The cat in the garden is dead. Kazuma sees it early one evening as he brings in his clothes from the line. It's a cool night, the air crisp and light as the sun dies down for the night. He is unhooking a sheet when he catches glimpse of a small purple bud blooming from the garden. The first signs of spring. It should make him feel cheerful, or at the very least optimistic for the warm weather ahead, but all he really feels is dread. Because he knows what the coming of spring means…

He plucks the barley bloomed flower from the earth and that's when he sees it. At first, he doesn't know what it is; just a black and white lump of fur peaking out from the top of the greenery. It isn't until he kneels down and clears away some of the shrubbery that he truly sees. A dead cat, bloated and stiff, eyes glazed and unseeing. Kazuma stares at it for a long while. Something must have got to it, a fox or maybe some sort of parasite or disease. His heart feels heavy, weighted in grief as he remembers back to the first time it happened…

"Master…I think it's sick." A small, 8 year old Kyo knelt down next to the stray cat and her litter of kittens. They were gray and shaggy and covered in fleas. They mewed and batted at the flies that were surrounding the smallest of the kittens.

They had just finished afternoon training when Kyo had heard a rustling from one of the bushes. Kazuma sighed; he knew by the looks of it that the littlest kitten was far beyond help, but how to tell this to an eight year old boy who was looking to him with such wide, pleading eyes…

He knelt down beside Kyo and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Kyo, sometimes these things can't be helped. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control and we have to find the strength within ourselves to accept them."

Kyo shook his head insistently. "No, Master, they want me…to save her."

Kazuma looked to the other healthier kittens who were all crowding around Kyo as he stroked the sickly ones fur. The mother cat was looking directly at the boy, her eyes twinkling; communicating to him in a way Kazuma could not comprehend.

In the past year that Kyo had been in his care this had been known to happen from time to time. Kazuma would find him outside whispering to whatever stray was wandering through their yard that day. Kyo had spent so many years kept hidden from the world, and while his social skills were lacking, Kazuma couldn't help but feel just a little relieved to see him show at least some sort of interest in making connections to the world around him. Even if those connections were mainly feline. It was a start.

The mother cat nudged her dying kitten towards Kyo with her nose.

"Kyo…" Kazuma started, "I know it's difficult, but there isn't anything we can do for her, I'm sorry."

Above the sky began to rumble. Kazuma felt the first drop of rain hit his nose and got to his feet. "It's about to rain, Kyo. We should get inside."

Kyo didn't move as Kazuma started back up to the house.

"Master…"

Kazuma paused on the porch and turned around to see Kyo cradling the kitten in his arms. His eyes were wide, filled with something Kazuma couldn't identify. Fear? Joy?

"Kyo you—" That's when it happened. Kazuma gasped as a light flashed sudden and bright, almost blinding. The light radiated from Kyo's hands like a beacon. Then it was gone, just as suddenly as it had come.

The kitten in Kyo's arms began to stir, mewing for her mother. It blinked up at Kyo, clear-eyed and alert. Then It rolled over, stretched it's legs and leapt from his arms to run back to it's litter-mates. The mother began grooming her little one happily.

Kazuma was awe-struck. He didn't know what he had just witnessed or how to describe it other than…a miracle. He didn't have time to dwell on reasons or try to rationalize it because just then Kyo's legs began to sway. "Master…" he said quietly. A thin rivulet of blood snaked its way down his nose and splashed droplets onto his shirt. "I don't feel good." And he pitched forward into the grass.

"Kyo!" Kazuma dashed across the lawn and rolled Kyo over onto his back. He was ghostly pale, his skin beaded in feverish sweat. Kazuma gathered him in his arms and ran inside to call Hatori.

It felt like forever before Kyo's bedroom door slid open and Hatori stepped out. Kazuma got a brief glimpse of the small boy unconscious under a mass of blankets before Hatori shut the door behind him. "I've given him something to help bring down the fever," said Hatori. "But so far it doesn't appear to have taken much of an effect. We'll have to watch him closely over the next several hours to be sure his condition doesn't worsen…So, care to tell me what happened?"

Kazuma lead Hatori to the kitchen and poured him a cup of tea, then he told him what he saw, or at least…what he thought he saw. Hatori didn't seem phased by this, but then again, it was difficult to tell what phased Hatori and what didn't. Though he had only just started taking over his father's practice, the young doctor seemed aged well beyond his years.

"Has this ever happened? To the other zodiac members I mean," Kazuma asked.

Hatori sipped his tea stoically. "Not that I'm aware of."

"What about to previous cat spirits?"

"Hard to say. Unfortunately not much medical history has ever been recorded on the cat."

Kazuma held his tea in his hands but he couldn't bring himself to drink it. He felt uneasy. Was it possible that Kyo had a gift? That he truly could have healed that kitten just by touching it? But even so…at what cost? "If it is true," said Kazuma, "if he really does have this power…what does it mean?"

Hatori set down his empty cup and straightened his tie. "I'm afraid I won't have the answers you're looking for, Kazuma. I can't say that I know what is happening to Kyo, whether it's a blessing or just another curse. The only thing I can do is address his medical state. Whatever did happen to him out there seems to have left him quite weak."

Kazuma rose from the table. "I should go check on him." He had turned to go upstairs when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Hatori looked at him sternly. "Whatever this is, Kazuma, I think it best that we keep it between the two of us. We don't need this information getting into the wrong hands."

Kazuma nodded knowingly. There was no telling what Akito would do with such information, or what ways he would use it against Kyo. And if any of the other members of the zodiac found out then he might as well just tell Akito himself. There were few secrets amongst the members, and even fewer that went unnoticed by their head, Akito. It was too risky to involve anyone else.

He entered the room and sat himself beside a sleeping Kyo. Just a small mop of orange hair poking out of the top of a huddle of blankets. His cheeks were flushed with fever and he didn't flinch the way he usually did when Kazuma placed his hand on his head. Kazuma frowned. He just wanted to shake Kyo awake and help him get ready for school like he would on a normal day. A hollow emptiness filled his gut. It had only been a little more than a year, and already he cared for this child above all else. People had ridiculed him, said hateful and insulting things when he walked past. How could he adopt a creature as monstrous as the cat? He stared down at the small face sleeping before him and could not understand how anyone could consider it monstrous; how people could be so blinded by ignorance and hatred that they would put such blame on a child.

Hatori checked Kyo's blood pressure and vitals again, then packed his bag up to leave. "He'll be alright," He assured Kazuma, "his fever is breaking now. Just give him a few days to rest."

"Thank you, Hatori."

"It's my job."

"I know…but thank you," Kazuma said quietly.

Hatori nodded and left. Kazuma settled in and patiently waited for his son to wake up. He would be there when he did.

The air of coming spring caresses Kazuma's face and brings him back to the present. He looks down at the dead cat now and thinks briefly that maybe Kyo could have saved it. But also that maybe saving it wasn't the point. He thinks back to his own advice…sometimes things happen that are beyond our control and we have to find the strength within ourselves to accept them…Gently Kazuma wraps the dead cat in the sheet from the clothes line, then he grabs a spade from the shed and begins to dig a grave.