Hi! I am back with the new chapter. A lot of things will happen here in the future. And this is the start… I guess…

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tenipuri. Capiche?

sandra - thank you for loving the teasing part. Well, the problem is not over yet so the storm has yet to come despite the calm comes first. Anyway, you will know what kind of storm it will going to be in this chapter. This is the continuation... thank you very much... ^_^

heartluv - tee hee hee... yep, she did it alright... Thank you very much... This is the next chapter... ^_^

johanna - tee hee hee... salamat at natuonan mu ng pansin ung pamagat. Yep, tama ka... ung nga ang ibig nilang sabihin dun... tee hee hee... Salamat, next chapter is up na... ^_^

Chapter 26: The Storm after the Calm

Chapter Summary: The problem never ceased to leave her alone. From all the problems that she had encountered, this was probably the most humiliating for her.

"Why happened to you, my little angel?" The nice yet worried voice of a woman approached a four-year old girl who was crying from a corner.

"I—I… hurt my knee," The girl said holding the bended knee on the ground, "I… feel pain... m-mama."

Her mother bent down to level her and gave her a warm smile, "You ran fast that you tripped. I told you not to."

The girl cried even more, "I am sorry!"

"Shhh…" The mother gently placed a hand to her cheek, "It's alright. The pain will disappear."

"I… I am scared," She looked at her knee making her twitch in the process, "I-it's bleeding."

She yanked a handkerchief from her pocket and covered it with her injured knee, "Pain, pain, go away. Let be my girl come out and play."

The girl sniffed when she heard her mother sang the 'pain go away' song. The latter smiled at her and said;

"Come on, sing with me. You'll feel better."

She wiped her tears away as she followed her mother.

"Pain, pain, go away…"

.

.

.

"Sakuno…"

Hearing her name being called, she slowly opened her eyes. She blinked them for several times as she was seeing a figure in front of her, "R-Ryoma-kun."

"You are dreaming."

"A-am I?" She slowly sat up as she rubbed her eyes and noticed something. Looking at her hand as it was drenched in watery substance. She was crying in her dreams… again. Ryoma wiped her tears when he thought that she was stunned.

"Was it bad? Your dream?" The youngster asked her.

"I…" She started trying to remember what she had dreamt, "I dreamt something from the past… I dreamt about… my real mother."

"Your real mother?"

She nodded before she continued speaking, "I…I don't have any recollection of my real parents. I can't even remember my own past. What I am aware was when the N-Naruse family adopted me."

"How did they adopt you?"

"They told me that they found me from a church for several times. They often saw me sleeping there and then they decided to take me home and finally adopted me," She said not looking at him, "I didn't even know how I got to the church."

"Where is that church located?"

Sakuno shook her head, "I c-can't remember. I was too young to recognize the place; K-Kaito-kun would know the place… but not me."

Silence welcomed the both of them. No one said a word after she said that. She knew that Ryoma never wanted to talk about Kaito especially when it had something to do with her. He would hate that fact. She couldn't blame him. As far as she could she didn't to open the topic about her past or anything that would upset Ryoma.

"Don't rush things up," He said instead pushing her down to the bed, "You'll remember them eventually."

She looked at him before she nodded. Ryoma gave her a tiny smile before leaning down and kissed her on the lips making her gasp. They had been kissing for a while now but she wasn't used of doing it.

The kiss that Ryoma was giving her was taking her breath away.

Ryoma leaned back touching her cheek in the process, "You have me now… remember that."

She felt that her heart skipped a beat when he said that. Ryoma was the guy that every woman wanted to have. She was probably the luckiest girl in the world. Of all the girls out there, she was the one that Ryoma chose to be with.

…Despite the flaws that she had.

She had doubts of being with him sometimes, if she had the right to stay at his side. Looking away, she didn't notice that she frowned at that thought but Ryoma noticed her;

"Stop that."

When she heard that, she looked back at him, "W-what do you mean?"

Instead of answering, he welcomed himself on the bed and lied down beside her. Without giving her the time to protest, the tennis prodigy had grabbed her closer to him and tightly hugged her. She was surprised of his sudden actions that she couldn't react.

"You are the one and only that I love, believe that," He said drawing her closer to him, "Always have that thought inside you."

Sakuno was shocked at his words. She couldn't reply to him. The guy could read her thoughts that easily. She gripped his shirt hard as she leaned her head to his chest. Somehow, she felt secure in his arms. She wouldn't mind staying in that position for a while.

She felt safe when she was with him.

Tuesday:

Everyone was looking at her... in a suspicious look. Their stare was like they wanted to strangle her. They were giving her the odd glare unlike before. If she could avoid it, she doubted that she could still do it.

Something was not right.

She was nervous as they continued glaring at her. Ryoma wasn't with her at that moment for he went earlier that day. Now she regretted of not coming with him to school. They didn't know their relationship as they tried to keep it as a secret.

Just as when she entered her room, a pile of water dropped from her head. The girls in the room laughed at her while the boys were smirking at her. She was flabbergasted at the sight. Good thing that a girl supported her and gestured her to the clinic.

She didn't know what was happening and somehow, she had a bad feeling about it.

She thanked her classmate who escorted her to the clinic. She looked at her for a while before she replied to her;

"Be careful from now on," She said as she turned around, "Things will be tougher for you."

She didn't know what she meant by that. She was left alone in the clinic. Tezuka was pretty serious looking on the monitor at that time. She had thoughts whether to approach the stoic former Captain of the tennis club or not. Because she was wet, she decided to do the former;

"T-Tezuka-senpai?"

The doctor-in-training didn't budge when she called him.

"Senpai… do you have a towel? I sorta wet my clothes, you see?"

"Naruse…"

"H-hai…"

It took for a while before the guy talked, "This will be too much for you but… you have to see this." He looked at her and gestured her to come closer to the monitor. She followed his line of vision and an incredible shock registered on her face.

No—she was horrified at the scenes. Her eyes were trembling because of humiliation. It was her picture being posted on an Internet site with Taichi who was doing nasty things to her body. She covered her mouth as she couldn't speak.

…But not until she found it.

"H-how did this… h-happen?" She couldn't believe what she was seeing. There wasn't only one picture on the website. There were tons of it, pictures of Taichi and her doing those perverted things. Taichi was doing it of course.

"Someone put these pictures on the website," Tezuka replied as he began browsing the Internet, "Whoever did this was definitely doing a good job."

It was difficult to speak for her now. Her tears had begun falling down her face. Who could have leaked her dark secret? Was that the reason why she had been receiving suspicious looks from the students in Seigaku? Who could've taken pictures of them? She was definitely sure that she hadn't been taken pictures. She had been careful of every move that she made. Rumors and gossips would be fine for her but her pictures being posted on a website was different. The whole world would see it and it was the worst humiliation to her. Then, something suddenly clicked in her mind.

Ah.

The last time. It was the last time. How could she be so careless? It was the deal that she made with the guy that she forgot that he could take some tricky actions like that. And now it was happening. But Taichi was in jail now. Had he have an accomplice or something? How she was able to think things like this was almost impossible for her? She couldn't believe it.

They were interrupted when the door of the clinic opened and revealed Ryoma and the coach together with Momo and Kaidoh. Her eyes widened when she saw them there.

"Sakuno." Ryoma said wearing the least concern that he could show but she knew that he was indeed worried about her.

She just looked at them as she continued crying. She collapsed on the ground as her knees were no longer could hold her. Sumire ran to her and hugged her in the process while the three went to Tezuka's computer and was horrified to see those pictures on the net.

"W-who could've done this?" Momo said couldn't believe what he was seeing, "This is all just a prank, right? This is such a bad joke."

"…"

"Why aren't you agreeing with me," Momo then looked around him, to the girl who was crying on the ground with his coach supporting her, Kaidoh who was looking away, Tezuka who was wearing a serious look and Ryoma who was gritting his teeth and was also looking elsewhere, "What's the matter with you guys?"

"Momo stop it." Tezuka butted in.

"But—"

"Respect her for a while you." Kaidoh suddenly retorted. Momo wanted to retort but then he knew that he was right. He looked at the weeping girl. Judging from the look of it, the girl was having a hard time.

"What is happening, Sakuno," Sumire asked her, "You have to tell us."

Sakuno just continued to cry.

"Are… the pictures… true?" Sumire started gripping her shoulder a little harder, "Tell me…"

It was the most humiliating thing that she could ever receive. She looked at Ryoma but the guy was not looking at her. She saw that he was gripping his hand real tight. He never showed anger like that before. He was holding such emotions and now he wasn't going to hide it. Looking at everyone, she decided to tell them with just answering Sumire's question with a nod.

Fuji's Residence:

"Aniki!" Yuuta couldn't believe what he was seeing at his laptop. He had received an odd e-mail but what shocked him was the content of the mail. It was the images of Sakuno and some random guy doing some nasty things to her, "Aniki, come here!"

"What is it, Yuuta?" Fuji appeared behind him and was also shocked when he saw those pictures, "What are those pictures?"

"I don't know?" He said as he looked at the screen, "It's Sakuno-san, right? W-what's happening here?"

The older Fuji stared at the screen before he started calling Ryoma but the guy wasn't answering his phone. He called Tezuka next but he wasn't answering. He was thinking of calling Eiji but he knew that he would take everything to heart. He was a bit sensitive when it came to his friends and Oishi was no different to his partner. He called the last person he could think of. And finally it rang;

"Moshi, moshi, Inui," He said still staring at the screen, "Yeah, have you seen it too. They knew it already, weren't they?"

"…"

"…"

Yuuta was patiently waiting for his brother to talk.

"Then could do me a favor?" Fuji suddenly said, "About these pictures on the net. I'll tell you the details in person. Ja."

"That's Inui-senpai?"

"Aa," He nodded as he put his phone back to his pocket, "I need to confirm the information. Yuuta you call Riku-san and try to call Sakuno-chan as possible."

"Hai."

With that, the tensai left their house and then went to see the data analysis. He didn't know if those pictures were true. Whether they were true or not, he knew that the girl would be suffering right now. Somehow, he couldn't believe the pictures. Whoever posted those pictures was just trying to ruin her. He was going to find out about the scandal.

Yosouku:

"Kaito!" Momiji slammed his hands on the table, "It's your sister that we are talking about. She's been framed up!"

"It's none of your business, Momiji." He just replied to him as he crossed his arms closing his eyes in the process.

"Yeah, it isn't," He looked down when he replied but he looked back at him again gripping his hands in the process, "But it's your business to do so. Are you going to let those pictures on the web? Your sister is at stake here."

"She let her guard down," He stoically replied keeping the same position, "She left my place to begin with."

"You are still responsible for that case!" Momiji couldn't help himself anymore, "You were the one who put her there in the first place."

Kaito opened his eyes and slammed his hands on the table as well, "Who are you to scold me like that? Stay away from my private life."

"I am just being worried here. Naruse-san is in deep trouble."

"If you are worried about her then save her instead," He mocked before he leaned closer to him, "I know that you love her so I won't stop you."

"W-what?!" He leaned back, blushing in the process, "Kaito!"

Kaito walked away from him and went to the door, "You can do the saving if you want. The hell I care."

Momiji was stunned at his words. He gripped his hands tight before he shouted behind the door, "You are unbelievable. Don't wait for the day she's come to hate and leave you!"

He closed the door behind him. The pictures on the website were definitely a shock for him. What she was doing? No the question was, what was he doing? Where did those pictures come from? Narrowing his eyes, he thought of something that no one could guess what it was.

He hated what was happening now. He cursed everything, the pictures, that Taichi guy and Sakuno.

…The hell with them.

Three days later:

She went to the theater that day. It was also her performance with the group. Wearing a simple pink dress, she was standing in front of the crowd. But she noticed something.

There weren't enough people like before.

Sighing to herself, she started playing the violin and gracefully moved at the center. She wasn't in the mood to sing so she asked the others to play instrumental instead.

She played 'Cannon Rock version' in a smooth move. The version started with the bass guitar from the orchestra, then her violin. Soon, Riku's electric guitar could be heard, blending with her violin. Her violin was joined with Riku's incredible adlib all through the music which was joined by drums. Her expression was a little distracted but she knew that she was able to concentrate at least. The audience was murmuring during her performance. Riku was doing the show more than her. They probably knew about the pictures for some reason. She made a short cut to finish the song.

Looking at the audience, she bowed at them;

"Gomen!" She started her head was looking down on the ground, "I'll be playing the last piece for the night so please… e-enjoy it to the very last minute." With that, she stood straight and looked at the crowd.

The people were giving her an odd look. She closed her eyes as she started playing her piece, 'Will'. Yuuta and Fuji joined in with the piece for the intro before she played her part along with the drums. Riku played the adlib with the drums before she joined the group, although, the first two ended the piece together. The music was painful and full of despair. Her expression was also showing the same emotion. She bowed in front of crowd before she started walking to the backstage. The members of Rhapsody looked at each other as well as the audience.

She walked her way to the dressing room and sat there. Everything was worst now. Biting her lower lip, she tried holding her tears back. She looked down as she placed her hands on her face not noticing a figure entered the room. A hand was placed on her shoulder and she already knew who that person was;

"I guess… I did deserve all of this," She started not looking at the person, "I am a bad woman after all."

"…"

"I don't want to humiliate Fuji-san, Yuuta-san and Riku-san anymore," She started as she gripped her hands tight, "I am bringing them down."

"…"

She looked up and stared at the person's eyes, "Ryoma-kun… I let everybody down."

Ryoma pulled her up and hugged her. She couldn't help but cry on his shoulder. The others appeared there, silently watching the scene. Ryoma looked at them and nodded;

"Let's go home."

Echizen's House:

Ryoma escorted her to her room. She was occupied about something else that she forgot the tennis prodigy for a while. She was embarrassed now that the world knew about her dirty secret. It wasn't the simple 'pain, pain, go away' thing anymore. She thought of talking to Kaito and she didn't hesitate to tell him;

"I… I need to talk to Kaito-kun."

"What?!"

She grabbed his arms and looked at his eyes, "I can't stay like this. I need to face this problem. Kaito-kun probably knows something why my secret has leaked out."

"…"

"Please take me to him."

"No."

"Ryoma-kun."

"You're not going to see him."

"But I still—"

"Have you forgotten what he had done to you?"

Her eyes widened when he asked that to her, "I—I don't but I just can't let things this way. I need to see—"

"Stop it!" He grabbed her arms making her shock in the process, "Everybody knows but they don't care about it."

"…"

"You will only hurt yourself more if you see him now."

"But… K-Kaito-kun… Kaito-kun is…" She couldn't say her words. What was she trying to say anyway? Everytime she thought about her step-brother, she couldn't stop being nervous about it.

"You are not over him, are you?"

That shocked her to no end. What was the guy saying now? Why was he opening that topic all of the sudden? She didn't know what to say to him, she just couldn't find the right words to say. Even though she was speechless, she knew that it wasn't because of that… not anymore. She only stared at his eyes. Her eyes dilated when Ryoma leaned down and kissed her neck. She was surprised at the guy's bold actions.

"R-Ryoma-kun, s-stop," She begged as she tried to push him away but the guy wasn't listening to her. His hand went to her leg. She panicked as she tried to catch his attention, "S-stop! I said stop it!"

He managed to come to his senses and was a bit surprised at what he was doing.

"W-why are you doing this?" Tears started to fall as she looked at him, "Why can't you trust me… even just a little?"

"…"

"I just want to solve the problem," She wiped her tears at the back of her hands, "Y-you taught me how," She closed her eyes as she couldn't take the pain anymore, "I—I want to give it a try… at least."

Her words were eaten by her sobs. She just couldn't speak anymore. Her tears kept on falling even though she tried wiping them away. She felt Ryoma's lips touch her forehead. He kissed her there for a couple of seconds before he gave her a comforting hug;

"Gomen," He said whispering to her ear, "You cannot blame me if I think that way."

"…"

"I just got you and it's normal for me to feel insecure…" He said tightening his grip to her body, "You loved him after all."

"Ryoma-kun," She couldn't say anything but his name. She responded to his hug and also hugged him tighter, "I… I need to be with you," She closed her eyes once again trying to say the right words to him, "I… I know that by far."

He leaned away before giving her a soft yet quick peck on the lips, "I'll keep you when you're ready." He said seriously staring at her eyes.

The words were heavy for her that despite the tears she was able to blush due to shyness. She just closed her eyes but she didn't give him any response to that. But he knew what her answer was. Just like some nights ago, Ryoma hugged her there until she fell asleep.

The guy never left her there until he too fell asleep on the bed.

Few Days Later:

It had been three months since she started living with him. And the latest incident was the worst as she remembered. She received awful words and comment from her schoolmates… except for the tennis regulars.

Even Saya didn't say anything to her yet she didn't know if she was angry or not. Of all the people only the girls and the boys from the tennis club knew the real reason of the pictures.

Keiko and Riku had been talking to themselves about her condition. They wanted to help her find the culprit of whoever posted the pictures.

She had real friends after all and she found it in Seigaku. Sumire was also there to help her… like a real grandmother to her and a real granddaughter to the old lady.

But every consequence had its equal.

She had to stop competing for the tournaments for a while but she could still play inside the academy. Her teammates treated her like the usual. She wasn't planning to visit the day care center as well. Eiji and Oishi were sad about it but she couldn't help it. She didn't want the kids to hate her completely because of what they probably been hearing around them.

She couldn't even visit Kawamura's sushi restaurant at times. Ryoma could only take her there at night, more on she could only go and eat there with everyone at night.

The battle was pretty tough for her to face but she was going to fight it.

She wouldn't stay in the darkness forever.

Night:

She felt sad about the news about Sakuno. Sumire couldn't stop thinking but feel sorry about it. Fuji Syuusuke told her yesterday that the tensai confirmed to Inui about the pictures. Of course, Sakuno had already authenticated that information, much to their suffering. Fuji also said that it was her step-brother's doing but the guy made sure that nothing would happen bad to her. Kaito must've probably missed that last event; the guy wasn't even allowed him to take pictures in the first place.

Sighing to herself, she would definitely give some scolding remarks to the guy when she saw him. What Kaito was doing to his step-sister was inhumane.

She walked upstairs and thought of sleeping that night, trying to forget the stressful problems that she had been experiencing from her students. Just then, she stopped at a certain door.

…The door that she hadn't opened for a couple of months.

Her heart skipped a beat when she grabbed the doorknob and twisted it to open. The feeling was still there when she was looking inside. She couldn't help but painfully frowned on it.

It was the room of her missing granddaughter.

The place was still the same. The room was pink and her granddaughter's toys and dolls were still aligned on top of the closet. She could even remember how her granddaughter loved her pink rocking horse that was abandoned from the corner of that room for years.

She walked to the closet and opened it. Tears were warning to fall on her face as she grabbed a cloth. The cloth had her granddaughter's name on it. It was the dress that she wore last before she disappeared the very next day. Gently touching the embroidery, she gave the white cloth a tearful smile before she hugged it to her chest;

"I really missed you…"

Somewhere in her mind, she wished that it was the certain braided-pigtailed girl she knew was her granddaughter. She hopefully, wishfully prayed that it was really her.

Friday at the Clinic:

She just had her monthly checkup at the clinic and Tezuka had just prescribed her medicine. Nothing was found at last. It seemed that the small lumps finally dissolved to her chest. But she still needed to continue drinking the medicine just to make sure. She could do that for a month or two before she could consider herself healthy again.

"Keep doing that."

"Hai, arigatou, Tezuka-senpai."

"What are you going to do now?" The doctor in training said.

Sakuno thought a lot about it. Her fame was slowly dropping from time to time. She wasn't expecting fame in the first place so it was normal for her to give it up. She hadn't talk to Kaito yet. Like Ryoma asked her just to give him time before she could finally talk to her step-brother.

She would follow him for she didn't want Ryoma to get upset.

She made a decision as she looked at him;

"I'll… make the final curtain that I will never regret."

Done! How was it? Sakuno is going to face the problem. How is she going to find the culprit? Find that out in the future chapters…

Review please! Send me your thoughts. Let me hear them and motivate me more. Thank you very much… ^_^

Vocab:

Cannon Rock – Usually 'Cannon' is use for wedding march. In this version, I prefer the rock one. I love Jerry C's rock version. That's the version I used here.

Will – This is music only that composed by Yuki Kajiura for the Anime called Pandora Hearts. I love this music that I even put my own lyrics in it (Sorry the lyrics are not here… tee hee hee.)

I do not own the music being included here and definitely not the Pandora Hearts itself. Never ever will. Capiche?

Next Chapter: The Final Curtain