Author's Intro:

Well, now I have to use crappy software. We had to wipe our computer, so I don't have Microsoft stuff for right now. And it takes about five minutes for each web page to load.

But hopefully stuff will get better soon...

So it may be a bit before I post this chapter.

But on with it!

Tohru passed out after the shock wore off. Hatori came in to the room on Akito's commands, and gasped. He had never seen her so hurt.

Picking her up, the doctor carried her over to the other side of the room that contained a small bath. He turned on the faucet, but the contents were green and germy looking.

The God appeared in the doorway.

"Don't take her out of this room. If you want, and care enough, you can go and break your pathetic back getting a tub of water in here, but just don't take her out."

"She's blacked out. It doesn't matter, Akito," Hatori stated, walking passed him.

"I told you not to take her out of there, Hatori!" the Head yelled, grabbing the Dragon's sleeve.

"For once, I don't care. I won't let you do this to her. It's not her fault that this is the Cat's punishment."

Akito stopped, and glared at him. His blood boiled.

'How dare he defy his God?'

"GET BACK HERE! YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH HER! SHE IS FILTH THAT DOESN'T DESERVE CARE!" Akito screamed, slashing at the Seahorse. The tall man turned.

'Why am I doing this for her?' He had never stood up to Akito like this. It was all so sudden...

But he just kept walking to his office. He would be able to properly treat her there.

The God seemed to explode with rage. He had never been denied power like this; his anger didn't know what to do with itself. He just collapsed, throwing a fit.

"HATORI! COME BACK HERE!" he kept on screaming. The doctor, several times, almost turned around. It was like a wire had kept him from disobeying his God, and now he had finally, somehow, broken it. But it still tugged at him emotionally and mentally to pull away from his old patterns.

"No...I can't abandon her now..." Hatori whispered, more to himself than Akito, and walked into his office, closing and locking the door behind him.

Akito lay in front of the doctor's office door, deciding what he would do. He had finished screaming, but he was still in a rage. It was just quiet now.

'It's all HER fault!' his mind cried over and over. 'She is taking away my precious Juunishi! I will make her pay. She does not deserve generosity and courtesy.' In Akito's mind, at that moment, the Cat became less than she already was. She was like a germ on his skin, and not something that was amusing to break.

He stood up, and quickly walked back to his room.

Hatori cleaned up Tohru's gashes and wounds, and then wrapped up most of her torso.

'Well, I didn't use any bandages this way,' he thought, remembering Akito's commands.

He then slipped her into a yukata, one with simple designs on it.

Then setting the Cat down on a mat back in her "cage", he looked around. She had a small bundle by the bed, and by the looks of it, hadn't been able to unpack it yet.

'I might as well,' he thought, opening the satchel.

First, there was a picture of her mother. Or he assumed that she was her mother. The woman had red hair, similar to Kyo's, and she looked so happy. He vaguely wondered what had happened to her, exactly. She didn't look very much like her daughter...

The Dragon set her picture down and moved on to the next one. It was a small picture of a very young Tohru, her mom, and a man. He seemed...simple. Like the color white.

The doctor assumed that the man in the picture was Tohru's father. He looked to be a lot like her.

He carefully placed that frame next to the other one, and then reached into the bag.

This one was of Tohru's two friends. He had been to her school, and he knew kind of what they looked like. They were both smiling, and the taller, blonde girl was holding up a "V" sign with her left hand. She was wearing what looked to be a coat that you would wear when in a gang. She also had a mask that was used for when you were sick. But he doubted that was the reason that she wore it.

The other girl in the picture looked "gothic". She had raven black eyes and hair to match her fancy, laced outfit. She was also wearing a cape. The small figure next to her, that he hadn't even noticed until then, looked to be a male duplicate of her. The Seahorse thought that it was safe to assume that this young boy was her brother.

And, of course, Tohru was smiling joyfully in the middle. She looked to be one or two years younger, and her hair was a bit shorter, but she still had the same innocent look on her face. She was wearing a pink dress, complete with bows on the sides and in her hair.

Hatori sighed, setting that one down as well. She would probably never see these girls (and the boy) again. And he, of all people, knew what it was like to lose somebody special.

There was only one left. He lifted it out, with shaking hands. It was the entire Juunishi (not including Kyo), and he thought that he could see a bit of Akito's head in the back. And, of course, Tohru in there too.

'When was this taken?' he wondered, seeing his solemn self in between Shigure and Ayame. 'Ah, well.'

As he picked up the picture to move it, a small slip of paper fell out of the frame. It was a tiny picture of Kyo.

Hatori smiled. He knew that she wouldn't of forgotten him. The doctor set the small picture of the former Cat up with the others.

He looked deeper into the bag. There was only a yellow ribbon, Zodiac ornaments, and a worn out hat left.

The doctor knew that he recognized the hat from somewhere...

But he ignored that thought, and set the items out as well. Then, standing up, he took one more look at the girl. She would be waking up to her harsh reality soon. He sympathized her for that.

The Dragon finally trudged out of the dark room, and slowly closed the door behind him.

Tohru woke up about an hour later. She tried to sit up, but moaned in pain and lay back down. Looking under the yukata, the Cat discovered that her wounds had been treated. She shuddered, remembering the experience.

Akito had not just whipped her, but had tortured her emotionally and mentally, too. Squeezing her eyes shut, Tohru attempted again to sit up. She, with pain involved, managed to accomplish it.

That's when she discovered what lay at the foot of her bed. Someone had been there; everything that was once in her bag was now on display. Tohru doubted it was Akito. Hatori, maybe...? She didn't know.

When the Cat looked at it, her eyes immediately where drawn to the picture of Kyo. She held back tears that desperately wanted to flow out of her sockets.

No matter how much Tohru wanted to, she couldn't let go of Kyo Sohma. She was heartbroken. Why did he do this to her?

Tohru grabbed the picture, holding it to her heart. She didn't know why, but she couldn't let go of it.

The Cat clutched her stomach and let the tears fall. She didn't even notice that someone had entered the room, and was watching her.

Akito stood in the doorway. He would of liked (and expected) the girl to jump with surprise or shiver in fear, but what he saw was different.

She was crying her pathetic eyes out over a picture of that orange headed filth. So he had taken away something precious to her. But that wasn't enough. Even in her confinement, she was still affecting his "followers". He had wanted to make them suffer by locking her up, but had only made them stronger, it seemed.

"Cat," he breathed, causing Tohru to look up at him, her eyes puffy and red. "What is that in your hand?"

The God saw her clutch the picture tighter, as if she feared that he would never give it back to her. She was right.

He reached forward, and forced the small photo out of her hands. Taking one more look at it, Akito ripped it in half, while Tohru could only watch. He then dropped the pieces, letting them flutter to the ground.

"He doesn't matter any more," Akito growled angrily. "Kyo Sohma doesn't love you."

The Cat looked up at him with wide eyes.

"But I can't forget him, Akito-sama. He may hate me, and it may hurt, but I still love him. He does matte–" The girl was interrupted; the God had kicked her square in the face, causing her nose to break and bleed heavily. She yelped in agony. The God was beginning to get angered.

"Why do you think that he matters? You'll never see that bitch anymore! You won't see any of these people any more!" he yelled, walking over to all the pictures lined up against the wall. He made a kick at the first one–the one of the Juunishi–and sent it flying into the opposite wall.

"YOU DON'T NEED THEM!" he screamed, as Tohru clutched her nose, crying "No!" at his action.

"That sounds like a command," Akito frowned, turning back to the girl. "You know that you don't give your God commands." And with that, he struck her again with his foot, but this time in her stomach, right on one of the gashes that Hatori had tended. She grasped her stomach, and he continued booting her belongings everywhere. They all broke, damaging and scratching the pictures. Tohru could only watch in horror and cry.

"I'm all you have left now, wench," he whispered, grabbing her face. "Appreciate it."

He got up and left the room, simply leaving it in ruins.

Tohru didn't come home after her "sleepover" at her friend's house.

Soon, Shigure discovered that she was not anywhere he could think of.

He could only assume that she was at one other place: The Main House. So the Dog called Hatori.

"Haa-san, is Tohru at the Main House with you?" he cried on the phone. Hatori paused a moment before answering.

"She isn't with me, but she is in that room. The girl came here early for some reason. I didn't find out until this afternoon."

"Oh, no...what has he done?"

"Just one beating so far. But it looked to be pretty bad. I'm planning on checking on her in a bit."

"O-okay."

"So I will talk to you later, Shigure?"

"Yeah. And Haa-san?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

Shigure hung up the phone, and immediately started dialing Aaya. He picked up.

"Gure-saaaan! We have the plans for giving Tohru our final goodbyes. You sho–"

"Aaya, listen."

The Snake was surprised at the tone of the author's voice.

"What is it, Gure-san?"

"I don't know what happened to her, but Tohru has gone to the Main House early. It sounds like she's staying."

"What? What...what happene–" Ayame paused. "Call Kazuma's house. Kyo will probably be there. That hopeless boy."

Shigure started to dial Shishou's number. This was going to be hard. He already knew it.

Author's Closing:

Augh! It feels so pointless!

Ah, well. I worked a while on this, and I'm not gonna not post it now.

You better enjoy. (Haha!)

E.