Chapter 4 – The Second Attack

After Sakuno told her grandmother about what had happened and why they were late her grandmother was quick to go tell Tezuka. Sakuno sat on the benches anxiously waiting. When she heard Tezuka dismiss Ryoma from his laps, Sakuno sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness. Ryoma really doesn't deserve to be punished because he helped me." She decided to stay on the bench where she was as she had a nice view of the tennis courts and could see Ryoma clearly having a match against Momo-senpai. After a while of watching the regulars play Fuji came and grabbed his water bottle from his bag under the bench and sat down beside her.

"Ohaiyo, Sakuno-chan." He said in greeting to his coach's daughter.

"O-Ohaiyo Fuji-senpai" Sakuno replied a little surprised.

"Sakuno-chan, what did you do to your ankle?" Fuji asked intending to get the conversation flowing.

"If I want to get information about Ryoma I'll have to go around the back way." Unknowingly Fuji's question was the exact question he needed to ask to get the information he desired.

"O-oh," stuttered Sakuno, looking down at her bandaged ankle. She didn't think the bandage was that noticeable, apparently she was wrong.

"Don't worry Sakuno-chan, I'm very observant, it's not that noticeable." Fuji replied, seeming to be able to read her mind.

"O-okay, w-well some people attacked me last night. Th-thankfully R-Ryoma-kun saved me from them." Sakuno started blushing at the mention of her rescue the night before. This however got Fuji's attention, not just the fact Ryoma saved her, but also that someone tried to attack her. However, knowing Ryoma he was sure he got them back for hurting Sakuno's ankle, so he decided to focus on the rescue art of her statement.

"Ah, so is that why you two were late this morning?"

"H-Hai" Sakuno's blush just seemed to increase, intriguing Fuji.

"Is that also why you got Ryoma out of doing laps this morning?" Sakuno was shocked that he knew this.

"I guess he saw me talking to obaa-chan when we arrived" thought Sakuno, impressed at her senpai's observational skills.

"Y-you are really observant aren't you Fuji-senpai. R-Ryoma took me to his house to get help for my ankle. It's because of me that he was late to practice this morning, so I told obaa-chan and asked her to take away Ryoma-kun's punishment." Fuji smiled upon hearing this.

"Aah, so that's why Tezuka took back his laps. I never knew Ryoma was so kind." Before Fuji could enquire more a strong voice rang out through the courts calling for everyone to assemble.

"Thank you for the chat Sakuno-chan" Fuji said before he left to go join everyone else. This left Sakuno all alone to her thoughts, all of which seemed to revolve around Ryoma. Once she had stopped daydreaming she realized she was all alone on the tennis courts.

"Practice must have ended already." Not wanting to be late to class, Sakuno left the tennis courts and began making her way to the school building. She decided to take a shortcut through the grove of trees that barely anyone knew about, to make the walk easier on her ankle. She wouldn't have to make it through the fan-girls who hang around after morning practice, and this way was shorter.

The wind blew through the trees, causing goose bumps to appear on Sakuno's arms. The wind was starting to get chilly; a sure sign that winter was coming. She trod on the crisp autumn leaves, watching as the crinkle beneath her feet. Something was off though. The leaves were disturbed, like many people had come this way already.

"Have the regulars already left? I didn't think I was daydreaming that long." She thought puzzled. The only other people she knew of who knew this short cut was the regulars, who often used it to get away from the fan-girls. Sakuno decided she had better speed up, she was going to be late if the regulars had already gone off to class; Ryoma was always one of the last to enter the classroom. Just as she started to hurry however, she heard the distinct sound of a tennis ball being served. Before she even had time to react, a tennis ball flew right past her head. Had she been going any slower it would have hit her. She stopped and turned to see who had hit the ball and came face to face with the people who had attacked her the night before.

Ryoma hurried along the barely visible path, though the grove of trees. If he was lucky, he would be able to make it to class before his senpai's caught up to him.

"Jeez, what's with the senpai's and all their questions? It's really annoying and tedious" Ryoma half thought half grumbled as he made his way through the comforting trees that kept annoying girls away.

"Well, except Ryuzaki. She knows about this shortcut as well. She's not actually annoying though… just clumsy." Ryoma mused on these thoughts until he saw the long haired girl in front of him, but something wasn't right. Her face was pale and even from this distance he could see she was breathing fast and shaking. His feet went from a fast walk to a jog as he made his way over to her. When he heard the sound of a tennis ball being served however, and saw her close her eyes and flinch, he sprinted over to the girl tearing his racquet from his bag. He arrived just in time, yet again, to hit the ball away.

When Sakuno didn't feel the ball hitting her yet again, she opened her eyes to a familiar sight. There stood Ryoma, panting from having run to get to her in time. Sakuno was filled with relief to see his familiar features and his ebony hair, which was rustling in the wind.

"R-Ryoma-kun, a-arigatou" Sakuno mumbled shyly, slightly embarrassed that they were in practically the same position they were in the night before: Ryoma saving Sakuno from these tennis thugs.

"I'm glad you could show up kid, now we can deal with the both of you at once. It would have been more convenient though if you came after we dealt with the girl. Could you go away for a few minutes and come back later?" The leader asked cockily with a mean glint in his eyes.

"You still think you can do anything to us after your failed attempt last night?" Ryoma asked, equally as cocky, staring at them with his eyes as hard as stone. In reply to this the leader simply smiled and looked around him, his aura oozing confidence.

Sakuno took that moment to look at the gang too and realized something.

"R-Ryoma-kun, t-there are more of them than there were last night." After she pointed the fact out Ryoma could not dispute it. There was more than double the number of people. "Will I be able to keep that many balls away from Ryuzaki coming in from all different directions?" Ryoma didn't know if he could. It would be almost impossible. He couldn't deal with all of them all by himself, and Ryuzaki was, not only poor at tennis but was also injured. "Who else could help though?" Then the answer came to him. The senpai would be hurrying to catch up to him after he left the change room in such a hurry. All they had to do was keep them from attacking until the senpai came, then they could fight them off.

"Ryuzaki" Ryoma whispered, "The senpai will be coming by soon, we just have to hold them off and stop them attacking until then." Sakuno's face lightened slightly at the news, but then fell again.

"H-how will we d-do that Ryoma-kun?" Ryoma stayed silent, his ebony bangs covering his eyes. In truth he didn't know, but he had to find a way. The sound of a single racquet hitting a ball rang out through the silence of the grove, and the whooshing of a tennis ball flying through the air towards them could also be heard. Ryoma, quickly acting on instinct, turned to face the ball and sent it right back where it came from. That ball was quickly followed by three others, which Ryoma returned in quick succession. Then an idea came to Ryoma as he realized what exactly they were doing. Ryoma's trademark smirk flashed momentarily across his face

"What are they doing?" thought Sakuno, "Why don't they hit all the balls at once?" It was then that Sakuno noticed a smirk grace Ryoma's face. Sakuno cocked her head at him cutely in confusion, to which Ryoma just quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the nearest tree, blocking off several directions in which ball could come flying toward the pair. Upon seeing this, the gang decided to pick up their game a bit, hitting ten balls towards the young pair. Ryoma managed to him them all away, but not as skilfully as he was able to the night before. Those among the group of thugs who were present last night noticed this and grinned evilly.

"I see you are getting nervous kid, can you only hit away ten balls?" the leader of the gang cooed, causing laughter from the other gang members. Of course Sakuno noticed Ryoma's drop in skill, but just couldn't understand it, and knew the gang members were way off base.

"Ryoma-kun thrives on pressure. The stronger the opponent, the stronger Ryoma-kun gets." Sakuno thought "So why is he having trouble returning the balls which he returned easily the night before?" She continued to watch as the number of balls went to eleven, and Ryoma barely managed to return them yet again. It was then that Sakuno noticed something.

"He's not struggling." Eyes widened considerably at this realization. Sakuno had been to enough of Ryoma's matches to notice the tell-tale signs of when Ryoma was in trouble. Right now he was showing none of them. His muscles weren't tense, nor was he pulling the strings of his racquet or adding agitated, but the most noticeable thing was his eyes. They didn't have the look of intense concentration that the often took when he played seriously. Honestly, he seemed a little distracted. Even after this revelation, Sakuno was a clueless as ever.

"Why is Ryoma acting like he's struggling?" She continued to watch as with each extra ball added Ryoma's quality of ball returns remained the same, but his concentration level increased with each new ball. Sakuno then gasped softly, and her eyes widened yet again. She had suddenly realized what Ryoma was doing.

"He's buying time, just like he said he would." A small smile came to her face, which she quickly hid behind her hand, before the gang caught sign of it. Ryoma was pretending to struggle so they would only gradually increase the number of balls. When Ryoma hit them all easily, they went up in large numbers. Now that he's struggling, they are only adding one ball at a time.

"They are so cruel" Sakuno thought, also realizing the thug's intentions through Ryoma's plan. They wanted to break Ryoma. Crush his spirit. They no longer just wanted to hurt them; they wanted to make them suffer for the night before. If it was anyone other than the young tennis prodigy (or maybe the other regulars; or the regulars from some of their tough opponents, like Hyotei or Rikkaidai, but that's getting off topic…) then this would have been over a while ago, but even the prince was starting to struggle for real now. Sakuno could tell from the tenseness of his muscles, and his anxious fidgeting. They were getting close to fifteen balls now and Ryoma was only just managing to return them. Balls would start slipping through soon.

"Please hurry senpai" Hoped Sakuno silently.

A.N. Hey! I'm not sure if I like this chapter that much or not :/ but I'm gonna go with it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and THANK YOU to guest who was the ONLY person who reviewed the last chapter. I'm not necessarily complaining coz I've gotten quite a few reviews and more followers and favouriters aswell. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS FOLLOWED OR FAVOURITED MY STORY! It feels really nice to know you like my story and want to know when I update. But it would be nice for you to tell me in a review... I'd like to know what you guys think of the plot or if there is anything I could do to improve my writing or if I'm making the characters OOC. I really want the characters to be in character. I just really love reviews. So anything you say I'll enjoy reading. I know I nag about reviews alot (like in every chapter) and I'm sorry. I know that readers really don't like being nagged for reviews but... I REALLY WANT REVIEWS! Okay, how about we make a deal. If you guys give me some reviews for this chapter I will stop going on about reviews and only say "Please Review" at the end of each chapter, deal? Btw you can accept the deal or not in a review (see my hint there) OK enough of my review addiction.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading. Until next chapter

Cya