Legal: The characters of Ranma ½ were created by the great Rumiko Takahashi.
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan
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Ranma three and a half eyes
Chapter 2
by Brendan O'Donnell
"... So as I was watching Ranchan and Akane arguing I thought about everything, and I realized that I would rather satisfy family honor by marrying him instead killing him." Ukyo concluded her explanation to Nodoka Saotome.
Nodoka looked at Ukyo. She moved her head to look at Genma. Genma began to sweat. "Genma," she began; her use of his first name prompted a quick gulp from her husband. "I know you've been very sensitive about food after having to spend two years without eating, but I don't think that's an excuse."
"I... No..." Genma replied slowly, directing his gaze to the table. A few silent moments later he looked up into his wife's eyes. She couldn't speak directly into his mind any more but he knew she was demanding an answer. "Well when he offered the Yatai, that's why I immediately wanted to say yes, but I..." he looked at her again. "I... I guess I thought if I did something I knew you'd disapprove of I wouldn't miss you so much."
Nodoka blinked.
"I'm sorry Nochan." Genma added quietly.
"Ukyo." Hearing her name called she turned and looked at Mrs. Saotome, who had stepped out of the Dojo after her.
"Mrs. Saotome?"
"Call me Nodoka, please. I was hoping you would let me walk you home, I think there are a few more things we should discuss."
Ukyo wasn't sure what to feel. She felt unnerved by the Revelation that Ranma wasn't completely human, she felt a betrayed because of the new bond that had suddenly formed between her fiancée and her rival, and she was afraid that she would be discounted as Ranma's fiancée. Now Nodoka wanted to talk to her. *If she's going to talk about the new situation negating my engagement, she'd better save her breath for Shampoo. I tracked Ranma for ten years, and he's mine!* "Thank you M... Nodoka," Ukyo replied, turning and starting toward the Dojo. "I am your son's fiancée after all."
"Many of the humans I have met through the years feared the Sanjiyan just because we are not like them. That's the main reason we returned to Japan where there were few people who knew I was once a Sanjiyan. It's nice to see someone who's not repulsed by this discovery."
"I could never be repulsed by anything about my Ranchan. Besides all we have to do is go to China and redo whatever ritual you did with the Nanichuan. Ranma goes back to being human and get's cured to boot,"
"It wouldn't work," Nodoka replied. Seeing Ukyo pause and look at her she continued, "The power Ranma now possesses is far greater than all the springs in Jusenkyo combined. For the Ritual to work requires one thing I had and Ranma lacks, an overpowering desire to become human. That kind of desire is the result of decades of searching. Besides Ranma knows that if he is cured his nature will pass on to his children, so the necessary desire will be even harder to develop."
Ukyo looked at Nodoka. Nodoka looked back and smiled. "Well for the moment let's forget that. Let's pretend instead that there is a simple and quick way for Ranma to regain his humanity and that he decided to marry you afterward. What do you think it would be like being married to my son?"
Ukyo didn't need to think. She had been contemplating and planing the details of her marriage to Ranma since the moment he called her cute. She began to share those plans and fantasies with Nodoka, the details of their quiet life running an Okonomiki restaurant together. A few minutes later as she was explaining her preferred names for the children, she noticed Nodoka was looking forward with a troubled expression on her face. Pushing down a surge of fear she said, "Nodoka?"
"Do you know my son at all?" Nodoka commented quietly, then shook her head and glanced at Ukyo. "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking of something. Anyway, I'm not going to do anything to force you to end your engagement to Ranma but it would probably be best if you did. Magic that can make a Sanjiyan human is so rare and powerful that the search would take decades or even centuries. You shouldn't throw away your life waiting for someone who would return looking young enough to be your grandson."
"Who said anything about waiting. I'd be perfectly happy traveling with Ranma and helping him search. If he couldn't become human, couldn't he just give Akane back her soul and take mine instead?"
"The type of magic that can restore a WU's soul is almost as rare as that which can make a Sanjiyan Human." She shook her head. "I'm quite familiar with the human capacity to overcome the odds, but I really hope you don't try to match Kyosaku. My son was inadvertently responsible for your loosing 10 years in pursuit of him, and he wouldn't want to be responsible for making you throwing away the rest of your life wandering through perpetual danger watching a man you care about stay the same while you grow older.
"That's your restaurant, right?"
Ukyo blinked a moment, then looked to see Ucchan's sign a few feet away from her. She nodded.
"Then I guess I've escorted you home." Nodoka commented as she turned. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Ukyo. "Here's one more thing to think about. There has never been any possibility of Ranma leading a quiet life. Whether awoken or not Ranma is a living generator of magic power. Magic comes from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. No matter how Ranma's life had turned out it would have been chaotic indeed." Nodoka smiled. "Whatever happens remember that you are a fine young woman and there are many fine men who would risk everything for someone like you. Please embrace that truth and let my son go his way in peace."
Ukyo stood by the door of her shop looking at Nodoka walking away. Narrowing her eyes she opened the door and entered, slamming it shut after her with almost enough force to shatter the frame.
Ranma lay on his futon. With everything that had happened today, he didn't expect to sleep at all, but instead he found a feeling of exhaustion swallow him up. He lay there snoring quietly. Then suddenly all three eyes opened and he sat up and looked around. He was in the Tendo Living room, looking at a table laden with every kind of food imaginable. He grinned and grabbed a rice cake to start, then froze as he felt a presence behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a girl about his age. She was about his height, and wearing a very worn brown traveling kimono. A Kitana was stuck through the sash at the waist, and her light brown hair fell loose somewhat past her shoulders. Her face looked a lot like his Girl forms, except for the third eye in her forehead. Ranma realized he was looking at a younger version of his mother.
"Nothing to say?" The young Nodoka commented in a sarcastic tone of voice. Walking up the table she sat next to him, grabbed a rice ball and devoured it in three bites. "Well your mindscape has a good sense of taste, I guess." She commented, chuckling to herself.
"Mindscape?"
"This dream of yours we're sharing. It's entirely a construct of your own mind." She looked around "It certainly looks like the real thing."
"We're sharing a dream? You are mom aren't you?"
"Yes and sort of, to answer both questions. Your mother obviously never explained the growing corruption in the Sanjiyan bloodlines. In our day, the elders were cruel and held everything but power in contempt. The younger of us often came to develop two separate personalities, one mastering the power of this," She raised her hand by her third eye. "The other being the more versed in the ways of friendship. I was the part of Vishnaru who mastered her power of magic."
"Wait a minute, who's Vishnaru?"
"Shortly after your father became our WU, your mother decided to adopt a more common human name. We were actually born Vishnaru, youngest daughter of Kali II."
"Kali?" *Have I heard that name before?* Ranma thought to himself.
"The legends were based on a collection of gross exaggerations and outright lies about my grandmother!" She snapped. "Everyone reacts like that..." She muttered. "Anyway, shortly after your mother met your father, they discussed human names. After Genma said Nodoka was a good example of a name appropriate for a beautiful woman like her, she decided to call herself that. I on the other hand have always remained true to my original name of Vishnaru."
"Ok, so you're part of my mother." Ranma said.
"Was part of your mother, the part of her that best understood the magic which flowed through our veins like liquid fire. When we performed the conversion ritual at Jusenkyo I expected that I would either merge with Nodoka's personality forever or else simply cease to exist. Instead I found myself separated from our body. It was quite unexpected and rather frightening."
Ranma looked at Vishnaru and tried to think of something to say. Before he could she looked him in the eyes and smiled fiercely. "It wasn't what I had planned, but I've come to really enjoy being like this. I'm free of the limitations of the physical body." She held up her hand looking into her palm. "I have entered the great void and touched the point where all things become as one." She sat there quietly a moment. "But that has nothing to do with why I'm here. Ranma, in maters of Magic you have talent and power, but absolutely no real skill. Nodoka's worried about you for this fact so I'm here to get rid of her concerns."
Ranma looked at his mother's... former split personality. "How."
"How Sensei!" She snapped. "You have a lot to learn and the quicker you learn it, the less likely your mother will have to organize a funeral for you!" She raised a hand and suddenly they were siting on a grassy plain. "This feels like a better environment to start."
Shampoo stood in the kitchen of the Nekohanten, watching as Cologne opened the door to the cellar. "Great Grandmother..."
Cologne paused and looked at her great granddaughter. "Hush Shampoo. I know you want to help, but I have to research some of the more arcane books I have and you simply haven't learned enough to help me. Just be content making sure the restaurant runs smoothly."
"Hai." She commented as she walked back into the dining area. *Arrr, I hate not being able to do anything but wait. Still that's all I can do. With luck Great Grandmother will figure out how to turn Ranma... back the way he was, Then his mother will definitely accept me as Ranma's wife.*
Cologne closed and locked the door behind her. Quickly descending the stairs she walked past several crates. Pausing she looked at an open crate beside her. Clenching her fist she struck the box with the side of her fist, reducing it to a cloud of splinters.
{What's wrong?} Cologne felt the words form in the back of her mind. Frowning she continued to a small table three feet away from the wall.
Looking at a small globe of obsidian she said, "Things have not gone well."
Ripples began to shimmer across Cologne's reflection in the sphere. {Odd,} the voice responded. {Even you would have had trouble stooping that demon. Shampoo's presence would prevent you from being suspected, and your summoning at the Kuno estate would not have left any signs of your actions. What happened.}
"It seems that Ranma's parents have kept an important secret from him and from me." Cologne said, siting on the cushions before the table. "My future son in law is not human."
{Interesting. But how did this affect what transpired?}
Genma Saotome sat at a small table in the Dojo, carving at a hexagonal piece of ashwood with a long knife. He put the knife down and carefully examined his work. Nodding to himself he picked up the knife again and carved a few more curls of wood from the grove bisecting the wood artifact. Putting both carving and knife down he picked up a length of wire and carefully pushed it into the grove.
"Genma."
Genma raised his hands from his work, then dropped them to rest on the table. "Nodoka."
His wife sighed as she entered the room. "We have almost become strangers." Walking to the other side of the table she sat and examined Genma's work with a critical eye..
"I haven't forgotten what I learned with you." Genma commented quietly.
"Not magic it seems." She responded. "Though we used much less passive effects than this."
"We used whatever we could use that would work best. That's still the case."
"I talked to Ukyo. You really ruined her life."
"I know. I thought it would simply create a small economic hardship for her family, not the catastrophe it invoked." Genma contemplated the inkstone and peachwood brushes beside the incomplete witch compass. "Her Yatai, I used that Kirin shrine trick."
Nodoka looked at him. She smiled. "That does go a long way toward making amends. But you have to make her accept it. That will be difficult."
"I know." He looked at his wife a moment, then picked up the inkstick and began rubbing it on the inkstone.
Ranma opened his eyes and blinked a moment. Glancing sideways he confirmed that his father was sleeping next to him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. *Weird, I can clearly remember that session with Vishnaru, but I still feel like I slept the entire night.*
Suddenly he heard a loud scream. *AKANE!* Springing to his feet he ran through the hall. Reaching the bathroom he threw open the door and froze at the sight of Akane's naked form standing in front of the mirror.
"Woah!" Ranma called as he spun to look the opposite direction from his pervert-hating fiancee. "I'm sorry, I just... I heard... so I..."
"It really happened." Akane said quietly, not moving from where she stood before the mirror, her right hand feeling her forehead where the Chinese character for void had become a part of her.
Ranma blinked. Concentrating a moment, he willed his third eye to open. He sharply inhaled as his senses suddenly expanded and his body filled with power. He looked down as he raised his hands, he felt stronger than he had ever felt in his life. Closing all three eyes, Ranma responded, "Yeah, I'm not human," as he felt his body collapse back into normality. Reaching behind him, he felt the door's handle and pushed it shut.
*'I'm not human.'* Akane thought of what Ranma had said seconds before. With her fingertips she traced the character on her forehead, then glanced down and looked for any trace of where she had been impaled by the demon's tail the day before. Her skin was unmarked. *Ranma's not human.* "And neither am I."
Ukyo sat in her restaurant's small bathing room soaping her body with the quick precision of routine. Her mind wandered to the events of the previous day. The attack Ranma and the other's had talked about. *Something like that happens and I'm not even there! If Ranma hadn't been... what his mother says he is,* She thought of Akane dying. An image popped into her mind of her consoling Ranma, then of him thanking her and...*NO!* She shook her head, to clear it, then poured cold rinse water to help the process. *I don't want to win that way! I don't! I just want Ranma to realize I'm his only real fiancée and marry me.*
She thought about Ranma. And she saw him looking at Akane the previous evening. She clearly remembered the look and how much she wished that he would someday look at her that way. With a depressed sigh she picked up her shampoo and started washing her hair. The familiarity of the activity gave her time to think, and she pushed her depressed musing away. *I'm acting almost as bad as Ryouga! I will not give up!* She rinsed her hair, then paused to run her fingers through it. *Cute fiancée vs. Uncute fiancée. No contest.*
Genma sat at table in the main room, with the entire Tendo and Saotome families gathered around him. He picked up the witch compass he had created the night before. "It's not that complicated. I just put some of the demon's blood here," he indicated a circular depression at one end of a grove bisecting the wood hexagon, "And it'll lead us right to wherever it was summoned from." Genma placed the witch compass in a bowl of water, then put a small shard of the sword which Shampoo had shattered against the demon the previous day into the depression. The compass floated still a moment then rotated a few degrees and came to a stop.
"Ok, let's go pop!" Ranma commented as he came to his feet.
"I'm going too." Akane said as she stood, double-checking that her Gi's belt was properly tied.
"Oh no you aren't." Ranma responded angrily. Seeing Akane's dark glower he added in a quieter tone, "I don't wanna half to worry about you."
"Worry... You made me immortal remember!!"
Ranma looked down at the table. "It was the only way to save you."
Akane blinked in surprise. Then she looked down. "Ranma, thank you for worrying about me, but it's not necessary any more." Ranma looked at her, and she met his gaze. Then she smiled in an unpleasant way. "Besides I want to meet whoever sent that thing after us."
Genma looked at his son and smiled. Then he rose to his feet and started for the front door. "Let's go!"
Nodoka looked up at the sign identifying the building she had stopped in front of. *I hope Ranma and Dearest are all right. Ranma is so new to his power and if Genma has to... No! until I hear differently whatever they find will be within their capacity to deal with!* She forced herself to relax, then entered.
"Welcome to Nekohanten! Ah, Mother in law! Shampoo happy to see you!" Shampoo said as she came up to Nodoka. "Come Shampoo show you table, you have Ramen on house!"
"Thank you," Nodoka commented to Shampoo as she was led to a table close to the counter. "Are you too busy to join me? I came over because I need to talk to you." She sat at the table. "About my son and his new WU."
Shampoo paused on her way to the kitchen, then shook her head to clear it and walked up to the serving window. Her father passed her two bowls of the deluxe ramen, and she carried them back to Nodoka's table.
"Shampoo, you were there when it happened."
Shampoo sat and looked at her bowl of Ramen. She didn't want to remember the demon, wished she had never heard the pain in Ranma's voice when Akane lay dying in his arms. "Shampoo there," She said softly.
"My husband told me about the law requiring you to marry my son. Does the fact that he isn't human have any effect on that?"
"Shampoo... not know. Shampoo not care! Just want Ranma to love Shampoo." She looked into her soup, remembering the way she had seen Ranma look at Akane sometimes when he thought no one was looking. The moment the demon had attacked Akane, she recalled a brief shamefull flash of happiness at the loss of her greatest rival, even as her heart had been torn apart with sorrow.
"We don't have to talk about that." Nodoka said quietly. "Any time you do want to talk about it, I'll make time and talk to you." She picked up her chopsticks, and stirred the Ramen a moment.
Spending a moment to sample some of the noodles and broth Nodoka said, "Delicious, I see why you have done so well."
"Nekohanten best Ramen in Tokyo." Shampoo replied with a smile. Her smile faded.
Nodoka looked at Shampoo a moment. With a sigh she said, "There's something else I came to talk about. You've been here for a year, you've seen how my son attracts chaos." She looked at Shampoo who nodded. "Magic is from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. Last year's events are partially because of the dormant magic that has always slumbered within my son. It's awake now. What he will draw will make the last year seem dull."
Shampoo looked at Nodoka. "Shampoo not frighten off easy."
Nodoka smiled. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not even really here to ask for anything that directly affects my son. I'm here about Akane." She looked at Shampoo a moment, then pulled a few noodles from the bowl and slurped them down.
Shampoo blinked and looked at Nodoka. "What Akane need from Shampoo?"
"Her role is to protect my son when he's vulnerable. Now she should learn magic, but it's going to take all my effort just teaching Ranma enough of the basics and that's assuming he has the Sanjiyan instincts for spellcraft." She looked down. "I don't know how long before forces drawn by my son make him leave Nerima, but I want Akane to be as capable of protecting him as she can become. In short she needs training, and you're the only person I can think of who could do it."
Shampoo blinked. She looked at Nodoka and thought of what she had just asked. To help her greatest rival become stronger. She thought of training, of the many opportunities to "Accidentally" push just past what Akane could survive. She pushed the thought away from her feeling sick for thinking it. "Shampoo, Shampoo not think she best choice. Ranma is..."
"Ranma's no good." Nodoka responded. "I don't know how good a teacher he is, but I do know that he cares too much about her." Nodoka looked her in the eyes, and Shampoo could see the pain hidden there. "Akane doesn't just need to learn to fight, she has to come to terms with the nature and limits of her new immortality. She needs someone who will push her past human limits, will strike to kill and maim and not pull any punches." She shuddered and looked down. "I'm sorry. This isn't the sort of thing anybody should be asked to do. But if it isn't done Akane might not be able to keep Ranma from being killed. And his life is hers now"
"Great-Grandmother..."
"I called her this morning. She said no."
Shampoo looked at Nodoka with a surprised look on her face. "Why say no?" she said quietly.
"Well, she said that she was sure that if she studied the amazon lore she had she could eliminate the need, and said something about there being trouble if she taught another outsider."
*The tomes I can understand, but she has discretion to impart her knowledge in any way she is sure will not harm the Amazon's. I'd better ask her about it later.*
Genma was walking along the wall of the Kuno estate. He came to a stop and looked at the compass closely. Ranma and Akane stood behind him sharing similar impatient looks.
"Come on, let's find whoever summoned that thing!" Ranma said angrily.
"We have." Genma replied. "Or at least we now know where it was summoned from." He raised his hand and tapped the wall. "In there"
Ranma stared at him a moment. "Kuno or Kodachi?!" He stared disbelievingly at the wall for a long moment. Then he glanced at Akane and his eyes narrowed angrily. Turning back to the Kuno estate he casually leaped to the top of the wall. Akane and his father followed him.
"In here," Genma commented as he stood before the Kuno greenhouse, pausing to glance at the shattered traps littering the ground of the estate.
Ranma grabbed the door and flung it open. Holding up his hand he caught the large iron sphere which had dropped from the roof. Casually tossing it aside he walked into the huge edifice. He knew he was standing in Kuno's section of the greenhouse. Growing on the tables to either side of him were red long stemmed roses. On every table stretching to the distant other side of the greenhouse.
"This way." Genma commented as he stepped in front of Ranma and Akane and started leading them foreword and through the rows of tables. They realized they had entered Kodachi's area when the Roses surrounding them turned black. Then they were past the Tables of flowers and walking among Hawaiian trees and plants.
"I thought Principal Kuno lived at the school." Ranma commented.
"So did I." Akane responded.
They walked a little further into a clear space. Which contained a pentagram with the burnt down remains of black candles at each point and a small pile of red wax was in it's center. "This is where it was summoned." Genma said.
"Was that demon connected to Hawaii in any way?" Ranma asked.
"No it's summoning base was more concentrated in Austria as I recall." Genma responded.
"SO THE SORCEROR RETURNS!"
Ranma and Akane looked as Kuno rushed from the trees to his right. He was dressed in his usual Kendo outfit, however instead of his Boken he had a real Katana in hand. "Did you think that your defacement of the Kuno sanctuary would go unnoticed? Prepare to die for whatever magic's you sought to use against me could not touch the Blue Thunder, chosen of the heavens!" He surged foreword lashing out with a viscous slash aimed to cut Ranma in half just below the ribcage. Ranma calmly leaned back avoiding the attack, then with his eyes tightening he lashed out two strikes to Kuno's shoulders. Kuno screamed in pain as his sword fell from his spasming hands.
"Ranma..." Akane stated, stepping foreword then stopping to look at him and Kuno with a shocked expression.
Ranma ignored her and grabbed Kuno by the throat and pushed him against a palm tree. "That was a clean dislocation. It'll hurt like hell but you'll recover with no permanent damage. This time."
Kuno stared at Ranma, his eyes narrowing in hatred. "Vile sorcerer."
"Now get this straight. The reason I'm here is because a demon almost killed Akane yesterday and we just learned that it was summoned from that circle. Now who summoned it!"
Kuno's eyes shifted from Ranma to Akane then back. "Think you the Blue Thunder is fooled so easily? There is but one sorcerer here and it is you! You clearly have grown tired of Akane and sought to dispose of her through your pacts with the darkness! The vengeance of heaven is slow but sure and I shall be it's hand!"
Kuno interrupted his rant to scream as Ranma grabbed his shoulders and popped both joints back into place before striking a quick blow to Kuno's face, knocking him unconscious.
Ranma turned and walked back to Akane. "I don't think he knows. Well it's not like I ever thought he had the brains to pull off something like demon summoning. So it's either Kodachi, Principal Kuno or someone snuck in here and did this in secret." He shook his head. "I can hardly believe anyone did it." He took a step toward the pentagram and looked it over. Frowning he opened his third eye, and almost jumped back as he saw Vishnaru standing in front of him a bored expression on her face.
"You finally decided to actually look. Took you long enough." Ranma opened his mouth, prompting her to scream, "DON'T TALK!" Calming herself she added, "Remember, if I and everything I teach you are a secret, if there's trouble you will have an advantage that your enemy wouldn't know about."
With a sigh Ranma concentrated on the basic telepathic magic she had taught him in the previous nights dreams. {OK, I did help come up with that plan remember?}
"Is anything wrong, Ranma?" Akane asked as she stepped up to him.
Ranma glanced at her. "Uh no no, it's just," He paused to raise his hand to his third eye. "Things look really different, it takes getting used to." He looked back at Vishnaru.
"Play with your Wu another time kid. This is more important."
"What's it like?" Akane asked.
"Um, I'm not sure how to describe it. Now if you don't mind I might be able to see something important." He stepped foreword and began circling the Pentagram.
"Done?"
{What am I supposed to be looking at here?}
"OK, next lesson. You remember how I explained the basic principals of seeing the patterns of force?"
{Yeah,}
"Well look in the center of the pentagram."
{It's a big jumble.}
Vishnaru grinned and raised her hands toward the pentagram, her third eye glowing brightly, then fading as she lowered her hands. "Look again."
As Ranma watched all the patterns but two faded away. "This is the demon's essence," Vishnaru commented as she materialized a pointer of light and indicated a black aura which suffused much of the area. "This," she indicated a different pattern, "Is a part of the magic that imprinted with the summoners pattern.
"Now, Genma is working on tracking the responsible party through the aspect of the demon's essence which would have contaminated their aura in the process of summoning and dealing with it. This is the easiest to spot, but there are ways of blocking and hiding its presence. Now the pattern fragment is something you wouldn't spot unless you specifically look for it, but it's something that can't be disguised."
{So how do I find who's responsible?}
"I'm here to teach you, not hold your hand and sing lullabies! You'll have to figure that one out on your own." With that she vanished. Ranma looked back into the pentagram. The jumble he had first seen was back, but now he looked and saw the two elements that were so important. He glanced at Kuno. There was no trace of the demon's essence that Vishnaru had pointed out. Looking further he concentrated on the patterns he could see in Kuno's Aura. None of them resembled the imprint in the pentagram.
"Um, I can see, something in that penwhatsits, and I think I can see what's both there and on that compass thing.
"I don't se anything like it on Kuno," Ranma added.
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan
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Ranma three and a half eyes
Chapter 2
by Brendan O'Donnell
"... So as I was watching Ranchan and Akane arguing I thought about everything, and I realized that I would rather satisfy family honor by marrying him instead killing him." Ukyo concluded her explanation to Nodoka Saotome.
Nodoka looked at Ukyo. She moved her head to look at Genma. Genma began to sweat. "Genma," she began; her use of his first name prompted a quick gulp from her husband. "I know you've been very sensitive about food after having to spend two years without eating, but I don't think that's an excuse."
"I... No..." Genma replied slowly, directing his gaze to the table. A few silent moments later he looked up into his wife's eyes. She couldn't speak directly into his mind any more but he knew she was demanding an answer. "Well when he offered the Yatai, that's why I immediately wanted to say yes, but I..." he looked at her again. "I... I guess I thought if I did something I knew you'd disapprove of I wouldn't miss you so much."
Nodoka blinked.
"I'm sorry Nochan." Genma added quietly.
"Ukyo." Hearing her name called she turned and looked at Mrs. Saotome, who had stepped out of the Dojo after her.
"Mrs. Saotome?"
"Call me Nodoka, please. I was hoping you would let me walk you home, I think there are a few more things we should discuss."
Ukyo wasn't sure what to feel. She felt unnerved by the Revelation that Ranma wasn't completely human, she felt a betrayed because of the new bond that had suddenly formed between her fiancée and her rival, and she was afraid that she would be discounted as Ranma's fiancée. Now Nodoka wanted to talk to her. *If she's going to talk about the new situation negating my engagement, she'd better save her breath for Shampoo. I tracked Ranma for ten years, and he's mine!* "Thank you M... Nodoka," Ukyo replied, turning and starting toward the Dojo. "I am your son's fiancée after all."
"Many of the humans I have met through the years feared the Sanjiyan just because we are not like them. That's the main reason we returned to Japan where there were few people who knew I was once a Sanjiyan. It's nice to see someone who's not repulsed by this discovery."
"I could never be repulsed by anything about my Ranchan. Besides all we have to do is go to China and redo whatever ritual you did with the Nanichuan. Ranma goes back to being human and get's cured to boot,"
"It wouldn't work," Nodoka replied. Seeing Ukyo pause and look at her she continued, "The power Ranma now possesses is far greater than all the springs in Jusenkyo combined. For the Ritual to work requires one thing I had and Ranma lacks, an overpowering desire to become human. That kind of desire is the result of decades of searching. Besides Ranma knows that if he is cured his nature will pass on to his children, so the necessary desire will be even harder to develop."
Ukyo looked at Nodoka. Nodoka looked back and smiled. "Well for the moment let's forget that. Let's pretend instead that there is a simple and quick way for Ranma to regain his humanity and that he decided to marry you afterward. What do you think it would be like being married to my son?"
Ukyo didn't need to think. She had been contemplating and planing the details of her marriage to Ranma since the moment he called her cute. She began to share those plans and fantasies with Nodoka, the details of their quiet life running an Okonomiki restaurant together. A few minutes later as she was explaining her preferred names for the children, she noticed Nodoka was looking forward with a troubled expression on her face. Pushing down a surge of fear she said, "Nodoka?"
"Do you know my son at all?" Nodoka commented quietly, then shook her head and glanced at Ukyo. "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking of something. Anyway, I'm not going to do anything to force you to end your engagement to Ranma but it would probably be best if you did. Magic that can make a Sanjiyan human is so rare and powerful that the search would take decades or even centuries. You shouldn't throw away your life waiting for someone who would return looking young enough to be your grandson."
"Who said anything about waiting. I'd be perfectly happy traveling with Ranma and helping him search. If he couldn't become human, couldn't he just give Akane back her soul and take mine instead?"
"The type of magic that can restore a WU's soul is almost as rare as that which can make a Sanjiyan Human." She shook her head. "I'm quite familiar with the human capacity to overcome the odds, but I really hope you don't try to match Kyosaku. My son was inadvertently responsible for your loosing 10 years in pursuit of him, and he wouldn't want to be responsible for making you throwing away the rest of your life wandering through perpetual danger watching a man you care about stay the same while you grow older.
"That's your restaurant, right?"
Ukyo blinked a moment, then looked to see Ucchan's sign a few feet away from her. She nodded.
"Then I guess I've escorted you home." Nodoka commented as she turned. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Ukyo. "Here's one more thing to think about. There has never been any possibility of Ranma leading a quiet life. Whether awoken or not Ranma is a living generator of magic power. Magic comes from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. No matter how Ranma's life had turned out it would have been chaotic indeed." Nodoka smiled. "Whatever happens remember that you are a fine young woman and there are many fine men who would risk everything for someone like you. Please embrace that truth and let my son go his way in peace."
Ukyo stood by the door of her shop looking at Nodoka walking away. Narrowing her eyes she opened the door and entered, slamming it shut after her with almost enough force to shatter the frame.
Ranma lay on his futon. With everything that had happened today, he didn't expect to sleep at all, but instead he found a feeling of exhaustion swallow him up. He lay there snoring quietly. Then suddenly all three eyes opened and he sat up and looked around. He was in the Tendo Living room, looking at a table laden with every kind of food imaginable. He grinned and grabbed a rice cake to start, then froze as he felt a presence behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a girl about his age. She was about his height, and wearing a very worn brown traveling kimono. A Kitana was stuck through the sash at the waist, and her light brown hair fell loose somewhat past her shoulders. Her face looked a lot like his Girl forms, except for the third eye in her forehead. Ranma realized he was looking at a younger version of his mother.
"Nothing to say?" The young Nodoka commented in a sarcastic tone of voice. Walking up the table she sat next to him, grabbed a rice ball and devoured it in three bites. "Well your mindscape has a good sense of taste, I guess." She commented, chuckling to herself.
"Mindscape?"
"This dream of yours we're sharing. It's entirely a construct of your own mind." She looked around "It certainly looks like the real thing."
"We're sharing a dream? You are mom aren't you?"
"Yes and sort of, to answer both questions. Your mother obviously never explained the growing corruption in the Sanjiyan bloodlines. In our day, the elders were cruel and held everything but power in contempt. The younger of us often came to develop two separate personalities, one mastering the power of this," She raised her hand by her third eye. "The other being the more versed in the ways of friendship. I was the part of Vishnaru who mastered her power of magic."
"Wait a minute, who's Vishnaru?"
"Shortly after your father became our WU, your mother decided to adopt a more common human name. We were actually born Vishnaru, youngest daughter of Kali II."
"Kali?" *Have I heard that name before?* Ranma thought to himself.
"The legends were based on a collection of gross exaggerations and outright lies about my grandmother!" She snapped. "Everyone reacts like that..." She muttered. "Anyway, shortly after your mother met your father, they discussed human names. After Genma said Nodoka was a good example of a name appropriate for a beautiful woman like her, she decided to call herself that. I on the other hand have always remained true to my original name of Vishnaru."
"Ok, so you're part of my mother." Ranma said.
"Was part of your mother, the part of her that best understood the magic which flowed through our veins like liquid fire. When we performed the conversion ritual at Jusenkyo I expected that I would either merge with Nodoka's personality forever or else simply cease to exist. Instead I found myself separated from our body. It was quite unexpected and rather frightening."
Ranma looked at Vishnaru and tried to think of something to say. Before he could she looked him in the eyes and smiled fiercely. "It wasn't what I had planned, but I've come to really enjoy being like this. I'm free of the limitations of the physical body." She held up her hand looking into her palm. "I have entered the great void and touched the point where all things become as one." She sat there quietly a moment. "But that has nothing to do with why I'm here. Ranma, in maters of Magic you have talent and power, but absolutely no real skill. Nodoka's worried about you for this fact so I'm here to get rid of her concerns."
Ranma looked at his mother's... former split personality. "How."
"How Sensei!" She snapped. "You have a lot to learn and the quicker you learn it, the less likely your mother will have to organize a funeral for you!" She raised a hand and suddenly they were siting on a grassy plain. "This feels like a better environment to start."
Shampoo stood in the kitchen of the Nekohanten, watching as Cologne opened the door to the cellar. "Great Grandmother..."
Cologne paused and looked at her great granddaughter. "Hush Shampoo. I know you want to help, but I have to research some of the more arcane books I have and you simply haven't learned enough to help me. Just be content making sure the restaurant runs smoothly."
"Hai." She commented as she walked back into the dining area. *Arrr, I hate not being able to do anything but wait. Still that's all I can do. With luck Great Grandmother will figure out how to turn Ranma... back the way he was, Then his mother will definitely accept me as Ranma's wife.*
Cologne closed and locked the door behind her. Quickly descending the stairs she walked past several crates. Pausing she looked at an open crate beside her. Clenching her fist she struck the box with the side of her fist, reducing it to a cloud of splinters.
{What's wrong?} Cologne felt the words form in the back of her mind. Frowning she continued to a small table three feet away from the wall.
Looking at a small globe of obsidian she said, "Things have not gone well."
Ripples began to shimmer across Cologne's reflection in the sphere. {Odd,} the voice responded. {Even you would have had trouble stooping that demon. Shampoo's presence would prevent you from being suspected, and your summoning at the Kuno estate would not have left any signs of your actions. What happened.}
"It seems that Ranma's parents have kept an important secret from him and from me." Cologne said, siting on the cushions before the table. "My future son in law is not human."
{Interesting. But how did this affect what transpired?}
Genma Saotome sat at a small table in the Dojo, carving at a hexagonal piece of ashwood with a long knife. He put the knife down and carefully examined his work. Nodding to himself he picked up the knife again and carved a few more curls of wood from the grove bisecting the wood artifact. Putting both carving and knife down he picked up a length of wire and carefully pushed it into the grove.
"Genma."
Genma raised his hands from his work, then dropped them to rest on the table. "Nodoka."
His wife sighed as she entered the room. "We have almost become strangers." Walking to the other side of the table she sat and examined Genma's work with a critical eye..
"I haven't forgotten what I learned with you." Genma commented quietly.
"Not magic it seems." She responded. "Though we used much less passive effects than this."
"We used whatever we could use that would work best. That's still the case."
"I talked to Ukyo. You really ruined her life."
"I know. I thought it would simply create a small economic hardship for her family, not the catastrophe it invoked." Genma contemplated the inkstone and peachwood brushes beside the incomplete witch compass. "Her Yatai, I used that Kirin shrine trick."
Nodoka looked at him. She smiled. "That does go a long way toward making amends. But you have to make her accept it. That will be difficult."
"I know." He looked at his wife a moment, then picked up the inkstick and began rubbing it on the inkstone.
Ranma opened his eyes and blinked a moment. Glancing sideways he confirmed that his father was sleeping next to him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. *Weird, I can clearly remember that session with Vishnaru, but I still feel like I slept the entire night.*
Suddenly he heard a loud scream. *AKANE!* Springing to his feet he ran through the hall. Reaching the bathroom he threw open the door and froze at the sight of Akane's naked form standing in front of the mirror.
"Woah!" Ranma called as he spun to look the opposite direction from his pervert-hating fiancee. "I'm sorry, I just... I heard... so I..."
"It really happened." Akane said quietly, not moving from where she stood before the mirror, her right hand feeling her forehead where the Chinese character for void had become a part of her.
Ranma blinked. Concentrating a moment, he willed his third eye to open. He sharply inhaled as his senses suddenly expanded and his body filled with power. He looked down as he raised his hands, he felt stronger than he had ever felt in his life. Closing all three eyes, Ranma responded, "Yeah, I'm not human," as he felt his body collapse back into normality. Reaching behind him, he felt the door's handle and pushed it shut.
*'I'm not human.'* Akane thought of what Ranma had said seconds before. With her fingertips she traced the character on her forehead, then glanced down and looked for any trace of where she had been impaled by the demon's tail the day before. Her skin was unmarked. *Ranma's not human.* "And neither am I."
Ukyo sat in her restaurant's small bathing room soaping her body with the quick precision of routine. Her mind wandered to the events of the previous day. The attack Ranma and the other's had talked about. *Something like that happens and I'm not even there! If Ranma hadn't been... what his mother says he is,* She thought of Akane dying. An image popped into her mind of her consoling Ranma, then of him thanking her and...*NO!* She shook her head, to clear it, then poured cold rinse water to help the process. *I don't want to win that way! I don't! I just want Ranma to realize I'm his only real fiancée and marry me.*
She thought about Ranma. And she saw him looking at Akane the previous evening. She clearly remembered the look and how much she wished that he would someday look at her that way. With a depressed sigh she picked up her shampoo and started washing her hair. The familiarity of the activity gave her time to think, and she pushed her depressed musing away. *I'm acting almost as bad as Ryouga! I will not give up!* She rinsed her hair, then paused to run her fingers through it. *Cute fiancée vs. Uncute fiancée. No contest.*
Genma sat at table in the main room, with the entire Tendo and Saotome families gathered around him. He picked up the witch compass he had created the night before. "It's not that complicated. I just put some of the demon's blood here," he indicated a circular depression at one end of a grove bisecting the wood hexagon, "And it'll lead us right to wherever it was summoned from." Genma placed the witch compass in a bowl of water, then put a small shard of the sword which Shampoo had shattered against the demon the previous day into the depression. The compass floated still a moment then rotated a few degrees and came to a stop.
"Ok, let's go pop!" Ranma commented as he came to his feet.
"I'm going too." Akane said as she stood, double-checking that her Gi's belt was properly tied.
"Oh no you aren't." Ranma responded angrily. Seeing Akane's dark glower he added in a quieter tone, "I don't wanna half to worry about you."
"Worry... You made me immortal remember!!"
Ranma looked down at the table. "It was the only way to save you."
Akane blinked in surprise. Then she looked down. "Ranma, thank you for worrying about me, but it's not necessary any more." Ranma looked at her, and she met his gaze. Then she smiled in an unpleasant way. "Besides I want to meet whoever sent that thing after us."
Genma looked at his son and smiled. Then he rose to his feet and started for the front door. "Let's go!"
Nodoka looked up at the sign identifying the building she had stopped in front of. *I hope Ranma and Dearest are all right. Ranma is so new to his power and if Genma has to... No! until I hear differently whatever they find will be within their capacity to deal with!* She forced herself to relax, then entered.
"Welcome to Nekohanten! Ah, Mother in law! Shampoo happy to see you!" Shampoo said as she came up to Nodoka. "Come Shampoo show you table, you have Ramen on house!"
"Thank you," Nodoka commented to Shampoo as she was led to a table close to the counter. "Are you too busy to join me? I came over because I need to talk to you." She sat at the table. "About my son and his new WU."
Shampoo paused on her way to the kitchen, then shook her head to clear it and walked up to the serving window. Her father passed her two bowls of the deluxe ramen, and she carried them back to Nodoka's table.
"Shampoo, you were there when it happened."
Shampoo sat and looked at her bowl of Ramen. She didn't want to remember the demon, wished she had never heard the pain in Ranma's voice when Akane lay dying in his arms. "Shampoo there," She said softly.
"My husband told me about the law requiring you to marry my son. Does the fact that he isn't human have any effect on that?"
"Shampoo... not know. Shampoo not care! Just want Ranma to love Shampoo." She looked into her soup, remembering the way she had seen Ranma look at Akane sometimes when he thought no one was looking. The moment the demon had attacked Akane, she recalled a brief shamefull flash of happiness at the loss of her greatest rival, even as her heart had been torn apart with sorrow.
"We don't have to talk about that." Nodoka said quietly. "Any time you do want to talk about it, I'll make time and talk to you." She picked up her chopsticks, and stirred the Ramen a moment.
Spending a moment to sample some of the noodles and broth Nodoka said, "Delicious, I see why you have done so well."
"Nekohanten best Ramen in Tokyo." Shampoo replied with a smile. Her smile faded.
Nodoka looked at Shampoo a moment. With a sigh she said, "There's something else I came to talk about. You've been here for a year, you've seen how my son attracts chaos." She looked at Shampoo who nodded. "Magic is from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. Last year's events are partially because of the dormant magic that has always slumbered within my son. It's awake now. What he will draw will make the last year seem dull."
Shampoo looked at Nodoka. "Shampoo not frighten off easy."
Nodoka smiled. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not even really here to ask for anything that directly affects my son. I'm here about Akane." She looked at Shampoo a moment, then pulled a few noodles from the bowl and slurped them down.
Shampoo blinked and looked at Nodoka. "What Akane need from Shampoo?"
"Her role is to protect my son when he's vulnerable. Now she should learn magic, but it's going to take all my effort just teaching Ranma enough of the basics and that's assuming he has the Sanjiyan instincts for spellcraft." She looked down. "I don't know how long before forces drawn by my son make him leave Nerima, but I want Akane to be as capable of protecting him as she can become. In short she needs training, and you're the only person I can think of who could do it."
Shampoo blinked. She looked at Nodoka and thought of what she had just asked. To help her greatest rival become stronger. She thought of training, of the many opportunities to "Accidentally" push just past what Akane could survive. She pushed the thought away from her feeling sick for thinking it. "Shampoo, Shampoo not think she best choice. Ranma is..."
"Ranma's no good." Nodoka responded. "I don't know how good a teacher he is, but I do know that he cares too much about her." Nodoka looked her in the eyes, and Shampoo could see the pain hidden there. "Akane doesn't just need to learn to fight, she has to come to terms with the nature and limits of her new immortality. She needs someone who will push her past human limits, will strike to kill and maim and not pull any punches." She shuddered and looked down. "I'm sorry. This isn't the sort of thing anybody should be asked to do. But if it isn't done Akane might not be able to keep Ranma from being killed. And his life is hers now"
"Great-Grandmother..."
"I called her this morning. She said no."
Shampoo looked at Nodoka with a surprised look on her face. "Why say no?" she said quietly.
"Well, she said that she was sure that if she studied the amazon lore she had she could eliminate the need, and said something about there being trouble if she taught another outsider."
*The tomes I can understand, but she has discretion to impart her knowledge in any way she is sure will not harm the Amazon's. I'd better ask her about it later.*
Genma was walking along the wall of the Kuno estate. He came to a stop and looked at the compass closely. Ranma and Akane stood behind him sharing similar impatient looks.
"Come on, let's find whoever summoned that thing!" Ranma said angrily.
"We have." Genma replied. "Or at least we now know where it was summoned from." He raised his hand and tapped the wall. "In there"
Ranma stared at him a moment. "Kuno or Kodachi?!" He stared disbelievingly at the wall for a long moment. Then he glanced at Akane and his eyes narrowed angrily. Turning back to the Kuno estate he casually leaped to the top of the wall. Akane and his father followed him.
"In here," Genma commented as he stood before the Kuno greenhouse, pausing to glance at the shattered traps littering the ground of the estate.
Ranma grabbed the door and flung it open. Holding up his hand he caught the large iron sphere which had dropped from the roof. Casually tossing it aside he walked into the huge edifice. He knew he was standing in Kuno's section of the greenhouse. Growing on the tables to either side of him were red long stemmed roses. On every table stretching to the distant other side of the greenhouse.
"This way." Genma commented as he stepped in front of Ranma and Akane and started leading them foreword and through the rows of tables. They realized they had entered Kodachi's area when the Roses surrounding them turned black. Then they were past the Tables of flowers and walking among Hawaiian trees and plants.
"I thought Principal Kuno lived at the school." Ranma commented.
"So did I." Akane responded.
They walked a little further into a clear space. Which contained a pentagram with the burnt down remains of black candles at each point and a small pile of red wax was in it's center. "This is where it was summoned." Genma said.
"Was that demon connected to Hawaii in any way?" Ranma asked.
"No it's summoning base was more concentrated in Austria as I recall." Genma responded.
"SO THE SORCEROR RETURNS!"
Ranma and Akane looked as Kuno rushed from the trees to his right. He was dressed in his usual Kendo outfit, however instead of his Boken he had a real Katana in hand. "Did you think that your defacement of the Kuno sanctuary would go unnoticed? Prepare to die for whatever magic's you sought to use against me could not touch the Blue Thunder, chosen of the heavens!" He surged foreword lashing out with a viscous slash aimed to cut Ranma in half just below the ribcage. Ranma calmly leaned back avoiding the attack, then with his eyes tightening he lashed out two strikes to Kuno's shoulders. Kuno screamed in pain as his sword fell from his spasming hands.
"Ranma..." Akane stated, stepping foreword then stopping to look at him and Kuno with a shocked expression.
Ranma ignored her and grabbed Kuno by the throat and pushed him against a palm tree. "That was a clean dislocation. It'll hurt like hell but you'll recover with no permanent damage. This time."
Kuno stared at Ranma, his eyes narrowing in hatred. "Vile sorcerer."
"Now get this straight. The reason I'm here is because a demon almost killed Akane yesterday and we just learned that it was summoned from that circle. Now who summoned it!"
Kuno's eyes shifted from Ranma to Akane then back. "Think you the Blue Thunder is fooled so easily? There is but one sorcerer here and it is you! You clearly have grown tired of Akane and sought to dispose of her through your pacts with the darkness! The vengeance of heaven is slow but sure and I shall be it's hand!"
Kuno interrupted his rant to scream as Ranma grabbed his shoulders and popped both joints back into place before striking a quick blow to Kuno's face, knocking him unconscious.
Ranma turned and walked back to Akane. "I don't think he knows. Well it's not like I ever thought he had the brains to pull off something like demon summoning. So it's either Kodachi, Principal Kuno or someone snuck in here and did this in secret." He shook his head. "I can hardly believe anyone did it." He took a step toward the pentagram and looked it over. Frowning he opened his third eye, and almost jumped back as he saw Vishnaru standing in front of him a bored expression on her face.
"You finally decided to actually look. Took you long enough." Ranma opened his mouth, prompting her to scream, "DON'T TALK!" Calming herself she added, "Remember, if I and everything I teach you are a secret, if there's trouble you will have an advantage that your enemy wouldn't know about."
With a sigh Ranma concentrated on the basic telepathic magic she had taught him in the previous nights dreams. {OK, I did help come up with that plan remember?}
"Is anything wrong, Ranma?" Akane asked as she stepped up to him.
Ranma glanced at her. "Uh no no, it's just," He paused to raise his hand to his third eye. "Things look really different, it takes getting used to." He looked back at Vishnaru.
"Play with your Wu another time kid. This is more important."
"What's it like?" Akane asked.
"Um, I'm not sure how to describe it. Now if you don't mind I might be able to see something important." He stepped foreword and began circling the Pentagram.
"Done?"
{What am I supposed to be looking at here?}
"OK, next lesson. You remember how I explained the basic principals of seeing the patterns of force?"
{Yeah,}
"Well look in the center of the pentagram."
{It's a big jumble.}
Vishnaru grinned and raised her hands toward the pentagram, her third eye glowing brightly, then fading as she lowered her hands. "Look again."
As Ranma watched all the patterns but two faded away. "This is the demon's essence," Vishnaru commented as she materialized a pointer of light and indicated a black aura which suffused much of the area. "This," she indicated a different pattern, "Is a part of the magic that imprinted with the summoners pattern.
"Now, Genma is working on tracking the responsible party through the aspect of the demon's essence which would have contaminated their aura in the process of summoning and dealing with it. This is the easiest to spot, but there are ways of blocking and hiding its presence. Now the pattern fragment is something you wouldn't spot unless you specifically look for it, but it's something that can't be disguised."
{So how do I find who's responsible?}
"I'm here to teach you, not hold your hand and sing lullabies! You'll have to figure that one out on your own." With that she vanished. Ranma looked back into the pentagram. The jumble he had first seen was back, but now he looked and saw the two elements that were so important. He glanced at Kuno. There was no trace of the demon's essence that Vishnaru had pointed out. Looking further he concentrated on the patterns he could see in Kuno's Aura. None of them resembled the imprint in the pentagram.
"Um, I can see, something in that penwhatsits, and I think I can see what's both there and on that compass thing.
"I don't se anything like it on Kuno," Ranma added.
