This is my first try in writing a fan-fic, so please give me your feedback. Constructive criticism is very much welcome.
A GLIMPSE OF RYOMA
"Hey! Seishounen! Wake up!"
Echizen Ryoma can feel his baka oyaji shaking his shoulder as he tried to wake him up. The petite pre-teen did his best to move away from the old man disturbing his sleep only to find that he was uncomfortably held down in his seat as he sleep.
"Go away, oyaji..." Ryoma groaned as his father continued to roughly shake the precious sleep out of him.
"We've already landed kid. Move your ass up because we need to get down now." Echizen Nanjirou said without ceasing his attack on the poor boy. Quite honestly, he was enjoying shaking the boy awake, a bit rougher than necessary. It's just really entertaining to annoy his son.
"Ryoma dear, we're already here in Japan. It's time to leave the plane." Ryoma's mother, Echizen Rinko, supplied helpfully.
Only then did Ryoma finally remembered where they are. No wonder his position felt so cramp.
Ryoma lazily opened his cat-like eyes, revealing a beautiful shade of molten gold. He stretched his limbs and turned to frown at his baka oyaji. His sharp eyes already berating his father for shaking him too hard.
"Come on! Move now, move now..." Nanjirou said, diverting his eyes from his son' gaze.
They eventually made it out of the plane and was greeted by Japan's warm air, warmer than America's climate - to which Ryoma is so accustomed.
Ryoma spent most of his life in the US, though he was born in Japan. They migrated to the US back when he was still so young to remember what Japan was like.
And now, out of his father's whim, they were back to Japan once again.
/
Kringggģg!
Kringggģg!
Kringggģg!
Ryoma groaned in annoyance at the sound of his alarm clock. It's only been less than a week since they moved back to Japan. And during those days, his family had been really busy with unpacking stuff and arranging the house and all the other drama of relocating, that he still felt bone tired. Add to that the adjustment to time difference and the jet lag.
He simply just didn't want to get up.
But his baka oyaji informed him last night that he signed him up for a local tennis tournament. And that competition is going to be held today!
How considerate of the old man to give him some time to prepare for it. No.
Apparently, it's so he could see the level of some Japanese tennis players around his age that he might face in the future.
Whatever. Ryoma just didn't want to get up right now...
"OY! SEISHOUNEN! ARE YOU AWAKE YET!" Needless to say how annoyed Ryoma was to be startled by his father banging on his door.
"GET UP! GET UP! OR YOU'LL BE LATE FOR YOUR MATCH!" his baka oyaji yelled just outside his room.
'God! did he have to be so loud so early in the morning'
"Shut up, oyaji!" Ryoma begrudgingly left the comfort of his bed and made his way to his bathroom.
After taking a bath, he made his way downstairs and in to the dining room, only to scowl at the sight of his breakfast. Toasted bread with butter, scrambled egg and bacon strips.
"'Kasan, why did you made american food for breakfast!?" Ryoma asked through his scowl, though he tried not to raise his voice with his mother.
"Sorry Ryoma. We don't have the ingredients for a japanese breakfast. Make do for now. I promise to make you one tomorrow." Rinko said, trying to placate her son.
"Whatever." Ryoma murmured. He could just already tell how this day won't be a good day for him.
'What a pain.'
/
"Idiots, you don't even know how to properly grip your rackets." A loud boastful voice prevented Ryoma from taking a nap. He was on his way to Kakinokizaka Tennis Garden for a Junior tennis Tournament and was trying to get some sleep during the train ride.
Only to be interrupted by a group of loud boys, who look to be high schoolers.
"If you want to do a top spin, you use the western grip." Came the voice again.
"It's done by holding a racket as if you're going a handshake." What an idiot.
The idiot then swung his racket back and fort nearly hitting a girl sitting beside them. Though the young girl was too intimidated by the older boys to say something about it.
"Ahhh... you're really so cool Sasabe." One guy from the group said with awe.
"Fool... It's common sense." The idiot guy, now named Sasabe, then laughed loudly while he continued his swings.
"Hey!" Ryoma just couldn't take their loud stupidity anymore.
"You guys are too loud." he said evenly without looking up, his trusted fila cup successfully hiding his face from view.
The group of loud boys turned their attention to the short kid in a red jacket with a white cap on his dark hair, sitting across where they were gathered.
Their faces showing a mixture of shock and annoyance.
The train suddenly shook as it went though a tunnel. Sasabe dropped his racket, shaking them out of their shocked stance.
"Che, I can't believe I got told off by a grade schooler." Sasabe said while picking up his racket.
"Ping pong~" Ryoma said in a sing song voice, gathering the group's attention once again.
"Picking a racket from the ground is the correct western grip."
"Wha-" Sasabe tried to say something.
But Ryoma added, "Oh yeah, The handshake grip you were speaking of is called the eastern grip."
"There are some who mix them up." Ryoma added again without even looking up, completely ignoring their dumbstruck expressions.
He then got up to leave as the train stop.
"Hey you! Wait up!" Sasabe yelled after him but he just continued walking.
/
Ryoma had been walking for some time trying to find the tennis courts.
'Really how hard was it to find something as big as a court?'
Not easy enough, apparently.
He then decided to just asked someone for directions. Ryoma approached a girl with her hair in two long braids.
"Hey, do you know were the Kakinokizaka Tennis garden is?"
The young girl, Ryuusaki Sakuno, had been impatiently waiting for her grandmother, Ryuusaki Sumire, when she got startled by someone talking to her.
Looking up, she was surprised to see that it was the same boy who saved her in the train earlier.
"It's you!" Sakuno blurted out while pointing a finger to the boy's face.
"Eh?" Ryoma wondered what the girl was talking about.
"Ano... thank you for your help at the train earlier." Sakuno bowed in front of the boy while blushing.
"We were on the same train?" Ryoma asked, honestly having no clue what the girl was thanking him for.
"Ehh!? I was sitting across from you..." Sakuno exclaimed then her voice trailed off when she realized that the boy didn't even notice her back in the train.
"So, do you know how to get to the tennis courts?" Ryoma was becoming slightly annoyed by having to repeat his question.
"Right! Kakinokizaka Tennis garden! I am going there too. Are you going to play? This is my first time going to watch a tennis tournament." Sakuno began babbling.
Ryoma could feel one of his eyebrows twitched. "So where is it?" He asked for the third time.
"Ah, ano... just go out of the south exit then go straight."
"Just straight from the south exit. Got it. Thanks." Ryoma muttered before walking off.
/
Ryoma had walked a fair distance when he realized that the girl had given him the wrong directions. Surely if he were going the right way, he would have reached the tennis courts by now.
Asking an older man selling some ice cream by the side of the street, he found out that the tennis garden was on the opposite side of the station. Taking in the distance from where he was to the tennis courts, he wouldn't make it even if he sprinted all the way.
Now truly annoyed that he had to lose his match by default, Ryoma decided to buy some ice cream and leisurely walked his way back.
Surely the ice cream will at least lighten up his mood.
/
Tezuka Kunimitsu wasn't entirely happy with his win. His opponent didn't even bother to show up for their match.
Leaning his tall frame on the wall he was recently hitting with a ball, his attention was suddenly caught by the sound of a game from a nearby court. Out of curiosity, he went to see what was happening.
Kunimitsu was surprised to see a short boy wearing a white baseball cap, rallying a ball between another boy who looked to be a high school student. But the surprising part was that the shorter boy seemed to be having the upper hand in the match.
He watch how the capped boy used a high lob that landed close to the line to over come the height difference between him and the older boy.
Kunimitsu then saw the older boy judged a ball out even when it clearly landed inside the line to prevent the capped boy from hitting more high lob. He had a hard time keeping the annoyance from showing to his ever stoic face when he saw the smug expression of the older player.
He turned his gaze back at the younger boy and he noted that the boy wasn't even fazed at all. He seemed to have more tricks up his sleeves. So Kunimitsu wasn't that surprised when he saw the boy return the ball with another lob. This time however, the ball didn't bounce. Instead, it continued to spin on its place just within the line until it totally stopped.
'This kid was good.' He thought to himself.
From there, the boy won game after game without even letting his opponent to score so much as a point. The other player was decidedly furious.
When the capped boy hit another high lob, Kunimitsu saw how the older teen technically threw his racket to the younger's face. The racket hit the kid hard causing him to fall down.
Kunimitsu could feel the anger seeping through his skin at the smug look on the high schooler's face. There was nothing he hated more than those who swing their racket to hurt others.
"Ryoma-kun! Are you alright!?" Kunimitsu heard a young girl screamed as she run to the fallen boy who was now bleeding. She tried to give him a handkerchief which he refused.
"Don't come in to the court during a game." The young boy said to the girl. Kunimitsu felt himself growing a bit of respect for the kid.
The girl then went out of the courts as the boy got up to continue with the game. His gaze followed the girl and only then did he noticed the coach of his tennis team standing on the sideline with the girl.
'Did Ryuusaki-sensei know this kid?'
"You have a terrible grip." He heard the boy said. He seemed calm even after what just happened and in-spite of the blood seeping through the wound in his forehead. His opponent on the other hand looked livid.
The kid then took out a ball from his pocket and bounced it. Once... twice... thrice...
He then threw the ball overhead, bent his knees a little in preparation for a jump.
With his back in arch slightly backwards, he hit the ball with the strength of his upper body propelling it to the other side of the court with amazing speed.
His opponent run towards the ball,
the ball hit the ground,
it spin on its place,
and it bounced,
straight to the high schooler's forehead.
His opponent fell on his butt from the force of the hit.
Kunimitsu's breath hitched. In his mind, he replayed the last couple of moments, from the way the boy bounced the ball, to the execution of the serve, to the way it spin on the ground, and that final moment when it bounced up.
Everything was well executed. Calculated, if he must say.
He had never seen a kid around his age do that serve as flawlessly, or even do that serve at all. He wouldn't have believed it if he had not seen it by his own eye.
A Twist Serve.
A Flawless twist serve.
'Who is this kid?'
TBC