Hi! This is my very first fanfic, and it's set in Shintenipuri, cuz...I don't know, not many people have done a Shintenipuri fanfic.

This story will move a little slowly (in both plot and update), and so I hope you can be patient with my snail progress and enjoy the fanfic ^^ Another thing, although this chapter's short...they get longer. There are times when I believe the chapter's way too long, but some conversations in there are meant to be there for events that take place later on in the story... I think.

One more thing, reviews. I appreciate reviews, positive ones and CC ones, but just nothing like "you suck" plz :)

Thanks! I really hope you enjoy :D

"It's really nice here, isn't it...You know, I've always wanted to live through a day like this…with friends…"

"Hey Ryoma, let's meet up here again when that day comes! Everyone else will come too! Ha ha, If you want, of course…"

"Yeah…you'll be there, right?"

"Yep! It's a promise! I'll be there for sure…"

"You really promise...? You do know I take promises seriously..."

"Promise is a promise! After all, I'm-"

Chapter one: U-17

"You want to become stronger, right?"

Even now, Coach Saito's words echoed through Ryoma's head. He leaned against the worn out walls of a shed in which Coach Nyudo kept his supplies, breathing heavily. The middle schoolers had just gone through another one of Coach Nyudo's "training", aka, incredibly grueling punishments from hell. The only reason why Ryoma was so determined to get through the harsh training was because of those words; he wanted to become stronger.

After losing to Tokugawa Kazuya, Coach Saito had taken him and Kintaro (who had lost to Oni) to the foot of the mountains, where they had met up with the other 25 middle schoolers who had lost in the elimination matches to their comrades. From there, they had fallen off a bridge (which - to Kei's extreme annoyance - was all Kei's fault.), climbed cliffs without harnesses (and that wasn't dangerous at all), climbed even more cliffs, got tennis balls thrown at them, and got their jerseys peed on and buried. Yep, they all called it hell for a reason.

But for some reason, somehow, the middle schoolers had bonded from the experience. Sanada was pretty persistent in the whole mountain training too - he stood out for being the one to be shouting some kind of encouragement (more easily described as orders) as least 5 times by this point - but everyone was as determined as he was to crawl on up to the top again.

"All right!" Coach Nyudo bellowed, looking unamused at the group. "Take a 10 minute break, then do 25000 swings!"

Che… Ryoma sighed. Never lets up, that coach. He gave them tasks to do that most normal humans most likely wouldn't able to achieve. And then some.

The said drunk coach trudged up to Ryoma, hacking and spitting into a bush on the way. Speak of the devil... Ryoma thought, making a face.

"Oi, brat. Go into the second shed near the waterfalls and grab three boxes of lead rackets, along with three Hellcatchers. You'd better hurry it up! I'm giving you ten minutes." he growled, before trudging back towards his cabin before Ryoma could respond.

What the…Hellcatchers...? Geez, someone's had too much alcohol. Ryoma thought wearily. That guy's naming sense is worse than Toyama's.

"I wasn't the one to name them." Coach Nyudo snorted, then continued on, taking another swig of sake.

"There is no way I said that out loud." Ryoma muttered in slight disbelief. He looked around, and sighed when he saw that all the rest of the middle schoolers were splayed on the ground exhausted. "Looks like I'm not getting any help."

He then proceeded down to the second shed, which was down near the waterfalls, just as Nyudo had said. The shed was rarely used by the middle schoolers, as it was reserved for the cooking supplies. The high schoolers usually handled cooking, as Coach Nyudo most likely didn't trust the cooking sense of the middle schoolers (or more specifically, of Inui). Either way, the quality of the shed was even worse than any other shed Ryoma had ever seen, probably because of the fact that it was right next to a waterfall.

Ryoma reached out to grab the wet handle, when,

-BAM!

"AGH!"

On the ground, Ryoma winced and put a hand to his throbbing forehead. "What in the..."

"Ah, sumimasen, sumimasen! Are you ok?" A shocked voice shook Ryoma out of his dazed state. To resume what had happened in one sentence, a high schooler who had been in the shed had slammed the door right into Ryoma's face upon exiting. "Are you all right?" he asked again, surprisingly polite.

"…" Ryoma paused, wondering if the guy had hit him on purpose. After all, the high schoolers weren't exactly famous for being nice. In fact, they would probably throw the middle schoolers over a cliff, if they were allowed to. Either that, or they would use them as their servants.

But then again, the blond looked genuinely sorry, and he (unlike most of the other high schoolers) had a nice look in his eyes. He didn't look Japanese other than a pair of dark brown eyes. He was about the same height as most of the other third year middle schoolers, with light skin, glasses, and blond, shoulder length wavy/straight hair. He was probably an American who immigrated to Japan or something. Ryoma couldn't help but wonder if he knew Liliadent Krauser or Kevin Smith.

"It's ok." Ryoma replied, standing up and brushing off his once-white shorts absentmindedly. "Don't the high schoolers have practice right now? Something about lifting 40LB sand bags up a hill?"

The high schooler laughed. "Yeah, but I skipped!" He stuck out his tongue playfully, and grinned.

"Hm." Ryoma sidestepped the guy easily, entering the dark shed. "Ja."

The high schooler merely cocked his head and followed him in. "I didn't actually skip, you know. I don't want to die early! I'm just here to grab some free weights." He pointed to a set of weights in a corner filled with cobwebs. "You'd think they wouldn't be in a cooking shed, but hey, I think there wasn't enough space in the other sheds. Anyways, at least it isn't farther away! But I was going out because I forgot how many I needed..."

Ryoma, busy looking for the rackets, simply ignored the high schooler. He was beginning to think that the guy was a bit too chatty for his liking. But then again, he couldn't help but ask his typical question.

"You good at tennis?" Ryoma smirked, his golden eyes gleaming beneath his white cap. He always loved a challenge and he hadn't ever seen this particular high schooler play. That could mean fun.

The teen looked amused now, and quite interested too. "Maybe. Wanna find out? Then again, we both have practice, so maybe later. But I definitely wanna see your skills, so this ain't the last time you'll be seeing me! I'm Kabuto, by the way, and you're the one and only Echizen Ryoma. Yoroshiku!" He smiled.

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind." Ryoma replied with a small smirk and nod, then picked up one of two boxes of rackets he was looking for and headed out. Kabuto waved and headed his own way with a trolley of free weights in tow.

With that, Ryoma started back to where Coach Nyudo (and hell) was waiting, with the seriously heavy rackets. He would definitely have to make two, if not three trips.

Wait, I can't take the other box in the time I have, not even if I run. Damn, too bad that Kabu- something or whatever guy isn't here. That 10 minute time limit had better not been real...it took me about 5 just to get here... Ryoma thought, frowning. Can't run with this either. Who knows how long it'll take to bring it down?

He briefly considered dragging them both bit by bit, and was about to execute the plan, when a pair of bandaged wrists reached past him and swiftly (well, not swiftly but as swift as can be with a heavy box) picked up a box.

Ryoma blinked, looking up. "Momo-senpai?"

"Yo, Echizen~! I knew you wouldn't be able to carry all of these in the time limit, so I'm here to help you! After all, I've gotta show my kohai here what a senpai's supposed to do!" Momo winked cheekily.

Ryoma hesitated, a flicker of worry in his eyes. "But what about your wrists? They just started healing…and wouldn't Oishi-senpai start worrying about you, and all that stuff?"

Momo chuckled, waving away the worry. "Oi, oi, I'm tougher than I look, Echizen! If I just sat around, it would take longer to heal! (Yeah right. Ryoma thought) C'mon, we'll be late if we don't start moving! By the way, are those cobwebs in that shed? Ugh, and there are cooking supplies and utensils in there…" Momo groaned as his face turned a slight green.

"I'm sure the high schoolers clean them well." Ryoma replied.

Momo stared. "What makes you think that?! They're out to kill us, I swear!"

Ryoma smirked back. "Well... They're eating the same food, right? They wouldn't poison themselves."

"You'd better be right or I'm not eating anymore!" Momo shot back indigently.

Ryoma couldn't help but snicker. "We both know that'll never happen."

The best friends broke into a light run (well, somewhat of a run with the boxes), enjoying the gentle breeze in the warm sun, as they carried the who-knows-how-heavy boxes up the path. A minute in though, Momo decided to ask a question that had been on his – and a lot of people's – mind.

"Ne…Echizen… uh…you know, where were you during the elimination matches?" he asked. "We were looking for you..." He paused, then continued. "I'm pretty sure you didn't get lost. You're not the type who gets lost. You're more the type that likes to wander around and explore."

Ryoma sighed, not meeting his eyes. "I challenged some guy on First court to a match." He knew Momo could tell what the result had been. It was the reason why he was there in the mountains with him.

Momo stared at Ryoma for a long moment. "Geez Echizen, you're- after what happened to me in my match against Oni-senpai from Fifth court, you didn't even consider the fact that the guys in the higher courts would be even stronger?"

Ryoma shrugged nonchalantly. "Just wanted a challenge."

"...Heh," Momo grinned. "You're the same as always, huh?"

Ryoma rolled his eyes, and Momo laughed, but let the conversation slide. After a few more minutes of jogging, they reached the clearing where the middle scholars were waiting, the majority of them still lying down on the ground exhausted. Momo grinned, celebrating the fact that they had made it 'on time'.

"So Echizen, we got everything, right?" he asked cheerfully, flexing his arms. "Man, we're good, eh?"

"Well," Ryoma started, before his eyes widened, realizing something. "Oh yeah..."

"Yeah? Great!" Misunderstanding Ryoma's "yeah", Momo trotted off to see if he could find a drink somewhere. "Woo!"

Ryoma winced. Oh yeah, what about those hell-whatever it was? Crap.

Unfortunately, the break was up, and he had failed to bring up all the things needed from the second shed. He cursed under his breath, annoyed. It was probably because he got distracted by that Kabuto guy. Now he was going to get yelled at, punched, or thrown over a cliff. He really, really hoped it wasn't going to be the latter. There were rumors that Coach Nyudo had once tossed a guy over a cliff like a piece of trash, and no one wanted to see if it was true.

"Koshimae..." A voice broke into his thoughts. Kintaro, who like most of the others, was sprawled onto the grass, stared at Ryoma from an upside down position. "Koshimae, did you get hurt? You have a huge bump on your forehead!"

"Eh...?" Ryoma put a hand to his forehead self consciously. "Uh..."

Shinji sat up abruptly, mumbling. "He's probably using the bump on his head to get sympathy…how annoying…if I did that, would anyone even feel sympathetic for me? Probably not, that's even more anno-"

The Prince of Data Inui stepped in, notebook in hand. "Chances that Echizen got hurt by walking into something or getting hit by something, but is too embarrassed to tell us – 97%"

"97.342%" countered the Prince of Data II, Renji.

"Y-you…underestimate me…"

Oishi frowned, tempted to go into mother hen mode. "Echizen, that looks really bad! What happened? You need to put some water on that, no, ice, or maybe-"

"Where in the world are you gonna find ice here?" Ryo interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

Ryoma sighed, annoyed at the unwanted attention. "I tripped."

He then paused as he felt a presence behind him, and judging by the looks of wary and slight irritation on the middle schoolers faces, it was probably Coach Nyudo. He waited for the "What the hell are you trash doing!? HURRY UP AND PRACTICE!" along with a very probable onslaught for forgetting the equipment.

But it didn't come.

Hm? Ryoma finally turned around, and came face to face with Kabuto. Kabuto smiled and pressed something shaped like a glove into Ryoma's hand. It was a-

"AGH!" Of course, the startled first-year wasn't prepared for the red glove (which he later learned was one of the Hellcatchers that Nyudo had asked for) that Kabuto had abruptly put in his hand to weigh about 3 times more than a lead racket. Surprised, he fell to his knees, dropping the crazy weight on Kabuto's foot in the process. This, of course, led to pandemonium.

"AAAGGHHH! MY FOOT, MY FOOT! HEEY, THAT-" Hopping in pain, he then fell over backwards, and stepped heavily on-

"WHOA! WATCH IT, HIGH SCHOOLER!" Zaizen snapped, wincing as he stumbled around on his non-bruised foot. One of his flailing elbows then whacked-

"WAAAH!" Kintaro wailed, springing up like a rocket. "ZAIZEN HIT ME~!", falling over backwards into-

"OWWW! Gah, you are all self-destructing idiots!" Not wanting to get involved any further, Gakuto massaged his bruised head before Moonsaulting out of the way to safety. Or so he thought.

"FFSSSHHHHH! YOU BASTARD, YOU KICKED ME IN THE FACE! I'M GONNA RIP YOUR-" who then tripped over the boxes of rackets and rammed into-

"WAAH! WATCH IT, BAKA MAMUSHI!"

"WHAT WAS THAT, MOMOSHIRI?!"

"IT'S CUZ YOU'RE SO CLUMSY AND STUPID THAT-", he was then tripped by-

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Richard Sakata stepped back in satisfaction, but then a grinning Kintaro tripped him in return, who then sent flying a bucket of something yellow and in liquid form onto-

A very unsuspecting Coach Nyudo.

"A...Ah..." Momo said weakly, taking a useless step back.

"...Mada mada...dane..." Ryoma muttered wearily.

The rest need not be described, but the middle scholars + Kabuto had nightmares for 2 days straight afterwards.