Fruits Basket: Yuki Ptsd

Chapter 13

Shigure sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell." he paused and looked at Kyo, who had lowered his head, so his gsze met the ground.
"Kyo, I know, that this is a sensetive subject, but-" Kyo turned around to leave, but Shigure grabbed his arm. Kyo was surprised about the strong grip, never before had he realized, how strong the writer truly was.
"listen to me, when I'm talking to you. I know the cats fate, alright, but I wasn't talking about you here."

In that moment Kyos gaze shot up, still having his back turned towards Shigure, he gazed over to the sleeping Yuki, while his face showed multible emotions at the same time. Anger, pain, sadness, pity, acknowledgement, fear.
Now it was official, to Shigure at least, Kazuma had told him something. Wether Kazuma was relying on his own Theory or had read and asked Akito about it, Shigure didn't care.
"Exactly, look, I don't know what Kazuma told you about it. To be honest neither Kazuma nor I or you are supposed to know any of it. It's a secret, between the house doctor, the god and the rat. Where Kazuma got the information from or if he had it at all and it wasn't just a theor supported by a lot of evidens, I don't know. But whaat I know for sure, is, that he told you, that you and him are much more simular, than you can imagine."Shigure said this quietly. Awkward with the situation, Machi, Haru and Kakeru had returned to doing their homework, while Thoru stood in the hallway, invisible to the people in the sitting room, standing a couple of meeters behind Shigure, so that she wouldn't interrupt.

Had however been near enough to hear Shigures words, that didn't escape the dog.
"Come on you two, let's go outside and I'll explain this a little, since there is no longer a point in hiding it anyways." Shigure said, for now putting aside the things he had been ordered from Akito for now.
''Haru, Machi, Kakeru, take care of Yuki while we're gone." the kids nodded

Once the three of them arrived at a hidden bench in the forest, sure, that no one had followed them outside.
It was silent for a moment, then Shigure sighed.
"Well?" Kyo asked impatiently.
"Kyo tell me, what did Kazuma tell you exactly."
Kyo was quiet for a moment.

"He said, that there was no use in hating the rat, that according to his grandfather, the rat had a simular life to the cats. He said, that I should treasure the fact, that Yuki is still here and not replaced with the next poor child to be born into the rat. He told me, that despite what is said. the rat is hated as much as the cat, if not more. And when I asked him, what he meant by it, he said, 'my grandfather once told me, that he outlived around 16 rats. From which fife had died as baby shortly after birth. And that the rat had even less time to live in freedome, than the cat did."

"So Kazuma had it from the previous cat, I suppose he really knew a lot, after all even in the cage, the rat is not treated like an animal, even he receives the inside news and newest technologies." Shigure mumbled,
"Ehm, Shigure, what did Kyo mean, by even less time and freedome and what about sixteen rats. I mean, sure, the last cat apparently did get about 103 years old, but-. And why'd he say treasure, that Yuki is still here? Shigure, please, if you know something, then tell us. We, I-"

"thoru, calm down, that's exactly, why I took you all the way out here." He paused to sort his thoughts

"The rat is the most reborn animal of the whole zodiac, because only 7 rats have made it above the age of eighteen." He stopped, to let them take in the first sentence, he knew, that this itself woouldn't be too bad, but there was a heavy story  ahead and Shigure didn't exactly know how to tell them,neither did he know, wetheror not he was the right person to do it.

"Most rats die before they turn one year old, about 50% of all rats die before one year, about 35% die before ten years old, about a little more than 14% percent make it shortly under or to eighteen, and only about 1% survives eighteen."

A tear ran down Throus cheek. "but why?" She asked silently.

"Because the rat cannot live without its god. Do you know, why in the original zodiac, the rat tricked the cow?" Shigure waited for an answer.
When he didn't receive one, he simplpy continued talking. "It's because it was ill, had a deadly disease and was not strong enough to walk the whole way by itself. Once it had arrived at the banquet, god had saved its life, healing it enough to survive, but not enough to regain full health. Soon after, it died on the already inflicted damage."

"So, ever since then, every rat was born weak, every rat has died at early age, from some kind of disease. It can be any kind. From cancer to a mild cold, for the rat ... for Yuki, everything can be fatal. For being the rat, he's rather old." Shigure added. "Oh and Kyo, when Kazuma said Yuki is more simular than you thought, he was talking about the rats cage. Every rat is bound to life close to their god, because it ows its entire life to god. So the rat has a room in the main state, Yuki was locked up in there from the time he was about 3 to when he was 14, in his time there, Akito apparently treated him like a stressball, wjen I got to him, he was malnourished, injured and sick."

"But why would-?" Thoru said, surpressing another sob.

"In his time there he almost died from his asthma, you know that from Hatori and Haru right? Well, when he was first with me, he was sick with terribly high fever, incredible stomach pains, so bad he couldn't even keep water down and had a bad cough. Hatori and I looked after him for