Lucifer of Rikkaidai
Chapter 7: Fruitful Result
Akaya came home, depressed and worried about the team. Yukimura was the best captain (although was a tiny bit twisted and scary time to time) and she knew he was the greatest player she knew in her life so far.
'Buchou's down with an illness… my role as the only kouhai is to work hard and fill his space!' Akaya thought and got ready to sleep and wake up early to train in the morning.
"Akaya, what's wrong with the captain?" Her mother asked, as she opened the door to her room.
"He… he has this thing called Guillain-Barre Syndrome." She told her mom, who was "Apparently he can't play tennis ever again."
"Oh no…! That's… terrible…" She said and walked over to Akaya. "I'm sorry, honey."
"He'll come back, I'm sure. But …I'm going to work hard and fill his space." She said, with glint in her eyes. Her mom smiled and kissed Akaya on the cheeks. Akaya lied down, and her mom turned the lights off before leaving the room.
"Good night."
"Good night."
She closed the door to Akaya's room; then she walked downstairs and turned on the TV.
'…It was a good choice to bring her here.' She thought, and smiled.
In the morning, Akaya woke up at 5:30 and began jogging around the town; she was definitely not a morning person, but her determination and tenacity drove her to train to fill Yukimura's space.
She came back home tired and walked to school dragging her feet.
"Akaya." Someone called her as she was walking half-asleep; she couldn't hear, and kept on walking.
"Akaya." The voice called again, which Akaya missed. Then the person tapped on her shoulder, and she lazily turned her head to see the tall, brown-haired data master next to her.
"Ah, morning senpa—huaaamm~" Akaya greeted, but ended up yawning in the middle.
"You seem tired. When did you sleep last night?"
"I went to bed at 10…" Akaya answered, her eyes droopy from sleepiness. Yanagi was puzzled.
"That's pretty early, why are you so sleepy?"
"I went jogging in the morning."
"…I see." Yanagi smiled, and patted her head.
She came to school early; she parted with Yanagi, and went to her class. She sat there, and then her friends came in.
"Akaya~~" Her friend called.
"Don't wake her, baka." Another coolly said.
"Just ten more minutes mom…" Akaya mumbled and rubbed her head few times on her arm.
"Su…shi… ra…men…" She talked in her sleep, and began moving her mouth as if there were food inside. Her friends snickered at the silly sight.
"Oh hey, I want to try something." One of her friends' eyes glinted. "AKAYA, SLEEPING IN CLASS! TARUNDORU!" He yelled, and Akaya shot up right away.
"S-S-SORRY FUKUBUCHOU! …Eh?" Akaya looked around, and found an empty classroom with her new friends. "W-Where's Sanada fukubuchou?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAH!" They were grabbing onto their belly and laughing while pointing at Akaya.
"Masaki!" Akaya groaned, and sat back down.
"AHAHAHA, sorry, sorry. I couldn't resist. But why are you so tired? It's a Friday!" He beamed and slapped Akaya's back.
"I woke up in the morning to train…" Akaya mumbled, and put her head down again although facing her friends.
"Wow. Must be hard as a regular."
"I have to work harder…" Akaya said, thinking of Yukimura in the hospital.
The day passed like the usual; everyone was excited since it was Friday, but for the regulars it was just another day of practice after school. During lunch, only Niou came in to her class, much to her surprise. She expected that the tutoring won't be in session due to what happened yesterday.
"Niou-senpai?" Akaya stood up and greeted the rattail, baby-blue haired boy.
"Yo, Akaya." He waved his hand a little, and walked to her desk while girls were squealing and watching him. The news that the Rikkaidai tennis team regulars were helping Akaya prepare for the evaluative test was now spreading throughout the school and even first years and girls from other classes visited during lunch just to see the regulars.
Akaya really didn't care but some of her classmates were worried about her safety regarding the fangirls. Surprisingly, Akaya's bright and outgoing personally gained quite the popularity throughout her peers. There were still some jealous girls in 3rd years who were ought to torture her and annoy her in some ways, but gladly she didn't encounter any problems… so far.
"Senpai, what happened to the other senpai-tachi?" Akaya asked, as Niou invited himself to sit on one of the chairs.
"That's my chair!" There was a squeal among the crowd, and Niou and Akaya looked at the direction; Akaya sweatdropped and thought, so what if he sat on your chair..., and Niou winked in the direction of the voice, and the whole class started squealing again.
"W-Was that necessary…?" Akaya, feeling very uncomfortable, sat down and faced Niou who did the same. He sat on the chair backwards, opened his legs, and leaned on the backrest.
"It's my way of keeping my fans in tact~" Niou slyly said and grinned.
'O-Of course, Niou-senpai.'
"Alright, let's get started." Niou said, and posed like Sanada. Akaya took her history and literature textbook out.
"Let's get started with literature."
So Akaya began her studies under Niou's guidance; both surprisingly and expectedly, he was smart. He must need his intellect in scheming.
Afterschool, Akaya headed straight to practice and began immediately; the regulars could tell that Akaya was working twice as hard that Yukimura was gone, and they were proud of it. She changed in the locker room after practice—then with Niou she went to her shoe cabinet, and when she opened it a pile of hate letters fell out along with wet shoes and thumbtacks.
"Eh…?" Akaya just stood there and blinked, processing what the situation meant.
"Oi, oi Akaya, this is bad!" Niou said, reading the hate letters. Akaya read them too; and there were some nasty things on the letters.
"What is this?" Akaya cocked her head sideways.
"A hate letter, duh." Niou stated, and threw the letters away after he shredded it. "I can't believe these fangirls are this immature." He groaned and put his palm on his forehead.
"Hate letter…"
"You're being bullied!" Niou had to ensure her.
"REALLY?!" Akaya was surprised and Niou just stared at her in there-are-hate-letters-what-part-of-bullying-do-you-not-understand look.
"What the hell? I haven't done anything!" Akaya yelled in disbelief.
"That's why they're called rabid fangirls."
"Che, like I care." Akaya scoffed again and left with her tennis shoes on. Niou just shrugged his shoulders and followed her out of the building.
"Should we tell Sanada and Yanagi about this?" Niou asked Akaya as he put his hands behind his head.
"Nope." Akaya firmly replied.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. It's my problem and I can handle it." Akaya scoffed. Niou smirked, and messed up her hair like he always did.
"Senpai~" Akaya groaned and put her hair back in place, and Niou just laughed.
"Handle on you own, huh… well, if it gets too out of hand we have to tell Sanada and Yanagi, okay?"
"Okay."
It finally became the evaluative test week; Akaya passed through all the subjects in a breeze, or at least she thought she did.
"How do you feel like you did?" Marui asked. Akaya, Niou, Marui, Yagyuu, and Jackal were on their way to the Kanagawa Hospital to visit Yukimura. He was in the hospital for about 2 weeks now; he was finally getting used to it and he could handle his condition a lot better.
"I dunno… I'm just glad I'm done." Akaya sighed. She still hated history.
The five regulars soon arrived at the hospital.
"BUCHOOOU!" Akaya ran over to him and gave him a hug. "I-I'm finally done with the test, buchou…!" She said, almost on the verge of tears. "Hopefully fuku-buchou won't get mad at me after the results come out…!"
"I'm sure you did fine, Akaya. You studied, didn't you?" Yukimura laughed and reassured her, patting her on the back.
"I did… man, I hope I didn't mess up."
"Hey, we're here too you know."
"Ahaha, sorry guys. How was the test for you all?"
"It was all good. But Yukimura, where's the love for us? You like Akaya too much." Marui said, pouting.
"Well maybe it's because he does like me more, senpai." Akaya said mischievously, sticking out her tongue at him.
"What! Yukimura, tell me the truth!" Marui yelled, glaring at Akaya.
"Well, it is true that Akaya is way cuter…" Yukimura trailed off, speaking much too innocently.
Marui collapsed onto a chair, truly hurt.
"I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding!" Yukimura laughed. "Of course I like both of you guys."
"Marui-senpai, stop being a sore loser."
"Why you little…!"
Yukimura's room was now filled with excited laughter and chatters.
Akaya was now glaring at the test results, which were folded in thirds so that you'd have to open it up to look at the insides.
Without opening the paper but still clenching it in her hands, she left the class and walked down the hallway.
"YO~ AKAYA~!" Niou and Marui yelled as they met up with Akaya in the much chaotic hallway.
"How did you do?" Marui asked, eyeing the paper in her hand.
"I-I didn't check yet…!"
"Then check!"
"S-S-S-Senpai…!" Akaya quivered. "I'm scared!" She was on the verge of tears. This very paper decided her fate, the fate in which she'd live to see another day or be slapped or assigned to run laps until her legs gave up… by none other than the demon fuku-buchou.
"It's okay, Akaya. You worked hard!"
"Errm… that's an overstatement." She said, thinking about all those times in history when she'd sleep through it. But it was the best time to take a nap; she couldn't help it.
"You're gonna have to check anyways, Akaya. Better get it over with." Marui said.
"You're right… okay. Here it goes." Akaya gulped. She closed her eyes and opened it up, pulling back from the paper to get far away from it.
"Akaya!" Marui yelled. "WOAH!"
"LOOK!" Niou yelled also.
Akaya opened one eye a bit and her eyes soon became wide after checking her results.
"EEHH?!" Akaya couldn't believe what was going on.
"Hehehe! You're smarter than I thought, Akaya!" Marui said and put an arm around her shoulder, ruffling her hair.
"Let's see… 100/100 math, 100/100 science, 88/100 social sciences, 87/100 literature… and 95/100 history!" Niou said with much excitement, having pride in being one of the tutors who taught her history and literature.
"WHAAAAAAAAAT!" She couldn't resist another yelp for some reason as she saw her score in history. This wasn't possible; she couldn't have done better in history than any other subjects. Yet she did.
"WHAAT?" She yelled out again, until Niou blocked her mouth in annoyance.
"Calm down, kiddo." He groaned, but laughed as he saw the joyous look on Akaya's face.
"What's all this commotion." A heavy voice said from behind the crowd; magically the crowd parted, and revealed Sanada and Yanagi walking towards Akaya, Niou, and Marui.
"SENPAI! I DID IT!" Akaya yelled, showing the two her paper. They took it and read closely; soon, Sanada's eyes widened and Yanagi cracked a smile—a huge grin, rather.
"Good job, Akaya." Yanagi said and smiled.
"Hm. You did well." Sanada said stoically as ever, but smiled in the end.
"Thanks senpai-tachi! I wouldn't have done it without all of you!" Akaya said, and gave her senpai-tachi a bear hug.
"OH! I HAVE TO TELL BUCHOU ABOUT THIS! Can we go tell him today pleeeaasse~~" Akaya pleaded, and Yanagi chuckled.
"Of course we can, Akaya."
"Yessss!" Akaya was so happy, flowers and floated around her wherever she went.
"I'm not getting slapped~~"