Glass 8: Convincing St. Rudolph
It was February 15th, three days before Yuuta's birthday, and at St. Rudolph, the Rudolphian regulars were practicing as usual. And Mizuki wasn't there again, but that was no surprise either. But the Rudolphian regulars didn't know that Mizuki wasn't at practice because he was meeting Inui at the nearest Starbucks. Shall we see what their doing? Wait… That's not an option.
"Let me get this straight. You've created a juice you believe will enhance people's tennis abilities, but to make sure it works you want to use my team as your test subjects/lab rats? No offence, but there's something fishy about this," Mizuki inquired. Then he took a sip of his tea that probably had more sugar then was needed in it.
Inui adjusted his glasses and frown solemnly before explaining, "This is a once in a lifetime offer. If you really don't want to try it then I can always asked Shitenhouji or Higa Chuu. I'm sure they wouldn't mind trying, but I thought you would take up the offer. It would more convenient to collect data about what is happening and I can come to help your team faster."
Then he coughed suspiciously and fiddled with, er sipped from his cup of probably really bitter coffee and adjusted his glasses again. Mizuki ignored these like the dunce he was because he was weighing the pros and cons of his team being lab rats. On one hand his team might gain improved tennis skills, but on the other hand his team could be dead within a week, or have some other tennis hindering side effect.
Finally after much deliberation with himself and thoughtfulness, but not really because Mizuki is an evil manager no matter how you look at it, Mizuki accepted Inui's offer. When it came right down to it, he really didn't care much about his team's well being as long as they beat the other team. He probably though he wouldn't have to drink it.
So Inui, fully expecting Mizuki to agree (it was a 95 percent chance Inui had muttered to himself), handed over an extremely concentrated batch that he'd probably made a few months earlier. Mizuki grinned evilly and walk leisurely back to the courts where his teammates practiced.
He really wanted to try out the juice, but decided that he'd wait until after Yuuta's birthday as a weird gift to the team. You know… One of those super dangerous belated birthday gifts that was probably guaranteed to harm them in someway.
Meanwhile, around the time when Mizuki was deliberating what to do with Inui's offer, Yuuta's cell phone rang. He checked the number and sighed; it was his brother, again.
"Moshi? Aniki again, right? What do you want this time?" He paused to listen to Fuji's response. "Yes, I know it's almost my birthday. I don't have amnesia," Yuuta grumbled sarcastically. He waited for another response from Fuji.
"I-Inui juice?! Why are you bringing that up now of all times?" Another pause.
"What? He's probably meeting with whom? Who's Makazu?" Yet another pause.
"Oh you mean Mizu-... Wait, WHAT?! What do you mean Aozu?! That can't be right!!" Yuuta shouted causing his teammates to give him weird looks.
"Who are you talking to, Yuuta, dane?" Yanagisawa asked. He was standing closest to Yuuta and tried to poke him. Yuuta glared at him and kinda leaned away from him.
Atsushi walked over and asked, "What's Aozu?"
Yuuta ignored him as well and moved out of the tennis practice area towards the dorms all while still listening to his brother speaking.
"Well yeah, I've gotten away from my teammates for the time being. I should be able to speak 'properly,' why?" Yuuta asked in a confused and slightly bewildered tone.
Since he was in his room now and was lucky enough to not have a roommate for the year, Yuuta had put Fuji on speaker.
"Saa, finally. What took you so long to get away? Don't answer that. I'm thinking of joining the Anti-Inui Juice club that Saeki told me about. For the past few months they've been working on getting and have finally gotten tabs on Inui. Just a few minutes ago, Oshitari alerted me that Inui is striking again," Fuji said cheerfully.
"You make him sound like an evil mastermind... Or at least a criminal. And shouldn't you have said 'has struck again?" Yuuta asked.
"No mistakes. He is striking, right this moment and may already be finished meeting with his latest victim. He's targeting your teammates, Yuuta," Fuji stated bluntly.
"So let me get this straight. Inui is testing his latest sample of Aozu on rival teams because he doesn't want you guys to suffer after winning nationals a few months ago and wants to leave good impressions on the students as he leaves. He's already struck at Hyotei, Rikkaidai, and Rokkaku and is slowly making his juices know through out Japan's middle school tennis teams. And now he's targeting my team?" Yuuta summarized. On the other line, Fuji wanted to run to St. Rudolph and smack his brother for being slow.
"Yes Yuuta, that's absolutely right. Is it too hard to believe?" He said sarcastically.
"So what should I do, assuming this isn't one of your birthday pranks?" Yuuta said, ignoring Fuji's sarcasm completely.
Fuji laid out his plan. If the plan worked not only would Inui be hindered, the AIJC would have more time to band together and stop Inui's evil rein from reaching other schools. But on the down side, if the plan failed it may take longer for the AIJC to unite, giving Inui more time to 'test' ("More like conquer and destroy," Yuuta muttered) other schools.
The plan itself was quite straight forward. Yuuta was to play along with evil power hungry Mazaki ("You mean Mizuki, Aniki," Yuuta corrected.) until he tried to get his teammates to try the juice. He'd wait until at least one teammate drinks it and walk towards the restroom saying he needed to go to the restroom. Instead he would call the number Fuji provided and the AIJC would hopefully come to his aid.
If his teammates went zombie, he was to catch the next bus home or run away. The plan relied mostly on Yuuta's luck and his dependability in dangerous situations. All that was left was for Yuuta to return to practice and act like everything was normal.
"Geez, I always end up doing weird things," Yuuta muttered. He wanted to go to a normal school with a normal tennis team and people that didn't call him Fuji's little brother all the time, but no… He was stuck in a school with a duck, a power hungry manager, and a… really weird captain on his team.
Maybe next year I'll transfer back to Seigaku. The only person that calls me "Fuji's little brother" is Ryoma, but he's probably playing around. Yuuta thought.
When he got back on the courts, Mizuki was there looking normal and devious. Maybe Fuji really was playing another prank, but Mizuki's absence and his now devious smile convinced Yuuta that something might be going on. He was going to have to watch out for large containers of bubbling blue liquids.
Gomen, nya…!
Sorry if I took too long with the previous chapter, I was having fun slacking off and playing videogames. I'll work harder to update more often.
If someone could help me out a bit, I'm not very familiar with Yamabuki, Higa Chuu, and Shitenhouji regulars. While I'd like to put them in this fanfic, it's rather difficult to write about characters you don't know much about. Hahahaha…