How might Nerima change?

[bissek]

For the paper tricks, I'd say Iron Cloth could be used to do things like making a sheet of paper strong enough to act as a shield or sharp enough to become a blade, but some of the more complicated things would be impossible. Doing Maggie's trick of creating semi-autonomous creatures out of paper wouldn't be doable, and there'd be a limit as to how long ki stays in the paper after being separated from the user before it starts draining out, so any trick that involves the paper construct being created and then set aside (like creating a barrier for others to hide behind) would be of limited utility. Holding ki in long enough for a paper projectile to be thrown would work, though, as Ryoga uses it that way all the time.

[Jupiah]

So the Hibiki daughter will be a sort of combinaton of Yomiko Readman (bookworm with paper powers), Ami Mizuno (quiet and shy), and Sakura Haruno (inner aggressive personality), but with superhuman strength and endurance and a direction curse?

PURE GENIUS.

You have to use this personality.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

If you could hammer out a more "concrete" version of her personality then? So we have a better/fuller grasp of her character? Once you've done that, we'll move onto the next element of her.

You never did give me your opinion on the idea of having yokai assassins come to Nerima after Yemon and the familiar and/or shipping cursed items to Neo-Gosunkugi in hopes he/she will pass them on and cause the same thing without them dirtying their hands. What's your opinion?

If you think having yokai assassins come to Nerima is an alright idea, then I have an idea for Kodachi that just might fit. It's likely that she's fallen for other guys since Ranma left- however, lacking Ranma's tolerant nature, I seriously doubt any relationship has even reached the physical stage. So, that means Kodachi is now 36, still single, probably still a virgin, and likely well aware of her bio-clock ticking. To her we introduce one of the assassins, a male yokai who can disguise himself (at least to some degree) as a good looking man of around her age. Initially, I was thinking they might meet in circumstances similar to her first meeting with Ranma, then I thought it might be funnier to have him actually seek her out and deliberately begin attempting to seduce her, intending to use her as a catspaw to strike at Yemon/the familiar. Unfortunately for him, Kodachi's hormones are... how should I put it? Starting to overboil, and she reacts a lot more strongly than she ever did for Ranma. As in, he can't get any "work" done because he's trying to escape her. This, eventually, leads to a scene where he desperately tries to frighten her off by revealing his true nature.

Here, we have two options. Option one is that she's so desperate she doesn't even mind he's a yokai. Option 2 is something of a reference to all those fics where Kodachi dumps Ranma for Taro because his monster form (especially post Drowned Octopus) offers more "possibilities": being a yokai actually makes him *more* attractive to her. So, what do you think?

While it mightn't be viable until later in the story, perhaps Neo-Hibiki's style might include some elements of Martial Arts Calligraphy in the form of "Ki Seals"? Basically, these are pieces of paper with special kanji characters inked on them, into which she pours ki. When she "activates" the seal (by giving it a 'jolt' of ki and throwing it at a target), the ki stored inside it activates and is released to cause effects dependant upon the characters and the number of seals used. For example, one batch might create a "null ki zone", in which external Ki attacks don't function, while another might just explode as a burst of ki.

[Heaven's Deamon]

I could see some potential for the ki seal thing as something she was trying to develop on her own, giving lots of room for accidents such as not working, having the wrong effect, having unintended side effects, and the like.

[Jupiah]

I'll get to work on a profile for her then. I'll be gone for the next few hours though, so it'll be awhile. If you could, try to think up a name, some more personality traits, personal history, strange quirks/habits, ecetera so I have some more to work with when I get back. Heh, wouldn't it be a little ironic if she were named Yoiko?

The yokai assassin thing is good, I'd limit it to one assassin though. That one assassin passing on artifacts to the Neo-Gosunkugi sounds good too. And the Kodachi relationship has real potential, but I honestly can't say whether she would be deterred or encouraged by his yokai form. There is little precedent to decide by. It would probably be funnier if she liked it though.

Martial Arts Calligraphy sounds good too. I'd like to brainstorm more, but I got to get to work. I'll think about it more when I get back.

[Heaven's Deamon]

Actually it might be better if it was the other way around, IE, the "Family" sends items to the Gosunkugi's who hold on to them until the assassin comes by to pick them up.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Yoiko would be less ironic here, as that storyline doesn't happen in the anime, but it might make a good name. Heaven, could you possibly follow this link, see if you can find any other names that might have potential, then list them and their meanings here so we can see if one of those might work better?

http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/japanese-girls-names.shtml

Oh, I was thinking Hikaru and Miyo would be out of town looking for such things and sending them back already -which gives us a reason why they aren't ever in town, but I'll discuss that when we get to the neo-Gos'- but I was thinking they'd just send back magic items that might or might not be cursed, but which could be misuesed in the best Ranma 1/2 tradition. The assassins, however, deliberately send items that can *only* cause problems, in a way to get rid of the familiar (who needs a name and probably a profile like Yemon's) without exposing their hand. Though I might be misreading your post Heaven.

So, Heaven, do you have any ideas for quirks/habits or some notable events from her past/details about her life before Yemon rolls into town?

[Heaven's Deamon]

According to the top of the page, some names are put together simply because they sound good, rather than for any kind of meaning, It also mentions suffixes that are used to make the names "feminine" and that they cycle. It says that

all the -ko, -e, and -yo names that were ragingly popular at the turn of the century, but that sound slightly dated now. Since 1980, the popularity of these traditional names has fallen, and names ending in -ka, -na, and -mi (beautiful) have taken over the top-ten lists of popular Japanese girls' names.

And we could also take into consideration the posibility of a "naming theme" I recall hearing once that Ryouga's name meant "Lucky Fang" so going for something like "Ryoumi" to mean "lucky beauty" might work......

[Jupiah]

Names for the Hibiki daughter... well I'm partial to Tomoko ((tomo) "wisdom, intellect" or (tomo) "friend" combined with (ko) "child"), or Michiko ((mi) "beautiful", (chi) "wisdom, intellect" and (ko) "child").

Having her know Martial Arts Calligraphy is a great idea too. That syle would mesh well with Iron Cloth Style paper manipulation. The only problem is that there is almost no information on Martial Arts Calligraphy. The only known practitioner is an old man of the Kimen School, and he uses a giant ink brush, ink stick and ink stone. The style seems to be based prominently on increasing a warrior's physical abilities by tatooing stupid looking marks onto his body.

The only known technique is the Mark of the Battling God, a tatoo that makes the recipient virtually invincible, although it's not known how it works. The Mark is so absurdly powerful that I imagine it is a grandmaster level technique, and would be well beyond the Hibiki daughter's abilities. We'd have to invent most of the style ourselves. I like the idea though, so I'm gonna start brainstorming up some techniques for it.

I've decided that I like the idea of the competent yokai assassin seducing Kodachi for info and money, but getting in over his head. It's original and funny as hell. He doesn't kill her partially out of guilt for using her and because he realizes he brought this on himself, but mostly because she's gotten really good over the past 20 years (After Ranma left for China with Shampoo, Kodachi decided that he must have picked Shampoo over her because of her superior martial arts skills, so she's starting taking her training seriously since then).

The desperate crazy girl refuses to let the yokai get away, and he finds to his dismay that he can't complete his mission with Kodachi's goons constantly watching him and while he spends most of his time trying to escape from her. The whole situation is all the funnier because unlike most of the prominent players in Nerima, the yokai is actually very intelligent and competent, he was just unfortunate enough to make a huge mistake in getting involved with the Kuno family. So he has to settle for tricking some of the local players, like the Gosunkugi child, into doing his dirty work for him.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

There's actually an anime episode, 5th season I think, where we see a true practitioner of the style -Sotatsu Jikei'ien- come to Nerima, seeking to crush the local dojos and make them all branches of his own school. The style basically, as I recall, consists -in a formal match- of attempting to create a legible kanji character while attempting to prevent your opponent doing so. Sotatsu uses a giant brush as a weapon, as well as slinging ink and paperweights.

I wasn't actually suggesting that she *use* the style, just so you know, just that my idea about 'ki seals' was inspired by the Mark of the Gods, which suggests that a lost/secret branch of the style is using ink designs to augment, create and alter the flow of ki.

So, you like the idea of the yokai assassin becoming Kodachi's new love interest? Okay then, glad you like it. Do you want him to have come to Nerima alone, to have been sent to check up on (and, if neccessary, replace) the "young female one who's fallen for Yemon" that Heaven suggested, or maybe part of a small team who find his situation funny and/or weren't especially fond of taking his orders anyway, which is why they don't intervene?

[Jupiah]

So basically she can use a calligraphy seal to "charge" a piece of paper with he ki, in order to cause a variety of effects later on? Interesting. I'd limit it to a few simple effects, to avoid becoming too similar to a fantasy style wizard creating magic scrolls. I'd also probably put a time limit on the seals - the ki leaks out of the seal in a few days if unused, preventing her from creating a massive stockpile of them.

A few ideas that come to mind... maybe a Naruto-style exploding tag, similar to Happosai's Fire Burst technique. Or a "ki-sealing" tag, similar to a priest's spirit wards, but blocking ki. One of those attached to a martial artist would prevent him from using any ki techniques until it's removed. There could be an adhesive seal, one that causes both sides of the paper to become incredibly sticky, allowing the Hibiki daughter to stick her opponent's to the floor or other surfaces, or glue doors shut, at least until the seal runs out of ki after a few minutes. Got any ideas of your own to add?

I'd stick to a single assassin. They are hunting a helpless ferret after all, the tribe would likely think it unneccessary to more than one skilled warrior. Or maybe the tribe simply doesn't have any more warriors to spare. Perhaps this particular assassin was the one to actually kill the familiar in the first place, but it was his mistake that allowed the familiar to escape and be reborn. Because of that, he takes this mission very personally, and is too proud to ask for help. Maybe this assassin has a long and bitter history with the familiar, which is why he took the job to kill him in the first place. All of this could allow for a particularly dramatic confrontation between them at some point.

I was just reading through the manga, and I found something that could be used to good comedic effect in this fic. The Legendary Bean Gun Plant. It instinctively shoots beans at demons (or anything that looks like a demon) as well as anyone that gets angry around it. The thing can fly using it's two little leafs as wings, and apparantly likes to patrol it's owner's home, seeking out demons or angry people to attack. It's weakness is that it cannot attack you as long as your smiling, even if you're angry.

What if Kodachi has a few of these in her greenhouse? They could cause a lot of grief for the assassin, and maybe a few funny chase scenes or a scene where Kodachi explains to him how it works and wonders to herself why it would attack her darling (this is before he reveals his yokai nature to her). I know it's manga canon only, but I thought it had enough potential to mention it. Just a thought.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

One thing about the Bean Gun Plant: aren't yokai and onis/demons two different things?

And that's basically the sort of things I was thinking for 'ki seals'; they only hold the energy for about a day tops, but their primary use is to create more tactical options so Michiko can apply her strength to the target.

One assassin, with him being the guy who originally snuffed the familiar in the first place and now pursuing him because he feels his personal honor has been stained, sounds like the best idea for him.

Now, to return to Michiko (it'll do for a default name until/unless we find something that seems to suit her better): have you managed to iron out her personality? Well, what quirks (besides her direction curse) can you think of? Hmm... it might be a bit too close to Ryoga to make her have problems controlling her strength. Besides, I think in Ryoga's case that problem is because he's so overemotional. What about the idea she doesn't mind the direction curse so much because she actually likes the idea of travel?

[Jupiah]

The Ranma-verse seems to treat onis as just a certain kind of yokai, and the terms demon/yokai seem to be interchangable. Takahashi did also create Inuyasha, afterall. It wouldn't be that hard to fudge the lines anyway, the only "oni" ever shown in Ranma was a wimpy little spirit that possessed people and made them do minor evil deeds.

Here's my rough draft for her personality profile. Please comment, question, add to, or delete from it as you wish.

Michiko Hibiki:

Intelligent & a Bookworm – started studying on her own to avoid falling behind in school when she gets lost, and took to it. Got so smart that she now only attends school enough to get her assignments, turn in homework, and take her tests, which her teachers allow her to take whenever she shows up, as she rarely makes it to class on time. Her principal allows her low attendance to slide because he knows of her curse and because she is otherwise a perfect student. She’s something of an urban legend at her school - the phantom student that almost never comes to class, but somehow gets better grades than all of them. There’s a betting pool on whether she actually exists.
Calm and Accepting – due to her mother’s influence, Michiko calmly accepts thing she cannot change, and instead works to make the best of what she does have. She does her best to work around her direction difficulties by always carrying a cell phone so that she can talk to her friends and relatives whenever she wants, and by making extensive use of taxi cabs to get around without getting lost.
Solitary & Outdoorsy – Like all Hibikis, she is used to being alone, but she actually enjoys it. It gives her plenty of time to study and practice her martial arts, and she likes travelling and spending time outdoors with nature. She is uncomfortable is crowded or noisy places.
Quiet & Wise – not out of shyness, but more because she’s used to being alone. Usually speaks up only when she has something important to say, so everyone listens when she does.
Hidden Aggressiveness – She likes to fight, but denies it out of embarrassment and thinking it’s unladylike, and because her mother disapproves. Enjoys competition and finding opportunities to apply her intelligence.
Take-Charge Attitude – despite her quiet and seemingly passive personality, she actually enjoys taking a leadership role and will step up if she feels no one else is up to the task.
Condescending – although she tries her best to be polite to everyone she meets because her mother expects it, she can unintentionally come off as condescending to others because of her intelligence and experience (she’s seen and learned a lot of things due to her direction curse).

She's sort of a rough combination of her parent's personalities and her mother's hopes. She takes after her mother more, because Ryoga gets lost so much. Kasumi regretted never attending college and getting a medical degree, so she encouraged Michiko to study as much as possible, which resulted in her bookworm habits. Kasumi is enormously proud of her daughter because of her academic achievements.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

The anime's version of the oni was a lot more formidable, transforming into a hulking monster after leaving Kasumi, but I agree the "breeds" are interchangeable enough to make the Bean Gun Plant viable. Perhaps have it that Kodachi has a number of "mystical" plants? Some of them with potent magical effects, if prepared right (which may give Yemon a cause to risk raiding her guarden if he needs special ingredients for whatever reason), some of them with the potential to be 'trouble makers'?

Looks like a nice personality to me. You have any comments/complaints Heaven? Hmm... would it be too great a stretch to give her a strong competitive streak, inherited from Ryoga (basically what he softens his envious nature into as the series progresses)? Or would the fact she's known a number of other, equally potent martial artists have made her less likely to become irate and/or vengeful at losing a match?

So, with her personality done and her name chosen, what are the other elements we need for her?
*Capabilities
*Appearance
*Fighting style & special techniques
*"Quirks"
What else?

[Jupiah]

Kodachi having a large collection of rare and dangerous magical plants is a good idea (and could be explained by her lack of a love life - she obsessed with martial arts and botany in order to compensate). I don't know about Yemon raiding it though, he doesn't strike me as the "potion-brewing" type. Although I suppose Cologne could be - maybe he has to raid it a few times at her request?



Still working on the other aspects of Michiko's profile, but here's my rough draft for her "Interests & Hobbies" section, although looking over it, it seems I mixed in her personality quirks too:

Reading and studying books about almost any subject or field of knowledge. She prefers reading textbooks and manuals, and rarely indulges in manga or other fiction, except for the occasional romance novel. Her favorite subjects are spiritual martial arts (such as ki theory and meditation), geography, history, mathematics, and medicine (both modern and traditional shiatsu and moxibustion). She’ll read just about anything out of boredom or curiosity however, so she often will surprise others with random facts or bits of knowledge on the strangest subjects.

She also enjoys collecting bookmarks, and has a massive collection of thousands of them. Most of them are unique, many of them can be considered works of art, and some are quite rare and valuable. She is very protective of her bookmarks, and is prone to snapping at anyone that tries to touch one without permission.

Her knowledge of martial arts is considerable, although she prefers to focus on the more spiritual side of the art, rather than the physical. As a result, her skill at meditation and ki manipulation is excellent. She tends to treat her abilities more as a science than an art, which is why she developed her ki-seal techniques, rather than learn more traditional ki attacks.

Her knowledge of geography is vast. Unlike her father, who stubbornly refused to admit he had a problem, and tried to compensate by drawing his own maps (which gave him a very skewed understanding of geography), Michiko studies maps and globes almost fanatically, to try and compensate for her direction curse. Unfortunately, this knowledge doesn’t help her much during the day, unless she has someone with her that can use her knowledge to guide her. However, she can actually travel fairly accurately (for a Hibiki) at night, because she has taught herself how to navigate using the stars as a guide.

Her knowledge of Japanese history, culture and folklore is also extensive. Because she actually enjoys travelling, she always tries to learn the local history as well as the myths and legends of any town or village she visits. As a result she has become quite the tourist, and is also an excellent storyteller. Like her father, she enjoys collecting postcards and souveniers from the many unusual places she visits.

Her knowledge of mathematics is also considerable. Originally she took it up simply because she enjoys solving problems and puzzles, but later began studying it earnestly in order to help her invent her ki-seal techniques, which incorporate many mathematical principles into their designs (sort of a combination of Fullmetal Alchemest style alchemy circles and Naruto style Chakra seals). She has also begun trying to develop her own branch of mathematics to explain the principles of ki in a scientific manner, as the scientific community has yet to gain any real understanding of exactly how ki works. She has had little success so far.

At the encouragement of her mother, she also took up medicine, both modern and traditional shiatsu and moxibustion. Her understanding of theory is great, but she has never been formally trained and has almost no practical experience in anything beyond common first-aid. As a result, she doesn’t trust herself to try and perform any advanced techniques or procedures.

Despite her confidence in her knowledge and abilities, and her confidence in many social situations, she is actually quite shy and insecure when it comes to romance. Due to her direction curse, her monstrous (to normal people) strength, and her incredible intellect, few men are willing to aproach her in a romantic manner. As a result she is insecure about her own attractiveness, and typically avoids thinking about relationships at all, out of a fear of rejection. This is part of the reason she tries to emulate her mother's serene nature (she thinks men are attracted to that trait), although she's not very good at duplicating it as she really isn't the passive or nurturing type (she takes more after her father in that regard). It is mostly due to this insecurity about her own attractiveness that she is completely oblivious to Yemon's rather obvious attraction to her (to much comedic effect).

*It seems I've turned her into quite the intellectual! This wasn't originally my goal, but it just sort of worked out that way and I like it. It makes quite the contrast with her parents, while still making sense - both Ryoga and Kasumi, who both regret never getting an advanced education, would have encouraged her to do so as much as possible. It also makes her quite different from the typical Ranma-verse obsessive, desperate and delusional type love-interest. What do you think?*



Also, a very rough draft of her "Relationships" section. I need more info from you in order to fill out this part:

Relatives
Ryoga Hibiki (Father)
Kasumi Hibiki (Mother)
Ryoga’s Parents (names unknown) (Grandparents)
Soun Tendo (Grandfather)
Akane Tendo (Aunt)
Nabiki Tendo (Aunt)
Hinako? (Step-Grandmother?) *are you going to pair her with Soun?*
Akane’s Child? (Cousin?)
Nabiki’s Child? (Cousin?) *will Nabiki's chid(ren) play any role in this fic?*
A sister or two? *Kasumi is the maternal type, so I’m pretty sure she’d want to have more than one kid, and the Tendos seem to be predisposed to having daughters. What do you think?*

Friends/Rivals/Love-interests
Yemon Saotome
Ukyo & Mousse’s Child?
Gosunkugi & Miyo’s Child?

*We need to think up some more friends for her*



What do you think?

Heaven, I haven't heard much from you about my ideas lately, I'd appreciate your input as well.