Author's note: Hi! Well, I'm new here to the Ranma 1/2 section (this being my first ever Ranma 1/2 fic), but I wanna shout out the fact that Ranma 1/2 is my absolute favourite anime and I was simply dying to write this fic. I shouldn't, since I have too many fics running as it is, but I couldn't resist. Haha.

Right, this is how I think the anime (not the manga) should continue. Please do enjoy it! The main pairings shall be Ranma/Akane, Mousse/Shampoo, Ryoga/Ukyo, Tatewaki/Nabiki and Tofu/Kasumi, in that order.

Also note that Miss Amaya is my OC. In case you're wondering, her name means 'night rain'. I figured that the appearance I gave her would match this quite nicely.

Okay, well, I'm gonna have to take a few stabs in the dark with dates and birthdays, which is a pain. Let's say that Ranma's birthday is in April, Akane's birthday is in early May and, when Ranma joined high school, it was nearing the end of May, so, by that point, they were both sixteen.

Lastly, there was originally much more to this chapter, but it was getting too long as it was, so the rest will be in the next chapter.

Chapter One: Graduation Day – Part One

Ranma Saotome, now eighteen years old, was in a complex mood, which certainly wasn't unusual for him, considering that he lived in Nerima – possibly the craziest town in all of Japan – but it was for a different reason than usual. As he sat comfortably at his desk in Furinkan High, listening to his current teacher, Miss Amaya – whom he thought was far more pleasant than his last female teacher, Miss Hinako – drone on about their graduation ceremony later on that day, his thoughts again reminded him that this was his last ever day at this high school.

A part of him felt ecstatic about leaving high school, since he'd be removing a decent chunk of craziness from his life, which he felt was a big relief, considering just how much craziness he had in his life. He'd be walking away from the crazy teacher with the energy-draining powers, the even crazier principal with the obsessive desire to shave off his pigtail and the perverted classmate with a passion for voodoo. He would have also said that he was walking away from the poetry-spouting kendo expert who was madly in love with his girl form, but said boy had already left Furinkan High a year ago and was currently – and he only knew this because the boy had made a point of telling everyone he knew about it before leaving – studying Literature at university. Ranma was honestly glad that he was gone, because he was sick to death of 'the pigtailed girl' being glomped and groped every chance the boy got.

Another part of him was rather sad about leaving, since Furinkan High was one place in Nerima where he'd built up a lot of memories, though it was debatable whether he could call them good or bad. He and Akane would walk there together every day and craziness would abound continuously, involving both his boy form and his girl form. This was the place where he'd encountered an enraged Ryoga trying to kill him, where he'd competed against Mariko at Martial Arts Cheerleading, where Tatewaki had met his girl form, where said girl form had been revealed to the entire school whilst Tatewaki had been unconscious and, of course, where his mere presence as Akane's fiancé had warded off all of said girl's perverted suitors.

Besides all of this, Akane had applied to university, whereas he was planning to go into work, since he did not like the idea of going back into education for another three or so years. That would mean much less time for the two of them to hang out together during the day. In theory, it sounded wonderful, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't be quite so wonderful when it actually started happening. On the plus side, there'd be fewer misunderstandings and fewer beatings to endure, but on the minus side, he was so used to having her around him twelve hours a day that he'd probably end up missing her.

His thoughts then wandered over to how Akane's older sister, Nabiki, would currently be doing. A year ago, she'd moved down south to Nagoya to live on-campus at the university that she was now attending. Ranma smirked as he remembered what it was that she was studying: Accounting and Finance. It was the ideal career path for a girl like Nabiki, seeing as she always used to take so much pleasure in the handling – and swindling – of money. If she scored a job as an accountant, not only would she be in charge of other people's money, but there'd also be a potential for her to become very rich.

"Alright, class," Miss Amaya said with a bright smile as she flipped her long jet black hair over her shoulder, "since you'll be leaving at the end of the day, I've devised a little assignment to help boost your fellow classmates' morale." Her ocean blue eyes sparkled with delight as she said this.

Ranma groaned into the hand that he was leaning on. Oh, great... he thought, an assignment on the last freaking day of school... and it's a morale-booster? Why the hell would I want to boost the morale of anyone in this room? No one's exactly been very friendly to me over these last three years.

"Everyone come up to my desk and take a piece of paper and a pen."

Ranma stood up, along with the rest of the class, and made his way to the front of the room. As he waited in line, he quietly grumbled to himself about how much of a time-waster this was.

"Oh, stop complaining, Ranma," Akane hissed from behind him.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever," he replied dismissively.

Finally, it was his turn to approach the desk. Upon doing so, he picked up a piece of paper from the top of the pile, plucked a black pen from the pen pot and walked back to his seat. The moment he sat back down, he placed the paper and pen on the desk and waited for the line to disappear, so he could find out what he was supposed to be doing for this stupid assignment.

Eventually, the entire class was back in their seats, so Miss Amaya spoke again. "Alright," she said, her bright smile back on her face, "now, I want each of you to turn to the person next to you... and make sure that you're looking at the person who's looking at you."

Waste of my freaking time... but okay.

Ranma turned to the side where he knew that Akane was sitting and watched as she did the same to him. Her greyish-brown eyes, swimming with confusion about the current situation, stared straight into his blue eyes.

"Okay? Now, your assignment is to write a list of all the things you like most about the person you're looking at."

Ranma snapped his head round to gawk in horror at his teacher. "What?" He noted that Akane had said the exact same thing at the exact same time.

"It'll help let that person know that, no matter where they journey to next in the world, there is someone out there who values their best qualities."

Okay, it's official... this assignment is the worst thing to ever happen to me... and that's saying a lot.

Ranma slumped across his desk, wondering why he could never get a break in his life. Hell, he'd prefer a fight with Miss Hinako and a tussle with Principal Kuno over this. Writing a list of the things that he liked most about Akane? Was Miss Amaya trying to kill him here?

It wasn't so much that Akane didn't have any qualities about her that he liked, it was that he would have to face the humiliation of listing them and handing that list over to her at the end of the day. After living in a battle of pride with her for the past three years, this would be like throwing in the towel and saying, "Okay, you know what? I actually do like you"... and, as a rule, Ranma Saotome of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts did not throw in the towel. However, saying that, a challenge had been laid down in front of him – a challenge to actually list what he liked about Akane and then give it to her – and it simply wasn't in his blood to forfeit a challenge. He gently slammed his head on the table; why, oh, why, did he have to have so much freaking pride?

Akane Tendo was tense throughout the graduation ceremony, barely listening to Principal Kuno's opening speech, which contained its proper congratulations and thank you's, but also quite the few insults to various students about their hairstyles and behaviours over the years. Instead, her mind was completely focused on what Miss Amaya had told her to do by the end of the day. How, in blazes, could the woman do that to her? She didn't want to be writing Ranma, of all people, a list of all the things that she liked most about him! Hell, it would make his already large ego inflate so much that he'd have to drag it around behind him in a freaking wheelbarrow!

As a couple of awards were handed out to particular students for their academic records, Akane's expression screwed itself into an indescribable shape. Her eyes were staring at her knees – where her hands were slowly curling into tighter and tighter fists – her mouth was twisting unpleasantly, her brows were furrowed and one of her eyes was twitching. She couldn't help it! The mere thought of writing that list terrified the crap out of her, but, at the same time, pissed the hell out of her. She'd rather take on Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi in another cooking contest, but, this time, with her hands tied behind her back! Tell Ranma what she liked most about him? His ferocious carnivore of an ego would eat her alive! She would never, ever, in the history of her life, ever live it down!

Her stomach did a few uncomfortable flip-flops, making her feel horribly sick; oh, where the hell would she begin with this list? Thinking about it, there was also the problem that she always had trouble figuring out her bloody emotions, but writing them down would be a nightmare. She had so many conflicting feelings for the boy in question that she'd never before been able to sort through them and separate them into manageable chunks. She just wasn't patient enough to try that sort of thing, anyway, so they were a jumbled mess inside her head. Besides this, there was also the fact that she still couldn't even really admit to herself exactly how she felt about him. Her heart knew how she felt, but her mind refused to even think the forbidden word.

Okay... she thought, trying her best to be rational, come on, Akane... you can do this... This is for Ranma... No, this is for Miss Amaya... Yeah, that's it. It's just one stupid little assignment that she wants you to do before you graduate. Focus and just do the assignment.

"Alright, keikis!" Principal Kuno called out in his Hawaiian accent. "Now it be time for de singing! So stand up and be ready to belt yer hearts out for de school anthem!"

Hearing this – and seeing all the other students around her stand up – caused Akane to snap back to reality, her train of thought radically interrupted. She then sighed at the thought of doing anything that Principal Kuno asked her to do, but stood up just as obediently as everyone else.

For about a minute, she was blissfully able to forget about the list, seeing as she was far too busy focusing on singing the correct words to the school anthem with the correct timing, as well as trying to fight off the slight swelling in her tear-ducts. This was her last official day at Furinkan High School and it was a bittersweet moment. She would finally be moving on from her teenage years and progressing on to bigger and better things in the world, which she hoped included university. However, this high school had a lot of memories, both good and bad, attached to it, so she was rather sad to have to walk away from it.

It was only a short while after everyone had been singing along to the school anthem and, now, the students were back in their classrooms. The moment Akane entered the room and locked eyes with Ranma, she remembered with a jolt to the stomach what it was that Miss Amaya had told her to do.

Oh, hell, no... she thought as she slowly sat down in the seat next to the boy in question, I almost forgot about that freaking list.

"Hello again, class," Miss Amaya said as she walked into the classroom, her usual bright smile adorning her face.

Akane suddenly felt the desire to rip off the woman's face for smiling like that. Damn hippy and her goddamn hippy-ish ideas... She's the only person I know with such a strong need to 'raise other people's morale'... Hmph...

"Now, I know you won't have finished your assignments yet, since you won't have had the chance to do them yet, so I'm giving you until the end of the day." She paused to beam at her students and Akane's desire to rip off her face only got stronger. "Come back to the classroom at the end of the day, okay? So I can see all those happy smiles when you get your lists off each other." She paused again and Akane was certain that she could hear someone grumbling nearby. "Okay! Time to hand out your diplomas!"

Not long after the diplomas were all handed out, the students were excused, so that they could mingle, take photographs and say their goodbyes to each other. However, quite a few members of Ranma's class had decided to spread out around the building to find a quiet place to write their lists. Ranma himself had decided to head up to the roof, so he was currently walking up the stairs and through the door.

He was pleased to find that he was only one up there, since it meant that he could work on his list without having to deal with any distractions and, even worse, other students getting a glimpse at what he was writing.

Closing the door, he walked over to the middle of the roof and sat down. As he set down his diploma, he noted with some content that, although it was a fairly cold day in March, there was barely a breeze to be found, which meant that neither his diploma nor his list would be blown away. Pulling the piece of paper and pen from his pockets, he lay on his front, then placed the piece of paper on the floor in front of him, lifted the cap from the pen, placed it on the other end and began to think. Tapping the pen against his chin, he tried to think of something that he could write.

Okay... he thought, I don't want this to sound too praising or I'll never hear the end of it... and it's not allowed to be insulting... Hmm...

A couple of minutes passed as he continuously racked his brain for a positive thing that he could say about Akane. Fairly soon, he was groaning in frustration and ruffling his black hair in annoyance; yep, this was as difficult as he'd imagined it would be. What could he say that wasn't too ego-boosting, yet also wasn't too insulting?

He suddenly thought of all the times that she'd beaten him over the head or punched him over the horizon for either something that he'd said or something that she'd assumed he'd done. He scowled, but then thought about all the times that he'd called her an uncute tomboy and, instead, smirked. Heh, their relationship was kind of amusing in a way; he insulted her, so she beat him up... she beat him up, so he insulted her. It worked in a vicious never-ending cycle.

He blinked, suddenly realising something; without Akane's violence, his life would be... well, not boring, but certainly much less exciting. He had to chuckle at the absurd thought, but he realised that it was true. Whenever the girl got pissed off at him, the effect was so damn scary that it would make his heart race at immeasurable speeds, sometimes tripling in rate. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was freaking terrified of Akane whenever she got like that. However, it also always gave him a much larger adrenaline rush than any amount of training or fighting did. Smirking again, he brought pen to paper and wrote something.

'Her violent tendencies make my life exciting'

He stared back at the words on the page and laughed, unable to believe that he'd just written that. Then he shook his head and tried to come up with some more points to list, since he knew that just one alone wasn't going to be enough.

His thoughts drifted to his other two official fiancées, Shampoo and Ukyo, and his one unofficial fiancée, Kodachi. The three of them had been trying for three years now to claim him as their husband, something which... which Akane never did, now that he thought about it. While the other three were constantly latching onto him and trying to drag him away from the other fiancées, Akane always – after beating him senseless in a barbaric rage – walked away. In effect, she gave him his space. She was never clingy and always kept a reasonable distance away from him. He turned back to the paper and wrote something else.

'She always respects my personal space'

He paused after this, deciding not to say who he was comparing her to, since that was too ego-inflating of a thing to say. As his thoughts lingered on his other fiancées, he recalled the time when he'd been under the spell of Happosai's magic bandage, which had caused him to fall in love with every girl that he'd laid eyes on. His eyes widened as he recalled that he'd been very lovey-dovey with Akane that day – both with and without the bandage – and he tried to suppress the shudder that threatened to venture forth. Casting his mind to the other events of that day, in the belief that there might be something else that he could use, he recalled how Shampoo and Ukyo had tried to take advantage of him while he'd been under the spell. They'd both been after him like Happosai after underwear, brandishing marriage licences for him to sign in the desperate hope that they'd secure their future with him. Also, thinking about it, there had been another time where Shampoo had forced him to fall in love with her, using a strange red thread of fate that she'd found somewhere. He cringed slightly as he remembered that he'd almost married her in his magically-induced besotted state. Then, of course, there was Kodachi, who was always using every dirty trick in the book to claim him as her own. He could remember the time when she'd hit him with paralysis powder and, while he'd been in this incapacitated state, she'd almost kissed him... and possibly even raped him. He shuddered at the mere recollection.

Suddenly, he realised something else and blinked in bewilderment; whilst the other three had been trying so hard to get him to fall in love with them all those times, Akane hadn't tried at all. Instead, she'd always been complaining about being engaged to him and how he was an insensitive jerk that she couldn't believe she was stuck with. Hell, she'd even saved him those three times that he'd thought of. The first time, she'd stopped him from randomly marrying either Shampoo or Ukyo – and had chosen not to take advantage of him, even though all she'd had to do was ask him to marry her, which he'd have done without question... the second time, she'd cut the red thread of fate just before he'd married Shampoo... and, the third time, she'd gotten Kodachi away from him. Granted, she'd misinterpreted the situation and had thought that he'd wanted to do something dirty with Kodachi on her roof, so had jealously kicked the girl away, but he still counted that as saving him. Smiling slightly, he wrote something else on the paper.

'She never tries to force me into anything'

God, this stupid list was making him think a little bit too much about Akane... and he was sure that the smile on his face was getting wider. Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to write down that she was cute. After all, she was cute when she either smiled or laughed. He brought the pen to the paper, but a sudden jolt to the brain made him stop dead in his tracks.

Oh, hell no... I wasn't seriously going to-? No, no, no, no! Absolutely not! No way! After three straight years of calling her an uncute tomboy, I am not about to say that she can be cute! He paused. I'll keep that one to myself...

He looked down at the list in front of him and saw that he'd only written down three points. He sighed; Akane would kill him if she saw this puny list of the things that he liked most about her. He stopped and thought about it again for a minute and something immediately came to mind. There was the fact that she cared about him... sort of... sometimes... when she wasn't beating him senseless or sending him skyward with one of her megaton punches. She did try her best to make food that he'd enjoy. He laughed out loud to himself; okay, he'd best not even think about her cooking, or else he'd slip into 'insult Akane' mode. True, it had improved a bit over the years. It, at least, wasn't deadly anymore, but it still tasted foul.

He shrugged to himself, deciding that it couldn't hurt to say that she cared about him. She did, after all. She was always helping him out of sticky situations with his fiancées and always got really upset whenever something bad happened to him. He brought pen to paper again and wrote something else.

'She cares about me'

This got him thinking about all the times that she'd been genuinely nice to him, not calling him a jerk or bashing him around the head. They were rare occasions, but always very nice and such a pleasant change. The times when she'd do something nice for him or be in such a happy mood that no insult that he could throw at her could bring her down. Those special occasions where the two of them could just hang out together peacefully, enjoying each other's company. Smiling again, he brought the pen to the paper, but paused, wondering how best to phrase this. Once he'd figured something out, he then continued on with writing it.

'She's sweet when she wants to be'

He smirked lightly at it; there, it wasn't too praising and it wasn't too insulting. Just right, coming from Ranma Saotome. Going back to thinking, he recalled Akane once saying that she liked him just the way he was. This brought a smile to his face and he was about to write that when he suddenly decided against it. After all, she wasn't the only person in the world who liked him the way he was, so it was rather pointless writing that. Ukyo did too, as well as his father and the rest of the Tendo family. That much had been evident as soon as they'd told him about how he'd banged his head, thought he was a girl and everyone around the house – except Happosai – had actually missed the real Ranma. Besides this, writing 'She likes me the way I am' had an undertone of sappiness to it that was making him cringe... and he certainly wasn't about to write something that made him look sappy.

He then imagined Akane punching and kicking the crap out of a straw dummy around the back of the Tendo dojo, but wasn't sure how this would be useful to him. Sure, he liked how she was into martial arts, but a lot of people that he knew were. It just didn't single Akane out enough. He then suddenly recalled the time when they'd travelled through the tunnel of lost love together and she'd been screaming girlishly the whole time... as well as the several occasions that he'd seen her cry. He pressed the end of the pen to his chin; thinking about it, she could actually be pretty girly sometimes and really tomboyish other times... and that could be oddly endearing. He smiled and wrote something else on the paper.

'She's tough, yet sensitive'

Looking at the list that he had, he was pretty much satisfied. He'd listed six things and that was a nice well-rounded number. He was just about to sit up when his brain told him that something was still missing. He frowned and stared back at the list, wondering what it could be. What was he missing? Was there something else that he could gain out of comparing her to his other fiancées, maybe? He thought harder and tried to come up with the answer.

He thought about how Shampoo had only fallen in love with him because he'd become her fiancé after beating her in a fight and how she only wanted to marry him so that she could restore her lost honour – from losing in a fight to his girl form – enough to go back home to China... he thought about how Ukyo had only fallen in love with him after he'd become her fiancé because of a dowry exchange between their fathers and how she only wanted to marry him to restore the honour that she'd lost from him 'running away' and leaving her... he thought about how Kodachi had only fallen in love with him after he'd saved her when she'd hit her head and fallen off a building – that she still didn't know had been his fault in the first place – and how she only wanted to marry him because she was downright obsessed with him. Actually, they pretty much all were.

His eyes widened slightly as he realised that Akane hadn't done any of that. When he'd become her fiancé, she'd openly protested about it... and she'd never once pestered him in an attempt to get him to marry her. That brought back home the point about her saving him from situations where he'd either been taken advantage of or forced into something. He blinked to himself, realising exactly what that seventh point was. He twisted his mouth slightly, because he knew that, if she didn't guess it from the points that were listed before it, she'd certainly pick it up from this one that he was comparing her with his other fiancées. He paused for a moment, then sighed, knowing full well that it would be more stupid not to write it than to write it, because it was important and, therefore, needed to be said. Bringing the pen to the paper, he wrote one last thing.

'She treats me like a person, instead of just a prize to be won'

He gave a half-hearted smile as he read over that last point; if either Shampoo, Ukyo or Kodachi ever read that – and understood that he was referring to them – he'd surely be in for it.

Oh, well... He sat up, stretched and picked up the list and his diploma. It needs to be said, I guess. He stood up and made his way to the staircase. God, I hope Akane appreciates what I've written. It took me too freaking long to write this list.

As he opened the door, closed it behind him and headed back down the stairs, he wondered in vague amusement to himself what Akane had written as her list to him. He could only imagine. Of course, he did have some pretty awesome qualities to his personality, if he did say so himself, but, with Akane being... well, Akane, she was most likely to simply write 'Ranma, you jerk' on the paper. However, if she had enough sense and self-control – and he couldn't help but smirk at the thought – it would be interesting to see what positive things she could say about him. Ah, well... only time would tell...