Well, it's that time again. No, it's not Christmas! It's the time that happens every time I post a new chapter. I bore you all with this annoying little author's note that no one really reads. It doesn't bother me, though, I don't care about whether people pay attention to my ramblings or not, it's the story that is important to me and the reason I write this author's note every time. I don't enjoy it, but it needs to be done. So, if anyone is reading this, I'm sorry it took me so long to post this chapter and, for those that review, please tell me what you think about the sequel I plan to make. I'm excited about writing it, but I don't plan to let it effect my finishing this one properly. I don't know when this will end anyway, but I don't see it happening all that soon. Still, tell me what you think about a sequel (Or perhaps it is a prequel, since most of it takes place before Shia's time) about Kiri and her life. I think it will be interesting. As always, please review, I love reading the reviews.
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It was time. Cara let out a breath, and then quickly sucked more air in. She closed her eyes, concentrated on the task ahead and then opened her eyes again, set, determined. She began to hum as she glanced to her partner, Aine. Aine nodded; her face emotionless. They walked out onto the courts.
"First match, Number two doubles to the net!" The announcer blared, and Cara and Aine did so, shaking hands with their competition. "Seishun-- Safflower, Mitoshi pair. Murotoseigaoka-- Gakio, Shinzo pair." (Another random team, but, yes, it is a real one that I found browsing through the manga (Volume 7, Page 172.1, the bracket sheet)) Cara picked up on her humming, beginning the song 'Freckles'. (Disclaimer- don't own song. DDR, I think, there's a different version in Rurouni Kenshin to.) Gakio sneered at her while her partner seemed more interested in Aine.
"Why are you so serious? Scared?" she asked, "Trying to hide fear, maybe?" Aine tipped her head slightly to one side and blinking once. "Playing innocent!" Shinzo laughed out loud, "Too cute! I can't believe you're a Seishun starter!"
"Come on, Aine," Cara said and her sempai followed her to the baseline, Shinzo's laughter followed.
"The best of one set match! Seishun's Safflower Aine to serve!" The referee announced and Cara promptly passed the game ball to her partner. Aine's face stayed straight as she bounced the neon ball once, then twice. A third time the ball came up to her hand and she tossed it up into the air. She served it without making a sound and Shinzo moved to return it. At the last moment the ball curved in mid-air and Shinzo missed. "15-love!"
"Liquid serve," Aine said simply and the Murotoseigaoka pair looked stunned. Cara smiled.
'She doesn't give any outward signs, but she hates it when they underestimate her. Interesting.' she thought to herself and Kiri nodded from the bench. Cara turned to Aine with the smile still on her face, "Let's finish this quick."
"W-what is she!" Shinzo asked, but her captain only smiled.
"Oh, that's right; you're both new aren't you?" She asked, clearly amused, "That is Aine Safflower, a ninth grader at Seishun and a real genius when it comes to serves. At last count there were 154 in her arsenal."
"1-154!" Gakio exclaimed, only to hear laughter coming for behind her. On the other side of the fence Canti couldn't seem to control herself.
"Those are last year's numbers," she informed them when she had finally settled, "Now she's at 206. You need to keep up." The two players looked half amazed and half in terror as they turned back to face a still solemn Aine, who was once again bouncing the ball. The game would end 6-love, with the Murotoseigaoka girls never scoring a point.
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'I'm going to kill Canti. I'm going to kill Canti, I'm going to-' Shia continued the chant in her head as she leaned back against the hard wooden bench, watching the twins dominate completely in number one doubles. 'Kill, kill, kill-' Yes, she was a reserve. She couldn't stand knowing that they were all getting to play but her, even if she had gone through years when all she could do was watch. Kiri gave her a disapproving look and she sat up, forcing herself to think of something other then killing Canti. She knew it was probably her body language that Kiri disapproved of, but it never hurt to be careful when your captain was like Kiri Yamatashi.
'There's a good reason for it,' she assured herself, 'Canti is a real genius, she wouldn't do anything out of spite or on a whim.' Still, she had trouble not thinking of all the ways she could get back at her sempai. She soon saw why when, after the twins had won, 6-0, not Christine or Raina, but Kiri stepped onto the court. They were going to finish it quickly. Very quickly.
Shia hadn't realized before that she had never seen Kiri play. 'She's the captain,' Shia reasoned, 'so obviously she's the best, but maybe it's just because she's been a starter longest?' Shia shook her head, 'No, this is Seishun; that kind of hierarchy doesn't matter here.' Shia observed the crowd, it had gone silent the moment Kiri had picked up her racket. 'And her opponent?' She was shaking; it was obvious that she was unnerved at the unexpected turn which left her facing Seishun's captain. Shia could almost hear her thoughts, 'Why! Why couldn't I have just played the seventh grader!' Shia smirked, knowing that she wouldn't have gone easy on her anyway. Kiri seemed to know her opponent's thoughts as well, as she steadily shook her hand and the judge announced the names of the players.
Kiri smiled in her strange way, which was clearly the only way she knew, in a sad attempt to lighten the player's mood, but succeeded only in making her shake harder. Kiri shrugged; apparently she didn't care enough to try more than once. She turned, moving to the baseline, and bounced the ball twice before serving. Shia hardly saw it. In fact, she probably wouldn't have seen the ball at all if she hadn't been able to use her photographic memory to play it again and again, searching for the ball's path. 'If it's this hard for me,' she realized, 'then that poor girl must have no idea what just happened.' The judge seemed to be in the same predicament, hesitating before calling out the score as 15-love. Kiri didn't slow her pace, the first game ended as a rain of aces; the Murotoseigaoka girl had no chance.
"Amazing," Cara muttered, "No matter how many times I see it, it never fails to amaze me."
"This isn't all that much," Raina reminded her, "Not for Kiri. We hardly get to see anything of Kiri's skill anymore. She holds it all back." Canti sighed.
"Ninety-two percent chance all of Kiri's serves this game will be aces, eighty-nine percent chance she will break her opponents serve every time," she said, her data-green eyes glazed over slightly, "two percent chance of the opponent getting a point of her, and ninety-five percent chance that this match will end in…" she glanced at her watch, "one minute and fifteen seconds." True to her predictions, the match ended in little over a minute (nobody timed to be sure, but they all knew Canti was right on the fifteen seconds part) and her opponent had failed to score even one point against Kiri. Seishun was on to the next round.
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"Umm, sooo…" for once she couldn't think of anything to say. Shira grinned through the upstairs window. It was about time she got to see this: Sharr actually struggling with something. She thought about sending her sister some advice, but Sharr had put a wall up between their minds and there was no penetrating it. Shira decided that that might actually work in her best interest; she could tail her without her knowing she was there by her thoughts. She turned back to the window, happy to see that they hadn't left while she was deep in thought.
"Look," Momo was saying, "I'm not sure where to go, so why don't you choose?" Shira knew immediately what her sister would say and was almost tempted to say it with her.
"Ice skating!" She exclaimed, looking much like a small child, "Can we go ice skating?" Momo blushed slightly, avoiding her eyes.
"I-I don't see why not…" he said and Sharr smiled.
'Bravo,' Shira thought, 'you're getting her to show her true colors.' She glanced across the room at Sharr's bed, which was hardly visible under a mess of stuffed animals. (That's right folks; Sharr is the girly one at heart, whereas Shira is scheming, remember?) She wanted to laugh again, any one walking in would think that was her bed, and the plain one with only one old rabbit was Sharr's. Just shows what they knew. She turned back to the window, then a shocked look passed over her face, Momo had his bike! What was worse, Sharr was getting on the pegs! Sharr hated bicycles, so neither of them even had one! 'How did he convince her to ride with him? More importantly, how will I keep up!' her mind was in a frenzy, and she took off down the stairs, and was out the front door before Momo even got onto the bike.
"Hi!" she said, smiling, "You guys are going into town, right? Can I come with you that far? I need to pick something up for mom." Sharr looked suspicious, but Momo grinned.
"Sure," he said, "but that means we'll have to walk, I can't fit all three of us on this bike." Shira smiled.
"I really hope that doesn't make me a burden," she said innocently.
"No," Sharr replied quickly, "That's alright. I, at least, don't mind walking."
"It's okay with me," Momo assured her.
'Thank you,' Sharr said, her colors a mix of light pastels symbolizing her gratitude. She hadn't wanted on the bike after all. Shira had figured as much.
'Anything at all for you, dear sister,' Shira said, careful to send only sincere colors in her sister's direction as they headed into town.
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Bonus Chapter: Data Eyes
"If you just--" someone pushed her out of the way. "If you--" another shove to quiet her. It was enough, she understood. They weren't going to listen to her, not with her being so young. Still, she wasn't one to give up and approached the tennis player again. "Listen," she said, "I watched you warm up for your next match and I think that if you adjusted your--" The player sighed and pushed her hard on the shoulders.
"Look," she said, "I'm not gonna take no crap from a grade schooler about my playing style! You don't know nothin', kid, nothin'," she said, "Now get lost!" The girl looked like she might strike the younger girl, but at that moment someone intervened.
"Stop that," the team captain's voice was as commanding as any the girl had ever heard. This was her hero; this was the person she wanted to play tennis under someday, when she got into middle school; the great captain of Gyokurin Junior High's tennis team. She was looking out for her now, this was a dream come true. The captain continued lecturing her player, "If you had actually hit her, you might have been called on it, forcing up out of the tournament." She turned to the girl, who had frozen. She doesn't really care about my well-being… "Leave my players alone, you half-pint distraction." She struggled to move for a moment and then ran, tears shining in her eyes.
She hadn't calculated this. She had looked kept everything else at face-value, but her emotions had gotten the better of her this time. She had been so sure that the captain was as great a person as she was a player, a fatal miscalculation. I've been a fool, she realized, the small fifth graders shoulders still shaking even as she tried to wipe the tears away. She knew very well that tears wouldn't make it better; they would only make it worse in fact, seeing the situation. She tried to force herself to stop, with mixed results. Her eyes still red, she headed to wear the players warmed up.
The practice courts nearly empty except for two girls, who were hitting a ball back and forth in a fast, but steady rhythm. As she always did, the girl analyzed the situation and the players with her deep green eyes, so rare in Japan. 94 percent chance the smaller girl will miss if she doesn't twist her feet. She didn't want her to miss, the rally was intriguing, so she shouted out her advice.
The girl glanced at her once and then executed the advice just in time to return the ball at a higher velocity than before. Her partner, as if through some unknown communication, caught the ball, and the girl didn't even glance at her before heading towards the grade school girl.
"Thank you," she said a smile on her face. At least, it seemed to be a smile, the young girl could never really explain it, but it was somehow… twisted. "For the advice."
She was truly amazed now. Not only had this older player executed her advice, she had credited her on it by thanking her. She was definitely not an average player. The girl muttered 'you're welcome' and watched as the older girl walked past her and towards the playing courts.
"Yes thank you," her partner said, walking up with her racket over her shoulder, "Kiri seems too good sometimes; it's good to see her get corrected." She didn't seem to notice, or care, about the girl's age affecting the matter.
"You're welcome," she said, then thought, Kiri, glad to have a name to go along with the strange character. Then she thought about it, that girl, Kiri, couldn't have been older than seventh grade. Seventh graders simply weren't in a position to go to the playing courts or use the practice courts. "Where was she going?"
"Hmm? Oh, she's playing in the number one singles match," she said, chuckling, "Rare to see a seventh grade starter, eh?" The girl was dumbstruck, this simply wasn't done. She forced herself to recover, as the older girl continued. "Hey, I just thought of something! We play for Seishun and the team needs a manager, are you interested?"
"Do you have the authority to give a fifth grader that job?" the girl asked, skeptic.
"'Never let someone despise you for your youth.' I'm Nira Shinta, the captain of Seishun's tennis team; I believe that gives me the power to volunteer anyone I want for that job. You've got Data Eyes, kid, I've seen 'em before," she said, raising her chin, and holding her hand out for the girl to shake. "Now, what's your name, Manager?"
The girl smiled wider then she had in some time, lifting her chin to show her own pride, and took the captain's hand in confidence, shaking it, "I'm Canti. My name is Canti Hikaru."