Chapter 119 - The Winchester Estate (2/2)

Gray and Yurika reached the tram station nearest Yurika's house and walked the rest of the way there.

"What the..." Gray said while gawking at Yurika's family's house.

Calling it just a house would be insulting... it was an estate! The perimeter was lined with traditional earthen Japanese style walls (Kawara-bei) with roofs made from old ceramic tiles (Kawara).

Yurika opened the gate for Gray and then waved to the guard. The guard waved back and then put his finger to his ear and spoke something to himself that Gray couldn't make out.

When Gray walked past the guard house, he thought he had stepped in to Japan as every cliché he could think of could be seen from the entrance. The yard itself was extremely green due to the extensive foliage and a small pond was on one side with a large cherry blossom tree draping over it. Gray expected Koi to be in that pond and was not surprised when he heard a bamboo water fountain (Shishi-odoshi) knock against a stone.

Gray looked at Yurika and before he could ask, Yurika said, "Yes, my mother is Japanese, but my father is Russian. You can tell who got to make the decisions about the estate when it was built."

"No kidding... I'm actually impressed by the sheer size of it as well!" Gray said as he noticed that the estate was at least several acres in size.

"Well, this estate is not only our family home, it is also has a school, training center, library, and a guest house."

Gray was about to ask more but a group of teenagers and young adults came running up to Yurika.

"Sis! You're back"

"Welcome back!"

"We missed you!"

"Who's the dweeb?"

"This guy your man servant?"

"Do you even lift bro?"

Both Gray and Yurika were bombarded with questions and comments and left no room to answer, but Yurika seemed quite at home with it all. What surprised Gray was that all of the girls had black hair where as the boys were completely random it seemed like.

"Ignore them." Yurika whispered to Gray with a smile. She addressed everyone else and said, "This is Gray Wilhelm, he is the leader of the Steel Wolves! I've already kicked his butt so he knows his place! Gray, this is my family's youngest generation so all of them are brothers, sisters, or cousins of some kind. We only address each other as brother or sister now to keep it simple."

Strangely enough, that seemed to calm most of them down. Some of the girls even whispered "He's kinda cute" causing Gray's ego to inflate, but then deflated by an elbow to the ribs from Yurika.

"Remember, you're just my captain, so hands off the goods for now!" Yurika whispered to Gray again when he tried to catch her arm after she elbowed him.

"I wasn't trying to, I was trying to save my ribs from being shattered." Gray whispered back.

One of the boys spoke up, "Sister Yurika! Are you guys participating in the tournament in Alterra Online tomorrow?"

"Yes! We're teaming up with another group for the 16 versus 16 bracket, but will be going alone for the 4 versus 4 and 8 versus 8."

"Sweet! I hope we get to face you guys! Steel Puppies, was it?" one of the girls said teasingly.

"Steel Wolves stupid!" a boy suddenly shouted.

"I know! I was just being mean!"

"I know! So was I!" then the boy stuck his tongue out at the girl.

Gray suddenly realized the bratty behavior ran in the family. "Now I see where you get it from." Gray whispered to Yurika.

"My good looks, right? You haven't even met my parents yet!" Yurika whispered back.

"No, but that's about to change I think." Gray thought to himself.

Gray, Yurika, and the crowd of brothers and sisters reached the front steps to the main building and Yurika opened the sliding door completely, then slipped her shoes off and put on a pair of slippers.

"Mom and Dad already know we're here, take off your shoes and put on these slippers before we go to see them. No shoes inside the house past the entryway!" Yurika said to Gray while pointing towards a wooden cubby with various slippers.

"Um... Ok..." Gray suddenly got really nervous.

"Relax! We had a pair ready just for you since it would be weird to put your feet in a stranger's slippers."

"That's not what I'm nervous about..." Gray thought to himself as he was remembering the Mario socks he was wearing. "Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll have a sense of humor."

Gray looked around and saw a lot of katanas on display and suddenly felt that his life might be in danger if Yurika gets mad enough.

Yurika looked questioningly at Gray since he seemed to be hesitating about taking his shoes off. "What's wrong? Don't tell me you need help putting slippers on?"

"Now or never!" Gray thought to himself. Gray stood their holding the slippers in his hands, set them down, then grabbed his pants by the thighs and pulled them up slowly to reveal the socks underneath.