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Template:FB Character Saki Hanajima (花島 咲, Hanajima Saki) is best friends with Arisa Uotani and Tohru Honda in the manga and anime series entitled Fruits Basket. Affectionally called Hana-chan by her friends (see Japanese honorifics), Saki Hanajima has an electromagnetic power that allows her to detect waves, sense the true nature of people, and see others' auras. Perhaps because of this, Saki is phenomenally good at card games like "Dai Hin Min" (also known as 'rich man poor man') and poker, claiming highest victory each time she plays them. Her gothic bearing also contributes in frightening many of her classmates, but she is, in essence, wise beyond her years.

Background

When Saki was younger, the first discoveries of her power frightened her. A boy, one of her classmates, taunted her, called her a witch, and forced her to devour a live newt. In uncontrollable anger and outrage, Saki commanded the boy to die in her mind. With this thought, the boy suddenly collapsed unconscious onto the floor, nearly dead. Realizing what she could do with her power, she became wary and terrified of herself. She knew that she had a great ability, but was horrified that she also had the power to harm people. From then on, she decided to remind herself of how dangerous she was. She began ignoring people and dressing in a gothic manner, not to frighten others for vanity, but to scare them away, and to remind herself of her threat.

After the incident at her school, Saki and her parents decided to transfer her so that she would begin a new life at another school. There she met Tohru Honda and Arisa Uotani, who welcomed the 'new kid' with open arms. Unfortunately, one day another student heard a rumour about Saki's reputation at her previous school and questioned her about the boy she tried to kill in front of Tohru and Arisa. Saki, thinking of the word "kill" (with no intention of hurting the student) from the student's question, caused her waves to accidentally strike the student's head. Horrified, Saki ran out of the room in tears and was followed immediately by her friends, later on a staircase she shouted at them, telling them "not to go near her" for her fear that she would hurt them. The two friends spoke against Saki's wishes, stating that they would love her no matter what and did not care for her past and what powers she had. With these words Saki and Tohru cried with happiness and embraced in true friendship, the three now promising to be best friends regardless of what had happened in the past or would happen in the future. A little while after that, Saki managed to control her powers. She promised she wouldn't use her powers lightly, but did use them once for "punishment" referring to the time when Minami Kinoshita hit Tohru on her head (this is only in the manga).

Arisa and Saki later vowed upon the grave of Tohru's mother Kyoko Honda that they would always be there to protect Tohru. Therefore, Hanajima always stands up for Tohru, and Arisa and Saki were later the first to 'inspect' Shigure Sohma's home when Tohru began living there to make sure she was comfortable and well-cared for. In the anime, this particular event was troublesome to the three cursed Sohmas living in the house. In spite of their caution, the three were continuously transformed and had to avoid being seen, lest Hatori Sohma would have to suppress Saki's, Arisa's, and (in the process) Tohru's memories.

Family

In the manga, Saki's past as well as her family is more so depicted than in the anime. In regards to her family, she has a brother, a grandmother, and two parents. Her brother is Megumi Hanajima, who is around 13 years of age, and her mother, father, and grandmother are as of yet unnamed. When Saki was having difficulty with classmates at school, her family encouraged her to keep going. Her family, being very supportive of her constant anguish in the past due to her powers, agreed to transfer her to another school due to her problematic, rumour-based reputation. Due to her troubles in academics, as well, her family also is strongly helpful and passionate towards getting Saki through high school and moving her towards a promising future. Saki and her family are very close.

Saki and her younger brother, Megumi, are extremely close especially considering that they are such distant siblings. Like her family, Megumi has always been there for Saki, and when he learned of his sister's powers, he, not wanting his sister to be the only "weird one" in the family, studied the art of curses until he finally mastered it. He and Saki both enjoy wearing black, because they feel "calm" in that color. He joined Saki in her predicament so that she would not be alone in her sufferings. Megumi's name is a small joke, for the name "Megumi" means "blessing", while Megumi himself studies how to put curses on people. While Saki has been known to use her waves to attack several people, Megumi has never actually been seen using his power to curse anyone. When the Prince Yuki Fan Club attempted to weaken Tohru's defenses by finding and using Saki's weakness (a futile plot, since Saki sensed the plan from the beginning), Megumi joined his sister in scaring them away. His dark demeanor and his ability to "guess" the girl's names (he learned them while watching them talk to each other when he hid in Saki's closet) frightened them from the house. The next day, Saki mentioned that the girls would all be cursed in three days time. While it seems possible for Megumi to do this, since he claimed that all he would need were the girls names, the manga never shows what happens, so Saki could have been bluffing.

Megumi and Saki are very alike in many ways whether it be personality or appearance (though Saki insists that they do not look alike, it is more than obvious that they do). Like his sister, he is also highly mature for his age, not only in intelligence and behaviour but as well as in sexual maturity, as Arisa (slightly jokingly) states when he makes a comment how he came to her restaurant only to see her in a miniskirt: "You know, you really don't act like a middle schooler; more like a lecherous old man."

Love Life

Saki has not been out with many boys and seems quite content with just her closest friends, although in the manga, she has shown some degree of romantic feelings for Kyo's caretaker Kazuma Sohma when he appeared at their class play. Kyo, seeing that Kazuma arrived and was speaking with a very unusually happy Saki, asked Kazuma to never get married. Also, in the manga, when parent-teacher conferences arrived, Saki spotted Kyo walking with Kazuma Sohma. She commented about how handsome he was, earning an 'interesting' look from Arisa and Tohru. Later, while having a soumen party, she talked about being nervous about having such a large child. Of course, the others joked about it, as Kyo said, "Wait! I don't want Hanajima as my MOM!"

• Fruits Basket