Chapter 1 Mrs. Mystery Guest

Christmas was growing closer, and Tohru had begun to worry. What would she buy? It

was easy to pick for Uo-chan and Hana-chan... but she knew little about what to get the others.

Shigure mainly kept to himself, so buying him a gift was challenge enough... but Kyou hardly

talked about what he wanted, and Yuki - not at all. She knew that Yuki liked gardening... but

she knew so little about it.... and there was also the fact that he had almost everything he

needed. Hence, she had a slight delimma. Tohru was so busy pondering the troubles of gift-

buying that she didn't notice the woman approaching, who was also not paying close enough

attention. They slammed into each other, and Tohru tumbled.

"Oh!" Tohru let out a cry of surprise and looked up from the ground. "I'm so terribly sorry."

"It was my fault as well. You are unharmed?"

Tohru blinked and looked up at the woman, meeting kind gray eyes. The woman leaning over

her was slightly older, with long black hair and a soft smile that tipped up the edges of her

mouth. She had a pleasing sense about her, and Tohru seemed to relax a little.

"I'm fine."

The woman smiled and offered her hand. "Would you like help?"

Tohru took her hand and the woman gently helped her off the ground, then knelt slightly to help

her gather the papers she had been carrying for class.

"I don't know where my mind must have been... I'm not normally so clumsy. I fear I have

caused your project to become in dissarray..."

Tohru smiled and chuckled. "It's okay. The pages are numbered." She gathered the rest of the

papers and took those from the woman. "I've never seen you before. Are you new here?"

She pushed her glasses up her nose, still smiling gently. "Heavens no. I'm not a student here. I

teach one of the music classes. Mamoshira Kotaru." She held out her hand.

"Honda Tohru."

"A pleasure to meet you, Honda-san. Regard me kindly, okay?"

"Sure! And me too?"

"Of course. Well, maybe I'll see you around. I have a class to attend to now. It was a pleasure

to meet you, Honda-san."

The woman turned and started down the hall, walking at a steady pace. Tohru smiled after her a

moment, and turned, suddenly meeting Uo-chan and Hana-chan's gaze.

"Tohru-chan... who was that woman?" Hanajima asked.

"An instructor, Mamoshira Kotaru. We accidentally bumped into each other."

"Are you alright? Did she hurt you?" Uo-chan began looking Tohru over for bruises.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Tohru laughed. "I only took a little tumble. Besides, she's really nice."

"There is something odd about that woman." Hana-chan murmered in her usual emotionless

tone.

Uo-chan and Tohru looked after the woman named Kotaru, then back at Hana.

"Strange vibes?" Uo-chan asked.

"No... something different. Hard to pin-point.... interesting."

They all fell silent a moment. Tohru gave a nervous laugh, then glanced down to see how much

of her papers she had to re-organize. She nearly dropped them again when she noticed they

were completely in numerical order.