Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

~~ The Hunting Memories ~~

~~ 7. March, Early Night ~~

Nearly two weeks later and his son was still shaken up from the news about his cousin having depressions. Nanjiroh was not happy. He had thought his son would overcome this phase of depression and endless worry but he had been wrong. It had gotten worse with each following day. His dear son had even turned down the invitation from the cute girl that lived opposite their house who wanted to party her seventeenth birthday with her friends on the 29th February. Also the teen - Nanjiroh wasn't sure if it was a sweet girl or a very feminine boy with dark blue hair - from next door invited Ryoma to its seventeenth birthday at the 5th March.

Ryoma had simply ignored their words, shaken his head and gone back inside his room, closing the door behind him.

Nanjiroh had hoped his son would simply call his cousin and tell her with knocking signs on the phone that he was still struggling with his new home and wasn't ready for a visit, yet. Instead, his son had walked into his room and listened to loud music with his eyes closed. If his son wasn't in school then he would be most likely in his own room, petting his cat and staring at the ceiling or simply sleeping. Whenever Nanjiroh tried to speak to him about his cousin or anything similar to that certain matter, his son would ignore him or go away.

It had already come to a fight between Karupin and Nanjiroh when Ryoma had been so annoyed one time by his permanent visits in his room and Karupin had stepped in for his master and attacked him. The stupid cat hindered him since then each time he tried to enter his son's room. If he did dare to enter, Nanjiroh wouldn't return without scratches and bite marks on his skin. Sometimes, Ryoma would grab his tennis bag and walk out of the house, returning in the middle of the night. Though, he wasn't sweaty like he would be normally after he had played a match or practiced against a wall.

Nanjiroh guessed that even tennis wasn't enough anymore to keep his son's tormented mind at ease. So what could he do now? Thanks to his new job as a monk, his time with his son was limited.

One good thing had happen in those ten days, nonetheless. Ryoma had made friends in a mysterious and unexplainable way for Nanjiroh. His son had never met up with anybody else than his cat but despite that he had people who talked to him like he was a close friend and invited him over to their homes.

The first ones were the brown-haired girl whose name Nanjiroh had forgotten and the cat-like guy called Kikumaru Eiji. The next ones were a funny guy called Momoshiro Takeshi, a strange hissing guy called Kaidoh or sometimes Viper by his friends, a data freak called Inui Sadaharu and a shy boy called Kawamura Takashi. Everyone was older than Ryoma but they were all in the same tennis club which would at least explain how they met his son. Also the glasses-wearing brunette - the captain of the tennis club - Tezuka Kunimitsu had accepted Ryoma as something like a friend.

Well, they were not exactly all friends but something along the line. They picked Ryoma up and walked together to school every day. They even walked him back home. It was strange that Nanjiroh could only remember the names of the guys around his beloved son and not the names of the two hot and sweet girls. He would need to write them down the next time he met them because Nanjiroh had seen through their actions and was sure they would met each other more often in the near time.

How he knew it?

It had happened from time to time in the last couple of days that the female brunette with the blue eyes had sometimes a strange and very confidence smile on her lips, whenever she walked with Ryoma past the house of the feminine bluenette who had invited his son to the birthday party on the 5th March.

Nanjiroh had noticed the reason behind it two days ago when he had been on his way home from his job and was in a very bad mood which had been enlightened at the very moment when he had seen the two girls - the brunette with these clear blue eyes and the feminine bluenette where he wasn't sure if it was truly a female or male - in front of his house, fighting quietly with piercing eyes and smart and calm spoken insults.

He had greeted them with a nod and hurriedly entered his home, only then bursting out loud and laughing tears while he watched those two from the window of the dining room. The two girls were fighting over his son. Ryoma was turning slowly into a pubertal teen, at least at the inside because he was still the shortest in the whole neighborhood and showed no interest in other girls.

"Good evening." Nanjiroh turned around and greeted the girl who stood in front of his home.

"Good evening. Were you visiting my son? Why don't you stay over and have dinner with us? I'm sure Ryoma would be happy."

"Er... I..." To the father's utter surprise the girl began crying and rushed into the house at the end of the street, therefore next to their house on the left side. Wasn't it the house of the old grumpy granny named Ryuzaki? What had his son done now to make the old hag's granddaughter cry?!

That was it! Ten days were long enough for Ryoma to hide and dwell in his thoughts and insult other people with his mood. Nanjiroh decided to do something about it today, even if he needed to drag his son to the street tennis courts and humiliate him in front of his schoolmates in the middle of the night!

Nanjiroh entered his home, shouted loudly "I'm back!" through the small house but didn't get any kind of answer. Ryoma would usually make some noises, like whistling or clapping his hands together, to show him he had heard him. Something was strange...

It was too late for his son to be outside. He would normally be in his room, reading or listening to music, nevertheless, he wasn't there when Nanjiroh saw across the open door and inside the empty room. Worry rose in his guts and his began to sweat. His breathe fastened and his eyes searched every angle.

He would certainly panic if he wouldn't find any kind of note from his son telling him about his whereabouts in the next few seconds His sweet son wasn't allowed to go outside alone. Who knew what scary guys could or would hurt him because of his loss.

Ryoma wasn't stupid, nor was he deaf or blind. Nanjiroh understood that his son got bullied by other students for being mute. He had seen it a lot back then in America. The father shook his head. Now was not the time to think about such things. He needed to find Ryoma and see if he has overcome his mood swings. So he walked up into the kitchen and started to search for any sign.

Nothing.

He sprinted to the bathroom and rushed inside without knocking.

Nothing.

Panic began to rose up.
Where was his son?

He was already on his way to his own bedroom as the sound of voices caught his attention and let him freeze like a piece of ice. Voices so familiar... so close... a memory...

His eyey grew wide, his fingers started to tremble and he fisted them so they would stop. His heart hammered so loud and hard in his chest that it hurt. Voices echoed from the living room into the small corridor. A voice of a child, a sweet boy who laughed over a joke. Another voice of another boy, older than the first one but still a child or a young teen. There was also a third voice which sounded like a girl's voice.

Nanjiroh's breath hitched, hope and happiness spread all over his body. Voices, wonderful noises from a child flooded the room which he had entered without him knowing it.

Tears dared to fall from his eyes and silent sobs escaped his lips when he saw that it was only a videotape playing on the television with his mute son sleeping on the old couch.

He couldn't stop the tears from falling and the sobs to escape his lips. Nanjiroh cried in disappointment, felt his shattered hope. He sat down onto the hard floor in front of his son, pulled his knees up to his chest, hid his face in his son's hair and breathed in the fresh scent while stroking tenderly Ryoma's neck as he knew his son was a heavy sleeper and wouldn't notice him. His mind told him every day, it was hopeless to still believe, to hope, to hear his son's voice once again. Nonetheless, his heart just couldn't let go of this hope.

His son was the most precious person for him.

Just then did Nanjiroh note the tearstained cheeks of his son and worry tightened his heart. "What do I need to do so you'll be happy and speak again?"
As if to reply, Ryoma snuggled up against his body and Nanjiroh kissed his son on the forehead before he put a warm cover over the small body. After seeing such a vulnerable sight of his son, Nanjiroh couldn't bring it over his heart to continue to force his son to call Tsukiko or drag him to the street tennis courts.

He hadn't seen Ryoma crying since the accident. Something was troubling his son and he was sure it had something to do with Tsukiko. He petted his son's hair one last time, whispered in his ear "Good night, Ryoma." and turned off the television and light.

Perhaps he shouldn't have told Ryoma about his cousin wanting to visit him.

~~ 8. March, Early Midday ~~

It was Saturday which meant no school for Ryoma. The teenager lay on his bed, restless and tired. He hadn't really slept for days, only lying in his bed and thinking about the past or better said - thinking about the accident and the following nightmares. That was it what everybody called it. An accident. It never had been an accident! I had been everything else than that. It were just him and Tsukiko who knew the truth and Ryoma hoped dearly it would stay like this forever because his parents, his aunt and uncle wouldn't believe him. The only emotion would be shock, followed by grief and endless guilt.

He had a headache from all the crying yesterday night. His father must have seen sleeping on the couch after he returned from his work because as he woke up early this morning he had a blanket over his body to keep him warm. Had his old man seen him crying as well? Ryoma hoped not. Nonetheless, it would explain why his father didn't try to convince him to call Tsukiko anymore. However, it was also embarrassing as he hadn't cried in front of anybody else since the accident.

His old man must have thought he had a major breakdown. His father left the house later than usual and not with a bright grin in his face but with a frown and the hint of nervousness in his gleaming eyes. Ryoma knew he scared and worried the crap out of his father for acting in such a way. But he couldn't help it.

He was grumpy because he couldn't sleep. He couldn't sleep because he was sad and anxious. He was sad and anxious because his beloved cousin had suddenly one of these phases and that was never good. She had the phases as Ryoma had disappeared out of her sight and that had never happened before. She couldn't see him, couldn't watch him. He feared them, the phases of depression and sadness.

"You're like him... So gentle and handsome... You'll find a beautiful girlfriend when you're a grown-up, just like him."

"I don't like girls. I like to play tennis more." His parents, aunt and uncle laughed, watched him play tennis against his two cousins. It was one of their getting-together meetings. The sun shone brightly above their heads and gave them warmth. It was a nice and cloudless day.

How naive and childish he had been back then. Never had he seen the signs for it nor had he heard the silent pleads in the night. If it would have changed Tsukiko's and his future? Maybe? Tsukiko was older than him by three years and had told him once not to blame himself. She had told him once, the what-if thought lingered in everyone, he was just questioning it more often than the others. She also told him to stop blaming himself and enjoying life with no connection to the accident.

What kind of twisted words if he compared them with the promise he had made with her long ago. It had been too risky to deny the promise and his first thought had been about not being able to survive if he lost yet another family member. He had agreed so soon without a second thought. He had been a child, a boy, who hadn't wanted to lose another part of his family, a dear friend.

The knock on his door startled him out of his thoughts. Ryoma pushed his upper body up with his arms and leaned on his elbows to steady his position. He was ready to throw his pillow at his father who had tried to cheer him up all morning. At breakfast, his father had put a plate with a smiley on it in front of him. Ryoma had rolled with his eyes and ate the only slightly burnt food peacefully. The smiley had been combined of two grilled eggs and one piece of bacon with a tomato as a nose.

As the door opened completely it wasn't his father entering his room. Instead of his father it was his tennis captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu. "Good morning, Echizen." He bowed in greetings, stood on the door sill and waited for the teen to invite him to come inside.

Ryoma nodded as a greeting and looked at his captain with a frown. His view landed on his captain's right shoulder and down to the tennis bag which was probably filled with tennis racquets. He frowned, glanced up to Tezuka and nodded at the shouldered bag to ask Tezuka why he came to visit him. "Want to have a match?"

It surprised the younger teen even more to hear such an offer from his captain personally. Tezuka wouldn't usually offer a match. Matches with one of the regulars were only played in the ranking tournament, never outside the school tennis courts or the tournaments. And Ryoma wasn't a regular yet.

Over the past couple of days, he had learned five very important things about his admirable captain. Tezuka was a reliable and respectful person who looked at everything from different point of views before he decided. Second, he was a person who never left a friend alone, even if the friend was noisy like Kikumaru Eiji. Third, he would never step down and would always take responsibility for his mistakes. Fourth, his orders should be followed and nobody dared to discuss over them or refuse them. If someone did, he would have run many laps and the more he refuse, the more laps would he get to run around the school tennis courts.

The fifth and last point, his relationship with Fuji Syusuke was more than being friends. He had seen them kissing when he had wanted to ask the tensai for a match for distraction. He had joined the tennis club not long ago and as he had watched Fuji play against Tezuka he knew immediately he had taken the right choice. Fuji was a genius, a good rival in tennis, even if his personality was quite difficult to handle. However, on that day... a glance into Fuji's room told him not to interrupt. It had been a gentle kiss, nothing else. But two guys kissing was a bit... too much for him so he had went on alone to the courts and had played against a stranger. It had felt so wrong all of a sudden... the feeling of having a racquet in his hand... the feeling of being able to focus at something else than his past and his cousin.

He had lost the match and walked home, ever playing tennis again till now. Until today.

The young teen had also noticed the harsh complex between the two tensais, the Monkey King, his captain and the vice-captain of Rikkaidai. He had gotten a headache after thinking about it too much so he let it go. The five had something going on but what did it matter to him? As long as they continued to play good tennis against him in the future when he had his better days again he was satisfied.

He shrugged, stood up and shouldered his tennis bag with less enthusiasm. Something in his mind told him not to disagree or he would be punished with running laps Monday evening after practice was over.

It was the sound of tennis balls smacking against the ground continually that pushed him out of his thoughts.

Thinking, he did it a lot lately. He hadn't registered coming here to the street tennis courts with Tezuka beside him. His captain was already unpacking his things, pulled out his racquet and took one sip on his water bottle. Ryoma watched him with sharp eyes, noticed the long scar along Tezuka's left arm as the shirt rolled up a bit as the arms was lifted so high so the water would run out of the bottle.

He furrowed his brows. Had the scar always been there? His thoughts were once again interrupted by the sound of a tennis ball hitting a wall only a few inches away from his face. He thanked his self-control for not flinching like a scared rabbit. Someone laughed evilly and loud, it was audible all over the courts and every person's attention rested on him in seconds. It was one thing which had happened the past few days and did happen every other day - he got bullied. It couldn't be any other way.

One of his daily attackers was a guy called Arai Masashi who was always followed by his handful of friends. The guy had taken every opportunity to embarrass him but had failed each time for now. Arai really was a stupid and jealous idiot. He was, sadly, in the same tennis club as him, so he had the same captain, who had forbidden him to bully the mute freshman. Just then did Ryoma notice the disappearance of said captain. Shit!

He should really stop thinking so much and pay more attention to his surroundings.

Arai stood on one of the three tennis courts, laughed and joked over him with a few teens who Ryoma hadn't seen before. Not good. He hoped they would let him go today and only laughed over him from far away. Right now, he was in no mood for this. Usually, he would provoke them with his arrogant attitude or simply ignoring them all the way. However, today was not one of those days. He was near a headache and a mental breakdown. The message about his female cousin wanting to visit him was still too fresh in his memories. And as soon as he had thought about it, the memory returned, crashed into his head and forced him to take a couple of deep breaths.

Ryoma blinked with his eyes countless times, wanted to get rid of the pictures and spoke mentally his mantra.

It's okay. I can handle it. It's okay. Everybody is alright.

It had been hard enough to get at least some sleep at night without having nightmares whenever he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. The last words, the expression on his cousin's face - it all stumbled back into his already messy brain and triggered emotions out of him which he had hoped had been hidden in his heart forever. He hadn't had those memories in months or were it already years? He couldn't remember. All he had done since then was studying and forgetting the bad memories. Maybe he would never be able to forget as his promise remembered and forced him to feel pity and fear, every day. One message from Tsukiko was enough to shove him out of his daily routine.

"Well, well, well, look who is here without his protectors?" Arai laughed and walked up to him, ripped him out of his daze. Shit, he had been thinking again! Arai approached him quickly and pushed him on his shoulders, again and again till the freshman grabbed the hand and shoved it away with a glare. Arai smirked, happy about such a reaction and wanted to pull out another prank of his when someone shouted loudly over the whole place.

"Hey, hands off from my private tutor!" Ryoma didn't recognize the person immediately. It was when the teen in casual clothes stood right before him and covered him from Arai's and his gang's glances that it clicked in Ryoma's head. It took a couple of second for Ryoma to remember the name of the teen - Kirihara Akaya.

Ryoma blinked twice, looking around with an undefined expression and not able to handle this situation right now. He couldn't believe the idiot from detention was here and actually defending him. The mute teen lifted an eyebrow in confusion, not understanding why Kirihara defended him. He wasn't a girl who needed protection. He pouted by the bare imagine of the guys seeing him like this. A weak girl who would wail every time someone bullied her.

It helped the mute to recover as he wasn't the only one who was confused. Arai and the other guys weren't sure if they should continue and ignore Kirihara or forfeit and run away before the guys from Rikkaidai appeared to help their youngest and precious regular. There had always been some weird rumors about the blue-haired captain being overprotective about the little devil. The group of idiots decided wise and snorted before they walked away, still shouting insults and warnings.

"A bunch of weak rabbits!" Kirihara said, laughed and turned around to look at him. The teen grinned and rubbed his nose. "Ne, you're the guy from the detention with the great English skills. Can you help me with my homework? Buchou and Fuku-buchou have to attend a lot of meetings this week and Kuro-sensei will give me another week of detention if I don't handle my homework in correctly. I think he had noticed it wasn't my work back then."

Ryoma would have groaned if he could. Right, he would never forget the idiot who couldn't understand a single word in English. He rolled with his eyes, ready to go away and on the courts where his captain appeared to be and waited for him but Kirihara was stubborn, flung him around anew and began to plead. "Only this weekend. My teammates will scold me again for not understanding it! And Mura-buchou is really trying hard to teach me... I don't want to disappoint him!" The older teen was already going on his knees and bowing, begging him to help him with his homework. How annoying and embarrassing! All eyes rested on them. "I'll do anything you want!"

He sighed deeply, shaking his head in annoyance and disagreement. He had no time for helping the idiot with his problems. He was already turning on his heels as his view landed on a female teen standing at the far end of one of the courts, staring at him and moving her hands in a language which was all so familiar to him.

Sign language.

Ryoma was mildly surprised but smirked. The teen moved her hand in a greeting, told him her name was Tachibana Ann.