Well, in v38, there seems to be only a short scene with Mousse after the

As for the demon invasion, he was more or less the least affected, his
development of a backbone seems a *bit* too abrupt.

Mousse has also been having quite a hard week.  And he's coming to
understand that things are not going to work out for him ...

Hmmm... a bit of an identity crisis? Now that his focus of Shampoo is gone,
he's floundering. I suppose I could buy that... as long as it's not TOO
expensive. ^_~

Unfortunately, you're right.  Ryouga IS wishy-washy.  Oi.  But this is
something we've seen before with him.  Akane or Akari?  This time, it's
Ukyou or Reiko.

   I'm playing this close to the chest for now.  Let me put it to you this
way ... the more romantic confusion, the better I like it.  ^_^

Hee hee... that makes it all the more worth reading. Besides, considering
how serious the story has been, a bit of relief isn't bad.

She may be willing to reinforce the wards anyway. That doesn't give her a
free  pass into the inner circle though. Kunou is VERY protective of his
duty. For someone like Kunou, having such a job is very ego inflating. I
suspect that one of the reasons he doesn't want to share is for personal
gratification. On the other hand... he's trying to fight off personal
madness... so now that one person has joined his little disaster, it may 
be easier to introduce another.

Especially if Nabiki brings her persuasive talents to bear!

Still... she'll have her work cut out for her. Kunou has YEARS of
conditioning to get over before he'll start accepting help.

Accepting help is a sign of weakness... and that, above all, is anathema to
the young Samurai wanna-be. Having the fact that his duty to protect the
populous is more important than his family's self-importance (and possible
shame) will be very interesting to see.

I wonder if/when it's going to occur to Kunou that it is his JOB to
re-populate the inner-circle? Of course, Nabiki might have to rub his nose
into that one.

Time will tell.

As for Ranko, many MANY people have asked to see more of him.  I'm taking
the hint, believe me ... I never knew he would be so popular!  But I don't
really want to stop in the middle of this story to show the first Ranko
interlude ... that's why I planned to wait until after Doors was over.  But I
still plan on getting there ... uh, eventually ... honest!  <heh>  Story's
kinda getting big on me, I didn't plan to write an epic, really I didn't ...

There's no rush... just remember that some of us know where you live. ^_~

  ___________
 / Here lies:\  Time Travel: A perfectly good way to ruin someone's
|   Andrew    |              history.
|             | 
|   I think   |       Andrew Petalik {ICQ ID: 160869}
| he's hungry | Jadzia Dax    : Don't worry, I have a light touch. 
|             | Julien Bashir : Not according to Worf...