Hatori tells a story about Shigure's childhood. It's made up form my impression of him, and isn't supposed to be his big back story. ----------

Hatori looked in Tohru's ear and gave her immunizations without saying anything. She lay down and he lifted her shirt a little and tap on her stomach and lower back to check her liver and kidneys. He finally gave her her shots, then took the stethoscope off his neck.

"Tohru, I'm not very trained in allergy medicine, but I know how to do the tests. I have to know a great deal more than most doctors, because on some cases I don't have the luxury of calling in specialists. I've got the supplies to do an allergy test, so I'll do a slightly modified one. More animals and plants, but not food or insect. Do you know how it's done?"

"No."

"You lie on your stomach and I put drops of things you might be allergic to on your bare back. Then I take a needle and scratch where the drops are lightly. You wait a few minutes and then whatever's swollen will tell me what you're allergic to."

"Does it hurt?" said Tohru tensing a little.

"The ones you're allergic to may hurt right away. The others probably barley tickle. You will have to take off the undershirt, but you need only unhook the bra. If you'd rather someone else do it, then that's fine, but I think it's best if you do get it done soon."

"That's fine, you can do it. No time like the present, ne?" Tohru said.

Hatori nodded and walked to the closet to get the supplies for the allergy test, while Tohru took off her overshirt and unhooked the back of her bra. She lay face down on the table.

He took a marker and drew lines on her back, then started putting the drops on. She gasped at how cold they were.

"I keep these in a little refrigerator," said Hatori mildly, "Would it be easier to keep still if I talk about something? Some people feel that way."

"Yes, it might. I'd like to know more about you and your friends, if that's okeh."

He paused, then continued to apply the drops. "Not much to Ayame, even he thinks that. He just likes to make everything into a soap opera. No matter how he feels about anything, he'd change it instantly to make a better story." Hatori walked to his desk and back, and started came back with the needle. He started scraping the skin under the cold drops.

"Shigure is kind of strange man. Someone in the family every generation takes an interest in writing things down, and it looks like Shigure's it. No one would have thought so. He didn't talk much until he was five," Tohru was shaking, "Everything fine?"

She let out a burst of giggles, " Yes. Sorry, but you were right, it tickles. I heard what you said. I can't imagine Shigure serious like that."

"No need to apologize. Shigure was anything but serious," Hatori said, and started up again, "People say, and I remember, he would get into a lap to be spoken to, like they do for very young children. There were more women Juunishi, then. He would sit and nod his head like he understood he was to be a little more responsible now, and then he'd do something like stick his fingers up their noses and laugh. He wasn't disobedient, he simply hadn't the capacity to listen or remember. He only looked grave because he was thinking of what to do next. Shigure wasn't able to go to school the first year, it was so bad.

"Finally, the one who wrote things down before him, she was the monkey at that time, sat him down early one morning and read to him. He usually didn't have the attention span for a fifteen minute story, but as soon as she got to the character for 'a,' she stopped, and started telling him a story bout why it looked like that. It was ridiculous and involved a kappa and a pair of scissors. When she was done she resumed reading, and when she got to the next character in order, she told an entirely different story, and while she did, she moved his finger over it, the way it was written. She did that and stopped at each character in order, even starting the book over twice to get to all of them. None of the stories were even remotely similar, and many were completely true, scientific, or historical. They were up till noon the next day, neither of them moving, and when she closed the book, they just lay on the floor right there and slept.

"After that, he started sneaking around people's offices all week and he finally got sent to his room. When he didn't come out when it was time, someone checked on him. He had found a pen and had written on the doors, the walls, the sheets, everything. It was the exact word for word stories he had heard, along with the parts of the book inbetween. Everyone was too surprised to be angry. Normal children that young don't have the grammar or spelling skills that he apparently picked up just from that sitting. He was given the correct supplies, and told to write it down before they redecorated, but not to rush. He was done in two days, over three hundred pages.

"The next school year he still wasn't talking much, but tested into our grade because of his written language skills. Saru-san died a year later, and he put the book in with her. Ayame and I protested, but he said he knew it by heart. The mother of the new monkey was only a little younger than Saru-san, and the new one she gave birth to was slightly disappointing, to say the least. And worse, looks like the old one."

"What was her name?"

"It's kind of a tradition just to refer to the dead Juunishi by their animal names, although some are lax about it. It's like we're only stepping stones for the next ones. Shigure would tell you."

"Ritsu-chan looks like her? Ow!"

"Ah, that might be one. So, you've met Ri-san?"

"No, but I've met..... Ritsu-san's mother." Tohru hadn't heard Ritsu's sex for sure, and no one volunteered it, so she stayed cautious, "Shigure doesn't seem like he writes the sort of histories you hear about. Like the records from the old Imperial Court days."

"No, he doesn't. He's the expert on them though. If there's a tricky bit of lore or a historical reference, he knows it or where to look it up. He knows more about the family history than Akito, which is amazing considering Akito's memory."

Hatori finished and threw the needle in a special waste basket in the closet, along with the gloves he was wearing. He sat in a chair next to his desk to wait.

"His memory?"

"Akito's memory is....... very long. As for the court logs, could you recognize a quote from them?"

"I'm not that educated yet, I'm afraid."

"They aren't taught in schools. Do you know who the great love of Genji's life was?"

"From The Tale of Genji? It was Murasaki, right? Same name as the Lady who wrote it. When she was young, she was an orphan girl....... he.......... adopted."

Ha'ri lifted his hands, dismissing Tohru's notion of what he meant by this, "You know the story, then? Genji has many love affairs over his lifetime?"

"Yes...... it's widely known."

"Well, you've heard of that, but not the details of court records form then? Nor the names of who wrote them? Perhaps that's not the sort of thing people look at when they want to study historical life. A fictional story...... it tells about how people address one another, what kind of person is respected, what they wore, the standard of beauty..... More information than who was executed when or that someone was married for some contract."

"R-really?"

"Yes. The test should be done by now, Tohru-kun. I will have to touch your back, and it may hurt. Please tell me if I am too rough."

"Okeh......"