A/N: Well, howdy-do. D'ya'all remember what happened in chapter 116 from the manga? Good.

Disclaimer: I was jammin' 'til the break of dawn with Takeshi Konomi when he realised he hadn't given his editor the special new chapter of Prince of Tennis. (Not true.)


Chapter Forty Three

"I have a headache." Shikawara rubbed her left temple and squinted through her glasses as she lined up with her team.

Umeko glanced over to her; in her opinion, she was fine, but others could see that she wasn't all that well. It was now afternoon practise and as promised, Fuji had Yokoishi, Umeko, Nozomi from year eight and Mira from year seven to help her with a new type of training. The four of them had the strongest amounts of energy in the group and they were to help the others to understand and develop strategies for beating opponents with similar moves.

"Hey, did you hear, Momoshiro-kun got knocked out of the regulars. Oishi said he hasn't shown up for three days. It's really bothering him. Poor Oishi." Kikumaru gossiped, more so because she was concerned about her beloved Oishi.

Suzu shook her head. "I know how he feels. All because Umeko-chan and her demonic ways. Maybe I really do take too long to win a match. Shikawara-chan destroyed me too."

"Momo-chan? I'm going to have to give him a good talking too." Shikawara was able to say through the pain. "I like the dopey type."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Arai spoke before telling them all to shut up.

Fuji split the teams up into fours. Everyone took part making four groups of twelve. Before Fuji could explain anything Shikawara put her hand up.

"Fuji-senpai, if I have to play against Umeko-senpai again I really will throw her off the school building."

"What! You really plan on killing me!" Umeko gasped and turned to Fuji to be saved.

"Switch with Kozue-chan." Fuji decided.

Once that was out the way Fuji explained what the four were going to do. For three minutes they each would have an all out match with their opponents. With that said Yokoishi, who had the ability to use other peoples moves would get stronger, Umeko; as long as they could last the three minutes that was better than anything. Nozomi's approach wasn't too far off from Mirua's Seira Aihara's style. Instead of using a guardian angel, Nozomi relied on three angels, which she could control with ease and each attacking one of the senses. This useful bit of information was seen and felt by Yokoishi when they played their first rankings match in the year. The challenge for those in Nozomi's line was to fight through an unseen threat. And little Mira, with her potential, was able to predict the player's next move. She wasn't as good as Inui (and she never used data). If Mira developed her sixth sense, she would definitely be unstoppable. But the four of them had their weaknesses, as Fuji had discovered, but what could the girls do to overcome their challengers? "Is everyone ready? Okay, start!"

Yokoishi was the first to serve, not wasting any time with her usual over-zealous behaviour. Even she had things she needed to over come. Her loss against Aihara opened her eyes to it. Sure, she was amazing, but she wanted to go beyond that sublime. She was up against Jinhana, who had a few earthly energies she wanted.

"Show me your divide light." Nozomi said, and was next to start her three minutes against Arai who was unaware of the three beings influencing her match. She could feel something but brushed it off from as exhaustion after this morning's events.

"Go easy on me Shikawara-senpai." Mira said quietly.

"Man, this headache… Let get these three minutes over with." She completely didn't hear Mira and was ready to go all out.

And last to start was Umeko, she watched little-miss Nariko take to the court and her confidence irritated Umeko. "Oh, you again. This time I won't lose to you, Nariko-chan, not now that I'm back."

Nobody really noticed that Fuji wasn't playing. They were too into their three-minute games. The odd scream came from Umeko's court but that was to be expected as she taped into their fears, in opposed to attacking their nerves. Jinhana was trying to make short work of Yokoishi by giving her a bombardment of different techniques, one after the other, but she forget that Yokoishi just soaked up the energy around her. Despite having Jinhana in front of her, Yokoishi was already absorbing Nozomi, Mira and Umeko's energies.

Shikawara seemed to be the only person standing around in her match. Every time Mira served, Shikawara would return it by knocking the racket from her grip. This made Yokoishi, all the way on court A, look over to her. She'd really taken a mental beating from Uki Ito and Umeko. Fuji could tell, by the madden glare in Shikawara's eyes, that she wasn't enjoying the exposure to something she had kept hidden for so long.

Fuji glanced over to her right. Surprisingly she could hear Oishi's voice from around the building. It made her wonder why Arai went over in that direction this morning and why Momoshiro would be silly enough to walk off from his team.

While see thought about it, Ryuzaki-sensei came over to have a look. She liked the fact the girls were getting into their matches but she didn't like that the captain was standing around.

"Oi, oi, Fuji-san, why aren't you doing anything?"

Fuji knew why she wasn't doing anything. During class and lunch she thought about going up to Tezuka and asking what was bothering him yesterday. She didn't do it because she was too busy thinking about it, rooted to one stop, dreaming up her own sequence of events. She realised lately that she was thinking too much about her own problems. They were big problems to her but she should be a bit more selfless… but how? "I was waiting for you to come over sensei."

Ryuzaki placed her hands on her hips and watched the matches with Fuji. "Saying things like that when you know they aren't true… I hope you get some practise in. You lot have a few extra days so do as much as you can." She glanced down to Fuji. "So?"

"Yes, sensei?"

"When I said this morning to 'show St Rudolph no mercy,' I was speaking to everyone."

"I can't think why."

Ryuzaki-sensei chuckled to herself. "I hear Yumi-san is in the regular's line-up. I'm impressed. We could have used her strength and determination; her style is very different from yours too. We could have used that to our advantage. But, listen to me talking of things that won't be… I wanted to tell you not to worry much as she's always in reserve. Who knows, she might have been dropped."

"Ryuzaki-sensei, can we watch the boys' Kantou match in a few days?" Fuji didn't want to continue the conversation, and thought of a why she could be selfless… kinda, seeing as she wanted to go. (Permission granted this time round!)

"You can say that even after losing to Miura?" Ryuzaki-sensei reminded her.

Fuji watched Kikumaru glancing over in the direction of the boys' courts. She also saw Shikawara cupping her hand to the side of her head. "…It would be a shame if we all threw our tournament matches sensei, due to… unfairness."

Ryuzaki-sensei rose her eyebrow. "What are you saying Fuji-san?"

She grinned. "As I remember it, Tezuka and his team came to our city tournament, even before their city games or before knowing if they would win or not. Plus, what sensei wouldn't feel extremely proud after having both teams make it to the Nationals… nah, sensei? You wouldn't happen to have that dream would you?"

Ryuzaki could see where Fuji was going with this. Yes, she did give the boys permission to watch the girl's tournament but it wasn't so she could have a mutiny with Fuji and the others. "That's careless talk, Fuji-san. Winners don't think about losing, do they?"

Fuji cringed when she heard that word. "It would be a shame if we all turned up late on the day, or worse, not show up at all. Who knows, a pregnant woman might wander by with labour pains."

Ryuzaki narrowed her eyes, but she wouldn't be caught out. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Inui-san."

Fuji glanced up at Ryuzaki-sensei. "What about Inui-kun?"

Ryuzaki-sensei laughed mischievously. "If everyone on the team has a mouthful of Inui's special veggie drink, I'll give you lot the day off to watch the match. It's not as strong as the one you had the other day but just as gro-I mean, nutritious. If everyone drinks it at the same time, you can all go."

Fuji didn't have a problem with it and held her hand out to be shaken. Ryuzaki wasn't quite sure what she had done but she shook Fuji's hand. After Fuji released her sensei's hand she walked onto the court, first, going up to one of the year eight girls and asked for her racket.

"Hey, captain, what are you doing? I didn't think you were all that well today." Umeko called as Fuji interrupted her game.

Fuji didn't say anything yet. She asked for a ball and faced those who were waiting in line.

"You guys are doing really great, but you aren't thinking about what your opponents is doing to you. Umeko-chan is scaring you lot, right? So scare her back."

"How?" Nariko asked from the middle of her line. "When I played her I could barely think. It was really disgusting what she did." Most of the other girls who had played agreed.

"Easy." Fuji answered.

Fuji served the ball and got into play with Umeko. After the fifth shot she asked Umeko to do something and to let the other see her attack. Umeko shrugged but happy unleashed an army of beetles that squealed and scurried up Fuji legs and in between her clothes. Fuji didn't realise Umeko had gotten stronger. It certainly felt as if a thousand black beetles were nipping at her flesh and nibbling her skin. Those in line held back from screaming when they saw what Umeko was doing, but when Fuji didn't react to it, they calmed a little. Fuji faced the line of girls. "You know that feeling you get when you think someone has read your diary?" All the girls nodded and stepped back again. "Use that energy in your match."

Fuji, without warning, manipulated the energies around her and sent the beetles off her body. They were slowly being absorbed into each other until they were one huge beetle. When Fuji hit the ball the beetle flew over the net.

"Oh sh-" Umeko shouted when her own attack, attacked her. The beetle followed the path of the ball and went straight for her, knocking Umeko off her feet. "Ouch!" She yelled, clutching her stomach. The beetle disappeared as Umeko was caught off guard.

"That looked really weird. I wanna try that!" One of the girls said, now encouraged and ready to try something new.

Fuji returned the racket and moved on to Mira's line. She told the girls lining up to play that it was hard to win against someone who knows your every move. The best thing that they could do was not to tap into any energies but to us brute force. Shikawara did this but it wasn't calculated and she didn't really think about what she was doing. Next, Fuji helped those out who were being over powered by Nozomi's three angels.

"Hmm, I guess it's not something you can win against unless you block them."

"Argh, but Fuji-chan how do you block something like that." Kikumaru thought hard about it but couldn't come up with anything.

"If you don't know what's overpowering you, get it out of your opponent. Did Nozomi say anything before she started?"

"Yeah, she said something about a divine light." One of the year eights remembered hearing.

"So she has good energy. Nothing blocks good energy better than bad energy."

It wasn't hard for Fuji to tap into that dark energy. Hers' sat on the surface, waiting for moments like this. And the truth was, Fuji had been holding back this side to her since she was little, so when she opened her eyes, a lot wider then what she would normal do, that side to her poured out. The girls around felt something hum within them. Even Yokoishi had to look over.

"What did you do?" Nozomi couldn't believe it. Her angels were gone.

Fuji closed her eyes, smiled secretively and walked on to Yokoishi's court, the hardest of the four.

"My, my, my Fuji-senpai. I didn't know you could produce an aura like that. I've really underestimated you, senpai." Yokoishi tried to joke around, but it showed how serious she was taking it all. "What are you going to do to your aneki?"

Fuji borrowed Jinhana's racket. "If you ever face opponents like Yokoishi-chan… I'd feel sorry for you. It's not easy to bet someone who can throw three to six moves in one shot."

Yokoishi sniggered. "You know your aneki well senpai, but if you plan on playing against me, I've felt everyone's energy on the court, you'll have no idea what I'll do."

Fuji turned to the line-up. "You can't win with strength, because Yokoishi-chan is a strong player."

"And amazing!" Yokoishi added gleefully.

"You can't win with a weak spirit either, she'd crush you. You can't even clear the air with a person like Yokoishi-chan because she draws the energy within her body."

Yokoishi got into a ready stance. "So how do you beat your aneki, senpai?"

Fuji stood up and thought about it. "Speed doesn't work, because she's strong and fast herself. Hmm… I don't think you can…"

"Wait a minute" Jinhana step forward. "Are you forgetting that Yokoishi-chan lost her match recently."

"True. Then I guess the only way to bet Yokoishi is to attack her body, but I didn't want to suggest that because it's not sportsmen like… then again."

Fuji served the ball and Yokoishi returned it with every intention of twisting three different moves into it that she took from around the court. The ball had a heavy spin and vibrated as it flew over the net. It quickly split into three images, shooting off to the left, right and down the middle. Fuji couldn't tell whose move Yokoishi was using, but that wasn't important. She darted for the ball on the left, after seeing that Yokoishi backhanded the shot. She caught it on the strings of her racket, went with its flow and killed whatever move she was going to do. Fuji sighed out in relief, knowing what she still had one up on Yokoishi.

"Truth is, you just have to be better than Yokoishi-chan to beat her, which isn't the easiest thing but, don't forget, after all, this is a game of tennis."

Yokoishi placed her fists down on her hips, speechless by what happened. Fuji got her, just like she got Umeko, Mira and Nozomi.

"That was weak Fuji-chan." Arai said, not impressed with the advice.

Fuji stepped aside and told Arai to have a go of the same shot.

Arai stepped up to the line and waited for Yokoishi to do her move. Yokoishi gave Arai the call when she was ready and delivered the shot. Arai readied herself to catch the ball. It split into three as before but Arai knew to go for the middle ball. She was ready to catch the ball on the strings of her racket but the ball spun faster on the racket and skipped up towards the frame. It shot out in the air having produced Jinhana's bamboo technique. If it had hit the floor it would have done the same thing, then as it came down it landed heavy without bouncing or moving; the lily. The same thing was suppose to happen to Fuji, but unlike Arai, she was able to control the power.

"Whatever." Arai tried to brush it off but Yokoishi still couldn't believe Fuji was on a different level, one she couldn't absorb.

"All right. Let's leave it at that, girls. Line-up." Fuji ordered.

Those who felt defeated dragged their feet towards the centre of the courts. They tried to figure out how Fuji was able to do all those things to them. The ones most surprised were those in Umeko's group. They didn't know it was that easy to over power her illusions.

As Fuji walked to the front of the team, with Arai along side her, Ryuzaki-sensei came onto the courts to stand along side them and was the first to speak.

"I'm impressed, you lot seem to be training hard. And with the new piece of information Fuji-san has given you, I hope you will all use it to your advantage, as well as the team's advantage. We still have enough training days ahead of us to hone those new skills … but," She couldn't help but smirk. "depending on the answer you give your captain now, you may lose a day of physical training for visual training."

All eyes went to Fuji. "I have good news, and I have bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Good!" They shouted back.

"Ryuzaki-sensei has given us permission to watch the boys first Kantou tournament."

The mood lifted between them but it was Suzu who wanted to hear the bad news.

"Well, if we're to go… we, all have to have a cup of Inui-kun's veggie juice."

"I'm okay with that, I need something to knock me out." Shikawara groaned.

"Sod that!" The others protested and a small argument fell over the group as they weighted the pros with the cons.

Arai looked to Fuji slowly. "What were you thinking? Condemning us to that stuff."

"But I thought it was quite nice." Fuji told her.

"Of course you would, you already killed your taste buds with all the wasabi you eat!"

Fuji gave them five minutes to think it over. They huddled in a circle and made their decision. Shikawara stepped forward to deliver the verdict.

"We wanna drink it now if we have to."

"What!" Arai gasped. When did her team become so bold?

"That's what I like to hear from my girls. Lets do it, with no regrets, all right!" Ryuzaki-sensei gave them a thumb's up, giggling in the process.

"Someone get Inui-kun, before we change our mind." Suzu stepped forward.

"I can't believe I'm going to have to taste that thing again." Jinhana held her head in her hands.

"I'll go. I wanna see if Oishi's okay."

Before anyone could stop her, Kikumaru was already running off the courts and around the corner of the building.

"Isn't it cute how in love she is? She really can't see that she's drawing Inui's drink closer towards us." Nariko said amongst them.

"Speaking of which, were does she get off dating one of the regulars? I thought it was an unspoken rule to not go after them." Nishi popped her head over Shikawara's shoulder.

"Who told you something like that? It's a free for all!" Umeko told them. "Whoever made up that silly rule deserves to be threw off the school building, right oujo-sama?"

"Don't try my patience." Shikawara seemed to be slipping into a temperamental state because of her headache.

"Hey captain, you're like 'that' with Tezuka-san aren't you?" Umeko stuck her little finger out with no shame as to what she was implying.

Fuji didn't really react to the gesture. "No really."

All the girls rolled their eyes, including Ryuzaki-sensei. Even they knew the truth. They weren't so blind to see that the two had a thing for each other, that's why no one was dumb enough to get between those two powerful forces.

"Ri-ght! Anyways, are the guys seeing anyone at the moment?"

"When Inui-kun comes round you can ask him." Fuji murmured and turned away, hoping Kikumaru would hurry out.

"Oh, you're no fun." Umeko knelt down on her racket as she waited for Kikumaru to return with Inui. "Speaking of fun, maybe we should have a battle of the sexes. What do you think sensei, see which of your two groups is the most superior?"

It was a decent thought, and Ryuzaki-sensei would consider it in the future.

"In the mean time, if Tezuka-san isn't seeing anyone, I'll be his bit on the side!" Umeko laughed jokingly, missing the dangerous glare from Fuji, but even Umeko knew to stop laughing when she felt something crawl up the back of her neck.

"Ah, here she comes."

They saw Kikumaru walking back towards the courts. Strangely enough, her head was hung low and she held her left cheek in her hand. Her enthusiasm had left her. It wasn't until she entered the court and marched up to Fuji and relieved her tear stricken eyes did everyone asked what was wrong.

Kikumaru couldn't speak. They could all see the red mark her hand tried to hide and her angry eyes definitely held back from screaming out in rage. Before the girls got into a commotion Ryuzaki–sensei told Fuji and Arai to take Kikumaru into the changing rooms to see what was wrong with her.


…tbc…

I can't end chapters. Well, this could've been longer, but it was long enough.

Chapter 44: A continuation of the filler-episode-type-chapter…