"I'm sorry I told Kitzuiri to hurry up with his story," Happosai said. "The poetic version is very beautiful. I thought it was."
He began to speak, his words in a rhthym. "To undo the undoing of the misguided one, blood must be spilled in the place without sun. Under the earth must the misguided fool, spill blood of his kin or the darkness may rule."
He sighed again. "That's just a small part of it. I guess the story wasn't just a history, it was a kind of prophecy as well. Only one who knows not what he does may undo that which must not be undone. And to undo what the misguided one does, blood must be spilled. Blood of his kin."
He looked at Shampoo. "That means you or I, dear child."
*******
This has to be the best Ranma fic I've ever read. Its the last fic in the Turning the Wheel saga, which is really a beautiful piece of fiction. You probably would want to read the rest of the saga to get parts of this, but its not completly nessacary. You'll just be sorta lost at some parts.
The plot revolves around dark forces that might destroy the world. It also revolves around Cologne and Happosai's past. By the end you come to see Happosai not as an evil letch but, in the writer's own words, "he became a rather tragic figure, a man crippled, both literally and figuratively by the demons of his past." We also don't see Cologne as a minor character who's always trying to get Ranma and Shampoo together or as the evil woman she seems to often morph into in fanfics. Here she is a woman with a painful past where a child she had loved had been taken from her. She doesn't care all that much about the rules of the village, just her great-granddaughter's happiness and she both is prepared to and does give up everything to try and prevent the dark from rising.
While a lot of this fic is pretty dark there is also some nice moments of comedy and a happy sunny ending. Its one of those fics where everyone ends up with the right someone. A treat for people in the Ranma and Akane belong together school of thought. Nice little moral bit at the end, I like to read it aloud. Alright, I like reading lots of things aloud but I especially like reading the end of this fic aloud.
There is a lot of character growth to be seen. Childish conflicts set aside, love being found. Insanity being lost and lost love being set aside. Kodachi fans like myself get a treat and you get to see some of the Kuno siblings past which made them what they were. All and all I really really really like this fic and I highly recommend it.
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