For the Love of the Mobudachi Trio

By: Tanokai

"I'm glad to see that your friends could make it, Anishi. Let me begin the introductions. I'm Shigure, and this is Ayame and Hatori."

Anishi smiled. "I'm Anishi and this is Losan and Mayumi."

"Hello!" and before anyone could react, Losan pulled Ayame, Shigure and Hatori into a big hug.

Poof!

Losan now held a black dog, a seahorse and a white snake.

"Huh?" she blinked and looked at the animals in her arms. "Awww! You're all so cute!" She then hugged them tighter. Somehow the three managed to escape and run into a room. Shigure carrying their clothes in his mouth.

"How do we get rid of that monster!" Shigure panted as he closed the door to his room hurridly behind him.

Poof!

Shigure tossed the toher two their clothes and then began to put his own on.

"I don't think she's that bad. She just expresses her passion physically," Aya said as he tossed his hair from over his shoulder to behind him.

"You would think that wouldn't you?"

"You started this mess, Shigure. You should be the one to fix it," Hatori said in his stoic-like voice as he tied his tie.

"Me how did I start it?"

"Weren't you the one who invited us, your new editor and your editor's friends for dinner?"

"Well…" Shigure began to reflect on that.

"Ok ok. I guess I did start this." Shigure took in a deep breath and let it out. "Here I go."

Shigure left the room and headed to the living room where Anishi, Mayumi, and Losan were.

About ten minutes later shigure returned to his room in his dog form with his clothes in his mouth.

"Hatori…" Shigure said a bit unsure.

"Yes?"

"Don't tell Akito that these three know our secret."

Hatori looked at him quizzically.

"I don't want to have to start over with Anishi. I was actually hoping to start a relationship with her tonight."

"I see. It makes sense now. You never did invite girls randomly."

"What do you say then?" Shigure asked nervously.

"I won't say anything."

Poof

"Thanks, Hatori."

After Shigure got his clothes on again, they both left Shigure's room and went back to the living room where Shigure's guests were.

"I should be going now," Mayumi said as they entered. She stood up and stretched her legs. "I have to be in court tomorrow for a case." She then left the house, preparing for her long walk home.

"I should be leaving as well," Hatori said. He too, left. He saw Mayumi holding her coat tightly closed as she was starting her slow walk home.

"Mayumi," He called out to her.

"Hm?" Mayumi turned around to look at him.

"It's a cold night. If you don't catch a flu on your way home you'll catch a cold. That wouldn't be too good if you have a case tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"Come on. I'll drive you home."

"Thank you," Mayumi blinked as she walked toward his car. She got in on the passenger side as he got in the drivers side.

She told him the directions to her house, they were fairly simple, and then began to rub her hands together to warm them and get feeling in them again. It wasn't that cold out.

"Are you alright?" Hatori asked noticing how cold she appeared to be.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit cold. I never could take it very well."

"Perhaps I should give you a small, free check-up when I get you home, just to make sure. Like I said, it wouldn't be good if you ended up ill."

"I'd like that, thank you."

They were both silent for a while. Then Mayumi spoke, "So, you turn into a seahorse. It was a cute form, but I can't help but think t must be tough. You don't have that much mobility as it seemed your friends did."

"I've gotten used to it."

"You mean you gotten used to avoiding it?"

"…Yes. I suppose so."

"Since there isn't a seahorse in the zodiac you're the dragon, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"I see. That explains a lot…"

/Why did I ever take her home that night? It wasn't like me at all. For some reason, though. I felt that she was different from everyone else… that she was… I don't know… I guess I felt that she was somehow a lot like myself../

Four hours and a lot of money after they first entered, Hatori and Mayumi were leaving the carnival with only three prizes: Two goldfish and a seahorse stuffed animal. They had both tried their luck at getting a goldfish and succeeded. Hatori would keep his in his office, and Mayumi in her room. Hatori had been the one to win the other prize. They both played the game where you try and toss a ping pong ball into a small glass bowl. If you got it in a white one you got a small prize, a blue one won a medium prize, and if you got it in the only red one you got a large prize. By some miracle he had gotten it into the red one, though he admitted he was trying for a white one initially, but the ball had bounced out and into the red one. He let Mayumi choose the stuffed animal she wanted. She looked at the selection: a large seahorse, a large octopus, or a large blowfish. She had a love for sea creatures since she was a kid, and lucky her, her favorite animal was there. When she asked for it Hatori turned slightly pink. After thinking about it for a moment, Mayumi turned, not a little pink, but bright red. She had forgotten that Hatori turned into a seahorse when hugged by a girl.

Now, two hours before the carnival closed, they were leaving. Both of them had had long days and were tired, and not to mention, they both had to wake up early the next day.

/I don't understand what was wrong with me then. I was running a basic check-up on her and I asked her if she had planned on going to the festival. When she said no I asked if she'd go with me. Sometimes I confuse even myself. /

Once they got to Mayumi's home they both got out of the car and headed inside. Hatori had left his bag of medical supplies over the other day. Mayumi first went into the kitchen and tried to get a glass fishbowl from the top shelf of one of the cabinets. Losan used the bowl to put her fish in when she cleaned her large tank. Unfortunately, Mayumi was to short to reach it.

Seeing her trouble, Hatori got it down for her. "Here."

Mayumi smiled a bit embarrassed. "Thank you. Sometimes I hate being short. Oh! That's right. Your things. It's um… Where did I put them? Now I remember! I put everything in your bag and then put it in the spare room. If you go down the hall there," she pointed to the only hallway in the house. "and go into the last room on the right it'll be on top of some boxes."

When Hatori entered the room he noticed that there were nothing but boxes in that room. Apparently they hadn't gotten to unpacking everything since they moved in a few months back. He found his stuff easily, but was amazed at seeing a lot of seahorse related items around the boxes labeled "Mayumi". He picked up his bbag and then left the room back toward the entrance.

"Bye, Mayumi, I-" Hatori stopped what he was saying when he realized Mayumi was asleep on the couch. The fish bowl was on a table, the fish in it, and Mayumi was laying on the couch, her arms wrapped around the large seahorse stuffed animal, an unopened book in her hand. She must have been very tired. I was then that Hatori did something very not Hatori-like. He walked to her, and gently kissed her forehead. It was then, that something very strange happened. Something that Hatori did not expect. Poof!

/One day after meeting her, I did the one thing I don't believe I'll ever understand: I kissed her. I saw her asleep on the couch. A peaceful explression on her face and the next thing I knew I had moved her hair from her forehead and gently kissed her. That's when I found out about her curse./

Poof!

A split second before the transformation, Mayumi's eyes flew wide open in fear. Her horror stricken eyes met the confused ones of Hatori's. She had transformed.

"I…I'm sorry. I just…didn't know how to tell you. The only chance I had, didn't work out. I barely knew you. How could I…trust you"

/I never told her, but the words she said that day really hurt. I had not known her for a minute when she came to learn of my curse, and yet I trusted her. However, when I thought upon it I realized I would have done the same thing./

/It had been a little over a week since we met when my senses kicked in. I realized that if Akito ever found out about our relationship, as well as those between Aya and losan and the one between Shigure and Anishi our dream would shatter. The way I see it, it isn't a matter of if Akito finds out, it's a matter of when. That's why I thought it best we break up, rather then me having to erase her memories./

"Mayumi, I think it would be best if this were our last meeting together," stated the cold stoic voice of Hatori, the man Mayumi had fallen in love with.

"What? You're not making much since Ha'ri"

"It would be best if we ended our relationship now."

"Why? Did I do something? Say something? Look, if it's about me constantly calling you a seahorse, I'm sorry. I'm not making fun of you! I just-"

"It's not that. It's not you at all. I just don't want to see you hurt."

"Hurt? Hatori why would I be hurt when I'm with you? This past week I've had the best time of my life. I've had my three best friends who are healthy and happy, and I've had a wonderful boyfriend who doesn't care that I'm the Cancer, and who even shares a similar curse. Who can be someone I can love as well as one who could understand me and I him!"

"May, what's your worst fear? To lose your memories? To forget what has happened this past week? And to for your friends to lose their memories of this week?"

Mayumi's eyes widened. "What?"

"That's what will happen if our relationship doesn't end. I'll make the three of you forget everything that has happened."

/Mayumi seemed to have other thoughts, however. She didn't seem to fear forgetting./

"Hi, Hatori."

"May, why are you here?"

"I couldn't stop asking myself questions. A lot of them have to deal with you, so I figured I should come here to ask them."

"Questions?"

"Yeah. Since you made the threat to me about erasing my memory, I would assume that it is to you that this responsibility falls upon."

Seeing no way out of it, Hatori sat down and nodded. "Yes. It is my duty to erase the memories of those who come to know of our secret, and who Akito, the head of the house, deems unsuitable to know of our curse."

"Then, I wonder, why have our memories not been erased thus far?" Mayumi had assumed her unknowing habit of pacing while asking a series of questions. It was a habit she unknowingly picked up from being a lawyer.

"I was asked by Shigure not to say anything as he cared for Anishi. After a day I too, had no desire to tell Akito."

"But your mind has changed?"

Hatori was quiet for a moment. "No. I still don't want him to know."

"Then why?"

"I don't wish for Akito to figure it out."

"Neither Aya or Shigure seem to be worried."

"They've never been in this situation before either." The words had slipped out before Hatori knew what he was saying. He was just as surprised as Anishi as what he said.

"You have?"

Hatori stood up and walked to the open door so that he could look out at the small pond behind his office. "Yes. A while ago."

"What was her name?"

"Kana. She was my assistant for a while. We fell in love and then after some time, decided to get married, even after she found out about the curse she still loved me. She just laughed about it. We went to ask Akito's permission to marry, but he refused. Soon after I had to wipe Kana's memory."

Mayumi walked behind Hatori. "It's not fair, is it?" she asked as she rested her head and hands on his back, closing her eyes. "Ayame gets to live so carefree. Worrying about nothing and living life as it is thrown at him. Shigure lives with thoughts of the fun and laughs that will come, but not you. You have to live remembering all of the horrible parts of the past that everyone else was allowed to forget. at times you are even forced to make them forget what happened. Then, you are left, alone in a world of memories that has been forgotten by everyone around you."

Hatori was a bit confused. Yes, she had pretty much laid out everything correctly, but why? what point did she have.

"But even so, you do not hate them for being happy. You are happy for them. Even as you live in a lonely world of your own you are happy that they are happy, though a bit envious. sometimes you wish that you weren't alone, that someone else was with you, but then you scold yourself for ever wishing someone else shared your heavy burdens. No one should have to carry such burdens, but Hatori." She closed her eyes tighter. A sudden urge to cry was trying to take over, and it was heard in her voice. "You're not alone. You're not the only one who carries such heavy burdens. So please, don't try to push me away. If not for your the sake of yourself then for the sake of those you care about and who care about you in return. I don't..." Tears began to fall down Mayumi's cheeks. "I don't want... the only place that I can visit you... to be the cemetery."

Hatori turned around and gently lifted Mayumi's face. He then began to wipe away her tears.

"Tears don't fit you, May. You look much better with a smile. I'm a bit hungry. So, what do you say we go out for some lunch. Call it a... date."

Mayumi let out a soft chuckle and a smile as she wiped away the rest of her tears. "Alright. Let's go my little seahorse."

/She knew exactly how I felt. She knew every thought that had crossed my mind since the day I was born regarding memories. She knew it, because she had thought it too./

/A few years passed by and our relationship was, dare I say it, normal. However, good things always had to be spoiled. Anishi and Shigure had been missing for two of those three years, and when they came back, things were ruined once more: Mayumi was in a car accident. I ran all the tests on her to make sure she was alright, and then I ran them again. I didn't want the results I was given, so I ran it yet a third time. I ran the tests five times total until I finally accepted what I saw./

Just as she finished her story, Hatori came in with a strange look in his eyes. Mayumi's eyes slowly rose to his and seemed to widen.

"Um…could you all leave. Hatori and I need to talk alone," Mayumi said, though her eyes didn't leave Hatori.

Losan seemed hurt. "But, May-"

"Let's go guys," Losan said quietly.

"What? But Lo…"

"Let's go." She gently put an arm around Anishi and took her out. Shigure picked up his sleeping son and left. Ayame was last to leave and as he did he saw Hatori go up to Mayumi. Mayumi's eyes were spilling tears and Hatori's eyes began to form tears. He simply closed the door and left the two alone.

"Please tell me this is just a cruel joke, Ha'ari," Mayumi said quietly.

"I'm sorry May, but it's not. He's dead. I ran the test over and over, but every time it came out the same. Our child is dead. He won't ever be born."

/The death of out unborn child was our hardest obstacle to overcome. At least that's what I thought. However, when this American named Mitch showed up things went downhill, and Mayumi left./

"I think it would be best, if this be our last meeting."

"May-"

"It would be best… if we ended out relationship now."

"Why-"

"I don't want to see you hurt, Ha'ri."

"Hurt? May what are you saying?"

"You asked me a question that day that still rings in my ears…" she closed her eyes slowly

"What?"

"You were trying to protect me… Trying to save me from an unbearable pain. But I didn't listen… I always believed that in the end it would be worth it, because I would have had this time with you…"

"May-!"

"But what if I was wrong! I'm so scared, Ha'ri, and yet so certain that I'm doing the right thing."

"What-"

"It's my turn to protect you Ha'ri."

"May, just-!"

"I love you, but goodbye."

Then without a second thought. Without another word, Mayumi turned and ran. She left Ha'ri standing in the doorway shocked.

/Now what? For the first time in my life I am truly at a loss of what to do. Do I just let her go?/