Bio

[cat_cursed_13]

Appearance
~   Kyo is an average-sized, tan-skinned teenager with a slender, yet strong build. Often described as handsome, Kyo tends to keep a tough expression on his face, normally wearing a scowl or bored look of sorts, but not at all slow to show a cocky smirk or his temper-fueled snarls when the situation calls for it (in his opinion). His most striking physical characteristics are his scarlet eyes and his bright orange hair, kept somewhat close cut in the back with longish bangs that hang over his eyes. Though due to his growth spurt to age eighteen, there have been a some noticeable changes. He's gotten taller, standing a few inches higher than his canon point, probably closer to 5'11”, more muscular with better tone and definition, and slightly broader at the shoulders, even though he's still on the lean and slender side.

~   Clothing-wise, Kyo tends to keep to casual wear with a touch of rebel. Lower half, normally sporting his cargo pants, school slacks, or similar styles, most often with some sort of belt. Upper half, he always wears open-collared shirts (as he hates anything tight around his neck); any button-up shirts he's forced into is left undone at least two buttons down. T-shirts, sweatshirts (hoodie), the occasional academic shirt or over-shirt, as long as it's on the loose side, he'll wear it. When at home or on his own time, Kyo often tends to go barefoot. The only notable accessory is his ever-present rosary about his right wrist, crafted from alternating light and dark beads. Ties will be disposed of if at all possible.

» { Wiki: "Kyo is a very handsome teenage boy with a rather tall and muscular build. He has nape-length, bright orange hair with cowlicks sticking out of his head and soft spikes, along with long bangs that hang over his matching orange eyes. His eyes are quite sharp and will occasionally become slit-like.

Kyo wears the standard Kaibara High uniform for males, which consists of a blue sweater (white during summertime) with a white color around the collar and edges, and a yellow shirt underneath (white in the anime). Unlike other students, Kyo wears his school uniform unbuttoned without a necktie, since he hates clothes that are tight around the neck. On other occasions, he mainly dresses in loose clothes and V-shirts. He also seems to like colors like red, orange, and yellow, and often wears clothes in such colors.

He wears a set of Juzu beads, or Buddhist prayer beads, on his left wrist that are red and white (black and white in the 2001 anime) in color, all the way around and every other turn." }

Personality
~   Kyo’s defining characteristic is his temper: short, fiery, and proud. It developed early on when he was a child, specifically when other kids teased him about his hair color and he would finally snap and chase them around, yelling that he was going to kill them. But though the surface level dictates that his temper is a way of defending himself from other people’s mocking, it serves two far greater purposes for him. First, it gave Kyo a way to lash out against his life, stemming from the prideful streak that would lead him towards the rejection of his own destiny and internal fighting against the curse. This is often seen within the very reason for his fighting: wanting to prove that he is better than Yuki (the rat and his eternal rival, often considered “the best” at everything he did) and that he deserved more than his current destiny in life. Beyond this defensive/offensive reason, Kyo’s temper was a way of vindicating his own existence over the years of rejection, alienation, and abuse by others due to his curse, causing people to notice him and force them to confront him, deal with him, or at the very least, acknowledge that he’s there. Though he often rejects people and does his best not to be around them, one time confiding reluctantly to Shigure that he wasn’t cut out to be around people, his anger towards those who rejected him juxtaposes the longing he feels to be a part of the life he was denied. All of this can be seen in his very first appearance in his canon. Kyo not only breaks through the roof of the house he was supposed to be staying in just to “make an entrance” (forcing people to acknowledge him), but also challenges Yuki to a fist fight via a casual taunting insult (“Ready to pay the piper, rat boy?”). When Yuki responds with insult in kind, Kyo’s defensive temper lashes out, only to be stopped by Tohru’s frantic intervention (which resulted in Kyo’s predictable loss of temper).

~   Kyo’s temper is a constant throughout the series and is something that everyone around him has to prepare for and deal with, given how quickly and readily he loses it. Kyo often loses his temper over even the smallest things, once punching a table in half just because Shigure kept teasingly pointing out his flaws and another time bolting from his classroom window in frustration to avoid his classmates’ teasing. As self-oriented as this is, sometimes Kyo’s temper backfires, as others can manipulate him to do something he originally refused to do by turning it into a challenge or suggesting he’s too scared, weak, cowardly, etc. to do it. At one point, Shigure lamented the fact that they had no real food ready for so long, Kyo’s initial refusal to cook was brought to such a boil that it inverted and he cooked something just to shut Shigure up. Various other examples of this trait crop up throughout the canon, including Kyo’s entrance into school and later house cleaning with Yuki, Shigure, Tohru, and two of Tohru’s friends. Though Kyo’s temper serves a variety of reasons, because of his temper’s harsh nature and despite it’s inadvertent nature of drawing people’s attention, Kyo alienates himself even further from others, almost instinctively “biting heads off” for little reason. For example, Tohru’s accidental, absent-minded loss of her homeroom number earned a fiery lash from Kyo’s tongue, and her subsequent apologies only made him more frustrated, though he backed down after a bit and reluctantly went to go ask for assistance.

~   On top of his temper, Kyo is both competitive and impulsive and frequently lives up to the “stupid cat” moniker Yuki gives him because he doesn’t think things out. When confronted with the revelation that he had been registered for the same school as Yuki and thus must pass the entrance exam, he exploded in an angry rant about the situation, threatening to run away again, only to have Yuki suggest he (Kyo) purposefully flunk the entrance exam, which prompted a quiet, stunned “Why didn’t I think of that?” in response. “Because you’re stupid,” came back as an answer. (Kyo passed the exam regardless, much to his frustration.) While not classically stupid in intelligence, Kyo comes from a more physical background and would prefer to use his body rather than his mind when it comes to settling problems. Considering passing of school, however, and his subsequent staying in school, his intelligence is more along the lines of “smart but doesn’t apply himself” sort of mentality. However, when it comes to competition, he is very ingenious and will often resort to a great number of ideas in order to come out on top. This is seen most frequently in his fights with Yuki, where he adopts new patterns, tries new styles, and even attempts to swing their competition into new venues, such as challenging Yuki to a winner-takes-all event he created out of their school’s endurance race. Arguably knowing about Yuki’s asthma, it is up for debate on whether Kyo factored this into his race plan or not. However, despite this resilience and ingenuity in regards to fighting, his stubborn desire to defeat Yuki at any time or cost often blinds him to Yuki’s superior skill and results in his butt being handed to him time and time again. This bullheadedness also gets him into trouble with others, notably Kagura (the boar and a female cousin of his). Rather than follow Shigure’s advice and “play dead” or “deal with it” when Kagura comes over, Kyo tries his best to run, hide, or fight to get away from Kagura’s physically violent displays of affection, making his injuries along the way even worse.

~   As expected from his personality, Kyo comes off as quite rude, often insulting others and yelling at them whenever they distract, annoy, or do something to irritate him (which is a large list). Even a friend telling him and Yuki to stop horsing around was met with “Who asked you, ya dirty bitch!” (which resulted in a muzzle lock from said friend). However, most of this bite and fire is a result of his childhood, where people criticized him throughout his life and, out of fear or loathing, never bothered to look beyond “the cat” or his differences to see a real person. His pride is one of the main reasons he comes across as uncouth, and his insults and rudeness are a way for him to inflict dominance on the person bothering him (and also sometimes attempt to end the situation as fast as possible, if he can help it). Kyo has extreme difficulty with authority due to this pride, and rebels quickly when told to do something he doesn’t want to do, which occasionally gets in him trouble at school and more often at home with his family. On a grander scale, due to the curse, Kyo has been told all his life he is a monster and is destined to be caged for the duration of his years, a fate he desperately fights again and bucks as he can. This reflects back on his dislike of authority, since he has been under such his entire life and nothing good has resulted from it (minus Kazuma’s influence). As a final point, Kyo seems to have a dislike for people with a self-sacrificing attitude, often becoming annoyed and angry at Tohru for her display of that exact trait. Rather than accepting someone’s sacrifice or offering, Kyo often shuns the gift and spits something insulting back, usually regarding the person’s lack of strength or self-worth. This is due to his pride once again, something he rears inside himself and views highly, since it helped him so often in his own life. He hates to lose, hates to submit, and as such, hates it when others show these qualities, seen when he frequently tries to get Tohru to “be selfish” just once.

~   Despite the apparent ass Kyo’s character often makes him out to be, it is only one side to his complex character. Crafted by the curse and its effect on others, causing them to reject and abuse him, Kyo grew up with a very vulnerable positive character, and thus often uses these spiteful qualities to avoid showing his true feelings and his softer side. Ridiculed, picked on, and left alone, Kyo is a relative stranger to the kindness from others and practically alien to anyone offering to or actually understanding his suffering. This makes it very difficult for him to accept other people’s kindness, as he was brought up to distrust this kindness. It is implied in Kyo’s canon that Akito (the god of the Zodiac and the head of the Sohma family) often abused his family members, verbally, physically, and emotionally. Kyo, being the cat and monster of the Zodiac, was certainly not exempt from these events, and Akito normally feigned kindness to people at first before reverting to his normal, darker truths. Additionally, most people who did show him kindness ended up revealing that the kindness was only temporary when they discovered his curse. Though his mother often told him she loved him and that he was special, Kyo noticed that she often checked his rosary several times a day, revealing that her kind exterior hid the deep fear and shame she had inside over her son being the monster of the Zodiac. Any who did get close to Kyo were only so until learning of his curse, at which point they abandoned him and subsequently had their memories erased (something true for most of the cursed Sohma family). Because of these injuries in his childhood, Kyo figured that kindness was a lie or a weakness. As he grew, he often saw these instances as “pity” and spurned the offer in order to keep his tough guy image up, such as when, as kids, Yuki found his hat and offered it back to him, to which Kyo responded by stalking away from Yuki and disowning the hat. This trait continued even into his teenage years, and many of Tohru’s and his family’s kind ventures are shot down.

~   However, inside, Kyo does have a softer side. First and foremost, he truly wishes to enjoy moments of kindness and acceptance, even if they frustrate and embarrass him. This is seen when he spends several times on the top of the house (his comfort spot) thinking about the kindness Tohru had shown him in the past weeks. In other instances, Kyo dwells on flashbacks to his time with his adopted father, Kazuma, living and training up on the mountain with him, the only time he ever considered himself as “happy” with his life. It’s this secret fondness that reveals his deepest desire: to be both accepted and loved. His entire goal in his canon at first was to defeat Yuki in order to be accepted into the Sohma family and made an official member of the Zodiac. But as the canon went on, Kyo’s desire for acceptance broadened (and deepened) into the desire to be loved and to love someone else. These things were never really given to him in his life, and thus are things he values greatly, even if they make him uncomfortable when shown them, simply because he isn’t used to them. When shown care or kindness, Kyo usually responds with anger, annoyance, or embarrassment, which often results in his flustered departure from the room. After repairing the ceiling he broke through earlier, Tohru thanks him, but Kyo is unable to give any response and instead growls and flushes and eventually dashes from the room. And any such positive actions he gets from Yuki is instantly treated as an insult and evokes a challenge. On this note, it is shown that Kyo is deeply jealous of Yuki, and vice versa, for their respective traits and life circumstances (curse not included). On the rare times that Kyo and Yuki do get along, they seem to share this mutual desire to be accepted and, for tremulous moments, enjoy it from each other (not that either would reveal this to the other).

~   In reality, Kyo is very kind, despite showing it in a rather callous way. Sometimes he is capable of making compliments, usually awkwardly or hidden inside an insult. When Tohru compliments him on his being like a riceball with a pickled plum on the back (metaphorically, a good trait that he can’t see), Kyo responds with his usual angry insult, but then after a pause, returns the compliment in an awkward manner. Another of his most notable positive traits is his intense protectiveness of people he comes to care deeply for, namely his adoptive father, Kazuma, and Tohru (and later on, other members of his family). When two students make untoward remarks about Tohru, Kyo slams his fist into the wall above her head and overshadows her, glaring at the two students with enough ferocity to make them bolt. Additionally, when he discusses Kazuma, his words are highly praising, calling him the strongest man in the world, and he voices his decision to become just like him, defending Kazuma’s skills and honor. Beyond these two, there are instances of others he tends to. Kyo is often the one that leads his cousin Haru back to where he was when Haru gets lost (a normality for Haru) and the one that fights Haru him to calm his darker personality (though most of these acts are coated with surface-level annoyance or reluctance). Finally, Kazuma is one of the few people in his life that ever gets to see a true smile from Kyo or gets to hear him voice his laments over his difficulties in life, as above anyone else, Kazuma is always respected by his adoptive son.

~   In regards to others, Kyo’s life is a contrast depending on how people react to him. On one hand, Kyo is considered to be very attractive and he makes friends easily, as seen when Yuki notes that people are drawn to Kyo, all despite his abrasive attitude. Often, he can be seen as actually having fun during events, such as the time when he enthusiastically suggested that their class cultural festival (involving riceballs) should be an all-or-nothing affair, saying it was just more fun to watch people fight over riceballs rather than an organized event. Another example is the time he joined in a game of badminton with Tohru, Yuki, and two classmates after school, and later shared a game of ping-pong with Yuki and Haru (though his temper threatened it at first). His competitive streak also factors into this enjoyment and it’s usually either the eruption of said temper or the untimely reminder of the curse that brings him back to reality. Unfortunately, Kyo is extremely reluctant to form any sort of relationship, both from self-disgust over what he is and out of fear of harming those who would be close to him. This compounds with the fact that a lot of those who are drawn to him often tease him, mostly by calling him nicknames like “Kyon Kyon” or “Kyonkinchi” (which means 'Lucky Kyo') or commenting about his hair color. As expected, this results in him exploding in anger and threatening to beat whoever said it half to death. Sometimes, however, the teasing can get too much, as seen in one case where Shigure teases him about his loses to Yuki so mercilessly that Kyo runs away into the forest, trying not to cry.

~   After a lifetime of rejection, he is torn between accepting the notion that he will be alone his entire life and fighting against his fate. Though he knows he is the cat, he accepts a deal with Akito to secure a proper place for himself within the Sohma family, at the risk of being caged forever for his life if he fails. As the cat, he is expected to accept the fact that he is to be isolated from society and imprisoned for his entire life, but Kyo is unwilling to accept that role. His life is an eternal unbalance due to his curse and place in life and he fights as hard as he can to break free from the bonds that fate puts on him, but as the rosary around his wrist symbolically implies a chain cuff, it is unclear if he truly believes he can ever be free.

» { Wiki: "Kyo is a very short-tempered, hot-blooded, stubborn, brash, and sharp-tongued person. He is also viewed as charismatic and wears his emotions on his sleeves, which causes people to gather around him, and it also allows Kyo to socialize with outsiders with ease, if a bit socially awkward. However, he rarely displays this ability, and rough actions and insensitive remarks are sometimes the only things that come out. Kyo is also quite violent and self-sacrificing, and will frequently end up shouting at people, even people he cares about. This behavior of his is a defensive mechanism to hide the pain he has suffered, and he also doesn't want to hurt people and is afraid of making people unhappy if they get close to him. He tries to keep people at arm's length and even resorts to hurting them so they leave him alone because almost everyone in his life has hurt and pitied him so much that he is tired of it. At one point, he even denied that Kazuma was his father because he didn't want Kazuma to get hurt.

However, thanks to Tohru's influence, who reaches out to him with a patient and genuine understanding instead of force or pity, Kyo gradually grows into a calmer, gentler, and emotionally mature person. Little by little, his heart heals by finding true love in Tohru, and he can, in turn, help Tohru with her self-doubt. Underneath his tough personality, Kyo is very sensitive and vulnerable and cares a great deal about the people he loves. Evident by his interactions with Tohru, Kyo is a very empathizing, affectionate, patient, supportive, and selfless person who openly encourages her happiness, even if he isn't a part of it. He has a soft side that he doesn't like people seeing, and gets embarrassed quickly. He becomes easily flustered when people cry especially people he cares about, but will work through his discomfort to try and help them. He will prioritize their emotional well-being over his own as seen with his interactions with Kagura, Kazuma, and Tohru. He is not very good at expressing his feelings, and therefore occasionally comes off as a tsundere. Kyo is also passionate and determined if he puts his mind to something, most notably martial arts, which he eventually makes his livelihood.

Kyo harbors a strong hatred towards Yuki Sohma, the Rat, in which he is seen to be a very competitive, tough, no-manners, and always-wanting-to-fight boy. At the same time Kyo carries immense self-loathing and guilt, mostly as a result of all the scorn he has received from being exluded from the zodiac as the cat, and what he perceives is his own hand in causing his mother's suicide and the death of Kyoko Honda. As a result his deep hatred towards Yuki is not cemented on the person himself, but on making a scapegoat, a "bad guy" that could make him feel better about himself, serving as a coping mechanism to keep from mentally falling apart. His inclination to ultimately protect himself despite the consequences (i.e. not saving Kyoko Honda to avoid transforming into a cat in public, and subquently forgetting the car accident and direct the blame towards Yuki) adds to his already piled disgust towards himself, which has at times lead to suicidal thoughts.

It is for these reasons, that he feels undeserving of Tohru's love and excessively rejects her when she confesses to him. However, Kyo eventually come to realize how unfair and self-serving his way of thinking was, and properly apologizes to Tohru. He also reconciles with Yuki, even developing a budding friendship with him. Kyo decides to never repeat his past mistakes again and keep living on despite his regrets and guilt. He openly anticipates a bright future and wants to live like a normal person by challenging himself and getting involved with the world around him, something he had never done or wanted before. He also becomes kinder, more sensitive, affectionate, level-headed and laidback, smiles more often, and has much less of a temper, which Tohru describes the way the original Kyo was like, untainted by hatred.

Summary: Charismatic and hot-blooded, if a bit socially awkward, Kyo moves into Shigure Sohma's house with Yuki and Tohru Honda at the beginning of the series. As the story progresses, Kyo falls in love with Tohru, and little by little, his heart heals by finding true love in her. In the process, he finds the courage to live on despite his guilt, misgivings, and hardships." }

Other
~   As he is possessed by the spirit of the cat, Kyo displays several traits that are reminiscent of an actual feline. Emotionally, he comes off as arrogant and alone, and his spiteful tendencies also somewhat reflect on this nature. Two instances in the canon show another trait where he hides behind walls when he wanted to talk to someone urgently about something emotional, unable to meet their eyes and being more comfortable without the requirement. Physically, he dislikes anything tight, especially around his neck, as cats stereotypically hate wearing collars, and thus all of his clothes are open-collared or loose around the neck. Kyo often tends to go barefoot, possibly keeping in tune with the “silent cat feet” facet of felines, though his frequent stomping and dashing around tempers this trait quite a bit. Despite his lack of tact, he does have cat-like reflexes, such as landing on all fours without a problem after jumping from a third-story window and then taking off in a sprint. His skills in martial arts are also augmented by this trait, granting him speed, flexibility, agility, and reflexes slightly above normal, though he often loses fights because he gets overeager or too cocky. He hates leeks with a passion, the smell and taste enough to make him feel sick. When Yuki shoved a bundle of leeks in his mouth to shut him up, Kyo promptly passed out on his feet. Green onions and miso also invoke his ire, unless they’re in soup. Another feline trait is his liking for milk, often shown drinking it (from the carton or jug, due to his rudeness) and getting irritated when the family ran out. Enjoying a dream about fish at one time suggests his preference for seafood and he’s shown to have a penchant for riceballs.

~   It’s up for debate on Kyo’s dislike for water. At one point, when the family went to the beach for summer vacation, he refused to swim or go to the beach at all. However, at other times, he showers and bathes with no real issue and seems to relax during his time in the hot springs on another vacation (although this was tempered by his dislike for the company he had to endure meanwhile). Speculatively, he could avoid open water, but feels comfortable in enclosed or “safe” places. Rain also affects his mood, causing him to become tired, moody, restless, and even more easily agitated. But at the same time, the rain saps his strength to argue or fight with those who irk him; even walking home in the rain was enough to drain him to the point of wanting to sleep. Physically, Kyo’s eyes become slit-like and his canines grow more fang-like when the cat spirit acts up inside him, often when he is angry or startled or displaying any number of forms of high emotion. Whether this is a true trait or done for the dramatic effect is debatable as well, though his change into his monster form makes both of these physical changes definitively appear. Despite his anger issues (or perhaps playing off them), Kyo is sometimes startled by loud noises, much like a cat, and tends to go on the defensive in a fight-or-flight manner in these cases, before resorting to his normal anger. Often times, when angered or curious, he sports a pair of cat ears atop his head, but again, whether this is a true trait or done for comic effect is debatable. Like most cats, Kyo often makes his resting place on the roof of the house or building he is staying in, being drawn to high places out of comfort and caution. As a final trait, and annoyance to him, cats instinctively like to draw to him, leaving him, at one time, covered in cats when he was at school. Like the others of his family and their respective animals, he is able to communicate with (and possibly control) the actions of cats around him, though this darker ability was only rarely shown. Most of the time, these traits come across as unconscious to him, but he usually becomes annoyed if they’re pointed out.

» { Wiki: "Kyo is actually quite air-headed. When he was complaining about having to transfer to the same school as Yuki at the beginning of the series, and Yuki told him he could have just failed his tests on purpose, Kyo was left dumbfounded.

Because he was isolated when he was young, he is very ignorant about the world. He had never heard about Jason (which he stills get teased about by his children's friends), and didn't know what DVDs were.

Had Kazuma not picked Kyo up on that day when other Sohmas were berating Kazuma for taking in the Cat, Kyo's life would already "have met a bad end before he even met Tohru". That is why Kazuma is a destined person for Kyo.

Within the Fruits Basket timeline Kyo stills calls Kazuma "Shishou" (Master), but a while after the main series' event, Kyo has begun calling Kazuma "father". Takaya also says that Kyo calling Kazuma "father" for the first time would make Kazuma say "What an honor...", and "fall over at a 90 degree angle. Backwards."

Takaya says that Kagura and Kyo aren’t given many chances to communicate within the Fruits Basket manga, but the two of them convey a very particular feeling within the story that is limited to the two of them alone.

In the anime, Kyo is occasionally seen with a fang sticking out from his mouth (a popular trope in anime for "tsundere" characters). Additionally, cat ears sometimes sprout out from his hair.

Kyo develops a habit of lightly tapping Tohru's head with his fist, showing that he cares about her in his own way.

Even after the curse broke, Kyo still feels a bit down on rainy days, and thus seeks comfort in Tohru via hugs.

In the official character popularity polls held by Hana to Yume magazine in Japan, Kyo won the 1st place by a landslide three times in a row." }