What scares Echizen Ryoma the most?

By: Ren Nomiya

Echizen Ryoma isn't afraid of anything!

For me, Echizen Ryoma is so not afraid of anything! Well, that was at least how I thought before. One Monday morning, when I was about to go to school, this entered my mind. When I was in the entrance of Seishun Gakuen, I saw Sakuno-chan there. She was walking casually when someone accidentally bumped her. That's no surprise. Lately, she's been clumsier than ever! The person who bumped her was none other than our student council president, Tezuka Kunimitsu. She kept on apologizing even though it was not her fault. She's been like that always! When will she change?

Then suddenly, this Osakada girl popped out like a mushroom from behind me. I was so surprised I almost hit her with my school bag! She's like a ninja or something! Anyway, after she finished blabbering about how great Echizen Ryoma was, she realized that we were standing at the entrance of the school for a while now. We suddenly ran as fast as we could and hurriedly entered the room.

When we were inside, Osakada ran towards Sakuno-chan. She's got a lot of stamina for a 12 year-old girl. I explored the room and found the Echizen Ryoma sleepily watching the sky. I don't know why many girls like him. For me, he's just an arrogant kid…an arrogant, talented tennis player. Unfortunately, one of the girls who like him was my beloved Sakuno-chan. She met him before he entered Seigaku. She said they met at a train station. I know I should have come with her that day! Oh, why did I not?!

Echizen Ryoma is a jerk! He treats girls as nothing! He just ignores them and continues on with his stupid tennis training! And well, Sakuno-chan is one of them. He can't see the sincerity Sakuno-chan is giving him. She likes him a lot…all of us know that! He just can't understand that! I don't know if he's pretending to be dense or he really is just dense. Sometimes, I think that he just plays with her heart… how cruel! That Echizen!

Then exactly at the moment I was looking at him, a thought popped into my mind like a mushroom. Echizen is a cool-type guy. The type who just plays it cool, bored, uncaring and quiet. He's always like that: Bored and uncaring about the world. One of the reason he's the library representative. So I wonder, is he scared of anything… at all?

I figured that haunted house is a no-no. He's not the type who is easily scared. What if I destroyed all of his tennis equipments? I think he'll get mad rather than get scared. Maybe, I'll find out his phobia if I know him a lot better. But how can I? When he's the guy I hated the most? Maybe just observing him is the best solution. So, I looked at him again (even though I don't want to) and caught him peeking at Sakuno-chan, who is currently laughing at some random joke she heard. Then he looked at the sky again, with the bored mask.

Then, a light bulb popped out of my head.

I hurriedly went home after school and researched about some haunted houses in our area. And luckily, I found some in just half an hour. I decided to drag my friends there, with Sakuno-chan and Echizen of course, the very next day.

The next morning, I immediately told my classmates about going in this abandoned hospital many years ago. This hospital was said to have spirits living in it since the Second World War. I don't know about the Second World War stuff… but when I saw it, I was pretty sure that it'd scare the crud out of them. But of course, I made sure I have some reinforcements, in case of emergency.

The same day at lunch break, I asked some people about helping me with this mission. This way, I, I mean we, the whole school of Seishun Gakuen will know Echizen more. And this will mock him forever! –Insert evil laugh here-

'That will be a great idea! Count me in!'

'Nya! O'chibi will get scared! For once!'

'Saa… I would like to have some pictures of him for blackmailing'

Those are some words from some reinforcements I hired. Osakada, Horio and Sakuno-chan will be coming with me this Saturday night. They still don't know what I'm up to and that is a good thing. Osakada laughed like there's no tomorrow and said that she couldn't wait for the day. Horio pretended (and bragged) to be brave but he's trembling… it's pretty obvious. Sakuno-chan showed her true self. She said she was scared but she'll try her best to be brave. Sakuno-chan's so nice! And of course, I forced Echizen to come with us, too.

And the dreaded day for Echizen Ryoma has finally come.

At the entrance of the hospital, we saw an old woman looking down at us from a window at the hospital. I shivered. Well, she was scary! Horio actually peed in his pants and that's no joke! Osakada grinned but her lips are trembling. Sakuno-chan's curled down into a ball and hid herself behind Osakada. Echizen… looked bored. To be honest, I don't know if the old lady was from my men's plan… but it sure was convincing. But it's still not enough to scare Echizen.

Enough of this! We all entered the hospital and there are bloodstains around. That is true. The whole building is red from the inside because of the blood. Did my men do this? Sure great effort. Horio yelled and ran outside, the scaredy cat. He's out. As we continued on exploring the hospital, it gets scarier by each step. Even I, who planned this out, even gets scared. Then as we passed through a room, I saw a shining piece of glass. I figured it was our photographer. I secretly sneaked out of our group.

I saw my men in that room and congratulated them on their good performance so far. Then one of them showed me videos from hidden cameras they set up. We watched them from the hidden cameras around the building.

It was only five minutes when they realized I was gone. Osakada panicked and ran in circles. Then, as she was running, she saw a girl in white dress with bloodstains around her body. The scary part was… she was carrying a knife… a butcher's knife. Sakuno-chan and Osakada yelled their throats out. They both paled and hugged Echizen. It was like a horror movie for me but Fuji-senpai said that it was like heaven for them, to finally see their beloved O'chibi hugging a girl.

Turns out that the girl that was currently scaring them was one of Momo-chan-senpai's little sister.

When Sakuno-chan realized she was hugging Echizen, she quickly released her hold of him. Apparently, Osakada kept on hugging his arm. I figured it was time for me to get rid of Osakada because she is ruining my plan. One of my men 'kidnapped' Osakada when they were walking again. Well, easy as pie. We got rid of two troublesome friends.

It's only Echizen and Sakuno-chan. They both saw floating spirits in the hallway. Sa-chan almost fainted and Echizen almost… fell asleep. Echizen just passed through the 'spirits' and gestured for her to follow him. Then, they heard a phone ringing. They were in the doctor's office now. Sakuno-chan said that they should just ignore the phone but Echizen still answered it.

'Hello? Sorry but this hospital is no longer of service. Try calling…-beeping sound-'

Sakuno-chan asked why Echizen stopped talking. He said that the girl who called is not listening to him. Curious, she answered the next phone call.

'Help me. Please help me…' the voice of the girl from the other line.

Sakuno-chan threw the phone as far as she could and hid behind Echizen. She said that the girl maybe a ghost, but Echizen said it wasn't. Showing that he's worried for Sakuno-chan, he said that he'd just continue on loitering around the hospital while she went home. But Sakuno-chan said that she'd come with him. Echizen said that he's going to help the old lady from before. The one that we saw before we went in this hospital. Echizen is really not scared.

Then, when they entered a room in the second floor, the floor suddenly crashed and Sakuno-chan fell. Sakuno-chan felt something soft before she completely fell on the floor.

This scene caught my attention.

Sakuno-chan fell in a cemented floor. She was half-conscious and saw blood all over her body. She thought she bumped her head badly and thought that she's going to die. Then she saw Echizen running around to look for her. She tried to speak but no words came out from her mouth. She looked up and saw the hole in the second floor. She fell in it. She slowly closed her eyes and she suddenly heard a voice.

'Ryuzaki! Ryuzaki where are you? Answer me!'

It was Echizen. He looked around and saw her body. He quickly ran towards her and yelled her name countless times.

Sakuno-chan slowly opened her eyes and saw Echizen, with an extremely odd expression. She saw him talking but she couldn't hear him. Don't ask how I know that! It's just that I know! Sakuno-chan… err, told me! Anyway, before she fell completely unconscious, she whispered his name.

After a while, she opened her eyes and found herself in a very well lit room in the hospital. She stood up and saw us there with some strangers. We were all grinning at her and bowed at the same time. We apologized for what we did. She actually got wounded because of it. But the blood all over her body was not really blood. It was just some red paint. We explained everything to Echizen and Sa-chan. Turns out that this hospital was still under the care of some civilian who owned the lot. They were the source of the red paint. They couldn't demolish the place since it was hiding some good memories of their past. They called it their sentimental stuffs. That's why they pretended to be ghosts to scare the government officials away.

But I believe that it has something to do with our country's national treasure. Some say that it is hidden in this hospital. I made a conclusion that the civilians who owned the place pretended to be ghosts to protect the hospital from being demolished. The government wanted it to be demolished badly.

So, there are two of us who tried to scare Echizen: the civilians and my men.

I praised the civilians for the ghost act and mentioned the old lady from before. My men said that they do not know anything about it so I figured it was the civilian. Except that…

'Old lady? We don't know that. Hmm… I think it was the old lady who died from the bombing from the Second World War.' The group of the civilian's leader said.

Right there, we all paled (except from Fuji-senpai) and ran as fast as we could. Away from the hospital! Echizen carried the injured Sakuno out and thanked the guys. I waited for them in the intersection to go home with them. Echizen mocked me because I failed of scaring him. But I knew something else.

'You sure you weren't scared?' I smiled sheepishly at him.

Of course he answered no.

I know for a fact that he was scared that night. The scene where Sakuno-chan fell down and he thought that she was going to die. At first I thought that he was scared of people dying in front of him but I finally realized… that Echizen Ryoma was scared of losing Sakuno-chan. It was a secret though.

Unfortunately, I didn't see his scared face. Only Sa-chan did. Well anyway, at least it was a success mission for my men and me. We can happily say that:

Echizen Ryoma was scared of something.

The End.

~The_Prince_Of_Tennis~

A/N: The person who was talking in this fic is Ren Nomiya. She was writing this in her notebook while listening to her math teacher. This fic was also taken from an episode of full metal panic! fumoffu which I also disclaim.

This is a one-shot fic. I disclaim. And please leave a review! Thank You!