Furuba No Nibanme No Jidai
Chapter 1: Atarashii Hajime (A New Beginning)
"Tomie!" a voice interrupted Tomie Sohma's dreams, and the middle school girl sat up abruptly at the sound of her name. "Get up Tomie!" the voice sounded again, and Tomie stood up to look at her clock, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Seven o-clock in the morning? On a weekend!
"It's seven o-clock, for crying out loud!" she yelled, but changed into some random clothes and went to wash her face. She brushed her long black hair and didn't bother to tie up the bangs that fell in her face.
Five minutes later, she walked into the kitchen. She had been adopted by the man who was putting bread in the toaster, who was the man she called 'Dad'. He was known as Hatori Sohma, the dragon of the Chinese Zodiac. Part of his blood runs in Tomie's blood stream, as he injected it into her, which caused her eyes to look like his, to cause part of the curse to be on her. "Good morning, Dad!" Tomie said energetically. Without waiting for a response, she asked, "How come we're up so early today? It's Saturday!"
"We're going to your Shigure oji-chan's house." Hatori answered. "It's going to be a gathering kinda like New Years, but this one's casual, and Akito san is not attending."
"Akito san isn't coming?" Tomie's eyes widened. Hatori shook his head, checking on the toast in the toaster. "YES!" she clapped her hands and danced around the room in sheer delight. Hatori smiled slightly, but his attention was drawn to the toaster. There was PING and the toast popped out of the toaster. He gingerly picked up the bits of hot toast and put them on a plate.
"The only Sohma you know is Mitchan. You're going to meet a lot of Sohmas today." Hatori said, taking a bit of his toast. "Are you nervous?"
"Nope!" Tomie smiled as she swallowed her toast. "I'm EXCITED!"
Hatori ran his hair through his long bangs. "How can you be so cheerful so early in the morning?"
"I don't know! Its just natural" Tomie grinned and gulped down her milk. "How can you be so disconcerted?" She finished her cup of milk. "More please!"
Two hours ago, there was a loud commotion at Ayame's Shop for Maids Dresses. Ayame had bounded into his daughter's room. "Good morning Miho-chan!" Miho Sohma woke up, an irritated look on her face. "Miho-chan! Wake up!"
"What do you want?" Miho rubbed her eyes. She put her glasses on. She saw her father wearing one of his own made maid dresses. She looked right past him as if she were used to him dressing that way.
"We're going to Shii-chan's house today! There's gonna be a big meeting there!"
"Don't tell me..."
"Please? Me and Mine made it for you! Please!" Ayame begged.
"Heck no!" Miho said irritably to her father.
"Miho-chan... That was mean!" Ayame looked as if he were going to cry.
"All right. I'll look at it but DON'T CRY!" Ayame showed her the dress that Mine had made. It looked like a normal maids' dress with tons of white and pink frills. Miho l looked disgusted. "Why don't you wear that, Otousan? It would look good on you." She didn't mean what she just said at all. It was just her way of not having to wear the dress.
"No! It would look better on you!" Ayame said, and Mine, Miho's mother walked into the room. "Mine!" Ayame said at the sight of his wife. "She says she likes it!"
Miho looked away from her parents. It was because her parents were so happy-go-lucky that she was tired of it, and was quiet and slightly dark, as she was. "I'll wear it,but I will change when we get to Shigure oji-chan's house. Is that okay?"
"Yay!" Ayame and Mine cheered as they left the room overjoyed. Miho looked at the frilly girly dress hanging from the doorknob and scowled in disgust at it. "It's too cute for my taste." She put it on anyway. Then, the idea came to her mind. Perhaps when she changed at Shigure oji-chan's house, she could give the dress to Hatori oji-chan's daughter? Maybe she would like it!
A few hours later, Shigure, (Shigure's wife), Yuki, and Kyo were sitting in Shigure's house's living room floor. Tohru went to get snacks for the guests and to bring in tea. There was a Ding dong! of the doorbell'.
"There's the doorbell! DING DONG!" Shigure sang.
"It's the doorbell, so open it, you ding dong." Kyo said irritably, and Shigure skipped to the door.
"Haa-san! Aaya! Mine-chan!" His voice sounded, and nearly everyone knew that this meant that Hatori and Ayame had arrived.
"I saw Tori-san outside, so I ran to catch up with him!" Ayame smiled widely. "How are you all! Yuki, my dear, how are you?"
Yuki's fists were clenched as if he were trying hard not to punch his older, phsyco, brother. "I've been fine, Ayame." he said, his mouth curved into an unconvincing smile.
"Who's that?" Shigure said, pointing to Miho, who was standing, wearing normal pants and a shirt.
"Who's that?" Ayame asked, pointing at Tomie, who was hiding behind Hatori.
"Who's that?" Hatori asked, pointing at a girl sitting by Shigure.
"Who's that?" Shigure asked, pointing at Miho, who was scowling next to Ayame.
"Who's the one who brought the idiots?" Kyo asked pointing to Ayame and Shigure.
"Ok, ok. We all want to know who this kids are. Haa-san can go first." Shigure said with a big smile on his face. Hatori gave Shigure a glare before telling them who Tomie was.
"This girl's name is Tomie." He began.
"And what else?" Yuki asked a little curious himself.
"She's 12 like Kisa and Hiro" Hatori sighed
"DAMMIT JUST GET ON WITH IT ALREADY" Kyo hissed after becoming impatient. Tomie squeezed her fathers leg and Hatori put his hand on her head.
"This," Hatori said, his hand resting on top of Tomie's smiling head, "Is Tomie, my daughter." It was quiet for the longest time until finally…
"Oh my congratulations Hatori-san!" Tohru said cheerfully.
"Oh you are a bad boy, I want details Tori-san! II want the name and description of the mother too! Her age too!" Ayame cheered. He had obviously not been present when Tomie and Miho had met.
"Now I can give you and Tomie-chan books to read together!" Shigure laughed. Yuki, Kyo and Tohru just stayed frozen in shock.
"I'm adopted." Tomie's small, childlike voice said. "I don't have a mother I only have my dad." Tomie, her hair was put up in two pony tails with blue and black beads hanging from each side, she had a black skirt, a blue shirt, and a black jacket.
'But….but she looks exactly like him..' Shigure, Ayame, and Mine thought.
'They even DRESS similarly...' Yuki and Kyo thought.
"Aww!" Shigure looked disappointed. "But, that means you've missed out on all the FUN!"
"Yeah!" Ayame squealed. People began to back away from Shigure and Ayame in fright. Even (Shigure's wife) and Mine looked nervous and scared.
"IDIOT!" Miho said , and she hit her father on the top of the head with a rolled up magazine. (Where she got the magazine is unknown, even to us authors...)
"Aww, she's so cute!" squealed Tohru "She looks just like you Hatori-san!"
"Yea, she has your eyes, same hair color, and same hair style." Kyo stated.
"That was the effect of my blood." Hatori said cooly.
'His blood!' Shigure thought
"Akito's orders…" Hatori grumbled. Ayame blinked.
"Well anyway, EVERYONE KNOWS MY MIHO!" Ayame flustered picking up his daughter to show everyone.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Miho said loudly, and she slapped her dad in the head, causing him to let go.
"AHAHAHAHA! HE HAS A BIT A YUKI IN HER TOO! HAHAHAHA..." Ayame and Mine laughed.
'That poor girl…' Yuki said, and fought the earge to join Miho in beating Ayame with his fists.
"Well now its Shigure's turn" Hatori said as he sat down. Tomie decided to take a seat on his lap.
"Anyway..." Shigure said, an eerie smile on his face, "This is Naomi. She's my BLOOD RELATED daughter. (Shigure's wife) and I had to..." Miho and Hatori pressed her hands over Tomie's ears and they hummed loudly so that Tomie couldn't hear what Shigure was saying. After she was convinced Shigure's perverted ranting was over, they removed their hands. 'Miho... She has to live with him. That poor child.' Hatori thought.
"Now all we are waiting for is Hatsuharu, Rin, Kisa, Hiro, and Momiji." Tohru smiled. Then Tohru and Miho walked up to Tomie and began talking to her while Hatori watched his excited daughter bounced on his lap.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Tohru Honda!" Tohru said smiling at Tomie, who had a bit of a hard time focusing, as she was busy bouncing up and down.
"Allo im Tomie Sohma!" Tomie giggled.
"Hey Ton-chan." Miho grinned.
"Ah! Mi-chan nice to see you!" Tomie bounced happily on her father's lap, much to his discomfort.
"Why don't you go meet your other cousins, Tomie." Hatori said pushing Tomie's head up to look at him.
"OK!" Tomie smiled and gave Hatori a kiss on the cheek before getting off his lap.
"Oh, Naomi why don't you come with us!" Tohru said pulling Naomi with them.
"YUP YUP!" Naomi said bouncing up onto her feet. Hatori watched as Tomie walked off with Tohru, Naomi and Miho to meet Yuki and Kyo.
"She's so sweet, that Tomie." Shigure laughed patting Hatori on the back. "She's even got a little bit of "Tohru-kun-ness in her."
"Yes Tori-san! What is your secret?" Ayame lowered his voice and narrowed his eyes suspiciously as if they were talking over some kind of secret plan.
"She's just like that. Sweet cuteness..." Hatori explained. "And she's nothing like Tohru. I'd prefer not to compare Tohru or Tomie to anyone else..."
"Hm, why didn't you transform when she sat and hugged your leg?" Shigure questioned with a straight face for the first time in months.
"That's right. You two aren't blood related." Ayame stated.
"Like I said, I put some of my blood into her blood stream, that caused her to have the same eyes as me but her hair was already like that." Hatori explained.
"So doesn't that mean, that she has the curse too?" Asked the wide eyed Shigure.
"She has a pinch of the curse but she cant transform, she can just stay under water for a long time." The doctor sighed. "Like I said before: Akito's orders."
"Wow! That's interesting. I wonder how that works? Oh wait... Why didn't Momiji, Haru, and Rin come with you here? Plus I know there are no other open rooms in your house so where does Tomie-chan sleep?" Asked the silver haired man.
"Momiji, Haru and Rin went out to get Hiro and Kisa, and Tomie sleeps in my room. She basically stays in my room pretty much all the time. I leave food in the room for her to eat and I put the remote by her so she can watch T.V. And... Whatnot..." Hatori clarified.
"So in other words, Momiji, Haru and Rin don't know about Tomie?" Shigure asked turning his attention to the happy children and the laughing teens. Hatori nodded his head with a sigh, and also looked at the children. Ayame watched the kids.
(With the children and teens..)
"Yuki kun, Kyo kun! Tomie san wants to meet you!" Tohru waved for them to come over.
"Who?" Yuki smiled as he walked over to them.
"Whatever."Kyo groaned as he crawled over to where Tohru and the others were. Tomie began to giggle from watching the orange haired idiot crawl to where the were, Naomi began to laugh as well.
"You know you can walk right." Miho stared at the stubborn cat.
"I KNOW THAT YOU BRAT!" Kyo shouted. Naomi, Tohru and Tomie sweatdroped.
"Then what's the point of crawling, idiot?" Miho said cooly. Tohru nervously noticed that Kyo's fists were clenching and unclenching.
"Uhh, don't mind Kyo's behavior. He's just a stupid cat." Yuki smiled a "smile" that didn't even look like a sincere one.
"So he's the cat. So that makes you the mouse then, right?" Tomie stated feeling accomplished.
"Yes, that's right." The rat boy yet again smiled his winning smile.
"I wonder when the others will come." Naomi muttered.
"Well, they can't be much later than they already are..." Miho said quietly.
"I cant wait!" Tomie said with sparkles in her eyes. "Meeting new people is so... So... It's exciting! I mean like... It feels like... You know the feeling when you're a little kid and it's your first trip to the zoo? The excitement? It's like that! Except not... Except... Yes it is! Because we're animals! Except we're humans at the same time..."
"But I thought you knew Haru, and Momiji. I mean you three live in the same house." Tohru said, interrupting Tomie's confusing thoughts.
"Nope not really. I mostly live in my Dad's room. He doesn't really want me going out of the room much." Tomie said with a wandering gaze.
"Wait so you sleep with Hatori-san?" Naomi asked.
"That's right!" giggled the small Sohma girl.
'He would? Really!' Yuki thought.
'Hatori sleeps?' Kyo thought.
"So TonTon-chan you've never walked the halls of your house?" Miho asked incredulously.
"Only if Dads there. If anyone else is out in the house then I can't go out." Tomie explained.
"What about you Miho-san? How is it with Ayame-ojiisan?" Naomi wondered, but their conversation was disturbed by the ringing of the doorbell.
The familiar sound of the acid tongue of a young woman was sounding. "Open up, gosh darn it! I'm sick of you slow people, so hurry up and open the door." Tohru rushed to the door. "Finally, jeez. I was starting to think you guys had gone deaf or something."
Tohru came back into the room, smiling, and being followed by Momiji, Kisa, Hiro, Rin, Haru, and another girl. The girl had short hair. Her bangs and side burns were white like Haru's, and she had black narrow eyes. She was about as half as tall as Haru. "Hi." Haru said. He gestured at the girl next to him. "This. Rin and my daughter. Her name's Setsuna."
"Sup..." Setsuna said. She had a low and quiet voice. She seemed influenced by the punk sort of attitude. It must be hereditary.
"Yo, Mi-chan." Hatsuharu waved at Miho, "I haven't seen you since New Years..."
"Yeah..." Miho waved. "Good to see you, Haru-chan."
"Wow there was another Sohma child living in the house and I didnt know about it!" Tomie exclaimed. Hatori forgot to tell her, but yet again, she was meeting another cousin. Another Sohma... And she could hardly contain her excitement.
"Eh? Who's the kid? She looks like Tori-ojichan." Haru said examining Tomie, squinting his eyes, causing Tomie to back away a few inches.
"You must be Harui-san the ox!" squealed the excited Tomie.
"Uh, yeah... Cute kid, but who IS this little brat?"Rin asked cautiously walking up to Tomie with Setsuna walking behind her.
"SHE'S SOO CUTE!" Momiji squealed, and he jumped to hug Tomie. She didn't move. Momiji looked at himself. "Eh?" He was still human instead of the adorable rabbit he usually was. "You're a..." Tomie mainained her rather embarassed half-smile blushing madly under the arms of Momiji. No one but Hatori ever hugged Tomie, so this was kind of... New.
'Idiot kid...' Setsuna thought to herself.
Hatori sighed and dragged Hatsuharu, Rin, Setsuna, Kisa, Hiro, and Momiji to a small corner and explained. Tomie lay frozen with embarrassment, her mouth half open, while Tohru, Miho, Naomi, and Yuki tried to get her up. Kyo stood back a few feet, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. A couple minutes later Hatori and the Sohmas that were dragged into the corner had walked back to the others.
"YAY! SHE'S A SOHMA!" squealed the little Momiji.
"Ehehe... Yeah, I am." Tomie smiled faintly as he recovered from the new feeling.
"Well, that explains the eyes." Haru exclaimed.
"The eyes the eyes rawr!" Kyo roared. Hatori was then dragged into a conversation by the other two people from the Mabudachi Trio, while Mie, Mine, and Rin watched the others. Haru was interested in the small Tomie and so were Setsuna was getting used to the recent addition to the family, and Momiji just began to love her to death.
"HI IM MOMIJI SOHMA THE TWO PEOPLE WITH THE WHITE AND BLACK HAIR IS SETSUNA AND HATSUHARU! OH, AND THE TWO LITTLE PEOPLE OVER THERE ARE KISA AND HIRO!" Cheered the happy bunny boy.
"Yo" Haru and Setsuna said at the same time.
"Hi!" Kisa smiled, "It's a pleasure to meet you!", and Hiro snorted
"Hi there" Tomie smiled.
"You're short" Haru chuckled at the sight of the small dragon girl. He suddenly picked her up and put her on his shoulders.
"WHAAA!" Tomie, Miho, Yuki and Tohru shrieked. Haru moved a bit to fast when he picked Tomie up. Setsuna smiled and laughed at the little girl on her fathers shoulders.
"WAH! Tomie your so high!" Momiji giggled from below.
"Momiji-kun you're so loud!" Kisa and Naomi laughed.
"Haru don't drop her." Yuki warned.
"I wont! Why would i do that to Hatori's kid?" Haru replied. at that time Tomie looked around at everything she could see from the top of Haru's head. "And anyway..." Haru added, touching Yuki's face with his finger, "I wouldn't do anything to make you mad at me, Yuki..." Everyone else sweatdropped.
"Ok everyone time to eat!" Tohru announced, her usual smile firmly in place on her face. Everyone walked into the kitchen. Hatsuharu forgot Tomie was on his shoulders (because she was so light), and he walked through the doors smacking Tomie on the top of the door frame. The poor Tomie hadn't been paying any attention to where Hatsuharu was going. She flipped upside-down against Haru. Hatsuharu tuned but accidentally dropped her onto Momiji. Momiji stared at the dizzy eyed, motionless Tomie and freaked out.
"HARU YOU KILLED HER!" Momiji cried.
"HARU I TOLD YOU NOT TO DROP HER!" Yuki scolded, his brow furrowed with anger with Hatsuharu, mixed with some concern of Tomie on the ground.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeehh?" Tohru, Kisa, and Naomi began to panic.
Miho shook her head. "All brawn, no brains..."
"Tomie-chan is hurt?" Kisa teared up with sadness
"NO KISA DON'T CRY!" Hiro panicked.
"OH GREAT NICE GOING HARU!" Kyo growled giving Haru a dirty look that Hatsuharu returned. Then Hatori grabbed her arm and pressed three of his fingers against her wrist to check for a pulse.
"She's alive." Hatori finally announced to the attentive Sohmas. "She's probably just in shock." They calmed down and walked into the kitchen, Momiji carrying the dizzy Tomie. Everything was going to be crazy today.
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Toko: OK THATS THE FIRST CHAPTER!
Ryu: Pats Toko-chan's head Why the capital letters?
Toko: BECAUSE I'M EXCITED!
Ryu: Toko-chan's just excited... As you can tell. And so... I'll translate this Taka language for you. When she says: "I'M EXCITED!"...
Hiro: Get on with it, woman.
Kisa: Hiro-chan. That's mean.
Toko: Aww! You two are so cute!
Ryu: punches Hiro Snotty brat. Anyhoo. When Toko says: "I'M EXCITED " she really means: "PLEASE REVIEW!"
Hatori: Toko? It's time for your checkup...
Toko:
What! You're not my doctor! OO;
Hatori: Drags Toko into
office
Kagura: LOOOOOOOOOVE!
Kyo: ARGHHHHHHHH!
Shigure: Guys? Don't break my house...
Ryu: See that button down there? The one that says "Go!"? PRESS IT! IT IS YOUR DESTINY! PRESS IT OR DIE!
Kyo: That's kind of violent.
Yuki: You're one to talk.
Kyo: I KILL YOU!
Kagura: I'll see you later Kyo!
Toko's voice from inside Hatori's office: Bye Kagura chan!