Hiya there! Hime-chan here again! Hope you all enjoyed Chapter 4!

If you thought that one wasn't that great, believe me, this one was even harder to write. The ideas aren't coming! Ok, well, I take that back. The ideas are there, but my writing skills are going "poof"!

All right, I'm done sulking. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and alerted and favorited! I'm touched by everyone's encouragement—if it wasn't for you guys, I definitely wouldn't still be here because I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Note to ksm013: I tried not to put too many setting parentheses, but I couldn't help putting in one or two. I did my best, so please keep that in mind. Also, the reason why I use Japanese is because I originally picture the Japanese dialogue in my head and slightly translate it back into English, therefore, if you wish, I will put a mini-translation corner for those who do not understand, but I personally believe it is more realistic for me to put in the Japanese. Hope you understand where I want to go with this.

よし！がんばるぞ！！I'm extremely delighted to present to you, Chapter 5 of The Empress! Please do enjoy and REVIEW! ^^ Love you all!

(at a certain house in a certain suburb in a certain city)

Kimiko was seated at a very traditional looking Japanese table, looking abashedly down at her twiddling thumbs.

The glasses-eyed boy across from the girl gazed at her, unwaveringly. "Now, Kimiko, what did I say-?"

"I know, I know! I'm sorry," Kimiko interrupted, apologizing hurriedly.

But the boy continued as if he hadn't heard her, "—about displays of affection in public? Moreover, in broad daylight?"

The girl looked down again, sheepishly. "'Don't do it,' right?"

"Exactly."

Kimiko looked back up at her cousin, pleading with her puppy dog pout. "I'm sorry, Mitsu-kun." She averted her gaze from his searching one, hesitantly adding. "I was just kind of, you know…out of it."

Tezuka Kunimitsu (captain of the Seigaku tennis team, third year at said school, student council president, and cousin of Moriyama Kimiko) softened his stern gaze and patted his knee lightly, "Come here, little one."

She picked herself up and trudged over to sit next to her very mature-looking cousin, pouting through her impending tears, "I'm only three months younger than you, you know."

And finally, she broke down, the wall of cheerfulness shattering all at once. With her hands gripping his school shirt and her face buried into it, the salty rivers began to flow down her cheeks, soaking into the male's top. Tezuka simply held her close, petting her head, nodding, "Yeah…I know." And so, the two close friends and cousins stayed like that until Kimiko's tears had finally dried.

When she finally stopped crying, Kimiko slowly straightened up, pondering something. "Mitsu-kun?"

"Hn?"

"You know, I realized today that you act less like a social recluse when you're around me. Why is that?"

Tezuka stared at her blankly for a second. Then, realizing what she was implying, bonked her on the head and scolded her, "That was completely unnecessary, Kimiko."

Said girl stuck out her tongue at her favorite cousin and grinned impishly.

"So, what happened?" Tezuka suddenly asked.

Kimiko immediately went silent again, indicating to Tezuka that he had hit an extremely delicate topic. In all the years he had known her, this was possibly one of the most down faces he had ever seen her make. The last time was…when her grandmother passed away—when he met her for the first time.

But at that time, Tezuka recalled, Yukimura had appeared and coaxed her down from the tree. He had trusted the now Rikkaidai tennis captain to take care of her…surely he hadn't let him down. The glasses-eyed male knew the blue-haired Rikkai captain cared just as much as he did about Kimiko. So exactly what…?

"Ne…Mitsu-kun?" Kimiko tentatively asked, interrupting her cousin's confused thoughts.

Tezuka turned to her, "Yes?"

"Have you ever fallen in love?"

Surprised silence. "…No." Could it possibly be…? "Why do you ask?"

"I have." Kimiko smiled sadly, straining to bring back her usual sunny grin, but failing to do so in her misery.

"Is that why…" you came to my house for the first time in ages, hugged me while crying, and are acting so depressed? Tezuka simply let his question hang in the air, knowing that Kimiko would understand what he wanted to ask but did not want to say out loud.

"…Y-yeah…"

"What happened? Tell me." Tezuka had no intention of a busybody, nor did he particularly care about Kimiko's choice of boyfriend…if she was happy about it. Now that she came to him crying like this, something had to be seriously wrong, and he was going to fix it. His uptight captain-self didn't want to admit it…but a strong, considerate, and responsible girl like her deserved happiness.

Kimiko breathed in shakily. "Do you remember what day it is today?"

Tezuka raised an eyebrow. "…Is it a special day?"

Kimiko smacked her forehead with her hand in exasperation. "It's Valentine's Day, you dummy!"

The captain stiffened at being called a dummy, but let her off just this once to humor her. "All right, and…" Realization hit him. "Did he…say no?"

"Kind of."

Something bugged Tezuka. Had he forgotten to ask something? Rewinding the conversation a bit, he realized he hadn't even asked the most basic question. "Do I know this special guy?"

"You might know him, I don't know. He's a tennis freak."

Tezuka's interest was slightly piqued. A tennis player?

"His name's Sanada Genichirou." Kimiko looked up to gauge Tezuka's reaction, and was surprised to see a rare countenance displaying shock and amusement mixed together.

"Mitsu-kun?"

"Is that Sanada you're talking about…always wearing a cap and relatively tall, about my height?"

"Yeah." Kimiko answered on reflex, and then realized what was going on and groaned, "Oh my god, do you really know him?"

"…" His silence told her everything she needed to know. And caused her to once again groan and shove her head into her hands.

"…Let's get back on track." Tezuka adjusted his glasses and reverted back to the original topic. "What happened, exactly?"

Kimiko was now twiddling her thumbs again. "Well, see, my math grades kinda went down 'cause of student council things."

"Kimiko…" Tezuka started warningly.

"Wait. Let me finish. And Sanada was assigned by sensei to tutor me."

"…" This time Tezuka's silence pushed Kimiko to keep talking.

"And so we've been having sessions pretty often at his house…And somewhere along the way…I guess I just fell for him." Kimiko shrugged in defeat.

So the reason why she didn't come here much anymore…was because she felt like she finally had someone on her side…even in that big house all by herself… "And then today?" Tezuka nudged her a little to keep explaining, wanting to understand the situation fully in order to help his cousin.

"And today, Genichirou—er, Sanada—" Tezuka raised an eyebrow at the familiar address, but let her keep going.

"Sanada told me that we were no longer to have tutoring sessions anymore, and we had no reason to see each other anymore. Today, of all days." Kimiko scoffed humorlessly at the irony of the timing.

"…I see. And you came rushing here?"

"I even had chocolates for him, being the idiot I was." Kimiko's eyes were starting to get wet again, but she rubbed the tears away furiously, not wanting to bother Tezuka again. Tossing the chocolates onto the table, she let the stoic captain see for himself the efforts she had put into it. And he did see.

Never had Kimiko ever made homemade sweets for someone…not even him…Tezuka knew that his cousin had fallen in love for real…but she couldn't rely on anyone to get back up, except for Sanada. If she couldn't resolve this with him, nothing would ever heal, and nothing would ever move on from this point.

Tezuka neatly replaced the cover of the box and put it back into Kimiko's hands, closing her fingers around it to make sure she took it back. "Keep it for now," was all he said.

Kimiko opened her mouth to say something, but the house door opened and Tezuka's mother called out, "I'm back, Kunimitsu!"

"Welcome back, Mother."

"Good to be back," the woman walked over to him and smiled. "Oh! Kimiko-chan, haven't seen you in a while!" She bent down to hug the girl, who returned the favor.

"Will you eat dinner with us tonight?" Tezuka's mother asked kindly.

"Oh no, that'd be imposing on—" Kimiko began.

"Yes, she will be." Tezuka interrupted, hushing her with his insistent gaze.

His mother looked at the two of them, shrugged, "OK," and hustled into the kitchen with the groceries, whistling a light tune.

"Mitsu-kun!" Kimiko hissed.

"No. You will be staying here until everything settles down."

"But I don't know when that is!" The girl whined.

"You've lived here before; my parents understand what's going on, and I don't mind your presence either. It's decided."

With that conclusive of a statement, there was no way Kimiko could fight against it. She sighed defeatedly for the nth time today and nodded, "All right. I'm going to go to my room now, ok?" The Tezukas had set a room aside for her in case she came over, so she was begrudgingly accustomed to what she called "imposing" upon them.

Tezuka nodded. Watching her disappear into her room, he relaxed a little more inside. He could keep an eye on her situation if she was nearby every day.

As he stood up and began walking away from the dining table, when Kimiko poked her head out of her room. "Ah, Mitsu-kun?"

Turning around, he replied, "Hn?"

"Arigatou," she said with a sweet smile on her face. Thank you, really.

Her stoic cousin nodded, silently replying to her with a ghost of a smile playing across his lips. You're welcome.

After Kimiko slipped back into her room, Tezuka thought of something, and immediately stalked down the hallway to the household phone. He had a call to make. Walking over to the phone, he took out a notebook in his pocket, flipped through a couple pages, and then dialed a certain number. Putting the receiver to his ear, he waited for a couple dial tones before the person on the other end picked up.

"****** residence." (A/N: Can you guess who? The answer's in the rest of the chapter. ^_^)

"Good evening. Tezuka speaking."

Sanada and Kimiko hadn't spoken for two days already, and something just kept bugging the vice captain.

But being the rock he was, he shoved the feeling down and kept up his usual tennis practices. Everything was normal. Everything was fine. Nothing had ever changed. And he liked it that way…probably.

From a position about ten feet from the courts, Yukimura and Yanagi looked over at the emperor, watching him as he continuously hit the same place on the wall over and over again. An outsider wouldn't know…and maybe not even the rest of the regulars…but those two knew: Sanada wasn't happy at all.

"Genichirou!" Yukimura called out his friend's name to stop the vice captain from drilling a hole into the wall. (A/N: Trust me, considering the guy's strength, it's pretty realistic.)

The vice captain turned towards the two other "Demons" in query. "What?"

"Come here for a sec." Yanagi spoke up this time.

Slightly wary, but undeniably curious, Sanada coolly strode over to where they were standing. "What's wrong?" he repeated.

Yukimura looked at Yanagi. Yanagi looked at Yukimura. Yukimura AND Yanagi looked at Sanada and said, "You're not ok."

He scoffed. "Nonsense, I'm fine. What could be wrong?"

Yukimura forcibly turned Sanada around and pointed at the almost-hole in the wall. "That's the best proof, Genichirou. You're bothered by something. It's obvious to both of us, so don't even hide it."

"…" The emperor stayed silent, almost defiant at the two stares he was getting.

Yanagi picked up the conversation. "And here are my stats: 100% it's not about tennis, 84% it's from something two days ago, and 72.5% it's about a certain…"

Sanada glared at the data specialist to shut him up, but an unperturbed Yanagi went on to finish his statement, "…class president?"

Genichirou glared at him even harder. "No way is that possible."

"And why would that be?"

"I'm not even tutoring her anymore. We are completely unrelated now, strangers essentially. How can I be worried over a stranger?" The emperor scoffed at the notion.

The Child of God and data specialist looked at each other, vexed. They knew that they would have to spell out Sanada's situation for him or he wouldn't get what was going on (being the rock he was). Sanada noticed the silent exchange, and suspiciously asked, "What's going on that I don't know about?"

Yanagi gave the circumstances some thought, considering whether he should reveal the information that only he and Yukimura knew at this point. Decided to give it a shot, he asked bluntly, "Genichirou, do you really not like Moriyama-san?"

"…Why."

"Just answer." The urgency in Yanagi's voice surprised the cool emperor, who hesitantly replied, "I don't hate her."

His two friends glanced at each other. Well, that was a step…they supposed. Yukimura stepped in this time. "If I were to tell you that Kimi-hime were in trouble, what would you do?"

Sanada's eyebrows furrowed. "Are you telling me she is?" A slight note of anxiety appeared in his voice. Although he himself did not notice, the two with him did, and seeing a little ray of hope, pressed on.

Yanagi thought out aloud, "You don't even understand yourself right now, Genichirou."

Sanada looked at him, puzzled. "What are you trying to tell me?"

The data specialist thought back to two days ago, and began to tell his story.

"Yanagi residence."

"Good evening. Tezuka speaking."

"Tezuka? If you want to talk to Seiichi I can turn the phone over to him. He's in the area I think. Probably a walk or something."

"No, actually, I was hoping that you could come over to my residential area right now if possible."

"Has something happened?"

"Aa, well, Kimiko's not feeling so great."

"Moriyama-san is?"

"Aa. She's in her room right now, though, so I wanted you to come over to see what's going on and tell that guy that he needs to take responsibility for what he did."

"That guy? …Are you talking about Genichirou?"

"It appears so. Kimiko came to me during the afternoon after she was let out of school in tears and after probing a bit it seems like she's become fond of Sanada."

"…Why me, Tezuka? Yukimura seems to be a better person to tell. You do know that Moriyama-san and he are childhood friends, right?"

"Quite well. But if Yukimura were to get involved, I'm not sure how he'd handle things because he's both Sanada's and Kimiko's close friend. Things get complicated when you're attached to both sides of a war."

"True…All right, I'll head over there now."

"Thanks…Do you know where my house is?" Tezuka had an uncanny feeling that Yanagi already knew.

"Yeah," the data specialist confirmed almost happily, "My data tells me everything. I should thank Sadaharu for this."

Tezuka sighed under his breath, and then replied into the phone, "All right then, I'll be at home so just ring the doorbell as soon as you get here."

"Yeah, I'll get there as soon as possible. I want to help Moriyama-san too. So see you in a while."

"Aa. In a bit."

With that, Yanagi hung up, leaving Tezuka looking at the receiver in a mix of lingering worry and minor amusement. "Inui, you're running 100 laps around the courts the next time I see you…"

Yanagi paused for a while, taking a quick look at Sanada. Yukimura did the same, with a hopeful face. The emperor simply gave them a blank expression in reply. "So?" he asked indifferently.

Yanagi and Yukimura slumped visibly, sighing. Is he worried about her or not? The data specialist looked Sanada in the eye and continued recounting. "So I went, under the pretense of discussing our tennis teams' progress…And I met Moriyama-san while I was there."

Sanada gave him a silent stare again, careful to keep from showing any emotion on his face.

"And to be honest, she looked…" Yanagi stopped for a second, searching for a more polite way of phrasing it.

Yukimura ran a hand through his blue locks and growled in frustration. Stopping Yanagi's pondering, he turned to Sanada and bluntly told him, "She looked like crap, to put it straight. And Genichirou, I hate to say it, but it's your fault."

Yanagi cringed for a split second. This was exactly what Tezuka had been trying to avoid… But he gave up and shrugged. Seiichi would know eventually, either way. Might as well have him be the middleman while he could.

The captain continued. "I don't know what happened between you two, but yesterday I saw her and she was a complete mess. Straggly hair, rumpled uniform, bags under the eyes, slouching posture. And Sanada, of all people, you would know that there has to be something wrong when she becomes like that."

Sanada nodded slowly, then stopped himself and said, "Even so, what is your point?"

"She's depressed because of you."

"Nonsense. We were strangers from start to finish, what's to be depressed about?"

Yukimura was almost at the end of his rope. Calming himself down by inhaling deeply and pinching the bridge of his nose, he asked the clueless vice captain, "Are you sure nothing happened the day before yesterday?"

"Nothing especially. I just told her that I did not have to tutor her anymore, as the teacher had instructed me to tell her."

Yanagi began to pick up on something…or more like pick up on what Genichirou had been missing. "Genichirou, do you remember anything…odd, per say about two days ago?"

"Odd? …Now that you mention it…"

Yukimura caught on to what Yanagi was getting at. He chuckled drily, "Do you remember getting attacked by rabid fans that day?"

"Yes."

"Were they ten times more scary than usual?"

"…Yes." As much as Sanada didn't want to admit it, his fans were pretty scary.

"And were they holding pretty boxes of somethings in their hands?"

"…Yes."

"What was the date two days ago, Genichirou?"

"February 14th."

"…"

"...Oh."

The two boys with the vice captain sighed in relief now. They finally cleared up one thing with him. But neither Yanagi nor Yukimura was finished.

Yanagi interjected, "So? Did Moriyama-san give you anything?"

Sanada looked at him blankly…AGAIN. "No. Why would she?"

Yet, as the two refrained from banging their heads on the court fence, he recalled something.

What did she hide from me?

"…Now that you mention it…" he began, immediately regaining the attention of his two friends. "She did hide something from me…" at their intense gazes, he partly took back his words, "I think."

Yanagi dug deep into his jersey pocket, searching for something. Finally finding what he wanted, he fished out what appeared to be a neatly folded piece of paper and with questioning eyes, handed it to Sanada. Upon opening it, Sanada's eyes widened in recognition.

Although that day, he had only caught a glimpse of the thing Kimiko had hid from him, at a full-blown picture of it, he knew that this was it.

"How did you get this?" he asked, barely containing the accusing tone in his voice.

"When I went over to her house, Tezuka asked me to try to get some evidence to get the reality into your rather impenetrable head."

"Hah?" Sanada raised an eyebrow. He didn't follow. Seriously.

Yanagi sighed. "She wanted to give that box of chocolates to you. But when you told her you wouldn't tutor her anymore she dumped it in the trash. I had to fish it out to get that photo for you."

"You're kidding." Did I really hurt her that much?

Yukimura stepped in, almost bristling with anger, surprising the usual stoic vice captain. "Genichirou, I've had it with you. I love both of you very much, but enough is enough. She likes you, to the point of being depressed because you were too casual with your words. And I can bet on my grandmother's grave that you love her just as much, too."

Yanagi turned Sanada to face him, staring him straight in the eyes and demanding, "Do you enjoy her presence when she's with you?"

"Well, she's not annoy—"

"Yes, or no, Genichirou."

"…Yes."

"If she were hurt, would you go to save her?"

"Hn."

"Are you happy when she's happy? Worried when she's sad?"

"…Aa."

"Do you see red when she's with other guys?"

"Wha…?" first came out of Sanada before he recalled something from a week ago.

"Ne, Kimiko-san! Let's play together!" Halfway through practice, Akaya bounced over to Kimiko's seat on the bench and invited her to participate.

She gave a small smile in amusement at his liveliness, but declined politely, "No thank you, Kirihara-kun. I'd just get in the way."

"Aww, come on, Kimiko-san! It'll be fun!" He tugged on her arm lightly. "Saa, let's go!"

She laughed, but continued to say no. "Go on, Kirihara-kun. Let me be. I'll just be a hindrance."

Sanada looked over to check briefly on all the matches, before his eyes quickly riveted on a rare scene. Akaya was pulling insistently on Kimiko's arm, as if trying to pull her up and have her play with them.

What was he thinking! Sanada saw the smile on the girl's face, and watching their friendly interaction, flames of a certain growing something flared up inside of him before he extinguished it and intuitively moved to stop the young second-year ace.

But before he could take more than two steps, he heard Yukimura calling him. Looking behind him, he saw the captain beckoning him.

Straightening up, he turned towards the captain, trying to forget the image of Akaya and Kimiko burned in his mind, and replied as calmly as he could under the circumstances, "Coming, Seiichi."

A begrudging "yes" came out of his mouth.

And finally, "Would you go at all costs to protect her from anything?"

"Yes."

"…" Yukimura and Yanagi regained their goofy grins. He was stiff, pretended to be uncaring, and had an uncanny ability to miss the most important things, but they would be here to help until he was well on his way to finding out for himself what he was missing.

"Sanada, you're in love."

WOOHOO! CHAPTER 5 FINALLY DONE! Lord, this one really did take a while. Like I said, I swear my writing skills are going down the drain. Ok, so again, thanks to everybody who reviewed last time, and thanks to ksm013 for especially taking the time to critique it. Hope you all liked it this time ^^

Remember, I'm always welcome to comments, questions, compliments, criticisms…maybe flames depending on my mood. ^^ But seriously, I don't bite, so please….. REVIEW! Ok, thanks to all! Love you! Hope to update again soon!

With bear hugs for everyone,

~Hime-chan, aka SpiritPrincess101