Kazuma threw a punch towards Noa. "How are things going with Akito? Any better?"

Noa dodged the punch and aimed a kick. "You know, it's weird. He's been pretty quiet the last couple days."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I took him out shopping with me because I wanted him to help me cook dinner so he could learn how to make food. I left him on his own for a little while, and three guys decided to rough him up a little."

"Oh, goodness, is he okay?"

"Yes, luckily, I found him before anything happened. And thanks to all of your help reteaching me and perhaps the help of a lovely little instrument known as the taser, I fought all of them."

"Three men? That's quite impressive."

"Well, the first one was pretty easy because they had no idea what I was capable of."

"That's usually an attacker's biggest mistake."

"The second one was a little harder, but I still broke his nose. However, the third one caught me from behind. Once I got out of his hold, the second one tripped me and pinned me down. I got out from under him and then tased the last one."

"I wish I had been able to see this."

"When I went to help Akito, he was pretty scared, but he was more…confused if that's the right word. Like he didn't understand why I would go to all that trouble to help him."

"Maybe because even though he's been surrounded by family his entire life, no one ever has gone to that kind of trouble for him before. So why would you, someone who isn't even a Sohma, want to do that unless you had some kind of ulterior motive?" Kazuma's eyes widened a little. "Not that I think that, but maybe that's how Akito feels."

Noa laughed lightly. "I knew what you meant. And you're probably right. But it breaks my heart that he feels that way."

"Well, remember what I told you. Accept even the smallest changes. If Akito is acting the way he is, he may finally be starting to understand that the world isn't exactly how he's believed it to be. That's a slow process in and of itself."

Noa recalled Akito's face after she had saved her from the three thugs. It wasn't right that she seemed so shocked that someone would be willing to fight for her. What frustrated her even more was that Akito had given up fighting back because she had been under the impression that fighting was pointless since no one would want to save her.

For the millionth time, Noa wanted to slap Ren across the face for her terrible parenting.

Kazuma hit Noa on her back which sent her tumbling onto the floor of the dojo.

His eyes grew large again. "I am so sorry!" he said quickly. "Did I hurt you?"

"No," Noa smiled awkwardly. "It was my fault. I lost my focus."

Kazuma held his hand out for her. Noa smiled as she took it and he helped her stand.

"I think that's enough for today," Kazuma said.

"Yeah. Thank you again for all your help. This is…a really great stress-reliever. And it's also…really nice to talk about all of this with you."

Kazuma smiled warmly. "I'm glad I could be of help."

As Noa left the dojo, she sighed heavily. It was kind of exhausting and stressful to talk about Akito as if she were a man which, of course, everyone believed her to be. She had to make sure she used the right pronouns and adjusted her descriptions of things to fit the situation. If it was this exhausting just for her to talk about Akito, she couldn't imagine how hard it must've been all these years for her to actually be the one pretending to be the opposite gender.

She wondered what Akito would do when she went back to Sohma house. Would she continue to live as a male, or would her time with Noa lead her to tell the rest of the family her true identity?

She supposed she would just have to wait and see. She still had about two weeks left with Akito, and she didn't plan on thinking about her returning until the time came.

The last thing she wanted was for Akito to go back home.

Noa and Akito walked across the small bridge as they came home from the shops. Noa had taken her back to the bookstore for some actual looking without a repeat of their last experience and had happily bought three books Akito had wanted to get, something that didn't seem to fully register with the young woman.

Noa wondered if Akito had ever received an actual present before.

She was glad that Akito seemed less averse to going out to town with her and finally took an interest in something.

Akito stopped walking and put her hand to her forehead.

"You okay?" Noa asked.

Akito didn't answer. She swayed on her feet for a second and then promptly passed out. Unfortunately, the bridge they were crossing had very low railings, and Akito went tumbling down into the small stream below.

Noa dropped her bags and raced down to the water where Akito had landed facedown. She quickly waded in and pulled the young woman onto the grass near the water. She checked the back of her head and was thankful that there was no blood.

Fearing water had gotten into her lungs, Noa began pressing her hands onto Akito's chest. "Come on, come on, come on," she whispered. "Don't do this. Don't do this to me."

She could feel tears welling in her eyes at the thought of losing someone she had come to care for so much.

"Please, Akito, hold on. Come on."

She administered two breaths before continuing the chest compressions.

"It'll be okay. Come on. Come on, Akito! Please…please don't do this."

Suddenly, Akito lurched and coughed up some water.

Noa gasped with relief. "It's okay, you're okay."

Akito breathed heavily and coughed some more. Noa helped her sit up, comfortingly rubbing her hand against her back.

When Akito looked over at her, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Are those…tears?"

Noa wiped her cheeks. "You had me worried sick there."

"You…you're crying over me?"

Why was it so surprising for someone to shed tears for her? Did Akito really think that no one would mourn for her if something happened? "When I didn't know if I was going to get you back for a moment, I got really, really scared."

"You were just worried about what the people at Sohma house would to do to you if something happened to me, right?"

"Actually, that never even crossed my mind until you said that." Noa gently put her hands on hers. "Look, Akito, I know it's hard for you to believe, but I really do care about you. If anything happened to you, it would kill me."

Akito frowned. "You've only known me for barely two weeks."

"The first time I met Yuki, I only knew him for about six hours, and I spent the next two years thinking about him. When you care deeply about someone, it doesn't matter how long you know them."

"Why do you care so much about me anyway? I've given you nothing to care about."

"I care about you because you are worth caring about."

The response silenced Akito.

Noa carefully helped her stand up. "Come on, let's get back home so we can get you out of those wet clothes. You might've gotten dehydrated, so drink a lot of water when we get back, okay?"

Luckily, the bridge wasn't too far away from the house and they made it back in just a few minutes.

Noa let Akito shower and change into one of her yukatas while she made a bowl of warm soup accompanied by two bottles of water.

She started to throw away the soup can but paused when she opened the trash bin. The breakfast she had made that morning had been tossed inside.

Akito came downstairs and wavered again for a moment. Noa rushed to her side and gently helped her sit down in one of the dining room chairs so she didn't hurt herself if she ended up collapsing again.

"Akito, did you not eat breakfast this morning?" she asked.

Akito didn't answer her.

"Why didn't you say anything? I offered to buy you some lunch while we were out."

"I didn't want it."

Noa knelt down so that Akito's head was higher than hers. "I need you to talk to me. If I'm making stuff you don't like, just tell me what you do like and I'll be happy to make it."

"It's not that."

"Okay, so why aren't you eating? Do you feel sick?"

There was a long pause, and Noa thought Akito wasn't going to answer once again until she finally said quietly, "I'm used to not eating."

"What do you mean?"

Akito looked away from her. "Growing up, my mother made me skip meals. She said it was to keep me skinny so that I could pass for a boy even when I got older."

Now Noa felt sick. Just when she thought Ren could not get any worse, someone added something even more horrible to the whole mess that was Akito's life.

"I just got used to eating very little, but I guess I…overdid it this time."

This confession was the first time Akito had ever been completely transparent with Noa, and while she hated hearing that she had to endure such an awful thing, she was glad Akito had gotten to the point where she was comfortable enough to share it with her.

"It's no wonder Hatori had to look after you so often at the main house. All right, for the rest of the time you're here, I'm going to make sure you're eating three meals a day and drinking plenty of water. We can start with this soup and the bottles of water right here."

Akito hesitantly took the spoon on the table and sipped some of the soup. It was nice and warm and had everything in it that she loved.

"Finish that, and then the two of us are going to work out some food that you like so we can get you eating well again." She lightly put her hand on Akito's. "I'm genuinely sorry Ren put you through something like that."

Akito didn't understand why Noa did so much for her sake the entire time she had stayed here. It was one thing for the servants to constantly dote on her and for the members of the zodiac to fulfill her wishes, but Noa was doing everything for her for no other reason than that she wanted to.

Was it truly possible that…Ren had been completely wrong?

Ren was wrong about a lot of things, but Akito had always secretly feared she had been right about one thing: that the bonds between her and the members of the zodiac meant nothing and that they would all leave her if they could. But this woman was not even a member of the zodiac and had no bond that forced her to be kind to her, but she still went to great lengths to take care of her and protect her. Could it truly be that…someone could love her just the way she was?

"Hey, Mom!" Yuta smiled as he came inside to find Noa sitting at the dining room table. "Are things with Akito any better?"

"Yes and no. Just when I think I've got her figured out, I find something else about her that completely throws me for a loop."

Yuta took a seat across from her. "She's really had a tough run, huh?"

"You have no idea. It's nearly time for me to take her back to Sohma house, but I feel like I've barely made any progress with her."

"Well, if she's had it as tough as you say, one month isn't going to completely change everything."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just worried about what's going to happen when she goes back home. I don't want everything we've accomplished here, what little there is, to end up being for nothing."

"You've been working so hard to get her to open up to you. Why don't I spend the day with her tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"I think Akito's afraid that if she lets you in and something happens to you, she'll be right back where she started. Maybe by spending time with me, she'll come to see that more than one person cares about her."

Noa smirked a little. "It's nice to see that college education is paying off."

Yuta laughed lightly.

"All right, that sounds good to me. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, the ocean isn't too far from here, so maybe we could walk along the beach? The water might be a little cold this time of year, but it's been pretty nice outside lately. And there's lots of shops around there that we could visit."

"Great. Make sure that she puts on sunscreen because the last thing we need is that girl getting sunburned."

"Got it."

"And Yuta? This is important. You have to make sure she eats."

"I will."

"Get her a healthy lunch and then a few light snacks throughout the rest of the day. We both know how stubborn she is, but you can't take no for an answer. She has to eat."

Yuta had a feeling that more was going on here than he knew since his mother was stressing the point so much, but he just agreed to it.

Noa smiled. "I know I'm giving you a lot of rules here but do enjoy yourselves and show her a good time."

"I plan on it."