Chapter 17

"I, had a normal happy family life growing up," Echizen said at last as she opened the last vodka bottle she possessed.

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" questioned Niou, she giggled.

"I know right," she agreed. "You look at me and the way I turned out you'd think my mum was a crazy psychopath. But no...my mother was an overly dramatic eccentric woman, who loved me very much, what am I saying? She's still alive and still loves me, she gave me everything I wanted."

"Hmm," commented Niou, Echizen looked at him. "Explains a lot, you know..." She kicked him gently.

"For my birthday, she asked me what I wanted, and I said I wanted to swim in a pool of jelly, and, well for my birthday I played in a pool of jelly."

"What?"

"Hmm?"

"That's not right."

"Why not?"

"You can't let a kid swim a pool of jelly, that's just..." Niou was lost for words.

"Why not? Aside me eating it all and getting a tummy ache there was nothing really dangerous about it, she said if that's was what I wanted she'd make it happen, logically speaking there was nothing stopping her, and she did. It was actually probably the cheapest birthday gift she gave me," Echizen looked up at the stars and smiled. "My brother wanted oranges for his birthday, she planted an orange tree in the yard, my other brother wanted a cat, he got a cat. My big brother wanted a sound investment, she got him a rent control apartment complex which sends him 6 figures a month. My other..."

"Wait back up, how many siblings do you have?" Echizen actually had to think about this.

"Umm, I have 2 siblings, 3 half siblings and 1 adopted and a brother in law," she replied.

"Your mum pushed out 6 kids?"

"Yep, my father was 25 when they met and she was 35, the word cougar comes to mind," Echizen added with a smile. "Married 4 times divorced 3 times."

"Yikes," said Niou as he shook his head. "And you say you had a normal childhood."

"I did!" she replied defensively.

"How did you cope with all those people in the house?"

"Well, my mother owns a, how much was it again, they had it valued last week...umm, I think it was 12 million dollar estate. She was a supermodels or something and her first husband was uber uber rich, he died in a car accident, the house was big and so was the dinner table...Matsuda, Fei and Carl had all already moved out when I was born, and mother didn't adopt Kyoya until recently and he's not that much older than me..."

"So you're the youngest out of..." Niou counted silently. "7 siblings?"

"Second youngest actually," she corrected him. "Only girl though, so that makes for an interesting childhood, Ryoga always complained about my pony."

"You have a pony!"

"Had, I gave up horse ridding ages ago, lost its thrill I guess...oh! I almost forget Naomi, she lived with us as well!"

"I should have know..." Niou sighed as he shook his head, and almost as if to numb his head ache, he took a swing from Echizen's vodka bottle.

"Known what?"

"You went to Hyotei," he said as if it explained everything.

"What?"

XXXX

"Come on maggots!" Echizen shouted at the running tennis club members. "Last lap, if you don't finish quickly Ill add another 10!" She winced at her own voice, hear ears a little delicate.

"You okay?" asked Sanada, under his gruff no fuss manner was a surprisingly nice person Echizen couldn't help but noticing, she smiled.

I'm fine," she replied. "Delicate is all." Sanada snorted at her words, as they came from a woman who just finished 30 laps in almost half the time it was taking the rest of the club to finish 20.

"The woman is a monster," said Marui between pants and gasps of air.

"A hot devilish monster," Kirihara couldn't help but add, Marui nodded.

"You don't really think Sanada and Yanagi intend to let her play in the upcoming tournament, do you?" Asked Yagyuu, there was a nervousness in his voice, and a twitch in his movements.

"Probably," replied Niou, he wore sunglasses to practice today, his delicate state less hidden than Echizen's. "It's not that bad a thing, she has skills."

"In ruining people's lives," Yagyuu muttered under his breath, only Niou heard him.

"What are you old hens yapping about?" Asked Echizen as she walked towards them, she had a bright smile on her face as she placed an arm around Yagyuu in a friendly gesture, at least on the surface. "You guys better not be trying to cheat," she warned them casually. "Finish your training routine down to the letter, otherwise I'll be sending you roses. What's wrong Yagyuu-kun?" she asked, her wide eyes and voice dripping with sincerity. "You look pale, maybe you need some air, I hear the school roof is a good place for a breather. Well, actually, come to think of it, people drink and smoke there, never mind!" Echizen let go of him and laughed, when she spotted Sanada not too far away she hurried towards him, but not before winking at Marui and with a seductive smile she said. "Bye boys, dream of me."

Kirihara swallowed as did a fair few other.

"You okay?" Niou asked his doubles partner, Yagyuu nodded.

"Oi! Fucbucho-san!" Echizen called after Sanada, finally he stopped and turned around. "Hey, I was wondering, if I could take the afternoon off? There's somewhere I need to be."

XXXX

Echizen walked slowly towards a beautiful woman with soft white hair which was once black and startling gold eyes, she appeared in her mid thirties, but her real age was much greater. As Echizen knelt down beside her, she placed a hand on her, her eyes teary.

"Hello there," said the woman, a soft smile lighting up her beautiful face. "What's your name?"

"Yukino," she replied.

"Yukino, what a beautiful name! My daughter has the exact same name you know, she's such a mischief child, but she's the light of my life, all my children are, they all seem to have a habit of falling into the river behind our manor growing up though." The woman frowned. "Something about sliding down the hill?" Echizen laughed.

"Sounds like a perfectly normal thing to me," she replied, the woman's smile widened.

"Haha, I suppose for my boys, but my daughter as well?" the woman sighed and shook her head. "And here I was hoping that f I had all girls then I wouldn't have needed the Botox...I swear, every day, they come home in scratches and bruises, Matsuda broke his leg once, something about the boat going round in circles...I don't know. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a mother." The woman placed a hand over her torso. "And to think I'm with child again...I must be the most fertile woman on the planet, at my age to have another child, what am I thinking? But my husband seems so happy, maybe we shouldn't have married...I don't know..."

Echizen smiled sadly and she tightened her hold on the woman's hand. "You are a wonderful mother, your children love you, and so will the child your carrying, do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Boy, I'm thinking of naming him Ryoma, Echizen Ryoma, yes that's a good name don't you think?"

"Yes, a beautiful name." Echizen looked down at her feet as she stood up.

"Oh! Are you leaving? And so soon?"

"Yes, it was nice talking to you." The woman smiled.

"And you too," she replied. "I hope my daughter grows up to be as kind and beautiful as you."

Echizen smiled sadly. "You don't want that," she said as she walked away.

"Yukino-san!" called a voice, Echizen turned around to see the leading physician on her mother's case. "Its been a while since your last visit, are you well?" he asked, he had a kind face, eyes a piercing green and height to match.

"Great."

"Ahh, I know that tone, it's the, I'm not fine but you don't need to know that tone, I used that after I drowned my sorrows in a bottle." Echizen smiled but did not reply.

"How is she?"

The doctor frowned. "I'm sad to say she hasn't gotten much better, but she hasn't gotten worse, the blow to the head should have left her in a vegetative state or killed her, her memory fluctuates. Sometimes she is lucid, other times she thinks she 18 and pregnant with Matsuda-san, her disease isn't getting any better either, seeing as there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease. The supplements we give her slow down the build up, but it does not stop it."

Echizen nodded silently. "I know, we all know, except for maybe Ryoma, he seems to think that mother will snap out of it and live with us. Our father is moving in for christ sake, there is no way they'd be in the same room let alone live together."

"I saw your brothers the other day." Echizen looked up.

"Ryoga and Ryoma?"

"No, it was Matsuda and Kaname, speaking of your siblings I'm sure I saw Fei the other day here and last week Kyoya and Carl were visiting."

Echizen frowned at the news. "That can't be, Matsuda and Kaname should be in New York, Fei is suppose to be in China, Carl is in Australia and Kyoya has school, he can't just up and travel across the world to visit. I haven't seen any of them anywhere." The doctor shrugged.

"I'm almost certain I saw them recently, maybe my eyes aren't what they used to be, well then, see you around," he said as the doctor left.

Echizen's frown deepened, what was going on? The whole family were genetically coded workaholics, why would they be in Japan? Then it hit her, Ryoga, what was he planning?