"The singing gathering"

Summary: Inspired by the kantou buchou's meeting in the end of 20.5. Basically a humorous story, the crazy idea of various buchou and fuku-buchou (including Shiraishi) gathering for a meeting due to Atobe's sudden whim of wanting to record the song 'valentine kiss'.

Author's Note: I got this idea when I was reading Prince of tennis 20.5, which includes this end bit of almost all the buchou of the Kantou schools having a meeting and some how I just had the idea of 'What if Shiraishi was there as well?" And somehow I just ended up writing conversations of what I think will be happening in this meeting. Then I realized that I want to transfer it into a story, so here it is. The original 'dialogues' are on my blog.

Yes, it is totally random, the original dialogue is actually set before the national, but after the regional, but since I want to make this fit into my fan fiction I decided to let this be after the national. I actually will leave out who the winner of the final is, so it's up to you to decide. Since right now we are still in the middle of the final game.

Warning: as I said before, this is totally random, and some character are portrayed a bit over the top and the others will probably be a bit out of character since I don't really have that a very good understanding of their character. And, the whole thing is really from Shiraishi's point of view.

As I said before, the stories in chapters is related to sacrifice but they are not really all connected, some are sort of 'what if' stories. Also, I am not really sure how everyone addresses everyone so I might have made some mistakes, then please forgive me. I tried…

Completed: September 8, 2007.

Both the coach and fuku-buchou of Shitenhouji were waving at theiri buchou, who was glaring at them from the moving train that was heading to Tokyo. But Watanabe's smile was genuine, unlike the strained smile of Kenya.

About a week ago, Shitenhouji's tennis club received a very formal and elaborate letter from Atobe Keigo, announcing that he was going to host a gathering to help the reporters of Monthly tennis to compete their special edition that will cover the whole national. Somehow this involved making the buchou and fuku-buchou of all the participating school to record the song 'Valentine kiss', which would be released along with the magazine.

"…and as letting the entire population of Japan be awed by our voices is such a noble goal, ore-same expects all of you who receive this to attend…" Kenya finally gave up in frustration and disgust, "Gosh, he is the number one narcissist. Can I please put this in the shredder?"

"We have to go to another meeting any way." Shiraishi said with a careless shrug, although the ticket to Tokyo by the Shinkasen was pretty tempting, since he went on ordinary trains before.

Every year, the largest sport equipment manufacturer in Osaka would gather all the sport teams of the city in order to make their annual speech and distribute prices to those who performed exceptionally well.

"But we have a fuku-buchou and a buchou!" Watanabe announced as he charged in the office, brandishing his copy of the letter. "One of you can go to this meeting in Tokyo, while the other can attend the Osaka meeting with me."

"Kenya should go to the Tokyo one." Shiraishi put in quickly. "We will probably be given some prices as we came third in the nationals. Since I am the buchou I should be there to accept it. Kenya can also visit his cousin at the same time."

"So I have to go to that…that ridiculous recording of that stupid song just because I have relatives in Tokyo?" Kenya protested.

Watanabe spent some time pondering, which involved him scratching his chin before he suddenly pressed his hat down even more, the indication of him having made up his mind. "Well, Shiraishi, you are the buchou, so you know best. Kenya, this will be a good opportunity for you to learn how to please girls."

"What has that got to do with anything…" Kenya's protest trailed off as Shiraishi immediately began to arrange for the Tokyo trip, deeply relieved that he was not the one who had to go.

But when the train to Tokyo finally arrived, Watanabe suddenly said: "Shiraishi, I think it is much better to send you instead." As he said this, he actually pushed Shiraishi onto the train, then quickly closed the door.

"Don't forget that you are representing Shitenhouji!" Watanabe shouted out, waving very cheerfully until the train was well out of their sight. Then he turned to Kenya and picked up the boy's luggage. "Well, it's time for us to go back, we have to attend the Osaka meeting tonight."

"Is this really alright?"

"Shiraishi will be fine, I know that he have his wallet and cell phone in his school bag." Watanabe said easily. "I also put some extra money in his bag- just in case."

"So you intended for him to go all along? Not that I am complaining at all." Kenya quickly added.

Watanabe admits this with his typical grin, "Of course. Shiraishi will probably give more complaints then you if I told him that he is going no matter what, so I let him think that you are going in order to spare myself a worse headache."

"But why do you want him to go? It is not as if that meeting really requires the buchou to go."

"Because Shiraishi needs to have some happy memories that happened due to him being the buchou. I know that this singing gathering is a bit idiotic, but I am sure that it will be enjoyable once you get there."

The answered shocked Kenya because he never expected their coach to be so perceptive, although it could also be interpreted the opposite way: none of the regulars ever noticed how difficult being the buchou was.

"Beside," Watanabe added, "It can't be worse then the meeting tonight. Shiraishi's main job at the meeting last year was to keep me awake. With the exception of dinner and the time when we were presented with free stuff, the meeting was one of the most boring things I have ever participated in."

At this Kenya suddenly wonder whether he should have insisted on going to Tokyo.

However, they both failed to remember that Shiraishi might face problems from another source.

"WHAT!" Ashita's loud scream immediately forced him to quickly hold his cell phone some distance away from him.

He couldn't exactly blame his girl friend for yelling at him as he was meant to be eating dinner with her before he goes to the Osaka meeting, and she told him that she would cook all the dinner since he was the guest.

"I am so sorry!" he whispered very softly as many of the passengers were now looking at him. "But Watanabe-sensei just shoved me on the train. I didn't even have time to protest!"

"I can't believe this." He could hear her mutter something and it probably was not what he might wish to hear, as she seemed to have deliberately pressed her hand over the speaker.

"Ashita?"

"I know it is not your fault, Kuranosuke, but I am just still mad." She finally said . "I was cooking as soon as I got home and I was really hoping…"

The two of them has reconciled, but what he had done was still a slight barrier- she was afraid that the same thing might happen again.

"Young love." The matronly woman in front of him declared out dreamily to her husband when he finally hung up the phone after much assurance. "We were like that once."

This was enough to make him consider whether he should go to one of the quiet carriages. But he should really be figuring out a way to make this up to Ashita, maybe a gift from Tokyo could pacify her?

If it was the train arriving in Tokyo fifteen minutes after schedule was not bad enough, he had great difficulty in navigating his way first out of the train station, then through the city. Unfortunately, Atobe presumed that they would easily find their way to the studio where the meeting was held, so he did not have much time.

Bad luck seemed to favour him- he decided, rather logically, that it would be quicker to ask someone instead of trying to work out the map himself. This made him end up going to the opposite direction.

In the end, he still had to decipher the map himself. Due to all this delay, he was forced to arrive ten minutes late. It was really bad for the representation of a school to be late, but surely the others might forgive him since he was a stranger to Tokyo.

Shiraishi was immediately greeted by Tachibana. The two boys from Kyushu have resumed correspondence after the national as they finally worked out every thing. It was natural that they would talk about their new team mates. From what he heard, Tachibana could respect Shiraishi without much difficulty- he regards the buchou of Shitenhouji's decision of doing something he did not like in order for his team to benefit as very noble.

"Tachibana-kun." Shiraishi said with a smile, he truly admires the buchou of Fudomine due to his sense of honour in the singles 2 match with Chitose. "I am sorry for being late but I was lost."

"Well, you are not from Tokyo so I think that is pardonable." Tachibana said understandingly. "I've been here for about a year now and I still have difficulty in finding my way sometimes."

The other person, unfortunately, was not to be pacified so easily. Upon seeing the fuku-buchou of Rikkai, Shiraishi's first reaction was wondering whether he should run for it, as Sanada was glaring at him.

"Well, Shiraishi-kun is here." Tachibana began in what he hoped to be a rather tactful manner. "I am sure that he is eager to meet the others who are inside so…"

"Ten…minutes…late." Sanada spelt out slowly, before he suddenly started to yell very loudly. "You should not be so slack, especially when you are the captain of Shitenhouji, who actually came third in the nationals for the past two years!"

"How has that got to do with anything?" Shiraishi immediately retorted back. He knew that he was in the wrong for being late, but this was surely way too extreme. Judging from Sanada's tone, it sounded as if he turned up to the meeting a whole day late. Beside, it was not really as if being a good tennis player meant that he was good at directions too.

"That's true." Tachibana affirmed him when he pointed this out. "Sanada-kun, Shiraishi-kun lives in Osaka so we should pardon him for being a bit late."

"As a buchou it is his duty to find out all the information about the city he needs to go a few days ahead and read the map over on the train in order to commit it to memory…" Sanada began.

"Well, I would have done that but my fuku-buchou was the one who was going, not me, I was meant to be attending another meeting." Shiraishi quickly defended himself. "Kenya…Oshitari Kenya hase the map that I brought…"

"As the buchou you should have read the map with him and keep a copy with you in case he gets lost and requires your help." Sanada interrupted him very sternly. "It is your duty…"

"I am sure that everyone is waiting for us." Tachibana said as he quickly ushered Shiraishi inside.

"What is it with that guy? I mean, I've only seen him at the national and…" Shiraishi began, breathing a sigh of relief. "Actually, he wouldn't be the guy who was talking about the drinking machine would he? Because there was this guy who was ranting about how slack the organizer was by not having enough water supplies."

"Rikkai's Sanada is always like that. Now that you mention it, I think I remember that incident too." Tachibana agreed, "But Shiraishi-kun, their buchou is much worse then their fuku-buchou."

"I can't really imagine that." Shiraishi said truthfully.

"It's a different type of scariness, Shiraishi-kun. Yukimura wouldn't give you a lecture about being late or anything but…" Tachibana didn't need to finish his sentence as by this time they had walked into the meeting room, where they were immediately greeted by Yukimura, who was smiling at them with what could only be described as a dazzling smile.

The smile put Shiraishi on guard because Watanabe tended to smile like that whenever he had one of his strange plans.

"You must be Shiraishi Kuranosuke," Yukimura said, offering his hand, "I remember you from the nationals last year, as well as this year."

"Rikkai's buchou, I've already met your fuku-buchou." Shiraishi replied as he accepted the hand.

"Oh Genichirou can be so serious about the littlest thing, I should really stop him but he looks so funny whenever he gets so angry!" Rikkai's buchou replied with an angelic smile, then asked "Did I say something strange?" in a tone of pure innocence when everyone began to edge away, particularly Shiraishi and Tachibana, who was standing the closest to him.

"Saeki-kun! This is Shiraishi Kuranosuke from Shitenhouji!" Tachibana quickly declared out at the sight of a person with a less deceptive expression.

The three boys began to chat rather amiably about who was participating.

"No one is coming from Higa Chuu, a very good thing." Saeki stated.

"I've heard about their behaviour during their match and it is sickening." Shiraishi said with a nod. "But it seems that I am the only one who is representing a school outside of Kantou."

"Many others refuse to come, and I suppose I can't exactly blame them." Tachibana said understandingly, "This whole idea is quite bizarre."

"But I think this is really good!" Sengoku announced loudly as he joined them, "It's a great chance for us to be noticed by all the cute girls in the world!"

"Sengoku-kun." Tachibana acknowledged with a nod.

"Sengoku Kyysumi, the buchou of Yamabuki?" Shiraishi asked.

"I am Sengoku but I am not the buchou." Sengoku replied easily. "Wow, one of Kansai's most famous player actually recognise me, lucky!"

"Wait a second, I always thought that you are the buchou of Yamabuki." Saeki butted in. "If you are not… then who is it?"

"Minami."

"Who is Minami then?" Tachibana asked rather softly, just in case.

"Tacbibana-kun, you are the one who lives in Tokyo. How would we know if you don't?" Saeki pointed out.

"Yamabuki's uniform is quite distinguished so it shouldn't be that hard…" Shiraishi began logically.

"I am Minami Kentarou!" the boy beside them protested. At his appearance the three other boys could only laugh rather embarrassedly, as he was basically standing right next to them.

"I am so sorry for not seeing you there." Shiraishi began, extending his hand. "Anyway, I am Shiraishi Kuranosuke, the buchou of Osaka's Shitenhouji."

"I know who you are, I've heard of you." Minami muttered rather bitterly as he accepted the offered hand, it was bad enough to not be recognised, but it was much worse when you actually knew the identity of that person.

Beside Minami, Sengoku gave a slight shake of his head, "I told you, Minami, you need to be more distinguished. See, not only does Kansai's Shiraishi not recognise you, even people from Tokyo like Tachibana have no idea who you are. Of course, there's the more important fact that girls will never notice you."

"Well, people playing doubles tend to be less noticed then people who play singles, even though they are equally important." Tachibana said, wanting to make up for his early words.

"But my own buchou played doubles with me when he was the buchou and everyone in Kansai knew who he was and there are people outside Kansai who recognised him too!" Shiraishi immediately protested, but he quickly stopped when he noticed that Minami seemed to be on the verge of slouching down in despair.

"Why don't we go and stand beside the window?" Saeki suggested tactfully. "I want to see if Kentarou is coming. I hope that he will be here soon."

"Sanada really scared that poor boy at the last meeting." Tachibana said in sympathy.

"What did actually happen, Tachibana-kun? The only thing Kentarou seemed to remember about the meeting was how frightening Sanada was."

As Tachibana explained what had happened, the two other boys nodded in empathy. Shiraishi could understand that perfectly as his first meeting with Sanada was rather similar. It was at the national before this year, and as the two teams faced each other, he kept on feeling that the guy with the cap was staring at him.

As he told this story to his companions, they both began to laugh softly, not out aloud due to the fear of being noticed by everyone else, especially Rikkai's buchou.

"But I think he probably just look like that in general," Saeki whispered, "I don't think he was deliberately staring at you.

"He reminds me of that guy in Seigaku, the one that always wear a bandana." Tachibana added.

Unlike Shiraishi, Rokkaku's buchou was unable to dispel Sanada's yelling as mere annoyance. Most of the buchou and fuku-buchou were very sympathetic towards him, especially when he starts to repetitively bow in apology with the promise of never being late in his entire life.

Although some were watching this with a bit of amusement.

"Are you alright, Kentarou?" Saeki immediately asked in great concern as his kohai entered, clearly very shaken.

"I…I am still alive." Was Kentarou's answer as he slouched down on one of the chairs. "I really didn't mean to be so late…"

"Hey, the same thing happened to me!" Shiraishi said kindly. "So you are Aoi Kentarou. I am Shiraishi Kuranosuke from…"

"You are the one with the really pretty girl friend!" Aoi suddenly yelled out. "I heard from Saeki-senpai, who heard from Fuji-senpai, who heard from Momoshiro-senpai , who…"

"What is this? What is this? You have a girl friend?" Sengoku immediately butted in. "Is she really pretty?"

Shiraishi didn't know whether he should be relieved that he was being remembered due to this instead of his perfect tennis. Maybe he should tell this to Ashita, as it might cheer her up. His father once told him that a female was vain no matter what she might say.

With the arrival of Aoi, almost everyone- with the exception of one has come. So Tezuka, who has been standing beside the window and observe all this finally spoke.

"Maybe we should start."

"Yes, it is fifteen minutes pass the starting time." The ever nervous mother of Seigaku began worriedly. "Perhaps one of us should ask Sanada-san to enter."

This would be a good idea if it wasn't greeted with a long silence.

"Oh don't bother about Genichirou," Yukimura said easily, "He'll enter whenever he wants to."

"But we should really be starting the meeting!" Ooishi said, his voice even more worried. "According to the agenda we are meant to have some discussions before we…"

"Just how old is Sanada-kun anyway?" Sengoku's louder voice drowned over Ooishi, "The way he stand outside like that make him look like one of those guards at department stores."

"He looked like that at last year's nationals too." Shiraishi pointed out. "In fact, when I first saw him with my coach he was examining the vending machine, and we thought that he was…actually, never mind." He managed to stop himself on time as Yukimura's smile was a bit too dangerous.

"I wonder how old he is," Watanabe had whispered to him. "Shiraishi, do you think it is possible that he might be younger then me?"

"I doubt it." Shiraishi had murmured back in equal softness. "Sensei is only twenty six, right? He looks as if he is at least ten years older then you."

"Shiraishi-kun, are you sure you don't want to finish what you are saying?" Yukimura asked, his smile making Shiraishi glance behind him to see if there was room for him to back away, "Don't worry, I wouldn't tell anyone, especially Genichirou."

Yeah right was Shiraishi's initial reaction, somehow he could easily visualise the picture of Sanada chasing him with a katana due to Yukimura retelling him this most 'accidentally and innocently' .

"We should really start the meeting!" Ooishi began again, his voice almost on the edge of panicking.

"Ooishi-kun, don't worry, Atobe is still not here, and since he is the one who arranged this we need to wait for him." Tachibana said kindly.

Due to Kenya's cousin, the whole Shitenhouji team has heard a lot of bizarre stories, although none of it has been confirmed as being true yet. This was surely the perfect time to find out.

"Are all these rumours about Hyotei true? About their hundreds of cheerleader and some one who always start the game by throwing his jacket into the air. And I also heard that if you lose a game you have to shave or cut your hair."

Tachibana and Saeki were going to explain some of these stories when they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Yukimura tapping on the window.

"Genichirou can be so stubborn." He said with a slight smile. "I apologise for causing you guys any inconvenience."

"Thank you, Yukimura-kun but I don't think that would work." Ooishi said gratefully, "I don't think he can…"

With the exception of Yukimura, everyone was stunned when Sanada walked into the room. Even Tezuka was shocked, but being Tezuka, he easily masked his expression and only let out an "Ah" at this.

"Yukimura, I am sorry for troubling you." Sanada said with a formal bow, but as he saw the rest of the buchou and fuku-buchou, he began another one of his infamous screams.

Yukimura was naturally doing the right thing, sitting by the table; Tezuka and Ooishi were still standing beside the window; Saeki, Kentarou, Tachibana and Shiraishi had formed their own circle in one of the corners, although they were at least sitting on chairs, not on the table as Sengoku was. Sengoku has remembered what Shiraishi said about his girl friend and was pestering Shiraishi to show him some sort of a photo by repeatedly knocking on the back of Shiraishi's chair.

Of course, there was also poor Minami, who was practically ignored by everyone else even though he was actually standing right next to Sengoku.

"Why haven't you guys started the meeting?" Sanada bellowed out, "That is too slack."

Looking at the glass in Kentarou's hand, Shiraishi could almost swear that the water in it was vibrating. This was absolutely amazing, not even Kintarou's loudest "Poisoned hands" could achieve this.

"But Sanada-kun, you were standing outside." Saeki pointed out calmly.

"I was making sure that those who are late will know! The meeting would have begun on time if Shiraishi-kun didn't arrive ten minutes late."

"For goodness sake, it was only ten minutes!" Shiraishi protested again, he was more then a bit annoyed at the fact that Sanada was referring to this as if everyone else has been waiting for him for a whole day. "And as I said before, I haven't been to Tokyo many times and…oh, forget it!" he said in utter defeat when Sanada began another lecture on the importance of arriving on time.

"And Aoi-kun is even worse!" upon finally finishing with the first victim, he quickly moved on to the second one.

"I am so sorry, Sanada-san! I'll never be late again in my entire life! I swear it!" the first year buchou of Rokkaku said as he stood up and began to bow repetitively at Sanada.

"Kentarou, don't let this get to you this much." Saeki whispered, pulling him to sit down again.

Despite being capable of having a deafening scream, Sanada was also in possession of a very good hearing.

"What do you mean by that? You shouldn't encourage him to be late! He is the buchou and he…"

"Sanada-kun, we are not from Tokyo. I am not even from Kantou. The ticket Atobe–kun gave us did not give us much time to find our way." Shiraishi said steadily, receiving a grateful look from Kentarou.

"I am not from Tokyo either! That is no excuse for being so slack."

"Yes, that is true, but Kanagawa is quite close to Tokyo." Shiraishi reminded him, "While both Chiba and Osaka are some distances away. Most of all, you are over reacting."

"Genichiro, Shiraishi-kun is right. Why don't we just all sit back and let the meeting start?" Yukimura said. Although his voice still seemed a bit soft, Shiraishi could tell that the tone was much firm. After all, this was how he spoke with Kintarou whenever he needed to get the younger boy to do, or not do, something.

But the difference between these two was a bit too vast…

The eleven boys sat in the table in a circle, leaving one space for Atobe. Since they were eliminated at various different stages in the nationals, there were familiar and alien faces for almost every one. The best way to solve this was to have an introduction- which was quite successful.

"I kept on hearing this weird noise." Shiraishi pointed out once the last person finished introducing himself. "It sounds like a stampede or something."

The captains from the Tokyo district schools immediately nodded in understanding.

"Ah, Atobe." Tezuka said simply with another nod of his head.

"How long is this going to continue?" Shiraishi asked when the chanting was becoming louder.

"Until Atobe enters." Tachibana told him sympathetically. "Meeting Hyotei for the first time is quite an ordeal."

"It is going to get louder?" Shiraishi said with a groan.

Whoever said that people from Osaka was loud should come here to be proven wrong. First he had to hear Sanada's roars, now there was this. Perhaps he should stop complaining whenever Kintarou or Watanabe shouts, because it was no where near this level.

But the noise suddenly stopped, although many of them would probably prefer to continue hearing the loud chants of "Hyotei and Atobe" instead of "Ah, be awed by the sight of ore-sama's dazzling prowess."

Even as this was declared out, a jacket flew in the room, landing at the very centre of the table.

"Atobe…" Sanada began, his voice very low, but the buchou of Hyotei seemed completely oblivious to the danger that was approaching.

"Ah, everyone else is here. Well, now that ore-same is here, let us start the meeting."

"YOU ARE HALF AN HOUR LATE!"

Everyone, with the exception of Yukimura, all started to push their chair back. They could all sense the deadly aura that was radiating from Sanada.

If Sanada was holding a katana then he would probably pull it out due to Atobe's words.

"But ore-same is the most important person in this meeting, so it is alright for ore-same to be late."

Shiraishi wasn't sure whether he should describe this as being thick-skinned, pure shamelessness or true ignorance. What made it surprising was that Atobe could say that when Sanada was probably contemplating on the best way of murdering him.

Beside Sanada, Yukimura actually frowned. Perhaps he thought that his fuku-buchou was being too extreme, since every one was continue edging their chairs away. Or maybe he just wanted to do this for reasons of his own.

"Now, Sanada, the main thing is that Atobe-kun is here." The address by the last name, as well as the slightly raised tone, made Sanada sat back down without saying another word.

The other effect it had was to cause the person sitting beside Yukimura to move his chair even further away.

This fear was proven to be very rational by Yukimura's next words.

"Ah, Atobe-kun, I am glad to see you. I must say," the buchou of Rikkai said very sweetly. "It is a pity that your hair grows so fast as your new hair cut really suited you."

"You seem to have recovered completely, Yukimura-kun." Atobe gritted out between his teeth, "Ore-same is glad to see that."

Yukimura bowed in acknowledgement to this, as if Atobe was paying him homage.

"But know that even though Hyotei lost this year, it will be different next year." Atobe continued, "Hyotei's next buchou will lead the next generation to beat Rikkai."

"We have a very good successor too." Yukimura said, his smile growing wider.

"Echizen Ryoma will continue being the pillar of Seigaku." Tezuka butted in with a firm nod from Ooishi, although most other people were looking at them a bit blankly.

"Seigaku winning the kantou regional this year is only this year!" Sanada added heatedly, "Rikkai will continue being the champions. This year means nothing!"

Shiraishi gave a sigh as the others began to argue about how their school would do in the Kantou regional next year, since they were all from that region. Well, Shitenhouji was the unchallenged Kansai champion.

Feeling a bit bored, he took out his phone to cheek if there was any messages, upon seeing the pleading from Kenya that asked him to ring back as soon as possible, he turned to the others to see if they would mind.

"The entire Fudomine team will continue playing next year…" even Tachibana was drawn into the conversation.

They wouldn't mind, Shiraishi decided as he pressed the dial button.

"Shiraishi you have to save me!" his fuku-buchou yelled out. "We were almost thrown out as our coach was snoring."

"He did that last year too." Shiraishi said rather calmly. "Just poke him every five minutes, that will also prevent you from sleeping. But make that sure that he doesn't start yelling."

A long silence followed before Kenya said in disbelieve: "Please don't tell me that was what you did last year."

"Sort of," he said with an automatic shrug, although it was not as if Kenya could see that. "But it is not that bad because the food was really good, and they did give quite high quality equipments."

"But it is so boring!"

"Boring stuff can be good, Kenya." At this he smiled rather sourly, his perfect tennis was just like that.

"Well, thanks for the advice. By the way, how is it at your end?"

"It is certainly…entertaining." he said truthfully.

He was going to continue chatting until he noticed that everyone was looking at him strangely, which caused him to quickly end the conversation.

"What?" he asked a bit defensively, "It was an emergency call from my fuku-buchou and since you guys were so busy talking about the Kantou regional while I'm from Kansai…"

"No, that is not the point." Saeki spoke on behalf of everyone, "It's what you were saying…it sounds so strange."

"That's Kansai-ben." Shiraishi said, failing to understand their extreme reaction. "It's not that different."

"It seems like a completely different language!" Sengoku said. "So, Shiraishi-kun, do people speak like that in where you live?"

"I live in Osaka! It's not as if I live in some really isolated place." He pointed out dryly, "I still don't know why you guys are acting as if I am speaking in a foreign language."

"Can you teach me some phrases then?" Sengoku pressed on eagerly.

"What do you want to learn? Stuff like 'the weather is fine,' 'where is the train station?'" he mentioned these sentences as they were what he tended to find in text books.

"No, no, no, that's not interesting." Sengoku said with a rather sage shake of his head. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'You are very pretty', 'why don't we spend sometime together?'"

Shiraishi was considering whether he should let Sengoku memorise "I am not a pervert", if he really would teach him some Kansai-ben.

The sound of Atobe snapping his finger would not have been loud if it wasn't for the fact that Atobe did it in front of the microphone.

"Ore-same believes that we should begin the main purpose of our meeting." Atobe declared out. "And that is the recording of the song."

Why this song in particular? Shiraishi thought dryly as everyone began to flip their 'script'. His mother would always play that song on these three days without fail: the anniversary of her wedding, the day she and his father had their first date, and of course, on Valentine Day. Being a boy, he thought that the song was very cheesy, and always implored his mother to turn the volume down.

However, he could no longer complain about it as Ashita seemed to like it as well. At the first Valentine day that they spent together, she had clapped her hand in delight when she heard the song and made him dance with her.

"Ah, ore-same will naturally begin." Atobe said, snapping his fingers once again. "Be dazzled by the prowess of ore-same's voice."

It was clear that Atobe was certainly enjoying himself, and everyone doubts that he could get any more into it. In fact, he was all but hogging the microphone now.

Upon finishing his verse, Atobe turned to Tezuka: "Now, Tezuka, see if you can even compare to Ore-sama.!"

There was no doubt that Tezuka was among the very top when it came to tennis, but his singing skills were not in the same rank. Sanada naturally used the world slack, although Tachibana was the one who made a more accurate judgement: Tezuka was not really trying, his voice was almost monotonic, and no one was convinced that tomorrow was a special day.

"Ooishi, yudan sezu ni ikou." Tezuka said sternly as he handed the microphone to his fuku-buchou, who has been taking very deep breaths ever since the first person began to sing.

Ooishi's version was much better then Tezuka, although it almost had a maternal touch to it.

When Tachibana took the microphone it was as if he was undergoing a personality change. The rather calm and composed buchou of Fudomine began to sing very passionately, almost roaring into the microphone when he was not waving it.

So that is what Tachibana used to be like, Shiraishi thought as he observed this, I really didn't' think he is the type of person who would play in such a wild and aggressive way.

This would probably be quite an interesting piece of information for Chitose- provided that the other will stop laughing at the mere thought of Shiraishi being a participant in this.

Meanwhile, the microphone has passed from Tachibana to Minami, whose version was rather bland, not very distinguished. But it seemed that Yamabuki's fuku-buchou has always stood out much more then their buchou.

Sengoku has been waiting for his turn very eagerly, as this was surely a very good way to be noticed by girls. He was quite disappointed that Minami did not manage to make him more distinguished, but he consoled himself with the fact that since he was directly after Minami, girls will be more likely to notice him.

"Alright!" he yelled out as soon as he grabbed the microphone from Minami, after being scolded for grinning to himself. "This is for all the cute girls in Japan…no, this is for all the cute girls in the world!"

Needless to say, he gained himself a follower: Aoi Kentarou was starting to regard him as an idol.

"Well done, Sengoku-kun," Yukimura said with a smile, "However, it is Rikkai's turn. Genichiro," he stated, even though his voice has not raised, there was a very strong authority in it, "We will show everyone how well Rikkai performs."

Sanada certainly tried very hard, but the words seemed a bit strange to be sung by him. As he listened to the verse that Sanada was singing, Shiraishi suddenly felt that he was at the morning assembly, just about to sing the school song.

Yukimura was certainly different, he definitely sang the song with much more convection then Sanada, although many were wandering whether it was done too well. All of a sudden, the song no longer seemed to be about a happy date on Valentine day, but a last meeting between two doomed lovers.

Even though this whole thing was really bizarre and rather pointless, Shiraishi realised that he was actually really enjoying himself. It was certainly much more fun then the Osaka meeting that his coach and fuku-buchou were currently attending. That was why he was quite cheerful when he accepted the microphone from Yukimura, although he was slightly worried that Sanada would suddenly yell out "This is too slack a performance! Put the microphone down right now!"

He needn't have worry as even though his singing was not particular unusual, it was very good. He might not have moved the audience to tears, but he was never out of tune. The fact that he was thinking of his girl friend made his version rather pleasant to listen to, as they could detect the affection in his voice.

The song was finished by Saeki and Kentarou, the latter doing a very good performance due to the fear of not being able to go on a date for three years if he did not sing as well as his senpai.

When the meeting finally concluded, Shiraishi has to consider the problem of the rest of the night. Kenya told him that he could stay with his cousin Yuushi if things get too late, and this was probably his best opinion as he was sure that the last train has left.

"Atobe-kun, do you know where Oshitari Yuushi lives? I think I will probably have to spend the night in his house since the next train to Osaka only comes at next morning."

"Ah, stay in Oshitari Yuushi's house? Shiraishi-kun, are you deserted in Tokyo with no one to turn to?"

"It is true that I don't really know anyone in Tokyo but…"

"Then ore-sama generously invites you to stay in his house as ore-sama has many guest rooms, so ore-sama is convinced that one of the rooms will be able to suit your requirement."

"Well…"

"Of course, this will not trouble ore-sama at all." Atobe continued grandly, "No, not at all."

Do I sound like a beggar begging? Shiraishi thought dryly.

"Since Shiraishi-kun just agreed," Atobe said on behalf of Shiraishi, as he was certain his offer would not be rejected. "Ore-sama extends the invitation to all of you."

"Well…we don't want to impose on you Atobe." Ooishi began timidly.

"Nonsense, Ore-sama's house is big enough for all of you. What do you say to this, Tezuka, ah?"

Sengoku naturally agreed as he has heard of Atobe's reputation of being super rich.

"Us too! This is awesome! Lucky!" he cried out happily.

Saeki agreed as well, because like Shiraishi, their train has probably left. His original plan was to stay in Fuji's house, but Atobe's offer was much better as Kentarou would probably be a bit frightened by Fuji. Despite being very close friends with Fuji, Saeki knew that his friends could be rather unusual.

"Yukimura, we are…" Sanada began, but he was interrupted by his buchou, who seemed on the verge of clapping his hands.

"This sounds fun! Don't you think so, Genichiro?" without waiting for him to speak, he turned to Atobe, "We are coming as well!"

"Well, Tezuka, it might be good if we go as…"

Tezuka gave a nod as soon as Ooishi finished his explanation, since he knew his fuku-buchou very well.

"Ah, then follow ore-sama!"

When Shiraishi finally returned to Osaka, he naturally had a lot of stuff to tell everyone, as well as distributing a large amount of gift. Upon hearing that he intended to buy some souvenirs, Atobe gave him an enormous pile. Shiraishi didn't mind accepting them at all, because he knew that this has nothing to do with Atobe being very rich, it was just because Atobe wanted to give him some gifts as thanks for attending the meeting, and being Atobe, he has to do it in such an extreme way.

"How was the meeting, Shiraishi?" Watanabe asked when he picked the young boy up at the train station, rather surprised at his extra luggage.

"It was very interesting," Shiraishi said after a slight pause, "I learnt a lot of stuff. I think the most important thing is that I realise the images we see of our rivals on court can be quite different from what they are like in daily life."

Although some people seemed to be quite similar, he thought warily as he recollected the lectures he had received from Rikkai's fuku-buchou due to being late.

"I am glad that I went." He finally said. "I really am."

Author's Note: As I said, really random…and random. The whole thing with the drinking machine is actually one of the first inspiration for this story. Basically in that meeting in 20.5, Aoi said something which caused Sanada to yell at him, saying he is much too slack, Tachibana then told Sanada that he should be a bit tolerant, since Aoi is only a first year. Sanada then said that when he was a first year, he was actually noticing that the water supply in the stadium is really bad, and that he went to suggest them to install some vending machine. That just kind of gave me the idea. And I naturally thought that it will be really fun if Shiraishi is there since he is quite a famous figure in their world. Initially I was going to put Higa's buchou in but that didn't fit.

As I said, the original version is on my blog, this is the story version so a lot of the line are cut. The main changes is this: Mizuki doesn't come out, and the original version is actually before the national.

I must say, Sanada is behaving a bit over the top, but the whole intention of the story is a bit of an over the top approach. Yukimura…because his personality is shrud in mystery I decided to make him a bit evil in this one. Of course, there is also the whole joke of Minami not being recognized by anyone.

Much to my surprise, the story actually turned a bit serious at the very end, Shiraishi's observation and the comment about Atobe. I do think Atobe is like that and I guess there is also the fact that it is kind of a pity that these boys don't get to know each other because they are often very different once they are off court.

Lastly, I am in a bit of a dilemma. This will be the seventh chapter in 'chapters' and I am wondering whether I should continue when I get to chapter ten? Cause 'sacrifice' is only ten chapters and I will feel a bit weird since I never once thought that this will be longer then 'sacrifice', and that is the main story.