A/N: Seems I'm continuing this. Enjoy!

Chapter Two - Spreading Rumors

Momo and Ryoma had stopped in at the burger joint for their daily fourth meal. It was in this scene that Momo made the gravest mistake of his life. Well, not necessarily this scene, but it's where it started.

"I'm telling you, Echizen," Momo said. "Buchou eat books."

Ryoma took a long drink from his cola. "Right. And Fuji-senpai's actually nice."

"It's true!" Momo protested, his mouth full of fries, "I was sneaking out of class—"

"And why were you sneaking out of class? Again?" Ryoma gave him one of those looks. "Really, Momo-senpai, you're never going to pass your classes."

"Shut up." Momo glared right back at Ryoma and took another bite of his burger. "I needed some more food. Stop interrupting; I'm trying to tell a story." He took a swig of cola. "I saw Fuji-senpai and Tezuka-buchou out in the hallway for the third time this week." Another look. "Buchou was borrowing another one of Fuji-senpai's books."

"And that means he eats books," Ryoma deadpanned. "Yeah, don't think so."

"Why not?" retorted Momo. "You've seen Buchou, he's a neat-freak. Why would he need to borrow someone else's book?"

"Maybe because he lost it?" Ryoma suggested. "And maybe you need to see a doctor. Your mind's run off again." They threw away their trash and headed outside to the bike stand.

"Ha ha, very funny." The two climbed onto Momo's bike and set off for the Echizen household. Momo wouldn't let it go, so they argued back and forth the whole way there.

"Tezuka-buchou. Eats. Books!" Momo shouted.

Ryoma pulled open the door to his house. "Whatever, Momo-senpai." He slammed the door behind him.

"Like he knows anything," Momo mumbled to himself. "He's just a stupid freshman."

"Hey, Kikumaru-senpai," Momo called as he caught up to Eiji. "How 'bout treating me to some burgers?"

"No, I already did that once this week!" Eiji complained. "I still don't have any money."

"But I've got to tell you something." Momo knew he had him. "Don't you want to know what it is?"

Eiji pouted and gave in. "One burger. That's all," Eiji said.

Momo grinned at him. "Fine by me." He looked at Eiji. "By the way, Kikumaru-senpai, did you know that Tezuka-buchou eats books?"

"What?!" Eiji exclaimed in surprise. "He does? I knew it!" He stopped on the sidewalk. "How else could he be so cruel by forcing us to run laps day after day? And with Inui's strange drink on top of that!"

"At least someone believes me," Momo muttered. "Echizen thought I was crazy."

"Ochibi said that?!" Eiji turned around and headed towards Ryoma's house. "Then we have to go make him believe!" Momo followed. This would be much more fun than getting a burger. Soon, the whole world would know that Tezuka was a book eater!

Eiji and Momo both pulled to a stop outside Kawamura Sushi. Taka was outside sweeping the sidewalk.

"Taka-san, Taka-san, Taka-san!" Eiji jumped up and down. "You won't believe it, but Tezuka eats books!"

"What?" Taka said, pausing in his sweeping. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Eiji pulled Momo forward. "Momo here saw it with his own eyes!"

"It's true, Kawamura-senpai," Momo agreed. Apparently he doesn't seem to remember what he actually saw. "Buchou eats books."

"I wondered what happened to that book I gave him for Christmas last year," Taka pondered. "I never saw it again. Even when we had that party at his house—"

"What party?" Momo questioned.

"Nothing, nothing," Eiji said, waving it off. "But you have to help us, Taka-san. Who knows how many more, unsuspecting books are just waiting to be eaten?"

Eiji dragged Taka and Momo away without waiting for a response. Taka shouted back to his dad that he was done for the day.

The next place the three converged on was the river Kaidoh trained at. They ran down to the water's edge. Well, Eiji ran, still pulling the other two behind him.

"Kaidoh!" Eiji hollered, grabbing the attention of everyone in a five mile radius. "Kaidoh, we need your help to rescue the poor, innocent books before Tezuka eats them!"

Kaidoh looked bewildered, or as bewildered as Kaidoh could look while people were watching. The only thing that stopped him from ignoring the group was that he didn't want to be seen as impolite.

"What are you talking about?" he hissed.

Eiji launched into his story. Due to time constraints, the entirety of his speech will not by typed here. Let's just say he embellished it. A lot. Tezuka was now a six-armed alien from Pluto who could only smile while he ate books or else the world would explode. Thus, they had to save Tezuka from the evil books that he ate.

Taka was confused, Momo agreed whole-heartedly, and Kaidoh just sighed and decided to go with it. What was the worst thing that could happen? Little did he know that those words should never be uttered, for many worse things would happen.

"Where's Inui?" Eiji asked Kaidoh. He pointed to a conveniently placed park.

"Inui!" the group shouted, trying to find him. "INUI!" No use, the park was huge. Somehow, a tennis racket made its way into Taka's hand.

"BURNING!" he yelled. It was loud enough to shake the trees and knock the racket out of his hand. And loud enough to cause Inui to magically appear behind the four.

"Yes?" he asked, straightening his glasses. With his middle finger, because that's what people with glasses do. They straighten their glasses with their middle finger. Which annoys me because then I can't see the person's face. But I digress.

"Yes?" Inui asked again. Eiji took a deep breath and was about to start his story when Momo cut him off.

"Tezuka eats books and we need you to help us save him, because all that paper probably isn't good and the poor books need to be saved," he said as Eiji deflated. Kaidoh was mumbling to himself wondering why he got the long version. Taka was wondering why he couldn't be on a sane tennis team. Then he remembered that this was tennis and no tennis players were ever sane.

"I believe I can help you there," Inui stated, whipping out his handy, dandy, green notebook! "But first, we must look for clues!"

Going completely out of character, the group of five merrily skipped off into the sunset to search for ways to help Tezuka and fix his eating habits. In fact, they were so out of character that Momo and Kaidoh had their arms linked together and weren't fighting! Maybe there is some good in Tezuka's book-eating habits!

"Do you ever get the feeling," Oishi muttered ominously, "that something bad's about to happen?"

He looked at the other two occupants of the room. Fuji was just sitting there with his ever-present smile. A chill ran up Oishi's back. His gaze moved over to Tezuka who was just looking back at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Nevermind," Oishi said, going back to his work. He should have left with Eiji when he had the chance. It was far too silent and creepy

A/N: Ok, the story kinda ran away from me. And I had fun with italics. I tried to do everybody's personalities justice, since I love them all, but I'm still not sure they're right.

And no, there will be no romance in this story. Please do not ask or request there to be.