Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of its characters. I own my original characters though. (Tina is free for adoption, if any of you are interested)

Warning: Contain spoilers for latest manga chapters. Shonen-ai fic. Angst in some chapters.

Pairings: Tezuka X Echizen, Momoshiro X Ann.

(This chapter tallies with chapter 8 of Echizen, Our Buchou)

A/N: The votes have been counted. Here are the results…

Silver Pair11 votes

Dirty Pair21 votes

To be honest, I was relieved that the Dirty Pair had won, as I had just realized I had made another mistake…Ohtori Choutarou was a sophomore in the manga, and therefore he's only a third year junior high student in this story, so the Silver Pair would not exist in this fic. I've already made Kabaji a senior high student in this fic. I'd better stick to the story this round. Choutarou would be facing Ryoma and the rest instead.

Thank you all for your reviews.

Rewriting my plot. So sorry to all those who voted for the Silver Pair. Baka Gwyn. (bonks head).

Alright then. To the story…

Life After Seigaku

By: Gwynhafra

Chapter 10

The district preliminaries for the senior high group looked promising as the day began with clear skies. Several schools were already arriving at the courts.

Gakuto peered around for his fellow club members. Only 6 of the eight regular members were here. Out of the six, he was the only first-year. There were four third-years and one second-year.

Just then, he spotted Oshitari arriving with the former Hyotei regulars.

"You're late, Yuushi!" Gakuto complained immediately, going over to his doubles partner.

The tensai chuckled. "So sorry about that. We had to go pick up a sleeping beauty." He jabbed a finger in the direction of Jirou, who was being carried by Kabaji. The volley specialist was still snoring. Gakuto wondered if the fellow would have a heart attack if he woke up suddenly and found himself no longer in his house.

Yagami-buchou, another third year, arrived not too long later. "Good. All of us are present. We had better make a move now."

"See you guys later." Gakuto waved as both he and Oshitari went off to the registration counter, following the other regulars.

"Let's see the boards. Who know which school we'll be facing." Shishido suggested.

"Usu." Kabaji agreed, still carrying his cargo.

By accident, Kabaji had bumped into another team on the way to the board.

"Watch where you're going, you big ape!" Immediately one of them snapped.

"Watch your words!" Shishido snapped back.

All eyes turned to the cap wearing first year.

"Oh? Isn't this fellow one-half of the Silver Pair? A pity your partner is still in junior high."

"Must be a shame for all of you former Hyotei regulars. Only two had managed to get into the Roshan High regulars, while the rest of you are stuck waving pompoms." Another sneered.

"Yarou!" Shishido, who was known for his temper, seized the other guy by the front of his shirt.

That third-year, who was much taller than Shishido, shoved the cap wearing boy away.

"Don't touch me." He raised his hand to hit the first year...and someone caught it.

"We're not your opponents, Gaki High. If you have something to say, do so when we meet on the courts." Yagami-buchou said sternly, releasing the guy's hand. The regulars came between the rival school's members and the first years, shielding them.

Gaki High's players snorted. They were not crazy enough to challenge Roshan High's captain. "We'll let you off easy then. For now. " They looked at the list to see who their opponent was.

"...Kanto High...Wait a minute. Kanto High would be..." Immediately, the image of a bunch of players wearing muddy brown uniforms entered their minds.

All of the Gaki High players burst out laughing. "Wonderful! We're going against that school of geeks?" their captain Buta said, wiping his eyes.

"Ah. I wonder why they even bother to enter the competitions, seeing their performance last year. They're a disgrace to tennis. I can't wait to see if that whale sized fellow is still their captain this year. The only two players who could actually play last year was that vice-captain of theirs, Kira, and that second-year Yamato. This should be an easy win." Gaki High's vice-captain Tamago said haughtily.

"I've heard that their regulars consist of mainly first-years this round. Could you believe that? They must have set their standards pretty low."

"Ah. Speak of the devils. Aren't those two over there Kira and Yamato themselves?" one of their members suddenly pointed.

The captain and vice-captain squinted. They looked like Yamato and Kira indeed, but their uniforms seemed different.

"We'll see you later, Roshan High." They walked off to their new targets.

"Ne, Yuushi. Should we warn them?" Gakuto asked after a while.

Oshitari gave an evil smile. "Why spoil the fun?"

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The two Kanto High players really stood out with their new uniforms. The white, red and orange colour combination gave off a very lively air.

"I wonder where the juniors are." Kira looked at his watch worriedly. There was still quite some time before registrations were closed, but when he was vice-captain last year, Kanto High was nearly disqualified as the piggy captain had been late. Some of that fear remained in his heart even now.

Yamato patted his shoulder lightly. "Don't worry. Knowing those people, they would be here quite soon. I was Seigaku's captain once, so I know some of their characters."

Just then, they found themselves staring at all eight of Gaki High's regulars.

"Oh? New uniforms? Or did the both of you finally decide to transfer to a new school?" That captain...what was his name again...? Ah yes, Buta sneered.

Yamato merely smiled. Patience had been one of his strongest points, so he did not snap back at them. "Nothing of that sort. We're still in Kanto High."

"Here to lose again? All of you really don't feel any shame at all..." all eight of them laughed.

Yamato had a bitter smile on his face. To discourage the members from joining the tennis clubs, their coach last year had sent them to the competitions, and the humiliation of their defeat (and their uniforms) had made a lot of their members quit.

Just then, Ayaka-sensei had arrived as well. "Oh, you two are early. Is there something wrong?" She directed the question at the Gaki High members, who were all staring stupidly at the pretty teacher the minute she made her appearance.

Of course, she looked so young that all of them thought that she was a student of Kanto High.

Kira immediately shielded her from the sight of the Gaki High students. Some even look close to salivating. "This is our coach, Ishii-sensei." He said quickly.

Before anyone could say anything, Fuji had reached them. "Ohayou." He greeted, and the Gaki High students' eyes widened at seeing that the genius was wearing the same uniform as Kira and Yamato.

"Oh my gourd! Tensai F-Fuji Syuusuke...he's in Kanto High?!" they backed off.

Fuji turned his attention to them. "Oh? Is there a problem with that?" he asked, causing them to back off some more.

Moments later, someone glomped Fuji from behind. "We're here nya! Hope we're not late." Kikumaru said cheerfully.

"We just stopped by Kawamura's place on the way here." Oishi explained. He looked worried at seeing that the Gaki High students were turning blue. "Daijoubu ka?" he asked.

"G-Golden Pair!" they screamed. Did they even have a sliver of a chance?

Asakawa arrived next, yawning slightly. "Ohayou."

A relieved grin spread on the faces of the Gaki High students. Looked like there was hope after all. They had never seen this guy before in any competition. He might be weak.

Kikumaru, who had the best eyesight, squinted at a distance. "Oh. I see a wallet."

Fuji turned to Asakawa. "I think that might be yours."

Asakawa patted his pockets. "You're right." He zipped away and was back a heartbeat later, causing the other school's players' jaws to drop again. Nope. Scratch that. This guy doesn't look so weak after all. He's super fast...

Still, there were only six of them here. Maybe the other two were weak...?

The killing blow finally came...

"Ne. Tezuka. Don't you think ore-sama's uniforms are way better than all these peasants'?" Atobe was looking around, wrinkling his nose every time someone came close to bumping into him.

Kanto High's stoic buchou said nothing, and neither did his expression change. To the Gaki High players' horror, they too were wearing the Kanto High uniforms, except that Atobe's jersey had more glitter. Oh shirt! So Kanto High has not just one, but two National level players...well actually five, since Fuji and the Golden Pair could be considered National level as well.

Tezuka had a knack for sensing trouble, and his stern gaze rested on the Gaki High students. "Stay away from my Kanto High players." He finally spoke up in such a dangerous tone that had some of the other team's players wetting their pants.

"Hai!" they fled, with Tezuka's sharp gaze still burning into their backs.

The eight regulars then made their way to the counter.

"Kanto High School, here with the eight regulars." Tezuka announced to the shocked officer at the counter.

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"Ne. Did you hear? Tezuka Kunimitsu and Atobe Keigo are both in Kanto High."

"Sugoi! Wasn't that supposed to be a weak school?"

Atobe enjoyed the attention he was receiving from all the other schools. Ah yes, be awed by his presence. "Oh! It's Atobe-sama! So cool!" a few girls blushed...and fainted when he blew them a kiss in return.

"Oh! It's Tezuka-sama! He's so cool when he's frowning like that." Tezuka frowned even more at those words.

"Fuji-sama!" another batch of girls squealed, and the feminine looking counter-attacker merely smiled and waved at them.

"We sure are attracting a lot of attention." Yamato chuckled. They were all waiting for their match to begin.

"Tezuka is Kanto High's captain, isn't he? Wait...then Atobe is the vice-captain...Atobe is the vice-captain?! I never thought I'd live to see the day..." the poor passerby was already being strangled by the diva.

"Enough, Atobe." Tezuka ordered.

Kikumaru was now doing a handstand. "Tezuka, who plays singles 1?"

"About that..." Tezuka frowned, recalling the reason as to why both he and Atobe were slower than the others that day.

"Ore-sama refuse to be in Singles 2." Atobe said angrily that morning as he saw the list of players.

Tezuka gave him a calm stare. "The order of players has been set."

Atobe glowered at him. "You did not consult ore-sama about this, Tezuka. Ore-sama challenge you to a match for this."

"We don't have the time for this." Tezuka frowned.

Seeing that the diva was stubborn, Tezuka thought of something.

"Very well. We'll settle this with rock, scissors, paper. Whoever wins would be in Singles 1 for the first match, then we'll switch after that and take turns."

"What's that?" Atobe asked, confused. Was Tezuka asking him to create an origami project?

A/N: I think that's how it's spelt. Origami is the term for craft made out of paper, like a paper airplane, or a paper boat, or a hat etc...Pls correct me if I'm wrong)

It took about two minutes for Tezuka to explain the game. (Atobe: "Hmph! So this must be what you peasants do when you have too much free time on your hands.") It took another minute to convince Atobe to play this 'peasant's game'...and it took just one second for Atobe's rock to kill off Tezuka's scissors...

"Ah. So Atobe is in Singles 1..." Fuji was highly amused. He knew that these two powerful players would be fighting for that spot.

"Aa." Tezuka said.

"I'm surprised that Atobe would play rock, scissors and paper though. I would have thought that it was not your type of game." Oishi pointed out.

Atobe huffed. "What are you saying? It is a very noble game indeed, fitting for my royal blood."

"I wonder if he'll say the same thing had he lost." Kikumaru whispered to Asakawa, and both giggled.

Atobe spotted the Roshan High regulars. "Now if you'll excuse me a while." He went off to talk to his former Hyotei members.

Just then, another bunch of people came to join their group.

"Yo! Tezuka-buchou. We have arrived!" Momoshiro said in greeting.

"Oh? What are all of you doing here?" Oishi asked, seeing all the Seigaku regulars.

Momoshiro nodded in a certain captain's direction. Said captain was now enjoying a can of Ponta. "We're here on someone's orders."

"Our competitions would be starting in 4 days. It will do all of you good to observe the senior high's games. Take it as part of practice." Ryoma said, his golden gaze daring anyone to object.

"Nya Ochibi-chan is just looking for an excuse to spy on us." Kikumaru glomped him.

"Eiji..." Oishi said weakly.

Atobe returned to their group. "Oh? You're here to see ore-sama's beautiful skills?" he smirked.

Ryoma gave him a stare. "Yadda. My skills are way better than yours."

Everyone could already feel a cold wind blow past as the two arrogant players were now engaged in yet another glaring match. Tezuka sighed.

"Enough of this. Everyone, we would be starting our match soon. Warm up." He ordered, walking off to the vending machine to get a bottle of mineral water.

He bought a can of Ponta too, and sure enough, Ryoma was next to him.

"I don't think you have to worry at all. I doubt there's an opponent that can actually match you here, and the only one who can is in your team." Ryoma stated.

Tezuka handed the Ponta over to his boyfriend, who gave his thanks and opened it.

"It's not a good idea to underestimate your opponents, Ryoma." Tezuka scolded lightly.

Ryoma smirked. "I know. Still, I really don't think there is anyone that can beat you here. All the same, ganbatte ne, Kunimitsu."

"Aa." Tezuka felt Ryoma give his hand a reassuring squeeze.

Neither of them noticed the sharp eyes of a certain silver-grey haired vice-captain.

Atobe smirked. So this confirmed the suspicions he had for a while. No one could fool his eyes. This really is getting interesting...

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"We will now have the match between Kanto High and Gaki High." The referee announced.

The Gaki High players were all sweating like a waterfall. Kikumaru gulped. "Oishi. They really take their warming up very seriously, don't they?"

"Aa." Oishi whispered back.

Atobe gave all of them his trademark Ice Emperor stare.

"I've heard that some of you were bullying ore-sama's Hyotei players this morning. You sure have a lot of nerve, eh. Well, ore-sama hope you've bought insurance…"

The Gaki High players were obviously shaking now.

"Buta-buchou. What should we do?" one of the players of the other team whispered.

Buta gritted his teeth. "Looks like we have no choice..."

In unison, all of the players yelled: "We concede this match, as all of us have a stomach ache from food poisoning. Also, we have to go to the hospital, as our coach has just given birth."

All of the Kanto High regulars blinked. "EH?!"

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"Told you there is nothing you have to worry about." Ryoma was trying to hide his laughter.

Atobe was in a very bad mood, for it would be Tezuka playing Singles 1 the next round. To think he had a chance wasted like that.

"I can't believe we won one match just like that. How disappointing." Kikumaru sighed.

Kira frowned. "They said that their coach had just given birth...but...their coach is a guy..."

All of them froze at Kira's words. Even Atobe had stopped sulking.

"EW!" All of them said at the same time. (Minus Tezuka, who doesn't speak as usual)

"I don't want to picture that." Oishi shuddered.

Asakawa got to his feet and stretched. "Oh well. I'm sure the rest of the matches will be better."

Needless to say, with all the energy stored up for the first match, the K-High students creamed their opponents easily. Before long, they had reached the finals of the inter-school games.

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It was the last match, as well as the last day of the inter-school games. This round, Seigaku's regulars were not there, as their inter-school games had already started.

"Listen up. Here would be the order of players. Doubles 2—Fuji-Asakawa, Doubles 1—Oishi-Kikumaru, Singles 3—Atobe, Singles 2—Yamato, Singles 1—me." Tezuka folded the list.

"Eh? Atobe-fukubuchou is in Singles 3?" Kikumaru asked.

Atobe frowned. "Ore-sama am not pleased with this as well. However, their captain Yagami would be in Singles 3, and as ore-sama heard he's very powerful. I suppose he's worthy enough to be ore-sama's opponent."

The diva then studied all of them. "This would be the last match. Don't any of you dare to lose."

A loud cheer from the courts told them that the competitions were about to begin.

"Asakawa, Fuji. Don't let your guard down." Tezuka told them.

"Hai." Both of them replied, heading over to the courts.

"I'm not too worried about the both of them. Even though Asakawa-kun has not been to a tennis competition before, I'm sure his training will pay off." Oishi stated as the four began playing.

"He will need to gain more experience, that's all." Tezuka said, his arms folded as he watched.

The students of Kanto High were cheering their lungs out. Kikumaru pouted at that.

"Mou...it's sad that aside from our own members and Ayaka-sensei, there is no one else to cheer for us." He said.

Oishi smiled. "Most of the students in Roshan High were formerly from Hyotei Gakuen. I thought we all know about their style of cheering."

Seeing that Kikumaru was still pouting, he reached over and ruffled his doubles partner's hair before putting one arm around his shoulders.

"Don't worry. If we perform well in this match, the other students would cheer for us in the next competitions." Oishi said to soothe the acrobatic player.

Ayaka-sensei suddenly stood up from her seat. "That's strange...what is assistant headmistress Kitsune doing here?"

Both Atobe and Tezuka's head turned towards the stands as one. Sure enough, there was no mistaking all that jewelry.

Kikumaru beamed. "Well, while the headmaster is not encouraging our tennis club at all, at least we have our assistant headmistress."

"Aa. We would not let her down." Oishi agreed.

Both Atobe and Tezuka exchanged a dark look. They severely doubted that the headmistress was here to cheer for the club.

The two opponents from Roshan High were power players, and their extremely strong shots were knocking the rackets out of Fuji and Asakawa's hands.

"Now this is getting interesting." Fuji chuckled as the referee announced the 5 games to 2 score, with K-High leading.

"What would you like me to do?" Asakawa asked, waiting for instructions from the far more experienced player.

Fuji thought about it for a moment. "Ne. Asakawa-kun...do you still remember the training you did in week 7?"

"That one? I do. Why?" Asakawa returned the opponents' shots as he spoke.

Fuji smiled. "If he uses that 'Fireball' of his again, counter it with that training of yours."

Asakawa nodded to show that he understood.

Surely enough, after K-High scored several points, one of the opponents suddenly got into the pose of hitting his 'fireball', a powerful shot that was meant to aim near the handle of the racket to knock it out of the opponent's hands. Asakawa saw that and sped off to the back of the court.

"Fireball!" the ball came flying across the court at high speed.

Asakawa suddenly broke into a sprint. Using the sudden burst of speed to gain momentum, he caught the ball and nullified its power, changing it into a lob.

"You're doomed!" the other opponent hit a smash.

"Triple counter: Higuma Otoshi!" Fuji caused the ball to fall behind the two.

"Game and match, won by K-High Fuji-Asakawa pair, 6 games to 2."

As Fuji and Asakawa returned to their teammates, the Golden Pair were already making their way to the courts.

"Let's go, Oishi!" Both of them tapped their rackets together.

"We would win this, Eiji." Oishi agreed.

"Not if I can help it." On the other side, Gakuto stuck his tongue out at Kikumaru.

The two acrobatic players were already sending out a challenge at each other silently, as the four got into position.

"Try hopping higher, Kikumaru." Gakuto sneered as he did a demonstration.

Eiji frowned. He really didn't have that much jump power after all. "Ah, be quiet, Kangaroo."

"Nani?!" Gakuto was miffed as he landed back on his feet.

"Oi, Gakuto. We're in a match." Oshitari warned.

Oishi chuckled. He hoped that their rivalry would not reach Momoshiro and Kaidou's stage.

Oishi served, and all four began to play.

"They've improved." Oshitari noted at seeing the teamwork between the Golden Pair.

"Hoi!" Kikumaru used his acrobatic play.

Gakuto used his Moonsault, flipping into the air and returning the shot. He chuckled as Kikumaru failed to catch it.

Oishi quickly covered for his doubles partner, returning the shot. Kikumaru was already defending the space that Oishi had left unattended.

Roshan High's tensai was faster as he had managed to score first before Kikumaru could reach there in time. "You're too slow." He taunted.

"4 games all!"

As the game proceeded, the Golden Pair's teamwork got better, but so did the Dirty Pair's.

"I'm the better acrobatic player!" Gakuto was now engaged in mid-air combat with Kikumaru.

"So sorry. See you next week! Kikumaru Beam!" the red-haired acrobat had hit his trademark move, scoring them another point.

"5 games to 4!"

Oshitari sighed as Gakuto looked like he was going to explode. "Calm down, Gakuto."

"They're leading, Yuushi! How could I calm down?" the acrobat retorted.

As Oishi hit a shot at him, the tensai got into a very familiar looking pose.

Fuji's eyes opened slightly. "That.'s…"

Oshitari hit a counter that caused the ball to roll across the ground without bouncing.

"Oh great. He's learnt this skill as well, aside from Higuma Otoshi." Kikumaru groaned.

Before long, the two sides entered a tie-break.

"I will not let you win this round, even if Atobe sulks." Oshitari smirked, ignoring a very icy stare from the stands.

The players were breathing heavily from the match…well, all of them except one.

"We'll just have to let ourselves win then." Kikumaru was now flipping his racket, barely out of breath as compared to the other three.

As the game proceeded on, Gakuto began to lose stamina, especially since he was challenging Kikumaru with his Moonsault.

Oishi suddenly began scraping his racket on the ground.

"Moon Volley!" he aimed for the baseline.

Oshitari was there first. "Too slow!" he returned the shot, and was intercepted by Kikumaru.

"Kikumaru Bazooka!" the acrobatic player used the smash he came up with during the Nationals.

Oshitari hurriedly tried to counter with Higuma Otoshi, but his racket was knocked out of his hands instead, as his energy was already low, while Kikumaru's stamina was still high.

"Game and match, won by, K-High's Oishi-Kikumaru pair, 7 game to 6!" the referee announced.

The groans from Roshan High's side muffled the cheers from the few supporters of K-High.

"Good work, both of you." Tezuka said as they returned to the team.

Not too long later, there was a cheer from Roshan High's side as their captain Yagami stood up.

"Yagami! Yagami! Yagami! Yagami!..." all of them began to cheer. However, the cheers died out as Atobe stepped out to the courts.

As mentioned before, Roshan High consisted of many students who were formerly from Hyotei Gakuen. So…

"Kyaa! It's Atobe-sama!"

"What a surprise! He's in Singles 3!"

A new chant began almost immediately. With one half of the audience going "Atobe! Atobe! Atobe!" while the other half went "You're cheering for the wrong person!"

Atobe basked in the attention. He had missed that. His cheering squad in Kanto High was still very small currently, as compared to the crowd he had in Hyotei. He raised a hand and the cheers became louder.

"The winner is Atobe, the loser is Yagami! The winner is Atobe, the loser is Yagami! The winner is…"

Snap

Atobe took off his jersey and flung it into the air before lifting up his racket.

"Ore da!"

Satisfied with the cheers following that exclamation, Atobe looked towards his opponent…and realized that apparently the jersey he threw had landed on Yagami's head. The Roshan captain's current expression was far scarier than a frowning Tezuka.

"Ah. I'll take that back." Atobe took the jersey and flung it to the side of the court. A few of his bodyguards then took the jersey away.

Atobe then pointed his racket at Yagami. "I hope you're around Tezuka's level. Currently, aside from him and Echizen, I don't find many worthy enough to be my opponents."

"We'll see." The very tall, bulky Roshan captain readied his serve.

Atobe still had his smirk on his face. 'Tezuka. This guy had better be as dangerous as you say, or I'll may you pay for putting me in Singles 3.'

When Yagami fired a shot, however, even Atobe was slightly impressed.

For the Roshan captain's shot had left a deep, blazing trail on the ground.

"Oh? That's good. Getting serious even though it's only the preliminaries." Atobe said aloud.

The captain used that serve, which was quite impossible to return, and won a whole service game. Atobe looked like couldn't fight back at all.

Atobe had placed his fingers between his eyes. "Heh. Very interesting. Very well then. Ore-sama would show you my skills."

He fired an extremely deadly serve that Yagami could not return, keeping his service game as well. "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na."

(A/N: Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na: be awed at the sight of my prowess)

"Tannhauser Serve. Looks like you're getting serious."

Before long, they began a match that dragged on. Yagami did not use that serve of his, preferring to test Atobe with his returns. Atobe too compromised by not using the Tannhauser Serve either.

"You may be on the National level, but I will not lose to you." Yagami fired a shot that was similar to Hadoukyuu, but was without the negative side-effects.

Atobe smirked. "Oh? You should be honoured to lose to ore-sama. All peasants do anyway. You're one of the few who could score 5 games against ore-sama."

"I'll wipe that cocky grin off your face." Yagami suddenly hit a topspin that flew over Atobe's head.

Atobe did not bother to catch it. "It would be out."

"Out!" the referee announced moments later.

Yagami frowned. His shot was supposed to land on the borderline, so why would it be out?

"Fuahahahaha! Be awed by my magnificent skills." Atobe crowed.

'You're weak against shots that are directed to your left arm, as you would have to return with a backhand. I can see it all.' Atobe thought.

Surely enough, Yagami lost the match, 7 games to 5.

"How disappointing. Even Tezuka was better competition when he played with an injured arm." Atobe declared arrogantly.

"Atobe. Enough of that." Tezuka chided, hurriedly stepping out to the courts before the Roshan regulars killed the diva.

Tezuka and Atobe both made their way back to their players as some of the audience began to cheer.

"We've won! We've won! We're one step nearer to the Nationals!" Kikumaru cheered.

Yamato beamed at the captain and vice-captain. "Under the both of you, I do not doubt that we would make it into the Nationals."

"Aa." As usual, Tezuka did not say anything much.

Atobe ran a hand through his hair. "That's of course, huh."

Ayaka-sensei chuckled. "Hai, hai. Come on now. Let's return to school for now. Shall we have a little celebration for this? It would be my treat."

Asakawa and Kikumaru cheered, while the others (except Tezuka) smiled.

Fuji wasn't looking at them, as his attention was on the assistant headmistress. Kitsune had gotten to her feet and was smiling at Atobe's back. Though there was something in that smile that made even the tensai shudder.

Pushing that thought aside for now, Fuji went to join his teammates.

To be continued…

A/N: As I've said in Echizen, Our Buchou, so sorry for the late update. Would not be able to update as frequently as I did in the holidays, especially when the assignments start pouring in. Rest assured though, my fic would be ongoing, as I'm not one of those types who would stop writing and abandon the fic halfway. (Unless I get anymore flames again. I've already gotten 1.)

Again, I apologize for the names of the schools and players. I think there is one name in particular which would seem familiar to many of you. Hehe.

Please read and review. No flames please.