There are only two issues here that I'm even going to touch, Nabiki and the
chest-nut fist.

First Nabiki.  I think the most overused convention that has nothing to back
it up is making Nabiki the local maffia leader, for lack of a better term.
Nabiki is a swindler.  If any of you have read the "Great Brain" books you'll
probably connect Nabiki with the Great Brain.  The Great Brain was a very
intellegent kid who lived in a small town in Utah and used his smarts to get
money.  He did not have people owing him favors or people working for him and
unless I'm seriously mistaken (in which case I'm probably going to be hearing
a lot of flames) neither does Nabiki!

On to the Chestnut Fist.  Ranma learns the technique Chestnuts Roasting on an
Open Fire from Cologne.  All this technique did for Ranma was give him
incredible speed, agility, and dexterity with his hands.  Once Ranma mastered
this he simply has the ability to move his arms and hands faster.  While
fighting Ryoga Ranma realized that he could use that increased speed to
through punches even faster than he had been previously able to.  He doesn't
magically gain the abiltity to throw faster punches by shouting out the name
of an attack.  If he's fighting he simply has the ability to move his arms
faster than he could before, so if he's holding back he just doesn't use his
full speed.  When he isn't holding back (ie. in a really tough fight or he's
really ticked off) it is safe to assume he's using his full speed or close to
it even if he doesn't shout out the name.

DreAshaman