Huge thanks to the following for reviewing: Bored miko, Staryday, Liliath, Ochibisatori, Black Angel of Destruction, Rings of Saturn, Craze Izumi, Dark Purity, ky, milenalupin, Gorilaz, qwerty54

The plot is a bit wacky but I'm feeling a bit adventurous.

The beginning is a bit strange, I'll try and explain it better later in this chapter. Don't worry about the deities, they were mostly there to set the scene, from now on, it'll be mainly Fate and Destiny with the POT boys.

Well, we know the leaders, so lets meet the rest of the teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own POT or any of it's characters.


Having chosen their victims, no, targets, Fate and Destiny now had to work out how to match make if they weren't allowed to meddle with the Subject and the Candidates. The answer was easy of course; get someone else to do their dirty work for them. The difficulty came in choosing. Mortals were, generally speaking, sceptical of anything not based on science and logic (unless you found one either deeply religious or else with some questionable substances in their systems). The other difficulty would be all three boys concerned moved around within closed circles, the helper, had to be someone close enough to influence and nudge the candidates along.

Fate, apparently, had a distinct advantage in this case. Taking a sneaky peek into Fuji's file on the main database, the question of who was connected to both Echizen and Fuji and could sway Fuji's decisions was simple. Fate needed to pay a visit to St Rudolph.

Destiny found herself at her first dead end when trying the same thing with Tezuka. The system gave her three answers on things and people that Tezuka care about; tennis, Pillar of Seigaku and Junior High Tennis Nationals. The first was useless; she already knew they all interacted mostly with other tennis players. Pillar of Seigaku? More searching showed that the current Pillar was Tezuka himself, and the heir apparent was Ryoma, who was off limits. That left the Junior High Nationals, not really helping narrow it down, considering all junior high schools enter the competition.

Drastic times calls for drastic measures. Besides, Destiny had been meaning to try that new human invention for several decades, it seemed the time had finally come for the divine to try and live with technology. Destiny typed in her only clue and hit enter. The first page she came to held a lot of writing about rules but nothing that would help her. The next page made her perk up.

Rikkaidai Fuzoku - two times National Champions and aiming for a third win next year.

Led by Yukimura Seiichi, arguably the brightest talent of this generation, the famed Rikkaidai stand a very good chance of preserving their winning streak next year.

Hmm, Yukimura Seiichi. Definitely a good lead.


Fate had been slightly perplexed when Fuji Yuuta had fainted dead away when he'd materialised in the St Rudolph tennis club room. However, that was soon out of his mind when an only slightly ruffled Mizuki had asked him to make himself comfortable. It seemed there were intelligent creatures on the Ground Floor who believed in the higher Beings.

"To put it simply, I want Fuji Syuusuke and Echizen Ryoma to become a couple." Fate went straight to the point. "I was under the impression that Fuji Syuusuke cared about his younger brother very much and I have come to the conclusion that if Yuuta were to nudge Syuusuke in Ryoma's direction, things might be simpler."

Yuuta, who was starting to recovering and attempting to sit up, felt the blackness wrapping around him again. Mizuki barely glanced at his unconscious team mate, his mind running through the possibilities. "I'm sure we could work out something that works for all of us. I'll talk Yuuta around, I'm sure he'll understand this is for Fuji Syuusuke's own good as well as for St Rudolph's tennis club, after all national champions are a very much coveted spot" he replied confidently.

That tone tipped Fate off, let none say Fate was stupid, he had been around long enough to have seen these traps before. "Let me make it clear now, no one cheats Fate, you're welcome to try of course but don't cry when you fail. If I get what I want, rest assured I will reward my servants well. Now," Fate went into business mode, "what do you humans normally do to get two people to be a couple?"


Yukimura Seiichi was used to children overrunning his hospital room, they were so cute he just didn't have the heart to turn them away. Most of the time. However, when a insistent 12 year old girl barged in interrupting his conversation with Sanada, even Seiichi had to draw the line and had Sanada escort her firmly but gently out of the door.

Only to find her sitting in Sanada's seat when Genichirou turned around.

"You should respect your elders. Tsk tsk, what do they teach children in schools nowadays."

Seiichi recovered first and tried to smile. "Hello. May I ask who you are?"

"Destiny." The girl replied flippantly, looking around the room casually.

Sanada moved to stand beside Seiichi as if to protect him should the strange girl try anything.

"Erm, Destiny? That's a nice name." Seiichi tried.

The girl turned to stare both of the in the face. "It's not a name, it's who I am."

Seiichi looked up at Sanada, trying to work out if she was telling the truth. The rational part of his brain said it wasn't possible, destiny is a figure of speech, not a person. The realistic part said there was also no way a normal human could have materialised out of thin air. Sanada's face was blank, but Seiichi knew him well enough to know he was probably even more flustered than himself.

"So, uh, Destiny, right? Erm, what brings you here?" the only thing to do was work out why it was here and send it away, then hope it was all a dream.

"You." She was still staring expectantly at them, well, more at Seiichi than Genichirou.

Sanada made a strange noise, like something was caught in his throat. He cleared his throat and tried again. "What do you want with Seiichi?"

"His help."

"With?" Facing a threat to Seiichi, Sanada's courage returned.

"Matchmaking Echizen Ryoma and Tezuka Kunimitsu."

Sanada exchanged wide eyed looks with the patient. "What!"

Destiny sighed heavily. "Maybe I should start explaining from the basics. You see, we have a hierarchy Upstairs. Here, the level where mortals are, is known as the Ground Floor. Further up, there are five floors, the higher you are, the more important you are. The level just above Ground is Floor Five and the top one, where the Eldest One and Cupid occupied is First Floor. Fate and myself live on the Second Floor.

Now, Cupid is the official matchmaker who brings life mates together. Cupid brought Vanity and Pride together, believing them to be perfect for each other, there was even going to be a divine wedding. But then, Pride eloped with Virtue and left Vanity at the altar. Vanity was furious and wanted to sue Cupid for failing in matchmaking her and Pride. That would mean going before Justice for a decision and, let's just say Cupid decided to run instead. Not surprising since he'd never gotten on with Chance very well.

With Cupid out of the picture, the office of the Official matchmaker became vacant, and so did a First Floor office. The only contenders this time are me and Fate. The Eldest One thought we'd create too much destruction if we fought over it so he gave us a challenge. Whoever manages to match this Echizen Ryoma with his true life mate gets Cupid's old office. However, the two of us aren't allowed to interfere directly with Echizen or the candidates we have chosen to match him with, so we need helpers. And I wantYukimura to be my helper."

Sanada was lost by the time she started explaining about Cupid's failure but Seiichi seemed to follow. Sanada looked sharply at his ill captain who had a look of mild interest and curiosity on his face. Surely Seiichi couldn't be considering partaking in this crazy scheme, they would be fighting against Fate! Besides, Echizen and Tezuka! That was never ever going to happen! Somewhere along the line, Sanada lost track of his sceptism of the divinity before them.

"So you've chosen Tezuka to pair up with Echizen. What about Fate? Who did Fate choose?" Trust Seiichi to pick the wildest and most dangerous route in life.

"Fuji Syuusuke."

Sanada shuddered inwardly, the creepy smiling tensai was definitely a worthy match on the courts, but off? Sanada wasn't sure he would like to cross Fuji in psychological matters.

"What would I have to do if I were to help you?" Yep, Seiichi's illness was definitely affecting his judging abilities.

"Well, as I'm not allowed to meddle with Tezuka or Echizen, I would need you to try and pull them together, give them a nudge in the right direction if you will." Sanada did not like the way Destiny was smiling at Seiichi.

"I'm sure Seiichi would love to help but as you see, he's ill and cannot leave the hospital until after surgery. Even then, it could be a while before he's strong enough to leave." Sanada brought them back to reality.

The gleam in Destiny's eyes became more pronounced as she laughed. "Silly, I wouldn't send my helper to work for me when he's ill. If you were to agree, I'll have to make sure you were fit and healthy first."

Yearning welled up in the blue haired boy. "You can heal me?" he whispered softly.

Destiny frowned slightly. "Well, I can't but I can probably call in a few favours from others. Malady still owes me one from the Black Death."

"You caused the Black Death?" There was no way Destiny could be the good guy, uh, girl, if she caused that plague.

The girl before them took on an indignant look. "It was only supposed to kill off the black hearted, Fate thought it would be funny to make it contagious!"

Sanada blinked. "The gods have a sense of twisted humour?"

"We're not gods." She corrected. "We're just higher beings that exist outside the laws of mortality."

Sanada gave up, life was a lot easier when there was only tennis and Seiichi. He didn't care too much, he would make a deal with the devil himself if the devil offered to heal Seiichi, but Destiny? Matchmaking Tezuka and Echizen?

Yukimura patted the dazed Sanada's hand soothingly.

"I'll be happy to help."


Meanwhile, still unaware of the problems around the corner, the Seigaku regulars were training diligently under the watchful eyes of their buchou. Well, almost all. Freshman regular, Echizen Ryoma was dozing under a shady tree, cool can of Ponta under his right hand, tennis racquet beneath his left.

Ryoma lived for tennis, but he had to admit he enjoyed the thrill of a game most; the rush of adrenaline, the tension in his body, you just can't get that level of intensity out of these training sessions. Boy wonder exhaled loudly. Fuji-sempai and buchou were the only two he really wanted to play and those two seemed completely oblivious to his anticipation of a proper, serious match.

Luck just wasn't on his side lately, Ryoma decided as he tried to get some much needed sleep. Maybe Oyaji will be up for a game later.


Mizuki was proud to say he was only slightly apprehensive as he approached Hyoutei's tennis courts. He had wanted Yuuta to come along and give him some moral support as he rallied more people onto Fate's side but Yuuta was still unsure about the whole match making business so Fate thought it would be better just to send him home and have him spend some time catching up with Fuji senior. Especially as they'd heard little about Destiny's actions, who knew what the other deity could be planning.

Atobe was not very pleased when Mizuki of St Rudolph waltzed onto the courts in the middle of training, demanding to speak with him. Being the civilised and well groomed person that he was, Atobe had refrained from uttering profanities at the other boy and led him to the conference room adjoining the tennis club rooms. Settling himself in the plush chair at the head of the oval table, Atobe waited impatiently for Mizuki to get on with whatever he wanted to say.

Mizuki himself, was busy admiring the expensive furnishings, cataloguing everything away so that he could demand the same things from his school when their team won the nationals. Finally noticing the twitch in Atobe's eyebrow, Mizuki decided to present his proposal.

"Atobe-san, have you seen Tezuka-san recently?" he had to start somewhere.

The twitching grew in intensity. "You better not have disrupted Ore-sama's training to ask me that." Atobe's voice was icy.

Maybe there was some truth to the Hyoutei buchou's strength of presence, Mizuki decided. "I heard that Rikkaidai's Yukimura just got out of hospital recently and Sanada went with his buchou to Seigaku to arrange a friendly match between the two teams. I was just wondering if Hyoutei was invited." Mizuki did not mention that Fate suspected Yukimura's speedy and rather miraculous recovery might have something to do with Destiny's sneak visit to Malady of the Three Sorrows.

Atobe narrowed his eyes. A match between Seigaku and Rikkaidai and Hyoutei wasn't invited! How dare they! "Only the winner is good enough to play Ore-sama, it would be beneath me to join in their little games."

Mizuki smirked, he seemed to have found the right button to push. "Of course. After all, Sanada was supposed to be the best junior player and he lost to Echizen of Seigaku. Yukimura is supposed to be even better, although you wouldn't think it from his fragile beauty. Tezuka will have a hard time against that one, on and off the courts."

Atobe glared hard at Mizuki. Yukimura was interested in Tezuka? What about...?

"Only Ore-sama is fit to be Tezuka's rival. Tezuka needs someone strong to challenge him, not a pretty boy fit only for display!"

"Of course, of course." Mizuki couldn't stop all the giggles in time, believing he could guess what was rankling the diva, causing Atobe to intensify the glare a bit more. "Well, I heard they were planning on playing this Saturday, it will be a very interesting day indeed at Seigaku."


"Fate has finally decided to start." Destiny mused, gazing blankly into the rain.

Yukimura sat cross legged beside her, cup of tea in hands. Sanada was practicing with his katana inside the dojo while the other two sat just outside the sliding screen doors, watching the rain falling.

"Hyoutei will show up on Saturday then." Yukimura stated.

"Hm, rather ingenious actually. This Mizuki appears to have convinced Atobe of Hyoutei that you're out to get Tezuka. Atobe seems to be rather possessive of Tezuka's attentions so he will fight you for it. Of course, then, Tezuka, being Tezuka, will step in to stop it and sort it out, leaving Fuji an opening to Echizen." Destiny appeared lost in thought.

"And if Fuji had his own games to play?" Sanada decided he might as well help or Seiichi will never get any rest. Besides, Keigo could be a bit rash at times, Sanada didn't want the diva to fix his attention on Yukimura too much, who knew what would happen if those two clashed.

Two pairs of eyes focused in on him.

"If we make an invitation to the entire Hyoutei team. Atobe will have to take care of his team as well. Akutagawa Jiroh was supposed to have been rather taken by Fuji too, a bit of encouragement from Marui and their matches could last quite a while. Provided Fate doesn't throw anything else at us." he concluded.

Destiny beamed at him. "That's brilliant, you'll be a fine plotter in no time. As for Fate, he'll probably be there to watch, as will I. We just won't make conspicuous appearances. If anything happens suddenly, I'll be on hand to handle it. Seiichi-kun, could you arrange that then?"

Seiichi nodded faintly, a pleased smile on his still pale face. "I haven't been able to play against so many good players in ages!"


The Seigaku regulars had been somewhat dismayed when Tezuka announced Hyoutei would be joining their matches with Rikkaidai. Tezuka himself had remained impassive. Ryoma, was not impressed. He was fairly confident he could defeat the Monkey King from Hyoutei, he'd already beaten Sanada and gained the upper hand on Kirihara; more players just meant less of a chance he could play Fuji or buchou. He would complain but that would only earn him laps, besides, buchou seemed to think it wasn't a bad idea and it could have been worse.

Tezuka himself, had been surprised when Yukimura had called him up initially to ask for matches between their teams. They had only just heard about his recovery and return to the Rikkaidai tennis club and already he was setting up matches, Tezuka made a mental note never to underestimate the other buchou. When Yukimura had called again at the end of the week, to ask if it would be ok to invite Hyoutei along, Tezuka wasn't sure what to think. As far as he knew, Hyoutei was out of the running for the Nationals this year; most of all their teams would graduate at the end of the year, so unless Yukimura was already planning for confrontations in high school tennis, Tezuka could see no other reason for this arrangement.

All in all, it would be an interesting learning experience for the whole team. Matches in the Kantou tournament had always seemed rather final with players believing that one victory meant you would always win against that opponent. Besides, Ryoma, as the next Pillar of Seigaku should learn not to underestimate his opponents. Tezuka knew the freshman did not see that the greatest challenge would be Yukimura Seiichi; he had to use what time he had left at Seigaku to hammer a bit more cautiousness into the younger boy.

For some reason that eluded Tezuka himself, he was a bit wistful at the thought of leaving the untamed freshman behind next year. May be because Ryoma had so much potential but the younger boy refused to listen to most people, Tezuka was gratified that Ryoma seemed to look up at him enough to heed his words and take them to heart. That was all it was and Tezuka tried not to dwell on it as it would not help the team.


Yuuta was suitably wary as he sat opposite his older brother in the Fuji family room. He was pretty sure Mizuki would have made a move by now to carry out Fate's master plan but Syuusuke never stopped smiling long enough for Yuuta to see how bad the damage was. Yuuta had spent the last few days pondering this whole sorry business. Aniki, with Echizen Ryoma. No, Yuuta couldn't see it. In fact, Yuuta couldn't really see his older brother in a serious relationship with anyone. May be because Syuusuke was so damn cheerful all the time and consented to just about every crazy scheme those team mates of his come up with.

Tensai Fuji Syuusuke was sure something wasn't right. Courtesy of his forever smiling expression, people seemed to forget he was sharp in all things, not just tennis. It was suspicious that Rikkaidai's Yukimura suddenly recovered from what was supposed to be an extremely severe disease, strange that the newly returned buchou would arrange for his team to have a series of friendly matches with a rival for the nationals and plain wierd to then invite another school who was out of the running but still a strong rival. Syuusuke would love to think that Yuuta's visit home was because he missed his family so much but his younger brother was sneaking strange looks at him every few minutes or so. Something was up, and Fuji Syuusuke didn't like secrets, well, secrets that he didn't know about, especially when Yuuta knew and it involved him.

Later, alone in his room, Fuji let his smiles slip away and reflected on recent events. Yes, something was definitely wrong, and it had to do with this Satuday's matches with Hyoutei and Rikkaidai. Yuuta didn't normally take an interest into Seigaku's practice sessions but he knew about the matches almost before Fuji had told him. Almost like Yuuta knew about Rikkaidai's invitation and Hyoutei's addition. Not that Fuji really minded Yuuta coming along to watch but something the younger boy had let slip warned Fuji that another of his team would be joining them. And Fuji didn't think he would like this mystery guest. Especially if he had black hair, a strange sense of fashion and a habit of calling him "Fuji-kun".

Saturday will definitely be interesting, if nothing else. Maybe there, the secrets will actually come out.


That's it for chapter 2.so now, we have leaders and teams, all that's left is for the confrontations to start! I'll try and get that out soon but coursework time is near and so is reports so it may take a bit longer.

Anyway, how was that one? any suggestions on who makes the first move?