Well, this is the second time I've been reading The Pit and for the second time, it left me in two minds. I'm not really fond of those parallel realities or time travel stories, they're such a headache to figure out! Your first chapters here a really complicated, and it's puzzling that little Ranma seems to understand everything that happens to him at once (extremely clever!) wheras I, as a grownup and reading it for the second time, still didn't get it. I must be too dumb. :p No, really, I think there are some details that you left out. But it's ok, we can pick it up afterwards. The chapters in the middle are good, with a more realistic development despite the weirdness of the situation. And then at the end I got lost again with everyone visiting differents realities and changing their present or not... Got another headache! And I may have lost count, but I think all the characters didn't add up to the right number in the end... But, except for that, I very much liked the Ryoga-Ranma bonding, and the stay at the Joketsuzoku. Ryoga was weirding me out a bit at the beginning, with that backthought of 'is he going to abuse the child himself'? It was a good idea to leave that possibility open and then have the story develop to another direction. I also liked that you cleared the field in chap. 19 to make clear that this is not a love relationship. With all that out of the way, that left the strong Ryoga-Ranma bonding and that's what I love. I do believe that those two have to be strongly connected in some way. So even if you got me a bit confused, I liked it all in all! Thanks for sharing it!

It's so very hard to put into words how this story made me feel. It's so excellently written that I did get quite teary-eyed towards the end, ashamed as I am to admit it. I loved everything about it, from the character interactions to the purposefully confusing way the interactions between older! and younger!Ranma were described. You have a magnificent way with words and characters, and it's definitely something to be admired.

I remember following this story when you first started posting it and the other day decided to take a trip through memory lane and go through all my favourite Ranma stories. It’s been years but damn it was even better than I remembered. The storyline was such a fantastic premise and so well executed. I’m so glad that this fic is still around to reread and wish there were more quality Ranma fanfics.

There aren't many fics that move me to tears. Yours did. Multiple times. I don't know what else I can say. Anything else would seem hollow compared to that.

No idea how I missed this story. Glad I found it though. A very interesting take on ranma. I enjoyed your take on how things would go with ranma getting some care and the curse earlier on.

Sad to say it seems that this fandom is dying out, sucks as I still think it has potential in so many places. I check it out every once in a while for things I missed. Lots of memories of reading some of these stories a decade ago. Now I feel old reading them...

Thanks for a very enjoyable story.

This story took me places. It's one of those things where you don't think about what's happening to young Ranma until it's spelled out. Or maybe like, you don't think about offhanded comments like Genma calling young Ranma imaginary as a big deal, until it's obvious that it is. Except in this, we see the world through the young Ranma's perspective for most of it, so we know how big a deal these things are. Being able to convey how things get twisted when you're a child —or maybe, how they *don't* get twisted, as opposed to us today having it twisted— is really something, and it should resonate hard with just about anybody.

This is among the best if not the best character driven Ranma fanfic I've read. The presentation via flow of thought is fantastic.

The only problems I have is the time travel dynamic makes no sense, nor does Genma's actions at the end. Ranma has to have gone feral to have learned the neko-ken, which it is insinuated he did not. If the actions of canon Ranma took place between the scenes of your fic, then the actions of most of the characters who knew him as a child make no sense.

I also think Genma would have used the chance to retrain Ranma from the pit forward again, instead of just disappearing.

All the best, hope you write a more uplifting tale in the future.

This clears up why Ryoga went back, but it doesn't say how. Is it what the curse of bad direction, is it a family secret that was lost in the years. That is what confused me the most.

This story is fucking sad, but I like it. Even if it makes me cry a little.

oh dear, something must go very wrong if akane's a spirit of the pools

dang, it would have been horrifying if kizmet's idea was true

i suspect that ryoga was sent into a different time/dimension via shenanigans, and is not without some basic human decency

Amazing loved it. But I miss little ranma she was so cute.

still slightly confused, but eh, I loved the ending, and everything.

this was written beautifully, and I enjoyed reading it very much ;v;

tbh I'm kinda confused, but the story's great