Disclaimer: I do not own The Prince of Tennis.

Will it be his end?

"What are you doing here?" Akaya's glare was deadly as poison that lingered on its prey.

The three competitors finally faced each other and the whole house fell silent.

"Sakuno, please let me explain." Ryoma pleaded but that's not going to change Akaya's resolution.

"She's not going to hear you out!" he said his glower still fixed on Ryoma. "Can't you see that she has moved on? Why don't you do the same and stop ruining our lives?" he continued to tongue lash Ryoma, in hopes that it gets to his very thick skull.

"I really love you Sakuno. Please…" Ryoma didn't care anymore. He said it as if there were only two of them. But such words from Ryoma are easy to disprove.

"Then why did you leave her?" Marui rebutted. Ryoma was dumb-struck. If he really loved her then why did he leave? So that he can achieve his dreams? 'I don't think so.' Marui thought.

"You're back because you lost in the first round of the tournament that you're in, am I right?" Sakuno finally spoke. All looked at her with surprised eyes, wanting to know more. Ryoma bit his lower lip; his secret is going to be revealed. "I heard from Shiba-san and Inoue-san and I also heard from the news."

"It was because of you that I went back, not bec-" before Ryoma could finish his sentence, Kirihara had finished it for him with a punch on his face.

"Akaya!" Sakuno shouted and ran to Ryoma who was now on the ground. "What did you just do!?" she was angry.

"I just punched him, isn't that obvious?" He replied angrily, angry of the fact that Sakuno is protecting that bastard from him. "Why are you protecting him? Is it because you still love him?"

"No. You're wrong." Sakuno said letting go of Ryoma and shifting her attention to Kirihara who has bloodshot eyes.

"I thought so. You never loved me. You just saw that stupid brat in me, ne?" he said, trying to lock his emotions inside of him. 'Why am I insecure when I already have her in my grasp?' he thought.

"That's not true!"

"I'm just a cork," he said walking towards her, "used to fit in a hole," he walked past her and the others who were at the door "a hole in your heart."

Sakuno began crying and said "You're wrong" over and over. Marui got pissed at Kirihara who was a complete jerk. He ran after his kohai and grabbed his arm. "What do you think are you doing?" he tightened his grip on his arm.

Kirihara just shrugged at first but his senpai was insistent. "Don't you love her too? Then I'm giving her to you!" at the said words, Marui totally snapped and hit him squarely on the face. The others hurried to stop them before something bad would happen (what's happening is already bad).

After a few minutes, the guys were able to stop the two who were at each others throats. Ryoma wanted to comfort Sakuno but she answered flatly, "Go home, Echizen-san." Ryoma couldn't do anything. Even she is trying to push him away. He did what she told him to do and left without anybody noticing.

Marui and Kirihara were far from each other in the living room when Sakuno entered. She walked over to Akaya who was drinking vodka on his own. He had this aura that he wanted to be alone and so, she bowed and apologized but he just ignored her.

Marui approached her and told her that he will take her home. "Come on Sakuno. That jerk doesn't know how you feel." He knew that Sakuno loved him truly. If she didn't, then she shouldn't have settled for him, knowing that there are a lot of better guys who are flocking around her.

******

The following morning, Sumire calls Sakuno for breakfast, but she doesn't want to get out of bed. She entered her room and tried to persuade her and she was able to get her out and eat.

She sat on the couch hugging her knees close to her as she held her cute little phone in her hands as if waiting for somebody to call her or send her a message. She cried again. Her Baa-san came and asked as to why she was crying and why she was down since last night. She also noticed that it wasn't Akaya who took her home and he always did. Sakuno felt the urge to tell her grandmother about it, of what happened yesterday.

Sumire asked for forgiveness. She was the one who told Ryoma where Sakuno was and thought that they will be able to close things between them. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And with good intentions she did that.

******

That Monday during lunch break, she was looking all over for Akaya. She went first to the junior high building thinking that he'd be there. It's been his hiding place since last year. She huffed as she stepped out of the door and called his name. But to her delight, there was no response. She looked at his favorite place but he wasn't there. She sighed and decided to look for him in the senior high building. As she walked in the corridors she was wondering where he could be.

At the canteen, the regulars were surprised that their little baby is joining them for lunch because Sakuno always made lunch for him.

"Brat," Niou caught Akaya's attention and continued, "Where's princess?" the other just shrugged and continued to eat his sandwich. He was getting annoyed. He stood up and slammed a hand on the table and said "Stop acting like a kid and grow up, you idiot!" everyone is looking at him now but he didn't care. Akaya needed a lesson. "She's probably out there looking for you!"

It's as if a lightning bolt struck the Junior Ace. He remembered that that girl always got into trouble and no one else would come and get her out of it but him. He chewed on his sandwich and stood up. He walked slowly until he got out of the cafeteria. When he was in the corridors, he was running his legs off looking for Sakuno. He asked some of her friends but no one knew where she was.

"Where could she be?"

******

She arrived at the rooftop of the senior high building and grimaced that she couldn't find him there or anywhere. She was about to leave when a group of boys came to the rooftop. One of them spoke

"Looky here, if it isn't Sakuno-chan, the stupid Junior Ace's girlfriend." Sakuno steeled herself because this time, he might not be there to save her.

"He's not stupid." She defended though sometimes he is, but it does not matter.

"Oh, really?" the leader f the group closed in on her and put his hand against the wall beside Sakuno's head. "He wouldn't even spend a second with you. He's always with his tennis friends; tennis is everything to him." The last sentence echoed in her head.

It reminded her of someone who was identical with Akaya. She tilted her head to the side and her eyes looked at the ground and decided what she is going to say.

"Well? You coming with us?" the boy said which Kirihara heard as he climbed the stairs leading to the rooftop. He stopped and he wanted to hear what Sakuno was going to say.

"He is not like that! It's not just tennis that's in his mind!" she defended and the other boys just chuckled. "What's so funny about it?" she asked.

"Then where is he? Isn't he supposed to spend some quality time with you?" she flinched. Today was different, he wasn't there to spend lunch time with her, to whine at what his Yukimura-buchou made him do, to tell her that he bickered with his Niou-senpai and Marui-senpai and… and…

Her tears started to fall down her cheeks. "See? He only makes you cry." The boy put a hand on her face and continued, "I won't make you cry, I promise." Sakuno slapped his hand away.

"I'm not going with any of you! I have somebody to look for." She said with all the determination to go and seek him.

"Who said that you're going to leave this place?" then one of the boys held her wrist and she pulled away. Then another took hold of her other arm. Their leader chuckled; about to hold her somewhere that Akaya's hands hadn't trodden yet. She cocked her leg back and released a powerful front kick at the place where the sun doesn't shine.

Kirihara heard a loud wailing voice of a… guy? He hurried over to see a guy crimped on the floor holding his weak spot. He looked at Sakuno who was being held by two boys who were looking shocked at their friend. "Hey, what are you waiting for? Aren't you supposed to scurry out of the place while helping your friend walk?" he asked a rhetorical question. And the guys did leave with their friend in tow.

'And here I thought I needed to save you.' He wanted to tell her that. He looked at her, still standing there but she refused to look at him. He took her wrist and pulled lightly on it and led her back to join the others.

******

Back at the cafeteria they joined their senpai-tachi for lunch. It was the first time that they were complete including Sakuno. Kirihara sat far from Sakuno and she sat in between of Niou and Yagyu. This was also the first time in their history being together that they were actually quiet during lunch.

After practice, Kirihara hurried to the girls' tennis cub and waited for Sakuno. They needed to talk; after a number of months of their relationship, they had never been this cold at each other. Sakuno recognizes him and agrees on the arrangement

It was already dark and Akaya and Sakuno were quiet most of the time they were walking. She thanked him for teaching her to defend herself and he gave a curt nod. As they walked in the park, three men surrounded them. And one of them said something about paying their debt.

A man pulled Sakuno away from Kirihara and she fought against her attacker and the man chuckled at her. "So you've gotten a bit stubborn, huh?" she held her arms behind her and let her watch a gruesome happening.

******

The others decided to follow the two but they lost them in the thick crowd. They looked for them and got an idea that they could be in a park this time, since that's what couples do: walk in the park as they discuss some things and so on and so forth. They split up and looked for their kohai-tachi.

******

Kirihara ended up beaten to the ground. It's not that he couldn't take them on his own but one of them had a steel bar and he already had tasted it. He had a lot of blood flowing down his face; he received a punch on his eye that created a slit on his skin which oozed with blood. The other man let Sakuno watch the others gang up on Akaya and she was crying, calling his name again and again.

They hit him with the steel bar on the side of his head. His brain got shaken and he felt his eyesight faltering. He was about to land on the floor when Sakuno called him. He was able to put his hands before him for support and avoided a hurtful contact with the ground. He stood up and was able to fight the two somehow.

Sakuno got shoved on the floor. Her clothes got tattered from fighting against the man on top of her. "Kirihara-senpai!" she shouted and Akaya turned to her and saw her about to be raped. But to his action, he was caught off-guard.

He felt something cold being stabbed into his skin. The man pulled it out and he put a hand on to his side and felt something warm and wet gushing out. He looked at his hand and saw blood; his eyes quickly turned red which scared the men a step back.

He was able to beat one of them to the ground as the other stared. But that man finally got the guts to swing the bar that he held and hit Akaya on his occipital ridge.

He fell on the floor and blood formed a pool form his wound. Sakuno saw how he fell, as if time slowed down and she was able to read what played on his lips "I'm sorry…"

"AKAYA!" she shouted which caught the attention of her senpai-tachi who had been looking for them. Sanada took his racket and used it as if it was a katana and fought the guy who had a steel bar. The others, who were with Sanada, took the man who was on top of Sakuno and beat him up. Niou took his time beating him up and almost got his knuckles crushed and the face, which his fist was hitting, was far too unrecognizable. Yagyu stopped him since the man had lost his consciousness.

Sakuno sat up to her knees, shocked that Kirihara wasn't moving anymore. Then he stood up, starting with his arms pushing his body up and said "What took you so long, senpai?" He clenched his side and looked at Sakuno. Her hair was tousled and her uniform almost ripped to shreds. Then he walked over and removed his jacket, his jacket that is bloody and that had a hole in it. He kneeled in front of her and put the jacket on her shoulders.

"You might… c-catch a cold." His face somehow twisted in pain and his sight is getting darker due to the loss of blood.

"Akaya…" he was falling forward, his face still in a smile. He was happy that she was safe. "-kun." He fell in her arms, his head supported by her shoulder. He whispered to her ear before his breath would go out.

"I really love you."

The others arrived and Yagyu was calling for an ambulance. Yukimura was shocked, so was Marui and Jackal.

Sakuno held him tight, his blood getting all over her clothes. She cried her eyes and heart out. The siren of the ambulance can be heard in the night air and the incident has gathered a lot of bystanders.

There you go. I hope you don't hate me for this!

The story is coming to a close. Will he die? Will she let him die?

So much for writing this chapter, please read and review! n_n