I suspect Chiaki enhances and informs her intuitions by shrewd character judgements and subtle manipulations. Vinnie sometimes can't help showing his upbringing; sometimes he forgets to pretend that he's just a normal guy.




It's likely that Ripper doesn't have a mentor, of he'd have been controlled and trained better. That means that his creator may well have fallen foul to one of the heroes patrolling the city, or to some rival occult power-base such as the Lycanthropes Guild or the Fey.

Really this story is just about Vinnie taking care of his regular business. As he pointed out at the end, there were half a dozen ways he could have beaten Ripper and his cadre. Sometimes Vinnie faces dangers that he struggles to survive; this wasn't one of them. The tough part of his day was heading home afterwards to negotiate a fee with Lisa.