Recently, I've been getting reviews and private messages asking me who Kagome's going to end up with. First of all, you guys obviously did not read my author's note in chapter four. Secondly, what makes you think I'll tell you? Seriously. If I'm going to tell you who Kagome's ending up with, I might as well tell you what's going on with the demonic energy and all of that and just give you the entire storyline. Then what's the point of reading at all? What's the fun in that?

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, Inuyasha or any of its characters.

New Beginnings
[7] Breakdown

"You'll need this," Ryoma said, handing his cousin his favorite red racket. It was for good luck. He didn't want to be the one taking care of his cousin because she couldn't leave the bed from broken ribs or something.

"Thanks," Kagome muttered, not feeling the least bit thankful. "You don't happen to have some full body armor with you, do you?"

Ryoma blinked. "Why did you agree to this in the first place?"

"Why did you tell me about the rib breaking?" she wailed.

Her cousin raised his eyebrows.

Kagome's own eyebrows twitch in annoyance. "No, Ryoma, I'm not going to tell you about the light or the exploding target."

"Che." He pulled his cap down.

"I can read you like a book," she pointed out earning a glare from her cousin.

"Buchou says to stay away from you."

Kagome wrinkled her nose. "Because I made a target explode?" Geez, who did that guy think he was anyway? Just because he was Ryoma's tennis captain didn't give him the right to tell him to stay away from precious family members. That's like Kagome going up to the expressionless captain and telling him to stay away from his cousin. She barely knew the guy!

"Fuji-senpai said that you sounded scary."

She nodded in agreement, "I can be scary sometimes."

Ryoma tilted his head. "Hmm..."

Kagome stared.

"Are you going to make Momoshiro-senpai explode?"

Kagome jumped up in surprise, her jaw dropping open. "Of course not!" she exclaimed. Then she remembered the demonic energy and her purification powers and—oh, dear. I hope not, she prayed silently.

"Good luck," Ryoma finally said before walking away, leaving Kagome staring at his retreating back. Again. She wondered if he was wishing her luck to leave the tennis court with ribs intact or wishing her luck to make his senpai explode. Probably the latter.

She sighed and followed Ryoma, pulling the skirt of her school uniform down. It probably wasn't a good idea to take on Momoshiro's Jack Knife in her school uniform but she had fought demons in her middle school uniform. She had practice and was pretty sure she still had the ability to defy physics and keep her skirt down.

Kagome made her way into the tennis court, noticing in horror that everybody in the tennis team was surrounding the court, wanting to watch what would happen. Do they want to see someone break their ribs so badly? she wondered.

Momoshiro was already on his side of the court, stretching muscles despite just having finished with his tennis practice. Briefly, Kagome wondered if she should also stretch but then decided that her life had been a stretch and really, she just wanted to get this over as soon as possible. Sooner I'm finished, sooner I can go to the hospital.

"Don't worry, Higurashi-san," Momoshiro comforted. "I won't start out with the Jack Knife and even when I do hit it, I'll make sure it's slow and easy so you can dodge it."

"Thanks," Kagome said loudly and cheerfully, making sure that those around her could hear. "But you needn't to worry. I took self-defense classes when I was young—"more like crash courses in escaping demons—"so I'm pretty good at dodging and handling situations like this."

She took a deep breath and channeled Ryoma's racket with her powers just in case, making sure not to channel too much and allow normal humans to see its abnormal holy glow. She glanced at Miroku and Sango who rewarded her with a thumbs-up.

Can't see it, Sango mouthed.

She smiled and turned her attention to Ryoma who was staring at his racket. Staring at it as if he had never seen a tennis racket before in his life. As if it was… glowing. His gaze then slid from his racket to Kagome. Ryoma raised his eyebrows and Kagome squeaked and turned away from him, ignoring him.

There's no way he can see it, Kagome told herself. You need to either be a powerful demon or someone with some sort of holy power like Miroku or myself.

"So, Higurashi-san, what should I start with?" Momoshiro asked.

"Just some…" Kagome made some flimsy swings with her arms and almost lost her grip on Ryoma's racket, "easy tennis moves."

Momoshiro grinned and served, an easy underhand serve. Kagome hit the ball, awkwardly and sent the ball spiraling out of bounds (Kagome only knew this because it hit the court next to them). Momoshiro was fine with it and jogged after the slow ball. He hit it again, sending it with pinpoint accuracy back towards Kagome. Kagome returned it, her aim better than it was the first time and managed to actually get it in (the double's boundary but at least it was in their court).

There.

Nothing.

Kagome frowned, sensing no demonic energy. But then again, Momoshiro obviously wasn't playing her seriously at all. "Okay, Momoshiro-san, do you mind hitting that Jack Knife of yours?"

Her words sent her audience completely ablaze.

"That girl can't even play tennis and she wants Momo-senpai to hit Jack Knife?"

"Is she suicidal?"

Kagome paled. Suicidal? She thought the Jack Knife broke ribs, not kill people. Kagome forced herself to remain calm.

"Sure," Momoshiro said, unfazed by the audience. Apparently he took her assurance of having self-defense classes very seriously. "Echizen," he then called out. "Do you mind helping me?"

Kagome watched as her cousin walked into the court with another tennis racket in hand. He eyed Kagome again which Kagome took great care in ignoring. She swallowed and wondered if Ryoma was here to save her if the Jack Knife got too out of hand or something.

"Just need someone to give me a ball to hit the Jack Knife with," Momoshiro explained.

Kagome nodded.

Ryoma got into his position and threw a tennis ball into the air, hitting it into a nice semi-lob. Kagome watched as Momoshiro ran towards the ball, jumps and struck, sending the ball flying at the ground to the left of her with so much force Kagome swore she felt the earth move. This was holding back? she asked herself.

Yes, it was fast and yes it was powerful but Kagome knew that she could handle both speed and power (especially with her purification power-covered racket). But that didn't change the fact that people aren't supposed to have the power to hit tennis balls that can break ribs. Or that the tennis ball that Momoshiro had just hit had the teeniest bit of demonic energy trailing after it.

"Again," Kagome all but commanded. "More power."

Momoshiro frowned. The more power he put into his upgraded Jack Knife, the less control he had over the ball. He nodded at Echizen, giving the younger boy a positive go signal. Higurashi-san seemed to know what she was doing and besides, she made a target explode.

Ryoma served and Momoshiro ran, jumped, and struck again, remembering to put more power behind this Jack Knife. Too caught up in the moment, he put a little too much power but was proud to see that the ball sailed towards its intended target: the right of Higurashi-san.

His proud smile then fell when Higurashi-san jumped into the path of the ball as if she knew what she was doing and as if she could actually return the Jack Knife. He stared in horror and wondered in the back of his mind if Echizen was fast enough to reach his cousin before the ball reached her.

Kagome pulled her arm back and swung one-handedly—Oh my god, the bystanders thought in horror. One handed—at the ball with a racket enveloped in her purification energy, not enough to actually purify the demonic object but enough to create a barrier and make said demonic object bounce back, giving off the illusion that she successfully hit the ball back.

To everyone else Higurashi-san's stance was a nightmare and there was definitely no way her skinny wrist would be able to withstand the power of the Jack Knife.

And it was that reason why everyone was more than a little surprised to see that the Higurashi-san had successfully returned the Jack Knife as if it was child play. Even if Momoshiro hadn't put all his power behind his Jack Knife it was still enough to scare away some professionals.

Tezuka narrowed his eyes. What exactly was Higurashi? First the target and now this. Not to mention the look behind her eyes that showed up every now and then. That look, the one that showed him that there was so much more to her than what she was allowing people to see was the very reason why he had warned Echizen not to get too close to his cousin.

Kagome, completely unaware of the awe she had just caused was in awe herself. The energy had been, indeed demonic but beyond that, the moment her racket had hit the ball, she had felt the familiar tugging of her heart, as if she was sensing the Shikon Jewel. She paled at the thought.

The Shikon Jewel had disappeared… hadn't it?

"That… that…" Momoshiro was at lost for words.

Kagome looked up and blinked, pulled out of her thoughts.

Half of Momoshiro was in awe, a girl (no doubt a female version of Sasabe) had managed to return the Jack Knife. Where do the two of them hide the muscles, anyway? But the other half wondered if he should feel more than a little scared that she had manage to return the Jack Knife. Maybe he was getting weaker in his old age.

"Again," Kagome said, looking Momoshiro firmly in the eye.

There it is again, Tezuka thought. That look.

Everyone watched silently, holding their breath as Momoshiro performed the Jack Knife again, this time with even more power than before. More surprising, it flew towards Kagome, possibly due to the lack of control in place of the power Momoshiro had forced into the ball.

Kagome's first instinct was to dodge, after all, she had more confidence in her dodging skills than her hand-eye coordination but knew that if she wanted to confirm that previous feeling she had, she needed to come in contact with the ball one way or another. She brought the racket up to guard herself; her stance was, once again, a complete nightmare.

Inui frowned because despite the power that Higurashi-san might possess, her stance was wrong and her balance was off. Therefore, no matter how powerful she could be, her balance should have gotten thrown off by the ball. But the ball hit the racket and bounced off once again, as if it was just an ordinary hit.

Kagome shivered. That feeling again.

Ryoma watched as his cousin thanked Momo-senpai and wandered off the court, lost in thought. If Kagome was any other person he would think that Kagome was just in a daze about Momo-senpai's power but Ryoma had a suspicion that whatever Kagome was thinking about, it wasn't the Jack Knife's speed and power.

"Inui-senpai," he said quietly. "What are the chances of an arrow making a wooden target explode?"

The data collector looked up from his notebook. "It is possible," he answered. "How big was the wood?"

Ryoma held out his arms. The wooden target that his father had made yesterday was at least two widths of Ryoma.

Inui-senpai's eyebrows shot up. "And how big was the arrow?"

Ryoma gave him a flat glare.

"If the target really was that big, no matter how much force you put behind an arrow, it wouldn't make it explode. At most the arrow would just drive a hole through the wood." He scribbled some equations down into his notebook. "And even so, the force that requires an arrow to drive a hole through the wo—how thick was this target?"

Ryoma sighed. "I don't care about holes. I want to know about explosions."

"Are we talking about actual explosions? Or just… falling apart?

"Explosions," Ryoma emphasized.

Inui blinked. "How big was the arrow again?"

Ryoma scowled and then turned around to walk away. Obviously it was impossible. Obviously it was normally supposed to be impossible. He bet his ponta it had something to do with Kagome's pink light. Ryoma went over to his cousin and took his racket back, holding it up and testing the string tension. He blinked in surprise.

"Oh, Ryoma," Kagome breathed. "Ready to go home?"

"Hmmm…" Ryoma answered and waited for Kagome to finish her goodbyes with her two friends and wondered what's with all the hugging since they would see each other again He frowned, feeling the tension again. It didn't feel much different than it did before the match, as if it hadn't hit some heavy-duty Jack Knife just moments ago. It must have been that pink light that had surrounded his racket before.

He gave his cousin a curious glance but decided that it was best that he didn't ask. It wasn't as if she would answer him anyway. Probably just blame it on him seeing things.

Really.

"I'll talk to you guys tomorrow," Kagome said, giving her friends a quick hug. "Alright," she exclaimed happily as she turned back towards her cousin. "I'm ready, let's go."

"Hmm…"

"Need a ride home?" Momoshiro asked, motioning towards his bicycle.

Ryoma resisted the urge to suggest inappropriate places where Momo-senpai can shove his tennis racket. "No." He reached back, pulling Kagome's hand and made sure that they walked as far away from Momo-senpai as possible. It wasn't that he didn't like Momo-senpai, he did. But he wouldn't want any of his senpai-taichi to date his cousin. That would be awkward.

"Ryoma," Kagome gasped. "Geez, slow down!" Why did she have to be acquainted with all the possessive guys anyway?

From a possible stroke of luck, Ryoma did slow down but held on firmly to his cousin's hand because… because… He blinked and stopped walking all together. Bringing Kagome's hand up to eye level, Ryoma looked at it, studying it as if there was something abnormal about it.

Kagome blinked. "Ryoma?"

"Your hand tingles," he said.

Kagome immediately yanked her fingers away from his grasp and held it protectively over her chest. "W-what do you mean?"

"Hmm…"

There was something about Ryoma's tone that struck something in Kagome. He acted nonchalant but Kagome knew that there was no way that Ryoma was going to let it die down. His cool "hmm…" was code for: "I'm going to get to the bottom of this no matter what and you are not going to like my methods." She almost shivered.

Despite not having seen Ryoma in forever, she still did remain in contact with him through the phone. Ryoma had never been talkative but he talked enough with her through the phone for Kagome to understand what kind of person he was. They only had stopped talking as much when Kagome fell down the well on her fifteenth birthday.

"Ryoma, please," Kagome began. She had her secrets and she was sure he had his. "I know this is all very curious and I want to tell you—I really do! But before that, I need to talk to Sesshomaru and Inuyasha and whoever else that is in this world and figure out what the hell is going on before I drag outsiders into this."

He blinked at her, not at all impressed with her outburst.

"And no," Kagome growled out before he could interrupt, "I'm not in a gang. I know it sounds bad, it probably is but—" she cut herself off and stared at him in horror. "Did you just… said that my hand tingled?"

Ryoma blinked again.

Kagome didn't wait for his response as she reached out and held his hands in hers and stared intently at it. Ryoma wasn't going to admit it—at least not out loud—but he was starting to feel really, really uncomfortable underneath her stare. He could just chalk it off as Kagome being weird but Kagome wasn't his senpai-tachi and she isn't weird by any means, a little scatter-brained, perhaps but definitely not weird. He wasn't stupid and knew that she had secrets he probably wasn't going to believe and that amnesia things that grandfather told him was probably a complete lie.

Kagome was kind; she loves everyone and sees the good in each and every person. She's strong-willed and will stand up for herself but she's also the most selfless person he knew (at least, according to the stories Sota told him about some two-timing ex-boyfriend of hers). She—or at least her eyes—looked old, older than any sixteen-year-old's eyes should look and that included buchou who, now that he thought about it was pretty self-sacrificing too and maybe… maybe they could get along.

Ryoma resisted a violent shiver at the thought of his captain and cousin getting along. Then again, Kagome could just about get along with anyone and that most likely included Tezuka who despite his glares and stern expressions was human just like everyone else and didn't Kagome manage to befriend Sesshomaru? Sesshomaru who had eyes so cold that Ryoma couldn't hold back shivers whenever the older man turned to look at him.

He was getting off topic but the point was, Kagome was just a normal kind-hearted girl who loves and can be loved by just about anyone. There was nothing weird about her, she just had her share of secrets and Ryoma will take great pleasure in finding out each and every one of them.

"I know what you're thinking," Kagome said, interrupting his train of thought. "Stop it."

He blinked blankly as if he doesn't have the slightest idea what she's talking about but he does. And he knows that she knows he does.

"Ryoma…"

"Che," he said. He pulled his hand away from her warm grasp which no longer tingled at the touch. "I'll just ask Souta." He turned his head away but doesn't miss the comedic way her jaw dropped open. "He'll tell me." And they both know the younger boy will because Souta hero-worships Ryoma's tennis skills like no other and would be more than happy to let Ryoma know everything he wanted to know.

"Echizen Ryoma!"

He smiled faintly at her tone and wondered if he loved his annoying his cousin more than he really should.

So, how was Kagome's awesome tennis skills? I bet you're all jealous.

Guess who's coming next chapter?