A/N: Here's the new chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owened Ranma 1/2, it literally wouldn't be Ranma 1/2. It would be something else entirely. That, and it would have terrible art.

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"Fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine."

"It was the next morning and I had been informed that I was supposed to go to school now that me and Dad settled down again. I had expected it, therefore my simple answer.

"You're not going to fight with me over it?" Dad asked me.

"If you wanted to fight me, you could have just asked," I told him as I caught him by surprise with an uppercut that sent him into the koi pond. I was still sort of angry at him for earlier, when he threw me out the window at that same koi pond.

"Why are you so nonchalant about going to school?" Soun questioned me.

"Hm?" I asked, confused as to his line of questioning.

"I expected someone who's devoted himself so fully to the art to not want to waste time at school that he could use for training." Dad nodded his head vigorously as if to say, "That's what I wanted to know."

"Well, to be honest, I figured if Dad wants me to do it, it can't be all bad," I said, lying. When arguing against Dad like this, it's always better to say he's right even when he's wrong, just to get him to shut up about something. I learned that the hard way. Though I won't have to do that much longer, I'm almost able to beat him in a fight without using a sneak attack or by getting a lucky shot in. Almost.

"Ah," Soun replied, curiosity apparently satisfied. Dad nodded as well, looking pleased. Well, as pleased as a 300 pound panda could look. We all soon finished our food. I thanked Kasumi for the food, grabbed my new schoolbag from Dad's paws (how he was able to afford it was beyond me), and went upstairs to put my favorite book in it before coming back downstairs to leave for school with Akane.

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"Why are you walking up there?" Akane asked me.

"Huh?" I asked as I stopped reading for a second and looked down at her. I had been walking along the fencetops on the way to the school, Furinkan High, while Akane had been walking on the sidewalk. "Oh, mostly just habit," I said, jumping down. "Dad would have me walk on fencetops for balance training while he tried to knock me off." As I finished my explanation, I got splashed with water from an old lady wielding a ladle. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, depending on who you ask, neither my book, nor Akane, got any water on them. "It's almost amazing to get hit with water on almost a daily basis and have nothing other than me get wet," I said, eyeing the book and Akane.

"If you want to change back, there's a place nearby that we can get some hot water from," Akane told me. "Unless you want to start your first day at school explaining the curse."

"I don't necessarily have to explain the curse. There are always ways of hiding it," I replied, still reading. If living with Dad had given me one good thing, it was the ability to multitask. "For instance, there have been several times where I claimed I was my own sister," I continued.

"Are you saying you don't really mind the curse?" she asked me.

"Not really," I said. "Besides the 'water magnet' part, it's not so bad. At the very least I stay human."

"How are you so calm about this?" She asked. "If I was in your position, I don't think I'd be able to handle it."

"Yeah, a girl not being able to handle changing into a girl with cold water. Real scary business, that," I said.

"I didn't mean it like that!" she said, smiling.

"Hey, you said if you were in my position. My position is turning into a girl," I said, smirking at her.

"So do you want to change or not?" she asked, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

"I guess so. I mean, they are expecting a male Ranma, right? Lead on." And so she led up up to a clinic, which wasn't too far away from our original path.

"Can you stay out here, while I go get some water?" she asked.

"Sure," I replied, beginning to read again. As I stood there, leaning back against the sign of the clinic, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. In an instant, I grabbed the attacker's arm and flung them roughly to the ground at my feet, at which point I noticed in was a skeleton replica I'd just ripped out of someone's hands.

"Oh," I said, tuning around to apologize. "I'm very sorry, I'm just so used to sneak attacks from behind." He was about as tall as me when I'm male, maybe taller, with black hair tied into a rat tail. He also wore a black outfit, of which I didn't recognize, and round glasses.

"Oh it's quite alright," he said, smiling. "It was my fault for attempting to scare you. I should be the one apologizing. So who might you be, he asked, picking up the skeleton again.

"Kikuko," I said, using the name I'd used the last time I'd passed myself off as my sister. That was when Akane came around the corner with a kettle.

"Ranma, I got the-... Oh! Hello Mr. Tofu," she said, bowing and setting the kettle on my head. I used the moment of distraction this created to sneak around the corner she had just come from to change. I had also noticed the blush that had spread across her face when she saw him.

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A little later, me and Akane were running down the street, that little visit taking longer than expected. I kept sneaking looks at Akane, though she didn't seem to notice. "So," I said, breaking the silence, "we haven't even been engaged a full day and you're already cheating on me." I clutched my heart in mock pain. "That hurts, Akane." From the ridiculous smile on my face, she could easily tell I was teasing her. She blushed a deep red.

"Please don't tell anyone that," she asked.

"That we're engaged, or that you like Tofu?" I asked.

"Both," she said, blushing deeper. I laughed.

"I won't," I promised, still smirking. As we turned a corner, the school gates come into sight. Despite the fact that Akane told me about the morning fights, I wasn't quite expecting her exaggeration to not be an exaggeration. There, just inside the gate, was a large group of what could very well be half the population of boys in the school, all in various states of battle preparedness, weapons ranging from shinai to baseball bats, and gear ranging from hakama to football helmets. As we neared the throng of adolescent males (I couldn't bear to call them boys, for fear of relating them to myself), I heard Akane sigh and mutter something about "perverted boys".

And with that, she began attacking the crowd relentlessly, in a mad dance of knockouts. I decided to sit this one out, as she seemed to be handling it fairly well. Though as I looked on from my new perch on the school wall, I noticed several large openings she gave, as well as noted a few moves that could've been made more efficient as the fight wore on.

Soon, it was over, Akane standing victorious among a sea of groaning, broken boys. Looking at the time, I figured it would be better to tell her about her flaws later. While I wanted to help her with her fighting, I also didn't want to be late to class. That, and the fact that she said she goes through this every day and comes out unscathed each time.

I brought up my book again as I touched down to the ground and began walking to the entrance while reading. I heard some sort of rant as I continued on, having something to do with bored parking lots and familiarity. I ignored it, thinking it had nothing to do with me. After all, I had never met a parking lot that was sentient, nor was I familiar with one.

"Ranma!" I heard Akane shout. It was then that I noticed something wrong, the danger sense I'd acquired over almost a lifetime with Dad flaring up. I jumped out of the way, but my book wasn't so lucky. My face took on a look of pure shock as I saw the tattered pages of my book, floating all around me.

"Now that I have squired your attention," said a voice to my right, "I would ask you again, why dost thou appear to be so friendly with the fierce tigress Akane Tendo?" I looked over to see another teen around my age, wearing a kendogi consisting of a blue uwagi and a black hakama(1). In his hands, aiming at me, he held a brown bokken. I quickly determined that he was the one who destroyed my book. My expression quickly changed from shock to anger. A split second later, I used the Soul of Ice to hold me back from immediately killing him. He appeared to notice the drop in temperature, even from how far he was from me, as evidenced by his shiver.

"You... Are going to replace that book," I said, each word as cold as the ice forming at my feet. "Do you understand?" He shivered again.

"First, you must-...," he started before I interrupted him.

"Do. You. Under. Stand?" I asked again, lacing each word with ki, making me sound that much more intimidating. He nodded, shaking now, apparently stripped of the words he so clearly loved to spout a few seconds ago. "Good," I said, easing up on him. "Now scram, before I change my mind about not killing you." And with that, he scurried off, tail between his legs. I stood there for a couple of seconds longer to cool off. Or, more accurately, warm up. Despite being the one using it, the Soul of Ice was a very cold technique, as evidenced by the frost in a near six foot radius by my feet.

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Akane stood there in complete and utter shock, as did most of the other onlookers. It wasn't every day you witness someone tell off Tatewaki Kuno, let alone make him run away scared. That and the fact that the way it had been done left a 12 foot ice circle. Most of them snapped out of it, though, including Akane, as they heard the school bell ring, sounding the beginning of school. Though there were those that didn't snap out of it, and so were left there, forgotten.

Akane made it to her room before her teacher, who had also watched what had happened, and was saved from being tardy. She sat at her desk, wondering what had happened, as was nearly everyone else in the school.

'How did he do that?' she thought, remembering how he seemed to radiate cold from his body, the ground even freezing at his feet. 'Though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, considering magic apparently exists,' she remembered Ranma's curse. 'Though I still wonder how he did it.' Her thoughts were interrupted as Ranma was introduced to the terrified class by the terrified teacher.

"This is R-ranma S-saotome, who recently c-came back from a trip to Ch-china. Let's all give h-him a warm...," he paused at the word "warm", glancing at Ranma, "welcome." There were nervous greetings mumbled out by less than enthusiastic students. Everyone was at least a little scared of the new student, and no one wanted to get on his bad side; they'd all seen what the result of that was. "Th-there's an empty seat next t-to Akane. If you'll s-sit there we c-can b-begin the lesson." Ranma gave him a wierd look because of all his stuttering, which just made him even more frightened. Ranma shrugged and went to sit next to Akane as the lesson began.

"How did you do that," Akane asked him, in a hushed voice as the teacher, still shaking with fright, turned to board to begin the lesson.

"Do what?" Ranma whispered back, clueless as to what she was talking about.

"You know," she said, trying to explain, "that thing with the ice?"

"Oh, that. I'll tell you after school. It's too complicated to explain properly while school's in session." Akane sat back, satisfied that she'd get to know eventually, but not quite satisfied enough to pay attention to the teacher. But then again, no one else (besides Ranma) was either.

Meanwhile, in another classroom, Nabiki had just finished answering Kuno's question of who Ranma was.

"So that's who he is," she finished, "though I have no idea how he did what he did." Though she was planning to find out. One way, or another. Kuno, of course, had his own ideas.

"It must be that he is some sort of vile demon, or else I would not have felt such a need for a tactical retreat!" 'Oh, come on,' Nabiki thought. 'You were just scared.' "In a fair fight, that vile demon would never stand a chance against someone as great and noble as I! I shall go forth and banish him at once! Who knows what vile illusions he might be casting on the beauteous Akane Tendo!"

"The only one here casting illusions is you," Nabiki mumbled, "on yourself."

"What was that?" he asked, momentarily broken out of his rant.

"I said good luck," she lied. 'He's gonna need it.'

"Nay, I will not require luck!" Kuno proclaimed, having "figured out" how the "vile demon" casts his "illusions". "He simply caught me off guard the first time. Now that I'm aware of his heinous power, I shall be able to combat it effectively!" 'You're "effectively" killing my brain cells,' were the collective thoughts of the entire classroom.

"Kuno, go stand in the hall," the teacher said, finally getting fed up. Day in, day out, it was always him ranting about his greatness to anyone who would listen.

"Yes, sensei."

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It was about five minutes later that Kuno burst into Ranma and Akane's classroom.

"I shall not stand for it, Vile Demon! I shall never accept your-..." just then, Kuno experienced another wave of temperature change. Except this time, it was hot. He looked in the direction of the source, seeing Ranma slowly get up. Everyone around him backed off, as papers on their desks burst into flame and immediately extinguished, having burned to ashes. Ranma began his slow walk to the door and, ultimately, Kuno. Each step left a scorch mark on the floor.

By the time Ranma got to Kuno, he was sweating, both from the heat and nervousness. This felt different than last time; much more killing intent involved. Kuno swallowed, his throat unbearably dry.

Ranma stopped, a few inches from Kuno's face. Despite this, Kuno did not run off again, not wanting to be humiliated once again. This was, however, the only thing that kept him from running away, screaming like a little girl who just saw the boogeyman. The rest of the class had turned their desks sideways and were fearing for their lives. While the heat was not directed at them, they could still feel it and knew that just one slip up could probably cost them their lives.

"What did I tell you Kuno?" Ranma asked, his very voice seeming like it contained the flames of Hell itself. Kuno tried to speak, his voice failing him. His throat was as dry as a dessert, and no sound would come forth. That didn't appear to matter to Ranma, however, as he continued not a second later. "I told you that you were going to buy me a new book, and get out of my face before I changed my mind about killing you." Every word placed more and more fear into Kuno's mind, his survival instincts telling him to "Get the Hell out of there!", but his legs were too stiff to move. "One more chance, Kuno," Ranma told him. "One. More. Chance. The next time you bother me with those petty words you like to spout off so much, I won't just kill you." Ranma let that pause continue on for ten seconds. "I'll eat you." Ranma dropped the technique. Kuno ran.

Ranma, feeling satisfied, went back to his seat and sat down.

"Sorry for the disturbance," he said to the teacher. "Please, continue." It was with extreme trepidation and caution that desks were put back up and the lesson continued. While Ranma paid rapt attention, the rest of the class couldn't focus on the lesson at all, sneaking glances at him to make sure he didn't burst into flames at any second. The teacher began teaching the physiology of ducks and their relation to the color blue as opposed to aliens.

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Akane stood a good distance away from Ranma s they walked home. After the events of that morning, it's understandable that she was at least a little bit scared. After all, it's not every day someone turns the ground around them to ice and catches papers on fire within the space of an hour. Which would give her a very good excuse for her jumping in fright when Ranma tried to initiate a conversation.

"So, um, that first move I used?" he began, trying to explain it. "Where I made the ground turn to ice? That's a technique called 'the Soul of Ice'. I learned it in China, by a tribe of amazons in, I think it was the Qinghai province(2)?" Akane felt a little sceptic like about the "Amazon" part, but she supposed she shouldn't discredit it, at the very least. "Anyway, it was after Jusenkyo, and they taught me a lot about ki."

"Ki?" Akane asked.

"Life energy," Ranma explained. "Those who train and meditate for long periods of time begin to be able to manipulate ki. Anyway, the Soul of Ice technique is obtained by, well, accepting death. This takes one's ki and sort of freezes it, making it colder. This affects the air around oneself, bringing it down a couple degrees(3)."

"If it's just a couple of degrees, then how did you make the ice on the ground?" Akane asked, slightly relieved that he appeared to not be, for lack of a better word, "demonic" at the moment.

"That's because I was able to take it to the next level, by accepting that everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. This lowered the temperature an even higher degree in a small radius around me. The technique is originally used to combat a martial artist who's stronger than you, in form of the Hiryuu Shoten Ha."

"Hiryuu Shoten Ha?" Akane asked.

"Yeah. Basically, the techique works like this: say you're facing a tough opponent, one you can't beat with martial arts alone. Usually, when fighting someone, you get angry, thus heating up your ki(4). The Amazons took note of this and decided to use it against the opponent. They used an opposite... Uh... What's the word I'm looking for? Attribute? Temperature? I'm going to go with temperature. So they used an opposite temperature against the opponent, lowering their ki temperature. You lead the opponent unknowingly into a spiral. When you reach the miidle, when they think they've got you, you throw one last ki enhanced punch, creating-..."

"A tornado," Akane finished, looking fascinated. Ranma nodded.

"Yep. That's how it works." He said, smiling at her.

"Could you teach me?" Akane asked, a pleading, eager look on her face.

"Maybe, but you're going to need a lot of work. Before we get into that, I'm going to finish. The second tequnique is what I call, 'The Soul of Fire'. I basically just let my anger loose a little bit, while still maintaining a tight reign, so as not to blow up. The eating thing? Well, I found out that if you say 'I'm going to kill you' to people, it doesn't work with most people, them having heard things like that all the time. So by saying I'm going to eat them instead, since no one's ever really said anything like that before, they believe it. If I completely skip saying 'I'll kill you', and say 'I'll eat you', they assume I've done it before and get quiet real fast."

"That actually makes a lot of sense," Akane agreed.

"Now, to track you the souls of ice and fire, I first need to teach you how to feel your ki. And before even that, you're going to need martial arts training. Like, real, one-on-one training. Building stamina, balance, reaction time, and; most importantly; reducing the holes in your defense. How much do you train, to have that many holes?"

"Every day," she said, a little miffed that so many things were apparently wrong that needed to be fixed. "Why?"

"Exactly what exercises do you do?" he asked, completely ignoring her question.

"I go on a thirty minute jog every morning, then break bricks in the dojo," she said, now a little more angry. "I also do kata, fight dummies, lift weights, and do a little shadow boxing(6)." Then she remembered that morning, and how easily he could freeze her solid or turn her to ashes if she got him angry at her by yelling at him. That cooled her growing temper a lot. She wanted to live past today, thank you very much.

"That's it?" Ranma asked, incredulous.

"Well, father hasn't had the time to train me since... Since mother died..." she trailed off. Ranma didn't know wether to look sad or horrified. Sad that her mom died and horrified that her training almost literally consisted of nothing but a light workout every day. He settled for no expression.

"While I'm sorry about your mom-..."

"Don't be. It was a long time ago. I'm over it now(5)."

"-... I can't accept that you don't train at all." Akane now looked confused.

"I just told you, I-..."

"Don't do enough," Ranma finished. "What you just described is a light workout. Even a kid could do that. Breaking bricks and jogging doesn't make you a better martial artist; neither does doing kata or any of that other stuff. To become a good martial artist, you have to push yourself above and beyond your limits and fight someone above or at your level daily. Now, your training starts immediately.

For some reason, she couldn't help the feeling of absolute dread that washed over her just then(7).

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A/N: Wow, longest chapter yet! Hey everyone, nice to see you again! So, after an extended break *cough* laziness *cough*, I'm back with another chapter of "A Different Ranma"! To all of you who waited patiently, thank you very much, and I'm very sorry to have kept you Waiting! I will also explain the "eating" part and the really hot technique Ranma used in the next chapter! Though I figure some of you can figure out the workings behind the technique pretty fast, considering the description I gave of the Soul of Ice technique.

Footnotes(never done this before, gonna see how it goes):

1: I'm using the anime description of his clothing because I looked up his manga outfit on wiki and got "medium colored hakama". It's really hard to describe what color is "medium color".

2: I'm not sure if this is the right location or not. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

3: Fixed description.

4: Also fixed description.

5: Not sure if she really is or not. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

6: Another fixed description. You're welcome.

7: Yes, Akane is going to be sore for months on end during Ranma's training.

To Pendagar: I'm glad you like it! (Though I certainly can't find anything funny with what I did). And yes, this new Ranma will get things going on a much different direction than canon Ranma. In fact, as you can see, he already has! ;)

To Richard Ryley: Thank you for your support and criticism! It is always accepted and used to make me a better fanfiction writer! I cannot thank you enough!

So that's that! See you in the next one! omnitroid out!