Chapter 28: Ryoma's Missing Bag

Ryoma slowly opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the sunlight. He held his hand over his head for shade as his vision slowly slid into focus and adjusted to the light. He had been napping under a tree near a park with his cap over his face, but it had been blown off sometime while he was sleeping.

"Nice one!" he heard somebody say.

Ryoma dizzily sat up and looked over to see a group of kids playing kickball, and Ayame was among the group. Ayame had never played kickball before, and she had wanted to join in to see what it was like. The kids were kind enough to tell her how to play, and her team was winning by a lot.

Ryoma watched as Ayame's team won mostly because of her.

"Dang! You said this was your first time playing kickball, and you're really good!" a boy said to Ayame.

"You run really fast and you send the ball flying every time you kick," another boy said. "You'd be a really good kickball player!"

"Thanks for the compliments, but I play tennis," Ayame said, silently glad that she met the Echizens.

Ayame looked over to see that Ryoma was finally awake.

"Ah, my jerk of a best friend is finally awake," she said. "I was gonna play a match with him."

"That boy who was sleeping over there is your best friend?" a kid asked her.

"Yeah," she replied. "His name's Ryoma Echizen. Don't judge. It's a Japanese name."

"Wait, you don't mean the Ryoma Echizen who won four straight tennis tournaments here?!" one of the boys said, shocked.

"Yep, that's him," Ayame said casually. "If you know Ryoma, then you may or may not know his best friend, Ayame Kanna."

"Wait, YOU'RE Ayame Kanna?!" one of the girls asked.

"Yep, Ryoma Echizen's best friend Ayame Kanna," Ayame answered.

Ayame walked over to Ryoma as the other kids stared at her.

"Oi, Ryoma," she said. "Let's play a match."

"Fine," Ryoma answered and turned to grab his tennis bag, only to see that it wasn't where he left it.

"What's wrong?" Ayame asked as Ryoma kept looking around. "Did you leave it at the hotel?"

"No, it was right here before I took a nap," Ryoma answered as he picked up his cap and put it on his head. "But it's gone."

"You don't think that somebody stole it, do you?" Ayame asked.

Ryoma froze. If somebody did steal his tennis bag, that would be terrible. Inside were his three rackets, rice crackers, Gameboy Advance, planner, Doubles for Beginners book (not that it was important anymore), pen case, photos of Karupin (just thinking about not being able to see the face of his beloved cat made him feel depressed), and some cash that he used to buy groceries and energy drinks.

"Did you see somebody take it?" Ryoma asked Ayame.

"No," Ayame answered. "I didn't keep watch when I was playing kickball… Hey, you still have your cell phone, right?"

"Yes. It's right here in my pocket."

"Good. Go around and see if you can find somebody with your bag. If you see the crook, gimme a call and I'll beat the crap outta them. I wanna do it before we call the police."

Both freshmen went their separate ways while searching for the stolen tennis bag. Ayame pulled out her cell phone and started a call.

"Hello?" an older boy's voice answered.

"Ryoga?" Ayame said.

"Hey, Ay-chan. What's the matter? You sound a bit distressed."

"Yeah… truth is, somebody stole Ryoma's tennis bag."

"Somebody stole Chibisuke's bag?"

"Yeah… Do you mind helping us by trying to track down the culprit? I was gonna beat the crap outta them once I find them."

"Sure, I'll help. How did this happen?"

"I don't know. As far as I know, Ryoma was sleeping near the park and somebody just up and stole his bag. I was at the park too, and when I was there, he had his bag still, but I never saw who stole it."

"I see. Well, I'll do whatever I can to help find Chibisuke's bag."

"Thanks. Gimme a call if you find out anything. And don't call the police yet. If you don't find it by four in the afternoon, then meet at the hotel."

Ayame ended the call and continued searching the area for any clues.

I hope we find it… she thought. America's a big place, and the thief could be anywhere!

Ayame called Ryoma to tell him to meet back at the hotel if they don't find any traces of the bag by four. They went back to finding clues of Ryoma's stolen bag. Ayame walked down the streets, asking passing strangers if they had seen a "blue and black tennis bag with "Seigaku" etched in it." The answer was always no. Ayame would sometimes threaten the more suspicious-looking people, but she got nothing out of them.

Hours passed, and soon four o'clock came around. Neither had found any clues. Ryoma began to make his way back to the hotel to meet up with Ayame and Ryoga like they said. As he entered the lobby, he ran into Ryoga.

"Yo, Chibisuke!" Ryoga greeted. "From the looks of it, you didn't find out anything about your bag, did you?"

"No," Ryoma answered.

Both boys went to the room that Ryoma and Ayame stayed at. When they opened the front door, they saw Ayame sitting on her bed, staring at the floor.

"Ay-chan, you didn't find out anything either?" Ryoga asked.

"No," Ayame answered, not looking up.

"Looks like we're gonna have to call the police after all…" Ryoga sighed.

"Actually…" Ayame started.

"What's up, Ay-chan?" Ryoga asked.

"I think I know one thing or two about who stole the bag…" Ayame continued. "No… I know who stole your bag, Ryoma."

"Who did?" both Echizen boys asked at the same time.

Ayame got off the bed and crouched down beside it. She reached under it and pulled out a Seigaku tennis bag.

"Wait… it was you?" Ryoma asked.

Ayame now had on a mischievous smirk.

"What the hell?!" Ryoga was in a sour mood now. "You made me come all the way down here for this when it was actually you who took the bag?! No wonder you didn't want us to call the police!"

"Yeah," Ayame answered coolly. "I was getting revenge."

"For what?!" Ryoga demanded.

"For when you made fun of me during the time Ryoma was sick," Ayame replied with a hint of anger in her voice. "My mind was screaming "Smash it! Smash it!", and it was my cell phone I was fixing to smash! I was lucky that I was strong enough to fight that urge!"

"Why did you have to drag me into it?" Ryoma asked, obviously unhappy about the fact that Ayame made him run all over town for no good reason.

"Because I wanted to see how you'd react if your bag was stolen," Ayame answered, grinning. "But on the bright side, you got a good workout by running. And I needed an excuse to beat up some suspicious-looking dudes."

Ayame put down her bag and opened it. "Anyway, Ryoma, should we start our match now?"

"Fine," Ryoma said as he picked up his bag and turned to the door, only to turn around and look back when he realized that Ayame wasn't following. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't mean tennis," Ayame answered as she took out a Gameboy Advance with a cord.

"You got a Gameboy Advance?"

"Yes."

"I see," Ryoga said. "You're both gonna play a video game together?"

"Yeah," Ayame answered. "We started playing video games after Ryoma got that Gameboy Advance."

Ryoma took out his Gameboy Advance and the freshmen turned their gaming systems on.

So Ay-chan and Chibisuke have some sort of competition outside of tennis too… Ryoga thought. I'm sure it's a lot friendlier than—

Ryoga's thoughts were cut off as he saw that Ryoma and Ayame both had expressions like as though they were about to commit murder, causing the tension in the air to grow heavy.

What's with that intensity? Ryoga thought nervously.

The instant the game had started, the two freshmen began pounding on the buttons violently.

I won't lose to him! Ayame thought.

I won't lose to her! Ryoma thought.

Of course… Ryoga thought as he stared. Their video gaming is just as competitive as their tennis…

His little brother and friend paid no more attention to him as they became too concentrated in their game to even care. They didn't even look up when Ryoga slowly walked out of the room and didn't come back.


"Damn, I lost again…" Ayame sighed.

"Mada mada dane," Ryoma taunted.

"Oi, where'd Ryoga go?"

"Who knows?"

"Oh well, whatever. I don't think he'd enjoy watching us trying to beat each other."

Ayame put away her Gameboy Advance.

That bastard needs to be more careful outside... she thought. That creeper that I beat up was the dude who tried to steal the tennis bag, and I hid it back here.