A/N: This is an idea I'd been toying with for a while now. I think I finally got the storyline I want nailed down...so we'll see how it goes! There are no pairings, but if you take out your magnifying glass and squint really hard, maybe you'll make yourself see some. It's not my intent, but if that's how your mind works...what can I do?

Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters. It's a sad, sad world.

Prologue: Mad Scientist

12:45 AM

A low humming sound emanated from the overhead lamp. Its brilliant white light caused an elongated shadow to stretch from the solitary figure seated at the black-topped lab table. The individual was hunched over a spread of several notebooks opened on the tabletop. With one hand, he adjusted his square-framed glasses, sending a gleam of reflected light dancing across the wall. A small smile worked its way over his lips as he scratched a flurry of lines in one of his notebooks. Across the top of the page, the words Inui Sadaharu Juice Data were scrawled in the same hasty handwriting.

"Finally." The data master sat back in his chair and scanned his notes. "It's nearly finished now. All of the data is here in full."

As always, Inui had supreme confidence in his carefully compiled research. He had spent hours ironing out the kinks in his data and had taken every precaution to boost the success rate of his newest recipe. He had even borrowed the key to Seishun Gakuen's science laboratory to spend the night creating his masterpiece. And it wasn't just a lack of something better to do on a Friday night that motivated him to go to these extra measures. With all of his meticulous preparations, nothing would go wrong. He was sure of it this time.

But then again, he was always sure. And, now that he thought about it, that hadn't done much for him in the past.

Inui shuddered at the mental image that flashed through his mind, one from the last time he'd created one of his infamous juices. It was a vision of tensai Fuji Syuusuke, who was typically immune to Inui's concoctions, sprawled unconscious on the tennis court – all thanks to a juice that the tensai had later grudgingly described as "worse than Aozu." Now that was the extent of what his confidence had done for him.

Inui quickly banished the memory before any doubts could take root. He had nothing to worry about. He was determined that this time, there would be no way his newest Inui Juice would fail. Absolutely no way. His preparations had all been above reproach. But just to reassure himself, he reread the last line he had written in his notes.

"Chance of success: 98.9 percent," he murmured. He had to admit, these odds were far better than last time's 56 percent. The carnage in Seigaku's tennis club had been almost as widespread as a virus – and they had probably resulted from nothing more than carelessness. Certainly that kind of result couldn't happen again.

…Could it? Preparations or not, there was still a 1.1 percent chance it could backfire.

But that small percentage was exactly what had encouraged Inui to take one final precaution. He had agreed, under strong urging from Fuji – who was apparently still miffed about the last Inui Juice incident –, that only one regular member would be used as a test subject for this escapade. He was actually very lucky that Fuji had offered to help him choose the guinea pig, although he knew that the sadistic tensai was probably just looking for a helpless victim to suffer through the same horrors that he had with the last untested juice.

Shaking his head, Inui reached for the can of energy drink and took a long swig. Whatever happened now was beyond his control. It was too late to turn back. With a sideways glance at his watch, Inui grabbed the rack of test tubes and the beaker of bubbling magenta liquid at his elbow. An anticipatory smile spread across his face as he took one of the test tubes and added its inky blue contents to the beaker. The liquid fizzled, a thin wisp of purple steam curling upward from the beaker, and began to turn colors until it finally settled on a deep indigo. Inui pulled the beaker closer and carefully wafted the vapors towards his face, as he knew was proper laboratory technique. Ironically, his own safety was his number one priority. As for the safety of everyone else…that was an entirely different story.

Whatever he smelled and saw in the mixture must have pleased him, because his smile widened and he sat back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. The mixture in the beaker bubbled lazily as Inui snatched his notebook from the tabletop. Twirling his pencil dexterously in his fingers, he began to record the results of his work. A unique scent began to diffuse through the air while he wrote. Inui scribbled one more line of data and set his notebook aside. "Almost complete," he murmured to himself, taking another test tube from the rack. "One more ingredient."

He poured the viscous bright green liquid into the beaker and watched as the concoction began to boil with renewed vigor. While he did so, he absently scratched his shoulder, and a white hair – one from Echizen Ryoma's cat, Karupin, whom he had found wandering around and returned to the first year regular earlier that day – fell from the sleeve of his shirt into the beaker. It made an almost-silent hissing as it dissolved into the liquid.

Not having noticed the extra ingredient he had unintentionally added, Inui continued with his preparations, stirring the mixture with a glass rod. Carefully, he extracted a sample of the product with a medicine dropper and placed it in a separate Petri dish. He swirled the dish around for a moment while the liquid's color changed yet again, this time to a calm cerulean. It resembled the calm of an ocean just before a typhoon – a color, he realized, more ironically similar to Fuji's electric blue eyes. Inui chuckled in satisfaction and held the dish to the light.

"Yes, it's done now."

Reaching into his pocket with his free hand, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a few digits into the keypad. To his satisfaction, he didn't have to wait long for a response. A familiar calm voice, one that held what Inui thought was a touch of smugness, answered on the second ring.

"Inui."

"Fuji…I've finished it." Inui gazed fondly at his creation as he spoke. "I wanted you to be the first to know. What shall I name it?"

Fuji chuckled knowingly on the other line, not seeming upset in the least about being called at such a late hour. In fact, Inui could detect a hardly-contained note of excitement in the tensai's words. "Saa…it's up to you, of course. I'm only here to help you test it out."

"Hmm…you're right." Scratching his chin for a moment, an expression of inspiration dawned on Inui's face. Smilingly, he decided, "Super Deluxe Manic Remix." As if in approval of the name, the mixture in the dish bubbled enthusiastically. Inui chuckled.

"You'll be ready to start the testing process tomorrow, right?"

Inui could practically hear Fuji smirking. "Of course. I would hate to miss all the fun."