Disclaimer: I do not own The Prince of Tennis.

Author's Words: Thank you, all of you, for your patience because the on-going action is finally going on.

I also have to apologize to every one for subjecting you to my horrible language in the earlier chapters. I have printed my story out and have re-read it over and over. I realized that I have been making silly mistakes that I should have proof read and corrected. There were horribly long run-on lines and I am trying to cut down on those. Moreover, there were inconsistencies in the characters from the earliest chapters and the latest ones. This is because I did not have as clear a picture as I do now of the Rikkai regulars.

Maybe, when I have time, I will re-write the story but I simply am not able to do that, so please bear with me. And lastly, please enjoy, (if not the language, then the story...)

Chapter Eighteen: A Sunday at the Café (Part Six)

Miyu finished her meal and sat back with a satisfied sigh.

Next to her, Fuji was looking thoughtful, not eating anymore. Miyu had been telling him what had happened to Sakuno since she started studying at Rikkai Dai.

Although most of her tales had been about what she and Sakuno did and talked about, there were comments about the friendship Sakuno had built up with the regulars that had him thinking.

He guessed that she did not give him all the details and he did not blame her for holding back; after all, they had just met and she would not be wise to trust him so soon.

However, when he compared the Sakuno he heard from Miyu's mouth together with the Sakuno he remembered, they seemed almost to be different people. Well, on second thought, not really, the shyness and klutziness were still evidently there but something seemed to be out of place.

He realized that it was because when Sakuno was at Seigaku, she was always in the background, almost invisible and eclipsed by the other first years who rarely gave her the chance to speak, or maybe the correct way of putting it would be, they rarely stopped talking about their own opinions enough for her to speak.

The regulars were just as bad. The regulars had each other; it was true that they were a close-knit group and had very good team rapport but most of them rarely took notice of Sakuno, even though she always ran errands for them on behalf of Ryuzaki-sensei.

They did not ignore her but instead treated her with a vague kindness that was sometimes more damaging in the long run.

Fuji was extremely intuitive when it came to people and even he was too wrapped up in the team and his own business that he did no more than acknowledge her as 'Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter'.

He suspected no one realized because Sakuno had always been in the background, since she was eleven or twelve and she herself thought that was where she belonged.

He felt a pang in his heart when he imagined the happy Sakuno now and compared it with the girl who used to smile gently at everyone and how that smile would be taken for granted by everyone. Only when they lost it that they started thinking of it and missing it.

Possibly only Tezuka ever saw her as she was, Ryuzaki Sakuno but because he was Tezuka, he would never go out of his way to especially notice her.

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Fuji was pulled from his musings when Miyu tried to get Yanagi and Inui to stop their distinctive form of male bonding.

While Miyu had been talking to him between bites, Inui and Yanagi had been taking down what she was saying and then they started to compare and contrast how their forms of data-collecting had changed over time.

Over these few years, they would meet up but when they did, it was mostly to do with tennis or trying to come up with new forms of Penal-Tea. They never got round to comparing notes and now they were taking this opportunity to do it. Sakuno was not a tennis subject and they felt no compunction about keeping her data confidential.

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When she got everyone's attention again, she said, "So, before the food arrived, we were going on about how this Echizen went out with Sakuno, kissed her friend when they were going out and now it appears that he didn't like that friend after all."

Inui nodded and opened his mouth but was interrupted by Miyu, "Wait, I'm not finished, Inui-san." Fuji and Yanagi were amused, usually when Inui spoke, people would listen to him first.

Miyu went on, "Well, I don't know this Echizen so, what's he like? Was he good to Sakuno, I mean, I didn't like the idea of him cheating on her but he seemed important enough to Sakuno that she lost her memory because of him."

Inui got to speak this time, "There is 89.7 chance that Ryuzaki lost her memory because of Echizen; the other possibility would be she lost her memory because of hitting her head when she was hit by the car."

He was vaguely trying to defend Echizen because it was not a light matter and he did not want the blame for Sakuno's accident to be put on Ryoma's shoulders. However, he knew that it was probably useless, because not even he was convinced.

Miyu snorted rudely, "I'm sorry, Inui-san but that is rubbish and you are too smart not to know it. You just want to defend your precious team-mate. What about Sakuno? Does she not deserve defending? If you had to defend Echizen, then it must mean that he was in the wrong or you would not try to turn away from the evidence of your own data."

Miyu was right and Inui blanched.

She was also angry that they did not seem to care about her dear friend when they were supposed to be the ones who knew her for a much longer period of time.

Apparently all they did was exactly that, they just 'knew' of her and did not really 'know' her.

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Yanagi could see that Miyu was working up a rage and thought maybe he should try and stop it but he too, felt for Sakuno and did not really want to stop Miyu.

Just at that moment, a sweet voice called out, "Miyu-chan! Yanagi-senpai! Ohaiyou!"

It was their discussion subject – Sakuno. Yanagi could feel the rage melting away from Miyu and she turned to the direction of the voice with a smile on her face.

Fuji and Inui also turned, more curious about Sakuno than they ever were before; even more than when she started going out with Echizen. At that time, they were just nosy and intent on annoying Echizen. They did not really care who it was that he dated.

Sakuno was skipping lightly up the pavement, waving to Miyu. Suddenly, she tripped and would have fallen if not for the person who was with her.

Yanagi smiled when he saw who that person was.

It was Niou Masaharu. He caught Sakuno from falling and said something to her softly. She nodded meekly and stopped skipping to walk more carefully, not noticing that Niou had kept his hand at her back, obviously very protective.

Yanagi managed not to grin widely; he was not unaware of the reputation of the Trickster.

When they reached the table, the two girls greeted each other and Niou nodded his head to the others. Miyu asked, "What are you up to, Sakuno?"

She wanted to tease Sakuno about being alone with Niou but she was not so stupid as to do it in front of him. She also did not want to embarrass the girl by doing it in front of other people.

Sakuno smiled happily, the pure joy in it was something Fuji and Inui had not noticed before. They hoped that it was because they never noticed and not because it never appeared before.

She answered, "I was so happy to be without the crutches that I wanted to go exploring and met Niou-senpai. I'm so glad that I met him because he had been showing me some of the places around here. I was having a very good time, ne, Niou-senpai!"

She turned to her companion for confirmation of that fact, not that she needed to because the world could see her joy sparkling from her eyes.

Fuji suddenly remembered a look that Sakuno used to wear at Seigaku.

It was an exasperated, slightly defeated look when she was with Tomoka. Tomoka would be doing something like shouting encouragement at the top of her voice at Ryoma, who would be playing a match.

He thought that she would not have this look with Miyu around her. He knew of Tomoka well enough to know that she would be teasing Sakuno at this moment but Miyu held back.

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Niou had been nodding in agreement to Sakuno's statement abruptly; he did not care about the protectiveness he was showing to the others because he knew that Sakuno would not notice.

His quick brain was telling him that this was no random meeting. Two Seigaku regulars with Miyu and Yanagi in Kanagawa? How coincidental could it be?

His eyes narrowed in speculation; he remembered that Sakuno was from Seigaku; wouldn't she know these two famous tennis players? Then how come she was acting as if she did not know them?

Niou could tell she was not acting but he was determined to find out more. He liked this girl and his instinct told him that something was wrong. He would be patient until Sakuno was not there; he had honed that skill over the years waiting for the right moment to spring a trap or the trick people on the court with Yagyuu.

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Miyu and Sakuno had finished the girl-chat they were having about what Sakuno had seen on the way and what Miyu recommended Niou to take her to see later.

She was pleased that Niou was having a good time with Sakuno; he was so cynical that he would surely benefit from her company and she trusted that Sakuno would come to no harm with him protecting her.

Yanagi took the chance to find out something he had been thinking about. He spoke up when the two girls stopped talking, "Ryuzaki-san, have you met these two boys? They are also from Seigaku; one of them is my close friend."

Miyu was startled, she did not plan for this and she was worried about Sakuno's reaction.

Sakuno tipped her to one side as she regarded the two boys also sitting at the table curiously.

She was about to say that she did not know them, when her head started to hurt and some images appeared in her head. She cried softly and her knees failed to support that she was all but sitting on the ground, her hand holding her head at the sharp pain that pulsed through her brain.

Fuji wanted to reach out but Niou stepped in front of Sakuno, not allowing him to touch her. He knelt down and scooped Sakuno up and sat down on a chair with Sakuno on his lap. He started rocking her and mumbling nonsensical words in her ear, trying to ease the obvious pain she was in.

Miyu hissed to Yanagi angrily but quietly, "Renji-niisan, are you satisfied now! She did not recognize them!" Yanagi had the grace to look ashamed. He did not mean for her to hurt.

Inui and Fuji looked on, both silently shocked that their mere presence could bring so much pain to this gentle and quiet girl who had done nothing more than fall in love with possibly the wrong person.

They were all happy when Ryoma and Sakuno started going out because everyone knew of her crush and anyway, they reckoned Ryoma was at the age for a girlfriend.

However, their happiness for her was not really personal because if it was, they would have realized how deep her feelings ran. They should have noticed because one did not just have a crush on someone for three years running.

They knew that Ryoma was cool to everyone, including her but they thought that he would be more like a boyfriend in private. Now, Fuji wondered if he was but somehow, he doubted it.

Fuji also thought back to the early junior high days when he saw more of Sakuno.

Had he ever seen anyone treating Sakuno with such obvious care? No, not anyone, the second and third years just saw her as Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter. The first years were all too concerned with themselves and too immature to care about anyone else.

Inui was thinking that the hurt Sakuno suffered from psychologically probably was much deeper than he first calculated.

It was possible, he thought, now he had really seen her, that the wound was caused by the first careless word Echizen said to her. It would have deepened every time he ignored her or was cool or careless with her.

He knew that Echizen was like that to most people but he also understood that not everyone would be able to stand it for three years and still had a crush on him Sakuno must be stronger than anyone thought, despite her fragile appearance.

He knew that Tomoka also had a crush on Echizen but since she was never one to let others affect her, he had no doubt that she would not have the same kind of wound Sakuno carried inside her.

He was quickly revising his calculations and wondering if there would be a cure. He may be very clever but the mental working of a female's mind was one of the things that had always eluded him.

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Gradually, Sakuno stopped being so tensed and she opened her eyes slowly to see Niou looking down at her.

The worry and care in his eyes were so obvious that she felt something hit her and she suddenly wanted to curl up in his care and cry, washing away the sorrow in her heart that was there and seemed irrational and illogical.

She was not aware of anything else at that moment, only the fact that she was no longer hurting and was safe.

Yes, she thought, safe in Niou-senpai's arms…