A/N: For those of you worried/curious I don't plan on pairing off the other characters in usual pairs or at all for that matter. I personally thought Nabiki had a thing for Kuno in the manga/anime and if I were to actually pair anyone else it would be Kasumi with Dr. Tofu, but I don't know if that's even gonna come up. If it happens you can feel welcome to come and hunt down the demon/alien/monster that has assumed my identity. Also only one character will wind up actually hurt maybe two; I'm making this up as I go, so you know. Also I have another couple sorta one shot ideas that but I wanted to see which you would like to see next. The first is an au in which Ranma has never gone to school before Furinkan high, and his father never bothered to teach him anything other than martial arts (the only interaction he's had with Ryoga in this universe would be when their paths cross on the road, they become sparring partners instead of rivals). The second is a story in which Ranma has personal space issues, in that anytime someone touches him in a nonviolent way he freezes up sometimes to the point where he shies away. I don't really have any ideas past these being like a single chapter but I'm sure once I start writing I'll have some ideas come up. Or I could meld them into one. Maybe I'll set up a poll for that later. Anyway...


Ranma's day has been steadily heading south since its high point this morning when he had successfully asked Akane for a date. He's been thinking of ways to keep himself from getting nervous during the date. He had a couple idea's, the first was to start buying and trying to solve those little wire puzzles he seen the smarter kids in class do; the other was to do increasingly difficult exercises in ways that were completely undetectable. Like instead of actually sitting in a chair he'd do a squat close enough to the chair that it seemed like he was sitting but never actually relaxing into the seat. Outside this he had nothing maybe he could talk to someone about this sort of thing. The problem is the only person he could talk to about this sort of thing was Dr. Tofu but he gets all weird at the slightest mention of Kasumi. "That's it!" he almost said aloud, "Kasumi is always calm and happy even when she should be pretty mad at people. She's gotta know of some way to keep calm in all sorts of situations." But for now he had asked to borrow one of the wire puzzles Toyo in class his had solved. He said he had to reset it but seemed otherwise happy to lend it to Ranma.

Ranma's school day was winding to a close as he was packing his things and heading to wait for Akane to walk home with her.

Akane was having the strangest day it was like one of those dreams she has when Ranma stops acting like a jerk. But then there were those moments where Ranma didn't seem like himself. But outside those moments he seemed fine.

Akane was walking from the classroom to meet with Ranma; she spotted him in the distance leaning against the school gate, he seemed to be fiddling with something in his hands. She called his name a couple times but he seemed too focused on what was in her hands so she waited until she was standing with him to get his attention. She waved a hand in front of his face, he looked up and smiled a bright smile that almost melted her heart.

"Oh hey Akane when'd you get here?" his eyes shot back to his hands occasionally as he said this "you ready to go home?" After he finished talking his eyes were glued back to the puzzle.

"Yeah, sorry for making you wait Yuki and Sayori were trying to get me to hang out Saturday evening I had to come up with an excuse not to which..." Akane trailed off, was he even listening?! She caught a glance at what he was doing with his hands; he was working on one of those puzzles where the objective was to get the lengths of wire apart without bending the wire. She was about to hit him for ignoring but he suddenly responded.

"You didn't tell them about our date did you?" His eyes never once leaving the task in hand.

"...No I managed to convince them that Kasumi was giving me cooking lessons that day and I invited them to come taste test, they refused but told me that if anything changes I should meet them at the downtown mall. Which from the looks of it means we're going to have to go uptown for our movie." She said still not completely convinced he was listening.

"Oh okay, good job. And speaking of our date plans, what movie are we going to go see?" He still wasn't looking at her while he talked. She for a second wondered if he even cared.

"It's a surprise. You'll have to wait and see!" there that's what he gets for not paying any attention to me. Ranma begged for a minute or so, to know what movie it was but he never looked up from the puzzle. From there the conversation slowly relaxed into an uncomfortable, for Akane, silence she really needed to get this off her chest and just ask him. So she pushed down the butterflies, for their upcoming date, in her stomach and took the plunge. She stopped walking to ask.

"Ranma are you okay? You've been acting strange ever since the wedding fiasco. Especially with your rivals and other fiancées." The butterflies returned with a vengeance, this time they were nervous about Ranma's response.

Ranma heaved a sigh. "I dunno 'kane. It's just outside you Hiroshi and Diasuke, if you can count those pervs, the closest thing I have to friends is my rivals and the crazy fiancées. And excluding the Kunos and the Amazons, Shampoo and Cologne specifically, as people I don't actually care for I'm left with Ryoga, Ukyo and Moose as friends. And even though I'm glad that they interrupted the wedding, cause let's face it no matter how much we love each other we aren't ready to marry, it was wrong of them to do so. Friends just don't treat each other the way they treat you and I; heck even rivals don't treat each other like this. I guess I'm just fed up with them not treating us as people. And sometimes it seems like the only thing that gets through their thick heads is violence; so I guess I decided to do it their way and stop going easy on them."

Akane decided to, for Ranma's sake, gloss over the fact that he had just said that he loved her again. "Is that why you actually hit Shampoo today? And broke Kuno's nose?"

"Yeah I mean... I did try to talk to them first." He suddenly sounded self-conscious.

"You broke Kuno's nose and if that palm strike on Shampoo had been a little upwards you might have broken her ribs?!" He looked up from the puzzle his hands still absentmindedly playing with it, he looked nervous. Akane sighed, she couldn't stay mad not about this, he was making an effort towards some normalcy in his and her lives. Someone had to take the first step and she supposed it had to be Ranma for it to have any real effect. "Look do you want me to help you with this before you wind up ruining your friendship with the other three."

"M-maybe not with Ukyo, I think if you're there she won't believe a word of anything we say. And I got something private to discuss with Ryoga. I figure I'll be seeing Moose or Cologne sometime before the end of the day." He was still messing with that puzzle. She was getting tired of him fidgeting like that; it felt like she wasn't getting his full attention.

"WOULD YOU STOP FIDGETING WITH THAT THING FOR A MINUTE AND TALK TO ME?!" she yelled as she snatched it from his hands.

"HEY GIVE THAT BACK! I NEED THAT!" Ranma shouted immediately trying to snatch it back. He just knew he was going to say something dumb without it.

"NO, WHY DO YOU NEED IT SO MUCH!" She shouted more of a demand than a question in this shouting match.

"SO I CAN TALK TO YOU WITHOUT GETTING NERVOUS YOU DUMB TOMBOY" Ranma screamed back in retaliation.

"RANMA YOU- YOU JERK" Akane throttled him; launching him back toward the high school, and turned the other way to storm off going home. Later when she calmed down enough to think about it, she would realize that he was actually being kinda sweet in his own dumb way.


Kuno walked into the vice principal's office, Mr. Shimazu the replacement after the previous one quit sometime after Kuno's father had returned. He was a lot more no nonsense than his predecessor. Kuno silently wondered what this was about. Somewhere, in the far back of his mind now, fantasy Kuno stated that the vice principal must want to help get rid of the foul demon, real world Kuno knew this was about him bringing a real weapon to school. How could he have gotten so caught up in his own denial that he had completely lost track of reality.

"You may come in now Mr. Kuno." the gruff voice of the assistant principal sounded from his office. Kuno obeyed immediately. "Please have a seat." If Kuno wasn't keen on these things before he was now, he could tell right off the bat that Mr. Shimazu was a seasoned martial artist and a serious one. "Kuno can I ask you something, do you know why you're here?"

"It is because I brought a real katana to school instead of my practice bokken." Kuno said sheepishly.

"Yes that is one of the reasons why you are here today and we will get to your punishment on that, as well as your other infractions, soon enough." Mr. Shimazu sighed this was going to be difficult the boy had just gotten his father back too. "The main reason is that, and this brings me no joy to say, your father has been incarcerated for harassing the student body as well as some of the pedestrians passing by the school, effective tomorrow I will be the school's principal." He looked to Kuno to see if he needed comforting but was astounded to see the boy wasn't even slightly concerned; usually this kind of news devastated someone. "Are you alright son you know this means you are going to be on your own again?"

"I'm well aware of that... it's just that he abandoned us a long time ago and even after he came back he still wasn't really around much so nothing has changed in that regard." Kuno spoke evenly if not still intimidated by the now principal Shimazu. "Frankly sir, I'd rather move on from the subject."

"... Alright, well then let's start from the beginning of the school year then." Kuno paled he was here for every infraction he had committed throughout the year. This might take a while. "You interrupted the freshmen orientation to say that anyone capable of defeating, a Miss. Akane Tendo in battle wins the right to date her. This caused a horde of about 50-70 of our male student body to challenge her to a fight every day before class. Honestly who do you think you are to decide who this girl dates and who she doesn't? Next we have you attacking a new student on his first day of school not once but twice, luck for you he turned out to be a martial artist with an extreme sense of self control, were it me in his shoes you would have gotten that injury with in the first month." Mr. Shimazu gestured toward his nose and Kuno got the message. "Then you proceeded to attack both him and his fiancée up until today. Not to mention all the attacks on him off school property. And speaking of school property all the property damage. And last but not least your serious offense earlier this morning. Now given that your record up until this year has been spotless and with near perfect grades the school board has decided to be lenient and not expel you, instead they've decided that you are to have in-school suspension for the rest of the year you will be allowed interaction with your homeroom classmates and no-one else. Outside that you are to apologize to Miss. Tendo daily as well as Mr. Saotome. In addition after observing you this past month, I have decided that every Wednesday after school you are to attend counseling with Miss. Kobayashi." Kuno could feel the fantasy world he had built for himself being demolished brick by brick today.

"But that's the day Kendo club practices!" Kuno complained.

"Precisely until Miss. Kobayashi deems it fit you are not to attend kendo club." There a familiar yell coming from outside. Mr. Shimazu sighed he stood up and unlatched the window, opening it just in time for Ranma to fly in without shattering any glass. "Ah wonderful just who I was hoping to catch today." Ranma stood up rubbed his face no doubt the red slap mark still stung an uncouth "huh" was all they got from him. "Kuno I believe there is something you needed to say to Ranma here."

"Ah... Right" Kuno thought he would have more time to prepare. He took a breath, and looked him in the eyes. "Ranma... I would to apologize for all the grief I've given you since you started here; I truly regret my actions. I understand if you do not forgive me, but I would hope we might still be able to become friends."

"Ah geez, this is weird." Ranma thought, he was still rubbing his cheek. "It's... ah- it's alright Kuno you're forgive, I guess, I'm sorry for destroying your family honor blade, I know how important that can be especially for you. You should really apologize to Akane though; probably promise not to pursue her anymore."

"Alright Kuno that's a good start you are dismissed for the day. Tomorrow you are to show up in regular uniform and wait for Miss. Tendo to show up tomorrow and apologize. Then you are to come to me and I will show you to the in school suspension class room." Ranma and Kuno started to leave. "Mr. Saotome could you hold back for a few minutes?"


Ranma stopped short from the door. "Please have a seat." Ranma obliged. "Now it is my understanding that you are a martial artist with several rivals?" He looked to Ranma for confirmation who just nodded. "Alright then I will just come out and say it. Starting tomorrow you are to no longer fight while in school grounds; part of being a martial artist is knowing when and where to have a fight. If one of your rivals shows up inform them of this new rule and should they persist you are to move the fight off school grounds and handle it as quickly as possible and return to school as soon as possible. Are we clear?"

Ranma could tell there was no room for argument this time. "yes sir..." Ranma felt awkward like he should definitely be standing up to this guy, but nothing he said sounded unreasonable. "Is that everything?"

"Well there is also the subject of your previous schooling. Am I correct in assuming that you would go great lengths of time not attending school until recently?" Ranma nodded. "Well your grades are pretty good considering you must have missed out on some key basic info. Tell me what are your plans for after high school?"

"Well I was planning on just teaching at the dojo." Mr. Shimazu nodded after he heard this.

"Okay well you do know that you need to go to school so you can get a business license and a take some teaching courses before you can even consider opening your dojo doors to the public. Or were you planning on letting Nabiki keep you indebted for the rest of your life by handling your finances for you?" Ranma paled at the idea of still being indebted to Nabiki for years to come. Mr. Shimazu didn't stop for an answer. "I wouldn't either. Anyway I was hoping you would consider getting with a tutor after school some days to help improve your grade."

"I'll think about it." in truth Ranma was actually seriously considering it if it meant having Nabiki out of his wallet then he was all the happier.

"That's all I ask. You are excused." Ranma got up and left as swiftly as possible. Kuno was waiting outside the office for him holding out a letter.

"Please would you give this letter of apology to Akane Tendo?"

'GAH today just keeps getting weirder and weirder.' he thought as he took the letter "sure."

At that he took off full speed before something stranger could happen. He was out of the building in seconds down the street and across the bridge in a mere moment only slowing down to make sure he didn't get splashed by the old lady. After he passed her he resumed his full speed sprint back to the Tendo home instead of going right in the door he jumped to the roof and climbed in through the window. He heaved a sigh of relief to be home and in his room. All he had to do was find the right time to give Akane the apology letter and he was scot-free. And if he was lucky there would be no late night interruptions.


A/N X2: jeez kinda Glad that's done. Sorry if Ranma or anyone else seems OOC this story is starting to go a different way than expected. Also I'm sorry for the wait with this that first scene with Ranma and Akane gave me trouble toward the end.