Chapter 13
Hinata stopped outside Sanada's house; taking a deep breath and awaiting her doom she pressed the doorbell.
"Late," was the first thing that came out of her former senpai's mouth.
"Sorry," apologized Hinata stepping inside and taking off her shoes. "What's at the top of the '50 ways to die' list today besides being glared at?" she asked, Sanada brushed aside her remark.
"There," Sanada pointed to a bow and arrow.
"Oh!?" Hinata was expecting two wooden swords to be waiting to be splattered in her blood but it seemed fate had turned in her favour. "Easy!" She was the former ace of Rikkai's archery club before joining the tennis club.
"Is that so?" Sanada tossed four weight bands at her. "Two on each arm." Hinata put them on without saying a word, when she was done she stretched, they were lighter than what she initially thought.
"Where's the target?" she asked walking towards the veranda and looked around the garden.
"Far wall," replied Sanada, Hinata's mouth fell open, it was over 50 meters away double her normal shooting range.
"Monster," she muttered under her breath.
"Try some image training first, picture yourself shooting at the target," said Sanada. Hinata nodded reluctantly and raised her arms imagining a long bow in her hands, immediately she realised why he had instructed her to wear the weights, even with the small amount she had on her arms holding them up for a prolonged period of time would be hard, as time passed they would feel heavier and heavier. Without warning Sanada walked up behind her and adjusted her stance, the weights had a greater effect than she thought.
"Your arms are to tense," stated Sanada gently loosening her shoulders.
"If I don't tense, my arms will drop," rebutted Hinata.
"Your body is completely off angle," added Sanada placing a hand on her stomach and turning her torso slightly before kicking the back of one knee gently to prevent her from locking them. "Honestly, you've gotten rusty; did it not occur to you to continue practicing even after joining the tennis club?" Hinata snorted.
"How could I with our ridiculous training schedule?" she asked while Sanada adjusted her outstretched arm bringing it up to eye level. "You know if anyone else touched me like that I'd kick them in the groin."
"And why am I the exception?" questioned Sanada adjusting her elbow.
"Because you're in love with Seiichi-senpai and when you accidently touch my chest I know it was actually an accident," replied Hinata matter of factly. Sanada actually spotted a grin.
"Just start training," he instructed hitting her back gently with the back of his hand.
* * *
"Where were you!?" demanded Marui as Niou walked slowly towards them, his mind was still in a daze after what had happened.
"School," he replied.
"Ha! Funny, tell one I'd actually believe," snorted Marui. Marui, Yagyuu and Kirihara stood outside their Fukbucho's home waiting for him. "How do we get in? The walls are high and we can't exactly sneak in without him noticing, it Sanada he probably has the ability to hear every word uttered in his domain." Kirihara had the sudden urge to run up to the front door and shout.
"Oi! Fukbucho you son of a bitch! Boil up a kettle of tea cuz I'm coming!"
"So, you're the expert what do we do?"
"Go around back, he always leaves those sliding doors open we'll get a better view there," replied Niou. Marui and Kirihara exchanged looks.
"Why didn't you think of that?" asked Kirihara.
"Me? What about you Seaweed head?"
"You're the senpai," rebutted Kirihara.
"Now now children," soothed Yagyuu leading them to the back of Sanada's house. Niou sighed, he should be chasing after Hinata not wasting time spying with a bunch of amateur. Using the weaving pattern in the wooden fence as a leverage they peered over Sanada's fence, the back wall where they stood was far away from the house.
"What is with this house?" whispered Marui. "It's so…so…"
"Sanada-like?" Kirihara finished for him. Marui opened his mouth to say something else but stoped.
"…yeah, for lack of a better word," he agreed.
"Hush someone's coming," said Yagyuu. A female stepped onto the veranda, dressed in the Hyotei uniform she was of Kirihara's height and possessed long black hair, from this distance they couldn't tell who she was.
"Who's she?" Asked Kirihara, just as he spoke Sanada appeared behind her and seemed to have wrapped his arms around her body. Marui's mouth fell open.
"Ha! Can't wait to tell Yukimura that lover boy is cheating on him," smirked Niou. Looking closer Sanada was massaging her neck, his arm reached out to her outstretched hand, it was then he noticed the silver chain bracelet around her wrist. He would recognize that anywhere, it was the very gift all the regulars had pitched in to buy Hinata when she left for Hyotei.
"H-Hinata?" he gasped, he felt as if someone had grabbed his heart and ripped it out of his chest.
"Oh my goodness…" whispered Marui. "This is better than cable."
Niou suddenly felt a rush of air beside him; he turned his head to spot Yagyuu climb over the fence.
"Oi! Yagyuu!" Niou called after him, climbing over as well but just as the four of them hit the ground an arrow flew right past them nicking Niou's shoulder. Red blood began to spread across his white polo shirt.
* * *
"Let me get this straight," said Sanada as the six of them sat on the floors of his home. "You got suspicious because I was being nice, you followed me, you saw Hinata and I and as you jumped down from my fence Niou got struck by one of Hinata's arrows, which by the way hit the target despite the interference. Did I forget anything?"
"Don't forget assuming that we're dating," added Hinata as she dabbed atheistic on Niou's injured shoulder, she shivered at the thought.
"So what was he doing touching you?" demanded Yagyuu. Hinata pointed to the bow and arrow leaning against the wall.
"I hadn't practiced in a long time so I'd gotten rusty, Sanada was correcting my stance," she explained, Niou flinched. "Wuss."
"Hey! This is a very deep wound you know! And whose fault is it that I got it?" remarked Niou.
"Bullshit," replied Hinata. "I've seen paper cuts deeper than this, and I was going to apologise but seeing as it was your fault to begin with, I won't." Niou looked down embarrassed while Hinata began bandaging his shoulder.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"It's fine."
"So, what were you doing here in the first place?" asked Kirihara. Hinata froze.
"Well, Um…."
"She asked me to train her," explained Sanada after a long pause of silence.
"God! Here I thought you'd want to spend less time with the demon," exclaimed Kirihara before hiding behind Marui and Yagyuu from Sanada's glare. Hinata pretended to be focus on bandaging Niou's shoulder.
* * *
"Bye," said Hinata putting on her shoes and walking out the front door.
"Hey! Wait up!" exclaimed Niou, hurriedly putting on his shoes and following her.
"Honestly," muttered Yagyuu preparing to go after them but Marui and Kirihara suddenly grabbed his arm.
"Let's go eat some cake before we got our separate ways!"
Niou walked awkwardly besides Hinata, every time he opened his mouth to speak a tiny voice in his head told him to shut up, why was it that it sounded so much like Kirihara? He did not know…
"Hey," he began. "Well, um…"
"Sorry," said Hinata quietly.
"Huh?"
"Sorry," she repeated this time louder. "I didn't mean to hit you."
"Oh! It's nothing," Niou assured her. "Like you said, paper cut! Paper cut!" She smiled weakly but remained unconvinced. "Hey, so why did you approach Sanada for extra training?" he asked changing the topic. Once more 'Oh!' was all Niou managed after hearing what had happened at Hyotei during her match against Mukahi.
"But I'll tell you the strangest thing," said Hinata. "I have this sudden urge to get stronger, to play…and win. I sound like an idiot don't I?"
"No worse than Akaya," replied Niou smiling. "Wait, you avoided tennis whenever possible last year, that's not fair, why didn't you have this attitude when you were at Rikkai?"
"Meh!"
"Why did you agree to join in the first place? What did Yukimura say?" asked Niou. "He showed you his hidden tattoo that read 'Sanada' or something? Tell you all of Sanada's weaknesses? What? Come one, tell."
"He offered to teach me his tennis style," she answered. "But it was no use, in the end all I managed was the loss of sight and sound, to strip the opponent of touch is really hard."
"Oh!" It seemed the rumours of Hinata having a crush on Yukimura were false after all. All of a sudden he felt like the idiot.
"Niou-senpai," began Hinata looking off into the distance. "Before, when you said my dance lacked a heart, where do you think it went?"
"Huh?"
"Nothing, never mind."
* * *
"Playing as a member of the male tennis club?" echoed Hinata as she packed her bags for the end of class.
"Yeah, instead of having to play alone, you could play in the Kantou with us," offered Ootori. "The inter gender tennis rule was designed to promote female interest in tennis and-"
"I know," interrupted Hinata. "And improve the level of female tennis players right?"
"Yeah, how'd you-?"
"Be cause I know about, I have for a year now," explained Hinata, in response to Ootori's confused expression she gathered her hair up leaving only her fringe down. "Picture me in the male Rikkai middle school tennis uniform, glasses and a wig." Ootori frowned slightly as he did but the image would not appear.
"I don't see your point," he admitted at last.
"Pitiful but this is what it means by a match," she said but her voice was different, lower, more of a male's voice than a female's. Ootori shook his head still confused. "I've played before, in the boy's tennis tournaments, since my surname is Yagyuu I could disguise myself as my brother and enter the match under my name so it was still legal. The referee only calls out the surname so everyone thought I was my brother."
"You serious?" asked Ootori. Hinata nodded.
"The only person I imitate better than my brother is Marui-senpai." To prove it she pretended to be chewing gum and said in a voice that perfectly imitated her senpai. "Tightrope walking. How's that for pure genius?" Ootori couldn't help but laugh.