The Child of Tennis - Yukimura

Thank you for your wellwishes! My presents from fans has filled my garden and house! It's rather humbling and overwhelming to behold. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart. Minoru is appreciating the fact that she can eat all of my chocolate and I can't, so the fans made her happy too >>;

I got another huge surprise, this morning, however. My mother showed up on the doorstep of my house after nearly...four years of not really seeing her in person. To say I was surprised, would be something of an understatement. She looked okay, but as messy and unorganized as ever. I was sort of curious, as to why she'd remembered my birthday this year, but turns out she was only just replying to my message about Minoru's illness. Again, this mixed feeling between laughing and crying, considering I sent that message two and a half months ago. Why does she do this to me?

And she gets talkative when she's drunk, apparently. She started talking about why she had gotten so distant all of a sudden, when I was a kid. An explanation I would have liked a few years ago, frankly. And, it was perhaps a huge shock to discover that my father had been something of a womanizer and had been cheating on her behind her back with several women. In fact, he'd actually managed to have a kid with one of them, when I was two years old. Guess who's winning best parenting award? :D That's right, not this guy.

But I grew less impressed with her, if that's even possible, because when one of your partners is a shitty parent, you're not supposed to mimic his actions. You're supposed to pick up his slack or stay the same, not neglect the kids even more. I swear, if I ever have kids, the only way I'll drive them insane is over too much affection and trying to train them to take over the world.

Anyway, she knew the identity of our half-brother and figured out when I was seven...but didn't bother to mention this to me, yet again. Do I have to get her drunk every time I want important information? "Happy birthday, you have a half-sibling, who've you've actually been aware of for most of your life." Brilliant tact. But in any case, Dan-kun! We're half-siblings :) Hi~ I'm assuming you were as clueless as I was?

Not quite sure what to make of this, but I'm going to look on the bright side and hit my father so hard when I next see him that he's going to hit a wall :D That ought to cheer me up a bit.

-Faithfully yours, Seiichi

Well, not really your birthday, but the closest we can do it on a non-leap year. I hope your present makes it through the mail~

[ooc: It's a book of not-so-famous paintings by famous artists. And a new set of paintbrushes, with really nice quality.]

Thank you for the lovely day, Kura~ I hope you enjoyed it. I definitely did.

But I agree with Echizen about the pains of Valentine's Day. Too. Much. Chocolate. I can't eat all of this, not even with Minoru's help! I had four entire cardboard boxes filled with chocolate, for crying out loud! That's far more than last year's haul. I'm considering just going out with a huge basket and throwing them at people randomly. Or melting it down and making an abstract statue with it.

-Seiichi

So...my agent has found new ways to drive me up the wall. She means well....but honestly, I haven't done nearly enough to write an autobiography. I know that I actually have time to sit down and write something, but I neither want to nor have enough life experience to be able to make it a seller.

I've always thought it's a bit stupid for younger celebrities to release autobiographies. What have you done in such a short period of time that merits a whole book? Even if you've been a child star, I honestly think you can only really write autobiographies once you've passed forty, at least. That's when you've gained enough life experience and tact to be able to judge your own life without too much bias.

But that's my own opinion. Even with a life as interesting as mine, I honestly can't fill a book.


For Valentine's Day, I have a slightly cold date planned. Bring a coat too, it's gonna be chilly. You might not be able to see me under the layers of clothing~



I have two candidates narrowed down. I'm going to be hiring your services since Genichirou is ill. How much for a day?

Stage one of finding a bodyguard is underway. I have actually quite a few people applying, but I have no idea how to narrow them down. My two options currently are run them through something similar to speed dating. They have three minutes to tell me why I should hire them. Or, I have each of them bodyguard me for a day and stage something to happen that they have to react to. Whoever reacts the best gets the spot.

On the one hand, the second option is more useful to see their efficiency, but it's expensive. The first one's cheap, but if they just talk big, I could be fooled over.

Min-min has plenty of ideas, but all of them are useless, so I've resorted to ignoring her. She finds this all too amusing. I still feel like yakuza or something.

I forget to wear my Rikkai jacket for one day when I go running, and I almost get run over! It's probably my fault for not wearing anything else bright when I go jogging in the evenings. But, it just goes to show how lucky that old thing is. It's always been out to save my life!

Ahh, now that filming's done, I get to do so much more physical conditioning in my free time. I'm working on my abs and glutes, since those are probably the most neglected during the actual game. Lots of crunches and leg-lifts and planks. I'm also working on flexibility, though that isn't strictly necessary to play tennis. I finally managed to master the side-splits, though my hips still won't let me get into forward splits. Yet.

I want to go run for longer distances and go different places. Maybe run on the beach, or up mountains and hills. And maybe cycling. I'd have to go pull my bike out of our old house in Kanagawa for that, though. But cycling is good for the thighs.


I'm not watching the Australian Open, even though my fingers twitch to switch the channel there, whenever I turn on the TV. I don't want to make myself resentful and bitter. I just look at the scores online, after all the games are played so I can keep up to date. I...can't watch it and still remain cheerful about my choice. My blood is singing for a proper game, for the screaming crowds, for the adrenaline that never really comes from solitary training. But I'll survive, as long as I keep avoiding it.

It's funny, how these things happen. My mother called today wanting to spend the New Years with us.....around five days too late. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or just hang up. I told her she'd missed the date and that Minoru was out with her friends anyway, grabbing some freedom days before the next term starts. I hope mother's been eating. But if she's forgotten what day it is, I doubt it. Scientists! Never know what to do with them! Still haven't heard from father. I might just march down to his office and shake him. Or chuck tennis balls at him.

But I've been managing to get some free time, since Minoru's out with friends and filming is on hiatus while everyone returns from holidays. Spent some time with my plants, and I painted some landscapes. I went out to Tokyo street centre and did some paintings of the urban scene and some temples. It was lovely, though I had to ignore the people there, since they wouldn't stand in one place for me!

I had some time to think to myself though, and I've been tossing around ideas for that little miracle of mine. Tell me Echizen, does your father ever enter competitions with magazines and newspapers to win things or go places? Or would you or someone close to you?

-Seiichi

And Minoru just had a mini panic fit, when she couldn't move her legs and almost fell down the stairs. I didn't need this now! I've got her back in bed and resting, though she's complaining of being bored. I threatened to read her a story like a kid, if she didn't cooperate a little, just because she always gets lulled to sleep by that.

Damnit. I really hope this is a temporary thing, like my smaller pains were. I have so many places to be and if this fit lasts, I may have to cancel some so I can stay and make sure she's looked after.

Mother finally responded to my email about Minoru, which I did send almost a month ago, with obviously distracted platitudes. I understand that my mother's science research is important, but she can afford to come back to Tokyo to come and see her daughter. It's not tough. I put my career on hold for Minoru, the least she can do is spare a couple of days to make a visit.

And Father isn't much better either. He still hasn't responded, and I don't know how preoccupied he can be. He's in PR, he has to check his emails! Maybe something happened to him and mother didn't inform me....? But no, even she can't be that bad. He's probably just too busy for me. And don't they even talk to each other anymore or something? Isn't this something that mother would tell Father or vice-versa?


This is why I hate dealing with them. They're so frustratingly occupied with their jobs and it makes me wonder why they even bothered to have kids in the first place. I only remember them being around regularly, both emotionally and physically until I was seven or eight, and far less than that for Minoru. Genichirou visited me in hospital more than they did!

mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment
tout doucement
sans faire de bruit
et la mer efface sur le sable
les pas des amants désunis

Been listening to Yves Montand to get into the melancholic mood, while waiting for my character's death scene to get set up again (is that spoilers? Am I allowed to say that? I mean, on this show, the villain dies every season, so it's not a surprise really, but does it still count as a spoiler?).

The script isn't all that sad, but continuously dying at different angles is actually pretty emotional. I've died twenty times today already, and I'm set to die another fifty more XD It's pretty tiring. I wasn't expecting it at all. All I'm doing is collapsing a few times per take. Minoru tells me that I'm such a fail that I can't even die properly, because the director usually has to tell me to look less pained when I die. I find that somewhat amusing :D

-Seiichi

I just realized that Echizen's birthday is Christmas Eve. I can't help but think that having your birthday on that day must be a little difficult, since it would always be about Christmas and not your birthday. And he grew up in America, where Christmas is more of a big deal....

I thought it would be nice to have a small (surprise) party for him on the 23rd. Unless you're too tired out from Atobe's party, of course. But just something small and more informal.

-Seiichi