Chapter Two: I, Kaito Kagami
Zikaki was resting in her room. Kaito gently closed the door behind him, taking his gauze and placing it back in its proper case. She had been burnt pretty badly, but nothing too serious that it wouldn't heal in a day or so. He had been sitting in his study, reading an article he found online about some sort of new disease when Shizukani came in, holding the hand of a flushed Zikaki, her red face stood out on her sickly looking pale skin.
Shizukani had pulled the embarrassed Zikaki over to Kaito and sat her down in the chair before his desk, then leaned against the doorframe. "She's burnt her hand." He said simply, surveying Zikaki who tugged self-consciously at her short school girl skirt. Kaito rolled his chair over to Zikaki and took her warm hand in his. He looked it over, turning it until he saw Zikaki wince at the tendered skin being touched. Kaito handled it more gently then, subconsciously tracing the reddened marks on her soft, delicate hand. "What happened?" Kaito asked, a little more than overprotective.
Shizukani also noticed this, and his eyes narrowed and his gaze darkened in warning to Kaito, as he answered coolly but frigidly "Well, it's obvious by the scent the burns are carrying that she either came into contact with a Sohma, which is unlikely because the burns would be much more severe if that happened, or she was physically contacted by someone that spends much of their time near a Sohma member. By these burns I'd say this person knows a fair deal about them as well." Shizukani shifted his body to stand in the middle of the doorway.
"Hmm, I see, it appears you're right." Kaito nodded, meeting Shizukani's gaze, equally cold. Zikaki moved uncomfortably in her seat, feeling the mood in the air become dense and standoffish. "Yes, yes, it appears to be just so. I do believe I know who exactly she met. Zikaki, did you meet, or see, or even brush into anybody named Tohru Honda?"
Zikaki looked down awkwardly, and nodded, her mid back length black hair feathering around her face, covering her eyes as she miserably bowed her head. "Hmm, yes, I see, do you remember where exactly?" Kaito asked, scooting closer to Zikaki to see her reaction.
"…" Zikaki opened then closed her mouth, then took one of her hands and made a motion similar to opening a locker, putting the combination in then closing the locker door. Then she held up two fingers and pointed to one of them. "Ohh, I see, so you have a locker next to hers?" Zikaki quickly nodded. "Well then, it's not your fault, you couldn't help your locker placement. I'll go to school in a few hours and ask about moving you, but next time, pay more attention to what I say, okay? I know I told you about Tohru." Kaito said sternly but softly. Zikaki smiled slightly, then nodded again. Zikaki did a lot of nodding.
"Alright then, go up to your room and get changed. I'll be up after I get supplies to wrap your wounds up in, and they'll have to have an ice pack to avoid unsightly markings being left. If your injuries give you any problems with dressing or holding things, get Bereii or Helei to assist you. Run along now." Zikaki stood up and did as she was told, walking with her eyes to the floor, swooping to avoid Shizukani and running up the stairs.
Shizukani and Kaito stared at each other in silence. "So…what should we do?" Shizukani broke the glaring silence. Kaito cleared his throat. "I'll go to the school in awhile. I'll make sure none of you have lockers or classes with any of the Sohmas." "What about in the hallways?" "Then you'll all just have to avoid them at all costs. You know the rules." Shizukani rolled his eyes.
Of course he knew, it was an ancient tradition amongst the Kagami clan. Precisely four weeks before the Harvest Week, all the Kagamis uprooted whatever lives they'd created for themselves from wherever they were, which wasn't usually a problem considering the 'lives' they all ever had anywhere were friendless and cold. That was fine with Shizukani, people were ignorant, and unnecessary to him. Except for his family, Shizukani never knew a reason to know anybody else.
Anyways, back to the point of this, the Kagamis would move into a house they had that they never lived in, never visited, never went by just to see how it was. No, for most of the year they left the house alone, silent and empty, until they suddenly flooded it with life again, for four weeks and only four weeks. Four weeks they stayed in that large, dark house, then they suddenly left.
After four weeks, they would stay in a single part of the Sohma house, in a place where nobody went, visited daily by the infamous Akito Sohma, curt words spoken, nods of acknowledgement, then they were left to their own devices. All alone. For a single week. Not like that was any different than any other week, the Kagamis were always alone, always only with each other. But what made it far worse is that they were surrounded, everywhere, with the enemy. Encircled by the ones they hated most in this rose tinted world.
Shizukani folded his arms. "Of course. And do to that, we can't leave, that's what you're saying, am I right?" Kaito raised his eyebrows. "It's just for four weeks, Shizukani. And the one week we should worry about, we never do because we never see any of the Sohmas besides Akito. Are you telling me you can't handle four measly weeks of being near the Sohmas? You're much weaker than I thought."
Shizukani glared daringly at Kaito. "Don't be absurd, of course not. I'm just saying, it's only been one day and already Zikaki's been injured. We didn't have to worry about this when there was another school to go to without any Sohmas. But now we all have to go to a single high school, and I just don't want anyone else getting hurt." Kaito smirked. "Sure you just don't want Zikaki to get hurt again?" Shizukani ticked with annoyance and surprise but recovered quickly. "Just see to it that whatever needs to be done, is done." Shizukani turned in the doorway and left abruptly.
Kaito chuckled. He enjoyed teasing Shizukani about his feelings about Zikaki. It was even funnier when Shizukani tried to hide it, which was quite impossible for him. Kaito laughed quietly to himself as he grabbed his medical bag and stood up to go see how Zikaki was fairing.
He knew he was way too overly protective of Zikaki, then again so was Shizukani. But they were both in different ways. Kaito was protective of Zikaki purely for the reasons of memory. Kaito was the last of the previous Kagami line. Kaito was 33 and widowed. Kaito had blonde hair and blue eyes. And Kaito's wife, who passed away giving birth to their child that died soon after, was also the panda of the Kagamis. And Zikaki looked just like her.
Kaito took his bag upstairs, going down the long hall, passing the quiet room of the reading Helei Kagami, the Koi fish of the Original Zodiac and also the eternal bookworm, and closed the door of the loud Bereii Kagami, the poison dart frog of the Kagami clan, and complete and utter spaz, shutting the door, leaving Bereii to hop on her bed and blare her music as loud as she wanted, without disturbing anyone.
He heard loud footsteps coming from the roof of the house, and knew it was probably from Shouta, the hummingbird, training on the rooftop, his feet light and fast, and his energy high and unending. Shizukani was gone, outside someplace else Kaito didn't know where. He slowly opened the last door in the hall, stepped inside the rather small room, and closed the door quietly. Zikaki sat in the window, feet swinging outside, shoeless, with a long, black sweatshirt on and black shorts. Her hair was wet, signs that she'd taken a shower, and her hand wrapped in a white cloth.
Kaito set his things on her bed and Zikaki turned slightly, acknowledging his presence. She swung inside again, stepping lightly over to Kaito and sitting politely on her bed, long, nearly bared legs swinging off the bed, owlish, tired eyes watching as Kaito placed all his items he needed on the bed. Medical rubbing alcohol, fresh bandages, medical tape, and a blue bag of ice. Kaito busied himself immediately, telling Zikaki to take her sweatshirt off, then taking her arm and setting to work with the rubbing alcohol, placing it all over her reddened arm, rubbing the stinging substance onto up her arm and down her hand.
Zikaki never once whined, or complained, or bit him like Bereii would, or cried like Helei would, no, she stayed still as a board, watching Kaito's movements with high awareness, watching each stroke and each time he went up and down her arm. She only winced a few times, but other than that, Kaito noticed she never even moved.
He took the bandaging and wrapped it generously on her arm, from her shoulder to her hand, ending it by wrapping it from her thumb to her index finger, circling her hand. He took the tape and taped the ends together securely, assuring it could not be taken off by anyone without experienced hands. He ran his hand up the length of her arm till he reached the end of the bandages, right on her shoulder and just past the strap of her tank top, black and lacy, showing more cleavage than Kaito needed to think about Shizukani being able to view.
Awkwardly, he cleared his throat, and put his items bag in his bag and handing the bag of ice to Zikaki. "There, you should be fine, keep the ice on. Leave your sweatshirt off though," He said grudgingly, hoping Shizukani wouldn't come to see how she was. Zikaki smiled thankfully, hugging Kaito's neck tightly with her un-bandaged arm then letting go and, with a bow of thanks, hopped out her doorway, heading downstairs to get some juice.
As soon as she was gone, Kaito mentally slapped himself. 'What're you thinking?!? She's a 14 year old girl!!! Just because she looks like your wife did when she was young, it doesn't give you any right to get so touchy-feely, you sick pedophile!' Kaito rubbed the sides of his temples in calming motions. Zikaki was a kid, well, a teenager, really. And what's more is that he was 33, and didn't want to add 'sick pervert' to his list of things he was. He knew why such thoughts clouded his mind, and he mindlessly fiddled with the locket around his neck.
Absent mindedly, he flipped it open, and inside was a picture, faded and graying, but still recognizable, of Amiko Kagami, the previous panda bear of the Mirror Zodiac, and Kaito's deceased wife. He'd loved Amiko, he loved everything about her. Her hair, her eyes, her smile. Everything about her, calm and assuring, gave him a feeling of safety. Amiko was muted, couldn't speak a single word, yet was the most understanding person her knew. Then she'd gotten pregnant, and they'd been overjoyed.
Shizukani had been born a year ago, in the fall. After that year, right in springtime, Shouta was born, the hummingbird. Three spots left. Kaito thought they were fine, perfectly okay, there were still three spots. But then, two other pairs were pregnant just like that. Kaito started to sweat over it, Amiko had about three weeks to go, and a week before, Helei, the average looking, brown haired, brown eyed Koi fish girl was born.
Three days ago, five days before Amiko was due, and Mirror Zodiac members always gave birth on the day they were told, not a day earlier or later, Bereii, the poison dart frog with a rather large nose and wavy brown hair and brown eyes was born. One spot left. Kaito started to calm down, this meant all that commotion was done, and their was still one spot left. He didn't think to give a thought about the two that were missing, had gone off to establish connections with the new Sohmas about 10 months ago, and hadn't been back yet. The rest of them had just thought that they were delayed, or had come into something more important.
Whatever they thought, was wrong. The other pair was pregnant, nine months, and one day before Kaito and Amiko's child was to be born, the last zodiac child, the panda, the muted one with the large, dark eyes, Zikaki, was born in secrecy. The next day, Amiko gave birth, and died. The child died two minutes afterward. The day after, the new panda child was taken back to the Kagami clan by the mother, who was pail and weak.
When a Mirror Zodiac member was born, the parents did die. Of course, Kaito never thought about that, didn't even know it existed, because the way and time they died always varied, depending on when the child was born. For example, Shizukani's mom didn't die till he was five, his father till he was six.
Shouta's father died when he was four, his mother when he was three. Helei's parents both died when she was two, her father first, then, near her second birthday, her mother. Bereii's parents both died a day apart, when she was 8 months old. And now, Zikaki Kagami, two days old, was left without any parents, after only three days of life, her mother dying in her sleep the night she returned, her father dead two hours after she was born.
So, by whoever was born first, their parents lived longer, having more time to live, to see the beautiful creation they had made. No one knew why or how the parents died. Usually, the heart went out, quickly and painlessly, out of the blue. A heart attack, cardiac arrest, or they just stopped breathing in their sleep like Zikaki's mom.
Kaito walked out of Zikaki's room, closing the window before he headed back to his office, the locket closed again, his eyes ahead of him. In a way, Kaito thought, as he sat where he was now, musing, in his large, leather chair, facing his blank monitor, his wife died, because Zikaki was born.
Kaito couldn't help but think of the irony, the girl that he took such caution with, to not let a single hair get touched, was the reason his wife, and his son, had died. Kaito opened the locket again, thinking, his wife and he would have still died, but to him, that didn't matter. At least their son would be alive.
But no, Zikaki was born. Zikaki killed his son. Zikaki killed his wife and his entire family. Zikaki. It was Zikaki's fault. Kaito hated Zikaki. He hated her eyes, her hair, her smile. Everything about her. But it was the type of hate that was love, she was the person he hated to love. Hated to tell her goodnight, to carry her to bed when she fell asleep on the couch, hated hugging her and kissing her cheek when she did something well. Hated not being able to hate her. Because, no matter how hard he tried to blame everything on Zikaki, everything, he couldn't do it.
Simply because, plain and simple, Zikaki was the only thing left, besides the single picture in his locket, to remind Kaito that Amiko had once been. Their was once a woman that he once called his wife, and she called him her husband. That they had loved each other and would have lived good lives. So, Kaito would go on, trying to hate Zikaki, even though he knew he couldn't, knew he never would, never would be able to.
Because, Zikaki Kagami, was the only reminder to Kaito, that he too, had once known happiness.