Hello! I hope you all have been having a great summer! Here is the next part of the story. It's going pretty slowly actually. Not the writing part but the timeline. I was expecting for it to go faster but seriously its been like 5 chapters and only 2-3 days. Drat, I'm the author and I don't even know. That's not a good sign...read anyway!

AkimotoAyumu: Good question, but somewhere (I don't remember where but I DID write it...I think) it says that she's almost 16. Under her FALSE identity of "Jukodo Ryuu" she's a 17 year old. She had to create an identity old enough for her to get a job, though I'm sure since she's a girl she looks a lot like a 14 year old boy. But licenses don't lie, at least she's hoping that no one thinks they do.

Stelra Etnae: You didn't really have a question but I just wanted to say thanks for the review! Oh wait...you did have a question but if I answered it there would be no point in reading anymore of the story.

Jelotto: Hey I have a job too! And I don't get to sleep into the mid-afternoon, so don't even start. At least I HAVE a personal life :P haha. Yeah, as far as insults that's all I got. Oh, and what's with the s;e;m;i;c;o;l;o;n;s;?

Disclaimer: Don't own Prince of Tennis

(Regular POV)

Tezuka quickly changed out of his wet clothes in the hopes that pneumonia or any disease of that sort either took a long time to set in or made exceptions for those who got wet in the act of doing good. He hung the wet, dripping clothes in front of the window letting the evening sun that streamed through the bleak clouds, dry them.

Glancing around the room, he decided to unpack after a warm and hopefully, therapeutic shower. Up until this point he had had a game plan as to what he was going to do just by following the natural consequences of events. It went like this: he played tennis - he injured his arm - he had to get it healed - he went to Germany to get it healed - ?.

He stepped into the shower letting hot water run over him where the cold clothes had clung. Closing his eyes, as he often did when he was thinking, his mind began to wander to the matter that had so agonized him not two days before.

Soon, however, the intense debate that had been taking place in his mind was interrupted by a splitting headache originating most likely from said debate. With a sigh, he shut the water off, his plan to allow the water to calm his mind being a complete and utter failure. Instead, he changed into comfortable clothes, tennis clothes (of course), and after unpacking, decided to reacquaint himself with the facility.

He considered asking his therapist, Jukodo, for a tour, something that the therapist probably should have offered to do anyway, but for some reason Jukodo had put a large wall between himself and Tezuka. While Jukodo had appeared to be amiable, he had the feeling that Jukodo had been evaluating him, and did not like what he had found.

Another thing that disconcerted Tezuka about Jukodo were his eyes. Tezuka, believed that the eyes were the window to the soul. Even in the sternest poker face, the eyes could still contain a person's thoughts, fears, and feelings. When Tezuka looked at Jukodo's eyes, something seemed...off, wrong. Like the wall Jukodo had put up extended beyond his false cheer and kind words. But they also bugged him because they reminded him of...something...or someone perhaps. Either way, he couldn't quite put his finger on it. They were almost...catlike? He didn't quite know really.

Contrary to popular belief, Tezuka was actually very sensitive to other people's emotions, and feelings. It's what allowed him to be a good captain, and also what made him seem like an emotionless stiff. Because he knew emotions quite well and was constantly alert to them, he knew that he never wanted to hurt anyone. He could see the pain and understood its depths. Knowing he had caused pain to anyone made him hurt. Physically, and badly. So, he treated everyone exactly the same. How could you possibly do that? Treat your mother as your worst enemy as your closest friend. Tezuka had found the solution, never show emotion to anyone.

So, all in all, Tezuka decided that it was not a wise idea to spend quality time with his therapist. He opened the door to his room and began walking down the hall, opposite the elevators he had just come

from. He read the door signs as he went along, keeping a mental note of each, just in case he was ever called upon for some reason or other to find something contained in one of the rooms. He took his catch phrase (Never let your guard down) quite seriously. What a boy scout.

After some time of wandering the floors, he heard singing, soft and lilting, lingering in the air a bit longer than you'd think notes should. The music was melancholy and filled the air, making it hard to find the source of the noise. Tezuka, drawn to the sound tried quite unsuccessfully to find the source anyways. It was like trying to follow the scent of freshly baked cookies, the singing was nice enough to listen to from a distance but it constantly reminded him of what he was missing out on, and if he didn't hurry he just might miss the girl, for now he was sure that the singer was a female. Then a particularly sweet note rang out, and the singing stopped.

Tezuka looked around to find himself in the garden. He hadn't really been paying attention to where he had been going, being so entranced by the song. He hadn't found anyone and for all he knew he hadn't even been close. It left him feeling a bit melancholy, though whether it was because of the sad draw of the music or his tendency to despair into his troubles as of late, he didn't know. Distraught, he began to instead wander around the garden as night began to settle in the sky, replacing the day's blue and white heavens to a dark velvet blue, interrupted by pinpricks of glittering light. Gazing into the night, he felt a little peace come down on him like the starlight that bathed the garden in blue. He began to stroll through the flowers, a rare thing for the tennis captain. Strolling was not exactly conducive to...well anything. Other than personal pleasure. Thus Tezuka didn't indulge himself to anything of the sort, but the garden, swathed in the moonlight seemed to warrant some of his leisure time.

As he continued to explore the garden, he came around a hedge to see a person, standing and admiring a bleeding heart. For a moment he almost asked if they had been the singer he had heard before, but he stepped on a twig, causing the figure to turn, revealing the face of none other than his therapist, Jukodo.

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(Azumi POV)

(A few hours ago)

I had to relax. Relax enough to think straight, rationally. Relax enough not to smash my first and only client's face into the nearest hard and preferably pointy object. Because doing so would probably not fit somewhere under thinking rationally. I had to keep my cover. It was as simple as that. Somehow, my mind refused to believe it to be that simple, and insisted he was of the same vein of cretins as my heinous ex-headmaster.

Finally, after laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to clear my head by picking out shapes in the patterns that marked the ceiling, I decided to try and walk off my frustration. Normally, I would spar, or practice with my sais, but considering that I was supposed to be a medical child-prodigy turned mild-mannered therapist, I thought it might be a bit too suspicious.

As I reached the door, I opened it slowly, peeking around the door, making sure that no one was in the hallway.

As cruel, cruel fate would have it, Tezuka's room was located directly across the hallway from mine. It made sense. He was my only patient. I was rooming here unlike most of the other therapists, and we were both...boys...no wonder I couldn't think rationally. I was already clinically insane for trying to pull my cover off.

I was safe, I could hear the shower going in his room. I began to meander through the halls, always aware of the closest exits and the myriad of ways to get there. I was too tense...and insane. Not a good combo, so I decided to take my walk outside, where it was more open and I could relax a bit more. Outside, I passed the tennis courts. Growing a bit nostalgic, I watched for a while as the two players carried on an intense battle under the court lights.

Amatuers. My brother would kill them easy and I'm sure he'd improved since the last time I saw him. My heart grew a little heavier in my chest. I knew that I couldn't go back to Japan. That would be the easiest road for me and my team knew it. I could have food, shelter, and lodging without calling attention or distraction, I would know the language, and finally be reunited with my family. The stitches that kept my heart together tightened. I continued to walk past the tennis courts, refusing to watch anymore. I raised my chin in defiance against the emotions I was feeling.

Keep the head up, and your stance proud, I told myself.

My walk brought me away from the tennis courts until I could no longer hear the sound of the balls striking the racquets. As I walked, the scenery around me changed from open pathways to a large flower garden surrounded by a hedge.

If there was a place to relax, this most certainly was the place. I began to allow myself to let my guard down, if only a little, letting my mind revel in the beauty of the moonlit garden. As I passed by the flowers, I began to hum.

Music, in my mind made everything better. It soothed, it allowed emotions to be channeled with no bad consequences, it moved the heart and soul to higher places. Then, I saw a bush of bleeding hearts, my favorite flower, perhaps because they so aptly embodied my own heart, but also because they were unique, and quite rare. Not that they were hard to grow, they were merely unpopular. The only reason that I knew about them was that there had been one growing in the yard back at the Echizen house. I remembered because Ryoma and I would guard them from Karupin, making it a game we could play for hours. I shook my head, trying to clear it. I had too many taboo subjects. Every thought brought me to the past, and the past brought me memories, fresh in my mind along with the painful emotions that accompanied the memories. All happy times with my family and my team, bittersweet, tainted by the knowledge that there would never be times with them again. Sometimes I wondered why I cared, but then I would remember that it was the only thing that separated spies like me from spies like my headmaster. His memory brought quite a different emotion with it.

My humming slowly began to evolve into a song, bittersweet, and sad like my thoughts. I wanted to cry, I wanted to be angry about all the things that had happened to me, I was so full of confused emotion that I had wanted to hurt a stranger I realized. Something needed to change. And so I let it out. All the sadness, the regret, the shame in a song that I wove them into. And then when I felt my emotions drained, I stopped, letting the last few notes hang in the air, until the crisp night air swallowed them up just like the cares that I had poured into them.

My heart felt lighter. I fingered the bleeding heart that I had just picked, and a crooked smile crept onto my face. Relief began to fill me.

Until I heard a branch snap behind me. I spun around, letting the bleeding heart fall from my hand.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Jukodo-sensei. I'm sorry to have disturbed you." He said, gave a little bow and turned to leave.

I was a bit shocked, and had been staring at him with my mouth parted slightly. He looked...different in the moonlight. I realized that aside from being extraordinarily muscular, he was quite handsome. So much for smashing his face. It would be such a waste.

Then I realized the absolute lunacy of my train of thought. Wow I hated being female sometimes. I quickly recovered and with my resolve made anew, I called out, "Tezuka-san, wait."

He turned towards me.

"Gomenasai I never offered you a tour around this place." I said gesturing towards the campus of the rehab center, "It's a little late, allow me to at least walk you to your room."

I was going to give him a second go (and no it did NOT have anything to do with my realization that he was attractive…relatively). I wasn't too sure of him still and erred on the side of wariness but I was able to put more real enthusiasm and cheer into my voice and smile.

He nodded, and I walked over to his side, feeling significantly shorter considering we were supposed to be the same age, leaving the moon and bleeding hearts behind.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Regular POV)

Koga and Mochizuki were sulking, inwardly of course. On the outside, nothing was amiss. They had failed to reach Tokaji before he had started working on the computer. Then Nishimura had spotted them idling and ordered them to help fix the computer as well which they begrudgingly did.

Tokaji, and Nishimura were visibly excited and Asai was...well impartial and silent as usual.

The computer was back up and Nishimura was gleefully tapping away on it once more, trying to recover any data that would lead them to Echizen.

Tap tap tap

"I think I've got it."

Tap tap tap

"Yes! Here it is."

A few more clicks and a picture filled the screen. The picture was of the room that the D-room, empty.

Nishimura smiled triumphantly, "And...here we go."

He clicked the play button and they saw the door open slowly. Azumi entered and began to go through the piles of wigs.

Mochizuki, cringed. Oh no. Azumi's cover is going to get blown. I have to do something.

He closed his eyes in concentration, and then an idea came to him. It was a longshot but he had to try something.

"Um...guys, why doesn't Koga just watch this?" He said.

"Why?" Tokaji demanded in his usual irritated tone.

"There might be some...undressing." He muttered, growing quieter and redder towards the end.

An awkward silence filled the D-room. No one even dared to breathe. Mochizuki used the distraction to give a meaningful glance at Koga who at his statement, had been looking at him like he was some foreign and undesirable bug. However, Koga understood and gave the slightest of nods back to Mochizuki, but continued to stare at him detestably so no one would be able to tell any communication had occurred between them.

"..." Nishimura, though flustered, managed to remain calm...at least on the outside. "We have to all watch it. 10 eyes are better than two and all that. It's a matter of the gravest importance that we all watch everything Azu-...the target did so we know what to watch out for."

He said it confidently, but he really had no desire to strip Mochizuki's innocence from him. Heck, he was feeling a little queasiness inside too. But if they were truly going to be professional about this, it had to be done.

They all turned their attention back to the video, two of them rather reluctantly.

Thankfully, she was still trying on wigs.

Koga chuckled. It was just like Azumi to take forever on the wigs, it was her favorite part of every mission.

Then, Azumi turned and looked as though something had caught her eye. She reached out her hand and...the video went to static, as all hell broke loose in the D-room.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Azumi POV)

"So, Tezuka-san, where in Japan are you from?"

I wasn't going to force a reaction this time, but I still would like one. First, I had to learn some stuff about him and then maybe he would open up a bit. And I WOULD get him to open up, I promised myself.

"Tokyo. I attend Oshiro High there."

My eyes widened for half a second, before I caught myself and made my face neutral again. I seemed to be failing miserably at eliciting a reaction from Tezuka, but he seemed to have no problem getting emotion out of me. He had startled me out of my mask not just once but 3 times in one day. Which was not an easy task even for the members of my team. I was pretty sure from his demeanor that he was not the type to notice others' feelings all that often.

Oshiro High...wasn't that where Ryoma attended? And wasn't Tezuka the captain of the tennis team? Maybe he knew Ryoma!

"Oshiro High, huh? So you're captain of the tennis team, right?"

"Hai."

"How's the team looking this year?"

Boy did that work. I should have brought up tennis before. I don't think I had heard him say ten words yet but at the mention of the tennis team, he became downright chatty.

"We have a strong team this year. Our regulars are improving and they were already formidable. Momoshiro Takeshi, one of the 2nd-years has a jack-knife that he has extended from just his backhand to be off both wings, though he still tends to guard his right leg. Inui Sadaharu, a 3rd-year is able to not only formulate data but also estimate the growth and evolution of a player during a match. Eiji Kikumaru and Oishi Shuichiro are able to go into synchro just by exchanging glances. Eiji is also to duplicate himself, making it seem as though there are three people on the court. Kaidoh Kaoru is able to snake off of both wings. Fujiko Syuusuke has improved exponentially as well, rivaled only by Echizen and myself."

It was a good thing that I was an Echizen. Knowing all those tennis terms were necessary in my family, especially since playing tennis was one of the primary activities that filled my time with Ryoma. He enjoyed it, so why not?

But all that was unimportant. All that mattered was the last sentence he had uttered....'rivaled only by Echizen and myself'.

Echizen...

"Do you play tennis?" he inquired, breaking into my reveling at the newest revelation.

"A little." I answered honestly. As I said, I was an Echizen, it was required, a given. But considering I was home once every blue moon, I was hardly that good.

He nodded as if reassuring me that it was okay and nothing to be ashamed of.

We walked in companionable silence back to his room. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts about his team and I, in those of my brother.

When we came to our rooms, I cut into the silence first.

"Good night Tezuka-san. Our first appointment will be tomorrow at 9am. Then we'll see what we can do about that elbow." I ended with some genuine warmth, not that I thought he could tell the difference. But it surprised me.

"Hn. Good night Jukodo-sen-" He sneezed cutting off the suffix of my name. It didn't bother though, I didn't deserve it anyway.

"Bless you. Or gesundheit rather." I corrected, using a little German that I was sure he knew.

"Ah." He sneezed again and as he opened the door to go into his room, I spotted the still dripping clothes hanging in front of his window.

Crud. I'll bet he had pneumonia or something.

"Tezuka-san? Are you feeling okay?" Once again I surprised myself with the genuineness of my concern.

"Ah."

I refused to believe him as he broke into a sneezing fit. I reached my hand up to feel his forehead.

It was burning up. I pulled my hand away quickly and it tingled as I it left his skin. Now that was odd. I didn't pay it much mind however as I was pretty sure that getting Tezuka to admit he was sick was going to be quite an ordeal.

"You're very warm. You should probably lay down."

If you can imagine someone looking cross while not changing their facial expression at all, then you understand the glance I got for even suggesting he give himself a break.

"Arigatou for your concern Jukodo-san, but I am fine."

He turned as though that settled things, and strode forward into his room as I opened my mouth to protest. But I never did, because then, Tezuka fainted.

Well there you go! I hope you enjoyed it. Please Review!