
Fighting Blind

Disclaimer: Exit, disclaimers, legal evasions, and all that mumbo
jumbo... stage left.

* *: Thoughts

<" ">: Chinese language

Chapter 13

A Little Motherly Love?

Somewhere in China, a fateful conversation was taking place between
two individuals...

"What? Are you certain?" A shadowy figure said as he spoke to another
who was clothed in a dark cloak.

"Yes. It seems that the accursed Unseen Light had not been completely
snuffed out. One practitioner of that discipline still exists."

"I had thought that priest Shogo had perished and left no heirs!"

"It seemed that he had taught another in secret. Someone by the name
of... Koga Shinuria. And though he too had later died, the power of
the Unseen Light has a new user."

"Who is this disciple?"

"Our spies in Japan had heard of rumors of a blind boy who claims to
be a master of the Unseen Light. His name is... Ranma Saotome."

"Then the mission of the Shadow's Eye is not yet complete. You know
what to do... Shindo."

The other cloaked figure nodded as he removed his hood, revealing a
hard-looking face with a cold expression in his eyes. The most eerie
fact about his eyes was that they were as black as the sea during a
moonlit night. There were no pupils nor irises, just a black void.
Just like the inner void in his heart.

"The Unseen Light shall not shine so long as the Shadow's Eye casts
its gaze upon the world."

Meanwhile in Japan...

"Ranma! Oh Ranma! My little boy has finally been brought back to me!"
Nodoka cried out as she rushed toward her son and embraced him while
letting loose a torrent of tears. She was releasing more than ten
years of repressed sadness and loneliness as she tightened her hug on
Ranma.

The blind boy wasn't really sure of what to do as his biological
mother continued bawling her eyes out against his chest, soaking the
front of his shirt. He then turned his head to the people who were
standing near the door and gestured with a nod that he and Nodoka
needed some time alone. However as Jasmine understood Ranma's silent
message and began ushering the others out of the room, his eyes
narrowed as he tapped his right ear with an index finger. This
indicated that he wouldn't take kindly to any eavesdropping and would
know if they tried to listen in on their conversation.

Once everyone was gone and the two were alone, Ranma gently pushed
himself out of Nodoka's embrace and began holding her face in his
hands. He began tracing his sensitive fingertips across her features
as his mind started forming an image of her face. He could detect the
telltale traits and resemblance between himself and his biological
mother. There was also the fact that her aura was similar to his own,
though it was nowhere near as focused as his was. There was no doubt
about it. She was his real mother. Now the real questions remained.
Would she accept her son as he was and... was she like Genma?

"It's... good finally... see you again... mother."

Nodoka nodded as she cleared her eyes of her tears and took a step
back to gaze upon her son. He was exactly as Ryo Saeba had described
him. Ranma was tall and very well-formed. He was quite handsome and
appeared to be exactly as a man among men should be. She smiled back
to the time that the City Hunter had urged her to destroy the contract
that Ranma and Genma had signed. If the stories of Ranma being wanted
by dozens of girls was true, then it seemed that the contract was no
longer necessary.

"Ranma, my son... it good to have you home. I've missed you much!" She
embraced Ranma again and felt as if she was going to cry once more.
"You have grown so much since I last saw you. You are indeed a man
among men."

"Huh?"

Nodoka waved it off. "Nothing. It is nothing that you should be
concerned about. What is important is that you and I are together
again and that we are a family again. I have been told that you are
blind now and there is nothing that can be done about it."

Ranma winced a bit at his mother's reference to his disability, but
nodded as she went on.

"It doesn't matter. We are together again and I understand that it is
Genma that was responsible. Rest assured that I will deal with him."
Her voice took on a slightly hard edge as she thought about what she
was going to do with Genma when she caught up with him. "Now, I shall
have your old room ready for you when you move back and..."

This caught Ranma off guard. "Move back? What room?"

"Why your old room of course. You haven't been home since you were
five and you are going to live with me again aren't you and rejoin
the...?"

Ranma stopped her by raising a hand and took a deep breath. "Mother...
please. You must understand... this is very hard for me to tell you
this, but... I'm not going with you."

"What?"

"I'm not going to rejoin the Saotome register. I have been thinking
about it for a long time and I've just decided that the Saotome name
has already given me enough grief. I've only been using the name out
of sentimentality and because I wanted to meet with you. Added to the
fact are the promises and engagements that stupid idiot made in my
name."

"Ranma! I know that Genma is somewhat of a moron, but a boy should not
speak of his father so disrespectfully!"

"Mother..." It sounded somewhat strange to Ranma to call Nodoka that,
though it was appropriate. "There are other reasons why I do not want
the Saotome name. Are you aware of the crimes that he committed over
the last ten years, specifically concerning me?"

"Well, I have been informed by Mr. Saeba about the petty crimes and
theft that Genma had committed and had you do during your training
journey, but..."

"Did he tell you about the fact that if I take up the Saotome name,
then I will have to uphold more than a dozen engagements and that I
will have multiple fiances?"

"Multiple fiances? What are you talking about?" Nodoka asked.

Ranma took another deep breath as he gestured for her to sit at a
nearby table. After his biological mother took a seat, the blind
master of the Unseen Light began explaining.

----------

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?!"

The roof of Pepper's Place suddenly exploded off its foundations and
did a three hundred and sixty degree flip before landing back onto the
building.

Inside, Nodoka was shaking with disbelief. "He engaged you to HOW many
girls?!"

The vision-impaired martial artist shook his head sadly as he replied.
"By my count, about fifteen... so far. He even had me promised to
triplets."

Nodoka blanched as she heard this. It was one thing to have so many
girls after him to prove one's manliness, but it was quite another to
have sold off her only offspring like some piece of merchandise. Genma
had completely dragged the Saotome name through the mud to fill his
fat stomach.

Ranma paused for a long moment, then added, "If you don't believe me,
I do have evidence of each time a girl came to claim me at the
village. And Elder Cologne had informed me that Mr. Saeba is also
aware of the multiple engagements. He wanted to wait a while before
telling you, but I feel that you should be aware of EVERYTHING that
moronic waste of a human being has done to screw up my LIFE!" Ranma's
voice took on a very bitter edge as he thought about that stupid panda
man.

Nodoka took a deep breath to regain her self-control and gave her son
a disapproving glare. "Ranma! Though I do not approve of your father's
past actions, he is STILL your father and the head of our household!"
Unfortunately for the blind martial artist, though Nodoka was a kind,
caring person at heart, she was also... a traditional Japanese
housewife. And despite the fact that she totally disapproved of her
husband's crimes, she still hoped that her son and husband could
reconcile their differences and that they could be a family again.
However, that dream seemed to be more and more unlikely.

"So what?" The teen retorted, making no effort to keep his disgust of
his biological father to himself. "What exactly do I OWE to him for me
to show respect?"

"RANMA! I WILL NOT HAVE YOU SHOWING SUCH LACK OF RESPECT FOR YOUR
FATHER AND OUR FAMILY NAME!"

Ranma's temper began to boil as he responded. "AND WHAT KIND OF
RESPECT SHOULD I SHOW TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEITHER EARNED IT NOR
DESERVED IT?"

"DESPITE ALL HE HAS DONE, HE IS STILL YOUR FATHER!"

The disciple of Koga snorted. "SOME FATHER! THAT WAS JUST A CRUEL
TRICK OF FATE! AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, HE STOPPED BEING MY FATHER THE
MOMENT WHEN HE TOOK ME ON THAT TRAINING JOURNEY! AFTER THAT PIT OF
CATS, I DON'T EVEN CONSIDER HIM AS A HUMAN BEING!"

"RANMA!"

Ranma trembled and clenched his fists as he tried to calm down. It was
a losing battle as he stood up and turned his back to Nodoka. "To him,
I was just a meal ticket! A piece of property to be bartered off to
the highest bidder, then offer for sale again whenever his fat belly
was empty! Not once, not twice, but Kami-Sama only knows how many
times! You say that I'M showing disrespect to the family name? Well my
'father' had dragged the Saotome name through the mud, every time he
broke a promise to those families and engaged me to all those girls!"

"Ranma..." Nodoka warned in a very stern voice, but the Unseen Light
Fighter would not hear of it. It was a very rare occurrence for Ranma
to lose his self-control, but this was one of those times in which he
had to let his feelings out full blast.

"Do you know just how ASHAMED I was to be related to him? Of every
time a girl with her father or mother came to the village and
announced herself as my fiance, because of some little deal that
Genma made with her? Do you know what it's like to be considered as
just property? To be sold off for a meal or money? And do you know how
many times I wished for you to be there for me? To stop him from doing
these things? Well do you?"

Nodoka became silent as she heard this. Ranma's anger and bitterness
toward her was very disturbing. This was not how she wanted her first
meeting with her son to be.

The Unseen Light fighter continued on. "And where WERE you? Where were
you for the last TEN years? What about those two years after I became
blind? Where were you when Genma abused me, beat me, and called me
weak for becoming blind? It was his fault that I lost my sight in the
first place!"

"Well, I..."

Ranma cut her off. "Not one word! Not one letter! Not even a single
call! I didn't know if you were alive or dead! I only had the dream of
finding you again that kept me going for the last decade!"

Nodoka stood up and took a step toward her son. "Ranma, please calm
down. I received postcards and letters from your father constantly,
telling me that the training was going well and that you were doing
fine. I had no reason to doubt Genma as he was my husband after all. I
only started to doubt those letters recently. That is why I hired Mr.
Saeba to find you!"

"TEN YEARS... mother." Ranma gritted at the word. "It took you ten
years before you decided to look for me! Every day, every night, I
would think of you and would ask Elder Cologne and my Amazon mother
Jasmine to help me find you! I hoped and hoped that you would be able
to understand me and give me some answers to who I was. But... it
seems that everything that I had wished for about you... was nothing
more than an empty dream."

Nodoka didn't like the sound of this. "W-W-What are you talking
about?"

Ranma's mouth became a firm line as he said without emotion. "I had
thought that you might be different from Genma, but I can... see with
my heart that you are not."

"What do you mean?"

"Despite all that I've told you, and all the evidence that Mr. Saeba
had shown to you. You still expect me to obey that lying piece of
trash out of a sense of duty that a son should toward his father. You
think that the honor of the Saotome name can be restored that way?
It's gone! It died when Genma took me on that blasted training trip!"

"Ranma, please understand that I only let Genma take you away because
he promised to me that you would become a man among men and..."
Nodoka's voice trailed off as she almost told him about the Seppuku
Pledge.

However, Ranma's emotions were taking control of his mind at the
moment. He snarled a bit as he snapped at her, letting his anger and
frustration choose his words, words that he would later regret. "A MAN
AMONG MEN?! IS THAT WHY YOU LET HIM TAKE ME AWAY?! SO THAT HE COULD
TURN ME INTO SOMEONE LIKE HIM?! IS THAT IT?!"

"Yes, I mean no... I mean..." Ranma's sudden flash of intuition had
caught Nodoka off-guard. Ten years ago, Nodoka had some very strange
definitions of what a man among men was supposed to be and Genma was
the role model of those ideals. Her definitions had changed after the
City Hunter had informed her about Genma's crimes and what had
happened to her son.

That was when Ranma's anger hit the boiling point. "SO THAT WAS IT?!
YOU WANTED ME TO BE LIKE HIM?! TO BE A DIRTY, ROTTEN, LYING BASTARD
WITH NO HONOR WHATSOEVER AND WHO WOULD SELL OUT HIS SON'S FUTURE FOR A
FISH, A BOWL OF RICE AND TWO PICKLES?! DESPITE ALL THAT HE'S DONE TO
ME AND ALL THE PEOPLE HE HAD HURT WITH HIS LIES AND THIEVING WAYS, YOU
STILL EXPECT ME TO GO TO HIM AND OBEY HIS WISHES? TO CONTINUE LETTING
HIM RUN AND RUIN MY LIFE?! IS THAT YOUR IDEA OF A MAN AMONG MEN?!"

"Ranma, please..." Nodoka felt tears starting to well up in her eyes.
She couldn't believe that her newly-found son was becoming so hostile
toward her.

That was when Ranma... lost it. "NEVER! IF TAKING BACK THE SAOTOME
NAME MEANS THAT I HAVE TO BECOME LIKE GENMA, THEN I HEREBY RENOUNCE MY
BIRTH FAMILY NAME, PERMANENTLY!"

"Ranma, please listen to me! Don't be so hasty! We can work this out!"
Tears were now rolling down her cheeks as she reached out to tough her
son.

The blind martial artist swatted her hand away. "NO! THERE IS NO RANMA
SAOTOME! I AM RANMA OF THE JOKETSUZOKU! SON OF JASMINE!" Ranma shook
as his fists clenched even tighter, making his knuckles turn white.
Then, in a bare whisper that was filled with sorrow, he said to
Nodoka, "Go. Leave... Nodoka Saotome." At this point, Ranma no longer
thought of calling her 'mother' as appropriate.

"But... I'm your mother, Ranma. I..."

"I don't know you. I had hoped to find the mother of Ranma Saotome,
but instead... all I found was the WIFE of Genma. If you are so
determined to restore the honor of Saotome family name, then you may
do so, but I will not have any part in it. It cannot be saved, nor is
it worth the effort! Now... go!" Ranma felt himself close to shedding
tears, and remembered how his father berated him for crying. However,
he didn't consider himself as Genma's son and therefore, anything that
Genma had said to him was to be disregarded.

Nodoka shook her head in total disbelief then let off a cry of anguish
as she ran from the room with her face in her hands.

At then moment, Ranma felt his heart shatter like fragile crystal.

----------

Ryo Saeba ran after Nodoka when she burst out of the room and sped
past him and the Amazons. He had been trying to get close to those
three Amazon beauties, Honey, Silk and Satin while they were waiting
outside in the main lobby of the restaurant. He had been especially
interested in that voluptuous, blonde healer, but when they started
hearing shouting and then the door burst open, the City Hunter knew
that something had gone seriously wrong.

"Mrs. Saotome! Wait!"

Nodoka however, did not hear him as she continued to cry and run
toward the front door.

As the Amazons watched the detective chase after his client, Jasmine
turned her gaze toward the room where Nodoka had just come out of and
shook her head. Without a word, she got up and walked toward the open
door. When she came to the room's entrance, she stopped when she heard
sobbing coming from within. She took a deep breath and stepped inside.
There she saw Nodoka's... HER son sitting on a chair and slumped over
the table with his head buried in his arms.

"Ranma?" Jasmine said tentatively.

However, the blind teen was in no mood to answer as he continued to
cry.

----------

At Nodoka's home, some time later...

"He hates me!" Nodoka sobbed.

In the living room, Ryo Saeba took a deep breath before trying to
console the distraught woman. "Mrs. Saotome... I'm... sorry that your
first meeting with your son went badly, but... I did warn you that
something like this might happen. There's still a chance though. I
think I can arrange it for you to meet with Ranma again, after we give
him some time. I'm sure that he didn't mean all those things."

"And then what?" Genma's wife said without looking at him. Her face
was in her hands as she continued to weep. "You heard him. He doesn't
want his family name back. He doesn't want anything to do with
Genma... or me."

"And can you blame him?" A new voice asked.

Both Nodoka and the City Hunter looked to where the new voice came
from and they saw Ranma's adopted mother standing at the front of the
living room.

"Who are you?! How did you get in?!" Ranma's birth mother stood up
angrily to glare at the stranger.

Jasmine glared back at Nodoka as she answered. "I came here at the
request of Mr. Saeba. And as for who I am... I am Jasmine."

Nodoka's eyes widened as she realized that this woman was the one who
had raised her son since the time he had lost his sight.

"Y-Y-You're...?"

"Ranma's mother."

"I'M HIS MOTHER!"

"That... is highly questionable from where I stand." Jasmine said in a
level tone.

"Who are you to judge?"

"And why am I not suited to judge you as I see fit?" The healer asked
coldly. "I am after all, the one who raised Ranma, when YOU abandoned
him to the care of that idiot Genma, ten years ago."

"Why you...!"

"Mrs. Saotome, Ms. Jasmine, please! I called the two of you together
so that you could work things out!" Ryo held up his hands and got
between the two women as Nodoka rose from her seat to confront her
rival for her son's affections. "I don't want either of you to..."
Jasmine held up a hand, then gave Nodoka an especially cold stare. "Do
not worry, Mr. Saeba. I did not come here to battle. If I had, then
she would have been DEAD by now."

"You dare to threaten me in my own house?!" Nodoka said incredulously.

"I am only stating a fact, as well as giving you a warning, if you are
even thinking of attacking me." Jasmine retorted. "You hurt Ranma, and
my son is very dear to me."

"YOUR SON?!"

"Yes. MY son. I raised him. I fed him. I disciplined him. I gave him a
home. I helped teach him to overcome that disability that YOUR idiotic
husband had caused, due to his total disregard for his child's safety
and well-being. Ranma has a good chance of making it in this world. As
far as I'm concerned, he IS my son, even if I hadn't given birth to
him myself."

"Why you...!"

"You may resent me, you may even hate me, but I think it is because I
got to be a part of Ranma's life, while you GAVE him away to Genma to
do with as he pleased."
"I didn't give him away! It was part of his training to be..."

"A man among men?" Jasmine finished. "Like that scum, you call a
husband? If he were my husband, I would have EXECUTED him a long time
ago. However, the fact remains that you did bring Ranma into this
world, and for that I am thankful. We are his mothers. You raised him
for the first five years, while I raised him for the last eight. The
big question STILL remains... what do we do about this now?"

Nodoka clenched her fists and was considering pulling out her katana,
despite her lack of skill with it. Luckily, the City Hunter placed a
hand on her shoulder and shook his head, telling her with his eyes
that any further hostilities would not help in this situation.

Ranma's birth mother reluctantly nodded as she took a deep breath and
motioned for Jasmine to sit at the chair opposite to them.

----------

On top of Pepper's Place, Ranma was playing on his flute as he thought
back to his first meeting with his... mother.

<Mother, heh! Now that was a joke.> Ranma thought as his music took on
a more saddened tone. <I should have known better. She married Genma
after all.> He stopped his playing to think about what had happened.
<Then again, I shouldn't have let my emotions cloud my better
judgment. Maybe I was a bit harsh on her.> The blind martial artist
continued to ponder as he resumed to play. He was so deep in his
thoughts that he almost missed the presence of another person, as he
began to approach him with a stealth that put the best ninjas to
shame. When the figure came within twenty meters of Ranma, the Unseen
Light practitioner stopped playing and perked up his head with all his
extraordinary senses on alert. He was instantly in a defensive stance
as he reached out with his seventh sense. His ears, nose, and sixth
sense were primed as they searched for any sign of the intruder.

"Who's there?"

There was no answer, but Ranma began receiving the spiritual
impressions of the stranger and a sensation of... darkness. It was a
kind of icy coldness that made him tremble slightly, and his
metaphysical perceptions felt as if they were being smothered. He
sensed a malevolence that he had never encountered before and it was
directed at him. Something wanted him... dead!

The Amazon healer and warrior moved with a speed that made the most
graceful of jungle cats seem clumsy. There was a large explosion as
the spot he had been on a moment ago suddenly blew up. Making a series
of backflips to evade the flying debris, while placing his flute back
in its hiding space, he then landed on another roof and reached out
with his senses.

<There!> Making contact with his unknown adversary's aura, he cupped
his hands, pulled them back and let loose with a ki blast.

"SPIRIT SEEKER!"

The blue-white bolt of ki went screaming toward its target like a
homing missile and struck hard. However, Ranma was astonished when his
senses told him that his projectile had no effect. The energy had
winked out the moment it made contact with his opponent's aura. The
darkness that he had sensed before had snuffed out his ki blast like a
birthday candle. It was then that the stranger spoke.

"Oh come on now. Surely a master of the Unseen Light can do better
than that."

To Ranma's ears, the voice had a chilling iciness to it and there was
no doubt in his mind what his attacker wanted. Ranma sensed a kind of
bloodlust in that presence. He wanted his blood and would stop at
nothing to spill it.

The stranger smiled as he prepared to attack again. "So, you know why
I am here. Your sixth and seventh senses are indeed very developed.
Yes, I am here... to kill you."

Jasmine's adopted son had no time to wonder what his attacker was
talking about or how he knew about his other senses. Ranma narrowly
dodged another series of attacks, which caused more sections of
roofing to be blown off.

<What's going on? I should be able to use just my sixth and seventh
senses detect his attacks in advance, but it's taking ALL my senses
just to avoid them! > Ranma had discovered that something about that
stranger was dulling his extra perception abilities. He should have
been able to detect the attacks with several seconds to spare, but he
was now only barely evading by scant milliseconds. He was also relying
on changes of air currents, vibrations and sound to discern which
direction the attacks were coming from.

<And why did my Spirit Seeker fail? It hit him dead on, but it didn't
hurt him in the least!>

----------

Leaping on another roof, Shindo frowned as he tried to hit his
opponent with another ki blast and missed. <Hmmm, this one is very
skilled and his sixth and seventh senses are still working, even
though my Shadow Aura is dampening them. I may have to get closer in
order to render them useless.>

Shindo began moving in a crisscross pattern, closing the distance
between them, while increasing the intensity of his dark aura. To a
sighted person, Shindo didn't appear to have any aura, but to Ranma's
senses, it was if he was enveloped in a spreading cloak of darkness,
which was causing the images in Ranma's head to become blurry and
indistinct.

As Shindo neared his prey, Ranma suddenly tripped over a loose tile
and went down.

<I tripped?! No way! How could I have misjudged where that loose tile
was?> Ranma quickly got to his feet as he heard the sound of someone
else landing on the same roof he was on.

VREET!

Ranma had his staff out and ready as his enemy stood some twenty-five
feet away.

"Surprised that your perceptions are now getting less defined?" Shindo
taunted as he held up two sais. "Soon, you will not have the seventh
sense to guide you anymore and your sixth will follow. Then again,
your enhanced senses will be of no use to you, once you are dead."

"Who are you? Why are you attacking me?"

"Hmmmm, very well. I shall tell you before you die. I am Shindo... of
the Shadow's Eye."

As soon as Ranma heard the name 'Shadow's Eye,' his blood ran cold. He
began remembering back to his training with his master Koga and the
stories he had told of the only rival to the Unseen Light, the darker
side which was known as the Shadow's Eye. The school of blind fighters
whose sole purpose... was to kill all users of the Unseen Light.

"Ah, so you know of my discipline." Shindo said with a grin.

"Yes, Master Koga did tell me of it." Ranma growled as he readied
himself, then stiffened as the images in his head became even more
indistinct, until finally... there was nothing but darkness.

"How does it feel?" Shindo asked with a hint of cruelty in his tone.

"Your seventh sense is now gone, isn't it? Your sixth sense is
probably working at only ten percent by now, and it too will fade
shortly. It seems that my Shadow Aura has now snuffed out your Unseen
Light. A pity, though I can still 'see' you!" He then struck forward
with his sais, aiming the point of one at Ranma's heart.

Using the sound of the sudden rush of air as his guide, Ranma twisted
out of the way. The point of the Shindo's weapon missed its target and
grazed Ranma's shoulder. The blind Amazon fighter followed through
with a roundhouse kick and managed to tag his opponent in the back,
knocking him away. However, Ranma felt a slight burning sensation and
knew that his enemy's weapons had been poison-tipped. It wasn't enough
to kill him instantly, but he didn't finish this fight soon, he would
not live past morning.

Shindo growled as he got back to his feet and held up his weapons for
his final attack. "A very good move, but you are finished! By now,
your sixth sense is all but gone and your remaining senses will NOT
save you from my final attack." Shindo began focusing his Shadow Aura
into his weapons as he prepared to strike.

Ranma knew in his gut that something was happening, but with his
seventh sense gone and his sixth just faintly detecting the danger, he
was at a disadvantage. He had to focus every ounce of will he had left
into his senses and hoped that they would pull him through. It was
then that Shindo launched his Shadow Thrust Attack.

The sais let loose with twin beams of dark energy that would pierce
Ranma's heart like a rapiers. There was no sound, no rush of air
currents or any scent for Ranma to detect. Without his sixth or
seventh sense, Ranma seemed doomed.

However, dying was not on Ranma's agenda. He had endured through a
lifetime of hardships and he wasn't about to give up now. Just as
Shindo launched his attack, Ranma focused his mind on one thing,
restarting his sixth sense. He concentrated as hard as he could and
for one brief moment, he felt a slight buzzing in his head. It was
enough as he swerved to the left, narrowly evading the attack as it
blasted two small, deep holes in a wall behind him.

"WHAT?!" Shindo cried out as he missed.

That brief cry was all Ranma needed as he used his hearing to zero in
on his enemy's position. He thrust out his staff and directed one end
at him.

"Extend."

VREET!

WHOMP!

Shindo was pushed back a hundred feet as the staff slammed into his
solar plexus. He hit another wall hard and made a deep impression in
it as his opponent smiled. With Shindo's Shadow Aura now further away,
Ranma's seventh and sixth had come back and he had a clear picture of
his surroundings. Ranma began focusing his ki into the staff and
launched his attack straight down its length. Unlike his pervious ki
blast, this one would not be engulfed by the Shindo's aura as the
staff provided a direct conduit to its target.

"SPIRIT THRUST!"

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!" The Shadow's Eye assassin was in agony
as Ranma's energy flooded his own ki pathways. Several of those
pathways were near bursting as Shindo desperately tried to wrench the
pole free. He finally managed to break away, but his own senses were
now frazzled. His perceptions were fuzzy and he was hearing a kind of
rushing noise as his head throbbed in pain. He slumped down to his
knees as he shook his head to clear it. It was then that he sensed the
approach of others and decided that his chance to kill Ranma was
gone... for now. However, this was not the end.

He began leaping away from the scene, and though his own perceptions
were unbalanced, he was still able to away as Ranma's Amazon friends
came came to their comrade's aid.

----------

"Ranma! Are you all right?" Pepper asked as she, Lilac, Perfume,
Shampoo and Cologne came to where he was now on his knees. They had
come onto the roof of the restaurant when they heard the commotion,
but by then, Ranma and Shindo were already hopping rooftops and had
ended up nearly ten blocks away.

Ranma was currently pressing some pressure points on his body to slow
the spread of the poison, while making some of his medicinal supplies
appear. However, the ordeal had left him both physically and mentally
exhausted. After finishing up with the last of the pressure points, he
collapsed forward.

----------

Much later...

"I cannot understand how this Shindo person had come so close to
killing you." Cologne remarked after Ranma had told her and the others
what had happened. Currently, Jasmine was still at the Saotome
residence and did not know about her son's near-death experience.

"Yes. I thought that your seventh and sixth sense made it impossible
for someone to get within fifty feet of you, without you knowing."
Pepper said.

"It is difficult... but not impossible." Ranma said slowly as he lay
in a bed with his shoulder bandaged up. He brought up his knees and
wrapped his arms around them. He was silent for a very long while.

"Then how did this person do it?" Cologne asked.

Ranma continued to be silent for a few minutes more before finally
answering. "It's because... he's been trained in a martial art that is
the only rival to the Unseen Light."

"What? There is another martial art for the blind?" Cologne became
very interested in this information. The other Amazons also became
attentive as Ranma began explaining to them what his master Koga had
told him.

"Once upon a time... fifteen hundred years ago to be precise... the
Unseen Light was born... and with it, came its darker side, the
Shadow's Eye."
