So i've been reading this story since the first chapter was posted long ago and i was interested in what i thought was a Ranma/Nabiki pairing. I like those kinds of stories. But then it started to drift into becoming a Harem story and i was ok with that because there was plenty of character development and the story was developing nicely as well. I'm even alright with the growing relationship between Ranma and Ryoga, a pairing i usually hate with a passion. Just a sign of a well developed story.

My beef with the story? Himura.
Most reviewers seem to hate her, me, i just don't care about her. My only interest in her is to see all her plans and schemes come crashing down around her. To me,Himura only added a few elements to the story to get it started and truthfully, i prefer the story when she's not in it. I tend to skim over her parts when they come up. You could just edit her right out of the story and to me it would still be a great story with everything else going on in it.

Good chapter! Always a pleasure reading a new installment of this fic.

Only possible negative is I really only barely remember what Himura is up to. She's kind of been in the background for a long time now. For good reason, and you'll probably clear things up before it's an actual problem, it's just my reaction to her this chapter was "Oh yeah, she's in this, she's like the antagonist right?" which is probably not what you were going for.

I liked the role reversals with Ryoga and his would-be girlfriends and you do a great job getting into the characters' heads. Wonderful character interactions.

Thanks for posting!

Good chapter

Nice job as always, you’ve managed to make everyone’s emotional struggles fit perfectly into your narrative.

You’ve also given me another reason to despise Himura, a great unsympathetic antagonist. I’ve always had a soft spot for Konatsu, so seeing him(her?) go through this is teeth clenchingly angering.

I have to agree with others that I'm a little hesitant to embrace the idea of Ranma being afab. Not because it's shoehorned in or anything, it's very well integrated into the narrative in terms of foreshadowing, motivations by her parents, her internalized misogyny, concerns about honor, her imposter syndrome as *both* genders, and even the nekoken being the presumable cause as well as "protector" of those blocked off memories.

That said... it feels a little cheap, after all the queerness and trans themes? A big part of Ranma's character arc has been how she doesn't feel like a "real" girl and how that's been getting in the way of, well, mostly just her relationship with Ryoga. Internalized transmisogyny is a super relatable problem, and seeing Ranma struggle with it was painful but real. She was thrown into living as a girl both in body and socially basically all the time, so it's like she transitioned way before she'd dealt with all of her emotional trauma from repressing and now she's struggling to overcome it so she can embrace her feelings and relationships - but then, oh wait. Turns out she's actually afab. Nvm.

What you have is an intriguing plot line for sure, but it also sort of feels like the ending to a different story than the one you started. Instead of Ranma figuring out their genderfluidity and embracing the curse, there's this whole other layer of passive background plot that we still don't understand the "how" of that undercuts so much of Ranma's development. And also, even now there still aren't a lot of "amab Ranma is trans" fics that are done well - and let's be honest, the majority of trans people who love Ranma as a character are likely amab - and considering how central Ranma and Ryoga's relationship has been the whole time, having her actually be afab feels less cathartic, in a way.

It's still good. You're a really good writer and I still love so much of this story so I'm not gonna stop reading or liking it, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not a little disappointed.

Hmm... the demon was a bit unexpected, but overall still fit the Ranmaverse well enough, so no complaints there. Though, I suppose getting rid of him seemed a bit easy, but after being worn down into a fraction of the original over centuries, and given what he was up against, I suppose that's reasonable.

More interesting however is Ranma's birth files. My initial thought was that Ranma initially had a twin sister, but further developments in the chapter (and Ranma's apparent memory block) seem to disprove that. The implication seems to be that this is a Genma's Daughter/Worlds Fall Apart/etc sort of situation, where Ranma was born a girl but turned into a boy by some sort of magic early on enough that he/she couldn't remember the difference. I can see that, given Nodoka's seeming obsession with what she wants, although I worry it may muddle the message of this story a bit if that's true. Still, I'll wait to see if that's even correct before judging, and this story has overperformed in most categories so far, so I'll trust you to handle it well regardless.

So, Ranma was born a girl and Genma used the Neko-ken as a way to brain wash Ranma into thinking he was a boy. I'd like to know where/when the biological shift happened. Possibly after Ranma left middle-school; if that observation about the fit of Ranma's uniform has any meaning.

and now that i have hottwn yo yhe end of the chapter, i wasnt expecting that twist,

first off great update, second off sneaky star wars there

Ranma really is a girl who was exposed to the Nemo one and left there to be berated by Genma into thinking like a boy. He'd put her back in the pit over and over until she stop being a girl and be a boy to escape. Then and only then did he let her/him out. Then, some magic happens to turn Ranma into a boy. Anytime Ranma reasserts ha it's that are reminiscent of a girl, the neo one trauma asserts itself causing her extreme mental agony. This is one dark fic man, and some light moments are mixed in with some truly dark stuff.

spoiler to chapter 31.

Honestly hope your not going to make ranma really have been a girl and have been "brainwashed into being a guy. that would sadly remove so much interest in this story as it feels like taking an easy way out for ranma to have these feelings.

wow...what a mess. Fem Ran, even more evil Ssotomes, poor Konatsu, and yeah, i hate Himura.

Good chapter overall. I'm starting to make a game of spotting your references to other franchises, even the less blatant ones, and they amuse me.

Am I just seeing things or missing a hint, or was that demon basically 5 different regenerations of the Master in a blender? ...Including Missy's umbrella? Wonder if that means something about his likelyhood of staying dead?

Ranma, the hair dye, and the pit.. Yeah, I saw the signs earlier and was sorta hoping you weren't going this way. Honestly it'd be fine, save the number of Ranmafics with some disturbing moral that the only true happiness is to be a woman. It kinda skeaves me out how many stories treat Ranma's guy side as some burden they were better rid of, and even if, as you obviously seem to be hinting, it WASN'T this Ranma's origional form I really hope you don't go with that creepy moral. Thinking what's happening with Konatsu might be a condemnation of that sort of thinking, too, but unsure. Again, really hope he makes it out of this okay.

Anyhow, enjoyed the chapter, waiting eagerly for the next.

Well...isnt that ominous...
i feel that things are about to get worse now, all the trouble before was practice before the real thing.

FINALLY. So much progress this chapter, at last beginning to tie up some of the dangling plot threads. But I do agree with one of the other reviewers - I'm mostly ignoring the stuff involving Himura at this point. The rest of the story is wonderfully engaging, while the Saturday morning cartoon villain doesn't really seem to add much in comparison. There are entire stories revolving around finding a solution to Ranma's romantic entanglements. There are entire stories that explore issues with Ryouga's directional curse. There are entire stories centered around exploring Ranma's gender and sexual identities, and you've crammed all of that into a single story. The Himura subplot on top of that is completely unnecessary.

That being said, I'm really happy to see what you have lurking behind Ranma's neko-ken, especially since this chapter revealed that is seems to be completely interwoven with Ranma's gender identity somehow and is likely tied in with what the detective crew uncovered this chapter.