By: Orestria (old pen name that she's too lazy to change; lady tyria)

Dedicated to: Michelle who got me addicted to Rokkaku, the rokkaku LJ community that got me info I needed

Date Started: Jan 22, 2004

Rating: PG-13 I guess.

Disclaimer: Obviously not mine, or else the anime would be more 'interesting' winks

Subsequent Disclaimer: 'School's out' is a song by Alice Cooper, not me.

Note(s): ZOMG. I haven't written a fanfic in sooooo long. And I haven't before for Prince of tennis... and so many of the characters have little or no characterization. Since a lot of these characters may not be all that well known, I'll make notes at the bottom about the characters. I make no promises about when this'll get done/if it will get done, or about how often it'll be updated. I'm busy, and I'm trying to focus more on my original writings and school work than fanfiction. Rokkaku needs the love. Oh, and for people who don't know, 'Rokkaku' means hexagon in Japanese (hence the hexagons on their uniforms).

Love ROKKAKU!

Ch. 1; Love ROKKAKU!

"You know, I've been thinking..." declares the Vice-captain of Rokkaku's tennis team, Saeki Kojirou as he removed his sweaty tennis shirt after practice one warm spring afternoon.

The reactions to this not-too-uncommon non sequitur receives its normal reactions from the rest of the Rokkaku Tennis Club. Dabide opens his mouth to make the same dumb joke he makes every time ('You're allowed to think aloud. Pft.' ). Bane pre-emptively kicks the back of the red-haired boy's head. Kisarazu takes a step a way from his locker (and consequently a step away from the vice-captain). Sudou blushes and hurries off to the washroom, not even wanting to know what the silver-haired boy might be thinking. Far too often it was a 'scar you for life' sort of revelation. Aoi looks to Saeki excitedly and expectantly, a little too stupid to learn from experience that this is almost never a good thing. Finally, Itsuki blows steam from his nose. He tries hard to resist the urge to question the vice-captain, knowing that he probably doesn't really want to know, before giving in and asking, "Nande? What is it Sae-chan?"

"Wouldn't it be cool if we all lived in residence together?" Is the surprisingly not perverted-at-all idea. Saeki smiles innocently, as if it never would have occurred to him to say something dirty. His teammates weren't fooled. Aoi blinks stupidly, and Ryou sighs with relief, then goes to fetch Sudou out of the restroom. It doesn't take long, and when they get back, the multi-coloured hair boy is looking at them expectantly.

"I think it's a bloody stupid idea." Ryou suggests oh-so-helpfully before meandering over in the direction of the boiler room. It was an old machine, and as such it is loud and clanky. Hopefully, it will drown out the rest of Saeki's silly idea so that he doesn't have to suffer any more.

Itsuki looks to Kisarazu, then nods before asking, "Yeah, Sae-chan, why would we do that? What would be so great about it? Huh? What?"

"Well, just think about it! We'd get to hang out a lot more, our combination would get better, we'd have someone to go practice with anytime we want, and the team would all grow closer!" He exclaims, not even thinking about putting his uniform shirt on.

Sudou blanches. Just having to spend time with Kojirou during practice and school was bad enough, he didn't want to imagine what it would be like being accosted by him 24/7. Aoi practically jumps up and down, "That would be SO GREAT. I would LOVE to spend SO MUCH TIME with all of you! It would be like a GREAT BIG PARTY all the TIME!"

Sudou's heart plummets into his stomach. He wouldn't like having his captain around that much either! Dabide nods sagely, before declaring seriously, "No part-time party for us." Bane just as seriously smacks him upside the head.

Sudou feels faint. Those two could be a pain as well, especially when Bane isn't around to keep Amane in check. Then Itsuki puts in his two cents, "Hey, would you really want to do that Aoi-buchou? How does Sae-chan think of such weird things? What is Kizarasu-kun doing over by himself like that?"

Sudou begins rushing to get ready to go home. He's had enough, he wants out for the night. His team scared him. A lot. The vice-captain blinks and looks over in the direction his doubles partner indicates, then yells, 'Hey, Kisarazu-kun, what are you doing?"

This draws all the attention in the room to Ryou, who hasn't even noticed. He hadn't even heard the yelling of either Saeki or Aoi's normal speech. The black-haired boy is brought back to reality as a still-shirtless Saeki grabs him by the arm and drags him back to the centre of the changing room. "Wow, you're really out of it today, Kisarazu-kun. Didn't you hear us yelling?"

"I am not out of it. I think that damn furnace is acting up, it must be louder than normal since I didn't hear you." He states matter-of-factly before joining Sudou in hurrying to get ready.

Saeki, finally donning a shirt, grins lopsidedly, and glomps the shorter player before teasing, "Is that so? Sounds like a pretty lame excuse to me. No, I think you were day-dreaming. That must be it, are you daydreaming about a giirl, Kisarazu?"

Ryou slips out of his vice-captain's arms and slams his locker shut. He grabs his bag off the floor and goes to leave, but just before the door, he looks back over his shoulder at his team and declares, "Fine. Don't believe me. One of these days that furnace is going to break down, or blow up, or something, and then it will be too late to say you believed me."

After he leaves, the rest of the team stare silently after him. Well, silently for a moment at least. "Why made him so mad? What did you mean by asking if he had a girlfriend; do you think he's dating? What are we doing for practice tomorrow morning? Hey, are you listening to me? What?"

An alarm clock beeps. Not just any alarm clock though, Saeki Kojirou's disgustingly girly alarm clock. Sae likes it more because it was a gift from Fuji Syuusuke and because it tended to scar people for life when they saw it than for what it looks like. He doesn't get what's so wrong about a guy having a carnation pink winged alarm clock egg anyways. Pink's just another colour; it shouldn't be any more or less appropriate than blue, or red, or yellow.

The silver hair boy stretches, and then smacks the clock closed, ending the beeping. He quickly showers and gets dressed. Even though he is the Vice-Captain not the captain, he's the one in charge of opening up the locker room and the courts in the morning. Apparently, some teachers had protested entrusting keys to a freshmen. Saeki doesn't mind when it came to after school or weekend practices, but not being a morning person he still sometimes wishes Aoi could handle early practices for him. In fact, that whole shower and getting dressed process is done in something not-unlike a coma. He scarfs down breakfast, not even really tasting the food (if you asked what he is eating, he would have to look down at the plate to tell you).

It is in this sleepiness-caused zombie-like state that he begins his daily trek to Rokkaku Junior High School. However this normal pilgrimage is interrupted about 5 blocks from school... where the area is taped off. In fact, it is walking into one of the many people crowding around the scene that clues Saeki in that something abnormal is happening. There are policemen patrolling just-inside the taped-off area, making sure no one tries to go past, "What the..."

"What an idiot we have for Vice-Captain," says a slightly out-of-breath but nevertheless annoyed voice from behind him.

Sae turns around to see a panting Kisarazu Ryou -- not exactly a bad sight, all things considered -- in his casual clothes. No one is quite sure how or when it happened, but Ryou had at some point become a bit of a t-shirt junky. Today's shirt is a tight (but not as tight as Saeki would have gone for), short-sleeved black one that proclaims, in red letters, 'Keep Watching. Maybe I Will do a Trick.' Out from underneath flow the long sleeves of a white mesh shirt, long enough to go past the boy's wrists. He has on straight cut red pants that seem a little too long for him since they bunch up at the bottom over his black running shoes. Saeki sniffs, pretending to be offended, "What kind of 'good morning' is that? And why aren't you in uniform, young man?"

"It's the kind of greeting an idiot gets," Ryou answers simply, before grabbing his vice-captain's wrist and pulling the opposite way of the school, "Come on."

As much as Sae might have secretly enjoyed being dragged around by the black-haired boy, he is a little miffed about the way he is being talked to. Ryou hadn't even explained anything, like, why he was an idiot, and why he was out of uniform, and where they were going. He jerks his arm, freeing his wrist, and asks, "Where are we going? What's going on?"

"We're going to Ojii-sensei's house. The school blew up." Ok, so it is a bit of an exaggeration. At least it would let Saeki into the gravity of the situation, without standing around explaining the details, "Hurry up, or we'll be making everyo--"

"No. Way. The school?! This is... AWESOME!" Ryou blinks at the other boy, stunned by his reaction. Then, as if he isn't all ready concerned about the Vice-Captain's sanity, the silver-haired teen begins singing. In English, no less, "School's out for summer. School's out forever. School's been blown to pieces! Out for summer, out 'til fall, we might not come back at a--" It's at this point that Saeki turns with a flourish to Ryou, only to discover he has all ready turned away and started heading for their coach's house without him, "Hey! Kisarazu-kun, wait up!"

A scant 27-minutes later, all of the Rokkaku Tennis regulars are assembled in the tiny (at least for so many people) living room of Coach Ojii. the rather bizarre old man sits on the only couch, his team making a semi-circle on wooden chairs facing him. He is given the benefit of the comfortable couch because of his age, although he still chooses to sit on his legs, as thought attending a tea ceremony.

"What are we doing here? What's going on? nande? nande?" Itsuko asks. Ojii's only response is some kind of barely audible 'hm'. He begins to raise his arms, his hand slowly forming a fist, and then sticking the index finger pointing forward. His arm, hand and finger shake slightly with age, as it takes a good minute for his finger to finish, pointing to Kisarazu, who bows his head slightly and stands.

"This is mostly what I've heard from the radio but... Apparently the old boiler at school exploded last night," he just barely resists the urge to add 'like I had warned you it would' and continues on, "And as though that weren't bad enough, it took out several local gas and water pipes with it. The school hasn't made any kind of official statement yet but... Considering the damage there's a strong possibility of the school being closed for the year. Ojii-sensei agrees with me, and that's why we've all been gathered here."

As Ryou goes back to sitting, Sudou pipes up (for once), "Excuse me but, how is this a bad thing? Doesn't every kid dream of their school getting blown up sometimes?"

Saeki sighs a little. He had felt the same way upon first hearing the news, but Ryou had explained the situation (thus ruining his mood) on the way there. He stands to answer the question, "It's near the beginning of the semester, it's not like we don't still have to go to school... we just can't go to Rokkaku."

"Ojii says we can STILL PLAY IN THE TENNIS TOURNAMENTS together as a TEAM, which is GREAT! Aoi exclaims, jumping to his feet, unable to contain himself, as usual, "But we need COURTS TO PRACTICE on, and we will have to go to the SAME SCHOOL TOGETHER wherever we go, of course!"

Ryou states a moment at their freshman Captain, who seems... just a little too not bothered in the least, "It isn't as simple as Aoi makes it sound..."

Bane nods, catching on right away to what Kisarazu means, "None of the other schools nearby have courts. Tennis isn't all that popular in Japan."

"Not as popular as poplar. Pft." Kurobane has to get up off his chair and walk across the room to smack his doubles partner upside the head. Everybody shifts over a seat so that he can sit next to Dabide to hopefully prevent any further exposure to his puns.

"This isn't a good time to joke around, Amane." Saeki chastises, which is unusual for such a jovial boy, 'Either we have to go to another school together, somewhere away from home, or the Rokkaku Tennis Club will have to withdraw from the tournaments."

The room does deathly quiet for a moment, just long enough to hear Ojii's old clock ticking.

"NO WAY!" Aoi yells, breaking the silence, "There's no WAY we can just DROP OUT now! We've come SO FAR! And next year, we'll be without SAEKI, ITSUKI, BANE, KISARAZU and SUDOU! This is all of your LAST CHANCE at Junior High Level!"

This somehow moralized and encouraging speech got a pretty much unanimous agreement from the others. Sae smiles. He'd been a little worried. he turns to their coach, "You heard the Captain and the team, Ojii-sensei. We're going to stick together. We can't afford to get an apartment or anything thought... so we'll need a school with a dormitory. Where can we go?"

Ojii nods simply at each of the vice-captain's points, then tilts his head to the side for a moment while thinking it over. He begins to raise his arms, his hand slowly forming a fist, and then sticking the index finger pointing forward. His arm, hand and finger shake slightly with age, as it takes a good minute for his finger to finish, pointing once again to Kisarazu-kun.

Everybody turns to look at the long-haired boy. itsuki asks the question on everybody's mind, "What? What does Kisarazu-kun have to do with this? Why is Ojii-sensei pointing at him? Nande?"

Ryou shakes his head, not understanding the enigmatic coach himself, "I don't know eith–" His eyes widen suddenly with revelation and he makes eye contact with the old man, who nods ever so slightly.

"What is it, Kisarazu-kun?"

"...He's pointing at me because of my brother. Atsushi's currently a tennis regular at, and lives in the dormitory of... Saint Rudolph Junior High."

A second silence falls over the living room. Saeki tries desperately to think of another school, preferably without a high level rival team, but comes up empty handed. Bane is the first to speak up this time, "Well then, it's basically settled, isn't it? It's go to Saint Rudolph, or give up this tennis season, and I know which I'd rather too. I'd do a lot worse than go to that school to keep playing tennis."

This brought forth a murmur of approval from all the regulars. Well, except Aoi who couldn't do anything as quiet as murmuring. He shifted a few times in his chair, excited hearing the assent from the members, and then leaps to his feet. "OK! Hear that Ojii-san! It's UNANIMOUS! This is FANTASTIC!"

The old coach rises to his feet, and actually speaks for once, "I'll right. I will arrange it. You're all dismissed."

Just outside, Saeki watches Ryou as he turns to leave. Funny, he would have thought the other boy would be thrilled, but instead he finds him looking sullen. Not wanting to let a team mate leave looking so depressed, he goes into action, "Oi, Kisarazu-kun. What's up?"

Ryou turns to his Vice-Captain, not quite understanding, "What do you mean?"

The silver-haired boy takes this as permission to approach, and does so, "Well, I would have thought you'd be excited about getting to go to Saint Rudolph. I mean, you get to spent some time with your little brother. Instead, I find you moping like this."

"...Saeki-senpai. Atsushi, he... he never told me why he left Rokkaku."

Now it's Sae's turn to be confused, "He didn't tell me either, or anybody else, what does that matter?"

"It doesn't matter that he didn't tell you, he's not your twin brother. Since he didn't tell me, that can only mean one thing," Seeing absolutely no understanding from the other tennis player's face, he adds quietly, "It means that I was the problem. Good night, fukubuchou."

"H-hey, wait!" Saeki exclaims as Ryou turns away from him again, "I could..uh, walk you home..?"

"No need. Besides, I know your house is in the opposite direction." With that, the raven-haired boy walks off, leaving his Vice-captain and the rest of his tennis team far behind. Once he's certain he's by himself with no pesky team mates stalking him, he sits down on the curb a few blocks from his house and looks up at the tree line, "Atsushi... What did I do that was so intolerable as to make you leave?"

To Be Continued

Characters

(for people who don't know Rokkaku that well. Which is probably everyone since they're basically not characterized much at all ;)

Aoi Kentarou, Freshmen, but because of the weirdness of the coach, also the captain. So loud and hyper that his very presence generally tends to cause Ryoma physical pain. Like. Enough for you to see it on his face. He has a wooden racket (like all of Rokkaku) but his is special because it's hexagonal with the strings being set up hexagonally too.

Saeki Kojirou, third year, Vice-captain (which I think I said more than his name XD). He's a childhood friend of the Fuji brothers, and has impressive vision, able to use this to detect his opponents next move from small muscle habits. He's not as evil as Fuji Syuusuke, but you can still generally bet that he's up to something.

Itsuki Marehiko, Saeki's doubles partner in the show. He has a big nose, and he blows steam out of it. He asks questions. A lot. About everything. That'saboutit.

Kurobane (Bane) Karukaze, plays doubles with amane... and keeps him in line too... generally with violence. Obviously the most patient man alive to put up with the things he has to put up with.

Amane (Dabide/David) Hikaru. I've seen his nickname be either Dabide or David, I use Dabide. He plays doubles with Bane, and makes horrible puns. I think I tend to underuse him since I find the puns a bitch to write. If you want me to use him more, become my pun-bitch. I do like him, I just can't write him. he has a freakishly long racket.

Kisarazu Ryou, twin brother of Atsushi from Saint Rudolphe. I think a goal of this story is to characterize him a bit. I'm mostly going from what I saw in the anime, which had him being quiet but confident. Of course, he's a little down trodden because he has to put up with some pretty insane team mates.

Sudou Satoshi. I am about 95 sure he exists. I don't remember seeing him in the anime, althuogh I have seen a picture of him. Because of the fact that I know almost nothing about him, I have decided that he obviously must be shy and hiding from his scary weirdo team. I think he might have ugly helmet hair. If he exists.

Ojii. The coach of the rokkaku, and he makes them all wooden rackets. I think I made him talk more than normal, with his three sentences. He spends a lot of the anime slowly pointing at things and hoping people get the hint. he also sits like he's at a tea ceremony on benches, annoying girl's pink hankys, etc. He has a really long beard.

If anyone wants to make corrections in my info, if they, say, actually know something, that would be way cool. Reviews and comments loved. Thanks for reading... since, Rokkaku needs some lovin'.