I kind of rushed through the whole Nishi conflict, but eh, whatever. He'll pop up again eventually. On wit da chapter!
Here We Go Again
Chapter Six: Let the Games Begin
~One Month Later~
The boisterous talking ceased as the Seishun Kokou Tennis Club entered the tournament grounds. The number one seeded team in the Tokyo Prefecture and number two in the nation was not to be ignored, after all.
Of course, there are always a few idiots in any crowd.
"Oi, Seigaku! Where's your captain? He and Aioyama ditch you?"
"Ichi, come see this! They let a girl on the team (1)!"
"Kageyama Kokou, I would appreciate it if you did not harass my players." Tezuka stepped in, seeing Ryoma twitching dangerously at the 'girl' comment. The team, and the school, had learned that it was a sore spot for him, bordering on a complex.
"What was that? But she's so pretty!" the tanned teenager in front of their team's baby crooned. He reached out to grab the short, incredibly miffed boy's chin, but was stopped by a thin hand grabbing his wrist. Looking over at the person connected to the hand, he was met with the clear blue that could only belong to one person; Seishun's resident genius, 'Tensai Fuji Syuusuke.'
"I believe Tezuka told you to leave our players alone, Aoiyama-san. And your cousin did not 'ditch' us, he quit the team along with Gorou and Nishi when they did not get into the Regulars."
"Can't have been a fair selection, then. And who's she to you, your girlfriend?" This Aoiyama was nothing like his cousin, with short orange hair and brown eyes.
This was the cause of small outbursts of laughter throughout the Regulars and those who had come to simply watch their school's matches, including Fuji himself. "Who knows…" he murmured, unheard by anyone. "But that's impossible, I'm afraid. Ryo-chan isn't a girl. Have you ever heard of Echizen Ryoma?"
"A few times, yeah. What's it to… no way! That's totally impossible." However, by mentioning the words 'Echizen Ryoma' in the middle of a tennis tournament, Fuji had opened the gates to Hell.
As murmurs, and eventually squeals and shrieks broke out, a crowd soon surrounded Ryoma, to his irritation. At the first camera flash, he turned to Tezuka. "That's it. Can we go now? Before the media gets here…" It would appear his face and return to Japan would be plastered all over the tabloids tomorrow.
"Aa. We do still need to register. Kageyama, we'll see you in the first round." The tall brunet didn't even get a response, as they had stunned into silence at all the fans trying to get a glimpse of Ryoma.
"Seishun Kokou, here with eight members." The captain stated as he handed the man a piece of paper.
"Ah. Good luck today- Echizen Ryoma!" The man himself was an avid tennis fan, and was now wondering if he had really seen the Prince's name on Seishun's registry list.
"What?" A bored voice that was far too high to be coming from a high school student's mouth piped up to his left. There stood Samurai Junior himself, wearing the blue and white Seishun uniform and sipping a grape Ponta.
"N-nothing…" the man trailed off weakly. 'Must be the heat, must be the heat, must be the heat.' After composing himself a bit with this, he looked back at the team's captain. "Anyway, you're all set. Good luck."
"Denial is a wonderful thing, ne, Inui?" Fuji asked merrily, having seen the man's thoughts practically writing themselves down on his face.
"Mm. I'm getting some very good data from this. It appears that everyone, especially at a tennis tournament, knows Echizen's name, if not his face. We've been living at school and he tries to go unnoticed if he's ever in public on the weekends, so I haven't been able to see people's reaction to him or his to them." The man's pencil flew across the surface of his infamous green notebook.
"Looks like he doesn't like them," the prodigy replied cheerily, throwing an arm around Ryoma's shoulders.
"Please let go, Fuji-senpai," he deadpanned, sadly used to this by now. Over the past month, Fuji had been spending an inordinate amount of time around him, going so far as to pick him up from class a few times and joining him at lunch on the roof on occasion.
"But you're so cute, Ryo-chan!" Fuji had also grown very attached to the nickname, to Ryoma's dismay.
"Don't call me that," the teen retorted. While he knew it was useless, it was a knee-jerk response.
"Fuji-senpai, Echizen, come on! Buchou told you to get moving!" Momo yelled out over his shoulder. "And can you drop the fangirls, Echizen? We need to warm up!"
"Coming," Ryoma shouted back. The two set off, one smiling serenely and the other scowling slightly at the disturbance his appearance was causing. "Che. Why's everyone care so much?" he muttered, the question a bit rhetorical.
"Because you're so gorgeous, Ryo-chan," the brunet beside him replied merrily, to which Ryoma snorted. "No, I'm serious. You're really something to look at."
"Even if you were serious, no one would be able to tell."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Fuji, Echizen, can you get over here? We're greeting the other team!" Oishi called from the benches that the rest of the Regulars had left their bags on.
"Hai, hai. Ne, Oishi, isn't our first opponent Kageyama?" Fuji inquired as he set down his bag softly. There was damning evidence that he was agitated, though. Instead of his usual little smile, his face was set in a determinedly neutral expression. First impressions were lasting ones, and Fuji Syuusuke's first impression of Kageyama High was not an endearing one.
"Aa. They're an unseeded school, though. A bit of a dark horse."
"Hmm…" The three now walked over to their teammates, about to line up at the net for the traditional exchange of greetings.
"Welcome to the Tokyo Prefectural games semifinals between Kageyama Kokou and Seishun Kokou." The referee announced for the players and the audience to hear.
"Let's have a good match." The sixteen players chanted, bowing simultaneously.
After the captains shook hands and both teams returned to their respective benches, Tezuka cleared his throat, bringing instant silence. "The lineup for today will be: Doubles Two, Inui and Kaidoh; Doubles One, Kikumaru and Oishi; Singles Three, Echizen; Singles Two, Momo; Singles One, Fuji. Echizen, I want this round to be ours by the end of your match."
"Gotcha." Ryoma was lolled on a bench, sipping Ponta and leaning on his bag.
Tezuka turned from the lazy teen as another announcement rang out across the courts. "We will now be starting Doubles Two, Kageyama Kokou's Akira/Michi pair versus Seishun Kokou's Inui/Kaidoh pair. Both teams please send your players out."
"Kaidoh, let's go." Inui stood, racquet in one hand.
"Fssshhhhh." The two walked out to the net to shake hands with their opponents. On the opposite court, Akira and Michi were looking more than a little nervous.
"Let's have a good match, ne?" Inui asked innocently, though the effect was ruined with Kaidoh staring the two down.
"Aa. We'll do our best," replied Akira. It seemed as though not everyone on Kageyama's team was like the captain, Ichi, and Aoiyama. The brunet across the net and his blond partner didn't act antagonistic at all, if anything, they looked at their opponents with a respect that bordered on reverence.
"Best of one set match, Seishun's Inui to serve (2)."
The tall Seishun player's glasses glinted mischievously. "Waterfall."
~X~
"Game and match, to Seishun's Inui/Kaidoh pair. Six games to one!"
"Hmm… Not bad. Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai have gotten better over the years," Ryoma commented lazily. Waterfall was even faster, and Kaidoh had come up with even more snake related shots. Even Ryoma was impressed at his newest addition, the Black Mamba. This shot imitated the venomous snake for which it was named, skidding along the ground in a wave pattern in place of a bounce.
"Congratulations, nya! Oishi! Come on, it's our turn (3)!" The Golden Pair rose and stepped on court to wild applause.
~X~
"That's Oishi Territory, right? They still use that?" Half an hour later, Seishun had reached match point once more. Kageyama's side had the serve, but in the brief interval between rallies, Oishi had moved to the front. Kikumaru was in the back and receiving what would probably be the last serve of the match.
Ryoma's question was posed as he returned from his warm-up jog. "Mm-hm," Fuji handed the teen a water bottle as he nodded. "But Eiji came up with a little something to make it even more effective a few months ago."
As he spoke, Kageyama's player sent the ball hurtling across the net, only to be received by the waiting redhead. The moment the ball left Kikumaru's racquet, however, four more of him appeared to either side, mimicking his movements. A total of five acrobats lined the baseline, all being flamboyant in one way or another. Kikumaru hadn't used his Seal Step at all in the match, and at the sight of six players across from them, the Kageyama players were stunned. Stunned enough to hit a lob, in fact.
"Kikumaru Hyper Beam!" the five redheads shouted, rejoining midair and driving the ball back into the court.
"Game and match, to Seishun's Kikumaru/Oishi pair. Six games to love!"
"Bui!" Kikumaru stuck his tongue out, flashing a 'V' sign with his fingers.
The two walked towards their team, the cat-boy chattering away happily to his partner. "Ochibi! Good luck, 'kay?"
Ryoma, busy threading his ponytail through the gap in his hat's back, merely grunted in acknowledgement. Grabbing his favorite red racquet, he approached the net and (hesitantly) shook hands with his opponent, who was coincidentally Aoiyama.
"You really do look like a girl. A pretty one, too," the taller player commented.
Ryoma snorted. "What, you swing that way?" With that, he walked to the base line, leaving a spluttering Aoiyama in his wake.
"Isn't that Echizen Ryoma?"
"What's he doing here?"
"Yeah, sis? It's me, call Mom and Dad, you'll never guess who's here!"
"So this is where he went off to…"
"Kyaaaaaa! Echizen-sama!"
"Ryoma-kun, look over here!"
A massive crowd soon formed around the courts rumors running wild, cameras flashing, and girls screaming. "Che. Now it's going to turn into a media circus before this match is even done." The ex-pro scowled at the commotion and took his hostility out on the ball.
"Flash," mumbled Ryoma in English. There was a loud, 'slam' as a tennis ball rebounded off the wall behind Aoiyama.
"…T-this is incredible. That serve was on the level of the Pinnacle of Perfection displayed two years ago at Nationals, but as far as the data shows, this is the normal Echizen we're seeing," Inui said scribbling in his notebook.
A feminine laugh chimed behind them. "It would appear I need to work harder, Echizen-kun's gotten quite good."
"Sadaharu, that serve is the fastest in the world, only not at its top speed. I gunned it at 267 kilometers per hour, though Echizen-san's record is 279 when using his Pinnacle."
Behind them stood the Emperors of Rikkai in all their glory, the Three Demons leading them. "Renji. Scoping out the competition, are we?"
"We learned the hard way two years ago to not underestimate your team, Doctor." Replied the tall brunet.
"Mm. I'll take that as a compliment, Professor." Throughout the conversation, the bangs of tennis balls provided background noise. Ryoma had continued to destroy his opponent through use of simple brute force and speed.
"My, my. His performance is much more impressive live than on television, ne, Genichirou?" The captain of Rikkai's gentle voice rang out once more.
"Saa… You've seen Ryo-chan's matches on TV?" inquired Fuji. His gentle smile mirrored the one Yukimura wore, but his eyes were open and glinting dangerously.
"We wouldn't be very devoted tennis players if we didn't watch the Grand Slam finals, would we, Fuji-san?" If Ryoma had been added to this conversation, it would've been the ultimate bishounen showdown.
Rikkai's captain leaned in, whispering something only Fuji could hear. "No need to be so protective, Fuji-san, he's all yours. Genichirou and I are already an item."
The genius hummed in reply. "So that's it… That's good."
"Game to Echizen, two games to love."
"Oh? When did the second game start?" Yukimura seemed highly surprised, yet amused. "Echizen-kun really wants to finish this guy."
Aoiyama had yet to score a point, and Ryoma had been crushing him with return aces. Now, he returned to his high-speed serves. Anyone could predict the outcome of this match.
"So it would seem. This'll be over in ten minutes." Fuji laughed as he spoke. This was only to be expected of a peeved Ryoma.
The teams sat (or stood) in silence for the next few minutes, their respective data masters occasionally trading information. Seishun's rookie was destroying Aoiyama quickly and efficiently, leaving no room for error. There wasn't even anything fancy about his playing; the carrot-top across the net from him just wasn't fast enough to return his shots. Soon, the match was over, six games to love.
"Mada mada dane," the short teen taunted, smirking.
Ryoma calmly walked over to his team, grabbing a Ponta from next to his bag and putting away his racquet. "Ara? Ryo-chan, you've got some visitors," Fuji commented, indicating the mob of reporters waiting outside the fences lining the courts.
"They're here already? Damn. I wanted to finish the match and leave before that happened." His scathing words were accompanied by a scowl. Alongside fans, the media was one of the most annoying things about professional tennis.
"Echizen-san, was this the reason you left the spotlight?"
"Echizen-san, turn this way please!"
"Echizen-san, did you leave public view of your own free will?"
"No comment, all of you," the star deadpanned.
"Yo, Echizen, come on! They're about to do the closing ceremony!" Momo put Ryoma (who had no doubt become his charge under Tezuka's orders) in a headlock; the boy was still several inches shorter than him and everyone else on the team.
"O-chi-bi! Stop talking to the press, we got to go!" Each of his two upperclassmen grabbing an arm and waving to the reporters, Ryoma was dragged off to center court.
"For winning three matches to zero, Seishun Kokou will advance to the Tokyo Prefectural Finals two days from now."
"Thank you for the match!" the players chanted, before walking back to the benches to retrieve their belongings.
"Eh? Echizen, you see what you do? How the hell are we supposed to get through this swarm?" Momo asked exasperatedly, smacking his own forehead.
"Here, Momo. Like this. Listen, minna-san! If you let everyone through without being pushy, Ochibi here will answer two questions, but if he won't and we will if we can!" During the latter part of his announcement, Kikumaru had bodily lifted his junior into the air.
"Wha- Don't decide things on your own, Kikumaru-senpai!" The dark-haired boy wriggled, trying to get free and safely on the ground again.
"Maa, maa, Ochibi. It's your fault, so take responsibility," the redhead chided as he set Ryoma down. "Okay, umm… eenie, meanie, minie, you!" he said, pointing to a blonde reporter.
"Echizen-san, did you leave as you were too stressed in the pro circuits?" she inquired.
"No. It's just boring there."
Before she could open her mouth again, Oishi interrupted. "One more question. You, with the red tie." He indicated none other than Inoue Mamoru, from Monthly Pro Tennis.
'Very clever, Oishi. By picking someone Ryo-chan knows personally, you can be sure the question won't be intrusive or offensive.' Fuji thought, giggling a bit and earning strange looks.
"Echizen-kun, what do you intend to do now that you're in Japan once more?" the man asked, gesturing to the ever faithful Shiba to take pictures.
To that, Ryoma smirked. "Win."
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you got your pictures and answers, so if you'll excuse us…" the team's acrobat chimed in, making a parting motion with his hands.
The Seishun team took off quickly, hurrying to leave the tournament grounds. No one wanted to be around when the reporters decided they weren't satisfied with two questions. "Did you deal with that often?" Oishi asked Ryoma as they stepped on the street.
"Aa. Pretty much every time I walked out my front door."
"Oh, Tezuka, can we go do the usual? We haven't been there since Ochibi got back!"
"That's fine, just don't break anything like last time. I'm sure he would want to see Echizen," the captain replied.
"Yay! Thank you! Ochibi, come on, we're going this way!" Kikumaru yelled as he and the others turned towards one of Tokyo's shopping districts.
Vaguely recognizing the path that they were taking, Ryoma groaned inwardly. 'They're still doing this after all this time?'
"From the look on your face, I'd guess you know where we're going." Fuji had magically appeared beside him, smiley as ever. "Your match today was very impressive, Ryo-chan. I believe it was just barely over twenty minutes (4)."
"Domo. That guy was pathetic, though. All talk." Fuji opened his eyes to better observe the teen beside him. The tennis star had let his hair down some time after his match, and it was now glinting and flying lazily in the breeze. The setting sun's light shone directly on his face, giving it a healthy glow. Golden streaks twinkled in otherwise olive eyes, and a slight smile graced pink lips.
'Beautiful. That really is the only word for him…' Fuji thought.
The two's moment was interrupted by their catching up with the rest of the group. 'Too bad. I'll have to talk with him later,' thought the slightly miffed genius, closing his eyes.
The tennis team had stopped in front of a traditional looking building with talking and the smell of Japanese food drifting out. "Everyone here?" Kikumaru inquired. "Good. Now then." He drew a deep breath placing his hands in position to throw aside the two cloths that stood in for a door. "TAKA-SAAAAAAN!"
Okay, I'll be the first to admit I HATE (hatehatehateh-a-t-e) using all caps outside of my A/Ns, however, Kikumaru's lines deserve it. I will try my damndest not to do this again, but italics and normal letters just didn't cut it this time.
Yay Rikkai. Who DOESN'T like them?
I apologize for not really showing the matches, but I'm not good at writing them, find them boring to read, and am only really comfortable writing Eiji, Fuji, Ryoma, and maybe Tezuka and Momo. In important matches, I might go deeper, but that's only if a good amount of people want me to.
I also apologize for school names in this and any chapters to come. I've got no idea if they mean anything, (I think Kageyama would be "shadow mountain") but I need to make up any school that isn't an old face from the canon.
(1) Yes, back by popular demand, it's the "Ryoma's a girl" gag.
(2) I know I skipped the whole "Which?" "Rough/Smooth" thing, but I just didn't know which side is which. All I could find online was some jargon about the gut strings. If you can tell me in terms of the letter being up or down (yes, I'm that stupid) I'll change it.
(3) I am honestly wondering if Kikumaru will ever get an entire paragraph of dialogue that doesn't involve an exclamation point (or the words 'Ochibi' and 'nya').
(4) I know Kirihara's record is like, thirteen minutes, but he injured the people and made them quit early. I looked it up, the shortest official tennis match was 32 minutes, so even twenty is pushing it.
R-E-V-I-E-W! No one seemed to like the last chapter; I feel unloved! See you next week!