Ranma is not the strongest martial artist. That is a little fact no one in Nerima saves a few, knew. Happosai knew. Cologne knew. Even Ranma herself knew about this little fact. Many others are far stronger than she is. Be it in physical feat, or in Ki feat.
Ryoga is one of them. Master Happosai, Genma, and Cologne are also included. Most of them are stronger than her physically and spiritually. Yet she triumphs over them and those stronger than her. The prime example of this is Herb, Saffron, Happosai, and Cologne.
The reason why is that while they are strong, they have a certain set pattern in their movement, fighting styles, and technique, which when someone like Ranma with unique ability to see an attack (be it technique, skill, or pattern) and deconstruct it, then reconstruct it to find a weakness in their pattern.
The second reason is Ranma herself doesn't have a set pattern. No, she did have her set pattern, and that set pattern is "to be unpredictable as much that she can". Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū, like the name suggests, is anything that can be used must be used. And its main tenet is to be unpredictable as possible, to plant discord in their opponent's fighting pattern. Genma, Soun, and even Happosai forget about this, despite the last one being the founder of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū himself.
The final reason is tied to the first reason. Because they have their set pattern, they tend to be predictable. Like Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokodan after his Bakusai Tenketsu failed. Ranma is not strong. But she has something that no other martial artist in Nerima doesn't. A versatility and insane adaptability to any combat situation. Something that Genma, Soun, and Happosai once have, but they have forgotten it over time. But not Ranma.
This always gave her an edge, so long as she could endure or avoid the initial assault or at least come back for a rematch. And that is the reason why Checkerface chooses her as the Strongest, instead of Ryoga. After all, even Verde could defeat Ryoga. Why? Because he is versatile and adaptable, though not in combat sense like Ranma. One of the traits needed the most in I Prescelti Sette. That, and most of those stronger than Ranma have a weak Flame, even though they are stronger than her in terms of Ki reserve or technique.
Oh sure, their Ki reserve, manipulation, and mastery may be better than Ranma. But large Ki reserve doesn't mean their Flame will have the same amount or that they can draw the high purity Flame as well. If that is the case, Checkerface will already recruit Herb to I Prescelti Sette, instead of Ranma. The same goes for the Flame user as well. They may have high Flame purity and amount, but it doesn't mean their Ki reserve will be big as well. Ranma is one of the unique few that have both high reserve and purity in Ki, and having high purity Flame too.
The main reason she is picked is because of her strong connection to the Storm Flame. She has the strongest Storm amongst every other Storm user. Even surpassed past Storm Arcobaleno. If someone asked her why she is that strong with Storm, she will reply that her whole life was filled with trouble, and she always wished for a strong storm to wash away all her problems.
Even amongst the Arcobaleno, she is unique, as she is not restricted to one Flame type only. She can use other types of Flames, although not as strong as she used to use before she was cursed to be in a baby form. She always subconsciously uses Sun's Activation characteristic, even before she had known about the existence of the Dying Will Flame. That's why she always healing faster than everyone at Nerima. The Rain, Lightning, and unknown ice Flame are more rarely used by her. She is pretty sure she only uses Rain's tranquility when she is in Soul of Ice technique or she is prepared to use Hiryuu Shoten Ha, while her icy one is probably just a physical manifestation or the next level to the Soul of Ice technique. Same with the Sun, Lightning's attribute is used unconsciously, but on rarer occasions, unlike what Ryoga does, every time and every day.
Then again, Ranma is not the only one that used the Flames unconsciously in Nerima. She is pretty sure pig-breath uses Lightning's Hardening unconsciously as she does with Sun. Panda, Soun, and Happosai use Ki and Mist's Construction when they use those projection techniques. Akane is the same, creating a mallet made out of Mist Flame and then putting Ki to make it solid and real. Blue Blunder unconsciously uses the Sun's Activation like her, thus allowing him to keep popping up unharmed after a vicious beating from Akane or herself. The Splitting Cat Hairs technique uses both Ki and Cloud's Propagation to work. Though one thing for sure, no one aside from her and Cologne has Sky Flame. Let's be real, only she and Cologne have shown a great insight over time she stayed in Nerima.
Almost all martial arts techniques used in Nerima used some of Dying Will Flame's characteristics. The few exceptions of this are the technique of Umi-Sen-Ken, Yama-Sen-Ken, and Hidden Weapon technique. As those techniques can be used using Ki only, although she already created the Flames version of those. And she was able to infuse the Flames characteristics in those techniques as well.
The majority of Hibari's clan is Cloud users, with Kyoya being the strongest of them all. Fon, her martial artist cousin, is the other sole Storm Flame user in the entirety of Hibari's clan, including her. Her mom and her little sister Chiyo, nicknamed Bluebell for her blue hair, are Rain users, with her mother is having a bit of Storm as well. Hibari, her fellow neo-girl cousin, not the clan, is a Mist user. She even has her own ring, one of the infamous Hell Ring, gifted to her from Ranma as Hibari's 16th birthday.
Though the checkered bastard is actually the one who give to Ranma.
Author note:
Fuck. I just making writing this fic harder for myself.
And now, it's time for things I'm too lazy to write!
Bluebell will still get Rain Mare Ring. Though not on the alternate future, the one where Byakuran rules, as she loved her mother and Arcobaleno of a sister. And she will not hurt them. In fact, she is Vongola's ally in that alternate future. Even in that future, by the time of the past 10th Vongola arrived, the Arcobaleno is still alive and kicking, though some of their pacifiers are missing. Only Reborn, Uni, Ranma, and Mammon still have their pacifier. Ah, Uni is still with Millefiore. Instead of dying after forced removal(by their own hand no less) of the pacifier, they used their Ki as the replacement for their missing Flames, keeping them alive and well, but not able to use their Flames at all. They still could use the Ki version of their usual technique. Everything else is the same though. Ah, the Arcobaleno trial is still done using their past self instead of their future version. Because only three of them has pacifier left and one other is on the Byakuran side.
Yeah, now I don't have to write Future Arc at all!
For your information, I intended to write Ranma's POV for each Arc.