Hello all! An early season's greetings to all my lovely readers! Thanks for the reviews, favs, and alerts!
Slightly overdue, but better late than never like I always said (awkward laugh)
Before I start, let me clarify on one thing. Some of you might think there's one-sided love between Akemi and Atobe. But, I would like to point out in the previous chapter, he referred to her as a 'friend'. It's too early to say whether something will come out from the two.
When the hands struck 6:00am, the retro alarm clock erupted into peals of ringing; breaking the silence in the Noda residence. The entire body of the soft blue clock quaked under the persistent hammering against the two side bells.
Akemi jolted from her sleep; the movement nearly sent her tumbling onto her bedroom floor. Realising it was only her clock and not the three-headed monster* from her nightmare, she breathed a sigh of relief before slamming a fist down onto the clock, silencing it for the rest of the day.
Sighing in content, she snuggled back into her duvet. Her heavy eye-lids fluttered for a couple of heartbeats before sleep eventually embraced her.
Not one second into her slumber though, she was woken up by another ringing. Then, silence returned to the house.
Thinking it was just her imagination, Akemi pulled the duvet over her head and curled deeper into the soft cover. The sigh, which threatened to escape, was caught halfway up her throat when the silence was once again, disrupted by the annoying ring which she now realised was the doorbell.
She was about to ignore it, when her mother's commanding voice floated from the corridor through the tiny gap between the bedroom door and its frame.
Groaning, she rested a hand against her forehead where she could feel a headache the size of the Milky Way coming on; and it grew rapidly when the family dog started barking right underneath her window.
Cursing under her breath, Akemi reluctantly sat up in bed (which, mind you, was a huge effort from her part); the duvet fell into a messy pile on her lap. She shuffled closer to the window and ripped the curtains apart with so much force, it wouldn't take another for the whole fabric to fall off its rod.
If she was a blood-sucking vampire, she would have screamed on top of her lungs at the sudden flash of light filtering through the window.
As it were, Akemi gave a half-hearted yelp and immediately shielded her eyes with the back of her hand. Blinking to rid of the dancing spots in her vision, she dropped her make-shift blinder and leant slightly over the window frame, and scowled at the unwanted visitor who thought it nice to wake the entire occupants in the house at such unholy hour.
Her eyebrows, which were raised into a pair of arches upon recognition of the visitor, dropped back into a scowl as quick as lightning.
Chucking the duvet off with gusto, Akemi slipped into a pair of bedroom slippers, threw a light dressing gown over her pyjamas, and marched from her bedroom and down the stairs, with the intention of giving the visitor a piece of her mind.
XXX
Outside, the 'unwanted' visitor watched on, his expression bearing as much enthusiasm as a boulder, the German Shepard barking and growling at him from behind the closed gates. Inwardly, he was glad for the wrought-iron barrier between man and dog. He hardly flinched when the dog threw its front paws on the gate, causing the whole thing to rattle under its weight, as though 'standing' on its hind legs would make it look more intimidating.
He knew this breed of dogs were intelligent and could be highly vicious; the very reason they were highly sought in the military, police, and search and rescue.
But honestly, the Nodas' family dog was far from scary.
Nope.
Definitely couldn't even begin to compare with one of its lovely owners…
The front door swung opened, almost with a resounding bang if a flustered Akemi, who quickly remembered she was not the only living soul in the house, had not been quick enough to react before it hits the shoe cabinet.
Gathering back whatever dignity she had left from that, she put on a grim front and marched towards the gate, where the stoic vice-captain of Rikkai's tennis team awaited her.
"Sit, Duke!" she glared at the dog, hands on hips.
Usually, her orders would fall on death's ears, for the German Shepard only obeyed her mother. At least, Duke was smart enough to realise when she was not in the mood for fun and games, and obediently backed down from turning Sanada deaf.
Her narrowed eyes never left Duke until his tail disappeared from view round the back of the house. Satisfied that at least something had gone right this morning, she shifted the scowl to her impromptu visitor.
Unperturbed, Sanada tilted his head in a bow. "Good morning, Akemi-san," he greeted, his face as passive as ever.
"Good morning, Genichiro-san," she replied in a flat tone, showing her displeasure at him showing up out of the blue. She fell into silence as her eyes studied the boy behind the gate. Now that she had a good look at her neighbour, Akemi realised in puzzlement that he was dressed not in school uniform, but the black and exceedingly bright yellow tennis apparel, and his usual cap. One of his hands was gripping the straps of both racquet and school bags which he carried on one shoulder.
Noticing her change in demeanour, Sanada cleared his throat. "From today onwards, I will accompany you to and fro school."
Taken by surprise at the unexpected words (though it sounded like he had memorised a speech), Akemi could not find the words to express herself for a moment, but eventually regained her composure. "Why?" she asked, frowning suspiciously at him. Her gaze sharpened. "If this has something to do with Saturday night, then-"
"Isn't that good, Akemi?" a voice behind her smoothly interjected.
Both high school students turned to see Mrs Noda standing at the doorway. "You have a friend to walk to school with?" she added, lips curving upwards into a smile, that though looked innocent to anyone, left no room for argument. "Now, why don't you be a good neighbour and friend in return, and invite him in for a cuppa while you get change?"
XXX
The awkward silence, which had followed them since leaving the Noda residence behind, was broken by a sigh of exhaustion.
Heaving her schoolbag by the strap higher up her shoulder, Akemi (now dressed in her school uniform) grumbled under her breath, occasionally throwing a dirty look at the person walking ahead of her.
Even though they were several paces apart, Sanada –thanks to his sharp hearing –could clearly make out words such as, 'abuse of parental power' and 'stupid tennis'. The vice-captain refrained himself from firing back a retort at the blatant insult on his favourite sport.
After all, there was his reputation to uphold; despite the inkling of it shattering into a million pieces once the other tennis regulars caught wind of this new routine Sanada had inserted in his daily schedule.
But he had made up his mind. Not even the death glare that was burning holes into his back would change anything.
Deep down, Akemi knew Sanada had her best interests at heart and was only looking out for her. That near-mugging incident must have been one heck of a wake-up call. With those thoughts going through her head, the intensity of the glare reduced to a scowl, and only because she was still miffed at being forcedout of her comfortable bed at such a ridiculous time of day.
And it didn't help the fact Mrs Noda, who was already told of her run-in with the bunch of delinquents on the same night, was adamant that her daughter return home in one piece, despite being reminded (by Akemi) of her daughter's proficiency in karate and that she was caught off guard.
In the end, Akemi gave up trying to convince both Sanada and her mother she didn't need a 'bodyguard' when the latter threatened to stop curry weekends if she didn't comply.
'Unfair! That was two against one!' she huffed in indignation, crossing her arms over her chest. Her eyes widened in shock when a realisation dawned on her. 'I have to wake up at daft o'clock every weekday because Genichiro-san has morning practice!?' she frowned darkly.
"Monster," she muttered.
Sanada pulled down the peak of his cap over his eyes. Again, he made no attempt to openly acknowledge the latest remark.
After a few minutes of sulking, she drew a long sigh; resigned to her fate as she felt the lack of energy to remain annoyed at him for the whole trek to school. With that in mind, Akemi lengthened her stride until she caught up beside him, and resumed walking in a casual pace.
Throughout the rest of the journey, they made the occasional small talk. Apart from that, they mostly kept to themselves. Sanada, because of his usual stoic nature; and Akemi, because she could not be bothered to hold a conversation long before it was interrupted by her yawning.
At least, the atmosphere between the two was no longer tense, as she had seemingly forgiven him (for now).
Unsurprisingly, the road leading to Rikkai was devoid of any souls. Added to the desolate environment, there wasn't a single car running up and down. Only one was parked outside the school; giving the place an eerie feeling, if not for the mockingly good weather with blue sky and a happy sun.
A tiny gap greeted the two high school students when they arrived outside the school gates. Akemi presumed the guard must have had deemed it unnecessary to open the gate fully at this time of day, and so, left a small hole that could only fit one person at a time.
After ungracefully stumbling to the other side of the gate, Akemi patiently waited for Sanada as he squeezed his entire bulk through the mouse hole. Completely ignoring the large clock face above her head, she glanced at her watch, and noted with a frown, it was only 6:50am.
It would take weeks for her brain and body to adapt to the new alarm setting.
Mark her words.
Seeing that Akemi had yet to familiarise herself with the area, Sanada led her through the labyrinth that was the school's expansive ground to the tennis courts. Once there, they deposited their bags on a bench, which stood underneath a tree, closest to one of the courts.
Akemi immediately plopped down on it beside her bag and sighed in exhaustion. "It's too early to be at school," she grumbled to herself. Throwing her arms above her head for a stretch, she turned to the only living human beside her. "Just out of curiosity; what time do you wake up for this morning practice?" she asked, reaching for her thermo flask and unscrewing its lid.
Bending over the bench, Sanada fumbled inside the contents of his racquet bag, and eventually pulled out a fistful of tennis balls. "4:00am sharp," he replied without missing a beat. "Every day," he added, leaning back and hoisting his tennis racquet onto his shoulder.
The thermo flask froze at her lip just as she was about to consume its hot content. Akemi could imagine the embarrassing scene if she had been mid-way drinking the tea. "Every day!?" she echoed his words, gazing at him incredulously through wide eyes. "Including the weekends?" She lowered the thermo flask to her lap, just to be safe. "Whatever for?"
The vice-captain was about to open his mouth to reply, but someone beat him to it. "Genichiro does kendo training and Zazen before breakfast every morning," said a familiar voice. "This is why he gets up early each day."
They turned to see it was Yanagi who had spoken. Standing casually beside him was the ever smiling captain of Rikkai's tennis team. Like their fellow team mate, both sported the Rikkai tennis apparel; each carrying their respective racquet and school bags on their shoulders.
Not for the first time, Akemi gave a mixture of puzzlement and amused look at the captain's habit of wearing his jersey over his shoulders like a cape. If anything, the fluttering jersey added to his dignified flair (not that she was going to admit it out loud).
As more bags occupied whatever available space the bench had without suffocating Akemi (and she was inwardly grateful for that), the four of them exchanged greetings.
But that was not before Yukimura added a comment or two about Sanada going all his way to bring his new female friend along (despite having been thoroughly informed of this decision last night), implying something ridiculous that earned a death glare from Akemi.
Yukimura laughed it off as a joke, but neither the victims found it funny.
Once he deemed it safe enough, the captain said to her, "He created this strict timetable for himself since entering middle school as a freshman. Actually, he was four when he took up both training," he added as an afterthought, balancing a tennis ball on his racquet.
That's just borderline crazy; was what she wanted to say, but thought better of it and kept quiet. She knew about his Kendo training beforehand, so perhaps, it shouldn't come as a surprise to her that the vice-captain took his training this far. Still, she was relatively taken aback by the fact one would force oneself to get up and out of bed before 6:30am.
As the Three Monsters started to head down to the courts, Akemi realised something was amiss. "Are the others not joining you?" she asked Yanagi, who was the closest to her (in terms of distance).
Yanagi paused in his stride to glance over his shoulders. "By 'others', I presume, with 82% chance, you're referring to the other regulars?"
'Answering a question with another question; how apt,' Akemi remarked, dryly. Nevertheless, she nodded wordlessly.
The data master readjusted the grip on his tennis racquet before replying, "Actually, Seiichi told us to take a break from morning practice for a week as a reward for the nationals. But as you can see, not everyone complied with that request, even the buchou himself."
"Why though?" she titled her head to one side. "It's not like there's another tournament coming up isn't it?" As far as she knew, the national was the last of this summer's tennis tournaments.
His lips curled into a small wily smile. "Well, there are surprises in every corner. No?" he stated cryptically, shrugging in an offhanded manner.
Akemi frowned in displeasure at his (seemingly) fondness in speaking in a roundabout way. She was about to ask nicely (demand) for a clearer explanation when the booming voice of the vice-captain drifted from the court, calling for Yanagi to act as umpire for his match with Yukimura.
Yanagi dipped his head before joining the other two Monsters at the court, leaving the question hanging over her head.
Rolling her eyes at his retreating back, Akemi leant further back against the bench, sipping the tea while relishing in the coolness provided by the shade and the sea breeze.
Halfway through the intense match, she felt herself slowly nodding off and tried to fight back the temptation. But alas, Akemi was lulled into sleep by the cool breeze and the rather monotonous sound of tennis ball hitting ground. The now emptied thermo flask lay on her lap, supported by her slacked hands.
If the Three Monsters noticed their manageress, neither put too much thoughts into it as they were all completely immersed in the match.
How much time had passed when she was gently woken up by Yukimura's prodding, she didn't know.
"Good morning," he smiled teasingly. He had already showered and changed into his school uniform.
Akemi hid a large yawn behind her hand. Blinking away the tears from her eyes, she lifted her head and winced at the shot of pain from cricking her neck. "I'm not sure about the word 'good'; though I don't feel as sleepy as before," she paused to massage the sore spot with another grimace. "Nope. I am positive it will do the whole world a favour if the use of 'good' in association with mornings is prohibited." she shifted her gaze to Yukimura. "You should know very well by now, I'm not a morning person."
"I'm sure your perspective will change in the long run," he chuckled good-naturedly, picking up both his racquet and school bag from the bench.
"Been there, done that. Never worked," she shrugged airily, shuffling to her feet.
A smile formed on his lips. "Oh, I wouldn't be quick to judge, Akemi-san."
A sceptical eyebrow was raised as Akemi pulled the strap of her bag to rest on her shoulder. She was about to say otherwise when Yanagi and Sanada, both in their school uniforms, emerged from the locker room, thus bringing their conversation to an abrupt end.
With an exasperated sigh, she left it at that. The smile on Yukimura's face grew by an inch, but enough that it irked her. In retaliation (though childish it may be), she whipped her head the other way with a huff, arms crossed over her chest.
If anything, it only amused the captain even more.
"What's wrong?" Sanada asked in a curious manner, having only witnessed the last scene.
"Nothing," Akemi lied, still looking pointedly away.
Not quite catching her tone, the vice-captain glanced from his obviously pouting neighbour to his best friend, wondering if something transpired between the two while he was in the locker room.
"I look forward to working with you," Yukimura beamed, indifferent.
Brown eyes narrowed at him. "I look forward to shoving your big head into a bucketful of sea water," she amended through gritted teeth. Then with another huff, she turned on her heels and stomped off in the general direction of the exit without another backward glance.
Sanada raised an eyebrow.
Yup, something must have happened.
He probably should call her back or run after her (though after a brief consideration, running seemed to be out of his character), but he had his duty as the disciplinary committee's vice-president.
Praying there won't be any disasters following that, he bade farewell to his two best friends and left to patrol the school grounds for any pre-class clown acts. Though he never openly admitted it, nobody could escape his radar.
XXX
Using her elbow as support, Akemi propped her arm on the table and rested her head on her hand. 'The nerve of that jerk!' she thought in irritation. 'He's purposely winding me up.'
Unbeknownst to her, she was the first female in the whole of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku to bluntly refer to the idolised captain and high school student as a 'jerk'.
That is of course, if a hearing device was somehow implanted in her brain…but that's too far-fetched even for a Sci-Fi fan; i.e. Akemi.
Three floors above her classroom, a certain someone paused in watering the flower beds to sneeze into his handkerchief. Shrugging it off as the dust, he pocketed the cotton fabric back into his breast pocket before resuming his care of the rooftop garden.
XXX
Akemi knew the tennis regulars were immensely popular in Rikkai.
But perhaps she had understated their popularity.
It was ten minutes before the bell would ring in homeroom period, and she was fed up with the squealing horde of fangirls crowding around Niou's and Yagyuu's desk.
Sure, there were the occasional boys from her class congratulating the doubles partners in their national win, but they were easily outnumbered. For majority of the fangirls were made up of students from other classes. Once or twice, she had even spotted girls wearing the junior high uniform snuck in, holding garish pink envelopes and chocolates in their hands.
She held back the urge to smack her head soundly on her table; though inwardly, she doubted that would divert their attention to anywhere but the two tennis regulars sitting a few desks behind. In the end, she resorted to resting her forehead on the smooth surface, holding her head by the sides as if trying to prevent it from exploding under the huge pressure currently pressing against her skull.
'Honestly, there are better things to do on a Monday morning,' she sighed in exasperation, loosening the grip on her head. She could only Sanada would put on his strongest glare during the afternoon club activities to drive them away. She had enough of it for one day. Briefly, she wondered how the other regulars were coping (because she had no doubt, they were receiving the same torrent of congratulatory messages, gifts and love confessions) and whether either of them would live to survive the morning.
Out of curiosity, she snuck a glance out from the corner of her eyes to the class vice-president sitting three desks away to her left by the window.
Hinata had her nose buried deep in an English literature book; eyes roaming over the text and occasionally flipping to the next page. If she minded the ear-splitting, headache-inducing, night market-like racket behind her, she gave nothing away, and read on as if she was in the library.
Akemi felt envious of her level of tolerance. Though she highly doubted even the class vice-president can do anything to break off the crowd. It may due in part to the possibility of them dispersing was akin to asking Atobe to personally sweep the floor with a broom.
The corner of her lips quirked up in amusement at the mental image of the egotistical Hyotei captain snapping the broom handle in half, declaring on top of his voice the whole notion absurd, before tossing it aside with a huff.
Feeling better, Akemi returned to writing notes for history class. Not even her worst subject or the ruckus behind her was enough to damper her mood.
She even smiled through history class, which stunned her classmates and teacher. To top it all, she found a new form of entertainment in taunting a seething Niou for his apparent lack of skills in music.
As morning became afternoon, and the bell rang, signalling the end of class for the day, the strange feeling of dread slowly crept down her spine, until she could feel nothing but numbness as she stood in a line with the tennis regulars, facing the rest of the members of the boy's tennis team neatly assembled before them.
It never crossed her mind that she needed to make introductions in front of a huge crowd; and she thought her first day at school was bad. Earlier, when she saw the sheer size of the tennis club, her eyes bulged until it looked as though they would fall off their sockets.
Although she stood beside the imposing form of stoic vice-captain, who wore a steely gaze as though daring anyone to even twitch a muscle, her heart hammered uncomfortably against her chest. She clasped her clammy hands before her in an attempt to stop fidgeting.
Swallowing with difficulty, she tried to calm the anxiety whirring in the pits of her stomach as she stared firmly before her at the bright yellow fabric that was the back of Yukimura's jersey. Though it probably would take a long time to rid the piercing colour from her vision, it was better than chancing direct eye contact with any of the non-regulars.
She could sense the intense curious stares resting on her, weighing her down like an avalanche of boulders, as they waited in anticipation for the captain to (hopefully) enlighten them.
"Everyone, before we announce the training menu for today, there is somebody I would like you to meet."
Akemi bit the bottom of her lips nervously when Yukimura gave her a flitting smile before gesturing for her to come to the front. She hesitated; long enough for her to have second thoughts about this, and was actually about to bolt when she felt a light nudge on her elbow. She slid a quizzical gaze to Sanada who bowed his head towards her. It was a subtle movement, but she caught the meaning.
The captain beamed encouragingly when she eventually stepped forward to stand beside him.
Resigning to her fate, she nodded at him to continue before facing the front. Their staring intensified as though assessing the specimen in front of them. Ignoring the unnerving feeling, she swept a glance at the individual faces; a few she recognised were second years like her, and a couple were even from her class.
Yukimura cleared his throat. "This is Noda Akemi," he waved a hand towards her direction, "After passing a strict personality evaluation test devised by Renji -" Akemi felt her inside froze at that new revelation "-I've concluded that Akemi-san here is the most suitable candidate to join the tennis club as our manageress."
Gasps and murmurs of surprise exploded from the assembled non-regulars soon after the announcement.
Akemi herself had to fight back the strong urge to explode into a human fireball.
As far as she remembered, down to the miniscule details, Yukimura never mentioned anything about a test. Sure there was the trial, but wasn't that for her to check out their practice sessions before deciding on whether she'd join the tennis club as their manageress?
She glanced around at the regulars, whose names were not mentioned, to see none of them appeared as shock as she was at the existence of a test like it was not news to them. At that, she narrowed her eyes at the whole lot, showing what she thought of them for leaving her in the dark.
Unsurprisingly, Niou was the only person who found her reaction particularly hilarious –laughable even, but clamped his mouth shut when a death glare was sent his way. When the vice-captain turned his head around, the silver trickster stuck his tongue out, earning an elbow to the ribs –courtesy of Yagyuu.
Her knuckles turned white from clenching it too tightly. 'Since when did he-!?' she broke off from the train of thoughts when a weight fell on one of her shoulders; the previously raging inferno insider her diffused upon that touch. She looked up to see Sanada shook his head before retrieving his hand and turned to order for silence.
They immediately obeyed, and stood straighter on their spots.
As Yanagi read out the training menu from his clipboard, Akemi snuck a flat glare out from the corner of her eyes at the unperturbed captain beside her as if there was a mile long gap between the two.
When both regulars and non-regulars rearranged themselves for their warm-up laps, the officially appointed manageress whipped around to face Yukimura, eyes burning with cold fire.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Care to explain?" she demanded, inwardly surprised at the calmness in her voice.
He smiled in an apologetic manner, which initially caught her off guard but was quick to maintain her composure. "If I have told you about the evaluation test, would you have behaved otherwise?"
Akemi blinked in puzzlement, speechless. Eventually, she found just the right ones. "Well…it's not like I was desperate…" she said, slowly; uncertain if she believed it herself.
'Was I desperate?' Eyebrows scrunched into a frown, she gripped her chin, mulling over the question.
Yukimura gave her another smile, his eyes twinkling in amusement, before joining the others where they were doing stretching exercises before running laps. Deep in her own cloud of thoughts, Akemi did not realise he had left.
'No…' But she had wanted to find the right activity to fill up her afternoon on weekdays, and most definitely thought such a sought after post (at least among the female population of Rikkai) would boost her chance in entering a good university. She placed a finger on her lips. Would she become self-conscious and not be herself around the tennis regulars just to prove she's more than capable in 'babysitting' a whole bunch of boys?
"I got to hand it to you, Seiichi," Yanagi observed, glancing over at their manageress who was constantly shifting from gripping her chin to scratching her head as she struggled to come to a conclusion. "You sure muddled her good -Oh, perhaps not for long," he added with a note of surprise when Akemi bumped her fist on an opened palm.
A smirk crossed her features. 'Definitely would never fall for his trap,' she nodded in a manner of self-approval, arms crossed over chest. Resolved to be constantly on her guard around the sly captain from now on, Akemi headed towards Yanagi when she realised he was gesturing for her with his hand that was not holding a large bottle of green liquid, presumably some kind of a health juice.
Each step she took closer to the data master, the further she felt like running away, preferably all the way to the rooftop garden.
For it became clear that strange concoction was in fact a mixture of dark green and black with a poisonous aura surrounding it to boot.
"Wh-what is this?" The hair on the back of her neck stood on end at the sight of sickening liquid; no longer dubious about it being a non-health drink of any kind.
Those around them began to edge away, eyeing the drink with the same horrified expressions.
"This?" He held up the bottle to eye-level, unwittingly causing the liquid to swirl inside the bottle. Akemi gulped with difficulty, fighting back the nausea that threatened to spill from her throat. Yanagi carried on indifferently, "It's a little something my friend and I have created. An improved recipe of the health mix he made a couple of years ago," he held the bottle towards Akemi, who pursed her lips into a thin line in repulsion. "The Super Deluxe Matcha*." He gestured the bottle with a dramatic wave of his hand. "Would you like to give it a try?"
Behind the data master, the Troublesome Trio (a nickname she had given for Kirihara, Marui and Jackal), who overheard Yanagi offering her the drink, shook their heads furiously, flailing their arms above their heads until the dizzying motions blurred into an odd colour.
But Akemi's eyes were fixated on the awful-looking drink in front of her.
Luckily, yesterday's bad experience with Atobe's bitter coffee was enough to put her off from tasting free samples (food and drink alike) for a while. "No thanks," she held out her hands before her, "I'll save it for another time," she lied through her teeth; there was no way in this or the next lifetime she was going to drink that. 'Plus I don't think matcha is meant to look like that.'
"I see…how unfortunate," Yanagi remarked, actually sounding mildly disappointed even if he had expected this response. There was a collective sigh of relief behind him.
"…And pray tell, what are you going to do with this matcha?" she asked curiously, emphasising the reference to the so-called 'health mix' in a dry manner. But he had no chance to give her a (she hoped) good explanation, for it was time to start their laps.
Without so much as a by-your-leave, the bottle was shoved into her hands along with a whistle. "Take good care of this for me, please. Guard it with your life," Yanagi nodded towards the drink. He turned around and added over his shoulders, "You'll soon find out what it's for." With that, he jogged up to join the others at the starting line.
She gingerly adjusted the hold on both objects in her hands, for fear of dropping one or the other. 'My first job as a manageress is to look after a drink made by two eccentric experimentalists?' she eyed the liquid, sceptical of its supposed health properties. 'How divine…' she sighed in exasperation, having no doubt his friend was like him. She looked up when her name was called.
"What are you waiting for, Akemi-chan? We're ready!" Marui shouted from his position.
"Huh?" she blinked, uncertain.
"Are you sure that girl will be alright? Can't even do her job properly on the first day."
Bristling, she scowled at the person who made no attempt to lower his voice when he made that snide remark; recognising him as one of the second years from another class.
The sniggering did not stop until Sanada glared darkly at him. The vice-captain nodded at a freshman, who seemed to understand the muted gesture and bounded towards Akemi with a friendly smile.
Whatever anger she felt at the uncalled comment, it disappeared with a poof when her eyes met the beaming face. She wasn't good at guess-the-age games, but Akemi had no doubt the boy looked too young to be in high school or a first year student for that matter.
"It's nice to meet you, Noda-senpai! There's no time for introduction yet. So I'll just skip to the point!" If anything, he exuded an aura of Marui, almost like the younger version of the bubbly red-head (minus the strawberry blonde, ice-cream shaped hair, brown eyes and permanently flushed cheeks). "Just blow the whistle to start. Oh! And make sure to say 'Ready, set, go' on top of your voice!"
"O-okay...thanks," she gave him a smile. "Good luck!"
"Thanks! I'll need all the luck I can get!" he grinned, though Akemi saw the flitting haunted looks in his eyes before the freshman returned to his previous position.
Briefly glancing at the whistle, a smirk slowly formed on her face.
She stood beside the phantom starting line, brought the whistle to her lips and raised her now vacant arm high above her head. "Ready!" Ignoring all the bewildered stares following her as she made a dash back where she was moments ago. "Set!" she skidded to a stop beside a certain flabbergasted second year, took a deep breath, and blew the whistle.
There was a brief moment of silence before the dust kicked off in a hesitant manner.
As the air cleared around her, it revealed the rude second year, who had staggered backwards at the sudden piercing sound right at his face, rubbing his ears in pain.
Akemi cast him an expecting look. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go!" she gestured lazily after the trail of dust.
He opened his mouth to make a retort (if the shade of tomato was any indication), but had second thoughts about it after catching the sight of the Super Deluxe Matcha resting in her arms. "I will never forget about this!" he snarled, before running after the rest of the club members like his life depended on it.
"Good riddance," she scoffed. Then a sudden realisation hit her. 'Oh great, I just made an enemy on the first day. Way to go, girl,' she thought sarcastically, slumping her shoulders. A pair of sombre eyes rested on the bottle as she contemplated in silence. 'I'll just make sure to keep this very close to me,' she decided, hugging it tighter against her body.
Pulling the lanyard of the whistle over her head, Akemi casually walked towards the bench she had used this morning.
Nobody (not even Niou) made any smart comments about the way she was just sitting there, observing their warm-up laps with mild interest, and holding onto the bottle of 'poison' between her hands like a weapon.
This did not escape her notice. 'Perhaps Yanagi-san speculated something like this would happen,' she mused, scratching her chin thoughtfully. A smile appeared on her face. 'How nice of him…'
XXX
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
'…or not.' Akemi grimaced as a few more bodies joined their comrades and plastic cups lying haphazardly on the ground by her feet. Some were even piled on top of one another.
She cast a sweeping glance, shuddering as she did so, at the messy scene before her. She easily spotted the twitching forms of Niou, Kirihara and Marui in the midst of all the unconscious non-regulars.
It was like the aftermath of Jenga gone horrible, and that was the understatement of the century.
'This is ridiculous! To ask them to complete thirty laps in such a short period of time, and then forcing them to drink that abomination as penalty for failing,' her gaze shifted to the stoic vice-captain, who appeared to be admonishing the air if he was not addressing his dissatisfaction to the fallen members of the club. 'I'm surprised they haven't called him a tyrant yet,' she mused.
Akemi hastily pushed the now emptied bottle towards Yanagi, who stood casually beside her; his hands now empty of the plastic cups he had so conveniently brought to school. "Don't let me do this again. I beg of you," she asserted firmly, hands on hips. "Just helping you to pour th-that thing into the cups and handing it to them makes me look like a murderer."
"My hands were full," he pointed out usefully, unperturbed at the sharpened gaze he received.
"Well, a little warning will be fully appreciated the next time you ask me to do something as immoral as this, Yanagi-san," she added, eyes narrowed threateningly at him. "And I don't care if they're going to come out from it alive or not. Just don't."
"Yes, mam," came the short reply. Being the observant type, he knew where to draw the line.
She breathed a long sigh before turning to the captain smiling serenely at the scene before him. "I can't believe you let him talk you into allowing this. Where did your conscience go? On holiday?"
He tilted his head at her direction. "On the contrary, Genichiro was the one who implemented the rule to 'encourage' them ('More like encourage early death,' she thought, flatly) to improve in the future," Yukimura shrugged in a casual manner. "It worked, so the rule stayed," he added with a bright smile. "Isn't that true?" he asked Sanada who just joined them.
The vice-captain only grunted an agreement.
She massaged the spot between her eyes. "Why did I agree to be your manageress again?" she groaned in despair.
"All's well that ends well, Akemi-san."
"No need for your words of wisdom for the rest of the day," she threw up her hands, and then turned around, but paused to look over her shoulders. "I'm going to get a drink –and by that I meant tea!" she interjected hotly.
"I didn't say anything."
Head turned back to the front, she echoed him, albeit in a dry manner, "Sure, you didn't." Then after a moment of hesitation, she vented a sigh and glanced over her shoulders. "Would you like me to get you something while I'm at it? Genichiro-san and Yanagi-san too," she asked, kindly.
"Why was I added as an afterthought? It hurts, Akemi-san," Yanagi remarked, placing a hand over his heart.
Of course, he had meant it as a joke.
He knew.
Sanada and Yukimura knew.
Akemi too, but that didn't spare him from another death glare. "I'll take the silence from all of you as a no," she said, grinning coldly. "Well then, if you'll excuse me."
With that, she left the amused Three Monsters and the tennis courts behind in search of a vending machine as far away as possible, so that by the time she came back, it was to see that the ground was empty of unconscious high school students and all courts were occupied.
For the remainder of the afternoon, she sat in the same bench underneath the shade of the tree, observing the various practice matches with an aloof expression. Occasionally, one of the regulars would stop by to chat while taking a five minutes breather. Once, Niou paid her a visit with a passing jibe, thus vexing her, until Sanada arrived with a murderous intent.
XXX
If there's one thing the stoic vice-captain of Rikkai did not expect was to accompany a girl to the supermarket after tennis.
That; and being forced to carry the basket around the clean and tidy aisles.
"There's only a few stuff I need for my apple crumble. If you want it done and over soon, hold this and follow me."
Ten minutes after saying that, Sanada lost sight of her for the third time. Ignoring the hustle and bustle atmosphere around him, he paused to peer down at his hands, where the basket with only two items, a stick of butter and a bag of cooking apples, stared back forlornly at him.
It was safe to say that an amazed Akemi was easily distracted by the diverse products in a Japanese supermarket; though he might as well rebuke himself for taking his eyes off her for one second to glance at the sports magazines.
Despite the typical noise of an evening shopping atmosphere, a crashing sound followed by a familiar feminine yelp from the adjacent aisle to his right caught his attention.
Heart in throat, he hurriedly dashed around the shelf to the next aisle, but abruptly froze in his steps when a look of recognition briefly flashed in his eyes.
XXX
Deeply engrossed in browsing for preserved apricots, Akemi did not sense someone crept up on her until she was roughly shoved away. Stunned, she lost the grips of her arms; sending the items tumbling gracefully from their hold and onto the ground with a resounding crash.
If not for her quick thinking, she would be on the tiled floor as well.
As it were, the force caused her to stumble backwards and she hit the shelf painfully on the back with a half-hearted cry. Above her head, the goods wobbled dangerously on their spots, but luckily none fell off.
She caught a glimpse of a shadow, most likely the perpetrator, swept past her field of vision. For a fraction of second, Akemi cursed inwardly at the bad timing for her eyes to water from the impact, thus blurring the culprit's face.
Then –
"Woah there! Where do you think you're going?"
Blinking rapidly to rid of the tears, Akemi snapped her head up at the unfamiliar voice and felt her eyes widened slowly at the scene before her. Carefully, she righted herself against the shelf, using it as a support, and pushed her back away to stand properly.
Struggling against the tight hold on the collar of his bright yellow and black jersey was the rude second year from before. His legs visibly trembled as his captor, who wore a bored expression on his face, gave him a shook. Judging from the look in the second year's eyes, Akemi guessed either they were acquainted or he knew the person currently heaving him up to his feet without loosening the grip on his collar.
"I saw what you did there, boyo," his captor sneered, jabbing the second year's forehead with a finger. "That wasn't one of the nicest things I've seen all the day. What were you thinking? Well? Answer me!"
The sound of hurried footsteps closing in caused all three to look up to see the once calm and composed vice-captain running towards them with a basket in one of his hands flying behind.
If it weren't for the gravity of the current situation, Akemi would have burst in laughter at the ironic image.
"Akemi-san!" he shouted. Then seemingly remembered she was not the only person there, he halted before her. Sanada glanced from Akemi to the goods littered on the ground to the second year who looked as though Death had come to say 'hello!', before coming to rest on her (sort of) rescuer.
Akemi blinked in mild-curiosity, noticing the way the vice-captain steeled his eyes as though putting on his guard.
"Mouri-senpai," he greeted tightly with a curt nod.
One of her eyebrows were raised into a perfect arch at the honorific, but kept quiet.
"Sanada," Mouri grinned toothily, and somewhat darkly. "One wonders what is happening to the tennis club if scoundrels like this little mouse here -" he shook the second year again like a bag of sugar, "-are allowed in without a thorough examination."
The vice-captain's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Why don't you ask your girlfriend –Akemi-san was it –over there?" he gestured with his head.
"She's not my girlfriend, nor do I have one for that matter," Sanada growled in a threatening manner, to which Mouri merely shrugged it off. Shaking his head to clear his mind, the vice-captain shifted his gaze to the aforementioned girl expectantly.
"Umm…he tried to push me onto the floor and hopefully injure myself while I was looking for preserved apricots," she stated as a matter-of-factly, pointing at the second year who visibly blanched. Now that Akemi had time to ponder over things, that was quite a childish revenge; because she had no doubt it was for whistling into his ears, which inadvertently caused him to have a late start on the laps and then succumbing to darkness when he drank Yanagi's Super Deluxe Matcha as penalty.
Honestly, it wasn't her who made that awful drink. Plus he had it coming for publicly insulting her.
"Since everything's solved, I'll take my leave then," Mouri informed, airily. "Here-!"
Before they could collide against one another, Sanada's hand caught a fistful of the jersey when Mouri tossed the hapless second year his way with a grunt.
Turning around, he waved his hand lazily over his shoulders. "I'll let you deal with him." Then to Akemi, he added with a grin, "See you around, little cutie cat."
A vein appeared on the vice-captain's forehead at that nickname, as they watched Mouri disappearing around the corner of the aisle.
Akemi, who let that slipped for now, turned to Sanada. "Who's 'Mouri-senpai'?" she asked, genuinely curious, bending down to retrieve the fallen products.
"That can wait until another day," he replied, curtly. Noticing the displeased frown, he raised the limp figure in his hand to her eye-level causing her to pause in mid-retrieval. "We still have this remember?"
XXX
As the vice-president of the disciplinary committee, Sanada informed him (with the darkest glare he could muster) that this incident would be reported straight to the disciplinary office, after warning him against committing the same offence, which would (most definitely) result in permanent removal from the tennis club.
The two stood side by side in silence as they watched the second year hobbled away from them; presumably to recover from the scare in a dark corner where nobody would look.
It was safe to say, Akemi won't see any hair or hide of him for a long time.
After readjusting her grip on the shopping bags (they resumed shopping until the second year came to), she turned to him. "Thank you, Genichiro-san," she smiled, eyes glinting gratefully. "I don't see any reasons to stop you from accompanying me back home later; or to and fro school from now on."
She might be imagining things, or perhaps she had hit the back of her head harder than she thought, but Akemi just…just might have seen a tiny twitch at the corner of his lips for a flitting moment before the stoic vice-captain turned around, and gestured wordlessly towards the general direction of their homes.
Akemi smiled cheerily, recalling Yukimura's words, and jogged up to catch up with Sanada.
'All's well that ends well, aye?'
*Guess who the three-headed monster from Akemi's nightmare refers to! :p
* Though most of Inui's juices are meant to be puns, his improved versions have ridiculous names. So all I did was add 'super deluxe' to the already existing 'Matcha' Inui created. I seriously lol'd when I realised Matcha was a pun for Demon Tea.
Not sure if anyone recognise the name 'Mouri'. He IS a canon character from NPOT by the way. I strongly apologise if any of you were looking forward to more Atobe-Akeminess in this chapter, but I felt that there's a serious lack of interaction with Yanagi, Yukimura, and Sanada (even if they've appeared in the previous chapters).