The Kunoichi of Tennis (by DaPsionicFox)

Chapter 28- Ryoma's Missing Bag

Chapter 28: Ryoma's Missing Bag

Ryoma slowly opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the sunlight. He held his hand over his head for shade as his vision slowly slid into focus and adjusted to the light. He had been napping under a tree near a park with his cap over his face, but it had been blown off sometime while he was sleeping.

"Nice one!" he heard somebody say.

Ryoma dizzily sat up and looked over to see a group of kids playing kickball, and Ayame was among the group. Ayame had never played kickball before, and she had wanted to join in to see what it was like. The kids were kind enough to tell her how to play, and her team was winning by a lot.

Ryoma watched as Ayame's team won mostly because of her.

"Dang! You said this was your first time playing kickball, and you're really good!" a boy said to Ayame.

"You run really fast and you send the ball flying every time you kick," another boy said. "You'd be a really good kickball player!"

"Thanks for the compliments, but I play tennis," Ayame said, silently glad that she met the Echizens.

Ayame looked over to see that Ryoma was finally awake.

"Ah, my jerk of a best friend is finally awake," she said. "I was gonna play a match with him."

"That boy who was sleeping over there is your best friend?" a kid asked her.

"Yeah," she replied. "His name's Ryoma Echizen. Don't judge. It's a Japanese name."

"Wait, you don't mean the Ryoma Echizen who won four straight tennis tournaments here?!" one of the boys said, shocked.

"Yep, that's him," Ayame said casually. "If you know Ryoma, then you may or may not know his best friend, Ayame Kanna."

"Wait, YOU'RE Ayame Kanna?!" one of the girls asked.

"Yep, Ryoma Echizen's best friend Ayame Kanna," Ayame answered.

Ayame walked over to Ryoma as the other kids stared at her.

"Oi, Ryoma," she said. "Let's play a match."

"Fine," Ryoma answered and turned to grab his tennis bag, only to see that it wasn't where he left it.

"What's wrong?" Ayame asked as Ryoma kept looking around. "Did you leave it at the hotel?"

"No, it was right here before I took a nap," Ryoma answered as he picked up his cap and put it on his head. "But it's gone."

"You don't think that somebody stole it, do you?" Ayame asked.

Ryoma froze. If somebody did steal his tennis bag, that would be terrible. Inside were his three rackets, rice crackers, Gameboy Advance, planner, Doubles for Beginners book (not that it was important anymore), pen case, photos of Karupin (just thinking about not being able to see the face of his beloved cat made him feel depressed), and some cash that he used to buy groceries and energy drinks.

"Did you see somebody take it?" Ryoma asked Ayame.

"No," Ayame answered. "I didn't keep watch when I was playing kickball... Hey, you still have your cell phone, right?"

"Yes. It's right here in my pocket."

"Good. Go around and see if you can find somebody with your bag. If you see the crook, gimme a call and I'll beat the crap outta them. I wanna do it before we call the police."