Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis? Not mine. Got that? Great.

A/N: I dedicate this chapter to KiTtEn18sMiLe and Artic-Fox 14.

Warning: There will be OOCness due to circumstances invented by my imagination.

Here it is, the twentieth chapter!

Chapter 20: This is a walk down memory lane.

"Ryoma, please come inside!" The little boy let go of the ball he was holding and headed straight inside to his house. "Yes, Mama?" He asked a young woman with long brown hair and kind auburn eyes. The woman smiled as she carried him to the living room where his father was waiting for them.

"Papa and Mama are going to the other world." She said before she set him down on the floor. Ray turned towards the young man with dark brown hair and dark yellow eyes. "Papa!" The little boy ran towards his father. The father returned the hug he had received.

"I will come too?" He pleaded to his father before pouting. "Yes, you can, but Mama and Papa cannot be together anymore." He said in a sad tone. "Why, Papa?" He asked in the verge of crying. "You will understand when you are older, Ryoma." His father replied, trying to console the child in his arms.

"Why do we need to go to that world, Papa?" He asked as he laid his head on his father's chest. "Papa and Mama need to settle some things and we need to stay there at the mean time." The older male replied as he ran his hands through his son's short black hair.

"Honey, when we go there, you would stay with your father, okay?" He heard his mother ask. He wanted to decline at first when he saw the sad look in her eyes, but decided to just agree with what his mother had said. He didn't want to upset her more than she already was.

"Yes, Mama."

"Ryoma, this is Julian Thompson. She is going to be your new mother." His father told him as he introduced him to the red-haired woman. "New mother…?" He asked as tears started to well up in his eyes. "Julian, please excuse us for a moment." His father said as he was picked up from the ground then carried to the kitchen.

"Does Mama know you are marrying Ms. Julian?" He asked. "Yes, she does. She is also planning on marrying a man she met in America as well, Ryoma. Ms. Julian would be another mother to you." His father told him. He nodded slowly, quite unsure what that meant. His father carried him once more then went back to the living room.

"Is something wrong with Ryoma, dear?" Julian asked. "He just misses his mother." His father answered truthfully. "Oh, you poor thing. I understand how you feel, being away from your mother at an early age. For me though, she passed away when she gave birth to me." She replied with a depressed look on her previously bright face.

"She never left you. She is still in here." Ryoma told her as he pointed at the place where her heart is. "Oh, Ryoma." Julian simply said before she hugged the little boy tight. Her dull red hair covered her sky blue eyes.

"Thank you."

"Akito, Ryoma, these are my daughters from my previous husband." Julian said as her daughters walked forward. They were both red-heads like their mother, but both of a different shade. "Hi, I'm Mary!" The chipper red-orange-haired one said. She was the older one. "H-hi, I'm Lillian." The pinkish-red-haired one mumbled. She was the younger one.

"You are my new sisters?" Ray asked in a soft voice. "Yes, we are! Don't worry, we won't hurt you." Mary told him. Lillian rubbed the top of his head affectionately. "Hey!" He shouted when Lillian did that. "From now on, we'll call you Ray!" Mary exclaimed. "Why? That is not my name." Ryoma said with a frown.

"Your name is too complicated." Mary answered with a deadpan look on her face, making Ryoma pout. The younger female simply chuckled at his reaction. Mary, on the other hand, had a huge grin on her face.

"It's nice to meet you too, Ray."

"Ryoma, Mama is here." He ran towards his real mother in an instant. "Mama!" He cried. "Papa told me you did something bad to your new mother." She told him. "Mother was doing something bad! Papa didn't know, so I punished her instead." He told his mother. "That is not the way we should punish others, Ryoma. Your new mother is dead now. She would never return." She gently chastised the boy in her arms.

"I'm sorry, Mama." Tears ran down his face. He tried to wipe them away but they wouldn't stop falling. "I'll come back for you after the funeral, okay? Mama needs to go back." She told him. "Yes, Mama." He said as he gave one last hug to his mother. After his mother left, he and his father went to his surrogate mother's funeral. He ran his hand over his scar.

"I'm sorry, Mother."

"Ryoma, my name in this world is not Rinko Hanabusa anymore, but Rinko Takeuchi. Your name now would be Ryoma Takeuchi. We are now staying with my father who decided to stay in this world." His mother told him. "Yes, Mama." He answered even if he did not know the reason why they changed their surnames.

"The man I'm going to introduce to you can speak both Japanese and English, okay?" His mother said. "Hai, okaa-san." He replied with a big smile on his face that had no scar, the only living link to his past as Ryoma Hanabusa. His mother returned the smile.

A few minutes later, a tall man with long brown hair entered the living room behind his mother after she opened the door. "Ryoma, this is Nanjirou Echizen." His mother told him. "Oyaji." He mumbled under his breath. "Ryoma!" His mother was about to scold him but Nanjirou began to laugh. "Chibi." Nanjirou retorted. Ryoma glared at the man before him.

"I like your eyes, kid. Do you play tennis?"

"Ryoma, this is your older brother. His name is Ryoga. He stayed with your grandfather when he was still young." His mother told him one day. "Why was he with Grandfather?" He asked. "He was a sickly child, but now he is all better. That is why he is staying with us now." His mother said with a smile before she left them by themselves.

Ryoga had black hair like he did, but it was tinted blue. His eyes were like his as well, only more close to orange than brown like his. "So, you're Ryoma." Ryoga said. "Yeah." He replied before walking away from his almost-look alike. "Hey! That's no way to treat your aniki!" Ryoga shouted at him.

Ryoma simply ignored him, but suddenly, his favorite hat was stolen from him. He turned around to see Ryoga wearing it. "Hey, give that back!" Ryoma shouted as he jumped, trying to get his hat back, but Ryoga was taller than him. He grew frustrated.

"Aniki!"

"That is a lot of memories, Young Master." Sachiko said after Ryoma showed them some of his memories. "Yeah, you even showed us about Ryoga-san." Kirihara added. "Do you have any more questions about me?" Ryoma simply asked. "No, Young Master." "Nope." Ryoma nodded in recognition before standing up. "It's late. Let's get some sleep." With that, they all left the music room and into their respective rooms in the third floor.

Kirihara cautiously entered his room, not wanting to wake up his roommates – Marui, Niou and Jackal. As he laid down on his part of the bed, his thoughts wandered to what Ryoma showed them. 'I never knew you were so fucked-up, Ryoma.' With that, he fell asleep with a grin on his face.

Meanwhile, Sachiko was sitting on her bed, staring at the window of her room. 'Young Master Ryoma, I never knew you had such a complicated life. I will always do my best to serve you to the fullest from now on!' With that in mind, she was able to fall asleep with no worried for the whole night.

Ryoma, on the other hand, had easily fallen asleep when he reached his room. He didn't have the energy to change into his pajamas and simply crawled into bed. His loving pet, Karupin, eyed him for a few seconds before lying down next to him. He gave his owner, master as he calls it, one more glance before falling asleep.

'Good night, master.'

A/N: In the memories, all of them are speaking in English and the words in boldface are spoken in Japanese. They are speaking in Japanese again in the last scene.

Anyway, I hope I didn't make the characters too OOC. I might have been a little excited when I typed this so... Please tell me any typos and inconsistencies, even grammar mistakes (being the "Grammar Nazi" that I am).

Constructive criticism is appreciated in the form of private messages and/or reviews.