When Noa answered her door, she was surprised to find Kazuma standing next to Akito.

Kazuma gave her his usual warm smile, but she couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be an additional emotion there that she had never seen. Was he…smirking?

"With the curse broken, Akito and I are going to see Kyo's father," Kazuma said. "Would you like to come?"

Kyo's father? The one who had blamed him for his mother dying? The one who had made him so afraid to face him that he threw up from the nerves?

She smiled at them. "Oh, this is going to be so satisfying."

The three of them walked down to the place where Noa had been only weeks before with the very nervous Kyo. This time was going to be much different.

Kazuma greeted the maid at the door and then walked in.

"Hello, sir," he said politely though the aura around him said the exact opposite. "Now that the curse is broken, all bets are off."

Kyo's father immediately backed away from them. "What are you doing here? What makes you think you can just barge in here and—"

"Enough," Noa said firmly. "Now listen to me and listen good."

"Who even are you?"

"I'm Noa Kaneko. I was the one listening outside when Kyo came to see you to make amends only for you to yell at him and blame him for things that are not his fault."

"You aren't a Sohma! You have no right to judge me when you have no idea what I've been through!"

"I don't have to be a Sohma to know that Kyo does not deserve to be treated the way you and everyone else have treated him."

"He's a monster!"

"He's a boy! A boy who just got dealt a very unfortunate hand. You were his father. You were supposed to be the one who cared for him and protected him the most! All he ever wanted was to be accepted."

"Who could ever accept that monster?!"

"Me! I accepted him, curse and all. Like a parent does. I came here to tell you that you are not to have any more interaction with Kyo. If he wants to reach out to you, fine, but you will not reach out to him. He is my son now. And unlike you, I'm going to protect him with my life."

Behind her, Kazuma smiled. It was the first time she'd ever mentioned Kyo as her son, and he wasn't sure he had ever been happier.

Noa turned back around and started to go back over to Akito and Kazuma.

Kyo's father glared at her backside. "That freak deserves to be locked up for the rest of his natural life."

Noa clenched her jaw and tightened her fists. Then she spun around and clocked Kyo's father right in the jaw.

The man stumbled back in shock before falling to the floor.

Noa shook her hand. "Anyone ever tell you that you shouldn't talk bad about my kids?"

She walked out of the house as Kazuma fought down a laugh. He was pretty sure that he was in love with that woman.

Akito looked at Kyo's father on the floor. "You heard her. Kyo is free, and the Cat's Room is to be destroyed."

"You can't destroy that room! You can't! That boy—"

"That boy is not your son anymore."

"But—"

"And don't ever tell me what I'm supposed to do for my zodiac members."

Akito too walked out of the house.

Kazuma smiled down at the man. "Well, I suppose there's nothing left to be said, is there?"

"Why do you think Akito wanted us all here?" Kagura asked. "It's unusual for him to need us all together any time other than New Year's."

"Maybe it has to do with us all being released from the curse," Kyo said.

Hatori stepped inside the room. "Yuki, is Ayame almost here?"

"Yeah," Yuki answered. "He said he would be a little late. But then, what else is new?"

"It looks like everyone else has arrived at least."

"Do you know why we're here, Hatori?"

"Akito has something very important to share with all of you."

The door burst open to reveal a white-haired male. "No need to fret anymore, my darlings, your beloved cousin Ayame has arrived!"

Yuki rolled his eyes.

To his surprise, Noa peeked her head inside the room. "Hatori, is everyone here?"

"Yes," Hatori replied. "Is Akito ready?"

"Yes." Noa stepped inside the room to face the rest of the former zodiac members. "I know I'm not officially part of your family, but nevertheless, I would like to present to you…Miss Akito Sohma."

Akito stepped into the room wearing the same spaghetti-strap purple and pink dress she had worn both on her outing with Yuta and to the cherry blossom viewing with Noa. She had also pinned back some of her hair with a hair clip. There was no mistaking it. Akito was a woman.

"M-Miss…Miss Akito?!" Kagura exclaimed.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Rin added.

Hatori, Shigure, Ayame, and Kureno made no reaction.

"Did you guys know about this?!" Kyo yelled as he pointed an accusing finger at the four of them.

"Why, of course we did," Ayame smiled. "We are the oldest members of the zodiac. We know everything."

"…Why?" Kisa's small voice broke through. "Why did you hide this from everyone?"

Akito sighed as she looked at the small girl. How could she ever have hurt someone so young and delicate?

She slowly sat down on her knees in front of everyone. "I have done…some very terrible things to all of you. I'm very sorry for everything I've put you all through. From now on, you are free and you may do as you wish. While I will always hope that you will someday come back to me or at least visit now and then, I will no longer keep any of you tethered to me. You all may live your lives however you want."

No one could believe what they were hearing. Akito Sohma, a male who was actually a female, was apologizing to them?

"I hid this from all of you because…I followed my mother and father's wishes for too long. But now, I choose to live as myself. Curse or no curse, I am still the head of the household and I will fulfill all of my responsibilities as such. I hope to be a better leader than I have been."

With a deep breath, Akito stood back up. She started towards the door and said something in Noa's ear before leaving the room.

Yuki looked at Noa in disbelief. "Wait a minute, Noa, you knew about this too?"

"You really think Akito could stay at my house for an entire month and I wouldn't find out?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't for me to tell."

Yuki quieted. Deep down, he knew that and if he had been in her shoes, he would've done the same thing, but it still bothered him to think that all this time, Noa had known a huge secret about his own family that he wasn't even aware of.

Noa went over to Hatori. "She wants to see you first."

Hatori looked at her questioningly before following Akito out of the room.

He found her out in the estate garden nervously fiddling with a flower.

"That was very big of you to reveal your secret to everyone," he remarked.

Akito turned around to face him. He wasn't sure he had ever seen her look so remorseful. "Flowers are so delicate. With the tiniest amount of pressure, I can crush it completely. I never understood…that people are the same way."

Hatori didn't really know what to make of this conversation.

"Hatori…for everything that happened with Kana…I'm sorry. You were so happy with her, and I ruined it with just the simplest pressure. If I could, I would do anything in my power to bring you back together with her. But…it's my understanding that she has since married."

Hatori slowly went up to her and touched her shoulder. "I could never blame you before. Maybe a small part of me does now, but at the same time, if something like what happened was enough to break her so easily, maybe it wasn't meant to be. Maybe…what you did showed that our marriage could not last as long as the curse was upon us."

"How can you do that?" Akito asked tearfully. "How you can just pass it off so easily?"

"…I don't know."

He wrapped Akito into his arms. She gasped lightly in shock at the sudden action.

"But curse or not, I still care very deeply for you. I always will, Akito. I promise."

Akito could feel tears stinging her eyes. Even without the curse…he wasn't going to abandon her? Even after she had cost him his fiancée? Even after all of the things he had sacrificed because of her?

She didn't deserve his kindness.

She would make sure such a beautiful gift was not given in vain.

"Yuki," Noa said quietly. "Akito wants to talk to you."

Yuki stiffened at the thought of speaking with Akito. He wasn't even sure how to act now that he knew she was really a woman. But finding out she was a woman did not make her any less intimidating or erase any of the things she had done to him.

Noa noticed his change in posture and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'll be right in there with you."

Yuki relaxed a little and slowly made his way to Akito's room.

Once inside, Noa sat in the front corner so she was out of the way but still in Yuki's line of sight so he could feel a little sense of peace.

"Yuki…" Akito started slowly. "I'm…I'm sorry…for everything I put you through. It was no wonder why you always escaped to Noa's house. I only wish I had met her sooner so I could've understood why you liked her so much. Then maybe I wouldn't have caused you so much pain. Out of all the people I've hurt, I think I've wounded you the most. I wish I could take back all the things I've done to you…"

Yuki looked over at Noa who only watched the conversation as a silent third-party.

He sighed heavily and unclenched his fists, not even remembering tightening them in the first place.

"I don't forgive you," he stated.

Akito looked up at him crestfallen, not that she could blame him for the harsh words.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive you for everything that happened in the past."

She looked down again in shame.

"That being said…I'm willing to move forward from here."

Akito looked up again in surprise.

"So much of me wants to hate you for what you've done to me. I think the only reason I don't is because of Noa. She's given me everything you and my own mother neglected to give me in the first place. She gave me a home and some semblance of a real family. She taught me how to live. She taught me…how to move on. It will take a lot of time, but I will work to move forward if you will too."

Akito smiled, and it was the first time Yuki had not seen him…her smile with malicious intentions.

He realized that her smile could be incredibly reassuring if the moment was right. He too wished Noa had reached out to her before, if only to show her that it was possible for someone to love her for who she was so that she could've smiled like that much more often.

"Thank you, Yuki," she said softly. "I will move forward as well. And as for the black room…I'm destroying it along with the Cat's Room. No one will ever have to suffer in either of those places ever again."

Yuki hadn't expected to feel such relief at that news. Even after moving out of the main house, the threat of being locked up inside that small dark room always lingered over him and Akito usually made sure he knew it.

To know that it would be destroyed lifted a huge weight off his shoulders he hadn't even fully known was there.

"Thank you," he told her.

Noa smiled at the both of them.

It would be a long journey from here, and she wasn't sure the two of them would ever fully make amends, but at least they had taken a step in the right direction.

For the rest of the day, Akito spoke to each member of the zodiac individually and apologized for all her past wrongdoings.

Noa sat in on a couple of them if only to help keep the peace or provide silent reassurance for Akito who struggled talking to some of them. She had more to apologize for with a few members than others.

Noa had been right. A small 'I'm sorry' went a long way.

"How do you feel?" she asked Akito once the final apology was done.

"I don't know. Better, I think. I'm glad they know the truth about me now. But it will be very difficult for a while as I try to continue making amends."

"You did good today. I'm proud of you."

Akito would never get tired of hearing those words.

"I've gotta get home, okay? I'll stop by tomorrow if I can."

"Noa…thank you. For everything."

Noa gave Akito a tight hug. "You're welcome."

She went to leave the main estate when she noticed one of the former zodiac members sitting alone against one of the many trees lining the gate.

Noa slowly approached the teenage girl. "It's Rin, isn't it?"

The black-haired girl looked up to see who had spoken and then immediately looked down again. "Yeah."

"Is everything okay?"

Rin angrily looked back up at her. "What do you think? Akito made all of our lives a living hell and now just because she says she's sorry, everyone forgives her just like that?! What, are we just going to pretend that the last several years never happened?!"

Noa took a seat next to her. "No. It's not that simple, and Akito knows that. And while yes, some people have chosen to forgive her, not everyone has. Yuki refuses to forgive her, but he also chose to move forward with her."

"What if I don't want to move forward? What if I can't move forward?"

"No one expects you to. If you didn't ever want to see or speak to Akito ever again, no one would blame you including Akito herself. But let me tell you something. If you continue to hang on to all that hatred against her, you might end up becoming very similar to her."

"I'd never become like that witch."

"Hatred can do some ugly things to a person. You don't have to forgive her and you don't have to like her, but you do have to let it go or you'll just be miserable for the rest of your life."

Rin sighed heavily as she crossed her arms. "Whatever."

"You know, if you'd like, any member of the Sohma family is welcome to stay over at my house for a bit of a break from the complicated life you all live here. It's kind of become a safe haven for you guys."

"If Akito has stayed there, there's no way I'm setting foot in that place."

"Just think about it. You'd be amazed how relaxing it can be to be away from Sohma affairs for a while."

Rin got up and walked further into the estate. "You're a strange woman."

Noa laughed lightly. "So I've been told."

She left the main estate and finally returned home utterly exhausted. It had been quite the emotionally taxing day, even for her who was not part of the Sohma family.

When she walked in the door, she was surprised by who she found sitting on the couch.

"Yuta?" she said as she hung up her jacket. "When did you get in?"

"Uh, only a couple hours ago."

She came inside the living room to join him. "You okay?"

"I think I have problem," he told her, nervously rubbing his hands together.

"What's up?"

"I…I think I like Akito."

Noa smiled a little. "I was wondering when you were going to admit it."

"Wait, what?"

"You think I haven't seen how you are around her? I've known ever since you spent that day together at the beach."

"How did you know? I didn't even know!"

"I'm your mother. I know everything."

Yuta rolled his eyes.

"So why is it a problem if you like her?"

"Well, I mean, it's…it's Akito!"

"And?"

"I started spending time with her because I just wanted to be friends with her. That's all."

Noa came on the couch to sit down next to him. "Sweetie, people don't usually choose who they fall in love with."

"I guess."

"She needs someone like you. Someone who will treat her like a princess, who won't leave her for a stupid reason, someone she can trust completely. But if you really want to be with her…you need to accept every part of her."

"I do."

"No, I mean every part of her. Even the parts that…aren't that great."

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Oh, there's a lot I'm not telling you. Because you need to hear it from her not from me."

Yuta always knew there were things going on that he wasn't aware of, but hearing his mother stress accepting her so much really made him wonder what Akito was hiding from him.

"Well…you know everything about her. And you've accepted her. So I can too. Whatever this is may shock me, and I may have mixed feelings, but…I really care about her, Mom."

Noa gently rubbed his head. "I think she cares about you too."

"Hey, Akito," Yuta smiled when he entered her room. "I thought we'd take a walk through the garden this afternoon. It's such a nice day."

"Sure."

The two of them left the room and started to walk through the Sohma gardens.

"There's something I wanted to tell you," Yuta said to her.

Akito really hated it when people said that. It always made her mind wander in a thousand different directions as she tried to guess what they were going to say. "What is it?"

"Well, uh…I've spent a lot of time with you over the past few months, and I've loved every single moment of it. And, well, what I'm trying to say is…Akito, I really like you. I mean…I like you as more than a friend."

Akito didn't say anything for a while, and Yuta wondered if he had completely freaked her out.

Finally, she looked straight at him. "Why do you like me?"

Yuta hadn't expected that question and didn't immediately reply.

Why did he like her? He hadn't really thought about the reasons. He just knew that he liked her.

Of course, he couldn't just say that.

"I like you…because you're so beautiful. You're very easy to talk to when you're not yelling at me. I really enjoy spending time with you whether it be at the beach or just getting dinner together."

Akito didn't say anything again which started to worry him. He wanted her to return his affections, but there was a huge chance that she wouldn't and he wasn't sure what they would do then.

Akito took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell you everything about me. And some of it may sound crazy and impossible, but everything I'm about to say is the truth. If you don't believe me, you can just ask your mother because she saw it all firsthand."

"Okay."

And so Akito launched into the entire story about the Sohma family. She told him about the zodiac curse, what it did to select members of her family, and her own role in the whole thing. She told him about the terrible things she did to them because of their bond and how she never truly cared for anyone except herself. She told him about her mother, the things she had made her suffer through, and why she had forced her to grow up as a man.

She told him about how Noa had helped her to understand that she was wrong and how she had found a mother in her.

When she finished explaining everything, Yuta remained very quiet.

"So let me ask you again," she said softly. "Why do you like me?"

Yuta tried to process everything she had just told him. He didn't doubt her sanity, but she was right. It all sounded impossible. At the same time, it also explained some things, such as the white rat he once saw running through the house and his mother not throwing a fit when she caught the rodent with her own hands.

He felt really angry when she told him all the things she had done to Yuki as a child. He had grown to love the boy like a younger brother and to know that he had been through such awful things at her hand made him pretty upset.

If she hadn't told him how they had slowly begun to patch things up, he wasn't sure he would still have feelings for her.

But then…hearing what her own mother put her through…how could someone do that to their own child? Growing up with Noa for a mom, it was shocking to hear how her mother was basically the complete opposite of his.

Noa had told him that he needed to accept every part of Akito, and he guessed this was what she meant. Akito had a lot of history that he needed to deal with if he wanted to be with her.

He looked back at the girl in front of him. "I like you…because you're so beautiful. You're very easy to talk to. I like spending time with you." He took a step towards her and took her hands in his. "I like you…because you were able to let go of the thing you cared about most in order to make others happy even though it killed you inside. I like you because you can admit when you're wrong, and you work hard to fix it. I like you because you can overcome anything. And a girl like that is one I could easily end up falling in love with."

Akito felt like she was about to cry, but at the same time, she was far too happy to let any tears fall from her eyes.

She had always wondered if she would find someone who accepted her for who she was and all the things she had done.

She knew that she could trust Yuta to protect her and stay by her side. If she did something wrong, he would never do something in retaliation just to hurt her like Shigure had.

She looked up at him with earnest eyes. "The head of the Sohma household is supposed to be with someone from inside the family."

Yuta's face fell.

"But we've followed tradition long enough."

And then she stepped forward and she kissed him.

Yuta wrapped his arms around her waist while she encircled his neck. He ran his hand through her black hair as he deepened the kiss with her.

He hadn't realized that he wanted to kiss her so much until her lips were on his. Suddenly, he never wanted to stop. He wanted to kiss her forever. He wanted to hold her and kiss her and show her that everything she had been through didn't matter anymore because she had him.

Akito pulled back and rested her forehead against his. "I like you too…"

Yuta ran his thumb across her cheek, feeling her beautiful soft skin beneath it.

"Hold me," Akito whispered.

Yuta put his arm beneath her legs and pulled her up into his arms.

Akito tightened her hold on him and kissed him once again.

If she had loved being carried before, being held and kissed by one she adored was a thousand times better.