Kikumaru Eiji knew, from the moment he heard Ryuuzaki-sensei's words, that Oishi would not be able to make it for the tournament. When Tezuka's phone rang, he knew that something came up that caused Oishi to be unable to play, and Momoshiro would take his doubles partner's place.
Yeah, Eiji was awesome like that.
…Well. More like he's close enough to Oishi to be able to tell these things.
He would not lie. He was worried about his collaboration with Momoshiro – not that he had anything against him, all Eiji had to do was think about the doubles combination that was Echizen-Momoshiro and… yeah.
As a doubles player, Eiji had nightmares about it.
But when Momoshiro showed up with Oishi's jersey in his hand, Eiji could not help but yell at his junior to hurry up with a smile on his face. Seeing the fire in his eyes when ochibi passed him a racquet and told Momoshiro to 'give them hell' made him more assured.
They would win against Hyotei. For Oishi, Eiji thinks strongly. He exchanged a high-five with his junior who smiled so confidently that Eiji could not help but feel that bit more confident as well, and after Tezuka's pep talk, their match was announced.
"The match between Seishun Gakuen and Hyotei Gakuen will now begin! First match. Members of doubles two please enter the court."
( line breeeeaaaaakkkkkkk )
Miyuki pouted. The female team ended their games really slowly. The redhead, despite being a defensive player by nature, was far too used to playing against males and that made her end her singles match fast (not that she played her game yet – they just begun with doubles two).
Her 'fast' is 'faster than the usual time taken for middle school female games' fast. Miyuki was right in thinking she set a new record… for the female side, at least.
The bored child-in-a-teenager's-body looked around innocently from her spot near the coach's bench. The rest of the team, already used to her antics despite her spending more time with the male team, merely laughed (some patted her head), but let her be (the only person from the female team who could handle her was playing the doubles game right at that moment, and really, the stoic buchou of the male team was needed to calm her down).
Once again, Miyuki pouted. "I wonder how the others are fairing…" she murmured to herself, shutting herself up immediately when she saw a familiar school uniform walk by the courts, apparently deep in conversation on a handphone.
…well, she's more used to seeing the male version of it, but it was still familiar nonetheless. The redhead found herself wondering who the teenager she saw was when said teenager stopped walking and leaned against the railings around the court to continue her conversation.
Silently, she nudged her fellow team mate. "Who that?" Miyuki asked, her trademark childish sentence structure making her senior giggle. Said senior took a look at whom Miyuki was pointing to and allowed an 'ah' of recognition to slip past her lips.
"That's the manager of Rikkaidai's male tennis team, Takeuchi Rei," the senior answered. "I don't know much about her, but I heard from Kawamura-kun that she's in the same karate dojo as he is."
"Sou na no?" Miyuki responded automatically, and her senior laughed.
"Ah, about Takeuchi… my cousin said she's nicknamed 'arashi no tsubame'," a different senior piped in cherrily. "I went to a few of his matches to support him, and I saw a match she was in. I didn't think half the moves she pulled off was actually possible – and she won against an instructor when the exhibition match came about. Those are never choreographed."
"What, really?" came another senior. "I heard she was good, but nothing about her being that good!"
"But… what about her tennis ability?" yet another senior asked, curious. "I've always only heard people talk about her fighting abilities, but never her tennis skills. She has to have something unique for Rikkai's male tennis team to have her as their manager."
Accepting the pocky a friendly senior gave her, Miyuki nibbled on it silently as she heard her seniors chatter about the now-identified manager of Rikkaidai's tennis team. She glanced up at the female teen wearing Rikkaidai's female school uniform, whom appeared to be frustrated as she finally ended the call she was in and stared at the innocent phone in her hands balefully.
'…did she just mouth I hate you at her phone in English?' Miyuki wondered silently as she watched the other manager walk away, presumably back to the court Rikkaidai was having their match.
'Between her and shishou, who would win in a match?' the redhead thought suddenly, thinking of her kendo instructor.
( liiiiiineeeee hehehehehe )
Momoshiro knew, from the moment his bespectacled opponent hit the ball away from where he knew the Kansai-ben speaking teenager initially wanted to hit, that he was trouble. The flippy dude was troublesome as heck, too, sealing off Eiji-senpai's acrobatic play with his own.
What made it more worrying for the second year, though, was his senpai's state of mind. When Hyotei had taken the first game, Momoshiro sensed that his senior's confidence had started to waver.
It totally did not help that they lost the subsequent games, either.
By the time the game count was 4-0 with Hyotei in the lead, Momoshiro knew he had to do something.
"This isn't good… they're too strong," the acrobatic player of Seigaku muttered. Then, as though suddenly struck by a strong memory, the senpai he was worried about in midst of the match made a comeback, diving for the ball that would have decided the game point. Momoshiro was further relieved when the ball returned by the flippy dude of Hyotei was returned again by his once-despondent senior and scored them their first point in the entire match.
It was before his relieved gaze that his senior did his racquet-spining thing around his wrist and looked far more confident than before. "Eiji-senpai," he called as he moved forward to meet the other.
"I'm fine, Momo," the cherry senior replied without turning around, his tone serious. "Don't give up!" he continued, slowly turning around to face him. "If we don't give up, we'll definitely find the opponents' weakness. The opportunity will appear."
Slowly, before Momoshiro's gaze, Eiji-senpai lifted his racquet, his expression as serious as his tone. "We must believe… in our own strength!"
And then, of course, the cherry senior winked at him and grinned. "How's that?" he asked. "Oishi once told me the exact same thing."
Unable to help himself, Momoshiro burst out laughing. "Eiji-senpai, you portrayed him well!" he exclaimed, chuckling. "It's time to turn this game around! It just started!"
The makeshift doubles pair exchanged grins of agreement, and it was then Momoshiro decided to speak. "…by the way, I did receive a message from Oishi-senpai."
( tro-lo-lo-lo-lol )
Rei glared at the phone in her hands before she sighed, giving up with the glaring. She would not deny that she was annoyed, though – she'd have thought that her shishou had stopped with registering her for competitions when she told him she could not make it.
"Ah… this sucks…" she complained under her breath. "I won't be able to observe the Kantou finals if my name can't be pulled out…" Rei paused in thought. "…nope. Not a single chance in hell it'll happen."
"Oi, Takeuchi. Girls shouldn't curse," came the input from the resident trickster of Rikkaidai. The silver-haired teen casually slung an arm around the younger, poking her cheek. "What made you so pissy?"
"Niiou-senpai…" she muttered, attempting to push his arm off before giving up without much of a fight. "I'll tell everyone when we visit buchou later. Doubles one is done?"
"I wouldn't be talking to you now if it wasn't, now would I?' Niou retorted, and the younger teen rolled her eyes. "Aka-chan is playing now. You're having fun shoving him into singles three and making him play with heavier power wrists, huh?"
Despite her mood, Rei grinned. "He wanted more power in his Knuckle Serve. I'm giving it to him. 'Sides," she shrugged, "it's not like his set is the heaviest in the team."
Niou grinned back. "True that," he concurred, removing his arm from her shoulders and Rei whacked his arm lightly, mock-pouting when he easily avoided it, and Niou patted her head in a manner an older brother would to his younger sibling. The sibling-like interaction between the two continued as they returned to the court Rikkaidai was at.
As they were walking, Rei could not help but take notice of the Seigaku versus Hyotei match. 'Australian formation?' she thought to herself even as she kept up with Niou's pace. The manager of Rikkaidai smiled. 'This should prove interesting if we meet in the finals.'
"Takeuchi, doko ni miteru ze yo?" Niou asked when he realized her attention was elsewhere. "Ore wa koko jyaki."
Rei laughed. "Hai, hai," she answered as she returned her attention to her brother-like senior. He began bugging her about the potential weakness she found in Yagyuu's technique – which she refused to answer, which then caused Niou to begin his rapid-fire questioning… which she proceeded to ignore. It was routine by now, and Rei could not help but feel part of her bad mood evaporate.
( wheeee~~ )
"All right! We started out with a win!"
"This is a big comeback victory!"
Oishii smiled at his partner and at his junior. "Well done, both of you! Nice game," he praised. Momoshiro grinned at him as Eiji stretched his tired limbs.
"Really, Momo, you moved well," Eiji said, smiling as he continued to stretch. "If it was us instead…"
"Yea… we couldn't have won!" he agreed with his partner. The Golden Pair exchanged grins at their junior's confused gaze as Ryuuzaki-sensei made the team hyped up for the next match again.
The vice-captain of Seigaku watched with a quiet smile as Inui and Kaidou got themselves ready for their own doubles match. Seeing (more like hearing) Shishido was a bit of a shock, but he figured that something must have happened within Hyotei for him to still be on the regular's team.
Out of the corner of his eye, Oishii caught sight of a yellow jersey and a uniform-clad form moving away from the court they were in. 'Rikkaidai…?' he thought to himself, a little curious as to their presence near their court, but shrugged it off when they continued on their way.
He had a match to watch.
( oh eff this shiz )
Imma only translate one phrase I used: arashi no tsubame. It's Rei's nickname in the world of martial arts, and it translates to either "Swallow of the Storm" or "Storm's Swallow".
Yes, swallow's don't fly in storms, but this is used to symbolize her speed (cause them swallows are faaaast) and her... quite ruthless style of attacking, though, of course, she lacks power due to more focus on speed.
If anyone needs me to translate them other Japanese words I used, lemme know and I'll be happy to help. :3
