SHATS vs Pillars
"WELCOME BACK WINNING TEAMS!" exclaimed the coaches as they welcomed back the winning teams.
"We're going to start up the first game ASAP because we know how much you guys are itching to play some tennis!" said Ryuuzaki.
"You can say that again!" said the twenty youthful tennis players.
"SHATS and Pillars? Please go to your benches!" said Sakaki. "You other two teams must bide your time until YOUR match begins!"
"OKAY!" said the other two teams as the first two teams went to their benches.
"Starting with the Doubles Match!" said Sakaki, taking his seat in the referee chair. "David and Kabaji from Pillars versus Fuji and Taka from SHATS!"
"Now remember," said Tezuka to David and Kabaji. "You won't win this game, so don't bother using TOO much energy when you get down in the score early."
They all stared at him.
"Way to be encouraging." Said Aoi.
"I'm just telling them the truth." Said Tezuka.
Tachibana spun both David and Kabaji around and started giving them a REAL pep talk because like we said earlier, Tachibana and people younger than him go together like a horse and carriage.
"Just stay focused and play your hardest." Tachibana said. "Don't let the other team get to you, and ignore what Tezuka said."
"Wow, Tachibana…" said David, tears forming in his eyes. "I can see why your team loves you so much!"
Kabaji nodded in agreement, unable to even say his one-word response because he was so touched.
"Go for the win!" said Tachibana.
"YES TACHIBANA!" yelled David and Kabaji as they ran to the court.
"How dare you undermine my authority." Said Tezuka. "There is only one true captain of this team."
"Of course I was going to undermine your authority!" said Tachibana. "You looked them right in the eye and told them they were going to lose! How can you possibly expect them to perform well after that?"
Tezuka crossed his arms and pointed at the court just as Taka and Fuji won the first game, and they were instructed to switch courts.
"I don't know, Tachibana…" said David, looking dejected. "Me and Kabaji tried our hardest and they beat us anyway."
"You still have plenty of time to get the win back." Tachibana urged them.
Over on the other half of the court, with SHATS, they were having their own pep talk.
"I wonder what he's saying to them…" Fuji said, glancing over at Tachibana as he stood there with a hand on each of his teammates shoulders, talking to them very animatedly and enthusiastically.
"Why does it matter?" Kirihara leaned over and looked at them. "You beat them in like five seconds."
"Oh I know it doesn't matter, of course." Said Fuji with a pleasant chuckle.
"And it's not like either of them have an especially good serve or anything." Taka went on. "I think we'll do just fine."
"Yes, I think so as well." Said Fuji as he and Taka went to the other side of the court.
The three remaining players of SHATS looked at each other.
"WHOA." They all said.
It was David's turn to serve first, and he DID but it didn't really get him anywhere anytime soon. Fuji easily returned his serve and scored a point.
"15-0!" called Sakaki.
"Nice job, Fuji!" said Taka.
"Tee-hee!" said Fuji giddily.
"Kabaji, aren't you supposed to be able to copy people's moves or something?" David asked.
Kabaji paused and then stared at the other team who were ready to receive David's serve. When Kabaji didn't reply, David just served the ball and Taka ran up and returned it. It went right to Kabaji and he did the…
"OH NO!" yelled everyone who recognized the stance.
Taka gasped. "The Hadoukyuu!"
Kabaji did the ONE HANDED HADOUKYUU!
And it went straight for Fuji. Taka went to go and jump in front of it to sacrifice himself like the kind pal he is, but Fuji pushed Taka out of the way and they both avoided the shot.
As it turned out, Kabaji used WAY too much power and just ended up lodging the ball in the fence behind Taka and Fuji without it even bouncing in their court.
The two looked up at the ball, and then back at Kabaji.
"30-0!" said Sakaki.
"How did you know it was going to go out, Fuji?" Taka asked, standing up.
"I'm really good at tennis." Fuji answered bluntly. "But thank you for your kind gesture of sacrificial play."
"Oh." said Taka. "Your welcome."
Then the play continued. Eventually, Team Taka and Fuji scored two more points and were declared the victors of the first match.
"Aw man…" said David as he sadly retreated to the bench. "So much for that! My hopes were all built up for a win and we didn't even score a single point! Thanks a lot, Tachibana!"
"What?" said Tachibana, crossing his arms.
"If I had just listened to Tezuka then this defeat wouldn't have been so painful…" said David, sniffling slightly.
"You're so ungrateful!" said Tachibana. "I'm sure if it were a member of MY team, they would have accepted defeat gracefully, and certainly not blamed someone ELSE for their short comings!"
"TACHIBANA!" yelled Kamio from the other side of the court. "I'M SUPPORTING YOU AS THE ONLY MEMBER OF FUDOMINE PRESENT!"
Tachibana raised his hand in Kamio's direction, causing him to faint.
"Um…whatever." Said the rest of Tachibana's team.
"Next up is the Singles 3 match!" said Sakaki. "Will Aoi from Pillars and Yana from SHATS please step up?"
"Oh my goodness gracious." Said Aoi. "I haven't even started playing yet and I ALREADY need more Arrid!"
He quickly applied more Arrid since, during the dinner break, his team had wisely purchased some for him at the closest CVS.
He went out to the court and threw the first game so he could be UNDA PRESHA!
"Remember, if you lose this game then you lose." Said Tezuka. "Completely. So please don't forget that these are only three game matches."
"Don't worry!" said Aoi. "I'll definitely win!"
Aoi went back out there and threw a few points so it came down to the GAME POINT. OH DEAR.
His team was yelling at him in attempt to remind him that if he lost this game then he would completely lose.
"I KNOW I KNOW!" he yelled at them.
Yana served it, and Aoi returned it. And from that point on, Aoi returned every single ball and it only took a few minutes before Yana was eliminated.
"See?" said Aoi as he strutted arrogantly back to his team's bench. "You guys were worried over nothing!"
"Over nothing?" said Tachibana. "You screwed up your last match so I think we were worried over SOMETHING."
"Next up is Singles 2!" said Sakaki. "Tachibana from Pillars and Mizuki from SHATS, please come to the courts!"
"Don't lose, Mizuki." Said Yana. "Cause if you lose then we're probably going to have to go to another tiebreaker."
"If we lose this match…" Fuji said, looking over at the other team's bench. He eyed Tezuka and Tezuka alone. "We will not proceed to the next round."
"What do you mean?" said Taka, then he looked over and what Fuji's eyes were set on. "Oh. Yeah. You're probably right."
"Way to have no faith in me, guys!" said Kirihara.
"Let's just take this one match at a time." Said Mizuki, standing up.
"So don't lose, Mizuki." Said Fuji, facing Mizuki again.
"Yeah." Said Yana. "If you lose, Fuji'll kill you in your sleep."
Fuji chuckled warmly again. "Oh Yana," he said. "Probably not in his sleep."
Mizuki sidestepped around Fuji and quickly made his way to the courts. He had collected data on Tachibana, and even though Mizuki's data tennis tended to fail him, he decided to rely on it ANYWAY!
Probably not in his sleep.
The scary words sent a shiver down Mizuki's spine, but he tried to focus on defeating Tachibana instead.
"GO TACHIBANA GO!" yelled Kamio from the sidelines as he held up a sign that said, 'Tachibana is my HERO!'
I guess the fact that Tachibana had a cheering squad tends to freak everyone out, because it worked on Mizuki. He got sad that no one liked him enough to cheer for him as enthusiastically as Tachibana received cheers and was down one game when it was time to change courts.
"I'm very disappointed, Mizuki." Said Fuji. "Please don't make us lose."
"Mizuki, I TOLD you Tachibana was too much for you to handle." Said Kirihara with a flamboyant shrug.
"How depressing…" said Yana.
"I would have loved to play more tennis." Taka said, a silent tear rolling down his cheek.
Mizuki got determined from all the kind words from his teammates. (NOT!) Gripping his racket tightly, Mizuki made his way back onto the court, the advantage on HIM because HE had the serve!
But it only took a few serves before Tachibana walloped him.
"GAME SET AND MATCH!" said Sakaki, pointing at Tachibana. "The Pillars!"
"PILLARS." Tezuka corrected, standing up straight.
"That's what I just said." Said Sakaki.
"No." said Tezuka. "You said THE Pillars. We are just Pillars."
"WHATEVER!" yelled everyone.
"Sorry guys…" said Mizuki, looking awfully down on himself as he sat down. They all scooted away from him as if he had the plague.
"SHATS's Kirihara against Pillars' Tezuka!" said Sakaki. "If Pillars win this, then they move onto the next round! If SHATS wins, there will be a tiebreaker! Let's see what happens!"
"It's all up to you, Kirihara." Said Taka. "It's been nice knowing you."
"Wow, first Ryoma, now Tezuka…" said Yana, looking impressed as Kirihara marched out onto the court.
Tezuka joined him, holding out his hand to shake like a gentleman. "Let's have a good match." Said Tezuka.
"I will SO beat you." Said Kirihara with a glare, not taking Tezuka's hand.
"Oooooo…" said all the people who were present and NOT Tezuka or Kirihara.
Tezuka's lip quivered slightly, but he wasn't about to show his dejectedness so he turned away and retreated to the baseline.
"SHATS serve!" said Sakaki.
"I'll show you." Said Kirihara as he bounced the ball. "I'll show EVERYONE!"
Kirihara's eyes went bloodshot as he threw the ball up into the air and served it like ONLY KIRIHARA KNOWS HOW.
Of course, this is Tezuka we're talking about and he returned the serve like ONLY TEZUKA KNOWS HOW.
Their play continued back and forth and everyone got SO excited when they realized that Tezuka was using…
"THE TEZUKA ZONE!" cheered everyone who was on Pillars. And also everyone who was on Seigaku cheered too, just because it got them so excited.
This clued Kirihara into what was going on, so he decided he had to put an end to it. Of course, it's not like he COULD, even after he firmly decided it, and he ended up losing the first game.
"Damn it!" Kirihara said angrily whence it was time to switch courts. "I have to find out a way to defeat that damn Tezuka Zone!"
Taka and Fuji both let out a sigh and looked at each other, shaking their heads, almost as if telepathically saying, "Oh Kirihara…"
Kirihara returned to the court and Tezuka served the ball.
"Game point!" said Sakaki when that situation presented itself. "If Tezuka scores this last point then Pillars will move onto the final round!"
"Hm…I get a bad feeling about this dramatic turn of events…" said Tachibana slowly.
Tezuka threw the ball up into the air and was JUST about to serve it when he let out a yell and clutched his arm.
"My injury…my recurring injury that always comes back to haunt me at the worst of times…" he cried.
"TEZUKA!" yelled all the members of Seigaku as they ran to his aid.
Kirihara only stood there waiting for something to happen as Seigaku tended to Tezuka.
"Well…" said Sakaki. "Since Tezuka is no longer able to play… Kirihara from SHATS wins by a forfeit!"
"We'll take it!" Yana threw his arms up into the air and cheered.
"No…" said Tezuka, clenching his fist dramatically.
"TIE BREAKER!" screamed the coaches.
"Each team will send one representative." Said Ryuuzaki. "BUT THERE IS A TWIST."
"GASP?" said everyone.
"Instead of you being able to pick who you're sending, you must send your youngest teammate!" said Ryuuzaki as the teachers set up the tiebreaker; two chairs with a table in between them.
"GASP!" said everyone.
"Well, that's me, I guess." Said Aoi to his teammates. They nodded and sent him to the chair.
"Considering I'm a second year, and you guys are all third years, it MUST be me…" Kirihara started but Fuji raised his hand.
"No." said Fuji. "I don't think so."
They all stared at him curiously, but he appeared to not be letting them in on his little secret. He only stepped forth and sat down in the chair.
"Um…Fuji?" said Ryuuzaki. "We all KNOW you're a third year and that Kirihara is a second year."
"Does that matter?" said Fuji. "I'm only three and a half."
The tumbleweed came back.
"Here." Fuji pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ryuuzaki.
Ryuuzaki looked it over. "Do you ALWAYS carry your birth certificate around with you?" she questioned quizzically.
"Yes." Fuji answered.
Ryuuzaki looked at it more carefully. "Oh." she said. "You're born on February 29th."
There was a slight pause.
"I guess that does really only make you three and a half." She concluded.
"I'll be four in two years." Fuji said proudly.
"All right, that makes sense." Shrugged Ryuuzaki and everyone else agreed.
Except the players. "HEY WAIT." Said Kirihara. "I was still born AFTER him."
"We all were, actually." Mizuki commented.
"Even though Fuji was actually born first out of you five, he is technically the youngest." Banji said.
"Yes." Said Fuji. "Technically."
His team grumbled a bit, as did the opposing team, but as long as the coaches were convinced, it's not like they could do anything on the matter.
"What a brilliant plan." Said Tezuka, glaring at Fuji.
"All right, both of you place your elbows on the table." Said Ojii to Aoi and Fuji. "This will be an arm wrestling contest. Standard rules apply!"
"Why are these tiebreakers so lame?" said Yana.
Fuji and Aoi grabbed hands and began to struggle.
"I need more Arrid!" Aoi cried as he sweat like it was nobody's business. "Too… much… pressure…!"
"It's still too early for you to defeat me." Said Fuji as he looked as though he was doing absolutely nothing, and then slammed Aoi's hand down on the table.
"WINNER!" said Sakaki. "SHATS!"
Fuji stood up and only looked down at Aoi as he caressed his arm.
"Somehow, I feel like we got the shaft." Said Tachibana, frowning.