The area was quieter than usual. Oh his father threw him out the window, starting the morning sparring session. Ryouga showed up and attacked. The usual stuff like that.
Kasumi's abscence was clearly felt. Finding her mixing bowl shattered on the floor - ominous. No sign of Nabiki or Akane either.
Still, it was a school day, and actually thinking about something was counter to anything done by the students of Anything Goes so the three quickly decided it would wait.
Ranma was in school when he snapped his fingers. It had to be a magical prince or something, he just grabbed more than Akane this time.
"Hey, Ranma, have you noticed something weird," Hiroshi finally asked. "Ukyo's not here. Neither are Yuka or Sayuri."
Ranma blinked. Hey that was right!
"Son-in-law, have you seen Shampoo?" Cologne popped up in a window.
"Uh, no. She's missing too?" Ranma frowned slightly.
"Too?" Cologne asked.
"Miss Hinako's missing, so are Akane and Ukyo," interrupted Daisuke who was getting really concerned. "In fact. If you would notice - there are NO girls in class today except Two Ton Tamako and the other members of the Lady Sumo Team."
"Hmmm," said Ranma, wondering if there was a pattern or something here.
Cologne shook her head. "I'll check into it. You keep an eye out, son-in-law, this is most ominous."
"Ain't your son-in-law, old ghoul," griped Ranma at the old ghoul's back, "maybe Shampoo ran off with Mousse!"
"Aren't you concerned, Ranma? I mean what if they've been kidnapped or something?" No pretty girls=one very concerned Hiroshi. "Maybe some foreign prince or something?"
"Nah, it couldn't be, they all act fairly pushy and got that whole dramatic attitude thing," answered Ranma. "Don't know." Ranma himself was beginning to get a little concerned. Who was making dinner?
Several hours passed. Cologne popped up long enough to say that Saint Hebereke was likewise affected - and Kodachi was nowhere to be found.
Ranma cheered up slightly. Some good had come of the day after all.
It would be nice to get Ranma in on finding out what had occurred, but she had to admit that if you linked up all the brains of the remaining residents of the Tendo household, you might get roughly the same power output as from an anemic hamster on a wheel. When there was an actual target or a martial artist to fight, maybe. If it was a battle of wits, Ranma was not only unarmed but a liability to his side.
In each case where there had been signs of the missing girl, the trail had ended in what looked like a struggle. In one place there had been witnesses who had spoken of lightning flaring and then finding a girl's bookbag left behind when they'd gotten to the site.
Only young and attractive girls were taken. She herself was a few years past the profile, but Ranma's female form was not.
Which meant that whoever was after the girls hadn't seen "Ranma-chan" or that they knew she was a he. Not much help there.
There had been something strange going on this morning, but she had not been able to determine what. Merely an odd feeling and what she had thought was Happosai's presence - but perhaps now in retrospect had not been.
As Cologne ruminated, she didn't know that:
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(Posted Fri, 13 Dec 2002 11:55)
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