the party had decided to train before moving agaisnt kuja, the monsters in his lair too tough for them now. it seemed that no matter what they did though, they could never tire eiko out. the young summoner was always full of energy until she just dropped off suddenly, like she just ran out of energy. normally, the party had zidane distract her during this time. he didn't seem to object, though he did seem to want to draw others in to listen to his stories about theiving and the adventures of tantalus in the past.

'what's that mean?' eiko asked after only a few moments.

'what's what mean?' zidane asked back.

'hipposchism.'

'hypnotism. it's like a sort of magic trick. you make people suggestible and they do things they wouldn't normally do. you wave something like a watch in front of them and tell them they feel sleepy. they follow the watch, and they get into a trance and you tell them to do something. they're meant to just agree on most things.'

'oh. like you'd hypnotise people and make them give you money?'

'that was the plan. we hoped to trick people into it. but it didn't work well.'

'what happened?' eiko asked.

'none of us could get it to work. only cinna ever managed to hypnotise anyone.' zidane said.

'who? did he hypnotise you?'

'nope. he hypnotised himself. we convinced him to think he was a chicken for five minutes any time someone says swordfish around him.'

'does it still work now?'

'i think it does.' zidane said, not admitting that a year after they'd tried it cinna had caused chaos when the group of theives had been asked to steal, of all things, a stuffed swordfish. it turned out even seeing one was enough to cause cinna to think he was a bird.

'what else can you do if you get it to work?'

'a lot of things. like make people act silly. have them wear their shoes on their heads, dance, whatever...' zidane said, not realising that he was giving eiko ideas.

***

eiko had learned from zidane all you needed was something to wave and have the person you hypnotise focus on the object. watches and other items on chains that could be waved worked well according to the book zidane and tantalus had tried to use, but cinna had apaprently hypnotised himself with a spiral pattern on a revolving disc once. eiko had forgotten about it mostly until as the party headed into lindblum to get supplies and spend a night or two in real beds in the inn rather than sleeping bags and tents.

she saw a small dulled brass object in grass near the gate. round, dulled brass with dirt filling the etching of a sun and a moon on either side.

'zidane, what's this?' she asked, picking it up and showing the object to the theif.

'it's an old pocket watch. looks like it's been lying there a while.' he said. it felt light, and when he opened it he found it was just the case. the clockwork inside had been taken out, probably sold.

'it's not really worth anything. the insides of these watches usually cost a lot more than the case does.' zidane continued.

'can i keep it then?' eiko asked, an idea suddenly entering her head.

'sure. it's not any use to anyone else just now.' he said, giving her the watch case back, forgetting the conversation a few nights ago.


***

'are you sure this is safe?' vivi asked. eiko nodded.

'yeah. you can trust me. i won't make you do anything dumb and if it works you can try it on me.' the summoner replied. the black mage sighed.

'okay, fine.'

eiko had cleaned the watch up, and rather than being a dull grimy circle of brass it now glinted in the light like a mirror. she wondered why steiner's armour polish worked better on watches than it did his armour. but there were more important things right now. she began waving the watch in front of vivi, his yellow eyes staring straight ahead.

'you have to follow the watch vivi.'

'oh, right.' he said and the yellow orbs began darting from side to side in tandem with the watch. after a few minutes, eiko spoke.

'are you hypnotised yet?'

'no. are you sure you're doing this right?' vivi said. eiko frowned, still waving the watch and then remembered something else.

'i didn't tell you to feel sleepy!' she said, and snapped her fingers. vivi's eyes stopped following the watch.

'uh, vivi?'

the black mage did not reply. he stood still and stared forward.

'vivi, take your hat off.' she tried. he did it.for some reason the shadow he hid his face behind remained instead of fading like when he usually took his hat off, and eiko realised he had to get rid of the shadow himself as well. she had him put the hat back on, knowing he didn't like not having his shadows to hide his face.

'take your coat off.' she tried next. he did so. next she had him do a handstand. his hat fell off meaning that his head seemed to be a pitch black orb with glowing eyes. she had him stand normally again, but his orb eyes were still staring vacantly.

'put your shoes on your hands and your gloves on your feet.' she intstructed. he did so.

'oh, and when i wake you up you don't want to try it on me just now.' she added. she wondered if it would work.

then she hit a snag.

'uh oh. how do i wake you up?'

vivi didn't reply.

'wake up, vivi.' she said. instantly, his eyes became less dull and moved on their own. then he realised he wasn't wearing his hat, coat, and had his shoes and gloves on wrong.

'huh?! what happend?' he said, confused. he began fixing what eiko had done even as she explained.

'all i remember is you snapped your fingers and then i was standing with my shoes on my hands.' vivi said. eiko snapped her fingers again. nothing.

'maybe you have to hypnotise me again with the watch?'

eiko tried it. it turned out vivi was really easy to hypnotise, but eiko woke him up quickly.

'i got it to work! this could be fun!' she laughed.

vivi however was refusing to be hypnotised again for now, but also didn't seem intrested in trying it for himself. eiko wondered who to try it on next.

***

'you want to do what?' armarant asked.

'hypnotise you. i got it to work on vivi.' she said.

armarant then did something eiko hadn't seen him do. he smiled.

'well, you can try. and when it doesn't work, i can tell you something about it.'

she tried. it failed repeatedly.

'okay, you win, it doesn't work, what were you going to tell me?' she said.

'you need to pick who you hypnotise well. it has to be someone who really belives it's possible or at least really wants to belive. vivi's a little gullible, he'd buy anything. me on the other hand, i know it's possible and i can just ignore it. if you were a better hypnotist, you could do it, but it's more than just waving a watch around and telling them they feel sleepy. there's a little bit of magic involved to doing it properly.'

'so... how hard would it be for me to hypnotise anyone else?' she asked.

'you'll just have to try. stiener would be a good bet I think. '


***

'ah, yes. i recall once for the princesses tenth birthday the queen had a hypnotist perform at her birthday show. she made three nobles dance like chickens.' stiener said.

'so i can try it on you?' eiko said hopefully.

'i don't see the harm in trying.' stiener said, blind to the very obvious harm eiko could do with hypnosis, but fortunately enough eiko was also blind to the kind of chaos she could cause with it, more intrested in the idea of making someone act silly.

steiner was even easier than vivi. she soon had the alexandrian knight convinced that putting butter onto his face was nothing unusual. rather than being angry when she snapped him out of it, he was impressed.

'you have a talent for it, young lady.'

'thanks'

'however, i have a small suggestion... if you should hypnotise the ruffian... make him do something really foolish.' steiner said, winking. with an invite like that eiko couldn't possibly resist. but first she'd try others.

***

'nothing?'  eiko asked.

'reminds me of frogs.' quina said. eiko sighed, everything reminded him/her/it of frogs. the qu mind was too focused on frogs and food to be able to hypnotise.


***

unlike steiner, freya did think of what chaos eiko could cause. she politely refused and eiko wondered why she looked so nervous about it. she just planned to have her try and swap hats with vivi. freya however was having none of it.

***


'hypnosis?' dagger asked, puzzled.

'yeah. i got it to work on vivi and steiner.' eiko said. dagger stared at her.

'what did you make them do?'

'i had vivi wear his gloves on his feet and his shoes on his hands, and made steiner spread butter over his face.'

'that last one's not much of a trick. if i told him to do it, he would.' dagger smirked.

'yeah, but you'd be cheating! you wouldn't get freya or zidane to do that, would you?' eiko argued.

'maybe not. but what would you make me do if it worked?'

'it's a surprise.'

dagger didn't like the sound of that, but reasoned even if eiko could do it, she wouldn't do anything too nasty.

eiko began waving the watch back and forth. dagger followed. eiko gave up after a few minutes.

'i guess it doesn't work on you.' she sighed.

'you were waving it pretty fast though. maybe if you go slower?' dagger suggested. eiko nodded. a few moments later, dagger was staring forward blankly.

'it worked?' eiko asked herself. dagger seemed to be like vivi and steiner were.

'say, uh... say eiko is the best white mage i've ever seen.' eiko told dagger. the hypnotised older summoner repeated what she had been told.

'now cast mini on yourself!'

a second later, dagger had shrunk herself to twenty inches tall. eiko snapped her out of the trance then. she blinked and realised the world was bigger.

'uh... good job. what did you make me do?' the shrunken princess asked.

'that should be obvious.' eiko said.

'apart from that, i mean...'


***

garnet took issue with having been made to say that, but also agreed to help eiko try it out on zidane in return for having a go herself at hypnotising eiko. eiko was pleased when garnet said it didn't work at all on her and that she simply couldn't get eiko into a trance to give her suggestions. she too agreed with steiner's plan, but hoped to maybe reign in some of eiko's more bizzare or dangerous suggestions. eiko had wanted to have him run through lindblum. dagger had realised the unspoken part of it was something along the lines of 'naked' and so had steered her away from that idea. eventually, eiko and dagger agreed on an idea.

'it's a secret.' dagger smiled, backing eiko up.

'is it a nice secret?' zidane asked.

'you'll see.' came the reply.

zidane was just as easy as vivi to hypnotise. when he was staring forward blankly, eiko was quick to tell him what to do.

'when we say a word to you, you'll think you're a dog for five minutes.' she said. zidane kept staring.

'what word?' garnet whispered. eiko remembered the story zidane told her a few days ago.

'the word to make you act like a dog is swordfish. only when me or dagger say it will you act like a dog. if we say it again you'll snap out of it.' she said. they waited a few seconds and snapped him out of it. he was unaware of time passing, and thought it hadn't worked. he grinned.

'see? didn't work did it?'

'swordfish.' dagger said. instantly, zidane dropped onto all fours and barked.

'swordfish.' eiko said. zidane suddenly found himself on all fours and wondered why.

'uh... what did you two make me do?'

'nothing, nothing.' eiko said innocently.


***

freya sighed. eiko was trying again and dagger was backing her up. they'd demonstrated what zidane would do, and that just made her even more nervous about letting eiko mess with her mind.

'alright, but only if garnet is there to stop you doing anything too crazy.' freya said.

unfortunately, whilst freya wouldn't be doing anything as embarrising as she feared, what eiko and garnet did do was convince her that hearing the word swordfish would make her act like zidane, except in the dragoons case, she would act like a cat. a quick test of it on both resulted in the two acting like cat and dog until dagger snapped them out of it, and freya found herself up a tree with a puzzled zidane at the base of it trying to climb the trunk.


***

'you told eiko about the hypnotism thing?' cinna said, horrified.

'yeah. what harm can it do anyway?'

'if she says swor... that word, i act like a chicken for five minutes!'

'you act like one the rest of the time. be glad you didn't let eiko hypnotise you.' freya grumbled.

'what? did she make you do something dumb?'

'yep. every time her or garnet say swordf... that word, i think i'm a dog and freya thinks she's a cat.'

cinna grinned and made the mistake of saying the word, forgetting he was easy to trick and the effect of being hypnotised so long ago was still working. while he bucked, clucked and pecked at the ground, freya and zidane sighed.

'what an idiot.' freya noted.

'yeah. guess we should be glad it's only eiko and garnet who can do it.' zidane said, even though he had a feeling eiko would happily abuse the power she now held. he was proven right three seconds later.

'cinna's acting weird. did someone say swordfish?' eiko said with a grin. a second later a panicking and clucking cinna was chased by a hissing freya with a barking zidane right behind. eiko laughed out loud as dagger walked up.

'having fun i see.'

'hypnotism is awesome.' eiko agreed. dagger nodded.

'yeah. and i have a little confession. when i said hypnotising you didn't work, i lied.'

eiko stopped laughing.

'what... what did you make me do?'

'oh, nothing. actually, i didn't try it out, but if i say a word, you'll think you're a frog. do you want to know what word?' dagger grinned. eiko turned pale.

'uh, no, it's okay...'

dagger said something. eiko didn't hear it and instead crouched down, ribbited, and began hopping around. she was still hopping when the other three sheepishly emerged from their trances.

'so, how long will she act like that?' zidane asked.

'about an hour. i wasn't thinking when i hypnotised her into that.'

'can you stop her doing it?' freya asked

'yeah. in fact i can hypnotise you all again and stop you acting weird every time a certain fish is mentioned, but i think eiko needs to learn a little lesson about this, don't you?'

at that, quina approached. eiko began ribbiting wildly and hopped away from the bemused qu.

'eiko remind me of frog...' quina muttered. zidane sighed.

'you'd better snap eiko out of it before she hypnotises quina and becomes lunch.'