------------------
CHAPTER FOUR
	Akane was walking back home, having been left by Ranma. School had been
temporarily suspended and none of her friends could tell much more than what
she had already known. She had never seen him so concerned for  anyone and
feels a stab of envy at the girl. 	She stopped in midstride. How could she
be so...so foolish thinking such thoughts. Ranma never even cared about her
feelings anyway. So why should she even care about it? The lie burned in her
soul. Even now, alone, she could not bring herself to even admit to herself
her feelings for Ranma.
	"Oh, Ranma..." she whispered softly. "I..."
	"--- Did you say Ranma?" asked someone in front of her.
	Akane wore a surprised looked as she stared at the person before her. The
person was a young girl appearing to be between the age of ten to thirteen
years  with brown hair. She wore jeans and a red T-shirt with the words
'NIKE' written on it in bold letters. 
	"Huh?"
	"Hi!" greeted the strange girl cheerfully.
	"Who are you?" Akane asked, looking confused and suspicious.
	"I'm Mizuki Saotome. I'm Ranma's younger sister." confided the girl.
	Akane was speechless with shock. Her mouth forming the syllables of the
name given. 
	"Do you know him? Mom was very sad the last time she came home and I
thought I might be able to persuade big brother to go visit mom."
	Akane was stunned speechless by her answer. Her words echoed in the depths
of her mind. *Ranma's little sister?!* she thought. "Ranma has a little
sister?!" she said once more as if not believing her ears.
	The girl, Mizuki, was staring at her with big round eyes. "Hey, you okay?"
	"Huh?!..." Akane snapped out of here trance. "What did you say,.. uh..."
Akane was trying *real* hard to recall her name.
	"...Mizuki." supplied the girl helpfully.
	"Yes! Mizuki. Pardon me. I didn't exactly catch your question."
	"I was sort of wondering if you knew Ranma since I heard you spoke his name."
	"Well... in fact, Ranma's staying with us at our house." She told her a bit
hesitantly.
	"Your house? Then you must be one of the Tendos." She eyed Akane up and
down before saying, "You wouldn't be Akane Tendo. Are you?"
	"Yes. In fact I am her." answered Akane.
	"So you're the one mom said would marry big brother. Cool."
	Akane tried to control her rising temper. It won't do to shout at her. "You
want me to show you the way to the house?" Akane asked her.
	She gave Akane a wide grin and nodded enthusiastically.
	"So, you're his sister, huh?"
	"Mmm!. Mizuki Saotome."
	"Akane. Tendo, Akane." To herself, Akane added, "This is going to be
another of those days." She sighed heavily as if foreseeing trouble in the
future. As if there weren’t any with Ranma involved!
* * * * * 

	Silence. Something that the neighbors residing close to the dojo never had
the luxury of experiencing had at last come. Nothing-- not a sound --
filtered from the dojo. 
The cause for this unorthodox behavior:  everyone was staring wide-eyed at
their visitor.
	Kasumi served their guest some hot tea; seemingly oblivious to the
emotional roller coaster that the rest of them were riding. Had Nabiki been
around, one would most certainly hear the sound of money falling into
someone’s hands. Preferably, hers. 
Genma stared hard at the girl whom had introduced herself as his daughter.
Ranma, meanwhile, engrossed with trying to tear his sister away from him.
Soun was, of course, calm as usual which was to say he wasn’t crying or
turning into various mythological demons. Akane just appeared.....well......
amused.
	"So..uh..you decided to look for me too,...Mizuki?" Ranma asked casually,
trying to strike a conversation.
	"Um-huh." she said. "I was sort of worried for her, brother. She arrived at
our house looking so lost. So I decided to seek you out before she got even
more depressed."
	Ranma had this sudden urge to trash his dad but restrained himself -- for
his sister's sake, if nothing else. He felt guilty at hearing her words.
After all this time of looking for him, he had never__ once__ considered how
that might affect her.
	"Ranma?" Mizuki called out softly.
	"Uh.. Yeah, I'm okay." He sighed deeply. "Since its dark already, I think
you should  stay here until morning. That alright with you, Mizuki?"
	"That's okay." She placed one of her fingers on her lips. "Uh.. But where
am I going to be sleeping?"
	Silence.
	Eternal silence? <yeah right!>
	It took about an eternity before anyone dared break the ice. "You can bunk
in with me, Mizuki."  Kasumi offered.
	Everyone sighed visibly. No one had actually dared ask her to stay in
Nabiki’s room. That would_not_have been a nice suggestion as its previous
occupants had learned. The hard way having been billed by Nabiki for their
lodging when she returned not long ago. 
	"Thank you, big sister." Mizuki bowing her head in gratitude while Kasumi
smiled.
	"Well then," Mr. Tendo spoke up, "now that we've settled that, why don't we
eat?"
	Dinner brought about the usual sort of events between Ranma and Genma. Each
fought for the remaining food while trying to restrain each other from
throwing one another into the pond. Akane made sure not to take notice of
this while Kasumi remained her good-natured, innocent self. Mizuki was the
only one who stared dumbly at both of them with a large teardrop at the back
of her head.
* * * * * 
	

	"Never though you'd have a little sister, Ranma." Akane told him during
their usual trek to school. Ranma walked sulkily on the fence, deep in thought. 
	"Me too." he said glumly. "Geez! I did not even think the old man still had
the courage to come back to the house after leaving it after he signed that
promise." After a while, "I wish I could just go and see my mother. Just
once! Just once, I'd like to see her without dad meddling in it." He sighed,
realizing the hopelessness of the situation. No matter what he tried, his
father would always be alert for such acts. *Damn you, old man.* he thought
acidly. Out loud, "It'd take a miracle for me to be able to get away from
him long enough to see her."
	He stopped dead in his tracks.  It was a big sacrifice to make, but for the
sake of his mother, he'd do it.
	"Ranma? Ranma!" she shouted at him.
	"Huh?" He looks at Akane.
	"We're going to be late if you keep smiling like that." she informed him.
"Let's get going already." Without waiting for a reply, she took off at the
fastest  available speed as he heard the soft chime of the warning bell.
	Ranma screamed. "Ahhhhh!! Akane wait!"
	Unbeknownst to him, a shadowed figure watched him. The outline of the
figure hidden in the shadows marked it as a woman. Seeing him run towards
the school, she leapt to a nearby building and continued monitoring him and
his friend. The wind whipped her bluish-black hair, billowing it out in
front of her.
	She continues to watched and waited.
	*Chibi...* she whispered into the air.
* * * * * 


	A small child woke up. The sun streamed hatefully at the small opening of
her tent. she grumpily opened her eyes and extricates herself from the warm
coverings of her makeshift bed. She left the tent, sleep clouding her mind.
 The air smelled fresh (yeah right! Fresh air in the city?! Please!). The
sky was blue and promised to be good all day. Her dark, reddish eyes held a
look of worry in them. She remembered the young man who had stood up for her
a few nights ago. Her visits to the hospital -- in secret -- assured her
that he would be all right.  Still, she was worried. He had been marked. And
that meant Death. Death to all who had dared oppose the Shadow Moon.
	She looked up to the clear blue sky and gazed at the stars her eyes could
only see.
	"Mother...."
* * * * * 


	Mizuki was talking cheerfully with Kasumi. They were just returning from
their trip to the market district of Nerima. By the time they arrived at the
Tendo residence, Mizuki had formed an accurate profile of her companion.
Having nothing more than spare time in her hands, she volunteered to help
around with the chores around the house until her transcripts could be
mailed to her new school. Kasumi had taken the proffered help gratefully as
she felt a bit queasy. Mizuki noticed this and promptly brought her to her
room and forced her to lie on the bed for awhile to rest.
	"Don't worry, big sister, I'll take care of everything. Mom taught me to be
a good  enough cook. I'll manage." she assured the ailing elder Tendo.
	Kasumi gave her a wan smile and dozed off.
	Genma happened to pass by the hallway on the way down when, by chance,
heard the two talking. He stood rooted to the ground as fear overtook his
body. He calmed himself as he assured himself that his wife would have
taught their daughter to be a better cook than poor Akane. Still, should
Akane arrive home to hear of this, she would help out in cooking. His
daughter must be warned of Akane before it was too late for all of them. Too
many times... No! Every time Akane tried her hand at cooking, everyone who
sat at the dinner table courted Death and worse.
	"Mizuki!!!"
* * * * *


	"Excuse me, nurse." Akane spoke to the one at the desk. "Would you mind
giving me directions to where Ryouga Hibiki's room is?"
	The woman's eyes twinkled in merriment. "Ryouga? The young man who gets
lost just trying to get out of the room?" she queried at her, eyes sparkling
in amusement.
	Akane tried not to laugh. "Yes."
	The nurse giggled. "Room 209. Left wing."
	"That's Ryouga for you." Ranma said to her, picking up on the nurse’s attitude.
	Akane said nothing and proceeded to the hospital's left wing. 
The room they were looking for was wide and spacious. Just enough room for
its inhabitant to get himself lost in. There, they found the patient vainly
trying to find the bathroom. The patient took notice of his  visitors. With
a scream of despair, Ryouga launched himself on Ranma.
	"Argh! Ranma!" he screamed at Ranma's prone form. "Tell me where they moved
the bathroom!!"
	Ranma looked at him with half-lidded eyes and points to the door behind Ryouga.
	"It's behind you, stupid!" He yelled into his ear; punching him towards the
bathroom for good measure.
	"Ahhhhhhh……….." screamed Ryouga as he flew into said room. 
	Thud! Ow! Ahhh… 
	A much-relieved Ryouga left the toilet and was his old unbearable self
again. He noticed Akane behind Ranma and found himself breaking apart at the
seams.
	"Uh….    A..Akane." Ryouga blurted out. "Nice… seeing you. Hahaha....." His
laughter  was strained and weak. Ryouga wanted to kick himself silly. *Why
did these things keep happening to him?* he asked himself in frustration.
	"Ryouga. Glad to see you're okay." she told him.
	"What happened to you, yesterday?" Ranma wanted to know.
	Ranma noticed Ryouga's mood change. "Remember the time that we fought
against that 'thing' which almost killed all of us?"
	Ranma nodded. He remembered that time as it was etched in his memories very
deeply. No amount of time could remove that memory even if he tried. Ranma
wondered what brought this on. Instincts warned him of trouble. The problem
was, what kind of trouble?
	"Something is happening in Nerima, Ranma. A game is being played out. And
we're caught right in the middle of it."
	Ranma's eyes were wide with disbelief. 
	Ryouga gave him a tight fanged smile. 
	Akane gasped.
	Ranma remained silent as he digested what Ryouga had told him. Much to his
dislike, he was right. No matter how much he tried to shrug it off, the
feeling of trouble he had kept coming back.
	"Mind if you explained a bit further."
	Ryouga closed his eyes and began to recount his fight a few days ago.
	Ranma listened intently on his 'friend's' account of his fight against the
monster he encountered in the school. He could not help the coldness that
crept into his spine at what he heard.
	Ryouga told the tale as best as his memories could recall. He told him of
his fight against the creature that had sought the life of the little girl
and how he tried to fight against the creature. He recounted ever detail of
his fight. Things such as that were useful. Remembering the moves made by
ones enemy is one of the prerequisites of a good martial artist. Such things
had saved ones life and provided information for others to assimilate.
	"So you used your new technique against this monster in the end, huh?"
asked Ranma.
	"Yes. It was the only way I saw at the time to see to my own survival.
Lucky for me that it was overconfident of itself or it would be my  guts
decorating the end of a spear."
	"We've got trouble ahead. A big one." summarized Ranma.
	Ryouga gave him a tight smile. He could never have explained it any other
way. "The girl's the key to this you know."
	"That, I already_do_know. Problem is, she's missing and I can't seem to
find her anywhere."
	"We'd better find her before something else does."

============
After this Chapter, I will not place anything in the end anymore.....It's
just too tiring for me...

Radler