Ranma awoke with a single target in mind.

Kuno.

If he could get Kuno off his back, then life would get that much simpler without the crazed upperclassman constantly hounding his cursed form down. That would be at least one unnecessary suitor checked off his list.

Exactly how Ranma would achieve that was still something to figure out. That Tatewaki fool was relentless as much as he was stubborn, so Ranma decided that the best course of action was to just not be involved with him at all. He would let Akane deal with him alone. That way, there was no chance that Kuno would discover his female form.

So, he went through the motions of the day again. His father sat him down to announce that he would go to school in Nerima. Ranma simply shrugged and said, "alright," which earned him a surprise look from his old man, who had likely been expecting him to respond with some level of objection.

"You feeling okay in the head, son?" Genma asked.

"Yeah, why?" Ranma said, taking in his old man's surprised reaction and then realizing exactly why. Crap. He mentally reminded himself that he needed to do a better job at acting like his past self.

Genma stroked his chin. "Maybe your dear fiancée really did hit your head hard last night." He shook his head, disappointed, and grabbed Ranma by the shirt of his collar. "How sad, you've gotten so weak my boy! Love should not make you lose your strength like this!"

Ranma scowled, grabbing a cup of water sitting placidly beside him and splashed it on his father, who angrily responded in a series of grunts as a panda. "Oh shut it Pops!" he growled, returning the gesture by also grabbing his father by the scruff of his furry neck. "How many times do I gotta say it, that violent tomboy did NOT beat me!"

A low drawn out whistle caught his attention, and Ranma turned his head to see Nabiki leaning against the doorway, peering curiously inside at the commotion. Notably, she was alone, with Akane nowhere in sight.

"Good thing Akane left early," she said. "She would not have enjoyed hearing that."

"N-Nabiki!" He let go of his father, who continued to grumble discontentedly. A moment passed as he processed her words. "Wait what? Akane left?"

Nabiki nodded. "Indeed she did, Ranma, just a while ago. Oh, don't look so sad that she left."

"Who said I was sad?!" Ranma butted in.

Nabiki continued, her eyes closed in mock sentimentality. "Akane did that out of the goodness of her heart so you wouldn't get hurt. She was concerned that you would get caught up with the horde of boys she has to deal with every morning at school."

"So I won't get hurt?" Ranma repeated, slowly piecing together the implication behind her words. 'There was no way. No way that she actually thinks–?'

"You see, my dear acquaintance, Kuno-baby, does not take kindly when other boys get too close to Akane. Quite the passionate one in fact. Akane didn't think you would be able to handle someone like that, especially after what happened last night."

Ranma stood abruptly, irked off. Did Akane think he was actually weak? Because of the fluke that was their sparring match?

Nabiki opened one eye, and held out her hand. "One-thousand yen and I'll show you how to get to school."

Ranma stormed past her, blinded by his irritation. It was one thing for just anyone else to think he was weak, but Akane?

He couldn't stand it!

Nabiki snapped her fingers and clicked her tongue because of the missed opportunity. "Drats!"

Having gone the same way to school with Akane so many times before, he found Akane with relative ease at the turn right before the way to Furinkan High. She was rushing towards the school, preparing the face off against the horde of boys waiting for her arrival, not having a clue that Ranma was watching.

To think that Akane actually thought he was weak here. The mere thought of it was enough to make him laugh if it wasn't such a blow to his pride.

Hopping down from buildings he was practically flying across, he landed right in front of her. "Hey–" he started, but was cut off by a scream and a wallop from her bookbag in the face.

"Is this how you usually say hi to people?" he grumbled, cheek aching from the impact.

Akane blinked, cautiously lowering her bookbag down. "R-Ranma? How did you–"

"Find you? It's not too hard, I just had to follow the sound of your gorilla footsteps and voila!"

Akane's surprised expression quickly morphed into anger. "Why you– hmph!" She pushed past him, continuing to make her way to school. "Did you come all the way here just to insult me?"

Ranma began following behind her. "Hey, you're the one who insulted me in the first place!"

"How so? I left without you!"

"Yeah, exactly! You left without me!"

Akane gave him a strange look.

Realizing the implication of his words, Ranma gulped. "Wait a minute, that's–that's not what I meant."

She raised an eyebrow. "Did you want to walk to school together?"

He reeled back, feeling his face heat up. "Wh-what! No. No way!"

Akane blinked at him, looking unconvinced. "Did you actually…?"

"No stupid!" he blurted, panicked. "Who'd wanna be seen with a macho chick like you?"

Akane scowled. "Well good, because I feel the same way! I don't want to be seen with the likes of you either!"

"It's just that I can't stand–" Before Ranma could finish his sentence, he was met face to face with her bookbag again, causing him to stumble backwards. He rubbed his face, momentarily stunned by the impact. Akane had gone off ahead to the entrance of Furinkan High, where a crowd of high school aged boys began to rush at her in hoards.

"Violent as ever," he grumbled to himself. "Well. Here we go again."

Sitting on top of the columns beside the school gates, Ranma took in the rather nostalgic sight of Akane once again pummeling the last batch of high-school aged boys coming towards her. She soon scattered them like bowling pins into the air, and they crumpled onto the ground to join the others that fell first. Standing up straight, Akane neatly swept her hair and dabbed the sweat off her face, the droplets making her skin glisten under the sunlight.

Admittedly, Ranma couldn't help but stare at her. He was reminded that, after all, there was a reason why all these guys at school were after her in the first place.

The uncute tomboy could be, at times (he realized every so often)… cute.

"Honestly. Every morning!" Akane huffed.

"Today will be the day I, Tatewaki Kuno, defeat you, Akane Tendo!" an all-too familiar voice announced.

Akane steeled herself again, as the self-proclaimed Blue Thunder of Furinkan High approached her with his kendo sword readied. "Greetings, my tigress."

Ranma rolled his eyes, but he stayed still. He knew better than to get involved with the Tatewaki fool unless he wanted a fate similar to the first time.

"My beloved pig-tailed goddess!"

He involuntarily shuddered. Yeah. Akane could handle this alone.

Akane glared at the upperclassman. "Don't you ever get tired of saying that?"

"Just as my love for you shall never die, neither shall my efforts! Yield to me, Akane Tendo! Hyah!" Kuno lunged towards her with his wooden kendo sword pointed straight at her. Akane easily sidestepped him, and Kuno whooshed past her. As he swerved back around to charge at her, Akane kicked his shin. Without fail, Kuno stumbled and fell onto his face with a thud.

"Honestly," she said, looking down at Kuno with the same scorn one would give to a bug. "What's the point of doing this every morning, upperclassman Kuno?"

Shaking her head, she brushed off the debris off her uniform and began to head towards the school building. Ranma hopped down from the column to directly head in after her, not wanting to bother with Kuno at all.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the upperclassman's body stirr. "Akane!" Ranma shouted in alarm.

Hearing her name, Akane turned around.

"The fates told me so, today is the day I finally defeat you and take you on a date, Akane Tendo!" Kuno yelled, springing back up. His sword came flying down at her head, and Akane spun around in time to catch it with her hands. Her knees buckled from the sudden impact, and she fell onto the ground, breaking the impact with one hand on the concrete and the other hand still gripping onto the sword. She winced from the sudden fall, but continued to maintain her strength.

"Surrender, Akane Tendo!" Kuno exclaimed, a maniacal grin on his face as he put more force into the sword. "You shall be mine!"

"Akane!" Not able to stand on the sidelines anymore, Ranma promptly flew in with a kick, slicing through the air like a flash of lightning. His foot collided into Kuno's side, flinging the upperclassman away like a ragdoll. Kuno then crashed into a bush with a thud, his feet twitching in the air.

"That idiot," Ranma muttered under his breath, looking over at Kuno's unconscious body and thinking that he might have gone overkill with his strength. He didn't want to get involved with Kuno in the first place but seeing Akane in danger ticked him off to the point that he couldn't stand still.

"You okay, Akane?" Ranma asked, turning to the girl. She wordlessly nodded, gawking up at him from the ground. He knew by her expression that she had not expected him to knock Kuno out like that, and he immediately felt his ego swell up. Akane had seen, undeniable proof, of how strong he was. Which proved, in fact, that her, quote on quote, beating him during their sparring match was indeed a total fluke.

Smirking, he held out his hand to help her up. "What would you have done without me? Lucky I stepped in, huh, Akane?"

Akane's face soured at his gloating, and she ignored his hand to get up by herself. She brushed the dust off of her skirt once again. "I would have been fine without your help," she said coldly, glancing around at the pile of unconscious boys. "I deal with this mess every morning. Kuno's never a match for me."

"C'mon, you were a second away from getting your head knocked off."

"If you hadn't distracted me that wouldn't have happened!"

"Distracted?" Ranma repeated, incredulous. "That's how you're gonna thank me for saving you just now?"

"This was my fight in the first place! I didn't ask for you to step in."

"I didn't– tch!" Ranma scoffed. "Man, you're uncute as ever."

Akane opened her mouth to retort, but quickly shut it when she noticed that other students now had their attention on them. Their eyes were all drawn towards the mysterious pig-tailed boy who had just defeated the school's greatest male terror with ease. Putting her head down, Akane brushed past him towards the school.

"Hey!" Ranma called out, still blissfully ignorant of the attention he was receiving. His eyes fell on her hand and the freshly formed gashes present on them. "Akane, wait!"

Akane ignored him, continuing to walk towards the school.

"I said, wait!" He caught up with her and snatched her wrist. Sure enough, her hand had a nasty bloody wound from the scraping against the concrete earlier.

"H-hey!"

"Your hand's bleeding, stupid! I'm taking you to the nurse." He began to drag her behind him, but Akane yanked herself out of his grasp.

"Idiot, people are watching!" Akane hissed.

"What?" Ranma glanced around. Sure enough, they had caught the attention of a large crowd now surrounding them. They were gossiping, looking at the two of them with wide eyes and speculating.

"Who is that?"

"Did you see how he ran after her?"

"He just defeated Tatewaki Kuno in a second!"

"He just grabbed her wrist!"

"Is that Akane's boyfriend?"

He swallowed–he'd momentarily forgotten that today was his first day of school again, and that no one knew who he was just yet. He wasn't Ranma Saotome yet. He was the new kid, who defeated Akane's most vocal suitor and just grabbed her wrist in front of the entire school.

He turned back around, away from the intrigued eyes of the other students. He looked up at the sky, as storm clouds began to form, and glanced over at where Kuno still was unconscious. Not wanting to get caught up in what could be a potential other mess, he followed Akane at a distance, his cheeks flushed red.

Note: as always, thoughts/feedback is much appreciated! 3 have a lovely day