Disclaimer: I don't own The Prince of Tennis.

Chapter Six: Meeting the Rikkai Regulars (Part Two)

Yanagi took something out of his tennis bag. The others saw that it was a digital camera. "What's that for, Yanagi-senpai?" Kirihara Akaya asked. Yagyuu answered for Yanagi, guessing what his friend was about to do, "He's getting ready to take Niou and Bunta's picture when they come back with the girl. We never see Niou with girls unless he's terrorizing them and when Bunta's with girls, there are always cakes in the picture, so this is a good chance to collect data."

Yanagi gave a sinister smile, not unlike Inui's when he was making his Penal-Tea, "That's correct, very good, Yagyuu. Since this is not tennis data, I can also sell them to people who would be interested."

The others raised their eye brows at this strange statement. Who would be interested in these silly photos other than Yanagi?

Yanagi correctly interpreted their looks and answered their unspoken question, "Sadaharu would be interested. I always get random information about the Seigaku regulars from him as well as interesting recipes. Em… Mizuki Hajime from St. Rudolph might also be interested. According to my data, he loves to gossip."

Akaya yelped, "So that's where you've been getting those horrible drinks that you are making us try, Yanagi-senpai!"

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Apparently, Rikkai Dai's boys' tennis club had been suffering lately because of Yanagi's recent obsession with Inui's Penal-Tea.

Inui advertised his wares to tennis clubs in other schools, claiming that his Penal-Tea had maximum effect when combined with tennis practice and that it had been experimented on and proven 'safe' for more than five years. The experiments were conducted on the Seigaku boys' tennis club and fellow lovers of The Prince of Tennis, we all know how lively they are.

Due to these sugared advertisements, his recipes sold very well, although they were not received well by the people who were made to drink them. Still it must be said that the Penal-Tea did its job well and he gathered very positive back-feed from his clients.

Most of them were in the effect of saying, "Our team has been running longer and faster during basic training." Or "The players have been hitting the tennis balls with higher accuracy and strength!"

Yanagi knew the reason why Inui was suddenly selling his recipes after five years of using them for himself and Seigaku. He now had a higher ambition and that is to build a laboratory devoted to the study of Penal-Tea and likewise 'health' drinks. Thus the sudden gathering of funds and feed-back.

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Just when Yanagi finished calculating the route they would probably come back by and stood there, ready with his evil camera, they appeared.

Click! Click! Click!

A series of clicks and flashes greeted the three and Niou immediately knew what had happened. He would have done the same if he was in Yanagi's position, except he would have used them for blackmail or something equally bad.

"Bunta, stop Yanagi!" He snapped amidst the clicks of the camera. Bunta sprinted off but Yanagi had already gone off somewhere to hide his camera. The rest of the regulars went up to meet them, extremely curious about Sakuno after Jackal's explanation.

None of them quite believed him when he said that Niou personally carried the girl off to the san and that he actually seemed ashamed and worried. Even Sanada was intrigued. He had known the Trickster a long time and he knew as well as any person that the Trickster only cared for himself and had almost no conscience when it came to amusing himself.

Sakuno was not expecting the whole group of tall, well-built tennis players to crowd around them like that and she was rather intimidated.

One Bunta was harmless to her, two Niou was gentle and three Jackal kept his distance but now this was the lot of them, including a very stern-looking Sanada, a wicked-looking Akaya, the reputedly strict Yukimura and the unreadable Yagyuu.

Fortunately, though not by much, Yanagi was still hiding his camera from Bunta, so there was one less person to intimidate her, even if they did not mean to.

Yukimura noticed her discomfort and being the gentle person he usually was, motioned the others to back off a bit. They did and he said with a soothing smile, "You must be Ryuzaki Sakuno. Jackal told us what happened. How's your ankle? I'm so sorry Niou caused you so much trouble."

Sakuno, not so tensed after the regulars had backed off, was anxious to defend Niou because she honestly did not think it was his fault and she could not understand why every one seemed to blame him. She probably would have tripped and fallen down anyway, whether there was someone to startle her or not.

"Ah… ano…" She was not sure who this person was. Yukimura smiled, "I'm Yukimura Seiichi, the boys' tennis club's buchou." Sakuno continued, "H-hai, Yukimura-senpai. Thank you for caring. Ah… my ankle is fine but you mustn't blame Niou-senpai! It's not his fault, I tripped on my own! I'm always so careless so it's really not his fault! He was very kind to me when I hurt myself, as well as Bunta-senpai and Jackal-senpai. I can't thank them enough! Please, I'm really sorry for getting them in trouble! Ano… they are not in trouble, are they, Yukimura-senpai?"

Sakuno was so anxious she was crying. Everyone was really shocked to see a girl crying because of Yukimura. If it was Niou or Sanada, they would understand and even accept as normal but Yukimura had never made a girl cry before, not that they know of, and definitely not shy little girls like Sakuno who seemed more likely to be afraid of the tall Niou or the stern Sanada rather than the gentle, almost beautiful Yukimura.

Yukimura looked distressed. He was protective at heart and to see this injured girl crying because of him was too much of a shock that he spoke without thinking, "Ryuzaki-chan, don't cry. They are not in trouble. Don't worry, they are not in trouble."

This time it was Sanada was looked distressed because he felt that at least, Bunta and Niou should run a few extra laps for being late. If not Bunta, then surely Niou should run the laps because he appeared to have caused all this in the beginning.

However, Yukimura was a man of his words and since he had said they were not in trouble, then they were not. Niou, of course, was pleased. He had a smirk on his face which he quickly smothered when Sakuno looked at him and asked, "R-really? Niou-senpai, Bunta-senpai and you are not in trouble?"

Niou kept a perfectly solemn face when he looked at Yukimura and answered in a clear voice, "No, Sakuno, we are NOT in trouble. You don't have to worry now. Yukimura and Sanada are NOT going to punish any of us. Right? Sanada?" His tone was slightly smug, not too much because he did not want Sakuno to notice but he could not resist emphasizing the 'NOT', just to goad Sanada because Sanada was glaring at him.

Sakuno sniffed and stopped crying. She looked at Yukimura, "G-gomen-nasai, Yukimura-senpai. I-I have kept every one from practice and I have also made a spectacle of myself…" She was horrified at her outburst earlier and her eyes started to tear again.