A/N: Answering stuff.

Someone asked me why did I write a Prince of Tennis fanfiction with Ryoma as a girl. For the answer, I got inspired after I read a fanfic of Ryoma as a girl. Actually, after two fanfics. It was "Switch", written by the Black Angel of Destruction, and "The Price of the Triple Counter", written by Saniwa. Probably some of you know my first PoT fanfiction, "Everything started from that day". I wrote that one after reading "Switch" and "The Price of the Triple Counter". I combined female Ryoma from "Switch" and the re-match with Fuji from "The Price of the Triple Counter". If you like to read "Switch" and "The Prince of the Triple Counter", you can find their links in my favorite stories.

Actually, "Switch" had first inspired my this fanfiction, "Seiyou Academy". But because I didn't have a solid plot, so I left it aside. I did "Everything started from that day" instead. After "Everything started from that day", I got new ideas for "Seiyou Acadmy" and took it over again. And that's how you're reading it now.

Now, enough chit-chat! Here's chapter 43 for you.

Enjoy!

Note:

"No. Even if you deserve it, you will not play." : normal speaking.

"Can I speak to you?" : speaking in German.

The morning Seiyou tennis club had to face the Germans, Tezuka left for Germany to treat his elbow. Seigaku members, Yukimura and Atobe went with him to say him farewell. Tezuka would be going to a special clinic famous for tennis sport injuries. After that Tezuka's flight took off, they left for the meeting with the Germans.

Ryuuzaki-sensei was released from the hospital. The doctors told her to stay home and rest, but Ryuuzaki-sensei wanted to see their matches with the Germans. Ryoma deserved to play against the Germans, but she wasn't chosen. Kirihara would go at her place.

"No. Even if you deserve it, you will not play. You need to rest," Yanagi told her.

"You have been practicing too much this week. And you also just awake to Muga no Kyouchi. No matter what you say, your body needs to rest and to re-adjust its timing. So, you're not playing this time," Inui elaborated.

"Che…" Ryoma scowled.

"Hihihihi!" Kirihara snickered. "Don't worry, Echizen-chan. I'll win the game for you!" he said. Ryoma mumbled between her teeth.

"It's the best thing for you, Echizen-chan," Yukimura said, patting her head, chuckling.

"Humph!" she stubbornly scowled again. Kirihara, Marui, Niou, Ootori and Kikumaru snickered again.

Ooishi and Kikumaru won Double 2 against the pink skin guy and the green bandanna guy. Angry that they lost the first game, the Germans played ruthlessly on the Double 1. Shishido hurt his shoulder and Ootori forfeited the game against the black guy and his partner the pink skin guy. Hiyoshi lost Single 3 against the brown hair guy. Kirihara played in Single 2. He was on the edge to lose again the bony face guy. When Kirihara changed court, Ryoma had called out to speak with him. When he stood in front of her, Ryoma grabbed him the neck of his shirt.

"If you let him kill you, I'll personally kill you with my own hands after!" she said to him in threatening voice.

Kirihara turned blue and ran to the other side of the court, sweating cold sweat. And of course, to avoid being killed by her later, Kirihara won the game. Fuji faced Alexander in Single 1. As expected from the son of a winner of the Grand Slam, Alexander Aden Krauser was also an exceptional tennis player. But Fuji Syuusuke was a tensai and Alexander didn't take a long time to understand it. Fuji won and Seiyou won the representative championship. On the other hand, Alexander really shouldn't have watch Ryoma with such intensive eyes. Fuji kind of didn't like the way he looked at her.

After the game, Ryoma went to buy a Ponta drink when Alexander appeared next to her.

"Can I speak to you?" he asked her. Ryoma looked at him in silence.

"What do you want from me?" she asked. Alexander opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated.

Behind a bush, Kirihara, Marui, Niou, Ootori and Kikumaru were spying them.

"Arrrrgh nyah! That guy… What does he want from Ochibi-chan?" Kikumaru said.

"If he lay a finger on her, he is dead meat!" Kirihara growled, his teeth grinding, fist closed.

"Shhhhhh!" Marui whispered, a finger on his mouth. "They will hear us!"

"Yeah. But I still don't like it that that prince-y guy talking to her!" Niou mumbled.

"What do you want from me?" Ryoma asked again. Alexander looked at her.

"You're name is Echizen, right? Ryoma Echizen." (A/N: Japanese names go family name and first name. European is the reverse. Alexander is European so he says Ryoma's first name before the family name.)

"Yes. What is it with my name?"

"Nanjirou Echizen. Samurai Nanjirou Echizen, is he related to you?"

"He is my father."

"As I suspected…"

"Huh?"

"I saw you play in the park last week, with a guy who looked exactly like Wolfang."

"That was Niou-senpai. He is not a jerk like your friend." Alexander didn't respond back.

"Why do you play tennis?" he asked her.

"Huh? Why do I play tennis?" Ryoma raised an eyebrow.

"Do you play tennis because of your father? Is it because he forced you play, so he could keep his fame in the professional tennis world?"

"Hah? What! What do you mean?"

"Fourteen years ago, during the final of the Grand Slam, my father was supposed to face Samurai Nanjirou Echizen from the land of Sakura. However, because Nanjirou Echizen didn't show up, my father won by forfeit. Because of that, people talked behind his back, saying that he wasn't the true winner of the Grand Slam. To show people that indeed he deserves the Grand Slam, he threw himself solely into tennis. His life goal was only to collect all the trophies of the tennis world. Nothing was important to him, except tennis. He neglected my mother and forced me to play tennis. He never lost in tennis. He hates losing, but he had the impression that he lost to Nanjirou Echizen even without playing against him. Do you know how the made my life a hell just because that coward Samurai Nanjirou ran away from his last match to the Grand Slam?"

Ryoma looked sternly at him, not very happy.

"If Samurai Nanjirou didn't ran away from the Grand Slam and…"

"Stop it right there!" Ryoma shouted in an angry voice. "That your father won the Grand Slam and it's not happy about it, it's not my father's fault. That your father made your life a hell is also not my father's fault! And that your father forces you to play tennis to maintain his fame also has nothing to do with my father! Though my father is not the perfect father in the world, but he is not a coward. He didn't run away from the Grand Slam as you say. If he really want the Grand Slam, than he can take it whenever he wants. It's not a problem for him. For him, my pregnant mother was more important than the glory of the Grand Slam! Unlike your father, who chose tennis over your family, my father just chose a different path of life. As for me, my father didn't force me to play tennis. He taught me tennis because I wanted to play tennis. In fact, he rather see me dancing ballet in a pink tutu than watching me running after a yellow ball. I play tennis because I chose to play. And it was a choice from my own will!"

"But why?"

"Because it's fun!" Ryoma responded, flashing a smile. Her shining smile made Alexander lost his composure.

"I'm sorry that your father vent his frustration on you, but you have no right to blame my father. As for you, why do you continue to play tennis if you hate it? I can see that like your father, you hate to loose. After your game against Fuji-senpai, your face became sore. That was so un-cool!"

Alexander had the impression that a dagger stabbed his heart.

In the bush:

"Ow! That must hurts!" Marui whispered, grimacing.

"What did she say?" Kikumaru asked.

"You hate to lose and you were sore after your defeat against Fuji. That was so un-cool!" Niou translated.

"Ouch!" Kirihara and Ootori said, clutching their heart.

"Blunt girl," Ootori mumbled.

"Like always," Kirihara added.

"And if you really hate tennis, then stop playing tennis!" Ryoma continued.

"I…"

"The first step to glory is failure. If you cannot take this lost, then you don't deserve to be called a man!"

" . . ." He took a deep breath. "You're right… I'm sorry…"

"If you understand that, then you're more a man than your father."

" . . ." Alexander didn't answer back. Ryoma looked at him. It seemed that he had something more to speak about.

"You want to say something else?" Ryoma asked.

"The other day… what happened to you and to your brother…" He hesitated.

" . . ." Ryoma said nothing.

"I'm sorry… I should have…"

"It's okay," Ryoma interrupted him. "I'm not hurt and Aniki is recovering now…" Alexander looked up at her, surprised.

"You… You're not… You forgive…"

"You didn't do anything wrong. Beside, you even tried to stop them. I don't blame you," Ryoma said. He looked at her with his eyes widen. Then, they soften. He walked to her and stopped in front of her.

"Huh?" Ryoma frowned. "What do you want?"

"Thank you," he said. He put his two hands on her shoulder, bent down and kissed her cheek.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Kirihara and Ootori shouted while jumping out of the bush, utterly shock. Niou and Marui grabbed them by the neck of their shirt and threw them in the direction of Alexander. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ootori and Kirihara knocked Alexander over Ryoma's head.

"Ouch! Ara ara ara…" the three boys stumbled on the ground.

"Ah! Senpai-tachi, what are you doing, falling out of nowhere, down from the sky?" Ryoma asked, surprised.

"They tripped over their shoes!" Marui answered, a red vein popping on his head. Kikumaru sweat dropped, but didn't correct the lie.

'That stupid guy! I should have throw something which would blow off his head!' Marui thought.

"It's so stupid to be that clumsy for old guys like them!" Niou added, a vein popping on his head too.

'He should learn not to touch her!' Niou growled in his head.

"Hmm…" Ryoma said as she watched the three stunned boys at her feet.

"Come on, Echizen-chan," Marui said as he put an arm across her shoulder and diverted her attention away from the knock out people. "We should go now."

"Yeah," Niou said, also putting his arm across her other shoulder, forcing her to walk away. "They must be searching for us!"

"Ah. Hai," Ryoma responded and walked away with them.

Kikumaru watched the three people on the ground. Kirihara and Ootori got up. Alexander too got up to see that Ryoma wasn't around.

"Huh? Where did she go to?" Alexander asked.

"Huh?" Kirihara and Ootori looked to each other, not understanding what he said.

"What did he say?" Kirihara asked.

"Don't know," Kikumaru answered, shaking his head, shrugging.

"She just left," Fuji said, appearing next to them.

"Oh," Alexander said, disappointed. Then he took out a pencil and a paper. He scribbled something on the paper and gave it to Fuji.

"Can you give this to her please? It's my email and phone number. Tell her to contact me," he said. He stood up and left. "Thank you."

Kirihara, Ootori, Kikumaru and Fuji watched him left.

"Fuji-senpai, what did he tell you?" Kirihara asked.

"He told me to give his email and phone number to Ryoma-chan and tell her to contact him," Fuji answered (not too happy). Ootori took the paper from Fuji's hands.

"This is his email and phone number, right?" Ootori asked.

"Yes," Fuji answered (still no very happy). Fuji looks at the paper with dagger eyes, as if he wanted the paper to crumble and burned in until it became only ash. Ootori and Kirihara also shot fire eyes to the paper. Then, Kirihara grabbed the other end of the paper too. He and Ootori tore the paper into little pieces.

"Oops! My bad! I destroyed the paper!" Kirihara claimed.

"That's too sad! We cannot stick the pieces together!" Ootori added. "We can't give back to Echizen like this!"

"You're right! Then we just don't have to tell her!" Kirihara said.

"Neee!" Kirihara and Ootori grinned.

'Daring!' Kikumaru thought.

"Okay! Let's go too!" Ootori said. And Kirihara and Ootori left.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Kikumaru ran after them.

Fuji watched the torn paper float to the ground.

"It's bad to leave scrap on the ground," he said. He took the papers and threw them in the garbage bin. Then he left too.

Fuji opened his eyes. He saw the German kiss Ryoma. If Niou and Marui didn't throw Kirihara and Ootori to the German, he would have certainly snapped. That blond German took a liking to Ryoma and he intended to deep his acquaintance with her. And the worse, he wanted Fuji to help him in his conquest. Normally, being a gentleman, Fuji would deliver the paper to Ryoma. But this time, it was asking too much from him, which why he had gladly left the sort of the paper into Kirihara's and Ootori's hands.

Alexander Krauser kissing Ryoma, even on the cheek, had awoken something in Fuji. Ryoma was an attractive girl and would probably have many suitors. However, Fuji wasn't sure he was fine with the idea that other guys would be interested in her.