Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. RAAC version
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's situations/char
other char TM other authors.
Metroanime@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/greggsharp/index.html
3b: Another New Complication
---------------Furinkan SHS, Nerima-------------
	Nabiki heard a voice talking before 
she entered the nurse's office.

	"So, cold iron is a BAD thing. What the
heck is cold iron anyway?"

	Nabiki listened but couldn't hear another
voice. She delayed her entry, wanting to know what
she was stepping into before she got there.

	"Iron that's been refined by other methods
than heat? If you say so. It doesn't make much sense
to me, though. I mean that stuff BURNED." Ranma's
voice sounded tired. "Okay. What did you learn? Was
that baka oyaji of mine telling the truth for once?"

	Nabiki crept up to the doorway and peered
in. Ranma was sitting on the bed, addressing an empty
chair. He was listening to it apparently, too.

	"He did WHAT?!" Ranma was incredulous.
"Why did he do that? She seemed like a pretty nice girl."

	Nabiki blinked. Was Ranma talking to his 
"imaginary friend"? She couldn't see or hear anything 
but at this point wasn't completely willing to believe Genma
was right about this. Too many other things had blown her
mind lately. At this point, Nabiki thought that if she were to 
see a unicorn trotting through the streets of Nerima, she 
would probably just start a betting pool on whether it would 
find a virgin.

	"Nabiki-chan?" Ranma looked puzzled. Nabiki
flattened herself against a wall and tried not to make any
noise. Had he seen her?

	"She's my fiancee. My father and her father 
arranged it. She seems a bit cold and uncaring..." Ranma
paused.

	Nabiki closed her eyes. Her image as the Ice
Queen remained intact. Even when people had seen her 
reaching into a flame to pull the chains away from her
iinazuke, they had merely supposed it was to protect a
potential source of profit. She felt an unfamiliar pang that
her iinazuke would think this of her.

	"...but that's just her defense against the world.
She's walled off the world to keep from getting hurt, but there's
a caring heart in there. I'm sure she can be nice and kind and
warm when she's given half a chance."

	Nabiki's eyes weren't the only thing that opened.
Her jaw was currently hanging loose. Her? The legendary
mercenary Ice Queen of Furinkan? 

	"Well, pops and Mister Tendo made some sort
of arrangement that I'd marry one of Tendo's daughters. 
Family honor kind of thing, y'know. No, she's got two 
sisters. Actually, I'd like you to look at them and see if I'm
interpreting their auras right."

	Nabiki's mind started to run on high speed.
Auras? He was reading auras? <K-CHING!> This could
be one heck of a business tool if she could learn how he
did it. Just speculating on the uses during negotiations 
caused her to miss Ranma's next comment. She tuned back
in when she heard Kasumi's name mentioned.

	A slightly longer pause, then Ranma started
again. "Well, Kasumi looks like she could use a friend, 
someone to unburden herself on. She's sorta retreated
from the world so it can't hurt her. Nabiki's erected walls
of ice around herself, and is really into money as a method
of control of her environment. Akane wants to pound the
world into submission. Underneath all that, all three seem
to be really nice girls." Another pause. "At least that's
what little I've been able to read from their auras."

	Another long pause. "Well, you did say that
faerie nature tends towards nurturer/healer as opposed to
warrior. Look at my cursed form, I've got a lot more of that
stuff in me than I thought. 'Sides, I can be good at more
than one thing. Something else YOU taught me."

	"She's here?"

	"Candidate #3? Maybe..." 

	Nabiki looked up, startled. That voice had not been
heard with her ears. It had been a girl's voice, much higher and
softer than Ranma's cursed form's voice.

	She caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner
of her eye, but couldn't see anything when she turned her head.

	Nabiki had always taken pride on her mind. One of the
things she'd always felt was that the three daughters Tendo had
a different focus, and that hers was the intellect whereas Akane
was more freely emotional and Kasumi more spiritual.(1)

	(Over the last couple of days, Nabiki felt that she was
on an emotional rollercoaster that would have given Akane a
run for her money.)
	
	Nabiki took a deep breath. What if Genma had lied?
Since he'd come across as quite sincere, he would have had to
be lying to himself as well, but she didn't think that was beyond
his abilities. He was a much more accomplished liar than Ranma,
that was for certain.

	Nabiki looked at this dispassionately. Ranma had
demonstrated magic, had demonstrated skills that his father didn't
have and actively discounted the values of. The father also had
no idea where Ranma had picked up these skills. Therefore, Nabiki
decided that she was faced with one of two possibilities. One, Genma
had been lying about no tutors and Ranma had been coached in 
music and magic (among other things) during his training journey.
Two, his "imaginary friend" was not imaginary.

	The first Nabiki decided was the most likely but 
unsatisfactory for several reasons. The outright contempt that
Ranma's father had for those musical talents especially was quite
apparent. The other was impossible.

	That particular word was something that Nabiki 
felt considerably less certain of after the past two days.

	Nabiki's eyes flicked to the doorway of the nurse's
office. Ranma was leaning out of it to look at her in concern.
She found she...rather liked that. Not that she wasn't quite
capable of looking after herself, but that someone besides
Kasumi was concerned for her well-being.

	Her mind continued to churn over the possibility
that faerie were real. How to determine the validity of the 
theory, that was the crux...

	"Featherbrite says your mind's all a-tangle,"
Ranma's voice interrupted her train of thought. "She wants
to know if you really want to know."

	Nabiki frowned. Mind-reading? She was most
uncomfortable with that notion. Still...

	"Yeah, Saotome. I don't back down from a 
challenge either." Nabiki tried to sound flippant but didn't
quite make it. "I'll accept the truth."

	There was a sudden feeling of warmth and a
laugh like little bells ringing.

	Nabiki blinked. That was _her_ body over there,
she was looking through Ranma's eyes! Perched on her
own head was...

	A laughing six-inch tall woman with wings that
resembled the wings of Ranma's cursed form. The pixie 
stopped laughing long enough to say something that 
sounded like "Candidate number three!" The little figure
looked extremely pleased with this declaration.

	The dislocation ended and Nabiki carefully
brought her own hand up to where she'd seen the figure
from the vision. She frowned as her hand just didn't seem
to want to go where she wanted it to.

	The thought that there may be a lot of things
going on all around her that she couldn't perceive was
intolerable to Nabiki. She WOULD find a way to get past
this. There was also the thought of what it would be
like to have an invisibility like this, the secrets she could
uncover...

	She WOULD learn how this was done.

	"Brite," Ranma said in a quiet voice, "what
exactly did you mean by 'candidate #3' and why do I
have a bad feeling about this?"
-------------------------------------------
	Genma moved a piece on the shogi board
and tried to ignore the purple haired amazon having an 
animated conversation with Kasumi in the kitchen.

	This was not going anywhere near according
to The Plan. The only positive point in this was that the
discussion sounded like dinner tonight would be quite
spectacular.

	"So, Saotome, your son plays the flute." Soun's
opinion mirrored that of his friend. Time spent on such
useless pursuits detracted from the Art. "He can cook, 
and he has some...odd techniques."

	Genma nodded. "Such a disappointment. I had
such hopes for him. He refuses to STEAL, Tendo!
Even when we were training hard on the road, and
we could have stolen food and run away like WE 
did in the old days. Boy has no priorities."

	"Hardly the training we went through, eh, 
Saotome? Still, he appears to be a skilled martial artist
despite such a lack of focus." Soun moved his own 
piece. That the future husband of one of his daughters
had more moral character than his old friend Genma
wasn't nearly as much of a downside for him as it was
for Genma. A good husband for one of his daughters
didn't sound like an entirely bad thing.

	"His skills, pah! Pretty pathetic, if you ask me.
Why, the boy has no killer instinct. He doesn't duck work,
he refuses to lie most of the time, talks to an imaginary 
friend, won't steal, and makes references to a Code Of Honor.
Truly, Tendo, I don't know where I failed."

	Soun glanced up. "Well, if he's that bad, maybe
we should consider annulling this engagement. He clearly
isn't a worthy heir to the founder of our school."

	Genma sighed. "It's tempting, but he's still one
of the best I've seen. I think the problem started in the Catfist
training, and I let him get too close to some of his friends as
he was growing up."

	"Catfist? The legendary Nekoken?"

	Genma nodded again. "The same. The training is
deceptively simple. Wrap the young trainee in fish sausages,
then throw them into a pit of starving cats. I did it when the
boy was five, as the manual suggested that the younger the
trainee, the more effective the training."

	Soun was aware that the two girls had stopped
talking. Probably just busy with preparations. "So, was it
effective?"

	"Yes," Genma studied the board. How had he put
himself in such an indefensible position? "Unfortunately, the
manual's next page warns that it tends to leave the trainee
permanently insane as a result."

	"Ah, hence the imaginary friend and insistence that
he's working magic and not merely manipulating chi." Soun
frowned a bit. Maybe insanity was in the Saotome line, the
father for using such a training method. 

	"That and the boy's ailurophobia."
-------------------
	"Big sister Kasumi, does mean what I think it mean?"
Shampoo whispered from they were listening to the conversation.

	"No, Shampoo, it means that he's afraid of cats."
Kasumi smiled at the young amazon. It was amazing how well
they got along, so different from each other. Kasumi realized that
their differences were complimentary, however. That was 
probably it.

	"Aiyaa. That no so bad. Shampoo worried for moment."(2) 
After all, she was already going to get even with Ranma's father for
one thing. She had to make sure she was running up the tab correctly.
--------------------
	Unaware of the whispering in the kitchen, Genma 
continued. "It's truly terrible, Soun, but my son is nearly worthless.
Maybe one of your daughters can be the True Heir?"

	"A girl, the Heir? I think not, Saotome. Though Akane
is quite skilled, would she have gone through what we did? Would
she have made the same sacrifices for the Art?"

	"Hmm. Probably not." Genma thought about this. "Of
course, if one of them gives us a grandson early..."

	"It'll be a chance for us to raise a child to be the
True Heir of Anything Goes," Soun nodded. "I can't really see
Akane going along with this. Underneath all the violence, she
tends to adopt stray animals and is quite kind-hearted. Kasumi 
would never agree to the sort of deal your wife did. Nabiki..."

	"I've heard Akane speak of her as a heartless 
mercenary. If that's just not typical sibling sniping, would 
she sell her own child if you give her enough money?" 
Genma grinned. "A woman after my own heart."
----------------------------------------
	Nabiki sneezed and shuddered. "Damn, I hope I'm
not catching a cold. Sneezing and sudden chills..."
---------------------------------------
	"Kame-hame-HA!" Akane released the energy
blast, knocking Ranma completely out of the arena.

	"Damn, you win again, Akane!" Ranma didn't
look displeased at the outcome.

	Akane released the controls of the videogame 
and glared at Ranma. "You LET me win, didn't you?"

	"Honestly? No. I'm not really used to videogames
though, so maybe I'm just not as good as you at this sort of
thing."

	Akane blinked and spoke quietly almost to 
herself. "There's something you're not good at? Well, 
praise be, there is SOME justice in this world."

	"Huh?" Ranma acted as if he hadn't heard her,
which wasn't the case even with all the videogames 
blasting away at volumes that left his sensitive ears 
aching. 

	"Oh, nothing," Akane grinned. He didn't 
seem so bad when he wasn't in that weird form. (IT still
gave her the willies.)(3) 
	
	"So what's next?"

	"Nabiki will still be taking care of her business
deals." Akane thought about it. Might as well have some
fun while her sister's fiance was paying for it. "Got it, try
this game!"

	"Martial Arts Basketbrawl?" Ranma blinked at
the odd game set up. "Soul Krusher JAM? Where do they
come up with these things?"

	"I'll show you how it's done," Akane grinned.
She was gonna beat his butt so badly he'd be walking funny
for a month. She'd found something she could do better than
him, well, that and she definitely had the edge on him in some
of her classes.

	That a little faerie had manipulated the games just
a little had gone unnoticed by Akane. Ranma, wisely, didn't
mention it. He understood the girl's pride, and giving her 
things that she could lord over him would help her deal with
his superior skill in martial arts.(4)

	Ranma almost considered letting Featherbrite do
a little manipulation. Redirect her anger into something before
it could either explode (an outside target) or implode (if her
self-image went on one of those downward spirals.)

	Featherbrite, for her part, frowned. It would be 
SO easy. Just a flick here or a nudge there, and this girl could
rebuild her own self-image in terms of something other than
beating the world into submission. But no, Ranma had noticed
her beginning to do this and had requested specifically that 
the faerie not "meddle with Akane's mind."

	Watching the girl beating Ranma at videogames,
Featherbrite got An Idea. Ranma was distracted now, and
she wasn't to make adjustments in the girl's _mind_. That
did leave her a few other options, and if Ranma's mentioning
of a vampire was correct, then she could at least put in ONE
surprise...
=======================================
(1)-	Anime continuity. In the manga, however, Kasumi is
seen several times wearing a cross. As she doesn't appear to wear
jewelry for other reasons, there is a distinct possibility of her
wearing it due to a religious belief. This is the basis of the "Closet
Catholic Kasumi" concept. (If my sources are correct.)
(2)-	Fill in the blank however you want. 
(3)-	This is not a reference to President Clinton. There's 
already enough politics in fanfiction, thank you.
(4)-	scene between Akane & Ranma comes at SKJAM's 
request. Akane with a few self-image problems? Well,
yeah. Think about it, you think you're the best, and suddenly this
guy blows in out of town who is all that and a bag of fries. Given
time, she'd probably get over it...but chapter 4 is coming.

<clip to chapter 3c> (coming soon)