Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Long Denied ❯ Original ( Chapter 4 )

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

Petshop of Horrors X-over Fruits Basket

Long Denied
Chapter 4: The Original



Just after Junko's death, before Tohru was hatched-
Shigure-


Shigure returned from his visit with Akito feeling cold and numb all over. He was glad that Akito was pleased by the bird, but...but he didn't like what he was starting to think. 'Akito's starting to go like Akira. He...he hit that woman and I bit her for him. I don't want to hurt people, but I did it without thinking.' Shigure didn't like that. He didn't want to hurt anyone, not even for Akito.

When he stopped walking, Shigure looked up and found himself back at the cat's house. It still even smelled like Toma, but now the thoughts and smells only brought comfort for Shigure and not pain. 'It doesn't seem like he died just yesterday.' Shigure thought as he went inside. 'Everything's so peaceful.' The house was just as it had been when Toma died and that, too, was tradition. In the same way that Shigure's new house had been filled with the belonging of the previous dog. Shigure had inherited everything from furniture to photo albums filled with pictures and even a pair of glasses. Even the sheets were still on the bed. Smelled weird, but they were still there.

Still, Shigure had only one thing on his mind. The book. It was still where Shigure had left it, open to the first page where Shigure had left it when he'd run off at Akito's scream. 'I feel sort of guilty leaving Akito. But I can't be with him all the time. Wish I knew why I wanted to stay with him.' But Shigure tried to dismiss these thoughts as he sat before the book again. 'Toma said it was real important, so I have to read it.'

Shigure read...



~I am Inu and I speak for our family, the Souma family. I speak for the ones who are no longer allowed voice. This is the record of our family and how we became what you are. When you have finished reading this record, write your story. Write the story of what your part of our family is like, then hide this book. Do not allow anyone to find it. Should this book be found, you and your loved ones would be in great danger from the one who doomed our family.

Read, and discover the truth. We were happy once, before the cat was taken from us...

I should have started this sooner. I know I should have. Would that I had known what would happen to my family.

Let me start at the beginning.

As I write this, the year is 289 AD and it had been fifty nine years since our family was forced to change. I am older than most humans would believe, for I've just had my four hundred and seventy second birthday. Are you surprised? How much has our family changed, I wonder, that you are surprised by my age. I look, I'm told, like a human of no more than thirty and I will never look any older. Why should I? I'm not human. None of us are human.

We have taken the human name of Souma to better blend into the humans we now must live amongst. Once we had no name, we simply...were. We existed and we were together, that was enough.

We are a small family, only fourteen members are ever alive in ever live. In a way, I know I should write this simply, to let you, whoever you may be, know the danger we are in. I admit to one vice, which I'm sure you will share. I am a storyteller. How do I know you will share this talent? Because I the dog and I know better than anyone what the dog is all about.

You who read this already know we are cursed, but, as the years pass, I fear you will forget how we became cursed. This is a story and I pray you read the whole story and, when you've reached the end, add your own story. Please include the names and animals of the family you know. When you have grown old and feel your life beginning to slip away wrap this book and seal it as carefully as you can. Give it to the cat and instruct them that the book is to be given only to the next dog, no one else. No matter what your family is like, I know we still share the same blood. The cat is, has always been, trustworthy. They will guard this record with all that they have and will not betray your confidence. It is a trait of the cat.

I will keep this record as short as I can, there must be room left in this book for future entries so our family will not forget. You must never forget, we are all in danger. If he finds us again...I'm sure he won't let us go, he won't let us escape a second time and I shudder to think what he would do to us once he recaptured us.

I think I'll write this as a story with information I've gathered from the family. What I don't know, I'll leave out. Everything you read is true and nothing is false or guessed at. Do not allow anyone...anyone to read what is in this book. There is to great a danger that some member of the family will try to seek out our enemy and that will only lead to trouble for us all.

Please, read, and remember, no matter what changes have come to our family in the years between you and I, we are family. And now, thanks to our own foolishness, we are cursed.


~~Zodiac family, from Inu's point of view. ~~

The Zodiac Family as I know them are:

Ka-kani head of the family. Died 252. Replaced by Fai.

Inu the Dog (Me! Still alive and kicking.)
Ryu the Dragon. Died 259 AD. Replaced by Ping.
Hibi the Snake
Nezumi the Rat. Died 240 AD. Replaced by Xaiogang.
Oushi the Cow
Usagi the Rabbit
Buta the Pig
Sari the Monkey. Died 246. Replaced by Xiaomei.
Taiga the Tiger
Hitsuji the Sheep
Ondori the Rooster. Died 244. Replaced by Kwan.
Neko the Cat. Died 239 AD. Replaced by Jai.


You see? Even in telling this much, I realize how much our family has changed all ready. We have taken human names to blend in with the society we must hide in. Never before have we had any other names that those of the animals who's shape we bear.

I'll start again.

We lived in China, deep in the unexplored forests that were thick with life, but close enough to a human village that we took the precaution of building a large wall around our single communal house. Not that we were afraid of them...well, not exactly. But humans do tend to attack what they don't understand and I doubt they would have understood us at all.

Taiga, the youngest member of our family, only about ten years old, called out to his dearest friend, "Hitsuji, you promised to play with me!" The little tiger, a sweet boy dashed to his older friend and took her hand imploringly. "Please, Hitsuji, please. Don't go out!"

Hitsuji, an elegantly dressed lady who looked deceivingly as if she were thirty years old, in all her finery, and smiled down at the four-year-old tiger. Hitsuji dressed in the finest clothing and had her face painted so elaborately that she looked as if she were the queen of some forgotten faery world. "But, Tiaga, I told you I had to do the family shopping today. It's my turn and where would we be if we didn't do our jobs? Nothing would ever get done." Family shopping was a bit of a joke. We went to the near by village only once every few years, but it wasn't for food or clothing, it was for information. We needed to know what was going on in the outside world for our own safety.

Tiaga scowled and folded his arms over his chest, trying to look as grown up as possible for a little boy who was badly in need of a haircut and a bath. "You're just trying to get away from me! You promised to play with me today."

Hitsuji put a hand on his shoulder. "I will play with you, but later."

"No, now!" It was typical and expected for the short-tempered boy, but Hitsuji was well accustomed to her little friend's temper.

"Then, how about you come into the village with me and help me with the shopping? Then we can play all the sooner." She asked with a gentle smile. Of course, Taiga happily slipped his hand into hers and they set off together, opening the gates and closing them again after they'd left. Taiga wouldn't pass up an opportunity to go with Hitsuji, no matter where she was going.

I thought it was cute. Taiga was growing up quickly and I can see a relationship between the two of them quite easily. Hitsuji isn't opposed to it, she sees that he'll grow into a fine young man, so she lets him stay as close to her as he wishes.

We are...we were a powerful family. We lived in a primitive world ruled by fear and superstition, a world where the beliefs of a few could change everything. If the humans suspected that we were anything but a reclusive family, they would fear us terribly, I think. Though we lived in the world of humans, though we weren't apart of them. We all looked human, I suppose, so human that no one ever thought us peculiar at all. Not one of us, though, had even an ounce of human blood, though that would change before long.

That comes later, though. I suppose the real story began later that same day that Hitsuji and Tiaga went out to see the humans. It began with a party. At least, that's what we thought.

I remember looking out that afternoon, so close to New Years, that there was a chill in the air and frost on the ground. I remember thinking, as I looked out my window and saw Neko sleeping on the wall that surrounded our house, that it would snow later. The sky had that grey, dreary look that always comes before a snow. Still, despite the cold and the coming snow, Neko lay on the wall with his jacket hanging open and no shirt beneath the jacket. I shook my head and wondered why he did such things. I suppose I can hardly say anything to him. I've been known to do foolish things myself.

On the tall wall that enclosed the family complex, an orange haired man who was bare chested warmed his body in the morning sun. He looked perhaps thirty, but no more, and was in his prime. He was laying down on his back, sunbathing with his hands folded peacefully on his chest. His orange hair wasn't quite as long as most of ours was, most of the people in our family favored long hair, but he kept his cut to his shoulders.

"Neko!"

The man woke up when he heard his name and he looked down at the silver haired girl who stood on the ground below him, looking up at him with eyes that were only slightly mocking. She has always been so beautiful, since the day she was born, we knew she'd be unsurpassed in beauty. It wasn't just her long, silvery hair, but she was taller than most women and with a willowy build. Her grown, a simle outfit that hung off a single shoulder strap and fell to her feet was nothing that any human would be seen wearing. The material of her gown was like silver, shining and sparkling with every movement and it reminded me of starlight.

Without getting up, Neko smiled. "What do you want, Nezumi?" He was always pleased to see her, despite his almost rude way of speaking.

"I just came to tell you we have a visitor. He's in the audience chambers with Ka-Kani, now. Do you want to go see him? You hardly ever get to see outsiders."

That made me pause in my writing. My house was right next to the main entrance to the estate specifically so I could always see the visitors first. Why hadn't I seen anyone enter? I was, after all, the guardian of the family. Hearing that we have some stranger within the walls of the estate, I set down my brush and left my writing on my desk. It would have to wait, which was a pity, because I was just getting to the juicy part...er...I mean the climax.

As I straightened my robes, I listened the conversation between Neko and Nezumi and watched them from my window.

Neko was saying, "I won't see one today, either." This time he put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs. "You know I don't like outsiders. I have everything and everyone I need inside these walls. Why should I be at all interested in what's outside?"

Nezumi smirked before she gave a graceful leap and then stood on the wall just at Neko's head, looking down at him. "It would do you no harm to indulge your curiosity. You're mind's going to suffocate in here if you don't get out now and again." She sat down, next to his head and delicately crossed her ankles as she swung her legs. With one hand, Nezumi balanced herself and with her other, she ran her fingers through Neko's wavy orange hair.

I always thought she looked like a pixy or a faery. Like all of the rats of the Zodiac family since the dawn of time, Nezumi was thin, almost unhealthily so. It was a thinness that lied, hiding her strength. Her hair, long and braided into looping coils, was silver and her eyes were dark purple. She had a kind of grace that few could hope for and a velvet voice. Like all of the us, she was eerily beautiful.

It occurs to me that you don't understand how a family of fourteen people could continue without the dangers of inbreeding. To be honest, I'd never even worried about that until human blood entered our family.

I know that in your time, life must have changed for our family. I suppose that I should explain how we are created. The heredity of the Sohma family was not what one might think. The parent of the rat, for instance, was not a rat. There was only one type of animal in every generation. Nezumi's mother had been the sheep and she had no father. One might think that this was impossible, but one had to remember that we weren't human. Our family would conceive children as soon as one of us died, to ensure that there were always the proper number of us.

There was no other explanation as to how this happened other than that of magic.

Neko let Nezumi caress his hair for a moment before he reached his fingers up to touch her wrist. It was a tiny gesture, but one that made Nezumi smile. "This is the best sun spot in the whole family complex. No visitor is worth leaving it until the sun's left it."

Nezumi laughed and leaned over so she could look at his face. "My beautiful cat. What am I going to do with your lazy..."

"Darling rat." Neko whispered, putting his free hand up to touch her face before he pulled her down to kiss her. "Would you like to stay here with me instead of going to greet our guest?"

I didn't wait to hear her answer, I knew what it would be. The two had been lovers for many years and were most comfortable in the presence of each other. Nezumi would stay with Neko for a few moments on the wall before they retired to find a more private place.

Instead, I turned myself into my other form, that of a dog. It was a simple transformation, just picture myself as a dog and then I have four feet and a tail. I couldn't even start to tell you how this is done and, I have to say, that makes me very sad. My own child, my daughter, Jing, is not a member of our family. She is my daughter and I love her dearly, but I don't love her mother. Her mother is human and I can't bring myself to love a human. It's because of my daughter that I know you who read this will not have our natural ability to change into our animal forms by will alone. I can see that Kwan, our newest rooster, is only able to change when she is hugged by a male. I'll come to that part of the story later.

I ran to the other side of the house in my dog's body, finding it more comfortable for running, but there were no sounds of fighting or other danger, so I'm pretty sure that everyone's all right. It was times like this that I hated the size of our house. It might be only one house, but the bloody thing is huge! By the time I'd rounded the corner to the main door, most everyone had gone out into the back garden. I had to go through several halls before coming to the large room Ka-Kani used to entertain visitors. The doors were wide opened, showing her fine garden and the younger children were playing under the watchful eyes of the adults of our family while Ka-Kani spoke with our visitor from her seat on the porch.

"It's a most kind invitation, great Kami." Ka-Kani said. She was a young woman and full of life. Her hair was black as ink and her skin was darkly tanned from her time in the sun. She loved nothing better than to be outside, running or playing in the garden with the children.

I knew when Ka-Kani had said, Kami, who our visitor was. How strange that he would come to our home. Still, the mysterious Kami are difficult to fathom. This must be D, the one we've heard has come into power. His parent had, reputedly, given up his active role in the world long ago.

"You're all invited, of course." D said. He stood behind Ka-Kani slightly, ornate robes, finer than any human could hope for, falling to the floor and dark hair falling down his back, to his hips. His scent was familiar and most welcomed. We were honored to have a guest of this magnitude. I will admit, I felt no fear or alarm at his presence in our house. He was a Kami, a guardian of all living things, there was no reason he should have wished us harm.

D, smiling, charmingly at the head of our family who sat regally on the porch. Ka-Kani was looking at D, though I had the distinct feeling she was paying more attention to the children of her family who were playing in the garden. The older members of the family, Ryu and Ondori, stood around Ka-Kani. From their relaxed postures, I knew they also didn't view D's visit as a threat, but they were listening carefully to his words.

"Thank you." Ka'Kani said, inclining her head slightly. "My family would be honored to attend, great Kami. Though I'm afraid you'll have to wait a time for us. We will celebrate New Years with you, but not until after the third day. We have our own celebrations to see to, a tradition that must never be broken."

"Oh?" D asked.

"Yes." But Ka-Kani would say no more about it. It was not wise to be disrespectful to a Kami, especially not one of D's standing, but it was unheard of for any creature, even a Kami, to know about the dance. This year, I knew, it was Tiaga's turn to lead the dancing. It was a private celebration and one that couldn't be missed.

D nodded his understanding as I walked closer. He no doubt knew I was there, but he made no attempt to acknowledge me. His face was beautiful, so indescribably beautiful that my crude drawing of him doesn't do this person justice. "There is a problem, however." D continued, sounding worried. "I understand that there is a member of your family who is not fond of parties. Is that true?"

Ka-Kani chuckled and leaned back, resting her hand on that of Ryu, the dragon. He was never far from her side and Ka-Kani was very grateful for his support. "You speak of our dear Neko, I presume. It's true, our cat isn't overly fond of large groups of people. He becomes very uncomfortable and irritable if he stays for to long in a group of people."

"The last thing I want is for your cat to be uncomfortable. Tell him that he need not come if he does not wish to." D's voice was soft and kind.

Ka-Kani shook her head. "No. He will come. It would be disrespectful to leave him out when you've gone to all the trouble to invite us."

D simply nodded and began to walk away. "Then I shall see you all soon."

I didn't see what happened when D was leaving the estate, I stayed with Ka-Kani, though now I wish I had gone to see him away. Perhaps I could have prevented when he'd obviously been planning if I had gone to see him off the estate.

For what I write next, I am relying on what Nezumi told me happened when D met her near the gates of the wall.

Nezumi and Neko had been slowly making their way to their shared room when they encountered D in one of the many winding hallways in the house. He was, in fact, standing just outside their room and waiting patiently as if he knew they'd been coming. "And who are you?" Nezumi said politely when Neko scowled at the person blocking the entrance to their room. His hand had tightened on Nezumi's before he turned and walked away without a word. Neko really didn't like strangers and would go far out of his way to avoid them.

"You may call me, D." The Kami said, giving her a slight bow. "I apologize for frightening your companion."

Nezumi laughed. "Don't let him hear that, his ego couldn't take the pain. May I presume that you've come here to speak with us? I saw you speaking with Ka-Kani, are you lost on your way out? You look troubled, Kami." Nezumi said as she bent and picked up a rat off the floor. She held it gently, naturally loving the large rodent that she shared so much with. "Do you require anything?"

"I am worried about one member of your family, Nezumi. In fact, I am pleased your companion has left you and now we may speak privately."

"Oh?" That got her attention more than anything else had. She didn't like the turn this conversation was taking, but was weary of what she said to the Kami.

"I have invited your family to a New Year's celebration and the head of your family has agreed to come to my home for the celebration. The cat, Neko, would not be at ease at this celebration, there will be to many people there and I am told he dislikes crowds of people. The head of your family has assured me that he will attend, but I would not want for him to be unhappy."

Nezumi looked thoughtful and considered the problem. Of course she hadn't wanted her lover to be unhappy. "I will tell him that you worry for him and that he can stay home."

"No, that won't do. He will feel obligated, because the head of your family has already promised his attendance."

She thought a moment more. "If I tell him the party is another day, he will not attend and I will confess my lie afterwards, so he won't get in trouble. He will be freed from doing something that will be unpleasant for him and Ka-Kani will have no blame in breaking her word to you. Will that work for you, great Kami?"

"Yes. That will work very, very well." He smiled and, Nezumi told me, she didn't like that smile for some reason.

Nezumi had no idea why the Kami would lie about not wanting Neko to come with us, though he obviously did. It would become clearer to us as time went by that the Kami often lied. We had no way of knowing that he would lie to us, he had no reason to.

So we all went to the party after the night of our dance. We always dance, it's our greatest tradition and one that is not to be missed. Ka-Kani was not pleased when no one could find Neko the morning we were supposed to leave for the Kami's home, but Nezumi had known that he was still sleeping peacefully in the sun on the other side of the estate.

I hesitate to write this.

It brings such pain.

But, I suppose all must be recorded or nothing will make any sense.

We were betrayed, though we didn't know it for a long time. The day of the celebration, Kami D met us at the door of his house, which was, like ours, hidden deep in the forest. He welcomed us with open arms and we found his home a great and wondrous place. He offered us rich food and drink suitable for royalty. It was the food and the drink and the scent of incense in the air that clouded our minds, I think. I think that, for me, anyway, it was the incense that affected me more than the food or drink. My heightened sense of smell caused the incense to make my head instantly fuzzy. I remember thinking how wonderful everything was and that I would like to stay in this place forever.

I don't know how long we stayed in that place, drugged prisoners who were treated as guests. I was woken by something painfully sharp digging against my face, but my mind refused to wake from its slumber entirely and I looked up at the creature that had hurt me with disinterest. "You hurt me." I said and my voice sounded strange, even to me. The pain was dulling away quickly, thanks to the incense, but the creature wasn't at all happy.

I'd never seen a creature like this. It looked sort of like a pale yellow rabbit, but it also had tiny horns on its head and bat-like wings fluttering wildly as it hovered in front of me. ~Wake up, you stupid dog!~

I'm not sure how I understood its words. I'm sure it wasn't speaking any human language, but I did understand. Then again, perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me and it was just a hallucination. "I'm tired." I told it and that was true. The smell of the incense was making me terribly tired. Why did it have to wake me up?

~Sleep any longer and you'll never wake up!~

I yawned lazily and turned my head to look around. Everyone in my family was laying down, sound asleep, in a large room. The floor was piled high with pillows. They all looked so comfortable that I wanted so badly to go back to sleep. I let my eyes start to close again only to feel the creature's sharp claws on my face again.

"Stop it!" I complained, swatting it away with a hand.

~Why do I bother with you foolish creatures?~ The rabbit thing suddenly stopped and flew up, hiding in the rafters of the high ceiling. ~Do not tell him I am here!~ It ordered. ~Close your eyes and pretend to sleep.~

I'm not sure why I did it, but I'm glad I did. I obeyed the rabbit thing and closed my eyes again, waiting to see what would happen.

D walked in at that moment and I watched him though half-closed eyes. He looked around at my family carefully before he went to a metal brazier that held the burning incense. With a simple wave of his hand over the smoking incense, the incense stopped burning and I could smell the air starting to clear. Around me, the others stirred, waking up slowly.

"I have sad news for you all." D said when we were all finally awake and wondering what had happened to us. I'd thought that it was all the food and drink that had laid us low, but Tiaga didn't drink, Hisuji didn't allow him to, yet, and he had been sleeping just like the rest of us.

D went to Ka-kani, who was having a harder time of waking up than the rest of us, took her hand and held it tenderly. "I am most sorry to inform you, your cat has died."

A collective gasp from those who didn't immediately start crying filled the room. I admit it...I was one of those who'd started to cry. It wasn't just grief for our lost family, but fear. Without the cat, we are terribly weak. We need the cat. Between now and the moment our new cat reaches maturity, we are all vulnerable.

Ka-kani's eyes widened with shock and she instantly pulled her hand away from his. "D-dead? He...he can't be dead. Not Neko."

"I saw his body with my own eyes, dear lady. I can't say what killed him, but he was well and truly dead. I would have recovered the body, but it was destroyed and I didn't want to cause your family pain by seeing it. He has been buried with utmost respect."

Ka-kani started shaking and turned her head to call out, "Ryu? Ondori?" Quickly, the dragon and the rooster came to Ka-Kani, pushing D out of the way as they comforted the head of their family. "What are we to do? Without the cat, we're in great danger." Ka-kani bowed her head onto Ondori's shoulder. "We must all be careful. No one is allowed to leave the estate until the next cat is born." She looked at everyone sternly. It wasn't often that the head of our family would give out orders like this, but this was a dangerous situation.

"You will stay with me." D told us generously. "My home is vast and there is more than enough room for you all. I have the power to give you all the protection you need in this time of grief. You are weakened by this loss, are you not?"

Ka-kani nodded, still in shock. "Neko was our...he was..." A single tear streaked down her face. "Oh, god, our dear Neko!" She buried her face in Ondori's shoulder again. "We won't survive without him. We can't! The cat is the center of our family."

I was grateful for D's kindness, allowing us to stay in his home. There was nothing that could happen in his home without his wanting it to happen. No danger could enter and he'd as good as given us the run of his home. If I hadn't been so grateful, I'd have seen the danger sooner. For a while, I was more concerned with seeing my family through the depression that normally comes after a death, I didn't have time or desire to see that our safety wasn't all that safe. I didn't even see the look of satisfaction on D's face every time he came to visit us, at least not until it was pointed out to me.




~He's tricked you all.~ The rabbit thing visited again, late one night when I was the only one awake.

"He's a Kami." I pointed out. "Why would a Kami want to hurt us?"

The rabbit thing fluttered down and landed on the floor in front of me, looking up with a face that was somewhere between cute and stern. "Because your family has power and he's jealous of that power. He knows he can't destroy you, but he will do his best to break you. He will take away all that you hold dear. He's told you that your cat has been murdered, hasn't he?~

I clenched my teeth at the rabbit thing's words. I wanted to get out of D's home to find whoever had killed my family. Neko was to gentle to fight back against an attacker; he didn't deserve such a terrible death. "Yes, he did."

~He didn't tell you that he was the one who killed your cat, did he?~

That stunned me for a moment, and I glared at the rabbit thing. "What are you talking about?"

~I saw it all. I saw your Neko waking up from his nap and realizing that everyone was gone. He followed your scent to this place and tried to get in. He was so furious that he'd been forgotten and screamed as he beat upon the door, "Let me in! Open this damned door!" But he lost that anger quickly. No one answered him, you were all soundly sleeping. He was afraid that you'd all been hurt or killed and he pounded on the door even harder.

It was D who opened the door at last and quietly stepped outside. "I'm afraid they won't be doing that." He said.

"What are you talking about? My family's in there." Your cat asked. He, like you, wasn't afraid of D.

"Yes, but they will not be going to be coming out. They will never leave me." D killed you cat with a swift strike to the heart from a dagger he'd had hidden up his sleeve. The dagger had been coated with several poisons, enough to take the life of the strong cat. "You will be leaving your family, but be assured that the cat will live on." For a final blow, D thrust the dagger your cat's head.~

Then the rabbit thing stopped talking and just watched me. I tried not to believe it. No Kami would willingly take a life, especially for such a petty reason as jealously. "Y-you're lying." I said, standing up and walking away from the rabbit thing. "You must be lying! I still don't even know who you are, I don't know what you are, for that matter! Why should I believe you over a Kami?!"

The rabbit thing flapped its wings again and took flight. Before it left out a tiny window, it said to me, ~You shouldn't. You have no reason to believe my word over his. But, think on this, has D let you out of his home for one moment since you've come here? Has he let you even run outside? Can you really take the chance that I might be telling you the truth?~

I stared at the rabbit thing until it disappeared out the window. Could I take that chance? D certainly has the power to kill us. But the motive? Jealously? I couldn't believe it. Not at first.




Eventually, our new cat was born, much to our joy. Ka-Kani's sudden bout of weakness and illness would surely now be cured. All we would have to do would be to wait until the cat matured. This was the way it always was.

When our new cat was born, her skin was a hard shell, like the exoskeleton of an insect. Her arms and legs were long and powerful, even as an infant, with hard claws. All in all, the cat resembled something of an insect rather than anything feline, with a stench that could peel paint.

For months we'd been living in D's home, but now we would be close to leaving. We would be able to go back to our own home. I didn't like thinking about it to hard, but the warnings from the rabbit thing plagued my mind and I was becoming suspicious of everything around us.

Our happiness on the day of the cat's birth was short lived, however. Her mother had barely time to hold her baby when D swept into the room and looked down at our baby. It cried in hunger and from the cold as it flailed its massive arms around, begging to be cuddled.

"Your cat is ill." D announced suddenly as he bent closer to look at her. "Very ill."

I didn't like him being so close to her, to our newest cat, but there was little I could do.

Ka-Kani was all ready weakened from the loss of the cat and, even now, she was laying down in a bed, barely awake. She had to save her failing energy. In fact, I rather thought she'd spend the next few weeks sleeping, in fact. She would probably spend most of her time in bed until the cat was able to take its proper place in the family.

D took the baby from her mother's arms as if there would be no question about his right to do so. There were outraged voices raised from the family. She was to young to be taken from her mother! I kept my mouth shut, but I told myself that he'd best have a good excuse for what he was doing or I would do my best to rip his throat out.

"I'm afraid your new cat will die."

That statement made the room go silent. "Die?" I found myself speaking for the first time since D had entered the room. "She can't die. She was just born. She looks healthy."

"But I have better insight into life, do you deny that?"

How could I? He was a Kami. No creature could understand so much as they did. "What can we do? We have to do something to save her." I hated the desperation in my voice. I hated feeling so weak and powerless.

D pulled the baby to him and cuddled it against him. "I have a room for sick animals. She will fit well with my other ill pets. I will bring her to you when she is well." With that, and our flagging trust, D left the room as swiftly as he'd come, leaving all of us behind again. I had a dreadful feeling about leaving our little Neko with D.



Time passed and we begged to see little Neko. We pleaded for D to just let us see her and speak with her a few minutes. "She's to ill." He replied many times. "It would be very bad for her to leave my protection right now. It could kill her."

In the end, Neko's weeping mother persuaded D to let us all see our youngest member. He came back a short time after holding a tiny clawed hand. Our Neko wasn't so tiny now. I hadn't realized how much time had passed. She was walking.

"What's happened to her?" Ondori asked, looking to D, worried. "She's still in her infant form? She should have gone to change by now. It's been ten years, why is she still walking around? Her metamorphosis hasn't even begun yet."

The little cat seemed strangely shy, almost frightened of us, but I supposed, at the time, that it would be only natural. After all, she had never met any of us. The little cat half-way hid behind D, clutching his robe and peeking around him at us. She still looked healthy enough to me.

It was Nezumi who first tried to approach our kitten. She smiled at the tiny female She was tiny, barely ten years old, with an untamed mope of orange, curly hair half hiding her eyes.

Nezumi had been devastated by Neko's death, almost to the point that she wanted to kill herself. Now, she wasn't going to let this chance slide by. The spirit of her dead lover was back, even if she was still a little immature. Nezumi seemed eager to make a good impression on the child. "Neko?" She smiled warmly and held out a hand to the child. "Neko-chan, do you remember me?"

"I'm not Neko." The girl said. "My name's Jai."

It was scandalous. D had given Neko a human name?! We all looked at D, accusingly, but he seemed unfazed by anything and stood perfectly happy with the way this was going. Still, Nezumi wasn't about to let the girl go without talking to her. "We've all been terribly worried about you. How are you feeling?"

Though all this, this little Neko hardly reacted at all. She didn't reach out to Nezumi, as I'd had thought she would, but stared at the offered hand as if expecting it to strike her. She wasn't at all like the Neko usually was, but still, she'd been raised apart from the family, something that had never happened before.

"Neko-chan, you don't have to be afraid of me. I knew the last Neko, very well. He was very dear to me and I want to be close to you, too. I'm called Nezumi."

The little neko's eyes narrowed and I suddenly wondered what, exactly, D had been teaching the little Nezumi all this time. Whatever he'd taught her hadn't been good. The kitten suddenly dashed away from D and threw herself at Nezumi, furiously. The kitten's attack was so unexpected and so savage, it took us all a moment to realize what had happened. Though still a child, the kitten was strong and vicious. She clawed at Nezumi, looking as if she'd really kill her.

We had to tear the kitten off Nezumi and it took three of us to do it. Nezumi was screaming in pain and crying when we took the kitten off her and held her down. "Let go!" Ryu shouted, trying not to hurt the kitten as he pulled at her, but it was hard. "What are you doing, Neko?!"

The kitten only screamed at Nezumi, who lay on the floor, holding her face with her hands as she moaned and cried. "Your fault! It's all your fault!" Her face was twisted with hate while she screamed insanely at Nezumi. "I'll kill you! With my own bare hands, I'll kill you!"

D calmed the kitten with a touch to her arm. The kitten fell silent and stood by D's side and the two of them watched us tend to Nezumi. It was horrible. Nezumi's face had been ripped to shreds, her beauty was destroyed and there was no way to heal it. "Please..." Nezumi wailed, her top lip had also been torn by the kitten's sharp claws, ripping her face open from her lip to her ear. It was hard for her to speak and her voice, that had been sweet as a spring rain, was ugly and mangled. "Please, help me! Neko! My Neko!" Blood poured from her mouth at every word she spoke.

I looked from Nezumi to D and then down to the kitten who still stayed by D's side. "Why?" I asked.

"She is ill. I told you all that long ago, but you needed to see for yourself." D replied. "She is not safe to be with you." He turned to the kitten and handed her something said, "Put your beads on, child."

The kitten obeyed, pulling over her large, clawed hand, a bracelet made of red and white alternating beats. She turned instantly into a small girl with orange curls hanging down to her shoulders. She was naked, but didn't seem to care and still glared with crimson eyes at Nezumi. If what she'd done to Nezumi made her feel any guilt, she hid it very well.

"What is that?" Ryu asked. He was trying to staunch the wounds the kitten had given Nezumi, but had seen the unnatural transformation, too. "She shouldn't look human, not yet, she's to young."

"Protection. This bracelet will keep her weak and helpless, unable to hurt you. I make her wear it so her savage form won't hurt anyone. I fear it's her illness that makes her so violent. You must always keep the bracelet on her or she'll kill you all without even thinking about it." He gave the girl a push towards us. "You did want to keep her with you, didn't you?"

"Get her away!" Ka-Kani, whom I'd thought was sleeping still, staggered forward to glare at the girl. Her eyes were wide and shining with hate. "No member of my family has ever hurt another member of my family." As small as Ka-Kani was, it seemed that she towered over the kitten. "How dare you!? How dare you lay hands on Nezumi, evil brat! Monster!" She screamed.

The kitten's reaction was something to see. Though she'd never met any of us before this, our devotion to the head of our family has always been deeply ingrained into our minds. It was a desire to please the head of our family and, it seemed that our new kitten had inherited it. The kitten now backed down, cowering away from the furious Ka-Kani.

"You aren't apart of my family!" Ka-Kani went on, raging in Nezumi's defense. "Never again will you be apart of my family, Neko! All of you who hear this, no cat will ever be apart of our family again! I never want to lay eyes on you again! Disgusting, EVIL, monster!"

At the last scream, I caught Ka-Kani by the arm and pulled her close to myself. She was coming dangerously close to attacking D, whom the kitten was hiding behind. That would be very bad. "Quiet," I whispered to Ka-Kani, praying that she'd calm down. "You don't know what you're saying. She's sick."

"Then let her die!" Ka-Kani spit. She let me lead her away from D and the kitten. "She's attacked one of our family, she doesn't deserve our protection anymore!"

With Ka-Kani away from her, the kitten regained her courage. She snarled again, "Hate you, Nezumi! You made me a monster. I'll rip your life away!" She made to charged Nezumi again, but D picked her up easily by the arm and carried the screaming kitten out of the room, leaving us all alone again.

"I...I can't believe she did that."

"Poor Nezumi."

"What could have made Neko like that?"

The comments went on and on as we tried to do our best to bandage Nezumi's face and relieve her pain. The blood was spreading, though, seeping though the bandages very quickly and her breathing was becoming harsher. We all gathered around, knowing what was coming. "My...my Neko..." Nezumi breathed. "My...save her..." Her eyes focused on me. "Please...save her." Then the light left her eyes and she died.

As simple as that, our lives were changed in that moment.

Neko had killed Nezumi. It was unheard of. Impossible. We never hurt each other. Sure, our family has arguments, all families do, but we never hurt each other. Then Ka-Kani banishes the kitten from our family? That's never happened. But Ka-Kani's violent reaction hadn't been an isolated moment. Over the years of being away from the cat, the head of our family had been going mad. I don't like to admit that, but it's the truth and you'll need the truth.

I looked around at our family, everyone crying, one of us mad, and one of us banished and not even with us. This had to end. "We have to get out of here." I whispered. Our family...what had happened to our family?




For some reason, whenever I tried to think of a way out of our situation, our imprisonment by D, that incense would appear in the air again and I'd fall back asleep. I never knew how long the sleep lasted for, but when I woke the plans I'd made to help my family escape were forgotten, like a distant dream. Granted, D had never actually said that we were his prisoners, but neither were we free to go. The apartments he'd given us were worthy of royalty, but it was nothing compared to the freedom we'd lost.

The years passed and our family died and were reborn. Nezumi was reborn, but D didn't come for him as we feared he would. I was beginning to suspect that he was planning to take all of our children away from us one at a time. If that wasn't his plan, then what was he keeping us for?

Suicide was a constant nightmare and I began to realize how right that rabbit thing was. We were prisoners here. D constantly found excuses not to allow us outside of his home and now Ka-Kani was so sick that we feared we'd never be able to leave. Her sickness was more in her mind than in her body and very slowly, as time passed, we could all see Ka-Kani going mad. It was little things at first. She would get moody and irritable where once she'd been happy and cheerful all the time. I'd thought it was only depression, but it went far beyond that.

One morning, I woke and found her dead. She'd sliced her own wrists.

Strangely, after all these years, the rabbit thing appeared to me again. Again, I was alone when it flew into our home within D's home. ~This is your chance.~ The rabbit thing said. ~I'm going to distract him for a while. Take your family and go. I can't buy you much time, but I will advise you this, take your family far away. Disguise them if you must, but don't return to China.~

"But, I have questions. You seem to know what's going on around here and..."

~There is no time! Take your family and go! Through this door and down the long hall with red lanterns hanging from the ceiling and you will find the exit. Don't hesitate or you'll be lost!~ It flew away and I ran to wake my family.

The new head of our family was little more than an infant now, still in diapers. Our Nezumi was a toddler, and didn't like being woken in the middle of the night. It was quite the feat to keep her from crying. Fortunately, everyone else in the family were adults and could help with the escape. I had no idea how the little rabbit thing could have distracted a Kami, but it did and we escaped the home without any trouble. Our only problem came when we'd finally gotten outside and my family started running, heedless of the importance of what we were leaving behind. The cat.

I paused and looked back at the seemingly innocent house that had been our prison for so many years. I knew that Neko, Jai, was still trapped inside. I had to find her. Without the cat, our family is as good as dead.

I ran back to D's house, not even bothering to tell my family what I was doing. If I was going to die from this, then let me die alone. I swung my fists, pounding on the doors, but they wouldn't open. I pulled with all my might and then tried slamming my shoulder against the door, hoping to break it off his hinges. Nothing worked and the door stood strong.

~What are you doing?~ The rabbit thing appeared again, fluttering over my head. ~I told you to get out of here! He's gone looking for your family!~

"I can't leave, yet. Our cat is still in there, I can't leave her alone here!"

But the rabbit thing didn't seem to care at all. It made a disgusted sound. ~Fine. I'll bring the cat to you when it's safe. He holds her to closely now, she's very valuable to him. The child is sold to humans in her cat form and then kills them. D hates humans, he hates them all and he would have your cat kill them. She's strong and fast and, disguised as a house cat, no one suspects anything about her nature. She is the prize of his collection.~

To say that I didn't like our Neko being apart of someone's collection, was an understatement. It made me furious, she was only a child! How could anyone force her to kill?

The rabbit thing didn't like my wasting time. ~Go! I'll bring her to you when safety permits! Go!~

I had no choice. I couldn't help my family by standing at this door and trying to force my way in. So, I left her there and hated myself for it.

I ran, trying to catch up with the rest of my family. I knew that they'd all probably taken to their animal forms to escape all the faster, but I wished I knew where they'd gone. I'd have to hunt them down one at a time, or so I'd thought.

In a clearing, not far from D's terrible house, I found them all. They were in a trance, I think. All of them sat together in their animal forms, staring at D. I never knew how he'd caught up with them, but it must have been easy for a Kami. I felt my heart start to beat faster as I hoped the worst thing he would do would be to take them all back to his house again. Not wanting myself to be seen, I stayed in my human form, but lay down on the ground, hoping that the bushes would hide me from D.

D spoke. "I see. You have finally managed to escape with my father's help. No matter. My business with your family is concluded." D held out a long nailed hand towards my family and spoke in a low, smooth voice. "You will all forget the cat's role in your family. You hate the cat. It doesn't belong with you. It's a monster. A hateful, dangerous monster. The cat can do nothing to benefit your family." Then, he was gone.

I felt my heart drop into my stomach with despair. That was probably the most terrible thing D could have done to my family. I hate him. I will always hate him.

It turned out that D knew what he was doing, as I found out years later.


In the end, we all left China. It wasn't safe. Though no one remembered the purpose of the cat, including the cat herself, everyone remembered being prisoners of D and no one wanted to repeat the experience.

We went to Japan and decided that we'd have to blend into human society. We had to hide from D. He might come looking for us. It wasn't my decision, actually, but a majority vote. If D had wanted to take us back, he could have done it when he tampered with everyone's minds.

I don't know what's going on. I don't know why he kept us so long only to let us go. I don't know why he wants to have our family hate the cat. I don't even know what we're going to do. We can't stay in China, none of the family would stand for that.

I did know one thing, though. "If we want to stay hidden from the Kami, we'll have to be humans." I said this one night as we all camped around a rough fire. We'd become so used to living in comfort and safety that not one of us knew much about survival in the wilderness. We were in the forests of Japan and trying to figure out what we should do. Humans were the most populous animals on Earth; it would be simple to hide amongst them. "We are the only ones of our kind on Earth, it'll be easy for any Kami to find us as we are."

Someone asked me how we would change what we are.

"We won't." I answered. "Our children will be the ones changed." It was my very unpopular plan to breed with humans. No one in the family liked that idea much, but there's nothing else we can do. If we want to live, if we want to stay safe, we have to destroy ourselves. We would take human mates and...ugg...breed. I didn't like the thought much myself, either. Humans, of all things. But they were the most compatible of all animals. How was I to know the trouble my plan would cause?

So we took the name Souma from a broken sign we found hanging over an old house. The house was large, but in very bad disrepair. It stood in a deserted village and obviously hadn't been lived in for many years. It was perfect. With hard work we repaired the house and had a place to live. Then we set out to find jobs in the human world.

Jai was returned to us one sunny spring morning. By now, I had been a grandfather for more than ten years, both of my grandsons were half-humans and one of them was the young sheep of our family. When I opened the door of my home and found Jai standing on my doorstep with a small sack over one shoulder and a cross look on her face, I almost died of heart failure. She was no longer the angry child I remembered, but she was a nearly full-grown young woman. Her red curls had been kept short and her crimson eyes were still angry, but she said nothing for the longest time.

"Q-chan tol' me to wait here for you." She said at last, looking at me from under her uncombed curls. "He said you'd be better to me than the Count was."

I must have seemed like an idiot to her, now that I think back on that moment. I stared at her for the longest time. She looked like a beggar who'd just walked around the world. She was to thin to be healthy and her eyes were darkly shadowed with her malnutrition. Her clothes were little more than rags and there were terrible scars on her arms and legs.

"What're you staring at?" She demanded roughly, clenching her fist as if she would fight at a moment's notice.

I invited her in for a cup of tea and showed her in. I don't think she trusted me and I wondered if she at all remembered our first meeting. We said nothing about Nezumi and when I'd asked about her childhood with D, she would turn cold and refuse to say anything. That told me all I had to know. She'd mentioned, at some point during that day, how she'd longed to get away from the Count, as she called the Kami, and I wondered if it was D who'd made the scars on her arms and legs.

"When Q-chan tol' me you were lookin' for me, I jumped at the chance." She held the tea cup I'd given her awkwardly, as if she was unused to such things, and sat on the floor with her legs bent nearly up to her chin. "Didn't think anyone would want me, I was kinda plannin' to just go to one of the humans the Count sent me with and just stay with them. Most of 'em were nicer than he was. Some of 'em weren't."

"Who is Q-chan?" I asked, although I had a good idea who she was talking about.

Jai smiled brightly, the first smile I'd seen since she'd come here. "He was my friend. He said you knew him, he's a babbit."

"A rabbit with bat wings and horns?"

"Yeah, that's him. He said you folks wanted to find me and you'd be better to me then the Count was." While she was speaking, I noticed that Jai still wore the red and white beaded bracelet on her wrist.

"Jai," I asked, using her human name. "Why do you were that bracelet?"

She scowled and looked away from me. "You know."

"No, I don't. I remember that you were...very angry when we first met. D told you to put the bracelet on and you turned into a human form. Did he never give you any other reason to wear the bracelet?"

Jai set the cup down with clatter on the floor, though she didn't actually break it. "I'm a monster, you saw me. I kill people. Did you know that? The Count used to send me out ta kill. If he didn't like someone, he told me ta kill them. It was easy." She said that last part defiantly, as she was expecting me to say something self-righteous about how wrong it was to kill.

"Did you enjoy it?" I asked.

Jai looked right at me this time, without a hint of a tear in her hard eyes. "No."

When I took Jai to meet the rest of the family, they hated her at the first mention that she was the cat, but no one really knew why. She was greeted by hostility, but didn't seem bothered by it. "I know my place in the world." She said calmly when everyone was glaring at her.

They insisted that she keep the bracelet on, least she become a monster again. In truth, not a single person here had ever seen the original form of the cat, except myself.

Yes. I was the last of my generation and the last of the true blooded of my family. Everyone else has died. Did I tell you how we die? We don't age, I suspect you've figured that out already. We must be killed by violence, either murdered or suicide. Both are terrible ways to die, but my family had not been able to hang on for long. Suicide became almost commonplace for a time. Everyone else around me, they were all the half-breeds, the children we'd made with humans. They knew I wasn't human, after all, I still looked no more than thirty for all that I was a grandfather. That didn't bother them so much as the fear inspired by the stories they'd been told about the murderous cat.

Jai touched the red and white bracelet carelessly. "I won't take it off, you don't have to worry about that." Her eyes took on a distant look. "To many bad memories."

I didn't try to convince any of my family that the stories weren't true. I had never been able to convince the original family that D had tampered with their minds and memories, so why should I even try with these children who only feared the red haired young woman. Woman? Ha. She's nothing but a child. I could smell that as I stood next to her. She may look like an adult human, but her true form is still immature and I have a dread suspicion that it stays that way because of that bracelet.

These children, the children of my family, can no longer change at will, they have to be hugged by a human of the opposite sex. It makes such a mess of things and we're lucky that at least the talent to erase memories still runs strong in our dragon. The human's we've chosen as mates can't always deal with our nature, nor can the other children. I see our family isolating it's self, but not only from the outside world. They have having to isolate themselves from our own family.

You see, not all of our children are able to change. I suppose you all ready know that. Many of the children are normal, average humans, except that they have our blood in their veins. We are letting the children think they are normal humans, there is no reason to worry them. One day their children or grandchildren may become the ones who change, but they are allowed to live in ignorance for the time. The ones who are able to change are told about our family, but they are all told about the evil of the cat. I'm afraid that in just a few generations, my family will forget all that it was.

There are still only ever fourteen members of our close family, though after years of her being with us, my foolish family has all but alienated our cat and Jai spends less and less time with us. She's unhappy, but she tells me it is better than being a pet of the Count. She still calls him that, as if she's afraid he will come back and punish her for being disrespectful. If she leaves us all together...I'd hate to think what would happen to us. If only I could convince her to take the bracelet off, just for a while. I think, if she'd just do that, everything would get better.

That's the end of my story. May your life be happier than mine was.~




Shigure-



Shigure looked up from the book when he came to the end of Inu's writing. His face was pale and he felt cold all over. He tried to turn the page, but his hand was shaking terribly and it took him a few tries before he could do it.

'That's not fair.' Shigure thought, scowling at the book. 'He left to much out. What was the cat's important job? Who was this D, anyway?' But an important section of what he'd read stood out at Shigure. 'He said they used to be able to change back and forth between human and animal whenever they wanted to. No...not quite. He said they weren't human. Does that mean we aren't human, either? He said the cat's bracelet was red and white, but Toma's was black and white. What happened to it? Whatever happened to that D guy?'

Curiosity just peeked, Shigure continued reading. The next page took up with different handwriting, listing off different family members and their corresponding animals. He read and read and read, until the sun had set and moon had risen and stars filled the night sky. At one point, he had to get up to turn the lights on, but other than that, he was lost in the past that the book revealed to him. It was like a diary spanning many generations and Shigure grew more and more worried the more that he read it. Every head of the family had gone mad. Every cat had been separated from the family. Every single generation of Souma's had been unhappy. There was abuse, neglect, grief, and a coldness within the family.

'It's just like now.' Shigure thought, horrified. 'If it hadn't been for that D guy, what would we be like? Maybe we'd all be happy. We wouldn't have to hide from everyone.' It saddened Shigure to learned that it wasn't just his part of the family that was always unhappy. For centuries, all of the Souma family had been sad. 'How terribly depressing.'

"Shigure?"

Shigure looked up when he heard Hatori's voice outside the house.

Almost without thinking, Shigure closed the book and slid it back into the closet, out of sight. He couldn't let anyone see it, not even his two closest friends. Shigure wasn't even sure that that D person was a danger anymore, it had been so many hundreds of years, after all. He couldn't be alive now. But then again, Inu had said that they used to live forever, almost... 'I need time to think about what I read.' Shigure decided. 'When I've thought about it for a while, then I'll know what to do.' Even at his young age, Shigure knew that what he'd read was vital to his family, even if he didn't quite understand it.

"'Gure!" Ayame's indignant voice brought Shigure out of his thoughts. "Where have you been? We've been waiting at your house for simply ages!" Ayame planted his fists on his hips and pouted at Shigure.

"Oh, did I forget the time?" Shigure grinned at his friends. "So sorry. Just going through some of Toma's things, that's all."

"Forget the time?" Hatori asked, with a slightly raised eyebrow. "It's past ten at night. No one's seen you all day and you know you'll get in trouble if anyone finds you in the cat's house."

"Awwww," Shigure smiled sweetly at Hatori. "You wouldn't tell anyone, would you?"

Sigh. "Of course not." Hatori said. "But we'd better get going. Your birthday celebration's already started, everyone's expecting you."

Shigure left the book where he'd shoved it in the closet, though he would go get it later and put it in a safe place in his own house. He had so many unanswered questions, but most of all he was afraid.

Afraid that D person would come back and try to take the family again. 'I'll protect them.' Shigure thought, even as he laughed at some joke Ayame told. 'I'll protect them all.'




To be continued...