A/N: I have been aware that there are people who borrowed ideas from my stories to write their own. I don't mind it at all and I'm quite happy that my stories inspired you to create your own. At the same time, I wish that you tell me or send me a notice (private message or in a review of the story you borrowed something) and that you give me my credits. When I borrowed ideas from different writers to do my own stories, I send them a notice of what I did and give their credits. They worked hard to come up with their stories and they deserved to be respected for it. I wish that you do the same thing for me. I preferred to learn it from you rather then of finding myself stumbling on your stories. Or, in other case, from other people telling me. Thank you for understanding.

And now, chapter 71 of Seiyou Academy for you. By the way, it hasn't been beta-ed yet. Please, forgive-me for the mistakes you will find.

Enjoy!

It was raining. It was chilly. But Fuji-dono thought nothing of the bad weather. She couldn't bring herself to care about it. Like a spiritless corpse, she walked alone on the street.

'How did it happen like this?' she wondered.

She didn't understand why everything turn out completely different from what she had expected. She remembered the conversation she had with her son and her daughter-in-law.

Flashback

"What!" Fuji-dono exclaimed in horror. "You want to cancel the engagement between Syuusuke and Lavinia?"

"Yes, Mother," Seri said, nodding. Seri sat in front of Fuji-dono in the living room of the Fuji house, her hands neatly crossed on her lap. Sennosuke stood next to her behind her arm chair.

"It is out of the question!" Fuji-dono vehemently protested. "I will not brake their engagement!" The matriarch of the family stubbornly looked away, refusing to believe that her daughter-in-law was confronting her.

Seri didn't reply. She waited for Fuji-dono to continue.

"What happened during the engagement party was unexpected, but I will not comply. Syuusuke will marry Lavinia. That is my final decision."

Seri still didn't respond.

"I'm doing this for him and for the happiness of his future," Fuji-dono explained. "Right now, he might not see it, but he will understand later. He knows that everything I do is for the family and he supports me."

It was here that Seri decided to interrupt.

"Mother," Seri spoke, "You have always work so hard for us. Everything you've done has always solely been for our family. I have never doubt any of your decisions. I have always supported you because I know how much, as a mother, you love your children and grandchildren." Then, very very slowly, Seri raised her head, and showed Fuji-dono her cerulean eyes. "Mother," Seri continued to speak, "I never went against any of your decisions before. However, this time, being a mother myself, I will not allow my son to suffer for the rest of his life just because he was forced to marry a person he knew he could never find happiness with." Seri finished her speech with a sharp glare at Fuji-dono to puncture her words.

Inadvertently, Fuji-dono's body froze. This was the second time in her life that she met her daughter-in-law's eyes. The first time was when she had no choice but accepting Sennosuke's choice of spouse to save his life. Fuji-dono had forgotten how powerful her daughter-in-law's glance could be. If Fuji-dono was the queen of the Fuji house, her daughter-in-law possessed the eyes of an empress. A queen was underneath an empress. And Fuji-dono had the very distinctive impression that her will was, against her desire, bending down in front of her daughter-in-law. Seri never raised her voice against Fuji-dono before. It was a great shock for the old lady. Fuji-dono knew she lost the battle against her daughter-in-law. She fought to stay unaffected, but her hands were trembling and her attempts to stop failed. Sennosuke, seeing his mother starting trembling, decided to interfere between the two women.

"Mother, have you notice something?" Sennosuke asked Fuji-dono. Upon hearing his voice, Fuji-dono's hands began to tremble less. Her son's voice gave her back some of her strength.

"Wha-what is it, Sennosuke?" Fuji-dono stuttered.

"The staff already sees Ryoma-chan as their future mistress," Sennosuke said.

"What?" Fuji-dono's head jerked up to look at him. Her self-control was back. And she clearly heard Sennosuke called the object of their conversation 'Ryoma-chan'. He too already saw the green-black hair girl as his future daughter-in-law. And he liked her. "What do you mean?" Fuji-dono snapped out, demanding an explanation.

"They called her 'Echizen-hime-sama'," Sennosuke calmly responded.

"What? How come? Who does it? Why? When did they start it?"

"It was Shindou-san," Sennosuke answered again. "Shindou-san gave the title of 'hime' to Echizen Ryoma and the staff followed his example."

(A/N: If you have forgot about Shindou, please see over again the chapter 25, "Summer vacations: Rescue the Kidnappers".)

". . ." Fuji-dono was speechless. Fuji-dono knew the old butler. Shindou-san was an excellent butler coming from a long line of butler family, who served the Fuji family for decades. His judgments about people were never wrong and very few succeeded in winning his approval. Yet, this Echizen Ryoma…

"You know it too, Mother," Sennosuke said, "Shindou-san never granted such a honor to anyone. Not even to Lavinia-san."

". . ." Fuji-dono was beat up inside. She could hardly accept her daughter-in-law's words. She could easily set aside her son's opinion. But she couldn't ignore Shindou-san's judgement. Fuji-dono really lost the battle.

"Mother," Sennosuke spoke in a gentle voice, "Syuusuke might still be very young, but he is even more mature than an adult. His perception is one of the best and he rarely makes any mistakes. He has always lived up to your expectation because of his promise to you. For Yuuta, he took an overwhelming burden onto his shoulders and is no longer the child he used to be. Mother, I believe it is time for you to free him from his promise to you and let him do what he wants. Under your guidance over the years, he learned how to confront obstacles with intelligence and skill. He will still need your guidance, but you should also believe in him. Mother, you must believe in Syuusuke's heart and choice."

End flashback

'Mother, you must believe in Syuusuke's heart and choice.' Sennosuke's words echoed in Fuji-dono head.

It simply meant that Sennosuke, too, disagreed with her decision to marry Syuusuke with Lavinia.

'It was the second time that Sennosuke disobeyed to me…'

Fuji-dono felt her heart clenching painfully in her chest. Too wrapped up in her own thoughts, she was unable to see what was happening around her. She walked straight into the middle of the street and didn't see the car rushing towards her.

"FUJI-DONOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" someone shouted her name.

Fuji-dono snapped back to reality just in time to see the speeding car dangerously close to her. Both she and the driver realized it was too late to stop the car to avoid the collision.

SCREEEEEEEEEETCH! THUUUUD!

The impact made Fuji-dono fly some meters away onto the walkway. But she was still alive. And perfectly safe. Many people stopped to watch the accident, horror written on their face. The driver stepped out of his car to see a body lying on the ground. Hurriedly, he pulled out his cellphone and dialed 1-1-9. (A/N: In Japan, 1-1-9 is the equivalent of the emergency number 9-1-1 in North America.)

A man helped Fuji-dono to stand up and leaned her against a electric post. He told her not to move until the paramedics arrived so they could check if she was hurt in anyway. Fuji-dono refused to listen to him. She wanted to see who it was that had saved her. Trembling, Fuji-dono stood up and walked towards the car which had almost hit her some minutes ago. Fuji-dono saw the body of a young person lying on the cement. She made three more steps toward the immobile body. This time, she could see it was a girl, more precisely a teenager. One more step… And Fuji-dono gasped, her hands covering her mouth. She recognized her rescuer.

'It's…'

Meanwhile, at various places around Tokyo.

At the Echizen residence, Nanako was putting the dishes in the drawer when she dropped Ryoma's cup. The cup snapped into two pieces. Karupin flew down the stair and furiously yowled around the house. It was the same as when Ryoma was sick, but worse. Nanako, with trembling hands, pick up the two broken pieces of Ryoma's cup of tea, shivering.

In her office, Rinko dropped her pen and suddenly felt very cold. She closed her arms around her, trembling nervously. She looked at the picture on her desk, the one of her husband and her two children. The glass of the frame had broken over Ryoma's picture.

Back in the temple and downtown, Nanjirou and Ryoga stopped what they were doing, feeling electricity running up their spine. It was a bad premonition for them.

.

At the tennis court, Yukimura felt a sting shooting through him. He clutched at his head with both hands, a painful grimace on his face.

"Yukimura!" Sanada shouted worriedly.

Kirihara froze in the middle of his game and dropped his racket. Everybody saw his strings snap. He had just changed them yesterday.

"Kirihara, what happened?" Marui asked. Kirihara didn't answer. He was shivering, his fingers twitching madly.

"Bu-buchou…" Kirihara stuttered, his green orbs trembling in his eyes.

"Eiji!" Ooishi shouted when he saw Kikumaru crouched over. Kikumaru was violently trembling. His eyes were the same as Kirihara's.

Jirou jerked up from his nap. He worriedly bit his lips, his eyebrows fused together.

.

At the Fuji house, Syuusuke felt a sharp pain piercing his heart. He dropped to his knees and clutched at his chest with his hands.

At the Atobe place, Touga and Sora burst into tears out of the blue. Their parents didn't understand why.

.

All of them had the same thoughts:

'Something bad happened.'

Back to the accident scene.

Fuji-dono gasped in horror when she saw the young body lying on the cement. A pool of red was rapidly expanding around the girl's head. Fuji-dono recognized her rescuer.

'Echizen Ryoma!'

A/N: The idea of the accident was provided by Ms. Ramdoness (Thank you!). I found it very good, so I decided to use it. I just cooked it with different ingredients and with my own sauce. The second part will be for next time.

Post on Tuesday January 12, 2010. Beta-ed on Monday February 8.