Yay! I'm finally back after a two-year disappearance. And no, I'm not writing about Fire Emblem! (Although I should probably put my sequel to Hidden Love on here, I've been working on it for a while now). This is something that randomly came into my mind as I read Prince of Tennis. Yeah, the obsession for that manga series is spreading to me now. I hope you all love the wildly creative title, which is just as creative as "New Prince of Tennis" (although that sequel is good). After you finish, please review!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or Prince of Tennis. Basically, I could just say I don't own Prince of Tennis. But I feel like typing more.
Echizen Ryoma's Birthday
It was a late Friday night, and the Seigaku regulars were hanging out at Kawamura's sushi shop. All of them, that is, except for Echizen, who had a marginally earlier curfew than the rest of the tennis team, and was scowling and growling in his room before his father, Nanjiroh, got him to shut up and go to sleep.
Echizen couldn't hear the Regulars' conversation because he didn't have super hearing, and that was probably a good thing.
"Hey, it's Echizen's birthday tomorrow! What should we get him?" Inui suddenly said to the regulars, who were sitting around a circular table. Even though Inui's eyes couldn't be seen behind his strange, square, opaque glasses, it was easy to guess from his facial expression that he was grinning. His spiky black hair was standing up slightly with excitement, and he brandished a cup of water while he spoke. That resulted in him smoothly spilling water all over his school uniform, which was an all-black suit and pants.
"Of course you'd know that, you stalker," Kaidoh hissed. He tugged irritatingly at his new green bandana. It had a picture of a snake reared up and spitting poison. As much as he hated the bandana, Tezuka had given it to him for his birthday, so he had to wear it. If he refused the captain, that would be very impolite.
Unlike Inui, Kaidoh wore his tennis uniform, the snazzy blue-sleeved jacket with white everywhere else. The word "Seigaku" was printed on the upper left part of the jacket, and he wore his tennis shorts.
"We should throw a party!" Momoshiro cried, displaying the chewed-up sushi in his mouth. He purposely ignored Kaidoh's comment. His hair, if possible, was even more spiky than Inui's. Well, it wasn't spiky, it just stood up more. Except unlike Inui, his hair was brown, and Momoshiro didn't wear any scary opaque glasses.
"Yeah, throwing a surprise party would be fun! What should we get him, though?" asked Fuji. As usual, his eyes were closed and he was smiling happily. His long, slightly puffy brown hair framed his gentle face. Tezuka looked at Fuji with a slightly apprehensive air. Although Fuji looked, and usually was, very happy and kind, he could get strange and somewhat scary ideas.
Oishi, blissfully unaware of the dangers of Fuji's happy and gigantic smiles, said, "Maybe we should get him tennis balls." He cringed slightly at the team's collective groan.
Eiji laughed at the cowering egg-headed Oishi. He couldn't help but admire Oishi's bravery in the suggestion, but he also admired Oishi's hair style. The two locks of hair that were Oishi's bangs were definitely the most interesting and courageous way to show that Oishi didn't care about fashion. Because Eiji and Oishi were the golden pair, Eiji felt that it would be best for him to criticize Oishi's suggestion out loud.
"That's so generic, Oishi! And Echizen probably has enough tennis balls to bury us all alive. We all probably do. Er, right?" Eiji broke off slightly at the end, which eliminated the effect he had wanted to create. Oh, fine, he thought sulkily. Ignore me.
In order to break the awkward silence that had ensued, Kawamura surprised everyone by speaking up. "Maybe we could, um… Give Echizen some sushi from my shop? He couldn't come here today, so…" Kawamura shrank under everyone's glance. He was relieved when Tezuka took all the attention from him.
"You've given us more than enough Sushi, Kawamura. It's fine," the captain said, asserting his authority. His serious facial expression, made more stern by the fact that he wore imposing ovular glasses, made everyone wrack their brains for better ideas of what to give Echizen. Although everyone silently agreed that the captain would look much more handsome if he actually smiled, they said nothing.
They also were silently thankful that Tezuka's glasses were not opaque, because they shared the mutual feeling that people with opaque glasses, such as Inui, were creepy. The fact that people with opaque glasses were stalker-like was intimidating as well, although that was discriminating against people who wore opaque glasses.
Tezuka, on the other hand, was not thinking about what to give Echizen for his birthday. Such trivial thoughts did not affect him. He also wasn't quite creative enough to get any good ideas.
Instead, the captain was glancing, almost pitifully, at Kaidoh. He felt bad that the Regulars had convinced him to give the bandana to Kaidoh. Tezuka hadn't realized that he was being used, and couldn't take the bandana back for fear of hurting his other team members' feelings. He also didn't know that Kaidoh wouldn't refuse a present from the captain, no matter how much he hated it. The bandana also amused Tezuka slightly, anyways.
"Hmm… this is hard…" Momoshiro muttered, snapping Tezuka out of his reverie.
"C'mon, "trickster," out of ideas?" Kaidoh taunted.
"Shut up! It's not like you ever have ideas anyways. But… wait! I have an idea…" As Momoshiro laid out his plan, there was collective evil cackling around the table until Kawamura's father ran screaming from the sushi shop. It took several hours for the Regulars to calm him down, and by then it was midnight. The Regulars quickly went shopping for goods and did other various sketchy things in the early hours of the morning. They had not slept at all, but they were too excited to sleep. Echizen's surprise party was going to be great.
*The Next Day*
Echizen snoozed peacefully on his bed, dreaming of tennis. However, his dream became monstrously scary when he began losing a match due to an insistent "ding-dong" that greatly distracted him. Finally, his nightmare dissipated when he realized that the doorbell was ringing.
"Uh… It's only eleven in the morning," Echizen grumbled sleepily. "Who's here?"
Echizen slipped out of bed in his tennis PJ's that he had had for a long time. Once he descended his stairs and opened the front door, he never regretted anything more in his life.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ECHIZEN!" chorused the Regulars. They all carried mysterious boxes, and walked into Echizen's house. He didn't resist, being too stunned to do anything but stare, open-mouthed.
"Why don't we start off with the cake?" Eiji suggested, after a long silence. He shut the front door and walked into Echizen's kitchen. Despite the fact that the band-aid on his chin slightly lowered the dramatic effect of putting his giant box on the table, there was still an air of extreme expectation.
"After we eat the cake, we'll open the presents!" Momoshiro shouted in attempt to bridge another silence.
"Hmph," Kaidoh said, jealous of Momoshiro's ability to not be awkward.
"Hey, don't snake-poop this party, Kaido," Momoshiro said evilly.
"FSHHHHH!" Kaidoh hissed as loudly as he could. Steam literally blew out of his mouth and nose.
"You two, stop," Tezuka said. Immediately, as if Momoshiro and Kaidoh had been shocked, they stood stock-straight and stared directly forward. There was a feeling of tension that Fuji finally broke when he tapped the cake's box.
"Can I open it?" Echizen asked. Finally, he had un-stunned himself enough to want to eat the cake.
"Wait!" Oishi cried. He snatched Echizen's greedy hand away from the giant cake box. "First, we have to sing the song!"
"NOOOOO!" Echizen shrieked. But there was nothing that could stop the Regulars. Forming a barrier around the cake, they sang to the tune of "Happy Birthday"…
"Mada mada dane!" Echizen began to plug his ears, but his hands froze in mid-air. Judging from his acute hearing, Kawamura, Fuji, and, surprisingly, Tezuka were all fairly skilled singers. On the other hand, Inui, Oishi, Eiji, and Kaidoh were terribly off-pitch. Therefore, Echizen couldn't decide whether or not he should plug his ears, and his hands remained awkwardly in the air.
"E-chi-zen!" Momoshiro interjected in the place of "cha-cha-cha."
"Mada mada dane!" continued the tennis team.
"Ry-o-ma!"
"Mada mada da-neeee!"
"E-chi-zen!"
"Happy birthday to you!"
"Ry-o—Hey! You weren't supposed to actually sing it right!" Momoshiro said, looking affronted. He immediately turned away when Echizen aimed a deadly glare at him. The expression on the young Regular's face was too good to be forgotten. Immediately, Inui, being the sketchy person that he is, snatched out a camera and flash! Echizen's facial would be remembered forever. Inui calmly stuck the picture in his Sketchy Notebook of Stalkerland, and then dodged Echizen's attempt to punch him.
"BURNING! Now let's reveal the cake!" Kawamura said. He was holding his racket, which was why he talked at all.
Tezuka yanked open the big box's cover, and the wonderful cake was revealed (although not as magnificently as the Regulars would have liked). Squirted on with beautiful precision were the words, "MADA MADA DANE!" They took up almost the whole cake, and in tiny letters on the bottom, Echizen Ryoma could see his full name. But before he could do anything destructive or anger-releasing, Fuji shoved a beautifully wrapped present into Echizen's arms. Unsurprisingly, the wrapping paper was dotted with tennis balls.
"Open it!" Fuji said excitedly. Echizen opened the present, and his facial expression was hilarious enough for Inui to get another picture.
"WHAT?!" the cocky boy exclaimed. He had ripped open the wrapper so eagerly, and when he opened the box, he hadn't expected another thing that said "mada mada dane." It was clear that he was kind of slow. But when he held up the t-shirt that bore the words "MADA MADA DANE" in huge letters, the look on his face was so priceless that he was bombarded with flashes from Inui's camera.
"Now, you can wear that t-shirt instead of saying "mada mada dane" yourself!" Fuji said. He looked so overjoyed and happy that Echizen simply couldn't say anything mean.
"Uh… thanks, Fuji…" he muttered.
"Mine next!" Kaidoh snapped. He shoved a pretty, bright green-yellow gift bag into Echizen's arms. The first year noticed that the color was exactly the same as that of a tennis ball. Echizen removed the blue tissue paper (he was confused about why the tissue paper was blue) and was once again blinded by flashes from Inui's camera. In his hands was a cap that said "mada mada dane." It looked almost exactly like his.
Inui finally put down his camera while Echizen groped around blindly for a place to put his presents, and a place to put his wrapping paper and boxes. Before his vision fully returned, Inui shoved another box into Echizen's hands. The first year still hadn't caught up with the situation, and obediently opened the box. There was a look of resignation on Echizen's face when he pulled out a mug that proclaimed "mada mada dane" on its sides.
"Whenever I give you vegetable juices, I'll pour them into that mug for you," Inui cackled evilly.
Echizen looked relieved when Tezuka handed him a gift.
"Thanks, captain," he said. But he nearly dropped it in surprise. It was extremely heavy. When Echizen opened it, his look of open disdain was quickly captured by Inui before he hastily hid his expression behind a practiced fake smile.
"These are great," he said, seeming to struggle slightly with words. In his hands, he held the ankle weights that were used for running, and on them were the words "mada mada dane."
"There are no more, right?" Echizen said desperately. He finally caught on with the situation, but Oishi was already putting something in his hands. Thankfully, whatever Oishi's gift was, it wasn't nearly as heavy as Tezuka's. In fact, it was extremely light. Eiji also quickly handed Echizen something that was extremely small. Echizen opened Oishi's gift first and looked at it with confusion, but then relief.
"Just a pack of stickers. That's okay," he said.
"No, read them!" Oishi exclaimed. Echizen did, and groaned.
"What are they for?" he asked.
"You can stick them on your racket, you see how they say "mada mada dane?" That way, when you point your racket vertically at your opponent, he might tilt his head sideways to read it. See how "mada mada dane" is written horizontally? Isn't that a great idea?" Oishi spoke quicker and quicker due to his nervousness.
"Sure…" Echizen muttered. Finally, he opened Eiji's gift and sighed. "A shock absorber that says "mada mada dane." How kind of you."
"Don't you love it?!" Eiji demanded.
"As much as I love you," Echizen said.
"That must mean you hate it," Momoshiro said. He dodged Eiji as the acrobatic tennis player jumped towards him with frightful agility.
"Now that's it, right?" Echizen asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately, yes," Momoshiro said, still trying to avoid Eiji's onslaught. Momoshiro was running around the kitchen while Eiji jumped around on chairs and grabbed lights to keep up with the trickster. "Kawamura and I made the cake!" Momoshiro added.
"Eiji, stop that," Oishi chided. Immediately, the acrobatic Eiji stopped.
"Well, I guess that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed your presents, Echizen!" Fuji said cheerfully. As the Regulars left Echizen's house, Inui removed his glasses and laughed. In a frightful crescendo, his laugh became evil, weird, and twisted. The Regulars screamed and ran around the house in fear. That is, of course, except for Tezuka and Fuji, because they are sooo cool and I love them!! Actually, that's not the reason. It's because Tezuka was starting to suspect something… He walked up to Inui, and immediately the maniacal laughter stopped.
"You are a monster," Tezuka said coldly. "Give me your glasses."
"No!!!" Inui cried. He held his glasses as if they were a lifeline. Although a description would be nice, it's impossible to say what color Inui's eyes are, because he never takes his glasses off. Ever. Actually, they get knocked off, but his eyes are not revealed. So, with an educated guess, let Inui's eye color be brown. Inui's brown eyes were filled with fear.
"Don't tell me you implanted a camcorder into your glasses," Fuji said. He opened his sharp blue eyes and glanced slyly and Inui.
"It's not true!! NO! NOOOOOO!" Inui screamed desperately as Tezuka confiscated the glasses. The responsible captain saw a small red button on one side, and a tiny green arrow on the other. There was even a USB port for uploading the video onto the computer. He noticed that the glasses got extremely thick in the back, but because most people wouldn't be able to see the back, the USB port was well-concealed.
"Hm… how does this work…" Tezuka muttered to himself. He pressed the green arrow, which he assumed was the play button. To his astonishment, a screen appeared before him, and he watched the surprise party from Inui's perspective. And, for the first time in his life, he laughed. Inui ran around, screaming at Echizen to get a camcorder. Fuji just gave Tezuka a sharp look.
"FIFTY PERCENT CHANCE THAT THE CAMCORDER IS IN THAT DRAWER!" Inui shrieked.
"No! It's not!" Echizen shouted frantically as Inui began to sift haphazardly through the nearest cabinet. "INUI, YOU IDIOT, THAT'S NOT EVEN A DRAWER, IT'S A CABINET! STOP THAT!!" Not surprisingly, the cabinet was filled with tennis balls. Inui threw them around the room in his frantic search for a camcorder.
"Inui, stop that," Tezuka said. He had quickly regained his composure after the sudden laugh attack.
Instantly, Inui froze.
"How did you guys even get all this stuff? And where the heck did you get it?" Echizen asked.
"Kawamura, Fuji, and Tezuka are well-connected," Momoshiro said. The three Regulars that Momoshiro mentioned all glanced at each other and chuckled slightly.
"Actually, I helped them, son," said a voice. A middle-aged man smoking a cigar and wearing a monk's robe sauntered into the kitchen. He glanced around at the devastated room. Chairs were overturned and tennis balls were scattered around the floor. Eiji and Oishi were the first to calm down after the trauma of listening to Inui's creepy laugh, and they were hastily attempting to pick up tennis balls. Kaido was cowering under the table, but he immediately crawled out and tried to act as though he was scrounging for tennis balls under there.
"You guys are going to clean this up, right?" Nanjiroh said threateningly.
"Of course," Fuji said. He smiled so joyfully that Nanjiroh said, "Er, actually, it's okay, Echizen can do it."
"What?! But it's my birthday today!" Echizen whined.
"Fine. If we all stick together, we can work this out!" Nanjiroh said, picking a line from a cheesy movie.
"How about you clean it up," Echizen muttered.
"Psh! This isn't my mess! It's not my job!"
"Yeah it is."
"No it's not."
"Let's just pick everything up!" Tezuka snapped. He had slipped Inui's glasses into a pocket.
"Hey, Tezuka, can I have my glasses back?" Inui asked innocently, sauntering up to Tezuka.
"No."
"But…" Inui's voice broke off weakly. He slowly walked out of Echizen's house as if he were an old man. As soon as he was out the door, he sprinted home.
Muahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Inui laughed internally. Not only have I avoided picking up the tennis balls, I got my glasses back! To Tezuka's great misfortune, Inui had learned sleight of hand upon predicting that Tezuka had a one hundred percent possibility of discovering and confiscating his glasses. Thankfully, Tezuka didn't place the glasses in his pocket very well, and a bit of the frame was poking out. Therefore, sleight of hand actually wasn't necessary, but Inui wanted to be cool, so he used it. He slipped into his room and began uploading the video onto the internet.
Meanwhile, at Echizen's house, the tennis balls had finally all been returned to their original cabinet and everyone went home.
The next morning, Tezuka noticed that Inui's glasses were not in his possession, so he went online and found Inui's video.
Inui was sleeping peacefully in his room until he heard a stomp, stomp, stomp noise. He woke up, put his glasses on, and glanced out the window. He removed his glasses and rubbed his [brown] eyes frantically. Finally, Inui decided that he was dreaming and tried to get back to sleep. But the insistent dinosaur that stood outside his window would not be turned away.
"INUI!" it roared.
"Just a dream, just a dream…" Inui muttered to himself.
"TAKE THAT VIDEO OFF THE INTERNET RIGHT NOW!"
"Just a dream… just a…"
ROAR!
Inui flew out of his room screaming. He flapped his arms and jumped out the window. Once he hit the ground, he laid there limply.
"Inui, what is wrong with you? Your room is on the first floor, and your window is literally five feet off the ground," said a voice. Cautiously, Inui glanced up and saw Tezuka staring down at him.
"Wh-what just happened?" Inui stammered.
"Nothing," Tezuka said, completely straight-faced. After a few minutes, Inui reluctantly removed the video from the internet and went back to sleep. He didn't do anything for the rest of the day except cower in his room.
Tezuka walked through a forest that was near Inui's house and met up with the rest of the Regulars. They laughed hysterically like hyenas before Tezuka's angry glare stopped them short.
"Don't make me do that again," Tezuka said.
"But even you were having fun, weren't you?" Fuji asked. He held the head of a giant dinosaur. It was beautifully crafted out of hastily painted paper, but looked realistic enough for Inui to fall for it. Kawamura was tiredly leaning on a rock, holding his tennis racket.
"Taka almost lost his voice roaring like that," Tezuka berated the team.
"I'm fine," he replied. "Let's go, I'm tired."
So, the Regulars went home.
I ran out of ideas at the end, it's probably evident. Originally I hadn't even planned for it to be this long. My bad. And I guess I should also disclaim that I don't own HighSchoolMusical 2. And I noticed that I forgot to put "h"'s on the end of Kaidoh's and Nanjiroh's names. I scanned through and corrected that, but I might have missed some. As usual, please review. Constructive criticism is encouraged. I was going to say something else, too, but I forgot... Oh, well, I learned that Inui's eyes are actually green. I didn't change the color though because... because I just didn't feel like it.
