Whew, I finally typed it up:D

I think this fic is kinda getting out of place. I need to fix it in the next chapter. :p Which won't be in a while.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Prince of Tennis. Here's the chaotic situation that will definitely happen if I do. Skip ahead to read the fic if you are either uninterested or are feeling uncomfortable about my uncontrolled imagination. Well, if I do own the Prince of Tennis, I will be writing about Ryoma and Sakuno being forced to get married at the age of 12. They willlive in the same house, same room,same bed...I shall not say more.

Chapter 4 - Bendy Mushrooms and Big Holes

Enjoy!

"It's about time now…" said the tensai as he bent down and retrieved his drink. He stood up and smiled at the group of people behind him, "Don't worry," he said to the very wary looking faces of the group, "It's nothing bad that I've planned, really," he said innocently. Not that anybody believed him, anymore…

They hadn't seemed to be wandering for a very long time, but the sky was definitely getting too dark. Two Seigaku graduates were wandering through the Seigaku garden. The garden had no lights, and the graduates had no flashlights. This combination didn't click, and there were various reasons for that. The most obvious reason was that the two unfortunate souls had lost their ability to see completely, that was because of the amount of darkness severely surrounding them. Other reasons would include the fact that one was female and the other was male. Being stuck in a place like a forest with a member of the opposite sex wasn't very good. Not forgetting to mention that they were trying to keep their directions in the dark, if they ever had any. So they traced their paths with trees alongside, and they also gently brushed against each other frequently. This made sure that they were still together.

Ryoma quietly analysed the situation. Everything seemed very suspicious; he turned into a dark corner into this place without thought beforehand. Maybe there was a sign somewhere that read 'do not enter'. And he obviously did not catch it. Ryoma was usually observant and very careful. But today, he seemed too careless. He couldn't believe that being careless for a day would get him into a condition like this.

He felt the hazel eyed girl brushing against him again. She had been doing this ever since they had lost their sight in the dark. She was probably anxious, and if she ever lost him in a situation like this, she couldn't cope.

Ryoma liked this fact, if it were true. Knowing that he was the hero made him feel superior. And that of which he liked.

"Ryusaki," Ryoma began, "do you know where we are going-" His speech was ended abruptly as he underwent a sudden downward plunge of doom into nothingness.

The sounds of earth toppling over into the nothingness that the prince had stepped onto alerted Sakuno, who was busily wondering about the possibilities of happenings between the two of them.

"Eh, Ryoma-kun!" exclaimed Sakuno as she realised that she could no longer brush against the samurai junior who was supposedly beside her, "Where are you?" she asked desperately, she very well knew that she couldn't cope going solo.

A very faint mumble was heard from where Sakuno was. She squinted and adjusted her head forty five degrees downwards. If she could see correctly, there was a large black hole before her. And within the blackness, was a tinge of green that emitted a purple aura.

"I-ite…" mumbled the green-purple-ness. The green-purple-ness was shivering slightly and was clutching onto something.

"Ryoma-kun!" yelled Sakuno from above the black hole. The green and purple Ryoma looked up and frowned.

That was embarrassing, thought the prideful Ryoma, usually, when he did something as shameful as falling into a ditch, he would find a way to come out of it alone.

Sakuno reached her hand out.

To be saved by a girl, he continued his train of thoughts, was not so good...

Deciding on whether or not to accept the help from the girl, he thought over the reasons on all of this happening.

Fine, he thought again as he gave in. It was his fault that he was here in the first place anyway. Wasn't he the one who walked into the garden without looking?

He reached his hand out and locked it into Sakuno's small palms.

"One, two," Sakuno counted before she put force into pulling Ryoma up, "three." And there was a weak upward force which was scarcely enough to lift Ryoma. The prince's feet took off from the damp grounds of the ugly ditch for a moment, before the upward force suddenly vanished and a much unexpected backward movement occurred.

Before anybody could possibly recognise the situation taking place, the two were wedged in a very awkward position. This wasn't the first awkward position that Ryoma had been in ever since the morning where he fell off his bed. But this time, it was simply too uncomfortable. With long auburn hair smoothed over your face, and uneasy hazel eyes staring a few centimetres away, it was too much for a young tennis player like Ryoma. Although the most unlikely thing that happened to be true was that Ryoma didn't tell Sakuno to move away immediately. In fact, he paused for several seconds and waited until the girl jumped off by herself.

She leapt off very quickly and examined her shoes. She kicked the mud on the ground gently with her shoes and held her hands together. Her fringe blocked her from seeing the prince's dazed appearance, and she turned away to look at the edges of the deep ditch.

There was a long silence as Ryoma stood up very slowly. He brushed off the dirt on his trousers and looked at the form of the ditch. It was a very deep ditch, and it wasn't likely to be naturally formed, unless a miniature asteroid landed sometime before to form a crater…or this ditch had to be manmade.

"It's a deep hole, isn't it?" said Ryoma, talking to himself as he analysed the possibilities of people setting him up to fall in.

Sakuno turned around, her cheeks crimson from embarrassment, "U-un…" Sakuno nodded in agreement.

Ryoma grabbed the sides of the large hole and tried to climb up. The earth was very fragile, and it crumbled as Ryoma placed his weight on it.

"And this hole is going to get larger if we rely on the strength of the walls to climb up," Ryoma said and stared fixedly at the mud on the floor that had just fallen.

"Ano…" began Sakuno, who snapped when she saw the mud on the ground, "Do you think-"

"I know!" Ryoma said as he clicked his fingers.

Anxious bodies buried themselves and sat down on the ground. They looked up at the tensai, who was relaxed and smiling as dazzlingly as ever.

"Fuji, this means you know how to get them back, right?" said Oishi, probably the most worried of the whole group.

Fuji nodded, but followed his nod by shaking his head, "But I'm not going to save them," said Fuji, "the fun just began," he said.

The group sighed and went back to think.

Out in the corner, Eiji and Momo were discussing something. They turned to face Fuji, their faces like stone, "Fuji, if you don't tell us how to save them, we'll confiscate your camera," said Eiji as he grabbed Fuji's camera from a bag.

Fuji smiled at them; "You can't blackmail me," said Fuji, "Only I can do the blackmailing," Fuji rummaged through his own bag and took out something, "And besides, I have many spares at home," Fuji flashed a shining silver camera at the former tennis regulars.

So threats wouldn't work.

A chilly breeze whined its way through the buildings of Seishun Gakuen middle school. The wind entered the dark garden of Seigaku. It twisted and turned until it reached the very large hole in the very middle of the forest. The wind blew the hazel eyed female's hair up. It followed the direction of the wind as Sakuno tried to hold her hair still.

"It's a very windy day," Ryoma remarked. For the last few minutes, he had been trying to use the fallen mud as a step to climb back up to the land. But the edge seemed to get a lot farther every time mud fell. And because of the constant movement of the edge of the hole, Ryoma had to shift his 'mud step' so it would be right beside the edge. Things didn't always go his way as it did in tennis, and this time wasn't an exception. The mud didn't budge, and as a result, Ryoma slipped head first into the pile of dirt because he was putting too much force in it.

Sakuno didn't notice the chaotic situation that Ryoma was in until Ryoma made his first groan. This meant that Ryoma had his head stuck in the mud, not forgetting to mention that the mud absorbed sound energy, so Ryoma had to get his head out before he could groan.

"Ite!" Ryoma said in frustration. If mud was so good at sound insulating, it would be good use to block out the sounds of the crowds during matches. But mud in this situation was aggravating.

Sakuno looked up from where she was sat. She sat down because she was waiting for Ryoma to complete his 'step'. She already told him that his brilliant idea wouldn't work, or at least she tried to tell him. He was so proud of his idea that he wouldn't listen to anything else.

"Ryoma-kun, Are you okay?" Sakuno stood up in the dark as her eyes tried to trace the contour of Ryoma's figure. She vaguely saw some greasy black hair shining back at her. Ryoma turned around to face the bewildered Sakuno.

"What?" said Ryoma, he was still very exasperated from the unintentional fall a moment ago. He frowned at the figure of the girl several feet away from him.

Sakuno realised that there was a slight difference in Ryoma's appearance. His colour was…different, "Ryoma-kun…why is your face so…dark?" Sakuno asked a politely as possible, although asking why a person was dark wasn't a polite question in the first place.

Ryoma sighed in relief, "Oh, nothing. I was just face painting with mud." He was relieved that Ryusaki didn't see him fall head first into the pile of dirt. He would be profoundly embarrassed at this point if she ever had a glimpse of it.

"Oh," Sakuno replied, unconvinced. It was just like Ryoma to hide embarrassing things, like falling head first into the mud. It wasn't like she was that stupid to not be able to guess what happened. Sakuno chuckled at the thought of Ryoma falling into the mud. His superior image would be ruined in a matter of a second. Sakuno decided not to be so ungenerous to the prince.

And then Sakuno got on to wonder why she could think so clearly. The samurai junior was with her, after all. Until just now, she was still stuttering when she spoke to the prince. How could she even decide not to be mean to the prince? She had to generous to him, right?

She had already gotten used to Ryoma-kun being around in a matter of several hours. She smiled at herself excitedly. So her 'cool' practises did come to work?

Ryoma bit his lip as he saw the girl across to him smiling hysterically. He felt uneasy, was she laughing at him?

"What are you laughing at?" Ryoma asked.

"Oh, betsuni," said Sakuno. She couldn't tell Ryoma about her personality adjustments.

Ryoma shrugged and sat down beside Sakuno.

They both looked at the sky, where stars were shining brightly above them. The sound of leaves on the trees rustling was dauntingly pleasant. The trees were singing a quiet hymn to the surrounding serenity. Mud on the edges of the hole was falling, adding rhythm to the hymn. It was like an orchestral performance in the middle of the Seigaku Garden. And the audience were the reunited couple who finally met after ten years of each other's absence.

"So Fuji, what about our lovely party that we planned?" asked Momo, who was craving to try the food that Tomoka and Sakuno had brought in.

"I never said I would abide to organise the party," said Fuji, who was busily trying to figure out what the two trapped souls were up to, "We have lots of time now, though. They won't be out until after a while," said Fuji.

The group sighed for themselves, trying to put up with the tensai.

"We can go to the supermarket now to get some more resources, so we can have more time to prepare an even nicer party," suggested Fuji.

"So this was all for having time to prepare a nicer party?" asked Oishi, slightly relieved that Fuji wasn't planning to murder two Seigaku graduates.

"Not really," began Fuji, "While you may need more time, I want them to suffer, too," said Fuji, "But it may turn out to be something else," added Fuji, who recalled that there were in fact two people stuck in a ditch that he dug, not just one. Two people who knew each other since junior high. Two of which one of them had a big crush on the other.

"It'll have good results no matter which way it ascended," smiled Fuji.

At this moment, Kawamura thought of something very useful, "Oh, speaking of supermarkets, I saw Fuji in one the other day when I was buying some fish," said Taka-san, "Fuji was buying a lot of fake mushrooms," Taka-san scratched his head to think of more, but Fuji interrupted.

"We're really getting somewhere, aren't we?" Fuji said, "Didn't I tell all of you earlier that I put signs all over the garden?"

Over in the branches and the bark of the trees hymning the enchanting lullaby for the serene night, crickets were tapping their feet onto the bare wood to create more rhythm to the atmosphere. Male crickets made those sounds to attract the female to come over to them. The louder, the more beautiful the sound, the more females would stride over to you.

And so above the heads of two trapped humans in a very unusually large probably manmade ditch, were thousands of crickets coupling and mating. For those insects on the trees, it was the night for love. Adoration was looming in the air, and the two Seigaku graduates could very well feel it.

Sakuno was sitting in a crouched position, finally lost for words. They were stuck in this ditch for hours; and it was way past seven o' clock now.

What if we never came out of this ditch? Sakuno thought to herself. Then Ryoma-kun and she would die of hunger, which would be the first thing that would happen. Even if they did not die, they would have to wait for people to wander into this garden and coincidentally find them stuck here. But even if those people found them, before they realised that they were in a deep ditch, they would have fallen in as well.

Okay, let's try not to think of the hopeless side of things. We should look to the bright side, right? Sakuno thought, she looked at the stars which were shining brightly above her.

No, she thought, it's not bright enough.

Ryoma was getting tired of the silence growing around him. All he heard during these past hours was Sakuno frequently shifting so she could be more comfortable in a ditch, although this was an ugly ditch; after all, you couldn't take comfort for granted. He listened to the tunes from the trees, the leaves rattling and all. His ears are hurting from all that.

"Ryusaki?" Ryoma began, he wasn't about to allow his ears to explode, "Can we talk?" The meaning of this question that Ryoma tried to send out was different from what Sakuno received. She misunderstood the question thoroughly.

"Sure," said Sakuno, her cheeks heating up slightly as she became excited that Ryoma-kun had just asked to converse, "What do you want to talk about?" Of course, Ryoma just wanted to say something so that he could break the silence.

"Oh," Ryoma didn't expect that 'what do you want to talk about' question, "How about…" Ryoma racked his head for an answer to this question, he wasn't going to drop it here, he continued, "How about we talk about the past?" Ryoma felt proud of this idea of his. After all, they hadn't seen each other for ten years, shouldn't they revise something?

Sakuno smiled at this question. She knew that she would be the one doing the talking, because she knew a lot about what had been happening to Ryoma-kun during these years.

"Okay," Sakuno said, she started to think of where to start, "What do you want to know first?"

"We're really getting somewhere, aren't we?" Fuji said, "Didn't I tell all of you earlier that I put signs all over the garden?"

It was like a sudden electrical current that strucked into the Seigaku graduates' minds. This would mean that if they go into the garden and figured out what the signs were, they would be able to find Echizen and Ryusaki?

"I don't mind if you go in," Fuji said.

The group of people didn't take a second glance at Fuji before they rushed into the garden.

"You have Inui with you," Fuji said to himself, "It'll be fine."

There was lots of wind today, and even though the air was very moist and warm, the wind was dry and cold. It blew past the smiling tensai and followed the former regulars into the garden.

"Does anyone have a torch of some sort?" asked Momo, who didn't really like bumping against trees, "Anything that releases light at all?"

"Can't you just follow the path?" hissed Kaidoh.

"It's very hard to walk in the dark without bumping into trees you know," said Momo, who had scratched his arm on a tree bark, "Ouch! Now I scratched myself – Ah! I dropped my chocolate bun! Oh no, where is it?"

Momo crouched down, frantically searching for his bun.

"Momo, can you at least keep up with us?" said Oishi, who was worried that people would get lost.

Kawamura had been very cautious since the beginning when he entered the garden. He had noticed something that was worthy enough to mention, "Hey, guys?" said Kawamura, "I think these things on the ground look familiar," he bent down and picked one up, "It's a…" Taka-san got broken off as he inhaled.

Inui, who was observing the scenery as Kawamura was, picked up one of those things, "Hm…I think…"

"Nya, what do we have now?" asked Eiji.

"I think…these might be the signs that Fuji was talking about…ii data," Inui took out a brand new green notebook and started to write in the dark.

"What, he used mushrooms for direction signs?" Momo said, still very disheartened that he lost his precious chocolate bun, and it was the biggest one, for heaven's sake!

Inui nodded, not that anyone saw him nod in the dark. He noticed the bendy posture of the mushroom, "These are toy mushrooms that you get from the supermarket," said Inui, "and they're bendy," Inui started to think which direction the mushroom was bended a while ago before he picked it up.

"So what if it's bendy?" asked Oishi, who was nervous about the situation.

"This means that the mushrooms point to the way that we're supposed to go," Inui put the mushroom back into the place that it was before, "And we should follow them, in this case."

Birds were leaving their nests, frightened by the sound of hysterical laughter coming from a crater just below them. The laughter continued for a long time as a voice had continued to blabber. There was a very lively conversation going on.

Sakuno chuckled as she listened to the prince's animated stories in America. She loved the ones about his fans risking their lives to chase after him, where they tried to threaten him to propose to them or they would commit suicide.

"Really?" said Sakuno, being tempted by her repetitive giggles, "what did you do after that?"

Ryoma was waving his arms about, explaining all his awkward little situations in America. He couldn't believe that this girl, out of everybody, could make him talk like this.

"I told them I needed to get a drink," said Ryoma, "and they thought I meant beer when I said 'drink', so they took me to a bar," Ryoma watched the girl laugh, the laugh sounded like the angel's song, so sweet, so pleasant. It made him want to hear it more, so he talked more.

"…and then I ordered grape ponta in the bar, the guy was so surprised."

They were there talking for a long time now. At first, Sakuno did the talking, but it turned out in the end that Ryoma did the entertaining and Sakuno was his audience.

Ryoma leant back and exhaled, looking at the stars above in the night. If he hadn't fallen down into this ditch, he wouldn't have found somebody that he enjoyed talking to. Maybe this was fate; it was just a few days ago when he decided to come back to Japan. And he reason for that? It was partly because of his senpais, but mostly because of the image of the girl popping up in his head. The image came just in time; he went back to Japan and coincidentally met the exact girl in his head. And so according to the oldness of that deformed tennis ball, and according to the girl, they were sort of like friends ten years ago.

But this didn't really make sense. He was friends with his senpais, and he remembered all of them. If he was friends with Ryusaki, why didn't he remember her?

Flashback/ 9 years ago…

Pok

I tried to stop thinking about her.

Pok

But she kept coming back into my head.

Pok

And ever since she gave me that ball…

Pok

It was like playing it against the wall, you hit it away, and it always came back to you.

Pok

Maybe I should stop using her tennis ball for practise.

Pok

And I think I need a bang on the head.

Pok

Anything for sudden memory loss, so I could forget her.

As the ball was flying back towards the thirteen year old Ryoma, he swung his racket down onto the ball and the ball hit the floor, it bounced back up and Ryoma caught it in his hands.

"You're not concentrating today," said Kevin, who was trying to train Ryoma.

"Kevin?" Ryoma said, determined to ask for a favour, "Can you punch me on the head?"

Kevin looked slightly surprised by the favour, "huh, why?"

"Just do it," Ryoma said.

Kevin gave a very hard punch to Ryoma on the side of the head. Ryoma toppled over and fell unconscious on the floor.

The part where Kevin hit was very near to the brain, the part where all the memory was stored. Not forgetting to mention that Ryoma's memory was very fragile. Punches near his weak memory storage would make him forget dozens of important things.

"Hey, Ryoma, are you okay?" Kevin asked. Ryoma opened his eyes slightly, and then he stood up like nothing happened.

"Of course I'm okay, now let's practise."

"So you're going to concentrate, huh?" Kevin smiled, so the punch woke Ryoma up?

"I always do," said Ryoma.

End Flashback/

Ryoma couldn't remember why he had forgotten this girl, but that didn't matter.

"Ryusaki," Ryoma began, "it's your turn to talk."

"What do you want me to talk about?" asked Sakuno. Ryoma was right, she hadn't really been talking, and she just fell into hysterical laughter the second Ryoma started to talk. It was so funny to see the arrogant tennis prince talk so animatedly.

"Talk about us," said Ryoma, "what happened when we were young, because I couldn't remember."

This was embarrassing for Sakuno. She had a very huge crush on Ryoma when she was young, if she started talking; she'll be raving about how good he was and all his matches, which would make Ryoma realise that she liked him.

But she made no afterthought, and started to talk about the day she first met the prince.

"We met on the train," she began, "and you were sitting opposite me, you were going to a sixteen and under tournament."

"I remember the tournament, I got disqualified," Ryoma said.

"Ano…hai, you got disqualified…th-that's because I gave you the wrong directions," Sakuno said and blushed. Back then, Ryoma-kun blamed her for that, and it was embarrassing.

"I thought there was a reason why I was late, so it was you," Ryoma said. It wasn't in an accusing tone, but Sakuno felt guilty.

"G-gomen," Sakuno tried to apologise.

"You don't have to apologise," Ryoma said, "It was ten years ago. You don't come back and apologise ten years after something happened," Ryoma shrugged, "And besides, you drank my ponta, right?"

Sakuno looked up, stunned at what Ryoma just said, "You remembered that?" Sakuno thought he had forgotten everything, so she could remake her character. But it looked like that Ryoma knew she was a stupid fan girl who stuttered after all.

"I just did," Ryoma shrugged again, "when you apologised, I remembered some things."

Why would an apology make him remember ponta? All right, so the image of him treating her ponta came up in his head, but why did an apology make him remember that?

"Hey," Ryoma began, "aren't you that shy cheerleader?"

Sakuno felt glass break in her body. To be referred as a shy cheerleader wasn't something to be proud of.

Ryoma, however, was feeling the opposite feeling from Sakuno. He was proud that he remembered something he wanted remembered. And then he went very deep into thought. Everything came back to life in his head. It was like it had been sleeping for years and years, and memories suddenly came jumping about again. From the time when they first met, to the time when he bravely tapped Sakuno on the leg and told her the problems of her posture for tennis…

…legs too straight, arms too bent, and shoulders too wide…and hair too long, too clumsy.

That took a lot of courage. Especially when you walked 'coolly' pass a girl and tapped her on the legs, and then said things wrong with her posture. It was embarrassing if anything got wrong. Luckily, for Ryoma he remained as 'cool' as he wanted to be.

Then came the time when he brought her out to get her rackets restrung. She tried to make a conversation with him and asked him the type and music that he liked. It wasn't his fault that he questioned the reason why she spoke so much. He was used to her being quiet, which he liked.

She ran away, and then Momo-senpai jumped out from nowhere and pushed him to run after Sakuno. On the way, he bought ponta, so he wouldn't need to speak. Ryoma was afraid that he would say the wrong things again.

After getting her rackets restrung, he asked her to come with him to the tennis courts. Then he checked her form. Ryoma had taught her about her tennis posture before and wanted to see if she had improved. But that wasn't the only reason; it was nice to be on the same court with her. It was very nice to be separated with a net. It was very agreeable to serve an underhand to her and watch her try to hit it back. And then tease her for not being able to hit it.

Well, it couldn't really be called teasing if it was only several words regarding her not to mention that he taught her before. He never taught her to trip over when you tried to hit a ball.

So afterwards, he went to her side of the net and taught her how to swing properly.

Flashback/

Ryoma's left hand held on to her waist, and his right hand held on to her right arm holding the tennis racket. He started showing her how to swing and how to move her feet so she wouldn't trip over. He was incredibly close to her, a little too close, but he could withstand it.

"This is how to swing it," said Ryoma, moving away from Sakuno, "Try and do it yourself now."

Sakuno started swinging by herself, her posture was…perfect, for that moment.

Of course, now she could say to everyone that Echizen Ryoma had taught her how to swing properly.

End flashback/

Ryoma couldn't remember what happened after he went over the net to teach Sakuno how to swing. He certainly knew that something happened, and was irritated that he couldn't remember.

The only one thing that he could be sure of at the moment was that…

"I liked her…" Ryoma mumbled to himself. Wait, did he just say that out loud?

Quickly, Ryoma covered his mouth in case any other words slip out.

Did he just say that? Did she hear him?

The answer for those rhetorical questions flew back to Ryoma almost immediately.

"Ano…Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno said, rather confused by what she thought she had heard a moment ago, "Did you say something…" Sakuno was pretty sure that she heard a phrase with something to do with the word 'like'.

"Uh…" Ryoma had a little thought, now, how could he answer this question? Why were all the questions that Ryusaki asked so challenging?

"Uh…no," Ryoma said the simplest answer that he could find.

A group of young adults had been wandering through the garden in the dark for a while now. They had been following the directions that the bendy mushrooms point to.

"Wait," Inui said as he stopped in his tracks, he took out a small torch that he had in his pocket for the whole time. The crowd around him gasped as he switched on the torch.

"Inui! Couldn't you have taken that out earlier? Nya, we've been walking for so long, my eyes are getting tired!" Kikumaru frowned at Inui. Because Kikumaru had the best sight, he was forced be at the front so watch the way.

"This is for emergencies only," Inui said.

"Emergency? What emergency?" Oishi asked, panicked again.

"Look," Inui shone the beam of light down to the ground, it revealed muddy foot prints on the earth, "Seems like something…ii data…"

"What does this mean?" asked Kawamura.

"I think these are Echizen and Ryusaki's foot prints…" said Inui, who took out a green notebook, "Which would mean…" Inui started scribbling, "It would mean that these mushrooms actually showed the way that Echizen and Sakuno walked."

Silence erupted within the area of ten metres away from the group of young people. Crows were taking off from their trees to capture their prey, wolves were howling from the nearest mountain.

"Does that mean…" Oishi began, "Fuji planned the directions that Echizen and Ryusaki were going to go…and placed them here..?"

"Should be," said Inui, "But it could be coincidental," Inui adjusted his glasses.

"Nya, no way, something like this can't be an accident," said Kikumaru.

Horio, Katsuo, and Kachiro had been following silently at the very back of the group. They looked petrified, "Fuji the tensai…" they began in unison, "He planned the entire day for us!"

Inui nodded in reply to the three's theory.

"But," Inui added, "these mushrooms would also lead us to Echizen and Ryusaki," Inui switched off his torch, "and they should also lead us out, if Fuji didn't intend to murder all of us…that is."

"Are we going to stay here all night?" asked Sakuno. She and Ryoma-kun had been sitting in the same spot for a long time.

"I don't know," answered Ryoma, he checked his watch to see how long they had been there.

Seven fifty eight…it's almost eight, which would mean that they had been in the ditch for almost four hours. It didn't sound very good.

And then something hit Ryoma's mind, eight o'clock, eight o' clock, where had he heard that? What was going on at eight o'clock? There was something that he had heard…

At that moment, Sakuno stood up, "My legs are numb," she said, she turned to look at the sky, and then she stood still. There was something going on in the sky that caught Sakuno's attention immediately.

"Ryoma-kun, look!" Sakuno gripped Ryoma's arm and pulled Ryoma up, "Fireworks!" Sakuno pointed at the shimmering sky, the different colours exploding at different speeds.

So that was what that's to happen at eight, Ryoma thought to himself. He glimpsed at the girl beside her, her hands were still gripped tightly onto his arm, her hazel eyes were reflecting the light emitted from the fireworks, her smile was so dazzling, so truly bright.

He shifted his gaze back at the fireworks, the colours of the rainbow flashed back at him. He couldn't blink for a second, afraid that he would miss any of the beauty. He let out a smile as bright as the sun.

They were both truly happy.

"Fireworks," said Fuji to himself, "They must be having a good time."

The tensai was several metres away from the entrance of the Seigaku Garden. He wasn't planning to go in; he was only waiting for the group of people to come out.

He had spent yesterday and a bit of the day before planning to manipulate his friends. It was very successful and his manipulation was going as he had expected.

Those people overestimated him though. They thought that he had planned their reactions as well. But he didn't, he never planned the thoughts of his friends, he only planned their actions. But he wouldn't tell them about their overestimation, because if they thought that he was that good, they would suffer more.

The tensai smiled. All the same, his former team-mates charged into the Garden without thinking. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

He just really wanted to see what everyone would do in a situation like this one.

"You made me drop my buns, mamushi!" yelled Momo in defence of his buns.

"You were the one who dropped it! I never even touched those ugly buns of yours!" shouted Kaidoh in rage.

"What did you just say?" Momo said loudly.

"Are you picking a fight with me?" Kaidoh glared back. They were snarling at each other as Oishi tried to stop them. Just as the two were about to make their fists in use, Kikumaru interrupted.

"Look!" said Kikumaru, pointing at a certain direction, "fireworks!"

The entire group of people turned to face the direction that Kikumaru was pointing to immediately. They gazed at the light from the sky in fantasized in thoughts. They had almost forgotten about the one hundredth anniversary of Seigaku, that there would be fireworks tonight.

"You know, I have a feeling that Echizen and Sakuno-chan are watching this together," said Momo.

"Maybe," said Inui, "And they're not far off," he said, examining another foot print that he had found.

The fireworks were beautiful, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes were getting tired and they were forcing to close up. Sakuno tried as hard as she could to keep her eyes opened, but that made her even wearier. By the next several seconds, she recalled her eye lids slowly closing over her eye ball. She relaxed her neck unintentionally, and her head nonchalantly tilted itself. Her body started to fall sideways as well, and it relaxed as something warm had caught it gently. Her body fitted effortlessly onto the radiant warmth beside her.

Ryoma had noticed that the girl beside him was battling to stay awake. He watched as her mind finally gave up and surrendered in the battle. Her shimmering eyes of hazel were gently blanketed with a layer of skin. A smile was plastered on her face, and memories of her shining past were retold.

Ryoma watched as Sakuno's body had relaxed. She had fallen asleep. Her body gradually fell sideways. Her hair waved in the tender ambience, and then obediently floated back onto her waist. Her head landed and fitted perfectly onto his shoulders. The singing atmosphere had retreated back to its tranquillity. The last of the fireworks had gone off, and the earth was serene…

"Echizen!" sounds of grass being stepped on and sticks kicked out of the way interrupted the peaceful moment of Ryoma's, "Ryusaki!" a voice moving closer and closer to the large hole echoed itself around the garden.

Ryoma was slightly annoyed that his happiness was taken away so quickly, but soon realised that he recognised that voice. He swiftly turned his head to look up at the top of the hole.

He yelled back, "I'm here!" and started to wake Sakuno up.

If they came any closer, thought Ryoma, they would fall the ditch in as well…

"Ryusaki, wake up!" Ryoma shook Sakuno gently. He then looked up at the top of the hole, "Don't come any closer!" He yelled loudly at the trees above him, "You'll fall in the hole!"

"What hole?" Oishi asked.

"The one we're in," Ryoma yelled. The gang of people moved towards the voice they had heard not so far away. Inui turned on his torch and shined at the paths in front of them. And there stood a very large hole, so large that even if everyone fell in, there would still be space for another table.

"Don't worry, you'll be out in a moment" said Oishi, "But did you get injured? If you did, we'll have to get the first aid kit..."

"Almost time…" said Fuji, checking his watch. The fireworks were finished and Seigaku was quiet again.

Most people had left after the fireworks. Fuji was standing alone in front of the entrance of the Garden. Some might wonder about the purposes of building this garden in the first place. The answer was simply put that the parent teacher association agreed that it was very important for the students of Seigaku to be in touch with the nature. So they built a garden for educational purposes. But because it wouldn't be natural if there weren't many trees, the school bought some trees and placed them all around. Unfortunately, too many trees were bought and placed, so the garden became like a forest. Also, the school refused to take the trees out because it would be a waste. So the Garden was abandoned and students ignored the fact that the purpose of the garden was them.

Fuji thought that since the garden was unused, it would be nice to put it in use. So he did all this.

Bits of light were appearing in the darkness in a distance from the Garden. The light was soon forming into shapes and shadows of many humans. Gradually, you could see the movement of matter. They were walking towards the entrance of the Garden.

Fuji smiled as he saw that the group of people he had sent in were returning.

"Have you found the signs?" asked Fuji to the returned group.

The people were radiating purple aura and their eyes were burning with angry passion. Their fists were clenched and their mouths were firmly closed. They inched towards Fuji, one step and another. Fuji raised both his hands and smiled. He didn't know that the people would get this angry.

"I thought you liked mushrooms…" he said awkwardly.

7:04pm, a building in New York…

A man in his forties sat comfortably onto a large black office chair. He sipped from his cup of coffee and examined the view of the city from his window.

It had been a day, thought the man.

He recalled the newspaper headlines yesterday morning. He felt a sudden tinge of delight when he read the lines. Echizen Ryoma was one sneaky guy, even if he could escape from the media these several days, the media would always find him.

He put his feet on the office table in front of him as he leant back and crossed his legs. Many people are on the hunt for him all over the world. That boy couldn't stay hidden for too long.

Hunting down a world classed tennis player and celebrity was a lot of fun. The man personally thanked Ryoma for running away with such a good timing. Just as he was about to get bored of his life, then –bam- Ryoma escaped. It was much of a high light to his days, really.

A continuous ring started played itself over and over again. The ring came from a telephone sitting quietly on the desk. The man picked up the receiver.

"Hello, Frank speaking," said the man. His expressions changed very rapidly as he heard what the person in the opposite line had to say.

"In Tokyo, huh?" Frank said, "Track him down. And then you know what to do."

The man cancelled the call and leant back on his chair again.

And so the most exciting part of his life started.

End of Chapter

Did you like it? Please give me a comment or a feedback. Critiques adored.

Anyway, this was another long chapter. I'm glad if you skimmed through it. Although if you did, you might have missed many little hints that I stuffed here and there.

I was writing this author's note at the end when I remembered that I forgot to include a part where bird poo dropped onto some of the former regular's heads. I got that idea when in reality, bird poo coincidentally landed on my dad's head. Which was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, I won't put that bit in since it may ruin my fic and all.

So, read and review, ne?