The Sohma Institute
By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, but you knew that . . .I hope. I do own this story, and all the plot twists it contains.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Girl Talk


Tohru stood on the sidewalk of a modest residential area, staring uncertainly at the home directly in front of her. While it wasn't overly large or flashy, it managed to intimidate her all the same. Inside that normal looking house could lay all the answers she was no longer sure she wanted to find.

In the three days that had passed since Kagura had stopped her outside of the Institute, Tohru had changed her mind about accepting the other girl's invitation a dozen times. Kagura had been in too much of a hurry to go into detail, saying it was too risky for them to be seen together. Instead she had shoved a folded piece of paper into Tohru's hand and asked her to meet her there on her next day off. However, it was her final comment that had really caught Tohru's attention and ultimately made her decide to come.

"If you really want to help them, then we need to talk."

So now she was fighting a serious case of last minute nerves as she tried to work up enough courage to ring the doorbell. She closed her eyes as she took a breath, and flashing images formed in her mind. There was Yuki who loved plants but had no garden; Haru with a photographer's eye and nothing but the same set of walls to capture; Momiji with his love of music and missing violin; the closely watched Kyou who just wanted to be left alone.

Those mental pictures were more than enough to urge her feet off of the sidewalk, through the yard, and onto the house's small covered porch. After only a miniscule pause, Tohru pressed the doorbell. Before her hand even had the chance to return to her side, the door in front of her was pulled open. Kagura stood framed in the doorway, a tentative smile on her face.

"I'm glad that you decided to come," she said. Turning sideways to make room, she motioned behind her. "Come in, please."

The living room she found herself in was decorated in shades of pink and white, from the couch and chairs to the frilly curtains over the windows. While Kagura wasn't lacking in feminism - Kyou's beatings aside -, this particular room seemed more girly than Tohru would have expected. Her feelings must have shown on her face because Kagura laughed lightly. "This house belongs to a friend of mine. She's away this week and I'm supposed to be feeding her fish." She motioned to a tank almost hidden by the curtains of the windows it sat between. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind my having you here for a while." Her smile fading, she clasped her hands together in front of her. "It wouldn't have been safe to meet at my place."

"You said that before," Tohru pointed out, "outside of the Institute. You made it sound like we're involved in something dangerous just by talking to each other. But that's silly . . .right?" She forced a chuckle that trailed off when Kagura didn't join her.

"Maybe you should sit down. I'll get us something to drink." Before Tohru could protest, the other girl vanished through a doorway to what she guessed was the kitchen. With a resigned sigh, she moved to the couch and sat on the edge. The overstuffed seat could have been filled with nails for all the comfort she got from it. She shifted nervously, her eyes flitting over the room in an attempt to distract herself. If Kagura took much longer to return, she would probably resort to counting the carpet fibers in order not to panic.

Soft footsteps had Tohru's head lifting in time to watch Kagura's approach. She was balancing a small tray between her hands that she preceded to sit on the small coffee table. The two mugs it contained steamed invitingly, promising warmth and at least the illusion of normalcy. Taking the one closest to her, Tohru cupped it between her palms and looked expectantly at the girl across from her.

"You said you wanted to talk?"

The older girl nodded as she retrieved her own drink. She sipped the hot liquid and then rested the mug on her knee. After a moment's thought, she hesitantly began. "I'm not exactly sure how to go about explaining all of this. It's a long and complicated story that's bound to be confusing to you. A lot of it is confusing to me and I've lived with it my entire life. All I'm asking is for you to hear me out until the end, and then we'll take it from there. Okay?"

Tohru nodded slowly, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. While she really didn't know what was coming or how she was going to take it, she did know that she was as ready as she would ever be. Kagura apparently felt the same, as she began almost immediately.

"I guess the best place to start are the base facts. You might already know some of this, but I'm pretty sure you don't know it all." She licked her lips, looking down at the floor before returning her gaze to her captive audience. "Kyou, Yuki, Momiji, and Haru are all Sohmas. Cousins to be precise, each other's and mine. It's a distant relation in most cases; so distant, in fact, that it probably wouldn't be recognized in other families. But we're not like other families.

"A big difference is how closely everyone is . . .watched over, I guess you could say. If there is a drop of Sohma blood in you, you have no secrets from the family. They know what school you go to and what courses you're taking. In a lot of cases, they're even the ones who chose those courses. Sometimes it seems like you can't get a haircut without them knowing about it before it's even finished." She laughed but there was no humor to be found in the strained sound. "They always explain it away with 'This is what's best for the family.' Like that's telling us anything at all!"

"It sounds like the mafia," Tohru blurted out, then slapped a hand over her mouth.

Kagura's lips curved a bit when she heard that. "The sad thing is, I wish it was something like that. That I could find my way to understanding. It may not be exactly right, but there's an order to it, a logic. This," Kagura twirled her wrist in gesture that encompassed everything, "is a mystery to me."

Since her earlier interruption hadn't been met with anger, Tohru only paused for the briefest of moments before speaking again. "I really don't understand any of this."

Kagura replaced her mug on the tray and shifted forward on her seat. "It's tough to explain, but I'll try. So you know that the entire family, no matter how distantly related, is kept track of, right? Well, the person who gets fed all this information is the head of the family. He's in charge of all the important decisions and his word is pretty much law. What he wants done, is done. What he wants stopped, is stopped. No arguments. No refusals."

Tohru was reminded of Haru's words from days before. After his other side had come out, he had mentioned someone giving orders that were never disobeyed. Whoever the object of his anger was, it had sounded like he was a pretty important and powerful person. It didn't seem to be much of a stretch to assume that he had been talking about the same person as Kagura.

"His name is Akito."

The image of an old man sitting behind a large desk, looking distinguished and forceful that Tohru had formed shattered into a million pieces. It was replaced by the shadowy figure in the hall outside her office, with the cold voice that had almost slithered over her skin. She couldn't repress the instinctual shudder that went through her upon hearing his name. Even without Yuki's later warning, there had been something about him that had made her uncomfortable.

Tohru felt an immediate sympathy for the people that were forced to live under his rule. She had a feeling he wasn't the most kind and generous leader a family could ask for. Kagura's tone and agitation during her explanation reinforced that assumption. She voiced a few of her thoughts. "But he's so young! How can he be the head of such a large family? And why does everyone listen to him if he'd basically just a kid?"

Kagura shook her head. "That's one of the things that no one ever really bothered to explain. The best I've been able to figure out is that there was some specific line in the family that always oversaw things, and that he's the only one left from it. As to everyone listening to him, it seems to be a case of 'It's just what we've always done.' It's like it never occurred to them to do things any other way." She shook her head, frustration and helplessness evident in the action. Pushing her hands through her hair, she looked at Tohru. A moment later, an expression of confusion spread across her face. Her hands dropped back to her side and she tilted her head in question. "But how did you know that Akito is young?"

Tohru started, realizing that Kagura couldn't know about that meeting. Explaining quickly, she debated about telling Kagura about the warning her cousin had given her. In the end, she did, thinking it wouldn't be right to keep secrets at that point. It wouldn't be fair for her to hold something back when Kagura was being so honest and open.

Kagura nodded once she finished. "He would warn you about Akito. After all, they've all learned first hand not to take him lightly."

"Did he . . .I mean, is he the one who . . ."

"The one who put them in the Institute? Yes." Kagura sighed, sitting back in her chair. "That floor used to be a research lab, I think, but he ordered it remodeled just before the boys were sent there. That was the first thing that caught my attention. Akito knows everything, but he rarely does anything. I'm sure he delegates and oversees, but I've never seen or heard of him being even remotely hands-on with any project. Until the twelfth floor." Kagura turned to Tohru, her gaze sharpening noticeably. "Whatever is going on there, I don't think for a minute it has anything to do with psychology. But it is directly linked to Akito, and that can't be good."

Tohru swallowed hard at that ominous note, trying to digest everything that Kagura had told her so far. Her mind was spinning, dredging up questions before it had even finished absorbing all the facts. One thought seemed more significant than the others. "I understand that you want to help your cousins and all, but why are you telling this to me? What could I do about it?"

"Up until you, Akito always chose a specific kind of person to work on the twelfth floor, women who were career oriented and determined to succeed. They weren't unkind, but they also weren't the types of people to go out of their way to interfere, especially if it went against their orders. But you . . .you're everything I would have thought he didn't want there, and it confuses me. Did he think you were a different kind of person? Did he think you would be easier to manage? I can't imagine that he doesn't know how you treat them, and yet you're still there.

"You're the only variable that has ever shown up when it comes to the twelfth floor. You're the only person who isn't entirely under Akito's control, one way or another. That's why I've been telling you all of this, because you might be the only person who can help me succeed."

"Succeed at what?"

"Breaking them out."