Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: Fast update, right? I have decided that I am going to make a solid effort to update more often.

Also, TCAFS has over 101, 000 hits! So, THANK YOU ALL.

Special dedications EVERYONE because you're all wonderful.

To recap: Last chapter, Sayaka and Suzume took down Hyotei's doubles two. Now it's doubles one's turn.

To Catch A Falling Star, Chapter Twenty-Five: Hermes

~X~

Yo, Komboi!

How's it going in the country of the Red Sun Rising in the East?

We had a meet with West Essex High today. They crushed us completely. We needed you, girl! Instead, Mara was the anchor for the relay. Trust me, that girl could not sprint if there was a tiger behind her.

Tennis season doesn't start till spring over here, so it's weird to hear you talk about it in your emails already. I'm probably not going to try out for the team this year; but when you come back, let me know and we can hit a few balls! Although you'll probably be so much better than me by then, haha.

Good luck in your tournament! Or ganbatte, as I should say, right?

-J Mo

~X~

"All right, hospital time," Coach Ryuzaki announced as she got up from the coach's bench, brushing herself off.

"I'm fine…" Sayaka insisted, holding up her two bandaged hands. "They don't even hurt that much anymore."

"No, you're going and that's final. You really outdid yourself with that crazy somersaulting smash at the end," The coach shook her head, exasperated. "What were you thinking?"

"Uh… I wasn't?" Sayaka offered sheepishly.

"Evidently."

"I thought it was super cool, hehe!" Kikumaru said, poking her. "Sayaka's Jack Knife!"

"Except it's not a Jack Knife at all…" Inui pointed out. "It's a smash. She only called it 'jack knife' because she looks like one when she's snapping open in midair."

"Well, Oishi's moon volley is not a volley either!" Kikumaru said huffily.

"Yeah, Inui-senpai," Sayaka ganged up on him. "Why do you have to be so technical?"

Inui fidgeted awkwardly. "That is… for the data… Ah…"

"All right, that's enough. We're leaving. We'll be fine," she added, seeing Suzume and Oishi both intending to follow. "Stay and watch."

"But I want to watch the next game too…" Sayaka grumbled.

"That's not your decision. Now then," Coach Ryuzaki turned to survey the team, her hands on her hips. "Who wants to be bench coach?"

"If it's all right with everyone else…" Akane said before they could speak. "Can Reina do it?"

"Eh?" Everyone looked surprised, including Reina.

"Is that okay?" Akane repeated, this time mainly at Tezuka.

He gave her a nod, albeit slightly quizzically.

"Akane," Reina pulled her aside. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

Akane's expression was unreadable as she responded simply, "Giving you a front seat to the show."

~X~

"So what do you think of that pair, Inui?" Oishi asked.

Inui skimmed through his calculations. "Hmm… Narita and Matoko," he murmured. "Narita's a master of control. Her precision is dead on. It could be trouble for Komboi-san," He glanced at the black haired girl. "With a ball machine, she can hit fifty balls to the exact same spot without missing."

"Narita's the shorter one, right?" Akane clarified.

"Right," Inui told her. "Although she prefers to go by her first name, Ayumi."

"She's pretty," Kikumaru said dreamily.

'She is…' Sakuno thought. Ayumi wasn't beautiful like Reina. Reina was that kind of icy beauty, the kind that made you feel a little intimidated. Ayumi was more I'm-just-pretty, with her sunny smile and slightly curled tresses and sweet laughter. She was prettier in an easier way, if that made any sense at all. Kind of like Tachibana's little sister – the girl who helped her out when she was lost. Plus on top of that, she had all those womanly curves. Sakuno watched as Ayumi gave the tall blunette a quick hug before bouncing back to her partner, and wondered if she could ever be so captivating.

"Yeah, she's attractive, I guess," Akane put in.

"Pulchritudinous," Reina agreed, because only Reina would know a five-syllable word for 'pretty'. Akane kicked and told her to get on the bench.

"She has big boobs," Kimiko pointed out cheerfully. "Boing boing!"

"….…." was the general reaction.

Oishi turned bright red. Kikumaru had the shame to look down. Kaidoh froze completely. The rest of the girls and the guys tried to act like they didn't hear, but their skin couldn't hide the blushes that were creeping up and betraying them. Akane resisted the urge to massage her temples.

Aiko hit Kimiko lightly on the head with the frame of her racket. "What?" Kimiko whined. "I'm just saying what everyone is thinking."

"Yeah Kims? There was a reason why they were thinking it and not saying it."

"Well, she's an opera singer in Hyotei's music department…" Inui offered awkwardly. There were to spots of bright pink on his cheeks. "So… I guess…"

"Inui-senpai?" Momoshiro interrupted hastily. "You don't have to explain everything."

"Don't those get in the way?" Sayaka asked Akane directly. The ginger headed captain gave her a sharp glance that said, 'why are you asking me,' but Sayaka just responded by leveling a pointed look at Akane's not unimpressive cleavage.

"Yeah, Buchou has big boobs too!" Kimiko declared enthusiastically, much to everyone else's embarrassment.

Aiko could not drag her onto the courts fast enough.

"Let's have a good game!" Ayumi stuck her hand out across the net.

"You too, big boobs!" Kimiko said, taking her hand happily.

This time, Aiko gave her a harder whack on the back of her head.

"Ow," She glared indignantly. "What?"

Ayumi laughed at the exchange. "Don't worry about it. I get that a lot. Smooth or rough?"

It landed on smooth, and Seigaku won the first serve. Aiko took her position. 'All right, two months of weight lifting. Let's show 'em what I got.' She tossed her head back, threw the ball to the sky, and swung.

POW.

'That serve…!' Rie's eyes were wide.

The ball cut straight to the edge of the service line. It hit the ground with a tremendous force that resonated through the court, a no touch ace.

"Fifteen-love!"

"Damn, Komboi-senpai's serve is powerful too!" Momoshiro said.

"I didn't know she could serve like that," Suzume said, moderately impressed.

"That… she didn't have that when she played me," Chiharu breathed. "That's… amazing."

Kawamura smiled. 'She worked hard for that…'

Kimiko grinned. "There's plenty more where that came from! Ne, Aiko-senpai?

Aiko served again. POW.

However, Ayumi had already interpreted the path. She sped into place and hit a backhand, causing the ball to soar upwards.

"She can return it?" Kachiro cried. "A chance ball, but still!"

In a flash, Aiko was in the air. She smashed the ball down, pinpointing it to the left alley.

"Thirty-love!"

"Your forehand might be even more powerful than Omae's," Ayumi said, wiggling her fingers and shaking them out. "Phew, I still can't feel my fingers!"

"Thanks." 'But you managed to hit it already…' Aiko tossed up the ball again and brought her racket down on it hard. POW.

In a blur of white and grey, Rie was in front of the ball.

"What? Where did she come from?" Kimiko blurted.

She struck the ball, a lightening fast cross shot to the left. Kimiko was completely unable to react. Her heart jumped into her throat.

"Thirty-fifteen!"

"Return ace?" Horio gasped. The tables were turning and it hadn't even been five minutes yet.

"They're very observant…" Inui noted.

"Ah," Tezuka agreed. "Matoko watched her partner return that second serve. She could estimate the power in Komboi's serve just by watching her partner's reaction to it."

"Now that's a true doubles pair," Oishi commented. "If you are able to do that."

"I can do it!" Kikumaru guaranteed him with a wink.

Aiko served again, this time to the right. The black haired Hyotei player caught up and hit the ball, and this time the return did not arc at all. It jetted by in a straight shot, slicing the open court cleanly in two.

"Thirty-all!"

"Fuu… Looks like I got the hang of it!" Ayumi said, smiling and looking very pleased with herself.

Kimiko and Aiko exchanged a loaded glance. 'They're strong…'

"She got the hang of it after returning one ball?" Momoshiro asked. "Hyotei is just full of crazies."

"Ah," Akane agreed, her eyes narrowed. 'To be able to adjust to your opponents power in a second…' She let her eyes rest on the back of Reina's head. 'That's what you're best at, Reina.'

Reina was clicking and pushing the lead back into her mechanical pencil; a habit when she's nervous or thinking.

'I didn't work this hard on a serve to get it returned so easily!' Aiko threw the ball up again, hitting it extra vigorously. POW.

Rie caught up in a second and struck a return to the left, the opposite direction that Kimiko jumped in.

"So fast!" Kikumaru exclaimed.

"Oh no you don't!" Kimiko pivoted on her foot and lunged for it, flicking her wrist upwards to catch it.

It just made it over the net.

"Forty-thirty!"

The Seigaku spectators exhaled. This first game was quite a battle. "Neither team is giving in, huh…" Oishi murmured, watching as the struggle continued, leading the score to become a deuce. The advantage shifted back and forth between the two schools several times. Aiko and Kimiko were refusing to give in an inch, and the Hyotei pair just kept pushing. Finally, Kimiko hit a strong backhand into the top of the net, strong enough to carry the ball over to the other side, and took the first game.

"Game, Seigaku! One game to love!"

Kimiko turned to her partner, vaguely out of breath, her eyebrows pinched with frustration. "Why was that. So. Hard."

Aiko voiced what she already knew. "Because they're good, Kims. They're really good."

~X~

While the Seigaku pair managed to hold serve with great difficulty, the Hyotei pair also stood their ground.

Ayumi had a decent serve with a topspin, tricky when hit to the sides of the service box. But it only managed to pass Aiko once. Against that slightly-above-average serve, the Seigaku pair should've been able to break their service game.

But Rie. Rie. That girl could run.

Every ball. Every ball that Aiko smashed, every drop shot that Kimiko performed, no matter where it was on the court, Rie would appear. Sometimes out of nowhere, just poof, and she was right in front of the ball again.

"Game, Hyotei! One game all!"

Aiko lifted her sleeve to her face to rub off some of her sweat, panting slightly. As she lowered the sleeve from her eyes, they landed on the girl with white-blond hair. She recalled how earlier, the girl had bent down, put Jirou over her shoulder, and stood right back up with no problem.

'She was using her leg muscles,' Aiko realized. 'Using her leg muscles to lift him.'

A quick glance at Rie's legs revealed that they were tanned and toned and very, very similar to her own. "Damn it," she murmured, smiling because this was not going to be easy. "Damn it. Another runner."

~X~

"This is a very tough game, huh," Akane said.

"Yeah," Kikumaru agreed. "They're all fighting after every point. It's going slow, and Kimi-chan is running out of stamina."

"It's not flowing…" Izumi mentioned softly. The momentum of the game was constantly shifting back and forth in a second, giving it a choppy, jerky, rough feeling, like sandpaper on sandpaper. "It's hard to play like this, because you can't fall into a comfortable pace or rhythm."

"Rhythm?" Akane teased. "I see what you did there…" Izumi gave her a tiny smile.

"Ah! Marui-senpai just hit Tsunawatari!" Kachiro exclaimed. "Look!"

The ball slid from one end of the net towards the other. Kimiko smirked. "Genius, righ—"

Rie suddenly dashed up in front of her, causing her to choke on her words. She hit a powerful forehand volley to the empty space behind Kimiko.

"Game, Hyotei! Two games to one!"

"Not genius enough, it seems," Ayumi commented, and Rie gave her a grin.

She clenched her fist around her racket. 'DAMN it.'

~X~

"What?" Reina asked when they both looked at her expectantly during the change over. "I-uh…" She coughed, trying to phrase this in the easiest way for Aiko. "I can't give you guys anything yet."

"It's been three games! We're dying out there! Reina-senpai~!" Kimiko complained, panting hard.

That was partially true, Aiko thought. Kimiko was already being drained of stamina. That long deuce in the first game did not help, and neither did those passing shots that she lunged for in the last few rallies.

"I knew that they would know how to combat Tsunawatari…" Kimiko said. "But give us something, senpai. Anything."

"I don't know…" Reina shifted. "I don't even know what I'm doing here. Akane just—"

"Akane-buchou never does anything without a reason," Kimiko said, turning her eyes back to the stands where her former captain was. Their gaze met, and suddenly it seemed like there were only two people in the court area, her and her former doubles partner.

She looked into those piercing turquoise eyes.

'What are you thinking, Akane-buchou?'

Akane wanted Reina on the bench for a reason, Kimiko knew. It wasn't just for Reina to get a good view of the match and draw more sketches. Reina had something that they needed in this match. As she stared at the ginger headed girl, Akane gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

'You wants us to play like Reina-senpai…'

"What would you do?" Kimiko asked, turning around all of a sudden, her eyes locating the third year. "Reina-senpai, what would you do?"

For a moment she was silent, and all that was heard was the clicking of her pencil as she stared into the distance. Then all at once, it was like she was a different person. Her back was straight, and her eyes were fierce.

"Aiko, take seventy percent of the shots. Alter between spins, and hit left and right. Don't attempt any winners. You want to drag out this next game."

She nodded. Dragging out games was something she could do. 'But…' She turned to look at her partner, who was visibly sweating and breathing hard.

"Kimiko, you need to stay at the net," Reina continued.

"Duh," was her response. She wiped a towel across her forehead. "It's not like I can play anywhere else."

"Listen. Stay at the net, keep an eye on your opponents. Take some volleys if you can, but don't hit anything special." Reina fixed her dark eyes on hers, cool and calculating. "You need to find their weakness and exploit it."

"Arg, really?" She ran a hand through her magenta bangs, brushing them out of her eyes. "Akane-buchou was always better at that stuff."

'She doesn't realize her own strength…'

"Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah," Aiko said, and Kimiko gave her a victory sign. "We can do it!"

As they walked away to change courts, Reina called out, "Oh, and Kimiko? Try to find their weakness fast."

"Hmm?"

"Because they'll be doing the same thing."

~X~

"What is Seigaku's pair doing?" Shishido asked. "It doesn't even look like they're trying anymore."

"That pink-haired second year is just standing at the net," Choutarou said. "She's not even trying to get balls." Aiko was running back and forth, hitting balls to various points on the opposite court, whereas Kimiko was being… stationary.

"This Marui-kun isn't as cool as the other one…" Jirou mumbled, yawning. "I'm sleepy…"

"She's observing Ayumi and Rie," Fuuma said. "They're trying to find a weakness."

"That's funny," Shigohara shook her head.

"You don't think they'll find one?" Oshitari asked lightly.

"Oh, they'll find some. They just won't be able to do anything with them."

~X~

"Aiko-senpai, hit it to her left!"

The dark-skinned girl ran up, glancing at the other side of the court. 'Got it.' She slammed her racket into the ball, a cross shot to Ayumi's left.

"Game, Seigaku! Three games all!"

"Good call, Kims," Aiko turned to her with a smile, but Kimiko was frowning. "What's wrong?"

Kimiko blinked her lavender eyes. "Something's wrong…" she muttered. From what she could tell, Ayumi and Rie didn't have weaknesses. Or to phrase it better, they were extremely balanced players. They had no strong side, and no weak side. Everything was on the same level.

But at the same time, Ayumi should've been able to return that cross shot to her left. If she'd actually sprinted for it, it wouldn't have been a problem.

'Think, Kimiko, THINK,' she willed herself. 'Everyone has a weak point. Akane-buchou favors her right side. Izumi-senpai has a weaker backhand. Sayaka-chan has wrist problems. There's got to be something.'

The next game began, and Kimiko kept her eyes trained onto the two girls opposite. Strengths and weaknesses often went hand in hand. Suddenly something occurred to her.

'If there strengths haven't come into play yet… then maybe their weaknesses haven't either.'

"Damn it," she said aloud, knowing she was right. She jumped in front of the ball's path to hit a volley. "You've been doing this on purpose!"

"Doing what?" Ayumi asked with a knowing smile, before whipping her arm back to hit a stunning forehand, straight into the corner. It landed right on the line, and not a millimeter out.

Hyotei's crowd broke into cheers.

"Game, Hyotei! Four games to three!"

Kimiko pointed an accusing finger. "You've been dragging the game out since the beginning! You guys—" She paused to catch her breath for a moment. "You haven't been playing to your real strengths!"

Rie raised an eyebrow in a tell-me-what-else-is-new manner.

"You've been trying to stop the momentum from the beginning! You-hey!"

The two Hyotei girls turned away from her. As they walked off, their steps falling into a pattern, she heard Rie say, "Guess she's smarter than we thought."

"I hate you people!" Kimiko stamped her foot, her hands balled into fists. She hated mind games. She swung her racket angrily a couple times, hearing it swoosh through the air. "I hate this."

Suddenly, she felt the concerned tap of a racket on the back of her head, stopping her mini-tantrum.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I-," She broke off. "Aiko-senpai…"

"It's okay, Kims." The look in Aiko's eyes was ferocious. "It's about time we got serious, anyways."

~X~

"That was a beautiful shot…" Izumi said, referring to Ayumi's forehand. Who knew that Hyotei had someone like that? To be able to hit a shot with that much accuracy took a lot of skill and a lot of practice.

"They tried to break Marui-san…" Inui jotted some notes down, his pencil dancing on the paper. "That's interesting…"

"'Break'?" Kikumaru echoed fearfully. "That doesn't sound good."

"Aa. They put pressure on her mind by hiding their skill until now. They tried to crush her confidence."

"She's upset," Chiharu said softly.

"But she won't break," Inui said confidently.

The freshmen trio turned around. "Eh? Why?"

Inui pushed up his glasses. "Have you forgotten who Kimiko's former doubles partner was?'

~X~

"So what are you hiding?"

They were in the midst of passing Hyotei's stands to switch sides. Aiko and Kimiko stopped when they heard his voice, simultaneously glancing towards him.

Oshitari said it again. "We knew that she was Rikkai's Marui's cousin, so her techniques were pretty much the same. But what are you hiding?"

"What?" Aiko responded blankly.

Oshitari sweatdropped. "You can't understand me? Geez…"

"It's not her fault! You have a friggin' dialect!" Kimiko said hotly. "Plus, you talk like you just swallowed a pillow, so—"

"Neh," Shigohara enunciated clearly, dragging out the words in an almost, but not quite, patronizing tone. "You're hiding something. Why don't you show us what it is?"

Aiko felt a hot flash of anger, but replied coolly. "Why don't you make me?" Something gleamed in Shigohara's eyes then, something like a mixture of anticipation and respect. It was strange, really, this conversation that they were having.

"Why don't you make me?"One of the Hyotei spectators mimicked, exaggerating her accent, and suddenly she felt like she was doused with cold water. She forced herself to pretend like she didn't hear.

"That's not nice!" Kimiko turned onto the boy who was making fun of her.

"Let it go, Kims," she said, and already starting heading for the court.

"Che…" She reluctantly plodded after her. "Ne, Aiko-senpai, you're really strong, you know? I don't think I could just walk away from that kind of thing…"

"Right," Aiko let out a short bark of laughter. "Strong. That's it."

'You have no idea.'

~X~

No one knew. At night, no one knew how she would stare at her reflection in her mirror, staring at the cheekbones that were too high to be Asian and the nose that was too pointed to be African; how the tears fell from her not-quite-almond shaped eyes, tracing their way down her skin that was all too dark and not dark enough.

No one knew how every time her father called, how difficult it was to hide the quaver in her voice and the tremble in her lips. How every time it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him how hard it was, to beg him to come to Japan and take her back to New York. Back to the lattes and sandwiches at her favorite coffee shop, back to the gunshots from the starting guns at the races, back to the yells of her friends on the track and in the locker room.

No one knew, because no one asked.

They all thought that she was the tough girl. The girl where actions spoke louder than words, the girl that would rather speak with her racket than with her mouth. Maybe she was, but maybe she wouldn't be so hesitant to speak if people would stop laughing at her every time she opened her mouth. Teachers were taking pity on her in class. They never called on her to read aloud, never called on her to answer a question. Once, she made the mistake of raising her hand in class to ask something, only to have the teacher not understand her question. No one bothered to help; they all just stared at her like she was some kind of freak. It was mortifying. Needless to say, she never made this mistake again.

Inevitably, she had to speak in the classroom once in a while. And a lot of the time, her classmates would repeat her words behind her back, mimicking her accent just loudly enough for her to hear, finding it oh-so-funny. 'I know what my accent sounds like. I don't need you to tell me.' No one really tried to make friends with her. Conversing with her was just too much effort.

"Henshuu", they called her. ("Mutt.")

More than once, Oishi had stepped in and said, "Please, that's enough," in that peacemaking tone of his. There was even one time where Ryoma heard something, presumably about her, and responded coolly with something so insulting that it caused the third year in question to jump to his feet. When she was having trouble communicating with someone at the restaurant, Kawamura would immediately come to her side to help. And for those gestures, she was grateful. It wasn't like she didn't have friends.

But still. They didn't know. They couldn't be with her twenty-four seven. They didn't know how hard it was, when their backs were turned, when she was drowning in this language that was too complicated and too intricate, when all she could do was keep her head down. They didn't know. And they would never understand.

~X~

The game got serious fast.

('Fast' was an accurate word, considering the way Rie was moving across the court.)

She made tearing across the court seem effortless. In fact, she seemed to glide along the concrete smoothly, as if the bottoms of her shoes had wheels.

Kimiko had no choice but to bring out Techuu Ate as well, hitting the ball against the metal pole at the side of the net. It bounced off with a satisfying clinging nose, irregularly falling towards the ground, and for a second they thought that she got the point.

Well, it only took Rie a second to sprint from the baseline to the front. She hit a sharp volley deep into the court, stealing the next game from the Seigaku pair.

"Game, Hyotei! Five games to three!"

Kimiko's legs were rubbery, and she had to sit on the ground for a second. Sweat dripped from her forehead onto the court as she desperately tried to steady her breathing. 'Matoko Rie…' she thought, trying to take in slow breaths, while looking at the blonde girl from Hyotei. That girl had been hiding a lot of her skill in the first few games; it turned out she could be even speedier. Something about the way she moved… like her feet were barely touching the ground. She flew across the court.

But that wasn't all. That girl, Kimiko knew, was also very observant. She reacted fast as well, which made her seem all the more quicker.

"Marui's at her limit," Tezuka commented.

"Ne, why didn't she hit that roll-over-the-net shot?" Kachiro asked. "Chouseki or something?"

"My guess is that there hasn't been an opportunity yet," Kawamura said. "To hit a ball with that much spin takes energy. When I need to hit Hadokyuu, I want to make sure that it won't be wasted."

"Who is that blonde girl?" Tomoka asked, pointing a finger at Rie. "She's not even out of breath and she's been running from the beginning!"

"Matoko Rie," Inui read from his trusty notebook. "She used to run for the track team in Hyotei, which won Nationals two years ago. Apparently Shishido was the one who scouted her for the tennis team."

"Shishido did?" Oishi asked. "Then it's no wonder she's fast. If Hyotei's own dash specialist scouted her…"

"Her event was the 100 meter dash," Inui continued, taking out a pencil. "She could run it in thirteen seconds flat. Seeing as half a tennis court is 11.86 meters, and her average speed would be 7.69 meters per second… " He was scribbling calculations as he spoke. "Then she'd be able to make it from the baseline to the net in 1.54 seconds."

"What?" the freshmen trio exclaimed in unison, flabbergasted.

"One point five four seconds?" Momoshiro exclaimed. "Are you serious?"

"S-so fast…" Sakuno stammered, a cold sweat forming on her forehead. "That's really, really fast!" 'If these are the kind of people they have in doubles… what kind of people do they have in singles?'

"They called her…" Inui looked up from his notebook, his glasses reflecting Rie's running silhouette. "Hermes."

"Hermes?" Ryoma repeated quietly, his interest piqued.

"Seriously? The Greek god?" Horio asked.

"Aa. Hermes was the messenger for the gods," Fuji explained, his eyes open. "Legend said he had shoes with wings on them."

All of them turned their gazes back to the court where the players were resting. Seeing the way Rie tore across the concrete to return yet another volley of Kimiko's earlier, the idea of wings on her shoes wasn't too absurd.

~X~

"Matoko's condition is good today," Shishido commented, leaning over the banister.

"Yeah…" Fuuma agreed. Then she paused for a second, a wicked smile forming. "Come to think about it," she added casually, "Didn't you two date?"

"NO," he shot defensively, before realizing his reply was just a little too vehement. He tried to brush it off, "Che. As if I'd date that—"

"No," Taki interrupted. "Shishido was in love with that other girl on the track team, right? Matoko's friend. Atsushi? Atsuko?"

"I WAS NOT IN LOVE WITH ATSUE."

"Atsue!" Taki grasped the name like a golden thread. "That's right! That girl that could outrun him in middle school!"

"Oh, that girl," Shigohara said with a smirk. "The one that had her hair up in pigtails? Fuuma, didn't you print an exclusive on her in the school magazine once?"

"Volume 7," Fuuma confirmed. "Page twenty-two."

"You talking about Atsue and Shishido?" Rie called from the bench, having caught the last few snippets of the conversation. She took a sip of water. "They're cute. I believe the first words she ever said to him were, 'You run like a girl.'"

This caused half the Hyotei regulars to burst into laughter. "Oh Shishido, how could you live that down?"

"Whipped. That's called whipped."

"You lost face there, Shishido. Ne, Kabaji?

"Usu."

"Yeah, Shishido definitely likes the tomboy type of girl, what with Rie, Atsue and that Seigaku girl…"

Shishido resisted the urge to bang his head against the banister. Today was clearly not his day. "Shut up."

~X~

"Oi. Marui," Kaidoh growled from where he was standing. He was tired of this.

She just sat there, 'breathe' –gasp- 'breathe', trying to return her breathing to normal. It was too much effort to lift her head, so she called out, "What?"

"Can you catch?"

The weird comment caught her attention. "What?" she said again, raising her head a fraction of an inch.

And not a second too late. The lollipop almost beaned her in the eye, but she managed to snatch it right in front of her face with two fingers.

Kikumaru whistled. "Wow, she has good reflexes."

Rie and Ayumi exchanged a frown.

The bandana-wearing second year glared at her. "Stop fooling around and play seriously."

She unwrapped it and stuck it in her mouth, savoring the sweet strawberry tang. A reluctant smile appeared on her face. "Heh. Guess I have to, huh." She got to her feet, a renewed energy aglow in her lavender eyes. 'Play time's over.'

~X~

"Oh look, Kimi-chan's up again!" Kikumaru said excitedly, watching the pink-headed girl stand up.

"Wasn't she at her limit already?" Momoshiro asked. She was still panting heavily, but she had gotten to her feet with relative ease.

Izumi shook her head, recalling their match together a few months ago. At the time, the score was three to one, and Kimiko looked like she was about to die. Then her cousin showed up out of nowhere, and the next thing she knew, Izumi was on the verge of losing. "Kimiko… she sets false limits for herself. Like barriers. It's weird, but once she hits one, all she needs is a push."

"Or a lollipop," Ryoma muttered.

"And then, voila!" Akane finished. "A whole wave of crazy potential is unlocked."

~X~

"Hey!" Kimiko called to the Hyotei pair, right in the middle of a rally. She waggled a finger at them. "Just so you know, we're going to beat you into the ground."

"Oh really?" Ayumi said with a complacent giggle. "Let's see it, then."

Suddenly, Kimiko had both her hands on her racket, ready to hit a forehand slice.

"Wait—" Kachiro breathed.

"—that's—" Katsuo gasped.

"The one she used against Fudomine!" they said in unison. "Chou—"

Kimiko let out a war cry, "Tidal FORCE!" and swung the forehand wide. The ball hit the net, the waves of spin making 'shhhh' noises as the ball spun against it.

"Aaaand… fail," Ayumi announced smugly, already turning away.

Aiko smirked.

Suddenly, like an ocean's surf breaking over the rocks, the ball rolled right over and dropped to the ground.

"Thirty love!"

Reina made rapid notes in her sketchbook, penning down Kimiko's progress. The speed of her specialty shot had increased by a great deal.

Oh, Kimiko took so much delight in the shocked expressions on the Hyotei player's faces. She really wished she had a camera. She grinned, holding up a V sign, finally getting to say the words, "Genius, ne?"

"What the…" Ayumi turned on her partner, appalled. "How come we didn't know she had that!"

"You're asking me?" Rie said.

"Fuuma said it wasn't possible! She said that no high school girl could hit a shot with that much spin, that it was just a rumor!"

Kimiko pulled the lollipop from her mouth with a 'pop!' and pointed it at them. "Suck on it, Hyoteis," she couldn't resist adding immaturely.

"Hey," Rie cut in, her eyes becoming dark and stormy. "Don't get cocky, girl."

~X~

"Oh?" Atobe raised his eyebrows at the near impossible shot. "Seems Seigaku has a lot of interesting characters on their team, ne, Kabaj-"

"WHOA! DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT? DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?"

Atobe's eye twitched. "Jirou's awake, huh…"

"IT ROLLED UP THE NET! IT ROLLED UP THE NET!"

"Jirou, we know."

"THAT WAS SO COOL! MARUI-KUN 2.0 IS AMAZING!"

~X~

"Kims, when did you—" Aiko started.

"Hmm?" She smiled and made a victory sign next to her face, like she was posing. "Last night! I thought if Aiko-senpai has a new move, then the least I can do if make mine even better, right? Put 'er here!" She cheerfully lifted her hand to hi-five Aiko's.

When their hands met, Kimiko felt her own new callouses rub against Aiko's.

And somehow the little twinge of pain in her palms made her really, really happy.

~X~

"Neh… didn't Marui-senpai call the shot, 'Chouseki' before?" Katsuo asked, slightly befuddled. "What did she call it now?"

"Tidal Force," Ryoma said with perfect pronunciation. "It means the same thing, except it's in English."

"My guess is she changed it for Komboi-san's benefit," Inui murmured.

"It does sound pretty cool though," Kawamura said. "Tidal Force…"

Aiko hit a backhand deep into the court, forcing Rie to run back to the baseline. She needed to keep her there for Kimiko's net antics to work.

"Look, there it is again!" Horio said. "Tidal Force!"

Kimiko took a breath and sliced the ball with both her hands, adding as much spin as she could. The ball hit the net again, three inches from the top, brushing against it wildly. 'Fall, fall, fall, please just fall…' she prayed.

In a whirl of gray and white, Rie was in front, her dark eyes carrying a vengeance. Kimiko actually took a few intimidated steps back. 'So fast...'

"Hya!" She pounded her racket into the falling ball. It shot straight to the empty left alley.

It was too far from her. Aiko sprinted and dove for it anyways and missed, getting her knees skinned for the failed effort.

"Thity – fifteen!"

"Don't challenge my speed," Rie warned, a black fire blazing in her eyes. She pointed her racket at them. "There isn't a ball I can't catch."

~X~

'Challenge accepted.' Kimiko held up three fingers behind her back. She heard Aiko call "got it!" and knew that she recognized the symbol.

Aiko served, and the rally got underway.

Ayumi hit a straight shot to her left, intent on passing her, but Kimiko sidestepped quickly and caught it with her racket, tipping it over the net as gently as she could. 'come on, come on!' The ball seemed to be stuck in slow motion as it fell, and she willed it to fall faster.

Or maybe the way Rie moved just made everything seem like it was in slow motion. The Hyotei speed star was previously at the back, and yet she sped up like a whirlwind to the net and managed to hit a drop shot back.

"And that's rally number three!" Aiko called, already jumping. She smashed the ball with pure physical force.

"Forty fifteen!"

"She's controlling her opponents…" Chiharu said, surprised. "Kimiko, that is…" That was new, she thought. When Kimiko played doubles with Akane, it was always the latter that made the plays. Even in the few games that Aiko and Kimiko played together, they assisted each other equally.

Reina felt her lips part in shock. 'When did Kimiko become the gamemaker? When did she…' The answer hit her and she smiled. 'Heh. Of course. Well played, Akane.'

"Are you trying that trick again?" Ayumi asked them. She glanced backwards at her partner, who was forced back to the baseline, parrying the ball uselessly. Every time that she tried to advance, Aiko would hit another deep shot toward her foot. "It's no use. Rie can still get the ball no matter where you hit it…"

She leaped forward to intercept. "….and I can still hit it where you can't reach!" She lassoed a powerful volley down the center, straight along the line.

"I will… reach it!" Kimiko vowed through clenched teeth. She forced her tired legs into motion and sprang forward, curving her wrist, making it just it time. She fell on her bottom, wincing.

Reina narrowed her eyes. Tezuka nodded once.

The ball bounced on the net twice before dropping to the other side.

Rie slid to a stop in front of the net, only a fraction of a second too late. "Che."

"Game, Seigaku! Four games to five!"

"Shiba, did you see that?" Inoue asked.

"What?" Shiba lowered her camera. "What did I miss?"

"Hyotei's Matoko, who's known for speed… and Hyotei's Narita, who's incredibly precise…" He shook his head in wonder. "Seigaku's Marui just ripped both these titles from them with just one play."

~X~

"You guys need to get it together," Shigohara scolded them both. "You're falling to pieces out there."

"We know," Ayumi bit angrily.

"If you know, then play like it," Shigohara told them, the edge in her voice jagged and sharp. The words 'Or else there will be hell to pay come Monday' went unspoken.

"You just need to win one more game," Atobe said. "Then it's done."

"Seriously, Rie," Shishido muttered. "You suck right now."

Like a switch, the momentum changed sides as soon as the Hyotei pair stepped back on the court. Ayumi served with surgeon-scalpel precision, getting an ace past Kimiko. Rie bolted across the court, so quick Aiko could barely see her, let alone return anything. In a desperate move, Kimiko hit Tidal Force again, except this one had neither the spin nor the power that the previous two did. It crept up the net at a seemingly glacial pace, and Rie appeared at the net in time to slam it to the end of the court.

"Forty Love!"

"It's match point…" Kimiko gripped her racket tightly. 'We're not giving up to till the end.'

Hyotei's enormous group of spectators started chanting her name like they were worshipping a god. "MATOKO. MATOKO. MATOKO."

"Shut up, all of you!" Tomoka shouted angrily. She stood up and bellowed "FIGHT-O, AIKO-SENPAI! KIMIKO-SENPAI!"

Kaidoh gripped the edge of the banister. 'C'mon, senpai, Marui. Show us what you got.'

"We're only one point away from losing!" Horio clutched his hair. "This is so worrying!"

"Hmm…" Inui flipped through a few pages of Aiko's data booklet thoughtfully. "I don't think we need to worry…"

Half of them turned to look at him. "Eh?" Sakuno asked, confused and very, very worried. "Why, Inui-senpai?"

"Remember how I told you that Matoko Rie specialized in the 100 meter dash?"

They all nodded.

"Then we definitely don't need to worry," He closed the book. "From what I know, Komboi specialized in every event."

~X~

Kimiko poked Aiko. "Ne."

"What."

"Ne."

"What."

"Ne."

"What, Kims?"

She merely continued to press her finger to Aiko's right bicep, her eyes unfocused. Aiko was used to this. One of many of Kimiko's weird habits when she was figuring something out. While it annoyed the heck out of her, (because half the time Kimiko would come up with a conclusion that Aiko couldn't even understand), she couldn't deny that it was also oddly endearing.

Who knew? Somehow this short, pink-headed oddball had managed to worm her way into her heart.

The first time Aiko gave her a piggyback ride was when they were training together at the street tennis courts. They defeated three pairs of guys before Gyokurin's pair took them down and ended their reign. It was just as well, because Kimiko collapsed promptly after the game ended. Aiko had just said, "All right, get on, you," rather exasperatedly and hoisted her onto her back.

The weight on her shoulders was reassuring. It was a weird logic, but Aiko felt like if Kimiko had a place on her back, then she had a place in Kimiko's world too.

Kimiko's eyes cleared all of a sudden. She stopped the poking and beckoned to Aiko. The taller Seigaku player bent down so that she could whisper in her ear. When she heard what she had to say, Aiko was once again surprised.

This girl was smart.

Sure she acted ditzy and immature and just plain stupid sometimes—actually, a lot of the time—but behind that childish demeanor was an incredibly analytical and shrewd mind.

"Got it," Aiko said, readjusting her grip around the base of her racket, her heart already thumping with anticipation. "I'm ready."

'Besides, when else am I going to use that?'

It might be match point, but it was far from over.

~X~

Kimiko stumbled forward, her legs almost buckling beneath her. She summoned as much strength as she could to hit a light cord ball. It barely crossed the net, but it still did. 'Yes.'

A looming shadow appeared. 'Oh god, not you…' Rie also hit a drop shot to return it, to Kimiko's far left.

'I can't let them get this point off me. I can't let Aiko-senpai down.' "No!" she yelled as she whirled in the other direction, swinging her racket blindly. It connected, causing the ball to fly up.

"It's over!" Ayumi cried, leaping up to smash the ball. She pinned it to the end of the service box.

'Aiko-senpai worked too hard for me to lose here. I won't let them get this point.' Kimiko moved in a blur of magenta, unable to feel anything in her legs at this point. "No, it's not over!" She scooped her arm down, hitting the ball on its rise. "Super Rising!"

"This is the end!" Rie called, swinging her arm back. The ball shot outwards, straight at Kimiko in a harsh yellow streak.

She shrieked and ducked under the net, allowing the ball to soar over her.

"What's the matter?" Rie taunted, "Scared, are you?"

"Heh…" Kimiko caught her breath and looked up with a sly grin. "You should be."

"What?"

"Senpai!" Kimiko turned around with a confident look in her eyes. "That's as close to the center as I could get! It's all yours!"

"Look!" Oishi suddenly stood up in shock upon seeing Aiko's form. "Is that…"

"Kawamura-senpai's…" Kaidoh stared in awe.

Aiko had her hand on the ground and her leg back in a sprinting form, like runners did in preparation. The racket was held back in her right hand, the biceps of her arm bulging. She kept her eye focused on the ball, increasing the power in her flex as it got closer and closer to her. Her feet were pressed against the ground, bent, like coiled springs.

'Just like track, girl, just like track. Nothing new.'

The crowds were yelling. She closed her eyes for a brief second, imagining herself in New York, preparing to run the last stretch of the 4 x 100 m dash for her team. The green court in front of her suddenly morphed into a brick red track in front of her eyes.

The ball bounced. 'That's your starting gun.'

Immediately, she pushed off with both her feet, shooting forward to meet the ball like a missile.

"Let 'er rip!" Kimiko called.

BANG.

The ball erupted from her racket in a giant column of yellow energy, blazing a path straight to the corner of the court. She landed on her hands and knees. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't even look up and see if the shot had worked…

Two rackets clattered onto a silent court.

The ball lodged itself into the fence.

The crowd was… dumbstruck.

"Inui-senpai…" Momoshiro broke the silence after being completely speechless "Was that…?"

"It wasn't the Hadokyuu," Inui said. "Komboi doesn't quite have Taka-san's strength, but she compensated by using her leg muscles as well."

"That was a very powerful shot," Fuji said, his eyes open. "She needed to power up for that, so Marui-san tricked her opponent into hitting one exactly down the center, where she would be waiting…"

"Lioness, for real…" Ryoma said quietly. Sakuno nodded. That move really made her look like a lioness leaping towards her prey.

To their surprise, Aiko got to her feet and walked a few steps towards the stands. She pushed her braids over her shoulder. "How didja like that, Ryoma?" she asked in English.

Ryoma smirked. "Not bad."

"Just not bad?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

A shrug. "I can do better."

She shook her head at the snooty remark, half laughing as she returned to the court. "Short-ass wonderboy."

Ryoma lowered his cap to hide the grin that was growing on his face. Aiko was, without a doubt, his favorite senpai out of all the female regulars. There were these little things about her that no one else knew.

Like how she used to refer to several of the regulars with nicknames when she didn't have their Japanese names down yet. Reina was "weird pretty girl", Chiharu became "damn miracle", Kaidoh was "hissy boy" and Fuji was "no eyes". She took extra care to avoid saying these labels out loud, but when she was conversing with Ryoma in her native tongue, they would occasionally slip out and Ryoma would have to duck to hide his laughter.

Unlike a lot of African American girls he knew back in the States, Aiko was not the diva type at all (not that he was generalizing, but… well, come on) but she unquestionably possessed a certain degree of sassiness that was so associated with her culture. It was just overshadowed and watered down in the light of the language barrier. It was really a shame, he thought.

Yes, he definitely liked her most. There was something about the way she carried herself. Watanabe-senpai had solid willpower, Sayaka-senpai pulled off pretty cool stunts, but something about the way Aiko-senpai just kept pushing and proving herself over and over…

(Besides, Watanabe-senpai was creepy. And Sayaka-senpai was loud.)

She was prideful, that went without saying. And she was determined. Almost Kaidoh-like. A sassy Kaidoh, if you will. Ryoma smiled at the images his brain conjured at this thought. (Something along the lines of Kaidoh in a dress, shaking a finger and saying "Oh HELL no, you din't.")

There was also that time when she took down that St. Rudolph girl after she crushed Sakuno, Ryoma remembered. That won his respect over more than anything else, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because he would've done the same thing.

Yeah. That was probably it.

~X~

There was so much adrenaline coursing through her veins that her legs felt detached. She wasn't even trying to move her legs anymore; she was just moving her arms and willing herself to get from one place to the other… and somehow her legs moved on their own. 'We're not losing!'

"Matoko and Narita are being pressured…" Oshitari said.

"But…" Shishido noticed the way Rie's lips were curved into a half smile, and the way excitement shone in her eyes. "They seem to be enjoying themselves…"

Ayumi put a shot to the baseline, so dead-on that the referee glanced at it twice before calling it in. "Take that."

"Hehe, your precision isn't bad," Kimiko said, hitting another one of her famous drop shots. "But the edge of a net is thinner than a line on the court!" And with that, the ball tapped onto the net, balancing there for a split second, before falling.

Rie moved so fast it seemed like she teleported, dust flying from around her shoes. Though her speed was the same, her breathing, Kimiko noticed, was becoming increasingly labored.

"Guess you're finally tired, huh?" she provoked between sharp intakes of breath.

"Speak for yourself," Rie said, hitting the ball. "How are you still standing?"

"Honestly?" –breathebreathebreathe— "I have no idea either." She giggled, beads of sweat falling from her hair as she ran.

"Hmph. I need to knock you into the ground once and for all."

"And you," Ayumi called to Aiko, who was sweating hard but not showing any other signs of fatigue. Even with that crazy powerful mini-Hadokyuu shot. "You're just… inhuman." She hit the ball down the line.

"Here's another one!" Kimiko called in warning the ball came down the center.

Aiko resumed the lunging position, lowering her torso to the ground…

"It's coming!" Ayumi shouted, alarmed, backing away.

…only to feint and hit a drop volley.

Kimiko stuck her tongue out at the two Hyotei players. "Just kidding!" She turned around and shot her partner a grin and a wink.

And Aiko was left wondering…

'When did doubles become so fun?'

~X~

Aiko missed America. She missed the lattes and sandwiches at her favorite coffee shop, she missed her friends on the track team, and she missed her dad.

But right now, on the edge of the court, as she lifted Kimiko onto her shoulders as the shorter girl lead the crowd in a "S-E-I-G-A-K-U" cheer, as she got glomped by Kikumaru and a newly bandaged Sayaka (who aeriel-ed into the court the minute she got back, much to the dismay of Coach Ryuzaki), as several other girls and guys hugged her in tangle of limbs, as she complained ("Guys, get off, I stink right now")…

As Inui and Reina discussed what to call her new move, eventually settling on "Torpedo", and mumbled about physics and aerodynamic formula…

As the little freshmen boys and girls looked up to her, their eyes glimmering with tears of admiration…

As the roar of the crowds on Seigaku's side became almost deafening…

Aiko stood there, relishing in the sweet, victorious adrenaline that had yet to subside, and couldn't help but think that right now, these courts were starting to feel a little like home.

~X~

"Akane."

"Reina."

"You used me."

"Maybe."

"You never expected them to use the strategies I gave them."

"Kimiko needed to hone her gamemaking skills. And what better hint to give her than to seat a strategist on the bench?"

"Well, in the future, I'd appreciate it if you'd inform me when you're going to use me. I intend to charge rent."

~X~

Unbeknownst to both the Seigaku team and Hyotei team, other people were watching the matches as well. At the top of the stands, looking down on them, were two girls clad in black and yellow sports jerseys.

"So that's Bunta-kun's cousin…" a girl with short, black and green hair pondered aloud, watching as Kimiko twirled around, accepting the congratulations of her team. "She plays exactly like him. Looks like him too."

"I don't know," said the other one, running a hand through her hair. "I've never seen Marui make the ball roll up the net, have you?"

"Looks like Seigaku's giving Hyotei a run for their money."

"Matches aren't over yet. You know as well as I do that compared to their singles, Hyotei's doubles aren't for shit. It's that pyramid thing. Weaker players are in doubles, stronger players are in singles."

"Sounds inefficient."

"Eh," she shrugged. "Works for them, I guess. Hyotei's always been a hierarchy."

"Although, can you imagine what Fukuda-buchou would do to us if we lost like they did?"

"Probably kill us. And then Hayashi-fukubuchou would dig us up and resurrect us herself so she could run us until we die again."

"Still, they're doing good. Seigaku," the girl tossed her greenish bangs back and held up two dice. "Want to bet on it?"

The other girl let out a short bark of laughter. "Please. I think the only person who dares to bet against you is Yuki-chan. And Yanagi," she added as an afterthought. "Actually, and Akaya, but that's because he's dumb."

"So is the girl who beat Yoshima-chan here?"

The girl pointed at Shigohara. "That's her."

"And Yoshima-chan played evenly with Akaya, right?"

"Yep."

"Damn. Seigaku better be ready."

~X~

Hey J Mo,

Things are going well. I'm starting to like it here.

-A. Komboi

~X~

End Chapter Twenty-Five

A/N: Phew. That was a difficult chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it, or at least understand Aiko better.

Fun facts about Komboi Aiko

She likes to listen to Top Forty.

Her favorite subject is Politics.

Last week she accidentally called her Japanese teacher an inanimate object, by mixing up 'imasu' and 'arimasu.' To her defense, the teacher deserved it.

She adores lattes almost as much as tennis. Except not really.

Her old track team nickname was 'The Hulk.' Yeah, she doesn't know why either.

Yes, for those of you that have read 'Tagged' by thesadisttensaifuji, Atsue is from that fanfic. It's my dedication to her because thesadisttensaifuji has had a big impact on this story.

ALSO: Remember that boy that broke my heart? I wrote a NiouOC fanfic about him, called Fence. Please read it and review, because it is very special to me. I also wrote a YuutaOC friendship, featuring Izumi.

One last thing. Whenever you're reading someone's work, please remember that the greatest gift you can give an author is feedback. Not just me, but most other authors as well. Your words can brighten our day.