A.N.: This fic is a THREESHOT, serving as a SEQUEL to ATTACK ON OCHIBI-CHAN!, so please read that first, it's only a ONESHOT.

Second warning: I have totally twisted stuff here, meaning this is a somewhat DARK storyline, even if it is only a THREESHOT!

This first shot/chapter is in Katou's POV!!! Since the oneshot was in Horio's POV, I decided to do this one with the others', meaning Katsuo's, Katou's and Ryouma-sama's POVs, not necessarily in that order...

"In case you don't remember (I always have to check again and again), Mizuno Katsuo is the almost bald 1st year, Kachirou Katou is the one that has the hair shaped like a bowl and whose father is an instructor at a tennis club. If you don't know who Satoshi Horio is, you are in serious need of watching/reading "Tenisu no Ouji-sama" (Prince of Tennis) again. Finally, if you don't know who Echizen Ryouma is, then please go to a psychologist because you are in serious need of a mental check-up! ;p"

Disclaimer: If you don't know what this word is, look up a dictionary or something...

All I own is this fanfiction and its plot, whether it's good or horrible is up to each reader's discernment, but it's still mine, so please don't take it without noticing me and getting my approval first!

Title: WATCH OVER OCHIBI-CHAN!

By Syaoran-Lover

1st SERVICE – TOUCHED THE NET: PRESENT SURPRISE

If there's one thing you shouldn't trust about doctors it's when they make an estimate of how long it's going to take for something to happen or finish. It's not like they do it on purpose, but there's just no accuracy on their 'foretelling'... and that's that!

Why am I saying this? Well, there's one good reason: the doctors that examined Ryouma-kun said he should have been cured in two months at most, but it's been almost four and still his wrists are far from healing...

And, in fact, we're all worried about him, as it seems that more and more he spaces out in classes and barely pays attention, not that his grades have lowered or anything, he must have one huge memory when it comes to school facts, but it seems like he has lost all will do to anything without being able to play tennis. When he's walking through the school, Ryouma-kun seems like a zombie lately, no interest where he's going or where he's been, as long as he gets somewhere...

Pretty scary...

Even worse, because we were that worried about him, we decided to follow Ryouma-kun and were quite surprised to see that on his way back home alone, he ran into almost every lamppost on the way, or at least half of them... whichever one, however, that is still a lot, especially for someone who used to always be so aware of his whereabouts. He seems more like Ryuuzaki-san...

Two months later, the situation trespassed all levels of scary... Ryouma-kun seemed to be limping and sleeping all the time, even in tests! So, of course, his grades went down... and those good marks were the last thing he still had in common with the way he was before the incident, so we freaked out beyond imagination...

At this point, when we hadn't seen Momo-chan-senpai for some time, except on the Tennis Club Activities, we decided the best we could do for our classmate was tell them. They were our senpais, and we thought it awfully wrong that they just forget about Ryouma-kun that fast when he had helped win so many important matches...

In fact, Katsuo-kun, Horio-kun and I are heading straight to the tennis clubroom right now...

Our entrance was quite funny, at least Kikumaru-senpai seemed to think so, as all three of us came bustling in the locker room shouting a different name and got stuck in the door as we tried to get in and explain.

"Buchou!" Was whom I called for.

"Oishi-senpai!" Was Horio-kun's shout.

And Katsuo-kun, "Momo-chan-senpai!" Was whom he tried.

Thank our lucky stars all of the Seigaku members were there, and relief filled us when we noticed that there wasn't an eighth member in Ryouma-kun's place yet... they were still waiting for him.

"Senpais, there's something really weird going on! Ryouma-kun, Ryouma-kun has..." I started saying, but really, with Horio-kun and Katuso-kun on top of me, it was really hard to say anything at all! So first, we disentangled ourselves with a little help from Oishi-senpai, under Kikumaru-senpai's hard laughters, and then I, as I was the first one helped out of the mess, started speaking first. "There's something so wrong with Ryouma-kun! He seems so out of himself... it's like he's not even himself anymore!"

"What?" Momo-chan-senpai asked, his eyebrow lifting in confusion, his question reflecting all the senpai's too, or most of theirs, as Kaidou-senpai had his eyes closed but was clearly listening interestedly and Tezuka-buchou had his usual unreadable expression.

"You really haven't seen him?" Katsuo-kun asked the senpais in general, a bit of surprise in his, Horio-kun's and my faces. Honestly we thought they did visit him once in a while, but it seemed they completely forgot the youngest member of the team...

"No, actually," Momo-chan-senpai started phrasing, his arm going to the back of his head in a clear expression of embarrassment.

Oishi-senpai stepped in for him, "Actually, we had a meeting and came to the conclusion that Echizen probably would feel better if we didn't keep around him, he's not much of a social person and all."

"And he probably feels bad enough not being able to play tennis at all," Kikumaru-senpai complemented.

"He'd feel weak," were the only words to come out of Kaidou-senpai's mouth, though he never even lifted his head or opened his eyes.

And at this point, I think Fuji-senpai's curiosity got the better of him. "What exactly is wrong with Echizen-kun?" He asked us, and though there was still a trace of his usual smile, it was clearly surrounded by concern too...

"Weird, since when did it become so easy for me to read people?" I ask myself, but these thoughts were interrupted by Horio-kun's answer to the prodigy's inquiry.

"Well," he started and we spent the rest of that period telling them what we had observed for the last six months.

"And you know what's even scarier? Absolutely NO sarcastic comments! Echizen that quiet can't be something good!" Horio-kun finished.

"Definitely. You three, keep a close watch on him, tell us if something happens. For the moment, there's nothing better than observing. It might be nothing, but it's best we don't take chances," Tezuka-buchou instructed.

We nodded, and no one said anything else...

About three days later, we were surprised when Ryouma-kun walked in the room. He didn't seem that much different, but he seemed like he was zoned out, as if thinking very hard about something, though still a bit aware of where he was going. What freaked us out though, was that when he got to his desk, Ryouma-kun's movements were enough to raise his sleeves a bit, and although no one else saw them, Horio-kun, Katsuo-kun and I clearly did: on Ryouma-kun's wrists were newly wrapped gauze, with a taint shade of pink on them which seemed to reach beyond his elbow...

Our simultaneous gasps brought the classroom's attention to the three of us, but thankfully Katsuo-kun came up with a fair enough excuse. "Oh, no! We forgot to rent the books at the library yesterday!!! I'll go get them!" He said, his act convincing even me, to the point I had to slap myself mentally to realize it was just a cover-up... really, his acting was good!

When things settled down a bit, both Horio-kun and I looked at each other and realized that this wasn't the best time to ask Ryouma-kun anything, so we settled for just observing him until break time arrived.

Of course, during the next three periods, our 1st-year tennis prodigy started, as he had been for weeks now, snapping off and going to his own world... weirdest thing was the teachers either didn't notice or gave up trying to bring him back...

We never got the chance to ask him anything... not for a whole week. Whenever we tried to approach him, Ryouma-kun just never seemed to be able to get on the same planet we are... talking to someone who's not listening is really just a pointless waste of time, so we let that pass...

That is, until he came with a large red mark on his face a few days later... and that's when we decided not to hold ourselves back anymore. Something very weird and definitely dangerous was going on with Ryouma-kun and if we didn't find out what it was, if we didn't help him soon enough, we may regret the consequences later.

So, when he went to the restroom during break time that day, I followed him a minute later, so as not to arouse many suspicions...

Of course, I never expected to find Ryouma-kun with a razor blade in his hands...

A razor blade from which dripped a red liquid...

I froze, totally paralyzed at the sight before me.

Ryouma-kun's gaze slowly rose from the blade in his hand to meet my mine, and I let out a gasp.

His eyes, which usually shined with malice and sarcasm, they were... totally glazed over...

Totally lifeless...

END of 1st SERVICE – TOUCHED THE NET: PRESENT SURPRISE

A.N.: There, I told you I was going to twist the story completely, and watch – uh, read – it gets worse!

If you didn't understand the chapter title, I'm referring to the services of a point. Usually, the server gets two tries before the point is decided (either by an ace or by scoring); but if the ball (on either service) touches the net and still gets to its target (the opponent's respective small court), it's not a point, but the said server gets to try again. This can go on until the ball either fails to hit the correct side of the other court or gets caught on the net. The reference to that is that the second chapter is the same as this one, thus it's the second try of the first service, except this time it will be on Ryouma-sama's POV.

Syaoran-Lover aka KaiLi signing out!