OK, now this part is where the storyline continues in the original series. So there won't be much of Ayame playing tennis until after, it's just gonna be her mostly fooling around while still watching the matches.
Chapter 12: The Nationals
Ayame ran around frantically. The Nationals for the boys' tennis team has already started, and she had come to the second round to watch Seigaku's match against Higa. Ryoma's match had already gone by, and she decided to explore the grounds, only to lose her way around.
Crap! she thought. Where the hell was that court again?
She found herself at another court where another school was playing. She stopped to look around to check where she was.
"Oi, young girl, are you lost?" somebody called to her.
Ayame looked up to see what appeared to be a third year. He had a bandage wrapped around his arm. He was the Shitenhouji captain Shiraishi Kuranosuke.
"Yeah," Ayame replied. "Do you know where the court that Seigaku and Higa are playing on is?"
Before Shiraishi could answer, another third year came up to her. It was Oshitari Kenya, the cousin of Oshitari Yuushi from Hyotei.
"By any chance are you a Seigaku student?" he asked Ayame.
"Yes," she answered.
"Do you know Seigaku's freshman regular?" he went on to ask.
"You mean Echizen Ryoma?" she asked. "Yeah, I know him. He's my best friend."
"Wait, hold up!" Ayame heard one of the Shitenhouji members say. "The super rookie of the East has a girlfriend?!"
Ayame felt great irritation upon hearing that, and she kicked the boy as hard as she could. The boy that she kicked was third year Chitose Senri.
"There's no way in hell I'd be that bastard's girlfriend!" she shouted angrily.
Her sudden, violent attack startled the Shitenhouji members. The second year regular Zaizen Hikaru had managed to take a picture of the attack for his online blogging. Ayame turned to Shiraishi.
"I'm sorry, where's the court that Higa and Seigaku are playing on?" she asked again.
Shiraishi hesitated. He was surprised that the girl talking to him looked like as though she was intending to kill someone for one second, and the next instant she acted like as though she never attacked anybody.
"Oh, it's the court down that way. You shouldn't miss it," Shiraishi finally answered.
"Arigatou gozaimasu!" Ayame said.
She ran at an incredible speed down the way Shiraishi told her to go. The Shitenhouji members stared in stunned silence.
"That was fast," Kenya remarked, paying attention to how fast she could run.
Ayame found the court and the Doubles 2 round was still ongoing.
"Ah, Kanna-san!" Katsuo said as soon as he saw her.
"Where've you been?" Horio asked.
"Walking," Ayame replied. "Oi, Ryoma. There was an Osaka player who wanted to know about you."
"Was there?" Ryoma paid little interest and attention to Ayame's words.
Now that I think about it, why did that guy ask me about Ryoma? Ayame wondered. Heh, but then again, he's the super rookie of Seigaku. I shouldn't be surprised if that was the reason.
Ayame didn't realize the reason was that Yuushi had bragged to Kenya about Ryoma, and Kenya wanted to know who Ryoma was. She stopped thinking about it as she watched the Doubles 2 round. So far she didn't like Higa because of their rough play.
Her hatred for them intensified when Higa member Hirakoba Rin aimed for Coach Ryuzaki. Ayame was about to grab her racket and hit a tennis ball to halt the course of the ball, but she was surprised to see Kawamura running up to the ball and hitting it back to the other side of the court. Soon after, the Higa coach Saotome was going to try to physically beat Ryuzaki. Ayame grabbed her racket and served a ball as a warning shot to him at the same time Ryoma and Momo did.
The round continued like normal, but Kawamura and Fuji were still in a tight situation. Right when it seemed like Higa would win the doubles game, Fuji used Kagerou Zutsumi.
"Fourth counter: Kagerou Zutsumi," he said as he executed the move.
"That's…!" Ryoma exclaimed in recognition.
"That's what, Echizen?" Momo asked him.
Ryoma recalled the match he played with Ayame, as she had used Kagerou Zutsumi against him. However, by the time the club members arrived for morning practice, she had stopped using the move, so they were unaware about the fact that Ayame used the move and that Fuji taught her it.
"That's the move that Fuji-senpai taught Ayame!" Ryoma answered.
The other Seigaku regulars stared at Ayame in surprise.
"What?" she asked, noticing the pairs of eyes staring at her. "He taught me it to conquer my lack of power."
Many of the Seigaku members questioned her when Fuji secretly taught her the technique, but she ignored them. She decided to watch the game as Kawamura and Fuji won.
Singles 2 came around, and Ayame was surprised to see Kikumaru playing.
Wasn't he meant for only doubles? she wondered.
She watched Kikumaru's game against Kai Yuujirou. Halfway through the game, Kikumaru began using his Seal Step to play "one-man doubles". Ayame falls over in shock as soon as she realized that fact.
This match is… super weird… she thought numbly. But whoa, maybe something like that could be useful after all...
Kikumaru barely won the game, and that meant Seigaku has beaten Higa. Doubles 1 began with Inui and Kaidoh as a pair. Ayame watched the match, but immediately decided not to as soon as she realized it was an endurance match (her definition of an endurance match is a long, drawn-out, boring-to-watch match).
If it comes to Kaidoh-senpai, he won't lose anyway… she thought as she walked away and went to look for a vending machine.
Ayame bought herself a cherry-flavored Ponta and wandered around the grounds. She passed by other schools that were playing and glimpsed some of their matches. By the time she got back to the court that Seigaku and Higa were playing on, it hasn't been three full games yet.
At the rate we're going, it'll take all day for this match to end… she thought, wandering off again.
Ayame spent the rest of the Doubles 1 round wandering around the grounds, watching other matches, and sitting down to read. She did not come back to the court until Doubles 1 ended, which took over two hours. By then, Singles 1 was beginning. She knew that Tezuka was playing in that game, and wanted to see how good Tezuka is without his arm injury, as Ryoma told her about the time he played against Hyotei's captain Atobe Keigo and lost partly because of his injury (Ayame had asked, "Why didn't he play right-handed if he's a Nitouryuu player like us?").
Tezuka was playing against the Higa captain Kite Eishirou, and Ayame watched as Kite appeared to be dominating Tezuka. It all changed when Tezuka used what the Seigaku regulars thought was Muga no Kyouchi. Ayame learned what Muga no Kyouchi was when Ryoma learned how to use it. She thought that the one Tezuka was using was a bit different.
Other schools that finished their games came over to watch. Ayame recognized them as Rikkaidai Fuzoku, Hyotei Gakuen, and Shitenhouji (although she didn't know the name of the school yet, she just remembered them as the school that helped her find her way back). While the other schools talked about Tezuka, they mentioned that he was using the Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami, and that it was one of the three doors of Muga no Kyouchi.
Ayame became intrigued about the three doors of Muga no Kyouchi as Tezuka then dominated the match. She stuck around as Seigaku discussed the teams that won the second round. Inui told the team that they would be playing against Hyotei in the quarterfinals, which brought dismay to the whole team. At that point, Ryoma got up and left to look at the stadium of where the finals would be held. Ayame followed him.
They entered the stadium and took a look at the court together.
"Hmm… not bad," Ryoma commented.
"What?! No one's playing tennis here?!" Ayame and Ryoma heard someone shout in surprise.
They looked over to the other side of the audience stand to see a red-headed boy their age, Tooyama Kintaro. Ryoma sighed in exasperation.
"Of course no one's playing here!" Ryoma called. "This is where the finals will be played!"
"I didn't know…" Kintaro said. "Then, will you be playing at the Nationals? I'll be playing too! I'm Tooyama Kintaro! Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!"
Kintaro hopped up and down as he spoke.
"That kid's a little…" Ayame remarked.
"Strange," Ryoma finished for her.
"What an unfriendly guy..." Kintaro commented about Ryoma.
Right then, the rest of the Shitenhouji members came up behind Kintaro.
"That's the Osaka people that I ran into earlier…" Ayame said.
The Shitenhouji members then noticed Ayame and Ryoma from the other side.
"Hey, isn't that the lost girl from earlier?" Hitouji Yuuji asked.
"She said she's a Seigaku student and that she's friends with the person that Kenya-kun was talking about," Konjiki Koharu said. "So wouldn't the person next to her be him?"
"Heh… Are you the Osaka representatives?" Ryoma called over.
"Nerves of steel," Kenya remarked.
"You came all the way here to lose," Ryoma continued.
"Extremely cocky," Zaizen remarked.
Ryoma stared back at them.
"He'll stare you down with his San Paku Gan," Ishida Gin remarked.
"Let's go, Ryoma," Ayame said, turning around.
"Sure," Ryoma said in English.
"An American guy?!" Kenya exclaimed. "Kin-chan, that's him for sure! The strong player from Kanto!"
By then, Ayame and Ryoma were already leaving.
"Wait, Koshimae!" they heard Kintaro call.
"Who's Koshimae?" Ryoma asked Ayame.
"Beats me," she answered with a shrug.
Ayame and Ryoma joined back up with the team and soon went home together.
"You didn't tell me that you could use the COOL Drive!" Ayame said as they walked.
"It was still incomplete during the time we played our match," Ryoma said. "By the way, how did the Osaka representatives know that you're from Seigaku?"
"One of them asked me. Earlier during the Doubles 2 match, I got lost and I ran into them. When I asked them where to find the courts that Seigaku and Higa were playing on, one of them asked if I was from Seigaku. Then he asked me if I knew you, which I did, but one of the other guys thought that we had a relationship."
"And you kicked him?"
"Yeah."
"I thought so."
The next thing that'll happen is that she's gonna be feared in Osaka as well… Ryoma thought as he tried to imagine Ayame kicking one of the Shitenhouji players.
The two friends ended up in front of the Echizen house.
"Well, I'll see you during the quarterfinals," Ayame said as she walked down the road towards her house.
Meanwhile, Zaizen had managed to post a blog about Ayame attacking Chitose, much to Chitose's chagrin when he heard from Kenya about it.