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Kyou Sohma
Kyou is the cat from the Juunishi, or should I say, the cat that should have been of the Juunishi. The cat was tricked out of going to God's party for the animals by the rat, and thusly, missed out on becoming an animal of the Zodiac.
Rude, harsh and stubborn, Kyou adds the needed flavor to the series. Tohru seems to be the only girl he's interested in, though he won't admit it. He's been shunned from his family since he was little, owing to the fact that he's cursed with the spirit of the cat, and doesn't fit in with the other members of the zodiac. He doesn't like to be around people and is rumored to have spent 4 months up in the mountains, though he denies it.
At first, Kyou can't stand being around Tohru. He constantly yells at her, insults her cooking and appearance, and is just plain nasty to her. But when Tohru exclaims, "I LIKE the cat from the Juunishi!" and insists that they become friends, he begins to realize that there's more to Tohru than he thinks. He begins to warm up to her, allowing her to be around him, to talk to him about things, and he even cooks for her when she's sick. Though Tohru can still get on his nerves with her silly stories and her always-smiling face, he watches out for her without her knowing it. I guess that's just the kind of guy Kyou is.
There's another woman in his life, though he refuses to acknowledge her. Kagura Sohma, the boar of the Juunishi. She's over protective of him, and can be quite violent when she doesn't get her way with him. When they were little, Kyou asked Kagura to marry him, though he says it was just because she threatened to kill him. Kagura seems to love Kyou, and she smoothers him with unwanted attention. He has no intentions of returning her feelings, however, and treats her more like a sister.
Of all the people he has to tolerate, Yuki is the one Kyou can stand the least. He seems to believe it was Yuki's fault that the cat was excluded from the Juunishi, and in a sense, he's right. He's jealous of Yuki, mostly, because Yuki had been accepted straight away. He constantly tries to beat Yuki in matial arts, thinking that once he does, he can be accepted as a true member of the Juunishi. Always trying to get the better of his rival, it's quite funny to see how the fights turn out. No one can get Kyou's blood boiling like Yuki can.
Kyou's mother killed herself when he was little because she couldn't bear the thought of having a cursed child, much less one cursed with the spirit of the cat. He has a master, too, that trained him when he was still very little, who he respects more than anyone else he knows. He's forced to wear a bracelet to control the vengeful spirit of that cat, and when he takes it off, he transforms into his true form. And believe you me, it isn't pretty. I won't spoil anything for you here, but let's just say that Tohru's relationship with Kyou is put to the test when she sees what Kyou's been hiding from her all along.
