I'm ba-ack! Thankee kindly for luverly reviews. :3 You guys all rock! Hopefully, I managed to reply to them all this time. Special author shout-out to anons and as well as sonia girl and deirdre (who made a very astute guess about this chapter) since I couldn't reply to you.
Disclaimer: If I owned Prince of Tennis, Ryoma would occasionally get his butt kicked, Sakuno would rule the world, and I'd keep the ever-glompable Eiji all to myself. XD
Second for the feared, most frightening to behold,
With fearsome exterior but heart of shining gold
The Second Day
"Hey. Hey, you, first-year."
Ryoma turned, the tennis bag slung casually over his shoulder bumping into his side.
Five or so guys, two standing, a couple more slouching against nearby lockers. All of them wore red ties, signifying their positions as upperclassmen. He didn't know them, so none of them played tennis.
"We heard some stuff about you recently," said one of the slouchers loudly, the same brash voice that had first called out to him. Ryoma eyed him disinterestedly. The loud boy slumped at the edge of the group, near the back. All talk, no power--the typical bully who was much better at talking about his skills than displaying them. A weak opponent. Unimportant.
"Hn," said Ryoma. He turned to walk away.
"Oi! Don't turn your back on an upperclassman!" growled a low voice. A large hand grabbed him roughly by the arm, yanking him back around. Ryoma was by no means the shrimp he had been in middle school, but he had never shot up the way Horio and the others had. His short stature never really bothered him, however. It caused opponents to underestimate him. He also didn't have to worry about lugging around the extra pounds of limb, so he remained fleet and fast, even without the added muscle.
Completely ignoring the goon gripping his arm, Ryoma stared at the boy in the center, his head tilted arrogantly, totally at ease.
"Did you need something, sempai?" he drawled coolly. The boy standing to the leader's right laughed in spite of himself.
"Damn, he's gutsy," he said in reluctant admiration, with a grin that made Ryoma think of Momoshiro. The leader smiled brightly, without feeling.
"Indeed. So, Echizen-kun, I hear you've been busy lately." His tone was light, but his eyes were sharp. Searching for a weakness. "So, how was she?"
Ryoma blinked.
"How was who?" he asked blandly, carefully concealing his confusion. The leader laughed. Ryoma decided he didn't like the laugh very much.
"Ryuuzaki-chan of course," the leader said, without any reservation whatsoever, his smile unpleasant.
Ryoma was silent. The leader's eyebrows raised.
"That bad, was it? What a shame. I had thought to try her out myself, but if her performance was so lackluster I might as well not both--"
"You're annoying." Ryoma spoke abruptly, his voice slicing through the end of the leader's sentence, utterly cold.
"What did you say?" said the leader quietly, his voice going dangerously soft. Around him, the others stood up from their slouches to step forward. Their faces were grim, angry, and excited by turns, except for the one to the leader's right, who looked conflicted and a bit uneasy.
"Hey, come on," he said, addressing the leader but unable to look at him. "You know he didn't mean it." Ryoma's eyes flickered his way. The older boy returned his stare with one that was faintly pleading.
C'mon, it said. You don't have to do this. This was the time for him to back out, say he was sorry, he was just kidding. The time to cringe and turn and walk down the hallway as if he'd never heard what that...person said. Ryoma looked away, turning his gaze back to the leader.
His chin rose, his left hand moving to the zipper on his bag as a dueler might reach for his pistol.
"I said: You. Are. Annoying."
Nakamura Goro gazed forlornly at the spitballs on the ceiling of the boy's bathroom and sighed.
It was a good job, really, being a janitor.
Sure, it wasn't what he'd first envisioned when he had been young and hopeful. But then, he thought, with a dry, wheezing laugh, he had also been pretty stupid when he was young.
It wasn't all bad. He got all the free coffee he wanted from the teacher's lounge. He was also the only employee in the school who had absolutely no fear of being fired. He had the keys to every room in the building, which just so happened to include the basement where all the files were kept. Students and teachers.
Principal Kitagawa hadn't made the connection until Goro had said, very politely, that he knew all about the Stapler Incident, at which point the principal had turned interestingly pale and sweaty and offered Goro a fifty percent raise. Smart man, that principal.
"Hey, come on. You know he didn't mean it." The boy's voice echoed anxiously from outside in the corridor.
Goro's slightly malevolent smile of recollection vanished and was replaced by a grimmace of irritation. Those damn punks. Not even eight in the morning, and they were already raring for a fight. He had just cleaned the floor! He was not about to let them go spurting blood all over it.
Grimly, he stumped out the door, mop in hand.
--
"You should know better than to mouth off to your betters, Echizen-kun," said the leader, his smile gone. Behind him, the others fanned out, flanking Ryoma.
Ryoma met his gaze squarely.
"Betters?" He looked around. "Where?"
Sneering, the leader stepped forward. Ryoma braced.
"Hey! Hey, you, the one with the bag!"
The boys turned as an old man stomped towards them, slamming his mop into the ground with every step like a vengeful cleaning god.
Ryoma cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes, you, you young idiot!" the old man growled, now close enough to jab Ryoma in the chest, which he did. Repeatedly. "You and I are going to have words about the spitballs I found in the bathroom."
By now the older boys were snickering. Ryoma stared blankly at the old man.
"Don't give me that look," he snarled. "It doesn't work. You know you did it, and I know you did it, and now you're going to clean it up! Now, get going!" He gestured angrily down the corridor. A little nonplussed, Ryoma did just that. the older boys jeered, sending taunts at his retreating back.
"Have fun, Echizen-chan!"
"Work hard!"
"No slacking, now!"
Goro turned his glare on them, mustache bristling fiercely. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
"Of course," the leader replied sweetly, his smile insolent. "Let's go, everyone." Still laughing, they slouched off.
--
Goro soon caught up with the boy.
"What's your name, kid?" The boy looked at him for a moment, his eyes expressionless, before facing front once more.
"Echizen Ryoma."
"So, Echizen Ryoma, what happened?"
"Nothing."
"They say something?"
"No." Goro rolled his eyes. Strong and silent it was, then.
"You don't talk much do you?"
"Hn."
Goro decided to switch tactics.
"I knew that you didn't make the spitballs." Ryoma stopped walking.
"Then why am I here?"
"I like my floors clean," Goro replied shortly. "Plus," he continued with a sly grin, "frail old men like me need help from time to time. Ah, here we are."
They entered the bathroom. Goro went to his bucket and pulled out the scraper, handing it to Ryoma with no small satisfaction. He had always hated this job anyway.
"Here's your scraper. There's your ladder. Get going."
--
Knock, knock.
"Come in, Sakuno."
Cautiously, Sakuno entered the office. She smiled warmly at the woman sorting papers at the desk.
"Konnichiwa, obaa-chan. How did you know it was me?" Ryuuzaki Sumire turned to face her grandchild. She was formidable in pink sweats and her long brown and silver ponytail swished impatiently. Sumire cracked a half-smile however and merely said, "I'm a wise old woman, that's how. Of course," she continued, glaring darkly at the papers in her hands, "if I were a little wiser, I'd be done with these blasted forms already."
Sakuno frowned, her eyes worried.
"Don't worry," Sumire said with a grin, her tone lightening. "I haven't forgotten that I'm giving you a ride home today. I guess I'll take the rest of the uncompleted forms with me and finish them at home," she said, eyeballing the papers with great distaste. "Now, I just need to go pick up the keys to the equipment room from Oishi. He will be missing practice tomorrow, and I don't have a spare key. Then we can go."
Sakuno did not miss the stiffness in her grandmother's stance, or how deeply the tired lines were etched around her dark eyes. Going anywhere within a hundred feet of Echizen-kun was about as high on her list as diving naked into a tank of piranhas, but Obaa-chan worked so hard.
"Obaa-chan, don't trouble yourself about the keys. I can go get them," Sakuno piped up, pasting on a smile.
"Ah, thank you Sakuno," her grandmother replied with poorly concealed relief. "Remember, once you've got them, come right back. I don't want you getting lost."
"Hai," said Sakuno, making a face. It was a well known fact that her sense of direction was shaky, even at the best of times. She was, however, fairly confident she could make it to the tennis courts and back without getting turned around.
"Sayounara obaa-chan!" she chirped, and hurried out the door.
"Oishi-sempai?" He did not turn around.
Mou! She would just have to try again. Sakuno ran faster. She had to catch him before he entered the changing room!
Fortunately, or perhaps miraculously, she did not trip at all, and she caught his sleeve a few feet from the boys' changing room. Unfortunately, she was so winded from her mad dash she couldn't speak. Instead, she grimly held onto his sleeve and waited for her lungs to start functioning again.
It was perhaps fortunate that her head was down, and consequently unable to see Oishi's expression. The look of panic intermingled with slight terror that flashed across her sempai's face would not have been very reassuring.
"Oishi—sempai" panted Sakuno.
"Yes?" he said, in a wary voice that would have struck her as odd if she had not been concentrating on breathing. Unbeknownst to Sakuno, Oishi was in considerable emotional turmoil.
She's not going to kiss me, is she?
No, of course not, she only has feelings for Echizen. But this is exactly how she was last time. Spontaneous, bold, breathless. Augh! And even if she isn't going to kiss me, her reputation and her future are still in jeopardy! The elopement will derail both her and Echizen's educations, and, even worse, their families may disown them! Without good educations and familial support they won't be able to get jobs and without jobs they'll become homeless and their relationship will suffer and they'll drift apart and die young, lonely, and unloved! But what if the kiss was a random phenomenon caused by hormones or puberty or something? What if Ryuuzaki has just become a kissing fiend? WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhat do I do?!
While Oishi was having his emotional meltdown, Sakuno got some of her breath back.
"I need—the—the key—to—to the—to the equipment shed," she gasped out. "Obaa-chan wants it." Oishi's anxious face brightened.
"Oh. Is that all?" he asked, his voice weak with relief. "Of course." He reached into his jacket pockets. "Not there," he mumbled. He then checked his pants pockets. Then he took off the jacket and shook it.
Still no key.
"I'm sorry Ryuuzaki-san, I must have left it in my locker," he said with a sheepish smile. "I'll be right back." And with that he vanished into the darkness of the changing room.
Sakuno waited, absent-mindedly scuffing the concrete with her shoe. Soon she heard voices.
Curious, Sakuno followed the sounds around the side of the change room building. Looking up, she noticed one of the high windows was cracked.
"Where could they have gone?" asked Oishi-sempai's voice, sounding utterly mystified.
"Oishi, who cares about that now! Sakuno-chan is back to see her beloved O'chibi!"
That would be Kikumaru-sempai talking, but what was he saying? Her beloved O'chibi? The blood rushed to her cheeks. They knew! She must have been pathetically obvious if even the sempais knew of her past infatuation.
"Yes, there is a 78.9 percent chance that the request for the key was merely a ruse invented so that she could see Echizen."
Inui-sempai, definitely. But how could he say such things? True, she would never have passed up a chance to see Ryo—Echizen-kun play, but she didn't tail after him, and she certainly didn't tell lies just to see him. She had her pride.
"I don't know. I-It doesn't seem very like her." Thank you Kawamura-sempai! At least one of them had a better opinion of her.
"Tuesday morning wasn't like her either," added a deep voice. Sakuno nearly fell over. Kaido-sempai? She had never heard him speak so much off a tennis court. And "Tuesday morning?" What happened Tuesday morning?
"Saa. Love makes people do strange things, ne Echizen?" A lighter voice, as casual as if it were asking about the weather. Sakuno covered her burning cheeks with her hands. That had to be Fuji-sempai, and she would bet her braids he was smiling.
This would be good time to trip over something noisily, to cough, to plug her ears and sing loudly.
Instead, she leaned closer to the wall as quietly as she could.
"Found it!" yelled Oishi triumphantly. Sakuno nearly had a heart attack.
Breathing fast, she scrambled back to where she had been standing earlier and tried to look as calm and guilt-free as possible. She heard faint footsteps growing louder as Oishi-sempai approached the door.
A cell phone rang. The footsteps stopped.
"Ah, it's mine. Kaido, would you take the keys out to Ryuuzaki-san?" spoke Oishi.
Kaido took the keys from Oishi-sempai. He didn't especially want to, but Oishi was his sempai and you had to respect your sempais. Kaido was a very respectful person, so he accepted the keys without complaint, and walked back out into the cool afternoon.
As he walked to Ryuuzaki-san, a breeze picked up, ruffling through his hair. It was cold and Kaido shivered slightly, wishing he were still wearing his bandana.
"Here," he said gruffly, thrusting the keys at her. It wasn't that he disliked Ryuuzaki-san, quite the contrary really. He had always liked animals, and Ryuuzaki-san reminded him of nothing so much as a bunny or a hamster: something small, furry, and easily startled.
She didn't look very startled now, however. In fact, she looked completely at ease, a small, dreamy smile on her face.
Kaido wondered if she were feeling sick. His face close up did not often elicit dreamy smiles from the opposite sex. Usually it made them run away, or grin nervously until they had found a policeman to sic on him. He had frequently been arrested as this or that wanted criminal, all because of his evil face.
She still hadn't taken the key. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes, although they were glued to his visage, were unfocused. Maybe she had a fever?
"Ryuuzaki-san," he said as gently as he could, trying not to scare her, "are you alright?"
Her smile widened.
"Yes," she whispered softly, placing her hands on his forearms. Then she gave a sharp tug, pulling him down to her. Kaido flushed bright red and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
"Uh, R-Ryuuzaki-san—" he stuttered, but she cut him off.
"Hush, Kaido-sempai," she murmured, her eyes sliding shut.
Crowding the changing room doorway, the regulars gasped.
Kaido was pretty sure this could not be happening.
It stood to reason. In real life random girls most certainly did not wander out of the blue and kiss him. Especially young, timid girls who supposedly had crushes on his teammate.
They did not whisper huskily to him, they did not cling to him, pulling him closer and closer, and they did NOT kiss him so furiously that he, the master of endurance, felt like passing out. He knew this with all the certainty he possessed.
On the other hand, he was also fairly certain that even though this wasn't actually happening, Echizen would find out somehow and make him pay. But even as his arms tensed to push her away, she was already pulling back.
She stepped back, her eyes fluttering open. As he stared at her, Kaido was relieved to see that the dreamy look was gone. With dismay he saw that in its place however came surprise, confusion, horror, and finally, mortification.
"K-K-Kaido-sempai?" she squeaked.
He winced at the terror with which she spoke his name. How different it was from the loving way she had said it earlier!
"I-I don't know what came over me." she said, her face pale.
"I—" She broke off and for a moment her face was completely blank. Then she shook her head, and looked around.
"Oh, Kaido-sempai!" she said, with no trace of her earlier distress, "Excuse me, but could you tell me where Oishi-sempai is? Obaa-chan wants the keys for the equipment shed."
Wordlessly, he held out the keys. She was surprised, but only momentarily.
"Ah, Oishi-sempai already gave them to you, just in case." she said, nodding. "Thank you Kaido-sempai." She smiled gratefully at him and then dashed off back towards the school. Stunned, Kaido watched her go.
He felt a sudden chill. With a deep sense of foreboding he turned around. There were the rest of the regulars, silently staring at him.
Some of their stares weren't very friendly.
Involuntarily, Kaido's eyes were drawn to the smallest regular. Ryoma stared coolly back, but his left hand held his racket in a tightly clenched fist.
And that's when Kaido Kaoru knew he was in big trouble.
As usual, Eiji was the first to break the silence.
"Kaido, how could you!" he wailed. "You knew Sakuno-chan belonged to O'chibi!" Kaido looked down at the ground with an embarrassed "Fsssh."
"What kind of person are you, Mamushi?" said Momoshiro in disgust. "No man steals away another man's girl!" Kaido's head snapped back up, his eyes blazing. It was one thing for a sempai to say it, it was quite another to be scolded by that spiky-haired bastard!
"Shut up, porcupine-head!" he snarled, grabbing Momo's collar.
"Make me, you womanizer!" bellowed Momoshiro, and he in turn grabbed Kaido's shirtfront.
Before the situation could get any more out of hand Oishi stepped in.
"Knock if off you two!" he said, pushing them apart. "Momo," he said, calm and serious "Do not injure your teammate. Give Kaido a chance to explain himself. Kaido," he continued, looking at the other hot-blooded man. His tough façade crumbled and he cried out anxiously, "Why on earth would you do something like that? Please don't tell me you have also been secretly in love with her?"
"What?" sputtered Kaido. "No! She kissed me." He looked down off to the side, a light blush dusting his cheeks.
"Ah, I see. So you were the damsel in distress, ne?" said Fuji amiably. "And Sakuno-chan was your handsome prince."
"Iie, chigaimasu." said a voice flatly. All the regulars turned to look at the youngest member, who was calmly tying his shoe.
"Hmm? I'm wrong?" said Fiji, his voice as smooth as silk. "Or is it that youwanted to be Sakuno-chan's damsel?"
"Che," said Ryoma, turning away, his hat bill low. "Who would?"
"Echizen does have a point." said a voice from behind them. "There was something wrong both times." They turned to Inui as he continued. "Ryuuzaki-san did show bizarre symptoms before and after each occurrence. The strange boldness prior to the event and the odd way she apologized afterwards, it was almost as if she did it against her will."
"But who would force Ryuuzaki-san to kiss Kaido?" Oishi mused. "Echizen's being kissed, I could understand; she's admired him for over two years, but why Kaido? No offense meant." he finished worriedly, turning to Kaido. Kaido nodded.
"Hoi, hoi I've got it!" said Eiji excitedly, "Someone with a grudge against the tennis team is using her to try and throw off our teamwork!" Momoshiro scratched his head.
"Hah? That seems a little farfetched. How would this person make Ryuuzaki do, you know, that?"
"Ah—!Hmm…eto…" said Eiji, deflating.
"Blackmail," said Inui with a dark certainty. "This person threatened to expose some dark secret of Ryuuzaki-san's past if she did not comply with his demands. She faces humiliation in order to save her honor."
"Oh, poor Sakuno-chan!" wailed Eiji. "That kawaii girl being manipulated by an evil tennis-hater!"
"I-Is there anything we can do to help her?" said Kawamura timidly.
"Not much at present. This situation requires further study. I will try to gather more data on the identity of the blackmailer," said Inui.
"In the meantime, we must protect Sakuno-chan's reputation," said Fuji calmly.
"But how can we?" asked the ever-practical Oishi. "None of us have any classes with her. Who knows when it will happen again?" Ryoma started sidling away, tennis bag in hand. That girl had already gotten him into enough trouble today. He was still sore from scraping those stupid spitballs.
Momoshiro grinned wickedly.
"One of us does have classes with her actually." He raised his voice. "Isn't that right, E-chi-zen?"
Urk. Ryoma stopped sidling.
"Trying to slide out of helping a girl in need, huh? That's not very gentlemanly, Echizen," continued Momoshiro, twisting the knife. Ryoma glared at him.
"What do you know about being a gentleman, Momo-sempai? The first time a girl invited you on a date, you spent the whole time ignoring her and arguing with another guy," he finished, smirking. Momoshiro's hands balled into fists.
"That—that wasn't even a date!" he burst out.
"No," Ryoma agreed. "More like a social disaster."
"Teme—!" and Momoshiro grabbed Ryoma's shirt collar. Ryoma simply looked back at him, a provoking smirk on his face.
"Mada mada dane, Momo-sempai."
"Echizen." Tezuka's voice, calm and detatched. "Taunting Momoshiro will not help you to avoid your role in this. Momoshiro," he continued, turning his implacable stare to the eighth-grader, "Release him." With one last glare, Momo released his hold on Ryoma's shirt.
After a short nod from the captain, Inui spoke.
"Echizen, because you have the largest number of classes with Ryuuzaki-san, it makes sense for you to keep an eye on her. The rest of us will check in on her from time to time, but her well-being is primarily your responsibility."
He paused to push the bridge of his glasses up.
"Your duties include watching her for other strange symptoms, making sure she comes to no physical harm, and, if need be, intervening when her reputation is in danger."
Inui's glasses gleamed, and his smile was all teeth.
"If you refuse or if we find that you have been lax in any of these respects you will be my juice-testing guinea pig for the entire year. Agreed?"
Ryoma shuddered.
Technically he could say no. He had drunk Inui-juice before and survived.
Barely.
"I don't really have a choice," he muttered, a little green. "Can we practice now?" He soon regretted his mutter when the captain's glasses locked onto him.
"The rest of us will begin practice," announced Tezuka sternly, "You, Echizen, and you, Momoshiro, will do fifty laps."
"Fifty!" groaned Momo. Tezuka's frown deepened.
"Each." Ryoma sent Momo a dirty look before jogging towards the outside of the courts.
"Thanks a lot, Momo-sempai."
"Why you—!" and Momo took off after him. "Yeah, you'd better run, you brat!" he yelled. " 'Cause when I catch up with you, you're gonna wish you'd never been born!"
A very audible snort.
"If you can catch up with me, sempai."
"Graaauugh!"
Watching them, Eiji laughed.
"Yosh! Now it starts!" he proclaimed, punching a fist into the air. "Operation: Save Our Sakuno-chan!"
An exhausted Sakuno slumped over her bedroom desk with a moan. Who knew high school first-years would have so much homework? It was already—she looked at her alarm clock—ten fifteen, and she wasn't even finished yet! She was only halfway through her math, and she still had an English assignment to go. She dug through the papers scattered across her desk. Ah, there it was.
"How to Conjugate Irregular Verbs in the Preterite Tense," complete with intimidating blank spaces for answers, and little educational cartoons of people performing the actions of the verbs that were supposed to be useful, but in reality weren't helpful at all.
She glared at it balefully, and, like every time she did her English homework, felt an irrational surge of hatred towards the boy who slept through the class every day one row to her left and three chairs forward.
Stupid Ryo-Echizen-kun.
And the worst of it was he still managed to pass the tests with flying colors without any apparent effort! She knew it was petty but she had often suspected she would like Echizen Ryoma more if she could find something he really sucked at.
Although, liking him more wasn't really the problem.
She knew it wasn't very fair of her. He couldn't help that he was a phenomenal tennis player, did better than her in class, was unreasonably good-looking and brave, and confident, and...Ugh!
Well, she was a better cook, so there!
Sakuno hit her head on the desk. This line of thought was not helping her finish her work. It also wasn't very conducive to her goal of forgetting about him.
Don't think about him. Don't think about him.
Now then, she had some math homework to do. And she was going to do it right away. Uh huh. Right now. Yes.
Sakuno stared dumbly down at paper.
Okay, so that wasn't going to happen.
What had been going on today anyway? It had seemed like everywhere she went, people were whispering. She'd been on the receiving end of some very strange looks too. Three boys whom she didn't even know had smiled at her; one had even winked. Ten times as many girls had glared. Then, after lunch she had gone to her locker only to find a huge tube lip gloss taped to the front!
It was funny. When she was younger, the thing she'd wanted most in the world was to be noticed. She used to dream of moments like this, a special day when people would actually see shy little Ryuuzaki Sakuno.
How foolish she had been.
She sighed, rubbing her temple where she she could feel a headache coming on.
Well, it was clear she wasn't going to be able to work tonight. Wearily, she flicked off the lights and crawled into bed.
Maybe she was just paranoid, or today had been a fluke. Tomorrow things would go back to normal, and she would fade safely into the background once more. Pulling one long braid over he shoulder, she nestled into the blankets and prayed for invisibility.
--
Oh, Sakuno, if only that were true. :)
Well, that's the end of another chapter. Thanks for reading! I feel particularly proud of this one. I wrote this a long time ago, and I wasn't planning to make any major changes, but then I read everybody's wonderful reviews and felt that you all deserved more. The result is the chapter you see (or saw) before you.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, or if you just have something you'd like to say, please review. Constructive criticism is welcome!
Next up: In which both the tennis team and the fan girls (eep!) swing into action!
Japanese Words
Konnichiwa: Good afternoon
Hai: Yes
Mou!: Drat! or Darn!
Saa: Who knows?
Ne: Right?
Mamushi: Viper (Kaido's nickname)
Iie: No
Chigaimasu: Wrong
Eto: Uh, um
Kawaii: Cute
Teme: Bastard
Mada mada dane: You've got a ways to go (I'm assuming most of you know this, but I thought I'd put it here just in case.)
Yosh: All right!
Quick Side Note: I won't be repeating definitions for words I have already explained in previous chapters. If, however, I miss one, feel free to let me know. The less confusion the better!