Content disclaimer: if you've been reading along with us, you know that
IMBS has mature themes, violence, and isn't exactly a waffy love-fest.
Well, more of the same in this part. So if that sort of thing puts you
off, you've been warned.

Really?  Well, it's a love fest of sorts this time around, but...

	Ranma smiled reassuringly at Kasumi, and stepped 
forward. "Don't worry, Kasumi-san. I'm very good with 
dislocations." His hand gently closed over hers. "This will hurt. 
Go ahead and yell if you like. Try not to move too much."

	"Akane... Akane, let go, please Akane..."

	She squeezed her older sister, tightening her grip as she 
did so. "It'll be over in just a second, Kasumi."

	Ranma's hand closed.

	A low moan rose in Kasumi's throat. Carefully, the 
redhead's hand moved along the injured finger, pushing, 
tugging, feeling for position. The moan spiked into short yelps 
of pain.

	"Hold her," Ranma said quietly. Akane's grip tightened 
further, and she braced herself.

	"No... no..."

	A hideous grating sound, bone sliding against bone, and 
suddenly Kasumi was screaming and struggling, fighting her 
sister's grip. Akane bit her lip and held on, trying to keep 
Kasumi from moving too much.

	There was a sickening pop, and Kasumi went limp.

I love the long build-up to this.  Really agonizing.  So, was Ranma
drawing it out on purpose, just 'cause he likes this sort of thing?
A good doctor will distract you and then do the painful thing before
you know it, so you don't have the chance to get all worked up 
about it.  Ranma's no doctor, but he's quite astute.  Hmm...

	A low whimper came from her sister's throat, and Akane 

felt a bit of moisture form along the edge of one eye. "We're 

Extra line break.

	Swing. Concentrate. Concentrate on the huge, massive 
piece of stone flying towards you, the one that's going to 
smash into you with incredible force and splatter you all over 
the ground, the one every instinct you possess is screaming at 
you to run away from....

No, see, the way it would work is that she'd get knocked cold,
then Tofu would give her some pads and stuff, and... uh, never
mind.  

	Blackness.

	Wake up. Take the cup of water and advice Shan Pu offers 
you. Feel the rain drip down your forehead and into your eyes, 
feel the blood from the jagged cut on your scalp do the same.

It's raining?  Wouldn't that cause problems for Shan Pu?

	"I'm the worst cook in the world," Akane burst out, 
depression oozing from every pore. "I was trying to make 

Oh, you should visit Graviton City, Akane.  You'd feel much
better.

	"I'm going to seal things between us by the end of the 
week. I've been looking forward to it."

	"I can imagine," she said, trying to analyze where the 
vague sense of wrongness she felt was coming from.

"Seal things."  What an ominous way to put it...

	Item: The technique was performed by striking at the 
breaking point with an outstretched finger.

	Item: The point struck was too small for the finger to 
actually hit it.

	Item: The point was located by using one's ki to perceive 
the fabric and connection of things.

	Assumption: Something must be striking the breaking 
point.

	Assumption: That something is both precise enough to hit 
the point, and unable to be seen.

Grr.  The idea that Akane would have to think through what Ryouga
achieved on instinct occurred to me as well, oddly enough.  Oh 
well.  

	The two of them struggled down the rock tower, the wind 
and rain lashing at them with ever-mounting force. The sky 
was almost black now, and the waves churned and frothed with 
a violence that began to frighten Ukyou.

You would think this would remind Ukyou of her own training
against the raging sea...

	She would leave Nerima today. For a long, long time. This part of
her life was over. She had passed a threshold, and now 
her fate and Ranma's were irrevocably joined. They would 
stand or fall together, for the rest of their lives.

However long THOSE last... 


And so we approach the final chapter of "Ill Met By Starlight."
I am constantly impressed by how deftly you have played
the tension and mystery in this story, down to the very last
moment.  You've even got it to the point where it ends on the
thirteenth chapter.  Very sly.

I, for one, am very interested to see how it all turns out...

Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless