A/N:
Susan22: I haven't actually decided yet whether or not there will be pairings. I'll see first how the story develops and then decide if I want to include it or not but I don't know where this story is going yet. Sorry I don't have a more definite answer about the pairings. I'll let all of you know when I know.
Chapter 3
Ugh I groan as I turn my alarm clock off and wake up. It's the day they find out that I'm back, the day they find out just what a bored Echizen Ryoma can do. I normally hate waking up early, but I think I'll make an exception to this. Ryuuzaki-sensei was right; the look on their faces when they see me again, is something definitely not to be missed. I get off my bed, get dressed, eat my breakfast, and head off to school. I try to avoid getting anywhere near the tennis courts, no one should see me, practice should have started 20 minutes ago. I enter the school and spot Ryuuzaki-sensei coming out of her office, I call her name out as she turns and faces me. "Echizen, you're late." "Che. At least I'm here. Are we going or what." I say as we both make our way to the courts. She tells me to hang back a bit out of sight, while she gathers everyone together. I guess she really wants this to be a surprise.
I can see her entering the court and calls everyone together to make her announcement. "Listen up everyone! I've got good news! There's been a new transfer student to the school and I've asked him to become your new trainer. He'll be working mainly with the regulars but he may have some pointers for the non-regulars depending on if he feels like it. So all of you work hard. Now all of you have to listen to him. I've given him full control over all of your training regimens. So basically, you have to do whatever he says, at least when it comes to tennis." There was uproar on the court as soon as she finished her sentence. Many of the third years and some second years offended that they had to be trained by someone their age, while many of the first years were just whispering amongst themselves wondering whom this person could be. "ENOUGH!" ordered Tezuka in his loud and commanding voice as I hear him say to Ryuuzaki-sensei "sensei, why wasn't I informed of this?" Yes, I have exceptionally good hearing.
"Oh…" she said, "...I just found out yesterday, besides I thought this would be much more entertaining if you found out this way." as she chuckled at the thought. "Now without further ado..." she continued on "...I'll introduce you to your new trainer." As her head turned towards the entrance, so did everyone else's eyes.
I guess this was my cue, as I stood from my spot and headed towards the court. As soon as I enter the court I hear gasps of surprise and shock. I took literally five steps on to the court when I was suddenly pushed to the ground and a heavy body sat atop me. "OCHIBI!" screamed Kikumaru-senpai as Oishi-senpai thankfully pried him off of me. "Itai." I say softly as I pull myself up off of the ground rubbing the back of my head. However, as soon as I stand up I find that same said person who pushed me to the ground is clingingly tightly to me in one of his death "glomps" screaming "OCHIBI! Your Back! Your Back! Finally! Now we're all together again!!" I could faintly hear him say as everything began to get blurry and my legs began to weaken. "Eiji!! Get off of him! He's turning blue! You'll suffocate him." Said Oishi-senpai as he once again pried his doubles partner off of me. "A-Arigatou oishi-senpai" I coughed out trying to regain my breath as Kikumaru-senpai grinned sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and apologized. I'm finally able to catch my breath when I'm put into a headlock by none other than Momo-senpai. "Echizen!" he exclaimed, "How come you didn't say you were coming back! We would've given you a welcome back party and greeted you at the airport!" "Che" I say, "That's exactly why I never said anything. Besides. I just caught my breath after one of Kikumaru-senpai's death glomps so can you let go of me." I say as his hold over my neck loosens. Now that that's done with, I can finally breath.
"Ii new data, new data." I heard Inui-senpai mutter as he began to scribble furiously through his notebook. "Echizen," he says as he closes his notebook and glares down at me. Yes, I may have grown but so has he. Apparently, I'm still the shortest among them. "I see your milk diet has worked. You now stand at 5 feet 8 inches tall." I know as I grin inwardly, but I'm still shorter than all of you. "Nya! Ochibi's taller now! But he's still shorter so he's still an Ochibi!" Kikumaru-senpai says excitedly while jumping up and down. I scowl at his remark while the others simply chuckle.
"Echizen" says a voice behind me. I know who it is. "buchou." I say as I turn around to greet him. "Welcome back, but I'm not your buchou anymore, you're our trainer."
"Heh" I say as a grin spreads across my face while the others look back and forth from me to Fuji-senpai, apparently noticing the slight similarities. With all the excitement and crushing me to death, it had slipped my mind and apparently it did with the others as well as they all began to process what the captain had just said with shocked looks on their faces.
"Saa, you're right. So what would you like me to call you then? Tezuka-san, Tezuka-kun, or how about … Ku-ni-mit-su." I say emphasizing every part of his name. I smile triumphantly as I catch a slight blush adorn his face as I hear the click of a shutter behind me. I turn around and Fuji-senpai seems to have the same smile as me, as he waves his camera indicating he just captured Tezuka's blush on camera.
"Fujiko! Let me see. Let me see," says Kikumaru-senpai as he makes his way over to where Fuji is. "Kya! Tezuka-buchou's blushing!"
"Kikumaru!" says Tezuka as Kikumaru-senpai immediately stands straighter and begins to behave before he gets Tezuka upset anymore than he already has.
"Echizen." He says to me warningly
"What…" I begin to say but stay silent since he hasn't told me what he wants me to call him yet. However, it seems he didn't understand since he still continues to stand there silently and stare at me, expecting me to continue.
"You never said what you want me to call you. So either say something or I could continue calling you Ku-ni-mit-su" I say with a smile, indicating my amusement with the whole thing. I also note a slight chuckle being emitted from Fuji-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai. However, from what I can gather from the glare that Tezuka's throwing my way, it seems he's slightly less than amused by the whole situation as he sighs and says
"Tezuka will be fine."
"Hai, Tezuka" I say as I laugh inwardly. I knew this would cure my endless boredom.
I turn around still amused by the whole thing as I am surrounded by an onslaught of greetings from the team. It seems most of the members at Seigaku middle school had come to the high school and joined here as well. The freshman trio is here, and so are Arai and his friends. Horio is in fact right beside me screaming something about his now 5 years of experience and something about beating me. I'm not sure; I tuned him out after he said 5 years of experience. I begin to tune everyone else out as I hear a loud cough coming from behind the crowd.
As they all turn around we see that it's Ryuuzaki-sensei, who is smiling happily. Seems she found the whole ordeal amusing as well. "Now that you've all greeted him, can we now move on to introducing him to the others who haven't met him before." she says, as we notice the few people who are still standing in their place.
"Hai" they all say as they run back to their place before the captain and the coach as I finally make my way over to them and begin my introductions
"Echizen Ryoma, I'm sure you've all heard of me, you can google me if you don't because I'm tired of making introductions." Yes I know it's a little rude, but I've done this 6 times already, it's too damn early in the morning, and I just got the wind knocked out of me a just a couple moments ago. "Echizen/Ochibi!!" I hear the two loudest members exclaim. "Don't be so rude!"
"Fine! I'm your new trainer, do what I say or else!! As Ryuuzaki-sensei said, I can do whatever training I see fit, that also includes any punishments I see fit as well. You better not have any problems with the fact that I'm younger than all of you because your all made made da ne." I then look up to buchou, indicating to him that I'm done and to dismiss them all.
Morning practice goes pretty smoothly, all of the members don't seem to have a problem with me training them, seeing as though they know I can beat all of them in a game of tennis, although none of them are concentrating, all of them looking at the new me. I let buchou order them around while I sat under a tree taking in some much needed sleep. Ah, the beauty of being the trainer, I can order around Tezuka, and I can be as late as I want to be and I don't have to run laps or drink Inui's juice.
Morning practice has ended, thankfully buchou kept them all busy enough to give me some semblance of a peaceful morning. However, that didn't last long, as all eight regulars, ran up to the tree I was currently sleeping under. However unbeknownst to me, a certain redhead saw fit to glomp me again at that exact moment. "Ochibi!!Wake up! Wake up!" He shouts as he grabs me up and forces me to stand. As I rub my eyes and yawn, trying to get myself to wake up I can't help but feel that they're staring at me. I open my eyes and I see that I'm right. All of their eyes are on me, taking in my new look.
"Saa Echizen.," says Fuji, "You've changed. You've gotten…." I swear if he says 'prettier'…
"You've gotten prettier nya!" exclaims Kikumaru-senpai, interrupting Fuji-senpai.
"Saa Eiji, I was going to say that." Said Fuji with a fake pout.
"Gomen Gomen. Fujiko." Said Kikumaru-senpai running over to Fuji to apaologize and hug him. "But look…" he said pointing at me. " … His height, his face, his hair … even his sunglasses, he's gotten so much cooler and much more prettier." He finishes off as a tennis ball connects to his head.
"Ochibi!" He shouts as I begin to walk towards the school as the bell rings, indicating that classes are starting soon.
Apparently luck wasn't on my side. Every single one of my classes contained at least one of my senpai's. Third year English had buchou, Fuji-senpai, and Inui-senpai. Buchou, who apparently seemed disappointed that I slept throughout all of English, and Inui-senpai who kept muttering "Ii data data. Sleep Patterns" and Fuji-senpai who did nothing but chuckle and smile at the scene before him. I also have history and business with Oishi-senpai and Kawamura-senpai. I have music with Kikumaru-senpai and Fuji-senpai. I have Math with Oishi-senpai and chemistry and physics with Inui-senpai. I think he was slightly shocked when he saw me enter, and even more shocked when I answer the teacher's question without batting an eye. Anyways, that was my day at school. Turns out I won't be left alone in any of my classes. Oh Joy. At least I have a free period away from all the crowds.
It's now the last period of the day, my free period. Everyone is still in class and I'm just wandering around waiting for practice to start. I have an…. interesting…. new training regime that I wanted to try out. I've already got all the equipment needed for it; I just have to set it up which I'll do when practice starts. So with nothing to do, I head to my favorite tree, recounting the days events.At lunch, I went up to the roof top to get some peace and quit, but apparently the others knew I'd be there.
Flashback to lunch
"Echizen!" Momo exclaimed as they all came up to me and sat around me pulling out their lunches. "Why didn't you call or email us. We're your friends! You should've called or visited. Haven't you ever heard of keeping in touch!"
"C he! It's not like I never emailed you guys. I kept in touch.." I say with a scowl at the over-exaggeration of my best friend.
"An email every six months to either Tezuka-buchou or Inui-senpai doesn't count!" shouted Momo.
"Well sorry for being busy. I was only training my ass off and playing practically every single tournament I could." I said to him, with sarcasm and boredom laced in my voice.
"Maa Maa Echizen, no need to be so snarky. We're just surprised to see you. It's been around 3 years after all." Said Fuji-senpai with his ever-present smile. You're up to something I know it. You don't smile like that and not be up to something, believe me, I know.
"I'm not up to anything Echizen, I was just wondering what's with your sudden appearance." Does he read minds or something?
"No Echizen, I don't read minds."
"What the? But how did you…?" I said looking at Fuji-senpai wondering how he just did that.
"I'm just really good at reading people. You've been good at avoiding our questions all day Echizen. So now that we have you here, why don't you tell us why you're in third year and why you quit tennis?"
"Echizen are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you have some sort of injury preventing you from playing tennis?" asked a worried Oishi-senpai.
I sigh; I guess there's no way out of this. "I'm in third year because I can be." I tell them. Like I'm actually going to tell them that I graduated from university already, that'd probably get me more "glomping" and more headlocks from those two. "Quit tennis, because I was bored."
End of Flashback
"Echizen. Echizen"
I can hear someone calling my name off in the distance. I don't want to wake up. Five more minutes I say as I swat away the hand that's trying to get me up.
"Echizen. It's time to get up. It's time for practice."
Urgh. I groan as I stand up and make my way to the clubroom and Fuji-senpai walks onto the courts where buchou, is ordering everyone around. As I finish changing Ryuuzaki-sensei knocks on the door and as I open it she greets me with a warm smile and says, "ready for your first training regime." As I hand her a box full of gadgets we'll use today.
A/N:
So everyone, here it is. How do you like it? Read & review please.
