Chapter 34

TT: Well, I was going to extend out your anxiety a little bit more, but I was scared that if I did so, you'd all hunt me down and kill me. I have to say, though, I was surprised to how strong a reaction I got with the last chapter.

Just a little note to Dark Inu Fan: I did say it last chapter, but I guess you missed the note. I don't know anything about exorcism, so I made up my own weak version, along with its effects.

Kyo didn't hear Akito thanking Mr. Harrowing for his time. He didn't see Kurono lead the exorcist back to the car and drive off. Didn't even notice when Shigure and Yuki moved back or as Akito walked towards him.

Eris… Was gone. She'd just disappeared, right in front of him. She couldn't do that, not to him. This was different to her disappearing trick with the others - Eris didn't disappear on him! She couldn't; if he couldn't see her, then Eris simply wasn't there.

Kyo's pupils shrunk into tiny, shivering dots. "Eris..." His voice was low and cracked around the lump in his throat.

Suddenly there pain, and Kyo fell to the ground. Akito had punched him; he could already feel his left temple beginning to bruise. He winced, and shifted his head, before lying still again, staring at Akito's boots. He felt drained, too tired to deal with the Sohma god. He'd already taken Eris away, wasn't that enough? There was no punishment Akito could give him worse than that, not even locking him away. At least, if he'd simply been locked away, Eris would have been there to keep him company.

Kyo felt sick. Eris had always seemed so strong before. It just didn't seem possible that she could be beaten by a simple exorcism. The cat had to swallow hard, closing his eyes tightly.

A sharp flare of new pain at his temple, as he was sent flying across the grass before landing on his stomach. Akito had just kicked him. Kyo couldn't be sure, but he thought he felt blood dripping down the side of his face. Kyo winced, and lifted his face from the ground slightly.

In the edge of his swimming vision, Kyo spotted Akito's shoes approaching him. It took a moment to get through his pounding head that the rest of Akito was most likely attached. It was also then that it occurred to him that Shigure and Yuki seemed to have disappeared.

Kyo could feel the rage radiating off Akito, it was practically tangible. The self-proclaimed God of the Sohma Family had been beaten, humiliated and almost killed by the ghost last time. He'd remained dangerously ill for another two months, and had been forced to wait another three before he could even think of getting some sort of revenge. Humiliated, possibly for the first time since becoming head of the family, and defied by someone who was already DEAD. There was very little he could do to inflict a punishment on the ghost, and that fact had obviously only fueled his anger.

Anger that was directed solely at the Kyo.

Someone on the edge of the tree line, Kyo thought he heard a cat meow as it leapt onto a higher branch, but he could be sure. The orange-haired teenager didn't move as Akito stood over him, looking down at him with utter disgust. The last thing he wanted to do was make Akito angrier – if that was even possible.

Was Akito speaking to him? He could see the head's lips moving, but couldn't hear anything over the sound of blood rushing in his own ears.

Evidently it had been a question he was supposed to answer, however, because Akito's face curled into an angry snarl when he didn't twitch, and slammed a foot down on the cat's chest. Kyo's eyes widened as the breath was knocked out of him, shoulders flying up slightly in an instinctive attempt to lessen the blow. He fell back to the ground, gasping. But it was hard to catch his breath with Akito applying pressure to his lungs like that…

Odd, a part of him thought this was vaguely… familiar.

"You're pathetic without your little friend, you know that, cat?" The title was spat out of Akito's mouth. "You couldn't even safe your little pet, could you? You just stood there, staring, as it was taken straight to hell; which is where it belongs, for willingly having anything to do with a monster like you."

Kyo didn't say anything; he didn't have the breath to. But a part of him boiled with anger: no one should be allowed to talk about Eris like that! At the very least, surely Akito heard of 'respecting the dead'?

"You honestly thought you could get away with it, didn't you? You thought that you and your little pet ghost could defy me with no repercussions. You thought that you could beat the family, the curse, and me. You thought that you – a filthy monster – could get away with it." Akito was snarling as he kicked Kyo in the side, rolling him over onto his injured stomach.

Akito was still talking, but Kyo wasn't listening to him anymore. He had curled himself into a little ball, not even twitching when Akito nudged him with the side of his foot. He felt so cold…

Actually, now he thought about it, there was a comforting familiarity to that cold groping at his shoulder. What was it…?

For a second, he thought he that the wind in his ears had taken on a voice. Then, the next moment, the pain had faded. Only the world hadn't turned black, and there were foreign thoughts bubbling somewhere near his own.

Akito's eyes widened in surprise when the cat's hand reached out to grab the foot that had been nudging him. The hand pulled the foot out from under him, making the Head of the Sohma family fall backwards onto the ground.

The filthy monster's body cast a shadow over him, and Akito looked up in rage, about to get back to his feet. But something in the cat's gaze made him freeze in place.

Kyo's face was twisted into a furious snarl, clenched fists near his hips in a pose that seemed strangely feminine. His gleaming eyes didn't seem quite so red as usual.

Then the cat spoke; it was his voice, though pitched a little higher than normal. The voice had a slight accent, "Oh, that's it. You are so dead!"