Disclaimer: Nope, sadly, no owning Prince of Tennis. I own all OC characters in this fanfic though.

Thank you to all my reviewers. Constructive criticism helped with shaping the story, and encouragement was my motivation. You're the reason why I updated so fast this time. That and Chinese New Year break. XD

So… I don't know why, but Chiharu was kicking at me these few weeks. I really wanted to explore her as a character so I decided to start with her game. I tried to make the game interesting, but like I said before, there's no cool graphics, no awesome music involved, so just try to imagine the scene. It also helped me explore Aiko's character a bit too.

It's a match between Chiharu (blue gray haired girl with Tomoka pigtails) and Aiko AKA Ayikuo (African American girl with beads in her hair.)

Some people PMed me questioning where I'll go with the rest of the story, and I think I might make it into an AU. Maybe. Not sure. Oh yes, and those of you who asked about the title of the story… well… that'll become clear much LATER in the story XDD. Be patient.

Tiny tiny tiny bit of RyoSaku, but I couldn't really fit them into this chapter. Patience, my friends.

THOSE PPL ON STORY ALERT WHO DON'T REVIEW, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. SO REVIEW!

To Catch A Falling Star—Chapter Six; Chiharu: Miracle on the Court

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As the girls' matches were beginning, the crowds around the fences had increased greatly, though a large percentage was male. Akane by far attracted the most attention, but the number of people watching Chiharu's and Kimiko's match were not small either.

"Inui-san!" Reina called as he was walking toward Court C, where Akane's match was being held. It would definitely prove to be an interesting match; with the girls' captain and the new freshman playing against each other. He was anxious to gather data on the new team captain, as well as this fangirl-suddenly-turned-pro freshman.

He stopped mid-step and turned around. "Hmm? What is it?"

"You might want to stay. Court A's match will be more interesting," she said, pointing. "Oshiro Chiharu is playing."

"Oshiro-san?" He retraced his steps back, opening the notebook. "The one in which you said: 'Analytical skills and data are constantly proven ineffective; nothing short of a miracle serves as an explanation for her tennis style.'" He closed the notebook, looking up. "Interesting."

"Oshiro to serve!"

Chiharu tossed the ball up and served to the right corner of the service court. Aiko returned the ball easily, and soon a rally was underway.

"That was a perfectly ordinary serve," Inui noted as his scribbled on the notebook, filling the blank pages with text.

"That is one of the most dangerous traits of her play style," Reina told him. "What seems ordinary is commonly not so."

"Hmm…"

Aiko swung her racket, noting that the left court was free. She aimed the shot so it was about an arm's length from the edge, safely within the borders. Chiharu was at the right of the court; there was no way she'd make it. But almost the minute her racket came in contact with the ball, Chiharu moved. 'What!' The blue haired girl ran swiftly to the ball with plenty of time to get into position. She made a cross shot to the left of Aiko, the ball grazing the edge of the singles court.

"15-love."

The dark-skinned girl tightened her grip on her racket. "That was a fluke," she said to herself. "She couldn't possibly know where the ball would land before she saw its path." Yet the movements in her opponent were so sure. 'How did she do it?'

Chiharu served again, and another rally got going. After seeing an opening clearly, Aiko tried again. "How about here?"

Again, the very second she hit the ball, Chiharu moved, in the exact direction in which she had made the shot. She returned it to the opposite edge, far out of Aiko's reach.

"30-love."

Aiko felt her mouth drop open. "Impossible…"

"Hmm…?" Ryoma smiled from the sidelines. "Not bad, Oshiro-senpai."

"Eh?" The freshman trio turned towards him. "What is she doing, Ryoma-kun?"

"Hmmm… don't know."

Horio fell to the ground.

"Watch…" Inui said. "It's as if Oshiro knows exactly where Komboi will hit it." They watched as Chiharu interpreted another shot and took the first game.

"Game, Oshiro. 1 game to love."

"Care to elaborate, Reina?" Inui said as he wrote some more notes down.

She adjusted her lenses, her large eyes intent and unblinking. "Oshiro Chiharu is gifted with extraordinary hearing. You know the twins from Josei Shonan?"

"Ah…" Without taking his eyes off the game, Inui reached into the bag at his feet and withdrew another notebook. He opened it to a page near the middle. "Tanaka Yohei, who has exceptional hearing, is paired with his twin Tanaka Kohei, who has excellent eyesight." He tapped his pencil on the paper, his voice a tad skeptical, "So she listens to the impact the ball makes when it hits the racket to predict its path? That sounds a bit difficult, but it's not impossible. So this is the living miracle?"

"There's more," Reina watched her friend smash the ball onto the court. "Chiharu…—"

"Game, Oshiro. 3 games to love. Change court!"

"—… is a synesthete."

Tap. Inui dropped his pencil. "Are you serious?"

Ryoma raised the rim of his cap, observing his senpai. It wasn't like Inui to be surprised.

"Quite." Reina nodded.

Inui picked up his pencil quickly and began scribbling in the notebook furiously. "I see… that explains it. Sound to Color Synesthesia?"

Reina shook her head. "That is only the beginning. She's multi-synesthesic."

"Ne, what is synesthesia?" Horio asked the other two.

"God knows…" Katsuo shrugged helplessly.

Reina turned to them. "Synesthesia is classified as a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway elicits automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway, as a difference in perceptual experiences."

There was a brief pause.

"Like I said," Katsuo said. "God knows."

As Inui wrote more and more, his hand dwarfed the stub of his pencil. "Unbelievable… Only about one out of a hundred people have synesthesia, and an even less percentage are multi-synesthesic. She could be one of the only people to ever incorporate it into playing tennis."

"Actually, you're wrong there." Akane had approached them, sipping from her water bottle.

They turned to gaze at her. Her appearance was rather sudden, as to their information she should be in the middle of a game right now. "Ito-senpai, you're game has finished already?" Horio asked.

"Yes, it has."

"That was fast." Ryoma muttered. Under the cover of his cap, he shifted his eyes towards the court where her game was held. Sakuno had already left the court.

"Love game?" Reina inquired without looking at her. When Akane confirmed that she had won 6-0, the black haired girl said, "Rather harsh on the new freshman, huh?"

"I needed to be." She offered no further explanation. Silently, she took the pink elastic headband off her forehead, as it was soaked with perspiration.

Ryoma pulled the cap over his head so no one would notice his wandering eyes. He scanned the area, but there was no sign of her. He debated on leaving the game under the excuse of getting a Ponta, but the information about Oshiro-senpai was getting interesting, as was the match.

Chiharu jumped and smashed the drop shot to the ground, anticipating the shot. Inui noted that she had begun running forward as soon as Aiko's racket touched the ball. A drop shot's sound was easy to interpret, but Chiharu managed to predict that the drop shot would be to the far edge of the net. Her smash won her yet another game. "So… you were saying I was 'wrong'?"

"Yeah, nowadays synesthesia is common. One in 25 individuals could have this condition. Reina, you haven't told him?" She smiled as she took another sip from her water bottle. "Reina is too, a synesthete."

Inui blinked twice. "This is unexpected."

Reina, however, denied it.

"Ito-senpai, what is synesthesia?" Horio asked.

"Normal people have five senses," Akane began explaining. "Synethetes have these, but they also have combinations of these senses. For example—Inui, lend me a piece of paper and that pencil—" Inui reluctantly gave these to her, as they would take up his data recording time, yet he was also curious at what she was doing. Akane scribbled a few marks on the paper and held it up. "See this?"

The freshman trio peered closely at the paper. It was rows and rows of the digital numeral 'five', made up of straight lines, as one might see on a digital clock. "Five…?"

"Chiharu has Grapheme to Color synesthesia as well, so she associates letters and numbers with colors. The alphabet is a rainbow of colors for her." Akane pointed to the paper in several places, revealing that there were three digital numeral 'twos' well hidden among the 'fives' as they were nearly the same shape.

"Ah! It wasn't all 'fives'?"

"Chiharu would be able to pick these out immediately, as she sees 'five' as green and 'two' as red."

"Whoa… sugoi!"

"But that's not what she's doing now," Akane continued. "She also has a form of synesthesia that causes her to see colors and shapes when she hears a specific sound. A car's horn honking would be a green splash for her, whereas a melody would probably be a rainbow spider web branching out." Her eyes went back to the game, where Chiharu was currently winning 5-0. "By interpreting the shape and color of the sound the racket makes when it impacts the ball, she knows where the ball is going to go."

The freshmen all stole a glance at Reina, secretly wondering why she couldn't have just explained it like Akane did.

"I knew she had synesthesia when we were first years in middle school," Akane said. "And I asked her what class she was in. She replied, 'Red'." Akane ran a hand through her ginger hair, remembering. "It was class 2."

"I encountered Chiharu when we both went to the hospital for tests on our synesthetic condition," Reina said. "That's how I knew."

"Ah, so that's how the hospital staff recognized her!" Inui recalled.

"Yeah, Chiharu is quite the research subject," Akane said, nodding. "She often gets called away by some crazy scientist or the other to be examined."

Inui pushed his glasses up for a second before continuing taking notes. "So only you and Reina know about it?" he asked out of the corner of his mouth.

"No, actually—" Reina let out a rare grin.

Akane smirked as well. "—he knows too." She tilted her head to a person standing at the edge of the court, watching the match with concern. "Our captain, that is."

"Oh?" Curiosity kicked him. "How?"

"You didn't know? I thought the whole school was talking about it!" Akane laughed. "It was when Chiharu finally asked Tezuka for his number at the end of first year."

"Oshiro did that?" Somehow the shy girl didn't seem like the kind that would ask a boy for his cell phone number. Especially if that guy was Tezuka.

"Well, we kind of forced her… but that's beside the point."

"So…" The tip of his pencil broke since he was writing with such enthusiasm. He pulled another one from his bag and continued writing without missing a beat. "How did it happen? And don't leave out any details."

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—FLASHBACK—

"Ano…Tezuka-san…" Chiharu approached him at his desk.

The light caught on his hair as he looked up from a problem on his math homework. In order to give him more time for tennis, he often used his break time for homework and studying. "What is it?"

She blushed when his eyes met hers and looked down at her hands. "I… that is… um…" Her hands fiddled on the notebook she was holding, playing with the spiral wire that bound it together. "Um…"

Akane whispered loudly from behind her. "Just spit it out already!"

"Um… could-I-have-your-cell-phone-number?" she blurted in one jumbled rush.

He blinked, not saying anything. His silence made her go redder, before he finally said, "What for?"

She fidgeted a bit, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. "N-nothing, really… I just…" For some strange reason, she felt her eyes beginning to well up. She bit her lip. "It's okay, never mind then…"

To her surprise, the notebook was taken from her hands. A minute later he handed it back to her, his number written on the top of the first page. "Ah! Thank you! Thank you very much!" she exclaimed, bowing. Amber eyes scanned the number. "Tezuka-san, your phone number has an interesting color sequence!"

She suddenly covered her mouth with her hand, aware of what she just said. Most people didn't understand her ramblings about 'imaginary' colors and numbers. He was regarding her with interest, his head cocked slightly to the side. She blushed a bit more. He probably thought she was crazy now. "Um… not that… um… forget what I said…"

He nodded to himself, saying quietly, "So you're a synesthete."

—END FLASHBACK—

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"Oooh… So does she text him often?" Fuji and Kikumaru had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and had heard every word of the story. The freshman trio jumped at their sudden appearance, but Reina, Inui, and Akane seemed not to have noticed. Or possibly, being in the same grade, they were used to it.

"Of course." Akane stated this as if it was obvious.

"Saa…" Fuji murmured. "The real question is, does he reply?"

"Well, the last time I went through her cell phone, it was full of his texts." Akane let out a smile as she watched her friend. "So yeah, I think he does reply pretty often."

"WOW! Akane, do you remember any?" Kikumaru asked hopefully, his curiosity sparked. What did Tezuka say to Chiharu? He seemed to have a lot to say; more than he said to anyone else.

"Not telling."

"Aww… PLEASE?" He made puppy eyes at her.

"No way."

"So mean…" he grumbled.

Fuji's smile seemed all the more secretive. "Well, Tezuka has always had a soft spot for Oshiro-san…"

"WHAT?" Kikumaru jumped him. "Are you dreaming, Fuji? Does that face—" He twisted Fuji's head so they were both looking at the captain. "—look like a face that would have a soft spot for anyone?" Their captain was watching the match with his usual stoic expression.

Tezuka noticed them watching him. "What are you doing? Fuji, Kikumaru, take court C and play a one point match!"

Kikumaru winced. "Aww… and we only came over here because Morioka-chan and that pinkish second year were changing courts and taking a break."

"How's their game going?" Akane asked out of interest.

"It's pretty even. The score is tied at one. They had several long rallies." Fuji told her.

Akane shook her head. "That means Kimiko isn't doing so well. Long rallies are a sign that she's being pressured."

"Eiji…" Fuji said, bouncing a ball upon his racket. "If you want to watch that badly, just lose the one point match as quickly as possible…"

"Mou…" Kikumaru complained. "Fujiko wants to watch too…"

"Loser drinks Inui Juice." Inui muttered.

"EH? Fuji, you better lose on purpose! You even like that drink!"

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"So… What form of synesthesia does Watanabe-senpai have?" Katsuo dared to ask. As soon as the question left his lips, the freshman all winced in anticipation of her long, scientific response.

Reina drew in a deep breath in order to make her answer as detailed as possible.

Much to their delight, Akane answered for her. "Number form," she replied. "Reina sees numbers in space in front of her. It helps with her Data Tennis."

This was hard for the others to understand. Some of them imagined fives and twos dancing in front of their eyes.

"Hmm…" Inui looked up from his notebook. "I think I understand. When thinking of numbers, they appear in front of her so that she sees them around her. It's as if a number line is surrounding her."

"That's it, exactly," Akane said, snapping her fingers. "How did you know that?"

"Yanagi Renji from Rikkaidai seems to have the same experience; he described it to me once. I didn't know it was a form of synesthesia."

"The theory was recently passed, but it's still debatable."

Aiko panted heavily, hearing every word of the conversation and understanding enough of them to get the big picture. Scientific terms were often exactly the same as the English word, or sounding similar. 'What's with this synesthesia sh*t? You can't win a match with some special ability!' But the situation was proving her wrong; she was currently losing 5-0. 'Damn it… she's going to win me 6-0…' She threw the ball up to serve, feeling sudden anger. 'I did not put my entire body through hell just to get beaten by some 'miracle'!'

Memories of training flashed through her eyes. Days of running and nights of lifting weights. While others played at the beach, she swam against the current for as far as the lifeguard would allow her in order to build lung capacity. She'd run track to increase the strength in her muscles and marathons to improve her endurance. She didn't have any fancy techniques or talent. It was pure, harsh training. Training, day and night, made her into the tennis player she was today, 'and like hell I'm going to let that go to waste!' Her fury fueling her, she served overhand to the opposite court.

Chiharu kept her eyes on the ball, but it confused her. The ball was flying towards her, she didn't have to move. Before, Aiko had constantly aimed for places she could not reach. She carefully listened to the bounce of the ball and swung her arm in a forehand return.

The racket was torn from her hands.

"15-0."

'Ow.' She rubbed her wrists; her hands were numb. The racket clattered behind her. 'Such power…' She looked at the dark-skinned girl in shock. 'Where did she get the power to do this…?' Her hands picked up the racket from the ground slowly. It was surprisingly heavy. It was then that Chiharu realized how tired she was. It wasn't Aiko's power that had increased; it was her own strength that had lessened.

"Interesting…" Inui muttered as he tried to write as fast as he thought. "Aiko has turned the match into an endurance battle."

"It was her aim from the start." Reina noted.

"And it's working," Akane said. Chiharu was beginning to have trouble catching up to all of the balls. "Aiko found the major weakness in Chiharu's play style."

Aiko hid a smile, noticing that the rallies were getting longer and longer. Even though Chiharu could still pick up every shot she made, the blue haired girl was already slowing down. Her returns had less speed, less power. 'Did you not notice? Since the beginning, I always aimed for the farthest point from you, making you run as far as possible.' One of the shots made it past her racket, winning Aiko a point.

"Just knowing where the ball is going to land isn't enough," Inui said. "You have to be able to reach it and return it. In Data Tennis we can predict where the ball is going to land based on the shots we make, like chess. But Oshiro is interpreting it on the spot; right when Komboi is hitting it."

Aiko won another point. "It's not only that…" Akane suddenly realized as she took in Aiko's position on the court. "She moved closer to the net. This gives Chiharu less time to react after interpreting the sound of the ball."

Chiharu gritted her teeth. 'If it's like that… then here!' She lobbed the ball up. 'I'll just keep you at the baseline!'

Aiko jumped up.

"There's no way she can reach that…" Horio said with an offhand shrug. "Momo-chan-senpai would have a hard time reaching that."

"No," Inui said, staring at how the muscles rippled on her dark legs. "She'll reach it."

Aiko let out a yell as she pinned the ball down with as much force as possible.

The ball bounced and missed Inui by an inch, embedding itself into the green wire fence.

"Game, Komboi, 5 games to 3."

"Whoa…" The freshman trio stared in awe.

"I thought so," Inui sounded smug. "With that kind of muscle structure, she should have a strong jumping ability."

"Inui-san…" Reina suddenly said. "Look at her form…"

All of them began to watch Aiko more closely. Aiko was running with her body vaguely bent forward. When they blinked, they saw a brief image of a lioness running across an African Plain flash before their eyes. The red and white beads in her braided hair clacked together as she leaped to catch another shot of Chiharu's, winning her another point.

"Detrusion of her torso…" Reina murmured as she wrote it down.

"…lowers her center of gravity." Inui finished. Their pencils were almost perfectly in sync. "It's a sprinting form. She intends to end the match quickly."

As Aiko got back into her serving position, Chiharu retreated to the baseline. She let out a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Akane nodded. "It's about time you started getting serious, Chiharu."

"I see." Inui murmured. "Remaining at the baseline gives her more time to interpret and counter."

Aiko served.

The return flew by Aiko's left leg. She never had time to react. 'What…?' Her eyes widened in shock. 'What kind of return was that?'

Tezuka nodded approvingly.

"Ah!" Kachiro cried, pointing. "Her eyes are still closed!"

Chiharu exhaled again. Even with her eyes closed, she saw the court clearly. Every sound was a splash of color that painted the picture of the court in the blackness of her closed eyes. The wind whispered through the net, blue wisps.

The ball hit the racket, this time the image had pink lines surrounding it. 'Topspin…' She backhanded the ball; vibrations travelling up her arms. The ball came back in a powerful return; she saw red in the image, so she ran a few steps back in order to lessen the power of the ball when she hit it. When the ball came back, she jumped to smash, only to hear Aiko's footsteps become softer as she retreated. Chiharu then brought her racket down in a drop shot.

The onlookers applauded. "A perfect feint, with her eyes closed?"

"She can plan her next move without looking?"

"No." Akane responded. "She didn't plan at all…"

"With her closed eyes, there's no strategies, no tactics involved," Tezuka commented. "It's pure impulse."

"A play style not even data cannot predict." Reina proclaimed.

"Which is why we call Chiharu…" Akane said with a smile. "Miracle on the Court."

Aiko gripped the ball between her fingers, her nails digging into the green velvet surface. Sweat poured down her neck. "I'm not done yet," she voiced aloud. "I'm far from being finished." She served again.

Chiharu returned the ball with a cross shot, which Aiko barely managed to pick up. She then hit a cross shot to the other side of the court. As the ball fell, Aiko saw flashes of her training, bits and pieces of memories that reminded her of the effort she put through to get this far. She sprinted to the far end of the court and managed another return. This time, Chiharu hit a straight shot to her left.

"I am not going to lose like this!" Aiko ran forward to catch the ball. As she neared it, she pushed off with her feet and leaped forward to meet the ball, her muscles contracting. One braid came undone, the beads scattering across the court.

Tezuka, Akane, Reina, Inui, and Ryoma all narrowed their eyes at the same time.

A lioness leaping at her prey.

She hit the ball with crushing force. Chiharu heard the ball stretch the gut in Aiko's racket, and she knew how powerful the shot was. The sound before her eyes flashed red, bright red. 'There's no way I can return that! It's too powerful!' But when she saw the colors surrounding the impact, she smiled slightly and didn't move. The ball whizzed by her head, ruffling her blue gray curls. It bounced on the ground, a hand's width from the boundary line of the court.

"Out! Game and Match, Oshiro, 6 games to 3."

They clasped their hands tightly together at the net, the sweat from their palms mixing. "I lost…" Aiko said in Japanese, before switching to English, "It was a good game though. You are really strong."

"Thank you." Chiharu replied. "Your last shot was amazing. Had it been in, I wouldn't have been able to return it."

They walked off the courts together, accepting the applause of the onlookers. The freshmen on duty rushed to sweep away the scattered beads. As Chiharu exited the court to wash her face and get a drink of water, she glanced at the captain. He gave her an approving nod, and she felt warmth spread through her body, from her head to her toes.

She tripped.

Akane sighed. "Still downright clumsy. Hard to believe she can be so graceful on the court."

"Still, isn't it her clumsiness that led her to the fateful meeting of Tezuka…?" Inui asked.

"True…" Akane smiled as she pulled the elastic out of her ginger hair.

"Remind me of the occurrence?" Reina asked.

"Oh, you forgot?" She grinned. "When we were first years, she fell down the stairs and he caught her."

"Oh yes…"

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She took a few gulps of the cool water from the faucet before splashing her face with it. She gasped as the cold water hit her sweltering skin, before closing her eyes and enjoying the sensation. Iridescent drops clung to her hair; blue gray tresses decked with pearls. She pressed the towel against her face to dry it off, and headed back to the courts.

"Oshiro-san!" Some boys in her grade were leaning against the green wire fence that surrounded the courts. "Good game."

"Ah…" She felt her cheeks grow warm. "Thank you…"

"You know…" One of them approached her slowly. "I've been noticing you a lot lately…"

"Ehh?" Chiharu took a few steps back, her heart pounding. This was not expected. "Um… that is…"

"Your game is over, right? Wanna go have some fun?" He came closer to her, too close. The rest of the guys just watched the scene and smirked.

Her amber eyes reflected fear as she retreated a bit more. "No thanks… practice isn't over yet…" she managed to say.

"Come on," He grabbed her wrist. She struggled weakly; her arm was aching and tired from the match. "Don't you know how to have fun?"

Someone's arm came out of nowhere and knocked his hand away, breaking his grip. Tezuka stood between him and Chiharu.

"Tezuka-san…?" Chiharu whispered.

"Please stop harassing my team." He turned his head back to look at her, the gaze in his eyes stern… but also almost… protective… "Let's go, Oshiro."

"H-hai!"

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Of course, that event was seen by all members on the court. Kikumaru was snickering behind his palm, so much that he didn't notice Fuji's shot until it hit him on the forehead. Inui handed him the pitcher with one hand and continued writing with his other, updating Tezuka's personal data as quickly as he could. "Hmm…" he murmured, thinking of the time Chiharu fell down the stairs and into his arms. "She really 'fell' for him, huh…"

Akane watched Tezuka and Chiharu enter the courts together. "Really?" she murmured thoughtfully. "Sometimes I wonder who had fallen for who…"

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End Chapter Six

Dedicated to my synesthesic friend, Anya, whom I met through a summer program and who told my my cell phone number had a pretty color sequence. Sorry for making you prove you were synesthesic by printing out a test like Akane drew out.

It might help you readers to look up synesthesia on wikipedia.

Okay, review. Review. Review. I'm trying to get 100+ reviews. I know, big goal right? So tell your friends. And review. If you want more, review.

Sorry I completely crushed Sakuno, but it's vital for the next few chapters and her character, as well as Akane's.

The next game will either by Izumi vs. Kimiko or Sayaka vs. Suzume, and then I'll have flashes of Akane's game within Sakuno's memories. Sayaka vs. Suzume is kind of a big idea that I'm working on. Which one do you want to read first? REVIEW and tell me, and I'll get working right away.