Chapter 1

It had been about 4 years since Tohru Honda had left the Sohma's. Well, I say left, it was more like ran away. But she had a good reason, although no one knew what this reason was.

Anyway, in the 2½ years she had been living with the Sohma's, it had been a bit of a roller coaster. When she first moved in, she found out that the Sohma's were cursed with the animals of the Chinese zodiac (whenever they are hugged by a member of the opposite sex, or they are under a load of stress they transform into one of the 13 animals) but was told to keep this a secret or her memories would be erased. Then she found out, 1 year later, they Shigure Sohma (the dog) wanted to adopt her. Everything seemed to be fine after that, until one certain day, the day she ran away from the Sohma's.

x Flashback x

'Ok, Tohru, here is the last thing I need you to do for me,' said Akito smiling.

Tohru smiled back. But in her mind she was asking all sorts of questions. 'Why is he being so nice to me, it's Akito? Is he really going to let me live with the Sohma's? Is this the real Akito?' Her train of thought was then stopped by Akito's request.

'I want you to … leave the Sohma's!'

Tohru's eyes widened in shock. 'Yep, this is the real Akito, all right,' she thought. She didn't reply, she didn't know how to reply to a request like that.

'I mean if you love the Sohma's as much as you say you do, then you will do as I say and leave them.'

'But … but …?' was all she could manage to say. Why? Why now? Why did he choose now of all times to make her leave? He had had 2½ years to make her leave. Why now?

'And when I say leave, I don't just mean moving out of Shigure's house!' Akito grinned evily as he continued. 'I also mean you cannot speak to them either. You may speak to the Sohma family, as long as it is not the members of the family that are cursed. If you say yes to this offer, I will let you decide if you want to keep your memories or not. If you say no, on the other hand, then your memories will be erased whether you like it or not!'

Through this whole conversation Tohru had kept quiet and tried to keep tears in. But now, after hearing the offer Akito had just made, endless tears were rolling down her face.

Either way she thought about it, she had lost. In either of Akito's options she would loose the Sohma's. But after a long time of thinking, she had finally made her decision.

'Ok … I … I will … I will leave the Sohma's, but I want to keep my memories of them.' This was the hardest thing Tohru had to say in her life.

'Great … exactly what I wanted to hear you say! Now when you leave here in a minute I do not want you telling anyone about our little conversation or of the deal we have made, agreed?' Akito smirked at Tohru. She just gave a small nod in agreement. 'Good, go about your day as normal until midnight where you will leave the Sohma house with your packed bags and never speak to them again. Right!'

'Yes Akito, I will leave the Sohma's at midnight like you said,' Tohru was looking at the wooden floor as she said this. She was trying to be strong and not let what he had just asked her to do get to her. She thought to herself that she would have to do this if she ever wanted to remember the Sohma's, and losing her memory of them would be the worst thing that she could think of.

'Good, now you may leave.' Akito showed her the door with a point of his finger. Before Tohru reached the door though he called to her again to say one last thing.

'Oh yea and Tohru, … have a nice life …' and with that he turned and left. Tohru could swear she heard a slight dark laugh as she walked out of the door and began her last day with the Sohma's.

x End Flashback x

As she walked through the busy streets, all she could think about was that one day and how it had changed her life forever. There was not a day that went by when she didn't think about the Sohma's but also when she thought of the consequences that would happen if she ever did speak to them.

She was thinking this when she reached her work place.

As she walked through the gates to the high school all of the thoughts of the Sohma's left her as she began to think about th day ahead that she had planned.

Becoming a teacher at the high school was one of the best things that had happened to her (besides meeting the Sohma's but that didn't turn out so good). She walked into the classroom where she teached about 5 minutes before the class started to come in and take their seats.

'Good morning class,' Tohru said with a giant smile on her face.

'Good morning, Miss Honda,' the class replied all smiling back at her.

'I hope you all had a good weekend, please get out your books and start answering the questions that I am about to put on the board.'

As she started to put the questions up, she felt a lot happier then she had at the beginning of the day, but something inside of her made her think that something was also going to happen today that was either going to be really good or the worst thing ever.