How might Nerima change?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Things are altered a little in the anime, where he stakes out the Tendos rather than beating up Mousse and Ryoga, but it makes sense. Ranma & Shampoo would have gone to get cures right after the ceremony, and the idea of him deciding to go and "speak" to a Japanese local to see if he knows anything about Happosai seems logical. So, what happens once he runs into Ranma & Shampoo?

Hmm... I can see Taro trying his usually bullying/threatening to try and make Ranma talk, but as Ranma is both stubborn, hard to intimidate (where cats aren't involved at least) and genuinely ignorant, the most likely development is a battle. Hmm... so how might this fight result in Taro meeting his wife? Having him knock her out when she gets caught in the crossfire is a possible gag, but it's a bit too much like how Ranma & Shampoo got hitched, don't you agree? Or perhaps Taro leaves (or is allowed to leave) the village without any interference, goes to Japan, and there gets his butt kicked by Happosai. Furiously, he returns to China with the intent of upgrading his Jusenkyo curse, and then he encounters the Chinese Amazons again?

One branching idea that suddenly occurs to me is that Taro and his wife don't get together because of the Kiss of Marriage. I can see her leaving the village to secretly track Taro down, offering her help in finding and beating Happosai if he'll help her with... something or other. A slightly different version has her joining a group of warriors sent after Taro for retribution, but her desires for a "partnership" as before cause her to sabotage them so she can speak to Taro about alliance.

[Heaven's Deamon]

Like I suggested earlier, The match with Taro happens semi publicly, most of the amazons watch, but don't interfere due to culture. She watches the match, notes that Taro is powerful but unrefined in using it, and starts planning to use her "brains" to direct his brawn. She could try to interfere and get knocked out, or she could follow him when he leaves to make a partnership deal like you suggested.

I don't think the amazons would be inclined to seek retribution from him unless he got really out of hand, but if they were aware of his search for Happosai then they might send someone to track him on the off chance that he finds the little imp so they could plan out a retrieval of their treasures. She could volunteer for that job......

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Yeah, that makes sense. She watches the match go down and decides he'd make a great partner. When the Conclave decides to send an "agent" to follow Taro in hopes of finding Happosai, she quickly volunteers, secretly planning to meet Taro face-to-face and persuade him to ally with her.

So, how would she go about that last part anyway? And what happens to the duo when they reach Japan?

[Gideon020]

Hmm, likely since the lady uses her brains, she might track him down and approach him while he's training so that Taro is not at full strength and openly proposes an alliance, stating that the two of them are working towards the same goal: finding Happosai. Taro of course takes this at face value, two fighters are better than one and a demonstration of her strength in strategy seals the deal.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Alright then, so, now we need to come up with the details of Lifen's mom herself. Anyone have any ideas?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Okay, if no one's got any ideas for her (and she's someone we can come back to when we finish off Lifen by giving her the Jusenkyo curse), shall we decide what Lifen's martial arts capabilities (used if she has to fight in human form) are?

Personally, I see her as being something of a "jack of all trades, master of none" type; she's decent in every aspect, but not truly exceptional at any one part. She's not the strongest, the fastest, the toughest, the hardest to hurt, or the best dodger, but she's got good ranks in all areas. This diversive training, coupled with the fact she has to spend just as much time on her cursed form's magical abilities, means she's probably at the lower end of power, but at the higher end of versatility.

What do you two think?

[Gideon020]

Makes sense, a high level of versatility can do as much damage as a specialization when coupled with a little brains and Lifen would have inherited some of her mother's brains. Also this would mean then that Lifen is both an attacker of opportunity and an ambusher; both relying on surprise or distraction to provide time to cause as much damage as possible before pulling out.

Speaking of Lifen's mother, I'm thinking that while she may be somewhat inconspicuous, or as close as inconspicuous one can get in the Amazon village so while she has beauty she would also likely have dark hair and eyes, perhaps brown or black since those colors wouldn't get a second look just about anywhere.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

So what do you say, Heaven's Daemon? Jack-of-all-trades capabilities suit you as well?

Once we've got her capabilities settled; should Lifen have martial arts special techniques, or rely on the powers of her alternate form to "cover" for stuff like the Amaguriken or Hiryu Shoten Ha? If she does have special techniques, how many should she have? Seeing as how she's neither a prodigy nor the offspring of champions, she'd probably have maybe one special technique, two at the most.

Oh, and just to go slightly off topic, these are two random ideas that came to me for other characters:
*Ranma, in either canon, has a tendency to deliberately twist himself into rather awkward/impossible looking positions, either to fit through somewhere or apparently for the sheer hell of it. And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't ferrets notorious for physical flexibility? So what do you think of the idea of Yemon being triple-jointed, and thus with a nervous habit of twisting himself into frightful contortions (it's also helpful with his fighting style; helps him dodge or roll with a blow)?

*Secondly, while Marumaru would undoubtedly consider the idea of a personal servant primitive and unneccessary, seeing as how Kuno and Sasuke made such an interesting pair (one "character profile" I found on youtube described him as a "Class F Ninja, but a Class A Little Buddy"), do you think we should give Marumaru a Sarugakure village ninja-servant of his own?

[Gideon020]

I'm thinking Amaguriken would be a decent skill for Lifen to know as well as Breaking point for creating quick escapes and dust screens.

A triple-jointed Yemon is too good to pass up, just thinking of situations that would get him nervous enough to unconciously start twisting around, a habit his parents are likely trying to cure him of. It could also lead to any girls romantically interested in him at first freaking out but then suddenly have 'thoughts' as to the advantage of a triple-jointed boyfriend. I say go with it.

As for Marumaru gaining a ninja buddy, it would work seeing as Marumaru would need someone to grab the right parts and tools while fiddling around with inventions as well as doing all the intelligence gathering work. If Sasuke is an F-grade ninja, maybe by now Sarugakure has improved their ninja to be D-grade ninja but still A-grade friends.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Actually, from what little we know of Sarugakure village, it seems that Sasuke's ineptness is just part of him, rather than a reflection of the village itself (which is quite evidently very strict in its training- it's possible that the main reason Sasuke is so loyal to the Kunos is because even the life he lives with them is better than going home!).

My own vague ideas for the new ninja is that he (or perhaps she, whichever seems more profitable) was sent to Sasuke to see if the legendarily devoted (if not particularly competent) Sasuke could make a decent ninja out of them and/or at the very least to get the neo-ninja out of the senseis' hair. Basically, the "neo-ninja" is lazy, somewhat scattered-brained, and a major goof-off, more likely to be dozing or playing a pocket gamemachine than training... or even doing its job. Sasuke tries his hardest to make them into a proper ninja-servant, but so far he's not doing much good.

One other idea that comes from that is that the neo-ninja is afraid of doctors/surgery, and thusly whenever he really needs the ninja to do something Marumaru pulls out a kitbox of sci-fi looking medical gadgets that, as well as being hightech, would probably make an Ork Bad Dok envious at how "hurty" they look. If you've ever seen Devilman, then the giant needle that freaky nurse likes to carry around would look right at home in this batch. It is, of course, a bluff- Marumaru would never actually use them to cause pain, let alone to perform the "draw your own conclusion/nightmare" experiments he hints he intends to use the neo-ninja for, but his/her fear is so great that the merest mentioning of "the box" or the sound of it clinking is enough to get it up and send it racing to do its job.

[Gideon020]

That sounds like a good idea actually, and it gives me an idea where a character plays a prank on the ninja by placing the box in plain view where-ever he/she goes to make the ninja think the box is following him.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

So, Heaven, do you have anything to say about the ideas I've put forth so far?

Alright, now, given as we seem to have Lifen handled so far, who shall we "re-examine" next? Sakuya Gosunkugi, or Marumaru Kuno?

[Heaven's Deamon]

Not Really, also note that I'll be absent from tommorrow through Sunday, due to heading for an Anime con in NC.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

So I guess we'll have to wait until you get back so you can take a proper look over mine and Gideon's new ideas and comment on them. Ah well.

So, Gideon020, which character shall we re-examine while Heaven's Daemon is away?

[Gideon020]

Hmm, let's have a look-see at Marumaru, I think he should be rather interesting since he's a mostly a tech user rather than a fighter.