Hi! I am back with the new chapter. Was it shocking? But I think some of you knew that it would come to this. But something is about to happen. Find that out. Domo… ^_^

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Prince of Tennis and never will.

sweetangel – it was frustrating yeah… well… something has to happen… I guess… Well, this is the continuation of the story… thank you very much… ^_^

johanna – well, at least nagging sweet sila… oo nga… at least okay na sila… ito na nga pla ang susunod na chapter… salamat… ^_^

Chapter 25: Unexpected Companion

Chapter Summary: Never did in their lives that they could meet the people that they were unexpected to see the last… at times when things were getting good… but…

It was not the right time to think about his companion. He had a major problem to think and his fiancée's safety came first. There was no way he would use his pride at this very moment and pretended that everything would be alright.

For some reason, he was with Sakuno's former fiancé that night. Like it or not, he would be needing the blonde guy's help for there were the only ones spying the entire area.

…Where his fiancée was held captive by an unexpected person that he thought the last.

He clenched his hands tight upon remembering the scenes why they were there hiding from the bushes and were very careful not to be found out.

Flashback:

Just as he dropped the call, he could see Sakuno looking at his way as if she could see him from where he was hiding. The place was totally dark, but having the vision of a cat's, it was not hard for him not to spot her there. The girl then hugged her own phone. He could also see the way she smiled and judging from her reaction, he knew that he was being thought by her.

And having that idea made him want to go to her and do the things that he could only do but no one else.

Not even a certain blonde guy could. Hah! He felt proud because of that.

He then heard her saying something but he couldn't make what it was. She was just murmuring to herself and whatever that word she was saying made her blush a lot. She looked serene at that very moment.

…In front of his eyes.

He smiled thinking that he wanted to approach the girl and asked her about the confession right away. He really wanted to go but he just refrained himself to do anything stupid.

He had done lots of stupid things for your information but he wouldn't care all of that, as long as it was for the girl.

With such restrictions, he managed to stop from showing himself to her. He waited for the girl to go back to her room and he would go to the secret passage that he used to go before.

And as for him, that he managed to get into her garden without being seen in the first place. Well, that was a prodigy's secret and no one would never know about it… even you.

He continued watching her until he noticed that something was odd. Sakuno turned around when she heard something. Well, he could hear something as well. He got suspicious about the sound. He noticed that the girl walked to the autumn tree which was near her room. His location was just across the autumn tree. The place was somewhat eerie now. He even flinched when the girl called out his name, thinking that it was him who was making the fuss. When she reached the tree, he couldn't see her reaction for she was blocking it from him.

The next thing that he knew, someone had put something to the girl making her collapse on the ground. His eyes widened and was about to show himself to where he was hiding when someone covered his mouth from behind.

He had the time to look at his rude companion of whoever he was. Then he found the blonde guy crouching beside him.

"What are you doing here?" Chris whispered glaring at the scene.

"I am supposed to ask you the same thing," Ryoma hissed as he glared at him, "Can't you see that my fiancée is in danger?"

"I can see that, of course," He whispered back, "But what can you do? What if he's armed? Can you save her without any weapons in you?" He retorted and looked at him, "And don't even think about your tennis racket saving her, you should take extra precautions. We should just… watch for the meantime."

Gritting his teeth, he looked forward as to where Sakuno and her captor were. He hated to admit but the blonde guy was right. It was good that he had his racket that night because of the event they had today. But he wouldn't take the risk if he would attack now and save Sakuno from harm.

He took it from their last experience where he had almost lost their lives.

He had to make of a plan as he watched the scene. Her captor carried her to his shoulder and he could see the grin that was plastered to her captor's face. He really wanted to charge and punch her captor at that very moment. Now he regretted of not showing up in front of her a while ago. If he did, they might have avoided this kind of situation that they were in.

He had a clear vision of the captor, especially when the captor's face was being shown to the light. The captor walked to the secret passage and went out without hassle. They waited for a few moments before they heard an engine being ignited. Ryoma didn't waste time and moved out from the bushes that he was hiding and went to the secret passage as well with Chris trailing him behind.

Just as they got out, they found a black car was speeding away from their area.

"Shikuso!" Ryoma cursed as he started running to the black car's direction.

"O-oi!" Chris called out to him.

"Call anyone!" He shouted loud enough for the blonde guy to hear. He wouldn't let things that way now that he knew that Sakuno was in danger. He couldn't afford to lose Sakuno.

Not this time around.

He knew that he could at least trust the blonde guy to call Fakir or the lord for the uneventful situation that happened inside their mansion at that time. He could still see the view of the car whether he turned to a corner but the distance was getting far from his view and he was getting pissed of it. He was busy of how to catch up with the car when he heard some screeching sound beside him. He looked at the direction where the sound was created.

It was the blonde guy, riding a bicycle.

"Get in!" The blonde guy ordered.

He abruptly stopped as he observed the scene in front of him. The noble guy was on a bicycle… and he was planning to ride it in the middle of night.

"What are you still staring for?" Chris shouted this time catching his attention, "I said get in!"

Without a second doubt, he went to his back and grabbed his shoulder for security. Chris started to pedal the bike to where the car was speeding off.

"Are you sure we can catch up with this bike of yours?" He asked eyeing the car ahead of them.

"Who do you take me for?" Chris smirked and ducked a little, "Hold on tight."

Before Ryoma could retort, Chris sped up making to grip his shoulder too tight. His eyes widened. Chris could ride the bike really fast.

Like it could 'sting like a beaver.'

He was not going to admit it but he was amazing when it came to this, "I am beginning to doubt that you really are a noble." He murmured as he looked away.

"What did you say?" Chris looked sideways.

"Nothing," He closed his eyes and then opened them again as he looked ahead, "Look straight ahead, idiot."

"Don't call me that!" Chris retorted.

"Did you call anyone?" He asked as he eyes the car in front of them.

"I sent Fakir a message," Chris said focusing on the road ahead, "then, I found this in the yard. You should use your GPS so that they could locate us."

"You don't have to remind me that." Ryoma retorted. That what he was going to do once he got to know the location where the captor would be keeping Sakuno. He gripped his hands tight to Chris' shoulder and he knew that the blonde guy was only restraining himself to do anything.

Who couldn't if it him who started to whole thing?

It was him after all.

And they were there, eyeing an abandoned building from an isolated area. From the look of it, it was the only structure that could be seen from the area. The place was completely isolated. There were some guys that were guarding the building below so they thought that it wasn't good to raid the building. Also, they could see that there was only a light from the fifth floor which they could sense that was where they held Sakuno in when he brought her inside the building.

They waited for a few minutes until they thought that the cost was clear.

"Do you have a plan to this?"

He could hear Chris ask him as he observed the place.

"Your so called weapon is pretty noisy for not making a sound." Chris interfered before he could even speak.

"Do you think that I don't know about that?" He retorted back at him as he bit his thumb finger trying to figure something out, "I am trying to think, okay?" He looked around as he yanked his phone.

"What are you doing?" Chris peeked at his phone as he was working on it. He set his account on and made it available to her friends.

"Reinforcements..." He shortly said.

"What?"

Ryoma raised a brow and looked at him, "You were the one who told me that."

Chris grunted as he looked away, "I knew that, geez."

"Yeah, right." Ryoma muttered as he looked back at the abandoned building. He cursed at the current event. Why couldn't he stop it when he had the chance?

Sakuno was kidnapped while he was there hiding from her vision.

…Just when everything was fine between them.

…When no one could interfere them.

…Just when the blonde guy beside him had finally accepted the truth about their relationship.

Why would something like this happen now?

"What were you doing there in the first place anyway?" Chris suddenly said cutting him from his reverie, "Didn't you promise to Auntie not to do any unnecessary things?"

"I was not doing anything," He answered, "She didn't see me."

"You look like a stalker." Chris retorted.

Ryoma looked at him. He actually didn't mind the word but he asked him another instead, "What were you doing there?"

"I wanted to see Sakuno." He bluntly said.

He looked at him with hints of warning.

"Hey, it's not what you think," He immediately cleared it to him, "I already knew it… Geez!"

"Why do you want to see her at that time?" He couldn't help but ask.

Chris looked away before he said his purpose, "I was planning to say goodbye to her tonight. I'll be leaving and I want her to be the first one to know."

"…"

"I'll continue my studies back to London and probably not returning here for good."

He looked at his expression if he was telling the truth. He then saw the blonde guy's hand clench from his lap. He could sense that he was still having a hard time dealing with the reality.

Chris was telling the truth.

If he didn't love the girl, he would rather support him. But that wasn't the case. He loved her. He loved Sakuno and he would fight anyone even the other creatures there were to be created just to win the girl's heart.

Over his not so dead body.

"But we need to do something," Chris said catching his attention, "And fast."

Ryoma nodded and tried to sneak in. Chris followed him. With the sharp vision, stared ahead and observed around them. From the time he opened his GPS, he knew that his senpais would know their whereabouts. He just hoped that they could get the message in time.

"Ne, you can do fencing, right?" He looked to his shoulder.

Chris nodded, "But I don't have my sword with me."

"I know," He said as he grabbed something from the corner where they were hiding and gave it to him, "You'll improvise."

Chris stared at the wooden rod that he was holding. He closed his eyes as he smirked, "Better than the thick block."

"Ikou." Ryoma said leading the way. They snuck up at the side of the building and from their location. They could see two guys guarding the entrance. Staring at the guys, he yanked a tennis ball from his pocket and prepared for a shot.

"Matte," Chris said blocking the tennis ball from his hand, "You cannot make a sound or you'll call other's attention."

"I know," He frowned at him as he shoved his hand from his, "It won't make a sound, okay."

"What? How are you going to do that?" Chris asked him instead.

He smirked at him and said, "Watch." With that, he threw the ball from a guy's direction with a pitching style.

Chris was rather shocked when he did that. He must have assumed that he would be using his racket to hit the ball towards them. The guy was hit on the head and immediately looked at their way.

Ryoma grabbed Chris and leaned their backs on the wall. He gripped his racket hard as he waited for the guy to approach them and when he did, he hit his racket with full force to the guy before he could even create a sound. Chris didn't waste time as he hit the other guy with the rod that he was holding and like the other guy; he was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Were you saying something?" Ryoma smirked at him as he tapped his shoulder with his racket.

Chris just glared at him and sighed, "You're one cocky brat."

He pinned his hat down and as he proudly muttered, "Domo." With that he walked at the entrance and began the rescuing thing. Chris followed suit. They were not talking but they knew that they were both worried about the girl.

Meanwhile:

Fuji had immediately left his house as he received an SOS signal from Ryoma. He knew that something bad happened at that time. Good thing that his kouhai activated his GPS so it wasn't that hard to locate his whereabouts. All he needed to do was to call the others and tell them. Just as he turned into a corner, he bumped into someone, making him shock in the process.

"Eiji, Tezuka," Fuji called his eyes widened at that time, "Good thing I saw you two here."

"We know," Tezuka cut him, "We also received the signal."

"I called Oishi a while ago," Eiji said getting serious as well, "He is on his way to the mansion."

"We should go there," Fuji looked at Tezuka, "Immediately."

"You don't have to remind me twice." Tezuka turned around and led the way. The two followed afterwards. They hadn't run for a long time when a car was suddenly stopped in front of them. The tinted window was being brought down and revealed the person inside.

"You are not joining the party, without Ore-sama, are you?"

"Atobe…" Tezuka just stared at him.

"Get in." Atobe said after that. The other's followed and didn't waste time to speed the car up to their destination where Ryoma was.

At The Mansion:

Reinja was talking on the phone with Nanjiroh. He just called reinforcements for the sudden rescue. He couldn't believe it. Sakuno was just there a few hours ago and now she was being kidnapped again. Reina fainted when she got the news. Ahiru and Hinagiku were attending the fair lady.

Oishi arrived together with Kaidoh, Momo, Yuushi, and Gakuto who he had met on the way. Oishi anticipated that Ryoma gave everyone his message and was on their way to his location.

"Nanijoh-san will call for help," Reinja said after he talked to the senior samurai, "Good thing that Ryoma-san gave us the location."

"What happened, sir?" Oishi said looking at the lord.

Reinja massaged his temple as he tried to explain everything, "I didn't know what really happened. I didn't even know why Ryoma-san knew that Sakuno was kidnapped and was now following her kidnapper. Everything was fast. Fakir told me that Chris texted him and he's with him."

They remained silent and for once, they found it weird that the two were together at that meantime.

"We should go there as possible too," Momo said cutting the silence, looking at Yuushi and Gakuto, "The others are on their way to the location."

"We cannot take any risks," Reinja said, "Nanjiroh-san would be informing Sumire-obaa-san about this," He explained and then looked at his trusted knight, "Bring your skilled bodyguards and come with me."

"Hai!" Fakir said.

They didn't waste time and started to move on. Everyone was thinking the same thing. They all wished for the same thing. Sakuno's safety. Reinja, of all the people there was the most frustrated one. What did he do wrong to deserve this? Why did Sakuno have to suffer? Why wouldn't they leave his family alone?

When this danger was finally over, he had to make a decision where Sakuno's life was at stake. It would be for her safety and he had to do it.

He wouldn't let him ruin his revived family. And no one else would. He would save his daughter at all cost.

At the abandoned building:

She slowly stirred as her senses were coming to her. But she felt something odd as she noticed something. She knew that her eyes were already opened but she couldn't see anything. She wasn't blind, was she? But then, she noticed more that made her shock to the fullest.

She was actually blindfolded and her mouth was covered with the handkerchief blocking her to speak. Her hands were tied in front of her and she was leaning on a wall. She must've lost consciousness and was sitting there for how many hours, she didn't know. Her feet weren't tied up; no wonder that she was at least comfortably sitting there. But she had to be aware. Raking her brain for her memory, she tried to remember what happened before. Then she finally remembered it.

She went out of her room when she heard some rustling sounds near the autumn tree after the call Ryoma made to her that night. Curious about the sound, she walked closer to the tree and tried to see who that could be. Thinking that it was Ryoma, she thought that it was okay for her to approach it. But she was wrong about it. When she went to the front tree, her eyes widened when she recognized the person.

She couldn't speak as the person was glaring at her with the eyes as she thought as red. It tooked like she had seen a person that went back from the dead. It was possible, wasn't it?

He could have been there standing in front of her, couldn't he? And before she could make a sound, he blocked her voice with a handkerchief. From there, she smelled something pleasant but that caused her consciousness to zero.

And she was there… but she didn't know where. She was nervous and scared at the same time. Judging from the situation she was in. She knew what she had seen was no joke.

Was it really him? It couldn't be. H-he's dead. W-we all know that he's dead. Sakuno thought to herself as she tried to feel her background. Her sight was awfully useless at that meantime. She had to get out of there but how?

She tried to move her hands and luckily she could still lift them up. She was about to use them to take off her blindfold when someone spoke.

"I wouldn't take that off if I were you, mistress."

She froze when she heard the voice, the voice that she didn't expect that she could hear again. It was the same of how she remembered it. It was the same voice who had put her life and Capella's in danger months ago. She had never imagined that she could hear the voice again.

She never imagined that she could be facing him once again from the dead.

"Judging from your expression, I could sense that you already recognize me."

She was shocked as she heard that. She couldn't speak for her mouth was covered with the handkerchief. But her heart was rapidly beating at an incredible speed. She was filled with mixed emotions at that moment.

Blindfolded, she knew that Meyers was standing just in front of her.

"You are probably shocked why I am still alive, aren't you?"

She flinched when she heard him whispering from her ear. She wasn't prepared at the closeness that they were in.

"Well, I am a bad guy, mistress," Meyers whispered to her ear once again, "And bad guys live long."

She tried to murmur but it was useless. She tried moving hoping that Meyers would move away from her. But she felt frightened when the guy's hand soothed her cheek with his fingers. She tried turning her head around so that his fingers would leave her cheek but the other guy's hand grabbed her hair from the back and steadied her there. She shrieked when he tilted her head a little with the use of his hand. She whimpered trying hard not to cry there.

"Do you want to know how I survived the fall, mistress?" Meyers said still caressing her cheek with his other hand, "I bet you are wondering about it."

She was scared at that very moment. She tried not to show it but she knew that it was useless. Meyers had all the advantage of her. She couldn't see nor speak. She didn't even know where she was either. What was going to happen to her? She didn't have the time to think anything but to listen why the A-rank soldier was still alive.

"I thought I'd died the fall but somehow, my arm got caught by a log and I took the chance the hold on to it. The log sent me to a shore but I was lifeless. I was stranded in the sea for days before I got to a land. I was wounded because of what that brat did to my head."

She remembered what happened back then. Ryoma hit his head with his racket with full force. She thought that he would fall unconscious to that but somehow, he fought for it. But then again, she remembered him at that very moment. R-Ryoma-kun…

"I felt sick for days in an island and I thought I was going die there. But a miracle saved me. I woke up from the heat of the sun one day and had the slight energy to move around. With the little strength I got, I tried looking for food and something to ease my fever. Luckily I got healed but it took a long time before I recovered. It was a tough experience I had and no one was there to help me," He told her as if he was just telling her a long story, "When I completely recovered. I returned here and looked for my uncle. I heard that he committed suicide a month ago after suffering from schizophrenia. Hah, I didn't know that he had that disease in his system."

She was rather shocked when she heard that from him. She didn't even know that Drosselmeye committed suicide. No one told her that. She wondered if Ryoma knew the news as well.

"Now I am alone because he's gone," He said as he gripped her hair tighter as he continued saying his words, "But that doesn't mean that my business with you is over."

She started to panic at that moment. She felt pain from her head but she endured it. Instead she tried removing his hand from her head but it only brought more pain to her. She whimpered as she tried to say her words.

"That's right mistress, I came back from the dead," Meyers said, "And it's payback time."

She gasped when she felt his hand caressing her cheek and her neck. She knew that something bad was going to happen.

"I haven't got my revenge yet and it would only come true if I'll kill you right now."

Her blindfolded eyes were treating to cry tears at that moment. She knew it very well. Her breath was shallow and she could sense him leaning closer to her. She couldn't help but yelp with the movement he was making.

"But I want to enjoy myself first," He whispered to her ear making her gasp in the process, "What about experiencing pleasure before dying mistress? At least you could reach cloud nine before you die."

She panicky moved when he said that. She tried moving and making possible sounds hoping that someone could hear her. Her life was in danger once again but her killer wanted to have her first. She tried pushing him away from her but it was rather useless for he was stronger.

"I like resistance like that mistress, that would be enjoyable. And you can create sounds as you like but no one will hear you here. It's just you and me in this room anyway," He said as he licked her cheek making her hair from her body stand up, "If I couldn't have Ouka or Ahiru before, you could be the perfect replacement for them. So might as well enjoy this with me." With that, he kissed her neck as he steadied her with her head. His other hand that was on her cheek went down and caressed her thigh lifting her skirt a little.

She was scared and horrified at that very moment. She tried moving and created sounds, comprehensible or not. She used all of her strength to push him away with her hands even though they were tied up. She had started to cry making the blindfold wet.

She was helpless as she could not see nor speak. She wanted to die instead rather than being harassed like that. She didn't want to end like that. Not having the ability to speak, she only thought of one person at that moment. She might be speaking in her mind and not in her mouth but her heart was telling her that it wasn't the end for her. She had screamed it to her heart…

H-help me… Onegai… R-Ryoma-kun!

Done! Waaah! Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Yeah, Meyers is back! I knew that you would guess him. His disappearance without seeing his body was pretty odd for you guys. And yep, I made that scene for this purpose. He was back from the dead and Sakuno was… waah… in a grave danger… What will happen next? Will Ryoma and Chris save her in time? Find that out in the next chapter. Domo…

Reviews please… I need more motivation… just a few chapters and this fic will be over… Ummm… maybe six chapters… I guess… So please… give me your full support on this… Domo…

Next Chapter: It's Now or Never