"Oi, Chibisuke, Ryuu, are you guys free the day after tomorrow?"
Ryuusei looked up from her chemistry homework at Ryoga, who had his head poked through the trapdoor entrance of the twins' room.
"Well, I don't think we have anything planned. I mean the final for the district tournament is on Sunday, but we don't have any extra practice the day before since we did so well last week. Why?"
"It's going to be Seigaku's first few official matches, wouldn't you guys want to go support your dear ol' bro?"
"Not really," Ryoma mumbled through a mouthful of cookies. "I mean, it's just the districts right? Monkey King-nii isn't even sending the regulars."
"Well, it is my debut as the assistant coach of Seigaku! You could be more encouraging, Brat!"
"We'll go, Ryo-nii!" Ryuusei quickly interrupted before an argument could break out, pointedly ignoring the long-suffering look her twin threw her way. She wanted to retain her hearing, thank you very much.
"Awesome!" Ryoga exclaimed, before turning to his younger brother. "See, I told you there was a reason why Ryuusei is my favorite sibling."
"Like I care."
Ryoga just shook his head.
"Alright, I'll let you guys finish your homework."
He turned to exit the twins' room, before suddenly stopping.
"By the way, don't underestimate Seigaku. Apart from Tezuka and Fuji, there is a second-year transfer student who has a huge amount of talent on the team this year. He goes by the name of Hashimoto Toshiaki. I would watch out for him if I were you."
Smiling, Ryoga walked back down the stairs, knowing full well that he had intrigued the twins. After all, it's not every day that he compliments someone on tennis, not when he is the son of a former pro, brother to two very talented players, and whose cousin is currently one of the strongest middle school players on the Japanese tennis circuit.
The twins exchanged looks. Though Ryoma's face betrayed no emotion, Ryuusei knew her twin well enough to know that he felt the same curiosity as she did.
"Well," she thought, "It seems that a trip to Tokyo is on the schedule for Saturday."
"Ne, Ryuu-chan, are you doing anything tomorrow?"
Practice had just ended, and as usual the regulars were hanging out in the clubroom before going their respective ways home.
"Actually, yes, Marui-senpai. Why do you ask?"
"Well, me and Niou were thinking of going to the mall tomorrow. Apparently, a new sports equipment shop just opened and we wanted to check it out. What are you busy with? Couldn't you reschedule? We could even go eat cake afterwards!"
"Ah gomen ne, Marui-senpai, but Ryo and I are going to Tokyo tomorrow. We promised our big brother that we'd go support him, since it'll be his debut as Seigaku's assistant coach."
"You are going to watch Seigaku's match?" Jackal asked.
"Yes, Jackal-senpai."
"Hmm…it would be good data. I heard they have a new ace player." Yanagi commented.
"Ryo-nii mentioned something about that. Actually, Ryo-nii doesn't really compliment people on their tennis, but he said that Hashito-something-or-other-san is really good, so we thought it would be worthwhile to go and maybe gather data." Ryuusei grinned.
"My dear!" Niou gasped, horrified, "You are starting to sound like Yanagi!"
"Well," Jackal said, ignoring Niou as usual, "Just don't be too tired that you can't perform your best on Sunday. It is the district final after all, even if there is no challenge."
"Hai, Jackal-senpai."
"Saa, it would be quite a good idea for you to go, then!" Yukimura smiled. "In fact, Genichirou, why don't you go with them?"
Sanada was about to protest, when he saw the slight manic glint in Yukimura's eyes. Though he doesn't understand why Yukimura wanted him to accompany the twins to Tokyo, he knew his best friend to the point that he knew if he protested, bad things would happen. So, he gave an abrupt nod to show his agreement. Yukimura was highly amused.
"You will thank me later, my friend."
The next morning, the twins met up with Sanada, Marui, and Niou at Kanagawa station. Ryoga had left the house early that morning, to accompany Seigaku for registration, even though, just like Rikkai, the first round for Seigaku was a BYE round. Initially, only Sanada was going to go with the Echizens, however Marui and Niou decided suddenly that going to watch their opponents, however crappy they may be, would be fun, and decided to tag along, a fact that already gave Sanada a severe migraine.
"Well, at least Ryuu-chan will be there!" Sanada suddenly caught himself thinking. "Wait…why am I even thinking that?" Just as he was pondering on the situation, he saw the twins walk up to him. Both, like Sanada himself, were dressed in their regular jerseys, something Yanagi had insisted on as he said it would "make the other teams more uncertain and insecure about Rikkai's abilities", which would be a good thing, apparently.
"Ohayou, Sanada-senpai!" Ryuusei exclaimed brightly, while Ryoma just tipped his hat slightly. "Where are Bunta-senpai and 'Haru-senpai?"
Just as Sanada was about to answer, Niou crashed into him.
"NIOU MASAHARU YOU IDIOT!" A pink-haired figure also came sprinting around the corner, and unfortunately also crashed into Sanada. Quickly the trickster and the pink-haired genius scrambled of their fukubuchou, who was starting to fume.
"Tarundoru!" Sanada yelled. Marui and Niou hid behind Ryuusei, knowing full well that the vice captain had a soft spot for the dark-haired tennis player. Ryuusei sighed.
"What did 'Haru-senpai do this time?"
"He stole my bag of sweets and exchanged them for a bag of fake cockroaches!" Marui complained. Niou just smirked.
"Puri~"
As they boarded the train, Niou quietly slipped a bag of candy inside Ryuusei's tennis bag, and gave her an innocent smile when she glared pointedly at him.
Ryoga was watching the Seigaku regulars with a critical eye. Currently the first matches of the day were in progress, and for some weird unfathomable reason, Hashimoto and Momoshiro had asked, no demanded, that he let them play doubles. Even though he had his doubts, he reasoned that even if they did lose, at least the rest of the team would pick up the pieces. It seems that he was right to have his doubts, and he groaned when Hashimoto and Momoshiro collided into each other for the third time in a single game.
"So, this is Tezuka's team huh? I thought you said that the new second year ace is something to watch out for. Doesn't look like that to me."
Ryoga looked up, as all around him whispers of, "Look, it's King Rikkai," were heard. Sure enough he saw his siblings standing with their teammates, in full Rikkaidai outfits, no less, outside the courts. The Seigaku team, at least those who were not on court, stared intensely at the newcomers.
"So, they're the reigning champions, Rikkaidai." Oishi noted.
"Wow, they command such a presence, nya~"
"Even the Emperor, Sanada is here!"
"Why are there two first years?" Kawamura asked.
"I did hear about them. They're apparently Ryoga-sensei's siblings." Oishi supplied.
"Saa, this will be interesting, ne Tezuka."
"Ah."
Ryuusei smiled and walked over to the Seigaku team when she saw Ryoga, dragging a reluctant Ryoma along. Sanada opted to stay where he was, while Marui and Niou had already wandered off to goodness-knows-where. Glancing at the court, she saw two guys, one spiky-haired and purple-eyed, the other slightly shorter, with wavy light brown hair tied back into a ponytail and dark green eyes.
"How're the games going?" Ryuusei asked her brother, hanging off the back of the bench of the players' resting area.
"This is the first one."
"Hmm…that is Hashito-san you've been talking about playing right?"
"Hashimoto, Ryuu, and yes it is. His partner is called Momoshiro Takeshi."
"Seems like they are not well suited to playing doubles."
Ryoga sighed, "You can say that again." Then, he felt the curious gazes of the Seigaku team boring into him. Even Tezuka seemed slightly curious.
"Right, guys, these here are my younger brother and sister!" Ryoga announced.
"Hi! I'm Ryuusei! You can just call me that and don't bother with the Echizen-chan nonsense. It's awesome to meet you all! Ryo-nii told us so many things about you guys!"
"Ryoma." Ryoma said shortly, before turning his attention back onto the courts.
"Waaa, the chibis are so cute!" Eiji yelled. "I'm Kikumaru Eiji, nya~"
After a round of introductions were made, Ryoga announced, "Now you guys better not hit on my sister, or else."
Ryoma actually had to resist the urge not to laugh, while Ryuusei said and punched Ryoga, before turning back to the game.
"Hmm, that's a pretty clever way," She mumbled.
"What?" Ryoga also watched the game, and saw that Hashimoto and Momoshiro were drawing a line down the middle of the court.
"Well, not exactly the way that doubles is supposed to be played, but close enough for a first go."
"Mada mada dane."
Ryoga resisted the urge to groan. Momoshiro and Hashimoto were not doing an especially good job of showing the prowess of Seigaku, and he could see the stern-looking Emperor looking rather dismissively at the game. In spite of his sister's encouraging words, he knew that it was just that, words. The twins made up one of the best doubles pairs he knew of, and he wasn't sure that even Seigaku's Golden Pair would be on par with his siblings. Much to his surprise though, he saw Ryuusei smile knowingly.
"You know, Ryo-nii, you were right. That is an interesting player you have there." Turning, Ryuusei walked off to find Sanada, who was by this time have an intense staring match with Tezuka. Ryoga shook his head. His sister was very generous with encouragements, but genuine compliments from her were few and far in between. Unlike himself and Ryoma, Ryuusei's tennis style required her to have extremely perceptive observance skills, something that she shared with their cousin Atobe Keigo. This meant that Ryuusei often could see things that other people, or even her opponents themselves couldn't. Watching her converse with Sanada, Ryoga wondered, "What did you see in Hashimoto, sis?" As if answering his thought, Ryuusei threw a sly smile at him.
"You know," Ryuusei commented to her senpais while they were eating lunch, "Ryo-nii really has some interesting players."
"Huh? They weren't that good though," Marui said through a mouthful of burgers. "Well, not good enough to beat us at any rate."
"What do you see Ryuu-chan?" Sanada asked the lone girl of the group. Ryuusei thought for a while, mulling over how to phrase her thoughts, before replying.
"They might not be good enough to beat us yet, but I could see that they have great potential, every one of them. When pushed far and hard enough, their performance would be unpredictably amazing."
Ryoma sniffed, "They'll all be mada mada anyways."
"Oi brat, watch what you're saying."
The Rikkai regulars looked up to see Ryoga standing over them, while following behind him were the Seigaku members holding trays of food.
"Hey guys! Don't mind what Ryo said, the games were really well played!" Ryuusei smiled. Niou bit back a snicker. "Well," she amended, stealing a look at Hashimoto and Momoshiro, "For the most part anyways." The rest of the Seigaku regulars had to fight hard not to laugh.
Momoshiro just laughed, "I'm Momshiro Takeshi, as you probably know already, but just call me Momo! I think that Hashimoto and I don't play good doubles, either."
Hashimoto flipped his long fringe out of his eyes and gave a slightly crooked smile, "Hashimoto Toshiaki. But my name is such a mouthful, so just call me Toshi." He extended his hand to Ryuusei, only to find her stare blankly at him. Ryoma nudged his sister, before taking Hashimoto's hand in her place and studying him intently.
"Erm, do I have something on my face?" Hashimoto jokingly asked.
"Ah, gomen," Ryuusei apologized, seeming to snap herself back to reality.
"Echizen Ryuusei, yoroshiku, but then you already know that probably." Like her brother, she studied Hashimoto carefully, finally making the boy squirm. Her teammates looked at her curiously. Why were their babies so intrigued by this Seigaku player?
"Ryuu-chan?" Marui asked.
"Ah, it's nothing Bunta-senpai. Toshi-san just reminded me of someone I used to know."
Ryoga sighed. "Someone you used to know huh, Ryuu? Though I must say I am surprised to see someone who has the same trademark move and smile as him. Teddy Furuji, is this your way of saving my sister or breaking her?"