Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis does not belong to me.

Chapter Five: Meeting the Rikkai Regulars (Part One)

Bunta and Jackal arrived with Sakuno's stuff. Jackal put down Sakuno's racket and tennis balls and said, "I'm going back to tell Yukimura and Sanada what you guys are doing. Are you going to come back to practice, it's not over yet, but if you want to take …" He had forgotten this girl's name. "Sakuno, her name is Sakuno." Niou supplied, not looking up from his ministrations.

Jackal and Bunta looked surprised but Jackal went on, "Right, if you want to take Sakuno home, I can tell them that as well. Which is it?" Sakuno said, "Uh… ano… senpai-tachi, I-I can go home by myself. I-It's fine." Bunta and Niou said simultaneously, "No!"

They looked at one another and Bunta said, "Sakuno-chan, you might have twisted your ankle, there is no way that you can go home by yourself. Besides, what about your school-bag and tennis-bag? Those will be in the changing rooms and you still need to go back to get those and return the tennis balls to the sports' shed." Niou agreed, "Bunta's right, you are in no condition to walk by yourself or on your own, it will dangerous. I will carry you to get your stuff and Bunta can help. Then we will take you home."

Sakuno did not want to be a bother to anyone and she tried protesting but it did no good. She finally said, "Then I will wait for your tennis practice to finish. I don't want to you to get into any trouble with Yukimura-senpai. Miyu said that he's really strict about tennis." All three thought that this was a plausible idea and Jackal left to tell Yukimura and Sanada about this new turn of events, meaning they would have a visitor at the regulars' practice.

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All of them, including Jackal, were quite surprised at the turn of events. What had started as one of Niou's normal nasty tricks had actually backfired in a strange way. Jackal, being more observant of the doubles' pair with Bunta, could guess a little about Niou's change of attitude, unusual though it was. He thought that it was not too strange considering Sakuno's shy and demure character, which was rare when Rikkai Dai's tennis regulars were usually surrounded or sometimes even stalked by overly enthusiastic fans. Most of these fans would turn up and when they do, the words 'shy', 'demure' or generally 'quiet' did not seem to exist.

Although Sakuno's type of girl did not appeal to him as attractive, he could appropriate the refreshing change very much after being bombarded with screams during practice earlier, until Sanada, as usual, had flipped and actually managed to clear all the members of the opposite sex away. Possibly he was the only one who could do that by sheer force of character. Niou could also clear the area around the courts but it was always with extremely nasty tricks like the release of real cockroaches that he claimed to have bred himself just for that purpose.

He thought back on one actual incident when Niou actually did do that. He released cockroaches and not only the girls ran but also quite a number of the boys in the tennis club. He had to agree that while it was an effective trick, it was very disgusting and the whole school had to conduct a pestilence clearance during the weekend and all practices were cancelled.

Yukimura and Sanada were not pleased but they could not begrudge Niou's actions, probably because even they were fed up with the fan-girls' screaming at everything they did.

As for Niou, Akaya and Bunta, they had a great time, laughing until they were rolling on the courts at the panic Niou caused.

Yanagi simply noted down as much as he could of people who were scared by cockroaches, mumbling under his breath that this data might come in useful. Even since their match against Seigaku during their last year in junior high, when Yanagi had reunited with his childhood friend, Inui, his actions had definitely gotten more and more on the weird side. He even started to collaborate with Inui on some supposedly super version of a health drink.

As for Yagyuu, he pushed his glasses up and sat down on a side-bench, saying he would be taking a break since no one was concentrating on practice yet.

During all that, he had sat down with Yagyuu and patiently waited for practice to start again, thinking what all the fuss was about. Cockroaches were disgusting but surely there was no need for all the screaming and yelling and stampeding away from them, not that he was complaining since it meant a noise-free practice.

With his long and quick strides, he had reached their regulars' practice grounds. Sanada Genichirou had noticed him already and looking towards him with a frown on his stern face. Jackal had known that it would be like this so he was not concerned, besides it was not his fault that they were late. He went up to Sanada, ready to give his explanation, when Yukimura gave the signal for the others to stop and gather round.

It was unusual for three members of the regulars to be late at the same time because the competition was always heavy and no one knew when someone would be good enough to take your place, so they were always diligent about practice, despite their various odd personalities. Therefore Yukimura thought all the regulars had the right to hear what Jackal had to say about them being late and why Niou and Bunta were still missing.

When everyone was gathered round, Jackal did not wait for Sanada or Yukimura to start questioning him. He just started to explain in his steady way, "Well, we were going to the vending machines when…"

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"How did it end up like this?" thought Sakuno as Amano-sensei, the doctor on duty, finished bandaging her ankle. Amano-sensei then interrupted her thoughts as she gave her instructions to stay off her feet as much as possible for the next two weeks for it was a bad sprain and if not allowed to heal fully, then later, it might come back to give her trouble. Amano-sensei also told Sakuno to come each day to change bandages and tomorrow, she would give her a crutch. They were out of crutches in the mean time because of a delayed order that should arrive tomorrow.

While she was speaking to Sakuno, she was actually looking at Bunta and Niou. She knew both of them for Bunta sometimes came for medicine after eating too many cakes when there were cooking classes and a lot of girls would give their cakes to Bunta knowing he would accept them. Amano-sensei was also familiar with Niou, not personally but mostly through word-of-mouth from her patients who were at the wrong end of the Trickster's jokes.

Bunta and Niou could tell that Amano-sensei wanted them to take care of Sakuno and when she finished giving instructions to Sakuno, Bunta spoke up, "We'll take her home later and tomorrow, we'll come back with her to change the bandages and get the crutch, sensei." Amano-sensei nodded; too tired after a long day to really say more even though she was a bit curious as to why Niou was with this girl when he never seemed to care about other people. It was not her problem though so she did not say anything and released the three.

Bunta and Niou started to argue whether who should carry Sakuno, when Sakuno, very stupidly I might add, tried to stand on her left foot, hold her right foot up. This was obviously a misguided attempt to show that she could walk or rather, hop, on her own. Sakuno thought that she really should be more independent and she also disliked arguments whether she was in it or not.

Noticing Sakuno's clumsy movements, Niou broke off mid-argument and again swept Sakuno off her feet. Sakuno squeaked and blushed seven shades of red because she was aware that Amano-sensei was looking on with an amused expression. Bunta stopped protesting against Niou picking Sakuno up when he noticed, just a split second later than Niou, what Sakuno was trying to do. He sighed and picked up her stuff. The three turned to Amano-sensei and bowed politely, or in Niou and Sakuno's case, bobbed their heads, and they thanked her, "Arigatou-gozaimasu, Amano-sensei!"

Now that she was being carried and Niou and Bunta were bickering, Sakuno continued on her earlier, interrupted train of thoughts on this strange turn of events. To her, everything was normal up until she lost her way after practice while looking for a wall. It still felt pretty normal until she heard Niou-senpai's scream, then there was a rush to the san, they talked and now they seemed to be rushing again.

"Ano… Bunta-senpai, a-are we going to the tennis courts? Sakuno asked shyly. Bunta smiled at her and answered gently, "Later, now we are going to the girls' changing rooms to get your bags. Do you need help changing your clothes?" Niou smirked at this while Sakuno's eyes opened wide and her face turned an even deeper shade of crimson. Bunta noticed his mistake and quickly said, "No, I mean, uh… I mean, I don't mean that…"

He did not know what he was saying anyway, so embarrassed he was and so irritated at Niou's sniggering that he walked on faster, a faint blush covering his cheeks. Sakuno wanted to reassure him that she understood what he was trying to say but she was too shy to speak up at this moment so the three kept quiet while they made their way to the changing rooms.

In the end, they put Sakuno on one of the benches in the changing room and told her to yell when she finished changing. She found that she could only put on one shoe because the ankle that was injured was still quite swollen despite the bandages. She sighed, wrapped her shoe up and put it in her sports-bag with her tennis trainers. She thought, "Now I feel like Cinderella… No, don't be silly, Sakuno, you are too plain anyway, be sensible!"

After mentally chastising herself, she raised her voice, "Uh… ano, Bunta-senpai, Niou-senpai. I… I…" Apparently she found it hard to voice the words 'finished changing'. Bunta and Niou heard her call and came in anyway. They thought she looked very sweet in their school's uniform but neither wanted to embarrass her so they did not say anything other than, "Ready?" and "Let's go." Niou again picked Sakuno up. Bunta, by this time, had already given up arguing with Niou. He just shrugged and went after them, carrying Sakuno's bags.