The smell of freshly painted walls greeted his nostrils, whilst the fresh white color of the walls was pleasing to the eye. Multiple rows of wooden desks were perfectly aligned before the teacher's desk. Many of his classmates had taken their seat or were just simply chatting.

Choosing a random desk by the window, Ryoma set his things down and took his place.

The teacher walked in, all the students sat up in greeting until they were told to take their seats.

She was a matured woman; deep lines ran through her forehead, a clear sign of a thinker. She was dressed neatly with her square-rimmed glasses perched on her rather large nose. The graying hair was set in a bun, not one strand out of place. She radiated a feeling of properness in general.

"Good morning, I am Shinomoto-sensei. I will be your professor in the areas of world history, Japanese literature, and philosophy in the following years. Some of us are all ready acquainted from last year. We will start roll call." Her voice was smooth and deep, yet it wasn't uninteresting or dull.

List proceeded alphabetically as Ryoma simply looked out the window. He came saw a couple groups of students still lounging in the courtyard in clear view of all the staff. Ryoma frowned, for some reason the chilling in his spine returned. He was suddenly distracted by the calling of a familiar name.

" Kaidoh Kaoru."

Shocked Ryoma faced the left side of the classroom and found his former senpai lounging in his chair uninterestedly. Dark circles rounded his eyes and his usual bandana of greens was now a solid black. His uniform was carelessly open and showed a dark blue shirt instead of the button-up white they were supposed to use. Concentrating on his ear Ryoma was surprised that it had been pierced.

"Kaoru-kun." The teacher called again.

"What." Kaidoh drawled in an unpleasant voice.

Ryoma's eyebrows rose, he had never seen the snake shot user be disrespectful to his elders before, much less his sensei.

"Do not make me fail you in my subject again. When you are called respond with present, you have detention today at 4:00pm; fail to show up and you will land in the principal's office. We wont tolerate that behavior from you this year." The sensei's voice was wary and impassive, as though she had been through the same lecture many times with that particular student.

Meanwhile Echizen did everything to hide his shock. Kaidoh failing a subject, or repeating a grade was unheard of, could it be possible? Kaidoh had always been top of his class, a respectful student and the teacher's pet. Momosiro had often complained about it.

What was going on?

Few more names were called including his own, a few heads turned. Ryoma supposed they were former classmates surprised by his return. Other than that the rest of class was pretty uneventful.

The next class was science in which the professor introduced himself as Agama-sensei. He asked them to read a couple of pages and bring a summary for the next class.

Before Ryoma knew, the bell signifying lunch period was heard. Remembering his promise to Fuji, he kept in his seat waiting patiently.

"Ryoma-kun?" A delicate voice asked

He turned to see an older Sakuno Ryuuzaki before him. Other than obvious change such as height, shorter hair (yet still in braids) and an obviously matured face she still seemed to be the girl he met years ago.

"Ryuuzaki-san." He responded with a nod.

She gave a small grin. " Hai, nice to have you back. Congratulations for winning Shangai." She told him politely.

"Thank you"

"You play even better now than before. Are you waiting for someone or are you alone?" she asked concernedly.

Hai, I'm waiting for Fuji-senpai but apparently he's arrived. I have to get going. It was nice to see you Ryuuzaki." Ryoma answered in a polite manner as well.

Fuji was walking up to them, what amazed Ryoma was the fact that a blushing Ryuuzaki was looking up at Fuji with adoration in her eyes.

"Syuusuke-kun." She breathed much in the same way she used to do with him.

Fuji gave her a warm smile " Hello Sakuno-chan, taking care of Echizen? That's very nice of you."

"N-no problem" she stuttered.

"Well Echizen shall we be going? See you later Sakuno-chan I'll walk you home later." Fuji simply bent down and gave the shy girl a kiss on the forehead.

Wide-eyed, Ryoma followed his senpai's lead.

What was going on? First Kaidoh? Now Ryuuzaki and Fuji?

Reaching a clearing in the courtyard, Fuji sat down on a bench nearby.

"This is where I usually wait for Eiji, do want to wait with me or would you rather go see someone else?" Fuji asked kindly.

" Someone else? Like who?" Ryoma asked puzzled

" I don't know maybe Momo-kun or any other of your senpai's. Maybe the three ichinen that always followed you, I don't know you tell me." Fuji responded

Ryoma thought for a minute, although meeting with Momo-senpai seemed like the thing to do a little voice in his head told him to stay with Fuji at least until his questions were answered. He decided to listen to the little voice.

"No thank you, I will wait for Kikumaru-senpai with you." Ryoma politely declined.

"Are you sure? Saa, I'm sure Eiji won't take too long. Perhaps you can still do something afterwards."

Silence drowned the two while Ryoma thought on the best way to approach his senpai. He decided on his usual approach.

" Senpai, what happened to Kaidoh-senpai? Why is he in my year?" direct and blunt.

Fuji looked genuinely shocked. " Ryoma… I… I mean, I can't. It's not in my place. I…" He took a deep breath and gave his usual hollow smile once more. " Saa you really got me there Echizen."

Now Ryoma was sure it was serious for his senpai had called him by his first name, which was a rare occurrence the only happened in serious cases. "Tell me."

"Kaidoh had a difficult year. His family, especially his brother Hazue was in turmoil after his mother died and it was very hard on Kaoru-kun, doubled with school, sports and many other things brought him to this sort of rebellious state, his apathy has increased by much. I'm afraid that there is not much more I can tell you myself, the rest you'll have to ask him." Fuji explained sadly.

"But you know everything that happened?"

"Absolutely." The sad look on Fuji's face was clear proof that his senpai was rather pained with the burden of carrying another's secret.

"And you wont tell me?"

" No. It is not in my place." He said firmly.

Another minute of silence elapsed, until…

" Senpai, what other things have changed since I left?"

"Too many." Was Fuji's final answer.

Once again Ryoma was left completely clueless and had no other choice but to quietly wait for Kikumaru. He knew better than to pressure his senpai.

Shaking out of his reverie he noticed the tall figure approaching Fuji.

"Syuusuke…" the familiar baritone voice whispered.

Fuji's smile dropped and he seemed to be looking for an escape route. The other man grabbed his blue-eyed senpai's wrist.

" We need to talk."

Meanwhile Ryoma was still getting over the initial shock of recognizing the individual before them and only one word appeared in his mind.

Buchou?

End Chapter.