Epilogue: Mayumi

"Here she is. Akito's closest new relative by blood. Mayumi."

Yuki and Tohru peered into the cradle at the baby, a sleeping girl with rosy cheeks and a wisp of blonde hair. "She's so cute!" Tohru exclaimed. Yuki, however, was not as thrilled. No matter how cute this baby was, she was still the new God, and he was still afraid of her. He knew it was silly to be frightened of such a small child, but he couldn't help but fear that she might be as harsh as Akito. And that would be a very sad thing.

"Kyo, you have to come see her!" Tohru smiled at Kyo, who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. Kyo wondered if she remembered the week before at all, when he had finally been able to hug her, just once…

"Why would I want to see a stupid baby?" Kyo snapped, but Yuki felt it was more than Kyo's disliking of children. He knew Kyo had the same doubts as him.

"Hi," Rin said as she entered the room, Haru behind her, holding her hand. She smiled at Yuki. Rin and Haru had become more comfortable with people seeing them together, and thanks to Yuki, it seemed like Rin had found herself again.

"What are you doing here?" Kyo spat at her.

"Shove it, baka neko," she glared at him before looking into the cradle. "So… it's a girl? Well, I guess girls are nicer, right?"

"Then what happened to you, Rin-chan?" Shigure joked as he joined the crowd around the child. She smirked at him and rolled her eyes. "Hello, Ren," Shigure smiled pleasantly at the late Akito's mother. He peered into the cradle. "…So what did the parents say."

"They don't want her anymore," Ren sighed. The room went silent.

"Now what?"

"Well… Hatori-san and I talked it over… since the Main House is under construction from that fire, we think it may be best for Mayumi if she grew up… here."

Shigure looked shocked, but smiled at them. "What do you say guys?"

"Of course!" Tohru exclaimed.

"How the hell do you expect a bunch of men to raise a life?" Kyo spat.

"Well… we have Tohru-kun… and I'm sure we'll see Haru and Rin around here more often… so I don't see why not," Shigure accepted.

"Well then," Yuki smiled as Ren nodded and left the room. "Mayumi, welcome to the Sohma family."

Jiendo

March 26, 2006 – May 8th, 2006

(Revisions – October 1st, 2006)

It was SO HARD not to write author's notes at the beginning of every chapter. I wanted to keep it like that, to create more mystery, you know?

I'm actually quite proud of this story. It's the first mystery I've ever actually finished. I feel like I could've done more with it, but it is the way it is.

Storyteller May/Teh Future Mrs. Kyo Sohma/Nefertiti Akito/Winter's Bite/Hatori Sohma's Wife/midnight shadow 333/YueYoukaiEclipse/AKITO. At The Disco/alli/PerplexedKiss/otaku dreamer/Suiryoka/Gothic Manga Freak/beautifulhate/Winter's Light/The Cucumber Lady/Kaze no Namidawa/KAGURALOVER/watevr/Serinity's angel/Sake Bottle Swing/Mikomi-Kiyoko/Silentlamb/xCrimsonxBlackxBloodx/Musa Rox/Daelaeyni/Peace Out…./Idiotidiot and anyone else who reviews after this. Thank you all so much!

Stay tuned for more stories… believe me, there will be many!

Brenna

+The Girly Man+

Happy birthday, Debbie-chan! We love you! YAY!

Kind of Fun-ish Fact: This story originally ended with the Rin and Yuki pairing, but as people were saying that was a HORRIBLE thing, I realized that it was UTTERLY HORRIBLE RINXHARU FOR EVAHHHHH. So I rewrote the last five or so chapters so it was RinxHaru instead. Hehe.