Sorry for the slow update was a little caught up in things. Actually that's a lie. I just couldn't be bothered to write. Anyways here's the fifth chapter. Hope you enjoy it. The characters Medanoré, Camus and Amadeus are all going to be a bit OC ish as they have barely showed up in the manga. We still haven't seen Amadeus or Medanoré's full face yet. And they've just started the World Cup Japan vs Greece and so my story goes before all of this. Once the new chapters come out this won't make any sense so later on it will become a rewrite of the story.

Medanoré cursed under his breath as he marched towards his room. He had seen Ryoma crying on the ship and could tell he had been crying before entering the dining hall. "Maybe I should have told the others about what happened on the ship. I don't know what to do. But if I had told them they would have worried more. Merry would do something drastic again like last time." Medanoré chewed on his lip as he cursed some more mentally.

Similarly Amadeus, Camus and Merry strolled off, each drowned in their own whirlpool of emotions and thoughts. What none noticed was the faint shadow of a man that followed their trail. Unnoticed, each man held a receiver to their ear and simultaneously spoke into it. What was said is likely amongst the following verse, "Target in sights. Operation 'RoH' is a go."

Back in the cafeteria everyone had left save the U-17 American team and a few others. "Come on. You two better start eating. We're going to have a team meeting in a bit in one of the spare recreation rooms. Ralph suggested it." Kiko blabbed to the brothers urging them to eat faster.

"Hai, hai. We'll eat faster, won't we chibisuke. Oh here..." Ryoga replied whilst forcing a spoonfull of his curry into Ryoma's unsuspecting mouth.

Choking Ryoma cried out "What the hell was that for?"

"Mada mada daze chibisuke. You were spacing out. Eat." The elder rebuked back.

Groaning Ryoma shifted his glare to his plate before digging into his food. The others just laughed at the brother's antics as they watched the young prince engulf the entire contents of his plate.

Sweat poured out of the pores of his forehead as he struggled to keep his breathing even. It was unusual for him to be this heavily exhausted after just a short run. Tezuka had watched his Seigaku pillar enter the cafeteria and although nothing seemed out of place on his face Tezuka could not help but feel the sudden and distinct change in personality the boy had displayed whilst entering the place as to before entering the camp. Tezuka knew not what was the case of such a change and was not nearly stupid enough to pass it off as a mere bad mood or as Ryoga liked to call it "Rebellious Phase." Though for one thing, Tezuka knew his lack of focus was due to Ryoma's earlier display.

"Oi Kun'imitsu. Get back to running. You're slaking. Concentrate." Volk barked his order at him before heading off into another 'light' sprint.

"Yes sir." Tezuka called out before following after.

Meanwhile back inside other teenagers still struggled to keep a level head. There were disputes and a few close brawls with a few members but after the sane decision of coach Phipps, the teenagers were separated and told to hang out with their own teammates. The day continued like this whilst everyone discussed preparation tactics to use for the upcoming week.

In an almost deserted lounge the American team sat down to have their little meeting. "Okay guys. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week try not to go full strength when participating in the training. However do not use too little strength that the other teams will come to look down upon us." Ralph started off.

"Eh... Can't we go all out. It would be more fun. I mean we get to scare some of the others. Oh... Especially the Tube Republic. I hate those guys." A player called out earning a few nods from other team members present.

"We can't. We've got to keep it a secret. If everyone saw how strong we are they can compare it to their own team strength and will eventually figure out a way to counter us. Not to mention they'll see all of our special moves and techniques." Dodo replied back.

"Dodo is right. So when we train we will not go all out. Got it?" Ralph addressed the whole group.

"You heard the man Ryoma, no flashy moves 'kay?" Kiko gleefully teased.

Ryoma sighed before quickly replying in the affirmative and then stood up to leave. A few others followed after until the only remaining were Ryoga and Ralph. Before Ryoga could leave however, Ralph called out to him. "Ryoga."

On hearing his name, Ryoga turned round to face his captain. "I need a word." He continued.

Ryoma silently walked down the corridor. He wasn't feeling up to it. He wasn't feeling up to do anything, not even tennis and we all know how much of a tennis loving maniac Ryoma is. Tokugawa walked by and glanced at him. A quick look of concern flashed through Kazuya's eyes before dissapearing. He hurriedly stalked by before Ryoma could recognise his presence. "Echizen-kun... What the hell is wrong with you?" Kazuya thought before dissapearing round the corner.

Night came and the teenagers were mostly all exhausted. Being on each others bad side took quite a toll on the body as the whole afternoon was conversed in fighting and disputed. Everyone took an early night so they could be fit for the training tomorrow. Soon everyone was fast asleep except a few. Those few included everyone in room 117 save the little prince. The three teens all had one thought in their heads as their eyes laid transfixed on the sleeping figure at the far corner of the room. "What happened to you?"

Meanwhile a fourth lay awake on the floor above. Ryoga quietly slipped out of his room and took the stairs to the third level. The third level held no dorms so it was void of people. Ryoga quickly flipped open his phone and punched a few keys before holding it to his ear. There was a bit of static considering the era his phone was made in but nevertheless someone answered over the phone.

"Yo. Nanjiroh here. If you ain't a cute girl I ain't gonna talk but if you ar..."

"Cut the crap oyaji!" Ryoga angrily cut in.

"Ryoga!? What's wrong?" Nanjiroh answered worry in his voice, his previous persona clearly gone.

"It's chibisuke." Ryoga replied his anger temporarily leaving him as his younger brother outburst shocked him.

"He was crying. He doesn't even know why. I went to go get him after he fell asleep after unpacking. He was dreaming something weird, he started to cry whilst sleeping so I tried to wake him up but when he did he just broke down" He said he didn't know why. He just said he hated this place."

"This place?" Nanjiroh interrupted.

"Yeah. Ravers." Ryoga called back.

Just then there was a sudden clatter as Nanjiroh's phone slipped from his hand.. "Oyaji..?"

"Why the hell are you at Ravers. Weren't you supposed to be taking part in the U-17 World Cup? What happened? Answer me Ryoga." Nanjiroh frantically called.

"As I thought, you do know Ravers. So you also know why Chibisuke is the way he is. You know what happened to him. Tell me." Ryoga softly said.

There was a moment silence before Nanjiroh spoke again. "Okay fine but full story first."

"Fine" Ryoga complied before beginning his recount on how the entire U-17 participating teams ended up on a shrouded island in the middle of nowhere. (Exagerration. They're in the Pacific near South America.)

A few minutes passed where Ryoga conversed endlessly on how they were in the situation they were in. He was then interrupted when Nanjiroh called "Hey Ryoga who are these two dammed women who got all you into this mess?"

"The one from Germany, I think her name is Cecelia. Its basically all her fault. She's the one wouldn't accept she lost. Then there's the girl from America. She owned the German without batting an eyelash. I think her name's Merry." Ryoga replied.

"Merry!?" Nanjiroh practically screamed over the phone.

"Uh yea..."

"Merry's here?"

"You know her?" Ryoga questioned.

"Does that Merry have silver hair and golden eyes similar to Ryoma's?"

"She's got silver hair but I'm not so sure about the eyes. I've never really had a good look at her, but she might have them."

"Ah... Merry's here eh." Nanjiroh said after a moment of silence.

"You know her?" Ryoga repeated.

"Ah yes. She's an old friend of Ryoma. You can trust her. So Merry is here. Then its fine then. If Merry is here then Ryoma will be fine."

"Eh.. You sure. I've never seen her speak or even look at Chibisuke. Not to mention he was also crying, how is that alright."

"Its fine. You can trust her." Nanjiroh said.

"Fine but its pretty hard to trust someone you don't even know." Ryoga rebuked back.

Sighing Nanjiroh called out to Ryoga "I've heard your side so now its time to tell you mine."

"Well then..." He continued "It all began around 3 years ago..."

Meanwhile a blonde teenager lay awake in his bed. His eyes lingered on the empty bed on the otherside of the room. "Where the hell has that moron gone off to now" he thought before turning over and resuming his sleep. Well it weren't his problem.

"...And so that's the story." Nanjiroh finished off.

All throughout Ryoga had remained silent as he listened attentively to the older man recount. Despite what Nanjiroh had told Ryoga, he still remains calm which was out of character for him. Nanjiroh drew a breath as he waited for the screaming to come but it didn't come. Nanjiroh spoke. "Ryoga. You okay."

"Yeah... Why wouldn't I be?" Ryoga replied shocking not just his father but himself.

"What the hell is wrong with me? I'm angry. I know I'm angry but why am I not reacting. I should be throwing a fit or bashing a wall right about now." Ryoga thought.

"Uh... I'd better go. You'd better get some sleep as well. If they use the same training regime as last time you'll need all the sleep you can get." Nanjiroh firmly said before ending the call.

Nanjiroh rested his forehead on the wall trying to calm himself. His grip on his cell phone tightened as he brought his other fist crashing into the mirror hanging on the wall. The mirror glass shattered and the impact sent the small glass fragments all over the room. Nanjiroh brought his blood splattered fist down before drawing a sharp breath and slowly crouching down. He flipped open his cell with the other hand and dialed a new number in. "Come on. Pick up. Pick up." Nanjiroh muttered starring down at the screen display of his phone.

Similarly like father like son Ryoga also was seething with anger, though Ryoga chose not to let it out. Ryoga, head hung low silently trekked his way back to his room descending the flight of stairs two steps at a time. Ryoga knew it was bad. He knew that if he did not let his anger out now someone would get the full brunt of it.

Ryoga silently flopped onto his bed as he entered his room. Tiredness soon engulfed him as he recounted the day's events. His mind switched to the talk he had with Ralph after everyone dispersed from the room after they had their meeting post dinner.

"Okay. What happened?" Ralph started off.

"What do you mean?" Ryoga feigned innocence.

"You know perfectly well what I mean. What happened with Ryoma?"

Ryoga sighed before retelling what happened with Ryoma.

"So that's what happened." Ralph spoke before asking.

"Do you... Has Ryoma ever been to Ravers. In the past I mean."

"Beats me. I'll ask oyaji about it tonight. Tell you in the morning." Ryoga answered before waving Hus hand and following after his teammates leaving Ralph contemplating on his own thoughts.

There was no way Ryoga could tell his captain now. Right now the only ones he could tell would be those lot. Further thoughts were made impossible as sleep completely engulfed him.

Morning came and many had situated themselves into the cafeteria as Ryoma entered the room. He had slept well, no dreams no random wake ups. He trudged his way to where the rest of the American team were seated. His 'Onii-san' was nowhere to be seen. He continued eating as the rest before the door was opened yet again when Merry closely followed by Ryoga walked in. They separated as soon as they entered but a glance at each other was spotted by a few though none made comment.

Everyone had finished by the time the head coach came in with the councillor. They were all led outside as the coach addressed them all. "Okay you lot. As we said yesterday, we are using the training regime used 3 years ago. However there were two sets. One set was for everyone and the other set just reserved for the regulars. We will be using the set reserved for the regulars as it is a lot harder than the other set. Any problems with that." Coach Phipps asked.

"Uh.. Yeah. I have one." A woman from the American team called out.

After receiving confirmation she continued. "Well you see. My younger brother used to be in a rival team of Ravers. They were invited for a friendly one day and they came an watched the regulars trained. He described it as hell. He said it was so brutal that if he were to do it he would probably end up in a coma. He then fought against them. His team were battered in minutes. No one finished playing a match from his side. They all took less than five minutes for them to lose. My brother played in Single 1. He was up against a 10 year old kid. My brother stood no chance. My brother served first he won a love game as the kid didn't even move once from his place. Then it was the kid's turn. He served once. My brother ended up in hospital. He quit tennis. He's still traumatized from the event. We shouldn't use that regime. It'll only get more people injured."

"I truly am sorry to hear that but we will not stop it just because of your brother." Coach Phipps replied.

"Its not about my brother its about..." The woman was cut off as the head councillor stood up and began to speak.

"Okay enough talk. Continue with the training."

The woman's talk was wiped clean from everyone's mind as they concentrated on the training. Though the woman's talk about the brutality of the training still remained as it really was like hell. By lunch, everyone felt as if they had not slept for a decade. The coaches had decided to skip the theory lessons as almost no one save a few had finished the training during the appointed time. Even Volk had broken into a full sweat. Some could not feel their hands and had to be spoon fed by their teammates much to their embarrassment. Only a few stood unaffected. That few consisted of Camus, Amadeus and Merry. Medanoré glanced and the three mentioned and gave a small sad smile which Merry picked up on. Discreetly she shuffled up to him and spoke softly. "If you weren't injured you wouldn't have found it too hard right?"

"Right."

"Do you regret it?"

"No.. Not at all. Even if I'm not as strong as before at least I could save one more life."

Merry smiled before walking off. "You're strong. Really strong. I envy you." She thought as she was walking.

The American team were clustered in one corner of the room. "That was... so hard... you know..." Kiko called out between breaths.

"I don't think we can stick to the plan." Dodo called out.

No one answered. I think everyone pretty knew that they would die if they didn't go all out. Ryoma was no exception. Sweat poured from his head as he struggled to stay upright. Training was immense. Ryoma at first was alright but after an hour he completely gave up and just went with the flow ignoring everything around him. Though hard Ryoma could not help but feel how familiar it all felt. Maybe that's why he zoned out. Not due to giving up but because his body remembered what would come next and just unconsciously did it. "Stop. That's just wishful thinking. You just can't admit that you gave up." Ryoma reprimanded himself.

After lunch everyone was brought back outside for more hell, I mean training. Though after a 'warm up?' the teens were to play doubles with their partners. Ryoma and Medanoré were paired up with two random Tube Republicans. Although both Ryoma and Medanoré suck at doubles they won pretty easily.

That match was the only match they had that day and after finishing they could watch the other matches. It was a break for them. "Whew..." Akaya said.

"I thought we would have had to continue with training but luckily we don't."

"Well yeah. Since they are sticking to the same training menu which was for the regulars back then. They must have played atleast 5 games each the regulars I mean. They would have taken up the full time that we have. Since there are more of us the coaches can't tell us all to play for the entire time so we get that time off." Inui replied.

Camus who was nearby understood everything they were saying. Although he couldn't read or write Japanese he could speak it fluently. "5 games eh." He muttered.

"Heck." Camus grinned before a wave of nostalgia hit him. He recounted how they would spend the entire 6 hours playing against one opponent. The tie breaks would go into the 100s all the time. Sometimes they wouldn't have enough time to finish their game and had to end it.

The 6 hours of training went by quite quickly as most had nothing to do but watch. They were given the hour break which was neccesary as some were still suffering from the morning training. At 8 everyone had gathered outside the building where Coach Phipps addressed them yet again. "Hellooo~ everyone. Hope you had a nice rest. So I was thinking. Let's skip training now."

"What?" Some screamed.

"Yep~ Let's skip training and go for a hike on that mountain." Phipps gleefully said whilst pointing at the mountain behind the camp.

Everyone soon trudged along and were all walking in darkness towards the summit, their only source of light the moon which always seemed to hide whenever it had a chance. Medanoré cursed as he swore he just trodded on something nasty. He walked a few steps forward then sidestepped to the right to avoid another accident with something nasty but the moment his foot touched the grassy floor it sunk in dragging him down. Ryoma who was next to him thanks to the head councillor's request that they partnered up - what did he think they were primary school kids or something. The ground spilt open under Ryoma and he too fell along with Tezuka and Kazuya who were in front. The moment they fell in everyone rushed over though the coaches pushed them back.

Some faces held worry though not a lot. Some would say Merry, Camus and Amadeus would be one of those but instead of worrying they all just sighed.

"Déjà vu" Camus muttered under his breath only earning a nod from Amadeus.

Okay you lot. Once again I apologise yet I hate saying sorry. Expect the next chapter in atleast a month. So hope you have enjoyed this chapter and hopefully chapter 6 is near.

P.S - I know all my chapters have spelling and grammar mistakes but frankly I don't care.