I also edited this chapter. Enjoy :)

A few days later, after being fussed about by her family and Karupin, she felt lot better. She had the occasional headache, but brushed it off before her mother caught on and chained her to her bed permanently. Now she was on her way to a local tennis courts. It was still during school hours and she can't stay cooped up in her bed all day long. It was driving her crazy. Better to knock some tennis balls and get some exercise done. It was nearly lunch time.

In the end, Ryoma didn't get much exercise as she would have liked. The stupid headache was back and she couldn't see straight, much less hit the ball correctly. She felt the world spinning and her eye sight was specked with blues, reds, greens and turning black rapidly. She recognized the feeling as fainting. But as she was about to fall hazardously on the floor, a pair of strong arms caught her. She saw flashes of a familiar navy blue before blacking out.

Yukimura Seiichi was on his way to his usual check up at the hospital near his house in Tokyo when he came across an unexpected sight. A girl in tennis uniform, shorts and t-shirt with a recognizable Seigaku emblem jacket on the bench next to the tennis court caught his eyes. The figure was clearly a girl, because of her long dark lustrous hair cascading down her back. His heart skipped a beat. But what made him stare was the fact that the 'girl' look seriously like the Seigaku rookie Echizen Ryoma whom he played against in the nationals just last week. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

He walked closer to observe the interesting sight when his eyes and ears caught something that made him almost gasp. The girl, who he was now sure is Echizen Ryoma because of the face and tennis posture, looked like she'd been through a rough beating. Anyone would be able to recognize those bruises a mile away. But after 'observing' her for a couple of minutes he figured out something alarming.

Echizen was mumbling to herself about the pain in her joints, the 'stupid' headaches, and the fact that she doesn't know how she got those ugly bruises made him panicked despite himself. He knew these symptoms, one tends to pick up a couple of things after being in a hospital over a year because of a chronic disease.

Before Yukimura could panic further, a loud sound of a racket hitting the ground snapped him off his thoughts. He saw Echizen-chan swaying and clutching her head, looking about to faint. 'Another sign' he thought, and ran at the speed unimaginable to the normal population and caught the girl in his arms before her body went slack on him.

Yukimura didn't hesitate to pick the girl up in his arms, not missing the other sign that her body was too light to be healthy. He barely felt her weight at all. Yukimura wrapped the girl up in his jacket and bagged her tennis equipment before taking off running to the hospital.

In his mind he was praying that it wasn't true, that the girl simply caught a flu or something and would so get better and play tennis with him again. She was fine during the entire tournament! Except for that weird memory loss, she is a physically fit athlete.

Another sane and logical part of his brain countered that with the facts that he witnessed only a few minutes earlier. But if it was really what he thought it was... He pray to the gods that she will be cured and return to the tennis world with strength, determination to win and the same cockiness he came to like. She was too young, the fates couldn't be so mean to the prince(ess) of tennis could they? But then again, the other part of his brain reminded him that the fates weren't kind to him either.

Yukimura's private doctor had been waiting for him during his lunch break. He was more or less, startled at the running figure of his charge carrying a small girl in his arms coming towards the hospital entrance with the speed no one would imagine a patient with Guillain-Barré would have. As a doctor, he immediately knew that something was wrong and called for a stretcher trolley right away. Seconds later Yukimura Seiichi arrived and place the girl gently but swiftly on the stretcher and told the doctor his suspicions. They both looked grim and quickly headed in to the hospital to help the girl.

Many hours later after her guardian was contacted, the hospital did a full examination on the girl called Echizen Ryoma. Nanjiro and Nanako were very worried, knowing that Ryoma was admitted to the hospital after only just recovering from the fever she had. They came to the room to face with a cyan blue haired boy with blue eyes, pale skinned and feminine figure sitting next to Ryoma's bed looking fondly worried at the sleeping girl. He seemed to be unconsciously holding the smaller hand of Ryoma who was hooked up to an IV and other instruments.

The doctor came in right then looking very sad. He broke the news gently to Echizen-san's father that according to the latest lab result, his daughter have an acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or ALL, common in children. Even assuring them that ALL has a good rate of being 'cured', it didn't stop Nanako from bursting in to tears and running to Ryoma's bedside. Nanjiro had frozen and look at the doctor as if he as grown a third arm.

Finally, the one-sided conversation sunk in and Nanjiro look at his only daughter before heading out the door with the doctor in tow. Inside the room, Nanako was sniffling before excusing herself to make a call to inform her aunt about her cousin and left the room, leaving Yukimura in the room with the sleeping Ryoma.

A major conflict was going on in Yukimura's head whist sitting on the chair in the hospital room smelling of disinfectant. He knew his own feelings towards Echizen Ryoma for a long time, he wasn't stupid not to recognize it himself. Seeing the 'girl' version of the cocky freshmen took his breath away at first sight, the second thought that came to mind was that he wasn't bisexual after all. Seeing his crush's current condition only strengthened his feelings towards her, to the annoyance of himself. He knew that he shouldn't be feeling this way, she was only 12 and he 14, but every time he look at the long emerald black hair and cocky smile on her red lips, he couldn't help his heart beating a hundred miles an hour just at the sight to it.

A sad feeling slammed in to him once more at the knowledge of the severity of her case. It would hurt her so badly once she knew that she would have to quit tennis until the disease is taken care of. He couldn't help but feel depressed at the thought of not being able to play an amazing player like her again. The fates sure are are cruel with her. He only wish that at least they would be kind enough to spare her the pain and knowledge that the disease might last forever and gave her back her livelihood. Like his when his surgery that was a success and he was cured of his Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Nanjiro came back in and said to the air (but was probably speaking to Yukimura whom greeted him earlier) that Nanako headed home to pack stuffs for Ryoma since she would be staying here for a while. He didn't question the presence of a 'boy' with his precious daughter because the doctor had explained to him that Yukimura was the person who founded Ryoma and carried her to the hospital. He was also the first to suspect her having this disease since he went through a similar experience.

Nanjiro was relief and was thankful to the Yukimura boy that he help his daughter. He also knew from the look that Yukimura was giving his daughter that he would be playing a large part in helping his daughter get through this obstacle. He was glad, for the first time, for another caring male figure in his daughter's life. From his previous good deeds and caring attitude towards Ryoma, Nanjiro restrained himself from prying the boy's hand off his Ryoma's. This can be his silent thank for the boy.

The room that was previously filled with silence was broken by a small grunt from the girl in the baby blue hospital gown. Two pair of eyes snapped up to look. The first thought was 'she finally woke up' the second thought was how were they going to break the news to her?

Ryoma woke up and realized that she was in the worst place imaginable. The smell of disinfectant made her scrunch up her nose in dislike. Then she look to her left to find her Oyaji and surprisingly, Rikkaidai's Yukimura Seiichi next to her bed, standing and sitting respectively.

"You're in the hospital bishounen. Yukimura-san here, brought you in after he found you passed out at the tennis court. How are you feeling?" Nanjiro answered her unasked question and post a question of his own that had been plaguing his mind for the past hours.

"Ugh Oyaji, I feel like I've been stampeded by a bunch of fangirls or something. And very tired for some reason." She ended the sentence with a small yawn before asking "When will I be out of this place? It smells awful." Scrunching her nose up again at the reminder of where she was currently. She have never been a good patient.

Silence followed as the two males decide whether it was a good idea or not to tell her that she might not even be out of the hospital for a very long time. Yukimura turned to the man next to him, asking silently for permission to tell her. He knew that it was better to tell her straight away more than keeping her in the dark. It will come too much as a shock later on and he knew it first hand how that feels like.

Nanjiro nodded abjectly, hoping that the news won't be too much for the bishounen. Yukimura was sure that Echizen wasn't going to like this one bit but he said it anyways.

"Echizen, it's not an easy thing to say but I am going to be straight forward with you. You developed a very serious disease, an acute lymphoblastic leukaemia as far as we know. There is a fairly good chance for you recovering. At this point in time, any physical activity straining your body is out of the question. I would like you to know that I am with you on this and I will support you every step of the way because I know it first hand how it feels like. I know how much you love tennis. Please understand that while you receive treatment, you will have to lay down on tennis."

Ryoma was shocked beyond belief after she heard the word leukaemia. 'Wasn't that a type of cancer? Wasn't cancers untreatable?' She let an almost unrecognizable sigh of relief when she heard that there is a good chance she might get cured only to freeze up again at the reminder of tennis. She knew that her body wouldn't be able to handle tennis now. Her performance in the past week was a proof of that. She wasn't up to her usual standards. The prospect of not being able to play tennis ever again brought tears to her eyes.

The beautiful reassurance of Yukimura-san made her tears that were threatening to break fall. It was a mixture of feelings inside her in turmoil. She knew of his Guillain-Barré syndrome. He knew exactly how she was feeling. She also knew that Guillain-Barré syndrome was incurable, and yet he stands here in front of her despite the odds. She knew she's a strong person and she would eventually get through this, though it breaks her heart that she cannot play tennis any longer. The stubborn part of her wants to get up from the bed and run to the tennis court and prove that she could still play. But the small logical part of her head and her body prevented her from doing so.

After a very long silence, the males thought that she might have gone in to shock with her leaning on the bed so still with tears streaming off the eyes staring in to space. She finally spoke, very softly choking on words "Th..Thank you, Yukimura-San... F for telling me that..." She smile at her dad and senpai weakly before rubbing her tears away, more determination seen in her red puffy eyes.

She gave another yawn before having to be told by her Oyaji to go to bed and rest. She closed her eyes 'Nothing was going to stop her from playing tennis. She'll be back on the court in no time' that was her last thought before she entered the realm of darkness in a dreamless sleep.