It was a familiar sight by now. Ten or so boys gathered impatiently in the front courtyard wearing protective gear. They stood there tall, ready for battle. They knew that this could very easily go so very badly for them, they knew that their chances of success were slim to none. But they had to try. Such was their devotion. Such was their love (though that was merely the way they justified it to themselves. Lust was the true emotion driving them each day into this rather foolish action). It was a smaller crowd than it had been when this had all started, numbers seeming to dwindle daily. By now there were only the most determined left.

"She's coming!" one yelled, and as one they braced for impact. Just down the street a dust cloud was gathering. At the centre of it was the girl barelling towards them, long blue hair trailing behind her. It was almost time for battle.

"I'm so late!" Akane yelled as she stepped into the school grounds. As one, the crowd of boys charged towards her. Each vying individually for the right to date her. Each desperate for the chance, just a chance to in spite of all this morning fight nonsense they were nice people down underneath. But just as the first of them reached her, something happened. Something unbelievable, utterly incredible and almost beautiful in execution.

Akane Tendo tripped over absolutely nothing, falling to the ground with nothing more than an "eek!" But as she fell, her head collided hard with the protective gear on his chest. She grabbed his shoulders and turned her head up, saying "Thank you" as she did so... incidentally striking him on the chin with the top of her head making the poor boy see stars.

Two others made their attempt next, attempting to grab her from either side. Only trouble was, Akane turned around to pick up her bag, which she'd dropped on the ground just at the very instant that the two dove for her. Some may be imagining that the two of them collided in mid-air and bounced away but that is a rather ridiculous thought. Instead, the two toppled onto Akane's back, and when she stood back up they somehow managed to topple over onto the other side. For good measure Akane let out a yawn, clipping two others with her outstretched arms, effectively clotheslining them to the ground.

The remaining five all charged at her at once. Just in time for Akane to trip on one of the legs of a fallen boy. Her hands fell out flat, striking the ground, and the next thing anyone knew Akane was sitting in the middle of five semi-conscious boys who all had foot marks on their faces.

"Whoops!" Akane winked, sticking her tongue out while playfully rapping a fist against her head. "Clumsy me!" She stood up, dusted herself off and made to run towards the entrance to the building.

"A fine display as always, Akane Tendo. But my eyes are not so easily deceived!"

A rose shot out of nowhere, barely missing Akane's head as she turned around seeming a little confused about where the voice was coming from. Kuno stepped out from behind a tree.

"Oh, there you are! Hello Kuno! Sorry! I'm running a little late today. Could you do this tomorrow instead?"

"You are always running late!" Kuno declared, waving his bokken at Akane. "Today, I shall prove that you are more than you seem! I know the truth, Miss Tendo! You are a formidable martial artist that, for whatever reason, hides your true self behind a curtain of deception! The same curtain that masks your true feelings for me! I shall lift this curtain today, and then we shall date! Defend yourself!"

The bokken swung through the air, and Akane let out a high pitched eek, and she instinctively raised her arms just as anyone would in such a situation. But surely her arms could not prevent a well placed strike with a bokken by one that is proficient with it? At least, not without causing some rather significant pain in the arms afterwards. Right?

That would only be the case if the blow ever struck the arms. In this particular instance the arms were safe. Her hasty attempt to block had a rather odd side effect of causing the bag she was carrying to raise in the air, wrap itself around the bokken mid-strike, and for the sudden additional weight to completely throw Kuno off balance. Thus when Akane followed the next instinctive reaction - to duck - she wound up quite accidentally giving Kuno a picture perfect back body drop.

With all of her obstacles removed at last, Akane barely made it into class on time. But the question remains: Why is this Akane behaving in this manner?

It had all started long ago.

Years beforehand, Soun Tendo had made sure that all three of his daughters knew the basics of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. At the very least enough to defend themselves. While Kasumi and Nabiki had accepted it for their father's sake, Akane was the only one who truly took to the lessons. Took to them the same way a fish takes to swimming.

It didn't take long for Akane to become the daughter closest to him. While Kasumi and Nabiki were closer to their mother, Akane was Daddy's Girl 100%. She spent hours in the Dojo with him, learning the forms and techniques of the school. Soun showed her secret tricks that he hadn't shown any of his other students. He proudly declared her to be the heir to his Art and the Dojo. She was a prodigy and would have been one of the greatest Martial Artists alive.

Then, when Akane was but ten years old, Mrs. Tendo died. To say that Soun Tendo broke would be understating it. Some of the neighbors were afraid that the Tendo daughters would soon lose both parents with Soun going to join his wife.

While, ultimately, he didn't go that far, he still would never be the same. He couldn't find it in himself to care about much of anything any more. So the training stopped. Within the span of a few weeks Akane had gone from daily training sessions to nothing. Finally, after months of prodding her father she managed to get him into the dojo… once a week for an hour or two at most.

And so, Akane's training stagnated. Only the slightest, most incremental improvements for the next five years followed…

Akane was in her last year of middle school and, to put it bluntly, frustrated as hell.

She had just come home from school, the events of the day having driven her near insane.

Now, Akane was a very athletic girl. She was already the Captain of the school Volleyball team, helped up their baseball and basketball teams a lot, and more than once had been asked to join the Gymnastics team. (If she had known it was Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, she would have said yes, but alas she did not so the events of this tale happen) However, the one club she really wanted to join was the Martial Arts Club. Now, you might think that being the daughter of Town Councilman and respected Dojo Master Soun Tendo getting into that club would be easy.

However, a few quirks about her Martial Arts club kept her from getting in. Namely, that it was All Boys. All boys who did not want any "dumb weak girls" in their club. She was rejected flat out the first year of Middle School She tried again the next, but the same sexist jerk was in charge. This year, the club had been under new leadership. So she had tried again. Once again though, the new Captain refused. Having been rebuffed twice already, Akane had enough.

"I challenge you!" She shouted after being rejected by the current Captain, Ryutaro.

"Huh..?" He said, a bit confused.

"I challenge you to a fight, here and now!" Akane shouted, "If I beat you then you have to let me into the club!"

Ryutaro was taken aback. He hadn't been expecting this, having seen her try and barge into the club twice in the years he had been going to this school. "Uhh…." He didn't want a girl in the club, and he didn't want to look bad beating up some girl. Yet he couldn't back down from a challenge like that. Then an idea came to him, putting on a smirk he threw on the bravado. "Really, Tendo? I thought you lived in a dojo, don't you know how it works?" That brought snickers from the crowd ."If you want to challenge me you first have to beat.." he gestured towards the rest of the club, "All of the other club members. From the weakest the strongest."

It took all of a second for Akane to nod. "Fine! If that's how you want to do it!"

Ryutaro patted himself on the back. This way he wouldn't have to do anything! Akane would lose quickly enough, and he wouldn't be the one to look bad.

It took Akane five minutes to beat the first half of the club. The Martial Arts club had thirty-three members. Akane chewed through the fifteen first year members faster than they could put on their gis. The twelve second years didn't last much longer. Finally, the six third year members, the most experienced and skilled, began to fight her. They were closer to Akane's level, but still not enough. They managed to get some hits in, but it didn't take long before it was just the Vice-Captain and Ryutaro himself. His jaw was hanging down as Akane didn't say anything to him. She simply bowed stiffly to the Vice-Captain, and the match began.

For a moment it looked like Akane might lose, having been hit more times than before. Then, with a shout Akane threw out a kick that knocked him clear out of the ring, earning yet another victory by ring out.

Fighting thirty two consecutive opponents had done a number on her. She was completely drenched in sweat. Her lip was split where one of the guys had gotten a lucky hit in on her chin. Yet, again, she simply faced Ryutaro and waited for him to approach to start the match.

It was the hardest fight of his life. If he had faced Akane when she was fresh he would have lost swiftly. The rest of the club watched in awe. Akane got in a hit, then he did. Slowly, things were being worn down, and it looked like soon enough the time limit for the match might end. And with it, the teacher serving as club supervisor who was currently the referee and judge would have to declare a winner. Then, a mistake was made on Akane's part. One brought about by fatigue, yet this small mistake was enough. Akane was swept off her feet, and declared the loser.

Akane stood up, not saying a word. "Well see?" He said. "Girls can't be in the Martial Arts club, they're just not real martial artists."

"Maybe you should join the cooking club, learn to be a good wife!" One of the club members jeered. To the laughter of the rest.

Turning on her heel, Akane stormed out of the club dojo, tears building up in her eyes.

Why wasn't she good enough!? Wasn't she supposed to be the heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts? She could handle any number of… of hobbyists. Even if there had been a hundred jeering stupid boys she should have been able to beat them handily!

Akane knew why, of course. It was a bitter understanding. She was stagnating. For years now she had not learned anything new. She went through the same forms over and over Her father was perfectly content to spend an hour weekly sparring with her. He had given up on the School. He had given up on her.

She was fed up with this! If he wouldn't teach her anything new, then she would learn something herself!

The Dojo had a basement. This storage room contained scrolls detailing the advanced techniques of the School.

Technically speaking, it was forbidden for Akane to read or take out anything from it. Only a Master of the Anything Goes School was allowed to do so. But by this point Akane was sure that her father would never declare her a Master by this point. So she finally broke the rule, and slipped in.

The room was dusty and unused for years. Old training weapons from when Soun had students rested forgotten. A shelf filled with scrolls covered the back wall.

There was also a pile of women's underwear in the corner. Once, when a eight year old Akane had gone down to the storage room with her father, she had asked what was with the pile of underwear. Soun's face had instantly turned pale, and he got this strange look in his eyes. If trained psychologist had looked at it, they would have recognized it as the sign of a PTSD induced flashback. Since Akane was not, she had no clue what it was about that pile of garments that had her father so worried.

Akane approached it, wondering for a moment if it was some kind of camouflage for something else. She bent down, and picked up a bundle of bras. To her surprise, there was a scroll under them!

She had been right! For whatever reason martial arts manuals and odd artifacts were buried in this underwear! Digging through it, Akane pulled out several books detailing techniques! However, she soon realized that most of what she found, while powerful, had elements that rendered it impractical.

The Happo-Go-Yen-Satsu looked promising at first. The ability to suck the battle aura out of an opponent and use their strength as her own sounded useful. But she would need someone else to perform the pressure point treatment required. With Dr. Tofu as the only person she trusted enough to do something like that, she knew that he would never agree to it once he learned of the side effect of drastically slowing down her aging without a continuous supply of ki.

She immediately discarded the Neko-Ken once she saw the first step. Morbid curiosity kept her reading until she reached the last page. She read about how it said that only a complete and utter idiot would actually try and teach someone the technique. Akane, not being a complete and utter idiot, nodded and set it off in the Rejected pile. (Elsewhere, Genma Saotome sneezed. This gave Ranma an opening large enough to thoroughly thrash his father, thus winning the sparring session.)

The ability to channel her battle aura to a huge size sounded really awesome. But reading on it, she realized she'd need a few years of Ki building exercises before she could even start learning it. Making a mental note to start those exercises as soon as possible, she set that technique aside.

Finally, she came across a book that seemed almost unused. The label on the cover caught her attention. Dojikko-ken. What kind of martial arts technique could possible be named "Clumsy Child Fist?" Opening to the first page, her eyes widened.

To any interested in learning the ancient and powerful art of the Dojikko-ken. I must inform you, this Art can only be learned by women. Men should look elsewhere.

A women's only technique! Akane clutched the book to her chest tightly. She would master this! This, she knew, was but the first step on her path to mastery of the Martial Arts!