Er...the REAL beginning. ...yeah.;) I'll update for real soon.


~oOoOo~


"Why, I do believe we have set a new record for sitting around and doing absolutely nothing." Kamio said conversationally, lacing his fingers together.

"Indeed."

Shinji and Kamio sat outside the principal's office. Today was the first day of the semester for the two at their new school for their final year of junior high.

The school was called Suzuki, like the music book, Daiichi for the genius who had founded it. It had only been built two years before, but that had been time enough for its name to gain prestige all throughout the region. Every mother in Tokyo had scrambled to find the papers for her son, and convince him to transfer to that middle school, even if only for his final year in junior high.
All the seniors from last year were gone but many students between ages twelve and fifteen from Tokyo middle schools had transferred, so it wasn't like entirely closing a chapter of life. Shinji and Kamio had spent nearly all morning waiting for the principal to greet them, since paper work had to be finished first.

"I don't recall ever being so bored in my life." Kamio continued. "Not even while watching the match between Tezuka and Sanada in the finals."

"One would think that the principal had forgotten us." Shinji agreed.

"Why are we speaking in British accents? It's quite queer. I vote we stop immediately."

"But how will we amuse ourselves?"

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure we can come up with some totally arbitrary and unfunny was to pass the time. After all, characters on Naruto do it all the time."

"A fair point." Shinji took a sip of his tea, pulled a face and dumped the rest into the nearest flower pot. Unfortunately it wasn't a real flower and the tea squirted from the little holes in the sides and spilled on the floor.

They both stared.

"Should we get a janitor?" Kamio asked.

"Why admit your mistakes when you could hide them?"

They both shifted their foldout chairs to cover the spill. Then they were silent for a moment.

"Maybe we should have a scintillating conversation." Shinji finally suggested.

"I wouldn't know what to say."

"Then we could take turns asking questions on life, the universe and everything."

"That sounds awful. Why the hell not?"

Shinji nodded and thought for a moment. "Are you happy about attending this new school?"

"Impassive. I kind of wanted to be tennis captain at Fudomine but it's not a big deal." He frowned. "I wish it weren't an all-boys school though."

Shinji nodded. "But we're completely changing schools. I thought there would be more fanfare."

"Seriously. Where's the explanation? This is more of a copout than the thirteenth book in The Series of Unfortunate Events."

"Kamio." Shinji shook his head and suddenly looked very seriously at Kamio directly in the eyes. "Nothing in this universe is more of a copout than The End. I will never forgive Lemony Snicket."

"I told you not to get hooked on that series. Anyway, Harry Potter's way better."

"I don't like this conversation. Ask me a question about existence."

"I don't know!" Kamio felt too nervous about meeting the principal to play along. "How about you make a random comment so we'll have an excuse to change the subject?"

Shinji considered this. "Once I dreamt that the world was made of ice cream and everyone was served by penguins waddling around."

"What kind of ice cream?"

"Strawberry."

"Sweet."

"Yeah."

As if on cue, the door to the principal's office swung open and a short man poked his head out.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt your awkward conversation to invite you into my office." He said.

Both boys sprang to their feet, immensely grateful for any change of scene. They entered through the door he held open for them.

The principal was a nondescript middle-aged-to-old man with square glasses, a gray suit, and a purple tie patterned, for some reason, with elves.

His office was relatively normal except for a poster on one wall depicting Harry Potter soaring on his broomstick, reaching out to catch the golden snitch. The rest was furnished with a rosewood desk, ashen blinds, and a potted tree in a corner.

"Alright?" He asked, as the two boys took seats before his desk.

Kamio found himself strangely shy even though he had been waiting to get in all morning.

"You two must be exceptionally tired of the hallway outside." The principal aptly noted. "I hope you weren't too bored. I had you provided with refreshments at least."

The boys thought back to the spill on the floor.

"Which school are you two from?"

"Fudomine." Shinji replied.

"You're lucky. He smiled strangely. "We have many transfers from that school this year so I'm sure you'll be reuniting with several friends shortly."

"Really? Who? Did Uchimura or Sakurai transfer?" Kamio started to get excited.

The principal shrugged. "I don't know. They don't always provide specific names if the they are minor characters. I just know that besides you two, there are four or five others."

"Definitely four or five? Not forty-five?" Shinji quipped.

No one got it.

Shinji looked down at his knees, embarrassed.

The principal plucked a speck of lint off his tie momentarily before continuing, "I won't go into all the details of this school right now for three reasons. First, because I don't feel like. Second, because I'm going to go over some basics anyway later when all the students arrive. And third because I think the best way to learn is the way you will: along the way, living here.

Unsure of what to say, the two boys stared at the principal. Somewhat irked that they weren't speaking, he abruptly said,

"Well, since you two are so early, you might as well fill out a little survey that I made especially for this year's incoming student body. It's to get an idea of what kind of students we will be dealing with; to assess the diversity. Or lack thereof. Please take your time, as we're in no hurry, and be honest, since it's anonymous anyway. Although I'll know which ones are yours since you'll be giving them to me directly." He added as an afterthought.

"What a way to put us at ease." Kamio muttered.

He continued, "The rest of the students will take it after Orientation and turn it in all together." Suddenly the principal smiled.

"What?" Asked Shinji suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing." He said, quickly shaking his head as if to clear his mind. "I was just thinking about how this is an Asian school, you know, with Orientals, and we're having Orientation this evening."

Both boys died a little inside upon hearing this.

"Anyway, that will take place at five o'clock this evening."

"For real?" Kamio asked skeptically.

"What?" The principal looked confused. "Yes, of course for real. Things start on time here. We're not Koreans." He paused thoughtfully. "Or Indians."

To cover up the awkward silence that followed, the principal gave a short cough before hurriedly handing out to each of them a pen and a small packet of papers stapled together on a clipboard. Then he stepped back and repositioned himself at his desk.

Slightly unnerved that he was just going to sit there and watch the two of them, Kamio glanced down at the papers, scanning the entire packet preemptively.


The Survey

PART 1: GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Name: _____________________________________________________

2. Age: _____

3. Previous school: ____________________________________

4. Best Subject: _______________________________________

5. Worst Subject: ______________________________________

6. Hobbies: ___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

7. Do you play tennis? (Check yes or no)

yes __  no__ 

*If you answered "no" to question 7, skip questions 8 to end.

8. Singles or Doubles? Usually? (Circle one)

PART 2: SEMI-LONG ANSWER (check all that apply in each category)

9. What are your special moves? (Cirlcle all that apply)

a. Triple counters
b. Flippy/Bendy-ness
c. Genius...ness
d. Billowy white smoke appears when seriousness starts
e. Imitating people. As in turning into them?
f. Awesome serves
g. Super Special Smashes
h. Extraordinary speed
i. Data Collecting
j. Blind Play
k. Cosplaying
l. Somehow having the ability to combine tennis with skills from completely random other sports
m. Doubles Techniques
n. Using the natural elements to advantage
o. Ambidexterity
p. Ability to "distinguish" moving objects well {oh wow, you must be the only person who can do that}
q. Devil or Angel Modes
r. Super high stamina
s. Killer Volleys
t. Unreasonable luck
u. Ridiculous power shots that no human middle schooler could actually do
v. Defense Tactics
w. Ability to incapacitate senses of the opponent
x. Might as well
y. Finish the
z. Alphabet!

10. What is your motivation for playing tennis?

- To fulfill a childhood dream that has existed since before person could talk/etc
- To please an incredibly inspirational coach or player that talked person into it
- Nothing better to do
- Failed at soccer, basketball, swimming, and every other non-toolish sport
- Forced by a parent
- To defeat an older brother/sister/father/cousin
- To follow through with the ideals of a school revolution
- To prove that person can do something right
- To explain, unrelentingly, during matches, what a more important character's moves are, how they were developed, and how powerful they are, etc.
- To

11. What do you think of Echizen Ryoma?

- He's awesome XD
- He's okay
- Who?
- He's a tool
- He's uke
- Tezuka should slap him again
- He'll never be a pillar
- He's lame
- His fondness for Karupin is...unnatural
- Mada mada dane [that's not even an answer!]

12. Have you ever had a life changing match?

 - Yes, it totally reformed my way of tennis player
- No
- I'm too cynical to be changed by a tennis match
- Yes, but then I was never given screen time again

PART 3: FREE RESPONSE (answer in complete, thoughtful sentences, carefully elaborating on points that may seem completely mundane. Special attention will be paid to use of motifs, symbolism and character evolution)

13. Have you ever said: "I'll definitely win", only to have your ass kicked by a more important character moments later?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

14. State and explain the meaning of your catchphrase, which you undoubtedly have.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________

15. Do you find it strange how the writers make it seem like Freshman are so terrorized by upperclassmen when that's actually hardly even true anymore?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________

16. Does it annoy you how sometimes the opponent will just stop mid-game and explain, in great detail, everything that he just did and why you can't possibly defeat it?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________

17. In the space provided below, make a list of every single life-changing event that has ever happened to you. Then choose one or two to elaborate on, specifically detailing how it helped you develop your tennis career. Extra credit will be given for flashbacks.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________



Kamio finished reading and shot a look of disbelief to Shinji. Shinji however, didn't appear to have noticed and was busily filling out the form. Kamio sighed and turned back to his own paper. The first twelve questions were reasonably easy, though he was disappointed that "tenacity" hadn't been included in the special skills section. Probably it was so generic that it didn't even count as special anymore.

He was slightly stumped by question 14. "I'm riding the rhythm." 'What does it mean?' The question asked. What does it not mean? Was Kamio's first reaction. But then he had to think about it seriously, having never really asked himself. The words individually made sense, but altogether the meaning actually was pretty ambiguous. "Riding" seems to take the meaning of "being engulfed within" in this sentence. Kamio thought. So does that mean I'm lost in the music? What does that even have to do with tennis? I don't listen to music while I play.
And for the first time it dawned on Kamio that perhaps his trusty catchphrase was complete bullshit. Feeling rather shaken, he lifted his pen and began to write out a long, well thought out response to the question, concluding with his realization that he ought to get a new catchphrase.

To Kamio's left, Shinji was thoroughly enjoying writing about what he thought of Echizen though, even adding a few personal comments.

Unfortunately, Kamio spent so much time on 14 that by the time he finished it, Shinji had already finished the entire survey and handed it in, so he felt pressured to finish quickly. He scribbled down some meaningless answers for the rest of the questions, being forced to write about the match against Kaidoh for the last question because he couldn't think of anything better on the spur of the moment.

The principal looked amused at Kamio's discomfort and dismissed both of them after filing away the surveys in a cabinet behind his desk. He told them that they were roommates and should visit the dorm rooms to get settled in somewhat. Failing that, five hours remained to check out the campus before the evening's orientation.


oOoOo


A Saga Born.