Cursed or Not (I don't care) [Fruits Basket fanfic]

01. Back to where all started

Important note: I'm not a native english speaker (nor a professional writer), and though I feel kind of comfortable with it, my level is far from being bilingual. Even so, I wanted to write this story in english so it can be reached by more people (specially Furuba fans). Please let me know any typo or mistake that I can have done in the comments of each chapter so I can polish it as much as possible. Thanks in advance and please enjoy it!

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Nao Izumi is a 19 years old university student. She doesn't exactly belong to the Sohma family, but her adoptive father was a far relative of the Sohmas and that's the reason why Nao used to spend many of her childhood time with some of the zodiac members. Specially with Akito Sohma, who considered her a "real cousin" -in her own words-. They were very attached to each other at that time, when Akito was still not as somber and frightening as nowadays. The image that Nao projects in her mind is from a naive and kind Akito, who always played with her and looked after her (as she was a couple of years older than Nao) and always told her so many interesting stories... Those memories are really precious to Nao. Specially after the incident... Unfortunately, after Nao's father passed away, her mother decided to move to a far away city (as she never really fitted in the family clan -unlike Nao-). But the truth is that Nao accidentally discovered the secret of the Sohma family just the day she was moving away.

That day, Nao and her mother went to pay a visit to the main house of the Sohmas, Akito's one. It was hard to assimilate that just a few days after her father's death, she had to do something that would break her heart for the second time in a small amount of time. She had to say goodbye to all her "cousins", and specially to Akito, who she cherised so much. While her mother was paying respects and formally saying goodbye to some of the elder members, Nao walked to the back courtyard where she guessed she could find Akito, as usual. And as she was walking around the house she could hear the giggles and noise made by some other kids playing in the back garden. Akito was there too, sitting on the porch, just being able to look at them due to his delicate health condition. Nao couldn't contain the tears coming out of her eyes as she was assimilating the idea of indefinitely parting ways with her best friend, so she decided to hide behind a tree while trying to control herself. That was the moment when she heard the commotion.

- Oh no! Look at him! He turned into a rat! - One of the children yelled

- That's so gross! - Added another kid.

Some laughters and a girl crying inconsolably accompanied the rampage made by the children. "What's happening?" thought Nao, and turned her head to presence a weird scenery. All the kids where pointing to a rat, located in the center of all the mess lying on a pile of kid's clothes. But the most surprising thing was Akito's reaction to the incident. A side of Akito that Nao haven't seen before. He (because at that moment she still believed that Akito was a boy) suddenly stood up and started yelling them completely out of his mind.

- Yuki! You stupid rat! How can you be so fool to let a girl hug you! You knew this could happen! Idiot, idiot, IDIOT!!! - Akito yelled to the rat.

And for everyone's surprise, the rat answered back - I... I'm sorry Akito...

"WHAT!?" The general commotion just grew bigger, making the situation uncontrollable. The events that followed that moment are somewhat blurred in Nao's mind, who then was feeling so confuse and dizzy to even move from her hiding spot. She kept standing there just trying to understand what just have happened. She only remembers once thing clearly, Akito yelling hysterically:

- Hatori, erase their memories! From everyone! Don't let anyone remember this! No one should know about the curse.

And then a young boy that had just arrived -Hatori, who Nao barely knew, as he was several years older than her- did something to all the kids that witnessed the incident, leaving them lying momentarily on the ground like if they were asleep. Once finished with all of them he took the rat in his arms, as well as the clothes, and turned back to Akito.