A/N: LOL. YES. I just keep cranking out new stories, omg. Don't kill me. LOL. But – this is a 'companion fic' to my YukimuraOC story, Rising Ambitions, as it will be set in the same timeline and universe.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I know, I know. Sanada Genichiro does not have a little sister – I also know that stories that conjure up fictional siblings for canons often end up having an infestation of Mary Sues. However, I hope that I can carry across that I actually wanted there to be a little sister for Sanada because I thought it would be amusing in and of itself – the trials of a girl who grows up with Sanada as an older brother. LOL. I hope that you guys will give my story a chance, and that I can prove to you that this isn't your average, run-of-the-mill canon-sibling fic. 8D
It's also a canonOC fic, not just sibling-ship. 8D (It's me, coffee, guys. What did you expect.) In fact, the main premise of this story will be the KiriharaOC plot – however, it will still have strong moments of Sanada siblingry; the first chapter, however, will seem heavily sibling-oriented, just because it's the opening.
Disclaimer: I do not own PoT.
PRELUDE.
Growing up with an older brother wasn't easy. No, scratch that. Growing up with Sanada Genichiro for an older brother was the nightmare from hell. In fact, it was the nightmares her nightmares had.
Sanada Hanako was, for all intents and purposes, an average sixteen year old Japanese female. She liked to shop whenever the opportunity presented itself (in all her free time, really), had a habit of frequenting that café on the corner of the street with an abundance of pretty boy waiters, and had an undying love for various J-Pop idols.
The siblings came from a family that was, for all intents and purposes, normal. Of course, they did tend to be just the slightest bit old-fashioned in that they lived in a traditional, Japanese-styled house, and they had a grandfather patriarch who was a little more than what people would usually call 'traditional.'
Still.
None of those factors could have explained the unholy spawn that Sanada Genichiro had grown to be, all on his own.
Their always-sighing mother thinks it may have something to do with their grandfather – the same man who, in his seventies, still hopped about teaching kendo to the Japanese police force. Or perhaps their father, a polished government employee with an affinity for running his household like the marines' headquarters.
Hanako had grown up with the realization that she didn't need parents around to reign her in and control her fun and make sure that she was growing up into a dependable, boring adult – because Genichiro-nii-san was around to make sure that she was all that, and worse.
She should have known, really, from the day that nii-san had shown up to her parent-teacher conference instead of her mother, only to chastise her for three hours afterwards, back when she was in seventh grade.
Genichiro-nii-san still performed his own version of a 'uniform check' each and every morning. His was far stricter than the teachers at school.
The only point in her life where he'd actually stepped back in his role of assumed parenthood was when Hanako had had her first period – and Hanako still can't forget the way he'd attempted to walk with her through it through biological, scientific explanations and diagrams he'd printed off of the internet in an impromptu lecture.
Hanako had actually thought having Genichiro for an older brother might have, just maybe, an actual upside, when he first brought home his old childhood friend, Yukimura Seiichi – who was all beautiful smiles and delicate, gentle manners.
But nii-san found out about her crush and soon put an end to that, too, rest assured.
The two times afterwards when Hanako had found herself a boyfriend? Well, let's just say that those relationships didn't exactly last long enough for her to receive her first kiss.
Junior high had been a trip through the sixth ring of hell, no questions needed.
Hanako had always known that her older brother was 'good' at tennis. She had not, however, known that somehow, he'd earned himself a psychotic nickname as "one of the three demon generals," along with that smiling Seiichi and some other third year. She'd found out, though, the first day of her first year of junior high attending Rikkai Dai – whereupon at the name 'Sanada,' her classmates began to give her a wide three meter radius.
And after that debacle had ended, she was flagged down by the girls' tennis team members for two weeks to join the tennis team.
Hanako, by the way, had never even seen a tennis match, much less play.
The girls on the tennis team refused to believe that 'the younger sister of that Sanada doesn't play tennis.'
And after two years of "Sanada, good job on this report – did your brother help you?" and "Sanada, not so good; maybe you can ask your brother for help." to the "Hanako-chan, Hanako-chan, can I come over to your house today? Or- well, is your older brother home?" it was needless to say that Sanada Hanako was fed. up. with being "Sanada Genichiro's younger sister."
So who could blame her when it came for the time to ascend into high school, Hanako was willing to go to any school – any – but Rikkai Dai? Nii-san hadn't approved, because, according to him, he needed to be around in order to make sure she stayed out of trouble.
But Hanako had gone behind his back and practically groveled to their mother – who had, subsequently, enrolled her in a quiet, peaceful high school far enough from Rikkai Dai that people there didn't know about Sanada Genichiro.
It was a good thing, too, because last time she'd heard, he'd caused another ruckus at school by claiming captaincy of the tennis team as a second year.
Ugh.
Three voices – all female – giggled over one another, accompanied with the clack of girlish heels and scuffles as they bumped into one another playfully on their way into the house. Hanako slipped through the front door and allowed her shoes to clatter onto the floor, abandoned carelessly, before breezing down the hallway with a haphazard "I'm home!" shouted to whomever may be inside.
"Hey, hey, Hanako- where's your older brother?" one of the girls asked, following closely behind her friend.
"Yeah! My boyfriend said that he's super amazing at tennis," the third girl chorused.
Hanako blanched. Emi's boyfriend was on the tennis team – and after he'd seen her older brother play at some tournament, and somehow, miraculously connected that her Sanada and his Sanada were one and the same, she hadn't heard the end of it from him.
Right. As if Hanako would invite her friends over when nii-san was home. No thank you.
"He's not home right now. He has tennis practice after school-"
"Hanako."
Hanako froze. Well, her insides froze; unfortunately, her feet took another few stumbled steps backward, as they failed to catch up with her brain. She'd been walking backwards down the hall in order to face her friends – and now, she found her back colliding with a sturdy surface behind her.
Rough hands came to steady her shoulders.
"…Hi, nii-san."
With a mustered smile (that looked more like a cringe, if she was going to be honest) Hanako turned around, and almost bumped noses with her brother's chest. She took a step back. Genichiro looked down at her with his usual stony expression, only glancing away to briefly look over her two friends; he relaxed once he affirmed that yes, they were both of the female variety.
"Don't you have practice?"
Genichiro's eyes returned to Hanako's gaze – a mixture of disappointed surprise and discomfort.
"It was cancelled for today. The courts are being washed."
"Oh."
Several seconds flew by in a sort of awkward, muted silence, with Hanako attempting to twist a ribbon of her dark hair around her finger. "Well. I'm going to go to my room now-"
"Aa."
Hanako had to practically pry her still-gaping, awed friends down the hall to her room.
Genichiro stepped nimbly forward and with surprising gentleness, carefully aligned his little sister's shoes to align with the neat row of the rest of the family's shoes.
Genichiro didn't mean to exasperate his little sister all the time – in fact, he didn't understand half the eye rolls he received from her, anyway. Ah, well, he'd read in one parenting book that "every eyeroll means you're doing something right;" if that was true, he could easily claim the championship title of 'best parent in the universe.'
He was the type of person who naturally felt the weight of responsibility, no matter the situation. As the vice-captain, he'd helmed the team and taken it upon himself to preserve their excellence until Seiichi returned. As the only and first son of the family, it was his duty to uphold honor for the household, to display exemplary results.
As an elder brother, it was his responsibility, his duty, his job, to ensure that Hanako grew up healthy, disciplined and safe.
He'd met a bit of a stumbling block that one phase in her life where she suddenly started growing shapely and started that female thing, but other than that, he liked to think that he did a pretty good job.
Genichiro had adopted his father's genes – the two were very, almost strikingly, alike in appearances: rigid nose, bow-shaped lips, wide foreheads and chiseled features. Very much unattractive features for a girl. Respectable, strong features for a boy.
It was lucky for Hanako then, that she looked like her mother, he supposed. He and his sister shared the same inky black hair – of course, Hanako had grown hers out (a little too long for his tastes, if anyone asked) to her waist, pin-straight locks and a smooth forehead bared by an absence of bangs. She'd tried a perm, once, and it had been disastrous.
She'd looked like the family poodle.
Unlucky for him, because if his sister were unappealing, then he wouldn't have to worry about fending off unsavory boys. He'd liked that one period where she'd had that perm. There had been much less male attention to worry about.
When Genichiro had said such to Hanako, once, she'd refused to speak to him for an entire week.
It had been very hard to conduct uniform checks and homework reviews when she refused to speak to him.
But like every other hurdle in parenthood, Genichiro took it all in stride.
Pesky teenage adolescence. He hoped she'd grow out of it soon.
Hanako knew Genichiro-nii-san had good intentions.
During junior high, she'd wished every single day that by some freak accident, it turned out that they weren't really related. Every time she caught a glimpse of them in a photo together, or in the mirror, though, it'd turn too hard to pretend they weren't related – not when identical genetics screamed from their faces.
Hanako didn't look like nii-san at all – at least, she didn't look like a stony mask of a man; she was every bit as feminine and pretty, as most other girls in school. Still, though. They shared the same pitch black hair, the same almond-shaped eyes, the same skin- well. Nii-san used to be pale like her, until he tanned everything out with tennis.
She was over it, now. A little. Not really.
It had gotten bearable, though, when she finally escaped to a school where there wasn't an enormous fanclub dedicated to worshipping her older brother. It was still the same strict regime when she came home, but at least at school, she was able to escape it all.
She understood that her brother had the best intentions at heart – but really, he was only one year older. Of course, the gap in their maturity levels was far larger, but still; he acted as though he were her grandfather, at times, and it had become ridiculous at this point.
She was almost seventeen years old. She did not, contrary to her brother and father's belief, need a babysitter. Or three parents.
Knock knock.
That was nii-san's knocking.
Hanako hurried to stash her diary underneath her pillow, and straightened up upon her bed. "Yeah?"
Her brother's head peeked through the door. "Father's requested we assemble in the living room."
"Okay."
A pause.
"Aren't you coming?"
Right. Right. She needed him to escort her down to the living room too, because god forbid she actually walk a few meters without being watched. With a sigh, Hanako trudged to the door and rolled her eyes as she flitted past Genichiro.
Genichiro blinked.
He must be really good at this parenting stuff.
Hanako nodded along absentmindedly – her attention was far more drawn by the delicious, gleaming red cherries that had been set out in the bowl in front of them. Then again, she was always interested by anything other than her parents rambling, almost all the time. Nii-san, though, was at strict attention.
Their grandfather – their mother's father – had been ailing for a long while, now. She'd been worried at first, but with such a long time passing, it had gradually dulled to just another natural 'state' of her affairs. Her grandfather was sick, and he would be; she couldn't exactly spend every moment of every day fretting about it for the rest of her life, could she?
It seemed that their parents, and their grandfather, would be making a trip over to visit him – he resided in an area far in the countryside, more than several hours by plane away. Normally, Hanako would have been enthralled that their parents would be absent for months on end.
However, she had Genichiro as an older brother, and he was strict enough for an entire legion of parents.
So all in all, this was a very dull conversation that really, shouldn't have taken so much time-
"-so we want you to transfer to Rikkai Dai."
Somewhere in the distance, Hanako heard something shattering – and simultaneously, her heart seemed to stop beating altogether. "…What?"
"With us gone for so long, we don't feel good about sending you to a school with no parental guidance there."
Hanako's eyes slowly widened until they ached. "…I'm not a baby, dad-"
"You'll always be our baby. And Hanako, your record doesn't exactly assure us, either."
So alright, she wasn't the perfect child that nii-san was. And alright, she had an excessive number of tardies from oversleeping (her brother had morning practice and left an hour earlier than she did – so he couldn't watch over that). And, oh, alright, she wasn't the best at keeping all her belongings together all the time, but-
"You can't just make me transfer," she finally spluttered. "It's the middle of the year!"
"Well, your first quarter is just about ending – so if any, this would be a perfect time to make your transition to another school," she heard her brother say, and wanted to scream.
"It's not like I'm living at school – and nii-san's here when I get home! I don't-"
"We'd just feel better about leaving you two alone for months, if you had Genichiro around if anything happened. If something happens at your other school, then without us there, you wouldn't have anyone around until Genichiro finished school, dear."
Hanako's jaw dropped.
"But my friends-"
"-will stay your friends. Besides. Rikkai Dai is a prestigious school, and if you hadn't been so childishly stubborn on going to some random school, you'd have gone there anyway. Okaa-san feels so much better about everything this way."
"I'll take good care of Hanako, mother, father. Have a safe trip."
"Oh, Genichiro. So dependable, my son."
Hanako wanted to scream.
Knock knock.
For a crazy moment, Hanako considered ignoring it entirely. But then, knowing her brother, he'd probably enter anyway, thinking she'd suffocated herself to death. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah?"
Genichiro entered the moment she'd managed to utter her response, and swiftly, but gently, closed the door behind him.
He, Hanako noted drily, ought to enter the military forces. He'd be perfect for it.
Genichirou paused by the door, as though unsure of what to do. When Hanako raised her brows, he seemed to make a decision, and came to sit stiffly beside her on her bed. "Are you upset?" he asked quietly.
Hanako snorted and rolled her eyes.
But then, she caught the glimmer of worry in his eyes, and sighed. She wanted to be mad at him, but it was always hard – especially when he was so obviously looking out for her, and expressed genuine concern. "Yes," she answered anyway. "But it's not your fault."
"I know it's not."
Hanako eyed him flatly. "I'll be okay," she finally sighed. "It's not that big of a deal, transferring schools. Whatever."
She caught the barely-perceptible quirk of his lips. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you're clothed and fed well-"
…Once again, he'd entirely missed the point.
With a groan, Hanako dove under her pillow. "Just go away, nii-san," she moaned.
Genichiro, with one last firm nod to Hanako, left the room, once again affirmed that he was doing the right job with his parenting.
Much to her horror, the transfer papers had only taken four days to be processed – and their parents had another week before they departed. If they asked her, she'd surely received the severely short end of the stick, here.
And because Genichiro was Genichiro, he took this wholesome opportunity as a chance to walk his sister to school and back home, and if she didn't know better, she'd say that he was delighted about the whole thing. Well, as 'delighted' as Genichiro was capable of.
That meant Hanako had to wake up at five bleeding A.M., because her brother's practice started at six – two entire hours before school even began.
The idea of having Sanada Genichiro as a brother never stopped pitting her into the deeper and darker levels of hell.
"Turn."
Hanako stood presently at attention before Genichiro, arms held out in straight lines at her side, until her body formed a perfect 'T.' Rikkai Dai's fresh new uniform hung on her figure, her bag at her side; her brother's eyes inspected her sharply from head to toe.
"Your hair is still too long, Hanako."
Hanako pursed her lips. "Well that's not part of the dress code, nii-san."
With a grunt, her brother muttered "Turn."
Hanako obediently turned so that he could inspect her back.
"Rotate."
Hanako dutifully revolved herself in a perfect 360 degree circle.
"Ribbon."
She glanced down. Her ribbon was slightly askew – not for lack of trying on her part, but Hanako doubted that ribbon alignment was going to be a factor at her school. "Nii-san, I tried, but this ribbon just won't tie straight-"
In a matter of a few seconds, Genichiro had reached out to deftly undo and re-tie her ribbon – perfectly, until it could have been used as a model image for all other ribbons to follow in its wake.
Hanako rolled her eyes.
Genichiro felt a sense of renewed satisfaction.
"Let's go."
The moment Hanako stepped into the tennis court area through the metal fence, she was sure: she'd somehow stepped out of reality, and into the fourth ring of blazing hell.
An unsavory dead silence followed her entrance into the courts, wherein the seven boys in the courts – some playing, some lounging about – stared at her through wide, wide eyes. Hanako thought she saw Yukimura-kun somewhere, eyeing her curiously, before flitting his attention back to Sanada.
Genichiro, easily ignoring the gaping silence that seemed to have fallen following his and his sister's entrance, directed her to sit at the bleachers directly beside the court with the most boys in them. Hanako wanted to inform him that some of his teammates seemed to be staring at her as though she were the goddamned Easter Bunny here with a basket of eggs, but he was never really receptive to listening to her at all.
The moment Hanako's bottom landed on the bleachers, everyone seemed to explode.
"…Is Sanada-fukubuchou with a girl?"
"Where?"
"There."
"…Is that a girl-"
"It's a girl!"
"Why is he with a girl?"
"Is the girl crying?"
"Why would she be crying-"
"Well I mean- if I was a girl, I'd cry if I was put in front of Sanada-fukubuchou."
"…Oh my god, he's bringing her inside."
"What?"
"No way-"
"OH MY GOD, JACKAL, SHE'S INSIDE THE COURTS."
"Ow, Bunta, stop, that hurts-"
"Sanada brought a girl into the courts-"
"Is she some test monkey for a new technique?"
"…Don't they look weirdly similar, standing next to each other like that-"
"Why are you all slacking off? Back to work!"
Hanako watched through dry eyes as her brother assumed direct command of the team. Funny – hadn't he said that his captain had returned just a short while ago? Ah, there: Yukimura-kun gave her a small nod of his head in recognition, and Hanako did the same.
He was as pretty as always, she sighed wistfully.
"But- Sanada- who is she?"
"Bunta, that is irrelevant to practice."
"But you never let us bring girls inside the courts!"
"Tarundarou!"
Really, Hanako noted – she hadn't known her brother still screamed that in public. How embarrassing.
Needless to say, by the time morning practice was over, Hanako was quite sure that she never, ever, ever wanted to sit in on one of her brother's practices again.
Hanako had never seen a tennis match before. She was a girl wholly uninterested in any sport of any kind, and she'd caught perhaps a minute or two of a match when her brother watched professional matches on television when the season was poignant.
However, even she was rather sure that this tennis wasn't normal.
It wasn't normal, for someone to start blabbering about being unable to see in a match against Yukimura, ten minutes in.
It wasn't normal, for Yanagi-san to be able to say, out loud, what the opponent would do – seconds before the opponent actually did it. (She'd seen him at their house a couple of times, too, since middle school).
It wasn't normal for Hanako to somehow see one boy change into another before her eyes, or for her to find a boy making a ball roll along the netline, or for her to see such a dark-skinned boy with seemingly endless stamina, playing perfectly well for the entire two hours.
And it definitely, not even in the realms of hell, was normal for a boy to turn into the devil before her eyes.
Red eyes, sharp fangs, and a monstrous sort of air to him that had Hanako's eyes bugging out of their sockets.
Hanako scanned the courts for her brother, then – which turned out to be a mistake. Because her brother was one of them, too.
A monster.
Hanako's complexion turned ashen. She lived with a monster. Her older brother – the annoying, nagging, stone-faced, helplessly oblivious to all things female – was a certifiable creature from hell.
Oh, god.
A/N: Yep. I did it. LOL.
This story will be a KiriharaOC story – it is also going to be a Sanada-sibling fic. It may seem in this first chapter that its entirely a sibling fic, but that's just because I needed to establish this for the story to start – which is why I'm going to say this first chapter is a prelude. 8Db
I'm still a bit shaky as to how this is going, so I'd really appreciate some feedback / thoughts on what you think so far. 8)
READ. REVIEW. LOVE?