In a mist-filled room, God held the Cat in his arms.
"I'll hold banquet after banquet, forever unchanging…" God said. "I may be lonely right now, but everyone is waiting for me… on the other side of that promise."
The miko fell to one knee and bowed, the animals surrounding her giving a sigh.
"Kami-sama," the miko said. "I swear to always carry out your promise. The Watanabe bloodline shall forever be ensorceled unto the service of this promise."
The miko crossed her arms in front of the golden pentacle.
"S-AN!" The pentacle glowed, and the souls were drawn in, along with her own.
Suddenly, she was alone, facing a woman, a demon. The demon spoke a word of curse upon their promise.
"MU-DU-ROU!"
That was in the long-distant past… The original memory, forgotten by everyone. The original promise.
Xxx
Kurisuta Hikawa sat straight up in bed. That dream again.
The Promise, the Lotis, the Curse.
Her mind drifted back to her childhood—a simpler time when she wasn't burdened by curses or divine promises. Back then, she'd spent summers in the countryside, staying with her grandmother. It was there that she met him.
Hatsuharu Sohma.
A seven-year-old Kuri, clad in a bright red miko's hakama, peeked curiously over a small wooden bridge.
The morning mist lingered heavily as she approached the Sohma estate, her gold pentacle necklace clinking softly against her chest with each step. She didn't know what had drawn her here, only that her dreams had grown restless. The vision of a banquet, the laughter of animals, and the sorrowful figure of a God holding a cat in his arms haunted her every night.
Something about the Sohma family tugged at her soul.
Her reflection shimmered in the water, but something else caught her attention—a boy with striking black and white hair sitting under a tree, holding a small calf by a rope.
"Why does your hair look like that?" she asked bluntly, crossing the bridge to get a better look.
Haru glanced up, unbothered. "It's always been this way. Why does your hair look like that?"
Kuri blinked, touching her long, dark hair. "It's just… normal?"
"So is mine," Haru said with a shrug, scratching the calf behind its ears.
Kuri knelt beside him, tilting her head. "What's its name?"
"Her name's Ume," Haru replied. "She's shy, like me."
"Then maybe we'll get along. I'm shy too!" Kuri declared with a grin, though her confidence suggested otherwise.
Xxx
From that day on, Kuri and Haru became unlikely companions. Whether playing by the river or watching the stars, they always seemed to find each other whenever Kuri visited. But when she turned ten, her grandmother's teachings became more intense, and the visits stopped.
Xxx
Kuri adjusted her gold pentacle necklace, smoothing out her school uniform. The familiar weight of the charm grounded her as she approached the Sohma estate. She wasn't sure why, but her feet had led her here.
She stopped short at the gate. Her breath hitched as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. Memories of summers spent with a quiet boy who spoke in calm, measured tones flooded her mind.
"Is this… where Haru-kun lives?" she murmured.
"Hikawa-san?" a voice called out.
Kuri turned sharply, spotting Yuki Sohma approaching her. His expression was polite, but a flicker of recognition crossed his face.
"Oh! Sohma-kun. I, uh… I was just…" Kuri stammered.
"Looking for someone?" Yuki asked, his tone gentle.
Before Kuri could respond, a new voice broke in.
"Kuri?"
Her heart stopped. She turned to see Haru standing just a few feet away, his black-and-white hair unmistakable even after all these years. He was taller now, his features more mature, but his soft gray eyes were the same.
"Haru-kun?" she whispered.
Xxx
"Kuri?"
The soft, familiar voice stopped her in her tracks. Turning, she froze. It had been years, but she would have recognized that voice anywhere.
"Haru-kun?" she whispered.
There he stood, his two-toned black-and-white hair catching the sunlight, a calm and familiar expression on his face. Hatsuharu Sohma was taller now, his features sharper, but his gentle aura was unchanged.
"I thought it was you," Haru said, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"What are you doing here?" Kuri asked, heart pounding.
"I live here," Haru said simply. "What about you?"
Kuri hesitated, unsure how much to say. "I was… drawn here."
Haru raised an eyebrow but said nothing more, gesturing for her to follow. As they walked along the wooded path, Kuri couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity, like she'd been here before, though she was certain this was her first visit.
Xxx
As they neared the house, a loud crash startled them both.
"Damn it!" a voice yelled from the other side of the garden.
Haru sighed. "It's probably Kyo. Let's take the long way around."
Kuri nodded but paused as she heard another sound—something that wasn't quite human. A low, distressed bellow echoed from nearby.
"What was that?" she asked, turning toward the noise.
Haru was gone.
Kuri hurried toward the sound, ignoring Haru's protests. Pushing aside a line of bushes, she stumbled into a small clearing—and stopped dead in her tracks.
There, in the middle of the clearing, was a cow.
A black-and-white cow.
Kuri blinked. "Haru-kun…?"
The cow looked at her with familiar gray eyes, its expression sheepish. Then, in a flash of light, the animal vanished—and there, crouched on the ground, was Hatsuharu, human again but completely naked.
Kuri's mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. Haru, meanwhile, calmly pulled a robe off a nearby branch and shrugged it on.
"I can explain," he said, though he didn't look particularly inclined to.
"You turned into a cow!" Kuri finally managed to choke out.
Haru sighed. "It's… complicated."
"Complicated? You're a cow, Haru-kun!" she repeated, still staring at him like he'd grown a second head.
"It's not just me," Haru said. "It's… my family. We're cursed."
Xxx
After Haru guided her back to Shigure's house and she'd finally calmed down, Kuri sat on the porch, staring at her hands. The Sohmas were cursed—but why did it feel like she already knew that, deep down?
"You're taking this better than I thought," Haru said, sitting beside her.
Kuri shook her head. "I'm not sure I'm 'taking it' at all. It just feels… familiar somehow."
Haru glanced at her, his gray eyes searching. "What do you mean?"
"I've had dreams," Kuri admitted. "Dreams of a banquet, animals laughing and dancing, a God who made a promise… and a curse that twisted everything. I thought they were just dreams, but now… I'm not so sure."
Haru stiffened. "You've dreamed about the zodiac banquet?"
Kuri looked at him, surprised. "That's what it's called?"
Haru nodded. "It's part of our family's history. The Sohmas have been bound to the zodiac animals for generations. We don't talk about it to outsiders."
Kuri hesitated, then decided it was time to tell him the truth. "I'm not just an outsider, Haru-kun. My family has been connected to yours for centuries."
"What do you mean?" Haru asked, frowning.
"I'm a miko of the Watanabe clan," Kuri said, touching her pentacle. "Our role is to serve the Sohma family—to protect the promise and keep the bond of the zodiac alive."
Haru's eyes narrowed. "Protect the promise? What does that mean?"
Kuri looked away. "I don't know. My grandmother trained me to be the Sohmas' priestess, but she never told me why. All she ever said was that the promise must never be broken."
Xxx
That night, as Kuri lay in her borrowed room at Shigure's house, she couldn't sleep. Her mind replayed Haru's transformation and his words about the curse.
Something wasn't adding up.
Her grandmother's words echoed in her mind: "The promise must never be broken, no matter the cost."
What cost? What had her family been protecting all these years? And why did her dreams feel more like memories?
Unable to shake her unease, Kuri crept out of the house and into the woods. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small charm—a piece of parchment her grandmother had given her years ago. On it was a single word written in red ink: MU-DU-ROU.
"The curse," Kuri whispered. "It's not just on the Sohmas. It's on me too."
As she stood in the moonlight, the shadows around her seemed to grow darker, and a voice whispered in the wind: "You are the key, Priestess. You are the lock."
Kuri's hand tightened around the charm. Whatever her family had been protecting, it wasn't just the Sohmas' secret. It was something far more dangerous—something that had been waiting for generations to break free.
And somehow, she was at the center of it all.
Xxx
The next morning, Kuri sat beside Haru as they watched the sunrise. She hadn't told him about the charm or the voice—she wasn't ready yet. But as Haru leaned back, his usual calm demeanor reassuring, she felt a small flicker of hope.
"Whatever this curse is," Haru said quietly, "we'll figure it out together."
Kuri glanced at him, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Together," she echoed.
But deep down, she couldn't shake the feeling that her role as the Sohmas' priestess wasn't about saving them.
It was about keeping something locked away.
Something that, if unleashed, could destroy them all.