Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. I would go into the reasons but I think it would be better to get right into the story. Also I will admit ahead of time that Ryoma acts slightly childishly in this one. If you think he is completely OOC, I say to you "maybe, maybe not." Remember, Ryoma likes getting the things he wants and when things don't go his way… he tends to get a bit upset. Plus, he was completely in character at first, he really was… but then inner Ryoma got out and I couldn't stop him. (Inner Ryoma has dimples if you didn't know and they are very hard to resist!)

Warning: There is some plotting of another's demise, some swear words, a mention of a grenade launcher, and the opening of two cans of whoop ass. Power to the Prince of Tennis, baby!

Summary: Someone has been trying to worm his way into Sakuno's heart. Good thing Ryoma knows that worms are meant to be squashed quickly and without hesitation.

Prompt: #16 invincible; unrivaled (unrelated to previous drabble)

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not mine. If it was, Sakuno would play a more predominant role in the series.


Kiss Kiss
#16 invincible; unrivaled
Version 3.0


His name was Ishikawa Katsu. He had recently moved from Morioka in the Tohoku region of Japan and had transferred into Seigaku High School. He liked playing sports, solving complex math problems, and traveling. He was kind to his fellow students and spoke politely to all his teachers. His friendly nature helped him fit in easily and his ever-present smile had already won him the hearts of his female classmates. He was perfect.

And Ryoma hated him.

True, Ryoma hadn't even learned of his existence until a week after he had transferred in. And true, Ryoma hadn't even cared to learn the name of the "cool, new transfer student" until a few days ago. But now he cared. Now he knew he should have taking the time to learn about his newest enemy before it was too late.

"Ryoma-sama!"

Ryoma's catlike eyes darted in the direction of the voice. Sitting beneath a cherry blossom tree, the loud girl, Osakada, beamed at him and waved him over to join the small group that sat there. On the left of her sat Ryuzaki who smiled at him shyly. He saw Osakada turn and whisper something to her. Ryuzaki ducked her head down, probably to hide a blush, before she gave a slight encouraging nod.

"Y-you should j-join us Ryoma-kun," she called out from amongst the small group of his classmates.

He tugged on his cap a little to hide his smirk. Usually, he would eat by himself on the Southern section of the school. It was quiet there, devoid of fangirls, and enabled him to eat his lunch in peace and take a quick nap before classes resumed. Even so, he would occasionally give into Ryuzaki's shy invitation to join the group for lunch and socialize. Not that he actually talked when he sat with them. He mostly just sat there quietly and amused himself by catching Ryuzaki try to sneak a glance at him before her cheeks turned pink. He was about to head over when something caught Sakuno's eye and she spoke up again.

"Katsu-kun," she said waving cheerfully to the boy behind Ryoma, "are you going to join us too?"

"Of course, Sakuno-chan, I would love to."

Wait, what? Sakuno-chan? What right did he have to call her that? Everyone but the loud girl called her Ryuzaki. Ryoma watched as the boy eagerly joined the group by taking a spot on the other side of Sakuno-chan. Ryoma's eyes narrowed into a glare at the fact that aside from blushing to a color of fuchsia, Ryuzaki didn't protest at Ishikawa's choice of seating.

"R-Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno called nervously upon seeing the normally apathetic tennis player looking so angry.

Ryoma didn't answer. Instead, he turned quickly on his heel and stormed away. His hunger forgotten, replaced by a burning desire to work off some unforeseen tension on the tennis courts.

"Hey Ryoma, where ya headed?"

Ryoma glanced to his side and found Momo-sempai leaning against the school wall wolfing down some food. Ryoma's catlike eyes gleaned. Perfect, he had found a victim.

"Let's play tennis," Ryoma demanded.

Momo choked on his juice. After his coughing fit subsided and he had cleaned up the juice he spilt, Momo took a long look at Ryoma. "Why?" he asked suspiciously. Ryoma rolled his eyes. Despite his laidback appearance, Momo was too intuitive for his own good. Ryoma would need a distraction in order to avoid having Momo pry too deeply into his motives. Ryoma glanced at the half-remaining food left in Momo's box.

"We'll play for our bentos."

Momo grinned. His stomach overruled his head any day. "You're on," he said eagerly.

Fortunately, the gates to the tennis courts were rarely locked. Most of the Seigaku regulars liked to do additional practices so playing during the lunch break wasn't an uncommon event. Unfortunately, once the word got around (and it always did) that there was going to be a match, especially between two regulars, a large crowd would show up to watch. Just like now.

Ryoma adjusted his cap and got into position. Momo had won the right to serve first and Ryoma wanted to be ready for him. Momo had just taken his place on the line when a shy brown-haired girl caught Ryoma's attention. Ryuzaki was here. When she realized that he had spotted her, she blushed but didn't look away. Instead, she smiled at him shyly. Ryoma smirked. He shifted his eyes back to the Dunk Smash player. Momo-sempai was going down.

The match was quick but intense. Even though Ryoma had grown since middle school, he still had trouble competing with Momo's natural height and extraordinarily wide reach. But Ryoma was quicker. And he was determined to win since there was a pair of sweet brown eyes watching his every move.

The score was tied at 3-3. Ryoma had the serve. He was bouncing the ball to prepare for his serve when he noticed the person standing next to Ryuzaki. It seems that Ryuzaki's precious "Katsu-kun" had arrived. With his back to the game, he leaned against the fence and prevented Sakuno from watching the game. And prevented Ryoma from seeing her. His grip on the ball tightened.

Anytime Sakuno shifted to look at the game from over Katsu's shoulder, Katsu moved just as quickly to block her view. The final straw was when Ishikawa put his hand on her shoulder and leaned in close to her ear. Sakuno's eyes went wide at his words and for the first time since her arrival, Sakuno's eyes left the tennis courts to instead focus on Katsu. The ball still in his hand, Ryoma's eyes narrowed with predatory intent. It was time to finish this.

Momo never saw the serve coming. Before the high school sophomore could even move, the ball had hit his side of the court, bounced away and stuck the fence nailing a poor, unfortunate boy named Ishikawa Katsu right in the back of the head. The crowd went silent, eyes darting between the tennis prodigy and the new transfer student.

Katsu turned around slowly to look at Ryoma. Ryoma looked back, face blank but eyes gleaming. But Katsu simply smiled genially at Ryoma as if to show no hard feelings. In response, the crowd resumed their commentary thinking the incident was over. Ryoma however knew better. He noticed that rather than removing his hand from Sakuno, Katsu placed it squarely around her shoulders before grinning smugly at Ryoma. Ryoma picked up the next ball and glared. It seemed that Katsu hadn't learned his lesson yet.

The next serve came in just as fast. And so did the one after that. Ryoma dominated the rest of the game, leaving the spectators and Momo-sempai stunned speechless. When it was over, Ryoma grabbed his stuff and walked off the court, even angrier than when he had arrived. He had thought that thrashing Momo in a game of tennis would make him feel better. But somehow winning a game while Ishikawa flirted with Sakuno on the sidelines made the victory seem a bit hollow. He ignored the congratulatory praise from his classmates and pushed past the crowd, intent on heading back to the classroom. His lunch and the one he won from Momo forgotten.

By the time the warning bell rang, Ryoma already sat slouched down in his seat still pissed off and without an outlet for his frustrations. Then to make things worse, Katsu walked in surrounded with adoring fans. Noticing Ryoma's gaze, Katsu gave him a wide, white smile. "Great game," he said pleasantly.

Ryoma didn't answer. He was too busy imagining all the different ways he could slam a tennis ball into Katsu's big, fat, empty head. So far, he counted fourteen. Wait, make that fifteen.

Katsu, upon noticing that he was being ignored, decided to speak up again. "You know I used to play tennis at my old school."

Once again, Ryoma chose to ignore him. On the plus side, he was now up to twenty-three unique ways to bash Katsu with a ball. Of course, number eighteen would be hard to achieve. He was a bit lacking on a grenade launcher, but Ryoma was confident that he could improvise.

"I was actually pretty good too."

This time Ryoma couldn't help but snort in disbelief. Katsu stiffed in response which caused Ryoma's trademark smirk to appear. It seemed he hit a nerve.

"You don't believe me?"

Ryoma looked at Katsu, then looked away as if bored with the whole conversation. Resting his head on his right hand, he absentmindedly noticed that the normal chatter in the classroom had died away and that everyone was following their conversation.

Katsu smirked and folded his arms over his chest. "I can prove it to you. Why don't we play a match today after school?"

Hidden from view, Ryoma's smirk grew. That was almost too easy."Fine," Ryoma said in a bored tone. "But it will have to be later tonight. At the park courts."

"Fine with me. I'll see you then," Katsu said before heading to his seat.

Ryoma folded his hands over his desk, hazel eyes dancing wildly. Tonight he was going to have some fun.

Four hours later, dreams were becoming reality. Ryoma bounced the ball against the ground and looked across the court. "Oi, you sure you don't want to serve first?" he called nonchalantly.

Katsu, all ego and no brains, huffed indignantly. "I'll be perfectly fine," he said and got into position.

Ryoma rolled his eyes. He had tried to be nice. If Katsu was too stupid to understand that then it wasn't Ryoma's problem. He caught the ball and glanced around once more. The word of Katsu's challenge had spread around school so Ryoma wasn't surprised to see such a large gathering. He wouldn't be surprised if some of the Regulars were here hiding in the shadows.

But Ryoma ignored the unfamiliar faces and excited chatter and focused on the only reason he was bothering to play someone at such a low skill level; Ryuzaki looked back at him. She smiled. Katsu, upon noticing where his opponent's attention rested, was foolish enough to sign his death warrant.

"Don't forget to cheer for me, Sakuno-chan!" he called out to the shy girl. Sakuno broke eye contact with Ryoma to stare at Katsu-kun. Although he couldn't actually see it, Ryoma knew without a doubt that a trademark blush lit her cheeks. Ryoma lowered his cap; hazel eyes flashing in annoyance. It was time to finish this once and for all.

He tossed the ball in the air and his racket slammed it across the court. Katsu was no match for the speed and severity of his infamous Twist Serve. Each serve revealed Ryoma's deadly accuracy as the ball would hit Katsu's side of the court, spin wildly, and then launch upward to nail Katsu in the face, arm, and chest. By the time the game finished with Ryoma winning in a shut-out victory, Katsu was covered in cuts and bruises. It was no match. It was a slaughter.

When he finished, Ryoma silently walked over to his bag and began packing up his things. His anger mostly abated but still simmering under the surface. That was until he noticed a lone figure making her way unto the courts. A familiar girl with twin braids walked confidently past the gaping crowd to make her way to one of the players. Except the person Sakuno was headed towards wasn't him.

His simmering anger rose back into life. She went to him. She went to his side. She went to see if her precisious "Katsu-kun" was alright. Once again, the stab of bitterness had stolen the sweetness of his victory. He swore quietly. This is why girls were so annoying. Their fickle nature couldn't be trusted. He began throwing his things into his gym bad with unnecessary force, anything to dispel the image of Sakuno hovering around Ishikawa's side. He had just finished packing his bag when the conversation from the other side of the court drifted to his ears.

"But Sakuno-chan…"

"No Katsu-kun, what were you thinking?"

Hearing Sakuno's voice filled with such disapproval piqued his attention. He looked for an excuse to hang out around a little bit longer. He sat his bag back down and began unpacking his bag. He had just shoved everything in there the first time and definitely needed fixing. He hated to have his tennis rackets and tennis balls so unorganized…

"I can't believe you tried to play Ryoma. I told you this would happen."

Wait? She told him this would happen?

Ishikawa sighed pitifully. "I know Sakuno-chan, I'm sorry for my behavior." Ryoma nearly snarled. That rat bastard was trying to use remorse to get back into her good side. Only an idiot would fall for such a cheap trick.

"Oh Katsu-kun," Sakuno said suddenly embarrassed, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so harsh."

Ryoma scowled at the dense girl. She was an idiot. That stupid girl would probably help a thief rob her if he asked nicely enough. He watched Katsu smile cheerfully upon getting back unto Sakuno's good graces. "It's alright Sakuno-chan, I feel much better now that you're here."

That stupid girl better not be blushing…A quick glance behind him informed him that she was. Ryoma grabbed his bag, determined to leave before the conversation turned his stomach any more than it already had.

"And don't worry Sakuno-chan, I'll definitely beat Echizen-kun next time."

Ryoma grinned darkly. Next time? He would have yet another chance to pummel Ishikawa's face into oblivion? Now that was something to look forward to doing.

"N-next time?" Sakuno's shocked voice rang out over the empty courts.

Katsu nodded seriously. "Yeah, next time. I know all of his cheap tricks now so next time I play him, I'll win for sure."

Ryoma felt a bit offended to hear his techniques referred to as 'cheap tricks' but before he could say anything about it, someone had already spoken up.

"Ishikawa-kun," he heard Sakuno say in a dark tone he never thought possible.

"Yes," replied the oblivious Katsu.

"You're an idiot." She paused a moment to let her words sink in. "And you will never win against Ryoma-kun."

And with that, the typical shy girl marched off the courts without sparing a backward glance to either of the two boys she had left flabbergasted. Katsu sank to the ground trying to figure out where he went wrong. Ryoma absentmindedly fiddled with his cap as he slowly made his way home. His mind replaying what had just taken place.

Beating Katsu. Good.

Beating Katsu while Sakuno watched. Better.

Beating Katsu while Sakuno watched and then hearing her chew Katsu out on his behalf? Now that tasted like a sweet kiss of victory.