Chapter 6- Warning Do not read if you cannot emotionally cope with depictions of child abuse. This chapter was really upsetting to write. I felt like I had to in order to explain how messed up and abusive Akito was to become, but it was painful for me to write. I apologize if it upsets anyone. I really hurt me to write it! I do not own Fruits Basket

Ren yawned and stretched out on her chaise in her sitting room. It had been over a year since Akira had died. She felt a sharp, stabbing pain drive through her heart and threatened to overwhelm her mind. She quickly tried to focus her mind on something, anything to not have to deal with her sense of loss. She heard laughing coming from outside and she arose and went to her window to see who was out there. She saw Mitsune's rat child and Akito playing under the large cherry tree where she and Akira used to sit together. She felt an irrational sense of rage building deep inside of her as she watched the little bitch laughing and smiling while she had to sit her in her room alone without her love Akira. Ren stormed out of her room and sharply grabbed the arm of the first maid she came upon. The woman looked up at her with an expression of confused fear.

"Go outside and bring me Akito!" she snarled at her. The maid, happy to have any excuse to remove her from Ren's presence, fled down the hallway to find Akito. She returned shortly with the girl.

Ren looked down at the child, her lip curling with contempt. She seemed taller than she had been last time Ren had had her brought to her. She must be nearly six now, Ren thought to herself.

"Well look at you," she said softly, standing up and walking over to girl, deliberately intimidating her with her looming presence. Akito's face was very drawn and tense as she stared at her mother, watching to see what she was planning to do to her. "You looked so happy playing outside with your little rat friend that I just felt like I had to see you today, Akito." Ren said laughing softly.

"Every time I see you, you are pulling that little rat around like you have a ring through his nose." She walked slowly past the child and came around behind her, knowing she made Akito feel vulnerable and nervous when she did so. She leaned down and spoke softly in her ear. "Are you afraid that if you let your little pet out of sight, he might run away?"

Akito said nothing and just kept looking straight ahead; but Ren saw her jaw tighten and knew she had hit a nerve. She laughed again and walked over to her chaise and laid back in it, watching Akito all the while. "Poor Akito, all your little juuneshi friends leave you in the end, don't they? I don't notice Shigure coming over as often any more. Did he tire of your neediness and tempers already?"

Akito's eyes flashed and she began to tremble with her rage. "Shigure, Ayame, Hatori, and Kureno are all in school and you know it!" she screamed at her mother. Ren laughed.

"Oh, is that what they are telling you?" Akito glared balefully at Ren, but refused to be baited. "I wonder how long it will take for Yuki to grow tired of your temper and leave you too…" Akito just smiled smugly at her.

"Yuki will never leave me. The bond of the juuneshi will make him always love me." Ren just laughed.

"Oh yes, how could I forget the precious juuneshi bond? Akito, when are you going to realize that the only reason Yuki stays with you is because his mother gave him away to you and he has nowhere else to go? Yuki doesn't really care for you, he's just doing what he is told." Akito's eyes welled up with tears and she grabbed the large crystal vase filled with orchids that stood on the occasional table by where she stood. She threw the vase at Ren, but rage made her aim go wide and the vase shattered against the wall in an explosion of glass, water and stems to the left of where Ren sat. Ren stood up quickly and marched over to Akito and grabbed her by the arm.

"You're a destructive little bitch aren't you? But I'm not one of your servants that will let you get away with that sort of behavior. You're a wicked, hateful piece of garbage and you need to learn that there is nothing special about you to allow you to behave that way."

Ren dragged the kicking and screaming child to her closet and flung her against the wall. Akito crumpled into a heap on the floor sobbing. Ren opened the drawer to the chest of drawers that was against the wall and she withdrew a small leather flail from it and she snapped the small whip against the wood dresser. Akito looked up abruptly at the cracking sound and her eyes widened in fear.

Without saying a word, Ren brought the flail down on Akito, the multiple leather straps biting into the flesh on the side of her face and neck. Akito screamed in pain clutching her cheek and cowering against the back wall of the closet. Ren just looked down at her cruelly. Akito stared up at her mother in terror, she began to whimper, "Please…don't hit me again…Mommy please!"

"You are nothing, Akito," she brought the straps down hard on Akito's shoulder and the child began to cry and she tried to curl into a fetal position to protect her face from the straps. "You are less than nothing." She raised the flail and brought it down harder against Akito's back, splitting the fabric of her kimono. "You are not necessary. Nobody wants or needs you." Ren continued flailing the whip against the child's back and head while Akito wailed and sobbed in terror. "You should be dead." Ren beat the child relentlessly for about five minutes until her arm tired and she felt her anger dissipating.

Ren looked down at the shivering, sobbing child with disgust. She could see through the tears in Akito's kimono that blood was welling up from the welts on her back. Ren placed the flail back in the drawer and she walked over to where the child lay quivering and she kicked her in the ribs.

"Get up, you useless piece of shit. You're going to bleed on my carpet." Akito stumbled to her feet and stood trembling in front of Ren. "If someone asked what happened to you Akito, you tell them you fell out of a tree and the branches lashed you." She laughed cruelly, "Not that anyone would care if you were hurt. Everyone hates you; I know I do." She grabbed the child by the arm and marched her out of the closet. "Get out of here, you make me sick." Akito stood in the doorway and stared at her mother in fear, and then she ran out the door and stumbled down the hallway.

Ren stood in her room and looked over to where the fragments of the broken vase lie upon the ground. She walked out into the hall and called for a maid. The same young maid she had yelled at earlier came running to her quickly and bowed with alacrity.

"The stupid child has broken a vase in one of her rages. Clean it up." The maid began to hurriedly clean up the shards of glass and crushed flowers while Ren reclined in her chaise once more. With Akito gone, she felt bored and restless. Then she thought of Kurosawa and she smiled to herself. Perhaps he could provide her with some amusement.