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Persuasion

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"Go Ryoma-sama!" Tomoka screamed as she waved her arms about.

"Um, Tomo-chan, maybe you should lower your voice a bit."

"But Sakuno, Ryoma-sama needs me too cheer for him! Of course, your presence is important, too!" She winked at her best friend, making the timid girl blush. "Our cheers for Ryoma-sama help him win every single game!" she continued to say, her voice not lowering even a notch.

"But Tomo-chan, they're not competing in any official matches today. They're not even starting their practice matches yet. They're just warming up," Sakuno tried to reason.

"What are you saying Sakuno?! As president of Ryoma-sama's fan club ever since middle school, I know that it is important to cheer him on whatever he does! It's what I live for!"

Sakuno sighed at her best friend's reasoning.

And so, Tomoka continued to cheer for the stretching Ryoma.

"Che." Ryoma lowered the beak of his hat. He had finished stretching and was now starting to swing his racket.

His attempts in drowning out the sounds coming from that loud-mouthed girl, Toka-whatever-her-name-is, was all to no avail. The only way people wouldn't be able to hear any of the noises that she made was if that person was deaf, and Echizen was beginning to wish he was one right now.

Then again, maybe it would be better for the whole world if the girl was mute instead. He wondered if pelting her with numerous shots of tennis balls would do any good.

He sneaked a glanced towards the direction of the noise under his strategically lowered hat.

His lips slightly tugged upwards as he saw a blushing girl's feeble attempts in quieting her noisy friend. It was quite amusing to see her all flustered and clearly embarrassed enough for the both of them.

It didn't bother Ryoma that much if they came to cheer for him during matches, but having the noisy girl 'cheer' for him even during practice was just too much. He wouldn't complain if she was more like her friend. Now that kind of quiet cheering was something that he could at least appreciate.

Silent cheering was definitely good, in his opinion.

As he was musing over the idea, his gaze caught Sakuno's, who immediately blushed from the eye-contact. It was only for a few seconds though; it passed by as easily as it came. The young boy simply tipped his hat even lower, trying to cover the faint blush that was also beginning to creep up his face. Meanwhile, the girl turned her attention back to her friend.

"Nya! Ochibi, play a match with me!" Kikumaru glomped the freshman.

"Hn." After another glance at Sakuno's direction (which did not go by unnoticed by the girl, causing her to blush again) he went to pick up a couple of tennis balls. His sempai said that he could be the first one to serve.

"Kya! Go Ryoma-sama!" Tomoko blurted out.

"Good luck, Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno followed.

Sakuno's cheering, Ryoma concluded, was definitely more tolerable.

Kikumaru pouted. "That's not fair, nya! Ochibi gets all the cheers!" He turned towards the girls, "Ne, ne, cheer for me, too!" he said waving at the two girls.

"Hm, I guess it would be okay to cheer for Kikumaru-sempai, too, right Sakuno?" Tomoka didn't even wait for a reply. "Do your best Kikumaru-sempai! You can beat him Ryoma-sama!" she went on, cheering for both parties.

Their energetic sempai gave a victory sign as he headed towards his side of the court.

"Right," Sakuno eventually agreed, even though she knew that her voice would obviously be overwhelmed by Tomoka's. "Go Kikumaru-sempai! Go Ryoma-kun!"

Ryoma smirked. The cheer for him was obviously better than Kikumaru's. "Mada mada dane, Kikumaru-sempai," He casually said while going towards the base line. And after throwing a smirk towards Sakuno's direction (soliciting another blush from the girl), he immediately started with his twist serve. "I'm definitely going to beat you," he said as Kikumaru tried to avoid the ball headed towards his face.

The match ended 6-2 in Ryoma's favor.

Too soon, practice was over and everyone went to change.

"Nya! I only got two games! Ochibi, you were too worked up!" Kikumaru wailed as he tiredly made his way to the group of freshmen.

"Mada mada dane," was the boy's only reply.

"Oi, oi! Could it be that Sakuno-chan's presence helped, nya?" Kikumaru elbowed the smaller boy.

"That's right! That's right! After all, Sakuno-chan was there cheering for you! Who wouldn't be energized after being cheered by cute girls?!" Momo joined in.

"Young love, young love!" Both said in unison, earning a glare from Ryoma and a blush from Sakuno.

"I-I'm sure that wasn't the reason Kikumaru-sempai, Momo-sempai. After all, Ryoma-kun did improve a lot since his junior high years. He has practiced very hard… at least that's what my grandmother told me," Sakuno defended.

"What are you saying Sakuno?! Of course Ryoma-sama was energized because of our cheering!"

"Eh, but I thought Kikumaru-sempai just said 'Sakuno-chan', not 'Sakuno-chan and Tomoka-chan'," Kachiro whispered to Horio and Katsuo.

"With my five years of tennis experience, I am sure that it was Ryuzaki's cheering that helped," Horio began whispering, too. "Osakada was sure to annoy Echizen, rather than uplift his spirit."

Even though it was just a low whisper, it did not escape the keen ears of Tomoka. She faced the trio with blazing eyes. They gulped and ran away as quickly as they could.

"T-Tomo-chan!" Sakuno made a move to follow her best friend.

"Sakuno, I'll just pass by your house later tonight!" Tomoka shouted while continuing to chase after the three. "You will pay for this!" she shouted to the escaping trio.

"Hey! Those three are escaping from pick-up duty! They can't do that, they can't!" Momo exclaimed, remembering the freshmen's duty.

"I guess we could excuse them for now, after all being chased and pounded by Osakada-san is probably enough of a punishment for them. I do hope they don't get to hurt," Oishi said as he approached the others. Fuji, Inui and Kaido were not far behind him.

"Oishi-fukubuchou!" Momo was startled by their sudden appearance.

"Oishi, nya!" Kikumaru simply glomped his doubles partner. "Are you sure? Shouldn't Tezuka be the one to decide?

"Oishi is the vice captain. He has the power to decide over that matter," Fuji said, smiling. "Putting that aside, how are you going to go home Ryuzaki-chan?"

"I was supposed to go shopping for groceries today with Tomoka before I went home," Sakuno replied while looking down at her feet.

"Oh, so you're shopping alone?" Fuji was still smiling, but it seemed as though his smile was implying something.

"92 percent that my assumption of Fuji's idea is correct," Inui mumbled to himself. "And 89.3 percent that he would want all of us to play along. Very well then." He closed his notebook shut.

"Fshhh, Inui-sempai were you saying something?" Kaido curiously looked at his sempai.

"Actually yes, I was thinking that it would be appropriate that one of us should escort Ryuzaki-san while she does her errands. After all, she is our former coach's granddaughter and underclassman, and it is our duty, right Fuji?" Inui said with a glint in his glasses.

Fuji nodded, "Very well put, Inui. We can't have our former coach's granddaughter walking alone and carrying groceries by herself. And since practice is already over, one of us could come with her." He sent close-eyed smiles to his other teammates, some of them forming an 'o' with their mouth in comprehension, some nodded enthusiastically (mainly Momo and Kikumaru). "Unfortunately, I can't come with you, Ryuzaki-chan. I have to help my sister around the house today."

"Kaido and I have a new training menu that we would like to try."

"Fsshhh? We do sempai?" Kaido looked at his sempai, who stared back at him with glinting glasses that sent shivers down the viper's spine. "T-that's right. We do."

"Tezuka seems to be busy at the moment, so we have no way to tell whether he can help or not. But maybe it would be the best to assume that he is busy," Fuji commented which earned another nod from the others.

"I have a date with An-chan today," Momo muttered, blushing.

Kikumaru did a wolf-whistle. "Nya! Momo's going on a date, Momo's going on a date," he sang. "Is that true, or are you just saying that because we're planning on making Ochibi come with Sakuno-chan?" he whispered to Momo.

"U-um… It's true," he shyly laughed. " I really have a date with An-chan today."

That earned him a hard pat in the back from Kikumaru. "Nya! Good luck Momo-chan! Anyway, Oishi and I have to buy new tennis stuff today, right Oishi?"

"That's right?" Oishi hesitantly replied.

Now, of course all eyes turned to a certain freshman, who stared back at them with a bored look.

"What?"

All of those present (except for Kaido, Oishi and Sakuno) grinned widely.

"Nya! Ochibi you have to come with Sakuno-chan!"

"That's right yo! None of us are free to do it!"

"What if something bad happens to Ryuzaki-san, she might trip over the groceries, or someone might bump into her or worse kidnap her!"

"That's right, we can't have that now can we?"

"Fssshhhh, you should be a gentleman…"

"There is a 97 percent chance that Ryuzaki-sensei will be angry if none of us accompanies her. And the possibility that something will happen to Ryuzaki-chan while shopping alone is 99 percent…"

"S-sempai, it's okay. I can do it alone. Ryoma-kun doesn't have to come."

"You heard what Inui said Sakuno-chan, and we don't want that to happen, we don't!"

"And we don't want to see an angry Ryuzaki-sensei, nya!"

"Ryoma, we could try various other forms of persuasion, but instead, you could just think of it this way: Sakuno might get lost, bump into someone and the groceries that she bought stolen, or worse some random pervert might try to hit on her."

Ryoma begun muttering about something, but his most notable action was grabbing Sakuno's wrist as well as his bags and dragging them outside the courts.

"Hmm, that went quite well," Fuji said as he resumed to his close-eyed smile.

"He didn't actually need us to go that far. He was just too proud to admit that he would be willing to join Sakuno," Inui said as he began scribbling on his notebook.

"I hope nothing bad does happen to them. What will Ryuzaki-sensei and Tezuka say if something happened to them?!" Oishi was still worried about the two.

"Speaking of Tezuka, where is he, Fujiko?" asked Kikumaru.

"He's speaking on the phone with Ryuzaki-sensei," Fuji replied.

"Wow, what a coincidence." Then Momo saw Tezuka approaching them. "Oh! Tezuka-buchou!"

"Ryuzaki-sensei will be calling you," Tezuka told Fuji. "I'll be taking my leave now. Don't let your guard down." With that, he turned and left to lock the clubhouse, leaving the other regulars confused.

Not a second sooner, Fuji's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Fuji, it's me Ryuzaki…"

"Sumire, how are you?"

"Fuji, just because you're not my student anymore doesn't mean you can call me Sumire. Anyway getting right to the point, are the other regulars with you?"

"Yes, except Echizen, he went grocery shopping with your granddaughter."

"Great! Will you guys be heading over to Kawamura Sushi today?"

"Yes."

"Good, I'll be waiting here. I have a favor to ask from you and the others."

"All right," Fuji closed his phone. "Well, let's head over to Kawamura Sushi. Ryuzaki-sensei said that she wants to ask us a favor and that she'll be waiting there."

"Let's go! I can't wait to eat sushi! Kikumaru-sempai, treat your kohai junior, okay?!" Momo looked at Eiji pleadingly.

"Eh?! No way! I just have enough money for myself! Besides you always ask me to treat you every time! Nya, it's bad to take advantage of your sempai, Momo-chan!" Eiji said, making a 'no way' sign with his hands.

"Fssshhh, idiot, don't you have a date to go to?" Kaido reminded him.

"Oh no! That's right! Sorry everyone, but I can't come today. Just tell me what you talked about. Thanks for reminding me, viper!" He waved goodbye as he left, leaving a fuming Kaido and a very amused team.

"We should go now, we mustn't let Ryuzaki-sensei wait for us," said Oishi as he made his way out the courts.