Time had passed, and Masayuki and Emiko's friendship with the Sohmas had grew.
At the same time, Tohru's cousins felt being abandoned by Tohru's aunt, assuming that she loves her second husband and Masayuki and Emiko more than them.
In reality, however, Tohru's aunt still loved them equally as Pablo, Masayuki, and Emiko.
They also had a lot of resentment against Masayuki for the most part for "being ahead of them" in terms of competition academically, and for not being Japanese enough.
In reality, Masayuki refused to conform into the cultural norms of Japanese society and instead, act according to his beliefs and behaviors and his father's cultural values, which was passed down to him.
One time, when Masayuki was in first year in middle school, upon seeing Masayuki's joyous behavior a few days before the Philippine Independence Day, Tohru's other cousins once asked their mother to take him to a mental hospital.
Tohru's aunt, however, refused to do so, insisting that it was normal for Masayuki to do that, since he is a Filipino by citizenship.
Tohru's cousins were annoyed and disappointed by it then.
Masayuki, however, was respectful and humble in most areas, a thing that they didn't even notice, due to their focus on hatred towards him and Emiko.
Since childhood, Masayuki and Emiko had been standing out for their cultural oddities to their peers, even they don't want to do so.
The only people who were sympathetic with them are Tohru, Handa, and Souya, and later, the Sohma family.
The Sohma family, however, didn't know their biracial nature or citizenship yet.
So far, only Handa knows them all.One rainy day, Tohru, Yuki, and Masayuki are walking down the street from their shopping trip when they saw Hatsuharu holding something in his hands.
When Hatsuharu reveals to them what it was, it was Kisa, the tiger of the zodiac.
He then explained to them what happened to her and how she got there in the first place.
Masayuki was amazed at Kisa's cute form as a tiger, but also sympathetic to her state as well.
Then, as Tohru reaches her hand towards Kisa, Kisa just bit her hand, causing her to faint.
"Miss Honda!"
"Tohru-chan!"