Mission Accomplished... Or Is It?

Today I finished chapter 30.  It's a very long chapter encompassing the end of the slumber party and the next day, and leading into a scene covering the end of the Fall quarter and the actual sale of the Tendo Dojo.  It's supposed to lead directly into chapter 31, which starts the "magical girl" arc.

Except... with the sale of the dojo I need to deal with what happens to Kasumi, where she moves to.  I was originally planning to move her onto the campus of the university she was going to attend, but that was going to be Tokyo University... and that doesn't make any sense.  She needs to pass the national university exams and the Tokyo university exams to get in.  The next school year begins around March/April  right after a short spring break -- she wouldn't be allowed into the university before then I don't think, especially if she hasn't taken the  exams (which she hasn't).  It's not like the U.S. where you can enroll early in the Spring or pick up classes at a Community College or whatever.  At least, I don't think it is.

I'm not actually sure where she should be.  A small apartment, rooming with Nabiki, staying with one of the other characters?  A boarding house like the one in Love Hinata or Maison Ikkoku?  That would be the most fun, so I may actually go with that idea.  But I need to figure it out first and then write it.

And speaking of all that -- I need to establish that Winter Quarter has started.  That should be at least one scene.  Also, the national college entrance exams are held in January, so I should go straight into that too.  Nabiki and Kasumi should be taking those, and I'm not sure who else.  For some reason I want to say that Kaida, Rin, and Akela are all seniors, but Kaida appears in the story in the same homeroom as Ranma and Akane, so she must be a junior.  Tatewaki Kuno would be a senior, of course, so I might mention him.  But I basically need to nail down which of my own characters are actually seniors besides Nabiki and Kuno.  All of them would be taking the exams.

I want to go back and read some Love Hina to get a better feel for how the exams should go.  So... I need to do some research, and write a few scenes.

I'll be tagging these scenes onto the beginning of chapter 31, because I don't want to write a whole new chapter.  I really do want to be finished with this part of the story, and have a complete story that flows from chapter 1 to chapter 39.

And then it's on to chapter 40, which will need some more work to connect directly to chapter 41 I think.  I'm not sure exactly what needs done just yet.

I'm excited though, being this close to connecting to the magical girl chapters that I wrote years ago that were placed so far ahead in my story.  I'll probably need to go through and edit those yet again -- I think my original plan was to have them happen later in the Fall, instead of January/February.  I also can't remember if I make any mention of the Tendo Dojo... I may not have known I was going to sell it when I wrote those chapters.