"Hey Shigure?" Tohru kept her eyes averted from the tall man as he slumped at the kotatsu reading his morning paper. She had harbored this question for a long time. It had finally started nagging at her after her fateful encounter with Akito at the beach house, and after she witnessed Kyo's true form.

Shigure simply indicated his half attention with a sing-song "Hmmm?" as he flipped to another section of the paper. Tohru kept wiping at the surface of the kotatsu, removing imaginary crumbs from the midmorning Saturday brunch that she had just cleaned up. Kyo had exited to the yard for some martial arts training, while Yuki had headed up to his room to study a bit before a Student Council meeting.

Tohru stuttered a bit in her nervousness. "Um, I've sorta had this question I wanted to ask you… or maybe not you… if you don't know… maybe Hatori, or one of the others...but Hatori is always to busy, taking care of everyone, I hate to bother him….I mean, you could tell me who to ask……" by now Shigure had folded up the paper and draped it over his lap. She had totally captured his full attention by seeming so nervous. Surely his "little flower" knew she could ask him anything. By her reaction, he was thinking it might be something in regards to sex. His favorite topic by far, but one he was loathe to approach with his innocent little "housewife." He smiled calmly at her, hoping it would ease her tension. He truly did love this little girl, though not in the romantic way. She was physically too young for him, but, most important, she was emotionally too young for him. She had as much sexuality as a twelve year old. So, maybe she was finally thinking about his favorite subject and needed some guidance?

"Tohru, dear, you know you can always ask me anything… not that I'll always know the answer, but I'd do anything to help you. So, why don't you just ask me your question? I promise I'll be gentle and nonjudgmental." His grin was not totally innocent, as he loved to see the younger generation squirm. "If it has something to do with Yuki or Kyo, I'm sure I could help you with some lessons in the finer art of men…"

Shigure received the expected squeal of denial, "No, no, it's nothing like that!" She swallowed her nervousness and folded her legs under her as she sat down before him on the other side of the table and nervously folded her cleaning rag. Keeping her eyes averted for just a moment longer, she finally looked up into his piercing black eyes. "Well, it's kinda about Yuki and Kyo, but more about all the members of the Zodiac." She paused to arrange her words so this slightly perverted man would not misunderstand her question. "I was wondering if any of the other Sohmas had powers like Hatori, Kyo and Akito. I have seen Kyo's true form, and heard about Hatori's ability to erase memories. And I started thinking. It seems that Akito has the ability to make you all believe any dark and awful thing he sees fit to put in your heads. I felt it a bit at the school and at the beach house. It was almost like being in a nightmare, where my eyes could not pull away from him, and his words went straight into my heart. It seemed like what Kyo and Yuki had described as Hatori's abilities. And it got me wondering about the rest of you."

Shigure sat back with a gasp of air. This was totally out of the blue, and he was so taken back, he had no thought of how to respond. "Well, I don't know. I have never even really thought about it. It has just always been accepted that Hatori had his ability. None of us every really questioned it. Hmmm." He chewed on his lower lip and truly thought about her question. Did any of them have any other powers? He finally asked it back to her, "What makes you think any of the rest of us have powers?"

Tohru leaned over and looked up the stairs to make sure Yuki was not approaching. Then she looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought. "Well, I started thinking about Yuki. He has the shy, quiet personality at home, but when he is at school, for some reason, everyone loves and respects him. It doesn't fit his personality. With as shy as he is, you would think people would not even notice him. I was wondering if he had some type of power that made people notice and respect him. Then, I compared him to Ayame. Now, he had a flamboyant personality and loved to pull practical jokes, but again, people looked up to him as a leader. And the biggest thing was, he could tell such outlandish lies and even the adults listened to him, and believed him."

She cleared her throat as she hoped she had not insulted Shigure by saying such things about his best friend. She smiled kindly at him and said, "Then I thought about you and your ability to convey such amazing things with your words. You are a great story teller. Even though you play around a lot, you also seem to have some wisdom that comes through in what you say."

Shigure had the presence of mind to look humble and blush a bit. No one had ever said anything as endearing to him before. He was usually tossed away as being the family clown and kept around only for comic relief. It had been a roll he had easily fallen into as he followed Ayame's lead in their hijinks and antics.

Tohru stopped at this point and felt doubt creep back into her mind. "But you must think I'm being awfully silly with all of this. I admit, I'm not the smartest girl in school, but it just seemed like there should be something more with this curse. It seemed like all of you had some special ability like Hatori's but that Akito wanted you to think you were all useless, and you believed it. Only Hatori's power was useful to Akito, so the rest were ignored. Surely, there must be a good side to the curse. It can't all be bad. I mean, if it started out as God inviting his beloved children to a banquet, he surely didn't mean for it to result in such misery. It seems like somewhere along the line, it was perverted into what it is today."

Tohru stopped and blushed at the totally stricken look on Shigure's face. Had she said too much? Was she talking about things she had no business talking about? All the members of the Zodiac were loath to talk about the curse as if simply talking about it would make it worse. But really, how much worse could it be? Living life in fear of being close to anyone? Living with the terror of he head of the family taking out his anger and depravity on them? Wondering when their dirty little secret will be discovered?

Tohru bowed, upset that she had overstepped her boundaries, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I know none of you like to talk about the curse, and you are leery of what Akito might do if I find out too much. It was just a question that has been bugging me. I shouldn't have asked. Please forgive me. I'll just go now… I've got… um…. Something to do….. up in my room……" and she got up and ran for the door before Shigure could even gather his wits about him to protest. He could hear her little padded feet dashing down the hall upstairs until she reached her room. Then he heard the bed groan as she tossed herself down on it, probably to cry.

Shigure closed his eyes and thought, 'I'm such an ass.' Then he truly wondered about her idea. Did any of them have any other powers that were being downplayed by Akito? He rose and ambled to his office and pulled out his phone and dialed Ayame. Then, a quick call to Hatori followed it. "Hatori? It's me, Shigure. I think you and Ayame need to meet me and discuss a question that Tohru just asked."

Hatori's voice was strained and distracted on the other end of the line, "Surely, you can answer the questions of a sixteen year old girl." There was a pause, and then he continued in a bit more concerned voice. "Then again, if it was important, I don't know that I'd want you to answer her. What was it about? You didn't tell her about sex, did you? You know how I feel about you corrupting the younger generations with your perversity." His voice was rising a bit in upset.

Shigure hurriedly placated his friend, "No, no, seriously. This was a question I can not answer, and have not even thought about. If it was about sex, I could have handled that. And I'll have you know, I can be just as discreet and gentle on such tender topics of sex in a young, untried girl's life as you can. You would probably scare the poor dear away from ever even considering sex with your cold attitude. You would probably just give the girl a shot and tell her to go to bed and not think about it." Shigure just couldn't help poking at the doctor's bedside manner sometimes.

His antics worked to reassure the good doctor that Shigure had not taken the opportunity to fill the poor girls head with silly nonsense like in his romance novels. Hatori would not admit it to anyone, but he truly cared for the loving, giving young woman. She reminded him so of the warm spirit that Kanna had before their accident with Akito. He couldn't help but feel like his snowy heart was melting when he was around Tohru. She cared so much for his younger cousins and this big pervert. Now that he thought about it, there were only three people in the family that did not love this strange little outsider. Akito, of course, never loved anyone. Koreno, because he was never even allowed to meet her, and Hiro who was jealous of the love that Kisa had for her "big sister." How could a single, orphaned girl have earned the love and respect of ten so totally different Sohmas?

Shigure cleared his throat to get the attention of the currently silent and distant dragon and continued, "Yes, as the older generation of the family, and the ones who are supposedly more intelligent than our younger cousins, I feel that the three of us need to sit down and discuss this. Tohru posed a very interesting question that requires some serious thought about our knowledge of the Zodiac members. I propose we three meet for lunch to consider this topic and see what our superior intellects can come up with."

And with only a small amount of discussion, the three were scheduled to meet at Shigure's house on Monday for lunch, while the younger members of the household were at school. Shigure asked Tohru to prepare a small lunch for them, since they had "family" business to discuss, and she was more than happy to fix a favorite dish for each of them the night before. The poor girl had buried herself in chores and homework to stay away form Shigure for the rest of the weekend. It seemed that she somehow felt she had upset the older man and was working hard to repair any damage she might have done.

After allowing both his best friends into his house, Shigure carried the prepared meals out to the kotatsu where the others reclined. Hatori lit up a cigarette while Ayame flipped his long hair over his shoulder and began braiding it. Hatori lifted his chop sticks and got right down to business, "So what is this all about Shigure? What kind of question can a young girl pose that would stump your perverted mind?"

Ayame giggled behind his hand as he reached for his own chopsticks. His deep voice, so startling coming from such a tall lean man entered the conversation, "How the mighty fall to the wit of a young, princess."

Shigure placed his chopsticks down and savored the bite in his mouth. Looking up at the ceiling he arranged his thoughts. "Ahhh, she is such a wonderful cook. I could die a happy man after one of her meals." The he paused, and a serious look overtook his laughing face. "Our little blossom came to me asking about any powers that the other Zodiac might have that are similar to Hatori's and Kyo's."

Hatori's eyes opened wide, and he stopped chewing a moment to register what Shigure had spoken. Ayame started coughing as a swallow of his tea went down the wrong way. Being the helpful guy that he is, Shigure leaned over and not so gently smacked Ayame on the back a few times until the coughing ceased.

Hatori finished his bite and wondered out loud, "What brought this on?" Shigure shrugged his shoulders and explained, "She said she had though that possibly Akito had similar powers to yours Hari, after she encountered him at the school and the beach. She said it felt like she could not take her eyes off of his, and that all the dark things he said went right into her soul. She seems to think that it's possible the rest of us have hidden powers that were not beneficial to Akito, so he convinced us we were useless with his dark words. She then compared my ability to tell stories and Aaya's ability to lead and Yuki's ability to command respect and admiration with Hari's powers and Akito's supposed powers. It really took me by surprise." He paused again to get another bite as he finished relaying the story, "Then she said the most unusual thing. She said that if the curse started out as God calling his children to a banquet, that he surely must not have meant for it to be a punishment. That there must be a good side to the curse. I must tell you, I was speechless. She thought that the curse must have gotten twisted somewhere down the generations. I didn't know what to tell her, and have been pondering this question all weekend. I truly wanted to know what you think, and if you have ever seen anything that might support her conclusion that the rest of us might have similar untapped powers?"

Ayame sat back and looked thoughtfully at his friends and cleared his throat, "I did once think it odd that my classmates would believe anything I told them, and would follow my suggestions, no matter how odd they were. I just always brushed the idea away attributing it to my natural charm."

Shigure chuckled, "Yes, Tohru mentioned you in comparison to Yuki. How the students would believe any outlandish thing you would tell them. I had thought about the three of us. We grew up under the old head of the family before Akito rose to the position. So, we were spared a great deal of that influence, so it's possible we were able to develop some of our natural … powers, for lack of a better word. The younger cousins have been poisoned by Akito's hateful words for their whole lives, and it's possible that the damage inflicted has prevented anything from appearing."

Hatori looked sadly at the ashtray and wondered, "I wonder if there are any records of past Zodiac members that might indicate anything unusual. It would actually ease my mind if I were not the only one with abilities. I've always felt a bit of a freak among the family. One to be feared. That is not how I wanted to live."

Ayame leaned over and draped an arm around the good doctor and smiled gently, "Yes, but Ha-san, you are the only member of the family responsible enough to wield such power without abusing it. Of all of us, you are the King Arthur upholding virtue above our petty foolishness. You are the caring heart that keeps everyone safe from our dear Akito. You have always been special."

Shigure sat back with a bit of a shocked look on his face. "Is it possible that the three of us have always been unconsciously working to reduce the anguish that Akito causes the others? I have never realized that we seem to buffer the affects of his cruelty. And while we act as a buffer, our dear Tohru has been healing the damage caused with her love and caring. She has even given an old pervert like me hope that there might be someone out there that could love me for who I am, curse or not."

Hatori finished his delicious meal and concluded, "Well, I can keep an eye on the members of the Zodiac for any unusual abilities, and I'll check back through my files. I need to get back to work, though, so please, tell Tohru how wonderful lunch was. Oh, and tell her that her observations were quite astute."

Shigure rose with the two other men, "Truly. She seems to think that her ideas are crazy, or insulting, as she's been avoiding me all weekend."

Ayame piped in with a happy lilt, "Well, if you are feeling neglected, I could stay and comfort you my dear Shigure." Shigure's eyes lit up in his playful mode and he clasped his hand before him in mock joy. "Oh, would you dear Aya? Your comfort is all I need."

The men did their usual thumbs up pose, and Hatori shook his head in mock disgust. "You two really need to stop that. How old are you now? Twelve? And here I thought we were the wiser and older members of the Zodiac. I wonder sometimes….."

Shigure saw the two to the door and they parted amiably with the intention to research and watch the others. Who knew, this might be something to help them eradicate the curse. Even though the older members had lived under the curse longer, it did not mean they had accepted it. Shigure had seen how the hopes of the family had been placed on the slim shoulders of Tohru and he didn't want her to collapse under the weight. They would do whatever needed to be done to prevent that. If all twelve members had some powers, then possibly, they could be used in her defense and protection. He leaned back against the doorframe as he watched his two friends drive away. It was quite something to think about.