Disclaimer: I believe that I said that I didn't own Ranma 1/2 in the prologue, I suppose that this holds true in the later chapters as well. So far none of the characters that I have made up have shown their faces yet, other than the 'worlds strongest' he is one of mine, I don't know exactly when they will show up or how many. The way I right this story is actually kinda interesting: I just sit down and type into my computer until I'm done with the chapter I'm working on. I don't really have much of a plan for how the story will unfold other than a general idea of what I want to happen and how I want it to end. Other than that I don't really know how long this story will be or what all will happen in it. Hopefully everything turns out well. Personally I feel that if I like what I've written the readers will at least be moderately pleased with the outcome.

Just so that everyone knows, I've decided that I don't want a bunch of cursed people that turn into various animals when doused with cold water in the story. For those of you who are now angrily planning my death, don't worry I'll have a few in there, but I don't think Ranma will be cursed (shocking isn't it?) but I think Genma will still be. Also many, if not all, of the people in this story will be a bit out of character. If anyone doesn't like that, well sorry, my story, I'll write it how I think it should go. I do plan on keeping things as close to incharacter as I can.

Enjoy.

-1998-

The day for Soun Tendo started out like any other day would have. He got up early in the morning to prepare himself for the day, his morning routine before breakfast was simple: perform the gentle katas in preparation for his students. It had been several years since the death of his wife and while the pain of her memory was still present he could bear it for the sake of his daughters and teach in his dojo to support his family. Once he finished performing his katas it would be time for breakfast, Kasumi was usually up around the time that he was finishing and would have breakfast started at the very least. Even if she wasn't done just yet he was in no hurry, his dojo was connected to his house so he did not have to rush to work every day, and he would patiently wait for her to finish, usually by inspecting the dojo to make sure that the equipment he intended to use was present and in usable condition.

Once he sat down to eat it was not long before Nabiki, his second oldest daughter next to Kasumi, would come down in her school uniform. The three eldest members of the Tendo family would eat leisurely, sometimes talking about what they expected the day to be like, until it was almost time for Nabiki and Akane, the youngest, to head to school. At this time Akane would come rushing down the stairs, hurriedly eat her breakfast, and grab her school bag just as Nabiki was ready to leave. Soun would sigh as he watched the antics of his youngest daughter. Of the three of them, Akane was by far the most interested in Martial Arts and the School of Anything Goes. Yet of the three of them she was the most hot tempered and least disciplined. Unfortunately, she was far better than any of his other students so she had nobody to compete with her at her level accept himself, her father and sensei. For some reason it didn't click in her mind that the only way to obtain her fathers' level of ability was to have discipline and apply herself fully.

Of course Soun knew that that wasn't the only way to achieve his level, but it was by far the easiest way and having self-discipline made the rest of life much easier. Soun could easily rise from bed early in the morning every day because he had the mind set to allow him to do so. And because of this he could go about his routine at a much more relaxed pace than Akane did.

The rest of the day went smoothly. His students were diligent, many of them had far more discipline than Akane, but that was most likely due to having people their age at their level of ability and having people at theirlevel of ability in the first place to compete against. Of all the techniques, katas, and forms Soun taught from his school of martial arts the thing he stressed the most was self-discipline. If the practitioner could not focus or take what they did seriously, he would say, they would never rise to greatness.

After his classes were over for the day, he would retrieve the mail and news, though he wouldn't open either until after dinner, and settle down with a book or plan what he would teach his students the next day. Kasumi would arrive home from her job at Ucchans, the proprietor being an old friend of his old training partners' daughter Ranma Saotome. Genma Saotome, his old friend, had recommended to Ukyo Kuonji's father that he come to Nerima and set up shop. Though her father could not be separated from his beloved restaurant, Ukyo had come to Souns' looking for a place to stay while earning enough money to start a restaurant of her own. When she had the money, she moved out of the Tendo house and set up shop in the space below her living quarters in the building. Kasumi had become fond of the girl and offered to help her, an offer which was happily accepted.

At the same time as Kasumi would arrive home, Nabiki and Akane would straggle after school and begin their own routines. Nabiki would work on her homework, she was a junior in high school and had a fair amount of it, and Akane would begin her work out. She would later receive instruction from Soun after her homework was done. Since this sometimes took most of the rest of the day, her instruction periods were sometimes limited to a quick spar so Soun could check on her progress or sometimes there would be no instruction time because it was too late. Soun had hoped that this would motivate Akane to organize herself more and become more focused but she only just accepted that she wouldn't always get instructed every night and went on with her 'routine'.

All in all, there was usually not a great deal of variation in the daily routines of the Tendos, but this was how things had been going for a few years now and the routine was a difficult one to break. However, as Soun went through the mail after the evening meal he came across a postcard that the moment he finished reading the short message on the back he knew that the normal routines of the Tendo family would soon change.

"Soun, we are leaving China and are headed for Nerima. Expect to arrive on April 12th. Ranma and Nodoka doing quite well. Hope this arrives before us. Genma."

'April 12th, eh,' Soun thought, 'that's tomorrow. ' "Well, the girls should know about this," he said out loud to himself, rising to gather his daughters. Kasumi was finishing the laundry on the main floor when he told her to meet in the main room in a few minutes. She nodded and continued her work, Soun turned to fetch his younger daughters from their rooms; Kasumi knew that it would take him a while to get them to come out so he let her continue what she was doing. She would be finished by the time he came downstairs anyway.

It took longer than he anticipated to coax Akane from her room. She was doing her homework and really wanted to have instruction time tonight so did not want to be interrupted. Eventually she agreed to come down and Soun moved on to Nabiki's room. Not needing to say anything other than "I need to talk with you, Akane, and Kasumi about something, be down in the main room as soon as you can" he returned to the main room downstairs where, sure enough, Kasumi sat waiting for everybody.

"Well, now that everyone is here," Soun began once the younger girls came down, "I can begin." "This had better be good, dad," Akane said, she had been in the middle of her English homework when Soun asked her to come down and it was the last thing she needed to finish before her instruction time with him. "Don't worry, Akane," Soun said calmly, "I wouldn't have gathered you all to tell you altogether if it wasn't. You will have plenty of time afterwards to do your homework and have some time in the dojo with me before the night is over. If you all stay quiet and let me speak this will be a short meeting." Akane blushed slightly at the gentle rebuke. "So what is it dad?" Nabiki asked. "It's this," Soun replied, holding up the postcard, "it's a postcard from my old friend and training partner Genma Saotome. He went on a training trip with his family to refine his skill and train his daughter, Ranma, at various training sites in China. His wife, Nodoka, also went along to teach Ranma a basic education, along with how to cook, amongst various other things. It was decided before they began their journey that they would end here and stay in the guest room until they could find a house for themselves in Nerima. Though that may not happen very soon or at all depending on how things play out."

"What do you mean, father," Kasumi asked. "I mean that at the time of my marriage to your mother, Genma and I decided that we should merge our schools of martial arts either by the marriage of a son and a daughter or though teaching if only sons or only daughters were present. Should we go ahead with this plan, the Saotome's may not leave for several months, years, or may not leave at all and simply live here. Since both of us have only daughters, it would be awkward to merge the schools via a marriage, so Genma will most likely teach here at the dojo. I am not sure what Nodoka would do; while she knows a good deal of Genma's school she has never been terribly interested in martial arts. We would have to see once they got here.

"The reason why I am telling you all this is because they are due to arrive here soon. They anticipated arriving on the 12th when they mailed this postcard so I would assume that they will arrive within the next few days, if they don't arrive tomorrow." "If that is true I will need to get the guest room prepared for them," with that Kasumi rose and headed for the guest room to get it ready for the awaited guests. "Hmmm, Ranma's a girl you say?" Nabiki asked with a sly grin on her face, "I wonder if I'll be able to get some money of distributing pictures of her or information about what she's like." "You know I don't like that, Nabiki," Akane glared at her older sister, "I have enough boys trying to get me to go out with me right now and I don't Ranma will appreciate what you do to raise cash any more than I do." Akane, being a bit of a tomboy, had no interest in boys at all, much to the dismay of a vast majority of the boys at Furinkan high school. Many boys vied for the affections of the freshman girl, attracted to her athletic ability and attractive features. All were rejected violently.

"Just you wait, little sister," Nabiki said with a knowing smile on her face, "one day you will practically pay me to distribute pictures of you to a specific boy whom you have developed a crush for in the attempt to get him to notice you." "Oh, and just who would thatbe, big sister?" Akane's question dripped with sarcasm. "Don't know yet, Akane," Nabiki giggled, "said boy hasn't shown his face at school yet. I'll know who he is when you know who he is." She was still smirking as she headed back upstairs to finish her homework. "Don't let her bother you, Akane," Soun said gently, "but you know what she says is probably right. One day you probably will meet a boy that you are interested in dating, whether you will pay her to give him photos of you is another question completely."

"I don't even want to go there dad," Akane grumbled, "is there enough time for some training after I finish my homework?" Soun looked at the clock. It was 8:39. "If you can get it done by 9:00 I can train with you until 10:00," he promised. "Good," Akane hurried back up to her room. She only had a little bit left to do on her homework and then she'd get to train for a full hour, something that rarely happened these days. Soun rose and headed for the dojo, he figured that Akane would finish soon, maybe not exactly at nine but within ten minutes or so and he would need to get ready for her.

Sure enough, at 9:07, Akane came hurrying into the dojo, already in her gi, ready for whatever her father could throw at her.

Well, how'd I do? Everything good so far? Or am I completely off my rocker? Let me know, please review.