Disclaimer: I do not own, I repeat, I do not own any of the Ranma characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi...and aw, what the heck. Go on to ta story, hope ya like it! :)

Chapter Four: Welcome to Nerima

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Alex raised one of her eyebrow at her friend. Getting up from her work seat she walked to her friend who was currently burying her head behind a stack of newspapers.

Standing behind Reiko and glancing at what she was reading, Alex blinked. "You're looking for a home?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." Alex stared at the section Reiko was looking at. "Why are you looking for a home in NERIMA?"

Reiko smirked. "Cause."

"Cause?"

She shrugged. "Seems like a nice place."

"SEEMS LIKE A NICE PLACE?!!" The blonde girl yelled exasperated.

"Yeah."

"ARGH!" Alex screamed as she struggled NOT to pull her hair out.

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Reiko giggled as she thumbed through the pages of the Nerima house sections. Grabbing a map she scanned the area for dojos. Yes, she thought. There were many dojos in that area. Some were the Inidi Dojo, the Sineme Dojo, and.. the Tendo dojo? Interesting.

Circling the house number she moved on to look for more choices. Behind her and way off to her right was Alex, a dazed look on her face. Dan stared confused at his co-worker, waving a hand back and forth in front of her face.

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'she's crazy' and 'Nerima'?"

"She'scrazyNerimashe'scrazyNerimashe'scrazyNerimashe'scrazyNerimashe'scrazyNerima."

". . ."

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"Yes, I will be taking this house. The check will be in your office by tomorrow." The realtor for the house that Reiko was buying stared at her in amazement. Never had someone chosen to buy a house, one as expensive as this even, in less than two minutes. Other people interested had always taken hours, the fastest at least forty minutes, to inspect the house.

The beautiful redhead had just glanced on the exterior of the house and hardly even LOOKED at the rooms before turning around and telling him that she wanted the house.

"Thank you, Sakura-san. When do you want 'your' house?" The man asked with a very grateful look on his face for an easy deal.

"Today, if you don't mind. I will probably start buying the furniture very soon and move in by this week." Reiko commented, shrugging.

"Okay." Giving her the keys he bowed slightly, which made a smile form on the redhead's face, and left the now Sakura home. Or shall he say Dojo.

Reiko smiled as she looked around the large house. The dojo was huge which was perfect.

Pretty soon she would be able to do what she had wanted for so long. The goal and purpose for all her training those years ago. The goal she had dropped nine years ago.

She stood still in the empty house staring at a dull white wall. Moments of silence passed. More moments of silence passed.

She sweatdropped. "What was I suppose to be doing again?" She blinked several times. "Oh yeah, a tour around Nerima and buying furniture." Her sweatdrop widened.

*Author sighs. So much for that dramatic talk about goals and purposes. Feh.*

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She walked around the seemingly 'peaceful' neighborhood confused. The plan was to go to the nearest mall and buy the necessaries for her house. What she forgot was that she had no idea where the mall was. She WAS new to the neighborhood.

She sweatdropped. Note to self, she thought silently. Buy a map of Nerima before attempting to buy anything else. "Oh well," She muttered. "Might as well wait. I should invite Alex and see if she wants to go 'shopping' with me."

Her eyes widened suddenly. An old woman was limping on her right leg and was try to walk across the street. The poor lady, she thought. She rushed over to help the old lady.

"Do you need any help getting anywhere, Ma'am?" she asked politely. It was be disrespectful otherwise.

The old lady smiled grateful. "Yes, dear. I need to get to Dr. Tofu's clinic to check my leg. Clumsy me, I tripped this morning and gotten my leg hurt."

Reiko nodded. "I can take you there if you would kindly tell me where his clinic is?"

The old lady nodded. "Yes. The clinic is two blocks down the street and after taking a left turn, one more block North."

"Okay."

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Dr. Tofu sighed as he stared at the piles of paper in front of him. It was one of those spring cleaning days where he should reorganize his patient files, which was A LOT.

He heard the door to his clinic slid open as the voice of one of his older patients, Mrs. Takuda, calling him.

"Coming!" He yelled loudly as he stood up to go meet his patient.

Uncharacteristically he thought, 'Yet another one of those boring patient check ups. Were have all those bloody and injured martial artists gone?!'

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As Reiko helped her in, the Mrs. Takuda called out, "Dr. Tofu? Are you in?" They both heard the doctor reply, "Coming!"

Reiko glanced around the clinic. Orderly. White. Very white. Just as to be expected from a doctor.

She turned her head as a tall man stepped into the waiting room. He had long brown hair tied in a ponytail and wore glasses. From a glance she could tell that not only was he a doctor, he was also an expert in martial arts.

She blinked. What the?

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Dr. Tofu stepped out into the main waiting room and halted. Next to Mrs. Takuda was a beautiful redhead. She was just as beautiful as... His glasses fogged up and a goofy grin formed on his face.

"K-k-kasumi!"

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Mrs. Takuda's eyes widened in horror as she saw the look on Dr. Tofu's face. It was a look she knew all too well, as did all of his patients. "Oh no! He's at it again!"

The pain in her foot forgotten she jumped behind the kind girl who helped her for protection.

"Uh..what is going on? Who is Kasumi?" Reiko asked, turning her head to face the frightened lady in confusion.

"Kasumi is the kind girl that the doctor loves but can't seem to express his feelings too. Whenever he hears her name or sees her he goes into a trance that harms any person near him."

She raised one of her eyebrows. "You have GOT to be kidding me." She looked into the glazed and goofy look on the doctor's face and shook her head. "Hmm..maybe not."

She noticed that he was getting awfully close to them and from the way that Mrs. Takuda was shaking knew that it was a BAD thing. Reiko rubbed her temples and sighed.

In a swift move she got behind the doctor and tapped his neck.

Dr. Tofu blinked as his glasses cleared. "Huh?"

Mrs. Takuda's jaw dropped and sounding a lot like her teenage son yelled out, "NO WAY!"

Reiko smirked as she put her right arm over the man's shoulders. "So Dr. Tofu... I hear you have a slight problem with this Kasumi. Care to tell me about her? I may be able to help you."

He blinked. He blinked again.

She giggled. "Aw..Come on! Get in here!" She grabbed a baffled doctor into his examination room. Time for Operation Match Up!

"HEHEHEHE!"

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". . ." Reiko's eyebrow twitched. When she had decided to help out the poor doctor she had not intended THIS response. She sighed and rubbed her temples again.

"THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUOHTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!" She rolled her eyes as the doctor continued to bow and thank her. Sheesh. All she did was help cure him of his crazy reaction to the presence of the Tendo girl.

"Well you cut it out already?!" She yelled irritated.

"THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!"

"Oh brother!" A bright yellow piece of paper caught her eye. She picked it up and a beautiful smile formed on her face.

"The Nerima Martial Arts Tournament?" This was her chance to meet some decent martial artists!

"OHTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!"

"SHUT UP!!!"

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Alex paused in her eating as someone flicked a flyer in front of her face. "The Nerima Martial Arts Tournament?"

Reiko grinned. "Yup, it's this Tuesday at Nerima Center! Wanna go?" For the first time in years she felt like a little kid again. "I bought tickets!"

She stared at the flyer uneasily. Nerima? "Uh..." She looked at Reiko. Oh why did she always able to do that? "Sure." She said weakly.

"GREAT!"

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"Hehehehe..." Alex grinned.

The other half dozen girls did not agree with Alex's enthusiasm. "How could you do this to us???" Ling Ling whined.

"Hey, like Reiko said, 'cause Nerima Martial Arts Tournament seemed fun."

"FUN?!! ARE YOU CRAZY?!!"

She shrugged. "Depends on the situation."

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Ling Ling and the rest of Reiko's employees grinned and clapped their hands in glee. "Remind us to thank you for your brilliant idea Alex!"

"Sure, no prob." Alex said as she stared at the answer that changed her co-workers' mind.

"Ohhh...look at that guy's muscles! He's so hot!!"

Handsome martial artists and beautiful single workers? Fun!

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After a while of staring at all the handsome martial artists for a while they went to sit down in their seats. While Ling Ling was munching on some popcorn she asked Alex, "Hey, where's Reiko?"

Alex frowned. "I don't know, Ling Ling. She bought us these tickets and seemed very excited about this whole tournament so... I don't know.." She scanned the crowd and still no Reiko Sakura.

She blinked as someone stood in front of her. "Reiko!" She jumped up and stared at what her friend was wearing.

Reiko smirked as she stood in front of her gaping friend. She was wearing a white gi shirt with her sleeves rolled up and matching pants. Wrapped around her waist was a blue cloth and on both of her arms were black arm braces. The bottoms of her pants were tied with blue drawstrings and she wore black kung fu shoes.

"I know you like martial arts since you insisted on coming here..but...why are you dressed like that?" Alex asked.

Reiko sighed in mock frustration. "Don't you ever read the panel? The names of all the martial artists competing are in there."

Alex blinked and in unison with all her co-workers opened the paper in their hands and...

Eyes bulged and jaws dropped. In the section of the tournament fighters were the pairs who will be facing off against each other. 'CONTESTANT NUMBER 3 REIKO SAKURA AGAINST CONTESTANT NUMBER 7 AKIO TANABE.'

"Oh my gosh!" They all shook their heads in unison. "No way!"

Reiko nodded her head. "Yes way."

"No way!"

"Yes way."

"No!"

"YES!"

They blinked and stared. Moments of silence.

"COOL!"

"You can FIGHT?!"

"Wow."

Reiko smirked. "Of course." She glanced at the clock on the wall in front of her. "The tournament is about to start. Cheer me on." Without another word she stepped away from them and went up to a large table to register.

Her name was already set to battle against contestant number 7 but for some weird reason, they had to go register themselves. Complete weirdoes since they had already given the vital information when participating in the tournament.

The man sitting behind the table looked up. "Name, miss."

"Reiko Sakura."

He nodded, writing down the information.

"Age?"

Her eye twitched slightly. "Twenty-four."

"Height?"

"Five feet six." She had grown taller from when she first gotten cursed and fill out much better, not that she hadn't at the time already.

"Weight."

"None of your business." She growled slightly.

He sweatdropped. "Uh...style and dan?"

"Master of Chinese Whu Shu, Tai chi, Tai Kwon Do, Akido, Ninjitsu...." She smirked as she continued listing all the styles she had mastered.

His eyes widened. "You can't possibly be a master of all those schools of martial arts!"

"Sure I can."

". . ."

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The crowd roared as a man walked and entered the ring the martial artists would be competing in. He held a microphone in his hand and it was obvious that he was the announcer.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I know you have all been waiting for this day and I promise you that we will not disappoint you. Today we have over thirty martial artists from all over Japan competing for the title of the Strongest Martial Artist in Japan!" He smiled and the crowd cheered. "Before we start, let's go over the rules. In order to win the person's opponent has to either be knocked out, sent out of the ring, or forfeit. Now that that's out of the way, let the show begin!"

"First match: Micah Tenoih and Joyce Lee!" The cheering got louder as the two martial artists bowed and took their stances.

Ryouga watched the battle as he stood with his friends. Akane smirked as she saw the large number of martial artists participating. She turned her attention away from them, though, when a voice questioned softly, "Tea, Akane?" She smiled as she accepted the tea from her sister.

Kasumi Tendo was quite the traditional Japanese woman. Although she was not wearing a kimono presently, that did not make her any less. She was the sweetest woman in Nerima and possibly in the whole world. She never complained and if one had never tasted her cooking then they were missing a great thing.

While Akane was wearing a white gi, Kasumi was wearing a light blue dress. She had long brown hair tied in a ponytail with a white bow.

"I must say, sister, that you can definitely beat these martial artists here. They don't seem to be very good."

Akane turned around smiling brightly. "Nabiki! You made it!"

The brunette facing Akane smiled and she ran her hand through her short bowl-cut hair. She was wearing a tight green tank top and brown slacks. "You didn't think that I would miss your victory did you? Of course I'm here! It doesn't matter how busy I am at the office, I will always make it to occasions this important!"

Akane nodded her head as she embraced her older sister. Nabiki had always been the greatest. Even though she had seemed like the mercenary girl to everyone in high school, Akane knew better. Nabiki had sacrificed a lot to support their family. After graduation Nabiki had gone to law school and was now currently one of the top lawyers of Japan. Her wit and experience in handling blackmail really paid off in her career.

Nabiki and Akane were startled when a pair of strong arms wrapped around them and heard loud crying.

"Father!"

"Daddy!"

They both exclaimed as Soun Tendo bursts into tears at the exchange before him. They shook their heads in embarrassment as he yelled, "My girls are growing up!! WAAAHH!!"

"Now, now father." Kasumi said as she patted her father's back.

"Tendo, stop immediately! You are going to embarrass our school!" Soun sniffed and stopped crying. He turned to face of his old friend. "But Saotome, my girls *sniff* are finally growing up!"

Genma Saotome could only roll his eyes as he replied, "They are over twenty already! Of course they are grown up." Despite his sarcastic remark, Soun could tell that his friend was slightly jealous. Jealous of his family and their happiness.

He stopped his childish behavior as he recognized the look in Genma's eyes. Complete and utter depression and self-hatred. He berated himself for making his friend sad. Why hadn't he been more sensitive towards what his friend felt? Although it has been many years ago, his friend Genma had never gotten over the guilt of what happened in China. Of what happened to his first child, Ranma Saotome.

Ryouga and the Tendo sisters were quiet as they saw the depression around Genma.

"Poor Mr. Saotome," Akane whispered softly while Nabiki nodded. Around them people cheered as Joyce Lee won the match.

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Not far away from the Tendos, Genma, and Ryouga were a certain group of individuals from China.

The group consisted of three people, or two and some monkey. The supposedly only female of the group stood with her arms crossed a slight frown on her face. She had long violet hair that flowed to her waist. She had two buns on either side of her head and wore a long sleeve pink shirt and matching kung fu pants. A white cloth was tied around her waist.

"Great-grandmother, why is Mr. Saotome so sad?" She asked to dried up mo-err..old lady.

Cologne shook her head slightly. "It is because of the lost of his first son dear." Shampoo nodded her head in understanding.

The third member of their party remained quiet, either from lack of anything to say or fear of saying something that would result with him being knocked unconscious before he could even fight his first match. He had thick glasses and long black hair fell to his shoulders. Both of his arms were in the sleeves of his white Chinese robes.

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"Now for our next match folks," the spokesman started, "is Reiko Sakura against Akio Tanabe!" The crowd roared, eager for another exciting match.

Alex and the others jumped up in excitement. They watched as a huge man jumped into the ring confidently and they gasped. The man was gigantic! How in the world could Reiko defeat him?!

Akio snorted as he saw his opponent. It was a small beautiful redhead. Before she entered the ring he spoke arrogantly, "Missy, you should forfeit already. I don't want to bruise your cute face."

Reiko's eyebrows twitched. The angry frown on her face turned upside down as she smirked. She leaped from where she was into the ring, somersaulting in the air before landing. The crowd gasped. She had been at least three feet away and jumped twice that!

"I don't think so buster." She said, causing the gaping man to growl.

The spokesman sweatdropped. "Uhh..let the match begin!"

Akio growled and charged to slam the little witch out of the ring. Seems that nothing was going to go according to his plan. Just as he was about to reach her, she dodged out of the way and twisted her body to send the large man flying out of the ring with a kick.

The crowd was silent. Reiko had to be at least three times smaller than Akio but she had sent him flying over seven feet with a single kick.

After the initial shock, Alex and the others whooped in joy. "GO REIKO!!! GO REIKO!!!!!" Their cheering snapped the crowd out of their shock and they cheered too.

The only people not cheering were the Nerimians.

Genma Saotome stared at the smirking redhead in shock. Soun stared at his friend with concern. "Saotome, Saotome! Are you alright?"

Only one word came out of the large martial artist's mouth.

"Ranma!"

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End Chapter Four