This is an introspective piece from the point of view of Kyo and Tohru's granddaughter. She doesn't have a name in the manga, so I don't use a name for her here.

I don't own, suing will get nothing but a smile and a pat on the head.

/GG/

Turmoil

In my earliest memories I was about two. I remember sitting on the floor at grandfather's feet and playing with blocks. Then I can't remember much till I was about four. It was with grandfather again, he was reading me a story. Always my earliest memories were about my grandfather and I didn't know why until it started happening. "It" being something that I was told would never happen to anyone because a curse once broken wasn't supposed to be unbroken.

Unless it wasn't a curse to begin with.

I remember hiding in the bathroom, cowering in the corner because I was terrified of my reflection in the mirror. I hadn't meant to break dad's watch, but I did. He had never yelled at me before. I had run to the bathroom, crying, as mom told both of us to cool down for fifteen minutes. But when I looked at my reflection, I wasn't myself. Grandmother told me I was the spitting image of her when she was that age. Not this reflection though. I was hideous…a monster.

I wasn't found out though and when mom and dad came into the bathroom to get me I was sitting naked in the corner crying, surrounded by a stench that could have killed a horse. Dad laughed it off and called it gas, but there was no such thing. I had become something else.

Years of my life were spent digging through all of the skeletons my family had buried in the closet. My grandfather, his family, had been cursed by the Zodiac. What's more, my grandfather wasn't really part of that Zodiac, more like an extra…someone whom the other cursed could pity so they didn't have to pity themselves. I spoke to all of them, to learn as much about the curse as possible. I lied and told them I was thinking of writing a story. They were all old enough to believe my lie too.

The changes started happening again, more and more frequent and it wasn't always the monster, but sometimes a cat. After six years of stress being the trigger, then it turned into rain. Grandfather was the cat; cat's hated water. Then it was various temperature changes, like Ayame used to change into a snake when it got cold. Grandfather never changed in the cold, it was supposed to be when someone of the opposite gender hugged him. Even though I was barely a second year middle school student, I understood enough about biology to know that this curse had mutated. No longer was it the same as it had been for generations. It had lain dormant for two generations and came back with mine.

I started to panic. Who else in my family had been afflicted? Would they even know?

Then I found out, and luckily it was only me. Seeing that tiny child, named Momiji after his grandfather, turn into a mouse because he couldn't reach the toy that was outside of this playpen. He started to run and I changed and gave chase. I wanted to eat him at the same time as I wanted to protect him. The curse hadn't been lifted because it had never been a curse. It was a part of who we were. That's the turmoil of the Sohma family. Just when it looks like the fog has lifted; the tidal wave comes crashing in.