The regulars were all sticky with sweat as Ryoma entered the locker rooms and the smell burnt his nose although he was careful not to show it.

"Echizen? What are you doing here?" a tall muscular male asked him. He was smelly too; Ryoma cringed inside.

"Inui-senpai invited me. I hope I won't be too much of a burden," plain and simple. Tell someone not to be kind to you and they'll bow before you. Classic business man technique.

"Er, no, it's fine," he hesitated. Works every time, "Momoshiro Takeshi, 8th grade. You can call me Momo. That's Fuji-senpai, Kawamura-senpai, Oishi-senpai, Kikumaru- senpai, Tezuka-buchou and Mamushi."

"Fshuu…" a relatively intimidating guy with a bandana glared over at Momo. Momo glared back. Ryoma suspected they were rivals. "Kaido Kaoro."

All the regulars and Ryoma walked together to Kawamura Sushi in awkward silence. No one talked and the only noise made among them was the sound of Inui scribbling in his notebook. Finally after almost fifteen minutes it looked like Tezuka was fed up with the silence and decided to intercept.

" So Echizen, what sort of work do you do?" Tezuka asked fearlessly. All eyes turned on Ryoma, but if he noticed, he didn't show it. (He did notice.)

"I work in forensics, crime scene investigation, sometimes I get transferred to hospitals, and occasionally I do detective work." Ryoma looked straight at Tezuka's eyes. He noticed that every one regarded him as a leader, but Ryoma wouldn't let someone control him in Japan either. He already had an inferiority complex and adding fuel to the fire was very unnecessary.

"So…?" questioned Momo. Idiots!

"It means that I look over bodies from crime scenes for evidence and cause of death; look over crime scenes for evidence, sometimes I go work at hospitals during breaks for education diagnosing easier things like infection, STDs, and general work, and sometimes when they let me, I help with detective work and interrogations if they don't have enough people." Ryoma sighed and spoke in one breath.

"Okay…"

"What are you doing back in Japan?" Tezuka asked again. Man, this guy was persistent, why couldn't he give it a rest and start talking about regular things teenage jocks talk about like girls, sports, or whatever else tennis team captains usually talk about.

Ryoma however didn't let his frustration show. Years of training and deceit had taught him to act nicely to people, no matter how idiotic or annoying they were; and it paid off. "That's a good question," he said and left it at that. Then, he took a sip of Ponta to signal that that was all they were getting.

"…"

I should get out of here. "Um… is there a pay phone near here? I really need to withdraw some money."

"There's a phone you can use in here," the Kawamura guy said. He had dark hair and was really tall, strong, muscular, but he acted like a pushover, kind, sincere, and reasonable. You don't see many of those guys in the US any more.

"Thanks."

Ryoma picked up the phone and started dialing the bank.

'Hello, Bank (sorry low imagination: p ) how can I help you?)

"Echizen Ryoma, I'd like to withdraw 3,000 yen."

"We're very sorry. Your accounts have all been frozen in the course of a police investigation. Please try again another time. Thank you."

Ryoma's heart skipped a beat. Freezing a passport was one thing, but all 10 bank accounts?! "Thank you for your help," he said monotonously and put down the phone.

"Echizen…?" Inui asked, sounding generally concerned.

"The bitches put me under house arrest." All eyes turned on Ryoma, "They froze my passport, bank accounts, want me to live in their dorms, and" --- he motioned with his eyes to two business men in suits eating in the back --- keep me under surveillance at all times."

Everyone was too shocked to say anything at the moment, and their astonishment showed on their faces too. Tezuka and Fuji were the first to recover.

"Why would DDS do that?" Fuji asked with his eyes wide open.

"Who knows? Maybe they hired a traditional Christian mother with PSDD?" the regulars stared. "That or they hired a traditional Christian pregnant woman. Or maybe they just remembered to care."

"Ochibi looks angry." Eiji whispered to Oishi who nodded slightly.

"Sorry for your phone bill, I'm calling New York."

"Eh?" Kawamura looked confused while Ryoma was dialing.

"Kevin! Explain."

'Ryoma! You 'kay? You sound irritated.'

"Do I? Have you ever wondered that's because you let yourself in my apartment 3 o'clock in the morning, yelled 'Wake up, you're going to Japan' giving me a panic attack and laughed your head off when the nurse managed to get my heart rate down?"

'Sorry about that. Really, you should have seen yourself screaming, falling off the bed—'

"Enough already! Do you have any courtesy to tell me why I'm under house arrest?"

'Country arrest, and no. Now, I'm going to hang up before the phone bill goes up to one hundred and owe more money than I already do. Good bye.' He hung up. Ryoma looked ready to strangle someone.