Kyo, having determined that Ranma would not make the first move, decided that since the phrase, "Anything goes" seemed to be a keyword in the dojo, that mewling a bit should be useful. He may not have the vocal cords of a cat, but he knew what one sounded like. Ranma instantly tensed, Kyo used that moment to attack.

His foot sliced through the air as Ranma's eyes narrowed, his head tilting to the side to avoid the kick.

"Dirty trick," he admonished, but grinned as his arm swept up to capture Kyos leg under it. Kyo had a moment to deliberate, and when Ranmas ankle tried to hook his, the free leg was already up at Ranma's neck. His hands hit the mat, his body twisted, and Ranma tumbled to the ground. Kyo landed with his feet apart, his hands held tensed at his side.

"Hey, anything means ANYthing," Kyo backed out of range as Ranma flipped up and settled down, one leg bent in front his arms held ready with fists just under his jaw line.

One arm flung to the side as Li jumped into his space, blocking a high spin kick and then ducking and twirling away from Akane's jump kick. As she went sailing over him, Kyo tumbled underneath and pulled Li from harms way. Standing up with his back to his friends, they took on identical stances and waited for the Saotome students to react.

---

Ranma hadn't been in a normal fight for what seemed like decades. He knew that Li could pull crazy magic tricks out of his bag, and both the boys had aura's that rivaled his most impressive opponents ever, but neither boy seemed inclined to fight with anything other than their fists and feet. Considering that Akane probably wouldn't have been able to keep up with aura-shots, he found himself grateful to the boys.

But as a foot lashed into his chest, knocking him a few yards back, he found he wasn't that grateful.

---

While Kyo had Ranma at a bit of a retreat, Li found himself a bit pressed to keep up with Akane's swings. She was well trained, in the way that a natural fighter was trained. That was saying that she had no set pattern to her attack, and Li just wasn't expecting some of her more wild attacks. She managed a fist to his shoulder, pushing him back, before he realized that she was tiring quickly. She'd been working off a mad that morning, burning off a lot of energy she would have otherwise saved. Li was comparatively fresh as a daisy, though dodging her attempts was more problematic than he'd been expecting. He's seen several openings that he would have taken if she were a man, and he chided himself harshly, knowing that Kyo wouldn't have hesitated. But growing up with four older sisters had taught him early what they would, and would not allow in a friendly sparring match.

Akane swore in her head as she missed Li by a hairsbreadth. She knew that their fight had to end soon, and was well aware that he hadn't taken, and would not take several fighting stances with her. When his foot connected solidly, but lightly with the side of her rib cage she ducked under a return kick and grabbed his leg, twisted it under her arm and ended up with her back to his, ankle caught under her armpit.

---

Ranma flipped off the wall and landed his heel in Kyo's shoulder. The cat hissed and twisted away, arm flung out to catch his opponents leg still in midair. With a ruthless twitch Ranma was on the floor and Kyo was backing up, rolling his shoulder to ease the ache. Ranma jumped up and pressed his advantage, running toward his opponent he smiled rowdily when Kyo growled and ducked under a lighting quick set of punches. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard as Kyo was expecting to keep track of the attacks.

Kyo sputtered his hair sticking up as if attracted to a lighting storm, as one hand shot up, grabbed Ranma's fist and flipped the dark haired fighter over his shoulder… and into Li and Akane's stalemate.

Li saw the dark shadow out of the corner of his eye, stopped struggling against Akane's hold, and let her drag him to the floor just as Ranma sailed overhead.

"I've never enjoyed loosing quite so much," Li heard himself say as Akane landed on him, her body fully pressed against his own. He chuckled as she blushed bright red, her face hidden on his chest.

Ranma sat against the far wall, his eyes closed as a chunk of drywall fell from the body indentation on the wall above him. Kyo stood at the opposite side of the room, relaxed into a defensive crouch just in case Ranma felt up for another round.

As his eyes opened, Ranma took in the scene. Li, was helping Akane to her feet, and Kyo wasn't even breathing hard. Laughing, he got to his feet and crossed the room. Kyo straightened and bowed after Ranma did, formally ending the match.

"You wanna come back next week?"

---

the end