She had been gone for a week. That was long enough for Miyuki to miss her team, and with that said...
"MIKI BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!"
There went the small redhead, dashing into Seigaku's tennis court during the team's morning practice. Various cries of her name ensued, and a certain acrobatic player proceeded to suffocate their manager by means of glomping and hugging her to the point she could not breathe.
"Miki! I missed you, nya! How are you?" Eiji cooed, and Miyuki flailed her arms in an attempt to tell the senior to let her go. She failed rather successfully - that was, until Oishi told his doubles partner that he was going to 'choke Miki to death' rather calmly. The rest of the team gathered and welcomed her back in their own ways, and waited in amusement for her to regain her breath.
The hyper redhead held out a bag that miraculously escaped everyone's attention until that point - Inui's glasses glinted in a way that told Miyuki he noticed it beforehand, though. "Miki bought souvenirs!" she chirped happily and proceeded to pour the contents of the bag out.
As the seniors leaned over her to see what their souvenirs were, Miyuki began handing them out. "Bandana for Kaidou-senpai," she said happily, handing over the Japan flag-decorated item to the aforementioned senior, "Momo-senpai gets armband," item handover, "Kawa-senpai, towel..."
A sudden pause as she tried to remember who got what. "Ah!" she remembered. "Inui-senpai gets notebook, Eiji-senpai is bear doll, Oishi-senpai is chibi piwwow! Ryo gets snacks, and Fuji-senpai gets picture frame!"
"You didn't get anything for Tezuka?" Fuji asked her as she finished handing out the souvenirs. Miyuki positively sparkled.
"Miki air-mailed buchou a T-shirt!"
Cue silence from the team as they tried to picture their captain's face when he receives his parcel. Cue half the team trying not to laugh from the mental image. Fuji merely chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"How's camp?"
"Camp was tough, but fun," she declared, still sparkling. "Miki learn loads..." she paused and pouted, "but the seniors are all meanies..."
"That must have been hard on you," Fuji answered, patting her head. Miyuki nodded.
"And then, there was a day where Miki was bowed, so Miki made a new training routine for everyone and a new diet recipe~" As she made that declaration, she triumphantly pulled out a notebook that probably contained exactly that.
"Hou, can I take a look?"
"Go ahead~"
As Inui and Oishi went through Miyuki's training routine and diet recipe, the rest of the team crowded around the two reading. A short moment passed before Momoshiro's statement reflected what the rest of the team was thinking.
"It definitely looks more convincing compared to Inui-senpai's."
Over in Rikkaidai Fuzoku, it was more or less the same situation. The difference was that...
"I was at a training camp and you guys want souvenirs? Jump off a cliff and die."
"Uwaaaah! Rei's a meanieeeee!"
"Jackal, do something about her!"
"Why me!?"
"Oh right, I have a new training menu for all of you. Prepare to drop dead."
"T-Takeuchi-chan, you mean we aren't already dropping dead?"
"Puri."
A sigh. "Tarundoru..."
"Oh, this is a good training menu, Rei. The probability that everyone would improve is more than 70 percent."
"I knew you'd see this my way, Yanagi-senpai."
"Ne, Miki?"
"Hm?"
"I know I promised you to a tennis game, but... why are we at Hyotei's tennis courts?"
Miyuki grinned at her, and Rei sighed. "Okay, I stand corrected: why must I help Hyotei's sleepy friend when I'm Rikkaidai's manager?"
Miyuki pouted at that. "Wei-chan no want help a fwen?" At 'friend', she pointed to a sleeping blonde up in the stands.
The brunette sighed again. "That's not what I meant..." she muttered. She just could not see a way to explain how she felt like she was betraying her own team, despite the fact that it was just meant to be a game between friends.
"But Yuu-chi said that, aside from Mawui, Jiwow is always motivated when he's around Yuki-hime, so maybe he'll feel more motivated to train."
"Or so this...Yuu-chi said?"
"Or so he said."
Rei sighed again. "Maa... I don't really mind, but... who's this Yuu-chi yo-" Of course. It could only be him. "Don't tell me... Oshitari Yuushi."
A low chuckle sounded from the entrance of the courts, and the two managers turned to see Hyotei's resident blue-haired member walk in. "Right in one," he drawled. He came forward, set his tennis bag down beside Rei's, and bowed in the same manner a gentleman would. "Nice to officially meet you, Rikkaidai's ohime-san."
The brunette gave him a sarcastic smile. 'Don't call me that,' she thought but said instead, "And with that, my first impression of you has been destroyed."
Another low chuckle. "Ara, that's harsh."
More sarcasm. "I aim to hurt."
In the midst of the sarcastic banter, Miyuki headed up the stands to poke said sleeping blonde.
"Jiwooooow! Jiwow, wakeeeey-Mweeeeee!"
At the loud 'mwee', the two bantering looked up in her direction to see the narcoleptic teen had sat up and was hugging the redhead - though he did not seem to realize it.
"Eh...? Since when was my pillow blue...?
"Miki's hair is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!"
"And it has a nice lavender smell~"
"IT'S GREEN TEEEEAAAAAAA!"
"Ah well... as long as it's comfortable to sleep with~"
"MIKI NAWT PIWWOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!"
The redhead sent pitiful glances at the brunette and blue-haired teen after trying and failing to get Jirou to let go of her. "Hwelp mweee..."
At her sad plea, Rei could not help but burst out laughing, and Oshitari chuckled, shaking his head at the scene. While the two of them were too busy being amused at Miyuki's predicament, Atobe had walked in, looking slightly annoyed.
"What's with all the ruckus, ah~n?"
"CAKEY, HWELP MWEEEEEE!"
Atobe blinked; "'Cakey'?" Oshitari repeated, looking like he was trying not to laugh, and Rei just continued laughing - the call for help to a cake apparently gave her a very funny mental image.
Sighing, Atobe glanced up at the 'situation' Miyuki got herself into, and, completely ignoring the fact he was called a cake again, yelled.
"Oy, Jirou! Wake up!"
Potentially reaction to the captain's voice, Jirou stirred. "Hn? Ah..." he yawned. "Atobe, is practice over...?"
And that was when he realized he was hugging someone.
"Are? Miki?" A pause. "IT'S MIKI-CHAAAAAAAN!"
Rei laughed again as Miyuki screamed when Jirou hugged her even tighter. The now-awake teen released his grip on the redhead and apologized as Miyuki pouted first at Jirou, then at Rei.
"Miki-chan, what're you doing here?"
Miyuki blinked at him, then gestured at her tennis bag and simply answered, "Tennis."
And that was that.
Because Oshitari declared that it was plain odd for him and Jirou to partner up for doubles, they decided on their singles match partners via coin flip (coin provided and flipped by Atobe). Much to Miyuki and Jirou's joy, they got to play against each other, which left Rei to play against Oshitari.
"My apologies for making you stay here while we played, Atobe," Oshitari said to the captain before he started his match with Rei, and Hyotei's captain shrugged as he sat on the coach's bench.
"I allowed you to bring outsiders in to use the court; it's a given I would stay to make sure everything's all right, ah~n?"
Oshitari chuckled. "If you say so."
With that, the two pairs begun their matches. Miyuki, as was normal for her, started off slowly, taking her time to study her opponent before attacking. Rei, on the other hand, had no such reservations and was attacking the moment they begun their rally.
It was also expected that the blue-haired teen would counter all her shots. In fact, he did it so easily that Rei felt like punching him. Not that she would, but with that smug smirk, he was asking for it. She was that close to losing the first game when she did punch him - hypothetically speaking that is.
No one expected her to suddenly hit her senior's technique, after all.
"'Tightrope Walking'...?" Oshitari muttered, and Rei shrugged.
"I still can't hit that properly, but it looks like it worked for now."
A low hum sounded from Oshitari's throat. "...you are better than I thought, Rikkai-hime."
Rei twitched. "If I win one game against you, you'll stop calling me 'princess'."
The blue-haired teen raised an eyebrow. "And why should I?"
"It's gross," came the deadpan response, and Oshitari chuckled.
On the other court, Miyuki had begun her attack after dropping the first game. Jirou grinned. "Miki-chan can play tennis well," the blonde chirped, and Miyuki grinned back.
"Jirou, concentrate. She'll start attacking so-" Oshitari's advice to his teammate was cut short when the tennis ball zoomed past him and slammed against the baseline of the court before bouncing away harmlessly. Hyotei's resident genius turned his gaze to a smirking Rei, who had just relaxed from the pose hitting that one technique would cause.
"Don't you have your own match to concentrate on, fake glasses-wearing senpai?"
'Yagyuu's 'Laser Beam' this time...' he thought before he chuckled and straightened up. "I see... you're able to use others' skills as though they were your own..." He smirked right back, feeling himself get serious. "I guess I can't let my guard down."
Observing both matches with his Insight active from the sidelines, Atobe would honestly say he was surprised - but since no one was going to ask him anything at that point, no one would know. He could remember how Miyuki played somewhat from the last time he saw her play, and Takeuchi's strength was... probably to be expected for Rikkai.
'Looks like they're more than just managers,' he thought to himself. Jirou let out a joyful exclamation as Miyuki started to return shots she missed in the first game. The two volley specialists did not hit any techniques like Oshitari and Takeuchi were, and was it just him, or was Miyuki playing with her right hand...? She was a left-hander, if he remembered right...
"Heeh, you can return that?" Jirou asked brightly. "Well then, what about this?"
"Daijoubui~" Miyuki sing-songed her answer as she returned the shot.
While the two volley specialists' match was full of smiles and laughter, the one between the all-rounded genius and aggressive baseliner, on the other hand, was rather... heated.
"STOP HIGUMA OTOSHI-ING, DARN YOU!"
"No can do. I don't particularly want to be forced to stop calling you hime, and you keep smashing."
...there was that too. Atobe mentally sighed. The things he did for his team...
For rather obvious reasons, Jirou and Miyuki had to change court faster than Oshitari and Rei's. While they had a water break, the blonde remembered something and began talking excitedly.
"So so so, I was thinking, next time, we should go to that parfait shop opposite the train station!" he exclaimed, gesturing about excitedly. "I wanna challenge the Giant Parfait with Marui-kun!"
Miyuki perked. "Okai," she agreed, then turned to the two still locked in a rally. "Wei-chan come too!"
"Huh?" the brunette asked intelligently as she returned a ball. "What're you talking about again?"
"Parfait!" the volleyers exclaimed together - Atobe swore he saw sparkles and little flowers around them.
"Ah, sure," came the distracted reply, and the two asking her cheered. They probably did not realize the other manager really was not sure what they were talking about, focused as she was with her rally against Oshitari.
For obvious reasons again, the volleyers finished their match faster than the other two (Oshitari and Rei just only took a break when their side ended) with a score of 6 games to 3 in Jirou's favor. Miyuki pouted even as she drank some water.
"Miki loooost..."
"That was fuuuun, let's have a match again, Miiiikiiiiii-chaaaan!"
Grinning at the elder teen's enthusiasm, Miyuki nodded and was promptly glomped. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! Ure-C!"
"Miki is happy too~!"
Then Jirou gasped, as though remembering something important. "Because I won!"
The redhead blinked innocently. "Because Jiwow won...?"
"I'll give Miki-chan my wristband!"
He did exactly that, thrusting the colorful wristband in her face. The younger stared at said colorful wristband, not saying a word. Jirou grinned.
"The next time we have a match, you should show me your killer moves!"
"...kiwwer moves...?"
"Yup yup! A super cool killer move that I cannot return!"
While the two were enthusiastically chatting away, the (extremely heated) match between Oshitari and Rei finally drew to a close with a score of 6 games to 4 in Oshitari's favor.
"You really are better than I thought, Rikkai-hime."
"Shut up," the brunette huffed, wiping her sweat with a towel. "The bet was if I won one game, you'll stop calling me princess. I got four games from you, so stop calling me that."
A smirk. "Aaah, I really don't want to, though. Besides, I never said I agreed to that bet."
"...can I punch you?"
"It'll hurt, so I'll pass."
"It's meant to hurt, you idiot."
Miyuki soon joined in the banter, and after they had enough rest, decided to play doubles after all. Oshitari turned to call Jirou to join them, only to find the narcoleptic teen sleeping yet again.
The redhead bounded up to him and patted his head. "Jiwow died?"
The sleeping teen shifted in his sleep and Miyuki quickly scurried away, not wanting to be caught in another inescapable hug again. "No gwomp mwe, yew naughty!" she cried, whacking him.
Jirou only snored and shifted again.
"...that's impressive..."
"We deal with this everyday, Rikkai-hime."
"Good on you," came the deadpan response. Then a sigh. "But how are we supposed to play doubles now?"
A long pause before the trio turned to stare at Atobe, who has been silently sitting on the bench the entire time. The captain raised an eyebrow at them for a few moments before sighing and standing up.
"Fine. I'll help you fill in that empty slot for doubles," he said, loosening his tie as he stood. "Decide the pairs and let's begin."
Wordlessly, Miyuki clung to Rei, and the brunette sniggered. "I guess that decided the pairs."
Quickly deciding which pair would get the first serve, they began their rally. By some unspoken deal, Miyuki took on the role of defence while Rei attacked, which led to more than a few net battles between the brunette and Atobe (Oshitari was quite amused).
When the first game reached a tie-breaker (quite impressive for them to do so, if Oshitari wanted to be smug), Atobe sighed. "Take off those weights," he ordered, and the two managers blinked. "Did you really think you could win against me and Oshitari if you kept them on, ah~n?"
A pause. "Wei-chan, can I throw my weights at him?"
"They're heavy. It'll hurt," Rei answered even as she knelt down to remove them.
"That's the whole point!"
A sigh. "Do as you like."
"Miki will!"
"OY."
The 'oy' came from three sources: Atobe himself; Oshitari, who, for the first time, felt the need to protect his captain; and Rei, who immediately grabbed Miyuki's leg to prevent her for doing exactly that. Miyuki pouted.
It was a good day, Yuushi thought to himself. Getting Yuki-hime to come to Hyotei proved to be a good plan in getting Jirou to at least play a bit of tennis that day - and the little princess brought someone whom he thought was the least likeliest person she would bring.
He sat at his table and took off his glasses; no point wearing those at home, after all. Pulling out his homework for the day, his mind drifted off to the singles match he had played with Rikkaidai's manager and felt himself smirk again.
Rikkai-hime (no, he was not going to stop calling her that anytime soon) has completely contrasting auras that depended on whether she was playing singles or doubles, and who her partner was, if his observations were right. The brunette, when playing singles, was much like a predator, unrelenting in her attacks until her prey was 'dead', so to speak. He believed he knew who Kirihara Akaya took after in play style now (their smirks were similar too, now that he thought about it), though it was rather obvious that the princess knew how to control herself better than the other.
When playing doubles, and with Yuki-hime at that, made the brunette's aura go a complete 180 that it was almost funny. Not to say she was not predatory anymore - she was, but Rikkai-hime was more... open to test the waters and in trying new strategies, occasionally changing the pace of the game with no warning to her partner except for a quick glance or a faint nod. That in itself, Yuushi thought, was testament to exactly how much Rikkai-hime trusted Yuki-hime's support, and was exactly the reason why the brunette's full potential shone.
Of course, Rikkai-hime's attacks would not have worked without proper support on Yuki-hime's part. Yuushi played against Yuki-hime numerous times; he more or less knew her style. The redhead was the type that would silently observe before reacting as needed - and she did exactly that during their doubles match. Reading the flow of the game and adapting easily to her partner's change of pace, Yuki-hime was allowed to fully fall into her prefered role when playing tennis - support, which was further emphasized by her flexibility and field of vision (also, motion vision).
When he asked her, Yuki-hime told him that she only knew Rikkai-hime for less than a month, and for them to be able to play so well together...
'They make a good team,' Yuushi thought to himself, stretching slightly. 'I look forward to playing against them again.'
OMAKE:
As was usual for Rikkaidai's tennis team, the regulars went to visit their hospitalized captain after training. Before they went in, though, Rei idly said that she wanted to get something to drink and did exactly that after telling them to go on ahead. Akaya trailed after his 'big sister' like a puppy, whining that he wanted one too, and the brunette indulged her 'brother' with exasperated fondness.
So the third years all entered their captain's hospital room, calling out their own greetings to the blue-haired teen. Niou plopped onto the bed, smirking at his captain.
Yukimura blinked. "Yes, Niou?"
"Your darling made me a bentou today," the silver-haired teen announced, smirking. Yukimura twitched. "It was delicious."
By the side, everyone else (mentally) panicked. "N-Niou-kun..." Yagyuu tried admonishingly, but Rei and Akaya chose that moment to enter the room.
Yukimura smiled far too brightly at their manager. "Ah, Rei, good timing," he said, smiling. "Would you be so nice to up their training menus?"
Rei blinked, looking confused. "Uh... I just di-"
"It's fine, it's fine," Yukimura cut her off. "They can handle it. Besides, it'll be good training for Nationals."
"Um... okay...?" the confused manager agreed, and the regulars all glared at Niou as a whole.
Niou merely smirked. "Piyo~"
(Of course, Rei only increased the regulars' training menu a week later (in accordance to their growth, you see), but no one told Yukimura that.)
