A Forgotten Promise

by FP298

Chapter 2 : The Shocking News pt. 2

A/n: Wow, things are really stirring up! I would like to thank all my readers and reviewers who do not hate me for posting a chapter so late! (You might still do...) I don't blame you though.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER UPDATED IN ONE DAY! YES! *Pwease give me cyber cookies?*
I hope you enjoy the second chapter of A Forgotten Promise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. They belong to Konomi Takeshi.

From the last chapter:

Tezuka rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'Echizen... what have you gotten into this time?'

Seishun High Tennis Courts, 4:45 PM

The regulars were tired... very, very tired. Not only had they managed to survive the Demon Buchou's (Tezuka) training, but Tezuka had decided to be unmerciful and made them drink the Inui juice anyway. So now they were sore, cranky, and on the verge of fainting after the horrible juice infected their tongues. Fuji, happily neutral with his scary taste buds, escaped with only extremely exhausted arms.

"Mou, Tezuka is really mean!" Kikumaru crossed his arms and pouted from his sitting position against the tennis court wall.

"..." A pop was heard, and the regulars looked towards the source of the sound, paling visibly. All this went unnoticed by the acrobatic player.

"Nya, I mean, I knew he would make us run the laps anyway, nya, but what's with the buckets and the juice, nya? I think he and Inui switched bodies or something..." An oppressive aura suddenly cut Eiji off from his rambling.

"I did not mean to interrupt." A deep, familiar voice stated calmly. "Would you like to repeat that, Kikumaru?"

"EEP!" Kikumaru looked up and saw a menacing glint in the captain's eyes, which made him look very... very... threatening. "Hahaha..." Kikumaru scratched his head sheepishly, looking towards his teammates for help. All backed off while shaking their heads. "I-iie..." He continued rubbing his head. "I was talking about another Tezuka... you know, the manga artist! Osamu Tezuka, nya!" (1)

(1) Osamu Tezuka is known as the father of manga. He was a very renowned manga artist, creating well known mangas such as Astro Boy.

"I highly doubt that he makes you run laps carrying buckets with a punishment of Inui juice."

"H-hah? Hahaha...iie, iie, I was talking about Konomi Takeshi! He drew us, and invented us, after all, nya!"

"I do not think Tezuka even sounds remotely close to Konomi OR Takeshi." Tezuka crossed his arms, his expression still unreadable from the light shining in his glasses.

"N-nya..............." Eiji shifted uncomfortably before...

"GOMEN, nya! GOMEN! JUST DON'T KILL ME WITH INUI JUICE, nya!" He sobbed dramatically, groveling at Tezuka's feet before grabbing Oishi's collar. "Oishi, tell okaa-chan for me that I'm giving everything to you! And you can bury Teddy-chan with me!"

"E-eiji..." Oishi was resisting the urge to sweat drop.

"Kikumaru."

"HAI, UNQUESTIONABLE RULER OF THE TENNIS CLUB TEZUKA-BUCHOU?!" Kikumaru covered his head with his arms while still groveling.

"I will excuse this for today. I have to return home. Minna, stand up."

Everyone complied by hoisting themselves off the ground and dusting themselves off. All straightened their jerseys, hoping to regain their dignity from that... horrific spectacle that Kikumaru had displayed.

"Since we are the only members of this club (2), I leave clean up duty to you. Oishi," The vice-captain looked up at the mention of his name, "You will lock the clubroom after everyone is finished, and return the keys to me tomorrow morning." He finished, tossing Oishi the keys, who caught them expertly.

(2) On their first day of Seishun High, the original High School team had challenged theirs as a show of skill. They had also made a bet on this. Whoever lost would resign from the tennis club. Tezuka's team, being the awesome team that they are, pwned the high schoolers. And thus, no one has joined the tennis club yet, even with another year. (Except Momo and Kaidoh from Middle School.)

"Kikumaru, Momoshiro, Kaidoh, you are going to pick up all the balls. Then you will clean the courts for tomorrow's practice. Go."

"H-hai!" They dashed off immediately.

"Fuji, Kawamura, Oishi, you will take down the nets, then join Kikumaru, Momoshiro, and Kaidoh for clean up." They nodded simultaneously and proceeded to their jobs.

"Inui, you will collect all the wrist and ankle weights from the regulars, then proceed to clean up duty while thinking of some new juice recipes. You will manage and supervise everyone else until they have finished. Do not threaten them with Inui Juice unless absolutely necessary. I will see you tomorrow for practice." Walking into the locker room, soft rustling was heard inside before Tezuka exited with his school and tennis bag. Adjusting his tennis bag on his shoulder, he pushed his glasses up with a tense finger and left the tennis courts. As soon as he was out of visible sight, Inui traced the footsteps Tezuka had taken and saw him going in the opposite direction of his house after leaving the school.

"Omoshiroi... we have to see what this is... ii data..." His glasses glinted happily. Returning to the courts, he waited until Tezuka was surely out of earshot and raised his voice, yelling: "Minna, just come here for a moment!"

They looked up from their duties. "Is Tezuka/Buchou gone?"

"Hai." He nodded for an affirmative. Sighs escaped their throats before all the regulars gathered around him.

"Nan desu ka, Inui?" Oishi asked curiously.

"Tezuka said he was going home, but I saw him go in the opposite direction of his house. I propose we follow him."

"Hah?! NO WAY, NYA! He would kill us if he found out!" Eiji shook his head vigorously.

"Do you not want to find out about Echizen?"

"I'm going." Momo declared quickly.

"I'll go." Oishi said determinedly.

"So will I." Fuji nodded his consent. "But by the time we finish, we will not know where Tezuka would have went."

"Which is why I have this." Inui whipped something out of his pocket.

"GPS?" Fuji tilted his head, examining the mechanism.

"Hai, GPS. Global Positioning System. With this, we can find out where he is going by tracking his phone."

The regulars had the same thoughts going through their heads: 'Stalker... GPS, of ALL things..?' They gulped. 'I need to change my phone number...'

Momoshiro peered closer at the device's screen before his eyes widened. His jaw sunk an inch lower. Curious as to what Momo had discovered, Inui accidentally brought the small machine upwards, knocking Momo's nose painfully in the process.

"ITE!" Momo rubbed his nose.

"Nani ga, Momo?" Inui peered at the screen, not having noticed. "So he is at a house. Do you know who's?"

"Echizen's..." Momo blinked several times before checking the address again. "There's no mistake. This is Echizen's house."

"Right, so we need to finish this quickly to catch any information."

"RIGHT!" Their fists pumped into the air. And thus they began cleaning much more furiously than ever before, for a chance to find out what happened to their kouhai.

No, not just a kouhai.

A friend.

Meanwhile...

Echizen Home, 4:55 PM

"I suspect that my teammates will arrive soon, knowing them. Please indulge any information you might have at this time as quickly as possible, Nanako-san." Tezuka was seated stiffly in the Echizen living room. All the furniture was covered in a layer of dust, due to the Echizen family's extended absence in Japan.

She nodded. "Sorry, I haven't had time to clean." She added quickly, noticing that Tezuka had glanced around. She folded her hands in her lap. "I've had to watch Ryoma-san all this time. His condition can change unexpectedly. It is absolutely..." Her hands trembled while her grip tightened on her skirt. "-despicable what they did to my cousin. And only a 15 year old at that." She stood up abruptly. "Before I continue, you might want to see what they did to him."

"A-ah." Tezuka followed suit, watching Nanako tremble with barely suppressed anger as she thought of the perpetrators that had harmed her younger relative.

She tread up the steps on light feet, Tezuka doing the same behind her. She stopped at the door closest to the steps, Tezuka almost crashing into her as a result of her sudden stop.

"This is his room." A plain wooden door stood slightly ajar in front of them. Raising her hand, Nanako curled it into a fist before tapping the wood with her knuckles. "Ryoma-san...?"

"Na...nako..." A weak voice responded from inside.

Tezuka inwardly flinched. The Echizen he knew would not display vulnerability so simply. One of his strengths from when he remembered him 2 years ago.

"Na...na...ko... it... hurts..." A weak cough followed.

"Ryoma-san?" Nanako flung the door open as quickly, yet as quietly as she could, and briskly walked over to her cousin's side.

Tezuka caught the door as it reached him before peering behind the door. When his eyes found his kouhai, his eyes impossibly expanded.

"A...ra..." A small smile appeared. "We... have... a guest... Nanako?"

And Tezuka froze in place, unable to move.

"And who... might... you... be?"

Seishun High Tennis Courts, 5:25 PM

"Yes! All done!" The regulars cheered, applauding their efforts as the wiped sweat off their foreheads. The courts were sparkling so much that you could literally see your reflection in it.

Fuji chuckled quietly. "I don't think we were supposed to use the bleach, Eiji, Momo."

"Ehhhhhhhhh?!"

"We didn't even need to scrub the courts this hard. All we had to do was make it usable..." Fuji once again chortled quietly to himself.

"Fuji/senpai..." Eiji and Momo, comically wearing housewife aprons complete with pink gloves and bandanas put their hands on their hips identically like mothers. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT SOONER?!" They all but yelled in Fuji's face.

"We could've saved time! Mou, we could've went to Ochibi's house in that time and seen him-"

"You were too uptight." Fuji stated seriously, interrupting the both of them. "I doubt that then, you were even ready to face Echizen, should it have come to that." His cheerful personality returned. "Besides, Tezuka needs to talk to his cousin, right? We just gave them some extra time, is all."

"In any case..." Inui started, hoping to erase a chance of a tense silence, "We are finished. As soon as Momo and Kikumaru get out of that get-up..." He gestured to them as he spoke, "We can go. Tezuka is still in the Echizen household, so we can catch him on the way out."

"WHAT GET-UP?! THIS IS MY MOM'S!"

"Which makes you both look all the more ridiculous."

"Fssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuhh... baka Momoshiri."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"C-chotto..."

"Here, Taka-san..." Everyone froze in place as Fuji said his trademark line. Before he handed the racket to Kawamura and had his 'BUUUUUUURNING!' mode disembowel them all.

To their chagrin and frustration, Fuji was smiling demurely next to air... while Kawamura was putting away the cleaning materials.

"Ii... data."

"Ahem..." Oishi cleared his throat, attracting the members' attention while they were still putting away the cleaning equipment. "Well, are we ready to go?" After several moments of rustling and locking doors, every member had changed into their school uniforms and were prepared to leave. "Let's go. Momo, lead the way."

"H-hai." Momoshiro brushed past his upperclassmen before stopping right between the posts of the school. Taking a deep breath and swallowing, he closed his eyes for a few short seconds. As soon as he opened his eyes, without a word, he marched to the left of the school gate, following the steps that Tezuka had taken.

Ready or not... here we come!

Echizen House, 5:35 PM

"Here we are." Momo uttered quietly to the rest of the regulars, looking up at the house that held so many memories of their underclassman. They had stopped in front of quite a large, traditional Japanese home, with a staircase nearby the house leading up to a temple positioned behind the home.

"Fssssssssuuuuuuuhhhh..." Kaidoh hissed as he recalled the tennis match he had with the young prodigy in the temple's tennis court before Ryoma had left for the US.

Oishi inspected the front gate before glancing around. "Eh? Is there a bell of some sort, or intercom around here?"

Fuji joined his peer in staring at the surroundings of the gate, hinges, posts, and all. "No..." He suddenly looked up. "But there's Tezuka."

"Eh? Doko?!"

Fuji inconspicuously pointed towards the balcony that noticeably stuck outwards from the quaint home. All the regulars looked upwards towards the direction that Fuji had pointed out, and sure enough, their ever stoic captain was present.

"Tez-" Oishi was about to call loudly before Fuji clapped a hand over his mouth. Surprised, Oishi turned his head sideways to glance at Fuji who shook his head in a silent no. Fuji nodded his head at Tezuka, as if urging Oishi to observe something closer to the bespectacled teen. Oishi's eyes widened.

Tezuka's clothes were splattered with patches of crimson red... which he could only assume was blood. And there was a large amount of it too. Oishi, being the nephew of a doctor and having visited his uncle regularly with Tezuka for his checkups knew immediately that amount of blood loss was near fatal. In addition to that, Tezuka's eyes were shaded by the glaring sun on his glasses, but it was not bright enough to mask the slight dullness in his normally sharp eyes. Was it as a result of near death, having that much blood? Oishi shook his head. It wasn't Tezuka's blood, he was sure of that. Then what? Trauma? Fear?

Oishi flailed his head forcefully. No. Tezuka, scared? He had known him since their freshman year and not a single thing had scared him from his personal experience... and Tezuka had always let his guard down around him. Not a single prank or practical joke... even after a horror movie, seemed to faze him. Then what in the world could-!

Oishi was interrupted as Momo drew breath to yell their captain's name, before...

"TEZUKA-KUN!" A high pitched shriek erupted from the house, causing all of the regulars to wince.

Tezuka flinched visibly, his eyes widening with terror.

"RYOMA-SAN! HE'S GOING INTO SHOCK! PLEASE - HELP ME!"

Tezuka, only seen as a blur, darted quickly into the room attached to the balcony, slamming the glass sliding door behind him.

As soon as processing the information from that fast exchange was done, the regulars snapped back to reality.

Fuji pounced towards the gate instantly, his eyes open. "We must assist!" Without hesitation, he hoisted himself over the gate before running towards the house.

"Fuji! Wait!" One by one, the regulars followed, climbing over the gate before discarding their things by the open door, as Fuji had done before bursting upstairs. When they spotted an open door, they promptly pushed it open. What met their sight was something that would never be erased from their memories.

An Echizen Ryoma with snow white hair, stained with the blood bleeding freshly from his wounds.

An Echizen Ryoma missing an arm and a leg, the disconnected body parts wrapped in white bandages, soaked with blood.

An Echizen Ryoma who they recognized, but at the same time not know.

And the last was burned into their minds forever. An Echizen Ryoma, covered in red, with a gentle smile, blood trickling out his mouth and down his chin, asking, "Ara... more visitors! And who might you be?" And this is how it all began.

A/n: Phew. I started working on this right away after I posted the first chapter, because I couldn't lose this idea I had. You were lucky this time, readers! Ahaha! I hope you enjoyed this, but don't expect me to update soon! I will however, be starting more Fanfics and working on those. So stay tuned!

~FallingPetals298