Wow... my vacation was awesomeeeeee. Sorry about the extremely late update! I also made an organized list of the regulars so you can picture them better.
Reviewers find your name below! :)
Thanks to:
ThousandCross777 for putting this on your favorite stories list.
ThousandCross777 (two reviews ;)) and Keisuke Cloudberry for reviewingggg.
To my reviewers:
Keisuke Cloudberry: LOLOLOL "shut-up-I'll-smack-your-buns-no-you-shut-up" is an awesome combination of words. XP The link was so cute! Well, I'll look forward to your reviews.
ThousandCross777: Keeping everyone in character is something I always have to check over and over. Especially for Atobe. Thanks; the twins were easy to create, since I just love the idea of making them polar opposites in a similar way. O_O if that made sense.
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis. COOSH.
Here's a song you can listen to while you read: "Call Me Maybe"
/watch?v=VOP1s2UKY4o&feature=autoplay&list=FLxFVCTewHnskYnGQjTiDRTA&playnext=2
(add the youtube . com part)
Eri Mukahi: Captain / Singles 1Third Year
Long red hair and blonde highlights
Mildly tall
Black eyes
Naoki Kinjo: Vice-Captain / Doubles 1Second Year
Short blue hair
Average height
Blue eyes
Miyuki Kamata: Doubles 1Third Year
Long, curly and brown hair
Average height
Black eyes
Yuka and Yuko Satoya: Doubles 2First Years
Long black braid and silver highlights
Short
Hazel eyes
Amaya Okumura: Singles 2Second Year
Straight, light brown hair
Pretty tall
White/Clear eyes
Kohaku Higashiyama: Singles 3Third Year
Super short black hair
Tall
Green eyes
Chiyoko Akatsuka: SubstituteSecond Year
Short, blonde hair
Average height
Green eyes
A.N. – Even for the girl's team, the iron discipline method of Hyoutei still applies, but they have ranking matches.
I was always jumping.
Acrobatics is something I could...
...never give up.
So why is my stamina failing me?
Why is the team leaving me behind?
Since when have I stopped jumping higher?
~Gakuto Mukahi
There's always a reason.
~x~
"Is that really true?!" An gasped.
"Of course it is. Coach Sakaki always hangs out with Ms. Yoshida. There are rumors that they have feelings for each other. Blech." Naoki shuddered in disgust. An didn't have any pleasant memories of her english teacher. The thought was definitely perturbing.
"It looks like none of the other second year regulars are in this class." An looked around expectantly. The class was mostly girls.
"Nope. But Chotaro and Kabaji are in our class." Naoki gestured at the boys.
"Wow, I never actually saw Kabaji without Atobe." An stared at the plain-faced tennis player. He seemed so strongly... boring. What did he think about?
"Chotaro's pretty popular. With that friendly attitude." Naoki got up and slung her bag over her shoulder.
"The bell rang? Oh, I didn't even notice." An was enjoying her favorite time of the day; a self-study period. She didn't even notice that maybe... just maybe, Naoki could've had feelings for Chotaro.
"Let's go. Today we have our match... Well, good luck." Naoki high-fived An.
"Isn't it weird to wish your opponent good luck?" An asked.
"I guess. I didn't say I wasn't weird." Naoki laughed and started walking.
"Good luck then." An smiled as she followed behind.
~x~
I guess her match is coming up.
"Takumi?" Atobe waved his hand in Takumi's face.
"Oh. Hey." Takumi noticed Kabaji following behind.
"Were you staring at An-chan? Be careful... That one's mine." Atobe smiled as he turned towards the door.
"Ack! Wait." Takumi grabbed my stuff and walked into place behind his cousin, still scowling at his comment. Wait, why was he scowling?
~x~
The regulars had already won most of their matches.
Eri had already secured her captain spot with straight wins. As expected.
Amaya stayed a regular with straight wins. An deeply regretted not checking out the blind girl's matches.
The twins already won enough matches to keep their spot. Though Yuka just barely slipped by, unluckily having to face Eri and Amaya.
Naoki having straight wins needed one more win to secure a spot. Also known as, a win against An.
Miyuki, Chiyoko and Kohaku were still fighting for their spot. Because there were so many people, the some people finished their matches earlier than others.
The draft An had looked at earlier was changed so that Naoki wasn't her first opponent. As a result, her first matches went pretty smoothly. She had won all of her matches except one. She was beaten by Eri, 6-0. To be honest, she was pretty pissed off that she lost, but didn't show it. For some reason she never expected Eri to do acrobatics too. It was like torture.
There were a lot of people in the ranking matches; a lot more than she could remember at Fudomine. Looking up at a notice board, the final matches were listed:
Match 1: An Tachibana – Naoki Kinjo
Match 2: Chiyoko Akatsuka – Kiki Yamamoto
Match 3: Miyuki Kamata – Kohaku Higashiyama
Match 4: Match 1 loser – Match 2 loser
Match 5: Match 4 loser – Match 3 loser
Kohaku scowled. An looked over at the match chart to see that Kohaku and Kiki had lost one match, unlike Miyuki and Chiyoko who both had straight wins.
Out of the last six people, only four could become regulars. One would be a substitute and the other would become a non-regular.
It was finally time.
~x~
"So, sis, how're the girl regulars going?" Gakuto glomped on his sister.
"Ew. Get off. Stop slacking off, just because you don't have ranking matches." Eri ignored her brother and watched An and Naoki get onto the court.
"Ooh, touchy." Gakuto stalked off in the opposite direction.
"An-chan is finally playing against Naoki, hmm?" Atobe's expression was clearly amused. Will she win?
"What does it matter? Girl matches are lame." Shishido rolled his eyes.
"Actually it might be interesting. Naoki did beat you in our mixed matches, right?" Oshitari grinned.
"She probably cheated." Shishido got up to do more drills. Losing to a girl... ugh.
"We'll find out who won later then." Atobe drawled. Show me what you can do, An-chan.
~x~
An lined up at her end of the court and smiled. She had watched Naoki's matches before. It seemed as if she was very carefree about her style of play. But she still had to be on guard, Naoki was a prodigy. Naoki lifted her racket and hit a high-speed serve.
PANG! An didn't like the sound of her return. It was smoothly returned as quick as she could realize. Barely blocking, she raised it up and it shot into the air. A lob. Shit.
Naoki jumped quickly and smacked it down swiftly. The ball flew past An.
'15-love.'
No way.
'30-love.'
Completely at her pace.
'45-love.'
Dammit.
'Game, Kinjo. 1-0 Change courts.'
Rocking back and forth, An calmed down. Just bring it into your own pace.
An served as precisely as she could. Naoki returned with a slow paced ball. An got into position and prepared to smack it square on. Unfortunately, when her racket made contact, it popped the strings. What?
'15-love'
This was not what she observed from watching Naoki's matches.
An quickly went to get a new racket, plucking at the fresh strings.
An's hand was shaking miserably at that last shot. It seemed slow, but was deadly.
"Be awed by my prowess." Naoki deadpanned. Laughter from outside.
"Naoki. Focus." Eri demanded but her smile betrayed her.
An giggled. She decided to relax and play like it was a training match.
Somehow she had regained some of her composure, but still managed to lose the game to Naoki's frequent bursts of speed and power.
'Game, Kinjo. 2-0 Change courts.'
Typical of a tensai.
An needed to face this how she faced Takumi. Pretend like her life depended on it.
Sharper. Swifter. Quicker. Sharper. Swifter. Quicker. Sharper. Swifter. Quicker.
An's shots started improving drastically.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
'Game, Tachibana. 2-1 Change courts.'
This was good. She was gaining! She could win this.
SMACK! 'Game, Kinjo. 3-1 Change courts.'
Augh! Why can't I catch up?
Naoki plucked at her strings.
"Oi! An! I'm changing my racket." Naoki went into her bag and pulled out a new one.
It wasn't even broken. She must hit very dead on, if she needs to change it.
Dead-on. That was it!
An swung her racket through the air until it was almost perfectly synced.
"Alright, let's continue." Naoki threw the ball into the air and swung swiftly. An copied as close as she could, hitting the ball dead-on. The ball made a SMACK noise that left An satisfied. She felt her pace catch up. She could do this.
'Game, Tachibana. 3-2 Change courts.'
An served as dead-on as she could. It wasn't as good as Naoki's serve, but it came close. Suddenly, Naoki walked farther back and hit the ball with a soft underhand. An hit it back hard. Soft underhand. Hard return. Soft underhand. Smash. Soft underhand.
Huh?
'Game, Kinjo. 4-2 Change courts.'
What's up with this inconsistent style?
'Game, Kinjo. 5-2 Change courts.'
Strange. I'm not tired, but mentally worn out.
'Match point.'
An silently rocked back and forth. Crap.
An served a regular serve and after a long rally. Drop shot.
'Game set and match. Kinjo.'
Hope you enjoyed! This chapter was confusing to write. And I'm sleepy. Feel free to review, favorite, story alert, follow, attack, lick, shave, awkwardly smile at.
