"Just where am I?" he asked himself as he wandered around the familiar place.
He wasn't sure how he got there. All that he could recall before waking up was going home with Ryuzaki in the rain. He remembered how his head ached before everything blacked out.
He was in front of a school building that elicited much nostalgia in him. From the landscape, to the location of the water faucets and benches. He was sure that it all probably was a dream. Because in no way... no way would he be back there in such a short time.
He continued to walk on the path he remembered the most. It was only a matter of time before his eyes laid upon the familiar tennis courts.
"Seigaku..." He is, indeed at the Seigaku Boys' Tennis Club courts. It was filled with club members doing their obligatory morning practice. Not really caring whether someone reprimands him, he went inside the courts.
He expected the seniors who grouped nearby the entrance to notice his arrival. But for some reason, they ignored him. They were too busy chatting while the freshmen picked up balls around them.
"Hey, have you heard of those three freshmen?" Senior no.1 asked, his hands moving animatedly.
"Three freshmen? You mean the Super Rookies of the East that conquered their respective sports with genius talents? Isn't our freshman regular in that group?" Senior no.2 said in reply to Senior no.1
"Yeah, I heard it too. He makes it look like joining the regulars is easy!" the Senior no.3 then, talked.
"You're right! Ever since that bratty chibi joined the Regulars, our chance became even more low!" Senior no.2 exclaimed.
''And he's also very disrespectful! Imagine talking to his senpais like they're not his senpais anymore!" Senior no.3 shook his head in annoyance.
''He's just a freshman..." Senior no. 1 responded, "I think it's even a miracle that he beat the known 'Demon Player Yamada'... "
Ryoma, upon eavesdropping at the Seniors' conversation remembered his middle school days at this school. How he always beat the opponents in front of him. That golden year of Seigaku where they conquered Nationals. Then, he remembered his senpais. How chaotic yet reliable the whole team was.
"I wonder where they are now."
"The Regulars are back!" a loud-mouthed freshmen that for a moment, seemed to be Horio Satoshi, announced. Immediately, the club members formed their lines straight, according to their year level and greeted the regulars. Behind the team, a woman wearing track pants paired with a white t-shirt emerged.
"Good morning, Tachibana-sensei." all of the members greeted, bowing their heads in respect.
"Tachibana?" Ryoma who just stood beside the fence, muttered as he stared at the familiar looking coach with the light brown hair, hanging just below her shoulders.
"Tachibana's little sister?!" Ryoma unconsciously blurted out. Luckily, no one at that point he realized based on observations, can really see or hear him. Nobody seemed to mind his presence at all.
Upon the tall regular players standing in front, a freshman stood beside them, wearing the same uniform.
"Ah, so that's the freshman they're talking about." Ryoma examined the freshman's face.
"What the..." is all that he could say when he finally saw the freshman regular's face. He had the same face as him! Well, except for his brown eyes that also seemed to change in gold color when struck by sunlight.
Ryoma was even more surprised when he heard the boy's name...Echizen Ryosuke. Out of curiosity, he followed the boy even after the morning practices, to his classes.
"Good morning class." the freshman regular's Japanese teacher greeted his class.
"Good morning, Horio-sensei!" the students courteously addressed back.
"Horio? It sounds familiar... just where did I hear that name before?" Ryoma thought as the teacher started his discussion of using adjectives in Japanese with a slight bragging about nonsensical things, "Well, I don't remember him at all. Maybe he's not even worth remembering?"
"Echizen! What are you doing, sleeping in my class?!" a vein popped at Horio's forehead as Ryosuke yawned and gazed at the sensei, then closed his eyes again, mumbling about 'braggart, annoyance, and disturbance'.
"Why you?!" Horio who is now even more angry decided to call the freshman, but immediately changed his mind when he remembered about Ryosuke being very good in Japanese.
The classes finally ended and it was already time for lunch. Ryoma who almost slept in his dream because of boredom, left the classroom, still following the freshman.
"Ah! I remember now!" Ryoma exclaimed as he remembered Ryosuke's Japanese Teacher, "But... what was name again..? Maybe I don't know him at all." and with that, he gave up on finding the man's identity and all.
"KYAAA~" a familiar sound from a horde of middle school girls almost made Echizen Ryosuke shiver. He felt the sense of danger from being around his fangirls that would probably drown him to death with love letters. He immediately ran away and met his fellow 'Super Rookies' in the process. Apparently, they were also running from their own fan girls.
Ryoma followed Ryosuke, only to find him hiding beneath the school garden's bushes with two other freshmen who also seemed like they were running from their own problems too.
"Ne, Kanata... Also running from them?" Ryosuke asked his fellow freshman named Kanata. He has a raven hair that almost resembled Ryosuke's. He is also a regular member of the Seigaku Soccer team.
"Ryosuke, isn't it obvious? It's not only you who has tons of psycho fangirls!" Koike replied. He has a messy brown hair which he keeps from his face by using a cloth head band. He's also a regular in Seigaku Basketball Team despite his freshman height.
"Whatever. Let's just find a peaceful place where we can eat lunch." Ryosuke grunted, annoyed at their circumstances,
"Good choice... the rooftop." Ryoma smirked as he followed the three to the rooftop. They all sat there and ate their cafeteria bought lunch.
"And why did we buy cafeteria lunch?! We should've just accepted those psychos' homemade lunch for us!" Koike sighed.
"Forget about accepting those bentos. Either way, they're gonna drown us with their creepy fan girl things! Even when we bought these lunches, we were almost killed by them!" Kanata laconically looked at Ryosuke who just ate his lunch in silence.
"Ne, can't we just eat our lunch?" Ryosuke replied, irritated by the noise of his friends' chatting.
"Hmph, you're not interesting at all, Ryosuke." Koike commented as he chomped his lunch.
Meanwhile, feeling bored, Ryoma just laid down in the rooftop-- falling asleep in his own dream.
"Yay!~ Yay!~ Ryosuke-sama!" a group of fan girls can be clearly heard all the way to the rooftop, from the tennis courts.
The prince of tennis, who was just sleeping at the rooftop twitched his eyes, and tried to sleep again.
"Fight-o!~ Fight-o!~ Ryosuke-sama!!! Yay!~" Ryoma groaned in annoyance as he finally got up from his slumber. he went to the rooftop's fence to look down at the reason of the noise.
"Heh, not bad." he stated as he saw Echizen Ryosuke playing against another regular member. Ryoma yawned for the umpteenth time, then decided to go down the courts to watch the match closely. But as he went down the stairs to a crowded hallway, a group of students chatted loudly enough that he can overhear.
"That Echizen Ryosuke dominated the match against Yamabuki's Kogure! He's really awesome for a freshman!"
"Omoshiroi." Ryoma muttered as he made his way to the courts.
"There it is! Twist Serve!" the fan girls cheered as they waved their flags with Ryosuke's doodled face in it.
Ryoma who just made his way to the courts stared in surprise to the freshman's technique.
"Just who is he, really?"
"Tadaima." Ryosuke entered their house and removed his shoes. Ryoma, who was still following him, just stood there, more surprised than he was before.
"He lives in our house?! Just who the hell is this kid?" he thought as Ryosuke walked at the stairs up to his former room. Meanwhile, Ryoma, instead of following Ryosuke, walked onto the living room and saw a man that looked a lot like a 40 year-old Ryoga, watching tennis in their television.
"He's probably Ryoga around 15 years from now, considering that everyone I know seemed to be older."
Later on, he realized that Ryosuke must have been his brother's kid. For as soon as Ryosuke descended the stairs, he called Ryoga, "Oyaji."
Ryoga then, lazily stood up and went to the dining room. It seemed like they were finally eating dinner. Ryoma followed him, wondering about Ryoga's future family.
"Ne, how's school?" Ryoga asked Ryosuke who didn't reply as he helped a woman, presumably his mother, prepare the dinner table. Ryosuke was putting the food onto the table, whilst the woman did the cooking. Ryoma can't clearly see the woman's face as she was facing the other side. It only allowed Ryoma to see her brunette hair tied into a bun.
"Oyaji, let's play a match after dinner." Ryosuke stated, only to be interrupted by his mother,
"No playing tennis after dinner! You might get stomachache." she scolded, but still managing to sound very concerned.
They continued to eat dinner, when suddenly a loud voice called from outside the house.
"CHIBI-SUKE! Let me in!"
"Chibisuke?"
Ryoga stood up from his seat. He walked to the front door and opened it.
"Yo! Chibisuke!" Another Ryoga barged into the house that made Ryoma very confused.
"Ryoga, what do you want?" Ryoga # 1, the one with Ryoma, asked Ryoga # 2, the one who barged in.
"So the one living here isn't Ryoga? Chibisuke? Then that means I'm this man?!" Ryoma exclaimed, pointing at whom he first thought as Ryoga. Looking closely now, the one with him had the same golden eyes that he had.
He felt his head ache at the sudden revelation that what he supposed was all just a dream, bombarded him.
"Then that woman is supposed to be my wife?!" He must have looked like an idiot while he stood there connecting the dots with no one seeing or hearing him at all.
"Who did I marry?" With that, he hurriedly ran onto the kitchen to see for himself, who was behind the woman with the brown hair. Ryoma felt his heart throb in suspense as the woman looked like she was about to turn.
But just as when the woman faced his direction, light blinded him.
"Ryuzaki?" he mumbled, eyes cracking a little as he woke up.
"A-Are you finally awake, Ryoma-kun?" a soft voice replied that certainly belonged to Ryuzaki Sakuno. He stared at her worried face.
"What happened..?" he groaned. He can feel his vision spinning as he tried to forcefully sit up.
"You collapsed yesterday because of fever..." she sounded sorry, refusing to meet his gaze as she looked down.
"I see." He closed his eyes, caressing his head to minimize the ache.
"R-Ryoma-kun is your head still aching?" she stammered. Due to his sudden action, she stared at him.
"Hn. Not at all." Ryoma denied.
"By--By the way, R-Ryoma-kun... Your family arrived a while ago." Sakuno informed the still disoriented prince.
"They're here, huh..." it didn't register to him right away, "What?! They're here?" Ryoma felt like his head ache increased tenfold. Sakuno could only frown at seeing his expression.
When someone suddenly knocked at Ryoma's bedroom door, she heard the distressed boy groan. Since she was the only person who could open the door, she reluctantly stood up.
"Ha-Hai!" Sakuno replied as she opened the door.
It revealed an almost middle-aged man wearing his disheveled monk clothes. His eyes glinted with mischief.
"Ne, seishonen." Nanjiro entered the room, smirking.
--