Never underestimate the power of words.
The first thing she noticed was the quiet. The second thing was an explosion of sound as Kyou woke up, then the ricochet as everyone else got to their feet and screamed back at him to be quiet. The third thing she noticed was the fact that 'everyone' had really become everyone.
The entire Zodiac -- plus Kyou and Akito -- was there, and so were Uo and Hana. It was a moment before she pinched herself and realized that she wasn't dreaming.
It was a longer moment as she had a rushed conversation with the picture of Mom that was larger than life and leaning against the wall with the caption, "Mother is watching!" After that, Tohru quickly decided that everything would work out well so long as she was herself and did her best!
Though she still didn't know what she could do her best at.
"Tohru?" Hana asked quietly, startling Tohru out of her thoughts, "Why am I here?"
Tohru took several deep breaths -- much as she loved Hana, she still had an unsettling ability for appearing out of thin air -- and shook her head sadly. "I don't know, Hana, Shigure and Kyou and Yuki and I were all playing Scrabble, and then I tried to clean up the mess we'd made, and then…" Tohru trailed off, smiling hopelessly, "Poof! We were here."
"Weird," muttered Uo, walking toward the two of them. The others were having a fierce argument a ways off concerning the blame for appearing in the middle of nowhere.
"Yes, most certainly," Hana nodded, looking around, "And such strange boulders."
Tohru frowned in confusion, then realized she hadn't really looked around yet. They were on a glossy brown surface, their own faces reflected back at them from beneath their feet. Around them were enormous white tiles with rounded edges. They stretched for miles in every direction. Other than those and the colossal picture of Tohru's mother, the ground reached out in every direction, unbroken and unending as far as the eye could see.
"They look kinda like Scrabble pieces, don't they?" Uo asked, narrowing her eyes in concentration.
A light came up behind Hana's eyes. "Is that so?" she murmured, "Tohru, what was the last word you saw spelled out?"
Tohru thought back as best she could, but her concentration was shattered as the white monoliths started trembling with an earth shaking roar. The Sohma family -- now distant on the horizon, and almost inaudible -- screamed in one voice and took off running.
Terrifying in its height, a white cube that stretched as high as a building was chasing them. On the first side was a single, black dot -- at least as big as Tohru -- but on the next there were more.
"Die."
Hana's voice left Tohru's heart shaking with fear. Die? DIE!
"Kinda harsh, aren't you, Hana?"
Tohru looked back and forth between the two of them, eyes wide with panic.
"Shouldn't we help them?" she asked, voice squeaking.
"Nah."
"Arisa, you really ought to be more considerate."
"You're the one who told 'em to die."
"No. The thing that's chasing them -- that cube -- it's a die."
Uo looked at it -- it was heading towards them, but they still had a moment left before they had to run -- and laughed.
"Man, that's irony if I ever saw it."
…A few moments later…
They ran -- how could they dodge? it might follow them, and then they'd be close enough to get squashed! -- until the glossy brown road ended abruptly. In the instant before the die got them, they had to choose between death by die, or death by floor.
Tohru made the choice for them, completely by mistake.
"I remember, Hana! It said zippy razzmatazz bippity boppity boo!"
And the world vanished, leaving the die to fall off the table in bewilderment.