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CHAPTER FOUR
	Akane was still fuming as she walked back home. She was quite put up with
Ranma abandoning her like that!  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 who spoke to her was a young girl appearing no less than  ten to
twelve years of age and possessing a luxuriant growth of 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, cautiously.
	"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 was a little girl whom everyone was
staring wide-eyed at.
	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’m  worried for her, big 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 gushed; 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.

* * * * * 
	
	
	The very next day….
	"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 looked 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 cried out. "Argh!! A…Akane! Hey, 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 continued to watched and wait.
	*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 fine.  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 in the house. 
It was quite later on that Kasumi began to feel queasy. Mizuki noticed this
and promptly brought Kasumi to her room and forced her to lie on the bed for
awhile to rest.
"But, dinner…"
	"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 watched the young girl leave. 
	"I hope dinner won’t turn out badly." 
	Genma  just 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. 
Mizuki came out of the room humming some unknown tune while 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. He found himself twiddling with his
fingers.  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. "This almost feels like getting beat up
by Herb and his female-deprived servants again."
	Ranma winced visibly at that. He remembered that time as it was etched in
his memories very deeply. He was trapped as a girl that time and frankly
could not forget such an experience. 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."
	Ranma frowned. "You’re hiding something."
	"Pretty sharp, Ranma." He sighed as he eased himself on a chair. "Yes. I am
since I’m quite sure I should be more seriously injured than I feel right now."
	"Shouldn’t being less injured make you more happy?" Ranma asked. 
	"Not unless you can explain to me how I woke up with barely a burn mark all
over my body."
	"Burn marks?!" Akane was surprised. 
	Ranma was not. 
	"I got hit by some sort of heat blast that nearly fried me, Ranma." He
continued. "I won but not without sustaining severe injury! But look at me now!"
	Ranma gave a tight nod. "So, it all boils down to that girl. She’s
disappeared."
	Ryouga smiled a fanged smile. "Finding her will prove quite difficult, then."
	Ranma shrugged. "Uh… I dunno. Considering how well you happen to pop up at
times, I think you might just find her."
	Ryouga let the insult pass. 
	"Where do we start looking?" he asked Ranma. 

================
Well????