𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔓𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢'𝔰 𝔓𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢𝔰𝔰 [Ryoma X OC]

Chapter 17

"I'm Inoue and this is my assistant Shiba, we want to interview you and the team," a guy said, a little more eager than necessary. He tried to shake Yuri's hand, but she moved out of the way, resulting in Inoue falling onto the floor.

"I'm sorry, I don't do well with skinship," Yuri lied. She didn't want to tell him that he's annoying, I mean, who would? Inoue got up, and smiled, shaking his head.

"No it's completely fine. I'll go interview another person then..." Inoue beamed, walking away with Shiba, his assistant, following him.

Yuri sighed, going over to Inui who had her training menu. "What's my training menu for today?" Yuri asked, slightly startling Inui.

"Here," He said, passing her a few stapled papers. She nodded, taking the papers with her.

She went to the side of the courts that were closer to where Ryoma was practicing. She was swinging her racquet when she noticed a person in black. She didn't think much of it until they took out a match.

The person lit the match, throwing it to the floor and the court went up in flames. Yuri had a hard time breathing, so she passed out. Ryoma on the other hand was conscious and noticed Yuri who was passed out on the side. He ran to her, picking her limp body up from the floor. Knowing that the others weren't aware of the situation, he yelled for help.

Tezuka heard the yelling and he turned to see one of the courts on fire. Not to mention, he saw Yuri and Ryoma surrounded by fire. Tezuka pulled the other regulars with him and ordered them to do certain things. Sadly, Taka also passed out, but Fuji watched over him. Oishi called the ambulance, Tezuka ran in to get the 2 freshmen out, and the others were trying to save their equipment.

Luckily, Tezuka got there in time and saved Ryoma and Yuri from the fire that got bigger once they left the court. Ryoma placed Yuri on the stretcher once the medics came. He was allowed to go with her, holding her hand as they kept her stable.

"I will find out why that happened... I'll keep you safe from now on..." Ryoma whispered. He squeezed her hand, feeling the assurance that he wanted to have from her.

When they got to the hospital, Kazuto and Asuna were arriving. When Asuna got to the hospital, they were passing by with Yuri to a hospital room. Seeing Yuri on the stretcher brought back the bad memories of when she was stuck in SAO, but also the time that she almost was raped in ALO. It brought her to tears, but Oishi and Momo tried to help get rid of her tears since Kazuto was talking with Tezuka about what happened.

"It seems as if someone tried to do it on purpose," Kazuto trailed off. He didn't expect an answer back, but Ryoma answered him.

"It was on purpose..." He bluntly stated. Tezuka and Kazuto's attention turned to the small freshman who stood in front of them, his head hung low, and barely visible tears were flowing from his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Tezuka asked. Ryoma looked up, showing his face that was covered in ash.

"I saw it. A black figure... He lit a match and... He must have soaked the court in gasoline because it quickly spread in splattered lines, as if it was trailed around in a certain way... They looked as if they were happy with their work, but once I yelled for help... They left," Ryoma explained, his voice cracking a bit as he spoke.

Kazuto seemed to have an idea of who it might be, but he wasn't sure. "Could it be?" Kazuto trailed off.

"What's wrong?" Tezuka asked, turning his head to look at the now thoughtful Kazuto.

"It's just that... in the states, Yuri was bullied like I previously mentioned, but they were only doing it because they were jealous. I'm wondering if one of those girls came here just to do that, but then it wouldn't make sense," Kazuto started.

"Why doesn't it make sense though?" Ryoma asked.

"Because..." Kazuto started, looking up at Ryoma in the eyes, "Yuri made sure that they would have found no trace of where we went when we left..."

This revelation wasn't surprising, but the fact that it wasn't someone who was trying to go after Yuri was hardly believable to them. Yuri was being targeted by Tomoka so far, so it wasn't hard to agree that it was Yuri that was being attacked/targeted.

A few hours later, a nurse came out from the room Yuri was placed in...

"How is she doc?" Oishi asked. The nurse gave a sad smile.

"She's fine, just that she inhaled too much smoke. That's what caused her to pass out. Luckily, the gas wasn't poisonous or anything so she'll be awake in a few minutes..." The nurse said as she walked away.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Kazuto and Ryoma saw her first, saying a few things before the others went to see her. After they finished visiting, the team agreed that one person would watch over Yuri at all times. So for the time being since she was still in the hospital, not being able to be discharged for a few days, when it was practice time, either Kazuto or Asuna would watch her, when it would be that either of the 2 were busy, the regulars took turns watching her.

Tezuka noticed something though, a person would follow them, well more so it would be that Ryoma would be followed. Ryoma seemed to notice, because he would be looking back every so often.

Tezuka and the others brought it up, and Ryoma told them about it. Then Kazuto called....

"Yes?... Huh?... Okay... sure... Here," Tezuka answered, he then put Kazuto onto speakerphone.

"am I on speaker now?" Kazuto asked. Tezuka said a simple 'yes' before Kazuto sighed.

"I think there's a problem with this situation. We've been watching over the wrong person. Ryoma... the person in black is after you...."