Key to a Forgotten Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket, and I regret to inform you… I never will.

Chapter 1: Moving Day

On a cool night in early spring, nearly seven years later, a young woman with dark brown eyes and hair sat squarely beside a large cardboard box, as she looked through her possessions wearily. It was quite late at night, and as she had been packing and repacking all day long for the move to her new apartment, she was now thoroughly exhausted - so much so, in fact, that even her forever-present optimism was finding it hard to cope.

She still had a few hours before the movers arrived, when she was to be whisked away to her small, cozy apartment in the outskirts of Tokyo, where she would be living from then on. She had been offered a teaching position at a private elementary school there, and had accordingly decided to relocate herself to a slightly closer area, as she did not wish to complicate things by having to travel much farther than she should have to. She figured that it was best to get done with the packing early so that she could have time to check that she had not forgotten anything several times – just as a precaution, in the off-chance that she might.

As she went through the remainder of her possessions, she hastily, yet neatly, stowed every last item with great care inside the each box. She did not have many possessions, mark you, but the few she had were quite dear to her. Each had a meaning that was to be cherished – as one would cherish a warm memory. Many of the objects she had stored away inside this box acted as reminders of distant pasts, such as the tattered, red hat that, after all these years, she still so deeply cherished or the photograph of her mother, whom she still kept so close to her heart even though nearly a decade had passed since her tragic death.

Suddenly, she heard the unmistakable noise of footsteps start to grow nearer from the end of the hall. Following them, the sharp voice of an older woman rang into her ears, calling out, "Tohru-chan? Have you finished packing your things yet?"

Tohru answered sweetly, with a cheerful smile on her face, "Yes, Auntie… almost."

Her aunt rounded the corner and entered the room. She replied with a slightly impatient note in her voice and a small sigh, "Still not finished yet, I see? Oh dear… The movers will be arriving within a few hours, and you still are not finished packing, yet? What to do… what to do…?"

Tohru responded, looking up at her aunt from her spot on the floor, her expression unchanging, "There is no need to worry! I am almost finished… I've just a few more items to pack…"

However, the older woman merely sighed, and said, "Sometimes I really do wonder where all of that cheerfulness comes from… Well… anyway, I don't suppose you will be joining us for dinner, then? My son and daughter are over to visit, and I'm sure they would be thrilled to see you." Yet, the excessive emphasis she made on the word "thrilled" could not have shown her sarcasm more clearly. Although Tohru preferred to think otherwise, her cousins were not exactly the friendliest one would ever meet… No doubt, they practically loathed her.

Tohru replied calmly, eyeing the nearly diminished pile of her possessions on the pale blue carpet, "No, I think I should be able to finish by then… I'm sure of it! Would you like me to cook something for you? I'm sure it would not be a bother… at all…"

Hearing this, her aunt snapped coldly, "I am perfectly capable of cooking dinner, myself, thank you very much!" To which she stormed out of the room, having taken offense by Tohru's kind offer of help. Tohru, looking rather bewildered, wondered worriedly what she could have possibly done to harbor such an angry reaction from her aunt. However, she had become accustomed to this in the seven years of her living in her aunt's home, as her aunt's temper rose fairly quickly on even the most ordinary of days… Tohru just tried to be as kind as possible when this happened, and hoped that everything would be all right.

She had lived with her aunt and two cousins ever since her grandfather's death three years ago. Her grandfather had been a very sickly person, and a few years ago, he finally passed on. The funeral had been very sad, nearly as sad as that for her mother, in Tohru's opinion. Yet, she had wished the best for him once he died, praying that he would be happy in the next life, knowing that her grandfather would be able to see Tohru's mother again and be reunited with his own son once more. Holding on to that thought, she smiled through the tears, and had managed to live through the hardship that his death had brought and remain strong, as she had when her mother passed away.

She continued packing the various items inside the box. There were many things she had thought she'd misplaced or did not recognize entirely: a watch she had received long ago which she had not seen for many years, given by a friend she could not quite place the name of and a pretty yellow hair ribbon that she could not recognize at all and wondered how on earth it had came to be inside this room. As she was rummaging through the contents of a dusty storage cabinet located in the corner of the room, her eyes stumbled upon a small dark-green notebook at the very bottom of the cabinet. Somehow, the notebook seemed oddly familiar, as if she had seen it once or twice before… However, although she wished to look inside it just to know what it contained, she decided it would have to wait because she had to finish the packing quickly. She set the notebook aside on the top of the large cardboard box, and quickly sealed the box with some masking tape.

A few minutes later, she arrived downstairs with the filled box in her arms. She carefully dropped the box by the door, and walked over to the kitchen. As she entered, her aunt and her two cousins, who both waved at her, with slight looks of contempt in their eyes, greeted her. However, Tohru, as usual, missed this, and glossed over it with an innocent smile, as she crossed to the table. The table had already been set, and dinner had been ready, so she kindly thanked her aunt, who smiled back at her sweetly, saying, "After all, it is your last night here… you'd do better enjoying it, rather than spending hours slaving over a hot stove."

Tohru answered sweetly, looking at the onigiri in the center of the table that her aunt had made, "Well… thank you! It looks delicious." She grinned happily, and served a rather tasty plum onigiri to herself, which really was quite good, considering her aunt, who honestly didn't have the best cooking skills, had made it. Once she had finished her dinner, she placed her chopsticks neatly on the dish, and started to wash them.

As she did this, one of her cousins – her aunt's son – inquired, "Tohru-chan… why are you moving anyway? Wouldn't moving away from here make it harder for you to go to work at the local preschool?" He shot her a suspicious glance, as he rose his cup of tea from the table to drink.

She replied, with a soft laugh, "It would… but I won't be teaching there anymore. I am moving because I will be teachingthird year elementarystudents at Tsurumaki Academy! I'm just so excited about it! I'm sure teaching there will be quite a lot of fun."

He answered, "Oh really…?" Under his breath, so neither Tohru nor anybody else would be able to clearly hear, he added, in a murmur, "Of course… I'm surprised that children can actually learn from a ditzy scatter-brain like her…"

Tohru, not having heard her cousin's snide remark, responded with wide eyes and a smile, "Yes! Of course, I was sad to give up teaching at Kiseki Preschool…." Her voice faded slightly, and her mouth twisted into a small sigh. "…But I've been teaching there for three years now, so I figured that it was time to move on."

Her other cousin cut into the conversation, replying grudgingly, "We wish you luck in the coming school year then… You're going to need it, with all the little slimeballs you'll be trying to teach basic arithmetic to…"

Tohru answered, gasping slightly, "Slimeballs? Heavens, no! Umm… that is… they'll be fun to teach… I'm sure they—!"

Her aunt interrupted with a sympathetic tone of voice, "My daughter does have a point, dear… Teaching primary school students is not entirely the same as teaching preschoolers. You have to keep a watchful eye for mischief…. You never know what those little rascals may be scheming beneath those innocent expressions of theirs."

Tohru giggled nervously. It was true… she had been a bit hesitant about taking up the job, to begin with, because she knew that teaching elementary school would be a slightly different experience than her preschool teaching days. However, she had promised herself and her superiors that she would take the post at Tsurumaki Academy, and… at least it wasn't a junior high or high school that she would be teaching at, right?

Lost in her own thoughts, Tohru barely noticed ten minutes later when her aunt stood up, looked towards the window, and announced the arrival of the movers in the driveway, "Ah… Tohru-chan…. It looks like the movers have arrived…"

Tohru's eyes widened as she frantically shifted her gaze towards the window. "EH? Oh dear… I-I must go, then…" Thank goodness I finished the packing early… I wasn't expecting them to arrive for a few more hours. She stood up hastily and crossed the floor of the room quickly. Scrambling to get the dishes clean and everything done and ready before she left, several dishes she was cleaning nearly slipped from her hands and landed with a large clatter upon the hard countertop.

Seeing her niece's desperate struggle to wash the dishes within a split second, in an attempt to be sure that her dishware remained reasonably intact, her aunt told Tohru, "Just… go, okay? Don't worry about the dishes… I'll wash them later. You need to get going… so I can handle these from there." She walked over to Tohru, and took the dishes from her hands. She flashed a polite smile at her niece, and said, "You'd best be going, before it gets too late."

Tohru's eyes widened, as she replied nervously, "Ummm… I--I suppose so…" She grabbed her bag from beside the door and bowed her head deeply in respect towards her aunt. "Thank you, so very much, for allowing me to impose upon your generous hospitality… I am so very grateful."

She flashed a sweet smile towards her aunt, and slid out of the room. Shutting the front door behind her softly, she stepped out into the cool night air, which embraced her gently, as she placed her bags inside her car and drove away into the dark night.

Neko's Rambling Corner Part 2: And thus… Chapter 1 is officially over! (Neko feels so proud of herself!) As you may have noticed…. it has been such a long time since my last update! I was previously taking a break from fanfictions, because I felt particularly uninspired, I suppose. However, I'm back now…. And hopefully I will be updating my two current fanfic projects as frequently as I can from now on. As for the contents of this chapter itself, the main reason why Tohru has been living with her Aunt for this long, is because when Tohru's grandfather passed away, he left the house to Tohru. However, since her Aunt had been living there with them as well, she continued to reside there with Tohru even after the old man's death. However, because the new school that Tohru will be teaching at is located in a different part of town, Tohru has decided to move to a different location closer to the school, leaving the house to her Aunt once again.

Oh… and… Why, a teacher? Well, for one thing, that was the only job I could make Tohru have that could work with this plotline…. (and you will see why momentarily) and another thing… Who couldn't imagine Tohru as a teacher? She may be a verifiable space cadet but she did reasonably well in school, and after all she's only teaching primary school kids! Plus, Tohru seems like the type of person that would love to teach kids… so, I thought teaching would be a suitable job for her. You'll see next chapter how she fares in her new teaching job!