Disclaimer-No I do not own Ranma ½. That honor belongs to the infamous Rumiko Takahashi. I only own all original characters in this fic. So don't sue me. Trust me, it's not worth it.

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Chapter 1- Bad cooking and bad traveling

The sun rises to a beautiful Sunday morning in Nerima. The birds are chirping and everyone is planning to have a great day. Not a thing could go possibly wrong on a day this sunny.

"RANMA NO BAKA!!"

THUD!

Well, almost nothing anyway...

Akane returned her mallet to mallet-space and stomped back into the kitchen. "How dare he make fun of me for trying to make breakfast for the family before they all wake up!" She disappeared into the kitchen and shortly thereafter the sounds of angry screaming can be heard as Akane gets to work making another one of her "fabulous" meals.

Ranma finally landed in the middle of a road on the other side of town. He laid there for a moment and then hopped up off the ground, ignoring the looks he was getting from some of the people walking down the street. "Why does Akane always have to hit me so hard?" He shoves his hands into his pockets and starts the long trek back to the Tendo residence. "At least now I have an excuse to be late for breakfast. There's no way I'm planning on eating that kawaiikune tomboy's cooking."

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Akane sneezed loudly. ("I must have used too much pepper or something.") She shrugged and up-ended the entire container of salt that was next to her into the batch of pancakes she was making. "That should even it out nicely." She shoved the batch into the oven and then walked out of the kitchen, hanging her apron up and going into the living room to watch some TV.

"Come on Kaigen, get the lead out!" A girl's voice yelled. She was already quite a ways ahead of him on the trail and considering how much longer they had to walk, she didn't want to have to take too long and then camp out here in the wilderness for the night.

"If you want me to move faster then why don't you carry your own bags?" The boy grumbled and shifted the four huge backpacks that he was carrying, trying to adjust to their combined weight. ("What did she pack in these things anyway?") He could feel the sweat pouring down his face and he didn't like it. The heavy cloak he was wearing did obscure all of his features, but it also left him unable to get access to his own face.

Ignoring the urges to wipe the sweat on his forehead off, the boy picked up the pace and caught up to the girl. With her petite figure and 5'0" appearance, she didn't seem very intimidating. Kaigen knew better though. That girl could kill a man with her bare hands if she was mad enough.

"I'm not going to get myself sweaty carrying all of that. Consider this payment for me pulling a few strings and letting you come along on this school trip to Nerima." She flipped her chocolate brown hair over one shoulder and turned away from him.

The two march for a few more minutes before Kaigen says, "You're a pre-Madonna, you know that right?"

A loud slap was heard and for miles around Kaigen could be heard yelling, "What did I say!?"

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"Hey dad, come and get it!"

Soun blanched and considered the prospects of jumping out of the window to escape from the horror of having to eat Akane's cooking. After debating the prospect to himself for a few minutes he finally decides that he would prefer not to have Akane mad at him. Pocketing a bottle of antacids, he headed out of his room and down the stairs.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs he called out cautiously, "So dear, what are we having this lovely morning?"

"Oh I made us pancakes! I hope you like them." Her voice sounded so very cheery to him. Soun knew better though than to trust that the sweetness in her voice would reflect in the sweetness of her cooking.

"I'm sure I will!" Sound yelled cheerfully, tears of terror streaming down his face.

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Amy grumbled as she looked at the map she was holding. "How could they give us a map that gets us to Nerima but not give us a map that gets us to the Tendo Dojo?"

Kaigen shrugged from underneath his cloak and dropped the backpacks to the ground with a crash, paying no mind to the craters they created when they hit the ground. "I guess we'll just have to ask for directions." He looked around for someone who looked like a local. ("Ah, that guy has the look about him of someone who knows where he is going.") Kaigen walked up to a young man in a yellow shirt, green pants, and black and yellow polka-dotted bandanna and tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me do you know where the Tendo Dojo is?"

Ryoga looked back at the cloaked man and nodded. "Sure I do! I practically live at the place."

Kaigen smiled underneath his cloak. ("Man we're lucky! The first guy I ask knows exactly where the place is!") "Do you mind taking me and my friend there?" When Ryoga nodded he turned and yelled to Amy, "Hey I found someone who can take us there!"

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Soun braced himself and was about to get ready to take the first bite of the lump of white goop that Akane had called a pancake, when he heard someone at the front door. "I'll get it!" He jumped up and made a break for the door, praying that it was someone who could buy him time to think of how to get out of the mess he was in. When he ran into the entryway and saw that it was Ranma, he nearly jumped for joy. ("I'm saved!") "I'm so glad you are here son. You have to come and try some of Akane's delicious cooking!" The tone he used didn't make it sound like an offer. It made it sound more like an order.

When Ranma heard the words Akane and cooking in the same sentence he did a 180 and started running, only to be stopped short by Soun grabbing his pig-tail roughly and literally dragging him into the living room. "Now now son there is no need to be shy about it! I'm sure Akane wouldn't mind if I shared some of her delicious food with you."

Ranma looked at the white blob on the table suspiciously. He picked up a fork and poked it gently. Looking at the prongs of the fork that had touched the "pancake", Ranma turned a slight shade of green when he saw the metal had been rusted. "You call this food delicious? I've seen sewage waste that looks more appealing that this crap."

Ranma glared up at a pale white Soun, who had stepped back away from the table. "Akane's behind me isn't she?" When Soun nodded Ranma braced himself for what he already knew was coming.

"RANMA NO BAKA!"

THUD!

For the second time this morning Ranma was knocked straight through the roof of the house and off into the distance courtesy of Akane's mallet.

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Kaigen looked around him and sighed. "Hey buddy, you sure this is the right place?"

Ryoga looked over at the cloaked guy who had called himself Kaigen and shrugged. "Last time I checked the Tendo Dojo should have been right around the corner from that last turn."

Amy growled and grabbed Ryoga by the front of his shirt, bringing his face close to hers. "Oh really? Well then explain to me what part of Nerima has a jungle in the middle of it!?" She motioned around to the tropical rain forest that was surrounding them.

Ryoga blinked and looked around scratching his head. "Hang on, lemme get my bearings." He started walking around in circles rapidly, eliciting a sigh out of Amy and a groan out of Kaigen.

"I guess we are going to be here for a while then," Kaigen groaned. He dropped the backpacks, once again paying no mind to the craters that they created when they hit the ground.

Amy nodded and sat down next to him. "So Kaigen, you didn't ever explain to me why you were so adamant about coming on this trip with me to Nerima. Mind telling me now that we have some time on our hands?"

Kaigen snorted derisively and he crossed his arms across his chest, the cloak he was wearing billowing because of the action. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again. Especially after that whole incident involving Robert and the old mummy that calls himself the blockhead's master. Plus this is Nerima we are talking about. I would never turn down a chance to visit that place."

Amy tilted her head to the side and brought her face close to the opening of the cloak where she could see his ice blue eyes. "What's so special about Nerima? They have a good restaurant you wanted to see or something?" She seemed oblivious to Kaigen's face-fall.

He pulled himself back up and sighed. "Noooo....don't you know anything about some of the stuff that happens in Nerima?" When she shook her head he continued. "Some of the greatest martial artists known to the world live there. I mean the place is literally one huge battle royal sometimes. Plus there is one martial artist in particular I want to meet. He's developed something of a reputation in the world for being one of the best."

"What's this guy's name?"

"Ranma Saotome," Kaigen said. He didn't notice that Ryoga had stopped walking around in circles when he had said that. "He's supposedly one of the toughest and fastest martial artists there is. The old basket-case of a master I have said that if I wanted to really get a good educational experience in the Art, then I should go and meet him." He heard Ryoga's slow and angry approach. Turning back to look at the boy, Kaigen sighed. "I knew it. We're lost aren't we?"

Ryoga grabbed Kaigen roughly by the cloak and lifted him up, growling into the ice-blue eyes that stared back in confusion. "Ranma Saotome is no great martial artist! He is a coward and a thief!" All of Ryoga's humiliations at the hand of Ranma came to the front of his mind. He dropped Kaigen to the ground unceremoniously and then yelled into the heavens, "RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!" He turned and charged into a random direction, repeating that phrase to himself like a mantra.

"..........." Both Amy and Kaigen shared the same reaction to that.

Amy sighed and stood up, brushing herself off. "Well I guess we may as well follow him. You can track him right?"

Kaigen's snort (the equivalent of: Of course I can) answered her question.

"Well then get the bags and let's GOOOOO!!" The last word of the sentence echoed as with impossible speed Kaigen scooped her up, sped down the path that Ryoga had created through the jungle, and carried Amy and the bags on his back like they were no problem at all.

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Ranma grumbled as the afternoon sun shone in the sky above him. "I must have really made her mad for her to hit me to another part of the country." He sighed and hopped up onto a nearby wall, laying on the top of it and staring at the sky. ("Why should I even bother going back to the Dojo? She's just going to wind up malleting me again.") He almost wished for one of his crazy rivals to show up so that he had a reason not to head back.

"RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!"

("Speak of the devil.") Ranma smiled to himself as the familiar form of Ryoga charged down the road towards him. He already knew what Ryoga planned to do and he was ready for it.

"Prepare to face defeat Saotome!" Ryoga threw himself into a lunge at his rival, the index finger of his right hand extended towards the ground. "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

Ranma leaped up on top of the wall next to him, watching as the ground around Ryoga exploded into powder from where the lost boy's attack had hit. "Yo Ryoga, how's it hanging man? It's been a while since I have seen you around here." He jumped down from the wall and grinned as Ryoga lunged at him again.

"Silence Ranma! I'm not here to exchange words you fool I'm here to exchange fists!" He punctuated that fact by charging, literally hurling himself towards his rival as he punched.

"You need to get a life man," Ranma muttered to himself as he ducked under another punch.

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Kaigen's run was brought to a screeching halt as he watched the fight between Ryoga and a young Japanese boy in Chinese clothes. Amy slid out of his arms and rested her elbow on arm, using him as a support. "Wow, look at them go." She whistled in amazement as Ryoga threw another Bakusai Tenketsu, blowing another hole in the ground.

"Yeah, they're really going all out." He winced under his cloak as Ranma landed an uppercut on Ryoga's chin, sending the lost boy flying upwards and backwards into a wall. Kaigen watched Ranma fight, his mind working into overtime. "Where have I seen that guy before? His fighting style looks familiar."

"Maybe it's that Ranma....." Amy's hair was blow into her face as Kaigen took off like a cannon shot, running full speed towards the two fighting martial artists. "Hey Kaigen, what about the....." Her sentence was cut short as the bags crashed in a heap at her feet.

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Ranma was about to end this fight when he heard a voice yell from above him, "Ranma Saotome I challenge you!" Ranma and Ryoga both had to leap back as Kaigen slammed into the ground between them. He stood slowly and turned to look at Ranma. "Do you accept or not?"

Ryoga snarled and charged the cloaked boy from behind. "You dare to interrupt me in the middle of my fight!?" He swung his umbrella in an arch, the weapon on a crash course for Kaigen's head. Right before it hit though Kaigen ducked under it and kicked his leg back, catching Ryoga in the nose and stumbling him.

Turning to face Ryoga now, Kaigen's blue eyes glinted with the excitement of an upcoming battle. "I'm not going to wait. If you want to stop me, then please come and try." He kept his attention fully focused on Ryoga, so much so that he didn't even detect the baseball bat that was aimed at the back of his head, even as it knocked him unconscious.

Amy smiled sweetly at both Ranma and Ryoga, who stared at her with surprise on their face. "Sorry about that. When he gets excited about a fight he tends to go overboard. Gomenasai." She grabbed a handful of Kaigen's cloak and dragged him back over to the pile of backpacks. "Carry on you two!"

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So Ranma and Ryoga continued their fight, though the winner went undetermined because a few minutes later Ranma got out of Ryoga's immediate sight and in his rage Ryoga got lost again.

"Hey thanks a lot for stopping that friend of yours from ruining my fight with Ryoga," Ranma said from the top of the pile of backpacks.

"Oh it was no problem at all. Do you think you could do me a favor in return?"

"Uh sure, I guess I could," Ranma was never very trusting to people he didn't know who asked him for favors.

"Could you please tell us where the Tendo Dojo is? My friend and I are supposed to be staying there for the next couple of months."

Ranma raised an eyebrow when she said that. "Oh you are huh?" When she nodded he decided that it couldn't hurt to take her there. "Sure, I'll show you the way."

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It was near the end of the day, and Ranma Saotome was now officially exhausted. Not did he fight Ryoga today, but now he was helping this girl carry her luggage to the Dojo. "What exactly did you pack?" He groaned. He had been carrying this girl's bags for quite a ways now and while they alone weren't that heavy, carrying the still unconscious body of her friend over his shoulder made it a lot harder to trek the distance.

"Oh just the essentials I would need for the trip." With that she started to rattle off a list of items she had packed, making Ranma wish that he had never asked her. Finally the two arrived at the front gate to the Tendo Dojo, and with a sigh of relief Ranma walked into the entryway and dumped everything he was carrying, Kaigen included, to the ground. "I'm home! I have a couple of guests too!"

Kasumi came out of the kitchen and smiled sweetly. "Why hello there Ranma-kun, we were waiting for you. And who is your friend?"

Amy bowed and smiled. "I'm Amy Hiroshi. I'm supposed to be staying here for the next couple of months."

Kasumi gave her usual reaction to surprising news. "Oh my."

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It was almost dinner and everyone was gathered in the living room. All of the members of the Tendo and Saotome families were there, and they all were staring at Amy. "So you see I entered this educational program that told me I'm supposed to move to a pre-chosen household and live there for a couple of months. It's one of those research studies on whether it is safe for a teenager to study academically in a place with Nerima's reputation for bad things happening."

"Why our household though?" Soun's stare turned suspicious.

Amy blinked at him and handed him a card. "Mr. Tendo, you yourself signed the ledger saying it was alright."

Soun stared at it and then at Amy. He repeated the process a few times and then chuckled. "Why I had forgotten all about it!" Everyone in the room excluding the still unconscious Kaigen and Soun face-fell.

"Daddy, you mean to tell me that you signed a paper saying it was okay to have people living in our house and you never told us?" Nabiki's icy glare sent chills down Amy's spine as she listened. Realizing that Soun was about to pummeled by Akane and Nabiki, Amy quickly interjected. "We will be paying for our stay here!"

Nabiki turned to look over at her. "How much is the program paying us to let you stay here?"

"Last I checked the ledger said somewhere around 500,000 yen a month."

Nabiki did some quick math calculations in her head and shrugged. "That'll be enough. You're sleeping in Akane's room though."

A groan from the side got all of their attention. Kaigen slowly pulled himself up and readjusted his cloak, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. "Why'd you hit me so hard Amy?" He blinked as he realized he was in someone's house, and that said owners were staring at him. "Uh...hi there."

Soun rubbed his chin as he observed the strange boy. He was practically covered in his cloak, leaving Soun clueless as to what he looked like. ("What a strange thing for him to wear.") "And who might you be son?"

Kaigen slid over next to Amy. "I'm Kaigen Amero." He tilted his head back just out of reach when Akane reached over to tug on his cloak.

"What's the deal with the cloak? Why are you hiding under it?" She reached a little farther to try and remove it. He scooted out of her reach again.

"I've got a problem with being seen in public okay?" Kaigen's voice sounded irritated as she reached for his cloak again.

"Yeah but don't worry about it here. We aren't going to judge you by how you look." Akane lunged this time, only to feel Ranma grab the back of her shirt and pull her back into a sitting position.

"Knock it off Akane. If he doesn't want us to look under his cloak then we won't look under his cloak." Akane pouted a little but nodded in resignation.

("I owe you one Ranma,") Kaigen thought to himself. "Well anyway. I'm just Amy's roommate, and she invited me to come along on this....." He noticed that everyone was staring at him, eyes wide in shock. "....What?" Only then did he notice that Amy had pulled the head covering off of his cloak while he was busy dodging Akane. "Sorry about this Kaigen but they were going to see how you looked eventually. We may as well get it out of the way right now." Everyone in the room seemed locked into shock for a minute. Then Kasumi broke the silence by summing up what everyone else had on their mind into two words.

"Oh my."

To be continued...

Next Chapter: Nerima gains another martial artist