Disclaimer: If I owned PoT, RyoSaku would have set sail within the first chapter, but I don't, so don't sue. Please.
"Hmmm...Found it! Here!" Natsumi pointed at her name. It was high up on the billboard, since she had already defeated multiple players. Next to her name was printed the name 'Sasuke Ajibana,' her opponent for her next match.
The title of the billboard and her cousin's name on it caught Sakuno's attention. "Ano, Sumi-chan, aren't these the men's matches?" her brunette cousin questioned,"And are you sure that's you?" She pointed at the label that neatly printed "Natsu."
Her pink-haired cousin chuckled nervously,"Ah, well..."Natsumi looked away embarrassed,"Eto...they mistakened me for a boy and they kinda ushered me away before I was able to correct them so..."
"Pft..."
"Urusai, dense baka."
Sadly, her retort did nothing whatsoever to stop her raven-haired sister from snickering. Their brunette companion merely sweat-dropped at her cousin's situation. So that explained her strange get-up today. She was trying to look the part.
The trio then proceeded to make their way to the women's billboard to see Sakuno's opponent. Fuyumi wasn't going to play, and she had made it very clear when she, despite her older sister's protests, immediately forfeited her match once she found the umpire.
Reaching the billboard, the girls' eyes scanned through the army of names and found Sakuno's next to 'Naomi Adachi.'
Natsumi whistled,"Looks like you're up against Adachi-chan. Ganbatte, Saku-chan, she's pretty tough~"
"Mou, Sumi-chan, don't make me nervous right before my first match," the brunette smiled. She wasn't actually nervous; in fact, she was very excited. The girl hasn't played with any other opponent other than her energetic emerald-eyed cousin in quite a while, and she was rather eager to try out a few of her new, perfected moves on court.
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
A guy, along with some of his buds, approached Sakuno.
Up until this point, the trio didn't notice all of the unwanted attention they were garnering. Afterall, they did make quite an impression from the commotion they caused when Natsumi tried to stop her twin from forfeiting her match. To others, they looked like an odd group, consisting of an eerily effeminate, short boy(who they all knew was a total boss at tennis), a seemingly cute, fragile girl(who looked like the epitome of adorableness to them), and a cool beauty(who seemed to have overdressed, and doesn't even belong on the court). All in all, they were set to attract bad company.
"What's your name, babe? Clearly, you aren't from around here, or else I would've remembered a hot piece of ass like yourself."(A/N: Now, now, let's not swear and be vulgar, guys.)
The aforementioned guy was now getting very uncomfortably close to Sakuno, with his friends leering over his shoulder. Now, of course, at this moment, her cousins were glaring holes through the guys' heads, but they knew Sakuno would want them to let herself handle it. Besides, if anything went wrong, Natsumi would make sure the strangers weren't leaving without a good punch to the face. They might also have to forfeit their manhood too. Might.
While she debated on how to reply to the pervert, the small brunette girl didn't even flinch from her position; instead, she opted to stare straight back at the guy. He remained unashamed, and not to mention unfazed.
"Aw, come on~! Give us a smile, sweetie," he continued slyly, putting his arm around his victim. Leaning close, he whispered while breathing down her neck,"I'll show you a really good time, if you know what I mean."
Sakuno almost gagged. His breath smelled like rotten sardines that were left out in the sun for waaay too long.
It wasn't that no one wanted to help the harassed girl, they were just afraid of what might happen to themselves if they did. Sasuke Ajibana was buff as eff and possessed a reputation of a gangster, so basically, he was not a guy to be messed with.
"L-l-let g-go of her!"
Okay, nevermind then.
"Shush, Minori! You'll be killed!"his best friend whispered furiously.
"Oi, let go of the girl, you bastard!"
"Yeah, yeah, that's not cool at all, nya~!"
Minori's friend now wanted to go hide in a hole.
The Seigaku regulars had just entered the scene, only to find these mean-looking guys bullying someone. Of course, possessing majorly inconvenient hero-complexes, they would not take injustice sitting(or was it standing?) down. What they didn't know was that the "someone" was their very own dragon coach's granddaughter. (Ah, did I mention that Sumire was moved to the high school and had resumed her role as their coach? No? Well, now you know. Cause I totally didn't decide this just now. It was all part of the plan. Totally. Okay, enough of my rambling.)
Sasuke tsked. The newcomers outnumbered him and his buddies, but no way in hell he was going to let this brunette cutie out of his grasp. So, he proceeded to block them out and continue his clearly unwanted flirting.
"Fssh, are you deaf, you bastard?!" (A/N: At this point, he might as well be.)
Very rarely did the slam-dunker and the snake agree on something, so when the two were about to stalk over and beat the ever-living shi-, I mean stool(it means 'turds' in smart-people language), out of Sasuke, they were stop short by the very steeled voice of the supposed victim.
Tired of the disgusting behavior exhibited before her, Sakuno finally pushed Sasuke away with a firm "please let go of me, Ajibana-san. You are bothering us."
The recipient of this was not amused. He was not a person to take a "no" for an answer.
"Ooo, a feisty one, aren't cha?"he drawled.
Unable to stand the rude, and not to mention absolutely revolting, guy any longer, a particular raven-haired beauty stepped up.
"Fuck off, pervert," Fuyumi ordered, now extremely irritated. (A/N: You tell him!)
Sasuke raised an eyebrow,'What did that bi-(A/N: Female dog.) just call him?'
Looking her up and down, he grinned at what he saw.
"And what if I don't?"he tested, his snarky grin growing wider by the second.
Fuyumi scowled. For the millionth time today, she regretted wearing a cumbersome skirt. Just as she was about to step forward and give the boy a piece of her mind, someone grabbed her arm.
"Let go, idiot."
"Yada."
Ignoring her younger sister pulling at her grip, Natsumi returned her attention to Sasuke.
She smirked, remembering something,"Hey, big shit(A/N: Pft...Okay, so I was about to write 'big shot,' but I mistyped, so there you go. 'Big shit' it is and 'big shit' you shall be! XD), I heard that I'm playing you next. Let's settle this on the court like real men."
Her companions sweatdropped.
"A real fuc- freak'in moron, more like it," Fuyumi muttered to herself. Sakuno, who overheard, stifled her laughter.
Natsumi raised an eyebrow. 'She just had to...'
Her opponent smirked in return.
"Confident, eh, brat?"he spat,"When you look like a girl?" (A/N: Cause she is, Captain Oblivious. Honestly, how can they not tell that he's a she?!)
The pinkette simply replied,"What? Of course, Pansy! Not in basically forever will you ever scare me." Clearly, the guy had never seen her play before.
Her attempt at provocation was obviously successful, as the face of the latter, aka "big shot(or 'big shit,' that works too. You do you, I suppose.)," was scarlet with fury.
No one messed with him.
"You better be prepared to grovel at my feet!" he screamed as Natsumi walked away to prepare for his upcoming butt-whopping.
"Hai, hai, tough guy~"
'I'm more surprised that you actually knew how to use the word 'grovel.'
Seeing that the situation was in good hands, the ex-Seigaku regulars moved on to the registration desk, with one in particular lingering behind.
Golden eyes narrowed onto a certain brunette. Where had he seen that face? But he wasn't able to figure out the identity of the mysterious girl before his senpai yelled at him.
"Echizen, hurry up! We're gonna leave you behind!"
"Hai, Momo-senpai."
Five minutes later...
A large crowd had gathered around Court 7. They were hollering at the players inside. Some of them were concerned for the pink-haired boy and wanted him to back out of the match, while others were excited for the epic ass-whopping (A/N: I said no profanity!) he was going to hand to his brawny opponent.
Natsumi cooly strode over to the net. "Smooth or rough?"
"Don't care, you serve. I'll give you a handicap, since I'll win anyway," Sasuke stated snidely.
Fuyumi, now sitting at the bench next to her sister's sports bag, rolled her eyes.
'Overconfidence will be the death of this player,' she thought, glancing over at Sakuno next to her,'But he deserves the beating.'
And so, the match began.
