Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Hyoutei Rabbits ❯ 06 ( Chapter 6 )

Sunlight quietly flooded the small bedroom: illuminating the vibrant colours of the bedlinen, and reflecting off the white of open books. It was a quiet Sunday morning. Now that Summer vacation had started, most families had headed for the beaches, gardens and water-theme parks. There were occasional squeals of bicycle brakes and slamming of doors; otherwise, it was peaceful.

 

His father was at his company, finishing up a proposal. His mother and sister were probably at the new hyper-mart buying groceries. And he was busy with schoolwork. The injured ankle not only kept him away from tennis, but also from school. His classmates had collected his homework and made notes for the lessons that he had missed. They were passed to him via his sister. The teachers were not so helpful. However just the cause, they did not appreciate a student who beat up a teacher. He was not angry about it, merely disappointed.

 

He leant back, tilted his head over the back of his chair and closed his eyes. He took breaks, whenever his attention wavered. It was more efficient. After a couple of minutes, he straightened. The photograph in a wooden photo-frame caught his attention. He smiled, as he leant forward to bring it closer. It showed a relaxed, bare-chested Tachibana Kippei leaning back in this same chair, ankles hooked over the desk, concentrating on a novel that he held over his chest; and a brown Angora napping on his abdomen, like a puddle of chocolate floss. He did not realise An was taking his photograph until the flash came on. He had jolted in surprise, but Chocolate was so comfortable, he did not awake.

 

Tachibana Kippei placed the wooden frame right behind the textbook he was reading. With a small smile, he returned to his studies.

 

 

“Eeeeeeee…aaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh…”

 

Unlike Atobe Keigo, Mukahi Gakuto screamed like a tortured violin. Fortunately, it was close to noon, and his family and servants had enough experience to know that he was not being murdered in his sleep. It was the midnight ones with inexperienced neighbours, which were unfortunate. Mukahi Naoto, his younger brother, liked to say that his oniisan should go to a deserted island for his honeymoon, so as to preserve what little decency was left in the world. He liked to say this to his brother's face, when he planned to leave the house right after. He could hear Gakuto rant even at the far end of their row. It never failed to bring a smile to his pretty face.

 

The auburn-haired boy glared at the ceiling above his bed. His room was bathed in soft colours despite the curtains. He panted, as he tried to shrugged the tangled sheets off his person.

 

The Kaidou family, he thought, must be the weirdest one in the world. They were very nice to him. He had no lack of fresh greens or water, nor was a warm place to sleep deficient. They were quiet people, and the house was clean and tidy. But they gave him the creeps. Take for instance, the mother. She was the homemaker. In fact, she made everything. She made soba, she made bread, she made yoghurt. What're the shops for? Are you trying to put Meiji out of business? Gakuto thought she probably bought wheat to mill into flour for the bread. He just needed to find the mill.

 

Kaidou Kaoru was weird. The boy spent his waking time between attending school, eating, sleeping and working out. Man! Get a life. Or are you alive? And the bandanas. Nobody wears bandanas now! It's passé. Know what `passé' means? But the major creeping session was when the whole family was together. They could synchronise their laughs. They laugh at the strangest things. And the onna(1) actually thought her family was perfect!

 

Gakuto felt like screaming again. They reminded him of The Addams Family. But at least The Addams Family was fictitious, and weren't Japanese. It's society's fault! He mentally quoted his brother. After lounging around for another hour, he got up for a late lunch.

 

 

It was bad timing, and pure bad luck, thought Ootori. He watched his grandmother happily `gummed' her rice porridge. She had forgotten her dentures again, he realised. But she was blissfully unaware, and there was not anything that required chewing in the gruel, so he kept quiet.

 

 

They were hanging around the tiny park near Hyoutei Gakuen, waiting for Mukahi Gakuto to finish his ice cream, when a poodle chased a rabbit up a tree. Ootori did not know that rabbits could climb. Apparently, this one could. It over-climbed in its haste and fell out of the tree on the opposite side. The poodle's owner managed to rein in the dog before it got near the rabbit. Meanwhile, the rabbit lay stunned and spreadeagled on the pavement. With his 20/20 hindsight, Ootori would rather be gagged than chuckle then. One chuckle led to a laugh, that led to a snide comment, that led to many more. He felt a strange sensation is his spine, as if it was melting from inside. Goose bumps flourished over his arms. His teammates, many of whom were green in the face, seemed to be shrinking and presented blurry contours. It was by chance that he glanced at the rabbit and saw its heated glare. He noted distractedly, that it had a red translucent sphere at its throat.

 

When his mind cleared, he found himself looking at eight young rabbits. One was busy butting its head against a lamppost. One, with a jewel at its throat, turned and bolted. He frowned, and noticed that he had whiskers.

 

“After the bitch!” someone familiar commanded. While he was marvelling that it was the first time he heard Atobe shout, the rest of the rabbits had taken off after the bejewelled one. He moved to follow, and realised he was only inches off the ground. He was stunned. Fear mounted, as the other rabbits disappeared from sight. Desperately, he chased after them.

 

It was not much of a chase. The bejewelled one had a good head start, while they were trying to hop without tangling their limbs. It began to rain. After searching for hours, they found themselves at the street tennis courts. They decided to take a break and took shelter under a bench. Ootori had not felt so miserable before. He did not expect to die, neither did he expect to be adopted by Momoshiro. He was named `Roquefort', possibly due to the blue tint in his fur. He understood that he had colour vision, but was unable to distinguish them with names he had known.

 

The Momoshiro household was rowdy. Momoshiro Takeshi's loud vocals were hereditary. It was painful, when you had lagomorphic hearing. His younger siblings were more than painful. They would not leave him alone: trying to feed him hay by sticking stalks in his face, ruffling his fur by running their hands up his back, trying to rub his broad and sensitive ears, cooing at him at all hours of the day and night… Ootori fancied himself a nervous wreck at the end of two days.

 

 

The scrapping of China brought him back to lunch. His grandmother was trying to catch the residual bits in her bowl.

 

“Would you like to have more, Obaachama(2)?” A nod of the head and a toothless smile. He rose to refill her bowl and set it down gently. Her nurse had commented that his grandmother was always more perky whenever he visited. Well, she seems to have a great appetite today. He propped his face on his hand and watched the old lady finish her lunch with childish delight.

 

 

“Ojisama(3)!”

 

Echizen Nanjirou disappeared as quickly as he appeared. There were significantly less wakashi(4) on the table than before. A couple of rice cakes were squashed. Echizen Ryouma calmly returned the plate of senbei to the table. They escaped molestation. His mother, Rinko, sipped her green tea. “Ojisan doesn't behave like normal people,” she said, nibbling on a chestnut pastry. “Mmm, oishii(5).”

 

“Aa, he's weird.” Nobody disagreed. Karupin, the spotted Himalayan, was licking a cat treat on the porch.

 

“Karupin looks rather lonely now, doesn't he?” said Rinko. “Maybe he misses Rocky.”

 

“He didn't play with Rocky, when he was here,” said Nanako.

 

Rinko smiled fondly. “Ee, but they were always watching each other. Karupin would even give up the porch to Nanjirou and sunbathe on the rock in the garden to keep Rocky company.

 

“Maybe they're just shy.”

 

Nanako giggled.

 

Ryouma was tempted to give the two ladies at the table the look that he saved for his father, Momoshiro and Kikumaru. Horio - he ignored outright.

 

“My friend said cats eat rabbits,” said Nanako.

 

 

Echizen Ryouma lifted Karupin to eye-level. “I told Momo-senpai that you have more sense than his siblings, so you're not to bully Rocky. Wakarimasu ka(6)?”

 

“Miaow.”

 

“Ii neko(7).” He lowered the Himalayan gently into the sulphurous bath water. “This one smells too much like rotten eggs.” He pouted, as he glared at the expensive-looking, empty silver packet, and memorising the brand name.

 

 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

1) woman

2) Formal, affectionate and unorthodox term for addressing one's grandmother.

3) Formal term for addressing one's uncle.

4) Japanese sweet pastries

5) delicious

6) Understand (question form)

7) Good cat.