From last time…
Flashback
"…Better, the next time you met them, tell them immediately," Fuji said.
End flashback
She looked at the party.
'Here they are. Even Yukimura-senpaitachi.'
She crossed Fuji's opened eyes. He nodded at her.
She took a deep breath.
"Senpai-tachi, I have something to tell you."
If there was a fly flying in the living room, you can heard it because the silence atmosphere was so heavy. It was as they have been frozen in the middle of the space time. And if there were flies in the living, they were likely be eating the said flies because they mouth were hanging wide open. And if someone put a a bomb ready to explose right in front of them on the table, they wouldn't notice either.
They were too shocked by the news. Then what was expected happen. They freaked out.
"USOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (1)" Kikumaru, Momoshiro, Kirihara, Marui and Niou yelled. Their echoed spread throughout the city, in the whole country, the whole planet and into the whole universe.
Kaido, Ooishi, Kawamura and Jackal turned into a block of granite. Inui, Yanagi and Sanada were impassive, maybe too impassive to be normal. Tezuka's and Yagyuu's glasses were blank. Only Yukimura remained normal, though he was shocked for one second.
"No! It can't be! You cannot be a girl, Echizen," Kirihara shouted, pointing at her. "Ah! I know!" He hit his right fist in his left palm. "You're joking! That's it, you're just joking! Hahahaha!" Kirihara laughed manically, as to convince himself of his statement.
"Echizen, you're still sick. Maybe your brain is still not functioning like normal. That's why you have strange ideas," Niou said.
"Like thinking that you're a girl. That's it, you're still not completely recovered," Marui completed, nodding repeatedly.
"Echizen, don't tell me that since the day Fuji-senpai make you wear dresses, you started liking them and now you want to be a girl?" Momoshiro said.
"It's not like that! Damn your twisted brain, Momo-senpai! I am a real girl!" Ryoma shouted.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh! Ochibi, don't tell me that it's because of Inui's juices that you turned into a girl?!" Kikumaru grabbed Inui's collar. "Inui, find the antidote of your poison! This is all your fault that Ochibi-chan turned into a girl!"
"Huh? Me? But I didn't…" Inui denied.
"Kikumaru-senpai, it's not Inui-senpai's fault. I have always been a girl since the day I was born! It just that you didn't know…"
"NO NO NO! It's NOT possible that you're a girl, Echizen! It's absolutely IM-POS-SI-BLE!" Kirihara stated, pointing at her again on each syllable.
"Kirihara is right! There is nooooooooooo way you can be a girl, Echizen!" Momoshiro added, his arms in X.
"And why is that?"
Kirihara and Momoshiro ran to sit each side of her and proceed to explain.
"First, girls has bosom," Momoshiro enumerated on his fingers.
"You're completely FLAT, like every boys," Kirihara nodded.
Twitch. Pop! A vein popped on her head.
"Second, girls are sweet," Momoshiro continued.
"You're short temper and waaaaaaaaaay too cocky for your own good," Kirihara said next.
Twitch twitch. Pop! Pop!
"Girls are cute."
"You have a pretty face for a boy, but you're uncute."
Twitch twitch twitch. Pop! Pop! Pop!
"Girls have manners."
"You are unrefined."
Teeth showing out. Dog growl. Body trembling in fury.
"Girls don't steal people's hamburgers."
"You guzzled your foods like a pig."
A black aura started to take form around her, visible to everyone in the room, excepted for the two guys on her sides.
"Girls are graceful."
"You don't even win against Yukimura-buchou in that field and he's a boy!"
The black aura suddenly expend to cover every corners of the room. Everyone were fearing for Momoshiro's and Kirihara's life by now.
"And on the top of everything, girls have sex-appeal."
"You're unappealing, not attractive at all and you're completely unfemin-! Urgh!"
Ryoma grabbed the two of them by their collar and threw them out.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Momoshiro and Kirihara screamed as they were send flying out in her backyard. "Outch!" They hit the wall, head upside down.
"You two…" Ryoma slowly trailed as she stood facing them. "…HAVE A SERIOUSLY DAMN STUPID ROTTEN TWISTED STEREOTYPED HEAD!" she roared the remaining, her left fist up, fire dancing around her. She was fuming. "Don't think that a girl will want to have a boyfriend like you if you keep thinking that girls are like that! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!"
'So uncute and not appealing at all!' Momoshiro and Kirihara thought, as they slide down the wall to lay lifeless in a bush, eyes twirling.
She turned to face the remaining people in the room. They froze, cold sweat running down their back. She stomped over to stand right in front of them, legs part, fists firmly clutched, flames still dancing around her and in her orbs.
"Do you have anything else to add?" she asked them, menacingly.
Lucky for them, her bangs were hiding her eyes. Otherwise, they will die by her Medusa's glare.
They could heard her understatement saying 'Or you will end like those two out there!' They sweat dropped.
"No no no! Nothing! Nothing at all! Hehehe…" Kikumaru, Ooishi, Marui and Niou answered, shaking their head nervously, hands up in defense mode. Kaido didn't answer, but shook hastily his head too. Jackal, the samw as Kaido.
"That's good…" she said, understating 'That's the good answer to give!'.
'So unlady like and too violent. Maybe she's hanging out too much around boys!' they thought.
However, they knew better not to voice their thinking because they really want to see tomorrow sunrise. They forgot that the said boys are themselves.
And how can they expected a girl not to get furious after being saying things like that?! She really can't understand boys' thinking ways!
"Hum… That would explain a lot of things," Inui said. "First, we never saw you getting changed in front of us. You were always late, but already dressed in your clothes for practice. I thought that you were only shy to change in front of people. Once a month, you will go on rampage. You played more aggressively than Taka-san in burning mode, as if you want to kill someone. You were also easier to provoke. Like that time we were at the hot spring, when you and Kirihara caused a chaos. After one day or two, you will return to your usual normal cool self. Yet, I found it strange that it was always a exact cycle of 28 days. Now, I guess that they were your PMS times. And there was also that time when Ooishi show us a picture of you in a dress. Momoshiro made a comment that you look like a girl."
Flashback
"But Echizen, Eiji-senpai is right! If I didn't already know you, I would really thought that you're actually a girl."
Hearing that, Ryoma froze in horror.
'No, please! Don't let them know!' But immediately return back to his normal-self.
End flashback
"Your reactions were indeed very strange. You look panicked," Inui look at her. "You have a reason to be so. Momoshiro was very near the truth," he concluded.
"Now that you mentioned it, Sadaharu. When we were picnicking in the mountain, I also found it strange that Echizen refused to remove her shirt when she was completely wet. It wasn't a smart thing to do, keeping a soaking wet shirt on yourself when there was a mountain wind. That's why you caught a flu. Me too, I thought that you were only shy to get undressed in front of us. But now I understand why. We would have known your secret," Yanagi added.
There was a moment of silence in the room. Ryoma casted her eyes down. She was too scared to see their deception. But more than everything, she was scare of what expression Tezuka-buchou might have. She clustered her fists under the table.
"Ryoma-chan, why did you cross-dress yourself as a boy?" Yukimura asked her. He immediately caught her to look up because called her by her first name and use -chan instead of -kun. He accepted the fact that she was a girl. But what surprised her more, was that he doesn't seem angry, but merely curious.
"I…" Ryoma stopped. "I only want people to play seriously tennis against me, and not holding themselves back because I'm a girl." She bite her lips. "Oyajii made me join Seigaku because it was a reputed school for tennis, and because it was his old school. But I saw the girl team and they weren't good at all, like the boys team. So I thought that if I pretend to be a boy, I could play in the boy team."
She fight against herself. She cannot tell them the whole story yet. She tried to hold back her emotions, not wanting her tears to escape.
'Ryoma…' Right now, Fuji want to take her in his arms to give her courage.
"I see," Yukimura said, but not totally convinced by her explanations. He saw her reactions. She wasn't lying, but not telling the whole truth either. 'She's still hiding something else,' he thought. But she look hurt. He concluded that it must be something terrible to her. He decided better not to ask her any further more.
"Urgh!" Ryoma struggled. Someone pulled her by the beck of her pyjama.
"Echizen, I'm still not convinced. Show me a proof that you're a girl! Where is your birth registration?" Kirihara shouted in her face. Ryoma covered her ears.
"Alright alright! I'll get it! Wait here!" But Kirihara and Momoshiro tailed her anyway.
When the three of them were out of their sight, Yukimura talked again.
"Fuji, you know the truth about her, right? You didn't look surprised at all when she announced that she was a girl," he said.
Fuji nodded.
"Tell us the whole story," Tezuka said.
Fuji told them what Ryoga told him.
(1) uso: lie, not true.