her tent is buried in a landslide during a rainstorm, Shigure convinces her to move in with him and Yuki as housekeeper in exchange for room and board. As she settles in, Kyo Sohma arrives to challenge Yuki to a fight. In the confusion, Tohru accidentally embraces him and he transforms into a cat, and when she stumbles into Yuki and Shigure, they transform as well into a Rat and Dog, respectively. The Sohmas explain that their family is cursed, and they are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac plus the cat legend says would have been included if it had not been tricked by the Rat into missing the induction feast (see Zodiac origin stories). Tohru promises to keep their secret, under the threat of having her memories of them erased—a compromise agreed to by Akito Sohma, the mysterious head of the family, who orders Kyo to live with Shigure as well. Tohru is soon friends with the three Sohmas—especially her classmates Yuki and Kyo, who she hopes will become friends themselves—and they in turn are slowly affected by her presence. Yuki is especially touched by Tohru's request that, if her memory is suppressed, he will remain her friend, which no one had asked him before. Kyo initially appears to dislike Tohru, but he, like Yuki, is "drawn" to her kind heart and gentle demeanor. However, his inability to express his feelings results in frequent impulsive angry comments to Tohru, for which he usually ends up apologizing. Gradually Tohru meets the other cursed members of the Sohma family, and through her kindness and sympathy is able to help Hatori, Ayame, Kisa, Hiro, and Ritsu. Her encouragement to Kisa also helps Yuki face his own self-doubts and accept becoming president of the student council; in addition he knows, by a cap Tohru treasures, that she is the lost little girl he once led home, an act that showed him that he was not as unneeded by others as Akito claimed. Tohru becomes particularly close to Kyo after his foster-father Kazuma Sohma forces him to reveal the monstrous "true form" of his curse; although initially repulsed, Tohru stays with him even after he violently tries to push her away. Both Yuki and Kyo fall in love with her, though neither tells her. As she learns more about the zodiac curse, Tohru becomes increasingly distressed by its cost to her friends—especially