Chapter 003
Yuki casually walks into the kitchen, surprised that the kitchen that had once looked like a garbage dump, does, in fact look like a kitchen now. Tohru greets him cheerfully and announces that dinner is ready. Thanks to the Sohmas, Tohru now has a roof over her head. In exchange, she's in charge of the housework.
As the two eat dinner, Yuki wonders where Shigure and Kyo have gone off to. Though he's content without the two of them there, he doesn't want Tohru's good cooking to get cold. Tohru asks him where he went off to, since he disappeared for awhile. Yuki tells her that he was out in his secret base, which sparks interest in Tohru. After promising to show it to her one day, Tohru gets very excited (even though he tells her it's not what she thinks). As Tohru goes off on story about a secret base she knew about when she was younger, Shigure and Kyo burst into the room. Unsure of how to approach the two, who are screaming at each other, Tohru tells Kyo casually that dinner is ready. Kyo interrupts her and tells her he's not hungry before marching off to the roof. Shigure yells after him, as he takes off his shoes, to not take his anger out on Tohru and to come back to take his shoes off. Tohru looks at Shigure and compliments him in his suit, but Yuki tells him that he looks like a talk show host. Taking a seat at the dinner table, Tohru asks why Kyo's so angry. He happily tells the two that he tricked Kyo into taking the entrance exam at their highschool, and starting the next day, Kyo will be joining them. Instead of rejoicing, Yuki instead maliciously tells Shigure to not come near him. Shigure looks on and explains that when Kyo took the entrance exam to the local boys' highschool, he disappeared for four months to train in the mountains. Tohru questions why Kyo would do something like that; Shigure explains that ever since they were little, Kyo has always wanted to beat Yuki in a fight - the two have always been rivals. Thinking back to the Zodiac story, Tohru wonders if it's because Kyo still has a grudge on the rat. She's afraid to ask, thinking that he hates her, which is sad because she finally got to meet the cat from the zodiac.
The next day at school, girls surround Kyo, asking him numerous questions about his relation to Yuki. As the girls surround his desk in class, Kyo gets more and more uncomfortable and scared. A girl goes up to Yuki asking him to introduce her to Kyo. Yuki smiles coldly, telling her that though the two are cousins, they're not close. Tohru, seeing the smile, gets nervous as Hanajima casually begins curling Tohru's hair with a curling iron. Uotoni makes a comment that Kyo's hair color reminds her a bit of Kyoko's, Tohru's mother's. Tohru agrees. Hanajima tells the two that the waves Kyo is giving off is the same as Yuki's. Their different from the others, almost inhuman. Uotoni tells her that's rude, but it scares Tohru all the same.
Kyo, a nervous wreck, begins walking out of the classroom. A girl, wanting him to stay a little longer so that they can talk, clings to his arm which frightens him. Without thinking, he grabs her arm and places her in a lock against a desk, hurting her. Tohru calls his name, horrified that he did such a thing. Unable to take the pressure from his classmates, he quickly makes his escape through a window. A girl tries to stop him because their on the second floor, but then stops when he lands gracefully on his feet and instead watches him run off. The others look on, some impressed, others muttering about his actions. Uotoni laughs, interested that he jumped out the second floor window. Tohru is horrified, as Hanajima finishes curling half of her hair.
Sitting by himself away from everyone else, Kyo catches his breath. Yuki comes up to him telling him to stop being an idiot because it causes problems for him when he does things like that. Sitting there, Kyo asks him why Yuki chose to go to a school that's crawling with girls. Annoyed, Yuki tells him that it's better than living in fear, doing everything that Akito tells them to - at least he's living out of the Sohma cage, even if a little. Kyo rises up, telling him that a rat like him could never understand what it's like to be shunned. Tohru arrives, over hearing Kyo yell that he'll beat Yuki and become one of the zodiac. Just as he grabs Yuki by the shirt, Tohru runs up and tells him to stop while grabbing him to stop from fighting. In the process, Kyo is turned into a cat. Sitting by his side, Tohru wails her apologies, explaining that she stopped him because if he got caught, he'd get in trouble. Irritated at her, he tells her to shut up because he doesn't care what happens to him as long as he beats Yuki; he adds that he can't stand to look at her face. Hurt, Tohru slowly walks away. Annoyed with Kyo, Yuki too, leaves. Kyo asks if Yuki's going to hit him for being an idiot, but as Yuki walks away, he tells Kyo that there are times when it hurts more not to. Left alone, Kyo begins gathering his clothes.
Tohru contemplates the time when she told her mother that she'd stop being the year of the dog and become the year of the cat. She sits alone, punishing herself for helping out. It's just not fair to her that as much as she loves the cat of the zodiac, she can't deny that he hates her. Yuki finally finds her, but her two friends get to her first. Uotoni asks what she's doing all alone when Tohru purposely bangs her head against a metal cabinet to disguise the reason why she's crying. Yuki looks on, saying nothing.
Back at Shigure's house, Kyo lays on the porch outside of Shigure's office. Kyo informs Shigure that he wants to leave because he only says really mean things to 'her'. Shigure glances toward the figure before going back to work, glancing at his manuscript. He guesses that the 'her' in question is Tohru and if Kyo is going to beat himself after speaking ill to her, he shouldn't yell at her in the first place. As he goes through his manuscript Shigure explains that Kyo isn't trained in dealing with people, like he is in martial arts. Like martial arts, Kyo must train, but the training can't be found in the mountains; it's found in towns where he can interact with other people. By doing so, he'll be able to find out more about him and about others. If he doesn't, he'll only end up loving himself. Shigure adds that for the sake of the girl who will one day tell him she loves him, Kyo should continue training. Still sulking, Kyo tells Shigure that he can't even imagine someone telling him something like that. Chuckling, Shigure questions what he'd do if a girl did. Kyo adds he'd probably ask if she was sane. Yuki comes walking into the office, irritated, Kyo slowly closes the slide in door between Shigure's office and the porch. Kyo overhears the two's conversation: Tohru is at work and won't be getting off until eleven. Yuki says he'll probably walk her home. Shigure tells him that's a good idea, since there are so many perverts creeping around at night; emphasizing perverts.
Walking through the forest late at night, Tohru wonders if Kyo ran away from the house. She asks her mom what she should do. She remembers her mom telling her to just be herself. Assured by those words, Tohru tells herself that she won't let it get to her. She suddenly hears some rustling; afraid that it might be one those perverts Shigure had told her, she lunges her schoolbag at their face without looking and screams no. Seeing that it's just Kyo coming to get her, she screams in her head how she can explain to him that she mistook him for a pervert while Kyo is screaming in his head that she has to hate him. Hesitantly, Tohru tells him that she just hit him with her bag and asks what he's doing out so late. Irritated, Kyo tells her to stop calling him '-san', because it makes him twitch and to instead call him Kyo. Surprised, Tohru calls out Kyo-kun. Thinking she wanted something he answers, but she tells him that she just wanted to try it out. Annoyed, Kyo screams that she shouldn't call his name unless she has something to say, but then he stops, realizing that he's yelling at her. He then tells her that she can say his name if she has nothing to say and that he takes back about not wanting to look her; he also adds that she can even hit him if he irritates her. Surprised, Tohru wonders if he's trying to apologize to her, just like in the beginning when he was fixing the roof to her room he broke. Taking this a sign of trust, Tohru reveals that she didn't hit him because she was mad with him, but because she thought he was a pervert. She continues that she could never be mad at him because she loves him, she's always loved the cat from the zodiac and that she just wants to be friends. Embarrassed and taken aback, Kyo tries to shrug it off by telling her that it's not that great to be a cat and tells her to hurry along. Trailing along behind him, Tohru realizes that she's begun to understand Kyo, even if a little; deep down he's a good person.
The next day, Shigure taunts Kyo asking how his 'date' with Tohru went. Angered, he tells Shigure that it was a fluke that he walked her home and that it'll never happen again. Tohru happily tells him that it's okay because she's just happy that he's eating her food. Tohru then asks the surprised Kyo if he likes her food. Unsure of what to say, he notices that Yuki is looking over at him. Irritated, he blurts out that the food sucks. He then apologizes, telling her that he timed that poorly.
Tohru explains that's how she and Kyo became friends. Now that the two are friends, she hopes that things in the Sohma house should be a lot happier now.