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"Pssst!"
"Pssst. Psst. Sakuno-chan. Over here," Momo stuck his head around the corner of the school block.
"Hmm?" Sakuno turned her head, and looked taken aback when seeing who had called her. "Momo-chan Senpai? What is it?"
"Come here," he indicated with a finger.
With the same puzzled face, she stepped towards him. "Yes?" she repeated.
"Can you do me a favour?"
Her eyes widened further. Momoshiro ask her, Sakuno, a favour?
He leaned forwards and whispered at a fast pace in her ear. After he had finished explaining the task, Sakuno's face was pure crimson.
"What are you planning to do with it?"
"Umm…it's kind of a secret. But can you do it today?"
"I think so…"
"Good. Really thanks, Sakuno-chan!" he resumed his usual volume.
"Your welcome."
The very same night he had asked Sakuno to do something for him, the phone rang once again at around 9:00pm.
"Momoshiro-kun!'
"Oh, Ann. How's your feet and your scratches?"
"I'm fine. The cuts are healing really rapidly. And well I just had to wear trainers to school today instead of those stupid shoes."
Momo laughed. "That's good then,"
"Yeah," she agreed. "Are you free tomorrow?"
"Yup." he said straightaway.
"Really? Can you come by my house? Dad just finished setting up a tennis court in our backyard! You can come over and practice with me!"
"Just you and me," she added with a laugh. "Don't worry. Onii-chan always practices at school until 5 o'clock,"
Momo breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay then. I'll drop by tomorrow,"
"Great! See you tomorrow!"
"See you,"
As if on autopilot, once he had hung up, he slanted himself onto his mattress, eye focus on the ceiling, brain focus on the girl he had suddenly grown so attached to.
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x
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"Good one Eiji! Keep going! Don't lose the pace!"
"Excellent, Fuji. Though you still have the tendency to be one step late! Next!"
"MORUEZE! BURINING! COME ON OISHI, BABY. HIT IT TO ME! UH-HUH! UH-HUH!"
The mother of Seigaku sweat -dropped. "Good…Taka-san…" He had left a burn hole on one side of the court.
"HORA! HORA! BURNING!" came the every-day, common bellow once again.
"Next!"
POW! BOUNCE. BOUNCE. BOUNCE. ROLL.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Mada Mada Dane,"
"…"
"Fushuuuuu,"
"Did-did you see that?"
"I sure did, Arai. My God,"
"What-what was-wa-was that?"
"No way!"
Silence.
So deadly and …silent that the sound of a bouncing ball, yells and pounding of feet from over the basketball courts could be heard.
"What? What?" Momo said, coming to his senses and finally looking at his senpai, the juniors and freshmen in turn who were staring at him in awe.
"Momo…are you feeling alright?"
It was as if his senses suddenly cleared and he realized the weighting consequences of what he had just did.
"It – it was just one missed shot guys! Nothing to worry about!" his palms faced out, waving vigorously as he shook his head, sheepish smile on his face.
"OI! MOMOSHIRO-CHAN! THAT WAS THE EASIEST HIT TO YOU THAT I HAD EVER SEEN! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, BABY! FEEL THE BURNING POWER!" apparently for some strange reason, Taka-san had gotten ahold of his racket. Fuji who was standing there gaping – yes, Fuji was gaping, jaw dropped, eyes wide – quickly hurried over to Taka-san and wrenched, though kindly, the racket out of the …burning man.
"Maybe we should get him to the nurse," Oishi was murmuring.
"I'm fine! I'm fine! Was just distracted for a moment! Nothing to worry about!" he called over to everybody, not at all assuring.
"Hmm…" came the voice of Eiji. Everybody turned to him and was astonished to see that the acrobatic wasn't bouncing around saying cheerily, "To the nurse! To the nurse, nya! Momo off to the nurse!" but was standing there, evidently deep in thought. "Momo," he spoke after a second. "You aren't hit…by the lovebug are you?"
"The what?!" they all echoed, except for Inui.
"Eiji-senpai, that's insane!"
"Well you did go on a date yesterday!" Eiji protested, backing up his theory.
"What?!" he spluttered. "It wasn't a date! I just went to the sports center to practice tennis with her! You can ask the reception there if you want!"
"Oh?" came the monotone voice of Inui. "Well you're pretty friendly to let her wrap her arms around you,"
Momo nearly dropped dead. "Wh-what?" he said weakly as his fellow regulars, juniors and freshmen gaped and a fresh layer of whispers and murmurings began.
"On the bicycle, after the burgers, you know…after she fell." Prompted Inui.
"What the – have you-have you been stalking me?"
"It should come as no surprise, Momo. You know Inui always stalks," said Eiji with a theatrical stare.
"Only opponents from other schools,"
"Wrong. Basically, only approximately 80 percent are from other schools. Yes, I have gathered information outside school on all of you too,"
Ryoma, Kaidoh, Momo and Taka-san backed away from Inui at this unexpected declaration.
"He knows everything, nya!" Eiji stage-whispered.
Momo twitched. "You know, Oishi-senpai, I do think I'm not feeling that well. May I please take leave?"
Oishi's head swerved from Inui to Momo's direction. "What? Yes, of course! Just remember to note it down next time Ryuzaki-sensei comes."
"Sure." he swung his racket over his shoulder and walked over to his bag as everyone watched intently, save Kaidoh and Ryoma.
As he changed in the locker room, he could hear the distant voices from the courts.
"But Inui, I've never seen you stalk me before!" came an indignant voice.
"Well duh, it's called stalking," said another.
"No. Of course people can see stalkers, nya! Or how else would people figure out that there are stalkers!"
"Well then maybe what Inui-senpai is doing isn't called stalking!" argued one.
"Nonsense you fool! What else can it be?"
"I don't know…spying maybe?"
"That makes Inui sound like a ninja, nya!"
"I am not a ninja." affirmed the data man hotly. "I am merely collecting data,"
"Are you sure that's all you've been doing on your little… trips?"
"Are you by the slight chance of 69.35 percent trying to imply that I am a pervert?"
"Horio, that is unacceptable! 10 laps around the court now! And can we please get off the subject?"
"No! We have to clear this! What if…"
More voices broke out as further people entered the heated squabble.
Momo sighed as he finished his buttons then headed out to the school gate. He was halfway across the grounds when he saw a figure running as fast as she could from one of the blocks, her long braided hair flying wildly behind, bag banging onto her side.
"Momo-senpai!" she hollered out.
"Oh, Sakuno-chan!"
"Your-your…request," she said breathlessly as she reached him. She rummaged inside her bag and produced a small turquoise box.
Momo's eyes lit up at once. "I nearly forgot! Thanks! How much was it?"
She shook her head. "There's no need to pay me back. As long as you give it to her and she likes it, that'll be fine."
"Eh?" Momo reddened whilst Sakuno shot him a sparkling yet modest smile.
"Thank you, Sakuno-chan," he beamed back at her. "You heading over to the courts?"
It was her turn for her cheeks to be etched in light pink. "I – I – yes I am,"
"Good," he breathed a sigh of relief. "Because right now they're kind of bickering – yeah all of them, I guess you can stop it."
"Me?" she looked stunned.
Momo smirked as he explained. "Just call Echizen's name. He'll see you there and he'll tell the others to shut up,"
"Momo-senpai!" she exclaimed, the pink now going to a deep tomato red.
"Good luck," he winked. He then turned around and sauntered off to the gate, tucking the little box safely into his pocket.
As the running footsteps of the first year girl echoed off into the distance, he could've sworn she had shouted back to him, "Good luck to you too!"
He was in high spirits as he rounded another corner. Recognizing the street name from yesterday, he swung yet again and was soon in front of the large Tachibana residence. Just to be cautious, he dismounted quietly and crept up to the gate. He then rang the doorbell. For the first few seconds nothing happened. He stood at the gate front, feeling vigilant.
Then suddenly the front door banged open and out tottered Tachibana Ann.
"Momoshiro-kun! Sorry! I was on the phone with somebody." She said as she unlatched the lock holding the gate and let him in.
"No problem!" was his answer as he strolled in with his bike. He leant it against the front of the house. "Mind if I put it here?"
"Sure,"
She wasn't wearing the usual blue top matched with white skirt and leggings. Instead she had on, a light blue tank top and a long flowing white and grey skirt that dragged along a bit on the ground. He noticed that she had worn the green hairclips she was wearing back when they played Fudomine for the first time.
"Well this is it," she welcomed, as she opened the door again and let him in. "I know it isn't much," she added. "It looks big only because we have the biggest backyard in the neighborhood."
"No, it's fantastic!" he said, striding into the hallway. After the first few steps, a staircase on his right lead to upstairs and further on was a doorway to the kitchen on the left and on the right, a doorway to a spacious living room.
She led him into the kitchen, and he set himself down at the long wooden table while she busied herself at the fridge. "Water? Tea? Juice? Ponta? Cider? " she enquired.
"Juice, thanks,"
She set down two cups of juice on the table then sat down as well, her legs crossed on the chair, elbows resting lazily on the table, head supported by her palms.
"You've got a nice place," he commented as he took a deep measure.
She shrugged. "It's home,"
A short silence dragged a few seconds.
"Err…Ann…I've got - " he began nervously, when suddenly the phone rang.
"Sorry. Hold on a second," she leapt off the chair at top speed then ran into the hallway.
"Hello?" he could hear her voice from down the hallway. Damn whoever it was.
"Kamio-kun!" her voice cried in delight.
Right. Damn that Kamio. It was always him wasn't it?
"Really? That's great! Nah, I barely helped at all! Well that really is incredible. Tell him congratulations from me!"
Momo cracked his knuckles in irritation.
"Of course we'll celebrate! What, now?"
Momo refrained with a bit of difficulty from slamming the table.
"Well I…I feel like staying at home today. Maybe this Saturday?"
More stillness as the talking flitted over to Kamio.
"You can decide – no let Azuki-kun decide. It's in his honor after all. Alright! See you on Saturday then! Bye bye!"
"Kamio?" he questioned lightly as she re-entered the kitchen, eyebrows raised.
"His little brother just got onto the Fudomine squad as a Junior!" she said excitedly, totally oblivious to the hinting knitted eyebrows. "We've been training with him for ages now – looks like all that hard work really paid off!"
"That's nice," said Momo half untruthfully. "Anyway, you wanna' go practice now?"
"Mm-mm! Sure! Bathroom's upstairs if you need to change,"
Three minutes later and Momo was in his usual yellow shirt and blue pants. He stepped out of the back door and couldn't help gasping. They really did have a tennis court as their backyard. The house behind him seemed less spacious as he walked onto the pavement of the court. He settled down his bag on a bench on his side of the court.
A second later, Ann came bursting out of the back door, still dressed in the ridiculously long (for tennis) skirt and tank top. Instead of trainers she had chosen to wear high (not heeled though) sandals.
"Sorry. Stupid water boiler nearly blew up or something. Had a mess unplugging it."
"Are you going to the beach?" his jaw convulsed before he could stop himself.
She gave him a look. "I knew you'd say that… or something like that. Don't worry about me, let's just play," she grabbed her racket which was lying on the other side bench then walked on. "Hurry up, Momoshiro-kun!"
He was still gawping at her. "What on earth-?"
"Momoshiro-kun!" impatience darkened her face. "Serve!"
He did as he was told, and smacked the ball over, wondering how on earth she'd run in such tricky shoes and flowing skirt. To his utter amazement she ran over to where the ball was and hit it back with tremendous force.
"Wha-whah!" he tripped and fell flat on his face as he hurriedly (though too late) tried to meet the ball. He hadn't expected her to be able to return it.
"Are you okay?" she yelled from the opposite side.
He slowly got up, brushing off dirt and dust from the front of his shirt and pants.
"I told you not to underestimate me!" she called over, sounding amused.
"I wasn't – ," he began as he got to his feet. "That was just – unexpected. And since when did you say not to underestimate you?"
She giggled. "Keep playing as usual! I'll tell you all about it later!"
The game proceeded to 6-2 in favour of Momo.
They both flopped down onto the same bench, panting heavily.
"Care to tell me what this fancy attire is for?"
"It's for training."
"I'm sorry?"
She looked at him in the eye. "Know why my footwork's been pretty good lately? Well, it's thanks to this dress. I've been doing it for ages. The first few tries I kept tripping over naturally, but soon I got used to avoiding being tripped by it that it kind of developed into fast, efficient footwork. I know it sounds pretty illogical, but it really does work. Even my coach at school who's really picky and a total perfectionist was pleased." She elaborated earnestly.
"That…that does kinda' make sense," he said slowly, digesting this uniquely strange way of training. "And the shoes?"
"These shoes are total hell. They're so high that it takes even more lift and pressure to be able to walk, and that, improves my speed. I know," she broke off, seeing his expression. "It really doesn't look like it does the job but it really helps. Onii-san nearly fainted when he first saw what I was wearing to practice but when I explained it all he figured that I did have a point."
"Right. So if I ever see the Fudomine team running around in long skirts and high sandals, I'll know that I'm sane," he deadpanned.
She laughed hard. "Nah. Onii-san isn't that overboard. His teammates would kill themselves before doing so."
Momo smirked. "I can imagine so."
"Kamio-kun would probably jump off a building." She giggled at the imagination of it.
Kamio.
"You're – you're pretty close to Kamio."
She looked up then smiled. "You could say so. He's very nice. Well, not at first when Onii-san introduced me to the team. But later on we got to be really good friends and he's been helping loads with my tennis.."
"Oh absolutely wonderful." Said Momo in monotone, trying not to roll his eyes.
"You're jealous."
"You cannot be serious," he denied, also taken aback with her talent for directness.
"Hmm," she cocked her head to one side, smile broadening. "You sure?"
"Hundred percent,"
She laughed then resumed staring straight ahead like him. "You were about to say something just before Kamio-kun phoned."
"Eh?" he immediately panicked. "I did?"
She crossed her arms, her starry smile indicating yes.
"Err…well…" he couldn't hide or stall could he? She seemed to see through damn near everything. At a snail's pace, he twisted around, unzipped his bag and retrieved the blue box. "Hey…"
"Hm?"
He sluggishly turned back around then outstretched his hand to her. "Here," he said hurriedly, head down in embarrassment.
She looked pleasantly surprised. But then took the box and tenderly lifted the top off. His head was still bowed, afraid of her reaction.
She gasped softly as she lifted out the clips. Instinctively she held a hand to where her current green clips were. "How'd you – ?"
He finally looked up and shrugged when he analyzed that it was safe. "I just noticed…that you lost them."
"Thank you Momoshiro-kun! They – these are my favourite kind!"
He uncontrollably let out a breath of relief. "They're the right ones, right?"
"'Right'?" she repeated as if he was talking gibberish. "It's perfect!" she swiftly took out the green ones and slid in the new triple pink hearts.
"How does it look?"
"Looks great. Really matches you," he said, completely truthful this time. She beamed back as a reply.
"You're kidding." She touched the clips in her hair. "Thanks a million times, Momoshiro-kun!"
He tried to look modest though making a mental note to thank that Sakuno-chan a million times.
"Ne I'm thirsty. Can we go back in?" he asked.
"Sure, sure," she was still patting the clips in her hair as if they were sacred jewels from an Egyptian tomb.
As they made their way into the house from the back they could hear the front door bang open. They both stopped in their tracks.
"They can't be back yet," she mouthed.
But who else could it be?
"Ann?" the unmistakable voice of Tachibana Kippei echoed into the long hallway.
She swallowed. Momo merely stood rooted to the spot, his mouth unconsciously open, not looking far from a dying goldfish.
"Ann-chan?" it was Kamio's tone this time. They heard footsteps belonging to a few others enter the house.
"She might be practicing outside - in her dress and things. Isn't she slightly strange. But the methods work, they say. Even captain says so. It must be all my fault. I shouldn't be this discouraging. But it makes no sense…" - the distinctive muttering of Shinji followed on after Kamio.
"The back door," she pointed, barely audible.
As quietly as he could, he padded out of the back and had clicked it shut firmly just as Tachibana's team trooped into the hallway.
"Ann!"
She jumped though quickly smiled to cover it. "You guys are home early!'
"Why didn't you answer just now?"
"Hmm? Oh sorry. Was outside," she jerked her thumb at the backyard. "How was practice?"
Tachibana answered. "We left some of the information on St. Rudolph here. That's why we ended practice a bit early."
"Ah. Want me to get you all drinks?" she invited politely.
A few of the other members nodded. She made to step into the kitchen when her brother stopped her.
"Oh Ann. I don't know why or if you know – but for some inexplicable reason, there's a bike parked right outside our house."
She nearly went into a coma. "A – a what?"
"Bicycle," he repeated clearly.
Come clean or plough on innocence?
She was about to open her mouth when the phone rang. Tetsu Ishida who was closest picked it up and held it for his captain.
"Tachibana residence." he said in a deep voice. "Ah. Ann…it's for you,"
"For me?" she squeaked in surprise, despite the situation, though anything to stall for time was helpful right now.
"Hai!" she said into the mouthpiece.
"Um….um ,Tachibana-san!" uttered out a high-pitched and timid voice.
"Sakuno?"
"Uhh…Momo-senpai told me to pass on this message…umm…he said: no bike exists outside your door."
"What?" she said stupidly.
"I…uhh…don't know… that's the message!"
Really, couldn't he convey better laid out messages?
"Tachibana-san?"
"Uhh? Oh. I mean ah. Thank you Sakuno!"
As she hung up, she wore a sparkling smile and turned to her Brother & Co.
"Sorry, what were you saying?"
"Wondering if you knew anything about the bike parked outside our house,"
"Bike? I didn't see a bike when I got home." And displaying her gift to act and praying in her mind that the bike really had gone, she lead the way through the front door to see.
"Where's the bike?" she mentally exhaled in relief whilst gesturing around with a curious look on her face.
Tachibana Kippei looked around disbelievingly. "It was – it was here just now. It was blue, wasn't it?" he moved his gaze to his teammates. They too, were scratching their heads.
"Maybe someone stole it. Or it was kidnapped. Who cares?" Shinji's cue.
"Shinji!" said Tachibana disapprovingly.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to be that negative - even if it isn't my fault. And it's only natural for me to do this. But there's a possibility that we had only imagined it there for some unknown reason. Either way, I'm just making up lame excuses so we can all go back in and look up the St. Rudolph information. Sorry. But maybe it was really taken by some stranger that – "
"Shinji! Enough!"
"…sorry."
"Well at any rate, it doesn't matter. Let's go back in. Ann can you bring us some juice or something?" and with that they all trooped back into the house, though Kamio was the last and paused at the door to shoot Ann a meaningful look which she readily and easily returned with a expression of innocence.
He too then stepped in and up the stairs and left Ann along on the front porch like doorstep. She whooshed a deep breath. Thank God. It was so very close. True she hadn't done anything wrong and it wasn't like Momo was banned from the house. But she wouldn't like questions being raised and all that "What was he doing here?", "What's your relationship with him?", "You guys just played tennis right?"
Because she truthfully wouldn't have been able to answer them.