S.F Chapter 3
A regular morning in the Echizen residence, "Ryoga! You are so dead!" Ryoma yelled running after her older brother. Ryoga Echizen is the adopted son of the Echizen family though he looks similar to Ryoma. He's an eighteen year old brother with a sister complex who likes to wake up his sister with a bucket of cold water. "Ryoga, you brought that upon on yourself." Ryoma's mother, Rinko, lectured, putting bandages on Ryoga's bruises. Ryoma ate her breakfast in a very ticked off way. "Do you really have to wake me up like that?" Ryoma asked him. "Yes, because you won't wake even if a brass band was playing next to your bed." Ryoga explained. Ryoma pouted; she can be a very heavy sleeper, especially when she's recovering from jet lag. "Come on Chibisuke, I'll give you a ride to school." Ryoga said grabbing the keys. "Alright but no motorcycles, I want to get there in one piece, I don't want to have to default in the ranking matches." she said finishing her toast.
The ranking matches help choose the members of the team that will participate in the tournaments, only 8th and 9th graders are qualified but thanks to a certain show of skill, Ryoma will be the only 7th grader to join. "Game and match to Echizen, 6-0." the umpire announced. "Way to go Ryoma, that's your third win of the day." Kachiro exclaimed. "Dude you got creamed out there." one of the boys said. "That girl over powered me from the start, not only were her shots strong they were accurate." the boy said wiping off his sweat. "You have one more match for the day, a regular, Kaidoh." Katsou told her. "You have no chance of beating a 9th grade regular but maybe an 8th grade regular." Horio remarked. Ryoma just ignored him and told Oishi her score; he was in charge of tracking everybody.
Ryoma's cellphone started ringing, "Cammy, did something come up?" Cammy is Ryoma's name for the computer, it doesn't stand for anything though. 'I seem to have found a clue on how the young lord managed to find out the location of the mountain prison.' Cammy informed her. "Alright I'll check it out, once I give the guys a little heads up on what's coming." Ryoma closed the phone.
"Oishi, why not take a break, I'll take over." Inui offered. "Thanks Inui, how're your matches going?" he asked. "I am winning in straight sets no surprise there," he said marking it on the bracket, "but that female 7th grader is doing better than I had anticipated, she hasn't lost a game yet." he tapped at the name. "To be honest I did not expect her to be a girl, I could've sworn that she was a boy." "You and me both, she seems so boyish." Oishi smiled. Inui started writing in his notebook. "You and that troublesome notebook, it's starting to creep me out." Oishi took a step back. "That girl has to win two more games in order to be a regular, but her next opponent will be extremely difficult to beat." He pointed out. "Fsssh." a voice hissed. "Ah, Kaidoh, I did not now you were there," Inui turned to him, "do you think you can beat that girl?" "There's no way I'm going to let a girl beat me." he hissed.
"Ryoma, it's almost time for your match to start." Katsou told her. "I know, I'm heading there now, you don't have to rush." Ryoma closed the book she was reading. "Hey Echizen, your match is with Kaidoh right?" Momo called out. "I don't know; maybe." she answered. "you might want to be careful of Viper." Momo warned her. "Viper?" she turned to him. "That's what we call him; he got that name because of his unique playing style." Momo explained. "Oh." Ryoma turned and walked on the court. "Good luck out there Ryoma." the F3 said. "Fsssh, step aside 7th graders." Kaidoh hissed at them. "Y-yes sir." they said running off. He started glaring at Ryoma who glared at him with more intensity. He was the first to back off and was heading towards his side of the court.
'So he's trying to tire me out by hitting the balls left and right.' Ryoma smirked. Kaidoh's snake shot went the opposite direction when it reached Ryoma's side of the court, so she has to run longer. Ryoma managed to tire him out by returning the ball at the base line which makes him bend down when he returns it. He hasn't managed to notice her plan. 'Let's shake him up a bit.' "Hey Kaidoh, I think I figured out your snake shot." she called out, "Top spin rules." she hit the ball with a special twist. Kaidoh ran up to it so he can return it, but it went in the opposite direction. "Game and match to Echizen 6-4." the umpired announced.
Kaidoh started hitting himself with his racket, making him bleed. "Way to go Ryoma!" Katsou explained. "I had no doubt that you would win." Horio bragged. "You doubted Ryoma ever since Kaidoh used his snake shot." Kachiro scolded. "Still have a ways to go." Ryoma walked out. Her phone started ringing when she was done changing, "Something wrong Cammy?" she asked answering the phone. 'Miss you have to come right now, the information I gathered needs to be decoded.' Cammy informed her. Ryoma sighed, "I guess the test is going to have to wait then." she scratched her head.
"Too bad Viper, it looks like Echizen figured out your plan from the start." Momo teased. All of the regulars were still on the courts. "Shut up." Kaidoh hissed. "Come on Kaidoh it isn't that bad." Eiji grinned. "Yeah, you don't have to be that upset." Kawamura assured him. "Right, it's just one loss; you just have to practice more." Oishi agreed. Kaidoh still hissed. "Tezuka, I'm sure you had your reasons on having Echizen join the ranking tournament, can you please tell me those reasons?" Inui asked him, preparing his notebook. "Echizen won the American junior tennis tournament four times without losing one game; we need someone who has a lot of tournament experience." Tezuka explained. "Four times? Then she must be really good." Kawamura said astonished. "Actually Taka, I heard from those three 7th graders that Echizen's been playing since she was two years old." Momo added. "Then imagine all that training Ochibi went through." Eiji whistled. "So Eiji you knew she was a girl and you already gave her a nickname." Fuji smiled. "Well her features were too feminine to be a guy." Eiji explained.
"Hey isn't that Ochibi?" Eiji pointed. Ryoma was looking around the area before running off. "That's weird her house isn't around here." Momo remarked. Eiji grinned and ran off in the same direction. The rest of the regulars went after him. Music started playing, "What is that?" Momo asked. "That sound can only be from an ocarina." Inui answered. "I think it's coming from over here." Eiji ran to where he heard the sound. When they got there, they didn't see anyone just grass and trees. "I know I heard something coming from here." Eiji scratched his. "Well there's nothing here might as well get of here-" Momo tripped on something and a trapped door appeared. The entire team fell in and landed in a dark room. "What is this place?" Oishi asked. Kaidoh got up and tried to feel a light switch but alarms started shouting. "Warning, intruder alert, intruder alert, prepare for questioning." A bunch of guns were pointed at the team members, they started to sweat.
"Alright, who activated my security system?" Ryoma's voice said from the darkness. "Cammy, turn on the light, I don't understand why you keep things so dark." she ordered. The lights turned on and Ryoma saw the regulars with worried faces. "Echizen?" they explained. "How did you guys get in here?" Ryoma asked them. "We would like to tell you but we're at gun point." Eiji grinned nervously. Ryoma snapped her fingers and the guns retreated. "Can you please explain to me exactly how you got here?" she demanded. "We heard an ocarina playing so we followed the sound and came to an empty area, we were about to leave until Momo tripped on something and a trap door appeared." Fuji explained not changing his smile.
"Cammy, didn't you deactivate the hidden switches?" Ryoma asked. "I was, until I found the information that needed decoding." Cammy replied. "Echizen, explain what is going on here." Tezuka demanded. Ryoma sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I was going to wait until I got those test results from you guys, but I guess that won't be happening." Ryoma let her hair down and stared at them. "Have you guys heard the stories of the yokai war?"