Word Count : 2344
"A girl? Akito-san is.. a girl." Tohru gasped. The information finally reached her and her eyes widened in shock.
"Is that really true?" Torhu asked.
"It's true. It's the biggest of the Sohma secrets." Kureno replied.
"Then why are you telling Tohru this?" I wondered. Why now of all times would Kureno reveal a secret, especially one this big.
"She should know." Was all he said, not going into more detail.
"But Akito behaves like a man... And none of the others ever treat him like... a girl... I never dreamed she was a girl." Tohru mumbled to herself but Kureno and I could both hear her talking out loud.
"Akito's been raised as a male since birth. She decreed it."
"Who?"
"Someone who almost saw you at the main estate. She rarely leaves her room. She has some... troubles, mentally and physically. But she looms larger than most in Akito's mind. Ren Sohma. Akito's mother." The reminder of her sent a shiver down my spine as I remember when I first met her.
---
I walked around the Sohma estate getting to know the layout and where everything was. It had only been a couple of weeks since Mom's death and I haven't been taking well. I moved into my new home about a week ago and I still didn't know what most of the estate looked like. I walked by an empty hallway when I heard a noise come from the room to my left. I worried that someone had gotten injured so I knocked on the door.
"Is everything alright?" I asked, the door to the mysterious room opened revealing a tall woman. Her hair was so long, it went past her waist and was nice and smooth similar to what mom's used to look like. She started at me looking up and down and she looked like she was only half awake. "Akira?" She said, not answering my question earlier.
"I'm sorry but you have the wrong person." I told her. Her hands reached out and started twirling her hands around her fingers.
"It's just like him." She mumbled continuing to play with my hair. I started to get weirded out but I didn't say anything. "What's your name?" I was hesitant to answer the stranger but I did anyway.
"Ami Sato." I told her. "I'm sorry but who are you?" I asked. She looked me in the eyes.
"Me... I'm Ren." I froze remembering what my mother told me.
---
"What about your mom?" I ask. That's when the look in her eyes changed. I felt her shaking slightly as she held me close to her.
"That woman is not my mother, her name is Ren. Ami if you ever meet her, stay away from her. Don't go near her. She is a cruel person." Mom was always a gentle and kind soul but talking now, she didn't seem like herself.
"Mom, you're scaring me."
"Sorry. But please promise me."
"I promise. Is she why you left?"
"Yes, she is."
---
"Please stop touching my hair. I need to get going." I lied, I felt the urge to get out of the area and away from her. It was no wonder I thought she looked like mom, if she was my grandmother.
"Oh why? We just started talking." She smiled at me. The smile looked cruel and cold, like there was no kindness in the intention of smiling at me.
"What are you doing?!" I looked to my right and there Akito appeared.
"Oh, Akito. I was just saying hi to this girl." She says removing her hands from my hair and placing them on my shoulders. "Don't you think she looks like Akira? You wouldn't mind if I kept her with me for sometime?" Akito rushes over and grabs me, pulling me away from my grandmother.
"She's mine!" Akito shouted at her mother. "You don't deserve her! She's all I have left of my sister!"
"Asami?" her eyes go wide. She looks down on me. "Don't tell me she's Asami's..."
"She is! She's mine, so stay away!" Akito shouted once more.
"Why? Because of some stupid bond?"
"How do you know she's a member of the zodiac?" Akito glared and I continued to stay silent.
"With such an unnatural hair colour it's obvious, not to mention how protective you are of her, even if she is Asami's daughter."
---
Not long after that incident I was forced to move out of the Sohma estate and was sent to live with Shigure and Yuki. When I asked Akito about it, she just said that she didn't want me causing any trouble.
"She's the one who decided to raise her daughter as male after already having one daughter.. Neither Akito nor Ren-san will comment on it. All I know for certain... Is that they hate each other. Ren says the ties that bind Akito to the zodiac are wrong. She says they're unnatural. Not real. So she's constantly clashing with Akito who clings to our bonds. That day... The morning after Ren-san conceived Akito, I woke up in tears. So did Shigure-niisan, Hatori-niisan and Ayame-nii-san. We used to be the only zodiac members who knew Akito is a female. Apparently, Ritsu was too young to sense it clearly. But the four of us all had the same dream. Akito, the god we had not seen yet, came to us in a dream and said, "I'll see you soon." So we ran straight to Ren-san, who didn't know she was pregnant yet. As we cried, we just kept crying "We've been waiting for you." It... It was like this feeling I didn't recognize welled up in my heart, and sensed a me that wasn't me, shouting. It was the zodiac spirit. Another self that lived inside me. In my blood. At the first sign of a new ego forming the zodiac blood begins to hound us: "Never betray Akito." Now that my curse is gone, I can see that our bond was unnatural. Ren-san is right. But I see something else, too. A crying girl. I can't push away a crying Akito. And I can't see Arisa while there is another girl I have to stay with." Kureno said.
"You said "After already having a daughter." Tohru said.
"She used to have an older sister." Kureno explained.
"Used to?" Tohru questioned.
"She died. She left the estate to get away from the Sohmas and ended up finding love. She ended up dying leaving her child in the care of her daughter's aunt. Akito."
"And the daughter, what happened to her? What happened to Akito's niece?" Tohru asked
"She's right behind you." Kureno replied. His eyes landed on me. I heard Tohru gasping and turned to look at me. Her eyes were filled with tears dripping down her face.
"I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. All the things Kureno is telling you I knew. And I wasn't allowed to say anything. I'm sorry for not telling you." I confessed letting my emotions free I started crying as well.
I have been holding this in for so long someone had to say it.
"I'm sorry to unsettle you by telling you all this. But I wanted you to know that the same Akito who wounds others too easily is herself deeply wounded. I wanted to give you an idea on why I can't leave her." Tohru continued to cry and Kureno reached out, whipping her tears. "I'm sorry. All I ever do is hurt others. But this is the path I chose. The one I took of my own free will. I'm sorry, and thank you for everything." Tohru dropped the disk she was holding and Kureno turned his attention back to me. "Akito may not want to see you but she misses you so much even if she doesn't show it. It's obvious whenever you are mentioned." The wind blew strongly and carried my scarf away with it. I was frozen in my spot so I didn't bother going after it. Tohru collapsed to her knees and I leaned down and sat next to her. I held onto her fearing to let go. Eventually the sun went down and we sat in the darkness. The sound of footsteps and we turned around seeing Hanajima standing behind us with a young boy who I assumed was her brother.
"Here I am to save the day." She said.
---
Hanajima and her brother took the two of us to her house and we were currently sitting on the floor in her bedroom alone. Neither of us said a word and we just sat in silence. She entered the room with a tray of tea.
"Tea is ready." She said placing the try on the table in the centre of the room.
"Oh, thank you..." Tohru said.
"Careful, it's hot." She told us.
"Right..." I mumbled to myself.
"Um, Hana-chan? What brought you there?" Tohru asked.
"You were both crying. It was in a voice no one but me could hear, you were crying so loudly. Something sad happened, didn't it?" She explained.
"Hana-chan, I'm... so confused..." Tohru confessed. She brings her hands up and buries her face in them. "Kureno-san is... Kureno Sohma... I wanted him to see Uo-chan, so... I asked him to... But he says he can't. Because... Because he has someone he needs to stay with... K-Kureno-san is a caring man who...puts someone else's feelings before his own. I couldn't say anything. So many people have had to help... but when it was my turn I couldn't do anything. I was so useless. Uo-chan... Kureno-san..." I stayed silent listening to Tohru explain. I trusted her not to let anything slip.
"You do the same thing. You put others' feelings before your own. I... worry about you. If you keep taking on people's feelings like that, and treating them carefully... and carrying them on your shoulders... I worry one day they'll crush you. I worry that if they crush you we'll never see you smile again. If that happens..." Hanajima told her. The door opened and on the other side Uotani was there partially out of breath.
"If that happened, it'd be the end of the world." She said, entering the room.
"I called her." Hanajima explained.
"You told me to hurry, so I ran all the way here from work!" She gasped.
"Did you hear us?"
"I heard." She confessed sitting down on the ground. Tohru looked away from Uotani and I looked at the ground.
"Sorry..." I started.
"Don't you start apologising, you can't control it!" Uotani interrupted me. It was silent for a moment. "So, listen... I'm trash for making you both cry."
"I wasn-" I tried to deny. It felt weird having cried when my heart wasn't the one that was just broken.
"Your face is red, meaning you were crying earlier." She said, calling me out.
"Uo-chan, you're not trash!" Tohru shouted.
"Well you're not useless. I love you dummy. Both of you." She said, pulling us into a hug. "You can stop worrying. I'm all right. I mean it this time." She let's go, releasing us from the hug.. "I was right. Kureno is just like you, Tohru. You're the same kind of dumb. So I figure...I've got a weakness for dummies. I don't want to cause trouble for people like you. So that's the end. That's it." She smiled.
"Someone broke your heart Arisa-san?" Megumi asked. Both Uotani and Toru let out a shriek at the sudden question.
"Megumi..." Uotani started, her face looked angry and her fist was balled in a fit.
"Megumi, you need to be more sensitive in times like these" Hanajima told him.
"But some things just take a long time to find. Like friends... or someone you love. So it wasn't all for nothing." Megumi said.
"Well, duh! That's my personal creed!" Uotani agreed.
"All right, shall we get the party started?" Hanajima asked.
"Oh, I'll help." Tohru offered.
"Anything I can do?" I asked. I was happier seeing Uotnai no longer looked sad but we can never know if she was not telling the truth. I think she was but part of her was still upset.
"I find my heart beginning to race as I'm surrounded by older women."
"That line again."
"He's said that before?" I questioned. We laughed for part of the night and enjoyed ourselves until we had all fallen asleep.
---
"We're home!" Tohru and I shouted, entering the house, with the bag of supplies that we had originally planned to get the day before. It was quiet and the lights were turned off.
"Shigure-san?" Tohru called out.
"Why don't you look upstairs?" I suggested.
"Sure, you can look down here." She agreed. She heads upstairs and I walk into the kitchen.
"Is everyone still sleeping?" I questioned, talking to myself. Out of the corner of my eye I see a scarf lying on the floor in the main room. "Oh? A scarf." I walk over and pick it up inspecting it. "Is this mine? How did it get here?"
"Oh, good. So it's yours?" I turn to see Kyo in the doorway. His hair was wet so he must have just gotten out of the shower. "Glad I didn't guess wrong. It was lying all crumpled in the street." I pick it up and enter the kitchen.
"I washed it but not all the stains came out. If that bothers you, just get another one." I put the scarf on. "It's not dry yet." I swing at him with the scarf like I had done the day before. "Like I said..."
"Thank you! I'll make sure not to lose it again." I smiled.
"Okay then." He said. "Where's Tohru?" He asked.
"She went upstairs to see if anyone else was awake." I explained. "Must have missed her."
"So you and Tohru stayed at Hanajima last night?" Kyo questioned.
"Yeah, Uotani joined us as well and we had a slumber party." I replied. "It was a lot of fun!" I laughed.