▪	RELEASED BY:		TOKYOPOP
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		NATSUKI TAKAYA
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / BW
		▪	PAGES:		216
		▪	RATING:		T
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		03/11/2008
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		03/09/2008
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

Time is running out for both Tohru and Kyo. Soon graduation will occur and if she hasn’t broken the curse by then, Kyo will be locked up forever as the hated Cat of the unwelcoming Zodiac. She cannot bear to be parted from him, but the depths of Tohru’s fear awaken an all new emotion – guilt. She promised her mother she would love her above anyone else, what would happen to her bond with her dearly departed mother if she allows the young man who means so much to her cause her to lose that, to lose her mother because she displaced in Tohru’s heart with someone else. Tohru cannot bear it and so begins one of the more heart rending issues of Fruits Basket.

Kyo and Tohru stumble around each other like incredibly awkward people in love but somehow unable to see how much their holding back is hurting the other. Both trying to protect each other, they have no idea of the agony they each feel. Shigure, proving more and more that he is much more cognizant of what is going on than anyone guessed, has an honest talk with Tohru. She learns more about the curse and his words cut her deeply when she considers what his revelations mean.

Curiously it is Kyo who learns more about Tohru and her mother when he has a chance meeting with her grandfather. With this new understanding of Tohru’s life, and the pain she’s held inside since her father’s passing let alone it having been trebled with the loss of her mother, he goes to her. It is one of the more tearful yet heartwarming scenes in the manga.

This volume isn’t all about them though. Yuki is seen trying to get some space and ends up shockingly at his older brother’s. We at last see some solid and poignant truths about Ayame that have not been revealed before and serve as a lesson by example for Yuki. He and Machi are getting closer ever so slowly. Yet it is the other members of the student council that get the spotlight for some surprising reveals about Komaki and Kakeru. We see the depth of their bond and what tragedy ties them sadly to Tohru. It seems there is no single character in this series without heavy regrets and who hasn’t lived through serious anguish. It is one of the things that make the story and its characters deeply involving and ultimately one of the most emotionally moving manga ever made.

IN SUMMARY:
More heart rending angst in the astonishingly emotional Fruits Basket.