Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Learning to Stand ❯ Epilogue: Still Standing ( Chapter 19 )

Epilogue: Still Standing

There are some things in this tale that need finishing up. I hate loose ends.

Tamae-san did get her memory erased that day. She and Rin didn't cry. Ha-san and I also noticed they didn't say goodbye. When I escorted Tamae-san to see Akito Rin walked with us. Of course, Akito was furious with both of them. She took all the blame on herself. She told Akito that she had pushed through all of our attempts to dissuade her and forced us to tell her the truth. When he asked her why, she replied, "Secrets are meant to be uncovered, ne? I could never resist a mystery."

Later, I saw Rin sitting under a tree with the only other person I think she's ever trusted: Hatsuharu.

It would seem Tamae-san's last gamble paid off after all. Rin-san still fights him but he's patient. I think she's secretly glad that he won't let her push him away this time. She can still put him in Black mode with a few choice words but she doesn't do it as often as she used to. He's softening her. I don't think she minds.

I have a confession: I never returned the scroll. I do have a small knowledge of these things and I thought what Tamae-san told me was a code she had translated looked like transferred ink or mold spots. I took it to several well-respected archivists and they tended to agree with me. Aya, Ha-san, Haru and I all agreed that Rin will never know.

It turns out that Sohma Haruko did exist. We knew about Sohma Minoru and Sohma Yoshiro-records for the jyuunishi are kept separate from records of the general family. Haruko lived during the same time as the two jyuunishi in the story. She was pregnant; she miscarried the baby and died. She was seventeen. Some time later, while he was digging around looking for costume patterns, Aya found something else: a small collection of pages all with drawings of the same serving girl. One of them was actually signed Sohma Minoru. Once again, we took the pages to some experts and they all agreed that every drawing was more than likely done by the same person. As Tamae-san would say, there are simply too many coincidences to be taken lightly.

As for the `translation' that started this whole thing, we're not sure what to think. Aya and I have discussed it at length, but we can't come to any real conclusions. There was no way Tamae-san could have gotten into the compound without anyone knowing. There simply aren't any references at the university library with the Sohma name in them. We've done a good job of covering our asses over the years. So how could she have written what she did?

Haru has a theory; he told us about it one day when we were all at my house. He said that he thinks Tamae-san is Haruko's reincarnation. Somehow during the whole affair some of those old memories broke through-probably because a jyuunishi was involved. I think he expected us to laugh at him. Haa-kun has become very spiritual, ne?

And Tamae-san? She's still attending the university, working on her master's in foreign languages. Akito told me to keep an eye on her; if she stumbled on our secret once we can't let it happen again. She's very observant, is Tamae-san. After her memory was erased I entered a mentoring program at the university; Sohma connections made sure that I was assigned to her. Guess what? She's decided she doesn't want to be an archivist after all. She's decided to become a novelist. I can only assume it was my influence that led her to change her mind. I introduced her to Mii-chan a few months back and she's already got her first novel ready to be published. It's a romance.

I think she has a crush on me.

Aya, Ha-san and I are still the same. Well, not really. Time doesn't stop, after all. I think Tamae-san did teach us something; I know that by reading this I certainly learned something. I learned I was right; she is a romantic. And it's true that at any point in this she could have chosen to leave well enough alone but didn't. She taught Rin how to trust; Haru is teaching her that she doesn't have to fight alone. Looking at the two of them and reading the story of Haruko and Minoru, I know they've come to realize that just because they are jyuunishi doesn't mean they can't choose to take happiness when it presents itself to them. Sometimes they have to stand, but for the most part Akito leaves them alone.

If you ask me, I'd say he's more afraid of Black Haru than anything else.

Ja ne!

Sohma Shigure