Seishun Space Station hung in orbit around Earth's moon. It was strange, seeing that planet, once green with life, now completely barren. Not that many of the people onboard the space station could remember Earth before it became the wasteland it was now, of course; only one had actually lived on Earth, though they'd passed the stories of it's surface down to the next generation.

Only ten people remained on the station, which had been their home for their entire lives. And it would be for the rest of their lives, too – there was nowhere left to go. It was hard for everyone, knowing that they were doomed to spend the rest of their lives on this same space shuttle, playing the same tennis, eating the same space food. At times, it was enough to make you want to scream.

But in space, no one could hear you scream. Unless, of course, you were screaming:

"THAT'S MOMO-CHAN'S DUNK SMASH! DON!"

What might have been an impressive smash back on Earth only caused the tennis ball to drift downwards a little, then climb aimlessly back upwards in the zero gravity environment of the space shuttle. Momoshiro looked a little dejected.

"Mada mada dane, Momo-senpai," Echizen Ryoma said, floating a few feet above the court with his hands above his head.

"Echizen!" Momo cried, tossing his racket to the ground in frustration. The racket did not reach the ground and only hung in the air in front of him. "This blows!" Momo shouted once more, finding it difficult to keep his voice down. Seventeen years on board a tiny space shuttle, and only now was cabin fever sitting down. "Not even tennis can take my mind off Ryuzaki-sensei's condition."

Ryoma didn't show any concern, but inside, he did feel as worried as Momo. Deep inside. Deep, deep inside where nobody could ever know. Of course, besides the fact that he was maybe a little fond of Ryuzaki-sensei, there was another reason he worried about the loss of their coach: if there was one person who could keep order amongst a crowd of rowdy tennis players.

"I know," Momo said, grabbing Ryoma by the neck and pulling him upright. It was easy enough in zero gravity, but Momo would have been able to do it on Earth, given his freakish size and strength. "Let's go and pay Ryuzaki-sensei a visit!"

So they made their way to the hospital wing. Upon entering Ryuzaki-sensei's room, the atmosphere was noticably different. Indeed, it was strange enough to see the entire Seishun Space Shuttle tennis club gathered around Ryuzaki-sensei's bedside, but it was even more worrying to see the serious look on each member's face, and the gaunt, pale nature of Ryuzaki-sensei's own.

"Tezuka Buchou," Ryoma said, picking up on the tense air in the room. "What's going on?"

"Echizen," their captain greeted him. He frowned, bowing his head, then said, "I fear the illness is getting worse. He's dillusional-"

"I am not delusional!" Ryuzaki-sensei snapped, and Ryoma was relieved to see that, though he might look frail, he was as vivacious as ever.

Ryuzaki-sensei had been like a father to every boy on the shuttle for as long as any of them could remember. Before the nuclear power plants had exploded on Earth he'd been asked to pick nine babies – nine babies who would grow to be exceptionally skilled at tennis (Ryuzaki-sensei was a tennis coach, so had a certain kind of foresight for these kind of things) – and take them into space, where they would be safe from harm.

Quite why he had been asked to do this was a mystery, but it had been an order that had come directly from the Japanese Prime Minister. For some reason. I'll decide later.

"Listen to me," Ryuzaki-sensei hissed, clearly exasperated. "I'm trying to tell you, I'm a woman-"

"Temperature: 98.6. Perfect," Inui said, removing a thermometre from Ryuzaki-sensei's ear. "The hallucinations aren't accompanied by a fever. How strange."

"I'm not hallucinating!"

"Ryuzaki-sensei," Oishi said, gently, clearly sensing it was his turn to attempt to talk some sense into their deluded coach. "You must be confused – women have been extinct for years. You told us that yourself…"

Ryuzaki-sensei froze, then slumped over, hands covering her eyes.

"I lied," she said, weakly. "I lied because- I thought, if you thought girls had been wiped out… then you'd be able to concentrate on tennis better."

Nobody spoke. Girls were… real? There were real girls out there, somewhere?

"Ryuzaki-sensei," Tezuka said, his voice sounding quiet. "Why would you tell us something like that-"

"I had to," she murmured. Her voice sounded uncharacteristically small, weak, and her eyes slipped closed. "You boys – I've raised you as I would my own children, and over time I've come to think of you as my own family but… my goal was to teach you tennis. That was the mission I was given. I believe – besides the fact that Earth is now an irradiated hell-hole – the Prime Minister wanted you to be removed from it so you could be isolated from society, so you could focus on tennis. And I wanted to ensure there were as little distractions as possible."

Ryoma wondered how he'd never realised that Ryuzaki-sensei was, most definitely, a woman. Really, how had he been so blind? He almost had been blind a few times - Ryuzaki-sensei's sizable chest mounds were quite the hazard in zero gravity. Women hadn't been wiped out but bras had, apparently.

"I've raised you all to be the best tennis players possible," she said, her eyes slipping closed. "I feel like… I can die with no regrets…"

At once, they let out a stream of protests. "No!", or "Don't leave us!", or "Ryuzaki-sensei, you can't mean that!"

Her eyes opened once more. "Well, I have one regret," she said, "My granddaughter. I had to leave her behind to come here with you all – I wish I could have seen how she'd grown up."

They were quiet for a moment. Then Tezuka stood, looking dramatically off into the distance. Really, he was just staring into a wall. That was kind of weird.

"You won't have to wish anymore, sensei," he said, dramatically, "We're going to find your granddaughter… and bring her back here!"

"BUCHOU!" The rest of the team screamed in agreement.

The escape pods lay on the east side of the station. They had been unused for some time and Ryoma had his doubts about whether or not the were safe, but Inui had checked them over and declared them spaceworthy. So Ryoma reluctantly got into a spacesuit, and wondered why on Earth (or not on Earth, as was their current situation) he had agreed to this.

Even if they got to Earth safely, even if they weren't killed by some sort of feral, mutated wildlife, even if, by some freak coincidence, they found Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter… what then? What could they do? They'd be on Earth and Ryuzaki-sensei would be dying alone up here.

"Buchou," Ryoma said, his voice quiet. He didn't want to bring this up in front of the others, the majority of whom were excited about their voyage, but it had been bothering him. Tezuka, infuriatingly, turned away from him to gaze out the window that offered a beautiful view of the galaxy.

"Even if we get to Earth, Ryuzaki-sensei's going to be here," Ryoma said bluntly. His meaning was obvious.

"If Ryuzaki-sensei had objected to us travelling to Earth, she would have said so," he said, hands clasped behind his back. "No – I think that, all along, she knew we would have to leave. She's trained us for a purpose. Telling us about her granddaughter was her way of giving us a reason to go to Earth."

Ryoma wasn't too sure that was true. It seemed that none of this made sense, perhaps because I haven't really thought it through shit idk what's goin on

"Echizen," Tezuka continued, turning to Ryoma. "When we get to Earth, there may be a chance that something will happen to me."

"Tezuka Buchou-"

"Echizen," Tezuka interrupted, "If something is to happen to me – you must become the pillar of Seishun Space Station."

There was a moments silence. Then… "What's a pillar?"

"Ah," Tezuka said, awkwardly. They were on a space station, so of course there were no pillars! Everything was sleek and chromium and pillarless. That had been an unfortunate choice of metaphor. "It's… it's a sort of support structure that… holds things up," Tezuka said, uncertainly. Maybe he should just hope that there would be an opportunity to point one out on Earth. With a sigh, Tezuka picked up his helmet and placed it on his head, "Well, Echizen, let's go. You'll ride with Momoshiro."

Ryoma balked. "B-but I said I wanted to ride in a single pod-"

Tezuka's eyes narrowed.

Real men rode doubles.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that! xD What will happen when they get to Earth? only time will tell! READ AND REVIEW PLZ!