Several people have e-mailed me, trying to drill into my head that Shamps
and Ranma were DRUGGED, not hit with a low-impact taser pulse. Which I still
say would stun Ranma but not Shamps... well, not quite so severely. Or
perhaps they centered it on Ranma and Shamps just got a bit of residual
charge. And a nice taser pulse might bring back memories of Shampoo's
earlier "conditioning" at the hands of those wonderful Arena personnel,
triggering a nice anger response at the instinctual level. Pavlov still
holds, even in a technologically advanced society. But I digress.

The point is that a) Cologne is suspicious. So, likely, is Akane and
possibly Genma. The truth will be uncovered in whatever form, and likely
presented to the Arena management, who will carefully lose all complaints in
masses of red tape and/or paper shredders.

But, what's more, b) Shamps is going to find out that she got her strings
tugged into grinding Ranma into the Plexiglas. Perhaps Running Deer
confronts her about that excessive rage (I STILL like the idea of her
tearing apart her dressing room in frustration) and nearly gets her face
smashed in, at which point the whatever-it-was passes and Shamps realizes
she's been had. Running Deer, who not only had an extreme ringside seat but
knows every dirty trick the Arena can pull and then some AND has an interest
in how well Shampoo does... well, let's just say that SHE's likely to notice
whatever gets pulled and tell Shampoo. Or perhaps she finds out anyway when
they give her her after-fight physical. After all, the Arena fighters are
(correct me if I'm wrong) little more than human chattels to the upper
management and thus what they know is of no one's concern.

The upshot is that Cologne and fighting are going to play a more integral
role in Scholar Ranma's life from now on, and if his Tenchi Syndrome is
still in full working order, Shamps is going to fall for him like a sack of
bricks. I don't think anyone would care to dispute those last two.

--G. Falconar