The training camp site was at one of Atobe's summer houses. It was perched on a high landscape, in the mountains. The nearest village was an hour by car from Atobe's mansion. There was only one uphill road to get up there. The regulars were put two people per room. Since Ryoma was the only girl, she had a room for herself. Atobe also brought with him Enzou and a maid named May. They would take care of the meals and the chores. Yuuta also came to help, mainly helping the coaches, assisting them in the training.

As soon as they arrived, they immediately started. First, they worked to strengthen their bodies from the basics. Ryuuzaki-sensei had them running down to the village to get food and then climbing up the mountain to return back to the mansion. They can only bring one item with them each time. When they brought up one, they would have to go back to get another item until the last item was brought up. While doing so, they wore power wrists and power ankles. And if they dropped something on the way or stopped but for one second, they had to go back to the shop of the village and start over again. Kirihara's clumsiness had caused him to return back to the village five times. He also bumped into Ryoma, forcing her to do it with him. Normally, Ryoma would snap at him and would give him a piece of mind - and inflicted him with a couple of painful hits and smacks too -, but she didn't say nor did she hit him. And when the boys thought about it again, Ryoma didn't open her mouth once from the moment they stepped in the bus bringing them here.

They finished bringing all the food to the mansion when it was dark. While waiting for the supper to be prepared, they took a bath. The mansion had an onsen (1) out-door bath, a section for man, an another for woman. Ryoma had the woman section all for herself.

Their bath finished, they ate their supper. After such a tiring day, they supper tasted delicious and they thoroughly enjoyed their meal. While eating, they chatted and laughed. But again, Ryoma was the only one who didn't say anything. She was so caught in her thinking that she didn't even see the worried glances the others threw at her. Their attempt to make her feel better failed. As soon as the supper finished, Ryoma went straight to her bedroom. No one said anything as they watched her left the room.

The next day was officially the first day of the training camp… and Ryoma's first day of trial. When Ryoma she went down to take her breakfast, Kirihara, Marui and Niou were waiting for her at the door of the dining room.

"Echizen, are you alright?" Kirihara asked, still worried because she wasn't herself yesterday. Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you ask? I'm normal," she answered, as if nothing was wrong. She passed him and went to sit at the table. She picked a toast and started eating her breakfast. The boys looked at her, dumbfounded.

"Maybe she didn't speak to anyone yesterday because she was tired," Marui said. Kirihara and Niou nodded.

"But it's look like she is back to normal again," Niou added. Kirihara and Marui nodded. Reassured, they joined her for breakfast.

After breakfast, they left outside to train and didn't return until very late at night. Ryoma trained hard like everybody. She only focused to train. But Tezuka, Yukimura and Yagyuu could feel that the girl was putting to much pressure on herself. She was far too serious to be normal. Once they were back, they took a bath and ate their supper and went to their room to sleep. The first day in the mountain was too tough for city boys and girl so they decided to go straight to sleep.

The second day was as hard as the first day. Very early, before the sun rose, they went jogging. After one hour, they returned back for breakfast. Then, they left again the mansion, power wrists, power ankles and power weightd wrapped around their torso, and a heavy package full of sand on their shoulders. They jogged up to the top of the mountain, where there was an open field. The wind was very strong on the field. They practiced their shots in the wind. It was very difficult to shoot a normal ball with the wind against you. At noon, they took a break to lunch. After that, Ryuuzaki-sensei brought them to a stream. They practiced swinging their rackets in the water, in the middle of the stream, with the racket covered in a case. And when the sun was setting, they returned back to the mansion.

But that night, the boys wanted to do something different. They decided to sleep all together. On their request, Enzou and May had futons (2) laid in a big room for everyone.

"This is so fun! Sleeping in a futon!" Kirihara said as he snuggled in his futon.

"There nothing to be impressed about that," Ryoma said.

"Of course there is! It's our first time doing this!" Ootori said.

"Then where do you slee-…!" Ryoma stopped.

'Oh yeah. That's right. I forgot. They are rich. Of course they always sleep in comfy beds everywhere they go,' Ryoma thought.

"Forget what I said…" she sighed.

"Hey, don't you have a stiff back the next morning, sleeping on the floor like this?" Marui asked.

"Wait until tomorrow morning and you will know," Ryoma answered. "But why do you want to sleep on futons, all together in the same room? What's the point?"

"Just for fun of doing strange things together!" Niou answered, grinning sheepishly.

Ryoma looked suspiciously at them, an eyebrow raised.

"You're weird…"

The four boys' grin got bigger. There was no way they would tell her that it was because they didn't want to leave her alone. If during the day, she behaved normally like everyday - like Ryoga said, because of her pride -, during the night, it was different.

Last night, when everybody were sleeping, Ryoma went down alone in the living room. She sat at the small table where the telephone was. She wanted to call her brother. She wanted to hear his voice, to hear him say that he was fine. But she didn't want to disturb him and wake him up in the middle of the night. But then again, it wouldn't be the first time that she disturbed him in his sleep. She often did it when she was young. And Ryoga never got mad at her. But now, it was different. He was injured. He was in a hospital. He needed to rest. But she was still worried about him. She wanted very much to…

"Haaa…" she sighed heavily. She closed her eyes and lowed her head.

At the end, she couldn't make up a decision. She crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on them. She pondered over and over about calling him or not. She kept staring at the telephone, not moving.

Unknown to her, Kirihara saw her. Because he was thirsty, he went down to the kitchen to find something to drink when he saw light in the living room. That was how he saw her, sitting at the table, sad, staring infinitely at the telephone. When morning came, he told the others what he saw last night. And that was how they came up with the idea of sleeping together, in hope to cheer her up.

"Hey! Let's tell ghost stories!" Ootori proposed. "We are in an old run down mansion (Atobe cocked his right eyebrow), alone in the moutain, in the middle of the night and only teenagers together. It's a very good mood to tell ghost stories!"

"Ghost stories!" Jirou excitedly shouted, fully awaken.

"Oh yeah! That's a good idea!" Momoshiro cheered. "Na, Mamushi?"

Kaido didn't answer, but his face was blank.

"Okay, who start?" Momoshiro asked.

"Me! Me!" Kikumaru called.

And Kikumaru started his story about a cursed acrobat who died will giving a show. Whoever use his trapeze would also die in a tragical and horrible accident like him. It was to take revenge on the people who sabotaged his trapeze because they were jealous of his talent. After Kikumaru, it was Momoshiro. He told a story about a giant meat bun that didn't want to be eaten, so it ate people instead. Marui joined after Momoshiro to tell a food story too, about a local patisserie. The patisserie was known for its famous red cakes. But everyday, a customer of the patisserie disappeared. Niou didn't tell a ghost story, but a disgusting one about a rotten cream cheese, which made people turned green. When Niou finished his story, they swore never to eat anything with cream cheese again. But it was Inui's beetle juice story which got the most success: everyone wanted to puke everything inside their stomach out. To steer away from food stories, Yanagi told a story about a computer which caused people to suicide. By providing false information, business men thought that then went into bankruptcy and they committed suicide. The computer wanted to get revenge because its previous owner threw him away after the he bought a new computer. After Yanagi, Ootori wanted to change the flow. He told a joke, to make people laugh. But it was a weird joke that no one understood, so no one laughed. Instead, they laughed at his poor depressed face. Then, Fuji spoke.

"I have a story to tell too," he said.

"Fuji/aniki, you shut up!" Yuuta, Marui, Niou and Yanagi said.

Ryoma frowned. She never heard Yanagi protesting against anything. But he was against the idea of Fuji told a story.

"Why Fuji-senpai shouldn't tell his story?" she asked. The boys turned to her and gave her a glare.

"You really want to hear a story from him?" Yuuta asked.

"Well…" Ryoma started.

Someone tipped on her shoulder. Ryoma turned to see Yagyuu, who was jerking his thumb to the farthest wall of the room. Ryoma followed his thumb to see Kirihara, Ootori, Shishido, Gakuto, Kikumaru, Momoshiro and Kaido completely flattened against the wall. It looked like if the wall wasn't there, trapping them, they would be somewhere outside in the night by now, running away to save their sanity. Their faces were blue and they were heavily sweating cold. All of them looked at Fuji with big, round and horrified eyes. Ryoma sweat dropped. She turned around to look at the rest of the regulars. Tezuka and Sanada were completely frozen. Half of Tezuka's face was blue and Sanada was slightly sweating. Even Atobe cannot help but ticking his right eye. His face was blue too. It seemed like they too didn't want to hear any story from Fuji.

"Err… I guess I don't…" Ryoma finished her answer to Yuuta's question.

"That's a wise decision, Echizen-chan," Oshitari said. "Especially since this is your first training camp with us. I guarantee you, you will want to be able to sleep every night following this night. And you will also want to be able to sleep every night of the next two months after the camp too."

'"Ha…" Ryoma said.

'Fuji himself if a live ghost story, a walking nightmare!' the frightened boys thought.

'Is this why the school call the tennis club's training camp the training camp from hell?' Ryoma wondered.

Yukimura and Fuji chuckled.

The Germans beat Ryoga until he laid in a sea of blood, his body lifeless.

"Anikiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Ryoma screamed. The Germans spun on their heels and their face changed into a cold and vicious expression.

"Nhehehehehe!" they laughed evilly, in a way which froze Ryoma's blood. She wanted to run away, but her legs refused to obey. Step by step, they came closer to her. They extended their hands toward her, grabbed her clothes and…

"AHHH!" Ryoma woke up with a start.

Her heart was bumping at a rate of a 100 pulses per minute. And she was heavily sweating. She tried to calm down, breathing slowly.

'I-it was only a nightmare…' She wiped her forehead with her left hand, grabbing her heart with the other to slow down its rhythm. 'Aniki…'

She looked around her. Everyone was sleeping soundly. Some were snoring. She was the only one awake. She pushed off the blanket of her futon and got up. Careful not to make a sound, she tiptoed outside. She went to the backyard of the mansion. Under the porch, there was a hanging wicker swing chair. She flopped herself on it. She leaned on the back and closed her eyes, letting the fresh breeze of the night cool her down.

'Aniki…'

She didn't know how long she staid like that, but the wind made her feel better.

"Ryoma-chan," a voice softly called her. Ryoma snapped her eyes open. Fuji was standing next to her.

"Fuji-senpai!"

"What are you doing out here, all alone?" Fuji asked.

"I… I cannot sleep…"

Silence.

"And you? What are you doing here?"

"I saw you going outside."

". . ." Silence again. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I didn't mean to…"

"It's all right. Don't worry about it."

Fuji sat next to her on the swing chair. The two of them stayed in silence for a long time.

"I had a nightmare," Ryoma spoke again. "Aniki…" She stopped, but Fuji could guess what she was thinking.

"Ryoma-chan, your brother is now safely sleeping in his bed, in the hospital. And there are nurses and doctors around him to take very good care of him. If anything happen, they will be immediately be there for him," Fuji said. "You shouldn't worry too much. It's not good for you."

"I know, but…" She stopped again.

"Ryoma-chan, whenever Yuuta is in this state that you are right now, I become worried about him. I would want to do something for him, but I cannot. If I did, Yuuta will be angry at me, because he would think that I still treat him like a child. So I wouldn't do anything. However, I got stuck with my worry, my desire to help and with the knowledge that I should not do anything that would anger him. All these emotions are very hard to hold and they make me be more worried than I was already. Ryoma-chan, I didn't meet your brother for such a long time, but I know that he must be thinking exactly the same things as I do. Ryoma-chan, do you want to let your brother to be worried about you like this?"

"No! I don't want him to be like that!" Ryoma protested in a horrified tone, jumping on her legs. "I-I cannot let him worry about me like that."

"Then you should not be in the state that you're in right now. Don't let what happen to him weigh on your heart. It's normal to feel worry for a family member who is hospitalized, but it's wrong to let yourself being completely immersed by your worry. "

"H-Hai…" Ryoma trailed, then sat back down. "I-I will try to not let my worry burden the other people," she promised.

Fuji smiled.

"That's a good thing to heard."

"But how do I do that?"

Fuji reflected a moment.

"You remember when we were telling ghost stories?"

Ryoma nodded.

"During that time, you weren't worrying about your brother, right?"

"Yes, of course not! Because they were there, I couldn't-…!" Ryoma suddenly stopped. Something flashed in her head, something that could be very important.

That Kirihara, Marui, Niou, Ootori or Kikumaru would want to sleep in a futon on a cold floor just for the fun if doing unusual and weird things, she could very easily understand that. But that even Yagyuu and Atobe sacrificed the comfort of a big, soft and warm duck feathers mattress and silk bed sheets for a poor little futon on a cold floor, it wasn't normal. And they didn't complain about it even once! That wasn't normal from them. Unless they were…

"M-masaka… Don't tell me…" Ryoma looked at Fuji, who looked directly at her. Fuji's eyes answered her unvoiced question. "H-how could have I not seen that…?"

Not only did she worried her brother, but also all the regulars. In front of them, her pride commanded her to pretend that she wasn't worried about her brother, who was miles and miles away from her. But she didn't see anything around her. She didn't see how the boys were worried for her, when they were just there, next to her, with her.

"I… I…" Ryoma couldn't find anything to say. There was no excuse to her selfishness. And for some unknown explanation, something fell down from her eyes and wet her cheeks. "I-I feel so miserable… being so selfish…" Now, tears flooded out from her eyes. "I-I am sorry…"

She cried.

She thought that there wasn't any tear left in her body after Ryoga's incident, but it looked like that are still things left to cry out. Fuji put an arm on her shoulder and pulled her to him. He tucked her head in the crook of his neck and let her cry in his chest.

"Ryoma-chan…" he softly hushed her.

She cried, cried, cried and cried. She relinquished all the stress that she had accumulated during the past week. She almost got violated by strangers. Her brother was in the hospital because he was protecting her. And he nearly lost his life in the process. And now, here, while she worried about her brother, she didn't see anything happening around her. She was blind to the regulars' smallest gesture to comfort her, to make her feel better. Everything poured out from her through her tears. She cried to no end.

But as she was thinking about all what happen during the last weeks and while her tears kept escaping her eyes, she felt the weight on her heart lightening. And that was thanks to the senpai, who encouraged letting go of her emotions without interfering. She felt much better after crying.

"There there…" Fuji softly cooed her, patting her head, tightening his arms around her.

After a long moment, Ryoma finally calmed down. She was still crying, but silently. Fuji could still feel her tears through his already wet shirt.

"Ryoma-chan, when you are sad, what does your brother do?" Fuji softly asked.

"He let me sleep with him in his bed," Ryoma answered.

Fuji pulled Ryoma on his lap, making her sat across his legs, and put his arms around her shoulders.

"Ah! Fuji-senpai!"

"For tonight, I will replace your brother. I will be him and I will let you sleep with me. So stop crying now," Fuji said, gently wipping her tears with his fingers. Ryoma was so surprised by his action that she stopped crying without realizing.

"H-hai…" Ryoma hesitantly answered. It felt so awkward to her. Even if he told her that he would replace Ryoga for the night, Ryoma couldn't really picture him as her big brother.

Fuji put a hand on her head on and pulled it against his chest. After a moment, she finally relaxed against him. His heart beat and the warm emitting from his chest caused her eye lids to become heavy, little by little. She wanted to sleep, but something still bothered her.

"Fuji-senpai…"

"Hum? Nani? (3)"

"You won't tell weird stories, right? Aniki doesn't tell weird stories."

Fuji softly chuckled.

"No, I won't. Now sleep."

"Hai…"

Ryoma closed her eyes.

"Arigatou… senpai…"

"Dou itashimashite."

Ryoma didn't hear his last words as she drifted into sleep in his arms.

After a couple of minutes, the door silently opened again to reveal Yukimura, Tezuka and Yagyuu. The window behind Fuji opened too and Marui's and Niou's head popped out. They peered down on the sleeping girl in Fuji's arms.

"She should feel better from now," Fuji whispered.

They nodded and smiled to him while looking at Ryoma's calm face.

(1) onsen: hot spring;

(2) futon: Japanese mattress;

(3) nani: what is it?