Chapter Three: Truth Unheard Of
Disclaimer: I still don't own Prince of Tennis. I still cry at night over that fact.
Author's Note: Here's chapter three! Enjoy! Remember, the complete Author's Note for this fic is posted in chapter one. But here are the warnings, summarized for your convenience: May contain spoilers/ shonen-ai/ not-shonen-ai/ please review/ Inui will blend flamers into Inui Juice. Lol.
Many thanks to all who have reviewed so far! Let me know what you think of chapter three. You'll be finding out what happened to the Seigaku regulars. At this point you should be able to notice what some of the pairings will be. (Up to this point the only pairing has been Tomoka/Horio. O.O) Err… at least, I think you'll be able to tell. Then again, my writing style may be too vague to figure it out… Anyway, on with the fic! XD
It's been said that, in life, many people will disappoint you.
And now…
Now I'm starting to think that those people that I thought for sure would never disappoint me…
Maybe they never even existed in the first place.
…
Ryoma was almost disgusted with himself. Why couldn't he say anything? It wasn't helping the situation, being unable to put into words the questions that were racing through his mind.
This is ridiculous.
Without realizing what he was doing, Ryoma felt his hands tighten into two rigid fists as he attempted to react aloud to what he'd just heard.
"Not… In Japan."
He heard the way he said it, and realized it had come out wrong. He had meant to say it like a question, a question to solicit an explanation. Instead, it sounded like a statement of surrender, surrender to something inevitable.
"Yes, Ryoma-kun, it's true," Kachiro spoke up, looking almost taken aback. Even he hadn't expected that Ryoma would be this surprised at the news.
"Yes… well… that's…" Ryoma was stumbling over his own words now. He couldn't quite figure out what it was that he wanted to say. "That's… unexpected. But… I shouldn't be surprised, right?"
He even smiled, an almost sour smile that seemed to find the situation ironic.
"I wouldn't say that, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno said quietly, surprising the others present, who would have thought she'd be the last person to speak up in such an awkward situation. "It was a shock to almost everyone at the time. But it's been a year already since then."
A year? Which would have to mean…
"It sure WAS a shock," Horio agreed, nodding sagely. "I don't know anyone who DIDN'T talk about it for at least a month. Especially about the whole thing with Tezuka-buchou."
"Tezuka-buchou?" Ryoma heard himself repeat. He felt strangely blank, like half of what was being said wasn't really registering in his brain.
"You guys, come on," Katsuo scolded gently, interrupting Horio. "This is cruel. We should at least tell Ryoma-kun about it before we start going off like this about the whole thing."
"I don't really…" Ryoma was about to protest when Horio started babbling again.
"You're right, Katsuo. Exactly right. We should tell Echizen about the whole thing. After all, Echizen," and he turned to face Ryoma again. "I had been meaning to ask what you thought about it all, since you knew the senpais so well. But I thought you would already know all about it."
Ryoma didn't know what to say at that, but Tomoka spoke up for him.
"It's not Ryoma-sama's fault. You can't blame him for not keeping in touch with them. He must have been insanely busy, after all."
"Right, right, you're right." Horio agreed with his girlfriend easily enough, looking extremely pleased to be the 'one in the know,' just like old times.
"Well, here's the whole story, in that case…"
…
"I will not be attending your university in the fall, as I had originally intended. I have accepted an offer overseas instead. I would like to transfer my previously submitted transcripts to a school in Berlin, and reject my academic scholarship at this time."
"I thought maybe I could run away. Don't you think that sounds like a much better idea than wasting another four years in this stagnant, heartless city?"
"Don't cry. You know it'll be fine, right? I'll write you all the time. You'll even forget I'm gone before long. I know you'll be just fine. Really, you will. Just wait and see."
…
"Then, Tezuka-buchou, Fuji-senpai, and Oishi-senpai are all---?" Ryoma couldn't help wanting to confirm it, even though he'd heard Horio word for word.
"Right. They decided to go to school overseas instead of attending college in Kantou, like Momochan-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai did," Horio replied bluntly. "It makes perfect sense in Oishi-senpai's case, if you ask me. He got a scholarship to THE Oxford University in London, and everyone figured right away that he would accept. Although Momochan-senpai told me until the very day Oishi-senpai got on the plane that he didn't think he'd actually go through with it. But he did, and that was that. I don't know why Momochan-senpai thought it was so unthinkable, really…"
"You're rambling again!" Tomoka scolded him. "Oishi-senpai went because it was such an amazing offer. The real mystery was with Fuji-senpai and Tezuka-senpai!"
"She's right, you know," Katsuo cut in. "At least Oishi-senpai said from the beginning that he was going to England. But not Fuji-senpai. Fuji-senpai just decided at the last minute that he was going to that art school in Paris…"
"Paris?" Ryoma interjected incredulously. This was starting to sound surreal, like some kind of poorly-written movie script. And all of them were talking so fast that he couldn't sort out his thoughts. "Did you say an art school in Paris?"
"Ah, yes, that's what happened," Kachiro obligingly confirmed. "It doesn't sound like it could be true, does it? But he really is in France. I guess Fuji-senpai is full of surprises, isn't he?"
"You can say that again," Horio muttered, looking annoyed at something. "Especially during his senior year when he pulled that fast one with the tennis cl---"
"What about Buchou?" Ryoma interrupted, who seemed not to hear what Horio was saying.
"Oh, Tezuka-senpai?" Tomoka replied. "Tezuka-senpai's the strangest of all. He practically disappeared about two weeks before he was supposed to start school in Kyoto. He sent in a letter rejecting his scholarship there, which apparently also said he was going to attend school in Germany. But that's just about all anyone knows about him."
"So he went back to Germany." Ryoma frowned. That doesn't sound right…
"Well, that's what the letter said, but would you believe it? No one can find out which university he's going to. Some of his friends have been trying to track him down, but no one can get ahold of him." Horio just shrugged.
"I heard a rumor a few months ago that even his parents don't know exactly where he is… Momochan-senpai said that he thought that they'd found his name in the registry of some business school in Berlin, but that it's only as a part-time student," Katsuo added.
"That's stupid," Ryoma said finally, sounding irritated. "Rumors like that are always exaggerated. Of course his parents know."
"Hmm… well, you're probably right," Katsuo admitted readily enough, not noticing Ryoma's agitation. "It doesn't sound like Tezuka-buchou at all, does it? And even if they don't know, I'm sure somebody has a phone number or a mailing address…"
"I bet that the senpais know how to get ahold of him," Kachiro put in. "But I wouldn't ask them about it. It all seems to be a kind of touchy subject…"
"This is just stupid!" Ryoma blurted out, with a kind of forcefulness in his voice that made his former classmates stare at him in surprise. Ryoma himself was all too aware of how angry he had sounded… but any explanation, any excuse, any trivialization of the outburst seemed to stick in his throat. It was stuck, stuck like the memory of so many words spoken so long ago…
…
"I have no doubt of it. You will be on top of the world. Just don't leave any regrets when you get there, Echizen. And don't forget us, either."
…
"We'll still be here, Echizen. You know that, right? So you can't just stay away forever. Come back to us, okay?"
…
"Nya, Ochibi, you promise you'll come back when you're famous and all that? Because I want your autograph, n-y-aa! I'll get your autograph and I'll show it to all my friends who didn't know you before and I'll tell them, I'll tell them that I KNEW Ochibi… I mean, that I knew Echizen Ryoma… before he was all that and on top of the world and the best tennis player EVER, nya!"
…
"I'll tell you a secret, Echizen… I'll be jealous of every single player that gets to challenge you on that center court. Once you're on top of the world, would you come back and give me the thrill of being destroyed by a champion? Well… if you CAN destroy me by then, of course…"
…
"Your condition is better and better every day, Echizen. The odds of you winning the Grand Slam within the next couple of years are exceptionally high. But I can't take all of your data using international broadcasts. You plan to come visit Japan, don't you?"
…
"Ahh… well, Echizen, I don't really know what to say… except, do your best! And…don't forget about us, okay? We'll all miss you."
…
"You just better not lose, Echizen. If you lose, I will hunt you down myself and set you straight… And if you don't lose, just don't go and do something stupid like get so full of yourself that you never come back here. Got that, freshman?"
…
"Promise me, Echizen. Promise me that you'll come back. I swear I'll follow you, if I can, but if I can't…
Promise me!"
…
"I'm sorry," Ryoma said finally, cutting through the dead silence that had engulfed the group. "I don't know what… I mean… Just forget it."
He slouched his shoulders slightly, pulling his cap over his eyes. More than ever, he wondered if he should just take the next flight back to California. He could still make it in time to meet with the sponsors, just like he was supposed to…
After all, that was his world now. A world of fame and fortune, and tennis. Japan wasn't his home, not anymore. And his friends… They probably weren't his friends anymore, either.
Yes, he had come back. It had been a promise.
A promise that no one had waited on him to fulfill.
… What was the use of it all, anyway? It was just some stupid promise he'd made when he was only twelve…
"Ryoma." At first, he thought someone else had said it, and he looked up, surprised to hear that ever-familiar voice… But he had heard wrong.
"Ryoma-kun," Sakuno was saying. "It's okay to be upset about it."
"I'm not." Ryoma mustered all his effort to sound completely natural. "I'm not… it was just… It was sudden. For me, I mean. When you said it…"
He paused, as if gathering his thoughts.
"But I didn't keep in touch with them, after all. It's no big deal. I'll just write them or something… some other time. Maybe."
He shrugged his shoulders apathetically, but there was a glint in his eyes that Sakuno guessed was of bitterness.
"So…" Ryoma's voice had started to sound almost unnaturally light. "What happened to Inui-senpai? And Kaidoh-senpai? In Africa, maybe?"
He chuckled slightly, which also sounded nothing like him at all.
"No, nothing like that," Horio finally replied. "Inui-senpai decided to start training near one of the big universities in Kyushu. I heard he planned to take some college courses online there, but for the most part, he's dedicating himself full-time to improving his tennis game. I think he's playing in one of the minor circuits now."
"That's so like Inui-senpai, isn't it?" Kachiro smiled. "He always knows just what he's doing."
Ryoma said nothing, but Sakuno thought she saw him relax slightly.
"And Kaidoh-senpai is training there, too," Horio finished. "He heard about how great Kyushu is supposed to be for your health. I think he heard about it from Inui-senpai. Anyway, I guess Kaidoh-senpai thought that was good enough for him, so he's already been there a few months. I think Momochan-senpai said that they were supposed to be rooming together over there or something."
"You mean, Inui-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai?" Ryoma furrowed his eyebrows, trying to keep up.
"Right." Horio thought for a moment. "I guess that's the whole list, isn't it? Except for Momochan-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai. They're both going to the same university in Tokyo, about a twenty-minute trip from here."
"Ah. I see," Ryoma replied shortly.
"You see?" Horio just sighed. "We tell you all that, and that's all you say? Really, Echizen, what do you think of it all? You know the senpais better than we do."
"You mean, I knew them better than you did," Ryoma quickly corrected him.
"Ehh… well, I guess… but what do you---"
"What do I think?" Ryoma stood up and slung the backpack he had with him over his shoulder.
"I think it's not really any of my business. Especially not anymore."
With that, the teenage tennis star walked away from the group and toward the exit. For a moment, his former classmates could only glance at each other in confusion.
"Ryoma-kun is certainly as cold as ever," Kachiro finally remarked, sighing.
"No joke!" groaned Horio. "I thought maybe he'd at least be interested. Did he really just come for a vacation, after all?"
There was a moment of silence.
"I don't think that's it," Sakuno said at last, looking up with a kind of sadness in her eyes. "I think Ryoma-kun was really hurt by all of that. He wasn't acting like himself."
"I think Sakuno is right," Tomoka agreed. "And I have an idea that just might help."
The others only looked at her, surprised at the sudden resolve in her voice.
- - - - - - -
Echizen Ryoma didn't even feel himself push open the door to the restaurant, but he did feel a sudden breeze pulling at him from the west as he stepped outside. To his surprise, it was already sunset, and the edges of twilight were just starting to spread into the horizon.
He let a frustrated sigh escape from his lips. Really, what was wrong with him these past few days? What was he doing on this crazy little island, anyway?
The truth was, Ryoma knew exactly why he was there. He felt those reasons more strongly than ever before… And yet, he'd also had more than a few doubts about the idea, doubts that had been multiplied by what he had just heard. It was true. It had been five years since Ryoma had seen them all last. And yet, while he had lived in Japan, Ryoma had really come to know his senpais. He was sure of this. But what he'd just heard from his friends… Even though some of it sounded like things they might do, much more of it sounded nothing like them at all.
Something had gone wrong while he was away.
That was the ugly feeling nagging at him now. Something was really wrong here. The captain he had known would never go back on his word and just disappear like that. And what about Oishi-senpai and Eiji-senpai? They had been best friends, hadn't they? Maybe it was just because they had been the famous Golden Pair, but Ryoma would've guessed that they would have stayed together for much longer than just through high school. Instead, according to Horio and the others, they were now continents apart.
And what about the rest of them? What about tennis? When it came to tennis, Horio had only mentioned that Inui-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai were training in the minor circuits. What had happened to tennis? Tennis had brought them together, and it had been his senpais' love for the sport that had finally awakened Ryoma's ambitions to become a pro.
What about that? What about all of that? What could have happened?
He squinted toward the dimming horizon. Even on such a warm evening, the sharp wind cut into him, making his eyes water. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the moisture away. The last thing he wanted to do was make it look like he'd been crying. Honestly. Of all the stupid things…
"Ryoma-kun."
He had no idea why he even bothered to turn around, but turn around he did. There was Sakuno, and the others were beside her, too. She had a smile on her lips. A small, hesitant smile, but a smile nonetheless… which, to Ryoma's mood, seemed more than a little out of place.
"Ryoma-kun, can we take you somewhere before you go?"
Before Ryoma could even respond, Tomoka took him by the arm and started to lead him down the street, with the others following.
"Let's go, Ryoma-sama. We'll have to hurry to make it on time!"
- - - - - -
"You guys, this is really stupid," Ryoma couldn't help observing at last. He'd played along as best he could, but he was utterly aware of how ridiculous he must have looked.
"Sorry, Ryoma-kun, but we didn't have anything better than that," Katsuo's voice said apologetically.
"You could've just taken me there…" He sighed.
"Nope, Echizen. Not possible. It's a surprise!" Horio's voice asserted confidently. "Besides, this way, no one will recognize you. If they did recognize you, everyone on this train would go completely crazy and smother you alive asking for your autograph."
"So, instead, they'll stare at me like I'm a nutcase," was Ryoma's cynical comment. He knew he sounded annoyed, but he couldn't help it. First, they'd all insisted that their destination was a secret, and they had refused to tell Ryoma where they were taking him. Now, they'd forced him to wear a blindfold, which in this case meant wearing part of Horio's school uniform over his eyes. Yes, Echizen Ryoma was riding on public transportation with a necktie wrapped around his head. This just kept getting worse…
"Okay, Ryoma, we're going to steer you from behind, so just walk forward," Tomoka's energetic voice was saying. Ryoma felt a pair of hands on his back, and a few arms steadying him from either side.
"Can't I just take this thing off?"
"NO!" Again, Ryoma sighed, but he grudgingly obeyed. He didn't have much choice, after all, being completely unable to see where he was going.
It took awhile for the hapless teenagers to direct their charge to the right place, but finally, Ryoma heard a few voices say, "We're here!"
He reached back to yank the necktie off of his head, but someone else beat him to it. The blindfold slipped away from his eyes, and right in front of him was…
There it was. There it was, after all.
Well, this part was just like he remembered it.
He meant to smile. He meant to say thank you to all of them, for trying to help, as he supposed they had been. But the anxiety of the day had remained with him too strongly for that. They seemed to understand, though. They weren't angry that he didn't look happy about it. They were just… just…
"I---" Ryoma tried to form some kind of sentence, but found himself completely incapable of the task.
"Just go on," Tomoka interrupted, shooing him away with her hand. She was smiling. "You know your way back, right?"
"Right, but…" Now Ryoma was confused. What did she mean by that?
"We'll see you some other time, Ryoma-kun," Katsuo added. "We're going home now."
Ryoma understood then. They knew after all. They knew he needed to do this by himself.
"Thank you," he said finally. He managed a kind of half-smile.
"See you later, Echizen!" Horio waved, and most of them followed his example and started walking back down the street. Sakuno stood there, just for a moment, and smiled softly. But then she turned and followed her friends, without even looking back or waving goodbye.
Ryoma turned to face the small building in front of him. He was unsure until the very last second if he would actually have the courage to go inside, but he finally pushed open the sliding wooden door. The slight creak it made was just exactly like he remembered.
He wasn't sure what he expected to see once he stepped inside. Maybe part of him even thought that it would be noisy and crowded in there, just like old times. But it was empty and quiet, except for two people who stood at the other end of the room. It had been five years, but he recognized the man behind the counter. He didn't recognize the young woman, whose face was very close to the man's as she spoke softly about something.
At the sound of the door opening, they both looked straight at Ryoma. And the reaction to his entrance was a little strange, he thought, as the two glanced at each other. The young woman quickly nodded to the man, saying only, "I'll see you tomorrow."
And with that, she walked toward the door. Ryoma thought he saw her smile at him gently as she passed by.
She closed the door behind her, and for a minute, there was only silence as the young men stared at each other, with the newness that five years had given to both their eyes. But then Ryoma walked up to the counter, to the same stool he'd sat on once, a very long time ago. He sat down there, laying his head on the counter with a sigh.
And at that sound, as though the other young man really couldn't help himself, he walked behind the counter to where Ryoma was sitting. And he started stroking the seventeen-year-old's hair, with a look that said that he knew exactly what the sigh had meant.
Ryoma didn't know how long he'd been sitting there, with his old friend's hand running through his hair over and over, until he finally said something, slowly, sadly…
"What happened, Kawamura-senpai?"
-end of chapter three-
A/N: Whew! That was a LOOONNGG chapter, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything. I hope it wasn't boring… This was another hard one for me to write, mainly because of all the exposition. Hopefully you all enjoyed it anyway. :) And yes, Taka-san finally showed up! Yay! And the promise was revealed, too. Hopefully you all could tell who was speaking during the second flashback sequence. (In case you couldn't, here's the order: Tezuka/Oishi/Eiji/Fuji/Inui/Taka/Kaidoh/Momo.) That scene will come up again later, and I'll explain it more then. Expect this story to move a bit quicker now. I'll be starting to change settings and re-introducing characters more quickly. Well, I'll get the next chapter up asap! Please review and let me know what you thought! I really appreciate all the reviews! They help me keep focused. :)
Coming Up Next: Courtesy of Taka-san, Ryoma finds out a little bit about how the Regulars changed during high school. And, speak of the devil, a few more Regulars show up later in the chapter. There's also a small taste of the drama yet to come…