Chapter 36: Osaka Trip

Ryoma and Ayame stepped off the train onto the platform.

"This is where we meet up if we lose sight of each other, right?" Ayame asked.

"Yeah," Ryoma answered.

The two friends had took a bullet train to Osaka. Ryoma had told Ayame about eating the takoyaki there when he went to training with Shitenhouji, and she got interested. She wanted to go there and grab some for herself, and asked Ryoma to accompany her in case she gets lost in the city.

"So... which way?" Ayame asked.

"I can't really remember where..." Ryoma said after looking around.

Did his amnesia make him forget this place as well...? Ayame wondered.

"Let's just walk around until we find it," Ayame suggested.

"Fine," Ryoma said. "I had to walk around a bit before I ran into the senpai-tachi back then anyway..."

With that, the two left the train station and began roaming around the city. Ayame began sightseeing while keeping up with Ryoma, as she was excited to see what Osaka was like.

"... Can you stop doing that?" Ryoma asked.

"I can't look around?" Ayame asked.

"You're acting too much like a kid. It's embarrassing me."

"Geez... Lighten up a bit, will ya? I'm just looking around."

"Then do it in a way where you're not frolicking."

"You're so strict. Anyway, I'm just wondering... What are you gonna do if we run into that strange kid?"

Ryoma went still for a moment, and then he sighed. He forgot that Kintaro lives in Osaka, and since they're both here, there's a good chance they'll run into him. The last thing he wanted was to be called "Koshimae" and to be bothered about playing a match. He was only here to make sure that Ayame doesn't get lost, as she was the one who asked him to come with her.

Ayame noticed his reaction. "Well, if you don't wanna see him, I can help you skedaddle."

The two soon came upon a store selling parfait.

"Ah... this was where I saw him..." Ryoma said suddenly as he recognized the parfait at the store window.

"The strange kid?" Ayame asked.

"Yeah. He kept asking me to play a match, but I decided to rally with him when he said that if he loses, he'll treat me to takoyaki."

"Wait... you rallied with him outside of a tennis court?"

"Yeah."

"Sounds interesting... I feel like doing something like that. You in?"

"Not really."

"You're boring... Ne, how about if you play with me, the loser has to buy Ponta when we go back home."

Ryoma smirked. "Fine."

Ayame grinned as she knew that Ponta was usually the requirement to get Ryoma to do almost anything she wants him to do. "OK, I'll go on that side of the street. You stay here. You wanna serve?"

"I don't care."

"I'll serve then."

Ayame took off her clothes to wear her sports clothes underneath, and she put them away in her bag. After tying her hair back, she then crossed the street and took out a tennis ball from her bag.

"You ready?" she called.

"Hurry up and play!" Ryoma called back.

Ayame then served the ball over the traffic on the street to Ryoma, and their rally began. The two began going down the streets while keeping their rally going and avoiding running into pedestrians. They conversed while keeping the rally going.

"Ne, Ryoma!" Ayame called.

"What?" Ryoma called back.

"Since we're here in Osaka, what were you doing when you were here?"

"Training!"

"With the Osaka representatives, right?"

"Yeah!"

"How did it go for you?"

"It was okay!"

"I see!"

"What about you? What were you doing while I was gone?"

"Nothing much! I just stayed in the room doing nothing because my arm was still broken!"

The two went silent, leaving only the sounds coming from the impact of their rackets hitting the ball. Some citizens had stopped and stared at the freshmen, wondering why the hell they were doing a tennis rally across the street and not inside of a tennis court.

"You know, this might be one of the only times we played where there will be no tie!" Ayame called.

"What makes you say that?" Ryoma called back.

"Remember when we would both collapse and tie during our matches? It was all based on the score we get! This time it's based on who hits the ball last!"

"Hmm? But the winner will be me!"

"Say that after you've won! Anyway, what became of that rally you played with the strange kid?"

"We tied!"

Ayame nearly lost her focus for a split second. "How?!"

"Eiji-senpai caught the ball when I was smashing it!"

"Ah... Was that when you joined up with the senpai-tachi?"

"Yeah!"

After some ten minutes, the ball bounced at Ayame's feet and hit the wall of a building behind her.

"Looks like he won this time..." Ayame sighed in resignation.

"Mada mada dane!" Ryoma called over.

"Alright, next time we find a vending machine, I'll buy the Ponta," Ayame said as she crossed the street to get back to Ryoma. "Do you have any inkling as to where that takoyaki store is?"

"No... I don't."

"Oh..."

"Gomen."

"N-no! It's okay! I'm not disappointed because you forgot! We'll just walk around until we find it."

"... Don't try to make me feel better."

"I'm not! I'm just disappointed that we'll have to walk around anyway. But oh well, I wanna see more of this place!"

The two then continued strolling down the street while Ayame kept her senses on high alert. Ayame had been trying to think about what to talk about to Ryoma because she felt awkward with the silence that was occurring between the two. She had to put a lot of thought into which topic she wants to talk to Ryoma about. First, if she talks to him about something he considers weird, he would ask her why she would bring it up, and it somewhat annoyed her when he didn't answer her properly. Second, if she talks about something that would offend him, it would surely lead to an argument, which was something Ayame hated, because Ryoma has his own way of arguing which usually ended up with only her getting pissed. Third, she had to choose a topic where Ryoma couldn't tease her, because sometimes he enjoyed doing that, which often ended up with her snapping at him needlessly, and he wanted her to get riled up.

"Ryoma," Ayame started. "Have you finished your homework yet?"

"... Not yet," Ryoma answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Want me to stay at your house afterward and help?"

"Why do you want to help me?"

"Why are you asking me that? It's to repay you for accompanying me for today. Anyway, do you want my help or not?"

"Yeah. But don't help me with my math."

"Eh? Why?"

"Don't ask."

"But math is one of my better subjects. Why don't you want me to help?"

"Just don't."

Ayame knew he was being stubborn again. "Fine."

After that, they were silent. Ryoma had his own reasons as to why he didn't want Ayame to help him with math, but didn't want to tell her. While it was true that math was her best subject next to English, she absolutely loved the subject. Whenever she would help Ryoma with homework and they went to math, she would go into every detail about every aspect of the content they were learning. Whenever she had finished explaining (which normally took 5-15 minutes), he would end up getting a headache from her going insanely detail-oriented. Whenever there was even one single part he didn't understand, she would repeat it, and make his headache worse.

They continued strolling while looking around for the said takoyaki shop that Ryoma had forgotten about. When they turned around the corner of a building, they nearly bumped into someone.

"Ah, gomen!" Ayame apologized.

The person opened his mouth to say something, but then he hesitated for a split second before speaking. "Echizen and Kanna?"

"Ah, Kenya-san..." Ryoma recognized him.

"Oh... aren't you that Naniwa's Speed Freak or something like that?" Ayame asked.

"It's Naniwa's Speed Star!" Kenya said angrily.

"Oh, right," Ayame said. "Sorry. By the way, you can run really fast, right?"

"Oh? Are you challenging me?" Kenya asked.

"Ayame!" Ryoma spoke up, sensing what was going to happen.

"Yeah!" Ayame said confidently, seemingly ignoring Ryoma. "Let's see who can run the fastest on water!"

"Ayame, don't..." Ryoma started.

"Alright, sure," Kenya said. "I'll show you the speed of Naniwa's Speed Star!"

Ryoma sighed. He tried to stop Ayame from getting into a speed match with Kenya, because the next thing he'll know, he'll lose sight of her, and it would cause trouble for him. It seems like now it was too late. He watched as Ayame and Kenya went to the canal and they started sprinting on it. Frustrated, he made his way back to the station, the place they said they'd meet up if they were to get separated.

Meanwhile on the canal, Ayame and Kenya were running at a high speed on the water surface, neither one running faster. They kept running straight on the water surface until Ayame suddenly turned around and got onto dry land. Kenya noticed and also got onto land.

"What's wrong?" Kenya asked.

"Shit..." Ayame muttered. "I just realized that I wasn't supposed to be separated from Ryoma. Sorry, but I'll settle this with you later. It's your win for now. I gotta go find Ryoma..."

Ayame then remembered that she was to go back to that station if she and Ryoma were separated. She began to run around to search for the place, and had to ask for directions, as she ended up lost. After some fourteen minutes of running around, she suddenly ran into a familiar face.

"Ah! Are you the girl that Koshimae is looking for?" the boy asked.

Oh, great... Ayame thought. It's the strange kid...

"A-ah... un..." Ayame answered.

"Yay! Come with me! Koshimae said that he'd play a match with me if I found you!" Kintaro said excitedly.

Ayame reluctantly followed Kintaro, and wondered if Ryoma really did say he would play a match if Kintaro were to find her. It then occurred to her that Ryoma must've said that so that he could have someone look for her, and that he wasn't really going to play a match with Kintaro. Kintaro eventually led her to the station, where Ryoma was standing around.

"Koshimae, I found her!" Kintaro said. "Let's play our match!"

"No," Ryoma said.

Yeah, seems like my guess was correct... Ayame thought.

"Eeh?! You said you were gonna play a match with me if I found the girl and brought her back!" Kintaro said.

"You heard me wrong," Ryoma sighed. "I said I might play a match, I didn't say I was gonna."

"Let's have a match!" Kintaro said. "It's OK if it's for a little while!"

Ayame looked over at Ryoma, and she noticed that he was starting to look a bit exhausted. She took out her flute case and begin assembling her flute while Kintaro continually demanded Ryoma to play a match with him.

"Oi, strange kid," Ayame said.

"What is it?" Kintaro asked.

"Do you know what this is? This is a death stick!" Ayame said, raising her flute. "Do you know what this end of this stick has? Poison. I mixed it with burnt sand and poison, so now I can kill people if I hit them with this end of the stick! And I can break it apart to throw the pieces to kill people with it!"

"Eeeh?!" Kintaro cried in shock.

"Do you want me to kill you with this?!" Ayame asked, trying to look and sound as threatening as possible.

"No, no!" Kintaro said, sounding terrified. "This is bad! I don't wanna die!"

"OK..." Ayame lowered her flute and began disassembling it. "I won't kill you if you show us the best takoyaki store here."

"You guys wanted to eat takoyaki?!" Kintaro asked excitedly. "Let's go together then!"

Ryoma and Ayame followed Kintaro as he began leading them.

"Nice one," Ryoma said in an undertone to Ayame.

"I remember that the bandage guy would control that strange kid by saying that his hand was poisonous," Ayame said. "And the strange kid believes him. So I figured that it'd be easy to fool him. He did ramble something about reading in a manga that if you mix burnt sand and poison together with an object, that object becomes poisonous. So I had to make up the lie that the end of my flute was poisonous so I could control him too."

"You weren't gonna kick him?"

"Nope. Too troublesome. Since he's an idiot, it's better to make up a lie about murdering them than to threaten to hurt them."

"Heh... You're surprisingly attentive."

"What?! Are you saying that my five senses are crappy?!"

"... I never even said anything like that..."

The three freshmen eventually arrived at a takoyaki store, and they ate takoyaki. While they were doing so, Ryoma and Ayame knew that the next problem would be getting away from Kintaro. They were sure that he would want to play a match with Ryoma after, so it wouldn't be easy to slip away from him. Ayame contemplated about ways to get Kintaro off of them so that they could make a break for the train back to Tokyo.

The trio finished eating their takoyaki.

"Koshimae, let's play a match!" Kintaro said.

"No," Ryoma said almost instantly.

"Ne, strange kid, I lost something while I was racing with your speed star senpai," Ayame said. "Do you think you could find it for me? If you do, Ryoma will play a match with you! Isn't that right, Ryoma?"

She elbowed Ryoma when he gave no response. He then realized what she was trying to do.

"A-ah... Yeah," Ryoma said.

"For real?!" Kintaro asked excitedly.

"For real," Ayame answered. "Right, Ryoma?"

"Yeah," Ryoma said.

"OK, what did you lose?" Kintaro asked. "I'll find it for you!"

"I lost my cell phone," Ayame replied. "It's a pink one."

"I got it!" Kintaro said. "I'll go look for it!"

Kintaro then ran off, and Ayame and Ryoma exchanged looks. They ran to the station and waited. The train soon arrived, and both freshmen boarded to get back home.

For those of you who are curious, this is what Ryoma and Kintaro were talking about before Kintaro went to go find Ayame:

Kintaro: "Ahhhh! It's you, Koshimae!"

Ryoma: "Ah... he appeared."

Kintaro: "Koshimae! Play a match with me!"

Ryoma: "No."

Kintaro: "Play a match with me!"

Ryoma: "Don't wanna."

Kintaro: "It's OK if it's for a while!"

Ryoma: "... I'll play a match with you if you can do one thing for me."

Kintaro: "Really?! What is it?!"

Ryoma: "There's a girl that I'm looking for. I told her to come here, but she's not here yet. If you can find her and bring her back, I might play a match."

Kintaro: "OK! What does the girl look like?"

Ryoma: "She's wearing a blue shirt and a pink miniskirt. She has long, black hair, and she has blue eyes."

Kintaro: "Alright! I'll go look for her!"