Chapter 5: The Monkey

I finally started Chapter 5 hears a couple people cheer uhh… well, yeah. Here it is. I hope you all enjoy. Sorry for taking so long. I've been helping my friend (Suma Susaki) with her Twilight fanfic (a novel by Stephenie Meyer). The story is called Under The Stars so when I'm not updating this, I'm helping her by co-authoring hers. Check it out! Its really great, and I'm really not just saying that!

Last Time:

Seconds later, Yuki transformed back into himself. He wrapped his arms around his chest in pain, breathing heavily. Yuki wasn't at all used to what he had gone through. Merely shifting shape like that had caused him to feel sore and broken all over. It was his uncontrollable emotions that had brought this upon him and he did not appreciate it at all. "I remember…someone telling me a very long time ago…that the cat was cursed double because he was too dumb to see through my, otherwise the rat's, tricks. What is my explanation, if that is his?" he mumbled to himself under his breath. Finally, he shook his head and began walking in the direction he thought the house would be located.

Now:

Yuki was forcing himself to walk at this point, wobbling and dropping against every tree that he came towards, and before he could stop his momentum –which wasn't entirely large- he had fallen to the floor in a gentle thud. Pain was roaring and raging; searching for a way out of his body. It was scratching recklessly at his inner skin, cracking through his very bones, he's was going to collapse completely if he pushed himself any further, yet he also knew he had to get to some place where he can actually rest and that he couldn't let his new found beast take control again.

His skin was beginning to break as he used the broken bark of a tree to drag himself to his feet once more. Under the cracks of broken flesh, he saw dark black skin; that was the color of his monster. "If…I ever thought I … hated turning into a… rat…I take that back… I definitely hate turning into that thing more…" his voice was raspy as he spoke and it cracked a little on the word thing, but he didn't mind at all at this point. It was the least of his problems at the moment.

"Oh what a wondrous day! There's no way I can ruin anything by coming here!" a voice rang, the body that spoke the words was skipping through the forest, clothes making hardly any noise. The person ran right into Yuki as he was finally on his feet. It was a person in a kimono, whom was now lying flat on the broken twig covered dirt. Whoever it was rubbed their head and looked at Yuki. "OH NO!" the voice cried, jumping to their feet and dragging Yuki with them, "I'm so terribly sorry Yuki-kun! Please forgive! It's all my fault! I should've watched where I was going! Turn me into Akito! Shame on me! Beat me up Yuki-kun! I'm SORRYYYYYYY!" No doubt about it… Ritsu…

Yuki's ears were ringing, standing by way of hands on Ritsu's shoulders, even though he continuously flailed about like a lunatic. With one hand, Yuki covered the broken skin on his right arm so that Ritsu wouldn't think that too was his fault, otherwise, he'd pull off one of his suicide acts again. However, Yuki always doubted that Ritsu could ever actually kill himself, reason being that the spirit of the Monkey possessed Ritsu; therefore, his instincts would take over in that situation and he'd be unconsciously preventing such occurrences like death.

"What are you doing here, Ritsu?" Yuki groaned in sheer pain, unable to prevent the grunting that he produced involuntarily. "Why… are you still dressing like a girl?" his voice seemed a little more calmer now, the pain was going away as his mind settled on his conversation with Ritsu.

The monkey stared at Yuki blankly and looked down as if ashamed. He squeaked a little and glanced at his own clothing. "I'm sorry Yuki-kun," he whispered gently, his urge to apologize for being attired like a girl suppressed, "But you see, I'm still not comfortable dressing like a man… people always mistake me for a woman anyways." Yuki instantly recognized the sorrow in his tone, but instead of interjecting, he allowed Ritsu to continue so that his other question could be answered. "And… I came to this forest… because I knew I couldn't cause harm or fright to anyone… if no one is near me to bother…" he searched the ground for Yuki's feet, then looked at him knowing that he could focus on Yuki's eyes to seem more confident, "I didn't want to be troublesome for Hatori and Ayame-san…so…I came over here. I was actually planning on going to Shigure-san's house afterward to see Tohru-chan…" he smiled widely, showing how he knew he would be treated kindly by the likes of Tohru.

At the sound of Tohru's name, Yuki's heart began to pound wildly. So much so, he couldn't even regulate it to a calm pace by inhaling and exhaling like a normal person. He shook his head as an attempt to re-concentrate on Ritsu's previous sentences. "Oh… I see…" he whispered, voice sore.

Ritsu tilted his head and examined Yuki's appearance. "Yuki-kun. You don't look too great. Did I hurt you?" Ritsu gasped, and fell to his knees in front of him. Yuki just looked at him, no emotion showing in his features. Ritsu, getting no response from Yuki, started to go into his wild rants. "Oh no! I hurt Yuki-kun badly! Ahh! I must go to Shigure-san's house and call Hatori! Tohru could watch Yuki-kun! And than I will run away and never return! Ooohhh! I feel so bad now Yuki-kun!"

At the sound of Tohru's name, Yuki's emotions took over him. He was suddenly blinded, and the pain he was feeling grew, physically and mentally. He held it back the first time that he heard her name, but this time -a double dose- he couldn't keep the beast inside of him any longer. The skin on his arms tore open like an egg that was being handled by a careless chef.

The monkey's eyes got large as his ranting came to a halt, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The fumes that were produced by Yuki's body, as his skin tore open, was beyond the words that disgusting could convey. His body shifted and refigured it self into a grotesque form, like that of an overgrown guinea pig who was slimmer instead of overweight. Ritsu's hands quickly covered his mouth, shock trembling through his essence. "What is this Yuki-kun?" he asked with a shaky voice.

Yuki, by now, was unable to answer this question. Everything he knew was now entirely in the hands of the vengeful spirit that possessed him. He swung his arms around and bellowed words that were not familiar to any person no matter what language they spoke; it was more of a grumble, like words were mixed together. Ritsu was still on his knees, staring blankly at the floor he was sitting upon. "I did this to Yuki-kun…I hurt him so badly…he lost control of his inner being… This is so dreadful… I must tell miss Tohru!" he got to his feet, but in one quick motion, he found himself up against a tree with Yuki's beast's gigantic paw up against his chest.

His voice was nearly as loud as a roaring lion, or at least close to it, and he spoke in a mumbling tone, one that was struggling for control of something. "You … will not tell her! Do not! Tell! MISS HONDA!" he shouted angrily, his claws digging into Ritsu's kimono as he lifted him away from the tree and threw him about ten feet toward another tree.

Ritsu's body limply hit the bark of the tree and he dully flopped to the ground, one arm instinctively reaching around to his back as pain poured in. "O-Okay Yuki-kun… I wont tell her… I will not tell Tohru-chan…" he once was at his knees, now he lie flat on his chest in the middle of the forest, covered in absolute pain.

xXx

Kyo pushed passed Haru the moment he had gotten in the way and turned to look at him. "Somewhere in this forest…is Yuki, just like you are probably guessing! I'm going to find him and bring him back to Shigure's house. If you come near me again, then it'll be to help now wont it?" he said, his tone coated in mixed emotions. There was no way in hell that Kyo would want to help Yuki, unless of course, it was for Tohru's sake. And… at this point, it was for her. Plus, he'd grown entirely used to living at that house with the rat always picking on him and Tohru getting in the way of their constant disputes.

The ox merely grinned at Kyo and rolled his shoulders a little as if to stretch them before they fell asleep. "Well…it is Yuki we are going to help. And you know all too well that Yuki was my first love…so…" he nodded blankly and said, "Of course I'll be helping." Slowly, he brought his arm up and shifted his wrist so that his hand was behind his head, scratching curiously. "Um… can you show me which way to head?"

He slapped his head and pointed a ways down to direct Haru. "Just look over in that area or something for now…I'll," Kyo paused to give himself a chance to point another way, "go that way. We'll meet back at Shigure's house in three hours max…" he grumbled, and trudged off in his own designated area. I can't believe… I'm actually going off to bring Yuki back to the house. I hate his guts! May he die at my hands… What am I saying? If something like that happened that damn ditz would probably blame it on herself or something… she'd be even more on my case then she is now… His thoughts were out of frustration, he didn't have any ill-will towards Tohru anymore and he knew that he had to protect what he knew about Yuki so that Tohru can never find out. So, in a way, Kyo didn't really hate Yuki anymore, it was merely his urge to have to beat him that made it appear so.

Haru was gone from sight when he took a small glance back. He grunted a little and shoved his hands in his pockets, limping a little from the way he had landed out the window. The pain was easy to ignore now that he knew that only in a matter of at most three hours he'll be back at the Shigure's home… as destroyed as it is on the second floor.

His feet slipped in front of one another at a slow pace, no matter how fast or slow he walked it wouldn't make it any easier or more difficult to find Yuki. Kyo had to keep himself paced and as composed as possible so that he doesn't lose his cool before finding Yuki. He didn't know what to expect at this point: Did he change back? Is he still that monster? Those questions would be unclear until the moment he saw something amongst the trees. And, from what he could tell, he was closing in on him. Some of the large footprints had faded into much, much smaller ones, and he knew they weren't from the time he had first changed in front of Tohru, that was far too long ago for those tracks to still be there. These were new. And they were Yuki's prints.

xXx

Tohru rushed home from the grocery and quickly shoved all the food and such into their same spots as always. As fast as she could, she prepared dinner and set up the entire table as if there were people waiting to be served. The food from when the monster appeared was dumped out and replaced so that fresh food and fresh drinks were on the tabletop.

"Oh my…" she shook her head as she glanced down the hallway and up the staircase. The impressions left from that monsters feet were incredibly difficult to not notice. They were plain as day in the now disoriented house. It was entirely impossible for her to even think about fixing and cleaning everything by herself. She didn't know the first thing about fixing holes in walls and floors, or about fixing windows. She had no idea what to do and she let herself float to a spot at the table where she stared at the food and look from seat to seat, wishing that they were each being occupied by Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure.

The door at the front slipped open loudly and a male walked in, humming some interesting tune that made Tohru leap to her feet quickly. "Shi-gure-san?" she poked her head out from behind the wall in the dining room to see Shigure prancing happily up the stairs. "Shigure-san! No!" Tohru hurried to beat him up the steps but stumbled on her way and fell. She decided to just lie there as the dog reached the second floor of the house.

His humming stopped instantly and his eyes became glued to each piece of destruction. "I… must… have entered the wrong house…" Shigure merely attempted to fool himself; they all knew that this was the only house for miles in the forest. "I'll… just…" he turned and stepped back down the staircase, lifting his foot over Tohru as he made his way down. She got up and scurried to the dining room, the same place that Shigure was going to. He sat at the table and stared blankly at the food, then turned his attention to Tohru as she fell upon her spot at the table. "T-Tohru…what happened… to my beautiful…. house…?" his voice was shaking every which way, Shigure could hardly understand what he himself was saying at this point.

xXx

Kyo stopped and tilted his head just slightly as he saw something hop from one tree branch to another. Actually, it swung and squealed before missing a branch and falling. It quickly started shouting and squeaking out apologizes as if he had harmed some part of the tree itself. "Oh great…another circus freak from the Sohmas…." He mumbled and walked toward Ritsu, stepping in front of him and glaring downward at him. "Why are you changed, stupid?" Kyo questioned, pointing at his tail then gesturing to just him as a monkey in general.

"Y-Yuki-kun scared me…and I changed when he left. Oo! Oo! Ah!" Ritsu squeaked and staggered up the tree a little to meet eye-to-eye with Kyo.

Grumbling about the annoying sound the monkey made, Kyo continued. "Scared you?" he rubbed his forehead and shook off the upcoming pain in his leg a little. "Was he… different?" Kyo decided to ask, hoping to get a specific answer.

Ritsu nodded and waved his tail around a little as if he were amused by it. He stopped and realized again that Kyo had asked him something. He thought for a moment and nodded even more. "He…" his tone dropped to a whisper, it was like he thought they were surrounded by a horde of other people, "changed into something… other then the rat…" Ritsu finished, making more monkey-like squeals before dashing up the bark of the tree to rest on a branch.

"Where did he go…?"

The monkey squealed in delight now that he noticed he could cause absolutely no harm to anyone from up there. Then, he responded quietly, "He was here a few minutes ago, Kyo-kun… but… he just recently left, right?" Ritsu sounded as if he were asking Kyo the question, though the cat understood otherwise.

"Um... alright?" Kyo said and left Ritsu to be his weird self… away from him.

After walking only a little farther, Kyo spotted Yuki in his true form, slamming his monstrous paws against a tree that instantly shattered into three large stumps on the punch the first punch that Kyo watched. "Well…it wasn't hard finding you, now was it?" he mumbled, shoving his body out into the open so that Yuki would see him clearly if he were to turn around. "And now…I have to deal with this…" he put his hands back in his pockets and blinked as he watched Yuki's enormous beast turn around and glare at him, teeth visible.

And there it is! Woo! Chapter 5! It took me only a couple days to type this. I hope everyone enjoys. Tell me what you think! I'm not completely sure if this is a great chapter, I tried my best to keep in past tense because I've gotten reviews in the past complaining about that, so… well... I tried haha. R&R plz?