Leona knew Kiyone hated skipping classes, and was a fairly diligent student. So when she skipped the entire day he knew something was up.

The moment he knocked on her room (mostly to make sure she wasn't getting dressed or anything), he found her looking absolutely miserable.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked bluntly.

"It's nothing," she said annoyed. She was hiding under her covers and refused to get out of bed.

Leona didn't have the patience for her nonsense, and honestly it was bugging him for some reason seeing her like this. So he ripped the covers off her causing her to hiss.

"What the hell, asshole!" she shouted.

"Get up. Seeing you acting this depressed is pissing me off," he said bluntly.

"Like hell, get out of my room!"

Kiyone didn't have much chance to say anything else, as Leona scooped her up and caused her to turn into a cat. Kiyone was pissed.

Being dumped in the waterfall feature of the dorm was not her idea of a fun time...especially when she was in cat form.

"What the hell is your problem?!"

"Why have you been acting off today? It's not like you to skip an entire day's worth of classes, and it's not that time of the month," said Leona.

Kiyone...mildly boggled at the fact Leona had apparently figured out that schedule, before she glared at him.

"It's none of your business."

"Try me," he shot back, hauling her out of the water and holding her close so she couldn't switch back.

Kiyone sulked, but at least Leona was nice enough to find a secluded area so they wouldn't be sharing this with the entire dorm.

"...My dad called me this morning."

"Okay?" said Leona.

"He said that the head of my family finally noticed I wasn't attending high school and demanded to know where I was, due a certain agreement I had made with them when I left middle school. They wanted to be sure I hadn't skipped out and had left the country or something. They were apparently pissed off enough that I was in a 'special college' that they threw one of their major tantrums and he's in the hospital for the next month and a half because of it."

Leona was silent for a moment...this was major, as Kiyone didn't speak of her family for good reason.

"And no one tried to stop them?"

Kiyone's laugh was bitter and full of long-repressed emotions that Leona couldn't adequately describe.

"No one tells Akito 'no'. Those that try to stand up to them only get hurt worse in the long run. We've been conditioned to just roll with their tantrums and take their word as law no matter what they say. Hell, Akito almost blinded one of my cousins for daring to marry outside the family even though the woman in question had zero issues with the curse!"

It was pretty clear this Akito was a major part of why Kiyone hated talking about her family.

"So your dad took the brunt of a punishment likely meant for you...all over the fact you're attending Night Raven rather than a high school?" he asked, mostly for clarification.

Kiyone was silent, but it was clear that she was downplaying exactly how bad this 'Akito' was. Even he didn't throw monumental 'tantrums' because of his status...his parents and older brother would never stand for it and would have beaten it out of him at the first opportunity before it got worse!

Without thinking twice on the matter, Leona put Kiyone around his neck like an odd scarf. Her yelp was surprisingly amusing to his ears.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Finding that horned pest. You clearly need something to distract you," he deadpanned.

Lilia was often around Malleus, so finding him meant finding the ancient faerie as well.

Lilia raised a single eyebrow at the fact an unhappy Kiyone was acting as a furry scarf, before calmly accepting the feline dumped in his arms by Leona.

Once she turned back (and put her clothes on), Lilia gave her a look.

"What happened?" he asked. She looked terrible.

Kiyone winced. She really didn't want to explain it twice, but she generally trusted Lilia to some extent.

One explanation later...

Lilia, rather than be upset or kidnap her like Leona had, gained an odd thoughtful expression on his face.

"Sounds like the faerie magic in the family is acting up. I should probably look into that at some point."

"What," said Kiyone, in shock.

"I did say I was familiar with your particular curse," said Lilia smirking.

Seeing the expression on Kiyone's face, Lilia decided she did deserve some explanation...just not the full details.

"Long story short a faerie of Malleus' line had a penchant for animals, and was visiting the human world when it befriended a nekomata. It decided to hold a fancy banquet because they didn't have any human friends, only something went wrong and it became so upset that the faerie or the nekomata ended up cursing the human bloodline that decided to take advantage of the situation by offering a solution to the issue."

Kiyone stared, her face twitching...just a bit.

"That's not the story I was told," she said.

"Oh?"

"Every member of the cursed zodiac is told that once God held a banquet, and it invited thirteen animals of the Chinese zodiac...only the rat tricked the cat and used the cow to arrive first, hence why it's the most favored. The cat, tricked out of attending the banquet, was forever outcast because of it," said Kiyone bitterly. "As a result, the cat was also cursed with a second, more horrifying form that must be kept in check."

Lilia frowned at that.

"From what I recall, the faerie upset the nekomata it befriended and it attacked one of the other animals enraged, so it had no choice but to seal the feline," said Lilia.

"That might be so, and it would explain why only the cat has two forms. Doesn't explain the fact that the curse prevents us from having physical contact with the opposite gender and yet has zero effect if the other person is another member of the zodiac. Or that we turn into our respective animals when sick and can speak their language fluently," deadpanned Kiyone.

Either way, at least she had a lead on how to deal with her curse once and for all. Or at least alter it to something more tolerable.

Kiyone had noticed Leona treating her a bit differently after learning the possible origin of her family's curse. For one thing, he wasn't openly harassing her about certain subjects. For another, he had made it an odd habit to scoop her up whenever he saw her in feline form in the halls and put her around his neck like an odd scarf.

It was seriously weird and some of the students who didn't previously have contact with her started to think her feline form was Leona's familiar.

As winter holidays drew closer, Kiyone immediately signed up to stay in the school rather than go anywhere near her hometown. Akito was apparently still on the warpath regarding her attending a special college, though thankfully no one had told them which one.

She did not expect to wake up and find any actual presents for her the morning of the holiday.

"What the hell?" she said to herself, wondering who would send her a present...especially since Christmas in Japan was more for lovers than anything.

One of the boxes was from Lilia and Malleus. It was a book on curses, specifically transformation spells. She resolved to look into that the first chance she had, as it was clearly a book on faerie magic.

She hoped the set of "Dummies" books was well received by Malleus along with the manga she sent to Lilia of his favorite series.

Inside the box with an unknown sender was a collar. There was a brilliant golden gemstone that vaguely resembled the one used by her spell pen, but had a more vibrant fire inside of it. Closer inspection under the light revealed several hues that made her inner female dance with joy.

Diamonds were too showy and overrated in her opinion, and the golden color suited her own perfectly. So what if it was set in a collar of sorts, it was still a beautiful gift.

Besides, collars were one of the few things that wouldn't fall off when she switched forms.

She put on the gift without a second thought as to the sender and went about her day. It was nice interacting with the other students without the hustle and bustle of the school being in session.

She completely missed the smug expression on Leona's face seeing her wear the color, unaware of the implications of wearing it so openly would cause.

It was Malleus who was kind enough to tip her off.

"So wearing the collar around my neck is showing I'm willing to start a courtship with someone of high rank?" she said confused.

Malleus pointed at the stone set in the collar.

"That is an actual gemstone, not exactly a gift one would give casually unless they were well off," he explained. "For someone to send that to you before you've been courting for a while indicates that they are of high rank and rich enough that the loss of such a large jewel is of no consequence to them."

"It doesn't help that the gift in question is the sort that indicates they are claiming you as theirs in a way that is both discreet and open at the same time. The fact you're wearing it is telling the others that you are open to the idea, at the very least," said Lilia.

"That reminds me, how did you like the books I gave you?" asked Kiyone.

Malleus had a pleased look on his face.

"It was both insightful and useful. I had no idea my phone could do such things," he replied. The title indicated it was a 'joke' gift, but the information it contained was very useful.

Lilia certainly enjoyed the new additions to his bookshelf, and had spent several hours reading them.

"So how far along are you with the spells in the book?" asked Lilia.

Kiyone concentrated a bit, and her ears shifted to something more...cat-like. Her long, slinky tail shifted to something a bit fluffier, though it wasn't much. It just looked a tad more poofy is all.

"I feel like there's something blocking the full transformation, but I haven't figured out what," she said pouting. The most she could do was the ears and tail, and that was hard enough to keep going!

"Are you trying for a full nekomata?" asked Lilia curiously.

"You said that the original curse had a nekomata. I want to see if turning into one will cause it to shift, even slightly. I'm not exactly happy with the cat's so-called 'true form'," said Kiyone annoyed.

Lilia had seen the so-called "true form" of the cat zodiac. It was clear that something had caused the actual form of the cat to become twisted in the worst ways possible. If something wasn't done and soon, it could become permanent and a nastier curse placed on the family.

Mostly Lilia had become slightly fond of the girl, though the main reason he was even helping her at all was due to the fact that he felt somewhat responsible for not looking into this curse sooner.

The faerie magic Kiyone had inherited along with the youki from the nekomata trapped in her bloodline was becoming tainted in way that Malleus or someone in his bloodline would have to correct and soon lest it go out of control.

It wouldn't do for one of their own to go wild and damage their reputation.