At the first note of the school bell, the zombified Ryoma suddenly sprung into life, shocking his neighbours. His irritated Japanese teacher could not help but twitch his eyebrow in annoyance.
"Rise." "Greet" "Thank you and goodbye Karasuma-sensei".
Immediately after that, the class started to buzz. They were all excited about which clubs they should join. But Ryoma already knows what he wants and he is just waiting to follow Horio. He was asleep when Fuka-sensei was explaining how to register for a club hence he had no choice but to follow that loud-mouthed nuisance around.
"Kachiro, Katsuo, I will be leaving to register for the Tennis club, what will both of you do?"
"I.. I will join the tennis club as well!"
"Me too! Let's go and sign up now!" Both of them replied.
"Well then, I guess you will have to follow me to register then. Since I have 2 years of tennis experience, I will be your tennis senior then, BUAHAHA!"
Ryoma almost died from the overloaded stupidity in their conversation. How he wished that he could just turn deaf for the moment.
Finally, they reached the tennis court, after spouting all sorts of ridiculous and hilariously stupid garbage.
"Hey, three of you, you guys wanna sign up for our tennis club uh?" A few tanned seniors appeared.
"uhhh..uhh..yea.." Kachiro replied tensely.
"You do know that Seigaku Tennis club is a seeded school, don't you?" That senior continued, mockingly.
"In order to join our Tennis team, all juniors are required to go through this informal test." Another one chipped in.
"If you are not able to complete the test, you can give up thinking you can join our team with that standard of yours!" 2 other seniors appeared, taunting the juniors.
"With my 2 years of tennis experience, I, Horio Satoshi, shall take on this test!" The hot-head proclaimed.
"Well, it's a simple test actually. I will place a can here and then you will serve from the other end of the court and try to hit the can down within 10 tries. If you managed to hit it, I shall reward you with 10,000 yen. The try out fee is 200 yen per person..wanna give it a go?" The senior asked.
They were all swooned by the prize money. Who in the right mind will resist such good deal? "Please let us try it, senpai!" the kids literally asked with the dollar sign sparkling in their eyes.
"Yoshh… let's get started!'
Katsuo and Kachiro, having completely no control over the ball, was unable to hit the ball anywhere near the can, as expected.
"You amateurs! Now it's time for me to win that 10,000 yen and help you guys pay for your loss! BUAHAHAHA!" Horio boasted confidently.
He completely missed the first shot, much to the trio disappointment. However, with each progressing shot, the ball got closer and closer to the can. By the ninth try, the ball managed to barely scrape the can. "I've got this! Horio exclaimed. He then threw the tenth ball up and hit it with all his force. The ball managed to hit the can but the can still did not topple.
"That is it for you three!" "Haish..it seemed like it was difficult after all. " Horio scratched his head in embarrassment. "So the try-out fee is 200 yen… here, 200 yen" The trio handed the money to the seniors.
"Huh? You guys misunderstood us." One of the seniors raised his voice. He proceeds to pick up the can and showed the trio a note stuck on the back of the can
'Try-out fee 200 yen, each ball 500 yen, prize money 10,000 yen.' "So, in total, you would need to pay 5200 yen" The senior smirked.
"WHAT?" "We don't have this kind of money!" the alarmed trio protested.
"I will try it." A cool and composed voice broke the commotion.
"Captain - wait no, who are you?" The startled seniors asked. They almost mistook this shortie as their captain.
"Echizen Ryoma. A freshman."
"Well.. well.. if you want to join us, you will have to take this informal test anyway, here's the balls." They handed the balls over, trying to hide their embarrassment.
Almost instantly, a yellow flash flashed through the court, striking the can hard right at the top, causing the lid to open, sending the rocks inside the can flying out
More balls whizz pass the court, again and again, hitting the can harder and harder with each strike. The seniors were left astounded. What a perfect control this freshman possessed!
"I have finished the 10 balls. Are you going to pay me 100,000 yen?" Ryoma asked sarcastically.
"You...!" One of the seniors starts to flare up. "Is that the tone you use towards a senior!"
How dare the cursed freshman ruin their plan!
"You expect me to respect you as a senior after witnessing you doing such a despicable act?" You must be kidding me. Show me that you are worth respecting instead of throwing your rank around!" Ryoma could feel his anger slowly stirring.
"As a senpai, if I fail to teach you how to respect the hierarchy in our club, I can't imagine the chaos that will result due to insolent juniors like you!"
"Being the one in authority does not give you the right to do whatever you please - "
A sudden throbbing pain erupted and disrupts his focus.
Da-dum.. Da-dum.. Da-dum..
He felt like his head is splitting into two, his brains being stabbed million times by a blunt knife. It's like his brains are breaking away, tearing apart.
something..something.. his brain is trying to tell him something.. and there are some stupid, stubborn rigid chains stopping it.
His knees turned jelly. He felt nauseous and light-headed. He could not stand up properly anymore. And yet, in front of him, there are 3 threatening seniors in front of him and he has to stay strong. He could not afford to drop down here, he must make his point known, that the strong should never take advantage of the weak. He could not afford to collapse down here...
"You bastard! I have enough of your stinking attitude! How good do you think you are? Stop being such a show off you arrogant fool! I shall teach you a lesson, a lesson you will never forget for the rest of your bloody life!" A furious senior roared.
He swung his racket up high, aiming for Ryoma's right arm. Ryoma was not able to move away, he was paralyzed by weakness and shock. He could only barely open his eyes, stupefied.
….
"RYOMA-KUN, LOOK OUT!" The trio shouted loudly.
Suddenly, a yellow flash flashed in front of their eyes and a tall muscular guy appeared, taking the hit for Ryoma instead.
"Buchou!" The seniors started cowering in fear.
Tezuka, still panting from the dash just now, shot a menacing stare at the terrified Arashi, with his burning golden eyes.
"Explain the situation" He demanded in his deep and threatening tone.
"We were just playing some games with the freshman, and then this cocky brat came up and starts to be rude to us and so..and so I am just frightening him and teaching him some lessons, I did not mean to hit him, I am just scaring him, He is just too rude, I am just teaching him a lesson, I am just..I am just..I didn't mean to hit him..I didn't... It just.. I just want to scare him that's all...that's all...yea.." Stammering with his chattering teeth, this is the most decent explanation he can come up with.
Tezuka glanced sharply to his right and saw the can and that piece of paper listing all the ridiculous rules on it. He walked towards it with precise steps, picked up the can and crushed it.
He threw it to Arashi's feet, grabbed Arashi by his collar, pulling him up to his eye level with his muscular hands, glaring hard at him once more.
Arashi could only swallow hard and wait for Tezuka's next move, looking at the said man with those fearful and terrified eyes.
Tezuka spoke once more.
"You, take this toys of yours, together with your friends, out of the court now. I don't need someone who can treat his racket as a weapon in the team. Get lost now." He hissed murderously at Arashi.
"Yess...yes..captt..captain!" Arashi, with his sweaty hands, picked up the can and signalled his friends over, while shaking vigorously. They vanished almost instantly from sight.
…..
Tezuka then turned back and was about to greet the freshman, before he heard a loud thump.
The freshman, who had tried his best to stay up, had finally given up in doing so.
"RYO-CH"
"KUNIMITSU!" Syuusuke cut Tezuka sharply.
Tezuka shut his mouth promptly. He knew that this is just a similar looking boy, who just so happen shares the same name as Ryo-chan. He is Ryoma, not Tezuka Ryoma, nor his Ryo-chan. The Ryo-chan that he has been dreaming of every single night, is long gone.
With pained eyes, Tezuka looked helplessly at the motionless body on the ground.
But what if miracles do happen?
Syuusuke immediately snapped him back to reality.
"Tezuka, you are bleeding. Both of you needs to go to the infirmary now."
Syuusuke then turns to the rest of the regular.
"I am afraid you guys will have to go on your own. I will remain behind to take care of the 2."
Tezuka opened his mouth to protest, "Syuusuke, you don't have to –"
"Kunimitsuu, I am staying. That's final. Now go to the infirmary, I will carry the boy."
Tezuka remained silent and obediently headed towards the infirmary, meanwhile the rest of the regular looked at their shadow vice-captain in awe. No one had ordered Tezuka before. Except for Fuji.
...
With this, I am done with my updates for today. I hope to finish up the rewriting by the end of next month. However please pardon me if I fail to meet my promise cos my national exams are coming up. Hope you enjoyed the story thus far and do rmb to R&R! They really inspire me to continue writing so... really hoped to hear more from you guys!