A/N: Thanks to all those who favourited, followed and reviewed!

Enjoy!


Chapter 9

Getting in the Groove

Tetsuya was frozen in shock.

She couldn't believe what was taking place ―a replica of her friend from another world is asking her to marry him. So shocked she was that she couldn't even reply. Furthermore, because he was not the Ryouta that she knew, she couldn't bring herself to use her magic and send him flying fifty metres away.

"How shameless can you be?!" Shigehiro screeched, brandishing a green coloured whip. Tetsuya was snapped out of her thoughts at this moment. But when Tetsuya looked at Shigehiro, she looked as though she wanted to strangle Kise with her whip. "You've just met Tetsu and you're proposing?! You scoundrel!" Shigehiro continued.

"I'm not a scoundrel!" Kise shrieked in denial. "And I'm not shameless either!"

"Of course you are! Who proposes to a girl they've just met?!" Shigehiro pushed Tetsuya away from Kise and onto Yukio after which she grabbed him in his shirt.

"I may have just met her, but I was friends with Kurokocchi back home!" Kise made an attempt to grab her shirt as well, but restrained himself as he may end up grabbing her breasts. And…he didn't want to be the "accidental pervert" in this story. "Now let me go! Do you want to rip my shirt?!"

"I want to rip you limb from limb, that's what!"

Kise smirked. "Hoh? Bring it!" the blond raged.

Seeing how things may get nasty if he doesn't intervene, King Ryouhei pulled Kise away from Shigehiro.

"Now, now children," he started. "Play nice."

But, only Yukio and Yoshitaka noticed the smug look on the King's face. Turning, King Ryouhei dragged Kise out of the gazebo and said,

"You can't marry Tetsuya for free."

Kise was stumped. "For free? What?" Is he marketing her or something?

The King chuckled. "Let's say she agrees. Are you still going to go back to Earth?"

"Nope!" King Ryouhei's jaws dropped. He never expected that answer so quickly. Kise continued, "I'm going to live until four hundred anyway, and plus, this is a dream come true! Do you have any idea how agonizing it was that Kurokocchi was a male?!" he screeched. "And now, I've finally found a female version to him! There's no way I'm letting her go!"

She isn't even yours, the King blanched. Still, he couldn't help but laugh and pat Kise on his head. "You were bred well, a true Kise."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing."

Kise's face then became saddened. "But no matter what, I'll still want to see my family and friends and play some basketball. I can't just abandon that."

The King twitched. Didn't you just say that you weren't going back to Earth? "Maybe we can work something out." King Ryouhei said with a shrug, beautifully concealing his emotions. "If Ryouji can talk to Ryouta through the magic circle, then…"

Spotting the grin on Kise's face made the King unable to finish his sentence. If only he knew what Kise was thinking…

From that day onwards, Kise's life became even more hectic than when he was on Earth and had modelling and basketball to do. Here, the blond ace had to learn many things about the Kingdom, but what he was instructed to pay keen attention to was the Prince's schoolwork.

For now at least.

Monday

Waking up, Kise found out a frightening truth that nearly made him faint from the shock. The time difference between Sekai and Earth was staggering. Ryouji was the one who let him know this, as he recalled when he had spoken to the other Ryouta, he was in pyjamas while it was still daytime over here.

Sekai had a total of sixteen hours in a single day.

When Kise heard that, he wondered if Ryouji was pulling his leg. Throughout his time here, he didn't think that there were sixteen hours. If anything, the days were so damn long that they felt like an eternity. But then, the next bomb dropped.

One hour in Sekai had one hundred and fifty minutes.

Kise nearly died from the shock. When he tried to work out the math, it roughly meant that for every hour spent in Sekai, about two and a half hours passed on Earth. But that wasn't all; one day in Sekai had two thousand four hundred minutes (2,400), while Earth only had one thousand four hundred and forty (1,440). That meant, Sekai was like Earth but with thirty-three hours.

"Now this is what you call Time Zone Difference." Kise said.

After breakfast, Kise was hauled to the Library by Ryouma and there he was taught the History of Engineering. It was one of Prince Ryouta's subject areas; and surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as he'd thought. Engineering History was just reading about the history of technology, basically. What made it simpler was that some of the technology classed as "ancient" was present in modern-day Japan. Transportation such as aeroplanes and boats (cruise ships, ferries etc), were obsolete from God knows how long (hence the term "ancient") and were replaced by Teleportation circles.

Other forms of transport that were once present in this world were the typical carriages, steam locomotives (that were once prominent during Earth's Industrial Era), Trams etc. But these, after further refinement, gave birth to the current train system which when Kise inquired about it, found out that not even the Shinkansen could best.

After that, he'd have a break but he was viciously dragged to the training room by Ryouji. The older blond wanted to learn the roundhouse tornado kick, however, Kise decided just to teach him Martial Arts. He had a feeling that later on, Ryouji would pester him to learn another move anyway.

After that, he had to learn more about the geography of not only his Kingdom but the other countries as well. Yet again, Kise was amazed, but at the same time, relieved. While the entire continent was Japan, there were a few areas in each country that defied laws of nature and everything else which gave it the fantasy feel that he felt this world lacked.

There were large expanses of forests called the Mizu Forest. These were typically forests with a difference: their trees and grasses were completely water. When Kise saw the corresponding picture, he nearly choked on air. The Mizu Forest had trees, which had branches and leaves per say, but it were evident that they were made out of water. These trees were predominantly found in the Yousen Kingdom.

"Hmm, now you know who never has water shortage." Kise joked to himself.

With his interest piqued, Kise continued to read more about these "strange" landscapes and stumbled upon something even more ridiculous. In Rakuzan, there was a Savannah called the "Fiery Savannah". That area had rain, but, the "rain" is fire. Add to that, the flowers in that area had petals of blazing fire.

Kise paused.

Although he was interested, he decided to leave these landscapes for another day. This was from one extreme to the next, and it was damn scary.

Tuesday

Kise had Spearmanship with the King, which was the only thing that he was looking forward to. While he was still using the Twin Spears, the blond ace found many ways to incorporate his Martial Arts. This made him quite the opponent, since people of this world had no Martial Arts due to Magic.

King Ryouhei was especially glad upon seeing how flexible and adaptable Kise was. When the King showed him videos of what the Prince looked like when he was in action, Kise could only look on in amazement. The Third Prince seemed like a natural whenever he wielded any of his Spears. His movements were so fluid and beautiful, that Kise thought that he was probably doing some ancient Spear dance.

Still, it didn't break Kise's spirit. If anything, Kise felt the need to better the Prince. It was almost as though he was treating this like basketball, the Prince was an opponent that he needed to overcome to win. With eyes ablaze, Kise absorbed everything the King threw at him like a sponge dipped in a bucket of water.

That said, Kise decided to become formidable.

Wednesday

Kise thought that this day would have been just like the rest. However, it turned out to be a disaster.

This particular morning, Kise felt as though his head was on fire. He had woken up in the dead of the night, with a splitting headache. For the entire day yesterday he was fine, and he knew he hadn't received any head injury (King Ryouhei was extremely cautious).

With a groan, he turned on his side towards the bedside table and reached for his phone. Still, his arms were a bit weak, and the phone ended up falling to the ground. Luckily, an indignant Takeo (the cellphone's AI), materialized in his holography in an attempt voice his displeasure of falling to the floor.

But upon seeing the agonized look on Kise's face, he could tell that something was wrong with his owner. Quickly, the miniature AI sent a message to everyone in the contacts, which was limited to the two guards (Ken and Kibou), Ryouma, Ryouji and the King and Queen.

And within seconds, one of the small doors flew open and in came the two guards. Ken quickly checked Kise's temperature and with his element being Fire, he's able to discern when people are suffering from a fever.

"It's not a fever…" Ken said. He then turned to Kibou, "Go call someone. He looks like he's dying."

"Head…" Kise managed to groan out. "…on fire."

"You mean you have a headache?" Ken asked. In this moment, the main door flew open and Kise's new family flowed in with worried looks on their faces. When Ken told them what Kise had said, at first, they were all confused but Queen Ritsuko took swift action. She tried to soothe him with her water magic, Ryouji and Ryouma tried to keep him awake, King Ryouhei immediately wrote up a Teleportation circle to the hospital.

"He'll be fine." Doctor Ayane said. "But it's as Prof. Mashiro said, mana is changing him and the effects are starting to take root." The Kise family let out a sigh of relief.

"So, what's going to be next?" Ryouma asked.

"I can't be sure." Ayane answered with a shake of her head. "He's having these headaches because mana is changing his cognitive capabilities. I don't want to know how he'd react when the rest of his body starts changing as well."

"Oh shit." Ryouji said, covering his mouth in the process.

"Oh shit is right, Your Highness. But one thing I do know is that he won't die. These changes aren't life threatening. You can treat it as the flu or something. He'll be extremely sick, but rest assured, his life isn't in danger."

After that, the family took turns staying in Kise's hospital room as if on night watch.

Thursday

Kise was back to normal, much to everyone's relief. But before he was discharged from the hospital, he was given two sheets of paper, both with math questions by Prof. Mashiro. He'd met Kise before, and this made the blond feel like he was experiencing déjà vu. This happened before when he had first arrived here. But upon receiving the papers, Kise frowned, and proceeded to do these questions. They were the same ones that he'd received prior, but within a flash, he was done.

When Mashiro took the papers, he grinned, and said only one word: "Correct."

But, they all seemed to have not noticed Kise's face.

He wasn't a dunce, but when it came onto math, there was no way he could do two sheets of papers so fast and got all the answers correct. He stared down at his hands in shock. Kise knew his hands weren't what he should be looking at. They had nothing to do with his processing ability, and he wondered just what would happened from here on out.

King Ryouhei had already briefed him that the longer he stayed here was the more he'd become like them, but to think that the changes were already in full swing. Thinking back, Kise realized that the reason behind his 'headache' was the fact that his brain's capabilities were changing. And judging from what he just did, it probably meant that he was ―need he say it, becoming 'smarter'.

Kise didn't know whether or not to be glad or start his fretting.

For one, the Ningen of Sekai weren't like Humans. Sure, they may have similar outward appearances, but God knows what's going on the inside. He had no idea what they're bones were made out of, because whenever he sees his new family in action, they could probably cause a light tremor in Japan with just a punch. All he knew was that these people were rock solid.

Does that mean he'll become 'rock solid' as well?

If that's the case, how will his body react? Will he have muscle aches or something? Kise shook his head to rid these thoughts because there wasn't a single soul that could answer them.

Friday

Yet again, the King dragged Kise's ass to the training room after breakfast. The blond was actually mastering the Twin Short Spears at an alarming rate; add to that, his processing ability had increased. Without even realizing, Kise was becoming quite formidable in Spear Arts (at least with the short spears), and for once, he was being original. There were many times when he'd mix his spear moves with Martial Arts creating a new set of skills.

"He really is a Kise," King Ryouhei had mumbled to himself while wiping away a tear. "No matter which world or dimension, once a Kise, always a Kise." He even started to tear up. "He's beautiful. I can't wait to see in what ways he'll turn into a monster." The King shuddered with delight. "I really need to award his parents."

Saturday

Unlike prior days, Kise's training on this day revolved around the use of Lightning & Thunder magic. While the blond still wasn't capable of casting magic of his own will, he was given another ring which he placed on his left index. This ring was not an inter-spatial device; instead, it contained magic spells that the Prince had known. And this made Kise have to study more as well. The magic spells were voice activated and would only respond to his voice.

As such, Kise has to learn the names of these spells and their uses. It was a pain in the ass since there were tons of them. Ryouma and Ryouji tried to help him in this aspect, but most of the time, they laughed at his misery.

Apart from all this, throughout this week, he found out that between his brothers and his eldest cousin Kouen, there was serious bad blood going on. Dinnertime was always the moment in which the three boys would hurl nasty insults at each other, and by extent, attack each other under the table with their elements (of course when their parents found out they were seriously reprimanded).

While the Kouen of Earth got along with Kise and his sisters, the blond ace still couldn't stand the man. And the Kouen of Sekai was even worse than his counterpart on Earth. Kise decided to make a mental note to steer clear of this one, as God knows what he'll do (or try to swindle).

Kise even met with Yukio and Yoshitaka a lot more, the two felt somewhat guilty for him being here. Yoshitaka was the one who failed to stop the Prince while Yukio was the one who opened the magic portal and told Ryouji to pull him through. Seeing this as an opportunity, Kise got them to help him with using the magic from the ring. Some spells were done smoothly, while some nearly caused the King to hack their heads off.

Still, Kise found his week in Sekai quite interesting.

xxxx

On Earth…[while Kise was learning Engineering]

Ryouta dedicated himself to learn more about basketball. And this time, it wasn't because he's impersonating Kaijou's ace, but he was genuinely fascinated with the sport. Since he had received a suspension, he had all the time in the world to get his skills to the passable stage.

Hakase had informed him that with their team's calibre, Inter-High Prelims should be manageable even if 'Kise' doesn't play. But the Prince had been adamant that he wanted to.

Even Hakase, Takeuchi welcomed him as their manager, assuming that he knew about the sport. The raven-haired boy was no stranger to the team, as Kise had often time hauled him to eat lunch with the team, external matches, and their practices without fail. Hakase was like a member of the team who just doesn't play the sport.

By Wednesday, Hakase made sure to study up about basketball's rules and learn the fundamental formations such a Zone Defence among others. He had even gone as far as to ask his older brother ―Masahiro who plays volleyball, for assistance. And as such, Hakase conducted a session to find out the speed and endurance of the regulars.

He found out that they were all fast, but Kobori, Hayakawa and Nakamura had the highest endurance, while Kasamatsu and Moriyama had the highest speeds. However, when he had reached Kise's house and tested Ryouta on these things, he nearly had a heart attack.

Not only was the Prince super fast, he had endurance with it. Seeing his results, Hakase had decided to test something out. He had been wondering for a while, ever since they went to Akihabara and the incident in the gym.

"Ryouta, what's the heaviest you can lift?"

"Hmm? I don't know." The Prince said innocently. "If I want to lift anything, I lift it."

Hakase sighed. "What's the heaviest thing you had lifted?"

"A fat Bakemono." He deadpanned. He then shivered, "It was fucking gross. I still have nightmares, you know?" He then mumbled.

"And how many pounds does it weigh? Just give an estimate." Hakase didn't want to hear that story. Seeing the Prince's twisted face, he knew it was something unpleasant.

"I don't know." But the Prince picked up on what Hakase was doing or trying to find out. Ryouta then created a magic stepping stone and placed Hakase on it. Without a word, inhaling, Ryouta punched the ground and what happened next, Hakase truly felt like he was going into cardiac arrest.

The entire backyard had a massive crater within, and from the punch, Hakase could see that there were probably shockwaves too. Even their neighbours were screaming, thinking it was an earthquake.

"That's most of my strength." Ryouta said with a grin as he helped Hakase off the magic circle.

"Most? Not all?" Hakase felt a headache coming. "Are you even human?!"

"Of course not." Ryouta answered in a matter-of-factly. He then looked at the crater and said, "I couldn't use all because Daddy will kill me if the house ended up sinking. Or maybe as you said, the government comes for me and treat me like a lab rat."

"You beast." Hakase gawked. "But don't you think that Kise-san will still skin you when he sees his backyard like this?" He asked.

The Prince blinked. "Aliens had crashed here, and I fought them off."

Hakase twitched. "You think he'll believe that obvious lie?!"

"Hey, Sekai has Bakemono so don't be surprised if Earth has aliens."

"And it just so happened that in the 4.5 billion years that the Earth has been in existence, aliens chose to attack the house of Kise Ryouta that has a sixteen year old Prince from another world that can use magic." Hakase argued with an eye roll. "Wow, if you're going to lie, at least make it believable."

"What can I say, I'm attractive." Ryouta smirked while standing akimbo. "Even aliens find me irresistible."

Hakase was not amused. "Quit the bullshitting. You've been reading too much manga."

"I'm not! And plus I―"

"Hai, hai." Hakase cut him off, pushing him into the house. The raven-haired boy never wanted to be seen by anyone in case suspicions should arise. Reaching into the living room, Hakase started up again, "When playing basketball, you'll have to reduce your strength and speed by a lot. And no magic."

"Obviously, I won't use magic. I'm not an idiot." Ryouta said with a hair flip. "But I'll try my best. I'll have to play a game first to see by how much I should restrain myself."

"Playing one game won't suffice. Some teams are fast, some teams aren't. You'll just have to adjust as you go along." Hakase said. "If I could get Aomine's speed then I could just let you use that as a limit. He's the fastest player I know."

"Aomine? As in Daiki?"

Hakase nodded. "You know him?"

"Not personally. But he's the Prince of the shitty country that tried to kidnap me when I was young."

Hakase could see the anger burning in the Prince's eyes. "Why do I get the feeling that in the Tournament you'll stress me out?"

"My dear Scientist," Ryouta cooed as he grabbed Hakase's chin. "As long as I don't see Daiki you should be fine."

"And if you do?"

Ryouta smirked evilly. "I'll be sure to fuck him up nicely."

It was then that Hakase realized that he'd have to tell Kasamatsu and others this. He's in dire need of a "Prince Ryouta Countermeasures Team".

The rest of the week continued without incident, but of course, both Ryouhei and Ritsuko were pissed at what happened to their backyard. But, they couldn't punish the Prince, nor was it Hakase's fault.

One day, Ryouhei had gotten a call from Kise's manager, indicating that he has a photoshoot on Friday. However, Ryouhei lied stating that his son was sick and suffering an illness which he didn't name. There's no way he'd let a catastrophe happen a second time.

That day, when Ryouhei reached home, he wasted no time in telling the Prince about Kise's work. But his reaction stunned the older Kise.

"Yeah. I can handle it. I've done it once before."

Here, Ryouhei was appalled as he never expected a Prince (especially one as feisty as Ryouta) to have been a model. He inquired about it, wanting to know how it came to be.

"Daddy gave me my allowance but I wanted to buy some chemicals to experiment. Their totalled cost was more than my allowance, so I had to find a work to make up the difference."

Yet again, Ryouhei gaped in shock. He couldn't resist asking, "Don't Princes get whatever they want?"

"Not in my Kingdom. Daddy treats us like how a normal commoner family would. We can't be spoilt and take taxpayers money for granted."

"Wow," Ryouhei was surprised at the King's thinking. And looking at Ryouta, it was clear that he wasn't unhappy about it. If anything, he took it normally. With that out of the way, Ryouhei then informed him that these's modelling jobs will be coming in more often starting next week, since he lied about "Kise-kun" being sick.

On Friday, Hakase brought home the regulars of Kaijou. They've wanted to visit the blond from Monday, but due to circumstances, they couldn't. Hakase made sure to prep them before they entered the house, as the Prince was as unpredictable as rain.

However, as soon as they entered the house, there was Ryouta, sitting in the sofa with his legs crossed and arms folded.

"You're late Mahiro." He said, sounding like a mother whose child returned after curfew.

"I had to get the team together." Hakase said as he took a seat beside the blond. When the regulars came into full view, the Prince stared at Hayakawa and Nakamura for the longest while.

"Is there something on our faces?" Nakamura ended up asking after getting irritated by his staring.

"You're Shinya-senpai, right?" Ryouta asked.

"Yes I am. And who told you it was okay to call me by my given name?"

The Prince smirked. "You'll see soon enough." He then turned to Hayakawa. "Who are you?"

That said, everyone's jaws dropped. Even Hayakawa was so shocked that he couldn't even say a word.

"Kise, it's Hayakawa…you don't remember him?" Kasamatsu said in shock.

"That's Mitsuhiro-senpai!?" Ryouta screeched in horror. "What the hell happened to your eyebrows?!"

"Huh?"

"Mitsuhiro-senpai is quite the proper lady, you know? One thing, her eyebrows are always perfectly done." Ryouta ended up blurting.

"EEEHHHH?!"

"Guys, please don't drink anything or eat anything while we tell you the story." Hakase said calmly as though Ryouta hadn't said something strange not too long ago.

So, with that said, Hakase and Ryouta explained their predicament in great detail, and using his magic as backing evidence, it further made their story more believable. The faces of the regulars switched from horror to worry, shock to disbelief, everything one could think of.

"So what are we going to do about basketball?" Moriyama asked.

"No need to worry, Moriyama-senpai," Ryouta said. He clicked his tongue afterwards as calling the shooting guard by his surname was unnatural for him. "I'm learning. By the time the real Inter-High, no one will know the discrepancy between me and your ace."

"Your attitude will be the discrepancy." Hakase deadpanned.

"You just love to burst my bubble, don't you?"

Hakase smirked. But the raven-haired turned to the team, "Really, believe me, he'll be able to play basketball. He's been watching videos."

"How about a round right now?" Kobori asked. "I can teach him a thing or two. Relying solely on videos can only bring him so far."

"I don't have a basketball. I broke the other one." Ryouta said.

The regulars were confused at this. Basketballs are durable balls, how do one break it? Deciding not to ask, Kasamatsu got into the seriousness of the matter. Without hitch, the captain was drawing up teaching schedules. Kise was a small forward, a position which is the most versatile. That meant, the Prince would have to be able to sink threes as effortlessly like Nakamura and Moriyama, he should be able to defend like Kobori, and orchestrate plays like Kasamatsu and get them rebounds like Hayakawa (although no one could best him).

"Who do you take me for? I'll do it. And I'll rock the gym while I'm at it." Ryouta said with a grin.

"Wait, isn't this cheating?" Hayakawa asked. Since he wasn't excited his words have formed quite clearly. "He's from another world, and can use magic."

"It isn't." Ryouta answered. "I'm Kise Ryouta, a first year student. That's not a lie, right?"

"But won't it be unfair to the other teams?" Kobori asked.

"Isn't it unfair that some people are rich and some are poor?" The Prince said. "No one cares about that, now do they? Now let's just get on with our lives and play basketball. It won't be cheating if I play like your Kise would, right?"

"And plus, those Generation of Miracles have superpowers. That's unfair enough." Kasamatsu said with folded arms. "We're not cheating."

"That's my Yukio-senpai!" Ryouta chirped with a bright smile. "So what will you be teaching me?! I'm so excited!" he squealed in delight. Hakase looked at him and shook his head. Sometimes, the Prince really was like his best friend.

"Calm down, let's take this position by position." Nakamura said, he could literally see the happiness oozing out of the blond's body. Ryouta didn't respond, instead, he looked at Nakamura as though he wanted to bore into his soul. "What is it?!" the ash-blond roared.

"The Shinya-senpai I know is a girl." Ryouta replied, stunting the regulars yet again. "Seeing her as a male right now is somewhat strange."

"Wha…?"

"I have a picture of everyone, don't worry." With that, Ryouta took out his phone and showed the team their female counterparts. This action properly sent the entire team into disorientation. Moriyama was the only one who was said that none of these boys were born as females. He kept mumbling that it was a waste.

"Let's get back our plan." Hakase said, trying to get them back to reality. But, it fell on deaf ears. With a sigh, Hakase decided to head to the kitchen to get something for them to eat. He somewhat understood their reactions, as if he was told that back in Sekai he was a hot female, he'd probably lose it too.

Pushing that thought aside, he was more worried about Inter-High. There were many nasty players out there which specialized in provocation and cheating…if the Prince comes in contact with any of those, all hell will break loose.

"Let's just hope that Ryouta will not meet any of them, or in case he does, he restrains himself."


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