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Disclaimer: Natsuki Takaya owns Fruits Basket, and anything else you recognize isn't mine.

Chapter 4

Asheno leaned forward, his pale, drawn face catching the light from the fading sun in the spacious window. Haku remained standing in the middle of the room, and he met Asheno's eyes squarely. For a few minutes, nothing changed.

The gears turned in Haku's mind. The previous times Asheno had summoned him, Asheno was usually angry, trying to make Haku become his virtual slave (as far as Haku could tell), or else he fell into ranting at Haku about his "strangeness." This was usually accompanied by the random throwing or smashing of objects, which normally consisted of expensive, antique china, or fragile statuettes. Occasionally he hurled a chair or a lamp. This time, though, Asheno's face betrayed no expression. He seemed positively…calm. The air rested heavily on everything in the room, adding an oppressiveness to the room. Mentally shaking off the feeling of foreboding, Haku grit his teeth. I will never submit to your will, Asheno, he thought, and intensified his glare.

Asheno's colorless lips curled upwards. "Now, whatever is that look for? You act as though you expect me to throw something at you," he chastised Haku in a semi-mocking tone.

What? Never had Asheno spoken to Haku like this. Haku stood motionless as a statue, refusing to show any reaction to Asheno's words.

"My, still so defiant. And I hoped I could speak with you rationally. At the very least, you should treat your generous guardian with a little more gratefulness." A look of playful consternation.

"What do you want!" slipped out of Haku before he could control himself. Asheno, pleased at Haku's reaction, chuckled.

"I merely felt it was time to set a few things straight. For example, I thought I should explain to you why you and Hatsuharu are under my guardianship." Asheno paused, and took a sip of water from the endtable next to the chaise. "You and Hatsuharu are afflicted with a curse that select members of the Shoma family have had to endure for over 500 years. Yes, I believe this year will be the 516th anniversary of the Dzuni curse." A delicate hand smoothed the folds of his deep blue robe. "I presume that you do know what the Dzuni are, don't you? Don't tell me I've wasted money on your schooling."

Bristling, Haku nodded tersely. Of course, everyone in Hoth knew what the Dzuni were. The Dzuni made up the astrological cycle that formed the basis of the Hothan calendar. There were 12 Dzuni: each a different animal with a month assigned to each one. The exception was the 13th Dzuni, the cat, who was an outcast. The other 12 Dzuni were the rat, dog, rabbit, dragon, snake, pig, bird, sheep, cow, monkey, horse, and tiger. Asheno was succeeding in insulting Haku, but Haku had to see if Asheno would continue. If he angered Asheno by lashing back, Asheno would most likely have a tantrum.

"The curse is as follows: thirteen members of the Shoma family are possessed by the spirits of the Dzuni. Each person then takes on some of the physical features, personality traits, and behavioral tendencies of whichever spirit possesses him or her. You, Haku, are possessed by the dog—therefore, you have black hair, darker skin, and keen senses of smell and hearing, among others. Hatsuharu is possessed by the cow, hence his black and white hair and calm demeanor.

"But that is not all of the curse. When a member of the opposite sex hugs a cursed Shoma, that Shoma transforms into his or her animal. The Dzuni also transform when they are ill or their bodies become weak."

Oh, though Haku, but that doesn't happen to me or Hatsuharu. Although it does explain the time Asheno ordered some serving girl to just hug Hatsuharu…he must've been trying to confirm that Hatsuharu would transform into a cow. Wait, if there are 13 Dzuni, that means there are others like me and Hatsuharu somewhere…

"Yes, there are 11 other Dzuni." Asheno smiled as he saw the look of fear momentarily cross Haku's face. "And your friends Khosure and Hotohori are indeed among them. Soon they shall join you here."

"No!" How did Asheno know about Kho and Tori? The last thing Haku wanted was for them to be dragged into Asheno's spiral of misery.

"Yes," dragging out the sibilant, "they should rejoin their brethren and god, it is only right."

"God?"

"I am the god of the Dzuni."

"What? You're insane. You always have been."

"Another component of the curse—a fourteenth person acts as ruler of the Dzuni. The Dzuni god lives a life of misery and illness, only to die young, usually before age 25."

"How can that be? You must be at least 50. That's not young."

"I would've died, if the curse hadn't been broken. Or so they thought…the former members of the Dzuni. But I found out the curse would return, and bided my time until the new Dzuni began to arrive."

It was too much for Haku. One thought tripped over another. There were so many things wrong with this—Asheno's description of the Dzuni curse didn't fit Haku and the others well enough. This must've been the curse he kept hearing about in his visions and dreams, but it was different. Damned if he would bow to Asheno. Asheno, his god, the very idea! If Asheno was his guardian, what had happened to his parents? Or Hatsuharu's, for that matter?

As if on cue, a voice inside his head screamed in agony.

"Asheno, where is my son? Where are the children?" More crying, from several people at once. And all the while, a quiet, demonic laughter in the background. Shellshocked, Haku fell to his knees, trying to process everything he'd just heard.

"I realized all of this may be a bit much right now," Asheno smiled sweetly. "But I do sincerely hope we develop a more understanding relationship, now that you know your proper place."

Haku wasn't listening—not to Asheno, at least. The barrage of voices continued, "Where is my daughter? What have you done with her, you miserable, sadistic loony?" Then a cool voice, much like Asheno's now, responded: "My advice is for you to go on with your lives. Your children are now my concern, not yours. Now leave, all of you."

"Where are the others?" Haku asked, jerked out of his reverie.

"The others?" Asheno paused for a moment. "Oh, you mean your compatriots in the curse. They are living with foster families elsewhere. If I'd kept all of them here, it would have caused…suspicion. I just decided to keep you and Hatsuharu. You, I find particularly fascinating, even if you are impossible."

Suspicion among the people whose voices he'd just heard begging Asheno for their children. So, mused Haku, maybe his parents had been among those agonized voices. Still, it seemed more likely that his parents…no, he would not let that little fear surface…

"Our parents…"

"I would forget them if I were you, Haku," Asheno cut him off. "From now on, I am your only concern."

"No, I refuse to worship you as a god or whatever people under the curse did," blurted Haku. "How do you even know that I or Hatsuharu or anyone else have the same curse? We don't match its description!"

"Quiet! I will not have—" Asheno sat up, his calm expression quickly giving way to anger.

"For instance, if you're a god, doesn't that mean you should know how to control us? But clearly you don't, if you let a five-year-old knock you out—"

"Shut up!" A glass decanter narrowly missed Haku's head and smashed on the wall behind him. "Get out!"

"Gladly!" Haku leapt to his feet and stomped to the door. "Good night, god," he sneered. He shut the door in time to hear a plate crash into it.

Shortly after, Hatsuharu arrived home. Rhena immediately greeted him with, "Master Asheno summoned Haku for a talk, and it went badly as usual. Haku's in the kitchen, very upset. I gave him some hot chocolate, but you should go see him."

Haku, you idiot, thought Hatsuharu, as he made his way to the spacious kitchen area. You should have waited for me.

Hatsuharu finally found Haku slumped over a small carving table in a corner of a side kitchen, his hot chocolate untouched. The kitchen area was actually made up of several kitchens, with one great kitchen in the center, and smaller kitchens and storerooms branching off from the main kitchen. Such a huge kitchen complex was needed to accommodate all the preparations required for the family gathering at the New Year's feast, which could have as many as 600 people attending. The Shoma family tree had many, many branches on it.

Awkwardly placing his muscular body on a tiny stool, Hatsuharu sat next to Haku. But before he could start consoling or scolding Haku, Hatsuharu watched in dismay as Haku broke down sobbing. When Haku calmed down, he spilled forth the entire story of what had happened between him and Asheno. At the end, Hatsuharu sat stunned and silent.

"If I could run away from this place," growled Haku, "I would! But I have no one else besides you, and it would've caused too much trouble for Kho and Tori, not to mention Asheno would've caught them. And now I have a chance to find out why we're so weird, but Asheno doesn't really understand who-or what- we are, and besides, all he cares about is getting us to submit to him. He really is a lunatic! An evil bastard! Why? Why does this happen to us? Are we even human?" Haku pounded his fists on the table with each invective.

As suddenly as he'd begun, Haku stopped yelling. A cold draft passed through him, and moving black streaks of air blurred his vision.

"Oohhh…shit," gasped Hatsuharu, eyes wide open as he saw a wolf's head, jaws open revealing sharp, gleaming fangs and a lolling red tongue, fly out of Haku's torso. The wolf moved in a graceful arc over the table, to land, soundlessly, on the floor across from them. Neither teenager moved a muscle as they watched the wolf turn and face them. The wolf's fur was shaggy, long, and a dark gray color that was just shy of black, the same as Haku's hair. His head would've reached Haku's hip, and he was as long as a lion. The wolf stood, panting and slavering. However, at this moment, Haku and Hatsuharu paid attention only to his eyes. They were not normal eyes. In the place of definable pupils and eye whites, there was a bright scarlet glow. Both boys jumped as the wolf suddenly twitched violently and began gnawing on a hind leg.

"It's a demon, isn't it?" whispered Hatsuharu.

"That came out of me?" Haku said.

The wolf looked at Haku, then growled. The growl reverberated through the diminutive room, making the very air vibrate.

So this is what's been inside me all that time, Haku thought. He felt his courage returning.

"Wolf…" he began, in a slightly shaky voice.

"Shh! Are you crazy?" Hatsuharu whispered furiously.

"Be quiet!" Haku reprimanded. "Wolf…ghost wolf, can you understand me?"

The wolf stopped chewing on its leg and straightened up, looking at Haku with interest.

"It's okay, we won't do anything to you," Haku said, thinking, "As if we could do anything if it decided to attack."

The door banged open.

"Oh, hello, Master Haku and…oh, what's this?" said a young serving girl.

"NOOOOOO!" screamed both Haku and Hatsuharu, as the wolf lunged for the girl.

"AAIIIEE—" the girl was cut off in midscream as the wolf's teeth sank into her neck.