Fruits Basket, Volume 20 by Natsuki Takaya

Tohru goes to see Rin and Kagura, and Kagura is angry at her, wondering if Tohru likes Kyo only out of pity, as the last woman who loved the last cat did. She's so angry at the thought of Tohru professing to love Kyo only out of pity that she punches Tohru, who says that she loves Kyo more than she loves her mother, and that upsets her, as she believes that she shouldn't love anything more than her dead mother. Kagura says if she really loves Kyo, she should tell him so.

Rin remonstrates with Kagura, and Kagura apologizes to Rin, but Tohru has passed out, and Kagura refuses to apologize to her. But that's all right, as Tohru has no intention of apologizing to Kagura, either. Kyo walks Tohru home, and she wants to confess her feelings to him, but she can't.

Back at the Sohma house, Momiji is leaving, the curse having apparently broken for him. His mother still no longer knows him as her son, but he is okay with that, and wants to move on with his life. Akhito is upset that he is leaving, and views it as a betrayal. Meanwhile, Shigure talks to Akhito's mother, Ren, and we get to see how she married Akhito's father, Akira.

Apparently, she wanted to be the only thing in Akira's world, but since Akhito was the God reborn (in a female body), she was incensed that he loved Akhito and wanted to spend time with his daughter over her. First, she refused to even give birth to Akhito unless the child was raised as a boy, and frightened her husband enough that he agreed. But her rages and scorn for her own child led to Akhito being afraid that people were going to leave her.

Now, Ren wants nothing more than a box that was given to Akhito and supposedly contained something of value that belonged to her father. When Ren threatens Akhito with a knife, Akhito gives her the box, which turns out to be empty. The servant that gave Akhito the box says it was merely to comfort her, that she should have known it was empty. And Akhito did... intellectually. But emotionally... that's another story.

Akhito, determined to pay her mother back, picks up the knife and is about to stab her, but doesn't. Ren seems truly surprised that Akhito would treat her that way, but says she wouldn't mind if Akhito did kill her. At that point, Akhito gives up. Her family and the Zodiac bonds are crumbling, and there is no way they can be repaired.

Kyo takes Tohru home, and feels compelled to confess to her that he could have saved her mother, but he was afraid that if he grabbed her to save her from the speeding car, he would turn into the cat and his secret would have been revealed for everyone to see. She had met him when he was younger, but when Tohru went missing as a child, he went out and searched for her. Unbeknownst to him, Yuki had found her and brought her home. When Tohru's mother told him, she was carrying Yuki's hat, and he was upset that Yuki had outdone him again, and he took it out on her mother.

So when he saw her mother again, he wasn't sure how to approach her, and he saw that the car was going to hit her... but chose keeping his secret over saving her life. He is sure that Tohru will tell him she hates him now, but he waits for her reply...

Wow. This series continues to blow me away with the honesty and vividness of its writing, and the art that accompanies it. The way that the characters are drawn changes slightly to match their emotional state, and whole paragraphs of meaning are given without a word needing to be written in the panels.

The Sohma family remains a real piece of work, attributable, now to Ren, Akhito's mother, and her own neediness and wanting to be the only person who matters in the family. Because of her machinations, and her own meddling with the family, as well as their ancestral curse, the family is as screwed up as it is possible to be, and her raising of Akhito would have passed on a twisted legacy if the curse had continued for more generations.

It's perhaps no secret that the series is only 23 volumes long, and with this being volume 20, it is drawing to a close. Honestly, I can't think of a manga series that is better done, or which I enjoy more, than Fruits Basket. Anyone who thinks that manga are just kid stories for Japanese kids, just show them this series, and it will shut them up right quick. If you haven't picked it up by now, then do so! You won't regret it.