It Began on the Streets
Response to reviewers:
XxMaddy: Here's the next one!
D'cute: Thanks! Here's an update!
mistressKC - wanteddeadoral...: Yup yup!
Craze Izumi: Glad u think so!
NDebN: Here's another update!
SnowBlizzard: Fuji is awesom!
SephirothduMatrea: Yes 'Sayang' is tagalog. I deceded to put one in... I was bored... and watched some funny filipino comedy...it just came to mind.
RuByMoOn17: Yes, kinda...sorta...
BattousaiGrl: Glad you like! Sorry if the update took too long!
Emi Yuuji: Really? Thanks! I'm not usually good with fight scenes.
Ishka: Eh...yeah I think he kinda scares me too...
yoshikochan: Me too! Not too many of those around.
KNW: Thanks for the advice! Glad u found it interesting
Part 7
Ryoma glanced at his hands while walking back. Tatsuha wouldn't leave him alone. He couldn't think. He couldn't have smoked before but the urge was there. Besides he didn't remember it. He brushed it off and climbed to his room window. He got inside and closed the window. He froze as the main light turned on.
"Where were you?" Tezuka asked coldly.
Ryoma knew Tezuka was standing where the light was. Though it didn't show, he could tell that Tezuka was angry. He felt like a wife who comes home very late at night cheating on her husband. He shook off those thoughts. He couldn't think about that. Right now he had a very big problem to worry about. He had to get Tezuka to leave the room. The man may not look it but he was stubborn.
"I was taking a walk," Ryoma answered.
"This late at night?" Tezuka questioned.
"I couldn't sleep."
Tezuka walked up to him spinning him around pinning him to the wall. He knew that Ryoma could break out but he wasn't thinking rationally at the moment. Ryoma wanted to hiss in pain as Tezuka gripped an injury. He was angry. But it seemed to be for a different reason.
Tezuka saw that Ryoma was injured to the point of being fatal.
"What happened?" Tezuka asked, concerned although it was bordering on anger. Ryoma pushed him away.
"I got jumped," Ryoma responded making his way to the bathroom. Tezuka did notice the trail of blood that followed.
"Don't lie to me," Tezuka stated sternly gripping his wrist. Ryoma glared at him as he glared back.
"Hanase yo!" Ryoma yelled at him as he tried to struggle out of the grip. This felt familiar. He flinched as he thought a hand was going to smack him. (1) Since he was a bit tired he couldn't break out as he could. So he swung his fist at him but it was caught before he could cause any damage. Ryoma glared at Tezuka. He struggled but he wasn't strong enough to break out. "Let go of me. I just got jumped. I took- got away," Ryoma said again catching his slip. He wasn't exactly lying.
"You're still lying," Tezuka responded, dragging Ryoma to the adjoined bathroom. Tezuka forcefully got out the first aid kit. He had a feeling that he would need more of this as time came to pass. For some reason he felt angry, angry with the people or person who'd done this but he was also mad at Ryoma for not trusting him enough to tell him the truth. He could tell the younger man was lying.
"Take off your clothes," Tezuka commanded. Ryoma looked at him suspiciously.
"Why?" he asked.
"So I can address your wounds."
Ryoma reluctantly obeyed only stripping till he was half naked. He winched as some of the blood had dried and stuck his shirt to his skin. He sat on the covered toilet seat.
Tezuka was shocked at the extent of Ryoma's injuries. He was mostly worried at the profusely bleeding wound on Ryoma's side. He quickly grabbed a towel and pressed it against the fatal wound. Kneeling down, Tezuka began to clean around it.
Ryoma was surprised at the gentleness of it. He sat silently, watching as Tezuka cleaned his wounds. Now it just made him feel guilty for even meeting Tatsuha. He mentally berated himself. It was still silent. Ryoma didn't want to say anything in the case Tezuka might start asking him questions he didn't want to answer at the moment. Silence was much better than that. The guilty feeling still wouldn't leave him alone. Apparently, with it came images that were rushing through his mind that he couldn't see. It was giving him a headache.
Tezuka concentrated on his task so not to distract himself with questions that were running miles ahead in his head. The only questions that seemed to stick out inside his mind were 'who' and 'why' did they do it. If Ryoma could only tell him then he'd rip this city until he found them and charge them for assault and batter charges. Probably he'd add attempted murder on the list too. He finished wrapping up the last bandage. He became alert when Ryoma let out a small moan of pain.
He quickly caught the younger man, being careful about the injuries, falling on his back with him on top. He looked down to see Ryoma's eyes half lidded, about to close. He carried him bridal style and placed him on the bed.
"You should get some sleep. I do expect breakfast at five tomorrow." He said to lighten up the mood. Ryoma stared hazily before letting out a small smile.
"Mada mada dane," was Ryoma's response before he passed out from exhaustion. Tezuka paused before leaving. The phrase was so childish. He almost thought Ryoma had his memory back. But he didn't dwell on it further.
-X-
Sure enough at five in the morning Tezuka saw some breakfast for him already ready and still warm. It was unbelievable that Ryoma was able to get up at an impossible hour with the severe injury that he was still tired from. He stared at it amused. He saw the TV on in the living room. Ryoma was fast asleep on the couch. Tezuka took a moment to examine the scene before snapping out of his gaze. He grabbed a blanket from the cabinet and placing it over the sleeping figure while turning off the TV. His hand brushed off the bangs from his face.
Tezuka noticed the busted lip. His thumb brushed over it briefly while he caressed the sleeping face. He was stunned when Ryoma leaned into his touch. He quickly pulled his hand away wondering what he was doing. He took one last glance before leaving.
-X-
It was crowded as he and his opponent were surrounded. They haven't started yet but the crowd was chatting it up. Then a female voice interfered silencing them.
"If you die…well you get the idea. If you survive you get to go. Now begin," she said.
The two didn't move for a while until the opponent ran up attacking him as he fought back. He dodged another attack and kicked his opponent across the room. His opponent got up throwing blades at him, which he caught and dodged at the same time. It had been awhile and there haven't been any major injuries yet. He wanted to end this quick.
He ran up to his opponent trying to knock him out so he didn't have to do anything extreme but his opponent fought back. Since they ran out of weapons they resorted to fist fighting. Their weapons were on the ground either knocked out or dropped. His opponent was good at fist fighting. He was flung back as a kick was aimed at his stomach. He gasped in pain as he fell hard on the ground. He got up slowly but he noticed a knife on the ground.
His hand grasped it and he hid it waiting for the opportune moment. His opponent walked up to him ready to kill him with the weapon he found. His opponent raised the blade above him about to stab as it came down he moved out of the way. He slashed deeply at the neck of his opponent getting blood splattered on him. He stood there as his opponent fell thirty seconds later dead. He dropped the knife to the ground and the crowd cheered.
It was their motto right? Kill or be killed?
He looked at the woman, his mentor and surrogate mother. She stood in front of him sadness reflecting in her eyes. She hugged him tightly. He hugged her back. He wondered why she was sad.
"Anak… Dinaramdam ko. Dinaramdam ko," she said. (A/N: it means Child I'm sorry in Tagalog) He understood what she said since she'd been teaching him the language, she was half Japanese and Filipino, and he wondered why she was. It would've been either him or the deceased right?
Soon the scene faded and it was raining. He was looking down at her, cradling her in his arms. Familiar people surrounded them but they didn't do anything so he assumed they were friends. The woman was looking at him and smiled. Then she looked at everyone.
"He is your new leader. Take care of him," she said to them. She turned to him, "It's about time… I tell you your name anak…" She pulled him down to whisper in his ear.
"Ryoma E-"
-X-
Ryoma woke up breathing heavily. His hands clutched tightly at the blanket. He managed to calm himself down telling himself that it was just a dream. He sighed in frustration. She said his name. Was she the woman who took care of him? He only assumed and she was about to tell him his name. Or was it really his name? Maybe it was just a figment of his imagination. Shaking his head he thought about the first part of his dream. Did it really happen?
God, how bad had his life been!
He decided to not dwell on it further. He winced as he accidentally pressed a wound. He had to take care of it. Maybe later he was hungry at the moment. He got up from the couch folding the blanket. He didn't remember sleeping with a blanket but pushed the thought at the back of his mind. He walked in the kitchen to find a note written by Tezuka himself. It said:
'Take care of Yuki. I forbid knife throwing, dangerous stunts, and anything of that sort.'
Ryoma smiled a little. It was just like Tezuka to be straight to the point. At least Yuki wasn't so bad. Now what to do?
-X-
"Satoshi! Why didn't you let me say anything!" Kaori yelled at him.
"Because you would've caused a scene. His friends wouldn't want to know that their newfound friend was a gang member better yet the leader of one," Satoshi responded as he held the door open for her to their room. She sighed.
"You're right." Kaori sat on the bed while Satoshi went to get some things. He went over to her and dumped old newspaper clippings, dated twelve years ago, on top of her. She glared at him while he smirked back. She huffed before gathering them and looking at the titles.
'Renowned Prince of Tennis missing'
'Freshman tennis prodigy kidnapped?'
She looked at him curiously.
"Read it," he said.
"Freshman at Seishun Gakuen was reported missing yesterday after a week of absence in school. The freshman missing just happens to be Echizen Ryoma, renowned Prince of Tennis and son of the former tennis star Echizen Nanjirou…" she read. "What does this have to do with anything?" she asked.
"Look at his picture." Kaori gasped in surprise. It showed a younger picture of Ryoma. There was no way that this was true.
"You don't think that this has anything to do with our boss? Do you?"
"I think this was the reason why Kori-san didn't want anyone reading the newspapers or watching the news. The bad thing is Ryoma is staying with the former team captain of the tennis team when Kori-san found him."
"Why would Kori-san do this?" Satoshi shook his head.
"I don't know. All we could do is wait. Plus we have a job to do and we know he's safe since he's still able to take care of himself."
-X-
Ryoma sighed. Yuki was a handful. She always wanted to do something. At least his injuries weren't affected much. He could faintly hear the maids discussing, more like laughing at his (un)fortunate situation. Right now Yuki was dragging him to her father's office. Ryoma figured this would be a great opportunity to get information about Tatsuha. He almost forgot about it.
Yuki was pretty smart for a four year old as she was able to start up the computer. But then there was a password screen. Yuki kept punching in numbers and letters but she couldn't get it right. Ryoma sighed. If he wanted to get the information he'd have to break in but he was sure that the computer was monitored if someone entered. The computer was hooked up to the company. Tezuka would get the message but it'll take a while for Tezuka to make it back. He had enough time to break in while Yuki played a game.
"I can never guess Papa's word," Yuki stated pouting in the office chair.
"Let me try Yuki-chan," Ryoma offered as she let him have the office chair. He hoped he could hack into it without triggering the alarms in the instant. He sighed before winging it. In a matter of seconds he was in. Yuki clapped before jumping up on his lap.
"That's cool Ryoma-san. Do you know his word?"
Ryoma shook his head, "No, I just punched in a few keys and it logged on." Hoping I didn't trigger the alarms automatically, he added silently as an afterthought. If he did it right the alarms would be on hold for ten minutes. For some reason, he knew every company had this.
Yuki browsed through to see if she could play any games. Sadly there were none. Ryoma got the keyboard again and winged it. In a matter of minutes he found a game that was appropriate for her in Tezuka's eyes and printed out information about Tatsuha. He guided Yuki's hands and fingers on how to play as he showed her the keys and what they do.
-X-
Atobe looked over at the two he hired. He had to admit that they were good. Though he preferred the new boss who was currently missing at the moment. He had to confront them about it now since his spies say that the boss was missing.
"Kaori-san, it has been a week since you informed me that your boss has been on a trip overseas. You said he would be here today. Why is it that he is not?" Atobe questioned.
"He called and said that he had to stay for a while longer," Kaori answered.
"You're lying. My spies told me that he was missing." Before Kaori could respond, Satoshi intervened.
"You are right. He's been missing for the week. We found him but he currently has amnesia, which he is prone to. We're sorry Atobe-san that we haven't told you earlier," Satoshi answered. Atobe sighed.
"That's fine. Do you know where he is? Maybe I could help."
"We cannot disclose that information as it is valuable to us and enemies who wish to have the chance to eliminate him."
"Don't you mean the kitten that got picked up by Tezuka last week?" Fuji said as he entered the office. He held that ever-present smile on his face. Kaori and Satoshi stared at him in confusion. 'Kitten?' they both thought.
"Syuusuke, I told you not to interrupt important business!" Atobe exclaimed.
"Keigo, I wasn't interrupting. I merely gave you an answer to your question." Fuji held up a photo. Atobe stared in shock as he saw a picture of a 12-year-old Echizen. He looked to the couple.
"Is this true?" he asked. They both nodded their heads.
"We didn't want to believe it at first, but… We're sorry," Satoshi spoke, "If Kori-san had informed us years ago we would've convinced her to give him back. But she told us to stay away from the news until it died down." Atobe turned his attention to his boyfriend.
"You know what this means don't you?"
"Tezuka is in for one hell of a surprise."
TBC-------------
(1) - Remember the episode where it was before the American vs Japan tournament and Kevin found Ryoma and challenged him? But then Tezuka backhanded Ryoma for accepting the challenge? It was a reference to that.
BLK Angel of Destruction: Hiya pplz! Sorry for the late update! I was supposed to update this last week but ffn didn't let me load the file. Anyways thanks for your reviews I really appreciate them... The next chapter should be up next month, I think... or maybe sooner...
Review PLZ! No Flames! C+C accepted.