Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Natsuki Takaya

Juunishi

The Cat hadn't always had a true form.

After all, such things happen gradually. From hurt, to jealousy, to hate… Such feelings take time to develop.

It began as hurt. It pained the other animals, to have the Cat reject eternity. It sounded as if he had rejected them, their friendship, their happiness.

Jealously slowly formed after. The Cat had betrayed them all, yet God still loved him… loved him as if the treacherous Cat were his favorite.

And then hate, smoldering coldly. The Cat… the cold, cruel, traitorous Cat… the Cat was a monster. In all of their hearts, they could only see him as thus.

Perception is everything.

The bonds of eternity held them close and affected them all. The things they felt in their hearts began to be projected onto each other.

The Cat fell first, gradually. He hadn't always had a true form, after all. The Cat hadn't started out as a monster.

And in the same way, the Rat hadn't started out as a liar, a scheming opportunist. The Ox hadn't started out slow and stupid. God hadn't started out as suffocating. But who would have perceived such a gradual chance occurring?

The blessing hadn't started out as a curse.

…
Owari
…

-Windswift