𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕥 || 𝕂𝕪𝕠 𝕊𝕠𝕙𝕞𝕒

I Hope We Can Be Friends!

The room was quiet. Hiyori could have easily been compared to a statue at that moment. She was so frozen that she wasn't even twitching as she stared at the black dog and the grey rat, both of whom stared right back up at her.

But she was the one to break that silence when she screamed and scooped the little rat into her palms. With dramatic tears trailing down her cheeks, Hiyori turned to show Tohru.

"Oh my gosh, Tohru, I did it too!" She shrieked. "I turned Sohma into a rat! A-a-and Shigure's a dog! I don't know how that happened! What do we do?!"

"I-I don't know!" Still holding the orange cat in her arms, Tohru returned to panicking alongside her. "They need a doctor, quick! We have to hurry!"

"What could a doctor do?!"

"I'm not sure! But we have to do something! We have to fix this!"

Their hysteric yelling was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell and a voice calling out.

"Hello? Package delivery!"

Freezing, girls shared one look. Hiyori clutched the Yuki-rat in one hand and took the Shigure-dog with her other arm. Then they sprinted right down the stairs and up toward the door, which Tohru tore open while breathing heavily.

"They're all animals!"

The delivery boy just smiled. "Yeah, those are some cute pets you've got there. Now, if you could please sign here..." 

"No," Tohru dropped the cat to wave her hands desperately. "You don't understand -- "

Setting down the Shigure-dog, Hiyori showed him the Yuki-rat in her palm. "Just look! This rat wasn't a rat a few minutes ago! He was a human -- our classmate! And he's really nice and he invited us to live here, but then I repaid him by falling on him and turning him into a rat, and -- "

When something brushed against her leg, she glanced down. Then, dumbfounded, she watched the Shigure-dog walk past her with a stamp in his mouth. He stamped the document in the awaiting spot.

The delivery boy chuckled. "Aren't you a smart little poochie?" He handed the package to Tohru. "Thanks a lot, ladies! Have a good day!"

Tohru dropped to her knees. Hiyori reached after him with her shaking free hand. "Wait...Please don't go..."

Someone growled in frustration, and it was neither Tohru nor Hiyori. The girls met eyes before slowly glancing over at the cat and the Shigure-dog. Glaring at the Shigure-dog, the cat was bristling furiously.

"We could have covered if you jerks hadn't transformed, too!"

The Yuki-rat sat down comfortably in Hiyori's hand. "You're the one who screwed up first, stupid cat."

Staring at the small rat, Hiyori blinked slowly. She came up with two possible conclusions; either the shock had driven her to insanity, or the rat had just spoken -- with Yuki Sohma's voice, no less.

She didn't know which conclusion was more plausible.

"Oh, yeah?" The cat hissed.

Sitting up, the Shigure-dog barked to end their bickering. Then he sighed. "We can either tell them the truth or make up a story they won't believe anyway..." He turned to face the girls. "As you can see, I'm the dog. Yuki is the rat, and Kyo Sohma over here is the cat. We're all possessed by animal spirits." The cat, Kyo, finally stopped hissing. He turned his head with a huff. "Eleven others in the Sohma family are similarly possessed by the different zodiac animals. It's been this way for generations."