Was
he on a date?"
	Kojiro blinked. "Why? What do you mean?"
	"I mean why was he up all night? Did someone keep him up all night? Er, I
mean, uh…"
	Kojiro frowned slightly. "I don't see what you're trying to get at. He was
in the room all night, although he said, just before I dozed off, that he
couldn't get any sleep. Not last night, and not the night before."
	Nabiki breathed a sigh of relief, although why she did was lost on her.
"Oh," she said, "I was just asking." She turned to look at the window to the
hallway. It was closed, but she could just make out an outline…
	Idiot, thought Nabiki. Why am I wasting my time on him?

	Takezo stood in the hallway, grumbling. Not due to the weight of the pails
of water, though, which he was carrying with ease. It was more of the 'damn
that woman damn that Kojiro'-type grumbling.
	A 'klong' down the hall made him turn. It was Ukyo, walking down the hall
back to her classroom, carrying a pair of buckets, like himself. One of them
had hit the wall, and she was in the process of trying to keep all the water in.
	Takezo chuckled softly as he watched. Suddenly, Ukyo turned to him and
smiled, reddening slightly. He smiled back at her, mouthing the words,
'Sorry, was I staring?'.

=====

	Bob looked away from the manuscript, smiling in spite of himself.
	"What is it?" asked Takezo through a mouthful of rice and beef and vegetables…
	"It's nothing," Bob replied. He looked at Takezo and said, "You know, it's
generally considered bad manners to talk while your mouth is full…"

=====


	Kuno, also with two pails, was running in the other direction Ukyo was going.
Why?
	Because for some freak accident (or normal occurrence, depending on how
jaded you are about Nerima and Furinkan in general), Ranma was ALSO out in
the hallways, carrying a pair of buckets filled with water.
	"You shall not evade me much longer, Saotome! I shall smite thee!"
	"You know, you've been saying that to me for what, months? Years? Aw, heck,
it's been so long, I don't remember anymore!"
	Either that or it was just your normal anime timestream at work.

=====

	"Normal Anime Timestream? What's the heck does that mean?"
	"You know, like in that fic by Switch." Clearing his throat, he 'quoted'
(at least, as close as he could possibly remember) from the fanfic.  'Nerima
is one of those odd patches of land on the face of the Earth where 8 years
worth of seasons pass in one year'."
	"Oh. Yeah. That."

=====

	The window to the hallway had now opened, and the usual gang of spectators
were now watching the events transpiring at one of Japan's busiest hallways.
	Nabiki sighed. "And Kuno and Ranma are at it again."
	Kojiro asked Nabiki, "Is it ALWAYS like this here?"
	"Oh, yeah. Ever since Ranma came to town."

	Kuno dropped the pails and drew his sword. "Make your necessary
preparations for death, Saotome!" Saying this, he charged at Ranma,
swordpoint forward.

	Takezo raised his own pails to avoid getting them hit by Kuno's. "Hey watch
it!"
	KLONG!
He felt one of them hit something. Or someone. A head, probably. With a loud
'klong' and a splash.
Nabiki smirked. "Kuno falls again."

And, as usual, Ranma had fled. In fact, shouts of 'Musabetsu Kakuto
Saotome-ryu Saishu no Kogeki!' rang throughout the hallway.

"Kuno! Kuno! You okay down there buddy?" Takezo tried to wake Kuno up, and
Kuno began to stir.
"Uh…" Kuno sat up and rubbed the part of his head where the pail hit him.
"Hey, I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to hit you like that. It was an accident."
Kuno fixed him with a sharp gaze, which involuntarily made Takezo swallow.
Then Kuno simply shrugged, picked up his sword and his now-empty pails,  and
started walking down the hall. "Hey," he finally said, back turned to
everyone, "it happens. Don't worry about it."

	Nabiki, Takezo, Ukyo and the rest stared after Kuno. Takezo then turned to
Nabiki, who turned to him, too. Both of them had the 'freaked-out'
expression on their faces.
The sound of a temple bell droned throughout the hallway.
Kojiro asked, "Why? What's going on?"

=====

	"Whoa," Bob said. "This is creepy."
	"You think so?" Takezo said, cracking his knuckles to loosen them up. "Read
on."

=====

	Lunch arrived.
	Takezo was having lunch alone, under a tree next in the field next to
Furinkan. He absently chewed the katsu-sando he had obtained from the
cafeteria. He took for granted how hard it was to get the damn things, since
all he needed to do was get to the cafeteria before anyone else did.
	And he always got there first.
	Of course, that's taking into consideration the fact that Ranma and Ukyo
always brought their own lunches.

	All of this never crossed Takezo's mind however.
	He was too busy watching Kuno.

	Nabiki wasn't paying attention to what her flunkies were saying. Friends,
she would say if anyone asked, and that's what they were, but to everyone
else, the way they sucked up to Nabiki said 'flunky' in big bold neon green
letters.
	Nabiki wasn't paying attention to what her friends were saying.
	She was too busy watching Kuno.


	Kuno was in the ordinary 'white polo black pants' uniform.
	He was talking to a group of girls sitting by one side of the wide-open field.
	They were smiling. Some were even giggling.


	 Nabiki and Takezo could only stare in shock.

	
	"You… you're kidding, right?" Ranma said in disbelief.
	"Nope," said Daisuke. "Kuno's undergone major personality change, man."
	"Yeah," added Hiroshi, "and you won't like what he's become."
	"This I gotta see." asked Ranma. "I mean, anything's gotta be better than
what he usually is."
	"Don't say we didn't warn you," said Daisuke.

	"You… You're kidding, right?" Akane said in disbelief.
	"No, I'm telling you," Yuka said, "Kuno's… different now."
	"Yes," Sayuri said, "and whatever's come over him is definitely an
improvement."
	"Really? I gotta see this for myself," said Akane.
	"What? You don't trust us?" said Yuka.

=====

	"Interesting device," said Bob.
	"Device?" asked Takezo, who was finishing off the last of his gyudon, "What
device?"
	"You know," Bob said, "this parallelism. You used it twice in this fic. In
fact, you use it a lot."
	"I did? Parallelism? What are you talking about?"
	Bob sighed. "Never mind. It must have just been a fluke."

=====

	Akane ran out the front door and nearly bumped into a tall young man in a
white and black school uniform…
	"Oh, Akane! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."
	Why did that voice sound so familiar? She looked up and found herself
face-to-face with Kuno Tatewaki. "Er, uh, that's okay, Kuno."
	"That's good… Say, where are you headed off to in such a hurry?"
	Akane couldn't get over it! It was like he was a whole different person!
"I, uh, well…"
	Kuno simply smiled at her in a way she had never seen him smile. It was a
simple smile, not self-indulgent or over-confident or… lecherous, like the
old ones, just… a simple smile. "Yes?"
	"Actually," she finally said, "I came to see you."

	Ducking to hide behind a tree lining the front path of the school, Takezo
bumped into something soft. "What the…?" Whatever, or whoever it was whose
back he had run into spun around angrily.
	"Hey, watch it!" Nabiki exclaimed.
	"Na… Nabiki!" Well, THIS was a surprise. "What're you --"
	"Shhh! Pipe down or you'll let them know we're here!"
	"Who are you talking about?" Takezo asked. "Kuno and Akane? I kn--"
	Nabiki put a finger to Takezo's lips and to her own as if to shush him, and
nodded. She then pointed up.
	Takezo was at first stunned by all of this (after all, that WAS Nabiki's
finger on his lips), but then, at Nabiki's insistence, he looked up…
	…and saw a very familiar red-shirted young man perched on one of the
branches,  watching Akane and Kuno.

	Hmph. What's she getting all nice and friendly with Kuno for. Look at them.
Smiling at each other. What's the big idea, anyway?
	Why should I even care what that tomboy does? She's uncute, she's unsexy,
she's got no taste in clothes, she…
	What're they saying? What's he telling her? I can barely make it out I… WHAT?!

	Nabiki clamped down on Takezo's mouth with her right hand as she put a
finger to her own. "Calm down!" she whispered.
	As soon as she took her hand away, Takezo whispered frantically, "He just
asked her out on a date! And she said yes!"
	"I know! I know! I'm in shock too, y'know!" Nabiki got this look on her
face, as if she was in deep thought but had her face running in the
direction she left it… Takezo could almost feel her thought processes fill
the air… 
	He felt Ranma jump off the branch, away from Kuno and Akane, fuming…
Suddenly, as suddenly as she had started thinking, she grinned at him and
said, "I know we're not supposed to be on the best of terms, but…"
	"But… What?" Takezo asked warily. He did NOT trust this girl.
	"How would you like to make some extra cash working for me?"

=====

	Bob blinked. "How many subplots are spinning through that head of yours,
Takezo?"
	"A dozen and a half. And only a select few make it into the final story."

=====

	"Did you hear, Ukyo?" Kojiro said through half a mouthful of okonomiyaki.
"Akane's actually going out on a date with Kuno!"
	"So I heard… Say, Kojiro, why aren't you with Nabiki?"
	"I dunno. She said she had something to do. And Takezo's missing, too."
	"Oh, really," she said as flatly as she could.
	"You sound like you had a fight with Takezo or something, Ukyo. Did you?"
Kojiro gave her that innocent look that annoyed the heck out of Takezo
whenever he used it.
	"No," she said. "We had nothing of the sort."
	"Really?" Those sparkles in his eyes were blinding her.
	"Really." Damn it. What was that woman's game?
	"I guess this is good for you, huh?" Kojiro quipped.
	"Is what good for me?" Ukyo asked.
	"That since Akane's going out on a date with Kuno, this leaves your fiancé
completely free."
	Ukyo stared at Kojiro. "You… you're right! I completely forgot! How could I
forget something like that?"
	"Well," Kojiro said, getting a sparkle of intelligence in his eyes amid
those sparkles of innocence, "I can think of a reason…"

	"Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Oh yeah?!"
	You like him better than me, is that it?
	"Is that so? IS THAT SO?!"
	Ranma ran to the top of the tallest building he could find and shouted at
the top of his lungs, "AKANE YOU DUMMY!!!"

=====
	
	Bob sighed as he handed back the manuscript to Takezo. "You're going to
post this no matter what I say, so why make me pre-read it at all?"
	"Because I value your opinion."
	"But you already know what I'm going to say."
	"What? That it's so blatantly self-glorifying? Tell me… If that detracted
from your enjoyment of the story, why are you waiting for part 7?"
	"Am not."
	"Riiight."


	High Commander Kojiro Sasaki turned on his mail client and sifted through
his mail.
	"Hmm. Spam should be limited. This list is now moderated. Sounds about
right to me."
	"'The Wizard of OZ', featuring Lt. Zechs. Strange.."
	 "Scriviner's '801 TTS Wing'. But I thought he was doing BubbleGundam."
	"'I am not a very nice person anymore.' What's this? A Rand al'Thor quote?
Oh, sorry. It's Tybalt. Hey. You're only doing your job. No need to apologize."
	"'Video Girl Aiyah,'. Where do these people come up with these ideas?"
	"Ah, here it is. 'Turning Road part 6'. Let's see what the devil has to say
today, shall we?"

	[Blasphemy! Blasphemy! I shall have my revenge on you, Takezo, for breaking
my life! And you Kojiro, for usurping the position that was granted me by
divine right!!!]

	
	"Well," Kojiro said, a strange smile on his face, "this would have angered
our former High Commander Templar to high heaven. So why is it I find myself
strangely amused by all of this? Am I being drawn to the Dark Side?"
	He chuckled. "Well, Templar, let's drive you out into the open, shall we?"


	"Hey, Takezo!" Bob waved to Takezo down the university walkway.
	"Bob!" Takezo slowed down his walk to let Bob catch up with him. "What's up?"
	"I just checked my e-mail. Kojiro actually sent constructive C&C to you
publicly, telling you to keep up the good work!"
	"That's strange," Takezo said as he continued walking.
	"That's all you have to say? That's strange? What about, 'The world is
going to end'?"
	"Bob, Bob, you know Kojiro's got something up his sleeve, otherwise he
wouldn't do something like this. Right now, he's weighing all the political
implications of every move he and I make, and is planning his next three moves."
	"And you?"
	"I just like to write."


In Part 8: Kuno and Akane's date! Nabiki and Takezo's plan! Ukyo and
Kojiro's counterplan! Kojiro and Templar's political maneuverings! Bob's and
Takezo's third bowl of gyudon!

Scorecard:
BubbleGundam: 3 pts.
Space Quest for Glory W: So you want to be like Heero : 2 pts for each game,
5 pts for the anime.
Logs in Love: 3 pts
List split: 1 pt
Ronin list: 5 pts for everyone on it.
Fic by Switch: 5 pts and Switch's gratitude for naming it.
"AKANE YOU DUMMY!": Name the episode where the scene comes from, get 5 pts.
"Wizard of OZ" : 5 pts.
"I am not a very nice person anymore": Name the book -- 3 pts; Reason why
Tybalt and line used in same breath - 5 pts; If you're Tybalt - pat on back,
we appreciate the job you're doing.
Video Girl Aiyah: Name the series and character - 5 pts
=====

"Put your money where your foot is!"

TimeRunner's Fics can be found at:

TimeRunner Central
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482