Chapter 26

The family all came home for dinner.

Tempest took command in making the meal, after all. Everyone else was busy and he just finished a tournament, he had time to do this. Yet when his father saw him preparing everything, he paused. "I thought you had to train for the next one?"

Tempest smiled. "I have been, I trained at the association today. But I am in good shape for now, I will be sure to practice before the next one in three weeks." He paused but smiled as he looked down and saw his mother nestled into father. "Mom looks content."

His father smirked. "Yeah well, she's getting colder as of late. I can't completely take her into myself since I am wearing this damn sweater!" he muttered.

"Go relax and warm mom up, I got dinner take care of. We're going to have a Oden tonight with miso soup for mom to warm up with." He declared.

His father smiled and nodded. "Sounds good kid,"

He didn't want to tell his father just yet, but it happened shortly after he won the tournament. He had the younger sumos approaching him and requesting that he train them. "We have been looking to study under a new master for a while. You may have just entered this industry, but it's obvious that you know what you are doing… are you taking students right now?"

Tempest didn't know what to say to it. After all, he has never been asked to train others before. As far as he knew, he was still learning and a novice at this sport. "Perhaps I will after a few more tournaments, for the moment. I am not training anyone…" he paused as he saw the look of disappointment appear on their faces. He smiled though. "Just because I am not, doesn't mean I will refuse anyone who wishes to spar with me."

Suddenly, their eyes lit up. "Really?!" they asked.

"Of course, in fact, I am going to be renting out a gym. The chairman is insisting I have the best equipment possible to train myself with, if you wish to join me…"

"WHEN!" they demanded.

He was taken aback by their excitement. So within the next four days, he will be training with other sumos for the first time since joining Oni's sumo stables.

He was so lost in his thought that he subconsciously finished dinner just as everyone came home. Tempest set everything out much to the surprise of his family. "Whoa… this looks delicious!" said Yuuma with a grin and a lick of his lips.

"Help yourselves everyone,"

The family dug into their meals. Tempest ate his away from the table since he was cooking more up, by the looks of things, another round would be needed. But he heard about everyone's day. Yuuma and his band had to work with their top rivals on the singing contest thanks to Amai Mask, however, their test today proved that they would be a great sounding band with the new change up. "I got to hand it to the Zombies, they play really good!" said Luna. "They are also nicer than I expected."

"Jason got the sense of that too when they spoke with us at the coffee bar. They were trying to recruit him since he 'looks like' Zombieman." She said with a snicker.

Tempest smiled to the tales he heard. But the one that caught his attention the most came out of Pythan. "Papa, I got to confess something… I changed recently…"

The table fell silent. Pythan blushed as Snek suddenly was startled. "Changed?" he asked gently. "Everything okay? What happened?"

"Well… I went to speak with Dr. Genus on a check up, he found something strange with my human skin and also my monster skin. You see… I am immune to all poisons. In fact, I faced a monster today that was able to melt steel with it toxic breath. However it didn't affect me. Also it made mine even stronger."

"Oh, so that's your skill huh?" Father said offhandedly. "I wondered when that would kick in…"

"SKILL!" Snek demanded. "Garou, you are talking like this is some sort of make believe world! What the hell are you even trying to say here!"

Tempest was curious too. But his father merely snickered. "It's an adaptation you develop within your own body. Pythan here has been exposed to poisons, so his body absorbs them and is able to strength his own venom. I am not saying he is 100% immune to all toxins, but by the sounds of it right now, the kid has a good resistance to them and is able to adapt to ensure his remains the strongest."

"Since when…" Snek was about to say.

"I've noticed it with my kids too, not as obvious but you can see it in personality and abilities. Alley is really smart and continues to be. Pac has my genius combat ability, but his is better than mine, he merely needs to see someone do something once, and he can perfect it. I take a while and usually have to be hit by it to understand the fundamentals. Hunter… Huh… Hunter I ain't sure yet…"

"Don't worry, I don't know yet either with me," Hunter said between mouthfuls.

"Wait… when did Hunter change? I just noticed his hair got shorter…" Tempest said aloud.

"Oh, a few days ago, took turning into my bigger monster form to do it… still haven't quite figured it out yet…"

"Draven has just developed his, apparently he can turn invisible…"

"Really? How!?" asked Luna.

Draven shrugged his shoulders, but then turned to Snek. "The thing is this, I got Snek's scales and wonder if perhaps the power came from the monster he made his suit out of…"

"It never turned invisible on me before I killed it…" Snek muttered.

"Goliath is a very powerful esper, but also he is smart like Alley in his own way. He is great at coming up with plans as well as training regiments for those who wish to improve themselves, he can pinpoint their weaknesses and offer methods on strengthening themselves."

"It's not that hard…" he said between mouthfuls of food.

"What's our skill daddy?" Luna asked sweetly.

He shrugged. "You're still young, I dunno yet. But for Snek's kids due to their circumstances, may have developed theirs early. So pretty much, whatever poison Pythan is exposed to, he develops and immunity to it and it strengthens his own."

"Damn, maybe I ought to make a bandana out of his scales, in case I face a monster that spews that shit at me…" Drax said offhandedly.

"Not a bad idea, I also need to have my own hero suit made…" said Rimuru.

"Already done!" Athena said proudly. "It's in my room if you want to try it on later."

Tempest smirked as he found the family was quite content, as well as enjoying the meal. However he found his brother Yuki rather quiet, he ate in silence but listened to everything going on. When the conversations began to wind down, Tempest took the opportunity to ask. "Yuki, how is your research going?"

Yuki froze as he was about to take a bite of dinner, he cleared his throat as Tempest suddenly found his siblings were staring on with interest. "Well, it's going well. Very well in fact, Genus has been a great help to me in the research…"

"What the hell are you working on!" Yuuma demanded. He slapped his hand on the table, making the plates jump. "Damn it man, you need to tell us, I know it has something to so with the six of us, and you are hiding it! What's going on?"

Yuki was silent. He looked to father, but he gave no indication on whether he should speak or not, he sighed aloud and said. "I've been working on our genetics." He stated aloud. "I was curious about it and decided to go over our DNA. I made some discoveries and was worried about an aspect of it getting… out of hand." He explained.

Tempest himself froze to the news, Athena covered her mouth in shock as Yuuma sneered as he turned away. "I knew it… I KNEW IT!" he protested.

"HOWEVER!" Yuki said emphatically. "It's NOTHING to be worried about, thanks to mom's genetics. In fact… Mom's DNA is what's keeping us as we are… actually, Alley used that in her first cure for Snek, Max and Suiryu."

This made his father stare out in amazement. "Wait, are you telling me, your mom's DNA helped them from not turning full monster?"

Yuki nodded. "Yeah, Genus was stating when he was working with the house of evolution, he wanted to kidnap a Brawler for just such a thing, there's something in the DNA that makes a sudden transformation freeze in its tracks, that or if there is instability in the genetic code, somehow it's able to regulate it. Because of that, we got nothing to worry about,"

The table went silent.

Tempest could only wonder now why Yuki would look into something like this, why this was so important for him. "If it was nothing to worry about, then why were you so enthralled in this study?" Tempest asked as gently as he could. A part of him felt just as Yuuma did, there was something wrong with them, and Yuki was panicking. He was just grateful that Titan was asleep in Snek's room with Suiryu since he needed to rest. Yet this feeling wasn't going away. "Little brother…" he said. "What worried you so?"

Yuki was silent on the matter. He shook his head. "It's not important anymore…"

"It is to us damn it!" shouted Yuuma.

"SHHH!" scolded Luna. "Mom is resting!"

"Just please… no more of this okay!" Yuki pleaded. "I took care of it, I made certain we're safe. Please…" he begged.

The table fell silent. "Be that as it may. I want you to explain to your siblings a lot sooner than later." Father said offhandedly. He looked to Yuki and gave him a glare. "Out of the respect of your research and hard work, I will not speak of this. HOWEVER. You must explain yourself to them, you need to tell them WHY you were doing this research. Understood?" he said firmly.

Yuki nodded. "Yes sir…" he whispered meekly.

"Good… Now, your mom is really tired, and I am taking her to bed right now. Tempest please set a plate aside for her for later, she will be hungry then. Everyone else, go about your business but do so quietly"

With that, father stood up and left.

The table was awkwardly silent. Everyone was looking at Yuki oddly who decided to take his leave from the table. Yuuma continued to eat, but appeared disgruntled about it. Tempest however could only wonder what his younger brother learned and discovered about themselves. He only hoped that he would continue to be able to sumo wrestle, as he has always done…