Medabots Fan Fiction ❯ Medabots: Impossible ❯ Secret of Secrets ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Medabots Impossible

Chapter 10: Secret of Secrets

By: Lord Archive

The characters found in this story do not belong to me, but to NAS/Kodansha, TV Tokyo.

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Previously on Medabots:

Arika has finally told Ikki that she's pregnant. He was so shocked from the news he lost a robattle match to a ranked amateur, which winning the match upset Hiroshi more than losing would have.

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Ikki dragged himself home. He glanced into the living room and saw his mother blissfully reading a book and his father watching the news. Neither had a clue of the trouble that was brewing.

Metabee stomped pass him, muttering obscenities under his breath.

Mrs. Tenryo looked up. "Did you find Arika?"

Ikki nodded. "Yeah. She's home now."

"Is she all right?" Mrs. Tenryo pressed.

Ikki looked away. "Well, she's not dying."

Mrs. Tenryo gazed at him, with seeming expectations.

Ikki slouched. "I'm going to bed."

Mr. Tenryo tore his gaze away from the television as the boy shambled off. "I remember saying that to my parents after you told me you were pregnant."

Mrs. Tenryo nodded with a smirk, setting down her book, 'How to Pick the Perfect Baby Name,' onto the end table. "It would seem Arika finally told him."

"Still hope your reading too much into her recent illness," Mr. Tenryo retorted.

"Right, and Ikki usually drags himself to bed at eight," Mrs. Tenryo returned.

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Mrs. Amazake gazed at her daughter with a great amount of concern. The girl once again opted for a couple plain doughnuts and a lemon-lime soda for breakfast. The lunch that was packed was similarly simple affair of rice and meat only, with another can of lemon-lime soda. She remembered a time when she had eaten like that, but there was no way her baby girl... She couldn't even think of it.

"Something wrong?" Arika asked.

Her mother frowned. "I should be asking you. What did the doctor tell you yesterday?"

Arika shifted uneasily. "I... I have evidence of prediabetes. I stand a large risk of developing it fully when I get older."

Mrs. Amazake nodded in thought. Certainly not the best of news, as her little girl would undoubtedly have a harder time in life. She did not know much about the trouble associated with diabetes, but knew it was at least manageable. There had to be something else that bothered her baby.

Arika did not give the woman a chance to ask anything more when she rushed off to school.

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Zuru frowned as he saw Ikki drag himself into school. Arika had already gone in to talk to the teachers, but the look on Tenryo's face made him fear his suspicions had been correct. He walked over to his only human friend. "Something troubling you?"

Ikki glanced over lazily. "Nothing to worry about. Just didn't get much sleep last night."

Zuru folded his arms. "Has Arika told you what is wrong with her?"

Ikki nodded. "Yeah, but it's nothing for you to concern yourself over."

"Look, you can talk to me. You know I can keep secrets," Zuru told him.

Ikki frowned. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Zuru countered. "My baby little sister is still waking me up every night."

Ikki flinched at the word 'baby' as if he was punched. He then stared at the boy. "How would you...?"

"Lethargy, nausea, mood swings, and bladder control issues. My mother went through all of that last year," Zuru pointed out. "And I serious doubt diabetes would have you this zoned out."

"I don't know what to say. I still don't think you understand MY situation with Arika. _I_ don't understand it," Ikki retorted.

"Yes, it's not the same, but I'm still willing to listen," Zuru offered.

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"Prediabetes? Can you believe that crap?" Arika's homeroom teacher spat out to the other educators.

The female mathematics teacher smirked. "Oh, I don't doubt the prediabetes, that's just making her sick enough that we couldn't miss it."

The homeroom teacher shook his head. "Why she just doesn't get it taken care of, I don't know."

The science teacher spoke up, "Diabetes can cause all sorts of medical issues to a pregnancy. Greatly increasing miscarriage and even puts the life of the mother at risk if her blood sugar is not constantly monitored. Knowing that there is a risk of developing pregnancy diabetes later in life, well..."

The mathematics teacher frowned. "It's actually safer for her to have a baby now?"

The science teacher nodded. "And with the advent of Internet and the slow death of printed newspapers, Arika's dream of being an investigative reporter may well be dead before she'd have a chance to get a journalism degree anyway."

The homeroom teacher folded his arms. "So, we've still got to play dumb until we can't ignore it. I'd rather kick Tenryo out of school than Amazake for that stupidity. She at least takes school seriously."

"Considering once Tenryo turns eighteen he'll have more money than all of us combined, and liable to make more in Medabot tournaments, school really is almost pointless for him," the science teacher observed.

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Mrs. Amazake really wanted, no needed, to know why her daughter seemed so out of it. Was diabetes far worse than she heard? Knowing how her daughter researched everything, she went into the girl's bedroom and began to look around for any information pamphlets or books and did find a few.

Reading over a diabetes pamphlet, she wanted to sigh in relief at the list of symptoms which her daughter did exhibit, but couldn't help but frown at the listed dangers that it would present. While not inherently deadly by itself, it can lead to life threatening situations if not properly managed.

Sitting at her daughter's desk chair she read over the material concerning prediabetes and her frown deepened. Her baby's recent illness was too severe to be just a warning. She did not like how potential triggers for diabetes had pregnancy circled and age was underlined.

Then, buried amongst the literature was something else that made Mrs. Amazake's heart drop: pamphlets on pregnancy. The amount of wear on them showed they had been read more often than the ones on diabetes. More damning wasn't just the notes scribbled with remedies to help with morning sickness, it was 'Tenryo Arika' written in at the top along with various names, some of which had been crossed off.

Mrs. Amazake shook her head. She didn't want to believe the indications. She didn't think this was possible. She had to do something.

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Ikki trailed behind his girlfriend as he walked her home. "What are we going to do?"

Arika turned around to gaze at him. At least he said 'we.' She pouted deeply. "I've been trying to figure that out for the past week. Part of me still wants to delay, but the risks when I'm older... What do you want to do?"

"I... I don't know." Ikki slouched. "I'm not ready to be a father, but I don't want to lose you. I mean I do want to have a family some day. Just not this soon. But as you said, we don't get to have everything we want."

"Finish school or your love child," Arika barely said over a whisper. "I get one or the other, not both."

"Even if we try to delay things now... there's no guarantee we won't be back in this situation before we graduate high school," Ikki muttered out.

"Nor is there any certainty of me getting pregnant when I'm twenty," Arika added.

"Arika... we have to make a decision before we can move on," Ikki told her. "Do you want to have this baby now or not?"

"I don't know..." Arika admitted. "Do you?"

Ikki hugged her. "I don't know how to answer that. All I can think is 'not yet,' but at the same time I don't want to risk your health. If it really is safer for you now, then I'll deal with being a father."

Arika began to cry, latching onto her lover desperately. With those words, the decision had been made.

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"I'm home," Arika called out.

"Welcome home," Mrs. Amazake returned sadly. "Are you hungry, Dear? I have a snack for you."

Arika walked into the kitchen and saw rice paddies all set up for her, with a few options of flavoring she could add to it. Her stomach growled in appreciation and added a few of the different sauces to them before eating the first one.

Mrs. Amazake shook her head at the combination of flavoring was rather sickening. Something only a pregnant woman would consider eating. "Dear, when were you going to tell me what was really wrong with you?"

Arika looked up sheepishly. "I... ah..."

Mrs. Amazake held her daughter's hand. "How long has Ikki been forcing himself on you?"

Arika stared at her mother with wide eyes. "What? He's never forced himself on me."

Mrs. Amazake looked at the girl with concern. "He hasn't?"

Arika looked away. There was no point in hiding it anymore. She was going to have this baby. "If anything, I forced myself on him when we first became lovers a couple years ago."

"You... forced... him... YEARS AGO?!" Mrs. Amazake disbelievingly finished with a screech.

Arika nodded. "I know we shouldn't have been together like that, but I love him. Love him enough... to choose our baby over school."

"You're too young. Babies shouldn't have babies," Mrs. Amazake insisted.

Arika let out a long yawn, hating how pregnancy sapped her energy. "Mother, this may be my only chance to safely have Ikki's child."

Mrs. Amazake shook her head. "You don't realize what you're doing. You have to delay this."

"I won't," Arika protested. "I only get to accomplish one of my dreams, and I'm choosing Ikki." She wobbled as she moved to stand up.

"I can't let you make that mistake!" Mrs. Amazake yelled.

Arika moved toward the door. "I'm going to Ikki's until you calm down." She made it two steps before she collapsed.

"Sorry about the sleeping pills, but this is for your own good," Mrs. Amazake told her unconscious daughter. "I know you would too stubborn to listen to reason."

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"Oh, Ikki, you're back already," Mrs. Tenryo noted. "Where's Metabee?"

Ikki blinked in confusion. "Huh? Didn't he stay here?"

Mrs. Tenryo shook her head. "He went to store to see Ms. Nae about his new body."

Ikki slapped his forehead. "Shit! I totally forgot about that." He turned and ran out the door.

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"I really need to talk to my agent about my lack of screen time," Metabee snidely commented. "The secret of Arika being pregnant is becoming less of a secret. Mrs. Amazake seems to want Arika to have an abortion regardless of what the girl has to say, but I think Mrs. Amazake is forgetting a few things."