Chapter 3 – The Visit(s)
"Hi, Hana! It's great to see you. You're timing's good too, we just finished lunch." Tohru said as she opened the door. "Come in, there's someone I want you to meet." Tohru grabbed Hana's hand and led her to the kitchen, where all of the Sohma's were now putting their dishes into the wash. As the two of them came into view, they were greeted with warm smiles from the lot of them, except Kyo, or course.
"Hello Miss Hanajima. I don't believe we've heard the reason to which we owe the honor of your company." Yuki said, showing a look of interest on his face. Kyo simply folded his arms and sighed in exasperation. "Yeah, what are you doing here?" he asked gruffly. Shigure picked Kyo up by the head and gestured to Yuki toward the door. "She told me over phone; didn't I tell you? Well, you two need to help me do some work anyway, so why don't we leave the girls alone, shall we?" Shigure stated quickly as he edged toward the door carrying Kyo with him. "Damn Shigure, let me go!" he said as he struggled to get loose. Yuki followed. He looked back toward Tohru, smiled and waved back at her before closing the door behind him, leaving the girls alone.
"Hi! You're one of Tohru's friends, right? I'm Kagura Sohma, it's nice to finally meet you!" Kagura said cheerfully, shaking Hana's hand. "Likewise." She said in her normal voice. Tohru decided to step in for the introduction; Hana's seemingly cold nature tended to rely on Tohru for rough situations. "That's right, this is Saki Hanajima, but everyone calls her Hana."
"I believe I saw you once… last year at school." Hana stated. "Huh?" Kagura was confused. "When would I have been…" she began to recall the one time she visited the school on Valentine's Day, the fond memories making her grin. "Oh, that's right, Valentine's Day! I probably seemed like some sort of ga-ga schoolgirl, going after Kyo like that, didn't I?" Kagura stated, scratching the back of her neck out of embarrassment. Hana only smiled faintly herself. "No, not really. He was starting to gain a little popularity since he started coming to our school; I thought you were just one of the crowd." Kagura giggled at the way Hana described her. 'Does she always seem so nice? She seems a little… dark, like she's hiding something.' she thought while there was, otherwise, silence in the conversation.
"Well, I am glad that he's starting to fit in. I hope that he'll soon get just as friendly with Yuki as he does with others." Kagura's gaze was averted as she subtly changed the subject. She looked up toward the ceiling, daydreaming. "If he can do that, then he can definitely fall in love with me!" She got up and barged through the door, following Shigure's path. "Wait for me, darling!" was heard as she barreled through the house. 'Well, I guess that answers my question…' Hana noted in her mind.
Tohru chuckled as she watched her go. "She is just obsessed with him. It's kind of cute to see someone as in love as she is." She explained as she got up to close the door behind Kagura. Hana didn't respond; she looked at Tohru, wanting to ask something. "Tohru, out of curiosity, have you met a lot of the Sohma family?" she asked, intrigued by the display Kagura showed.
Tohru sat down next to Hana, preparing her explanation. "Yeah, the Sohma family is really big! Let's see, there's Hatori you've met last year at the Culture Fest, and then there's Ayame, Kisa, Hiro, Ritsu… I'm not exactly sure how they're all related, but I don't think I want to try finding that stuff out, it always confuses me. Anyway, why do you ask?" Tohru implied. Hana was about to answer when another knock was heard at the door. Tohru jumped up at the sound and started for the door. "Oh, another visitor? Wait here, Hana, let me see who it is…" she said as she walked away.
Hana did as she was instructed and watched Tohru go through the hallway. Seeing her so happy brought joy to Hana's heart; the Sohma's weren't the reason for her suffering. 'But… if that wasn't what happened… then what was it?' she asked herself. 'I never should have judged the Sohma's so quickly; they take care of her as if she was one of their own.' Her thoughts were interrupted as three new presences in the house made themselves known, the first opening the door like a show-offy drama queen. (Or in this case, king.) He stood there at the entrance to the kitchen looking at the black-haired girl sitting at the table with his pale yellow eyes, his white hair still flowing slightly from the force he used to open the door.
"Well hello." The man said in an almost sultry voice. "You must be Tohru's friend. Allow to me introduce myself. I am Yuki's older brother, Ayame Sohma." Hana was surprised by this, but looking at her expressionless face, you wouldn't have known that. "A… pleasure. I don't believe Yuki has spoken of you, so…" Hana stuck out her hand to shake Ayame's, but mentioning Yuki, Ayame then turned around, looking away from Hana in an overdramatic fashion.
"He didn't? Well, I'm not entirely surprised; He and I aren't really as close as we'd like, but we are continually striving to strengthen our bond of brotherly love!" The room was soon filled with new faces as two children, followed by Tohru, interrupting Ayame's speech. "What do you know? We were just talking about you guys! Here, let me introduce you all!" Tohru exclaimed. She first gestured toward Hana.
"Everyone, this is Saki Hanajima." Then she got behind the two children, the boy looking very annoyed with this entire situation. "Hana, this is Hiro and Kisa Sohma, and I see you've already met Ayame." Hana nodded her head toward the young couple, and Kisa returned with a short bow. Hiro didn't do anything except scoff at her. "You don't say much, do you? What's your problem, are you a mute or something, 'cause if you are then why didn't Tohru tell us earlier, or are you just stupid? What would Tohru see in someone like you?"
Hana's eyes grew a little wider at that last remark, half out of fear, the other out of pure hatred. Hiro then received a firm slap on the head from Ayame, who looked quite stern at the moment. "Now don't be rude. Miss Saki is merely shy; she is surrounded by several new faces right now, children no less." Ayame offered. Kisa then looked at Hiro, about to scold her young boyfriend along with her "Grandpa," but knew that his personality wouldn't let him have it.
Tohru then stepped in front of the rude Hiro, ignoring his rants. "Anyway, we're going to have some fun! Ayame took Hiro and Kisa here so we could take them to the park. Do you want to come?" Hana smiled back at Tohru and the youngsters and nodded. "Yes, that might be fun. Thank you." Kisa then clapped her hands together on Hiro's and they started for the door. Tohru turned around to stop them, but they were already outside. "Wait! I'll need to tell Shigure… where we're… going?" her spirit dropped as she found that she was talking to thin air. Ayame placed a comforting arm on Tohru's shoulder then. "Don't worry. I can handle the explanations. You kids go make some memories."
"All right, thank's so much Ayame." Tohru said as she got back up, and taking Hana's hand in her own, she led her to the back door. Waving goodbye to Ayame, they started down the road toward the park. Hana felt slightly uncomfortable in this position, but at the same time, she didn't want her to stop holding her hand.
"Uh… Tohru?"
"Yes?" she asked back.
"That night… at the graveyard… what happened?"
Tohru stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes growing wide and a visible sweat drop forming on her forehead. The question she feared to hear had been uttered a little sooner than she had anticipated; she wasn't able to find a suitable explanation for her friend to believe. Thinking on impulse, she began to string her thoughts together, hoping what she was saying was making sense.
"Well, uh… it's a little complicated, you see, I had met the head of the family, and he's a little harsh when it comes to dealing with people outside the family, but that's just how he is, it's nothing I did, and besides, everything's fine now! He's letting me live with the Sohma's for as long as I want to!" Tohru finished. Hana grinned and began to walk again, but was stopped by Tohru again. "Please, don't get the wrong idea; I'm not trying to hide anything from you! I'd never try to hurt you like that. You're too important to me." Hana waited a little bit before showing her rare 'pleased smile'. (Usually it was something of a malicious grin.) She placed her hand back into Tohru's and held it tightly.
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know." Hana said.
Tohru started leading Hana down the path again, returning Hana's happiness with a chuckle. "All right, then we might as well get going." She said before she got to the gate.
Fast-Forward to 3:00 – Kaiwaia Elementary Playground
Tohru and Hana sat on a bench together as they watched Hiro and Kisa on the monkey bars. Hiro slipped on one of the bars and fell off, hitting his knee on the ground. Kisa reacted to Hiro's yelp of pain and dropped down to see if he was all right. From the older girls' vantage point, they couldn't hear what the pair was saying, but Tohru couldn't help clapping her hands together and staring at them with relative awe. "Aww… aren't they just adorable?" she asked no one in particular.
Hana's mind was on other things as she began to sense some new electric waves. A small lock of her hair propped up as she began to scan the area. A short distance away, she could see someone in a somewhat loose kimono walking down the sidewalk. "Tohru…" she said, sounding like she was almost in a trance. Tohru looked over to her friend.
"Yes?"
"There's someone coming… over there." She pointed over to the person that her visions had described. As the figure came closer, they could see that the person's hair was long and brown; if this was a man, one could easily mistake him for a girl. Tohru looked over at the person and smiled. "Well, talk about coincidences; they're all coming out of the woodwork somehow today!" Hana looked a little confused. "You know this person?" she inquired.
"Yeah, I told you about him earlier; it's Ritsu! Wait here, I'll get him." Tohru said cheerfully as she got up. 'Him...?' Hana thought. 'That's a man?' she asked herself as she placed her 'antenna' back down; Tohru was talking with him, and she wanted to respect their privacy. Ritsu followed her back to the bench, where he gave Hana a low bow. "Hello. I don't think we've met; I'm Ritsu Sohma. I had heard what happened to Tohru and was coming for a short visit, but now I can see that fate has worked into everyone's favor!" Ritsu explained, grinning. Hana got up from the bench and shook Ritsu's hand. "It's good to meet you; I'm Saki Hanajima. I'm afraid I haven't heard much about you from Tohru, then again I haven't heard about a lot of the Sohma family, at least until today."
Ritsu's expression suddenly changed to one of worry and apology, which goes without saying, as he began to apologize profusely for that news. He clapped his hands to his face and knelt down on the ground. "Ah! You haven't! Oh, I'm sorry! My personality must have forged a deep hole into Tohru's heart; my lack of talent and purpose leaves me so infamous in this world in so many ways! I'm sorryyy!" Tohru rushed over and calmly put her hands on Ritsu's shoulders in an attempt to calm him down; he always did this.
"Ritsu, it's not like I didn't want to tell Hana about you; After all I only met you less than a week ago, and lots of things have happened since then. It's not your fault, really!" Tohru pleaded with Ritsu, but this never seemed to work, she didn't have Shigure's 'magic touch' to calm him down enough. "No, please! It's always my fault! I'll apologize to the whole worl-!" Ritsu was cut short as he tripped over a root just off of the sidewalk. During the time Tohru was holding him, they were gradually moving away from Hana at the bench and towards a bush on the other side of the park. Ritsu fell over and into the bush, with Tohru still holding onto him. Ritsu landed face first, and Tohru following onto his back, arms out wide. Tohru gasped.
'Oh no! No!'
The following instant, a small explosion was heard in the bush. Hana's antenna jumped back up to attention, as well as her whole body. Hiro and Kisa were soon to follow.
