-Chapter 3:I~diot!-

A/N:

YUUKI'S HAIR HAS BEEN CHANGED TO SHORT CUT! DON'T HATE ME, I HAVE REASONS!(I CHANGED IT IN FIRST CHAPTER)

Sorry for those who expected an update yesterday! I had a horrible headache and slight diarrhoea. Sorry about that. Thanks to the people who sighed the petition! I sure hope that this stupid SOPA will just die and wither away like it should, and never be seen again.

I also fixed the chapter numberings!

Disclaimer: Opps, I forgot last chapter! Well, I don't own Prince of Tennis, because I think I may turn it into an angst anime subconsciously(Which I tend to do nowadays). Anyways, this will be the last disclaimer put up!

Momo held the racket straight up. "Which?" he asked.

Yuuki replied with boredom. "Smooth."

"Which?" Katsuo inquired with a puzzled look.

"Smooth?"

"Sheesh..." Horio sighed dramatically.. "This is why I don't like beginners. That is a tennis term used to determine who serves first. If the grip faces right-side up, then it's smooth. If it's upside down, then it's rough."

Momo spun the racket. "Too bad, it's rough." he said. "I'll let you serve and take this court."

"Eh? Momoshiro-senpai, don't you want to serve first?" Horio said. "Even though you won the toss..."

"I want to see the twist serve right away." he smirked confidently.

"M... Momoshiro-senpai, you are so cool!" Horio exclaimed.

"Just Momo-chan is okay." he said in a laid-back manner.

"No, I can't call you by something like Momo-chan!" Horio stepped forward determinedly. "Can I be the chair empire?"

"Sure," Momoshiro said, raising a hand. "Then I'll leave it to you." Horio then climbed up onto the rather tall chair and settled down.

"Ahem!" He cleared his throat and raised his hand. "Er, and now, the match between Momoshiro-senpai and Echizen Ryoma will begin."

"The referee will be me,-" "Horio-kun is a very pretentious person." Katsuo whispered to Kachiro. "-Horio, who has 2 years of tennis experience." Horio rambled on as Kachiro replied with a nod and a 'Yes'.

"Mou—!(1) Something like that is not needed, so hurry up and begin already!" Tomoka protested impatiently.

"Ah, and now, best of one match, Echizen to serve!" He began the game as he noticed the impatient looks he received.

Momoshiro tensed once that was said, and Yuuki also prepared for her serve. She swung her arm and threw the ball into the air, with her other arm reacting immediately to bring forth the racket, which made contact with the ball and sent it on its course. However, it landed outside of the right zone. "Fault!" Horio called out.

"Wow, Yuuki-chan is so~ cool!" Tomoka squealed slightly. "She is so otokomae~!"(2)

"Wait, that was a fault, so she has to serve again." Shiba explained. "If she faults again, it would be a point for Momoshiro-kun."

"Eh?!" Tomoka turned teary-eyed and crossed her fingers. "Yuuki-cha~n!"

"But that serve was really fast!" Kachiro said excitedly. "Yeah." Katsuo agreed.

Momoshiro held his racket up and pointed at Yuuki. "I don't want anymore slice serves. Don't hold out on me." He said seriously.

Yuuki smiled simply, pulling her cap onto her face. "What if I said I don't want to?" She said in neutrally,

"Urg." Momoshiro stepped back. 'What a stubborn girl.'

Once again, Yuuki prepared to serve. She bounced the ball onto the ground. {Tap.} {Tap.} {Tap.} Her formerly visible eye hidden by the shadows of her cap.

"Twist..." Sakuno muttered. "...Serve...?"

Inoue and Shiba were intrigued. "...Eh?"

Yuuki caught the ball on its last bounce, then threw it high up in the air. She prepared for a short jump, and bent her knees slightly. She raised her racket.

{Pa-tah!}

Momoshiro got into the position for a return, and drew his hand back. The ball bounced. However, Momoshiro didn't anticipate the direction it would bounce in.

{Crash!}His racket crashed into the ground as he dropped it. "Wha-?!" Everyone stared at the fallen racket in shock.

'Unexpectedly, they are surprised.' Yuuki thought, of course unimpressed by her serve. She performed it after all. 'I thought that there were many more impressive moves than this though, they shouldn't be surprised at something rather insignificant compared to, like, data tennis.' Somewhere out there, two people sneezed simultaneously.

Momoshiro glanced at Yuuki.

"Twist serve! Unbelievable..." Inoue uttered slowly.

"Um, what is that twist serve?" asked Tomoka, turning around.

"A normal serve would be a slice serve with a left spin, but," he explained to Tomoka. "a twist serve has a counter spin and bounces towards the player with top spin instead."

"Doesn't that mean that, the ball bounces towards the face?" Shiba stated to Inoue.

"Yeah, you can't return that easily." Inoue answered. "I can't believe a junior high student can use that serve...Incredible!"

"That's awesome!" Tomoka held her hands together dreamily. "Yuuki-sama is getting cooler by the minute~!"

"Um, why did you suddenly change to '-sama'?" Sakuno turned to Tomoka, puzzled.

"Of course, because Yuuki-sama is too otokomae," Tomoka looked at Sakuno with hearts in her eyes. "She should be called '-sama'!"

"O-Otokomae... She's a girl though." Sakuno sweat-dropped.

Momoshiro squatted down to pick up his racket. 'That was the first time I've ever seen a twist serve.' He stood back up. "Ha~! Scary, scary. That surprised me."

"Are you fine?" Momoshiro snapped his head up. "You're sweating." thought the mockery behind that sentence was obvious as Yuuki nearly laughed with a 'Pfft'.

"Brat." Momoshiro smirked.

This was the time that Horio chose to speak up. "15-love!"

Yuuki started to bounce the ball once more. 'She's better than I thought.' Momoshiro thought seriously. 'Looks like I have to go for it while it is rising.'

"I forgot to mention this just now, but..." Yuuki threw the ball up. "Don't underestimate me, I won't be responsible for the consequences!" She hit the ball.

He ran to the front. 'For that, I have to move up!' he prepared for a return. "Yosh, here I go!" he swung the racket, but the ball hit the net.

"Hm, it seems like just having good timing is not enough." he grinned. "Interesting."

"Even the Momoshiro Takeshi, a Seigaku regular, is losing in a power battle..."

"30-love. Echizen leads!"

Once again, Yuuki prepared the ball, threw it up and the air and served.

"Brat!" Momoshiro returned the ball this time.

"Ah." Yuuki responded, slightly nonchalantly, as the ball hit the rim of the net and landed on her side of the net. 'As expected, the same serve won't work for more than twice with this person.'

"Oh, lucky! Safe!" Momoshiro did the peace sign.

"He returned that serve!" Katsuo was shocked. "Sugoi!"

"Thirty-fifteen!"

Yuuki once again performed the twist serve, and swung her racket. Momoshiro ran to the front again, and prepared for the return. 'Too bad, but I already have the timing down.' he gripped his racket tightly. 'If it's a power battle, I won't lose!' he returned the serve with ease.

"He returned it!"

Yuuki ran forward and returned it. "Don't just stand there and assume I can only serve!"

"Uwa." Momoshiro ran towards the ball and returned the ball. Yuuki then ran up to the ball and hit it, but it fell near the net, which Momoshiro couldn't return.

"You can do that too?!" Momoshiro said, exasperated as he sat on the ground.

"40-15!"

"Wah! Yuuki-sama, do your best!" Tomoka cheered for her new idol.

Inoue narrowed his eyes and held up his camera, and took pictures of Yuuki while she served. When he took a close-up of her face, in his vision, her image seems to overlap with a certain man's image. "! Those eyes!" he was shocked at his own conclusion. "That girl... Echizen Yuuki... is that Echizen Nanjirou's...!"

XxX

Back in a certain temple, a man sneezed as he held up a racket. "I guess it's boring without an opponent..." He put down his racket and lied down on the bench. "Sleep..." But after he closed his eyes, he opened them immediately and took out his book, flipping it open and reading it.

XxX

"-If she gets it in, it's Yuuki's win!"

'Damn, I let this drag on for too long.' Momoshiro thought. 'I need to end this quickly.'

As the fluttering cherry blossoms decorated the air, Yuuki adjusted her cap slightly and decided to say her catchphrase.

"Mada mada, desuwa."

She transferred the racket to her left hand. "!"

"Ah, that's right!" Sakuno uttered in realisation.

As Yuuki prepared to serve—

"Time out!"

—she was distracted by Momoshiro's call.

"I quit!" He called out. "It's over."

"Eeeeeh?"

"I'll let you go for now." Momoshiro rested the back of his head on his hands.

"It doesn't really matter to me." Yuuki muttered as she turned to walk off.

XxX

Yuuki put away her racket into her huge bag. "That was amazing, Yuuki-chan!" Kachiro said cheerily.

"I was really surprised!"

"Echizen, which club did you train at?!" Horio inquired enthusiastically.

"At camp-, no, temple." She hesitated after saying the first word.

"Look, Sakuno~!" Tomoka dragged her best friend behind Yuuki.

"?"

"Wait a minute, Tomoka-chan!" Sakuno protested.

"It's nice to meet you!" Tomoka said excitedly. "I am a friend of Sakuno Ryuzaki over here, I am Osaka Tomoka. It is nice to meet you!"

"..." no reply.

"Hello, Yuuki-chan." Sakuno blushed slightly. "I'm sorry about last time."

"Ryuuzaki Sakuno... Ah! You're the one from the other day..." Yuuki remembered Sakuno, somehow.

"Wah! I'm so happy that you remembered!"

-With Momoshiro-

"Are you okay with this, Momoshiro?"

"Ah, grandma."

"At this rate, the freshman girl would have run all over you."

"It may turn out that way..." Momoshiro put his hand to his head.

"Be serious..." Ryuzaki turned her gaze towards his foot. "If your foot wasn't sprained, you may possibly have..."

"Nope, she knew it from the start." He smirked.

"Hmph, really?" Coach Ryuzaki tested Momoshiro.

"He used his other hand to play a senpai." He placed his racket over his shoulder. "Must have been his handicap." He walked off. "How scary~!"

XxX

"Echizen Yuuki... who is she?"

"Right. That child... is probably...'Samurai Junior'."

"Huh?" Shiba displayed a confused expression. "Samurai... Junior?"

XxX

As Yuuki walked home, she paused on a particularly high point. She smiled a little, yet it was a melancholic smile.

"Camp, huh?" she let the wind blow through her hair, even if it was a slight one. "How... nostalgic."

XxX

(1) Mou~! Means geez, or Erg!, or that kinda thing.

(2) Otokomae: literally means 'handsome man', similar to ikemen. When used for a girl, it is to describe she is very ikemen-ish.

Thanks for reading!