-The Secret Sohmas-
I don't own Fruits Basket… OH HOW I WISH I DID!
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Thank you, kind reviewers. Your time and your little touch of effort and praise shown by reviewing me brings me so much happiness. I'm very thankful.
I got FOUR reviews this time! Yeah! You guys ROCK!!!
JennyKim319: You came back! YEAH! It's nice to have you back! Thank you for poking me! I shall get on those pics. I got the 14th Fruits Basket too so I know what you're talking about with the names. I came up with most of them before that came out, though… You guys don't mind, right?
Yanielle: Hold onto your hat, 'cause you do meet Momo in this one! I actually don't know if you ever meet Momiji. I've only just started writing the 8th chapter at this point so… I don't know… but I'll try, just for you.
Damki: Your comments are always welcome. Please keep bugging me about the pictures. I really want to finish them too. Hmm… I didn't realize I was even using subtlety with the emotions… I just write like I read. Cool!
KoriOkamiNeko: Welcome, newcomer! I'm so happy you like it! I like it too! I love that 'you know I hate you' thing too. I'm very pleased that I came up with it. I'll have to use that again somewhere random!
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warning: Since I'm writing in the Fruits Basket style, I will be making jokes and comments that would only make sense if one knew Japanese. I will leave notes to explain them at the end of the chapters.
Leave a comment in the review if there's still something you don't get and I'll fix it just for you.
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update: The three Sohma girls (Kyoko, Yukiko, and Hatsuhara) and Tohru are all on the train heading toward the Secret Sohma's compound to save the guys.
The three Sohma boys (Kyo, Yuki, and Hatsuharu) and Ru are all sitting on the porch of the Secret Sohma Clubhouse (well… Kyo's leaning out the window, so he's kind of outside…) ENJOY!
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Chapter 6 -
Their heads up, their ears keen, they listened to all that he proposed. And when he was done, and already had his two volunteers, they refused to let them go alone.
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"Hey, did she fall sleep?"
"Judging by the closed eyes and the deep breathing, I'd say yes."
Kyoko scowled at her. "Then I guess she's not hungry then."
Kyoko waved off the girl with the cart, only to watch her be cornered by a Caucasian that couldn't fit past her. These tourists are so fat.
"So do have a plan for how we're going to rescue the boys?"
Hara appeared from behind Tohru again. "You mean we're not just going to charge in there blindly?"
Yukiko sighed, falling back against her seat. "Let's just wait until Tohru wakes up."
Kyoko raised an eyebrow at her and then pulled her cap back over her eyes.
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"Yo, Ru." It was Haru's turn to ask his question. "Why are the houses built like that? It's kind of ugly."
Ru nodded, agreeing it looked strange. "A while back, I hear, before I got here, this place was a breath-taking example of traditional architecture. Shoji screens, original paintings, oil lamps, nightingale floors, the works."
"What happened?"
"One night it all burned down. There was a big cover-up about it, and the head of the house built all this." He spread his arms to show everything. "This all happened in my lifetime, too. Kyoko's still got burns from it."
"She does?"
"Yes. On her legs. They're better than they were before, but they still bother her. She won't go anywhere near the Kotatsu (heated table)." Ru laughed to himself, some memory of the girl making him content. Yuki remembered that when he first met Kyoko, she had not put her legs under the table, but stretched them out on the tatami.
Ru continued, his face still bright. "You'd have to chain her down to see them, though. She probably wouldn't like me telling you about them." He rubbed the back of his head, picturing the beating he was going to get. "She doesn't like talking about the fire at all. She'll say she doesn't remember much of it and leave the room."
Kyo leaned his arms on the windowsill. Wasn't there something else she didn't remember much of?
Ru put a foot back up on the railing and began to swing himself gently, still smiling like he couldn't help it. "Those girls. I keep thinking they're trying to tell me something, but I think I'm just missing the hints." He smiled, a little embarrassed, but not really, because he's not the type to ever truly be embarrassed. Perhaps the feeling was a slightly awkward one since he probably shouldn't have been telling these random guys about the girls that tried to confide in him.
He didn't have the opportunity to apologize because a very loud, very pink blur found its way to the spot next to him.
"RU-RU!"
Ru's scarf almost launched itself off his neck as he fell off the swinging bench in fright. Kyo practically fell out the window and Yuki's hair became quite frazzled. Haru was left unscathed.
Sitting, giggling hysterically on the empty swing-bench, was a blond-haired girl. In the small instances when she looked down to see Ru on the ground before she started giggling again, one could see big, innocent, brown eyes. She hugged her sides as she giggled, her shoulder length hair seeming messy when she moved and would then fall neatly back into place when she sat up again.
"Ru-Ru-kun! Why didn't you tell me everyone was back? Someone was looking for Kyon-Kichi! Where is Kyo-Kyo?" The giggling blond girl, decked out in pink, baby blue, and frills, turned around on her bench to see Kyo 3/4s out the window, his face having collided into the porch when his feet got caught on the sill.
"Silly, Kyo-Kyo! What are you doing on the floor? Are you looking for Tohru-kun, 'cause I think he's on the floor too"?
Kyo grumbled at the annoyingly high-pitched voice as Ru began to stand, rubbing his head. "Who's looking for Kyoko, Momo-chan?"
The ears on her large bunny hood flopped to the side. "Oh, right! I'll be right back!" And the bouncy, cheerful, rabbit girl hopped off the bench, bounced down the stairs and scurried down the road.
Ru got behind the bench and gave Kyo a hand up. "Sorry about that."
"So that was Momo, huh?" Haru asked, watching the kicked up dust blow away.
"Yes. That's Momo-chan. She can be a handful, but she's great to be around. She just exerts positive energy, doesn't she?" Ru's smile and bright and cheerful, which contrasted with the large bump that had formed on his head. Kyo and Yuki sighed heavily, sitting down on the railing where they were. Haru remained unscathed.
"So who do you think Momo's telling?" Kyo asked grumpily, rolling his arm in the socket to loosen it up again after his dive out the window.
"Um," a small sweat drop formed over Ru's head. "You don't happen to know any one who'd have a nickname like 'Kagi', do you?"
The panic didn't have time to spread across Kyo's face before his name was hollered across a large distance, and the owner of that voice had covered that distance. "Kyo-chan!"
A tall, dark brown-haired and dark brown-eyed boy was upon him in an instant's time, his fist raised. Ru was not fast enough to stop him, but then again, neither was Kyo. "I MISSED YOU!"
With a mighty swing, Kyo was sent flying off the railing, crash-landing into the shrubs and bushes. The young man was leaping over the railing shouting after him. "You think you can just vanish for a week and not have me get worried sick?"
The tall boy had picked Kyo up by the ankle when Ru was heard over him. "Kagi-san!"
The tall boy stopped and turned to him. "Yeah, Ru-kun?"
Ru was sweating and red with worry. "That's not Kyoko-san."
The boy blinked at Ru, and then lifted Kyo higher, still holding him by the ankle. "Your hair's shorter."
Kyo, after having suffered some bad scratches, falling out the window and being whacked off a railing into bushes, was thoroughly tired out. His shirt fell up to reveal that he definitely wasn't the healthily busted Kyoko. The tall boy dropped him immediately. Momo was there to giggle over him. "It's not Kyo-Kyo at all! It's a boy!"
The tall boy leaned over Kyo as the orange-haired boy began to slowly pick himself up again. "Sheez, Kyoko-chan. What the hell d'you do to yourself?"
"I'M NOT KYOKO, DAMMIT!!"
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"Sorry, chum. Guess I just got excited."
The battered and bruised Kyo was being tended to, inside the house again, by Haru and Ru. The tall, dark-brown haired boy, called Kagi, was sitting next to Momo on the couch across from the one where Yuki was sitting. He had more of the build of a fighter than Kagura did.
Kyo hissed at Kagi. "Do you normally throw Kyoko to the ground?"
Kagi laughed, sounding flattered. "Aw, that girl loves a bit of grappling."
Kyo slouched and looked to the side. Does she or do you?
"So why you three guys hanging around here, anyway?"
"They thought we were Kyoko, Yukiko and Hatsuhara."
Momo jumped over Yuki, bouncing between him, Kyo and Haru. "Don't they look so much like them? It's them but they're guys! And look!" Momo leaped into Yuki's lap and threw her arms around him. "I can hug them too! Are you sure you're not them?"
Ru watched Momo's display quite puzzled. He turned to Kyo who he was finishing patching up. "You're from the zodiac?"
"Of course we are!" Kyo barked! "Do you think I hang out with these guys 'cause they're my friends!?"
Yuki could've very easily struck Kyo down for his insolence, but he felt somewhat bad for him after his third injury. He slid Momo off his lap. "Yes. The Sohma family's been processed by vengeful spirits that correspond with the Chinese zodiac for hundreds of years."
"You're Sohmas too?" Kagi asked, disbelieving.
"Yes. But we never knew there was another set of Juunishi."
Kagi laughed a bit, his arms crossed smartly. "You're right to say that. With the way we've lived, you might as well call us the Secret Sohmas."
"Secret Sohmas!" Momo echoed cheerfully.
"But how?" Yuki pondered aloud. "How is that possible?"
Kagi rolled and cracked his neck. "I don't really know. We could always try asking one of the Mabudachi Trio."
Kyo growled over his stinging face as he flung himself over the back of the couch and onto a cushion (he had been standing behind the coach). "I'd rather find someone who could sneak us out, not tell us what the heck you're doing here!"
"Wait," Yuki held an arm in front of Kyo to shut him up. "The Mabudachi Trio?"
Yuki's suspicions were confirmed when the door swung open wildly behind them and a rich, loud, and annoyingly confident voice filled the room. "Where's Yun-Yun! Where's my little akachan! I know she's here! I will not rest until I have my imoto-chan in my arms!"
Yuki didn't need to turn around for his eye to start twitching, or for Kyo's. Oh God!
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"We're there?"
The train finally halted at a small station and there was a desperate scramble to get off and on. Tohru was, regrettably, used as a shield during this single minute time gap. All that was left was a few subway trips.
"Thank God! I thought that train was driving us off a cliff or something."
"That's a stupid thing to think."
"I wasn't serious, you damn rat!"
The petty argument actually managed to continue like that for the entire subway ride. It wasn't that pleasant to listen to, but it got the other users of the subway to keep their distance. Hara comforted Tohru as the two other girls played cat and mouse.
One cannot guess when or where the argument might've ended had there not been a small gathering of people waiting for them by their car when the girls left the station.
"Wow! They really do look like them!"
"They look like them!"
"Oh, my, what a great number of words and feelings fill me at this moment."
"Your gift for words is limitless, dear one."
"Why am I here?"
Kyoko didn't need to look up to know who was waiting for them, or for her eye to start twitching. Yukiko didn't need to either. "Oh God!"
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note: The loud voice that bursts into the clubhouse half way through the chapter says several things in Japanese: 'akachan' means 'baby' (literally: little red), and 'imoto-chan' means 'little sister' (it's normally imoto-san, but the –chan emphasizes the cute.)
name note: 'Kagi' actually means 'key'… translations of upcoming names will mean more.
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AHAHAHAA! I love the ending to that chapter! It makes me happy! Oh God, it's amazing! The next chapter's gonna get a little hectic and it's probably not gonna get any easier after that.
Make sure you read this chapter carefully. There are some key plot points in there that will be brought up again!
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Thank you for reading and if you have the time, I would appreciate it if you reviewed my chapter. Thank you again.