(A/N: Yay! I'm updating again! :3 It's amazing. Well, I have to thank all those who reviewed/favorited/alerted, and especially those who have reviewed on every chapter. More than I could ever hope for. Well, I hope this chapter is to your liking. I worked hard on it. So, enjoy!)

Operation: Revive The Princess

Release

Everyday for the rest of the week, Arisa and Saki sucked up all the visiting hours for Tohru, banishing the Sohmas from seeing her. The two didn't want to put Tohru, nor most of the Sohmas, through all that pain. Of course, they let Tohru's grandfather visit, no problem. They informed Grandfather what was going on and their plan to keep to Tohru safe. Grandfather agreed to help. The three of them also agreed to not tell any of the Sohmas, and, for her sake, Tohru any of this.

Friday rolled around, the day before Tohru would be released from the hospital. They had to keep Tohru preoccupied in order for their first part of the plan to follow through. Although, it also depended largely on what the Sohma family was doing as well. Saki went off to initiate that while Arisa and Tohru's grandfather stayed to keep Tohru company. It was only a couple of hours later when Saki had finished and arrived at the hospital. She traded places with Grandfather.

"Hana-chan!" Tohru greeted with an enthusiastic smile. Saki smiled pleasantly back at the hospitalized girl.

"Tohru-kun, it's good to see you've got your energy back," Saki commented.

"Uh-huh! I feel much better," Tohru chirped cheerfully.

"You should feel better than new when tomorrow rolls around," Arisa interjected. Tohru flashed Arisa a puzzled look.

"Why's that? What's happening tomorrow?" she asked innocently.

"Tomorrow you're being released from the hospital!" Arisa exclaimed, a huge grin on her face.

Tohru's eyes lit up. "That's wonderful! Now I won't burden you all by making you waste your time to visit me!"

"We're not wasting our time on you, Tohru. In fact, there's nowhere we'd rather be than here visiting you," Arisa urged.

"Though you being in the hospital is not the ideal situation. If I ever come across that driver, I will make sure he regrets hitting our dear Tohru. Yes, I will make sure-"

"Don't scare the poor girl, Hanajima," Arisa chided, interrupting Saki's scheming.

More chatter ensued, but neither Saki nor Arisa hinted at their plans that would be set in motion the very next day.

Kyo kicked off his shoes, just arriving home from being at the dojo. He sighed in irritation. He was exhausted, not just physically, but mentally as well. He knew Tohru's friends were plotting something, but he couldn't figure out anything. Other than his death anyway, but that one was obvious. He knew that they blamed him for the accident. Kyo was tired of thinking, so he headed up the stairs.

Other than his pounding footsteps, the rest of the house was eerily silent. For once, Shigure was out and Yuki was mostly obviously at yet another Student Council thing. Over the week, Yuki had slowly begun to return to normal. Lucky bastard. Kyo grumbled as he passed down the hallway towards his room. Kyo paused when something caught his eye; the door to Tohru's room was cracked slightly, revealing secret insight into the room. Kyo changed directions.

Kyo's tanned hand gripped the edge of the wooden door, and shoved it open. His orange eyes widened. Kyo stood there for a good ten minutes, shocked. The only thing that brought the boy out of his stupor was the rattling of the front door. Quickly, Kyo slammed Tohru's bedroom door shut and dashed off to his own room. He dropped his bag on the floor, locked his door, and went to lie down on his bed.

No. That couldn't have been what he saw. It was impossible. Wasn't she still in the hospital? He must've imagined it. Yeah, that's it; it was all his frightened imagination. Yes…Kyo drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Kyo, groggy from sleep, shuffled past the other rooms the hall pertained. He paused when coming across Tohru's bedroom, but moved on. He was sure that what he observed had certainly been a hallucination, which would be understandable considering the circumstances. Kyo sighed as he passed through the living room and towards the exit, not even bothering with breakfast anymore. Another dreadful day filled with school; oh, how it sucked to live in Japan.

Little did Kyo know that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Yet again, Arisa and Saki had ditched school. There was a good reason behind it, though. Impatiently did the friends wait for the doctor to come and release Tohru. Tohru continued to smile as the seconds ticked by. After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor finally entered via the door. Arisa anxiously jumped to her feet in greeting. The doctor smiled simply at the riled girl.

"Don't worry, I haven't changed my mind or anything of the sort," he told the blonde with a chuckle.

After that, Arisa and Saki were shooed away once again.

It wasn't too long when Arisa and Saki were summoned to fetch their precious Tohru. Tohru had been adorned in an outfit handpicked by her friends, since they had thrown away the blood silken ones without Tohru's permission. Her chocolaty brown eyes had their regular soft glow, which was outshined easily by her wide, excited smile. Her long brown hair had been tied back into a ponytail, a nice change from the all-over hair style she had kept while lying on the white hospital bed. It appeared as though nothing had changed, although that was not the case.

"Uo-chan! Hana-chan!" Tohru called out, snapping her friends out of their daze. Both girls smiled and rushed over to the nearly-recovered girl.

"Tohru!" Arisa cried in joy, attracting many a stare from the nurses in the hallway.

Immediately, conversation sparked. Everything flowed smoothly until the subject of school appeared. Now, Arisa and Saki had to be wary of their words.

"Everything's going fine, Tohru, but we'll help you catch up after you've recovered enough to go back," Arisa stated with a firm, no-arguing-with-me finality to her tone.

Still, Tohru proceeded to open her mouth to protest, but Saki pressed a gentle finger to Tohru's frail, pink lips.

"Tohru-kun, Tohru-kun, the doctor's orders must be followed if you want to be well again," Saki softly reminded.

Tohru bowed her head, knowing that her friend was right. Arisa sighed in relief. Suddenly, Tohru's head snapped up again, abruptly enough to make Arisa jump.

"What about work? I've missed so many days that I-"

"Tohru, Tohru, it's all right! It's all right. We took care of it. You can go back to working once you've completely recovered," Arisa assured.

Tohru didn't know what, but she could tell that there were unsaid words hanging somewhere in Arisa's statement, as if she wanted to say or add something else but couldn't. Ah, well, she mustn't press, because if Arisa wanted to tell her something, she would tell her. Though she still couldn't comprehend what Arisa wouldn't tell her. Again, Tohru mustn't press, for fear of making her friend uncomfortable.

"Let us go now, Tohru-kun. We mustn't let Grandfather wait any longer," Saki urged with a slight smile on her patient face. The other two complied, and the three of them left the hospital together.

Kyo kicked off his shoes as he walked through the entrance into his home. Yuki was beside him doing the same. Neither said a word to each other as they split ways. Shigure bounced his way over to Yuki being his normally loud, obnoxious self. Lucky Shigure, he could still act like himself, like nothing was wrong, and not worry constantly about Tohru.

Kyo let out an irritated sigh as he stomped up the steps to his room. Getting to his room, he tossed his bag onto the floor and flopped onto his bed. His orange gaze locked on the ceiling as his endless thoughts swarmed his mind. It wasn't until dinner when he was interrupted. Kyo, yelling back, declined the offer, declaring he wasn't hungry. Simultaneously, his stomach growled.

Kyo, upset about his stomach betraying him, rolled off his bed and left his room. Just as he was reaching the stairs, his eyes fell upon Tohru's room. He couldn't help but feel his hungry stomach drop. A horrible sensation, damnably related to fear, washed over Kyo's skin like ice water. Kyo shivered. So, against his instincts and better judgment, Kyo walked over to the unoccupied room.

Kyo's throat tightened as his hand clenched the handle of the door. Slowly but surely, Kyo opened the door. He stopped, his hand frozen on the door. His eyes were completely open. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He wanted to move, but couldn't. Hell, he wanted to die. What Kyo saw terrified him, scared him more than anything.

Gone. Everything was gone. Every single scrap Tohru owned had disappeared, vanished. All that was left was the furniture Shigure had bought, but everything else had been cleared out. Even the bed had been stripped of the sheets! Kyo hadn't been hallucinating. This scene made it look like Tohru had never been there.

No!

In an instant, Kyo's heart accelerated, racing as he flashed out of the room and tumbled clumsily down the stairs. Kyo rushed into the living room. Trying to catch his breath, Kyo bent over, placing his hands on his knees. Yuki and Shigure looked up from their meals to cock a brow inquisitively at the strangely acting boy.

"My, my, aren't we hungry, now?" Shigure asked, assuming Kyo's problem was a ravenous hunger.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked sensibly, smart enough to know Kyo's issues did not have anything to do with food.

"Gone," Kyo panted. Yuki lifted another eyebrow, unable to follow Kyo's thoughts enough to make sense of what Kyo was trying to get at. "Her stuff…her stuff is gone!"

Since there had ever only been one female in the household, Yuki immediately knew what Kyo meant. His silver eyes grew wide in shock. In less than a second, Yuki had flown up the stairs past Kyo to double check to see if Kyo's story was true. Yuki came back down in a daze after a few moments. Shigure looked at him expectantly.

"It's true; it's all gone," Yuki whispered. Shigure's eyes widened in surprise for a split second, and then went back to normal, thinking about the situation.

"Hm, that's odd. I mean, she's still in a coma, right?" Shigure asked, putting a finger to his chin. "Well, she could've woken up by now, though."

The concept just occurred to Kyo and Yuki, apparent by the realization in their wide eyes. Yuki then quickly dashed for the phone. Kyo just sat there with a dumbfounded look on his face. Eventually, that vaporized as another thought occurred to him.

"So, even if Tohru woke up, how would that explain Tohru's missing stuff?" Kyo asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

Yuki, after making several quick calls, saved Shigure from answering, since it was apparent that he didn't have an answer, by reentering the room. As he spoke, Kyo still glared at Shigure suspiciously.

"None of Honda-san's friends picked up, but her grandfather did. He has no clue where Honda-san went, since she hasn't been there since the last time she visited."

All three paused to contemplate the information, and Kyo's eyes narrowed upon a specific thought. He looked up at Yuki as he asked, "Did you call the hospital?"

Yuki shook his head, and then went back to make another phone call. A minute later, Yuki came back, silver eyes expanded in horror. He spoke the words that would've made them jump for joy but now make them freeze in confused terror.

"Honda-san was released."

Kyo jumped to his feet, instantly filled with fear induced anger. "Then where the hell is she?!"

"No one knows. It seems like Tohru-kun's gone missing," Shigure reasoned calmly.

Another era of silence reigned, everyone trying to register everything.

"I'm going to try calling again," Yuki declared abruptly, turned, and exited the room and the tense atmosphere there.

"Hm? Who was that, Grandfather?" Tohru asked, her large, innocent chocolate eyes puzzled. Her grandfather had just hung up the phone, and Tohru had just turned the corner.

Grandfather turned around and gave his granddaughter a strangely sad smile, which confused Tohru to no end, and patted her head.

"Just a salesman, Kyoko-san, just a salesman," he muttered, and he walked away. Tohru, confused even more, slowly trotted after him.

(A/N: There it is, and I hope that it's still interesting. I can't ensure another date of updating, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I possibly can. Thank you for reading!)