Kaylyn Gray is from America, more precisely, New York, and just recently had a big move to Japan when her mother decides she wants her to see relatives and avoid the nasty divorce back home. A rich kid in a small, lonely town, she has a hard time making friends within her new school but manages to find one in the most unbelievable person; Kyo Sohma! (This will have nearly each episode as it is portrayed but differing to match the characters I have made. No, Tohru is not in this. She is being replaced by Tsuki who will be the friend of Hana and Uo because though I like Tohru I find her actions entirely too idiotic. XD Sorry Tohru fans. I do not own Fruits Basket. All respects and honors go to its creator; Natsuki Takaya)

A foreign girl stumbled through a dense forest shadows alone.

I frowned slightly and glanced around at the woodlands surrounding me on all sides. I had been walking all day and my legs ached like all hell but I wouldn't stop just yet; not ever even, if it meant I would find my aunt... My name is Kaylyn Gray, and I am from New York. This is my first time ever being elsewhere than my home, much less Japan. My mother herself is Japanese, and she grew up here; it's a shame to say she didn't come with me. Lately her and my father have been fighting more than usual and have been working on a legal divorce for years. So when she won custody over me she immediately sent me to her homeland, and as far away as possible from my father, to live with her sister; my aunt Jin. However crazy it may seem to send your 16 year old daughter on a plane to a country billions of kilometers away, she trusted my aunt would meet me at the airport and all would be safe... If only like really worked out that way. The plane-ride itself was fun, but once I reached the subway station that directed me to Tokyo, my aunt never showed up... with what money I had converted to yen before I arrived, I used it to pay for a taxi into town. My mother had trained me little in her language so I might have over-payed the man just a bit, but that didn't matter. I ended up giving most of my money away to beggars anyways. Yeah, I could be a real sucker that way but there were so many and they seemed helpless... Figuring I should save some yen, I decided to head for the shelter of the woods nearby. Sure, there might be junkies or rabid pandas or whatever the hell they had here in Japan but I did have a knife to fight them off with, besides I had just reached my black belt in both Karate and Kendo classes I took back in NYC. I'm sure I'd muster just fine if I tried. Besides, if I could manage to stay along the tree-line I'd be able to sneak behind a townhouse and find refuge there. But karma being the bitch it is, I had wandered too far and got lost ^_^""

Sighing I stuffed my hands into my panda hoodie pockets and watched the sky through the trees as I kept walking. It was so much more open and natural here in Japan... it's all so alien. I sighed, smiling softly up at the Auburn-stained sky. "I never really noticed how beautiful the outdoors can be... y'know, if it wasn't for all the damned bugs I'd probably like to live here..." Closing my eyes as I continued to walk I took in huge gulps of that forest air. It was true, for a person like me, that all of this should come as overwhelming. But back in America I had made many mottoes for myself and even took a few of them in. But a favorite of mine was; "Take time to stop and smell the roses" or, to enjoy the little things in life. This scenery here was not a little thing, but a HUGE thing to me, both metaphorically speaking and literally. The trees growing in this wild forest were much, MUCH bigger than those in Central park. Possibly even taller than a few buildings I remember walking by. "I'm sorry you're having troubles mom... I hope you can join me soon." Yes, the awesome, do-it-herself, hard-working, ever-talented me was getting lonesome. In truth, I was lonely all the time. My family back home were much better than most, and I'm grateful for that, but sometimes it felt to me that I was invisible to them. I always somehow managed to keep smiling. I soon paused and re-opened my eyes, watching the receding sky-line again as it moved without me. I laughed as I watched a cloud roll by, and pointed, speaking to nobody in particular. "It's silly but that looks a lot like a turtle!" My laughter continued a bit obnoxiously before coming to a faltering stop and I frowned, lowering my gaze back to the ground. Cloud-watching was my dad and I's hobby... I wish he could make things better with mom, and real quick too... I gasped stopping just close of an irregularly sharp fall down a slope and covered my mouth to conceal my shock. Standing there a few moments, blinking at the ground at least six feet below I slowly lowered my hand, lip still quivering as I relished a shaky smile. "Holy cow... I guess I'm lucky I didn't fall... I could have broke my neck if I happened to trip and roll down that thing... Eh-..." I stopped, glancing at something paper white through the leaves. Nerd superstition kicking in I felt my heart leap thinking I'd found a ninja's paper bomb. But whenever I tilted my body left or right, I didn't see the object at a different angle, but rather a different part of it; it moved when I did meaning it was beyond the trees. Stretching luxuriously backwards I could see a bit clearer I could see wood, more white, some more wood...; A door! "It's the door to a house! What is a house doing out in the middle of nowhere?" Starting to bend over forwards I crouched straining to see more but the damned trees blocked my view. Shifting my weight onto my weaker left foot I could just almost make out a porch... Kneeling closer, closer, closer to the ground and- WHOOPS! The dirt crumbled beneath my dark converse and I shrieked, tumbling down the large soil mound. I fell and rolled faster and faster towards the bottom. The world was spinning anytime I tried to look up so rather I looked down and inward towards my chest, trying to curl up and protect my vital organs. Tugging my hood far over my head I could just barely see where I was twisting and the terror seemed to seep from me. Maybe I would survive this after-

*?* -3 hours earlier-

There a girl with hair black and white, sat alone at the airport...

I struggled to look farther outside of the ridiculously large subway-train windows and pouted at all the trains that rolled in. One after the other all of this happy tracks would zoom in and when I ran to the opening automatic doors, my cousin wouldn't be there. I waited, and waited, but all I had gotten were a lot of odd looks and a few sympathetic ones. Damned passengers thought I was crazy! Sitting on the rim of one large, filth-strewn staircase I frowned and pulled my small, kawaii[1] mouse back-pack from my shoulders, lifting out a hand-crafted doll; my favorite. It was the one that reminded me most of my mother, and the one to most resemble her... My mother was always very special. She was a doll-maker, that was her job and her life. But she never liked to craft any after herself, claiming their beauty was already surpassing hers, and that we should not waste one away by giving it only average. She went above an beyond in everything she did, and that's why I loved her so dearly... she died two years ago and because of a fire at her working office, some of her greatest works burned. But I know that she had saved the finest for me. In all actuality, she had made a perfected doll of herself in each and every one. Each brush-stroke it took to make a delicate face was all her own, it was part of her, and now part of me. Touching that very pallid face I smiled down at the doll and turned it and my head to face the window. "Mom, I have been waiting for hours but I don't think she will come... Why did you never tell me we had relatives in America?... I would invite them over every Summer, ooh! And the Winters too! So that maybe we can all enjoy soba and rice while getting warm beneath a kotatsu table[2]!" Looking back at the doll, its dark chocolate eyes stared blankly back as mother's always had and I smiled, giggling. "Yes, I guess it was foolish to ask. You might not have known yourself!" I smiled at the doll and gently placed it back in its spot beneath my scarf in my pack, swinging it back over my shoulder. "I guess we're both just as well then! Let's go home now ma, I've been planning this special tuna recipe just for tonight! Once we eat, we will call Aunt Rin and see just where she has gotten to! She is beginning to make me think I should worry~ :)" Somewhere in the depths of my mind, farther hidden than the part of me still talking to mom, I already was. I pulled out my cell-phone to check that my Aunt's phone-ID was still in the database and then grinned, closing it and hugging it to my chest as I walked. "Don't you worry ma! I'll save this family yet!"

*?* -Back to present, 3 hours later-

As I sat humming to myself by the kotatsu I smiled glancing once or twice to the front entrance. I had just set out the zodiac stones I had painted to dry and was currently awaiting the take-out food we ordered. All was peaceful and silent at Shigure's house... Turning to face the stairs I cooed; "Oh Yuki~! How long did they say the food would be?" There was a soft exasperated sigh as he peeked his violet/gray head around the top of the steps. "Shigure it's only been five minutes since we ordered. Do have a little patience. You know they're always on time." I sighed and pouted looking back to my newspaper at hand. One second ticks by, two tick by... SLAM! There was a loud thud and a crash from the front door and I frowned towards the hallway. "When Yuki says on time..." I stood and glanced out into the hallway a bit giddy for my food, but instead I find a huge mess. The door was broken in a few places and from where I stood I could see the shadow of something laying just outside its remains. "Yuki-!" He was already running down the stairs and was out the door by the time I followed suit. I could hear his gasp even before I saw her myself. There was a girl, unconscious on our front porch! I gasped and started to smile. "Ah, now who would be so kind as to leave me a present like this? I bet its Ayame, playing tricks on me again~!" I looked left and right for my friend, calling too. But Yuki's slight slap to my leg stopped me and I looked down again, trying to retain a serious composure. Moving the hair from her face he seemed worried. "Shigure, this isn't the time for this. She's all dirtied and-" he frowned gently adding pressure to the side of her head. Following his gaze I noticed red just before he said it. "She's hurt..."

[1]- kawaii means 'cute' in Japanese for anyone who doesn't know

[2]- a kotatsu table is a small Japanese table close to the floor. People would sit on the floor around it and in the Winter covers are added so you can slip your legs underneath the table and keep warm as you ate.