"Then you don't have to." I whispered, a plan already forming in my mind.

Chapter Twenty-One- Mika's Pov

"Then you don't have to." Kyo whispered into my ear, and I looked up to him.

His eyes were distant, and I could already see a plan forming in his head. I had to admit, it made me nervous. I didn't want Kyo to do anything, crazy, but inside, I knew he would.

"Where is the battle taking place?" He questioned, his eyes returning.

I told him, I had memorized the date, place, everything, since I was just three years old. "Midnight, two days, underneath the full moon, in the largest clearing in the west forest. Yumishimo's enter from the north side, we enter from the south, and then the fight begins. We will be fighting with everything and anything; I will personally be using two twin blades, martial arts, and anything that fits the circumstance."

"You do martial arts?" Kyo asked, off topic.

I nodded. "You saw me." I reminded.

"Oh, right." I smiled, and sat up, leaning into his strong chest.

"You're planning something. Don't." I whispered, a few minutes later. I could hear his heartbeat, so steady, a steady, strong thumping in his heart. I knew the sound of mine, weak, erratic, not nearly as nice as his. But I didn't need to worry about such things as that, it would be gone soon enough.

He looked down at me; I could feel his neck move. "I wasn't planning anything." Kyo said it so innocently and believably that I almost believed him. Almost being the key word.

"You are. And I don't want you to do whatever you're planning on doing, because it'll just get you hurt, or maybe even worse, killed, and then where would we be? I don't want you to die in my battle." I gave him a slight glare, a warning. I wasn't mad, but I would be if he died. If he came into my little paradise world before his time, or not in a dream, I would resurrect him and then kill him myself.

He held his hands up in surrender, and I looked away, closing my eyes.

Then we heard some crashing of pots and pans, and we both looked at each other with a knowing smile. Our trap had worked.

Darting downstairs, we caught Shigure just as he was untangling himself from the metal objects, and the string that we designed to have the dog trip. It was our new way of keeping him on a diet. Not that we really cared, but when Yuki suggested it, we volunteered, it sounded too amusing and fun to pass up. And boy was it.

"Trying to get into the sweets again Shigure, that's against your diet." I smiled.

With his head bent in defeat, Shigure retreated back to his study with a carrot, not as sweet or sugary as he had originally hoped for, but it was enough to do the job. And then, before we knew it, the whole house was awake.

First was Tohru who greeted us with a happy smile and a formal good morning. We did the same, but with much less formality and happy looks, neither of us did "happy", maybe that's why we got along so well. The other girl then retreated to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Then, a tired, and one quarter awake Yuki, who looked like he was going to fall over and just fall asleep in the middle of the living room, appeared. I had once asked Kyo why he didn't fight Yuki when he was like this, knowing full well that the cat would've tried anything to beat his rival the rat, and received the answer that Yuki was apparently even better at fighting when he was tired and more than half asleep. Go figure.

And Shigure never once emerged from his office. "Where's Shigure-san?" Tohru asked as we all sat down, looking around.

I giggled, and Kyo gave a, very, evil smile to me, and we laughed. "He already ate, he must be stuffed, all the food that he ate." A whole carrot, but we didn't tell Honda this. She didn't know he was on diet, only Yuki knew, and regarding the newly arranged pots, and the discarded string, he was giving a slight smile.

Yuki's smiles were a lot like mine, when I was in the real world. They rarely came, if ever, but when they did come, they were worth it, and not for something meaningless. I liked Yuki, and I think that if I had a little more time left, we could become friends. But things never work like that in my life, never had, and never will.

After eating our breakfast noodles, Kyo and I went to the living room. He lay down on the futon couch, and I crawled next to him, half on top of him, and we relaxed in to the sunlight that was gently spreading through the window. The sun wasn't hitting the roof just yet; otherwise we would've gone straight up there. Both of us being cats, we naturally followed the sun, wherever it went, lazily basking in the warming light, curled together.

With a smile, a thought formed in my mind. In my last days, I wanted to spend as much time with Kyo, and make him smile throughout these short two days, forty eight hours, less than that, less than forty eight hours for me to live. I stretched up my back, in a very catlike manner, and then with a little bit of focus, I felt myself poof, and then I shrank. Kyo jumped up, with an amusing noise, and then picked up my new form.

I purred into his arms, curling my tail around his supporting arm. It was nice that he was the year of the cat; I could talk to him even in this form, which made my life much easier.

Kyon-kyon, relax. I can do this whenever I want, remember? That's one of the differences between your curse and mine.

He breathed out a breath that he had been holding. "Don't do that to me again you dumb cat." He growled.

I laughed, which coming from a cat you think would sound strange, but it was quite natural. Most cats can do it, there's just not a lot that makes them laugh, and when something does, humans have little to nothing to do with it.

He sat back down, and put me on his stomach, and folded his arms behind his head, and closed his eyes. My black paws gently kneaded into his hard and trained stomach, and I made sure that my claws missed his skin as they went through his black shirt. By fur, about medium length, pure black, soaked up the sunlight. I purred in contentment, and then fell asleep of Kyo's stomach.

A noise woke me, and I stretched, sitting up on my haunches. Shigure and Yuki were staring at me, so was Tohru. "Where'd you come from?" Shigure smiled, scratching my chin.

I leaned into his hand without thinking, it was instinct. Actually, I still would've even if instinct hadn't been a part of it. Having my chin scratched was one of the many pleasures of being a cat.

Tohru scooped me up and cuddled me. "Can we keep her?" She asked tentatively.

Oh, this was going to get good. Shigure and Yuki looked at each other, then shrugged and nodded. "Sure."

Kyo chose that moment to wake up. "What's going on?" He glared, obviously pissed that someone woke him.

"Look what we found!" Shigure sang.

Kyo's eyes flickered with confusion, and recognition.

Shh, this is getting fun. I whispered into his mind.

"So, what do you want me to do about it?" He questioned, playing along.

"Ms. Honda wants to know if we can keep it. I think it would be a good idea; Kyo and Mika already have two kittens, so why shouldn't she? Although, if it was up to me, I wouldn't have chosen another cat, but maybe that's just me." Yuki explained.

Kyo cracked a smile, but hid it before anyone else noticed. "Sure, why not, but I'm not taking care of it. Thanks to Mika, I have my hands full."

I purred. "Aw, she's purring! I love this kitty so much!" Tohru squeezed me.

"What are you going to name it?" Yuki asked. Nobody noticed that I was nowhere in sight, or at least, my human form wasn't.

Tohru thought for a second. "How about Yumyu?"

Kyo couldn't contain a smile this time, and raised his eyebrow. "Yumyu?"

"I think it's a cute name." Yuki commented, glaring at the red haired cat.

Let's never get Tohru a pet, alright? I begged Kyo. He gave a small, unnoticeable nod, noticeable to me, but not to anyone else.

You better change back, Tohru is getting attached already. Kyo suggested in my mind.

I gave a small sigh, just a puff of air out of my cat mouth.

Then, I wriggled out of the girl's arms, and stretched. With a puff, I was back to my human form, already dressed, another plus to the differences in our curses.

"Yumyu?" I questioned the stunned three. Kyo chuckled, putting his arms around my shoulders, cradling me against his chest.

"M-mika? That was you? How? What?" Tohru stuttered, looking from her arms to me, and again, and again.

I rolled my eyes. "Roof?" I asked Kyo, gesturing to the lack of sun.

He nodded, and followed me. As soon as we lay down on the warmed tiles, we burst out laughing. After that was all finished, and all the laughing was gone from within us, I lay my head on his chest, and went to sleep again, as did he.

"So show me the battlefield." Kyo said. We were in his dreams, lying on top of the roof, I was wearing my white dress that appeared in so many of my dreams I didn't know why. I didn't have anything against it, in fact, I liked it. Maybe I should find a white dress like this one, it was within the boundaries of my fashion, it was an old white, a gothic white. I could pull it off.

I nodded, not wanting to argue because I knew I would eventually give in and do so. I focused, and then we flashed into the meadow I knew so well.

It was huge, light, and beautiful. Too beautiful, much too beautiful for the death and fighting that was going to occur here. It saddened me, but it also gladdened me. I would pick nowhere better to die. Well, perhaps dying beside Kyo, after many, many years together, that would be nice, that would be better. But that was also impossible, and unrealistic. Perfection always was.

"Wow." He commented.

We were on the south side of the meadow, where I would enter in just a day and a half, day and a half, thirty-six hours to live, only thirty-six hours. It seemed so little now that I had met Kyo, he had changed everything. I wish I could say that I wished I had never met him, but I think that finally, I can die in peace, knowing that I did meet him, knowing that he was the one that I was destined to find, to love, my soul mate, and now, I didn't have to feel like I hadn't lived at all. Now I could feel like I had at least felt a little love, something that before Kyo, I had never experienced, except from Sayomi, nobody else. The other Kuro Nekos, they felt respect, friendship, and considered me their role model, but they didn't love me, they never could even if they wanted to.

"So this is where it all happens, huh?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yep, everything."

Then I walked to the middle. Kyo followed, and gave a small intake of breath when he saw what was hidden in the tall grass. As soon as my feet touched the circle of carved stone, it began to rise around me, rumbling, the white ancient stone forming into columns. And then it stopped. Around me, four columns. Below me, a raised platform, carved with the kanji symbol cat, and lion. And then around each, we a person like shape, carved like an oval shaped rounded maze. They both connected to a pool, the beginning, or perhaps the end, of the maze.

Carefully, I lay down below the kanji for the cat, inside the maze. My body was incased by swirls and twists of the maze, but my actual body only touched one line, the end of the maze, my body was in the direct center, which was just the right size for my body to lie in.

"And this is exactly where I die. As my blood leaks out of whatever wound I receive, it will wind through the maze, contained, and then combine into the center of the stone, the pool. As soon as the blood mixed, of the lion and the cat, the curse shall end, the dispute shall be over, and the others that are still living can live."

Kyo stood, shocked, looking down at me. I knew what I looked like. My black hair was spread around me, just inside the borders of the maze, my blue eyes were closed mocking death, and my hands were at my sides.

I felt the coldness of the stone through my white dress even though the sun was out, knowing that it would be warmed only by the crimson liquid that would drain into it.

"I will walk here, leaving the others behind to continue their quarrel, as will the other leader. We will stand on our graves, and then we bow to each other, and fight, never leaving the stone. And then, we will parish, at each other's hand, at the same moment." I gave a small sigh. Not a sad sigh, just a sigh of boredom. I had known this since I was young, as young as I had first heard the prophecy. It was something that I had practiced, dying; I wanted to look beautiful when I was dying. This story, of how I would die, that used to be my bed time story.

"But you'll still have some blood in you, right? Maybe you can just give a little, along with the other leader, and then the curse will be broken." Kyo gave a hopeful smile.

But I shook my head. "It will be all of the blood in my body, not one drop may be left in the leaders bodies if the curse is to be broken, not one. Believe me, so many have looked for loopholes, but nobody could find any."

Kyo's fingers traced the maze, dipping into the carving, feeling the smoothness of the tunnels, where my blood would flow easily down into the pool. I sat up on my elbows, looking at him. And then I noticed something. His eyes, they had a thin line of tears, tears, I had never seen with Kyo, not even when he was physically hurt.

But physical hurt is nothing compared to the hurt of the heart. And I knew this, because I felt it too.

I pulled him to me, and kissed him, our lips molding together, his warm lips on my own cold ones, creating sparks between us. He rolled onto me, gently gripping my shoulders. I pulled back, looking at his perfect face that was above me, I would miss his face so much, his hair, his smell, his heartbeat, his everything. Then I pulled him down into our kiss once again.