Akito sits at the window watching the birds in the courtyard. It's hot outside and the heat turns his stomach vile. But somehow he knows it's not the heat that has him in a foul mood today. There's a change in the air, an odd whisper on the breeze that's been taunting him all day. Something he can't quite place. He knows something is coming, something dreadful. He's spent the better part of the morning pacing the room, ordering his attendants to get him needless things; food, clothes, books, only to take their offerings and throw them into their face.

"What is it, Akito? What's wrong?" Hatori had been asked by one of the attendants to check on him.

Akito pulls at his hair. "That wind. The air. That deafening whisper. Don't you hear it? Can't you feel it, Hatori?"

"Perhaps it's the heat that–"

"It's not the damned heat, you fool! It's something else. Something terrible is happening."

Hatori merely blinks at this insult.

Akito winces. A thought occurs to him. "The cat. What's the news on the cat?"

Hatori lowers his gaze. "He's run away from the hospital. So far there hasn't been any luck on tracking him down. Kazuma is quite worried."

Aktio sits in the windowsill and starts carelessly plucking pedals from a vase of flowers. "Tell me Hatori, what do you make of our kitty's special gift?"

"I don't know what to make of it."

"Is that so?" Akito seethes. "So that's it then? Nothing else to say?" He circles around Hatori unsteadily.

"No."

Akito slaps him so hard he nearly falls back himself. He regains his footing and grabs Hatori's now reddened face in his hand. "Dont. Lie. To. Me," he spits into Hatori's face.

Though his cheek is darkening with a bruise, Hatori lets on nothing more.

Akito's eyes are wild with rage. He digs his fingernail into the side of Hatori's cheekbone, leaving a deep scratch. "What is it about that filthy creature that has you all acting this way? Why would you defy me for that…that monster?"

"No one is defying you, Akito."

Another slap. "LIES! I see the looks on your faces. Yuki, Haru, even Shigure is turning on me now. The way you all talk about that creature, as if you care for it?! It's absolutely absurd. What is wrong with all of you? Don't you know what that thing is?"

"Do you?"

Akito stops pacing. "What did you say?"

"Do you know what Kyo is? Do you truly know? Is that what has you so afraid?"

"Afraid?" Akito takes the vase from the corner of the room and throws it against the wall. It explodes, raining shards of clay across the floor. "You insolent fool! You think I'm actually afraid of a freak like him?" Hatori shields his face against the spray as Aktio throws yet another object, and another, until everything in the room is reduced to nothing but rubble. Aktio breathes heavily, chest heaving with rage as he pants. Then he straightens himself and shoots Hatori a deadly look. "A God fears nothing. That vile cat needs to be reminded of his place." Akito heads for the door.

"Where are you going?" Hatori asks.

Akito looks back over his shoulder and smirks. "To remind you all that there is only one true God in this family. And anyone who thinks otherwise will face the consequences." He brushes off the rush of attendants who flock to his aid as he moves down the hall, leaves the estate, and heads off into the woods.


"No, wait!" Tohru shoots upright in bed, panting hard, hand reaching out. The dream fades from her memory just as quickly as it came, but the sense of dread it leaves her with is still very much present. She must have fallen asleep when she came home from school. All day Hanajimi and Uotani cast worried looks at her during class. Tohru just couldn't stay focused, her gaze constantly settling on Kyo's empty chair. She has an uneasy feeling, even more so than the previous few days. Something is very wrong. She puts her hand to her head to collect herself. She can't remember but she's almost certain her dream was about Kyo. She wishes she could recall the details though, maybe then she could understand the overwhelming fear that wells up inside her.

Outside the sun has begun to set. Yuki had offered to take her to visit Kyo at the hospital, but he hadn't come to wake her. She hears the dull drone of the phone ring down the hall and gets to her feet. By the time she gets down the hallway Shigure has already picked up. The look on his face is grave.

"I see…no, no I can't say that I have. Neither of them have been here…yes, I'll let you know." He hangs up the phone, frowning.

"Shigure? What is it? Who was that?"

"Oh, Thoru!" he says in flustered surprise, "I didn't see you there. Oh there's nothing to worry yourself with."

She can tell right away that he is lying. Her heart sinks. In a quiet, trembling voice she says, "Shigure please tell me."

Shigure looks away. She's never seen him look so serious. "Kyo is missing. He's snuck out of the Hospital. Kazuma says that apparently he's off somewhere with Yuki, but he can't seem to get a hold of them."

Tohru's knees go weak and she leans against the wall for support. She feels both numb and nauseous all at once. This can't be happening. Can't be real. "This is all my fault," she says. Her voice is so small it's hardly a whisper. The dream comes back to her now in pieces. She remembers a cottage in the woods, tucked away from the world. Two open foreboding doors that were hauntingly unwelcoming; the Cat's Room. Kyo's broken, beaten figure slumped inside the doorway, just barely alive. The door had begun to close and she ran to him. Called out his name. That's when she had woken up, she remembers now.

"He's going to die. Shigure, if we don't find him…he'll die. Tonight. I can feel it. "

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Shigure says, "I'm sure he'll be just fine."

"No," Tohru says, a bit more firmly now. "He won't." Through the cloud of confusion and despair her path becomes clear. "I have to go. I have to find him, it's the only way."

Shigure begins to say something to her but she is already halfway down the hall, pulling on her shoes and hurrying out the door. She doesn't have time to explain how she knows what she knows, or rather, Kyo doesn't have time. She just knows she needs to reach him before he gets to the Cat's Room. She runs through the trees, not even stopping when she fumbles or falls over tree branches. Her scraped knees won't slow her down, not when there is so much at stake. It can't end like this, she thinks as she runs. I won't let it. Because I love him.

I love him.

And she hasn't even told him. It feels so foolish to her now that she's let so much time slip away, so many opportunities, and she's never told him how she's felt. She considers that maybe this is because she didn't fully understand her feelings until now, but she knows that isn't entirely true. Now that she's finally admitted it to herself she realizes that she's always felt this way. Right from the start. She loves him. She's always loved him. He had risked everything to save her before, and now it's her turn to do the same for him. She pushes herself to run faster. She only hopes she isn't too late.