Chapter One:
The Three Sohma Sisters
"Domo arigatou! Come again!" A young woman called to a boy as he walked out the door of a small video game store.
"Kari-kun! Get off that PS2 and get behind the counter!" The woman said exasperatedly, trying to tuck some of her light blonde, blue-tipped hair behind her ear, but failing miserably as it was barely to her ears in the first place.
A girl much younger than the other turned, her head barely visible over the large crowd around her, "But I'm about to break the record!" She whined, her black-streaked, light brown hair fell into her eyes slightly.
"Just go!" The woman sighed, leaving the counter and going into the back. She heard the loud groans from the front of the shop as the woman's younger sister, Kari, left the game to go to work.
"Akina-kun!" The woman called, looking through the box-filled room.
"Yes!" A voiced called, very similar to Kari's.
"Did that shipment of Nintendo DS's come in yet?"
"Oh! Yeah, Emiko-san, it just got here." A girl walked up to her with a box in her arms. She looked exactly like Kari; only her hair was shorter and had no streaks in it.
Emiko took the box from her and smiled, "Great, I'll go stuff these in the shelves, you go help your sister with counter-duty."
"Right, I'm on it!" Akina said, walking out to the counter where Kari was leaning on the glass counter-top and talking to some guys. Akina rolled her eyes and stood behind her, "Hey, you working or talking?"
"Talking." Kari smirked, leaning her head back to look at Akina. She then looked back at the guys, "Alright, I got to get back to work." The boys frowned a little, and then walked out of the store, waving as they did.
"Popular much?" Akina laughed as Kari fell back onto the high chair and picked up a gaming magazine.
"I'm a girl who works in a video game store and I actually know what I'm talking about…not to mention none of these guys have beat my high scores yet, I'm bound to get some guy friends. And don't expect me to believe you aren't the same way." Kari smiled, and then heard the bell of the front door ring.
A boy who looked to be the age of 17 walked in. He was quite tall, and wore a black outfit that was looked quite strange with the rolled up sleeves and all his necklaces hanging out over the slightly unbuttoned top. But what really stuck out was his hair. The underlying was black, but on top it was pure white.
Kari Akina, who was staring at him dreamily, and laughed softly, "Hey lover-girl, he's coming over." Kari whispered.
Akina shook her head as she popped back into reality, "Uh...Irashaimase! How may we help you?" Akina asked as he approached the counter.
"Yeah…you got any of the new gameboy games?"
"Y-yeah! They're right over here!" She said, rubbing her arm where Kari elbowed ker as she had started to stare again. Kari laughed as Akina took the boy over to the gameboy games. She sighed and sat back in her chair, and then heard yelling outside the door.
"Whaaaa! Kyou hit me again!" A boy cried.
"Oh get off it you baby!" Another one yelled angrily.
"You really should settle down…" A boy said calmly.
"Stay out of this rat! Why did we let Haru drag us here anyway!"
"Because Haru-kun wanted a game, Kyou!" The first boy said happily.
Kari raised an eyebrow as the arguing continued as Akina and the boy walked back over to the counter.
"Those your friends out there?" Kari asked as the yelling continued to ring through the store.
"Yeah...they don't always get along." The boy said quietly, setting his game on the counter as Akina rung it up.
"You want to fight rat! Co-hey! Get back here!"
The door suddenly opened in the store and a head popped in. It was a boy with dark grey hair and bright, purple eyes.
"Hey Haru, hurry up please before Kyou breaks something…" He said, obviously the calm voice of the group outside. He then looked at the 2 girls and smiled politely, "I'm very sorry about the commotion…I will try to get him to stop."
Kari smiled and bowed slightly, "O-oh no! It's fine, really!"
The boy nodded and smiled again, then went back outside.
"Hey, would you mind signing this? It's just some release form our sister wants us to do." Akina said, handing him a small pad of paper with writing all over it.
The boy signed his name, then bowed politely and walked out. The sound of someone falling to the ground soon followed, as well as the boy from inside saying, "Shut up Kyou, you were disturbing the girls inside."
"Akina…Akina look!" Kari said, elbowing her.
"Ow! What!" Akina asked, and then looked down where Kari was pointing at the paper the boy signed. In slightly messy handwriting, there was a name.
"Hatsuharu Sohma…"
"NO way! He's a Sohma!" Akina said loudly.
Kari waited until the people in the store looked away from Akina and herself, "Yeah...I've never seen him at the estate, have you?"
"Well…it is pretty big…there are lots of Sohma's. I mean, we don't know even half our relatives."
"I guess, just seems funny."
"What's been going on out here?" Emiko asked, walking back out from the storage room.
"Just some guy outside being loud..." Kari said.
"Plus a guy came in, a Sohma." Akina added.
"Oh, no kidding? Wonder if he-ugh-lives at the estate…" Emiko said, dragging a box out of the back. She huffed softly and stood up to rest her back.
Kari rolled her eyes and picked up the box, setting it onto the counter and looking inside it. She pulled out a new magazine and started to read it.
"Well…" Akina started to say as she snatched the magazine from Kari and set it back inside the box, "I guess we'll find out later."
Later that night, the three sisters walked home to the large estate that was owned by their family, the Sohma's. The sun slowly set in the cloudless, orange sky as they made their way through the entrance and into the all too familiar territory. Emiko laughed softly at Kari as she punched Akina in the arm after she laughed at Kari for being obsessed with an anime character, then looked away from the two and noticed someone sitting under one of the many trees that lined the stone covered pathway through the town-like property.
"Hey, I wonder why he's out here so late." Emiko said quietly as they started to get closer to him.
"What do you mean?" Akina asked, rubbing her arm still. She looked at where Emiko had been looking and gasped, "Kari! That's that Hatsuharu guy we saw at the store today!"
"Seriously?" Kari said, looking at him closely, "Oh hey, I guess it is."
The boy looked at them as they approached, it now being obvious that he was playing him gameboy.
"Oh, konbanwa, you're the girls from the video game store." Haru said, getting up.
"Um…yeah, it's nice to see you again." Akina said, hiding the awkward smile that was creeping to her face.
"Well, since you're here, could you help me with Kingdom Hearts? I can't get past this one part…" He said, walking over to them.
"Alright, what's wrong?" Akina asked, glancing at Kari who was smirking slightly.
"Beating Cloud, I can't do it."
"Oh right! I remember that, Cloud is hard to beat…" She glanced between him and his gameboy, starting to explain.
Kari laughed as she and Emiko stepped away from them and into the shadow of the trees, "She's obsessed!"
"I can tell." Emiko laughed, watching Akina and Haru.
"And that's it?" Haru asked after she was done.
"Yeah, that's it." Akina nodded, smiling.
"Thank you, may I ask your name?" He asked with a small smile.
"Akina...I'm Akina."
"It is nice to meet you, Akina-san. I'm Ha-" Haru stared to say, but stopped when he heard a slightly door followed by "Haru! Get inside before you get sick."
A man stood in the door of a nearby house. He wore a doctor's coat over a slightly unbuttoned shirt, his somewhat long hair flowing in the wind.
"Okay Hatori…" Haru said, "I'll see you around Akina." Haru said, getting up and walking into the house.
"Bye Haru-san!" Akina said, smiling big.
"Oh, hello Hatori-san..." Emiko said as she and Kari walked over towards Akina.
"Hello Emiko-san. You three better get home soon, it's getting cold." Hatori said, his hair blowing off from over his left eye in the cold breeze.
"Of course." Emiko smiled politely, "Let's go girls."
"How cute." Kari laughed as they walked to their house.
"What is?" Akina groaned.
"You and Haru-san! I haven't seen you this obsessed since you first saw Tidus!"
"Oh come on, I wasn't THAT bad!"
Emiko laughed softly and opened the door to their house, "Yeah right." Kari walked into the house followed by Emiko.
"Hey! Was it that obvious? Come on guys, it couldn't have been that bad!" Akina whined as she walked in and closed the door behind her.
