WARNING: AKUTSU! That meant warning for coarse language. Gosh, I don't even curse… maybe except in Japanese. Ahaha.
Akutsu may be a bit OOC since I'm finding it quite a challenge to identify with him. Tell me if I actually portrayed him badly or not, okay? And please don't hesitate to comment about, well, anything! XD
DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Prince of Tennis
...
CHAPTER XXIX: The Hunting
Akutsu Jin could not believe his luck- he had finally found something good to prey on. And who would have thought it would involve one of the sports he looked down upon most?
Every sport had been beyond boring to Akutsu, that was why arrogant little bastards playing a sport seriously made him want to beat them up. The world didn't need any more stupid people. then again, maybe it did. Otherwise, supply of people he could beat up would lessen, and that was something he'd rather not happen.
Anyway- he, Akutsu Jin, defeated the best of the best (around his area) and proved the sport was too easy to even be considered worthwhile.
And one like Akutsu would never get tired of repeating the fact that he looked down on sports. Especially tennis.
Just a few weeks ago he had been convinced to take on tennis again because he was told that there were a lot of better people than him – of all people – to defeat. He was only disappointed by the losers and was about to quit before he saw her play. A person with an ego that was way larger than her petite body.
And Akutsu took pride in destroying those type of egos.
"Oi. Do you know which school she goes to?" Akutsu asked coolly. The other boy raised an eyebrow in perplexity.
"She?" Akutsu frowned at the asshole's obvious lack of priority for his time.
"The fucking kid who beat your school's players."
"But isn't he a bo-"
"Answer the question. Now." He growled, losing his already short patience. The other boy shivered in fear at his glare that was associated much too easily with that of wild beasts.
"I-I don't know! But the closest elementary sch-"
"Middle School." Akutsu corrected him. She was too good to be an elementary student, her companions looked more like middle school freshmen, as well.
"What?"
"What are the closest middle schools from here with famous female tennis teams?" he added aggressively.
"T-That would be Hyotei, Takugama, and St. Peter. What are-" He wanted to ask what Akutsu was planning, but it was too late. Akutsu was already on his way to the door.
Well, just before he received another punch, that is, as 'thanks'.
...
Akutsu skipped school for two days to look at the schools that that fool mentioned. He looked at the teams but none of them were even close to the girl's level. The last school he went to was Hyotei, which was much better than the first two but was still not up to his standards. He glared at each girl getting them to scream in horror. He was interrupted by one of the members.
"Who are you?!" A much smaller boy with long hair interrogated. His cap kind of reminded him of his prey. He instinctively grabbed the boy's collar.
"Fuck off." He spat and threw him to the ground.
He then turned around to further his hunt when he felt huge arms in his shoulders. He looked around and saw that it belonged to a larger boy with a gorilla's face.
"Let go." He growled at the boy, unflinching. But the other boy didn't move either. They stood there for a while until he saw someone come. He had silver hair and a huge ego – another person to remind him of the girl. He immediately shook the hand away and gaited to the newcomer to grab his collar.
He saw from his periphery that the gorilla was running towards them when the arrogant man gestured for him to stop approaching.
"Stop Kabaji." He ordered and shifted his haughty gaze towards him. "What do you want?" Akutsu smirked arrogantly at the statement.
"Play a game with me." He asserted and the silver-haired boy only scoffed.
"Ore-sama is being called by the coach. But even if he wasn't, Ore-sama would not waste his precious time on you." Atobe stated in one of the haughtiest way Akutsu had seen successfully angering the taller boy even more. It was a stupid thing to provoke him when he was in an especially bad mood.
"AH!" Atobe shouted (to his fangirls, screamed) as he was hit on his precious face. A lot of squeaks, gasps, and screams from the witnessing teammates and fan girls were heard all around the courts. Kabaji immediately ran towards Atobe to help him up.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Akutsu asked coldly and threateningly. Atobe glared at him, as he palmed his attacked cheek. The moment his hand touched his face, though, his eyes widened in despair and ignored the intruder to look at himself at his handy pocket mirror.
"GAH!" He cried. "My-My beautiful face!"
Atobe immediately looked at Akutsu angrily; and soon enough his fan girls caught themselves and gestured to go closer. Akutsu Jin, as pompous as he was, knew he couldn't do anything against rabid fan girls. He immediately picked up something the silver-haired boy dropped and quickly walked out the gate… before any of the fan girls could reach him.
"GUARDS! KABAJI! SOMEBODY- Get him!" Atobe ordered trying to maintain as much composure as he could muster, but it proved to be vain… because the intruder seemed to have disappeared. Atobe sighed his exasperation, ignored the females' caring attention, and gestured to return the mirror back to his pocket. But the moment he touched his pocket, his eyes widened in despair.
His mirror was there, but something much more important that was usually with it well, wasn't.
God.
It was gone. His phone.
That bastard freaking ran away with his mobile phone!
Atobe froze in panic but immediately caught himself. He looked at his servants (that included the fan girls) urgently.
"F-FIND HIM! NOW!"
…
Akutsu was quick, not because he was scared but because he just was. He sat on a bench on a random park and opened his new steal. It was an expensive looking phone, and Akutsu just felt like taking it… especially when it was just lying around passively waiting for someone to pick it up.
He smirked and nonchalantly opened it to browse. Well, he didn't really need to browse because what he was looking for was the bloody wallpaper.
It was her. But the photo was stolen, and she was looking feminine. She was serenely reading a manga under the tree. Akutsu immediately looked at the 'Photos' folder.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise. Other than his pure unadulterated luck, one would really just guess that someone as narcissistic as that silver-headed diva would have his contraption filled up with his pictures, not someone else's. He looked at them one-by-one. He normally would not have the patience to look at hundreds of photos – especially since they're all stolen shots, but he found himself quite interested.
The photos formed something like a documentary. The girl had about a few dozen photos each year with her getting younger and younger as he went deeper the archive. Not too far later, he reached the last dozen.
He flinched at the photos. It was very different from his earlier ones. She was a kid, the photos weren't stolen, she was with at least with 2 of the 3 recurring boys, and she was smiling. At the Camera.
He continued to look at the photos with interest. Apparently, the girl was childhood friends with that narcissist. And that said narcissist is in love with her.
He smirked cynically in sadistic amusement.
'Interesting.'
…
"THERE HE IS!" A random fan girl shouted as soon as she saw the thief just sitting at a bench. Akutsu immediately noticed them and cursed. But his annoyance was immediately replaced with amusement when he saw the narcissist panting in fatigue and glaring at him and the phone.
He pompously lifted the phone up as if it was bait… and threw it to the ground.
"NO!" Atobe yelled and ran to catch it. It was fortunate that he was swift, and he managed to catch it just in time. "Do you have any idea how important the contents of this are?!" He growled, no longer caring that his fans were seeing him look so frantic.
"As a matter of fact, I do." He spat back causing Atobe's eyes to widen. He stood up and went closer to Atobe so that he could grab his collar. His slaves immediately gestured to run to him, but Atobe raised his hand to signal for them to stop. Akutsu grinned and looked slyly at the phone.
"Now, if you don't want it to go to public – as well as keep your face recognizable- you'll tell them to go away." He threatened. Atobe, under normal circumstances, would not allow himself to be treated like this. But this was not one of those times. This time he risked Reina (and everyone else, for that matter) finding out about his feelings… and that could not happen, not yet.
"Fine." He sighed and Akutsu let go of him. Atobe shifted his gaze at his slaves and ordered for them to leave them alone. He had to do a bit of haughty convincing before they could agree, though. As soon as they left, Atobe looked back at Akutsu.
"So… What do you want?"
"I want to know where the girl in your photo studies." Atobe sneered.
"Do you really think I would tell you?"
"No." Akutsu stated. Atobe waited for him to say something, but he didn't. Akutsu just walked away, seemingly not wanting to cause any more trouble. Atobe let out a huge sigh of relief.
If only he knew how wrong he was-
Akutsu pretended not to care and just asked that for effect. He liked inducing terror, after all.
Akutsu knew precisely where he could find her. Her uniform was caught at one of the stolen pictures. He decided to be smart and not tell the silver-haired boy because he knew he would send some guards to protect her from him. And that would be much too troublesome.
He didn't know being smart was actually kind of interesting. Akutsu let out an evil laugh.
And so he went to Seigaku.
SEIGAKU TENNIS COURTS, After Classes
It was a normal day for everyone, the training was a bit harsher unsurprisingly since the final games in prefectural tournaments are coming up. The normal sound of balls, rackets, and the aforementioned items hitting each other resounded through the courts.
The fangirls and other spectators were always there so they're no longer really mentioned. But amongst the squeals and awed comments from here and there... was a very,very faint hum. Only the coach, who was right beside its source, heard it.
"You seem to be a good mood." she muttered, sweat-dropping, as she stared at the tensai of Seigaku.
"I realize my brother cared so much about me."
"You didn't know?"
"I did, I did. It was just more than expected."
The woman smiled and said nothing, quietly asking for him to elaborate.
"He's such a straight and conservative kid.." Fuji said like the surprisingly doting older brother that he could be. " Did you know, coach, he had mustered up all his courage to tell me he accepts me whatever I am?"
Well, that surprised the old woman. She knew the boy felt that way, she really did- but actually voicing it out? That was next to impossible.
"Touching, no?" was all Fuji said upon seeing her incredulous face. The old woman just cleared her throat.
"I'm guessing there was some other issue that roused when he admitted that?"
"Yeah." he chuckled and looked alternatively at the team's most stoic members.
"Oh."
Fuji chuckled again, rather sardonically, but Ryuuzaki was relieved he was able to speak about those two so casually. "Right. It's too bad it wouldn't be the same for those two."
...
A little over an hour later, less than a quarter of the players were left in the school grounds. Most of them were inside the building, even, packing up and ready to go home. But among the few who were left outside, were the two assigned to clean up the club's mess.
Kato and Arai were peacefully carrying the balls back to the storage when they suddenly paused. A suspicious looking guy with silver head and white uniform 'graced' them with his presence. He was really just standing there, with his tennis racket lying face up beside him. Arai just had to go and be all pompous and assert that he should leave.
Don't get Akutsu wrong, though. He was planning on beating someone up, anyway. He grabbed Arai's head with a single arm and lifted him effortlessly. Arai screamed in pain as he clenched his head harder. Akutsu could not help but sneer at the pitiful sight the boy was making. He continued to beat him up, and then proceeded asking a question about his prey.
But the stupid freshman decided to run away. So, he decided to give him what he deserved – a tennis ball embedded on his face. Akutsu was about to take the almost-lethal shot when his prey arrived to save the day.
"Ryoma-kun!" The small boy exclaimed in a mixture of relief and fear. "He's after you!"
"I can see that…" Ryoma muttered, recalling the bad feeling she had in Gunki – Ginko - whatever.
"What do you want?" She asked stoically as she eyed the damage that she caused. Akutsu grinned evilly and bent down to get some stones.
"I want…" he muttered as he juggled the sharp rocks. "…to beat you."
Ryoma flinched by a millimeter at the gesture, but made sure she didn't show it. But unfortunately, Akutsu did see it…
He smirked. And aimed at her face.
…
Echizen Ryoma had been thankful that the class had already ended, and that most students had already left. She knew that she was not assigned with arranging the items, which really made her feel lucky at the time. Unfortunately, when she went to get changed in the clinic since the girl's locker room was under construction, and got lost causing her to be one of the few who were left at school... she never would have imagined it would all end to this.
"Not a word to anyone, understand?" She ordered to two firmly as soon as the nurse got out to get some supplies.
"Why?" Kato asked worriedly. That man should not get away with what he did to them.
"We can't burden the others with this. The tournament is starting again." She responded coolly, getting Kato to reluctantly agree.
"B-BUT that guy shouldn't get away with this! – OW! " Arai vehemently exclaimed causing the pain in his stomach to act out.
"And how do you suppose we could do that?" She asked nonchalantly pretending that she wasn't mad. Which was a lie, of course. She was furious – and that's an understatement. She had never been so humiliated her entire life! She didn't understand why the bastard would go to such lengths to challenge her, but she didn't care. Someday- somehow- that bastard was going to pay. She'd personally see to that.
BAM!
Her right eye twitched at a recent memory of almost getting blinded again. If she hadn't trained herself to be so stoic, she could've sworn she would have screamed. She shivered and involuntarily clenched her fist. The two boys saw this and felt guilty. Ryoma was the one who got the most damage, yet they were the one throwing tantrums.
"I won't tell them before you do, then!" Kato forced a smile. And she, too, let out a slight smile causing the two boys to blush. They were saved from further embarrassment by the nurse… with the coach right behind her.
*Meanwhile*
Tezuka Kunimitsu stayed late for council work assuming that he no longer had any club problems to deal with. He was just walking outside the school to check if everything was alright both as a habit and due to the fact that he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach earlier that day.
It usually involved Reina but he saw her doing well, so he just assumed he was being paranoid. It was logical- truth be told- considering how much he missed her and that his mind was probably starting to desperately make things up so that he'd have an excuse to talk to her like before again. He did not expect such a mess right beside the courts. He frowned, swearing that he will make Kato and Arai work 10 folds.
He just sighed and cleaned up after his team. He didn't really complain since his mind was semi-occupied by the cleaning, and anyone could say that he definitely needed it. His mind had been much too full of Reina recently, that it was a great challenge to talk to anyone while maintaining the façade he used to so easily muster.
It was a short-lived moment, of course, as his phone rang.
It was the coach. And she was about to tell him something he would not like.
…
BAM!
"What happened?" he asked as soon as he opened the door as he tried to stabilize his breathing. He saw Reina flinch while the two boys stared at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion.
"I slipped, buchou." Ryoma muttered as she pretended to manually iron the creases of her uniform. Tezuka knew better- he knew she was avoiding his eyes. It bothered him in so many levels and he unthinkingly walked closer to her.
"What happened?" He asked again, but with a much more serious tone of voice. Reina hid a twitch and looked at his face – his chin to be exact.
"Like I said, I slipped." She spat feigning irritation. Tezuka frowned and he reflexively held her chin and tilted it up so that she would look at him in the eyes. Reina's eyes widened in surprise. The other two boys turned to stone while the older women squealed, but neither Reina or Tezuka noticed. They were in their own little world.
"You can't lie to me, Reina." He stated effectively causing Reina to frown in genuine irritation.
"Oh?" She voiced out. "But you can?" she asked sarcastically causing Tezuka to freeze on the spot.
"R-Reina, I-" He incoherently uttered, but Reina slapped his hand away. She shifted her gaze to the nurse and asked assertively,
"Can I go now?"
"A-A-Aa" The nurse stuttered under her strong glare that was supposed to be directed at a certain someone who could survive it.
"Rei- Ryoma." The coach called her sternly. She looked at her, but her annoyance didn't diminish at all.
"I asked Momo to go home already. You did make him wait for a while." She announced causing Ryoma's expression to change. The coach cleared her throat.
" Tezuk-"
"Kato will walk me home." Reina intervened. Kato, on the other hand, was pulled out of his state of masonry.
"I will…?" He asked in puzzlement. He seemed to have erased any shocking memories from his head during his frozen state. Arai fainted seconds ago.
"No, Kato. I will take her home." Tezuka answered causing Reina to wince.
"B-"
"Listen to your coach and your captain, Ryoma-kun." The nurse added inconveniently.
And Ryoma could only pale in despair.
…
They walked home surrounded by tension that could kill someone out of suffocation. When they finally reached the stairs, Reina immediately said her goodbye.
"Bye, buchou." She was absolutely determined that she would not tell him what happened. The sooner she got away from him so that she could fully compose herself, the better.
"Reina…" he called, but she ignored him. Tezuka took a deep breath before he grabbed her arm to stop her from getting any farther away.
"Let go of me, buchou." She muttered barely looking at him.
"Reina. I know I've said some offending things, but you could at least listen to me. You're acting like a child."
"I am a child." She retorted and forced her way out of his grasp. For the moment, she had forgotten about the stings on her face and felt the pain she experienced when she found out they were not as honest with each other as she had originally thought.
"That's not the point." Tezuka replied as calmly as he could. Reina involuntarily clenched her fist.
"Then, what is then? That you're allowed to lie to me but I can't do the same?" she practically growled. It was her way of dealing with the anxiety that Tezuka was slowly drifting away from her in a way she could not have imagined. Tezuka saw the various emotions in her eyes and he could no longer hold his despair. He walked closer and grabbed her cheeks with his hands so that she would have no way of turning away from him.
"That's not it, Reina!" He raised his voice, only to find it stuttering as he tried to find the words to say. "That's not it…"
"What is it then?" She asked as stoically as she could.
"Just listen to me. Please." He implored.
"Like I have any other choice." She retorted trying desperately not to give in.
"I've told you before- I won't lie to you unless it's for your own good-" Reina opened her mouth to say something when Tezuka continued rendering her unable to do so. "-I know that you don't like me lying to you regardless of the consequences. I wouldn't like that, too. But I know you and I love you too much to risk not achieving that goal."
"That's not fair!" She exclaimed fighting with herself not to hug him. She missed him like hell and he just told her he still loved her making her more elated than she should be, but she would absolutely not give in. Her head was so much harder than that. Or so she hoped.
"I know, it's not. That's why I'm apologizing. " Tezuka replied as he caressed the bandage in her face. "Do you really think I'll be able to sleep not knowing what- and who – did this to you?"
Her eyes widened at a recollection of why she was so eager on getting away from him that time.
"I-I can't." was her only reply.
Tezuka frowned. Reina did the same and continued to speak without thinking. "What makes you think I'm not telling you for your own good?" He's not the only one who could do that after al-
"What?"
"Nothing." She spat as she mentally slapped herself for slipping up.
"Tell me, please." She sternly shook her head while she rummaged her head for a believable excuse.
"Why not?" he asked forcefully. She was making all of this even harder for him.
"I… don't want to." She lied, and Tezuka knew it – as always.
"You're lying to me again."
Reina didn't say anything and looked down. Tezuka knew she would not speak until he reassured her.
"I promise I won't do anything rash." He stated, confident that he will manage to get a hold of himself no matter what – as he always had.
"Really?" She asked hopefully as she considered actually telling him to get this embarrassing interrogating scene to end.
"Hai." Tezuka asserted. She took a deep breath.
"I… someone threw rocks at me." She finally uttered, and she did not expect Tezuka's expression to change so readily. He was mad… and he made no effort hiding it.
"And you know this person?" He asked her with his voice almost cracking.
Reina grimaced at the turn of events. "You said you're not going to do anything rash!"
"I'm not."
"What's with that expression, then?" She accused vehemently getting Tezuka to partly get a hold of himself. Well, not really.
"What do you expect me to feel, then?!" He uncharacteristically yelled at her. Reina flinched at this, and she barely managed to articulate anything.
"C-Calm down, Tezuka!" She exclaimed, not expecting at all that she would ever hear – let alone utter – that sentence to the most stoic person in Seigaku. Tezuka didn't expect he would, either, so he did calm down.
"Do you know who threw the rocks at you?" He asked again with a somewhat calmer voice. His regained composure and piercing stare told Reina it was safe to tell him now.
"Akutsu Jin of Yamabuki." She stated hoping that Tezuka's calm state would not change.
But luck wasn't on her side that day.
Tezuka seem to have forgotten how to calm down again and returned to his previous expression. The only difference now was that he knew who to throw it to. But the moment he turned away from Reina to go to THAT BASTARD, Reina wrapped her arms around his waist to stop him.
"You promised! You're going to break your promises to me now, too?" She shouted in a way that blew all of his anger away. He absent-mindedly touched her small arms softly... thinking of how long it has been since he touched her like this.
Reina probably felt him calming down a bit, unfortunately, since she was quick to let go of him and stepped back. He exhaled a bucket of oxygen and turned around, and saw her looking at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Gomen. I wasn't thinking." He said to with his trademark baritone voice, his gaze peering through her like a knife.
"Obviously." was all she muttered.
Tezuka smiled lightly, knowing that slowly they were nearing to their destination- that wonderful, wonderful, place- before their fight. He had been terrified for who knows how long that they would never be able to be like that anymore.
"I won't do anything to him that you won't like me to." He muttered, correcting himself, earning himself a relieved look from her. After all, she was planning her own revenge, probably by tennis, and he realized that he had no right to intervene where he wasn't wanted.
He felt his heart constrict when Reina took down her wall and smiled at him brightly.
"Thank you."
.
.
END OF CHAPTER XXIX
Coming Soon:
CHAPTER XXX:
REPLIES TO ANGELS
Kiba515- Glad to hear that, then! XD Here's the next chap~ Sorry it's a little late, and thx for the review!
Blueberryxn- Ha! XD Sadly I'm not gifted in that field. I'm still having problems w/ spelling until now. And I'm almost 20. Thanks for the comment~ haha
FrancoiseLaraLapis- Yeah. That 'straight' belief of his shattered to pieces. ahahaha. Maybe we should get her read Fanfiction, this is definitely good distraction. lol. Thanks for the comment~
Guest [10/20/12]- Hehhe. Nanjiroh and Tezuka looked somewhat cute, too, ne? lololol. Thanks for the comment! ^^
Frostfire613- Hai~ They will. ^^I'm starting to feel sad myself in keeping 'em apart. XD Thanks for the comment~ ;D
MintLeafeon- I dunno what to feel making all of your aforementioned fears come true in this chapter. Hahaha. Mah, all's well that ends well for them anyway. XD Thanks for the comment~! : )
Guest [10/20/12] (2)- Yeah! I'm surprised Yuuta's still sane. Haha. And haha- anyone would indeed prefer a beating from Reina than Akutsu any day. XD Thanks for the comment. ; )
PurpleScorpion- Alas, FF. net's acting up again? T_T And yeah, Akutsu's trouble. Hope the 'reactions' are satisfying enough. lol. Thanks for the comment~
sakurablossoms- your wish is my command~ Haha. Thank you for the review! ; )
Poosa-ard - Thank you for the review and I'm happy to hear (er.. read) that you thought so~! haha
Shadowhawk- hehe. I thought the story needs a little drama. XD And I can't seperate those two for long. Haha. The guy watching her was Akustu, btw, and thank you for the review~
rjifblue- lol. I have this odd fondness in making straight people look gay. Hahahah. Thank you for the review, by the way~ XD
natasya ivashkov- Yep. I won't be focusing on him any time soon, but I will. ^^ Thanks for the comment!
The weasel is MINE- *Blushes furiously* here it is and I'm sorry it took so long! Hehe. Hope this was hope the wait and lol. *starts Fangirling w/ you.* thanks for the review!
Hope- Ah! Sorry the next updaate was late. T_T Praying this chap would be good enough and thanks for the comment~
nwyd- Ryoma, Atobe, and Yukimura (and Fuji) thanks you for telling them they're awesome. XD Thanks for the comment! XDD
...
Once again, thanks for reading!
I would really appreciate you guys reviewing, or fav'ing, or subscribing, or even adding the story to your C2! (Hugs to those who already did) Those email alerts are highly motivating. XD
