A/N: I always love it when celebrities or just ordinary people go into children's hospitals and do what they can to put a smile on those kids faces. I was watching TV and it showed a magician doing a show for an audience of sick kids and I thought… why not? So after completely torturing the tennis players and messing with them, the players got to make the kiddos happy. Did any of you ever wonder what was in the pouch Penn handed over? Enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 17 – Aftermath

Saturday after the performance, Atobe's car dropped all of the players off at their respective houses, but some of the players, either by silent agreement or words spoken aloud, refused to be alone still caught in the nightmare that was their predestined doom before the show. Everyone… yes everyone, thought they were really sold to slave traders and would be leaving their beloved Japan forever (okay maybe that's a bit melodramatic, but look at the situation they were in). It was ok that they needed comfort and company… For example Choutarou and Shishido decided it was probably best to stick together right now for "special training", but they fooled no one. Both of them were practically clinging together and if any girls would have been walking by at that moment, they would have probably gotten the wrong impression. Atobe refused to leave Jirou because he was afraid the sleeping boy would have nightmares (not that he would actually remember the torture because he was sleeping through it all and was probably the only one the sadists really had not tortured. In fact, he thought the show was the greatest thing in the world). Kikumaru clung to his buchou, who peeled off the acrobat when the redhead's family got home from an outing and then politely left. Who knows who Kikumaru attached himself to after that. Marui decided it was best of the Rikkai Dai players stuck together and invited them all over for a sleep over, which everyone except Yanagi accepted. He decided to stay with Inui to review data. There was no telling if Yukimura had other plans for his team and there was strength in numbers… usually (I think today proved otherwise, don't you?) Gakuto clung to Oshitari… (ok, you get the idea).

Only two people didn't completely panic, Kabaji and Yamato; and the only reason no one realized Kabaji was freaked out is because it was completely dark and he doesn't really say much. Yamato on the other hand wanted to see what the sadists really had in store. He liked to believe that he knew Fuji well enough that he didn't think the tensai would sell him to a slave trader, and if he had been wrong… well it was a new adventure that life was taking him on and he would go where the kami dictated.

As the data players reviewed and analyzed all of the information they collected today (and truthfully neither of them wanted to be alone in fear that they still had more punishment awaiting them for organizing everything), they realized something. One of the things that had made the ruse 100% effective was the exchanging of the money or the pouch. What was in the pouch? "Sadaharu, 100% it was not money, but it was something heavy," Yanagi stated.

Adjusting his glasses, Inui shook his head, "When Fuji is involved there is no way to tell. It could be anything from rocks to soy beans to marbles."

"Or it could be something that they did indeed trade our services for…"

"Unfortunately that is the case. Yukimura and Fuji together are a force to be reckoned with."

"Indeed, but I believe the data we collected today will be invaluable. Don't you agree, doctor?"

The grin that overcame Inui in that moment would have probably given most people chills with aspects of both joy and lunacy, "Agreed, professor."

Sunday was a quiet day with many teens in the Tokyo area refusing to leave their house, afraid of what would happen to them. Their parents didn't understand and just shook their heads leaving them alone and wondering if they needed to call the doctor in regards to their sons' unusual behavior… then again, it was probably just a phase because they were teenage boys; and thus the parents left it alone for now and decided to intervene if the paranoia got worse. Really who believed that two sweet tennis players could be sadists anyway? Fuji and Yukimura were nice, sweet boys with polite manners and a gentle smile upon their faces; there was no way they could be evil (parents are not always right).

When Monday finally dawned, the victims of the revenge plot from over the weekend realized they could no longer cower in fear and must face the day ahead (well Atobe would never admit that he was hiding out, but he was… for two reasons: his nose and the sadists). The Hyotei players breathed a sigh of relief that neither of the sadists went to their school and thus they were relatively safe from any further action… although after Saturday there shouldn't be any further action. Really, Oshitari was sure someone made a mess of themselves, but because it was so dark he was never sure who it was. The Seigaku players weren't as lucky since Fuji went to their school and was on their tennis team. Kikumaru wanted to glomp his best friend and carry on like normal, but he was afraid and terrified of the tensai at the moment. Yamato tried to assure Kikumaru that the danger had passed and the only person that might still be on Fuji's hit list would be Inui, but the redhead was still anxious. Finally, the Rikkai Dai players were in much the same position as Seigaku, but maybe a little worse since Yukimura wasn't only on their team, he was the buchou. They were wary as they went to morning practice and made sure to stay on their guards. So what if they jumped at their shadows? It was a normal occurrence after one of Niou's pranks and it just meant they were super alert (it wasn't a good lie, but hey I can't blame them for that one).

Yukimura watched his players react to every little thing and chuckled as Marui's bubble flew out of his mouth when he screamed as a beetle landed on his back. The green glob landed on the back of Jackal's bald head (and surprisingly, the nice round bubble was still intact).

"Do I want to know what you did?" Sanada asked as he came to stand next to his blue haired friend. There was no telling what happened, however, there was also no mistaking the fact that the two sadists had exacted their revenge.

Shaking his head, the bluenette snickered, "Probably not."

"Just tell me if you and Fuji are planning anything else. I don't think they can take any more."

"Nope. We're done."

Sanada crossed his arms and sighed with relief. If anything else happened, he might have to make a call and commit some of his regulars into the mental asylum and make straightjackets a permanent part of their wardrobe; briefly he wondered where they put the one they kept for Kirihara. It might come in handy. Marui and Jackal were extremely jumpy. Niou looked at everything like something could jump out at any minute and he was caught in the middle of one of his own traps (very out of character, which made Sanada wonder to what extreme did Yukimura and Fuji go with their revenge). Yagyuu seemed almost normal, and yet if you looked closer, you could see a slight shake in his arm causing his timing to be slightly off. The only one acting completely normal was Yanagi, but he was always the hardest to read; and as Sanada studied him, he noticed his friend had his notebook and pen out, however, the pen wasn't moving. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he started to walk away, "I don't want to know."

"Ne, Sanada, you don't want my answer then?"

Pausing, he looked over the stoic teen looked over his shoulder, "Nani?"

"I said I would give you my answer when this was finished."

Sanada didn't say anything and stood there waiting for the answer. He actually wasn't sure what to expect. Would he be accepted or denied again? There was no way to know when it came to the bluenette, but he dare not move or breathe afraid of what the answer might be.

"Yes. That's my answer to your question from the train."

"Yes?"

"Hm. Yes. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to talk to a couple of our regulars. They seem to be having an off day for some reason," Yukimura giggled as he walked off in the direction of Marui and Jackal while calling Niou, Yagyuu, and Yanagi together as well.

Standing there in shock, Sanada had to
wonder if he had heard correctly and decided he would go with it because it was what he wanted. However, turning around and seeing who he was gathering, he pinched the bridge of his nose and could feel a headache coming on. It was probably best to walk to the other side of the courts and pretend he didn't see that or know that Yukimura called those particular players together.

Once the five players were gathered around him away and they were away from anyone that may overhear them, Yukimura decided to finally put everyone out of their misery… although it had been fun to watch, he did have to think of his tennis team and the fact that at this rate, his players weren't any good to him, "After Saturday's performance, all of you can rest assured that nothing else will happen to you… well unless you want to interfere or cross me again." His smile dared them to do just that.

"Really? Puri," Niou scoffed slightly unbelieving. He didn't want to admit that the sadists had gotten to him; that might ruin his reputation.

"Really," Yukimura assured his players, "So now you can stop jumping at ladybugs and screaming at beetles and Jackal can get some Googone (trust me when I say this stuff gets the sticky off anything, and I'm sure it would work on a bald head) to get the gum off his head."

Five players slumped over in relief. They weren't sure why, but they trusted their buchou's words.

"Ne, Yukimura?" Yanagi glanced at one of his closest friends.

The bluenette raised a brow, "Hm?"

Standing up straight, the data collector inquired, "What was in the pouch?"

"The pouch?"

"Yes, the one that made it look like they paid you."

Yukimura turned around and laughed, "Just something." He knew it would drive Yanagi crazy not knowing.

Back at Seigaku, Yamato had to take control of the situation because Kikumaru was giving Fuji a wide berth and Inui seemed to be avoiding the tensai as well. He walked up to Fuji and pulled him to the side, "If you intend on continuing to torture your friends then let things stay as they are, but if you would like your friends back, I suggest you say something to them."

"You act as if I'm done," Fuji's grin widened.

"I went along with it to see what would happen, and because you and Tezuka have been skirting this for a while now. They did it because they care about you and want to see you happy. Let them off the hook. At least Kikumaru, he looks like a scared cat and keeps climbing the fence," Yamato looked up and shook his head, his sunglasses hiding his eyes.

Sure enough when Fuji followed the direction his buchou was gazing, there was the redheaded acrobatic player climbing the fence and looking like a scared kitten; and he might have felt a little bad for his best friend, "I'll handle it."

"Excellent. Now I won't have to find a ladder," the older teen chortled as he walked off leaving his first year player to deal with the aftermath of Saturday.

Sighing, the tensai decided that Kikumaru might be the best person to start with since the higher Eiji got, the more dangerous it was… although the acrobat always seemed to land on his feet just like a cat. Slowly approaching so as not to startle the teen too much, Fuji stood under his best friend and called out to him, "Ne, Eiji can you come down here for a minute? Saa, I need to talk to you."

"Nya, I'm ok here, thank you," Kikumaru shook his head.

Opening his eyes, Fuji gave the other teen a hard stare, "Saa, Eiji, I promise nothing is going to happen to you. Come down."

"No, nya."

"Kikumaru, get down now!" Tezuka ordered from behind Fuji knowing that the redhead would listen to him. Sure enough, the acrobat jumped down and almost made a break for it, but the bespectacled teen stopped him, "Stay and listen." When he was sure, he wasn't needed any longer, Tezuka left his two friends in order to find some aspirin. He could already feel a headache coming on and he had a feeling that if he didn't take the medicine now, it was just going to get worse.

"Ne Eiji, I promise that I am not going to do anything else. Saturday was it and we actually didn't think it would work so well," Fuji smiled. Part of him wanted to laugh as he recalled the events of Saturday, but he held himself back.

Kikumaru gave his best friend a wary look, "Really?"

"Saa, really. I promise. Saturday was it."

"So, you're not going to really sell me? Nya."

"I wouldn't ever try to. You're my best friend."

He still wasn't completely sure, but Kikumaru thought he could believe Fuji. Besides, it was really hard for him to be afraid and mad at his best friend all the time. That was a workout in itself and he didn't like it. "OKAY!" He yelled as he glomped the tensai and hugged him tightly, "I missed you Fujiko! Nya."

Giggling, Fuji's nodded, "Saa, I missed you too, Eiji." After a minute or two of hugging his friend back, and then another minute or two of trying to get the redhead to let go, the tensai told him, "Ne, I have to go talk to Inui. I'll see you after practice."

"Nya, okay!" Kikumaru grinned and was once again his normal, boisterous, bouncy self.

Fuji approached the data player of Seigaku and asked, "Ne, collecting some interesting data?"

"Fuji!" Inui jumped and dropped his pencil.

Laughing, the tensai bent down and retrieved the writing utensil and said, "Saa, you can stop worrying if we are coming for you. Saturday was it, unless you want to do something else to warrant our special brand of attention."

The smile on the sadist's face was all Inui needed to know that he never wanted to interfere again… even if it was worth it in the end because of the data he collected and if his ultimate goal was met, "Is that accurate?"

"Yes, Yukimura and I decided that Saturday we would get everyone in one fell swoop so that we wouldn't have to worry about anything going forward. We have tennis tournaments and such coming up and we can't have all of the tennis players in our region playing like crap just because they are scared of what we may or may not do to them."

"Indeed? Thank you for the information. Ah Fuji, just one question. What was in the bag?"

"The bag?"

"Yes, the one the magician gave you."

Fuji started to walk off as he chuckled, "Nothing for you to concern yourself with." He knew just as his blue hair counterpart did that Inui would go crazy trying to figure it out; served him right.

That afternoon, just as Fuji was about to walk out of the locker room and head to practice, Tezuka called out to him, "Fuji, meet me at the public courts tonight at 6:00." The former buchou left without another word and entered the tennis courts leaving the tensai standing there wondering what was going to happen tonight at the public courts.

And as two sadists got home after their tennis practice, one to stay and one to change, they both pulled out a pouch. For inside the large pouch they received on Saturday were two smaller pouches and they poured some of the contents into their palm. One contained wasabi peas, and the other flower seeds. Yes, they sold their friends for something so simple, and the two data men would never know what was in the pouch because once the seeds were planted, that evidence would be gone; and once the peas were eaten, that evidence would also disappear. Not that Inui or Yanagi would figure it out anyway since they only saw one big pouch, not the two little ones.