Prologue
My name is Ichimutsu Karaguwa. I'm 16 years old and I live in Tokyo. Oh, before I forget, I have extremely light brown hair and brown eyes. Not many people knows about this, but I'm one of the very few who knows about a forest just a forest just outside the city. Also, the schooling system here is different from other towns. First through sixth graders goes to elementary, seventh and eighth in middle, and nineth through twelveth in high school. Of course, I'm in tenth grade, soon to go into eleventh grade. Many people asked me when I went to America as an exchange student if Japan's schooling system and schooling year were the same as America's.
Considering the place I was an exchange student for was a place called Westfield, New Jersey, I told them yes and no. The main reason was which grades going into which school was same as Queens in New York, so that was true. As for how the year goes, not the same at all, from what I have seen. America starts in September and ends at June the following year, take two month vacation before moving onto the next grade. Japan was completely different from that. We did it as starting our year at March and ending it on the Feburary the following year before we started a new grade in March again. All our vacations - summer, winter, easter, etc. - were all one week long. In Japan, we also went to school from Monday all the way to Saturday and had to wear school uniforms. The schools started at seven-fifteen o'clock in the morning sharp and ended at three in the afternoon.
But all those are not the point, I guess. The thing is I live in a tent. If you're thinking in the backyard of my family's house, that's just your imagination. I actually "live" in a forest that I was talking about earlier. Why do I live in a tent? I can think of several reasons. One, My friends. They don't know that I'm not living with my mom's side of the family. if I told them, they would only make a fuss about it. Two, my ycousin Akira. He's pretty smart and he's my age. Not oly that, he doesn't think I can survive on my own for more than a day. So far, it's been a week and I'm doing just fine. Of course, I'm working to make money for myself to keep myself going. I'm actually even planning to stay on my own longer. Three, both of my parents died when I was in sixth grade. I was told from the police that one of them got hit by a car pretty badly while the other got shot in the head by their co-workers. Four, I don't have anywhere to go. I can't even ask my friends. The only reason for that is because I don't want to trouble them that much. As for my classmates, they just never bother to help anyone out. Maybe they would for a Sohma in my class, but he's different. I mean, he's the most popular guy in the entire school!
So my life is pretty complicated from trying to hide things even from my friends, but quite ordinary because that's a normal person's life. Right? Only thing is, I didn't think it would get any more complicated, but that wasn't until I met the entire Sohma family. When I met them, my life changed completely and this is my story from the seventh day I was living in my tent in the forest. The day was Saturday - the day that changed my life forever.