Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis does not belong to me. This story was written purely for enjoyment.

Warning: Contains violence and yaoi. If either of these things bothers you, please don't read – this fic is not for you. No complaining about things you were warned about!

Author's Note: I normally veer away from crossover land, but The World Ends With You gave me the bug BAD. Which is inconvenient, as I find games generally suffer awkward transition to fic. Also, given the obscurity of the crossover, I estimate that the target audience of this fic currently stands at about two (if I include myself).

All of that aside, I am posting this anyway. Hopefully someone will enjoy it. Rest assured, I made the fic as friendly to those outside of the TWEWY fandom as possible. It's actually probably more an AU than a true crossover, anyway.

Do not be surprised if you don't know what's going on. That is intentional. Should be a chapter uploaded a day, barring any

The World Begins With Tennis

By Sinnatious

The First Day

Wind rustled through the tree leaves and the hum of cars and thud of footsteps rang in his ears. The ground was gritty, cold, and uncomfortable.

What was he doing on the ground?

Golden eyes blinked owlishly at the unexpected brightness of daylight. He pushed himself to his feet, staggering about for a moment in a sleepy fog. Where was he? A footpath? In front a bus stop, with a digital readout of the next bus's arrival time on the post next to it. There were some people walking past, but none of them paid him any attention whatsoever. Disorientated, he glanced around. There were trees lining the footpath, and he could spy an outdoor mall in one direction, and what looked like a school in the other. If he listened carefully, he could hear the rumble of a train over the drone of traffic. There was a station nearby.

He had absolutely no idea what he was doing there, or how he got there.

None of the people walking past even spared him a glance. He pushed himself back against the wall as a small group of students walked past – they looked like they were about his age. "Hey, can you-"

Ignored. The students continued walking towards the school, chattering amongst themselves. Slightly miffed, he felt about in his pockets, and came up with a handful of pins with strange designs on them. Weird.

He was about to toss the pins into the trashcan when a beeping sound caught his attention, accompanied by a buzz against his thigh.

His phone?

Somewhat cautiously, he pulled the phone from his pocket and flipped it open. Who could be calling him?

The message was short and concise: 'Go to the front of Seigaku. You have 3 hours. Fail, and face erasure.'

What?

A sharp pain ran through his hand like a bolt of electricity. He winced, nearly dropping the phone and pins, and then opened his palm. Numbers ticked down ominously on it. Three hours?

What the hell was this? A thread of cold fear snaked through him, but he ruthlessly squashed it. He wasn't about to freak out and panic like some helpless kid. It was probably just some chain letter thing. Annoyed, he hit 'delete', but even after deleting it, the message was still there. Weird. Was his phone broken?

A spark from the bus stop timetable caught his attention. Scrolling across the bottom were the words, 'You have 7 days.'

The words sent a chill through him, but he turned around, determined to ignore them. Maybe rather than a chain letter it was some sort of viral marketing campaign. Where was Seigaku anyway? It sounded like a nickname for a school – probably the one down the road there. But why on earth would it take three hours to walk a couple of blocks?

He'd be better off just ignoring it. He headed towards the outdoor mall instead. He passed an electronics store on the way. Every television displayed the same freaky message: 'You have 7 days'.

What did it all mean?

He couldn't care less. Although that timer on his hand was sort of unnerving him.

"Hey! Hey!"

Some idiot was running down the street, yelling. He kept walking, hands in pockets and cap down low. None of his business.

"You! The kid with the cap!"

The guy sounded sort of panicked. Annoyed, he turned around, but the sullen retort died on his lips when he caught sight of the weird creatures chasing the stranger. Frogs? No… not exactly. They resembled frogs, but they were strange colours and parts of them seemed almost insubstantial. Also, since when did frog legs look so sharp?

The guy was quickly getting pinned down. "Hey! Hey, you're a Player, aren't you?! Make a pact-"

He was gone. What happened? Did those creatures... eat him? Destroy him? What? It was like he just blurred from existence – as though a television with bad reception suddenly flicked off.

It left him with a very uneasy feeling.

Then the frogs started hopping towards him.

He wasn't stupid enough to hang around. He took off at a run in the opposite direction. The frogs chased after him, seeming content to ignore everyone else in their pursuit. He was faster, though. Soon, he was far enough away that he felt safe enough to stop and catch his breath. He took big heaving gulps of air, and checked his palm nervously. Half an hour had already passed.

What would happen if the timer reached zero? Suddenly, he very much wanted to know.

"Echizen?"

He whirled around, eyes wild. More creatures?

No. It was another boy, probably about his age, maybe a couple of years older, wearing a pale lavender button-up shirt and black slacks. He was well presented, with perfect posture, neat brown hair, and thin wire-framed glasses. "What?"

The other boy walked closer. Brown eyes widened slightly, though his facial expression didn't otherwise change. "You've got a Player Pin... you're also a Player?"

"Player... what are you talking about? Who are you?!" he snapped, feeling more than a little stressed with some ominous red number counting down on his hand and freaky creatures running about making people disappear.

This time, actual shock showed on the stranger's face. "You don't... Of course. My apologies. I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu."

For a second, he was tempted to just walk off, but this guy looked like the sort who'd hassle him if he didn't introduce himself properly. "Echizen Ryoma." He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Echizen, you're-" Tezuka cut himself off and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Quickly, we need to make a pact."

"A what-?"

There was a flash of light, and it felt as though something warm yet intangible was enveloping him. It felt sort of nice. Safe.

The safe feeling didn't last. When he opened his eyes – when had he closed them? – he was confronted with the weird frogs again. "What are these things?!" One landed on his leg, and he kicked it off with a wince. Those legs didn't just look sharp!

That guy – Tezuka – suddenly wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Ryoma sort of thought he was close. Sure enough, he could hear his voice, even if he couldn't see him anywhere. "Use your pins!"

Use the pins? He grabbed one at random – it was red, and looked sort of fiery. He clutched it in his hand, wondering how to 'use' it, and was surprised to see flames rise from the ground nearby. What-?

There was no time to think about it. He clutched the pin again, and stared at the frogs. They squealed as they were enveloped in pillars of fire, before vanishing from existence much in the same way that other guy had earlier.

Weird. Really, really, weird, but he wasn't about to question it. There was only one left, and he turned to it, ready to fry it like all the others. To his surprise, though, it vanished on its own a moment later, and in that same instant Tezuka was standing by his side again. "You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine. Where did you go?" he asked, a little petulantly.

"With a pact, you fight the noise on different frequencies. It's the only way to beat them, supposedly. I was on a slightly lower frequency."

"Noise… those creatures?" he guessed, awfully confused about the whole affair but not particularly wanting to show it.

"Yes," Tezuka replied patiently. "Now that we have a pact, they should at least stop targeting us. Let's go – we've got less than two hours to get back to Seigaku."

Ryoma squinted, staring into the distance. "The school? The one back over there?"

"We don't know what obstacles might be in our way. It would careless to leave the mission to the last minute."

"Wait… so you've got a timer too?"

Tezuka held up the palm of his hand. A timer identical to his own ticked down on it.

Things were getting beyond creepy now. "And the message on the phone?"

"The same. All players get the same mission." Brown eyes stared at him, as though expecting a reaction, but Ryoma just met the gaze evenly. "…You weren't paying attention?"

"Paying attention to what?"

Tezuka didn't answer. "We don't have time. I'll fill you in on the parts you missed later." He started striding purposefully towards the school.

Ryoma didn't really want to be relying on anyone, but had to admit that this guy at least seemed to know a lot of useful stuff about everything weird going on, so sullenly followed. Tezuka's stride was annoyingly long, though, and Ryoma had to walk twice as fast to keep up. There was no way that he'd ask him to slow down. And the sight of those weird creatures out of the corner of his eyes - Tezuka called them Noise? - were motivation enough to keep up.

It was only fifteen minutes walk at that pace to reach the school Ryoma had seen in the distance. Classes were already in session, of course – he'd woken up on the footpath when they were just starting. Tezuka stopped at the gate, staring at the school with an odd sort of expression on his face.

"Hey, what's your problem?" he asked grouchily, cranky at having to practically run to keep up with the taller boy.

"It's nothing," Tezuka replied quietly. Still, Ryoma imagined he looked a little… wistful? Regretful? It was hard to guess. Frustrated by the hard-to-read teen, he turned his attention to the rest of his surroundings. There was a plain-looking guy dressed in a school uniform leaning next to the school gate. Shouldn't he be in class?

"Pact confirmed," the stranger muttered – voice quiet enough that he could barely hear him.

As though the words spurred him, Tezuka strode past the school gate. Ryoma was briefly tempted to wait behind just to make a point, but trailed after with a sigh. They stopped near the entrance.

Tezuka glanced at his hand. "Good, the timer's gone. We made it." Dark, serious brown eyes turned back to him.

Ryoma checked his hand too, and sure enough, the red numbers had vanished. "Che, we hurried for nothing. We still had another hour left."

"I suppose they want an easy mission for the first day."

Ryoma shrugged. "Whatever. I'm out of here." The freaky timer was gone, so as far as he was concerned, there was no need hang around this guy anymore. He turned back towards the gate.

"Echizen!" His wrist was immediately caught in a firm grip. He frowned, and shook his arm, but it didn't loosen.

"Let go."

"It's dangerous to wander off on your own. You won't be able to fight if you get attacked by Noise." Tezuka said sternly.

"I don't understand any of this," he muttered, and jerked his arm free. "I'm leaving."

"Echizen! Listen! Do you want to run laps?" Tezuka asked in a warning voice.

Ryoma frowned, turning back around. "Laps? Why should I do what you say? Just because of some pact? You're in no position to order me around."

Tezuka opened his mouth as though to respond, then closed it again. Eventually… "You're right, of course."

Silence.

Ryoma stared. "….And?"

Tezuka turned away. "We're partners, now. We need to work together as a team to make it through the week," was the stiff response. "So… please don't go running off. It will make it dangerous for both of us."

Ryoma tugged down his cap, hiding a scowl. He wasn't very good at working with people. This didn't seem like a good sign.

Wait… a week?

'You have 7 days.'

First Day, End.