Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Jyuunishi no Enkei Monogatari ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Disclaimer: Fruits Basket and all its characters are properties of Takaya Natsuki-sensei and Hana to Yume comics. Everything else in this fanfic are figments of my imagination. Any similarities to name, places, yada yada yada are simply examples of the world's many coincidental mysteries.

March 19th 2002

Jyuunishi no Enkei Monogatari

Prologue

by Ina-chan

The first thing that hit him when he opened the sliding door was the overpowering smell of history. The sweet dusty smell of carefully preserved ancient records of the past. Ever since he was a child, he always had a fondness for the Souma Main House's personal library. The room not only held family records, but various rare first edition books as well. They were various books that accumulated from ancestors who shared the passion for collecting such treasures. He spent many moments of his childhood reading books and enjoying the peace within these serene walls. That is, if he managed to get away from his cousins, who either dragged or followed him around.

His visit to this place today, however, was not for the purpose of reliving those nostalgic memories. He leaned against the shelf beside him as he found the reason to why he was here, "Yo."

The figure straightened up from the desk, and swivelled his seat around to give the newcomer a smile around the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, "Ya Ha-san! It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't seen you much since you started your residency. Ahhhh! You look terrible. You've gotten thinner, and you look like you haven't slept in a week. Let me guess, you started studying for your board."

Hatori sighed as he walked across the room and took the empty seat beside his cousin, "And you haven't changed a single bit. The banquet will start in a few hours. Everyone is getting ready, and I just barely managed to rescue Ayame from his brother after he offered to do some `minor alterations' on Yuki's costume."

Shigure let out a hearty laugh, "Ah, a fate worse than death! The mouse has been high strung the past couple of days as it is. I remember my first dance, I was so nervous I almost wet my pants."

"Almost?" Hatori raised an eyebrow as he shook a cigarette from the packet

Shigure simply laughed as he lit his lighter and offered it to his cousin, "He'll be fine. Kagura has been coaching and practicing with him for more than a month now."

"Sou," Hatori began after a drag, "What is it that caused you to forget the time?"

Shigure gave him a conspiratory smirk, "I found something old, interesting and possibly forbidden."

Hatori blinked, "An old perverted magazine?"

The other man almost fell off his seat with that and gave his cousin a wounded look, "Ha-san~~~ Really? Is that all you think of me?"

"Yes," Hatori replied without hesitation before taking another long drag

"I guess I should have expected that answer from you," Shigure replied, sweat-dropping, "But, it isn't anything like that."

"So what is it?"

Shigure raised a mid-sized book-bound object that lay open on the desk in front of him, "A diary."

"That's even worse."

"I don't think Iwaku-san will mind me reading it since he's long dead, and specially since we share the same curse."

"Now I'm sure I don't want to have anything to do with that."

"Hnnnnn? Are you sure Ha-san?" Shigure paused, that conspiratory expression continuing to shadow his face, "… this particular journal documents his research on the Jyunnishi legends."

A wave of silence washed over the room as the two men waited for the other to react. Seeing that his cousin was watching him expectantly, waiting for him to continue, Shigure smiled and broke the stillness, "Souma Iwaku-san was a Jyuunishi during the Meiji era. He was a historian by profession. Because of the amount of travel due to his work, he was able to dedicate an equal amount of passion to his hobby, researching and compiling various folklore legends. He was most particularly interested on the varying folklore of…"

"…the Jyunnishi circle," Hatori finished the sentence for his cousin

Shigure opened the yellowing leaves of journal to one particular page, "He mentions one particular not-too-well-known version of the legend. I found it most interesting because unlike all the other myths… this one mentions the Souma Family and the Souma Family curse."

[Neither the origin of this tale, nor when it started is known. I stumbled upon it by chance from the mouth of an old travelling storyteller. He claimed to be the last direct descendant of the Mizugawa Clan.

It all began with a promise, one single promise, filled with good intentions… a single promise to protect one person holds dear. This single promise would eventually lead to an ultimate deception, a feud between two families, the death of Mizugawa's faithful eleven, and a curse that will continue until the world is purged of the Souma bloodline.]

"Hmph," Hatori smirked despite of himself, "Until the world is purged of the Souma bloodline… Iwaku-san is every bit melodramatic as you are."

"It gets better," Shigure stated, "Despite the grand introduction… according to this legend, the true cause of our family's curse is so cheesy, its not even vaguely funny."

"And that is?"

With a dramatic pause, Shigure let out a long drag before facing his cousin to give him a knowing smile.

"Love."

End of Prologue

To be continued on 1st Zodiac: Nezumi

Author's squawk:

Ina-chan is baaaaaaaack from Internet-less-dom! ^_^. Well, here is a little welcome back gift for you guys. I still haven't checked my mail, so I dunno what's happening yet, or what I missed.

I have no idea why I started this knowing that the Jyuunishi circle in Furuba isn't even complete yet! Well… anywayz… I know this is an ambitious fic and not particularly original. But hopefully, this is going to be entirely different. I know that there are "curse origins" already written, but this one just occurred to me… ironically enough… while I was packing for my move! WAAAAAH! Well, I've already outlined the whole story, unfortunately with the Horse and the Rooster chapter still missing. The 1st, 2nd and last (13th) chapters are already finished and written in my head… If time and inspiration permits, I'll probably have chapter 1 out before the end of this week. Heh-heh, I do have to spend time with my new babies, ne?

Yep! I am now the proud Mommy of two beautiful baby Mini-Rex bunnies! One is very friendly and frisky white with grey ears, nose, and "socks" and soulful red eyes that I promptly christened "Yukito" (Snowfall) and a very shy pure black bunny with expressive brown eyes that my sister christened "Yugure" (Nightfall). Wanna see pics? MAN! Ina-chan is really excited about them and is spoiling them to death, its not even funny! http://inachan.inasanity.serverpro2.com/bunny.html

Well then, comments, criticisms, bricks… you know where to send them! ina_chan@yahoo.com

Ja!

Ina-chan