Chapter 14 – A New Threat?

After lunch, there was a noticeable difference in Ryoma's behaviour from that morning. This difference was especially evident in tennis practice that afternoon. Compared to that morning, Ryoma's play had slowed down considerably. He showed more self-control and restraint. Overall, he was playing much more effectively, just like the normal Ryoma. Sakuno sat on the side watching Ryoma as he ran around the tennis court. He seemed to be enjoying himself a lot more that he had that morning, like a weight had been lifted of his shoulders. A smile worked its way onto Sakuno's face as she watched. She was so glad that her bento had worked and Ryoma was feeling better and enjoying himself again.

The regulars were watching Ryoma out of the corner of their eyes as they practiced, as was everyone else. They were surprised that the young boy could bounce back so quickly. Just that morning he had been playing so recklessly, and now there was no trace of anything abnormal in his play what-so-ever. Momo, Fuji, and Eiji's shock was slightly different than everyone else's however. Instead of wondering how his mod could bounce back so fast, they were wondering how Sakuno could work so quickly and effectively. By the time practice had ended, Eiji could hardly contain himself.

"Hey Ochibi! How did you get so happy?" he asked in place of the question he really wanted to know, "What did Sakuno do to make you so happy?" Ryoma however, just looked at his senpai curiously?

"What do you mean Eiji-senpai? I'm acting just like normal." This statement got the attention of all the other regulars as well. No one could refute what Ryoma was saying, he was acting just like normal. There was silence in the room, as no one dared to bring up the boys strange behaviour that morning, in case they triggered it to start up again. That is, no one but Fuji.

"I think what Eiji means is why you are acting so normal? Considering you were acting so strange this morning." The rest of the regulars stared at Fuji and Ryoma in a mixture of awe that Fuji would dare ask him, trepidation at how Ryoma would respond and curiosity. Silence reigned in the room for about a minute, causing the regulars to fear that they had stepped on a landmine, while in all actuality Ryoma was wondering how to answer. He wasn't quite sure himself, as to why he was acting so normal again, he guessed it was something about the bento that Sakuno had made him. For some reason, the bento had dissipated all his pent up frustration and calmed him down considerably. In the end Ryoma wasn't sure how to answer the question, so he gave a broad answer and prepared to run out of there before the regulars could interrogate him any further.

"I had a good lunch" with that Ryoma picked up his bag and ran out of the changing room, really glad that his senpai's seemed incapable of talking, or listening, and changing at the same time. Even if the senpai's had wanted to go after him, they were frozen. The cause of this? Ryoma had run from the changing room. Even when they interrogated him extensively, he never ran out of the room, he just sort of speed walked. It only took a moment for the regulars, minus Tezuka (who wasn't in the room) and Ryoma, to snap out of their shock.

"Have any of you ever seem Echizen run away from our interrogation?" Momo asked the room at large. Everyone shook their heads as Inui spoke up. "According to my data Echizen has never run away from an interrogation, only walked away like it was a nuisance. I hypothesise that Echizen purposely didn't want to be interrogated any further, due to reasons other than boredom or nuisance." The rest of the room silently pondered over this, until Eiji broke the silence.

"So Ochibi doesn't want to tell us?" Eiji asked sadly.

"It could be that he doesn't have an answer himself, he is quite dense. Or he could be embarrassed" Fuji said, trying to evaluate all the options. Seeing the confused look of everyone other than Momo and Eiji, he started to inform them of the plan they had hatched to make Ryoma jealous and everything the three had assumed since then.

Ryoma ran until he reached the courts where Sakuno was waiting for him, however as he got closer he noticed she seemed worried about something.

"What's wrong Ryuzaki?" He asked. She jumped at his voice, not having noticed him approach due to her searching through her bag, and noticed how he had called her Ryuzaki again.

"R-Ryoma-kun! You startled me! I can't find my English book. I must've left it in the classroom." She said sadly. Ryoma stood there for a moment, confused by her sad look. All she had to do was go get the book, then he remembered that the school would be almost deserted at this time of day, she wasn't allowed to go where anywhere alone. Ryoma sighed before responding.

"Let's just go get it then" Ryoma said monotonously, it was the least he could do, given that it was because of her he was able to act like himself again. Sakuno looked up Ryoma with wide eyes, surprised he would volunteer to come with her.

"W-what about the senpai's, won't they be worried when they realise we aren't here?" Sakuno asked, not wanting either her or Ryoma to get into trouble, and knowing they will if the senpai's go to her grandma.

"They aren't ready yet, we should have enough time to go get it before they finish." Ryoma said, knowing that they were probably talking about him, which caused him to sigh internally.

Sakuno thought for a moment before nodding her consent, and standing. They two freshmen then made their way to their classroom at a gentle pace, Sakuno's ankle still being sprained (just thought I would remind you about that because it has only been four days even though it's 13 chapters). After a few minutes of silence, Sakuno felt a need to fill it. "A-Arigatou Ryoma-kun." She said shyly, wringing her hands and looking at Ryoma from the corner of her eye. Ryoma for his part, just glanced at her and grunted before quickly looking away as he felt his heart rate start to increase and a strange thought, "Why does she have to act so cute?", came unbidden into his head. Ryoma just sighed. He had gotten somewhat used to this over the last few days, however he still wondered why he thought and felt these things. While Ryoma was pondering this, the two of them arrived at the classroom, breaking him from his train of thought.

When the pair entered the room, the first thing they noticed was the ripped paper that was scattered everywhere. Ryoma and Sakuno stopped at the door and stared at the room in shock. After a moment Ryoma broke out of his trance and picked up a scrap. On it there was some English words written in a slightly messy script. Sakuno took a look at the paper from over Ryoma's shoulder and froze yet again.

"Th-That's mine" she said shakily, staring around the room. Ryoma looked back at her and saw her face had gone pale. Slowly, Sakuno made her way to the centre of the room and cautiously picked up another scrap and noticed that it had her writing on it as well. She recognised some of the writing the she had written in English class that morning. Slowly, yet again, she turned toward Ryoma who was picking up a cover to a book that was amongst the scraps of paper. When he looked at the front of the cover his eyes widened slightly. He looked at Sakuno as he turned the cover around so Sakuno could see the front and her eyes widened as a gasp escaped her mouth. The cover had come off her English book, and written in a large black marker was a picture of a crying face. Seeing the book cover, she started to shake and fell into the chair she was standing beside.

"W-Who would do this?" she asked looking at her feet in despair. All the notes she had taken all year were in shreds. All the time she spent searching up the meaning of words and phrases that weren't explained in class was pointless. Tears started to form in her eyes as she thought about this. "How am I going to pass my exam now?" At this last thought the tears began to fall from her eyes. As she sat there silently crying, Ryoma gathered up the scattered scraps that were the remains of all Sakuno's hard work all year. Once every scrap was gathered and placed on her desk with the cover, Ryoma turned toward Sakuno's hunched form.

"Ryuzaki" Sakuno jumped when she heard Ryoma's voice, having forgotten he was in the room with her, and looked up into his golden eyes. Ryoma, not knowing what to say or any way to comfort her, held out a tissue box for her to dry her eyes and blow her nose. After Sakuno had sufficiently composed herself, she looked up at Ryoma.

"A-Arigatou Ryoma-kun"

Ryoma nodded as he said, "What do you want to do with it?" referring to her destroyed book. Sakuno got up and made her way over to her desk where the remains of her book where now placed. She started to look through the pieces and mentally tried to put them together which, after a few minutes of trying, turned out to be hopeless. The poor brunette gave a sad sigh as she picked all the pieces up and put them in the bin, there was no way to put it back together. Tears, yet again, started to form in her eyes as she turned to Ryoma.

"What am I going to do Ryoma-kun?" she asked, the helplessness she felt clearly evident in her voice. Ryoma's eyes widened as he heard the helplessness in her voice. Never before had he heard her sound so vulnerable, even when she was crying over her guilt when he had gotten hurt, she had never sounded so vulnerable. Before Ryoma got a chance to reply she went on.

"I spent so much time making sure I had notes on everything and now they're all gone! How am I going to pass the exam? What am I going to do?" Ryoma's widened eyes looked into her wet brown ones and he felt a pain in his chest. For a moment he stood there desperately thinking of a way to help the helpless girl in front of him, then he got an idea.

"You don't need to worry so much Ryuzaki." Ryoma began, watching Sakuno's eyes widen, "You can copy down the notes from my book, or you could just use my book to study from if you need to. If you're going to be staying at my house then it won't be a problem." Ryoma held out another tissue to Sakuno so she could wipe her eyes for the final time.

"A-Arigatou R-Ryoma-kun" she sniffled before smiling, "it seems that I'm always thanking you lately Ryoma-kun." Ryoma smirked back at her.

"Come on, the senpai's will be waiting." Ryoma said, and the two started to walk to the front gates.

A.N. Hey Everyone! It's been a while since I updated, but I do have a bad excuse. I had writers block and school and a holiday to the Gold Coast (yay!). Anyway, I'm back now! But I can't promise regular updates. Mainly because I'm lazy... Anyway I have a few things for this authors note and this time there actually is an agenda! First up, THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! Next, I thought june2021 deserved a special mention for her suggestion, without which this chapter wouldn't have even been written yet. I have now learned not to put all my idea's into one chapter, because I won't have any idea how to write the next chapter. Next, cutepuff, I'm sorry but I can't have RYoma and Sakuno go on a date yet, however that suggestion was helpful because, believe it or not, I hadn't actually considered them going on a date! I don't even know how I could miss that... Anyway! Finally, in relation to the reviews at least, Mariposa, haha I am not British, but I am Australian and we do spell everything the same as the British so... for all intensive purposes in fanfiction I may as well be British :P.

Next up, I love getting suggestions from you all and I'll try to add any suggestions I get. They are really helpful to my writing and even if I don't use a suggestion exactly they always give me idea's so, if you have any suggestions for my story, feel free to tell me about it in a review, or pm if you wish. Next up on the agenda, THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAVE REVIEWED, FOLLOWED AND/OR FAVOURITED MY STORY! I LOVE YOU ALL! Finally, (proper final this time) please review! I really love to hear what you guys think of my writing! Even if it's just one sentence I would love to hear from you! You know... looking back at this authors note makes me think that it is impossible for me to write a short authors note now... Anyway!

Thanks for reading! Until next chapter,

Cya!