𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦

give me strength!

I cock my head in the same fashion when Tohru and Yuki come back with the addition of a soaking wet Hatsuharu holding a tiger wrapped up in blankets, and Tohru's bleeding fingers.

Haru gets to bandaging them, while the tiger I know as Kisa scurries away to the corner. I have not seen her since she was an elementary student. And at that point, she was human too.

Here I was, just about to head out to the temple to visit Papa to get some peace of mind, but everyone has suddenly shown up. Never a boring day with this family, that's for sure.

"Kisa!" Yuki scolds. "Hurry up and apologize!"

"Yuki," Shigure stops him. "Kisa cannot talk. Ever since she entered junior high, suddenly she cannot talk. Hatori says it's an illness of the heart... she's locked her speech away."

Yuki's expression drops.

"From not wanting to go to school to not wanting to come home anymore," Haru adds, surprising all of us. Even me. "That's why I was out to find her. By the time I did, she had already turned into a tiger. It gave me a scare. I think it was only from weakness."

"What happened?" Yuki asks.

"Oh, she was bullied!" he says, and Kisa immediately bites his arm, freaking Tohru out. "What, you're mad? "Don't meddle" you say? Don't you know how much we worry for you? Your parents are still out looking for you right now!"

Kisa lets go, to let Haru bleed, and then scampers off outside. Tohru is so torn between the problems arising she's dizzying herself.

"Calm down, Tohru-kun," Shigure sighs.

"Tohru, we can go find her together," I say, dropping my bag and opening the door. Let's hope the rain outside isn't going to transform me, I can't be assed to bring an umbrella to find Kisa.

We find her in the corner of the house, Tohru's voice startling her to the bones. "Kisa! You were here the whole time, I'm glad to have found you!"

Another bite.

Tohru's face fills with tears as her hand throbs up again. "It doesn't hurt... it doesn't hurt at all..."

"Kisa-chan, please let go of her!" I scold. "If you want to bite anyone, bite someone tough like me but don't hurt people who worry about you... we just want to understand what's going on."

She takes up my offer quite literally, taking a big chomp.

Suddenly, another woman with dark hair suddenly crouches beside us. Her mother, called by Shigure.

"Kisa, please return home," she says, but her expression is so vacant when staring at her daughter. A tired sigh escapes her. "What are you doing? Why do you always bring the people around you so much trouble? You made mother worry about you. Are you happy about this? Why didn't tell mother someone was bullying you? Why did you run away from home? Why do you refuse to talk? I'm already very tired... I can't take it anymore..."

Tohru's face softens, probably struck by what she knows about parents of cursed children. "I couldn't do it... talking about being bullied is very hard. I couldn't tell anyone either... But after a while, mother found out. I kept apologizing like an idiot. I was scared. What if mother thinks I'm useless? I was just too ashamed."

Kisa's grip slowly loosens on my hand.

"I was really ashamed, so when mom told me "it's okay!" I was really comforted. "This kind of thing is not shameful," she said, and I began to cry. Kisa too... your feeling is probably similar at this time. You are thinking that mother would think you are useless."

Suddenly, a cloud blooms up with her transformation.

"Because mother loves Kisa, she wants to hear you say these things."