Family (1)

After the two had made up in the middle of the street, they finally arrived at Ken's house in good spirits, almost forgetting the entire encounter with Daichi's mother. The amazing smell of a well-cooked dinner floated in the air as Ken announced their arrival.

"We're home."

"Welcome home. Did you fetch Daichi?" His mother asked before turning around.

Her smiling expression instantly sank as she saw the bruises and scratches on Daichi's face as well as the tear marks that had been left.

"Daichi dear what happened!?" She rushed forward and cradled his face in her hands, looking him over like a cat fawning over her kitten.

"Kenny, I certainly hope this was not your doing." Her tone lowered to an icy level, causing Ken to shudder unconsciously.

Thankfully, Daichi quickly cleared up the misunderstanding and explained what had happened. Although the truth had only made Yuki's face turn even more ugly as she heard the tale of abuse that he had been subjected to.

However, once he was done she took a step back and fixed her apron.

"Let's have some dinner first. There's a spare room you can stay in tonight and you can borrow some of Dad's pajamas, I'll wash your uniform tonight so you don't have to go home." She said, before turning her attention back to the stove.

"As for what happens moving forward, we'll wait till my husband returns from America tomorrow." Yuki's voice was quivering, clearly trying to hold in her anger.

Ken's adult brain kicked into gear as he thought along the lines of what his mother and father would decide. The most likely outcome would be that they would invite Daichi to move into the spare room, but would Daichi's mother allow it?

He quickly got out his phone and took some photos of Daichi's injuries after telling Daichi to trust him. The boy agreed and he quickly stashed away his phone containing all the evidence he needed to keep that woman away.

Despite the circumstances, dinner went well, with the two boys stuffing their bellies with all that they could contain. They were tired, not only from baseball practice, but they were emotionally spent after all that had happened.

"Kenny, show Daichi to the spare room and where the bathroom is. Your father is on a flight right now so I will have to wait till tomorrow morning to talk to him. Head to bed early and get some good sleep." Yuki gave her orders and began to clean the kitchen dutifully, albeit a little rougher than usual.

The boys only had enough energy to get cleaned up and head to bed. The thought of studying had never entered their minds as they finally got into bed.

Daichi was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, feeling the most safe and secure he had ever felt in his life.

Ken on the other hand felt his mind wander. He of course wanted Daichi to move in with them more than anyone else, but he had also been an adult at one point, so he was well aware of the things called bills.

He wasn't exactly sure what kind of financial circumstances his parents had, but he figured that his Dad would be decently paid by the Yokohoma Warriors. His mother on the other hand was a stay at home wife, meaning she had no income.

Ken was a little stressed that they may not be able to afford everything that came with adopting another 15 year old boy. However there was nothing that he could do about it.

The legal age to work in Japan was 16, which meant he couldn't help out even if he wanted to. He was technically from the future so maybe he could get money from betting? However he never really took notice of things that he could bet on because he never had spare money.

In the end, he would have to wait and see what his father decided to do tomorrow. He quickly said a prayer, hoping that everything would turn out okay and Daichi wouldn't be forced to live with that woman ever again.

Before sleeping, Ken consumed the last remaining Balance and Coordination Elixir, once again feeling a bout of nausea before his head hit the pillow.

The next morning, Ken woke up feeling a little groggy. He checked his alarm clock only to see that there was 1 minute until the alarm was scheduled to go off, causing a wry smile to appear on his face.

It was unlikely that the extra 1 minute of sleep would have made a difference, but there was still a tiny speck of annoyance that came with waking up before ones alarm.

He quickly brought up the system in order to see how effective the Elixir had been.

[You have consumed: C-grade Balance and Coordination Elixir.]

[Balance and Coordination grade has been increased by 1!]

PHYSICAL FITNESS: (Avg. C+)

Balance and Coordination: C+

Agility: B-

Strength: C-

Stamina: C

The wry smile stayed on Ken's face as he saw the subsequent notification. He was a bit disappointed that the Balance and Coordination Elixir had only yielded an increase of 1 grade, but there was nothing he could do about it.

However, it wasn't that bad in retrospect. He had a feeling that the C-grade Elixirs would lose effectiveness altogether once his skills reached a certain threshold.

He quickly got changed and headed out of his room to go wake up Daichi. However, he could already hear him talking to his mother downstairs while she sipped on her morning coffee.

"Morning." Ken said with a smile, making his way downstairs.

"Morning Ken." Daichi said, his face still sporting the battle scars of the previous night, yet he seemed in good spirits.

"How did you sleep?"

"Like a log!" He replied, breaking out into a stretch. "Ready for our morning run?"

"Of course. Mom, we'll be back in an hour or so for breakfast." Ken said, waving as he walked out the door.

"Take care you two. Your father should be home very shortly." She replied, returning the wave.