Chapter Three – Collision Curse
Akane helped Tohru pick up the scattered groceries, and wondered where they should go. The dojo wasn't too far away, so she suggested they take shelter there. Tohru agreed, so the duo set off, Akane telling Tohru a little about herself on the way to distract her. Once they arrived, Akane went to the kitchen and found some tea in the pot. She poured Tohru a cup, and the two girls went to the table in the living room and made themselves comfortable.
As Tohru seemed a little calmer now, Akane decided she might as well try to get a bit more information about the abduction. She excused herself, jumped up and went to the kitchen again, grabbed the notebook and pen Kasumi kept in the cupboard for shopping lists before returning to the living room, where Tohru was waiting patiently.
"Okay, Tohru, would you like to tell me what happened at the corner?" she asked carefully, trying not to upset the poor girl any further.
"Um, right." Tohru said, pulling herself together. "Well, you see, Yuki-kun had come with me to help with the shopping, in case it started to rain. We were at the corner when a ….person… collided with Yuki-kun, and they fell to the ground. Then the ….person…. jumped up, picked up Yuki-kun, and ran off! Then a few moments later you showed up" Tohru finished.
"Okay, that's a good start," Akane said as she scribbled down the details. "Can you describe Yuki's assailant?"
Tohru hesitated. The person had looked extremely different between one second and another. "Umm, I'm not sure…" she said uncertainly. How was she to help Yuki-kun, if she couldn't even remember simple details about the kidnapping?
"Well, we'll just try and cover the basics. Male or female?" Akane said gently, aware the event must have been rather traumatic for the poor girl.
Tohru just managed to stop herself from replying 'both' and instead thought hard for a moment "I'm not sure…" she said eventually. She replayed the scene in her mind again "When they came around the corner, they appeared to be a boy, but when they were on the ground, I thought it was a girl." Tohru elaborated.
Akane wrote gender and placed a question mark next to it. "That's fine. What about hair colour?"
"I'm not sure… red or black" was the reply. Akane raised an eyebrow – in her opinion, red and black looked rather different, but nonetheless wrote down red/black in her notebook. "Height?"
"Umm…" another tricky one for Tohru. When the person first crashed into Yuki-kun, they were the same height, but when the person had stood up the second time, grabbing Yuki, Tohru and the mystery person had been eye to eye. "Somewhere between my height and Yuki-kun's" she decided was the appropriate response.
"What's Yuki like? Taller than you?" Akane asked. Tohru nodded.
"They must have been strong, if they could lift someone Yuki's height and get away so quickly," Akane mused idly.
Tohru choked on her tea as she realised that Yuki-kun in rat form was a lot easier to abduct, and Akane was bound to get suspicious. "Ah, um, Yuki-kun is very slender, so it's not like he'd be heavy or anything…. But yes, the other person must have been strong…. But Yuki-kun isn't fat… that's not to say he's under nourished…" Tohru babbled desperately, aware that she was only digging herself deeper. Akane only nodded, adding another heading – Victim – and said "Tohru, could you tell me what Yuki looked like at the time of the incident? What he was wearing, and so forth?"
Tohru ground to a halt 'Oh, No!' she thought, frantic, 'I can't tell her Yuki-kun was a rat when he was abducted! Akane-san has been so nice to me, but I must keep the Sohma Family secret!' Aware that the other girl was waiting with her pen poised, Tohru managed "Yuki-kun has silver grey hair… and violet coloured eyes…" which was true in either form. Akane wrote this down, and said "What was he wearing?"
"A Chinese style shirt…" was as far as Tohru got before Akane's head snapped up and she said sharply "Who? Yuki or his abductor?" Tohru, taken aback by the question said "Ano… I meant Yuki-kun, but now that you mention it, the other person was wearing a red Chinese shirt too".
Akane glanced down at her notes, and suddenly, Tohru's muddled answers made perfect sense. Throwing down her pen, she growled "Ranma."
"I beg you pardon?" Tohru asked timidly, a bit unnerved by Akane's abrupt mood change.
Akane sighed and smiled reassuringly at Tohru. "Tohru, did this person have their hair in a pig tail? And was it raining when he crashed into your friend?"
"Yes, they did have a pig tail, and it began raining at around the time of the accident" Tohru said, after a moment's thought.
"Well, that solves the mystery! I know who kidnapped Yuki!" Akane announced. 'Okay, so why would Ranma kidnap Yuki? And where would they have gone?' she asked herself silently, oblivious to Tohru's pleased reaction.
A/N: Alas, I would like to spend more time fanfic writing, but Life keeps getting in the way… but fear not, for I have already started Ch 4 at the time of posting! Keep Smiling!