Disclaimer: Not mine. And you know what? This applies to all further chapters. I'm done with the damn disclaimers!

In Honor of Kyoko

Tohru gradually fell into a new pattern of life with the Sohmas. Just a month later, she was once again the image of the carefree teenager she'd been before being thrown into the trying chain of events beginning with her mother's murder. It was now a rare occurrence to see her without a smile on her face. She did her best at home, in school, and at work. Shigure pronounced one night that Tohru must never leave, or he, Kyou, and Yuki would starve. Her grades in school, which had fallen a great deal following Kyoko's death, had risen significantly since then.

By this time, Tohru had also saved up a nice bit of money from work, and came to Shigure one day, insisting that she begin to pay rent.

"Nonsense," Shigure had said firmly, "you do more than enough; if anything, I should be paying you for the excess services you provide!" And that was that. He refused to listen to her protests at all. "Go treat yourself to something nice," he advised. "Take a break!" Tohru left, defeated.

Yuki had started coming regularly to walk her home from work, something Tohru took great comfort in, especially after her first warning of gang activity (as well as that of perverts). Kyou sometimes accompanied him, and Tohru had grown used to his seemingly less-than-friendly comments towards her, which she suspected were no more than covers for a softening attitude. This delighted her greatly, and with his grudging acceptance of her, Tohru had finally been able to feel truly comfortable in her new home and settle into her current state.

One night, Tohru came out of the building still dressed in her work clothes. "I'm so sorry Sohma-kun, Kyou-kun!" she said to Yuki, who was, as always was there, and Kyou, who was perched on top of the fence by the road. "There was a big spill on the third floor, and it will take about twenty minutes to clean," she told them apologetically.

"It's no problem," Yuki assured. "Why don't Stupid over there and I take a walk, and we'll be back in twenty minutes." Kyou bared his teeth.

"Yes!" Tohru agreed. "Please enjoy yourselves! And thank you for understanding!" Yuki gave her one of his courteous smiles.

"It's no problem," he repeated. Tohru turned happily to go back to her cleanup. "Let's go, Neko-chan," he said disdainfully to Kyou once she was inside.

"Shut the hell up, pretty boy!" Kyou spat back. The two set off with an air of mutual enmity, as always.

"Are they there?" one of the men asked his companion quietly, peering out from behind the tall office building. "I know Rifle said they had claimed this area," he said, using the scout's street name, albeit the only one he knew, "but I haven't seen anything close to a sign they're staying here!"

The other man snorted. "Damn straight they're here," he said scornfully. "You're just too fucking dumb to notice!" He pointed across the small park to the entry to a small alley. "That's where they're hiding out," he informed the first speaker. "Rifle told us, there've been people coming in and out of there all day. And they prolly know we're here too."

The first man scowled, but ignored the remark about his intelligence. "So when's it going down?" he asked impatiently. "We've been here nearly half an hour!"

"When they bring back the new guns and shit!" the second replied, his temper obviously beginning to get the better of him. "How the hell did they let you in?" he asked, exasperated.

Fortunately, he was spared the trouble of explaining a strangled partner by the young woman who knelt between them, causing both to jump back in alarm. Neither had even heard her approach, despite the heavy load she carried.

"Because he has very good aim," she supplies as an answer to the short-tempered man's question, handing a machine gun to the other. "And I thought you two could lie low for just a little while…" She shook her head and snapped, "The Kamikazes noticed you two here; Rifle just reported to tell me they're getting ready for a fight."

"Sorry ma'am," the two men apologized in unison. It was not generally a good idea to make the woman angry. Besides possessing lethal skills in martial arts--which most members of the Silver Falcon gang had seen put to use at least once--she was the Boss's niece.

"Whatever," she replied dismissively. "You two boneheads may have lost our element of surprise, but we can still blow the Kamikaze away. There's no way they're gonna have these babies." She uncovered a medium sized parcel in brown paper tied with twine: a most surreptitious, innocent looking parcel. "C4," she answered the unasked question. Respect grew on the men's faces. The powerful, not to mention expensive, explosive was hard to come by in Japan. "Now make sure you put this somewhere useful!" She ordered. We only have two, and they were damn expensive." She began to walk away, then turned around. "Don't screw this up," she warned.

Tohru and the other worker assigned to work on one section of the mess were almost finished. Someone had spilled a huge amount of ice across two rooms, and it had needed to be cleaned up before the staff left; the manager wouldn't be happy if he found that mildew had started growing in the carpet or against walls, or that the third floor had flooded overnight.

"I'm going to dump this, okay Tohru?" Ikami, Tohru's cleanup partner told her, hoisting a trash bag filled with the swept up ice onto his shoulder. Ikami was a collage student in his sophomore year who worked the evening shift with Tohru on weekends, the only time he had free from his studies. With a major in law, he didn't have much free time, but when he worked with her, he was a wonderful partner for conversation.

Tohru nodded at him, brushing loose strands of hair out of her face. "That's the last of the ice here; I'll start mopping up the water!" she replied cheerfully. As she moved the mop around to pick up water, her mind wandered. She decided that she would make oden for dinner that night; Shigure had been talking about a need for inspiration for his newest novel, and she thought that a traditional Japanese dinner would be the perfect thing. It was as she wondered vaguely if she'd have time to go by the store for seafood to use that the deep rumbling began, and seconds later, the building shook from the foundations.

Tohru was startled suddenly out of her thoughts, and slipped on a wet spot, landing hard on her back. It protested painfully as she stood up cautiously. She looked around, and saw every pane of glass in the windows shattered. Tohru dropped her mop and bucked and sprinted to the stairs, jumping down two and three at a time. She ran towards the front of the building, and she heard screams growing louder. The sight that awaited her was unbelievable. The corner and part of one side of the building opposite to where she'd been had been completely blown away. There must have been forty feet left to where the front doors once had been.

Outside, all was chaos. Civilians ran the fastest they could to get out of the way while loud crashes and gunfire went off. Tohru's eyes widened, and she ran to the side of the building where the large dumpsters were located. As she rounded a corner, she saw someone lying in the street.

She was about to run in the other direction, but instead, steeled herself and walked towards the figure. She had to help them if she could. She drew closer, and recognized Ikami, the trash bag he'd carried a few feet away. Also next to him was a large chunk of concrete from the building that had knocked the bag, and his life away. Tohru's stomach twisted at the sight of the unnatural position his back was in. She ran away as fast as she could.

Yuki and Kyou's walk had been cut short when Kyou announced he wanted to go back to a vendor's stand selling hot cocoa that had been next to the building Tohru worked in. As they came out of the tree cover at the edge of the park, only about twenty feet away from the vendor's stand however, both stopped dead in their tracks. A large shock wave rolled across the ground beneath their feet. The two boys turned to look at each other; Yuki's mouth was open to say something. Then the corner of the building nearest to them exploded.

When she reached the end of the alley, Tohru crouched down in a nook created in the wall by the explosion. She felt tears stinging at her eyes, but refused to cry. She had to find Yuki and Kyou. "Sohma-kun and Kyou-kun, Sohma-kun and Kyou-kun!" She repeated the mantra over and over, willing herself to move. But she found it infinitely difficult to stand up and leave the safety of her hiding place. Around her, she could hear the sounds of gunfire and yelling.

Ten minutes later, once the gunfire had ceased, the man who reached in to grab her arm and pull her into the open made the choice for her. Tohru gasped at the wound in his shoulder. Blood was spilling down his arm, causing a puddle to form on the ground. Looking him over, she realized he was just a teen.

"You need to go to a hospital!" was the first thought that entered Tohru's mind in her numbed state, so she said it. To her surprise, the young man burst out laughing. Tohru stood and watched as he regained control and stopped.

"I need to go to a hospital," he repeated. "You tell a gangster who is about to kill you to go to a hospital!"

"Y-yes," Tohru stammered, still too shocked to think of anything else.

Anya opened the trapdoor to the top of another office building where she would have a clear vantage point of where the two men planted the bomb. She sat down at the edge of the flat roof and followed their progress around the side of the corporate building. She smiled coldly. From this point, she had the added advantage of seeing the enemies' movements. The men left the package next to one of the corners of the building and snuck away.

A minute later, gunfire opened, and gangsters started to pour from their hiding places. Anya's smile widened as the Kamikaze's force charged towards the location of the Silver Falcon's trump card. Casually, she picked up a box and flipped open the clear plastic lid, exposing the infamous little red button. She pushed it with a manicured thumb.

"Boom," she whispered gleefully.

The gangster cocked his gun, still looking amused. "Did you hear me right, kid?" he asked. "I could kill you right here! I've killed lots of people already, I can do it again!"

"Okay," Tohru whispered. "But I have to find Sohma-kun and Kyou-kun."

The youth shook his head. "The fighting's all over, but I think the Silver Falcons will have control of this area soon. They took out more than half of our fighters with that bomb…" Tohru would have been horrified if she weren't still recovering from the shock of everything. "Okay," the youth proposed. "How about this? You're a cute girl; I got nothing against you. I'll help ya find these two guys you're looking for if ya want."

Tohru was beginning to come back to reality, and this kind gesture brought tears to her eyes. "Really?" she whispered, not quite sure if he would actually do it.

"For sure," he said. "I haven't laughed like that in a while, and I'll be damned if I stick around here to get killed." Tohru couldn't believe this complete stranger would be so kind as to help her find Yuki and Kyou. She felt like hugging him. So she did.

"Shit!" Kyou tackled Yuki to the ground as a huge block of something very solid passed over them where their heads had been just seconds ago. Both looked up to see dust clearing away from the huge hole in the corporate building.

"No…?" Yuki whispered, time moving all too fast for him to keep up.

Kyou shot up from the ground to stare at the building, still surrounded by a cloud of dust and smaller chunks of falling concrete.

"Holy shit," he whispered, and then ran towards the structure, leaving Yuki behind. The rat jumped up to pursue him, yelling for Kyou to stop. Around them, gunfire had begun, as Yuki had feared. It was a gang fight, and he and Kyou were right in the middle of it. At last, he jumped ahead and caught hold of the back of Kyou's jacket. He yanked hard, the result being both of them landing in a heap again.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kyou yelled, rolling away from Yuki.

"Idiot," Yuki gasped; Kyou's knee had found its way firmly into his ribs. "You want to get killed?"

At that moment, a round of shots hit the block of concrete they'd fallen behind, showering more dust onto them.

"But Tohru—" Yuki cut Kyou off,

"Can wait. She'll have to wait. It's not safe to move!" He knew what a heartless bastard he must have sounded like, but it couldn't be helped. "We can't help Honda-san if we're dead," he explained restrainedly. "We'll find her!" If she's alive, his treacherous thoughts reminded him. He shook his head to drive them away.

After several more agonizing minutes, the shooting and yells of hit men stopped abruptly. The silence was deafening after the long minutes of gunfire. Kyou's head shot up, and after a second, Yuki nodded. Both jumped from behind their refuge and ran for the building once more.

Both fighting sides seemed to have run out of ammo, and were now retreating to a safe distance, though it was obvious from the numbers that the group to their left had won. Their path was completely clear.

"Damn thugs," Kyou grunted as the reached the edge of the circle of destruction, where part of the office building was still intact. Neither noticed the small figure partially hidden, curled up in the wall, some twenty feet away.

Yuki desperately tried to clear his head and think. "There are four floors; Honda-san said she'd be on the third, but we can't be sure she's still there." He forced himself to speak calmly. "We'll search each floor going up." Kyou nodded, willing for once to listen to Yuki. They began to search the first floor, calling for Tohru.

They searched the building thoroughly, floor by floor. Finally, during their second time on the second floor, Kyou sat down in disgust. "Face it, she's not here!" he told Yuki. Pain was displayed only too clearly on his face.

Yuki glared at that cat. "She must have gone somewhere else then!" he insisted. "It doesn't make sense that she would stay in the building anyway," he said, frowning. "In any case, we have to keep looking for her. We'll go to the park; she may have gone looking for us as well." He walked away from Kyou determinately. The other boy followed, a grim expression set on his face. He wouldn't even think of what they'd do if they ran out of places to look for Tohru.

The youth led Tohru out to the park area after she told him that she thought Yuki and Kyou might be there. As they walked towards the tree cover, the two began to talk. Tohru's new companion said his name was Souta, and Tohru introduced herself as well. Studying him more closely, Tohru noticed several tattoos on his arms and the armband he'd moved up to his shoulder to help stop the bleeding. The only 'gangster' she'd ever known personally was her mother, and somehow she'd always assumed they'd be cold people who loved to kill. This boy could still be in high school, and he was quite obviously intelligent enough, and kind as well. Tohru was ashamed to have prejudged someone.

"Sohma-kun! Kyou-kun!" she called as they searched the outskirts of the park. "What if something happened to them?" she asked Souta, horrified. In the explosion, or the guns…"

He laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "They're probably as worried as you are; since you are looking for them, I'd say there's a good chance they're doing the same thing." Tohru nodded.

Several minutes later, a there was a surprised shout: "Honda-san?" Tohru looked up to see Yuki and Kyou running toward her. She did the same, throwing her arms around both of them when they met.

"I was really scared," she whispered, "that I wouldn't find you!" Kyou patted her head awkwardly, his heart racing in relief.

"Are you hurt at all?" Yuki asked.

"No," she replied. "The explosion was in a different part of the building from where I was."

Souta had wandered into a different part, some twenty feet away from Tohru. He came ambling back at the sound of their talking. He stopped when he saw the trio, and leaned against a tree, smiling. He wondered how it was that in minutes this girl had made him open up and caused him to act so differently from normal. He was being a nice guy, and now he was grinning at the little reunion, something he would have usually walked right away from in disgust. She really was something special. He'd still expected her to leave right away with the two boys, but she looked around for him, and spotting, ran back over.

"Thank you so much, Souta-san!" the said, bowing. "I'm really grateful for all you help."

Souta smiled back weakly, suddenly realizing he didn't want her to leave; he found her company so enjoyable. "Yeah," he replied. "You and your friends should go home." He patted her shoulder "The Silver Falcons will start patrolling the area soon to make sure the Kamikazes are gone." He continued, distractedly, "Judging by the damage done, I'd say we're gone for good. Probably be breaking up soon…I know I'm done with them."

Tohru smiled at this. "I'm so glad you're not going back to the gang! You can only get hurt by them." Her voice sobered a little as she thought of her mother.

Souta laughed. "I wouldn't have so much faith in a loser like me if I were you. I'll probably get sucked into some other gang before the end of the month!" He forced a grin. Tohru returned with another smile of her own, and reached out her arm. Souta found himself feeling incredibly awkward as she gave him a hug, but hesitantly returned it. "Anyway," he advised, backing up, "don't ever get involved with gangs! You're too nice for that."

Tohru bowed slightly in thanks and parting. "So are you!" she replied, then turned to run back to Yuki and Kyou, looking back once she reached them to wave and give him a happy smile. Then the three began to walk home, leaving Souta with a lot to think about.

AN: YEY! I got a chapter up on time; lets have a partay guys! This one just kind of wrote itself…I actually would have finished sooner but la familia went on vacation over the weekend! Yay, writer's block is gone guys! That makes me happy...Dammit though, I realized in the middle of writing the chapter, that I should have introduced Ikami earlier, but adding him in was kind of an impromptu thing that happened right while I was writing. I did the best I could with him! Okay, so this is basically where the action starts...I'm still in the planning process with where we go from here. There are lots of different ways it could go, you know! I could do a Sailor Moon type thing and deliver a moral lesson at the end of each chapter, We could just have lots of fighting and scare all the gangs off, or we could do a nice peaceful kind of revolution...and there's so much more I can do...See? My life is sooo hectic with all the decisions to make! Anyways. Thanks everyone for reviewing! I'm glad people even noticed it...I blame the fact that this was off the first page after an hour on the sudden FB craze. Hopefully people slow down their writing when I post this.

Urameshi no Koibito: Lol, thanks! And the writer's block has LEFT THE BUILDING! Yey :)

Creative Penname: Yep, ALL pairings are technically opened to consideration. Nothing is planned guys, although I don't go for yaoi/yuri stuff so don't expect it. But yes, I will think about it! Now that you mention it, I really don't think I've ever seen a Shigure/Mit pairing! How strange!

Anonymous: Gracias so very much!

Kireina: Yep, that was the point. Yes! PH34R for Uo and Hana-chan! As you can see, I've already killed a minor character; what will I do next? Actually, did you guys know that Hana-chan is my favorite character from Fruits Basket? I just think she's so cute! Who's with me?

Cyjj: Thankies! Here's the update, what did ya think?

Merei-chan: hope yer computer's working again soon! Here's to us! Downs a shot jk guys, I'm a good girl! ;)

Gen