Key to a Forgotten Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Furuba, its characters, its plot, or anything else in this world that is Fruits Basket-ish (aside from my manga and DVD's of it, of course).

Spoiler warning update: Obviously, this story does not follow at all by what occurs at the end of the manga series, for those of you familiar with spoilers. However, if you do know of the spoilers, the few that I have included in this story go up to around chapter 119-ish (and are mostly very minor ones). After that, any spoilers have been disregarded (because anything after that would make this tale very unlikely).

Chapter 8: Inquisition

For a few moments, Tohru felt strangely light headed. The young woman was feeling that head-splitting sensation that one might get if they were clubbed really hard on the side of the head with a bag filled with heavy textbooks. The only difference might be that she, in fact, was not hit on the head by any material objects but, instead, by a sudden terrible revelation that made her feel very uneasy, if not nearly emotionally unstable.

However, though she now understood one small piece of the puzzle that was the Sohma family, consequentially, a whole new string of questions were cropping up in alarming quantities in her mind. She still had no inkling of a notion as to who that orange haired boy was, nor did she even hazard a guess as to the way in which the family happened to be cursed. All she knew was that the Sohma family suffered curse, and, in someway or another, she was connected with it.

For some reason, it feels as though I must have written that word there for a reason. To warn somebody… or maybe prevent something from happening… or even as a reminder, unless… The girl's wide brown eyes shifted back towards the direction of the journal, which now lay firmly shut on the floor. …it was meant to be a reminder, so that when I lost my memories, I would have some way to remember it. However, that would suggest that I actually knew that was going to happen, and surely I wouldn't have allowed myself to forget all of those precious memories, which I'm sure they were, on purpose!

Thoroughly exhausted from the day's adventure, Tohru wandered back into the comfort of her small bedroom and collapsed onto the pale, blue comforter that stretched across her bed. Carefully, she allowed her head to fall gently upon her soft white pillow. For some reason, it had never felt so comfortable. Then again, maybe she had been thinking too deeply. For now, what she really needed was some rest, and then when morning came, she'd lapse into her reverie once again, however unpleasant.

-

Nearly a week would pass until the "great Sohma mystery" (as Tohru had began to refer to it as) would be called into question once more, but in the meantime, the young lady had encountered a more pressing matter to be taken care of far before she even considered pondering ancient curses and unfamiliar faces. Namely, her aunt.

For some time, it had been a known fact that her aunt was not in the best of shape. She had been suffering from a long series of chronic ailments for many years. In fact, one of the reasons why she had chosen to continue living in the home of Tohru's late grandfather was to defray for money spent on medical attention. Yet, things only worsened when the following Wednesday, Tohru received an unfortunate message from one of her cousins. Her aunt recently had another heart attack and was now staying in the hospital under intensive care.

Her cousin told Tohru, that since he and his sister both had work far elsewhere that needed attending to, they needed her to take care of their mother for them. In addition, they needed her to help cover medical expenses. As the older woman had not been employed at the time, her money supply had continued to dwindle down to a very low quantity and any financial support she could get was needed greatly.

The news had arrived as a bit of a shock for the girl, but she wasn't entirely surprised either, looking at her aunt's past medical history. It would be a bit of a stretch, trying to pay for both her aunt's treatment and the rent for her apartment, but Tohru was determined to make it work no matter what. She'd been in these kinds of situations before and knew perfectly well how to handle them. As for finding the time to drop by for the occasional visit, she could always find the time for something like that. Really, she found no reason to be any less optimistic about her current situation than she was about any other situation.

Meanwhile, Hinata Sohma had finally returned to school, much to the delight of both Tohru and the Partners in Crime (as her mischievous posse of friends had christened themselves). With her arrival came a whole new set of pranks, each more inventive than the last, and though it was a bit exasperating trying to evade them, Tohru couldn't help but smile at all of the fun those friends shared together. In fact, by the fifth prank that week (which had Tohru spend the entire hour of lunch break cleaning the colorful, bright acrylics that had splattered all over her new white board), the young woman was rather fascinated by their creativity and eager to see what they would come up with next, a sort of unorthodox feeling for somebody who had to spend her entire lunch period wiping the white board with dishwashing soap. Yet, aside from Hinata's return to her studies, Tohru heard nothing of the Sohma family or its members for the entire week.

It wasn't until near the end of the week, Friday night, when a thought would even cross her mind again about the Sohmas. She was walking back from the bus station after visiting her aunt at the hospital (at which she was becoming a complete regular; already, the lady at the front desk and several of the nurses had learned her name), when she began thinking about the previous Sunday and her epiphany about the Sohma family.

Of course, she hadn't thought about it much since then, with everything else that was going on simultaneously, but questions still remained, burning to be answered, in the back of her mind. If only she could remember or somebody could explain all of this to her… but that would be asking too much. The only ones who could possibly know were those involved, and she would hate to impose upon the Sohma family's generosity any longer by interrogating them to death.

Tohru sighed heavily, coming up the creaky steps towards the apartment building entrance. If only she knew somebody with some sort of knowledge about this sort of thing, a close friend that might know of what to do in a situation like this…

But, of course… Hana-chan!

As she thought of her good friend, her expression brightened considerably. She had been meaning to drop by her friend's shop for a while, and this gave her the perfect opportunity to do so, while allowing Tohru to have a nice, long talk with her about her high school days and what she knew of curses and those with the surname "Sohma". She was sure Hana-chan (as she and Uo nicknamed her friend, Hanajima Saki) would be delighted, as well, at the opportunity to see her best friend. With a spark of newfound excitement, the wide-eyed girl dashed up the stairway hurriedly to get to her apartment so she could use the phone.

When she entered, Tohru immediately grabbed the phone from the reciever to call. She was not sure of the number for Hana-chan's shop, so she had to withdraw her phonebook from one of the drawers in the kitchen to look it up. Finally, she saw the number and quickly punched it in, an aura of jubilance radiating from every move she made.

The phone rang a few times until a young girl's voice answered on the other end. It seemed rather whiny and bored, probably belonging to a teenager impatiently waiting for her part-time work for the day to end, as it said, "Hello, Mononoke Books and Gifts for the Unworthy Soul speaking. This is Hiwasara Ryoko; how may I direct your call?"

Tohru answered kindly, "Hello. My name is Honda Tohru, and I'm a friend of the shopkeeper, Hanajima Saki. May I speak to her for a moment?"

"Uh… yeah," the girl replied in a drone, as if she had five million things in mind that she would rather be doing than answering this call. "Sure, I'll get her right night now. Um……… HANAJIMA-SAN!" Some movement followed at the other end, during which Tohru was sure she heard her friend's expressionless voice.

Finally, Hana-chan picked up the phone and said monotonously (though Tohru would have bet that she was absolutely overjoyed to be hearing from her), "Tohru? What brings you to call at this late hour?"

Tohru replied, "Well, I was wondering if I could stop by at your shop tomorrow afternoon after class is over and the kids have left. That is, unless you already have something planned; I wouldn't want to intrude… but I need to have a little chat with you about something important."

"Whatever could it be?"

"I'll tell you then, but will it be all right if I come?"

"Certainly," Hana replied softly. "Anytime you'd like, Tohru-kun. It would be lovely to have you, and I'll be sure to have some snacks and tea prepared."

"Thank you so very much!" Tohru exclaimed gratefully. "I'll see you then, all right? Take care."

"Good bye, Tohru-kun." There was a brief pause after this, but then she hung up, without a single question asked. All of the questions would wait until tomorrow afternoon, Tohru figured, when she arrived at the shop to let their discussion commence.

-

After the final bell rang to inform teachers and students alike that school was over for the week, Tohru quickly escorted the students to the Parent Pickup and Bus areas before leaving the school for her own excursion. Usually she would stay behind for a few minutes to sort through some paperwork or work on planning for the next week, but today she wanted to be as prompt as possible. She hadn't visited Hana for upwards of about a year, in which time she had gained so much in need of talking about that it was uncanny.

Since her friend's shop was located way on the other side of town, the young woman had to take a monorail in order to reach it. Thank heavens for Tokyo's transportation system, Tohru thought, as she entered the vehicle marked "Eastern Tokyo (Sugisaki Ave./1st St.)". For about ten to fifteen minutes (or maybe even longer, heavens knew how large Tokyo really was), she sat in her seat soundlessly, until the monorail finally pulled up at "Sugisaki Station", and the passengers began a mass exodus from it into the wide streets.

For another five minutes, Tohru stumbled her way through the area (of which she scarcely knew), with a map and address as guide, until finally she reached her destination. Overhead, she looked up at a small sign, on which uneven lettering marked the name Mononoke Books and Gifts for the Unworthy Soul. A strange aura seemed to be emitting from it, almost haunting in manner. In any other case, this feeling would make the shop rather shifty, but after all, this was Hana's shop. Normality was not to be expected, so the young woman entered with a warm grin spread across her face, as if she was entering a flower shop, a candy store, or something else that could be considered conventional.

When she entered, Tohru immediately smelled an intoxicatingly calm, relaxing scent about the room that seemed to make her feel slightly lethargic. Lapsing into a daydream, she was only pulled out of her reverie when one of the store clerks, a teenage girl, shook her awake.

"Are you okay?" the girl said, looking at Tohru with a questioning brow, clearly startled. "You'd better be more careful. That dream powder can do that to people if they aren't used to it. Sorry about that… Hanajima-san and Megumi-kun have been experimenting with it again."

Tohru answered, shaking her head briefly to rid herself of the sleepy sensation, "I am quite fine, thank you. My name is Honda Tohru. I do apologize for inconveniencing you."

The girl laughed. "Don't worry, Honda-san. I work here. It's my job to be inconvenienced. By the way, my name is Hiwasara Ryoko. You called yesterday, right? To speak to Hanajima-san?"

"Yes, may I ask whether or not she is here right now?" Tohru asked her absentmindedly at the same time, looking around at all of the various trinkets in the vicinity with intrigue.

"Yeah, she is. Here I'll take you to her. She should be in the backroom somewhere… Hold on." She led Tohru through a door frame covered with multicolored beads stringing down from the top of the frame. An aromatic gas was seeping through the crevices, much like what made her drowsy before, but Tohru made sure not to fall asleep from it this time.

She entered the room to find Hana and her younger brother, a dark-haired young man (who looked nearly identical in appearance to his sister) named Megumi, sitting beside a large bowl, mixing a concoction from some white, powdery substance and a couple of herbs that had evidently come from the storage cabinet marked "Ingredients" that lay ajar against the wall. As she and the girl walked in, the two siblings looked up, their black, expressionless eyes piercing in the dim candlelight of the room.

Upon Tohru's entrance, the older of the siblings, her friend Hana, beckoned her forward, her expression unchanging as she spoke, "Come in, come in, Tohru-kun. I felt your waves approaching, very light and floaty, as usual, but rather nervous, I fear…" There she went, off on her infamous "wave report". "…never mind that, though, how are things?"

The young store clerk departed from the room, but Tohru persisted, replying sweetly to the pale-skinned woman, "Wonderful, Hana-chan! My students have been great as well. Oh, and I see you have Megumi-kun here, too… Have you started working here with your sister?"

The boy answered in a hushed tambour, "Yes, I'm serving as her apprentice. You see, my particular, ah… knowledge in the fine art of cursing is of great use in a shop like this. A nice advantage, if I do say so myself."

"Well, you look quite well, dear."

"And you look very fine yourself." Tohru's smiling eyes completely failed to notice the little flash of light that went across his eyes at that moment. His sister nudged him for a moment as if to reprimand him but said nothing in response.

Hana looked over at the clock. Quietly, she said, "If we don't start talking, it'll grow dark. I couldn't imagine my poor Tohru wandering around after dark, so we should begin. Megumi, will you be able to finish this from here?"

"Of course."

"Very well, then," she responded to her brother, turning her attention to Tohru. "Follow me upstairs, and make yourself at home. We prepared some grilled meat earlier today, and you could use some nourishment. You seem underfed…"

Tohru replied, beaming, "Well, I've been keeping myself well, but if you insist, I suppose I shall take a bite to eat. Thank you so very much for your generosity." She followed her dear friend up the stairway towards a deserted one-bedroom flat above the shop that Tohru could have guessed must be Hana's living quarters.

Offering her friend a seat along her dining table, Hana sat across from her and began, "So, what brings you here to my humble home and shop? Anything in particular, or did you just feel like dropping by?"

Taking the chair she was offered, Tohru seated herself, looking into Hana's lightless eyes sorrowfully. "As a matter of fact, I do have something that I wanted to talk to you about, if you would be so kind to listen."

Hana answered slowly, nodding, "You seem troubled. I can see it in your eyes. They are not as cheerful as they once were."

Tohru gave a nod in agreement. Sadly, she had felt her optimism drain away into harsh realization lately, as well. Then again, Hana always was one to see those sort of things in her. "Yes," she responded. "It is true. I have not been as cheerful lately, but that leads me to what I wanted to discuss. You see…" Tohru explained everything to her - all that had happened in these past few weeks to both intrigue and terrify her. About Momiji, Kisa, Hiro, Satsuki, the mysterious orange haired boy, the name "Sohma", her ailing student Hinata, the green journal, and even… the curse.

"…I've been thinking for sometime, searching for some sort of answer to my questions, but there is nothing to be found. Except one thing. There was a curse. I'm for certain that they all suffered from some kind of curse, and somehow, I'm connected to all of it. I do not know how, but I am. That is why I wanted to see you and talk to you. I think you can help, Hana-chan. Tell me everything you know about the Sohmas, about my high school days, the curse… anything. Just, please, tell me."

Hana took a long gaze her way for a moment in deep thought, her eyes expressionless as ever, and said darkly, "I know nothing of a curse, but I do know of the Sohma family and, to some extent, how you and them were connected. I will say one thing, however. You may not enjoy what I'm about to tell you. I do not know why, but the day you lost your memories, you seemed a lot happier to lose them. There must have been something that happened between you and them that changed all of the happiness you shared. Regardless, would you still like me to tell you?"

Tohru hesitated for a moment, and then reassured her friend as confidently as she could, "I do. I may be making a mistake which tomorrow I may regret, but for now, what matters the world to me is regaining my memory. If that means regaining the sad with the happy, I still remain resolute in rediscovering them."

Hana paused for a moment and took a deep breath before saying, "As you wish. Now, let me tell you a story that begins nearly a decade ago, at the dawn of our high school days…"

Tohru grabbed the folds of her skirt for comfort at these words, but remained unflinching and unwavering in her decision. This was it. Soon, she would be delving far back into the deepest recesses of her memory, attempting to uncover a forbidden tale that had not been touched for seven years.

Neko's Rambling Corner Part 9: The suspense! I really wasn't originally intending to end this chapter this way, but it began to run a bit long, so I decided I'd cut their conversation here for this chapter and save Hana's little story for next time. I'll be prompt as I can, I promise!

Although I'm pretty convinced that my old readers have forgotten about me and my story by now, I'm still going to continue anyway. I love this story genuinely, and it just feels right writing it, you know?

Oh, and about Megumi and Hana, I loved being able to write those two. I've never written either character before, and it's a true pleasure to be able to. I especially loved Megumi's "flashing eyes" thing, but I'm not sure whether you guys will pick up on what that was all about (maybe I'm just too much of a Furuba geek since I pay attention to individual personality traits in characters… oh well).

Starting now, I'm changing the rating of this fan fiction to Teen. Now that I know where I'm going with this story (yes, I finally have the ending planned out), I feel that some of the ending sequences are going to be pretty intense for younger readers. There isn't anything questionable or anything, but it's just… drama, you know? Drama is like that - dramatic. I want to play it safe, just in case.

Anyway, I adore you all, so happy reading! 'Til next time.