------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ranma 1/2 "The Nature of the Curse" Hard Battle Story by Douglas MacDougall ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted 13 Dec 1998, and last modified 22 Apr 1999. The latest parts and revisions of this story are available at: http://www.dougmacd.net/fanworks/ Ranma 1/2 (c) Rumiko Takahashi / Shogakukan * Kitty Film * Fuji TV. Exclusively licensed throughout the United States and Canada by Viz Communications, Inc. This fan fiction is for private home use only; it may be freely redistributed, but not altered or used for profit. Not Rated. Parental Guidance Suggested. ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Part 4 Soap Gets in Your Curse ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ranma woke with a start. What time was it? She glanced out the window and saw the light of early morning. Shit, she'd fallen asleep! Then she felt a horrible sensation, as if her intestines had disappeared, and her lungs fell into the gaping hole left by their absence. It was like falling and losing one's breath at the same time. It was a sinking feeling she had only felt a few times before. There was a test today. And she hadn't studied at all! She scrambled out of bed, changed her clothes, and grabbed her notes out of her unopened schoolbag. What the hell was she thinking last night? No time for that, she had to study like crazy! She started to open her book of crude notes, but realized that she wouldn't have any time to study, what with sparring and the long walk to school. However, if she ran all the way there, maybe the guys would be able to help her out. They certainly had better notes then hers. Making a quick decision, she shoved the notes back in her pack, and went downstairs. "Hey, Kasumi, can I have something to go? I need to get to school right away." Ranma was bobbing on the balls of her feet, pulling the bag over her shoulders. Kasumi answered from the kitchen. "I'm cooking some rice and miso soup now. Fortunately the gas line was fixed last night." Kasumi pushed the hanging cloth away from the doorway and poked her head out. "It should be ready in about fifteen minutes." Ranma thought about it, but she really didn't have time to wait. She dashed into the kitchen, avoiding Kasumi and grabbing some pickles out of the fridge. Popping them in her mouth she said, "This'll have ta do." Swallowing, she added, "Gotta get to school!" and dashed back out. Kasumi blinked, and looked outside in the backyard, where Genma was stretching. "But...?" "Ranma?" Akane stepped down the stairs in her school uniform. "Gotta go, Akane!" "Why are you leaving so soon?" Ranma didn't answer as she picked up her shoes and ran out the door. Kasumi came back out of the kitchen and yelled, "Don't you want any hot water, Ranma?" Ranma either didn't hear or didn't care as she ran out the door. Akane yelled out, "I'm coming with you!", and ran back upstairs to get her bag and then chased after Ranma. Kasumi glanced outside at the two teenagers, face painted with worry. "But you forget your bentos..." Akane was used to morning jogs, and had no problem punching up the speed and catching up with Ranma. The redhead was running along the fence again (old habits die hard, she thought), with her arms held straight out for balance. For a second Akane was reminded of a little kid playing airplane. Akane doubted Ranma would appreciate the comparison. "Ranma, what's the rush?" panted Akane. Ranma didn't look back, "I forgot to study for the test!" "What?" "I must've fallen asleep last night. I gotta bum some notes offa someone!" "You could have looked at mine!" Ranma's run reduced to a jog, and then a trot. She turned around and faced Akane. Akane glanced at Ranma's feet, but even walking backwards, she seemed to be sure-footed on the fence top. "What? You never let me look at your notes!" "Well, it IS kinda my fault..." Ranma scratched her head and glanced behind her, to see where she was going. "How do ya figure?" "I... let you sleep in, after... You know." "Huh?" Ranma had been in a constant state of panic since the moment she had woken up. The fear of not having studied for an important test had pretty much driven out all other thoughts. Now she paused to remember just why she HAD gone to bed early. She was sure she recalled talking to Akane about studying for the test together. Akane looked nervous. "Why didn't you change back into a guy this morning?" Then she remembered, freezing like a bunny caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. "Oh, god...!" Tripping, she fell backwards and just barely managed to cling to the fence before tumbling into the canal. Not that it would matter much in her current state. "I want to know what you're thinking, Ranma." "No WAY!" Ranma scrambled up the fence and started running along it with a redoubled pace. She tried to forget the scene last night but it kept replaying in her head. She was sure Akane hadn't said anything at the time, but Ranma could hear her boy-type voice mocking, "And I'm better built, to boot!" Akane was struggling to keep up. "I'm sorry!" "Huh?" Ranma stopped running and came to a complete halt. He turned around to look down at Akane, who was rubbing her watery eyes. Ranma grunted. Must've gotten dirt in them again. "It's... I just... Nabiki said that sometimes that it just happens. She thinks it might have been the robe rubbing against..." Akane blushed. She sure as hell wasn't going to forward the post-nap 'morning-wood' theory. Or mention ANYTHING about her dream. She almost wished Nabiki hadn't been so candid in her talk about what could... arouse a guy. Which was just about anything. If they were excited they got aroused. If they SLEPT they got aroused. She didn't want to think about it. She certainly didn't want to think about how she might have to learn to deal with the problem herself. "Anyway, it's not like I'm really a guy. I would never think things like that about a girl!" Some of her normal anger returned to her voice. "So, you think I'm a girl?" Ranma's expression was completely neutral. Akane was startled by Ranma's words. "No! Of course not. It's... It's just that, yesterday, you were acting... weird. You kept changing back into a girl, even when you didn't have to. You hate being a girl." Ranma was silent, troubled by her thoughts. "Ranma, I want to know what's going on. What are you thinking? Is something wrong?" Ranma looked like she wanted to answer, but grimaced and said, "I ain't gonna talk about it." She started running towards the school again, ignoring Akane's occasional shouts. There was no way she was going to tell Akane. Sometimes she thought maybe she did lo-- Her mind steered away from the thought. She DID like Akane. A lot. But last night when she had been in her normal boy-type body, she had been watching boy-type Akane sleeping. Akane's strength was only more apparent in her cursed form. She had been looking at his body and muscles, and wondering how they compared against his own. She didn't know what to think when she realized that she liked what she saw. They were both guys. Guys don't think that way about other guys. So after she woke up Akane, she'd splashed herself with a bucket of cold water her old man had left in their room. She had hoped it would snap her out of it before she had any more disgusting thoughts. At the very least she wouldn't have to feel the evidence of her body's reaction to those thoughts. It was easier to ignore the sensations of her girl-type body, since they didn't really make sense to her, anyway. But after she had heard Akane yell... It only got worse when she had run in on him. When she saw him there... responding to her, she just couldn't take it. What had she been thinking, anyway? She remembered her words when she poured the cold water on her head: "Better to be a girl then a guy, and think this way about another guy." Only she hadn't considered the meaning of those words. If a girl thought that way about a guy, it wasn't perverted. But somehow she never made the connection that SHE would be the girl having those thoughts. And for a moment, when she walked in on Akane, all the weird signals coming from her body made perfect sense. She was a girl getting excited looked at a naked guy. She knew she could barely be considered a "man among men", but after last night... Worse still, she couldn't believe that Akane had responded to her at all. If she had lost some of her masculinity, maybe Akane had gotten it. Or maybe Akane given up some femininity to her. Neither scenario was very comforting Pulling herself out of her depressed thoughts, Ranma glanced back to see Akane struggling to keep up with her. Trying her best. The sight somehow warmed her heart, and the dark emotions drained from Ranma's face as she let Akane catch up. Eventually Akane started walking alongside her, down on the sidewalk, but neither of them talked then rest of the way to school. They arrived a full hour earlier then usual, which Ranma hoped was enough time to study for the test. At this time of day, there were plenty of nerds hanging out that could help him. "YOU!!!" Ranma wasn't sure she had ever heard Akane as angry as she was when she suddenly growled the word. Glancing next to her, she saw Akane staring at a tall boy with fair- colored hair and glasses. Akane barked louder, attracting the boy's and other students' attention. "You did this to me!!" "Re-- Akane?" Ranma noticed that the boy's arm was in a sling, and there were red marks all over his body. Furthermore, as he backed away, he appeared to be limping. This was the idiot that had cursed Akane? Ranma hadn't gotten a good look before Akane punted him, yesterday. Akane stormed up and grabbed Akira by the collar. He had looked around for an escape while she had approached, but made no move to actually get away. "You did this to me. You CURSED me because you thought I was your stupid friend!" The boy was dismayed that the smaller girl was now holding him up in the air over her head. He had over twenty centimeters of height on her, and probably 50 kilograms. The boy stuttered, "It was an honest mistake! It won't happen again! I swear!" "Again!?" She cracked her knuckles. "You've ruined my LIFE because of your mistake that will 'never happen again'!" She now held him up with just her left hand. The right coiled back... "Your life?" he squeaked. "You have no idea how much you've screwed everything up!" She made sure not to look at Ranma as blinked away blurriness from her eyes. "But it'll wash away!" "You think that helps! I'll just change into a stupid BOY again the next time I get splashed with cold water!!" "It's only temporary!!" "..." "..." "What?" "It's called Instant Nannichuan. It only changes you once!" "R- Really?" Akane dared to hope. "Yes! I swear!" Akane still held his collar, but now Akira's feet could touch the ground. He fumbled through his battered bookbag and pulled out a handful of packets, including Instant Spring of Drowned Boy power, and several instant animal powders. Akane was so relieved that she released him. He started to catch his breath, when Ranma took her turn. Akira started babbling when the even smaller girl hefted him off the ground. "Don't you have any of the REAL Spring of Drowned Man water?" "Wh- What? No!" Akane suddenly yelped, and Ranma noticed that her fiancee was now dripping wet. And pretty ticked off. "Nabiki!" "How sad!" Nabiki held the back of her hand to her forehead, and spoke over-dramatically, "I shall never be able to gaze upon my baby sister's rippling muscles again!" And then she flung the remaining water at Akira. Akira had been staring at Nabiki, and recoiled with surprise as the water sprayed him. After blinking a few times, he asked, "Um... Wh- Why did you do that...?" "Just testing a theory." And with that, she turned around and sauntered into school, carrying the empty bucket slung over her shoulder. The heat of Akane's anger started to evaporate the water on her clothes. Ranma reluctantly put Akira down. He clumsily unbuttoned the wet coat of his school uniform, and started to take it off, gingerly pulling the sleeve over the arm in a sling. "Look, I'm terribly TERRIBLY sorry about all this. It was really just a huge misunderstanding." He repeatedly bowed at Akane and Ranma. "So why don't you have any real Spring of Drowned Man water?" Ranma blurted. Akane belatedly realized what Nabiki had done. It always worried her when she considered how many steps Nabiki was thinking ahead of everyone else. Especially when combined with her... unique attitudes. "Yeah, YOU'RE not cursed, so Drowned Man water should be harmless to you. And it could help so many people who ARE cursed." Akane licked her lips. "Unless..." Akane voiced a worry she had held for a long time. She tried not to look at Ranma when she asked, "The curses don't... mix, do they?" The blood drained from Ranma's face. Akane continued, "We know this guy. Taro. He turns into a... flying minotaur when he gets wet. But when he jumped in the Spring of Drowned Octopus, he didn't turn into an octopus. Now he has tentacles that can spray ink." "There's no cure?" murmured Ranma. Akira looked between the two of them. "No, no, it's nothing like that; the curses don't mix." That didn't explain Taro. "But--" "Then what's so dangerous about the real Nannichuan!?!" yelled Ranma. "Well, I mean, it... curses you." He shrugged lamely. "But it would cure a girl-curse, right?" asked Ranma. "Well, yes..." Akira appeared reluctant to talk about the subject, but Ranma was not. "Look, do you actually KNOW anything about this curses, or did you just buy a box of those things?" He pointed at the Instant Nannichuan packets. He straightened his posture. "I know more about Jusenkyo then anybody else," he claimed proudly. Then his normal posture returned. "Well, except for Pii-Chu." Ranma didn't know who this Peach person was, but the credentials sounded good enough for her. She started to open her mouth when the bell on the clock tower chimed seven o'clock. If she didn't start to study soon, she'd fail the test for sure. But this guy seemed to know about Jusenkyo; she didn't want him to get away. "Hey, meet me at lunch, okay?" Akira was visibly nervous, but answered, "Uh... okay..." He looked at Akane. "Will you be there, too?" "I guess..." She looked at the boy warily. She couldn't identify the intense look in his eyes, but she wasn't sure she liked it. She realized that even if he HAD been trying to help his friend when he had mistakenly splashed Akane, it didn't mean that he WASN'T a pervert. But Ranma would be there, so it should be okay. She mentally punched herself. She could protect herself; she didn't need Ranma's help. "Okay then. I'd... I'd really like to make up for what I did to you..." "Don't worry about it," she waved at the boy, trying to sound more forgiving then she felt. Following Ranma into the school she couldn't help but fume at how long she had been stuck as a boy. Their fathers had spent hours getting her 'accustomed' to a body she would never have again. She couldn't wait til she got home. She'd show them just how accustomed she was to fighting in her OWN body. * * * * * * "Sooo... hungry..." "Geez, Ranma, it's your own fault for rushing out the door without breakfast. Or letting Kasumi give you your lunch." Ranma just frowned. "And you could have gotten hot water, too." "I was in a rush, okay?" "Well if you hadn't been so much in a rush, you wouldn't have had to make such a big commotion during gym." "What? You think I'm gonna change with the guys when I'm a girl?!" God, it's bad enough having them leer at me when I have clothes ON! "And it's better getting hot water on the GIRL'S side?" "I just used the sink. I didn't go near the lockers..." "You just wanted to peep. You're no better then Happosai!" "Hey!" Before the argument could escalate any further, Ukyo walked over. "Hi, Ran-chan! Hi, Akane." Ranma visibly brightened at the approach of his 'cute' fiancee, and bounced over to her, massaging her shoulders. "Hey, you got any food?" he asked innocently. "For you, Ran-chan, anytime!" She turned her head and winked at him. Akane suppressed a twitch in her forearm. "Great, let's eat outside!" Ranma started bounding away, with Ukyo at his heels. "Hey! I didn't say you could stop massaging me!" Akane moodily stalked after them. "stupid jerk will do anything for food. just like his father. doesn't appreciate it when i make him home-cooked meals..." The rest of her words became unintelligible mutters. When she walked outside, Ukyo already had her portable grill out and was making okonomiaki for Ranma and other students, earning some money during the lunch hour. Akane also noticed Akira next to the grill looking high and low for something. Herself and Ranma, she realized, but he didn't recognize Ranma in his boy-type body. Akira saw her approach the grill, and smiled. "Hello, Akane." "Hi, Akira." That was the first time he had addressed her by her name instead of confusing her with his friend Rei. Ranma wolfed down more okonomiaki. Akira asked, "Are you hungry? C- Can I buy some okonomiaki for you?" Akane was about to decline, when her stomach chose that moment to make sounds of protest. "I guess I did forget to bring my lunch..." He started to pull out his wallet. "Can I get two pork okonomiaki? With double meat?" He looked at Akane. "And what do you want?" "Um. A shrimp, please. But you don't have to pay for my food, really." Ranma continued to wolf down okonomiaki, eyeing Akira distrustfully. "Oh, it's the least I can do after what I put you through yesterday. I insist!" "Two specials and a shrimp, coming up!" In less then thirty seconds Ukyo had cooked and seasoned the 'yaki to perfection. "On the house for the new man and his lady friend." She winked at Akira, who studied the ground, hiding the reaction on his face. She handed the three 'yaki to Akira on a single paper plate, which elicited a glare from Akane. After some fumbling around and apologizing, Ukyo saw the tomboy slide off her 'yaki onto another plate. She smiled as she filled more orders. It couldn't hurt to encourage this guy to hang out with Akane. He seemed to like her, and it would remove her influence from Ranma. He was just confused of his true feelings because she was always near him. Hopefully this new guy'd do a better job then that idiot Ryoga. Ranma finished his okonomiaki and suddenly spoke up, startling Akira. So, you said you'd talk to me at lunch about Jusenkyo curses." Akira blinked at the pig-tailed boy he had never seen before.. "You're...?" He held out a hand, palm down, at below the height of his chest. "Her?" Ranma frowned. "Yeah. That's me." "Wow." The boy grinned, "You sure get small." Ranma frowned some more. He wasn't very happy with his girl-type height. He was the shortest girl he knew, except for mini-Hinako. And Cologne. His mind steered away from that thought. Cologne was definitely NOT a girl. Another part of his brain kicked the first part. HE wasn't a girl, either! The guy seemed to pick up and his mood and laughed nervously. "Well, you get small, but you also get big." He bigsweated. "Uh, I mean..." Ranma's frown became a scowl. "Uh... Uh... If you would like to take a seat...?" Akira gestured to a bench with the arm that wasn't in a sling. He was now visibly sweating all over. Ranma found himself starting to frown again. If the weirdoes didn't fall for Akane, they invariably fell for his girl-side. And the way this guy was acting... He'd have to keep an eye on Akira. Nerima was full of perverts. "So, about the curses...?" He and Akane sat on one side of a bench, with Akira on the other. Ukyo's grill was set up at the end of the table, where she could serve students, but still hear the conversation. "Well, what questions can I answer for you?" "The Nannichuan. What's the deal with it? Will it cure me or won't it?" "Well, yes. It would change your curse so you turn into a boy instead of a girl." He scratched his chin. "Effectively, you'd stay yourself." "So I don't hafta worry about turning into some sort of half-boy half- girl, right?" "No. You have nothing to worry about." Akira sweated, and adjusted his collar. Ranma frowned at Akira's nervousness. "Are you okay?" "What? I'm fine." He smiled a little uneasily "What happened to you anyway?" He waved his finger at the sling and some of the red marks. "Ah..." He glanced at Akane, and then alternated between looking at Ranma or the table. "After I... That is, after Akane kicked me yesterday, I crashed into the canal." He unconsciously cradled his arm. Ranma blinked. That HAD been a good kick. Still, he was a little surprised at the damage it had done. "Well, at least you had a soft landing, right?" Akira twitched. "Actually, due to my trajectory, I impacted upon the concrete side of the canal." Ranma flinched sympathetically. "Ow." Akane looked horrified, and Ukyo chuckled and shook her head at the grill. "There was... some sort of explosion. At that point I had become submerged in the cold waters of the canal, so I escaped the brunt of the blast. As it happens, there was a gas main running along the canal wall." Ranma remembered Kasumi mentioning something about an explosion yesterday cutting of the gas service. He smiled to himself when he realized that it was Akane's own fault that she didn't have any hot water. "Anyway, some passers-by fished me out of the canal and took me to the hospital. Only a sprain of the wrist, with mostly first degree burns." He scratched a bandage, which made it clear that not all of the burns were first-degree. Akane finally spoke up. "I'm REALLY sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just..." Akira held up his palm, laughing nervously. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, it was a big misunderstanding. Besides, the doctors say I should be alright in a few days." "A real firebrand, isn't she," remarked Ukyo from her grill. Akane scowled at her, and Akira started fidgeting. Before things could get worse, Ranma asked, "So what about Taro?" "Taro? Oh, that fellow Akane said turns into a flying minotaur?" Ranma and Akane nodded. "Well, that would have to be Niuhomanmaorennichuan, the Spring of Drowned Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a-Crane-and-Eel." The tortuous word came off his lips as if he spoke it every day. "That's a combination pool." "Combination pool?" asked Akane. "A pool where multiple creatures drowned simultaneously. There's only three that I know about. the Pool of Drowned Yeti-riding-a-Bull-holding-a- Crane-and-Eel, The Pool of Drowned Frog-Man, and The Pool of Drowned Hawk- Seizing-Sow. There are 108 pools altogether. Or 109 now that there's the Akanenichuan. So only about 3% of them are combination pools. Another 9% are 'personality' pools, and the rest are normal." Ranma tried to remember what he was talking about. This guy seemed to like to go on to tangents. "So... These combo pools. They're different from normal pools?" He couldn't believe he had just called any of the pools in the Cursed Springs 'normal'. "Yes. You see, each of the pools tries to imbue its curse onto the victim that falls in. Normally, one curse will just supercede an older curse." Ranma blinked. Replace it," he clarified. "But in the Niuhomanmaorennichuan, there are actually four simultaneous curses. One to turn you into a Yeti, another for a Bull, and so on. All simultaneously mixed together in the same pool as they are, the... magical surface tension, if you will, has broken down between the curses." Ranma stared. "You know what surface tension is, right?" "Uh, something to do with facials?" Akane covered her face with her hand. "Uh, no. Surface tension is a force caused by the tendency for similar molecules to attract one another." "I thought opposites attracted." Ranma was sure of that. "You're thinking of electromagnetism." "...Okay." Ranma didn't argue the point, but he was pretty sure Akira was wrong. He knew opposites attracted. Right? He glanced at Akane. "Well, anyway, two curses are normally like... oil and vinegar. They don't mix. Oil sticks to oil, and vinegar to vinegar. But you can MAKE them mix if you add a surfactant, like soap. So, you can consider the combination pools 'soapy'. When you add a new curse to a combination-pool curse, instead of staying discrete, the curses mix together." Akane seemed to be following the gist of the conversation, while Ukyo frowned at the idea of adding soap to Italian dressing. Ranma had no idea where the conversation was going. He attempted to summarize what Akira had said. "So basically, new curses replace old curses, unless you already had a multiple curse, in which case it just all gets mixed together." "Correct!" Ranma scratched his head. "Why did I ask you this in the first place?" Akira facefaulted. Akane reminded him, "Now we know that you don't have to worry about turning into a hermaphrodite if you go the Spring of Drowned Man!" "Didn't I already say that?" asked Akira. "So why don't you carry Spring of Drowned Man water around? Or Spring of Drowned Woman?" asked Ranma. "Geez, you could make a killing off of selling a cure to Jusenkyo victims like me." "You sound like my mother," murmured Akira, adjusting his collar again. "Look. You're right, I could give people a cure. But I don't want to take a chance at accidentally cursing a normal person. The instant packets are basically harmless, but real Jusenkyo water... I don't want to subject anyone to that." "What's ta 'subject'? If you accidentally splash them, just splash them back with the other water." "Uh... well..." he glanced about as if looking for an explanation "But... Would that really be a cure, or would it just be a curse to turn into yourself when splashed with cold water?" "What's the difference?" "Well, I mean... It's a curse. Bad things happen to people who are cursed. And there is the whole psychological aspect, the 'blind spot' it puts into your mind. Would it stay? Only a handful of people have ever been cured, so there are no definitive answers." "Only a handful?!" asked Ranma. "Psychological aspect?" asked Akane. "Yes. The curse leaves a subtle 'blind spot' in your subconscious, like the blind spot in your eyes." Ranma looked confused, so Akira continued. "There's a spot in your field of vision that you just can't see, but your brain adapts to it, so you aren't aware of it. Curse victims often find themselves getting splashed with cold water. They're not actually drawn to it, or it to them, but when they are about to be splashed, the water approaches in their mind's 'blind spot'. They're not consciously aware of it, so they can't react to it by ducking aside or pulling out an umbrella. Likewise, they might walk into an area where its more likely for them to GET splashed without being consciously aware of it. "It's the same thing with finding a cure. Many Jusenkyo victims come back to the Cursed Springs looking for a cure, but they are distracted by some inconsequential thing or another. And because of the 'blind spot', they forget to go back to the springs. Only after they get home, and someone asks about it -- pointing out the 'blind spot', as it were -- that they realize what they've done." Things started clicking for Akane. "Like the woman who keeps throwing water on you in the morning when she splashes her walk. You should be able to dodge, or at least walk around, but she still gets you a few times each month. And when we used the Nanban mirror, and fought the Seven Lucky Gods in China. You all kept on forgetting to go to Jusenkyo." "Yeah, well, you didn't remember, either!" quipped Ranma. "I don't care about the curse. You're the one who's so uptight about it." Akira nodded. "I'm afraid the only real hope for a cure is to have someone else, who doesn't have a curse themselves, to collect the proper water to cure you." Akane noted, "Like Dad." Ranma raised an eyebrow. "He got the barrel of Nannichuan for you. It really could have cured you." Ranma lay his head on the table. "That makes me feel SO much better. If everybody hadn't tried stealing it for themselves..." Akane tried to put the best light onto it. "It probably had something to do with your 'blind spots'. I mean, with you and your dad and Mousse, you probably would have accidentally spilled it anyway, if the master hadn't drunk it all." Ranma wallowed in self-pity. Akane mused, "It's too bad Ryoga wasn't able to get the barrel. He doesn't have a 'blind spot' to worry about." Ranma started chewing the table. The only one more stupid then Ryoga was Akane. Ukyo glanced at Ranma. "You sure you had enough okonomiaki, honey?" "..." ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- End Part 4 Next Time: "Akane: Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman?" ------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Lest anyone think Akira is actually some sort of authoritative source, let me clarify some stuff. The Spring of Drowned Frog-Man is in the manga, and an explanation of the difference between Taro's curse and everybody else's is in the Ranma FAQ: http://www.wot-club.org.uk/RanmaFAQ/things/jusenkyo.html Sun, Dec 8, 1996 6:43:43 PM GMT I made up the Hawk-Seizing-Sow pool, the number of pools, and the idea of a 'blind-spot': the as-of-yet unexplored premise of "The Nature of the Curse".