Hi everyone!!! I hope everyone's looking forward to this New Year and that it runs smoothly for everyone. Anyway, I would appreciate reviews from anyone! Oh… and if you want a recap, go to chapter 6
"Speaking"
'Thoughts'
'Singing'
'Flashbacks'
Disclaimer: I do NOT own PoT
Chapter 7
Morning practice…
"100 laps around the courts!!" shouted Misao.
"I think Mura-buchou made a mistake in leaving her in charge when he goes to the hospital," stated Kirihara.
"Yeah, I have to spend way more than before to buy enough snacks to keep me going," said Marui.
Kiri chuckled at Marui's statement. "She's even worse than Sanada, Yukimura and Renji's training altogether," commented Niou, "The only thing she makes us do is training."
What they didn't know was that Misao was running right behind them, her glasses glinting, a vein popped up her head, "You guys… 50 push- ups, 50 sit-ups and Niou, do 20 extra squats!!"
"Ehh!" they all complained except for Sanada, Renji and Yagyuu.
"If you complain, I'll double the training," she stated.
Everyone sweat dropped and carried on running. After completing the task Misao gave them, they had practice matches. "Renji and Akaya, court A. Jakal and Yagyuu, court B. Marui and Kiri, court C. Sanada and Niou will play doubles against me!" announced Misao.
Everyone was shocked with the pairings, "A girl can't possibly take on a guy, especially Maiko, she's underestimating them, there's no way she can beat Niou and Sanada together."
Misao's officially annoyed, "Chotto(1)…so you think girls can't beat boys? " There was a dark aura surrounding Misao, but nobody noticed except for the regulars and Kiri.
"There's no ways, don't think you're so great!" said the boy next to him, "Just because Yukimura-buchou allowed you to join doesn't mean we approve."
Misao smirked, "Why don't we play a match?"
"Ha, there's no ways you can win!" the boy shouted.
"Tekeda, stop cu-," Sanada tried stopping them.
Kiri is similar to Misao in the sense that they both dislike being underestimated so Kiri stoped Sanada. "Mi-chan, you do you mind?"
"No," came the obvious reply.
The two girls looked at the two boys, "Let's settle this in a match!"
They played doubles. Misao stood at the baseline and Kiri stood by the net. Misao served a normal serve, but it was too fast for the boys and so they missed it.
1-0
It was the boys turn to serve. The boys' serve was very slow, Kiri returned it quickly. The game progressed fairly quickly.
3-0
The boy served again and again, but they were all returned.
"What happened to all the bragging from earlier?"
"Ha…ha… ha." The boys were panting hard.
5 games to 0
"Kiri-chan, are you ready?" asked Misao.
She smiled, "Yeah."
"Those who challenge the Shinigami(2) shall never return to light," said Kiri.
"We reap those who lost their souls," said Misao.
"Remember that!!" Kiri and Misao said at the same time as they scored their final point.
6-0
Everyone was speechless. Surprisingly, Kirihara was the first to recover, "Have you two paired up before?"
The two girls looked at each other, "No, this is our first time."
"Then, how did you two come up with such a cool phrase?"
"We came up with it after practice; we helped each other with our own special moves. That's when we came up with the idea of the 'shinigami' so we agreed to only use it with the others' approval during doubles; it's a move for doubles."
The bell rang, signalling the start of school.
"Oh no, we lost track of time!!"
They rushed to the clubroom, got changed and hurried for class.
~-~-~-~-~
Of course, they were late. "Gomenasai(3), sensei, we had tennis practice."
Whispers erupted from the class. They sat down and began class. Niou was just being Niou, he secretly switched the whiteboard marker to permanent marker. Misao and Kiri had their heads on their desk and their eyes were closed, in other words, they were sleeping. The teacher saw Misao sleeping and so he threw the permanent marker at her which hit her on the head. Misao lifted her head, "Oww, that hurt," she mumbled.
"Maiko-san, is my class that boring?" asked the teacher.
Misao who was just as blunt as normal just honestly told the truth, "Yes, I don't understand Math… and I'm tired… I'll study at home…" she managed to say before dropping her head back on the table. The teacher also spotted Kiri sleeping, "Zaizen-san, please solve that equation."
Kiri, like Misao, lifted her head and answered which she got right. Niou smirked, 'they're so similar' he thought.
~-~-~-~-~
After school…
"Kiri-chan, can I borrow your notes, I didn't understand anything."
"Just one problem, I fell asleep in class so I didn't take any notes"
Misao sweat dropped, "I see."
~-~-~-~-~
Afternoon practice…
Misao added 250 grams each of their wrist weights; they did the usual 30 laps as warm up. After they finished their laps which they had to complete in 15 minutes, they had to do 50 squats, 100 push- ups, 100 sit- ups, and ankle stretch 50 times on each foot and finally, they played matches in their worn bodies.
Everyone was dead- tired. Misao dismissed everyone. After everyone left, Misao locked up and was heading home until she heard the sound of tennis balls, she went to go look. She was surprised at what she saw and smiled.
Misao walked towards Kiri, "You completed it?"
"Yeah," she replied happily.
What they didn't know was that all the regulars were there, hiding in the bushes.
"Do you want to test it?" asked Misao.
"Sure"
Misao served normally and Kiri returned it. Misao hit it back again and she heard Kiri say, "Here I come!!"
Kiri smashed the ball, which looks like a normal smash, but when it reached the ground, it didn't rise. The ball flew across the court. The regulars just watched in amazement, "Wasn't that Tsubame Gaeshi?"
"The principle is the same, but she did it as a smash"
The regulars saw the look of discontent on Misao's face and wondered what's wrong.
"Kiri-chan, was that a doubles' move?" asked Misao.
Kiri nodded.
"Then you should only use it during doubles!" she yelled.
The regulars were surprised by her sudden outburst. "Show me your arm," said Misao.
"But…"
"Don't use these moves that will injure yourself," said Misao. Misao took Kiri's jacket off and examined her arm, she looked worried. "Sharing your pain with others helps you lessen the pain. Your elbow's just a bit swollen, it'll get better soon. Don't overuse it."
Misao went to her sports bag and took out some sort of ointment and a bandage. She applied some on and wrapped it with the bandage. She gave the ointment to Kiri, "Just apply it on after showering."
"Thank you"
Misao smiled, "No prob." She said, "I'll teach you a way to put as little strain on your elbow as possible."
She dragged Kiri onto the courts, but heard some rustling sound from one of the bushes.
"Who's there?"
The regulars fell out from behind and the girls just sweat drops. "Niou, please can you swap wrist weights with Kiri-chan."
Niou smirked, "On one condition."
"What is it?"
"Give me something I want"
"Which is?"
"I haven't decided yet."
Misao hesitated a little; it was risky to make a trade with the trickster, but it was for her friend's sake. "Okay, fine!"
Niou took off his wrist weights while Misao removed Kiri's. Niou handed Misao the weights. The instant he took the weights from Misao, his hands dropped to the ground. Misao just smiled and put the weights on Kiri.
"Niou, you'll wear Kiri's weights until her elbow recovers."
"You…"
The regulars just stared at Niou. "What are you doing?" they asked.
Niou just managed to place them into Marui's hands which also dropped to the ground.
"It's so HEAVY!!" Marui yelled at the top of his lungs.
The others just stared at Niou and Marui weirdly.
"Is this the reason why you wanted to swap the weights?!" asked Niou.
"Yeah, it puts too much strain on her injured elbow, but I couldn't give her mine because they're the same weight. So I thought that yours would do 'cuz it's half our weights."
The regulars' jaw dropped.
"So you two did the same training as us, but with double the weight?"
"Yeah," the two girls replied.
"NANI?!(4)"
"USO(5)"
A/N- Thanks for reading!! Please review; tell me what you thought about this chapter!!
Words that might help~
Chotto- wait a second or a while
Shinigami- Death God
Gomenasai- respectable of saying sorry
Nani- What
Uso- lies, also said when people don't believe what they hear