Final Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya.

Epilogue

A New Dawn

July 19th

Five Years Later

It was 4:57 AM. Remus Leer, now aged 21, sat in the post-dawn light, in an armchair. He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, waiting for a certain phone call.

Remy had not gotten any sleep that night, worried that he might miss the call, or that it would never come. He was staring at the phone, glancing up at his Hello Kitty clock. It was almost time.

It's been five years, he thought, Five years since that morning.

Remus thought back to that hellish dawn:

Time unfroze. For a moment, Remus thought that it hadn't worked because everyone was so stationary. Momiji was the one to break the silence, "Where did you go, Kira?" He stared at his empty arms, as if something made of stone had just turned into smoke and had flown away.

With that, the spell was broken, and hell broke loose. Everyone looked around, knowing something was up. The Dark Sides rose, with varying reactions. Remus' eyes were on Dark, whose red eyes shot open; she sat up and looked at him. Then she said, "She's gone, isn't she?" Remus nodded. Dark sighed, and fell back, staring up at the sky. "That moron," she muttered. She covered her eyes with her arm.

Then, a fist hurdled itself towards Remus' face, too quickly for him to dodge it. Remus fell backwards, onto his butt. Ayu stood in front of him and shouted, "Where is she? I know you know, you filthy little dog!" Mutters circled around him. Ayu took another step threateningly, but before she could do anything, Richard pulled her back. "Let me go!" she cried. "I know you know!" She shouted that as a mantra, until, finally, her sobs overpowered her voice and she turned and sobbed into Richard's chest, who held her helplessly.

Remus stood and he began to explain what had happened. He finished, and a hush fell over the group. He passed out the letters. Everyone took them and separated. Ayu took both hers and Tohru's, and stomped off, Richard following. Momiji stared at his letter for a moment and tore open the envelope. He read it. When he finished, he folded it up and put it into his jacket pocket, turning. Then he walked away, slowly, into the night.

Remus was alone now, isolated by his decisions. The only person remaining was Dark. Remus looked down at her. Then he said, "Need a hand?"

Dark nodded, holding up her hand.

Remus grasped it and pulled her up.

Remus looked back at the clock and realized that it was 4:59:50. Kira would call in just under 10 seconds.

10…

…9…

…8…

…7…

…6…

…5…

…4…

…3…

…2...

…1…

…0.

Then the phone rang. Remus picked it up halfway through the first ring. "Hello?" he said. "Kira?" No response. "Kira?"

"Hey, Remy."

Remus fell heavily back against the chair, threading a hand through his hair. "Don't do that again Kira. You know how hard it is waiting for you…"

He could practically hear her smile through the phone, "Sorry, Remy." There was a slight pause; then Kira said, "So…how have things been going, with everyone?"

Remus told Kira all that had happened since her departure.

Mika and Zan were married, and Mika was very pregnant (about the size of a house). Tatsuya was still the eternal bachelor he had always been; he just wasn't cut out for marriage, with anyone. Mika and Tatsuya had found out about their paternity. Surprisingly, Tatsuya had been the most upset about it. Mika had simply sighed and had held the letter to her chest. Then she had smiled softly. Zan still did not know who his family was…all he knew was that he was not a Honda. He had checked the records too thoroughly. Of course, it did not really bother him that much; he had never known about his family anyway. Haya and Sada were teenagers now, but still as Kira/Ayu obsessed as always. Shino and Hiromo were nine. All of the Sohmas were happy and together. Elle and Romulus were planning their wedding. Shinji and Toji were happy bachelors, and Miri, Ai, and Leiko were happy bachelorettes.

Ayu and Tohru were happily dating Richard and Kyo respectively. It was obvious that they were waiting for Kira's return before they would get married. Especially Kyo, who knew that he needed to ask for Tohru's hand because Kira would be unhappy if he did not.

As far as Ayu went, tensions were still high between them. She still disliked that Remus hadn't tried to stop Kira (not that Kira could be stopped by just about anyone). However, he still knew that Ayu had disbanded the Agency. There had been a great amount of anger at this, but it was over. The Agency, which had been in place for centuries was gone now, and, frankly, he couldn't be happier. He still heard about Ayu from Richard, and had even heard about what her letter had said. According to Richard, Kira had told her to live on normally, which, as impossible as it seems to do, Ayu had given her best shot at it.

Kira listened to the stories about everyone else, then she asked, "What about you Remy? What have you been up to?"

"Well, I'm Dark's agent. She is a rock superstar after all."

"I've heard of her, where I'm from."

"Well, she's getting quite popular. We're together now…have been for close to five years now."

"…as you know I'm fine with that," Kira said. "But I just need to ask one question first."

"Ask away."

"Did you get with her just to replace me?" Kira asked.

"No," Remus said. "You're like my sister, you know that. And she…well, I love her more than I ever loved you when we were together."

"Just checking."

"Well, anyway, we're happy."

"What about Momiji, Remy?"

Remus had no direct contact with Momiji. He knew that Momiji probably did not blame him for what Kira had done, but it was still very awkward between them…tense somehow. "He's still studying in Germany," Remus said. "He's as happy as he can be without you. I haven't heard anything about a girlfriend, so don't worry about that."

Kira said, "I see."

"Kira, what's happening with you?"

"Well, I'm going into my senior year of college. I graduated high school in one year, and then went began college. I'm going to grad school the year after this one, but I haven't decided where yet."

"Why not?"

"Well, I wanted to talk about this anyway," Kira began. "I want to come back."

"You mean it?" Remus asked.

"Yes…I'm going to re-meet up with everyone soon. But first, I want to see Momiji. He deserves that much at least."

"Okay."

"So, I was wondering if you could call him for me, and tell him my location so he can come see me."

Remus sighed and said, "Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you Remy, I'll see you soon, 'kay?"

"Okay. Bye."

Remus hung up the phone, before dialing Momiji's number. It rang, and Momiji answered on the fourth ring and said, "Hallo?"

Remus was silent for a moment before he said, "Momiji, it's Remus."

There was silence on the phone, and then Momiji said, "Oh. It's been a while."

"Yes. Yes, it has," Remus replied. "But I have something to tell you. You see, Kira called me this morning."

Momiji breathed, "I see."

"And she wants to see you."

"Where? When?"

"As soon as possible. She's at her home in…" Remus told Momiji her address.

"Alright," Momiji said. "Thank you very much."

"Good luck."

"Ja," Momiji said. "Well, I'll be seeing you."

"Right. Bye."

"Bye."

Remus hung up the phone and leaned back heavily. He rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted, but somehow the dawn was brighter than it had been just a few moments before.

Then he felt warm arms drape over him from behind. He looked up, and saw Dark, smiling softly down at him. She kissed him on the cheek and said, "Good morning."

He grinned. "Good morning."

Dark walked around to the front of the chair and sat on his lap, draping her legs over the arm of the chair, wrapping her arms around his neck, and leaning her back against the other arm of the chair. She was dressed in one of his long white dress shirts and a pair of his boxers. She smiled at him and said, "Have you talked to Kira yet?"

"Yes," he replied. "She's coming back soon."

At that, Dark grinned broadly and said, "I knew that moron would return soon!" Remus nodded. Noticing his fatigue, she said, "Why don't we go back to bed?"

Remus yawned, "Alright."

Dark kissed him, and Remus did not think of Kira; he thought about how lucky he was to have a beautiful woman that he loved in his arms. Certainly, they weren't perfect, but that made Remus love her all the more.

The Next Day…

Momiji walked down the city street, having taken the first flight out of Munich to Boston. He was walking to Kira's house, a bouquet of forget-me-nots in his hand. He was in a blue suit. Tucked inside his pocket was the letter. He had memorized every word. It read:

Dear Momiji,

I know that my sudden disappearance must be a shock for you. It's nothing personal…I had to leave to find myself.

At any rate, Momiji, I love you more than anything, but I needed to go do this. I understand if you won't/can't wait for me, and I understand that (as much as I wish you would). Think of this separation as a good thing. After all, we both need some maturing before we can go into what I hope to be a mature relationship. I hope you understand.

Goodbye, Momiji. I love you.

Kira Honda

Momiji saw her house…it was in the expensive section of town; this must have been what she spent her Agency money on. The brick townhouse had a lit street lamp out in front of it. He went to the door and rang the bell. For a moment, he feared that she wasn't home. Then he heard hurried footsteps, and she burst out of the door.

Kira was just as beautiful as he remembered. They stared at each other for a long moment. They were so much older…

Momiji swooped down and kissed her, holding her tightly in his arms. They kissed, and everything was right in the world again…everything was oh-so perfect.

The door stood open behind them…open to everything.

Open to their futures, boundless and without end.

The End

End Note: It's been a long run hasn't it?

We have reached the end of the Tales of an Onigiri Saga, a 99,142 word saga, which was written over the course of four years. Lots has happened in my life since then, but this story was always a presence in my life.

Whether or not you liked the ending, this is the way I've always known it simply had too…with Kira opening her own door for once, into her own future. I hope I can find her strength…and the strength of most of the characters in this saga.

This series is truly been about growth, of me as a person, and of each of the characters in this series.

I hope you enjoyed not only the end, but the entire saga. Some of you have been with me since the beginning. Even if you have never reviewed before, please do so I can hear your thoughts.

Even if you don't, thank you very much for following me for so long and enjoying the characters.

Signing off,

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