Jyunishi Comedy #115

Tohru's... Akito's feelings can't be stopped...!!

Searching for the person that can no longer be met
  Getting lost in the mirror's maze--
Where does it lead to
  How far does it go--
Noticing the figure that suddenly appears in the mirror
  --Who are you? You are me...

From last chapter and Tohru's feelings of leaving to this chapter and Akito's feelings of being left behind...

Ren has apparently given her attendants the slip again and snags Shigure as he walks along a porch. In the meantime, the ladies in waiting (aka the maids) talk among themselves wondering why Akito allows "that woman" to remain free. However, it seems that if Akito acts rashly, the "other faction" - the Ren faction, would make a fuss about things.

Despite there being no doubt that the leader of the Sohma clan is Akito, and that the previous clan leader had stated clearly that all power belonged to Akito alone, Ren apparently seems to think it's all a lie. The elder maid goes on to wonder how long Akito would remain in bed and comments that the 12shi are being very cold, not showing much care about Akito.

Kureno enters Akito's room bringing something to drink and finds her sitting up on her futon cradling a box.

Akito: Kureno

This... Do you know it?

What it is?
Kureno...

Kureno: ...?
No...

Akito: That's right...
You don't know, do you

Afterall

Akito: The only one who knows is...

Kureno: .........?
Is... something wrong?

What's

Inside it?

Akito: .........

Father......

In the meantime, elsewhere, Shigure mentions to Ren how she was wrong to use Isuzu and try to get the box away from Akito. Afterall, Shigure had told her "it was a secret".

Ren: ... Did you really?
To me...

(Shigure:) (It's a secret. Akito-san

Has something that she keeps hidden and treasures greatly

Apparently, it's Akira-san's--...)

Ren: It sounded like you were saying
"Go and get it"

Shigure denies that he'd hinted at any such thing and when Ren tells him it'd be so much simpler if Shigure himself simply took it and brought it to her. Shigure however says he didn't want to do anything of the sort, and that it's so exalted.

[I don't even want to touch that sort of stupid box.

But

It's also an annoyance.]

Ren agrees that it's very much exalted and that the only one worthy of having anything that carries Akira's name was she herself. And that she'd been the only one to ever be loved by Akira.

Kureno, tucking Akito in as she sleeps, thinks back about Akira and what he remembered of him.

[Sohma Akira...

The previous head of the clan and Akito's father.

...Even through the eyes of a child, Akira-san was
Beautiful

And ephemeral.

In truth, the doctors
Had determined that he wouldn't live long.

The sadness of going so young.]

Apparently the clan had searched for some time for someone who would make a suitable partner for Akira. And how during this time, Ren managed to curry Akira's favour. Ren had been one of the people who looked after Akira.

Ren tells Shigure how it was fate that she and Akira met. How she'd always hoped that Akira would notice her as she cared for him. And how she knew that she was the only one who could save him. Ren knew she was the only one who saw Akira's loneliness and fear of dying alone and loved him.

Ren: It was no good without me.
We were connected at a deep level.

To the point that those around us couldn't understand.

However, when told that Ren was in no way acceptable and that she was to leave the Sohma household immediately, Akira stood up for her.

Akira and Ren were married and a rift was born inside the mainhouse between the senior members and the newer members who'd been slighted by those senior. And while the senior members were against the marriage, the younger members became their allies.

Ren tells Shigure how they'd been happy. That there was only the two of them in the world and how she was the only one in Akira's world and that was enough. It had been enough but...

[It was after a while that
Akito was conceived

It was that day that we'd surrounded her]

[The possessed and the people of the mainhouse became unusually overjoyed by it.

The one who gathers the 12shi

The chosen one

The one who was most ecstatic about Akito

Was Akira-san.]

Ren decided that Akito was to be raised as a male supposedly because she figured there'd be too many difficulties if the heir were female, however, Shigure realised otherwise. Apparently, Ren had made quite the fuss threatening not to have the child if it wasn't male and Akira, fearing that, agreed to her decision. Shigure realised that Ren was jealous of Akito being surrounded by others and having been promised to be loved, and of her no longer being #1 to Akira. Shigure then goes on to ask Kureno if he remembers the look on Ren's face when they'd first gone to see her. Ren had yelled at them not to treat the child as special and how the child was just a person with no special ability.

Shigure: "Ah, danger"
That's

What I thought.

[I'm here]

Ren: It's enough for a woman...
To be loved by just one man

[Here]

Ren: It is enough!!

[Notice]

[I'm here]

Ren: Akira-san...!!

Kureno, watching as Akito sleeps opens the box that Akito had been holding and looks at what's inside. And after a short moment and a glance at Akito, he closes it again.

Ren tells Shigure that he too is pitiable. That he's caught up in the "bond" of some old-fashioned curse and is thus at Akito's beck and call. Afterall, he doesn't even love Akito. That he's merely caught up in a dream. She goes on to tell him that, the look on his face is the same as that time when he wanted her.

Shigure: ...

I'm aware of it.
That when

I look at you

Tenderness wells up...

Shigure: I was able to dream
How, if Akito had lived like a woman,

She'd have looked like you.

You're right, I did
Want you to get it.

That box

Is suitable for you.

You alone are more than enough for being haunted by Akira-san's ghost.

After Shigure tells Ren that that box isn't anything that Akito needs, Ren throws a fit and yells that Akito wouldn't even exist if it weren't for her. And that it's because she'd been there, that Akira himself had been saved.

Akito dreams of when Akira told her about the story of the 12shi, how God held a banquet and that she was that god. Akira had told Akito that she was a special child, one who was chosen, how everyone had been waiting for her, and that her future would know nothing of loneliness or fear, that there would be nothing but "unchanging". Just as Akira tells her that no one would ever leave her however, Akito wakes with a start. A short moment later, she realises that Momiji...

Momiji stands staring outside at home and starts crying as he realises how easily the end came.

Nobody

Will leave you behind.

Banner: And another bond comes to an end. As though the more one tries to mend the split seam, the more the split widens. As though denying Akito...

To be continued in Hana to Yume Issue 20; Sept. 20.