Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis, so yeah, obviously, I don't own any of the Hyoutei regulars and their hotness!
Gekokujou.
The National tournament was coming up and the Hyoutei boys' tennis club was all geared up and through the countless hours of practice on the courts, were in top shape to play. Training and mental preparation for the tournament was all going so well until a certain orange-brown haired second year student made an announcement.
"What do you mean you failed the exam?" the fiercely elegant captain of the team asked with an edge of danger in his tone, giving his underclassman a chance to hopefully change what he had just said.
"...it means exactly what I said. I failed the exam." the underclassman replied, face emotionless.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!" the acrobatic player of the team yelled, charging forward at his brown haired team mate with a fist in the air. "WE ALREADY LOST THE KANTOU TOURNAMENT ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN THE CHANCES OF HYOUTEI WINNING THE NATIONALS AS WELL?"
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down, Gakuto." a tall bespectacled boy said with a calm demeanor, restraining his shouting team mate by interlocking his arms underneath the other's armpits.
"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN, YUUSHI, HOW?" Gakuto continued to yell.
"Hiyoshi, when you were sitting the exams, did you know that if you fail, you jeopardize the tennis club's privileges of entering tournaments?" Yuushi asked.
"No. I thought it would only be me that couldn't participate, not the whole team." came Hiyoshi's answer.
"You've been in the club long enough, you should know!" Captain Atobe said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and crossed a leg over the other while he sat on his throne.
"Oi, oi, so were you planning not to play in the tournament?" one member said, putting on his blue cap backwards and started to adjust the strings of his tennis racquet. "Whether you intended to fail or not, not passing an exam, geki dasa daze!"
"Shishido-senpai, let's not add fuel to the fire." a silver haired boy said gently.
"Stay out of it Choutarou. You're a second year and just had the same exams yet you managed to pass them." Shishido said gruffly.
Hiyoshi folded his arms and stared at Shishido with narrow eyes.
"Oi, watch your attitude toward your seniors!" Shishido barked, pointing a finger at Hiyoshi. "I'll-"
Shishido was cut off by the sound of Atobe snapping his fingers. He stood up from his throne and faced Hiyoshi, pointing at him with his well manicured hand.
"When is the make up exam, please say there is one!" Atobe demanded.
"Tomorrow." came Hiyoshi's curt reply.
"TOMORROW?" All the regulars exclaimed in unison.
"If I'm not mistaken, we got our exam results back last week." Choutarou informed.
"AND YOU ONLY THOUGHT TO TELL US NOW, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Gakuto shouted, trying to throw a punch at Hiyoshi whilst struggling under the constraint of Yuushi.
"Okay, there is no time to waste. Exactly what subjects did you not pass?" Yuushi asked, arms still locked around Gakuto.
"Math, English and Japanese History." Hiyoshi mumbled, the shame of failing three subjects only just starting to hit him.
"Right. I'll help you with your math." Yuushi replied, then added to the squirming Gakuto in his arms, "Stop, trying to punch him, Gakuto. Punching him won't turn back time and won't help him pass the make up tests either!"
"Ore-sama will take care of your English." Atobe said. "As for Japanese history..."
All eyes in the clubroom landed on Shishido who was sitting on the couch, one leg crossed over the other and was looking up at the ceiling seemingly fascinated by it.
"Shishido-senpai, history is one of your stronger subjects, isn't it?" Choutarou piped up.
Shishido tore his eyes away from the ceiling and gave his doubles partner a death stare.
"Shishido." Atobe said in a stern tone.
"Do it for the team, think about the team." Gakuto, who had now calmed down and was released from Yuushi's arm lock started chanting, "Do it for the team, think about the team."
"All right, fine." Shishido said reluctantly after a few seconds of silence. "For the team."
"So it's deci-" Atobe was cut off mid-sentence by the door of the clubroom being opened, then slammed shut.
"AHH, THAT WAS A GOOD NAP, NOW TO GET CHANGED FOR PRAC- Eh?" the boy who had just burst through the door blinked and rubbed his eyes, "Why are you all here and not at the courts?"
"You're just in time Jirou, Ore-sama was just about to make an announcement." Atobe told the confused boy with ruffled wavy hair.
He cleared his throat then snapped his fingers. "Practice for today has been cancelled. All regular members gather at Ore-sama's manor promptly at six-thirty tonight. Agenda: Helping Hiyoshi pass his exams so the team can play in the upcoming tournament!"
"What, why do I have to go too? I'm not even teaching him anything!" Gakuto complained.
"Gakuto-senpai, it will be good for us to be there for moral support." Choutarou told his senior.
"Ugh, whatever." Gakuto said as he slumped his shoulders.
"Let's go, Kabaji." Atobe said as he made his way toward the door.
"Ussu!" Kabaji said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere and followed after Atobe.
"Seriously, Kabaji needs to stop magically appearing whenever Atobe says his name. It freaks me out." Yuushi said with a shiver.
It was six-thirty and everyone had arrived on time, all with the exception of Jirou who had probably fallen asleep somewhere. Atobe let it go because, well, Jirou was Jirou.
"Why are you making me wear this? How is it going to help in any way?" Shishido grumbled, pointing to the spectacles which were now sitting on the bridge of his nose. "Geki dasa-!"
"And it's not like making me take out my contacts and wearing my glasses is going to help me study better." Hiyoshi mumbled.
"Don't you feel slightly smarter with it on?" Yuushi asked, pushing his own glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "At least it makes you look smarter."
"Ore-sama is feeling so much more superior than usual." Atobe marveled as he caught his bespectacled reflection in the glass of a window.
"Senpai, can we just get on with it?" Hiyoshi asked with an unamused expression on his face.
"Oh, yes. Who would like to begin?" Atobe questioned as he surveyed Shishido and Yuushi's faces.
"I will go first." Yuushi volunteered. "Take out your math books, Hiyoshi. Seeing as we only have a few hours, it will be a crash course."
Yuushi started to explain the various formulae he would expect to come up in the exam. Throughout all the explanations, Hiyoshi just looked at Yuushi, his face as blank as ever.
"Are you following me so far?" Yuushi asked.
"No." came Hiyoshi's reply.
Yuushi sighed then started from the beginning, "Okay, so, there are several questions wanting you to find the volume of three dimensional objects, right?"
Hiyoshi nodded.
"Right, so in this case, you use a formula which..." Yuushi started to explain the formula in simple terms, using his hand and arms to gesture sizes and put emphasis on important parts.
"So, in other words...?" Hiyoshi said slowly.
"In other words..." Yuushi continued to explain, but now he was waving his arms around madly.
"Do you get it now?" He asked when he had finished.
"I think so." Hiyoshi replied his senior whose face was now covered in beads of sweat.
"Good. Finally, we can move on." Yuushi said, wiping his brow with the back of a hand.
On the other side of the room, the rest of the regulars, minus Jirou were sitting on Atobe's large and comfortable couches, watching the ordeal.
"Man, I feel for Yuushi." Shishido commented, "I just hope the little brat's better at Japanese history."
"Perhaps," Atobe said, "Under the current circumstances, a whiteboard will help Yuushi paint the picture better. Kabaji."
"Ussu." Kabaji said and disappeared, returning moments later dragging a whiteboard behind him with one hand and with his other hand he was supporting a familiar sleeping figure draped over his shoulder.
"Ah, Jirou-senpai!" Choutarou exclaimed, surprised.
"Good job, Kabaji. Where did you find him?" Atobe asked.
"Lawn."
After three hours had gone by with numerous snacking breaks (generously prepared by Atobe's butlers, maids and Choutarou who went to help out in the kitchen), Yuushi was finally satisfied with his achievements and the amount of mathematical knowledge he had drilled into his underclassman and announced his retirement.
He walked over to the couch where he found Shishido snoring and sighed.
"I guess you should go first then, Atobe." Yuushi said to the lavender-haired captain who was reading a book.
Atobe put down his book and got up from his spot on the couch which Yuushi sank into the second the way was clear. He made his way to the table Hiyoshi was sitting at and snapped his fingers so loudly that Shishido's eyes ripped open and made him sit straight up in the couch.
"Oh, what, okay...not my turn yet." he mumbled sleepily then fell back asleep.
"Be awed at the prowess of Ore-sama's English!" Atobe declared smugly to Hiyoshi.
"Yeah, okay. I just want to get on with it so I can sleep." Hiyoshi told Atobe apathetically.
"First, we will work on your conversational English. Ore-sama sees that you are given several day-to-day basis scenarios and have to write a conversation dialogue?"
"Yes."
"Right, let's look at this one first!" Atobe said holding up a series of pictures of a salesman and a customer in a bookstore with speech bubbles coming out from them. "Try this."
Hiyoshi started to scribble words in each speech bubble and in a matter of minutes, he was finished.
Atobe started to read what Hiyoshi had written out loud in his perfect British pronunciation.
"Excuse me, Mister. I would want find book talking tennis." the first speech bubble coming out of the customer said.
Atobe's right eye twitched ever so slightly but he kept reading.
"Yes. I get book for you take home. Read this book, okay?"
Next speech bubble.
"No. This book for first playing people. I more good than this."
Next speech bubble.
"Okay. I find other one. This one okay?"
Next speech bubble.
"Yes. For professional, like me. Good. Thank you. Goodbye."
"No, no, no. What is this!" Atobe exclaimed, waving the sheet of paper in front of Hiyoshi. "Who is your teacher? Ore-sama is sure that teaching standards in Hyoutei were better than this! Whoever taught you must be fired immediately!"
"What's wrong with my work?" Hiyoshi asked calmly.
"I can understand what you're trying to say, but your sentences don't make sense." Atobe continued. "See here, the first speech bubble should be, "Excuse me, Mister. I would like to find a book about tennis.". What is this talking tennis crap? You can't just directly translate from Japanese into English, it won't make sense because you'll be missing conjunctions and necessary participles."
"And?" Hiyoshi asked.
"AND SO YOUR SENTENCES WON'T MAKE SENSE!" Atobe shouted.
"Okay, I get it. Don't directly translate from Japanese." Hiyoshi said with a nod.
Atobe sighed then started explaining Hiyoshi about the use of prepositions and conjunctions. He wrote several examples on the whiteboard and one Hiyoshi said he had got the hang of it, Atobe got him to try the conversation writing exercise again with the remaining three scenarios.
"I'm done." Hiyoshi said, passing his papers to Atobe which Atobe passed back to him.
"Ore-sama's eyes are tired. Read them to me." Atobe ordered. "Explain the scenario before each one first."
"Okay." Hiyoshi replied. "I'm at the convenience store with a headache asking for some pain relievers."
"Right, carry on."
"Eeto, harro, my heddo isu hueeling belli soa. Do you sellu any medisin foa za pein?"
Next speech bubble.
"Yes. Eeto...I do hafu samu zatto maito be vatsu you a rooking foa."
Atobe's ears twitched.
"Eeto...Okay. Preezu gibu me one bokkusu. Sankyuu."
At this point, Atobe snatched the rest of the papers from Hiyoshi's hands and continued to read them himself.
"Tell you what, Hiyoshi, you're lucky that this conversational English is a paper test and not an oral examination." Atobe said to Hiyoshi. "Right, Ore-sama is satisfied with your progress. Time for your Japanese history."
Hiyoshi collapsed onto the desk, taking advantage of every second he could have to just close his eyes for a little bit.
"Kabaji, wake Shishido up." Atobe ordered.
"Ussu." Kabaji said and obediently grabbed Shishido by the scruff of his neck and rattled him.
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA. EASY THERE KABAJI!" Shishido yelled, then let out a loud "Ouf" as Kabaji let go of him and was dropped back onto the couch which was now bed to pretty much all the regulars, except Jirou who was curled up on the carpet.
"I thought Kabaji's wake up calls were only exclusively for Jirou." Shishido muttered cracking his neck and shoulders.
"Ore-sama shall pass the baton to you." Atobe said, "Ore-sama is now going to take a well-deserved soak in the bath."
"Going to take a bath while he made the rest of the regulars come when they don't even need to be here." Shishido said under his breath, "This guy..."
"Senpai, seriously, why does it take all of you guys so long to get started." Hiyoshi said with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, get your stuff out, brat." Shishido said lazily.
"I already have it all out." Hiyoshi answered.
"We're ready to roll then." Shishido said, rolling up his sleeves.
"Look, there's no easy way to do it, rote learning is the only way to go." he told Hiyoshi bluntly. "So, I'm just going to fire questions at you. Here we go. First question. What era is the eighth century?"
"How am I suppo-"
"Shoot out whatever comes to your mind." Shishido commanded.
"Fine. Um, Nara era."
"Correct."
"The Nara era goes from what year to what year?"
"Erm...uhh...700AD to 790AD?"
"Wrong. Correct answer is 710AD to 794AD. Don't just stare at me, write the answer down!" Shishido ordered, slapping the table.
Hiyoshi's hand scrambled to pick up a his pen and started hastily writing in his notebook.
"How many emperors or empresses rules during this era?"
"Uh...seven?"
"Wrong! There were eight. Four empresses and four emperors."
"Eight in total, four of each." Hiyoshi said as he wrote it down.
"Name them. In order."
"I-in order? How do you expect me to do that? I didn't even know there were eight of them to begin with. Let alone do it in order!" Hiyoshi spluttered.
"Fine. I'll give you the answers and you better write them down. First was Empress Gemmei, then Empress Genshou, then Emperor Shoumu, next Empress Kouken, after her, Emperor Junnin, after him, Empress Shoutoku, then Emperor Kounin and lastly Emperor Kammu. Got that?" Shishido recited.
Hiyoshi nodded.
Shishido attacked Hiyoshi with some more questions then they progressed onto more detailed events that happened during the Nara era of Japan.
"Okay, so what happened in the year 757 was that this...uh,this dude got defeated by what was his name again, Kujiwara-" Hiyoshi began.
Shishido shook his head in exasperation. Names were not Hiyoshi's friend, either that or he just didn't want to remember them.
"Hold it right there. How about I explain it like this. In 757, a man called Tachibana of Fudoumine lead his team to try and win the Kantou tournament. But, his attempt failed when he was defeated by Fuji leading Seigaku." Shishido said.
"But Tachibana never played Fuji. It didn't happen." Hiyoshi told Shishido.
"I know it didn't happen, just pretend that it did, okay. This will help you remember names!" Shishido said irritably. "So it will actually be, Tachibana- no need to change names but take out the Fudoumine part. Kantou tournament is "power" or "authority". His attempt was foiled by Fuji(wara) who defeated him."
"Tachibana...lead a group of people to try and seize power but was defeated by Fujiwara." Hiyoshi said.
"Yes! Now you just need to remember Tachibana no Naramaro and Fujiwara no Nakamaro are their correct titles." Shishido instructed. "But I think we can move on now."
It was three in the morning when they finally called it quits and the tennis regulars of Hyoutei fell fast asleep in Atobe's study. The table was cleared and had become a bed for Hiyoshi while others were sprawled on the carpet with cushions removed from the couch as pillows. The more fortunate ones had a couch to actually sleep on, but the most fortunate was of course Atobe who was tucked up comfortably in his own king sized bed.
The next morning, the regulars were treated to breakfast at the Atobe manor. Seated around the splendidly finished dining table, the regulars joked around, made fun of one another while the more civilized of the bunch ate their breakfast with their best dining etiquette.
"Atobe-buchou, can you remember what marks you got for your English exam in second year?" Hiyoshi asked after swallowing a mouthful of toast.
"If Ore-sama is not mistaken, Ore-sama received a 99.8%." Atobe replied, then took a bite out of his bagel.
"What about you, Yuushi-senpai? Your math result in second year?" Hiyoshi asked, turning to Yuushi.
A vein popped on Yuushi's forehead and he replied through gritted teeth and grasped his fork tightly, "98%...that blasted question at the end, if only I hadn't changed by answer, I would have gotten full marks!"
" I see. And Shishido-senpai, what about your Japanese history results?" Hiyoushi inquired.
"Ah," Shishido said waving a hand, "That was an easy 98.6 or 98.7% for me."
"I see..." Hiyoshi said quietly.
They arrived at Hyoutei, arriving in Atobe's luxurious limousine. The members were all too tired from the less than usual satisfactory sleep they had the previous night so Atobe gave everyone permission to skip morning practice.
Before leaving for their respective classrooms, the members all wished Hiyoshi good luck for the day, in which he had make up exams to sit.
"The fate of the whole team is resting on your shoulders, bratling." Shishido said murderously to Hiyoshi, "And I didn't sacrifice sleeping in the comfort of my own bed for nothing."
"Do you best, Wakashi-kun." Choutarou told him, patting him on the shoulder as he headed off to his classroom.
"If you don't want to end up black and blue, eating my fist then I suggest you do some last minute cramming." Gakuto told him threateningly, closing in on his face.
"To be honest, senpai, I don't think you would be able to get near me." Hiyoshi replied Gakuto, matter-of-factly. "You're forgetting that I do Enbu*."
"What did you say...? You want to repeat that again?" Gakuto said, eyes narrowing and closing in even closer to Hiyoshi.
"Just remember the all the formulae we went over last night and you'll be sweet." Yuushi told Hiyoshi reassuringly, and proceeded to drag Gakuto away.
"Che," Hiyoshi said and made a funny face at Gakuto. Then turned to Atobe, "Atobe-buchou, do you have something to say to me too?"
"Yes, young Hiyoshi. Let the examiners be awed at the prowess of Ore-sama's teaching abilities!" Atobe said then turned to walk away with Kabaji carrying Jirou on his shoulder following closely behind."
The regular members had all gathered in the club room. The school day had ended and it was time for their fate to be decided. Whether or not they would be able to participate in the Nationals or not all rested on the studying/cramming ability of a certain second year on their team.
Atobe was sitting on the couch with a hand on his forehead while Gakuto paced around nervously. Yuushi had his usual calm demeanor on but had admitted that he couldn't stop worrying about how Hiyoshi was going in the exams the whole day.
After a few minutes of waiting, Hiyoshi burst through the door of the clubroom clutching his academic transcript. He had obviously sprinted his way to the clubroom as he was panting and couldn't reply to the bombardment of questions the regulars were asking, all questions wanting to know the same thing.
He displayed his academic transcript in front of his team mates.
English 99.9%
Japanese History 99%
Math 98.9%
When he had caught his breath, he opened his mouth to reply the questions of his team members with one phrase: "Gekokujou." he said smugly, as if he had planned all this to happen.
He had officially broken free of the shadows of his over-achieving seniors.
Writing fanfiction instead of studying for my end of semester exam in two days...Yes, I will regret this! Now I have to make sure I don't fail my exams! Gah!
If in case people didn't know:
*Enbu is a form of martial arts, specifically Kendo.
Hope you enjoyed this oneshot and that the characters were all IC! I hope that you don't think I made Hiyoshi sound stupid, 'cause that was certainly not my intent! *hides from Hiyoshi fangirls*
Please read and review! It's so much easier to do now that the reviewing format has changed~ *hint hint* :p
Yuu.