Tohru's Demons

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Concept Of Nova


"Millie!" Momiji cried joyously, running up to greet his friend. "I was looking for you!"

"Mitchi! You have found Millie!" Millie exclaimed happily, waving enthusiastically. "Here is your prize!"

"Prize?!" Momiji gasped excitedly. Millie bobbed her head vigorously, then reached over and kissed him. When she pulled back, Momiji stared back at her in wide-eyed surprise, and reached up to brush his mouth with his fingers, blushing profoundly and smiling like a fool.

"What...?" he managed to say. Millie cocked her head and gave him one of her brightly adorable smiles.

"For the Knight in Shining Armor for rescuing the Damsel in Distress!" she said. Momiji stared in bewilderment at Millie for a while, and then they both began to laugh.

"Let's go," Momiji said, calming down some, which was saying something for someone of his character. "I'll bet Tohru's wondering where we are."

He turned to go, but paused when he felt a small hand take hold of his and tug him to a stop. He glanced back at Millie, who smiled warmly back at him. Stepping closer, her laid her chin on his shoulder, so close to his face that his golden hair tickled her nose.

"Momiji..." she said softly. "Millie trusts you."

"Huh...?" Momiji gasped, his heart fluttering. What do I do?!

"Millie trusts you enough to tell you her secret."

"Really?" Momiji breathed, exhilaration swelling in his chest.

"Yup. But you can't tell anyone else, 'kay? Promise?" she asked.

"Yeah, I promise!" Momiji answered, smiling, and linked his pinky with hers. Millie, although she smiled back, Momiji couldn't help thinking that she was very... sad. Millie took a deep breath.

"Three hundred and thirty-five years ago..." she began, "there was a familiar named Millie. Millie had a Companion. This Companion wanted to become an Angel more than anything in the world, but whenever Millie thought about it... she cried.

"She did not want him to be an Angel, because without him Millie would become a demon, and they would hate each other forever and ever. And if the Companion became an Angel, he would be a slave, and he would hurt for it. He would hurt bad. He was too kind for that, and he did not deserve it."

Millie stopped and pulled away to look at Momiji. What he saw in her eyes was an unimaginable suffering, and sorrow, and longing. And there was a question. A desperate question in her eyes, but he did not know what, or why.

"What happened?" he whispered when she did not continue.

"He died." Millie answered quietly, her voice revealing nothing. "He died... and so did Millie."

At first, Momiji couldn't speak. He didn't know what to say, and just stared at the girl in shock.

Mama...? Whispered a voice through his mind. For a brief moment Momiji imagined Millie hanging limply from the steel ribs of a walking corpse, staring at him with wide, inhuman, starving green eyes...

Momiji reeled back.

"You're a... Poltergeist..." he whispered in soft horror.

"Yes..."

"But... no..."

"Yes. Millie is a Poltergeist. Millie's here, but some of her soul is gone. If not for this," Millie said, holding up the necklace Momiji had noticed the first night he had met her, "Millie's mind wouldn't be here, either. She would lose herself in her nightmares. And… she would kill people."

"You..." Momiji shuddered to a halt, the words dying in his throat. He swallowed and continued. "You... would be the same as that... thing... in the cage...?"

Millie nodded, and the Question intensified.

"Oh, Millie..." Momiji murmured. "I'm... I'm sorry..." Momiji bit his lip, looking at her in slight trepidation, then took a breath.

"How did he—" you "— die?" he asked gently. Millie gazed at him calmly— determinedly, sadly, fearfully, pleadingly— and the Question writhed.

"Millie tried to save him," she replied slowly, weighing each word, and softly. "Millie loved him. She lived for him, only for him, because he was her soul. But he... didn't listen. Millie told him and told him the Angels would destroy him. She told him the Angels would imprison, and kill, his soul. But he never listened. He had already walked into the trap... so Millie freed him the only way she knew how."

Millie was breathing quickly, her face pale, and she trembled. The Question was burning, now, as her eyes bore into his in powerful desperation.

"...Millie, how did you save him...?"

Millie bowed her head for a moment, staring in desolation at the ground, and then she slowly looked up and met Momiji's eyes.

"Millie killed him."

Momiji went cold, and suddenly, he knew what the Question was.

Can you forgive me for murder?

"I..." he choked out in a strangled, shaking voice. "I don't know..."

And then he ran. Millie stood still, enveloped in the shadows of the stairwell, listening as the echoes of Momiji's footsteps faded away into a deafening silence, so profound that not even the soft fall of tears could break it.

"I'm going to get right to the point, Tohru-kun," Hatori said in a business-like tone as he placed his teacup down on the kitchen table. "I am speaking from a singularly professional stance when I ask what these Angels are capable of, so I may know what sort of injuries, if any, to expect."

"Um, okay..." Tohru replied, her own cup clinking slightly as she put it down. "Course, we won't only be fighting Angels, they have underlings that they'll likely be sending after us like... the Cages... but once they figure out it's me, they'll come themselves.

"As for what they can do... Well, they can fly for one. The Archangels use firearms, and the Angels of lower rank usually use longbows, or more likely, repeating crossbows. And the Angels below them use steel weapons, such as swords and axes.

And then there are the Angelic Blades, scared weapons that the Angels use to open doors into other worlds. Those axes I have? They're stolen Angelic Blades that, before I accidentally broke them, could open doors. They can't do that anymore, so I had to learn to do it on my own. They were really just a focus point of that power."

Here, Tohru paused to take a sip of her tea, and then continued.

"But all that we can handle. It's the other stuff that worries me. First off... Angels are telepathic. If they can't hurt you physically, they'll attack your mind, and if it isn't guarded, they could drive you mad. I'm not sure how, but I've heard... stories. They can't do it to me because of Raha; he somehow protects my mind from that sort of thing. But I think with you, we'll need to figure out some sort of extra protection. Well for most of you, there is one person here that I think could handle them, and that's Hatori-san."

"Ha'ri?" Shigure asked, a little surprised.

"Why him?" Yuki and Kyo asked at the same time, and then glared at each other for the plagiarism of their own unique phrase.

"Hatori-san, do you remember what happened when the Familiar Cage attacked?" Tohru asked Hatori, who looked faintly taken aback.

"Yes," he answered evenly. "You came to me and told me to get everyone else back through the door. You disappeared then."

"I was holding off the Cage, or trying to anyways. But there was a reason I chose you. Do you know why?"

Hatori was silent, his face expressionless, as he thought it over in his mind. At the time, he had not questioned why Tohru had gone to him, assuming he had been the reasonable choice, or that he was just the most convenient. But now, as he considered it, he speculated what she had found in him that would set him apart from his cousins.

Suddenly he remembered what he had felt when he had heard that terrible, forlorn wail and felt the shadows begin to devour his mind. Then he wondered what the other Sohmas had felt, and he hit on the answer.

"Because I am cold as snow."

"Right! You have learned to suppress your emotions, and in doing so, you have closed off your mind against an attack."

"So to be safe, all we have to do is think like Hatori?" Kyo snorted after an awed silence, causing various people to snigger.

"I wish," Tohru replied. "No, Angels have another power, which I think is a lot more scarier. But first, I'll need to explain the concept of Nova."

"Nova...?" Kyo said dubiously, lifting a brow. "What's that...?"

"Perhaps if you'll be quiet and listen for a minute, she'll tell you," Yuki rebuked absently.

"Shut up, you damn Rat!" Kyo yelled, jumping up and baring his fists in his usual manner of 'wanna fight?'

Yuki ignored him.

"Nova," Tohru went on hurriedly, before Kyo could say anything that would surely get him thrown into a wall. "Is the material of all universes, that binds everything together, and makes sure it all works. It also conveys ideas, and the stronger the idea, the more people that will have it. That's how you get people inventing the same stuff in two different countries, or even two different worlds, without ever having known of the other's existence. It's also how you get universal ideas, like the hero archetypes and how stories should be generally structured."

Shigure nodded knowledgeably, smiling. Kyo and Yuki rolled their eyes. Hatori just sighed inwardly.

"I think I get it..." Haru said slowly, to everyone's surprise. "It's like the Force in Star Wars." Everyone then proceeded to promptly fall out of his or her seat.

"Yes, it is a bit like that, actually," said Tohru, who had managed to not fall down, thoughtfully. "In the sense that it binds all beings together and is the source of all life. But Nova is a living entity itself, so in a way, it is also like God."

"But what does that have to do with the Angels?" Kyo asked curiously.

"Because Angels can kill Nova. Not all of it, as its everywhere, but they can obliterate portions of it. They can create this massive white beam of plasma light, and anything in its path is destroyed, even the very fabric of the universe, so it briefly opens a door into several other universes at once. And if it hits you, not only is nothing left of your body, but it demolishes your soul as well.

"The only person that has ever survived, and I mean that very loosely, an attack like that was Artemis. And even then, he lost a small bit of his soul, and he's a demon. I don't even want to think of what it would do to a human." Tohru stopped again and sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"And then there are the black holes," she said.

"Do we want to know what those are?" Yuki asked.

"No, but you need to be able to recognize them." Tohru paused to collect her thoughts and nimble a crumpet. "Black holes are pretty much what the name implies: giant black holes that appear in the ground instead of space. They don't suck everything up, other wise they would eat the worlds they're on, but the area around them is really... weird. I don't know how, but its like being in a black and white T.V. with bad reception, all grainy, with no color at all, with the black hole in the center."

"Oh dear..." Ayame murmured in incredulity.

"Yeah. And be sure never to fall in to the black hole, because you'll be trapped in Limbo forever. I fell in once for a few seconds before I opened a door and got out, but I was in a coma for two weeks."

The Sohmas stared at her in shocked silence for several moments.

"A... coma?" Yuki gasped in horror.

"For two weeks?!" Kyo cried.

"Please, don't get so upset, that was a long time ago. And I'm perfectly fine now, so you can stop looking at me like that," Tohru said amiably.

"So what happened?" Kyo urged. Tohru turned red and was suddenly fascinated with her hands.

"I fell in..." she muttered.

Yeah, that sounds like something our old Tohru would do... the Sohmas thought while shaking their heads.

"You fell in." Kyo repeated flatly.

"Well, it's not like I tripped over my own feet and then toppled into the black hole!" Tohru protested in defense. "A demon took us by surprise, and while we were fighting… I was sort of pushed in."

"You were fighting a demon?" Yuki asked in surprise and curiosity. "But I thought the demons were the good guys."

Tohru shook her head. "Not all demons are good, like not all humans are good. In fact, most demons are cruel, crude, animalistic brutes. I guess that's natural, though, when they don't have souls. The same goes for the Angels, as well. Most of them are like mindless sheep that pretty much want everyone else to be mindless sheep, too, but there are a few that disagree. Val's brother is one of them, he works as a spy for our side within the Angelic ranks."

"Valery-san has a brother?!" Ayame gasped in amazement. "I had no idea!"

"Yeah, his name's Remus. You probably won't meet him, I've only seen him a few times myself, but he and Val are in constant contact with each other now, trying to figure out what the Angels are up to."

"See, Yuki, you could learn from their example!" Ayame said, turning to Yuki.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Yuki said evenly, turning away. While Ayame sobbed quietly, Tohru collected their empty cups and whatever leftovers of their lunch and put them in the sink.

"So, what do you want to do now? Go to the library again?" she asked, turning around.

Yuki, Kyo, Shigure, Ayame, and Hatori looked up in surprise.

"You're going to keep trying, even after what Akito said?" Shigure asked.

"What? What happened?" Haru asked curiously. Quickly, Tohru explained about the library, and that perhaps there was a way to end the curse, and after he, Hiro, and Kisa got over their shock, Tohru turned back to Shigure.

"Of course I am," Tohru replied, as if it was the most logical thing in the world. "Unless, you've changed your minds?"

"But, didn't Akito say..." Ayame started uncertainly.

"If I recall correctly, he never specifically said not to look around in the library."

The Sohmas' jaws dropped, and their eyes widened in stunned silence.

"Tohru... you saw his reaction," Shigure protested breathlessly. "I'm pretty sure..."

"But he didn't say it exactly did he?" Tohru pressed.

"Well... no, but..."

"Then it's okay."

"But that's just underhanded!" Kyo objected.

"Tohru-kun, we cannot go against Akito's wishes. It was quite obvious he did not want us interfering with the Curse, even though he did not expressly say it." Hatori explained calmly. Tohru thought about that for a moment.

"He didn't say to not go into the library. So don't look for stuff on the Curse, just poke around, and if you happen to find something..."

"Tohru-kun, are you telling us to disobey Akito?" Hatori asked quietly. "Do you know what that means? Do you know what Akito will do when he finds out?"

"When he finds out?" Tohru asked.

"We have to tell him if you're trying to get us to turn on him," Shigure said quietly.

"And when he does find out, do you know what he will make me do?" Hatori whispered. Tohru's expression grew serious and focused.

"Sometimes," she said slowly, looking at each of them in turn. "It is better to defy orders and do what you think is right."

The Sohmas fell silent, the profound meaning of those words reverberating in their minds. After all, she had disobeyed orders to save all their lives, with hardly a thought about what she was doing.

"But he could have your memories erased..." Ayame said weakly.

"Well, he could try." Tohru said with a small, crooked grin.

"What do you mean?" Yuki asked.

"My memories... have a firewall. It means no one can access them, or read my thoughts, and I can never forget them. Not as long as Raha's around. He's sort of like a guard dog for my mind," Tohru replied. "So, if you tried to erase my memories, Hatori-san, you'd probably knock yourself out."

The Sohmas knew they should be used to surprising news like this, but every time Tohru revealed something, they still managed to be freshly shocked.

"So, do you still want to go to the library?"

"Yes." Yuki and Kyo said as they stood up. Tohru smiled at them, and then looked inquiringly at everyone else. Haru silently got up and walked to stand next to her.

"Hatori-san?" Tohru said quietly. Hatori hesitated; thinking long and hard about what he was about to do, then slowly nodded the affirmative and pushed himself to his feet. Shigure and Ayame quickly followed suit. Kisa and Hiro also began to get up, but Shigure shook his head.

"No, you two, I don't think you should be a part of this. When Akito finds out, I don't want you two to be in his line of fire. Stay blameless."

"It's not like Lucifer will allow Akito to do anything here," Tohru pointed out.

"Still, just to be safe," Shigure replied with a smile, then held out his arm for Tohru. "Shall we?" he asked, perhaps a little too suggestively, because Yuki and Kyo both smacked him down as hard as they could.

"You, Shigure, are an idiot," Yuki said coldly, stepping over the prone Dog.

"Come on, Tohru," Kyo growled, preferring to step on Shigure as he passed, Haru a few paces behind him.

"...You realize you asked for that one." Hatori said, pausing near Shigure's side. Ayame nodded, though he was utterly clueless as to what he was agreeing to.

Shigure just cried silently at their feet.

To be continued...


Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket or anything else I may have alluded to in this chapter. Which I don't think I did. Except my own book, of course.

Thanks to everyone that has reviewed!!! Especially those long ones, they're wonderful. Now, on to Answers, and/or comments on the comments. Pretty much anyone that has left a rather long review recently, or asked a question... or has a bunny army... or has my name as their pen name, should be mentioned.

Kashuneko, thanks so much for your $0.02! I liked your rather intelligent analysis on the story, and on Tohru's character. You're absolutely right. There are some other things that tie in with her change, besides her history, which I hope to explain soon. And I agree, a straight Hatori is a good Hatori, otherwise I would have to shoot myself as I am so hopelessly in love with him, as FruitsBasketcase pointed out. Very loudly, I might add. Several times.

And while we're speaking of you, FBC (Mind if I call you that, seeing as we're such good friends now?) I have finally thought of a good way to get Hiro and Kisa more involved in the story, which will be implemented next chapter! YAY! But I can't tell you right now what it is because it's a ssssseeeecrrrrrreeeeet... Bwahahahaha! Also, I'm not going to answer any of your other questions, so you'll just ha-ave tah wa-ait!

AzureDragoness, OH GOD NOT THE BUNNIES!

Angel of Twisted souls, I would love to help you with your story!!! And I like Case Closed (though not as much as Fruits Basket), but first you have to log in and then review while logged in so I can locate your story through your profile to read it. I could just go through each and every story one by one until I find yours among the hundreds, if that's what you had in mind, but I'd rather not. Plus I'm lazy. And it would take time away from the writing of Tohru's Demons, and surely you don't want that!!! Of course you don't.

HanaTohruShipperMorgan, I have a groupie!?!?! I feel so loved... And yes, I'll consider your advice about the book. It's not quite finished yet, and I'm busy with trying to turn it into Manga-form, but I'll get around to it. Thanks!

AzureDragoness, GOD NOOOOOO!!!!! AUUUUHHHHHHHHGGGG!!!!!!!!!!

Hyperkitty16, yes, I'm going to have some scenes like that, but instead of Artemis hitting on her, Malacoda will. I don't really think it's in Artemis' character to do that sort of thing, also there's a legitimate reason which will be explained later, as usual. Plus, I think it's funnier if Malacoda does it, and it will make Yuki and Kyo twice as mad because Malacoda is so gooood at being such a pervert!!! Teeheehee! ♥

Mikon, confused? How awful! But pay for what site? The fanfiction site? If so, no, but I don't think that's what you meant... Oh, now I'm confused...

Nytingale, Ding! Ding! Ding! Yes to all of the above!

RAHAfan, oh wow... I absolutely love you. Just for that. I think everyone should change their name to include my name in there somewhere, don't you? Oh yes, definitely, since I am the pinnacle of awesome...

Just for a day maybe, you guys...? Pleeeeeeeeaaaasssssssse????

AzureDragoness, ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!

Fwoggie, UU to you too.

Phew... Okay, I'm done for now. Thanks again to everyone that has reviewed and supported me, I looooove yoooouuuuu! And I'll try to get Chapter Twenty-Nine up ASAP, 'kay? Okie dokie, then!

And! And! Just so you were wondering, and if I haven't mentioned this already, Artemis' FULL name is Artemis Wolfgang Höllekonnen van Hieronymus. Isn't it so cool!? I thought so, anyway.

Wolfgang obviously refers to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a famous composer from Austria, but you already knew that.

Höllekonnen, translated roughly in German, means literally Hell Canon. It also refers to the House of Harkonnen in Dune, cause in Japanese it would be an R instead of an L. Harkonnen—Halkonnen—Höllekonnen. Awesome.

Hieronymus refers to a 15th century Dutch painter by the name of Hieronymus Bosch, known for his depictions of the torments of hell. Found that little piece of evidence in Behind the Name, the etymology and history of first names. Sorry, had to give them credit.

And if you're still reading this, which I doubt you are by now because this was incredibly long, and probably a bit boring, because I just like to hear myself talk, I was thinking of changing Wolfgang to Wolfwood, alluding to the Nicholas D. Wolfwood in Trigun which in my opinion is one of the greatest creations in the universe. Which one sounds better? Or best fits Artemis' character? Wolfgang sounds more agressive...

Arigatou! (Yeah, just found out it's spelled that way in Jap. Class... and from Zarame, of course)

-Raha-