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Sakuno's Revenge

by DJRD of X1-1R

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It was in the middle of the night, the moon shone bright as the two tennis players continued with their unending death match. The school is already closed and yet these individuals don't mind how many hours and years their match will take to determine the winner. Lights illuminated their faces filled with sparkling drops of sweat and their heavy breathing accompanied the silence of night; it was so quiet Sakuno could hear the loud beating of her heart against her chest. It was like a Bass Drum. Suddenly, she remembered that her "heart" was nothing but a lump of muscles, an empty vessel filled with the void building up inside of her.

Their scores are tied, and one wrong move, Sakuno will be forever damned by his arrogant genius opponent. As they carried on with their never-ending competition all of a sudden, Sakuno felt a contraction inside of her increasing; it was so tight she could barely breathe but despite of her tough situation she didn't mind it and instead.

"What's the matter chibi cat got your tongue?" Sakuno shouted as she flipped her short red hair.

"Eh, Shouldn't I be the one saying that cross dresser?" Ryoma smirked.

Sakuno was annoyed. She hated the guts of this brat but then again her main priority at this time was to win knowing that this could be her last time to play a match with him; she knew that her time was limited. Out of the blue, the beating of her heart was getting crazy, the contraction increases again. She was losing her grip and her sight was getting hazy, she was starting to lose control. She dropped her racket and began to black out. She lost consciousness.

"Not now x." Her heart whispered.

Darkness enveloped the place where Sakuno is. It was a hollow space in which voices of the unknown were heard then a few moments later Sakuno opened her eyes and was shocked.

"Where am I? It's so dark I can't see" she said and then suddenly she heard familiar voice.

"Hello, I 'am your conscience Sakuno the match between you and Ryoma is finally over, you're already dead." He pronounced.

"Stop fooling around X, I know it's you but wait did you already take my life?" She replied.

"Hahaha! Just kidding, uhmm no, I didn't. I paused the current time because we're going to do something special, wait for it. What we're going to do darling is to review your contract with me. How, when and why did you start to have this destructive feelings of yours" He exclaimed. He snapped his fingers then voila, X and Sakuno teleported in another dimension.

Sakuno thought that she was with X but she was wrong, he wasn't with her. She started to get confused then a deafening sound echoed. It was the annoying school bell. She complained and it wasn't long enough until she realized that she was floating above the guys' locker room where she could see the splendid and amazing biceps, triceps and abs of the guys changing below her. She started panicking thinking that the men would see her flying around showing off her undies.

"Calm down Sakuno, it's not like they see you, now you are a spirit that travels through time and besides even if they can see you, no one will bother to look at your granny panties, you lack sex appeal darling hahaha" X whispered.

"Very funny X, you're very funny. By the way, time traveling?" Sakuno answered.

"Yes darling you're indeed time traveling but there are some things that you should know. In this kind of time traveling you are considered as an outsider, only you can see them. You cannot alter things on the past but remember there are some instances that they can feel your presence, which is due to the interference of external forces like the feeling of hatred, vengeance, pity and love. You need to be careful because any disturbances made in the past could greatly affect that way things are now in the future. At this point, I'm going to leave you. You are going to travel the fragments of your memory alone. I'll be your guide whenever you need me, I'm watching you." X explained. At that said the voice began to vanish.

"Fragments of my memory huh? How the heck is the guys' locker room part of it?" She thought.

She then remembered why it was a part of her memories; actually it played a big part. She thought that it was silly of forget the feeling being rejected when you didn't even confess your feelings to the person you like. This was the beginning of all this hatred. Back then she was still in her freshman years.

She started to recollect the feeling… It was the afternoon duty of freshmen to clean the lockers of the Seigaku regulars. Tomoka and Sakuno planned to go early in order for them to sneak a peek on Japan's genius teen prodigy, Ryoma Echizen. He was literally the school's idol. That afternoon, apart from taking a peek, Sakuno have other agendas. It was a stupid love letter which contains all the heartfelt feelings of a teenage girl blindly, "in love" on a perfect guy turned out to be a major A-hole because as they were trying to take a glimpse of Ryoma they over heard Eiji and Momo teasing Ryoma with Sakuno.

"Yoh chibi! I've heard that coach ryuzaki's granddaughter has a huge crush on you" Eiji laughed.

"It was definitely obvious, giving Ryoma a bentou every practice? What an old way of saying "I like you Ryoma-sam"" Momo added.

Sakuno and Tomoka were blown to hear the conversation between the guys. Sakuno blushed as she was expecting the answer of Ryoma but to her surprise , Ryoma answered very differently than what she was expecting. Ryoma said that was only a hindrance.

"I'm not a chibi! And besides that good for nothing long haired girl is not of my interest, her bentous are not even that great. Her playing skils are by far the worst I've ever seen! Is she really the granddaughter of seigaku's coach? She is better off picking up tennis balls, that's the only thing she is good at." Ryoma answered as he was laughing to match his rudeness.

With Sakuno hearing this, it definitely broke her heart, she felt a drop of a tear touched the cheeks of her soft pale white face. Tomoka tried to comfort her but it didn't work, just like that Sakuno ran as fast as she could. She hit the cleaning materials then the boys heard the noise coming from outside. Momo and Eiji leaved ryoma behind, they checked who is out there and was surprised to see Sakuno running and Tomoka satnding there. They realized that sakuno heard everything. Momo and Eiji called for ryoma as tomoka explained everything to them. While listening, ryoma tried to keep a straight face acting like it didn't matter to him but truth is, he really was bothered.

After watching what happened that fateful day, Sakuno requested X to skip a chapter in her memory. The sight of it was so painful for Sakuno that it opened up some of the old scars that was long forgotten. The feeling that stung her heart that day was still lingering inside of her. Sakuno was naïve back , X approved of her wish. It was not long until Sakuno was floating again above a memorable place.

It was the school's rooftop that is where she met X. She watched herself drenched in the rain crying, in any minute x would appear. She noticed Ryoma standing behind the door. She was startled; she didn't know that ryoma followed her there. She didn't know how to feel, she was confused then suddenly bits, pieces, parts of the shattered memories struck her.

Back then she was running as fast as she could until she reached the school's rooftop. The rain started to pour hard as if it wanted to wash away these tears in her eyes. She cried so hard, she couldn't hear the sound of the rain, all she could hear was the sound of ryoma's words echoing inside her head "good for nothing", "better off picking up tennis balls". Unknowingly she was screaming, "Why Ryoma? Why? Why does it have to be you?" pretty much, she was like a broken record screaming exactly the same words over and over again. That was the time when x appeared.

"Feeling lonely darling? Hmmm." A voice whispered.

"Leave me alone." Sakuno cried.

"Eh, how can I leave a cute crying girl like you?" he giggled.

Sakuno turned to see who it was talking to her. She was surprised to see a handsome young man with piercing everywhere on his ears, pale blue eyes, white-haired and has a devilish grin pasted on his face. He was wearing a leather jacket, skin tight jeans and he got tattoos inked all over his upper torso. He was like one of the members of some punk rock emo bands. Aside from his jaw-dropper look there is a one problem, he is only 12 inches tall; everybody's Barbie doll was taller than him. At first Sakuno was terrified of him, but his mesmerizing appearance put sakuno at peace, there is something about him that held her at constant perhaps that time he has something that she was longing for, Power.

"My name is X, I am a shinigami, a death dealer. I came here to fulfill a wish of customer." X said.

"Customer? What? Me? Sorry Mr. Shinigami, I think you've got the wrong person; I didn't call for your services." Sakuno clarified.

Sakuno was close enough to leave him when suddenly.

"No, darling I got it right. You called me a while ago; in fact the calling inside you is still strong, so strong that you can attract other shinigamis and other forces. If I leave you now, the others will feed on your hatred, shortening your life span. Maybe your death will be something of an illness or they could let it appear that you were bumped by a bus. Tsk, tsk poor sakuno, dies on the day she gets rejected. Maybe ryoma would thank the gods because your death is one less useless people in the world" He Grimaced.

"Stop it! Ok, I get your point. But if you say shinigamis are like that then will you try to kill me too?" Sakuno doubted.

"Of course darling" he replied. At that said, shivers began running down Sakuno's spine.

"But there's a But haha. We're different, we do it with style, we do it with sophistication. There's this contract between a customer and a shinigami, that lets the customer have what he wants in return us, shinigamis would feed on their life span. So, do you want to sign the contract?" X asked.

At first Sakuno was hesitant, but in the end she decided to take part in the contract. She thought that what's wrong with tasting a bit of power before she diea. At least she though she'll get to taste the sweet victory after she'll defeat Ryoma with her new tennis skills which she got from X. The contract signing was easy; all you need to do is kiss your contractor on the lips. When she kissed x, that's the time when she was reborn, also signs in her body appeared, it was the symbol of her contract with a death dealer only Sakuno and X can see it. It was like a tattoo. As I used the skill X gave me, it grew even bigger. Looking at herself in the mirror was a difficult thing to do because it of the disgusting symbols, it reminded her of how hatred consumed her and how near her death is. Sakuno even disguised herself as boy in order for her to join the regulars' team but soon enough, she was discovered by Ryoma and this resulted to a duel, Ryoma didn't spread the word because he thought that Sakuno's intention intentions were pure, he was wrong, all sakuno did was to let him pay for he have done. This continued until the match she was playing with ryoma today, of course the shortening of my life span also continues. It felt like every day she was taking in poison, no, in fact the contract itself was the poison, she thought.

The flashback ends, Sakuno didn't know that ryoma was watching her that time.

"Yes, he was watching you that time and up until now he is still watching you. I'm sorry Sakuno I tricked you. That time at the rooftop, I purposely got to you quickly afraid that Ryoma would make a move and apologize to you. I used a spell to lock the door so he could not enter and he would think that you locked it because you are so angry with him. Forgive me." X begged.

"What? Apologize to me? Ryoma would never do that." Sakuno said.

"Believe me. He was watching you even before then, that time at the locker he was only nervous thinking he would be the center of teasing when the team would know about how he feels about you. He was afraid to know how you feel about him, if you like him back." X answered.

"Huh? Wasn't I too obvious back then? He's to insensitive how can he not know that I have feelings for him?" Sakuno replied confusedly.

"Yes, you were too obvious but he was also dense. He didn't want to assume that you liked him, now sakuno I'm giving you the chance to correct your mistakes and so am I. I know that you still love ryoma. In fact I knew from the start that I would never have a chance on you" he shouted.

"Chance on me? Wait. You like me?" Baffled Sakuno answered.

"Yes, that was before but now I'm letting you go together with the mistakes I have done. I cannot change the past, but you will start new in the future. Also, our contract would now be invalid. Promise me, that I will always be remembered" x remarked.

"But.." Sakuno reacted.

"Shush… Promise me." He said as he pressed his hands against my lips.

"Alright then, I promise." Sakuno felt tears running down her face.

Sakuno closed her eyes and then X kissed her lips the final goodbye breaking off the contract between her and him. She opened my eyes, it was a black haired individual kissing her, and it was Ryoma Echizen. Sakuno blushed. To her surprise she accidentally bit his lips.

"Ouch! What the!? That hurt, I'm trying to be a hero here. I'm giving you a CPR and then you bite me, what a modern way of saying thank you" he grunted.

Sakuno started looking around. She realized she's in the real world now. She looked at Ryoma and saw his lips bleeding.

"Hahahaha" Sakuno laughed.

"What's so funny cross-dresser? By the way I won the match, you collapsed." He replied.

"Yeah, yeah I know. I'm going to start again as a beginner hahaha" she spoke.

Ryoma didn't understand what Sakuno really meant but in the bottom of her heart she knew he did. They knew that that night was the start of something beautiful and special so they just laughed through the night. They talked about everything; Ryoma admitted that he liked receiving bentous from Sakuno and Sakuno teased him for how bad he was that time at team's locker room. He said he knew and was sorry. She smiled and laughed at him. Sakuno looked up in the starry sky and whispered "thank you". She knew X would hear her.

"What are you smiling at?" asked Ryoma.

"Nothing" She replied happily.

Little did Ryoma know that Sakuno was already scheming on a new plan of revenge. It was to make him even fall harder for her as much as she fell and hit rock bottom for him. This is the revenge of the girl who fell hard for that one special guy. This is Sakuno's revenge.