Chapter 1 - Minako Sohma

Chapter 1 for fanartRain dripped down my face as I trudged home from school. My vision was screened through the layer of orange hair that hung in my face. “God, I hate this,” I said as I struggled to keep walking. I could barely see because of all the rain, but I knew where I was going. Beside me, my cousin, Yuki, chatted with a girl named Tohru Honda. Tohru wasn’t part of our family, but she lived with us anyway. “Hey Kyo,” Yuki said, turning to me “you still alive?” “Shut it Yuki!”Dang, I hated him. I continued dragging myself along until I heard Tohru say, “Kyo-kun! Look out!” I looked up just in time to see a girl running straight at me and then, WHAM! I was knocked backwards on to the extremely hard sidewalk. Just then, a bunch of awful things happened. My pants ripped along the seam in the back, my umbrella got blown out of my hands, I felt hot blood trickle down my arm where it had scraped the sidewalk, and my book bag split. I looked up to see who I had run into. There stood a girl a little older than me. “Oh man,” she said, “I am like, sooooo sorry!” She held out her hand to help me up, but I ignored it and stood up on my own. “Omigosh,” she started as she saw my arm which was bleeding pretty badly, “your arm it-” “It’s fine,” I cut her off. “No! Lemme help you,” she said. And with that, she tore the sleeves off of her shirt, and started tearing them into strips. Her medical technique, if you could call it that, seemed a bit familiar, I noted as she started winding the strips around my arms. “There,” she said, standing back “that should hold you over until you get home.” I was about to say thanks when I noticed just how pretty she was. She had really long black hair that reached almost past her waist. Her blue eyes were almost piercingly bright. The one thing that really caught my attention was her height. She was really tall. In all honesty, she looked a lot like… Hatori. Huh. Weird. Just then, I realized how long I had been staring at her. I could feel my face heating up and I averted my eyes. She turned a bit pink too, but held out her hand, this time to shake mine, saying, “What’s your name, dear?” I jumped at the ‘dear’ but otherwise said, “Kyo...Sohma.” She smiled at me and then turned to Yuki and Tohru. “Then you must be Yuki and Tohru!” We all stared at her in amazement. “Um... How do you know our names,” Tohru asked. “Well, I’ve of course, heard all about you from Akito! He doesn’t think very highly of you, you know, but I think you people are absolutely wonderful!” She then smiled brightly. “Oh! Well, what might your name be,” Tohru said smiling back at her. “Oh me? I’m Minako! Minako Sohma!” I swear, our jaws hit the sidewalk right then and there. A Sohma? Another Sohma? How come we didn’t know her? How did she know Akito? Finally, Yuki voiced one of my many questions out loud, “How are you related to us, Minako-san?” Her eyes, for some unknown reason, got really wide and really big before she said, “Oh... Um... I- That is...” She stuttered like that for a bit longer before saying, “I can’t tell you,” in a singsongy kind of voice. “Trust me! You’ll find out soon enough though, I was supposed to find you and come home with you. Gure-chan said it was okay.” My thoughts reeled as she skipped merrily ahead. Why was she coming home with us? How is she related to us? And why on EARTH was she calling Shigure ‘Gure-chan’?!?!?! Was she actually friends with him? I shuddered at the thought. Just then Yuki tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, Kyo.”“What?!”“You like her don’t you?”“WHAT?!?”“Is that all you can say?”“I do NOT like her!” Everyone stopped walking to turn and look at me. Crap. I had said that regally loud. Minako blushed insanely, but then she turned back around and started skipping again. Tohru turned a light shade of pink, but she too kept walking. Yuki however was not so eager to give up the conversation, if you could call it that. “I saw you blush when you looked at her.” I faltered for a moment, but then recovered saying, “I did not blush! Why would I do something stupid like that?” “Because you like her!” “NO I DON’T!” “Whatever...” Yuki then turned back to Tohru and continued talking to her. Stupid Yuki... I did NOT like her... right? As we walked, I noticed that a bunch of the kids were pointing at me and whispering. At first, I wondered what they were talking about. Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. My pants. Crap. They had ripped when I fell and I had forgotten all about until now. Crap. Again. Well, I was just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it, despite the fact that a whole load of girls had just seen my boxers. God, I hadn’t even met Minako very well and I already hated her. This was all her fault after all. When we finally got home, I went straight to my room and slammed the door behind me. I pulled off my shirt and pants and threw myself on my bed. I picked up my pants and examined the hole. It was more of a rip than a hole, but it was still big enough to be embarrassing. Crap. Well, I was just gonna have to ignore everyone at school. Ahh... Who cares anyway? The next day was a Saturday, so we didn’t have school. Thank God. When I went downstairs, already dressed, there sat Minako, smiling so brightly she could have outshone the sun. She was chatting animatedly with Shigure. “Good morning Kyo-kun,” she said, turning to me. I grunted slightly and then collapsed right there in the middle of the floor. I wasn’t sick or hurt or anything, it was because it was raining. I don’t like the rain. I get sick and tired and I feel like crap. Then Tohru walked in carrying a tray with breakfast on it. “Good morning everyone,” she said. I grunted again. Shigure finally took notice of my presence and said, “still feeling a tad under the weather are we?” I ignored him. Shigure was weird. I didn’t like him. Minako seemed to however. “So Gure-chan,” she started, “you’re the dog right?” We all froze in our places, including Yuki who had just walked in. At first Shigure pretended not to know what Minako was talking about, and he said, “I- um.... What?” Minako rolled her eyes and said, “When you are hugged by a girl, you turn into a dog right? You are possessed by the vengeful spirit of the dog from the zodiac!” We knew there was no more pretending. She knew. “Um.. Yes. Yes I am,” Shigure said. Minako smiled for the umpteenth time before saying, “Akito told me all about you guys. Like how you’re each possessed by a vengeful spirit of the chinese zodiac. And how you each transform into your respective animal when you’re hugged by a person of the opposite gender! And he told me about how Kyo-kun’s ears pop up all the time.” At this point, I raised my head up off the floor to look at her. “He... He told you about that?” Minako nodded, “but I wanna see for myself if it’s really true.” Shigure looked at her almost suspiciously, “Minako-san, how do you intend to do that?” Minako smiled mischievously at me. I slid back a bit, farther away from her. Then she completely tackled me and we both went flying across the room, slammed into the wall, and landed in a heap, with me laying on my back and her sitting on my stomach. Sure enough, out came the ears. “Kitty!” Minako acted like a kid. She tugged on my ears and laughed really loudly. “So it is true,” she said, still laughing. “Aww! They’re so adorable!” “Yeah, yeah, get off me,” I said, pushing her off. I then glared at Shigure who was laughing his stupid butt off, rolling on the floor. “Oh God, she has to stay,” he said, tears in his eyes. “I love her already!” “Yeah... So does Kyo,” Yuki muttered. Everyone turned and looked at him. Minako especially looked surprised. She turned such a bright shade of red that she could have lit up the room by herself. Shigure just stopped talking and stared from me to Minako to Yuki to Tohru. Tohru turned bright red for some reason. And me? I went at Yuki with everything I had. “Shut up! I do not like her,” I yelled, attempting to punch Yuki in the face. Yuki then grabbed my fist and shoved me away, sending me flying across the room. Right into Tohru. There was a big orange explosion and I turned into a cat. Just then, Haru walked in, sweeping his white and black hair off of his face. “Hello everyone... Oh! Hello... Who are you?” He turned to Minako. “I’m Minako,” she said, smiling. Her face was still a little red. “You probably didn’t know it, but I’m a Sohma too.” Haru looked a bit taken aback at this news, but he just smiled and sat down. “I’m Ha-” he started, but Minako cut him off. “You’re Haru! Right?” Again, Haru looked a little surprised. “Yes... How did you-” POOF! I changed back to a human... A naked human. Shigure simply held his newspaper in front of his face. Yuki looked away. Tohru blushed even more, and Minako simply kept talking to Haru. I took my clothes and shoved them on. “So... How did you know who I was,” Haru asked. “Akito told me,” was Minako’s reply. “A-Akito?” Haru faltered for a moment. No one liked Akito very much. “Yup. Since my father doesn’t even know I’m his daughter, or that I exist, I was given to Akito to raise,” she explained. Everyone’s eyes rested on her. “You were raised by Akito,” Shigure said. Yuki looked at her and said, “I give you my sympathy.” Minako laughed and said, “I was really more or less raised by myself.. Akito never really had time to look after me... He doesn’t really like me at all...” Everyone was looking kind of concerned. “So,” Shigure began, “if you were raised by Akito, why’d you come here, Nako-chan?” Minako looked surprised to be called ‘Nako-chan’ but she continued, nevertheless. “Well, I came here... to see my dad. I wanna tell him who I am,” she said. Shigure smiled warmly at her. It was weird to see him smile like that. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to meet you,” he said. Minako smiled back at him. I stood up. “Whatever. I’m going to bed.” And with that, I left the room. That night, I lay there, wide awake.... Thinking about her... Minako... I didn’t like her. Did I? I couldn’t figure it out so I got really ticked off at myself. She probably liked Shigure anyway, the way she said, “Gure-chan!” It was then that I noticed how different she was from Tohru. Not only did Minako actually have parents, but she was a lot more forceful and...kind of... like me. No. No! I was starting to sound like... I dunno... like I had a crush on her, which I didn’t!

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