Disclaimer: IF YOU THINK I OWN POT, YOU ARE SORELY MISTAKEN! I merely borrow, sigh… what is the point. Muahaha ONWARD!
Chapter 42 Happy Family
15 years later…
There was a lovely lakeside house situated perfectly where when the sun rises, it would warm up the living room and the rooms on one side of the house. When the sun sets, it would reflect upon the lake giving off a very romantic view of the lake and the faraway planes. It was built 5 years ago, it has double storey house, and has a very nice tennis court right beside it.
In the living room, a beautiful woman unconsciously tucked her stray brown curl behind her ear while she cleverly worked her nimble fingers across the mahogany table which was decked with pictures of her past. Pictures mostly consisted of her and a very handsome man, if not it also had a team of roguish boys. She stops in front of the left hand side mahogany table drawer and slid it open.
She pulled out a photo album and her face smiled as the first picture was definitely years ago. There on the patient bed lay one of her most precious people. His eyes glinting with magnificent bravery and confidence… how could anyone forget that day?
"Will you be ok Ken-kun?"
Sakuno stroked Kennichi's soft furry head as she watched him tenderly. Tezuka looked down at his cheeky little duckling, he said
"We will be out here waiting for you Kennichi."
There was a glint of comprehension between the two before Kennichi quacked back arrogantly only making a faint glimmer appear in Tezuka's eye. Momoshiro and Eiji were screaming to Kennichi to man up, when they were having tears in their eyes. Oishi and Kawamura looked worried as they asked Kennichi again and again every second in case he suddenly had the urge to bail out. Fuji and Inui took the pleasure to bully the poor veterinarian and warned him if anything happens… well no need to hear the rest to understand what they said when it was clear he would not survive.
Ryoma saw how everyone fussed over the duck, he peered at the duckling. Although, he may not have been there for the whole time, but he was sure that Kennichi knew as much as he did that he had neglected his responsibilities. It was his last effort to reconcile with the one egg he had failed to acknowledge. He kept an eye on Kennichi only to have Kennichi look back. They seemed to be exchanging silent words, Ryoma tugged his cap lower and gave a small nod, which Kennichi did not say anything to.
The veterinarian who got so scared meekly excused Kennichi from everyone and slipped between the two doors. No one left the spot outside of the surgery door, not even for a moment to go pee. What was 3 hours felt like years as they waiting to hear news of Kennichi coming out without any problems.
"Kennichi is one lucky duckling I must say."
That was the first thing that came out of the veterinarians mouth the instant he appeared. Perhaps he was intimidated by all the people standing up at once, not one person not present to see if Kennichi was fine. Everyone broke into a relieved smile as they allowed space so that Kennichi could come out with his leg…
The moment the door opened, they all gasped at the beautiful silver metallic leg which now helped bring Kennichi's dreams to run, back to life. It was so shiny and so delicate, it seemed so delicate that it may not even function properly as a leg. One accident and it's over.
"It's silver."
Voiced Inui as he looked and inspected the metallic material, the veterinarian chuckled as he replied
"No, the donor made sure it was made of titanium silver, it is more or less not too easily broken. If it did, we wouldn't charge you so much for such a leg."
Once that question was reassured everyone waited awhile later so that they would be here to see Kennichi wake up… when he did ... no one ever questioned the expression in Kennichi's eyes when it found a metallic replacement.
"It will take some time, for him to adjust to the feel of metal and operate it. It will be a task, but I am afraid Tezuka Kennichi may need to learn from scratch on how to slowly recover."
The woman flipped the next page, the moment she laid her eyes on the pictures a small twinkle appeared in her eyes. In each picture, each seigaku regular was spotted either teaching them one way or another, the way to walk. And other things…
In one of the pictures there was Eiji teaching Kennichi balance, Kennichi copying Eiji as Eiji opened his arms, and Kennichi copying that action by opening his wings. Eiji thought it was easy and lifted up one of his legs, but Kennichi that was truly a feat. In this picture, it was of Eiji and Kennichi before Kennichi fell over and Eiji leaping towards him to help him, which can be seen in the following picture.
Momoshiro was showing him how to stand up properly, and stylishly. Kaidoh snorted of course. Kennichi watched as Momoshiro showed him the lean on wall and look laid back. Kaidoh had the look in his face of mockery, which true enough caused Momoshiro to leap towards Kaidoh seen in the next picture while Kennichi tried the leaning on the wall trick.
Fuji taught Kennichi how to walk with style and elegance, in this picture… Fuji was shown to be with one foot forward the next right behind as he smiled serenely. He did walk with style but since kennichi couldn't, he tripped seen in the next picture and looked slightly aggravated. First time Kennichi wanted to give up. Fuji was patient as he slowed and insisted Kennichi to walk on and follow him.
Inui sat through with Kennichi and inspected the mechanisms, in this picture Kennichi looks slightly worried, same with Tezuka who was right next to him. Inui looked menacing as he held out the tool scarily enough. In the next scene, they discovered how dangerous messing with Kennichi could really be. It showed Inui running from small miniature lock target missiles. The third picture was a rather burnt Inui and an amusement look from Kennichi and Tezuka.
Oishi taught Kennichi patience, they realized Kennichi once frustrated had the small missiles appear or sometimes the leg could have a tine metal which opened up to be a claw and picked people up. Oishi who had most patience taught Kennichi. In one picture, Kennichi and Oishi was seated neatly on the carpet calm as a leaf on water, but Momoshiro seemed naughty from behind and you could see him bringing a paper bag filled with air. Sometimes, the next picture truly shows people that Momoshiro sometimes bring himself bad luck. Next one had Momoshiro in a tree hanging with the very same paper bag over his head.
Tezuka and Kennichi were going back to the old times where Kennichi ran with his father. This picture showed Kennichi suffering because he was not use to the running anymore, Tezuka seemed to know but he pushed a little and sometimes a glance between the two solves everything. The next picture was heartwarming since Tezuka and Kennichi was caught running together in a race which Tezuka made sure was light and not extraneous. The look on Tezuka's face when Kennichi won, was captured on picture and it was to say nothing short on beautiful. The proud father and his son, was never a picture one can always capture. They didn't have Fuji as their photographer.
Kawamura taught Kennichi sushi and its delights, Kennichi was seen on the kitchen table using his titanium leg and his other leg coordinately running to roll the sushi up. What happened next was that Kennichi tripped, and his body knocked against the spoon that had a lot of flour which splattered on Kawamura's face. That was the after picture, Kennichi trying to get up and Kawamura struck speechless and staring at him.
Kaidoh taught Kennichi how to make people scared with his aura. It showed Kaidoh and Kennichi trying to emit a scary aura, but what was funny was the large difference between Kennichi and Kaidoh. Kennichi looked constipated when Kaidoh looked like he was the demon from hell. Kennichi couldn't seem to get it, there was a picture of Eiji asking something and that was if Kennichi was constipated, when Kennichi practiced. The next instant, Eiji was screaming and running from the sudden thin metallic claw.
One of the sweetest things ever caught on camera besides Tezuka was Ryoma's gesture. Kennichi was napping beside Ryoma, as they both looked contented and asleep. What was sweet was that Kennichi was resting on Ryoma's side. Reconciled, and now close. Ryoma shared his ponta with Kennichi once, and they could clearly see Kennichi and Ryoma shared a passion for grape flavor Ponta. They were now close just the way Karupin was close to Ryoma, it turned out just fine. He was definitely Kennichi's second father but Kennichi prided Tezuka as his true father regardless, so Ryoma became his godfather.
There were plenty of others pictures which she flipped through them with a smile. These were all funny and heartwarming at times. Chaos for a group photo was captured, since Momoshiro Accidently landed on Sakuno's lap… not considering Kaidoh who was standing right next to him. As you can tell, the outrage and the giggles. Kennichi flipped just as much as Tezuka and a few others did. Momoshiro was running away from thin like metallic claw, a few missiles and Tezuka lecturing him, Fuji unconsciously tripped Momoshiro and finally Eiji, Oishi, Kawamura smiling whilst Kaidoh for the first time smirked and then burst out laughing.
The woman stopped at that picture. She remembered what happened the day they were meant to hand in their assignments… that was the most bizarre thing to ever occur.
"Congratulations students, you have successfully completed one of the hardest to accomplish tasks."
The moment their sensei said so, the door opened and in came a very angry woman. She gave the class a glare and noted pairs of students holding chicks and Sakuno and Ryoma was having a duckling. Her flames blew out from every pore of her body.
"BROTHER! How dare you!"
The sensei blinked as he asked curiously…
"Huh? What are you doing in my class Sarisa?"
"…YOU! You have a lot to explain! I have been searching for my genetically engineered eggs! TO FIND THEM MISSING FOR MONTHS!"
The sensei blinked as he replied
"Genetically…engineered?"
"YES!"
Barked the angry Sarisa, the sensei cowered a little but didn't completely. Horio wanted to know what they meant as he said
"Sorry Ms Sarisa, what do you mean Genetically engineered?"
Sarisa turned to look at his chick as she threw him a very sorry look. As if she knew his hardships with this intolerable chick. Funnily enough, he had grown attached to it as much as Tomoka was… in fact, he was dating his partner and they were happily enjoying it.
"If Mr. smarty pants here didn't take them, you all may not really suffer."
"Mada mada dane Ms Sarisa, can we get a straight answer?"
"Well, it isn't easy, I mean it was designed for pre-parenting people."
The rest of the class was silenced as they sat there listening and puzzled.
"These were engineered to resemble parents personality and be able to communicate with their close ones through telepathy or more so a connection between them. So you could understand its needs and hear it speak rather in words. It was made so couples who were interested in parenting would give it a try, since it is low in maintenance. I never thought they would be taken by stupid man here."
"So… if I am getting this right, they resemble us and behave so much more human is because… they had a connection with us?"
Asked Tomoka in surprise, she looked at her chick which seemed to be busy rubbing her head against Tomoka's own hand.
"Well, mimicking human behavior? It was merely an experiment, we have not tried it but since you say so. Your diaries may prove useful detail for us. I must say, now it is irreversible."
"It doesn't matter, we like them the way they are."
Sakuno voiced her own opinion for the first time in her whole life, it was the best gift and they thought he was strange enough. Sarisa went towards Kennichi and gazed at his metallic leg as she nodded at Sakuno.
"This boy is well bred. I bet he will behave… our first duckling from genetic engineering worked. I am happy to hear that. You all may keep them if you wish, but do note us observing means forever separation and they might die at that rate of grief. Speak now."
The class was dead silent, then everyone instinctively drew their own little child to their chest and said
"Not ever."
Sarisa smiled as she yanked the sensei at the ear and pulled him out while gritting her teeth and saying…
"I will have to teach you something of taking without permission…"
"KAA-CHAN! What are you reading?"
A small little girl waddled up to her mother, the woman placed the photo album to the side and picked up her daughter as she settled on her lap before saying
"I am looking at the picture of your brother."
"Onii-chan? Why? He is outside jogging with Tou-chan."
The woman smiled as she pulled out the album and flipped it for her daughter to look at it with glee. The door opened while the daughter was finishing the album with the woman. The daughter excited wiggled out of her mother's embrace as she ran towards the door dragging the photo album as quick as her little legs could carry her. The woman eased out of the chair as she heard a loud bubbly voice screaming
"Okaerinasai, Tou-chan, Ken nii-chan, Shiro nii-chan. Ken-nii! Me and Kaa-chan were looking at baby pictures of you!"
The woman walked to the door to see the very handsome husband of hers. He looked up from supervising his children as he smiled when she pulled out water from the table top and served it to the three males.
Kennichi looked up at his mother with his eyes demanding an explanation as to why his sister was having his baby photos. She merely smiled and stroked his head, she placed a bowl so Kennichi had an easier access to the water. His brown feathers were so beautiful and lustrous, some duck breeders could call that a fine male breed.
"Okaerinasai, Ken-kun, Shiro-kun. Drink your water Shiro-kun."
Shiro looked like his father but there was a soft tender look in his eyes which resembled his mother. He also was blessed with his mother's eyes other than her kind and caring nature. Shiro looks up to his big brother Kennichi because Shiro felt small but Kennichi was never intimidated by size as he managed to scare any idiot within a 10 mile radius who'd pick on him or his little brother.
The daughter resembled her mother too much, except she had father's eyes and the curve on her lips was definitely his. She was a very beautiful 4 year old daughter. Her father picked her up and gave her a small cuddle which she gratefully accepted. The woman handed the man his water and said with a warm smile.
"Okaerinasai Kunimitsu,"
Tezuka placed a kiss on her cheek before he replied with a twinkle in his eyes
"Tadaima, Sakuno."
They all walked in and past the largest portrait in the house which was a picture of their entire family and their uncles. The seigaku regulars and Tezuka's family… One huge happy family.
- END -
FINALLY! It is all over! Let's celebrate! I am not gonna be only one happy. PHEW I AM PERSONALLY GLAD ITS OVER! Oh wait, one last chapter. HAH! TEZUKA IS GONNA SAY SOMETHING! SCORE!