Chapter 10

Mizuka moved her hands up to wipe her eyes. "I...I need some time to process this.."
Atobe felt himself nodding.
"I'm sorry."
He had to hold himself still when she turned and left.
He had finally told her and this was what happened. He had to let her go. He had to because he was the one that was causing her the pain.
A deep breath shuddered through him. She even apologized and, for what?
Atobe closed her door and stood in the hallway. What was he to do.
"Atobe," Sengoku said by way of greeting as he walked in his robe to the adjacent room. He tilted his head at him. "Why are you still in your jersey? You're all wet. Didn't you go shower? Hmm..I didn't see you there."
Atobe closed his eyes and then looked at him, watching the smile disappear from his face as he said. "Sengoku, I need you to find Mizuka."

Because you were supposed to be just one of the women that I've slept with.
It was supposed to be the greatest triumph of all, that I fucked the great Tezuka's sister. That I fucked you.
Keigo.
That I fucked you.
Her head felt so numb. What was she even supposed to think? What the fuck.
The rain was as cold as she felt inside. She was drenched but she just kept going. Atobe had just wanted to fuck her? He just wanted to have sex with her?

You were my greatest rival's sister. It was supposed to be the greatest triumph of all, that I fucked the great Tezuka's sister. That I fucked you.

No, he couldn't have. No, no, no, no, no. She was beginning to hear her heartbeat in her head. She almost tripped and she stumbled against a tree. He couldn't have thought that about her. Like she was just some toy to be fucked with. She had meant nothing to Atobe. There was so much to process.

These women are housewives, they're married women. I slept with them and...I slept with their daughters. A lot of these women are mothers and sisters of some of the players here.

The players here. When some of them would even just look at Atobe, she had noticed their scowls and glares but she just assumed that it was because he was better at them in tennis, not because he was...That thought had never even crossed her mind. The things he had done to her, he had done to those other women. The imagination of Atobe pleasuring random women went through her head. Her heartbeat became thunderous in her head.
She felt a hand on her back that made her flinch and she turned to see Sengoku. Where did he come from?
"Sengoku."
She walked into him and when he wrapped his arms around her, it triggered her tears. He didn't say anything. He just held her as she cried. The rain fell harder but he stayed there with her, his arms pulling her against his warm body, his chin resting on her head. He was trying to take most of the rain for her. She could feel his heart beating fast and she just noticed that his breathing was coming down from pants.
"Why are you breathing so fast?"
He moved back and gave her an odd look. "Don't you know where you are? Mizuka, you ran up a fucking hill."
For Sengoku to swear, he must've been annoyed. She took a step back but he kept his hands on her arms. "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. It's fine," he huffed. "You could've, I don't know, ran on a flat path or something."
"I already said sorry!"
"Just kidding," he gave her a wink. "Do you want to go back now? It's pouring pretty hard."
She didn't. "Okay."
They had to walk the way down the hill in case they slipped and fell. Mizuka had slipped a couple times and Sengoku now firmly held her arm. He pulled her under a gazebo but she didn't see the point, they were already all drenched. He took off his shirt to squeeze all the water he could before he put it back on. He was still in his jersey.
"Were you still training?"
He glanced down at his clothes. "No-Yeah, I was just finishing up."
She nodded absently and he tugged her arm and hugged her again. Oh, Sengoku. "Thank you."

"That could've went a lot better."
"I know."
"You actually said fuck?"
Atobe gave him the coldest glare. "I'm not going to repeat myself. I know you heard perfectly fine."
Oshitari stared at his captain, his cold hard gaze softening again as he looked back on the ground. He was still in his tennis uniform too. Well, so was he. Atobe found him before he entered the bathing chambers. His training had gone a little late. He had waved Shishido and the rest of them on and followed Atobe, sure that Atobe was just wandering mindlessly as he followed him through the first floor. Atobe eventually entered one of the lounge rooms and sat in silence before telling him that he told Mizuka that he slept with a lot of women.
"She's disgusted with me."
"She is not."
Atobe arched an eyebrow at him. "Weren't you?"
Oshitari sucked in a breath. When Kenya had told him after his submission into Hyotei, he kind of was. He had been complaining about Atobe to his cousin when his cousin recognized the name. There had been a rumor that The Atobes had started bringing their princling of a son to their business meetings in the rich areas of Osaka. The housewives loved him, adored him, couldn't get enough of him. He was all they would talk about at their family dinners or at their hair appointments. The daughters loved him just the same, they seemed to be even more crazy about him as they made fan clubs and sometimes even followed their limo back home. Then there was this light rumor, a rumor gone just as fast as it had started, that The Atobe's little princling had been sleeping around with the housewives. It was so disgusting that even he thought his cousin was lying. But apparently, it was just a rumor so he didn't really care for it. The only thing that was true with evidence was that the princling was sleeping with the daughters.
"Well, okay."
Atobe just stared at him.
He threw up his hands. "Okay, fine. I was a little just because you were sleeping with so many people. But now I'm not. Are you happy now?"
Atobe shook his head, chuckling to himself. "And I was so proud of it."
He blinked at him. "Proud of what?"
Atobe looked back at him. "My nickname?"
"The Ladykiller amongst the housewives in Osaka?"
"Yes, the one and only."
Oshitari blinked. "It's not a rumor."
The sides of Atobe's lips went up as he laughed a little. "No, it's not. But, she covered it up good."
"Who?"
There was a loud crack of thunder followed by a bright flash of lightning and then there was a big explosion that rocked the earth and then there were buzzing sounds before everything went dark. No moonlight, nothing. Atobe's laugh sounded out.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You scream like a girl."
"I did not."
The emergency lights flashed on in an ominous red.
"We should look for Mizuka?" He suggested lightly.
Atobe looked like the king of hell from his lounge chair but he stood up. "Let's go."

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Sengoku held her tight when she screamed.
"Sorry, I really hate thunderstorms."
"I can tell."
Mizuka tried to stop her hands from shaking as they gripped his jersey.
"It's just a little noise. It just means the Gods are playing bowling."
That got a smile out of her.
"Are you cold?"
She shook her head. She couldn't feel anything but when Sengoku touched her hand and grabbed them fully, she could feel the burn.
"You're freezing," he encompassed her hands in his.
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing," he sighed. "Mizuka, what's wrong?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why were you crying?"
She pressed her lips together and swallowed as the thoughts resurfaced. "It's nothing."
"What did Atobe do?"
"He didn't do anything," she pulled away from him. "Everything's fine."
He stared at her for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Whatever. Let's head back. It's turning into a drizzle. We should be fine."
"Did you know about Atobe?" The words just came out of her mouth.
Sengoku tilted his head slightly and gave her a slow blink. "What about Atobe?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. The conversation they had at Atobe's winter cabin was coming back to her. Sengoku didn't want her returning to camp. And then for some reason the conversation with Mizuki was coming back to her. Mizuki had told her and she had completely forgotten about it. Not only that, she thought he was lying.
Something must've shown on her face since Sengoku reached for her arm but she stepped away from him. "Mizuka..."
"You knew." She said, hearing the venom in her voice. "You knew he slept with those housewives."
"I didn't know he slept with them," he said but quickly added. "I knew of the rumor."
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"It's not for me to say."
"What do you mean it's not for you to say? You're supposed to be my friend."
"Yeah, but I'm not going to go around talking shit about your boyfriend."
"You're not talking shit! You're just letting me know about something I should have known about my boyfriend!" She practically yelled at him.
"It's not my story to tell, Mizuka!" Sengoku said. "Stop blaming me just because Atobe's a big fuck boy!"
She sucked in a breath. The pain seared through her chest.
"Mizuka, I'm sorry. That didn't come out right."
But she couldn't be near him. She just couldn't. She stalked out of the gazebo but Sengoku followed her and grabbed her arm.
"Mizuka-"
She pulled her arm away from him. "Do you know how embarrassing it is for me? To be with someone who's fucked all these women?"
Sengoku took her arm and pulled her into him before she could get away. He held her like that as she got her breathing under control. He then said in a calm tone. "You can't blame Atobe for something he did before he met you."
She could feel the tears coming back again. "It's just not fair." Her voice shook.
"I know but he told you, didn't he?"
She nodded. Words couldn't form in her mouth.
"What did he say?"
Sengoku waited. It took her a bit before she could finally form words for him. Her tears fell from her eyes as she did but she managed to keep herself from sobbing.
He huffed out a breath when she finished. "You know, he didn't have to tell you about your brother. He didn't have to tell you the reason but he chose to do it anyway. And it sounds like he told you everything. That takes balls."
It took her a couple seconds. "Because he loves me."
"Yeah," Sengoku looked at her and smiled lightly. "He does."

"I know there is a girl at this camp. I've seen her and I know she is here."
Atobe froze and stopped before the rounded corner with Oshitari beside him. He didn't need to tell Oshitari to be quiet. His tensai just knew.
"How do you know?"
"I have my sources. We've got a plan if any of you are interested."
There were several voices that sounded excited about that. A shoulder brushed past his and he met the eyes of Hara Tetsuya, a former captain of Shitenhouji who eyed him with an evil grin before he rounded the corner. He had to get Mizuka.
He turned and headed back in the other direction with Oshitari. "Split up. We'll find her faster."
"Where are we going to hide her?"
"In her room. Nobody should know she is there." He said quietly before he went one way and Oshitari went the other.
There were four more who went past him with dirty looks and he started running down the hallway. He ended up bumping into someone when he rounded the corner to exit the building. They gave a girly cry and he took hold of her before she fell back.
"Keigo!" She hugged him.
"Atobe, what happened to the lights?" Sengoku asked.
"I don't know. I think the lightning must've been taken it out," he said and looked at Mizuka. "Love-"
He let her kiss him. He was so glad that he found her that he put his hand to the back of her head and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. "Mizuka-"
"I'm sorry, Keigo."
"It's okay, it's fine. Love, we have to get you out of here. It's not safe for you here."
"What are you talking about?" Sengoku said, taking on a more serious composure.
"A lot of the players know she is here and it looks like they are planning something. Tonight."
"What do you mean? What would they plan?" Mizuka asked.
He slid a hand to her face. He can hardly see her but he knew every detail of her face. "Mizuka, you do not want them to find you." She must've heard the urgency in his tone because she nodded.
Atobe took her hand and Sengoku followed them up to the second floor only to stop on the stairs when they heard a bunch of voices behind them.
"It's 219, right?"
They quickly ran up the stairs and Atobe rushed them into his room. He opened the door to find it empty for once and pushed Mizuka in. Something was off. His room was never empty.
"Ho, Atobe."
Atobe froze. Mizuka's face was the last thing he saw as he pulled his door closed, leaving him and Sengoku outside. A bunch of the players were crowded around room 219. Someone had told them. Only few of them knew that was her room. He knew it couldn't be Oni, Irie, or Tokugawa.
"Or do you prefer Atome-sama?"
He turned to the group of players gathered in front of Mizuka's room and stalked towards them, a slow grin coming into place. The emergency red light cast the group in a dark red like he was looking at a group of demons.
"That won't be necessary," he said. "Unless you prefer to look up to me. I'm used to it anyways."
"Atobe." Sengoku warned.
Atobe turned his head to look at the orange haired player who turned out to be a very good friend. He stood beside him and was giving him a warning look.
He sighed inwardly. Fine. He shouldn't be provoking them but they made it so easy.
The player was held back by his friends and shrugged them off before nodding his head to the door. "I heard your slut of a girlfriend is in here."
"She's not a slut and she's not here."
"Oh, really? So you haven't been fucking her in this room for the past two months?"
Atobe shrugged. "I can't say I've seen her for a while."
"Oh right. Didn't she die?" Another chirped.
He almost flinched but they must've noticed something from his face because he grinned. Tono Atsukyo. He hadn't slept with anybody from his family but he would remember that face.
"If she's still alive I'll give her an execution of my own." Tono licked his lips maliciously.
"You won't touch her." Atobe ground out.
"Is that so?" Tono tilted his head at him. It was hard to see what he was thinking with the dim red lights. "Grab him."
They rushed him and he only had the chance to throw out a couple punches before he was sucker punched in the temple and his arms subdued. They held his arms and he watched as they tried to break the door down.
"We'll make you watch us fuck her," one said near his ear. "Just like how you fucked my sister."
"At least your sister wanted it."
That earned him a punch to the stomach.
It took him a moment to realize that Sengoku was gone. The odd thing was he didn't feel abandoned, he knew Sengoku wouldn't do that. He must've gone for help. He had to.
Another thing he realized was that 219 was the only door with a lock on it. No wonder they didn't just barge in. Well, he had been knocking on it to be let in instead of just entering. He also realized that the moment that door broke was the moment they would start searching for Mizuka somewhere else. He could only watch as the door finally gave in with a crack and a couple of them ran in before coming out moments later. "She's not here."
Tono stepped up to his face him. "Where is she?"
"Obviously not here."
Another punch to the gut made him cough. At least they weren't punching his face.
"Then where is she?"
"I don't know."
Another punch.
"Where?" Another punch. "Where is she?"
He was leaning heavily on the ones holding his arms as he coughed and panted. "I don't know." He coughed up saliva to spit on the floor and looked to see Tono giving him a thoughtful tilt of a head.
"Then, where is your room?"