Also, I state for the record that Akane has NEVER had a mallet 
except in a single OAV. This is a convention used in fanfics mainly,
and I'm not sure how it became canon.

	Not true, it was used once in an OAV (one flew over the kuno's
nest, technically the 3rd movie) where Nabiki actually hands it to her, 
and once in the first movie where ranma insults her cooking in front of
Kirin. I seem to remember other situations, but I can't seem to remember
them now.