--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Just Hanging a Moment with You
By: YiNgFa-FuIsO
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Author's note: Part Two! Sugoi! It's getting more and more interesting ne, minna-sama?
Disclaimer: Do I have to repeat it again? –sigh- I don't own Tennis no Ouji-sama… Konomi-sensei owns it.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Chapter 5 – (Part 2) Surprise…
Meanwhile inside the tennis court, Fuji, Oishi, Inui and Kawamura were talking about the upcoming academic event that will happen at their school while Kaidoh, who is resting his back on the fence of the court, closed his eyes as they wait for their other co-members to arrive there. Unexpectedly, Kikumaru popped out behind the vice-captain's back and greeted them cheerily with noticeable grin on his face.
"I see! You're in a good mood, Eiji." Oishi commented with a smile.
Kikumaru giggled at them and nodded.
"Is there anything good happened to you today?" Fuji asked in his usual eyes closed.
"Before I answer that, did Momo-kun or Ochibi arrive here yet?"
Oishi looked at him confusedly while Fuji and the rest of the regulars who were there too looked at him curiously and then Fuji shook his head. "No not yet, why?"
The acrobatic-tennis player giggled and then told his newest gossip.
"I think Momo-kun will have a date today!" he spilled out.
All of them looked at him surprisingly but then it was broke when their first year co-regular entered inside the court, not caring if everyone was staring at him.
"Nyaa! Ochibi!" Kikumaru said gaily while waving his hand to notice him by the feline eyed boy.
Ryoma noticed his red-hyper-sempai waving at him and went towards there in his usual prideful attitude as he greeted his close friends' sempai who were there too.
"Fess up Ochibi!" Kikumaru said, smirking evilly at him while hugging the feline eyed boy who was standing beside him, looking annoyed as usual.
He lowered the tip of his cap and asked confusedly, "What will I confess, Eiji-sempai?"
"Yeah, why are you asking him to confess Eiji?" Kawamura asked confusedly at the red-haired acrobatics.
"Because ochibi here has something to confess us up." Kikumaru answered as he looked back sheepishly at Ryoma. "Ne, O-CHI-BI?"
Ryoma went silent.
"What were you and Momo-kun were talking about earlier at the locker room?"
"Betsuni (translation: Nothing)." He replied bluntly.
The red-haired-acrobatic-tensai sneered at him, believing that Ryoma is lying totally… Well it's true that the feline eyed boy is lying! But then suddenly, the data-tennis tensai interrupted them and adjusted his glasses musingly.
"According to my calculation, 80 is the probability rate that Echizen is lying to us while the 20, he's telling the truth." He stated. "If you want to, I could give him my newest Special Edition vegetable juice I made. I call it… Truth Vegetable Juice."
He brought out a glass of reddish-orange concoction out from nowhere, which bubbling like soda but you can surely tell that it's poisonous, and showed it to them.
"TRUTH VEGETABLE JUICE!!" Kawamura, Oishi and Kaidoh wailed surprisingly.
"Hai, Truth Vegetable Juice. It contains some herbal plants, which only grow in Hokkaido, some fruits and honeys, some insects and of course some of my secret ingredients that only I know. It helps your nerve signals and brain waves to stimulate some effects that can be found when you're telling the truth." Inui said with a glint which reflecting on his glasses. "You want to try some… Echizen?"
"Nyaa!! Go Inui-kun! Give Ochibi that 'Inui Juice'!" Kikumaru shriek animatedly while the feline-eyed boy, on the other hand, looked tremendously threatened at the Inui juice.
"You want to try some… Echizen?" Inui offered with wide mysterious grin on his face. But then Oishi broke the tension with his question.
"Why did you make that juice, Inui?" Oishi asked curiously.
"Since I'm gathering your personal and playing data," He said, adjusting his glasses. "I want to update it without any hustle, just as simple as that. Do you want to try it?" He poured the reddish-orange-colored content inside the plastic cup he had brought and gave it to their vice captain.
"Iie… I'll try it some other time!" Oishi recoiled, remembering his first time he drunk some of Inui's invented juice that almost cost him to go the hospital because of it.
"I think it's tasty." Commented Fuji naively, which made Kikumaru, Oishi, Kawamura, Kaidoh and Ryoma looked at him shockingly. "Can I have some?"
"Sure. No problem." The data-tennis-tensai handed the cup to Fuji and brought out his infamous notebook to jot down the reactions of the sadist tensai.
Fuji dipped his forefinger lightly on the juice and then tasted it. As always, he found it palatable. "This is good! Did you put apples in here?"
"Hai." Inui answered and opened his green notebook. "That's one of the fruits I added there."
Fuji sipped the tasty juice slowly (in his perception) without any signs of disgust on his face. "This is really delicious! Why don't you try it, Eiji? He said after he tasted it.
"How come Fuji could stomach to drink Inui's juices without even getting ill Nya?" Kikumaru mumble to himself, looking at Fuji wincingly while Oishi and Kawamura, who were also looking at the tennis-tensai-regular flinchingly and like Kikumaru was mumbling, they were thinking too on how Fuji can tolerate the juice like that.
"Fussshh…" Kaidoh went away from them and went somewhere else. 'That concoction… it's more poisonous than before…' he thought disgustedly.
While the rest were busy talking about the controversial concoction there, Ryoma didn't let any chances slip away from his hands. He sneaked out silently from them, in order not let him self drink that concoction, but then…
"Going to escape, Ochibi?" Kikumaru asked, looking scornfully at him.
Ryoma all of a sudden froze like an ice as he faced his acrobatic sempai with paled face. "Sumimasen Eiji-sempai." He uttered.
Kikumaru grinned mischievously at his prey-ochibi and placed his arm around his shoulder.
"Confess now," He said, smiling wickedly at him and then he pointed the juice, which Inui was holding, while looking at Ryoma sadistically. "Or else… you're going to drink that…"
The feline-eyed boy gulped nervously and then lowered his cap again, 'I don't want it…' he thought helplessly.
"Tell us the truth…" Kikumaru said with a grin on his face. "Is Momo-kun going to have a date today?"
"…"
"Come on… you can tell it to your sempai, especially me. Remember, if someone asked you a question, you should answer him back as a courtesy." He said with sniggers.
But all of a sudden…
"What is happening here?"
Kikumaru jumpily turned and saw Momoshiro, wearing his plain white t-shirt and blue jogging pants, looking at them confusedly.
"We just slightly interrogating Ochibi here, Nyaaa!" He replied uneasily, patting Ryoma's shoulder playfully. 'Why did Momo-kun show up? I'm just beginning to question Ochibi here!' he thought with a crooked smile.
"Interrogating him? About what?" The baseliner reckoned puzzlingly.
"You," Fuji butted in.
"Me?" Momoshiro asked dubiously, pointing his self. He can't understand why his sempais were interrogating the bratty first year-regular and that's because of him.
Kikumaru became panicky all of a sudden and then he spoke up to cover up his intention, "Betsuni… We're just discussing if--"
"They just want to know about what you and Echizen were talking about before Eiji appeared and at the same time, about the date you're going to have today." Fuji said candidly, interrupting his best friend at the mid of his sentence.
The aggressive-baseliner gasped surprisingly after he heard at what his sempai had said and then he looked back at his mischievous acrobatic-tennis-sempai who is smiling nervously at him.
"Ano… I guess the Vegetable Juice that Fuji had drunk earlier has started to effect on his body now." Kikumaru said, laughing nervously.
"Vegetable Juice??? You mean the Inui Juice???" Momoshiro reckoned, looking at his other sempai tachi who were there too. Now, he really wants an explanation on what's happening in here. Suddenly, Inui adjusted his glasses and then walk in front of him as he brought out the extra concoction behind his back.
"Hai! This is my newest special concoction I made, which Fuji had drunk earlier." He handed to him the concoction with a glint on his eyes that reflects on his glasses. "I call it… Truth Vegetable Juice…"
"…"
"It contains some herbal plants, which only grow in Hokkaido, some fruits and honeys, some insects and of course some of my secret ingredients that only I know. It helps your nerve signals and brain waves to stimulate some effects that can be found when you're telling the truth." He moved closer to him with a wide grin on his face. "You want to try some?"
Momoshiro flinched disgustedly while covering his mouth anxiously. "Iie, I'm not thirsty sempai!"
"But it's delicious! Here." Fuji said as he snatched the glass of concoction from Inui's hand and gave it to the aggressive baseliner.
"Really sempai… I'm not thirsty."
"If you don't drink it," He threatened, showing his blue-sharp-eagle-like-eyes. "I'll make sure that you're going to be miserable tomorrow… or… should I say… for the rest of your life…"
Momoshiro gulped nervously and thought, 'I knew it! Something is not right! And this is one of many…'
He reached the poisonous-like-concoction from Fuji tensely while looking at the concoction bubble involuntarily. 'Kami-sama, please let me live…'
"Saaa… go on… Drink it." Fuji said while smiling mysteriously.
'K'so… I hope nothing will happen to me after this…' The aggressive-baseliner shut his eyes tightly and then straightly drunk the concoction down through his throat, which caused the other tennis-regular-player-senpais' to be mused at him.
"Nya!!! He drank it straight! Go Momo-kun!" the acrobatic-tennis-tensai said animatedly while Inui, not too far from him, was starting to jot down on his green notebook some of his observations at Momoshiro.
"I hope nothing will happen to Momoshiro." Oishi wished worriedly while Kawamura nodded his head, agreeing with him.
"Don't worry about him, Oishi-kun! Momo-kun will survive if ever the Inui juice is unsuccessful." Kikumaru said assuredly, placing his hands behind his head. "Right, Fuji?"
"Hai." The sadist-tennis-tensai answered gladly.
"Sempai," The feline eyed-boy called monotonously. "Look." He pointed at the aggressive-baseliner who was now not moving but still he's holding the emptied glass of concoction.
The four senior regulars, who were talking earlier while the second year tennis-baseliner was drinking the Inui juice, abruptly looked at Ryoma where he was pointing and shocked when they saw the tall guy collapse all of a sudden on the ground.
"MOMOSHIRO!" Yelled worriedly by the vice captain as he went towards at the unconscious second year.
He checked the pulse of the guy if it's still beating; luckily it's still palpitating normally.
"Oi! Momoshiro! Wake up! Oi!" he said worriedly while tapping the right cheeks of Momoshiro to wake him up.
"Should we call Tezuka or Ryuzaki-sensei?" asked Kawamura worriedly.
"Hai! We should! But lets—"
But Oishi was cut off when he felt the aggressive-baseliner-player regain consciousness and sat up.
"Oi! Momoshiro! Daijoubu'ka (translation: Are you ok?)?" He asked, surprised.
Momoshiro didn't answer him, instead, he just shown them a blank expression even his violet talkative eyes were expressionless too. Fuji went closer to him and then waved his in front of him. (A/N: Momo-kun is acting like Kabaji-san from Hyoutei Gakuen now!)
"It seems like he's under a deep trance." The tennis-tensai stated.
"How did that happen?" Kawamura asked confusedly as he went beside at Fuji to check the-awakened-yet-still-not-in-self Momoshiro.
"It's because of the herbal plants and the honey I put there." Inui answered as he adjusted his eyes glasses. All of them looked at him confusedly and asked to explain it more. "Those ingredients I put have tranquilizer effect which if it's in take in our body, the nervous system will shut down for awhile and put you in trance and that's according to my theory."
"Oi, Momoshiro-san! Can you hear us?" Kawamura asked but still the aggressive-baseliner didn't respond.
"Let me try," Kikumaru went in front of Momoshiro, he took a deep breath and then… "OI! MOMO-KUN! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" he shouted.
His teammates were surprised by his sudden shout to the not-in-self-second year. However it still didn't make Momoshiro to respond at them. "Nya! Why he's not responding to me too?" he cried, but abruptly, an idea pop up on his mind.
"Ne, Fujiko!" The acrobatic-tennis-player enthusiastically called the tennis-tensai. "Why don't you try to call him? Maybe he'll respond to you."
"Eh? Me?" Fuji said, pointing to his self.
"Hai! I've seen on TV that the one who hypnotized the person he hypnotize will only respond to him. Do you get me, nya?"
"Ah… I see… I understand it."
On the other hand, Oishi and Kawamura don't understand the idea of the red-haired-acrobatic-teammate. How will his idea make Momoshiro respond them if he wasn't hypnotized.
"But Eiji, Momoshiro isn't hypnotized by Fuji. How come Momoshiro will respond to him?"
"He is hypnotized, Oishi-kun…" Kikumaru wittily answered. "And that's because Fuji is the one who let him drink the potion-slash-Inui Juice."
"…"
"Complicated to understand? I'll explain it in a simpler way. As we all know, the one who'd been hypnotized will not interact or respond to others because he can only hear the voice of the person who hypnotized him, right?" Oishi nodded.
"In this situation Oishi-kun, Fuji is the one who hypnotizes and Momo-kun is the one who had been hypnotized. I know that Fuji didn't use pendulum or so to hypnotize Momo-kun, but the juice made Momo-kun like that, nya… I know it's kind of lame idea of mine and complicated to understand but it's worth to try, ne?"
"Even though it's slightly unclear to me I'll agree with your idea." Oishi said with a sigh. "But… if this didn't work, we'll call Tezuka or Ryuzaki-sensei."
Kikumaru smiled triumphantly and then gave a go signal at Fuji.
"Momoshiro… Can you hear my voice? If you do, nod your head as a respond." The tennis-tensai said. 'This is fun!' he thought excitedly.
Momoshiro gave a nod as a respond.
The seven regulars, who were there, looked skeptical by the unexpected response from him. They couldn't believe that the idea of the red-haired-acrobatic-tennis-regular will actually work… This is a miracle…
"Nya! Banzai! Banzai! It works! It works!" Kikumaru squealed childishly as Inui jot down quickly on his notebook about the reaction of Momoshiro regarding to the concoction he made.
Oishi broke away from his astonishment and sighed disbelievingly. "I still can't believe it actually worked."
"Me too…" Kawamura can only said, still skeptical.
"Nya, Fuji! Ask Momo-kun about the date I was talking about!" He, Kikumaru gleefully said however, Oishi objected it.
"But Eiji, we should ask him that when he's back to his normal self, not in this state." He said trying not to argue with his doubles partner.
"Oishi-kun," Kikumaru went beside at his always-worried doubles partner side and put his arm around its shoulder, smiling mischievously. "If we asked him in his normal self, he'll just lie to us and besides, this is the right time to know the truth!"
"…"
The acrobatic-tennis-player continued, "Our main objective here is to know what Momo-kun and ochibi, there, talked about earlier" pointing at the feline-eyed-boy, "And to know who is the lucky girl that he was going to date! That's all!"
"Even though I want to know some of Momoshiro's secrets, I'd rather know it in hardest way, not through the concoction I made." Inui said, adjusting his glasses.
Fuji chuckled and then smiled at Oishi, "Eiji and Inui are right. We're just doing this to know the truth about the date topic of Momoshiro. We won't go beyond that topic after we know about it. Nothing more, nothing less…"
Then their vice-captain sighed heavily. He admitted to himself that he's worrying so much about the outcome of their interrogation or so at the second year co-member. "Ok, I understand."
After the short-hesitation-conversation they had with Oishi, finally the sadist-tennis-tensai started his interrogation with not-in-self-Momoshiro.
"Momoshiro, is it true that you're going on a date today?" he asked.
"Iie," replied bluntly by the aggressive-tennis-baseliner.
Kikumaru was shocked by the reply of him. "How could that happen? I clearly heard Ochibi said, 'In short you two will have a date' Honest!"
"Ah… I see." Said Ryoma, looking laid back behind them. All of his senpai-regular there looked at him quizzically. "At that time, I was just teasing him." He said naively.
"Nani?" asked Kikumaru confusedly with matching cat ears popping on his head..
"Why don't you ask Momo-sempai about what he had told me before Kikumaru-sempai appeared?" And then Ryoma went out of the court to buy his favorite Ponta juice to the vending machine.
"Where will he go?" asked Oishi curiously.
"He's just going to buy his Ponta juice." Fuji replied knowingly.
The vice-captain looked at him confusedly, trying to figure out how the tensai knew where their first year regular would go, but the sadist-tennis-tensai just give him a care-free smile and then continued the interrogation with Momoshiro.
"So what were you and Echizen talking about earlier before Eiji appeared?"
"Echizen and I were talking about the phone conversation I had with Tachibana-imotou last night."
"TACHIBANA IMOTOU?" Oishi, Kikumaru and Kawamura shouted in unison.
"Tachibana An. Age: 13 years old. Height: 158 cm. Birthday: June 28. School: Fudomine Junior High. Year level: Second Year. She's the youngest sister of Tachibana Kippe. She's also tennis-regular in their school women's tennis team but at the same time, she's the manager in her brother's tennis team." The data-tennis player said, reading the information of Tachibana's sister on his notebook and then closed it after he read it.
"Nyaaa!!! This is getting more and more interesting!!! Right Oishi-kun?" Kikumaru asked in his hyper mood.
The vice captain gave him hesitant nod, flashing with an uncertain smile on his face. He admits to himself that he was enjoying this kind of interrogation with their second year aggressive baseliner, however, he kind of felt guilty on what they were doing to him. He knows that it's only for clarification towards their curiosity.
Suddenly, all five of them went silent when they felt a sudden dark-strange aura coming towards them.
"Did you feel that?" Kikumaru frighteningly asked at them while his heartbeats become loud and fast as his sweats were starting to form from his forehead.
"Hai." Inui, Fuji, Kawamura and Oishi answered.
"It's getting closer and closer…" Oishi said observantly, getting Goosebumps already.
"PLEASETELLMEIT'SNOTAGHOST! PLEASETELLMEIT'SNOTAGHOST!" Kikumaru shrieked, closing his eyes frighteningly while the others were silent.
"EIJI! FUJI! OISHI! INUI! TAKA!" shouted by a familiar old-woman behind the acrobatic-tensai. "What are you all doing here?"
All five of them looked at the person who freaked them out and were shocked to see their tennis coach…
"RYUZAKI-SENSEI!" they yelled surprisingly in unison.
"Oi, don't RUZAKI-SENSEI me now! I've been calling all five of you to assemble in front of the entrance for five times now but still all of you keep yourselves busy here? Kantou Regional Tournament is getting closer and to be precise we only have 3 days to practice! So don't slump yourselves here and start practicing!" Ryuzaki-sensei scolded them.
Suddenly, she noticed that the aggressive baseliner is seating on the ground. "And why is Momoshiro seating there? Oi Momoshiro! Team up with Arai later and help the regulars in training. Do you understand?"
However Momoshiro didn't respond. Ryuzaki-sensei clenched her right fist angrily while gritting her teeth.
"THAT'S IT! ALL FIVE OF YOU! ESPECIALLY YOU MOMOSHIRO! RUN 100 LAPS AROUND THE COURT NOW!!!" and then she left them irritatingly, doesn't even care if they started to run or not.
"Nya! Why is there so much interference today?" Kikumaru whined while pouting childishly.
"Maybe it's not the right time to know the whole truth." Fuji mysteriously said, smiling.
Kikumaru blinked his eyes confusedly, "Not the right time? How can you say that?"
The smiling-ever-tennis-tensai giggled at him. "You'll find out that later. But for the meantime, let's wake Momoshiro up and do our punishment."
Fuji went to Momoshiro and instructed him to wake up after he counted up to three. And then he counted…
One…
Two…
Three…
Snap.
Momoshiro snapped back to reality and blinked his eyes to clear his vision and then he saw his tennis-tensai-sempai beside him, smiling as usual and his other sempai-friends who were watching him behind them. "What happened, Fuji-sempai?"
Fuji just gave him a smile and said, "Glad you wake up now. Come on! Ryuzaki-sensei wants us to run 100 laps around the court." And then he started running now as the others followed him behind.
"Nanda…" Momoshiro groaned as he started running around the court together with his sempais.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
At the rooftop of Fudomine School, a girl with long-black-wavy-hair was leaning against the crisscross fence, which fencing around the rooftop, and was talking with someone on the line of her cell phone.
"Are you really sure about it?" The caller asked to the girl.
"Of course I'm sure about it!" The girl replied as the wind blew lightly making her long wavy hair and the skirt of her seifuku to flutter along with it. "Besides, when did my plans failed?"
"I- I don't know… maybe last year?"
"Oi! The reason why I wasn't able to accomplish that plan to Ibu-kun and to our client before was because of their compatibility rate of them, plus, I'm not in the mood to do it to them!" The girl said, defending herself from her previous failure.
"All right…" said the caller, "just make it sure, Megumi, that this will workout. Or else…"
"Yeah… I know." Said the girl boringly and then she closed her cell phone with a sigh. The wind starts to blow slightly hard as the dark clouds starting to build up. She smirked widely and muttered as she starts to leave the rooftop, "Let the operation… begin."
-To be continued-
