The Wheel of Fire, #32: Endless Tears

Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NYChotmail.com)
http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/ranma/ranff.html
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and characters belong to Rumiko
Takahashi. And all that other good stuff. Proper
licenses belong to respective properties and
characters. The manga has precedence over material in
the anime.
This file can be freely distributed so long as it
appears in its complete form and proper credit given.
No part may be reproduced for monetary gain without
permission from the author.

Fanart found:
  http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/fanart/index.html

------------------------------------------------

"No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent." -- Eleanor Roosevelt


"Ow!" the warden of the Wishbringer shrine muttered,
lifting up his left foot for his eyes to see. Reaching
down with two delicate fingers he pricked the caltrops
Kanna Rajura left behind from his foot, and tossed it
behind him into a garbage bin, along with the rest of
the caltrops that bit him.
Pulling his sandal back on the warden sat down
against the rock that held the Wishbringer in place,
having only recently been returned when Kanna used the
shrine grounds as her private minefield. While the girl
and the others left days ago it was still up to the
warden to clean up the mess-- especially since a lot
of the traps, set though they were, were littered all
over the place, providing many hazards.
His left foot alone had three punctures in it; four
counting the last caltrops.
"Dammit," he cursed, looking away from the rising
sun in the east, "where are the young'uns when you
need them?" He muttered to himself, complaining about
the lack of help he got early in the morning-- even if
it was only six.
His body fell cold as a shadow cast itself over him,
blocking out the sun above completely. Something behind
the shadow scraped at the stone ground, sounding like a
knife judging from the noise, but being swept from side
to side constantly. Looking up and over, the warden
screamed in terror at the single large, circular red
eye that stared down at him.
"SILENCE!" demanded Cinder with his cavernous,
mechanical voice. He grabbed the warden by the scruff
of his shirt with a mechanical claw, raising the frail
man off the ground with little effort.
The warden could not peel his eyes away from the
monstrosity. The creature appeared lizard-like, save
that, instead of scales his skin was made up of what
reminded him of obsidian; quite possibly a skin layer
of blackened ash. Clashing against the black hide was
a large, metal jaw, appearing quite heavy but clean as
stainless steel right out of the factory.
Cinder's entire limbs were made up of strong, pipe-
like mechanical limbs, each ending in a series of
sharp talons. The warden imagined that, without the
appendages, the monster would look quite like the
snake. Looking over Cinder's shoulder-- actually a
shoulder guard piece of it's upper-torso armor-- he
saw that two talons forked outward at the end of the
tail, giving semblence to a three-pronged trident
head.
"Here's what I want you to do, and you'll do it
quickly," demanded the salamander. "You're going to
give me your clothes."
When the warden shakingly pointed to himself, Cinder
snarled, "I DON'T want what you're wearing! The sight
of frail human bodies such as yours disgusts me!" He
threw the warden away, well outside what was left of
Kanna Rajura's caltrops field. "And it better be
CONCEALING!!"
The frightened man nodded quickly, bolting across the
courtyard toward the main structure of the shrine.
Cinder turned his attention away from the frail warden,
setting his sights on the garbage bin nearby. His
mechanical eye adjusted itself in focus, anticipating
the contents inside.
Just as he hoped, the bin was filled with garbage.
Here and there were bloodied caltrops, along with
several arrows, wooden spikes that once made up a
fence, metal bars, heavy rope, and any matter of
material Kanna Rajura left behind when she continued
her chase. While the trap equipment was spent and
discarded, the salamander had a further use for them.
He turned to look at his right side, where a patch
of ash skin was torn off during the previous match a
few days ago, bitten off by a good blow made by the
Kuno swordsman. While the wound hardly hurt Cinder in
the least, it would do no good to leave a weak spot,
not in such a critical area.
Cinder reached into the bin for the closest wooden
spike, lifting the shaft carefully. Holding it
lengthwise away from his snout, Cinder opened his jaw
and shoved it down his throat.
He heard the warden cry out in terror, but the
salamander ignored it, consuming the wood without
chewing once. Swallowing it whole Cinder plucked
another wood out of the bin, and consumed it in the
same manner as the first.
The master continued in this manner until he felt
himself rejuvenated. He looked down at his side; where
there was a hole before was now a fresh layer of ash.
He ran a talon over the newly grown skin, satisfied
that it would hold with the rest of his body.
Craning his reptilian head toward the warden, he
yelled impatiently, "Well?!"
The frail warden carried three bundles in his arms
as he made his way to the center of the courtyard,
careful not to step on another caltrops. He came to a
halt a few feet from the salamander, too terrified to
come any closer, and presented the clothing quietly.
Cinder grabbed the article of clothing on the top of
the pile, spreading it out in the morning air, knowing
it was a black traveling cloak. Although it was nowhere
near as good as his previous, thought-to-be fireproof
cloak, it would have to do. The other two articles
appeared to be a casual priest's robes, which would
have to do for the moment.
He donned the priest's clothes in no time, ignoring
the reactions of the warden. Pulling the cloak around
himself, Cinder ruffled and loosened the folds quickly,
and eyed the priest carefully. Mechanical eye rotating,
he warned, "If there come a viper after I have left,
you have not seen me."
The warden shook his head quickly. "N... no sir!"
Cinder pulled the hood of the cloak over his head,
allowing only the glow of his red eye to show through.
"I sincerely doubt that you can... such a persistent
opponent." Kicking several caltrops out of the way,
he added, softly "And... thank you."
Those two words seemed to catch the warden off-guard.
"W...what?"
"DON'T make me repeat my generosity!" railed the
salamander, turning on his heels. "I have business to
attend to, and you're not part of the day's agenda."
And yess... they may be long gone thanks to the
viper, he thought, but there is only one place they
could go to now. I'll have the Shadow Weaver in my
grasp in no time.
Pointing his palms toward the earth, Cinder took in
a deep breath, drawing in much of the reserves in the
spare oxygen tanks he hid before coming to the
shrine after Akane the first time. His palms flared to
life, as well as his heels, and soon Cinder was
rocketing in the air. He adjusted the direction of his
flight, pointing himself in a direction to the right of
the rising sun.
Cinder rocketed toward Tokyo, smoke trailing in the
sky behind.

Hidden in a forbidden edge of the Cistern Valley lay
the capitol of natural springs, Jusenkyo. Thousands of
cursed, magical springs dotted the enclosed valley
within a valley, providing a supernatural hazard to
those who lived nearby and those who dared to travel
there. It was up to the guide-- the warden of the
cursed springs-- to divert unsuspecting visitors from
tragedy.
However, the guide was in his own dire straights.
The Jusenkyo guide was not alone in his plight, as he
was not the only one that was tied up. Arranged in a
circle was Plum and thirteen others-- the former tribal
leaders that made up Cistern Valley's power base. Each
was similarly bound hand and foot; each was tied to a
single point at the center of the circle, which was the
bamboo pole jutting from the bottom of a Jusenkyo
spring.
Any regular bonds would have proven laughable to the
powerful tribal leaders, but their captor was already
ahead of them, using a simple bungee chord as the
material to bind them to the bamboo pole. If one of the
leaders was foolish enough to get up and run, the
chord would instantly pull him back and dunk him into
the pool.
Not that they could get up and run in the first
place, at any rate. Their feet were bound by a strong,
heavy rope, tied in an equally strong knot. While this
would be no small problem if one could reach their
hands to their feet, the bindings to their hands
proved a greater deterrent-- each of their index
fingers were stuck in a simple Chinese finger trap,
from which no hands could escape on their own. Likewise
the rope binding their arms prevented them from
slipping them off with their teeth.
In all, their captor, called Sypha Blade by all, had
thought very far ahead.
She paced slowly around the circle, passing springs
behind her back. Had anyone the nerve to try to shove
her into a pool, the could have done so, but in the end
it would be a useless gesture, as the tradeoff was a
curse of their own in the unknown spring. The regal
woman came to a halt in front of Herb, the leader of
the Musk Dynasty, a hungry look in her eyes.
Sypha produced her crystal orb, holding it close
enough for Herb to see there was a surface hole in it.
"Where is the Dragon's Tear?" she demanded.
The half-dragon warrior stared at the orb
impassively, appearing quite bored to her eyes. "You're
holding it right there."
Without warning the sorcerer slapped Herb across the
face with her free claw. "Still not talkative, eh?" She
slid Herb's head between two talons, threatening to
rip his head off. "I've run out of patience for your
arrogance, Prince Herb! You're going to give me the
answers I want, or I'll extract them from your bloody
corpse!"
"Perhaps it is because you're out of time!" she heard
Kima shout from across the spring.
Sypha released Herb, diverting her attentions to the
Regent Commander of the Phoenix Mountain tribe. She
made sure that the winged warrior was doubly bound, as,
in addition to binding her as well as the other tribal
leaders, Sypha broke her wings with the crush of her
claws. Although she knew Kima was in tremendous pain,
she was impressed that the regent wasn't showing it. If
her cub master saw her, he'd be impressed.
Quickly making her way to Kima's position, Sypha
produced a bucket of water out of nowhere, and splashed
her down. She, as well as the rest of the prisoners,
were unsurprised when the Regent Commander made her
cursed transformation.
"You," Sypha began, "I've found a usefulness for, at
last. I'm so glad I didn't kill you."
Although Kima's voice had changed with the
transformation, there was no doubt that it was the same
warrior. "Oh yeah?"
"A unique opportunity came up," the sorcerer
explained. "You see, an outsider arrived yesterday, and
I've had the chance to analyze him a bit-- from the
memories of the Amazon leader Shampoo. You see, this
boy, Ranma Saotome, has a certain attachment to you. At
least, the girl that you look like."
"Of course," Kima said, "Akane Tendo."
"Psychologically speaking, you're the perfect weapon,
and he'll never realize it until it's too late."

The night had not passed smoothly for Mousse, now the
leader of the Amazons.
Ever since Hokuto revealed Sypha's treachery under
Pantyhose Taro's nose Taro has opened up to reason.
While the outsiders and many of the warriors took their
turns to sleep Mousse spent much of the night in deep
negotiation with Pantyhose Taro, in order to resolve
the issues between them now that both of their tribes
were severely weakened though Sypha's work. Many times
the negotiation was about to come to blows, but in the
end Mousse and Taro both got what they wanted-- an
agreement not to attack each other for the time being.
Instinctively, as he leaned back in the straw chair,
drained of energy, he reached over to the table next
to him, which held a bubbling coffee maker with a fresh
pot. He wanted to savor the taste for as long as
possible-- which was likely when the two outsiders,
standing in front of him, would get impatient.
As he drained his seventh cup since the previous
night Mousse barely heard Ranma say, "Alright, explain
yourself."
Sitting straight up, Mousse leaned over and poured
himself another cup of coffee. "What about, Saotome?"
"You know," Ranma said impatiently. "You didn't turn
into a duck when the water splashed you last night."
"How do you know it wasn't warm water?" the Amazon
leader replied slowly. "For all you know Pantyhose Taro
was saving some for himself later."
"That may be so," Hokuto interrupted, "as that
appears to be what the water was initially for. But, as
Ranma says... you should've transformed into a duck. It
was not warm water."
"Hmph," snorted Mousse, taking a sip from his
eight cup slowly, realizing that the two outsiders were
not going to let him slide this one off. "Well, then,
I guess there's no use hiding it anymore."
"You got that right!" the Japanese martial artist
yelled, planting his hands on the arms of Mousse's
chair, staring down the Amazon leader. "I remember that
Ukyo said that Herb was no longer carrying a Jusenkyo
curse. I was going to come here and ask him... but you
turned out to be missing one, too!" Pressing his face
closer, he added, "And I bet Shampoo doesn't turn into
a cat anymore, does she?"
Mousse chuckled to himself, pushing Ranma back with
his free hand, setting down his coffee. "No, Shampoo
doesn't know about it yet; she's still cursed. She
hasn't had TIME to notice!"
"And I'm bettin' that whatever you did is the same
thing Herb did," Ranma said, pressing further. "You
didn't turn into a hybrid like Pantyhose Taro, or
Seiryu's goon squad."
"Maybe," conceded Mousse, "but really, I don't know.
Herb didn't tell me about it; I found out about it on
my own."
"Fascinating," commented Hokuto. "To be that Fate
would allow twice an instance to occur...."
"It happened not too long after Shampoo and I got
back home," Mousse began. "Cologne was the current war
head in the tribe, and Shampoo was quickly spirited to
her side, she being one of the tribe's finest warriors.
I never got to stand on the war councils; it seemed my
exploits went unrecognized, after all. But among the
younger warriors, I found admiration. They turned to me
for leadership, as I was the one connected directly to
them, unlike the elders."
"In effect, I, too, found leadership. It quickly
caught the attentions of the elders, and I was
immediately made a field commander with a small band of
young warriors. Needless to say, anyone who was picked
to be on my team was envied by the others. The stories
that Ling-ling and Lung-lung carried with them from
Japan seemed to bolster my image to ungodly proportions
which I couldn't possibly compare!"
"Only a day after that, after a skirmish, my team
ended up cornered against the Jusenkyo grounds. Our
only option was to retreat into the grounds, for our
enemies would not follow in fear of coming out cursed.
Once there, one of my warriors spotted a glint in one
of the pools. We carefully scooped it out with a
catching net, and it appeared to be some kind of
teardrop-shaped crystal. Naturally, they gave it to
me... but it was no ordinary rock."
"Something inside the rock... spoke to me in my
mind," he described, waving his arms around in a large
manner. "At that moment it told me what it was... it's
purpose... and how it could help me. It called itself
the Dragon's Tear, and it was an artifact of immense
power. It offered to remove my Jusenkyo curse... so
how could I refuse?"
"But the next thing I knew I was waking up back in my
own home, with all my warriors waiting around as if I'd
died. Well, it turned out that I'd collapsed after
taking hold of the Dragon's Tear, and they brought me
back to the village. I didn't know if I was dreaming or
not, but I had to test it out for myself...."
"So where's the Dragon's Tear?" demanded Ranma.
Mousse shook his head. "It must've fallen back into a
spring or something; I don't have it, and none of my
warriors brought it back with them. Either way, it's in
Jusenkyo."
"And it's likely what Sypha is after," Hokuto
guessed. "You knew."
The Amazon leader nodded. "That's the only thing I
can think of she'd be after that nobody else has. But
I'm not sure WHY she'd want it, unless it does more
than lift curses."
He reached for his cup of coffee and took a sip,
disappointed that it had cooled during his story. "If
you're thinking of going after Sypha Blade, Saotome,
then the best place to look is Jusenkyo."
"Oh, you're not comin' with me?" Ranma replied in
mock disappointment. "Don't want to press your luck?"
"That too," admitted Mousse. "But Sypha Blade is not
an opponent to be taken lightly; I could tell from our
brief battle last night that she is more than what she
appears. All the flair and fineries are an illusion to
hide her true inner beauty-- that of a warrior."
"I'll keep that in mind," the martial artist said,
shrugging. "But she can't be any worse than Pantyhose
Taro."
"I've got to stay and keep this tribe together,"
continued Mousse. "I'm the only one left that'll keep
this tribe held together, so if something happens to me
the Amazons are finished."
"So," he said, standing up, "if you find the old
ghoul, please bring her back in one piece."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "I guess you and the ghoul
have more in common than I thought."
"You'd best quit while you're ahead, Ranma," warned
Hokuto.
"Yeah, guess you're right," the martial artist
replied. "Well, Mousse... nice seein' ya."
Before he and Hokuto turned to leave, Mousse said,
"There's something else."
"Hmm?"
"Look up in the sky," he suggested, "and look at the
clouds."
Ranma did as he was told, quickly looking to get a
view. "So?"
"There are dark clouds in the east sky," Hokuto
noted. "It could be a bad portent."
Mousse nodded. "Rain clouds don't come from the east;
they come from the west. You'd better watch it."
"Thanks for the tip, for what it's worth," Ranma
said, somewhat puzzled.
The Master of Hidden Weapons watched the two
outsiders leave his home. The moment the door slammed
shut he fell back against his straw chair, suddenly
weary, and glad, at the same time-- glad that Ranma did
not see him in a moment of weakness, and weary from all
the talking.
"I envy your freedom, Saotome," he said aloud,
sighing heavily.
"Responsibility is a burden the leader of the tribe
should bear with pride," a man said from behind the
chair.
Mousse looked over the shoulder of the chair at the
man who appeared, the ritualist priest Jiang-shen. "My
people need me."
"And yet your heart travels with the outsiders,"
Jiang replied. "You are the ultimate power in this
village; why did you not go with them?"
"Heh, you don't understand me that well, do you, old
man?" the Master of Hidden Weapons said, amused with
himself. "If I go now, there won't be a home to come
back to. I will not fail the people that made me their
leader."
He turned to his subordinate, finding his current
idea amusing. "Now, Jiang, let's get down to business.
It's time to retrieve the secret weapon."

Would-be scuba divers fled for their lives from the
rampaging cloaked man with the single red eye.
Cinder fired pulses of energy bolts from the eye-
mounted blaster, a component of his versatile
mechanical eye. Anyone who caught on that the red dot
on the wall was the next target of the salamander's
attack did well to flee the vicinity, and soon all the
customers and employees fled for their lives.
Silence fell on the seaside store, and Cinder was
satisfied that everyone had made it out without getting
roasted. He focused a point on the roof near the door,
and fired a bolt of energy. The roof collapsed
quickly, letting sunlight through the hole and blocking
the exit. The salamander did the same for the rest of
the doors, being careful not to inadvertently blow a
hole in the walls.
Satisfied that he would be alone for a while, Cinder
looked around the dive shop, stopping when he saw the
racks of oxygen tanks at one end. He trampled over the
rest of the discarded equipment, his mind focused on
the very lifeblood shared between him and divers.
Reaching inside his cloak to his back several spent
cylinders of oxygen fell to the floor, kicked away
uselessly as the salamander grabbed two heavy, full
tanks with each claw. Quickly Cinder strapped the fresh
tanks on his back, under his cloak and out of view.
He started to turn away, but thought better of it;
Cinder grabbed an armful of smaller, handheld tanks,
and strapped each one to his waist belt. Once he had a
good set around his waist the salamander turned toward
the center of the shop, to where he made the large hole
in the ceiling.
The master scanned the room through his mechanical
eye, satisfied that he detected no signs of a blaze. It
would do no good to destroy a resource as important as
this one needlessly.
Casting a glance at the wall clock over the checkout
counter, Cinder knew he had some time to get there that
evening. The only problem was getting there before the
viper did, and the salamander knew that cunning enemy
knew where he was going.

"I'd never thought I'd be back here," Ranma said,
standing next to the signpost that marked the
territory of Jusenkyo.
Hokuto glanced in Ranma's direction briefly, noting
that he seemed almost hesitant to enter the cursed
training grounds. "W... what are you waiting for?" she
asked. Pointing toward the eastern sky, "You realize
that a storm is coming, right?"
"Yeah," the marital artist said with a nod. "That's
what happened last time... I was THIS close to getting
a cure, and it rained."
"But, that was then," he decided, "and this is now.
Last time I walked in there I had to fight a really
powerful guy not unlike this... Sypha. Is this really
any different from last time?"
"No," replied the Shadow Weaver, "this time it's
different. This time it's a race to find the Dragon's
Tear, wherever it is."
Ranma shrugged. "Well, I guess this is it." He took
one bold step past the signpost, and when his foot was
firmly planted on the earth he made another step, as if
afraid to fall into a spring that didn't exist.
Eventually his step grew in confidence, as the
jitters of returning to the cursed ground faded away to
nothingness. Hokuto followed directly behind,
deliberately taking the same steps as Ranma, as if she
had her own reservations about the springs.
He looked around and into the horizon, where, for all
the eye could see, was rows upon rows of cistern
springs, each with a ten-meter high bamboo pole set in
the middle as a sort of water marker. It was those
poles and the pools they marked that made Jusenkyo a
dangerous training ground, as one must learn balance
or become cursed. The martial artist pushed the thought
from his mind, unwilling to bring back the jitters at
this critical an hour.
Ranma noticed that the grass, greener than it should
ever be in the summer season, edged quite a ways over
the springs, giving the illusion that the pools were
smaller than they actually were. For a moment he
wondered why the plants did not suffer the curses of
the spring, or why the insect life living in it did not
rampage as abominations in the capitol of springs.
But all curiosities were swept away when Ranma forced
himself to stop. Hokuto, not paying attention at all,
bumped into him from behind, pushing him forward
gently, but not so far as to tumble into a nearby
spring.
He ignored the girl's protest as his eyes fixated on
the woman dressed in red standing atop a nearby pole,
her gangly arms hanging from her sides, her claws
barely peeking through. Sypha Blade, as she was called
by the Tunnel Tiger tribe, wore a smirk on her face,
and appeared in no danger of falling into the spring
below-- yet appeared almost impassive about the danger
the springs offered.
"Welcome to my world," greeted Sypha, sweeping her
arms about grandly to encompass the whole of
Jusenkyo.
"Sypha!" cried Ranma. "Where're you holding the
leaders?!"
"Oh, picky, picky!" snorted the sorcerer. "I thought
you'd be after the Dragon's Tear by now." She reached
for her crystal ball from up her sleeve, and held it
out for Ranma and Hokuto to see. It pulsed steadily
with energy, changing ever so slightly in intensity as
Sypha swung it back and forth.
"I see," Hokuto voiced, "you're still trying to find
it."
"It's here somewhere, of course," Sypha admitted. "I
was hoping either of you knew for sure... but it looks
like it's going to be the roundabout way."
"Behold!" she cried, waving her free arm around
herself. Ranma and Hokuto gasped in surprise as an
invisible curtain of light pulled away from around the
spring, revealing several individuals in a circle
around the spring, each bound securely and tethered to
the marking pole by a heavy bungee chord. Sypha reached
down and plucked one of the captives up from the back
end of the circle for the two to see.
"Akane!" Ranma cried, recognizing the girl held in
Sypha's grasp. He wanted to jump at the sorcerer
immediately, but Hokuto held him back. "Let go of me!"
"No, wait!" she warned, but the martial artist proved
too powerful for her.
Ranma wasted no time, leaping up at Sypha with
fierce determination. Sypha, seemingly pleased with
herself, jumped away, releasing her hold on Akane and
allowing her to fall straight down into the pool.
Correcting his aerial path Ranma quickly scooped
Akane into his arms and headed away from the spring,
but, since the bungee chord was still tied to the girl
both she and the martial artist were yanked backward.
"You idiot!" Akane hissed. "Now we're BOTH going to
get cursed again!"
The word 'again' rang in Ranma's head in an instant,
and suddenly he realized why Hokuto wanted to stop him.
"Shit," he cursed.
He stretched a leg outward and found his mark against
the pole the chord was tethered to, grinding his
reverse direction to a halt. Ranma wrapped his other
leg around the pole just as the weight of himself and
the other nearly dropped them into the cistern.
Clinging to the pole for dear life, Ranma laughed
sheepishly to the cursed-form Kima. "Eh... oops."
"Another fine mess, Ranma Saotome," he heard Herb
say from the circle of ringed leaders.
"Hey!" he complained, "I've been lookin' all over
for you!"
"Pay attention, Son-in-law!" warned Cologne. "Sypha
is not through with you yet."
The old Amazon's words came true as the sorcerer
descended from the air like a bird of prey, slashing at
Ranma and Kima viciously. Ranma twirled around the
pole to avoid the incoming attack, but was surprised to
see that Sypha's flight was looping around for another
pass.
"Dammit, you can fly?!" he cursed, wheeling around to
dodge the next slash.
Sypha ascended and landed with one foot on top of the
same pole, her eyes hungrily staring down at Ranma and
Kima. "If you won't tell me where the Dragon's Tear
is, then I have no further use for ANY of you!" She
grasped the pole with one hand, then ascended quickly
into the air, uprooting the marking pole from the depth
of the pool.
Ranma braced himself from the sudden force of
takeoff as he and the thirteen leaders were lifted with
amazing ease on the sorcerer's part, none touching the
cistern below. Sypha flew up high, leaving the earth
behind and greeting the swirling, cool clouds of the
sky. He felt the coldness of the dark clouds, and then
the wetness... but no too sooner she felt Sypha was at
her peak of ascent.
Staring downward through the misty clouds, the
sorcerer muttered, "Well, looks like you're already
cursed."
Ranma shook the condescending water from herself as
she realized that the storm had already arrived.
"I hope you enjoy your new life as grasshoppers!"
the regal woman cried, releasing her grip on the pole.
All too soon the pole, Ranma, and the thirteen
leaders fell from the sky, all helpless to control
their fates that awaited them below.



(continued in part 2)

----------------------------------------------------------
* "Decepticons Forever!" --Ravage, Beast Wars
* "You make [Kodachi] sound appealing." --kayin
* "[Y]ou're lamer than your signature and screen name indicate." --Chris Davies
* "I sold my soul to buy a copy of the dubbed 'Ukyo Can Cook'"

--Razorclaw X (http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/index.html)
Author: "The Wheel of Fire", "The World's Worst Ranma Fanfic!", "The Geometry of Shattered Souls", "The Geometry of Vanished Souls", "The Balance of Power", "The Wraith of Blaze", "Mister Prickly".
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