Author's Note: I purposely didn't update for a few days just to leave that little bit of confusion (Yes, I know, I'm a bad person). Anyway, I really fought with this title, I had so many (crappy) ideas for the name. For a longtime this was named "Placeholder". But here's the next chapter, a few answers revealed. Here it is, Read, Review, Rejoice!

Chapter 15:
A Complicated Web

"Ritsuko?" The angelic, elder cherry-head gasped as she opened the door.

"Yumiko…"

Immediately, the door slammed creating a barricade between the two. The white-haired woman stood in what seemed to be heart-shattering awe, holding a fist close to her chest in a feeble tremble, bridling up emotion. Tamao couldn't stand to see such an expression. It reminded her of her own past before she got a roommate; before she met Nagisa.

Instinctively, the blunette raised a hand to rest on the woman's shoulder as she spoke, "I'm sure it'll be alright." Before her hand could reach its destination, her effort was thwarted by the dark-haired genius that towered above her.

Swatting Tamao's hand away like an insignificant mosquito, Kaname warned. "Don't get in the way Suzumi-san. What you're about to see will be the real fireworks." Momomi squeezed against her partner's arm, an uncharacteristic expression of uncertainty lining her delicate features.

Tamao could see a curious glint in Kaname's eye; anything that piqued the sadist's curiosity was bound to be dangerous.

Just as anticipated, the once restrained and controlled Ritsuko snapped in what seemed to be an outburst of frustration. Pounding against the helpless door, she began a tirade, constantly calling out to her former friend as she pummeled dents into the wood.

"Yumiko! Open this damned door Yumiko! I'm not putting up with this childish shit right now. Do you think I came all this way to just turn around because you don't want to listen?! A damned lie. You never answered my calls, you don't respond to my emails, you ignore all my letters, and now you slam a door in my face?! It's obviously time I take control. You hear me, Yumiko?! You better be listening!"

As the former manager continued her indignant rant while beating the pulp out of the door, the other three, whom had remained silent observers 'til now, embarked upon their own discussion.

Noticing the awkward glances now going back and forth between the couple once brimming with confidence, Tamao felt the need to speak up. "Earlier, that woman called you her daughter, Kaname-san, and you even acknowledged her as your mother. But also, Momomi said something about 'aunt'. Is it possible… that you two are-"

"Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong Suzumi." Kaname immediately dismissed the younger girl. "And do not simply drop formalities, I am still Kenjou-sama to you."

Enacting her absolute law upon the girl served to silence her to a mere whimper, however, Kaname's partner also shone with determination. "I'm actually really curious too, Kaname. What if we really are-"

"Whatever information we want, I'm certain will come in due time." she answered rationally. "In all truth, as curious as I am, I'm in no rush to find out that all this time I've been sleeping with my cousin." the genius thought to herself with gritted teeth.

The three were interrupted by a sudden outburst from the white-haired assaulter. "That's it Yumiko, you left me no choice!"

Meanwhile, within the boundaries of the Aoi household, although one Mrs. Aoi stood unfazed by the racket on the other side of the door, the other three inhabitants were noticeably bothered.

"Who is that rude woman?!" Shizuma questioned, frustration clearly evident in her voice.

"That's the woman who betrayed me the same way I believe you will betray my Nagisa." Mrs. Aoi spoke just barely loud enough to be heard over the enraged voice coming from the outside. Suddenly, she erupted "If you can't convince me that you won't become like that Judas, then you are not allowed to even be near Nagisa! Do you understand me, Shizuma?!" This was the first time, for both Shizuma and Nagisa, they had ever heard the quiet, controlled angel speak with such raw emotion and passion. It was actually a bit frightening for both of them as well. Shizuma found herself swallowing air she didn't remember holding in.

Suddenly there was a strange sound at the door. It was like metal scratching metal with the occasional sound of a clang. Just as sudden as it started, it stopped and within moments the door flew open; Ritsuko stood triumphantly in the doorway, her three guests behind her.

"You picked my lock?!" Yumiko growled.

"I had to." Ritsuko replied matter-of-factly, inviting herself in: her guests promptly followed suit.

"Everyone…" Nagisa shone, though a bit of confusion lining her voice.

Exploring their faces for answers about the current situation, Nagisa only received a simple gesture from her best friend; a combination smile, wink, and shrug that said "I'm just as lost as you are. Sorry."

"Listen ladies…" Mr. Aoi nervously attempted to calm the atmosphere. "I know tensions are high, but wouldn't it be better for everyone if we calmed down first. Maybe some hot tea or something.", he offered.

"No thank you, Yuujirou. I didn't mean to impose on your family like this and decided to only come here as a last resort. I was pushed to this point because of Yumiko's own stubbornness and childish selfishness."

"Hell yeah I'm stubborn, and maybe I am selfish, but at least I didn't sell out my closest friend for a few dollars, that's selfish." the former MMA fighter accused. "I'm actually glad you came, now I can let everyone know what you did to me."

"I didn't do anything to you." she retorted. "And 'sell out'? No amount of money in the world could move me like that."

"Yea right!" the cherry-head laughed bitterly. "How many of my matches in that tournament were even real? Did I even earn my trophy?"

"Obviously, everything was all you." Ritsuko slowly became solemn. "Don't you remember how hyper you were after every fight in that tournament? If there was one thing I remember about you, it was that you always had that damned ability to tell when someone was holding back, no matter what it was. When you first started out in MMA, you couldn't stand it when people were holding back. Do you really think you would have gotten that kind of excitement out of a fixed fight?" she reasoned consolingly. In a breath she assured, "It was all you."

Yumiko could feel the sincerity in her former friend's words, but the wound was left uncovered for too long. The grudge was held for too long. That anger built up for too long. Questions were left unanswered for too long. As far as she was concerned, it was too late. Time doesn't heal all wounds, sometimes they become painful scars. Painful, permanent scars.

"Okay, I think I'm starting to understand this." Shizuma interjected, placing herself between the two women. Each an arm's length away from her, Ritsuko on her right and Yumiko to her left, Shizuma somehow threw herself into the middle of it all.

One thing the former Etoile was famous for was her indiscriminate desire to take control, whether she realized it or not. Another thing she was good at was garnering attention and she definitely succeeded at that with this latest feat. Most of the looks she acquired of course, all expressed one idea. "That idiot!" The burning thought was simultaneously shared by all observers.

"You… what the hell are you doing Shizuma?!" Mrs. Aoi growled.

"I'm refereeing of course." Shizuma winked happily. "From what I understand, Mrs. Aoi was once an MMA fighter, which explains a lot by the way." Shizuma gestured toward said woman. "And 'Ritsuko' here was her close friend and, from what I've gathered from this conversation, her manager. Am I correct?", earning a nod from the white-haired woman. "Okay, somehow some craziness went down in the middle of some big tournament and you-" gesturing toward Mrs. Aoi, "caught your manager in a compromising situation, which led you to believe she was fixing the fight, against your best interest. While you-" gesturing toward Ritsuko, "are now saying that's not the case."

"That's it in a nutshell I suppose." Ritsuko crossed her arms just below her chest. "Although there's a lot more detail to this situation."

"The details aren't important." The silver-haired casanova pointed out. "The way I see it, the solution is obvious; Mrs. Aoi, I think you should hear her out."

"Excuse me?! This has nothing to do with you, and what could you possibly understand?" Yumiko hissed.

"I understand that nothing bad will happen from just listening to what she has to say. Why not let her explain herself? Even if she really was planning to 'sell you out', don't you want to know why your best friend would do something like that?" Shizuma's expression softened to an easy smile. "Sometimes it's best to just sit back and listen. This is coming from someone who is always bickering with her best friend."

"Comparing this to petty bickering, are you an idiot?" Looking over at the Shizuma's childlike smile, Mrs. Aoi couldn't help but crack her hardened expression. "The last thing I want is advice from you Shizuma. But I suppose it wouldn't hurt to hear the whole story and finally get some closure."

"Yumiko…"

The elder-cherry turned toward a loveseat and plopped herself down, crossing her legs as if conducting business. "Well you say you came to talk right? How about answering some questions; if you weren't trying to fix the fight, like you're claiming now, then why did you tell me to throw the fight back then? Why did you threaten to throw in the towel?"

"It's true I said all that, and I maybe even meant the first part. But I never expected you to go through with it, I didn't want you to. I even went through hell to have them postpone the match for three days after you went missing. I thought you'd come back. I hoped you would come back." Ritsuko explained.

"If that's true, then why didn't you follow me? Why didn't you call me? You could have easily contacted me before I got on that plane."

"No, I couldn't." Ritsuko shook her head. "I chased after you when you left my office, but I couldn't catch up. I ran out of breath in the lobby so they called an ambulance and I was taken to the hospital. I stayed there for about three weeks."

"Ritsuko I can't believe that, I know you weren't the fittest person in the world, but you certainly couldn't be hospitalized for so long from a little run."

"Normally no." Ritsuko suddenly became a little hesitant. "But… you see… it turns out… I was pregnant."

"You…" Yumiko looked at her old friend in disbelief. "You never told me anything about that."

"I didn't know. And after I ran down all those stairs, my body ended up inducing labor. Apparently, I was thirty weeks along and I ended up with a premature delivery. Miraculously, my baby girl came out very healthy. We were discharged after three weeks."

"How could you not know you were pregnant for so long? Gaining weight, the morning sickness… a missed period, how couldn't you have noticed all that?"

"In retrospect, I should have put everything together. I thought that I gained weight because I was eating fast food so often after I left the estate. The sickness, again I blamed partly on the fast food, as well as overworking. As for my missed period, I didn't even notice. When it came, it came. I never really put much thought into it." Ritsuko explained, slightly embarrassed by her naivety about the situation back then.

Sorting through her muddled thoughts, Yumiko paused for some time before asking, "So… who was the father? No, more importantly, what happened to the girl?"

Ritsuko smiled before gesturing, with her head, toward the dark-haired genius leaning against the wall indifferently.

"Kaname… you?" Shizuma quizzed.

"Hmm?" Kaname gave an uninterested grunt. "Ah yes, that woman is my mother, Ritsuko Kenjou formerly Kiyubi." Eying the others' expressions, at least those who were formerly unaware, she mused, "What's wrong? Is it that hard to picture me as a miracle birth?"

"Do you all know each other?" Ritsuko asked her daughter curiously.

"Yes, whoever here wasn't a past schoolmate, I've become very well acquainted with over the past twenty-four hours." Kaname smirked. "What a complicated web you've spun here, mother."

"Speaking of that…" Momomi cut in. "Aunty Ritsuko, what's the meaning of all this? I'm not concerned about all that other junk, I just want to know; exactly how are Kaname and I related?"

"I noticed that you two are quite close but just be to sure, exactly how are you two involved?"

"Momomi has been my loyal partner and lover for years now." Kaname spoke frankly.

"I can see why you're worried then-"

"Hold on, I'm still not satisfied yet." Yumiko interrupted. "I understand that you're saying that back then those were just empty words, but that doesn't change the fact that you said them anyway. Why would you ask me to give up my fight?"

Ritsuko bit her lip, averting her eyes nervously. It was the first time the cherry-head had seen this type of expression on her old friend's face. "Well, I guess it is better to tell you now. It's funny, when I got on the plane to come here, I was so confident I could go through with this. Now that I'm facing you, the words are suddenly being caught in my throat."

"Is it really something that hard to say?" Yumiko watched as tears started to well up the white-haired woman's eyes, yet another first she was able to witness here today.

"Yumiko, there's a secret I've been hiding from you from the very first day I met you. You remember Mr. Jones, the event coordinator from back then and the man you saw leaving my office on that day? He tried to bribe me into getting you to throw your fight, but when he realized money couldn't buy him his own way, he threatened to tell you. I don't know how, but he got a hold of that secret. The last thing I wanted was for you to hear it from someone else's mouth. That's why…"

Slightly shaken by this new information, Yumiko tried to remain unfazed by it, though failing miserably. "If it's so important, then why did you keep it from me all these years?"

"If I told you too early, it would've ruined everything, but now I see I've made a mess of things." Softly, as if she was trying to convince herself, she whispered. "I have to tell you. If I don't… I don't think I'll ever get an opportunity like this again."

Author's Note: Sorry to cut into all the drama again. But, look on the bright side, the wait won't be long at all. I gave myself a deadline and I'm sticking to it. I have to admit though, writing this chapter and preparing the next, I really get tempted to do one of those relationship chart things and connect all the characters based on this. Even though I know it in my head, it still would be interesting to see on paper. Enough of my rambling though. Looking at this now, it's shorter than I originally thought. Anyway, the story continues next chapter, picking up right where we left off! 'Til then!