DISCLAIMER: I do not own PoT, etc...
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Chapter 3
"Flowers with Sticks"
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It has been ten minutes since they left off for the faculty room, and exactly five minutes since Sakuno's grandmother walked inside and asked the two captains and vice-captains to go inside. Sakuno couldn't help but feel a little funny whenever she would recall what happened earlier.
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"You," Ayashi pointed skeptically at her two classmates, "stay right there. You already know what we're going to talk about."
The seemingly serious Emiko pouted, "KYA! You're so mean, Aya-chan!"
"I don't mind staying here, Ayashi-chan," replied Jun, who was busy looking at the passers-by.
"Eh, Aya-chan, I think we should go inside already… Ryuzaki-gimi is waiting."
"Just some seconds, Jun-kun." She glared at her classmates, "Look after the juniors."
The two gave rather mischievous grins, "Yes, Ayashi-chan!"
She closed the door.
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The two clubs waited outside, without their captains or vice-captains, yet, no one seemed to ask the other clubs anything. The only thing heard at that time were pens scratching and scribbling on papers.
"You're the Seigaku regular tennis players, aren't you?" asked Emiko, twirling her pen with her fingers.
Inui snapped at her, "Obviously, since we're the ones here."
"Good point. Not only Seigaku players are good in tennis, they're smart too." Smirked Emiko, glasses glistening, as if mocking the ability of the Seigaku players; she continued to twirl the black pen, and continued to ask a question, "Do you have any plans in your life other than playing tennis?"
Jun stopped staring at the strangers passing by and seemed to be interested at the heated debate-to-be between the two data gatherers. Sakuno heard Kikumaru say something like asking too much, and also heard Ryoma grunt a bit.
"Or… is it that tennis is your only life?" a wicked smirk played on her lips, apparently enjoying the fact that some of Seigaku's regulars had started to fidget uncomfortably, "What boring lives you-"
SLAM!
The office door opened and a black haired demon appeared, holding a hardbound book and swung it… hitting Emiko squarely on the head, who was able to lessen the impact by leaning back.
But it hit her nonetheless, causing a trickle of blood come out from her nose. (comically though)
"AYA!" shouted Mariko from inside the room.
It was indeed the kendo club's captain who threw the book, and she looked really, really pissed off.
"Emi-chan, shut up, please, for kami's sake. Shut up. Don't try to ask those questions again… especially to strangers who have no idea of how your weird brain works. Got it?"
"Got it."
Emiko gave her a "thumbs up" despite her injury, though the act made their juniors cover their faces in utter humiliation. (This, the Seigaku regulars had noticed) When their captain finally closed the door, Emiko took a white handkerchief and began to wipe off the blood that came from her nose.
"We should take you to the clinic." Said Inui, but Jun said that it was better if they don't.
"But she's bleeding." Momoshiro pointed at the bloodied handkerchief.
"No it's okay, really." Said Emiko, "Aya-chan was so nervous today, that's why."
"Eh?!" they stared at the glassed girl with odd looks.
Jun giggled, "Emi-chan only wanted her to become normal again, that's why. Aya-chan was never this silent in a normal situation."
"But this isn't a normal situation, isn't it, Sanyu-senpai?" asked Atsuyo, "Ryuzaki-sensei… she's great, isn't she? No wonder Natsume-buchou was so nervous… she… didn't want to screw up."
"As usual." Muttered Tatsue.
"Nervous?" asked Sakuno, "She was nervous?"
Emiko seemed to be pretty much normal again that she piped up once again, "Of course she was! Didn't you know that Ryuzaki-gimi graduated at our senior high school division?"
"Nya? Sakuno-chan, your grandmother was a Daigaku student?" exclaimed Kikumaru, "Why didn't she tell us?"
"She… was?" Sakuno looked questioningly at the female senpai.
Emiko seemed surprised, "You didn't know?"
Sakuno replied with a nod; unsurprisingly, Inui started scribbling on a small pad of paper. Emiko was doing pretty much the same, only she did with a pink pen and a pink pad paper. (Sweat drop for her club mates)
Ryoma didn't seem to be interested, but actually, he was also all ears of what was happening, this might mean a joint practice with Daigaku… but didn't Inui-senpai told them that Daigaku had no tennis club?
"Nya nya hoi! We haven't introduced ourselves yet!" exclaimed Kikumaru, and then proceeded into introducing his self, "Kikumaru Eiji, third year."
"Inui Sadaharu. Third year." Emiko smiled at him, this time it was no longer malicious, just a plain smile.
"Sadaharu, ha? Nice name." She commented.
"Thank you." Even though he made it seem like it was nothing, inside, he was a bit surprised. It was not always that you could hear a girl say a guy's given name was nice.
"Fuji Syusuke. I'm Eiji's classmate." The ever-smiling (and ever closed eyes) Fuji said.
Throwing his arm around the brown haired genius, "And the tennis genius."
Kakamura said with a polite bow, "Kawamura Takashi, third year."
"Kaidoh Kaoru. Second year… Fsshhh…" he glared at the blue eyed girl who did not seem to be fazed by his constant hissing. Though Sakuno remarked mentally of how Tatsue was surprised when she heard Kaidoh's name.
The ever noisy Momoshiro introduced himself and told them to call him "Momo-chan" instead, which was gladly accepted by the girls, most especially the two third years.
"Echizen Ryoma…"
"Let me guess, you're a freshman." Said Mai, smiling, though Ryoma wasn't sure if he was going to take that as an insult or not.
"So?" he retorted at the girl, not knowing she's older than him.
"You must be that good… getting into the regulars despite being a freshman." Emiko twirled her pen again, which seemed to be a habit.
"She's a sophomore, so I think you'd better try to be a little polite." Said Jun, who was looking at the door at that time.
Sakuno leaned towards Tatsue and whispered at Tatsue's ear, "I think I know now why you speak strangely about your senpai-tachi, Tatsue-chan…"
"Ahehehe… oh, (noticing that she should introduce herself) yare, yare…" Tatsue stood up and bowed, "Kitami Tatsue. Freshman, nice to meet you."
"You're the girl earlier, weren't you?" asked Kikumaru, "Nya! How did you find Inui?"
The girl wanted to say scary, but then changed her mind, "Weird."
"Nozomi Atsuyo. Second year." The quiet girl stood and bowed, "Nice to meet you."
The pigtailed girl stood up, "Sachimi Mai, second year, nice to meet you."
"And she's usually noisy." Noted Emiko, making the second year pout, "Fufufu…"
Jun then stood up, "I'm Sanyu Jun, third year. Nice to meet you."
Emiko closed her notebook and stood, "Hide Emiko, third year. Our captain, the girl who hit me without any grace whatsoever, is Natsume Ayashi. And don't worry, she won't get angry with that comment."
"She admits it most of the time," smiled Jun, "Our vice-captain is Hanami Mariko."
Inui's glasses twinkled as he scribbled more data, "I see…"
"Your captain is named Tezuka Kunimitsu, third year…" said Emiko, reading from her notes, "While your vice-captain is Oishi Shuichirou… Seigaku tennis club is so popular, didn't you know? We've gotten rumors of assassination plots from other tennis clubs already!"
"Eh?!" the tennis players gawked at the glassed girl in disbelief.
Emiko gave a hearty laugh and said, "Just kidding. But seriously, many tennis clubs do want to get rid of Seigaku. And all I can say is… no wonder."
"Nya, what do you think they talking about inside, eh, Inui?" asked Kikumaru, seemingly bored of the monotony of the situation.
Inui looked at the two third years, "You know what they're meeting is about, am I right, Hide-san?"
"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies." Said Emiko, "It's my favorite excerpt from Harry Potter. I hope it answered your… er… inquiry."
"You're not telling anything then." Said Inui.
Emiko smirked, "You'll know soon enough, you do have the right to know."
Finally, the faculty door opened, revealing a rather happy Mariko as she winked at her classmates and a half-grumpy half-happy Ayashi who threatened Emiko that if she was planning to do that again, she will kick her butt. (Getting weird looks from the members of the tennis club, not sure whether they were blessed that they did not have such violent captain, or not because in turn they had a very… strict and stoic captain)
"Maa, maa…" muttered Oishi as he too exited the room, "This will be a long month."
"What is it, Oishi?" asked Kikumaru, who was interested in knowing what they had talked about inside the coach's office.
But it seemed like they were going to know it the Tezuka way; upon his egress from the room, he had the Seigaku team (along with Sakuno, of course) assembled, in opposition with Ayashi who had let her team stay where they were. Ryuzaki Sumire appeared and said the Daigaku kendo club's intention.
"WHAT?!"
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The day was Saturday, and as planned, there were no practice for both clubs. The sun was still young, and yet, Ryuzaki Sakuno had already arrived at the meeting place, it was good that she brought a jacket with her or she would've been shivering from the coolness. And it wasn't winter yet.
Sakuno didn't know how she fitted in the meeting, but her grandmother insisted that she should. She sat on the empty bench near the entrance, easy enough to be seen from four directions.
The meeting place was at the entrance nearest park from Seigaku and Daigaku, the Tsuyu Tei Park, Saturday, eight in the morning… and no late comers.
A capped figure materialized in her view, but she knew it wasn't Ryoma; the figure walked to its destination.
"Yo, Sakuno-chan." It was Tatsue. Unlike Sakuno who wore a sleeved white skirt (that was down two inches from her knees) under her black jacket and black Mary Jane (hair still in twin braid), the other girl had orange undershirt and blue hoodie paired with her khaki shorts. Her half-worn out blue sneakers showed that she didn't use her roller blades that day.
"Good morning, Tatsue-chan. You're wearing your favorite cap, are you?" she asked, then noticed it was gray in color, "Oh, you didn't."
Tatsue sat beside her, "Why? You missed that kid, Ryoma-kun?"
"Well… of course…"
"You sure got hit by Cupid." Tatsue shrugged, "Do you have a watch?"
Sakuno nodded, "It's fifteen minutes until seven-thirty."
They watched people and their pets enter the park, cars zooming past them, and even counted how many times they had seen the same person go inside the park.
"Oi, Sakuno-chan!" a familiar spiky head waved.
Sakuno looked at where it came from, "Momo-chan-senpai!"
He was wearing a plain white shirt and denim pants.
"Good morning, Momo-chan." Waved Tatsue, who took Momoshiro by surprise.
Momoshiro suddenly blurted out, "Who are you?"
"Kitami. Kitami Tatsue, Momo-chan." She muttered, resting her chin on her right hand.
Momoshiro bent over and stared at her, "Oh, yeah, you are that kid. You look sort of… different now that you're not wearing your uniform!"
"Really? That's strange cause last time I checked, my face was still the same whatever I wear." she countered coolly.
Momoshiro chuckled, "Ha, you're a funny kid, did you know that?"
Sakuno smiled, she agreed with Momoshiro, though she did not say anything.
"Eh? Me, funny?" Tatsue pointed at herself, "That's news."
Sakuno then stood up, a surprised expression on her face, "Ryo… Ryoma-kun."
"Eh? Are you serious?" Momoshiro turned his head too; true enough, it was Ryoma, "Oi, Echizen! You're not late!"
The freshman wore a white shirt, with a print of a tennis ball at the center, and a pair of black shorts.
"Momo-sempai," murmured the young regular, and then looked at Sakuno, "You're here too?"
Tatsue retorted, "What's wrong with that? She was asked by her grandmother, if you weren't listening."
Ryoma gave a cold shoulder at the girl, who didn't seem to mind if he did. The little prince walked to his senpai and began to listen to the latter's opinion of the proposal that their coach had agreed to do. Soon enough, one by one, each of the players had already arrived, the last to arrive (on time) though was Daigaku's captain.
She was wearing a white coat, black button-up polo and equally black Bohemian skirt; a white doll's shoes protected her seemingly tiny feet.
"Eh, am I late?" she asked Jun (who was in a very girlish attire of lace-like yellow cocktail dress and white heeled sandals) who shook her head.
"Just on time." Emiko said, who was also dressed to kill (though it didn't seem to mind some boys who were looking at her as they passed).
She gave out a whoosh of air, and stuck her tongue out a little, "I totally thought I was late. Well, I guess everyone's here… oh, wait…"
"What is it, Aya-chan?" asked Mariko, who had already stood up. (She was wearing a rather semi-tight long sleeved shirt, with a red print of "NBSB" at the back, and as usual, denim pants.)
"Eh?" she snapped out of her reverie, and started walking towards from what Inui murmured as the way to Daigaku's grounds, "It's… nothing."
Mai (in her black leather jacket, pink halter top and mismatched denim pants) raised her brow, "What's this? Natsume-buchou is thinking of something else."
Atsuyo (who was in a blue dress topped with a long sleeved white bolero) nodded in agreement. Tatsue on the other hand yawned, making Sakuno ask if she was able to sleep well, this question, however was heard by a certain black haired boy who coldly brushed past the two girls.
"What's his problem?" snarled Tatsue who wasn't used by Ryoma's attitude.
Sakuno on the other hand, felt a little worried, "Ryoma-kun…"
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The gates of the school seemed to be antique, yet it shined as the sun hit it with its light. The vine-filled walls added to the "oldness" of the school, and the old style lamp posts didn't help either.
And yet.
The Seigaku tennis regulars (plus Sakuno, minus Tezuka and Ryoma) gaped in awe. They had many large buildings, a two soccer fields, five swimming pools (which according to Emiko was exactly thirty meters long, ten meters wide, and ten feet deep), and a very large meeting hall.
"So this is where Ryuzaki-sensei will be introduced?" asked Momoshiro, in his voice there was a hint of almost disbelief.
"She is one of the best alumnae of the high school division after all. There's no reason why she shouldn't be recognized," said Tatsue in a voice almost saying that it was so obvious.
Momoshiro glared at the girl, it was not always that a girl could be as cocky as she was. Kaidoh watched from a distance, hissing, as usual.
Ayashi turned to the Seigaku captain and handed him a piece of paper, "Tezuka-san, I had divided the people in charge, I hope you don't mind."
"…" Tezuka read the contents of the paper, and then handed it back to Ayashi with a nod.
As Tezuka assembled his regulars, Ayashi glared at the stoic young man and crumpled the paper in her hands, "Bastard, he should've at least said yes or something…"
"Oi, oi, Aya-chan." Mariko tapped her at the shoulders, "he has every right to do that."
"I don't care."
"We have to remember that they're just forced to do this because Ryuzaki-gimi is their coach, and it would be a sin if they're not going to at least help." Mariko reminded her friend who was burning with rage.
Ayashi shrugged, "Whatever. I still don't like what he did."
"You're such a kid." Mariko commented.
"Shut up." Ayashi stuck out her tongue at Mariko.
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"What?" the Seigaku regulars shouted in unison.
Sumire wanted to laugh because of her student's expressions, "Daidouji Gakuen will be celebrating their 50th anniversary as a formal school, and as part of their celebration, each club will bring an alumnae and introduce him or her, what he or she has been doing ever since they graduated from Daigaku. It so happened that Natsume," she pointed at Ayashi who was pulling Emiko's cheeks at that time (and gave off an awkward laugh), "was the one who invited me to be a guest."
Momoshiro spoke, "What's it got to do with us?"
"Everything." Jun smiled rather wickedly.
"Every… thing?" muttered Kikumaru, Inui stopped from his data scribbling. Even Kaidoh stared with skepticism in his eyes.
"We're really sorry about this. Coming up at this time," Emiko bowed, "But of all the other candidates that we tried to contact, Ryuzaki-gimi was the only one who would be… presentable."
Sumire finally laughed, "It's actually because Natsume knew me before. I gave her tennis lessons during a summer course years ago. It's a good thing she remembered, though."
Fuji muttered, "Tennis?"
Sumire laughed again, glancing at Ayashi, "It's a shame she didn't enter Seigaku, though. It would've been a tennis powerhouse for both men and women category."
Ayashi waved her hand as if saying 'it's a joke, don't believe it', "Yare, Ryuzaki-gimi, that's stupid. I can't even distinguish the difference of a Western grip from an Eastern grip."
"She can, but I guess she's too shy to admit." Mariko shrugged.
"Am not." pouted Ayashi.
Sumire shook her head, "You guys have to help though, since you are the regular players, you should be the ones who will give the comments and stuff about my performance here in Seigaku as your coach."
Momoshiro stood, "What?! But Ryuzaki-sensei that's-"
"You can't do it, Momo-chan?" asked Tatsue.
"I didn't mean that! I meant was… how about our practices?"
"Momo is right, Ryuzaki-sensei, our practices will be greatly affected by such plans." Kikumaru agreed.
Emiko sighed, "That's too bad then, Ayashi-chan. It seems that Seigaku doesn't want to do it."
"That's a shame." Muttered Jun, "And we were supposed to feature them together with Ryuzaki-gimi."
Momoshiro and Kikumaru's ears grew large, "What did you say?"
Jun repeated what she said, smiling, "We. Were. Supposed. To. Feature. Seigaku. Tennis. Regular. Players. But since you don't want to, we can't help it, could we?"
"Why didn't you said so earlier, Sanyu-senpai?!" grinned Momoshiro, then turned to Sumire (with matching thumbs up and sparkling teeth), "I'm all for it, Ryuzaki-sensei!"
"It doesn't matter, actually." Oishi mentioned, "You see, whether we like it or not, since Ryuzaki-sensei had agreed, we will help the kendo club to prepare for the event that will take place in the next month."
"NEXT MONTH?!"
The Daigaku girls just watched Seigaku from where they were sitting, though it was notable that Emiko and Jun was obviously enjoying it. Tatsue still rested her chin on her right hand, bored.
"Just think of it as a school event. I'm sure you will enjoy it." Said Sumire, smiling genuinely this time.
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A/N: Wow… finished with Chapter 3… I cannot believe this! Heart heart heart! And YES I know, Ryuzaki Sumire is sooo out-of-character! AAAHhHHH!!! I will die at the stakes! Nooo!!!