Chapter 7

"2 more to go!" said Ootori as he watched Hinata stand vulnerably on the court with a lethally speeded tennis ball machine pointed at her. When the machine spat its 299th ball he closed his eyes and looked away unable to watch, at the start Hinata had returned every ball with ease but by the time it reached 200 she was exhausted. To keep up with the ball put a tremendous strain on her eyes, arms and legs, several times she missed and the ball struck a part of her body. To date she had two bruises on her chest, three on her shoulders, four on her arms and still counting.

Hinata raised her arm and returned the ball, exhaustion had made her aim weak but it still landed perfectly in the singles court.

"1 more!" shouted Ootori looking again when she heard her hit the ball, this was worse than serving to Shishido, for one the machine was ruthless and for another it spat out a ball every ten seconds wether she was ready or not which resulted in her darkening bruises.

The machine spat out its final ball and once more Hinata returned it perfectly, Ootori sighed in relief, she was alive… still.

"You okay?" he asked walking towards her pressing the red off switch of the machine.

"Fine," replied Hinata. "I only wished I didn't spend the last 3000 seconds having a machine spit balls at me." Ootori chuckled and handed her a towel as he knelt beside her. "Thanks," she said wiping her face.

"So, I'm alive, you're…kinda alive, how about we get something to eat after this nightmare?" asked Ootori. The day before he'd asked Shishido for a pickup line or something to ask Hinata on a date with, this was the best out of all his suggestions.

"Umm…sure?" replied Hinata. Ootori's heart suddenly felt warm. "We could ask Shishido-senpai if he wants to come," she added. Ootori's heart went cold.

"Huh?"

"You know the more the-" suddenly something behind Ootori caught her attention. "Choutaro-kun, behind you." Ootori quickly turned around to the machine was not turned off, it threw another ball in their direction, out of pure reflex Ootori grabbed Hinata's racket and shielded his face. The ball span around and around on the racket before falling to the ground.

"I just lost ten years," said Hinata breaking the tense silence. Ootori laughed wearily and nodded in agreement. What happened? He was sure to have turned off the machine, why did it still fire? He stood up and hurried to the machine turning it off before it could fire again. Ootori returned Hinata her racket. "Thanks," she said standing up and walking away. "Tea."

"Hmm?" Ootori stood up.

"I want to eat at a place that serves tea and cakes," said Hinata. "I'll meet you at the front gate in half an hour?"

"Sure, what about Shishido-san?"

"He can come some other time," replied Hinata before turning around and running to the lockers.

Ootori felt his face go red.

* * *

"…Like a broken piece of string that has disappeared in a sea of people, my eyes have finally lost sight of your face. Just wait a while desperately waiting for a shooting star to appear. If wishes really do come true. Can love really be forever?" sang Hinata as she walked to her locker. Unknown to many the female tennis club actually had lockers, the 8 large steel doors in the girls changing room many believed to be storage units were actually for the female tennis club.

Opening the door to get her sports gear (she kept her uniform elsewhere, didn't trust the fan club enough to leave them in the locker) she discovered someone had drawn over her Black Country road bag in white marker. She sighed; she knew this was going to happen. Just like the time she started at Rikkai, it only ended when she joined the tennis club and Yukimura brought her under his wing, since then no one had dared touch her….until now where Yukimura's influence was so far away.

She sighed, walking towards the door which kept the fire hose behind it, she opened the red door and removed her uniform, it at least. was untouched. This was going to be a long long year. On the other hand, her bag looked pretty cool.

* * *

"Sorry to keep you wait-" began Hinata hurrying to the front gate to Ootori, but Ootori was not waiting for her, instead he was breaking apart a fight between her favourite silver haired trickster and a grass like brown haired male who she recognised to be Shishido Ryo, so far the only other regular aside from Ootori to have accepted her.

She sighed; she'd been doing that a lot recently; and hurried to the scene of the crime. Kicking Niou just below the rib cage and in the kidney he stumbled back, at the same time giving Shishido a good strong wack on the collar bone, it wouldn't hurt him, just push him back.

"Oww," complained Niou as he landed on the concrete floor. "The hell was that for Hiiina!?" he demanded without even needing to look at her to know who had hit him. Yagyuu would just pull him back while Hinata kicked him, not at what he initially thought was a man's weak spot but just below the ribcage where all the soft tissue resided, it hurt more than he expected and while his privates would stop paining him after an hour or so, the kick in the rib hurt for the next week or so especially when he ate. She found every excuse possible to kick him there, every, excuse.

"For causing a ruckus outside my school," replied Hinata.

"I wasn't even the first to act," rebutted Niou. Hinata snorted, she highly doubted that.

"He's telling the truth," said Ootori helping Shishido up. "They two…had conflicted opinions-" as polite as ever "-and Shishido-san hit him."

"Oh," said Hinata turning to Niou she held out a hand and helped him up. "Sorry about that then."

"Is what she says," muttered Niou in an exaggerated low and sad voice, but with wicked humour he said cheerfully. "Oh well!" He put an arm over her shoulder for once knowing she wouldn't hit him in any way.

Ootori felt an ice blade pierce through him as he watched.

"Choutaro-kun," said Hinata gaining his attention.

"Yes?"

"Sorry, but could we reschedule?" she asked. "It's just if I don't get him," she poked Niou. "Back to his tamer I'll end up loosing my head as well for not casting a net over him."

"Oh! Yeah, sure, it's fine," said Ootori, but his heart said something different.

"Well," Hinata took hold of Niou's arm. "Bye, and sorry."

"Yeah, bye," replied Ootori watching Hinata leave.

"So why were you fighting?" asked Hinata, Niou shrugged.

"I said this was a second rate school for coming second last year and the year before that," replied Niou, Hinata pinched him. "Ow! Hey! I wasn't the one who landed the first blow!"

"Yeah, but you provoked it," said Hinata. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

To Sanada-senpai so he can muzzle you, thought Hinata. "I feel like visiting some old teammates."