Ummm. Hello, again. This came out of my nostalgia of old mangas I haven't read in a long time, mangas I've loved and completely forgot about. I must warn though, there will be OOCness. This is the intro, and my mind running on 5 hours of sleep...
Disclaimer: I do not own Mai Hime nor Fruits Basket. I just squished them together.
*Did some editing to the chapter, before uploading a new chapter*
_
MaiFuruba - chapter 1
Midori Sugiura was taking her morning walk around the house, while attempting to soothe her throbbing head, she woken up surprisingly early considering the major hangover she had.
Midori stopped after feeling her foot kick something, almost knocking her over, she looked down and saw a young girl stirring awake. Said girl was curled on the front porch near her collection of zodiac figurines. Midori watched her for a second wondering how in the world this kid had gotten here, this was private property right?
The girl had short red hair and was wearing a very familiar school uniform.
The read headed girl blinked and yawned, still fighting sleep. "Wahhhh..."
"Hello." Midori crouched down, tilting her head to the side. It helped with her hangover for some reason.
"W- what, where am I?" Then, she seemed to remember herself and began panicking, "Ohh no, I- I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to trespass, honest!" Her yell woke up a few dogs in the area they all started barking at the same time causing Midori to hug her head.
"Whoa, relax! My poor head... ughhh… just keep quiet will ya?" Midori whined and as she leaned back. The other girl didn't know why the woman was acting as such, but her attention was taken by the group of shapes on the floor, the twelve little animal eyes roamed over them briefly, quickly noticing something missing.
"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but aren't you missing something over there?" She pointed toward the shapes before she could stop herself and Midori gave her a curious glance, "A cat, I don't see a cat."
Midori paused and blinked, intrigued, The cat, eh... "Say, what's your name?"
A little taken back by the question the girl took a few seconds to answer, "Tokiha Mai."
"My name is Sigiura Midori, Mai, nice to meet you." She smirked, turning back to her figures and happily noting her drunken late night paint job was pretty solid. "You would be correct, right now I don't have the cat. But I'm really surprised that you would know about it. Not many people mention the cat."
"Heh, I am a fan of the old zodiac story-" Mai paused before sneezing followed by a coughing fit, she was caught by surprise. Am I getting sick? Midori noted how cool it was in the morning and frowned. Mai could hear the dogs still barking in the background and noticed the pensive look Midori had on her face.
"I see..." She muttered under her breath before addressing Mai again, "Tell you what, why don't we go inside and you can tell me all about how you ended up in my front porch?"
Mai was surprised, why was Midori being so friendly if they were complete strangers? She wasn't sure whether to accept the offer until a cold breeze blew over her making her shiver. Mai reluctantly agreed and followed the woman to the house. The walls were so smooth and the doors looked very fine, everything about this house looked top notch. On the outside however, on the inside-
"This place is a dump!"
"That's pretty mean..." Midori whined from the refrigerator, she pulled out a bottle and served two cups, "We do our best over here."
"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to yell..." Mai quickly apologized after her outburst as she absentmindedly accepted one of the cups, "What's in this?"
"An old family remedy for stubborn hangov- erm, I mean, cold! It will help your cold." Midori finished by taking a big gulp from her cup, nearly drinking half of it at once.
Mai on the other hand, gasped and clutched her cup tighter to herself. "How did you know about my cold?"
"Intuition!" Midori winked and finished what was left of her drink in in two swigs. A little impressed, Mai shrugged and began drinking as well sure her earlier coughing fit had something to do with it. Midori seemed to be harmless enough.
Midori began asking all sorts of questions after that, like what her favorite color was, and her zodiac animal; and oddly enough what grade in high school she was in. Mai didn't feel comfortable answering that and thankfully enough, she didn't have to as somebody ascended down from the stairs.
A brunette stepped down ready to get to school, and Mai recognized her immediately before she even saw those iconic red eyes. What with her graceful walk and neat uniform who wouldn't? Fujino Shizuru was the school idol, the popularity this girl had was ridiculous! Wait, Fujino Shizuru lived here in this dump? Oh how her fangirls would weep.
"Ara, inviting cute girls inside Midori? That's a new development." Was all Shizuru had planned on saying
"Shizuru, come join us!" Midori waved and pointed to the same drink she'd offered Mai, ignoring the red head.
"I can't, I'm already late for school." Shizuru said carelessly, sparing a quick glance to her watch, ignoring Midori's complaining, 'aww c'mon, you're never late!' she was about to walk out the door, until she recognized the other girl in her home. It took her a couple of glances but she remembered seeing this girl in some of her classes. She stopped at the door looking directly at the younger redhead "Ara, Tokiha Mai?"
"Y-yes?" Mai stuttered. Fujino knew her? Seriously? Way to go me…
...
After Fujino recognized her, the idol had instead they both walk to school together. Mai had been deathly silent at first, only stuttering small worded answers to whatever topic Fujino was making small talk over.
After a bit of forced talking on her part, Mai started to feel comfortable talking to the other girl, a bit surprised at how normal this whole walk was. 'With the way her fangirls stalk her one would think Fujino was out of this world.' Before the walk was even done their roles had reversed with Mai making conversation and Fujino replying.
Parting ways at the entrance since Fujino always seemed to have some other business to attend to, Mai felt relaxed, so relaxed that she even forgot all about the angry fan girls that were sure to come her way, especially after their friendly good byes at the entrance.
Needless say she had a very annoying day at school. I am never walking with Fujino again! On a better note Midoris mystery drink did wonders for her cold, as the day progressed she felt better and better. As a bonus she would even receive a wave and a smile whenever she saw Fujino in class or the halls.
After school she had work. It didn't take too long as Mai enjoyed what she did, although one would wonder why seeing as how it was all cleaning and labor. She had friends though, all her co-workers where older women but they all liked her for her contribution. Soon after she headed home... Or wondered where she would sleep.
Life was a little rough for Mai at the moment, with her current living status being uncertain. In fact, last night Mai was wondering about with no direction until she stumbled upon Midori's porch. She felt a little embarrassed at passing out.
Her thought's didn't get far as she heard yelling and noise coming from around the area. She looked around and found the source, it was heading from the direction of Midoris house. 'Oh no, is something going on?' Mai picked up the pace hoping she could get there in time to be of any help incase her suspicions were correct, they had been so nice to her this morning. Once she got close enough Mai was able to understand the yelling.
"You just got here and you want to fight already!?" Midori's voice.
"I told you to move, Midori!" Some angry stranger replied.
Fight? That's when Mai decided to cut in, hopefully in time to avoid anyone being hurt, "Midori! Are you ok?" She said the first thing that popped into her head.
The woman saw her and waved furiously, "Mai! How was school!?" She yelled excitedly, like a child ignoring the angry person next to her completely.
"It was a good day," Mai answered and turned to the newcomer, she was a bit surprised to see that it was another girl about her age and height. This one had green eyes and... "blue hair?"
The blunette flinched and glared, "Shut the hell up!" She turned to Midori, "Why is there some stranger here!?"
"Meet Tokiha Mai." Midori said, "Quite the interesting girl, you should really hear what she has to say about the zodiac, Natsuki." The woman added while giving Natsuki a strange look, the blunette looked away. She tried placing a hand on the angry girls shoulder.
The blunette's face became dark and she growled, shaking Midoris hand off. "I couldn't care less." She turned to Mai, glairing, and spoke slowly. "And you shouldn't be here."
Mai didn't know what to say, that glare was pretty damn scary! The air around them became heavier and heavier as Natsuki continued to openly glare and Midori silently took in the scene hoping for the situation to change by itself. Finally the woman sighted, "Natsuki, it's alright. Mai is just another girl."
"Ara, either way Natsuki shouldn't concern herself with our affairs." Shizuru cut in from the door way, with an amused voice causing Natsuki to snap out of her glaring and give the brunette all her attention.
"You!" Natsuki spat angrily, fist clenching. "What are you waiting for? Get out here!"
"So impatient, Natsuki should already know that she doesn't need to pull such stunts in order to gain my attention." Shizuru raised an eyebrow while pointing to the wooden door she was leaning against, it was all broken and bent out of shape, from being slammed or hit Mai wasn't sure. Mai turned towards the blunette, impressed at such feat, and to her surprise found a small tint of red on the girls face.
"C- cut the crap, you know why I'm here!" Natsuki cursed her stupid stutter.
"Natsuki is so livid today." Shizuru said, looking as bored as ever.
"Enough already!" Natsuki decided to get to business and felt herself inching closer, noticing that the blunette was about to pounce, Midori grabbed her shoulders and kept her still for as long as the blunettes surprise would allow. She didn't want her house to suffer any more damage.
"Geez Natsuki, calm down, go make a friend." Midori then, casually shoved the blunette onto the unsuspecting red head not realizing the consequences her actions would bring. Not a second after Natsuki touched Mai, a big cloud of smoke filled the area, taking everyone by surprise.
Mai coughed until the smoke cleared and found herself staring at a pair of two very twitchy cat ears. EH!?
For a minute all Mai did was stare at the cat in her hands, Natsuki was doing the same, looking Mai up and down, reassuring herself of the redheads gender, 'How?'
"N-Natsuki!" Red eyes widened and everyone seemed to act after that.
Midori snatched the cat from Mai and inspected it as if to make sure it was really the blunette, her fears were confirmed when the irate feline scratched her arm, going for her face next, while Midori just pushed the cat away from herself. "You turned!?"
"You moron!" Natsuki screamed still trying to scratch Midori, "Look what you did!"
"But Mai is of the same gender, that's not supposed to happen!" Then she took a closer look at Natsuki, "Or at least I hope she is..." She was kidding of course, but angry Natsuki cat was amusing to say the least.
Shizuru joined them and the three huddled up and started discussing in quiet agitated voices leaving Mai to stare and question whether it had been the right decision to chug whatever the hell it was Midori had given her to drink this morning. Lost in her thought's, Mai missed most of the conversation and by the time she joined in Natsuki was on the ground glaring at her again.
"Ara, Mai seems to be a special case." Shizuru concluded, They all turned to look at her-continue glaring in Natsukis case- and all Mai could do was begin to slowly back up under the weight of their attention.
"Hmmm, that must be it. But just to make sure, let's try this out." Midori suddenly pushed Shizuru against Mai and surely enough another big cloud of smoke appeared except this time all Mai saw was a pile of clothes. "Ok, strange. I definitely know Shizuru is a woman."
"Oi, what the hell is that supposed to mean!" Natsuki growled knowing very well of Midori's habit of baiting her temper yet still unable to control herself.
"This is quite peculiar, if only there was a way to make sure..." Midori ignored her, while making a thinking pose, "I got it! Mai, you can hug me!"
"No you idiot, don't do that!" Natsuki yelled wishing she was still in her human form to smack some sense into Midori moronic head.
"Ehh!?" At the sight of Midori literally throwing herself at Mai, the red head ran as fast as her legs could go. However, she didn't get far before another puff of smoke appeared revealing a very excited dog. Mai began feeling lightheaded before getting dizzy and passing out to the ground with Natsukis angry screaming as her background sound; while Midori was currently content chasing after her own tail.
Shizuru got a head ache as she scrambled to get out from under her own clothes, not wanting to join the scene, 'Ara, nobody is worried about the fact that we just turned into animals...'
...
XD
First thing, even though Mai is playing the role of Toruh that does not mean things will turn out the way they did in furuba. In fact, I don't even remember most of it so things will be much stranger. The animals and characters have been paired up mostly because of personality or because the combo amused me.
The cat and the rat, this one came up after finding out more about Mai hime destiny and how Shizuru and Natsuki interact. What can I say, I was amused. Anyway's, tell me if this was a good idea or not because I'm not so sure myself XD