DISCLAIMER:
TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist: We have a special guest today!
Theresa: Hi everyone! I'm alphaprincess0803, also known as Theresa, and I'm Fail4Ninjas' BEST FRIEND! At least, I think I am…
2ManyShoez: If you weren't our best friend, would you be editing this chapter for us?
Theresa: OH YEAH! Right, okay!
TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist: Well, getting back to business…-bows down low to our readers- I am deeply sorry for not updating this story according to our schedule. It has been a long wait for our readers and Fail4Ninjas has been separated by the end of the school year. FlippinWonka is currently in Japan visiting her family and sadly, the rest of us are rotting in boredom, slowly waiting for our Japanese souvenirs.
GreenMamushi: Aw cut the crap shortie! You're making it sound like we're at a funeral or something. I just saw you two days ago and you weren't even depressed. Stupid FlippinWonka, leaving us and not answering our emails or texts or calls.
2ManyShoez: We were supposed to play tennis together… Urgh…
Three of us: YOU'RE GONNA GET IT WHEN YOU GET BACK, FLIPPINWONKA! :D
FlippinWonka: -currently in Japan- *sneezes* I have a bad feeling all of a sudden…
GreenMamushi: And you should, FlippinWonka. Ditching your friends like that… Looks like this disclaimer is over!
Theresa: AHEM! Before you end this disclaimer, you actually have to STATE the disclaimer!
TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist: Oh yeah… Oops.
Theresa: -sighs- I'll do it. –clears throat loudly- Fail4Ninjas does NOT own Prince of Tennis, nor will they ever own it. All they own is Emi, Eri, and this plot.
Amai Masquerade Love
Chapter 4: Eri vs. Niou
Marui POV
Is Eri really going to be alright? I wondered nervously. I mean, she's facing Niou with someone else's racket, too! What if he hurts her? I will kill Niou if he dares to hurt her! She is my girl and I don't want to see her in pain!
Wait, my girl? Where the heck did that thought come from? We aren't even dating! I sighed as I realized that my stupid teenage hormones were probably acting up in front of this girl.
Then Sanada came up to me.
"Marui, if you're worried about Eri, then tarundoru. Eri will not lose. I have never seen her lose," he said confidently. Sanada then walked to Eri. "Don't do anything unnecessary," I heard him say. "Just finish the match in about five minutes, take Niou, and leave."
I watched as Eri smirked. "No problem, Gen-chan."
Normal POV
Eri walked to the net where Niou was waiting.
"You better be ready Ma-chan. Emi eats a lot, and I'm kind of hungry right now."
"Awww… Eri~, can't I just take everyone to Karaoke? I'll just pay for food there!" Niou said while mimicking Akaya's whine.
Eri froze, narrowing her eyes as she realized his tactic. Sighing, she said, "Of course you know I'm weak to Akaya's cuteness, but unfortunately for you, Ma-chan isn't Akaya." She smiled then.
"Okay, I'll let you." Eri said. At Niou's excited expression, she wagged her finger and continued, "Only if you show me your meteor drive, Ma-chan! Oh, and you serve first. I need to look for my classroom so hurry it up," Eri pointed out, walking to the service line.
"Sure, babe," said Niou. Eri whipped around and shot an icy glare at him. "Oh come on! That Oshitari from Hyotei calls you and Emi, 'hime-sama'. I get to give you pet names too!" Niou looked at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He knew that Eri was a sucker to the guilt card.
"Still doesn't give you the right to address me like we're a couple…" she muttered indignantly under her breath. Niou only grinned at her. "Just serve!" Eri commanded half-heartedly.
"Yes, ma'am!" Niou was enjoying this. He threw the ball into the air and began the game. It was soon apparent that Niou's level did not quite match Eri's.
"Game to Eri. Five games to one!"
"Hey, Niou! Is it okay if I serve? I want to show you my new one!" Eri exclaimed, eyes sparkling. She didn't seem to notice the state her opponent was in.
Niou was sweating profusely and panting. He was clutching his knees, which were trembling badly.
He lifted his face. His eyes were wild and did not focus on any particular object.
"Sure, sweetie! Thanks for letting me keep my hearing." He attempted to show her a grateful smile, but it didn't come out very well.
On the sidelines, the spectators watched the match with reluctant looks. Yagyuu had taken off his glasses; it was too painful for him to watch his doubles partner in this state, so he turned to look away. Renji, unlike Yagyuu, barely blinked and furiously took notes. Jackal had his mouth fully open and Sanada was wearing a grim expression on his usual, serious face. Marui was trying to keep focused on the match, but tears kept welling up in his eyes making it hard for him to concentrate.
"Stop! Eri, that is enough practice for Niou. We need him to be alive since he is a very valuable member of the team." The ominous voice belonged to Sanada.
Eri got up from her serving position and took a look around. She blinked a few times and dropped her racket. She gasped.
"Now babe, I know how much you like tricks, but pretending to be surprised?" Eri scowled slightly at the 'endearment', but quickly recovered and flashed her famous smirk.
"Well, my yips tennis only lasts for about twenty minutes. I knew you would snap out of it about now, but yeah, I guess we should stop." Eri spoke with a solemn expression.
"Sure. Eri, let's go now! I'm hungry!" he whined. Eri sighed at his antics and nodded. Niou beamed smugly as he dragged Eri off by the hand. "Bye guys."
Everyone stared at the two of them, and Sanada rolled his eyes.
"EVERYONE, TANUNDORU!"
"Wait! Sanada-fukubuchou! Something is wrong with Marui!" Akaya shouted while looking at the boy in the ref chair.
Marui was frozen. His whole body felt numb as he watched Niou and Eri run into the school building, while holding hands. Plus, Niou had directed a "ha ha, too bad for you" grin at him just before they ran off together.
Marui felt a mix of envy and anger. Jealousy, that was the word. He was jealous that Niou got to hold her hand, but he couldn't strangle Niou. After all, he was an important part of the team.
He had been gripping the ref chair so hard that his knuckles turned white from the tension.
"Okay, that's enough practice! Change up, and Marui, stop hurting yourself!" Sanada yelled.
Today was not Marui's day. First, he found out that though Eri was his class, she sat next to Niou. As if that weren't bad enough, he found out that in the only other class he shared with Eri, they sat in opposite ends of the classroom. To make that even worse, she sat next to Sanada!
Murdering Sanada was out of the question, but Marui was wavering on killing Niou. With such jealousy raging through him, it would have been easy enough.
It was the last class of the day, and of course, it had to be homeroom. That meant no Eri for an entire hour! Marui suddenly realized that he became extremely irritated every time he couldn't be with Eri, and that he got even more frustrated and aggravated when Niou was with Eri.
He groaned, rubbing his face in with hands in frustration.
"What's wrong, Marui? You don't seem like yourself at all!" The voice came from his doubles partner, Jackal. "You're usually upbeat, and you're not chewing gum!"
"AUGH! Jackal –come here- , can you keep a secret?"
Jackal nodded. "Well…" He poured out all of his feelings and what he had felt whenever he saw Eri with other people, namely, guys –especially Niou-.
Jackal's eyes widened. "Well, Marui. It seems you have started to li-…"
He had been cut off by a shadow that loomed over Marui and Jackal.
"Hi Bunta, and, uh… What was your name again?" It was Eri.
"It's Jackal."
"Oh, hi. Well, because I sort of won the match the other day, Ma-chan is taking us all out for Karaoke! So meet us at the Harayuku Karaoke store at 6:30 P.M., okay? I'm going to bring a special guest, so don't be surprised to see him coming with us! Bye, guys!" She turned and walked out of the classroom while humming a catchy tune.
Marui then looked at Jackal. "So, what were you saying?"
Jackal looked at his doubles partner one more time before sighing. "You have definitely started to like Eri-chan!"
It was exactly 6:30 P.M. and all of the tennis regulars were waiting outside of the Karaoke store. Eri and her guest came late.
"Sorry guys!" The tennis team turned around to see a blond girl.
"Aww, Ma-chan, Gen-chan! I've missed you guys!" Then she turned to the other members. "Hi, my name is Emi by the way and I'm Eri's twin sister."
The regulars just stood there and stared at the girl.
"Um, hi. My name is Kirihara Akaya, and I'm a second year, and uhh… What?"
Emi continued to stare at the boy. "Oh my gosh, you are SO cute!" She jumped up and glomped the second year. Akaya began blushing. "Can I call you Akaya-chan?"
"Uhhh… Sure…" He stared squirming.
"Okay!" Emi's eyes were glittering with delight.
"My name is Marui Bunta. I'm a third year, and Eri calls me Bunta so you can call me that, too." He smiled politely at her. Leave a good impression. She eagerly smiled back.
"My name is Jackal. I'm from Brazil, and I'm a third year as well."
"Good day to you. My name is Yagyuu Hiroshi." He bent down and kissed Emi's hand. "I'm also a third year."
A normal girl would blush if a guy like Yagyuu introduced himself like so, but Emi acted as if Hiroshi only said a polite hello.
"Oh, so you are the gentleman, or is this another trick? I've heard that you're Ma-chan's doubles partner. That means trouble." Emi smirked as Yagyuu smiled back.
"Finally, I'm Yanagi Renji. I'm a third year also, and I'm known as the data master. But I must ask, do you play tennis as well?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." She grinned as he started muttering and writing down detailed notes.
"Okay, so Eri and I are from the U.S., and we're used to calling people by their first names so is that okay if I do that with all of you?"
It was a unanimous nod from everyone.
"Okay, so Gen-chan, Ma-chan, Akaya-chan, Bunta, Jackal, Renji, and Hiroshi. Is that everyone on the team?"
"No, our buchou is currently in the hospital," Jackal said.
"Oh, yes, Seiichi-san. I visited him earlier at the hospital."
"Oh? Hey, you don't give respect to anyone! Let me guess; he beat you in tennis, didn't he?" Niou stuck out his tongue as Emi glared murderously back at him.
"Yes, Seiichi-san is the only one apart from Eri to have beaten me."
"Wait, so Eri-chan has beaten you, too?" Bunta asked.
"No, not beaten. Whenever we play singles against each other, it always ends in a draw." She sighed. "I thought I'd finally get a challenge when I went to Hyotei, but the Monkey King was so weak."
"Emi, you beat Hyotei's Atobe?" It was Sanada who spoke.
"Yeah, everyone was calling him 'King' so I thought he was strong enough, too." She sighed.
Everyone was looking at the girl in awe. She had beaten one of the strongest players around. That means that Eri was just as strong as her. Who were these girls?
"Sorry for making you wait guys! I escort our special guest!" They turned around to face the approaching Eri. Behind Eri stood Yukimura Seiichi!
"BUCHOU?" Everyone shouted in confusion. The sadistic buchou just smiled innocently.
"Well, let's go inside everyone. We'll explain everything after we are checked in and settled." As he grinned evilly, everyone, including Emi and Eri, shuddered.
About an hour had passed since they went into the karaoke room. Emi, Niou, and Akaya were singing the most out of all the tennis players. Occasionally, Emi and Eri would sing a duet of some American songs.
"Sha la la la sutcki ni kiss."
"Sha la la la sugao ni kiss!"
Everyone clapped as the trio had finished the song. Yukimura stood up with Emi and Eri as he took the mic.
"So, does anyone have any questions about anything while I am willing to answer them?" Everyone raised their hands. "Yes, Sanada?"
"Why are you out of the hospital?" Sanada demanded.
"As long as Emi-chan and Eri-chan bring me back to the hospital before 10:00 P.M., then it's fine. Anyone else? Yes, Marui."
"Emi-chan, Eri-chan, why are you so good at tennis? I bet you would be better than Echizen Ryoma who beat Sanada last week." Sanada glowered at Marui.
"Oh, Bunta, you can't tell?" They said in unison. "We are Ryoma's cousins: Echizen Eri and Echizen Emi."
"What? You're related to that brat?" Akaya's eyes started to turn red.
Emi chuckled. "No need to go into devil mode just for that, Akaya-chan. We used to spend summers with Ryoma and his that old perverted monk, so we basically grew up with tennis. Right now, we're living with them, too. Anyone else? Yes, Hiroshi."
"Have you two ladies won any tournaments while in America?"
Eri smiled. "We appeared in both doubles and singles tournaments. When we played in doubles, we were known as the Masquerade Pair. When we played as singles, I was known as the Sphinx and Emi as the Phoenix."
Everyone's eyes widened. They had heard of the Masquerade Pair. The International Tennis Magazine predicted that, if these two kept training, they could be on top of the tennis world, for girls and boys. No one could believe that they hadn't recognized the two girls before.
"Yes, and that's part of the reason I came here tonight," Yukimura explained. "Emi-chan and Eri-chan are very impressive people. Even though they are about same age as most of us, they have met and trained with some of the most world-famous tennis players. So, I would like the two of you to become the boys' Rikkaidai Tennis Team managers. Does anyone oppose?" Nobody said a word.
"Wait," Emi started, "I can't. I don't even go to Rikkaidai."
"Oh? I thought you two would attend the same school."
"Nope, Eri goes to Rikkaidai; I'm starting school at Hyotei tomorrow." She paused before grinning, and added, "I'm going to make that cocky brat's life miserable!" She had a glint in her eyes that sent chills down everyone's spines.
"Oh, yes, I heard from Oshitari-kun about Atobe's pathetic loss against you today. He told me that Atobe had still not been able to walk or talk properly yet." Everyone shuddered as Emi and Yukimura both shared a sadistic smile.
"Ummm… Sei-chan. I would love to be the manager." Eri smiled sweetly.
YES! I get to spend more time with Eri! Looks like things are finally going my way! Marui thought as he grinned. Suddenly, his happy expression fell. Oh no, what am I going to do? I just KNOW I'll act like an idiot in front of her or something! And she'll end up spending more time with baka Niou too… Marui started to mutter to himself worriedly. No one else took notice except for Jackal, who sent his partner a sympathetic glance before opting to pay attention to the conversation again.
"Lucky… Eri, I want to be the boys' manager Hyotei, too. I could make that idiot suffer my wrath while training Yuushi, Jirou, and Ryou!" Emi was saying.
As she said this, somewhere in the world, all of the Hyotei tennis team regulars sneezed at once.
- The "Otaku Corner"-
2ManyShoez: Now that our readers are satisfied with our update, we shall introduce the origin of the nickname of our last but definitely not least (most likely the shortest though) member of Fail4Ninjas!
TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist: Before we do that, I'm just letting everyone know that Theresa has gone home, and I'd to thank her for taking a load off my shoulders and re-editing this chapter for me! Everyone, please go check out her profile. It's alphaprincess0803.
FlippinWonka: Okay, now that that's over with, please give a round of boos, I mean applause to TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist!
GreenMamushi: Shut up, FlippinWonka! You don't deserve to be here! Since I was the original one who started her nickname, I will explain it to our readers. It started off when she got a haircut and her bangs were kind of short and stuck up. The side of her bangs stood straight up like the Alchemist, referring to a manga.
TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist: So the name stuck and I didn't have a problem with it so I turned it into my nickname. Short was an insult but then again, it's true (sadly).
2ManyShoez: From then on, her nickname became TheSpunky(Short)Alchemist!
FlippinWonka: Please look forward to our next chapter! –still in Japan enjoying her luxury-
Three of us: -death glares- D: