Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis do not belong to me.
Chapter Twenty-Two: A Plan… Gone Awry
Two days after the two meetings, they had already decided they would put everything in action over the weekend because the Seigaku regulars would have to go to Kanagawa in order to see Sakuno.
During the weekend, they would have more time to spend and would not have to rush to and fro. They told Ryoma that they had planned a weekend practice together with the Rikkai regulars.
The story that Ryoma got was that Inui and Yanagi had combined their talents and worked out some super practice menu that they wanted to try out.
Unbeknownst to everyone, the two had actually done that, they just had not had the chance to try it out with everyone not killing them yet. They wondered if they would have the chance this weekend but doubted it.
Yanagi could always get some hapless but ambitious members from the tennis club to be his 'helpers' and Inui thought that he might rent the menu out at a discount and ask for feedback.
Miyu was wondering what excuse she could give to Sakuno for getting her to come to her house over the weekend. She could always say something like, "Why don't we meet at my house to study?"
The only problem was she did not like to study and Sakuno knew that; she did not make a secret of it. Then she had the grand idea of having a sleepover.
In the end, she told Yukimura about it and he said that might as well have her stay at their house over the weekend.
She was so excited about the prospect; she had never had a sleepover with girls at her house before. Most of the girls that she knew were alright to talk to but they all had their sights on her brother and his friends and she hated it.
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Everything was settled on Thursday and it would have been like this on Saturday: the Seigaku regulars together with Ryoma would travel to Kanagawa and at the station, Yanagi would meet them.
Then, they would go to Yukimura's house and if Ryoma raised any fuss, there would be eight strong tennis players to subdue and drag him along.
There, they would meet Sakuno with the rest of the Rikkai members and they would, hopefully, talk like civilized human beings.
Of course, it all depended on Sakuno in the end but most of them tried not to think of worst case scenarios just yet. The worst case scenarios that everyone tried to avoid thinking about but thought about anyway mostly consists of the two teams getting into a huge group fight and being horribly punished for it afterwards.
The punishment bit was only considered by Yukimura, Tezuka, Fuji, Sanada, Oishi, Inui, Yagyuu and Yanagi. The others were the ones who were just thinking about the possibility of the fight.
Another scene that they imagined would be Sakuno did not turn up and they would meet for nothing and would be angry and still get into a fight.
A third one would be a much more peaceful one with Sakuno looking at the Seigaku members and not remembering anything, apart from Fuji and Inui, but Ryoma, seeing her, would go ballistic and they would have to tie him and take him home that way until Sakuno remembered them.
These were all possible outcomes, although some of them were blown out of proportion by the imaginations of these lively and hot-headed young men.
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They were waiting, some of them impatiently, for the weekend when something totally unexpected or maybe, really to be expected happened on Friday afternoon.
The regulars, sans Ryoma were gathered in the changing rooms talking about tomorrow. They did it because they knew that Ryoma had an extra class that day and would be late.
What they did not know was that the lesson had been cancelled last minute because the teacher had received an urgent phone call from home and had left.
Ryoma was at this very moment walking towards the changing rooms, pleased that he could go and smash balls at people… for them to hit. He was outside the changing rooms when he heard his name mentioned and he stopped.
It was only natural for him to want to eavesdrop when the subject concerned was him.
His senpai-tachi's voices were not soft by any standard and he quietly eased open the door a bit and listened.
His eyes narrowed at first because he heard Momo and Eiji bad-mouthing him.
They were saying stuff like, "idiot", "dork", "unbelievably stupid" and "maybe gay", all linked to "Echizen" and "Ochibi". He was annoyed and was about to go inside and stop their tirade of insults when he heard the name "Ryuzaki-chan" from Fuji's mouth.
He listened in disbelieve when Fuji said that Ryuzaki was happy at Rikkai Dai now and they should be happy for her. He dropped his bag and it fell against the door.
All the regulars looked up at the noise and saw a stunned Ryoma standing there.
They knew at once what had happened and strangely enough, this time it was Fuji who gave the game away. Fickle Lady Luck must not be smiling at him this day, Fuji thought.
Ryoma said in a stilted voice, "Ryuzaki is… at Rikkai Dai?"
With that, he turned and ran.
Momo and Kaidou immediately ran after him but for once they could only see him going faster and faster.
Fuji came cycling out after them on Kaidou's bike; he had picked the lock that Kaidou used to secure his bike and threw their bags at them, "Make your way to the station; we're going to catch Ryoma or we'll be going to Rikkai today."
Kaidou was annoyed but was much too polite to talk back to Fuji who was his senior. He settled for hissing and running even faster.
Momo, thinking that Kaidou wanted to race, yelled, "Mamushi, I'll be at the station quicker, just you wait!"
Therefore these two forgot that they were supposed to be chasing Ryoma and began racing each other.
Meanwhile, the rest: Tezuka, Oishi, Eiji and Inui were off in various directions.
Oishi and Eiji spread the news that practice was cancelled today. Then they met up with Tezuka who was waiting by the front door with their bags.
Since there were four of them, he had ordered a taxi to the station. Inui was with him, trying to call Yanagi who was not answering. Tezuka told him to leave a message and try again later. Inui agreed thinking that it was no use panicking.
He thought that Echizen was only unpredictable on the court but it turned out that he was wrong and with the thought that he had so much more to learn and record, he got into the taxi with the others.
Along the way, they saw Momo and Kaidou running like two madmen, exchanging insults as they ran. Eiji laughed at them, while Oishi held his head and wished he had not seen this. Tezuka just ignored them and Inui mentally calculated how fast each was going.
They passed them and reached the station to see Fuji standing by the entrance with Kaidou's bike.
He saw them arrive and shook his head at Tezuka, meaning that he could not catch Ryoma.
When Momo and Kaidou arrived together, out of breath and panting heavily, though still exchanging insults, Fuji told them that he arrived on the bike just in time to seeing Ryoma run inside.
He was not quick enough to catch him but he did see the younger boy hop onto the train going in the direction of Kanagawa. They could take the next train and hopefully find him at Rikkai Dai.
They all agreed and while Kaidou secured his bike at the bicycle stands that were available, he thought that he must get a numbered lock next time.
The train would not be there for the next few minutes and Momo and Eiji were both thinking optimistically that they might as well treat this as an outing.
They went along to one of the shops at the station that sells bento and bought a load of them to share and eat on the train. Momo also bought a lot of junk food and some soft drinks.
Oishi, Fuji, Inui and Tezuka waited patiently at the platform with their bags at their feet.
Inui was trying to call Yanagi again and finally Yanagi answered the phone. Inui quickly explained the situation to his friend. Yanagi said that he would tell Yukimura and the others and they would watch out for Echizen.
They were both hoping that they could catch the younger boy before he saw Sakuno.
As Inui hung up the phone, the others arrived; Momo and Eiji were carrying bags of food and Kaidou was following them, also carrying a few bags that Eiji had told him to carry.
Fuji smiled when he saw Kaidou, "Kaidou, I'm sorry for borrowing your bike without asking you but you really should get a better lock. The one you had was too easy to pick."
Kaidou answered, "Hai…" He was thinking that only Fuji-senpai would go and do something like and make it sound like it was Kaidou's fault for letting him pick his lock.
Not one of them blamed Fuji for the plan that had gone awry because he was Fuji. If it had been Momo or Eiji or even Inui, all of them would have pounced at once.
As it was, no time was wasted on blaming the culprit and instead they were concentrating on fixing it.
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Very soon the train arrived and the Seigaku regulars got on the train and sat down.
Oishi was wondering if he should make them call their families and say that they might be rather late tonight.
Although most of them were eighteen, they were still living at home and should call when they would not be coming home for dinner. He thought that it was the right thing to do and was about to say so, when Fuji had already gotten out his phone and the others had followed his example.
After making sure that they would not get lectured on being ungrateful little brats who did not appreciate their mothers' cooking enough to even tell them when they were not coming home for dinner, the lot started to tuck in the bento that Momo and Eiji had gotten.