Alright! Chapter 2, doing good! For all SakunoxRyoma people out there! Sorry but there will be no pairings in this fic as far as I know. Sorry for the disappointment! I also will be using japanese titles and traditional sayings at the right moments, but this is a English fanfic so I a. Not out to impress you guys with my awesome knowledge of the japanese language (that has yet to be discovered). Ok, I think that's all.

Disclaimer:the obvious stuff I don't own, I don't own. All OCs are mine though.

Tweet!

"Clean up, change, and go home!" Everyone visibly relaxes at the dismissal and immediately runs to the lockers, so that they could go home.

Kaidoh and Ryoma meet at the gate and walk toward the park. The journey there is silent, seeing as to how they both have a lot on their minds. Ever since practice ended, Ryoma has been feeling pins and needles in both left arm and leg, now the tingling sensations have progressed into an almost aching through out both regions. It is bad enough that Ryoma is making a considerable effort to not limp.

When they arrive to the park, the parents are gathering their kids together and heading home to have dinner. The sun is close to touching the horizon.

By the time Ryoma is settled under a tree, Kaidoh is already listing the problems.

"It is obvious that none of the club members are currently, at regular level." Taking Ryoma's silence as an agreement, he continues,"I think it would be a good move to first list possible candidates for regulars position, and then focus on their growth." That is when Ryoma looks up.

"No. It takes hard work to become a regular, we will not just hand them that position because they are slightly better than the others." Kaidoh sighs in agreement.

Ryoma watches as the sun touches the horizon, becoming a sunset. Things were easier when all they had to care about was tennis, and leave the rest to their sempais. Ryoma remembers what his mother used to say when he was sad every time he had to change schools to follow his fathers new career choice; "Life is never constant, that is why we are made to be so adaptable." Ryoma's face takes on a thoughtful appearance as he closes eyes.

"We have the ranking tournament for a reason, so let's just let it happen. There is not much we can do about it now."

There was a comfortable silence after that, both thinking about the future of their team.

"I'm home!"

"Welcome home!" Is the reply from his mother and Nanako.

Ryoma suppresses a wince as he takes another step. Ever since practice ended, the prickling in his left leg and arm have worsened into an almost painful ache.

"Brat! Come in here, let's have a rematch from yesterday. Maybe this time you can win 2 whole games against me." There was Nanjirō looking up from a supposed 'Go for beginners' book, not that that was anything to go by, seeing as to how he has been hiding his pervy magazines ever since Ryoma's mom, Rinko had forbidden them from the house.

Ryoma would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so exhausted. "No way! Mom, I'm going to skip dinner, and go to bed!"

Rinko looked out from the kitchen, frowning. "Are you sure? We are having western food tonight." At his nod, her brows furrowed."Well alright. Good night Ryoma. If you change your mind, your plate will be set on the table."

They heard the door to their son's room close. "Nanjirō, did you notice anything wrong with Ryoma?"

Echezen senior frowns for a second before grinning and reassuring his wife. "It's fine, it's fine. He is probably still sore from playing with his old man yesterday. Boys at this age need rest, they are going through 'changes' after all." Then a lecherous grin came over his face."Maybe it's time for me and our little brat to get together and have 'the talk'. You know, the birds and the bees."

Rinko rolls her eyes at her ridiculous husband, turning back to the kitchen mumbling something about listening to her mother and marrying lawyers.

Now alone, the grin is gone from Nanjirō's face and replaced with a contemplative frown.

It is very rare for Ryoma to reject a match with his father. And from the looks of it when his son came home, Ryoma was on the verge of falling asleep at the front door. Along with the shaky way he was standing, Ryoma looked more like he ran a marathon, and then played back to back tennis matches against pros, in contrast to his going to school and then instructing inexperienced club members on how to swing a racket right.

It's probably just first day nerves wearing him out. That explanation may have assuaged any other parent's concerns, but not Nanjirō, not the father of the most cool-headed son in middle school. Ever since Ryoma was in preschool and told his teachers that they were, in exact words, 'overreacting' to the cut on his forehead that he got from tripping, and that it 'looked worse than it really was'; Nanjirō knew his son was going to be more level-headed than most kids his age.

He decides to let it go now, but Nanjirō will be more aware of his son from today on.

"What do you mean, 'your quiting the girls' tennis club." Tomoka Osakada, president of the Ryoma Echizen fan club and best friend of Sakuno Ryūzaki, screams making everyone in earshot wince and cover their ears.

Sakuno blushes while studying her feet. While she has been really improving in her tennis, she does not feel the same passion for playing as her teammate show towards playing. The real reason she started up playing was to spend more time with her grandmother, the coach of the boy's tennis club. It turned out Sakuno had to decrease her time with her grandmother, with all the training camps they had to go to and late on-going practices. She can't help but feel guilty taking the place of the team that someone who truly loves tennis could have instead.

"You are really good, Sakuno. You just placed third place in the last girls ' tournament you were in. Why would you stop now!?" At her friend's silence, Tomoka sighed in frustration and decides to just let it drop. There are more important things to focus on after all, things like her precious Ryoma and the new recruits to this years fan club.

Unknown to both of them, there was a certain captain listening in to their conversation while trying to take a nap.

"Idatakimasu!" A hug bite is taken out of the sandwich in Horio's hands.

The second year trio are behind the tennis courts to eat lunch with the addition of Ryoma, who is, at the moment, leaned up against the wall, resting his eyes.

Plock...

"Horio-kun, you shouldn't eat so fast!"

Thump... Thump... Plock...

"Hahaha, now that the seniors are gone, we are going to have to practically reconstruct a whole new regulars team." Horio goes on, completely ignoring Kachirō's advice.

Plock... Thump...

"We already have Echizen and Kaidoh-sempai on the team. Other than I,with the three years of experience under my belt that will easily get me into the regulars position, I would have to say the best bet for regulars would be third year, Masashi Arai. What with him having a winning rate of sixty-five percent, his Thor's smash, and being the power player that we are now missing with Momoshiro and Takamura-sempai gone."

Thump... Plock... Thump...

"Isn't Kaidoh-sempai a power player?"

Thump...

"No way! Kaidoh-sempai is a counter puncher. He always counters someone with his snake shots. Power players use their force to push their opponents back; Kaidoh-sempai uses his snake to confuse and trick people, what he does uses no force, just skill."

Plock...

"Wow, you sure do know a lot, Horio-kun." Kachirō's voice holds a tint of awe in it, while Mizuno nods his head in agreement.

Thump... Plock...

"Though there is third year Yukitake Shino. If he were to play Arai-sempai and use his eighty-eight percent return rate, that would then seal Arai-sempai's Thor's smash and take away the advantage... Hmm info..." He is about to continue when Ryoma stands up abruptly, thus cutting off their conversation.

"W-what is it, Ryoma-kun?"

Instead of replying Ryoma walks to the corner of the building to see who is hitting the tennis ball against the wall, only to find no one there.

Looking around, he finds a tennis ball in the dirt with the words Juji written on it.

"Ah! That's probably Jujiro Masune. He is the top of the class in our year, with a 4.3 grading average. His father owns the Masune Hospital and his mother is a model from mother's monthly. I didn't know he played tennis though... Computing info..." The monotone way Horio is stating these facts struck familiar to Ryoma. "There is also something else also that I can't remember. Hmm, oh well. Finders, keepers!" With that Horio tried to get the ball, but Ryoma pocketed before he could get to it.

Riiinnggg...!

"Oh no, we need to get to class!"

With Kachirō's exclamation, the trio hurried to class leaving behind a contemplative Ryoma. From the constant, fluid thumps Ryoma heard behind the wall, this player could at least best most of the club members in the tennis club.

"Jujiro Masune, huh?"

Next day

"Oh! Kaidoh-kun, it's been a while. How have you been? Come in, Ryoma is in his room now, but he will be down down in just a moment." While this is being said, the amiable Rinko brings Kaidoh inside and leads him into the family room.

Immediately upon entry, Kaidoh's eyes are brought to the Himalayan cat curled up on the carpet. Following his eyes Rinko also sees the cat. "Oh that Ryoma's cat, Karupin. I hope he isn't bothering you."

Kaidoh quickly shook his head, making Rinko smile even wider. "I'll go tell Ryoma our here." And with that, she leaves to go see her son, leaving Kaidoh alone is the living room with the cat. At the moment, said cat is now reading under a chair too low for him to crawl under.

Kaidoh reached under the chair only to find a cat toy. Karupin's favorite toy apparently, because the moment the toy came out from under the couch, the cat's eyes have not left the cat toy.

Naturally Kaidoh started to swish the cat toy in his hand so the cat could play with the other end. When Karupin starts playing with the toy, a blush comes over Kaidoh's face and a glazed look enters his eyes. Kaidoh forgets where he is, why he is here, and who is coming down soon. All he could focus on is the cat adorably playing with the toy.

Ryoma blankly stares at his shaking left arm. He can't feel his arm. He can't feel his arm, and not in the 'his arm is asleep, kind of way, more like the 'I just slammed the door shut on my arm and didn't feel it... At all' kind of way.

It started out with a burning pain inside his arm that he could only describe as intense burning inside his bones that started after he did his training exercises that Inoue-sempai left him after club ended. It was weird because he didn't do anything more straining than what he had been doing for the last three months, even less actually because all he did today was the routine swings with his racket. The burning pain started out as a dull ache, but then escalated into a burning pain that Ryoma was praying to stop. Along with a burning pain came spikes of sharp pain into his arm every other minute or so. This continued as he got home, and after two hours the burning went down into nothing making want to question if it ever really was there. He was relieved at first until he notice that his arm was then shaking. He tried to lift his arm to shake it off only to have his arm fall back down on his bed. It felt like his bones were replaced with lead and he couldn't feel the sheets under his arm..

Now here he has been for the last thirty minutes trying to gain feeling back in his arm. He has tried soaking it in cold water, pinching it, and even slapping it a couple times. Nothing has worked. This is even worse than his match against Ibu.

I can't play tennis, the thought causes Ryoma's blood to freeze. He can't even lift his arm without great effort much less swing a racket with accuracy. Have to stay calm. After replaying that through his head a couple times and taking a deep breath, his heart came back to beating at a close to normal pace. He has to stay calm and think about this rationally. Even though this makes sense in his head, the horrifying possibility of not being able to play tennis won't leave his mind.

A knocking on his door causes his head to snap up and bring him back to reality. "Ryoma! Your friend is here! Hurry up and get down here!"

Friend? What friend? I didn't... Oh Kaidoh, he said he would be coming over to discuss things related to the club.

Tucking his hand into his sweat pant's pocket so it wouldn't knock into anything and taking a deep breath, Ryoma got up and heads down stairs.

"Kaidoh, sorry for the wait." Ryoma walks into the room and stares.

In the middle of the room is Kauru Kaidoh, the scary snake of Seigaku, crouched on his floor, playing with his fluffy kitten. Well, this is an interesting development.

Hearing Ryoma's entrance, Kaidoh jumps up, cheeks flushed with a burning red blush. "Echizen!" He clears his throat in discomfort. "Now that you here, we can start."

Ryoma, struggling to keep a straight face, nods. There is a silent agreement to not mention this moment's occurrence, and Kaidoh sighs in relief.

"Coach Ryūzaki has been in charge of the smaller club details until this year, and because of her heart attack last year, her family has convinced her to step back and handle less things this year, leaving those small details to us." Ryoma mindlessly nods in acknowledgment.

"So we need to discuss candidates for new managers position, seeing as to how we have lost Inoue-sempai, and people we can trust the club to when we are at training camps. But first we need to create the set up for the Ranking Tournament." Both of their faces do plenty to express their hate towards the idea of doing the planning.

After an hour and a half of choosing who will be competing against who, Ryoma remembers "Ne Kaidoh-sempa... Ah sorry, Kaidoh, do you think we could leave this spot open." This causes Kaidoh to look up. "I have someone in mind, he is not apart of the tennis club yet, but by then he will joining... Probably." At this Kaidoh rolls his eyes but leaves a spot open anyway.

As they make the final placements to the set up, Ryoma lets out a long sigh. It's times like these that make him have crazy thoughts like missing Inoue-sempai. The American saying You never know what you have until it's gone, would fit perfectly into this situation. Who knew you would need a data master this much? Suddenly a memory from yesterday came to the front of his mind.

"...the best bet for regulars would be third year, Masashi Arai. What with him having a winning rate of sixty-five percent, his Thor's smash, and being the power player..."

"...That's probably Jujiro Masune. He is the top of the class in our year, with a 4.3 grading average. His father owns the Masune Hospital and his mother is a model from mother's monthly. I didn't know he played tennis though... Computing info..."

"Wow, you sure do know a lot, Horio-kun."

"... Hmm info... Computing info..." "Le data"

Ryoma mentally berates himself for missing something so obvious. He doesn't know how he has completely missed the signs of a data master. Satoshi Horio may be a valuable asset to the team after all. He may not have the tennis skills, but he certainly has the nosiness of a data master to make up for it. He couldn't hold back the oncoming smirk this time.

They talk about a few more club related things before Rinko comes in announcing dinner is ready. "You are welcome to stay if you'd like, Kaidoh-kun."

Kaidoh looks toward his captain in askance and when Ryoma just shrugs indifferently he shakes his head. "No thanks, Echizen-san, my mother is expecting me home soon. Maybe later." Rinko looked a little put out at the refusal but cheerily nods anyways.

"Of course! Ryoma never brings his friends home, so it is was a pleasant surprise when you came in today Kaidoh-kun. You are welcome anytime." Kaidoh blushes, a common reaction in the Echizen house for Kaidoh, and nods.

"Ryoma walk him out." The son grumbles at being ordered around, but does as told.

On the way out, Ryoma hits the lower part of his left arm on the corner of a table next to the door. Kaidoh winces in sympathy, but Ryoma doesn't even take notice to it, much to Kaidoh's confusion. It looks like a pretty bad scrape too, by the way he could see the indention in the skin where he is now missing said skin from where he was standing and how he could see purple inside the wound. So why isn't Echizen hissing or flinching in pain, in the very least, reacting to hitting a table with arm. But nope, Ryoma just kept walking to the door.

"Oi, Echizen" that is when Ryoma stops to look at Kaidoh,"doesn't that hurt?" Kaidoh is even more bewildered by Echizen's confused stare. "Your arm, you should get that cleaned and covered up before you get an infection."

Ryoma looks to his arm and his eyes widen upon seeing his injury. He didn't notice? It was then that Kaidoh also noticed his captain's shaking arm. Has that been shaking the whole time he has been here? Kaidoh's mind is flooded with questions.

"Hey Echizen, what's with your arm?" Ryoma freezes and Kaidoh narrows his eyes. They did nothing strenuous today, especially compared to the regulars standards, so what could be wrong. "You should go to the doctor for that."

Ryoma then snorts, "For a small scratch?" Then Kaidoh glares, "No, not for the scratch, it's obvious that you don't feel the scratch though and that's not normal." He shrugged it off, firing Kaidoh up, "it's also not normal for your arm to shake like that. You are our tennis captain this year, we can't afford for you to be careless about you health. We can't take any chances, especially this year." There is only silence to that.

Ryoma knows that, but he does not want to hear something he has been fearing since his arm has started aching. "I got it, I got it." He sighs, "I will go later this month to..." "Tomorrow." Kaidoh growled.

Ryoma is grinding his teeth, "Fine, I will go tomorrow to see what's wrong." After a moment of staring at the other, Kaidoh grunts and walks out of the now open door.

After closing the door, Ryoma looks down at his arm in dismay. It better just be exhaustion or he doesn't know what he would do. Oh well.

He yells to the kitchen. "Mom! Where is the first aid?"

"In the cabinet over the sink in the bathroom. Are you ok?"

Ryoma replies. "Just a scratch." And walks to the bathroom.

Even after he leaves, the person who has been listening to the conversation since the beginning stays behind the doorway, head down in grim contemplation on what he should do with his son.