A/N: Anyone still reading? This will be the quarter point...

The Curse of the Cat

046. Monster

Zoe's final period was art. And as usual, it was an interesting lesson. Not for what they learnt; they were simply drawing from imagination – not that many were functioning to their full capacity.

So, as a result, most minds were wandering. The blonde's was wandering to lunch and her cat at home, probably the only one in her family enjoying the weather. That brought her back to lunch, and not the potato salad she had enjoyed.

Something had caused her to mention her cat, and that had turned into an interesting discussion when Koji had called the white fluffball a monster.

Needless to say, Zoe had been insulted.

'What have you against cats?' she flared.

Koji had looked somewhat surprised, and the look persisted until ht clicked to the girl that the other was the Rat of the Zodiac.

'Fluffy's more of a bird cat,' she tried instead, changing tracks.

Koji shrugged. 'I've never even met the Cat. That doesn't change anything. It's just the way things are.'

Both she and Takuya blinked at that.

'There's a Cat in the Zodiac as well?'

'I've told you the story, haven't I?'

He had.

'But aren't you jumping the gun?' Takuya asked. 'I mean, you also thought no-one would like you for you once they knew you, but haven't we proved that wrong?' His tone may have been joking, but his eyes were unusually serious.

'I suppose,' Koji admitted, 'but truthfully, that won't change much of anything. The Cat is the only thing below the rest of the Zodiac in terms of the curse: the one we look at as someone worse off. Whether it's hatred or pity, it doesn't matter.' He shrugged. 'And that doesn't change that the Cat and the Rat are destined to be enemies forever too.'

Zoe would have once said it was rubbish, but the Sohma family curse seemed a lot more persistent than her own optimism.

She said it anyway.

Takuya grinned. 'Imagine if you two wind up being best buds…after you stop patronising the poor guy or girl from afar.' He laughed at that; the other two looked at him as though he had grown an extra head.

047. Voodoo

Koichi covered his paper in record timing, which was unusual considering all his classmates were sprouting quite a large number of white pages. But that left him with more thinking-time than he liked, and he spent the beginning of it playing with the Jojo beads around his wrist.

He was careful though; he couldn't risk the string snapping after all.

Each bead turned under his gentle fingers. They, to be honest, still creeped him out a little; they were made from the bones of humans that had died long ago. He wasn't sure which, but many a Clan member had told him they were the bones of previous people cursed by the Cat…like him.

It was worse, knowing that others, innocent people, wore imitations brought at local shrines to ward off voodoo – like plastic was a substitute to the real thing. It was like the pinky promise; he wondered what people would do if they knew where the real power of such things came from.

If they knew what lengths were necessary to prevent the likes of curses – or just surpress them.

He shivered, even if the room was a little warm, even for him. Actually, most others were sweating – but one mercy of being the Cat was enjoying the heat.

048. Shine

The sun shone almost red and the heat blasted Zoe as soon as she stepped outside, and to her it was a wonder Koichi didn't look in the least uncomfortable with it.

'I thought we could go to my house,' she admitted, tying her braid of hair into a tight know to get it away from her neck. 'But we'll be two melted popsicles when we get there.'

'It's nice weather,' Koichi said quietly, looking skyward. While Zoe gave him an incredulous look, he continued: 'We could go to the library.'

'Good idea.' The surprise turned to relief and she shook her head. Like anyone could actually like this heat, she scoffed to herself. 'I take it your house is far as well?'

'Uhh…yes.' He looked a little caught of guard at the statement, which was interesting.

'Are you sure you're okay enough to be back at school?' she asked, a touch of concern in her voice. 'I'm sure if you have a doctor's certificate the teachers couldn't really object.'

'I don't.' He had waited for her to finish instead of interrupting like Takuya would have done. 'I'm okay though.'

'You still look pale.' Zoe crossed her arms. 'You really should take better take of your health you know.'

'I'm fine,' the other repeated. 'I'm always getting sick with something or other.'

'…Oh.' She hovered a little, uncertain. She wasn't quite sure what to say to that. 'Let's go,' she said eventually, gesturing.

'Uhh…yeah.' Koichi moved past her to take the stair, then tripped over the bag strap the blonde had cast earlier, not wanting to add the bag to the heat.

He automatically reached out; Zoe, on reflex, grabbed him.

Somehow, Zoe wound up hanging on to a black cat's paw as she lay sprawled on the flat portion before the first stair dropped down.

049. Intent

Zoe blinked. If she were perfectly honest with herself, she had been hoping to one day meet the Cat of the Zodiac through the last period, but she'd never expected Koichi of all people to be it. But he must have been, because she was hanging on to the paw while the other's school uniform cushioned the fall.

And then the cat was gone, clawing itself out of the tangle that was its clothes and escaping. The blonde opened her mouth to yell after him. But she stopped herself; something Koji had said after she'd tripped onto him stopped her. About the secret. About the curse being known only to a select few. Of the layers upon layers of depth that laced their family, and particularly those cursed by the Zodiac. Of the family head, and whatever plan he had with emotions that were hardly seen and decisions that seemed cold and frozen and perfectly calculated.

And lunch. The Cat. The poor Cat.

Then she realised how she must look. Luckily, no-one had been around as she quickly gathered the clothes and stuffed them into Koichi's bookbag, before stuffing that into her own bag after a bit of rearranging.

050. Camping

'You coming on the field trip Koji?'

Koji snorted. 'Who wants to sleep with bugs?'

'It's not about sleeping with bugs.' The class president sounded almost injured at the summary. 'It's the sites and the food…and we're sleeping indoors anyway.'

'Doesn't stop bugs.'

The secretary grinned. 'Minamoto's scared of bugs?'

'No,' the other scoffed. 'It just so happens that they are rather fond of me.' He grimaced at that, swatting a fly away from him. Why couldn't the have cancelled kendo club; granted, it was indoors and under air-conditioning, but it didn't start straight after school finished and he was forced to hang around in the humid halls – and suffer company.

'Hey.' The secretary turned around as she heard footsteps. 'How about you, Orimoto?'

Koji jerked as Zoe grabbed his wrist and proceeded to drag him down the hall. 'No time,' she yelled back to the two members of the student council, both of whom were staring flabbergasted after him.