Oishi could only stare at Fuji from the other side of the room, no thoughts were running his head expect for one, a very dark one. A statement he dare not speak out loud as it would ruin the happy mood of room over Fuji's returning memories. A day since Eiji had come to them in the canteen, paled faced and looking rather alarmingly ill only ten minutes after they had just left him. All he had said was that Fuji had wanted them, using that exact wording before leaving the canteen and then presumably the hospital. Of course Oishi had been torn between going after Eiji and making sure Fuji was alright because the red head hadn't told them anything, only that the boy had wanted to see them. His decision however had been made by Momoshiro grabbing him with a 'come on Oishi-sempai!' and dragging him to the room. They had very quickly found out that the boy had his memories back, although Oishi guessed Tezuka had figured that out from the grin on Fuji's face, the way the captain's face had a flash of emotion across it. It had been different almost, although it was the same grin. It had been the 'saa' that had done it, along with Momo asking if he was alright. It had been quickly revealed that Fuji's memories had been returned, as Doctor Fraser had moved Momo out of the way, but it had come at a cost. The last thing Fuji could remember was getting ready to get on the bus for the Under 17 tournament. The reason why Eiji had left so quickly had suddenly become a lot clearer to Oishi, although no one else seemed affected. Momo was jumping about the place, Kaidoh was telling him to shut up, Tezuka had his arms crossed, his face once again stone, Inui was writing down data again in his green notebook, Kawamura was rubbing the back of his head with his normal sheepish grin (that was without the racket), and Echizen had just carried playing with the brim of his cap like normal. They had been shooed out of the room quickly after as Fuji's parents had come bursting through the door, Oishi had to tell Eiji's parents that he didn't know where the boy was as they had come with to the hospital after the court case had finished as well. There had then been a flurry of activity which had lasted a few minutes until a phone call on Eiji's father phone from the red head's grandmother had revealed that Eiji had come home. And since that day, only 3 days ago, Eiji had remained in his house; not even coming out when Oishi had called around. It was getting him worried.

Fuji's parents had called them in to the hospital today in order to speak to the former large group of regulars about what was going to happen to their son and his lack of memories of the past year and just over a half, which was that they would rather Fuji remain in the dark about the horrifying detail of his kidnapping. His parents were clearly disturbed at what they had heard at the court. Eiji had not turned up. So thus Oishi found himself in this situation only an hour later, elbows resting on his knees as he sat on a plastic chair, his slightly curled up hands supporting his chin, eyes on the rest of the room. He had tried time and time again to image what it would be like for Fuji to realise that he was missing a big part of his life that had clearly affected him and Eiji. At the moment he really wanted to leave the room and check on Eiji again; even though he had only knocked on the Kikumaru household door this morning. He didn't even have a valid excuse to leave the room, at least up until the moment when Tezuka spoke up.

"Oishi," the vice captain was disturbed from his musings, a shocked expression, with eyebrows raised as he stared at the captain; arms crossed standing by the window where the sunlight poured in from the midday sun. The room fell silent from the constant chatter that had been going on; it had mainly been from Momo and Kaidoh, the ruffian getting over excited and chatting about nothing in particular. Oishi could have said there was almost relief in the boy's voice but he couldn't certain. Kaidoh had been telling the boy to shut up, although it wasn't really a forced command.

"Yes Tezuka?" Oishi said standing, trying to give a smile to hide his feels of worry; which didn't exactly work as the rest of the room kept staring at him and one of that number was in a hospital bed with another one missing altogether.

"Go and check on Kikumaru, find out why he missed the Fujis' summoning," the stoic captain said. The vice captain had to control his walk as he left the room, had he not been already embarrassed he would have possibly said a reply but knowing that the stern man in that room could possibly read minds he probably already knew. Oishi didn't actually start running until he got around the corner of the hospital and out of sight of room 214.

It wasn't far from the hospital to the Kikumaru house to walk, about 20 to half an hour walk away, surprisingly convenient for the Kikumaru household, as Oishi remembered an old conversation with Eiji's parents before this mess even began, as it was easy to get the various serious breaks or very rare incidents were people would panic sorted out quickly and easily. And the Kikumaru house was not prone to injury; especially Eiji as a young child when trying out a new acrobatic move in the garden space. He had been forbidden to do it in the house apart from in winter and even then under parental or grandparental supervision. The memories made Oishi laugh slightly and feel more relaxed as his pace slowed to walk, the Kikumaru house now in sight. Blinking he felt a cold drop on his nose and he looked up at the sky, dark grey clouds were forming over head with little white droplets falling from them floating down like heavy feathers on the wind. A brittle cold wind swept past Oishi, lifting the edge of his open jacket and sending cold shivers down his spine, like cold fingers gently tapping their way down, even sliding down at some stages. He hadn't notice it first but it looked like there was a snow storm coming, and quickly, as Oishi stared behind him taking in the sight. Wrapping his arms around, the egghead cursed this time, this one time, he forgot to bring something heavier and warmer with him. A black fabric jacket was really not enough for a winter month. He felt his right hand clench unnaturally in the cold, an automatic reaction to keep itself warm.

He ran the rest of the way to the house and quickly knocked on the bamboo door. The press had disappeared since the end of the trial so there was no need for anyone to sneak in and out anymore. He was startled when the door slid open to the left and he was quickly pulled inside, by an outreached, firm and elderly left hand. The door was slid shut again and Oishi was left staring, blinking up at Eiji's grandfather. Behind him at the living room door and the under stairs cupboard door, stood Eiji's mother, father and grandmother staring at him, with a look of clear desperation in their eyes, worry was written all over their face and their posture was filled with that of anxiety.

"Erm …" Oishi started, forgetting all that he was planning to say. Eiji's grandfather sent a quick look up at the ceiling before looking back down.

"Oishi-kun. Are you still friends with Eiji?" the elderly man shook his head, tightening his grip on Oishi's right arm, "no. Are you still best friends with Eiji?" Oishi nodded speechless, what was with all these questions?

"Please get my grandson out of his room. Tell him to stop and eat something. He came home three days ago and hasn't been out of his room since. He's done nothing but look at the photographs we've gave him and we gathered from before that he was getting nothing out of them," Eiji's grandmother finished, her hands were held so tightly together, as she bowed her head, that they were going white. Oishi's mouth opened slightly and he nodded his head, now worried as well. As Eiji's grandfather let go of his arm, red marks from where he had been holding it so very tightly, Oishi removed his shoes and replaced it with the indoor shoes that the Kikumaru had bought him specially what felt like a hundred years ago, making his way up to the acrobatic tennis player's bedroom past the worried family.

The route was still ingrained in his memory; Oishi knew exactly how many steps it would take to get to Eiji's bedroom from the top of the stairs, how many times he used to have to knock on the door before Eiji would answer it without moaning. That was the old Eiji though. As Oishi neared the door he could hear murmuring, a dark and almost sad muttering. None of the words were clear until Oishi stood in front of the familiar door and as he raised his right fist to knock, he heard them.

"This one. No maybe not that one. It could be this one! Yes it has to be this one! That's what they were saying! But it could be that one …" Oishi knocked on the door firmly but there was no answer. He knocked again, no answer but the muttering carried on. Trying twice more, he finally got an answer. Eiji had always answered Oishi on the fourth knock, as the vice captain recalled.

"Come in" it was soft, a whisper, hesitant. Oishi opened the door to a room with the window wide open, snow blowing in, the blue curtains flapping in the wind. Photos were scattered everywhere under foot and on the duvet, sat with his legs curled up to the left of him, was Eiji holding one of the many photos scattered around him on the bed in his right hand staring up at him.

"Oishi," the red head whispered. The vice captain wasted no time in closing the door behind him, removing the indoor shoes, striding across the room, avoiding stepping on as many photos as he could and closing the window. He then turned to study Eiji closely.

The red head's most startling feature was the red rims around his eyes and how bloodshot his eyes actually where, making Eiji look like he hadn't slept in a while. The clothes, a black t-shirt and red jeans were the same as when he had come out of the room. Oishi could see Eiji had got thin again incredibly quickly, this time seemingly worse than before as his cheeks were hollow and his hand shook in midair, which could have been from how cold the room was or from not eating or not sleeping at all. His eyes which had been bright on the day of the accident were now dim, like a flickering and almost dead light bulb.

"Eiji" Oishi said, startled by all the revelation that he had seen. Eiji looked away from Oishi and back at the photo in his hand.

"I have to" the boy said to himself, sounding almost like a command. "I have to do this."
"You have to do what?" Oishi asked not moving.

"I have to get them back. I have to!" Eiji turned his gaze back to Oishi and the later was startled to see the formation of tears. "I have to get my memories back Oishi! I have to for Shusuke's sake! I have to remember! I have to so you won't be disappointed anymore! I have to so I won't be left behind! I have to so that when Shusuke speaks I can speak as well! I have to remember so I know him! Because … because he only knows the old Eiji! Like everyone else knows the old Eiji! Shusuke was the only one who knew me! So I have to remember him so I know everyone including Shusuke!" In that time, Oishi had made his way over, stepping on photographs not caring about them anymore and sat down on the bed just slightly in front and to the left of Eiji and pulled the red head into a tight hug. He felt Eiji's arms wrap around him as the boy buried his head into Oishi's chest. Eiji's whole body was heaving with deep and painful to hear sobs. Oishi didn't know what to say for a while and whilst collecting his thoughts proceeded to carry on hugging Eiji making soothing hushing noises. He didn't know how long it was until the sobs started to slightly subside but then he had managed to think of what to say.

"Eiji," Oishi said, lifting the red head's chin up slowly with his left hand so he was looking at the boy directly, although the other seemed more interested in view the duvet. "You don't have to force yourself to remember. Tezuka, Kawamura, Echizen, Momo, Kaidoh, Inui, me, we've all know you better than we did that time in the restaurant when you came back to Japan. I'm sure Fuji will too; in fact I'm sure Fuji will work even harder than anyone else to get to know you. So don't force yourself, Eiji, to remember. Whatever memories you have, you will still be the team's Kikumaru Eiji, you will still be my Kikumaru Eiji, and you will still be Fuji's Kikumaru Eiji. Okay?" Eiji nodded his head, his eyes still downcast. Oishi didn't know whether his words had to got to Eiji or not but he grabbed Eiji back into a hug, this time so Eiji was being held against his chest tightly, his head resting against Oishi's right shoulder. It was also an attempt to warm the red head up as he was so very cold as well as a comforting technique. The red head started sobbing again, turning his face into Oishi, and all the vice captain could do now was wait until the sobbing ceased as the red head would be drawn into the pull of sleep for the first time in 3 days.


Sorry about the lack of chapter yesterday but I was seriously distracted yesterday and so thus I finished reading the prince of tennis manga. It was also a difficult chapter to type because it was extermely difficult to start. Today also took a while because I am uploading the tenimyu Dream Live 2 at the same time ... which I have to finish tomorrow because it takes about 50 mins to upload one video and I didn't start until 10pm!
But yeah BIG CHAPTER! to make up for lack of chapter yesterday and Eiji broke down because he can't remember and now Fuji can't remember the time he's been kidnapped... I'm sorry Eiji!

demoncat13: I was tempted to put Sasabe in the car but there was also another person that I was tempted to do as well, but not anything to do with Smith no. So I just left it as a mystery!
Sherlockdetective99: LOL! Your one of two people who has said that about the dancing. Yes Fuji got his memories back but at a dear cost to Eiji who took it very badly
Midori-Emmi: Yep! Second person to say dancing around the room! Good luck on your exams! Have fun! Do come back here though because I'll miss you!
ElementalCat: haven't said his sentence yet, so no you can't run Smith over with a car just yet.

Reviews please! I add another twist to this story! NANI! I really need to stop doing that!