Disclaimer: I don't own 'Prince of Tennis', but I guess you knew that already.
There won't be too much romance at first, because I consider them to be a little young... And I'd like to keep Ryoma in character as much as possible.
Chapter 1: The Press Club
"Now, who wants to be in charge of covering the news about the Tennis club?" asked the president of the Press Club. He was a clumsy guy and rather dishevelled looking. He lacked most of the traits required for leadership, but he made up for them with his friendly and cheerful personality. He looked around the room through his oversized round glasses, taking in the scene before him.
The room assigned to the club was fairly big. There were more than enough desks for the almost forty members, about ten computers settled at the back, and a large marker board at the front. The president stood in front of the whole club members, while they listened to him from their desks.
Dozens of hands raised in the air at the president's question, and the room was filled with female voices yearning for his attention. "Etto..." he said nervously, while scratching the back of his neck, "does any of you know how to play?"
"I believe, Atobe Kimiko-san was part of the tennis club last year, Satou-buchou", said a serious looking guy while adjusting his glasses, his eyes never leaving the screen of his laptop. He was the vice-president, but everyone knew he was the mastermind behind all the club's activities. Everyone's attention turned to the mentioned girl. Her head rested on her desk, using her arms as a pillow. Her ash brown hair covered most of her face, and her body moved slowly to the rhythm of her steady breathing.
"Why do we need to know how to play? We'll only be writing about the matches!" complained a short brunette girl.
"Well... I just thought it'd be easier to understand and to write the players' feelings during a match that way..." explained the president shyly.
"Then, I'll do it!" a female first year said cheerfully. "I used to play back in elementary school!".
"I know how to play, too! My brother taught last summer!" exclaimed a sophomore girl, and many other club members followed her example.
"Silence," said the vice-president in a deep firm voice, and the whole club did obeyed. "I would have liked to have a man in charge, but seeing as they are all busy already, I think the best option would still be Atobe-san"
"Ano... Okazaki-san, don't you think it'd be better to decide by draw?" asked the president.
"Seishun Gakuen is known for its Tennis Club, and there's a high chance of them going to the Nationals this year. The person in charge should by no means get distracted by the players," explained Okazaki Ryusei, finally looking up from his computer.
"Fan girls are so annoying!" complained a sophomore guy, and the rest of the male members agreed.
"It's decided, then," the vice-president, without waiting for anyone's approval. "Miss Atobe-san is assigned to write about the Tennis Club". Everyone looked towards said girl, to find her still sound asleep.
"Ano, Atobe-san..." the president called her, and she finally opened her eyes and looked at him.
"Aa, Satou-Buchou. Is the meeting over?" she asked softly, while rubbing her eyes. "No, we've just decided you'll be the one to write about the tennis club this term".
"Yada", the sophomore girl said quietly and closed her eyes again.
"C'mon, Atobe, I heard they are all really hot!" said one of the guys teasingly. "Perhaps you'd be more girly if you got a boyfriend!"
"ZETTAI YADA!"
"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice", Okazaki announced. "Unless you want everyone to find out about that little secret of yours..." The girl paled and nodded reluctantly. Okazaki-fukubuchou was definitely someone to fear.
Later that day, Kimiko decided to visit the courts and start her research on the Tennis Club. The term had just started, so the ranking matches would bound to be held soon. The year before she had joined the club and became a regular, but the Female Tennis Club was weak. And she had decided that tennis wasn't her thing, anyway.
The courts were almost empty. Three freshmen were playing some kind of game, trying to hit a can from the other side of the net, while another freshman and a couple of juniors watched. When the last of the first years served his last ball, he hit the can but it didn't fall. 'So there's something inside that can...' thought Kimiko.
"Too bad", said one of the juniors. She recognised him as Arai Masashi.
"It was difficult after all", exclaimed the freshman, ashamed. "So, the try-out fee was 200 yen. Here". The three first years handed the junior two coins each.
"Huh? Maybe you guys misunderstood," said the other junior, Ikeda Masaya.
"'Knock the can down' serve game. 500 yen per ball. 200 yen try-out fee extra," Arai informed. "Together, it's 5,200 yen per person".
"No way!" exclaimed the shortest of the freshmen.
"We don't have that kind of money"
"Just blame your bad skills," said Ikeda. 'That's so not fair...' thought Kimiko and sighed in frustration, and hesitated whether she should do something about it.
"Hey, shorty over there, you should try it too," said Arai towards the first year that had been watching all along.
"Don't think you can just save yourself," added Ikeda.
"Sure, I'll do it," replied the freshman. His classmates tried to stop him, but he ignored them. "You can't knock it down if you go directly at the can. There are rocks in there, right?"
He served the ball and knocked the can. "Awesome, he hit the top of the can with pinpoint accuracy", said another freshman. The can fell, revealing the rocks that were inside. "Ahhh, the sempai-tachi are cheating! That's so dirty!"
"Not bad, eh..." a voice startled Kimiko. One of her classmates was now standing beside her.
"Aa, Momoshiro-san, konnichiwa," she greeted him. They had been in the same class for over a year now, but they had never exchanged a word. He was rather tall and Kimiko barely reached his shoulder. His dark hair was short and spikey, and his purple eyes watched scene before him in amusement.
"Konnichiwa," he said back with a relaxed smile. The freshman kept on hitting the can, shocking everyone.
"If I hit it 100 times, are you going to give me 1,000,000 yen?" he asked his sempai-tachi.
"Pff, so cocky," chuckled Kimiko. "He's good"
Momoshiro agreed, and started walking inside the courts. "We can't have him thinking that all his sempai-tachi are useless, can we?" he said and served a ball, denting the can.
"Oh, I hit it. Lucky!" said Momoshiro cheerfully. "Hey, Arai, just because the seniors aren't here doesn't mean you can bully the new freshmen".
"Momo, something came up, so I'm leaving first... Later," replied Arai, walking out of the court quickly, followed by Ikeda. The freshman was about to leave as well, but Momoshiro stopped him. "Hey, who said you can go?"
Just then, two first year girls followed by a young woman and a man in his thirties, walked towards them.
"It's you, Ryoma-kun!" exclaimed one of the girls, staring at the freshman next to Momoshiro. She wore her hair in two long braids, and she was wearing Seigaku's uniform as well as the girl beside her.
"Kakkoii," said the other girl, blushing slightly, and looking at 'Ryoma'. "Sakuno, who is it? Introduce him."
"Oh, this is Echizen Ryoma-kun," replied 'Sakuno'.
"Echizen... Ryoma," the man behind them wondered out loud. He wore a light yellow shirt and a red tie, and carried a bag on his shoulder.
"Heh, so you are Echizen Ryoma. Much smaller than I thought..." said Momoshiro.
"Who are you?" Echizen asked him.
"Sophomore Momoshiro Takeshi. I heard from the grandma couch that you can use the Twist Serve".
"What about it?" said Ryoma.
"I'll crush you," challenged Momoshiro, and soon they were playing against each other. The junior let his kouhai serve and stood at the other side of the court, eager to see the Twist Serve. A freshman wearing a bright green shirt asked to be the chair umpire, and the match began.
"Fault," the fresman anounced when Ryoma tried serving normally.
"I don't wan't slice serves. Don't hold out on me," said Momoshiro.
"Yada," replied Echizen.
"Arrogant brat"
This time, Ryoma served and Momoshiro's racket flew out of his hand when he tried to return it.
"I can't believe a junior high student can use that serve," said the man in amazement. Kimiko smirked.
"This is getting interesting," she said out loud, but mostly to herself.
"Ryoma-sama is getting cooler by the minute!" exclaimed Sakuno's friend, excited.
"Kowai, kowai. Caught me off guard," said Momoshiro in high spirits.
"Daijobu?" asked Ryoma, a smirk plastered on his face. "You're sweating"
"Bastard," said the junior, and the match continued.
"Those eyes," said the man, looking at Ryoma through his camera. "That boy... Echizen Ryoma... is Echizen Nanjirou's..."
Kimiko looked up to him in confusion. 'What is he talking about?' she wondered. But she didn't have the chance to ask him, since everyone gasped in surprise. She looked back to the match in front of her, and saw that Echizen had changed his racket to his left hand. He was about to serve again, but Momoshiro stopped him.
"I quit. It's over. I'll let you go now", announced the junior, surprising everyone.
"Excuse me, sir," said Kimiko to the still unknown man that had been watching the match. "Sophomore Atobe Kimiko desu. Who might you be?"
"Aa, I'm sorry. I'm Inoue, a reporter from Monthly Pro Tennis. Yoroshiku. Do you happen to be a player?" the man replied. She shook her head.
"Yoroshiku onegashimazu. I'm from the Press Club, I'll be writing about the Tennis Club this term," she explained.
"I guess we'll be seeing each other quite often then, Atobe-san," he said with a smile. She smiled as well and nodded.
"Inoue-san, I was wondering about something you said earlier... Who is Echizen Nanjirou?" she asked curiously.
"He was a great player. He could have probably been the best in the world, but he retired when he was very young," the reporter explained. These words piqued her interest.
"Why did he retire?" she asked. "Is he related to Ryoma?"
"Nobody knows... He suddenly disappeared one day," he said. "And I have a feeling that Ryoma might be his son".
"I see. Thank you very much for your time, Inoue-san"
"It was my pleasure", the reporter said. Then, he took a magazine out from his bag and handed it to the girl. "Here. I've written an article about Echizen Nanjirou on this month's edition".
"Oh, I can't accept it, I'll buy it once it's on sale!" she said, but he insisted. "I really appreciate it, arigatou gozaimasu," she thanked him and bowed.
"Echizen Nanjirou..." Kimiko read out loud. She had just arrived home and was looking forward to reading about the mysterious tennis player. A few minutes later she was already finished with the article. 'Was he really that good?', she wondered. She searched for some videos on the internet, but there were very few and their quality was quite poor. They were enough, however, for her to realize that Inoue-san had not being exaggerating when he described his amazing skills. 'So... What could have made him retire?' she thought sadly.
The following day, Kimiko went looking for the coach of the Tennis Club.
"So you want permission to watch the practices?" asked Ryuzaki-sensei. "I don't see a problem with it. However, it's up to Tezuka to decide"
"I see," Kimiko said, and looked towards the captain.
"It's fine, as long as you don't disturb the players," replied Tezuka.
"I won't," she said with a small smile, and then bowed. "Arigatou gozaimasu".
The stoic captain nodded his head and went back to his work. He still had to decide who would be playing on the ranking matches.
"I'll be going first," Kimiko announced and walked out of the classroom they were at.
"An interesting one, isn't she?" said Ryuzaki-sensei, once she was out of hearing range. Oishi agreed.
"I was afraid Tezuka would scare her away," he added.
"Perhaps she'll be able to warm his heart a bit," the coach joked. The captain just ignored them, causing them to stifle a laugh.
Meanwhile, at the tennis courts, the regulars had started their practice matches, while the rest of the club members were watching Arai picking a fight with Echizen. The freshman's racquets had 'disappeared' while he was running laps, and now he had to play the junior with an old deteriorated one.
'What are you going to do now, Echizen?' Kimiko wondered curiously.
The match started, and Arai served first. Ryoma tried returning it, but the stringing of the racquet was too loose to enable him to hit it properly, and the ball hit the net. Arai served again, and this time the freshman returned it with too much strength.
"Hmm, naruhodo ne," said Ryoma, inspecting the racquet in his hand.
"Fool, trying to be strong. But you have no chance in hell!" exclaimed the junior and served again. This time, Echizen returned it successfully.
'Not bad, Echizen... putting spin by rotating your body,' thought Kimiko. "Aa, Inoue-san!" she said outloud, realizing that the reporter was standing only a couple of meters away from her. He looked towards her and smiled.
"Atobe-san, Konnichiwa," he greeted her.
"Konnichiwa,"she said back. "Thank you for the magazine you gave me yesterday. The article about Echizen Nanjirou was really interesting".
"Aa, I'm glad you liked it. He was an amazing player..." said Inoue. "Echizen Ryoma seems very promising as well".
"Indeed," she agreed.
"Ok, my warm up is done," said Echizen.
"Ah, Echizen, a string is broken," said one of the freshman.
"Oh, no worries. We are going to finish this, sempai," announced Ryoma. 'As conceited as always,' Kimiko found herself thinking with a smile.
"H-Hey, leave it. It's just a practice match..." said one of the juniors watching the match.
"Yada," replied Echizen, and he kept on playing until Oishi stopped them and make all the club members run laps.
Words in Japanese
Etto... is like 'Let's see...' or 'Um...'
Ano - it's used to ask for someone's attention (in this case).
Buchou is the head, president or captain of a school's club.
Fukubuchou is the vice-president of a school's club.
Sempai - upperclassman
Sempai-tachi - plural of sempai
Yada - 'I don't want to do it'
Zettai yada - 'I definitely don't want to do it'
Konnichiwa - 'Hello'/'Good afternoon'
Kakkoi - cool
Kowai - scary or creepy
Daijobu? - in this case, 'Are you OK?'
Desu means "be". '(Watashi wa) Kimiko desu' is like 'I am Kimiko'
Yoroshiku (onegaishimazu) has many meanings depending on the context. In this case it's mostly a 'Nice to meet you', or 'please take care of me in the future'. It's more polite when onegaishimasu is added.
Arigatou (gozaimasu) is a way of thanking someone. It's more polite when gozaimasu is added.
Naruhodo - 'I see'
Suffixes
'-san' is the most polite of the three. It's mostly used for older people and equals.
'-kun' is generally used for younger boys.
'-chan' is generally used for younger girls or cute boys.
I couldn't help picturing Okazaki as OHSHC's Kyoya...
Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm not a native English speaker, so any piece of advice is welcomed.
