Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Coming Back ❯ Memories and Questions ( Chapter 6 )

Coming Back

Chapter 6

 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fruits basket. It belongs to Natsuki Takaya.

 

FLASHBACK

A little girl, no more then seven, with hair blacker than midnight wandered through the garden, her hazel eyes bright in the late afternoon light. She didn't even feel the small stones and pebbles in the dirt against her bare feet. She came upon the office of young Hatori Sohma. Hatori was sitting outside, sipping on some tea as he looked out at the summer day. The little girl walked up to him and said brightly “Hi!”

 

Startled, Hatori looked up and saw the little girl standing there in shorts and a big T-shirt and tried to put a name to the face. She seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't say who she was. He thought for a long moment and then it came to him. He had heard that the other dragon that had lived in Puerto Rico had lost her parents. Was this her? What had been her name…Samantha? No…Stephanie? Not that one either. Sakura? Yes that was it! Sakura Tomoe, that was her.

 

“Hi…Sakura right?” He asked, making sure he got it right.

 

Little Sakura nodded and questioned, “Mmhmm. Who're you?”

 

“Hatori. I'm a doctor.” The young doctor answered, looking at her carefully.

 

“Ha…to…ri. Hatori. That's a hard name.” Sakura said slowly.

 

“Oh really?” Hatori raised an eyebrow. He was starting to like this kid more and more.

 

“Yup. A doctor?” Sakura eyed him suspiciously.

 

So she was like those other kids who hated doctors. Hatori resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. These kids were so predictable.

 

“That's really cool! I wish I could be one, but I always have…”Sakura seemed to struggle on the word for a little bit, “Trouble? Trouble remembering all the bones and stuff.

 

Hatori was surprised there. No one had ever said that to him. This girl was incredibly unpredictable.

 

“Sakura! Athonde estas? Where are you?” called out a voice.

 

The young girl turned and saw her older sister, Mariabella, coming around the corner. Mariabella had beautiful wavy auburn hair that fell around her shoulders and eyes like deep vats of chocolate. Her skin was tanned and she wore a white skirt that fell down past her knees and a white shirt with a red dragon on it and a seashell was on a black string around her neck. She wore gray flip-flops and had a tattoo of a fairy on her left ankle.

 

“Hey Hatori. Taking a break from doctoring duties?” Mariabella asked a small smile on her lips.

 

“Mm, you could say that. So this is your little sister, Mariabella?”

 

“Yeah, little Sakura who can't sit freaking still.” Mariabella said, glaring at her sister.

 

Sakura matched her glare easily and said to her in Spanish, “You know I can understand everything you're saying, right?”

 

“Yeah ,yeah Come on. We need to get home.” Mariabella said, taking the seven-year-old's hand, “Talk to you later, Hatori.”She added over her shoulder as the little girl waved and called back, “Bye, Hatori-san.”

-~-~-~-~-

That had been the first time he had met little Sakura Tomoe. He and Mariabella were already rather good friends, although her constant teasing about his transforming into a seahorse did get him annoyed a little. She wasn't part of the Zodiac, but she still knew about the curse. She got along pretty much with everyone. Everyone that is, except Akito. She hated Akito, and hate was an emotion that didn't come easily to Mariabella.

 

Hatori sighed as he went to the phone, which had just ringed. Who would be calling at five o' clock in the morning? He picked up and a familiar voice came through the speaker.

 

“Hatori?” Setsuna asked.

 

“Yeah, it's me. Why are you calling this early?” Hatori questioned.

 

“Don't even try to tell me I woke you up, all right? Because I know that you weren't sleeping. If the rest of us couldn't sleep, neither could you.” Setsuna said.

 

“All right, so I wasn't asleep. Why the call?”

 

“I wanted to check on Mariabella's condition. Is she showing any signs of recall?” Setsuna asked, but Hatori noticed that she lowered her voice a little.

 

“No, not anything. Her memories of Sakura were wiped clean. I was hoping she would remember too, but tell why you're asking first.” Hatori told her.

 

“I was hoping to have some good news for Sakura for once. She's been kinda miserable without her sister around. I'm kind of worried that she might never cheer up. I haven't heard her laugh at all since the incident and she rarely ever smiles. It really just worries me.” Setsuna confided.

 

“I was thinking the same thing. I feel terrible for what I did.” Hatori told her.

 

“It wasn't your fault. You didn't want to do it, did you?” Setsuna asked him.

 

“Of course not! I would never want to do anything like that, and especially not to Sakura. She's been through enough hardship as it is.”

 

“Agreed,” Setsuna said, then paused and seemed to be listening for something then added, “I have to go. I think the girl's are waking up.”

 

“Yeah and I have to get ready for the day.” And the two hung up at the same time without saying goodbye.

-~-~-~-~-~

Setsuna looked at Chiyo who was just coming into the living room. She was already dressed and looked depressed.

 

“You should go and get Sakura. She still has school today.” Setsuna told her, trying to act as though nothing had happened last night.

 

“Don't you think I tried? She won't even respond. I didn't hear a grumble or anything. It's like she trapped herself in there.” Chiyo said quietly.

 

Setsuna sighed. “Okay. You get going for school since you two were almost late yesterday. I'll try to talk to Sakura.”

 

“Yeah. Yeah okay.” Chiyo said, grabbing her bag and walking out the door.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Flashback

Little Sakura peered around the door, her hazel eyes a little dull and sleepy. Her dark hair was in a mess but that was to be expected when it was 1 o' clock in the morning. She could hear voices speaking, but couldn't really understand what they said. Then she heard Hatori's voice saying something and Mariabella saying something that sounded like, “All right. I understand, but promise me this…” and Sakura really couldn't really understand what she said because she lowered her voice so that even Sakura's exceptional hearing couldn't pick it up.

 

That's when there was a flash of white light a few minutes later and the small child heard what seemed to be a body thump to the floor. Sakura ran into the room, now fully awake. Her eyes were wide as she saw Mariabella lying on the floor, sleeping.

 

“What did you do to her?” Sakura asked him in clear Japanese.

 

There was a pain in Hatori's eyes that Sakura saw, but she didn't care. There was surprise evident on his face, because Sakura wasn't supposed to find out. Hatori guessed it didn't really matter now.

 

“She...I…well, her memory had to be…suppressed. It was on Akito's orders.” Hatori told her, regretting the outcome.

 

Sakura came so close to tears that it was amazing she didn't burst.

 

“You…you monster! I hate you! I hate all of it!” Sakura yelled, then turned and ran out of the room and her footsteps could be heard against the wooden floors.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-

 

Sakura lay on the bed, her head on her pillow, staring out the window at the moon. Her eyes, however clear, couldn't see anything beyond blurs outside, the birds that flew by simply melted into the sky; the sun was just a splotch of color to her. She thought back to that night that had ruined her life forever and had made her loathe Hatori and Akito with every fiber of her being. She heard a knock on the door and then the door opened. Sakura could hear Setsuna's footsteps as she walked across the soft carpet.

 

“Sakura…talk to me. What's wrong?” Setsuna said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

 

Sakura said nothing and turned her head so that it was facing the wall.

 

“Come on, Sakura. I want to know what's wrong. Is it about what happened to Mariabella?” Setsuna asked gently, knowing it was a tender subject to the Puerto Rican.

 

That got a response from her. Sakura sat up and looked directly at her, rage in her eyes. “I don't wanna talk about that!”

 

“So it still hurts, doesn't it?” Setsuna asked quietly, more to herself then to Sakura.

 

“Just go away! I don't wanna live here anymore! I can't stand this place. It feels like I'm trapped.” Sakura told her, albeit reluctantly.

 

A hint of a smile touched Setsuna's lips. “You have lived here for nine years. I guess it would start to feel a little trapped, but it's really more your fault than ours. You'd rather isolate yourself than tell us what's wrong. We only want to help.”

 

“Help my butt,” Sakura said, “If you guys really wanted to help, Hatori wouldn't have done that. But he did it, without even trying to help her. I will never forgive him.”

 

“Sakura, before you say that, go talk to Hatori. Who knows? Maybe he did try to help, but couldn't.” Setsuna suggested.

 

Sakura stayed silent, remembering something.

 

“All right, I understand, but promise me this…”

 

“It's just a suggestion.” Setsuna told her, getting up and leaving, knowing that she had given Sakura something to think about.