Memories of the Forgotten One

Chapter 6

Intelligence

…

…

"Who's there?" asked Akira, suspiciously. The black-haired boy could see two eyes, reflecting the moonlight, staring into his own. He edged closer, walking slowly so as not to frighten the… animal? It looked like a cat or something. He placed his feet softly and carefully before him, but still managed to crack a twig underfoot. The sound rang out like a shot through the crisp night air. Akira grimaced, knowing that the animal would likely run away now, before he could even have a chance to see what it was. Darn.

But to his surprise, the creature stayed put. Its eyes widened as though frightened, but it didn't dash off. Through the corner of his eye, Akira could have sworn he saw a small black thing, moving away in complete silence. Probably just a bat, or a shadow. Whatever it was, it didn't matter. The important thing was that the strange animal was still here.

It didn't appear to be very big, but it was bigger than any cat Akira had ever encountered previously. But he didn't get to go outside that much, so maybe there were many large felines roaming the city.

But if it wasn't a cat, or even if it wasn't a tame cat, Akira well knew he could be endangering himself by getting too close. He had read all about dangerous animals that dwelled in the wild, and while this city certainly wasn't a jungle, there was a fair amount of wildlife. It would be just his bad luck to get one of those rare animals that there were only, like, twelve of in Japan, the kind you read about in the paper attacking travelers. Then again, it would be worth the risk if it was a rare animal. It seemed that there were two probable answers to what was hiding in that bush:

One: A rare animal that may or may not attack.

Two: A common house cat.

Akira didn't take long to think about this, but a thousand analytical thoughts did go through his mind, sizing up his situation. He concluded that it would be more rewarding to his life experience, not to mention his curiosity, to see what was there. So, with a gentle but swift motion, Akira pushed aside some branches, orange-yellow eyes watching him the whole time.

What met his eyes was not at all what he had expected. Crouching on hands and knees was a kid. But it didn't look like any kid Akira had ever seen before. It was a boy, maybe three or four years old, and looking scared and shivery. His clothes were ripped and dirty, and twigs and bits of grass were stuck in his hair. His hair was arguably the most peculiar thing about him, that or his eyes. His hair was a vibrant shade of orange, which was obvious even in the dim light, and stuck out in pointed clumps. Even without his eyes, his hair would have made him appear decidedly odd.

So, either someone had bleached a little kid's hair and the same kid just happened to have weird eyes, or…

Zodiac member. Well, technically this was probably not actually a zodiac member, more likely the cat. It couldn't be the tiger, there was already one of those alive, and perfectly healthy despite being in her sixties.

But wasn't the cat usually kept in confinement? That seemed to be this head of family's policy anyway, as well as the policy of his last two predecessors. Akira was a bit of an expert on the Sohma family's history, among other things. He had found the records that were normally only read by the head of the family, and a few of those really close to him (or sometimes her, but in this case him). He had only days before been on one of those painfully boring visits to Daiki, oh how he hated those visits. They were usually Daiki asking him and his parents weird questions, his parents asking for permissions on various matters, really, really boring. He remembered rolling his eyes once. Daiki had noticed and grinned one of his creepy smiles, showing many very pointy white teeth and saying how charming a child Akira was (thanks to which, his brother had a new nickname for Akira: Charming Child). Akira had hid behind his parents, feeling afraid that Daiki was going to take a bite out of his head. Hey, it seemed like a completely rational fear at the time.

Akira's parents had given him a long and patronizing speech all the way home, an incredibly long fifteen minutes. Akira had probably rolled his eyes again. His favorite expression. It always seemed to get on people's nerves, and that could be amusing. Especially when people were giving speeches, he rolled his eyes, and they stopped mid-sentence and walked off in a huff. Most often with his parents, they would just give him another speech, though. The dreaded How-To-Be-Respectful speech.

It wasn't that he disliked his parents, they were good people… just really old fashioned, to put it bluntly. They followed Sohma laws and precautions that weren't even required anymore. They hardly ever let him out of the house, afraid that he would somehow transform and show everyone the secret. Oh, the horror, thought Akira sarcastically. Honestly, what was the big deal about changing into an animal? Sure, it wasn't exactly normal to most people, but that's because no one ever tried to make it seem normal. Yeah, if no one knows about it, sure they're going to be surprised if you turn into a dog right before their eyes. But honestly, they wouldn't be surprised if they knew what was going to happen. This memory erasing nonsense would be made obsolete!

Following that line of thought, it wouldn't have been so hard for Akira not to go outside often and to have to follow a bunch of silly, pointless rules, if he didn't know there was an outside world. But unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, Akira had a brother who was five years older than him, not a zodiac member, and therefore exempt from all those rules. His name was Ken'ichi, and even though they were brothers they looked nothing alike. Ken'ichi had black hair as well, but always combed neatly. Akira's mom had long since given up trying to comb Akira's untidy hair. Ken'ichi had paler skin, and was more muscular. Akira was dark skinned and wiry. The two had nothing in common in appearance except for their deep brown eyes and the ridiculously overly formal clothes they were always forced to wear. Right now Akira was dressed casually, but his parents would never have let him leave the house dressed like this. That is, if they had known he'd left.

Akira often left his house at night, just to get some air and a brief release from the dreaded Sohma cage. His brother didn't know how lucky he was. Akira had nothing against him, but was sure that he, Akira, was much more deserving of the privileges that Ken'ichi took for granted. Akira was a harder worker; he spent all his time studying. Not just for school, he was home schooled and so couldn't even leave the house for school, but he just spent all his time reading whatever he could find and observing and opinionating about everything he saw. He knew that his parents would worry if he seemed to know too much, so he made sure to do as badly as possible on the home school assignments they made him do. He spent most of his time in his room, supposedly studying. He knew that his family was worried that he was getting below average grades when he seemed to be working so hard. Actually, he was just in his room reading, searching through countless words in vain, trying to find anything that might help him to be free of the Sohma curse, or at least to pass the time, His parents didn't have any "dangerous" books lying around the house, of course. Just alphabet books and supplementary learning tools. Mostly Akira went over to friends' houses and they let him borrow what he wanted. He wasn't really supposed to have friends either, but he knew a few other zodiac members from New Years dances and from sneaking out. He also had a few friends who were non-zodiacs. He hadn't told them about the curse. Even if he hated the dumb taboos about telling people, he wasn't going to go that far in his defiance. Ken'ichi had a ton of friends; they'd sometimes come over to the house. When that happened Akira was usually sent to his room.

Ken'ichi had no appreciation for the freedom he enjoyed! But Akira could think about that all he wanted and it wouldn't get him anywhere. He forced himself to focus back to the present. He had a problem with getting too lost in his own thoughts, which was getting worse and worse. Even if he did have extremely rapid processing skills, he was still losing too much time just thinking.

Where was he right now? Ah yes, the hill. The moon was full tonight and hung overhead like a bloated firefly. There were numerous stars, brighter than normal, shedding a white-blue glow upon the stubbly earth. And on the small orange-haired boy. "Did you run away?" asked Akira, not exactly sure how to start a conversation with a little kid who looked so scared. Besides, Akira knew that many young Sohma's tried to escape, either literally or metaphorically, from the Sohma lifestyle. The Sohma chains were not so easily shed, however. Especially when the zodiac members were so visibly different and the Sohma head had so many spies. His secret eyes that saw all that happened.

The boy shook his head, and was silent. Just when Akira thought he was never going to say anything, the boy spoke in a trembling and awkward voice. "No… I didn't run… I walked here. Away from what?"

So this kid was probably just lost and all alone here. Still, Akira had to be safe. "Did anyone follow you?" The kid shook his head no. Akira was ready to heave a sigh of relief but didn't, not wanting to frighten the little kid any more. "Are you the cat?"

"Yeah… but I'm also called Kazuki." His eyes were still wide and fearful, but he did seem to have calmed down some.

"It is my pleasure to meet you, Kazuki. I am Akira Sohma, the dog," said Akira, his tone very respectful. He even bowed. The kid… Kazuki seemed surprised yet pleased at this sign of respect he was obviously not used to. Akira knew it was best to be courteous to new people he met, especially zodiac members. Well, the cat technically wasn't a member, but he still counted.

"Are you lost?" asked Akira innocently. Kazuki nodded, clearly holding back tears. "Who are your parents?" Akira knew where most of the Sohmas lived. They often kept the same houses as generations passed, and he had a map of the houses from what must have been at least 60 years ago. To be fair it wasn't his map, but many of the old records were kept at the dragon's house, and he had allowed Akira to look at them, including the map.

"Osamu Sohma-sama and Kimiko Sohma-sama," said Kazuki in a small voice. Good, they should still be living in the house where Osamu's parents, Kichiro and Sango Sohma, had lived, or at least near by. The good thing was that house was very near by.

"Come on," said Akira. He took Kazuki by the hand and led him back to the house. There was a path nearby that led there; it was kind of muddy and rocky but thankfully short. They reached the area in hardly any time, and Kazuki was able to identify his house.

"Remember, Kazuki-san. Don't tell anyone about meeting me, or else Daiki will be very angry with both of us." Akira neglected to mention that his parents would probably kill him. Kazuki nodded he understood.

Akira knocked on the door and ran off into the shadows, hiding behind one of the few trees that still had enough leaves to conceal his willowy form. He watched the door open and Kazuki enter, before he walked back to his own house.