this is quite an intresting concept. I felt that it ran more on the lines 
of a what-if type storyplot, but those are always fun! A picture I had 
running in my head the whole time was super deform ranma characters. 

 The basic idea I've started with is that Ranma meets Akane 3 years earlier,
 during his time at Junior High and becomes good friends long before some of
 the complications are added.  I've made some changes to the backstory to
 help do this, they are:

  I think Ranma and Akane would have became good friends if it weren't for 
their meddlesome parents. I mean, Akane likes ranma, obviously, but it's 
because of a daughter's rebellous spirt that she never admits it to Ranma. 
Once in the series, she basically wanted him to kiss her (after Ranma was 
kissed by that ice skater dude) but never tried again after the fathers tried 
to record that moment. As for Ranma, he may be a tough guy, but he sure is 
shy.  Atleast this way, they become friends, and ranma might have a better 
chance.  

 1) Ranma isn't attending an all boys junior high
 2) Akane's mother dies when she's 11, not 6 (I consider the stated 10 years
 to be like the biblical number 40, to mean a long time, not necessarily
 that number)
 
 I've had somewhat of a hard time working with Akane's characterization.
 Effectively, I've tried to peal back the Angry Akane back to an earlier
 more tearful stage, but I'm not sure it's working.

   In my opinion, I think angry akane wasn't created through the death of her 
mother, but by the sitution her father put her through with the engagement, 
the wacky fiancees that are after Ranma, and by ranma's bad luck. 

 Anyway, C&C would be most appriciated.

  Well, I'll just say it's a really good fic. Keep up the good work. Thank 
you, come again!   

 Stephen Ratliff

Hero Love