This is chapter 1a of the teaser that I sent out a little while ago.
Great big thanks to my prereaders, Angus Macspoon and Lord
Talon.  Somewhat smaller thanks to Tenchi Masai, Jitou, and
all the others who responded to the original teaser.  Just about
all the comments I got were helpful.
I'm looking for more prereaders, so if you're interested write me
with what stories you'd like to preread for.
And finally, part b of this should be out tomorrow

Will You be my Fianc�?
An Alternate History of Ranma �
By Ammadeau
Roy.Fokker@UNSpacy.org
http://members.tripod.com/~Ammadeau/fanfiction.htm

Chapter 1: One Day

	It was the first day of school for Ranma, for the second 
time in a week. Due to some rather odd problems he had been 
forced to transfer from his new school to Furinkan High.  It wasn't 
his fault that the gym had been leveled.  He still wasn't clear on 
what he had actually done to earn the wrath of the master of 
Demolition Martial Arts.  Why should he have cared if one of 
Ranma's other fights had knocked down the building the man had 
been paid to wreck?  It got knocked down either way, didn't it?
	Ranma had a problem.  Actually, he had several, but the 
main one was this: trouble always seemed to have a way of finding 
him.  It was as if he were a magnet for every weird or dangerous 
thing that happened in Japan.  He collected archrivals and bizarre 
curses the way others collected lint, and certainly not by choice.  
There wasn't a week that went by without someone showing up 
with a grudge over something he, or more often, his father had 
done.  If not that, then he'd end up starting a rivalry with a 
complete stranger over some stupid thing like who got the last 
bread in the cafeteria.  Well, maybe not something that ridiculous.
	Anyway, here he was, at the entrance to his new school, 
tugging at his new uniform's stiff collar.  Pops didn't care if he 
went in his Chinese clothes, but his mother wanted him to make a 
good impression, since it was likely that if he screwed up here, he'd 
be banned from all of the other high schools in the district.  Having 
already been declared a natural disaster by Japan's educational 
system, he might even be forced to study abroad.  Ranma had a 
long enough walk as it was.
	He was surprised to see a crowd of boys gathered at the 
center of the schoolyard.  Mob would have been a better term; they 
all seemed to be from various sports clubs, dressed in their 
baseball, tennis, judo, etc. uniforms and carrying the tools of their 
trades. Was there some sort of sports rally being held that 
morning?  It didn't seem likely since none of the girls were 
similarly dressed.  He knew that girls could get just as into sports 
as any guy.  He couldn't forget Lady Sumo or the Karate Queen no 
matter how hard he tried.
	But before he could ask what was going on, he heard a 
voice behind him scream, "I hate boys!  I hate boys!  I hate 
boys!!!"  As he turned, a girl flew past him, her long black hair tied 
into a long pony tail that fluttered in the wind behind her.  The rest 
of her was a blur as she charged straight into the mob.
	Ranma's job dropped.  He couldn't believe what he was 
seeing.  The boys were actually attacking her!  No matter that she 
was obviously more skilled, as she took them down without getting 
hit herself.  Ranma immediately saw red.  Forgetting everything 
his mother had told him about not getting in trouble, he jumped 
right into the fray.
	Ranma was a blur of motion that the boys had trouble 
following, much less attacking.  He seemed to effortlessly flow out 
of their way, almost like a ghost, only becoming solid in order to 
strike.  Soon Ranma and the girl were the only ones left standing.
	She immediately turned to him in a defensive stance.  
Ranma only looked puzzled.  Since he didn't attack, she launched 
one of her own.  He simply dodged out of the way of all of her 
strikes. There was no way he was going to fight a girl.  His mother 
would kill him.  Peeping was fine, but fighting was a big no no.  
His mom was weird.
	He was getting a little distracted by his thoughts; that last 
punch almost hit him.  This girl wasn't a bad fighter, Ranma 
thought, but he found her potential more impressive than her skills.
	"Come on!"  she shouted impatiently at him, "Are you 
going to fight me or not?"
	"No," Ranma replied, and kept up his dodging.
	This seemed to make the girl even angrier for some reason.  
"So I'm not good enough for you to fight, is that it?"
	The rest of the students watched the two in awe.  They had 
never seen anyone who could match Akane before.  The new guy 
looked to be winning, though he wasn't even fighting back.  None 
of this registered with a certain kendoist, who was waiting for the 
preliminaries to be over so he could make his entrance.
	"I don't hit girls," Ranma told the girl that was attacking 
him as he dodged a kick which he would have felt for days had it 
connected.  She certainly wasn't kidding around.
	Akane was getting more and more frustrated.  Not only was 
this boy dodging all of her best strikes, but he seemed to not even 
take this fight seriously.  There was no way she was going to let 
herself lose and let some jerk think that he had the right to date her.
	"Why are you fighting me anyway?"  Ranma asked, not 
really worried about being late for his first day of classes.  He 
never really cared for school, though he did okay.  His mom didn't 
think grades were that important to being manly.  If he had been 
born a girl, that would have been a different story.
	"Because you're a jerk."  She said the first thing that came 
to her mind, since she was concentrating mostly on trying to maim 
him.
	"What did I do?" he inquired in a tired-sounding voice.  
Why was he cursed to offend everyone he ever met?
	"Why won't you fight me for real?"
	Tatewaki Kuno, rising young star of the kendo world, had 
finally had enough.  For why should a nobleman such as himself be 
kept waiting, depriving his ladylove of his manly visage?  If Akane 
could not defeat this peasant, perhaps it should be he who brought 
the scoundrel low?  What better way to prove his superior 
prowess?
	"Halt!"  he commanded, stepping out onto the school 
grounds for all to see dressed in the traditional garb of a kendoist 
(minus the armor), bokken in the one hand, rose in the other.  Kuno 
completely missed the look of disgust that crawled across Akane's 
face as she first caught sight of him.
	Ranma was actually thankful for the interruption.  At least 
the girl had stopped trying to hit him.  Now all he needed to know 
was why she was trying to fight him in the first place.  And while 
he was at it, why all of those boys had tried to attack her.
	"So cur," Kuno addressed Ranma, holding his bokken in a 
ready position, "You seek to date the lovely Akane Tendo by 
defeating her in combat.  But before that you must face me, 
Tatewaki Kuno, Blue Thunder of Furinkan High!"
	"Huh?"  was the only reply Ranma could form before Kuno 
lunged at him.

	Looking out from her classroom window, Nabiki wondered 
if for once Kuno was in way over his head.  Akane regularly 
pounded him and this new guy avoided all of her hits with ease.  
She decided that it was time to set up a few bets.

	The fight was relatively short.  Kuno lashed out with his 
bokken at speeds that could bruise by the air pressure alone, which 
Ranma dodged on instinct, still confused about what exactly was 
going on.  He was used to people attacking him, but at least they 
usually gave him a reason why, though their reasons often made 
little sense.
	Ranma shrugged.  It didn't really matter why this guy was 
attacking him.  Now that he wasn't facing a girl, he had no problem 
fighting back.  Drawing himself up, Ranma declared, "Attack of a 
Thousand Stingers!"  As he leap at Kuno, his hands became a blur 
that no eye there could follow.  Moments later Kuno lay 
unconscious, with nothing left of his bokken but splinters.

	"Hi, I'm um Ranma Saotome," he said to the class.  He was 
nervous, not because it was a new school (he was used to 
transferring by now), but because of looks he was getting.  Half the 
boys were glaring at him, which from prior experience Ranma 
knew would lead to fights later.  He wasn't worried, he could take 
them all on without any trouble.
	Then there were the looks that half the girls were giving 
him, which made him feel distinctly uncomfortable.  They were the 
very opposite of the boys' looks.  They were the kind of looks his 
kid sister got at the candy store, wanting to buy all of it and take it 
with her.  They all looked hungry.
	"It seems that you just transferred here from Kento High 
School," the teacher announced.  "However, that doesn't change the 
fact that you and Akane Tendo were late.  Go stand in the hall."

	"This is all your fault, you know," Akane told him after a 
few moments of silence.
	"My fault?  That Kuno jerk attacked me."
	"Well, that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't butted in 
on my fight."
	"I couldn't just stand by and let those guys attack you like 
that.  It isn't right.  Guys shouldn't hit girls."
	"Well, I happen to be a girl and a martial artist.  I've been 
fighting those guys every morning for the past week."
	Every morning?  Ranma wondered.  Why doesn't the 
school do anything about it?
	"So what was that all about anyway?  That Kuno guy was 
babbling something, but I could hardly understand what he was 
saying."  Does that guy think that he's in some samurai epic or 
something? Ranma wondered.
	"At the beginning of the year, Kuno made this stupid 
speech about any guy who wanted to date me had to defeat me in 
combat first.  I've had to fight them all every morning for over a 
week now."
	"And the school hasn't done anything to stop this?"
	"The principal is Kuno's dad, though no one has seen him 
yet.  I hear he's in Hawaii, studying their teaching methods.  The 
vice-principal is a real pushover, so Kuno can do pretty much 
whatever he wants."

	In another classroom, Kuno was using a hand mirror to 
examine 'Baka' neatly printed on his forehead.  Nabiki snickered as 
the kendoist complained about the 'wretched knave's' lack of 
proper spelling.  Personally, she thought he had it exactly right.

	It was lunchtime and the students of Furinkan High had 
gone out into the schoolyard, to eat out in the sun or under the 
shade of trees, rather than in a stuffy classroom.
	Ranma wandered around, looking for a place to sit.  Most 
of the guys were throwing him hostile looks while most of the girls 
looked a little too friendly.  Girls like that only made him nervous.  
He knew that he was supposed to do something (his mother had 
been clear on that), but what?  She had never told him and when 
Ranma had asked his father, the explanation he had gotten was so 
vague that the old man could have been talking about anything.
	He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the girl from the 
morning fight was sitting with two other girls under the shade of a 
tree.  She was watching him with a look that was neither like the 
boys nor the other girls were giving him.  If Ranma had to describe 
it, he would have called it a curious look, like she didn't know 
quite what to make of him.  It was a look Ranma himself usually 
reserved for some of his stranger opponents.  When their eyes met, 
she turned away in a huff, as if he watching her watch him had 
offended her somehow.  I just don't understand girls at all, Ranma 
thought.
	Ranma had just settled in and started on his lunch when 
Kuno attacked.  He managed to finish his lunch and fend of the 
kendoist with ease.  Heck, Ranma was used to people trying to 
interrupt his meals.  Training with his father over the dinner table 
every night had paid off.  Ranma used his chopsticks to halt Kuno's 
bokken and throw him into a wall.  Lunch ended with Kuno 
making another trip to the nurse's office.

	Back in class, Ranma tried to catch up on his sleep.  Lying 
his head on his desk wasn't nearly as comfortable as his pillow at 
home, but it would have to do.  The old man insisted that Ranma 
train before school, robbing the boy of the chance to sleep in.  If it 
wasn't a new rival, it was mom or his sister keeping him up late 
into the night for some odd reason or another.  That's not even 
mentioning the rivals that decided to attack in the middle of the 
night or his sister's surprise visits.  Was eight hours of sleep a night 
too much to ask? Ranma thought.  
	The teacher knew none of this.  She only saw a known 
problem student ignoring the lesson.  She also decided that an 
eraser to the head was the best way to catch his attention.
	Just before it hit him, Ranma's hand came up, caught the 
eraser, and put it on his desk.  Much to the teacher's irritation, he 
didn't raise his head the whole time.
	The teacher tried a piece of chalk, a textbook, and even a 
shoe in rapid succession.  Ranma caught them all with ease, though 
for some reason he put the shoe on the floor while the rest of the 
items went to his desk.  In no other way did he act awake.  In fact, 
the students sitting next to him could hear the sound of his snoring.
	"Mr. Saotome!  Will you please stop sleeping in my 
class?!" the teacher shouted in exasperation.
	Everyone watched in surprise as Ranma lifted his head up, 
rubbing his eyes as he yawned.  "Huh?  What did you say?"
	"Saotome!  Buckets!  Hall!  Now!"  the teacher practically 
screamed at him through clenched teeth.
	Ranma simply nodded, still feeling a bit sleepy, and 
wandered over to the sink to start filling buckets.  As he was 
making his way to the hall, he noticed that Akane was watching 
him again with the same look she had had during lunch.  Just like 
before, once she noticed him noticing, she turned away in anger.  
Ranma just shook his head.  He had no idea what that was all 
about.

	Some punishment, Ranma thought as he hefted the buckets 
with ease, I'd rather do this all day than sit in that boring 
classroom.  Ranma was intimately familiar with all the various 
punishments that a school could hand out: standing in the hall, 
clean up duty, detention, extra school work, and even suspension.  
It usually wasn't his fault, but he had learned eventually that 
teachers never wanted to hear his side of things.  If they saw a 
mess and he was in some way involved than it immediately 
became his responsibility.  Ranma finally gave up and just took 
whatever punishment they gave him without a word.  If his parents 
didn't care, why should he?  It was usually better than school 
anyway.
	Ranma was surprised to find Kuno running towards him, 
buckets in either hand.  He was starting to admire the way the 
kendoist could spring back from unconsciousness.  A normal guy 
should have been out for hours from what Ranma had done to him.  
He didn't even think that his pop would have recovered so fast.  
How many beatings has this guy received that he had gained such a 
high immunity to them?
	Ranma ignored Kuno's babbling, noticed the open window, 
and with a well-placed kick sent the older boy outside.
	Another boy looked out the window and said, "Wow, 
punting him into the pool was a quick way of taking care of him."
	"There's a pool?" Ranma asked in surprise.
	The other boy facefaulted.  "You didn't know there was a 
pool?  We're on the third floor!"
	"So?"

	Ranma breathed a sigh of relief as he finally left the 
classroom for the day.  School, the most boring and pointless part 
of his day, was now over.  All he wanted to do was go home, 
maybe get a little more training in, and spend some time shopping 
for ingredients.  His mom was letting him cook again tonight and 
he already had the meal planned out in his mind.  For Ranma, food 
was second only to martial arts.  He often combined the two, 
making cooking into another form of martial arts training.  He 
loved to eat and due to traveling with a father who couldn't even 
boil water properly, he had learned to love to cook.  He was a little 
surprised that cooking fit his mother's sometimes odd definition of 
manly.  She actually helped and encouraged his hobby.  While his 
father may have resented the time this took away from training, 
Genma often thought with his stomach first.  His son had turned 
out to be a good cook.
	Kuno blocked the exit of the school grounds, bokken at the 
ready.  He was back in his kendo garb from the morning, possibly 
because his school uniform was still wet. Already a sizable crowd, 
which Ranma noticed was mostly female for some reason, had 
gathered around him.
	"Now villain, face the righteous wrath of the Blue 
Thunder!"
	"Again?" Ranma asked him, exasperated.  His usual rivals 
weren't so persistent as to challenge him four times in the same 
day.  "Weren't the first two beatings I gave you enough?"  
Knocking someone out of a window didn't really qualify as a 
beating to Ranma.
	The crowd snickered at this, while Kuno seethed.  "No man 
could have defeated me honorably.  You must have beguiled me 
with your black magic!"
	"What magic?"
	"Before school you send a swarm of angry bees to attack 
me.  At lunch, you used your mystic powers to hurl me into a wall.  
And then you used your sorcery to confuse my mind so you could 
underhandedly defenestrate me."
	"Uh, what does 'defenestrate' mean?"  Ranma asked, 
confused.
	Kuno had worked himself up into a frenzy so he wasn't 
exactly listening at this point.  "Die, sorcerer!"
	Needless to say, the fight lasted about as long as the others.

	Ranma was smiling as he entered the Saotome home.  
School wasn't so bad once he got used to it.  Fighting a regular 
opponent besides his pop might be nice, even if Kuno wasn't at his 
level.  Ranma could use him to try out some new moves before he 
surprised his pop with them.  Kuno might make an interesting 
moving practice dummy, like all of those steam-powered robots 
that one girl had attacked him with once.  Never did really find out 
what her problem was.  Ranma could already picture one of those 
robots in kendo garb, rolling around clumsily wielding a bokken, 
and shouting stupid things like 'die sorcerer' and 'you fiend.'
	The boys would probably still be glaring at him for a while, 
but they seemed reluctant to attack him for now.  Might be all the 
beatings that they've seen him give Kuno.  From experience, 
Ranma guessed that soon they would gang together and attack him 
all at once.  When that failed, they'd resort to something 
underhanded.  Ranma had already gone through this sort of thing a 
dozen times or more.  He wasn't worried, in fact it would prove 
more interesting than his classes.
	That was about the only thing Ranma had found that was 
really negative about school.  Why do they have to make those 
classes so boring?  Math he understood, sort of.  It helped him to 
figure some things out, thinking out problems in mathematical 
terms.  He had used it to win sparring matches against his father.  
But the other stuff?  Why did he need to study literature?  Ranma 
didn't plan on writing any books.  And history?  He had no plans 
about being a historian.
	The other girls at school were already starting to make him 
edgy.  This was not unfamiliar ground for Ranma; it's been 
something that's been happening since middle school.  It wouldn't 
be so bad if it wasn't for all of his mom's 'suggestions.'
	Then there was Akane.  He just couldn't figure that girl out.  
First she tried to pound him for no reason, then she blamed him for 
being late when it was all Kuno's fault.  She watched him during 
lunch and class, but when Ranma noticed, she turned away like she 
was mad at him for noticing.


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