Fruits Basket Chapter 131!

An ancient story is revealed...

{I'm doing it in a different way this time. Catalyste is away too so can't do a translation for Gaia so I'm taking over and doing a trans/summary mix. And with the amount of text in this one it really doesn't make much difference. Thank you so much to Yoshiko who helped a lot with this translation. I struggled a lot with so much text on some pages. *Loves the end, so little words*}

DO NOT COPY OR REPRINT. IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS TRANSLATION, ASK FIRST!

Once a long time ago,
there was a man.
For as long as he could remember he had always always
been by himself.
If he climbed down the mountain,
he knew that he would meet people,
but chose to be by himself.

The one who is at the top, normally is alone.
Having the strength of a thousand men.
Having the lives of a thousand men.
That man having a thousand memories,
he knew that he was different from other people.

This man was
afraid of other people.
He was afraid of getting hurt.
While he had so many powers,
he was afraid of
this self that he knew was so different from the world.

And so to him
a cat came one day.
This was a sudden encounter with another visiting him.
The cat bowed his head and said.
"I have been following you for some time."

"You have a most unusual aura,
I can't help but be drawn to you.
I realise I am but a stray cat
but won't you please let me stay by your side?
Please "God"."
Since then
as he said, the cat
never left the man's side.
He never left for a moment
and that made God so very happy that

a thought came to him.
"Perhaps, I can get along with them
if it was a being other than human.
If it is with beings who have had similar experiences,
then we can have a fun banquet."
And so, God wrote out many invitations.

In return, twelve animals
arrived to see God.
Following that,
the thirteen animals and and God had a banquet each night in the moonlight.
Singing and dancing,
and laughing with each other.

At the banquet, for the first time, God laughed out loud.
Even the moon quietly watched
over the beings who did not look human.
However, after some time
the cat collapsed.
He was ill
and there was nothing they could do.
Every one of them cried.
Every one of them realised

eventually, everyone would die.
The banquet would end.
No matter how fun it was.
No matter how much you love them.
Eventually.
Then
God
cast
one spell.
He drew a cirlce in the water with his finger.
He had the cat take a sip of water.
Then he turned to everyone else and said.
"Let us make our friendship"

"last for eternity.
Even when we die,
let us be bound by our friendship for eternity.
No matter how many times we die,
no matter how many times we are reborn,
again, in the same way
no matter how many times,
let us have another banquet.
Everyone getting along
for all of time.
Let us be in enternal bliss."

Everyone nodded in agreement
and the rat took the first sip.
Then was the ox,
the tiger,
then the rabbit.
In their turn
the water was divided equally.
At the end, when the last drop was gone
The cat began to gasp.
"God,
God, why
did you make me drink that?
God, I
do not want eternity."

"I do not want eternal bliss."
Those
were unthinkable words to say.
To God and all the other animals
it was rejecting words.
Everyone was sad to hear them
and they all turned against the cat.
Even so, that cat said,
"God, God, even though you are frightened,
let us accept that all things end.
Even though it is sad,
let us accept that life ends."

"God, even though it was just for a short time, I
was happy being by your side.
If I
were to die, be reborn
and meet you again,
The next time rather than in the moonlight
I want to see you smile in the sunlight.
The next time I meet you,
I want to see you laughing surrounded with people."
And for the last time the cat raised his tail and died peacefully.

But none of the animals cared about the cat anymore.
Because everyone felt they had been betrayed by the cat.
After that, one by one,
they all died.
In the end, the dragon died last
and so God was alone once more.

And eventually,
even the day came that God died too.
However, he was not afraid
because his promise to everyone supported him.
"Again.
We will have a banquet again.
Once again
many times,
always
unchanging.
No matter how alone I am right now."

"On the other side of that promise everyone is waiting for me."
Now this is a story
from a time long ago.
It is the first memoryeveryone has forgotten.
The first promise.

The story ends and we return to Yuki and Machi where we left them in thelast chapter. Yuki is still crying from the loss of his rat spirit as Machi worries about him.

"President...?"
"Sorry...
Sorry, all of a sudden.
It's just
...I just separated
from someone I have
always been with...
Though we were always together,
it was always so painful together...
Such a burden..."

"And now that
we have parted,
this is my reaction.
I'm being so unfair."
"Can you...
not
see that person again...?"
"Yes.
We will never meet.
I know it...."
"Goodbye."
"In exchange
he has given me
my "freedom"."

Yuki stops speaking and steps forward, hugging Machi, knowing he's beenfreed from the curse now. She blushes shocked as Yuki speaks once more.

"I'm sorry...
You
probably do not understand.
What I wanted to talk to you about
was
different from this. But"

"...right now,
this is enough..."
"Ah,
um.
Actually,
there was
something I
wanted to
ask you..."
"What is it...?"
"Can I call you
...by your first name?"
"Of course.
Say it."
"...Yu
ki..."

As she says his name, Yuki runs his thumb over her lower lip and she looks up at him.

"...Say it again."
"...Yu
Yuki..."

As she says it once more Yuki leans down and kisses her. {At last!}

"However many times you want..."
The first
promise,

Since when did it
become a "curse"?

We cut to Kyo and Tohru who are at Kazuma's house. Kyo showing Kazuma hisbeadless wrist. It takes him a minute to realise what it means before pulling Kyo into a hug.

Since when did it
become a "burden"?

We see Haru and Rin appear, Tohru realising everyone is free now, not justKyo.

When everyone was happy
and struggled to part.

We see Tohru as she realises that Akito must have also felt the curse beinglifted. She begs Kyo then Kazuma to go to the main house with her to see Akito.

Love
should have been there.
Time has gone by,
people have changed
and it became something that has made people suffer.

Together, the three of them go off to see Akito.

I'm sorry
I'm very sorry.
But,
there is something I want to say to you for trying to keep the promise.
Although it is not the promise that was originally made,
to all those who kept it,
what I most, most want to say to you is:

Thank you.
Thank you.

We see Kami once last time as we go to Tohru standing before Akito's room. The door opens and Akito reaches out, grabbing Tohru by her top and pullingher inside. The door shuts behind her and Kazuma laughes.

The far far story,
the very first memory that everyone forgot.
The story of when the cat's words came true
was much

much,
much
later.

Inside the room we see Tohru and Akito hugging. The cat below them being petted by Kami.

Banner: The time when the Cat's words reached the heart of God, the far far banquet ended at last. A new today from yesterday comes to God at last.

Next chapter: 5th of September in Issue 19.

My Thoughts:
I loved the begining of this chapter. It was so nice to see the full story of the zodiac at last. Especially the real Rooster and Dragon. I feel so sad for Kami, he loved the cat so much that he tried to do something nice for his friend but in the end it was the wrong thing to do. He reminds me of Akito in a lot of ways, he still has that child-like character that we see in Akito; afraid of being alone and not knowing what the right thing is to do.
I would've liked to see more explanation as to how the story that Tohru knows came about. Why it was only the rat that hated the cat in the story and none of the others.
It would've been nice to see some explanation as to why the Sohma's were the ones cursed. I think it's possible Kami was a Sohma in the very begining.
If he was a Sohma then it makes sense that he would be reborn into his own family. He had to come from somewhere so must have had some kind of family. Perhaps in the village down the mountain?
I hope it's explained more later.
I really would've liked to see more with Yuki and Machi in this chapter. We had so much on Kyo and Tohru leading up to their kiss, granted Yuki and Machi aren't as major as the other pairing but it would've been nice to see a little more.
He also will never now know if Machi had accepted him. Of course she probably would have considering this is a shojo but we'll never really know, will we?
I can't wait to see them all together in the next chapter. I'm hoping it won't be a Akito/Tohru centric chapter. We've already had them really talk it out for a good three chapters, there's nothing more to say with them so hopefully if Akito has to say anything she'll say it with the other's around.
Now we know there's going to be another chapter, this really raises the possibility of there being another volume. There's never been a seven chapter volume so hopefully we'll have another five chapters after 132.
If we do I'd personally like to see some really good future scenes to see what everyone gets up to.


Scans found here courtesy of BillWang, Hana to Yume etc:
http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/Seph-Noir/Fruits%20Basket%20chapter%20131/

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