Jyunishi Comedy #121

The one closest, yet most distant. Unable to accept one another; the "bird" and the "dog"

Tohru thinks about how, if what Kyo had said was true, that it was very sad. But, even though that was sad, what she found to be even more sad, was the look in Kyo's eyes as he told her everything that had happened. The look in his eyes, were so very sad and dear to her, even more dear than her mother.

Akito appears before Tohru, gripping the knife she'd carried from the mainhouse.

Akito: Are you going to...
Throw it all away...

Are you going

To leave it all behind...

Akito: Will you leave it...

All behind...

And as Akito asks Tohru this, she sees her mother juxtaposed with Akito...

Yuki, running down the street after Kyo, suddenly runs into Shigure, who is on his way home from an all-night drinking fest with some fellow authors.

Yuki: The idiot, did you see the idiot!?
On the road somewhere!! The idiot!!

Shigure: Idiot?

Shigure: Ah, you mean Kyo-kun eh?
I didn't see him.

Yuki slumps as he realises that he'd guessed wrong as to which way Kyo had run while Shigure asks Yuki what Kyo had done. So Yuki explains that, while he doesn't know the details, that Kyo had made Tohru cry...

The feeling of being left behind

Akito demands if Tohru's happy at having won between the two of them. After having completely stolen away her place, making her the outsider, and being liked by everyone, Akito asked, if all that made Tohru feel good. Hearing that, Tohru finally starts to see the real Akito and realises:

[Ahhh

Finally]

Akito: I hate you
So much...

[I can see]

Akito: Your destroying...
Someone's world, and despite that

Being able to stay so "clean", you're

The filthiest of all...!!

[Akito-san]

Tohru: The entire time......

You were always right there

Akito: ......!?
St-...

*slash*

Tohru: !

Akito: Stay back...
Stay back. You make me sick!!

Tohru can only curse her own thoughtlessness and short-sightedness as she finally realises what Akito's life must have been like.

[All this time]

Tohru: You were...

Lonely,
But putting on a strong front, weren't you...

[From the very start]

Right from birth, being "special"

Having a line drawn

Treating
And being treated
Not as part of the circle, but as the one who stood above them all

[That's]

[No different from

Having been left behind]

Tohru realises that Akito had clung to the ideas of eternity and unchanging because not doing it was very frightening. Akito slaps Tohru and yells at her to shut up. And she refuses to be either fooled by Tohru or to be won over by her words...

Tohru: I am
Dirty

Just like you said.

While denying
Your wished for "unchanging"

In truth, even I
Was wishing for it.

For "unchanging"

Unchanging feelings
Bonds

[Always together]

And Tohru thinks to her mother of how she's found someone she loves and realises:

If a part of living
Is changing,
Then

What cruel gentleness it is

And having fought so long and hard to reach her answer, despite Kyo refusing her feelings and being told it was a disillusion, even should her feelings of love never be fulfilled, Tohru had since decided that she would no longer stay still and live in the past.

Mom

I'll

Be going

Tohru tells Akito that neither feelings nor thoughts can be bound and realises that Akito also realised that. And because Akito realised this, that that was why things were always so frustrating, saddening, difficult and so very lonely for her.

Akito screams in denial, of how she hates the fear and that sort of world. A world, the real world, where nobody needed her. A world that was filled with strangers. A world where the "promise", the "bond", and "eternity" didn't exist. The idea of living amongst such utter strangers terrified her. And there was no guarantee that she would be loved.

And so Tohru, reaches out to Akito, and asks her to start anew then and there with her since the way they'd met had been so very badly done.

Tohru: Hello

I'm

Honda Tohru.

...Your

Name is?

Tohru: I want

To become friends.

*SLAP*

Akito: Liar...

Saying
That sort of thing...

If I cry, you'll quickly
Get annoyed.

If I make a fuss, you'll quickly become angry.

You'll hate me

And abandon me...

Tohru smiles gently at Akito her hand still outstretched.

[You were

Right there, weren't you]

Akito thinks of the last 12shi banquet where despite everyone being there, she was still all alone. Only she wasn't alone anymore. And at the thought of Tohru, sitting there with her, she starts to cry. However, as Akito starts to reach out her hand, the ground beneath Tohru gives way. Akito stands at the top of the cliff, her hand outstretched, staring in shock as Tohru lies still, down below.

Become

Friends

To be continued in Issue 4, Jan 20, 2006 release.