Hye! I am back with the new chapter. I hope you like it… something will happen in the future… ummm… soon… domo…
DISCLAIMER: The Prince of Tennis belongs to Konomi Takeshi-sensei and Gakuen Alice belongs to Higuchi Tachibana-san. All rights reserved to the both of them.
Chapter 27: Selfish Demands
Chapter Summary: She thought that she would never feel it but she was wrong, awfully wrong.
They started to walk along the harbor. Tsubasa remembered Elazul telling them about a harbor called Polpota. There was an inn near the harbor and they could see it from where they were standing. There was a person—err—a horse standing near the entrance.
"Ne, Fuji," Eiji said whispering to his best friend's ear, "what is that? A person or a horse?"
"Saa… I don't know Eiji." Fuji said looking at the creature in front of them.
The person that they were talking about looked at them. Eiji and Fuji stood straight when he did that. The person started to walk on their direction.
"What can I do for you lovebirds?"
They blinked before they looked at each other. No one seemed to understand what he meant by that, or better to say no one dared to understand that.
"Um…" Sakuno interrupted as she walked in front of the person, "We are looking for our comra—"
"Hi, my little lost princess," The person said holding Sakuno's hands in the process, "Why don't you go out with me and get swoon with my love for you."
Sakuno sweat dropped not missing to blush, "A-ano…"
Before she could express herself, hands separated the two of them. She was shocked as she looked at the intruder.
"Sorry dude but she's not available anymore."
"R-Ruka-kun!" She blushed to the fullest as she tried to hide herself from them. Just what was he talking about her not being available anymore?
"Why is that my boy?" The person looked at him, "Are you perhaps her boyfriend?"
The both of them blushed at different intensities. They also looked away. The others snickered after they heard that. Fuji walked closer to them, placing a hand to Ruka so that the blonde boy could let the person's hand go.
"Pardon, me sir—"
"Gilbert," The person said, "Call me Gilbert."
"Gilbert-san," Fuji corrected, "As our companion here asked a while ago, we are looking for our comrade. We seem to lose him on our way here."
"A comrade?"
Fuji nodded as confirmation.
"Is she a girl?"
"He's a boy," Sakuno answered for him, "And his name is Ryoma-kun."
Mikan grabbed her shoulder telling her to calm herself down. She didn't know that she was panicking.
"I am sorry but I can't help you with that." Gilbert said turning around.
They saw his rear view. It was really at a horse's. Gilbert was a half-human and half-horse, a centaur to be exact.
"But why, Gilbert-san?" Tsubasa asked him this time walking a little closer to them, "Do you know someone like him here?"
"He's not a girl," Gilbert said, "I only help girls, mermaids, nymphs, gypsies and all the women in the world."
"Hey, I think this guy is a playboy," Momo whispered to Eiji which the latter nodded.
"And be careful with the mermaids," Gilbert said turning to them once again, "They are tricky creatures."
They blinked at what Gilbert told them. The person walked away on four heels but they remained still at their location. Seriously? Were mermaids even real? Maybe, they met Gilbert anyway, so there was a possibility that mermaids were too.
"What should we do now?" Eiji said looking at Fuji.
"I bet we should explore the area." Momo said entering the harbor. The rest followed.
"M-minna…" Sakuno said reaching up to them. Worry found its way to her face when they seemed to forget Ryoma.
"Don't worry," Hotaru said placing a hand to her shoulder, "Trust him, we will find him soon." She said before she walked passed her and entered the room with the rest.
She followed them with her eyes. Why wouldn't they worry about Ryoma? It seemed like they didn't care about him. She gripped her hands tight as she looked down.
They don't even care about him. Even senpai-tachi forget about Ryoma-kun. They prefer to have fun instead of looking for him. It's not that I don't trust him; I am just worried about him. How come they forget about Ryoma-kun? Why are they so cruel? I can't believe them. I—
Her reverie was cut when someone tugged her hand. She looked down when Youichi tugged her hand once again, "Youichi-kun."
"You look ugly, old hag."
"O-old hag?" She reacted incredulously sweat dropping in the process, "Y-Youichi-kun—"
"Come on," Youichi said pulling her to enter the harbor, "Old hag."
"M-mou! I am not an old hag!" She retorted as she let him pull her inside.
Later on:
She decided to walk alone. She told them that she wanted to breathe some fresh air and that was what she was doing. Fuji made her promise not to block her alice so that they could easily track her in case she lost her way. It made her pout to the fullest when she thought that.
Fuji was still treating her like a child… like a schoolmate who easily lost her way.
She couldn't blame them but that was the painful truth. She was bad at direction and good thing that they could track her down in case that if she did lose her way.
Her feet brought her to the shore. The sand was purely white and the water was oceanic blue. She could see beautiful girls around her and she couldn't help but feel envious about them. They looked good indeed but she didn't know if they were human just like her. She stayed there for a couple of minutes and decided to return to the inn.
…When she suddenly heard a siren.
She frowned as she listened to the sound. The voice was nice and the melody was beautiful but she couldn't get the message. Looking around, she searched for the origins of the sound. She followed it to where she thought it was. The music stopped when she landed on a place. Her feet landed on a small grassy field just near the harbor. As she slowly walked her way inside the field, she was beginning to notice that it wasn't a field after all.
It was a forest.
Thinking twice, thrice, she decided to enter the place and shocked was registered to her face. Inside the forest, there was a lagoon at the center. As she looked above it, the place looked like a cage.
"What is this place?"
"This is the mermaid lagoon."
She looked in front due to shock and saw something sitting—no floating near the place. It was a creature that she wasn't familiar with, "W-who are you?"
"I am what they called the 'gnome," The creature said, "I am the earth element."
Sakuno looked at the creature. As she stared at it, it looked like a small tree and its leaves were pointing upward. It was also floating around the area.
"If I were you, I would leave this place."
"W-why?"
"You shouldn't follow the mermaid's siren." With that he slowly disappeared.
"M-matte!" She tried to reach out to the element but as she walked closer a sudden force almost hit her. She fell backwards and closed her eyes in the process. She opened them when she heard something, but only to be shocked.
She was facing three creatures that she didn't know and one of them was pointing something at her. She was scared at that time. The creatures were somewhat scary like demons from the underground. She even screamed when one of them threw something slimy at her. Good thing she was able to activate her barrier alice due to reflexes and adrenaline reaction.
It was lucky that her barrier alice worked on them. They kept spurting some slimy thingy and even magical effects from the other one but the barrier that she created was able to keep it. She didn't know for how long the barrier would keep up, that was the thing part.
She couldn't fight as she was always at the defense. How was she going to escape through that battle? Now she regretted going there alone. She panicked when her barrier was cracking meaning her alice was about to crumble. She bit her lower lip as she closed her eyes tight.
H-help me, someone… She wished as she tightened her grip to her hands in front of her as she was able to whisper that only she could hear, "R-Ryoma-kun…"
As she said that, a swishing sound came around to her ears and hit the creatures square on their heads. It was one swift move. She slowly opened her eyes and spotted something in front of her. The creatures were defeated and completely disappeared from her sight. She made the barrier disappear, standing in the process as she stared at the thing that was resting not far from her.
It was a tennis ball.
Her eyes widened as she recognized it. She was sure of it. There was no doubt about it. Looking around, she tried to spot for the owner of the ball.
"Mataku, why do I always need to save you?"
Her eyes widened even more when she heard a voice, a voice that she was really familiar with. Knowing the location of the sound, she turned to that side and found what she was looking for.
Standing near the further corner of the cage, Echizen Ryoma proudly presented himself with his racket on his shoulder and was currently smirking at her;
"Mada Mada Dane, Ryuzaki."
She brought her hands to her mouth as she looked at his trademark smirk. Her tears started to fall and couldn't take it anymore. Before she could think what she was doing, she ran to his way, leaped towards him and hugged him in the process.
Ryoma dropped his racket at an impulse when he saw her run to him. He only blinked as he let her hug him.
"R-Ryoma-kun…" She said nuzzling her cheek to his neck, "I… I thought… I thought…" She couldn't even say the word to him because she was afraid of it… afraid that she would lose him. The tennis prodigy didn't say anything when she hugged him. She only felt him wrapping his arms around her waist as he whispered to her ear.
"I am here," He said as gently as he could, "No need to feel worry anymore."
Her tears kept falling as she hugged him. He actually smelled nice and he was warm. She was never been closed to him like that and as it was waking her up from reverie, she only realized what she was doing. She immediately let go of him like he was some kind of a contagious disease and bowed in front of him for several times.
"G-gomenasai, gomenasai!" She said closing her eyes in the process. Her embarrassment was overwhelming her. She never did anything like that before. Despite that she had a huge crush on him, she never had the guts to hug him like that, "I… I didn't know what I was doing! Gomenasai!"
"Ryuzaki!"
Still blushing, she was able to look at him only to see him smirking at her. She didn't know his thoughts until he patted her head and gave her a tiny smile;
"It's fine."
She stared at him for a few seconds before she looked down. Now, that she had calmed down, or so she thought she was, she didn't know what to say to him. Ryoma was in front of her. Her worries about him dissolved as that. Her heart was pounding inside her chest and she could feel it passing through her brain. He was awfully quiet but she knew that he was staring at her.
"Hello! Earth to people!"
Both of them looked up and followed the voice. From the lagoon where Sakuno saw the gnome element a while ago, there was a mermaid sitting there looking at Ryoma. Sakuno blinked twice just to make sure if she was imagining things or not.
"A-a mermaid!" She beamed as she was really seeing things, "T-that's a mermaid, right, Ryoma-kun?"
"Of course I am mermaid." The creature almost rolled her eyes when she answered for him.
"C-cool…" She stared at the mermaid hesitating whether to approach her or not. The mermaid was beautiful. She had an average reddish brown hair. Her face was reflected of a porcelain doll. She had a slender body and her fins were shining and seemed to smooth when touched by hand. The mermaid was young and to observe her, she was like the same age as them.
"Ryoma-kun, who is she?" The mermaid said looking at her with a meaningful expression. In Sakuno's perspective, the mermaid had some issue towards her… like she disliked her.
Unfortunately, Ryoma didn't sense that, "This is my schoolmate, Ryuzaki Sakuno." He introduced.
She felt a slight pang in her chest when he introduced her that way. Schoolmate? She had hoped at least that he would call her his friend but a schoolmate? She was really a mere acquaintance for him. She couldn't help but feel upset about that.
"Ryuzaki," He called so she had to hide what she was feeling and looked at him, "This is Flameshe."
Sakuno looked at her and smiled meekly but the mermaid just looked at her stoically… more on she was giving off smirk at her. She couldn't understand why the mermaid was doing that.
"And," The tennis prodigy continued. So there was a continuation of his introduction to her which she was actually shocked about, "She's the one who saved me."
The mermaid flipped her hair and smiled sweetly at Ryoma, "She's your companion? Where are the others then?"
"Ah right," He looked at her, "Ryuzaki, are you with the senpais?"
Blinking for several times, she looked around and just remembered the reason she was there, "I… I walked alone here. I left them in the inn."
His eyebrows met at the center of his forehead as he looked at her, "You went here by yourself?"
"I… I followed a siren's voice." She looked down as she found the ground so interesting to watch.
"Siren's voice?"
"It brought me here," She answered looking around the place, "to this place."
"She must've heard my voice," Flameshe butted in, "I was singing you see."
"T-that was your voice?" She couldn't believe that the beautiful sound that she was hearing was coming from a mermaid.
"Mermaids have nice voice, you know," Flameshe said as she played with her fins in the water, "And I am a mermaid."
Ryoma looked at her, "Mermaids have beautiful voice."
"Ryoma-kun seems to know a lot about us mermaids." Flameshe butted in leaning over near them.
"You just told me that a while ago." He looked at her and frowned as if it was the normal thing to do. The mermaid pouted at his words. Sakuno noticed that the mermaid was acting sweet towards him. She knew it.
The mermaid had taken a liking towards him.
She looked away as she couldn't stand the mermaid's expression. Somehow, she was beginning to hate it. She didn't like the way she stared at Ryoma. The way Flameshe talked to him was sort of annoying. She could sense that Ryoma was trying to get out of it but somehow, he couldn't.
Why was he refraining himself like that?
"Ryuzaki-chan!"
The three of them looked at the direction where they heard the voice. It wasn't one who was calling her name. There were several voices that were approaching their location.
"T-this voice…" Sakuno said walking to the exit but before she could go out, a pair of arms flung towards her almost making her stumble to the ground. She spotted a red head hair that was tickling her cheek and she knew at that very moment who it was, "K-Kikumaru-senpai!"
"Ryuzaki-chii, hidoi na!" Eiji said still glomping at her, "How could you leave us like that?"
She was blushing really hard. She could see Mikan, Fuji, Momo who was clinging to Ryoma at that moment, and Tsubasa behind them, "I… I told you that I'll be out for a while."
"And look what you have found," Fuji said looking at Ryoma who was still being ambushed by the second powerhouse player. Sakuno blushed when she understood what he was saying, "The missing boy."
"I am not a boy." Ryoma retorted as he was able to free himself from his senpai.
"We also sensed that you used your alice," Hotaru said walking closer to her, "Something must've happened."
Sakuno nodded at her, "D-demon creature-like attacked me a while ago a-and then, Ryoma-kun saved me."
"Demon creature like?" Tsubasa asked as he looked around then he noticed the mermaid, "W-whoa, is that a mermaid?"
Flameshe heard that and this time, she rolled her eyes for exaggeration, "Ugh, not again."
"A mermaid with the attitude." Hotaru said narrowing her eyes at the mermaid.
Flameshe stared at her before she flipped her hair once again and looked away closing her eyes in the process.
"W-where are the others?" Sakuno asked when she couldn't see Natsume, Ruka, Youichi, Kokoroyomi and Nobara with them.
"They left at the inn." Fuji said answering her question which she nodded at.
"Echizen, what really happened to you?" Momo asked after a short while.
"The mermaid saved me when I fell from the cliff last night." Ryoma answered.
"How?" Eiji said staring at him and then added more to his question, "I mean how did you end up here in this caged like forest?"
Ryoma looked at each of them. His vision stopped at hers and stayed for a few seconds before he looked at Flameshe. Sighing, he looked back at them and started opening his mouth for a long-make-it-short-story.
Flashback:
The moment he would move his body, he knew that pain would register all over him. He didn't open his eyes when he thought that he had gained consciousness. He could smell the water from the air and he could feel the cold liquid soaking his shirt from his back. He knew that he was in a stream; probably he landed from the lake that he spotted a while ago.
He then remembered everything.
He was on top of the cliff with the others when a sudden force hit him. It was too fast so he didn't have the time to react.
But he knew who did that to him. That was the reason why his eyes widened when he spotted the culprit not far from them. He only wished that they were alright… and they would protect her. He was able to see her reaction before he fell straight down to the branches of the trees and ended up to the location he was in.
Ryuzaki…
He moved his eyes at the back of his eyelids. He needed to get out of there and he needed to move right that moment. She would be worrying about him now, judging from her nature. He needed to get back to them.
"Heavens bless the earth with life-giving showers of rain."
He was about to open his eyes when he heard someone chanting something… like a spell near him. A warming heat was suddenly entering his body. The voice that he was hearing was of a girl's, soothing and nice to hear. He slowly opened his eyes and spotted a girl near him, still enchanting something to him;
"The ancient memories of mother earth fill our souls with bliss. Know the truth that is the ultimate tower of energy for all."
As she was saying that, he had the time to stare at the girl in front of him. Her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped together in front of her chest. He blushed a little, seeing that she looked gorgeous with her undergarment. The girl was somewhat weird.
Why was she wearing like that anyway?
As if noticing that he was staring at her, the girl opened her eyes and looked at him. A smile was brought to her face and leaned closer to him;
"You are awake!" Even her voice was pretty alluring.
He slowly sat up trying to lean away from her and observed himself, "You… healed me?"
The girl nodded and smiled once again, "I healed you with a spell."
"A spell?" He looked at her and then he realized that she was actually in the water beneath the rock not really showing herself fully to him but that wasn't what he was curious about. She was actually different, "What are you? And why are you in the water?"
"Simple," She said closing her eyes in the process before she moved away from the rock and into the water. His eyes widened when she showed something to him… like fins and his instinct didn't betray him when she continued talking, "I am mermaid, you see."
"The next thing I knew, she brought me here." He said after telling them the whole story.
"But you still haven't answered my question yet," Eiji said whining like a child as he leaned closer to him, "How did you end up here?"
Ryoma moved away from him and looked at Flameshe. The mermaid answered for him this time. She jumped to the lagoon and swam from the different part of the area. Everyone watched her movements and they followed her with their eyes. She climbed up once again and sat behind the vines.
"I went to that lake," She said looking at them as she slid her hands away from the vines, "Using this passage."
Their eyes widened when they saw a tunnel from that path. The path was dim and dark but it wasn't creepy to enter if someone dared to. The tunnel was covered with green vines so that wasn't really creepy at all.
"How did you…" Momo asked trying to understand the way how she could get there.
Flameshe understood what he was trying to ask her and she answered him, "The water from the lagoon has a mind of its own. Whenever I feel like going to the lake or anywhere in Fa'Diel, the water would rise up and give me a ride to the tunnel."
Everyone nodded as they understood her explanation. Sakuno was being quiet all the time. The mermaid saved him from danger. She must be thankful of what she did but somehow, she couldn't bring herself to do that.
Something in her she couldn't stop from worrying about. She couldn't calm her heart down.
"Thank you for saving my life," Ryoma said bowing in front of the mermaid who swam back to their location, "but we need to go now."
"But I saved your life," Flameshe said pouting in the process, "Can't you at least stay for a while?"
"I can't stay any longer," He said looking at her, "Warui na."
The place became silent after that. They knew that the silence was no ordinary for them. It was intensifying. Sakuno didn't know but her heart had started to pound really hard.
"Okay, but on one condition…"
They looked at the mermaid once again. The mermaid was giving no expression and they didn't know if the condition was something that they would like… or the boy would like.
"What condition?" Ryoma asked her.
The mermaid's face started to build another expression as she looked at him, "For saving your life, I want you to…"
They anticipated whatever the mermaid's next words were. Especially Sakuno when she saw the mermaid's smirking eyes and lips as she continued speaking to the boy, making the former's eyes widened and her lips speechless;
"I want you to kiss me."
Done! How was it? Haha… cliffhanger again? Okay, okay, what now? What will Ryoma do? Find that out in the next chapter?
Gilbert – He loves dating girls in the game The Legend of Mana, he's even interested in mermaids.
Flameshe is another character in the game The Legend of Mana. She's the teenage mermaid that is hard to deal with. She really casts that spell in the game... by the way.
There is really a cage like forest in the game but I don't remember about the lagoon inside… I think there is none… I do not own it… ^^
I do not own the names and places mentioned from the game here. Never will.
Reviews please… motivate me guys… I need it… Domo… ^^
Last Note: And Guys, I won't be able to reply to your reviews today but I will reply to them tomorrow... Domo... ^^
Next chapter: The Seventh Sin