Thanks for the reviews…I appreciate it very much
I wrote this with my classmate, Aziel! And to Nica…eto na ung kinababaliwan mo…Pero alam ko siya yung Seiyuu ni Ryoma…Ganda ba ng name? Galing talaga nyang kumanta!
Forgive me if I got something wrong with how they play tennis. Especially the scoring.
It's Summer Vacation now!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'm so happy…There's no classes for two months…
Disclaimer: Again…I do not own Prince of Tennis…only the plot on this fanfic
Chapter 2: Dual Personality
"Sakuno, hurry up!." Tomoka said as they walked to school. It's the first day of classes and they were already wearing their uniforms.
"Wait up! Tomo-chan."
"It's okay. You look better today."
"I feel good about myself too."
"Does your Grandma know about this?"
"Yeah, but she still kept on worrying about me."
"I understand her, me too."
"I'll just be like this until the girl's tennis club opens up."
"Why couldn't you just wait?"
"Grandma wasn't even sure if it will open, besides, I would be wasting time waiting for something unsure."
"Here we are." Tomoka dragged her amidst the crowd of students in front of the bulletin board.
"Look! We are still classmates!" Tomoka shouted.
"That's great."
"That would still continue our record. Classmates since nursery."
"I know." Sakuno peered over the list of students in her class, as if trying to find out if there are other friends in her class. But one name caught her interest. Echizen Ryoma. So, he is also studying here. It would be fun being his friend. Maybe.
They entered the assigned classroom and took their seats. Sakuno looked around the unfamiliar faces that she would soon know. Echizen Ryoma isn't there yet. Sakuno looked at her wristwatch. Only ten minutes before class starts. So, he has a pettish for being late. So like his type.
Ten minutes passed and he still didn't come. The teacher entered and spoke to them.
"Welcome class, I'm Kanagawa Mizawa, your class adviser. I welcome you to Seishun Gakuen junior High. Please stand up once I call your name and introduce yourself."
The teacher started roll call and the class eagerly listened as they start sharing their hobbies and likes.
Sakuno noticed that Ryoma hadn't arrived yet. As she started to think over the sliding door opened and a harassed looking Ryoma. His hair was still disheveled and the buttons of his uniform not yet done. He took a seat next to Sakuno and started buttoning up his shirt. Everyone was looking at him but he seem to not mind. The teacher looked at the student list and broke the silence.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are Echizen Ryoma right?" the teacher inquired. "Would you mind to tell me why you are late?"
"I'm still not used to the time here. I just arrived from America two days ago. I somehow overslept." To tell the truth that pervert of an old man kept on talking on talking about stupid things. Who told him I want a girlfriend anyway? Ryoma thought
The class stared at him like he was some kind of superior.
"Would you mind to introduce yourself?"
Ryoma stood and started introducing himself.
"Echizen Ryoma. 12 years old. I lived in America for two years and went here to attend my father's Junior high school too."
All the girls in the class started swooning. He's drop dead gorgeous. Even Sakuno seemed to give him a thought since he sat beside her. Tomoka almost fell off her chair.
The teacher cleared his throat to divert the attention from Ryoma who already took his seat.
"Ryuzaki Sakuno!"
Sakuno immediately stood up and introduced herself.
"Ryuzaki Sakuno. 12 years old. I play Tennis and want to be a top Tennis player in the future."
She caught a glimpse of Ryoma looking at her which made her blush as she took her seat.
" Okay. That's it. Now let us discuss the school regulations and disciplinary measures."
The day wore on smoothly as the hours passed.
"This is it. I'm going to do this." Sakuno said to Tomoka as they were walking to the courts. She already changed into the clothes she bought and her hair hidden under a cap.
"Ganbatte, Sakuno-chan." Tomoka whispered in case somebody hears them.
"Arigatou Tomo-chan." Sakuno said in a deeper tone that made it boyish. Both of them giggled.
They reached the tennis courts which is now crowded with male students. Some first years and others just watching.
Sakuno entered the court and waited for the Coach and the captain. She already told her Grandma her new name and she knew it. Minagawa Junko.
She saw some of her classmates and she wasn't surprised that Ryoma was also there. She tried to converse with him but the Captain entered followed by the Coach and ordered everybody to fall in line.
A tall young man stood in front and introduced himself as Captain Tezuka Kunimitsu. Beside him was the other regular members of the club. So this is the tennis regulars her grandma was very proud of. The vice captain, Syuichiroh Oishi started calling the names of the new members. Each member raised their hand as they were called. She saw her grandma smile at her as her fake name was called.
Soon they were dismissed after reminders and encouragement from the regulars. Sakuno went on her way. The first day of her new personality went undiscovered. Tomorrow the tryouts for the regular spot begins. This would be a tough one though. There are only 8 spots.
Sakuno woke up early and started running around the house. She need to warm up since she qualified to join the tryouts. She's going to have to fight her sempais to win a place. She felt excited. After a few laps she went inside and got ready for school. She brought her racket with her before she left after eating breakfast with her grandmother.
She ran to school as part of her warm up and waited for classes to end.
She got into the court thirty minutes before the expected start of the tryout. She enlisted on the tryout and got on the same block as Sempai Fuji and another new member. She rested for a while then went back to stretching. She saw Ryoma getting ready on the other side of the court. Sakuno started practicing some moves she learned from her grandma when she had free time. Maybe she could also use them in her matches because some of them are hard to return.
The afternoon wore on. Sakuno was slightly shocked to know that Ryoma had beaten two Sempais at his block and became a regular. This day proved to be beyond Sakuno's imagination.
Sakuno's game started. She had to win a match against Okayasu Kairi, a second year. The game started smoothly for Sakuno. She returned all the smashes and serves easily. After some time she noticed that Kairi was panting. Sakuno used this to her advantage as she started hitting balls at opposite sides of the court that made Kairi chase them.
"6-1 Game Set and Match to Minagawa Junko!"
Sakuno was very happy. She won her first match.
After a short break, she got on the court again. Her next match, Sempai Fuji, greeted her.
"Do your best, Minagawa!"
Sakuno just nodded.
"One set match. Minagawa to serve!"
Sakuno got ready. She let the ball bounce on the court. She hit it with all her might. Fuji returned it and the game started.
After some time, Sakuno was already panting. She did all her best but to no avail. He is a formidable player. His last serve was hard to catch.
"Game set and Match to Fuji! 6 games to 4!"
Sakuno lost her match. She did not become a regular.
"Nice match, Minagawa." Fuji offered a hand to Sakuno who was sitting on the ground. Sakuno smiled and took it. Everyone started clapping.
"Nya…Minagawa-chan! You're great! I couldn't score like that to Fuji!" Eiji shouted as he bounced around.
"Better watch out on him." Inui whispered to Tezuka.
After all the matches for that day, There were some announcements and they were all off. Tomorrow, the training for the regulars and the non-regulars intensifies.
" Yeah…before I forget…Echizen! Minagawa!" Inui added.
"Nani?" the two answered in unison.
"Start drinking milk from now on…"
"Hai!" Ryoma and Sakuno answered timidly. She does not like milk and Ryoma doesn't care less. He looked at Eiji and Momo who was rolling on the ground with laughter. God knows what they are being merry about this time.
Sakuno got ready to go home. She did not even bother change her clothes in case someone might catch her. She grabbed her things and went on her way after bidding the coach goodbye. She tried hard not to talk so that the others won't get suspicious with her voice.
Sakuno woke up early again and did her routine. She almost fell asleep in class. She was excited again. Being a boy during the afternoon became funny to her. It was as if she was leading a double life.
At last the much awaited training session arrived. Sakuno changed into her new clothes and cap and went into the court to practice.
"All club members line up here!" Inui shouted. All lined up in front of him outside the courts. "This test of stamina would prove who is the player who could stay up the whole match. You all have to run 3 laps around the three courts in 2 minutes!" he added. Everybody got ready to run. "Those who would not make it would have to drink my Inui special nutritional penalty juice. It sure is going to improve your stamina." He said, flashing a somewhat greenish liquid in front of them.
Everybody watched as a second year moved towards Inui's juice. "You said this could improve my stamina, eh? Let me try it before I run." With that he drank the greenish liquid in front of everyone as Inui let out a sly smile. "Ii data." He murmured as he got ready to take notes in his forever handy-dandy notebook.
After about five seconds of watching the guy sip the juice. The whole club anticipated what its taste was. To their horror, the guy fell to the ground and started wriggling unconsciously. He looked as if he was poisoned and this sent shivers down every club member's spine. Except Fuji who never lose his creepy smile and Tezuka who remained passive as always. Everybody felt the need to finish the laps or else. In Inui's signal everybody ran as fast as they can to finish the laps. There are three courts they have to run around. Almost everybody fell after the first lap which left Sakuno, the other regulars and 6 others running. They passed many people lying on the ground with empty cups in their hands and all looked like dead. After the second lap only the regulars and Sakuno were left.
Sakuno felt happy again. To know that she could keep up with the regulars made her contented. She ran alongside Ryoma to the laughter of the other regulars. "Nya…two O'chibis with hats looks cute!" Eiji complimented.
They all reached the finish line just in time that Sakuno was relaxed. She wouldn't have to drink the penal-tea! They all sat down on the ground because they were all tired.
"I…made..it! What…a…relief1" Eiji said, panting.
"I see Inui's juice got better this year…Pity I did I get to drink it first. Wanna try some next time." Fuji said while looking at the others.
"No, it did not!" Eiji, Momo and Taka shouted. Kaidoh settled with an audible hiss.
"Is it really that bad?" Sakuno, as Junko, asked.
"Yeah, he wants to kill us all before we got to play soon enough." Momo answered.
"They are the punishment for a mistake in practice. You've got to watch what you're doing if you do not want to die early." Oishi warned.
"He puts them everywhere so we could accidentally drink it!" Eiji said with a quivering voice.
That was just enough to scare Sakuno about Inui. Better make no mistakes, she thought.
"Hey! Who said you could sit there? Stand up!" the coach ordered. Although complaining they all did as they were told.
"Since all of you finished the laps, we are going to have practice matches. Once I call your name, get inside the court." Inui ordered. "Minagawa , Echizen!"
Sakuno excitedly went inside the court but didn't let anyone notice her. The other regulars were lined outside the fence, watching them which gave Sakuno a bout of shyness.
"One set match, Minagawa to serve!"
Sakuno did her service game, but Ryoma kept on returning her shots. She sent shots to different sides of the court. At first, Ryoma could not return them easily which gave Sakuno some advantage but he got used to it and soon coped up again.
"4 games to 3!"
Sakuno was down by 2 games. She really needed to win now more than ever to avoid that horrible juice.
"Although he's not a regular, I think he's great." Fuji commented.
"O'chibis sure makes good tennis players." Eiji added.
"Who's your bet."
"Echizen." They all said.
"Though this game might take long, I bet Echizen would still win. What do you think?" Fuji asked a silent Kawamura.
"Umm…I don't know either…" he answered feeling somewhat a bit shy.
Fuji handed a racket to Taka to hype things up.
"DO YOUR BEST O'CHIBIS!!!" he shouted, swinging the racket above their heads while Eiji and Oishi try to take away the racket from him before he hits anyone.
Ryoma was in the lead again and decided to test his opponent. He sent a difficult shot he practiced some days ago. It went straight to Sakuno, almost all the regulars thought that's he would be hit in the face when…
"What happened?" Horio uttured from the stands.
"That's a good one, Minagawa!' Momo cheered.
"He slid sideways and hit the ball upward. Echizen must have not anticipated that he could return it so he did not respond quickly enough to hit it back as well. I think he could not even do that since the ball dropped when it passed the net. More or less like Tezuka's zero-shiki drop shot but there is a difference with the way they hit." Inui responded while writing down on his notebook.
Even though everyone was still perflexed, the match continued.
"Deuce!" the scorer announced.
"Ne…They got a tie!" Eiji said.
"This would take longer than I thought." Fuji added.
"Everyone! Gather inside the court!" Coach Ryuzaki suddenly called out, earning groans and complaints from the club. It cancelled Echizen and Minagawa's tie breaking match.
"I'm sorry to say this but I have to cut this afternoon's practice. The Supervisors, and officers of each club are asked by the Student council now. That means Tezuka, Oishi and I are needed. Everyone could now go home and rest." Coach announced.
Even though complaining at their frustration, they followed suit and got their things.
Ryoma was slightly angry at the interruption and so does Sakuno. It was such a close fight! Maybe some other time though, they both thought to themselves. And they were both glad that they have escaped some really scary punishment after all.
