Tezuka Kunimitsu was going to make Kaidoh run 500 laps when they were done with this ridiculous challenge.
No, scratch that. Knowing Kaidoh, the boy would probably take it as a training exercise and actually do it. If there was one thing Kaidoh possessed, it was determination.
Tezuka was going to tie him to a chair for a month to prevent him from training. It might lead to some deterioration in his skills, but at least there were no upcoming tournaments. If nothing else, any decrease in his abilities might actually help the team. If it hadn't been for Kaidoh's ridiculous dedication to his training, this situation would never have happened in the first place.
The widely respected captain of the Seigaku's boys' tennis team ignored the fact that he had given Inui permission to find the limits of Kaidoh's endurance in the first place.
Kaidoh had been running on Saturday. He still had about ten miles to cover and various stretches and exercises to go through before being finished for the day.
He was also being followed around by a blond pretty boy.
"Fssh," Kaidoh hissed menacingly.
"You're beautiful. All that power, all that strength…" Kisaragi trailed off, looking adoringly at Kaidoh.
"Fssssh," Kaidoh hissed in an embarrassed manner, eyes widening and the faintest of blushes going over his cheeks.
"Please, I beg of you. Won't you…" Kisaragi ducked his head shyly. Blue eyes, almost as dazzling as Fuji's, looked up demurely from under long, long lashes.
Kaidoh didn't hiss this time, frantically trying to determine his sexual orientation and think of a kind way to reject the stranger's confession at the same time.
"I know my pathetic, frail body doesn't appeal to someone like you, with such an exquisite, strong body, but I swear I will do my best to change! And everyone else will too!"
Kaidoh's brain promptly exploded, as he gave a traumatized hiss.
"So please, join the football team!"
If ever Kaidoh had wanted to brain himself with his own tennis racket, this would be the perfect time to do it. So he raised his racket, and prepared to hit himself with it.
The pretty boy reached out and entwined his own arm with Kaidoh's, taking the racket from him in one smooth motion. This action caused his face to come perilously close to that of Kaidoh's.
Kaidoh fainted. Probably for the best.
And the next day, Seigaku's captain brooded, Kisaragi had actually brought his entire team to ask for Kaidoh as a quarterback. Something about how his snake-shots, especially boomerang snake, were perfect for getting the ball around the defense to a receiver.
Never mind the fact that Kaidoh wasn't even in high school and had no interest, as far as anyone knew, in football. He wasn't even going to the same high school.
And somehow, this had led to the Hakushuu Dinosaurs challenging Seigaku's tennis team to a match to determine who would win the prize, Kaidoh Kaoru.
In football, at that.
Therefore, it really was all Kaidoh's fault.
Even while pondering punishments, the captain's expression never wavered from being simultaneously forbidding and expressionless.
Not even when a wall crumbled in the hands of one of the opposing team's players. Gaou Rikiya, Tezuka believed his name was. Even Ryoma had remembered the name of someone so… large… when first meeting him.
"Oh, this is Gaou. He's the ace of our team, I'd say," the man who had introduced himself as Marco said, smiling nervously.
Incidentally, he wore his jacket in a style ordinarily associated, by Tezuka at least, with Yukimura Seiichi. Except Yukimura wasn't a mafia boss. Probably.
"Weaklings," Gaou rumbled while looming in front of Seigaku's power player, who was looking anything but powerful at the moment.
"Che. Wanna test us?" their resident baby prince taunted arrogantly, giving his best cocky smirk, guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of whoever it was directed at. Never mind the efforts of everyone else on his team to keep him out of trouble, for once.
"Echizen-kun…" Oishi's hands fluttered nervously and ineffectively. Tezuka chose not to speak at all, even as Gaou's smile got somewhat… bloodthirsty.
Ryoma had always been short. Next to Gaou, he wasn't just short, he looked like a midget. A really cocky, arrogant midget. It would probably take only one finger from Gaou to squash him.
"David and Goliath…" Fuji murmured next to the captain, sounding more interested than concerned. Whatever that meant. Sadist.
Ryoma stared at Gaou, somehow managing to inject an incredible amount of smug self-confidence into his body language without moving a muscle. I can kill you with this tennis racket.
Gaou came closer.
And closer.
And closer.
"You have strong eyes, kid," Gaou finally said, his own eyes shining gleefully. Ryoma smirked back.
Oishi fainted. This may have been more due to the fact that Eiji had been clinging to him nervously for several minutes than unconsciousness due to over-worrying.
Gaou was definitely… large, Tezuka concluded. Very strong. And utterly terrifying when facing him as the boy (man, anyone who saw him would believe) tore through another wall.
His tattoos were rather nice, though. Very barbaric.
Tezuka forced himself to ignore Gaou's somewhat (make that extremely) effeminate teammate, Kisaragi, cooing over the play of Gaou's muscles under his skin as he stretched, the way his biceps bulged as he shoved his way through a brick wall, the way sweat dripped down his neck and chest then farther down still –
No. Tezuka refused to follow that imagery any further. Kisaragi was only expressing his appreciation for his teammate's power, that's all. The way Kisaragi practically sparkled when looking at Gaou meant nothing.
Those sparkles were clearly a figment of Tezuka's imagination. Really.
Getting back to the situation at hand, it appeared as though Gaou was serious about enlarging the tennis courts in order to create a football field. Seigaku had never been a large school in the first place, and the only area Gaou could expand into was the school building itself.
The team had objected, of course, but no one really wanted to get on Gaou's bad side.
"With my two years of tennis experience, I can tell you that any modification to the courts is NOT permissible for official matches," some duck-like freshman Tezuka vaguely remembered pronounced loudly.
Gaou didn't even pause as he shoved through the equipment room, rubble landing everywhere.
Marco shrugged helplessly, carefully not looking at any of the Seigaku regulars while the short-haired female manager next to him fumed.
"Come on, everyone. Can't we settle this somewhere else? Peacefully?" Oishi desperately pleaded. Tezuka made sure not to look at him. Even he wasn't sure if he wanted to face Gaou. What high-school student looked like that, anyway?
"Coward," Ryoma muttered softly towards Tezuka's direction. What a brat.
Tezuka frowned slightly more then signaled to Inui. Desperate times called for desperate measures, after all.
Inui sidled up to Gaou cautiously, carrying a cup of – something Tezuka did not want to even contemplate. The something in the cup bubbled maliciously, if that was at all possible.
"Here's a nutritious health drink, Gaou-san," Inui said, pushing up his glasses in a decidedly creepy manner.
The person with the long nose yelled out, "Watch out, I think he's trying to poison you," before being shut up via a slam-dunked tennis ball to his nose.
Gaou grunted and downed the drink of something in one gulp.
Everyone watching looked on in horrified fascination, though Fuji's expression was slightly wistful as he looked at the now-empty cup.
"Tastes good," Gaou said before completely destroying the fence instead of simply pushing through it.
Accusing glares were immediately directed at Inui. Tezuka would have made Inui run laps, if only there was still a court to run around.
Having cleared the rubble away and organized the clear space necessary for a football field, Gaou took his place in the center of his team's line-up.
Tezuka had read about the basic rules of football the night before, so he was somewhat prepared to assign his players their places, though he had to borrow Ryuuzaki-sensei, the loud-mouthed freshman, and some other non-regulars to complete their team.
This was such a mess.
Their team started playing offense, so Eiji was running back, Fuji played quarterback, and Kaidoh and Inui were the receivers. Oishi stayed on the end. Tezuka, Kawamura, and Momo tried to look intimidating in the front, leaving Ryoma at the center to face Gaou.
No, Ryoma's assignment had nothing to do with the fact that he called Tezuka a coward. Tezuka wasn't that petty. Honestly.
Before starting, Fuji pressed a tennis racket into Kawamura's hand.
"Is that… allowed?" a player asked faintly while watching Kawamura slash the racket through the air, coming frighteningly close to an opposing player's nose. The nose had already been hit once, if Tezuka remembered correctly.
Gaou and Kisaragi both stared at the power player screaming battle cries in some weird language at them, one with disturbing interest and the other with increasing infatuation. Which was more disturbing, in a way.
Kawamura, not to be ignored, seized a tennis ball and served. Straight at Gaou.
It bounced off Gaou's forehead with no visible harm. Gaou's expression, on the other hand, looked just like that of a little child. That is, an overgrown child who could tear an adult's limbs apart with no effort whatsoever.
Gaou started for Kawamura, ignoring Marco's frantic cries completely.
Ryoma served a samurai drive, managing to put a slight dent into Gaou's uniform and causing him to pause.
Then he turned towards Echizen.
Who grinned, mouthing "mada mada dane," and served again.
Tezuka resisted the urge to cry as Eiji leapt onto Gaou's head and back-flipped off, Kawamura whacked people with Hadoukyuu, Ryoma started glowing weird colors, and Momo broke Kisaragi's collarbone.
It was chaos on the tennis courts. Though to be fair, this made it no different from any other day.
Kisaragi, for the record, looked ecstatic, broken collarbone notwithstanding.
Oishi cried.
Kaidoh had already run away the moment no one was looking at him.
And Fuji smiled, opening his eyes a crack.
Everyone stopped fighting and immediately started cleaning up the field. Ah, the wonders of Fuji's eyes.
The Hakushuu Dinosaurs left for the day, promising to return so they could recruit future players. At this moment in time, the players they wanted included not only Kaidoh, but also Echizen, Kawamura, Momo, Eiji, and most especially Fuji. Maybe Inui, too, as an incentive to work harder.
Tezuka was not feeling insulted that they had not mentioned him as a potential football player. Of course not. Football was for muscle-bound morons, anyway.
"Nya, buchou! Hakushuu's team is called the Dinosaurs, right? Let's rename our team the Seigaku Kittens! Nya!"
"1000 laps!"
Meanwhile, a somewhat bald middle-school boy circled his eye with his fingers as he watched an adorable spiky-haired boy run.
He caught a glimpse of the boy's face before being blinded by dust clouds.
Cute, he thought before groveling before his partner who was currently whacking him with a purse for being unfaithful.
