Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis is not mine.
Okay, the evil plot cacti have all been swept away at the moment! xD I shall write! -inserts evil laughter-
Glad everyone likes this story so far. Please continue to support me!
Special thanks to awin-chan for beta-reading.
Enjoy!
"Bold" English for dialog
"Normal" Japanese when used for dialog
"Italics" Flashback, Important Stuff, Locations, etc
Recap
Fuji mentally gave himself a pat on the back as he saw Ryoma relax. He had decided. I guess I'll just keep watching him to see what his true motives are before taking action.
"We're here."
Ryoma looked up to see a huge classy building. His jaws dropped, "That's the dorm?!"
When the Line Breaks
By Sweet Obsidian Rain
Chapter Five: Karupin
"When the line breaks, everything becomes forbidden;
Just as it is forbidden to break the line."
Dormitory A: Room 411, 6:30 A.M.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A groan.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A hand stuck out from underneath the covers and attempted to shut the alarm clock up. Swatting empty air, a green-black head stuck out and golden eyes squinted around their surroundings.
BAM!
The boy jumped up and barely saved himself from falling off the top of the bunk bed. Ryoma peered below him to see Fuji trying to shut of his alarm clock. Keyword being 'trying'.
"Meow..." Karupin was sitting on top of the honey-haired boy's face.
Scrambling down from his bunk, Ryoma quickly grabbed hold of his cat and stepped back to see Fuji giving him and Karupin the evil eye after turning off the alarm.
Oh, his roommate was so going to get it... This, added to the revenge the boy was still going to get from yesterday. Putting on his usual smile, Fuji stood up and slipped into the bathroom first.
An hour later, 7:30 A.M.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Ryoma continued to pound on the bathroom door while literally hollering for Fuji to hurry up.
"Oi! Fuji-senpai, are you done yet?! I need to use the bathroom, now." Damn. He couldn't hold it in longer... Hopefully his troublesome senpai would be out before he had an accident.
"Not yet, Echizen-kun... Give me five more minutes."
"Five more minute... five more minutes... It's what he's been saying for the past half an hour..." The younger boy muttered under his breath. He was most definitely going to be late for class. Ryoma shifted again. Maybe he should just let it out...
Finally, the door opened and revealed a fresh and beaming Fuji Syusuke. "Here you go, Echizen-kun!" He looked at his wristwatch, "Oh, I'll get going first. Be sure not to be late for class." And just like that, he was gone.
Ryoma wanted to glare and stab Fuji a thousand times and again. However, he now had to take care of his bathroom problem. Slamming the door shut behind him, he rushed to get ready.
Ryoma threw the dorm doors shut behind him and scurried out of the building towards his school. Holding his binder in one hand, he tried to put on his tie correctly. He really needed to shop for a school bag.
Not exactly paying attention to his surroundings as he still struggled to put on his tie properly, the boy didn't notice the tall form walking ahead of him. Before he knew it, he had collided with the person.
"Echizen?!" The person— Momo exclaimed, picking himself off from the ground. He held out a hand to Ryoma to help him up.
"Thanks," the younger boy said as he shook of Momo's hands.
Momo frowned, "Aren't you suppose to be in class?"
Grunting and unwilling to explain, Ryoma instead retorted with, "So are you."
Blinking for a full second, Momo didn't registered what the other boy said until a few seconds later, "EH?!?! Echizen, we're late!"
Rolling his eyes, Ryoma was about to make a snarky comment, but Momo had already latched onto his arm and dragged him off to the school.
3... 2... 1
"WE'RE SORRY, WE'RE LATE!!!" Momo shouted as he barged into the quiet math room. Everyone's head turned towards them; Ryoma and Momo were once again, the center of attention. (For Ryoma, at least.)
"Momoshiro-kun, Echizen-kun, in your seats now! See me after class," Tatsuya-sensei ordered.
As Ryoma sat down, he wondered what happened to the timid Tatsuya-sensei he met yesterday. The class was extremely quiet as well; not at all like the gossiping teenagers they were yesterday.
"Now, class..."
11:05 P.M., Courtyard
"Awahhh! I'm so glad we only have to get to class early for cleaning duties! Tatsuya-sensei sure is strict..."
Ryoma yawned as he walked with Momo towards the cafeteria. He was dead tired; still not used to the time change yet. The boy contemplated between actually going to buy and eat his lunch or go and find the Monkey King's office so he could take a nap in one of those beds.
"...Echizen? Oi! Echizen, are you listening?"
Ryoma continued to drown out Momo's enthusiastic talking and looked at the school's surroundings. Preferably the gardens. His sensitive ears twitched as they caught the sound of arguing...
"I told you...! I refuse, and I absolutely forbid you from telling that man!" The voice was familiar to the boy's ears...
His eyes widened; that was Fuji-senpai! Was his roommate in trouble? Ryoma anticipated going to help out his senpai, but then mentally gave himself a slap. Of course not! The guy was the son of the head of an opposing organization; he could take care of himself.
But... This was a good chance to gather information.
"ECH—" Ryoma covered his new friend's mouth before he could shout and ruin his chance.
"Mhm!..Hef yo!" The taller boy struggled. Never again, was he going to bend down to get Echizen's attention.
"...Momo, I'll only let go if..." Momo stopped struggling as he felt Ryoms'a breath on his neck. Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump. What the...? What was that sound? "...You go to the cafeteria quietly. I just remembered I have something to do, so I can't go with you. Do you understand?"
Momo gulped as he realized that the sound he heard earlier was really his heart thumping madly. Nodding desperately, the boy gasped for air as Ryoma let him go.
He opened his mouth only to have his friend cover his mouth with his hand again. "Talk quietly!" Ryoma hissed before removing his hand.
Opening his mouth to talk (again), he realized that he was oddly feeling uncomfortable. Oh shit... Momo felt the familiar feeling of a blush creeping up is neck. What the hell is wrong with me?! The boy gulped (again) as he looked at an expectant Echizen Ryoma before dashing off.
Ryoma had a confused look on his face as he stared after Momo. Surely the boy was going to ask why he was so secretive or suspicious... Oh well. Shrugging, the black-green haired boy cautiously walked closer to where he heard Fuji's voice.
Reaching closer, the Ryoma stopped and hid behind a tree as he met the sight of Fuji and the history teacher, Yagyuu-sensei, arguing in the center of the circle of trees. More quietly now than before, but definitely still in a heated argument.
"Do you realize how dangerous it is to keep it from the boss?! All of us here would be at risk if he found out. Even the one—"
"Even the ones who don't know about this." Fuji finished the sentence. His voice wasn't the cheerful one that many people heard. It was iced and hard. "Yagyuu, if you say you really are loyal to me, then you will trust me. I will not give in to that man." With iron control and authority, Fuji left no room for any more objection.
"...Meow."
Ryoma looked at the source of the noise up in the tree he was hiding behind. His mind went up in panic as he saw Karupin up in the tree. Oh, his dear beloved Karupin was stuck in a tree!
"Karupin!!" The boy shouted before even realizing what he did. Ryoma stopped and froze as he felt two pairs of eyes snap up to look at him. Quickly recovering, the boy pointed up shakily up at his Himalayan cat. "Karupin... G-get down..." Indeed the boy was deathly worried for his cat. It was a good thing that this was something that could cover up his mistake though.
"Saa... Echizen-kun, I don't think you would want your cat to jump down from that height. You can easily see that he's injured his front foot." Fuji's mask was up again as he walked up to his roommate. "Yagyuu-sensei, can I borrow your key to the closest storage closet? I'm sure they have a ladder there." To untrained people, it would've just been a normal request coming from a smiling student. However, Ryoma was trained and he saw that there seemed to be a hidden meaning in Fuji's request.
"Fuji-kun, why don't you stay here and watch… Karupin was its name? With Echizen-kun? I'll go and get the ladder." Ryoma stared after his social studies teacher.
"Echizen-kun? Is there something wrong with Yagyuu-sensei? You seem to be quite taken by him…"
He's sharp, Ryoma thought and mumbled, "Karupin isn't an 'it'," to cover up his mistake. I have to be more careful from now on…
Laughing lightly, Fuji said, "Yagyuu-sensei is like that. He isn't good with pets, especially cats," he paused and seemed to be trying to remember something, "I remember there was one time— last year I think when a kitten that Eiji found accidentally got into his classroom after school. The next morning he and his classroom was a wreck."
Raising an eyebrow, Ryoma replied, "Where's the kitten now?"
"Ahh… Eiji was having trouble raising a cat while keeping up with his studies, so he gave it—her away to a friend of his sister's." Fuji corrected himself and flashed Ryoma an amused smile when the boy gave him a half-hearted glare.
"I see…"
"Ahem…" The duo turned to look at the social studies teacher and a ladder next to him. "Could you two please help me set this ladder by the tree?"
Hurriedly, Ryoma went to help Yagyuu. He was about to climb the ladder when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Let me go up, Echizen-kun. It is my duty as a teacher to see that you don't hurt yourself. Not to mention, you still won't be tall enough to reach it."
Ryoma twitched at the mention of 'it' and said, "But... Karupin doesn't like it when strangers touch him…" What he said was true, but he also didn't want someone who didn't get along with cats to touch his precious Karupin.
Yagyuu frowned.
Fuji seemed to be laughing amusedly at the two. "Karupin didn't seem to have any problems with me this morning…" The tensai paused; Ryoma shifted uncomfortably as he remembered what had happened in the morning. "I don't mind going up. I'm pretty sure I can reach him too."
Sighing resignedly, the shorter boy stepped back from the ladder and watched as Fuji climbed up.
11:50 A.M., Room 237
Ryoma slumped in his seat as he regained his breath. Damn… He almost wished he didn't agree to attend this school; it was huge.
Fuji and he had, thankfully, made it in time to science before the bell rang. After rescuing Karupin, Fuji invited himself to walk with Ryoma back to the dorms. Of course, Ryoma had refused when the blue-eyed boy offered to go, but Fuji seemed to have not heard his protest and tagged along.
After they had made sure that Karupin was safely in their room, Ryoma found himself in a race with Fuji to see who would make it back to the school and to the science room first. Needless to say, it was a tie.
Suddenly, the chatter that was around him went silent as someone stepped into the room. Glancing around, he saw that many other students had paled after seeing something.
Following their gaze, he saw something awfully familiar in a pitcher. His face paled as well as his eyes traveled up the hand that was holding the container to see opaque box shaped glasses.
Inui-san… Ryoma inwardly gulped and winced as he remembered his past experiences with the man.
"Ii data… The new student, Echizen-kun, is in class today…" The box shaped glasses glinted as the man set his pitcher down on his desk and scribbled into his notebook.
The silence was so tense in the classroom that the birds on the tree next to the classroom window flew off as if they sensed the tension.
A pencil dropped on the ground and the owner— a tiny third year squeaked.
"Ii data…" Inui finally snapped his notebook close, "Class, today we will be studying the uses of different insects."
And Inui Juice released its wrath.
Seishun Academy's Medical Wing, 2:05 P.M.
A certain black-green haired boy stirred as he heard many other groans.
"…I'm alive…" He heard someone say to himself.
He boy sat up and winced. His head was pounding again… "I swear I'm gonna…" He trailed off as he heard a voice.
"Ore-sama sees that everyone has woken up. Now, I kindly demand that you all leave my office at once. Ore-sama does not need too many people in here. It's making the room stuffy."
The students, already traumatized enough, meekly bowed and limped (or crawled) out of the nurse's office.
Ring.
Ryoma, being the brat he was, refused to move. Instead, he lied down on the mattress and attempted to go back to sleep. Except someone thought he did not need the sleep and woke him up.
"Echizen-kun… Echi—" The gentle voice was cut off as the door to the medical wing slammed open.
"ATOBE KEIGO! I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY SOME OF MY STUDENTS ARE MISSING!!" Apparently, the person who woke Ryoma up was Sanada Genichirou. The man took a few deep breaths before calming down. "Why are some of my second years missing? And in your care nonetheless?"
"Ah? Sanada, if you haven't noticed, the entire third year fifth period science class was sent here due to stomaching horrid juice. Go find Inui to yell at." Atobe inspected his nails, "Ore-sama merely took care of his test subjects."
"Saa… I thought the juices were exceptionally tasty this time."
Atobe glanced at Fuji, then at Sanada's paling face, "Well, almost everyone in that class."
Huffing, the physical education teacher stalked out of the room.
Ryoma sat there rubbing his eyes. The boy jumped when a certain sadist poked his side. "Echizen-kun, I think we should get going. Home economics will start soon."
Ryoma took a few seconds to process what Fuji had said. Hey, wasn't Inui the teacher for that class too?
Before Ryoma could do anything, he realized that while in his thoughts, Fuji had managed to lead him to room 122.
He gulped.
T.B.C.
X.X I'm sorry; I took so long to write and post. Most of it due to laziness and lost of brain cells. School starts on Monday for me, so it will be a while until I update. I will try my best to update faster, but I can't guarantee anything.
MtF is updated faster because I am working with other people to co-write. But here, I'm working alone. xD So please continue to support me! If I don't update in a month, I give you all permission to start nagging me. x
Lastly, hope you liked this and please review!
-Rain
First Unrevised Version 8.24.07
First Revised Version 8.24.07