Pairing: Hints of many/Ryoma.

Warning: swearing. Overusing some words (most likely). Boring chapter (maybe).

Italic is flashback.

This chapter is not beta'ed and not proofread, so beware of grammar mistakes and spelling error.

A/N: Please read the author note at the end of the chapter.

The Prince's Regime

~Rikka~

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

Chapter Three

- Those who faced the trials -

~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~…~

Ryoma was seen walking through the forest. It was already late at night, leaving only the rustle of leaves singing melodiously and chilly wind. He was on his way to return to the cave after having spent his time in Mifune's place.

Sipping the Ponta in his hand, he suddenly stopped on his track.

Sounds of footsteps were heard from the teen's behind. "Good to see you again, prince."

Ryoma cast his sight toward the voice's source briefly, giving an acknowledgement glance but still not bothered answering.

"I have a message for you."

"Morning tea time is really the best…" strays of silvery grey hair swayed slowly, framing the side of his face as Atobe Keigo inhaled the aroma from his freshly brewed tea. "Did you peasants have nice dreams?"

Half of the middle schoolers winners' team were sitting leisurely in the cafeteria, savoring their breakfast.

"This place really is the best environment for tennis training. With all its advance technology just for coaching us, " Yukimura Seichi, the captain of Rikkaidai said to the lucky teen from Yamabuki.

Sengoku sip his tea. "Even if you're only here for one day, you can see the rapid improvement. Your mental prowess, technique, and even your physical strength, everything gets better."

"Anyhow, if everyone wins in their shuffle matches today, except for that gate-keeper guy, the 5th court will become entirely made up of middle schoolers."

"Game won by Shiraishi! 6-0!"

"Game won by Tachibana, 6-0!"

"Those God damn middle school bastards! Isn't there anyone who can stop their momentum!?" shouted by one of the high schooler spectator as they watched in frustration how their teammates lost one by one against the middle schoolers.

Today was the shuffle matches between the 6th court middle schoolers against the 5th court high schoolers. If they won all of their matches, then the 5th court would make up entirely of middle schoolers, leaving only Oni Juujirou as the sole high schooler.

"Did they advance past all of their high school opponents!?" disbelief was painted on their face.

"But… as long as Oni senpai is there, he won't let them have it their way!" One of the loser high schooler said, accompanied by the nodding approvals as though to cheer themselves up, unable to comprehended the fact that they had just lose against the younger brats they had originally underestimated at.

From distance, watching the matches with interest was a tan high schooler with unruly white hair, Tanegashima Shuuji, one of the 1st court residences, as well as the U-17 representative candidate first stringers.

"Those guys still haven't even shown half of their real abilities yet. I wonder how many more will make it…" Tanegashima glanced at his companion. "What do you think, Tokugawa?"

Standing behind the 3rd year senior was the ever stoic dark blue haired man, Tokugawa Kazuya. "You look like you're having fun, Tanegashima-san."

"Really?" He chuckled. Shifting his body to a more comfortable sitting position, Tanegashima crossed his leg. "Even if you say that, from here on out, even going up one court number is going up a completely different level of strength."

An amuse smirk forming on his face. "Isn't that what the rarely used shuffle is for?" the white-haired man raised his hand then pointed his finger toward one specific group on the court. "Look there."

Irie Kanata and the rest of the 3rd court residences were seen standing on the court. They had just finished their shuffle team matches against the 4th court. They shook hand with their 4th court opponents then stepped out of the court, completely unexhausted, leaving the totally annihilated 4th court players behind.

"3rd court is just too strong. As usual, 4th court got shut down completely," Tanegashima continued. "The team shuffle between 3rd court and 4th court. Just like that, you can really see the difference in their strengths."

All the matches were won by score 6-0. The 4th court was completely defeated.

Tanegashima wandered his sight to the middle schoolers who were standing on the side line, watching the matches in awe.

"This is the team shuffle…" Akaya Kirihara muttered as he gulped down his excitement after watching 3rd court prowess.

"Ahn, a team shuffle?" Atobe and few of the middle schoolers stopped right in front of irie's team's walking track.

"So, if we used that thing, we'll be able to take on the upper courts then, right?" Atobe stated in his usual arrogant tone, making an eye contact with Irie.

Irie glanced at Atobe and gave him his usual carefree smile. "This court is still out of your league."

"You'll first need to defeat Oni, if you want to have one," he continued with a friendly smile, but Atobe could clearly felt a hidden venom challenge directed at him inside the seemingly innocent advice.

Giving one last taunting smile, Irie and the other 3rd court members then strode past them, leaving the middle schoolers to shiver with excitement, especially Atobe, toward their upcoming challenge.

Tanegashima laughed as he watched the exchange between the middle schoolers and the 3rd court.

"That kid sure has gut!" He commented while trying to stifle his laughter down. "Challenging Irie head on like that—," he wiped droplets of tear from his lilac eyes. "It's been a while since something like this has happened."

After a long ten minutes, the white-haired man finally calmed himself down. Reminiscing, his eyes softened at one specific old memory. "This reminded me of when he first came here."

It's not hard to guess who Tanegashima was talking about. There were an awfully lot of people in this training camp, but only few stood out among the crowds, especially the one Tanegashima anonymously mentioned. After all, that one was an enigma. "He is different."

"You bet he is," the senior replied immediately. "No one is like him."

Resting his palm on the bench, the 3rd year senior stared at the sky absent-mindedly. "These middle schoolers are good, but they still can't be compared with him," Tanegashima said fondly. "He was younger than them when he first came here. He was still the youngest even now, and yet his skill is one of the best among best."

Tanegashima recalled the day when one dark emerald haired teen suddenly appeared in front of them, out of nowhere. "The kid really got some attitude—," he trailed.

'Some attitude' was an understatement. The kid was amazingly talented at getting under people's skin, even when he was doing nothing. But well, he easily grew on people too.

His being was just hard to be ignored and resist. The attraction was simply there.

And Tanegashima Shuuji was no exception.

…as well as some other people he knew.

'At least, it's not just me.' he thought bashfully.

Continuing his sentence, Tanegashima chuckled, "—but at least it was backed up with real skill." A real deal one, no kidding. "No wonder he was named prince."

Tokugawa remember the first time Echizen Ryoma came to the camp. He was like a storm. Stood strong among all the high schooler, without any hint of fear, he challenged them and had taken them all totally by surprise.

"I wonder if the same thing will happen again. I mean, both them and the prince are middle schooler, and—"

Tokugawa's eyes narrowed at the unfinished statement and quickly cut it off before ever being completed. With a final tone, he spoke, giving no argument left, "Echizen is an exception."

For the people who knew the teen, Echizen Ryoma indeed was an anomaly.

The senior nodded approvingly. It was not unfounded after all.

"He sure is." Tanegashima's voice was laced with bare fascination.

"Just a mere twelve years old kid…" the white-haired man smiled softly. "… and yet, his strength is already on a completely different level."

The very first day Ryoma arrived to this selection camp and having watched him played in a match, Tanegashima couldn't deny that he had been charmed by the teen's frightening inborn talent. And he was sure as hell, he wasn't the only one.

"He came here out of a sudden, and just like a storm, he blew through the courts and trashed all of his opponents in utter defeat…" Tanegashima drawled, once again being reminded of Ryoma's strength. "… in just one day."

Observation Room.

"What are you going to do?" coach Kurobe asked as he watched the exchange from the surveillance camera.

"Will you open the gate? Or will you not?" Kurobe trailed as he glanced back toward the dark redhead who was standing behind him. "Which will it be?"

Eyeing the silent man, he continued, " …Oni Juujirou."

Mifune Nyudo dropped down a basket full of rackets to the ground, creating confusion among the middle schoolers. After having them ran for 3 hours long, Mifune had then gathered them together on the court.

"What are these?" Momoshiro asked the question he believed everyone else was also having.

"Muscle strengthening rackets."

"Muscle strengthening rackets?"

Mifune took one of the rackets out of its box. "Everyone grabs a racket," he ordered, then threw the racket in his hand toward Momoshiro.

The Seigaku sophomore caught the racket by reflex. But, the moment the racket rest in his palm, he had been immediately brought down to the ground by the weight of that racket itself.

They all realized at that exact moment that those rackets really was no ordinary racket, especially when it was able to outweighed Momoshiro who was noticeably a power player.

Momoshiro dropped a sweat. "Wh—what's with this thing?"

The other who had also grabbed the racket thought of the same thing. The palms that was holding the racket was trembling immensely at the heaviness. It took all of their power to keep the racket in balance without dropping them.

Sweats were dripping down their bodies, soaking their plain white t-shirt, even though they had only begun carrying the racket not more than 5 minutes.

"It's as heavy as a rock!"

Mifune laughed contentedly at their reaction. "Those rackets frames are filled with lead. Takes a lot to just stand while holding one, doesn't it?"

Satisfied at the obvious struggle displayed in front of him, Mifune clapped both of his hand hard.

"Alright, brats! I'll give you fucking 2 minutes to get used to those rackets before I start the training!" he barked an order.

He watched as the middle schoolers struggled to lifted the rackets up, formulating a lot of plans to train them. So engrossed in his own thought, he was unaware of the steady footstep that was approaching him.

"Hey."

The coach –who was unusually sober right now—travelled his gaze toward Ryoma who was now standing in front of him.

He observed how Ryoma carried the racket with easy, without breaking a sweat at all. By now, the brat could carry out any of his training easily without putting much effort –if there was any— at all.

"What is it, brat?"

Resting his golden orbs on the old man's, Ryoma kept his mouth shut for a second, before uttered, "I have a request."

"Come on, come on! Hurry up move and get those balls!" Mifune shouted as he smack another serve.

All the middle schoolers were gathered together on one side of the court, while their coach occupied the other. They were having a one side match; as in they need to return all the balls Mifune hit them, and of course, by using that heavy racket.

Albeit, speaking was a lot easier to do than to actually did the act.

The middle schoolers were unable to return the ball. They had already got their hands full having to chase after the ball while carrying as-heavy-as-rock racket. The weight had obviously taken its toll on their bodies and successfully rendered their ability to move to almost nonexistence. They were totally and miserably helpless, that it made one terribly pitiful scene to watch.

"Even if you say that… with these heavy rackets…" Momoshiro mumbled bitterly.

"We can barely move," Mukahi wryly complained as he held the racket tightly, keeping it from fell down as his hand trembled greatly against the weight.

Ignoring their suffering, Mifune mercilessly hit another powerful serve.

Among the currently alive statues on the court, there was one individual who was able to move around the court fluidly, and unexpectedly capable in returning each of Mifune's serve.

"Echizen…"

They all watched in awe as Ryoma running around the court in agility and hit an equally powerful return smash, seemingly with easy, as if the racket was weight almost to nothing.

Different from them, Ryoma hadn't broken any sweat at all. His movement was fast and agile; his reaction toward the entire smash from coach Mifune was really quick that before realizing he was already in front of the ball. It goes the same with the return hit. Each of the balls was hit with the same powerful force as their coach gave. There was no wasted move.

It had become like a one on one match between coach Mifune and Ryoma, leaving the rest of them to observed the match in amazement. They seemed to forget that it was training for all of them and that they were required to do the same with what Ryoma did.

"What are you fucking trash doing!? You all got to get the balls too!" Mifune shouted, scolding them for just quietly standing there and doing absolutely nothing at all (except for withholding the racket's heaviness).

"We do want to move, but…" Zaizen muttered mostly to himself.

It turned out that Ryoma had also stopped moving and now instead watching them struggling with the racket.

"Focus."

All the middle schoolers turned their heads toward the sudden voice's source, which is Ryoma.

Ryoma kept his stare level on all of them. "Just change your focus," he advised.

Dumbstruck expression on all of their faces indicated that they didn't understand what Ryoma was saying.

Letting out a sigh, Ryoma raised his racket and continued, "Instead of focusing on your hand, it'll be better to channel the weight to your feet too."

"Like this." The dark-haired teen made a stance. He bent his body down slightly, gripped his racket with adjusted force, then divided both his feet approximately 30cm between each other and planted them firmly on the ground. "Not focusing the weight on your hands only, but channel them to your feet and let them support the weight."

Ryoma's eyes narrowed as they spotted a ball flying toward him. "—once both are balanced, move!" he said as he ran to intercept the ball.

He glanced back to them after he finished returning the ball. His raised one of his eyebrows up, as though asking whether they understood or not.

Maybe not, judging from their dumb expression.

"I see!" Inui shouted suddenly, caught them by surprise.

"By changing the center of the gravity to the feet, we can reduce the weight of this racket against our hands and instead transferred it to our feet," he stated, then making a stance just like Ryoma did moments ago, while mumbling something like '30cm', '45% angle', '30% power', etc. Inui then moved unexpectedly fluid, compared to how he was before, and managed to return the ball, even though he was still swaying a bit at the impact.

"It's just like martial arts." Yanagi muttered as he stared at the racket.

"What do you mean, Yanagi?" Sanada asked.

"Like judo, when we are up against stronger and heavier opponent than us, the chance to throw over the opponent lies not in the power of the hand but feet. By channeling the center of our whole body's weight to the feet, we'll receive an even greater power in return." Yanagi looked at Sanada. "It's the same with kendo, Genichirou."

At the explanation, both Yanagi and Sanada tried to put the theory into action and finally able to returned the ball successfully.

The rest of the middle schoolers also tried to do the same, and immediately roared into happiness when their racket finally able to make a contact –or maybe just a brush— against the ball.

Ryoma was silently watching them running back and forth chasing after the ball. He didn't realize as the tip of his mouth unconsciously tugged upward slightly, forming a small smile.

At the distance, Mifune Nyudo smirked fondly as he noticed the expression Ryoma was having, and then whispered a little too gently, "Brat."

"Why should we do this?" Oshitari Kenya complained as he swept his sight toward all the security –that was standing on guard— few meters ahead of him.

"Coach's order," Higa's teen, Tanishi Kei mumbled, crouching exactly next to Kenya.

Oshitari Kenya, Tanishi Kei and Echizen Ryoma were now hiding behind a bush inside the U-17 training camp. The reason why they were here, when they're supposed to be sleeping right now, instead of snooping around in this late at night was because of their one and only coach, Mifune Nyudo's order.

Moments ago, all the middle schoolers were sleeping soundly inside their sleeping bag, obviously had been exhausted by the muscle strengthening training. They should had been peacefully sleeping if their coach didn't just woke them up in the middle of the night, demanded them to do night training.

And so, reluctantly, they all dragged their bodies to do exactly as ordered, except for them three. When Kenya and Tanishi prepared themselves to go out and train, Mifune called them out along with Ryoma –who was still leisurely staying behind—to undergo another mission: a so-called special mission as he said.

They were asked to go deep into the cave they slept in without any explanation at all. Once they were half-way through the cave, they found a letter resting on top of a stone. The letter had summarized what the mission they were supposed to do: first, mission one, they will sneak into the camp and acquire the following items from the practice storage shed: 100 new tennis balls, 50 bars of soap, and 10 bottles of both shampoo and conditioner. Afterwards, they need to go to the staff bar lounge in the dorms and acquire high quality sake and to make acquiring sake as this special mission top priority over the balls or soaps.

As ridiculous as this special mission sounds, they had no choice but to complied with the order. After experiencing a lot of hard works and obstacles –including one where they had to run away from bats or the one where Kenya and Tanishi idiotically fell into the river— they had, maybe by the sheer of luck, made it to where the U-17 training camp was held.

"Really that coach, how can he ask us to do something like this?" Kenya grumbled, then turned his head facing Ryoma. "Right, Echizen?"

The dark-haired teen who was crouching behind him wandered his eyes towards Kenya. "Err, who?"

"Kenya! Oshitari Kenya," he quickly said, face-palmed. "Oh right! We still haven't introducing ourself properly, have we? I'm Oshitari Kenya. But just call me Kenya, not Oshitari, okay! I have a cousin with the same family name here. Don't wanna be mistaken."

"I'm from Higa middle school, Tanishi Kei," Tanishi quickly but in. "From Okinawa."

Ryoma stared at them blankly then nodded before returning his attention back toward the obstacle in front of them, leaving Kenya and Tanishi to do the same.

Well, their newest addition was not much of a talker.

"Has the security always been this tight?" Kenya muttered in disbelief, as he observed how all the security had carried alongside them a pack of Dobermans, absolutely not-your-common-house dog.

Paying no notice toward the still in-dazed duo, Ryoma swiftly ran along the bush to the side.

"Oi, Echizen! Where are you going? Those are Dobermans, you know!" Kenya remarked, freaking out at the horror of having a doberman as opponent.

Ryoma glanced back at Kenya and smirked playfully. "Then we'd better not get caught."

After their somehow successful attempt at completing the first mission, they are now on their tracks to do the second mission, also called as special mission. They had already collected the balls, shampoo and soaps and all that left was sake.

Right now, they had arrived at the dorms and were currently heading towards the staff bar lounge. They hadn't gone any further and were forcefully stopped before even founding the lounge, because of the unexpected surveillance cameras that were placed along the hallway.

"That's gonna be a problem."

"It's impossible to get through without being seen by the cameras. If only there was a box of space the camera couldn't see," Tanishi muttered.

"There's no way we'll find one," Kenya piped in.

"There is," Ryoma who was silent until now suddenly said. He, then, pointed his finger toward the floor. "Box."

It wasn't literally a box, but there were some oddly shaped pictures drawn on the floor. The shapes were square, triangle and round.

"What do you mean?"

Ryoma casually moved toward the drawn floor then stepped right into the square-shaped drawing.

His act immediately made Kenya and Tanishi into a state of panic.

"Oi, Echizen! What are you doing!?"

"It's alright," Ryoma nonchalantly said while jumping from one square to the other. "These squares seem to be those cameras' only blind spots."

Seeing no harm fell upon Ryoma, the duo quickly moved following Ryoma's example. After 5 minutes of jumping around, they had successfully arrived to the other side of the hallway, avoiding any of the cameras' surveillance. Much to their relief.

In front of them, stood a door made of steel with a lock that used codes.

"How to—," before Kenya managed to finished saying his question, Ryoma beat him to it.

"259113."

"What—?" Kenya was dumbfounded.

"The codes," Ryoma simply answered.

"Not that! I mean, how did you know what the codes were?"

Ryoma just casually glanced to the painting that was hanging beside him. In one look, the painting seemed to be just mindless scribbles, but if you looked carefully, you could spot few numbers that were cleverly hidden within the scribbles.

"It was hidden there. The codes," he answered.

Kenya nodded absentmindedly. "I see," he muttered as he started pressing the numbers Ryoma told him into the lock.

The door opened.

They quickly ran inside and finally arrived exactly a few meters before the bar lounge.

"Let's grab some sake and get out of here," Kenya said happily, and then ran toward the lounge, followed closely by Tanishi.

"Wait, Kenya-san, Tanishi-san."

As soon as Ryoma called out to them, out of a sudden, red lasers forming before them –seemingly coming out of nowhere—, creating disorderly lines along the path to the lounge.

"You shouldn't touch that," Ryoma added.

They stared at the red lines for a good one minute. Shrugging, Kenya then decided to storm passed the lines. He had only managed to go through few steps before being forced to step back again.

"No, no! It's impossible. No matter how flexible you are, you can't get through this!" Naniwa's speed star shouted (in an adjusted volume) as soon as he was landed on the floor, flat-butt.

"This is sucks," Tanishi grumbled.

"What should we do? Or more importantly, why do we have to do this?" Kenya complained as he tried to stand up.

Ryoma leaned his back against the wall. Putting both of his hands inside the jacket's pocket he was wearing, his mind traveled back to the time he made a so-called request toward the old man.

"I have a request."

Mifune gave the teen an analyzing gaze. "What now? You are pretty demanding lately, aren't you, brat?"

Ignoring the beard old man's remark, Ryoma continued. "Create me a chance to go to the camp."

Mifune snorted. "You always go there whenever you want anyway. Why need an excuse now?"

The dark emerald haired teen rolled his eyes. "I can't just disappear from the training," he stated. 'not all the time at least', he mused.

Taking one of the rackets out of its box, Mifune asked, "For what?"

"There's something I want to see."

Silently staring at Ryoma for a few seconds –as though contemplating a thought—, Mifune, then threw the racket in his hand toward the teen, which Ryoma caught with easy. "Fine! Tonight then!"

And leaving Ryoma to smirk satisfied.

Back from his flashback, Ryoma mulled in silence.

'…Well, it would be because of me.'

Hopped out from leaning against the wall, Ryoma turned his back then walked toward the exit.

Realizing that Ryoma had started to walked back to where they had originally coming from, Kenya quickly called out to him, "Echizen! Where are you going?" he hissed.

Glancing at Kenya briefly, he simply said, "Searching for a way out."

The middle schoolers' winners' team were seen walking out of their dorm. It was late at night and they were supposed to be sleeping right now. Though they apparently not. The only reason why they were now making their way to the tennis court was because of one argument they had earlier.

After a long horrendous training, they were dropped dead caused by exhaustion. They all then took a bath at the hot spring to relieve the soreness out of their bodies along with the strain muscles. After a long nice bath – though there were a few silly mishaps— they were able to regain a bit of their energy. Returning to the dining room, they found all kind of foods displayed neatly on the tables. In famished, they gulped down all the foods in a matter of hour. All in all, they were enjoying themselves with all those finest treatments –including a few silly mishaps that occurred again— until Kikumaru voiced out his disappointment. He was missing his teammates and friends who were dropped out of this training camp, and especially Oishi. He missed his double partner badly and found himself sadden by the thought of unable to shared this wonderful time with him.

Ohtori also voiced the same opinion and feeling as Kikumaru. So used to had Shishido yelling at him most of the time (if not always), he felt the loneliness left by the said senior.

Their sad thought was abruptly stopped by Atobe's words. He bluntly said that if they were going to just regretted things in the first place, they shouldn't have come. His harsh words angered both Kikumaru and Ohtori to the point of challenging him in a match, a tennis table match. Atobe's team was joined by Mizuki, who had somehow insulted Oishi (for calling him an egg) that made Kikumaru angry, then Kite –who had a dispute with Akutsu— and Marui, who was simply did that for amusement. Kikumaru's team were Kikumaru, Ohtori, Akutsu, and Chitose. The latter joined for a little exercise only.

The first match was won by Marui. Neither won the second match, because both Akutsu and Kite was too rough that they ended up playing more than just tennis table –they had almost made casualty—, so they ended in a draw. Third match was won by Kikumaru, despite of Mizuki's dirty method. And as for the last match, the score was so tight between two competitors. But, at the match point, Ohtori asked if he really didn't care about his teammates and especially kabaji, which Atobe coldly replied he didn't. and yet, when Ohtori yelled out Kabaji's name out of a sudden, acting like kabaji was there, Atobe found himself concerned enough that he turned around that make him lose his last point.

Atobe grumbled –not that obvious though—for falling at such cheap trick. Ohtori, in the other hand, was delighted to have found that Atobe did care about them, seeing his reaction toward kabaji. His victory over Atobe had made them the winner team. They had an agreement that the one who won the match, get to order the loser one time. Having reconciled with each other, they asked for a tennis match.

Hence why they were heading there right now.

As they walked into the tennis court, they could faintly hear the sound of ball being hit. It rhyme in constant and was hit with just enough force.

"Who…" Kikumaru muttered.

They traveled their sight around the court and found someone sitting on the low concrete fence that separating the court from the spectator place.

Ignoring the presences that were slowly approaching him, the dark emerald haired teen continued his steady hitting pace.

As they closed their distance against the teen, they finally able to make a rough outline out of the intruder.

Wearing a knee-length black pant and orange-colored t-shirt, completed with a black sport jacket with a hood covering his hair, was a teen that clearly none of them had known.

Seeing as the teen still didn't bother to acknowledge their beings, Atobe who was quite annoyed having someone who dared (because no one ever allowed to ignore ore-sama) to ignored the mighty him, chose to speak up.

"Who are you?"

The dark emerald haired teen hit the ball one last time, before it bounce back at him, letting itself to be captured by the teen's left palm. Shoving the tennis ball inside his pocket, the teen put down his racket beside him, on top of the fence.

As he turned his head toward the group standing before him, a chilly wind softly breeze through the teen's hood, letting the hood to descend slowly off of his hair, revealing a black hair with emerald tinge that caress the side of the teen's face gently.

Having able to fully looked at the teen –now that the hood was off—, they rest their gaze into the teen ones only to found themselves captivated by Ryoma's mesmerizing golden eyes.

.

.

[flashback]

"I have a message for you."

A figure appeared from the darkness, presented a man who was wearing U-17 uniform. He had a messy long orange-colored hair that was tied into a ponytail, a piercing on his ear, slanted eye-shaped, complete with a goofy smile.

"Yamato-san," Ryoma greet the man in front of him.

"I'm glad you still remember me," Yamato Yuudai grinned happily. With both hands inside his pocket pant, he walked approaching Ryoma.

One of the U-17 representative candidates, a member of the court Irie currently lead: 3rd court, also known as Seigaku former captain or the legendary charisma captain, Yamato Yuudai.

Eyeing Ryoma thoroughly, Yamato cheerily said, "You look well, prince."

"Why wouldn't I?" Ryoma replied curtly, then added with annoyance, "Stop with that stupid nickname."

Yamato laughed at the teen's words. "You haven't change at all, still as unsociable as ever." The older man took Ryoma's cap off then ruffled it affectionately. "That's a relief."

Ryoma scowled but didn't remove Yamato's hand off of his hair.

"Well, you should come see us from time to time. Everyone miss you."

The dark-haired teen didn't offer any reply, but the look on his face showed that he was contemplating the suggestion.

Yamato smiled softly as he gazed at Ryoma. The teen might not sociable but it didn't mean he was indifferent. On the contrary, he did care in his own (cheeky) way that it made him even more adorable. Yamato knew better than to said it out loud though (Ryoma hated it when people as much as to compliment him in that way).

Yamato chuckled. Ryoma reminded him of his former junior. His stoic protégé; the one who succeed him in becoming Seigaku captain and pillar.

"So, what is it?"

Ryoma's voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. "Yes?"

"You didn't come just to say that, did you?"

"No, I didn't." Placing the hat back to Ryoma's head, the goofy smile disappeared from his face.

"I come to bring you a message from Oni-san." Yamato's tone turned serious and his grey eyes which were settled on Ryoma's vanished of all its early playfulness.

"The gatekeeper of hell is going to open his gate."

.

.

OMAKE (why there is Ponta here)

"Morning tea time is really the best…" strays of silvery grey hair swayed slowly, framing the side of his face as Atobe Keigo inhaled the aroma from his freshly brewed tea. "Did you peasants have nice dreams?"

"I sure had a really pleasant dream," Akutagawa Jirou answered lazily as he sat down next to Atobe. "I still feel like sleeping even now."

"That's nothing new, Jirou," Atobe commented curtly before his eyes widened slightly when he saw the thing Jirou carried in his hand. "Do tell me what is that peasant drink doing here?"

Jirou sipped the drink in his hand. "It's grape Ponta, Atobe," Jirou replied as he shoved the carbonated drink right in front of Atobe's face. "Dunno... I found this in the bar lounge. There are even dozens boxes of them."

Atobe made a disgusted expression as he swayed Jirou's hand away from his face. He raised one of his eyebrows, "Here is supposed to have the best facilities and all." He then glared hard at the Ponta in Jirou's hand as if it had offended him. "So, what is such unhealthy drink doing here!?"

.

[outside]

Coach Tsuge walked in a steady pace as he made his way into the lounge bar. He carried two stacks of boxes in his hands.

"You are stocking them again," coach Kurobe stated when he passed Tsuge on his way to the observation room.

Tsuge gave him an affirmative nod.

Kurobe sighed. "We shouldn't even have them here in the first place. That drink is unhealthy for athletes. You are spoiling him too much."

Instead of answering the black-haired coach, Tsuge only gave him a sheepish smile and gave the boxes in his hands a quick glance to read the label written in it: 'GRAPE FLAVORED PONTA'.

.

Somewhere in the middle of the forest, one dark emerald haired teen sneezed. He rubbed his nose and frowned. 'Cold?'

to be continued...

[Next Chapter preview]

Ryoma hopped down from the concrete fence he was sitting on. He walked approaching Shiraishi, then stop right in front of him. He stared at Shiraishi's bandage hands, leaving the captain of Shitenhouji to looked back at the teen in confusion. after a long few minutes, Ryoma took one of Shiraishi's hands then gave them one appraisal look. Shiraishi was startled as the stranger teen suddenly grabbed his hand inside his much smaller ones and found himself lost, not knowing what to do.

He settled on observing the teen who was now looking absorbed in scrutinizing his bandaged hands. He didn't know who the teen was and he should had been cautious toward the teen's identity, yet he simply couldn't. It was strange and absurd, but he felt it hard to avert his gaze away from the teen. It was as if he was unconsciously being drawn, as if there was a magnet that pulled him toward the unknown teen.

And when the teen suddenly lifted his head up and rested his eyes on Shiraishi's, the golden gleam on the teen's orb rendered him enchanted. Feeling like he was put under a spell, Shiraishi couldn't look away.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait and sorry for not replying to any of the reviews. I just have been busy with study and life and they got it toll on me. Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows you guys gave me. I really can't thank you enough for all of your support.

I fell into depression. I met a mishap that was BIG enough to made me feel depressed and stress out, and to be honest, I have lost all of my motivation to do anything at all. But, I have promised Loocoforcoco-123 an update and I had re-read all of your reviews, and yes, knowing how much you all enjoyed reading my story make me feel a bit better. So, I tried to bring myself together to give you this update.

I can't promise you any update soon. I just don't know when will I updated again... maybe when I have cheer up? I honestly don't know, though I can assure you that I won't ever abandoned any of my story.

Thank you for reading this and giving your supports. I'm sorry for any of grammatical mistakes and spelling errors that I might have made. Please tell me if you found them. Also, anyone willing to be this story's beta?

Last, I hope I'll be able to meet you all again soon enough. Until then :)