Ranma threw himself to the side, wishing (for once) that it would rain,
before rolling back up to face his opponent.   He didn't even know her name;
some friend of Akane's, he thought.  He guessed that she had probably been
talking to Akane about the fight that they had had that morning, as she had
started getting on his case the moment she saw him.

     It really wasn't her business anyway, he thought as he dodged a series
of strikes.  All he had said was that Akane wasn't good enough for him to
'really fight'.  It was the simple truth, like that mattered to the tomboy.
They yelled, she malleted him, and then at lunch this redheaded nut started
ripping into him about how he thought he was so great.  Calling him a pig
(which was unfair, he was nothing like Ryouga), and an egotistical jerk, and
saying that he looked down on girls (which was just silly, even in his male
form he was only an inch or two taller than most of the girls at Furinken,
so he hardly looked down on them unless he was up high and everyone did
*that*)

    Then she challenged him.  Worse, she insulted him when he tried to back
out.  Didn't she understand that he didn't like to fight girls?  So here he
was, wasting time fighting against some nut he didn't even know over
something that wasn't even her business when he could have been eating one
of Kasumi's great lunches.  Still, he was starting to enjoy this.

     He twisted away just a second to late and had to slap aside the kick
that almost hit him, grunting at the effort.  This girl was *strong*, as in
Super-Strength Enhancing Noodles strong.  Not that she had been eating them;
she was much too cute.  Still, she was much stronger than he was and it was
all he could do to deflect those attacks that he couldn't dodge.  His leg
flashed out in a sweep, knocking the girl down and creating the first break
in her constant attacks since the start of the fight.  He took advantage of
the pause to put some room between them and look her over.

     She was his equal in size, so he had no edge in reach.  Actually, she
had the edge on kicks due to her long legs.  Her trim build was deceptive,
she was clearly well toned and conditioned but lacked the built up
musculature that he generally expected with that kind of strength.  Her
kicks had given him a clear enough view of her legs to tell that her uniform
wasn't simply hiding it.  Also she wasn't sweating, not even after
maintaining a constant full-speed attack for several minutes.  That was
disappointing.  If she wasn't already soaking her clothes with sweat, she
likely had endurance as great as her strength.  Which meant that she could
probably outlast him.

     He ducked aside as she renewed her assault, hearing the crowd ooh over
the speed of at which she was moving.  She was nearly as fast as he was in
his male form, which meant that this had been the best spectacle that the
crowd had seen in a while.  Nabiki was doing a brisk business among them,
taking bets, selling popcorn, and somehow even charging admission to watch a
fight occurring in the school's yard.

     He grinned as he dodged; he really was enjoying this.  It had been a
while since he had been in a fight that pushed his abilities so well.
Still, it was time to end this, and to prove that he was the best.

#############

      Ranma-chan smiled sleepily as she snuggled up to the redheaded girl in
bed with her.  "How'd we do?"

     The girl sighed loudly.  "So like a man to ask for a complement after
sex."  Then started giggling as Ranma-chan tickled her under the covers.

     "Baka!  I was asking about the money!"

     "Even after Nabiki's take, we did pretty well.  She did say to try and
stretch it out a little more next time."  She sighed after a moment.  "I
just wish those stupid fanfic writers would let me win occasionally.
Whenever we're in something together, I'm always taking the back seat to
you."

     "Aww.. Ako-chan, don't worry about it.  We both know in a real fight
you'd tear me apart."