Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ When Tezuka Had Fallen For Her ❯ Act xi ( Chapter 12 )

Author's Note: Hehe, minna gomenasai…I really just found the previous chapter sooo long…hehe, well, here's the eleventh chapter of my fanfiction. And to answer curious readers I don't know how long this story will go on either, sorry :P I'm the one who starts a story without a plotline and just the theme…mark that in your mind. ANOTHER THING: If you ever wonder how I got the idea of Ringo's playing style, it's all thanks to my best friend, who is a tennis player. I got my OC's moves from her—or rather, I applied her moves to my OC (What's the difference? Duh). Though I made Ringo's a lot more unrealistic and amazing…haha… (this is ANIME, anyway). And it was suggested that I should make my chapters longer…and I certainly think so too, so this one will be awfully long…

 

 

Disclaimer: I am sad to say that I don't own PoT…really sad…

 

 

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

Act xi

(Chapter Eleven)

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

 

 

“The ballerina's…performance?” Oishi repeated, puzzled.

 

Ryoma, who was standing silently at one side, tugged his cap lower so that it hid his eyes from view, breathing deeply.

 

“I've heard of that,” he said silently, and everyone turned to him curiously. “I read it in a magazine while I was in America. I was scanning an article about Wimbledon when it was mentioned that a girl below sixteen was going to participate. I didn't pay too much attention to the name, but I still can remember her title. She's called The Ballerina.”

 

“Since Ringo interested me,” continued Inui, “I did some research about her. I didn't expect that her information is so easy to find. Ringo is known as The Ballerina because of her playing style. It is said that whenever in a match, she would divide it accordingly into “three acts.” In ballet, a performance is divided into acts, which mainly represented the introduction, climax, and end of the story portrayed.”

 

“Why would she divide the match into acts?” Kaidoh asked.

 

Inui's grin widened. “Watch her.”

 

All of them paid their attention back to the court abruptly.

 

“Harinozuka service play,” the umpire announced.

 

 

Three shots, Ringo thought. Three shots would do. She bounced the ball slowly. Finally prepared, she threw the ball, jumped, and hit it.

 

She watched the ball zoom across the court as she descended. She grunted. No.

 

The ball had hit the net.

 

“Fault.”

 

The audience booed and protested loudly.

 

“Do you honestly know how to play?”

 

“Are you making fun of us? You're no champion!”

 

Eiji, meanwhile, groaned in frustration. “Ringo-chan, do something!”

 

“She was not conditioned for a match,” Oishi said anxiously. “She should have been given enough time to stipulate her body.”

 

Ringo was staring at her hand that gripped the racket as if it was a fascinating object. She turned her wrist and observed her fingers intently. Two more.

 

She returned to her stance, then threw and hit the ball.

 

Tack.

 

“Double Fault. Love-Fifteen.”

 

“Nothing's wrong at how she held her racket and her stance was right,” Inui said wonderingly. “I wonder what's wrong…”

 

Last one.

 

The ball darted so fast that Mizuno didn't even have time to react. The Seigaku team was enlightened and relieved.

 

“At last!” Momo said exuberantly. “A comeba—”

 

“Net. Love-Thirty.”

 

The crowed cheered and jeered some more, and Momo had palm-faced.

 

Mizuno still stood on her spot, gripping her racket tightly. I didn't see her last shot coming. I wonder what's wrong with her serve. It won't reach over the net. She outwardly smirked at the younger girl across her, but paused as she saw her.

 

What the—?

 

Tezuka's eyes narrowed, and his eyebrows met. “Her racket,” he said.

 

“Eh? What's she doing?!” Horio exclaimed. “Her racket is too much slanted downwards! Can you hit well with that?”

 

Indeed, Ringo was gripping her racket in a very odd way, with the racket severely directed to the ground. Inui took a sharp intake of breath as he realized what it is.

 

“It's the Western Grip.”

 

“Eh?” Eiji, Momo, Taka-san and Kaidoh said in chorus. Fuji smiled wanly, Ryoma snorted, and Tezuka stood a little straighter, an indication that he was impressed.

 

“Western…Grip…” Sakuno said. “ I think I heard that before…oh! Sou ka! Ryoma-kun had said something about it.”

 

“Western Grip?” Kachiro said curiously.

 

Horio smiled smugly. “Heh…you really are newbies! Let Horio-sama with two years of tennis experience explain it to you. Western Grip is one of the ways to hold a racket. It is not commonly used because of the awkward form—you grip the racket the way you grip an object when you pick it up from the ground. You should at least know that, pathetic freshmen.”

 

The freshmen were sweatdropping.

 

“But he's the one who's surprised earlier,” Katsuo said under his breath.

 

“Oh, I forgot to say,” Inui suddenly said. “Ringo was also known to be a Western Grip user. I believe all her special moves are done with the grip.”

 

“So this means…” Eiji's voice faded away, excitement written all over his face.

 

“Ringo-chan is serious!” Momo said. “Took her long enough.”

 

Ringo swung her racket repeatedly, testing her arm. I hope this will work. She then stretched her right leg over and over again until the umpire called her attention.

 

“Harinozuka-san, if you don't serve right away…”

 

“Gomen, umpire-san,” Ringo called out, once she was satisfied. “I'm ready now.”

 

The umpire nodded, and the junior did her stance as she bounced the ball.

 

One, two, three…she mentally counted the number of times the ball bounced, and finally she gripped it and shouted, “Yosh!”

 

The boys watched as Ringo threw the ball up high and jumped—

 

“What the—?” Horio was the fastest to react. “She's flying!”

 

They watched, awed, as Ringo spun in midair before hitting the ball with the side rim of her racket. The ball glided across the racket's surface, and she forced it towards the opposite court. She roughly landed on her right foot, and used her left one to regain balance.

 

Shimatta, was all Mizuno managed to say. The ball in a flash zoomed towards her in a very sharp curve, and it landed on the clay ground beside her left foot, before fiercely rolling around in circles without any bounce. She stared, wide-eyed, as the ball came to a halt right in front of her, still spinning, until it stopped and lay innocently still.

 

The whole court was very silent.

 

Ringo checked if her right foot is alright, before massaging her right shoulder and looking around curiously.

 

“Eto…umpire-san? The score?” she said to the stunned umpire politely.

 

“Oh, yes,” the umpire said, snapping back to her senses. “F-Fifteen-Thirty.”

 

A second of silence passed, before the whole Seigaku boys' tennis team roared and cheered.

 

“Sugoi! Ringo-chan! WE LOVE YOU!” Eiji shouted happily, jumping up and down.

 

“That's more like it!” Momo whistled.

 

Ryoma, on the other hand, “innocently” tapped Kawamura and said, “Kawamura-senpai, you dropped your racket.”

 

“Oh, Arigato, Echizen,” the power tennis player said, meekly holding the racket. Almost immediately, his aura changed, and his face wore an aggressive and fierce expression.

 

“GGGRRRRRREATO! GOOD JOB, KOUHAI!” he roared, swaying his racket wildly. “BEAT'EM OUT!”

 

The nearby girls were scandalized and scooted farther, and the crowd seemed to be brought back to earth by the team's loudness. Ringo looked over at their direction distractedly, and she brightened up.

 

“Minna, you're here!” she said. She can't help but smile as she saw the thumbs-up most of the boys were giving her, and she seemed to receive a wave of shock when Tezuka even nodded at her approvingly. She smilingly returned to the match, preparing for another serve.

 

“The 360-degree Serve,” Inui murmured thoughtfully.

 

“Saa…” Fuji said lightly. “It's good.”

 

The team cheered again as she successfully hit another service ace.

 

“Thirty all.”

 

“The 360-degree Serve?” Eiji questioned after shouting a series of chants and praises.

 

“Hai. It's a topspin-slice, with a deep curve almost like Kaidoh's Snake. It spins in circles once it hit the surface, that's why it's 360 degrees, the angle measurement of the interior angle of the circle. Its no-bounce effect is caused by the sidespin she further added when she let the ball glide across her racket, just like Fuji's Swallow Return. It's heavy and fast because she rotated her body before hitting it, to add more force than her quite average-sized body frame would allow her, and also because of the effect of the Western Grip, which make topspins more powerful. Ringo has been called The Ballerina for the reason that all of her three special moves require the spinning of her body.”

 

The regulars were staring at him disbelievingly.

 

“Ringo-san…can do such a thing?” Kaidoh said, awed.

 

“Forty-Thirty,” the umpire overhead said loudly, after another successful 360-Degree Serve, and murmurs from the watchers filled their ears.

 

“And since she uses the Western Grip,” Tezuka said, without keeping his eyes off the ongoing match, “Her normal topspins will be about as heavy as Momoshiro's. It is the effect of the severely downward position of the racket.”

 

“Sugoi…” Oishi remarked weakly.

 

“Hoi, hoi,” Eiji said. “Demo, if Ringo-chan meant the 360-degree Serve as her act one, what would be the other two acts?”

 

Ringo finally hit her fourth 360-Degree Serve, and she watched Mizuno's distraught look as the ball spun around her.

 

“Game, Harinozuka. One game all.”

 

The team cheered, and was surprised, however, when they realized they weren't the only ones who were cheering Ringo on. Turning around, they saw the freshmen of the girls' tennis club hooting and whooping as they clapped their hands.

 

“Hey…you're the one earlier,” Tomoka noted, as she spotted the freshman who called them at the clubhouse.

 

The freshman merely smiled and continued to cheer on the junior.

 

Ringo, though, had immediately felt the disadvantages of her shot. Darn it, she thought resentfully, my arm's prickling. She started to walk towards the other side of her court for Mizuno's service play, but found out that she was almost dragging her right foot with her. Masaka…even my leg?! I wish I had done some exercise this morning!

 

“Look,” Echizen said. “Ringo-senpai is sweating a lot, and she doesn't walk properly.”

 

Oishi was the fastest to respond. “Nani?! D-Doushite?” He, with the rest of the team, looked at the hazel-haired junior, and almost as one they gasped.

 

“You're right…” Fuji said. He was wearing a serious look.

 

Ringo bent on a stance and held her racket before her, ignoring the stabs of pain in her right hamstring. I should finish this quickly, or else I'm going to lose.

 

She watched as her senior opponent prepared for her bullet serve, but she was shocked when she realized that her vision was blurring. Now she could see two Mizuno's throwing the ball and jumping.

 

She shook her head wildly, and when she looked back, the ball had already bounced off the court and past her racket.

 

Step back, she thought calmly, but when she moved her right foot—

 

“Service ace. Fifteen-Love.”

 

Ringo groaned as she reached her left hand to touch her bottom painfully. I must have looked stupid with that backward fall. She waved it off when the umpire looked at her questioningly and got back onto her feet, patting out the dirt from her skirt.

 

She was able to catch up with the second Bullet Serve, and a long rally began. She was still in her Western Grip, and she had to admit that her wrist was starting to hurt.

 

I haven't used this for a very long time. I can't believe my body's gotten this weak! If she had maintained her everyday training, she wouldn't have to suffer this much. But how can she expect that she would be literally dragged into a match in her second day at her new school?

 

“Something's weird,” Momo said.

 

“What is it?” Taka-san asked gently.

 

“All of Ringo's shots were slices,” the rascal player said. “And the Western Grip is usually used for topspins only.”

 

“Aa,” said Fuji. “The Western Grip is not used in slices because of the awkward position of the hand. It would hinder the user to produce a strong slice. But certain players are contortionists, who had more flexible wrists, so they can use the Western Grip in slices effectively.”

 

“Moreover,” added Inui. “Western Grip slices are different from other slices. They're heavier, and their bounce is much lower. Ringo here was directing slices towards her opponent's blind spot, which is her backhand, or left side.”

 

“Why?” Eiji asked.

 

“She's waiting for Mizuno to be forced to lob the ball,” the data-man concluded.

 

“Lob?”

 

The score was now Fifteen-Thirty, with Ringo on the lead. The junior perspired profusely, and her breath were becoming ragged by the minute. She didn't notice that her right knee was already shaking, or that her vision was tripling over whenever she paused.

 

“Act…two…” she still managed to say, as Mizuno delivered her serve. She returned the ball with a slice, then the next upcoming ball with another slice.

 

Three minutes had passed, and after another slice directed on her left, Mizuno was forced to lob to make her opponent back away. Unfortunately for her, that was exactly what Ringo was waiting for.

 

Ringo jumped up high, forming the stance of a smash. Mizuno immediately saw this and backed away. She watched, unfazed, as Ringo hit the ball forcefully down towards her. She gripped her racket tightly, prepared—

 

It's a slice! The senior realized a little too late, as the ball hit the clay court. She moved to step forward but her eyes widened when the ball bounced sharply, not towards her, but back to the net.

 

Everyone watched, surprised, as the ball fell lifeless once more, still on Mizuno's court.

 

“Amazing…” Fuji said, and he had his electric-blue eyes open. “She could make the ball bounce back to the net.”

 

“Her second special move,” Inui stated. “Jounce. It's a weird name.”

 

Momo was about to open his mouth to respond, when Eiji suddenly shouted.

 

“RINGO-CHAN!!!”

 

The regulars' heads quickly swiveled back to the court, and all of them were surprised to see Ringo, leaning on one knee, using her racket like a staff as she forced herself to stand back up.

 

Now, not only her right leg was aching, but also the left one. Ringo forced herself to stand straight. Now she's losing her sense of balance because of her vision. The fingers curled around her racket felt number than ever, and she couldn't turn her wrist so well anymore.

 

But before anyone could have said anything else, the umpire shouted an announcement.

 

“Time out.”

 

“Time out? Who called for it?” Momo looked up and down the courts and gasped as he pointed a finger at the bench where Ringo's things lay.

 

 

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

 

Ringo looked up when the umpire announced a time-out. Mizuno must have called for it. She looked across the court at her opponent, and was rather confused when she realized she was also giving her a questioning look. She looked back at the umpire.

 

“Umpire-san…me?” she inquired uncertainly, before spotting the person standing by her bench. Her eyes slightly widened.

 

“Tezuka-senpai?”

 

Tezuka was staring at her with his usual poker face, and she saw one by one the other regulars come to stand by him. Ringo shrugged and approached them, grimacing when a pain shot through her leg and when the crowd began to whisper angrily again.

 

“Is that Tezuka-senpai?”

 

“So she was with him?”

 

“What an annoying girl.”

 

Ringo inwardly sighed. She thought the girls had finally accepted her after they saw her first act, well they really did accept her after that, but their hate towards her seem to ignite once more when they realized that she was “with” him. How sad.

 

“Tezuka-senpai,” she started, straining a small smile. “What's up?”

 

Tezuka didn't reply and continued to stare at Ringo, causing the girl to slightly twitch an eyebrow.

 

“Ringo-san, daijobu desu ka?” Oishi asked almost too quickly.

 

Ringo blinked at him. “Aa. Of course I'm okay.”

 

“Sit,” Tezuka suddenly said, in a very commanding air. “Take your seat, Ringo.”

 

Still confused, Ringo sat on the bench and attempted to grab the face towel with her right hand. She winced at the pain, so, instead, she reached out her left hand, trying to avoid suspicion to arouse and praying that nobody noticed it. But sadly, all the boys had noticed her pause.

 

“It hurt, doesn't it?” Kaidoh said in a low voice. “Your arm.”

 

“N-No,” said Ringo, digging her face into the towel for them not to see her reaction, “it just became slightly numb because of my serve.” She put down her towel to smile at them, only to be met by blurry frowning faces.

 

“Ringo-chan, don't lie, nya,” Eiji said worriedly. “I can also see that your vision is doubling. I can see the irises in your eyes contracting, nya.”

 

“It's just an after-effect of spinning while I serve,” Ringo reasoned out. “Anyone would be dizzy, right?”

 

“But I know that the 360-Degree Serve is one of your specialty shots, so it couldn't be possible that you were not trained to not get dizzy easily to be able to pull that stunt,” Inui said matter-of-factly. “You're losing your concentration because of the pain.”

 

“Guys, I'm fine. Well, not perfectly fine, but still fine!”

 

“You're muscles were sprained,” Tezuka said. “Your arm and wrist for maintaining the Western Grip and for hitting the ball forcefully. Your right leg absorbed the shock of the impact when you jumped. And your latest shot, it added up to the burden in your arm. Your muscles were not conditioned, so they cannot endure the pressure.” He knelt on one knee to be in level of Ringo's lower body. He searched around her right knee, and pressed his index and middle finger on the spot where the knee-joint connected to the thigh bone and the fibula.

 

Ringo gasped and screwed her eyes shut in pain. Why does it hurt so badly?

 

“Yapari,” she heard Tezuka say. “She couldn't play much longer. She must forfeit.”

 

“Forfeit?” Ringo looked up hastily. “I can't! Yes, my arm and leg hurt a bit but I can still endure it—Ittai!” She gasped again, as Tezuka grabbed her wrist and tried to bend her elbow.

 

“You had let your guard down,” the captain said. “You must stop now or else you might regret it. You may not play tennis again.”

 

Ringo stared at him. “No, I—”

 

“Look,” Tezuka interrupted, “your hand is shaking.”

 

Blue-gray eyes widened, and Ringo looked down at her hand. It was indeed shaking, and the fingers were stuck at odd angles, numb. “But how about the deal? How about Osakada-san—?”

 

“That was some serve, Harinozuka,” interrupted a female voice behind the regulars. They quickly turned, and saw Mizuno Shina.

 

The older girl stepped forward. “I see that you can't play anymore.”

 

Ringo looked up at her. “No, I still can—”

 

“Yes, she can't play you anymore,” Tezuka cut in, standing up. “I suppose you already know why.”

 

Mizuno smiled, but it was a lot less menacing than the previous ones, but still not one would call nice. Maybe cocky. “Let's resume the match after some time. I don't want a handicap from a kouhai, thanks.” With that, she turned her back to the younger girl and began to walk away.

 

“Senpai…matte!”

 

Mizuno stopped in her tracks, but didn't turn around.

 

“How about the deal about Osakada-san?” Ringo asked.

 

To her and anyone else's surprise, the senior laughed. “I guess Osakada really paid for what she did. She brought me a challenging opponent. Welcome to the Girls' Tennis Club, Harinozuka Ringo. I expect to see you tomorrow. But don't get too fed up just because you're able to pull some trick.”

 

“Tennis club…tomorrow?” Ringo repeated faintly. Then, the meaning of the words finally digging into her, she stared.

 

“Sugoi…Ringo-chan,” Eiji started. “Those are amazing stunts! Huh? Ringo-chan? Ringo-chan?!”

 

“Eiji, you're noisy,” Oishi said.

 

Ringo had leaned back on the bench and rested a wet towel over her eyes to relax them, for her vision was now literally spinning. She eased her body, trying to make herself comfortable amidst the noise the huddled Seigaku boys' team was making, and, to top it all, Horio's fast approaching annoying voice. The pain in her right limbs lessened considerably, and she didn't notice it when the boys' voices began to fade away, and her senses less sharpening.

 

“Ringo-chan? Ringo-chan!” Eiji was now shouting. He blinked as he looked closely at his kouhai, and a cat-like grin formed in his lips as he heard her breathing deeply.

 

“I can't believe it,” he said to the others. “Ringo-chan's sleeping.”

 

 

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

 

Tezuka walked along the ground floor corridor, contemplating, and trying to attract less attention as possible. He was used to this manner anyway, because, one, he doesn't want those girls to start ambushing him again, and two, he doesn't want teachers to spot him and make him do what others would call mister-goody-two-shoes tasks.

 

Usually, this is a hard job, because Tezuka stood out so much in a crowd, with his height, stature, and looks, but somehow, he still manages it. Though now, the job seem triple the harder. Students, teachers, janitors, boys and girls of all ages—no one can possibly not look at him right now. He can even probably attract the attention of a dog (supposedly there is and would have the chance to meet him).

 

That was because he had his arms laden with a deeply asleep girl.

 

The captain recalled how he ended up doing this.

 

He and the team were surprised when Eiji announced that the girl had indeed fallen asleep on the bench the moment she closed her eyes. All of them didn't know what to do; wake her up, carry her somewhere else more comfortable to sleep at, or simply wait for her to wake up. Fuji had somewhat found the situation very amusing, and he voted for carrying the kouhai all the way to the clinic. Fuji, of course, being an influential person, got the approval of the majority, and the tensai, being the way he was, suggested that the carrier would be decided by the team voting the person they want to see doing the “job.” Inui was the first to recommend, and he without a shadow of a doubt highly recommended the buchou. And knowing Inui, he wouldn't do anything unless it would benefit him, or he has some hidden agenda. That disturbed Tezuka. But to his disappointment, the rest had the same candidate, except for Eiji, who voted for himself, Momo, who slyly voted for Kaidoh, and Tezuka himself, who didn't participate at all. The captain was surprised when even Echizen went for him, saying something about “interesting.”

 

So that was how it was.

 

He suddenly felt Ringo squirm, and, looking down, he saw that she was smiling. Then she pressed herself further on his body, her head nuzzling on the front of his shirt.

 

Maybe she was dreaming, Tezuka thought, not really minding it.

 

A freshman from the chess club gaped at him wordlessly as he passed by. That was about the sixth time he received such reaction. He totally ignored him, and was thankful when he finally saw the hanging sign that read “Infirmary” from overhead.

 

The female nurse was shocked when he had entered. That was unusual. Being a nurse, she should have seen situations like this too often in her career life to be surprised, but she looked as if it was her first time seeing a human enter her clinic.

 

“Don't worry, she's just asleep,” Tezuka assured her, and she sighed in relief.

 

“Here, take her here,” the nurse said, briskly walking towards a part of the infirmary blocked by curtains. She pulled the nearest curtains apart, revealing a small single bed with pure white sheets and a white bedside table.

 

“Arigato,” Tezuka nodded at her, before bending to gently lay Ringo's limp form on the bed.

 

However, as if she foresaw what he was going to do, Ringo clutched the front of his shirt with her right hand and his arm with her left, not allowing him to let her go. Her bows twitched, and she was frowning.

 

Tezuka thought for a fleeting second that she was awake, but realized she was still not. He simply sighed, and wondered what sort of dream she must be having at the moment. He waited until her grip on him loosen, and when it did, he bent again to dislodge her.

 

But she clung to him again, and her grip is now much tighter.

 

Tezuka fought the urge to grunt. She was heavy, and his arms are now numb for carrying her this long.

 

The nurse snickered at the sight of the two students, making the captain give her a you're-not-helping-ma'am look. She quickly stopped, arranging her face into a neutral one, before saying, “Can you tell me what happened to her?”

 

“She had sprained her muscles in her right arm and leg,” he replied.

 

“How come?”

 

The stoic captain paused for a moment before saying, “She played tennis without any muscle training and warm-up.”

 

The nurse sighed. “Well, try to get her to the bed. I'm going to check her up for a bit after I get some muscle-pain reliever tablets.”

 

Tezuka watched her leave, then looked back down to Ringo, who still had her hands on his shirt and arm, though she's not gripping them anymore.

 

Pushing his luck, he did another attempt of laying her. But no, the moment the girl sensed him moving she would clutch him. It was fortunate that Tezuka is a person with extensive patience, or else she would have been thrown forcefully to bed by now. He didn't know why, but Echizen suddenly crossed his mind at the thought.

 

Deciding that this was it, he quickly laid down her body on the mattress, and she did clutched him again, but this time he gently pulled off his arm and pushed her hand away.

 

Ringo fought weakly, but finally gave in and turned on her side once Tezuka was freed from her. She murmured something inaudible, and she became still again.

 

That was the time the nurse had chosen to show up, with a glass of water and some tablets. She laid them on the bedside table, before kneeling by the bed to check on the sleeping girl. She clicked her tongue once she spotted her patient's oddly stuck fingers.

 

“Sudden force,” she muttered, before spotting Ringo's power band. She removed it from the girl's wrist, and gasped at how heavy it was. “Why should a girl like her wear something like this?” She dropped it loudly at the bedside table, as if it's something disgusting and full of germs. Then she stared at her wrist, which was slightly pinkish.

 

“The wrist is severely rotated,” she said, clicking her tongue again. Tezuka wished she would stop doing it. He watched, as she hovered down at her leg, and made a conclusion that her thigh muscles were sprained and would take two days to completely heal, and that her knee is almost sprained as well. After that, she observed some of Ringo's other aspects, such as eyes and pulse and the likes.

 

Satisfied, the nurse finally stood straight again before pulling the blanket over Ringo. “Her blood's circulation is fast—it means fatigue. The eye was strained too. That's why she fell asleep.”

 

Tezuka nodded, making a mental note of repeating these words to Ringo once she regain her consciousness. The older woman nodded back, and walked to leave, only pausing before pulling the curtains shut.

 

“And by the way, I should change her clothes,” she informed, looking back at the tall boy. “Getting her uniform is troublesome, so I'll just let her wear the spare uniform here.”

 

“Hai,” Tezuka said at once, making his way to leave. Before he could pass by the nurse, though, she had tapped his back in a motherly sort of way. He looked at her inquiringly.

 

“You're lucky for having such a cute girlfriend,” she said, winking and giggling as she proceeded to a nearby closet to get spare the spare uniform. “And she's lucky to have you.”

 

“Sorry, but she is not my girlfriend,” Tezuka said. He didn't notice that he sounded somewhat indignant when he said that.

 

The nurse found his reaction amusing and said no more.

 

 

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

 

End of Act xi.

 

~>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+>+<+> +<+>+<~

 

 

Author's Note: Here's my Act xi! Whew! It's long…so long that I even doubted if I can finish it…anyway, I hope you enjoyed it so far…thanks for the reviews and please review again (haha)…

 

 

Ja!