CHAPTER 39

The score was 2-0 to Gyokurin. They had been using the others weakness against them. It seems Momo and Ryoma both went after the ball until one call Un or Ah and by then they left half the court wide open. Ryoma had a tantrum after Momo was meant to serve and forgot Ryoma was in front of him thus using a smash serve and hitting the boy on the back of the head. Ryoma got so annoyed that he picked up the ball and threw it at Momo's face. Leaving Momo's nose bright red from where the ball made contact.

After that he glared at Momo when they lost the second game and walked over and sat on the bench. The other team had taunted them and just got the boy even more pissed. So here where both Momo and Ryoma standing on the court, but looking at each other and not their opponents. Ryoma made a 'Tch' sound as he walked towards the net. Momo had walked to the base line. They both stuck their rackets to the ground and started to walk backwards until both their rackets met in the middle.

"It seems we had the same idea Momo." Ryoma smiled, slightly happy that the other agree with this choice of action.

The match ended with Momo and Ryoma winning 6-2. The five freshmen watching cheered and some of the regulars smiled at the site of a happy Ryoma. Ryoma had lunched himself at Tezuka and wrapped his arms around the guy's waist. He was smiling and gripping the captain's shirt in excitement. Mitsu watch as golden eyes looked at him with pure joy. "See, I told you I can play." Nodding he could only agree with the boy. He didn't feel like upsetting him at this point in time by telling him that he didn't really play doubles and only half a court of singles. Patting the boy on the head he told him to go buy some ponta with the money he was about to hand to him. Syu was looking at Mitsu was a genuine smile. The captain had let his eyes soften when he saw the look he got from Syu. He loved it when the other would look at him that way. The rest of the matches flew by and Seigaku got an easy victory.

An smiled to herself as she left to go report to he brother what she learned about Seigaku and a 16 year old that act like he's 5.

Ryoma sometime though one of the matches had finally had enough and told Syu that he was going to sleep in a tree. It was when the matches ended did Inui finally remember something. "Why was Echizen wearing his jumper though the entire match. Didn't he have his regular shirt on?" Tezuka and Fuji both kept their mouths shut hoping Inui would just drop the subject. That only made them realize that the said boy wasn't there.

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Momo pointed out. Everyone looked around.

"Ah, I remember Ryo-Chan said something about sleeping in a tree." They all looked at the small collection of tree that where around the park. Tezuka was the only one to respond.

"Let him sleep." All froze at that. "I wasn't going to enter him in another match today anyway." Some of them winced at that thinking it was a harsh thing to do.

So the tournament went on and they won all their matches so far. It was about 2 in the afternoon when they only had one match left for the day. They had all decided to finally look for the boy. Tezuka and Fuji wouldn't tell them that the real reason for it was so they could check to make sure the boys arms were alright. After all they thought Inui was getting too close to Ryoma's secret and they didn't want him to get any more information on the boy. You could hear Momo and Eiji calling the boys name to see if he would respond, while Oishi had now decided to worry, saying that the boy could of fallen out of a tree and could be unconscious somewhere.

This was the sight that their next opponents, the tennis players from Fudomine and An watched along with the two reporters from the 'Monthly Pro Tennis' Magazine as all the Seigaku regulars looking up trees to try find their youngest player.

Fuji finally had enough and went over and brought a ponta. "Nya... Fujiko what are you doing? We don't have time for that we need to find O'chibi." Syu gave the red-head a smirk.

"That's what I'm doing." All the others paused in their search and wanted to see how Fuji could do this with only a can. "I got this can for Ryo-Chan if he decided to show himself. It was the last one in the machine and I don't think there are any others around." Hearing a shriek from An when Ryoma decided to come out of his hiding place by dangling upside down on the tree. "See I found him." Fuji smiled as he saw the boy watching and waiting for him. "Are you coming to get it then?"

Everyone watched as the boy let his legs go off the tree and he flipped landing on all fours before pushing off on them and towards the tensai. "Mine!" He yelled, leaping up and grabbing the drink. He opened it and drank while the ones watching could only gap at the speed the cat had just ran and the fact he heard Fuji in the first place. The regulars on the other hand had gotten use to the boy's strangeness and only shrugged it off. "Can I play a match?" Ryoma asked when the ponta was finished in less then 10 seconds. Fuji could tell Tezuka was going to be saying something about a headache later and smiled down at the boy.

"Saa... You need to ask the captain." Ryoma's face scrunched up before turning it blank. The Fudomine team thought it time to make their way over to the other team. The news reporters had gone to talk to Sumire who was standing behind the now gathered Seigaku team. Ryoma just looked at the captain waiting for the answer. Mitsu was about to protest when he saw a small trail of blood making its way down the boy's hand. Forcing himself to not let out a sigh he looked Ryoma in the eyes.

"2 conditions." The boy nodded eager to play. "One, you let me sort that out." He motioned to the boy's arms. "And second, you do not use that way of blackmail ever again." No one had any idea what he was talking about, but Fuji chuckled and Ryoma smiled at the older one.

"Okay." With that Mitsu told them that both him and Ryoma will be back soon. They headed to get the first aid kit then made there way to the public bathrooms.

Ryoma sat on the edge of the sink and took off his jumper. The bandages that were on had come loose. Tezuka had once again unclipped the hoodie on his shirt and pushed it off his head. He like looking at the boys ears. He also found it easier to tell what the boy was thinking, since they move to his thoughts. "Arm." He held out his hand waiting for the boy to place one of his arms in Mitsu's hand. The boy did with caution. He was never really good when it came to trusting other with his injuries. He watched as the captain removed the wrapping and looked at the marks. They where deep. He could understand why Tomo didn't contact Doctor Oishi. Ryoma and anything that was going to be aimed at him that had to go in his skin, along with a man wearing a white doctors coat didn't really mix well.

It had been about 5 minutes and Tezuka was still on his first arm. The blood coming out of his cuts had slowed down a lot. Deciding to wrap it now he had just turned to grabbed the bandages when from the door they hear a squeal.

"Kawaii!" Tezuka saw a red bluer pass him and the next second he heard. "O'chibi-Chan is a kitty cat." Eiji had stopped before he grabbed the boy. Remembering at the last second that Ryoma didn't liked to be touch by some people and wasn't sure if that meant him. Eiji was jumping up and down excitedly on the spot.

Mitsu had recovered from his shock and was watching the scene. He didn't know if it was bad luck or something, but so far out of the house, Ryoma had been caught by Momo and now Eiji and they where both his fault because he was the one that took the boy's hood off. Rubbing his temples he could feel a headache starting. It was when Eiji spoke did he realize that the red-head had no idea. "Nya! Captain, does this mean you like to dress others in cosplay?"

Tezuka swore he could feel his right eye twitch. He couldn't believe that Eiji thought this was some sort of weird kink he himself had. He could only imagine what the red-head's true reaction was going to be when he told them that the ears were real. After all he does not want the other to get the wrong idea and to think that cosplay turned him on. It was also the fact Eiji had completely ignore the blood running down one of the boys arms in favour of the said ears.