Chapter 3

Tezuka walked slowly back to the courts, pondering what Sanada and Niou had told him. He wondered what he would say to the Regulars. Would they accept the two Rikkai students, or would they dislike them. From what Tezuka knew of his team, most of them would be nice, except for perhaps Godo Mikio. That guy really gave Tezuka headaches. He wished that the previous seniors were still around.

As he thought, the guy who had been giving him all this trouble came into view. He had transferred to Seigaku from Higa Chuu and his dark skin stood out on the courts. He was a trouble maker, but he had won his Regular place in the inter-school ranking tournaments, so Tezuka could do nothing about it. The sly thing about Godo was that he never misbehaved in front of Tezuka or Oishi, preferring to bully the younger students when they weren't looking. He was slacking off in the corner, sleeping while the others practiced hard. Tezuka had to admit, he hoped Niou would replace Godo soon.

"Tezuka! Is everything all right? What happened? Does Rikkai want a match? What did they want? Do you need me to do anything?" Oishi was full of questions. "I'll tell you later." Tezuka said.

After practice was over, Tezuka told the Regulars to stay back. The other members went off, thinking that the Regulars had some competition or friendly match to discuss. There were many who were jealous, but they all left, not bothering to eavesdrop.

"What's wrong?" Eiji asked. Tezuka gave them a brief summary of what had happened to Arisa and the plea from Sanada and Niou. He did keep the poisoning to himself however.

"That's terrible! The poor thing! We must take good care of them both then!" Oishi said. The others agreed whole-heartedly. Their kind hearts made them feel pity for the poor girl who had been tortured so mercilessly.

However, Godo seemed annoyed. "She's weak. She should have stood up for herself rather than running away. What more, she's planning on taking the same position that caused all the trouble in the first place. Why can't she just join the girls' team anyway? She must be really stuck up if she thinks that she's so good. What a waste of space! I think they should just die if they suck so bad. And why does she need to bring her bodyguard anyway? She's so hopeless. I bet they're going to spy on us for Rikkai"

Godo was right about some things, such as the standing up for herself and even the managerial position, and the other regulars knew it. However, they were also not so blind that they couldn't see it had reached a limit. Even though they didn't know the whole story, they knew from the little Tezuka said, that she had tried to face up to her enemies, but failed. Also, they disagreed with the way he said it. It was going too far.

Tezuka spoke up. "She didn't ask for the position, her teammates did because they care about her and they know she loves it too much to not play." Everyone was surprised. Tezuka rarely spoke unless he had to.

"Nya! They ganged up against her too!" Eiji cried out.

Fuji opened his piercing blue eyes. "I think somebody's afraid that Niou-san will take his regular spot." he said, looking at Godo. His protests had made some sense, but the part about Niou had a different feel to it. Fuji would've put his favourite cactus on the line to bet that Godo felt threatened by Niou, perhaps even Arisa.

Godo flushed. "I'm better than that silver-haired punk! He's useless, a complete waste of space. He should just die! And anyway, I'm just saying she's a coward and we don't need her here in Seigaku."

Fuji smiled to himself. There was history between Niou and Godo. He would bet on it.

"Ah, let's just welcome them whole-heartedly and help her forget about the bad things." said Oishi, sounding as motherly as always. Godo huffed and left.

"Let's all go to the burger shop and we can discuss this further. I'm hungry!" Momo said. The other regulars agreed and they headed to change and eat together. Tezuka, for some strange reason not even known to him, decided to join them.

At the burger shop, after they ordered their food, Kaidoh asked Inui what data he had on Arisa. Inui took out his book and informed them that most of this information was from rumours as no one really knew all that much about the enigmatic girl. Apparently, Inui's friend, Yanagi Renji was a good friend of hers, but he refused to give her data to Inui. Inui said that there was a 67.3% chance that something embarrassing that happened to Renji that had to do with Arisa.

"Hmmm... Yukimura Arisa. Hair, purple. Eyes, blue. Height, 160 cm. Weight, she refuses to tell anyone. Known as the World's Best Wild Card or The Angel of Death for her astounding tennis skills. Also known now as Rikkai's Princess. Not much here about her skills other than she is very fast and accurate. Younger sister of Yukimura Seiichi. Birthday, 4th of December, same as her best friend Niou Masaharu. She is exactly one year and 2 hours younger than him. Began playing tennis at six months old. Joined and won first tournament at age 6. She played in the under 16 males' category" Inui read.

"Wow! That's amazing! She must be really talented!" Eiji exclaimed. Momo agreed loudly. "What else do you know Inui?" Fuji asked.

"She is rumoured to have joined the U-17 camp since age 5 and joined until she was 12 before stopping for unknown reasons, possibly to focus on her studies as mentioned in some interviews. Over a span of 5 years, she has won 2 Grand Slam titles, 5 French Open titles, 3 Wimbeldon titles, 3 Australian Open titles and 2 US Open titles. Last public match was winning her 4th French Open title at 10 years old and she was well on her way to her 3rd Grand Slam win. She's known to have skipped a year, putting her in the same year as us, but same age as Momo and Kaidoh. She studied at St. Rudolph, but not much is known about her time there. She's known to enjoy swimming especially at night with Niou-san. Due to her travels for tournaments, she is fluent in English and French as well as Japanese. She also rumoured to constantly beat her brother and the other Rikkai players in straight sets, even when they are playing their best. This is all I have." Inui said. The regulars were all shocked. She sounded too good to be true! To beat the regulars of the Rikkai team…And in straight sets, even Tezuka couldn't do that. 'I want to have a match with her' they all thought.

"I have also heard this one rumour, but Renji refuses to tell me anything about it. It is said that she played against the 3 Demons of Rikkai at the same time. She is reputed to have won 6 games to 4." Inui added. The passerby's were shocked to see the fountains of soda and food spewing from the regulars mouths at that.

"Hm... She must have a really fit body then… And she must be pretty too..." Momo had a dreamy expression on his face. "Pervert!" Kaidoh said, leading to another massive fight between the two. The older regulars sighed. They thought that the two would've stopped fighting as they had worked together for the past year, but apparently, that dream was too good to be true.

"Saa... Tezuka, what do you think about her?" Fuji asked. Tezuka blinked. "I hope she will be a good manager. Don't let your guard down." He said, getting up and leaving.

"He likes her." Fuji said happily to no one in particular. Inui took it down as data. "Don't make assumptions Fuji-senpai. Tezuka-buchou might not like it if it spreads around, especially if it's not true." Kaidoh said, remembering the black mood Tezuka had been in the year before, when Inui had spread a rumour about Tezuka liking Chitose Senri's little sister. He still had nightmares about that time.

"I know, that's why no one here is going to say anything, right?" Fuji's voice was as playful as always, and his smile was still on his face, but for some reason the Regulars felt a shiver running down their spine simultaneously. Fuji was scary.

Meanwhile, the girl they had been discussing so happily was with her best friend Niou. They were playing a light match, rallying back and forth.

"Arisa, I wonder what rumors they're spreading about you in Seigaku by now." Niou said; glad to see his companion looking a little less sad.

She won the point and pointed her racket at him. "You know that most of the rumors are true, and the one's that aren't don't matter anyway. I am my own person, not created by rumors."

He smiled. "I'm glad you're back, Ari. Let's show Seigaku just how strong you can be!"

AN:Sorry for the late update. I was going to post this earlier, but there was a storm so I couldn't connect to the internet. Sorry! Anyway, thanks to Frostfire613and yuhi zaelfor reviewing, and everyone else who followed and/or favourited this. Drop a review? Also, on a side note, I realised that the timeline I had for this didn't work with the interview in Chapter 1 so I went back and edited that. Instead of winning all the Grand Slams at 9 years old, it now is winning 2 Grand Slams at 8 and 9 years old. Sorry about that. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and hopefully I can update soon (though from what I can tell, my schedule is going to be hectic for the next few months. :( Sorry for erratic posting in advance!)

-DustyFoxes-