Home [Fruits Basket]

Chapter 20: Gonna Pay A Visit To Mommy Dearest

3rd Person's POV

"Akito, I will leave some water here." Kureno stated as he crouched down and placed a tray with a water jar and a glass on the kotatsu table.

Akito, who was sitting on the floor and idly leaning against the wall, remained quiet with a small black box in her hands.

"Kureno, do you know what this is?" she asked.

Kureno turned around and noticed the box in her hands. It was black in color with beautiful golden floral patterns on it and was tied up by a red ribbon.

"No." he replied.

"That's right. You won't know." She stated.

"What's in that box?" he asked.

Akito turned around and looked at Kureno with a small smirk on her face.

"Father."

Akari's POV

For the last few days, I had been hearing some rumors about Rin going suddenly missing. Some said she was out of town, others said she was admitted to a hospital. No one knew her whereabouts, not even Hatsuharu. Then, last night, a worried Kagura called me over the phone and requested me to look for Rin and find where she was because deep inside her mind, she felt like Akito might know something about it, but she was scared to face Akito and ask her about Rin.

So, right now, I was at the Sohma Estate, making my way towards the main house to meet my elder twin sister.

"Akari?" a familiar masculine voice called out.

I turned around and noticed Kureno standing a few feet away from me.

"Kureno." I muttered.

"I didn't know you were visiting today." Kureno stated, walking up to me.

"Yeah, well, it was urgent." I sighed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I guess you heard about Isuzu's disappearance." I mumbled.

"Yeah, I heard." Kureno responded, slightly nodding his head. "Even Hatori-Niisan doesn't know which hospital she's been admitted to."

"Is Isuzu really in the hospital though?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "I've my doubts. That's why I wanna talk to Aneki about this."

"Do you think...?" Kureno trailed off, furrowing his eyebrows a bit.

"Maybe." I replied with a shrug.

"Well, then, let's go and ask Akito about this." Kureno stated.

"Yeah, let's go." I nodded my head.

As we walked towards the main house side by side, Kureno suddenly noticed something.

"Akari, look." He whispered, nudging my side with his elbow.

I looked over to the direction where he was motioning me and noticed a maid carrying a tray of food and water and walking towards the forest. I looked over at Kureno, who with his gaze, suggested me to follow her in the woods. I nodded my head in response and we quickly yet quietly followed the maid in the forest. And before we even knew it, we were standing in front of something that I never thought of seeing that place again. It was the Cat's cottage.

"What are you doing?" Kureno finally spoke up.

The maid who was standing in front of the cottage squeaked out in shock and quickly turned around to face us.