Thankyou(smile) I hope it does turn out interesting.

Clarisse

The month went by very slowly for Kai who suddenly acquired a longing to meet his parents. Ray had had to leave and go back to his village before the month was up but when the day finally arrived Max, Tyson, Kenny and Hilary were there with him.

'So, when she gonna get here?' Tyson asked, a bored expression on his face.

'Why don't we go wait outside?' Hilary smiled, 'then we can see what sort of car she has.'

'What if she walked?' Kenny replied as they all followed Hilary outside.

'Don't be silly, she wouldn't have walked! She's probably just as rich as Kai!' she said, sitting down on the steps as she spoke.

'Hey, do you think it's that car?' They stopped talking for a moment to gaze towards the car Tyson was pointing at. Car wasn't really the right word; it was a long black stretch limousine.

'I told you she was rich!' Hilary crowed triumphantly.

'That might not even be her in that car!' Kenny retorted, his voice rising.

The limo pulled up in front of the mansion and the conversation drew to a halt as first one then two men in black suits hopped out.

The Blade Breakers slowly got to their feet as one of the men turned towards the car and held his hand out to the person inside.

A tall woman with dark, wavy hair stepped out of the car. The second suited man reached into the front of the car and pulled out a long embroidered coat and held it out to the woman.

'No, Garco, I absolutely hate that coat, put it away.' She said, obviously used to giving orders and having them obeyed.

The man nodded gravely and silently replaced the coat in the car and brought out another one.

'Not that one either, I dislike them all. I see no reason to wear a coat today.'

The man paused for a moment, his eyes going to the woman's clothes. She was wearing a sleeveless plain white t-shirt, black leather pants and fitted boots. A pair of black gloves were stuck through her belt.

'Madam…' he begun.

'It is only Voltaire and the child I will be seeing today, put it away.'

Only Voltaire Kai stared; he had never heard anyone refer to Voltaire as 'only' before.

The man bowed his head once again and placed the coat back into the car and closed the door and then made a move to accompany her.

'No, I shall not need you today.' Was all she said before she walked past the Blade Breakers and up through the door.

'Wow, she's even got guards!' Hilary exclaimed happily as they followed the woman back into Kai's house.

When they arrived they found the woman and Voltaire already talking. Voltaire and the woman stopped talking as they entered and the woman turned to face them.

'Kai, this is Clarisse.' Voltaire said and the woman bowed her head slightly in greeting.

'Please call me Claire.' Was all she said.

'Clarisse, the box is in the lounge room. I believe Kai and the others,' he sneered slightly at Tyson, 'wanted you to tell them about Kai's parents.'

'I gathered as much from your letter,' Claire replied before ignoring him, 'come, I will tell you what you wish to know.' And she walked over to the lounge room door, dutifully followed by the Blade Breakers.

'Close the door behind you.' Claire said as Max, the last person, entered.

Max shut the door and then moved to sit next to Tyson. They were sitting around a cardboard box in the middle of the room, the table and couches had been pushed away so there was a comfortable amount of room for them all to sit.

Claire pulled the box towards her and started looking through it. It was filled with photo albums, letters and various other items and was fairly dusty.

'So, you're Kai's mother?' Hilary asked, her eyes trained on Claire. She couldn't help but noticing that she looked nothing like Kai. She was an attractive woman and the only hint to her age were the few lines around her eyes and the somber turn to her mouth. But she did not resemble Kai.

Claire didn't reply.

'Who was my father?' Kai asked, leaning forward slightly.

'Your father was Michael Hiwatari.' She finally said, earning a glare from Hilary. 'He was a great disappointment to your family.'

'What?'

'I believe he did not at all live up to the Hiwatari name, as Voltaire put it.'

'Could he beyblade?' Tyson interrupted.

'…No.' Claire replied, leaning even further into the box. 'Dear me, they don't seem to be here…now what on earth is this?' she reappeared from the box holding a white, blood-stained shirt.

'Eww! What is that?' Hilary leaned away, her fingers curling.

'Why would Voltaire keep this?' She stared at the shirt for a moment before throwing it negligently behind her where it landed on the top of a sofa.

'So um…Claire…' Max began a bit awkwardly, not sure what to call her.

Claire nodded, 'yes?'

'Are you a Hiwatari? Why does Voltaire call you Clarisse? You don't seem to like it much…' he trailed off.

'Because Voltaire is an annoying old man,' she said, glaring at an imaginary Voltaire, 'yes, I changed my name to Hiwatari when I married Michael.'

'And are you Kai's mother or not?&!' Hilary demanded.

Kai stopped eyeing the shirt and looked back to the group, not being able to look at Claire while she answered…

'I am getting to that! My girl you are most impatient.' Claire said, 'now here, this is what I was looking for.' She said a bit more calmly, pulling some photos out of the box.

They all leaned forward to get a better look, Kai slightly disappointed at Claire's response. There were three photographs, two of a wedding and one of a man and a woman standing together.

'Now here,' Claire pointed to one of the wedding photos. 'This is Michael Hiwatari.'

The picture was of Claire and Michael standing with their arms around each other in front of a huge wedding cake. They were both smiling and looking very happy.

'Wow, Kai, he sorta looks like you…' Kenny said, he was lying down and had crept between his taller friends so he could see.

Michael Hiwatari was taller than the Claire in the photo. His hair was the same colour as Kai's but it wasn't spiky, it was a fairly normal hair-do. He had broad shoulders and his face was slightly squarer than Kai's. He looked like a nice person and very happy man.

Claire was looking very beautiful in the photo in a strapless, close fitting white dress.

'Oh, what a nice dress!' Hilary cooed.

'How…how old are you?' Kai asked, noticing the faded colours of the photo.

'My dear,' she said leaning back and staring Kai right in the eyes, 'you should never ask a woman her age.'

'Huh?'

'And if you guess always make sure to guess at least five years younger than you really think and please, make sure you never guess older than her age.'

'Well how old are you?' Tyson demanded.

'What did I just say? Now here,' Claire removed the picture of the happy couple and showed them the other wedding picture.

It was…interesting to say the least.

'Oh my god, the cake!' Hilary gaped, her hands covering her mouth, 'and your dress!'

'Why is he holding a football?' Max asked.

'…' Kai said nothing as Tyson moaned about the destruction of such a wonderful looking cake.

The picture showed Michael Hiwatari lying in the middle of the cake, it looked like he had fallen into it. He was holding his hands above his head and in them was a football. There was a huge grin on his face and he was looking towards someone not in the photo, his eyes sparkling. Claire was standing next to the cake, the picture had probably been taken only a few moments after the first picture. Claire's dress was covered in chocolate wedding cake and so was her hair. Her hands were clenched at her sides and she was glaring at Michael and it looked like there were tears in her eyes.

'What…happened?' Max asked, still staring at the picture.

'One of his friends threw him a football, he had rather disgusting friends. As you can see…he ruined the wedding.' Claire said, removing the picture and sitting up again, running her eyes over Kai's friends meaningly.

'Was it a nice cake?' Tyson moaned, his hands covering his eyes.

'Oh I do not know, my dear, no one got to eat any, not after Michael had been in it. I had it made specially…do you know that wedding cakes are traditionally fruit cakes?' she shook her head. 'Completely ruined…'

'Was your dress ok?' Hilary asked timidly, a horrified look in her eyes.

She shook her head again, 'ruined. Everything was ruined; he was very pleased about it if I remember correctly.'

'Did he…did he do things like that a lot?' Kai asked, a sinking feeling in his chest.

'He was a disappointment. Now look at this picture,' Claire showed them the last picture; it was the one of the two people standing together.

Now that they had seen the other pictures they could see that the man was Michael, but they didn't know the woman. They were smiling into the camera and had their arms around each other. The woman had blonde spiky hair and freckles, a pink plastic bangle was around her wrist.

'Who's that?' Hilary asked, leaning forward again now there was a new picture to examine.

Kai looked closer too, the picture of Michael and Claire held in his hand. 'She…who is she?'

Claire turned over the picture, on the back was written Tilda Foxblade.

'Tilda Foxblade? Was that her name?' Max asked.

'Tilda was her name, I still do not know what her last name was.' Claire said.

'But it says right there, Foxblade.'

'My dear no one, no one is called Foxblade. It took me so long to find that silly little caravan of hers.'

'She was Kai's mother?' Hilary asked suddenly.

Claire nodded, 'yes she was.'

Kai took the picture from her and stared at the two people…Tilda and Michael…they look happy.

'Wait but you…'

'Michael never saw fit to get a divorce before beginning his affair with Tilda.'

Kai's eyes widened. That put a whole new spin on things…

'So how did they meet?' Tyson asked. He was lying on his stomach like Kenny now.

'Tilda was a secretary at an accountant's office on the opposite side of town to Michael and his law office. I have no idea how they met.'

'He was a lawyer?' Kenny asked, a touch of awe in his voice. 'He must have been really smart!'

'No, no, no, no, no.' Claire shook her head with each no, 'Voltaire paid a ridiculous amount to get the university to take him.'

'But he must have passed…'

'Yes he passed, and he was always only ever a mediocre lawyer. I suppose,' she said thoughtfully, 'that we shouldn't have expected great things from him in the field of law when he always wanted to be a plumber.'

'A plumber?' Kai said, staring at Claire.

'Yes, he was going to start up his own plumbing business. Hiwatari Plumbers. Of course Voltaire would never have that so we set him up in a law office.'

'Well if you helped Voltaire crush his dream I'm not surprised he had an affair.' Hilary said snidely just loud enough to be heard.

'Yes, yes, that's what the grandmother said, numerous times. However if he was so very unhappy with me he could have just gotten a divorce, he made things much more difficult as a result.'

'Where is he? What happened to him?' Kai suddenly demanded. Was. She always says 'was'.

'Where is he? I believe he is…six feet under.'

'What…?'

'You mean he's dead?' Hilary gasped.

'Yes indeed, they are both dead.' Claire nodded.

'What happened to them?' Kai asked, a cold feeling coming over him…dead? Could it be true? Both of them?

'He died in my arms…after I killed him.'