What's going on?
Sumire was seated with Sakuno in the waiting room when the others arrived. "Ne Sensei what's going on?" Oishi said as they all went up to her.
"Bucho Nee-san is is…" Sakuno whispered with tears falling as she ran up to Tezuka and hugged him.
"Ryuzaki Sensei what's going on?" The Fudomine guys said and she looked at them as she got up from her seat.
"Apperently Taki had been ill since she was a really small child. I knew she was premature compared to Sakuno but I never expected this. My Son never told me about this." She said and the her daughter in law came there way.
"Mama is nee-san…" Sakuno whispered not letting go of Tezuka.
"She's not doing good Sakuno." Her mother said then looked at Tezuka. "Kunimitsu can I have a word with you?" She asked and he looked up from looking down at Sakuno.
"Sakuno go over to Ryoma for a while I'll come back in a few minutes." He said and went to talk with the older woman. Fuji, Oishi and Kikumaru came after him as well.
"What's going on oba-san?" The four said and she led them to a secluded hallway.
"I'm sorry boys we should have told you all this along time ago but we just couldn't hurt you and her. Taki had been diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of three. She had undergone treatment before she met any of you. We thought that she had finaly gotten it all out of her system but we were wrong. But a few years ago it came back. She's been in and out of hospitals for a while now. That's actually the real reason she hadn't played tennis for Fudomine like she wanted to." The woman said and Eiji had tears coming down his face. "Eiji this is why you off all of them weren't suppoe to find out. You went through this as well when you were younger. You know what she's going through." She said and the other three were surprised and looked at their crying team member.
"But oba-san if you had said anything about this to us then maybe things would have turned out differently." Oishi said and the lady looked at him. "I mean we would have kept a better eye on her. And maybe even have seen the signs to help her through it better and slow it down or at least ease the pain."
"You four did." She said and Eiji burst into sobs after grabbing onto Oishi. " She wanted to see you guys again that's why she came back." She said and smiled at them. "She wanted to play like old times. She didn't want you all to find out about this like you had. She wanted to be a kid again. We expected her to join the club but never had we imagined the she would be compeating with you in this." She said and then looked at Fuji and Tezuka. "Syusuke the expression you have on your face now isn't something I ever wanted to see on you. I know that she would rather see you smiling then looking like you just killed someone." She said and hugged onto him as he burst into tears. After a few minutes she shifted him over to Oishi and then looked at Tezuka who had his eyes closed, and was leaning against the wall. "Kunimitsu?" She whispered and he opened his eyes she saw the tears that wanted to fall. "Oh Kunimitsu…" She placed her hand onto his cheak, "she never wanted this to happen…she never wanted to see you like this…" She whispered and tears fell. "She loved you so much that she wanted me to give you this." She said and took something out of her pocket and handed it to him. "She wanted to do it on her own after the tournament but…" She said and placed a letter in his hand. "Come on you three." She said and indicated Oishi follow her with the other two to leave Tezuka. "Kunimitsu she only wants you to go and see her." She said then walked off with the others.
When Tezuka went to Taki's room he stopped outside of the closed door. He had read the letter and put it away. He whiped the tears from his eyes then knocked on the door. It opened and a nures let him in. "She's not to do anything strenues." The nures said then left the room to give the two kids privacy.
"Kunimitsu?" Taki said not opening her eyes.
"Yeah Taki?" He said and went to her bedside and she sat up slowly then placed her head into her hands.
"I'm sorry…I…I…"
"Shhhh…Taki of all of us that you know… did you think anything would change if I knew?" He said and sat down in the chair by the bed. "Baby…you know I wouldn't have"
"No Tezuka, you would have treated me differently. For crying out loud I get treated differenly because I'm smaller then Echizen and my own sister. If you or the others found out about this you wouldn't have let me play I know you." She said and she looked at him. "You can't say that you would have let me play because even you have standards."
"Taki if I knew then you wouldn't have ended up like this. You may just be seated and watching the game like all the other girls were."
"That's what I didn't want. I'm not someone who likes just sitting there when my friends can't play and I'm not one to let the people I care for worry about me."
"Taki you collapsing after the game and passing out scared the life out of a lot of us. The whole damn team is out in the waiting room as is the Fudomine team as well as Sanada and Yukimura. Your sister doesn't know what to do? She came running to me when we got here and I could only look down at her holding onto me. Your mother took me aside to talk with me. Oishi, Eiji and Fuji followed as well. Oishi being the mother hen he is looked like he was on the verge of breaking down. Eiji bursted out crying when your mother told us about your condition, he actually went through this before apperantly when he was younger and your mother knew. For crying out loud Fuji's unreadable smile broke. He broke down Taki, he didn't know what to do and he cried."
"I didn't want it to happen this way. None of you were suppose to find out." She whispered and he got mad at her. "Especially not the four of you."
"So what were you going to do Taki. Not tell us and then when you died then we would have found out." He shouted getting out of his seat.
"It would have been better then this."
"I can't believe you're saying this!" He shouted, then the door bursted open and the Nurce came back in looking mad.
"Sir you sister is ill you are in the hospital would you not yell at her and keep your voice down." The lady said and they both glared at her.
"He's not my Brother!"
"She's not my Sister!"
"He's/She's my Koi!"
"Oh will you two just be quiet like I said you are both in a hospital."
"What's all the shouting!" The others said poking their heads into the room from the door.
"Everyone twenty laps around the hospital now and I mean everyone." Tezuka said looking at the team members of the different schools and the nurces then walked passed all of them leaving the room.