READ BEFORE CHAPTER:

If you people haven't seen the Fudomine episodes, you really should! May contain spoilers!

Translations:

"Ni jei ge ben dan!" --- Chinese for "You idiot!"

"Ni zai gan shema??" --- Chinese for "What are you doing??"

"Wei?" --- Chinese. It's like saying "Moshi moshi?" or "Hello?" when picking up a phone.

"Baka" --- everyone has to know this one. It's "fool" in Japanese.

"Ita---!" or "Itai!" --- Japanese. Something similar to "ow!"

"Demo---" --- Japanese for "But---"

"jidouhanbaiki" --- Japanese for "vending machine"

O yea major thanks to aniime.crazii.hOi.hOiand darkrisingphoenix for pointing out stuff that needs to be added that I decided to leave out. O, and before anyone corrects me about anything that I left out again, I just wanted to say that Japanese people do go to school on Saturdays, but only for half of the day. But I decided that that should be left out to make the plot flow better. And I know that I'm a grammar freak, but I have used this double preposition: "off of" in some parts. I'm telling you this so I don't sound like I'm stupid and maybe some smart person would mistake the double preposition for something. Eheh...

Anyways...enjoy nyaaa!!

Chapter3

"...Ma-MATTE!!!...You...forgot...uhm..."

"Arigatou..."

"Iie, don't mention it."

"Aya?"

"Hm?"

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you...I---"

"WAKE UP, DAMN IT!!!"

"EGH?!?!"

Aoi grabbed a hold of Aya's hair."Ni jei ge ben dan!!!"

"What are you doing?!" Aya jumped out of her bed and tugged at Aoi's hair.

"Do you realize what time it is?? You're gonna be late for school!!"

"Huh?? WHAT?? No way!!" Aya looked at her watch: it was 8:30!! She pushed Aoi off the bed violently and then stepped on her when she dashed out of her room, hair messy and still wearing pajamas.

She passed by her mother in the hallway. "Ni zai gan shema??" she shouted after Aya.

"Can't talk now, Ma, I'm gonna be late!!"

"What? You're gonna be late for school on a Saturday?"

Aya screeched to a stop. "WHAT?" she dashed back to her room at full speed.

"You snitch!!!" she kicked her sister, who was still lying on the ground, trying to recover herself from being stepped on.

"STOP FIGHTING!! Aya, there's a phone call for you!!" her mom gestured, covering the receiver of the phone so that the other line couldn't hear the havoc.

"Eh?" Aya let go of Aoi's hair and grabbed her cell phone, which she had abandoned downstairs.

"Wei?"

"Start speaking in Japanese, Aya." It was Miyu.

"Oh. Right. Forgot...me and Aoi was having a fight and everyone was shouting in different languages. So...what's up?"

"Look out your window!"

"What do you mean?" she was confused at her friend's request, but she did anyway. Right under her view, a girl who looked like she had stepped out the pages of Vogue waved at her. Her two huge bangs cast a shadow on her eyes, but Aya could tell---"MIYU??"

Miyu had hung up already. Aya opened the window and repeated, "Is that you, Miyu?? How did you get my address??"

"No need to explain much---got them from the teachers' office. Now, come on, we're about to watch our regulars play in the district preliminaries!! Get dressed!!"

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The bus pulled to a stop and the two girls hopped out.

"I can't believe that I'll actually waste my Saturday watching some tennis game instead of sleeping in..." Aya thought of the idea as something that she wouldn't enjoy, but she was actually feeling pretty excited. She brushed imaginary wrinkles off of her cami.

"I can't wait to watch Tezuka-sama play...he rarely ever does anything at practice!! Hey..." Miyu looked around the place where the matches are supposedly held at. "Where is Seigaku playing in anyway?"

"It-It's kind of crowded..." Aya looked around at all the kids who were all wearing different sports uniforms. "It looks like there are all sorts of schools gathered here today..."

"Don't worry! Seigaku will beat every single one of those sorry schools for sure!!" Miyu's eyes flared.

Then there came a giggle---an innocent, girly giggle. The two girls instinctively turned around.

There stood a girl about five feet in height, with short-cut brunette hair and pink burettes. She had one bag slanted over her shoulder, wrinkling her purple jacket that went with her short, white skirt. She had two fingers covering her mouth, which did absolutely nothing to hide her giggles. Aya could see that this girl was really pretty---all the guys who stood behind her was staring at her, probably wondering how anyone on earth could have such a cute laugh.

The mysterious girl noticed Miyu's expression and stopped giggling, but she was still smiling confidently. "Gomen...but I wouldn't be too sure about that."

Miyu's brows knitted. "What do you mean?"

"I'm just saying that victory wouldn't be so easy. Especially..." she winked, "if you're going against Fudomine."

Miyu said rather aggressively, "'Fudomine'? I haven't heard of them."

"Well, just don't underestimate them because they aren't seeded!"

The two dumbfounded girls stared at the girl, who had now turned away and started walking away. The guys who were admiring her from afar moved a few steps back to let her pass. As soon as she was lost in the crowd, Miyu muttered some Japanese words---obscene words, Aya could guess---in a tone that made her friend beside her shiver a bit.

Whatever thoughts they had about the brunette were erased away as soon as they heard the distant echoes of: "Seigaku---! Fight on! Fight on!"

"This way!!" Miyu yelled in her regular voice. They put the encounter in the back of their minds and dashed to the direction of the chant.

"...Ah! TEZUKA-SAMA!!! THERE HE IS!!" Miyu added a squeal for a finishing touch as she spotted the much-too-calm buchou with his arms folded across his chest, sitting on a bench, studying the current game. "He looks so adorable when he's focusing on---"

She barely got to finish what she was saying when she realized who Tezuka was looking at. Fuji and Taka were in the middle of the court, Taka's face in excruciating pain, his racket abandoned on the ground. Fuji had his eyes open, and his hand was snatched on Taka's wrist. Aya was left breathless.

Her first thought was:

"WHY IS HE HURTING TAKA?!?!"

Fuji's eyes glinted seriously as he started to say, "Umpire---"

"BAKA!! STOP, STOP!!!"

All heads turned to stare at the brunette/redhead who was crazy enough to dash up to the court. Fuji was especially surprised.

Although she doesn't have a lot of upper body strength, Aya pried Fuji's hand off of Taka's wrist without much difficulty, mainly because Fuji was too surprised to keep his grip. She looked at Fuji square in the eye for the first time since they've met.

"What's wrong with you?! I know I've asked that before, but how could you do something like this?!" she held up Takashi's swelled wrist so that Fuji could see it clearly.

"Mi-Minase-san...?" a sweatdrop ran down a side of Fuji's cheek as he closed his eyes again and smiled meekly as if questioning her sanity.

"What do you mean, 'Minase-san'?! That's ALL you have to say??" she swung Taka's wrist up and down, jabbing it in front of Fuji's face every few milliseconds. "You see this? Do you SEE THIS??" she ignored Taka's cries of pain.

"ITA---!! Ano..." Taka tried, his weak side of his personality taking advantage of him.

"What??" Aya yelled, too angry to notice that she's yelling at other innocent people.

"I-I got this injury myself!" Taka blurted, "F-Fuji had nothing to do with anything."

"Demo---" Aya hesitated. "De-demo---" the word hung from her mouth, although she didn't say any further.

"U-umpire?" the still-sweatdropping tensai resumed his previous thought.

"Y-yes?" the also-sweatdropping umpire asked.

"We...forfeit the match."

"But Fuji!!" Taka argued, "I can still play!!"

"Come on," Momo rushed to Takashi from the sidelines, "I'll take you to the hospital. The sooner we go, the faster we can come back."

Taka sighed. "A-all right..."

"...But..." Aya watched the entire scene, feeling stupid.

"Eto...Minase-san?" Fuji walked up to her as she was still blankly staring at Taka and Momo dash away. "Sorry for the misunderstanding...ano...do you feel fine?"

"Demo...you were...and you were like...and his wrist was..." she stammered.

"...Is that a 'no'?"

"Well, answer this!!" she turned sharply, "How did his wrist get so messed up??"

"One of our opponents from Fudomine hit a powerful spin called a Hadokyuu. I couldn't counter it, so Taka-san had to return it."

"Wait," Aya suddenly remembered the mysterious girl. "Did you just say Fudomine?"

"Yes. They're sitting across from us right now."

Sure enough, Aya could see that a bunch of guys dressed in black were sitting in a bench a few meters from them. A bunch of tough, determined-looking guys...but something else caught her eye---a flash of radiance that stood out from all the dark color. The girl in the purple and white uniform...she stood in the smiling stance that Aya recognized so well.

The umpire called, "Seishun forfeits. Fudomine leads 1-0."

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The rain started to pour; the sky was pure grey. The Golden Pair had won the game pretty easily, and the third game was Kaidoh vs. Kamio, Aya remembered. She had taken a look at Ryuzaki sensei's paper thing, and she felt a tiny bit of regret about missing Fuji's game.

Aya sighed and uncrossed her legs. She looked over at the other side of the bench. Fuji sat there, unmoved, smiling, as always. "Maybe I should go up and talk to him. But what do I say?"

It was killing her, to just sit there while the precious Saturday was ticking away, the Seishun heartthrob sitting just a few meters from her. She blinked several times and tried to focus on the game while the Snake and the Speed Ace walked up to the field---but couldn't. How come it's not as exciting as she thought it would be? "I expected too much. But from what? What more can you do at a tennis tournament than watch tennis guys play tennis?? Maybe I thought it would be..." Aya glanced over to Fuji again, "...a little more...unrealistic?"

(Miyu, on the other hand, is sittin right next to Tezuka and is now telling him about how exciting tennis is to her, only to be ignored by him.)

She finally decided what she was going to do to let Fuji know that she still existed. "Ne, Miyu? I'ma go get something to drink, okay?" she stood up and walked next to Miyu. "Want anything?"

Her real intention was that hopefully, Fuji might've heard her from where he was sitting so that he could at least glance over at her for a second to let Aya know that he knows she's still here.

But as Aya watched him from the corner of his eye, he was still unmoved, still smiling, and he didn't move an inch or glance over at her for one nanosecond. Eiji, on the other hand, asked if she could get him and "Ochibi" two Pontas.

She said, "Okay," politely in her flawless English as she waited for anymore requests---from one person in particular. Five seconds passed, no more requests came. She repeated, "Okay, then...I guess I'll go now." Five more seconds passed, and by this time, all the regulars including Fuji was too shocked at seeing the first appearance of Boomerang Snake to hear her.

Aya clasped her hands, feigned a smile, and mumbled so that only she could hear, "Since no one acknowledges my generosity, I'll go now." She made a beeline for nowhere.

She dashed in a direction, passing a sports writer with short brown hair who yelled after her, "Where are you going?? The jidouhanbaiki is that way---"

Aya could only hear the splashing of rain puddles under her feet and the pounding of her heart in her ears. A safe distance from the others, she slowed down and put her hands to her knees. She raised her head after panting a few breaths and wondered, "Why do I feel angry anyway?!" Her cheeks were flushed and it made her blush even more to think about blushing. "It-It's just humid outside, that's all."

She looked around and spotted a tree. With a quick sigh followed by a moment's hesitation, she sat on the dry soil and breathed.

The rain danced around her senses. She hated the rain---it enchanted you, fascinated you. Aya was pulled subconsciously to the realm of her previous life in peaceful China.

"Dad?"

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong with being clumsy?"

"Nothing at all---wait. What are you saying?"

She had shrugged. "I don't know. I destroyed my teacher's garden in kindergarten today. My friends thought it was funny."

"Don't worry. Even the strangest people get boyfriends."

That had to be the last thing on her mind. But it was an interesting thought.

The flashback ended and she slowly opened her eyes. She came back to the sound of drizzling rain. The sky was a huge, empty space of gray, reflecting the color off of her eyes. She sat there, dazed, for a while, then thought, "I should probably get back..."

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the tennis garden, Eiji elbowed his friend. "Fujiko, Aya's been gone for a long time. I think I'll go search for her!"

"Matte, Eiji. I think I'll go look for her."

Eiji shrugged. "OK," he replied in his heavy Japanese accent, "but I wonder what she's doing in this weather, nya..."

------------------------------------

She trailed on, slowly, seeming to not mind that the raindrops were making her hair flat. "Aha ha...actually, being clumsy has its advantages!" she laughed. "I could say that I was lost and couldn't find the vending machine...if anyone even noticed that I was gone, that is!"

In the middle of her laughter, a huge gust of wind nearly knocked her off her heels. She gave a sharp, inaudible scream and fell back onto the pavement with an elegant "Oof!"

She felt her eyes watering. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow..." she licked her scraped arm and tried getting up. "Why is it that I'm always the one falling?! What have I done to possibly offend anyone---"

With her middle finger still jabbed in the air, Aya noticed something. Her jacket, which was just right around her waist, was gone.

She recalled the gust of wind and turned to her right sharply. She spotted the gray (which was supposed to be white to begin with) jacket, flipping in the wind, hanging off from a tree branch that was several meters in mid-air.

"That's it." Aya let out a string of beautiful curse words in English. With a side of her cheek still bleeding, she licked part of the blood off with her tongue and gathered her wet hair into a ponytail. She gnawed off the tips of her perfectly manicured nails---they would be bothersome. She kicked the "Please don't walk on the grass" sign and stomped on the fragile flowers, then grabbed the lowest branch of the tree and hauled her body off the ground.

"It's always me, isn't it? I'm supposed to be---" she grabbed a hold of another branch, "---the one who suffers for others' mistakes!! What the hell could that mean, you ask?! I don't know, dammit, you go ask your creator when you die yourself!!"

Her face was now drenched in rain and the tiniest bit of blood from the wound on her cheek, which still stung. On the bright side, no one would care if a crazed, macho lunatic was going against nature's laws and climbing to her death, would they?

"Almost---" she reached out for another branch, gasping, "---there---"

"...Minase-san...?"

The other being on the ground stared up at Aya, who had now stopped in mid-air to stare at him. He moved his umbrella slightly so he could see her face clearer.

"What does it look like I'm doing?? It's definitely not a fancy nature hike I'm taking, is it??" she had to shout so she could let herself be heard over the noise of the pouring rain.

Zaaa...zaaa...

Aya continued to climb, "Don't mind me...this will only take a while! You should go back to watching your game!!"

"The game's on hold for a few minutes because of the rain," he said.

"Nani??" yelled Aya, trying to hear him over the rain and the distance between them. "What did you just say??"

"...The game's on hold."

"I still can't hear you!!"

Fuji took a few steps toward the tree. He repeated, "The game's currently on hold."

"Could you say that again? I didn't bring any rock climbing equipment with me, you know!!" she laughed. She did, in fact, hear what he had to say, but she was just joking around now. To her surprise, the tensai started to say something again. Maybe he couldn't tell she was just joking?

"...Eto...how should I say this."

"No, no! I already know that the game's on hold---"

"Iya, it's not that---it's...there's a caterpillar on your arm---"

"NANI?!?! KYAAAAA---"

Aya started to lose balance, screaming scream after scream.

"Ano---de-demo---chotto---" Fuji tried between screams, sweatdropping and raising his shoulders at each scream.

"WHOA!!!"

Aya fell backwards with a final cry. "Minase-san---!" Fuji threw his umbrella on the ground and dashed forward, his whole body slipping on the mud just so he could make it in time---

SCCRIIIISH---!!

"Haah...haah...GEH!!" Aya tumbled off the figure that she was sitting on. "I---Fuji---are you alright??"

The tensai raised a hand to his hair and laughed. He sat up and looked at the face of Aya (who was now shocked and angry about the fact that he laughed about her clumsiness) and said, "I'm okay."

"Hmph." Aya folded her arms and could think of nothing more to do but make an angry face at him.

"Let's go back." Fuji got up and wiped some mud off his shirt. Aya was about to get up, too, until she noticed a red spot on his arm.

"Fuji!!" she grabbed his arm. "You're hurt!!"

"Hm? Ah, that's nothing."

"No, it's definitely something. I'm so sorry! Did you get this when you were trying to catch me?"

"I really think we just ought to---"

"Dude, I'm trying to say 'I'm SORRY'!!" she jerked him back onto his knees with a splat.

Fuji blinked. "Eto...do you feel fine?"

Aya made a face and scoffed. "That's all I get for admitting that I was wrong?? Don't be a jerk!!"

He suddenly chuckled and sat cross-legged. "You're right. And..." he opened his eyes and looked at her cheek. "...you seem to have a few cuts yourself."

"Huh? This? Oh, that's nothing." Aya spotted her jacket, lying a few feet away from them. She reached for it. "This will have to do, although it's so dirty." She ripped the jacket into pieces.

"What?"

She placed his arm on her lap and started wrapping it with the pieces of ripped cloth. She just focused on his arm and didn't look up at him. "It's my fault, so I'm going to fix it, whether you like it or not!" she added aggressively.

"...No. I don't mind."

The reply made Aya blush slightly. She did her work in silence.

The rain ceased, and the gray clouds started parting. The sky revealed rays and rays of sunlight that soon flooded the entire tennis garden. The birds started chirping and everything seemed back to normal.

"...There," Aya tied the final piece of cloth and smiled. She couldn't tell what he was doing because she couldn't look at him like before, and the silence was bothering her. "Y-you know..." she looked up at the new sky. "I hate the rain, but I really like the sky after it stops raining. Isn't that weird?" she laughed nervously. "Aha...you probably think I'm weird for saying this, but..."

She could tell that he was smiling also when he told her, "...That's what I like about you."

He got the better of her once again. She overreacted, "WHAT??!" and looked up.

Fuji had already gotten up. "Now...should we head back?" he held out his hand.

The sun illuminated his smiling face. Seeing his face made Aya want to smile too, for some reason. "Okay." She took his hand and they walked back to the courts together.

The girl named An was leaning against a tree, listening to their conversation. She gripped her hand tighter and whispered, "What are you thinking, Fuji...?"

Something was going to go wrong.

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"Syuusuke!" his sister ran up to him as soon as she saw him by the doorway. "How did the game go? Did Seishun win? It must've been a good game if you're all covered in so much mud and dirt..." she eyed him up and down, "And---what is that thing on your arm??"

She pointed at Fuji's wrapped arm. He said, "Ah, this? There was an accident."

"I can see that, but...whoever patched this up for you did a horrible job! Do you want me to fix it for you?"

"It's alright, Ne-san." Fuji bent down to take his shoes. "I wouldn't mind leaving it like this."

"Oh?" she stared in confusion at the light-haired boy walk up the stairs.

Fuji closed the door after him and leaned against it for a while. He studied his arm and brushed the lightly damp cloth against his cheek. He smiled.

"...Crooked back teeth, no sense of balance..."