Tennis no Ojou-sama: A Prince of Tennis Fan Fiction

CHAPTER 56: The Leader, the Ghost Little Sister and the Text Message

More groups came with their own complaints and made the fuse on Tomoka and Mami's temper run out. Even the nicer ones, Miyako and Sakuno, also had their fill. An finally decided to display a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door, with the approval of all the girls, of course. The boys just had to make do on what was in front of them at the moment. Some of them were asking to be transferred or perhaps change places with someone. Ryouko made a mental note to announce that the cabin arrangements were permanent and there was to be no change.

As the other girls finally found refuge in their sleep, Ryouko did some planning on her computer and when she was done, it was half an hour 'til midnight. She placed one palm on her nape and rotated her neck. She was feeling the fatigue from the trip.

She made herself comfortable on her bed but for some reason, she couldn't drift to sleep no matter how tired she was feeling. "Weird." She thought. She kept on tossing and turning but couldn't find her sleep state.

An groaned on the nearby bed and tossed to her other side. Ryouko stayed deathly quiet. "Tachibana-san might wake up with all this fussing..." She thought.

She finally decided to go on a short walk. It might tire her out more and make her sleep deeply. She was putting on her shoes when a thought hit her. "That guy, I wonder if he's already sleeping." She told herself.

She took her phone out and sent Ryoma a message. 'You still awake?' She wrote.

On the third cabin of Team 3, Ryoma was half-asleep and heard his phone vibrating. He reached out for it lazily. The screen lit up as he opened the phone, casting a ghostly beam of light all over the room. 'You still awake?' Ryouko's message said.

He was typing up his reply when he suddenly remembered that he was still pissed off with her. And so he merely deleted his message and tossed the phone towards the foot of his bed. "Tcch." He said and let himself fall facedown on his pillow.

Ryouko was sitting on one of the chairs around the stone table, one hand holding her phone to her face, an arm hanging lazily on the backrest of the chair and one leg draped over the other. She was waiting for Ryoma's reply. After two minutes had passed fully, she made the conclusion that he was already asleep. "That makes sense. Good children should obey their bedtime. I shouldn't be a bad influence." She said to herself.

She walked out of the cabin garden and onto the spacious grass field. The moon was full and bright and venturing through the night was not a problem. Ryouko stretched her arms over her head as she walked. The night breeze was colder than she thought. "I should've brought a jacket." She thought.

She narrowed her eyes, scanned the surroundings and made out a stone wall at the farthest edge of the field. She walked towards it, a little curious as to what lies behind. It took much longer than she thought. It sure was a very vast field. "Yoisho..." She said as she heaved herself up on the wall's top.

"Hmmm..." She said with a slight smile as she found out what it hid. The extension of the forests could be seen from where the wall stood but the view of the ocean was clearly visible from behind the trees.

Her thoughts were suddenly transported to the surface of the sea, the sound of the sea gulls, the rushing of the waves on the beach, the sun shining brightly ahead. Little did she know that she already had her eyes closed and was drifting towards a dream.

"Oi!" A deep, stern voice interrupted her reverie and her eyes opened wide. She lost her balance and began to fall on her back. Quick as she always was, she hooked her legs on the wall and ended up hanging upside down on it instead.

There was a person standing a few feet from her. "What on earth are you doing over there?" Sanada Genichiro said, looking sternly at the upside-down girl, her long raven black tresses strewn all over her face, the ends almost touching the ground.