So, I know it's been a while and I really wanted this up. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Akira POV

He smiled a toothy grin, "I'll get you one."

I watched as Nanjiro went by the edge of the temple, taking hold of two racquets in good condition and handing one towards me. It was blue, with a white stripe splitting the cerulean paint, a metallic artistic design. Nanjiro here has some good taste…

But I still waved my hands, gesturing my denial, "I seriously can't! I have school in-," I checked the time on my watch, engraved into my arm-band on my left, "Oh dang it! I've got ten minutes until classes start! Sorry Echizen-jii-san! I've got to go!"

Dawning realization appeared on Nanjiro's face as he watched the kid run off, "But it takes ten minutes itself just to bike to Seishun Academy!"

"It's fine! If I run, I'll probably make it!" I grinned, waving at the man who was once known as the best, "I bet you could as well if you wanted to!"

This time, it was Nanjiro's turn to smile, waving at the kid running off. Slowly, he scratched his chin, a look of cognizance passing his face, "That young one will turn out great one day. A great rival for Ryoma," Nanjiro yawned, seeing Karupin mew at him loudly. Nanjiro stroked the cat's ears, "A great rival eh…"

Something prickled against his mind. He looked over at the time, "But there's still an hour before school starts…I mean isn't it only seven o' clock right now?"

{*}

No, dang, shoot! No, dang, shoot! I kept repeating in my head, reprimanding myself at my absurdity. Why am I so dense sometimes?

I jumped down a set of stairs, landing it un-professionally. A jolt of pain crawled up my legs, the aftershock of jumping and landing hard. I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly, feeling some pain.

However, I ignored the jolts, and sprinted the rest of the way. Checking the time as I ran down the streets, I hopped over a fence to skip half the route. The wind blew past me, almost ripping my cap off, before I pulled it down.

As I reached the school grounds, seeing the large building in a mixture of gray-pink morning light, I saw Sakuno at the gates.

Waving at her, panting the last gulps of air out of me, I tried to shout, "Sakuno we have only minutes until classes begin!" But In the end, I failed miserably, my out-of-breath body only making out the words, "S-sakuno…minutes…begin," before almost falling to the ground.

Keyword: Almost.

I felt two arms wrap themselves around my own.

Oishi looked at me in the eye, "Man you must be out of shape to not even be able to run from your house to here."

"We got the address from Sakuno," Eiji chimed in, waving a small sheet of paper, "And your house isn't even that far away!"

Checking the time again, I realized I had beaten the bike record by running, only eight minutes and a little more passing.

I let a grin land on my face, "Yeah. I really do need to work out some more."

{*}

"Man you're so heavy! Is your arm made of lead or something?" Eiji moaned as he and Oishi helped me over to a chair.

Ignoring the insult I tried to catch my breath before making out, "Got…minute…class…begin," I gasped for some air.

"Here," Oishi handed me some water, which I gratefully chugged down with ease. The refreshing, blank taste washed down my dry throat.

"I have to get to class!" I managed to get out finally.

They looked at me with odd eyes, "We still got forty-one minutes until classes start."

"No look here," I shoved the long black sleeve down, showing them my arm-band with the analogue clock embroidered into it, "It says so right here that I've got only a minute left before class starts!"

Their eyes narrowed to dots, Oishi finally asking "If that's true, then why are there still so many students wandering about?"

"How would I know? Maybe they're all skipping!"

Their eyes became smaller and Eiji just couldn't hold in his laughter anymore.

"Your clock's an hour fast," Eiji explained through mouthfuls of laughter.

I looked over at Oishi and he smiled in response, "Maybe you forgot to run your clock to Tokyo's time. You used to live in Kyoto right?"

I stared at them, flabbergasted.

"So you're telling me, I ran all that way for nothing?" I dropped my school bag.

The two seniors nodded.

"Dang it all!" I screeched, hearing birds fly out of the tree closest to me. I flushed at my outburst, a nervous smile creeping onto my face.

Eiji grinned, patting my back before realizing something, "But you don't live that far Ryuzaki-kohai… don't you live with Sakuno-chan? Isn't her house just a few blocks away from the school grounds?"

I was about to tell him off, saying I ran from the temple way off in the middle city to over here when I clamped my mouth shut. But then I'd have to say I went to Echizen's father's temple and explain his game of tennis and-

I gave up, no longer caring of what my seniors thought of me, "Yeah I'm just way out of shape. I can't even run from there to this dang school."

Oishi blinked, "But you seemed to have pretty good endurance when playing tennis."

"Ah… tennis is another thing. That was just fluke of adrenaline when seeing another great player," I lied with ease, a long sigh at the end.

Eiji didn't believe me. It showed in his eyes, "Well how'd you return Ryoma's Twist Serve then?"

I groaned, "I told you yesterday. It was a fluke." I stood my ground with pride, crossing my arms while giving my senpai a stare-down. Hey sue me. I'm a stubborn twit, whether you like it or not.

"Well why don't we check for that? One rally, you and me," Eiji pointed to himself, giving up our glaring contest.

I shook my head, "Sorry dude, but I don't play no tennis," I said with double negatives, mentally smiling. So technically I'm not lying.

"Well if you could play against Ochibi then you should be able to play me," Eiji persisted.

I kept shaking, staring at Eiji's feet, "No way. Sorry senpai, but I'd like to stay alive and not be beaten down miserably. Besides, I don't even have a racquet with me right now."

"You could use mine," Oishi decided to intervene, "Then you could just do a single rally with this guy. I'll even be the umpire for this."

I give up. This isn't going away anytime soon. I thought to myself, falling for their determination, "Fine. But just one rally okay?"

Oishi smiled along with Eiji. The seniors walked over to court C, a nice spacious green court with no one inside at the moment. Oishi handed me his racquet, letting me get used to its height and weight. It was quite big and a bit heavy, but maybe that was just because I was a first-year. I tested the strings attached to it, strumming a thread. It didn't budge.

Perfect.

Walking over to the court opposite to Eiji, he asked me by shouting, "Rough or smooth?"

"Rough," was my answer. Smooth just doesn't work with me… ever.

The auburn-black guy twirled his racquet, watching it as it landed.

"It's rough!" Eiji shouted towards me.

I smiled, seeing Oishi throw a bright neon-yellow tennis ball towards me. I caught it instinctively with one hand, right before it hit my face. I looked at it before realizing something.

"Hold on a second!" I cried over to Eiji, who was getting into formation.

Taking off the uniform jacket, I exposed the white t-shirt underneath. I was too lazy to change into shorts but I should at least wear something more comfortable. I kept my bands on, my arms proudly showing the matrix of black designs with clockwork etched into the left, and I couldn't take them off right now.

Too much time, and work, would be wasted.

I yawned, throwing the jacket to the side before smiling at my senpai, "Thanks for waiting Eiji-senpai!"

Eiji nodded, waiting for Oishi's approval before letting me serve.

I smiled, throwing the ball with my right hand and slamming down with my left. The bright yellow ball flew over the net, over to Eiji's side of the court.

He quickly ran over to it, receiving it with straightforwardness and speed. It seems like he knew it would go there. Hmm…maybe he already knows I always use my left-hand- I snapped out of my reverie when the ball soared through the air back to me in a perfect slice, making me run that much faster to return the ball.

It went back and forth, the ball I mean, and it seemed to have lasted a few minutes when Eiji cried out, "Hey you're pretty good at rallying!"

I pouted, "What do you take me for? Can't we just play seriously?"

Eiji grinned, "But isn't this a fun? It'll end too quickly if I go serious."

I sighed, still looking at Eiji's feet, before nodding "Fine."

Normal POV

During this conversation, Oishi noticed another thing about Akira. He wasn't sweating, at all. Well neither was Eiji but that's because he's done the endurance training for it. But this kid's been rallying long shots for about fifteen minutes, running from one end of his court to the next, and he's not even breaking a sweat!

Oishi turned to look at Eiji, "Hey why don't you play one set? Isn't that better than just a rally that isn't of any significance?"

With this, the two of them grinned, "Sure."

Now the ball sped up, the racquets swinging more swiftly. Each rally went back and forth, neither one giving in to the other.

Akira spoke up, "Hey could you at least be serious for this? You're breaking my pride! Playing like a tiger would with its prey."

"And you're breaking mine. I'll only step it up if you do," Eiji responded with a smirk, hitting the ball that flew towards him.

Akira dived for the low cross, hitting it right back, "Fine!" slicing the ball into something as fast as an ace…no almost faster.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Eiji cheered, rallying the ball back at Akira.

This time Akira sliced the ball with a curve, making it turn to a blind spot near Eiji's feet. To no one's surprise, Eiji used his acrobatics skills to flip over to, and under, the ball and sent it over the net. Akira, seemingly unsuspecting, watched as the ball bounced across his court. Akira kept his face sour, even though you could see the edges of his mouth twitching.

"15 Love," Oishi shouted.

Eiji looked some-what frustrated, "Hey!"

Akira looked over at him; ball in hand and ready, "What?"

"Why didn't you get to the ball? I saw you stop moving as the ball was hit by my racquet!" Eiji narrowed his eyes, racquet held between both his hands.

Akira didn't smile, a tart poker-face showing "What do you mean? I didn't freeze; I just couldn't get to the ball on time."

Eiji frowned in disbelief, "Fine. Be that way."

Akira sighed, muttering to himself, "This guy's got pretty decent eyes…"

Pulling his cap down a little further, Akira threw the ball into the air, slamming down with his left. It was as fast as Inui's "Waterfall" or maybe even faster, Oishi realized. Nevertheless, it was still counted as an ace, zipping past Eiji at an amazing pace, and cutting through the air like a sharp kunai knife.

Akira let one side of his lips curl up, "'Slicing Wind' is what I call it."

"15 all," Oishi called out.

Eiji grinned as a trickle of sweat went down his forehead, "Nice move Ryuzaki-kohai."

Akira returned with a goofy smile, silver eyes alight with amusement, "Thanks Kikumaru-senpai! But I can only use that move once in a game!"

Eiji watched his opponent with eyes of a hawk, "We'll see."

{*}

Akira POV

I looked out the window, partially seeing my reflection.

Large silver eyes, auburn hair tucked under a white cap releasing two fringes around my very feminine face. I had the boys' uniform on and I was sitting in my new desk.

Today's classes just ended and I'm alone in the classroom at the moment. I just watched the other students walking home or getting to their after-school clubs.

I glanced down towards the west area, seeing Sakuno and a few other girls walk towards the male section for tennis. Although a few were wearing the standard female school uniform: a white undershirt with a green sailor top and pink ribbon with a dark-forest green skirt, I saw the rest of them with their own tennis outfit. Nevertheless, they were all wearing extremely short skirts.

I shuddered. What is wrong with these girls? Are all Tokyo skirts this slutty?

Pushing the thought away, I looked across the yard and saw some more tennis courts being played in. There weren't as many club members as I thought, but it's still a lot in my case. I skimmed over to the other sports on the other side of the school. Man, this window could see everything!

There were some baseball players in the diamond next to the large field. Of course, the soccer players were doing some drills on the meadow of grass, kicking into the net where the goalie was standing, and I think I saw a few spectators regarding them.

Checking to see what time it was, I pulled down my uniform sleeve, revealing my arm-band-watch-thingy from dad.

4:37pm. Huh, I didn't think I could waste so much time observing, and this time I did change my watch to the Tokyo's time...wow...I think I just said 'time' like four times...five now...I grabbed my homework from my desk before stuffing it into my schoolbag.

"So I got three more days before they'll push me into some random club…," I muttered to no one particular.

"Why don't you join the tennis club?"

I snapped my head up, finding myself with the guy who gave me a tour before on my first day.

"Oh it just Four-eyes-senpai," I muttered before looking at what he was holding, "Hey, you play tennis?"

Inui followed my line of vision, which was staring at the racquet in his hand. He nodded, "Yeah, I do. But back to the matter at hand, I'll repeat myself, why don't you join the tennis club?"

"Why should I? It's not the end of the world if I don't join right?"

"But you said, and I quote 'Hey if you beat me, I may even join this dang club,'" Inui pushed up his thick frames.

I looked at him like he was insane, "What are you talking about? I never said that."

He smiled at me, "Yes you did. I was there when you went up against Eiji. You clearly stated such notions during the second half."

I laughed, remembering the so called incident, "You didn't think I was serious right? If that guy can't beat me when he's injured his left ankle, then of course I can't join."

With that I walked off, smirk on my face while closing the classroom door behind me.

{*}

Inui looked back at the closed door, seeing the first year's pale shadow leaving the translucent window.

"I never said you had to join the regulars," Inui muttered before realizing something.

Wait…I don't recall Eiji ever saying he was injured…