Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.

Chapter 2: Hospital Visit and Eyes Revealed

After about twenty minutes of trying, unsuccessfully, to return to tennis practice, Tezuka called out that practice was over early today. All of the non-Regulars were surprised, it wasn't everyday that Tezuka-buchou ended practice early, but began to take down nets and gather the tennis balls. All of them then left for home, and homework, except for the Regulars. Only after Oishi had locked the clubhouse up did they go to the entrance to meet coach Ryuzaki and Ryuzaki Sakuno.

Coach Ryuzaki and her granddaughter, Sakuno, were waiting at the front entrance for them. They greeted the approaching Regulars before they headed to Sakura Hospital. The trip there was unusually quiet and quick due to everyone's worry. They arrived at the hospital fairly soon and found Ryoma's parents and cousin already there.

"Kobanwa," Nanjiroh greeted the ten as they came over. The three then began to lead them to Ryoma's room. "I'm Echizen Nanjiroh, and this is my wife, Rinko, and niece, Meino Nanako. I would ask for your names but I'm going to guess that I would only get the question of if you can see Ryoma." Receiving nods from the group, he gave a small smile. These eight boys and the girl really cared about Ryoma.

Those from Seigaku hadn't realized that they were at Ryoma's room until they actually saw the boy. They were shocked. There were bandages on his face, wrapped around his arms and, worst of all, over his golden, cat-shaped eyes. He then turned toward their general direction, hearing the door open.

"Hey seishounen. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," was the given reply. Eiji had gotten over the initial shock and ran over to glomp the younger boy.

"Ooochiiibiii!" he yelled as he did so. "You are not fine! You're in a hospital and hurt and…" he continued to give reasons that he was not fine while Ryoma tried in vain to pry the acrobatic player away from him. Oishi hurried over and successfully removed the redheaded acrobat from the injured boy before the said injured boy suffocated.

"Kikumaru-senpai, don't do that! I want to get out of here as soon as possible and your glomps will keep me here longer!" the freshman yelled at the red-haired senior as soon as he regained his breath.

"That's true, senpai. You could hurt him more by glomping him. That would be bad, very bad."

"Are all the Regulars here?" Ryoma asked after hearing Momo's voice. They nodded before remembering that he couldn't see them.

"Yes we are, Echizen," Fuji answered. "And don't be mad at Eiji. He's just been worried about you. All of us were and still are."

"Fuji is right, Echizen. That was a good thing to do, saving that girl, but you were hurt so badly," Taka added gently.

"It's alright. I knew that I could get hurt when I ran in there, but I didn't expect to get hurt this badly," Ryoma said calmly still looking in their general direction.

"Why made you run in there in the first place, Ryoma?" Ryuzaki asked the boy. The freshman Regular was silent for a moment before answering.

"Because it reminded me of something that happened years ago."

"What do you mean, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked speaking up for the first time.

"I don't want to talk about it," was the gruff answer. The others got the idea that it was a subject painful and dropped the subject, for now. Oishi voiced the question that he had been wondering since Ryoma had yelled at Eiji.

"Echizen, how long are you going to have to stay here?"

"I don't know. Oyaji, you answer." All eyes turned to Nanjiroh.

The elder Echizen was quiet for a moment before saying, "A month at the very least. More if there's any problems."

"Nya! Ochibi is going to be here that long? You're going to have a lot of make-up work and laps to do!"

"Eiji, like I said before when I told you all about Ryoma's condition, because Ryoma was severely injured, I will not have him run laps until he has been deemed completely well. And I believe that this is a good reason to miss practice and that there will be no laps for punishment," Coach Ryuzaki looked at Tezuka who nodded. "I also have an idea for how Ryoma can do his schoolwork. If one of you plans on visiting Ryoma, you can bring his homework to him. If one of you doesn't plan on visiting, I can gather his work together and give it to one of Ryoma's parents or his cousin," Ryuzaki said.

"But, Ryuzaki-sensei, how will Ryoma do the work if his eyes have to be bandaged for a month? He won't be able to read the questions or find where to write," Taka pointed out.

"Don't worry about it," Ryoma said. All eyes turned to him in question. Sensing the eyes on him, he elaborated on what he meant by saying, "Okaa-san or Nanako can read me the questions then write down the answer that I give. Then either I can give it to one of you or Okaa-san can drop it off at school."

"Saa, did you think of that when you found out that you were going to be here for a while, Echizen?" Fuji asked after the Prince of Tennis said that. The freshman smirked and nodded in answer to the tensai's question.

"Eh? Echizen you knew what to do about what to do about school work? I don't think that I could think of a solution that fast, nope, not that fast."

"Mada mada dane, Momo-senpai."

"What do you mean by that? It's you that has a long way to go. A long way to go until you learn to respect your senpais!"

"Momoshiro, be quiet or its ten laps around the building," Tezuka said and the loudmouth power player shut up. The Seigaku Regulars then had to go but promised to come visit Ryoma again tomorrow and give him the work that he missed.

When saying good-bye, Ryoma said, "Inui-senpai, no juices."

Those who knew what Ryoma was talking about laughed as Inui scribbled in his notebook while those who didn't know what he was talking about just looked confused. The Regulars then walked out and the four Echizens' were left in the room. Ryoma then turned to approximately where Nanjiroh was standing.

"Oyaji, did you tell them about the possibility of me being blind?"

"I didn't say anything to them but I did tell the old hag. I don't know if she told them though. And since they didn't mention it, if they do know they might think you don't know or that you won't be able to play tennis with them again."

"I hope that I'm not. And even if I am blind, I will still play tennis. I don't want to go through what she had to put up with, I don't know if I would be able to handle it. Especially if they give me handicaps that I don't need."

"It shouldn't come to them giving you handicaps, you're too good. But, if you are blind, allow them to help you even if you don't think you need their help. We'll help you if you are blind but remember what she had to do," Rinko said.

"Hai, Okaa-san."

A Month Later

The month had gone by quickly and it was the day that Ryoma could go home and see if he was blind. The Echizen's had requested to have the bandages removed while the Seigaku Regulars were in school. They had done so at Ryoma's request who had not wanted to be pitied, though he knew that he would be pitied later, right away. His family at least wouldn't pity him but try to help him if he was blind. As an extra precaution Nanako also went to Seigaku to get all of Ryoma's work for the next few days and told coach Ryuzaki that Ryoma was going to come home and that he would probably prefer to not have visitors for a while. Coach Ryuzaki understood the request and said that she would inform the Regulars at the afternoon practice.

When Nanako came back, the doctor was just beginning to remove the bandage around Ryoma's eyes. Once the bandages were removed, they could see that Ryoma's eyes were different than they once were. Both the pupil and iris had a cloudy sheen over them instead of being crystal clear. The doctor then did some small tests before they all realized that Ryoma was truly blind. The doctor asked them if they wanted to keep Ryoma here so that he could get used to being blind, but Nanjiroh said that they would take him home and do what they could.

Nanjiroh kept his word. Everyday Nanako, Rinko and the ex-Samurai would help Ryoma adjust to being blind. He learned quickly and was eventually able to do things with nearly the same amount of ease as he was able to before he became blind.

Ryoma stayed at home for two weeks and refused to see the Regulars who came to visit three days after he had left the hospital. Eventually, his mother decided that he should go back to school.

The day started out like usual, the Echizens telling Momo to go to practice before they woke Ryoma up to get ready for school. Once he was ready for school, Rinko drove him to school and guided him toward the main office. Nobody saw them on their way in for which Ryoma was glad about. After Rinko was done talking to the principal and telling him about Ryoma's condition, Ryoma allowed the principal guide him to his class. The principal talked to all of Ryoma's teachers and asked them to not to be too harsh on him because he wouldn't be able to do everything that the rest of the class could. While they were discussing that, Ryoma turned his head in the direction of the window and stared out, or at, it.

Soon the rest of the class came in and took their seats. They had gotten new seats and were surprised that the one empty seat next to the window in front had finally been filled in by the freshman tennis Regular. Horio had no trouble stating that.

"Oi, Echizen! When did you get back?"

"Just today. And don't yell."

"Ryoma-kun, where were you the last six weeks? The Regulars or the teachers would say where you were or why you were gone," Kachiro asked. Ryoma hadn't turned to face the three members of the tennis club and didn't really feel like answering. They had also not noticed the white cane next to him, yet, so they didn't know that he was now blind. Before he could tell Kachiro that he didn't want to say where he was, the bell rang and everyone had to take their seats.

The teacher took role and before he began the lesson, he asked Ryoma, "Echizen-san, would you like to tell the class about why you were gone for the past six weeks?"

"Not really, sensei." This had everyone confused. They had known that Ryoma had been absent for weeks and they thought that Ryoma would tell them once he was back. They looked back to the teacher, who nodded and was about to begin the lesson for the day when Osakada Tomoka asked the two questions that were on nearly everyone's mind.

"Why was Ryoma-sama gone for six weeks? And where was he?" she asked while staring at the back of the prince's head.

"Osakada-san, that is for Echizen-san to answer and he just said that he does not want to say. Respect that and do not ask me, or any of the teachers, again. Now moving on to today's lesson…"

Throughout the lesson Sakuno, Tomoka, Katsuo, Kachiro and Horio kept glancing at the Prince of Tennis. He just stared out the window. Even when their teacher told them to get out their books or to write something, he stared out of it. And even stranger, the teacher didn't say anything about it even though he must have noticed that Ryoma wasn't paying attention.

They never got the chance to talk to Ryoma during class or periods between classes. They were planning to ask him at lunch break but the teacher asked him to stay and sent them out. While they were at lunch the three boys went to ask the Regulars if they had any idea what was going on.

"Momo-chan-senpai! Do you know what's wrong with Echizen?" Horio asked the friendly second year once they found him. Momo looked at the three first year students in surprise.

"Echizen? He's at home. I didn't pick him up today for morning practice, nope, I didn't. Why are you asking?"

"Because he's in class and the teacher isn't getting mad at him even though he's not doing any of the work," Katsuo explained. Now Momo looked absolutely baffled. Just then the other Regulars came over and the freshmen trio left.

"Is something wrong Momo-chan?" Oishi asked seeing his kohai looking confused. Momo shook his head and told the other Regulars what the three ichinen had told him. All of them were surprised.

"Eh? Ochibi is back? Why didn't he come to practice?"

"That's a good question Eiji. Also, why isn't he paying attention to the lessons? I know that he likes to sleep in English since he lived in America but I don't think that he's ever just stared out the window during a lesson," Fuji added.

"Do you think that something's wrong with him?" Oishi asked worriedly remembering that he had been in the hospital for a month.

"I do not believe so. However we can go check on him later," Inui said as he looked at the clock. "I suggest that we finish our lunches soon though. The lunch break is nearly over. But we can go check on Echizen after his last class, before we go down to tennis practice." The other Regulars nodded after Inui said that. They then headed back to their classes and hoped that classes for the day would end soon.