Wintersalad │ Disclaimer: I do not own "Prince of Tennis" or any referenced translations. │ Written: 09/10/10 │ Posted: 09/11/10│ Last Edited: 05/01/11
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Genius 002: A Suspicious Child Appears
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Yaw~n!
A small hand reached out from the black sleeves of the school uniform and moved to rub crusty eyes from beneath dark bangs. Walking away from her classroom, Echizen Ryoma glared blearily at the school sandals she was wearing.
'It's too big…'
Shifting her bag higher upon her shoulder, she shuffled past several students. School in Japan was different from the U.S., but on both sides of the world, it was still difficult to stay awake through class.
"Hey! Echizen!"
Sniffling, Ryoma turned her head and waited where she stood. She watched as a boy who eerily resembled a monkey walk up to her, a tennis racket case tucked neatly beneath his shoulder.
"You're Echizen from my class, right? I'm Horio. I see your tennis bag," he pointed to the bag slung across Ryoma's back. "You're signing up for the tennis club?"
Ryoma sighed and nodded. Another not-so-significant person who appeared to be attached to her after a few minutes of acquaintance. Well…maybe not just yet, she considered as she glanced notably at the racket tucked snugly to his side. Hmm…
Tuning him out, she walked towards the exit and straight up to a tall second-year student. She only recalled her classmate due to his loud posturing and unique unibrow. It was rather hard not to notice his loud introduction in class. Stopping before her target, she ignored Horio as she asked, "Which way is the tennis court?"
"Huh? Tennis court? It's that way, that way." The second-year jerked his thumb in the right direction.
"Thank you," she listlessly responded as she walked away.
"Aw, don't mention it!"
The second-year watched as the two first-years walked away in the direction he pointed towards. Smirking, he whistled as he walked in the opposite direction, hands behind his head.
He loved being a sempai1!
Limping slightly, he leaned his weight away from his injured ankle. Leaning against the fence of the tennis courts he tilted his head back to look at the clear blue skies. He watched as the clouds drifted sluggishly across the celestial plains. Ah, taking it easy sure looked relaxing.
Too bad he just couldn't seem to relax.
Pushing forward with his elbows, the second-year limped towards the club room. He needed to get his act together if he wanted to keep his regular position on the tennis team this year. Getting injured at the beginning of the year! Sure, it beat getting injured right before a game or some other such nonsense, but he shouldn't have been injured in the first place! An athlete needed to take care of his body! Slamming the door open, he walked towards his locker to change. The other regulars were away today, so he might as well take advantage of the free courts. Practice a few light drills while no one was around and stuff.
Sighing, he slumped and covered his face with his change of clothes. Really, just what was he doing?
Dressed in a Rocket Dive t-shirt, the depressed young man closed the club room door lightly behind him. He leaned his back towards the door with his weight pressed against the handle. With his eyes closed, he listened to the soothing sounds of a tennis ball being hit across the courts.
Wait.
Dark eyes opened and focused on the source of sounds. There! That just now wasn't the nice, clean sound of a bouncing ball on cement floors! The sounds of the racket stopped and the second-year walked towards the occupied court where two of his fellow club members crowded around four firsties. Heh. Was he ever that tiny?
Oh-hoh~ Looks like somebody likes being a sempai even more than him.
"500 yen* per try? What the heck? You said it was 200 per person!" a funny guy with a unibrow and bad fashion sense exclaimed.
"Hey, hey, we never said that. Ten tries at hitting the can for 10,000 yen, 500 yen per try- the 200 yen is the starting fee," one of the second-years smirked while turning the can towards their audience to see the hidden fine print.
"This is swindling! What kind of rule is that? You never even mentioned that each try cost us money!"
"Hahahaha!" the two older students mocked. "Too bad! If you knocked it down, you could've gotten 10,000 yen! But…
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Hey you! Over there!"
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They all turned to look at a petite figure standing behind the fence with a tennis bag hefted on the right shoulder.
"Don't just watch safely from over there! Come over and try it out for yourself. That's not the way you go about making friends, you know?"
Half-lidded eyes slid towards the two mean figures. Sifting a hand through dark locks, the addressed first-year tousled the hair while turning to face away from them. After a few seconds of what appeared to be morbid contemplation, the teen turned back towards the people in the court waiting for a response. Shrugging, the first-year stepped through the gates.
"It's not that I can't…" the student drawled while leaning down towards a basket of tennis balls to pick up a few with a left-hand. "But hitting that can over there normally wouldn't work.
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…Probably because it has rocks in it?"
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"What?"
They all watched as the tiny body launched itself into the air and twist into the ideal position before swinging forth with the racket in full motion.
"Ah! He pin-pointed it to the top of the can!" exclaimed the shortest of the first-years gathered around the sidelines.
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Tinkle
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"Wah! What the hell is this?" the loudest of the three shouted. "Not only did you omit important details in terms of payment, but you also stuffed the can full of rocks? That's cheating!"
The two sophomores flinched back and gulped. "Tsk. What is that little brat doing?" one of the two nervously bit out. "We didn't even tell him to do that!"
Clack
Clack
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Clack!
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"…!"
All the gathered spectators stared, speechless, as the recently joined member on the court continued to smack the now mostly empty can around the court.
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"Hey, if I hit it 100 times, does that mean I get 1,000,000 yen?"
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"That little-!"
Crankle!
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"Oh! I hit it! Lucky!"
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"Ah! That guy from before!" Horio cried. "The one who gave us the wrong directions!"
Ryoma glanced at the second-year with shortly cropped hair who just stepped onto the court.
"Momoshiro, you…" one of the two second-years stuttered.
"Hayashi and Ikeda, just because none of the third-years are here today, doesn't mean that you should pick on your kouhai*. You shouldn't do that, shouldn't do that!"
The two paled and hastily mumbled their apologies. There was a considerable amount of noise as the first-years gained confidence at having a strong ally suddenly appear and they stumbled over themselves to give their greetings. Horio, however, appeared slightly miffed still at the earlier slight. What was he saying? He was picking on them just a while ago! Merry laughter and remarks echoed through the courts as the new acquaintances exchanged formalities while the old did their best to blend into the background, trying to deflect as much attention away from them as possible.
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"Hey, who said you could leave?"
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Everyone on the court stilled and looked as Momoshiro stared down Echizen. With back turned towards the others, Echizen's head tilted to the side to give a side-glance at the second-year who pulled the stupid stunt earlier. Ignoring him, the first-year stuffed the pockets of the new school uniform with calloused hands and walked towards the exit face down.
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"Ryo-Ryoma?"
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The two looked up to see a girl with twin braids gasp at Echizen Ryoma. Why was Ryoma wearing a male uniform?
"Oh-hoh," Momoshiro smirked. "So you're that Echizen Ryoma. There's no use for the eye if you can't see the vision.
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I'm Momoshiro Takeshi! Second-year!"
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End Genius 002
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Notes:
* The school systems in Japan are different than the U.S., but I'll try to keep it simple for those who are unfamiliar by just going with their years. "Sempai" is used for older students who are senior to younger students and "kouhai" is for the juniors of the older students.
* An easy way to convert yen to dollars is to simply divide by 100 (move the decimal two places over to the left). It's not an accurate conversion, but it's close enough to get the general idea of value. So the swindling game was for a prize of roughly $100 (10,000 yen). The second-years advertised it with a starter's fee of $2 (200 yen), but the game had a hidden cost of $5 per try (500 yen) that they failed to mention to the first-years. Ryoma asked if she hit the can 100 times, then if she would get $10,000 (1,000,000 yen).
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A/N: Not much action in this chapter. I'm sure some have already noticed, but the chapters go according to the chapters in the manga, so the length and content of each are generally dictated by the original manga. Even the titles are basically a direct quote, more or less. I got a really considerate and helpful review and I'll be keeping the advice I received in mind. Please continue to kindly critique my writing! Thank you!