S-Still no reviews? Okay. *hides in corner and cries*

In any case, as promised, the focus is back on Seigaku… and it's the start of Kantou. Whoo!

…somehow, I wonder if them OCs are catching anyone's attention. Ah well~

Edit :: I would use proper line breaks, but the site effs them up. |D Just so you know.

( insert line break here )

It was a nice day, Oishi Shuichiro believed. Seigaku got past the preliminaries without much problems, their manager was contentedly playing against their resident first-year ace, and…

"YOU GUYS SHOULDN'T BE TIRED YET!"

…oh who was he kidding? With Ryuuzaki-sensei happily screaming at them about their upcoming rematch with Hyotei, he was a little hard-pressed to remain focused with Eiji as his doubles partner against the Fuji-Kawamura pair.

especially with Eiji as his doubles partner.

"During the prefectural tournament, only three of their regulars were sent off in the match they lost to Fudoumine!" Ryuuzaki-sensei yelled.

"They'll send out their best members for the Kantou tournament," he observed, and their coach nodded in agreement. He felt bad for it, but he tuned her out when she started a quick rant on Hyotei's tennis club's background.

"It would be great if we don't play Hyotei…" Oishi heard Eiji comment. The vice-captain of the team held back a chuckle when he heard Eiji's muttered "I hate those guys".

Echizen, calm as ever, easily returned a drop shot Miyuki had hit his way (the manager pouted when she could not get to it on time, thus losing her service game). "So what," he said as he adjusted his cap. "If we defeat them all, that'll be fine."

There was a momentary silence, broken only by the sound of racquet against ball before their sensei laughed. "That's right, Ryoma!" she exclaimed with mirth lacing her voice. She paused for a moment, and Oishi managed to score with his Moon Volley – though he thinks it was because Fuji let him.

"We're counting on you."

The Regulars as a whole paused to watch their rookie's reaction (Miyuki, on the other hand, had started to grin even before Echizen adjusted his cap to hide his eyes). Their manager pouted again at Ryuuzaki-sensei's next annoucement, though.

"All right! Based on Echizen's request, you'll be doing one extra set of stroke practice!"

"Mweeeeee…! Ryoma, how could you?" their long-haired manager whined, and Echizen being Echizen, shrugged.

"Mada mada da ne."

Oishi had laughed, as did a few of the other Regulars, at the sight of Miyuki pouting at Ryoma – who, frankly, did not seem to care. Their days after that seem to pass by even faster, though, and before they knew it… the day of the Kantou Tournament had came.

( line breeeeaaak )

'Well… this was unexpected,' Oishi thought to himself ruefully, but was still unable to surpress a chuckle. Who'd have thought that Echizen's excuse to be late the last time was really his excuse this time?

Blinking as his phone rang, he excused himself from the side of the lady he helped to take the call. "Hai, Oishi desu."

"Hey, Oishi!" came the voice of Ryuuzaki-sensei. "What're you doing—"

"Ah, gomen, sensei… I had to help a pregnant lady to the nearby hospital."

"EEEEEH~!" Oishi was glad that he managed to brace himself for that scream, and the lady in the hospital room tried and failed to hide her mirth; apparently, she heard the scream too. The sensei repeated his words once more, and he confirmed it with mild amusement. "I understand. Can you make it on time?"

"Ah… as for that… I'm not entirely sure. I don't feel right leaving her alone while her family is on the way."

There was a sigh. "That sounds just like you, Oishi," the sensei said, but not without fondness lacing her voice. "All right then. I'll see what I can do."

"My apologies, sensei," he said sincerely. There was a fond "don't worry about it" before the line was cut. The vice-captain stared at his phone for a moment before he dialed another number. When it was picked up, he sighed. "Tezuka. It's me."

About three minutes later, he returned into the room and smiled at the lady on the bed. "Hang in there," he encouraged. "Your family will be here very soon."

"I'm really sorry," she told him. "Thanks for your help."

Rather suddenly, as Oishi was distracting the lady with small talk whilst they waited for her family, the door was opened and Momoshiro's voice startled him.

"Oishi-senpai!" he yelled, then added as an afterthought, "ah, shitsureshimashita."

"Momo…?" Oishi turned and looked at his junior questioningly. Seigaku's second-year powerhouse was sweating buckets and slightly out of breath, indicating he ran all the way to the hospital from the tournament location. (Oishi would never admit it, but he was a little hard-pressed to not smile at the headband the younger teen sported.)

"I'll wait here until her family members arrive, so please go on ahead!"

Oishi smiled at his junior, a hand on his hip, but said nothing. Momoshiro, confused by his behaviour, added, "Hurry on, Oishi-senpai!" before he paused. "What's wrong?"

Oishi knew that Momoshiro had pretty sharp senses and eyes when the junior put his mind to it, and Momoshiro proved him right when he took in a sharp breath. "…masaka…"

"Ah," Oishi answered, pulling up the sleeve of his jersey with his left hand. "It seems that my right wrist is broken."

"I'm so sorry," the lady apologized again. "It's all because of me…"

"Ah, no… don't say that!" Oishi rushed to assure her. "It's all right!"

Momoshiro was silent for a while, rather obviously gathering his thoughts. "Momoshiro," he called, and removed his Regular's jersey before the younger's confused gaze.

"Seigaku's counting on you."

"I…I can't do it!" he answered. "I can't wear that!"

Oishi surpressed a fond sigh – Momoshiro was quite like a younger brother. "Even if I go now, I'll only cause more trouble for the team," he pointed out rationally. "Don't worry about my wrist. It should be healed in about two weeks."

"B-but!"

Left with no choice, Oishi used the time card on Momoshiro. "Hurry up and go, Momo! There's no time!" He paused before smiling at his junior again. "I don't want it to end here." The vice-captain held out the jersey to Momoshiro again.

"Win against Hyotei for sure, and complete our dream of going to the nationals!"

Oishi smiled when the younger teen finally accepted the jersey he held out. "I've already told Tezuka about this," he told him. "And…" he added with a sad smile, "please help me tell Eiji that 'I'm sorry'."

He paused for a moment. "Hey Momo."

"Yeah?" the younger teen asked as he was about to head out the door, having taken off his non-Regular jacket when Oishi gestured for him to do so.

"Nice headband you've got there."

( line break, teehee )

What? I didn't say we were going to go directly into the matches, now did I? Ufufufu~~

Next chapter jumps a little into the two managers, and of course, them matches.

Sensei = teacher

Senpai = senior

Shitsureshimashita = Excuse me, or something of that like

Masaka = Could it be / can be it, etc