Training Camp… Or Not
Disclaimer: I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!
Chapter summary: Well… It's practical canon that Rikkai are devil worshipers. Or so claims /some/ Hyoutei players. Science and myth is woven together and distorted when it comes to our darling Hyoutei and Rikkai boys. That is canon. Anyway… Practice is commencing normally. Or as normally as it can go with various…'influences'.
Warnings: Crack, OOC and shounen ai.
A/N: I'm officially back from HIATUS! Whee! -throws party- Ahem. Anyway…
Eek! I'm so sorry!!! -bows- Fanfiction dot net stuffed up again. I didn't start getting my reviews till past New Years. And for the reviews that I replied to… I don't know if they got sent or no. So if you asked me a question and I haven't gotten back to you, please, email me or something. I SWEAR that I'll get to you then. And another sad piece of news is that starting from now... I'll only be updating this once a week. :(
But the good thing? I've gotten another story up!!! Yup! I've taken a leaf out of Sandy's book and set another fic, way down the timeline of TCON. XD If you wanna read, just go and find Forfeits and Wagers.
Onto other news! OMG! I've hit 6000+ I'm so happy! Thank you to everyone who's been reading. And an even bigger thank you to everyone who's reviewed. I'm glad that TCON makes you happy!
For Sandy.
Chapter Fourteen: Science and Folklore
Finally, everyone had settled, somewhat, and thus the training commenced. Or so it seemed. For now, it was just simple skills that any first year could pull off. When the two teams grumbled, Atobe and Yukimura sent both glares and smiles their way. Sufficiently cowed, they started. However, chaos couldn't help but prey on these unsuspecting middle school students. Apart from one Niou Masaharu anyway.
Yukimura's fond gaze on the Trickster was of some slight surprise to Atobe. He could not comprehend why Yukimura didn't just do a little altar dance and summon the devil himself to smile on instead. In fact, Atobe was already sure that the entire Rikkai team worshipped the devil. Gakuto had already spoken of candles and makeshift altars that seemed to reside with Jackal.
//And here I thought /my/ team was insane… // Was Atobe's slightly haughty thought.
Unfortunately for Atobe, it is a well known phenomenon for insanity patients to think that they're normal.
Really. It's scientifically proven.
Yagyuu watched his doubles partner with slightly narrowed eyes as the silver-haired boy whistled a cheerful tune and spun his racquet around. Yagyuu's eyes narrowed even further when Niou pranced in front of him a little more. That little trick from before was going to cost the Trickster.
//He's just like a moving target. // Yagyuu mused thoughtfully and longed for those throwing knives that Niou had somehow stolen from him. Yagyuu's longing turned into something slightly more sinister. He couldn't wait to get back into his room and see which poison he could use in tonight's meal.
Niou was quite aware of Yagyuu's more than innocent gaze in his direction. He knew that his little game earlier had stirred up the Gentleman's less gentlemanly side but hey, it was no fun otherwise.
So therein lay his reason to prance around like a live target. Niou /wanted/ Yagyuu to get riled up. Niou /wanted/ Yagyuu to want revenge. Then Niou will simply manipulate things to his advantage and find himself a nice padlocked room, preferably with a bed and Choutarou in it, and hide away.
A pause. Maybe Akaya as well. And Niou was sure Yukimura would be more than willing for the chance at his new game. A smirk lit his face and he rubbed his hands together. A horde of irate… 'partners' chasing after him. What could make life more perfect? Apart from actually acquiring those frogs he ordered of course.
He smiled at Choutarou who just /happened/ to be facing him with Shishido, the younger boy flushed and smiled hesitantly back. Turning to the side, Niou gave Yukimura a covert grin which the violet-haired boy returned with a genial wave of a hand. //Thank /you/ buchou. //
Marui looked a little glumly across the net at his practice partner. Jirou wasn't slumbering anymore. Instead he was doing a strange parody of the River Dance without the tapping.
"Muffle…muffle…SUGOI!" Every now and again, a single cry would get the better of Jirou and escape into the cool afternoon air.
"Muffle…muffle…MARUI!" Marui himself sighed and hit the ball back lightly to the now obviously hyper boy across the net.
"Muffle…muffle…SUGE!" Jirou bounced forward to intercept the ball.
Marui wanted the training to end. Now.
Yanagi glared, still closed eye, at Kabaji. "Kabaji, I see that we're going to be practice partners for today."
"Usu."
"Then…" Mustering all of his dignity, which wasn't a jolly lot, Yanagi drew himself up to his full height, positively miniscule compared to Kabaji, and proceeded to state in his most imperious tone, "Do something intelligent!"
Kabaji blinked, but that was about it.
A slightly irritated sounding voice drawled from the bench where Atobe and Yukimura decided to live, "Hmm… Yanagi, I hate to tell you this, but ore-sama has had that talking tone copyrighted. Unless you want a law suit, I suggest you abandon it immediately."
Yanagi just might have opened his eyes a fraction. Maybe. Or it was just an optical illusion. Anyway, he fell silent and into thought once more. A bright idea entered his head. Atobe had only said /talking tone/. There had been nothing mentioned about /singing imperiously/. A smile, which brought shame on dorky smiles everywhere, appeared on his face. The Rikkai data master drew in a deep breath and sung.
"What is that hideous screeching?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing to cover their ears to protect themselves from the onslaught of audible torture.
"Is this the newest weapon invented to man?" Gakuto asked Oshitari curiously. They were two of the four who were running laps, quite a distance away from the actual courts. Hiyoshi and Jackal made up the remaining two.
The two of them had been given laps for 'attempting to cause more havoc'. Hiyoshi was given laps for 'stalking Kirihara' who apparently had developed a sudden sixth sense where Hyoutei players were concerned. As for Jackal… Well, Jackal appeared to be running for the sake of running.
The Hyoutei tensai looked completely serious. "The audio bomb. I've heard about it. Supposedly, it has more impact than an atomic one. They've dubbed it 'the deadliest bomb of this century. Consists of screeching fit for a banshee."
"Ah…"
Hiyoshi muttered under his breath. Random things such as 'pretty', 'roommate' and of course, 'gekokujou' could have been heard if you were close enough.
The 'roommate' was obvious Sanada. The 'gekokujou' had to be about Atobe. The 'pretty'? Well… Hiyoshi could have just been muttering about those pretty flowers scattered about the outside of the court. But in Hiyoshi-land, anything goes.
Jackal eyed Hiyoshi who was running slightly ahead of him still muttering full speed. A slow smile spread across the Rikkai boy's face as he casually noted a chance for more mayhem. Stretching out his long legs, Jackal overtook the Hyoutei second year with ease and proceeded to distance himself from Hiyoshi.
An outraged sound came from behind as Hiyoshi made up for his daydreaming and steamrolled Jackal. Or at least he tried to.
Jackal waited until the last moment and then stepped to one side. Off balance and going too fast, Hiyoshi tripped over the foot that Jackal had 'accidentally' left sticking out and went sprawling in the dust.
Pleased, the Rikkai defense master surveyed his handiwork and nodded. Whistling a cheerful tune, Jackal continued on his way with occasional snatches of song floating back to a fuming Hiyoshi sitting on the ground.
"Gekokujou daze… Tsu…bu…se…"
Hiyoshi decided that Jackal had to move up one space on Shishido's to-kill-list. And tonight was going to be the best time to do it. An evil smile overtook the normally 'normal' second year's face. Oh… revenge would feel so sweet.
Sanada glared. Then he scowled. Finally he glared and scowled together. Then…
Akaya's attention span ran out at that point as he yawned and lobbed the ball back at his fukubuchou.
"Ne, ne Sanada fukubuchou? Why are we stuck out here doing all of these /boring/ training exercises?" He whined and pouted. Akaya didn't like being confined to doing these… /childish/ things. He wanted to be playing a game, preferably in a sandbox, with his beloved buchou.
It was then that a screech sounded. And sounded again. And didn't stop.
Sanada caught the tennis ball and propped his racquet back against his shoulder. His expression was of bewilderment. Or close to it as his scowl would allow. "What /is/ that?"
Akaya used the chance to flop down onto the court and drop his racquet. Neither he nor Sanada seemed particularly bothered by the noise. Akaya because he had a high tolerance and Sanada because… well… Let's just say that Sanada in song was significantly less pleasant.
A sentence of the weirdly pitched screaming became audible to Kirihara.
To everyone close by and not previously exposed to this type of racket it sounded something like: "Shriek… Screeeeeech! Scream, scream… Screet, screep, YODA!"
To the entire Rikkai Dai team it was just noise.
However, to Kirihara, Sanada and most likely Yukimura, it went something along the lines of this: "Kabaji… I insist! That you start… Getting some ATTITUDE!"
"Oh. It's Yanagi-senpai…" The junior ace blinked and lay down comfortably on the court.
Sanada leveled another glare, this time in Akaya's direction instead of Atobe's. "I /knew/ that." The normally stoic fukubuchou barely stopped a sniff of disdain in time. As if anyone could mistake that 'singing' for anything else.
Akaya turned to him with a sly expression, "Say, Fukubuchou… Do you sound any better?"
Sanada knew better than to answer to that. He stared forwards with no expression at all.
Atobe, who sat only a couple of meters away on the bench directly behind Sanada and Akaya's court, watched with interest. He posed a question to the ever helpful Yukimura, "Has Sanada been taking lessons?"
Yukimura's pleased smile was wide, "Of course. From Tezuka no less."
Atobe nodded and then winced when the screeching became slightly unbearable. "Do you have /any/ decent sounding singers in your team?"
Quickly, as if he didn't want to offend, Atobe added, "Of course, it's just as a precaution. My team has sensitive hearing. Sometimes, a slight warning before hand…" Trailing off, Atobe and Yukimura exchanged a loaded look.
Yukimura smiled, looking away and a small glint of evilness showed.
Therefore, it was no accident that Atobe heard Yukimura's next murmured words, "When in the showers, it's not Renji who you need to look out for."
"Oh?"
"It's Sanada."
"Oh."
XD To those of you who picked up the musical reference, I couldn't help but put that in. Don't get me wrong… I think that Hiyoshi's 'Gekokujou' song is one of the best! It rocks. And completely describes him to a T. It's just so… HIM.
To those of you who haven't watched the musicals… What are you waiting for? oO; It's totally like the best thing since Tenipuri. Hahaha. Seriously. It's got everything my story has except for that it just proves that some relationships are /canon/!
-coughsilverpaircough-
Anyway. I'm really sorry about the overtly long hiatus that I've been on. I've decided to take one every thirteen chapters. So it means that this is going to be a fairly long fic. I'm currently looking at least 45 chapters to cover everything I need.
Comments, reviews and any suggestions or requests are more than welcome! Who knows… You just might see them appear somewhere in this fic. Or others. XD