At request by Taka-san, who loves my Shinji rambles, a whole one-shot dedicated to Shinji.
Summary: A day in the life of Shinji Ibu. (Humor)
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis. I also don't own The Black Horn or their song Wana.
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The alarm clock was blaring right at his head. But he couldn't seem to reach it no matter what. With a huff, Shinji sat up and almost chucked the alarm clock across the room.
"That was so annoying, especially so early in the morning. It's not good to be annoying in the morning; it can make others have bad days. And that's not good either because it'd give you a bad day. No one wants a bad day. They want to start the day off right, without an alarm clock screaming in their ear." Shinji had absent-mindedly gone into a rant while clutching his alarm clock which was still going off, "Wana" by The Black Horn playing. It was a minute before Fudomine's tensai shut it off and got up. Shinji was quite the morning person when he wanted to be. A quick change into his uniform ensued and he set down to the kitchen.
"Morning, O-nii-chan." Shinji brushed some strands from his face as he looked to his younger sisters.
"Morning. You're up early." Both girls smiled.
"We made O-nii-san breakfast." The younger of the two giggled and held up a plate.
"And Kaa-san helped us make you lunch." Shinji nodded and took a seat between the two girls, who watched him eat their breakfast.
"O-nii-san, how is it?" Shinji nodded.
"Very good. You're improving." Both girls smiled at each other with a giggle. "Now what do you want from me?"
"So mean, O-nii-chan. We just felt like making you breakfast." The elder of the two girls huffed.
"And learn how to get better at cooking so we can make chocolates for Valentine's Day." The younger spilled.
"Ah. Whoever gets them will very lucky. My little sisters are such good cooks and get better each time. And with time they'll become really good and everyone will want their cooking. But not everyone can have their cooking, because they don't like to share. But it's better to share, even if it's something simple. But sometimes simple things become big things. And both are so small that it might become trouble. But I wouldn't let anything happen to my little sisters, so I suppose I'm lucky. And I always get to sample the cooking." Both girls giggled. Their family was used to Shinji's mumbling and just let him do as he pleased.
"Shinji-kun, if you don't leave soon, you'll be late." Shinji looked to his mother who just entered the room and caused him to remember his surroundings.
"Oh, right. I need to meet Kamio-san on the way to school." Shinji set down his fork and got up.
"Don't forget your lunch, O-nii-chan." Shinji grabbed the clothed bento and his bag.
"Have a good day, dear." Shinji nodded and headed to the genkan, slipping on his shoes. He tugged on his tennis bag and headed out the door.
It was such a lovely day outside, bright and sunny with barely any clouds in the sky. And lots of kids were out walking to school. And as he hit the halfway mark to school, he was joined on his walk by Kamio, who was listening to his walkman like always.
"Kamio-san is so mean, always listening to his walkman. They say music is good, but Kamio-san listens to it every chance he can. That's not good for his health. And he ignores me. That's not good either. Sometimes it's lonely just walking with someone who ignores you. It's so mean. And annoying. It's like the alarm clock. Annoying and starts someone off with a bad day. Maybe I don't want a bad day and want a good one. But there's nothing to stop the morning from being boring. Especially when Kamio-san listens to his walkman and ignores me. It's very mean and people don't like mean people. And Kamio-san is being mean-"
"Shinji, shut up."
"See, Kamio-san isn't nice. He just said to shut up. That's not very nice, but I shouldn't stoop to his level and act violently. Tachibana-san said it's not good to be violent. And so I shouldn't go against Tachibana-san's words, no matter what."
"Shinji, if you wanna talk, then talk." Shinji then noticed that Kamio had taken out his headphones and was paying all his attention on him.
"Too late, Kamio-san, we're at school already." Kamio sighed as the two entered the school building. There was no way to win with Shinji.
Shinji sat doodling most of the day, through his classes. At lunch, he joined his friends in taking over the school's roof.
"I've talked with Seigaku and we'll be having matches with them this Saturday." Tachibana told his team once they were all settled.
"Do you know who's playing who?"
"Think of the District Tournament. We'll be playing with that order. Tetsu and Masaya will be doubles 2. Uchimura and Mori will play doubles 1. Kamio will play singles 3. Shinji will play singles 2. And I'll be singles 1."
"Singles 2..."
"Something wrong, Shinji?" The said male shook his head.
"It's nothing, Tachibana-san." Shinji went back to eating his lunch. He seemed to be getting moved around in the line up lately. He quickly finished his lunch and headed back inside.
"Singles 2 is fine, I won't complain. But why am I always getting my spot changed? Kamio-san is always in the same area, and Tachibana-san always plays 1, but Tachibana-san deserves to play number 1. But singles is better than doubles. But singles 2. It's better than 3, but I wonder who I'll play. Fuji-san? I hope not. Fuji-san is as good as Tachibana-san. Echizen-kun? I hope so. I want to show him I've improved. But I bet he's improved, too. But it won't be good unless he plays singles 2. But maybe they'll sit Tezuka-san out, and then he'll be playing singles 1. Then I wouldn't get to play him. And then training so hard wouldn't have been so good because Echizen-kun is better than others. And then I wouldn't like having been placed at singles 2. And then Tachibana-san might get mad that I don't want to play. But I shouldn't complain, Tachibana-san's words are final."
"Shinji, you'll play Ryoma, don't worry." Shinji blinked and turned around.
"Tachibana-san." The other smiled and gave a thumbs up.
"I was certain you'd want to play him again, thus why I said like the district tournament. Who you played then is who you'll play again."
"But what about Tachibana-san?"
"Tezuka is my opponent." Shinji nodded. So he didn't need to worry. He could do his best playing Ryoma this Saturday. "So don't worry." Kippei patted Shinji on the shoulder as the bell rang for students to go back to their classrooms. But the day was just boring, and Shinji wondered why he was in school. Even Kamio wasn't listening; he had his headphones hidden up his sleeve, walkman hidden in his lap, the ear pieces in his hand, which was resting right next to his ear. The bell rung.
"If Kamio listens to his music, he isn't paying attention. And Kamio-san needs to pay attention to pass the class. If Kamio-san fails, then he can't play tennis and the team needs him. And failing would let the team down, especially Tachibana-san. And no one wants to let Tachibana-san down, but that's what Kamio-san is doing."
"Shinji, I'm paying attention. I just felt like listening to something while doing it." Kamio quickly shut the other up before the rant started. Shinji only nodded as the two headed to the locker room and changed. "Let's play a set together." Shinji nodded, he was used to being Kamio's training partner. And they would usually play points out nicely and, most of the time, in a friendly manner. Except one or the other would get annoyed at the long points and quickly end it. This would then cause extreme competition between them.
"Man, Shinji, you beat me again." Kamio was collapsed on the ground next to the bench, which Shinji was sitting on with Tachibana. The two pairs of doubles were playing together and they felt like watching them.
"Maybe Kamio-san needs to practice more." Kamio twitched, sitting right up.
"You, me, the street courts tonight, Shinji." Shinji looked from Kamio to the doubles match.
"I promised to help out at home and babysit my sisters." Kamio huffed.
"Fine, whatever." Practice ended a couple minutes later and Kamio and Shinji walked home together. There was silence between them, Kamio not even listening to his music. They split ways and Shinji entered into his house, getting greeted by both sisters.
"Kaa-san and Tou-san already left." Shinji nodded.
"Did you two eat dinner yet?" Both nodded.
"Why don't you watch tv." Both girls giggled before rushing off to the living room. Shinji wasn't too big on babysitting. He took off right to his room and settled down to do his homework. He had just finished when he heard a clicking sound at his window. He walked over and opened it up, staring at Kamio-san.
"You busy with your sisters?" Shinji then shut the window. He bet Kamio thought he was ignoring him or something. But he moved quickly to the front door, slipping on his shoes as he walked outside, finding Kamio walking around.
"Come in." Kamio took the invite and walked into the house. Both girls were peering out from the living room.
"Kamio-kun!" Both girls waved. The said male waving back.
"Hey. You two treating your big brother well?"
"Of course." They both chimed together before retreating back to their cartoon. Kamio and Shinji settled in the kitchen, Shinji tugged out snacks for them.
"Are you playing Echizen on Saturday?" Shinji nodded. "I'm playing Mamushi. It's as good as Momoshiro."
"Don't let the snake kill you this time, Kamio-san." Kamio took a sip from the glass of water.
"Of course I won't. I'm stronger now." Kamio only remained at the house for an hour, engaging the Ibu children into a dance party, Shinji having been forced into it by his younger sisters.
"Can I sleep with O-nii-san?" Shinji blinked as he was putting his sisters to bed.
"Eh?" The younger sister smiled.
"O-nii-san seems caught in thought today and might need someone to talk to." She would then yawn.
"It's nothing. You need to sleep." His sister settled in, falling asleep quickly. Shinji just ruffled his hair as he went to check on his other sister, who had already fallen asleep.
"I don't get why I'm always put in charge of my sisters when I'm not even good at it. But Kamio-san always comes over and they always have a good time. Kamio-san comes to my rescue so much, yet I don't help Kamio-san in return. I'm bad at that too. I need to get better so I don't need to rely on Kamio-san for help...But if Kamio-san sees me trying hard, maybe he'll think he's doing a bad job and might regret helping out even if I'm really grateful. So troublesome. I'm the bad one. I need to think of how to help Kamio-san out. Maybe I'll try harder at tennis. But that isn't anything like taking care of people. I'm bad at thinking, too. I bet Kamio-san is better at that, too. I should ask Kamio-san for help with my sisters, how to be a better big brother. But Kamio-san wouldn't know since he's a younger brother. And he and his sister are so alike. It's nothing like this. But Kamio-san is still better than me. I will ask him for help tomorrow." Shinji rested on his bed, but quickly fell asleep. He said the same thing every night, he'd ask Kamio for help, but by morning he'd always forget because he'd be frustrated with Kamio ignoring him for his music.
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Heh, I wanted to do more Shinji rambles, but I didn't want to make this extremely long. So this is all. And yes, I am a ShinjixKamio fan, but they're also such close friends that I could see Kamio helping Shinji out with his siblings. Yes, Shinji has two younger sisters, they don't really have names. And Kamio has an older sister. Review as you please.