Furious.
Zakuro felt impossibly furious on the confrontation she just had with Dr. Kate. She didn't know why the latter would even care of what she does. There's only one rational thought that Zakuro could think of. Dr. Kate is in love with Tezuka. But of course, she immediately dismissed the thought. Her instincts know better, and Kate's reason, for whatever it was, has nothing to do with romance. Maybe she's relying too much on her instincts. But who cares? The point is, Kate is acting out of the ordinary. That at least she can tell, and it's freaking her out.
After grabbing her things in their classroom, Zakuro immediately went to the club, and changed to her practice attire. She felt like she's ready to destroy all things within her reach, and make sure that they'll end up in some trash sites out of the city. Zakuro could still feel the wild beating of her heart, and nothing as of the moment is helping her ebb the rage she feels.
It was too much, she knew. But she can't help it. She didn't grew up in an environment that upheld all the virtuous qualities people would expect from a person. Unfortunate, maybe. But she really doesn't care.
"Aya, go down in Court D." Zakuro commanded her teammate via phone call.
"What? It's still 45 minutes before practice."
"You'll go down here, or I'll fetch you up there."
"Eh?..Wait..Did you even ask permission from Yuka?"
"You have 5 minutes."
...and the line went dead.
Aya, a 2nd year tennis regular, just shook her head. It's a disaster when Zakuro's not in the mood. It has always been. And today? Well today just happened to be one of those 'lucky' days. She sighed and gathered her things up.
"Amane was looking for you." Tezuka said without batting an eye at Fuji.
They were in the library and were doing their 'individual' businesses, though Tezuka suspected that Fuji has nothing to do in there than to simply come along. Such was evident on how the blue-eyed boy was gloriously staring at Tezuka, who in turn was acting as if he was on a different world, surely taking his time at reading a history book, which Fuji found boring.
"And?" the tensai probed, eyes still pinned on 'his' captain.
"And she ended up in the clinic instead."
Fuji smiled; the type of smile that always draws Tezuka away from what he was doing and just look back at Fuji.
"Fascinating. I never thought finding me would require so much effort enough to send one at Dr. Kate's."
Tezuka raised a brow.
"You're fascinated with her bad luck?"
"Sort of."
"You're impossible." Tezuka said with a frown.
Fuji answered him with another smile. - so lovely to Tezuka's liking.
"Fortunately you're not the reason why I brought her there. She looked...not so well."
This time, it was Fuji's turn to raise a brow. He's surprised at the obvious uncertainty on his captain's voice. Well Tezuka's always sure about almost everything. He just thought it's so unusual to hear him sound 'not so sure' this time.
"You're worried." Fuji commented.
"If it affects the team, I think I should be." Tezuka replied.
Fuji once again smile. One which Tezuka didn't like. He thought it was a bit...sarcastic.
"I have the feeling that we should be heading now for practice...I'm not in the mood for lapses, Tezuka-buchou.."
The stoic captain just nodded in agreement.
If there's such thing as a massacre inside a tennis court in one tennis match, Aya would have to agree that she's the very first victim.
A love game against her in a matter of 10 minutes is unimaginable, even if you say that it's Zakuro, the 2nd rank in the team, whom she's having a game with. Aya knew for long that Zakuro has always been better than her in tennis, but she's also aware of the fact that their skills are not that far from each other. That`s exactly the point why she is no. 3 in their team. She has always made sure that her skills would not be left out by the two strongest female tennis players in Seigaku.
Yet there she was, hopelessly lying on the tennis grounds, trying her best to have the most unimaginable tennis defeat of her life sink into her consciousness. It was totally a shame.
"Ne, Aya...until when are you planning to lie in there?"
"Until I get back my strength, monster." she mocked.
Zakuro smirked.
"I could drag you if you`d like. Just say it."
"Shut up, Amane." Aya retorted as she slowly stood up.
They laughed at each other and threw more teasing and mockery about their own follies, until an all too familiar voice broke of the atmosphere.
"Would anyone care to explain what`s going on here?"
Aya and Zakuro turned towards the owner of the voice almost immediately. They don`t need any confirmation to know that Yuka was not in the best of moods either. Such was evident on her face and tone of voice. Aya staggered as she stood up.
"Buchou...we..."
"Some warm-ups...before the practice.." Zakuro interrupted.
"Yes...warm-ups.." Aya confirmed with a nervous smile though she knew their captain didn`t took the excuse.
Yuka looked at them both from head to foot, and for some reasons, Aya felt guilty...and stupid. She swallowed hard. She felt overwhelmed at Yuka`s talent of making people feel like criminals with just a stare.
`Scary..` she thought.
"50 laps after practice." Yuka said before leaving them and going across the other side of the court to do her routine follow-up of activities.
The other regulars and members of the team has started to arrive. Zakuro winked at Aya, and ignored the confused stares of some of their teammates, who obviously had the slightest idea of what had happened.
"I shouldn`t have agreed to you after all.." Aya muttered with a sigh.