Kazuma's Grandfather

In his old age he wore his bright orange hair short and softly cropped, and his eyes shone the same vivid orange.

Calm and remarkably kind, he was known for a forgiving heart. He never nursed resentment, holding no grudge even against those who treated him with cruelty.

Born as the Cat, he was cast out much as the Cats before and after him, turned into the Zodiac's scapegoat and eventually confined to the Cat's Room, where he lived out each remaining day. He married a woman who tended to him and bore his children, though their bond was never acknowledged in the open; she had remained at his side, it was later revealed, only because she pitied him. Slandered by relatives and estranged from his own family, he endured cruelty from every direction yet carried no bitterness. According to Kazuma, he grew weak and unwell whenever it rained, since the Cat spirit's true form loathed the rain.

His single meeting with a young Kazuma saw the boy refuse his offered candy as 'cursed,' a slight the old man answered with a forgiving smile. When he died, his wife came to his bedside, and asked how she could have done so much for the Cat, she said simply that it was out of pity. Kazuma, overhearing this and weighed down by guilt over how he had treated his grandfather, later took in the next Cat, Kyo, hoping to understand the world both of them had been forced to see.