Summary: Tanaka Yoshida had always been famed in her class for being uncaring and cold. She showed no real emotions, and is revered as a fantastic (although quite confusing) advice-giver by the people she chose to counsel. There were no tragic incidents in her past, nor any traumatic events that had ever happened to her. So is her emotionless face just a facade and a trick?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Prince of Tennis characters.

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Tanaka wasn't going to lie: she barely got any sleep last night. Hours of turning over on her back, her mind full of nothing but Niou Masaharu (why did she get the strange feeling that that was what he was aiming for the whole entire time?). She woke up that morning earning worried stares from her extremely chirpy (not to mention, irritating) little brother. He wasted no time in pointing it out to their tired mother who had been carefully watching them through very narrowed eyes.

Knowing that a fight would ensue her mother into casting them both to be grounded, Tanaka kept her teeth clenched and her head down as she ate her usual bowl of morning cereal. Satoru kept a long daunting stare at her, as she looked at nothing but the clumps of soggy pieces from her bowl. "I'm heading to school." He finally announced, hopping off his stool and hastily washing his bowl and spoon.

"Have fun." Tanaka replied sarcastically, wiping a few strands of her bangs away from her face. "I really need to cut my hair again..." Her train of thought drifted towards the time Niou had argued with her about the length of her long locks.


"Tanaka, don't you think it's about time you cut your hair? It's kinda starting to scare me." He told her one day, his tone as blunt as an axe. She had been reading a very captivating mystery novel at that time, and stared at him like he was crazy. Even back then, Tanaka didn't care much about her physical appearance. Heck - her own mother had to force her to brush her teeth every night.

Tanaka sighed, as she set her book down promptly and gave him a solid look. "No, Haru. I don't care what you think - I'm not cutting it." Truthfully, she cared a teensy bit. If most people were to say that, she'd brush their comment off and ignore them. But hearing it from her own best friend did sting a little.

He echoed her sigh and sat down in his own desk and faced her. "You're a girl, Naka. You're supposed to care about what guys think of you." They were only into their third month of fifth grade at that time, and Tanaka had the strong urge to point that out to his smart-aleck face. Closing the book gently, so that the binding wouldn't be harmed, Tanaka crossed her arms in front of him and scowled.

"So I look like a ghoul and scare some people off, big deal." She threw away her worries, and crossed her legs then leaned back against her desk in a casual fashion. Tanaka stared down from the window towards the sounds of her laughing schoolmates who seemed to have no care in the world. She rolled her eyes at their childishness and turned away from the distracting noise.

Niou stood up and began picking at strands of her hair, examining them carefully like a scientist would to his newest experiment. Tanaka was about to slap his hands off, when he slowly let go of her locks and pocketed his hands casually then leaned against a nearby desk. He stared at her and in a poker-face said, "Tell you what, you get a haircut and I'll give you a reward."

"I'm not stupid, Haru." She stood up and faced him, her arms crossing themselves, mirroring his own stance. They both glared daggers at each other for some minutes before Niou rolled his eyes back and scowled. "You don't trust your own best friend, Naka? I'm hurt." He teased her, a smirk making its way through his trickster face.

Tanaka looked down onto the floor surrounded by her abnormally long locks, her ice-like blue eyes hidden by her dark brown bangs. "Fine. But I'll get it cut my own way, not yours." She crossed her arms at him, knowing that he won't be able to reprimand the compromise. He shrugged his shoulders in satisfaction and sat back down in his seat, just seconds before the recess ending bell rang and other students began to clutter inside the classroom.

Later that day, Tanaka reluctantly asked her mother to take her to the nearest hair salon, to which her own mother raised a curious eyebrow in surprise. Expecting that particular reaction, the fifth grader merely shrugged her shoulders and resorted to isolating herself inside her room for the rest of the day in solitary embarrassment.

However, the Saturday of that week, Tanaka found herself on a hair salon seat with a smiling hairstylist at her side with a pair of clean cutting scissors. Unashamed to admit it, she did squirm a little in her chair. It had been a long time since she had gotten herself a haircut. But after the hairstylist began cutting long strands of her precious locks, Tanaka knew there was no turning back.

An hour later, she faced a girl with short wavy tresses and side-swept bangs, her own blue eyes staring at her in shock. Lightly touching the tips of her hair (just to make sure that the reflection was not at all an illusion, and in fact, real), Tanaka let out a loud sigh of relief. It wasn't at all as bad as she had spent all of last night thinking. She turned around to face her mother and her opened-jawed little brother (who had, with no hesitation, already began teasing his older sister by the lack of her trademark lengthy hair during the car ride home).

Her mother gave a small prideful smile, and Tanaka couldn't help but smile back. Later that day, she gave Niou a surprise visit, just to see how he would take the haircut he so dearly wanted of her. He did seem a bit awestruck at first, but he had quickly reverted back to his snarky old self in an instant.

In the end, the only reward he had given her was a crumpled piece of paper with the kanji characters of the word "reward" written on it along with a small message saying, "redeem for anything". For some reason, Tanaka didn't at all feel bothered about his lack of sincerity and kept the piece of paper as means of blackmail to use against him someday.

And Tanaka could not wait for that day to come, as she smirked and placed it inside her backpack for safe-keeping. However, much to her chagrin, he had found the note before she could pit it against his trickiness and had permanently gotten rid of it when she had not been looking.

Still today, Tanaka was peeved of this but realized that it's better not to make any more attempts to trick the renowned trickster.


"Tanaka?" The sound of her mother's voice interrupted Tanaka's flurry of memories. Immediately, she sat up and found her mother standing beside her, a hand on the nostalgic teenager's shoulder. Tanaka looked up to see her work-driven mother's worried face. "I'm leaving for work soon, do you want a ride?" She asked patiently, her forefinger dangling the car keys.

Tanaka stood up, gently placing her spoon inside her unfinished cereal. "That's alright, I'll walk." She gave her mother a small smile before scurrying to wash her bowl along with her spoon. Her mother leaned against an armchair and gave her daughter a glance. "You have softball practice today, right?"

Surprised that her mother remembered, Tanaka turned and answered, "Yeah. But I won't be coming home that late." She continued to thoroughly cleaning her used utilities and swiftly dried them before placing them gently into their respective cabinets.

"Oh, good. Because your father and I have a surprise for you and Satoru." Her mother gave Tanaka a mischievous grin, to which the daughter reacted with a taken-aback look. Surprises for the kids usually resulted in something disastrous. Tanaka wouldn't be shocked if the "surprise" turned out to be matching kiddy bikes.

Her mother frowned at Tanaka's reaction. "Trust me, you and Satoru will be enthusiastic about this one." She kissed Tanaka on the cheek motherly before heading out towards the front door and added, as she waved a hand in the air, "Don't forget your mitt!"

"A surprise, huh?" Tanaka mumbled under her breath as she dried her hands. "Drive safely!" She called out to her leaving mother who aired a waving hand again. Tanaka smiled as she quickly ran into her room to get her forgotten mitt and by the time she had swung her back over her shoulder, her mother's car was already gone. She exited the house after making sure that all the doors were locked (something that she had forgotten to do once and had paid the heavy consequence for).

She began walking to school in a much faster pace than usual, and had to dodge through slow walking groups who seemed to purposely block the sidewalks so that others would be late as well (thus sharing the same punishment). Fortunately for Tanaka, her reputation as Ice Princess had some perks. She just had to glare down a few students here and there, and she had a walkway set for her already.

But the good times could only last for so long. Tanaka had arrived at the school gate much earlier than she had thought she would and let out a quick sigh of relief before heading towards the front doors. Much to her annoyance, she was barricaded by a group of chattering girls, one of whom she recognized as one of Konomi's former friends, Tsukiko.

"Could you please get out of my way?" Tanaka said though clenched teeth. Heads turned towards her, and some gave her some dirty looks to which she responded to with a sassy raised eyebrow. Tsukiko turned towards and stepped out from the group. "So the Ice Princess actually has manners?" A unified chuckling ignited from the group behind Tsukiko.

Tanaka crossed her arms and smirked. It worked on Konomi, but if they thought she was fragile too, they thought wrong. "Oh, I do. Self-respect too. Both of which you seem to lack." She brushed past the glaring girl and the mumbling crowd and pushed past the doors.

"You think we don't know about your facade? I bet inside, you're just as "shallow" as all of us!" Tsukiko shrieked, pointing a daunting finger at Tanaka. She had used her fingers to airquote the word, shallow. Others seemed to realize that a fight was initiating, but most ignored them and casually walked by.

Tanaka's smirk grew wider. She resisted the urge to laugh. "You're fighting a losing battle here, sweetie." She tightened her grip around the strap of her backpack and was about to head up the stairs when Tsukiko began to scream about something else. Something that made Tanaka's hand slack away from her backpack.

"You don't think I know about you and Niou-kun! Yeah, that's right! I know about you and him!" Tsukiko yelled, and blocked Tanaka's way from the stairs. She smirked then added, "I saw you throwing notes over to him! I know you like him too! And you say you dislike fangirls, you hypocrite!"

This time, Tanaka did laugh. Inside, she sighed in relief as she realized that they didn't know about her history with Niou nor about what had happened at the rooftop the other day. She laughed at Tsukiko's confused face and at the other confused faces behind her back. "If you want legitimate answers about that, why don't you ask Niou himself?" She chuckled her way up the stairs as Tsukiko remained speechless behind her.

She was midway through the second floor, passing by Niou eavesdropping near the nurse's office, when she heard swift footsteps behind her. Kiseki's concerned face came into view and began shooting an excessive amount of questions, not one of them Tanaka could understand. "Kiseki, what?"

"Why are you messing with the regulars' fangirls?" Kiseki cried out, shaking her best friend by the shoulders and was answered by a frustrating casual shrug. Tanaka gave Kiseki a smile. "Don't worry, Kiseki. They won't harm me." She assured the worried third year.

Kiseki let go of Tanaka's shoulders and leaned against a random classroom's wall. "Naka, they can be very vicious. Remember what happened to me?" She gave Tanaka an anxious look, gripping her backpack's straps. She stared at Tanaka, trying to get through to her the incident that had taken place just weeks ago.

"Trust me, Kiseki. It's not gonna get as bad as that." Tanaka emphasized, making sure that others weren't paying any attention to them. She crossed her arms, and tried to look as rational and as composed as she could. Kiseki sighed at her best friend's unpersuaded face. "I just don't want anything that bad happen to any of you." She hung her head back before continuing into their own classroom.

Tanaka patted her comfortingly on the back. "I have my ways around people. Those fangirls won't be able to lay a finger on me, I promise." They entered their classroom together. It wasn't crowded as Tanaka noticed that both of the class' resident regulars were missing. Ranawa and Konomi were chatting on one side of the room as Tanaka and Kiseki both clattered their bags on their desks.

"We saw what happened down there." Ranawa gestured towards the clear glass window just a foot away from her hand's reach. Konomi looked at Tanaka with the same concerned look that Kiseki had given her minutes ago. "Tsukiko, she didn't do anything that bad...did she?" Tanaka sighed as she leaned against her own desk and saw that Kiseki was emanating the same curious stare as Ranawa and Konomi.

Tanaka rolled her eyes. "Well, she did accuse me of being Niou's fangirl - which kind of bruised my pride a little. But other than that, she didn't say anything else that was remotely hurtful." She gave the three a playful grin but was answered by humorless serious faces. Tanaka gave them a scowl. "What? You wanted an answer, I gave you one."

"Now's not the time to be joking, Tanaka." Ranawa crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the said girl, who rolled her eyes in response. Tanaka crossed her own arms before responding, "I'm not kidding, Nawa. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself." She tried to persuade her fellow 3rd year again, only to be met by clenched teeth and a frustrated reaction.

Ranawa stood up and faced Tanaka. "Remember what happened to Kiseki? We can't have that happening again!" She slammed her hands down on a nearby desk, the noise capturing the attention of random classmates that had just happened to be wandering the room at the wrong time. Konomi jumped at the noise while Kiseki stared down at her desk, trying to stay out of sight.

"I know, Nawa!" Tanaka slipped her hands through her long brown hair and let out a loud sigh as she sat down in her own desk. "I know. And I'll be careful next time." She added, this time a less agitated tone. Both of them had just realized the curious stares that were emanating from other people and quieted down as murmurs and whispers traveled through the hall.

Kiseki finally looked up. "Fantastic. Now we're gonna be the latest topic of school gossip." She pointedly said, running a hand through her own hair. Letting out a loud sigh, she faced the windowsill, shaking her head in annoyance. Konomi, on the other hand, looked at Tanaka and Ranawa. "...I'm guessing this is the wrong time to ask." She softly said.

The timid girl was answered by synchronized nods from each frustrated girl surrounding her.


Tanaka didn't like P.E. It was the only one of the subjects were she was required to participate, which has never actually been a forte of hers. Much more to her dismay, was the fact that they were playing co-ed. The mere thought of having to act like buddies and good teammates with Niou was something she would lose her pride in doing. Ranawa stood beside her, stiff and composed as Tanaka ignored the awkward silence between them.

"Yoshida-san." A captain for one team called out her name and silently, she walked over to him. Tanaka stood in the back, trying to ignore the searing glare emanating from Tsukiko's narrowed eyes. Tsukiko had been chosen as one of the team captains, and Tanaka had a feeling that she knew who the angry fangirl would pick.

Predictably, a happy, "I pick Niou-kun!" Instinctively, Tanaka rolled her eyes as the silver-haired regular slowly walked over to Tsukiko who immediately hugged his poor victimized arm. Another team captain called out Marui Bunta, who cheerfully walked over with arms behind his head.

Konomi and Tanaka ended up on the same team while Ranawa and Kiseki were stuck with Tsukiko as their team captain. Following the teacher's loud orders, the opposing teams walked over their fields. It didn't surprise Tanaka that they would be facing Tsukiko's team. Neither did it surprise her that her team captain wasn't all sporty and had no idea how to kick a soccer ball.

"This is gonna be a long day..." Tanaka complained, tightening her ponytail as Konomi stood beside her and chuckled. Their team captain was now enduring spur-of-the-moment kicking practices from the students who did know how to play soccer. On the other side of the field, Tanaka saw Tsukiko bellowing orders to her flinching teammates. Ranawa and Kiseki were sharing glances as Tanaka mouthed a playful, "Good luck!"

"Shut up." They mouthed back in unison as the whistle blew. Tanaka, who the vice-captain chose as a forward jogged over to the front and faced an uninterested Niou. She raised an eyebrow at him and the silver-haired regular responded with a smirk.

"Think you can take me down, Yoshida?" Niou mocked her, his messy hair messier than usual. She placed a hand on her hip and smirked. "Any day, Niou." The second whistle blew as the ball began to be kicked in all sorts of random directions. All Tanaka could do was keep an eye on it, and make sure it wasn't heading the wrong direction as the ball never really came to her. Niou had moved to the back of the field, playing defense instead of his original position.

Kiseki, who was supposed to be defending jogged forward and bit her lip. "If Shoko was here..." She mused, shaking her head at their yelling classmates who had been stuck in the same part of the field for the past fifteen minutes, kicking the soccer ball to other people's ankles and not caring if they were punting it to their own teammates or their opponents.

"Scary thought." Tanaka replied, and they both chuckled as the ball went out of bounds and a person from Tanaka's team began to throw it over to her direction. "Watch out, Kiseki. I'm a forward." She grinned at her best friend. Kiseki reflected the smirk and replied, "Well, I'm supposed to be defending."

Tanaka kicked the ball lightly through Kiseki's open legs and swiftly moved forward only to find that Niou was guarding her this time. She sighed in frustration as she tried futile attempts to move the ball forward, just to find him returning each kick much stronger than her first.

She ignored the widening smirk on his face as she angrily kicked it towards the wet part of the field, trying to make him slide on the grass and fall over. Niou swiftly followed the ball but slid at a wrong angle and the sound of skin breaking made Tanaka freeze. By the time he stood up, there was an enormous cut on the side of his right leg and several small wounds on his left leg.

"Niou! Are you alright?" She rushed over immediately, as blood began gushing out of his cut in a red consecutive flow. Niou blinked as he stared at his leg and winced as the teacher's whistle blew. A crowd began to emerge around the trickster of the courts as the teacher pushed his way through the muttering students. He knelt down and examined Niou's bleeding cuts.

Standing up, the teacher sighed and said, "Get to the nurse immediately, Niou. Yoshida, accompany him." He gestured for the two to get up from the grass as he blew the whistle one more time. With a loud yell, he barked orders for the games to continue as Tanaka and Masaharu made their way out of the soccer field and into the school buildings.

"I expected you to fall, but not as badly as that." She ran a hand through her hair as he limped his way through the hallways next to her. Niou let out a soft "puri" as Tanaka blinked at his nonsensical sound. They were already halfway towards the nurse's office when he decided to respond to her. "Sadistic, aren't you?"

Tanaka narrowed her eyes. "Not as much as you." A smirk appeared on his face as they neared the health room. "Still, I am sorry about that whole mess." She gestured towards his heavily-bleeding leg and his very noticeable limp.

Niou stared down at her and scratched the back of his head. "This must be the first time you've ever apologized to me for anything." He stated in a dream-like mocking voice. Rolling her eyes, she shoved him playfully as they entered the nurse's office. The nurse was used to terrible injuries and heavy blood loss, so when she started panicking about Niou's leg - Tanaka couldn't help but panic a little inside as well.

"It can't be that bad." Niou told the nurse casually as he sat down on the bed, his leg still suffering from his fall. The nurse turned to look at him and inhaled then exhaled. "It's not your leg I'm frantic about!" She cried out as Tanaka spaced herself away from the distressed nurse.

She went to a corner of the room and asked skeptically, "What are you agitated about then?" The nurse turned her attention to the 3rd year girl who was casually leaning against the office's wall. "My sister - out of all days, is having her baby! And then apparently my husband got into some sort of crazy car accident! And then my weak old mother just has to crash on her way down the stairs to feed the cats!" She shook Tanaka by the shoulders, to which the teenage girl responded with wide eyes and an awkward smile.

"Haru..." Tanaka nervously called out to the tennis regular casually sitting on the bed, watching in amusement as the school nurse physically assaults his best friend. He stood up, the blood flow becoming faster than it already was. "Miss, if you need somewhere to be - go. It's just a cut. I can fix myself up." Masaharu took the nurse by the shoulders and led her towards the door.

She stared at him in incredulous joy. "Is that so? You can really do that? Oh thank you. Thank you so much!" The nurse gave the tall silver-haired regular an enormous hug. Niou patted the frantic nurse awkwardly on the back as Tanaka resisted the urge to physically laugh out loud. "Just go." He ordered, as she swiftly took off her white nurse coat and swung her gigantic tote bag around her shoulders.

Suddenly, Tanaka narrowed her eyes at the tone of his voice. Something was going on here. As the nurse hastily fled the school building, she stepped towards the smirking Niou with crossed her arms. "You knew about that, didn't you?" She coldly asked in an accusatory tone. He turned to her direction and his brow furrowed to imitate innocence.

"About what?" Masaharu asked, crossing his own arms and staring into her icy blue eyes. Tanaka scowled and pointedly told him, "Your voice is lowered, Haru." He raised an eyebrow at this and sat back on the bed, rubbing his hands through his bleeding leg. Or - as Tanaka had just found out, what seemed to be a wounded leg.

She glared at him. "So why did you fake hurting your leg?" Tanaka questioned in a forceful tone. Much to her frustration, he didn't even flinch but instead, stared at her right in the eyes. A concerned look began to spread itself upon his handsome usually-playful face. "What happened between you and my fangirls?" He asked her bluntly, pointedly ignoring her question.

"That's none of your business." Tanaka replied, looking away. She could hear him sigh as he stood up and stared at her until she faced him again. "Ikeda's right, you know? What happened to Shimizu was bad. If the same thing happened to you - " Niou had began saying, pocketing his hands casually as he stared down at her.

Tanaka interrupted him. "How do you what happened to Kiseki?" She narrowed her eyes, clenching teeth tightly.

"Yagyuu's my doubles partner. Of course I know what happened to Shimizu." Niou explained, scratching the back of his head.

Tanaka sighed. "Why did you fake hurting your leg?" She asked again, and this time she made sure he was going to answer her.

"I wanted to talk to you. Personally." He replied.

Tanaka bit her lip. "You couldn't wait until break or lunchtime?"

"My fangirls might not be bright, but when it comes to stalking me - they're geniuses." Niou answered.

She rolled her eyes. "You know, you're the whole reason why they're targeting me?"

"I kinda figured." He shrugged.

Tanaka chuckled. "They think...You would not believe this - they think we're romantically involved..or something."

"Well, aren't we?" He was answered by a hard smack on the back of the head.

Tanaka's face straightened and she cried out, "Of course not! We're not even involved in any kind of way!"

"You'd think being alone in the nurse's room all by ourselves would count as a little bit of involvement..." He thoughtfully responded, a smirk playing on his lips.

Tanaka shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. "I don't get you, Masaharu. Never had and probably never will. You're such an enigma, you know that?" He smiled at this analogy. Sitting back down on the bed, Niou sighed as he wiped the fake blood off of his legs from a nearby tissue box. "You've never told me that." He replied.

"I don't know...You were my first real friend. I guess I didn't want to offend you away." She chuckled as she took a seat next to him and let out a loud sigh. Niou looked down at her and leaned against the wall, stretching his long muscular legs. "You said you weren't sure if a friend is all I could ever be." Tanaka rolled her eyes, remembering that conversation that kept her awake last night.

"But I think you are sure. If you weren't, then why else would you be jealous of me hanging out with all those cheerleaders before junior high?" Niou asked, testing past memories. Tanaka froze and started laughing as hard as she could. "I wasn't jealous! I was being protective of you!" She protested, unable to stop chuckling.

Niou raised an eyebrow. "You can't trick the trickster, Naka. Your parents told me that ever since I "replaced" you with the cheerleaders, you were always so moody and irritated. Would that be protective?"

"Okay - I never said you replaced me with them. And yes! That would be protective. You do know that they were playing you just as much as you were playing them, right?" Tanaka retorted, crossing her arms at him.

Niou chuckled. "Wouldn't it just be easier for you to say you were starting to like me, rather than make up all these nonsensical arguments?"

"I was not starting to like you!" Tanaka glared at him.

Niou's face fell grim. "See? Your pride is always the problem! Instead of just walking up to tell me to stop hanging out with the cheerleaders and to hang out with you instead, you have to act all happy and pleased about it!"

"Do you not know me at all, Masaharu? I'm not a straightforward person. What were you even trying to prove, hanging out with all those cheerleaders, huh? What, Haru?" She stood up, wanting to cradle her head in her arms.

Niou stood up as well and pointedly said, "To prove that I actually meant something important to you."

He looked at her straight in the eyes, a hurt tone in his voice. Tanaka gulped and turned away, running a hand through her hair. She shook her head nonsensically, and ran out of the nurse's room and through the hallways - a headache overcoming her tired body. She ran towards the soccer fields, only to find it empty and she ran back towards the changing rooms ignoring the stares from her classmates.

Kiseki and Ranawa looked down at her breathless figure as she began changing out of her P.E. clothes and into her uniform. Still, his words echoed through her mind. They echoed and they echoed. Even during lunch, she couldn't pay attention. She spent the whole school day, dazed and distracted. Her friends could only look at each other with concern as she tried to slap herself back to reality.

Unfortunately, even that did not help her situation. Tanaka tried to ignore the silver-haired regular as much as she could, but every single second she spent not thinking about his voice and his words, she spent glancing at him. By the time the school bell rang - she was still distracted.

"Tanaka - is it Niou again?" Naomi asked her, her voice filled with worry at the quiet 3rd year girl who so desperately wanted to be shaken out of the spell Niou had put her into. Tanaka could only nod in response.

Shoko appeared next to them and sighed. "That boy really has you wrapped around his finger." That statement definitely snapped Tanaka back into reality. She looked at the taller 3rd year and coldly said, "Take that back." From Tanaka's peripheral vision, she could see Naomi grin and from a few steps behind them, Ranawa and Kiseki chuckle. Shiho's shoulders began to shake as Konomi and Aeha giggled.

"Props to you, Shoko. We've been trying to get Ice Princess back the whole day." Kiseki playfully shoved Tanaka, who rolled her eyes in response along with an angry scowl. Ranawa smirked, as she began to walk beside Naomi. "Ahh. Well, if he's gonna trick his way into Tanaka's heart, let him." She said so in a sing-songy way as chuckles erupted from the group.

"He has no way into my heart." Tanaka retorted, ignoring the loud chuckles emanating from the group which only gradually grew louder.


The sun's heat began to beat itself down onto Tanaka's sweaty back as she was still lost in thought about her entire school day. Suddenly, she found a softball thrown her way and she barely caught it in a swift movement with her mitt.

"Keep playing like that - and you'll be kicked off for sure." A slender redhead jogged up to her, a smirk playing on her face. Her emerald green eyes were flecked with mischievousness. Tanaka sighed as she bit her lip in disappointment. "It's been a tough day. I can't help but be a bit distracted." She explained, wincing inside at how lame-sounding her explanation was.

The redhead grinned. "Happens to everyone, don't worry. Just make sure you don't slack off in front of the co-captains. They're really strict." Tanaka's brow furrowed at this as she swept her hair back into a messy ponytail. "You've played with them last year too?" Tanaka asked curiously.

"This is my second year being in the same rec team with them. Name's Chiaki Suzuki, by the way." Chiaki jerked a thumb to herself as Tanaka nodded.

The Rikkaidai student grinned and replied. "Tanaka Yoshida, nice to meet you. So you go to Hyotei?" Tanaka noticed the large printed badge on the back of Chiaki's purple shirt. The redhead nodded in reply. Curious, Tanaka questioned, "If you attend Hyotei Academy, why are you in a rec team?" They began tossing the softball to each other - moving back a few steps after each successful catch.

"Wanted some variety. I get tired of the rich kid scene." Chiaki shrugged, chucking the ball towards Tanaka who was just a few yards away. She caught it effortlessly as she grinned at Chiaki's reasoning. "What school do you go to?" The redhead asked Tanaka curiously.

Tanaka flung the ball back over to Chiaki. "Rikkaidai." She replied simply.

"Serious? You wouldn't know a Naomi Hayashi, would you?" Chiaki's eyes widened in excitement, a grin spreading itself onto her face. Tanaka looked a bit taken aback and her eyebrows furrowed before a smile replaced her surprise. "Oh yeah. Know her, clean her room for her, baby-sit her siblings for her." Tanaka smiled.

A chuckle sounded from Chiaki as she caught the ball with ease. The two of them took two steps back. "She hasn't changed a bit! And Aeha - is she still a good drawer?"

"She's probably gotten better!" Tanaka called out, grinning as well as Chiaki tossed the ball back to her.

Chiaki beamed. "No way! Oh, man! You have to make Naomi join this rec team. I haven't seen her in ages."

"She's joining the softball club at Rikkai." Tanaka informed Chiaki, before catching the ball again and taking two steps back. She chucked the ball back to Chiaki.

The redhead caught it again and moved backwards along with Tanaka. "Are you in the softball club too? It'd be great to play you guys in an official tournament."

"School clubs aren't really my thing. But I won't forget to tell Naomi about this rec team." Tanaka replied, catching Chiaki's tossed ball. She flung it back over after taking two steps backwards. They were interrupted by a loud yell from the diamond. Jogging over, Tanaka caught sight of the two captains. They were both incredibly competitive and had both intimidated Tanaka during try-outs. Both were brunettes, although the taller one (Sekina) had a lighter hair color and had more of an positive personality rather than competitive.

Shiho was the shorter (although not that considerably shorter) one with a more strong-willed persona and a more quirky attitude. Sekina ordered the group to separate and form two tiny teams. Instantly, Tanaka took a position outfield as Chiaki jogged after her and positioned herself next to the Rikkai student. A petite blond girl's batting form was being examined carefully by Sekina as Shiho jogged outfield and introduced herself personally to Tanaka.

"Hey, I'm Shiho Nakayama. Yoroshiku." She inclined her head politely as Chiaki snickered a few yards away. Shiho and Tanaka turned towards the noise and Chiaki grinned playfully. "Don't let Shiho fool you - she's actually a pretty harsh shebeast inside." Shiho instinctively glared at the redhead, who stuck a tongue out childishly. Tanaka laughed at this exchange as Sekina began examining another girl's batting form. It took a few more minutes for Shiho and Sekina to examine each person's batting form and even more to polish.

They played a scrimage game against another local rec team afterwards and by the time Tanaka was heading home, she had befriended girls from all over Kantou. There was Chiaki and Shiho, who seemed to have known Aeha and Naomi in elementary school. There was Siana and Sekina, the only two girls from their rec team who were attending Seishun Gakuen as well as Kotone from St. Rudolph who was the only other new player excepting Tanaka. Then there was the cocky Ayuko who also attended the rich Hyotei Gakuen but can't act prim or proper to save her life. And the last one Tanaka could remember was Koharu from Yamabuki who had seemed quiet at first but had the driest sense of humor.

As Tanaka waved goodbye to Chiaki who had repeatedly reminded her to invite Naomi to one of the practices next time - she felt as if she was finally at ease and no longer distracted by Niou. Despite not being distracted, she immediately found herself bumping into another person who exclaimed in surprise, "Naka-nee-chan!" Tanaka took her eyes off of the ground as she saw Aeha standing next to a curious Kirihara Akaya.

"Aeha? Why are you with Kirihara?" was the first thing that popped into Tanaka's head and the first question that came out of her mouth.

The 8th grade boy's flushed with redness as Aeha smiled. "I'm tutoring him in English." Tanaka had just noticed the large English dictionary that Kirihara was carrying around. "Ne, Kirihara-kun, there's no need to be embarrassed." Aeha patted her fellow 8th grader on the back, a cheerful smile upon her face as she said so in a reassuring tone.

"Hayashi, sometimes you're just so blunt." Akaya grinned in a childish manner as he scratched the back of his head with one arm while the other held on tightly around the large book. "It's a good attribute to be honest." Aeha responded cheekily, to which she answered to with a playful shove from the seaweed-haired boy next to her. Tanaka grinned as she gripped her bag that was holding her school uniform. "Well, I have to head home. Make sure you don't walk home too late at night."

Aeha smiled back. "Actually, Kirihara-kun's walking me home right now. He says it's too late for me to be walking home all by myself." Her smile turned into a playful scowl, as she crossed her arms childishly. "Which, by the way, is completely wrong." She added to Kirihara who was rolling his eyes at his fellow 8th grader.

"Yagyuu-sempai says to never let girls walk home by themselves." Kiriharu argued, narrowing his eyes at Aeha who was about to retort when Tanaka murmured under her breath, "Wow. A regular who knows how treat girls right - this is a first..."

Aeha chuckled as Tanaka realized just how loudly she had said that and excused herself politely. Kirihara grinned her apology away as he and Aeha began walking around a corner. "See you tomorrow, Naka-nee-chan!" Aeha cheerfully waved back at Tanaka who responded with a hand raised in the air. The 3rd year grinned as she watched the two 2nd years chat animatedly before disappearing completely around the corner.

She was only a few yards away from her house when she was met by a barefoot Satoru jumping up and down like a rabid bunny. He rushed his way over to her, a permanent grin stuck to his face. "Nee-chan! Come on, come on! You won't believe this!" He dragged by the hand as she reluctantly let him guide her into the house. It didn't need to be said that Tanaka was as confused as a panda in a meat factory.

She had just entered through the front door when she saw that trademark silver hair and that cunning sly smirk. Sitting on her living room couch as not only Niou Masaharu, but his younger brother who needless to be said, was Satoru's best friend. Tanaka could only stand frozen, horrified in disbelief. Her parents gave her an entourage of wide grins.

"I told you that you'd like this surprise!" Her mother screeched in her ear.

Her father imitated his wife's smile. "Masaharu and his little brother will be staying here for the next couple of weeks!"

Tanaka's jaw dropped and her bag clattered to the floor. "Kill me now, dear God." were the only thoughts that ran in her mind.


Tanaka's haircut: : / / i 4 2 . . c o m .j p g

Tanaka's current haircut: : / / . / / / % 2 0 - % / . j p g

Just fill in the spaces for the pictures. FF won't let me put the whole url so if you guys wanna see the pictures, you'll have to put a little effort into it. Haha. Anyways, try to remember the softball girls. You'll be seeing them in new fanfictions for other schools soon. :) So far, the school that people want me to write about next time would be Shitenhouji Chuu. As that school is placed in Osaka, I can't really introduce any of the OC's for that school in any of my Rikkaidai fanfics.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's a lot longer than the other ones. I intended for it to be longer than this at the beginning, but I didn't wanna overwhelm any of the readers too much. I do have a more legitimate plot line for all my fanfics, so stay tune for other updates that will be coming up soon. The newest update after this one will probably be for And You Are? as I'm already halfway through the third chapter.

Also, if you guys haven't checked out my profile yet, there's this awesome Q&A fanfic written by one of my most favorite reviewers. It's called Princes' Email by xXRandomnessPrevailsXx. You can ask your favorite princes of tennis your own curiosities and questions. :) Please check out this awesome fanfic.

Well that's all for now. Thanks guys!

Radiance Within