Still another good chapter! ^_^  I can't put my finger on why, but the
first part of this chapter wasn't as intensely creepy as the section where
we first find out about Shampoo's invisible companion - even though we're
finally seeing the villain face to face (that part really gave me the
shivers!).

Unfortunately, when you've already _seen_ the villain's face (or at least,
the only face it has), it's hard to make it too creepy...

I'm kind of curious...if "Cologne" was drawn to Shampoo's despair, then why
didn't it latch onto Ryoga?  He must have gone through the Mother of All
Depressions when Ranma and Akane finally married - even with Akari to
soften the blow, he was still devoted to Akane.  Didn't you say Shampoo
left Japan after the successful wedding?  So that means "Cologne" had to
have witnessed Ryoga's reaction to the whole thing.  Just a thought! ^_^

(1) Cologne was already 'bonded' to someone, and unlikely to switch; and
(2) At the time she was pretty much under Shampoo's domination, and unable
to do very much on her own anyway.  Life can be hard for mental-control
greeblies.

I'm a big Ryoga fan, so naturally I think of him in relation to fics I
read. ^_~

Ryoga very nearly did appear, flying the police flitter out to Ranma.  But
one of my main goals was to keep the head-count down in this story.  If
possible, I wouldn't be using any characters at all except Ranma and Ukyou.
In the end I kind of _had_ to include Cologne and Shampoo (though as a
matter of fact I tried very hard to find an alternative), and there's one
other character who I think will make an appearence before the end, simply
because I can't resist it...

Angus

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Angus MacSpon                                                Allen Gainsford
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon            http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon