Kyou Souma

Kyou Souma is one of the main characters from the Fruits Basket anime and manga.

Kyou is cursed by the spirit of the cat of the Chinese Zodiac. He transforms into an orange cat whenever he is hugged by a member of the opposite gender or if he is under a great deal of stress. The cat is not an animal in the Chinese Zodiac, but legend has it that the cat may have been included had the rat not tricked it. As a result, he and Yuki Sohma (the rat) do not get along well, since Kyo blames Yuki for all his misfortune and mistreatment, and drove him to made a deal with Akito Sohma that if he could beat Yuki, he would not be confined to the Cat's Room.

Appearance
Kyo has bright orange hair and long bangs that hang over his orange-red eyes. He is near the same height as Tohru at the beginning of the series, and as the story goes on, he gets much more muscular and his build gets bigger, being very much taller than Tohru by the end of the Summer Vacation. He is defined even more from Yuki Sohma, as Kyo wears loose clothes, and dislikes tightness around his neck (similar to how a cat dislikes a collar).

He wears a bracelet on his wrist that is red and white in the manga, but dark blue and white in the anime. He turns into a bright orange cat when hugged by a girl, and when his bracelet is taken off, he turns into a monster that smells of rotting flesh, better known as the cat's vengeful spirit. He is described as 'handsome' and 'orange'. He is very well liked by Tohru Honda.

Personality
Kyo is short-tempered, competitive, impulsive and rude, but he also has a soft side that he doesn't like people seeing. He gets embarrassed quickly and is overprotective of those he cares about. Kyo develops feelings for Tohru (as she is one of the only people to genuinely care for him) and is often seen blushing or frantically rephrasing sentences he says to her, so no one can catch on to his feelings. Some of his classmates call him Kyon-Kyon (in episode three of the first anime, which made him angry), Kyon or Kyon-Kyon (normally by Arisa Uotani), or Kyonkinchi which means 'Lucky Kyo', normally by Ayame Sohma and Shigure Sohma who both enjoy teasing him.

An example would be that at one point Shigure pesters him about the reason he hates Yuki and Kyo stomps off to the forest, ready to cry. He also has a strong hatred for leeks, and the smell makes him sick. He also hates green onions and miso, unless it's in soup form. He also hates the dish liver and chives which Yuki requests once, which causes Kyo to yell at him.

Abilities
Kyo shares some traits with cats. He can possibly land on his feet. He dislikes water, hence hating to swim or go to a beach (shown when the Sohmas went for their summer vacation). Due to this, his mood changes drastically during rain, becoming restless, tired, moody, and more than easily agitated but at the same time no mood to argue or fight. He prefers to wear a lose-fitting t-shirt or jacket because he doesn't like tight clothing (especially around the neck, like cats hates collars). He has been shown often drinking milk, and becoming annoyed when finding out there wasn't anymore milk in the fridge when Ritsu was around. Once, he was even shown dreaming about fish, enjoying them.

As Shishou mentioned, Kyo likes to hide behind walls when he wishes to talk to someone urgently (shown twice) like a cat. He seems to get frightened by loud noises too, becoming startled like a cat. He is also often seen sitting on a roof because like a cat, he is drawn to high places. Being cursed by the spirit of the cat, Kyo has orange hair, like orange fur on cats. His eyes seems to become silt-like when his cat spirit stirs in him, for example when he gets angry at Yuki, the Rat (or his 'natural' enemy).

Shigure Sohma has said that the cat was the creature that was left out. His only purpose, he said, was to make the other Zodiac members feel better. 'Good' they think, 'At least I'm better off than him'.

Trivia

 * It is not known whether Kyo really took over Shishou's dojo.
 * While the Sohmas think Kyo's other form represents the Cat's anger, in truth the Cat was never resentful. When God cast the curse to reincarnated all 13 of the Zodiac members, the Cat did not want to live again, as it had a good life. Thus the other thirteen shunned him; their scorn is what created the ugly of the Cat.
 * Onions and leeks (which Kyo dislikes) are toxic to cats because if ingested by them, they damage the red blood cells. As for miso (which Kyo also dislikes), it's made with salt and too much of it can give cats salt poisoning (miso has 3,728 milligrams of salt in it while an average-sized cat needs about 21 milligrams of salt per day and not more than 42 milligrams.)