Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.

Lady Monozuki: Holy cookies! I finally updated this fic. I apologize to everyone who's waited so long. It took me forever to figure out how to get from point A to point B. I hope that the chapter makes up for it though. Thank you everyone for reading/reviewing!

Chapter Ten:

They sat in silence in the clubhouse. Ever since returning from the hospital, they had all remained silent. Fuji assumed that's because they did not know how to react to everything that had just occurred. After all, there had not been much time to comprehend the magnitude of the situation. He could barely grasp it himself. He wanted them to say something though to break the tension that was slowly rising. Kunimitsu stood and all eyes turned to him.

"Now that you are aware of Echizen's condition, I hope you all respect the wishes of Echizen's parents. Thank you all for coming out today and visiting him. I will see you all after the new year. You are all dismissed."

After that, the rest of the Regulars dismissed themselves, leaving at different rates. It was the most quiet he had ever seen them. Fuji noticed that Kunimitsu was staring at him as well.

"Are you going, Syuusuke?"

"No, I want to talk to Ryuuzaki-sensei."

"I don't think that it's any of our business," Kunimitsu protested.

"How are we supposed to help Ryoma when we don't know the extent of the situation? I would rather us have some knowledge rather than none at all. You can disagree all you want, but you want to know yourself. You can't deny that."

"No, but I would rather not press information from an outside source. I would rather Ryoma feel comfortable enough to tell us himself."

"He doesn't need to know that we know the truth."

"But it will hinder our goal if he does find out."

"That's why he doesn't need to know."

"You're playing a dangerous game, Syuusuke."

"I know the risks and I am willing to take them. If you want nothing to do with the information, that's fine. You can have the clean conscious. I, however, am choosing otherwise."

"Syuusuke, I just want you to think this through for once. There are too many risk factors involved with this and I know that you don't like me being the voice of reason, but pleas consider other people's feelings other than your own for once."

"Kunimitsu, I know what I am doing. You can't stop me, even if you wanted to. Now will you please stop pretending to be the voice of reason when you are just as curious as I am when it comes to this subject manner?"

He watched the myriad of emotions on his boyfriends face all pass away and eventually coming to one conclusion. He smirked when he knew that he had won this round. It wasn't uncommon for him to win though because he hated to lose. While he knew that this frustrated Kunimitsu to no end, this subject was not open for debate. He was going to find out what had gone wrong and what had changed in the Echizen household. Or even if the happy story of Echizen Naninjiroh and Echizen Rinko was even real.

Fuji headed out of the clubhouse to find Ryuuzaki-sensei in her office. He wasn't going to dance around the subject, he was going to get straight to the point and he knew that there was more going on than she wanted to admit. He wasn't going to give that up that belief. Syuusuke tossed a glance over his shoulder and noticed that Kunimitsu had chosen to follow him after all.

"I'm glad you're joining me," he said.

"As long as this doesn't get out to Ryoma, we'll be fine."

"Don't worry, nothing will slip out. You're not one to carelessly talk and neither am I."

"Unless it's intentional," he heard his boyfriend muttered.

He chuckled slightly. He was certain that his boyfriend could name at least twenty examples, all occurring within the last week or so, but this was far too important for him to blunder. He stopped in front of Ryuuzaki-sensei's door and knocked.

"Come in," he heard.

He slid open the door and noticed that Ryuuzaki looked surprised at his presence. He didn't even bother to say why he and Kunimitsu were here. He took a seat, opposite of her desk, and waited for his boyfriend to join him.

"I thought everyone had gone home," she stammered.

"Well, we were heading out, but we decided that there was something that we needed to know," he spoke.

"What is that?" she asked.

"What is Ryoma's situation really like at home?"

If she was startled, she did not express it on her face. Instead, she looked as if she had expected them to come barging in her office to find out the truth. It seemed very odd to him and he wondered if she had wanted to share what was really happening.

"I shouldn't tell you this," she said. "However, I think you understand the situation well enough that it would be unfair to keep you out from it. I will tell you this on a couple of conditions."

"All right," he said. "Name your conditions."

"This does not fall onto the ears of anyone outside. Also, this will not be used against the Echizens until the time is right."

"Very well," Tezuka spoke.

She sighed and took her seat across from them. It was then that he could see the dark circles under her eyes and just how much she seemed to have aged since the last time that they had met before the holidays.

"Nanjiroh and Rinko met in America, back when he was just starting out his tennis careers. He was always a player back then and had a slew of women that he hung around with and more than likely slept with too. When he started his career, there were temptations everywhere. He was the kind of man that could not be tamed, no matter what his relationship status was at the time. Rinko had been brought up in a very strict household where infidelity was frowned upon and that when a man cheated on you, it was all your fault for not being able to provide for the needs of your husband.

"When Nanjiroh told me that he was getting married, I knew that he wasn't as serious as he should be about the relationship. He started out fine. However, his fans kept throwing themselves at him and he was the kind of guy who wanted to take every opportunity handed to him. It wasn't long before he was involved with several women and left Rinko at home, alone. One night, he came home with Ryoga, whom you've met before. To Rinko, it was a disgrace to have a love child so she took the child while he was gone and gave it away to someone else. Nanjiroh was far from heartbroken.

"While he cared for Ryoga, it wasn't the child that he wanted. Eventually, Rinko became pregnant with Ryoma. They had been going through some troubles before and were surprised when she found out that she was going to have a child. At first, Nanjiroh wanted to get rid of the baby because he didn't want to be responsible for a child, but Rinko insisted that they keep the baby because she wanted to keep Nanjiroh in the marriage and hoped that he would fall back in love with her. At that time, Nanjiroh was dating a woman and was getting serious about her.

"So he wanted to give up on Rinko. She didn't want to be the only disgraced person in her family so she tried everything to keep Nanjiroh there. When Ryoma was born, Nanjiroh instantly fell in love with the child and soon dotted upon Ryoma. It didn't take long for Rinko to get angry with him for paying more attention to the baby than her. So she started to hit Ryoma when no one was looking. I came to visit them to see how well he was doing at the time and found out the horrible state things were in. Ryoma had unexplained bruises on his body and I was given permission by them to take away Ryoma while they worked things out.

"He stayed in my care for six months and they finally asked for him back, saying everything was fine and that they wouldn't hurt him anymore. So I believed them and gave his back to them. Things seemed fine for a while and then there was a huge fight between the two of them when Rinko found Nanjiroh in bed with another woman. She told Nanjiroh that she was going to kill the baby and he called the police. She was arrested, but was released because they didn't have enough evidence to convict her.

"Ryoma was given back to me to take care of for the time, until they figured out her problems. It wasn't easy to convince Rink to go into therapy because she was already so adamant against getting help. She only saw Nanjiroh as the problem in the house and thought that he was the only one who needed to do anything to fix their marriage. While I was staying in America, I took care of Ryoma for the time. I couldn't' take him back to Japan and ended up taking off more than a year from teaching. Eventually, they gave me permission to take Ryoma back to Japan and I did so.

"There were several people who were surprised by the sudden appearance of Ryoma, but that's beside the story. A few months after I had returned home, they came back for Ryoma and I told them that I was going to stay with them for a while to ensure that the child wasn't going to come into harm again. They agreed and everything seemed fine for the three months that I lived with them. So I left them in peace and they returned to America. I kept in contact with them every now and then, making sure that Ryoma was okay. They always mentioned he was fine and growing up so fast and how they regretted wasting two and half years fighting over him.

"I was convinced. I eventually gained time off to visit them and was horrified by what I discovered while there. They had been starving Ryoma and leaving him behind while they went on vacations to "revitalize" their marriage. When I found him, he was all alone and Nanjiroh and Rinko were in the Bahamas. They said that Ryoma knew how to get food for himself, but there wasn't any food in the house. I took Ryoma to the hospital and an issue for extraction was issued. They came back to face inquires about Ryoma's child abuse, but they somehow managed to shake off the police. I tried to take Ryoma back with me, but they refused to let me take him again. So I stayed there and saw them mistreat him time and again. I called the police several times, but each time, it ended up the same.

"The police bought every lie they told them and they tried to get a restraining order against me. I went back to Japan and tried to ignore the fact that Ryoma was in a miserable spot, but it didn't work. I still called and checked up on him. I even talked to Ryoma a few times, but he always insisted that he was fine. I knew otherwise, but couldn't do anything. Finally, a police chief came into power who went over the old cases. He came across Ryoma's and then they finally investigated. When they went to the Echizen's home, they found Ryoma almost dead.

"He was immediately sent to the hospital and they were forced to track down Nanjiroh and Rinko. They were vacationing in Japan at the time. Because they both had citizenship here, they couldn't force them out of the country. So they were forced to wait until their return. They found my name had come up in the report and contacted me in hopes of giving them more information. Unfortunately, I didn't have solid evidence. I then remembered a crime investigator had taken photos of the bruises on Ryoma's body and suggested they look there.

"They didn't find the photos. I heard whispers that Nanjiroh paid the person to gain the photos. Basically, they couldn't directly link them to the crime and so they ended up at a dead-end. Until we can find documented proof, mainly those photos, we can't prove anything. I've been working with the American police department for years and trying to gain custody of Ryoma. I wish that I have made progress, but Nanjiroh is bent on keeping Ryoma in his care."

"If Nanjiroh is so bent on keeping Ryoma, then why send him here? He knows you coach here," Fuji asked.

Ryuuzaki-sensei sighed. "He's dangling Ryoma in front of me. It's his way of telling me that I'm so close and yet so far from having Ryoma."

"I see," Fuji muttered.

He was trying to figure out how everything could have gone so wrong. His anger was burning passionately. If he didn't like Echizen Nanjiroh now, he liked him even less now. He also disliked Echizen Rinko. She had never come across as controlling or abusive. However, the picture had been painted quite a bit differently. He wondered if their façade had ever been seen through by anyone else other than their coach. It seemed unbelievable that they had kept the lie going for so long. Somewhere, there had to be a mistake that they had made.

"Ryuuzaki-sensei," Tezuka spoke up. "Why did the Echizens return to Japan then? If everything for them worked out legally, why are they here?"

"They had filed a harassment charge against the police and moved here to get away from the police. They didn't want to be investigated anymore. The police department holds no jurisdiction here. Not unless we prove that they are abusing Ryoma here."

"What about his attempted suicide? Won't the police investigate the circumstances surrounding that?" Fuji inquired.

"Mostly likely, they will. However, they can't do much with the person since the person they need to talk to is unconscious and the doctors are unsure as to whether he'll even wake up."

"What if Ryoma does die?" Fuji voiced his fears out loud.

"Please, I don't want to think about that," Ryuuzaki-sensei said. "Now, I've told you all that I know. You can't repeat this information to anyone, is that clear?"

"Hai sensei!" they chorused.

Tezuka stood first and he followed suit. Now that he knew everything, it just made the situation so much worse. What was he supposed to do when he couldn't repeat the information, let alone tell anyone else. That ruled out gaining information from outside sources, which he knew quite a few people who would be happy to dig up such information for him. He sighed. He had hoped this would give him a better idea, but he had never been more confused about what to do in his life.

"Syuusuke, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," he replied.

"You're lying to me."

"It's none of your business!" he snapped. It took him a few minutes to realize what he had just done. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"I know you're stressed Syuusuke," Tezuka began. "However, I don't want you to take it out on me."

"I don't want to take it out on you either."

They walked to his house in silence. There wasn't much on the subject of Ryoma that could be said.

"Syuusuke," Tezuka began.

"Yes?"

"I know that you care for Ryoma very much. I care for him too. However, I think that it would be better for us to take some time apart. We both have issues that we need to deal with and I don't think we can sort through them together."

Syuusuke opened his eyes and stared at his boyfriend.

"What are you talking about?"

"I think you know well enough what I'm talking about," Tezuka replied.

No, this can't be happening!

To be continued…