Anime: Prince of Tennis

Summary: In my three years in Middle School, never have i hated him for being so Perfect. I respected him, admired him and aspired to be him. But was that all i felt for that stoic man?

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis and any of it characters.

It's been quite some time since I last updated. I had a serious case of writer's block. I think I needed a dose of Tezuka to continue with this but I didn't get enough, so it seems to have a hanging end... oops, spoiler. haha.

Ok. Once again thanks for those who reviewed!! It gives me the strength to continue writing. Now let's read!

That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed) A Tezuka POV story

It's been such a bother. A week has just passed and I still can't control my desire to see her. I can't forgive myself for shouting at her. I can't forgive myself for letting her out of my life. How can I do this?

Oh, how could I forget? I'm the stoic captain of the tennis team. I'm supposed to keep all of this pain I feel hidden.

All I need to do is concentrate on is tennis. It's my life and it's the air that I breathe. This is what should keep me going. This is what I desire to be with forever. This is who I am and I don't plan to change it.

It's Fuji and Amasawa together, now. I've heard my classmates talk about them. I may still seem to be the same Tezuka that they all know, but they don't know what I feel inside whenever they talk about them. It's irritating that I see Fuji everyday. It's such a nuisance in my life. If only I can destroy him. If only that could happen. If only I wasn't like this!

This idiotic me. The one with the emotionally-deprived problem. If only I wasn't so perfect. If only I never knew her existence. If only she stayed like any other normal student. If only she didn't stand out that much. If only I didn't respect her!

This is stupid! What the hell am I thinking?

Damn it, Tezuka! Damn you!

Sigh, this is nothing but a frustration. I'm cursing myself in my head...

"Tezuka!"

I woke up from my trance.

"Ryuuzaki-sensei"

"It's time for the regulars to end their practice. It's getting late."

"Yes." I turned to the regulars "You can end practice now!"

Inui walked up to me and whispered a short message to my ear. "I need to tell you something. Meet me outside the school building."

What's he talking about?

After changing, I met up with Inui, as planned. "What do you need to tell me?" I asked.

He started walking, "It's about Amasawa."

Not her again.

"What about her?"

"She's asked me a little favor." He started. "Do you remember what happened after she got you out of the rain?"

"I don't want to remember." I told him.

"She told me the whole story. If there is any reason for her to get out of her life, she wants to know."

"I already told her."

"It's Fuji? Well, maybe you should talk to Fuji about this. He doesn't know anything that happened under that heavy rain. Maybe it's best that you tell him the situation."

"No, it isn't"

"Why do you say so, Tezuka?" He asked.

"He doesn't need to know anything about what happened under that rain. There is no reason for him to know. He isn't even part of Amasawa's life. He's just a friend who has no certain meaning in her life."

"How can you say?"

"I didn't have much right to say that, didn't I?"

"Yes" He said, "Especially because you don't have a single information on what's going on between them."

I shot him a surprised look. What does he mean? What's going on?

"I don't need to know," I said, a complete lie, "There's no reason for me to either enter her life or know about her certain status with Fuji."

"Well, if you wouldn't want to know, then I don't think I should tell you."

If I had a curious attitude, I would have been screaming out "Tell me! Tell me!" But I should be composed. I should keep my head up high and pretend that I don't have any say in this story.

"Tezuka" he said "stop pretending. Most of the regulars have noticed your weird act. After the incident in Enoshima you haven't been well. You're play style may not have changed. You're still the same national-level player that we know but you're attitude has completely changed. You are still stoic but you have the tendency to space out and also to forget things often. You may not look like you have changed, but some of us know of it."

So, some people do realize I'm feeling something different.

"About the favor that Amasawa asked me to tell you," Inui started. "She told me that," he looked at me and stopped walking. Quit the suspense act Inui, tell me! "Never to forget her."

We both stood there. I couldn't respond to it. I didn't know what to say. Should I say something in return?

"Amasawa is not waiting for a reply. I must leave now, there are still some other things that I need to take care of. And that includes my new formula for the new improved Inui juice."

And that's how I ended up alone in the streets. Waiting for no one but the world to end. IF she was waiting for a response what would I say?

Forget it… The world is a mixed up place.

The next few days passed quietly. I had seemed to return back to being the stoic captain. In the nationals, we were coming closer to getting into the finals. And time seemed to have moved so fast. I may have not forgotten about those two days in Enoshima, and now I just found out that a whole month has passed from that day. Without me realizing it, I have actually ignored the existence of Asakawa Amai. I have practically forgotten that she existed in this world.

Have I truly changed? Am I once again that person who never knew that there was an Asakawa Amai to respect? Is it really me again?

Well then, I can finally start over.

This thing about starting over? I've been waiting for it. I've been thinking that I can easily start over my life. It's hard but I want to change. I can still be that stoic captain but at least I want to be different in the eyes of the people. I don't know how to do that but I hope that I can at least aim to be someone like that.

Here I am, lying restlessly on my bed. My alarm clock will start making some noise at exactly 6 minutes. I have awoken earlier by just six minutes but I still very tired. It seems that last night's talk with Inui got to me. I've been thinking really hard about what Amasawa said. How does she think I can do that? Never to forget her? I'm trying really hard to erase her from my memory and she tells me never to forget her?

My life is idiotic.

I sat on my bed and watch as my clock ticked in each second. Time may go slow if you think about it but when playing tennis everything moves so fast. If only my life was like that. Something so fast that in one instant I can completely forget my experience in Enoshima. I just hope that middle school will end in a flash.

My time here in Seishun Gakuen is going to end soon and so is Amasawa's.

As I walked to school, I started recalling what Inui said about Fuji. What was going on between Fuji and Amasawa?

How come I didn't know?"

I'll find out in the end. We do have a Student Council meeting later. What was it that we need to talk about? Ah, it was about the sports festival, and Amasawa is part of that group.

Hm, this might be the first meeting I would have with her for the past few weeks. The last meeting, I believe, that had with her in it was the meeting about the school's festival. It happened two months ago.

This is also the first time I get to be in the same room with her since the Enoshima incident.

Should I be excited or should I just forget of her existence?

There's no time to think about that, just act before I think. I think it will just come out. Being the president of the Student Council can be really troublesome.

The day passed quickly. I asked Ryuuzaki-sensei if I could skip tennis practice because I had a meeting to attend to. She obviously agreed. She knew I had some other things to take care of and my education was one of them.

As I entered the Meeting room, everything felt so nostalgic. It's been a long time since I had a meeting with the representatives of the other classes. Amasawa Amai wasn't in the room, yet. Oishi had finally arrived and walked up to me. He seemed to be pretty excited. He also felt a little melancholic. He couldn't even remember when the last meeting was held.

He sat on the chair at the side. The tables were arranged in a box formation so that we could all see each other. I sat right in front of the black board. The secretary sat beside me, ready to take down notes on the board and also on her notebook. The Vice-president was also a girl. It was better like that so that when we were in a student council meeting, we can get ideas in both worlds. There were two other boys in the group.

Then I saw her. Amasawa entered with three notebooks on wrapped around her arm. She was talking to Mimori Itsuki. That guy comes from second year who comes from Momoshiro's class and was also one of the chosen ones to take care of the Sports festival. Amasawa and this guy sat right across our table. She was practically at the other side of the classroom.

What made her look so different for today were the glasses and her hair. She had placed her hair in a ponytail and she actually wore her glasses for today.

Everyone sat down as Amasawa and Mimori started passing handouts that they had photocopied for everyone. They had placed it inside a folder to make it look very formal. This makes me think that the plans are already complete and needs no final touches. But that won't happen. I'll see their tiniest mistakes.

I'll see to it that their work will be better.

Mimori sat on his seat and Amasawa remained standing.

She opened the folder and told us to do so. She placed her folder on the table and looked straight to my eyes and began.

"For the Sport's Festival, the team (1) thought of a way of diverging all the sports in a short game. We started with the idea of putting some people of a certain club to join other clubs. They may also stay in their own club. They have their own free-will to do that. Other than that, we also think of putting small stalls for the ones incapable..."

This speech may have zero flaws. I'll see how far this can go.

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(1) The team – the sport's festival team, the ones part of the planning of the sport's festival.

This was quite short...

Chapter 11 preview

The student council meeting continues but this leads to a short but painful chat between Tezuka and Amasawa. But they weren't alone, the whole council was there to be a witness.

Chapter 11: You Can Breathe! An Amasawa Amai POV story

Coming sooooooon!

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