A/N: THANK YOU FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS, KIKI! You always expect when I least expect it (not a bad thing, by the way) and then I'm all "WHOA. Was that a BOMB or are there now seventeen reviews?"

I got sidetracked writing this chapter, because I kept writing chapter seventeen, instead.

-Insert I-just-want-to-write-this-chapter excitement here-

I think I just used the word "write"—and its variants—too many times.

Oh well.

Venom is going to kill me for making Sora cry in this one. If chapter twelve never comes into existence, it's because of Venom's love of Sora, even though she claimed Daisuke.

It has come to my attention that I've never described what Akira looks like. And, well, that's because he hasn't been properly "brought in" yet. That comes up sometime in the near future…

I knew I shouldn't have written about Naomi. Now I want her to still be alive, even though she's the character I hate most and want to kill off until my keyboard breaks. Why? Because it would be interesting, that's why.

…Why did I kill her off…?


What is this feeling?

A large covering of low-hanging, leafy branches from a close-by tree was roughly pushed aside by a small, deadly pale hand as its owner stumbled through the limbs, grasping one tightly and breathing heavily, other hand coming up to wipe a streak of blood from the lips. Inside the cave from which the person had occurred, the last dying embers of the fire suddenly extinguished.

-X-

"Akira-sama!" A Sohma maid cried, throwing open the door to the room.

Akira looked up expectantly and moodily from the table he sat at, legs tucked beneath him and white, plain kimono slightly loose. In one hand he had a fistful of his hair, the other lying on the table palm-up.

"What is it?" He asked. "It's hot and I'm sick."

"Yes, we apologize for the intrusion!" Another maid added. "But there's a problem!"

"What might that be?"

"She's been found." The same maid announced.

Akira flew into a standing position, eyes wide. He strode toward the maids quickly with an angry flare. Gripping the side of the door tightly in anger. "Where is she?" He demanded. "Bring her to me!"

The first maid nodded quickly. "Of course. She's being examined, now, but I can fetch her."

"We will bring her right away, Akira-sama!" They set off down the hallway quickly.

Akira didn't bother staring after them, and he instead leaned against the doorframe in exasperation, slowly sinking into a sitting position and resting his hands on his knees. After some time, the maids returned, a small girl now standing between them.

She was small in bone structure, yet her eyes were large and bright, crystalline white in color, red tinged around the outer boundaries of the iris. Her hair was pitch black and fell in a tangled, slightly wavy due to the knots, mess to her knees as a result of having never been cut in her life.

Through her eyes, the scene before her was split into one hundred kaleidoscopic sections, yet she directed her gaze upward and zoomed in on Akira's face, and the other ninety-nine disappeared, leaving her with the typical aspect of human sight.

"We've been waiting," Akira greeted coldly. "Hyakume, the true god of the outsiders."

(A/N: Hyakume means 'hundred eyes'. Because she has the split-sight into one hundred selections, like a fly, the name represents her. Get it?)

"The Outsiders," she spoke up. Her voice was strange, high and low with different torrents of pitch thrown in, and a slight echo as though speaking from inside an empty metal room. "Bring them here. …Want to speak to them."

-X-

(A/N: "…want to speak to them." The only reason I didn't put in "I" there is because Hyakume has such a strange way of speaking that It's going to take some thorough explanation before I start using I and you when she speaks to people. I wish that I could just type out all of her speaking lines in Japanese, so it would make more sense than what it translates into, but that would be problematic for the readers that don't know that much of the language, so…)

"How long is this going to take?" Etsu groaned, leaning her head on Sora's shoulder. "I don't even get what they're talking about."

They sat in a room of the main house, the floor a pale wood, and one wall entirely glass windows. The room was practically empty of furniture except for the black, thin cushions for sitting on that had been lain out by what appeared to be a perfectionist. The sky beyond the glass wall was darkened with deep gray clouds, though the rain never fell and the air merely remained humid.

Ichigo had chosen to hide in a corner of the room, one knee to his chest and the other stretched out, head leaning on his knee as he stared blankly through the glass wall, a strong feeling of dread consuming him that had first become present since he'd been told to come to the main house, a feeling that had grown stronger when he'd found that Kazashi was the only one not present.

The shoji door slid open and the three looked up. Standing in its wake was a girl, appearing to be around fifteen years of age. She was bony and thin, and her white eyes seemed to be staring at them all at the same time, even though Ichigo was sitting further away. Her jet black hair was messy and tangled, some knotted locks falling over her narrow shoulders. She wore a plain, floor length black dress. The eyes focused, still managing to take in all of them, and she slid the door shut behind her, striding to the center of the room and sitting down on a mat.

"The cat?" She asked.

"His curse was broken." Etsu muttered, attempting to hide the fact that the voice and presence gave her chills.

The girl nodded. "Anatta wa Hyakume." She murmured.

Etsu frowned in confusion, glancing up at Sora to authenticate that she wasn't the only one confused by the statement. "I am Etsu." She protested. The girl who had called her by the strange name cocked her head slightly to the side in returned confusion.

"That's how she talks." Another voice came as the Shoji slid open. Ichigo jumped slightly as Kazashi stepped inside, closing the door silently behind her. "She uses I instead of you, and uses you instead of I."

(A/N: Right. Anatta, meaning you, is what she calls herself. Boku, meaning the male form of I, is what she calls other people. Do you get why it's hard to translate, now? Heh. Her way of speaking doesn't make very much sense, and I like it that way. SO, whenever it says 'I', just know that she's really saying 'you', but not meaning it that way.)

"I have watched you since I was informed of your existence," Hyakume told them. "Yes, it seems…" her voice trailed off.

"It seems…?" Etsu repeated, leading her to finish.

Hyakume turned around, setting her large eyes on Ichigo, who stared back in surprise. She turned back around swiftly.

"It seems that Ichigo-kun hasn't gotten any taller."

There was a short silence.

"SHUT UP! MAYBE I HAVE A DISEASE OR SOMETHING, OKAY?" Ichigo shouted angrily, standing up to an unimpressive five-foot-three that was all but threatening.

"Show respect, Ichigo." Etsu muttered.

(Another A/N: this chapter is crawling with interruptions, isn't it? Ichigo is short. That was intentional. He also has a girly face, but I don't really need to give that much of an in-depth explanation…)

"Have you found that strange things have been happening since the last generation?" Hyakume asked. "Etsu-kun, your fall from the building—you survived it, didn't you? Yet if a male were to embrace you, you would not transform, would you?"

"Yeah," Etsu was the one who stared back in surprise, now. "My curse was broken last generation, and I really intended to die…but it didn't work."

Kazashi and Ichigo looked away in slight guilt, both remembering the conversation that had taken place not long before the suicide attempt.

"If that interference had not taken place, you would have truly died," Hyakume stated. "Due to the arrival of the next generation, and the next wolf being brought back to this world from a previous one, a looping eternity, you would have died because of that, and the appearance of Koyuu and myself, who are truly ruling factors in this generation of the curse."

Ichigo turned to Kazashi. "This is how you knew."

Kazashi didn't say anything, not looking at him as though he'd never spoken. Ichigo scowled slightly and sunk back into the corner, slightly annoyed with himself that he'd never realized it, not even after she'd told him about the true gods.

"What I called you here to say," Hyakume hesitated slightly, looking around at them. "Is that the end is near."

-X-

"Since you're the rat and you're closest to me, you have to be just like me. They didn't do it that way last time and the rat became disobedient." Akira informed him with a small grin on his juvenile face. Yukio glanced over at him from his sitting position beside him on the floor and cocked his head to the side.

"But isn't that kind of…weird?"

Akira's eyes narrowed in frustration. "Listen to me, nezumi. If I have to be this way then you do, too!"

"But I don't want to lie to everyone!" Yukio argued.

Akira gritted his teeth, speaking in a hiss. "What they don't know won't hurt them."

This is a difficult kind of world.

Nothing is ever the way it seems, and first impressions are never correct. In this difficult kind of denial, it can't be helped that humans are still going to make first impressions and they're still going to believe them.

This difficult kind of world…I don't like it.

People in this ugly world try and search for each other as though it will bring meaning into their existence.

But in the end, we only turn out dead with no means of coming back.

What does a person think in death?

Do they feel regret for not being able to do all that they'd planned?

This may only be my stubborn way of thinking…

But I'm not the kind of person who likes change.

-X-

"You two aren't going swimming?" Roku asked.

"No." Kotone answered shortly, roughly smacking a bottle of very high SPF sun block. "I'm not going to get tan, okay?"

Roku sighed. "You guys aren't even wearing bathing suits—okay, you are," she quickly rephrased as Sono started to object. "But with the clothes over it, if you get wet your clothes are going to smell like salt for weeks."

"That's pretty kinky," Kotone commented.

"That's not really the reason, is it, Sono-san?" Kaito asked.

Sono looked up at him in annoyance. "I don't do tanning, okay? How is it that I'm the one supposedly lying about it even though I didn't say anything?"

"Well," Kaito started, practically speaking to all that could hear. "The reason is—Sono-san has big boobs and she doesn't want to show them off."

There was a short silence.

"OH MY GOD!" Sono shouted. "WHY DO YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS LOOK?"

"He speaks the truth!" Kotone approved, snickering.

"Why are you two even bothering to use all of the sun block in Japan, anyway?" Roku asked, placing her hands on her hips. "It's cloudy today."

"You can still get tan even if it's cloudy," Kotone replied, having picked up the bottle again now that it was mentioned. "It's been proven."

"Oh burn!" Sono whispered.

"It looks like it's about to rain," Kaito commented wistfully.

"Not really," Sono scoffed. "It's just been humid and any minute now my hair is going to frizz out and get huge and wavy."

"That would look awesome!" Kotone laughed.

"IT WOULD LOOK LIKE HOMO!" Sono argued.

"Homo milk?" Kotone added.

"No. Worse."

"Damn!" Kotone muttered, falsely taken aback.

Dark eyes watched the scene from the shadows of a tree overhead, and the person they belonged to crossed his arms, tilting the head slightly to the side. He squinted into the light, glaring slightly. He cursed under his breath and turned away swiftly, running the rest of the way down the path.

"I'm going back. I was just rained upon and if this hair color comes out, someone will lose a limb and I will not be merciful about it," Sono announced, standing up and turning in the direction of the house. Her once half dark brown, half bleach-y blonde hair was now red, the roots a lighter, pinker color from where the dye hadn't taken so well.

"Does anyone know Sono-san's natural color?" Kaito muttered.

"It's BLONDE!" Kotone announced.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Sono shouted from further down the path. "DON'T TELL THEM CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!"

Kotone snickered and grabbed her hoodie, also leaving for the house rather than stay at the beach.

"You left pretty fast," Kotone tapped Sono on the shoulder as she caught up with her. "See someone?"

Sono turned her head in Kotone's direction. "Yep."

"Who was it?"

"Shut up for a second." Sono whispered.

There was a silence, and Sono tilted her head slightly to the side, taking a nearly silent step forward. A small gust of wind passed through, rustling the branches of the trees, dirt of the path being picked up and tossed around by the air.

"Jun!" Sono called into the nearby bushes. "If you don't come out right now, I am going to strangle myself with the sleeves of Kotone's jacket!"

There was a short pause and the bushes shook as someone emerged from them. He was around twelve years old with a shock of pure white hair, bangs hanging in his powder blue eyes. He had his arms crossed over his chest, an expression of annoyance set stubbornly on his features.

"The only reason I came out," he explained, "was because I know you well enough to know you'd really do it."

"Baka!" Sono jokingly smacked the back of his head, ignoring his grunt of greater annoyance at the gesture. "I'm not in the mood for suicide right now, and I wouldn't really kill myself over you."

"Like I'd want you to!"

Sono rolled her eyes. "Anyway, why are you here? I thought you said you weren't coming?"

"Because…" Jun started, voice trailing off as he failed to find an excuse.

Sono smirked triumphantly. "Stalker!"

"I'm not a stalker." Jun hissed.

"JUN!" Kotone shouted. "Judy's mom just called and told me what you did, and you are too a stalker—get in your room!" (1)

"Would you shut up for ONE MINUTE?" Jun demanded.

"No," came the unison reply.

Jun sighed in exasperation. "I should have known you'd say that."

"What did you need?" Sono asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Obviously you had a reason for coming."

"I needed to get away from the main house." Jun explained simply. "They're all in panic because the 'heir of the outsider' was found or something."

The two stared in shock at him for a moment before Sono abruptly turned away, hurriedly striding down the path in a pace that quickly turned to a sprint.

"Sono!" Kotone called. "Where the hell are you going?"

"I'm going back to the house, where else?" Sono called back, turning to run backwards in order to face them. "I need to use the phone."

-X-

Why did I even come here? Ichigo thought, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring pointedly at the door of the dojo. I don't think I even have any business. He strode forward in annoyance though with a flair to his movements that showed that he was determined to force himself to do something. Fine. I'll just talk to Tohru or something. It seems to be what everyone else did when something wasn't right.

"Pardon the intrusion," he muttered, more in a habitual sort of way as he slid the door open easily, stepping out of his shoes as he entered the entry room.

He was slightly surprised to find that the front room was empty, but he remembered with a grim smile that the people who used to frequently be there, Kazuma and Kunimitsu, most likely had moved away or died. He shook his head, pushing the thought out of his mind.

A sudden, sharp pain erupted breathtakingly in his chest, making him gasp and trip from the surprise, falling against the wall with a crashing sound. The pain never ceased, and he coughed, trying to regain his breath since it had been knocked out of him as he fell. Weakly, he slid down into a sitting position, drawing his knees up to tightly press against his chest. The pain was only intensifying, and as a last resort he wrapped his arms around himself as tightly as possible. The tightness eased it somewhat, though not greatly, and he pressed his forehead against his knees, trying to wait it out until it ended.

He felt moisture on his cheeks and, horrified, raised a hand to his face. He closed his eyes, covering his face with his hands and curling on himself even more. He wasn't allowed to cry—he would get beaten again. If he cried…

…He would end up killing someone.

"Why are you crying?"

The voice of Naomi echoed in his head and he clenched his teeth tightly, fingernails digging into the skin of his face.

"You're scared, aren't you?"

The voice was strangely parental, for her. He remembered it being that way just before she would get angry.

"I'm scared, too."

A kind smile would split through her manic features.

"I'm scared because of you."

Something broke, then.

"I'm scared because you exist! Because you were born, because you burden me with the pain of your existence! Why do you make things painful for Saiki-kun and I? Why do you always cry? Don't be so damn weak!"

The door slid open and Ichigo moved his hands to stare, terrified, at the people standing in its wake. He faintly recognized Tohru and Kyo, yet his head throbbed and vision flickered, and then standing there were two other people.

One of them was a woman, brown eyes bleak and malicious yet her smile remained intact on her pale face, waist-length hair a shade of brown that was nearly black. The second was a man, tall and with simple brunette hair.

The woman's eyes widened and she gazed at him, the smile slipping from her face.

Ichigo couldn't help it.

He screamed, ragged sobs racking through his body. "I'M NOT WEAK!" he denied in a cracked shout. "I'M NOT WEAK, I'M NOT WEAK!"

"Ichigo-san!" Tohru cried in surprise, rushing forward. Kyo stared after her in surprise, reaching to put his walking stick in the umbrella holder where he typically left it.

Yet through his eyes the woman drew closer, and her eyes only grew darker with anger. Tohru's hand coming closer as though to try and help him was Naomi's hand, and the walking stick in Kyo's hand was the bamboo rod that his father often used…

"Don't touch me!" Ichigo gasped, tearing away from Tohru. "Don't come any closer! I don't want to kill you!"

"Don't touch me." Ichigo ordered. "Because now that you know that…" his tone grew dark and serious. "…I could show you horrible, horrible things on accident."

Tohru quickly ignored the memory and instead wrapped her arms around him to try and comfort him, not caring if he transformed. He clutched at the back of her shirt, clenching his teeth harder as though it would stop the tears.

"Ichigo-san," Tohru gasped. "You're…not transforming!"

Yeah. I know.

-X-

"Did you hear what I said?"

Naomi's eyes widened and she smiled in an embarrassed manner, awkwardly rubbing her fingertips against each other, fidgeting slightly. Her deep brown, almost black hair blew slightly in the wind, being pushed into her face in a rather annoying manner. "Yes," she finally replied. "I heard you…I'm just kind of…deciding how to react."

The boy, Tetsuya, sighed, running a hand through his black hair in slight exasperation. He was Machida Tetsuya, a nameless upperclassman, a slightly clueless heartthrob, though his small amount of dreaminess was easily passed off as a cool air, and his typical act of ignoring the girls that swooned over him was equally labeled as so.

"It must be nothing but trouble for you to get asked by someone like me," Tetsuya muttered. "So I guess I'll just leave…"

Naomi turned to grab the back of his uniform blazer. "Um…no, I'm just…" she paused. "I've secretly kind of…liked you…for a while, now…"

He reached back to take her hand off of his blazer and cover it with his own, squeezing slightly. "Thanks," he grinned. "That makes me really happy, Naomi-chan."

She blushed, eyes widening. "What did you call me?"

He looked away awkwardly. "Naomi-chan. Can I call you that?"

"Um…yes…it was just kind of sudden…"

"Sorry."

-X-

"Naomi-chan!" Tetsuya called.

Naomi turned from her pacing to see her tall senpai waving to her from a group of rather unruly boys surrounding him like a flock. A grin split her features and she raced toward him, waving as well.

"These are my friends," Tetsuya explained. "They were pretty eager to meet you."

She flushed slightly under their penetrating, perverse stares, some of them smirking rather sadistically down at her. She wrapped her arms around herself as though to cover her unexposed body, attempting to pretend that they weren't present.

"So am I still coming over on Sunday?" Tetsuya asked in confirmation.

"Yeah," Naomi replied, uneasy under the amount of ill intentioned gazes set upon her.

"Okay," Tetsuya laughed in an embarrassed manner. "I'm kind of nervous, I guess…I've never met your parents before. It's at eight, right?"

"Yeah. Eight."

-X-

"Naomi?" Her mother called downstairs. "Didn't you say that this Tetsuya-kun person was coming over at eight?"

Naomi looked up from the table that she was setting in a rush. "Eh? What time is it?"

Her mother sighed bleakly. "It's around eight-thirty. And you're sure he was supposed to come today?"

Naomi wound her hair around a finger, frowning slightly. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be today." She reached around her back to untie the plain white apron that she wore. "I guess I'll just go to his house to see if he's ready yet. He's not usually late for things…"

Her mother took a few steps downstairs to lean on the railing, gazing at her daughter in slight disdain from the opening on the stairs. "How about you wait until nine? He might just be busy doing something important."

Naomi shrugged unsurely. "Okay."

Nine thirty was announced with the ringing out of the clock placed in the living room. Naomi's face was cupped in her hand as she found herself sitting solitary in a chair at the kitchen table, staring with disinterest at a dwindling white candle. She stood, pushing her chair in and taking her hair down from the loose ponytail in which it had been tied.

"I'm going to go to his house," she announced, stepping into her shoes. "I'll be back soon, and there's streetlamps. He doesn't live that far away."

"Iterasshai." Her mother recited.

The air outside was cold with the essence of pre-winter frost, and Naomi clutched her jacket tighter as she paced quickly down the street, walking fast incase anyone shady happened to be outside at the particular time. The sky was stained a deep purple-tinted blue, stars strewn across it. She stared up at the sky, frowning in incomprehension.

'I don't really get it,' she thought, crossing her arms over her chest. 'Tetsuya-kun isn't usually late…'

"Hey!" Someone called out from underneath a nearby streetlamp.

Naomi turned to face them, becoming nervous as she recognized the group of Tetsuya's friends that she had met a few days before. They all held a rather drunken sway to their actions and slur to their words. A familiar, newly lazy-eyed face stuck out in the crowd, and Naomi's eyes widened. Tetsuya had called to her, and was waving tipsily.

"Tetsuya-kun?" She asked, confused.

"Hey, baby!" Tetsuya slurred drunkenly. "Come walk with us for a minute!"

"Tetsuya-kun, you've been drinking," she denied slightly.

"Only a few, come on, baby." He assured her, holding his hands out.

She unsurely walked forward, bunching her shoulders slightly. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her uncomfortably close as his friends hooted loudly in approval. She let herself be lead into an alleyway between two houses, nearly tripping over the stairs that lead down into it.

"Tetsuya-kun, what are you—?" Naomi started, being cut off as his hand closed over her mouth.

"Shut up," he growled. "Or we'll kill you."

-X-

Naomi stared up at the night sky hopelessly, not making an effort to cover her body, numb with cold and feeling positively dead. She lay on her back against the cold, uneven stone of the alleyway, listening passively to their drunken laughter and shouts of obscenities as the group walked away.

Naomi realized with a slight sigh that turned into a cough in her raw throat that one of them had stayed behind, a tall man with brown hair and a slightly plain face. She realized with a certain painfully hopeful feeling that he was the only one who hadn't assaulted her, and she spoke in a hoarse voice through quivering lips.

"Who are you," she asked, "and what do you want?"

"I'm Sohma Saiki," he introduced in a clear, sober voice. "I just wanted to see if you were okay."

She laughed dryly. "That doesn't really matter does it?" She sat up, weakly pulling her clothes on with numb, stiff fingers. "And you're even related to me…"

"You're a Sohma?" He asked curiously.

She nodded slowly. "Nice to meet you." Ignoring the striking pain in her lower back, she stood stiffly and walked away at a slow pace. She paused halfway up the stairs, turning to face him. "Thanks for not doing anything…"

-X-

"No!" Naomi groaned, staring down at the test results in her hands in horror. "This can't be right!"

"What does it say?" Saiki asked, looking over her shoulder. His eyes widened when he read the print.

"I can't get pregnant!" Naomi clutched at her head. "I'm too young! I'm only sixteen!" She lowered her head to rest it on her knees in agony.

She sat in a couch in the lobby of a medical clinic downtown, sitting with Sohma Saiki, the young man that had stayed with her after that night. Young children played in their area with clichéd toys and conversing happily while their parents were being examined. Naomi raised her head to glare at them.

"I can't be a parent," she whispered, "my parents would kick me out."

Saiki took her hand comfortingly. "I'll help you through it, okay?" He promised. "It will be okay."

-X-

Saiki-kun, how is this okay?

"Sohma-sama?" The doctor asked. "Won't you hold your child?"

Naomi shook her head, sobbing relentlessly. Her child had been born two months premature, and being from the 'inside' of the Sohma estate, she knew perfectly well what that meant. A slight fuzz of orange hair covered the top of his head, and that fact only disturbed her, more.

There was no possible way that hair that color could belong to any animal.

It could only be a sign of the fox, for the cat had already been born a few months earlier.

"So how is the baby? Saiki asked, opening the door of the hospital door, eyes widening in surprise when he noticed Naomi in hysterics.

"It's…it's not…human!" She sobbed, ignoring the way that the doctor stared at her in confusion.

Saiki quickly took the infant from the doctor, staring down at it, the orange hair, and the teary cyan eyes… he gasped loudly. "This isn't…?"

Naomi nodded in misery.

Saiki bit his lower lip, at loss of anything to say. "It will be okay," he assured, though it didn't sound like he meant it. "It will be okay."

-X-

Naomi stared down at the five-year-old child, the half-black and half-white hair, the wide cyan eyes, and then she directed her gaze to her hand, still hanging in the air. She had just hit her child. When she was younger, she had always told people that she aspired to be a kind, loving mother.

Her eyes narrowed grimly. With the fox, it didn't seem to apply.

"K…Kaiju," she stammered, beginning to laugh evilly at his horrified expression. "KAIJU! KAIJU!"

She began to lose control of herself, the mad laughter never ceasing as she began to throw everything in reach. Laughing even harder when the projectiles made contact, stopping to clutch at her aching ribcages when tears began to spill from his eyes. She smiled in a motherly manner, leaning in to smile at him kindly.

"Are you scared?" She asked, not waiting for a reply. "I'm scared, too."

He looked up at her in confusion, and she felt the kind smile split into a more insane kind of grin.

"I'm scared because of you," she told him simply. The smile slipped from her face, and she threw a nearby plate, growing more infuriated as he shrunk away and it instead collided with the wall, shattering as it fell to the tile floor. "I'm scared because of you! Because you were born, because you burden me with your existence! Why do you make things painful for Saiki-kun and I? Why do you always cry? Don't be so damn weak!"

I couldn't stop myself. I truly loathed this child, and I wanted him to know that. I wanted to burn him with that knowledge, to beat him until he bled and knew just how unnecessary he was.

I wanted him to die.

-X-

Naomi stirred slightly from her sleeping position beside Saiki, opening her eyes sleepily to stare into a bright cyan pair on an ashen, murderous face. She sat up quickly. "Kaiju!" She shouted in alarm.

"Okaa-san," he whispered, a sadistic smile creeping across his lips. "I'm doing this because of what you did to me."

-X-

"Should we call someone?"

Ichigo's eyes opened slowly, and he blinked twice in order to focus his vision. Tohru was staring down at him with a worried expression, holding a damp cloth in midair.

Ichigo's eyes widened and he quickly sat up, bringing a hand to his face and feeling a sinking relief in feeling that it was dry, yet most likely the tear-streaks hadn't faded yet.

"Ichigo-san, please lie down," Tohru requested parentally.

"No. I'm leaving." Ichigo muttered and stood awkwardly, closing his eyes at the spinning that came as a result of the sudden movement.

Tohru watched as he stumbled out the door, and the running footsteps that followed announced his leave. She sighed worriedly and turned to Kyo, who leaned lazily against the wall. "Kyo-kun," she murmured. "What's wrong with this generation?"

-X-

"I was told…"

Sora stared through the glass of the window, edited slightly by the netting between the two panes, at the sky beyond it. The sky was a flawless azure, robbed of clouds, rays of light catching on the leaves of trees directly beneath where the sun currently hung in the sky, setting their leaves ablaze with the brightness. It was a pretty sky, Sora thought as he sighed shortly, stepping closer to the window as though he would be able to see more of the sky.

"…that it's far more painful…"

Though there was something in that endless firmament-like display that unnerved him to some extent, as though he were seeing it for the last time. It was a slightly painful feeling, as though he knew he would never be able to find himself in that sky anymore, as though he'd wasted the time he'd had possessed…

"…to be relieved of an Outsider's curse…"

His eyes widened in horror.

"…than that of the Juunishi." Hatori commented, gazing blankly at a worried Tohru, staring at her feet and biting her lip slightly.

"Hatori-san," Tohru spoke up finally. "Isn't it much better if they aren't cursed? Wouldn't they be happier?"

Hatori grimaced slightly. "In addition, it's worse if they're free—the pain of parting, because their 'god' is a member of their own group, is worse than staying as they are—cursed. The pain is different for different animals, the wolf, god; being the most painful, though it does vary…"

Something broke.

Sora gasped, falling to his knees and covering his ears with his hands, teeth gritted as his fingernails dug into his scalp. Something was ebbing, fading away, though he couldn't exactly name what it was. He felt his eyes stinging with tears as a clawing emptiness formed within him. Eyes flying open, widened and pupils dilated in fear, his hands went around his throat as breathing became difficult.

Somewhere in a corner of his mind he realized what had happened, why he'd felt uneasy looking at the sky.

His curse was gone.

As a last resort, he forced his eyes shut, burying his face in his hands.

"I DON'T WANT THIS!"

-X-

Kazashi stared listlessly at the familiar scenery while tourists fluttered about, taking pictures of the hillside, green grass beginning to transcend into yellowed leaves, raked with trees, leaves glowing in the setting sun.

"Ah!" A girl gasped, staring at a nearby tree. "Kitsune-san!" (2)

Kazashi's eyes widened slightly yet then reverted back to their bored, half-lidded earlier appearance. She waited for the fox to eagerly run toward her, yet its gaze only rested on her face for a second before it turned swiftly and stepped away.

Her eyes widened, eyebrows furrowed in shock and incomprehension. She stepped away from the tree she leaned against to follow after the Kitsune, watching its white-tipped tail disappear behind another tree.

"Oi, miss, you shouldn't chase after the foxes!" A nearby woman warned.

Kazashi ignored her, setting a frenzied pace after the fox that was now sprinting away, though her possession as that particular animal gave her the equal swiftness and agility. The fox stopped dead, Kazashi following, and it turned to face her.

Kazashi sighed in relief, tilting her head to the side slightly at the fox.

"Gomen ne," The fox tilted its head to the side

Her eyes widened again. The fox's eyes were apologetic.

"But it's time for me to go, now. I can't stay with you." (3)

Kazashi fell numbly to her knees, heart rate increasing rapidly. She reached out a hand to touch the fox as though to bring it close and force it to come back, though it only ran off into the forest. Breathing heavily, she dug her fingernails into the grass, trying to avoid causing a scene.

But the pain was immense, and she felt herself falling victim to it.

"DON'T LEAVE!" She shrieked, fingers extending in spreading apart, fingernails now caked with dirt. "COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"What's wrong with that woman?" A young girl asked her mother, pointing to the white-haired girl.

"Let's go." Her mother muttered in disapproval.

It's a shameless act, isn't it? She mentally smiled though in reality her teeth were clenched to the point of breaking, tears falling like raindrops. I don't want them to look at this humiliation. I don't want them to see me break like this.

"…Oitekanaide…" (4) She whispered. "OITEKANAIDE!"

-X-

Etsu smiled bleakly, sitting with her knees to her chest and back against a cold white wall, leaning her head back as tears began to roll down her face.

Parting is sad, isn't it?

-X-

"It seems as though the previous Outsiders' curses have been relieved," Akira reported grimly, leaning on the table with his face cupped in his hand, bored eyes staring blankly ahead at the flickering candlelight that illuminated the room though night had fallen.

"Ah, really?" A girl's voice, slightly high in pitch and with a whiney tone as though she had wished for it to be continued asked. "What a shame."

"And you," Akira murmured. "We can't keep you hidden from everyone forever. Having you here is beginning to annoy me."

"Then put me in a back room or something," the voice suggested lightly. "I don't really mind. I'm only waiting for the right opportunity to, oh, how should I say this…?" her voice trailed off. "Strike." She finished maliciously.

"You've gone mad," Akira muttered in distaste.

"Oh, not quite," the smirk was audible in her statement, and the owner of the voice tilted her head back, smiling sadistically. "Omoshiroi," (5) she commented. Her eyes flashed. "So, who are the people of this new generation? I hardly knew that of the last."

Akira smirked bleakly. "I'm old fashioned, and many of the same deals and customs set for the last zodiac exist for me."

"You're locking up the cat if he can't beat the rat?" She asked, interested.

Akira nodded once.

"Aaah," she sighed, smiling the same dark smile. "I'm interested to see how this turns out." The smile slipped from her face. "There is one other monster that I'm interested in, though."

Akira glanced over at her, attention caught.

"Akira-san, I believe you know which one." She crossed her legs impatiently. "Fine. I'll show myself after this many years of hiding. It kind of feels like losing." She stepped down from the windowsill where she sat to lean against it, instead. "After all, I do still have a few secrets that I'm not ready to tell."

The lamplight caught her face, revealing waist-length locks of pure white hair and grim, maddened charcoal eyes. Her skin was a pale, ashen white, and she was glaring now, flames casting eerie shadows across her face.

"There is one person," she whispered. "That I am most certainly interested in seeing."


A/N: YES! I got it done in under a month! Too bad it's short…oh well.

1. This is a Fred - from Youtube - reference. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I do that a lot.

2. Kitsune means fox, and adding 'san' may or may not be normal. Who knows?

3. Takaya-sensei explained that "they can communicate with their animal", so the fox explaining it was leaving was kind of a parting word.

4. "Don't abandon me."

5. Fun, interesting.

I didn't forget to define things! I'm so proud of myself.

I think that with the description I gave away who the person is. Oh well—I hope it at least comes as even a bit of a surprise when I properly introduce her.