Chapter 10. Edited on the 28th December 2007.
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The reached the Tokyo Prefecture Matches Meeting Place, but they all noticed their little freshmen genius player was missing. Eiji scanned around with his sharp eyesight.
"Ne, O'chibi's late."
Everyone were near the surrounding fencing of the tennis courts, staring inside. But Taiya felt someone staring at them and turned to get a glimpse of a brown-haired boy, presumably glaring at Fuji's back with determination. A feeling of curiosity washed over her.
'Does he know Fuji...? This is interesting....the tennis genius has enemies...'
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"He's late. What is that Ryoma doing?"
All of the Regulars stood in baited silence as their coach checked her watch.
"If we don't assemble with 9 people by 10am...we'll be disqualified," Fuji said in his soft voice, looking strangely grave. Taiya was silent. Taka-san let out a stuttery gasp.
"Tha...that'll be bad."
"This sucks," Momoshiro sighed.
"What about Oishi?" Tezuka asked the group. "Did he manage to contact Echizen?"
"Doesn't seem like it," Eiji reported with a small frown, next to the open-eyed Fuji and serious-looking Taiya.
"That guy, he just had to choose today to be late."
Inoue and the reporter Shiba started to converse with the group. Taiya stared out to see if any incoming Echizen was coming because if he caused them to disqualify, all her hard work and long weeks of enduring the same gender chasing after her would have been wasted.
"Hey!!"
Everyone turned to see a smiling Oishi waving a hand. "I contacted Echizen!" he stopped in front of the latter and the expression he gave off was so serious, everyone fell silent.
"It seems he helped a pregnant woman who was in labour to hospital."
Silence
Everyone was staring disbelievingly at Oishi, eyesbrows raised and a dumbfounded look on their faces. Taiya fell onto the ground anime style, her leg twitching in the air. The silence was broken by Momoshiro.
"That's a lie, right?"
"Yeah."
"100 percent lie," Kaidoh said gruffly.
"If we wait for him, we won't meet the deadline," Ryuzaki-sensei said exasperately. She started walking away somewhere, having all eyes follow her. "He'll get his scolding later." She unzipped her bag, pulling from it a white cap, identical to the brand Echizen wore. "Anyway, we have to register somehow...."
She scanned the freshmen, before striding towards Horio. "Kaidoh, lend him your jersey!"
"EH?!"
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After successfully being registered in, everyone was doing their stretches, stretching the calf muscles, shoulders, forearms, and back, small huffs every now and then escaping their chests and mouths.
"Even though it's the first round, don't underestimate your opponents!" Ryuzaki-sensei shouted with authority in her voice.
"Yes!"
"Ah, Echizen!" Oishi suddenly said brightly.
"You're late, what were you doing?" Tezuka commanded.
"Just a little warming up."
Ryuzaki-sensei smiled at how well her two new Regulars were fitting in, both whom were children to 2 international tennis players she knew.
But then Ryuzaki-sensei's face creased into a tight frown when she suddenly remembered the Sanzushi family which she hadn't see for several years. Something rather...wrong.
Suddenly the coach's eyes widened in surprise. She cursed herself for her age impairing her memory.
'Sanzushi Ryu's son....Sanzushi Taichi. He should be in college by now. Then...' The Seigaku coach turned and stared at the so-called Taichi conversing animately with the acrobat and close-eyed genius. 'Then who's that in our team...?'
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"Game and match, Seigaku's Echizen!"
"Yay! Amazing, Echizen-kun!"
Everyone already won their matches 6 games to 0. The last one was what made Taiya excited; Tezuka Kunimitsu's match.
When Tezuka approached the tennis courts, murmurs, chats and mutters rang throughout the surrounding, buzzing like bee's around a hive. Taiya felt her eyes widen at the no-touch ace Tezuka made. Actually, nearly all his serves were aces.
"There are very few opponents that'll make Tezuka go all out," Fuji commented, with his hand resting on his chin as he observed the scene before him.
"Whoa, buchou is...awesome," said Taiya in utter amazement.
Fuji smiled as he pointed to himself. "Aren't I awesome as well?" he said innocently with a bright smile. Taiya lightly pushed his shoulder as she grinned.
"Whatever."
'He's almost...flawless. Absolutely, positively flawless....'
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Taiya watched the match between the Golden Pair and some other team from Akiyama Jr High. She was puzzled; some defences were broken down, earning a few weird glances from onlookers surrounding the court. Not only that, Taiya picked up that Akiyama is aiming for the weakest spots of the pair, or at least what she knew of Eiji's weak spots. Just like they did in her game, they gave her a hard time, despite her still winning 6-0.
But it was difficult to climb there. Her weak spots aren't usually known to foreigners such as them. Fuji and Taka-san, who were in doubles, were taking their break after their match.
"Fuji, Kawamura, Sanzushi."
The three turned to look at Inui. "Even though the match ended 6-0, the match lasted quite long didn't it?" he said, not really asking a question, but stating a fact. The three tensed slightly, a frown creased on their expressions.
"Yeah, it was pretty difficult to win," said Fuji, unsmiling.
"They hit at rather hard places to return," Taka-san pointed out.
"Not only that, but it seemed like they had some info on us too, right?" said Taiya softly.
"Game and match. Seigaku, 6-1."
"We won, we won!" Oishi said with a optimistic smile on his face, while Eiji smiled brightly from beside his partner.
"It's hot! Drinks, drinks!"
"Yes! Now it's 3-0. As expected from the Golden pair!" Momoshiro shouted in triumph, glee clearly visible on his tanned face.
"Both of you were careless," Tezuka said stoutly, arms crossed. "Mistakes were clearly noticable."
"They played the kind of tennis I don't handle well," said Eiji, a hint of a frown on his face.
"Same here."
"Again, huh?" Inui said. "They were aiming at spots you weren't good at, eh..."
"The opponents are winners of the District Tournament too. They must have done some research on us," Oishi pointed out fairly.
Inui was silent, but he was caught walking away sielntly around the fencing of the tennis courts. "Hmm, but it sure is hot today...." he stated, disappearing from view. Tezuka and Ryoma both stared from the corner of their eyes at where their manager went. Taiya only took off her jersey and nodded grimly.
"He's right- it is darn hot!" she exclaimed, fanning herself off. Fuji smiled, handing her the bottle marked with her registered school name on it.
"Now, next up is our O'chibi!" Eiji called out, while Ryoma looked away.
"...Yes...."
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Ryoma had won easily, and all the Seigaku Regulars were given a warning to watch out for St. Rudolph.
"They will do anything to win."
During this time, Taiya had bumped into Karushi Sen from Fudomine, the same player that she had went up against only a few weeks earlier
"Sanzushi-san."
"Tai is just fine. No need for formalities please, Karushi-san."
A-aa. Okay. I just wanted to know if your wrist is any better...." Taiya blinked before she smiled, pulling down her wrist-band with her left hand to reveal a perfectly normal wrist.
"It's fine. Don't worry about me; thank you though." 'Nothing to worry about, Karushi-san'. Taiya thought silently as she pulled her sleeve back down over her forearm and replacing her wristband over her invisible injury.
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"Seigaku Regulars gather 'round!" Ryuzaki-sensei commanded. Taiya followed the rest of the group as they grouped together in front of their coach.
Ryuzaki-sensei smiled. "Okay, we're playing St. Rudolph in the quarterfinals. This is the line up. If we win this, we get ourselves a ticket to the Kantou tournament," Ryuzaki-sensei explained. Fuji saw Taichi smile in a funny way but dismissed it.
"Singles 1 - Tezuka."
"Singles 2 - Fuji."
"Singles 3 - Echizen"
"Singles 4 - Taichi." (Taiya: "Don't call me by my full name!!")
"Doubles 1 - Kikumaru and Oishi."
"Doubles 2 - ....Momoshiro and Kaidoh."
Taiya froze. '...What?'
A tense pause followed this as the two mentioned rivals glared at each other in disgust and disbelief. 'With him?!'
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"St. Rudolph Gakuen is gathering all of the famous players in the region." Inui read out from his clipboard. "They are a lot better than what they were last year. Captain Akazawa, who plays singles, is still around. He is a strong opponent who beat our Regular senpai last year. I'm also worried about Yuuta-kun, Fuji's younger brother."
'What the...? Fuji had a brother....?!' Taiya thought, glancing at the everlasting smiling boy from beside her.
"He has been thoroughly trained to attack left handed players." Inui pressed on. "People even started to call him the 'left handed killer'. I heard he's going after his brother."
A tense pause entered the premises. Fuji smiled and lifted his hand up. "But I'm not even left handed," he said, smiling unworriedly. Taiya sweat-dropped at him.
"Yeah, but he could be after Tezuka as well. It looks like their new team manager is controlling them very well."
"Manager?" Eiji repeated.
"Yes, he's a member of the reinforcement group. A pretty tough opponent. The reinforcement group goes to school everyday, but they are so strong that they only go to practice once or twice a week."
Taiya gave a low whistle. "Wow, must be tough."
"Are you being sarcastic again?" Fuji said, amused.
"...What makes you think that?"
This time Fuji sweat-dropped.
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"Sorry Yuuta, your target escaped." Mizuki told Yuuta, who turned his way in heavy disappointment. "Sorry, it seems they didn't want a heavy head-to-head confrontation with brothers."
"But please beat Echizen Ryoma who is in the singles 3 slot." Mizuki readout. When silence greeted him, Mizuki smiled. "Are you listening to me, Yuuta-kun?"
"It's fine, I'll play in the Singles 3 slot," Yuuta agreed rather reluctantly, his face clearly showing he was unpleased. "But if that freshman isn't as good as Fuji Syusuke, I'll be pissed," he commented aggressively. Akazawa walked up.
"But Mizuki, you knew all along didn't you, Seigaku's order?" Mizuki smirked in response. "Geez, you're one fearful guy. But why did you put Yuuta up against that freshman?"
"I investigated his playing experience throughout the district tournament, and it seems he has never played a left handed player before."
"So you're gonna put him up against the left-handed Yuuta, eh? The 'left-handed killer' Yuuta. So does that mean you changed plans on having him face Tezuka?" Akazawa said.
"Exactly. I won't let him play against his brother, Fuji Syusuke. No matter how much he says he wants to. Singles 1 Tezuka is clearly playing his best game. But if he plays against that freshman, we're sure to win." Mizuki assured.
"We'd be at a disadvantage if we have to rely on beating Singles 1 Tezuka. But if we can beat the Golden Pair, Oishi and Kikumaru...we can end this at two doubles matches and 2 singles matches. And for insurance, I placed myself in the singles 2 slot." Mizuki smirked. Akazawa remembered something.
"What about that Sanzushi Taichi?"
"We'll let our power-player Shindou play him. Sanzushi, like Echizen Ryoma-kun, had injured himself in the District tournament. After studying Karushi Sen from Fudomine we can be assured that Sanzushi's injury hasn't fully healed. He is also limited to a few moves which are counterable with a experienced player; the Bounce back serve and the Kibou Henkan. They aren't too much to worry about after the training we went though to teach Shindou seal those techniques."
"Sanzushi Taichi won't last in this match," Mizuki chuckled.
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