Disclaimers: I don't own prince of tennis. I only own my characters.
Prince of tennis © Takeshi Konomi
Broken Mask © iSPAZZMACHiiN3
A/N: another Prince of tennis story, with an OC x Ryoma pairing again. This time my character is different from my OC character, Tezuka Hikari, from Can't Stop Thinking Of You. Enjoy reading it. Oh, and this story is different from Can't Stop Thinking Of You, it's slightly more…mature I guess.
Bold is English.
Italics are used to emphasize something, or signify a flash back or lyrics to a song.
"Blah." Those quotes are used for talking.
'Blah.' Those are used for thing.
B r o k e n M a s k
Chapter one : New student
Horio stood by Ryoma who was sitting in his desk,
"Did you hear? A new student is coming in; it was because classroom 1 – 1 was becoming too crowded due to sudden exchange students!" Ryoma looked out the window completely bored. Usually Japanese classrooms were filled with 25-30 students, they all took entrance exams to be able to get into the school. So it'll decrease the chance of having overcrowded class rooms. Kachiro and Katsuo stood by Horio,
"Honto ne!? But it's already half way into the term." Horio smugly nodded his head,
"Yeah, and I heard that they were very smart- Oi, Echizen. Are you even listening?" The school bell rang as the teacher came in.
"Everyone settle down, get to your seats. We're having a new student join our class today, so we don't want to make a bad impression when she arrives here." Everyone rushed to their seats and chatted quietly as the teacher began to write something on the chalk board. Everyone started to quiet down as they heard light footsteps and sounds of chalk being used. They stared at the door intently as the teacher placed down her chalk, the door slid open. Revealing a girl with long black hair tied into a pony tail, her side bangs parted to the right. Her hair had reached just an inch above her butt and her emerald eyes rimmed out with black eyeliner, her lips glossed with a nude pink color; which blended in well to her complexion. She wore the school uniform, just as every other girl student was required to wear, sea green skirt and the sailor white shirt with the green collar and pink bow. Except, her skirt wasn't high up as every other girl wore it, it was strictly at her hips, making the skirt only a few inches above her knees. Also her shirt wasn't tucked in under her skirt, instead it fitted her thin waist, and Ryoma noted that she probably ordered a smaller and more precise size. She held her black book bag on her right shoulder and stared at the teacher with her left arm stretched out with a piece of paper. Two girls jumped out of their seats and looked at her wide eyed,
"Xue Hua-sama?!" The teacher stared at the two to sit down
"Hanako-san, Haruno-san. Please sit down."She took the paper and she looked up back at the girl,
"My name is Watanabe-Sensei, Would you like to introduce yourself?" The girl looked down at her schedule and noticed it was English class,
"Fukui Xue Hua." The teacher looked at Xue Hua to continue, seeing that it was traditional to say a couple of things about you. Xue Hua stayed silent as she scanned the classroom, the teacher took her as a shy girl.
"Any questions?" Some people raised their hands, the teacher pointed to a boy with a unibrow,
"Horio-kun." Horio grinned,
"Why do you have a Chinese first name and Japanese last name?" Some hands went down at the question, Xue Hua looked at him,
"My mother is Chinese while my father is Japanese." Horio slightly shuddered at her voice, and he wondered how her voice managed to stay slightly feminine, even though it was so cold and strict. Watanabe pointed at another student,
"Do you play a sport?" All hands fell after this question,
"No." One hand rose up,
"What does your Chinese name mean?"
"Snow flower." Watanabe looked around and noticed that there were no more questions.
"Alright, since there's no more questions. Fukui-san, you can sit over there by Horio." Xue Hua walked as everyone stared at her, feeling those she had an air of dominance, her black high heels made no noise as she then sat down and took out her school supplies. Ryoma stared as she crossed her legs and noticed how her posture wasn't as slouched, comparing to the other girls. Ryoma turned his attention back to the window, not wanting to seem interested at the girl that sat in between him and Horio, rather he was glad. Watanabe went back to the chalk board,
"Okay class, we'll be practicing some verb forms." The class groaned and waited as the teacher wrote the sentences on the board.
-&-
Xue Hua finished the sentences and leaned her chin into her right hand, she stared out the window as Watanabe began calling on some students to answer it,
"Akiko-san, please read the last sentence and rephrase it with the correct form." A brunette boy with tan skin got up,
"Then a-after S-sue h-has jump o-over the f-fence, she grabbed a apple from the tree and b-bite into it." Watanabe shook her head,
"Then after Sue had jumped over the fence, she grabbed a apple from the tree and bit into it." Akiko shakily nodded his head and sat back down a bit embarrassed. Xue Hua stood up,
"Watanabe-Sensei!" The teacher turned back a bit startled at the strict voice but then reminded herself that it was just a student,
"Y-Yes, Fukui?" Xue Hua walked up to the board and looked at the sentence,
"You've made a mistake, it's ' Then after sue had jumped over the fence, she grabbed anapple from the tree and bit into it." Ryoma snapped his head form the window and looked over as she erased the word and replaced it. The teacher widened her eyes,
"Oh, I'm sorry I missed that, class." Xue Hua walked back into her seat and looked out the windows as everyone around her started whispering,
"Whoa, she's so smart!" Horio turned to Ryoma,
"That's the Fukui!" Ryoma blinked, as Horio stared at her,
"I heard she was very strict and mean, but she always gets straight A's…" Ryoma blinked.
"Mada mada Dane."
-&-
Xue Hua packed her things as the bell rang and got to walk out,
"Xue Hua-sama!" Xue Hua stopped and turned around and saw two girls, a white haired girl with red eyes and a brunette with brown eyes. The two stood in front of her,
"You switched out into our class!?" Xue Hua nodded and walked out,
"This is so great!" The two girls followed her out the door. Ryoma picked up his bag and walked out with Horio, Katsuo, and Kachiro next to him.
"Whoa, did you see the new girl? She's so scary." Horio nodded,
"Yeah! How can something so pretty be so intimidating?" Kachiro shrugged his shoulders,
"She seems very smart though." Horio turned to the side,
"What do you think- Eh? Echizen?" Horio looked ahead and saw Ryoma had walked off,
"Oi! Wait for us." The three scrambled after them and entered the science room.
-&-
Xue Hua was half way zoned out of class as she wrote down the necessary notes, not really caring for biology seeing that it had nothing to do with business skills. The bell rang, signaling it was time for lunch. She packed her things and got up as Haruno and Hanako approached her,
"Let's go, Xue Hua-sama!" Xue Hua nodded and walked to classroom 1 – 2. She sat down with the two next to her, she took out her bento. Xue Hua took out a fork and spoon, eating the food westernized. Ryoma sat a few seats away from the group, instead he was surrounded by Horio, Sakuno, Tomoko, Kachiro, and Katsuo.
"Oi, Echizen!" Ryoma looked up and saw Momoshiro with his arm full of food.
"Momo-senpai." Momoshiro shifted his eyes to the cupcakes that Sakuno made. Tomoko noticed and grinned,
"You can have some, Momo-senpai!" Horio scowled,
"Why does he get one?" Tomoko wagged her finger,
"Because he takes care of Ryoma-sama!!" Ryoma blinked as Momoshiro stuffed the cupcake in his mouth,
"Momo-senpai, guess what? There's a new student in our class!" Momoshiro raised in eye,
"Really?! Who?" Horio stood up,
"Her name is Fukui Xue Hua, she's half Chinese and Japanese. She's very mean, but extremely smart!" Momoshiro grinned,
"A girl? How does she look like?" Horio grinned,
"She's really pretty! She has long black hair that's tied into a pony tail, and she's very pale. Oh! And her eyes are green." Sakuno looked around the classroom and spotted the girl that fitted the description,
"A-ano, Horio-kun. She's rig-" Horio turned to Sakuno,
"Huh? What did you sa-" Xue Hua stood up, slamming her chair back as she picked up her bento. She turned to look at Horio,
"It's very rude to talk about someone! Especially if they can hear you. Watch yourself!" Horio turned around and looked at her shocked, he was scared at how cold her voice was. Everyone got quiet, wanting to know what would happen next. Haruno and Hanako got up as Xue Hua walked out the door, giving sorry looks at their friend's boldness. Momoshiro whistled as when the door slammed,
"That was her? How scary."
-&-
Fuji sat with Oishi and Kikumaru as they all ate lunch. Kikumaru sipped his juice,
"Oishi! Didn't you say your cousin was staying at your house?" Fuji raised an eyebrow as Oishi nervously laughed,
"Yeah, auntie and uncle have to go on an international business trip, it might take the a while to come back. So they asked if she can stay at our house, and my parents said yes." Kikumaru grinned and flailed his arms around,
"We have to meet her!" Oishi scratched his head,
"I'm not sure how…she's two years younger than us." Kikumaru stopped and stared at Oishi,
"O'chibi's year?" Oishi nodded and took another bite out of his rice. Kikumaru grinned,
"Then bring her over at during practice!" Oishi sweat dropped,
"I don't know…" Eiji pouted,
"Bring her, bring her, bring her please!" Oishi sighed,
"Alright…Do you want to meet her also Fuji?" Fuji nodded with his usual smile,
"It'll be fun."
-&-
Xue Hua sneezed as she sat under the Sakura tree, watching people play tennis. Haruno turned to her,
"Someone's talking about you." Xue Hua scowled,
"That's stupid guy…" Hanako shyly smiled,
"Ano…maybe they were just curious." Xue Hua kept her stoic face as she listened to Hanako's quiet voice,
"It's none of their business." Haruno and Hanako stared at each other, not even flinching at her cold voice, they had gotten used to it a few years back. The bell rang, signaling it was time to go back to lunch, Xue Hua turned to the two,
"What's our next class?"
-&-
Xue Hua changed into her gym outfit, a navy blue tennis skirt and white polo; she walked out with Hanako and Haruno by her side. Sakuno blinked,
'I didn't know Fukui-san was in my gym class.' Sakuno looked at her class and walked towards Horio, Kachiro, Katsuo, and Ryoma. Then the gym teacher came out,
"Alright class, first half of gym we'll be doing basketball. The other half we'll be doing tennis. Alright, I want groups of four or five. Go!" Horio, Kachiro, and Katsuo got into a group with Ryoma. Sakuno looked around, completely unsure of whom to go with, the other girls always thought she was to shy.
"Hey, come over here!" Sakuno looked up shocked, but then felt a breeze pass her, she looked and saw that the other group had picked the girl behind her. Xue Hua looked at Sakuno as she looked down, somewhat sad.
"Oi, You with the long braided hair!" Sakuno looked up as the gym got quiet, Ryoma and his group slightly turned their attention to what was happening. Sakuno straightened up, slightly scared at Xue Hua's intense stare.
"Join our group." Sakuno widened her eyes,
"M-me?" Xue Hua raised an eyebrow, though her facial expression was still stoic,
"Did I not address to you?" Sakuno nodded her head and quickly walked over to her. The gym teacher cleared her throat,
"Alright! Let's start facing off each other-" Xue Hua turned to Sakuno,
"Who are you?" Sakuno fidgeted with her skirt,
"R-Ryuzaki S-Sakuno." Xue Hua nodded her head,
"Fukui Xue Hua." Haruno smiled brightly with her chocolate eyes shining,
"I'm Tanaka Haruno!" Sakuno shyly smiled back,
"P-Pleased to meet you." Hanako shyly stepped up,
"I'm Mori H-Hanako, W-Welcome to our group…" Sakuno blinked at her quiet voice but nodded,
"Arigato…"
Horio watched Sakuno walked towards the group, he turned back to his friends.
"Whoa, Fukui picked Sakuno-chan?" Katsuo looked out,
"Well, no one seemed to want to pick Sakuno-chan…She's usually with Tomoko-chan." Horio scoffed,
"Fukui, doing a good thing, impossible. Right, Echizen?" Ryoma didn't respond.
"Alright! Let's switch to tennis now!" Every student walked back into the locker room to retrieve their rackets, Fukui leaned against the lockers as Haruno and Hanako got out their rackets, Sakuno shyly looked at Fukui and noticed how tall she was compared to her.
"F-Fukui-san." Fukui slightly tilted head to look at Sakuno,
"Hai." Sakuno slightly winced at her cold voice,
"A-ano, where's your r-racket?" Fukui leaned back into the locker,
"Didn't bring one." Sakuno perked her head at this,
"Y-you can borrow o-one of m-my spares!" Xue Hua stared at her for a minute, Sakuno suddenly looked down, a bit intimidated.
"Sure." Sakuno looked up surprised and smiled, she ran off to get her spare. Xue Hua closed her eyes as Haruno and Hanako looked at each other and smiled,
' Xue Hua-sama is accepting a new person as a friend…' Sakuno ran back with a black racket and held it out to Fukui,
"H-here you go, Fukui-san." Xue Hua nodded as she grabbed the racket and walked out, Hanako and Haruno followed suit. Sakuno blinked and quickly followed.
-&-
Ryoma looked at Xue Hua as she walked in the courts, with her friends behind her. Horio looked at the group,
"Eh? Is Sakuno-chan her friend or something?"
"Alright class. Let's have 5 laps around the court, then 100 swings, if we have time we'll learn serves. Go!"
Xue Hua placed her racket and began to stretch, while everyone else ran off, including Haruno and Hanako. They blinked in surprise, noting that their beloved friend wasn't running by their side.
"Fukui! Why aren't you running!? Do you want more laps!" Everyone continued to run as they stared at Xue Hua slowly bending back up, after touching the floor with her palm. She stared at the coach with a fierce look,
"If I don't stretch than I'll probably pull a muscle if I suddenly started to run laps for no reason." The coach stepped back in surprise of her fierce stare and cold voice. He cleared his throat,
"I-I" Xue Hua raised an eyebrow as she stretched her legs,
"You wouldn't want that to happen, what if I had pulled a muscle and tripped, injuring myself? How would my parents take it, how would the school board take it?" Everyone gaped at her boldness, the coach stood frozen in his place, unsure of how to respond. Xue Hua turned around,
"Doesn't matter, I finished stretching." Xue Hua began to run around, the court stayed silent as the coach noticed that the class had stopped running,
"W-what are you doing!? Finish your laps!" The class continued to run. Haruno sweat dropped at what just happened as Hanako continued to run. Ryoma stared continued to run his laps as Horio snorted,
"She's so mean." Kachiro and Katsuo looked at him,
"But she was only trying to prevent any possible injuries." Horio irked,
"Why are you guys always defending her-" Xue Hua passed by the group as she ran by on her 4th lap,
"I told you to watch yourself," Horio gaped at her as she quickly ran pass them. Sakuno ran on her 2nd lap and noticed Xue Hua going over to get her racket,
"F-Fukui-san, are you done with your l-laps?" Xue Hua looked at her,
"Hai." Sakuno fidgeted with her fingers,
"Are you going to do the swings?" Xue Hua gripped the racket, Sakuno looked at her long, yet perfectly proportioned, nails as her slender hand gripped the racket.
"I don't know how to play tennis, I wouldn't know how to swing." Sakuno blinked in surprise,
"I-I can help…if you w-want…" Xue Hua said nothing and Sakuno began to panic,
"I m-mean, o-only if y-you want-"
"Finish your laps first." Sakuno blinked, unsure if that answered her question,
"H-hai." Sakuno went back to running and caught up to Hanako and Haruno,
"Hey Sakuno-chan." Sakuno shyly nodded her head,
"Hello Tanaka-chan." Haruno grinned,
"Call me Haruno-chan! No need to be so formal!" Sakuno lightly blushed,
"O-okay, H-Haruno-chan…" Haruno laughed as Hanako turned to Sakuno,
"You c-can call me Hanako-chan a-as well…" Sakuno nodded,
"Hai! Hanako-chan…" The three finished their laps, along with the rest of the class.
"Alright, let's start our swings."
Ryoma stared as Sakuno pointed to Xue Hua's racket as she talked, Xue Hua nodded and swung her racket,
"Echizen! Let's start swinging, then you can teach me the twist serve." Ryoma turned to Horio,
"Don't want to."
-&-
Xue Hua swung her racket,
"Like this?" Sakuno nodded with a bright smile,
"H-Hai! It's was nice, seeing that I only explained instead of showing how to hit the racket." Haruno and Hanako started to swing the racket, after seeing Xue Hua already on her 20th swing. Sakuno widened her eyes and began to swing,
"You bend your knees too much…" Sakuno let out a gasp as she felt something push her legs,
"And don't flip your wrist like that." Sakuno turned around,
"R-Ryoma-kun." Ryoma pointed his racket to Xue Hua,
"Try swinging like that." Xue Hua suddenly stopped swinging and stared at Ryoma. Sakuno widened her eyes at this,
"A-Ano, Fukui-san. D-Did you finish your swings yet?"
"Hai." Sakuno blinked,
"Alright, we're going to do serves now. Everyone get into a line, though enough space to serve!" Everyone got into a line. Sakuno stood next to Hanako, who was next to Xue Hua, who had Haruno next to her side.
"I want you to try and hit in that box, when you serve remember to throw the ball high enough, bend your knees, arch your back, and let your arm follow through. Everyone, get into positions! " Everyone got ready,
"Go!" They all threw up the ball and swung their arms, all except Xue Hua. The coach stared at her, not sure if he should confront her, but then shook his head,
'I'm the teacher, she's the student.'
"Fukui!" Everyone stopped serving, and stared at her.
"Why aren't you serving?" Xue Hua bounced the tennis ball in her hand,
"I'm left-handed, " the coach raised his eyebrow,
"So?" Xue Hua smirked, causing a few gasps,
"When I was younger, my cousin told me that there was a difference between right and left handed people. He's a tennis player, so he told me that players rotated serving left to right. Right handed players serve from the right and Left handed players serve from the left." Horio snorted,
"Echizen's left handed! And he's serving just fine!" Everyone turned to stare at Ryoma, who was holding his racket. Xue Hua dropped her smirk,
"He's holding his racket with his right hand," Horio widened his eyes and looked at Ryoma, cursing that him of his ambidexterity.
"Plus, mostly everyone here right handed, so it's easy for them to serve with the room they all provide to each other, I'd need more room if I wanted to serve." The coached gaped,
"I-I, fine. Go to the empty court. Echizen, if you want to join her than do so. Everyone else, continue to serve!" Ryoma stayed put as Xue Hua walked towards the empty court. Xue Hua bounced the ball, her facial expression seemed slightly anger. She bounced the ball and threw it up, arching her back she raised her arm up and followed through. The ball flew over and onto the other court, Ryoma stared as she clenched her right fist and tightened her grip on her racket. The bell rang, signaling that school was over and everyone walked inside.
-&-
"Here" Sakuno looked up in surprise, seeing a fully dressed Xue Hua hand her, her racket back.
"T-Thanks." Xue Hua walked off, with Haruno and Hanako following after her.
-&-
Oishi walked to the tennis courts, hoping that his cousin was waiting for him since he had the key to the house.
"Oishi," Oishi turned around when he heard the cold voice.
"I was just looking for you! I was wondering if you wanted to come watch the practice…but you don't have to if you don't want to, my friend just wants to meet you."
"Doesn't matter." Oishi smiled, understanding her way of saying yes.
-&-
Ryoma stood with his team, ready for today's practice. Inui looked around,
"Where's Oishi?" Oishi quickly ran up,
"I hope I'm not late!" Kikumaru pouted,
"Where is your cousin? You said they'd come!" The team looked up at him, confused.
"Your cousin?" Oishi nervously laughed,
"I ran because I was going to be late, but she's walking over with her f-friends." Fuji smiled,
"It's okay. We can wait." Xue Hua walked with Haruno and Hanako towards the court.
"A-ah, there she is!" Fuji opened his eyes, noticing the girl looked very elegant in the way she walked and her bone structure. Ryoma felt his eyes widened for a split second as Horio pointed at her,
"A-ah! It's Fukui Xue Hua!" Everyone turned to look at her as she walked, her high heels making no noise. Oishi smiled,
"This is my cousin, Fukui Xue Hua." Xue Hua looked at Horio,
"It's rude to point, learn your manners." Kikumaru jumped,
"Nyah, she's so pretty!" He went over to hug her, Oishi widened his eyes and went to stop him,
"C-Chotto Matte, Eiji!" Everyone that knew Xue Hua widened their eyes, wondering what she'd do. Kikumaru raised his arms up and Xue Hua pointed her finger out, her long nails poked his arms. Kikumaru dropped his arms confused. Oishi sighed in relief and walked up nervously,
"Xue Hua-chan, this is my tennis team. Kikumaru Eiji, Fuji Syusuke, Tezuka Kunimitsu, Kaidoh Kaoru, Takeshi Momoshiro, Takashi Kawamura, Inui Sadaharu, and Echi-" a large group of ladies were walking together looking around with sad faces. Haruno and Hanako widened their eyes as they heard the clapping nose of high heels the ladies were wearing. They stared at Xue Hua, with scared expressions. Oishi caught the looked, along with the rest of the team,
"Is something wrong?" Xue Hua turned to the group of ladies,
"Can't you see we were talking!?" The team widened their eyes at her, Xue Hua walked up to them.
"How un-lady like can you get?!" The ladies looked at her appalled, some were even gaping at her.
"If you're going to wear high heels, then walk in them right! You all walk like a pack of mules, stop the clapping of your high heels! It's so loud that I couldn't hear what the other person was talking about." The whole court got silent as Xue Hua turned to Oishi,
"I'm going home first." Xue Hua turned back to the ladies and strutted off with her high heels, with no noise at all.
"Hanako, Haruno." The two girls perked up and looked at the team with a sorry face and ran after her. Horio scoffed,
"How rude." Kachiro looked at Horio,
"You were rude to her as well." Horio irked,
"Stop defending her!" The team stared at petite figure strutting off, in shock of her boldness.
Xue Hua Fukui's motto : One evil act a day makes the world go round.