Might be OOC, but I do the best of my abilities with Ryoma/ka (And Ryoka is a young, pure-hearted lass who's falling in love. She's allowed to be a bit OOC).

Chivalry

Even with her high pride and unbending will, Echizen Ryoka knew well that she was weaker in physical strength than probably even Horio (and she would rather choke on her racket than say it out loud), but she hated being tied down by "female limits". She was a regular on the boy's tennis team, surely that had to mean something.

And even if her opponent was a male who had easily knocked down Arai with a fist to the face and had arms that were the width of her waist, she refused to back down (even when she did a mental calculation of how much pressure the guy would need to put before she broke in half).

Kachiro looked pitifully up at the girl with round, wet eyes; he was obviously terrified and probably in shock from what just happened to him in the span of two minutes. "Ryoka-chan!" he cried out, relieved to have been saved.

By this time, Arai was able to pick himself up onto his hands and knees, but his limbs were visibly trembling and Ryoka could see with her sharp eyes that the second year was on the verge of collapse. "Echizen…" he breathed, wide eyes landing on the girl's petite, twelve year old figure in contrast to the larger teen she stood off against (the girl barely reached the other guy's chest).

Ryoka smirked, brushing off her skort with nonchalant ease. "What's with all the ruckus?" she asked in her usual condescending tone.

"Watch out! That guy's really violent!" Kachiro warned frantically, as if that would make any difference to Ryoka whose eyes never left her opponent.

Similarly, the silver-haired teen seemed to have closed the world off to just him and her as he didn't even twitch at the sound of Kachiro's voice. "So you finally showed up, huh Girl Regular?" he drawled, yellow eyes looking the girl up and down to assess her worth.

Ryoka ignored the feeling of his stare and placed a hand on her hip, cocking her head to her side so she could get a decent glimpse of the guy's face. "I don't know who you are though."

A sinister leer spread over the teen's pale face and he bent down to retrieve something from the ground. Although Ryoka didn't catch what it was, Arai seemed to have seen it as he shot up and shouted at the other male, "Hey, that rock…!!"

And the silver-haired teen served it towards Ryoka's face with pinpoint accuracy. It was cold shock that ran down the girl's spine as she watched the rock fly towards her, and it was only her instinctive reflex that had her lifting up her tennis racket just in time to catch it before it hit.

However, the strings of her racket shuddered with the impact, and Ryoka couldn't hold in the tiny gasp of surprise. It definitely wasn't the first time a male held a grudge against her, but it was the first time one had taken it out through means of physical violence. But the other guy didn't seem like he was at all sorry; his sneer widened as he watched the girl intercept his attack and grabbed a handful of the same, small rocks off the ground.

This time, all three of them saw. Ryoka weighed her choices. She could either stand and take it or she could run, allowing Kachiro who was behind her to take the damage in her stead. Unfortunately, Ryoka's pride didn't allow the latter as she refused to let someone else to get hurt when she was the target, nor could she run away like a coward. Ryoka held her racket before her, watching with steady eyes as the male before her threw all the pebbles in the air and took on a serve-stance.

"Isn't this the best?" he mocked (Would he really do it? Could he really hit all of them?) before he swung his racket through the air cleanly, hitting all the rocks mid-drop and sending them flying at Ryoka who could only stand and watched in shock.

'This is going to hurt.'

She braced herself for the pain (her left eye twinged in memory of similar hurt) and waited.

And waited.

Realizing quickly that nothing was coming, Ryoka looked up from the ground, head full of questions (Did the idiot miss? Did I teleport or something? Maybe I actually fought them all off with my racket?) but blinked, feeling numb at the sight of Arai towering over her with his dark face screwed up in agony.

"Senpai?" she called out softly. At the sound of her voice, Arai crumbled. The second-year fell to his knees and doubled over, holding his stomach as he groaned in distress. Kachiro hurried over to Arai's side and hovered over the older male worriedly. "Senpai!"

Ryoka took her eyes off of Arai's battered form and pierced the attacker with an enraged glare, but the teen simply stuck his free hand into his pocket and told her, "Today's just a greeting," before turning to leave without even an apology or a farewell.

With an almost uncontrollable desire to simply rip the guy from limb to limb, Ryoka bent down and dug her nails into a nearby tennis ball and bore a heated glower at the guy's departing back. 'Bastard,' her mind thought and from below, Arai wheezed.

Having made up her mind and wanting to do away with her suffocating anger, Ryoka threw the ball into the air and struck at it with all the strength she could muster, hoping and hoping that it would be enough to at least give the son of a bitch a black eye.

But her heart sunk to her stomach and her anger grew into simple self-loathing as her ball was easily caught by the guy's bare hand. "Don't be too hasty," he jeered, aimlessly tossing the ball to the side as if it were trash. "I'm a third-year from Yamabuki, Akutsu." And he left with just that, and Ryoka could do nothing to stop him.

Her body felt heavy and her stomach was twisting inside of her. 'Akutsu… son of a bitch.'

"Arai-senpai, Ryoka-chan, I'm going to go get a teacher. Please wait here," Kachiro said shakily before running off towards the tennis courts. Ryoka turned around and watched Arai grunt and groan as he pushed himself up to his feet, trembling like a leaf in the wind all the while. It was a pitiful sight.

"Why'd you do it?" Ryoka asked. Arai looked over his shoulder at the girl and raised an eyebrow at her. "Do what?"

"… protect me."

The second-year scoffed and turned to face the girl. "Are you being serious or are you messing around?"

Ryoka said nothing as she stared at Arai's bruising face.

"… you're being serious," the guy sighed, gingerly rubbing his face. "Look. What do you think would've happened to you if I hadn't stepped in."

At once Ryoka's expression darkened and her body stiffened in annoyance. "I could've taken it."

"I don't care if you could take it or not. The fact is that I wasn't about to let some sick bastard throw rocks at a girl."

"Don't look down on me," Ryoka warned, voice deadly soft. She had enough of gender discrimination from anyone.

But Arai drew up in anger, nostrils flaring and he reached out and grabbed Ryoma by her thin shoulder, making the girl flinch in surprise. "I'm not looking down on you!" he shouted, spittle from his mouth. "But if I didn't protect a girl from harm when I could, then I would be a failure as a man!"

And something in Ryoka tightened and her breath escaped her for a moment as she stared at Arai's face with big eyes. It wasn't a pretty sight at the moment as his teeth were gnashed together and his cheeks were flushed a red that didn't go well with his dark skin, plus the various abrasions and bruises littering his face, but Ryoka couldn't tear her eyes away.

It was only when Arai stepped back and released her that Ryoka was able to breathe again, but she looked away, hiding her heated face under the bill of her cap. She didn't understand why her face felt so hot and why was her heart pounding so loudly?

"Senpai! Ryoka-chan! I brought back Coach Ryuuzaki!"

Ryoka peeked up from under her cap and saw that Arai was facing away from her and looking at the incoming duo of Kachiro and Ryuuzaki instead. For the first time since the attack, Ryoka could clearly see the tiny specks of blood that had bled through the second-year's jersey from the rocks and she pursed her lips. Perhaps, even if it was Arai's own choice to protect her, Ryoka was a bit responsible for what happened to the boy. Just a bit.

"Oi, Echizen," Arai called out, limping over to the girl and he slowly laid a hand on her forehead. "Are you hurt? Why the hell are you just standing there like an idiot?"

Even though she was feeling only the gentle warmth of the sunlight from before, Arai's hand was burning hot against her skin, and for a moment, Ryoka was scared that she would get burned by his touch. Hiding her flush, Ryoka tsked and pushed the hand away. "Don't just barge into a girl's personal space like that, senpai. You look like a pervert."

Arai sputtered for a moment before scrunching his face up angrily. "Brat!" he huffed and turned around, dragging himself over to where Coach Ryuuzaki waited. Ryoka watched him walk away with a frown on her face and a hand on her warm cheek.

Weird. She wasn't even doing anything and her heart was running a mile and minute. Why?

End

Short piece. Arai/Ryoma. Why are there not more of these?