Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, its characters, or any other copyrighted material I might reference in this story.


Prologue:

"How terrible it is to love something death can touch"

Echizen Rika never understood this, never realized what this would mean for her until it was too late.

'No… no! It can't… why… I don't understand… what's going on… but… what is this… how! How, how, how? This can't be happening! It's a lie, right… Right?'

While all of the was going on in Rika's head, the young girl was staring at the doctor in disbelief and didn't register the older woman who spoke the doctor briefly nor the doctor's exit following the conversation. All Rika could focus on was on the memories that led up to now in the hospital as she wondered where everything went wrong.

Meanwhile, the other woman, Rinko Echizen, shared a look with her husband, Nanjiroh, as they wondered what this would mean for them all, especially Rika considering her seemingly permanent shell-shocked state at the moment, even as their grief and despair threatened to drown them both. Suddenly, the doors slammed opened to reveal a frantic young man with a face filled with desperation.

The boy quickly took in the room before his face fell as he realized the truth. He nodded to the two adults in the room before walking towards the young girl who didn't seem to notice his presence even after he had gathered her stiff body into his arms in what was meant to be a comforting hug. He refused to let her go even as he turned and spoke to the others.

"Oyaji… kaa-san," he had to stop for a moment as his grief caught up to him, but then he took in a deep breath before continuing, "I came as soon as I heard, it's true isn't it? K… Kevin's dead… isn't he?"

"Ryoga…" began Rinko before a sob stopped her. Nanjiroh, who had been silent up to this point, stepped up to wrap his arms around his wife and turned to Ryoga with an uncharacteristically serious face and confirmed what no one in the room wanted to hear.

"Hai... Ryoga, he…" Nanjiroh paused for moment as he was as choked up with emotions as the rest of the room before continuing, "Kevin's dead."

The room was silent as everyone processed those words before they realized Rika must have broken out of her frozen trance at one point as she was now staring at her father in horror, shaking her head slowly with tears running down her beautiful face. In the coarsest voice any of them had ever heard, she managed to choke out her words in a whisper, "H-how did this happen? No! Why? Why?" Everyone stayed silent, not knowing what to say to the obviously distraught teenager, and Rika seemed to realize at that moment that denial was futile as she closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat before continuing.

"Why are we even here?" Everyone in the room was speechless, not so much because of the words but rather due to the utter defeat ringing out clearly in her voice that normally was full of confidence and pride to the point of arrogance at times. "What… what's the point if," here she had to pause as she couldn't even bring herself to say his name, "if… if he's not here? What are we going to do? I-I'm sorry I just can't. I can't. Please! Let's leave. I can't stay here. There's no point! No point in staying if Kevin can't! No point to anything if Kevin's gone."

At this point everyone was looking at Rika with varying degrees of shock and sadness. As she reached the end of her mini speech her voice became more frantic and hysteric. Finally, Rika looked up and all of their hearts broke at the look on her face and they promised themselves to never allow anything to cause her to wear that expression again if they could help it. With her words and devastated face along with their own grief, they had little ammunition to prevent themselves from giving in to her request even as she tore their hearts apart with one last whisper.

"Please…"


Hello! Ok, so this is my first fanfiction and I have high hopes for this one. I have been on this site for years and am a member of many fandoms but this is my first time writing a story instead of reading it and I'm glad it's for Prince of Tennis. I want you all to know that I have plans for this one but unfortunately, I am a well known procrastinator so please be patient with me if updates are a bit inconsistent especially once school gets back in session. Please follow, favorite, and review! I like constructive criticism but please don't flame.