Chapter 9: Family Ties

Tohru took a step back in awe of the great building. "O-Our family… lives here, in this HUGE house?!"

"Well, those in the Zodiac live in the main house at the back of the estate. All along the sides of the pathway are different houses where others in the Sohma family live." Kaoru explained.

"So there are people in the Sohma family who aren't in the Zodiac?"

"There are people in the Sohma family who don't even know about the Zodiac. You've now joined the elite few."

"There are thirteen; I wouldn't call that few…"

"Can't you let me bask in the moment for, like, two seconds?!" He shook his head and walked through the gates, "Well, let's get going!"

Tohru, as much as she wanted to, couldn't move. She was completely stunned in surprise of the large estate she should technically call 'home'.

Kaoru walked back and grabbed hold of her hand; Tohru blushed. "C'mon, you can't stop now after all we had to go through!"

Tohru tried to regain herself, "B-but I'm just amazed! The whole Sohma family, which I thought never existed, lives in a giant estate like this!"

"Yeah," Kaoru added, "And some even live on their own outside this estate. Who knows, maybe you've even met an uncle or cousin and had no idea at all! Some people can even marry others and not know their from the Sohma family. It's a common occurrence."

"You mean, marry someone in the same family?!"

"Our family's huge; just take a look around at the size of this place! I bet millions of people have married relatives from the Sohma family. There were even people who did willingly, intentionally, in our great-grandparents' time."

"Oh, that was the first Tohru's generation, right?"

"Yeah and… Hey, you've already met a couple that married each other while knowing of their relation."

"I have…?"

"D-uh, the people that sent you here in the first place: Hiro and Kisa. They're both Sohma's and they were even part of the Zodiac. They knew all of the former animals, and even Tohru!"

"So, if someone outside of the family hugged Hiro or Kisa, they'd still turn into their animal?"

"N-not exactly…" Kaoru muttered as his pace slowed down. They had finally reached the main house. "But, I'll let everyone else explain it to you."

He slowly slid open the door, as if for climactic effect, and the two walked into the main house.

"Whoa…"

Tohru had never seen such a wide variety of people in one area. To one corner, there was a tall, slender girl with long, dark green hair that, at the moment, was struggling to read a book while three boys were chatting with her, (or rather, around her). On one other side, there was a boy and a girl sitting together; they looked to be taking care of some of the smaller members of the family. The boy had black hair whereas the girl had a silver-ish colour, nearly white. And there were many others running around.

Kaoru cleared his throat, which caused some of the group to look up, though that didn't seem to be his reason for doing so. "Ahem… Welcome home Kitten!" he smiled down at her.

She was just about to speak up when something rushed at her. Suddenly, there was a new face staring back at her; Tohru blinked in surprise. A small girl with bright blue eyes and short brown hair had jumped up to Tohru from who knows where and burst like the little ball of energy everyone, save Tohru, knew she was.

"No way, it's you, you're here?!"

It took a moment for Tohru to understand that she was actually staring back at was one of her newly discovered cousins and the second person she had met in the Zodiac.

"I'm Michiko!" the overly-hyper girl happily proclaimed. "Twelve-year-old Michiko Sohma, and, oh-my-gosh, I can't believe I finally get to meet you! You're the cat, right?! It's soooo awesome that you're here now! I've been waiting for, like forever, to meet you!"

Tohru simply stared, wide-eyed at the strange little girl that had exploded in her face, much to her discomfort. "Hey, Kaoru…" she muttered, "I thought you said that everyone hated the cat? I was kinda looking forward to it!"

"Huh? Oh, no actually, after the previous cat, your great-grandfather, no one shut out the cat."

"Damn it…" she sighed under her breath. She tried to pull a smile at the small girl staring brightly at her. "Umm… H-hi Michiko," she bent down to meet her eye level. "I'm Tohru."

Michiko gasped dramatically, "No way!" she exclaimed, "You're named after the Great Tohru Honda-sama!"

"Umm, sure yeah… She was my great-grandmother."

"That's soooo cool! And, hey, doesn't that make Kyo you great-grandfather too?"

"Y-yeah, I'm pretty sure it does." Tohru sighed, two minutes into a conversation with one of her cousins and she was already tired.

"Hey, hey… new-Tohru-chan, do you wanna play the game that old-Tohru-chan played? She was really, really, mega-awesomely, good at it!"

"Oh, you mean the guessing game?" Kaoru asked.

"Yeah Kao-nii, that one…!"

"Wait, what game are you guys talking about."

"I'll explain it to her Mii-chan." Kaoru smiled, turning to Tohru who stood up straight again. "Since your great-grandmother was the first person outside to learn about the curse and keep her memories, she played this game that the former dog thought up. She was to guess what animal someone was in the Zodiac when she met them."

"Oh, I get it… because their personality should match with their animal, right?"

"Exactly…" Kaoru nodded.

"Yeah new-Tohru-chan…!" Michiko jumped in, "Old-Tohru-chan was totally, epically, great at this game and she guessed everyone's! So, so, so… can you guess my animal?!"

Tohru didn't even need to think hard about it. Michiko was hyper, high-energy, and loved jumping and racing around; she even heard Kaoru from across the room, which meant she had good hearing. The only conclusion that could be drawn was…

"The rabbit…?" Tohru asked.

"Yeah, wow, you totally got it!" Michiko squealed happily, "You're just as good… No, totally, awesomely, on-par with old-Tohru-chan! Great job new-Tohru-chan, you rock mega-hard!" And, in saying that, Michiko contently skipped away.

"That was scary…" said Tohru after a short period of frightened silence.

Kaoru laughed, "Not to worry, not all of the family is like that."

"That means some of them are!"

"Well, if you want to be pessimistic about it."

"Oh hey, Kaoru I wanted to ask what an--"

"Hey, let's go talk to some of the family over there." Kaoru, cutting her sentence off once again, grabbed her wrist and led her to the far-off corner where the green haired girl was reading her book and the three boys were set around harassing her.

"Whoa… who is that…?" One of the boys remarked, standing up at the sight of Tohru.

This boy had a reddish brown hair colour and piercing yellow eyes. He was slightly taller than Tohru, as was Kaoru; (although Tohru came up to Kaoru's eyes) she only came up to this boy's shoulder.

"Hey guys," Kaoru called, "We've got the whole Zodiac here now."