Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis and the original characters, just Kimiko, Kiyomi, and Kimiko's father. Oh, and Dameon.
A knock sounded on the German residency's front door, the noise just barely audible over the pitter-patter of the rain. Kiyomi Moriyama went over to open up, noting the sunset's vibrant colors through the windowpane. I wonder who it is? she mused.
She expected a surprise guest or someone along those lines—her husband really did have a bad habit of not informing her when he asked someone over. But to her utmost surprise and dismay, she found her daughter, the sole heir of the Moriyama dojos, soaked from head to toe in rain, chaotically dressed in a slightly torn dress and mussed up hair, and simply standing there like a ragdoll.
"Kimiko!" she reached out and held her daughter by the shoulders, looking at her up and down. "What happened to you?"
Kimiko said nothing and did nothing except to fall forward in her mother's arms, limp and as lifeless as a broken stuffed animal. Her mother could hear Kimiko panting, and she felt her daughter's forehead, gasping at the pure heat radiating off of her skin.
"Oh no…" Quickly shutting the door behind her, she put Kimiko down on a nearby chair. She soon returned with warm blankets and a change of clothes. Moving as fast as possible, Kiyomi unbuttoned Kimiko's blouse to switch her to some dry apparel, but she immediately froze. Gently tracing trails of darkened spots with her index finger, Kiyomi cursorily examined her daughter's entire body. Bruises?
A young man picked up the phone call. "Yukimura residence."
"Seiichi-kun?"
"Auntie, good afternoon." Yukimura raised an eyebrow from the unexpected call. "Can I help you?"
"Could you come to our house right now?" the older lady pleaded, a sense of urgency ringing through her strained voice.
"What's wrong?"
"Kimiko. Something's not right—she won't talk to me. She's currently curled up in a ball right now, and all she does is yell 'don't touch me' and 'leave me alone!' I don't know what to do!" Kiyomi wailed, beginning to panic once more.
Yukimura's fingers clenched the phone. "I understand. I will be there as soon as possible."
"Please, Seiichi-kun. Hurry!" Kiyomi pleaded a last time before hanging up.
Yukimura slowly removed the receiver from his ear, his arm dropping to his side. His fingers were curled tightly around the phone and his brow knit together in worry. Could it possibly…?
He shook his head to clear his mind, going instead for the alternative choice of immediately leaving the house to go find his friend. He didn't want to consider the possibilities of what had happened—he would just have to see for himself how to help her.
"No! Don't come near me!" Kimiko shrieked as her mother once again attempted a step towards her. Kiyomi immediately took 3 steps back to appease her daughter, looking to Yukimura for guidance instead.
Yukimura was appalled at the state his friend was in. Kimiko was a deathly pale white, curled up in a ball, with disheveled hair, and…her eyes. Yukimura's heart wrenched with the look in Kimiko's usually bright eyes. They reflected betrayal, grief, fear. Fear of pain, fear of rejection, fear of trusting anyone and anything around her. He did not move for a while, simply looking at Kimiko.
She eventually realized that he was not going to near her, and she met his eyes. They silently locked gazes for about a minute, and then Yukimura began to quietly speak. He soothingly comforted Kimiko like one does with an abandoned puppy. She listened; her mind was already tired from the whirling flurry of events called reality. "Don't worry, Kimi-chan, I'm just here to help." He took a step towards her, and seeing no adverse reaction, continued.
"I won't do anything." Two more steps.
"You can trust me." He extended his hand out to her, and she looked at it. Just looked at it for one long second…and then slowly, with a shaking dainty hand, she grasped Yukimura's fingers.
He let out a sigh of relief before sitting down on her bed and pulling her into a gentle hug. "I've got you now." He felt a hand tightly clutching his shirt, and he patted her head. "You can cry now. Everything's going to be ok."
Yukimura smiled sadly as he felt the warm drops on the front of his shirt and the sporadic jerks of Kimiko as her bottled up emotions finally poured out to him. He looked over to Kiyomi, who was leaning against the wall in relief as well. She bowed deeply before rushing out. Yukimura hoped it was to call her husband—Kimiko's father needed to know about this.
Tezuka patted Kimiko's hair as she slept, observing his cousin's sleeping face with a gentle smile on his lips. "Rest well Kimiko." He slipped back out of her room, closing the door quietly and walking to the living room with Yukimura, who had been waiting outside.
"So what do you think?" Yukimura asked. Tezuka knew what he was asking about, and sighed.
"You're already accusing Dameon, Yukimura?"
"Of course! She told me that she had plans to be with him all of today! Kiyomi-san told me that she came home with torn clothes and looking worse than that. Who else could it be?" Yukimura was furious. What was Tezuka thinking?
But it was the Seigaku captain's turn to be angry. He grabbed Yukimura by the shoulders, telling him, "Just hold on, will you! You have to calm down—for Kimiko and for yourself! If even we lose our cool, who's going to take care of her?"
Yukimura glared at him momentarily, but closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. "You're right," he conceded. "She needs us."
"Better?"
"Yeah."
"All right," Tezuka nodded approvingly. He knew how hard it was for Yukimura to stay calm when it came to Kimiko. He himself cared very much for his bouncy little cousin. "That said," he continued from before he had to yell at the other boy, "I don't trust Dameon, it's just that I want to hear what happened to Kimiko from Kimiko. We cannot afford to jump to conclusions."
"True. But I feel that we're missing a huge part of the puzzle even now…" Yukimura was interrupted by Kiyomi, who had arrived back in the living room with hot tea and some snacks to eat for the boys. She knelt halfway down at the coffee table to place the food on the table.
"She had bruises," Kimiko's mother said quietly after setting the food down. The two boys stared at her, unsure if they heard correctly.
"Pardon?" Tezuka's eyes were narrowed.
"When I changed her clothes, I noticed bruises all over her. I could tell that some were because she had fallen somewhere, but some other ones…they seemed like…" she looked at the two boys' hands, picking them up and examining them. "About the size and shape of your hands. They were vague, but there appeared hand-like bruises all over her, especially on her wrists and one on her neck." Kiyomi was trying hard not to cry, and Tezuka awkwardly patted the older woman on the back.
"We will do whatever we can, auntie. Please trust us."
"I do. Please, I don't know what happened to her." Although she could guess… "I leave Kimiko in your hands. I will see her when she wants to see me; until then, please take care of her." Kiyomi did a deep bow, her nose only inches away from the floor. The boys bowed back; they would figure out a way.
Somehow, they would get her back. The Kimiko that all of them loved.