The Kunoichi of Tennis (by DaPsionicFox)

Chapter 15- The Nationals: Finals

"Where's Echizen?" Momo asked her.

"He's right here, but..." Ayame was unable to continue as soon as she saw Ryoma.

"Come on! Let's go!" Momo said.

Ayame obeyed and grabbed Ryoma's arm. She went into the helicopter and brought Ryoma with her.

"What's wrong?" Momo asked Ayame when he saw the sorrow in her eyes.

"Ryoma's..." she started, but couldn't continue.

Momo's question was answered when Ryoma failed to recognize anyone.

"What happened to Echizen?!" Momo demanded to Ayame.

"He fell into the river..." was all Ayame could say, as she feared that mentioning the incident would make her start crying.

While they flew back to the arena, they listened to an ongoing play-by-play of Seigaku's match against Rikkaidai. Currently it was Singles 3 with Tezuka against Rikkai's vice-captain Sanada Genichirou, and Tezuka was losing pretty badly. However, Tezuka soon began to counterattack, but Atobe said that he was going to sacrifice his arm one more time.

For God's sake... Ayame thought as she remembered Ryoma telling her about the time Tezuka injured his arm and had to go to rehabilitation. Couldn't he have played right-handed instead of killing his dominant arm just like that? He even played against Ryoma right-handed and beat him...

It took the entire Singles 3 match for the group to get back to the arena, where Ayame finds that Tezuka lost. She didn't have time to worry about it, as her concern was more on Ryoma than anything else. As she expected, the Seigaku team reacted with horror when they found out about Ryoma's amnesia. They decided to have Ryoma watch the Doubles 2 match and hope that he would regain his lost memories.

Ayame hoped that it would work. She watched the game as it was Inui and Kaidoh against Kirihara Akaya and Yanagi Renji. As the game went on, she noticed that it wasn't working.

Ayame then recalled something that Ryoma said. He had told her that once Kaidoh had amnesia, and they managed to help get his memories back when he played a doubles match against him and Fuji Yuuta while being partnered with Momo. However, after that, they had to deal with Momo losing his memories as well.

Watching a match must be very different from playing one... Ayame thought as she watched the doubles game in front of her.

She remembered Nanjiroh telling her that he introduced tennis to Ryoma when he was only two.

It might be better if I forced him to play a match with me... she thought. If this keeps up, he won't make it by the time Singles 1 begins... There's no other choice.

"Oi, Ryoma!" she called to him. "You're coming with me!"

"Where are you going with Echizen?" Tezuka asked her.

"I'm going to force him down memory lane!" she answered in a fierce tone, determined to bring back the Ryoma she knew.

Ayame dragged Ryoma outside of the arena and to one of the tennis courts nearby. She took out his racket and gave it to him while taking out hers. She forced him to stand at the baseline as she went to the other side. She immediately began serving.

I don't care if you're afraid of the balls, she thought as she saw Ryoma bracing himself. I'll keep hitting balls at you until you can at least do a decent rally with me.

Ayame didn't relent as she kept serving. Ryoma, believing that she was going to hit him, braced himself as the balls bounced harmlessly past him. Pretty soon, the other side of the court had balls lying everywhere. Ayame soon stopped.