This was very, very well done -- especially the background about the former-Ox, and her journals. You might want to flesh out the Yuki Haru interaction, but then that might just be me and my opinion of Haru. But still -- very nice.
Author's response
Thanks! Yeah, I wasn't sure when I wrote it how far it'd go. But then Haru got to Yuki and got the answer that he needed out of him, and all of the tension just sort of...disappeared, and I figured that was a sign to leave it right there. :)