Take Two
Summary: Echizen Ryoma receives an invitation letter to Under 17 Training camp in Japan. Having conquered tournaments in the west, she flies back to Japan and set her sights in new heights. TokuRyo YukiRyoma FujiRyo
Chapter I: The Return
New York
Subway
A can of ponta dropped from the vending machine. A pale and delicate hand picked it up from the compartment and pulled the pull tab, opening the can. A female, around her early teens sipped from the can as she nonchalantly made her way downstairs. Golden orbs darted towards the huge clock displayed on the upper part of the wall just as it descended into the ledge and away from her view; her eyes widened when she registered the time.
"Bound for JFK Airport, the door is closing."
On cue, the sound of train whistles chiming seeped through her hearing and engines brimmed up; causing her to quickly react, grabbing her red tennis racquet from her bag and pulled out a yellow ball from her baggy short—she aimed precisely aimed at the whistle on the man's hand before it reached his lips, causing him to drop it before she proceeded to throw her racquet to the closing doors, successfully stopping it for a millisecond; just enough for her to slide in and removed the object preventing the doors to close completely.
This earnt surprised gasps and awe as the public stared at her due to her previous stunt. Some cheered, meanwhile others commented—but she tuned them out all the same. Until a black man pointed out that she dropped something and she allowed her gaze to drop onto the floor where a piece of crumpled envelope laid.
She inwardly sighed, picking the piece of paper up; humming as she was deep in thought. Her eyes darted to the address, eyes narrowing in nostalgia. Now she thinks about it, it has been months since she has seen them. She wonders if it was the right decision to go back at all, she could still fly to the Australian open after all.
'Under 17 huh…might be interesting.'
Then again, she could not shake off the nagging feeling in her gut. Yesterday. That hooded man at the building roof—the one who saved her from a ball she could have easily returned though. Her eyes met his amber ones.
He made his leave.
Unconsciously muttering out a small display of gratitude towards the black man, she looked outside the window. Well there weren't really anything she could do about it—for her train was already on the way to the airport, her ticket bound for her homeland.
Japan.
Japan
His eyes stared aimlessly towards the never-ending sea of mist and shadows of the forests passing by. Striking blue hues hid behind the lids as Fuji Shusuke sighed slightly when he heard two overly familiar boisterous voices of his second-year kouhais. Again, he thought. The both somehow got into some argument over some pointless thing—not that they don't argue over the smallest things anyways.
It was trivial, Fuji mused; withdrawing to his previous thoughts when he was staring outside the bus. Oishi already took care of it, there was no need for him to step in. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he finally tuned his teammates out.
'U-17…it is strange…' he pondered about the fact why middle schoolers this year were made an exemption. After all, this training camp are supposed to be for high schoolers.
He remembered the day their school received a letter from the said organization. Invited as a team after conquering the Nationals possibly earned them a word from recent witnesses and sponsors. They all discussed the matter and in the end, came to a conclusion—they were accepting it.
'mah, I guess that's just how much our recent matches got acknowledged.'
But speaking of team, if all of them received a letter; Fuji's mind drifted when a certain girl flashed in his mind. The tensai ignored the slight rush of warmth in his face when he remembered her striking cat-like golden hues, flowing dark emerald hair and the very person herself. Their resident freshman regular and the only female to ever compete in the boy's tennis competition.
He wonders if she also received it, and he wonders if she was also on her way to where he was currently headed.
'Ryoma…' As much as the tensai hates to admit it; he missed the girl. Echizen usually had this aura that just makes everything better when she was around, things were always interesting. Having her away at first did not bother the sadistic boy—but he never realized that after a month and a half, he would be dying to meet her again and just have her around to keep him entertained.
Days without her were boring.
Several hours have passed and the engines came to a halt; awakening Fuji who dozed off. The brunette brushed his chestnut locks away from his forehead to back, sighing inwardly. Depressing to say the least—he had a rather nice dream consisting of one particular dark-haired tennis addict.
"You boys, we have arrived!" She bellowed, earning everyone's attention.
Sounds of clothes shuffling were heard and footsteps leaving the bus echoed. One by one, their feet touched concrete ground, gathered around at a wide parking lot with their coach waiting for them to recover their belongings from the luggage compartment.
"Jaa, I'll be leaving you boys off here now. You all do your best in this camp, I'm pretty sure this will be a good experience for all of you." She said, crossing her arms in front.
"I believe so, sensei. Thank you." Tezuka replied with his ever-usual serious tone.
"I suppose we should get going." Oishi smiled, everyone agreed.
They waved their coach goodbye and parted ways as they entered a pathway into the trees towards a big mechanical gate ahead. The team paused before the gate as it opened slowly, showing another longer dirt path leading to the main building. Fuji smiled to himself inwardly as he stared ahead, he was definitely looking forward to what's waiting for them.
"So this is the under-17 selection camp." Fuji stated.
"Look's pretty intense." Kawamura commented, a bit fazed.
"Is it really okay that we were invited here?" Oishi questioned, doubting their qualification for such a high level camp.
"0% okay." Inui fixed his glasses, for sure this was a bit odd in his thoughts as well.
"There should be a catch." Seigaku's data master muttered. "Until last year, no middle schooler had ever been invited to this camp after all."
Kikumaru was the first one to take a step, amazed at the view and climbed the pole near them. Oishi quickly scolded his partner before their usual sophomores were fighting over some trivial thing again. Oishi sighed , holding up Kikumaru's collar like a child.
"That's enough, you two. We didn't come here to fight now, did we?"
The two said rivals reluctantly stopped and opted to glare at each other before turning their backs to each other haughtily. Tezuka took that silence and began walking towards the main building. "Let's go." His teammates dutifully followed him.
Just as soon as they were near a clearing a few minutes later, two teens stopped them on their tracks, wearing suspicious grins. One had a cap on, wearing a triple colored uniform which they presumed to be for the selection members. The other one sported light brown hair, wearing an expression that clearly said they were up to something.
"hold up!" The capped on exclaimed.
"Isn't it you guys? The super middle schoolers who've been extended a special invitation to come here?"
The light haired one shifted on one leg and said in an arrogant manner, "I know you just got here, but there's actually a test." he smirked.
Fuji chuckled, he knew what these high schoolers were trying to do and the tensai fairly knew well that his fellow seniors had a good idea about what's to come. However, Kikumaru decided to play along the folly, resting his palms behind his head nonchalantly.
"A test?" He repeated.
"Ah." The capped one agreed in confirmation. Both older boys turned on their heels and gestured for them to follow them, and the rest complies and were led to a tennis court. The light haired boy took out three cans and placed two on each far corner of one side of the court and the other one at the middle in a triangular formation.
"Sou ka, I see what's going on." Fuji mumbled, smiling.
"You'll each get five balls. if you can knock over those three cans, you pass."
Seigaku members exchanged nonchalant looks as they shrugged it off, this was easy for them after all. Although they were a bit disappointed at their senior's behaviour. The capped guy observed their expressions, concluding the wrong idea what it could mean. He smirked creully at them, enjoying the looks he inflicted.
'In the end, they're just middle schoolers.' He thought in amusement.
"What's wrong? You don't look too happy." He taunted.
"If you can't even manage this, you don't belong here." The light haired one mocked.
Momoshiro had enough of the mockery, throwing a ball up to the air and smashed it dead center on his racquet. The ball flew across the court in a split second, harshly knocking off one can. 'That oughta shut them up.' The power player smirked to himself.
"Ohh, lucky! I got one!" He grinned. But more likely because of the two's shocked expressions.
"Jaa, here comes another one!" He announced, lobbing the ball to the air and hit the one of the left corner of the court. Then the next.
All of them took turns, each one successfully knocking over the cans with ease, catching the older boys off guard with their skills. Tezuka was the last one to hit before Fuji gave him one ball. Tezuka took the ball and moved forward to the service line.
"He only needs one ball." Fuji said.
Tezuka threw the ball above him, hitting the ball accurately with his racquet, aiming for the middle can. The ball bounce irregularly to the left can which caused the second can to fly over the right corner; knocking all three cans with one shot. The Seigaku regulars grinned, it was expected of their captain- he was good. Momoshiro and Kikumaru exchanged grins, pleased to shock the older boys.
"Jaa, Senpai- we'll be going now, since we passed." Momoshiro laughed.
The rest of the regulars begun to leave the court, wasting no time as they were eager to get to the main building-leaving two rather frozen high schoolers in their wake.
"Too bad! Try again next week!" Kikumaru recited his favourite line.
It wasn't long until they reached their destination. The newcomers were greeted with a sight to see. courts surrounded one building in the middle, the environment was built pretty well and clean-equipped with high end speed tracker machines and security cameras were everywhere. High schoolers wearing similar uniforms as the ones that appeared before them earlier were spread out to each court, stretching, playing, observing and other were training. Each section were accompanied by men uniformed in black, monitoring the players.
"It's the state of art huh." Fuji took in the surroundings.
It was definitely a different atmosphere than what they were used to- it was a bit unnerving. however, that was not enough to deter them at the very least- in fact, they were looking forward to it.
"This U-17 selection camp produces elite tennis players ready for the real world. The training is intense, over half of all the participants drop out within a week. It's said that promising athletes who fail here and give up on tennis completely. Although I'm not sure why we were summoned here," Tezuka turned to face his teammates.
"However, now that we're here, we'll see this through. All eight of us."
"All eight, huh?" Momoshiro mumbled, his eyes downcast.
"If Echizen was here, there would be nine of us." He finished. His sentence affected everyone, but unbeknowingly more so, a certain tensai and captain of the team. Certainly, they did miss their youngest member of the team. She always was a center of attention, especially with her cocky attitude, and interesting antics.
"i wonder where she is now…"
Outside the Gates
A lone girl walked past the gates, calmly walking through the dirt path by herself while sipping on her can of Ponta. She wore a military green spaghetti top and black denim shorts along with a pair of white and black sneakers. A piece of green stone pendant hung around her neck and over her top was a black leather jacket. Her tennis bag hung around her lift shoulders as her piercing golden eyes bore ahead as she caught sight of a familiar yellow uniform, accompanied by gray uniforms. A small smirk made there way across her face, tilting the brim of her cap down and proceeded in a leisurely manner.
"Rikkai, Hyotei and the others huh?..." She whispered.
If the other teams were there; that would mean her own team; Seigaku was present in the camp as well. Echizen's eyes shone with amusement, it was a funny coincidence; but at the same time, was it really a coincidence? She let out a rare chuckle.
This should be interesting.
Echizen followed behind silently, not wanting to bother blending in with the lot ahead. She prefered to arrive at her own pace to be frank.
She arrived just in time the director announcing that three hundred were too many and thus, two hundred and fifty balls were dropped from a helicopter that passed by. The remaining who couldn't grab a ball was going to be disqualified. Her stoic eyes glinted as the high schoolers panicked and fought for the tennis balls. She saw her middle school peers acquire a ball or dozen with ease and the sight made her smirk.
Ryoma saw a lone ball laying innocently at the back and so, she took a small stone and held her racquet. She could hear the pathetic panicked cries from the high schoolers whilst looking for a spare ball.
'Baka, there's one right behind you.' She thought. 'Too bad that ball is mine though.' She prepared a basic stance.
"There's one!" Now all eyes were on her ball. Ryoma reacted quickly and hit the stone towards the ball, causing it to bounce towards the air and the boys gaped.
She casually struts forward just under the ball and it landed on her left palm. Now all eyes were on her, she opened her golden eyes, her gaze landed on her captain then travelled to Hyotei, then Rikkaidai's captain and vice captain before she looked at the gaping expressions of the older teens. To her, they looked like fishes out of the water so she smirks sardonically.
"Cheers." She drawled, shifting her weight to her left leg.
From the bleachers, Yukimura smiled softly as he continues to observe. Momoshiro and Kikumaru didn't waste anymore time as soon as they registered that their kouhai was actually there, and they weren't dreaming. She was back. Momoshiro wrapped an arm around her neck and gave her a noogie like a happy older brother he is whilst Kikumaru glomped her from behind and rubbed his cheeks against her, causing her white cap to tilt out of place.
"Itai yo, Momo-senpai, Eiji-senpai." She groaned, annoyed at their harsh display of affection. As usual. These senpais didn't know the meaning of private space, but she was used to it so it wasn't that much big of a deal.
"Where have you been, Echizen!" Momoshiro exclaimed through his grin.
"That's right nya! You suddenly went MIA on us! That's mean y'know, Ochibi!" Kikumaru added.
"Senpai, I'm suffocating." She muttered, being crushed between the taller boys.
"That girl never changes." Yukimura said softly.
"Mattaku, her and her flashy entrances." Sanada said, crossing his arms with a small smile.
"As ought to be expected from Ore-sama's little cousin." Atobe huffed proudly.
Fuji neared the freshman along with Tezuka and Oishi. The blue eyed tensai smiled serenely, putting his right palm on her head and patted it. Ryoma scowled and took his hand away.
"Shūsuke-senpai." She acknowledged.
"Been awhile, Ryoma-Chan." He said calmly, but one could see he was also happy.
To Fuji, he resisted the urge to just wrap his arms around her and press her against him. He wanted to embrace her, but Fuji wasn't like that. He rarely gives hugs, save for the two moments that he did hug her during that time she needed comfort. So the tensai didn't, he kept his distance, for he was trying to control himself.
Ryoma's eyes left his and he felt a sense of loss. He still concluded he didn't like the way Ryoma's eyes held that glint of admiration whenever she looks at Tezuka, then again he remembers her words—so he fought back his jealousy.
Seigaku's captain held a smile one barely would notice for the tug was so insignificant. But to those who knew Tezuka, they could see the slight changes in his features. How his usual tense shoulders would relax the moment he saw her, his eyes gentle and soft.
"Buchou." His title escaped her lips, and Tezuka nodded with a hum.
"How was America?" He questioned stoically.
"It was good." She replied shortly.
"It's good to have you back, Echizen." Tezuka nods ever so slightly and Ryoma gave a smirk in return. Her cat-like eyes trained unto his amber ones.w
"Glad to be back, buchou."
"KOSHIMAE!" Ryoma flinched slightly at the familiar loud voice and sure enough, Tooyama Kintaro appeared before her. He wore an ear splitting grin, his aura oozing with excitement.
"Play a match with me!" He challenged. Ryoma gave a strained look, mentally shaking her head at the redhead.
"That's all you ever say." She mumbled.
"Maa maa, now there are nine of us." Kikumaru grinned, "aren't you glad, Momo?"
Momoshiro turned his head away from his kouhai and mischievous senpai, embarrassed. "A-aah."
"Allow me to explain the camp's system. This area are divided from court one to court sixteen, the lesser the number; the stronger the players. Everyday, before training begins, a shuffle match determined by the coaches will occur. The winner proceeds and the loser will be demoted. " the Director's voice echoed.
"Basically, to move ahead, we have to win these shuffle matches." Yukimura stated.
"To those who have not succeeded in acquiring a ball, you may leave the camp."
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" The tan blonde pompadour wearing boy roared. Veins popping on his forehead as he raged.
"YOU FUCKING KIDS SHOULDN'T HOG ALL THE BALLS TO YOURSELF!" He continues.
"There was never a rule that we shouldn't get more than one ball." Shiraishi answered.
"That's right! First come first serve!" Kintaro backed up.
"HAHAHA!" Kirihara cackled. "Too bad for you! Now get lost!"
"Don't get all cocky just because you happened to pick up a ball." The pompadour spat at them. He was relentless, Ryoma figured the guy wouldn't let them go just like that.
"All of this doesn't have to do will tennis skills. So I propose a match." He declared.
Ryoma unknowingly smirks, as expected. This high schooler seems to be pretty confident with his skills. But Ryoma knows just by looking at him that he wasn't up to their caliber.
"How persistent." Inui muttered under his breath, pushing his glasses up the nose bridge.
"Four-eyes!" He called out. Behind the crowd, Inui flinched, thinking it was himself that the high schooler called out. "I'll challenge you for your ball!"
Inui stood on cold feet as he looked at the lone ball in his hand. Ryoma shook her head at the situation her senpai got himself into and snatched the glasses owned by Shitenhouji's resident gay regular. She went unnoticed by everyone as each team's four eyes debated whether he meant them. Because for sure, there were six of them who wore glasses.
Ryoma casually walked towards the other end of the court and bent over the net.
"Oi! Stop fucking around—"
"Let's get this over with." Ryoma drawls out, earning everyone's stares. She opened her eyes and her stare bore through him in a bored manner, tilting the eye glasses down her nose with a cocky smirk; her right hand ready with her red racquet which the older Fuji had to admit— looked quite enticing.
On the sidelines, Koharu overreacted how he didn't notice how the girl snatched his eyeglasses away rather comically. The emerald haired girl took off the eyeglass and tossed it at Koharu who fortunately caught it.
"Thanks." She said in her usual English accent.
The pompadour bared his teeth as he glared at the insolent girl before him. "You again? Get lost!"
"In any case, what is a girl doing here anyway?"
Ryoma yawned, tapping her racquet on her shoulder lightly. "You're all bark but no bite." She glanced at him cooly.
The enraged blonde flushed in utter humiliation at her words. His body shook and his face red as if he was about to erupt. However; before he could retort another word at the younger girl, a voice interrupted his flow.
"Sasabe." Ryoma's eyes fell on a tall bald teen wearing a purple flat cap.
"I'll take her on."
Another smirk crept on her face as she eyes her opponent.
'This will be fun.'
Fun to humiliate that is.
A/N: Chapter 1 is finished.
It would be appreciated if you would drop by a review so that I can improve on something I might be lacking whilst writing this. ;)