Disclaimer- I don't own Prince of Tennis or the referee...

The referee had always loved tennis. He could never play well, but he could play. Kind of.
But he loved tennis, even if he didn't play well. Or play much, for that matter. He highly enjoyed watching tennis matches, be it up close or on the TV shouting at the players. He was a bit obsessed with Andre Agassi and Najiroh Echizen before they both retired, much to his displeasure.

When he was younger, he had went to Shitenhouji. Yes, Shitenhouji. Land of comedic people and very weird tennis players. Now, he knew that his senpai were amazing at tennis and longed to be part of the Regulars. But no, he was never able to make it and thus watched on the sidelines as they pummelled and got pummelled. Mainly pummelled by Rikkaidai because they were crazy tennis freaks that shouldn't exist.

But as he got older, he reasoned with himself that the tennis he saw in Middle School and High School were, of course, just a figment of his young imagination, as invisible balls, rackets on fire and blood on the courts wasn't logically possible. Because tennis wasn't that dangerous.

Compared to football, which his son was obsessed with. Blegh. Football.

And so, the young boy who was regularly awestruck by his senpai's entered the world of adults, where so many things were logicallized and normal. No crazy, out of the world tennis moves, just returns, smashes, lobs and drop shots.

Adults. Believing what was the most normal and most logical.

But still obsessed with tennis, even if it wasn't invisible balls or flaming rackets, he became a referee. As long as it was tennis, the fun game of hitting the ball back and forth, he'd be satisfied, as long as they didn't suck. So they had to be adults or teenagers almost turned into adults.

Watching kids trip was fun and all, but he wanted tennis.

The only things he felt and didn't show when his boss said he'd be refereeing middle schoolers were shock and exasperation.

Could he not enjoy his sophisticated, smooth tennis without being interrupted with kids that didn't understand the science and logic of tennis? Because frankly, he didn't want to deal with kids screaming illogical things about the match like, "The Invisible Serve!"

Really, he didn't.

But he went along with it, as boring as his first matches were.

Then he started seeing the bigger tennis schools. Hyotei, Shitenhouji, Seigaku, Rikkaidai, Rokkaku, Yamabuki. And the rough tennis of Higa and Fudomine.

Granted, he wasn't lucky enough to ref Rikkaidai or Shitenhouji until Nationals, but was able to ref Hyotei's game only on his fifth match.

Sure, he didn't believe that they were like tennis gods who could use unbelievable moves or amazingly professional tennis at such a young age, but it would prove more entertainment than his previous matches. Entertaining meaning entertaining to watch Hyotei's freshmen and entertaining as in more high-class tennis from Hyotei's upperclassmen.

God knows he didn't expect for Hyotei's freshmen to easily crush the other team.

Now, when our referee was younger, he really wanted to go to the King's school. Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Chuu. A mouthful, but an incredibly talented school that crushed everyone in their paths. And I mean crushed, as in panting on the ground crushed. And don't forget the part where they say, "This is the power of Rikkaidai...!"

But no, he got into the cheerful, comedic Shitenhouji who had their fair share of awesome tennis players, but not enough to defeat King Rikkaidai. Nope.

But he was content in his... Odd school.

It was really no use to describe the Hyotei vs What's-its-name match, as Hyotei had easily finished it at Singles 3.

Doubles was incredible for a school like this. The referee knew Hyotei was probably the second strongest after Rikkaidai, but he found out that like Rikkaidai, they had been taken over by freshmen too.

Atobe Keigo, the man- Um, the... rich, talented boy at the top of Hyotei, commanding everything and anything in the school to make it so incredibly perfect at his young age with amazing composure and confidence that was easily backed up by his skills, so no one could really say he was too arrogant, as he was just outstandingly honest.

Turns out he was the arrogant little brat that he thought was going to clean the courts with his butt. The referee had stared blankly at the kid, who had stared back at him, smirking, before saying the most infuriating thing he could to one of his elders.

"Ahn? It seems that this referee has been awed by Ore-sama's presence. As he should be."

The referee had stared blankly at the brat again, before turning back to what was supposed to happen. "Doubles Two for the Hyotei-Shinsei match, please come to the courts!"

"Oshitari, Mukahi. Show those commoners the power of Hyotei, na?" Atobe smirked, and pointed them into the directions of courts.

"Yeah, yeah Atobe." Mukahi said dismissively, walking towards the courts, Oshitari smirking before going after him.

Hyotei. Hyotei was never one of his choices for a school, simply because he thought it was full of prats, and he wasn't rich or 'high-class' enough to enter.

Ignore the brat. Ignore the brat. Ignore the brat-

"Referee, shouldn't you be watching the match? So incompetent."

Due to him playing a lot of Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright when he was a teenager and a young adult (Meaning he still played it) he fought the sudden urge to yell "OBJECTION!" and slap his face as the makeshift table.

"...Hyotei's Oshitari to serve!"

Needless to say, Hyotei was full of tennis freaks too. Also needless to say, they totally pummelled Shinsei.

Something that was needed to be said- Atobe was a monster at tennis. Nothing else. A relentless, cold, calculating tennis monster than figured out the way to destroy his opponent easily in a flashy way. Cueing all the screams from the fans.

"KYAAA, ATOBE-SAMA!"

"WAAH, IT'S THE HAMETSU NO RONDO! (Rondo Towards Destruction)"

Yes. Instead of the Invisible Serve screams, it had instead turned into Hametsu no Rondo screams.

The referee sighed and decided to just go to the flow of the little brats' tennis. Let's see what happens next, he told himself.

He never expected his life as a tennis referee to be like this, that's for sure.

Yays for fillers that turned into something else near the end? This chapter was originally a filler just to get some more people to understand the referee more, like his views on tennis and why he became a referee.

The chapter was originally too short, like 500 or 600 words. Fillers are often kind of short, but I just wanted it to be longer. So I put in a bit of Hyotei at the end. Just because I felt like it.

Plus I made a filler to get more votes on whether or not I should skip to Ryoma or drag through the first two years for two or three chapters, just explaining his reactions to Yukimura, Tezuka and such, and his slow understand of how they aren't normal middle schoolers. And the vague pairings and such, where you see hints here and there but the ref thinks it's just a close friendship.

Thank you for reviewing! I didn't expect this to be that popular, but it already has some reviews and follows, which I am very thankful for. I'll reply with PM's from time to time, but starting from this chapter, I'll be replying after the Author's Note at the bottom.

Thanks for reading! Please give some feedback.