Author's Note: Because I felt bad notupdating as often, I decided to post the next chapter.Thanks to all my lovely reviewers! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own PoT/TnO.

Chapter Fourteen

The Seigaku regulars were waiting for Tezuka to come out of the office where he was meeting with Ryuzaki-sensei. Of course it wouldn't do to tell Ryuzaki-sensei exactly what they were planning. All the regulars knew that if they wanted to succeed in getting Oishi back, they would have to do it themselves. Not to mention the tirade Ryuzaki-sensei was going to give them if she ever found out that they were going to another school, uninvited.

"When are we leaving, nya? Hurry, hurry!"

"Kikumaru-senpai."

"What?"

Momoshiro was trying to get his anxious senpai to calm down. Momoshiro had grabbed Eiji's arm and tried to get him to stop jumping all over the place. Eiji slipped out of Momoshiro's grasp and went to Fuji.

"Fujiko-chan!" Eiji whined. "Tell Tezuka to hurry!"

"Saa," Fuji said.

"Please? I can't wait anymore, nya," Eiji said giving his best puppy-dog pout.

"Eiji, just be a little more patient," Kawamura said. "Everyone is anxious."

"Kawamura is right," Tezuka said, coming out of the office.

"Buchou, what did the old lady say?" Momoshiro exclaimed.

"Baka, respect your elders," Kaidoh hissed at the powerhouse.

"You picking a fight, mamushi?" Momoshiro taunted.

"Fsssh…" was Kaidoh's answer.

"Momo! Kaidoh!" Eiji exclaimed. "I want to know what happened with Ryuzaki-sensei, be quiet, nya!"

"It's all his fault," Momoshiro muttered.

"I heard that," Kaidoh said.

Tezuka cleared his throat and the regulars fell silent, waiting for Tezuka to continue. The stoic captain stared at all the faces directed towards him, his heart hammering a little in his chest. Were they really going to go through with this half-formed idea? But more importantly, would it work?

"We will leave tomorrow," Tezuka said calmly.

"What did Ryuzaki-sensei say?" Fuji asked quietly.

All the regulars turned their attention to their interim Fukubuchou, a flash of fear going through each of them.

"Ryuzaki-sensei wishes us luck on our mock match with Hyotei," Tezuka said. He surprised all his regulars with the slight upturning of his lips.

"D-did Tezuka-buchou just…smile?" Momoshiro asked incredulously.

"You lied to her?" Fuji asked, his smile wider than ever. "Very daring Tezuka."

"What must be done…has been," Tezuka answered a little cryptically. "We leave early tomorrow. Be sure no to bring your tennis bags. Dismissed."

"Hai, Buchou!" the team chorused, their faces alight with joy and hope. Tomorrow would be the first step to getting Oishi back.

Tezuka stared at the retreating figures of his team. 'Let us hope this will work.' He thought.

:The Next Morning:

Ryoma yawned as he grudgingly walked to the rendezvous point. He was dressed casually because Tezuka-buchou had made it clear that they could not attract any attention. It confused Ryoma a little bit because would Hyotei know what they looked like, no matter how they were dressed? But, if that's how his buchou ordered, then he would do it.

As Ryoma approached, he saw his senpai-tachi waiting; obviously he was the last one to arrive. There was one senpai who tapped his foot impatiently. 'That must be Kikumaru-senpai,' Ryoma thought. He yawned again.

"Ohayo, Echizen," Momoshiro greeted with a hearty thump on the freshman's back.

"Itai, Momo-senpai," Ryoma grumbled.

All of the sudden, Eiji pushed Momoshiro out of the way. "Nya, Ochibi, you're late!" Eiji said, hands on his hips.

Ryoma just stared at the acrobatics player. "Eiji," Fuji called. "At least Echizen's here."

"The bus is here," Kawamura announced.

One by one, the Seigaku regulars boarded the bus, on their way to Hyotei. Chatter filled the bus about what they were going to do once they found Oishi.

Only Tezuka seemed deep in thought. 'It is inevitable,' he thought. 'He will have to find out what happened between us.' As much as Tezuka wanted to keep that a secret and forget, he knew it would be unfair to Oishi. 'What was I thinking that day?' Tezuka asked himself. 'I knew Oishi was pouring his heart out but…perhaps I have allowed tennis to rule my life. I need to correct this.'

As the bus moved closer to Hyotei, Tezuka found the thumping of his heart increase.

:Hyotei:

"Why are we here again?" Gakuto mumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He had to get up at six in the freaking morning to come and work his butt off. He was not exactly a morning person.

They were all here by six-thirty and had already gone through one set of warm-up laps, one set of drills and a couple of matches. The only person who wasn't there was their captain. No one knew where he was or why he didn't bother showing up on time.

"Extra practice is important, Mukahi-senpai," Ohtori answered his senior.

"This is stupid," Gakuto muttered.

"Alright," Oishi called. "Ten laps around the courts. Light jog."

All the regulars groaned. They had already run warm-ups and now they had more laps to run. Oishi walked off the courts and prepared to jog his own laps when he tripped on something soft…Jiroh.

"Ow," Jiroh mumbled sleepily.

"Oh, sorry Jiroh," Oishi said, quickly bending down to help the narcoleptic player up. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Jiroh said, yawning. "More sleep." Then he curled up again and promptly fell asleep.

Oishi just shook his head. Just as he was about to start again, he heard the bus pull up in front of the school and decided to check out what was happening.

"Where're you going?" Shishido demanded.

"I'll be right back," Oishi called. "Start jogging."

"Let's go," Oshitari said. All the other regulars just shrugged and followed their tensai.

The bus pulled up to the entrance of the school and the Seigaku regulars all filed out. They each stared at the school, the same thought going through all of their minds: 'Oishi is here.'

As Tezuka stepped off the bus, he said. "Speak to no one."

All the regulars nodded their heads in understanding and started to walk. At the same time, Oishi was walking to the front of the school. He didn't know why a bus would arrive unscheduled to their school. As he neared the entrance, he could hear footsteps coming closer.

He rounded the corner and stopped. There in front of him, was Seigaku…with Tezuka.

"S-Seigaku?" Oishi said.

"Surprise, Oishi!" Eiji yelled.

"Quiet, Kikumaru-senpai!" Momoshiro said. "We don't want to attract anyone do we?"

"Oh, right," Eiji said. "Mengo, mengo!"

"Oishi," Tezuka called out.

"I don't mean to be rude but, why are you here?" Oishi asked. "Atobe never said anything about…"

"Monkey King doesn't know we're here," Ryoma said.

"Oh," Oishi said. "Is there a reason you're here?"

"We wanted to talk to you, Oishi-senpai," Momoshiro said.

Now Oishi was genuinely confused. The Seigaku tennis team came all the way to Hyotei just to talk? He couldn't understand why they would do that. Even more confusing was the fact that they didn't announce their visit previously before coming here. Was it something secretive they had to tell him? He wasn't sure.

"You came all this way to talk to me?" Oishi asked.

All the players nodded. They turned to Tezuka. "How are we going to do this?" they asked.

Tezuka thought for a moment. "One at a time," he said finally.

"I'm going first!" Eiji cried out, bounding over to Oishi and latching onto his arm. Oishi was slightly taken a aback by Eiji's actions.

"No fair Kikumaru-senpai!" Momoshiro said. "Why do you get to go first?"

"Let him go first," Fuji said.

"But Fuji-senpai," Momoshiro objected.

Fuji only smiled at Momoshiro, who was a little intimidated by his senpai and back ed off. "Fine, but I'm next." He said.

"After me," Ryoma said.

"What? Not you too, Echizen, respect your senpai!"

"Che," was all Ryoma said.

"Please stop arguing," Oishi said.

""Any one who misbehaves will run laps until they collapse," Tezuka threatened. He did not need the situation to be more complicated than it already was.

"Oishi!" Eiji called out. Oishi turned to Eiji, waiting for his next statement. "Remember when we played doubles together? We were Golden Pair, do you remember?"

Oishi looked at Eiji, his mind trying processing the words "Golden Pair." A tiny nagging at the back of his head told him he ought to remember what that meant. A flash of a scene passed through his mind but before he could comprehend it, it was gone, leaving only the familiar burning in his head when he tried to remember. "I…" he stuttered. "I'm sorry…I don't."

Eiji's eyes widened. The look of hope quickly turned into confusion and hurt. "You don't?" Eiji whispered, his grasp on Oishi was tighter than ever. Oishi just shook his head in the negative.

"What!" Momoshiro exclaimed. "How can Oishi-senpai not remember?"

Inui pushed his glasses up. "You didn't provide enough of a prompt," Inui said. "The probability of that happening…88"

"Oh," Eiji said. "Okay!" The spark of hope flared up again. "How about our match against Rikkai? Remember that? Remember how I was mad at you and wouldn't listen to you because of my habit?"

"Slow down, Eiji," Fuji said.

"And then we weren't playing well at all. We were both mad at each other until we were losing 5 games to love? Remember?" Eiji asked.

Oishi looked to the other regulars who were just staring, waiting to see what his response was. Eiji kept going. "And then when you were serving, I kept getting more angry and wasn't focused. I didn't see the ball coming towards me and it was going to hit me until you stopped it…"

"And we became synchronized again," Oishi murmured.

Eiji stopped talking to look at Oishi. "You…remember?" he asked.

"It's…blurry but I think that's what happened," Oishi said, recalling the images Eiji was describing. He ignored the headache that came with the images and tried to sharpen them. He wanted to remember, wanted to know about his life before coming to Hyotei. He felt he had been kept in the dark long enough.

"It did happen!" Eiji cried out, forgetting to keep his voice down.

"Shhh," all the regulars said to Eiji, who put a hand over his mouth.

"Well, well," a voice drawled. "What do we have here?"

Author's Note: Sorry about the cliffy...don't hate me for it! I 'll try to get hte next chapter out as soon as I can. So was thischapter good? Bad? Confusing?

Read and Review! Arigatou!