24The Curse of the Cat
121. Get Up
Teruo didn't often leave the estate. He didn't need to. He didn't attend a co-ed school and the Sohmas owned enough of the area to be self-sufficient.
But Koichi and his mother lived outside the cage. So did Chiaki. And maybe it was the little bit of resentment from the Cow or the bonds of family stretching beyond that, but sometimes he stepped out of the box purely to visit them.
And he hadn't heard from Koichi for a while. Chiaki said he'd been back at school last he'd spoken with her, so he must be a little better.
And he was. He was a little pale but the dark circles were disappearing from under his eyes and they were no longer burning red.
The apartment was still empty, though. Warm and musky as though he'd rarely been leaving it.
So, of course, the first thing he did was throw open a few windows.
'You don't need to,' Koichi protested.
'You need to,' Teruo corrected. 'What's happened to curling up in the fresh sunshine?'
'Nothing.' His cousin turned away from him at that. 'It's just getting too warm is all.'
'Or is it getting too close to July?'
Koichi said nothing.
'Are you just going to give up?'
To his surprise, Koichi offers him a small smile. 'I might be feeling a little melancholic, but I'm not giving up.'
Teruo allowed a small smile of his own. 'Who uses melancholic in a normal conversation?'
Koichi shrugged. 'What's normal, at the end of the day? Sohma or cursed or not, we're all unique in some way or other.'
122. Villain
There's more knocks on his door and Koichi lets in the others. There's no Koji, he noted, and that was a relief considering Teruo was still there and eyeing the others with distrust.
'This is Teruo,' he introduced, ignoring the look. 'My cousin from my father's side.'
'Oh.' Takuya clapped his hands. 'The cow from the Zodiac, right.'
'Oh,' Teruo mimicked. 'So you know. That's careless, Kou-chan.'
'Wasn't entirely me,' Koichi replied, disappearing into the kitchen. It was getting too crowded, suddenly. And though he hadn't said so aloud, Teruo was right. He'd purposely left the curtains drawn and the rooms closed, even though his head spun and his heart hammered in them. And now they were all open but there were six people in a little apartment meant for two, and it was crowded in the wrong way, in a way he didn't need to get used to after all.
'So you were thinking it.' He jumped when Teruo spoke, from behind him. 'Couldn't not, huh.'
'Couldn't not,' Koichi agreed. His hands still shook a little as he poured chips into a bowl. 'But even if I can't do anything against Fuyuno, even if I can't fight my brother, I can still win freedom by not losing against captivity.'
Teruo just shook his head. 'You've chosen the hardest path of all.'
'Don't I know it. But I couldn't make any other choice.' Even though the task only seemed more and more daunting.
The ways to win against life imprisonment… there weren't many, and they weren't pretty. He could lose his mind or lose his life, or somehow keep fighting and stay behind bars until old age or the death of a god.
But which cat, even with their fabled nine lives, had ever outlasted a god?
'Hey.' Teruo said suddenly. 'If Fuyuno dies, I'll break down that door myself and none of the other zodiac members are going to stop me. Promise.'
'Should you really be wishing for the death of a god?' Koichi asked wryly, even if he had, sometimes, fleetingly, wished for the same thing himself.
'Hey. Next to the cat, the cow has the most reason to hate him. But it's not just that. You're my cousin, after all.'
'Umm…' Tommy's voice behind them made Koichi jump again. 'What are you two talking about?'
Teruo snatched the bowl and squeezed past Tommy into the main room. 'Ask Koichi later.'
'Teruo,' Koichi snapped.
Teruo just picked out a chip and munched on it, and apparently Tommy didn't feel confident enough to push the matter after that.
123. Worst Day
There was an awkward air in the room, after that. They ate chips and Koichi shivered in the spring air. It wasn't particularly cool – rather, it was warm by spring standards. But his skin was crawling, and the fever that had seeped into his bones was still there.
And there were too many things the others only half-knew. Like the monsterous form the cat. Like the life imprisonment that awaited him. They'd seen. They'd asked. But he'd gotten away with half-truths and sporadic answers and the passing seasons and flurry of activities and him being sick again had distracted them.
Perhaps they'd learnt. Perhaps they didn't want to step too close.
Or perhaps they were just waiting until he'd recovered a little more.
He could see it in their gazes, now. The way they carefully side-stepped his cousin. They wanted answers, and maybe they'd even come today with that intention and had been thwarted.
In that case, he was grateful to Teruo's presence.
He was grateful anyway, even if they could never pretend there wasn't a hierarchy within the Zodiac between them.
And, when his mother came home early, he couldn't help but be grateful that Koji wasn't here. She'd met Zoe, but meeting Koji again would be another thing. Even though she knew. Even though he didn't. He just knew that, as the rat, he was the key that bolted the door shut.
Koichi froze when someone knocked, again, on the door.
It can't be.
'Oh,' said Takuya, 'that must be –'
Even Teruo looked a little alarmed now.
The others looked confused. So did Tomoko, going to answer the door. 'I didn't realise you were waiting on someone –'
She pushes the door open and freezes. 'Koji,' she says eventually, audibly fighting to keep her voice even.
Koji, in comparison, fails spectacularly. 'M-mum? B-but you – you're…'
The others stare at each other. 'But isn't his mother…' JP began, but is interrupted by the others quickly shushing him to listen to the door.
Finally, he gets the word out, and even the pair of cousins are caught unaware.
'…dead.'
124. Bewitching
Koji had noticed, early on of course, the absence of a mother in his life. Later, it was Satomi, one of the house-keepers from a lesser branch of the Sohma family, filling in that spot, but at the beginning it had been him and his father and the distant faces of house maids.
And Fuyuno and the other Zodiac, of course.
Though when he said other, they were always three short. Later, it became four when Chiaki left as well. He only knew bits and pieces of what had happened there, but there'd been a huge fight and blood. He knew that much. And he knew that, despite all that, Chiaki came like clockwork to each new year's celebration, and other summons as well.
So did the cat of the zodiac, though the others rarely crossed paths with him.
But their generation had no bird, still, and perhaps now it was too late for one; Fuyuno was a young adult already, and he couldn't have many more years left. And the dog – Shokan – there were only whispers of him now. There'd been more, when Chiaki had left… when some of the lesser branches had whispered that she'd only been allowed to leave to prevent a second suicide amongst them.
But his mother had been an outsider. He'd known that from the beginning, or thereabouts. Even his father, who'd always develop this sad and melancholic look when the topic came up, rarely spoke about her. For him, it could have been said it was grief, but the others whispered behind his back like his mother had been something to be ashamed of. The few photos they had tucked away said little more: just her appearance –
And now she was standing here, before her, and he wondered how he could have misunderstood so badly, who it was who'd told him she was dead when she wasn't, or maybe this was somebody else after all…
Except she said his name. She knew who he was. And maybe Koichi had mentioned something to her or maybe he hadn't.
Koichi who lived with his single mother.
Koichi who was the cat of the Zodiac.
And maybe that was why, all in all.
125. Jubilant
Koji, caught in his own thoughts, was off-guard by the hug.
Luckily, one of the others had the sense of mind to pull them both inside and shut the door, so no-one else had to see the spectacle. His mother was crying, anyway; whether she'd even noticed she was hugging a rat now instead of a human or whether she didn't care.
If she did this all the time with Koichi, maybe she didn't care.
And speaking of Koichi… Koji looked around at the gaping faces. Teruo was here too, which was a surprise of a different sort, and he looked both uncomfortable and a little mad. 'I'm leaving,' he said, a little too loudly.
Not that anyone was really listening to him, though. Only Koichi was, standing a little back, and he nodded. 'Thanks for coming.'
'Sure.' And with that he slipped through the door and closed it firmly behind him.
The others stayed, though. Takuya and Tommy and JP and Zoe. Stayed until they shoed each other into the main room.
Koichi, though, remained where he was standing. Waited until Tomoko let go and Koji had, somewhat awkwardly, redressed himself into his scattered clothes.
'You knew,' he said, finally, and somewhat accusatory.
'I didn't want to fight,' Koichi replied. And, maybe to him, it was as simple as that, because they were brothers – twins – and the Ultimum was win against the rat or face a life-long imprisonment.
But Koji's mind was racing, now. It was too full: with his mother right in front of him, with a new spin on the relationship between the cat and the rat, with July now looming, even more cruelly, above their heads.
'We need to talk,' he muttered, and mother and son nodded. 'But not right now.'
Because then this moment will have vanished, like a dream.
