Sorry for the late update! I've been really busy these days, and cannot seem to find the time to update ANY of my stories. Also, to answer a few reviewers, I didn't even realise that Tanaka Takahiro resembles the one from Gwynhafra's fic. Anyway, I've already written to him, explaining matters, and I've also read his fic, and if any part of Takahiro resembles his, it is inspirited from his Takahiro.

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of the characters, but the OC characters belongs to me

Chapter Thirty Five: Training

"Wrist weights?"

"Check."

"Lead blocks?"

"Check."

"Tennis balls."

"Check. Though why you want so many is beyond me."

"Ball machines order?"

"Check. Ten in total. The shop owner said that he'll have it sent over to Rikkaidai in ten days."

"I guess that's it for our shopping then."

It had been two weeks after the selection matches for the tennis team of Rikkaidai Fuzoku, and one can find Echizen Rika and Yukimura Haruki shopping for the tennis club, getting some new training equipment for the team.

It was currently late evening, and the sun was about to set. Kevin had volunteered to do the locking up that day for the tennis team since it was usually Rika's job so that the sophomore can set off early with Haruki to get the tennis equipment that they requires, and Kirihara wasn't available to go with Rika as he was called in by his homeroom teacher for some odd reason…

Hence why Haruki was the one who was assigned to go with Rika.

And right now, the poor blue-haired sophomore was currently weighed down with several carton boxes in his arms, blocking his view as he followed Rika – both having came straight from club practice for shopping duty, and was henceforth, still in their school uniforms.

"Anything else, Rika?" asked Haruki as a bell tinkled somewhere in the shop behind them as the door shut, the shop owner bidding them a polite farewell.

"Hmm…" Rika surveyed the shopping list which she had in her hand. "Nope. Doesn't seem to have anything else that we need. Let's head back to the school to drop off the stuff."

"Ara? Rika?"

Rika and Haruki blinked before turning towards the source of the voice – the latter having to put down his stack of carton boxes – only to see that it was the former members of the tennis club from Rikkaidai Fuzoku the previous year, along with a few unknown faces – all currently in their high school uniforms of Rikkaidai High which isn't that much different from Rikkaidai Fuzoku's, except that the ties are in different colours, as instead of it being in striped dark green and silver, it was in dark blue and silver. And the school badge of Rikkaidai High is different as well.

"Sempai-tachi!"

Marui grinned, and popped a bubblegum as he waved at Rika. "Yo!" he said. He then noticed the carton boxes by their feet, and turned towards Rika. "Shopping duty?" he asked, and Rika nodded. "So the club is alright then? That's a relief."

"What about you?" asked Rika with interest. Neither side had any time to catch up with each other ever since the beginning of the year, save for the phone calls and meet-ups that Yukimura and Rika does on occasion, and even then, they never talked about school.

Niou grinned cheekily. "What do you think? All of us got into the regulars in the tennis club at school!" he said, forming the 'V' sign with two fingers. "They are the buchou and fukubuchou of the tennis club in Rikkaidai High." He gestured towards the two by their sides, looking at Rika with interest. "The fukubuchou, Himura Haruka." The fukubuchou was a serious-looking handsome brunette with his hair falling lightly into his green eyes. He nodded to Rika politely. "…and the buchou. Kirihara Akira." The buchou had black hair which frames his face perfectly with emerald green eyes, and he nodded to Rika politely. Somehow, his demeanour reminds Rika of Yukimura himself…

The two middle school sophomores then blinked as the last name of the captain of Rikkaidai High's tennis club sunk into their heads. "Kirihara…Akira?" Both echoed together.

Akira blinked before sighing, and the rest of the former Rikkaidai Fuzoku's third years, and his vice-captain looked fairly amused. "I take it that you've met my brother?" he muttered. "I hope that he is not causing you any trouble. Niou and Marui have both been telling me stories."

"Huh?"

Yukimura chuckled to himself in amusement, and even Yagyuu could not suppress a smirk. "Rika, he's the tennis club captain when we were freshmen in Rikkaidai Fuzoku," explained Marui. "He's Akaya's brother." Marui grinned. "And if Akaya is otherwise known as the 'Devil', Kirihara-sempai is the 'Angel'. They're as different as night and day. He's also a mother hen type like Seigaku's Oishi." He muttered the last bit to Rika.

Rika blinked, thinking to herself that now that she thinks about it, he did looks a lot like Kirihara (Akaya). "I…see…" She then decided to change the topic before turning towards Marui. "So, I take it that all of you made it into the regulars?"

Marui grinned and nodded. "Of course. Who do you think we are?" he scoffed. "All of us made it in. The only seniors are the captain and vice-captain of the team. They've somehow managed to keep their positions."

Haruka coughed politely into his hand. "I'm afraid that the captain and myself won't lose to freshmen, even if you graduated from the sister school," he said. "We have our positions and reputations at stake, after all."

Yukimura chuckled to himself. "Huhuhuhuhuhu!" he chuckled before turning to Rika. "By the way, Rika, there's a certain student in mine and Genichirou's class whom you might be interested to know."

Rika raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The rest of the high schoolers looked on with amusement as Niou resisted a smirk.

Yukimura continued smiling serenely, and Haruki immediately recognised that look on his cousin's face. "Yeah," said Yukimura, smiling. "He goes by the name of Krauser. Liliaden Krauser."

Rika blinked at Yukimura. "Krauser?!"

Haruka and Akira both blinked before turning towards Sanada in unison. "Anything happened between them both?" asked Haruka in bewilderment. "About that Krauser kid and the girl?"

Sanada sighed. "It's a long story," he said.

"Yeah," said Niou, nodding. "He's in Rikkaidai High too, which surprised us, since we thought that he'll go to another school after what's happened…"

"I asked him about it the first day that he appeared at Rikkaidai High," said Marui, turning serious for once. "After that court case with his family involved which hit the headlines of the newspapers in America for a week, he bought a small house in Kanagawa with the money that he's gotten after selling all the businesses and mansions of his family in America which nearly amounts up to 100 billion in US dollars! I don't think that he even needs to work another day in his life with that amount of cash in his bank accounts." He coughed. "Anyway, I asked him why he decided to move to Kanagawa instead of remaining in Aichi, and he told me that you and Kevin were the only ones whom he knew in Japan, and throw the rest of us in, and he's decided to settle down here so that he could be near us."

"I see…" muttered Rika, her brows furrowing together. She has no idea that Krauser is actually in Kanagawa as the guy hasn't breathed a single word about it during all their telephone calls to each other and emails. "Rikkaidai High, huh? He in the tennis club?" She asked, turning towards Sanada and Yukimura.

Yukimura frowned slightly and shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Not this time."

Rika can only stare at her boyfriend. "Why not?" she asked. "He's a pretty good player. He failed in the tryouts or something?"

"No," said Kirihara Akira, speaking up for the first time, and his gentle face had a confused frown upon it. "I was at the Nationals for the middle school tennis tournaments last year, and I saw the match between Rikkaidai Fuzoku and Nadoya Seitoku." He exchanged glances with Haruka before turning back towards Rika. "He's a very good player, I admit that. When he first entered Rikkaidai High, I approached him with an invitation to join the tryouts for the regulars alongside Yukimura-kun and the others. But he declined my offer."

Marui sighed. "We still don't know why he rejected buchou's offer," he said, popping a bubblegum. "In fact, he looks like his dog had just died when buchou approached him in the cafeteria during break that day." Pop.

Rika sighed. "I do," she said, and everyone stared at her. "I didn't think that he was serious about actually giving up tennis, though. I know better than anyone else how much he loves tennis." Seeing everyone's looks on her, she proceeded to explain. "He gave me a phone call about two weeks before the start of the new school year. He told me that he wanted to drop tennis for awhile so that he can get over Yuki's death. She's the reason why he even took on tennis in the first place, after all."

Jackal frowned. "Should we try to convince him to join the team?" he asked carefully. The Brazilian knew better than anyone else what loneliness is since he's gone through that when he first arrived in Japan until he joined the tennis team and befriended Marui and the others. And from what that he's seen of Krauser, he don't doubt that Krauser even had a single friend as he always saw the blonde alone, avoiding his fan-girls. The only ones who even tried to talk to him are the former tennis regulars of Rikkaidai Fuzoku, and that's only because they knew him through Rika.

Rika sighed and shook her head. "No. Just leave him alone for awhile," she said. "I know Krauser. He's stubborn. To the point of being obstinate. Once he had his mind made up, nothing short of making Mount Fuji erupt will make him change his mind."

Marui and Niou sweat dropped. "You're exaggerating," said Niou.

Rika sighed. "No, I'm not," she said. "Just be his friend. I can't because we're in different schools. That's all that you can do to help him." Rika sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "He just needs time in order to heal."

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Next Day:

Early the next morning, nearly two hours before the start of lessons can find Rika unlocking the tennis clubroom of the boys' tennis team, with Kevin helping her with the cleaning up of the courts as she tidied the clubroom.

It was part of her duties as vice-captain, especially since Kirihara cannot seem to wake up early to save his life. There isn't a single soul in the school, except perhaps for the captain of the girls' tennis team who is a tennis maniac like Rika herself.

Just as Rika exited out from the tennis clubroom, stretching a little, already dressed in her tennis jersey with her tennis racquet under one arm, ready to have a match with Kevin before the rest of the team arrives for their morning practice, a shout interrupted her train of thoughts.

"Rika-sempai!"

Rika turned only to see Seika running up to her with a girl with purple hair reaching to her shoulders and gray eyes beside her. Rika smiled a little. "Seika," she greeted. "Morning training?"

Seika nodded. "Ishigawa-buchou is a slave driver." She nearly whined, and Rika chuckled. The current captain of the girls' tennis team – Ishigawa Saya – makes Sanada and Yanagi combined look like angels during training. Seika then perked up. "But still, she said that I'm getting better at tennis techniques and moves!"

Rika laughed. "Ishigawa-sempai is a tough taskmistress, but she's a good captain and trainer," she said. She then looked at the girl standing beside Seika. "Is that your friend?"

Seika looked at the girl and back to Rika. "How rude of me!" she nearly exclaimed before pushing her friend forwards. "Rika-sempai, this is my best friend. We're in the same class together, and we're in the tennis team as well. Yagyuu Yurika."

Rika blinked. "Yagyuu?" she echoed before looking at Yurika who looked rather embarrassed. "Are you Yagyuu-sempai's younger sister?"

"Hai, Rika-sempai," said Yurika.

"Oi! Rika! What's taking you so long?!" Kevin's irritable voice sounded just then as he rounded around the corner. "Are you coming…or…not…?"

Kevin trailed off as he laid eyes on Yurika, and for a moment, he seemed almost dumbstruck. Yurika blinked as she caught sight of Kevin as well. "Sempai?"

"Yurika-chan?"

Seika blinked and looked from one to the other. "Do the two of you know each other?" she asked, looking from Kevin to Yurika and back again.

Yurika nodded, turning towards her friend. "He's the sempai that I told you about who saved me from those bullies."

Seika didn't look pleased. "They're after you again?" she asked, frowning. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Rika frowned. "What bullies?" she asked. Bullying left a bad aftertaste in her mouth, and she don't tolerate any kind of bullying.

"Some girls have been picking on her recently," explained Seika, ignoring Yurika's pleading look. "We think that they're upperclassmen. They've left me alone so far probably because of nii-san's influence in Rikkaidai, and they knew that I'm on pretty good terms with Rika-sempai. Some of the upperclassmen boys have been chasing after us recently."

Rika chuckled, not missing the looks that Yurika and Kevin shot at each other, and from the looks of things, Seika didn't miss it too. "Welcome to the horrors known as RFC, otherwise known as Rabid Fan Club." Seika chuckled, and Rika turned serious. "Do you know the names of those bullies?" She asked. "I'll tell Riku about it. He's the Student Council representative of our class this year…as all sophomore classes are to have the minimum of one Student Council representative in their class."

Seika frowned. "I only ever heard the name of the leader," she said. "I think that the other bullies call her 'Miore'. Right, Yuri-chan?"

Yurika nodded. "The other sempais call her 'Miore'," she said. "We think that they're sophomores."

Rika frowned to herself. "Miore…" she muttered darkly. "I think I know who it is. Shungaki…" She muttered something beneath her breath. "Alright, I'm afraid that you two have to get going to your morning practice. Our morning practices are about to begin soon as well. And Ishigawa-sempai don't tolerate tardiness."

Seika took a look at her watch. "Yikes! We're about to be late!" she yelped before grabbing Yurika by the wrist. "Rika-sempai! I'll see you later! Ja ne!" And she took off towards the direction of the tennis courts of the girls' tennis team.

Rika sighed as she saw Kevin looking in the direction where the two girls have gone and bonked him lightly on the head, and Kevin turned towards her. "She's already gone," she said tiredly. "If you really like her, why don't you just say so?" She sighed.

Kevin blushed as he followed Rika to the tennis courts. "Is it really that obvious?" he asked after awhile, a slight blush on his face.

Rika rolled her eyes. "Any idiot with brains and eyes can tell, Kevin," she said. "It's that obvious. Save us all a headache, and go and tell her. It's obvious that she likes you too."

Kevin blinked owlishly as Rika entered the courts. "H-Huh?! What do you mean? Rika!"

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During training for the tennis team that day after school…

The regulars were tired…very very tired. Not only have they managed to survive the Demon Vice-Captain's (Rika) training, but Rika had also decided to be unmerciful and made them all run laps with buckets of water in each hand. So now, all the regulars were sore, cranky, and on the verge of fainting from over exhaustion.

Rika sighed as she took a look at the sorry states of the regulars all about the tennis courts after a harsh day of training and running laps with the new training regime that Shuu had came up with which includes each of them wearing twenty kilograms of metal lead blocks on their ankles with an extra ten kilograms on their wrists. The only regulars who somehow still managed to remain standing are Rika, Kirihara, Kevin, Haruki and Shuu. The former three have already gone through that training – but harsher – the previous year, and Haruki had probably also gone through the same training. But Shuu…they were not sure.

Takahiro somehow still managed to keep his dignity despite being tired out, but the twins looked like they were about to die. Ryou was leaning against Hikaru, looking like he was about to pass out.

Kevin sighed. "Come on, you guys surely can't be that useless?" he said in mild exasperation. "This is probably half of the training that we did last year! We only got Shuu to lower the standard a little because this is probably your first time doing the weight training."

Hikaru grunted, forcing himself to sit upright. "Well, EX-cuse me for not being able to handle nearly thirty kilograms of metal blocks all of a sudden, Kevin!" he snapped.

Rika sighed. "Well, you guys are just starting out, so it's alright," she said. "But once you've gotten used to the weights, we'll be increasing it. The Kanagawa Districts tournament is nearly upon us, and I'm not satisfied with your level yet. We have our reputation as champions to keep."

"With the ball machines training, the sound training, weight training, gym training, running…" Ryou ticked the points off his fingers and nearly groaned. "Rika. Are you trying to kill us or something?"

Kevin chuckled. "Wait until you see Seigaku's training regime from last year," he said with an evil grin. "I've heard that all of them risk getting poisoned should they be unable to continue with their running or unable to continue training."

The rest of the regulars – save for Kirihara and Rika who knew what he's talking about – blinked in confusion. "Poison?"

Kirihara coughed into his hand to hide his laughter. "Trust me, you don't want to know," he said. He then glanced at Shuu who was standing by the side, recording some data into his notebook, reminding him of Yanagi, only instead of Shuu's notebook being green, it's blue in colour. "Shuu, bring out the board."

Shuu nodded, and a few moments later, the board that was usually in the clubroom was standing before the regulars. The rest of the club have already been dismissed awhile ago as training for the tennis regulars is harsher and much more intense than the normal club members. In fact, many of the club members are muttering something about Shuu, Rika, Kirihara and Kevin being much more sadistic and harsh than Yanagi, Sanada and Yukimura combined.

The regulars have all caught their breaths back by then, and were all sitting down on the ground, with Rika and Kirihara standing on either side of the board, with Kevin and Shuu sitting on the ground with the rest of the regulars, Shuu having his notebook in his hand still.

Rika cleared her throat before tapping on the board before her. On one side of the board was pinned a large piece of paper which seemed to be the names of the schools that would be competing in the Kanagawa Districts tournament which is about a month from now. On the other side of the board was pinned a large piece of paper which seemed to be training regimes for the regulars as well as the non-regulars, though the regulars' training were two times the training of the non-regulars.

"Alright, as you can see, the Districts are nearly at hand," said Rika, tapping the paper on which the names of the schools that would be competing were written on. "As we are the school that had won the Nationals as champion last year, we're automatically placed in first seed. But that doesn't mean that the other schools are weak."

Kirihara took up the mantle next. "The strength between the team last year and the team this year is too much of a difference," he said. "If I might speak the truth, the only ones who are currently at National-level standard are only Kevin, Rika, myself and Haruki. Takahiro…probably, but his stamina is a problem."

Rika sighed. "This is the reason why we've been pushing you so hard for the past month or so," she said. "As you know, Rikkaidai does not have a coach. We do not have any in the entire history of the tennis team. We also have our reputations to keep, and I most definitely do not want any of you losing before the Nationals!"

The regulars looked ashamed of themselves for a moment.

"If we can improve our stamina and strength, along with speed, we can improve our techniques," remarked Shuu, and Kirihara and Rika both nodded. "All of us already have some pretty good tennis techniques…probably able to rival with last year's sempais. A big 'if', if you catch my drift. But our level is definitely not on par with them just yet."

Kirihara nodded. "That's why I've gotten Shuu to write up some new training regimes for the lot of you," he said. "I can guarantee you this, especially since Rika, Kevin and myself went through that last year. If you can make it through the training regime and increase your training, your tennis skill will improve drastically. That's how we've been training last year."

"In other words, if we can survive the training, we might be able to reach buchou and fukubuchou's level of tennis?" asked Ryou, and Rika nodded.

Rika then looked at her watch and glanced at the sky only to see that the sun is quickly setting, and turned towards the regulars. "Alright. Training is over for today. Dismissed!"

Sora and Riku grinned as they meet Rika half-an-hour later outside the tennis clubroom where the rest of the team have changed into their school uniforms. Seika and Yurika were also present. All four of them have seen the training of the regulars from beginning to the end, and kind of felt sorry for the poor regulars.

"A little harsh on them, don't you think?" asked Sora, and Rika rolled her eyes as Kevin exited from the clubroom.

"They'll live," said Rika. "Besides, if we can survive Yanagi-sempai's training last year, they can as well. It won't kill them."

"By the way, want to catch a quick bite at the burger restaurant in town?" asked Riku. "It's been a while since we've been there. And you might as well get the rest of the team along."

"I guess it won't hurt," mused Kirihara as the rest of the team exited from the clubroom and Rika locked the door.

"Kevin, your treat today?" asked Ryou with an evil grin.

Kevin was about to protest, knowing the appetites of Kirihara and Ryou's, when a soft voice broke through his thoughts.

"Sempai, you're giving a treat?" asked Yurika.

"Erm…" Kevin stuttered, glancing from Yurika to the rest of the team. "Uh…yeah."

"What's up with Kevin?" asked Ryou in confusion, turning towards Shuu. "Is he ill or something?"

Shuu rolled his eyes at his best friend's denseness. Is he really that oblivious?

"It's a long story," he said.

"Love can move even mountains," muttered Takahiro, slinging his bag across his chest, and the tennis regulars exchanged looks. Can anybody apart from their vice-captain even figure out the weird phrases that their resident Chessmaster kept mumbling about?

Rika sighed at the behaviour of her team, and Seika giggled.

"Takahiro! How about you?" asked Hikari, slinging an arm around Takahiro's shoulders before the boy can slink away, much to the Chessmaster's annoyance. "You're coming too, right?"

Takahiro grunted. "…just this once," was all that he said.

"Alright! Let's go, everybody!" Hikari cheered, pumping a fist into the air before leading the way to the burger restaurant.

Silently, Kevin began to say a final farewell to his wallet. His money would all be gone in a few minutes.

A/N: Next chapter will be the Kanagawa Districts. I'm not sure if I should bring in Jyousei for the districts tournament especially since I have to think up of several OCs to replace Wakato, Kajimoto and the rest of the team who were third years the previous year. Also, regarding my other Prince of Tennis fanfic, I'll complete this story first before focusing on the other especially since I'm also thinking of the story plot for that.

Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter, and please read and review!