Thank you for your reviews for chapter V! MissSilver, tubey3, Reius Devirix, MayNeuma, wkitsune, RuByMoOn17, ennov, Kiko, Nami, foreverbreathless, SnowBlizzard, Higuma Otoshi, merryweather, Anonymous, Blu3, dimonyo-anghel
I am very happy.Here is Chapter VI! I hope all of you enjoy it. :)
Note: There are some flashbacks in this chapter in italic.
Disclaimer – 'Prince of Tennis' is not mine.
Kimi ga iru
Everyone around the court watched Tezuka Kunimitsu who was going to serve the first ball in the game, but on theotherside of the net, there were only the Fudomine club members' eyes that were locking at Ibu Shinji for giving him non-verbal support. Shinji glanced at his captain ,Tachibana Kippei, and than turned to concentrate at the younger boy.
Seigaku tennis club cheered. The freshmen trio assumed that they had loudest voice along the sideline of the court as they screamed out and sang with their powerful voice while Osakada Tomoka and Ryusaki Sakuno were dancing.
First serve - - The ball was left into the air and the racket quickly hit it hard. - - "Fault!" The referee announced. It hit the net. Many people include Tezuka's opponent stared in disbelieve. Fault at first serve?
"The first serve was fault. His second serve probably lose some strength." Inui Sadaharu, who was observing the match between Ibu and Tezuke, commented.
"Why?" Fuji Yuuta asked his senpai.
"Most players would lose some of their determination to put all strength in their second serve, if the first one was fault." The data-man explained. "They would afraid of serving fault again because it would be double fault."
The Seigaku boy prepared a new serve and set his eyes on the white line of his opponent side. Then he hit his ball, this time his serve was successful. "So, this is your serve? This is nothing." Ibu hit the ball back easily. "It's no better than that fault serve."
"His serve has no power as I had expected." Inui remarked.
Tezuka returned the ball back only to find a smash from the Fudumine boy.
"0-15!"
"He might can't hold his service game." Echizen Ryoma remarked for the first time in awhile.
"Now, it's time for Fudomine to serve." Yuuta said. "I wonder why Echizen-buchou gives Single 2 player position to Tezuka."
"Echizen held the greatest responsibility for our tennis club. He will not let Tezuka play if he knows that boy will mess up easily, Yuuta." The older Fuji explained.
"You believe in Echizen-buchou?" The younger Fuji asked.
"Yes," Fuji Syusuke simply answered. "There must be something behind all this. I know him." He added.
"Tezuka!" Momoshiro Takeshi shouted. "Be careful. His serve is dangerous." He warned his kouhai. After seeing the freshman lost in his first service game, Momo determined to do something.
"Dangerous?" Kaidoh Kaoru felt surprise.
"Yeah," He replied. "I saw that serve at the street court for a couple times. It reminded me of our captain's twist serve."
"That boy does twist serve?" Fuji asked, finding this boy was a bit interesting.
"His serve is similar to twist serve." Momo said. "But I don't know what does it called, senpai."
But not as Momo had expected, Ibu's next serve was just a normal serve which made the Seigaku sophomore felt irritated. But still it was quicker and rusher than average serve.
Ryusaki Sumire watched the competition with worried. Her expression told her student that she wasn't please. The thing that was flashing in her memory was Yamato's decision. She had always doubt it since the day she saw Yamato showed his interested toward Echizen Ryoma.
"You are good." Yamato Yuudai said with a smile.
"That's because you are suck." Echizen said.
"That's not the way you should talk to our senpai!" Oishi Syuichiroh warned. "He is also our buchou."
"Then what should I say? How about I'm far too great from your level?"
"That's even worst." His friend made a face.
The senior broke into a laugh. "You two are funny."
"You are weird."
"Echizen!"
Seigaku's coach sighed and closed her eyes. It was too late, wasn't it? She knew her students best, but it didn't mean that she completely understand them. Both graduated captain and present captain were stubborn in their own way. And the main thing was she could not interfere in their decisions. Sometimes, she wondered if they really want the best for Seigaku.
The game continued with the certain result. Shinji was the one who lead in the match. Now, the score was 4-0. Even an amateur knew that it wasn't easy to get the score back.
"This becomes one-side game." Kawamura Takashi said.
"If Tezuka lose, that's mean Seishun Gakuen lose." Yuuta said to his aniki.
"That kid won't let us down." The captain remarked lazily.
"It's too late to have positive thinking." Oishi warned his friend. "You shouldn't make that kid play in this serious match. That Fudomine's sophomore is too strong for the freshman to handle."
"Original Ochibi-chan," The acrobatic player's voice showed that he was nearly cried. "Why you have to humiliate Megane-kun?"
Echizen didn't answer his teammate's question.
"That kid is not even a regular member. Although he has some skills, he is still not good enough to be Seigaku regular member." Many audiences started to gossip and discuss about the new transfer boy.
Kirihara Akaya watched the game with amuse. "That kid probably pull new trick soon." The kanagawa boy said. "I remember seeing him played with one of first year member in the practice zone."
"Is Megane-kun good at tennis?" Horio Satoshi asked. "He said that he has two years experience just like me."
"Megane-kun?"
"Oh, it's Tezuka Kunimitsu's nickname." Mizuno Katsuo said.
"Nice nickname! I need to get a cute one, too!"
"Akaya," Someone called out the Rikkai boy's first name.
"Senpai! How did you know that I'm here?" The boy was shocked that his senpai, Yanagi Renji, followed him to this court.
"There is a chance by 83 percents that you would rush to see Echizen Ryoma, buchou of Seigaku tennis club, after hearing our fukubuchou, Sanada Genichirou said about him."
"Er…and how did you get here?"
"By bus, probably the same way you did get here."
"Yeah…"
"What bring you here, Professor?" Inui greeted his old friend with a question.
"I come to pick up Akayan back to Rikkai, Doctor." Rikkai's data-man answered. They still clearly remembered their nicknames which they used to call each other when they were in the primary school.
"Akayan? Wow! Thank you for a nice nickname, Yanagi-senpai!"
It was Ibu's turn to serve again.
"Kick serve!" The ball flew to his opponent court side, hit hard on the floor and bounced toward Tezuka. It was too quick. The boy didn't even have time to move from the up coming ball, it hit him right on his left cheek. He fell down on his knees in off balance.
"What was that?"
"He calls it 'Kick serve'?"
"Is Tezuka alright?"
"That's exactly a serve that I saw at street court!" The dunk smash player shouted.
"Kick Serve?" Fuji raised his voice. "It resembles Twist Serve as you said, Momo. You have a good sight."
"Thanks, Fuji-senpai!"
The crowd kept questioning about the Fudomine boy and Seigaku boy who were having a tennis match on the court. If they lost in this match, their team would lose in this competition. Tezuka almost couldn't find any strength to stand up. His mind went back to the day he was still in Rikkai... Everything flashed like déjà vu.
Then he got up on his feet. Both of his knees were red. His right hand, which had a fine grip on his racket, shook. His left hand was on his face, on the place that the ball hit his cheek. Eyes looked down on the thin white line of green court. Then He put his left hand down from his face and moved to have a firm grip on his racket together with his right hand.
Finally he looked up at his opponent and shocked most of the audiences with his biggest secret by holding his racket in his left hand.
"That boy is left handed player? This is interesting." Inui quickly took a note and Yanagi nodded lightly in agree.
Tezuka turned his eyes to give Echizen a glance. The captain glanced back and then smirked in return.
"It seems like they don't like each other… much." Kawamura commented as he saw their eyes contact.
"Apparently," Inui said. "I wonder when they will turn their hate to love."
"I won't let that happen, Inui!" Kikumaru announced loudly. "Megane-kun is mine!"
"Eiji!" Oishi shouted. "Stop saying ridiculous things!"
"Ah! Soup opera in tennis club,"
"Inui!" Oishi shouted.
"I don't know how long I have been waiting for this." He adjusted his glasses and smiled as he took a short note about the certain event. "All of you are the main characters in my novel." Many Seigaku students stared at the data-man in shock, unbelief what he was saying. But some students still were dense and did not understand Inui's intention.
"You change a lot, Doctor."
"You do know me, Professor."
"What our senpai are talking about, Kaidoh?" Momoshiro asked his friend.
"Who know?" Kaidoh answered with a question.
After Tezuka revealed his gift in left hand playing, the chance for Seishun Gakuen raised non-stop. The weight of the game turned to Seigaku's side. His smash and serve were more accurate. Ibu, who was his opponent, was even more surprise that the younger boy could do volley.
Ibu decided to do a nearest drop shot at the net, but suddenly… it was almost like magic… the ball seemed to fly back to Tezuka's racket right on the sweet spot even though it was a drop shot. The boy almost didn't have to move from where he was standing to receive the ball.
"He is really a freshman?" One of Fudomine members questioned.
"…Who is Tezuka Kunimitsu?"
"I thought he is just a normal freshman." Kamio Akira said. He eyed his buchou, who was watching the game, with concern. He certainly didn't want his team to end just in a district tennis competition. Every member in Fudomine tennis club was fighting so hard to improve themselves for their National tennis competition dream.
Now, the score was 5-5. Many Seigaku regular members were exciting with the game.
Fuji watched the game with interested. He turned his head to have a talk with Echizen only to find his friend stared intensely at the young boy. He thought that Echizen was going to give the boy his trademark smirk again to show how please he was, but instead he just said. "After won many times, Seigaku could be careless."
The tensai turned his eyes to look at Tezuka and then quickly turn back to the buchou. "Echizen, this's mean…." His expression immediately changed as he knew what their buchou was talking about.
"You are right, Fuji." The captain said. His eyes still locked at the court.
"What Echizen-buchou is talking about, aniki?"
"Echizen is willing to sacrifice Seigaku's win for a new pillar." Fuji whispered. His hands tightened on his brother's shoulder.
Tezuka was tired.
His visions blurred.
The only thing he could remember was…
"Tezuka," The boy looked up as his name was being called.
"Hai, Yukimura-buchou"
"You are strong, but you don't belong here. You can't be here."
"…Why? I don't understand. I want to play tennis here, in Rikkai. Why I can't stay?"
"Because you never use what you have or should I say you are afraid of reaching your full potential." The captain said. "I know what you are trying to hide."
"I…"
"You have skills, but we don't need someone like you in Rikkai"
And the result was out.
Seigaku lost.
End of Chapter VI
BTW, please don't kill me because of this chapter… and I'm very sorry for late update. Well, I have a lot of work lately. Anyway I will try to update more soon and add more romance into the story.
Please review and see you in the next chapter :)