●・○・●・○・●
CHAPTER TEN,
no more

—

༇ OVER the next weeks, Kaede trains like never before. The Chishiya family is on a long trip to Europe, and Aguni is walking through the Japanese Alps with Nozomi for several weeks as well. Ann has to work, his mother is due in a few weeks, and his father is either taking care of her or 'resting' (he games).

So Kaede keeps himself busy with Kuina. He learns how to keep his chin tucked. How to throw a punch and how to kick. How to fall and roll. How to get up even when his legs tremble. How to breathe through pain. How to shut out noise.

Kuina doesn't go easy on him. Not even once.

He is still twelve the first time he follows Kuina into the gym, a boy with soft limbs, nervous eyes, and a stubborn jaw clenched just tightly enough to keep from trembling. The memory of Chishiya's words coils in his stomach. So Kaede has decided that he will never be that weak again.

Kuina doesn't laugh when he tells her he wants to take these fight lessons more seriously. She doesn't ask him twice if he's sure. She only ties her hair up and says, "Then we train."

The first few days are awful. Kaede is small with no body strength and no clue how to use his muscles. He stumbles. He drops. He gets dizzy. He can't even do a single pull-up. Kuina never lets him quit. She corrects his posture, guides his breathing, and keeps her own reps going so he doesn't feel like he's struggling alone.

The soreness is brutal. Kaede cries once in the locker room after tearing a blister open, his palms bleeding and stinging. Kuina finds him trying to hide it. She doesn't scold him. She tapes his hands, hands him a protein bar, and says, "That's what makes you stronger. And you're still showing up. That's the good part."

He does show up. Every day. Five times a week. Sometimes at six in the morning, sometimes late at night. Kuina has him journal his workouts. She gives him protein powders. Helps him because he keeps telling her he doesn't want to stop.

One day, after a particularly harsh training session, Kuina glances at her phone and suddenly smiles.

"Time to go," she says, tossing him a water bottle.

"Why? We didn't do sprints."

"You're off the hook today," she replies, walking toward the exit. "Your mom had the baby."

Kaede freezes. He blinks. "What?"

Kuina slows at the door. "You heard me. Come on. I'm taking you to the hospital."

It takes Kaede a few seconds to process her words. His shoes squeak against the floor as he hurries after her.

They drive in silence, the summer heat buzzing off the pavement outside. Kaede sits with his arms crossed, his heart fluttering. He barely touches the protein bar Kuina tosses into his lap.

"Do you think she's okay?" he asks at one point. "Mom, I mean."

"She's tough," Kuina says, eyes on the road. "Like mother, like son."

He looks down at his hands and smiles, just a little.

Kuina shows her ID at the front desk of the hospital. The nurses give a warm nod as they lead Kaede up the elevator. Everything feels a little surreal. They stop outside room 4B.

"Go on. They're waiting." Kuina motions at the door.

Kaede hesitates for a second, then steps inside.

The light in the room is soft, the curtains drawn halfway. There's a soft beeping from a monitor and the shuffle of a nurse checking things. His father is sitting in the corner on a couch, asleep with a hand still gripping a paper cup of vending machine.

In the hospital bed is his mother. She looks pale, tired, but radiant. Her hair—ever the same haircut—is pushed back into a ponytail. In her arms is a tiny wrapped bundle.

Kaede steps forward slowly. Every sound in the room seems to disappear. His mom looks up and smiles.

"There you are," Usagi whispers. "Come meet your sister."

Kaede walks to the side of the bed. She's impossibly small. Her skin is soft and red, her mouth twitching as she sleeps, a knitted cap covering dark hair. Her fingers are curled into fists. He stares, utterly silent.

Usagi lifts the bundle slightly, gesturing. "Want to hold her?"

Kaede nearly stumbles. "I... what? I don't want to break her."

"You won't," Usagi laughs softly. "Go on." Gently, she shifts the baby into Kaede's arms. He holds her awkwardly at first, but soon, his arms find the right angle.

"She's so small," he whispers.

"You were even smaller once," Usagi points out. "Her name is Miyu. Miyu Shigena Arisu."

"Shigena?" Kaede repeats.

"My father was named Shigenori," she explains softly. Kaede nods, a smile beginning to creep onto his lips.

Arisu stirs on the couch and blinks awake. He pushes himself upright. "Hey," he murmurs, rubbing his eyes. "Everything good? How was the training?"

Kaede nods without looking up. "It was good."

He stays there for a long time, cradling her. Kuina peeks in once and smiles before quietly stepping away. Kaede doesn't even notice. His shoulders, sore from training, are relaxed now.

"Can we call Hana? She's obsessed with babies," Kaede suggests. 

"Her parents asked us not to— well... Chishiya did. He said predicted Hana would be jumping around begging him for a sibling as well for the rest of the vacation."

●・○・●・○・●

"Usagi's past her due date, Dad! The baby must be born," Hana states firmly as they walk through an alley in Italy. "I want to see the baby and I still want a sibling. I've wanted a sibling for so long!"

"Really not that long, but sure, the amount of times you've asked us makes up for a lifetime."

"No, no, you don't understand. When I was swimming, and I looked around, and I saw all those siblings, I just knew—"

Chishiya stops walking. "Spare me and say you're talking about a normal swimming pool."

"I'm talking about the beginning of my life— and my life is nothing without a younger sibling. Please?"

Chishiya exhales through his nose, tilting his head back like he's praying. "Hana. Your mother and I are, unfortunately, aging. Do you know what that means?"

"That your backs crack when you get off the couch?"

"It means we're too old to go through the hell that is diapers and midnight feedings and—"

"You're not too old!" Hana interrupts. "People have kids at this age all the time."

"Yes," he agrees flatly, "and those people are either celebrities with personal nannies or they cry in their cars during school pickup because they've aged twenty years in three."

"Can't you very accidentally get me a sibling? Like Kaoru? But not with Kaoru's personality, ew. Just... the fact that it's accidental?"

Kaoru sticks out his foot, causing Hana to trip. For the rest of the day, she complains about a twisted ankle, wanting a new sibling, and not being able to see Kaede's little sister.

●・○・●・○・●

In the master bedroom of their vacation cabin, the lamp is still on, casting light across the bedding. Chishiya is seated upright, book open on his lap. He's in a clean gray shirt, one arm folded behind his head, the other turning a page.

Baya, on the other hand, is already out cold. It's been twelve minutes since she flopped onto the mattress and tugged the blanket over her head. Now she's lying on her side with one leg kicked out dramatically and the other tucked up, her arms folded under her pillow in a position that almost looks like her bones are broken.

So far, so peaceful, but Chishiya knows better. He glances up from his book when she exhales sharply, then jerks her whole leg backward and lands a heel into his shin.

He waits for another few seconds. Then goes back to his book.

The peace lasts five more pages— which is more than usual.

She rolls, dragging most of the sheets with her, twisting them halfway around her torso. She lands with her back against his side and throws an arm across his chest. Her hand slaps down on his collarbone. Her elbow digs into his ribs. She snores, softly and sincerely.

He gently pries her elbow off his ribs and slides her arm back onto her side of the bed. It stays there for three seconds. Then flops back over him.

This time, her hand hooks around the collar of his shirt. He sighs and marks his page with one hand. His other one goes up to slowly untangle her fingers. One by one. And then prying her elbow off once again.

Which hits him three minutes later. Directly in the gut. He grunts softly. Baya mumbles something. Then shifts. Then rolls again. She lets out a breath that sounds almost like a snort. Then she flips again, only this time she overdoes it.

"Ow."

Chishiya peeks over the edge of the bed to find her sprawled on the floor, hair everywhere.

She blinks slowly, disoriented. "What the hell?"

"You fell," he says calmly.

She groans and rolls onto her back. "My soul left my body for a minute. I was dreaming I was in a river. A really strong current."

"Did the current have a black belt?"

"I think it was you, actually."

He raises an eyebrow.

Baya reaches up like a child and lets him haul her back into bed. She collapses across him immediately. He starts rearranging the blanket and carefully adjusting her collar, which is halfway down her shoulder, and brushing her hair back from her face. Her breathing's already starting to slow again. Within a few seconds, she's out.

At two a.m., she mumbles something and flops dramatically onto her back. Her arm swings over and lands across his face.

He peels it off gently.

Time creeps on. Chishiya reads half a page. Then she rolls again. She takes all the blankets with her. She kicks once. Lightly. Her heel taps his shin. He ignores it. She kicks again. Harder this time. Her knee connects with his thigh. He shifts slightly, lifting his leg out of the strike zone.

Ten minutes pass. Then her elbow grazes his ribs. Chishiya exhales. He repositions his book. Endures.

Now she is facedown, starfished diagonally across the mattress. One of her legs is off the bed. Her arm is in his space once again. Her hair is somehow in his mouth and Chishiya thinks back about the good old times.

When he told Arisu, while they were drunk, that he once found Baya's sock in his boxers. Back then, he thought it was a strange occurrence. Now it happens weekly— somehow.

At three, she elbows him in the ribs so hard he almost drops his book. At this point, most would question why he's still reading a book at three in the morning rather than ask why Baya fights better when she's asleep.

Suddenly, her knee flies up, and directly strikes Chishiya where no man should ever be struck.

The air leaves his lungs. The book flies out of his hands and hits the wall. A sound escapes him. He clutches his crotch and folds into himself.

Baya? Happily unconscious. Mouth open. Possibly drooling.

Chishiya sits there for several full minutes. He stares into the void. It stares back. They have a moment.

She shifts again. Steals the blanket. Rolls onto her side and throws one arm across his face. There's a heavy thud as Baya rolls completely off the bed for the second time that night.

A frustrated noise escapes her. "Something about these Italian sheets!" She complains, eyes still closed. "What happened?"

"You kicked me," he says, "in my crotch," he goes on, "with full force."

Her eyes open slowly. "Left or right?"

"Both. Hana's wish for a sibling is permanently declined and we can't do anything about it."

"Oh my God." She sits up, hands over her mouth, laughing uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry. I'll... make you an ice pack!"

"We don't have ice."

"Cold peas?"

"We don't have peas."

"Well, then stop looking at me like I should do something about it when there is nothing I can do! Or do you need me to blow on it?"

"You are not going near it."

Eventually she climbs back into bed and clings to him. "I'll sleep real gentle," she whispers. "Does it still hurt?"

"Yes," he admits gruffly.

"Would ice even help?" She laughs again, then nuzzles into his arm, mumbling, "You're gonna be okay. You're strong. You've survived worse."

He glances down at her. "No. This is worse than everything else."

"Consider it my revenge."

"For what?"

"For everything."

"I assumed the entire situation involving you stabbing me with a syringe was enough revenge."

"Hey! Don't remind me of my mistakes—!"

Chishiya grunts again as her foot smacks against his shin, this time with the clear force of someone very much awake.

He grabs her ankle and yanks it. She gasps as she slides half an inch down the bed. "Hey!"

"Reflex," he says coolly.

She bends her other leg and shoves it against his thigh. He blocks her with one arm and reaches over to flick her forehead.

"Ow!" she gasps.

He flicks her again.

Baya lets out a loud sound, sits up, and tries to grab his book. He moves it behind his back. She lunges for it. He flattens onto the mattress, holding the book up. She climbs onto him, straddling his waist. "Give it."

"No."

"Give it!"

"You're going to damage the spine," he says flatly.

"I'm going to damage your spine." She wrestles one arm under his to tickle his ribs. He doesn't budge until she finds the right spot. He jerks and grunts, the book slipping. She snatches it and slams it to the side, away from them.

He stares at her. She grins, triumphant.

"Do you realize," he says slowly, "that was a first edition."

"I realize," she says sweetly. "I didn't damage it. I simply put it away, assuming you'd want revenge and need all the space for it."

She lets out a yelp as he tackles her sideways, pinning her arm with one hand and jabbing gently into her ribs with the other. She shrieks, twisting and thrashing.

"Okay, okay! Truce!" she squeals.

"Liar."

He lets up enough for her to wiggle free, but she doesn't retreat. She launches herself over him and grabs a pillow. It hits him in the face.

Chishiya grabs his own. The first swing knocks her sideways. She laughs so hard she snorts.

More swinging. More shrieking. The blankets go flying. At one point, Chishiya grabs her leg and drags her back down. She kicks again. He pins her. She elbows him.

Eventually, they're both exhausted, sprawled sideways on the mattress, tangled in the sheets and gasping for breath.

Her head rests against his chest. "Thinking about it, a third kid would be very cute."

"Then you should've kicked less."

"Think about it," she whispers, her voice syrupy sweet. "A tiny baby. Matching socks. Little shoes."

"You can't even match your own socks."

"That's what you're for."

Baya falls asleep first. Naturally, across his chest. One leg crooked over his. Her foot twitches. He braces himself. She kicks.

"I can see you're faking your sleep," he points out.

"No, I'm not," she whispers, eyes closed as she snores.

He instinctively catches her foot midair before it kicks him again.

"You're sleeping on the roof," he says.

"Oh, big words from a man who just got folded in half by a sleeping woman," she responds smugly.

He shifts beneath the covers, still guarding his lower half with one arm. "I let you win."

"You let me kick you in the nuts?"

Chishiya doesn't respond. He only stares.

She lunges at him again. She rolls halfway over his chest, trying to pin him with her weight. She grabs one of his wrists and tries to trap it above his head. He lets her get halfway there before he twists his arm and flips her.

"Ow—!" An audible pop from her lower back. She freezes. "Oh no."

He pauses. "What did you just do?"

"I think... I think I just dislocated a piece of my spine."

"That's not medically possible."

"It feels medically possible."

She flops onto her stomach like a dying fish, clutching her lower back and making small groaning noises. "I was winning," she mutters.

"You were delirious," he corrects. "That wasn't even a real move. It was just flopping."

"I'm in pain," she whines. "Kiss it better."

"I am not kissing your spine."

"Then I'm going to destroy your kneecaps." She spins too fast, miscalculates, and her elbow lands directly in his ribs again.

Chishiya chokes slightly. "Okay, then." He rolls and traps her under him, pinning her arms above her head. She squeals in protest, kicking wildly and almost knocking over the nightstand. He uses one hand to keep both her wrists in place and the other to tickle the side of her neck mercilessly.

"No!" she shrieks. "You swore you'd never—!"

"You brought this on yourself."

She bucks hard and manages to twist one arm free. It becomes the same messy fight as minutes earlier. At one point she slaps his stomach so hard it echoes.

"Ow. What was that for?"

"Wanted to test your muscles."

He flips her again, trapping her between his legs and twisting her arm around her back.

"Tap out," he orders.

"Never."

"You're injured."

"I will bite you."

He raises an eyebrow. "Why do you always bite everyone?"

"It's a good tactic."

"To take them out?"

"Yeah."

"You bite me on a daily basis. Are you trying to permanently disable me?"

Sure enough, she sinks her teeth into his bicep, gently, but enough to get a reaction. They roll. They wrestle. Ultimately, Chishiya lands on his back with Baya sprawled on top of him, both of them breathless and bruised in entirely unnecessary ways. Her hair is in his mouth again. One of his legs is dangling off the side of the bed. She's laughing against his chest, and he's breathing like he just ran a marathon.

"I think I tore something," she mumbles, face buried in his shirt.

"I think I ruptured my spleen."

"You're fine."

"No. This is how I go."

She snorts, kisses his collarbone, and finally goes still. For thirty seconds.

Then she shifts again. "You were actually really good. You've been watching a judo show, haven't you?"

"I just know how bodies work."

"Still couldn't stop me from biting you."

"I let that happen."

"Oh really? The same way you let me kick you in the crotch?"

"Yes."

"I don't believe you."

"That's not my problem."

They settle in messily, finally catching their breath and trying not to overheat.

Then Baya says, "So... totally unrelated."

Chishiya pulls a face.

Baya continues anyway. "Don't get mad."

"That's a suspicious way to start a sentence."

"I'm just saying..." She props herself up on one elbow, squinting down at him. "If you did have to lose all sensation from the waist down—"

He closes his eyes.

"—it's kind of convenient that we already have two kids, right?"

He just blinks at the ceiling.

"I mean," she adds quickly, "I don't want that to happen. But like, if it did—"

"Are you checking if I'm still reproductively viable?" he asks dryly.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean—" she waves her hand. "Just out of curiosity."

He narrows his eyes. "Is this about Hana's request?"

Baya avoids eye contact. "She... might have drawn a picture of herself holding hands with a new baby sister."

"We just got her to stop dressing Cinnamon like a human."

"She loves babies. She wants a sibling, Shuntarō."

Chishiya pulls the pillow down just far enough to reveal his entire face. "She also wants a horse. And a pond. And, last week, a mechanical leg."

"I'm just saying," Baya murmurs, laying her head back on his chest, "it wouldn't be the worst thing."

"We'd have to start over. Diapers. Midnight screaming. Wipes. No sleep."

"You sleep anyway?" she snorts.

He ignores that. "What if it's twins?"

"Then you get even more chances to be kicked in the nuts." A beat passes before she adds, "I think we'd be good at it. Again. I think we've learned stuff. And we're older now. I mean, Kaoru wasn't planned, and even though we had several months to prepare, we moved to a different house while he wasn't even capable of saying one word and then Hana's baby times flew past super quickly. Kind of like we hurried to just give Kaoru a sibling close to his age, you know?"

He exhales slowly. "You have a point."

"I'm not saying we should get another baby!" She quickly adds. "I mean, we're getting older and the age gaps would be huge. But... we can take it into consideration. Miyu would have a friend."

"Okay. Let's think about it."

Baya's smile is sleepy, but genuine. "Yeah?"

"I mean," Chishiya murmurs, pulling the blanket around her as she settles again, "might as well make it worth the trauma my internal organs just went through."

"And you still have good genes! Mostly intact!"

"I have no genes left. You dropkicked them into another dimension. You kicked me so hard that I remembered a flash of my own birth."

She bursts out laughing. Then sobers a little. "I just keep thinking about it. Not right now-right now, but maybe... soon?"

Chishiya looks thoughtful. He doesn't say anything for a moment. "Kaoru and Hana are growing up. We're not in survival mode anymore. The house is stable. Life is... relatively quiet."

"You're romanticizing."

He huffs. Turns his head and actually looks at her. "Would it make you happy?"

Baya shrugs, almost shy. "I think it might. I didn't get to enjoy it the first time. I was too young. Everything was harder than it needed to be. Now we know what we're doing. We'd be... ready."

"For the first time ever."

"Yeah. Is there anything we were ever ready for?"

"Good question." Chishiya runs a hand lazily through Baya's hair, now completely sprawled across his chest.

Then, with a muffled grin, she murmurs, "You know who didn't plan another baby?"

Chishiya doesn't look at her, but the corner of his mouth curves up. "Arisu and Usagi?"

Baya nods against his chest. "They absolutely didn't plan that."

"Usagi looked like she was about to bite someone when Hana brought up the baby shower."

"And Arisu nearly cried when Kaede asked if he had to share a room."

They lie for a while, breathing in sync, her fingers tracing patterns on his chest, his hand still in her hair.

Then Baya blurts out, "Do you think they even had sex on purpose?"

"Please go to sleep."

"You know Arisu gets flustered. I bet he was like 'uhh I forgot the... wait, do we need—should I get—' and Usagi just rolled with it. Boom. Baby."

"I'd put money on that baby being an accident."

"I did put money on it. With Kuina. She said they planned it."

"She's lying."

"That's what I said! I told her no one with a functioning frontal lobe looks at a teenager and says, 'Let's start again with a newborn.'"

"We just had an entire conversation about getting a baby and we have two teenagers."

"I never said our frontal lobe is functioning."

Chishiya props himself up slightly. "So, was it a midlife crisis baby? A 'let's fix the relationship' baby? Or a 'we forgot how biology works' baby?"

Baya counts off on her fingers. "One: Usagi has baby fever and it was an accident on purpose. Two: Arisu's conflict avoidance means he probably just said yes to everything. And three: pure accident."

"Definitely option three."

"But the baby is cute. I saw the picture. She's got Usagi's cheeks. And the biggest eyes I've ever seen."

"Her head is the size of a melon. It's medically concerning."

"That's just what babies look like."

"I'm not convinced."

"If we have another baby, please don't tell them they're ugly. That's the first thing you said to Kaoru."

"I was early with teaching him he should always speak the truth."

She laughs softly. "I think they're going to be okay, though," she says after a moment. "Arisu and Usagi. Even if it was an accident."