Thanks so much, blackshadow-san! *does a victory dance* Reviews are awesome! A warning: I decide pairings fast and currently I'm wondering which of the three demons to pair the ever-surprising Asuna-chan up with…my thoughts have gone to Yukimura to Yanagi, back to Yukimura, and then to Sanada. And this fiction also has a crack pairing: Enter the Tezuka x Ann pair!

Asuna tossed and turned in her sleep, thoroughly drenched in the proverbial cold sweat. Her nightmares were back again, and this time it was so verisimilar to the reality of what had happened at the hospital that day. They had lied to her parents, saying that it was pain medication, but what did it bring? Just more pain, and it had changed her completely. Recombinant DNA! She hadn't been able to bear the pitiful looks that the doctors and nurses had given her after she had been taken from the clutches of the horrible doctors. The only solace she'd had in the bleak little quarantined ward was a blue-haired boy the same age as her, named Yukimura Seiichi.

He'd never been one of the pitiers, as Asuna had ungrammatically called them in her mind. When she first saw him, he was standing in front of her, a rather shocked expression on his pale face. She'd stared at him for a full minute, and then asked him a question the two would never forget.

==============================Flashback===============================

The five-year-old orange-haired girl sat on the sole piece of furniture in the desolate hospital ward, sobbing her heart out at her unavoidable misfortunes. After a few minutes of muffled sniffling, she got up and tested her new talent on the hard floor. She flipped over as even the most professional gymnast vied to perform. Suddenly curious as to the extents of the results of the mutant DNA in her blood, she bounced once, twice, and…heard the loud knock on her ward room door. Every nerve tense with anticipation, she opened the door, expecting to see her brothers, her mother, or even her old neighbors, the Tezukas, whose children, Sayaka and Kunimitsu, had been her closest friends. At that point she was so far into the delusion that the loneliness had created that she was even expecting Uchiha Tsukiko, a three-year old girl Ryoma had liked to argue with, to turn up behind the door. But there was an even bigger surprise behind the door. A blue-haired boy-ish girl stood in front of her, staring at with shock evident on his face. The nurse in front of her smiled. "This is Yukimura Seiichi. Here to keep you company for some time."

Asuna looked hard at the person in front of her. "Are you a girl or a boy? And what kind of person has blue hair?"

The boy didn't blink an eye. "What kind of person has bright orange hair?"

"Okay, Yukimura. I call a truce already. I don't want to fight a girl."

"I'm not a girl! I'm a boy! A boy! Got it?"

"Why do you have such a squeaky voice? You sound like…like Yuuki, from Vampire Knight."

"Oi! I said, I'm a boy! Not a girl!"

"Anata no iu koto wa juuyoude wa arimasenga, mondai o okonau to iu mono."

"…"

"Hello? You understand Jap—"

"Both of you break it up already. I want you to stay in the same room for one hour, and if you're not both at each other's throats by the time I'm back…Seiichi, you'll be able to talk to Genichirou, and Asuna, you'll be able to talk to An, Ryoma, and Ryoga." said the nurse.

Asuna and Yukimura exchanged glances. "Don't worry, ma'am!"

The nurse shut the door, leaving the quarrelling pair behind. "Who's Genichirou?" asked Asuna.

"Who are An, and Ryoma, and Ryoga?" asked Seiichi.

"My best friend Tachibana An, and my brothers Ryoma and Ryoga."

"My best friend Sanada Genichirou."

"What's this Sanada like?"

"He…well…it's hard to explain what he's like. He wears a black baseball cap all the time, and he likes saying 'Tarundoru' a lot, for no reason. And he's excellent at tennis. How did you end up in the hospital? Do you have Guillian-Barre's Syndrome, like me?"

"Well, first I was in an accident, then…"

And so the pair continued to chat, oblivious to the surroundings.

===============================End=================================

BRRRIIINNNGGG!

Asuna yelped, caught completely off-guard at six in the morning. Ryoga, you're asking for this! She tiptoed to the bathroom and filled the pail near the shower with water, then furtively made her way to her brothers' bedroom. Laughing quietly, she did not notice the spiky-haired figure behind her until the aforementioned figure yelled loudly in her ear. Poor Asuna jumped ten feet into the air and landed back on the ground with the bucket of water all over her.

"Consider your shower taken, Asuna…run, chibisuke! She's got the pail!"

After a few minutes of clanging and crashing, and a few shouts of "Chibisuke! Save me!"Asuna reemerged, thoroughly drenched and as mad as a wet cat. She stormed over to the bathroom, Seigaku uniform in hand. After some time, she reappeared clad in her uniform, a bag in her hand which stated in block letters: "Not For Tennis Purposes".

Her brothers were rather flabbergasted. "Not For Tennis Purposes"? Apparently, their sister was 'stark raving bonkers', as Atobe might have said. Her life (probably) would end if tennis disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Nee-chan, what's in that bag?" asked Ryoma.

"It's a surprise, chibisuke. Can't you see the obvious?" interjected Ryoga, as Asuna opened her mouth to respond.

"Ryoga. Be nice to Ryoma. He's your little brother." Asuna glared at Ryoga. "And why, may I ask, is the deck fluorescent green? I am going to throw away every single can of paint in this house if you pull another paint related prank."

"Yes, nee-chan/Asuna!" chorused the two frightened brothers in unison, saluting their sister. Rinko and Nanjiro, who had both come downstairs, were roaring with laughter at the faces of both the boys.

Sometime later, in a Seishun Gakuen Classroom…

"Hi, Mitsu-kun. We're in the same class today," said Asuna.

"Today?" asked Tezuka. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Mitsu-kun, you're the first to know, but I'm transferring to Rikkaidai tomorrow. I'm very sorry, but Otou-san wants me to transfer because apparently the education at Rikkaidai is better. I'll be coming over here to watch your tennis practices, because I don't have a doubt that Ryoma will be on the regulars this year. I'm sorry. Here, take this." Asuna pulled out a small box labeled "Mitsu-kun" on the top from the mysterious "Not For Tennis Purposes" bag she had brought along. "Don't open it now, open it during tennis practice today. I'll be there too."

"Aa. Thank you. Isn't Yukimura your childhood friend?"

"Yes, why?"

"Yudan sezu ni ikou."

"Ummm…thanks?" Asuna plopped down in the seat next to Tezuka. "What're you reading?"

Ever the person to skimp on words, Tezuka simply turned the cover towards her and continued reading. She rolled her eyes at him and waited for the teacher to come in.

Sometime after the end of school, Seigaku Tennis Courts…

The ten boys stared at the boxes in their hands, pondering whether their only female was crazy, or whether she was actually giving them a good-bye gift. After all, hadn't she told them that in the boxes were 'gifts practically suited to each of them.' That certainly gave them several suspicions of their 'nee-chan's sanity, along with the maniacal grin on her face.

"Come on, open them," urged Asuna. "Why, are you afraid that there are spiders in there or what?"

Ryoma and Momo exchanged glances. She had to be crazy to be mentioning spiders in the middle of the tennis courts. Their thoughts were interrupted by Asuna's voice saying, "On my mark, be ready to open the boxes! Three, two, one, go!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! The entire expanse of the tennis courts was covered with paint in all shades of colors, making the whole originally green area look like a rainbow manifested on Earth. The entire Seigaku Tennis team was now covered in what passers-by would have assumed to be horridly applied body paint and shabby tie-dyed clothes. And Asuna was so dead for that prank.

Even later, around sunset, at the Echizen household…

What a relatively normal evening. Nanjiro was reading his magazines, Rinko was cooking dinner, Ryoma and Ryoga were planning their revenge on Asuna for the paint that refused to get out their hair, and Asuna was oblivious to all these, sending an e-mail to eight of her most precious friends, including a certain blue-haired 'Child of God.'

Dear Team Crazy,

You are going to find a really large surprise waiting for you at school tomorrow at lunchtime! Don't e-mail me about it; I won't tell you (yes, you are reading that right, Silver!)

-Asuna

The eight recipients would soon find out exactly what was waiting for them…