Hatori was busy going over his bills that morning when his phone rang suddenly. He picked it up absent-mindedly. "Hello?"
"So how is our karaoke champion feeling this wonderful morning, hmm?" asked the familiar teasing voice.
The doctor's forehead creased. "Wrong number." He slammed the phone down. Hard.
The phone rang again. He picked it up wearily. "Yes?"
"Doctor, you have to help me! My eardrums got shattered just seconds ago and I'm afraid that I may never hear again!" cried a fake high-pitched voice.
"Shigure, I'm busy. What do you want?" he asked curtly.
"Someone told me that our respectable doctor was sighted yesterday in a crowded mall, sitting by the karaoke booth with a minor, and singing his heart out."
Hatori exhaled sharply. "I'm not in the mood."
"Just tell me if you really were in the mall."
"I was. I shopped for groceries."
"Where? In the karaoke booth?"
Hatori slammed the phone down again. Harder this time.
He didn't know how Shigure was able to know his whereabouts, but this wasn't good. Knowing his cousin, the inu might be able to use that piece of information to destroy his clean reputation. Sohma Shigure was only capable of ruining everything else.
So even if his pride was aching, he still summoned the strength to call his cousin back.
After one ring, the cheerful voice of the writer answered. "I knew you'll miss me!"
"Stop acting like Ayame!" he barked. "Now, promise me you won't tell anyone about what you saw in the mall."
"So it's true?"
"Yes, it's damn true!"
"Yuk yuk yuk. Doctor Hatori singing in public."
"Shut up, you stupid dog."
"Sure, I won't tell! What are cousins and friends for?"
"I don't like the way you sound."
"Hee hee, intelligent Tori. OK, tell you what. I'll think about it. But you have to meet me in the coffee shop this morning, ok? I'll meet you in an hour."
Before Hatori could protest, the phone was slammed down already.
"Why are you in such a bad mood this early?" asked Tohru as she placed the plate of hotcakes on the breakfast table.
"Some joker ruined my mood."
"Ah, ok…" said the onigiri as she sweatdropped
"I'm going out after breakfast. I'll meet him in the coffee shop."
"OK."
Hatori arrived in the coffee shop. His eyes scanned the early crowd, but there was no goofy-looking Shigure.
He decided to sit down and wait for his cousin. After all, it was he who was going to ask a favor.
Damn it.
Tohru was sweeping the front yard when she heard an admiring whistle. She looked up and saw Shigure smiling at her.
"A domesticated beauty," he said. "What a beholding sight to see in the morning."
"Shigure-san! Please come in!"
"No, I'm in a hurry," said the novelist. "Hatori wants you to do something for him."
"Eh?"
"Yup. I'm the joker whom he'll meet in the coffee shop," said the Sohma. "Anyway, he wants you to bring this plastic bag to his patient."
"Um, ok." She trustingly reached for the bag and the address where she must take the plastic.
"You have kept me waiting for ten whole minutes," said Hatori grumpily when Shigure rushed towards his seat.
"Sorry. I had to ask someone to do an errand for me," apologized the novelist. "Did you already order for me?"
"Why should I order for you?"
"Ouch."
Tohru looked at the address on the piece of paper then at the old house somewhere by the woods.
This place looks abandoned. I wonder why Hatori-sensei sent me here.
She entered the house. "Hello? May I come in?"
Her call echoed all throughout the house.
"Is anyone in here?" she tried again as she climbed up the stairs uncertainly. She didn't know where her feet were leading her to, but she could feel that the place was really familiar.
She then found a room at the end of the hallway. She walked towards it cautiously.
"Now tell me," said Hatori when he finished buying his cousin a cup of coffee and some freshly-made doughnuts. "Where is Yuki?"
Shigure took his time in relishing the sugary bites of the choco doughnut.
"Shigure?"
The novelist wiped his mouth with the napkin daintily.
"SHIGURE?!?"
Heads turned to their direction.
Shigure managed an apologetic smile for everyone before turning to the irritated Hatori. "Do you have to tell it to the whole world?"
"Don't waste my time, Shigure. You know what I came for here."
"I promise I won't tell anyone about your videoke antics."
"Not that. About Yuki.
"Yuki does not go on videoke trips."
"SHIGURE!"
"Right, right."
"How did he survive the accident?" asked Hatori through gritted teeth.
"I have a theory," began Shigure, turning serious.
Hatori looked at him expectantly.
"It wasn't really Yuki who died in the accident. It was someone dressed like him."
"You mean…?"
"The accident must explain why our beloved clan head wasn't found in Osaka where he should be." Shigure sipped his coffee. "The bodies were badly burnt in the accident. The only clue our family had when the body was brought in the morgue was Yuki's shoes, plus the form of his body and his hair was similar to Yuki. But then again…."
"It was Akito whom I saw in the bus with Tohru, is that it?"
Tohru pushed the door open and found a young man seated at the corner of the room, knees tucked in front of him. The sudden light into the room didn't even startle him, for he was blankly staring at the darkness.
But she recognized immediately who he was.
The boy with the purple eyes.
She shakily took a step towards him. "Yuki-kun…"
All of a sudden, her memories started to become clear again. Sohma Yuki, her friend. Sohma Yuki, her fiancé.
She looked at her ringless fingers and collapsed weakly.
I'm not married. I never was. And Hatori-sensei was never my husband.
Yuki turned to her, then something flickered in his eyes. "D-Do I know you?"
She gasped, as tears started to well in her eyes.
He then moved, making his way slowly towards her.
All the while, Tohru gazed at him. She remembered everything now. Everything.
He knelt in front of her, gazing at her intently. "Who are you?"
Instead of replying, she hurried out of the room, out of the house, out into the woods.
"What are you going to do in the amusement park, Yuki-kun?" asked Tohru as she followed Yuki into the bus. She was surprised when he suddenly called her, promising her that as soon as they make it into the amusement park, he would never transform back into a mouse again.
"I'm going to meet someone there," said Yuki simply, avoiding eye contact. He passed by the driver's seat and slammed on its head rest. He accidentally spilled his untouched softdrink on the brakes of the bus.
"You seem a little strange today," she observed when for the first ten minutes of the ride, he wouldn't talk to her. Even look at her.
"Oh? You think so?" His eyes started to look peculiar.
"Ah, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that," she said, laughing nervously. His eyes were starting to remind her of someone else's.
"Maybe you shouldn't have," he snarled.
Her heart stopped beating. "Akito-san…!"
"You will never be happy. I will ruin you and Yuki, even if it's the last thing I'll do," he vowed ominously just as the driver started to scream that they had lost the brakes. That someone spilled acid on the brakes, and that he couldn't stop the runaway bus anymore.
"We will die together, sweet Tohru-kun," said Akito. "I won't be miserable alone. You'll all be miserable with me. You and my Yuki, whose memories are erased."
"E-Erased?"
His face broke into a nasty smile. "I have to thank Hatori for that."
"H-Hatori?"
Tohru blinked when she found herself standing on the road where the bus hit the ten-wheeler truck. She could remember the details again vividly. The old man who jumped out of the bus. The screams of horror.
And the girl who buried her head on the boy's chest. It was her and Akito.
"Stop it!" she screamed as she fearfully buried her head on his shirt.
Then she felt something that made her freeze. She opened her eyes and found Akito's blood on her blouse. The blood was from his wounded forehead. He had lost consciousness already. He must be dead. She didn't know what to think anymore.
Just then, a great impact made her lurch forward, amidst the sound of shattered glasses and screams of pain.
"So now, it's your turn to answer my question." Shigure looked at Hatori carefully. "How were you able to save Tohru-kun? How did you know that her life is in danger?"
Hatori sipped his coffee. "I overheard Akito's phone call to Tohru, asking her to meet Yuki in the amusement park. I just…finished erasing Yuki's memories then, and I thought he was just going to play a cruel trick on the girl by making her meet Yuki who do not remember her anymore."
"And how were you able to save her?"
Hatori couldn't speak.
"Hatori?"
"I followed Akito –who I then thought was Yuki, because Akito dressed like him – through my car. I wanted to be there in the amusement park when they meet, because I wanted to explain. About what I did to Yuki. That I could not defy the wishes of the clan head." Hatori's face turned grim. "I was going to give Tohru the antidote to Yuki's memory."
"But then the accident happen," said Shigure.
"I was only able to save Tohru. Yu…Akito's dead when I saved their bodies from the wreckage." He sipped his drink more. "I thought that Akito must have somehow orchestrated this, and I felt that Tohru was in danger, so I decided to keep her under my custody to protect her."
"But then things got out of hand?" the writer guessed.
"Tohru became amnesiac. Yuki is alive. It was Akito who died after all," said Hatori. "Everything was a big mistake on my part."
"Including one little detail that you forgot," said Shigure.
"Which little detail?" asked the doctor.
"That you fell in love with her."
tsuzuku