The Curse of the Cat

116. Run

'You can fight now,' Koji said. 'I've got no reason to try and win.'

'Fuyuno knows full well we're brothers,' Koichi countered tiredly. 'It wouldn't count. What he wants… is for us to fight until it destroys one or both of us and whatever relationship we share. I don't want to fight like that; I can't.'

The why was obvious. But now that they had built it up so much, Koji couldn't just let it die. 'Then run away! If Japan's no good, then to some other country.'

'Japan is my home,' Koichi replied, eyes shining. 'Whatever fate awaits me here, it's still my home. It's the same with the Sohma estate; I'm an outcast as the Cat, but it's still my home as well. I can't leave it… and what sort of live does someone running away from the world have? At least, in the Room, I'll still be fed.'

'That's too morbid a way to look at things.' Koji wanted to argue more, but he could see how much thought and courage had gone into his brother's decision. And he had to admire what it took to say he'd accept a life locked up in a dark room so his ties with his brother, and consequently their friends, wasn't stained by blood. 'Fuyuno set this up, knowing you wouldn't be able to do it.' But he couldn't find it in himself to be angry. More defeated, knowing there's been no hope to begin with.'

Koichi's shoulders shook as he tried not to cry. 'What's going to happen when all these happy moments are gone?' His voice shook from the sobs buried in his throat. 'How could I think I could go on living without happiness?'

'You were happy,' Koji said, a little awkwardly as he put an arm around his brother and held him close. 'You were happy with Mum.'

'But – ' Koji felt the first tears touch his neck. 'I wanted to have friends like this too.'

'You have us now,' was all Koji could think to say. 'And we'll just have to fill you up with enough happy memories to last you your lifetime.'

Koichi gave a watery laugh at that, but he couldn't say he minded the idea of dying packed to the brim with happiness.

117. Experience

After the twins came back, the party had gone on without dramatics. They'd played a few board and card games, eaten a lovely dinner cooked by Mrs Shibayama, and watched a few episodes of Gundam Wing before Tommy's parents arrived to take him home.

Koji's father came for him, so Mrs Shibayama gave Zoë, Takuya and Koichi a ride, with JP in shotgun. The first part of the car ride was filled with the usual things: idle questions about the party and his friends, which he answered diligently. The next part was passed in silence, as Koji considered the discussion he'd had with his brother.

It w's impossible to doubt Koichi's feelings after that… and yet, in his situation, it was so easy to hate the Rat of the Zodiac, or the God who dictated their lives. It was so easy to pour the unfairness into one fight that would earn him his freedom, without thinking of the consequences.

But, to Koichi, that freedom would have been useless because he would have, whether win or lose, destroyed something very important to him. It hadn't mattered if Koji had remembered or not, because Koichi had, and he had held on to the possibility that they could be a family again.

They could, if he could escape his life-sentence. Except there was nothing he was willing to do that would save him. He couldn't move, give up, or die, and anything less would see him in that black windowless room for the rest of his life.

118. Fatality

Kousei noted his son shaking. 'Did something happen?' he asked in concern.

Koji considered for a moment, before answering: 'We were talking about the Cat's imprisonment.'

'I see,' Kousei said after a brief pause. 'What will Koichi do?'

'He won't fight.'

Kousei glanced at his son's reflection in the review mirror. 'I take it he can't be convinced otherwise either.'

Koji looked at his father. 'You don't sound like you want him to fight.'

Kousei sighed and turned back to the road. 'I don't,' he confessed, 'because you are both my sons and I don't want to see you ripped apart by this fighting. It's bad enough it tore your mother and I apart.'

Koji said nothing, simply listened because his father rarely talked about his previous marriage.

'We knew we'd lose one or both of you,' Kousei continued, 'the moment you turned into the Cat and the Rat in Tomoko's arms. 'It was a stressful situation, particularly since the Cat not allowed to live inside the complex, but the Rat must. We argued about what to do. Tomoko wanted to give Koichi the chance to live and choose for himself before the time of imprisonment came – but you can't send a baby that's only a few weeks old into the world. Particularly not a Zodiac child. And I…I wanted something that would spare him, and us all, that suffering. No matter how horrible it would have seemed, at least he wouldn't have to keep on suffering for something outside his control.'

His hands tightened on the steering wheel. 'I do love you both, and while I could save you from Fuyuno, I couldn't save him. Tomoko is not of Soma blood, so she can take Koichi out of the complex – but I don't want the fight and bad blood between your animals to destroy you as people, and I don't want my son to live in a dark room for the rest of his life.' They came upon traffic and the car jerked to a stop. 'There's nothing else.'

'He could have run away,' Koji said quietly, 'but that's the same as being imprisoned, in the end.' Except it wasn't, except in the sense Koji meant.

119. Helping Hand

Teruo wasn't surprised to see his cousin, but he was surprised when the other stayed for dinner.

'I thought Fuyuno summoned you,' he commented as his mother clattered about in the house and the pair of them sat on the steps.

'He has,' Koichi said. 'I'm not going.'

Teruo stared. 'You always go!' he exclaimed. 'Unless you…' His voice trailed off.

'No.' Koichi shook his head. 'I just don't want to see him right now.' He sighed, then added: 'It's almost June.'

Teruo stared up at the sun, hanging brighter and closer by the day. 'You've changed,' he said finally. 'It seemed like a part of destiny before, but now it just seems sad.'

Koichi gave him a sidelong glance.

Teruo just sighed. 'I guess I won't be playing nurse anymore. I dunno… What made you come here then?'

'I don't know,' was the reply, though it sounded distant, as if Koichi was thinking about something else. 'I just wanted to see you, I guess.'

It wasn't said in jest, or sadness, but it stabbed at Teruo all the same. Because Koichi had said it as though they were true friends, but they weren't and they both knew that.

But they could have been, if the current relationship between the Cat and the Rat was anything to go by. Teruo hated the Rat by first principles, and he was closest to the Cat for the same reason. But even then, the Cow was above the Cat and he hadn't thought anything of it – except when Koichi turned around.

'Koji has those eyes too,' he said. 'It's like the principles he's lived by have suddenly changed their meaning, and it confuses him.'

That summed it up pretty nicely, but with the opposite effect.

'Just go,' Teruo said, slightly snappishly. He didn't like it. He didn't like feeling guilty about pity, because it wasn't such a bad thing when the other was sick or bleeding and he was patching him up, was it? It wasn't a bad thing to try and feel like the king of the world, because it was better than being the bottom of the barrel. It was the way to cope with the bad stuff, knowing there was someone worse off. Either that or drowning in pity.

Except Koichi was doing neither right now, and had unintentionally taken away his own little coping mechanism. Because if Koichi didn't need any patching up, Teruo didn't really have anything on him. In fact, he was the one being given pity with his cousin dropping by specially to visit him.

Though his message had gotten across and Koichi had left, and Teruo was alone to dwell on his thoughts.

120. Breeze

Koichi goes to the park, because it was always bustling and noisy and none of the Zodiac would go willingly to one at such a time for fear of revealing their Curse.

But Koichi was careful and clever, keeping to the edges and climbing his favourite tree to avoid the crowd. He could hear the wind over the mirage of noises as well, and the quiet storm settled a different kind of storm in his heart.

Truthfully, he was upset with his cousin, despite having no real right to be so. In truth, Teruo was more right then he, because Koichi was breaking family laws and being selfish, but he knew he couldn't possibly leave what he had now. He didn't think of what would happen to him, to all of them, once he was in that Dark room. He was sure Fuyuno would wipe their memories of him; he'd threatened to the last time they'd met. And he hated the idea but was a tiny bit grateful as well: grateful they wouldn't remember a friend they'd never see again.

His breath caught as he realised what he'd thought. A friend. Friends.