Kyo Sohma/History

### Early Life

Kyo had a very isolated childhood and was rarely let out from his house by his excessively overprotective mother, since she was afraid of Kyo's true form being seen. According to Kyo, she would always cover up her fear of his true form by displaying her motherly love, a love he did not appreciate. She would also check that his beads were intact dozens of times every day.

Due to his position as the Cat, Kyo was despised, pitied, and isolated from the other Sohmas, and served the purpose of being the scapegoat for the Zodiacs. On the days he was able to play outside at the Sohma grounds, he would always be alone. One day, Kagura Sohma found Kyo drawing an egg with a tree branch. Kagura, who had hated herself for also being Cursed by one of the Zodiac animals, found solace in Kyo, since she had it better than him and would never suffer as much as he would. From there on, Kagura became friends with Kyo out of pity, and Kyo, unbeknownst to Kagura's true feelings, happily accepted her friendship.

At some point, Kagura insisted that she wanted to wear Kyo's Juzu bead bracelet, and she eventually took it by force when Kyo rejected the idea. Unknown of what would happen, Kagura witnessed Kyo's true form and was horrified by it. Following this, Kyo and Kagura began avoiding one another and Kyo's mother grew increasingly protective of him.

### Death of his mother

While Kyo was resented by the Sohma family, so was his mother, and her husband emotionally and verbally abused her for giving birth to Kyo, for loving him, and for apparently ruining his life. During these moments, she would seek comfort in Kyo. Eventually, the inability to confide in anyone, the abuse she received from her husband, and the shame of having Kyo as a son and the strain of protecting him, led to Kyo's mother committing suicide by jumping in front of a moving train.

During her funeral, almost every member of the Sohma family blamed the five-year-old Kyo for his mother's death, including his father. Because of this, Kyo grew very vengeful and did not shed a single tear at his mother's funeral. He also blamed Yuki for the incident, and threatened that he would kill Yuki and then kill himself to make his father satisfied. Kazuma Sohma, who noticed the absurdity of this treatment and remembered how the last Cat, his grandfather, was treated by the family, took Kyo in. Having the first person to ever understand his struggles made Kyo break down in tears.

### Taken in by Kazuma Sohma

In contrast to his mother and biological father, Kyo was well taken care of by Kazuma and was shown the "outside world". At some point, Kyo began calling Kazuma "Shishou" since none of his students referred to him as much. Kazuma also began training Kyo in martial arts to teach him discipline, and to help Kyo become stronger in his life knowing it will be so difficult being cursed by the cat. The two bonded over their sessions together, and Kyo finally found something he was passionate about. Hatsuharu Sohma, who had begun training martial arts to relieve his anger, occasionally trained martial arts with Kyo in the Sohma dojo.

Kyo received a normal education, and went to the same school as the other Zodiacs, including Momiji and Hatsuharu. However, he still hated his position as the Cat and blamed all of his misfortune on the Rat, Yuki Sohma. During one of the Sohma's annual banquet, Yuki heard about Kyo, who isn't part of the Zodiac and therefore cannot join in the banquet. When Yuki sneaked out to meet Kyo and attempted to befriend him, Kyo harshly shouted that he hated Yuki, that his very existence had brought misfortune to him, and that he would be better off dead.

At some point, Kyo received a hat he chose as a present from Kazuma. When he was out walking with his father, his hat was blown away in the wind. When he went to find it, he saw that it was already in Yuki's hand. Yuki attempted to give it back, but Kyo refused to since he didn't want to touch anything Yuki had touched, and returned back to Kazuma's side.

### Meeting Kyoko Honda

In the beginning when Kazuma took him in, Kyo often felt like he couldn't go straight home after school, and would therefore spend time in the neighborhood. One of these days, Kyo met Kyoko Honda, whose workplace was in the neighborhood. While Kyoko instantly took an interest in Kyo for having such an odd hair-color, Kyo was harsh and distant because he was not used to people wanting to interact with him. He also thought it was embarrassing that the two of them shared similar names. But Kyoko's persistence broke through, and the fact that Kyoko understood and emphasized with Kyo's situation with his parents, made Kyo think of her as a ray of hope and a person who could make Kyo forgive himself by simply existing.

After their first meeting, Kyo and Kyoko would regularly cross paths and talk about all kinds of things. Kyoko told Kyo about her past as a delinquent, how she met her future husband Katsuya, how she almost gave up when Katsuya died, and how she now was determined to keep living for her daughter Tohru's sake. As Kyoko continued talking fondly about Tohru, Kyo began wanting to see Tohru for himself as well. He went to check up on her one day when Kyoko was out for work, in which Kyo noticed that Tohru was lonely and sad. Kyo disliked this, and found himself regularly thinking about Kyoko and Tohru and wished that they could be happy forever.

Kyo's strong feelings about the two of them one day led him to Kyoko's house, where Kyoko had become hysterical since she had lost Tohru. Kyo promised Kyoko that he would bring Tohru back home safely. However, Kyo later got the news that Tohru already had been rescued by another boy who had a hat in his possessions. Kyo was enraged when he realized that Tohru's rescuer was Yuki, and feeling betrayed that Kyoko had apparently sided with Yuki, ran away. In spite of Kyo's insults towards her, Kyoko brushed this off and gleefully shouted that Kyo had to keep his promise to protect Tohru. After that, Kyo never saw or visited Kyoko again.

### Pre-Fruits Basket

During Kyo's middle school years, he was described as a problem child. Since he was constantly bullied by other children for his natural orange hair color, he would beat them "half to death". This violent behavior of his was often brought to attention to the teachers. One day, Kazuma was called in due to being Kyo's guardian. However, the fact that Kazuma was made fun of because of Kyo's mistakes in school, similarly to how Kazuma received inappropriate comments for taking in Kyo when he was a child, made him declare that Kazuma was not his father. Even though he did wish that Kazuma was his real father, he didn't want to burden him and kept a distance between them.

During his first year in a local boys' high school, Kyo was taking a walk where he saw Kyoko again. He wondered if he should speak to her, but he suddenly saw a car driving in Kyoko's direction. Kyo knew that Kyoko was in danger, but he couldn't act on his desire to help her because if he did drag her out from the way, he would "hug" her and transform. He couldn't bear the thought of transforming into a "monster" in front of so many people. Kyoko was eventually run over by the car and laid there, dying, when she finally noticed Kyo, the boy she had met so many years ago. When he heard her mutter the words "I'll never forgive you", Kyo ran away as he was overcome with guilt, regret, and despair.

After this incident, Kazuma, realizing how utterly broken Kyo was without knowing the exact reason, took him to the mountains to recover, though it said that they went to the mountains to "train". During the “training”, Kyo grew majorly depressed, couldn't continue with his day-to-day living, and had given up on his life. Right before thinking that he would be better off dead, Kyo's thoughts once again shifted to Yuki, and he blamed his mistakes and misfortunes on Yuki.

After coming back four months later, Kazuma informed Kyo that he would be away for a sabbatical training for a while, and that when he returned, they could live together again. Right after he came back to the city, Kyo was summoned to the main house by Akito because his biological dad informed about it. He was also severely reprimanded by Akito due to being away for such a long time. However, seeing how desperate Kyo was, Akito made a bet with him: that if he could beat Yuki before graduating high school, he could become a full-fledged member of the Zodiac. If he wouldn't be able to, he needed to spend the rest of his life in the Cat's Room. Kyo accepted the deal, but didn't particularly care about becoming a true member of the Zodiac. What drove Kyo was that he thought he finally could be happy, since he finally had a concrete reason for hating Yuki and making him his scapegoat, and made it his life goal to defeat him. He immediately went to Shigure’s house to beat Yuki, not knowing that he would find Tohru there.

## Present

Kyo's first appearance is when he jumps through the roof and challenges Yuki to a fight. Amidst the commotion, Tohru ends up accidentally embracing Kyo, Yuki and Shigure, who turns into a cat, a rat, and a dog respectively, much to her surprise. After explaining everything about the curse and settling down, Kyo was shocked to realize that the girl was actually Tohru Honda, the daughter of Kyoko. This pained him as Tohru's presence made him unable to forget his guilt for apparently letting Kyoko die.

The next couple of days, Shigure has an angry Kyo transferred to Tohru and Yuki's school after he apparently had been training for four months in the mountains instead of attending his previous school. Despite his initial anger of having to live under the same roof as Yuki and not accepting Tohru in the household, he becomes good friends with the latter, especially after she confessed that she has always liked the Cat in the Zodiac legend the most.

As time passed, Kyo reunited with Kagura Sohma who is obsessively in love with him, much to Kyo's fear and annoyance. She almost tells Tohru about his "true form", but Kyo shuts her mouth. When Tohru briefly returns back home to her grandfather's house, Kyo and Yuki go to her grandfather's house due to being bothered by her department, and listen in from the outside as Tohru reveals that she wants to spend more time with the Sohmas and live with them. Kyo and Yuki eventually arrive to take Tohru back to their home, and Kyo tells Tohru that it is alright to be selfish once in a while, causing Tohru to remember her mother giving her the exact same advice when she was young. Thus, Tohru joyfully moves back in with the Sohmas.

For the following months, Kyo takes a part of his school's cultural festival, and gets to know Tohru's friends Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima. During New Year's Eve, Kyo and Yuki unhesitantly planned to spend it at the Sohmas' family estate for the banquet as Tohru insists that they go with Shigure to celebrate while she stays in the house. However, on their way there, the Sohmas encounter Saki, where she points out that Tohru will truly feel alone as it would be the first time she will spend the New Year without her mother. This causes Kyo and Yuki to rush back home, mentioning that they "want to go home", whereupon Tohru is tearfully happy that they're back. Later, Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki climb up to the rooftop to watch the sunrise to start their new year together. Kyo swears that he will beat Yuki this year.

The year starts with Kyo competing against Yuki during an endurance run, though they are interrupted by Hatsuharu Sohma. Haru challenges Kyo to a duel, but once Yuki starts getting sick, Kyo decides to go back to school and plays poker with Saki, Shigure, and Hiroshi and Yusuke. A day before Valentine's Day, Kyo is invited to a double date with Kagura, Tohru, and Yuki. When Kyo refuses to get along with Yuki, Shigure pushes Kyo too far when he states that, even though he hates Yuki, Kyo is afraid of getting to know him, forcing Kyo to run away. Worrying about him, Tohru catches up to Kyo, encouraging him that he does not have to get along with Yuki if he does not want to.

On Valentine's Day, Tohru and Yuki accompany Kyo and Kagura for their double date. After the end-of-term tests, Kyo, Yuki, Tohru, and Momiji visit the inn and spend the night there. Momiji later reveals that he and Hatsuharu will be joining her high school as first years, which annoys Kyo.

Sometime later, he started dating Tohru. and 1 year later, he meets Ken at the subway resturant where the two immediately become infatuated with each other, 1 week later they met again and Kyo had the opportunity to ask him out, and Ken agreed. months later, they became really close. Ken finds out Kyo's true form but is not afraid and loves him for who he is, Ken asks Kyo to be his boyfriend to which he accepts. they begin dating and become an incredibly loving and affectionate couple who yearns to spend as much time together as possible and vows to always be at one another's side.

1. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol. 6, Chapter 33
2. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol. 12, Chapter 68
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `CH34`
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol. 15, Chapter 84
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol. 20, Chapter 119
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `CH120`
7. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol. 5, Chapter 28
8. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 1, Chapter 1
9. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 1, Chapter 3
10. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 1, Chapter 5
11. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 1, Chapter 6
12. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 2, Chapter 9
13. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 2, Chapter 7
14. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 2, Chapter 11
15. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 3, Chapter 14
16. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 3, Chapter 15
17. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 3, Chapter 16
18. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 3, Chapter 17
19. ↑ *Fruits Basket Manga*: Vol 3, Chapter 18