Chapter Twenty Eight: Captain

The next morning when Kyoko woke up, she turned over on her bed and picked up her phone. The clock on the front screen told her it was an hour earlier than she normally woke up at.

Sighing and putting her head back on her pillow she stared at the ceiling. All the night before, she tried to come up with a plan to get Sachi and Fuji together, but was only able to come up with a few steps that she'd need to take.

First of all, she'd need to get Sadaharu on data collecting; any kind of data that she could use to her advantage. She figured she could tell him her plan, because no one who would blurt out the information would dare look in his notebook after the 'hippo boy' incident at the zoo. Just so no one would be suspicious, she'd ask him in secrecy.

Then, she'd have to bribe Eiji so after she told him about the plan he wouldn't blab it out like he did with everyone else's secrets. She planned on going to the store before she talked to him and buy him something he'd like.

Next, she'd talk to Fuji to see if she could convince him now was the time to make a move. That part, she knew, would be difficult, which was why she would enlist in the help of Eiji.

Last was to help Fuji get Sachi to where she needed to be in order for him to ask. She would've assumed Fuji could do this on his own, but he seemed to be unsure of what to do. Making sure he knew Kyoko was there for him for anything was all she could possibly offer, knowing he'd catch on. He was a genius after all.

Standing up and stretching, she decided she'd get ready and then head to the store before school. She would have to decide whether to give Eiji the bribe goods that day or wait a little bit longer. She knew whatever she got him would only keep quiet about a day and a half, so buying a small collection of things to give him over a period of a few days would be the best option.

As she made her way to her bathroom to fix her messy hair, she picked up one of the clips Ryoma had given her. The black tennis racquet reminded her that she had a match against Tezuka scheduled that day at practice.

She picked up the clip and took it in the bathroom with her, planning on putting it in her hair. Today, she hoped, would be a good day.

Ryoma rubbed his eyes and looked at his clock. It was still a half an hour before he had to get up.

Karupin lied at the end of his bed, purring contently. Ryoma sat up and leaned over to pet Karupin, who looked up at him with his blue eyes.

"Nya?" he asked and stood up.

"I've still got more time to sleep…" Ryoma said. "But I can't…"

Karupin jumped off his bed and rubbed against his tennis bag, reminding Ryoma of his tennis match the day before…

"Game, set and match," Tezuka said.

"…good game," Ryoma said. "But I'll win next time."

"Don't let your guard down," Tezuka reminded him.

Ryoma smirked. "I know."

Tezuka and Ryoma silently walked over to their tennis bags and placed their racquets in them. They were two people who didn't like to talk when unnecessary. But both felt like they had something to talk about.

"So…are you just going home now?" Tezuka asked nonchalantly as he and Ryoma made their way out of the courts.

Ryoma nodded. "Where else would I go?"

"I don't know. Kyoko's maybe?"

There was a slight pause before Ryoma spoke, "No, not today."

"So you have plans another day?"

"Why do you suddenly care?"

Tezuka looked over at him with his expression-less face. "I don't."

Ryoma smirked. "Oh?"

Tezuka turned away to face the street his house was on. Before he started walking, he turned and said, "I play to win."

"Is the captain talking about tennis?" Ryoma asked with a knowing smirk.

Tezuka didn't reply, but started down his street, leaving Ryoma unsatisfied with his answer.

His smirk disappeared, leaving him with a face of indifference. He wasn't sure if this competition was something he could win.

At the store, Kyoko was in one of the aisles, looking at toothpaste. She finally decided on a nice minty tube of toothpaste, a little thing of mouth wash, and a thing of floss.

She knew Eiji loved brushing his teeth, almost to the point of obsession, and this would be just the thing to get him to stay quiet.

After she paid for it, she placed the items in her school bag, and walked out the door toward school.

She was still earlier than she wanted to be, but decided there was nothing else to do to kill time.

Arriving at school, there were a few people wandering into the school, but not that many. There was still too much time to just sit at the spot, so Kyoko chose to walk to class and drop off her bag.

As she made her way there, the hallways were eerily empty and quiet, an unusual sight for Kyoko. It was nice that it wasn't as loud as normal, but it still made her a little uneasy.

She reached the classroom and walked inside, finding it empty. After setting her bag on her desk, she walked back out into the hallway and saw Sadaharu just as he was walking by.

"Sadaharu?" Kyoko said.

Sadaharu looked up at noticed Kyoko. "Oh, good morning Kyoko."

"You're here early…"

"Actually, I arrived here precisely fifteen minutes ago, as I do daily. I usually do an analysis of the data I collected the day before," he explained. "But, by your comment, you seem to believe this is early, so may I ask why you are here at this time?"

"I had to take care of some business this morning," she said. "Speaking of which, I have something to discuss with you. But you have to keep it a secret between the two of us and that notebook, okay?"

Sadaharu pushed up his glasses and held up his notebook with a smile.

"And that concludes the meeting today. Thank you all for coming, and I'm sure someone from your team has taken the tallies by now for each captain. We ask that you report them back by the end of the day, after you have confirmed them," Oishi said to the group in front of him.

"Thank you," everyone replied, as they stood and bowed.

As everyone packed up their things and began to leave, Oishi walked back to his things on a desk and picked them up before walking to Tezuka.

"Did you see Kyoko and Sadaharu walk by the door?" Tezuka asked Oishi in a low voice.

"Yeah, I wonder what they're up to…" Oishi replied, obviously perplexed by this.

"Good job, Oishi," a girl complimented as she joined the two. "The track team is strong this year, and I'm sure we'll have a lot of great competitors."

Oishi smiled and scratched the back of his head as he blushed. "Y-yeah, I'm sure they are, Hisako. Are you going to try for captain this year?"

Hisako nodded. "I've been captain for the past two years in a row, so I'm sure I'll get it again this year. The track team votes for the captain they think is most capable, and my team thought I've done a good job leading us to victory so far."

Oishi smiled as Tezuka glanced at the door.

"I wish you all the luck," Oishi said.

"Well, I've got to go. See you when you're done here, Oishi."

Without so much as a wave, Tezuka left the classroom.

"Sorry about that…" Oishi apologized.

Hisako gave him a smile and glanced at the door. She wondered what Tezuka was in such a rush to go do. Figuring it was some tennis thing, she turned back and continued talking with Oishi.

Sadaharu nodded. "I understand. According to my data, someone was going to bring this up to me within the next two days and it was a sixty nine percent chance it was going to be you."

"Some day you're going to have to show me how you come up with all of that data," Kyoko said in awe.

He pushed up his glasses and noticed Tezuka was approaching. "And that, Kyoko, is the proper form for countering his zero degree drop shot."

Kyoko gave him a puzzled look before Tezuka walked up beside her and she understood what he was doing. "Okay, thanks, Sadaharu. I'll definitely beat him now," she said before looking shocked at Tezuka's sudden presence. "Oh! Tezuka…we didn't even notice you…"

Tezuka gave a faint hint of a smirk. "You didn't, huh?" he said.

Kyoko shook her head, and looked for Sadaharu for confirmation.

He nodded his head in agreement, but obviously Tezuka wasn't convinced.

"Anyway…" Kyoko said, changing the subject. "What have you been up to?"

"I just got out of the second part of the sports meeting," Tezuka explained. "I saw you two walk by when we were in the middle of it, and thought I'd come see what you two were up to."

"I hope you weren't a distraction," Kyoko said wagging her finger at Tezuka.

"I wasn't…"

"Okay…just checking…" Kyoko said. "Oh, how did practice go after I left last night? With you and Ryoma I mean?"

Tezuka's body froze in remembrance, but he quickly relaxed and tried to act casual. "It was fine. We had a match."

"Who won?"

"There is a ninety five percent chance that Tezuka was the victor," Sadaharu reported.

"That is correct, I did win."

Kyoko nodded. "You both are just too good…"

"Don't forget about our match today," Tezuka reminded her.

Kyoko smiled and pointed to the pin in her hair. "I am all ready, captain."

"Good. And I hope the tips you tried to get off of Inui will be of assistance."

"Trust me, I'll need a lot more…" she muttered under her breath before looking up and smiling.

Everyone in their group eventually made it to their spot and talked until the first bell rang, signalling them to get to class.

As Kyoko walked into her classroom, she was followed by Sachi, Eiji and Fuji.

The two walked to their desks and began talking when a boy from another class walked in and looked around. He spotted Sachi and walked over with a bow.

"Sachi?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Sachi said eyeing the boy suspiciously.

Everyone in the classroom, including Eiji's crush and her group, turned to listen to the conversation.

"I don't know if you remember me from track last year…" Sachi shook her head, meaning that she didn't, but asked him to continue anyway. "Well, there was a tally, and the majority of the track team believed you to be the best choice for captain this year. Do you accept?"

Sachi blinked and looked at him suspiciously. "How much am I getting paid?"

"Uh…nothing?"

"Okay, but you owe me!"

The boy gave her a nervous look and bowed again. "Thank you very much for your time," he said before running out the door.

"Good job, Sachi! I'm so proud!" Kyoko said giving Sachi a hug.

"You'll be just like Tezuka, but everyone in your sport will outrun everyone in ours but Kaidoh!" Eiji exclaimed.

"You shouldn't speak like that about your own team mates, Eiji," Fuji pointed out. "Myself included."

Eiji scratched the back of his head and smiled apologetically.

Sachi had a proud look on her face when the girl Eiji liked walked over, obviously trying to hold in her anger. "What did that boy say to you?" she asked through her clenched teeth.

Sachi's smile faded when she met eyes with the girl. "Huh? Oh, it's you," she said with a roll of her eyes. "He just said that I was elected captain of the track team."

"Were you even on the track team last year?"

Sachi gave her a puzzled look. "Yeah, I was the girl who got us to state…why, were you on the track team?"

"I've been the captain for the past two years…"

"Oh, I guess I never noticed…looks like there's a new captain in town…" Sachi said, turning to Eiji and Fuji with a sinister smile. "And Tezuka is going to love this…"

The girl cleared her throat, obviously upset at being ignored. Sachi turned to her in annoyance. "Yes?" she asked.

"I'm just going to say it's not over until it's over."

"I thought they already picked captains…that means it is over…"

The girl glared at her. "Just watch your back," she said before flipping her hair and returning to her group.

When she reached them, she glanced at Sachi to see her reaction. But to her dismay, Sachi stared her down with a malicious grin, and eyes that sparkled with excitement.

The girl cleared her throat and tried to remain composed. It wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.