Chapter One

Game Start

"Scared, Hibari?"

Hibari turned to look at the boy walking next to her, surprised by his question. She smiled softly, almost teasingly, and said in English, "Of course not. What is there to be afraid of, Aidan?" Her tone was calm and smooth; her voice was clear, but with a hint of a British accent.

The boy simply shrugged. "It's a new school, in a whole different country. Most people would be nervous," he replied with a smirk. "But remember to call me 'Haru' next time. It's what Father wants, at least." And what was the reason for his strange words? The two twins were on their way to Rikkai dai Fuzoku Chuu; it was their first day.

The whole conversation had been carried out in English, but as they approached the school, the two reverted to using the Japanese language. Even though the two had lived in England most of their lives, Japanese had not been too hard for them too learn. After all, they were half-Japanese.

As they were about to enter through the doors to the school, they glanced at each other almost nervously, but then pushed open the doors. Inside, the hallways were cluttered with students who were talking to their friends or finishing some forgotten homework. Haru and Hibari walked down the halls to the office where they were supposed to first meet their sensei. Around them, a number of students had begun to stare at the newcomers, both in awe and curiosity. It was spring, and the school did not usually take on transfer students at the time. And to make it even more surprising, these two dark-haired twins did not seem nervous at being new students at all. In fact, they seemed rather confident, as if they already owned the school after being there only two minutes.

"Hibari-chan, we seem to be attracting attention," Haru said to his sister nonchalantly. This earned him yet another faint, yet playful smile. Hibari had always been the quiet one.

She spoke, her striking green eyes still staring ahead of her. "What about it?" she replied, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly. "What do you think it's going to be like here?" Hibari then said to her twin, suddenly curious. I'm just looking forward to seeing this school's tennis club, she thought to herself.

"Oh, I think life is Japan is going to be very… interesting," Haru said, glancing around at the cute girls that were eying him with a smirk on his face and a trickster's look in his eye. He had a good feeling about this school.

Hibari sighed, already feeling sorry for the poor girl that her brother chose as his next target.

*****

Haru and Hibari took their seats where the teacher directed them. They sat next to each other. However, to Hibari's right sat another second-year, but he seemed… peculiar, to say the least. He had messy black hair and a kind of wild and bold look in his eyes. Out of all of her classmates, he stood out the most, especially when he caught her eye, and flashed a winning smile. Though blushing slightly, she did her best to ignore him, and simply tried focusing on the teacher's history and geography lecture. School in Japan seemed just as tedious as school in England, only the teacher spoke Japanese instead of English.

The boy next to her seemed to be spaced out and not paying attention, for the teacher had to call his name a few times when asking him a question.

"Kirihara!" snapped the teacher. The boy, Kirihara, blinked and turned towards the teacher.

"Um… hai?"

"I asked you about the main geography of Japan, and how it compares to the geography of the States. Kirihara, you need to start paying more attention in class, or I'm going to have to have a conference with your parents."

"Ch-chotto! No, don't call my parents…"

Kirihara stumbled over his answer, but it was enough to avoid the dreaded conference. Haru, being the teasing person that he was, snickered at Kirihara's answer and even Hibari couldn't help but smile slightly. The rest of the class didn't even try to suppress their laughs. The classroom rang with teenager's laughter at Kirihara's little predicament. He glared at them, his eyes seeming to burn a hole in the air. The laughing silenced at his threatening ferocity, and the lecture continued with the only voice in the room being the teacher's.

*****

It was lunch time, and the two black-haired twins sat next to each other on the rooftop of the building, their bento boxes set neatly in front of them. "How do you like it so far?" Hibari spoke, attempting to break their awkward silence. To be honest, she had found life at Rikkai Dai normal, and nothing seemed special about the school. Then what was with the feeling that Rikkai Dai would be different… and she was actually going to like it? Of course, Hibari had never been clairvoyant.

"How do I like it? It's alright, I guess, but not as fun as I'd hoped. Why does our teacher have to be so boring?" Haru sighed and fell back to lie down with his hand behind his head. "But let's not talk about the negative things," he declared optimistically. "Did you notice that Kirihara in our class? Well, of course you'd have to be both deaf and blind to not notice him." A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

Hibari was snapped out of her mild trance. "Kirihara? He seems like the problem child to me." Despite her defiant words, a pale shade of pink emerged in her cheeks. To most people, it would have gone unnoticed. However, Haru wasn't most people.

He immediately sat up, an amused look on his face. "Oh, do I see a blush?" he teased, laughing. "You like him don't you? Although I think he's a little too mischievous for you, little sister." There was nothing better than a chance for him to get on his sister's nerves. It was just so fun to see her reaction.

Her brother's teasing caught her off guard and only made her more flustered. "I do not! And you're one to talk about mischievous. I hang out with you, don't I, and who's the one who has a different girl for every day of the week?" she snapped back, hoping to disguise her embarrassment. As revenge, she took one of her octopus shaped sausages and threw it at his face.

"Your words wound me, as does the octopus," he sighed, pretending to act hurt and clutching his hand to his chest dramatically. The poor, wasted sausage lay forgotten next to his hand resting on the ground.

Just then, the door back into the building swung open, and a group of boys walked through. All of them looked like they were in their third year, except one. That one was Kirihara. The rest seemed serious, if not somewhat playful. Kirihara just seemed… unpredictable. Exactly what made it so hard to describe him?

"Ah, it's the two foreign students," said a white pony-tailed boy, noticing the twins sitting on the rooftop. "I was wondering when I'd get to meet you two." Now, he was walking over to them. The white-haired boy bent down, and extended a hand to Haru. "Hey, I'm Niou, third year."

Haru raised an eyebrow, while shaking the third-year's hand. "Nice to meet you, Niou-senpai. I'm Kyori Haru, second year. And this is my younger sister, Hibari."

The girl sitting by him scowled slightly at the word 'younger'.

Niou turned to Hibari, as if noticing her for the first time. He smiled gently, marveling in his mind how cute she was, being the flirtatious, if not wrong, person he was.

Suddenly, a voice interfered. "Niou, stop harassing the new students."

The white-haired tennis player turned around to face the third year that had spoken. It was a red-haired boy chewing gum. "Hello there," said the gum boy to Hibari and Haru. "Marui Bunta, third year," came the introduction.

The twins scanned their eyes over the whole group. They were wearing yellow and black uniforms. Finally, yet another one of their group spoke up. This student had long, wavy black hair, and wore a headband. "I'm Yukimura. We're the Rikkai Dai tennis regulars."

*****

"Those two are quite interesting, aren't they?" Niou asked his teammates during their tennis practice that same day after school, referring to the Kyoris.

Marui nodded in agreement. "Yea, but I wonder if they play tennis. It might be cool to have them join the tennis club or something." You can never tell where good talent came from. After all, wasn't the one that defeated Yukimura, the 'Child of God' a first year from Seigaku?

Out of nowhere, Yanagi, who had been missing from practice until then, entered into the courts. The captain of the team turned towards him. "Yanagi, where have you been?"

"I was doing a bit of research," he replied, holding up a few papers in his hand, "about the new students."

Now this roused some interest. Everyone ended their rallies or stopped in mid-swing to listen to what Yanagi had to say. After all, this could be some valuable information.

"Apparently, the Kyori twins came from England. And, they were national-ranking tennis players." This was followed by exclamation of disbelief and amazement. "They won the nationals twice; once as doubles players, and another as singles players." He stopped there, and watched for their reactions. Yukimura seemed especially intrigued.

"Tomorrow, we must invite them to tennis practice," said the captain.

*****