Ranma three and a half eyes
First Version
by Brendan O’Donnell
"Not bad Son-in-Law," Cologne said as she landed on her staff a few feet away from Ranma.
Ranma landed facing her, ignoring the bruises she had just given him. He glanced at the unconscious form of Mousse lying a few feet away from him. "Alright old ghoul, Mousse said you were cooking up some sort of magic, now what are you up to?"
"I have no idea what you’re talking about Son-in-Law," Cologne responded, grinning slightly. "And I am surprised that you’re here with me instead of cheering Shampoo to victory."
Ranma scowled. A few days ago an argument between Shampoo and Akane had sparked a formal challenge. The winner would get to cook lunch for Ranma for an entire week. If Akane won he’d have to face a week of her cooking. If Shampoo won he’d have to deal with the look in Akane’s eyes when Shampoo went after him every day.
"It should be a intriguing match," Cologne added with a smirk that chilled Ranma’s blood.
"You and Shampoo are up to something. What?" Ranma asked quietly.
"Actually it’s just me. Shampoo’s shown herself to be a bit too... soft-hearted to get rid of Akane like she should have right from the beginning. So I’ve summoned the spirit of one of her Amazon ancestors and corrected the problem. It should be done by now." Cologne’s smirk intensified.
Ranma took a step toward the Amazon matriarch, then he turned and ran from the Nekohanten as fast as he could move. He knew that the duel was in the park and he sped there as fast as he could.
The park was crowded. Ranma saw Nabiki standing at an opening in a roped off area filled with people surrounding a ring. Looking over the crowds he could see the top of the ring. Shampoo was standing at one end holding her bonbori. She had a bruise on her cheek, and was breathing heavily, but it was clear that Akane had taken the worst of the damage. One arm was hanging limp, blood seeping from a cut on her cheek and another above her eyes. Ranma began forcing his way through the crowd.
Shampoo looked at him. It was a calm imperious look completely different from any look she had directed at him before. She turned back to Akane, and dropped her Bonbori. Pulling out a sword she stated, "Obstacle is for killing." She started toward Akane at a run.
"Shampoo NO!!" Ranma screamed. A surge of pain flickered at the front of his head, and some part of his mind was analyzing his options. It would take five more seconds to get within jumping distance of the ring without hurting anyone in the audience. That was far too long. Ranma stopped and focused his confidence, gathering his energy as fast as he could.
Akane had narrowed her eyes as she saw Shampoo advancing, and stepped forward, jumping into the air to meet her rush.
Ranma raised his hands, a sphere of yellow light shimmered into existence between his hands. Looking at the ring he saw Akane and Shampoo about to meet in the air. Shampoo was thrusting forward with her sword, Akane was twisting to kick at her. He could see that both strikes would hit, and Shampoo was striking to kill. "MOKO-TAKABISHIA!" Ranma screamed as he unleashed all his energy against Shampoo. Akane’s kick impacted with Shampoo’s chest, shattering several ribs. Shampoo’s sword thrust hit the right side of Akane’s chest, penetrating easily. Ranma’s chi blast hit Shampoo, throwing her out of the ring.
Ranma jumped into the ring, and advanced the three paces to Akane’s side. She was lying still, the sword lying on the ground in front of her, its blade stained crimson. She coughed, spilling blood from her mouth to trickle down her chin.
"AKANE!" Ranma turned and screamed as loud as he could, "NABIKI GET A DOCTOR FAST!!!" He fell to his knees by Akane.
She looked up at him. "Ranma." She said quietly, her voice distorted by the blood in her throat.
"Don’t try to talk. Save your strength, we’ll talk after the doctor gets here." There was a strong constant ache in his forehead, Ranma ignored it.
Akane winced as she lifted her left arm. "I’m sorry, Ranma. I want you to know I love..." Her arm dropped, and she closed her eyes.
"Akane..." Ranma said, leaning forward and looking into her face. A drop of blood fell onto her cheek, from the red horizontal line that had appeared in his forehead. Akane’s breathing was becoming shallower. "No." Another drop of blood fell. "No!" Ranma had to wince at the searing pain in the front of his head. "NO!" he screamed to the heavens. The line of blood in his forehead split, revealing the eye beneath.
Ranma didn’t know what had happened; his body suddenly felt as though it was filled with power. A wave of euphoria swept across him, and was shattered by the reality he saw before him. Akane was lying on the ground, and he could see her life flowing through her, could see it dimming as she died. Ranma knew he had to save her. And a means to save her formed in his head. Not questioning its source Ranma leaned forward and put his effort into the task.
Light exploded around Ranma. Then the light became concentrated, focused into a beam from his third eye to Akane’s chest. A glowing sphere emerged from her and traveled up the beam to be absorbed by the eye. The eye closed, the light was gone.
Ranma felt more tired than he had ever felt before. But he knew that Akane would not die and the joy this thought brought swept away exhaustion. Then he felt hostility, and looked up to see Shampoo pulling herself to her feet. With his third eye open he could clearly see the spirit in her, the spirit that had driven her to try to kill Akane. Ranma raised his right hand toward her, fist clenched. Then he shifted his grip so that his thumb was pressing against the fingernails of his two middle fingers. His outer fingers straightened, and he struck forward with his hand. A wave of force blasted from him, striking Shampoo and throwing her onto her back. The Spirit possessing her was torn from her body by the full force of the strike, retreating from the human world in incredible pain. In a room in the Nekohanten, a candle burning with a blue flame suddenly went out.
Ranma looked down at Akane. "Akane..." he whispered, then all three eyes closed and he collapsed beside her.
Shampoo woke feeling pain and confusion. She could clearly remember how her day had gone up to a point in her final preparations for her duel with Akane Tendo. However from the moment Cologne had insisted that she make an offering at the small shrine to her ancestors of the Amazon village, her memory became dream-like and vague. Until now. She tried to lift herself with her arms, and gasped at the sudden pain in the right side of her chest. *Broken Ribs,* She thought to herself. *How did that happen?*
"Hold on, sis." Turning at the sound of this voice she saw Nabiki kneeling on the ring. Before her lay Akane, and next to her was Ranma. Shampoo pulled herself to her feet with her left arm, ignoring the protests from her ribs. She walked quickly up to the ring and jumped up to land by Ranma. Nabiki looked at her, and fixed her with a gaze filled with more hate than she had ever seen in her life. Shampoo felt an overwhelming sense of guilt, and a sense of confusion, over both the guilt and the hatred.
"What happen to Akane? And to Ranma?" She asked, her voice quiet with her confusion, and fear as she saw the blood on the platform.
"You," whispered Nabiki.
"Nabiki, Shampoo not remember right since prayed for luck in contest. What happen?"
"RANMA!!" Genma’s voice echoed through the park as he ran forward and jumped onto the stage. "Oh, my son!" He turned to Nabiki and started "How is..." Then he looked down and saw the blood. He blinked a moment, then he looked closer, and his eyes widened. The blood was flowing back into Akane’s wound. Turning to Akane, he reached out to brush the hair away from her forehead. "Oh Nodoka." He whispered. Then he reached down, swung Akane over his left shoulder, Ranma over his right, and stood.
"MR. SAOTOME!!" Nabiki screamed as she watched him manhandle her critically injured sister.
Genma looked her in the eye. Nabiki had never seen this expression on him before. It was a combination of fear, sorrow, and relief. "Nabiki, Akane’s not in any danger. I’ll explain it to her and Ranma back at the Dojo once they wake up." He turned to Shampoo and added. "You’d better come too. What I’m going to say... well I want everyone who’s after my son to know what’s happened."
Genma turned, and started toward the Dojo at a run.
Ranma groaned slightly, and blinked as he awoke. He recognized that he was lying in his and his father’s room. He remembered what had happened just before he fell asleep. "Akane!" he cried as he bolted to his feet. Looking to his side he saw Akane lying on a futon a few feet away from him. She was wearing the same gi, its top cut and bloodied by the killing slash from Shampoo’s sword, however he could see through the rip the unmarked skin underneath. Reddening slightly, Ranma looked away from her chest, and looked at the familiar contours of her face. He had seen Akane in many moods, and even sleeping like now, he knew her face perfectly. There was something different about it. On her forehead there was a Chinese character.
"Ranma," said a woman’s voice from the doorway of the room. Ranma hadn’t heard the voice very often, but he knew it very well. His mother’s voice. He looked down at himself and saw that he was male. Expanding his observation he saw that he was in the Tendo Family room, the Koi pond was outside, and his mother was looking directly at him, and there was no way he could run or change. "Don’t worry Ranma," his mother said as she walked across the room to him. "I’m not here about Jusenkyo, or the promise of Seppuku you’ve feared so much."
"Mom?" was Ranma quiet response as he turned to her. He could see a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.
Nodoka responded by grabbing him into a fierce hug, whispering, "I missed you so much."
"Oh Mom." Ranma grabbed her, hugging as fiercely as he could without squeezing harder than he knew she could take. For a minute the hug was all that mattered to either of them.
Nodoka separated them and brushed the tears from her eyes. "Now, let me look at you," she said as she observed him carefully. "I see you do take after me. In ways I had not wanted," she said with a sigh.
Ranma suddenly recalled the strange feelings and vision that had overtaken him when he saw Akane lying wounded in the ring. He was about to ask Nodoka if she somehow meant this, when he heard Akane moan. Spinning and kneeling beside her, he quietly said, "Akane," as he watched her wake up.
"Uh," Akane stated, opening her eyes, and looking around. She stopped when she saw Ranma and said quietly "Ranma..." Then she blinked in memory. She glanced down at the bloodstained Gi, and putting her hand into the slashed portion she felt the undamaged skin. "How?"
"I can answer that," Nodoka stated quietly from the door. Ranma and Akane both looked at her, her joy at being reunited with her son was being overcome by some unknown Sorrow. "Mom?" Ranma said quietly.
"Mrs. Saotome?" Akane added, sitting up.
"Come on, I think I’d rather explain this to everyone," she said as she turned and walked out the door.
Ranma looked after her, then looked back at Akane.
Akane looked at Ranma, looked down at her gi, and said "I, uh, I think I ought to change into something else."
Ranma glanced down at his own outfit, then said. "Yeah, me too."
Ranma walked down the stairs with Akane right behind him. Akane was wearing her yellow dress with a floral pattern, Ranma his red shirt and black pants. They both paused as they overlooked the family room. Nodoka was sitting at the head of the table, Genma beside her. Surrounding the table were: Soun, Nabiki, and Kasumi, a very sad-looking Shampoo, beside a worried Mousse, and a concerned-looking Ukyo.
Everyone turned their head to look at Ranma and Akane.
No one said anything.
Nodoka indicated that the two of them sit at a open space to her left.
"Ranma, there is so much to tell you. So much you need to know..." Nodoka trailed off looking down at the table.
"I think it would be best if I tell him how we met," Genma said to her.
Genma turned to Ranma and began. "I met Nodoka in the year 1895. I was at that time only a few years older than you are now." He looked at the incredulous looks from around the table. "It may be hard to believe but at the time she wasn’t human."
Nodoka looked up and started talking. "My people were known as the Sanjiyan Unkara, or sometimes as the Triclops. When we existed, at least. For a very long time we sought to end our immortality and attain humanity. To the best of my knowledge I was the last to find a way to become human."
Nabiki looked at her and said in a skeptical voice, "So you were Immortal, and you wanted to give it up?"
Nodoka sighed and looked at the table. "You can only see our longevity, our power. You don’t know the terrible prices they require, or the gifts of humanity that you know too well to see."
"Be that as it may, it doesn’t explain how Akane recovered from being almost killed by Shampoo," Nabiki continued. Across the table from her Shampoo winced, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
"If you listen to the rest of our story it will all make sense," Genma responded. "To shorten the tale; I met Nodoka on the road, and agreed to show her the way to Kyoto. However on the way there , there was an... accident."
"An inn was on fire, and Genma was severely injured trying to save the people inside. I had only known him a short time, but I knew that I couldn’t allow him to die. So I used one of the most basic and potent powers of the Sanjiyan and made him my WU." Pausing, Nodoka took a sip from the cup of tea Kasumi had given her just before Ranma and Akane had arrived. She continued, "The Sanjiyan posses great magic power. However, when we use that power to its utmost, it weakens us, often leaving us powerless for a time. So, long ago, even by immortal standards, we learned how to take the soul of another and merge it with our own. The one whose soul we have taken becomes our WU, our... protector and servant. As the soul is kept safe within our own, the WU’s body becomes immune from harm, all injuries heal at fantastic speed, and they share our own longevity, and a portion of our power." Nodoka stopped and looked at her tea.
Genma resumed the narrative, "For a very long time I traveled with Nodoka, helping her search for a way to become human. And eventually we found the Nyanichuan."
Ranma blinked. He looked at his father with a disbelieving expression. "YOU KNEW?!"
"We knew, Ranma," Nodoka responded. "You see, I became human in the Nyanichuan, and within a few hours the character marking your father my WU faded forever. We traveled apart for a few years, I wanted to get a feel of humanity, your father met Happosei and Soun, and decided to relearn fighting without the power he had gained from me. After disposing of Happosei, we met again, he proposed and I accepted." She smiled at the memory. "We bought a house with the savings of centuries, and in a few years, I had you." She looked at Ranma her eyes glistening, and a smile on her face. Then the smile faltered.
"However even from the beginning, I wondered if my Sanjiyan nature was gone or merely suppressed. I was uncertain whether or not you might have inherited my former nature. Then when you were five I knew. You were at the playground, and a group of bullies was picking on you. You had enough training to handle any one of them one on one, but they were threatening you all at once. When I was coming to help you, I saw you’re forehead begin to spontaneously bleed, here," Nodoka said extending her finger and tracing a short line in the center of Ranma’s forehead.
"Here you were in a situation where a young Sanjiyan would have tried to call forth his power, and there was blood where you’re third eye would have opened. That was when I knew you had inherited my former nature from me." Nodoka looked down, her eyes glistening, her hands clenched.
Genma glanced at his wife, then started talking, "Anyway, Nodoka didn’t know what to do. Remember it hadn’t been that long ago when she gave up the power of the Sanjiyan forever. Now she discovered that the power she had spent most of her life trying to escape was part of you. We talked about what to do for a long time. Nodoka was desperate to enable you to grow up and live your life as a normal human, but she had no idea how to. I hoped she could succeed, but I also knew that if you did become Sanjiyan, you needed to be able to handle it. After about a week, Nodoka decided that her presence risked empowering your Sanjiyan side and she insisted that I take you and raise you till you were a man. I accepted her judgment, and we began our long training trip.
"I was determined that if I failed to keep you human you should at least have some experience with travel and Martial Arts in preparation for life as a Sanjiyan. And as you were about to turn sixteen, I decided to hedge our bets and take you to Jusenkyo to add an extra bit of insurance that your Sanjiyan nature would remain sealed."
"So what about that promise? The man among men thing?" Nabiki asked.
Nodoka looked at her. "That was my idea. Genma told me that he was coming home after Jusenkyo, I wanted to see my son again so much, but I was still terrified that I might awaken the Sanjiyan nature within him. I chickened out at the last moment, and Genma decided to come here instead." She sighed and looked down. "I kept planning to come, but the fear kept holding me back. Eventually I contacted Genma and we tried to think up a way for me to see Ranma with the Jusenkyo curse as a buffer. Genma and I thought up the man among men promise as a way to keep you in your cursed form without having to burden you with the knowledge that you weren’t fully human. Genma told me that there was no sign of your Sanjiyan side manifesting, so I was planning a way to reveal your secret and accept your manliness. However before I could, Akane was attacked, and your pain and anger at seeing her dying awoke my side of you’re heritage. You made her WU, exorcised the spirit possessing Shampoo, and fainted from the strain of the spellcraft."
Ranma looked at Akane, then said quietly "Hai." Akane looked back at him, a somewhat surprised expression on her face.
"Akane," Nodoka said, turning her attention to her sons Fiancée.
Blinking back her surprise Akane looked at Nodoka. "Hai?"
"You aren’t sure you believe what I’ve said, are you?"
"Well..."
"Give me your hand a moment," Nodoka said evenly. Akane looked at her a moment, then extended her open right hand toward Mrs. Saotome, palm up. Nodoka touched the fingers of her own right hand to Akane’s, then her left hand stabbed a Tanto dagger into Akane’s palm.
It took everyone a moment to overcome the sense of shock enough to react. Ranma was first, grabbing his mother’s wrist, and yanking it back. Before he could do anything more, Nodoka said, "Hold up your hand a moment, Akane."
Akane was looking at her just wounded hand, and looked at Nodoka she held it up. As everyone watched, the blood that had poured from the wound flowed back into it, as her skin closed itself. As everyone watched the wound healed and faded without a trace.
"Hmm, getting soft in your old age I see," Genma commented.
Nodoka glanced at him with an annoyed look, "She is my son’s fiancée, not some slow witted wanderer I just met."
Genma turned to Akane and said, "She illustrated my newly-gained healing power to me by chopping off my head." He rubbed his neck and winced somewhat.
Suddenly a small object blurred into the room. "Ranma-Chan!" it called out, as it resolved itself into Happosei long enough to splash Ranma with a bucket of cold water. A second later the old pervert had clamped himself onto Ranma’s newly acquired breasts.
"GRRAA!" Ranma replied. Her clothes were whipped by an unseen wind, her hair raised by an updraft that only affected her, then there was a blinding flash of light and a crash.
Ranma had risen to her feet. Her right arm was extended from throwing Happosei into the garden. Her third eye was open and glaring at the old master. "You disgusting old freak," she said, her voice vibrating with power.
When this had happened a few hours ago, all of Ranma’s attention had been directed to Akane. Now Akane was safe, and she felt none of the pain that had accompanied her initial awakening. She could feel the power coursing through her body, focusing in the eye that had just opened in her forehead.
What’s more, this third eye didn’t see what her other two saw. Through it she saw the spirits that were everywhere. She could see the cloud of dark spiritual energy surrounding the old man she had just thrown into the backyard. And despite the newness of this new sight, she knew instinctively what she was seeing. And as she looked at the wind, actually seeing it for the first time; she knew that she could do more than just look. Taking a step toward the garden she raised her hands.
As Ranma lifted her hands, wind swirled around her, picking up speed. Ranma shifted her hands, once again extending the two outer fingers while bringing her thumb to meet the other two. She jabbed her hands forward, and as the wind around her died down, a dramatically stronger wind formed around Happosei, lifting the old pervert into the air. Ranma quickly gestured away with her right hand. Happosei was hurled into the distant sky. Ranma smiled slightly.
Then the smile faded, and she pivoted and leaped onto the Roof of the Dojo. Everyone ran into the Yard.
"Ranma?" Genma called to his son, then jumped onto the roof after him as he heard a sudden shriek of pain. Landing on the roof, he ran to where Ranma sat, rubbing her somewhat scorched foot and looking at three paper charms lying on the roof in front of her. Smoke was rising from the middle one.
"Ow, Old Ghoul," Ranma muttered to herself as he stopped rubbing her foot and stood. A quick glance confirmed what Genma recognized from Ranma’s voice, the third eye was closed again.
Genma picked up two of the charms, then paused reaching for the third. "Ranma," he said, "I need to see something. Please pick up this ward if you can." Genma rested his hand on the remaining ward as he said this.
Ranma started to protest, then looking at her father handling the ward in question; she stepped forward and grabbed it.
"Arhg!" Ranma snatched her hand back from the ward. Her whole hand was aching from the brief touch. As she massaged her hand she stared as her father picked it up as though it were ordinary paper. Which it was to him. "What the?"
"One more thing we need to discuss with you and Akane. Come on." Genma jumped down to the ground. Ranma followed him.
*If those charms hadn’t worked I’d probably be dead.* Cologne thought to herself as she closed the remaining distance to the Nekohanten. She rushed through the door and slammed it shut after her. *How could I have miscalculated so badly?* She thought to herself. Her plan had been simple, channel the spirit of the Amazon sorceress Rinse into Shampoo. First Rinse would use her granddaughter’s skill to destroy the obstacles to claiming Ranma, then her own potent talents would be brought to bear to make sure Ranma followed the law properly. However when the candle that she had used as the focus of this spell had suddenly went out, she had known something unforeseen had disrupted the plan. Her later eavesdropping had revealed to her how badly the plan had backfired.
*I knew that Son-in-Law would strengthen the future generations if he could be wedded into the village, but I only knew of his Martial Art skill and talent then.* Cologne thought as she rushed through the restaurant to the small room in the basement where she kept the magical herbs and artifacts which she sometimes used to try to shift Ranma’s destiny to one she controlled. *Damn. The potential gain of having a villager with his newly gained powers is fantastic, but the danger in attempting to make him come to us is beyond measure. Especially considering what happened with Shampoo and Rinse.* She pulled a book down from the shelf and put it on the table, and flipped through the pages a few moments. *Ah, protective charms.*
As Ranma sat back down at the table, Soun finally stopped crying. "Well, this is all a bit of a shock, but my little girl is alive and well and that’s what’s important."
Nodoka and Genma both looked away from him and coughed in near perfect unison. "Well..." Genma said.
"Technically..." Nodoka added.
"Umm, the term most commonly used is, er, undead." Genma finished. Soun stared at him, then started crying again.
"Undead?" Akane asked.
"Undead, as in something like a vampire or a zombie?" Nabiki said, looking right at the Saotome’s.
Nodoka frowned and said, "It’s a label humanity slapped on the WU."
"Anyway, there’s something besides names you should know about," Genma said, placing the ward on the table. Everyone looked at it. "Nabiki, could you hand it to Akane?"
"Uh, ok," she responded picking up the ward and handing it to her sister. Who reached out to take it, then snatched her hand away with a quick cry of pain.
"Ow, that thing’s red hot!"
Nabiki looked at the completely ordinary feeling piece of paper she was holding. "So Akane’s affected by spirit wards now?"
"So is Ranma. They aren’t strong enough to do any permanent damage, but they can be a real nuisance." Genma replied.
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