"Hope," she whispered, and, taking an end in each hand, she
snapped the stick in half.  Across an ocean, the snapping 
screamed like a klaxon in the head of an old man in a library.  
Neither of them was aware of this happening, but it was very 
important to what would later occur.

Subtle hint for the readers there? :)

<shrug>  Sometimes ya use a scalpel, sometimes ya use a hammer.

The real reason is that I'm trying to establish a continuity here for 
the readers... this mention and that of the ringing phone at the end of 
the chapter match up to events that take place in China in Chapters 30 
and 31.  There's similiar continuties between Chapters 29, 30 and 31 as 
well.

    There had been nothing, no surge of power or flash of light
or sign of anything else, when she had broken the stick; but when 
she had looked at the two broken pieces, the surfaces were 
smooth.

So why did she break it anyway?

Waaaaaay back in Chapter 20, Happosai and Ukyou had a short 
conversation... Happosai gave the bamboo stick to Ukyou with 
instructions to break it if she needed help.  In Chapter 22, Hako beat 
Ukyou into unconsciousness and took it from her.  The stick was the 
object given to Konatsu in Chapter 28 by Fuhaiko's crow, though the 
reasons for that have not yet been made clear.  

    "Have you ever heard of knocking, doc?" Nabiki asked, 
annoyed.

"Doc" should be capitalized here, I think.

Yup, it's a name, will fix.

As you've probably guessed, I don't have much to say in this one. The
writing was exceptionally good (even by WUE standards) and really
brought home the horror of the situation. I'm still wondering how these
various subplots are going to all fit together, but I think we're going
to find that out shortly.

You will.  Don't worry, I do (believe it or not) know where this is 
going.  ;)

Thanks as always for the commentary, Gary.  It's very much appreciated.

Ciao,
-Alan Harnum

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