DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS NOR ITS CHARACTERS IN ANY WAY
I'm back! Yeehaw! Sorry for the late update. It was my pre-finals week. So. Many. Freakin. Projects. I hate university. :|
animelover4ever69 - oh, how right you are! Haha. There's more where that came from. The climax will be next chapter. Wait for it, ne? :D
Tokyo Tensai - thank you! Haha. You don't know how right you are about Mizuki. :) Here's the next one! :D
lexibaby214 - haha. Thanks for sticking out with this story! Here's the next one! :D
emliy02, skidney - Thanks for the compliments and the reviews! :D
to the anonymous akiko - here's the next one. Sorry for the late update. :(
Hora! Chapter 10!
Chapter 10: Mizuki Hajime and Akutsu Gin
"Ah, my, what do we have here? A meeting? Are Hyoutei that scared of us? Ufufufu," a violet haired guy said as he and his team went closer to the others, making the Hyoutei members bristle.
"Ano, Mizuki-san, please don't make them mad," Yuuta said as the rest of his teammates shook their heads at the arrogance of their trainer slash regular.
"I am not, Yuuta-kun. I'm merely stating a fact," he said pompously, totally ignoring the icy aura coming from the Hyoutei captain.
"Why you insolent-," Atobe began but stopped immediately when a small petite hand held on his arm.
"Drop it, Kei. This guy's not worth it," Ryoma said as she looked at Atobe sternly. Atobe looked livid, but decided against doing anything, thus causing Mizuki to scoff.
"Hmp. Now, who said that Atobe was the Ice Emperor," Mizuki said scathingly, only to trail at the end when his eyes landed on Ryoma. He stared at her for a moment, causing the girl to shift her glare onto him, instead. This caused Mizuki to snap out of his trance and, surprisingly, his attitude changed.
"Ah. Now I understand. To be able to refuse the request of such a fine specimen as yourself would be a definite blow to his chivalry. Forgive me for speaking such nonsense. As such, would you mind going with me to a cafe near here later as a prize for when we win?" he said, his eyes trained on Ryoma, again not noticing the shocked expressions of everyone around them.
"A-ano, Oishi, is that the same guy?" Kikumaru asked, his jaw scrapping the ground.
"I'm not so sure, Eiji," Oishi said weakly as he assessed his best friend's reaction. Surely, if they were getting somewhere with Tezuka, he would say something right now?
"Ne, ne, Yuushi, can we wake Jirou up so he can kick this guy's butt?" Mukahi's glare was as sharp as his words.
"I think that pleasure would fall upon Seigaku since she's their teammate," Oshitari said quietly, adjusting his glasses.
"Tezuka, can I have the pleasure?" Fuji said as he stepped forward with a scary smile.
Yuuta, upon seeing his Aniki's smile, carefully dragged his other teammates away from their crazy trainer.
"Minna, carefully back away from Mizuki-san. I don't want any of you to be scarred for life," Yuuta said quietly, leading his team away from the chaos.
"Why, Yuuta? What's going to happen?" Yanagisawa, their supposed captain, asked him curiously.
"Nothing anyone should see. Aniki has that smile on his face. You do not want to mess with him if he has that smile. You'll never be the same again!" Yuuta said as they stopped at a considerable distance from the others.
Oh, he knew what happens next when his Aniki smiles like that and it wasn't going to be pretty. He just prayed that Mizuki would still be able to play after his Aniki was done with him.
"Can I help, Tezuka? I have been in need of a guinea pig for my latest inventions. Ufufu," Inui said as he also stepped forward menacingly, his evil smile firmly affixed on his face.
The other Seigaku players were wisely keeping out of the duo's way, the Hyoutei members following tact, with them restraining a very, very irritated diva.
Tezuka looked at Ryoma, waiting for her to consent. The emerald haired female prodigy just stared at Mizuki with hateful eyes.
"You dare ask me out after insulting my friends and my cousin? You. Are. An. Idiot. I already like someone, so butt out! If I hear any more confessions from you, I swear, I am going to make you a woman!" she said with a snarl, causing the males in the vicinity to flinch and cover their private parts from the irate female.
Mizuki just stared at her with a dumbfounded face.
Ryoma flipped her hair and looked at Tezuka with an almost smiling face.
"Let's go, Buchou. Better not get caught with this idiot," she said as she led all of her friends away from the stock still violet haired trainer of St. Rudolf.
Tezuka consented, his lips twitching upwards ever so slightly. Those who were observing his reactions shared a private grin, happy that they were making progress.
"Who taught you that shot, Yuuta?"
Yuuta shivered at the cold tone his Aniki used to address him. He looked behind him to find his Aniki, with a displeased frown, with a scowling Ryoma and a frowning Tezuka.
"Mizuki-san did, Aniki. Why are you so mad?" Yuuta said, his eyes holding a confused light in them.
"Didn't you feel it, Yuuta?" Ryoma asked, her burning gaze directed on Mizuki, who was smiling and giving her flying kisses.
"What?" Yuuta said, moving towards the chain fence, hoping to calm his Aniki down. But when he extended his playing arm, a sharp pain made him hiss and clutch said arm tightly.
"That. The shot places a heavy burden on your arm. Don't use it anymore if you still want to play tennis after this, Yuuta," Ryoma said as he gazed at the stern expression in her face.
"Why do you care? I just met you," Yuuta blurted out, confused because of her concern.
Ryoma blinked at the sudden question. But then, she half-smiled at him, making Fuji blink and Tezuka to gaze at her fondly.
"Because I don't want to see a budding professional ruin his career in front of me," she said as she gazed at the courts, her mind not totally on what she was saying.
Yuuta blinked.
'Well, if this is the girl Aniki and his friends chose for Tezuka-san, I would have to agree,' he thought as he watched Tezuka called her name and she immediately snapped out of her daydream and looked at him.
"Alright. I promise not to use it anymore. Though I will probably lose," Yuuta said as he gazed at his opponent.
"For a narcoplectic, he's really good," he continued as he gazed at the now bouncy boy across the court, talking to Atobe like a kid would to his dad. Minutes ago, the redhead was still sleeping. He never thought that he would be much of a threat. How wrong he was.
Fuji paused in his mental torture of Mizuki and gazed at his Otouto. He'd never heard him say something about someone with that kind of tone. He smirked mentally, preparing to whip up some pretty good plans on how to set up his brother with a certain narcoplectic redhead.
"Game and match! Won by Akutagawa of Hyoutei, 7 games to 5!"
Shouts were heard from the side of Hyoutei and a rousing chorus of "Hyoutei!" was heard through the entire tournament grounds.
Yuuta plopped down on the courts, exhausted but feeling good about the score.
'At least I didn't give up,' he thought mentally, looking at his Aniki to see if he was still mad. To his horror, his Aniki was talking to Atobe with a scary smile on his face.
"Mizuki-san's going to need insurance once Atobe-san's done with him," Yuuta groaned as he face palmed.
"Well, Atobe really cares about you too, you know," a voice said.
When Yuuta looked up, a hand was extended towards him, urging him to stand up. He grabbed the offered limb and stood up. When he looked at the person who helped him up, he was so shocked he was pretty much imitating a goldfish.
"What? Is me talking to you that bad of a thing?" Jirou asked innocently, curious to why Yuuta was pretty much making himself look like a total idiot.
"Err, no. It's just. I was surprised, that's all," Yuuta said nervously, eying the redhead shyly.
"You're funny, Fuji-kun," Jirou said, a bright smile on his face as he looked at Yuuta with glee.
"Err. Thank, I guess?" Yuuta said, his face slowly morphing into an embarrassed one.
"Come on. Let's get out of this court while we still can! I want to watch the carnage Atobe leaves!" Jirou said as he grabbed Yuuta's arm and proceeded to bodily drag him from the courts, smiling all the while from Yuuta's sputtered indignations.
"Singles Two between Mizuki of St. Rudolf and Atobe of Hyoutei will now commence. Will the two players go to the court now."
The two players went to the court. As they faced each other, sparks could clearly be seen between them.
"Is the temperature dropping?" Kawamura asked, shivering slightly.
"Atobe's work, Kawamura-san," Hiyoshi said as he watched the two players try to stare each other down.
"Ah. Atobe. I've gathered all of your data. Let me make my prediction. You'll win the first game easily. Then I'll win ultimately and get my prize from the lovely lady outside of the courts," Mizuki said as he twirled his locks while gazing at the fuming silver haired diva.
"Kei, slit his throat, if you will," Ryoma's voice floated down to the courts, making everyone shiver at the sickly sweet tone she used.
Atobe just smirked at the devastated look on Mizuki's face.
"My pleasure, Ryo."
"Game and match! Atobe of Hyoutei, 7 games to 5!"
"Kyaaa~! Atobe-sama!"
"Atobe! Atobe! Atobe!"
Atobe smirked as he left the courts, leaving behind a severely traumatized Mizuki. When he approached his team, they all smirked at him. Well, excluding Jirou. He was still pestering a red-faced Yuuta.
"Well done, Kei. Though, did you really have to ditch those five games?" Ryoma's voice flitted to them. He turned around to find Seigaku, all smiling their congratulations.
"Of course, Ryo. I had to let him believe that he was correct in his predictions," Atobe said as he smirked at his cousin.
"Arigatou, Atobe," Fuji said, his smile turning dangerous.
"Of course, Fuji. He deserved it," Atobe said, careful not to put more than the necessary fondness in his voice. Fuji would kill him if anyone but those in on their plans discovered that they were together.
"Now, we won our matches, gaki. Wanna bet that you'll lose yours tomorrow?" Shishido said as he smirked down at his adoptive little sister. Ryoma just smirked back, not bothered by the curious stares of the St. Rudolf players and passersby.
"You're on, Ryou."
"I knew it! We shouldn't have put her against Akutsu! She's not strong enough!" Oishi said as they watched a badly bruised Ryoma shakily stand up after being blown away by the force of Akutsu's shots.
They were currently in the match against Yamabuki and things were going great, at first. As usual, Oishi and Kikumaru snagged their doubles game as did Momoshiro against Sengoku. Unfortunately, Kawamura and Fuji lost because of Kawamura's injury, much to Seigaku's dismay. So, the fated Singles Two arrived and everyone had baited breaths about Ryoma going up against the ruthless Akutsu Gin. But then, when Ryoma started out the game by using her Drive A on the bastard, cramming his face spot on, they thought that she had a chance. Oh, how wrong were they.
"Calm down, Oishi-san. You're stressing your heart!" Ootori said worriedly as he watched Seigaku's motherhen twitch in his seat.
What was Ootori doing there? To repay the favour of Seigaku watching their game yesterday, Atobe had the entire team watch Seigaku this day. So, that means that instead of the usual mothering by Oishi, both teams were suffering from the panic overload by both Oishi and Ootori.
"Oishi! Have faith in Ochibi-chan, nya!" Kikumaru said as he hugged the motherhen, which immediately pacified him.
Fuji just chuckled quietly at their antics. Oishi was so obvious with his feelings it's a wonder Kikumaru doesn't see it.
'I wish it could be the same for Tezuka,' he thought as he gazed at the block of a captain. The said captain was steadily watching the match making no move-
'Hold on. Is his hand shaking?' Fuji's eyes opened as he looked at the tightly clenched hand of Tezuka.
'Well, time to up the ante,' Fuji mentally chuckled.
"She really is one of a kind, ne, Tezuka?" Fuji said quietly so that only Tezuka could hear him.
"Aa," he said, not even looking once in his direction.
'Ah. Plan 1, success. Time to move on to Plan 2,' Fuji thought as he excused himself from Tezuka.
Once he was out of earshot of the Seigaku regulars, he whipped out his phone and dialled a number. The line picked up and a female voice flitted through the receiver.
"Hello? Move the date to tomorrow, ne? It seems he's progressing quite nicely," Fuji said , a dark chuckle escaping his lips.
"Ahh. And as for her? What's your plan?" the female voice said, getting quite giggly at the end.
"Well move forward as well. I think she reciprocates," he said as he saw Atobe come towards him.
"Hmm. I'll have to check on that. Thank you for including me in this, Fuji-sempai," the female voice said as she said her goodbyes and hung up.
"Was that who I think it was?" Atobe said once he put his phone back in his pocket.
"Aa. It was. They're ready for it, it seems. How is the match?" Fuji said as he and Atobe went back to the bleachers.
"Take a look for yourself," Atobe said as he pointed towards the court. There was Ryoma, kicking the heck out of Akutsu.
It was not long before the referee shouted that Ryoma won the game. And Akutsu, instead of going berserk, laughed.
"Oy, gaki!"
"What?" Ryoma said, deadpanned as Akutsu came towards her.
"Nice game. Go out with me," he said, smirking all the way. The Seigaku and Hyoutei regulars all looked at Akutsu like he was crazy. And Fuji was chuckling mentally at the dark aura Tezuka was spouting.
"As if. Move. I already have someone in mind," Ryoma said as she made to go towards the others but a hand suddenly grabbed her arm. She looked at Akutsu, her eyes spitting fire.
"Let go," she said, her voice dripping with poison.
"I wasn't giving you a choice," he said, checking her up.
'Why this good for nothing-' Ryoma thought as she tried to pull her arm away from Akutsu's grip, to no avail.
"Let go of my regular," a deep voice resounded, startling Ryoma from her mental tirade. She looked at the source of the voice and found her Buchou, looking like he wanted nothing more than to pummel Akutsu to the ground.
"Buchou," Ryoma said, relieved that her Buchou was rescuing her.
"Let go of this trophy woman? I don't think so," Akutsu scoffed, looking at Tezuka evilly.
"Trophy woman? Who do you think I am, bastard?" Ryoma snarled, trying to knee him in his most sensitive place. Unfortunately, Akutsu had some training in karate and had evaded the blow.
"Enough. Men, arrest this man for harassing my cousin," Atobe's commanding voice said, prompting 20 men in black suits to try and grab him. Note the word try.
"Hahaha. You think you could get me using those untrained men? This trophy woman is going with me. I claim her as mine!" Akutsu said as he made to grab her again, seeing as he let her go when he fended off the men. Only to find his hand knocked away by Tezuka, who moved to shield Ryoma from Akutsu.
"You're wrong, bastard. I'm already taken by Buchou," Ryoma's voice scathingly said, surprising Akutsu. The men took this advantage and got a hold of him and began dragging him away. Akutsu just stared at Tezuka weirdly. Just when he was out of ear range, he shouted a mind-shaking sentence.
"I'll be back to take what is mine, Tezuka. She will be mine!"
Tezuka watched as the men drag Akutsu away from them. Like hell he was going to give Ryoma to that man. She deserved someone better.
'Like you?' his inner voice smugly said, eliciting a sound of approval from Tezuka himself.
'I'll protect her. I'll become worthy of her,' he silently vowed to himself, looking at the object of his affections glaring at the direction Akutsu went.
"Oro. Are you two together, Ryoma-chan? Tezuka?" Fuji asked as the others went towards them, with the matchmakers holding identical grins.
"I said that to fend him off," Ryoma scoffed as she grabbed Tezuka's arm and began to drag him away, the others just chuckling from her antics.
Tezuka just sighed at their teasings. Though no one but himself heard the quietly muttered sentence that had him blushing as red as a tomato.
"Though I wouldn't mind that becoming true."
Jajan! Hope you guys enjoyed that! Oh! The next one would be nice, I promise! Though, if you guys don't really like fluffy stuff, I guess it's not for you. But, meh. Everyone WOULD like to know how they end up together so I guess it's ok.
OKAY! Enough of my ramblings. Read and Review for me to get all motivated to write Chapter 11! :D
