-The Secret Sohmas-
I don't own Fruits Baskets. I would've burst into your house laughing victoriously is 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.
Three reviews and one's a newcomer! YEAH!!!
JennyKim319: I'm so glad that Kagi made you think of Kagura! I'm worried about a few of the names, but I think it'll be all right. I hope you like the other names I came up with!
KoriOkamiNeko: I loved the scene between Kagi and Kyo too! It worked out better than I remembered. I hope you love my Mabudachi Trio just as much!
Shiaru: Welcome, newcomer! Make sure you read the other 6 chapters too! They're all amazing! I didn't really plan this to be a sequel to Fruits Basket. It's more of a self-contained 10-part episode. I wouldn't mind owning it, though. Just as long as I don't have to draw it. I like the art as it is.
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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 just got off the subway and were headed to save the guys when they ran into an interesting collection of people.
The three Sohma boys (Kyo, Yuki, and Hatsuharu), Ru, Kagi and Momo, are all peacefully chatting inside the Secret Sohma Club house when someone bursts in through the door.
ENJOY!
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Chapter 7 -
He fumed in his darkness, his anger rippling through the heat. They worried he would work himself sick before the girls were found. Then a single thought struck him and he sat back with a cold grin.
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Yuki had nowhere to run, and had no time to run if he had, before slender arms wrapped around his neck. "Aw, there you are, my sweet Yukiko-imoto. I was so worried that you had run away too and would never see me again!"
The loud woman who had entered the room with a great noise laughed at herself. "I dare say, I was almost afraid something immodest would happen to you on those dreadful subways. If anything happened to you, I don't know what I-" The woman turned Yuki's head and her words immediately stopped. The eyes Yuki met were majestic and golden and masterfully painted, though the eyelashes were long and thick enough naturally to not need it. They were very wide eyes, wider than Yuki had ever seen his elder brother's. The painted lips parted. "Oh my."
The woman stepped gracefully around the couch where Yuki sat. She was tall for a girl, like most of the members of this new Sohma household. Her hair was long and silver, bangs neatly kept. She was still thickly wrapped in scarves and a fur coat when she sat quickly in the seat Momo had abandoned when the woman had entered. This woman that was to be Ayame's twin took Yuki's face between both her hands and looked into the misty gray eyes she found there. "You're not Yukiko-imoto."
Her eyes were sharp, created for wit, satire, and sarcasm. It seemed almost impossible to Yuki that such eyes could sink into such despair. The woman turned her head away, still holding Yuki's face, to hide her tears. Something caught in Yuki's throat. This Ayame looked as if she truly cared for her younger sibling. Ayame sighed loudly as she silently wailed, "How are we suppose to have any sisterly-bonding when you're a boy."
Whatever was caught in Yuki's throat vanished.
"I can't give my hand-me-downs to a boy. Oh, akachan, how could you do this to me? And after I made you so many magnificent dresses."
Yuki's face darkened and his fists shook violently, trying to keep from exploding. Ru's little laugh brought them back. He was trying to keep himself from laughing, but it looked like whatever he was doing to stop himself wasn't working. He waved his hands in front of himself. "Yukiko-san wouldn't do anything like that."
Momo hopped over to the Ayame woman, smiling brightly. "He's a boy! His name's Yuki-kun!"
"So he is." The Ayame woman seemed bored already and was stripping off her scarves and coat and handing them to Ru who hurried to the couch to take them from her. "And I'll have some tea, too, Ru-kun."
Ru smiled in his own way and Yuki began to like this female Ayame less and less. Everything she said seemed so loud to him.
The Ayame woman sat upright and prettily on the couch that barely sank beneath her weight. She flipped her hair to the side and caught Kyo in her golden sight. "Oh! There is one like Kyonkichi too! Are you her lover?"
Kyo was angry and flustered all at the same time. "Hell no!"
"You should be lovers. You're so much alike. Then I could take Ru-kun for my own."
The Sohma boys had just met Ru that day, and just met this Ayame-woman a few minutes ago (if her barging in would count as meeting), but they were both totally against her getting anywhere near Ru.
The Ayame woman fluttered her eyelashes in flirtatious confidence. "But surely you are not repulsed by an older woman such as myself, my dear Ru-kun?"
Ru was placing the tea upon the table, his emotions caught between trying to not be rude and not agreeing. "Of course I'm not repulsed, Ayame-san, but I-"
Ayame's hand shot out to the tray Ru was holding, "Then it's settled!"
A voice from the doorway stopped Ayame from seizing Ru and dragging him out the door. "Could it be, my precious one, that you would love that boy more than me?"
Haru was watching this in his own amused way, but the other two Sohma boys were approaching insanity, for the voice in the door was a feminine one, taking on something of an Arthurian accent despite its childish tone. They did not need to turn around to know this one anymore than they hadn't needed to turn around to know Ayame.
Ayame turned in exaggerated shock and surprise. "My dear, Shigeru-chan, never would I dare replace you with any other on this Earth."
Ru was relieved to have been saved and Momo cheerfully sat him down on the couch next to Kagi. Haru resigned himself to the chair that Kyo had been sitting in before he had fallen out the window in the previous chapter.
"Besides," finished the woman in the doorway, "Torhu-kun's my man-slave."
Dear God, Yuki and Kyo thought together. That's so much worse than 'housewife'.
"I suppose if he pleases you so much, my dear Shigen-chan, then I shall allow you a lover."
I didn't think, the two boys thought again, that there was a way to make this scenario any more disturbing.
Ru was past the point where he had any chance of defending himself. He was at the mercy of Ayame's and Shigeru's chatter. Momo spoke for him, though she was laughing. "Ru's blushing! Yes, he is!"
Ru had slumped on the couch, utterly defeated when his frantic waving and blushing had failed. Kagi shook his head, a smile sneaking into his disciplining frown. "Now, now, Shigeru-san, you are a guest in Ru-kun's house. Be nice."
"Aww," the woman in the door sighed, "You're no fun, Kagiru-kun."
"Don't worry, Shigen-chan. Even if the whole world was against you, I would stay by you're side."
Yuki felt like he could retch and Kyo didn't feel much better. Haru was fixing Hara's cowboy hat for it had gotten slightly crushed in the car and he had been keeping such close attention to Yuki and the wounded Kyo that he hadn't had the chance to fix it.
The woman in the door who was Shigure's counter-part deposited her coat and found a snug seat in between Yuki and Kyo. "Wow, what beautiful young boys."
The woman's hair was brown, dark and shiny, her eyes matching almost perfectly. Her bangs were long and parted in the middle. The rest of the hair fell about shoulder length and either swept around her neck or bobbed out. Her eyes looked studious, though her smile broke the illusion. The aura around her felt as if the news of the their arrival had come while she was still sleeping and she had shot out of bed in a desperate attempt to follow Ayame. Her choice of cloths was formal, despite the fact, with a blouse and dark skirt and stockings. A small glasses' case stuck out of her pocket. They had stumbled upon Shigure's long lost twin sister.
Haru addressed her politely, but Yuki and Kyo were spent. Despite themselves, they found themselves praying that the female Hatori would show up and take the two women away.
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"Impossible! How did they find us?"
"I called Shigure when you didn't show up on the subway. He offered to help, but he didn't say he would bring the whole family."
"AND YOU BELIEVED HIM!"
"Don't yell at Yuki-chan."
Kyoko was exploding at Yukiko when catching sight of the half of the Sohma family that had come to greet them when they got off the subway.
"I didn't ask him to help, I simply told him the stops we were making."
Hara glanced over at Shigure, "Very clever of sensei to find us here."
Kyoko sighed, glancing over as well. "Ten bucks that their Hato-san figured it out for them."
Kagura and Momiji ran over to them. Momiji would've flung himself at Tohru had Kyoko not stopped him. "Tohru! Tohru! We've come to help you."
"Yes, we're going to rescue my Kyo-Kyo." Kagura cried. Kyoko looked like she was going to fall over and die. "Listen now, girly. You can't just-"
Kagura's face was flooded with intimidating rage as she stood over Kyoko (even though Kyoko was taller than her). "You think I'm just going to let my Kyo-Kyo be kid-napped?" Kyoko shrunk back and decided not to talk to Kagura anymore. "But Momij-"
The small, excited boy pulled at Tohru's hand. "I'm here to help Tohru so she won't be scared."
Kyoko was going to argue, but seeing that Tohru actually looked slightly relieved to have Momiji hanging off her, she didn't say anything. Kyoko supposed that herself and the two other girls were too intense for Tohru to handle alone.
Kyoko was watching Tohru's small smile of relief with Momiji clinging to her and Kagura consoling her, so that she didn't even realize when Ayame stole up to them and took up Yukiko until she had been nearly knocked off her feet.
"Oh! It's a beautiful, young she-Yuki! You must visit my shop where I can fit you with the most magnificent pieces you've ever seen!"
Yukiko frowned down on him, as the he-Yuki would've, until Tohru smiled brightly up at Ayame. "You've come to rescue your brother, Ayame-san?"
"But, of course, my dear Tohru-chan! If my dearest little brother is in trouble, I have sworn to forever come to his aid; to eternally offer my assistance even if he slaps my hand away."
Tohru's eyes were sparkling with Ayame's determined speech, so touched with Ayame's words of saving his brother that she didn't hear his comment to Shigure and Hatori about how he also wished to meet this female version of himself and his dear Shigure and Hatori.
Kyoko sighed, her pack suddenly seeming much heavier than it really was. I swore I'd die before I went back, but it seems I'm going to die before I even get that far."
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"So, what's the plan?"
Yukiko, Kyoko, Hara, Tohru, Momiji, Kagura, Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori all circled up around a little map Yukiko was drawing with a stick in a patch of dirt. Her map of the Sohma girl's household looked like sets of squares inside bigger squares, except they all overlapped on one side. That one side where they all overlapped, Yukiko said, was Akito's gate. Akito, and a small collection of others, lived within the inner most square. The Juunishi lived within the next square out, the younger ones living in the square outside that. The larger and farther from Akito's square, the thinner the blood of the Sohma family. The outer most square, Yukiko said, didn't have it's own gate and its residents were free to come and go as they pleased.
Their three rescuies, they said, would most likely be found either within Akito's own residence or in the next section from him being held with the rest of the Juunishi.
"Getting through the first few blockades will be easy, but since Kyoko ran away," Yukiko sent the orange-haired girl a very icy glare, "the inner sections all have people watching them. They'll let us through, but not without first informing Akito."
"Once Akito knows we're there, " Kyoko informed them, "there's little hope we'll all get out again."
There was a quiet pause as they absorbed this information, then Ayame leapt up with a great display of confidence. "Let us waste no time in our greatest of quests! Quick! To the car! I shall drive us there!"
Oh God...
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While seats were being argued, Hara and Yukiko approached Kyoko.
"We all don't need to get out. Just the ones that don't belong there need to get out." Hara stated.
"If Akito requests it, Kyoko-san, will you stay behind so the others can go free?"
Kyoko looked up at the sky, as if it would be her last time, and then bowed her head so her cap hid her eyes. "I should've known there'd never be any freedom for someone like me."
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"And that's when the car brought you here, right?"
After a bit of poking and unnecessary interrogation, the three Sohma boys told their story of how they originally met Kyoko, Yukiko, and Hatsuhara and how they ended up at the Secret Sohma's Clubhouse.
Shigeru-san, sometimes called Shigen-chan, wept openly and in an unsympathetically exaggerated manner. "Oh, you poor boys! How could anything so terrible befall such handsome high school boys?"
Kyo cringed as the miss Shigeru hung off him. "Ow, sheez, that hurts!"
"Is it still bothering you?" Ru made a move to stand, gesturing that he spoke of the bandages on Kyo's face, neck, and shoulder. The tone of voice and gesture of concern was enough to conjure little shojo sparkles to surround Ru's expression of worry. For a moment, it seemed that Tohru was with him and Kyo flushed slightly. "No, it's fine."
"The great Kyo-kyo is injured!" Shigeru spouted in shock.
Aaya took Yuki's hand. "You are not injured are you, you who looks so much like my wonderful Yukiko-imoto?"
"I'm not! I'm fine!" Yuki pulled back in horror, but had nowhere further on the couch to move than into Shigure's twin.
Ru still looked concerned and Kagi looked up at the Kyo that looked so much like his own dear lady-friend. "Perhaps Hitori-san should look at it."
"Aw, yes! Hato-san must look at it! I will call her."
"Please don't."
"Her name's Hitori and you call her Hato?"
"Well, I can't very well call her Hito-san, can I?"
Ru's voice broke through the arguing and conversation. "So, where are the girls now?"
They all stopped and looked over at the three Sohma boys. The three mentally throttled boys cast glances at each other.
"Think they might've figured out what happened?"
"Of course they did!" Both Kagi and Aaya leapt from their seats.
"My Yukiko will always be able to find her way back to me. We are bound together with blood and sisterly companionship."
"Kyoko is not that dense! She'd be the first one to figure out what happened!"
Haru had finished fixing the hat and placed it again upon his head. "Kyo and Yuki have very confident fans."
"Shut-up!"
The energetic and adorable Momo hopped up from her own seat and approached Haru with unrivaled excitement. "Do you think that they're coming here to save you?"
Kagi's attention was dragged to Haru. "Yes! Are they?"
Haru's blank expression was rather adorable, and he closed his eyes and replied with another rather adorable, rather hopeful expression and a little smile. "I think that they are."
"Don't worry, young Kagiru, I shall call Yukiko and she shall answer her phone without fail!" Aaya's cell phone came out of nowhere. Apparently she had Yukiko's number under a voice-activated listing. This made the boys less confident that Yukiko would pick up, since Aaya seemed to type to call her at any possible time.
"Hmm, it's busy!"
Kagi pulled out his phone. "Let me try calling Kyoko-chan."
Kyoko's phone was busy. The two of them attempted over and over again to try to get through to their appointed girl, but each time it came up busy.
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"Did you get through to Kagiru-san?"
"No. I keep getting the busy signal."
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There was much argument about wrong numbers and exchanging numbers and who the girls could be calling, and the Sohma boys fretted that no one considered that perhaps the girls were trying to call them. After who knows how long the batter went on, Aaya proclaimed her anguish to the world and resolved that she'd call Hato-san.
There were some sighs and some stifled laughs as Aaya called into her phone. When it started to ring, though, a default jingle broke through the air right outside their door. Aaya didn't seem to notice. "Hato-san? Where are you?"
"I'm outside the door."
The woman that entered the door was the tallest so far. Her hair was dark, darker than Yuki's or Shigeru's. She was dressed in a long black coat with the belt tied at the waist, a blue and purple scarf hid all sight of what she was wearing underneath, though they could see black dress slacks loose enough to be confused as a skirt. Her eyes were a deep violet, deeper and richer than even Hatori's who she resembled so much. Her hair was slicked professionally back, though it still fell loose and threatened to hide both narrowed eyes.
"Hato-san!" Aaya cried happily into her phone.
The woman, Hitori, called Hato, frowned slightly at Aaya and Shigeru, possibly also even at Kagi and Momo. It was hard to tell. "What are you still doing here? Didn't Yukiko and Kyoko-san call you?"
"We were trying to call them!"
Hitori only sighed, as if she should've expected as much. "They called me."
"They did!? Who did? Was it Yukiko-san or Kyoko-san?"
Hitori didn't bother to answer, but stayed in the door. "Come. We have to make the gates ready for them so Akito doesn't discover them."
They all quickly got out of their seats. "Shouldn't we just take the young boys with us?"
"Akito told me he wished to speak with them. They must be here when he is."
They didn't need to go into specifics about why. They could all fill in enough blanks by themselves.
Though the current situation was very serious, there were enough members of the current party that were incapable of feeling worry that one could not tell, out of context, that something big was about to go down.
"It's a break in!" Momo giggled, jumping up and down. "Take care, Ru-Ru!" Momo was about to thrown herself at Ru, but Kagi stopped her this time. "Take care." He said turning to Ru, slapping a strong hand together with his. "We'll get 'em, don't worry."
Ru tried to put on a confident smile in return, but they could tell he was overcome with worry already. Kagi turned and pointed at the three Sohma boys who were abandoned on the couches. "You guys watch 'im, okay?"
"Alright." Haru replied while Kyo and Yuki were still confused.
Momo jumped at Kagi as the line of Sohma girls poked each other out the door. "Me too, right? I can watch too!"
"You can hide in the bushes."
"Yeah! I can! I can!"
"Hitori-san?" With only the Hatori woman left holding the door after Kagi and Momo finally got through the doorway, Ru approached her, both gratitude and worry etched in his face. "Thank you for doing all of this."
If everything else about miss Hato had been her own and not Hatori's, this one little smile would've reminded everyone of Hatori anyhow. It was a smile, though it was small, that made you feel very warm and rewarded knowing that you invoked it. "Don't mention it."
Ru mirrored it back as Hitori closed the door after her.
Ru stood there staring at the door for a minute as the silence in the house became more and more noticeable.
"I guess all that there's left to do is wait." Ru sighed slightly, the quiet not helping him one bit. He stuck his hands in his pockets, not knowing what else to do with them. "Well," he walked back around the couches to the three Sohma boys sitting there, "Is anyone hungry?"
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note: Aaya makes a joke about Hitori's name. 'Hato' means 'dove', while 'Hito' means 'man' or 'person'. Aaya's saying she calls Hitori 'Miss Dove' instead of 'Miss Man'
name notes
- 'Hitori' is a Japanese counter. Directly translated it means 'one thing', but hitori can also be a person counter so it can mean 'one person' or 'alone'.
- Shigure's twin's name is 'Shigeru' which means to 'grow thick' or 'bloom'. The nickname that Aaya called him: 'Shigen' means 'wise remark'.
- Kagi's full name is 'Kagiru' which means 'limit' or 'terminate'
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I hope that chapter wasn't too confusing for all of you (or too long. It's 12 pages!). I didn't change Ayame's name since it was so feminine anyway, but to help you from being confused, the female Ayame is almost always called Aaya.
There are a whole lot of characters in play right now and I'm going to try as hard as I can to keep you from getting lost. It's going to be really really hard since the next chapters are going to be the final ones and people will be getting separated and find other people. I'll try to say who I'm talking about that the beginning of each scene change.
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Thank you for reading and if you have the time, I would appreciate it if you reviewed my chapter. I worked really hard on it. Thank you again.