Journey to the Past
By Mayumi Takanashi
Yuki's alarm clock went off with an annoying buzzing sound. He rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"When did I set this?" asked Yuki, puzzled. The night before, he had not set his alarm clock, or at least, he did not remember doing so. He brushed this thought aside, and he stood up out of his bed. After dressing, making the bed, and brushing his hair, Yuki descended the stairway to the kitchen. There was not the usual smell of breakfast within the room, and he noticed that the stove was not on. Nor was the rice cooker, or the microwave. What was going on?
Suddenly, panic filled his mind. Tohru was always up this early before school!
"Shigure! Shigure!" called Yuki as he ran throughout the house. "SHIGURE!"
"What's wrong?" asked Shigure, poking his head out of his study.
"Where's Miss Honda?" Yuki said breathlessly.
"What?" Shigure said with a puzzled look on his face.
"You know, Tohru," he replied. "Where is she?"
Then Kyo came down the stairs as well. He saw Yuki and Shigure looking at him with strange looks on their faces.
"What?" he asked, staring back at them.
"I can't find Miss Honda," said Yuki, glaring at him.
"Well, well, the rat can't find anything, can he?" smirked Kyo. "She's probably in the kitchen like she always is."
"No, she's not. I already checked." Yuki replied haughtily.
"Well, did the possibility ever occur to you that she could have slept in. She was probably studying for that History test we have today." said Kyo with an exasperated tone.
"Kyo, what on earth are you doing here?" interrupted Shigure.
Both of the boys stared at him.
"Well, I kind of live here..." said Kyo hesitantly.
"What is wrong with you?" asked Yuki. "You have no idea who Miss Honda is, and you forgot that Kyo lives here!"
"Well, I don't know why Kyo is here, but I'm going to call Kazuma and tell him you're here. And as for this 'Miss Honda,' really, who is she?" Shigure stated, looking over the rim of his reading glasses.
"But..." the boys started.
"Yuki, you should get off to school. And Kyo, you need to head back to your master's house soon." Shigure said. It was clear that the conversation was over. Both Yuki and Kyo turned and went into the kitchen.
"I'll call Hatori later and tell him to check Shigure's brain," said Kyo.
"Hey, this calendar is from two years ago," Yuki said, pointing to it hanging on the wall.
"Weird."
"I'm going to check on Miss Honda," Yuki stated, going back up the stairs.
"I'm off," Kyo scoffed, picking up his school bag on the floor and striding out the door.
-Journey to the Past-
Yuki knocked on Tohru's bedroom door. There was no answer. He figured she was still asleep, so he cracked the door slightly.
"Miss Honda, it's time to go to school," he whispered. There was silence, so he slowly slid open the door all the way. He gasped.
-Journey to the Past-
Kyo was sitting in his desk as Yuki ran through the doorway of the classroom. As Yuki slid to a halt in front of him, Kyo raised his eyebrows at him.
"It's all gone, everything!" Yuki yelled. A couple of students in the room looked over at them.
"Slow down, rat boy, what the heck are you talking about?" asked Kyo, folding his arms.
"All the furniture in Miss Honda's room is gone. There's nothing inside!" panicked Yuki.
A teacher looked over at them, then crossed the room through the rows of desks to them.
"Please do not yell in the classroom. And you need to go back to your own class," he told them.
"This is our class, sir," said Yuki.
"First years are down the hall," he replied.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Kyo told Yuki, pulling on his arm.
As they walked quickly down the hall, Yuki told the rest of his story.
"I went up to her room, and she wasn't answering me, so I went in to wake her up. But there was nothing in there. Her bed, her desk, her dresser...there was nothing in there. It was all gone."
"Hey, there she is!" Kyo exclaimed, running toward Tohru, who was closing her locker. Yuki followed.
"Where the hell have you been?" Kyo shouted at her. "And why is your stuff all gone?"
Tohru had a look of pure terror on her face.
"Miss Honda, are you all right?" Yuki asked, concerned. "Don't yell at her, you stupid cat!"
"Oh my! Hello, Prince Yuki!" she said, obviously breathtaken.
Yuki's eyes widened with shock.
"What's all this 'Prince' crap?" asked Kyo. "Where were you this morning? None of us got any breakfast! Were you out shopping or something?"
A female third-year student came running up to them. She smiled at Yuki, then turned to Tohru.
"Tohru Honda, Class 1-D, right?" she asked.
"Yes, that's me," she replied.
"Your mother left you a lunch in the office," she said, handing a paper bag to Tohru.
Yuki was suddenly came over with an expression of sudden understanding.
"How nice of her! I wish I could have told her to be safe before she left. Too bad I slept in..." she said as the girl walked away.
"What the...We're in 2-D! Did you get brain damage or something? Your mom is d-ahh!"
Yuki was pulling Kyo by the collar away from Tohru, who was standing in the middle of the hall, with pure confusion all over her face.
Yuki pulled Kyo into an empty classroom, slamming the door behind him.
"This is the day of her mother's death," Yuki explained.
"What? That was two years ago! Don't tell me you've gone crazy, too!" Kyo moaned.
"Remember what that lady said to us?"
"I could barely understand her!"
"She told us that we don't understand the pain of others, then gave us some mysterious bread. I ate mine, did you?" Yuki said, ignoring Kyo's last comment.
"What's it to you?"
"I bet that bread took us back to this day. That explains why Shigure was so surprised to see you. You didn't live with us two years ago. Also, Miss Honda and I didn't know each other then, so neither did Shigure!"
"Hey, maybe you're right!"
"That woman wanted us to understand something about someone else's pain."
"I bet she means Tohru. I mean, this is the day her mom died," Kyo said, his tone changing into one of sadness.