Mishaps and Mayhem

A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone! :D

XxBloodandButterfliesxX: Thanks for your review! I'm so glad you like Amaya, she's a lot like me too. And who she recognized? You shall just have to wait and watch.

DraconisArgentum: Thank you! I'm so happy that you like the plot. :)

The Rikkai Regulars enter the plot in this chapter. I hope they're in character!

Disclaimer: I don't own PoT in any way whatsoever


Chapter 2: SOS Alert!


"NIOU?!"

"Sanada?"

"Why are the balls pink?!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

A vein pops on a forehead.

"Niou how did this happen? Tell me or you're running laps for the rest of your life."

"The possibility of Sanada carrying this threat out is 98.87% considering his complete lack of humour."

A glare is thrown in the direction of the voice.

"Puri~ I like those odds."

"Niou-kun, for your own good, it might be beneficial for you to admit your crime."

"Shut up Hiroshi. Don't act as if you're very innocent."

A pair of glasses is pushed up.

"I have no idea what you are talking about Niou-kun."

Another vein pops.

"TARUNDO-"

The shout is interrupted mid-way by the data-master.

"The possibility of Kirihara arriving now is 97.68%"

Just then –as calculated- the door of the locker-room is slammed open. A boy with curly black hair runs in and falls to the ground.

"Senpai! I'm so sorry I'm late. I had to take a pregnant woman to the hospital."

"You, what?"

"Yes Marui Senpai. And then there was this rabbit that asked me to follow it and…."

"A talking rabbit, Kirihara?"

"Uh-huh Jackal Senpai. After that I fell into a hole and and and…."

"Idiot. You think we'd believe that?"

The sound of a boy protesting is heard, as another boy pulls him down for a noogie. And somehow in the process, bubble-gum gets stuck in his hair.

"Marui Senpai!"

"Che. Idiot. Now my bubble-gum's stuck in your hair."

The two boys scuffle as the bald boy sighs and reaches to remove the gum.

"My fucking hair Senpai!"

"Stop swearing Bakaya. You're too young."

"Niou Senpai, I'm only a year younger than you!"

"Puri~"

A third vein pops on a head.

"TARUNDORU…"

A boy's arm is raised to strike when-

"My my is there a problem?"

-a voice is heard from the doorway.

Suddenly magically, the bubble-gum gets unstuck from Kirihara's hair. Marui and Jackal start stretching and Niou and Yagyuu are long gone, running their laps. Yanagi has excused himself to the club's office room too, leaving the stoic vice-captain -whose face has turned a slight unpleasant red- alone staring at the captain.

Yukimura smiles pleasantly.

"Saa, we better start training too right Genichirou?"

"Hn"

Sanada never could exercise the same control as Yukimura could on the club.


Contrary to popular belief, the tennis club at Rikkai, was in fact, not perfect. At all. It was quite the opposite actually as most days began the same way as this chapter began.

Despite the members all following military-like regimes and training menus, the discipline didn't really transcend into the club's daily activities. It was Rikkai's largest- and most popular- club, with about fifty odd members. Fifty odd special members.

While Rikkaidai's middle school division was a little more lenient, the high school division only accepted the best of the best. Only students with exceptional skills- or immense influence- could get into the school. And once you enroll, it's a rat race with no end.

Winning was the only option. And it was expected by every student, even if the competition was something like eating or hell even sleeping.

Losing wasn't a word in the school's dictionary. Not even figuratively. The school had, literally, commissioned to have every dictionary in the library omit the word 'losing' or anything related to loss (In all languages) They thought it would show the students just how serious the school was.

The students had to cut of the word 'losing' from their own copies on their first day of school as freshmen, in the school orientation and initiation programme. The teachers called it 'implementing the tradition of Rikkai onto every child'.

The school was fanatical when it came to awards and prestige. Yet, after the number of competitions in which Rikkaidai had come forth victorious, preventing the winning stroke from dying out became a matter of pride more than anything else.

And hence, in such kinds of schools, competition bordering on unhealthy is typical.

It wasn't uncommon to see signs of extreme partiality to award winning students. The school's policy was, "If you win, you can do anything." (More like an unwritten rule)

And thus, not being special at something in school can have very bad consequences. Not just social exclusion, but completely losing yourself in the pressure. Inferiority complexes were commonplace, but the school administration never too much initiative to make the school less belligerent.

But finding non noteworthy students was a rarity.

Chances are the bitchiest girl in school, is actually the best dancer you could see. Or the classroom bully is-as hard as it is to believe- a math genius. Those were the kinds of students in Rikkai, special and unique -just not in the usual sense.

The members of tennis club-both boys' and girls'- were no exception. So peace and serenity just didn't exist in the practice sessions.


Despite it being the first day of school, the regulars had begun training a week earlier. Kirihara was the latest addition. (Not officially though, but it was practically guaranteed anyway)

When the middle-schoolers had graduated and joined the high school division, there had already been a set of senior regulars.

But they were crushed by the immense strength the freshmen had. It wasn't long before the entire first string consisted of members of the middle-school team, minus Kirihara. Yukimura became Buchou again and Sanada- Fukubuchou.

But that was expected. What they didn't expect was the new rule.


Yukimura sighed-not openly of course. First days were frankly quite tiring, but this particular day was even more monotonous. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that the entire team was back together after a year. And somehow, having to deal with their childish antics again made him feel slightly old.

Practice had started just as usual, with the standard bickering and fighting. After Yukimura had arrived, the rest of practice had gone smoothly. The Trickster-Gentleman pair ran laps the entire time, while the rest of the team had practice matches.

But this was Rikkaidai. Nothing was ever normal. They were all walking back to the locker rooms when Kirihara saw a rabbit. And, god bless that child, he ran after it stating that he could prove his 'Alice in Wonderland' story by catching it. Of course Marui ran behind him, and Jackal followed with a sigh. After which Niou conjured a video camera out of nowhere for blackmail, and the sadistic part of Yagyuu had him follow. Then Renji left to obtain data, and Sanada followed them with veins popping all over his forehead in anger. Yukimura's lips just twitched in laughter and he let them be. (Later he found out, that Kirihara had, in fact, caught the rabbit. Sadly it didn't speak back.)

They ended being late to the assembly, and didn't even change into uniform. But the teachers just smiled and didn't say anything. The perks of being a Nationally Ranked Tennis team, Yukimura assumed.

The thought of him becoming older made him grin "The Child of God, old? People will have coronaries."

Of course, people had heart-attacks every time they saw him. Whether it was due to the unfortunate circumstance of playing tennis against him, or a just seeing his dazzling looks.

A girl had once wore a shirt that said, "Yukimura's perfection gives me a heart attack" while asking him out. He politely asked her whether she was feeling okay, and then rejected her. He didn't think she got the pun.

Sitting among his teammates was always a pleasure, if you took away the buzz of constant chatter. But he enjoyed watching them. It gave him a sense of fulfilment and attachment in his drifting world of techno-colour.

There weren't many people who stood out in Yukimura's world. Either he scared them off and he forgot about them, or they were just boring. His teammates had that one distinction of playing a proper role in Yukimura's life.

Gifted with a startling sense of maturity and understanding, Yukimura could send adults running for their money with his perception of the world around him.

He was that kind of person who could either change the world, or watch it burn. And sometimes you couldn't see that difference in his personality.

In a school like Rikkaidai, Yukimura Seichii was one of the few people who actually deserved the revere he got. He was an amazing tennis player, a charismatic leader, and so much more. He was sheer perfection embodied.

But Yukimura had worked towards it too; he just wasn't born perfect (Although most would argue about that). He had grown up and recovered from a near-terminal disease. Stood up, and proved the entire world wrong.

Understanding him was near impossible, but that was okay. You didn't need to understand, to respect and like a person like him.

But as complex as Yukimura Seichii was, he was one of the easiest persons to get the along with, once you got over his perplexing nature. Given, that he found you equally interesting.

However, even super-humans had their own choices and preferences. And Yukimura hated with passion, school assemblies.

He was quite aware of what kind of school Rikkai was, something he had often found quite saddening actually. The blatant partiality the school showed towards laurel winners was quite disconcerting, but Yukimura wasn't one to question too much.

If winning is what school wanted, then he would provide that. After all, winning was his personal motto too.


"Seichii"

"Yes Renji?"

"There is an 87.82% chance that something important going to be announced now."

"Oh is there?" Yukimura asked amusedly.

"Yes and my statistics tell me, it's going to be something none of us are going to like."

That got Yukimura to pay attention- more attention that is. Yukimura always paid attention. He was the Child of God for heaven's sake!

He trusted Renji's data to the extreme. It had never failed them yet. (Expect those few matches against Seigaku back in middle-school. Rikkaidai tended to believe that had never happened.)

The Principal had come up onto the stage.

"Dear students. It has come to my attention that last year was not the best of years for Rikkai activities. The school management believes that the students hadn't performed to their level best. When we give you the opportunity to perform, we expect certain returns. Not substandard attempts. Considering-"

"Ahh, that's what it is." Yukimura relaxed. He'd expected that, and the satisfied gleam in Renji's eyes revealed that he, too, had been expecting that.

The previous year had really not been a good year for Rikkai. Although the Boys' Tennis team had swiped the floor clean of all their opponents- none of their middle school opponents had good teams that year- the other clubs had not performed as well.

Yukimura knew for fact that the nationally ranked Boys' Soccer team lost in the Nationals and the two-time champion Girls' Volleyball team didn't even make it to the semi-finals of the Nationals.

The Ballet and Traditional Music departments had won only five out of their seven competitions, something that hadn't happened in years. Even the Math Geeks had emerged only runner-ups in the annual Math Gizmo.

At least those lapses in performance were forgivable. The main reason Yukimura figured that the management was upset about, was the Girls' Tennis team shocking loss at Nationals. They had lost to a non-seeded new team, and didn't even make it to the quarters.

A loss of that magnitude did not go unheeded. The Captain had quit leaving the position to a Second year. Most of the regulars had quit as well. That was the impact and the shame of losing in Rikkai.

You just didn't lose. Something Yukimura had learnt the hard way at the end of middle-school.

"Due to certain shocking performances-" the Principal's eyes involuntarily glanced at the Girl's Tennis team seated before them, "-we have decided to bring forth certain changes to the club administration."

"What?"

And that's when Yukimura heard the shout.


And boy was that shout loud. Kirihara stood up and began swearing like a sailor, resulting in a chain like reaction across the room.

Yukimura felt slightly insulted too.

The clubs of Rikkai had a long-standing tradition of students handling and taking care of them on their own. Rarely did any teacher ever interfere in the working of a club. Only if money was involved, or if the students required any advice, did teachers actually involve themselves. Even the coaching was done by the students themselves!

For years, since its inception, clubs were one of the few ways for students to express themselves. Given that there was no or very little adult supervision, the students were able to follow radical ideas, and discuss issues outside the barrier of tradition.

Clubs were literally the only things in which students were able to display and follow whatever they wanted. And in Rikkaidai especially, these clubs were of vital importance because of the different kinds of students around.

Sports clubs were able to follow the techniques they wanted, without coaches telling them what to do. Arts, Dance, Music and Drama clubs had the freedom of expression, to display what they believed in.

There were no rules when it came to clubs, except a few basic ones. It was the epitome of student freedom.

To have the school administration involve themselves in the running of the clubs left a bitter taste in Yukimura's mouth. Bringing changes into the Tennis Club was not a welcome idea. But Yukimura wanted to know exactly what these changes were.

"There are going to be certain guidelines implemented in each club. Students are asked to prepare comprehensive lists of exact activities the club follows and the regular participants of each team. Training manuals, lists of win and losses-" Here the Principal stopped and cleared his throat. "-and competitions that the school is going to participate in. Projects, recitals, artwork, résumés' all members, we-"

Yukimura frowned. Beside him Sanada was giving a lecture to Kirihara about his language, with Yagyuu chiming in here and there. The rest of the members weren't listening either, with Niou fiddling with his phone-something that school didn't allow- and Marui making funny faces behind Sanada's back at Kirihara. Jackal seemed to be in his own world.

Only Renji was listening, but he was scribbling into his notebook furiously.

Yukimura found the new guidelines rather odd. By creating such detailed documents teams, would be losing out on more training time, which wouldn't be beneficial to them. "There has to be something else." He could sense it, and Yukimura was never wrong.

""-to increase performance, and to ease the stress on the captains and teachers, we're making this compulsory. It's for your own good. It might seem rather shocking but you'll thank us for it later."

It's coming. Yukimura could feel it in his bones.

"Thus the Faculty and School Board have agreed to make it compulsory for all clubs to have Managers. This rule will prove quite profitable to you all."

There was silence for a minute, before the room burst into furious whispering. Yukimura looked to the side to see seven pairs of eyes looking at him (Who had all started listening the minute they heard the word 'Manager'.)

The silent question was asked from Sanada's eyes, "What are we going to do?"

Managers were avoided by the Tennis Club for years. Since the tennis regulars tended to be popular-an understatement- finding a good, non-fangirl manager was rare. Sometimes if required, the team would use a non-regular as a manager for official purposes. But for most part, Yanagi acted as the team manager.

Looking around the room, and seeing several hopeful looking faces shining in their direction, Yukimura could only sigh mentally.

"Managers huh? This is going to be quite an interesting year."

Yukimura smiled at the thought.


I know, not much drama here. This chapter was basically just to set the background for the story. There were actually many details in this chapter, that are going to be very important in the coming chapters ;)

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