Disclaimers: I don't own prince of tennis. I only own my characters.
Prince of tennis © Takeshi Konomi
Broken Mask © iSPAZZMACHiiN3
Bold is English.
Italics are used to emphasize something, or signify a flash back or lyrics to a song.
"Blah." Those quotes are used for talking.
'Blah.' Those are used for thing.
B r o k e n M a s k
Chapter two: Results and Reasons
It's been two weeks since the tennis court incident, Ryoma stared at Xue Hua in their math class. Horio still couldn't shut up about how rude and evil Xue Hua was. Many of his team mates were very cautious of her, but they still haven't met her again ever since. Ryoma starred at the classroom's clock, hoping that time will suddenly fast forward and class would end.
"Sensei!" The sensei turned around with a scared face and held the chalk shakily in his hands, he slowly pushed up his glasses.
"H-Hai, F-Fukui-san." She walked up towards the board and took the chalk out of his hands,
"You made a mistake on the formula." The class whispered with each other as she rewrote the equation. The teacher shakily nodded his head,
"G-Gomen n-nasai." Xue Hua glided back over to her sit next to Ryoma and sat back down. Horio's snort could be heard but no one said anything. The teacher looked at the class,
"M-Minna-san, let's continue on. Does anyone have the answers to question four?" Ryoma stared at her as she looked out the window. He stared at her paper and noticed that she finished all twenty questions.
-&-
The bell rang, as students got up as some stayed. Xue Hua got up and walked out with Hanako and Haruno behind her. Ryoma got up as Horio approached him,
"I don't see why people think she's smart. So what if she corrected a formula." Katsuo blinked,
"Didn't she correct him on a formula that we didn't even learn about until today?" Horio scowled,
"So what?" Kachiro smiled,
"She must be knowledgeable if she already knew the quadratic formula." Horio irked,
"Why do you always defend her! Echizen, you're on my side- Eh. Where'd he go?" Ryoma walked off .
-&-
Xue Hua changed her clothes and walked out, with her own racket.
"Minna-san today will be all tennis. We'll be playing against each other in small matches in the courts, of course due to the class size we'll be playing doubles." Horio turned to Ryoma,
"Echizen, I'm going to be your partner," Ryoma looked at him,
"Mada mada dane." Horio scowled, as Xue Hua walked up to Sakuno.
"Let's go." Sakuno blinked up in surprise but gripped her racket tightly,
"H-Hai!"
-&-
Ryoma served with his right hand, watching as Kachiro run towards the ball and missed it.
"30-love." Ryoma tipped his hat and looked at Horio who smugly smiled at Kachiro and Katsuo.
Sakuno shakily threw up the ball and served, Haruno ran towards the ball and hit it back. Sakuno rallied with her until it went to Hanako, Hanako returned the ball towards Xue Hua. This caused a small rally, until she hit it with a drop, Xue Hua widened her eyes as she felt her pointer finger nail chipped.
"45-love. We won a game!" Sakuno smiled and turned to Xue Hua but blinked,
"F-Fukui-san?" Xue Hua walked over to her tennis bag and got out a nail file. She then proceeded to take care of her nail, slightly glad that it didn't chip off a lot, so it was still long.
"Fukui!" the teacher had glared at Fukui,
"Why are you filing your nails during class time!?" Ryoma looked over and saw her still filing her nails. She finished then held her hand up to get an overall view, she then smirked,
"All done." She put her hand down as the teacher fumed.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She looked up at the teacher, dropping her smirk.
"Filing my nails." The teacher grinned,
"Taking up class time for personal time, it could cause you detention." The teacher said, almost gleefully, glad to have caught her. Ryoma looked at the teacher, he'd always pick out the flaws in whatever Xue Hua did, but she'd always correct him.
"Really? I, filing my nails for a mere minute could cause me detention cause of personal time." Everyone stared at her, slightly scared at her angry cold voice.
"How about you! Always going off the for a bathroom break for about 15 minutes. However I always seem to spot you over by the soccer field, with the female gym teacher! Now, I believe that's what you call personal time. Comparing one minute to fifteen. I'm sure the principle will see your point over mine." Sarcasm rolled off her tongue like a second language. The coach widened his eyes and gaped. Xue Hua smirked and walked back to Sakuno, she picked up the ball and bounced it. She threw up the ball and served, every stared as it blurred over.
"Ne, Sakuno-chan. What's the score now?" Sakuno blinked in surprise.
"F-fifteen-love!" Ryoma smirked at what happened and turned back,
'Mada Mada Dane.'
-&-
Sakuno looked as Tomoko flashed a magazine in face,
"Look! Hoshi fashions company made a new product! And it's selling like crazy!" Sakuno looked at the front of magazine and read the captions out loud.
"Don't want any loud noises when you walk in high heels? Or want to sound like mules when you walk in them. Do you want to attract guys while looking extremely lady like as you strut around in your heels? Then buy our new product." Sakuno widened her eyes and remembered the group of ladies before they were scolded by Xue Hua,
The group of ladies stood by the vending machines as Sakuno bought an apple juice.
"We need to make new products now, or else both of our companies will fail and we'll be moved to the tennis department. " The girl shook her head,
"But the deadlines tomorrow. We can't possibly think of a new product by then." The girls sighed,
"Well let's look around; I heard this school was famous for tennis."
Sakuno widened her eyes,
"B-but then, Fukui. She- what? " Sakuno put the pieces together as Kikumaru walked up to them,
"Eh? Mules? Isn't that what Fukui-chan say before?" Fuji smiled and nodded,
"Saa, that is what she said." The team turned their attention to the magazine, Momoshiro turned to Ryoma,
"You don't think…"
"Can't you see we were talking!?" The team widened their eyes at her, Xue Hua walked up to the groups of girls.
"How un-lady like can you get?!" The ladies looked at her appalled, some were even gaping at her.
"If you're going to wear high heels, then walk in them right! You all walk like a pack of mules, stop the clapping of your high heels! It's so loud that I couldn't hear what the other person was talking about."
Fuji laughed he covered his mouth,
"How convenient." Ryoma raised his eyes, remember what had happened after Xue Hua left.
"How rude! Pack mules? Who does she think she is, " one of the ladies turned around until the women in the front held out her hand.
"Stop!" The lady turned around,
"Why!? That little girl just insulted us." The women shook her head and smiled,
"She gave us an idea,"
"They copied her idea then? Mada mada dane." Momoshiro grinned,
"Wow, maybe she isn't as mean as you think!" Oishi sweat dropped as Kikumaru flashed the magazine in his face,
"Can you believe it!? Fukui-chan is so cool!" Oishi scratched his head,
"I suppose, I mean a lot of these kind of incidents happened when we younger too." Kikumaru put down the magazine,
"Honto ne!? Like what!" Oishi shrugged his shoulders,
"I'm not sure. Like one time, we were at a special meeting with a famous guy, Kakizawa Kaito-"
"The famous singer?!" Oishi nodded,
"Hello little girl, what song do you want to hear?" Xue Hua looked up at the guy,
"Love song." The guy nodded and sang, when he finished singing he looked down at the girl.
"What did you think?" Xue Hua crossed her arms,
"You should make a new song soon. You'll lose your fame if you don't." The guy widened his eyes,
"Huh?" Oishi widened his eyes and grabbed her,
"Sorry, she's not friendly." Xue Hua huffed,
"I'm not kidding, write a song that has a dance to it. Maybe then you'll reach out to the teenagers." Oishi picked her up and walked off,
"Gomen Nasai!" The guy stared at the girl as she was carried away.
"Eh!? What happened next!" Kikumaru bounced up and down, Oishi sweat dropped.
"Well a month later…"
"- let's dance! Till the very end, you and me!" Oishi looked up and saw crowds of girls dancing to a song on the huge T.V on the building.
"There it is! Kaito's smashing song that's reaching out to every teenage girl out there! Let's dance." Oishi widened his eyes as he held Xue Hua's hand, she began to lick her sea salt ice cream. The girls squeeled as they saw Kaito's face on the T.V
"Let's dance, was inspired by a very special girl." Oishi looked down at Xue Hua.
"Eh!? That was her?" A tennis ball flew over in front of Kikumaru and Oishi's face, the two turned around to see where it came from.
"You know it's rude, to talk about someone. Especially if they're right here," Oishi turned to see Xue Hua,
"X-Xue Hua-chan, what are you doing here?" Xue Hua smirked,
"Joined the photography club," she waved the camera,
"Our new assignment is to capture intense moments in sports." Oishi widened his eyes,
"You picked tennis?" Xue Hua dropped her smirk,
"I suppose." Momoshiro grinned,
"You suppose? Come on, it's a yes or no question." Xue Hua turned to Momoshiro,
"I don't have to respond to you." Momoshiro frowned as Kaidoh hissed,
"Xue Hua-sama! Let's go, you promised to come with us after school." Xue Hua turned around and walked away, she waved her hand.
"Ja ne." Tezuka looked at his watch,
"Minna, we have 10 minutes left. Let's finish practice!" Everyone turned to him,
"Hai!"
-&-
Ryoma changed out of his gym clothes and closed his locker as Momoshiro came up to him,
"Hey, want to go to the burger joint today? Kikumaru's paying." Ryoma smirked and nodded as Kikumaru start walking towards him.
"Let's go!"
-&-
They reached the burger joint and sat down, Kikumaru looked at his empty wallet and frowned.
"Nyah, how do you guys always get me to pay for you too?" Momoshiro looked up with his mouth full as Ryoma looked up with a mouth full of French fries,
"Mada mada dane, Kikumaru-senpai." Kikumaru bit into his hamburger and looked around,
"Hey, look. It's Fukui-chan and her friends." Ryoma and Momoshiro turned to look.
-&-
Xue Hua drank her milk shake, staring as Haruno devour her second hamburger, Hanako bit into her French fry.
"I want to get another hamburger," Xue Hua looked at her, hiding her concern with a blank stare. Haruno got up to go buy a hamburger, Xue Hua stood up with a frantic expression.
"Don't!" The people in the fast food restaurant stared at her, Xue Hua straightened her posture and her facial expression.
"Getting another hamburger. Tch, fatty." Haruno and Hanako's eyes widened at the comment. Everyone stared as Xue Hua smirked. She slowly lifted her shirt up, exposing only her pale flat stomach. Everyone got quiet. Ryoma widened his eyes at her bold move, along with Kikumaru and Momoshiro. A loud slap was heard as Xue Hua's hand landed on her stomach, nothing had jiggled, that's what Ryoma thought. Until he directed his eyes upward from her stomach. He felt his cheeks burn as he looked back down at her stomach,
"See this? Try getting to this size with eating another hamburger." Xue Hua put her shirt back down and grabbed her milkshake and her bags,
"Let's go," Hanako nodded and stared at Haruno as she sat back down with a shock and sad expression. The two left her, Momoshiro frowned as people began to talk again,
"She just called her out…" Kikumaru shook his head,
"Let's go to her." The three walked over to her,
"Tanaka-chan," She looked up,
"Oh. Momoshiro, Kikumaru. Echizen." They sat down in the seats, Momoshiro frowned.
"Why do you put up with her?" Haruno widened her eyes,
"Xue Hua-sama?" Momoshiro nodded, Haruno frantically shook her head.
"I'm not putting up with her! I'm so proud to be Xue Hua-sama's friend!" Momoshiro widened his eyes as Haruno looked down,
"I really like how the way Xue Hua…I'm really proud…"
A rather large seven year old girl with brown hair sat in the slides, crying her brown eyes out. She looked up in surprise as she heard some light footsteps,
"Why are you crying?" a girl with long black hair and green eyes stared at her, with tennis ball in her hands.
"T-The other girls, keep l-laughing at my w-weight." The green eyed girl raised an eyebrow and flicked her in the forehead.
"That's all?" The browned hair girl widened her eyes,
"H-Huh? What do you mean that's all?" The green eyed girl smirked and threw the yellow neon ball up in the air.
"You can easily fixed that problem." She stood up,
"H-Honto ne!?" The girl caught the ball and stared at her,
"Of course. It's called ex-er-cise." The girl frowned and sat back down, she wiped her face. The black hair girl bent down to her,
"What's your name?"
"T-Tanaka H-Haruno…" she smiled,
" Fukui Xue Hua, now get up and do 10 laps around the school." Haruno looked up in surprise,
"H-Huh?"
"She'd always help me, in school work, exercising, eating, and even when other girls bullied me."
"Ha, look its Tanaka." One of the three girls pushed her, making her drop her bento. A year has passed, and they still bothered her.
"I heard you were trying to lose weight," The girls pushed her and looked at her waist.
"Doesn't seem like it's working," The three laugh as Tanaka fell to the floor,
"Oi," The girls looked down at the short Xue Hua.
"What do you want, Fukui?" The girls glared as Xue Hua threw a tennis ball at the leaders head.
"Picking on someone fatter than you?" Xue Hua smirked,
"Sounds reasonable enough," Haruno looked up at her surprised. Xue Hua walked up to the girls, she poked their waist, it slightly jiggled.
"Eh? What's this?" Xue Hua flipped up her shirt and poked it, nothing jiggled. Her smirked dropped as a loud smack was heard,
"See this? You girls are fat cows, get out of my face until you come up to my level." The girl scowled and walked up to Xue Hua's face.
"Who do you think you are?!" Xue Hua looked at her,
"Fukui Xue Hua, now get out of my face." The girl glared at Xue Hua, Xue Hua give her a nasty glare as well, she blinked in surprise and leaned back as Xue Hua passed her, she stopped by Haruno.
"Let's go." Haruno scrambled up and grabbed her bento, following Xue Hua.
"But my biggest problem was eating…"
Xue Hua sat with her legs crossed at the desk, staring as Haruno ate her second bento.
"You eat a lot," Haruno looked up and slowly chewed, she was slowly getting used to how Xue Hua was blunt and what the meanings were behind her words. Haruno frowned and looked down,
"It's a hard habit to quit…" Xue Hua put the lid over her bento,
"You have a long way to go then." Haruno frowned deeper, almost tearful of the harsh words. Xue Hua gave a smirk,
"I'm sure you'll get there." Haruno looked up in surprise, she never heard Xue Hua encourage someone direction, she'd always hide it with a harsh and blunt statement. Haruno smiled and nodded, putting her chopsticks down,
"Arigato, Xue Hua-sama."
"I, really am proud to call her a friend, even if she's very blunt. S-She's always there for me…" Momoshiro looked at her,
"Are…you sure it's okay…that you told us, something personal?" Haruno looked up,
"Huh?" She shook her head with a soft smile,
"It's okay, cause Xue Hua told me, that if I can't face the truth. Then I'd never get anywhere…"
Haruno sat down on the slide, she had been crying again when Xue Hua was absent sick and the girls took it as an opportunity. She felt something flick her forehead,
"Why is it that I always find you crying here on the slide?" Haruno widened her eyes,
"X-Xue Hua-sama?" She looked at her slightly red nose and somewhat droopy eyes, Xue Hua sneezed and looked away with her arms crossed.
"I'm not going to lie to you, you're very overweight." Haruno felt her eyes sting,
"You can't lie to yourself either, face the truth and move on. Or you'll always be a coward and get nowhere." Haruno dropped her head,
"I-I, don't know…" Xue Hua sighed,
"Until you embrace the truth, I won't help you." Xue Hua began to walk away, Haruno widened her eyes and stood up.
"X-Xue Hua-sama! I'll t-try!" Xue Hua turned around with a smirk,
"Good. Now go home," Haruno nodded as Xue Hua walked in front of a black car and walked in.
"I'll never forget how much Xue Hua-sama helped me, I'll never forget my first time seeing her smile…"
Two girls sat under the tree, it had been officially two years since they've first meet, and Haruno lost a lot of weight. She still had some fat, but that was just baby fat now. Xue Hua was still as skinny as she was before, flat stomach, small waist.
"It's been two years since I first meet you Xue Hua-sama." Xue Hua nodded and sipped her juice box. Haruno got up and bowed to her,
"Thank you very much! I've lost so much weight because of you! The two long years I've struggled to become skinny, you've helped me stand back up when I've fallen down. I really appreciate being your f-friend!" Haruno looked at Xue Hua, hoping that she'd call her a friend back too. She slightly frowned seeing her impassive fast, she looked dropped her head. Slightly embarrassed that Xue Hua didn't respond or do anything to accept her calling her a friend.
"Two long years? Didn't I say you had a long way to go?" Haruno shakily nodded her head, Xue Hua gave a small smile.
"I guess you finally get there, good job." Haruno widened her eyes, feeling Xue Hua pat her head.
Momoshiro, Ryoma, and Kikumaru stared as Haruno smiled at the memory, she then looked down at her watch.
"Oh no! I have to get home, Ja ne!" She threw away her tray and quickly left. Momoshiro slightly grinned,
"So Fukui, she really does have a heart." Kikumaru nodded and grinned,
"Fukui-chan is so cool! Taking on those girls, even though they were bigger than her. What do you think, O'chibi?" Ryoma stared out the window,
'Fukui Xue Hua….'
-&-
Xue Hua sneezed, Hanako blushed slightly,
"B-Bless you," Xue Hua nodded her head,
"I-I think that s-someone's talking about y-you…" Xue Hua raised an eyebrow,
"Doubt it." Hanako widened her eyes, trying to locate Xue Hua as she disappeared into the crowd.