The Curse of the Cat

136. Tight

The others were so used to Koichi being available that he threw them for a loop when he said he already had plans. 'I'm visiting my cousin,' he explained.

Koji was the one who elaborated. 'Teruo?'

He nodded.

'That guy who was over at your house when we came over?' Tommy checked.

Koichi nodded again. 'We haven't really talked since, and things wound up quite… awkward for him.'

'I guess so. I mean, it was a little awkward for us too.' JP shrugged. 'But there's not enough time to wallow – oww!' He stopped and glared at Zoe, who'd elbowed him in the ribs. 'Hey, there's never enough time, right? Humans used to leave for thousands of years and now the average lifespan's less than a hundred.'

The others weren't paying attention to that segway anyway. The twins had their own little conversation going on.

'But Teruo lives in the compound.'

'So do you. And it'll be fine. I'm not going to Fuyuno.'

'Even if he calls you?'

Koichi was silent for a moment. 'Even if he calls,' he said finally. 'I mean, there's no time now. I don't want to waste it…' His eyes grew distant, like he was thinking about something else. 'I wasted a lot of time like that. That endless cycle of seeing him, getting sick or injured, recovering, and then starting the process again. It seemed endless, and now… there's no time left.'

They watched the uncomfortable, suffocating, silence sitting atop the two.

'Hey,' Takuya said suddenly. 'We'll tag along to.'

The twins looked at each other.

'Not to Teruo's,' Koichi said. 'He won't be happy.'

'Then they can come to mine,' Koji shrugged. 'Dad won't mind. But if we're doing this, can we try to avoid getting caught by Fuyuno all around?'

'I didn't want to get caught by him anyway,' Koichi pointed out.

Tommy giggled, and the others stared at him in surprise. 'It feels like we're sneaking around. This'll be fun.'

They could only hope it would be fun.'

137. Urban

The others gawked at the Sohma estate. Koji had called ahead so his father picked them up from the gate, and having the company masked by the presence of a familiar adult helped them slip by the others.

Still, he hurried them indoors as soon as possible… with one detour. Koji had, after parting from his twin, whispered the request to his father and he'd agreed easily enough. The room where the cat would be housed… The others needed to know it, if they were serious about sneaking in. How they'd sneak in was another matter, but there'd be plenty of time to explore that.

Sneaking towards the room would be a different matter for the rest of them.

And then, before they could react, they followed Kousei as though he was just leading them past and into their modest house in the complex.

And they couldn't fully appreciate it, first off, because their heads were stuffed full by that cold, sealed up room. But they were good friends, because their minds went from horror to planning. Was there any way to sneak things into the room? How tightly would the room even be monitored? How much could be taken in there? How often would meals come and would that be a way in? How thin or thick were the walls? Could they talk through it? And where could they hide so they weren't immediately visible to everybody else in the compound.

And Koji worried, because Fuyuno seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere and could so very easily put a stop to this… but at the same time, weren't there things stronger than curses, stronger than angry gods playing human?

He'd told his brother to believe in that. He had to believe in that as well.

138. Health

Despite having called ahead, Teruo was surprised to see Koichi. 'Fuyuno didn't call you,' he fussed.

The other shook his head. 'I came to see you. We didn't really talk last time.'

'I could have come.' But he ushered his cousin in anyway, and closed the door. 'Why are you coming to the compound so close to July?'

'Maybe it's because it's close to July,' Koichi replied, sitting at an empty seat at the table. 'Aunty's not home?'

'She's out all day,' Teruo replied. 'And unlike your mother, her schedule's more predictable.'

'It was bound to come out eventually.' Koichi sighed. 'I wasn't really clear on whether Koji knew the whole story or not at the time. He hadn't been really clear either, but turned out it was because he just hadn't been paying enough attention to the individual words.'

'Apparently, humans only register the first and last words or phrases to a sentence and our minds just fill in the blanks.' Teruo shrugged. 'Sounded like a pile of pile dung to me.'

Then he sat down as well, with a plate of dumplings to share between them and two glasses of juice.

Koichi stared at the plate for a moment.

Teruo sighed. 'Yeah, I cooked. And no telling anyone else about this.'

'Who would I tell?' Koichi half-smiled. 'Thank you.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Teruo waved a hand. 'I can cook when I want to. Don't know why I bothered to learn though. It's not like I have the gumption to live outside the compound like you two. Or march back in without fear of punishment.'

'We come back because we're afraid of the punishment if we don't,' Koichi pointed out. 'Chiaki and I don't talk much, but it's the same for her. Just as Fuyuno allows us to live outside the compound, he can drag us back.'

'In your case, that's a given, though. You could have pushed the boundaries far harder.'

'And lost this pocket of time.' He grips the chopsticks tightly enough to creak. 'I've lost so much of it already, anyway. But was there a way to avoid that? Less injuries, less time being sick… and in return, accelerating the timeline?'

'Maybe not.' But maybe so, as well. Who knew? Chiaki had played her cards well but what cards did Koichi even have to play.

'And it was my mother who'd begged for this time. I couldn't do anything to risk that.'

139. Older

'It's hard to believe we're sixteen,' Teruo said suddenly. 'I feel like I haven't grown at all.'

Koichi looked at him curiously.

'I mean, what's really changed? I do what I've always done. Go to an all boy's school. Occasionally visit you and Chiaki. Do all the duties expected of me as a member of the Sohma household. Will probably wind up going into hospitality like has been set up for me.'

'Hospitality,' Koichi repeated. He reconsidered the dumplings, still steaming.

'Well, the cow's not one of the more revered members of the Zodiac,' Teruo shrugged. 'Given they're not going to give the cat the light of day, they'll need someone in a subservient position. And maybe that's why it's all timed the way it is, as well. Shutting the doors to adulthood, as it were.'

'I didn't realise,' Koichi admitted.

'Not much you can do anyway,' Teruo shrugged. 'Unless you find a way of slipping the cage that won't put a noose around somebody else's neck – because that's your problem, isn't it? There are plenty of ways of avoiding it, but all of them involve throwing someone else under the bus instead.'

'I wouldn't say plenty.' But Teruo was right, otherwise.

'And the ordinary people think sixteen's a difficult age. They don't even know the half of it.'

140. Vital

'Where is that gaggle of friends?'

'At Koji's. And they started off being his friends, for the most part.'

Teruo shrugged. 'It's much the same now, isn't it. And what do they know?'

'Most of it, as far as Koji and I are concerned anyway.' And how they'd both tried to hide and avoid it. Hadn't worked at all.

Teruo raised an eyebrow. Koichi gave a summarised version of the tale.

'Guess that's why we don't go to co-ed schools,' he sighed. 'You're both lucky he didn't just erase her memory.'

'It was the same girl twice.' And honestly, neither of them had any clue why either. 'That's not stopping him from erasing them now, though.'

Teruo paused, last dumpling halfway to his mouth. 'Why would he?'

Koichi shrugged. Maybe that was his own paranoia, or the looming deadline, making him think as such. But… 'good things don't last forever.'

'I'd like to say bad things don't, either, but…'

But what cat had been set free?

And what member of the zodiac had been released from their curse?