So… it's been a long time, I apologize but I've been busy—like, really busy—and my Inuyasha / Prince of Tennis faze had faded. But remember, I will never, ever, ever abandon a story so this will be updated sooner or later. Thank you for sticking with me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.
New Beginnings
[11] Clear Water
"Kagome!" Sango squealed as she ran up to her friend and pulled her into a tight hug.
The priestess groaned. "Sango. It's too early of a Monday morning to do this." Ryoma made a small noise of agreement. He could never get how people could be so touchy-touchy with each other. Sango would be good friends with Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai.
"I have something to show you," Sango whispered, ignoring Kagome.
Kagome blinked. "Didn't you get my text—"
From my phone, Ryoma thought, almost bitterly. His cousin really needed to get her own phone.
Sango's brown eyes flickered towards the tennis prodigy and then back at Kagome. "Well… yes, but…"
"It's fine," Kagome insisted.
"If you say so…" Sango muttered quietly. She swung her bag over her shoulder again, hugging it tight to her chest as she searched through it. "Well, you know how we were talking about Kagome-chan and Kagome-sama and how Kagome-chan was a figment of our imagination so we could actually find you in the future?"
She winced. "Yes…" Kagome didn't think she will ever be able to get used to hearing someone talk about her like that. Talk about weird.
"Well," Sango continued, pulling out an envelope. "It turns out Kagome-chan isn't a figment of our imagination, after all."
The priestess swallowed hard and wondered if she would ever be able to get past a day in her life without fate throwing some sort of curveball at her. With trembling fingers, Kagome reached out and took the crisp, white envelope. Ryoma leaned in as she opened it and slid out a smooth white paper. She frowned and then turned the photo over.
Sango felt a wide grin spread across her lips as she watched Ryoma's eyebrows shot upwards. What was even funnier was the fact that Kagome's eyes were comically wide with shock and her mouth had dropped open. She waited a second. And another. Kagome squeaked, throwing the envelope and photo as far away from her as she could. It fluttered down innocently in front of her and Ryoma's hand snapped out and caught it easily.
"Oh my god!" Kagome squealed. "Tell me I'm hallucinating!"
Ryoma brought the photo closer up to his face. He traced a thumb over Kagome's familiar six-year-old face, taking in her happy, blushing face. While her expression was not unusual (Kagome was always easily flustered), what did surprise Ryoma was that she was kissing someone on the cheek. The hair color narrowed it down to two people but the eye color, amber made only one person come up in mind: "Is that Sesshomaru?"
Kagome squeaked upon hearing the name. "Don't say that!"
He squinted. "That is Sesshomaru."
Sango chuckled. "Just friends, huh?"
"It never happened!" Kagome retorted quickly. She made a grab for the picture but Ryoma held it just out of her reach. "Give that to me," she said. "Now!"
Ryoma smiled, he couldn't help it. "Don't you want Sesshomaru to see?"
"Are you trying to get me killed?" she asked, grabbing his arm and pushing forth as much purification energy as she could. Since Ryoma had his own faint set of purification energy, her powers did not harm him. However, the amount that she did shot up into his arm was enough to numb it and he dropped the photo in shock.
"Ow," he mumbled. He rubbed his arm and wished that he never asked Kagome to tell him about her adventures.
"This stays between us," Kagome muttered darkly, looking back down at the photo with a blush.
Sango giggled. "I didn't bring that photo just to tease you." Lies. "I just wanted to show you that we have physical evidence of the existence of Kagome-chan and… uh… Sesshomaru. Uh, future Sesshomaru." She wrinkled her nose in thought. "Sesshomaru-chan?" she muttered hesitantly and then shuddered. "Future Sesshomaru."
"Don't you have any other photos?" Kagome asked.
Sango blinked and then shook her head. "Nope. Sorry. The others were burned in a fire."
Kagome narrowed her eyes. "How convenient."
"I know, right?" Sango thought about the photos sitting on her desk and wondered if she should set them on fire just to make her words true. She smiled slightly, to herself and decided that it would be fine since Kagome wouldn't figure it out. Besides, it was fun teasing the younger girl, gets her back for all the time she teased her about Miroku.
"Yo! Echizen!" Momoshiro called out as he jogged up to them before Kagome could call Sango out about her obvious lie.
Kagome smiled tightly at the taller male, her thoughts instantly flashing towards Hojo—poor, poor Hojo. "Hello, Momoshiro-san."
"Oh! Hello Higurashi-san—"
Ryoma narrowed his eyes. If he says—
"—What a surprise. I didn't see you!"
I'm going to kill him.
Sango nodded her greeting with a smile as Kagome giggled nervously. "You guys don't have tennis practice?" she asked.
Momoshiro shook his head. "Nah, we don't have morning practice on Mondays."
"Oh."
Awkward silence.
Momoshiro turned his attention towards Ryoma and grinned. "So… you fell asleep yesterday! And you said you weren't tired!"
Ryoma raised his eyebrows. "You all left, didn't you?"
He blinked. "Eh?" And then he understood. "Why you cheeky brat!"
They continued arguing until the bell rang, singling that classes were about to begin. Ryoma huffed, turning his face away from his senpai and glared at the ground.
"Well," Kagome said awkwardly, sure that they weren't just arguing about Ryoma pretending to fall asleep. "I'll see you guys later." She waved slightly, wiggling her fingers at her cousin and turned around to leave only to be stopped with Ryoma's thin fingers wrapped around her wrist—
"Ryoma, what—"
—and pulled her into her hug.
Kgaome blinked. And blinked. And again. "Um."
He hummed against her ear and slipped out of her arms. "Have a good day," he said flatly as if nothing had happened and walked away.
Kagome stared. She turned towards Sango. "What was that?"
The older woman shrugged. "I don't know. He's not my cousin."
Kagome frowned and looked back at Ryoma again.
Sango eyed her unzipped backpack and blinked. Ooh, that boy is good!
Sesshomaru's phone beeped in the middle of one of his business meetings and he glared at the directors as if it was their fault. But really, he was silently daring them to speak up and tell him that he can't answer his own phone in his own company. He flipped it open—he still had a flip phone because he liked snapping it shut whenever he felt like hanging up on his half-brother. Smart phones just lacked taste—and read the message.
From: Echizen Ryoma
07:03
I have something you might want to see.
Sesshomaru wondered if both cousins thought that his time was made up of an Echizen and a Higurashi. He had a life, thank you very much. He can't just show up whenever the cousins feel like having him.
…something you might want to see.
Although, it was a message from Echizen which meant that Sesshomaru most likely did what to see whatever he had. Echizen wasn't the type of person to say things just to say them. He wondered if his schedule had an open spot.
Ryoma received seven texts later that afternoon when he checked his phone after practice. Four of them were from Buchou, his own personal alarm clock since he fell asleep after school and was late for practice. One was from Fuji-senpai and it was just a smiley face. Ryoma wondered how he got his number in the first place and the last two were from Sesshomaru.
From: Sponsor 7 – Sessho…
5:24 PM
I will be at your school in five minutes. Do not leave.
And:
From: Sponsor 7- Sessho…
5:24 PM
I will be greatly displeased if you do.
Ryoma stared at his phone, frowned as he trailed his fingers over the smooth white envelope again. Why did the man find the need to visit when he was still in school? Does he not know where he lives? He sighed; at least there will be fewer people hanging about since Sesshomaru's visit this time is rather spontaneous.
Eyes sliding to the left hand corner of his phone, Ryoma winced at the time, five twenty-eight. He didn't have time to change. Before Kagome, Ryoma had only met Sesshomaru three times as his sponsor—The real Sesshomaru, his mind reminded him—and the older man had arrived always exactly on time to meetings, not a minute earlier or later. If Sesshomaru said that he was going to arrive in five minutes, one better believe that he is going to arrive in five minutes.
"What's that in your hands?" Fuji asked, as Ryoma stuffed his clothes into his bag.
"Revenge," Ryoma answered. He could still feel the ghost of a tingle from Kagome's powers earlier.
Tezuka looked up from buttoning his shirt.
"Eh?" Oishi exclaimed. "Revenge? Who's?"
Ryoma remained silent, refusing to answer as he brushed his hair out of his eyes and shoved his cap back where it belonged. He double-checked to make sure that he had everything before leaving the changing room. His senpai-tachi, of course, followed him, hoping to satisfy their growing curiosity. Ryoma resisted another frown.
He checked his phone again. Five twenty-nine and was not surprised to see Sesshomaru making his way towards the center of the tennis courts. Practice had been surprisingly hard today and once again, he saw a black-haired Sesshomaru. He narrowed his eyes, and almost blinked in surprise as the older man's image seemed to wobble.
"Heeh."
Kagome, who had been waiting for him, blinked in surprise. "Eh? Sesshomaru-sama! What are you doing here?" She walked up to him.
Sesshomaru's cold eyes—no matter the color—flickered towards her and then towards Ryoma. "Your cousin called me."
"Ryoma?" Kagome asked, her voice soft in confusion. She blinked. Then paled. "No!" she whispered and the scrambled back to her previous spot. She unzipped her bag, ruffling through it trying to find the envelope. Oh please, oh please, oh please! It was in here this morning! There's no way—she paused, remembering the unusual hug that Ryoma had given her that same morning.
"Ryoma!" I'm going to kill you!
She whipped around again, hoping to do some damage control but it was too late. Ryoma was already in front of Sesshomaru, holding out the envelope containing her free pass to hell. She watched in horror as Sesshomaru reached for it, slowly, as if teasing her. Either that or she was going through some serious panic attack.
"No, wait!" Kagome squeaked and raced towards him again only to stop when he glanced at her.
Oh dear gods, she thought as he slipped the photo out of the envelope and looked at it.
He narrowed his eyes.
Silence
"Just some physical evidence, it's not as mental as we all had thought," Sango said helpfully, rubbing small circles on Kagome's back.
"I see…" Sesshomaru said slowly.
Silence.
"Is something wrong?" Miroku asked, holding back a laugh.
Kagome wanted to punch someone.
Sesshomaru stayed silent still. Then: "The resemblance is uncanny."
Kagome felt her stomach drop. She prepared herself for the inevitable.
"Although… it lacks my markings."
Why me? she questioned the fates. Just get it over with and kill me now.
Then Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed further, as if in anger and he looked back up at Ryoma. "Who is the girl?"
Kagome's eyes widened and she thanked whatever deity was still in her favor. "No clue," she squeaked out, hands wrapping around Ryoma's arm again. She squeezed, her nails digging into the older man's skin.
Ryoma winced.
"Possibly an old… girlfriend?" Miroku asked, innocently.
Kagome turned and glared. Forget punching someone, she was going to reach out and strangle the pervert no matter how many witnesses there are. Sango will get over the fact that her lover—lover from a previous life, since Kagome had no clue what was going on between her two friends at the moment—was strangled right in front of her. Her fingers tightened, knowing that even though Miroku, Ryoma, and hell, even Sango deserved to be strangled, it would be too much of a giveaway to Sesshomaru.
And if he finds out, she'll really die. No questions, no hesitations, nothing. She'll just die. Painfully.
Sesshomaru frowned at the photo and looked at Ryoma. "This was what you wanted to show me?" he asked and couldn't believe how much time he wasted on the younger boy.
Ryoma's eyes flickered noticeably towards his cousin.
Realization dawned. Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow.
Ryoma blinked in response.
Sesshomaru looked back down at the photo and then up towards the priestess. He could see the resemblance. He looked at her grip on the young tennis player's arm and snorted softly. Foolish priestess, he thought. In another life he might have killed her for invading his—or rather, not his—personal space but it wasn't the priestess's fault. Not to mention, the girl in the photo was not actually the priestess and the Sesshomaru in the same photo certainly wasn't him.
He sighed and turned his attention back towards her. "Have you calmed?"
Kagome blinked. "Er… yes?"
Sesshomaru frowned, obviously not believing her.
"Is there another surprise for me?" Kagome asked. What's next? she wondered. Naraku's alive and you're best friends with him? You guys dance together? Inuyasha's actually gay? Fucking hell, just tell me and get it over with already.
The demon lord sighed and turned around to walk away, not even bothering answering her question.
"Hey! Sesshomaru!" Kagome called out after him. "Sesshomaru! Wait! May I have the photo back?"
Sesshomaru felt a smirk. He gave himself a moment to smooth his expression before turning back towards her. "No," he answered. "I plan on tracking down the girl in this photograph and killing her." He was rewarded as the young priestess paled at his words. He nodded towards Ryoma, "Tell me if you remember her." With that said, he walked away from them, leaving silence in his wake.
Kagome waited until she knew Sesshomaru was well out of hearing range. "I can't believe you!" she yelled. "Why would you do that?"
Ryoma held up a finger. "Keeping secrets from me." Another finger. "Not calling once you started your adventures." Another. "Forcing me to play with my right hand today."
She looked ready to burst into tears. "You. Almost. Got. Me. Killed."
"I wouldn't have allowed it."
Kagome stared at him. "Yea," she said, casually throwing an arm over Ryoma's shoulders. "I don't think I told you about my old meetings with Sesshomaru in enough detail."
"I don't think I want to know the details," Ryoma muttered under his breath.
Kagome froze in her spot. "D-did you just—" She sputtered, unable to find the right words to express what Ryoma had just implied. "I can't—" She narrowed her eyes, she couldn't believe that Ryoma had the guts to tease her about it. And called Sesshomaru so he could tease her in front of him! Ooh! She was going to kill him.
"It's alright, Lady Kagome," Miroku cut in happily. "Lord Sesshomaru doesn't know." The twinkle in his eyes implied that yes, he knew that Sesshomaru knew.
Kagome frowned and huffed. "You're walking home alone," she said, turning her nose into the air.
Ryoma raised his eyebrows almost mockingly.
Seeing her cousin's expression, or lack thereof, Kagome huffed and stomped away from him. She stopped in front of Tezuka. "By the way," she said, "Ryoma wants to talk to you… buchou." She turned her head towards Ryoma again, a smirk playing across her lips. "That's right," she mouthed, also wanting to add something along the lines of: "Eat shit," but thought better of it.
Ryoma stared at her. His mouth twitched once but otherwise did not say anything.
"Hmph," Kagome said, and then walked past the confused captain.
"Well," Sango said. "That was awkward."
"Mm," Miroku agreed. "For a second there I almost thought Lady Kagome was going to…" he trailed off.
"Sit him?" guessed Sango.
Miroku hummed in agreement and Ryoma raised his eyebrows at the familiar words. "What does that mean?"
Sango turned and blinked at him in surprise. She frowned, wondering if she should tell him but then reminded herself that Kagome had allowed Ryoma to know everything. Another detail couldn't hurt. "Well, when Kagome says "sit", Inuyasha is… um… forced to… uh—"
"Sit?"
Miroku chuckled. "Imagine if you have the power to forcefully make someone sit down without touching them."
Ryoma blinked.
"And then multiply that force by a thousand."
He stared.
"That's Kagome-sama's angry sitting-Inuyasha technique."
Ryoma didn't get it but Inuyasha was a dog demon wasn't he? The irony of the word made Ryoma smile slightly.
"Why is it," Sango began, "that I've only ever seen you smile when someone's suffering in some way or another?"
He stared at her for a couple moments before deciding that her question wasn't worthy of getting an answer out of him. Besides, he had to force Momo-senpai to give him a ride home today. He might as well catch him before his senpai left since his cousin wasn't around today.
Ryoma didn't get far.
"Echizen."
He almost winced at the tone. Slowly, Ryoma forced himself to turn around to face Tezuka. He raised his eyebrows in question even though he already knew why Tezuka had stopped him. He was going to kill his cousin.
When Kagome agreed that she would take a look at Tezuka's arm issues, it was given that there wasn't any way that they could let the older man know that Kagome was a priestess and that a possible reason why his arm was hurting so much was because of some demonic energy and whatnot. So, Kagome had left it up to Ryoma to make something up where her examining Tezuka's arm without giving away everything.
He was completely fine with talking to Tezuka about it.
He could do it.
But damn it, Kagome! At least give him a few days to think of an excuse.
"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Tezuka asked after glaring at lingering Regulars and sending them off on their way.
Including Momo-senpai, Ryoma thought bitterly. Well, there goes his ride home.
He turned his attention back towards his captain and pretended to ponder his question. Then a thought struck him and Ryoma actually had to dig his nails into his palm to prevent a smirk from stretching his lips. "Actually," he began, and couldn't believe that he was actually going to do this. He almost felt guilty but then reminded himself that Kagome started it—actually, he did but really, that's all perspective—and that she'll find a way to get back at him one way or another. "Kagome's actually very shy."
Tezuka blinked.
"But she really wants to learn tennis and wants to observe some of your tennis moves, buchou." He paused but Tezuka didn't respond. "So I'm here to ask if you'll teach her."
Higurashi-san, Tezuka thought. Is anything but shy. Hanging out with both Echizen and Higurashi for a while would leave no doubt in anyone's mind that the two of them were related. Besides the fact that they were both prodigies in what they did and a few shared physical appearances, the fact that the word shy was,is, and will never be in their vocabulary was also another similarity. Higurashi may appear shy at first but she will not hesitate to get up in front of someone's face and speak her mind.
He almost winced at the reminder.
Despite being a first year, Higurashi shared an elective class with him: Mythology and had showed exactly how not shy she really was when she was being mercilessly teased by one of her classmates.
"You do know that this class really is meant for seniors, correct?" Shino Nemu asked, pulling Higurashi's sleeve for attention.
Tezuka's mouth twitched but he continued to ignore them. It wasn't his business and he really shouldn't be involved.
"Or are you just trying to take easy classes to jumpstart your grade?" Shino continued ruthlessly.
He could see a muscle in Higurashi's jaw twitch and had to give her props for not killing the girl.
"Shouldn't you be the one not taking easy classes since you're a 3rd year? Aren't you supposed to be working hard and all that and look into colleges?" she asked, cold blue eyes flickering towards the older girl.
"You're such a bitch," Shino hissed. "Don't talk to your seniors like that!"
Tezuka's eyes widened in horror as she let go of Higurashi's sleeve and gave her hair a yank. He stood up, ready to pull Higurashi away from the situation and perhaps give Shino a stern talking to since if there was anything he hated, it was seniors abusing their power.
But before he reached the two girls, Higurashi stood up, throwing back her chair loudly.
Tezuka froze.
"Is there a reason why you're purposely trying to piss me off?"
Tezuka blinked. Her voice… where had he heard that tone before?
"What's with the attitude?" Shino asked harshly, standing up as well. All around them, students were gathering, wanting to witness the beginnings of what seemed to be a fight.
"Look," Higurashi growled out. "If this is about Miroku, you can back the hell up," she hissed. "You are not even Miroku's girlfriend."
"I'm defending my friend!"
Higurashi smiled sweetly, which probably would have made her quite pretty, Tezuka supposed, if he didn't find it downright frightening. "Look," she said, in a sugary-sweet voice. "I don't want to start a fight. So just stay away from me and I'll stay away from you.
"Miroku is my friend. He will always remain my friend. And if he gets married to that girlfriend of his—which he won't—he will still be my friend. If you force him to choose between his girlfriend and me, he will choose me for reasons you do not and will never understand." Her smile widened at this point and Tezuka swore as did her aura which was similar to his own killer aura when he wanted to scare idiotic opponents during a tennis match. But hers… hers seemed as if they were meant for enemies and not opponents.
"Do not attempt to push us away from him," Higurashi continued, "or him away from us." And: "Or I will make you regret you were every born." Her eyes flashed, a brilliant blue going almost hard silver steel in color. "Are we clear?"
Tezuka could see Shino shudder slightly. "You think you're so scary—"
She cut herself off and Tezuka turned back towards Higurashi, clenching his jaw tight as he took in her eyes again. He has seen that look before: Back when she was shooting arrows at the target. He couldn't help his own shudder despite the fact that her glare was not directed towards him.
"Buchou?"
Tezuka's head snapped up, closing his eyes and willed the memory away, feeling almost embarrassed. Had he always lacked this much concentration during a conversation? "Aa," he muttered.
Echizen leaned closer and squinted. "Is that a yes?"
"Aa," He blinked. What was he agreeing to again?
Echizen smirked. "We'll go Friday then," he said. "Kagome and I can give you a ride."
Tezuka nodded and wondered again what he just agreed to.