She likes Akane, but not enough to risk losing her Ranchan.

Errr... Since WHEN has Ukyou shown ANY sign of being a friend of Akane?
She's as much of a friend of Akane as Shampoo is ... They both eat (with
Ranma) at the resturants, at time ... they don't try to kill Akane ALL
the time ... So does that mean that Shampoo is Akane's friend?

        Since how many times have we seen Ukyo fighting with Akane, as
opposed to Shampoo fighting with Akane?  And keep a firm hold on your
@Bapstick(tm), willya!? ^_^

Caroline wrote :

And, take into account the amount of times Ukyou appears compared to the
amount of times Shampoo appears. (15 or so appearances vs 25 or so)
Possibly about the same amount of times, on average ... *shrug* But I
can't be bothered counting right now ... Anyone want to check on this?

But still. Why does attacking someone less than someone else who doesn't
like her mean that she's a friend? If she was a friend, Ukyou would
never attack Akane.

        She's Akane's 'sorta-friend'.  I like to see it this way : If
Shampoo or Kodachi got sick, I don't think Akane would take care of them the
way she did with Ukyo (part : Ukyo got sick and Konatsu tries to run the
Ucchan with Ranma-chan and Akane)