Chapter 7: Score count!

As Fuji walked into the clubroom, Kikumaru jumped out from behind a locker and glomped him as he shouted, "Fuji!!! Whenaretheygoingtoannouncethewinnerofthepoetrycontest?!?!?!?!?!"

Confused, Fuji asked Kikumaru to repeat himself and slow down. Kikumaru twitched, but took a deep breath and said, "When are they going to announce the winner of the poetry contest?! I mean it's been three weeks since Tezuka turned in his poem!"

"Maa, according to the announcement yesterday, out of the top six poems the winner is going to be picked by the students." Fuji replied.

"Oh, really? When was that announcement?" Kikumaru asked cheerfully.

"Saa, while you were asleep… How you manage to make such good grades will sleeping through class like that is the envy of most students," Fuji laughed.

"You're just jealous! So when's the voting?" Kikumaru grumbled.

Fuji pointed to a large poster the just happened to be in front of them that said in bold letters "Voting for the top 6 poems starts today after lunch." Kikumaru turned and glared at Fuji, and was still glaring when Tezuka walked by.

"Fuji, you left your bag in the science room. And you're also going to be late for practice if you keep standing there looking at the poster," He said briskly and walked away.

"Nya, you're so mean, Fuji! You didn't even remind me that there was practice before lunch today," Kikumaru grumbled and walked off to look for Oishi.

Meanwhile outside the clubroom the regulars were gathering… slowly. Tezuka twitched when he came and only saw Ryoma standing on the courts.

"Echizen, where did everyone else go?" Tezuka sighed.

"Momo-senpai is taking a test in English, Kaidoh-senpai is jogging around here somewhere, Oishi-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai are probably eating lunch, Fuji-senpai is in there changing. Ah, speaking of which, Fuji-senpai is behind you…" Ryoma stated.

Tezuka sighed and went looking for the other regulars. He told Fuji and Ryoma to find Kaidoh and Inui, while he recovered Oishi, Kikumaru, and Taka-san. Momo couldn't be helped. If he missed all of practice he had a great excuse.

"Ne, Fuji-senpai are you sure it's ok to try to sneak up on Inui?" Ryoma asked as the two snuck up to the Science lab. Fuji looked at him as if he had asked the most stupid question on earth, which he obviously had. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to surprise Inui?!

Ryoma shrugged and they continued sneaking around the school. It so happened, Inui was using the science lab for another one of his 'experiments' and was in the perfect position to be ambushed, when Fuji and Ryoma spotted him.

Ryoma scribbled a note, which he handed to Fuji. Fuji silently read the note and handed it back to Ryoma after he had replied. Ryoma scowled as he read the note, but he made a motion as if to say 'Fine, let's just get this over with.' Fuji grinned and they continued sneaking up to Inui.

"Hmm… 5 percent chance a person is in the room with me, 35 percent chance it's just a bug, 10 percent chance two people are in the room, and 50 percent chance it's just my-" Before Inui could finish, Fuji had taped his mouth shut, and Ryoma was tying his hand and feet together.

"Maa, how's that for a surprise?" Fuji chuckled as Inui struggled to figure out what was happening.

Ryoma sighed and muttered, "One down, only one more to go! I only have to put up with these tactics for another 13 minutes."

Then, with Fuji carrying Inui, the two silently ran off to capture Kaidoh.

Meanwhile, Tezuka calmly walked down the hall ways looking for Oishi, Kikumaru, and Kawamura like any normal person would have; he looked in the classes they were supposed to be in and told them to either follow him or be at the club house in 13 minutes.

Fuji and Ryoma walked to the clubhouse door to find Kaidoh already there.

"How long have you been there, Kaidoh-senpai?" Ryoma asked.

"Fshhhhhh… Three minutes." Kaidoh replied.

"Saa, ruin my fun…" Fuji said darkly. Ryoma scribbled on the note again and handed it to Fuji. The note's contents instantly made Fuji cheer up. He used some sort of ninja-ish power to appear behind Kaidoh and taped his mouth shut. Ryoma preceded to hand Fuji the rope as Fuji tied the necessary knots to keep Kaidoh from escaping.

When the others arrived, they saw Fuji and Ryoma eating ice cream cheerfully, while Kaidoh and Inui struggled to move in front of the door.

"Fuji, Ryoma, what happened?" Tezuka asked.

"It was his idea, Tezuka-bucho, and you know how Fuji-senpai is when he gets an idea…" Ryoma grumbled.

Everyone gave a collective shudder, to which Fuji raised an eyebrow.

"What's this about my ideas? Why are you guys shuddering?" Fuji inquired with a smile rival to that of Ichimaru Gin's.

"Nothing, Fuji-senpai!" The younger regulars chorused.

"Maa, whatever you say… So, what were we going to do today, Tezuka?" Fuji said cheerfully.

"Ah! Well I just called us here to practice for the Kanto tournament because the poetry contest has been occupying most of our time…" Tezuka replied, "We'll start with you untying Inui and Kaidoh."

"Che, fine." Ryoma sighed as he began untying Inui. Fuji worked on Kaidoh's ropes and soon everyone was running their usual 50 'warm-up' laps.

Then they stretched and made sure they'd warmed up properly before starting the real training.

Fuji-Taka pair vs. the Golden Pair was up first. Needless to say, Fuji and Taka-san lost. It was a close game with Taka-san's power play and Fuji's crafty moves keeping Oishi and Kikumaru on their toes, but in the end Oishi and Kikumaru were simply better at doubles then Fuji and Taka-san.

Then Tezuka-Inui pair faced off against Momo-Kaidoh pair. The game ended with Momo-Kaidoh pair winning because they were in-sync with each other.

The final, and probably most random pairing for that day was Ryoma-Fuji pair versus Inui-Kikumaru pair. Amazingly enough, Ryoma and Fuji actually beat Kikumaru and Inui 6-0. The insanity of the results left most of the other regulars laughing so hard tears were rolling down their faces. Tezuka actually smirked for more 5 seconds.

Ryoma and Fuji gave each other a hi-five.

"Nice one, Fuji-senpai. Maybe we should work on our combination and try to beat the Golden pair," Ryoma joked.

"Nya, Ochibi you shouldn't get cocky! You and Fuji just got lucky. That and Inui was scaring me with those statistics," Kikumaru complained.

"Saa, I'll think about it, Echizen," Fuji replied slyly. They grinned mischievously and the regulars were dismissed by Tezuka.

As they walked back to class, some of the regulars went to vote for the remaining poems.

The six regulars left in the contest wondered who was going to win, and wish the best of luck to the person they thought rivaled them the most. Except Ryoma and Inui, who wondered how they'd gotten so far with such lame/unoriginal poems.

手塚ゾーン!!! (If it doesn't show then the characters mean Tezuka Zone)

The votes thus far are….

Kikumaru: 0

Fuji: 1

Oishi: 0

Ryoma: 1

Inui: 0

Kaidoh: 1

I can't make the last chapter end with a 3 way tie!!! Please vote!

Only one vote per person please. Makes life easier for me, or harder if I'm trying to get more votes… Please don't abuse this by voting for the same person multiple times under different anonymous names.

In the next chapter(s) expect to see: Tezuka loose his temper, Ryoma getting shoved into a broom closet, the winner of the poetry contest, and as much randomness as I can cram into the chapter without it sounding outrageously stupid.