The advent of Ryoga, Ranma's enemy from Japanese middle-school, comes close to testing the fragile relationship of Akane and Ranma. Akane shows her true feelings by trying to save Ranma from harm during the fight, and he shows his by telling her to get lost. When Akane blows up at Ranma, Ryoga proves the unlikely means of their reconciliation, when one of his weapons slices off a huge hank of Akane's long hair. She's momentarily traumatized by this assault on one of her most feminine attributes, but she's not too paralyzed to dole out punishment to both guys-- which turns comic, since they don't really expect her to hit them so hard.
Then, after various other tribulations, Akane makes peace with her new situation and gets even with Ranma's earlier trick of suckering her with an appeal to "cuteness."
At this point, Takahashi hadn't fully fallen into repeated use of the "Pay-in-Pain" trope. But that trope wouldn't take long to assume dominance.
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