Chapter 1

Ryoma made his way slowly to school. His head was too far into thinking out his tennis matches that he would have to be playing to even pay any attention to where he was going. The next thing he knew he bumped straight into a boy walking in the same direction, only a lot slower.

"Hey! Careful." The boy laughed a little and looked at Ryoma. "Oh! Hey! I haven't seen you in forever, Ryoma."

Ryoma looked up at him and only blinked slightly as he stared into the face of his old American friend, Ty. Ty was very fluent in Japanese and could communicate with Ryoma easily seeing as he was the one that taught him. Since they had become friends they had been playing tennis together as well. Ty's blonde hair fell over his eyes and he was continuously pushing it backing.

As they walked, they talked about things that had been happening while Ryoma was in Japan. Ryoma had managed to become a regular in the Seigaku team and was trying to go onto the Nationals. Ty on the other hand had been spending most of his time practicing to hone his skills more. He had moved to Japan in hopes that he would be able to get better. He hadn't thought of seeing Ryoma there. What's more is that they were now going to the same school once more.

Half way to school they grew silent not really knowing what else to say until they heard a voice call out to Ryoma.

"Hey! What up, Ryoma!" A tall dark haired boy ran up behind them and fell into step next to Ryoma. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Ty. He's from America and he's here to go to school with us, Momoshiro." Ryoma replied continuing on his way.

Ty smiled and looked at Momoshiro. "I guess you go to Seigaku too, don't you?"

"Yep, I do. I'm Momoshiro Takeshi of Seigaku, but you can call me Momo-chan." Momoshiro said with a laugh. "You'll like it at Seigaku, but I must warn you. If you plan to be on the tennis team then you have to be very obedient to the captain. Tezuka doesn't like disobedience."

Ty nodded a little and looked at Ryoma for a moment. "So... What are the team members like anyway?"

Ryoma just shrugged and pointed at two boys walking ahead of them. "That's Oishi Shuichiro and Kikumaru Eiji. They're the best doubles pair Seigaku has. They call themselves the Golden Pair. Then you have Kaido Kaoru. Everyone calls him Viper. He's doesn't talk much and he's really cruel. It's best to stay away from him as much as possible. Then there's Fuji Shusuke and Kawamura Takashi. They sometimes play as a doubles pair, but they also play singles as well. The only other person you should watch out for is Inui Sadaharu. He's not a Regular any more but he helps with the training." Ryoma stopped here and took in a breath slowly waiting for Ty to say something.

"Why do you have to watch out for Inui?" Ty asked as if he read Ryoma's mind.

Momoshiro laughed a little and answered the question for Ryoma. "You'll have to wait and find out. He's a weird one. I'll tell ya that. Maybe during practice you'll get to see why he's feared a lot and believe me, he can be quiet scarey at times."

Ty seemed okay with this answer as they arrived at the school. This was his first day of school and he wanted to make a good impression. The day seemed to fly by relatively quickly. The first thing Ty did was Math. The next thing he knew he was in lunch. He didn't seem to know where the time went and he was having loads of fun. By the time the last bell rang he had made a few new friends and was making his way to the courts with Ryoma.

"I can't wait to see the team. I wanna know how good they are." Ty said.

Ryoma looked behind him to see if they were being followed. Upon seeing that they weren't he looked at Ty and said. "They are good. It's hard to beat a regular, but it can be done if you know how. I can teach you what I did to beat Kaido and Inui. That way you can become a regular faster."

Ryoma thought that they would get some peace as they made their way to the courts, but he was dead wrong as a voice called out to him.

"Ryoma-sama! Wait for us!" It was Tomoka and Sakuno. Two girls from Ryoma's class. Ty blinked slightly and rubbed his ears a little.

"That hurt my ear." Ty said as he looked at Ryoma.

Ryoma groaned slightly and grabbed Ty's arms. "Let's get outta here!" He pulled him along quickly, making a break for the courts and hoping that the way they were going would shake the two girls.

"Why are we running!" Ty laughed as he was dragged along by his friend.

"Because I find those two to be pesky and annoying. They never seem to want to leave me alone, no matter what I do. That would be the reason." Ryoma replied as he stopped in front of the changing rooms. "Come on. I think we're safe now and we can get changed in here. I'll wait for you out here seeing as I'm already changed."

Ty nodded a little and stepped into the changing room. He stopped dead in his tracks as he came face to face with some one that Ryoma had warned him about. By the look of him, Ty now knew why both Momo-chan and Ryoma had told him to try and steer clear of this person. As he stood there he felt as if the eyes of a snake were upon him and ready to pounce at any given moment. He couldn't move and didn't know what to do or what to expect as the Seigaku Regular, Kaido stared down at him with piercing dark eyes.