C&C appreciated.




Ranma three and a half eyes
Chapter 3
by Brendan O'Donnell

	"You're sure neither of them had that whatever it is?"  Akane 
asked Ranma in an annoyed tone.
	"Uh-huh,"  Ranma responded without taking his eyes from the 
street ahead of him.  *Well neither Kuno or Kodachi had any trace of 
the either signature, but that means that it could be anyone.  Who?*
	"Any ideas who it might be then?"  Akane asked in response.
	"None."
	"Want to get married?"
	"Yea�  Hey, What?"
	"Just seeing how much attention you were paying."  Akane said 
as she skipped ahead of him with a big grin.  "And I wanted to see if 
you'd say you love me after that bit yesterday."
	Ranma turned bright red.  "Wh-Who said anything about love.  I 
mean where did you get the idea�"
	"Oh so you awoke that ancestral power of yours because you felt 
your honor required it?"  Akane responded with a big grin.
	"Uh, well, yeah!  I�"
	"No need to rush things, you kids have plenty of time to work 
out how you feel."  Genma commented as he walked calmly past the pair.
	Ranma and Akane facefaulted.
	Genma looked back at them, scowled slightly and added, "I was 
in love with your mother for eighteen years before I got up the nerve 
to admit it to her."  He shook his head and continued down the street. 
 "Immortality changes your sense of time."  Looking ahead he added 
quietly, "So does returned mortality."

	"Great-Grandmother, Ranma's mother just ask Shampoo train 
Akane."
	Cologne looked at her a moment.  "You could benefit from the 
experience of training someone.  Though you should consider carefully 
before aiding a rival for Ranma's affections."
	*She didn't call Ranma son-in-law, has she given up on bringing 
us together?*  "Nodoka says she ask you and you say no, why you do 
that?"  Shampoo added quietly.
	Cologne looked at her and sighed.  "Caution Shampoo, caution.  
I will not give up on the hope of a son in law of Ranma's potential, 
but I must understand the risks before I allow myself to become too 
involved.  If his mother is right then his presence at the village 
could prove a grave danger.  I must watch and learn."
	"Does Great Grandmother want Shampoo not teach not living 
girl?"
	Cologne glanced at Shampoo a moment, then shook her head.  "I 
have no concerns about you teaching her, I'll even help you plan your 
sessions.  But only if it's your decision.  I will not advise you one 
way or the other."
	"Akane now not living girl supposed to protect Ranma.  Shampoo 
help her."
	*And help me learn more about Ranma and Akane as they have 
become.*  Cologne remembered the advice she had received through the 
conduit of the orb.  *"Cologne, be careful not to let yourself get too 
close to the infant Sanjiyan, but monitor his development as closely as 
possible."*  As always she contemplated the aid she had received, 
looking for traps, hidden agendas, and double-dealing.  It was 
basically a habit since in all her infrequent dealings with Nephredana, 
she had always had the upper hand in the final analysis.  *Demons are 
known for their cleverness and deviousness, but she is no match for 
Me.*

	Floating over a small table covered with Red lace was a globe 
of obsidian, about half a foot in diameter.  A smooth very feminine 
hand with long red nails caressed it a moment.  "An unexpected twist in 
the game.  I may snag Cologne a few decades sooner than I thought."

	 "What did you find out?"  Nabiki asked as she entered the 
house's entryway..
	Ranma looked up at her as he removed his shoes.  "Not much.  Is 
mom here?"
	"She's in the guest room."  Nabiki replied with a frown.  "Now 
what do you mean by�"  She paused as Ranma moved past her and made a 
beeline for the stairs.  She looked at Akane.
	"I guess he must want to ask her about that sight thing he 
figured out."  Akane said half to herself.  Looking at Nabiki she said 
in a more conversational tone, "The demon was summoned from the Kuno't 
greenhouse, but we checked and they didn't do it.  At least not unless 
it was the principal but he's taken another vacation to Hawaii so it 
probably wasn't."  She sighed and looked down, her face a mixture of 
conflicting emotions.  "Who did it Nabiki?  I� I hear it every day, 
'prepare to die,' but, it's never seemed serious before."
	Nabiki looked at her little sister.  "And Aunt Nodoka is 
worried that life may get strange around here."  She shook her head.  
"Don't worry Akane, when things start to get crazy the best thing to do 
is simply ignore everything you can't control and concentrate on 
controlling what you can.  Haven't you learned that yet?"

	"Hi mom!"  Ranma said as he entered the Guestroom.  His mother 
looked up from where she sat, pausing to put down her calligraphy 
brush.
	 "Hello Ranma.  I just finished this charm for our first 
lesson.  But you can tell me about what happened and maybe there is a 
lesson I can help you learn with that."
	"Ok, well we followed Dad's Witch compass and it led right to 
the Kuno estate."
	"Oh my, the two�"
	"Lunatics?  Well, Kuno attacked me when we found the pentacle 
where the demon was summoned from, he thought 'The Sorcerer Saotome' 
did it and couldn't understand the word no.  I knocked him out, then I 
took a look at the pentacle with this."  He raised his right hand 
tapping his forehead with two fingers.
	"What did you see?"
	"A big confused mess.  But I started comparing the mess to that 
bit of blood on the end of that compass of dads, and I saw it was the 
same as a part of the jumble in the pentacle."
	"That would have been the demon's aura.  The aura of the 
caster's would have been there as well, though you probably would have 
missed it since it's very hard to spot unless you really understand 
what your looking for."
	Ranma nodded his head.  "um, I looked at Kuno and didn't see 
any of that demon aura thing.  And not on Kodachi when I got her to 
quiet down and let me look."  He shuddered.
	Nodoka glanced at him a moment.  "I suppose we should  make 
preparations to go someplace quiet for our first lesson in magic, 
however first there is something else to do."  She took out her katana 
and held it out in her hands before her.  "Ranma, I want you to look at 
the blade.  Dispel all thought of what you expect to see, just relax 
and focus on nothing."
	Ranma blinked.  "Um�"
	"Don't argue, don't think, just do what I'm asking you.  Relax 
your perceptions and remember how it felt when you opened your third 
eye.  Don't open it, just remember the feeling."
	The two sat motionless.
	The clock advanced five minutes.
	Neither mother nor son moved.
	Three more minutes  passed, then Ranma started.  "Hey!"
	"What did you see?"
	"Well  I thought there was another jumble of stuff but then it 
wasn't there.  Thing is I felt a little like when I'm looking with all 
three eyes for a second there."
	"Good.  Look at it with all three eyes then."
	Ranma opened his third eye and looked at his mother's sword, 
the one he had so long feared at the blade that would destroy his life 
and his family.  The strands of power were tightly woven through and 
around it, and indeed flowed between it and his mother.
	"The same as what you saw that second, right?"
	Ranma looked into his mother's face.  She was right.
	"You aren't nearly as strong without your third eye, but you 
still have the capacity to wield magics.  Perception is the simplest of 
them."

	The phone rang.
	Picking up the phone Kasumi addressed the receiver, 
"Moshi-Moshi?"   "Yes I'll tell her."  She hung up then raised her head 
to call out, "Mrs. Saotome!"
	Nodoka appeared at the top of the stairs and called down, "What 
is it Kasumi?"
	"Shampoo calling for you!"
	"Ah!"  Nodoka commented as she quickly descended the stairs and 
took the handset from Kasumi.
	"Shampoo, �  Ah good, thank you. � Yes I'll talk to her and you 
two can train in the Dojo for now. � No, I have to try training Ranma 
and it would be best to start somewhere away from everyone. � Yes, I 
don't think Ranma would enjoy watching either.  �  I'll explain 
everything to Akane, don't worry. � Goodbye."  Nodoka hung up the 
phone.

	"Akane,"
	Akane looked up from where she was lying on her bed.  "Auntie 
Saotome?"
	Nodoka entered the room, closing the door behind her.  Walking 
to Akane's desk she turned the chair to face the bed and sat.  "Akane 
we need to talk."  She sighed.  "You know how much everything's 
changed.  My son, You, and that's just a small beginning."  She looked 
down at her hands.  "Chaos is the source of all that is, but especially 
of magic.  Before yesterday Ranma was a natural� focus of magical 
force, but that was all.  He simply acted as a concentration of magic." 
 Raising her head Nodoka looked at Akane.  "You remember what it was 
like here after Ranma arrived?"
	"Well, it wasn't Ranma's fault, I mean Nerima has always been a 
bit wilder than the rest of Tokyo. And Ranma,"  Akane paused a moment. 
 "Well maybe things got a little crazier than before, but there were 
plenty of things that didn't involve Ranma."
	"Though he was always part of them,"  Nodoka commented.
	"Kind of."
	"Akane, it's not a question of fault or purpose.  Ranma simply 
by virtue of being who he is drew in chaos intensifying it in the area. 
 It's a completely natural phenomenon.  But things changed yesterday." 
 Nodoka looked Akane in the eye.  "Ranma isn't a passive focus anymore, 
he's a fully active spellcaster."  Nodoka raised her right hand.  
"Among  human spellcasters chaos effects are usually a lessor concern, 
the beginners don't have the magic force to draw very much and when 
they do gain the power it seldom takes them long to learn the  control 
and precision to reduce the side effects of their magic."  She raised 
her left hand in a balancing gesture.  "But Ranma isn't human.  He has 
enough power to do things off the top of his head that human 
spellcasters couldn't even conceive of without multi-day rituals and a 
lot of effort.  Unfortunately this means that until Ranma learns a 
great deal more he will be the center of a 'swirl' of more magical 
energy than you have ever experienced in your life.  What's coming will 
make last year's events seem like a spring shower compared to a 
typhoon.
	"I talked to Shampoo this morning about her giving you some 
advanced training."
	Akane sat up and looked at Mrs. Saotome.  "I'm a Pretty good 
Martial artist!"
	Nodoka sighed.  "I'm not saying you're not.  But the fact is 
that you're not the same person you were two days ago, and unless you 
get accustom to that you are going to die when Ranma dies through your 
lack of preparation."
	Akane blinked.  *Ranma die� and it's literal and real too.*
	"Please Akane, It would mean so much to me."
	Looking down Akane responded, "Ok, I'll try letting her teach 
me a little, but she better not try anything with Ranma!"
	"Don't worry Ranma and I will be going out of town for the 
night so I can drill what I can on magic into his skull."