"Oiiiiiiiiiii!" a 6-year old Ayame called out.
"You're early, Ay-chan!" a boy's voice called back. "Chibisuke hasn't finished helping with chores yet!"
A boy slightly older than her stepped into view.
"Oh..." Ayame said. "That's too bad... Guess we gotta wait for Ryoma."
"Ryoga!" a familiar voice called. "I need to talk to you and only you!"
Giving him a knowing look, Ayame stayed where she was. Ryoga disappeared into the Echizen house. She waited patiently, and soon a boy about her age came out of the house.
"Oh! Ayame!" the boy called out. "Where's Nii-chan?"
"Your dad's talking with him right now, Ryoma," Ayame replied. "When he's done, we can go play with him!"
Ayame and Ryoma waited until Ryoga came back out. Ryoma was very eager to start playing, but Ayame noticed that Ryoga wasn't very enthusiastic this time around.
"Ay-chan... I want to tell you something..." Ryoga said. "Chibisuke, do you mind if you go on ahead? We'll come join you shortly."
Ryoma agreed and ran off.
"Ay-chan..." Ryoga started with uncertainty. "Please don't tell Chibisuke about this. And please don't be angry. Dad just told me that I have to move into my aunt's house."
Ayame went numb at his words. She felt a mix of intense emotions.
"Nande...?" she said as tears filled her eyes.
She slowly stepped up to Ryoga.
"NANDE?!" she cried as she slapped Ryoga with all the strength she could muster as tears rolled down her face. "Why do you have to go?! Why are you leaving me and Ryoma?!"
Ryoga, shocked that Ayame went violent on him, stared back up at her. He saw her glaring at him while crying. He knew that she was feeling hurt, shocked, sad, and angry all at the same time. Ayame looked ready to slap him again, but she suddenly hesitated.
"I... I..." Ayame stammered as she struggled to get the words out. "I'm sorry..."
She ran away from Ryoga.
"Nande?!" she shouted.
Ayame sat up as she took in her surroundings. She's in her room. She's in Japan. She's not in America. She's not at the Echizen household.
'I was dreaming...' she thought as she got out of bed. 'Why, Ryoga? Why is your past self , haunting me?'
Ayame got dressed and got ready for school. Ever since she came back to Japan, she's been having dreams about the past and found herself screaming when she was waking up.
'It's because he could only speak Japanese and that I've been seeing Ryoma,' she thought to herself. 'Wish I'm good at forgetting things just like Ryoma. Then I wouldn't have to go through this.'
Ayame started running to school. She mentally went down a list of things to do before school.
'Tennis bag with everything packed in it, check,' she thought. 'Seigaku uniform worn over my sports clothes, check. Dragging Ryoma out of bed, not done yet. Gotta go do that.'
She ran down the neighborhood and stopped at the Echizen household. Ryoma's cousin Nanako allowed her into the house, and she immediately started running up the stairs. She kicked Ryoma's bedroom door open.
"Oi, Ryoma!" she hollered at her sleeping friend. "Get up already!"
Her hollering had managed to wake up the family cat Karupin, but it failed on Ryoma.
"Five more minutes..." Ryoma muttered.
"Get up or I'm making you drink Inui Juice whether you like it or not!" Ayame yelled.
At the mention of "Inui Juice", Ryoma's eyes popped open, and he looked startled. He then saw Ayame standing at his doorway.
"Actually, last one to make it to school has to drink Inui Juice!" Ayame shouted as she turned around and bolted down the staircase.
She ran to school and settled for class.
'Dragging Ryoma out of bed, check,' her thoughts continued to run. 'Get to school on time, check. The notes notebook ready to go, check. At least that thing gives me an opportunity to review what I forgot...'
Ayame takes almost all of the same classes as Ryoma (save for English and tennis). She knows that Ryoma has a notorious habit of sleeping in class, and she had been taking notes in class to give to Ryoma in case if he missed anything. Not that she minded or anything, despite the fact that it makes it look like that Ryoma is making her take notes and he could just sit back and snooze in class. She made high marks in her classes and she wouldn't let her old friend down.
Classes dragged on like they usually did. Lunch break went on just like every school day – Ayame meeting up with Ryoma and eating lunch with him (though sometimes she finds him sleeping on the rooftop). The end of school went like it usually did – Ayame going to the tennis courts to watch the boys' tennis practice.
She arrived at the court. As she watched the balls fly over the nets, she remembered something that Ryoma asked her.
"Ayame," he had said. "Why didn't you join the girls' tennis team?"
"If I did, I'd easily defeat them," Ayame had replied. "The girls' tennis team isn't as serious as boys'. I'll just end up going to tournaments and easily winning all my games. I know I'm not a boy, but ya'll's tennis is very interesting. So, I'd rather be in the sidelines watching you boys play rather than joining the girls' team."
As Ayame watched Ryoma rally on the court, it kept reminding her of Ryoga...
"You haven't told Ryoma yet?" Ayame asked.
"No," Ryoga replied.
Ayame remembered snapping at Ryoga when she found out that he was forced to live at his aunt's. She had felt regretful about her actions and tried not to let her emotions get in her way again.
"You can't hide it from him forever," she went on. "Either way, you're gonna have to tell him."
"I know, Ay-chan, I know!" Ryoga said in frustration.
"Sorry," she said.
The door opened, and Nanjiroh was there.
"Ryoga, are you ready?" he asked.
"Wait!" he said. "I need to see Chibisuke! Ay-chan, you come too!"
Ayame watched as Ryoga grabbed a marker and started writing on an orange. He eventually went outside with the orange, and she followed him to where Ryoma was.
"Chibisuke!" Ryoga said. "I'll have a serious match with you if you can catch this orange!"
Ayame looked at the orange and noticed that Ryoga had written something on it. She wasn't able to read it clearly, but she read something along the lines of "get stronger" and "we'll play each other someday". After glimpsing a bit of the writing, she knew that this was Ryoga's way of saying goodbye.
She watched as Ryoga tossed the orange into the sea and Ryoma excitedly jumped in and swam after the orange. She heard the sounds of a car behind her and looked, realizing that it was the escort. Not knowing what to do, she looked at Ryoga, then to Ryoma.
It won't be long before he'll leave us, she thought.
She didn't want to see how Ryoma would react once he found out the truth. Ryoga gave her a sad look. She heard Ryoma exclaim that he caught the orange, as she looked at him. Ryoma immediately noticed that something was wrong as he saw that Ryoga and Ayame looked down. Ryoga then turned around and went to the car.
"Nii-chan, why are you getting in that car?!" Ryoma cried in shock.
"It's been fun, Chibisuke..." Ryoga said.
Ayame stared at Ryoga, trying to take in her last moments with him.
"Ay-chan!" he called to her. "Look after Chibisuke for me!"
Even with her unchanging sorrowful look, she nodded at Ryoga. The car drove off. Ayame instantly heard Ryoma's desperate cries of "Nii-chan", which tore at her heart, and she refused to look at Ryoma. Fighting back the tears, she wished that Ryoma would stop shouting. The car disappeared down the road.
"Farewell... Ryoga..." she said, not taking her eyes off of where the car disappeared.
She was unable to speak anymore and heard nothing except for the waves and Ryoma's crying.
It was something Ayame couldn't forget, even if she wanted to. She had spent all that time having fun with the Echizen boys, and one of them just went and disappeared.
'Remembering all this, Ryoma seemed really different than how he was back then,' she thought.
She hung around the tennis courts and joined Ryoma and Momo for burgers... this time, Kikumaru was coming. Ayame wasted no time to point out that Kikumaru had to pay.
They eventually made it to the burger store and settled down at a table. The four conversed as they ate burgers.
"Ayame-chan, how long have you known ochibi?" Kikumaru asked Ayame.
"Seven years," she replied. "We were friends since we were five."
"Tell me what you and ochibi did together!" Kikumaru said.
"Well..." Ayame hesitated, as talking about the past kept reminding her about Ryoga, and she didn't want to think about him. "We played tennis together, stole oranges from the neighbor, and celebrated holidays together..."
At the mention of a few things he did with her, Ryoma couldn't remember anything except for the playing tennis part.
'Did we really steal oranges together?' he wondered.
Ayame remembered when she would go with Ryoma and Ryoga to steal oranges from the neighbor. When they were discovered, she would pretend that she fell off the orange tree and acted like as if she broke her leg. While the neighbor was distracted, Ryoma and Ryoga would run off with the oranges, and then when she bought enough time, she escaped by using Ninja Dash (it was her very first move she developed, so she was already able to use it).
"Oi, Kikumaru-senpai," Ayame started. "Ryoma told me that you're an acrobatic player. I think I might want to play you in a match to see if they can match up to my ninja movements."
Kikumaru was confused by what she meant.
"Ayame was known as "kunoichi" back in America," Ryoma explained. "She can move like a ninja."
"She uses that in tennis, right?" Momo asked. "Then who's better? You or her?"
"We never played a serious match," Ayame said. "I don't know if Ryoma's better than me or not. I heard that he's been improving a lot from the time he moved here, so we can't tell for sure."
Even though she said that, Ayame knew that if she were to play a match with Ryoma, she would lose. Ryoma knows that despite the fact that she has great speed to catch up with every ball and the stamina to last her an entire set for it, her only weakness is her lack of power, and it's enough for her to fall.
"Then you should play a match with ochibi to settle it, Ay-chan!" Kikumaru said.
Ayame completely lost it. She stood up from her seat so quickly that she banged her knee under the table.
"Ow!" she exclaimed.
She ran out of the burger store. The other three boys stared in stunned silence.
"What's with her?" Momo asked.
"I don't know," Ryoma said. "She's never acted like that before."
Ayame kept running down the street, trying to fight her emotions about Ryoga. To be called "Ay-chan" after all those years was too painful. She vented her frustration by running.
It was a long while before Ayame stopped. She then turned around and went back, but this time she ran into Kikumaru.
"Ayame-chan!" he said in surprise.
"Kikumaru-senpai..." Ayame said as she recognized him. "I'm sorry about earlier. But please, don't call me "Ay-chan"..."
"Is there a reason?"
"Yeah. A pretty big reason, actually. Just please do me a favor and don't tell Ryoma about what I'm about to say."
"OK!"
"Listen... back then, Ryoma used to have an aniki."
"Ochibi had an aniki?!"
"Well, a half-brother is more like it."
"Did something happen to him?"
"Not really. Well, back then, I used to play with him and Ryoma. Ryoma was really close to him, too. But one day he had to move to his aunt's house. Ryoma took it really hard. His aniki used to call me "Ay-chan". It's just that when you called me that, it reminded me of when he left me and Ryoma, and I didn't wanna deal with it. So please, don't tell Ryoma anything I said and don't call me "Ay-chan" again. Okay?"
"Oh... I get it. OK, I won't tell ochibi anything, and I won't call you "Ay-chan". But what was the name of ochibi's aniki?"
"Echizen Ryoga."
With that, Ayame turned around and headed home, leaving Kikumaru standing there stunned. All along his freshman teammate had an older brother and he never mentioned?
"I doubt he still remembers Ryoga!" Ayame suddenly called back. "If that's the case, then mentioning him might remind him! That's why I don't want you to tell him!"
From then on, it was taboo to call Ayame "Ay-chan"... though Ryoma never found out why.