Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi.

Renaissance

Chapter 2: Hook, Line and Sinker

The streets were filled with sound. Cars were honking, different genres of music were blasting in assorted shops, clashing terribly and yet somehow making up the harmony that Sanada came to relate to Tokyo City, 2101. Voices around him crescendoed and diminuendoed as he walked within earshot and out of it. Then there were the lights, flashes of colours that blinded the eyes for that damned split second.

This was his city.

He hated it.

Sanada stood at the traffic junction, waiting patiently for the lights to change. He looked at the young woman next to him with the baby pram, and then let his gaze turn to the middle-aged white-collared worker next to him, with the briefcase. They lived such pathetic, such normal lives, and yet they claimed contentment, peace, in their disintegrating, rotting society. Once, he believed in all that. But Yukimura opened his eyes.

He sighed. Once, he had been the Chief Superintendent of the Organised Crime Department, working straight under the government. He had been hell-bent on catching Yukimura, then. He had trusted his government, and they had told him, "Rikkai Dai believes in a Concept that would shake the very foundations of our stability. Yukimura's ideas would only bring suffering to our people." And he had bought it all. The Rikkai Concept was what Sanada and his team of twelve strove to eliminate. And he had been so close too, managing to apprehend Marui Bunta, one of Rikkai's Shades. Marui was a sham, a plan to lure Yukimura out into the opening. The shadowy leader of Rikkai had slipped out of Sanada's hands so many times, but that time, Yukimura had fallen for the bait, hook, line and sinker. Or so Sanada had thought.

He received an invitation to dine with the mysterious leader of the Rikkai Syndicate. His team surrounded the ritzy hotel, where the restaurant was located. He entered alone, gun hidden in the inner jacket pocket of his suit. Then he had seen Yukimura.

With beauty, you could buy things that money couldn't get you, even in your wildest dreams.

Sanada got himself a concept, Yukimura got himself a right-hand man, but was it really worth it? After all this while, Yukimura had never shown any inclination to love. The man was heartless, the most ruthless hunter Tokyo had ever seen…

"Watch out!"

Sanada's eyes widened in shock as he narrowly avoided being knocked down by a truck. He spun around towards the voice and his gaze landed on a young man with golden eyes. In them, Sanada could see voracity for power. If the boy was in his Syndicate, Sanada would have eliminated him a long time ago, for fear of the inevitable mutiny. The boy had the eyes of a Hunter, and a good one at that, judging by Sanada's vast knowledge on Hunters. The idea was an unnerving one; the boy couldn't be more than seventeen.

"You are?"

The kid shrugged. "Not telling. I know who you are, anyway." Sanada's eyes narrowed in annoyance. The boy was…bratty. Whatever. The lights changed colour, and Sanada crossed the road. He turned onto a tiny street, with walls covered in bright spray paint. The only redeeming point about the paint was its glaring brightness that made the obscenities harder to read. As he progressed down the row of tiny shops, made up of a mini mart and condom houses, he noticed the little horror strolling behind him. In that case, the Bridge wasn't safe.

Sanada changed direction abruptly, and headed towards the decaying park. The place displayed the result of acid rain and pollution clearly, and Sanada's eyes took in the damaged soil, and the dying trees. When the time was right, Yukimura would change all this. The man would work his miracles here too.

"What do you want," he asked at last, voice slightly betraying his impatience. The boy smirked cockily, as if he knew what a hindrance he was to Sanada.

"You're with Rikkai aren't you? I want you to call off your Watchers." The brat's tone grated on Sanada's nerves. Yukimura had set watchers on the Brat? Sanada's suspicions were confirmed. Only the most observant would have noticed Rikkai's Watchers. Sanada was…grudgingly impressed.

"I won't call them off, until you tell me your name." Privately, Sanada wasn't wont to call them off, if Yukimura had placed them there in the first place. He remembered the last time he screwed up Yukimura's plans; it had resulted in a week of teasing fleeting touches and painfully forced celibacy. Punishment, Yukimura had purred seductively in his ear. Torture, Sanada's mind had screamed.

The boy looked at Sanada with a slight contemplative expression on his face. Finally, as if writing Sanada off as unimportant, he nodded his acquiescence.

"Echizen Ryoma."

Niou watched as the group of men in the St. Rudolph uniform strolled down the corridor. They were the agents of one of the most notorious groups in Tokyo, and here, in their hideout, Niou had to be careful, as careful as Yagyuu was.

Yagyuu sat in the MPV parked about a hundred metres away from St. Rudolph's well concealed hideout, and studied the floor plans that Renji had found for him, when hacking into St. Rudolph's general system. While it saved Yagyuu the mess of sneaking up and down to discover routes in and out of the hideout, the great letdown was that St. Rudolph would be prepared for an intrusion. He just hoped that Niou would be as cautious as he'd promised. A static crackling came through the earpiece, and Yagyuu pulled it slightly away from his ear and winced. A few seconds later, a familiar, raspy voice spoke.

"Bloody hell, Yagyuu! You're supposed to be giving me the directions. I'm fucking lost in their ventilation pipes. You'd think that the labyrinth was in Greece but nooooo…"

Yagyuu ignored his partner's rambling complaints and studied the map once again. Niou had entered the ventilation pipes from the second floor window of the building, so, he was stuck at…

"Ventilation pipes! What ventilation pipes! How can they be called ventilation pipes when there's no fucking ventilation here at all! I-"

"Niou-kun, turn left twice and head straight on till you come to a ventilation window. That's Yanagisawa-san's office, and your target." Then, to comfort his partner in crime, he added, "You're really almost there."

Yagyuu bit back a laugh as he heard Niou growl in agitation. "Quit your molly-coddling, and give me better instructions when I come out." Niou's words sounded a little breathless as he crawled through the pipes in the direction Yagyuu was talking about. "Turn here, turn there, and second star to the right blah blah blah, you watch too much Peter Pan." There was no reply, as Yagyuu was trying to restrain his mind from…impure thoughts. Niou's panting in his ear was a trifle distracting, never mind that the topic of conversation was something out from a children's cartoon.

Yagyuu heard the sound of metal sliding against metal, as Niou opened the vent window, and a split second later, he heard a faint thud sound. Niou must have landed in the office. "Well, there's no one here, so unless he has left, you, my dear Gentleman, have given me the wrong directions, yet again." There was a small pause as Niou contemplated the situation. "You're not a traitor are you?"

Yagyuu ignored Niou once again and turned to check his phone. No calls came from Little Demon Akaya, so that would mean that Yanagisawa was still in the building. If not…then Kirihara was in trouble.

That in itself was a ridiculous thought. Kirihara was rarely out of trouble, but more often than not, it wasn't his trouble that he was in.

"Oi, you haven't abandoned me, have you?"

"Sorry Niou-kun, but I'm quite certain that Yanagisawa-san is still in the building."

"How certain?

"Well, I can't give you the exact percentage like Renji but-" Yagyuu was interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open on Niou's side, and an angry voice yelling, "don't move, dane!" His breathing hitched as he realised that Niou had been as careful as his Gentleman, which is to say, not at all.

"Niou-kun, the window!"

Niou froze at the sight of Yanagisawa and his team of five agents in the doorway. While he was definitely stronger than all of them put together, they had used the surprise element against him, and he was standing in the middle of the office, without even a gun drawn. Yagyuu's voice whispered in his ear, and above the crackling, Niou heard something about a window. He threw said window a glance, and saw another office building just opposite it. His smirk grew. "What angle?" he hissed beneath his breath, hoping that Yanagisawa would not catch it.

"Stop talking! Who are you talking to, dane? What did you say about angles?" Niou's brain formed a reply, even as he heard Yagyuu's, "64.6, Niou-kun, good luck."

Niou pointed at the agent furthest from him and replied, "I said that his earring dangles." As if on cue, they turned towards the agent, who was most definitely not wearing earrings, let alone dangling ones. Yanagisawa spluttered with rage as he turned back to fire at the empty spot where Niou had been a fraction of a second ago. The window shattered and drew their attention, just in time to see Niou swinging across the vast expense of night air and into the other building, with rope and grapnel and little else.

Niou crashed through the glass windows and landed in an empty office; the building was probably closed for the night. The night cleaner, an elderly woman, was gaping at him in shock. Niou reached out and knocked her unconscious, before gently depositing her on the chair. He made his way down hurriedly, knowing that Yanagisawa's men were hot on his heels. The lifts were still operating, thank god, and Niou walked into the lobby and skidded to a halt. Just outside the building, he could see the agents of St. Rudolph surrounding the glass doors.

"Yagyuu? He whispered in slight desperation, and his fear only increased when static responded.

Yagyuu could have been caught. Or worse, Yagyuu had betrayed him.

Either way, it was an unpleasant thought.

Just as Niou was about to turn and look for the emergency escape route in the building, he heard the roar of the powerful engine of his Diablo and spun around, just in time to see Yagyuu crash through the doors, effectively killing a few agents in the way. Niou ran towards the car, and threw himself in, as the car took off once again.

They took a right turn and weaved through the night traffic. It was only when they made it to the highway and were certain that they weren't being pursued, that Niou opened his mouth to speak.

"You bastard, if you damaged my baby with your heroics, I'll fucking kill you, I'll fucking shot holes into that thick skull of yours, you asshole." Yagyuu smiled slightly at Niou's swearing; the Trickster had a smirk plastered to his face.

"You're welcome, Niou-kun."

AN: Chapter 2 up! Constructive criticism please! Next up, Yukimura is displeased with the leaking of information, and Ohtori steals something which Rikkai wants.