*As far as I know Haru and Momiji have never seen Kyou in mononoke form, but I assumed that they could recognize it if they saw it. That's why I made Momiji ask if it was really Kyou when he encountered him in the last chapter.

-Thank you for reading my fic. Ureshii!

10. The end of the nightmare

Hatsuharu and Tohru arrived and stopped in front of the room designated for clubs. Haru looked amused at the mononoke's back. "Monsters do exist, a mystery." Tohru was alarmed and grabbed Haru's arm strongly. "Hatsuharu-kun! That's Kyou-kun! But why? Why is he in that form?" *"So that's his other form. Interesting. It stinks." "Kyou-kun! Kyou-kun! Where's the bracelet?", Tohru was almost under hysterics. Kyou heard her, but he kept taking steps back for some reason Haru and Tohru couldn't understand. They also stepped back and in seconds Kyou was completely outside the room yelling at someone: "DID THEY HIT YOU IN THE HEAD OR SOMETHING KUSO NEZUMI!?" Haru and Tohru saw Yuki also coming out of the room and talking back to the creature: "I love you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life." But Yuki's face was contorting as if he was trying to dominate himself and he couldn't. "STAY BACK! DON'T COME NEAR ME NEZUMI! I MIGHT HURT YOU IN THIS FORM!" "I will stand any pain if I can just embrace you and kiss you. What the hell am I saying? SOMEONE, STOP ME!" The last thing Yuki said was obviously a plead. The mononoke knew there was something wrong with his cousin, but he couldn't figure what. Then Yuki embraced the monster and was about to kiss it. (If that's actually possible...)

Hatori arrived running with Momiji and three more people behind them. One of the people behind them managed to pass them and stared at the mononoke. It was a strange sight to see the rat embracing the monster and the monster trying to keep its arms away from the crazy boy to avoid injuring him. "Kyou... kun?", asked Kagura and stepped back frightened. She had seen Hatori leaving in a hurry and had made him take her with him when she heard about Kyou in mononoke form.

Yuki managed to place a kiss on the mononoke's muzzle and exactly at that time there was a flash from a camera. Yuki immediately looked to see where the flash came from and he saw his oniisan Ayame. "Oniisan? What IS HE doing here? But who cares? I'm with my loved one now." The prince suddenly pulled back from the mononoke and fell on his knees grabbing his head and screaming: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? SOMEONE PLEASE STOP ME! I CANNOT CONTROL MYSELF! HELP!" He was then standing again to hug the mononoke again, trying to pull himself back together, but at the same time his body dragging him towards the monster. Shigure, who was the third person besides Ayame and Kagura seemed to figure something: "He's under the effects of a love potion, but an incomplete spell." "Don't worry Yuki! You're oniisan is here to help you!" Ayame then grabbed Yuki strongly not letting him approach Kyou. Hatori then called Tohru: "Tohru-kun, give this to Yuki." Hatori then gave her a small bottle with something. She grabbed it and approached the boy who was trying to free himself from his older brother's arms. "Now, now little brother. That thing stinks, it's filthy, and it's completely unappropriate. If it was Kyon-kichi in human form then I could approve your relationship." Kyou looked angered at Ayame: "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT, SNAKE!"

Tohru then looked at Yuki and he stopped struggling looking at her. "Tohru, it's you I... No, I love the beautiful creature. Arrggghhh!" Tohru then opened the small bottle and made him drink a bit. In seconds Yuki started to throw up everything that was in his stomach and Ayame didn't have to think twice about releasing him. "Ewww! That's disgusting! Torii-san, what did you give him?" "It's a vomiting inducer. One for some types of poison actually. I thought Yuki could have been poisoned for some reason", answered the doctor in a cold tone. Tohru stayed by the rat's side patting his back while he got everything out. Afterwards he looked pale, but at least the effects of the potion were wearing off. "I cannot believe I kissed it", he suddenly blurted. Tohru looked at him sympathetically. "It's okay Yuki-kun. Everything is alright now." The mononoke was still in shock with thoughts about what had just happened spinning in his head. The only reason why he did not push Yuki back was because he had been extremely afraid of hurting his cousin. Still, he couldn't understand that. He actually would have given anything in the past to hurt Yuki pretty bad, but now it was different and it wasn't for the rat. Hell it wasn't! It was for Tohru, all for her, even though now she would never be his. The rat had won, yet again.

While things were going on Momiji had entered the room and had seen an unconscious girl on the floor and three more girls leaning against the back wall. He noticed that one of them had Kyou's bracelet. "Can I have that back please?" Minami gave it to him without a word and Momiji happily came outside and gave it to Kyou, who by some miracle made it pass through his huge hand. Momiji seemed too happy and Kyou, already in human form and shirtless, asked: "What are you so happy about annoying brat?" "Because I helped Kyou. Now Kyou will not kill me, ne, ne?" Then someone hugged the orange haired boy from behind: "Kyou-kuuuuuuuuuuun! You're back to normal and you're safe now!" "NO THANKS TO YOU I'M SAVED, KAGURA!"

Ayame approached Kyou grinning: "Kyon-kichi! Why didn't you stop my little brother from hugging and kissing you? You wanted him to do that, didn't you? You naughty boy! Shame on you! It's just that me and my brother are so irresistible, right? Our charms always melt men and women indiscriminately." "STOP TALKING BULLSH*T! I COULDN'T STOP HIM BECAUSE HE COULD HAVE ENDED INJURED AND TOHRU WOULD HAVE CRIED!" Tohru stared at the orange haired boy first shocked, but then smiling. "Thank you Kyou-kun." Kagura then was hugging her only love again. "Kyou-kuuun! Now we can be together forever and ever!" "Someone please shoot me." "Kyou-kuuun! How dare you say something like that?" And she started pummeling him mercilessly as usual.

Hatori decided to enter the room ignoring the commotion that was going on outside of it. He saw a girl on the floor waking up and three more that were looking white as ghosts. Somehow he was relieved. He had expected it to be a more numerous number of people and getting ready he asked them the question: "So, what exactly did you girls see?" Mai had already woken completely and she was pointing outside of the room without even looking: "Monster... Outside... Stench..." Mio then asked: "Is it really gone?" Minami was still looking pale: "I-I didn't know. I only took his bracelet to make him follow me. How can someone change sh-sh-shape?" Motoko seemed angered: "It was probably someone in disguise trying to scare us. Probably sent by the Honda demon." Hatori sighed and started to do his work starting with Mai.

Shigure escorted the kids and Ayame outside. Hatori had warned him that non of them should be outside the room when he finished erasing the girls' memories about what had happened. Hatsuharu was watching Shigure with interest. "By the way sensei, why are you here? I can understand Kagura and even Ayame, but not you." "Well Ha-kun, of course I wanted to help too!" Yuki then spoke looking annoyed: "I can already picture a very pissed editor screaming outside our house and maybe even trying to cut her veins." Shigure just laughed while Ayame's own high pitched laugh could be heard annoying everyone. He kept babbling his idiocy as usual.

A boy approached the group that was already outside. He already knew that his cousin's plans hadn't worked at all. Kyou and Yuki immediately recognized him: "YOU!" Of course they had seen him every day at school, but they couldn't fight at school, at least in school hours. Kago Masayuki quickly realized his mistake and turned. He ran for his life, but the truth is that neither Kyou or Yuki followed. Kyou muttered: "Coward." Yuki snorted.

Hatori arrived at the scene and motioned them to walk. He made Kagura, Haru, Momiji, and Ayame get into his car and then addressed Shigure and the ones that lived in Shigure's house with a very serious expression: "I couldn't erase all of the events because other students that knew about those girls doing something today might ask them how it went. They think that their plan failed and they have no memory about Kyou's transformation or mononoke form." Hatori then spoke to Yuki: "Why did those girls give you a love potion? Wait, don't answer that. I've decided that I don't want to know. Just one thing, it's obvious that there's something going on between you and Tohru-kun. I can assure you that I won't say anything to Akito, and Shigure and Ayame have also agreed to this, but please be careful and think well about it." Yuki looked at Hatori startled and saw him get into his car and leave. Yuki sighed and smiled at the group with him: "Let's just go home."

Minagawa Motoko was at her home tangling her fingers between strands of her long hair. Even her last and extreme measure hadn't worked. It was too much and so she decided that the club was no longer going to annoy the prince. Yes, annoy. She had to face that ugly word. It had been truly hard to accept, but it was necessary. Perhaps in some near future she was going to meet her prince in other circumstances and things were going to be different. Or perhaps she was going to meet another prince. Looking at her favorite picture of Yuki she smiled and told herself: "But I promise that I will never forget you." Motoko then kissed the picture and got to bed with the picture beside her.

Ayame shrieked. "This is horrible!" He picked up the phone and called Hatori. "Tori, Tori! The picture I took of Kyon-kichi in monster form! It's horrible! It has my little brother kissing that dreadful thing! I only wanted to have a picture of the creature, not this!" "Ayame, you call me for that? Listen, I know you just wanted a picture of Kyou in mononoke form for your strange photo collections, but it was your fault in the first place to take the picture exactly at THAT moment." "Tori, Tori! (No, he didn't turn into Kira Yamato's robotic bird) This is an emergency! Kyon-kichi must transform again so I can get the picture I want!" There was silence in the other line. "Tori-san?" "Ayame, I cannot think of a way in which you can convince Kyou of that. I can see you try. Now, please, I'm busy. You can call Shigure now." 'Click' "This is a disaster! I know! I will ask Akito! He'll surely find a way of convincing Kyon-kichi!"

A while later Ayame was driving Akito nuts. "And you see Akito! I really want that picture! Not this dreadful one!" Akito was curious. "Ayame, can I see the dreadful picture?" "Of course Akito, here it is!" Ayame gave the picture to Akito and kept talking: "But it's horrible! That picture is humiliating! It's something that I cannot stand! My dear brother kissing that monster!" Akito started to laugh, laugh, and laugh maniacally. "Akito? Akito, now you are making fun of me? It's not funny! It's not funny at all!" Akito started to yell at the top of his lungs, standing at his door after a long laugh. "HATORIIIIIII! HATORIIIII! GET THIS ANNOYING SNAKE OUT OF MY CHAMBERS!!!"

Hatori came as fast as he could: "Ayame, you are making Akito uncomfortable. Please wait for me in my office." Ayame obediently walked away. "What happened Akito?" Akito showed the picture to Hatori. "THIS HAPPENED HATORI! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN! THOSE TWO! THEY ARE MOCKING ME!" "I can explain that one Akito." Akito seemed interested. "Explain then Hatori." Hatori decided to try explaining the picture leaving Tohru and Yuki's relationship to one side in the story.

Yuki, Tohru, and Kyou were watching TV when the phone rang and Shigure answered. When they heard Shigure ask: "What happened Ha-san?", they all ignored the TV and looked towards the man on the phone. "Aya did what? Oh come on, Ha-san, Aya cannot have possibly been THAT stupid. You will tell me now that it's a joke and laugh. Ha-san? No, I wasn't making fun of... Akito wants to see them again? No? Well, that's a relief. So Akito still believes there's something going on between Kyou-kun and Yuki-kun? Well, at least that means that he has no suspicions on our Tohru-kun whatsoever... Okay, bye bye." Shigure noticed the eyes on him. "You expect me to say something, right? Don't worry, you don't have to see Akito because Aya showed him the picture of mononoke Kyou and Yuki kissing." Kyou and Yuki at the same time: "AYAME WHAT!?"



***

Months passed and Motoko finally graduated. Her determination and feats in trying to get the prince were soon forgotten. She wasn't even a memory and she had been substituted. The new Prince Yuki Fan Club president was Kinoshita Minami. Minami was looking at her reflection in her mirror with an arrogant expression on her face. "Minagawa Motoko was weak and stupid. That's why she couldn't do anything right. But I, Kinoshita Minami, I am way different. I will reach my goal. Honda Tohru, ha! That girl will disappear. Getting rid of her will be SO EASY. Motoko just didn't have enough brains. Poor thing, and now she is out of the picture. Minami then walked to the bathroom were her bath was ready and stepped in. Relaxing in her bath she kept talking to herself: "My plans will not fail. They are flawless. First thing I'll do is 'bang', shoot the b*tch. (Actually getting a gun in Japan is almost impossible.) Then, I will comfort the prince because of his loss and seduce him." Kinoshita licked her lips. "I'll seduce him in my fertile days of course. Day 14. I will get pregnant, duh! I will tell him with tears in my eyes. He will marry me then of course and I will be rich and protected for the rest of my life. Yes. That's how it HAS to be. Mwahahahahahahaha! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

-The End-