One Step
Written by: Kiasidira Ixari

BIKKURI!!!!

From 40 reviews… to 73 reviews… in just ONE chapter.

Wow.

Kia-chan is quite shocked.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.


Step Four: What's Passed
(Revised Version)


Ryoma grumbled as he sank down to the grassy ground under the sakura tree in the school yard, rotating his shoulder slowly and painfully and wincing as the ligaments popped back into relaxation. He swore he would kill his senpai if his shoulder was seriously damaged.

"Kikumaru-senpai, if my arm doesn't work properly when I play tennis, I'll blame it on you," scowled Ryoma, massaging his shoulder slowly to relieve the tension.

"Come on, ochibi-chan, don't be like that!" giggled Eiji, apparently on sugar high mode. He bounced around the place in glee while the others settled under their favorite sakura tree.

Ryoma turned to Oishi. "Ne, Oishi-senpai, did you feed him sugar this morning? He's sugar high."

Oishi simply sweat dropped and sheepishly chuckled, scratching the back of his head, making Ryoma sigh.

"You know Eiji… he's always like that, sugar or not," Fuji hummed, leaning over Tezuka's shoulder to see the new book he was reading. "Ne, Kunimitsu, what's this book called?"

"One Man's Bible," Tezuka answered shortly, earning a hum from Fuji. The tensai then proceeded to absently peer under the book to see the cover that was what had initially intrigued him.

"But I was really surprised, you know…" Momoshiro grinned, slinging a heavy arm around Ryoma and earning an 'oof' from the smaller player. "…just yesterday, we were talking about your so-called 'break' from the top pro."

"What's the big deal?" Ryoma dismissed, rolling his shoulders in a carefree shrug. "It's just a break. They won't miss me. In fact, they'll be happy to see my back, since they'll now have a chance to reclaim the 'stolen glory', as they call it."

"I have to say, that last performance against Federer was brilliant, Echizen," Inui remarked, hitching his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose as he opened his beloved green notebook. Apparently, he was eager to get first-hand evaluation from Ryoma. "The way you countered his precise groundstroke techniques shows how much you've improved."

"Mmm," Ryoma hummed in thoughtfulness. "Well… his shots were more like… uhh, what's his name again? Fuji-senpai's younger brother…?"

"Yuuta," Fuji supplied absently, now observing the cover that Tezuka had relinquished a few moments prior with sharp, photography-experienced blue eyes.

"Aa, Yuuta-kun," Ryoma nodded. "Federer's shots were all much like Rising Shots. He keeps on hitting balls while it's still rising from the bounce, much like Yuuta does. Because of that, the opponent's reaction time will be lesser and he'll have leeway to hit a cross-court heavy top spin ball to score the point. But I have my Drive B to counter that."

Inui nodded. "What about his serve? You can't really see his serve because he somehow turns his back on his opponent… and he tosses the ball consistently in the same place at the same pace in the same manner no matter where he plans to hit it."

"He twists," Ryoma stated simply.

"Twists?" repeated Kaidoh.

"He twists his body when he serves, so even if he tosses the ball in the same manner, you can see by the twist of his body where the ball will be landing. It's kind of hard to notice on video, but when you're actually playing him, you can see the twisting by watching his feet angles, torso and swing. And besides, even if they say that his serve is goes up to 200 to 209 kph, it's nothing compared to Inui-senpai's Waterfall and uhh… that Hyotei player's Scud Serve. The ball's spins are weaker than my Cool Drive. The strength and impact is also nothing compared to Atobe-san's Hametsu e no Rondo, or to Momo-senpai's Special Dunk Smash in full power. My Cross Split Serve is far stronger too."

"Cross Split Serve?" repeated everyone except Fuji and Tezuka. The tensai merely smiled as he continued to peer over the cover of the book, while Tezuka calmly flipped a page.

"Never mind," muttered Ryoma, leaning back against the tree.

"Ah! Ochibi is mean! You have a new technique and you won't tell us about it!" Eiji exclaimed.

"You'll get to see it sometime," Ryoma sighed, before he pouted. "I want Ponta."

"Don't change the topic, gaki!" Momoshiro snapped, locking Ryoma's head in his arms again. "What's this Cross Split Serve you're talking about, eih?"

"Sou, Echizen-kun," Inui smiled, making involuntary shivers crawl down Ryoma's spine. "Enlighten us."

"I said you'll get to see it when I play again!" Ryoma choked out, struggling out of his senpai's grasp and flailing his arms about.

"The fact that Inui doesn't know about it means that you haven't shown it on any of your matches in the top pro yet, right?" Fuji calmly deduced as he returned the book cover to Tezuka, who accepted it with a silent hum. "It must be a new one. Oh, yeah! Echizen-kun, congratulations on being named as ESPY's Best Male Tennis Player of the Year."

"Our little gaki's really going international, huh?" Momoshiro whistled, impressed. "Being recognized by ESPY and all…"

"Sooner or later, he'll be doing sports magazine cover shots too," giggled Fuji, hiding his mouth behind his hand like a girl. Ryoma could see in bright neon signs over the tensai's head thoughts that ought to be censored to anyone below fifteen years of age. "That would be really interesting to watch."

Ryoma frowned at this, recalling a particularly unwelcome memory of an interview with him and Kevin for Sports Illustrated a few months ago. He grumbled at that memory. The journalist was so damned nosy about his and Kevin's personal lives; it annoyed him to no end. Kevin handled it perfectly fine, but he was a bit more irritable than Kevin when it comes to people, so it went as expected: badly.

"I read that interview, you know, the one from Sports Illustrated," Kawamura said. "The journalist was saying that you were so silent and grumpy all the time."

"I was annoyed," Ryoma explained simply, sniffing in disgust as he remembered the reporter's simpering countenance. "Kevin was there, so he handled it."

"'Taku, you haven't changed a bit, you stingy brat," huffed Momoshiro. "Still pissing off people left and right with your I'm-a-downright-brat attitude."

"Well, he wouldn't be himself without the damned brattiness," Kaidoh remarked. He grumbled as Eiji jostled him. "Kikumaru-senpai, please…"

"But Kaidoh!" whined Eiji, who was practically fizzling on his seat. "I'm so happy today! It's such a wonderful day! Nee-san bought me a new toothpaste, Oishi bought me ice cream—"

"So you did buy him sweets," muttered Ryoma under his breath, shooting an accusatory glance at Oishi, who sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and murmured an apology that was drowned under Eiji's rant.

"—ochibi-chan is back, and Yokubou got beaten flat on his face!" Eiji cackled madly at the last bit.

"Oi, Eiji, they might hear you! Not too loud!" Oishi hushed, fussing over the still cackling redhead.

"What's wrong if they hear him? It's true after all," Ryoma tactlessly said, closing his eyes.

There was suddenly an uncomfortable silence around him.

He reopened his eyes after a while. "Did I say something wrong?" he frowned, his forehead creasing.

Fuji chuckled breathily beside him, reaching over and smoothing out his forehead like an older brother would do to a younger brother. Ryoma really was still a young boy, younger than they were. Even though Ryoma appeared strong and unmovable in front of others, Fuji knew that the said freshman still needed their attention and protection. He was a special boy after all.

"It's just something of the past, ochibi-chan," Fuji sighed, slinging a brotherly arm around Ryoma and pulling him slightly close.

Ryoma frowned even more at this. Instead of pushing him away, Fuji's mysterious statement only piqued Ryoma's growing curiosity. He knew that curiosity can kill the cat, but he was willing to take that risk.

"Speaking of the past, why aren't you guys in the tennis club?" Ryoma asked, unbothered by the straightforward and arrogant air of his question. He knew his teammates were used to it.

There was silence for a while, filled with Eiji's fidgeting, Momoshiro's and Kawamura's averted glances, Kaidoh's deep sighs and Oishi's frowns. Even Fuji's smile dropped a notch. Inui simply adjusted his glasses higher up his nose. Just then, Tezuka closed his book with a snap, slightly startling the others.

"Still as straightforward as ever, I see," muttered Tezuka, sighing. Then he turned to Fuji. "There's no harm in telling him, I suppose."

"I have the right to know," added Ryoma firmly. He was going to see this to the end within this day. He wanted and needed those explanations to make everything clear. He dropped his top pro career for a year for this; he was nowhere near hell letting it go.

Momoshiro chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Still haven't changed, nope, not changed a bit…"

"Maa ne," Fuji sighed. "It's a long story. Can we fit it in the remaining lunch time?"

"We have 20 minutes more, Fuji-senpai," Ryoma insisted stubbornly, eyes flaring. "I won't interrupt so you can explain smoothly."

Fuji chuckled at this. Their brat hadn't changed a tad bit.

"Saa ne… I won't say unnecessary things, then," Fuji hummed, before beginning. "After we graduated from Seigaku Middle School, after you left for your career in America, it was a mutual decision to go to Seigaku High School. That way, we could keep the tennis club going. We entered without any problems at all. The first year was fine. The captain was good, the third years were strong, and the team made it halfway to the Nationals."

Under his breath, Ryoma breathed, "Only halfway?"

Fuji chuckled at this. "Yes, only halfway. We were not that strong, after all. There were stronger teams out there. Our doubles were… well, shall we say, it was only Oishi and Eiji making the effort. The others were not that good at all, and it was impossible to create a good vibe for the whole team."

"I can see that," snorted Ryoma, recalling the tennis team members he had watched the previous day.

"But all in all," Fuji continued, ignoring Eiji's audible whispers and giggles and Ryoma's comments. "It was a good year. Average in terms of tennis level, but it was good. The team was good. Even Kawamura was there, even if he said that he would already stop tennis. His dad allowed him to continue until the end of high school, so it was good news."

"Heeeh…" Ryoma drew out.

"Demo…" Kawamura started. "The real challenge was not in the first year."

"Sou dayo ne," Eiji sighed. "I had thought that it would be easier in the second year, since Momoshiro and Kaidoh would be there too, but…" he sighed, his shoulders sagging miserably.

"Eh? What do you mean?" Ryoma asked innocently, a blank look of incomprehension painted all over his face.

"Maa, long story short, they shunned us out of the team," Fuji sighed heavily, the light breeze ruffling his golden brown hair.

"Shunned?"

"Sou," nodded Fuji. "The captain that graduated was good to us, but the next captain chosen had intense favoritism towards the other players who had the money and the background, as well as the support of the school."

"And these people are?"

"Well, Yokubou-san is one," Oishi cited. "There's also Nori-san and Takeda-san."

"You forgot Ruichi-san, senpai," Kaidoh inserted.

"Maa, Ruichi-san isn't too bad," Momoshiro remarked. "He's a bit better than the others. I think he just can't avoid being carried by the flow of his friends. Being with such bad influence does it to a person after all."

"They're all from rich families with ties to the school," Fuji explained. "They joined the tennis club just for fun and were never really serious about things. They were late for training, never fought seriously, harassed freshmen, and were often included in violent situations inside and outside the school."

"And then there's Akita-san," Inui added. The mere mention of the name earned apprehensive glances from all of them. "Akita-san comes from a rich family as well, and he was made captain during our second year in the club. He's in the same class as Tezuka and me, and he's quite well-disciplined, but he still has a devious, dirty side to him. He holds intense favoritism over the club members and is often short-tempered. But he's a good player, probably the best player in the club. I'd say up to par with our level."

"What I can't stand about him is his attitude towards bu—Tezuka-senpai," Momoshiro half-yelled, catching and correcting himself in mid-phrase.

At the mention of an 'attitude' towards Tezuka, Ryoma's eyes flashed in suppressed anger. No one insulted his captain. "Please be more specific, Momo-senpai."

Almost all of them inwardly quirked eyebrows at the attitude. Fuji chuckled. Maa, our boy wonder just can't stand someone looking down on his model, can he?

"Well, he's always looking down on Tezuka-senpai," Momoshiro explained. "It's annoying. He thinks he's so great because he became captain over the captain of the team who won the Nationals Championships for the sister school! It's damned annoying, the way he thinks he's above us. The rest of them too."

"But wait," Ryoma countered. "Don't tell me you quit just because of that?!"

"We so did NOT quit!" Eiji defended almost instantly, yelling his statement. "We were shunned, I tell you, shunned!"

"I still don't get it."

"The story isn't finished yet, Ryoma," Tezuka explained. "These people weren't really interested in tennis before we came, but apparently, they were put off when the previous captain favored our performance. That's when they started being serious and trained to try and defeat us, the Nationals Champions."

"That's stupid," Ryoma stated plain as day, without a change in expression.

"I know," Tezuka sighed. "But we can't avoid people who think like that. They tried challenging us to numerous matches, and of course, being good club members, we accepted each one. With each match, they improved and were harder and harder to beat, but in the end, our techniques, knowledge and experience pulled us through. This didn't sit well with them."

"That's when they started going to extremes," Fuji continued. "At first, what they did were mild, ignorable things like accidental spills of juice on our uniforms, accidental balls directed towards us, and other stuff like that. We were patient though, and we pushed through. This annoyed them, apparently."

"Aa," Oishi nodded. "The first serious incident was when they sabotaged Inui's experiment inside the science lab, screwing up his whole presentation for the Science Convention Week. It was a disaster, that one."

"But I was able to recover the data I gathered, and they didn't get to my notebooks, since I always keep them with me, so it was fine by me," Inui explained. "We let that one slide."

"And then they stole Eiji-senpai's mobile phone," Kaidoh followed. "Fsssh… if you'd normally think about it, you can always buy another one, but Eiji-senpai was wailing that day because that phone was a gift from Oishi-senpai for their fifth anniversary as a doubles pair. It was brand new too. We thought that if we found it, it would be over, and they'd just have to apologize and it'd be over. But it wasn't."

"They made prank calls and threatening calls from Eiji-senpai's phone," Momoshiro explained. "They called different persons and gave out different threats. Of course, these persons alerted the police and the phone number was traced to Eiji-senpai."

By this time, Eiji was already sniffling and clinging to Oishi, pulling out the said red mobile phone from his pocket and looking at the phone straps tearfully. "If I had lost this phone, I'd kill myself."

"Oi, Eiji, don't say things like that, it's only a phone!" Oishi worriedly amended, earning a glare from the redhead.

"Don't say it's just a phone! It's a gift from my aibou!" he pouted.

"Hai, hai, gomen, just be quiet, ok?"

Eiji pouted cutely and clung to Oishi, keeping his mouth blissfully shut.

"Luckily, just when the policemen were going to arrest Eiji-senpai, Mukahi-san, Oshitari-san and Atobe-san from Hyotei came to his house, wondering about the prank call they had received. They recognized the voice was not Eiji-senpai's, as well as the demeanor," Momoshiro chuckled. "Hyotei to the rescue! Lucky, lucky!"

"That issue was easily resolved when Eiji just asked for his phone back and nothing more," Fuji sighed. "I still think you were too lax on them, Eiji. It would have been fun to see them suffer under the punishment the Head Teacher was willing to dish out."

"Fujiko, you're way too much of a sadist."

"Thank you."

"It doesn't end there," Kawamura said. "The last one was the one that crossed the line."

"Eh?"

"Ne, Ryoma, you remember that Tezuka used to have an injury on his left elbow, right?" Fuji slowly explained, his brows furrowing.

Ryoma frowned. "Of course I remember. How could I forget something like that?"

"Saa, that day was horrible," Fuji sighed, shaking his head. Tezuka sighed as well.

"Eh? What happened?"

"I really can't remember things clearly that day," Eiji nervously chuckled. "I was too preoccupied with my anger, I guess."

"We were, too," Momoshiro said.

"Will somebody please just tell me what happened?" Ryoma snapped.

"Hai, no need to be stingy!" Momoshiro reasoned, cuffing Ryoma's head with his fist lightly, earning a glare from the youngster.

"Saa, that day, Nori, Takeda and Yokubou were hitting free shots across the courts, just for fun," Fuji explained. "As expected with Tezuka, he came earlier than any of us. I came with him, but I was left behind in the locker rooms for a bit, so I don't really know what had happened initially. All I know is that the next thing I saw was Tezuka clutching at his left elbow while on his knees, three rolling balls on the ground nearby, and laughter from the opposite side of the court."

"Actually, they were just jeering their usual while I started warming up," Tezuka sighed. "And then when I didn't pay any attention to them, they shot those three balls, aiming it at my elbow. I didn't see because my back was facing them, but my reaction was fast enough to prevent any of the balls from hitting a critical point where it would cause permanent damage."

"Just then, Momoshiro and Kaidoh charged into the court, all claws and fangs at the three other guys," Kawamura apprehensively explained. "How should I say this… that afternoon was intense. It was so hard to calm these two down," he chuckled, motioning to Kaidoh and Momoshiro.

The two juniors were about to say something when Ryoma cut them off.

"Of COURSE it was!" he exclaimed, anger flaring. "Damn, this just makes me want to pound their ugly faces in even more! Dammit…"

Fuji chuckled behind his hand. "Ryoma-chan's acting like an overprotective boyfriend!" he giggled, earning a glare.

"Oi, what the hell are you giggling about?" Ryoma glared.

"Ryoma."

"Hai, gomen, buchou," Ryoma immediately replied, backing down. Whenever he heard Tezuka's voice or command, absolute obedience and respect always tends to come out instinctively. For some reason, it was so. Ryoma never really bothered to beat down the habit either.

"Oooo, such a good boy when it comes to buchou, ne?" Fuji giggled. Ryoma glared yet again, but refrained himself from saying anything.

"After that, it was just chaos. Eiji, Oishi and Kawamura were trying to hold the kouhai down, I was trying to check if Tezuka was injured in any serious way, and Fuji was simply seething in barely suppressed anger, keeping at a distance… so, basically, after that, it was absolute disaster for us," sighed Inui. "That afternoon destroyed the reputation of those rich guys, as well as the tennis club. That's why no one ever takes it seriously nowadays."

"We were suspended for that. One day suspension. The others got one week suspension. It should have been expulsion from the compounded and repetitive offenses they've done already, but they had the backing and the support of half of the board, so we were voted out of the tennis club because they wanted it. They also threatened us that Taka-san's business would die down if we did anything like transferring schools, or trying to counter the tennis club. They also said they'd bribe whatever school we'll go to so they'll not accept us. We had to suffer, they said."

"…they what?"

"Sou. They threatened to kill Taka-san's family's business if we did anything, so we just conceded and pulled ourselves to a halt," Fuji said. "There's no way we'd let Taka-san's business dwindle."

"But even so, it's still dwindling," Kawamura laughed.

There was silence for a while.

Then Ryoma sighed and pulled his wallet out, fiddling in it for a while, before raising his head again. "Yosh. Taka-san, we're going to your place later. Can you prepare an eat-all-you-can party setting for all of us? Let's invite Horio and the others, they're here too. I'll also invite my dad… not. Scratch that thought. Just invite as much people as you want."

"Heh?"

"Nani?"

"Matte, matte, oi, Ryoma, who's gonna pay for all this?" Momoshiro gushed.

Ryoma smirked, pulling out several wads of cash from his wallet. "My treat. This is enough for all that, right?"

"Fucking rich!"

"Momoshiro, language," Tezuka scolded, reminding Ryoma of a father figure of sorts.

"I didn't win the Wimbledon and the US Open for nothing, Momo-senpai," sighed Ryoma. "What did you think, I'd play for no prize? No way in hell. I refuse. I need new clothes, new gear, daily supply of Ponta and cat food to sustain me and Karupin after all. Respectively, of course."


Tsuzuku
(Revised Version)


Mm, this chapter's a bit boring… explaining everything that happened. With Taka-san's business on the line, they just can't make moves out of impulse, ne? And they can't transfer schools too.

Wicked. The birth of the new idea in the next chapter!

Kiasidira Ixari
First Publication Version: 11.19.06
First Revision Version: 07.25.07