Fifteen Years ago…

It was raining as hard as it could on the ten year old girl as she clung to her schoolbag and trudged up the muddy driveway on her own. She was drenched, but didn't seem to care as the most debilitating news that seemed to emotionally cripple the girl was on repeat in her head.

Your mother is dying, come home now...

In her grief she didn't hear the footsteps behind her and didn't feel the umbrella protect her from the prevailing winds. A tall youth, not much older than her smiled down at her when she looked up at him, her usual sparkling sky blue eyes now a cold and miserable grey that seemed to mimic the unsympathetic skies above.

"Shigure-kun." The girl murmured.

"I'll walk with you home." Shigure said as he just seemed to be there. Although she could not touch him, she enjoyed his presence. His mere attention to her was the only thing that seemed to make this little girl feel somewhat less filled with pain.

As she reached the estate, this little girl, now soaking and her white hair was matted reached her doorway. She didn't have the willpower or strength to open the door when she heard the baby giggle in the usual way that babies do. Shigure opened it for her and the bane of her mother's existence stood there holding her son. Raima passed the woman with no comment, but Ren snickered.

"You and your filthy witch mother are going to be out of my house." Raima stopped and looked at the woman with such an outraged face that it made Ren quieten ever so slightly. When she turned it seemed that Ren regained her courage and called after her.

"Take that dead bitch out of my room."

This just made Raima snap. She couldn't control the animal when it heard this and she began to transform into the largest of white tigers she had ever become. She stared down the woman and her eyes regained the searing intensity that they held.

"What did you say you golddigging slag?" The tiger hissed and Ren, fearful for her life sprinted out into the cold with her child in hand. When Raima returned to her normal form was the time she entered her mother's sanctuary.

The room was dim, because Raima's mother couldn't stand intense light. She lay on her bed, the mere shell of what she used to be. By her side was Hatori's father, the family doctor, as well as her grandmother. Raima's mother ushered the girl by her side and Raima couldn't hold anything back anymore. And when she cried, all her mother could do was to hold her and tell her she was going to a better place where she wouldn't be in pain.

"Don't leave me mama." Raima screamed and her mother was close to tears too. "I don't want to be here without you."

"I will always be with you." Her mother murmured into her hair. "And I am so proud of my little tigress. You are a gift to our family, both mine and your fathers."

"Don't die."

"Come here Raima." Her grandmother steered the girl away from her mother for a moment as the dying woman could lie down and when she closed her eyes, Raima screamed with all of her might, her wails of pain and heartache could be heard for miles around. It seemed like eternity until she calmed enough to be taken away so her grandmother could take the measures in cleaning and dressing her only daughter to take back to America.

Shigure waited for the girl at the end of the hall and when he saw the girl his heart sank. The expression she wore was the saddest he had seen on any child. When she saw him, she began to weep again and stopped. She couldn't move when she saw over his shoulder her father, that patriarch of the Sohma family, Akira. Her hair bristled and the same bolt of energy coursed through her body. Shigure dodged her as she jumped at him, hurling all of her anger and rage at her target as she clawed and bite until she was satisfied. Akira didn't fight the girl, but allowed her the outlet. He knew that most of this anger was because he had had the affair with Ren and this ended with a son that he seemed to be more attached to that Raima.

"Get off him you animal!" Ren roared and held the broom, ready to attack Raima. Akira saw this and sat up. Lifting his tired and now emotionless daughter, he didn't say a word as he walked away from her.

"We will speak later about what you had just said Ren." Akira said coldly when he reached the end of the hall. Shigure bowed slightly when Akira passed him.

"Akira-sama, Andromeda's family has arrived." Shigure announced.

"Good." Akira murmured. "Shigure, can you look after Raima while I discuss funeral arrangement for my wife." Shigure nodded and followed the Patriarch.

Raima wasn't sleepy. It seemed that this place bought back more unwanted memories than what she wanted. Shigure found her again, sitting on the veranda and sipping sake. When he took a closer look, he also had noticed the empty carton of bottles of beer, which at capacity held twenty four. Raima glanced back and saw him.

"It's the anniversary." Raima remarked with a wry tone.

"So it is." Shigure settled beside her and accepted a cup of sake.

"Don't look at me like that." Raima scorned.

"Like what?"

"I'm drinking my pain away." Shigure nodded and sipped the wine. "I haven't cried like that in ages…I didn't even cry at father's funeral." Raima zoned out for a moment as she sighed.

"Why did you really come back to Japan Raima?"Shigure asked the woman.

"I don't know." Raima whispered softly. "Why would one come back to the place where your mother died right in front of you?"

"I don't know Raima."

"Grandmother said it would get easier with time…" Raima slammed the cup down and grunted when she found the cup shattered in her hand. Either it was because she didn't care or didn't feel it when she continued unperturbed. Shigure saw how numb and cold she was under the happy exterior. "But it feels like it had happened yesterday…"