Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Revelations ❯ Epilogue ( Chapter 15 )

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

DISCLAIMER--::sigh:: They're not mine, and now I'm gonna have to give `em back...WAAAAAH!!!::BIG sniffle!::

Epilogue

There was no clap of thunder, no lightning strike; no movie-like special effects at all. Just the sudden strangling of Akito's breath as his lungs suddenly locked up; followed by the Clan Head's falling to his side, clutching at his chest, as his eyes rolled up in his head.

Everyone but Hatori stood and stared in shock. The doctor rushed forward, hastily checking Akito over. His hurried movements slowed after a couple minutes, when he determined that the body on the bed had no heartbeat--and attempting CPR would only cause more damage. His cursory examination seemed to indicate a sudden, massive heart attack.

He sat back with a small sigh of mixed regret and relief. Regret at a life lost; relief at the temporary freedom he and his cousins would have, before a new Clan Head was born, and became old enough to...make their lives...difficult.

Tohru slowly made her way to Kyo's side, tears streaming down her face. She was sad at Akito's death...mainly because she had been unable to get to know the Clan Head well enough to find that something about him that had made him a special, unique person. She took Kyo's hand in hers, absently leaning her head on his arm.

No one wanted to ask if they had been in time--if they had done what the kamis wanted, in order to break the curse. Enough or not, they'd had to do it. Hatori, Shigure, and Kureno were the only ones who could find a feeling a remorse in their hearts at the thought that their confronting him might have caused Akito's sudden death; the rest were too numb to worry over the thought.

Yuki was the first to notice that Tohru had wrapped an arm about Kyo's waist, in her distress. He stared dully at her hand for a good couple minutes before realizing exactly what he was seeing. His breath caught in his throat for a moment, then he stepped back to see that Kyo's arm had gone about Tohru's shoulders, neither one of them noticing.

“...Kyo...”

Kyo turned at his near-strangled whisper, worry quickly replacing the numbing shock. Yuki's eyes were still fixed on the embracing couple in front of him. Kyo didn't understand the his wide-eyed stare for a moment--until he realized he couldn't turn around without taking his arm from about Tohru's--

Kyo's gasp caught the attention of more of their cousins, who turned to see what the matter was. Yuki looked up and smiled, eyes suspiciously bright. “It's...broken...the curse must be broken! Kyo's hugging Tohru, and he's not transforming!!”

Yuki's joyful voice sent every eye towards Kyo and Tohru, who started blushing as they looked into each others' eyes with dawning hope. Kyo took a shaky breath and pulled Tohru into a full hug against his chest, both his arms wrapped tight about her, his eyes squeezed shut in a kind of terrified hope.

There was no <poof!>, no orange-tinted smoke. Sohma Kyo stayed human.

He released Tohru, letting her step back so their eyes could lock again, this time both of them tearing up with happiness. Momiji bounded over to enthusiastically hug Tohru, shouting with glee when he, too, stayed human. Ritsu, Ayame, Haru--it was the same, all of them stayed human. Even Kureno shyly asked if he might give her a hug, with the same results.

Tohru went and hugged a wide-eyed Jiro, as Kisa clung to his arm and cried with happiness. Shigure, smiling wider than anyone had ever seen, made as if to approach Tohru...and promptly found himself subjected to the flat-eyed stares of both Kyo and Yuki, their knuckles cracking ominously. He raised his hands and chuckled weakly, slowly backing away from the overprotective and violence-prone boys.

Tohru giggled and came up beside Shigure, giving him a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. By this time, just about everyone was laughing and dancing about, expressing their joy at being finally free from their curses as their natures allowed them. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

Tohru then walked carefully over to Hatori, who was kneeling by Akito's body, still staring down at it. She knelt and wrapped her arms about him, pulling him into a hug that lasted for several minutes, as the doctor shed a couple bittersweet tears. She held him until they stopped, gently wiping his tears away with her fingers before she released him and stood, taking Kyo's silently offered hand.

As Kyo pulled her close again, Tohru was delighted to hear him whisper in her ear, “I love you, Honda Tohru...will you marry me?” He drew back to look deep into her beautiful, huge brown eyes.

Tohru's resounding “YES!!” as she jumped ecstatically into the air, waving her arms wildly above her head, caught everyone's startled attention. There were several raised eyebrows and looks of confusion when she jumped up, wrapping her arms around Kyo's neck, and started a kiss that left even the spectators breathless--much less poor Kyo, whose knees began to look like they'd turned to jelly. Luckily a smirking Yuki was close enough to grab his arm to steady him for a moment, when Tohru finally came up for air.

No one was particularly surprised at Kyo's proposal, though Kagura's congratulations were bittersweet in her mouth. She would eventually find someone of her own to share her life with, a couple years after she finished college.

Kisa and Jiro were eventually married. Haru and Rin, also--after some spectacular fights, as they adjusted to their knew lives, and each other. Kureno was reunited with Arisa Uotani the very next day, proposing to her after one day of `getting reacquainted.' Their first daughter was born exactly nine months after Akito's death.

The others would also find mates among the regular populace, no longer having the curse overshadowing their lives. Ritsu was even able to develop a slight case of self-confidence.

Yuki was the first to discover that their curses were not totally gone, after all--but apparently returned to the blessings they had originally been, according to the Neko's Diary, that Kyo had shared with him after Akito's death. The magic that hid the Diary from any eyes other than the Neko-cursed Sohma's had gone with Akito.

Yuki had actually found himself thinking wistfully back on his cursed form, and its small size--having just dropped his favorite pen down the storm-drain on his way home. It had been a gift from Tohru! The next thing he'd known, he'd been standing in a huge pile of clothing, the drain grown impossibly large before him--

A panicked look at his body had shown him to be a nezumi again. Fortunately, his sudden, desperate wish to be human again was all it took to reverse the transformation.

It was also fortunate that there had been no one around to see him as he stood there for a moment, stunned speechless. He'd stared at his hands for a moment, not even thinking about what would happen if someone came along and saw him standing there stark naked. His expression had gone calculating as he once more thought of being a nezumi--and it happened. He'd looked himself over in shock, then quickly jumped through the grating on the drain to retrieve his pen. The transformation back to human had been as easy as before, and he quickly scrambled back into his clothes as old habits finally took over.

He'd had Shigure call everyone together that night, and demonstrated for them that his curse, at least, was apparently completely under his conscious control. Everyone had then experimented and found their curses likewise restored to blessings, though several of them doubted they'd ever have sufficient reason to want to change. Most notably Hatori; what in all the names of the kamis would ever cause him to want to change into a seahorse?!

Kyo had stayed mostly quiet through the meeting, fingering his bracelet. He hadn't yet dared to take it off, especially not after he'd noticed that he still got that terrible lethargy whenever it rained. He wasn't going to complain--being able to control the neko transformation was already more than he'd prayed for! If he had to wear those beads for the rest of his life, well, it was no big deal.

Especially now that there was no Akito around, to take them from him on a whim.

Besides--that form's healing effect could come in very handy, if anything serious ever happened to him. He could still feel the link to Yuki...so until Yuki died, he couldn't. He'd truly hate to be in some sort of crippling accident, and end up paralyzed for the rest of Yuki's lifetime...

He glanced over at Yuki, one side of his mouth twitching up in a small half-smile as he saw his cousin's happy expression. It was--nice, not having to channel all of his emotions into an anger he didn't truly feel. He'd even managed to coax Yuki into real sparring sessions with him, which Kyo quickly turned into training sessions. Yuki didn't have the level of dedication to reach Kyo's true level in the martial arts, but he would progress enough to at least give Kyo a decent regular sparring partner.

At least now, Kyo would have a rest of his life worth living. Even better--he'd have Tohru by his side through it all. He hugged her as she sat by him, his arm draped across her shoulders, her arm about his waist. With the lifting of the curse, Kyo had gotten downright clingy, at least as far as Tohru was concerned.

He felt he had nothing to complain about, any more. All was right in his world

Tohru smiled up at him as she felt that tell-tale rumble resonating through his chest against her shoulder. They'd both discovered after Akito's death that Kyo tended to purr, just like a true-neko, when he was contented. Hatori was confounded--he swore that Human's didn't have the vocal equipment to make that sound!

Kyo had never experienced a true feeling of contentment, before... His very first purr had come shortly after Tohru accepted his proposal.

`Mom...I did it, I really did it! I graduated High School, and now I'm actually going to go to college--I earned a partial scholarship, and Shigure is insisting on paying the rest. And--I'm getting married,to Kyo-kun! I really do love him, Mom; and he loves me! It won't be long before I'll be introducing you to your grandchildren! She closed her eyes and leaned against Kyo, in perfect contentment.

-.-.-.-.-.-

“The original Jyuunishi “Curse” was really a Blessing from the Gods, placed on the best of our Clan. The animal most closely associated with each person's best abilities, skills, and senses, was made their avatar--we were able to take on the beast's shape and return to human form, at will. The first Inu was our Master Hunter; the first Snake was our most accomplished councilor; the first Rat was our chief steward. The first Tiger was our General, the one directly in charge of all of our warriors; while the first Neko was the best of all our individual warriors, and the chief protector of our Clan Head.

“Unfortunately, it was the Clan Head's own son and Heir whose jealousy of the animal blessings caused each Blessing to become a Curse...for he was a vain and shallow boy who never did grow into a man, and was--as we learned far too late--responsible for his own father's murder. Thus the gods' wrath fell on our Clan...”

-Excerpt from the Neko's Diary--

entries made by the first of the Neko-cursed, Sohma Ryosuke.

-.-.-.-.-.-

I want to thank everyone who posted a review of my story. Sometimes, when I'd been working on something else or just too busy, getting a review inspired me to get back to working on this fic quicker! So, thanksso much,everyone!

My next posted fanfic will probably be a Ranma 1/2 one-shot that right now just needs a bit of polishing. So far, the only fanfics I've messed around with have been Fruits Basket; Ranma 1/2; The A-Team; and some Gambit-centric X-Men stuff (the comics, NOT the movies or the animation--and not the `Ultimates' line, either! Bleah.). Full Metal Panic! has gotten my muse's interest lately, too. I don't know how many I'll end up posting...none are (yet!) anywhere near as long as Revelationshas turned out to be, and none are really far enough along to have much in the way of plot, yet. They're more scenes that just popped into my head, or outlandish cross-overs...

I hope you like what you read!

-CrazyDragon