Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis No Ohjisama/Prince of Tennis. Wish I did, though... wouldn't we all want to see what happened to our dear regulars after Nationals?

Author's Note: ... I blame the lateness of this chapter on the fact that I've let my guard down, and as such the horror known to all authors as "Writer's Block" has effectively ensnared me until now... Well, that aside, thank you for reading, and enjoy! Comment if you wish to, nya...

Summary: Seishun High School: The team is finally complete again, thanks to the return of freshman wonder Echizen Ryoma from America and 3 ex-regulars joining the tennis team again. Besides winning Nationals and being a regular again, manager Inui Sadaharu has a new resolution: obtain an assistant (a.k.a. guinea pig) to aid him. Fortunately (for him) he finds one in the form of the unsuspecting new sophomore entering Kaidoh's and Momo's class this year. Thus begins the tale of...

The Manager's Assistant

Chapter Three (a.k.a. Of Eventful Meetings & The WTH Proposal)

Do you believe in fate, in destiny? Or maybe in luck, or perhaps chance?

Well, whatever your answer may be, it was very clear what Tori Hsia Fen would reply should the question be posed to him at this age: "What?"

(Very eloquently said, don't you think?)

It wasn't like the black-haired student had anything personal against chance, destiny, fate or luck; he just never really understood the notion of 'coincidences'. Tori had been raised under the principle that one should always control one's own path in life and that you created your own breaks, no one else. There was no such thing as 'coincidences'.

Yet the sophomore would someday say that yes, it was a twist of fate that his school life would change today…

… Or maybe as Momoshiro Takeshi so bluntly put it later: "Someone up there either hates you or thought it'll be fun to meddle with your life, and that's why this happened to you."

Despite all rumours, debates and whatever else one could get from the grapevine, the simple truth was that it all truly started in a Thursday. Ryuzaki Sakuno knows this for sure; how could she not, when she was in the center of it all?

Unusually enough, there were no early warning signs to indicate to Sakuno that that particular Thursday would be anything but ordinary. The freshman had woken up to pleasant morning air and a good breakfast, followed by a casual stroll to Seishun High School and subsequently her classroom. Classes had gone rather smoothly as well; Sakuno handed in all her completed assignments on time while English class (which was and still is a horror) was merely reading and analyzing a poem she already knew.

All in all, Sakuno felt that it was a good day…

… Until tennis practice, that is.

What happened during tennis practice, you ask? Simple: since she had completed her match and was therefore free, Sakuno was requested to go grab a new basket of tennis balls from the top shelf of a cupboard in the games storerooms.

All went smoothly before she, being the clumsy klutz she is, tripped.

And fell straight onto an unsuspecting black-haired sophomore.

There were times that Tori was really, really grateful for his fast reflexes. Not only were they of infinite use during a match, they had uses outside the court too, one of those being the ability to handle emergency situations well.

So it came as to no surprise to him that, upon hearing an 'Ah!" coming from above him, his initial reaction was to dodge before attempting to catch whatever that was falling his way.

What he didn't expect, though, was an alarmed-looking girl falling right into his arms… and a cute one, at that…

It could have been described as one of those scenes that seemed to come straight out of a romance movie, or novel: girl needs stuff in high places beyond her reach, tries to get it, falls/trips, succumbs to gravity and plunges to certain pain… until a decent/good-looking/hot male, or even better, the guy of her dreams, somehow manages to save the damsel-in-distress and ends up playing Hero of The Day.

(Upon reflection, Tori's cousin would chide him for not continuing his apt description, though. Then again, romance was his forte, not Tori's…)

Unfortunately, the extremely awkward atmosphere surrounding both students completely and utterly nipped any chance of romance occurring in the bud.

Besides, it should be duly noted that Tori was inwardly too busy congratulating himself ('Nice catch!') whereas Sakuno was just feeling relieved that her face (or any other part, for that matter) hadn't met the dusty ground of the storeroom.

Luckily (for the reader, that is), the sound of something hitting the floor soon took up their attention, and both students looked up to see the contents of a particular basket come raining down around them.

"Ek/What the-!!"

(The author would now like to mention that no Sakunos or Toris was hurt during the writing of this scene.)

It wasn't until the last few balls were being picked up that Tori finally started up a decent conversation (The earlier "Gomen nasai!!" didn't count as such to him).

"Ne, do you play tennis?" Sakuno jumped a little, clearly startled, before a mild blush blossomed over her features. Her voice however remained steady; it helped too that when she glanced at her senpai, his eyes were twinkling, giving him the image of a mischievous kid. The pig-tailed girl smiled as she gave her answer.

"Hai." Tori gave the brown-haired girl a curious look.

"Should I ask if you're good at it? Or maybe… on second thought, never mind. I'll just help you carry this instead!" True to his word, the second-year swiftly took the basket of yellow balls from a protesting Sakuno, grinning cheerfully as she tried in vain to retrieve her basket.

"D-demo-!"

Tori briskly walked off, leaving the stammering girl in his wake. At least, that was what he planned to do until a shy voice piped up, "Ano, senpai, the courts are that way…"

"…"

"?"

"… Right, I knew that!" And Tori and Co did a 180-degree turn before resuming their journey.

"Tori-sen-"

"-Stick with Fen, alright? It sounds bizarre if I call you Sakuno-chan and you address me with Tori-senpai. Too much keigo for my liking."

"… Ok… Fen-senpai, do you play tennis?"

"Hm? Oh no… No, I don't. I play badminton instead. I leave all the tennis tricks to my cousins, they're the ones totally obsessed with the sport." A look of bemusement sketched itself over Sakuno's face upon hearing that.

"You have tennis-obsessed cousins?" Her upperclassman smiled sheepishly.

"Well, obsessed might be a rather strong word… But yeah, they're playing in the high school circuit now. You might have heard of th-"

"-Ryuzaki! Did you get the balls?"

'Ah, we've arrived at the courts. Oh well…'

"Well, Sakuno-chan, I'll be on my way now…," brushing off the heartfelt "Arigatou!", the sophomore waved her kouhai off with a cheerful "Mata raishuu!" before heading back to the storerooms.

'Hm, I wonder if the racquet I was eyeing is still there?'

It was not until next week, though, that the aftereffect of that chance meeting was truly felt.

For, you see, their entire conversation had been within a certain data-crazy third-year's ear range…

"I have a preposition for you."

Inui Sadaharu calmly adjusted his spectacles as he scrutinized the features of the (comparatively) shorter student standing opposite him.

"And what would that be, Inui-senpai?" Tori shifted his bag from his left hand to his right, wondering just why he was here, in this secluded place, to meet the infamous data-collector of Seikou men's tennis team during lunch break.

'What could be urgent enough to force him to disturb my lunch break? Considering that this is our first ever meeting…' The transfer student watched Inui warily as the third-year scribbled something into his green notebook before looking at Tori again.

"Are you interested in being Seikou's male tennis club assistant manager, Tori Hsia Fen?"

END OF CHAPTER THREE