Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket and its characters.
Author's note: This fanfiction takes place after volume 22 of the manga, after the Sohma family members are freed from the curse. Please read and be kind enough to review. No flames please, I'm still new at this, if you want some things or suggestions to be included in the story, please kindly inform me. Enjoy!
Summary: A new character and a new curse. The lives of the Sohmas after the curse has been broken, new problems arise and relationships blossom even more. Not for fans of Yuki and Machi, but there will be KyoxTohru fluff. Please R&R.
Chapter 1: Return
Summer had begun. It had been weeks since the curse was broken, since Tohru and Kyo confessed their love for each other...
In Shigure's house, the four inhabitants were eating breakfast.
"Expect visitors today!" Shigure said in a sing-song voice while they ate. The other three were silent and he spoke again, "And somebody's joining us to come and live here!"
His curiosity aroused, Yuki asked, "Why are there going to be visitors and whose coming to live with us?"
"Izumi's coming and I'm sure the rest of the family would love to see her again." Shigure replied.
"Pardon me, who's Izumi?" Tohru queried.
"Izumi is a very distant cousin, so she doesn't bear the name Sohma but she does have our blood. Her grandmother recently died, so she's moving back here with us." Shigure answered.
Meanwhile, Kyo was grinning to himself and said "Ha! We'll see Yuki get his butt kicked for sure!"
"Why is that?" Tohru said.
"According to Shishou, Izumi's almost unbeatable even for himself. Yuki wouldn't stand a chance. She'll beat him up ten times as bad as I would." Kyo remarked.
"Anybody can do that since you barely stand a chance against me." Yuki retorted.
This flared Kyo's temper and he shouted, "Are you itching for a bruise, Rat?" as he stood up.
"No, you are." Yuki said, standing up.
Tohru sighed and thought to herself, 'Oh well, I thought they'd get along better now that the curse is broken and all. But I guess some things never change.'
"You asked for it!" Kyo shouted at Yuki across the table. He aimed a punch at Yuki's face but the latter blocked it easily with his left hand and countered by punching Kyo hard enough to send him flying through the paper doors and onto the ground.
Kyo immediately got up and Yuki quickly walked over to a spot around six feet across from where the former stood. Kyo let out a battle cry and started to attack first, but Yuki just dodged them lithely. They began throwing blow after blow at each other for a good five minutes where Yuki would throw an insult once in a while to get Kyo angrier only to throw careless attacks at Yuki.
Finally, Yuki got the best of him and kicked so hard that Kyo ended up in a heap a good deal away from his assailant. Yuki walked over to where he was as Kyo groggily stood up to find that they were only a few feet apart. For what seemed liked hours but in reality only a few seconds the two stared at each other as if trying to see who would give up first. And as if he saw it happen in slow motion, Kyo saw Yuki's foot about to strike his face and closed his eyes waiting for the impact...
But it didn't come. When he opened his eyes, Yuki's strike was blocked by a girl around his height with light brown hair and she was blocking Yuki's foot with her right arm and stood between both of them facing the attacker.
"That was really despicable of you Yuki. I expected better from you." she said as Yuki put down his foot and stared at her with an expression of both shock and amazement on his face. Tohru and Shigure, who were watching from inside, came forward.
The girl turned to Kyo to reveal emerald-green eyes as she spoke. "Long time no see Kyo. I see your temper is as bad as they say." she said dryly. He was silent and quite perplexed at the sight at his cousin.
"Welcome back, Izumi. I'd like you to meet Tohru Honda." Shigure said as he stepped aside to introduce Tohru.
Izumi turned to face Tohru and said, bowing, "Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Izumi Hakage, I'm their cousin from Tokyo. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Tohru."
"As it is mine," Tohru replied and returned the bow.
Izumi turned to Yuki and said, "Now, you need a lesson my dear cousin. That was most dishonorable."
To Tohru, Kyo and Shigure she said, "Kindly go back inside, but watch if you want. I need to play teacher and give Yuki here a lesson in honor."
They all did what was asked. Surprisingly, Kyo did too. In his mind, he was thinking of how she managed to do that and a smirk came to his face as he imagined what would happen to Yuki when Izumi was done with him.
Izumi was wearing a a long-sleeved light blue coat that extended until just a few inches above the ground which she started to unbutton. Underneath, she was wearing and outfit which was all-white and consisted of short pants that went until above her knees which was covered by a rather long skirt with long slits at both sides and a white, Chinese-style blouse with sleeves until the elbows.
"You know, it isn't really my job to do this, but seeing as how Shishou isn't here, you obviously are need of it. And since you have shown no sign of objection, I'm just going to go ahead and put you in class," Izumi said as she put the coat next to Tohru. She then walked to a far away distance across Yuki and fixed her gaze on him.
Meanwhile, Yuki was thinking of how different she seemed than what he remembered and how she got to be so good at martial arts. He was quite shocked when she just appeared out of nowhere and blocked his attack, but at the same time impressed. He stared at her, looking every bit the Kung Fu Queen that she is and noticing that she was wearing half-gloves, before he spoke,
"I don't know exactly what you mean by that, Izumi. I don't see anything wrong with how I fought Kyo."
She continued to be silent and smiled mysteriously which somewhat made Yuki nervous. She then cocked her head to one side and said rather blithely,
"You see, using an opponent's weakness against him is very advantageous on one's part. But doing that on top of attacking when he is not on guard is the same as stabbing your opponent while his back is turned. a battle means nothing and proves nothing if not fought cleanly and on even terms."
Izumi paused for a while before continuing,
"Now, prepare yourslef. Prove that you are a worthy warrior and that you didn't beat Kyo because you're better than him and not because Kyo wasn't doing his best because of your jeering."
With this, she positioned herself, read to attack, while Yuki did the same. Moments of silence were spent as they stood waiting for each other to make the first move while leaves rustled in the wind. The three onlookers watched in silence, excited.
Yuki observed her stance, noting how calm she was, and chose to move first but waited for some sort of signal. A leaf floating downwards from a nearby tree slowly descended and as soon as it touched the ground, he ran towards her and aimed a punch. She just stood there calmly and immobile, waiting for the attack to reach her. Just as he thought he successfully managed to attack her, she vanished and he ended up punching air.
Confusion spread on his face as he beheld the empty sight before him. His mind echoed, 'Where is she?'
Then he felt a soft tap on his shoulder and turned to stare straight at her face. Following his instincts, he immediately threw blows as rapidly as he could, but she just avoided them smoothly. He stopped for a while, breathing heavily, yet she looked as calm as ever standing a few feet away from him.
"My turn," she said and jumped backwards increasing the distance between them. Yuki prepared himself for the attack. She vanished again and before he could devise a plan, she appeared before him crouching, and then swung her leg causing him to fall. The latter quickly managed to break it by somersaulting backwards. As soon as he was on his feet, she advanced and was attacking at incredible speed while he barely managed to avoid them, even getting hit a few times.
Finally, he was able to grab hold of her arm and swung her forward, causing her to lose her balance. She avoided the fall by cart wheeling right before she came in contact with the ground. She looked to where Yuki was and saw him running towards her then jumping high in the air and attempting to attack her from above.
'Two can play at this game, ' Izumi though to herself and jumped up too. By this time, he was already descending which meant she was higher up. His mouth hung open in awe as she smiled before delivering one final blow which sent him hurtling to ground below. She landed softly on the ground near a cloud of dust which dispersed to reveal Yuki lying down, tired and aching. Seeing as how we wasn't attempting to move, she took this as submission and bent down to offer a hand, giving him a warm smile.
Yuki gladly took it and stood up still thinking about what happened in the air.' I saw her coming... but then the sight of her face surrounded by the light from the sun...distracted me. Is she always that smiling and has her hand always been this soft?' He felt himself go red at the thought as she helped him up, but it was a good thing that his face was already red from fighting so nobody noticed.
The three spectators came foward, Tohru was concerned, Kyo gleeful and Shigure amused.
"Oh my, are you two okay?" Tohru asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little sore." Yuki said bluntly.
"Thanks for worrying Tohru, but we'll be alright" Izumi replied cheerfully.
"Looks like you've met your match, Yuki." Shigure said, chuckling while Yuki glared at him.
"Ha! Yuki got beat by a girl!" Kyo said with an evil grin as Yuki scowled at him.
"Yes, Kyo. But this girl saved YOU from getting your butt kicked, so you're even." Izumi said grinning.
Just as Yuki and Kyo were about to start arguing, Izumi announced, "Somebody's at the door."
The other four turned to stare at Izumi. They heard nothing, but sure enough a knock came a few seconds later and the five of them went to the front door to see who it was.
End of Chapter 1
(A/N: Okay, so there's my first chapter, hope you'll be kind enough to review. Wait for the next chapter where we find out more about Izumi's past. I promise that there will be KyoxTohru fluff in the upcoming chapters. If you have any comments, suggestions and questions kindly inform me. Thanks a bunch for reading. I'll be posting the next chapter soon! )