There's one aspect of this chapter that no-one's picked up on yet, maybe
not even the author.

Choice.

You see, Ranma is now surrounded by people who can, to his way of
thinking, control him completely. Make him *want* to become a vampire.

Nope. I'm on top of it. On my little sheet of 'character drives' for 
Ranma, I have listed 'fear of being forced to become'.

(I may publish my notes later as an 'Omake', along with the first 
version of the story that actually had Kasumi as the first vampire, 
and the entire cast going to Romania to fight Prince Vlad.)

In earlier chapters, (and I may need to go back and make this more 
obvious) Ranma just about accuses Nodoka of mindcontrolling Nabiki 
and Kasumi.

His only choice now is to run away, because it's the only one, the only
way, he can be sure won't be influenced. Why? Because he knows that they
can control him.

This was a mistake on Nodoka's part. Trying so hard to make Ranma see 
her way of things....  Tsk Tsk...

Giving in to them or deciding on his own to join them
are now the same thing because he will think (somewhere in the back of
his mind) that they may be controlling him even if they aren't.

Yup. Ranma's ultimate salvation and damnation are the same thing, 
aren't they? Hell of a choice, aint it? ^_^

Chris

guilty@arn.net - cjones@arn.net

* * *

C. Jones - cjones@arn.net
ARNet Incorporated - (806)3553539