Ranma walked into the weight room looking around at the equipment. He stopped a boy dressed in sweats and was directed to the back room. The floor was covered by blue mats strewn every which way several men around Ranma’s age were working out moves together. Akane was standing behind a sandbag coaching a muscular young man.

"Keep your arms up when you hit. Good that’s better." Akane looked over and caught a glimpse of Ranma looking around the room. "We have to work on your balance a bit, but that’s enough for today." The young man nodded panting heavily.

"Ok let’s do some sparing." Togi said standing in the middle of the room glaring at Ranma arrogantly.

"Gee and here I thought I was the coach." Akane walked over between the two young men. "Are you sure you want to do this Togi?"

"I’m ready whenever he is." Akane shook her head and stood next to Ranma giving him some gloves.

"OK Ranma this is strictly kick boxing, nothing fancy. No going off the mat understand me." She looked him straight in the eyes and he nodded in return.

"Hey what are you coaching HIM for?"

"I’m trying to make things easier on you." The two men squared each other off. Ranma stood ready, cool as a cucumber.

"Hey man you ever do this before?"

"Nope."

Suddenly Togi was flying at Ranma with a left kick followed by a jab to the right. Ranma avoided all his attacks barely moving an inch. Togi twisted into a roundhouse Ranma ducked and resurfaced inches from his face. Giving him a slight grin Ranma punched him across the room into the wall. All the students stood aghast, all but Akane seemed impressed.

"Wow man that was great."

"Are you joining our team, we are sure to win the championship this year."

"Who are you anyway?" All the students were gathered around him. Akane parted a way to him trying to get the team back in some semblance of order.

"Everyone I’d like you to meet Ranma Saotome heir to the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts. I don’t think it’s likely he’ll be joining the team."

"Hey coach isn’t that the same school you studied under? Was he your sensei?"

"No our fathers were taught by the same master."

"So you’re a martial artist then?" Togi dragged himself from the floor and staggered over to the crowd.

"Probably the best." Akane said barely above a whisper. "Well I think that is enough for today. See you all again TOMORROW."

Akane walked away to the girls’ locker room leaving the team and Ranma behind.

"We didn’t even really do anything yet." The team members exchanged questioning looks. Ranma watched Akane’s retreating figure oblivious to the questions being shot from all around him.

Standing outside the athletic building Ranma watched all the students walking out into the parking lot. A couple of the girls were standing in a group giving him sideways glances and giggling. He gave them a smirk and they all blushed turning away. He laughed to himself shaking his head. Akane walked out of the building saying goodbye to a couple of kids from the kick boxing team. She started to dig into her bag looking for something when Ranma came over.

"Hey Akane."

"Oh, hi Ranma."

"Thought we could walk back to the dorm together." She smiled weakly up at him pulling out the pieces of paper she was looking for.

"Well actually I have to get to work."

"You have a job?"

"Yeah it’s here on campus, Nabiki runs it for the school."

"Me too! It’s part of my financial aid to work here at the school." Ranma forehead crinkled in thought as something occurred to him. "Didn’t you get a scholarship?"

"Um yeah I did, but I owed Nabiki a favor so working for the school is how I’m paying her back."

"Owing Nabiki a favor, never a good idea." He smiled down at her.

"So what are you doing?"

"Cleaning. I’m supposed to work with some girl cleaning the dorm bathrooms." Akane’s head dropped and she held her hand out.

"Nice to meet you, I’m your cleaning partner."

"You’re joking." She looked up at him a blank expression on her face. "No, you’re not."

She turned around and started to walk away. He quickly caught up with her.

"Now you can’t tell me this is a mistake." Spinning around Akane glared up at him and he held his hands up in defense.

"You don’t think that I had something-"

"No! No, I don’t but you said Nabiki-"

"And I said what would she have to gain?" After a few tense moments they both let their defenses down. "I’ll go talk to her about it tomorrow between classes."

"I mean at this rate we’ll be spending almost every waking minute together." Ranma laughed putting his hand behind his head.

"Come on we have toilets to scrub."

"Well when you make it sound so appealing…" Ranma followed her lead looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. Since he came back Akane and Nabiki were the only real people from his Nerima gang that he had seen. Nabiki was her usual self, making deals and money without any second thoughts. Akane on the other hand, was friendly but distant, only on rare occasions did he see the old Akane, the short-tempered tomboy that was his fiancée.

"You might want to wear gloves to protect your hands."

"Good idea." Akane started to giggle as Ranma tied the handkerchief around his head.

"What?"

"It’s a good thing you changed into a girl, I don’t think I could contain myself if you were a guy."

"I could never do this as a guy!"

"Right, right I know how macho you are." Saying this Akane barged into the bathroom.

"Wait Akane this is the men’s-"

"Alright everyone out! You know I gotta clean!"

"Hi yah Akane!"

"Right on time as usual."

"Who’s your friend?"

All the men in towels walked by Akane and Ranma smiling eyeing them up and down. A couple of the guys didn’t even bother putting a towel on before going past the two girls. Akane looked them all straight in the eyes sternly. One of the boys walked up to Ranma with a big grin on his face.

"Hey you ain’t impressing me pal." Akane turned to him and stifled a laugh.

"Hi there coach, do we already need a good cleaning?" Togi was standing in front of Akane shaking the water from his hair a white towel wrapped around his muscular torso.

"Well I haven’t been here all summer and this is my first assignment." He smiled at her and then looked over at Ranma.

"Who’s your new partner?" Akane opened her mouth but Ranma was already between them.

"Ranma." The short red head held out her hand glaring up at him.

"Unusual name for a girl but it seems to be getting popular around here. Nice to meet you." He took her hand in his and Ranma immediately squeezed. They stood there for a minute each trying to squeeze more Akane sighed and walked over to the showers.

"When you’re done introducing yourself Ranma can you start with the urinals?"

"Huh, gross why do I gotta?!" Ranma released Togi’s red hand and breezed past him.

"Well I’ll see you two later."

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma grabbed some Lysol from Akane’s bucket.

"So why didn’t you wait till they all left. You ain’t turning into some kind of pervert are you?" Akane threw a mop at him like a javelin which he sidestepped evading it.

"They won’t leave unless I come in. I did this all last your and tried everything, they get off on it or something."

"So I see you still have the same problems."

"Men are pigs."

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

With a loud thud Ranma dropped his pack full of books on the empty cafeteria table. Slinging his leg over the back of his chair he sat before his lunch and started to eat. He calmly waited for his companions looking aroused the room at the rest of the students gathered. Absently he wondered when Akane or Ukyo took lunch when a hand came to rest on his shoulder gently.

He shifted his head from his food to find a lovely girl with ash blonde hair smiling down at him sweetly. With a bewildered look on his face Ranma swallowed the food in his mouth with a loud gulp.

"Hello, I didn’t want to startle you. Do you mind if I join you?"

After shaking the cobwebs from his mind Ranma nodded in agreement. Demurely she sat at the chair beside him smoothing her knee length shirt against her legs.

"I hope you don’t think I’m being forward. I normally have class right now and therefore really don’t know anyone here at the moment."

"No problem. I’m just waiting for some friends."

"Thank you." After a few awkward moments of silence Ranma decided to break up the monotony.

"Sooo, what made you sit here?"

"Hm?"

"Well there are a lot of tables to choose from, why this one?"

"I have to admit I’ve seen you around campus and I guess I wanted to meet you."

"Oh." Ranma wasn’t sure how to respond it wasn’t as if he did anything to attract women he just didn’t know what to do with them once he had them.

"I’m sorry, did I embarrass you?"

"Oh no! I…ah-" Ranma stuttered before finally relaxing his shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "I don’t think I got your name."

She smiled at him sweetly and held out her hand. "Li-Li and you are?"

"Ranma Saotome." He smiled back taking her hand. "Li-Li, that wouldn’t happen to be Chinese?"

"Yes, my mother was Chinese." She answered questioningly the pleasant smile never leaving her face.

"Not an amazon?" He suddenly became apprehensive, the last amazon he was involved with ended more painfully than he cared to remember.

"No, but I’m surprised you know that much about the Chinese." Ranma’s smile broadened and so began the story of his travels.

Fujimo lead the small band of boys through the courtyard past the crowd of students littering the steps of the large granite building located in the middle of campus. Upon entering he made his way toward their usual table when a curious sight topped him cold. Staring at the couple he quickly held his hands out on either side not letting a single boy from his troop pass. Each looked at him questioningly then followed his stare to their table and the couple. All were silent. Finally after five minutes of gawking Fujimo hastily directed the boys to a table across from Ranma and his companion as to watch them less conspicuously.

Akane pushed her way through the crowd at the side entrance of the campus cafeteria. Tossing her head from side to side she perused the students looking for a friendly face. Finally her eyes fell on a familiar boy a good distance from her partially covered by a group of students in front of her. She stopped her search and weighed her thoughts heavily in her mind. Tentatively she looked around the room before setting her mind straight. Taking a step forward she cleared the group of students blocking her view and got her first glimpse of his the girl beside him. The girl was lovely sitting very primly at his side laughing delicately. Ranma was, as always, enjoying the female companionship.

The hair on the back of Akane’s neck began to rise her entire body filling with bitter frustration. It served her right she thought to herself turning on her heal and continued her search for her friends.

"Oh jeez look at the time I have to get to class." The girl rapidly gathered her belongings into her arms and prepared to depart.

"Really so soon?" Ranma asked looking at his watch still having a half-hour until his next class.

"Yes my class was just delayed I have to hurry if I’m going to get there on time." She dug into her bag and pulled out a pen and piece of paper. After handing him the paper with her dorm assignment and phone number she gave him another sweet smile and walked away. His eyes followed her walk until she disappeared into the horde of students then returned to his lunch and his previous thoughts. No more than a minute passed when a group of boys flooded the table slapping him on the back sending his food spewing across the table.

"Way to go Saotome, boy do you work quick."

"Who was she?"

"Are you giving up on Akane that quickly?"

"Can you put in a good word in for me?"

Ranma’s head flew from side to side from question to question stuttering incoherently all the while. The crowd of boys was finally separated and Fujimo sat to Ranma’s left quieting the boys with his calm nature.

"Fuji?"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. I’m sure that Ranma will be filling us ALL in on the intimate details if we just give him a chance. Right Ranma?" Fujimo turned his serious expression to Ranma.

"Well…ah…?" And then all hell broke loose, again.

Relieved Ranma walked the halls of his dormitory glad to have the day over with. The door to his was open and Akane was already studying at her desk.

"Hey."

"Hey." She responded flatly.

"You got back quick, I didn’t even see you leave Business Theory." In fact she had been completely silent the entire class never looking his way.

"I had things to do." She continued her studying without giving him a sideways glance. With a sigh Ranma threw his bag onto his bed and stood in front of the dresser. For what seemed to the umpteenth time Ranma looked thoughtfully at the pictures Akane displayed on the dresser. The girls hugged each other close. Their clothes stained with dirt and sweat their faces shinning with victory and friendship.

"Where is Ucchan, I haven’t seen her around campus." It was a large campus, but he figured that she would have found him.

"I haven’t seen much of her yet, but field hockey tryouts are this week so I’m sure I’ll see her there." Ranma walked over to Akane sitting at her desk and took a seat on his bed next to her. She kept her eyes glued to her book idly flipping the pages. "I know her dorm assignment if you want to go visit."

Ranma’s face brightened as she directed him to a dormitory on the other side of campus. Ranma sprung from the room making his way across the grounds. ‘It’ll be good to see Ucchan after so long.’ Ranma suddenly slowed his pace. ‘I hope she isn’t upset with me for being gone for so long.’ He pondered her reaction to his arrival until he reached a brick building similar to the dorm he resided in. ‘Nah this is Ucchan, my best friend.’

He happily bound up the stairs to the room Akane told him was Ukyo’s. He knocked loudly at the door, but got no response. He stood for a moment then knocked again even louder. An odd noise came from the other side, Ranma took this as a signal to enter and flung the door open.

The last person Ranma expected to see there was Ryoga. He especially didn’t expect to find Ukyo naked on top of him. There was a loud cry and Ryoga pulled Ukyo to his bare chest trying to cover up some of her exposed body. Ranma stammered out an apology and closed the door.

Slowly he wondered down the hallway and down the stairs. Ranma was stunned Ryoga had been his traveling companion for a good part of the last year and a half. ‘That rat the whole time he was with me and every time he wandered off and he never told me.’ Ranma loitered outside the dorm pondering the last two years and the past two weeks. Ryoga came flying out the door almost knocking Ranma down.

"Oh here you are, Ukyo sent me out to find you." He gave him a crooked smile holding his hand behind his head. His shirt left open revealing his bare chest and his pants hung off his hips as they were thrown on in haste.

"Haven’t seen you for a couple months man, not since that oni in Shingoku." Ranma spoke softly looking his friend directly in the eye.

"Yeah well Ukyo was on summer vacation so she asked me to stay with her. Listen I dunno why I didn’t tell you, maybe I didn’t want you to think that I gave up on Akane."

A hand seized Ryoga by the throat and at the end of the arm Ranma was glaring up at him. "You mean you are just toying with Ukyo."

"No, no its just that I kept finding myself back in Nerima in between my travels with you and Akane was being so distant. Gradually Ukyo and I started to get closer I guess I didn’t want to believe that Akane didn’t love me even when you weren’t around to mess things up. I certainly didn’t want to admit anything to you, then too much time had passed for me to just bring it up in conversation." Ranma dropped Ryoga and the two men looked at each gauging the other’s emotions.

"You better be good to her man. She was always my friend before she was my fiancée."

"Well she isn’t your fiancée anymore." Ryoga smiled playfully. "Still I think I should make things official before I loose her to some other guy."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, then smiled back at his friend punching him in the shoulder.

"Come on up Ukyo will be worried."

"You sure she’ll be decent?"

"Hey, you weren’t looking at my girl’s bod’ were you?" They both laughed and headed back inside the dorm. Ukyo was waiting for them fully dressed a rosy flush on her cheek. She looked at Ranma shyly then crushed him in a hug.

"Oh Ranchan it is so good to see you again." She pulled away and stood close to Ryoga tears welling up in her eyes. Ryoga placed his arm around her and Ranma suddenly felt like he was intruding on their time together. Ukyo instructed Ranma to take a seat as Ryoga boiled some water for tea on a hot plate.

"Wow this room is a lot bigger then mine." Ranma marveled at the kitchenette.

"It’s good to know the school administrative assistant. Nabiki can get you just about anything, for a price." Ranma’s brow furrowed at the mention of the middle Tendo girl. Ukyo looked at him hesitantly. "H-have you seen Akane yet?"

"Um yeah, you could say we’ve met." Ranma relayed his tale of rooming with Akane and sharing a couple of classes. Ukyo sat quietly listening to his story nodding at the appropriate places.

"You better not be giving her too tough a time Ranma." Ryoga said handing him a hot cup of tea.

"Hey I thought you had your own girl now man."

"Really Ranma she is different from the girl I used to compete with in high school. She is my friend."

"I’ve noticed." Ranma thought on his temperamental fiancée and his new roommate, two completely different people. "She is so distant."

"She isn’t all of the time, just most of the time." Ukyo starred down at her tea blowing off some of the steam. "She is pretty devoted to her studies and sports. She doesn’t have much time for a social life, although that doesn’t stop the men from trying."

They both chuckled, Akane was cursed to have men throwing themselves at her feet no matter where she went. "Especially with her working for Nabiki so much."

Ranma perked up at her last statement. "What is up with that?"

""I dunno sugar, she has never discussed it with me. She always says it is just a job, but I don’t see that she needs one with the scholarship and Nabiki makes sure the Tendos never want for money."

Ranma absorbed the information keeping his mouth shut. They continued to talk over lost time for a couple hours before Ranma said his good-byes leaving the couple to each other. He walked back to his dorm with many thoughts weighing on his mind.

When he arrived back at his dorm room Akane was in the same position studying.

"So did you get to see Ukyo?"

"Yup and then some."

"Ryoga?"

"You knew?" Ranma knew he shouldn’t be surprised, she and Ukyo were friends after all, but he figured that since he didn’t know perhaps she didn’t either.

"Sure." She never turned toward him, but he felt bitterness in her voice.

"You could have warned me, it was kinda embarrassing."

"I’m surprised Ryoga never told you." She now turned in her chair to look at him.

"So was I." He said shrugging his shoulders. "You wanna grab something for dinner?" He asked gesturing toward the door.

"No thanks." She turned away from him and back down at her book.

"Ok well I’ll see you later."

"Sure." He walked down the hall to Fujimo’s room and wrapped on the door. ‘What does she have to be upset about.’ Fujimo answered the door and agreed to dinner at a local restaurant. The two walked out of the dorm and made their way across campus idly conversing about school and other such mundane topics, but Ranma had heavier thoughts on his mind. ‘Maybe I never should have come back.’