Hi there,

The stare triggered a sudden, alarming thought in her mind that made her
recoil.  How could the Lord of Death and the Lady of Life be companions?

       Well, looked at from another angle, how could they *not*?  In the
"pantheon" that Ranma and Akane (and, I'm beginning to suspect, Ukyou and
perhaps others) are part of, are Life and Death polarized enemies, or

simply

opposite sides of the same circle?
       Yeah, yeah, I know: keep reading and find out.

Keep reading and find-- oh.  Yeah, you got it.  :)

Why would Ryukyu, Ryujin's nemesis, strive to protect her?

       I'm not sure even Ranma knows, fully.  My guess is that Ranma needs
Akane to balance her -- she's certainly been displaying dangerously
single-minded behavior so far.  Which isn't surprising, given that she's

been

living in a constant state of combat for who-knows-how long, but... in

order

for Ranma to be anything more than a mystical version of the Terminator, I
suspect she needs Akane.  Death needs Life in order to give it some higher
purpose.

Ranma's dedication originally stemmed from the promise she made to Genma to
find Kayoko - there's also a certain amount of emotional attachment to the
family line that Ranma has built up over the years.  Besides her own
feelings as Ranma, there's also the instincts instilled in her by Ryukyu,
among which is the rule that yes, Life needs Death and Death needs Life,
because without one the other has no meaning.

       I think "autonomous" is almost exactly opposite of the word you

want,

here.  I'd suggest "unified," or "synchronized," or even "gestalt."

Good point.  I'll make the change.

Their very presence repulsed her, the sight of them flooding her mind

with

images of their creation, the tearing of life from the waters to fuel

their

unnatural existence.  Everything about them, from the empty looks upon
their faces to the the barcodes tattooed across their chests combined to
fill her with disgust.

       But if they're not "alive," then what are they?  Or is free will

part

of the criteria for being truly "alive," in this case?

The Hidari are "alive" in a technical sense.  They do have free will - if
they knew there was more to existence than hunting down Ranma, they would
probably want to find out about it.  They can do whatever they want - they
just want to kill Ranma.  Akane's objection to their existence is that they
are not created naturally.  Rather than emerging on their own from the
waters as lifeforms, their souls are ripped artificially from the waters and
infused into them by technology.  It's not a part of the process, and so to
her they are abhorrent.

       Charon:  "Okay, now, what's the exchange rate between Hidari and

Yen?

Damn, I hate making change for these oddball currencies.  Oh, well, at

least

it's not those five-ton Pacific Island things..."

Heh!  I like it.

       Well, it wouldn't make sense if she was, really -- in most
mythologies, the "Life" role is associated with motherhood, and a mother
protecting her children is widely acknowledged as the worst kind of

opponent.

 But I suspect Akane really hasn't had a chance to think this through
thoroughly, yet.
       <grin>  Too bad this isn't a crossover -- Belldandy could give her

a

few pointers on how this works.

Hah, I'm sure she could.  You've hit the nail squarely on the head - the
mother defending her children is an opponent to be feared.

She could feel the loss inside her; one of the souls had been destroyed,
burned, forever removed from the world.

No ... Ranma, what have you done?

       ....with consequences beyond the usual meaning of just seperating

soul

from body.

Indeed.  Ranma's habit of soulburning is part of the larger problem in the
"Ten" world.  Sending a soul forever to the world of the dead is not good
for the Great Balance, after all.

With time even those stopped, leaving her utterly alone.  Perhaps, she
realised, she had contravened some sacred decree; perhaps the Lady of

Life

had undone her very purpose in the universe, perhaps it would all come
crumbling down around her.  Perhaps this silence was the beginning of

the

end.

       Or the end of the beginning?  Oh, Akane, things aren't so
black-and-white... something I suspect you're about to learn.

Akane has a lot to learn.  But then, so does Ranma.

The Hidari laughed.  A choked gasp of relief as the clone's artificial
body ruptured and its flesh turned to water.  The water burst free,
shattering the body, and with an enormous outpouring of liquid the

Hidari

was gone, leaving nothing behind.

       Ash vs water.  Heh.

"Division of labour means I wash, you dry - not I clean, you dirty!"

Slowly, Akane turned and looked down at the puddle of water.  The white
glow was faint but unmistakable, and within the water a small patch of

moss

had already begun to grow.  Her sword felt warm in her hand and as she
raised it to her face, she began to understand what she had done.

       Raiser her *sword* to her face?  I don't get it.

Could have been worded better.  Basically she holds the sword up to look at
it.

       Again, no balance -- Death as an out-of-control consumer, devourer,
not just cold, but actively cruel.  Ranma, as Death, is currently

completely

devoid of the death-as-transition element -- what she kills, simply

*ends.*

Exactly.  Ryukyu is just a gateway to the world of the dead; she shouldn't
be out there destroying souls personally.  She's taking entirely the wrong
approach.

       "I wasn't saying 'thanks,' I was saying 'why the hell did I get
reincarnated as a patch of MOSS, fer cryin' out loud?'  I mean, geeze,

this

isn't Hindu mythology!"
       Kidding aside, here's another meaning for 'kill':  sometimes, death
can be a release.
       Of course, if she can do this for the Hidari solo, what does she

need

Ranma for?  Hm...

Birth and rebirth without death is just as bad for the balance as is death
without life...

bubbling from between its lips as it stared up at her.  A burning anger
churned within her, compelling her to plunge the sword right between

those

shining blue eyes, those eyes that were hers but not hers, to take from

it

the life it had stolen from her.

       Hmm... Ranma may have something more personal going on here than

just

lacking balance.

Perhaps.  :D

       I can see the movie now:  "Death Goes Postal."  An out-of-control
Death strikes me as being a *bad* thing, cosmologically speaking.
       I have to wonder:  if the "pantheon" (for lack of a better term) is

so

badly out-of-whack, what effects is it having in the mundane world?

Nine hundred years isn't long enough for the effects to show, but the
balance of things is beginning to slip.  As is Ranma.

       Nice bit of confusion on Ranma's part.  Obviously, her knowledge of
the Order of Things isn't as complete as she thought.  That's gotta be
unsettling.

Yeah.  Espescially considering it was Akane, a relative newcomer to this
whole thing, that has shaken her worldview.

Ranma nodded sympathetically as Akane glanced at her.  In truth, she did
not know what Akane was talking about - she could not remember the last
time she had slept, let alone dreamed; however, it was not the time or

the

place for such thoughts

.

       Ah, so that's Ranma's real problem:  sleep deprivation!

She just needed her morning coffee.  :)

Ukyo sat quietly at the cafeteria table, trying her best to concentrate

on

the meal before her.  It seemed to her that it was meant to be bacon and
scrambled eggs.  She supposed at one point it might have been, but what

had

happened to it since then eluded her and, quite frankly, she did not

care

to find out.  Ignorance is bliss, after all.

       Ukyo:  "Geez, I didn't realize that the mess was operated by the
4077th M.A.S.H. unit..."

She should have guessed by the Grape Nehi that Link was drinking.  ;)

There were a few Japanese around, but for the most part, the inhabitants

of

the vessel were foreigners.  That fact struck her as slightly unusual;

she

had wondered on the odd occasion why that was the case, but her desire

to

maintain a low profile overrode any urge to ask unnecessary questions.

       I wonder if that's significant?  For that matter, how do the

Dragons

relate to the world outside of Asia?  Do their roles encompass the globe,

or

do other regions, with other mythologies, have their own equivalents?  The
answer to that question might relate to the number of gaijin involved in

this

group.

I could answer this, but I'm not going to.  Mwahahaha.  :)

For her entire life she had been alone in a world of strangers; she

wanted

to treat the current situation no differently.  The only problem was,

these

strangers had names.

       And if they have names, they start becoming less expendable, in

your

eyes.  But caring about anything, or anyone, is a distraction from killing
Ranma, which is why she's been avoiding "connecting" to anyone for so

long.

Precisely.  Ukyo has always been detached from humanity, entirely focused on
her job of killing Ranma.  These interpersonal relationships do tend to
distract one ever so slightly...

Hammer and Anvil were twins, and they seemed to move with uncanny
synchronisation.  When they spoke, more often than not one would start a
sentence only to have the other complete it.  As she thought about them,
she realised she had never seen the two of them apart.  The strange

nature

of their cooperation made her intensely curious, which only made her

lack

of knowledge about the pair all the more frustrating.

       Hmmm.  After the description of te Hidari earlier, I can't help
wondering...

My lips are sealed.  :)

       Suggest breaking the sentence between "Wing" and "it was"
       Heck, it's a combat unit -- nicknames are non-optional.  And not
talking to anyone isn't an option either -- these people need to know how

far

they can depend on Ukyo, they need some insight into what's going on in

her

head.

Yeah, they do, and they're going to keep trying to get into her head - much
to her annoyance.

"Only Ranma," Ukyo replied.  She knew these soldiers expected her to be
some sort of super-soldier, that they had been told by their superiors

she

was the answer to their problems.  The looks on their faces as she spoke
varied, some looked disappointed, others disbelieving.  She shrugged in
response to their questioning gazes.  It didn't matter what they thought

of

her.

       Well, it *does,* but she's not going to realize that yet.  I

wonder,

though, how they'll react if/when they find out that Ukyo has been

fighting

Ranma for *years,* and survived (mostly).  Given their unit's history with
Ranma, I suspect they might fall down and worship her.  Or freak out
totally...

That's a very good point.  I haven't yet decided how they'll react...

"I'll kill Ranma, and that will be the end of it," she said, her voice
carrying a note of finality.  She glanced at the others for a moment,
waiting for a challenge, but none came.  She had won, and silence was

her

reward.

       Most of the others probably haven't given much, if any, thought to
"after," since the odds are they won't live to see it.

Indeed.  The morale is pretty low amongst the troops.  Most of them focus on
living day-to-day without worrying about the long term.

Ukyo tuned their words out and concentrated on her food.  It was

strange;

she had not thought of Ranma for some time now - her new training

regimen

had made sure of that - but when she lay in her cot at night, staring at
the ceiling while the others slept, she sometimes pictured Ranma in her
mind.  Always, every time, she saw two others alongside her nemesis, two
figures whose identities she could not quite discern ....

       Two?  Innnnteresting.  One is probably Akane, but who's the other?

I

suspect Ranma's little "who's-who" list was missing a dragon or three...

Perhaps.  Ranma never has been entirely truthful when talking to Akane.
Then again, Ranma doesn't know everything herself...

She stared at the back of Asukawa's neck as she followed him.  It was

lean,

firm with muscles from a lifetime of hardship.  He was a tough man, a
strong man; a soldier.  She drew an imaginary line across his neck, just
below his shaved hair, around which her hands would close as she

throttled

the life out of her tormentor.

       Well, that means he's doing his job.  He wouldn't be a good DI if

his

troops didn't fantasize about killing him now and then.

My thoughts exactly.  ;)

Ukyo glanced back and forth.  Where were the guards?  Ever since she had
arrived on board the Leviathan Spring, there had been large men with

guns

to guard her.  An ineffective measure - she could easily kill them - but
one notable by its absence.  She thought upon it for a moment, until
noticing Ryoga's insistent smile once more.

       "Insistent"?  I'm not sure what you're trying to convey, here.

I was mainly going for a smile that says "ask me why I'm so happy".

"Hello, Ryoga," she said, smiling at him.  He smiled in return, and

waved

a clipboard animatedly.

       Wasn't he already smiling?

Hibiki school of martial arts special technique:  multi-smile attack blitz!

"Obviously, they don't think you're going to hurt me," Ryoga replied

with

a smile.  His eyebrow twitched slightly, but noticeably.  "You're not,

are

you?"

       Ambiguous.  Is he just teasing her a bit, or is he really afraid of
her?  He certainly doesn't show it, normally.

Teasing entirely.  He has complete trust in Ukyo.

"Of course not," Ukyo replied with an exasperated smile.  She laughed it
off, but did not let her eyes linger too long on her companion.  There

had

to be a reason for the change.

       I think she liiiiikes him....

Maybe.  ;)

"You're really going to like the work we've done," Ryoga enthused, his
enthusiasm strongly reminiscent of his younger sister.  "I wouldn't want

to

be Ranma right now."

       Repetition of "enthus/iasm"

Whoops - I'll fix.  He's just, uh, really enthusiastic.

"But what is this going to do?"

"Wait and see," Yoiko said, in a sing-song voice.  Ukyo frowned,

imagining

the delighted smile that was no doubt dancing across the young girl's

face.

       Yeah, you gotta hate cheerful mad scientists...

They're so much more fun than the depressive ones, though!

"You're going to like it," Ryoga assured.  A quiet hissing sound filled

the

air, and Ukyo felt herself growing lightheaded.  "Relax; this will be

over

in no time."

"Easy for you to--" Ukyo began, unconsciousness taking her before she

could

finish her sentence.  Her body slumped, her eyes closing as her body

shut

down.  She quickly became still, relaxed, the only movement in her body

the

rapid flicking oscillation of her eyes as she began to dream ....

       Technically, the anaesthetic ought to take her below REM sleep

before

long, but that's a minor quibble.  Although I do remember having some of

the

*strangest* dreams while undergoing surgery...

Me too.  It must be the anaesthetic; I don't usually have dreams as bizarre
as the ones I've had during surgery.

Thanks for your thoughs.  This was a very enjoyable email to read - it's
very gratifying to see that you're reading into what I'm writing and
figuring things out as we go along.  I appreciate the comments very much!

Regards,
R. E.

========

Ten
http://ten.waxwolf.com
Perfection has a price.

========

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