(NB: Make
yourself 3 cups of coffee, breakfast, lunch & dinner before
commencing to read this 850-word piece of writing)
Sixteen-year old
Tohru Honda recently lost her mother in a car crash. Her relatives'
reluctance to take her in leaves Tohru with no choice but to live with
her grandfather. Since her grandfather was living off his personal
savings, she decided to work part-time so she wouldn't be a financial
burden on him. When her auntie and cousins decided to move in, the house
had to be renovated. And Tohru had to move out. Deciding not to trouble
her friends, she paved her own path and pitched a camp in the nearby
woods until the renovations are complete. Independent and considerate,
as she had always been, she handled all her expenses with the money
which she earns as a part-time maid.
A week after she'd
started living in the tent, she stumbled upon a house in the woods as
she was walking to school. She noticed that outside the porch were small
snacks in the shape of the Jyuunishi (12 Chinese/Japanese
zodiacs). Her curiosity sparked. She came closer to look, when suddenly
a man came out from the house. The twenty-seven-year old introduced
himself as Souma Shigure. The two began to lead a conversation about the
Jyuunishi snacks. They ended up conversing about the Jyuunishi
folktale itself.
The conversation
abruptly ended when Shigure introduced his sixteen-year old cousin,
Souma Yuki, to Tohru. Apparently Yuki attended the Kaibara Gakko
(Kaibara High School) with Tohru. He had always been renowned for his
attractiveness. It appeared that even Tohru, like all other girls, had
been idolizing the "High School Prince" from afar.
The two Souma's'
were startled when Yuki explained that she had been living in the woods
for the pass week. It turns out that the woods belonged to the Souma
family and never had there been an outsider to live within its vicinity.
But Tohru cleverly led the conversation away and the two Souma's' let
this detail pass for now. Yuki eventually offered to walk Tohru to
school, which she was thrilled to accept.
By coincidence,
the two met again on the same afternoon. After a short conversation,
Tohru left for her part-time job; baffled that the "High School
Prince" seems somewhat furtive in the way he talks. Later that
night, Yuki and Shigure were walking through the woods exchanging
retorts about who should cook. Shigure suggested that a female housemaid
would be ideal. Yuki resented the idea. To him, a female only meant
trouble for the Souma's'.
Just then they saw
Yuki. They followed her and found her tent. The two confronted her and
took her back to their house. Shigure explained to her the fragility of
the land, and that perverts roamed the woods at night. He snapped when
he heard a wolf howling and he told Tohru that there had just been a
landslide. Tohru inquired how he knew, and he simply replied that it was
a natural instinct. And sure enough, a landslide had happened right over
the tent. Tohru ended up spending the night at the Soumas' house.
The next morning,
Yuki offered for Tohru to live together with them until the renovations
were completed in her grandfather's house. Shigure asked whether she can
cook and clean. When she replied that she could, it was an instant deal.
With an extremely filthy house and lack of nutritious food, Yuki and
Shigure were more than happy for Tohru to stay.
The next day, she
met sixteen-year old Souma Kyo. The outsider (in essence) had a serious
dislike towards Yuki, and soon Tohru found out why this was so. Through
a clumsy, twisted trick of fate, she uncovered the curse of the Souma
family:
In fact the story
originates from hundreds of years ago, when the ancestors of the Souma
family had been cursed by the sprits of the Jyuunishi. Each
member of the Souma's' born in the year of its respective zodiac will
transform into that animal whenever they're hugged by the opposite sex
or when their bodies become nervous. After a certain amount of time,
which could vary, they return to their original state. Worst and
funniest of all, they're naked after the transformations back to human
form!
Tohru found these
facts out quite unexpectedly and to everyone's surprise as well: Kyo
turned into an orange cat, Yuki turned into a gray mouse, and Shigure
turned into a black dog in front of her eyes. Tohru finally understood
Yuki's strange behaviour and why he always pushed the girls away when
they tried to hug him. She also understood how Shigure was able to sense
the landslide, and why Kyo and Yuki were always on different ends.
Anyone who knew about the cursed secret of the Souma family had their
memories "erased" by one of the psychically-gifted Souma
family members (ever seen MIB?). But this wasn't the case for Tohru.
Akito, master of the Souma family, chose to let her live... I mean... he
choose to let Tohru know about this curse and continue living with Yuki,
Kyo and Shigure. The truth is, Akito plans to use Tohru to conquer the
world! Don't take it too seriously.
