Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Revelations ❯ What Happened to the Neko? ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

DISCLAIMER--Mine! Mine! Mine!

::THWAPP!!!::

...awright, not mine... ::HUGE sniffle; gigantic crocodile tears flooding the keyboard and nearly shorting it out::

Kage Ohkami- ::blushing madly while ducking head and grinning:: Aww...thanx for the sweet review!

Dang, but I never meant to go so long without posting--can't complain about the overtime I'm getting, though. REALLY can't. Whooo! Now, my bus, on the other hand...::grumbles:: THREE TIMES the sucker's been towed--and it was brand-spankin' new this year! AAAARGH!!

They finally put outlets in that I can use with my laptop, too; and the <extremely self-censored> bus don't hang `round long `nough for me to get any use out of it! ::humphs and growls and just generally grumbles off some steam, before sighing:: Well, at least this little "exercise" did get me jump-started on my own, original story--I've almost finished re-editing the 120,000+ words to send in again. Heee!

1-21-05 Edit--tweakings; also, I'm trying something different, format-wise--I'm sticking a blank line between each paragraph. I don't know about anybody else, but when I surf for fanfics to read, I usually download `em as text files, open them in MSWord, and put the chapters back together in one Word file. Then I synch that to my PDA, so I can read it between routes at work.

I like taking out the extra line breaks, so each paragraph is whole, and word-wraps properly on whichever screen I'm reading it on. If there's an extra line between paragraphs, that makes the process a whole lot quicker, even for magic-fingers me and that lovelyFind & Replace function... (I still get ahead of computers. It's so embarrassing...! That's the problem with having learned to focus my super-hyperness through my fingers. Heh heh heh!)

Sometimes, with the longer fics, I also save `em as .rtf, files so I can use Palm eBook Studio to make e-books out of them. That's really handy! I just love all the electronic do-dads people have come up with!

Chapter 8 - What Happened to the Neko?

At the exact stroke of noon, Kyo presented himself at the main gate to the Honke, keeping himself wrapped in all the uncaring arrogance he could muster. He was immediately conducted directly to the Neko's House, without even a brief word coming from Akito; who watched from his window with a ghastly smile on his face as the hated--the feared--neko was forever locked away.

Akito started giggling madly at the booming <thunk!> made by the closing of that solid, wooden door; the giggles turned to full-throated, mad laughter as the big padlock clicked shut. He laughed for a long time, after withdrawing from his favorite round window ledge.

He had nothing to fear from the neko any more, after all; even the Monster couldn't get out of that House. He'd made sure of that; made sure no one would be willing to help the disgusting, stinking, misbegotten creature...

...no, there'd be no one foolish enough to even worry about the horrible beast.

***

Shigure, from his secluded spot in the shadows on the porch of Akito's house, briefly bowed his head, eyes closed. His face had a rarely-seen look of pain. After a moment, he looked up at the Neko's House, bowing once in profound respect of the neko's sacrifice.

He knew how much Kyo had been fearing this. There was very little that happened in Shigure's own house that he was unaware of--or on the house, in Kyo's case. Those times the neko had spent the night on the roof, Shigure's keen ears had easily been able to hear through his open window the bad dreams that had driven Kyo up there.

Shigure thought wryly to himself that if the boy'd had any clue as to just how much he talked in his sleep, he'd have likely taken himself deep into the woods every night. It had been a real eye-opener for the inu, though, since Kyo came to live with him.

He'd never suspected the seemingly outspoken, highly emotional neko of actual subtlety--let alone any shred of acting ability! He'd also never suspected that Akito was physically abusing Kyo, as well as Yuki--or that Yuki was frequently beaten as a punishment to Kyo, a result of Akito's twisted reasoning...that lately to the inu was seeming far more sinister than insane. Like everyone else, Shigure had always thought Akito basically ignored the neko, happy to enforce the traditional shunning of the Neko-cursed.

If he'd only known--

He wondered if even Kazuma knew. He doubted it--Kyo's normally violent response to threat wasn't just instinct, after all; Kazuma was a gifted teacher. Even if Kazuma tended to be rather mild-mannered otherwise, if he had even suspected that Akito had laid a finger on his adopted son, it was quite possible the Sohma's would have had a new Clan Head by now; and Akito wouldn't have had to worry any more about the family curse killing him.

Shigure sighed to himself. If he'd known--what could he have done differently? Probably made things worse, that's what. The inu knew his Clan Head harbored a deep, rather unreasoning fear of their neko's monstrous `true form'. He really should have suspected something nasty was going on between the two just from that knowledge, alone. Akito would never leave a perceived threat completely alone, and certainly not for years at a time! He'd have to prove to himself his mastery over Kyo, one way or another.

In his own twisted, insane way, Akito did care a great deal for his family--while at the same time hating them fiercely, and being near-mindless with fear of his fate. The inu strongly suspected his Clan Head of having a mental disorder--namely, multiple personalities. How else could he strike at them one moment, and the next, beg in all worried innocence to know who has hurt them? Those pendulum-like mood swings alone qualified him as having some sort of...imbalance.

Shigure once again bitterly cursed the fool elders who'd decided that telling a four-year-old boy he was destined to die for his family was a `good' and `honorable' thing to do. If it had been left to him, Shigure would have waited at least until Akito was eighteen! Akito would maybe have had a chance, then, to have something of a normal life--as normal as any of the Jyuunishi-cursed could ever have, anyway. At the least, Akito wouldn't likely have caused so much pain to the family he was supposed to be caring for.

He also might have had actual friends among them, instead of cowed, rather fearful servants.

Akito likely wouldn't have grown up nearly as crazy, either; no swinging from sweet and huggable to wildly abusive at the drop of a hat...to slyly, sadistically cruel...and always seeming to forget anything he'd done, after switching `moods'. It was a great shame they couldn't risk psychiatric help for Akito--as if they could ever convince him to go along with it. The research Shigure had managed on the subject had yielded some scarily specific results, disorders that would normally be quite treatable. If it weren't for their kuso family curse...

...The curse, which was probably the actual cause of the--problem, instead of any chemical imbalance, or such.

Shigure sighed deeply, and for once without the exaggerated airs of the much-put-upon. He was not used to reevaluating his opinion of anyone, much less a family member--a younger family member--and a fellow Jyuunishi-cursed, at that! Except for Kyo, his ability to judge a person's character had always been proven unerringly accurate in the past. It was--unsettling, to say the least, to find that a boy ten years younger than he had kept him fooled so well, for so long. From such a young age, too; Kyo's acting had apparently started just after his mother's death, when he was a mere six years old!

The inu briefly wondered about Kyo's grades. Had the boy applied himself at all in school? Or had he been worried about keeping his grades safely below Yuki's? After all, the whole family `knew' that the nezumi was `special,' was supposed to be the best at everything he did--and those close enough to Akito knew he punished the nezumi whenever Yuki failed at something, or came in second best.

Shigure had thought Ha-san had erased Kyo's memories of the two boys' friendship, at the same time the dragon erased Yuki's. The inu had believed Hatori's implanted suggestion was why the neko had suddenly started attacking the nezumi so religiously, especially since Akito seemed so pleased by it. Shigure was somewhat puzzled that the memory-wipe apparently hadn't happened; and a little hurt that Ha-san hadn't at least dropped him, of all people, a hint about the reason.

He'd have to have a chat with the dragon about that little habit of his, of keeping secrets. Hatori knew perfectly well that Shigure could keep important secrets, when it was necessary!

Shigure made a pouty face, fixing his thoughts firmly on displaying the shallow, flighty behavior he usually indulged in. People relaxed around him when he acted like that, not taking him seriously. Putting them at ease let him learn things he otherwise wouldn't know.

Besides--it was so much fun!

He couldn't help looking back at the Neko's House once while making his way to Hatori's house, a shadow of deeply sorrowful emotion briefly flickering across his features. He'd come to regard both Yuki and Kyo with a rather fatherly affection in the last couple years they'd lived with him; it pained him that there seemed to be nothing he could do to help Kyo. At least he had been able to get Yuki mostly away from Akito, if only for a while.

He resolved to do what he could to work Akito into at least letting someone visit the neko, once in a while. Sometimes Akito would actually listen to him, after all...and it was the least he could do.

The very least...

***

When school was finished for the day, Tohru managed to catch Sohma-kun immediately after their last class. Uo-chan and Hana-chan were waiting for her at the main gate, but she needed Sohma-kun's advice on just what to tell them. Admitting the truth was impossible--they'd never believe her without a demonstration of the curse in operation, for one thing! Even telling them that Kyo-kun was being locked up forever was out--they'd want to know why, and how it could be changed.

But what, exactly, could she tell them? Oh, what was it Sohma-kun had said that morning, before school...? Oh yes--Kyo-kun was being recalled to live at the Honke now. Well, that much was certainly true--but that wouldn't mean he had to change schools, it was in the same district. Oh, what to say, what to say...?!

Luckily for Tohru, Yuki had come up with a couple ideas. They all knew Kyo's grades were hardly better than Hana's; they could say Akito had decided Kyo needed special tutoring to get his grades up so he wasn't an embarrassment to the family, and had gone all the way to having him privately schooled right there at the Honke. With Kyo's temper, it wouldn't be unreasonable to say he'd been confined to the grounds, even if he had been getting better at controlling it this last year; and non-family were rarely allowed inside the compound in the first place.

How to keep the girls from trying to get in to actually see Kyo, in person, though...? Neither Tohru nor Yuki were sure of how to arrange that miracle. If it simply wasn't allowed, Uo-chan would be all for sneaking in! They'd just have to try and distract the girls as much as possible, and hope the people assigned to guard the compound perimeter were diligent enough in their duty.

Or that they could find a way to get Kyo out of there. They both much preferred that thought.

***

The days following Kyo's imprisonment passed excruciatingly slowly for Yuki, seeming to crawl by with great reluctance. He was frustrated in his efforts to talk to the other Jyuunishi-cursed--it sometimes took days to arrange to see one of them, and for some reason he couldn't seem to meet with more than one of them at a time. He was almost suspicious of their sudden absences, except it could be excused by everyone's upset at Kyo's--disappearance. Akito was apparently not bragging about having the neko safely caged, and for some reason Shigure wasn't spreading the word, either.

It was especially difficult the day Kagura came over, demanding to know where her Kyo-kun was. The furious look Yuki leveled at Shigure actually made the inu cringe and start to stammer out embarrassed excuses. Yuki had sharply cut him off before leading Kagura off to explain things, in private.

Unsure of just what he was supposed to say to anyone towards getting them willing to go against Akito, Yuki had opted to start by trying to gauge everyone's opinion of the idea that a lot of Kyo's angry behavior had been an act.

The younger Jyuunishi-cursed were inclined to think Yuki had gone crazy. They didn't believe the examples he used; they insisted on believing that Kyo never beat Yuki in their fights simply because of their respective curses, not because Kyo was holding back...and they didn't believe a single example of Kyo's unexpected subtlety. They decided Yuki was imagining things.

Even Kagura refused to believe him, when he called Kyo his friend. Yuki was beginning to think they weren't hearing a single thing he said; that someone had cast a spell of deafness over their ears!

The day Kazuma-sensei came to see Kyo was the worst of all, though. Yuki paled when he opened the door to see Kyo's Shishou--no; his father, in all the ways that mattered but for blood--standing there, with a slightly worried expression. There was no doubt in Yuki's mind that no one had gotten around to telling him what had happened.

If they had, it certainly wouldn't have been Shigure's door Kazuma-sensei showed up at. And he definitely would not have been anywhere vaguely near to being that calm!

Luckily, Shigure had appeared then, taken one long, unreadable look at their visitor while Yuki stood frozen like a deer standing square in an oncoming semi-trailer's headlights; then calmly and quietly escorted Kazuma-sensei into his study, closing the door behind them.

Kazuma-sensei had quietly left a few hours later, looking years older, an aura of grief hanging about him. Yuki had watched from his window as the man walked away down the drive, his step slow and heavy.

Yuki had been amazed at not hearing a single raised voice from that room in all that time; he'd anticipated Kyo's adoptive father storming out as soon as he learned what had happened, going straight for Akito like a guided missile. He'd been trying to decide if he could force himself to go with Kazuma-sensei, or if he was too much of a coward...

Surprisingly enough to Yuki, Shigure turned out to be the one who believed him about the cure for their curse, going strangely sober and serious as he listened. Yuki had approached him last of all but Kureno.

The nezumi had never seen such an expression on the inu's face, as when Shigure softly told him that he clearly remembered the time when a young neko and nezumi were the best of friends.

“Did you know--Ha-san said he tried taking Kyo's memories, right after he took yours; but his power had no effect at all on the boy. Ha-san believes it might be partly because our neko actually has perfect recall.”

Shigure's quiet statement shocked Yuki speechless. Hatori's memory-taking power didn't work on Kyo?! How--? Was it because of the Neko-curse?

`--Perfect recall?!'

Shigure went on before Yuki could gather his reeling wits. “I asked Ha-san about it, the day--Kyo left us.” The inu's face was shadowed with emotions Yuki had never thought to see there. Apparently Shigure missed Kyo, too. “He said he couldn't--well, get hold of anything. It was like Kyo wasn't there; Ha-san likened it to trying to grasp the pictures in a cloud with your bare hands. He could see the images--but he couldn't touch them, his grip would only pass through them like a ghost; barely disturbing them at all. So he said he'd done his best to convince Kyo to pretend to forget, and do as Akito wished. For both your sakes.”

Shigure had been somewhat relieved, at learning that. Kyo hadn't just spontaneously come up with the idea of fooling all his elders on his own, after all; Ha-san had planted the idea in the fertile young mind. It was rather reassuring that a six-year-old boy hadn't gotten the better of the inu--of the entire family, for that matter, all by his lonesome.

Even with Shigure's help, though, Yuki was slowly despairing of ever making any headway in convincing the others. Shigure the professional writer didn't exactly have the best credibility to be truly helpful.

Double-teaming Hatori had turned out all right; Kyo's resistance to Hatori's power had intrigued the dragon, and he'd paid somewhat more attention to Kyo than anyone else had, since then.

He'd also caught sight of Kyo heading into Akito's house at odd hours over the years, usually when Hatori was supposed to be gone. He had been suspicious the first few times, but then he hadn't been summoned to tend to any injuries of Kyo's, and so had been somewhat reassured.

Except...Kyo tended to disappear for upwards of a month, after those visits. That realization had brought back Hatori's suspicions, though there was really nothing he could do other than directly confront Kyo--who was about as likely to tell the dragon what was going on as the boy was to sprout feathers and start flying under his own power.

Hatori had also recognized the mysterious voice on the phone that had called him so many times to go help Yuki, when Akito was beating him. He hadn't thought Shigure had quite made that connection yet, and was dryly amused at the inu's reaction when he enlightened him. Yuki's deer-in-a-semi's-headlights look almost made the dragon's suppressed smile twitch free.

Kazuma-sensei's amusement when asked about Kyo's chances of ever defeating Yuki had also been revealing for Hatori. To anyone paying attention with an open mind, it was fairly obvious that Kazuma-sensei had never had any doubts that Kyo could take Yuki in a martial arts fight, any time the neko felt like it. He'd apparently let Kyo keep up the charade because Hatori clearly approved of the health benefits of martial arts discipline for Yuki.

That...and because of Akito's penchant to destroy any overt friendships he saw his Jyuunishi-cursed kin forming, even within the family. Kazuma-sensei may not have ever been one of the Inner Circle, but he was a shrewd judge of character, and had quickly noticed Akito's darker tendencies. He'd been hoping Kyo and Yuki could develop their own subtle kind of friendship, that Akito would not recognize.

Three of them, out of twelve...Yuki quickly became severely depressed, wondering what could possibly ever unite all of the Jyuunishi-cursed. Tohru, also, was showing signs of depression; her normally cheerful manner becoming quite sad, unless she visibly made an effort to perk up. Shigure and Yuki had both heard her calling out to Kyo in her sleep, when passing her room in the middle of the night, on their way to the kitchen for a bite to eat.

The third time that happened in one week, Shigure decided that maybe their “little flower” might well be the only key to uniting the Jyuunishi-cursed. They all loved her dearly, and it was rapidly becoming obvious just how much Kyo's absence was hurting her. She rarely slept through a night anymore; there were dark circles perpetually under her eyes, and she looked to be loosing weight she could ill afford to spare.

No one wanted to even consider how she would react, if she knew what was likely happening to Kyo. If she was dealing this badly, thinking he was merely lonely--

Yuki never had gotten around to telling her how he felt about her. That first night Kyo was gone, he'd knocked on her door, intending to tell her...but she'd been on the verge of tears, and couldn't seem to stay off the topic of the missing neko for more than a minute or two. He'd eventually ended up transformed when she'd broken down and hugged him; he'd assured her he didn't mind, he could stay that way all night if that's what she needed.

He'd been somewhat surprised that he hadn't been more upset, or even hurt, when he realized that she obviously was in love with Kyo. He supposed, upon reflection through that whole too-long night, that his subconscious had noticed that all those blushes and longing looks that he'd seen Kyo direct towards her when he thought no one was watching...had frequently been returned, when Tohru thought herself unobserved.

Subsequent days of reflection had brought home the fact that he'd always been more bothered by Kyo's attention to Tohru--than by Tohru's attention to Kyo. It seemed that he must have retained some faint wisp of a memory of his childhood friendship with the neko, and his subconscious mind had wanted that lost friendship back. It would certainly explain some of his extreme short-temperedness with Kyo, whenever the neko would attack or verbally snipe at him...

All that introspection took a toll on the nezumi, though. He quickly looked in no better shape than Tohru. The only good thing about that, was Tohru's noticing it--Yuki's decline brought out her mothering instincts; and in nursemaiding him back to health, her own health improved. Especially after Shigure gently told her Kyo wouldn't appreciate her wasting away to nothing, pining after him. What would she do, if--no, when! He was adamant about that--they managed to get him back? Kyo would need her to be her normal, cheerful self!

Kureno would be the only problem with Shigure's plan to unite the Jyuunishi-cursed through Tohru; but the inu was certain that meeting Tohru for a day or two would be enough to snare him under her innocent spell. It had certainly worked that way on the rest of them, now hadn't it!

Yuki tiredly smacked the inu upside the head when he started waxing poetic about her likely effect on the Rooster of the Jyuunishi, earning a yelp and a full dose of Shigure's patented Mournful Puppy Eyes. Which he ignored, without even a roll of his own eyes; trying not to get his own hopes up. Shigure's idea just might work. It was certainly worth trying, at any rate.

The inu got busy calling everyone for a staged picnic on the upcoming weekend; he alternated between begging, bribing, and blackmail, to be sure all would attend. Yuki didn't know if it was because it was Shigure arranging things this time, or if he was himself truly that bad at arranging that sort of thing; but all the Jyuunishi-cursed Sohmas had agreed to be there, this time.

***