The door slid open. "May I help you?" asked a man in a gray kimono. There was a slight gleam in his eyes, and he looked very pleased.
"Heh heh... I was looking for my cousin Tohru Honda, but if she's not here..." she said in a slight accent, tapping her pointer fingers together in embarassment.
"Oh, why didn't you say so sooner! Come in, come in! Tohru, you have company!" the man called. Riki brought her belongings inside and sat them down, and the man turned back to her. "Oh, silly me, I forgot to introduce myself... I'm Shigure Sohma, and whom might you be, my pretty little flower?" he asked, taking ahold of Riki's hand. Her eyes widened.
"Um... I'm Riki Kang, and I'm jailbait," she said, pulling her hand away.
Riki heard footsteps on the stairs, and she saw Tohru out of the corner of her eye. "Riki!" Tohru shouted as she gave her a big hug. Tohru was followed by two boys - one with orange hair, and one with grayish-blue hair. "Riki, what are you doing here?" Tohru asked.
"Well, I went to Grandpa's house to see if I could stay with him for a while... I'm getting a job to pay for tuition and a hotel room, and as soon as I have the money I was going to move out of Grandpa's house. But Grandpa said that he didn't have any room left, and that I should come see if I can stay with you -"
"Of course you can stay here, Miss Kang! You can stay here as long as you'd like, I would hate to have to send you off to an awful hotel!" Shigure smiled. Riki shivered.
"No way are we going to have another person staying in this house! Especially another dumb girl!" the boy with the orange hair suddenly shouted. Riki looked taken aback.
"What a dumb thing to say, you stupid cat, Shigure already said that it was okay," answered the boy with the gray-blue hair.
"Didn't you hear her, Rat-boy? She said she needed to pay for tuition! That mean's she's going to be here forever!"
"Heh... Yuki? Kyo? Guys..." Tohru said softly. The boys ignored Tohru, and continued arguing.
"Guys?" Riki said, but they ignored her, too. "Hey!" she shouted. The boys ignored her again. She rolled her eyes, and with one swift movement, she kicked out both of their feet, making them fall to the floor. As they got back up, Riki continued. "Listen Guy-That's-A-Stupid-Cat-Or-Something, that perverted guy said it was okay that I stay here, so I guess you really don't have much of a choice except to deal with it. And Rat-Boy or whoever, you're only making things worse by arguing with this kid."
"Yeah, well, what's with that stupid accent of yours anyway?" 'Stupid Cat' shouted back at her.
Riki rolled her eyes. "I'm Korean."
"Excuse me, Miss Kang, but I thought you were Tohru's cousin? Tohru's not Korean... " 'Rat-Boy' asked, confused.
"I am her cousin... Tohru's dad's stepsister - my mom - is half Korean. She was living in Japan when she fell in love with a Korean rock star who was touring here. Eventually, they had me, but my dad's career was more important to him than us, so he went back to Korea. When I was 5, my mom and I moved to Korea to try to find my dad, but we found out that he was in a car accident and died in the hospital a day later, but had requested that we not be informed... My mom became really depressed, and she killed herself when I was 13. Since then, I've been moving around Japan and Korea living with my relatives, and I've been kicked out of all my relative's homes except Grandpa's, but he has no room... So now I'm here."
"What are you, stupid? I didn't want to hear your whole life story - Hey wait, kicked out! Great, so now we have a freak staying with us!" the orange haired boy shouted.
"Kyo, quit being stupid. I'm sure she's not a freak." said the blue-gray haired boy.
"Damnit, Yuki, of course she is!"
Riki watched as the two argued, her eyes wide. Her left eye twitched, and a slight smirk formed on her face. Suddenly, Riki hook-kicked Kyo in the head, knocking him down. Her foot landed on top of his head, and she pressed down a little. "No one calls me a freak."
Kyo kicked her foot that was on the ground, causing her to fall backwards. He went to go attack her, but Riki stuck her feet up, sending Kyo flying backwards - straight into Tohru. Within a second, there was a small 'poof!' and Riki looked over to see a cat climb out of Kyo's clothes.
"What the hell? Look what you did!" shouted the cat as Yuki went over to see if Tohru was okay. Riki's eyes were wide, but then she burst out into a big smile and grabbed the cat. "Aww! Kyo's a kitty, how cute!" she said, hugging him and petting him. Soon there was a purring noise, but it wasn't coming from Kyo.
"Miss Kang?" Yuki asked curiously.
"Heh heh... I guess I should explain... You see," Riki paused, and another 'poof!' noise happened, and Kyo fell to the ground. "Hey, what was that for!" Kyo shouted.
"Um... Could you get off me?" came Riki's voice. Kyo moved, slightly befuddled, and a small, furry black cat - the size of a kitten - with bright yellow eyes made its way out of the mess of Riki's clothes. "I'm a cat, too."
"What! How on earth could you also be a cat? You're not a Sohma! And anyways, there can't be another cat until I die!" Kyo stated rather loudly.
"Um... Well, I don't know how YOU'RE a cat, but I'M a cat because this one girl who was insanely (and i mean insanely) in love with my dad was jealous of my mom and tried to put a curse on her... It somehow ricocheted off of her - and left her with a big scar above her right eyebrow and slight brain damage - and well, the curse hit me... Your curse is weird, though, you transformed when you landed on Tohru... So I guess it's when you touch people? Well, no, because you hit me..."
"Ah, I see... Riki, we - Yuki, Kyo, and I, as well as other people of the Sohma family - carry the Zodiac curse. We transform into animals when we are hugged by non-cursed members of the opposite sex. Obviosly Kyo's a cat, Yuki's a rat, and I'm a dog," Shigure explained, "We also transform when we are stressed out, and the amount of time it takes for us to change back varies from time to time."
"Really? That's weird... I can change back and forth whenever I want to. I actually prefer being a cat, which is why I keep getting kicked out. I'm too weird for them, I guess."
Then, there was another 'poof!' and Kyo changed back to his human form, and everyone looked away and he got dressed. Riki climbed into Kyo's lap. "Pet me," she begged. Sighing with frustration, Kyo did as she said, and she began to pur.
"We're going to have to take her to see Akito," Shigure said. Everyone stared at him, and Riki looked pleased. "Who's Akito? Is he fun? Is he an animal, too?"
"No, he's not fun, he's a short-tempered bastard!" Kyo told her. "Oh..." she said, looking down.
"Akito is the head of the Sohmas, but he's not an animal... You might have to have your memories erased because you found out about our curse," said Shigure.
"But you found out about my curse, too! And plus, Tohru knows about you guys and she didn't have her memories erased!" Riku complained. She pounced on Shigure's foot, looking up at him with hopeful cat eyes. "Will I still be able to stay here? Can we still be friends?"
"That's up to Akito."
Riku was still in cat form when Shigure (who had changed into a suit and tie) took her to the Main House late the next day. Shigure brought along a change of clothes for her, also. She pranced around, singing "cat, i'm a kitty cat! and I dance dance dance, and I dance dance dance!" as she went along. Shigure couldn't help but laugh at her.
"Oh Hatori, it's been so long! I've missed you so!" Shigure said dramatically as he greeted a man with dark hair that covered one eye.
Hatori at Shigure and sighed. "I just spoke to you on the phone two minutes ago, Shigure."
"Heh heh... What do you know, it seems that I did, Ha'ri..."
"Where is the girl?" Hatori questioned, looking around a bit and raising an eyebrow.
"Here," Riki said, and Hatori looked down (of course, the one direction he DIDN'T look) at her, surprised to see her as a cat. "My name's Riki," she said, "And I'm not always a cat, y'know, I just prefer to be one. Except when I'm at school or other social fuctions. But since you guys all have a curse of your own, I figured it wouldn't bother you. Are you an animal, too?"
"Dragon," Hatori simply replied as he entered a room without them. Soon, he came back, saying that Akito was ready to see them.
"You might want to change back into your human form, Riki," Shigure advised.
She sighed, and with a 'poof!', turned back into a human. Shigure tossed her her clothes, and Hatori forced Shigure to turn around, much to his dismay. As soon as Riki had dressed, they entered Akito's room.
Riki sat down on her knees in front of Akito, with Hatori and Shigure behind her. They all kept their heads bowed, waiting for Akito to speak. he stood up, walking in front of Riki.
"I heard that poof, y'know. Who'd you transform this time? Never mind that - soon your memories will all be erased. You're worthless. You mean nothing to our family. One outsider is one too many, we don't need you too!" he shouted, and just as he went to grab her hair, Riki grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder.
"Who said you could touch me? And how dare you treat me with disrespect?" Akito shouted, lunging at her again. A 'poof!' was heard, and all Akito was able to grab was a handful of clothes. Riki ran away far enough to gain distance between them, then turned and faced Akito. She hissed, her fur standing on end.
"What the hell!" Akito shouted, "Quit playing games -no more tricks! There's no way that you also share our curse! You don't know what it's like to be part of the Sohma family! You don't know how it feels! I was born to die, and they didn't even ask me! THEY DIDN'T EVEN ASK ME! There's no way you can understand!"
"I wasn't asked if I wanted to be a cat," Riki replied calmly, though her voice quivered, "My own mother could barely look at me. My father left because of me. In the end, my mom killed herself because of me. I may not know what it's like to be born to die, but I know what it's like to be born a murderer. I'm a freak..." Riki walked up to Akito and 'poof!'ed back into her human form, tears quickly falling down her cheeks. It didn't even phase her that she was naked. Akito glared at her as she put her hands on his cheeks. "Open your eyes, Akito," she said softly, not realizing the double meaning that her words had. "You may be born to die, but that doesn't mean that you can't live. That you can't enjoy life."
And then, she hugged him.
Akito's eyes widened. He didn't say anything. He didn't move, even. They sat like that for a good two minutes, before Riki changed back into a cat. Shigure giddily picked up her clothes as she left the room.
"She can stay," Akito said softly, the hastily added "For now..." as they left.
Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru were sitting in the living room watching TV as Shigure and Riki returned home. Yuki and Tohru greeted them with a smile, but Kyo was scowling. Riki jumped uo into Kyo's lap and began purring. She nuzzled against his hands, trying to get him to pet her.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Kyo asked.
"Stupid cat, she just got back from seeing Akito; it was probably rough on her. She obviously wants to be comforted," Yuki said.
Riki looked up at Kyo with her sad cat eyes, and then nuzzled him some more. Kyo sighed in aggrivation.
"Oh, alright," he said, then he lowered his voice so only Riki could hear. "I... I can't, no, I-I'm not... I'm not really good at these sort of things."
Riki changed back into her human form and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him and crying into his chest. Everyone in the room except Shigure blushed at Riki's naked form. Yuki decided that it was best if they left the room, and made sure to hit Shigure upside the head as he dragged him out. "Why did this have to happen to Kyo and not me," Shigure whined.
Tohru grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around Riki, then leaned over to whisper in Kyo's ear. "Um... Kyo, I think Riki would really like it if you hugged her back."
Kyo uncomfortably did so, and Riki wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. 'I have a naked girl sitting on my lap,' he thought. Soon, he relaxed into the hug, and Riki fell asleep on his lap. From outside the room, Tohru and Yuki watched the two. "I wonder why Kyo didn't transform... Maybe it has something to do with her also being a cat?" Tohru asked.
"Maybe, since our curse involves transforming when being hugged by an uncursed person, and it seems that Miss Kang IS cursed," Yuki answered.
Tohru nodded. "Lets think about this more in the morning, okay Yuki? We have school tomorrow."
Riki laid across the couch, waiting for Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru to return home. She had taken the entrance exam earlier in the morning, but didn't start school until the next day. She had been reading various magazines and even started in on some of the books Shigure had written, but she lost interest in them quickly. Just then, the door burst open.
"Waaaaaah! Kyo hit me!" a small blonde whined. Riki got off the couch, and walked over to the blonde. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Of course he is!" Kyo shouted.
"Hi, I'm Momiji!" the blonde said, "I'm Kyo and Yuki and Shigure and Ha'ri's cousin! I saw you at the main house the other day, does that mean you know about our secret?"
"You shouldn't go around asking that," said a tall guy with black and white hair, walking over to stand next to Yuki. All Riki could do was stare. Albeit, the guy was pretty cute, but that's not she was staring at. It was the girl standing behind him. "This is my other cousin, Hatsuharu! We call him Haru, though!" Momiji explained.
"Are you..." Haru asked in disbeleif.
"Hey, isn't she the girl in all the articles that you have postered all over your wall?" Momiji asked innocently, "'Yong Jun Kang's incredibly talented daughter!'"
"Yeah, well... Who the hell is Yong Jun Kang anyway?" Kyo asked, subconciously knocking his fist against the table. His eyes seemed to be focused on an invisible object in the far distance, sort of a like a zoned-out look. Riki frowned.
"My dad," Riku answered slowly, answering his question. "I was an aspiring musician up until about a year ago. There was only so many 'Yong Jun Kang's daughter's I could take. I hated living in his shadow... I wanted to prove that I was better than him, but I gave up."
"Really? That's too bad. Miss Kang, I would like to hear you play something sometime," Yuki smiled.
Riki nodded, again looking at Kyo. He looked like he felt unwanted. Out of place. Sad. She couldn't help but walk over to him and give him a hug. "Would you like that, Kyo? If I played a song just for you?" she asked, not letting go of him.
"I, uh... I -"
"Yuki! Kyo! Tohru! Riki! I'm home!" Shigure called, having come back from visiting Hatori. Riki let go of Kyo as Shigure smiled at them and greeted the group.
"We should get going, Momiji," Haru said, waving as he dragged a whining Momiji out of the house.
"Why the hell'd they even come over in the first place if htey were barely going to stay long enough to visit?" Kyo complained.
"Kyo, they could have not come at all," Riki pointed out.
"I would have been fine with that! Hell, I didn't even want them over in the first place!" he stood up and raised his fist, shouting. Riki flinched. Then she sighed, rolling her eyes. Did he not see how lucky he was to even HAVE a family? He may have never truly been accepted into the rest of the Zodiac because he was the cat, but he had a family that loved him.
"Kyo, you're so naive sometimes," she laughed.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" he shouted, his shoulders raising and his hands clenching into fists.
"It means that you're being stupid, you idiot," Yuki rolled his eyes.
"Um, not exactly-"
"Take that back, ya damn rat!"
"No, I don't think I will."
"Oh, it's on now!"
'Here we go again,' Riki thought as Kyo threw his first punch, shaking her head.
"I thought I'd find you up here," Riki smiled as she climbed onto the roof and took a seat next to Kyo, who was laying on his back with his arms folded beneath his head and his eyes closed. She could see the faint begining of a decent sized bruise forming on his jaw.
"Yeah, what do you want," he asked, not looking at her.
"I want to help you. With your fighting."
Kyo's eyes shot open, and he sat up. He was starting to get interested in what she had to say. "How so?"
"Advice. I've watched you. You're an offensive fighter - but of course you already knew that. You pretty much only throw punches, in the same order. Jab, cross, jab, cross. Left, right, left, right. Furthermore, you aim in Yuki's general direction, not for a specific target. Change it up a bit! Throw more kicks! And most importantly, learn how to fake and attack!"
Kyo nodded, waiting for her to continue.
"Here's what I propose that you do: Next time you fight him, start off offensive like you normally do. Then fake him out a bit. Then fake again, but throw a kick immediatly after. If he moves, follow through. Make sure you at least hit him, even it it's not very hard. Then back up and wait - go defensive. Make him come to you. When he charges at you, extend your leg and make his stomach eat your foot! That'll at least stun him enough for you to get a few more hits in. Then when he goes to punch again, catch his arm and flip him! Make him know how it feels to go crashing through a wall!" Riki said excitedly, flailing her arms around to emphasize her point. "What did you do when you trained, wrestle bears!"
"I did NOT wrestle bears!" Kyo jumped up.
"Calm down, calm down, I beleive you. Yeesh," she grabbed his arm and made him sit back down.
"...Do you really think it'll work? Your plan, I mean?"
"Yuki beats you because he can predict what you're going to do. You may not win, but you'll sure beat him up a bit," she smiled.
"Yuki, could you try NOT using Kyo as a weapon to - oh," Shigure said as rounded a corner and nearly tripped over Yuki, who was laying on the remnants of what was once a wall.
"You did it!" Riki cheered excitedly, giving Kyo a big bear hug.
"Well, it looks like Kyo finally beat Yuki," Shigure said, turning and walking away.
Both Yuki and Kyo were both in a slight state of shock due to the past events. Yuki, because he had never been flipped through a wall before, and Kyo because he did the flipping. Kyo hadn't ever even managed to flip Haru through a wall. Yuki slowly stood up, then straightened his clothes and dusted himself off. "Stupid cat," he said as he walked away.
Riki's face fell. "Not even a 'congradulations, you finally beat me' or a 'wow' or anything?"
"Yeah, well, that's just the way that damn rat is," Kyo explained. Riki frowned. Then one of her eyebrow's raised when she heard Shigure shouting on the phone in the kitchen.
"Oh, Ha'ri! You should have seen it! Kyo won his first fight against Yuki today, I'm so proud of the little guy! I feel like a mother whose daughter just won a beauty pagaent!"
"'I was beaming like someone's mum!'" Riki quoted to Hatori in a shout from the distance. She shrugged when Kyo looked at her strangely.
With the cat's first victory comes respect. More victories are sure to follow, leading the cat closer to acceptance.
With the victories comes the rat's downfall - the rat's life will begin to fall apart. However, one will be there to catch the rat. One whom cares deeply about the rat - but has gone nearly ignored.
In time, the rat will find happiness with the other individual, just as the cat will find happiness in his acceptance. Most of all, for the cat, will he find happiness with the one whom is not an animal, but whom is a guide spirit that has yet to uncover her own destiny.
As for the spirit - she is more linked to the animals than she knows.
The quote that Riki shouted is from Velvet Goldmine, which is a great movie. I reccommend it if you haven't seen it already.