An extremely long chapter ahead! 8D YAY!

Also, the omake is actually amusing this time round. I hope.


The weekends could not come any faster. Normally not a morning person, Miyuki was hyper when she woke up that morning for her game of tennis with Rei. Takeshi, who was not a morning person himself, stared at her from his flopped position on the couch (the dogs came in from the open door and promptly flopped on his legs. Takeshi did not even bother responding to that).

"I'm off!" the redhead called happily after she put on her sports shoes and shouldered her tennis bag, and her brother mumbled something that was supposed to be a response before she slammed the door on him.

Yes, Miyuki loved slamming doors on people.

She got on the bus from where the older teen told her to, and was sufficiently hyper when she saw Rei leaning against the pillar of a stop at least five stops away from her school. Miyuki near-literally leapt off the bus and promptly got the other girl in a hug.

"Whoa there, hi," Rei exclaimed, balancing herself admirably fast considering the hug attack was unexpected. Miyuki let go of her and grinned. "Well someone's excited," Rei continued dryly.

"Tennis!" Miyuki cheered, and Rei giggled. The brunette picked up her own tennis bag from the ground and shouldered it before turning to her.

"The club's this way," she told her, gesturing for Miyuki to follow. The redhead happily did so, skipping behind Rei in a manner that had the older teen shaking her head with an amused sigh. Upon noticing tennis courts, Miyuki rushed up to the brunette and began chattering excitedly, which had Rei looking a mix of confused and amused.

"Miki, I don't speak gibberish," she said patiently as she led her into the club's lobby. Miyuki pouted in response, and Rei grinned.

"Oh you so cute," the brunette teased, making her pout more. Still grinning, Rei told her to stay put while she found out which court the club allocated them, and Miyuki took the chance to look around, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

The lobby of the club was not particularly impressive - but it was well-maintained. Some ways behind the counter where Rei was at was the toilets and shower rooms, while to the counter's immediate right was a small cafe that sold refreshments and finger food. There were stairs that led to the second floor, and the sign that stood in front of the steps said it was a gym. It looked like there were more floors, but the directory that was on a wall showed that those floors were not accessible to those who were not staff members.

She was distracted from her observation when Rei tapped her shoulder. "C'mon," she said simply, and Miki grinned. They got to play, they got to play, they got to plaaaay!

Trailing behind Rei like a puppy, the redhead definitely did not pay attention to where she was going. She turned a corner - looking around distractedly at all the other people playing - and found herself walking smack into someone.

Rubbing her forehead, Miyuki looked up, blinked, and looked up some more. "Twall nii-chan," she greeted, waving. Rei, noticing that she had fallen behind, came walking back.

"Miki, you know this..." a pause, "very tall person?" Brown eyes blinked.

"Ara, we meet again," he said with a chuckle. "I'm Saitou Itaru."

"Miki's name's Kitsuke Miyuki," the redhead chirped, waving.

"I'm Takeuchi Rei," Rei introduced herself, bowing slightly with a small smile.

The now-acquainted man smiled. "You're here for a game?" he asked, chuckling when Miyuki nodded enthusiastically, whereas Rei opted to simply answer verbally with a short "hai". "Well, don't let me stop you," he said, waving them off. "Have fun."

"Miki will~"

Rei bowed to Saitou as he left before turning back to her. "Let's go," she told her with a smile, this time holding her hand to make sure she did not bump into anyone else.

Miyuki grinned. This was going to be fun!


BUMP!

"Ow... Sorry I'm late," the long-haired man apologized as he stepped into the surveillance room. There were varying responses to his entrance - distracted mumbling, some rather enthusiastic (and unenthusiastic) replies, and some outright ignored him. How mean.

Saitou settled himself onto a chair, spinning it slightly for kicks before searching up two names. He read through the articles that were pulled up briefly, eyebrows rising at his newly-obtained information before focusing his attention on the monitors before him. His gaze drifted between screens before one caught his attention.

He laced his fingers together, propping his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his hands. Someone came by, leaning against his chair.

"Whatcha looking at, Sai-chan?"

His eyes rolled back to regard the speaker momentarily before turning back to the screen. "Camera 19," he said simply.

There was a pause as the speaker found the screen. "Hmm..." he started as they watched the redhead serve, "since when were you in-charge of the female division?"

Saitou smiled, watching the steady rally the two girls started up. "They're interesting," he said instead of answering the question. He and his additional audience both whistled when the brunette managed to return a particularly tricky shot, and the other let out an appreciative hum when the redhead countered that with a drop shot, ending their first rally.

"I see," the other said, sounding amused. He moved away, calling for someone to join him but Saitou paid him no heed, keeping his attention on the monitor.

'Kitsuke Miyuki and Takeuchi Rei,' he recalled their names. He vaguely remembered who Kitsuke was during his walk to the surveillance room - and that article of her setting a new time record helped jogged his memory, but Takeuchi Rei was an enigma. No match records under her name. The only thing that made her noteworthy out of everything he read was that she was Rikkaidai's team manager - and coach, to some extent. Also, the amount of martial arts-related articles that came up with her name in them was astounding.

Then the match started between the two females, and Takeuchi was playing evenly against the one who set a new time record in for female middle school division in ten years. In fact, it looked like she may win.

Saitou continued his observations, feeling his smile stretch wider. "Veryinteresting," he muttered to himself, and grinned when he spotted his friends entering the court beside the two girls. He leaned back against his seat, chuckling.

"This should be worthwhile."


Playing against Rei was fun. Miyuki was not going all out - then again, she rarely did - but Rei responded to all her shots quite easily, only missing if Miyuki managed to set the elder up to be in a bad position. Even thatwas rather hard to do, and the redhead could not help but think that it was something to be expected from the other upon remembering the few members from Rikkai she knew.

She vaguely noticed two figures enter the court beside theirs, but quickly refocused as the brunette returned her serve. Miyuki grinned as she made her way to return that with a slice... and then they were both distracted by the rapid rally the other court had started.

As Miyuki was blessed with motion vision, she had no problems keeping up with the rally. Whether or not Rei had motion vision was something she did not know, but the other was keeping up with the speed of the rally with relative ease.

Maybe it was an old tennis ball they were using (because Miyuki seriously did not know), but the thing somehow split in half after a particularly hard return and the halves came flying towards them. Instinctively, the redhead raised her racquet to block it from hitting her face and Rei took a step back before smacking the half that flew her way onto the court with her racquet frame.

"Wei-chan, kakkoii~" Miyuki cooed, going starry-eyed from the 'coolness' Rei appeared to excude from the action in Miki-vision. The brunette blinked at her, looking confused.

"Uh... thanks?" she offered uncertainly while the players from the other court rushed to them.

"We're so sorry," one of them said, looking sheepish and apologetic at the same time. "We did not know how that happened - did it hit any of you?" He looked relieved when both of them shook their heads. "Oh thank God."

"Don't worry about it," Rei assured, smiling slightly. "No harm done."

"Still, that shouldn't have happened," the other one spoke, looking confused at the halves their tennis ball became. "We're really sorry."

They apologized one more time before they went back to their own court, taking the destroyed tennis ball with them to throw away. Rei stared after them, a frown on her face, and Miyuki blinked.

"Wei-chan?"

The brunette blinked, turning back to her. "Yea?"

"Something wrong?" Miyuki blinked right back, and Rei laughed softly.

"It's nothing Miki," she said, tossing her a tennis ball. The redhead caught it, and Rei smiled. "Let's continue. Last I checked, you were one point away from keeping your service game."

"Eeeeeh," Miyuki whined. "But I'm still losing by two games."

"That's what you get for not playing seriously, Miki," Rei teased good-naturedly, and she pouted.

"Wei-chan, you meeaanieeeee...!" she whined again, and the brunette laughed.


"I see what you mean about them being interesting now, Sai-chan."

The long-haired man laughed. "I told you, didn't I?" he said smugly. "So," he said, turning to another long-haired man, "what do you think, Kurobe?"

The man addressed as Kurobe smirked. "Saa..." he answered.

Saitou pouted.


"A letter for me?" Rei repeated, blinking.

It was a few days after her game with Miyuki, and the club advisor (no one said they did not have one) called for her to meet him after she finished instructing the non-regulars what they were supposed to do for the day. She had glanced over at their cap-wearing vice-captain, who nodded and told her to not keep the teacher waiting, and then she followed said teacher to the faculty office, which led to her having this current conversation.

She accepted the letter the teacher handed over to her and glanced at the envelope. 'To: Takeuchi Rei, manager/coach of Rikkaidai Fuzoku Middle School Tennis Club'. She had to blink and reread the envelope to make sure her eyes did not deceive her.

While it was common knowledge she was the manager, the fact that she was their pseudo-coach was not. Whoever it was that wrote the letter must have done his or her research. The brunette glanced at the teacher who nodded, and opened the letter.

'Miss Takeuchi Rei, you are cordially invited to join the National Under Seventeen training camp-'

Wait, what? Stop. Rewind.

"National...Under Seventeen...camp?" she repeated the words slowly, blinking and looking back up at the teacher, who was now smiling at her confusion. "But this is..." she trailed off to finish reading the letter, and when she did, let out a confused "eh?".

"S-sensei... this is for the Under Seventeen. A camp where high-schoolers are normally chosen."

"Yes."

"Are you sure it's not meant for the team as a whole? 'Cause it sure looks like it."

"Takeuchi-kun, I believe the letter was addressed to you, and you alone."

"But... eh?"

The teacher had a smile on his face as he addressed her. "Takeuchi-kun," he said, "personally, I think you should go." Rei blinked at him, and he chuckled. "You've helped lead the team admirably since you joined, and it became more admirable to watch you lead from the shadows after Yukimura-kun was hospitalized. Even though he doesn't show it, Sanada-kun appreciates your help more than you know. Watching you from up here," he gestured at the nearby window that overlooked the tennis courts, "makes me wonder how much of your potential in tennis is being clamped down by your need to help them improve instead."

Rei blinked at him again, feeling a blush creep onto her cheeks. "Um... well, that's just my duty as a manager-slash-coach?"

"Be as that may be," the teacher continued strongly, "your potential is going to waste if you don't take this chance, Takeuchi-kun." He leaned back in his seat. "Of course, you would have to think about it before you decide on any course of action, but that is how I feel, and I feel that this opportunity couldn't have come at a better time."

Mutely, the brunette nodded and bowed her leave, closing the door on her laughing teacher. Pocketing the letter with the intention of reading through it more thoroughly after practice, she dashed back to the courts, purposely ignoring Akaya's whines for her to play a game with him and dashing off to play against their red-haired senior instead.

Marui had a long, good laugh at Akaya's pout before they could start, though.


Having been charged by Sanada to clean the courts as punishment for slacking off (again), Niou was not expecting anyone to be in the clubhouse when he was done.

He was wrong.

Upon opening the door, he saw the back of their brown-haired manager sitting on the bench, staring intently at...something. The silver-haired teen did not exactly sneak up on her, but he walked silently enough for her to not realize she was not alone.

The fact that she did not realize he was right behind her struck him as a little odd; with all her martial arts training, Rei was more than a little aware of her surroundings. It made him extremely curiousas to what it was she was focusing on that made her tune out everything else.

'Under Seventeen training camp', he read over her shoulder.

"Hou," he said, slinging an arm around her shoulders and chuckling when she jumped. "I just read something interesting."

"Senpai!" she not-quite yelled, shifting slightly so he could sit as well. He gladly plopped onto the bench, getting into the younger's personal space even more than he already was to read the letter she held. There was a not-very convincing attempt at stopping him ("(Rei) Get out of my personal space! When did you come in anyway?" "(Niou) How about no? About twenty seconds ago." "Niou-senpai!" "Ooo, whoever wrote this knows you're not just a manager." "Shut it." "Love you too, Uchitake." "...what did I do to deserve you as a senior? What."), and soon he was reading the entire thing through.

The trickster poked the younger's cheek after he was done reading it. "You ain't going?" he asked. Brown eyes caught his blue ones momentarily before looking away.

"I'm...undecided right now."

The answer was rather unexpected. "Why?" he shot back, and Rei turned to him.

"You do realize the significance of the dates written in this invitation, right?" she questioned. "The dates for the practices are the are dates when there are matches, Niou-senpai. Matches that I, as the manager and somewhat-coach, have to watch."

The silver-haired teen did not see her point in that. "So?" he countered. "It's not like we didn't play matches when you weren't around before." He shrugged. "'Sides, it's the perfect chance for you to develop your own skills properly."

He smirked at her surprise. "Yes, Uchitake, I saw you when you were practicing." He poked her cheek again. "I must commend you for learning it to that level on your own."

Rei pouted slightly, smacking his finger away. "I have a good role model to learn from on a daily basis," she answered matter-of-factly. Niou could not help his grin.

"I don't think that 'role model' of yours knows what you're doing."

The brunette 'pfft'd at that. "Right, as if I believe you. Stupid petenshi."

"On the contrary, dearest Uchitake," Niou retorted as Rei smacked him for purposely messing up her family name, "a trickster cannot be stupid for a trickster needs to be smart enough to trick those around him. Or her."

There was a sudden pause, and Niou smirked. "...if I do decide to go for it, can I count on you to deceive the heck out of everyone else?"

"'Course," he answered easily, getting the brunette in a one-armed hug (not that he removed his hand from her shoulder yet). "Not quite sure why you want it to be a secret, though. What, want to see if you can beat the crap out of all of us-wait, you're already doing that."

It was probably tricky on her part, but Rei managed to smack him at the back of his head. "Ow, okay, I get it," he quickly jumped to his own defense. "Is a secret 'cause reasons. 'Kay, I get it, stop hitting me."

The brunette stopped, but not before she hit him one last time. Then, rather surprisingly - because Rei was not a physical person - she let her head rest against his shoulder and sighed.

"...thanks, senpai." He could hearher relief at getting his help. Silly girl...

His smirk getting a bit of a fond twist to it, Niou ruffled her hair, chuckling at the half-hearted protests. "No problem, chibi."

A pause. "You owe me some lunch boxes."


"Hey, anyone knows where Rei is?"

Niou glanced up from tying his shoelaces at Akaya's question before quickly ducking his head back down to hide his smirk. So she went. Well this should be fun.

"Saa," he replied vaguely. "Something came up at the last minute again, probably." The silver-haired teen shrugged and stood, shoving his hands into his pockets nonchalantly. "It's not like this never happened before."

The seaweed-head pouted. "But she didn't tell me!"

"Right, because you are her self-proclaimed younger brother, she has to tell you everything," Niou deadpanned back at him, and the younger chose to pout instead of reply. Huh. For once, the seaweed-head was smart.

His doubles partner glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, as did Yanagi - though the data master was far more discreet about it. As he expected; these two suspected something was up already. That was fine, though - Yanagi would not say anything, and Yagyuu - as Rei had confessed when he bullied the brunette into buying him dinner that night - was one of the people she had wanted to talk to before he 'intervened'.

The trickster stretched. "I'm going to get something to drink," he declared. "It's too damned hot here."

Yagyuu stood at that declaration. "I'll join you, Niou-kun," the bespectacled teen said. Niou shrugged, not particularly caring, and the two walked in companionable silence.

"Niou-kun."

"Nn?" the silver-haired teen grunted noncommittally.

"You know what Takeuchi-chan is up to, and where she is, don't you?"

His tone was not accusing; rather, it was calm yet curious. Niou chuckled - he liked that about Yagyuu.

"If I do?"

The bespectacled teen paused, gathering his thoughts as Niou got himself a cold sports drink. As he popped the can open, Yagyuu spoke up again.

"Niou-kun, I'm fine with not knowing what she's up to as long as she knows what she's doing," Rikkai's Gentleman told him. "Though you do know if anything happens to her while she's off doing..." a pause and vague hand waving, "whatever she is, Yukimura-kun would have your head?"

The silver-haired teen swallowed his mouthful of the drink and grinned. "Well then, it's his fault for being in the hospital, aye?"

Yagyuu shook his head at him, exasperated. "Niou-kun..."


The Under-Seventeen female camp was, apparently, five kilometers away from the male camp. Rei sighed, scratching her head at the differences between a map she printed out and the map that was enclosed in the letter she gotten. "Man, but this map is confusing," she muttered, looking at the squiggles that was supposed to be a road. "Who drew this thing? It's horrible."

(Somewhere within the male camp, Kurobe sneezed.)

Somewhat glad she had the foresight to print her own map, the brunette made her way to the female camp rather calmly. When she reached the gates, she was rather surprised to see a familiar redhead.

"Miki?"

Her voice made the younger stop bouncing on the balls of her feet, turn, and instantly rush at her. Rei barely managed to brace herself for impact when the smaller teen pounced with a squeal of overly-excited "Wei-chaaaaaan!".

So, Miyuki was invited to this too. What are the odds?


OMAKE:

"Say, Niou-senpai..."

"Oh, Uchitake." The trickster responded. Rei pouted. Stop creating a new family name for her, damn it! "What's up?"

"What does puri even mean?"

The senior smirked. "That's a secret."

"Eeeeh," the brunette uncharacteristically whined. "Senpai, that's mean."

Niou chuckled. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you." Rei blinked. It could not be that easy to get an answer from the trickster - it just was not. "The meaning of puri is..."

A dramatic pause. "Pupina."

Another long pause. "...senpai, are you teasing me?"

The trickster merely grinned.