Quick update, no? I'm still focusing on Azumi a lot but hopefully you like her by now, or at least are willing to give her a chance. Thank you to AkimotoAyumu and Jelotto who reviewed :) It motivates me to write. Also, I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! We almost blew each other up by setting one off two mortars at once...hehe don't try it.
BTW if you don't like it please review anyway and let me know what to improve on. Thanks! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters, stories blah, blah, blah, blah.
(Azumi POV)
After leaving the castle I began down the cliff path towards a city that lay in the valley. I had on my disguise and was trying to get in character as I descended down the cliff side.
"Hello, my name is," I then cleared my throat and deepened my voice ", Jukodo Ryuu."
Wow, I sounded silly. I was definitely going to have to work on my man voice, or I suppose that I could claim to be pre-pubescant...
While I pondered this problem, I repeated the name I had chosen for myself over....and over....and over...and over again to myself. It wouldn't be very good for me if I didn't respond to my own name.
And now for my second favorite part of missions, coming up with a good back story. I could make myself anyone I wanted to be. It's funny how that works, people are always looking to be anyone but themselves. A blank slate is a beautiful thing. Maybe it's because you don't have to carry all your own emotional baggage wherever you go. Maybe its because we, as human beings have a terrible propensity for envy. Or maybe its just because we buy into the lies we tell ourselves. Sometimes the ones that we are never actually told aloud are the most dangerous, the ones that we assume about ourselves. The silent lies.
I wanted to be satisfied in who I was. I guess that's what actually drove me to run away in the first place from Imei High. I wanted to be able to live with my actions instead of being the leader of...the top team...in the most prestigious...government academy in...all of Japan...Wow, that sounds a whole lot more attractive than running around in a sweaty, itchy wig making up stories about myself right about now. Why was I doing this again?
Oh yeah cause the school administration decided to murder my friend Tsuneo as a test. Oh, and then threatened to murder me after I tried to save his life.
I was so lost in thought that by the time I looked around, I found myself at the end of the cliff path in front of a tall hedge. On the other side I could hear the sound of tennis balls being hit and people walking around.
It looked pretty promising. Maybe I could ask for directions to the nearest, I don't know...pet hospital or something. Hey, vets know how to stitch dogs up, why not me? Ignoring the obvious fact that I wasn't a dog. Although, I didn't relish the thought of picking unknown pet hair out of the wound on my hand...blech.
I walked along the outskirts of the hedge, looking for an entrance and came around to the front of the hedge perimeter.
"Alchim Rehabilitation Center." I read out loud.
Sweet! My luck was practically providential. This was the perfect place to find someone to stitch up my hand. Slip in, pretend to be a patient for about 5 minutes and slip out. If this went smoothly I could be in a different country by this afternoon, and farther from my team who would search all of Germany when they found out I was indeed not dead.
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(Regular POV)
Nishimura, Koga, Tokaji, Mochizuki, and Asai drove in silence back to their base at a hotel about an hour away from the castle. There seemed to be quite a bit of silence between the team members lately. Things weren't the same after Azumi left. The fact that they were hunting her down didn't help with the awkward silences either. Add the tension created by the seething disagreements between them and this is what you get: long, quiet, awkward car rides.
They arrived at the hotel in a good bit less than an hour due to Nishimura's ability to break the speed limit without breaking their necks. An important skill they all agreed. Especially the not breaking necks part. He pulled into a parking space and slid out of the car. This time, everyone followed him to get out.
"Grab everything. We're going to set up a new base at the castle D-room. You have 5 minutes." Nishimura ordered.
Nods of acknowledgment were given and then the anxious teens hurried up to their rooms to pack.
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Dr. Anton Peters was checking his clipboard as he walked towards the entrance of the rehabilitation center. He was so absorbed in checking patient charts and logs that he almost didn't notice the young boy standing in the entrance. Dr. Peters knew all the patients quite well and was sure that he had never seen this boy before.
He must be lost. He concluded.
"Can I help you?" Dr. Peters asked.
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The D-room was full of equipment. Earpieces, various watches each with a different capability whether it be a laser, a bomb, or a grappling hook, trackers, listening bugs, and 4 teens organizing and unpacking more gear. The fifth teen was glued to the computer monitor trying and evidently failing at something as the angry line of his brow kept growing with every keystroke.
Eventually Mochizuki noticed as the angry aura coming from Nishimura began to flame larger.
"Oi, Nishimura-senpai what are you trying to do over there?"
Nishimura didn't seem to hear him as he continued to tap away angrily at the keyboard. Mochizuki, rather put out at being ignored, stopped his unpacking and stomped over to the Nishimura.
"Hello-o!" Mochizuki said in a sing-song tone, one of Nishimura's pet peeves, as he waved a hand in front of his face. "Anybody home?"
Nishimura, equally put out at being interrupted, gave Mochizuki a look that could make flowers wilt. Mochizuki, however, didn't even bat an eyelash. Partially because he didn't really have eyelashes and partially because he'd faced much scarier things than Nishimura's glare, as deadly as it was.
"Great! I've got your attention. Now what are you trying to do?" Mochizuki inquired, still ignoring the glare that threatened to bore a hole through his skull.
Nishimura was distracted from his attempt to melt Mochizuki with his eyes, and turned back to the computer he had been attempting to destroy with his frustrated aura. Needless to say, Nishimura was not a fuzzy, lovable type of person.
"I can access the cameras to the D-room when Echizen enters, but they blank out for some reason after that. So we don't actually know what her disguise is. Not only that but she completely erased the computer's files on false documents. Not only can we not access the files about what SHE printed out but the computer couldn't even manufacture a passport for Barney!" Nishimura's voice had grown louder and more violent as he progressed until he was standing up and delivering the computer his signature glare.
The computer in response, shut off.
"WHAT?!?!!? WHAT JUST HAPPENED YOU WORTHLESS HUNK OF JUNK!?!?!" Nishimura demanded with widened eyes as he began to kick the computer.
"Oops hehe...my bad." confessed Koga sheepishly. She looked guilty enough to have robbed a bank, probably because she was sure that Nishimura was going to make her punishment SO much worse than that of a bank robber.
She had placed the ear pieces onto the computer processor and one had fallen into the fan, resulting in a smoking computer and a jigsaw puzzle of an ear piece.
Nishimura looked about ready to explode as his hair began to flame, and his eyes were replaced with balls of fire. Metaphorically speaking of course.
"W-w-well, I only did it because of Tokaji wouldn't move HIS stuff to the floor." Koga accused, shooting a meaningful look at Tokaji.
"Me!?! You're the one who kept flicking darts at me."
"Because you wouldn't move your stuff!"
"That's becaus-"
"SHUT UP!" Nishimura cried, freezing the bickering immediately. "Just fix it...NOW!"
Koga and Tokaji slowly moved towards the processor muttering insults at each other under their breath.
Nishimura just shook his head.
This is all Azumi's fault.
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(Azumi POV)
I was standing in the entrance to the rehabilitation center, rethinking my original plan. Sure there was less of a crowd here but the patients had been here for longer. Surely the doctors would not mistake me for another as they might do in a hospital.
I was about to leave when I heard a voice from one of the hallways that led into the lobby.
"Can I help you?" asked a man around his late 30s, medium build, and judging from his lab coat, a doctor. From what I could tell, he wouldn't be a threat if he turned out to be an agent for the government. Call me paranoid but I'd rather have my neck than a warm fuzzy friendship with everyone I came in contact with.
I turned towards him, quickly trying to come up with an answer because "Well I'm on the run for my life from a secret government school that you've never heard of. So I'm posing as a 17 year old boy when I'm an almost 16 year old girl WITH SERIOUS ISSUES WITH A CERTAIN CREW CUT, NEUROTIC, EGOTISTICAL, COLD, MURDERER OF A PRINCIPAL!" just didn't sound all that believable. The easiest answer would be that I was lost, and then I could ask him if he could stitch up my hand out of the goodness of his heart for this poor wayward soul as I laid on the guilt with some puppy-dog eyes action.
It was at that moment though that he noticed my bandaged right hand.
"Do you mind if I have a look at that?" he asked looking concerned.
I was torn between running away right that second like everything in me was screaming to do or waiting to see how it played out. Maybe I wouldn't even have to put on the sad puppy act and he would just fix me up out of concern! My sense of laziness and curiosity won out as I gave a curt nod.
He moved toward me and I held out my hand for him. So much for my paranoia. If I was wrong about him than I would be a sitting duck in this position. Thankfully, he merely gently unwrapped my hand and a small gasp escaped his lips. I had to admit it did look pretty bad.
"How did that happen?" his brow furrowed. Great. Now he was suspicious.
I didn't say anything. I was partially nervous about how my German was and partially worried about how much he may be able to tell from the type of wound. It looked a little like I had been in a knife fight, or a blade of some sort from such a clean cut.
"Let's see about taking care of that." he said as he ushered me into the hallway and into a small room that looked as though it was used for physicals. Bad memories. It took everything I had not to bolt or go ninja on the doctor, though I did allow my arms to move closer to my backpack where I kept my trusty sais. I had to keep reminding myself that this was going better than according to plan, sure he was suspicious but I didn't care as long as he stitched me up.
He then motioned for me to hold out my hands, which I did.
"No, no just the right one." he said amusedly as he went to lower my left arm, but he took a glance at me hand first.
The furrow in his brow returned as he studied my left hand.
Crud.
How would I explain that? Because, even a story I made up wouldn't sound all that believable. "Um, yeah, the doctor can only stitch left hands because he only has a left eye." Yeah, believable. I hadn't even had time to come up with a good backstory! I was going to have to improvise.
"Who did the stitching on your left hand? It looks professional." he commented.
That's when I had another lightbulb moment. There had been an application for interns sitting on the front desk of the receptionist in the entryway. That's all I needed.
"Um...yeah. I did it. I'm here to apply for an internship." I said flatly. That sounded to be as good a backstory as any. Maybe not all that exciting but at least I had something to work off of now.
"Really? From the look of this work I'd say you could apply to be a therapist. They don't start teaching how to stitch up people until the last few years of med school." he pointed out, with more awe than skepticism. Drat. There were already holes in my story, but on the bright side he seemed to understand my German easily enough, plus he was totally buying my man voice. Language studies were my strong suit at Imei. I was fluent in over 6 languages and had pretty much finished college in every imaginable field. How, you may ask? Try taking away summers of blissful freedom, starting school at age 2 instead of 5, and having your school days end at 7:00pm. Not only that but the there was no room for slacking. Imagine that all your classmates were hand selected from all the brightest minds in the country. Yeah, it was that bad. The only breaks I got were short weekends twice a year with my family. So if you envy me...don't.
Back to lying my tail off to save it. Hmm...how to get out of this one.
"I've already finished up my MD but I haven't gone into the field of therapy. I thought it smarter to apply as an intern and sort of learn the ropes first." I internally winced. "Learn the ropes?" What kind of respectable doctor used such an awful cliche as "learn the ropes"? Did that even MEAN the same thing in German?
He didn't seem to notice.
"Excuse me for saying so but you don't look old enough to have an MD."
I'm guessing that he didn't notice because he was too busy being skeptical, which was good. I had printed out every document I would need as Jukodo Ryuu...ever. I had graduated from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Dartmouth in several different majors, doctorates, and PhDs according to the diplomas I printed out. And diplomas didn't lie. Or at least that's what I wanted HIM to think.
I laughed lightly ,er, chuckled deeply at his comment, just as I was sure Jukodo Ryuu would do. Guys don't do the whole polite, little tea party laugh. Of course neither did I. I hadn't been very girly to begin with, so this whole boy thing might have been easier than I had first thought.
"I get that a lot." I replied with the chuckle still playing a smile on my lips. "But I brought all the paperwork with me and am ready to prove it practically as well."
Hmm...maybe all that school wasn't that bad. It made lying so much easier.
The doctor nodded his head approvingly though he looked as though he was still trying to reconcile my age and claims in his head. He seemed to just shove it to the back of his mind though as he FINALLY stitched up my hand.
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I was sitting in an office that was completely devoid of any personal objects other than a stapler, a hole puncher, and a cup full of pens that I was sure didn't work. The only other thing in the room was a carefully framed Harvard diploma hanging on the wall made out to Jukodo Ryuu...MD.
Somehow, my lies had brought me to this office...now MY office, a therapist at a world class German rehabilitation center. They were in desperate need of translators and as I happened to be both multilingual and an MD, I was accepted before I could practically open my mouth.
I could have declined the offer of therapist, I could have bolted just to get away, but I couldn't draw that much attention to myself. Dr. Peters was sure to remember me enough if I did run away or decline the very job I was seeking (supposedly) that if anyone came looking for me, he would point them in the right direction. I couldn't risk that, so I just followed wherever my backstory took me. Now if anyone was looking for me he wouldn't tell them of any strange teenager who was edgy and bolted at the first sign of trouble...after telling him that they had the education of a 30 year old graduate student. Instead, I was going to actually be here like a-a um…really…vulnerable thing? If my team found me. But, I had a pretty sweet disguise. So for now I thought it was best to just go along with my cover. At least that's what I told my screaming muscles that all had one idea: RUN FOR YOUR FREAKIN' LIFE! My mind had already devised 47 routes of escape in case of fire, invasion, or attack by plane, helicopter, hummer, or tank in the day and a half that I had spent applying for the job. And all while I was trying to show Dr. Peters what a great therapist I was.
I was screwed.
My new plan was to hang out for a week or two which was doable as Dr. Peters had already allowed me to take a room in the patient wing. But it was still dangerous enough for me to decide to jump the gun under some excuse of having gotten a better job somewhere, or being kidnapped by aliens, or anything that got me away from the very place that my team would be looking for me.
I sighed looking down at my patient charts and was surprised to see only one name on my list of patients: Tezuka Kunimitsu.
Well there you go! Hope you liked it! Please review!