Disclaimer: All I own is my original characters and the story line.

Thanks for those uh…interesting reviews. Most expressed their opinion about Rai, either stating that they liked him or that he got on their nerves. I was kinda hoping he would get on your nerves, so I guess I was somewhat successful? Many people are waiting for Ranma to get jealous, and to be honest, so am I. Others said it was a good story and I would like to respond to that by saying "Thank You!" Except one in particular said Ranma belonged to Kasumi and suggested Ranma get violent with Akane. And instead of making me angry, it made me laugh. Don't ask why cause I don't know. Aside from that strange one, thank you for cheering me on!

And prepare yourself because that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

(And sorry for any typos. I just can't get rid of them!)

Part Three
Lai Lai Boy!

She ran madly to her school, tiny beads of perspiration forming on her forehead. She pulled at the collar of her school uniform angrily, her lungs demanding more air the faster she ran. She could not afford another tardy. And damn Ranma and Rai for making her run like that.

When her school came into view, she let out a relieved smile, only to find that the last bell had already rung (as the school clock indicated).

She ran in through the entrance and was in the process of taking off her shoes while jogging to her locker when she bumped into someone. "Excuse me!" she apologized smoothly, taking advantage of this short pause to take off her other shoe. But the figure didn't move. Again she pleaded an excuse and again he didn't move. It wasn't as if the locker room was spacious, so she looked up at the person to tell him to get out of the way or suffer the consequences. (She knew it was a him cause of the lack of…lumps on the chest.)

This guy wore some type of Chinese clothing, since it looked similar to the outfit Ranma had when she first met him. Noting this, she assumed he was Chinese, therefore making him a new student. He was a pretty good-looking guy: tall, with short straight black hair tied up in a high ponytail. His long bangs parted in the middle, and he had big brown eyes behind a thick pair of lenses that proclaimed an oblivious self. He seemed like a nice guy.

But however nice this guy seemed, she was just not in the mood to make new friends. "Excuse me," she repeated, more roughly this time.

He looked down at her and blinked. "Huh?"

"Look, guy, I'm not in a good mood," started Akane taking her fighting stance. "And if you don't move I won't hesitate to knock you out!"

"Are you challenging me?" asked the guy, as though he had trouble hearing.

Akane grunted. "I don't have time for this! Fight!"

She ran towards him, knowing he would only be a victim to the anger her two fiancées had caused her, but she was really in no condition to think clearly.

But as she ran toward him, she saw him take a step back, which caused him to trip on one of her shoes, (which she had randomly thrown on the ground) which caused his foot to jab forward and trip Akane as well.

Then all she saw was black.

-

"Akane...can you hear me?" she heard someone ask. The voice sounded distant but familiar. She slowly opened her eyes.

Then everything faded into focus. The blurred blobs of colors she saw soon started to take the shapes of objects and people.

"Hey, doctor! She opened her eyes!" said Nabiki.

"Oh, Akane! Stay away from the light!"

"Dad, stop that!"

She was tucked in a bed in what seemed to be Dr. Tofu's place. She blinked.

Huh?

Suddenly her head started to pound incessantly and she grabbed it as if she were afraid it would explode. She felt bandages tightly wrapped around part of her head and she thought they were the only things keeping her head from bursting. She grunted in pain.

"Akane, hold on!" said a worried Kasumi. "Doctor Tofu, please hurry!"

"I'm coming!" was the doctor's faint and nervous response.

"Oh, Akane! My little girl! We thought you'd never wake!" wailed her father and he fell to the side of the bed and sobbed, huge amounts of tears pouring out like a fountain.

"Calm down, dad. She was only out for half an hour," said Nabiki, frowning at her father's dramatic breakdown.

"What happened?" asked a disconcerted Akane, her painful headache slowly fading.

"You got in a fight and were defeated," stated Nabiki bluntly.

Akane looked at her, perplexed for a moment. Then she remembered the Chinese guy.

"Oh Akane…why must you pick fights all the time?" asked Akane's oldest sister. She now stood to Akane's right and was holding her hands together as if in prayer. "You scared that poor boy to death."

"I was just—" started Akane, but then she remembered them, the causes of her anger. She suppressed a growl. Instead of telling her family about the…strange event of the morning, she asked about the poor boy she had scared to death.

"He's right outside waiting for news about your well being," said Kasumi, a bit more cheerily.

Just then, Dr. Tofu came in with a big bag of ice cubes. "Akane? Is your head still hurting?" he asked, adjusting his round glasses.

"Thank goodness, doctor Tofu!" exclaimed Kasumi happily. "Is Akane going to be alright?"

Doctor Tofu looked to the person who delivered such a worried question with a lovely voice. His professional expression quickly turned into a dreamy one as everything but Kasumi faded into the background, and flowers and butterflies adorned her majestic form. And suddenly, all that mattered was impressing the beautiful woman in front of him.

"Y-y-yes...! Akane will be just f-fine!" he stated. He turned to Akane (or who he thought was Akane), bent on making her feel better and prove himself to Kasumi that he could indeed perform his job successfully. "Here Akane," he said, staring intently at Mr. Tendou's kneeling form, who looked up at him with terrified eyes. "Put some ice on your head to ease the pain." He opened the ice bag, and Mr. Tendou tried to get away in vain. "Let me help you." And he dropped all the ice cubes into Mr. Tendou's shirt and they trickled slowly down his back.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" screamed Mr. Tendou, squirming and jumping around the room.

Dr. Tofu stood back with a satisfied face, Nabiki tried to calm her father down, Akane smiled nervously at Dr. Tofu and Kasumi attended the guest who had just arrived.

"Akane, look!" exclaimed Kasumi happily.

Akane looked towards Kasumi and in the doorway stood the Chinese boy.

"Uh...Miss Akane, I'm so—" was what he said before he slipped on an ice cube, slid across the cramped floor into Mr. Tendou and knocked both Mr. Tendou and himself out cold.

Nabiki looked at the (presumably injured) men tangled on the floor. "And here I thought Akane was the biggest klutz in Japan…"

Akane's face grew hot with the statement and covered face with the covers. "Could you please let me rest?"

"She's right. All Akane needs right now is some rest," said Dr. Tofu. He picked up Mr. Tendou. "We must take her somewhere to rest."

Nabiki rolled her eyes, saying, "Of course, Dr. Tofu. Bring her this way." And she motioned with her finger to follow her lead.

"Akane, if you need anything, we'll be outside," said Kasumi warmly to her little sister.

"Okay," replied Akane under a bundle of blankets. Then she heard the door close.

She kept herself covered for a long time and she listened as the birds sang, the children laughed, and her father screamed out curses. It was then that she remembered that Chinese boy again.

She slowly removed the blankets from her bandaged head. With her elbows, she propped herself up and looked for the boy that should still be unconscious on the floor.

-

He was awake now and staring at the ceiling, thinking of the proper way to break it down to her.

He knew he had heard right.

She had challenged him.

And he had defeated her.

The reason for the challenge wasn't important, for not even he understood it himself. But the fact was that a woman had challenged him, and he had defeated a woman.

He sat up and smiled.

Finally!

According to his tribe's law, any woman who challenges a male and is defeated by the male must marry him. It was the Amazon way.

For years he had trained and trained in the sacred art of physical combat that the female side of his tribe was so famous for. The Amazon ladies were the tribe's brawn. Unfortunately, no one knew if anything went on upstairs.

That was were the men came in.

And he was the man among men in his tribe.

Since the day he was able to read, his parents bombarded him with speeches about the future and brains and how (since he was the only child) he should live up to their expectations.

"Stop watching cartoons! You need to study for your college entrance exams!" was the first thing they told him after the first day of kindergarten.

For twelve years after that he dedicated his entire being on studying, studying and well…studying.

And that was where the problem with his ears began.

Not that studying causes ear infection. That's dumb. It was just that the only means of escape for this boy from the Great Gatsby or Calculus homework was music. And he loved all types of it.

So now he was a deaf nerd with glasses.

Perhaps he wasn't completely deaf, but being even half deaf was bad enough. Especially when it came to girls…

He would gladly do the most difficult math problems, perform the most complicated chemistry labs, get bombarded with computer projects and anything that involved burning out the brain if only he wouldn't have to do the thing he feared the most: ask a girl out.

He wasn't even out of high school yet and his parents already wanted grandchildren. He never really was good at speaking to people in general; he had learned of the world through books. And speaking, even holding an interesting conversation with girls, sounded impossible to his ears. So it was decided (by his parents, of course) that he get a wife the old fashioned way, by beating her in a martial arts duel. But so far, that was as impossible as talking to a girl.

It wasn't as if he didn't get his fair share of female challenges. It was just that he didn't have the skills to beat them, or the nerve for that matter.

He shook his head. He didn't need to reflect on his whole life right now. No. What mattered most now was the girl who had so sweetly challenged him into marriage.

He sat up, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

And then he saw her. "Akane Tendou…"

She was looking down at him from her bed and it seemed she was surprised by his sudden movement. She blushed. "Yeah…sorry about earlier…" she said with a nervous smile.

"Ha ha! Don't worry about it! It happens all the time!" he laughed stupidly. God was he bad in conversation. He hadn't even talked to her for one minute and already he had implied that he gets into fights with girls constantly.

"Um…so…what's your name?" she asked.

"Oh right! Sorry about that!" he apologized and stood up to present himself to his future wife. "My name is Gel."

End of Part Three

Ugh...editing sucks. Sorry if this chapter sucks too. Please try not to get too mad at me for not updating quickly. These last weeks of school are critical for me. But if you simply must know my next update, go to my bio and it will be posted there. Just, please, don't pull your hair out.

Adios!

And Happy cinco de Mayo! Woo!