Well, here's where the fun reallly starts! :DDD Ryoma slips his secret causing confusion and mayhem the cat is out of the bag. :D

"All gather!" Oishi called out to the scattered group of tennis club members. "Tezuka buchou is calling."

The second year, third years gathered swiftly, assembling into their usual lines. Ryoma meanwhile strolled over, stood at the corner of the neat rectangle assembly the rest of the members at form, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"This year, we have a total of 53 applicants for tennis club." tezuka announced. Surprise and awe showed all around. 53 was a huge number. Currently there was only a total of 30 members 2nd year and 3rd years added up together. 12 third years and 18 second years but a 53 freshmen admittance? That would be chaos. Murmurings rose all around. Oishi hushed them up.

"Therefore we would be holding a freshmen selection test." Tezuka announced.

"maji? We never did that before."

"Ahem." Tezuka paused and looked at each of them in turn. "according to Inui's analysis, a lot of the freshmen this year joined because of the past year's achievements - the 1st runner up for nationals. It was a great feat achieved by our senpais. But because of this, some of the freshmen are joining not because of passion or interest in tennis but for fame." Inui nodded in agreement.

"We agree that seiyou gakuen tennis club is open for all who are interested, we are not going to kick freshmen simply based on their strength or weakness. Therefore as agreed by Ryuzaki sensei, we would like the following 2nd years and 3rd years to help out in the selection trial." Oishi continued.

"2nd year: Kenji, Arai, Momo, Kaidoh. 3rd year: … Inui, Nakashima. And Ryoma, you too. Iijou desu (that's all). For those called please come down the courts tomorrow afternoon as per normal practice. For the rest, tomorrow afternoon practice will be cancelled."

The next day afternoon, Ryoma wished it would rain. He was tired and bored and wasn't interested in whatever selection trial the buchou and fukubuchou had in mind. He had been running around all day since yesterday afternoon preparing for the silly trial.

"Ryoma-kun!" Oishi's voice came from behind. "Can you get those extra rackets from the storage?"

"Hai~~~" Ryoma replied boredly as he jogged to the storage room.

By the appointed time, the group of excited and nervous freshmen had gathered. Some of them brought their own rackets. Ryoma spotted Horio and his two friends in the crowd. The noise was giving Ryoma a headache. All the tennis club members were busied by the event so Ryoma had time to himself.

Ryoma settled himself comfortably on a nearby bench. He was pleased that Fuji wasn't called out to help. Lucky break. BUT he wasn't at pleased to that see all the other regulars had turned up to watch. Ryoma spied them standing together in their uniforms at the corner of Court A. "Running 20 laps!" Tezuka had instructed. The poor freshmen were forced to run. Most of them didn't have the stamina. But majority of them didn't really lack the stamina but more lacking in determination. They groaned and complained at every single thing. Some of them are evidently trying to woo girls along the way.

After the monstrous run, the freshmen 53 of them were divided into groups to do a tennis tryout. Court A was led by Nakashima and Kenji. Court B was led by Oishi and Arai. Court C was led by two 3rd years whose name Ryoma don't know. Tezuka and Inui were overseeing the whole thing. Or rather Inui was walking from court to court scribbling furiously into his notebook.

The trial seemed to be going on pretty well at first, until a fight broke out in court C. the two 3rd years and some of the freshmen tried to break up the fight but failed. Ryoma, who had been napping near Court C was rudely awakened by the raised voices. He opened his eyes to the mess and chaos of Court C. The two 3rd years were at a complete loss of what is to do. Ryoma considered helping them out since Tezuka was nowhere in sight and Inui was in Court A still oblivious to the commotion at Court C. He stood up from the bench and walked towards Court C.

"Ne." He said loudly, picking up a spare racket on the ground with his right hand as he entered the metal fence of the court. "can you guys stop it already? Its very noisy you know." He pointed the racket at the two guys in the centre of the commotion fighting, each with a raised fist, about to bash the other party. Ryoma narrowed his eyes and gave them a disgusted look.

"NANI~!" they snarled at Ryoma. "You got a problem with something?" One of the two lashed at Ryoma.

Ryoma was unmoved. "yeah I do. You guys are so noisy that I can't sleep."

"HOH? WE ARE NOISY? CHIBI." guy 1 spat, challenging Ryoma, directly his pent-up fury at Ryoma now.

"yes you guys are noisy." Ryoma said coolly, untaunted by them.

The two suddenly forgot their fight and stormed towards Ryoma in unison. In one smooth motion, Ryoma picked up a ball from the ground and served a fast right-handed serve straight in between the two boys inches from their faces. It was a very fast serve and it stopped the two boys in their tracks. Their eyes opened wide in shock.

'Tennis is not something for you to fool around with. If you want to play it, respect it." With that, Ryoma set the tennis racket leaning against the wall of the court and left. The tennis court C in a silent awe after him.

"did you see that?" Eiji asked, jumping up and down in excitement. The group of regulars were standing together by Court A currently watching a practice match of one of the freshmen and Kenji.

"See what?" oishi asked.

"That serve! Serve!"

Oishi looked dumbfounded. "Serve?" He thought back, the freshmen in court was just returning the serve by Kenji, normal straight serves. What was so exciting?

Seeing Oishi's lost look, Eiji further explained. "That one that Ochibi just hit!" He said, pointing to the small distant figure of someone walking out of Court C.

"Echizen?" Oishi asked, completely confused. Eiji was getting exasperated. "Yeah! That was very fast! Ochibi must have played tennis before!"

Oishi squinted into the far distant of Court C. Although his eyesight was above average, he couldn't see whatever Eiji was talking about. The figures moves like shadows. He could hardly differentiate people from objects, let alone see who's is Echizen.

"Why is Echizen playing? I didn't know he was going to join the selection process as candidate..." He asked, profoundly confused.

"No! He just served just now. Very fast!" Eiji continued to exclaim, not making any sense to Oishi. The other regulars just looked as confused. Ryoma had told them explicitly, "I don't play tennis!" So why was Eiji talking about serves and Ryoma?

"Did something just happen on Court C?" Momo asked pointing to 2 figures making their way there. the two figures were Tezuka-buchou and Inui.

"yes! OCHIBI!" Eiji tried to explain, getting more and more exasperated by the minute.

"Harh?" everyone chorused, giving eiji the i-really-don't-get-you look.

Eiji ground his teeth together. How could they not get it! Ochibi just served a very fast serve, way way wayyyy above average. Seeing Eiji's unexplainable sudden excitement and the queer movement of Tezuka and Inui, the regulars decided to move to Court C and take a look.

"For disturbing peace on the Court, running 10 laps!" tezuka's loud voice reached the regular's ears before they reached the fence of Court C. The two reprimanded boys looked down and exited the courts in a run.

The regulars watched them exit and turned to face the court. A freshman was practicing his swing in the corner edge of the court, near to where the regulars were standing. "Hey 1st year, what just happened?" Momo called out to the boy. The boy looked up in surprise. "Oh, senpai-tachi. There was a fight just now between the two boys. But it's all ok now. A short 1st year came in and shut them up." He explained, eyes glittering with uncontrollably excitement and awe at whatever he had seen.

"1st year?" Oishi asked in surprise.

"yeah. If I'm correct, I think he was the representative."

The regulars opened their face in shock, Ryoma had shut them up?

"So what happened about the representative?" Fuji asked, suddenly interested. He was starting to piece the two and two together, the strange Eiji's exclamation and the boy's testimony.

"Oh, it was looking pretty bad then the rep. came in the gate with a racket in hand. He served a very fast serve between the two boys who were fighting, gave us a real scare! I didn't see that ball at all. It was too fast. Then he was saying something about… if you want to play tennis… respect it or something and told them off. It was really cool!"