Right, so here's the next chapter. The delay was mostly because... well. It's a filler chapter. I no like writing filler chapters. Noooope.

But eh. Enjoy?


Takeuchi Rei was an interesting girl, Fuji Syuusuke thought to himself as they walked to their destination. She and Taka-san bantered easily despite the taller teen's shyness when not holding a racquet, and it looked rather obvious to him that said teen viewed the younger to be something akin to a sibling.

She actually yelled "I'm back, oyaji" at the same time as Taka-san, and that made things more amusing for a brief moment. Kawamura senior had looked shocked, then surprised, and then he pretended to be angry - to which Takeuchi merely laughed at before she gave him a hug. The elder chuckled as he ruffled the brunette's hair, and she grinned before she plopped down onto one of the available seats at the counter.

"Oh, Fuji-kun," the sushi chef greeted as Taka-sanwent to change to help his father. "Wasabi sushi again today?"

"If you don't mind," he confirmed and chuckled when Takeuchi pulled a face as he took a seat beside her. "You should try it," Fuji told her, "it's good."

"I'd rather eat the spiciest herb in the world, thank you," she shot back easily. "At least I know I can deal with that."

"You eat spicy food?" he asked, surprised. Not many people he knew would eat the type of food he ate on a normal basis. The brunette nodded, happily accepting the unagi sushi from the elder Kawamura and setting it down before her.

"It's good," Takeuchi said before eying his plate of wasabi sushi warily. "Are you sure that's edible...?"

"All of us at Seigaku have doubts over Fuji's taste buds," Taka-san told her as he joined his father behind the counter, and Fuji shot him a mock-hurt look. "Fuji, you drink Inui's juice like they're water!"

Takeuchi looked a little confused. "I don't think I want to know..." she muttered, snapping her chopsticks with practiced ease. Taka-sanchuckled and brought her into a conversation over what she had been doing in Rikkaidai, and Fuji was surprised to find out she was the male tennis team's manager. He voiced as much, and the brunette grinned.

"Well, they would probably call me 'training coach from hell' more than 'manager', though," she told him with a sinister-sounding chuckle, and the smiley teen found himself wanting to visit Rikkaidai one day - just to see how they train.

Fuji allowed himself to fade to the background as the two brunettes talked, content with listening and observing their interactions. Taka-sanhad asked Takeuchi something rather martial arts-related, and the younger brunette had nodded and agreed to whatever he had asked. Then the elder brunette had an uncharacteristically cheeky look cross his features.

"Na, Rei-chan, what was the title they gave you again?" he said, and Fuji watched with mild concern when said girl choked on her tea. Absentmindedly, he patted the younger teen's back and shot his fellow teammate an enquiring look.

"Arashi no Tsubame," Takeuchi answered, coughing lightly, and he saw Taka-san's grin grow. What did knowing Takeuchi's title have anything to do with-

'Ah,' Fuji thought, 'so that'swhat it is.'

"Funny," he decided to add in with mock-thoughtfulness. "One of my techniques is called Tsubame Gaeshi."

This time, Taka-sanwas laughing even though Takeuchi was glaring at him. He could not help his own chuckles, and Takeuchi sent him a somewhat pout-ish look. "Sure, laugh it up," she grumbled rather good-naturedly despite her expression saying otherwise. "See who gets the last laugh when it's an official competition."

His and Kawamura junior's phones went off at the same time, and Takeuchi shot them bemused smiles before she returned to her sushi, eating and chatting idly with Kawamura senior. Fuji and his teammate pulled their phones out, and he chuckled merrily at the sudden flood of emoticons in the mail he opened. Miyuki really loved emoticons.

"Looks like Tezuka's okay," Taka-san told the younger teen, and Fuji was surprised when she sighed in relief. The taller teen reached over and ruffled her hair with a smile. "Looks like you can rest easier tonight."

Takeuchi pouted slightly, smoothing her hair out. "...not my fault," she said, and though he was confused, Fuji allowed whatever inside reference it was to slide. He would ask if and when he was closer to the Rikkaidai manager.

Out of curiosity, Fuji had shown Takeuchi the mail Miyuki sent, and was amused that she could not understand it. Whatever the hyper Seigaku manager wanted to tell them via mail, it would be communicated via emoticons. When he told her that Miyuki wrote messages like that all the time, she grinned and asked if she could use his phone to send the hyper redhead a mail. Apparently she met the younger earlier today.

Taka-sanhad looked so amused at her grin that Fuji agreed, and she allowed him to read over her shoulder as she typed out the message she was going to send to her fellow manager. The smiley teen found himself chuckling as he read it - it was a rather worship-like message (something along the lines of "teach me, master!"), alongside Takeuchi's own mail address and phone number.

Fuji could picture Miyuki's face in his mind's eye. It was rather funny.

Less than a minute after that particular mail was sent, Takeuchi's phone rang. Grinning at the lack of customers in the shop at that moment, the brunette answered it and placed it on loudspeaker for their listening pleasure.

"...who this?"

Still grinning, Takeuchi faked an extremely hurt gasp. "How could you forget me!" she cried, and Taka-san tried not to laugh. "I was the Rikkaidai student-manager-person who helped you with your drinks earlier because you forgot you had two hands!"

Fuji clapped a hand over his mouth to smother his chuckles. That sounded like the hyper redhead, all right. OnlyMiyuki would forget she had two hands. Takeuchi continued her 'complaining' with a grin, and Fuji counted down the seconds until Miyuki's usual reaction would appear.

"Miki sowwyyyyyyy...!" There it is. "Miki sowwy, Wei-chaaaaaan!"

Takeuchi mock-pouted. "Oh, now you choose to remember me?"

"Miki sowwwwwyyyyy Weeeeei-chaaaaaaaan...!"

The brunette sniggered, then turned to a chuckling Taka-san and him. "I think I made your junior cry. I'm sorry," she said, though she did not look sorry at all. Taka-sanburst into laughter at that, and Fuji himself chuckled. Miyuki's reactions were always funny, though Takeuchi's unrepentant smile made the situation funnier.

"Kitsuke. We're in a bus. Calm down."

"Miki sowwy!"

As if sensing the change in Miyuki's demeanour, Takeuchi laughed softly and cancelled loudspeaker, speaking to the teen normally now that the joke's up. She had moved out of the shop to converse with their hyper child of a manager, and Fuji could not help but laugh.

"Takeuchi's really an interesting girl," he said to his friend, and Taka-san chuckled.


"Fuji-san's an interesting person,' Rei thought to herself as she booted her laptop. Due to the time, the smiley teen had looked a little worried when they parted ways from Taka-senpai's house-shop to head to their respective homes, but Taka-senpaijoining the 'assurance bandwagon' helped her case.

Of course, it was probably good thinking on the normally-shy teen's part that he left out one minor (or major, depending on one's point of view) fact - she lived alone. Rei already had a full team of Rikkaidai tennis players and a stray baseball player that worries for her, thank you very much.

Once the machine started up, the brunette quickly opened up a document to start typing in all her observations from the matches played; what could be improved, what tactics needed work, who needed more weights (insert grin here), so on so forth. While most of the team thought it was an amazing ability for her to have, being able to remember her observations and not forget them for a long period of time, but despite Akaya's beliefs, she did nothave a supercomputer for a brain.

Her handphone ringing distracted her, and she picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Takeuchi speaking," she said, adjusting her position so the device was sandwiched between her shoulder and ear, leaving her hands free to continue typing. There was a warm chuckle, and Rei blinked.

"So my guess was right. You haven't slept yet."

"...Yukimura-buchou?" The caller was enough to make her pause in her typing. "How're you calling me from the hospital...?"

"The nurse was kind enough to plug a phone in my room for a while."

"Right," she deadpanned in response. "More like your ridiculous charm got to the poor nurse, too. Like how it got Sanada-fukubuchou."

The blue-haired captain chuckled again. "Maybe," he allowed. "Though something has to be wrong somewhere if the person in the hospital is calling the person not in the hospital to check if said person sleeping, don't you think?"

Rei groaned. "I get it, I get it. I'll go sleep once I'm done with my observations from Niou-senpai's match." Pause. "Wait, what time is it?"

That made him pause. "Rei, it's one in the morning," he answered patiently. "And before you accuse me of not sleeping, sleeping is all I did today after you all left."

It was one. One. A.M. The heck did she not realize it? "Buchou, at this rate, I think you'll have to assign random people to call me to make sure I sleep," she muttered, groaning as he laughed. "Yes, yes, laugh at your poor manager."

"I'm sorry," he said, chuckling. "Should I recruit Kitsuke to be one of those random people to call you to make sure you sleep?"

"...if you recruit him, buchou, I'm throwing in the letter to leave the club."

"All the more reason to recruit him then."

"Buchou!"

"You're just giving me more reason to get Kitsuke to help out, Rei."

"...damn you and your yandere-ness. I'm going to bed."

"Still going to get Kitsuke."

"...to bed with you as well, Yukimura-buchou."


OMAKE (that isn't very funny this time round):

Yukimura was changing when a certain baseball player barged into his hospital room. Thank God he already put on his pants.

"Yo Yuki! How ya bee-" Kitsuke Takeshi paused, blinked, then whistled. "Sexy~"

The blue-haired captain chuckled lightly as he pulled his shirt on properly. "I didn't know you were coming," he said. "Should I take that remark as a compliment?"

Takeshi laughed. "Nah... only when lil' swallow says it," he answered, grinning. "Speaking of which, you guys were all over the paper yesterday..."

The other teen dropped a sports newspaper as well as a few tennis magazines onto the bed's attached table, and Yukimura picked one up, humming slightly as he skimmed through it.

"That's a surprise," he finally said. Then he chuckled. "Maa, they should be able to do at least that much."

Takeshi let out a low whistle. "Harsh as always, Yuki."

He laughed. "What about your side?" he asked. "I heard your sister's playing."

Instead of answering, the other teen flipped the page of the newspaper, and Yukimura shifted slightly to read it. 'Seigaku's Female Rookie Sets a New Record', the headlines read, and the subline read 'Unseeded player completes a match within 7 minutes'.

This time, it was his turn to whistle. "That's amazing," he said, and Takeshi laughed.

"Apparently, her buchou was injured," he informed the frail Rikkaidai captain. "She got so worried she didn't realize what she was doing. What I asked her about it, she was all," here, Takeshi made his voice higher pitched, and he took on a childish slur that Yukimura guessed his sister had, "Miki dweeed? Miki no remember..."

"That's one interesting sister you got there," Yukimura said instead, chuckling.

Takeshi grinned. "Hey, don't get any ideas now," he teased. "You already got your little swallow..."

"Hmm... True enough. That's too bad then."

Rei chose that moment to knock on the door and come in. "...what's too bad?"

"Is too bad Yuki likes little swallow more than little mellow..." Takeshi answered vaguely, and Yukimura had to control himself to not burst out laughing. The manager looked confused.

"I don't get it..."

"You no have to..." the other teen answered sing-songly, patting her head. "All right! I shall not disturb Yuki's time with his little swallow, I'll visit again next time~" Grinning, the other teen left the room with a "Bye Rei-chan, bye sexy~"

Yukimura tried not to laugh at Rei's confused glance as Takeshi left the room. "...I'm starting to question his sexuality," she deadpanned, and the blue-haired teen laughed then. "...why did he come anyway..."

"Saa..." Yukimura answered, grinning. "To talk about my little swallow and his little mellow, I guess."

Rei stared at him for a long time before she spoke again. "...Is that... a person...?"

"You want to know?" Yukimura asked with a grin befitting of his yanderepersonality, and the younger teen shook her head rapidly.

Well now, that's too bad. It doesn't matter, though - she'll find out in due time.


Next chapter is... well. I have no clue. *SHOT* I only know I'm switching focus back to Seigaku. Hmmm...

I guess I'll find out the same time as you do. :3