Disclaimers: Refer to the previous page.
"Eh?! What should we do? Ryoma will be so sad, he will fall into depression. Then he will start missing classes, and probably mingle around with bad people. Then he is going to ruin his…"
"Oishi-senpai, I don't think that will happen." Momoshiro sweat-dropped while watching the fukubuchou getting into the 'mother hen mode'. "Right, Inui-senpai?"
Inui remained silent for a whole minute.
"Ne, Inui, that won't happen,right?" Kawamura prodded gently. (Take note that he did not have his racket with him)
Still the data player remained silent. The regulars, except Fuji, was getting paler.
"Fusshhh…"
An odd glint reflected off Inui's spectacles as he referred to his notebook. "The possibility of that happens is very low, almost non-existence.""
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"At least over the scenarios Kikumaru mentioned. However…" he left his sentence hanging.
Immediately, the tension returned.
"However?" Kikumaru asked.
"The chance of that will be higher if it's his cat that's involved." Inui closed his data book. "Then again, the possibility of any of that happening bar the skipping-classes part is too low to begin with."
"Saa ne. It's Echizen we're talking about after all." Fuji smile never changed throughout the whole conversation. If anyone could see his eyes this whole time, that person would have seen them darken with worries. He held out his racket to Kawamura. "Taka-san."
"Huh?" Kawamura took the racket. Immediately, his expression and the aura around him changed. "Burning!" he yelled. The racket was swung wildly in his hand. "Echizen will never do that! If he did, then I will…!"
"What are you doing over there?" Tezuka's voice cut Kawamura off. "20 laps!"
"Tezuka!" Kawamura was still waving the racket.
Momoshiro quickly took the racket out of his hand when he was distracted.
"Eh?" Kawamura looked like he had just realized where he was.
"It was dangerous na, dangerous yo."
"Nice job, nya, Momo," Kikumaru praised. It was indeed a disaster averted. He couldn't imagine how many laps Tezuka would have punished them with. Nice job indeed.
"Ne, Tezuka, what happened to Ryoma?" Oishi asked worriedly.
At once, everyone of the regulars' attention was on Tezuka.
"…"
"Ryoma just had to go run an errand. There is nothing for you to worry yourself sick with."
"Ryuuzaki-sensei!"
"He will be back soon enough. Probably has a surprise for you as well," she said with a mysterious smile. "Go run your laps!"
"Hai!" chorused the seven regulars. They raced each other to make sure they did not become the last one to finish the punishment laps. And this was because of the sadistic aura coming from Inui. He was probably thinking of using them as guinea pigs for his torture drinks again.
'I wonder what his new drink would be. Well, as much as I'd like to try, I still like to see the others' tortured expressions better.'
To be continued...
Italic words represent inner thoughts.
I'm sure all the POT fans can figure out who the inner thought belongs to. And there's a little hint of the pairing in this chapter.