Chapter II: Name

She smiled, rubbing her thin cheek against the soft faux fur of the toy, enjoying the softness of it against her pale skin. The smile did wonders for the redhead's ego, as he jumped over to his best friend and doubles partner. "Did you see, Oishi! My gift made her smile! Hoi, hoi!"

A nurse entered the room, moving around the teenaged boys, and sat a small tray on a wheeling table, bringing it over to the happy girl. It was a bowl of fruit along with two glass jugs of milk. Smiling at the scrawny girl, the nurse left with a tiny bow. 135 moved over, setting the teddy on the pile of pillows, and grabbed on of the jugs of milk, unscrewing the metal cap, and slowly drinking the white liquid. "It's been a while since I last had any! This is great…" it did not seem to take much to make her happy. The liquid was about ¾ths the way done once she sat the glass container down, grabbing the curved yellow fruit known as a banana.

The light shun off the glasses of a teen scribbling in green notebook, mumbling the word "data" over and over again as he examined the scene. "Unlike Echizen, she rather enjoys milk, which could explain how she is taller than him, even though she's female and approximately the same age as him…"

"How is it that you know she is taller than Echizen, Inui-senpai?" a violet eyed teen asked, looking mildly curious at how he had this type of information.

Inui simply adjusted his glasses, flipping open the green book he always had on his person. "By her posture alone. It is very proper, so she's not slouching or hunched over, making it easy to determine her height that way. With the use of a basic math problem, I can determine that she's four centimeters taller than Echizen, putting her at 155 cm. Though, that still makes her shorter than Fuji." He jotted down a few more notes. "Does that answer your question, Momo?" the violet eyed boy nodded.

"Saa… She's still cute, though, Inui." A golden brown haired tensai spoke, smiling softly as he watched the girl tug on the preteen's sleeve, catching his attention.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name…"

The girl spoke softly, placing her hand back in her lap while finishing munching on her fruit. The preteen simply lifted up the brim of his white cap, hazel meeting innocent indigo. "Ryoma Echizen."

"Ry-o-ma… E-chi-zen?" she spoke the vowels out, trying to get the feel of the foreign name. "That's first name then last name, yes?"

He was a bit surprised that she knew of the cultural difference between names. "Yeah. I thought, seeing as you know English, that it'd be best to give it to you the Western way." Ryoma stated, shrugging as if it was nothing. She nodded, understanding what he was saying as she untucked her legs from under her. Clutching the rolling table, she used it to steady her – still weak – legs; not caring about the fact that her feet were still wrapped up and that she probably shouldn't be walking.

Once her legs were steady, did she make her way towards the trashcan, intent on throwing the peel away. As it fell into the can did someone easily pick her clean off the floor, only to set her gently on the hospital bed. Oishi kneeled in front of her, checking the bottoms of her feet, glad to see that no blood was seeping through the bandages. 135 was simply curious at what he was doing, tucking her legs back under her. She simply stared at him with her indigo eyes, drinking the last bit of her milk.

"Ryoma?"

"Huh?"

"What are their names?" she simply gestured to the boys that loitered around the room.

Ryoma sorta forgot his teammates were there as he slouched more in his chair. "Shuichiro Oishi." He gestured to his senpai that was still kneeling before the girl.

"Shu-ichi-ro?" she questioned, hoping she got it right. A nod of confirmation was her answer, making her smile happily.

"Kunimitsu Tezuka," the preteen boy gestured to his stoic looking captain.

As if making sure it was the right person, 135 pointed at the brown haired teen. "Ku-ni-mi-tsu?"

The quiet 14 year old casted her a ghost of a smile, nodding his head once to acknowledge his first name. The way she slightly struggled with the pronunciation was quite cute, though he'd never willingly voice his opinion on such a mater. It just was not the Tezuka way.

Ryoma gestured towards a black haired teen wearing glasses, scribbling something down in a dark green notebook. "That's Sadaharu Inui."

"Sa-da-ha-ru… Simple enough to pronounce."

"Takashi Kawamura, but everyone calls him Taka-san."

"Taka-san?" the timid teen nodded, grinning softly at the silver-blond haired girl.

"Eiji Kikumaru." he pointed at the redhead that had given her the teddy bear.

135 waved at the grinning teen, smiling as sweetly as possible while cuddling her stuffed animal. "Thank you for the bear, Eiji." Surprisingly, she hardly had problems with his name.

A teenage boy with honey brown hair walked over to her, grabbing both of her dainty hands in his much larger ones, giving her one of his calming smiles. "Syusuke Fuji." He introduced himself.

"Syu-su-ke?" she tried, shaking her head a bit at the odd feeling of his name on her tongue. It did not sound right to her ears.

Seeing the slight struggle she was experiencing with his name, he pushed her silvery hair behind her ears. "Syusuke."

She blinked a few times, not noticing the pinkish hue that graced her delicate skin. "Syusuke?" now that sounded more right to her ears. The tensai nodded, telling her she got it right the second time around.

Ryoma was a bit surprised at his senpai, but let it go as he went on to introduce the others. "Kaoru Kaido is the one in the bandana."

"Kaoru." The normally fierce thirteen-year-old's face flushed slightly, looking off to the side while trying to control the unusual flush of blood in his cheeks.

"Then you have Takeshi Momoshiro, but he likes to be called Momo-chan. It means peach…" Ryoma smirked as the girl reached into the fruit bowl, pulling out the fruit.

The upperclassmen understood what his young kouhai told the English speaking girl, blushing brightly while pulling the kid into a headlock, grinding his knuckles down on the preteen's skull. "Oh, ha-ha! You think you're so funny, don't ya, Echizen?"

"Ack! Get off me, Momo-senpai!" he squirmed around, pushing at Momo's arm that was around his neck.

"Momoshiro!" Tezuka barked, causing the 2nd year to release the 1st year. "We're in a hospital, remember that!"

"H-Hai, Tezuka-buchou." He blushed softly, rubbing the back of his head bashfully. The girl, on the other hand, just watched them with a small grin, her indigo colored orbs dancing with amusement.

"They are pretty amusing, huh?" spoke Fuji, his words heavily accented to the point that she had to strain her ears to understand them. She nodded in agreement, smiling softly at him. Fuji smiled, too, as he gently patted her head, feeling how soft her silvery hair was.

A while later, the older woman and the doctor reentered the room. "Except for Echizen, the rest of you are free to leave." The boys nodded, exiting the room silently with tiny waves to 135, and a hug from Eiji, which caused her to freeze and look at him in confusion.

"Ah… Ryuzaki-sensei, why do I have to stay?" the hazel-eyed boy questioned, wondering where all this was going.

"Because, Echizen, you are our only available translator, and also you're an important part of what's gonna happen." Ryuzaki stated, being vague with her answers.

Ryoma simply shrugged, settling himself down again. He currently wished he had a grape ponta to help quench his thirst. "Ano, Ryuzaki-san, we need to give our Jane Doe a name first, before proceeding." The female doctor spoke, adjusting her thin rimmed glasses.

"Of course. Ryoma, will you be kind enough to ask her if the girls she was with ever called her something different besides the number that was on her ear-tag?"

Said preteen asked, staring deeply into unwavering pools of indigo. "Mary called me firefly, if that helps."

"Well, Hotaru means 'firefly' in Japanese…"

"Hotaru? I like it!"

"Firefly, huh…?" mused the tennis couch, smiling fondly at the two.